#lunar probably tried to tell themselves over and over again that it would end up okay. that they WERE happy. :( | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

skellebonez · 3 years ago

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Happy Birthday Winter!

Hey @winterpower98 it's your birthday! I really hope you enjoy this, I know I had a ton of fun writing it for you! Actor AU is one of my favorite AUs you've made and coming back to play around with it again was a blast and a half!

Painter MK cackled, taking the brushes filled with bright pink paint into his fists.

“Yes, yes!” He exclaimed, brushing them against his cheeks and bringing another to run up the center of his face. “The art is-OW! OW, THE ART IS IN MY EYE!”

“Cut!” The director yelled, bringing the entire film production to a halt in an instant. “Xiaotian, what happened?”

The young actor dropped the paintbrushes into the hands of a stage worker to rushed over to help him, one hand covering his right eye as he tried to keep himself from laughing. “I think some of it splashed when I waved the brush at my face. I guess the art really IS-”

“Don’t say it,” Heshang said from the other side of the set, doing his best not to join his co-star in laughter.

“-seeping into my pores!”

The entire cast and crew groaned as Xiaotian cackled again, with a few added ows, before another stage hand came by with a bottle of water.

~3…2…1~

“Uh…” Xiaojiao pulled, attempting to pull the prop sword from above her head out of the wall only to be met with… a lot more resistance than should probably be there. “UH…? It’s stuck?”

She stood, attempting to pull it out normally only to be met with just as much resistance.

“It’s stuck!” She laughed, out, bracing a foot on the wall with no change.

“Let me try,” General Ironclad, or rather Red in the costume of General Ironclad for the episode, offered, attempting to do the same with the exact same result as his co-star. “What did you use to hold this in place? Cement!?”

“It should have only been stuck in with force!” A stage hand yelled as Xiaotian and Heshang joined in, both failing to pull the sword out from the false wall and Heshang nearly toppling over backwards with his additional costume pieces.

“Whoever stuck that in there needs to be moved to making sure the safety equipment stays connected!” Xiaotian offered, watching as even more people tried to remove the sword. “That is not coming out.”

~3…2…1~

Heshang held Mo in his arms, waltzing around the set as he waited for places to be called for with the shockingly content feline in his arms.

~3…2…1~

“You are selling beautiful vegetables today?” Pigsy said, leaning over the the display to give an awkward smile to the disguised Spider Queen.

Tang looked over the produce from where he knelt, looking back up at his companion with a concerned and confused look. “Are you… a-are-PFT-FUCK.”

Everyone on set burst into laughter as Tang did, both of his fellow actors holding back from laughing themselves.

“Why is it this line!?” Tang yelled in frustration as he continued laughing. “It’s not a hard line! I wrote this line! Why do I keep laughing at the last word!?”

“Maybe if Ganglie wasn’t making goo-goo eyes at me you’d keep straight face,” Zhi-Zhu Jing managed to get out through her laughter.

“That’d be the only thing straight about me.”

~3…2…1~

Dicky Cheung, or the actual Sun Wukong disguised as a human actor in full costume of himself, took a running leap and jumped onto the counter of Pigsy’s noodles, sliding to a perfect stop with a wink toward the camera.

~3…2…1~

“MK, there’s something I wanted to tell you…” Mei said, looking at MK with sparkles in her eyes before snickering. “Stop looking at me like that, it’s hard enough to keep a straight face during this scene!”

“Sorry!” Xiaotian yelled to the camera. “I can’t help it! How are Jin and Yin this wrong about these two in the show?”

“Himbos!” was the shouted answer from Tang at the other end of the set.

~3…2…1~

“One of the rare talents that no one knew the great Sun Wukong possessed…” Xiaojiao said ominously, camera panning over to Mr. Cheung in full costume. “Surprisingly good peach juggling!”

“Gotta keep myself occupied somehow!” The actor laughed out, catching two peaches in either hand while the last one was caught perfectly in his mouth to the applause of everyone watching.

~3…2…1~

“Thanks for the Key los-AH!”

Red flung his arms wildly, key flying into the air as Tie Shan rushed forward and caught him just before he face planted into the ground.

“Mine!” Mr. Cheung yelled as he caught the key mid air and rushed through the frame.

“YOU’RE NOT EVEN IN THIS EPISODE!”

~3…2…1~

“Thank you… for giving me all o-ooh, whoa!” Lui Er Mihou, or unbeknownst to nearly all Six-Eared Macaque in disguise much the same way as Sun Wukong was, yelped as the cable that was supposed to gently raise him and make him look like he was floating yoinked him as good 4 feet off the ground way too fast. “That’s too much power!”

“SORRY!” The line operator shouted, fiddling with the controls. “Someone loaded the weight setting for Xiaotian into your line instead of yours.”

“I already feel bad enough treating him like garbage and beating him up in this role, this is just rubbing salt in the wound,” Liu Er muttered, leaning back and swinging limply much to the amusement of everyone who couldn’t hear him before raising his voice. “When will my beloved friend Sun Wukong come to rescue me?”

“SPEAK MY NAME AND I SHALL APPEAR!”

Liu Er yelped in surprise as Mr. Cheung rushed in and grabbed him from beneath to hold him bridal style with a shit eating grin. He couldn't help the flush on his cheeks in response.

“HOW DO YOU KEEP SHOWING UP IN SHOTS WHEN YOU AREN’T SUPPOSED TO BE THERE YET!?” The director yelled with more than a little amusement in his voice despite the disruption.

~3…2…1~

“You!” DBK said, rounding on Red Son. “You have brought me nothing but failure! Time and time again! I keep telling you I… shit, I can’t remember the next line when you look that sad, I am so sorry.”

“Nothing but disappointment?” Red offered helpfully, immediately breaking out of his downcast somber gaze to the floor with a wide smile.

“It is scary how fast you get in and out of character sometimes, kid,” Niu Mowang laughed out, clearly resisting the urge to ruffle the younger actor’s hair lest he ruin the styling job that took far too long every time they got dressed.

~3…2…1~

The White Bone Spirit stood at the entrance to the Silken Web Cave, looking at the camera before far too much time passed from when she was supposed to say he line. She moon walked backwards out of the frame without changing her expression one bit as the other actors devolved into cackles.

~3…2…1~

“The Year of the Spider starts tonight!” Spider Queen proclaimed from her high vantage point before she muttered something under her breathe, narrowing her gaze and then looking off to the side. “Or next year ‘cause I don’t remember my line.”

~3…2…1~

Huntsman slowly lowered into frame, upside down and gripping the rigging holding him up like Spiderman.

~3…2…1~

“Oh yeah?” Sun Wukong said, appearing in frame as he walked down the wall MK was embedded in. He grabbed his staff, yanking it out of the wall and jumped down and smacked the wall with it.

… only for it to go through the wall once again and crack it. Or, rather, the false wall that was on a tilted angle to make it look like he was talking down it, rather than a heavily slanted floor.

“I’m sorry!” Mr. Cheung yelled, looking at the damage he caused. “I must have hit at weak spot!”

He hoped no one noticed that when MK offered to get the prop staff for this shot and put it into the wall… he grabbed the real one by accident.

~3…2…1~

Nui Mowang held the little bird that was Wukong’s transformation stand in for one of the final scenes, gently petting the little head with a big goofy smile on his face.

~END~

The entire cast sat around on various travel tables right outside the small Lunar New Year Festival set they had set up, various extras that had answered the open invitation for the shoot going about and getting the free food that was available at the functional stalls provided by the catering they had hired.

It was an odd sight to see Red Son and Spider Queen and Sun Wukong and everyone else sitting around together, but Liu Er Mihou being there outside of his Macaque costume broke the illusion a little bit.

It was the final day of shooting for the season 2 opening special to Monkie Kid, Revenge of the Spider Queen, and everyone was there. Even people who didn’t have to come in wanted to give a temporary farewell to Tie Shan, Nui Mowang, and Red before season 2 proper began shooting. There was still a chance they could bebcalled in for bit roles, the scripts weren’t entirely finished yet, but as far as anyone knew the Demon Bull Family wasn’t going to be returning properly any time soon.

Maybe in season 3, Tang had teased, holding the begun scripts for that in his little tablet away from prying eyes. And they were always welcome to help out in bit roles, background characters or voice over or to use their other talents to work other jobs that were needed around the set.

But even before then it would be a while.

And so that’s how Red found himself sandwiched between Long Xiaojiao and Qi Xiaotian, with the newly added member of their quartet in her full White Bone Spirit costume hanging over his shoulder to watch the compilation that Xiaojiao had expertly edited on her phone for them all.

“The director gave me permission to use whatever I wanted and I though that… maybe we could all have it for ourselves,” Xiaojiao offered, pulling up the wireless transfer option on her phone. “To watch when we miss each other being on set together. I know we’re going to probably be back together with Red Son eventually! But…”

“I’ll miss shooting with you too,” Red said smiling softly as he pulled out his own phone to accept the file. “Hopefully Mr. Tang isn’t just teasing us about season 3.”

#monkie kid #lego monkie kid #fanfic #gen fic #actor au #ensemble cast #shadowpeach #(hinted)#scheduled

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ffwriterbts · 4 years ago

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Lunar- BTS Werewolf AU Part 4

AN: As I’ve said before, if slowburn BTS werewolf AUs that have springlings of angst, smut, and fluff, this is the story for you! Other than that, please leave a like or comment so I know you’re enjoying the story!! The sections should start getting longer as I keep updating :)

Also! Let me know if you want to be on a tag list for this story!

Word Count: 7.7k

Warnings: General angst; slight medical talk; mental health issues; soulmate themes if you squint

Posted: 31 Dec 2020

Masterlist

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When YN wakes up, she is lying in what looks like a fancy hospital room. Her shoulder is on fire, there’s an IV in her hand, her leg is propped up in an almost uncomfortable way, and all the rest of her feels like she was repeatedly hit by a cement truck.

YN tries to sit up, but only makes it a few centimeters before pain wracks her body and she stops in her tracks. Her eyes snap shut and she takes a few deep breaths, doing her best to remember what happened and where she was.

And- nothing. YN doesn’t really remember anything that happened.

That is, until Jin walks into the room, and everything hits her all at once- how Jin and Yoongi came to cook, how she was going back to the garden to grab her phone when a mystery wolf tried to harm her, how Yoongi transformed into a giant black wolf, how he fought for her, how Jin helped her.

“I didn’t expect you to wake up so soon. Welcome back, YN.” Jin breaks the silence, and YN’s eyes snap up to him.

“I-” YN starts, taking a second to collect her thoughts before continuing. “What happened to me?” Her voice is gruff, hoarse.

“You were attacked.” Jin gives a little shrug before continuing, “Your shoulder was bitten, your ankle broken, you have three cracked ribs, and deep tissue bruising on the side with the bite. Other than that, you’re covered in scratches and bruises from the dragging and the nasty fall you took.”

“Oh.”

“Don’t worry, you have the same blood type as Jimin, and he was more than happy to donate for you. The wolf blood will have you healed by the end of the month for pretty much all of it. The ankle will take a little longer.” Jin shrugs again, going around and checking all of the monitors, making sure everything was good before he makes small talk with YN and helps her sit up, giving her water.

Once he is sure she is as fine as she can be, he takes a seat at the end of the bed. YN can feel her ears get hot as she realizes that he has plenty of room, seeing as her legs don’t even reach three-fourths of the way down when she’s lying, much less when she’s sitting up. She doesn’t know why she feels this embarrassment, but she does anyway, and she silently hopes that Jin doesn’t know.

“You must have questions, so why don’t I give you the full story?” Jin lightly pats where YN’s good foot is, smiling warmly at her. “If you want me to, of course.”

“Please, I feel like I’m going crazy.” YN’s voice is much softer now, as she looks at him with those big, innocent eyes of hers, sipping water.

“Well, I hope you’ve figured out by now that we are all werewolves.” Jin lets out a little laugh as YN nods softly.

“We are a hidden race among humans, almost extinct. There are a few large groups over in America, there’s a couple here, a few somewhere in Europe, and a whole bunch over in Africa. There’s also a city of only wolves and special, trusted humans in China, which is also hidden from the world. We are bigger, faster, and stronger than even the very best human. We have the ability to change into wolves whenever we want, so long as we are fully healed.” Jin takes breath, looking to YN to make sure she was following along.

YN nods, eyes trained on Jin as she listens, and he continues.

“In order to survive, we had to breed with humans, muddle the gene pool. The fastest, strongest, largest of the humans, they are all part wolf. Our pack is one of the purest here, genetically speaking, but we would be considered basically human by our ancestors. But, to be fair, some humans are able to be welcomed into packs.”

“Packs?” YN asks, head tilting slightly to one side as Jin smiles.

“Yeah, like wolf packs. There are Alphas, Betas, and Omegas, which are basically what you think they are, though there is a lot more variation than you would think. Each designation is on a sort of scale, though that scale is not something that can easily be explained.” Jin gives another half shrug, glancing up at the IV, before standing and doing something that YN didn’t understand.

“Here, let me get this changed so your body doesn’t starve or dehydrate. And I’ll let the rest of the boys know you’re awake, they’re excited to meet you and make sure you’re okay.” Jin clearly makes the move away from the subject of werewolves, and even though YN’s mind is swirling with questions, she doesn’t question the dropping of the subject.

YN assumes (correctly) that any and all questions she possibly has will be answered in time, because something about the way Jin putters around the room doing this or that feels like coming home.

~~~~~~~~~~~

Over the next week, YN steadily gets better. Whatever it is about the werewolf blood that makes healing kick it up into overdrive was working better than expected, which all of the boys were grateful for. She had visitors every day, for most of the day, and she quickly got along with each of them.

Jin, who YN found out was actually a fully licensed medical doctor and surgeon, mandated that the boys were only allowed to go and see her in pairs, so she wouldn’t be overwhelmed.

And thus, YN met Hobi and Jimin almost as soon as Jin opened the door to let the boys know she was accepting visitors. She could see who she would later find out to be Jungkook and Taehyung peaking in the doorway, wanting to be included but not being allowed to be.

Both Hobi and Jimin very enthusiastically introduced themselves, taking no time at all to occupy the end of the bed that YN was far too short to occupy herself. Talking to them felt like talking to people she had known for years, and they had YN almost rolling with laughter within the first five minutes.

It was almost an hour of not-so-patient waiting on behalf of Taehyung and Jungkook before Jin came back and kicked Hobi and Jimin out, scolding them half-heartedly for not letting the other two have their time yet.

With quick apologies, those two boys slipped out of the room as two more replaced them. Again, just as enthusiastic, the two boys introduced themselves, and had YN in stitches almost too quickly.

Without a second thought, YN is talking with them for almost two hours, before Namjoon comes in and cuts them off. He kicks the two youngest out of the room, telling them that YN needs to rest sometime, that she has to heal.

Namjoon in turn takes the same spot at the end of the bed, but he is bearing gifts. Namely, the gift of her electronics from her home, a nice lap desk, and some of her very favorite sour candy.

“I figured you would want these things, seeing as you’ll be here for a while.” Namjoon smiles softly as he almost sheepishly rubs the back of his neck.

“Oh, thank you!” YN is much more animated than she was even an hour ago, snatching the sour candies from Namjoon’s hand as quickly as she dares to, trying her best to open the bag without moving her one arm very much.

“Do you want some help YN?” Namjoon’s voice is soft but deep, and YN nods without even a second’s hesitation, holding out the offending bag with a small pout.

Namjoon just chuckles, making small talk as he easily opens the bag, carefully handing it to YN. She lets out a grateful sigh, carefully balancing the bag in her hurt hand, and throwing candies into her mouth.

“How’d you know I like these?” YN asks absently, paying far more attention to the wonderful flavor than to Namjoon and his response.

She was tired, her body was sore, and honestly, she was more excited for her candy and the prospect of a nice long sleep than she was about anything Namjoon had to say. That was, at least, until she actually heard the words that came out of his mouth.

“Oh, we can read minds. We know all sorts of things about you.” His voice was that same even calmness, to the point that YN didn’t actually register what was said for almost a whole minute.

“You… you what?” YN pauses and looks up at Namjoon, shock and confusion written so clearly on her face that Namjoon didn’t even need to read her mind to know exactly what she was thinking.

“Hyung was supposed to tell you, but yes. It’s an innate ability of ours, and once you present you’ll probably be able to do the same.” Namjoon gives a little sort of half shrug as YN’s face just scrunches up more as she tries to fully process what Namjoon actually said.

“I can see you’re confused.” Namjoon speaks again and YN rolls her eyes without taking a second to think about how that might be perceived. Sure, the men she had met had all been incredibly kind to her, but that doesn’t mean that they’re comfortable enough to start with the half-bratty sass that YN was known for with her close friends.

“Yeah, I wonder why.” YN speaks for the first time, her eyes locking up onto Namjoons in a way that seemed out of character for the girl that he had begun to get to know. “It’s not like this is a lot to process or anything.” Sarcasm seems to drip from every pore like venom, and Namjoon pauses for the first time, slightly confused. Again, this was unlike the character that he had come to know as YN.

He’s sure YN doesn’t mean any harm by what she’s saying, that much is clear to him because of her thoughts, but he was under the impression that YN was just a sweet, mild mannered woman. Silently, Namjoon chides himself for allowing himself to believe that YN, a fully functioning adult woman, was something other than a three dimensional person with multitudes to her personality.

“May I ask some clarifying questions?” YN asks after a short silence. For the first time, she felt slightly uncomfortable in the silence, wondering if she had actually offended Namjoon inadvertently. Usually, she tried to tame the more bratty side of her personality for fear of being hurt by someone she completely offended, and it seemed to hit her all at once that these men, who were already giant in comparison to her, also held an unknown strength.

YN’s fears are assuaged when Namjoon gives her a beautiful smile, nodding his head and motioning for her to ask away.

“How much of my head can you see?” YN tilts her head to one side, not catching how strange her phrasing is until Namjoon lifts an eyebrow. By that point, too much time has passed for YN to really change her statement, and she can feel her ears getting hot as she waits for Namjoon to actually respond.

“Well, any of us can read basically any thought you have. We can also access memories, though it is incredibly frowned upon to do so, as it is sort of like torture for the person whose mind you look into for that one. But, we can also teach you how to make sure we can’t see inside your mind, and when the door to the room closes, we can’t see into anyone inside the room.” Namjoon answers with a sort of practiced nuance, which is comforting to YN in a strange way.

“Do you look at my thoughts all the time?”

“No, of course not. That wouldn’t be fair, and honestly, we don’t really look in your mind at all. You do throw off emotion, but that’s different in the first place.” Namjoon gives that same little half shrug.

“How’s it different?” YN’s voice is much softer now. There’s something about the way Namjoon speaks that makes her feel like she’s coming home.

She shakes the feeling, instead trying to focus on what Namjoon has to say.

“When in the pack, emotions are shared and felt by the other members of the pack, to varying degrees. When it comes to other wolves, we are sensitive to their emotions and have a large amount of completely non-verbal communication. Part of why you’re so interesting to us is the fact that we can feel your emotions, though you clearly aren’t fully wolf.” Namjoon pauses, brow furrowed.

“What does that mean?” YN’s expression turns to match Namjoons.

“It means you’re one of us. But also that you’re not.” Namjoon brings a hand up to rub the bridge of his nose. “I’m not sure what it means, honestly. You smell like an Omega. You act like one, mostly. But you clearly won’t be able to turn once you finish presenting, you know nothing of our world or customs, you’re absolutely tiny.”

YN shifts uncomfortably when Namjoon looks up at her, her ears heating up again, though she has no idea why she’s embarrassed. It’s not her fault she didn’t know about a hidden society of werewolves, after all.

Namjoon opens his mouth to say something else, but the door opens and Jin steps in.

“Namjoon, go separate Taehyung and Yoongi. They’re at it again. Both of them are acting like children.” Jin lets out a deep, exasperated sigh. “And you need to leave YN alone, she needs to heal. Didn’t you say the same thing to Tae and Kookie just a bit ago?”

YN can’t help but smile softly at the familiar interaction, almost laughing when Jin shoos Namjoon out of the room.

“As for you, Miss YN, you need to actually rest. Don’t be afraid to tell any of the boys to leave, they know full well that you are here to heal.” Jin gives YN a bright smile as he reaches behind her to make sure her pillows are arranged correctly.

YN nods, a grateful smile on her features. “I’ll do my best to heal well, thank you.” She speaks softly, her thoughts a jumbled mess after everything Namjoon told her, her prior annoyance and attitude melting away.

“Do you need anything else? It’s getting late enough I’m going to leave you, I know Namjoon set you up with your technology and chargers.” Jin stands in the doorway, facing YN.

“No, thank you! I’m good until tomorrow.” YN answers quickly, arranging herself so she can rest comfortably for the night.

“I’ll leave you then. If you need anything through the night, there’s a call button on the side there. Good night, YN.”

“Good night!” YN calls, watching as Jin flicks off the light and closes the door. She then proceeds to lay there, in the strange bed, and stare up at the ceiling.

It was a lot to process, everything that she’d been told.

“I’m fucking crazy.” YN groans, sighing deeply and checking her phone for the first time in what could have been weeks.

She was unsurprised to see that the only notifications she had were from her editor, sending back things for her to work on and asking for the corrections and newest works.

YN can’t help but sigh again, throwing her phone to one side and settling in better. She was thankful to the men who had saved her, and she knew somewhere deep down that she could trust them, but it was just a lot to deal with.

What did it mean that she smelled like an Omega? What the fuck did it mean to present? What did Namjoon mean when he said that she threw off emotions?

YN was confused, to say the least, but as she relaxed more and ignored the aches of her body, she realized just how tired she was. It didn’t take long for her to fall asleep, even with her mind swirling with question after question about what everything meant.

~~~~~~~~~~~

It was three weeks before YN had the use of her arm back, her shoulder only stinging slightly when she actually used her arm properly. It was another month after that before YN could walk on her ankle, which had been almost shattered from the attack. And that whole time, YN was bonding with the boys.

She quickly found that the three youngest were incredibly physically affectionate, which YN just adored. She quickly found herself curling up beside Jimin, playing with his hair and feeling completely enveloped in his arms. Or laying across Jungkook’s lap, laughing at his facial expressions as he played his games. Or jokingly having Taehyung carry her around, lovingly calling him her “trusty steed” from her perch on his back.

She found that Jin’s love language was acts of service, which usually translated into him cooking this or that for the group. YN quickly fell into the habit of helping Jin as much as she could sitting at (or on) the counter, laughing at his dad jokes and making some of her own. She made sure that Jin didn’t forget to serve himself as well, always sneaking some of the best parts that he gave to her back into his own portion.

She found that the best way to bond with Namjoon was to just talk to him, about anything and everything, especially philosophical topics. Both YN and Namjoon loved the debate of this or that, the exchange of ideas, the passion of discussing things that others find to be boring. They would spend hours sitting in the library and reading this book or that novel, just to discuss it as soon as both of them had finished, getting off topic in that special way that isn’t really off topic, if you think about it on a deeper level.

She found that Hoseok loved to dance, loved to explore music and feel it through the movement of his body. While YN wasn’t able to stand and actually dance with him, even though she would have loved to, she did suggest new songs for him to try making routines to, bringing him water and snacks every so often. He would always ask her to stay and watch, which she did, always giving him the biggest applause she could at the end of the beautiful dances, talking his ear off about her love for movement like that, even if she couldn’t ever really do it herself.

She found, however, that it was with Yoongi that she felt the most at peace. She quickly gained access to his ever-so-exclusive “genius lab,” where he made his music. Most of the time, YN would work on her writing as Yoongi worked on his music, the studio space filled with the soft sounds of YN’s typing and the sounds of whatever Yoongi was working on. They didn’t need to talk, instead the two sat in silence most of the time, just enjoying the fact that there was someone else there who understood that being together was all that was really needed.

