#most characters in this show have very normal names and it sounds modern-y so i never even thought to check. lol | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

roxyjean82btsoneshots · 3 years ago

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Interview with Park Jimin

✏️Vampire Jimin x Yoongi x Reader🔞 ✏️fluff, angst, smut ⚠️Warnings: biting, blood, vampire attack, death of two characters, marking, double penetration, oral both male and female, light male masturbation.⚠️ 📖WC: 7,283

For the #BangtanWHQ Spooktober Event

My masterlist

“Y/N, wake up. We’re here.”

You opened your eyes to see the van sitting in front of a large iron gate with the name Park on it.

“You made it before nightfall?” You asked your favorite cameraman and bestfriend, stretching in an attempt to remove the kinks from your stiff neck.

“I told you I could get us here in time,” Yoongi answered with a proud smile.

“Do you see an intercom or anything?”

“No, can’t you just call him?”

“Greg said he doesn’t have a phone.”

“So how are we supposed to let him know we made it?” The two of you froze when the van filled with the sound of the gate moving.

“I guess he knows,” Yoongi said while you both watched it open. “Are you ready for this? Because once I drive through that gate, there’s no turning back.”

You flipped down your visor so that you could look at yourself in the mirror, “As ready as I can be to interview a vampire.”

Yoongi nodded and put the van in gear. “Alright, here we go.”

While Yoongi drove up the long driveway, you looked over the notes of questions your boss wanted you to ask. Greg might be the head of the studio, but he knew nothing about giving an interview. He was more worried about the ratings and less about educating the viewers.

When he’d brought up the idea of doing this for a halloween special, you laughed at him. There was no way he’d actually get one of them to agree. If you knew anything about them it was that they liked to be left alone. You were skeptical when he said he’d found one to interview, so when he asked for volunteers, you and Yoongi offered your services. The two of you figured if it turned out to be fake at least you'd get a mini vacation from the busy city.

You both leaned forward, heads tilted to the side and looked out the windshield as the giant house came into view. The house, along with everything around it, looked as if it was stuck in the Victorian ages.

“Is it possible to be turned on by a house?” Yoongi asked, putting the van in park.

“Knowing how much you love your architecture, for you it is.” You laughed as you took off your seatbelt and got out of the van.

“Look at it, Y/N. It’s fucking beautiful!” Yoongi stood beside you and put his arm around your shoulders, “Do you see those peaks?” Your eyes followed his hand as he pointed out all the features of the house. “Look at that molding and the windows! It’s like they just built the place. You don’t see many gothic Victorian houses that have all their original features like this.”

“The most modern thing here is the electricity. I’m trying to keep it as similar to the day I built it as possible.” You both turned your attention to the man who was standing on the steps by the front door. “You must be Y/N and Yoongi?” He stuck his hand out, “I am Park Jimin.”

You looked over the man as the three of you greeted each other and made small talk about the house. You were still very skeptical about him. He didn’t look at all like you’d pictured a vampire to look. He looked young, maybe in his mid to late twenties. His skin looked sunkissed and not pale like you’d imagined. To you, vampires were cold-hearted creatures with blood red eyes that would always have a look of disgust on their faces. His chocolate eyes and his bright smile were warm and friendly.

“You two must be exhausted from your trip. Why don’t we go inside? I’ll show you what rooms you’ll be staying in, then we can eat dinner and I’ll go over the rules before it gets late.”

“You eat real food?” You asked, taken aback by his mention of dinner.

“No. Normal food does nothing for my body. But you two are my guests and it would be rude of me to not join you.”

With Jimin’s strength and speed it took no time at all for the equipment to be unloaded from the van. You thought Yoongi was going to faint when the three of you stepped through the front door. The inside of the house also looked like it was trapped in time.

“How do you keep it so authentic?” Yoongi questioned while he slowly spun in circles with his mouth open.

