shushannabikinilondon

[starmocha]

Hide-and-Seek Sylus + Daughter | 1247 words | Masterlist | AO3 Sylus shows his daughter a fun trick. A/N: Hi, hi, I’m going to try to work on the LNDS men + their kids series again. (the plushie trend going around is giving me baby fever again :’))

“…Daddy…Daddy…”

Sylus groaned softly as he woke up, hearing a tiny voice just outside his bedroom calling for him. He blinked his bleary eyes, looking at the clock. It was almost nine in the morning, but for the Onychinus leader who followed a nocturnal schedule, that meant that he had not slept for too long. He could hear the voice outside his bedroom door getting louder, hearing a little girl crying, and he instantly recognized who it was. He immediately bolted up and gotten out of bed, racing to the door in a flash.

He opened the door, his eyes softened as he saw his little girl sitting there holding tightly a Grumpy Crow plushie and wiping her eyes as she cried softly, “…Daddy…Daddy…”

He immediately scooped her into his arms, smiling softly as she buried her face into his neck, crying harder as she clung to him. He rubbed her small back and shushed her gently. “Baby, why are you sitting there crying? What happened?”

The little toddler sniffled. “I can’t find Lukey…and Kier-Kier…”

Sylus raised his brow in confusion. “What do you mean? Are they not watching you?”

Sylus closed his bedroom door and walked over to his bed, sitting down and setting his daughter on his lap. He wiped at her eyes and shushed her softly again. “What do you mean you can’t find Luke and Kieran?”

The girl continued to sniffle, wiping at her runny nose furiously. She hugged her plushie tighter. “We’re playing hide-and-seek…”

Sylus immediately understood.

“I can’t find Lukey and Kier-Kier…and…I got scared…”

“Oh, baby.” Sylus immediately held his daughter closer to him. “Do you want Daddy to help you find them?”

The girl looked at her father confused. She sniffed.

Sylus smirked. “Daddy has a fun trick. Do you want to try it?”

Forgetting her tears, the girl nodded excitedly.

“Alright, hold onto me tightly now, my little birdie.”

Dropping the crow plushie, the girl wrapped her little arms tightly around her father’s neck again, and then within a flash, Sylus used his Evol, disappearing from the room, leaving behind only a faint mist of energy.

In the next instance, he reappeared in the hallway, his daughter’s giggles resounding loudly down the long, empty corridors. He shifted her in his arms and they both looked around. “Not here,” Sylus mumbled thoughtfully, hearing his daughter echoed his words. He smiled and tickled her, hearing her delightful laughter again. It was the sweetest sound he had ever heard. He just wanted to greedily pocket all of her laughter and smiles for himself.

He kissed her forehead. “Alright, where should we try next, baby?”

The girl hummed thoughtfully. “Kitchen?”

Sylus nodded. “Alright, kitchen it is,” he said, and they both vanished in another mist.

A moment later, the father-daughter duo reappeared in the kitchen. Sylus could faintly hear an unfamiliar noise nearby. He motioned for his daughter to be silent and she obediently covered her mouth with her two little hands. Sylus had to refrain from laughing at her adorable behavior. He whispered softly so only she could hear him, “Let’s try the pantry, baby.”

The girl nodded and clung to her father as they teleported from the kitchen to inside the pantry. A moment later, Luke let out a scream.

“That’s not fair, Little Miss!”

The girl giggled. “Lukey!” She held her arms out for the younger man and Sylus let her jumped over to Luke’s arms.

“Jeez, I didn’t think you would join in on the fun, Boss.”

“I didn’t think you two would let my daughter cry alone in the hallway.”

Even though Luke was wearing his mask, his demeanor changed the moment he heard Sylus’ words. He looked down at the little girl in his arms and apologized to her. “I’m sorry, Little Miss, were you scared?”

“A little…”

“Kieran and I will do better next time,” he promised. He smiled when the girl wrapped her arms around his neck and snuggled closer.

“Ah—Lukey, cookie!”

The two men watched the girl, confused. They followed her hand motion and looked at the shelf behind Luke to see a jar of white and pink-frosted animal-shaped cookies with little pastel-colored nonpareils sprinkles.

“Boss?”

Sylus crossed his arms over his chest and smirked, amused when his daughter turned and gave him her large, pleading puppy dog eyes. “Alright, just a few,” he said as he walked over and grabbed the jar on the shelf. He opened the jar and held it out to his daughter, watching with a smile as she happily and greedily grabbed as many as her little hands could hold. He lowered his voice and kissed her forehead as he spoke, “We won’t tell Mommy.”

He laughed when she held out a tiger-shaped cookie for him. He opened his mouth and let her feed him the cookie. It tasted sweeter than normal, Sylus thought, smiling as his daughter turned and held up a giraffe-shaped cookie for Luke, pushing up his mask enough to feed him.

“Well, thank you, Little Miss,” Luke responded, chewing his cookie.

“This one is for Kier-Kier,” the girl said, holding up an elephant-shaped cookie. She looked at her father with a pout, “Daddy…can we go look for Kier-Kier?”

“Of course, baby,” Sylus said as he took her back from Luke.

“Try the foyer,” Luke suggested, and Sylus nodded before disappearing once more.

In the next instance, Kieran’s scream could also be heard within the base.

“B-Boss?! Little Miss?”

“Kier-Kier!”

Kieran instantly caught the little girl that jumped over to him. He appeared surprised when he saw her holding something in her hand to him. “What’s this, Little Miss?”

“Cookie!”

Kieran seemed to smile under his mask as he took the cookie from the little girl. “For me? Little Miss is the sweetest,” he said as he lifted his own mask enough to eat the offered confection. “Yummy.”

“Alright, baby,” Sylus said, walking over and patting his daughter’s head, “It looks like you won this game of hide-and-seek.”

The girl giggled, looking shy. “Daddy helped…”

“Little Miss knows how to use her resources,” Kieran quipped.

“Smart little birdie,” Luke’s voice joined in as he walked into the foyer, clapping in approval.

The girl seemed to blush from embarrassment at hearing all of these proud praises. Suddenly, everyone heard the sound of a motorcycle approaching from outside. Sylus smirked as he reached over for his daughter again.

“Oh? Is that Mommy?”

The girl nodded excitedly, recognizing the sound of her mother’s motorcycle. “Mommy’s home!”

“She’s very early today,” Sylus quipped. He whispered to his daughter mischievously, “We should go greet her.”

The girl clung tightly to her father again, her own mischievous smile identical to his as they disappeared from the foyer.

A moment later, a third scream was heard at Onychinus base that morning.

“Sylus!”

With a laugh and as dark feathers drifted all around, Sylus gathered the two most precious girls in his life into his arms, mumbling softly into his wife’s ear, “Welcome home, sweetie.”

“Welcome home, Mommy,” the little girl piped up, mimicking her father’s tone. She snuggled in her parents’ embrace before pulling out a cookie to Sylus’ uneasiness.

“Lion for Mommy!”

“Baby, where did you—Sylus, it’s only ten in the morning!”

“Come on, baby, let’s leave. Mommy is baring her fangs at Daddy.”

With that, Sylus disappeared again in another mist, leaving his wife yelling after him in the courtyard as their daughter giggled and snuggled closer to him.

[fluentmoviequoter]

Tim Through the Years - The Meeting

Series Masterlist

Summary: Tim meets a very young boy who is all alone in the police station. Then he meets a frazzled teacher who changes his life forever. 0.6k+ words

A/N: An extra special thanks to my friend for creating this series with me (and writing most of it)! I hope every reader enjoys our ideas about what it would be like to fall in love with Tim Bradford!

It was an average day in the Mid-Wilshire Police Station; Tim had just returned from a robbery that ended with him having the suspect in custody fairly quickly. The robber forgot his mask for one and for two, left his business card in a fishbowl to try to win a free lunch. They caught the guy in just 10 minutes, so the day was going well so far. But his mood quickly turned sour when he had to do a mountain of paperwork due to the fact that his robber was a wanted criminal in at least three different states with various crimes under his belt. 

Meanwhile, y/n was walking into the station, trying to get all 40 kindergartners into the police station without losing any of them. It was career week for their school and the Mid-Wilshire Precinct had invited all the students to visit the station on different days. It was hers and one other teacher's turn to visit, so here she was trying to wrangle 40 different students into the Roll Call room. It was as easy as herding cats, but with the help of some parents and the other teacher, they made it to the room with everyone accounted for.  Sergeant Grey introduced himself to the students and explained what his role at the station was and what the room they were in was used for.

“Now, rookies, are you ready to get your assignments?” Grey questioned the group.

Of course, the students got very excited to be police officers for day and all responded with, “Yes, sir!”

Once the excitement died down, Gray split the students into three groups (each group had an adult and an officer). A group was sent to look and learn about the shops, another to booking, and the last went to the interrogation rooms. 

Tim was so busy trying to get the paperwork done that he completely missed all the students going to their area until he felt like he was being stared at. When Tim looked up from his paperwork, two bright blue eyes stared back at him.

“Do you like donuts?” the child asked.

“Uh….yeah,” Tim answered while looking for the child's mother.

“Is it hard to catch bad guys?”

Tim squinted his eyes and asked this child, “Where’s your mother?”

“Johnny!”

Tim turned and saw a beautiful young woman walking up to the small boy at his desk.

She crouched down at this level and softly asked, “Is this where you ran off too? It's your turn to get fingerprinted and have your picture taken.”

“But Miss. Winchester! This is a Real-Life Police Officer! I have lots of questions that need answers!!” Johnny exclaimed.

The woman patted Johnny on the head. “I know, and he’s very busy at the moment so let's leave him alone and ask another officer, okay?”

Johnny glanced at a scowling Tim. “My mommy tells my daddy that being grumpy isn't good for your heart,” he said before skipping off to the booking room. 

Tim heard a giggle before he turned to the gorgeous smiling woman in front of him.

“Sorry about him, he’s one of my spunkier students,” she explained.

Then it clicked in Tim’s head. “Oh, you're here touring the station with your class right?”

Her smile grew as she answered, “Yep, that’s me. Hi.” She reached her hand out to shake Tim’s. “I’m y/n Winchester.”

Tim took her hand, and he’d never felt anything softer.

“Hi, I’m Sergeant Tim Bradford, but you can call me Tim,'' he flirted.

Y/n blushed as she replied, “Well … I better get back to my class.”

She started to walk back toward where Johnny ran off to and Tim decided that it was now or never to get back into the dating game.

“Wait! Could I maybe take you out to dinner?” he called after her.

[mx-your-name]

His Goddess - 2

Possessive!Adam x Goddess!Reader

Warning: Yandere theme, Possessive Adam, minimum Obsessed Adam, mention of willing to kill angels and sinners, Adam trying to fight a literal GOD, slight mention of sized and mommy kink, a weird ass dead Angel willing to do anything for you that goes by the name of fucking ADAM!

-Like any normal day you were awake doing business whether it was watching over the mortal world, heaven, or hell

-Just then you had to get called into a meeting making you even more annoyed while you were trying to maintain all three places which were all chaotic.. Lute was a mess after Adam’s death with Sera and Emily trying to cheer her up or something, hell was hell, and Earth was just a mix of heaven and hell that was 10x worse than both

-And to your no amusement only to find out that the meeting had lasted for three hours!

-Not only did you miss out on normal day activities you do but Adam was also panicked on where you were at

-He had woken up and went to the normal spot to find you NOT there so he thought you were in your library or something? Nope! Garden? Not there either! He had looked everywhere only to find no one, not his goddess in sight

-Adam knew he shouldn’t worry since you were not only a HOT GODDESS but one that is more powerful than the other four

-Including your hot and sexiness

- *s i g h s in d i s a p p o i n t m e n t*

-Image him calling you tall milf or Mommy cause how you always towered over him.. yeah weird motherfucker but we still love him

-You see how cocky he is about himself just wait until he tells you all the cool stuff that he had done for you to fall more in love with him but fails miserably, you already saw everything he had done from the start of time itself

-Size kink, you can’t tell me otherwise! Whether it’s you or him that’s taller! He’ll still have a size kink no matter what!

-Still calls you a bitch but instead he says, “milf bitch,” or “tall bitch,” or “hot bitch,” or even “mommy bitch,” He’s still coming up with more nicknames for you till this day, yeah weird motherfucker am I right?

-I regret doing this but I love him sfm…

-Has told you multiple times that you belonged to him and him alone which is like 5 or 6 times PER DAY sadly..

-Of course he trusts that you’d never leave him for someone else like who would? He’s Adam! The first man! The dickmaster! He just doesn’t trust that goody tooshoo Cupid guy that talks nonstop about love this and love that

-Yeah.. he definitely had to tell himself that he was the only one made for you and you alone. He fucking CACKLED for the past 5 10 minutes about that

-Meanwhile you were super bored in the meeting which was talking about what to do with certain IMP’s in hell that were going back up to the human world messing with the people and killing them after getting more calls from clients and shit about that

-You were really wishing you brought Adam in here to make it entertaining and have some views from a person that knew sinners personally that just wanted to kill them

-Now when you were looking through the eyes you have everywhere and saw Adam laughing to himself then leaving to grab a drink and sip on it, maybe it was in fact the best idea to not have him come to this Gods meeting

“I say we just go down there and handle them ourselves! Sooner or later they are gonna need to learn to not FUCK with the human world and just stay in their damn place! Maybe we should even give Stolas a visit about him letting those IMP’s use his book that was passed on through his family from us!” Demeter shouted slamming her fist on the table now standing up from her chair knocking it over making it tumble onto the ground. The vines alongside the wall as decoration grew bigger fast from her anger that was swelling up inside of her.