Every so often, Yoongi would spin around in his chair and capture YN’s attention, asking her to listen to something and give her opinions on what could be improved or changed to make the song sound better. While YN didn’t have a lick of musical experience, she was sensitive to sounds and could pick out parts that didn’t quite mesh correctly with ease, which is just what Yoongi needed.

On the flip side, when Yoongi was taking a bit of a break to stretch, YN would ask him to make certain motions or how to say certain things in different accents to help her be able to write this or that out in a way that actually made sense. Her editor was praising the way her work was coming back with less mistakes and awkward parts, and YN was absolutely loving the way she and Yoongi got along.

And yet at other points, when neither Yoongi nor YN could seem to focus long enough to get anything done, the two would lounge side by side on the couch and just talk. They never really had something specific to talk about, but YN would find herself opening up about things that she had never told anyone else. She would find herself listening intently to whatever Yoongi decided to open up about, carefully choosing her words in a way that was meant to make him feel better, without making it feel like she was dismissing the feelings that he had in the first place.

It was a system that worked, with YN falling into the routine of the home far quicker than any of them would have ever expected. She found joy in helping Jin cook, she felt loved at the unashamed touchiness of Jimin and Taehyung, and again in the much more shy touchiness of Jungkook, she found quiet appreciation in sharing music and watching Hobi, she felt wanted during the long conversations and debates with Namjoon, and she felt at peace with Yoongi.

She felt like she was home.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

But nothing can last forever, can it? YN knew just as much as the rest of the boys that she would have to go back to her own home eventually.

And so, after two and a half months of living with the seven men, YN was taken back to her own home.

Jin’s the one who drove her, with Namjoon riding shotgun. There was an aura of sadness the entire time, like none of them really wanted to go anywhere, but it wasn’t like YN could just move into their house.

This wasn’t a movie or some crappy romance novel, after all. It was real life, and in real life, people don’t just pack up and move into the home of people who were basically strangers.

The whole parting was quiet. YN couldn’t bring herself to actually say the word “goodbye” to either of the men who had come to make sure she got home safe, instead throwing her arms around their necks and giving them a good squeeze, wishing that she didn’t have to leave.

The whole thing rang the same as the way she had parted with the other boys before the drive, the ache settling into her chest like someone had ripped out her heart and thrown it under the tires of the car as it pulled away, tears falling freely as a sharp longing settled in her stomach.

It wasn’t until Jin and Namjoon left that YN actually cried, sobs tearing out of her throat as she crumbled to the ground, knees hitting the hardwood sharply.

She had no idea how long she stayed there, feeling like there was a hole ripped into her very being, wishing for the comfort of Yoongi’s words, or Jimin’s wonderful hugs, or of Jin’s gentle prodding to “eat well.”

Eventually, YN drug herself to her feet, stumbling to the kitchen and chugging some water before grabbing the bag she had borrowed to take her things back to her house, deciding she needed to put things away.

“Why did I let them pack the bag?” YN groans, finding quickly that she is wholly unable to actually pick the bag up, and instead has to drag it to her room. She’s silently thankful for the wood floors because she can actually slide the bag.

It isn’t until she gets to the last couple sweatshirts in the bottom of the bag that YN realizes she’d picked up a few presents from the boys. Shaking her head, she realizes why they had insisted on helping her in the first place, each of them had gifted her something small and they didn’t want her to refuse them, like they knew she would. The knowledge of how kind they were being was completely bittersweet, however, because they felt like “goodbye, at least remember us” presents.

From Jin she got the knife she quickly claimed was her favorite because it was the only one that was properly sized for her. There was a small note attached tha read “For my favorite kitchen helper, since it’s too small for me, -Jin”

YN felt the tears well up in her eyes as she carefully set the knife to the side, not wanting to accidentally hurt herself. She then reaches back into the bag, wondering what else she might find.

Hobi’s gift was next, giving her the one black headband of his that she always stole and jokingly wore around. It was wrapped around an adorable little teddy bear, with a note saying “For my favorite dancer, even if you couldn’t really do anything. Next time, I’m sure you’ll show me up -Hobi <3”

Tears were flowing down her face now, but YN couldn’t stop looking for what was next, no matter what kind of feelings arose from it.

Next she found one of the small figurines from Jungkook’s games, the one she always told him was her favorite because of it’s cool jacket. The note simply read “He might be your favorite, but you’re mine.”

YN smiled at the lack of signature, getting up and placing the figure on her nightstand, carefully angling it so it could watch over the room. Taking a seat on the edge of her bed, she reaches into the bag again, pulling out a gift that couldn’t have been from anyone but Namjoon.

It was a book that was equal parts old and beautiful, and as YN ran her finger down the spine, she took out the note that was sticking out of the book. She wiped the tears from her face before she read the note, not wanting to drip tears onto it.

“Our Miss YN,

Please don’t take this as a goodbye, but as a promise for the future. You’re just as important to us, to me, as we are to you. Remember us, remember the good, and look to when we can be together again.

-Joon”

It’s with this that YN starts sobbing again. They’re so sweet, those boys, and YN couldn’t help but feel almost lost without them. Her chest hurt like someone had shot her, a strong sort of longing that seemed endless settling into the pit of her stomach.

It takes a while this time, before she can reach into the bag again. When she does, she almost immediately has renewed cries falling from her lips.

She had pulled out the one super soft sweater of Jimin’s that she absolutely adored. She had told him that she was going to steal it from him whenever he wore it, twisting her fingers in the material and snuggling closer to him. It was soft, it smelled nice, and she knew that it would make her both look and feel tiny.

There’s no note with this one, but YN can feel the love and sincerity behind the action, draping the sweater over her legs for the time being. She reaches into the bag again, smiling as she pulls out one of Taehyung’s million beanies, wrapped around a small toy horse.

There is a note with this one, which simply reads “Horse.” It’s the most Taehyung thing YN can think of, and without a second thought, she places the horse next to the figurine, pulling the beanie on.

She doesn’t find anything else immediately, taking a minute to put the things she had gotten in safe spots and going to put away the last couple hoodies, which she knew were hers.

It isn’t until she reaches the last thing in the bag that she finds what Yoongi left her. At first, she thought it was just one of his hoodies, which she absolutely adored, but when she took it out to lay it next to the sweater Jimin had given her, something fell out of the folding.