“I built this house by hand and I don’t allow anyone else to do anything to it. I’m also extremely picky when it comes to who may enter and what they do. Now let’s go see your room, it’ll be nightfall in a few hours,” Jimin said, starting to ascend the stairs.

“Why did you want us here before nightfall?”

Jimin stopped at your question and looked at you. “Because, my love. The man you see before you is not the same as the beast that comes out underneath the moon.” A shiver went up your spine at the bone chilling smile that crossed his lips.

Still absorbed in the architecture of the old home and unaware of the conversation happening around him, Yoongi grabbed your wrist and pulled you up the stairs with him while he continued to ask Jimin more questions about the house.

Dinner was delicious with a lot more food on the table than either you or Yoongi could eat. Jimin apologized multiple times as he drank his concoction of wine and blood of the venison you were eating. He wasn’t used to having humans around and forgot how little some ate.

During dessert, Jimin went over the rules for the house. For someone who said he was picky about what people did while there, the rules were pretty simple. Don’t leave your room at night for any reason, he hunts during the night and has less control over what he’s doing. Don’t go exploring without him, the house had many tunnels and secret rooms, he didn’t want you to get lost. Lastly, if for some reason you must leave your room, do not go outside and do not go into the basement. He, along with other vampires, hunted in the woods near his house and he came in and out through the basement so that he wouldn’t get blood and dirt all over the house.

When the sky began to admit a fiery glow from the setting sun, Jimin hurried you along to your rooms. He wanted to make sure the two of you were safely in them before it completely set.

The morning came quicker than you liked. Your sleep was restless. You stayed up later than you should’ve writing new questions, and when you’d finally called it a night you were woken by the slightest noise. So, by the time Jimin came knocking to let you know it was safe and your food was ready, you practically flew out your door.

After breakfast you assisted Yoongi with setting up the equipment before you went and got ready to be on camera. This was the part you hated most about your job. Your boss insisted that all on camera personnel follow a dress code. For the men, it was a freshly ironed suit and tie with a pair of dress shoes. For the women, it was either a suit with a skirt or a dress, knee length to mid thigh, top needed to be a V cut showing just a hint of cleavage and a pair of heels. When it came to the mens hair, he was a little more lenient than he was with the women, who had to have theirs in a perfect bun.

Once your hair, makeup and clothes were perfect, you slowly went downstairs to join the other two in Jimin’s office.

“Five years and you still haven’t figured out how to walk in those?” Yoongi joked from behind Jimin as he hooked his mic up.

“Nope and I still hate the outfit,” You answered, removing your mic from the case.

Jimin cocked his head to the side and looked you over, “Then why do you wear it?”

“It’s part of the dress code. Hair up, makeup on, clothes perfect. Always be camera ready.” You repeated your boss’s motto.

“That’s a shame. You could’ve changed it while you’re here,” Jimin said with a tisk.

“Why?” You asked, fishing your mic through your shirt.

“I’m not sure it’s appropriate for me to say.”

You looked at him after clipping your mic. “Just say whatever it is, Jimin. I want you to feel comfortable enough to say what you want while we are here.”

“I can feel how uncomfortable you are. But I can’t tell if it’s just from the clothes or if it’s a mixture of them and me.”

“Well, I won't lie. It’s mainly what I’m wearing, but the fact that I’m showing a vampire my whole neck is a little off putting.”

“Well if it makes you feel any better, you have a very beautiful neck.” Jimin smirked when he heard your heart skip a beat at his words.

The sound of Yoongi clapping made you jump, “Ok, let’s do this.” He said, guiding each of you to your chairs, before adjusting the cameras one last time.

You adjusted yourself and took a deep breath. “Are you ready?” You asked Jimin.

“Yes I am.” The vampire grinned and cocked his head to the side, “Why are you suddenly so nervous?”

“What makes you think I’m nervous?” You fidgeted with your skirt and blouse, avoiding eye contact with him while you made sure you weren’t showing too much skin.