“Not only that but they are messing with nature! The nature that I took my time growing! The nature that I took my time out of my schedule to plant in the place that was needed and thought out only from it all gets mostly destroyed by.. fucking IMP’s!” Her shouting was heard throughout the entire room and through the giant down for all of your 40 foot tall frames. The vines growing faster and faster the more her anger boiled, Eros shirking down a bit muttering how this didn’t feel like a lovely conversation anymore.

Themis sat there, her hands intertwined neatly on the table, staring at Demeter through her blindfold over her eyes with a straight face. Ares felt the anger that was all so familiar that he knew during the wars he went through time and time again for humans only that was never really appreciated or respected anymore nowadays. You knew every emotion that everyone was feeling, you sat at your seat in between both sides. Resting your face in the palm of your hand that stood up on the arm of your chair wanting this meeting to be over since you still had stuff that you needed to get down.

For example like making sure that Adam hadn’t gone mad when finding that you were missing and leaving your place without him. It was always important to him that when you left you had to take him with you since he was always feeling like you were just cheating on him with that Cupid guy which Adam refers to him as. Yeah you had to tell him just because you're leaving without him doesn’t mean you're doing any of that with Eros after all he wasn’t anything more. That but also because Eros already basically had two wives since he is Cupid.

You also had to remind Adam that you two weren’t dating, which Adam acted so dramatic about crying that you didn’t love him anymore. He had crocodile tears going down his face, sighing as you lifted him up in your hands telling him to stop crying. When he thought you weren’t looking he had a smirk on his face knowing that he won the conversation. He “always” did, instead you only let him since Eros told you over and over that he could feel Adam’s love for you raiding off of him, but told you privately that the love Adam had for you was more toxic and possessive but still said it was so cute to see the love between you two!

“Demeter, please calm down. We’ll get this whole situation sorted out in no time and you know revealing ourselves to anyone besides to the certain people that know about us would mess up everything and would cause chaos to arise. We’ll all come up with a plan on what to do, maybe we could speak to Stolas about the matter after all he knows of our existence because of his family.” You told Demeter, breaking through the tension between everyone once snapping out of your thoughts about the matter you're gonna have to deal with when getting back to your place.

“I sincerely apologize, [Name]. I’m just a bit mad for what those IMP’s are doing to my amazing plants down on the planet Earth.” She explained, her vines shrinking back down with a swipe of her hand. Her once chair that laid on the ground was now sat back up thanks to her plants that sprouted from the bottom of her feet. Demeter sat back down in her seat with a swift motion, Eros now sitting back up in his pink chair that had hearts on it that was designed that was to his liking.

-After that whole thing the meeting went completely normal figuring out ideas and coming up with a way to get what Demeter wanted without breaking any of the rules

-Never have you been so thankful in your life when the meeting finally ended letting all five of you go back to what you were doing before the three hour long God and Goddess gathering

-Snapping your fingers you were easily back at your place, Adam who was watching television with a slurpee in hand sipping on it

-Your once 40 foot tall height shrunk down to ten feet that was still taller than Adam since you didn’t feel comfortable being short cause it didn’t fit you, that’s what you’d always say

-Once you sat down beside him on the couch expect him to immediately cling onto you like you were a jungle gym or something

-For a warning he ain’t ever gonna let go until he feels that he can but will still cling to your side wherever your heart leads you to

-Threatening anyone that he deems competition that’ll try and fight for your love

-Yes he HAS in fact threatened the other gods even the goddesses about staying away from you his lover

-Oh my YOU! He almost died a second time thanks to Ares but it was stopped by you. Adam knew that you’d protect him but didn’t show it telling you that he could’ve handled it on his own

-no… just no-

-Adam so wished Lute was here so he could show you off to her and say he had hit the jackpot on finding the one that was always meant to be his lover from the start

-He does miss Lute most of the time feeling a bit lonely without his best friend by his side but at least you're here with him! Not like you're ever gonna leave. He wasn’t able to die again with him by your side and you wouldn’t be able to die since you are a LITERAL goddess

-Had tried to convince you to bring Lute up here multiple times but you told him that you weren’t able to do that for the sake of the rules that were written down for you, you did tell him that if she did die that she would come up here and could stay here with the two of you if he wanted. Adam agreed with little hesitation because he realized that he might get you all to himself but if Lute was her she could protect you like your bodyguard

-As if you were gonna need one! If anyone tried attacking you they’re flicked away and if they did manage to after trying to get to where your at

“Oh come on Sugar tits! You will live Lute and we both could get what we want! I can have my best pal with me and you could have another person to add to this house that could pretty you!” Adam tried convincing you, walking side by side in the garden of flowers that Demeter had set up for you since she said your house was a bit dull m, that was but it wasn’t anymore when Adam arrived here and moved in total with your permission.

“I had already told you Adam, I’m not aloud the only way she could come up here is if she dies WITHOUT it being caused by me or any of the others.” You told him for the second time in the past two minutes man. Wait sugar tits? Oh great another nickname for you, guess it was a bit better than bitch mommy, gross. “Oh don’t be like that babes, what’s the worst that can happen? It’s just one person!” Adam said, slurping on his slurpee in hand, his golden wings resting behind his back. He no longer had his weird looking mask since he had died without it on.

“You ask one more time and I’ll take you going on walks with me in the garden away no scratch that, I'll take you sleeping with me away for a whole damn week if it makes you be quiet.” That had gotten Adam to shut up rather quickly huh guess that’s one of the things he doesn’t wanna go a week without or even a single day. He had bugged you so much one time so you kicked him out of your room for a whole night, he slept outside the door and apologized for what he did later that morning. He couldn’t even stand the feeling of sleeping without you in your big giant bed together.

Nodding your head as you continue your way through the garden admiring the flowers that Demeter had made for you. It was rather normal for all the gods or in other cases goddesses to give the others housewarming gifts. Demeter gave all of you plants and flowers, Eros had gotten any pink and pastel colors to represent love. Ares had gotten all shades of red and some black ones that often had both colors mixed to represent the war for him which he loved gladly.

Themis had gotten just blue that were all shades since she only wanted blue and some were white as an exception since Demeter said it was too bluey for the whole garden. You had gotten all kinds of colors since you were creation and creation could make any color and another part of the garden had darker shades of colors including black, all shades of gray, brown, and etc to represent the destruction.

Ares gave every person some knight armory stands along side the outside or inside of the huge like places you all live at to represent the protection of knights that could come to live from his power to protect the place it guards if anything tried to ever attack which was very unlikely but better be safe than sorry. Eros gifted everyone scented candles with your favorite scents and always gave you all new ones every once or two weeks cause the old ones melt away but that’s okay!

Themis gifted everyone scale if anyone needed an option on anything if you don’t ever make up your mind or see where a person should go to be either reincarnated or whiling them from the face of the entire existence. Your gift to everyone was to make anything they wished for since you had creation letting you create anything with the power of your magic that didn’t break a single sweat from you.

“How does a nice dinner and a movie tonight sound to you?” Breaking the silence with ease as your hand held the flower between your fingertips, the beauty is always surprising on how pretty and amazing things can look if you just focus on the present instead of technology, staying inside all day, or just not giving a single care about the world at all. “That sounds awesome, sugar tits.” Adam quickly agreed, grinning ear to ear, and there that nickname was there again.

Not able to hold the smile back from appearing on your face, letting out a laugh as you cover your mouth with your hand. Your eyelids open up revealing [color] eyes that had a star in the middle of it as the pupils. What made you even more beautiful to Adam in the scenery was your smile that would be worth a thousand or even more words that he spent in a heartbeat. But also because of the way you looked at him with pure eyes that seemed to easily overpower anyone if they tried to fight you, yet again they held both the sunset and sunrise you would always want to see with your significant other every day at any given chance that was open for free.

The sun shining brightly behind you making your appearance glow brightly made Adam feel like he fell so much harder for you than he already was. If he thought he was already deeply in love with you, this one handed split second had sealed the deal on his love that he felt for only you. And the way you were looking at him with laughter and a smile he knew you must love him back. If it wasn’t his cockyness talking he would say that he was glad you were starting to love him but maybe not as much as he loves you but that’s okay cause he could love you with all the love he’d offer. Maybe even kill sinners and angels combined to see you give him that smile every day.

[dropthedemiurge]

Love for Love's Sake | Things You Didn't Notice #6

Translations and comments for Episode 6 (I have ADHD don't come after me, I was too invested that I bingewatched episodes yesterday and now I need to rewatch the 3 and 4 to make thorough comments on the dialogues). I was prompted by @lurkingshan to pay more attention to the movie posters :D Please let me know your thoughts after!

At first, I wanted to say that the movie titles were translated (at least, in my version of subs) and there was nothing behind them beside obvious but I decided to research more and indeed found somewhat interesting things! (the post will be long so I'll pile screenshots together)

First thing we see – Myungha has agonizing thoughts about "I can't believe I am on a date with a guy (when I'm supposed to be just an NPC/Player in this game)" next to the movie poster with an interesting title "The Guy Who Will Give a Kiss for 10 000 won"

This movie doesn't exist :D However! The title and poster style is clearly based on the old manhwa from ~2006 that's called "The Guy Who Will Give a Kiss for 5 000 won" (lmao they doubled MC's price that's inflation for you).

The note at the bottom says "Top Secret Disclosure: Kissing Method" aka MC is the guy who promises to teach you how to kiss if you give him some money, and the same note is shown in the LFLS poster. I thought the guy on the poster looked similar to Myungha but I think they actually got Taevin (the actor) to pose for this fake poster xD

Which leads me to the first thought that these posters were born out of Myungha's imagination – come on, we just got the scene between him and Yeowoon where they kissed for the first time and Yeowoon asked Myungha to give him time to practice and improve kissing (Myungha with his slightly better experience probably feels like a mentor with some "shady" intentions who eventually falls in love xD) Coincidence? I don't think so.

The second poster on the wall is also about a non-existent movie but before diving into that, here's how Yeowoon comes into the picture.

Two things: "Wonderful Ghost" huge poster on the wall behind him and the caption on the wall next to him.

In case you haven't paid attention, it says "If you come at four in the afternoon, I'll begin to be happy by three," which is a popular romantic phrase that definitely reflects Yeowoon's feelings atm, aww.

Meanwhile, Wonderful Ghost movie (also called as "The SOUL-mate") actually exists! But it's not new, it was released in 2018 and the story is about a guy done with his life after tragic events who becomes haunted by an energetic ghost that changes his life and mindset. (I did phrase this summary deliberately non-specific to make you feel another connection to the current story of LFLS.)

The caption on the poster also says, literally translated, "Let's do it together until the end of the world". This movie has other poster versions with other captions as Google shows but this is the version shown in Love for Love's Sake. Actually, while we're on the topic – I have no idea where "Love for Love's Sake" title came from, does anyone know? Someone in my previous posts speculated about the story based on this title but the Korean title of this series is "연애 지상주의 구역" ("Dating Supremacy Zone", or just "Dating Zone") which is the term that comes up in alert whenever Myungha is close to Yeowoon.

Anyway, back to our zombies, gorillas and demons. The movie Myungha and Yeowoon actually went to watch on their date was "Zombie Gorilla VS Demon Crocodile". The caption on thte poster says "Who will protect the world?"

Again, this movie doesn't exist. Why would they make such a point of showing Myungha crying and experiencing genuine emotions (when he only shed tears after he got scared by the full-scale system error and when his grandma got into hospital)? Well, Myungha explains it to Yewoon by himself.

"Well, it was the first time I see someone crying for a zombie gorilla." "Do you know how epic this movie is? The crocodile was actually an extraterrestrial. He met the gorilla here and joined him to save the world." "The plot is really strange." "It was very emotional."

Does it ring a bell? I don't think I need to add any words. Myungha = someone who came from another world and joined Yeowoon to save him and complete the game with happy ending. Myungha relates a lot and cries. I just find it funny thinking about how "The plot is really strange" and "You have a very strange taste" can be also said to all the viewers of LFLS (well, we all are very invested in this a bit confusing mysterious story as well, aren't we?xD)

I also love how we keep being reminded about the "unreality" of the story, how system can experience bugs and things in the world can glitch and Myungha is never immersed in this new life or his new love story to the 100% (cue all the 'choose anyone but me, go date a better man' and patronizing way he treats all characters around him, instead focusing on preventing them and the world from bad events following author's instructions)

I don't think I have much to add to the rest of the episode, I mirrored the haters articles and messages which were written for the show but the comments are quite generic (I couldn't read all of them but I didn't notice anything unusual). One thing, the DM to Myungha technically says "Die, Tae Myungha".