Quickly, YN picks up whatever fell, and finds that it’s a CD. She shakes her head, knowing that Yoongi would be the kind of person to share music as a gift. She sets the CD carefully on the bed, gathering up her shower supplies and a towel, both because she needed to take them back to her bathroom, and because she needed to actually shower.

~~~~~~~~~~~

Once she’s freshly showered, using Hobi’s headband to keep her hair out of her face, wearing nothing but the amazingly soft sweater Jimin left her, YN settles into her bed with a CD player she found, Yoongi’s hoodie layed out beside her. Now that she had calmed down, she could smell the boys on the things they had given her. She would have been lying if she said that it wasn’t incredibly comforting to have their scent around her. It made the gaping hole in her chest feel a little less bloody, for whatever reason.

Pressing play, YN settles in, not knowing what to expect. Neither the CD nor the CD cover had any sort of writing on it, so YN had no idea what was going to be playing, or for how long. She can’t help the small smile that graces her face as Yoongi’s voice fills her space, speaking deep and slow in that comforting way YN loved.

“YN, my lovely secret keeper. You’re hearing this now because the day has come that you had to go back to your own home. I know none of us want you to leave, and if your actions have anything to say about it, you don't want to go.

You know as well as I do that things don’t always work the way we want them to, though. We will be coming to visit you, as much as we can. And we will keep an eye on you.

YN, please listen to me when I tell you I won’t let anything happen to you. It broke my heart, letting you get hurt once. And I’m not sure what I would have done if Hyung and I weren’t there when you were attacked.

If you need me, if you need any of us, we will be there. Always.”

YN curls up in a ball, hugging Yoongi’s hoodie to her chest, breathing in his scent deeply. She knew that he meant every word, that he truly would never let anything happen to her on purpose, but she also felt abandoned by him. By all of them.

She had spent the last ten weeks of her life talking to Yoongi or Namjoon when she felt bad. Going to Jimin or Taehyung for cuddles when she was lonely. Gaming with Jungkook when she was bored. Laughing with Jin while prepping meals. Doing what little dancing she could with Hobi when she was restless. Laughing as Taehyung insisted on carrying her from one room to another, even once she had healed enough to walk.

She had spent the last ten weeks evening out their teams when they played games, singing off-key on karaoke nights, fielding Taehyung’s touchiness before he got on Yoongi’s nerves (because for some reason, Tae insisted on trying to cuddle Yoongi at every opportunity), celebrating with them, helping to clean the wolves if there was a fight, stealing blankets off of every surface she could, curling into the side of whoever sat beside her in the name of stealing their boundless warmth.

She had spent ten weeks creating a space for herself in their lives, in their home. And now, it was back to living in a house that was way too big for her, with nobody to keep her accountable.

It was because of this that she cried herself to sleep, even the sound of Yoongi’s beautiful music filled the room. She missed them, more than anything. She felt like she was crying more than she ever had, and it had only been hours since she left their home.

What YN didn’t know was that the boys were missing her just as much back at their home.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Jin had decided to make a fancier meal than usual, because it would take more time and take his mind off of everything, but as he went about getting things done, he couldn’t help but miss seeing YN, perched precariously on the counter, babbling away about this or that as she carefully cut whatever needed to be chopped up.

He internally cringed as the thought of the time YN had slipped and almost fallen on her hurt ankle, his own quick reflexes being the only thing that had saved her from weeks of extra healing. Honestly, even though it stressed him out to no end to have her cutting things balanced the way she was, it was also something that he had come to expect. Secretly, he wished she had fallen on that ankle, because that would mean she would have still been right there, trying to out-joke the dad joke master himself.

Jungkook had holed himself away in his room, going to game, setting out a second controller without thinking about it. He had been in the middle of teaching YN how to play his favorite game, so that they could properly play together instead of having her just watch him play all the time. It felt wrong for him to have to just put away that second controller.

The feeling was just exasperated when he went to start the game and it came up with the section that they had been working through. Fondly, Jungkook remembered the way YN would bring her bottom lip between her teeth as she concentrated on doing things correctly, bouncing in her seat when she finally figured out how something worked. Despite the fond memories, he found himself close to tears, staring at that second controller.

Jimin and Hobi both went to the studio, deciding to dance away the hurt. Without thinking, Hobi went to ask YN what song they should freestyle to, the words dying in his throat as he turned around to talk to the girl that just wasn’t there. Jimin can see just how much pain Hobi is in, not even speaking as he brings the slightly taller man into his arms, feeling the same sense of loss.

They sunk down to the floor, neither of them wanting to talk, which in itself was strange for the two normally boisterous men. Jimin missed the feeling of having YN curled up beside him, stealing his heat. Hobi missed being able to talk to her about the dances he was doing, getting a perspective from someone who didn’t really know anything about dance. They missed her.

They didn’t realize until that moment, when the two were both trying to get the same sort of comfort from each other that they had begun to seek out YN for, how much of a hole there was in their group. Sure, they had been just fine before YN, and would be fine again without her, but there was a comfort with her that they didn’t know how to replace. Things just weren’t the same.

Taehyung busied himself with a book that Namjoon had been recommending to him about one artist that he recently found, but he couldn’t focus on the words or pictures in front of him. Instead, his mind was preoccupied with the fact that, for the past two months, he had spent this lazy time in the afternoon helping YN get from place to place, laughing with her as the others did this or that. He missed those moments, with YN laughing in his arms or on his back, even though it shouldn’t have been long enough for those feelings to settle in.

He closed the book, flopping down onto the sofa he had settled on and trying not to think too hard about what he could have been doing with YN. If he was being honest with himself, he liked having someone who was so small and easily carried around, because he liked feeling big and important in comparison to her. It was an added bonus that her personality meshed so well with his own, and that she seemed to just understand the weirder parts of his personality, instead of being put off by them like so many others.

Sure, he was one of the largest of the pack, but that didn’t mean he felt like it. By wolf standards, he was pretty close to normal, but for whatever reason, he loved the way YN would curl into his side when they were seated next to each other, mumbling about being cold, looking absolutely tiny in comparison to his own body.

Or how she’d sigh dramatically whenever she had to stand to do something, hopping around the room and never asking for help, despite the fact Taehyung would be the first to jump up and whisk her off her feet completely, just carrying her to wherever it was she needed to be, chiding her for not asking for the help she so clearly needed.

Namjoon decided to go to the library, curling up in the chair that YN usually occupied in the mornings before everyone else woke up. His mind was swirling, automatically analyzing why he felt the way he did, instead of really feeling those feelings. Absently, he stroked the spine of the book that YN had been reading, a soft smile gracing his face when he realized that it was the one he had recommended when she was still completely bedridden during those first few days.

He glanced down at the small table beside the chair, realizing for the first time that YN had left a little notebook under the book. He picks it up, flipping through it and quickly realizing that she had been taking notes over things she was eager to discuss with him, which should have made him happy, but in reality just made him feel worse because she wasn’t there to actually follow through.

Namjoon chuckled to himself as he imagined YN, absolutely tiny in the chair, curled up in one of the fluffy blankets she always seemed to be wrapped up in, lovingly devouring the book that he had recommended to her, scribbling notes onto her notepad for later. He realized absently that he had missed one of the ways that she showed her growing love and appreciation for him was through this small action, making sure that she knew what she was going to say before their discussions. Namjoon was surprised when a drop of water fell onto the page in the notebook YN had marked, not realizing until he sniffled that it was his own tears.

Yoongi locked himself up in his Genius Lab as soon as YN was in the car, headphones on as he did this or that to the song he had been working on. He tried to ignore the fact that he couldn’t hear the soft clicks of a keyboard behind him. He tried to ignore the sinking feeling of being lonely.

He had never once felt lonely in his studio, not before he started letting YN hang out on the couch as he worked.

Not until he got used to spinning around in his chair and seeing YN there, typing away on her laptop. He remembered hearing her little sighs of frustration or exasperation when something doesn’t work out quite right, her brow furrowed, her tongue sticking out slightly, with a growing fondness.

Yes, Yoongi liked being alone. He enjoyed the silence, he enjoyed his own company. He had always liked being alone, it was how he recharged. And it wasn’t until he let YN into his most private sanctum that he had ever really felt lonely.

It wasn’t until Jin rounded all of them up for dinner that they realized that every single one of them were missing YN.

“This is bullshit.”

Yoongi is the one who speaks, heads turning towards him. None of them had really been in the mood for much talking, but none of them had figured Yoongi, of all people, would be the one to break the tense silence.

“What, I know you’re all thinking it too. This is bullshit.” Yoongi glares at his plate, taking a deep breath before he looks up at the others.

“None of us wanted YN to leave. YN didn’t want to leave. And now we are all miserable.” Yoongi stands now, not bothering to push in the chair he had been sitting on.

“I don’t care what any of you do. I don’t care what the consequences are. I’m going to YN’s.” Yoongi’s eyes sweep the faces of the six boys he loves the most, a fiery intensity radiating off of him in a way that has them all flinching away from him.

“Yoongi you can’t ju-” Namjoon starts, standing and going over to try to calm Yoongi down, but a sharp growl from Yoongi makes him stop in his tracks.

“No!” Yoongi’s voice drops an octave as he steps closer to Namjoon himself, squaring up with the leader in a way that could very easily lead to a fight.

“You know as well as I do Alpha,” Yoongi spits the word like it’s acid on his tongue. “she smells like one of us. She has our scent all over her. If they find out we let her go, that we aren’t around her all the time anymore, they’re going to kill her.”

Namjoon opens his mouth to say something, anger bubbling up in him like a cursed well, when Jin stands, pushing himself between the two Alphas.

“Both of you! Stop it!” Jin stands, making sure each of them are an arm’s length away from each other. “We all miss YN, but there’s a reason she’s not here. As much as it might seem like it, she isn’t one of us. She doesn’t belong with us.”

The other boys are all standing now, helping to make sure Yoongi and Namjoon stay away from each other, trying to calm both of them down. A fight between the Alphas would not end well.

“How could you say that?” It’s Hoseok who speaks this time, his voice sounding oddly small.

“Because it’s been almost a hundred years since there was a lost Omega! You all know how rare they are, seeing how strong the Omega gene is. We knew her uncle, and he didn’t have a lick of wolf in him, even if she managed to somehow get some wolf in her, it can’t be enough for her to be able to pack bond.” Jin flicks his eyes between the other boys, focusing his attention on keeping Namjoon behind him.

It’s silent for what feels like hours.

“Then why do I feel like I lost a piece of me, huh?” It’s Taehyung who speaks up this time, his hands clenched into tight fists at his sides, tears rising in his eyes. “Explain that, Hyung.” His voice is barely above a whisper, choked out over a growing lump in his throat.

“I-” Jin starts, the words dying in his throat as he watches Taehyung turn into the closest person, seeking the comfort of someone else.

For once, Yoongi opened his arms to Taehyung, glaring at Jin from over the other man’s shoulder, trying to comfort him.

“I don’t know.” Jin finally admits, his face falling.

Again, the room falls silent, only the soft sniffles of Taehyung breaking the deafening quiet of the room.

“I think we all feel the way Tae does, don’t we?” Namjoon speaks for the first time in a while, the anger he had felt having finally subsided almost completely. There are nods from everyone.

“The feeling is new, and we don’t want to make a mistake. If we report YN as being lost, she will become a target. If we don’t, we will. Let’s wait for at least a week before we approach her again.” Namjoon eyes the others in the room. “But let’s keep patrols heavy in her part of the woods.”

Yoongi glares at Namjoon, thoughts swirling. A whole week without YN, knowing that she’s in pain being away from them? It sounded like downright torture to him.

“Yoongi, Hyung, you know how big of a deal it is to be the pack with a lost Omega. She’ll become a target, just because she can’t handle half as much as we can. It’d be easy to not only to just kill her, but to break her spirit, to force her to tell them about our weaknesses as a pack. She’d have to be with at least one of us almost all the time, have to live with us. She’d have to give up big parts of her freedom, and the YN we know wouldn’t enjoy that at all.” Namjoon pauses, taking a deep breath.

“We have to be sure before we approach her with this. For all we know, she won’t ever fully present and YN isn’t really one of the lost at all.” Namjoon brings a hand up to rub at his temple, a headache starting from the strong mix of emotions.

Yoongi sighs, Taehyung finally detaching himself from the smaller man as Yoongi runs a hand through his hair.

“You’re right Joon. I know you’re right.” He lets out another, more exasperated sigh before he continues, “It’s just hard, ya know? Waiting another week feels like torture, because I know, I know, that YN is hurting. And we caused it.”

The other boys nod, giving murmurs of agreement as they start to dissipate, their meal forgotten as they begin to retreat again. For whatever reason, even the most other-person oriented of the pack wanted to be alone, wanted to have a minute to process everything that was going on by themselves.

“Jin, Yoongi. Can we go talk further in the office? We need to actually figure out what to do next.” Namjoon catches Jin by the shoulder before he walks out of the room, reaching for Yoongi as well, even though he was across the room.

Yoongi just nods, Jin letting out a short hum of approval. The trio then turn in unison, heading out towards the office space that Namjoon used so often.��

112 notes · View notes

inliar · 4 years ago

Text

spaced in, spaced out

word count: 4.5k

hyojin-centric

hyojin wholeheartedly loves space; the big kind, like the sky and the planets and the brilliant, brilliant stars, but also the small kind, like the time he gets to himself when everything screams louder than it should.

mildly inspired by on the run LA ep 22, time stamp 10:25

a/n: i’ve posted this on ao3 and have since orphaned it (due to unnecessary worrying) so if you recognize it, that’s likely why.

warning: mentions of exhaustion / depressive symptoms

on days when practice runs late (which is almost every day when you don’t know when to stop; a trait hyojin admits he has but refuses to see the problem with), hyojin likes to look at the sky. when he’s feeling lazy, or when dance practice is exceptionally gruelling, he can only really manage to make it to the nearest window and do his best to look up and over the surrounding building’s walls. but when he’s feeling particularly active, he’ll take the stairs up to the rooftop patio and enjoy the sight. from there, he has a clear, unobstructed, view.

not that it’s all that clear, though. light pollution, residual smog, and occasionally cloudy skies mask what hyojin imagines would be a stunning scene without. he’s looked up some night sky pictures on nasa’s official gallery, and they were absolutely breathtaking. so were their ridiculously high quality photos of the solar system, and the milky way, and all the constellations. he has these images saved in a neat little folder on his phone, for days when his own view doesn’t cut it. one day, hyojin would like to see them in real life. maybe he could visit an actual observatory with professional telescopes.

but as it stands, all hyojin can see from his place on earth is the moon, and, if he’s lucky, a couple of stars. on most days, that’s enough. he can observe how far along the lunar cycle the moon is, and he can close his eyes and make a tiny wish to the first star he saw that night. he’s not sure if his wishes help �� luck is a fickle thing that he’s never quite had enough of — but he figures it can’t hurt. and after his little ritual, he can return back to his practice room or his dorm with a peaceful mind. he’s here. he’s grounded. he has a more or less beautiful sky to look at. on most days, that’s enough.

but on other days, it’s not. like today.

for one, it’s not even nighttime. a glance at the clock in the practice room tells him that it’s 17:34, which he eventually translates into 5:34 p.m.. it’s much too early to look to the sky for comfort, and it is definitely much too early for the type of crisis that hyojin normally only gets very late at night or very early in the morning. the ones where he can’t do anything besides sit in place like some useless tree stump while he questions his life.

“do you want to go get dinner?”

hyojin hates wasting time, so he doesn’t let them happen often, but every now and then one sneaks by him. especially when he’s overworked and tired and doesn’t have the energy to fight it off. he’s not sure what’s happening just yet, but he can sense that familiar, unsettling feeling simmering somewhere very near.

“hyung, you good?” hyojin hears, and he jolts in place where he’s sitting on the practice room floor. yuto’s looking down at him, all wide eyed and polite, and seungjoon is draped over the poor boy’s back.

“yeah, sorry, i was just … thinking.” hyojin replies lamely, cursing himself for his lack of a better explanation. all of these thoughts, and not a single one is of any use outside of his head.

“seungjoon hyung asked if you were getting dinner with us, but you didn’t answer.” yuto continues. hyojin pauses to process this, before noticing just how quiet the room is. a glance around the room confirms his suspicions; the room is empty, save for the three of them. “where did everyone else go?” hyojin asks.

“jaeyoung and minkyun said they were going to the studio after practice today to work on a new song, remember? and changyoon went to start a vlive. they all said goodbye before they left?” seungjoon explains.

huh. hyojin doesn’t recall any of this. “right, now i remember!” hyojin lies, perhaps a bit too eagerly. he can feel seungjoon staring at him, but he avoids the impulse to look back and stubbornly maintains eye contact with yuto instead.

“so … dinner?” yuto asks.

hyojin hesitates. he is hungry, but going out to eat means talking to someone to order. it means maintaining a conversation with his members, or at the very least keeping up with what they’re talking about. they’re usually really good at sensing when doesn’t want to talk, and they never push him, but hyojin doesn’t want to show off how drained he’s feeling at the moment. just thinking about it makes his head hurt.

“i don’t really want to go out today.” hyojin confesses. seungjoon and yuto nod together like a pair of synchronized bobble heads. cute.

“i’m kind of getting a headache, so i think i’ll head back to the dorm for a bit and take a nap. maybe i can go live sometime today, too. did anyone say they wanted to go after changyoon?” hyojin asks.

“no, i don’t think so.” seungjoon replies, which causes hyojin to accidentally make eye contact with him. darn. seungjoon can be ridiculously perceptive when he wants to be, especially when it comes to reading him. hyojin is not in the mood to be read right now.

seungjoon must come to some sort of conclusion in his head, because he stops staring at hyojin with that weird, ambiguous gaze. “i’ll drop some food off at your place after we’re done. that kimchi fried rice and those dumplings you like.” seungjoon says decisively, before pushing himself off from yuto’s back. “are you coming down with us, at least?”

“yeah, let’s go.” hyojin mumbles as he stands up. his muscles are sore, more likely a result of yesterday’s practice than today’s. the teachers went particularly hard yesterday. it was this constant series of ‘again, again, again’ for all these minuscule details that even yuto seemed to have a hard time catching. but they were much better afterwards because of it, so hyojin figures he shouldn’t complain.

he’s happy to listen to yuto and seungjoon babble about dance practice as they walk down the stairs; partially because he loves hearing the passion in their voices as they discuss how they want to present themselves, and partially because he doesn’t think he has the power to sustain a conversation right now. thankfully, neither of the two push him to say anything. he’s not sure whether it’s because he said he was getting a headache or because they can sense something is actually off with him, but he’s grateful nonetheless.

hyojin remembers to smile and say goodbye when he parts ways with seungjoon and yuto. then, he puts his phone on do not disturb before starting his trek home. he doesn’t want to talk to anyone just yet.

hyojin sits down on his bed and he doesn’t cry. he simply thinks.

sometimes he feels like a fake. he’s been told by dozens of people that his singing voice is so emotional. that it conveys a depth of feeling that’s heart wrenchingly beautiful when it needs to be, and technically perfect when it doesn’t. and he’s grateful for that, he truly is. but sometimes, he worries that it isn’t enough.

not that he doesn’t express emotions, because he does. he knows he does. anyone who’s observed hyojin long enough can see it. but the one thing he feels like he hasn’t openly expressed is sadness. which is understandable, after all, since he’s an idol. people come to him and his music for comfort, not to hear him complain. but he’s starting to believe that his absolute inability to convey this basic emotion is what’s causing all of his weird crises.

hyojin wishes he could cry. but he hasn’t cried in so long that he fears he no longer knows how to. bottled up emotions don’t free themselves easily, not when he’s tightened the cap so hard and so often that he’s not sure where the bottle ends and the cap begins.

‘don’t you feel bad?’ he chides himself.

‘yes,’ his inner voice croaks.

‘then prove it,’ he thinks. he challenges himself. he demands.

hyojin doesn’t cry, so he stands up. it’s time for him to get a grip on himself. he takes a shower and changes into comfortable clothes. he doesn't have anything else to do for the rest of the day, so he tries to take a nap as well. it’s hard at first — he’s oddly cold under the power of the air conditioning (that he never bothered to learn how to turn off) and his mind is still whirring with empty, useless, thoughts — but his sheer exhaustion overpowers it all as he falls into a shallow, troubled rest.

when he wakes up, his room is much darker then it was before. he reaches out for his phone, his hand haphazardly scrabbling for purchase on his nightstand before finally picking it up. squinting, he manages to read the time: 8:19 p.m.. cool, so he got around two hours of sleep. he figures that’s not too bad. he got four the other day when he was actually trying to go to bed.

for a moment, hyojin contemplates attempting to sleep again before deciding against it. he’s a little drowsy, but he’s not physically tired anymore. with that in mind, he gets up, slips his phone in his pocket, and opens his bedroom door. he could use a cup of water.

the lights are on somewhere out there, which hyojin guesses probably means that changyoon is on the couch playing kart rider or something. his assumption is proven to be correct when he spots changyoon, in sweatpants and a t-shirt, mumbling under his breath at his phone.

“what are you doing?” hyojin asks, turning towards the kitchen to pour himself some water. just before he looks away, he sees changyoon flinch. “n-nothing, i was just texting minkyun,” he hears changyoon stammer awkwardly.

hyojin pauses. suspicious. changyoon is definitely hiding something. hyojin considers confronting his roommate, but before he gets the chance to do so he feels his stomach grumble. right, he skipped dinner.

“did you already eat?” hyojin asks instead, taking his cup of water with him as he walks to the couch. it’s then that he notices the nearly empty takeout box of dumplings on the coffee table.

“never mind, i guess you have.” hyojin answers himself, putting his cup on the table and sitting down next to changyoon. “hmm, what should i eat?”

“oh, right!” changyoon says, popping the last dumpling in his mouth and standing up. “i ran into seungjoon and yuto on the way here. they gave me some takeout for you,” he explains as he walks to the fridge.

hyojin had forgotten about that, but he remembers now. “yeah, i think he said he was going to do that. kimchi fried rice and dumplings, right?” hyojin asks. he could really go for some dumplings right about now, especially after seeing changyoon eating.

changyoon freezes. “o-oh, so seungjoon told you,” he chuckles nervously, pulling a clear plastic bag out of the fridge and bringing it back to where hyojin is sitting on the couch. he’s trembling, which is odd. hyojin already has a very bad feeling about this, but he doesn’t want to say anything yet. surely changyoon wouldn’t do something so dumb as to -

“where are my dumplings?” hyojin demands, after opening the styrofoam container and only finding fried rice. he looks inside the empty plastic bag one more time, just to be sure (they’re not there), before glancing at the empty styrofoam container that changyoon was eating out of before. funnily enough, it’s the same type of takeout box as his fried rice container.

“you ate my dumplings?” hyojin shrieks, immediately grabbing a pillow from the couch. changyoon has already wisely retreated to the very end of the room, but hyojin wastes no time in lunging to where changyoon escaped to with agility akin to his deer nickname. changyoon futilely attempts to dart out of the way, but hyojin manages to grasp the collar of his shirt with one hand while he smacks changyoon with the pillow in his other hand. “what - were - you - thinking?” hyojin hisses, punctuating each word with a thump from the pillow. he notices that changyoon is covering his head, so he makes sure to hit the deserving food thief extra hard.

“i’m sorry, i’m sorry!” changyoon wails as he drops to the ground to shield himself further. “i was hungry!”

“and you thought to take my food, you jerk?” hyojin yells, dropping and holding changyoon down with his knee while he continues to bash him with the pillow. “you didn’t even leave any behind for me!”

“i’m sorry, i’m sor- ow! stop hitting me, please, i’ll buy you more dumplings!” changyoon begs, and it’s enough for hyojin to graciously let changyoon go. “you better,” hyojin threatens, standing up. “you’re lucky i’m weak right now, you brat.”

“i’m sorry, what? you call that weak?” changyoon asks incredulously, sitting up and leaning back on his hands. “was that pillow made out of rocks?”

“if i hadn’t just woken up, and i wasn’t so hungry …” hyojin trails off.

“you know what, i don’t even want to think about it,” changyoon decides. “but the food stall closes at 10, so we should get going if you want the dumplings tonight.”

“i’m sorry, we?” hyojin asks incredulously. “why do i have to go out?

“don’t you want to personally make sure i get the right ones?” changyoon offers.

“no, because i can tell you right now which ones i want — pork, by the way — and if you forget you can text me.” hyojin says.

“but i don’t want to go outside alone! it’s dark, and it’s scary!”

“sucks for you, then, you shouldn’t have eaten my food in the first place. and since when have you been scared of the dark?”

“please?” changyoon asks. “i’ll buy you ice cream if you do.”

hyojin pauses. ice cream does sound really good right now. “okay, fine.” he decides. “but i’m not changing.”

“yeah, me neither. the food stall lady has known us for forever, though, so it’s probably fine.” changyoon reasons, standing up. “let me get my wallet and then we can go.”

“okay,” hyojin agrees. “i need to fix my hair anyways, it’s probably a mess.”

hyojin manages to tidy up his bedhead/warrior hair and find a cap in his room, but changyoon still hasn’t come out yet. “are you coming?” hyojin calls, walking out of his room to sit on the couch. he picks up his unfinished glass of water and takes a sip. he wouldn’t want to have damaged his throat after his screaming fit.

changyoon walks into the living room, looking sheepish. “so, um, how mad would you be if i told you that i think i left my wallet at the company?”

“... you’re serious.” hyojin deadpans incredulously.

“yeah, uh, i just realized i left my coat in the room where i did my vlive, and i normally carry my wallet in my pocket.” changyoon explains, before wincing. maybe he was expecting to get hit again?

hyojin sighs. “it’s fine. it’s on the way, anyway. let’s go?” he asks, before downing what’s left of his drink and standing up.

changyoon nods happily. “you’re the best and i love you?” he offers.

hyojin pushes changyoon. “ew. you can be sappy after i’ve eaten,” he laughs. “now get me some food.”

“come in with me?” changyoon asks, once they’re in front of WM. “i swear i saw the ghost last time, and i don’t want to face it alone.”

“well, why do i have to see it?” hyojin grumbles, but he opens the door for changyoon anyway. hyojin’s not heartless enough to ditch him, especially when he’s buying him food. but if he’s being really honest, he’d accompany changyoon regardless.

“what room did you leave your stuff in?” hyojin asks as they climb up the stairs, before coming to a realization.

“should we have asked the security guards for the keys?” hyojin pauses, before turning around. “wait, we should have, hold on, let’s go back -“

“wait!” changyoon calls, his voice amplified in the empty stairwell. hyojin reaches to cover his ears.