“I can feel it and I can tell by the sound of your racing heartbeat. Is it because I said you had a beautiful neck?”

“Yes,” Yoongi answered from behind the laptop before you could. “She finds you attractive and you compliment her. She now doesn’t know what to do with herself.” You turned and sent Yoongi a death glare because of how easily he spilled your secret.

Jimin laughed and looked at him. “Interesting. How come she’s not the same way with you? You’re a good looking man and I’ve seen you compliment her a few times.”

“Oh, that’s because we’ve already-”

“Alright, first question,” You interrupted Yoongi and redirected the focus back on the interview. “Jimin, how long have you been a vampire?”

“713 years,” He answered, still smiling from the previous conversation.

“What age were you when you were first turned?”

Jimin looked to the ceiling for a second as he thought, “I was 20. I’d gone out drinking with some friends and ended up being attacked by a rogue vampire on my way home.”

“What do you mean by a rogue vampire?”

“A rogue vampire is a vampire who doesn’t have a coven or family and is alone.”

“Do you have a coven?”

“Yes. Yes I do.”

“How can you tell the difference?”

“A rogue vampire is what humans normally think all vampires look like. They’re very sickly looking from a poor diet, thin, skin so pale it’s almost translucent.”

“Truthfully, I was shocked when I first met you yesterday. You don’t look at all like I’d pictured. You are so friendly and if I were to pass you on the street I’d have thought you were just like me.”

“I am like you in a way. When you become a vampire everything is stripped from you. Your life, your humanity. I just so happen to be one of the lucky few who was able to find a coven and get help quickly enough.”

“How did they help you?”

“The leader of my coven found me within a few hours of me being attacked. He brought me to the main house where I was taken care of and watched over. Because I wasn’t given the choice to be turned, once I was coherent enough I was given the option of either staying a vampire or dying. I was still young and wanted to live. So I made my decision to continue ‘living’ as a vampire. The following day I met with the coven’s witch and the rest is history.”

“A witch?”

Jimin let out a small laugh and nodded. “Yes, a witch. Every good coven has one. I won’t tell you how, but they give us protection. That’s how I’m able to be out in the sunlight for a certain amount of time and why I still look fully human during the day. And in return we protect them and help them in any way we can.”

You spent the next few hours sitting in Jimin’s office and walking around the property just casually talking. The piece of paper that was full of questions had long been forgotten the longer you chatted and learned more of his story.

You noticed a change in Jimin the later in the day it got. His normally chocolate colored eyes began to get a hint of red to them, and his usually calm composure started to crack.

“I think we can safely end the interview here,” You said as the three of you exited the garden. “The sun will be setting in a few hours and we still need to eat dinner.”

Jimin looked at the sky. “Huh, I didn’t even realize how late it was getting.”

“You might not have realized, but I can see the change in your body.” You said absentmindedly following Yoongi through the patio door.

Before you could blink Jimin was standing in front of you with a teasing smile on his face. “You’ve been paying attention to my body, Y/N?” he asked, walking backwards as you continued forward.

“I didn’t say that.”

“But you said you could notice the change. Which means you’ve been paying attention.”

You stopped walking and sighed. “Your irises are starting to turn red, which means you need blood. I noticed it last night. But they weren’t as bad because you were drinking some. Your hands are also starting to shake, and your mannerisms are becoming less friendly and more mischievous.”

“Do you prefer the friendly side or the mischievous side?” Jimin asked, and leaned in before whispering, “Pick your filter, Y/N. Because I can be whatever version you want me to be.”

You quickly stepped back and changed your direction to the kitchen. “Nope, nope, nope,” you repeated as you got a glass of water.

“Hey, Jimin? I have a question.” You thanked your lucky stars for Yoongi and his perfect timing. “It’s kind of personal so you don’t have to answer if you don't want to.”

“Please ask away,” Jimin encouraged, turning his attention from you to the other human in the room.