All I can say is that the online anonymous bullying is really prominent and a huge problem in Korea that leads to celebrities' depression and sometimes suicide. All influencers (and there are a lot of them in SK) are held to unimaginable 'perfect' standard and forums often have anonymous commenting which makes messages even more cruel (but later they addressed the issue and I think at least under news articles in Entertainment/Celebrity section the anonymous function was turned off, still, there are a lot of ways to ruin someone's life online). It happens in every country, of course, but stalking/online bullying is something that can be understood very easily by Koreans because it's often on the news and in the community.

Another little detail – even though Myungha does talk to students who are technically "younger" than him by one school year like he's old and wise, he doesn't use the word 'kid' nearly as much as you'd think xD (but the subs are doing the right thing anyway because how else are you supposed to show that subtle cultural difference between saying Cha Yeowoon and Yeowoon-ah, or Myungha calling Sangwoon by his name when he's frustrated with him instead of cursewords or titles?)

In the phrase "Get it together, kid!" Myungha actually uses the word 새끼 (saekki) which can be a curseword (like 'asshole, bastard', used by school gangster in previous eps) but it also literally means 'a child' that can be used by grandparents for their grandson or by parents, for example. So basically, think of 'son of a bitch' which can be used both as cursing and have literal meaning. Koreans have the same (개새끼 - son of a dog) phrase.

But it doesn't have an affectionate connotation when said by teenagers or adults (unless it's said to close friends without heat), and I am sure Myungha says it with more of "Get it together, you brat!" meaning. I just used this screenshot to tell you about Korean cursewords, he-he.

+ bonus: there is no translation or anything, but since we were talking about posters, I just found it funny and adorable how Yeowoon visually replaced here the poster behind him xD

[bluewhitehues]

Hug | Kim Mingyu

Summary: You secretly like your bestfriend chan,he has no idea and sets you up on a blind date with his friend and hyung Mingyu.

Genre: Angst? (Little bit), comfort, strangers to lovers, fluff

Pairing : Idol Kim Mingyu × (f) reader

Warning: mentions of anxiety, overthinking

Part 10

The next day when it's 10 pm and your door bell is ringing, you excitedly hop over to the door thinking it's mingyu. You open the door with a smile on your face which turns into surprise as soon as you see it's chan.

"Wahh look at you, not your smile disappearing instantly after seeing it's me, are you disappointed that its me?" Chan says huffing at you. And you know he's just teasing.

"OK first of all I'm just surprised not disappointed stop being dramatic, come on in ..and Where's mingyu?" You say motioning him inside and looking outside the door for mingyu.

"I came here after so long and all you care about is mingyu hyung." Chan says dramatically. "And no he isn't with me. I didn't decide on coming here I just needed to talk to my best friend it's been so long ...so I thought I'd just visit."

You come inside after closing the door, sitting on the couch opposite to chan.

"Well.. is everything okay? How have you been it's already so hard for you guys these days ..concert preparations and all." You say looking at him concerned.

"Yeah it is tiring." You notice his small voice.

"OK did anything else happen ?" You ask him because it's clear to you your best friend looks a little down and you don't like it when that happens cause his bright happy self suits him the most.

He sighs, "It's difficult ..yunjin.. she isn't an idol but her work my work we don't get much time and it feels like we are drifting apart ..she has been acting distant. " You hate it when he's sad.

"Did you talk to her about it?" You ask him softly.

"I tried but I couldn't directly ask ..I think she has assumed that I'm not serious enough about her and I'm purposely not giving her the time."

"But you're serious..and she needs to know it ..you know communication is very important if you don't talk now things will get more complicated." He nods at you.

"I know but right now I'm so exhausted I just wish she could understand me."

Meanwhile your phone which is on the table is ignored ..you hear it beeping with the texts but you can't just use your phone when your best friend is talking about something serious with you.

"It's ok you can feel that way..but channie your relationship is still new and from the point of view of a girl ..we need to be reassured constantly...if something feels off it doesn't get too long for us to be on our guard ..people have their own insecurities and doubts as well ..so I think you just need to talk just be totally honest and clear with her."

"You're right ..I'll talk to her." He nods thinking about what you just said.

Now when the door bell rings and this time it's definitely mingyu you know it. You open the door and mingyu is there. "Hey baby you didn't answer my texts, I was asking if you wanted something from the convenience store." He says removing his shoes and wearing the slippers which you had put for him. You take the bag from his hands, you both going to hug each other. "Hey" You say it back sighing into his arms. But you can't help but feel a bit nervous because it's the first time after you started dating that only you three will be alone.

"Who's here ? Whose shoes are these?" Mingyu asks confused.

"Yeah actually chan is here he was talking so I couldn't check the phone sorry." You say looking up at him. You're really hoping you won't be awkward, even if mingyu doesn't have any problem with the situation you'll create one by acting all awkward so you try not to do that.

"Oh? He didnt say he was going to meet you." Mingyu says looking down at you.

"ARE YOU TWO MAKING OUT OR SOMETHING??" Chan shouts from the kitchen where he went to drink water from the fridge.

Mingyu gives you a sheepish look raising his brow at you. You groan slamming your face in his chest for a second and then dragging him to the living room with you.

"YES WE'RE YOU GOT ANY PROBLEM ?" You say shouting back at him. Mingyu snorts at you hooking his arms on your waist from the back.

"Nah I was just guessing why were you taking so long" chan says shrugging,coming back to sit on the couch.

"You what are you doing here at my girlfriend's place at this time? go to your girlfriend and why didn't you tell me you were coming here..we could've come here together." Mingyu says narrowing his eyes at chan.

Chan huffs, "You ungrateful jerk don't forget that 'I' your girlfriend's 'best friend' set you up with your girlfriend" "and besides I didn't tell because I randomly decided to come here and talk to her I needed my 'best friend'. " He keeps emphasizing on best friend lol.

You drag mingyu to sit on the couch, you sit beside him holding his hand.

"Wait I'm also your best friend what are you telling her that you can't tell me? " mingyu says eyebrows furrowed and a pout on his face.

Chan groans at him,"hyung you're so whiny ..also she kinda makes the most sense among y'all cause she's a girl and I needed her opinion..and just in general she's amazing at understanding me."

You smile smugly while mingyu whines again. "So? You're saying your hyung who knows you since last 10 years doesn't understand you??"

"That's not what I mean hyung-"

You cut them off, clearing your throat .."Uhmm guys?? Do you want me to leave you two lovebirds alone?? I kinda feel like I'm third wheeling here .."

Mingyu pulls you in his arms looking at you narrowing his eyes at you, you giggle at him, "what you really were jealous there baby." You say looking into his eyes teasing him more.

"Shut uppp you're cute doesn't mean you'll say anything and I'll just listen." He says in a small voice, playfully trying to tickle you with his lips on your cheek.

"Omg Gross..I should probably go before my innocent eyes have to see something more." Chan says making a face.

"Great you're taking the queue just leave already." Says mingyu scowling at chan.

"Yeah bye you two enjoy or whatever " chan says rolling his eyes.

"No wait ..are you done talking or you wanted to say something more?."you ask chan.

"No just that was all I guess...I'll talk to her...thank you y/n I needed it ."

You get up from the couch going to give a hug to chan. "Shut up you don't need to thank me ..you're always welcome." You say patting his back.

You pull back from the hug, your back towards mingyu..chan is smiling softly nodding at you.

Mingyu's mind for a second thinks about all this, about what if your feelings for chan are still there somewhere ..what would he do then..he can't help when these thoughts evade his mind.

"Text me if anything else is there ok?" You say looking at him.

"Hmm I'll though we never meet these days..I wondered if you would even remember me" He says dramatically.

"Brat as if you're not busy with your girlfriend" You say smacking his arm.

He laughs saying "I know I'm kidding ..OK bye now."

"Yeah bye take care."

"Bye meet you tomorrow." Mingyu says waving at chan.

As soon as chan is gone, you go to mingyu taking his hands. "So ..how was your day you must be tired." You say pouting at him removing his hair from his face.

"Tiring as always ..but it was fun too." He says nuzzling into your arms naturally.

"Aww my baby" You say pecking his head a few times, while squeezing him in your arms.

"I'll have to go to Japan in few days for the concert ...will you miss me?" He asks you.

"Is that even a question bub of course I'll miss you and you already made me sad now." You whine.

He pulls back looking at you,"well you can come with me ?"

"Is that like possible? I wouldn't want to trouble you"

"You don't have to worry about that I'll manage it ." He says looking at you with a small smile flicking your chin.

"Damn I'm gonna fall for you even more then, after watching you perform and all" You say looking at him with a teasing glint in your eyes.

He arches his eyebrow at you.."you're falling for me?"

"Wasn't it clear when I said I really like you?" You say raising both of your eyebrows at him.

"Well I like you is I like you ...tell me more about this though" He says wiggling on his place adjusting himself closer to you...you're sitting on the couch facing each other now,holding hands ..he looks so giddy suddenly.

And you're surprised what more you'd say also you wouldn't wanna ruin your perfect plan so you ask,"You heard it I'm not saying it again also what's your schedule for tomorrow will you come to meet me or not?" You say pouting at him. He's already pouting because you dismissed him.

"We have practice, then another shoot it'll be late but I'll let you know."

"OK but lemme know cause I'm going to make dinner for you." You say smiling at him looping your arms in his neck.

"Mhm then I'll have to make time for it definitely, I wouldn't miss it." He says smiling sheepishly at you then pecking your nose.

You kiss both of his cheeks, "good cause my baby is working so hard he needs to eat well."

He stays for a while then leaves for his apartment. You've thought about sleepovers but you're shy to just say it to him. You'll just take it slow then.

Next day it's Saturday your work off and you're so glad for it cause you need to prepare everything and yourself well for the special surprise date you have planned.

Your day is nervous, giddy and mix of all emotions. You're going to tell him today, that he has won over your heart, he has it now, he has your heart.

You prepare some of the Korean dishes and some of your own signature ones. You get ready when he calls you after finishing his shoot,he's leaving to come to your place now.

You're wearing a black satin dress, your hair are straightened , some dangling earrings and a pendant adorning your neck. Subtle but beautiful make up with your favourite dark lipstick and blush on your cheeks. You spray your favourite perfume and you're all ready. Looking pretty but your nerves aren't letting you appreciate that yet. This is the time when your overthinking kicks in 'what if he doesn't like me that much, what if I'm making a fool of myself, I should just cancel all that and just tell him it's a normal date, I shouldn't confess I don't know what he feels' and what not is going inside your head now.

The door bell rings indicating it's time, mingyu is here.

You take a few breaths and go to open the door, while hiding behind it. He chuckles while entering, "what are you doing angel, why are you hid-" He cuts himself off when he looks at you. His eyes widening and then shamelessly roaming, scanning you from your head to toe. "Oh- my -god-...fuck you didn't tell me it was a date..I mean you look so beautiful baby"

"I do ? Thank you " You say fidgeting with your fingers and smiling nervously. "I didn't tell you because it's a surprise." He notices your nervous form and takes you hands in his,stopping you from fidgeting.

"Really? A surprise for me? I love it baby thank you." He says pulling you closer pecking your forehead. "You look really really pretty by the way." He whispers his eyes roaming over your face as if capturing every detail of you. He's smiling softly at you.

You lean into his touch cause you need every bit of comfort to calm your nerves right now.

"Thank you gyu." You smile at him.

Then you're pulling him towards living room where you've decorated the place with candles and lights.

"Wow you're really outdoing me right now ..I gotta plan better dates than this next time." He says looking in awe.

You chuckle at him, "Shut up I'm doing this for the first time I don't even know if it's good."

"Baby it's not good it's the best I love it and wait what's that for are we going to dance as well?" He says looking at the speaker on the table.

"Mhm hmm we're ..so...would you like to dance with me Mr. Kim?" You say holding your hand out for him.

"I would love to " He says dramatically placing one of his hand on his chest and the other in yours.

You giggle at him taking your phone to play the sound, "You won't laugh at the song choices will you? I mean it can look cheesy or cliche "

"Why'd I laugh baby as far as I know your taste in music is good and also I heard you like seventeen" He says wiggling his brows at you.

You let out a laugh saying, "Oh I love them yeah"

You play the song, it's 'Lover' by Taylor swift. It's one of your favourite you'd always dream of dancing on few of the songs with your special someone and the moment is here now and you are excited.

The music starts playing and you're dancing, his hands on your waist,yours on his shoulders.

"Oh lover I like this one" mingyu says leading you gently into the dance, looking at you dreamily. You've kept the music low not too loud.

You smile at him singing along with the lyrics, he's also singing along with you and you love it when he sings, you love his voice.

"Lover I love the word, do you think you can accept me as your lover?" And great you're already doing a miserable job at this you think.

"Aren't we already Lovers? " He asks confused.

"Lover means someone who loves that person." You say looking in his eyes nervously.

"Baby ...what are you saying?" He whispers his hold tightening on your waist a little.

"I mean ..I keep falling for you more and more gyu." You say placing your hand on his cheek holding him.