“oh, sorry, that was too loud,” changyoon realizes belatedly. “but trust me, we don’t need the keys.”

“what do you mean we don’t need the keys? the security guards always lock everything up after the office workers leave.” hyojin says, puzzled.

“minkyun’s in that room, he’s the one that told me i left my sweater there.” changyoon explains, as he continues to climb the stairs. instinctively, hyojin follows him.

“but why didn’t you tell me before? you could have told me that minkyun was there when you said that you left your wallet here.” hyojin asks.

“well i - uh, i forgot?” changyoon stammers.

hyojin frowns. changyoon is somehow being even more suspicious then when he ate hyojin’s dumplings, which is very confusing. something about his words are not adding up. he opens his mouth to ask something else, before being interrupted by changyoon.

“okay, we’re here!” changyoon exclaims, opening the door. except it doesn’t lead to the second or third floor like hyojin had expected.

“why are we on the roof?” hyojin asks, following changyoon before stopping in his tracks.

“oh hey, you’re here!” minkyun exclaims.

except it’s not just minkyun. the rest of the members are all there, bizarrely sitting in a circle on a large blanket on the roof. there’s various soda cans scattered around the edge of their huddle, and a couple of chip bags lie in the middle. if hyojin didn’t know better, he’d guess by the food that it was a poorly prepared picnic or a decently prepared sleepover.

“what …?” hyojin trails off in confusion.

next to him, changyoon breathes a sigh of relief and runs towards the rest of the members. “i am never doing this again. that was the most stressful hour or whatever of my life. i am incapable of lying, i swear he almost caught me twice, i have aged because of this -“

“oh, be quiet, this was your fault anyway.” minkyun snaps, but without a single hint of malice in his voice.

“so, um?” hyojin asks, frozen in place, as changyoon and minkyun bicker in the background. “what?”

“well, uh, this might sound pretty dumb, but you were really out of it in practice today.” jaeyoung starts, standing up and walking towards him. the rest of them do the same, abandoning their drinks and their snacks. “you were listening to what the teacher said and doing the dance moves correctly and everything, but it was like you weren’t actually there? you didn’t even say ‘bye’ back when minkyun and i left.”

darn. he was being obvious. hyojin opens his mouth, ready to give some kind of excuse, but seungjoon cuts him off.

“we wanted to ask you about it, but we didn’t know what to say and we didn’t want to make it awkward for you. and you mentioned how looking at the sky clears your mind, right? so we thought it would be nice to stargaze together? except it’s really cloudy …” seungjoon trails off.

hyojin looks up. seungjoon’s right, he can barely see the moon behind the clouds, let alone any stars. but the mere fact that his members came together and planned this in the first place is really, really nice.

hyojin looks around again and thinks. he knows for a fact that no one had chips at their dorm (seungjoon recently confiscated them all and donated them to the staff when he was feeling particularly sensitive about his self induced diet), so someone had went out and bought all the snacks so they’d have something to eat. someone had brought drinks so they wouldn’t get thirsty. someone had lugged this very big blanket up many flights of stairs so they’d have someplace clean to sit. someone had suggested doing this because they thought he felt bad, and someone had planned the event, even taking care to keep it a secret, to make him feel better. and they did this in their spare time, instead of practicing more or taking a well deserved break, for him.

they planned this all for him.

jaeyoung takes his silence as a bad thing, and hurriedly chimes in. “i mean, this might not have been what you were thinking of when you said you liked the galaxy, and we can always do something else! we don’t have a group practice tomorrow anyway, so we can do something fun tonight.”

“no, no! i’m just … this is good. actually, this is perfect. i - you didn’t have to do this, but it’s really thoughtful, and i?” hyojin buffers, completely lost for words.

seungjoon takes his arm. “you can just say thank you, and come sit with us.” he laughs, guiding hyojin back to their blanket where they’ve conveniently left a space for him to sit.

yuto hands him a coke as he takes his place, and hyojin wordlessly opens it and takes a sip. “thank you,” hyojin says, after a short pause. “i’m serious. this is one of the nicest things anyone has ever done for me.”

“you’re always trying to take care of us, yeah? we can do this for you.” minkyun says, and it’s so thoughtful hyojin winces a little. he’s not in the right headspace to vent about his emotions right now. he’s not even sure if he has the right words for them. maybe later, when he has them sorted out in his head, he’ll share them with the others. but for now, he just wants to spend some time together, in each other's proximity.

hyojin normally looks to the sky to clear his head, but for once, his mind is blissfully empty. something about this entire situation brings him genuine peace and he’s extremely grateful for that. it’s not like he tries to overthink or overwork himself, but he somehow ends up overdoing things anyway. very rarely does hyojin let himself sit back and just do things. very rarely does hyojin let himself be content with just being enough, and not more. right here and right now, though, hyojin feels like enough.

“so that’s why changyoon ate my dumplings.” hyojin realizes belatedly.

the rooftop was silent before, but somehow it becomes even quieter. “changyoon stole your food?” yuto whispers in horror.

“okay, in my defence!” changyoon screams, raising his hand. “i wouldn’t have had to resort to this if you guys didn’t make me bring him here! you know i’m bad at lying, and you still chose me! i needed a reason to be nervous in front of him!”

“and you’re still alive?” seungjoon asks, shocked. “after eating his food?”

“barely.” changyoon complains. “he makes a pillow hurt.”

“i knew you wouldn’t be so dumb as to eat my food for no reason.” hyojin mutters under his breath.

“do you know how many times i nearly had a heart attack because of you?” changyoon begins, pointing an accusatory finger at hyojin. “when you came out of your room i was so stressed. we were all texting each other trying to make plans, and i was eating your food, and i had to pretend i was texting minkyun about something normal and not this whole surprise event. and then i had to make a dumb excuse to get you here, and i said i left my wallet in my coat — why would i even wear a coat, it’s summer?”

hyojin didn’t even notice that. probably because he was so caught up on the food he was missing that he didn’t even see the signs right in front of him.

“i realized it the second after i said it, but i’m so grateful you didn’t call me out for it. and then you asked me about the keys, and of course we didn’t need the keys because everyone was already here, so i had to make up another lie about minkyun, except it didn’t even make sense because i totally would have mentioned it before, and this was just an overall traumatic experience. kim hyojin, never ask me another question again.” changyoon finishes dramatically.

“but we wouldn’t have made you do this alone if you didn’t try to add hyojin to the group chat. this is technically your own fault.” minkyun points out, and hyojin frowns. “what groupchat?” hyojin asks.

“you didn’t get the notifications?” seungjoon asks, and hyojin shakes his head.

“so seungjoon tried to make a groupchat with all the members except you so we could figure out what to do together, right?” minkyun starts. “but changyoon, this absolute idiot, literally asks, ‘oh, why aren’t we just using the groupchat we already have’ and adds you. why do you think we left him out in the first place?”

“it was an honest mistake!” changyoon whines. “anyone could have done it!”

“but you did it.” minkyun teases, and changyoon stutters out excuses.

“wait, but you had no clue that we were doing this?” jaeyoung asks. “i figured we ruined it after we added you to the groupchat by accident.”

“i didn’t even get the notifications, though, are you -? oh.” hyojin says.

“what?” yuto asks.

“i turned my notifications off after i said bye to you and seungjoon.” hyojin realizes.

“then i didn’t even ruin anything! it didn’t have to be me in the first place!” changyoon screams. “this is so unfair!”

“but hey, at least you were successful.” seungjoon points out, and everyone else nods.

“the emotional trauma? that you put me through? what about that?” changyoon asks, but he’s interrupted by the sound of jaeyoung slapping his own arm.

“sorry, mosquito.” jaeyoung explains sheepishly.

“shoot, we forgot about bugs.” seungjoon sighs. “do you want to just go inside? we can order chicken or something.”

“actually, that sounds great right now. i haven’t had dinner yet, and i’m so hungry.” hyojin says happily.

“you didn’t have dinner? i literally brought you food!” seungjoon complains.

“okay, but after changyoon ate my dumplings, did you really think i was going to focus on eating over revenge?”

seungjoon pauses. “yeah, never mind. but still!”

“it’s okay, i’ll eat it later.” hyojin says. “but let’s order something in for now? and we should probably clean all this up, too.”

“we’re going inside? good, i’m getting cold.” yuto adds, standing up and picking up his empty coke can and a half eaten bag of chips.

“do you want to sleep over in the practice room?” minkyun suggests, laughing. “we’re already ordering chicken, this is basically our trainee days all over again.”

“you know what, i’m actually down for that.” jaeyoung says, grinning. “if they let us do it five years ago, they’ll let us do it now.”

“honestly?” hyojin asks, smiling one of his first real smiles. he hasn’t been this content for a while. “that sounds really, really good.”

it’s been a while, hyojin thinks as they clean up, since he’s been truly happy like this. it's been a while, he thinks, since everything has felt right. but here, in this space with five of the people he loves the most, he feels like enough. and for now, that’s all that matters.

#onf #on/off #hyojin #kim hyojin #onf fanfic #hyojin fanfic #other members are featured #onf hyojin #writing

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soldouthaz · 4 years ago

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hi!

this is very different from anything else i’ve ever written and i’m not completely sure that i love it but i couldn’t get this idea out of my head. i’m obsessed with the concept of louis being the sun. most of this is up for interpretation and is borderline ambiguous in it’s ending, so feel free to imagine it how you’d like. again, another huge thank you to @risthebrave for yelling about this idea with me / planning it in two days and for letting me know that there is actually a lunar eclipse today (june 5th!). it was fate :) enjoy!

“Tell me the story about how the sun loved the moon so much he died every night to let him breathe.”

“Once during a time when the earth was simple, the Sun shone brighter than anything. The people were grateful and rejoiced every time the Sun shone. He brought them joy and warmth, he was even the source of their warmth.

But he was lonely, all by himself in the vast skies. He would look down at the people dancing in his radiance and wonder if he was simply destined to a life of solitarily. That was the price he paid for being the brightest, he reasoned.

Then there was the Moon.

As the Sun grew weary and began to disappear [he] would rise into the sky, flanked by millions of stars. [His] radiance was a sad kind of beauty, one that went unnoticed as the people slept.

The Stars watched [him] with woefulness, hoping that one day they could get close enough so [he] wouldn’t feel so empty. But they couldn’t. The Moon was untouchable, surrounding [himself] with a blanket of darkness through the cold nights.

Until one day when the Sun was sliding out of the heavens, he caught a glimpse of [the Moon]. [He] was peeking up, a rare side of [him] being exposed to the light. And while the Sun could shine, he knew the Moon could glow, and a faithful whisper trumped an arrogant shout any day.

So just as the Stars were wandering into the night, the Sun fell in love like a snowball hurdling down a mountain. How the Sun wished to see [the Moon] more than the fleeting moments he shared with [him] at both dawn and dusk.

But the Moon was untouchable.

Uncurable.

Unfreeable.

“Go,” [the Moon] whispered to him one of those nights, [his] voice as sweet and sorrowful as the last light of morning, “Go and let me breathe, for you and I have decided fates. You illuminate the day, and I cast a glow on the night. We will never be. Our connection would go against what all people believe, all they know.” During the summer [the Sun] would stay a little longer just in case [the Moon] would change [his] mind. It was no use.

“Don’t you dare abandon your blessing of light for my darkness.”

~ anonymous

Early morning is Louis’ favorite time of the day. The sky is transformed into a blank canvas of pinks and purples with a few feathery clouds, soft birdsong the only soundtrack to his endless work. Sometimes he feels trapped inside of his workspace, but he tries to make the best of his circumstance by listing all of the details that bring a smile to his face.

There are as many advantages as there are disadvantages, really. Louis enjoys his privileges, enjoys being able to shed light on the world and watch as they create new memories underneath him and bask in the glow. Sometimes it makes him so happy that his smile only adds to the illumination of the landscape below him. Other times though, his mind wanders.

Nighttime has always been somewhat of a fantasy for him. Louis catches glimpses of it as he retires for the day, light stars dotting the cobalt blue of the darkening skyline. In the light that Louis provides everything is visible - it is difficult to hide much from his rays. Oftentimes people shield their eyes from him or stay indoors as he shines over their homes. Louis finds himself envious of the thick shadow of night. Everything is more serene and silent, and there is time for rest and renewal away from any prying eyes. Still, there is another reason Louis is so keen about the night.

His name is Harry.

Louis has only seen the Moon a few times before, each one more wonderful than the last. Harry is the physical embodiment of the things of Louis’ daydreams. While Louis is freckled and radiating with light, Harry exudes a certain calmness that he’s never been able to replicate in his absence. With the softest touch Louis has ever felt, Harry is an enigma although he lays all of his deepest secrets out bare for him to see. Each crater carved in the surface of the Moon is synonymous with Harry’s own. His skin tells a story that Louis has spent years attempting to figure out without much luck.

Several times a year Louis has the pleasure of being in his arms. It isn’t ever for long, but he values every last second until they shift again, saying goodbye for another few months until they’re able to coexist once again.

Louis has learned several things in the course of his lifetime, has paid attention to the patterns and frameworks that the people below him subscribe to. In the harsh light of day, people pretend. They plaster on fake grins and pretend to be people they aren’t, trying a thousand times harder to seem alright with sunlight shed over all of their insecurities.

At night is when the illusion fades. Everything becomes more genuine underneath the hazy blanket of the stars. Harry listens attentively as people vent their troubles to the Moon, asking for guidance and comfort that is only given through the moonlit strips that peek through the curtains onto the floor. It’s easier to cry and to be upset when there is no one else around - Louis would know. He aches with it sometimes, wishing that people would look to him in the same way they do Harry.

No one ever talks to the sun. In fact, like he’s said, at times they actively hide from it. And it hurts him sometimes that he shines too brightly but he can’t do anything to dampen it, can only look down on them and hope they know that he’s only trying to provide warmth as best he can. Harry has a way of making people feel like they aren’t alone, but it seems like Louis only sheds light on the opposite.

There are times when the Moon is the only thing that keeps him going, the repetitive cycle a soothing reminder that, even if he can’t touch him right now, he’s never truly alone. He can always make out his silhouette opposite from him when he feels lonely or needs comfort. Sometimes he allows himself to be fooled into thinking that they’re closer than they are, that he could reach out and touch him if he tried hard enough, but Louis knows that isn’t the truth.

He and Harry are the exact juxtaposition of each other but he thinks that’s probably why they work so well. It’s forbidden in many ways, but the fact that the universe allows them an opening of time to themselves during the longer months must be some sort of a sign, he figures; the fact that they’re given time together even in the midst of such important obligations - bringing light and darkness to every corner of the world.

It is seldom that Louis ever gets to rest, only another reason why he longs to be in the Moon’s presence. For those few minutes Louis can forget about everything else, can be completely camouflaged by the Moon. He no longer has to worry about shining too brightly or filling up an entire sky by himself. Everyone below them gathers to watch their brief union, flashing cameras and pointing up at them, and Louis would give anything to be able to see it from their perspectives.

Tonight they’ll get to see all of it again. There is only a small portion of time before their rotations align and he’ll be able to breathe once more. There are days when Louis wouldn’t trade anything for his responsibility, but there are also times when he wishes nothing more than to give it up, if only for minutes at a time.

The Moon comes into his vision exceptionally slowly but too fast all at once. The sooner Harry arrives the sooner he leaves, and Louis thinks he should probably be at peace with that by now but he isn’t. He longs for the day when they won’t have to part from one another, though he knows it is selfish to keep his light from the world.

That is why he’s eager to take willingly what he receives, and why he is so eager to keep going each day. It is one of the only reprieves he is allowed and Louis plans to take full advantage of it each time he is allowed.

He watches as Harry moves closer in the sky, as the horizon darkens and he begins to glow as well. Louis enjoys this part, when their colors begin to blend together in a mix of purples, blues, and pinks. Though he can’t ever see them together, he can always feel their energy. He radiates warmth every day but with Harry it’s almost as if their light is combined, his skin vibrating with it as he draws even closer.

Louis blinks over and over again, trying to convince himself he isn’t imagining it when he begins to see the features of Harry’s face come into view. It’s never exactly like he imagines it, always better than the time before. Harry ages beautifully and it never fails to amaze him. He isn’t bright like the Sun, like Louis, but he’s effortlessly radiant in his own way.

No time to prepare himself is allotted when Harry arrives though he’s been waiting weeks for this. One moment he’s out of reach and the next he’s in Louis’ space, big and bright and a thousand times more lovely than Louis remembers.

“Louis,” Harry whispers.

His voice is something Louis knows, looks forward to hearing for months at a time, but he still isn’t prepared when Harry utters his name. Immediately Louis feels as if he’s been encased in deep velvet. His body is lighter at the tone, at the feeling of the heavy weight falling off of his shoulders even if only for a few minutes.

The sky is dark when he falls into Harry’s arms, invisible under the thick haze of fog, stars, and the shape of the Moon covering his silhouette. Everything is strikingly bright and pitch black at once in his vision.

“Sleep, my Sun,” Harry whispers.

Louis allows himself to follow his suggestion, his eyes fluttering shut. When he wakes, there’s a good chance Harry will be gone again, separating further and further from him as they continue on their paths. But for now, he’ll let himself fall underneath his spell feeling comfortable and safe and warm, dreaming of the day where they won’t have to part from each other, when Louis can bask in their combined glow for the rest of eternity.

I see what it's like for day and night

Never together

'Cause they see things in a different light

Like us, but they never tried

Like us

#drabble #my fic #Larry fic

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insphoeration · 5 years ago

Text

Find You ~ Part 3

Fandom: Monsta X; monbebe

Pairing: Prince!I.M x Modernday!Reader (fem)

Summary: Following a lunar eclipse, the reader gets thrust back in time into the body of her ancestor where she must do her best to keep her head down and survive until she can figure out a way home, that is, if she can figure out a way home.

Words: 2.2k

Chapter Warnings: Blood, death etc

This story may have mature themes which may be disturbing to some audiences.

Part 1

“What did you forget?” He chuckled at you.

Could it be this was a past life? Were you sent to relive it as punishment? Changkyun’s face fell.

“You did, didn’t you?” He asked softly, as if you were a spooked horse. You placed a hand on your chest as if it would help you breathe better, but it didn’t, you couldn’t breath. The world was spinning. People called out from behind you, you heard your name but the noise got duller as you fell forward. “Woah, Hey!” Changkyun lunged forward, catching you in his arms just before you hit the floor. Your last thought before you blacked out was, what that it was a shame an asshole like this would have such an incredible face. The gods really were being cruel to you weren't they?

You shivered, flashes of dejavu playing through your mind as you woke up in the same room as before. This time there were two men and a few women in the room as opposed to just the one before. Most of them jumped when they saw you were awake.

“Y/N!” One of the men exclaimed. “Are you okay?” He asked. You hid further under the blanket, hoping this nightmare would just end.

“Lady Y/N,” One of the women said softly, walking forward. “It’s alright, we’re not going to hurt you.” She had a kind smile and motherly aura, which made you feel slightly more at ease, but only slightly. “Do you know where you are?” She asked. You shake your head, not sure if it was a matter of where or when. “You’re in the palace.” She said.

“What palace?” You asked. The people in the room looked around, worried.

“The king's palace.” One of the men came forward.

“What king?” You whispered, racking your brain through thousands of years of history crammed into a few classes in highschool, that you barely paid any attention to because you didn’t think you would need.

“King Si Dae.” The woman answered. You couldn’t remember anyone by the name.

“Do you know what year it is? By chance?” You asked, not even sure if they followed years during this time.

“You don’t know what year it is? Oh dear.” The woman looked around frantically.

“What do you remember?” The other man stepped forward and you recognized him as the same man from before.

“Changkyun please.” The first man hissed. “She’s scared, don’t patronize her.”

Changkyun shrugged, “she doesn’t seem to remember much so wouldn’t it be easier to build off of what she does remember?” He smirked, taking a few steps towards you, behind him you could see the look of disapproval on the other man’s face. “So, Lady Y/N, what do you remember?” He bent over so you were face to face, noses practically touching. The women whispered amongst themselves when you didn’t back down. You knew your hometown but they probably wouldn’t as it wouldn’t exist yet. Your name was definitely yours but what about your family name? Would that stay the same too?

“Nothing.” You whispered, not wanting to cause too much trouble. Changkyun straightened his back before turning around.

“How unfortunate.” He tsked, not sounding at all bothered. He simply shrugged as if there was nothing more that could be done and left the room. The first man came forward, a little awkward.

“Lady Y/N, I’m prince Shownu.”

👑

Prince Shownu tried his best to jog your memory of the palace and your life there, but it was a failed attempt as there was no memory to jog. So you would pretend like you didn’t know anything so he would explain it to you. According to him, his first wife was very sick and asked you to be brought to the palace to take care of her. You were not a maid but instead very close to the crown prince’s first wife, and so she felt that it would be nice to bring you into the palace. Apparently, her dying wish was that Shownu kept you at the palace and looked after you, so he did, making you his personal assistant, or what would have been the old timey equivalent to a personal assistant.

Shownu showed you around the palace, introducing you to people that you were not only already supposed to know but be kind of close too. By the time you got to the kitchens, most of the palace had already heard about your “accident.” Of course they did, what other forms of entertainment did they have?

“Oh, Lady Y/N, sit, I’ll make you some tea that is really good for your head.” Said the head court lady. Shownu chuckled and kindly ask that it be brought to your room.

That was the first thing you noticed about Shownu, other than his cute smile, was his kindness and patience. When you felt like you were asking too many questions, he smiled and encouraged you. He thought about giving you time off to get your strength (and memories) back, but someone told him it would be better to have you dive right in and see if anything comes back to you. He eventually agreed with them but told you to let him know if you weren’t feeling well.

👑

Being Shownu’s personal handmaiden meant you were pretty much by his side 24/7, even if he didn’t need you. So you watched as him and his brothers get ready to practice for the ritual. You didn’t know what it was for, just that it was important and every prince played a special role. They came together at first, Hyungwon and Kihyun shoving each other playfully, so much so that even Changkyun cracked a smile.

From what you could gather, the ritual seemed more like a performance than anything. Either way, it was very entertaining.

“What did you think of the practice?” Shownu asked, walking beside you.

“It was interesting.” You told him honestly. “What is the purpose of it?”

“Honestly,” he chuckled beside you, “I’m not even sure, but the king tells us to do it so, we have to do it.”

“That sounds hard.” You hummed. Shownu chuckled again.

“Everyone has to do it.”

“Yes but getting direct orders from the king, having him watch your every move sounds difficult.” You said.

“It can be, but-”

“But we have no say in the matter, so it’s best to just agree.” A voice said behind you. You both turned around to see the 7th prince in all his glory. He seemed so quiet around others so why was it that he was always so smug around you?

“Changkyun,” Shownu greeted, “what are you doing here?” He asked, aware the younger was following them since they left the practice area.

“I was curious about something.” He said, looking at you. You tilted your head at him wondering if he wanted you to cower under his stare. Prince or not, arrogance was never something you put up with.

“And did you find what you were looking for?” Shownu asked, raising an eyebrow at his brother.

Changkyun shook his head, “if anything, I think I’m even more intrigued than I was before.”

Shownu gave a disapproving look to his brother, who did not see it because as he backed away, he only watched you. Shownu turned as Changkyun did the main difference being, as Shownu approached people bowed to him, as opposed to running the other way when they saw Changkyun. You had to jog to catch up with Shownu.

“My prince, why is it that people avoid Prince Changkyun?” You asked. Shownu sighed.

“They’re scared of him.” He said plainly.

“But why?” You asked.

“He’s a prince, the lives of many people depend on simply the wave of his hand.” Shownu didn’t look at you.

“You’re also a prince, but people don’t run from you.” The two of you entered the library, Shownu closed the door behind him and lowered his voice.

“He’s marked.” He said darkly, you looked at him confused, you didn’t remember seeing any mark on him. “People talk, about how he got his scar. Rumors got out of hand, and now people fear for their life, in his presence.” Shownu’s tone caused a chill to run up your spine, but you kept pressing.

“But if the rumors are all they are, then why are people still scared?” Shownu’s gaze dropped to the floor. “Unless, they’re not rumors?”

“There’s a lot we don’t know about Changkyun.”

👑

You weren’t sure how to get home, or even if you could. Since you weren’t exactly sure how you got there in the first place, it was a little difficult to try and reverse what happened. On top of that, you weren’t sure if you had travelled back in time or to a whole new dimension altogether. Assuming you went back in time about a thousand years, there was no telling what you even being there would do to disrupt the future. Then again, there was a chance you were in a parallel universe considering you had no idea who this king was, although that might have just been your fault for not paying attention in history class.

The night of the ritual felt strange, it wasn’t cold and yet, you had goosebumps on your arms. You watched the princes practice enough to know when something was wrong. It started off peacefully enough but then, more people were added to the mix, seemingly out of nowhere. You didn’t see them practice in their costumes so it was hard to tell who was who, especially with the masks, except for Shownu whose costume was different from the other princes.

“Something’s wrong.” You mumbled more towards yourself than anything. The king’s right hand, Hongsik looked at you as you watched the ritual with worried eyes.

The princes were supposed to be fighting off evil spirits played by other warriors but they were being much more aggressive than they were in practice. The movements were too quick, you looked around to see if anyone else had noticed but they all thought it was part of the ritual and watched in amusement.

One of the masked warriors brought his sword down and pierced it right through Shownu’s shield. The music stopped.

“Protect the king.” Hongsik roared, everyone jumped into action, moving even faster than before. Guards ran forward, standing in front of the king, ready to shield him from any attackers. The other princes ran forward to help their brother but there were too many attackers to get to him. The sound of blades clashing echoed through the courtyard and the princes tried to defend themselves. You weren’t sure what to do, should you run? But there was no one coming towards you. At least you thought.

Shownu jumped over one of the attackers, seemingly flying towards you. He put his arm around you and swung you around, his blade catching that of someone’s behind you. Your jaw dropped, you had no idea there was anyone around you or even that anyone would pay attention to you.