“What’s sex like as a vampire? Or do you guys even have sex?”

The water you were in the process of swallowing shot out of your mouth. Luckily you were still standing over the sink so what didn’t land on you went in it.

“Yoongi, I think you’re the first human to ever ask me that,” Jimin said, handing you a towel. “But to answer your question, yes we vamps do have sex and it’s a hundred times better than human sex.”

“How so?”

Jimin gently grabbed your wrist, stopping you when you tried to leave. “Stay for this, Y/N. You might find it interesting.” His tone was a mixture of playful and demanding. Strangely, you found yourself doing as he said. “As a human you are limited by what your body can handle, which isn’t very much. As a vampire there isn’t much that can kill us so we can be more creative. As a human you are only allowed to feel, smell and hear what your weakened senses will let you. But as a vampire our senses are heightened. We feel the slightest bit of movement, the slightest bit of touch, we can hear even the smallest of whimpers and the way our partners heartbeat changes when they are enjoying themselves. Not only does our high stamina make us last longer, but our strength and speed open up so many more possibilities.”

“I’m going to go edit before I get some sleep,” You said, finally able to step away from Jimin when Yoongi began to ask more questions.

“But what about dinner?” Yoongi asked when you grabbed the laptop off the island in front of him. “I still have snacks in my bag from the car ride here. I’ll be fine.”

“Are you sure?”

“Let her go Yoongi. Judging by the change in her heartbeat and the wave of emotions coming off of her, she might not seem like it, but she’s very much enjoying this conversation. Let’s get you something to eat and have a drink while we continue to talk.”

You didn’t even have to look at Jimin to know the vampire was currently wearing a mischievous grin.

You looked at the vampire while he stared out the window and drank his concoction of coffee and blood. Something was off with him this morning. His usual cheery and flirtatiousness was gone, he seemed distant and distracted.

“Hey, Jimin.” you said, trying to get his attention. “Do you mind if I interview you some more today? I thought of a few more questions last night.”

“That’s fine with me.” he answered, not looking away from the window. “But it can’t take as long as yesterday. Tonight is the harvest moon and I need to head out early so that I can get to the coven house before night falls.”

“What’s the harvest moon?”

“Have we started the interview already?”

You were taken back by the irritation in his voice. “No. But if you give us a few minutes we can get set up and ready.”

“I’ll meet you in the office.”

You and Yoongi watched in confusion as the vampire walked away, “What the hell was that?” Yoongi whispered once Jimin was out of sight.

“I…I don’t know.”

“Maybe he didn’t have any luck hunting last night.” Yoongi finished his coffee and stood up. “I’ll go get everything ready. You might want to hurry and get changed. I have a feeling his mood is just going to get worse.”

You nodded in agreement then got up, grabbing both of your dishes and taking them to the kitchen.

After setting a new personal record for doing your hair, makeup and getting dressed, you grabbed your shoes and sped walked to the office. Jimin was already mic’d up and waiting when you quickly entered the door.

“You shouldn’t run in someone else's house,” Jimin admonished, brushing some lint off his pants.

“I didn’t run,” You bit back, taking your mic from Yoongi.

“Whatever, let's just hurry this along.”

You looked at Yoongi and rolled your eyes before clipping on your mic and taking a seat.

“We’ve already had the introduction, so I’ll just get to the questions.” Jimin took one last sip of his drink before placing it on the floor. “But in order for it to look good could you please be less grumpy?”

“I am not grumpy.”

“Oh, right, sorry. Could you be a little less of a moody and sassy vampire. Please.” You gave him a tight smile and nodded to Yoongi that you were ready.

Jimin straightened himself and put on a happier face, “Better?”

“Yes, thank you.” You cleared your throat and crossed your legs, “What is the harvest moon?”