"You have my heart, you won it over even I didn't realise how and when you managed to make it yours." You say with tears in your eyes.

"Are you saying what I think you're saying?" He asks in a small voice ,placing his hand over yours on his cheek.

You nod at him saying," I love you. God I love you so much gyu" You say trying hard not to cry.

"You do? Say it again please" he says coming closer to you placing his forehead on yours.

"I love you gyu"

"I love you too y/n ...I love you so much baby and fuck I was going to say it first." He whines but there are tears on his cheeks.

The song changes to 'Perfect' by Ed sheeran.

You wipe his tears letting out a laugh with your own tears flowing on your cheek, "Well you told me you liked me first I was not gonna let you have this as well."

He then squeezes you in his arms hugging you tight, you return it with the same intensity because you were terrified since the moment you decided on confessing, you had all kind of doubts and thoughts and now they're gone.

You pull back this time, your hands looped around his neck, you pull him even closer, standing on your toes, coming face to face with him looking him in the eyes.

Right now his heart is beating so fast because he guesses what you're doing he's anticipating it and you're no different.

Your breath fans on his lips and then you press your lips on his finally, and now you get why they say 'I felt electricity surge through me when we touched/ kissed' cause that's exactly what happened you felt like your whole body is tingling.

Mingyu's breath gets stucked when he realises you kissed him...you finally kissed him.

He pulls you closer, you try to kiss him enveloping his lower lip in yours then you whisper,"kiss me please." And then he's kissing you for real, placing his hand on your cheek holding you by your jaw,tilting his face, both of your eyes closed.

And the lyrics playing in the background makes it even more special. Your plan worked a Little to perfectly you think.

"But darling, just kiss me slow

Your heart is all I own

And in your eyes, you're holding mine

Baby, I'm dancing in the dark

With you between my arms"

You gasp in the kiss, you've never felt anything like this, there's shiver running down your spine in between. He's kissing you so gently,slowly yet intensely. Mingyu smiles in the kiss when he hears the lyrics, making you smile even bigger.

He's nibbling on your lips pulling them gently and fuck you don't think you can get enough of this.

When you pull back gasping for breath, he's praising you ..."that- fuck that was amazing baby..you did so good." He says looking at you.

You chuckle at him,"seriously? You did all that I couldn't even kiss properly at first."

"Nuh uh baby after that you kissed me back and remember when we talked about you being a natural..it was fking true babe cause the way you've kissed me just now.. I wouldn't have realised it's your first time if you hadn't told me already. "

You smile at him,"You just took my first kiss dear boyfriend and it was amazing..thank-you." You say glancing at his lips.

"And you don't know how lucky I feel for that, I was waiting so bad to kiss you ...don't thank me for kissing you when you gave me your first kiss."

"Yeah? You can take my second one as well." You say looking up at him with a teasing glint in your eyes and a little smirk on your face.

He surges forward when you say that. Kissing you with more intensity than before. Bending your neck backwards, his hand on your nape.

"Say no more Babe- say no more" He says in between the kiss.

A/N : I had issues with my phone so I couldn't post sorry for the wait cuties. This update is pretty long I hope you like it . 🥺🫶

Part 11

[homestuckreplay]

Gee John, How Come Your Dad Lets You Watch Three Movies?!

Alright. I suffered through THREE of John's movies today, and all of them were extremely bad. All three of them had terrible dialogue and boring characterization, Face/Off was mostly gunfights, Armageddon was mostly explosions, and Ghost Dad was mostly an absolute fever dream clearly signed off by a very drugged up executive.

However, I do see why John likes these movies. John is a Nic Cage fan, and I do think both Cage and Travolta gave great performances in Face/Off. The weird, experimental science aspect is fun too, and might have a link to John's chumhandle - I can see him getting curious about how the facial transplant surgery works. Mistaken identity is an interesting theme - John feels like his dad doesn't know him well, thinking he'd like harlequin dolls and cakes, and might think his dad sees him as a different person. People on Discord have theorized that John's arc will be realizing she's transgender, which is REALLY interesting in light of this movie and its focus on physical features vs actual identity.

Armageddon has the same basic premise as Deep Impact - a meteor will destroy the Earth if the American government can't figure out a way to stop it - but on a much shorter timeframe. I personally think Deep Impact is miles better, but Armageddon is very focused on American masculinity and a motley crew of men who live dangerous, somewhat criminal lives (it's more similar to Con Air in this regard). We know John likes a Cool Movie Moment (see p.20) and this one is basically fifty lab-grown Cool Movie Moments stitched together.

Both these movies are very long and very action packed. Armageddon barely takes time away from the action to give us the characters' names, and since John probably watches movies for escapism, this must be appealing to him. Their major characters have very exciting lives, whether that's working for the FBI, as a terrorist, as a deep sea oil driller or as an astronaut - John probably isn't concerned with the politics of these things, they're simply cooler kinds of people who he could grow up to be, and it's fun to imagine himself in their place because it beats his current life.

Ghost Dad is completely irredeemable. [ooc 2024 note: I don't endorse watching movies that feature Bill Cosby, who is a known terrible guy, and I can guarantee he did not receive any money from my watching this.] It's horrifically written and plotted and none of the humor lands. But, it makes perfect sense that John and his dad would watch this, as it's about a family who pranks each other. The son is an aspiring magician just like John (and is similarly bad at it), and John might even have got his interest in magic from watching this.

The dad spraying whipped cream on a top hat is very Dad Egbert-coded, and John might love the idea of having a ghost in his house who can pilot clothes around while invisible and float up to windows to scare mean kids. Meanwhile, Dad clearly likes to show John movies that feature parents eventually choosing their kids over their career. (It seems like he shows this with his actions, too - he's clearly not at work today, and John's feeling suffocated in the house suggests that Dad is there most of the time).

MOVIES WATCHED: 10/11

MOST RECENT MOVIES:

Face/Off (1997) - Rating 4/10

Armageddon (1998) - Rating 3/10

Ghost Dad (1990) - Rating 1/10

[writers-ex]

price tag

spider!yuna x gf!reader x spider!ryujin

word count: 855

a/n: i think my first angst…? idk but plz lmk if you like it or not really??? this was just idjfslkajka thank you @wannabe-icy for putting up with the back and forth for ideas literally bothered you so much so enjoy it also

“yuna how could you?? do you have any idea what the consequences will be-“

“shut the fuck up. i know what i’m doing, you don’t.”

imprisoning you against the wall with her webs, yuna rolls her eyes and muffles your pleas with another web to your mouth as she continues. as your girlfriend slash hero of the city proceeds to enter a bank across the street and returns with bags of money falling out. she starts counting the bills making the tears stream down your face, yuna glances at you.

“babe i know what i’m doing, remember how much we’ve struggled to make ends meet with my job as a photographer? the city had already offered me the reward for the last villain i faced i just….decided to cash my check in now.” 

walking over she cups your face with foreign eyes staring back at you. these weren’t the eyes you saw every morning before going to bed, nor were they the same ones that whispered i love you when you left to work. 

“the city owes us for all it’s taken away. the privacy of our relationship, my time with you, the ungrateful words of its citizens, our so-called friends betraying our trust-“ 

her fist balls up as yuna bows her head before pushing off the wall and clutching her chest. eyebrows furrowed her lips trembled as she gave you one more look, “-babe how much more am i supposed to give? there’s nothing left other than for me to take what’s deserved, for me to be repaid.” as she turned her back to you yuna heads over to the stack of money, alarms go off and sirens are heard while she continues. “i’m almost done and then we can go home to-“

“little sis i thought i taught you better than to stay near the scene of the crime after a heist?” eyes wide you turn to see the one person you would never have thought to show their face is now holding one of the stolen bags of money proudly.

“ryujin?!” the girl in question couldn't help replying sarcastically to yuna.

“yes that’s my name~ although i would prefer your lover to be the one screaming it.” winking at you she sets the bag down and walks toward the baffled younger.

“why are you-“

“here? well i do have spidey and sister senses unlike yourself, only i was planning on robbing this particular bank tonight and someone beat me to it…which is surprising because i thought we were supposed to be playing good cop bad cop?” ryujin’s eyes drift over to you as she fully takes in your... position. “and why is your girlfriend all tied up like a bad porno movie?” getting up yuna lunges to punch ryujin only to have her swerve and scoff.

“leave us be, it’s just this one time! it won’t happen again i’m just-“ holding a hand up she stops yuna from speaking.

“i don’t care about the backstory i’m only concerned about the three cop cars heading inside the bank, which may i remind you is full of your spider webs and no bad guy so….? it doesn’t take an idiot to put two and two together.” ryujin webs over to the wall you’re tied on and frees you from the stick situation, meanwhile yuna’s attention counting the bags of money.

“…21…22…23 million…i’m about 10 million short, shit! i must’ve left the other bag in the vault.”

“um…read the room little sister we have to go before- for fucks sake!” ryujin yells as yuna webs herself toward the bank hiding behind one of the letters of the neon sign on the roof. 

“yuna…” running into ryujin’s arms you bury your head in her chest and sob. “please help her….please.” the heart-wrenching whimper you let out makes her eyes well up in tears. taking one glance at her wayward sister ryujin takes advantage of the situation and pulls you in for a kiss making you gasp as she pushes you off and webs after her sister. confused and annoyed at what just occurred you watch ryujin hide on the side of the building attempting to get yuna’s attention.

fear keeps you standing still watching the spider siblings battle it out in the shadows. yuna comes out victorious as she holds the bags of money close to her body while ryujin pants loudly eyeing her younger sister crawl up the building. realizing that yuna is safe you breathe a sigh of relief and turn to get down from the roof only to find yourself surrounded by cops holding you at gunpoint.

“wait i can-“

you’re cut off by handcuffs gripping your wrists. before you can explain yourself an officer nearby drags you inside a squad car for questioning back at the station. waiting to leave you survey the bank and nearby buildings, spotting something red sneak back inside the bank as cops start to leave you feel a wound form inside your heart. yuna, the hero in your life became the one that betrayed you, the car starts and ironically so does your desire for revenge.

[collieii]

i rly like the wolfwood vs ninelives fight from volume three, it's one of my fav fights in the whole manga. partially bc i love how wolfwood looks insane and bloody and feral the whole time

but for other reasons too! it's really fun how he's set up against the guy who...yk...almost can't die. which really pushes wolfwood to his limits, since his usual strategy simply won't work. and his resolution is to just go absolutely hogwild and beat the shit out of the other guy till neither of them can move.

it's also kind of interesting that he does still almost get fucked at the end and needs an emergency save from the insurance girls. i think it suggests the idea that despite his tendency to operate alone and brute force his way through his issues, wolfwood still needs help from time to time. even if he doesn't consciously acknowledge it. he didn't ask for the girls to help him, but if they didn't he might have died.

it sort of serves as early lighthearted foreshadowing of his fight with chapel and livio in volume 10, where he tries to take on a tough opponent/s alone and ends up paying the price. at that point, wolfwood recognizes that he needs others to succeed, but he only admits it to himself when it's too late and he's dying.

he's lucky vash took the initiative to follow him against his will, because if he hadn't wolfwood would have failed to protect the orphanage and died.

going back to volume three, i also love how these fight scenes are set up, with vash and wolfwood each facing their own opponent who's designed to pick at their weak spots. wolfwood's conflict challenges him by almost invalidating his kill strategy, which he explains as being necessary to ensure his survival and ability to achieve his goals/protect what he cares about. meanwhile the puppet master is so effective against vash bc of his 'sentimentality'.

think if vash and wolfwoods places were switched in this fight - wolfwood would probably just end up cutting through all the puppets. i don't think he'd enjoy it or do it lightly but in the name of self preservation he'd do what he has to do. and if vash was fighting ninelives, he'd def still have issues, but his whole strategy is based on fighting opponents who he can't kill. he's used to having to figure out ways to incapacitate people without killing them. ofc, someone who you ideologically can't kill vs someone you psychically can't kill aren't totally synonymous, but it's still interesting to think about.

and ofc, there's vash's past with emilio. this fight highlights vash's habit of connecting with others personally (and remembering all of them!)

an early demonstration of an aspect of his character that ends up being hugely important in the finale.

and ofc all this is followed by the hospital scene! which i think sort of highlights the...idk the duality of it all? luida thanks both of them for protecting the ship. both of their methods were necessary, vash's and wolfwood's, as violent as his was. it's discussed explicitly by vash and wolfwood ofc. so we know that this fight also helps point out the multifaceted nature of violence. obviously, sometimes it's awful, but times like these it's necessary. it's not as obvious as the contrast between knives and vash's ideologies, but trimax is constantly challenging vash.

[tobiasdrake]

Madame Web was good, actually

I should probably qualify that. As a superhero film, Madame Web doesn't hold up. There's extremely little superheroics in it. The big colorful superhero costumes look like bargain Halloween outfits, save for Ezekiel's Edgelord Spider-Man getup. The main villain is a fucking cartoon character who is impossible to take seriously any time he opens his mouth.

But the superhero stuff that the movie isn't very good at takes up only about 3% of the film. The bad costumes only appear for like 10 seconds of combined screentime across the entire film. It's not really a superhero movie.