“Run.” He commanded, letting you go. You ran to Hongsik, away from the fight. It seemed like no matter what the princes did, the attackers would not stay down, not unless they were dead. Shownu’s head turned to you to make sure you were okay, so he wasn’t able to see the person coming up behind him. Luckily, one of the other princes did, intervening so the person missed, only cutting Shownu’s arm. You covered your mouth, muffling your gasp as the prince slit his neck with his sword. Shownu was brought to his knees as the attacker fell to the floor.

“Shownu!” you exclaimed, running forward. His hand that was holding the gash on his arm was already covered in blood. You lifted the mask off his face to reveal that it wasn’t even Shownu, but the youngest prince Changkyun.

“What is this?” The king yelled. “Where is the crown prince?”

The other princes had already taken their masks off at this point, except for one.

“Right here your majesty.” Shownu said.

“Are you okay?” The king asked Shownu, his voice softened when he saw the prince was okay.

“Are you okay?” You asked, placing a hand on Changkyuns shoulder lightly. He looked at you with what seemed to be disgust, crouched beside him, a worried look on your face as if you cared what happened to him. You saw him look up at his father who had yet to acknowledge him.

“What is the meaning of this?” The king demanded, looking around but the other princes were just as confused.

“It was my idea, your majesty.” Shownu got on one knee before the king. “I had suspicions about tonight so I asked Changkyun to take my place, I failed in protecting him.” Shownu bowed his head and the king turned to Changkyun who now had his own blood smeared on his face. He was breathing heavily from the battle he just fought, clutching his blood soaked arm.

“Find whoever did this.” The king commanded. “Find who is responsible for an attack on the crown prince!”

“Yes your majesty.” The guards and warriors around him chanted, including the princes.

“Yes your majesty.” Changkyun mumbled through his teeth, trying to get up. The king turned away and retreated back into the castle, when the attention was off them, the other princes came forward to check on their youngest brother.

“Changkyun, are you alright?” Minhyuk was the first to ask.

“I’m sorry.” Shownu bowed, “I said I would have your back, but I didn’t.” Changkyun shrugged.

“What’s one extra scar?” He chuckled dryly.

“You’re bleeding pretty bad.” You said, Changkyun looked at you again. In the past five minutes, you’ve paid more attention to him than in the past two years you’ve been at the palace. He was confused, the mask laid forgotten on the ground where you placed it, you knew he wasn’t Shownu, so why the hell were you still holding his arm? Changkyun didn’t realize how comforting your touch was until he ripped his arm away, and the pain seemed to get much worse.

Part 4

#i.m monsta x fluff #monsta x scenarios #monsta x imagines #monsta x fic #monsta x reactions #im changkyun imagine #im changkyun fluff #im changkyun fic #im changkyun fan fic

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scenecipriano · 5 years ago

Text

Lullaby for a Prince

WARNINGS: Uhhh fighting, mildly unsympathetic Roman, angst,..that’s it I think-

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Once there lived two prince’s, they were twins. The elder twin was loved by everyone in their kingdom, even when they were younger he was the favorite amongst their subjects and even their parents. The eldest’s name was Roman, the sunny prince of Amadon. If anyone bothered to look deeper and into the elder twin’s shadow they would see his younger brother. The prince that was cast aside for his eccentric behavior, a prince that wasn’t scared to push the boundaries of social norms, the prince who was hated for being different. The younger twin’s name was Remus, the lunar prince of Amadon.

The twins were once close, following each other wherever the other went. Standing up for one another if a child were to pick on them. The princes of Amadon was close until everything fell apart on their twelfth birthday until they obtained their powers. It was destined for the two princes to gain powers similar to their parents, powers of light, being able to control all that was good within the land, only… Something had gone wrong.

Roman stares in horror as shadows engulfed his brother, Remus’ screams echoing throughout the ballroom. Everyone was stunned into silence, the king and queen held their hands over their mouths as they watch their youngest be consumed by shadows that couldn’t be stopped. When the shadows dispersed everyone had to shield themselves from the wavelength of power, a bone-chill cold settled over the room, the party being drowned in darkness due to the blast of shadows taking out the candlelit chandeliers. Roman lowers his arms and gasps when he sees Remus on the floor curled into a small ball.

“Remus!” He screams.

Roman rushes over to his little brother and gently lifts him into his arms, Roman inhales when he sees a pale silver streak that resembled the moons own silver glow in his brother’s brown hair. Remus groans as he slowly blinks his eyes open, the normal dull green shone brightly within the dark, glowing unnaturally as he stares up at Roman.

“D-Did we get our powers?...”

That had been over twenty years ago, once close brothers now turned into bitter enemies with the younger twin filled to the brim with jealousy. Trying to learn why he was chosen for the shadowy powers of the night drove Remus mad because he had no answers, no one had answers. When no one could figure out why this happened, they cast him out. Choosing to treat him as if he was the plague. Roman was their prince, their prince of light and all that is good. While Remus was just a nobody that carried a title that wasn’t respected anymore. He felt… wrong. Everything he did was considered wrong, his thoughts, his art, his feelings, all wrong wrong wrong.

“I know that you’re evil, but can’t you please keep your disgusting thoughts to yourself?” Roman snaps.

That’s all they ever did now, snap at each other, hurling insults at one another until one of them was crying because they had gone too far. Roman didn’t understand, he couldn’t ever understand.

‘Make him understand…’

The night of Roman’s coronation was in full swing, the nearby lord, ladies, and non-binary royalties all gave him their praise. Telling him that he would be a marvelous ruler just as his father had been. Everything was perfect.

Shadows shrouded the ballroom in darkness, wiping out the candles that lit the room, causing the temperature to plummet. Startled screams leave the guests, but a loud and manic laugh had drowned them out.

“Well, hello their brother! Or should I say, King Roman? Because we haven’t been brothers in over twenty years!”

Remus stood in the entrance of the ballroom, a manic grin plastered on his face his glowing green eyes shining brightly in the dark, solely trained on his twin. Roman clenches his jaw, narrowing his brown eyes at his younger brother.

“Remus we are not doing this right now, leave!” Roman yells.

“No… No, I don’t think I will. I am sick of being caught in your shadow, it’s your turn to be caught in mine!”

Roman tenses when shadow tendrils wrap around him, hoisting him in the air. He looks to his brother once more, Remus’ eyes shining more brightly, his left hand held up in a flourishing motion.

“Now… I suggest that if anyone wants to live leave right now, allowing me and my twin to have a brotherly chat.”

Roman watches as his subjects and various other royals flee the ballroom, not that he could blame them. Once the last of the patrons were out, Remus carelessly flicks his right hand using his shadows to slam the doors shut causing the sound to echo around them.

“Remus, why are you doing this? What on Earth can you possibly gain with acting like a psychopath!”

Remus’ mouth twitches into a small smirk, he slowly brings his left hand down allowing the shadows to bring his brother forward until they were face to face.

“What can I gain, hm? Seeing as you’re the newly crowned king with no children, that makes me the sole heir if something… unfortunate were to happen to you dear brother. Before I do that, though I figured we could play a game! Yes, a lovely game… a game where for once in our lives dear brother, that I get to win.”

Roman ceases his struggle against the shadows in favor of giving his brother an incredulous look, “What in the hell are you talking about?”

“YOU KNOW WHAT I’M TALKING ABOUT!” Remus screams his shadows flinging Roman across the room, his body slamming into one of the tables.

“The game where you’re everyone’s favorite, the game where you’re the freak and I’m the normal one! The game where you finally UNDERSTAND WHAT ITS LIKE TO BE ME!”

Roman groans as he struggles to get up, he scrambles back when Remus’ brown boots come into his field of vision. Roman gulps when a solid black sword forged from his brother’s shadows is pointed at his throat.

“W-What are you talking about!? I-I’m no one’s favorite!”

“THE HELL YOU AREN’T! E-Everyone loves you, even mother and father loved you more than me. Treated you as if you were an only child all because I was different.”

Remus falters for a moment, his free hand gripping at his hair as he tries to fight off the self-hating voices that have plagued him since the night he gained his powers. Roman uses this to his advantage, rolling away from his brother summoning his own sword made from bright white light.

The brightness forces Remus to shield his eyes as it penetrates through his shadows, the younger twin takes a step back, baring his teeth and hissing at his older brother.

“Remus, please you’re overthinking this just like you always do! Now, let’s put the swords down and talk like adults!”

Roman shudders when his brother lets out a mad cackle, his defensive stance faltering for a second. ‘When did you become so… dark little brother…’

“Overthinking? Overthinking he says! You don’t know the meaning of overthinking! No no no! Because you don’t know what I think, the horrible thoughts that I wish would just go away! But you will… You’ll finally understand because I’m going to make you.”

Roman gasps as he throws his sword up, his brother’s own sword clanging against it, their powers bouncing off of each other pushing the brother’s back onto separate sides of the ballroom.

“Remus, please! I don’t want to fight you, let’s just talk!”

“I’ve been trying to talk for over twenty fucking years, and I’ve grown quite tired of it. After all, everything I say is disgusting, right?”

Roman once again blocks another attack from his brother’s sword of darkness, up close he could finally see the pain in Remus’ glowing green eyes. Years of inner and outer torment finally crashing down on the young prince. ‘How could I have been so blind?’

Roman yelps as shadows force him back, sending him crashing against the throne that was seated at the north end of the ballroom. He groans and slowly blinks his eyes open, a gleam of silver caught his eye, he glances over and gasps.

‘This my son is the book Fictivity. If you are ever in trouble, use it to your advantage.’

Roman gulps as he drags himself over to the book, he picks it up and quickly glances over to his brother. Remus’ manic grin still plastered onto his face.

“R-Remus… Please… Don’t make me do this…”

His pleads fell on deaf ears as he Remus lets out a mad cackle, bringing his sword down for the killing blow. Roman closes his eyes and quickly opens the book of Fictivity, a blinding light fills the ballroom along with Remus’ screams.

When the light and screams fade, Roman slowly opens his eyes. The book still held open in his tight grip, he slowly turns it around and gasps. An image of his brother could be seen on one of the pages, his green eyes held the same pain and anger as they had when he was standing before Roman.

Roman blinks when something drips onto the page, he shakily presses his fingers against his cheek a strangled sob escapes him when he feels the tears.

“I-I’m so sorry, hermanito…”

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A/N: EH- this is probably garbage but- oh well- have this angst between the twins that was inspired by Lullaby for a Princess-

#sanders sides #roman sanders #remus sanders #sympathetic remus #creativitwins #angst #mildly unsympathetic roman #fighting #magic au #kind of?#human au #prince au

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weaselle · 5 years ago

Text

DEAD EARTH MASTER POST

DEAD EARTH CHAPTER ONE

Breen was in over his head, he could tell that much. But when the crowd in the arcade pit had started to close in on the man with the ears, Breen had stepped up beside him without thinking. The man was tall, with dark skin, and when his hat had gotten knocked off revealing ears that were, fox? cat? well, several of the crowd were Colony Loyalists, and they began hissing things like “shifter” and “genie” and one of them shoved the man from behind. Breen shoved that man back, and when the man with the ears had darted away through the crowd Breen didn’t fancy being left alone with a bunch of loyalist knucklers, so he dipped along with him.

They exited into an alley through a door that caused alarms to sound, and footed it fast just ahead of a six pack of the loyalists, turned a corner, and found themselves trapped in a dead end alley. The man with the ears was pressing buttons on his belt.

“Hey,” said Breen, “those guys are gonna be --“ and then they were, and it was too late.

____________________________________________________________________

Three of them turned out to have sticks of some kind, and two of those went for Mr. Ears while the other one paired up with an unarmed buddy of his to lay into Breen.

It was happening too fast for him to keep track of, he took a numbing blow to the shoulder, landed a punch to someone’s ribs, caught a fist on his cheekbone, grabbed a wrist and yanked someone hard into the wall to his back. The three combatants next to him were a busy blur “Get them down so we can tie ‘em” yelled one of the two still in the mouth of the alley, and Breen had an ankle kicked out from under him and went to one knee. The man with the ears and his attackers brushed by him and the attacker facing Breen was sort of gathered into that brawl. “Fuck!” somebody shouted, as someone else screamed in horror and pain, and all of a sudden there was nothing happening, as the group of men stood back from them.

Breen stood back up. The man he’d yanked into the wall had retreated halfway down the alley and was leaned over with his hands on his knees pouring blood out of his nose. One of the others was in a crumpled heap at the feet of the dude with ears, a messy hole in the side of his neck. Ears, crouching slightly, was covered in blood and grinning a fanged expression devoid of humor.

“You gene-shifted piece of shit,” said one of the men, stepping through the rest to stand in front of them. He unzipped his light jacket, and they could see the butt of a gun holstered under his arm. “you’re gonna die”

“I may,” said the man with the ears, “ but you definitely will. I’m a Galloglas”

That seemed to faze the man facing them, and he stopped. Into the second he spent frozen, a woman’s voice sounded from the mouth of the alley. “Hoy, Jackal, you need a hand in here?”

The man with the ears, Jackal, wiped his hands on the back of his pants and straightened, “Good to see you Captain, these fellows and I were just playing a game of Guess Who’ll Die”

“Oh,” she looking at the men in front of her “for fun? Or, are we taking bets. Because I bet it’s them.”

Their attackers were stuck between Jackal, Breen, and the woman behind them, and they didn’t like that at all. Some of them had turned and Breen got a look at her, leaning a shoulder against the wall nonchalantly, one hand hanging loose near her hips while she inspected the nails of the other. One of the loyalists glanced back at Jackal, looked at her again, said “Fuck this” and left, edging very carefully past the woman at end of the alley. The guy with the busted nose went with him.

“And then there were three,” said the woman, tilting her head and looking at the remaining men with mild interest.

The guy with the gun said “Galloglas, hunh?”

“I am,” said the woman.

“I hear you folks think you’re hot shit”

“Some people seem to think so,” she shrugged

The man with the shoulder holster sneered, “Well I think --“ and his hand snaked under his arm.

“He’s -- !“ Breen started to shout a warning, but suddenly the woman’s fist had a pistol in it and she had somehow already fired three shots and was holstering it before the man ever got his own weapon out.

“-- got a gun...” Breen finished, shocked, looking down at the three dead men.

The woman ignored him and brushed past, going to Jackal. “You okay, Jacks?”

“Yeah, lost my hat, these fools got a look at my ears, made a thing out of it. Sorry, Captain”

“Here,” she said, unwinding a scarf from her neck and handing to Jackal, who used it as a headscarf to conceal his ears once more. “Who’s your friend?” she asked him, indicating Breen with her head.

“Dunno, he stepped up when these colony boys closed on me in the arcade.”

“Any good?”

Jackal lifted a shoulder “He can take a punch”

“Hey,” said Breen, “Hey! I’m like, right here”

Neither of them looked at him; Jackal grinned. “Sticks up for himself” he observed, then quirked an eyebrow, “and for others...”

“Right,” said the woman, turning to face Breen “I’m Hex, what’s your name?”

“I’m Freghzer Breenlund, from Americo Lunar 4, but my friends call me Breen; nice to meet you” he said, holding out his hand.

Hex left his hand hanging there and squinted at him in amused judgement “You always tell such long stories Breen?” Before he could come up with a reply she said “C’mon fresh-face, this is an awful lot of dead bodies for this part of the system, we gotta get out of here. But first you’re gonna help me an’ Jacks stick these fuckers in bottom of this garbage tank.”

A little while later, they arrived at a bar. Well, a place that sold alcohol and had places to sit, anyway. Jackal had led them there, saying “the drinks would be overpriced if they paid you to have one, but nobody’s likely to notice some suspicious stains. Or a gunbelt, probably” eyeballing his captain, who had rolled her eyes and shrugged into a long thin coat from her small pack.

Hex sniffed her shot glass and set it carefully back down. Wouldn’t do to spill it, she mused, probably melt the table. Her crewman Jacques was sitting comfortably looking around the room in an idle, way, but she’d known ol’ Jackal for so many years she could tell when he was on edge.

And embarrassed. He was supposed to stay on the low, not cause a four body pile-up - that was shitty, she caught herself, he shouldn’t have to be embarrassed that those bigots were willing to fight to the death over their hatred of what, of who, he was. This trouble was not his fault, and she’d have to be sure to remind him she knew that when there was time. It was still trouble though, and had to be dealt with.

“How’d the thing go,” she asked him. He looked at her and gave a very small shake of his head. Ah. Well, the bad luck was just rolling in today, wasn’t it. She briefly laid her hand on his while looking directly into his eyes, broadcasting reassurance and respect. He blinked and nodded slightly and took a deep breath. Went back to scanning the room for trouble.

Fresh-face had almost stopped choking on the shot he had downed. Dumb-ass from the Triad Lunar Colonies. Sure was pretty though. “Hey kid,” she said, wondering how old he was “ if you’re from Americo 4, whatchew doin’ in the Euro Quarters?”

“What? I’m-“ he coughed again, “I’m like, the same age you are.”

“Doubtful” said Hex, baiting him, rolling her eyes.

“Well” he seemed less sure, “I’m no kid, anyway. I’m 32 years old”

That wasn’t so bad. Carried himself like he was ten years younger though, fucking colonists. “So what brings you to the EQ?”

Breen’s eyes went sideways, and he ducked his head slightly as he mumbled “tried to win the VR Sprite Class Obstacle Open”

Hex narrowed her eyes “Really. VR pilot, are you?”

“No.”

“No?!”

“No, I’m an actual pilot. Real ships.”

Hex laughed “Oh no, Breeny, Breeny no, tell me you didn’t think you could win in the Lunar Pro VR racing circuit because you can fly a real ship.”

“Yes. I’m good at it.” he declared sullenly.

“Oh! Well then,” she responded too cheerfully, “I didn’t realize you were a good pilot. Won the Sprite Obstacle Cup no problem then, I imagine, good pilot like you, hmm?”

She could see he didn’t like it, but he just looked down into his empty shot glass. “No.”

Awww. She stopped teasing. “So... how’d you do?”

“Lost in the 5th heat”

Shit, that wasn’t bad, really. For a non-pro newbie. “Don’t feel too down, Breeny, VR is very similar to reality, but it’s not exactly the same as racing a real ship, and the people you were racing, they live in that difference every day.”

“Yeah,” he said bitterly, “I sort of caught on to that”

“So what is it that has a good pilot like you entering the VR pro racing circuit, anyway? Can’t find a real ship to fly?”

Breen sighed a big sigh. “That’s not it. I have a ship, nice little sprite class hauler. Saved up for a decade, thought I found one just needed a bunch of cosmetic work, real good price. Then as soon as I bought the ship, these new licensing fees got voted in, plus it turns out the guy I bought from had rigged the torque rings with fucking pig iron bearings -- worked fine for the test flight, broke the bearings to pieces on the way back to Luna. Half melted one of the torque rings and damaged some of the back end frame running her dirty to get to a dock.” He stared morosely at the table top, drawing invisible circles with the bottom of his empty shot glass. “By the time I had the paperwork cleared and the frame repairs done, replaced the inner ring and outfitted it with proper chromed titanium bearings, I’d spent all the money I had saved to start my first venture. So. Got a ship. Got a crew even. But I’m broke and I can’t use my ship and crew to go earn some money ‘cause I can’t fuel up or supply the ship at all, and the crew wants bank trust receipts up front. Fuck. Fuck! I really needed to win that race.” He looked ready to cry.

Hex was intrigued. He wasn’t cutting very fine a figure as a captain, but she could respect the hustle. Plus, the whole thing was lining up to work out just the way she needed it, and that was a rare thing indeed. “Hey,” she said, waiting until he met her eyes. “Sometimes these things have a way of working out. I just may be the answer to your problems. Although, in true Galloglas fashion I’d be answering your problems with more problems.” Breen was looking confused. “Breen, my lad, you’ll never guess what Jackal and me were doing at the EQ Arcadium... care to guess? No? That’s no fun, okay fine, well, as a matter of fact, we were there trying to hire a ship. And we can pay up front.” She half turned her head without letting her eyes leave Breen’s. “What do you think, Jacks?”

“What do I think?” said Jackal, staring over her shoulder toward the front door “What I think is those two assholes from the alley went and found some friends from higher up the food chain, that’s what I think”

#fiction #scifi #writing #dead earth #dead earth 1

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digiconjurer · 5 years ago

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Examination of Mahoutsukai Precure’s ending

(A majority of this was written close to a year ago before Star Twinkle Precure wrapped up and Digimon Adventure Kizuna came out. If you enjoyed this, maybe pledge to my patreon so I can write more articles like this)

The second-to-last episode of Mahoutsukai Precure is an oddball, unlike a lot of the other ‘endings’ for past Precure seasons. Usually, the big focus is on just beating the big bad and then goodbye. But here, goodbye is not the end. It’s just the beginning. So let’s talk about it.

The final battle of any series, whether that be a book, an anime or even a fanfic is usually meant to be the highlight of that particular work. A culmination of all the events that have occurred in the story with usually higher production value than everything that’s come between - the last hurrah for the team before they head onto the next season.

But as final fights go for Pretty Cure, Mahoutsukai can be described as … alright. In a season where the focus has been less on exciting battle scenes and more on world-building and the characters, the next couple minutes are no different. Sure, it’s refreshing to see the multiple forms of our heroines in one fight. But it doesn’t really show off all the tools that our heroines have. For example, where are most of the minor linkle stones that the show made a huge deal out of in the early half? Surely those could have come in handy here. Maybe they could’ve been used as additional attacks for giant Hana’s bracelet shooter. Just throwing it out there.

But with the dust now settled and the big bad, the time has come for both worlds to separate. But not before Riko casts just one more spell - a promise that the pair will meet again. They click their wands together and part via the forces of gravity pulling them to their respective worlds. Which is the perfect time for Mofurun to monologue about talking to Mirai. Then Riko joins in - talking about the prospect of them meeting up again, with Mirai finishing it all up by promising to meet both Ha-Chan and Riko on the sixteenth-day moon (the 16th lunar day). All while the background goes down the same street - starting with a shot from the first episode and progressing through the trio's journey. Then just Mirai running at the end.

Of course, there are a number of things to compare this ending too - a lot of yuri manga/anime endings (the ones where the main couple doesn’t get to be together/or one of the girls decides to marry to guy), Princess Kaguya, even Mahoutsukai Sally (one of the first magical girl ‘anime’ and also created by Toei Animation). Heck, a big part of previous Pretty Cure seasons endings is that our heroes need to give up their powers and fairies with the promise that maybe they would get to see each other again. Time marches onward and that doesn’t happen, our heroes growing up. Sure, Hugtto did play with the idea of said precure coming back. But then promptly deaged most of them. Because then they could use all the stock transformation sequences.

But there’s another parallel I would like to highlight here. One that probably is going to sound bizarre and out of left field. So let's talk about Digimon Adventure Tri of all series. More specifically, the relationship between two of the side characters - Daigo Nishijima and Maki Himekawa.

Part of the first group of humans to ever ‘visit’ the digital world on top of ‘saving’ it from the Dark Masters, they too were forced to give something up - their digimon partners. Unlike the chosen children/digidestined that would come after, their digimon were to become the Sovereigns - guardians of the Digital World… who get themselves captured and do jack shit in their home universe. Like seriously, by the time that the events of 02 occur, all of them are trapped away and the digital world is once more in disarray

For Daigo, that meant letting Bearmon become Azulongmon and actually be plot relevant. But Maki isn’t as lucky. On top of serving as a vessel for Homeostasis, she is forced to watch Tapirmon be turned into a beam of light in order to defeat the Dark Masters and seal them away for a couple decades. At least till the cast of Adventure comes around and solves that problem.

Much like those precures, Maki and Daigo’s ‘ending’ serves as a beginning for their story. What little is actually shown on screen.

In the years that followed, the pair finish their education, go to university, graduate and get married. We'll come back to them later, though. For now, let’s return back to Mahoutsukai Precure and see what it has in store for us.

Following a commercial break, we return to 'adult' Mirai heading out for the day. She takes a ride on the subway to a university in Tokyo for her classes. You know, normal adult stuff.

At first glance, this sequence makes it appear that Mirai has ‘given up’ on the promise to reunite with her friends and accepted that such magic could not work now. But, we are only seeing the events at the 'end' of this separation. It's quite possible that she spent a good chunk of time holding on to that belief at first, in the hope that she can reconnect with Riko and everyone else. But eventually, she accepted (partially) that it isn't time yet for them to reunite - that a time will come for both the magic and non-magic world will one day be reconnected.

After her classes, Mirai meets up with her friends to watch a soccer game that involves one of them. While late, she does get to see one of her friends score a goal and cheer him on.

After, our heroine walks home with two of her friends. One of which gets to the subject of seeing witches back in middle school. While Mirai doesn't really say anything in regards to the matter, it does spark something within our heroine's head. A reminder of days long gone.

Back at home, Mirai gets to helping her grandma make dinner. At some point, the conversation turns to talking about how Mirai still carries around Mofurun and how her grandma brought the bear to Mirai in the hospital. The conversation shifts, with Mirai thanking her grandmother for the stories she tells and telling her that’s the reason she met ‘her’.

Let’s take a second to take what she just said. Not Riko. Just ‘her’. While her memories of Riko and time as a precure are still there to an extent, huge parts of it have fallen through. Even in the face of everything laid before, she holds onto that wish - that spell she and Riko cast all those years so they could

But then Mirai’s grandmother says this:

Earnest bonds are your strength. When our feelings are connected, we can make miracles.

On paper, that sounds vaguely philosophical, but not world-changing. But in the context of our finale, it’s the message that Mirai needs in that moment.

After a quick dinner, night falls on the town. Our heroine, however, is suffering from insomnia. There’s no music playing in the background. Just silence. In a way, we’re put right into Mirai’s shoes.

Mofourun takes a tumble, forcing Mirai up. She puts her teddy bear back up, only to be greeted by a gust of wind and a view of the 16th day moon. Which layman’s speak means it's the 16th lunar day on top of it being nearly midnight. Our heroine gets excited, but tries her best to temper her expectations.

She makes a beeline for the park as things come to a head. This is to some extent, a routine that occurs once a lunar month.

What follows is Mirai walking ‘backwards’ - in a more of a metaphysical way. For most of this episode, her mind has been in the present - pushing forward into an unknown future. But here, she ‘fills in’ those on the other side of everything going on. Well, just Riko. But you get the idea. Then she finishes it off by telling the sky above that there’s so much to tell her as the music finally picks up. But it’s not the regular ost we’re treated. No, instead we get the movie insert song ‘Two Wishes’ as Mirai says she misses someone and heads off. Finding a tree of sorts, she gives it a touch. Which results in a strangely-shaped twig falling out. Picking it up, she gives it a wave and says the magical words. Nothing happens. Unsatisfied by this outcome, she drops the twig and begins to make the walk back. But as our heroine reaches the end of the path, she remembers her grandmother’s words. Which is timed for the midway point of Two Wishes so that you hear ‘I want to tell you, I love you’ Damn. You’re not being subtle here, Toei.

Mirai makes the journey down the path once more, culminating in her picking up the twig and running over to the fountain. Once there, we get another