“It’s the busiest time of year in the supernatural world. It’s when we are at our strongest. It’s when our human side is the furthest away. The blood we drink tonight will be the richest. It is also the time of year when more of us are created by force. The rogues will be crawling out of whatever hole they’ve been living under and go out hunting for food. So those of us who aren’t feral will not only have to take care of our needs, but we’ll also have to keep our eyes and ears out for any humans being harmed.”

“What does that mean for mine and Yoongi’s safety? Are we safe here or should we leave?”

Jimin’s face turned serious, “The two of you will be fine if you follow the rules I established. As I told you earlier, I won't be here to make sure you’re in your rooms before nightfall. So I’m trusting you to do it yourselves.”

You nodded and gave him a soft “okay” before going to the next question. “We all know that werewolves have mates. Do vampires have them?”

“We aren’t dogs, Y/N. We don’t mate. But some of us are bonded, yes.”

“Are you bonded to anyone?”

“Why? Are you interested?”

Your heart skipped when he smirked and his eyes flashed red. “I..I..” you stuttered, trying to figure out how to answer him. “Do vampires sleep?”

Jimin laughed at your outburst. “Yes, Y/N. We only need a few hours for our bodies to recharge after feeding. So it’s more of a nap.”

You did your best to get through your questions as quickly as you possibly could, but due to Jimin’s ever changing mood it took longer than needed. He was out the door and on his way to his coven the moment you finished up; you along with Yoongi had reassured him you’d be in your rooms by nightfall.”

You and Yoongi decided to have your dinner on the patio overlooking the massive garden. It was your last night in the house after all and you didn’t want to spend it cooped up inside. So you grabbed your food and drinks with the intent to be back in once the sky began to change colors.

But after some drinks the two of you lost all track of time as you walked around, drinking your alcoholic beverages. Before you knew it the sun was almost set and you were in the middle of the maze at the furthest end of the garden.

“Yoongi, I think we should just start climbing the shrubs.” You held his hand tightly as the two of you turned yet another corner.

“We are almost to the entrance, Y/N. I promise.”

“How can you be so sure?”

“Because I remember that statue from when we first came in. Plus the lights from the house are getting brighter.” he pointed over the tall bushes.

“They’re getting brighter because it’s getting darker, Yoongi.” Your voice not hiding how frightened and worried you’d become.

“Y/N, look at me.” Yoongi took your face in his hands, “I’m going to get us out of here and inside safely. Okay?”

“Okay.” Yoongi grabbed your hand and placed a comforting kiss on it before he started walking again.

By the time the lights of the garden and the entire house came into view from the entrance it was dark out. You were shaking from both the chilly night air and the sounds coming from the woods around you.

“Here’s the plan.” Yoongi said, stopping the two of you just short of your freedom. “We run from here. Don’t let go of my hand until we are inside safely.” He waited until you gave him a nod before he started to count. “1...2…3!”

The two of you took off running, hand in hand, towards the house. Your feet just hit the steps of the porch when you were thrown to the side, ripping your hand from Yoongi’s grip.

The moment you were able to catch the breath that had been knocked out of you, you were on your feet. “Yoongi?” Your voice was low at first as your body tried to recover. “Yoongi?” Your voice was louder and your legs shook as you looked around for him.

“Get inside, Y/N!” He yelled running from the side of the house.

You wanted to run. Everything in you was telling you to, but you couldn’t move. Your feet were cemented in place the closer he got to you. You could see blood on his white shirt and he looked extremely pale. But you weren’t sure if it was from fear or the loss of blood. “Yoongi, what happened?” You asked.

“Inside now!” The second the those words left his mouth he was being thrown to the ground and pinned down.

A scream ripped through you as you watched the creature sink its teeth into his neck.

“Get off of me you son of a bitch!” Yoongi screamed as he tried his best to get the rogue vampire off of him.

You watched in horror as Yoongi grew weaker. He looked at you one last time and mouthed “go” before losing consciousness.