Madame Web is a horror thriller. It's closer to Final Destination than Spider-Man. It features an asymmetrical conflict of three powerless teenagers and their Found Family adoptive mom trying not to be murdered by Evil Spider-Man. That's what kind of movie this is. It's not a power fantasy. It's a horror flick.

At the heart of the film is Cassie, the film's main protagonist. Immediately likable from the second she steps onscreen, Cassie carries the film whenever she's onscreen. And she's onscreen for like 80% of it.

The way the film introduces her powers is fantastic. Cassie can see the future, something the film makes great use of. This is the one superpower that our protags get; Cassie gets advance warning when Evil Spider-Man's about to show up to rip the girls apart with his bare hands. And it's played to incredible effect; The film uses jarring cuts and cinematography to make you feel every bit of how intrusive and disorienting her powers are from her perspective.

Ezekiel, as noted, sucks as a character. The dialogue he has to read is 100% cheesy "Guy Who Knows He's The Movie's Villain" dialogue and he's directed as the most over-the-top "I AM THE EVIL MAN THIS IS MY EVIL VOICE".

But as a horror monster he worked for me. The fact that he could rip these women in half with his bare hands is never in question, which keeps him menacing and dangerous throughout the movie. He's effectively the film's Terminator, showing up with blood in his eyes whenever it's time for an action sequence - and the film avoids the mistake of having him do something stupid and softball his attacks to give the protagonists more of a fighting chance. He always feels like he's going for the throat.

The heart of the film is its Found Family dynamic. Specifically, this is a movie about mothers and their daughters. That's the central idea the film wants to explore. Cassie's relationship with her mother is placed under a microscope and even managed to make me cry at one point. Meanwhile her Found Family daughters all come from various parental troubles. The bonds they forge with each other and with Cassie are expected to carry the film - And in my book, they succeed.

I don't really know what else to say about this movie. I had a great time.

[oneirataxia-girl]

this is the second part to @supermarine-silvally's ask, found here! they asked for quite a few questions for my One Piece ships, Kenji x Killer & Law x Mari x Kid, Keller's answers can be found here, while this post is all for Midlaw. so let us begin! tagging the other anime girlie @auxiliarydetective as well

1. How did they meet and what were their first impressions of each other?

Mari knew of Kid and Law long before the three crews landed on Sabaody, she's intrigued by Law's abilities, but thinks Kid is a senseless, bloodthirsty idiot. but it's KidLaw that met first on Sabaody, it's dislike at first sight <3 Kid thinks Law is a stuck-up "I'm better than you" kinda guy and is itching to beat him up in the new world, while Law thinks Kid is unnecessarily destructive and overall not someone he wants to associate with

KidLaw see Mari for the first time at the auction house, where she gets the collars and chains off the other prisoners with the keys Franky got; Kid thinks that his assumption that she's the weakest out of the Strawhats (for context, Mari consistently has the second-lowest bounty, second only to Chopper) was right, while Law is slightly unnerved by the fact that she seems to pop out of nowhere, but also thinks she's not that dangerous

2. What kind of dynamic do they have with each other?

black cat x orange cat x black cat, rival crews to tentative allies to unmarried divorced throuple to 'if I don't see my gf & bf/bfs in the next five seconds I will bring down this building', "we're going our separate ways." "... yeah?" "it's for the best that we don't meet again soon." "agreed."

3. What do others think of them?

the Heart pirates are the captains of the Lari ship the second Law introduces Mari to them, but after Wano Bepo, Shachi, and Penguin are thrown off because they get the feeling that their captain doesn't hate Captain Eustass like he claims; the Kid pirates board it after watching Kid trying to subtly show off in front of Mari & Law (neither of them is impressed, but neither of them would admit that it was a bit flustering to be scooped up with one arm so that's that); and the Strawhats (namely Brook, Franky, Chopper, and Robin after a bit) are on board as soon as they work it out, Nami got a bag of berry from Kenji from betting that Mari would fall for Law, but she and Kenji both lost money to Robin because she's the only one to bet that their crewmate would like both Law and Kid, Zoro could not care less who Mari likes as long as it's not harming the crew, but he's subjected to both Kenji and Sanji's lamenting so he drags Jimbei and Usopp in to argue that it's not their business, meanwhile Luffy has no idea about any of this and is just wondering why Mari's more mopey than usual

5. Is their joint future bright or bleak?

ideally yes, Idc if I have to trample canon I WILL give them a happy ending and there's nothing Oda can do to stop me

7. Do they have a desire to protect each other?

normally, no -- actually, Kid & Law did think Mari would need to have someone watching her back, but after seeing her on Wano, both of them know Mari would not appreciate them fighting for her. similarly, Mari isn't too fussed about their safety because she knows Law and Kid can handle themselves. but if one of them goes down, you can bet the other two are going to go full demon on whoever did that

10. Who would win in a fight?

okay this one deserves its own dissertation post, so I won't elaborate much here. it depends on where the fight is and if the three of them are at their fullest abilities or not, but it's probably ending in a tie or a surprise takedown after two of them are exhausted

12. Who is a better caregiver?

Mari. Law has no sleeping schedule and survives on onigiri with black coffee and probably has no idea how to show that he cares for people, Kid is a freak of nature and probably would've died long before he set sail if it wasn't for Killer and also has no idea how to show affection other than be less mean towards them. it's not a hard competition when one of them has oldest daughter syndrome and middle child syndrome at the same time

15. Who has better fashion sense?

it's a tie between Mari and Law. sorry Kid but I can't look past those pants 😭

20. What's the worst thing about them teaming up?

to be on the receiving end of their blows. think Kidlaw fighting Big Mom, then add in a phantom that always strikes to incapacitate (or kill, depending on the situation) at the worst possible times for the receiver, which just so happens to hit the weakest spots every single time. if Mari adds in her dust bombs and puts her devil fruit to active combat, then it's just overkill if they're not fighting someone Yonko level

21. What's the best thing about them teaming up?

to be on the same side as them, especially if you're not a good fighter, you can just sit back and watch Law dice up people and Kid disarming (sometimes literally) the other side, while Mari pops out of nowhere to string up some poor terrified guys then gives a quick report about what's ahead then vanishes again (this is ghostwritten by Kenji, Usopp, Nami, and Chopper)

36. What is a gift one would give to the other?

Kid makes metal flowers for both Mari and Law, as well as some other practical bits and bobs. Mari and Law I can't really see getting gifts (I hc Law prefers to give quality time and Mari acts of service) but Mari makes matching necklaces for the three of them when they tie the knot

39. What's an inside joke they'd have together?

how long will it take for Kenji to accept that his sister is hopelessly in love and has no intentions of leaving her boyfriends (he's actually happy and relieved that someone wants Mari, but he pretends to dislike them to keep them on their toes); what insane thing will Luffy do today and which one of them is the unlucky recipient of a rubber hug; Kid can't do housework at ALL

45. If one of them was in trouble, what would the others do?

hunt down the people responsible and show them exactly why people don't mess with what's theirs

48. If they swapped bodies, how would they handle it?

okay this will probably also require a long explanation and this is long enough as it is, so I'll answer this some other time with doodles to show the scene in my head ;)

give me a number + relationship and I'll tell you something about that relationship!

[vro0m]

vro0m's rewatch - 170/332

2016 Chinese GP

Okay so they reverted back to the old quali format, Lewis had a problem with his PU and he's last on the grid meanwhile Nico is on pole for the first time of the year… He's sharing the first row with Ricciardo. Raikkonen is behind them alongside Seb. Valtteri is fifth, then it's Kvyat, Perez, Sainz, Verstappen and Massa. 

From the drivers' truck Lewis tries to say hi to the crowd but they can't hear him. Johnny asks if he's ready for the race and Lewis says he doesn't have a choice. It reminds him of going to races with his dad and a shit car and starting from the back but this time he has a good car.

It's gonna be a challenge but he'll give it everything he's got. He hopes it's entertaining because he doesn't plan on staying where he is.

He knows he has great fans who will be on that journey with him. Johnny asks what result he'd be happy with today. Lewis says with a laugh normally you're never happy with anything other than first.

But considering where he's starting he just wants to make sure he gets points. He acknowledges the work his guys put in the night before, putting the car back together, so getting the most possible points is a reward for that. 

The build up isn't very interesting. There's a segment about Haas' good results in their first two races, and an Alonso interview

They're on the way to the grid. Crofty says nobody has ever won from the back of the grid, but John Watson, in 1983, started 22nd, so same as Lewis that day, and won. At the time, there were 28 drivers total. 

Okay. It's time for the race. 

They are racing! 

Ricciardo overtakes Nico while I see Lewis overtake at least two cars at the back. The Ferraris struggle! They got very close and Kvyat overtook them both. AND THERE IS CONTACT BETWEEN THE TWO FERRARIS! Oh it's chaos, the top 10 is in shambles. Apparently Lewis also got damage? HE LOST HIS FRONT WING omg. It's stuck under his car. Horrible horrible weekend. Seb is on the radio saying he made contact. He says the RedBull was coming up the inside "like a madman" and that's why he hit Raikkonen. At the end of the first lap, the order goes Daniel, Nico, Kvyat, Perez and Hulkenberg, Sainz, Massa, Seb, Jenson, and Valtteri. Raikkonen pits from P20 and Lewis is nowhere to be seen, unfortunately. Oh here he comes in as well. And Nico overtakes Ricciardo just as Ricciardo's tyre BLOWS UP! Completely delaminated 2013 style. Kvyat overtakes him as well, of course. And it's a safety car. There's too much debris on the track. That's good for Lewis because it brings him right back near the other cars but he's complaining of how the car feels. A bunch of people pit, of course. Including Seb. Loads of traffic in the pitlane. On the start replay we see Lewis ran over the debris from the Ferrari collision and then got hit by Nasr. We also see Seb overtaking two cars in the pitlane entry and then Lewis pits again?! They put him on supersofts now (he started on softs and then got back on softs after they changed his nose). I guess the idea is he needs to be able to overtake at the restart… On the radio, Bono says : "We have a plan, nothing wrong all part of the plan." – "Sorry I’m boxing again now?" he asks. OH MY GOD HE IS ACTUALLY PITTING AGAIN?! . "Affirm, we’re going to fit the soft so we don’t have to use any other compounds," Bono answers. It's not even lap 10 and they pitted him THREE TIMES already?! I mean I get it but it's not like he's gonna be able to do 50 laps on softs, is he?! Well I've shown over and over on this blog that I'm a terrible strategist so we'll wait and see and trust their experience but right now I'm mostly just baffled. Seb is still talking about the collision. "Kvyat's attack was suicidal, there was always going to be a crash. No way with the speed he had he could have done the corner." I haven't really watched the collision carefully so idk. I guess we'll see in the postrace. The journalists aren't convinced. Also Ted is about as convinced by Mercedes' strategy as I am because we get from the radio that they don't wanna use the mediums. Ted says getting to the end of the race only on soft tyres would probably necessitate 3 more stops, for a 6 stop strategy ultimately. So… Yeah… in the meantime we see all the traffic jam in the pitlane earlier. It's insane. Nowaday that would be a bunch of penalties. So many collisions were barely avoided. The safety car is about to come in. Here we go. Seb is making moves.

On lap 10, Nico is in the lead followed by Massa, Kvyat, Alonso, Wehrlein, Gutierrez, Perez, Valtteri, Pal ? Who's Pal? Oh it's Palmer, right, then Jenson is P10. Seb is currently P12, up two places in one lap I believe, Ricciardo is P15, Raikkonen is P18 and Lewis P19. And Seb overtakes Sainz for P11. Raikkonen overtook Magnussen for P17. Lewis overtakes him as well, quite aggressively. Seb is up in P10 in the meantime. Nico is cruising ahead but Valtteri attacks Perez who's on the tail of Gutierrez, Seb is just behind, now in P9, biding his time. LEWIS OVERTOOK RAIKKONEN! Good job. It would have been difficult having to follow him up the pack. Loads of action I can't keep up. Palmer and Ricciardo are battling over P12 and Ricciardo won, at least for now. Seb attacks Valtteri but can't quite make it. These four are very close to one another. Lewis is up in P15! Seb finally gets Valtteri for P8. Wehrlein is overtaken by Perez for P5, just as Seb makes up another place by getting ahead of Gutierrez. At the back Lewis overtook Palmer for P14. And as we're watching replays of his overtakes, Seb overtakes Wehrlein and puts himself in P6. Kvyat gets P2 by overtaking Massa and Lewis is P13 after getting Hulkenberg. Next step is Ricciardo. And here he attacks! Not enough yet… Daniel is also attacking Gutierrez for P11, they're wheel to wheel… It's done, down the inside, Lewis follows through and HE's now wheel to wheel with Gutierrez. But he has to wait for a couple more corners to do it from the outside. He's immediately catching Ricciardo. Seb overtakes Perez for P5! He's so close to Alonso he's basically tapping him on the shoulder. He attacks! He's ahead down the straight but Alonso gets the slipstream and tries to attack back. The straight is too short though. That's P4 for Seb. BUT OH HO some pieces flew off his car! Raikkonen pits. He wasn't able to follow Lewis up the field. Lewis overtakes Jenson for P10! He's 25 seconds away from Nico now. Alonso pits and that puts him on P9. Seb is chasing P3. Oh he pits. He's out behind Lewis, in P13. It might be interesting if they battle. But Lewis probably will pit as well. 