She says the magic words in front of the fountain, asking to see ‘you’ again. So she shouts that sequence again. On her third shouting, Mirai pauses mid-sentence and get treated to a sequence of images from the first episode. The fourth is a similar story, with images from episode 3 through 5 and 9 appearing. From our perspective, it looks as if the show is recapping previous episodes. But from Mirai’s, she remembers all of this to the best of her abilities. It’s like watching something you were in, but you’re manning the camera instead of being in the shot. Or something like that.

Mirai shouts her spell twice more as tears begin to fall down. This time, we are treated to a scene from episode 22 (our main couple reuniting with Ha-chan) and a scene from episode 44 (where our trio are holding hands and cuddling together). After, she repeats the magic words and asks to be together with ‘you’. Then it’s back to her default cry as the scene of Ha-chan disappearing from earlier in the episode plays out once more. Followed by the scene of our heroine looking up at the rainbow. Back in reality though, Mirai shouts the magic spell seven more times. After the seventh uttering, she tells the ground she just wants to see ‘you’ again and finishes off with a please.

Silence comes over the area once more as our heroine’s pendant flashes and the twig becomes covered in light. Mirai says the magic words one more time, followed by ‘Riko...all of you...I want to see you again…’

With that we have silence once more as the twig reverts back to. Mirai is then caught by complete surprise, which is the perfect opportunity for a gust of wind to come out of nowhere and launch our heroine up into the sky. Just ignore the fact that she would be suffering from a possible lack of oxygen, but no matter. At the very least, the silence has finally been broken by the arrival of music.

She falls for a couple seconds, only for the train to make a sudden appearance. Then it’s back to falling. Except oh no! Mofurun is hurtling back towards the earth. Strangely, the music comes to a stop and a hand grabs hold with a solid thud. Well, something like that. Then…

You should be more careful. Mofurun is your dear friend after all, right?

A smile forms on Mirai’s face. We flip around and find ourselves staring down an adult Riko. All while ‘Sparkling Star 100 Carats of Miracles’ starts up.

Their pendants flash one more time, allowing for the pair to float out and have what’s essentially a romantic embrace - confirmation of their wish grant as we’re treated to a shot of the train’s passengers.

Back with Mirai and Riko, they do a twirl around in the air. The tears begin to fall as they continue to hug. Which is promptly interrupted by Mofurun complaining that they were smushing him. So the couple break away and let the teddy bear have some air. Following their arrival is Ha-chan. Which culminates in a twirl around with a still picture of our trio. The episode ends, but there is still much to talk about.

Let’s back up a little though - post the battle and the sequence of Mirai growing up. Outside of the voices of people talking, the music is missing for most of the episode. Taking the place of it is ambient noise - the sound of a subway, people chatting in class, etc. Stuff like that drives home the big difference between the Mirai of the pre-time skip to that of the Mirai of the post-time skip. Mirai has accepted (to an extent) that Riko is gone for now. Instead of moping about how much she misses her girlfriend and trying to continue living within the memories of those ‘good times’, Mirai chose to move on with her life and seek out new opportunities in the non-magic world. Paradoxically though, she still held onto some parts of those days long gone. Her hairstyle is more or less unchanged, with the same to be said about her choice of clothes. All the same people still hang out with her, even taking the time to cheer each other on at sporting events or just engage in small talk. Mofurun still tags along wherever Mirai goee. But now they are just a passenger in their messenger bag instead of their one and only ‘friend’ that gets treated to one-sided conversations.

Even the music heard here adds to this feeling. Two Wishes is a song about a person telling their lover all the things they love about them and how much they want to confess their true feelings to. To connect once more after such a long time after realizing far too late their feelings the first time around. While the person singing the song with Mirai is Mofurun, they are serving as a stand-in for Riko in that moment.

Sparkling*100 Carat of Miracles on the other hand, is a bit more of an enigma. Sure, it sounds like a song just announcing the various forms our two heroines can take. But within all of that, a line is repeated - ‘Future Miracle! Shine strong and bright like a diamond’. Once near the start of the song and then right near the end.

Judging by the moment it starts up, the song is more in reference to the event that had just passed - the future miracle finally happening after both parties have waited patiently for that one moment to see it occur.

And while we don’t get back to Riko until the very end of the episode, we can surmise that she went through a similar process as Mirai did. She stuck around with her friends and colleagues, trying her best to make it through life. While we're never actually told what upper education (High School and College/University) is in the Magical World, Riko was able to score a job as a teacher. All so that when the time comes, she is able to see Mirai again on top of possibly helping support her financially. Like some sort of old married couple.

Which brings us right back to Maki and Daigo. When we last left off with the pair, they had gotten married. Such bonds were sadly not meant to last, however. The marriage fell through and they got a divorce after an unknown number of years

Now in Tri proper, they’re two divorcees reluctantly working together as part of their government job. Said job involves keeping an eye on the cast of Digimon Adventure except for Kari and TK for some reason. Well, that’s Daigo’s job at least. Maki though, never really left the moment of Tapirmon’s death. A little girl trapped in the body of an adult, her only wish is to reunite with her partner and be useful in the eyes of Homeostasis. A task that she put all her eggs into one basket, pushing everyone and everything else out of her life out of her life until her goal was all that remained. But in pushing everyone out and holding onto her good memories, Maki allowed darker forces in and was swallowed up by her own misery by way of the darkness in a parallel version of the dark ocean.

Daigo didn’t get out so lucky either. Getting swallowed up with Tai (one of the main characters of Tri), the two take a tumble down a large hole. Where offscreen, Daigo manages to impale himself on… something. Or perhaps someone stabs him on the way down. We're never told what happened in that fall or how exactly Tai of all people managed to stay unscathed.

Nonetheless, our pair find themselves in a mysterious laboratory. Except it's holding the main cast of 02 and Gennai for some reason. Tai finds Daigo, who reveals that he’s been hiding things from Tai and crew on orders by way of Maki. And that Maki has ties to Yggdrasil.

Then a guy who looks kind of like Gennai appears and turns off life support for the tubes and announces that he’s going to blow up this lab. Thankfully, one of the tubes is coincidentally left empty. But there’s two people and just one tube. Meaning one of them has to stay behind.

Tai examines one of the tubes, only for Daigo to lock him in. When Tai asks why Daigo just trapped him in said tube, Daigo is all like ‘it’s the end of the line for me. I’ve fucked this all up, so remember me and let my time with you mean something.’ Then he presses a button and shoots him and the other tubes out, expiring from his injuries mere moments later as the explosion passes through the laboratory. While the exact state of his body is not shown to the viewer, it’s likely he was reduced to

As endings for characters go, this is a far cry from the happy one found in Mahoutsukai Precure - preaching on the danger of holding onto those dreams and the possible self-destruction that can result from letting that dream be the only guiding force in your life. On top of pushing the people who care about you out of your life by way of a dream that will possibly be the death of you. A perfect counterbalance to this happy end of sorts.

#Mahou Tsukai Precure #digimon adventure tri #analysis

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renaroo · 5 years ago

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The Dark Half (2/20)

Disclaimer: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were created by Kevin Eastman & Peter Laird and are owned by Viacom. Warnings: Graphic depictions of violence, Psychological horror, Character death Rating: T Summary: For years Leonardo has vowed to protect his family, but how is one supposed to protect their family from something that no one can see? And how can you tell whether or not the worst danger to your family is yourself? [TMNT 2k3]

A/N: So back forever ago when I rewrote the first chapter of this fic I wanted to state it was kind of a side activity, for me, to rewrite story at all. Something to work with on the backburner because it’s already complete and available on my ffn account. But if it wasn’t obvious by the amount of time between updates, this is not a super high priority for me and, worse than that, rewriting something I did when I was 12, as it turns out, takes a LOT more effort and work than I initially thought it would. But good lord lol

Like most people, I have some unexpected time on my hands recently, so that gave me time for a new swing at chapter 2 and I had a decently good time working on it, so here it is in its glory.

[[Original Author’s Notes circa 2005] Turtlefreak121: Ah...the smell of a new story fresh out of the oven - gives me that calming sense of accomplishment...like a banana split on Christmas Eve. (crowd looks strangely at TF) Ahem...alright, maybe it's not that big of a deal, but this is my first 'pure' turtle story. Heh heh...nice to lay out the facts. I may sound a little jumpy - that's because I'm probably going to get mauled by an angry reader of Baby Bro for leaving them on such a sour note... (shrugs) What can ya do? Anyway, back to the present!Thanks to: coldsunshin, Scottenkainen, Lunar-ninja, jaunt, and kinguofdoragons.]

Chapter Two: Restless Night

When they made it home, Master Splinter was awake and waiting for them. In some ways, it felt infantilizing, but in other ways, the ways Leonardo usually chose to examine these things, there was a genuine comfort in their father’s persistent guidance.

Usually, anyway.

That night, Leonardo led the explanation of the night’s events with inserted commentary from his brothers which ran the usual gambit from helpful to utterly unhelpful. But the concern for the incident didn’t seem to go anywhere.

“It sounds as though you have done everything within your power to do what is good and correct, my sons,” Splinter had said. “You deserve to rest.”

And that is exactly the advice that everyone followed.

Leonardo had watched as his brothers and even his father packed up and moved to the bed. Everyone in the entire lair other than him.

He tried to follow their leads eventually. There was, after all, nothing from his nighttime routine left. His swords were cleaned and purified. His body was loosened with his warm down exercises. He drank water to hydrate, his alarm was set, his sheets were turned down.

But his aura, it seemed to him, was weakened and unsettled. Unfocused. Unnerved.

There was something more to the night than what had happened even in the playbacks of his mind. Something off and unnatural to the events which haunted him without making themselves so obvious as to be known.

He paced his room, he went through his sleeping routine a second time, and he made a point of checking the lair, just to settle his nerves with the reminded security of their home.

When his head hit his pillow, however, Leonardo was left starring at his brick ceiling once more.

Giving in to the sinking feeling in his stomach, Leo got up again and headed for the stairs.

There was only one person in the family he knew for certain would keep the curious and, quite frankly, embarrassing feelings Leonardo had quiet.

Each step Leonardo took seemed to stretch the walk to Master Splinter’s room even more. It was like trying to reach the light at the end of a never-ending tunnel.

He could always see the light and could almost reach out and touch it, but Leonardo could never quite get there.

After a few moments of dragging his feet, Leonardo stood in the rare silence of his home and put a hand to his head. He screwed his eyes closed and thought to himself, wondering, what exactly it was he was wanting to discuss with his father? What was it that he wanted to accomplish? What was keeping him up late at night?

Compared to so many strange and unusual things in their lives, this was nothing. This was completely useless. A waste of time.

He was upset by the death of two men who had meant less than nothing to him before. Whose lives were arguably not worth the thought, all things considering. At most, they would be footnotes in a territory grab between other fractions in the city.

That aspect was worrisome, especially when the city had been in an all-out war not terribly long before, but it was manageable. It wasn’t something that would affect Leonardo’s family directly soon.

But he was sickened all the same. He just couldn’t figure out why.

Leonardo wasn’t sure what to do when he heard rustling from Splinter’s room. Through the paper walls, he could see a light come on and be carried from one side to the next.

Mind racing, Leo tried to think of a concise explanation to his father why he was standing in the dark, staring at his door, but it was too late by the time Splinter opened his sliding door.

The old rat stood at the entrance of his room, holding a single candle as he looked through the darkness and at Leo directly.

Then, so very peculiarly, Splinter looked from left to right, checking the area. He swung his candle in each direction, never stopping directly on Leonardo again.

Leo couldn’t help himself, he blinked and opened his mouth, but no words came out.

When Splinter stopped his check and faced forward toward Leonardo again, his eyes did not focus on anything in particular. Let alone on Leo. More clearly than ever before, Leo could see that his father had been looking through him somehow before.

It was as if there was no Leo there. Only the darkness of the lair.

Uncertain of how to process the information, Leonardo shuffled back and away from Master Splinter. Away from the light, even if it had done nothing to reveal Leo yet.

When he worked up the energy to at last turn back toward his room, however, he was met with something different. Something frightfully dark, putrid. There was a muskiness to the air as shadows gave way to sharp and moving coiling darkness. The hall led not to bedrooms but onward to endless, caverns and consuming umbrae.

The world disappeared and in its place stood frightfully familiar forgotten passages.

“What is going on?” Leo asked out loud, voice returned in the nothingness.

He turned again, back toward Master Splinter and the home he had just seen with his own eyes, but it was eaten up by disturbing darkness as well.

Heart racing, Leo tried to square himself, ready for attack in the uncertainty.

In the confusion of the moment, he wasn’t sure where he needed to go but he knew movement was his only possible salvation. So he moved, he climbed, he ventured through gnawing and echoing blackness until he could no longer tell when his eyes were open or closed.

Leo had stared so long into the darkness that he felt truly blind.

“This is a dream,” he finally concluded, stopping his stride and taking a breath.

The realization was immediately soothing. He felt as though a great burden had been lifted from him. Dreaming — of course, it had to be dreaming. There was no logic to the fright, to the sights. He was lucid enough to catch the disturbing nature.

And, surely, if he was lucid enough to make the realization, he was more than enough awake to pull himself from a strange nightmare.

Standing still, Leonardo continued his breathing then closed his eyes tightly. As before, there was no difference between the darkness of his dream and the blackness hidden behind his own eyes.

It all changed the moment his eyes were reopened.

But not how Leonardo expected.

He looked at the alley before him. It was nighttime, but the light trickled down to him from the tops of the buildings and from the corner of the alley’s opening. There were bricks and mortar, even a trash bin near him. He could see a manhole cover and the fire escape positioned exactly where he knew they should have been for April’s building.

“What the,” he muttered, backing up and away until there was the soft click of his shell against a hard surface behind him.

Turning around, Leonardo could see the flutter of his mask’s tails fly past him. It was enough to urge him to look down to his person, see that he was fully dressed as if he was out for a patrol. He blinked, head throbbing, and reached with one hand for his aching temple.

His other hand found purchase just over his shoulder, gripping onto the familiar handle of his katana.

When he looked back to what his shell had hit earlier, he saw that it was the backdoor to Second Time Around. And, more than that, it was creaked open.

Considering how late it was, Leo knew it was wrong for the door to be open at all.

Deep within him, something stirred. Coiling angrily around his heart was heat and it wasn’t entirely unwanted.

If there was something wrong with April’s shop, that meant that there was trouble. And where there was trouble, well, dream or no, Leonardo had more than enough reason to unleash on it.

No more hesitation, Leo unsheathed his blades and kicked the door open with a swift, singular motion.

The heat around his chest moved and churned in him, hungry and ready for something Leonardo wasn’t ready to give voice.

He stepped onto the hardwood floors with ferocity in his spirit. It was wrong, everything that was happening was wrong, but Leonardo felt why exactly it was wrong was intangible.

The intangible feeling grew as the slithering, hissing claws of darkness began to warp the vision of April’s store again. The darkness chewed away at the scenery, the silence breaking into a ring of deafening noise.

He rushed in, the heat in his chest much more preferable to the terrifying unknowing he had felt from before.

It was anger, it was thrill, stepping into nauseating satisfaction of breaking and busting and hurting the familiar setting around him.

When he came across the junk on display, watching as it stuck out from the tendrils of blackness like a sore thumb, he smashed and broke it.

Glass clashed against his fists and dresses ripped jaggedly with the edges of his swords.

It felt good. It felt right.

When he came across the large glass central display, he mindlessly used the edge of his sword to scratch into the glass.

The sound of scraping glass momentarily disoriented him and Leo sat back on his haunches.

“Stop,” he said to himself. “Why are you doing this?”

But the darkness never stopped growing. A dream, it had to be.

And if it was a dream, then what was the harm? It was as simple as that.

“Who’s going to stop me?” his voice asked, his lips unmoving. “You?”

It was a ridiculous question to ask oneself. So ridiculous, especially, when it felt as though — when he knew — he had been the one to ask himself. He laughed at it, at the pure insanity of it all, and continued on with his mindless destruction.

And it did feel good. He watched things shatter and break — objects that were no doubt considered priceless to a former owner. He crushed an old collectible figurine then knocked over a dusty coat wrack. He brought a hanging bike down crashing onto the register and felt the glee of it.

“This is wrong,” Leo reminded himself. “If I was awake, it would be so, so wrong to do this.”

He paused and smirked as the shop began to come out of focus, like eyes blearily opening awake. “Yes, it’d be terrible to do this if I was awake.”

Even though Leo was watching himself in motion, he knew where his body was going almost immediately. Toward the back of the store, clear for all customers to see when they first entered, was the prized picture of April’s family hung for all to see. It was there as a testament to the store’s history. Even though it had been burned down and lost once before, it was still something old and handed down. Just like the store’s stock.

Family, history — it meant something.

“It’d be terrible if I was doing this. Wouldn’t it?” Leo asked himself.

He looked down at his forearm taking in the familiar sight of his own green flesh and the definition of his tense muscle. Leo sheathed one katana, then rested the flat side of the blade against his arm.

With a swift motion, Leo cut through the top layer of skin. He could feel the sensation for only an instant — the searing heat that had been fueling him since he entered leaving with a sickening, oozing sensation across his arm. Then he went numb and painfully, painfully cold.

Mesmerized, he watched the trickle of red escaping him, so bright and contrasting to his dark green skin.

Then his body, never seeming to give him time, moved again. He mashed his thumb into the painful wound, searing pain hissing through his body.

When his body strode over to the family portrait, Leo used that red soaked hand to begin pressing and pawing and destroying the image in front of him.

When that wasn’t enough, he began writing.

The longer it went, the less real it began to feel, and Leonardo felt his mind begin to teeter back away from the dark visage that had unfolded before him. The image clouded, the gnawing darkness that had been ever-present in the dream finally eating up the little light he could see.

A whisper followed him into the bleariness halfway between waking and sleeping.

An old voice, more ancient than any Leonardo had once known, whispered into his mind fervently. And together, I said to you once. And together, I say to you again. And together we shall rule the world. All you need, all I need, is for you to sleep. Sleep and I will let you have so much fun. It will be like living in a dream.

Leonardo didn’t wake with a start, didn’t jolt out of his bed.

He opened his eyes and stared into the quiet nothing of his room. It wasn’t the blackness of nothing he had been staring into like the void. It was his room, in the dark. A familiar and not altogether unwelcoming sight.

There was some sweat at his brow which he wiped at with one arm, flinching slightly at a sting he felt when he did so. But he didn’t do much else.

He laid in bed and tossed to his other side, vaguely uncomfortable. Despite having only just woke up, he was exhausted. So he closed his eyes and drifted off again.

***

With a turn of her keys, April unlocked the front door of the shop. She turned and faced Casey, pushing the door open so they could walk in together.

It had been a rare, quiet night for them, kept far away from the noise and nonsense that usually followed their unusual lives and, especially, their unusual adopted family. And she would have never had such a night to herself had it not been for Casey’s encouragement, if not full insistence that they do so.

“Thanks, Casey,” she said as she looked down at her shoes. Despite herself, she always managed to go slightly pigeon-toed in her nervousness, the points of her red heels nearly touching. “I mean it, for everything.” When she dared to look up, she found her date smiling back.

He always managed to put a smile on her face more easily than anyone else.

Fishing in her purse for her favored pocket, April began to deposit her keys securely.

Casey slicked back his hair again, in that nervous way he seemed to do. His smile dropped into unadulterated nervousness. “It was the dinner,” he concluded from nothing. “Man, I knew I shoulda made reservations at that stupid Chinese—“

“No, really, Casey,” April laughed. “I’m not being sarcastic. I really had a good time. I like Italian, and the movie was great. The park was great.”

Before April could walk much further into her shop, however, Casey’s large hands grabbed her shoulders and held her back. April felt herself be pulled flush to his chest and she was momentarily confused.

“Did you leave the backdoor open?” Casey asked in hushed tones, nodding to the other side of the shop.

“Of course not,” April whispered back. But, of course, the door to the alley was open, letting in the pale moonlight and illuminating reflective glass on the floor. “Oh, god, my shop.”

“Maybe it’s the guys,” Casey muttered, twisting himself around April and putting her between him and the known safe door they had come through. He groped around in the darkness until his hands found purchase on something hardwood and he pulled it up like a bat. “Just in case, though.”

“That’s an umbrella, Casey,” April informed him before securely walking over to the wall and pulling off an antique cavalry sword she had hung up only a few days prior.

“Hey, you’ve heard Master Splinter,” Casey shrugged. “Anything’s a weapon in the hands of a monster.”

“Master,” April corrected. She sighed and shook her head. “Okay, if there was an element of surprise we’ve lost it, I’m turning on the lights.”

She reached for the switch and flipped it, only to receive an ominous click. She frowned and attempted again — off then on — and received the same lightless response. “That’s funny,” April muttered. “The power must be out.”

“Or cut,” Casey offered.

When April turned to face Casey, she saw from the corner of her eye something darker than even the shadows of the store move. It nearly made her jump and, considering Casey did jump, he must have seen it as well.

The couple looked at each other curiously, but silent. They knew that the turtles had enemies, and it wasn’t unheard of for those enemies to attempt to make easy targets out of either April or Casey. It was best to stay calm, alert, and quiet until they had a better grasp of what was happening.

At least, that was April’s take on it.

“It’s totally Raph, he knew I was taking you out tonight,” Casey grunted. “Maybe Mikey, he’d totally break something.”

“Casey, hush,” April shushed him, going so far as to put her hands over his mouth for emphasis.

He muttered around her hands, childishly, but it was muffled enough that they both could hear an eerie dripping noise from the blackest shadows of the store.

“Okay, c’mon, guys,” Casey burst out, grabbing April’s wrists to pull her hands away from his mouth. He looked toward the darkened store. “This ain’t funny anymore!”

April looked to see that the light just outside the door was on and it clicked in her mind that the power wasn’t cut as Casey suspected. She then glanced at the large neon open sign in her window.

Pulling herself free from Casey, April stepped back over to the light switch and flipped it again. She didn’t flip for the indoor lights, however, just for the sign, which immediately shown with a brilliant glow, lighting up the shop behind it.

With more of the shop lit up, April and Casey could both see the ruin which had been left by the intruder. Hanging instruments were on the ground, a bike smashed through the main display, fabric slashed, glass cracked and strewn around.

It was enough to make April gasp, her lip quiver. She worked so hard on her store, worked with so much pride.

Casey was already on the move. He stepped over the left display window with cautious, slow steps. He was gripping the umbrella tightly as he felt around the darkness.

“On the right,” April directed him toward the display’s plugin.

“There’s something sticky over here,” he informed her. “The open sign’s not strong enough this far out, can’t see what it is.”

“If you plug in the display lamps, we’ll be able to get a clearer assessment,” April coaxed. She walked closer herself, daring to examine her destroyed retail. She held the cavalry sword in her hands. “Casey, we saw something move, we need to get the lights on—“

“Got it,” Casey said and, with a click, the display lamps began to light up, a good number of them flickering and buzzing from damage.

Once more of the store was lit, April put a hand over her mouth and held back a gasp.

The damage was worse than she had hoped, but that seemed like such a small thing compared to the true horrors of the scene. Everything, particularly the countertops, was bloody.

Casey got to his feet almost immediately and looked down at his hand to see the thick, dark blood on him. He looked back to April worriedly.

“Oh my god, what happened here?” April whispered in awe. A cold chill ran through her body as the words escaped her.

She was mesmerized and, yet, she also wasn’t sure she wanted to know, that she could have accepted whatever evils had taken hold of her store.

All the same, she looked to the aisles where their moving shadow had appeared and saw, to her relief, nothing. Perhaps her mind had been playing tricks on her. But, then again, Casey had acted like he saw it, too. Whatever it was.

Her mind raced with possible answers, but they all came back to the most likely scenario.

“Casey, we need to check on the guys,” she said, beginning to walk around the store and inspect the damage closer up. “This is a lot of blood. Maybe something happened tonight and they haven’t called us yet.”

“God, let’s hope not,” Casey muttered, wiping his blood-covered hand off on his pants before fishing a shell cell from his pocket. Long before he said a word, April could take a guess of who was first on his list to call. “Hey, Raph!”

There were some unkind sounding words thrown out on the other side of the phone, but April had wandered far enough through the store that she missed the specifics. She looked down and noticed a pool of the dark blood, like it had been settled for a while. And out from it were red splatters against the hardwood — the drips from before? But then how could the blood look so coagulated and darkened already?

Had she been seeing things or not?

“You mean you’re in bed right now?” Casey asked, putting the umbrella down on the counter. “How long? Did you guys get into something tonight? Come by the store?” He paused then, earnestly asked. “Okay but are all of you in bed?”

April followed the drips of blood, only nominally taking in the conversation between Casey and Raphael. As she did so, she found herself reaching the wall, where even more blood had pooled.

“Yeah, someone trashed the store, looks like someone got their butts handed to them.” Casey walked in a tight circle. “No, I mean someone got hurt it looks like. Wanted to make sure it was none of you.”

When April looked up the wall, her heartfelt as though it dropped out of her chest, plunging into her stomach with a cold splash. She covered her mouth with her free hand and let out a choked cry.

“April!?” Casey yelled in alarm, immediately rushing to her side.

Even at a distance, Raphael’s voice carried in a harsh, “What’s going on over there!?”

Turning her gaze from the wall to the counter, April couldn’t help the sting of tears that reached her eyes. Her family portrait, her store, everything defaced with some sickening message.

“Christ,” Casey muttered, coming up behind April and comfortingly putting his hand on her shoulder. “Raph, listen, I know it’s late, but you guys need to come here immediately.”

***

“Sure thing, we’ll be right there!” Raphael yelled back into his shell cell before hanging up.