Something inside you finally snapped and you took off running for the door. But just like before you weren’t successful. Before you could get the door open a pair of cold hands dug their long nails into your arm and flung you to the ground. The vile creature's weight was on you before your body could register what happened. Your nostrils filled with the stench of death. It let out a hiss and you screamed when you felt the sharp pain of its teeth piercing your skin, and it began to suck every ounce of blood from your body. You tried to fight, but the rogue was strong and you were weakened from exhaustion and the blow to your head.

You could see a silhouette of someone coming around the corner of the house, just as your vision began to dim and your breathing shallowed. In a flash the rogue vampire's weight was off of you, you didn’t have the energy to see where it and the figure from the side of the house went.

The muffled sounds of fighting and yelling filled your ears while you laid there, waiting for your death to come. With your final breaths you could see five more figures beside the house. The figures grew larger as they sprinted their way over, one kneeling beside you and taking you in their arms.

You felt something warm press against your lips and somehow you could clearly hear the person say, “Drink.”

The next thing you knew you were waking up in your bed with a scream at the amount of discomfort you felt. Your senses were in overdrive, your head was pounding and your body felt strange.

Frightened, you curled up in a ball at the top of your bed when a man with broad shoulders entered your room. You couldn’t hear a word he was saying over the sound of his footsteps and beating heart. He tried his best to give you a comforting smile as he held up a note for you to read that said:

“This is Jin. He’s the coven's witch. He won’t hurt you. Drink what’s in the glass, it has a potion mixed with blood, that will settle your senses and pain. Meet us downstairs when you’re ready.” ~Jimin

Jin handed you the drink and carefully sat on the foot of the bed. The relief was almost instant after two drinks of the thick, warm liquid.

“Yoongi?” was the only thing your shaky voice would allow you to ask, feeling the relief of all the noise and discomfort.

“Yoongi is fine, he woke up two days ago. He’s downstairs with the rest of the coven.”

“How-”

“How long have you been asleep?” Jin urged you to drink some more while he finished your question. “You’ve been out for three days. Your body struggled with the change. For a while there we weren’t sure if you’d make it.”

“Who saved me?”

Jin sucked in a deep breath and gestured toward the cup, “Drink up and I’ll let you know what happened. We’d just gathered at our meet up location so that the vampires could switch out, the group that’d been hunting was going with me to continue surveillance while the group that’d been with me went hunting. We were chatting and trying to figure out our next move when we heard a scream.” he paused for a second and tilted his head. “Or should I say, they heard a scream? My hearing is nothing compared to theirs. Anyways, when the second scream rang out, we realized it was coming from the direction of Jimin’s house, so we took off. I am not as fast as the rest of them, so I hopped onto Jungkook's back. Jimin got there before the rest of us. They could smell the rogue the closer we got. So when he sped up and broke away from the group, we knew it was you who’d screamed. In all the years that I’ve known Jimin I’ve never once seen him so scared and angry like he was. By the time the rest of us made it to the house Jimin had already knocked the vile creature off of you and was in the process of ripping its head off. You and Yoongi were both on death's door steps when we first laid eyes on you. They only had a few seconds to act. So Namjoon slit his wrist and ran to you, while Hoseok did the same and went to Yoongi. You only needed to get a few drops of their blood in your system, which thankfully you did.”

“So we’re dead?”

“In a way, yes. You as a human are technically dead. But you as a vampire are still alive.”

“I think I’m ready to go downstairs.” you said finishing off the drink.

“Okay,” Jin stood up and helped you out of the bed. “Your body is still a bit unsure of what to do with itself, so just lean on me and I’ll do the walking.” he said putting your arm around his neck and wrapping one of his around your waist. “It will get better once you’re able to drink more. I promise.”

The walk to the where the group was in the dining room took a lot longer than it did when you were human. Jin was right, your body was still trying to adjust and you needed to stop a few times to rest.

“Y/N!” a loud thud filled the silence of the room when Yoongi stood up and knocked over his chair. “I am so sorry.” he whispered in your ear after taking you from Jin and hugging you tightly. “I should’ve been more vigilant. I should’ve run faster.”