Alright that was a busy 10 laps, now we're on lap 20, and the top 10 currently reads Nico, Kvyat, Massa, Valtteri, Sainz, Oh but Kvyat pits wait. There's a three way fight between him as he gets out of the pits, Seb and Verstappen. So as I was saying. Nico, Bottas, Lewis now up in P3 somehow?????!?!? /? //// seriously what? Last I checked he was P9?! Anyway Jenson is P4, Kvyat P5, Verstappen P6, Seb P7 AND NICO PITS. So we wait again. And Seb overtook Verstappen and where is Kvyat?! I CAN'T KEEP UP. WAIT A SECOND SO I CAN RECAP THE TOP 10 PLEASE. Seb overtakes Jenson. 

SO. THE TOP 10. Nico, Valtteri, Lewis. Kvyat is now P4, Seb P5, Jenson P6, Perez P7, Massa P8, Ericsson P9, Alonso P10. No idea where Max went so I guess he pitted. Someone is being investigated for driving too slowly in the pitlane but I don't remember who and now we're informed some unsafe release concerning Perez will be investigated after the race. Lewis pits! He's now P14… P13. P12. P11. He attacks Raikkonen for P10. There's a three way battle for P5 between Perez, Valtteri and Jenson. A bit later, Raikkonen overtakes Jenson for P9, and then Lewis as well as he pits. He's back in the points! He attacks Raikkonen again! He still can't make it, Raikkonen is making it hard. But Perez pits so that's P9 anyway. 

That's lap 30. Nico is still ahead of course, followed by Kvyat again, and Seb. Massa and Valtteri are next, then Daniel, Sainz, Raikkonen and Lewis, P10 is Verstappen. On the radio we just hear Lewis say "I am." which is confusing. The transcript shows it was in answer to Bono telling him to give it everything he has. Oh yeah NOW we hear the complete exchange. He pits again and this time it's for the mediums so what was the point of the weird strategy earlier? He's back in P10 quickly enough but as the commentators– well it's P9 now. As the commentators point out though, most people ahead of him will not pit again so he's gonna have to work for it on track. Again. Kvyat and Seb pit. Nico pits but literally nobody cares at this point. There's a battle for P3 between Kvyat, Raikkonen and Seb. Seb overtakes Raikkonen pretty quickly and then Kvyat in about as little time. He's P3. Raikkonen pits. 

On lap 40, Nico, Seb, Kvyat. Four way battle for P4 between Max, Massa, Valtteri and Lewis. Daniel is P8, Perez P9– Massa overtakes Verstappen and Verstappen pits, Lewis attacks Valtteri, P5 ! Daniel is getting into the action as well. Oh that's an easy overtake on Valtteri, dangerous for Lewis. His tyres are fresher. But Valtteri strikes back! Oh he can't… ohhh there we go Daniel is right on Lewis… He defends, he defends, but Daniel has the pace… Lewis locks up again… He's looking for a way past Massa… and Daniel overtakes him. Now he's under pressure from Raikkonen… he's attacking Massa but can't make it and now Raikkonen is attacking him! 10 laps to go. He attacks again… Yeah. That's another lost place. Raikkonen overtakes Massa as well and Lewis is back to chasing the Williams. 5 laps to go now. The ending is pretty anticlimactic. 

And it's the end of the race. 

Nico wins again. In the end the rest of the top 10 was Seb, Kvyat, Daniel, Raikkonen, Massa, Lewis P7, Verstappen, Sainz, Valtteri. 

As usual Seb speaks with Nico in German. I don't understand German despite studying it for like 10 years but I think he mentioned "schlafen", to sleep. They watch the screens. Seb says something about Lewis, but I can't hear because Nico is shaking the camera and the mic makes a noise. Kvyat says something we can't hear as well. Seb turns to him. "You! Asking what happened at the start?!" he says, half stunned, half amused. "(Inaudible) to the left you crash into us and we all flew (inaudible)." – "Well," Kvyat starts but Seb interrupts. "No, not 'well', you came like a torpedo!" – "Well that's racing," Kvyat laughs like a 13 year old boy joking about boobs. "Uh that's racing but you know if I keep going the same line, we crash," Seb says. "Well don't keep going," Kvyat says with the same hollow laugh. Seb is not amused anymore. "Yeah but there was a car on the left also," he says. Nico is all smiles behind them. Kvyat says he didn't see that because he only has two eyes. Seb shrugs. He says they could have crashed if that's how he went at it and Kvyat says "we didn't". "YOU didn't!" Seb corrects him. They keep going. Seb says sure it's racing but he's gonna get damage if goes at it like he's crazy. "You were lucky this time!" – "Well I'm on the podium so that's okay," he answers again with the same equal cocky smirk. He's annoying. Seb raises his eyebrows. This conversation is going nowhere. Unfortunately the video glitches and I can't hear the end. 

On the podium they basically replay the same conversation. I'm over it. Oh apparently Nico almost got kicked out of his plane from Mexico because he was partying too much. Embarrassing tbh. 

I only have a partial post race. Hopefully we at least get Lewis' interview? We do, it's the first interview we hear.

He smiles as she says it hasn't been his weekend. He says he got a good start but it's always difficult from the back not getting caught up in what happens ahead. He tried to fight his way through but everytime he had to pit he had to do it all again. "But anyway, that's racing and uh… Not a great finish for us this weekend but uh, you know, hopefully onwards and upwards." She asks if in hindsight maybe one of the stops wasn't needed. He says he just got out of the car so he doesn't have any hindsight. She asks how difficult it is to follow the cars in front in the Mercedes. He's not enjoying the question. He hums. He says he talks about it all the time. The track is good because you can overtake but the car was pretty damaged. He suspects there was suspension damage as well. 

Toto says there's some stuff they need to work on but he's happy RedBull is back in the mix and it was exciting to see three teams battling for the podium. 

Out of the press conference, Ted says Kvyat has moved from laughing it off to standing his ground while Seb still can't let it go. He also confirms that Lewis not being able to do longer stints on his softs tyres (12 laps compared to Nico's 23) was due to the damage to the front of the car that was shredding the tyres.

At the end of the notebook, Ted mentions Lewis saying something about fighting himself during the press conference. He then says Toto said Saturday night during the Mercedes press conference that Lewis was so one with himself and it was fantastic to see so they asked Lewis about it. Apparently he said it was nice to hear that from Toto. "He's a very big part of the journey I'm on, you know earlier in my life, throughout my life my friends used to say to me 'Lewis you don't know who you are, it's like you're searching for yourself.' but now I've found myself, I've found my identity". And I think that's a very important thing to mention in this rewatch. 

That's it for now! 

[felixcloud6288]

Higurashi: Massacre Chapter 10

At first, Ooishi seemed to be playing his usual role in every tragedy. He's coming into the scene and sowing doubt in the Rule X target, but Keiichi refuses to yield and Ooishi's tone instantly changes to a much more supportive one.

It's kind of wild how the memories from the other timelines are bleeding into everyone here. Keiichi realized he's never actually seen Teppei before in this timeline, and everything he's doing is actually due to his memories from Curse Killing. Rena meanwhile talks about her memories from Atonement as if they were events from her past rather than the events from a different Rena. Similar stuff has likely been happening with Shion, but she's not willing to talk about them.

One of the truly evil aspects of the Three Rules is how Rule X is developed through no malicious intents at all. Takano is a troll trying to get a rise out of people while Ooishi is just trying to figure out if there is something deeper to his friend's murder. But their actions drive the Rule X victim into a state where they commit murder.

If Keiichi didn't have the resolve to keep going despite Ooishi's well-intentioned warning, he or Shion would have fallen back on murdering Teppei after what happens the next day.

Intentionally or not, Ooishi's warning to Keiichi also came with a hint to how he could potentially resolve this issue much faster. The Child Consultation Center was afraid Oryou was secretly behind Keiichi's organization and they approached her about it.

Her involvement and opinions in either direction have a direct impact on things and at the moment, she's influencing the village to not help Satoko because of what happened during the Dam War. But if she should change her mind, then the Center can be forced to give into Keiichi's appeal.

So now it is Thursday June 16th. Just like in Curse Killing, Satoko has returned to school for the first time. But unlike last time, there is no pretending everything is fine nor any in-fighting when Satoko is away.

Everyone is fully aware Satoko is being abused at home and they need her to reach out and ask for help. But she refuses.

One other difference from Curse-Killing is Satoko goes into her panic on the same day rather than Friday.

The tragedies in each arc is tailored to the faults that each of Rika's friends has (Except Mion. Mion has done nothing wrong ever). Keiichi distrusted his friends, Rena didn't think she could ask her friends for help, Shion lost all hope, and Satoko thinks she has to endure her suffering to atone. Satoko is the only one who hasn't overcome her faults.

I bet Keiichi would also think that guy is really handsome and smart too.

Principle Kaieda pressed the Hinamizawa Syndrome power button.

We've heard a few things about Hinamizawa Syndrome but Rika's explanation gives us a good idea about what it actually does. When a person with Hinamizawa Syndrome has a fear reaction to an unknown, they initially assume it's whatever they're afraid of and they become unable to process when they were mistaken.

We can look at Keiichi in Abducted by Demons for a good example of this. When he started falling under Hinamizawa Syndrome he began interpreting every surprising moment as a sign of danger. In chapter 1, he asked Rena if she knew anything about the Dam murder and Rena said she doesn't know. Keiichi didn't expect that answer and his fears started to take over at that point.

Then every instance Mion or Rena were aware of something he thought they shouldn't be, the syndrome would make them appear to have demonic eyes and threatening tones of voice. And this culminated in him interpreting hot sauce in ohagi was actually a needle and a marker was a syringe. He could only realize the truth in a different world where he was not infected with Hinamizawa Syndrome.

back

Spoiler Discussion

This Devil Script is desperate to play out at this point. Initially, Shion was the Rule X target, but Keiichi has successfully saved her from that fate. So now the script is trying to make Keiichi the Rule X target. If Keiichi gives up, he or Shion or both of them will kill Teppei.

Satoko having her freakout a day early is another aspect of the script getting desperate. Normally, Satoko would have her freakout on Friday which convinces Keiichi to murder Teppei. Keiichi would spend Saturday preparing the murder and would Kill Teppei on Sunday.

However in this timeline, Satoko will be saved on Saturday. The script is throwing everything it can into derailing things because Satoko's friends refuse to give into despair.

[aajjks]

hmmm….🤔

mommy issues!JK

the ring, although beautiful, is actually deadly. eunwoo isn’t convinced that you willingly married jicheol; this had to be forced and now the only way to get your location was a bust. until jungkook comes up with the idea to call chaeyoung, your old friend who should have the information he’s looking for.

she doesn’t pick up the first three calls but if he’s calling her back to back then it must be urgent.

“hello—,”

“H-HELLO? HI IT’S ME JUNGKOOK-don’t ask anything, but I need yns parents address. COME ON HURRY UP. I DON’T HAVE MUCH TIME PLEASE. I’LL DO ANYTHING IF YOU TELL ME HER ADDRESS!”

“what? i…i don’t know! all i know is that her family is in gwangju!”

“chaeyoung, c’mon! please” begs eunwoo. “you’ve got to know something. you and y/n used to talk all the time. i know she told you about her childhood”

“she did but not where she used to live. is…is she okay?”

“she’s not okay. she’s in trouble and we need your help to save her. please, chaeyoung”

chaeyoung gets quiet on the other line, thinking about the words eunwoo has just told her. despite the wedge between the two of you, she still cares about you and wishes nothing but the best for you. if you’re in danger like eunwoo and jungkook is claiming then it’s only right for her to help anyway she can.

“bongseon-dong. i don’t know where their house is specifically but that’s what she told me”

quickly, jungkook puts it in his gps and thankfully, they’re only 10-15 minutes away from the location.

“thanks chaeyoung”

“no problem. before you hang up, i want to apologize to you, jungkook. i was wrong for what i did and you don’t have to forgive me but i just want to apologize and i take full responsibility for my actions. be safe and i hope y/n is okay. goodbye”

though the conversation was short, chaeyoung helped lead the boys directly to your location. eunwoo knows jungkook and chaeyoung don’t exactly have the best history together but he’s hoping her apology mended some things between them and the location she provided will lead them straight to you.

meanwhile…

“are you okay dear?” asks your mother as jicheol carries you back to the dining room table and plants a kiss on your cheek before sitting you down. “y-yes” you whimper. your sister and your dad take a look at your battered body and bandaged leg but they don’t say anything. they continue eating their food as if the conflict that happened earlier was nonexistent. like your loud cries for help meant nothing.

“the ring is lovely” says soo-min as she takes your hand and hold the diamond up close. “not better than mine though”

“oh stop it, minnie. the ring is beautiful”

“th-thanks mom” you say. “what do you think dad? do you like it?”