As groggy as he had been when he first got the call from Casey, by the time it ended Raphael had been in full motion. He was put together and had his sai in holsters before he was out the door.

Outside of his room, two of his three brothers were already up and dressed to leave. Michelangelo and Donatello both had expressions that ranged from concerned to exhausted, but there was no doubt that they had overheard Raphael’s expressive conversation over the phone with Casey.

“What’s going on?” Don asked, tightening the tails of his mask.

“Something bad’s gone down at April’s store while they were out,” Raph growled, already making his way to the stairs. “Casey said we needed to head over immediately.”

“Yikes,” Mikey uttered, leaping athletically ahead of Raph like it was a competition.

Notably, though, Don hung back. “Hey,” Don called, drawing Raph and Mike’s attention back to him and the hallway. Don’s face was drawn down into a frown. “Where’s Leo?”

When they looked around, the air felt stilted and strange.

Leo wasn’t there. But his room was closer to Raphael’s than Don’s room was. Not to mention, their fearless leader was a notoriously light sleeper — arguably more difficult to sneak past than their constantly alert father.

“Weird, think he’s okay? He was kinda acting weird earlier,” Mike noted, tapping on his chin in thought. “Maybe he was coming down with something.”

“Hey, what part of immediately do you guys not get?” Raph asked, pushing past Mikey to continue down the stairs. “Let him get his beauty sleep for all I care.”

“Now, hold on,” Don argued, walking back down the hall and toward Leo’s door. “He’s going to want to be there if it’s something serious, Raph.”

“Again, for all I care,” Raph grumbled, but he had come to a complete stop already. He crossed his arms and theatrically tapped his foot in wait. “Just hurry, won’t ya?”

Don waved off Raphael’s comment before knocking on the door. “Hey, Leo? Leonardo! I’m coming in.”

Their brainy brother followed through and continued talking, his words more muddled with walls between them. If Raphael had initially cared more about the specifics of their conversation, he might have paid slightly more attention, but for the time being, he couldn’t have cared less.

“What do you think he was dreaming about?” Mikey asked, bouncing on his feet. “Had to be dreaming and snoozing pretty deeply to not overhear your racket, Raph.”

“I don’t care,” Raph huffed. “I just know I’m gonna leave both of them of they don’t hurry up.”

There was a lull in the conversation as whatever was happening in Leo’s room picked up. It was enough to make Raph and Mike glance at each other in mutual concern.

Don’s head popped back out and he looked frazzled. “Hey, guys, you go ahead, we’ll meet up with you at April’s. Won’t take us long.”

“What? Why?” Raph demanded.

“Thought you didn’t care,” Mike whistled, earning the punch to the shoulder Raph gave.

“Leo had some kind of accident or something. It’s not…” Don hesitated, then waved at them. “I’m just going to take care of it. Don’t want it to get infected or something.”

“Infected?” Mikey asked, face scrunched up.

“What the hell did he do exactly?” Raph snapped.

“We don’t know, just, get to April’s, they said it was immediate, right?” Don said, ducking back into Leo’s room and disappearing from sight.

Michelangelo crossed his arms and tilted his head. “This is the weirdest night we’ve had in a while, isn’t it?”

“God, don’t jinx us,” Raph grouched before grabbing onto the top of Mike’s shell and dragging him along. “Now, c’mon. If Don’s got whatever’s going on with fearless leader, more power to him. But I ain’t leaving April and Casey hanging when they ask for our help directly.

“Fair, I guess,” Mikey responded, though he wasn’t sounding particularly convinced. “Hey, did you hear Leo talking in his sleep earlier?”

Raph glanced back at him only momentarily as he unlocked the sewer gate. “No. I was happily asleep before Casey called. Why?”

Shrugging, Mikey attempted to seem calm and collected, but there was a hint of something unsettled in him. Uncertain. “It was just weird. Like it was definitely Leo but, I don’t know.”

“What’d he say?” Raph asked over the echo of their footsteps through the cold tunnel.

“He was just talking in the third person or something,” Mikey explained. “Never heard him do that before. Never heard him talk in his sleep before either.”

Giving it only a passing thought, Raph frowned. “Yeah, me neither,” he admitted. “Now shut up, we’ve got April and Casey to worry about.”

“Aye aye, Captain,” Michelangelo attempted to joke, but his heart wasn’t in it.

The rest of their run was eerily silent.

#TMNT #Leonardo #Master Splinter #Turtlefreak121 #April O'Neil #Casey Jones #Raphael #Michelangelo #Donatello #turtle fic #TMNT: The Dark Half

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julaibib · 6 years ago

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Can you share the story about the men of the Cave? ♥️

After its brief opening, Surat Al-Kahf (The Cave, Surah 18) speaks about the people of the cave, depicting the effect faith has on believers: giving them reassurance and inner peace. Hence, they prefer it to all material riches and pleasures. When they find it hard to live as believers within their community, they seek refuge in a cave where they receive God’s care and protection and enjoy His grace.The incident is set against the backdrop of a society that was deeply immersed in idol worshipping and other false beliefs. Deviation from the established pagan practices was not tolerated, and anyone caught breaching this belief system faced dire consequences, including physical torture and death.The protagonists in this story are a small number of youths, who were the sons of rulers and noblemen. They are described as being in the stage of fityah, which is the age where boys begin to develop muscles and other physical characteristics of manhood. By today’s estimate, this means that they were in their late teens or early twenties, in the physical prime of their lives: an age where most young men are indulging in the pleasures of the material and worldly life.The story begins as follows:{Do you think that the people of the cave and the inscription were a wonder among Our signs? When those youths took refuge in the cave, they said: ‘Our Lord! Bestow on us Your grace, and provide for us right guidance in our affair.’ So We drew a veil over their ears in the cave, for a number of years, and then We awakened them so that We might mark out which of the two parties managed to calculate the time they had remained in that state.} (Al-Kahf 18: 9-12)

Those youths are referred to in the surah as {the people of the cave and the inscription}. A cave is a natural chamber in a mountain or under rocky ground, while the inscription refers, most probably, to the record of their names which was, perhaps, the one hung at the entrance of the cave, where they were eventually found.(The young men said to one another): “And when you withdraw from them, and that which they worship, except Allah, then seek refuge in the Cave, your Lord will open a way for you from His Mercy and will make easy for you your affair (i.e. will give you what you will need of provision, dwelling, etc.).” (Qur’an 18:16)The Qur’an also says:(Remember) when the young men fled for refuge (from their disbelieving folk) to the Cave, they said: “Our Lord! Bestow on us mercy from Yourself, and facilitate for us our affair in the right way!” (Qur’an 18:10)The King ordered his men to give chase, but Allah concealed the youths from their sight. This is similar to an incident centuries later, when Muhammad SAW and his Companion, Abu Bakr RA hid in the cave of Thaur to escape the Quraish idolators, and Allah protected the two from the vision of their pursuers.

Then we are informed that {they stood up,} which signifies a movement indicating resolve and firmness. {They stood up and said: ‘Our Lord is the Lord of the heavens and the earth.} (Al-Kahf 18:14) He is indeed the Creator, Lord and Sustainer of the whole universe.

They preferred life in the cave to all the attractions that their society offered.

As the young believers came to the conclusion that they had to leave their homes and families and live in a cave to protect their faith, they immediately put this decision into effect

The surah goes on to show the young people asleep in their cave. They are turned from one side to another in their very long slumber. Anyone looking at them would think them awake when they were fast asleep. Their dog remains at the entrance to the cave, stretching his forepaws like dogs normally do when they rest. He takes the position normally taken by a guard dog. The whole scene would fill any onlooker with terror so as to put them to flight. He would find people looking as though they were awake but in reality were asleep, unable to wake or move. This was all God’s arrangement, protecting them, until the time He chose for their awakening.

One turns to the others asking how long they have been asleep for, just like anyone rising after having slept for many hours. He must have felt that this time his sleep has been unduly long. The answer he has received from his friends is indefinite: {We have remained thus a day, or part of a day.} (Al-Kahf 18:19)

But then they realize that to determine the length of their sleep is of no consequence. They leave that point aside, just like a believer should do in any matter of no specific importance. They turn to something more practical. They are hungry and have some money. Once awake, the disoriented young men realized they had lost track of time, and wondered how long they had been there. One of them suggested perhaps a day or a part thereof, but they agreed that only Allah knew the exact duration. Of this, the Qur’an says:And they stayed in their Cave three hundred years, and add nine. (Qur’an 18:23) By some interpretations, this means 300 solar years, but if one were to use the basis of lunar years to calculate the duration, it would total 309 years. However, the Qur’an also says:Say: “Allah knows best how long they stayed. With Him is (the knowledge of) the unseen of the heavens and the earth.” (Qur’an 18:24) Again, Allah is telling us that the actual length of time is not of consequence for us, as this is part of the unseen knowledge only held by Allah.the youth did not know this as he carefully headed towards the town. He struggled to find his bearings. The landscape and buildings were unfamiliar. According to Ibn Kathir, he was confused and momentarily doubted himself, but quickly pulled himself together, convinced of his sanity and that things had changed indeed from the “previous night”.He tried to buy some food with his coins, but the seller did not recognize the currency nor the markings on it. The coins were passed from person to person, all of whom were baffled and unable to identify their origin. He told the townspeople where he was from and the ruler at that time, and his story was so implausible that he was brought to face the Governor to explain himself.

The people in the city somehow ascertain that he is one of the young men who have fled from the tyranny of the unbelievers a long time ago.

Indeed all that they have once known in that city is now totally different. They themselves have belonged to a generation that have long since gone. To the present people in the city, they are a marvel. Hence they would not be treated like ordinary human beings. They are totally unrelated to the present generation. Their relatives, friends, ties, concerns, feelings, habits and traditions have either been severed or undergone radical change. They are no more than a living memory, not real people. Therefore, God has spared them all that could result from their joining this new generation and thus caused them to die.{In this way have We drawn people’s attention to their case, so that they might know that God’s promise is true and that there can be no doubt as to the Last Hour. The people disputed among themselves as to what happened to them. Some of them said: ‘Erect a building (in their memory.) God knows their case best.’ Those whose opinion prevailed in the end said: ‘Indeed, we must surely raise a house of worship (in their memory.)’} (Al-Kahf 18: 21)The lesson here is clear. The end those young people has met shows a real, tangible example of how resurrection takes place. The people in the city have felt the full impact of resurrection and realized, as they could never have done otherwise, that God’s promise in respect of resurrection after death will come true and that the Last Hour is certain to come. This is all seen in the awakening of those sleepers from their long sojourn in the cave.

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jannelle-o · 6 years ago

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Happy (late at this point) Birthday!!!! :D

Here’s a space fic featuring Rhett and Link! Imagine this is like… what, 3-5 years in the future? Just after we’ve established a Lunar colony!

—————————————————————————-

One of the things most people don’t seem to realize is that, standing on the daylight surface of the moon, there are no visible stars. It’s not that the lack of atmosphere distorts the light, but that the brightness of the moon and the full force of the sun and Earth-glow outshine any near by stars. And if one stood in enough shadow, the stars would be visible.

But for a first time moon trip, it is unnerving to stare up at the sky and only see inky blackness pressing overhead.

That’s what Link Neal was dealing with when he stepped out on to the lunar surface from the air lock. He was sure that his LCVG* was malfunctioning, because he was soaked in sweat. Or maybe his EVA* suit had a leak, as he was finding it hard to breathe. Though the tight pinching in his… ‘coin purse’… betrayed that his suit was fine. Rhett had gracefully pointed out that his MAG* was ready for usage, just in case he really did shit his britches when he got onto the surface.

Link had punched him in the arm for that.

Now, though, he could only stare up into the darkness as he tried to orient himself. He mentally cursed Rhett, NASA and the moon as he tried to calm his nervous breathing. Rhett’s voice crackled in his ear, the microphone and earphones tucked into the Snoopy cap he wore under the helmet.

“Doin’ okay there, buddy?” Rhett asked, “You’re breathing is a bit high and you got limited oxygen, Link.”

“You know you telling me that doesn’t help me calm down!” Link snipped back as he nearly huddled against the air lock, then took a moment to breathe, “Sorry, it’s just really stressful for me, man. Why can’t you be the one out here?” He heard Rhett chuckle followed by one of those drawn out thinking noises he sometimes did.

“You know I want to be! But I’m too tall for the EVA and you’re just two inches shy of being too tall.” Rhett said, “Though if they’re right about the gravity stuff, you might get too tall for the suit.”

Link sighed as he started side stepping away from the door. That’s why they were here in the first place. Well, that and social media. Both Rhett and Link had been surprised when NASA had approached them in the first place. Apparently, scientists wanted to see what would happen to above average height people in the micro-gravity of the Lunar colony. Not them specifically, but why not drum up some social media popularity by asking some popular internetainers?

So now they were here, in the first Lunar colony, surrounded by scientists and other astronauts, being poked and prodded on the daily as Rhett and Link got to film the first look at the colony. NASA had made a special soft suit design for Rhett to be able to ride along in the shuttle, but considering it was the first of its kind, they were concerned about it failing on the Lunar surface, despite rigorous testing.

Link let out a tiny shriek when the air lock hissed again, lost in his own thoughts for a moment. He heard Rhett laughing on the mic, but thankfully he didn’t say anything. An actual astronaut, Nolan, stepped out of the door and closed it behind them before turning to Link. Both space walkers had their sun visors down, so neither could see each other’s face, but Link was pretty sure Nolan had an amused smile on his face.

“You, uh, ready to go?” Nolan asked, casually doing that astronaut hop and making it look somehow graceful.

“Oh no. I’ll never be ready.” he replied, “But let’s do it.” And with that, he took his first step on the Moon.

And promptly at shit.

—————————————————————————-

“OHHOHOHOHO! LINK! Are you okay??” Rhett managed to gasp between laughs as he watched the video footage from Link’s helmet take a straight dive towards the surface. There was a grey puff, then darkness as the cameras planted themselves into the lunar dust. He glanced at Nolan’s cameras, confirming that Link had indeed face planted with his first step. Next to him, astronaut Jannelle checked the readout of Link’s vitals and suit status.

Over the headset he wore, he could hear Link hyperventilating and saying “Ah ah ah! I-I-I think I cracked the visor! I’m freakin’ out! Will I -Am I going to die???”

Link’s camera view swung upwards as he struggled to stand in the micro-gravity. A quick glance at Nolan’s cameras told Rhett that Link was fine, just dusty. “You’re all good, Linkster, just listen to me talk.” Rhett said, “Or maybe Nolan, he knows what he’s doing. I’m just a guy sitting at a, what, desk? Console? Computer bank?” He glanced at Jannelle, who simply gave him a shrug and a smile. She probably knew, but that wasn’t important at the moment, Rhett figured. He’d have to ask her later.

Nolan’s voice crackled on his headset as he reassured Link. “Your visor is strong, so don’t worry. It can withstand micro meteor impacts and more falls.” the astronaut said.

“Micro meteors??” Link’s panicked reply came, “Am I gonna get hit, Nolan??”

Both astronauts laughed at the question and Nolan said “You’re technically getting hit all the time, but they’re so small, it’ll be fine.” “Yeah, Link, it’ll be fine, so relax, buddy!” Rhett chimed in, grinning as his best friend wobbled again, “Don’t fall again!”

—————————————————————————-

“Easy for you to say, you’re sitting there all safe and sound and I’m gonna fall off the Moon!” Link grumbled as he found his balance again. “Oooooh, Nolan. I am not sure I can do this!”

The other astronaut gave him a reassuring pat on the shoulder and said “You can! Just follow my lead and don’t forget to hop!”

With that, Nolan turned easily and hopped towards the far end of the colony building. Link stared for a moment, trying to watch Nolan and muttering to himself about technique. After a hesitant step forwards, Link followed suit, stumbling from time to time, but not falling.

“We have to get to the top of the crater, otherwise we can’t see Earth-rise from here.” Nolan said as Link watched him skip right up to the LVR*.

“Moon buggy!” Rhett exclaimed, causing Link to wince at the sudden loudness, “Ooooh, man, I’ve always wanted to drive one of those! Can you imagine doing doughnuts on the moon? Or jumping off a crater edge? You’d go so far!”

“No. Absolutely not. I don’t want to puke in my suit!” Link replied, slowly hopping towards the buggy. He sat down on the passenger seat and tried to glance at Nolan, but the EVA’s helmet didn’t turn and he only saw the side of his own helmet.

“Don’t worry, it only goes like 10 miles per hour.” Nolan said, giving him a pat on the knee before starting the buggy.

The two astronauts headed for the edge of the crater and Link realized his nerves had died down a little. Not gone, but he was feeling better about being out here. On the moon. Finally, the magnitude of what he was doing washed over him and felt himself getting a little excited. He was here, on the moon, filming and experiencing what life was like as an astronaut. And while Rhett couldn’t be out here, the two of them were still doing something historic by being the first civilians on the moon. And that was amazing.

Nolan’s voice broke through his thoughts, saying “Link, we’re almost at the top of the crater. I want you to close your eyes and cover your cameras. I want you two to see it in full rather than coming into view! Trust me, I’ll help you out of the LVR, so don’t worry.”

Link hesitated for a second, then followed Nolan’s instructions. It was a little awkward to cover the cameras, but he managed to do it, despite Rhett’s grumbling. He could hear Jannelle’s voice faintly through Rhett’s mic as she agreed with Nolan and reassure Rhett that it would be more interesting that way.

Link felt a hand on his arm and he started to look up, but stopped himself. Nolan helped him out, just like he promised he would.

“Yup, lift your foot. Okay, now pivot, keep that foot up. Both feet on the ground now. I’m gonna pull you carefully. Try not to stand up too fast or you’ll float up a little.”

After a few bumbling moments, Link’s feet were firmly planted on the ground and he was facing the way Nolan oriented him.

“On three, look up.” Nolan said.

“One.”

“Two.”

“Three.”

Link looked and dropped his hands, uncovering the cameras. Both Link and Rhett sucked in a breath and held it as Link stared in awe.

Just barely above the Lunar horizon, Earth hung in absolute darkness, the sun illuminating it from behind them. The lower quarter of the Earth disappeared into nothing as the sun only illuminated the daylight side of the planet. Clouds swirled around the brilliant blue orb, covering and revealing landmasses as they drifted. The oceans reflected the noon sunlight, creating a small bright spot, much like a shiny ball would have under an overhead light.

“Oh my word.” Rhett breathed over the comms, then fell silent again.

After a solid minute of watching the Earth rise above the horizon, Link finally moved, turning towards Nolan. “That was…. wow. You were right.” he started, still lost in the beauty of the Earth-rise, “That was something. That was worth this. Even if I did fall on my face, that was worth it.”

Nolan gave him an awkward thumbs up, due to the bulky gloves, and said “I’m glad. Now do you want to bounce down the side of the crater or ride in the buggy again?”

“Buggy!” “Bounce!”

“I will not bounce down the side of the crater, Rhett! I’d fall ass over kettle if I tried!”

“Yeah, you would, Link, but think of how much the viewers would love it, man!”

Glossary:

LCVG: Liquid Cooling and Ventilation Garment

EVA: ExtraVehicular Activity, aka space walk suits

MAG: Maximum Absorbency Garment, aka fancy diaper

LVR: Lunar Roving Vehicle

O-oh my gosh Inky, thank you so much for this wonderful fic!! ;v; I love this so much aaah _(┐「ε:)_♡

#inkyshark #birthday wishes #submission #i drew a small doodle to this because I am so happy haha :'D #(●´□`)♡#long post

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jane-l-ohlson · 6 years ago

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Happy Anniversary!

Today is a special day in the history of Chasing Shadows- it has been 13 months since I first started writing it! I was going to make a 1 year post, but I have been busy lately and so I pushed it to a year and a month.

I wanted to do something special for the occasion, so I’ve made a compilation of the strangest and most drastic changes CS has gone through since its conception all that time ago. You can find it under the cut:

The Ending:

Rather than starting at the beginning, let’s start at the end! Chasing Shadows has had many endings over the months due to me changing a lot of my ideas about the central themes and characters. One of the first endings for the version of CS with a plot similar to the current one (the very first draft had a completely different plot- more on that later) involved a big battle in which M and a female character sort of like the girl role-wise defeat the Big Bad together and fall in love, having a happily ever after. An ending I was certain was going to be the one was planned some time after I realised how ridiculously cliché the first one would have been, and also ended up being partially scrapped. This one shares several details with the actual ending so I can’t reveal much, but I can say it contained a rather overdone trope involving a major character death. The current ending is less cliché (I hope) and wraps up everyone’s character arcs better. I’m not planning on a sequel, so I’ve tried to make this ending satisfying so you won’t be left wondering what happened to x, or why y did that, etc.

The Original Plot:

I like to write out a brief summary of what I’m going to write when I get an idea, but I don’t make plans until later on which is why the original plot summary is so different to the actual novel. Here is the original summary (paraphrased slightly due to awkward wording):

Plot idea- A girl with incredible magical powers but no ability to walk or talk (out loud) is carried around by her guardian angel, and angel who can’t fly and was kicked out of Heaven, in their quest to evade both the angels who want him dead and the wicked people who want to use her powers for their own good.

The unlikely duo end up disguised as human travellers and go on the adventure of a lifetime, finding themselves through each other over the course of a strange series of events.

And of course, it’s high fantasy with an epic, sweeping landscape for the characters to traverse through, and it probably has a happy ending!

You can still tell it’s the same novel, but there are many changes now. For example, M is not an angel and Heaven doesn’t exist in Penumbra.

M and the Girl’s Relationship:

Despite the original plot summary, there were a few drafts of CS where I changed the girl’s character a lot. In one, she was an adult woman who became M’s love interest. I changed this after deciding it was too cliché (a lot of clichés existed at the beginning) and exploring a different type of relationship which isn’t often seen in fiction (especially high fantasy) might be more interesting. I made the girl into a child character again and gave her and M a shaky parent-child bond.

Another change to their relationship is more recent. In earlier drafts of CS, even from last summer, the girl and M had a lot of arguments and the former tended to be quite condescending towards the latter. I thought this wasn’t a very good portrayal of their close bond, so I made them have a more trusting, light-hearted relationship for the most part. I also made the girl look up to M more as she sees him as an older figure with much more knowledge and experience of the world than her.

Personality:

M and the girl initially had very similar personalities when I started writing CS. They were both strong, silent, serious types. I soon realised that two main characters with no names who didn’t show their emotions would make for a confusing and uninteresting story.

In later versions, I made the girl a little more serious than M, but with a lot of childlike innocence and curiosity. M had the most drastic personality change as he went from stoic, unfeeling and somewhat pessimistic to a kind, emotional, slightly immature man with an optimistic outlook on life. I also tried to make him more relatable by not having a solution to every problem and being kind of insecure at times.

I could go on about M for ages- as the girl’s backstory and character development is formed as the story goes on due to her age, his backstory was something I had to flesh out early on. Originally it was told through a series of flashbacks, but I thought that revealed too much too early so I cut them out. M’s backstory has actually barely changed since I started writing CS, as I was happy with it from the start. Anyway, having to get to know M as I wrote his character, basing his personality and reactions to the world around him on his backstory, I became quite attached. I love the girl too, but M is probably my favourite. Can a writer have a favourite character in her own novel?

In the Future:

So those are some of the most significant changes so far! I’m sure there will be many more to come. I’ve come up with a lot of ideas already for future chapters of CS. The whole plot is pretty much done now, but I like to come up with ideas about the world of Penumbra (such as its lunar cycle and calendar dates) as well as backstories of characters which won’t be explored in the novel. There’s a whole romance story between two married characters which won’t be in the novel whatsoever, but it’s very sweet and it was fun to think about how these two characters from very different backgrounds met and how they ended up where they are in the novel. Romance isn’t the main focus of CS, but a major character also has a romantic relationship which isn’t really mentioned or touched on in the novel. I have a plan for an epilogue which delves more into this relationship as well as other non-romantic relationships involving the same major character, but it’s the kind of epilogue which will turn into an unneeded sequel if I leave it for too long. Another major character has an after story which could easily be its own novel as well.

I might write these three stories as part of a collection of short stories related to Penumbra after publishing Chasing Shadows if my readers are interested enough to want to know more. I think it would be fun to write them out!

Finally, thank you again to all of my wonderful followers and real-world supporters. Let’s hope that by the time Chasing Shadows’ second anniversary comes around you’ll be able to read the book!

Stay tuned for more information, and see you soon.

-Jane.

#writeblr #long post #chasing shadows #novel #writersontumblr #writing #my novel #progress update #happy anniversary #13 months old #development notes #thank you!

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camkablam · 6 years ago

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Of Wands and Bubbled Cupcakes

(14th birthday present to @lunarthemooncake . Happy Birthday, Lunar!)

In total honesty, Toni had little idea as to how he started hanging around a fourth year. He was fairly certain Ariza had been the one to introduce them, but beyond that he had no idea; she’d simply shown up one day and hadn’t left. Not that Toni wanted her to leave. He liked having her around, even if some of the other students thought a friendship between a seventh year and a fourth year was strange.

Another thing Toni didn’t care about.

Something he did find himself caring about quite a bit was the fact that Ariza, his girlfriend, had already graduated Hogwarts and hadn’t returned with him and Lunar this year. She was working at a little store in Diagon Alley, something both Toni and Lunar had helped her set up over the summer. It was just down the road from the little bookstore Rainy had deemed her own.

With both Rainy and Ariza gone, things were considerably quiet. Of course, Toni spent the better half of his free time writing letters and sending owls back and forth with Ariza, sometimes Rainy- something Lunar also did, although not as much.

The school year had hardly started- they were only just finishing week two- and yet Toni already found himself being a little miserable. He kept making to ask if he could hold a hand or peck a cheek that wasn’t there, only to falter a second later as he realised she wasn’t there. Sure, their relationship had started off long distance and had been that way for years before she transferred to Hogwarts, and even before that she always returned to America for the summers- same with Lunar. She’d just come over to England a few days earlier to see Ariza before she and Toni jumped on the Hogwarts Express.

He missed her.

But he definitely hadn’t meant to forget Lunar’s birthday.

He’d been sitting at the Ravenclaw table during breakfast, rubbing sleep from his eyes as he spread jam across his slice of toast and waiting for an owl to come with a new letter. He must have been particularly tired (staying up all night to read will do that to you), because it took him a moment to realise Lunar had slipped into the seat across from him and was helping herself to some pasties.