“it’s lovely, y/n”

your eyes water up but your mother chalks it up to you being emotional about the sudden proposal. ‘it’s all happening so fast’ she says but it’s normal. they think the abuse is normal. you make a plate for yourself and take little bites of the seasoned meat. the remaining of the dinner carries on like normal with your family laughing and smiling while you sit and say nothing, just existing until…

*DING DONG*

“who could be at the door this late?” says your father and jicheol has a hunch that it’s him. he then gets up and carries you into your bedroom but to make sure you don’t try anything, he grabs a pair of cuffs from who knows where and cuffs you to the bed.

“i’ll be right back, okay?”

“o-okay”

jicheol pulls you in for a surprise kiss, leaves, and shut your door behind him.

“it’s the guy she had an affair with”

“the who?” replies your father.

“fine, i’ll answer the door” says soo-min as she walks up and opens the front door.

“is there anything i can—woah” this is the man you had an affair with? “ehem, uh, how can i help you sir?”

~🫧

“MOVE YOU BITCH!” Jungkook holds his gun and points it straight at this young woman who looks awfully alot like you.

Before she can react, Jungkook pushes past her and eunwoo along with mingyu and yugyeom follow behind.

With loaded guns in their hands.

Jungkooks blood boils when he finally spots your family, his eyes frantically search for you, but there’s no sign of you, but that is until his attention is taken by someone else.

Your fucking psychotic ex-boyfriend.

Jungkook loads his gun, and aims it straight at the nameless guy. “ you motherfucker, you took her away. You made her suffer and now you will pay for this! I WILL KILL YOU.” He screams before shooting him straight in the leg, not once but twice,

The sound of the gun is silenced by the silencer placed on it,

Everyone freaks out, the women start to scream.

And the older man who he guesses is your father tries to get jungkook to stop but yugyeom and mingyu hold him back.

“no we wouldn’t really want to kill you, old guy… stay the fuck back.”

“where the fuck is my girlfriend? WHERE IS SHE? WHERE IS YN?!!” jungkook screams like a maniac, intense desperation present in his eyes. Jungkook feels a lot of satisfaction when he sees the blood pool out of your ex-boyfriend’s leg.

This is only the start.

“YN BABY! WHERE ARE YOU? YN ITS ME JUNGKOOK SWEETHEART PLEASE PLEASE COME TO ME!” He desperately calls out your name before eunwoo makes his way to the tall guy and begins to beat him.

“Oh hell yeah it’s been a while. This is gonna be so much fun.” Mingyu cheers while they all hold your family hostage.

Jungkook freaks out when he gets no response from you because there’s a lot of commotion going on so he decides to search the house himself.

He goes through every single one of the bedrooms in your home, but there’s no sign of you-you’re not even in the kitchen in the spare bathroom-

That is until he spots bedroom right in front of your living room

Jungkook inhales deeply before he busts through the door. Opening it with force because he’s frantically going insane.

“YN BABY- o-oh my God!!! BABY!!!” Jungkook spots you-but you don’t look good at all, the sight of you is actually horrifying, you are cuffed up like an animal and there’s a lot of bruises on your face, your lip is freshly bleeding.

And there’s a bandage on your leg-and that damn ring on your finger.

Jungkook cries out before he reaches the bed, immediately by your side but you’re handcuffed and he feels disgust takeover his senses when he sees your face, upclose, they let him abuse you.. these people are actually monsters

“Y-Yn!!!”

Jungkook searches for the keys to your handcuffs so he can free you but that motherfucker probably has them.

So jungkook inhales a breath. “Okay yn don’t freak out I have to do this to free you…” he warns before taking out his gun and shooting at the handcuffs, the chain immediately breaks.

You cry out in horror and he feels guilty so he begins muttering a lot of apologies before picking your body up in his arms.

“Hi baby I’m so sorry I was late but I’m here now.”

[duhragonball]

Dragon Ball Super 085

So I finally made it to Episode 85.  I’m not sure that this is much of a milestone, but I feel like it’s taken forever and 85 is kind of special because I made notes about what each episode is about, and for this one I just put down “?” because it didn’t seem to be about anything.  I mean, Majin Buu shows off his slimmed down form, but this is more of an aside than anything else.

So let’s see what we’ve got here.

Ah yes, Zoom Calls of the Gods.   Khai, the Supreme Kai of Universe 11, arranges  a meeting with the Supreme Kais of Universes 2, 3, 4, 6, 9, and 10, to discuss a response to the Tournament of Power.  He didn’t invite the Kai from U7 because fuck Universe 7, basically. 

I’d rather skip past this, but I’ll probably regret not making not of these guys later on, so let’s go through this reall quick.

Roh (U9) sees no point in having this conversation, since Grand Zeno has already ruled.  The Tournament of Power is happening whether they like it or not, and he’d rather focus his time on building a proper team. He leaves the call in a huff.

Pell (U2) welcomes the prospect of the Tournament, as he feels confident that his universe has the brawn to win the thing. 

Eyre (U3) takes issue with Pell’s confidence, claiming that his own universe’s superior technology will win the Tournament. 

Fuwa (U6) is basically having a meltdown and has no idea what to do about anything. 

Khai (U11) proposes that all of them go together before the Grand Zenos and request a reprieve to allow them time to improve their Average Mortal Power score to the minimum limit of 7.  He seems to think that multiple Supreme Kais presenting a united front will be more persuasive.

Kuru (U4) rejects this idea as futile.  As Roh said, the decision has already been made, and Khai’s petition might only provoke the Zenos into erasing their universes before the Tournament is even held.

Gowasu (U10) agrees with Kuru.  They have no choice but to play the hand they’ve been dealt. 

Once the others disconnect from the call, Khai accepts that his plan won’t work.  He had hoped to save all of their universes this way, but if the others won’t cooperate, then his only choice is to win the Tournament, which he believes he can do easily, since his warriors are demonstrably stronger.

Meanwhile, while Goku prepares to track down 17, he discovers Buu training for the tournament.  He’s been fired up ever since the Zeno Expo, so he’s reconfigured his body for combat.   Goku spars with him to see what he’s got, and Buu doesn’t disappoint.

Goku still manages to weather Buu’s offense, but he doesn’t realize that Buu is herding him toward the edge of Mr. Satan’s property, which has been designated as out-of-bounds for this match.  Once he’s close enough, Buu grabs Goku with his elongated arms and shoves him out. Goku is suitably impressed, and heads off to continue his search.

But Buu is starting to get sleepy from all this training.  Uh-oh...

Meanwhile, in Universe 11, Top returns to... I guess his home base?  His comrade asks him about his trip with the gods, and Top explains the whole Tournament of Power thing to him.  Well, he tries to explain, but then they get a distress call.

Some bad guy is terrorizing a planet with some alien monster thing, and Top’s other partner, Dyspo, can’t handle it alone. 

But the three of them prevail together, and Top finishes his story.   The Pride Troopers are astonished to hear about the Tournament of Power, but they know they can win if they call in their strongest member, Jiren.

That’s this guy.

Meanwhile, Champa holds his own conference call, this time with the other Destroyers whose universes will be in the Tournament of Power.  Let’s go over this again.

Heles (Cleopatra Lady, U2) is horrified by the Tournament of Power, though she does find Goku quite attractive, in spite of his irreverence.

Mosco (Guy in Robot Suit, U3) only wants to know why Beerus wasn’t invited to this conversation.  Because fuck Universe 7, that’s why.

Quitela (That Crappy Green Mouse Guy, U4) points out that it would be foolish to attempt to cheat, since they would just get eliminated the moment they were caught.

Sidra (Green dude, U9) resents the implication that they owe a debt to Goku for bringing about the Tournament of Power.  As Vados sees it, Grand Zeno was planning to wipe them all out anyway, so at least this way one of the eight universes can earn a reprieve. 

Rumsshi (Elephant dude, U10) takes offense at the way Goku so casually addresses the Zenos. 

Belmod (That Clown Guy, U11) doesn’t much care about any of this, since he, like Khai, is convinced that the Pride Troopers will sweep the Tournament.

So none of that leads to anything.  Champa then orders Vados to find him some more Saiyans to add to his team.  He demands that Champa find Saiyans even stronger than himself. 

Goku finally reaches Dende, who gives him directions to 17′s park.

And Gohan contacts Piccolo, who promises to whip him into shape.  Wait, I thought he was already training Gohan?  I wish this show would just make up its mind....

So yeah, this whole episode was just a potluck of unrelated stuff, and all of it completely unnecessary.  The Kais and Destroyers can’t do shit, and most of them have already made peace with this.  Buu won’t even make it to the tournament, so his appearance here is pointless.  We’re going to be seeing a lot of the Pride Troopers in the Tournament itself, so hyping them up in this episode is a waste of time.  And Goku finds 17 in the next episode, so you could just skip Episode 85 and not miss a thing. 

Ah well...

[strawwritesfic]

Takeshi Yamamoto x Female!Reader: But Uh-Oh Those Summer Nights [Ch. 4]

Summary: “Summer lovin’ had me a blast / summer lovin’ happened so fast.”

Challenge:  “10 Summer Events” by someone on Lunaescence Archives.

Ratings/Warnings/Tags: T (Sexual humor; sexual dialogue; summer vacation; comedy; fluff; eccentric grandparents; Grease references; Takeshi & Hayato & Tsuna; Takeshi & Hayato & Tsuna & Reader; Reborn & Tsuna; Reborn & Reader; Original Character & Reader)

Pairings: Takeshi Yamamoto/Reader

Tag List: @imaginesfire​​

Master List

Chapter 4: Boredom

“Ughhhhhhh.”

Hayato scowled, clenching his fingers all the tighter around the sheet of paper in his hand.

“Ughhhhhhhhhhhhh.”

He smacked the paper down onto the table and began to grind his teeth together.

“Ughhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.”

“Why the hell do you keep making that noise, woman?!” 

“Hm?” You looked up from where you were sitting on Tsuna’s bed. When you realized that you had finally got someone’s attention (you’d only been trying for at least three hundred hours by then), you flopped back over and groaned, “I’m bored.”

“Sorry, [Name],” said Tsuna.

“You don’t have anything to apologize for, Tenth!” Hayato rushed to assure him.

You rolled your eyes, slid off the bed, and walked over to the table at which the three boys were sitting. “What have you guys been working on for so long anyway?”

“The Tenth has to get his work done for summer school tomorrow,” Hayato snapped. “If you’re so bored, why don’t you go somewhere else and annoy another group of people? Like, I don’t know, your grandma!” 

You paused, pretending to consider this idea for a moment, then grinned like a cat among the canaries. “I Can’t.”

“What do you mean you can’t?!”

“Grandma is out on a date, so I’m supposed to stay with Tsuna all day today.” Your grin widened at the look on Hayato’s face. “Jealous?”

“No! And if you think for one second --

“Oi, Gokudera,” Takeshi said. “I think I figured this out,”

“We’ll see about that.” 

Hayato swiped the paper away from Takeshi, and began to look over the answers. Meanwhile, Takeshi smiled at you. You smiled back, grateful that he had prevented Hayato from starting on what looked to be a big tantrum.

“Yamamoto really can do math,” Tsuna said, looking slightly downcast. “I don’t know what I’ll do at school tomorrow. I don’t get any of this!”

“Hey, chill out, Tsuna. Everything’ll turn out okay somehow. After all, you’ve got Hayato’s genius to help you out, right?” you asked.

“I don’t have to go to summer school, woman! And Baseball Idiot, you got number six wrong. Check the parenthesis again.”

“Ah, thanks, Gokudera.”

The room fell silent. You heaved a sigh (receiving another dirty look from Hayato) as both Tsuna and Takeshi went back to their math homework. You didn’t think you would be able to stand all the quiet work much longer.

“[Name]. Can I see you for a second?” Reborn called from the doorway. 

You looked at Hayato. He huffed and rolled his eyes, and the other two were too busy to notice much of anything. So there was no one to protect you from Reborn, then--and after the fiasco at the festival only a few days before, you knew better than to keep Tsuna’s tutor waiting in the hopes that someone might volunteer to come with you. Not without some trepidation, you got up and followed Reborn outside the Sawadas’ house.

“What’s up, Reborn?” you asked once you’d both stopped in the front yard.

“I need your help with a little training exercise,” he said.

“Me?”

“Who else? You’re the one Hibari wants to see again, and you’ve been driving Gokudera crazy complaining about having nothing to do.”

“But–”

“Have you found something to do?” Reborn asked, with another one of his spine-chilling smiles.

“No,” you admitted. 

A strange glint appeared in the infant’s eyes as he smirked up at you. “Good.”

******

“Mm, we’re finished at last,” Tsuna said, stretching forward over the eraser and pencil debris left over from his work.

“It really didn’t take as long as I thought,” Takeshi chirped. “Thanks for helping, Gokudera.”

“It certainly was a lot easier to do without that [Name] idiot around,” said Hayato. 

Tsuna’s eyes widened. “[Name]?”

“Who else would I be talking about, Tenth?”

“No. I mean, when did she leave?”

“About an hour ago,” Hayato said.

“Yeah, she left with the kid,” Takeshi agreed. “But shouldn’t she be back now?”