Her bright yellow tie clearly stated her as a Hufflepuff, but sitting at each other's tables had been something Toni and his friends- the majority of which were from different houses- had done regularly. Ariza herself had been a Hufflepuff, as was Rainy. Gommie had been a Gryffindor and Red a Slytherin, although Gommie had been pulled from Hogwarts and now attended Ilvermorny. Toni wasn’t sure what happened to Red. Maybe he moved back to France, attending Beauxbatons, or was in Ilvermorny with Gommie.

That aside, it wasn’t uncommon to see students sitting at different house tables during meals so they could be with their friends anymore. Toni found the fact that it had, at first, seemed like some sort of unspoken rule to only ever sit at your own house table ridiculous. They’d certainly gotten themselves a few odd stares when they’d first started doing it.

Not that any of that really mattered anymore. Especially considering Lunar had taken to watching him somewhat expectantly.

“You want coffee?”

“Coffee,” Toni echoed, “Coffee sounds wonderful.”

She poured a cup for him and passed it over a platter of bacon and eggs. He accepted it with a grateful smile and took a sip at the steaming liquid.

“So, uh… anything planned today?”

“Not really,” Toni shrugged, “I mean, I should probably get started on that Transfiguration assignment. What ‘bout you?”

Lunar blinked up at him, fork frozen in her hand. Then, abruptly uncertain, she bit her lip and her eyes darted to the side. “Um… I dunno. Maybe I’ll do some more writing for The Lodge.”

“Can’t wait to read it,” said Toni, biting into his toast, “Not sure how much reading I’ll be able to do this year, what with my NEWTS and all.”

“Yeah,” Lunar muttered, her eyes trailing down to her untouched plate, “Exams suck.”

Toni did exactly what he said he would- well, after messing about for a good bit, but he did get to that Transfiguration assignment. Not before checking the Owlry about twelve times, because Ariza had yet to send a letter that day. Maybe the bird had been forced to take a detour or had been caught in a storm.

Whatever the reason, the letter wasn’t here. He spotted Lunar in the library a few times, and she even sat across from him and started to scribble on a piece of parchment without a saying a word. It must have been around dinner time that he lost track of where she was, and around dinner time that he finally got that letter.

Silly things, silly things. How things were at the shop. How her brother was going to be visiting for a week. How she and Rainy went out to lunch yesterday. This new book she was reading. How her games were coming.

He froze near the end.

Wish Lunar a happy birthday for me.

He hadn’t meant to forget. He honestly, truly hadn’t. He could make an excuse and say that his calendar had been torn to bits during the first week (which it had), but it certainly wasn’t good enough. The thing was he’d forgotten, point blank, and it didn’t take much to make him feel like a crappy person to begin with.

But Lunar was nowhere to be found. He tried asking a few Hufflepuffs- some girls he knew shared a dorm with her- to see if she was in the dormitories or the common room, but they came back a few moments later to tell him she wasn’t. He tried to Ravenclaw common room next, because Lunar somehow always seemed to be able to figure out the riddles (he absently wondered if she either had superpowers or had somehow managed to get Google to work at Hogwarts) and frequently popped in herself if she was looking for him or just wanted to browse through the common rooms expanse personal library. It took him a good fifteen minutes of pure frustration to figure out the doors stupid riddle (he sometimes wondered why the heck hack he was a Ravenclaw), only for it to be a total waste of time upon discovering that the common room was practically bare.

He checked the kitchens. The halls. The classrooms. The grounds. The library. The Great Hall. But she might as well have never been there to begin with.

Curfew drew nearer and nearer, and Toni made it just in time to get some Hufflepuffs to see if she was in the common room or dormitories again, but, just as last time, they came back and told him she wasn’t there. That they hadn’t seen her since before lunch.

He stayed out past curfew. The lights flickered and dimmed to the point that they might as well have not been lit at all. Shadows drew lengthy figures along the walls and floors. He kept expecting something to jump out at him; be it a monster or a professor.

There were a few close calls. He was able to duck behind a pillar, a statue, around the corner or into a classroom mere seconds before they could spot him, and it always left his heart pumping so loud he was almost certain they’d be able to hear. He drew his wand and cast a few cloaking spells, that unpleasant sensation of an egg being cracked on his head and trailing down the back of his neck making an appearance. He wasn’t the best at this particular spell; he just hoped he’d be able to find Lunar before any of the professors (or monsters) could find him.

He wasn’t sure when he decided to go up to the Astronomy Tower, but he soon found himself mounting the spiralling staircase up to the top after a particularly close call with a certain cat. His feet had started hurting an hour or so ago, and exhaustion weighed heavily on his shoulders. When he reached the top of the blasted staircase, he tilted on his feet and almost went tumbling back down them again. He was thankfully able to grab the bannister before that could happen; he’d rather not have to explain to Professor McGonagall or Professor Flitwick why he was up in the Astronomy in the middle of the night. Or climb back up said stairs again if he’s somehow not caught or his bones don’t get broken too badly.

Toni tried the door that would lead to the circular room where their lessons took place and, to his surprise, the handle submitted and it swung open. He faltered in the doorway, peering into the shadows. There was no one there. The telescopes and moon charts were all packed away, the desks pressed up against the far wall and the chairs seated on top of them. But then his eyes found the small figure leaning against the railings on the other side of the classroom, looking up at the stars, and he almost fell back down the stairs again in his relief.

It was, without a doubt, Lunar. She had a notebook open in front of her, balancing precariously on the bannister, the only thing stopping it from falling all the way down to the grounds being her own hand gripping its corner. She was twirling a pen in her other hand- quills were fun and all, but after a while they became a bit tedious, especially when you’re a writer and random ideas pop into your head that needs to be written down immediately before you forget them- and she wasn’t star gazing as he’d originally assumed; her eyes were glazed in deep thought.

She didn’t come out of it as he shut the door behind him, nor as he made his way over. In fact, he got as far as leaning against the railing directly beside her before she blinked the glaze from her eyes and looked up. To her, it must have been as though he’d appeared out of thin air; she jerked, pen dropping from her fingers to clatter against the cool floor (thankfully not the grounds below). Her notebook wobbled dangerously, and would have likely tipped over the edge had Toni not reached out and steadied it.

“Hey,” he muttered. Lunar gaped up at him for a moment, still seemingly coming to terms with his newfound powers of teleportation, before releasing an almost shaky breath and returning to the bannister.

“Where the heck did you come from?” she asked in a quiet mumble; her eyes darted over to the clock mounted in the shadows on the far wall, “It’s past curfew.”

“I came from my mother,” Toni informed her, “And I could point out the same to you.”

“I didn’t realise it was that late,” Lunar declared. Toni rolled his eyes.

“Yeah, and you daydream up here often.”

Lunar bit her lip, tapping her finger against the bannister. Toni flipped her notebook shut and handed it back; the girl accepted it with a tiny, thankful smile and tucked it into one of the pockets of her robes.

“How come you aren’t in bed?” she asked, after a moment. Toni shrugged.

“Was looking for you,” he glanced at her, “Why aren’t you in bed?”

“Because I’m a vampire.”

Toni snorted, “Fair.”

They sat in silence for a moment, staring up at the dark sky of sparkling stars. Then Toni shoved his hand into his pocket and pulled out a glistening bubble about the size of his hand. There was something inside it.

“What is that?” Lunar asked. In answer, Toni pulled out his wand and tapped the tip against the bubble, causing it to pop. He held it out to her.

“Happy Birthday.”

It was a chocolate cupcake, purple frosting swirled on the top. Lunar accepted it tentatively; Toni sent her a somewhat forced but no less apologetic smile.

“I, uh… I’m sorry I forgot.”

She blinked, then huffed a small laugh, “It’s fine. Thanks.”

“It’s not fine,” Toni insisted, smile slipping, “I’ve known you for years and I forgot your birthday.”

“What do you want me to say, then?”

“I- I dunno,” the boy frowned, running his fingers through his short hair, “Just… not that it’s fine. ‘Cause it isn’t. I guess just that you… forgive me or something. But I want you to know that it isn’t fine; I know I probably hurt you, and even if I didn’t, it’s not okay.”

“Alright,” said Lunar, holding up a hand as though to stop him, “Alright, I forgive you. I know you didn’t mean anything by it.”

Toni’s shoulders slumped in relief, and he sighed, “Okay. Thank you.”

Lunar smiled at him, then turned her attention to the cupcake, “Where did you even get this?”

“The kitchens,” Toni admitted, “Those house elves are adorable, honestly. Like hairless cats.”

The girl snorted, “I can’t believe you just compared them to hairless cats.”

“Well, they are,” Toni huffed, “Like, everyone thinks they’re a bit creepy looking but they’re actually adorable. You know?”

“Whatever you say, Toni.”

He smiled at her. It turned a little sheepish. “I, ah… didn’t know what flavour of cupcake you liked, so I…”

He reached into his pockets again and pulled out another bubbled cupcake. Then another. And another. And another. The floor was quickly covered in bubbled cupcakes. Lunar looked torn between laughing her guts out and hiding her face in horror.

“Oh dear Merlin,” she breathed, covering the smile threatening to take over her face, “What- How did you- Why?”

“Well, I’d originally wanted to get you a cake,” explained Toni, still emptying his pockets of bubbled cupcakes, “But then I realised I didn’t know what flavour you’d like. So I asked them to just make me a cupcake of every flavour. It didn’t really occur to me that there’s a heck of a lot of cupcake flavours out there.”

“Oh my god.”

“Also,” Toni continued, tossing yet another bubbled cupcake into the ever growing pile around their feet, “Now that I think about it, I don’t really know how I would’ve been able to carry a cake around. It wouldn’t fit in my pockets.”

“How are these fitting in your pockets?”

“I have no idea. I might’ve been an expansion spell on them. Would explain why I keep losing my pens.”

That earned him a disbelieving laugh. Toni pulled out one last bubbled cupcake, ruffled around in all his pockets to make sure that truly was the last one, before standing back and observing the giant pile of bubbled cupcakes surrounding them.

“Huh,” he muttered, then turned to look at Lunar, “You know, some of these are bound to be really interesting. I mean, one’s Dark Chocolate Bacon. And another’s, like, Parsnip and Maple Syrup or something.”

Lunar’s eyes bulged, “Seriously?”

“Yup. I think one of them’s Beer and Sauerkraut Fudge.”

“Beer? Beer?”

Toni nodded, “Beer.”

“With fudge?”

“With fudge.”

“That sounds disgusting.”

Toni grinned, “I guess we’ll find out, huh?”

Lunar shook her head, unable to smile her own smile, “You’re ridiculous.”

“You love me.”

She sighed, “I do.”

“I think there’s a spicy one too.”

Lunar raised an eyebrow at him, “A spicy cupcake?”

“Yeah, like, Mango Chilli or something.”

“Ariza would like that.”

The boy chuckled, “She would, yeah. Wonder what one Rainy would like.”

“Maybe we can send each of them one.”

“That’s a great idea!” Toni exclaimed, eyes sparking, “I mean, I love cupcakes, and I’m pretty sure you do too, but I don’t think all these’ll get eaten before they go off even if it’s the two of us.”

Lunar chuckled, shaking her head, “Yeah, that’s… that’s a lot of cupcakes.”

“Most certainly.”

The girl chuckled again, looking up to smile at him. But then that smile slipped, before falling entirely, the joy draining from her face at a startling rate. Her eyes had become almost desperate. “Please don’t go.”

Toni blinked, staring down at her, startled, “What? Where am I going?”

“You’re leaving,” Lunar clarified, “Hogwarts, I mean. This is your last year.”

“Oh,” he muttered, blinking again, “I… yeah. It… it is.”

“Rainy and Ariza have already left,” Lunar continued, not looking at him now, “And- And sure, I’ve got other friends here, but… I’m gonna miss you guys.”

“Lunar,” said Toni, taking a step forward and reaching out to grip her shoulder, “We’ve still got a whole year together. And it’s not like we’re going to stop being friends or anything. And we’ll write, just like how we’ve been writing Ariza and Rainy.”

“But it won’t be the same,” the girl sighed, rubbing her forehead as though to hold back a headache, “You guys’ll be living somewhere in London or Diagon Alley and I’ll be up here in Scotland through the school year and then over in America during the summer. You can’t tell me that we won’t start to drift apart. We can’t even text for the majority of the year.”

“Yeah, I’ve always wondered how Rainy got her headphones to work here,” Toni muttered, before shaking his head and returning to the matter at hand, “But you know what, Lunar? Just because we’re not together every day doesn’t mean we’ll drift apart. I mean, I hardly even talk to my twin anymore, but that doesn’t stop us from being brothers, right?”

Lunar sighed, “I guess.”

Toni squeezed her shoulder a little tighter, “Hey, Riza and I picked an apartment with two rooms for a reason, you know. You will always be welcome there, be it for the Christmas holidays or during the summer or even if you decide to sneak away for whatever reason during the school year.”

She looked up at him, a tiny smile lifting her lips, “That sounds great.”

“And it’s not like we’re going to be staying in England forever,” Toni continued, “Well, we’re still debating over it, but I’m still good for moving to Canada once you’ve finished school.”

Lunar laughed, before stepping closer and wrapping him in a hug, burying her face into his chest. Toni immediately returned it.

“I love you,” she mumbled, “You and everyone else.”

He smiled into her hair, “Love you too, Lunar. Happy Birthday.”

“Thanks.”

They hugged in silence for a moment. Then Toni, without pulling away, spoke again.

“We should probably do something about these cupcakes.”

The girl laughed, “Uh, yeah, we probably should. And get back to our dorms before any of the professors find us.”

“Or worse. Filch.”

Lunar pulled a face, “He gives me the creeps.”

“He gives everyone the creeps.”

“Very true.”

They finally pulled apart, turning to regard the bubbled cupcakes again. Toni tucked his hands into his seemingly endless pockets and flapped them.

“Help me get these back in before he finds us, please.”

“Great idea,” said Lunar; then, seeming to realise she was still holding the chocolate cupcake, bit into it, “This is good.”

“Oh, by the way,” Toni said, as they got on their knees and began to scoop the bubbled cupcakes off the floor to shove into their pockets, “Ariza says Happy Birthday too.”

Lunar smiled.

“Good to know.”

Characters: @toni4eyes, @lunarthemooncake, @arizaluca (mentioned) and @raintagwasalreadytaken (mentioned)

#writing #short #harry potter #hogwarts #Ravenclaw #Hufflepuff #self-insert #happy birthday #birthday present #happy birthday lunar #14th #one-shot #writing short #cupcakes #toni4eyes #lunarthemooncake #arizaluca #raintagwasalreadytaken

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mikumanogi-blog · 3 years ago

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2017-09-01 “Even though I know it” Kubo Shiori Blog #22 [ENG]

Ninth month, September, ninth month of the lunar calendar.

Summer is over. It is the arrival of both hot and cold days. Everyone, you haven’t fallen ill have you? Every year at the changing of the seasons I, Kubo Shiori, feel unwell. But I wanted to ask. To tell you the truth, since joining Nogizaka46 I haven’t fallen ill a single time and moving forward I don’t play on getting sick. Above all else, your health is the most important.

Hello everyone, thank you for your continuous hard work. I’m Nogizaka46’s 3rd generation member, 1st year high school student, 16-year-old, Kubo Shiori. It’s a pleasure to meet you. LET’S GO!!!!! It’s been a while since I’ve done a ‘here you go’(´･_･`)

My notepad is just bursting with all the stuff I want to tell you today.

Without delay, let’s get into it!

August 22nd and 23rd was the Midsummer Tour in Nagoya!!! Thank you very much!!! “AHHH it was so fun (´･_･`) so hot (´･_･`) so hype!!” As expected, live concerts are the best aren’t they. On top of that I think it’s also good that the atmosphere due to the venue is different.

In Nagoya I ate chicken wings! I also ate Oni-manju (´･_･`) it was delicious (´･_･`) I want to go back to Nagoya! (Is what I say, but I’ll be there in 3 days) At any rate it was a fun two days. Thank you.

On the next day, August 24th, I participated in the ‘Seventeen summer school festival!’ It was super fun (´･_･`) But I was quite, considerably, fairly nervous... It was also my first time walking down a runway… I wondered whether or not they would be accepting of a reader, and so I had feelings of uneasiness (´･_･`) But there were people that made sign boards and fans for me… I was overjoyed (´･_･`) Thanks to the nice senior models at SEVENTEEN I became more relaxed and half way through I was able to enjoy myself. I’m genuinely full of feelings of gratitude. Being able to work as a model I’m glad that I’m able to show off a different side of Nogizaka 46’s Kubo Shiori to everyone. I hope you can see me model more.

At this moment, I’ll be participating in ‘Girls Award 2017’ as a model for Seventeen. Thank you very much. Because I’m working as an exclusive model for seventeen, regardless of the fact that I’ve just been signed, I’m overjoyed and thankful for being given such a precious opportunity. I don’t know (´･_･`) but, I definitely feel stiff from nerves. (´･_･`) Although I feel nervous, I think it will be good to attend this event while being able to enjoy myself. I’ll do my best. Thank you very much.

The weather’s been unstable recently hasn’t it (´･_･`)

When I was in 4th grade, I had to take a picture, somewhere around the school, of a place that looked like a face. Based on that, I had to draw a character based on that for one of the major assignments for my drawing class. While people were saying things like

“The windows in the gym look like eyes!” or “The shoe boxes look like a mouth!”

I thought that the screws on the blackboard eraser looked like a pair of eyes and so I took a picture of the blackboard eraser. Furthermore, the setting for the character was someone that controlled the weather form up above the clouds. Even I don’t know why I chose the blackboard eraser and why I gave this character that setting. I can’t help that it is a mystery.

August 27th, the national handshake event in Nagoya. Thank you very much〜 I was paired with Ayano chan! Yoshida Ayano Christie chan. It made me happy that there were a lot of people that came to the lane that said, “I came to be healed,” (´･_･`) The effects of Ayano chan’s healing powers are immense. Those who desire healing please make sure to shake hands with Ayano chan(´･_･`) Her healing powers are so good that even I, who was watching from beside her, wanted to go line up (´･_･`) It was a lot of fun! Thank you very much!

The same day was Matsumura san’s birthday. “I’m very shy around strangers but I plucked up the courage to come wish Matsumura san a happy birthday, directly,” is what I told her. “Her smile is beautiful,” is what I always think to myself. Happy Birthday!

It was also Hazuki’s birthday recently! We were sharing a hotel room and so I sneakily hid a letter for her under a box of chocolates she was carrying. However, because I hid it it’s a mystery as to whether she read it. Happy Birthday!

Oh yeah, on the day of the handshake event I got to meet Iku san for the first time in a while ♡ More than meeting her I’m glad that she’s healthy〜

Next, I’m going to talk about a story that happened 5 minutes before the mini live concert. Kana san was chasing after Kotoko san. The one fleeing was Kotoko san, the one chasing was Kana san. “That looks amazing,” I said grinning while watching them…then suddenly “Whaaaaat? When did this happen,” Kan san and I trapped Kotoko san and we caught her with a SQUEEZE. While they were talking about “Let’s go on stage like this〜 Just kidding,” I let the bliss of that moment wash over me. (You’re jealous aren’t you) Happy Birthday Kotoko san!!

I have a lot of stories from that day.

Going back a day to August 26th. There was a special event for the 3rd album, there was a Pop-up pirate party, tea party, portrait party, thank you for attending!!

If there was one event I wanted to talk about first it would be… that I’m really bad at pop-up pirate, genuinely. Therefore, all the fans that came got to see me put one hand over my ear as I pushed in the stick. Then, the further and further we got into the game I found it more and more difficult to continue… I’m sorry.. Each time I put a stick in I would scream… I caused trouble for the people around as well… I’ll reflect upon this (´･_･`) By the way out of 5 people I lost 5 times. Another way to look at it is that I’m glad I was able to give everyone winning as present.

Next! The tea party! I talked one on one with everyone but outside of that, due to my shyness of strangers, I didn’t drink my tea and it went by in a hurry (´･_･`)

Portrait drawing party, the things I’m most guilty for is whether or not my drawing skills are good or bad… If you’re happy with what I drew then I think that’s alright.

Koshien is over, after thinking ‘I feel empty’ (´･_･`) it was announced that the Japanese soccer team would be appearing at the world cup. I was so happy wasn’t I 〜 I’m looking forward to it! On top of that, in September, Vollyaball will be starting. “Ahh 〜 I’m so excited (´･_･`) I need to watch it!

Thank you for your patience! Even though I did it recently in a SHOWROOM stream, I’ve been wanting to do a Q&A! (Is what I’ve been saying, but it would make this blog even longer and so I’ll split it up for the next blog)

I really want to do another SHOWROOM stream 〜 Before I say, ‘Let’s start the Q&A’ this is the popular forehead from when I streamed.

· What are some summer memories from this year?

Hmmm… This year my summer-like memories would be, probably watching one my favorite movies ‘Summer wars,”? I always have the desire to watch Hosoda Mamoru movies in the summer. I love them.

· How does Kubo chan spend her day at home?

If, I have the whole day off, what I want to do after cleaning, washing and other housework is probably non-stop watching videos. After that, probably writing letters. No, I definitely write letters.

· How do you pick yourself up when you’re feeling down?

I’m really bad at picking myself up. Therefore, I just wait until those feelings to disappear.

· What kind of woman do you look up to?

I look up to women who properly follow the rules. Someone that holds on tightly to those rules. Someone who carefully refines themselves. Someone who holds on tight to who they are and shows that off to others. But not in a way that hurts them. It’s not really as though I look up to a certain woman, but up to certain human traits. I think that’s the person I want to be. On top of that there are lot of people that make me think, ‘I want to be like that,’ and ‘I want to be like this!’

· Where do you want to go on vacation?

Hmm inside the country, there are a lot of places I want to go that are not very popular with very few people. Going to places by car and by Shinkansen are obviously good, I like watching the scenery pass by while I’m in the car. There are a lot of places I want to go that take time by car!

I’m going to end the Q&A here for today! Thank you for all the questions! I’ll do a large recruitment of questions again! There were a lot of questions about skin care that I wanted to answer, but I thought it would take to long, so I put in the cart since this blog is already long.

I’m sorry, I’ll continue again soon. From here on I have something important thing to talk about.

The stage play ‘Migoroshi Hime’. It has been decided that the 3rd generation members will do a stage play. Thank you very much. The venue is AiiA 2.5 Theater Tokyo, the same place we performed Principle.

Even now, we still don’t know the details about the stage play and what it’s about. That’s why I’m full of feelings of excitement.

The second I heard that we would be doing a stage play I was instantly reminded of Principle. When I did a stage play for the first time I had no experience and for me I didn’t know anything. Things like how to remember lines, how do facial expression, the volume of your voice, there were a lot of things I had to be aware off. I was also someone that was completely lost, didn’t know right from left, and so I tried doing everything I could possibly do. Reading, writing, watching real practice. Thinking back on it now, I gambled everything for that play.

Like I just mentioned, I don’t know anything about this play. However, without forgetting my single-mindedness of the first play I want to face this play like I faced Principle.

Honestly, there are something I’m worried about. Since the 12 of us will be standing on that stage, I’m worried about the roll that will be given to me. I strongly feel that sense of responsibility.

Since Principle, I’ve seen many other stage plays done by the senior members and one of the things I’ve noticed is the deep bonds between those up on that stage. “So this is what a play made by everyone is like,” is how I always think about it.

During Principle there were a lot of different difficulties and conflicts that arose, but for that day on the stage I want to show that I’m an even bigger person than I am now, and I want to work hard with all of my strength. Please wait for me. I believe that this stage play will cause something inside of me to change.

Please let me make some announcements.

“On sale now”

· AKB Shinbun san

Yamashita and I are on the back cover. We talked about some pretty deep and uncommon things. At the handshake event there were many people that told me they read it, that makes me happy. (´･_･`)

· B.L.T san

Den chan and I, 3rd generation member publication. The anmitsu was delicious…(´･_･`) I felt the need to work harder that day, and so I did the photoshoot highly motivated!

· Gekkan Entertainment san

The new 3rd year middle school group did a talk. We talked about the future. I feel like it was my first time having an in-depth conversation with these members.

· BUBKA san

Riria and I did a dialogue. This is the first time we’ve done a dialogue together. The Northern most and southern most 3rd generation members. We talked about the fact that if we didn’t meet in Nogizaka46 we wouldn’t have met at all.

“On sale soon”

· September 4th Nikkei Entertianment! San

All the 3rd generation members make an appearance. One year after joining, we did various activities, and we look back on them one by one. Please check it out once it’s on sale!

· September 15th Ex Taishu san

Yamashita and I are on the front cover. I’m very glad that I was able to take my very first solo front cover shot. I caused a lot of trouble during the photo shoot, but…I think I was able to convey my straight and honest feelings. Please check I t out!

· September 28th platinum FLASH san

I did a solo photoshoot. I’m very happy… (´･_･`) It’s very difficult to not talk about the details, that’s how I feel about it. The contents are very detailed, I think! I talked about a lot, a lot of things… Please check it out. Thank you very much.

I think previously at about the same time I thought the same thing, that “I genuinely like photoshoot.’ This time, being able to appear solo as well as be on the front cover, I’m overjoyed that I’m able to tell this to everyone. In order to make myself more visible one day, I’m going to work hard without forgetting who I am. Please always watch over me.

On October 11th the 19th single, “Itsuka Dekiru Kara Kyou Dekiru,” will go on sale. This is the main theme for the movie, “Asahinagu.” After listening to this song, I have positive and straight forward feelings of wanting to do me best. This is one of my favorite songs. Please wait for it with anticipation!

Recently, I just started doing handshake event and so I’m still unsure about how it will work for the 18th single…(´･_･`) Under these set circumstance, I need to do everything I can work hard focusing on what I can do. October will be here before you know it. Please look after me until then!

You can see my hands.

Finally, the ‘High School Quiz!!!” Today! It’s today! Please check it out (´･_･`) Ever year I wait by the television for it to start. This year my preparations are perfect. Please make sure to check it out.

Speaking of the ‘High school quiz,’ the theme song is my beloved ‘Naitatte iijyanaika?’ (´･_･`) I pretended to dance it, I imitated by watching other members and after dancing it in front of Yoda chan she burst out laughing. By the way I also like ‘Onnaha hitori jya nemurenai,’I tried dancing this one too, but I was told I was just making fun of it (´･_･`) I’ll study it (´･_･`)

Recently, I’ve been more interested in beauty than ever before. At the turning point of the season my skin becomes more sensitive (´･_･`) Let’s do our best to look after our skin. Even though it’s not quite beauty culture, this Fall and Winter, I think I want to try challenging fashion styles that have a hat. I’m collecting hats.

After that, I don’t really wear monochrome colors but, I want to try challenging this fashion as well!

Since I ate too much before fall it won’t be the fall of good appetite but the fall of challenges.

Everyone what do you want to try? Let’s do out best.

Ahh… I don’t have any pictures with any other members… I’m sorry.

I’ll write again soon.

Kubo Shiori.

I think it’s important to say what you think. Just thinking about your feelings and not voicing them is the same as not thinking anything at all. If you don’t tell anyone, then those feelings mean nothing.

Therefore, if, for example, there’s something that you always wanted to do. If something was your idea and you don’t want to tell other about it and then the people around you end up doing it before you. If you say that ‘I thought of it first,’ no one will listen to you. Even if you say it first, or even if you aren’t the one to say if first by voicing your feelings your making that progress as a single turning point for change. You will feel braver and more courageous.

However, this is not always the correct answer, sometime there are times when it’s good not voice your opinions but rather it is better to act upon them.

It’s hard to fight against something bravely if you can’t see it.

https://blog.nogizaka46.com/third/2017/09/040515.php

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