“[Name] isn't coming back this time.” 

Tsuna yelped as a large shadow appeared on the bedroom wall. Yamamoto laughed, the asked:

“What do you mean?”

“Reborn! What did you do with [Name]?” Tsuna asked.

“I didn’t do anything,” Reborn said, turning to stare out the window at the darkening sky. “I took her to train–”

“Why would you do that?!”

“She attracted Hibari’s attention the other day, remember? I thought you’d appreciate me making sure your friend won’t die, but if you’d rather–”

“Just tell us what happened to her!” Tsuna shouted.

“I went to come back and get you, and as I was leaving, the Momokyokai came and kidnapped her.”

“What?!” 

“Wait…” Takeshi looked thoughtful. “Didn’t Gokudera and I already beat that gang? When they kidnapped Tsuna?”

“That’s right!” Tsuna said. “And you told Dino they were fake!”

“But they’re real,” Reborn said in his most ominous voice. “And think about it. Now that they were disgraced by Yamamoto and Gokudera, they have a reason to seek revenge. What better way to get it than by hurting your defenseless girlfriend?”

“She’s not my girlfriend!” Hayato and Tsuna said in unison, if not the same tone.

Yamamoto laughed. Then his smile disappeared.

“She’s at the same base as before,” Reborn said as he vanished out the window. “Hurry.”

******

“Bleh,” you said aloud. 

Your voice echoed in the empty room you’d been left in. Reborn had promised that this would be a little more exciting than watching your friends do their summer homework, but it wasn’t. So far, the most excitement you’d seen all day was watching Reborn himself terrorize a few thugs into submission. After that, those same thugs had led you up to a cement room that had nothing inside it but a straight-backed chair and several lengths of rope. 

And then Reborn handed you some very dangerous looking darts, stuck a picture of Hayato’s head on the wall, and went on his merry way. Apparently you were supposed to train with this odd assortment of items, and you had been…but by this point in time, the photograph started to look a little worn (especially where one of the darts had exploded over his left eye), and you were sick of chasing after your lost darts. 

Yes, this activity was no less boring than watching Tsuna and Takeshi do homework. At least Tsuna’s room décor left a little less to be desired.

A massive clatter outside your room sent you scrambling around the chair. Had the thugs decided against being terrified of a baby after all? You sucked an enormous breath in anticipation of screaming as the door burst open. Instinctively, you scooped up several wicked-looking darts from the pile nearby and aimed them the best you could at the figures rushing in through the smoke.

“[Name]?” came a familiar, panicked voice.

You scrambled through the wreckage, dropping your darts as you did.  “Tsuna?” 

“I’m right here, [Name].” 

You stopped trying to untangle yourself from the bits of rope and chair. When you looked up, sure enough, Tsuna was there--and he was obviously worried. 

“Are you alright?” he asked.

“I’m fine,” you said shakily. You tried to stand up, only to trip at once over the ropes.

“Here.” 

You smiled up at Takeshi and took the hand he offered you.

“You alright, woman?” Hayato barked. 

You giggled, turning toward the last boy. “Fine. Thanks, Hayato.”

“You aren’t hurt?” Tsuna asked.

“No, not at all. Should I be?”

"Reborn said you were being tortured for information about our whereabouts!”

 “He did?”

 “Yes,” Tsuna hissed.

“Oh, well, he just told me that, since I was bored, I should help him with a training exercise. Then he stuck me here with some weapons or some–”

“What the hell?!” Hayato cut in. “Why is there a picture of me here?! And why does it look like it’s been burned?”

“Uh,” you said intelligently. It wasn’t as though you’d selected that particular bit of motivation. Then again, you hadn’t exactly refused to throw explosive darts at it either.

“So you really weren’t in any danger?” Tsuna asked. 

You looked back at him with yet another smile. “Nah. Reborn just likes messing with you.”

“I’m glad you’re alright,” Takeshi said, “but we should probably head back. Your grandma will be worried if we don’t get you home soon.”

“Mm. Yeah, I guess,” you said, and made to follow him out. “And guys?”

“Yeah, [Name]?” asked Tsuna.

"What is it, woman?” said Hayato.

Whether it was your sudden return to a place with sunlight or not, you couldn’t tell. You simply felt warm all over as the four of you exited a building piled with wounded gangsters. “Thanks for saving me.”

[malumsmermaid]

I’d Do Anything B.C 10

Hi I’ve been working on this chapter since I adopted Hestia back in like August but work and life and shit has happened. I was going to work on one of my other WIPs but decided to actually finish this one. So...here it is.

Word Count: 1.9k

Warnings: None

Prev.

Calum was spending the afternoon with Michael, having finished up with his work early for once. Before leaving for his friend’s house he had made a good night call to Lily and Ashton, his two partners back in Australia working on a new deal. Calum was supposed to fly out and meet them in a few days-he had just had a few things he needed to wrap up at the office this week before he could join them. He was stressed and worn thin from his projects he’d been working on, as well as the interruptions from their employees-some with reasonable questions and requests-but others just adding to his to-do list. He did his best to push all of that down while he was on the call though, listening to and celebrating their little successes for the day and trying his best to pick out some sort of positive aspect to his day to share. He managed to pick something since they had last called, as well as expanded upon a few of their text conversations over the last couple days. He finally wrapped up their call, ushering his partners off to bed and telling them his plans to meet up with Michael and play a new game.

However, when he got to his friend’s house, it turned out his plan had done a complete 180, from sitting inside on the couch with controllers in hand to walking in the park and talking. Calum ended up doing most of the talking, everything spilling out the second Michael asked about his week. Michael listened intently, his gaze only straying from Calum to check his footing on the path. 

Calum sighed, closing, “And I don’t want to burden Ash and Lil with this when they call. Like, it’s all part of running a company right? Like, especially since they’re having all these little wins and doing some fun stuff out there. Meanwhile I feel like I’m over here taking one step forward and three steps back with all these little side tasks. It’s just easier when they’re here because we can split them up-Lily’s especially good at figuring out where each of us is in our day and which of us, if any of us, is able to carry out that task. And it’s not like I don’t do that, like some of the things I’m like ‘maybe Ashley or Jaime are better people for this particular thing’ and either message them or send that person their way. But at the same time, I don’t want the people who have come to me to feel like I’m dismissing them or pawning the task off to someone else, but like…I’m just one person, y’know?”

Michael nodded, “You know, I’m always here to listen, but Lil and Ash worry about you when they’re away too and can tell when you’re holding stuff like this back.”

Calum hummed, “Yeah, but I don’t want them to feel bad about it or for me or whatever. Like, it’s not their fault that I got this idea for something that, as usual, ended up much larger than I expected and…wait, what made you say that last part?”

“Shit…I uh…fuck…”

“Mikey?”

Michael looked away, scuffing his shoe on the ground, “Lily may have texted me after you guys got off of the phone and mentioned that you seemed off and that she was worried, got the same text from Ashton like two seconds later.”

Michael jumped as Calum let out a laugh. “Can never hide anything from those two, even on the other side of the fucking ocean. To be fair I do feel a lot better now, maybe better than I would’ve just playing that game with you, even if I was really looking forward to it.”

“There’s still plenty of time in the day if we turn back now…” Michael said with a smirk.

Calum nodded, turning around on the path and beginning the trek back to Michael’s car.

As they were walking through the parking lot, a flash of movement between cars caught Calum’s attention. Then it came again, this time rushing across the section of the parking lot they were walking through, from one side to the other. “Kitten,” Calum gasped, just as the animal ran under a car that three people had just gotten into-its engine roaring to life.

Michael gasped too, both men rushing over to the car, trying to get the driver’s attention before they put the car in gear. They must’ve made quite the scene, the woman in the driver’s seat opening her window just a crack to see what the two large men wanted. “A kitten just ran under your car,” Michael explained, trying to catch his breath while Calum ducked under the car’s rear bumper to see where the kitten had gone. It froze and locked eyes with him, in the shadow of one of the front tires.

He started calling to the kitten, tapping at the gravel with his fingers to try and coax it over. Just as he began calling to the little cat, the car’s engine shut off and multiple feet hit the ground around the car. The kitten looked up at the car’s chassis, then around at all the legs surrounding the car before darting towards Calum. He took the kitten in his arms, capturing her and making sure he had a good grip before slowly beginning to wiggle back out from under the car. “Got it,” he grunted as he slowly began to sit up, handing the kitten to Michael so he could get to his feet. All three people from the car began to coo and cheer as they looked at the small animal in Michael’s arms while Calum dusted himself off.

“What now?” Michael questioned, looking at Calum.

“I…I don’t know,” Calum said, watching as the kitten squirmed in Michael’s hold. “I mean, I guess we go to the shelter, make sure she doesn’t belong to anyone?”

“We’re in the middle of a giant park, Cal…” Michael started.

“I know…but I mean, what else? Isn’t that what’s right?”

Michael hummed, conceding, and began to walk towards his car, “There’s one not far from here.”

Calum nodded, following after his friend.

~~~~

“Good afternoon, how can I help you two gentlemen?” Greeted the shelter’s receptionist.

“Yeah, uh, we were just at the park and caught this little kitten in the parking lot as she darted under the vehicle of another visitor who was preparing to leave,” Calum stated as Michael stepped forward, still holding the small cat.

“We just wanted to make sure that she was okay and that there isn’t anyone out there missing her.” Michael explained, holding the cat out for the receptionist to examine.

“Well, it is kitten season,” they replied, smiling as the cat pawed at the air between them, “and this little one looks just old enough to not need mom for food anymore, they probably wandered off on their own and got turned around. But we can definitely put them on stray hold, just in case. Let me just page our cattery attendant to get this little one checked in.”

They grabbed a walkie-talkie from their desk, calling to one of their coworkers elsewhere in the shelter to come up front. Michael and Calum took a seat against the window, Calum reaching over and gently rubbing between the kitten’s ears. The receptionist walked over and handed Calum a clipboard to fill out, a sticker with a series of numbers and letters in the top corner. 

As he finished writing down his information and where they had been when they found the kitten, another person walked through the doorway from the back. She smiled, approaching the two men and greeted them, quietly reaching her hand out to take the kitten from Michael. Michael gave the kitten one last scratch before handing them over to the worker while Calum stood to hand the clipboard back. 

When he turned back he caught sight of Michael staring wistfully through the doorway the kitten had been carried through. He wasn’t the only one to notice either, the receptionist saying, “We’ve had a lot of people bringing kittens in the last few days, you can foster that little one if you’d like.”

Michael immediately brightened, “Can I foster two? So it has a friend?”

Twenty minutes and more paperwork later, they were back in Michael’s car, trunk loaded with kitten food and cat litter, a carrier containing two kittens secure in the backseat. Calum was smiling, listening to the small animals mewling behind him. They were almost back to Michael’s house, when suddenly, next to a strip mall containing a petstore, Michael gasped, “They need toys!” He checked around him before pulling sharply to the right, entering the parking lot.

“I’ll stay in the car with the cats, no going crazy in there, just toys, no furniture unless you’re certain you’re going to keep them.” Calum teased.

Michael parked smiling, “No promises.”

Calum shook his head, watching as his friend hopped out of the car, jogging through the lot.

Not long after Michael had disappeared through the door, Calum felt his phone buzzing in his pocket. He pulled it out, half expecting a text from Michael asking for an opinion, surprised to instead see his girlfriend’s picture on his screen. “Aren’t you supposed to be asleep?” he asked as he answered, teasing lilt to his voice.

“I can’t,” Lily whispered, snuggled under a blanket on the couch, “Miss you.”

“Just a few more days and I’ll be there,” Calum tried to reassure, but he could feel his own heart aching.

“I hope I’m not interrupting your afternoon with Mikey…” She started, but was distracted by a loud meow behind Calum, “What’s that?”

“Oh, you’re not interrupting, our afternoon was already interrupted. We found one kitten, and now Michael is fostering two.”

Lily sat up, trying to contain a squeal to not wake their sleeping boyfriend in the other room. Calum grinned, launching into the tale as, as he anticipated, a picture text came from Michael in the background of the call.

~~~~~

As promised, a few days later, Calum strolled into the penthouse apartment in Australia. It had been a long day of travel, made even longer by a maintenance delay in Seoul, leaving Calum pacing the terminal as his gate changed four times before they finally were able to board. He had told Ashton and Lily not to wait up for him, his expected arrival time now closer to 3AM than 9PM and was glad to see that they had heeded him for once. He quietly set his backpack on the table, removed his shoes and quietly made his way to the bedroom. He brushed his teeth and washed his face before shedding the clothing he’d been wearing since the previous morning. 

He smiled sleepily as he looked down at the bed, looking at his two partners. They had clearly been cuddling when they first went to bed, but had since separated, plenty of room between them for him to occupy. He carefully climbed over Ashton, who was facing the doorway, Lily facing the windows. He snuggled under the strewn blankets, pulling both of his partners to his chest. Neither woke, but they did both sigh, cuddling to him. Calum felt a smile on his face, kissing them each gently before closing his own eyes and finding sleep for himself, content to be surrounded by their warmth again.