“It’s okay.” you said trying to soothe him. “I’m just as much to blame as you are. We both made mistakes that night.”

The sound of someone clearing their throat reminded you two that there were other people in the room. “Oh, right.” Yoongi broke away from the hug and picked you up. “Come meet the coven.”

You studied the four strangers' faces as Yoongi carried you to a seat and sat down with you on his lap. He wasn’t ready to let you go just yet.

“It’s nice to see you awake, Y/N. I’m Namjoon, the leader of the coven.”

“You’re the one that gave me your blood?” You asked, causing his dimples to show when he smiled.

“Yes, yes I am.” he adjusted in his seat. “May I introduce you to the rest of my coven?” he asked, before pointing out and giving you the name of each vampire in the room. “This is Hoseok, Taehyung, Jungkook,” each of them gave you a smile and a hello in return,

“and of course you already know Jimin.”

Jimin didn’t say a word when you looked at him. He just sat there with a blank expression on his face.

“Don’t mind him.” Taehyung said, waving his hand toward Jimin. “He’s still trying to sort out his emotions.”

You looked at the vampire a few seats away in confusion. “His emotions about what?”

“You left the house when I told you not to,” you turned your attention back to Jimin who didn’t look at you as he spoke. “I trusted the two of you. If we’d been somewhere else or a second later…” his words trailed off and he stood up. “I’m going to the basement to get ready”

The seven of you watched wordlessly as he left the room.

“A lot has happened in the past three days.” Hoseok stood up, “Now that you're getting better he’ll settle down soon.” he added before going after Jimin.

“He needs to get his shit together now.” Jungkook grumbled, crossing his arms. “He should be here for this discussion. Whatever she decides will affect him and Yoongi way more than it will affect the rest of us.”

“What decision am I supposed to be making?” you asked, looking at Namjoon.

“Rather or not you want to keep living as a vampire. If you choose not to then…well.” Namjoon squirmed in his seat as he tried to find the words. “There’s no real gentle way to say it. If you choose not to… then Jin and I will make sure you feel as little pain as possible.”

“You should tell her the rest, Namjoon.” Jin spoke from beside the kitchen door.

“No, I don’t want it to sway her decision.”

“She’s already made her decisions. Unlike you, I already know what the outcome will be and we can all already feel a change in the coven.”

You shifted on Yoongi’s lap so that you could look at both Jin and Namjoon. “What is it? What do I need to know?”

Namjoon sighed, breaking the intense eye contact he was having with Jin. “If you choose to remain alive, our coven and its members will become stronger, because you won’t be just a vampire. You will be a bonded vampire.”

Your eyes widened in shock, “Bonded? With who?”

Namjoon shook his head, “I won’t tell you that or explain anything further. Not until you give me your decision.”

That was five days ago.

You and Yoongi chose to live your lives as vampires. For the past few days, you’d spent your time inside the house. The two of you were itching to go outside and be able to see what your new vampire bodies could do. But, because you were newly turned, you weren’t allowed out until you learned to control yourselves.

Yoongi sighed and looked out the window of the living room again, “How much longer?”

You rolled your eyes and turned the page of the book you were reading, “He’s only been gone a couple of hours. You know it takes him a while since he’s hunting for the three of us.”

“Has he said anything to you yet?”

“Only a few words. But according to Taehyung, he still has a lot of frustration.”

“That vampire needs to learn how to communicate better. The three of us could’ve been working on our bond if he wasn’t so stubborn.” Yoongi sighed and sat in the chair across from you.

“And you need to find a way to ease your restlessness, before you drive me insane.”

“I’m not restless.”

You closed your book, placed it beside you on the couch and looked at him, “You spend your nights pacing, waiting for him to return with a fresh supply. I, along with the other members have told you that you need to find a way to release all that energy or else it’ll be a problem when we can actually go hunt.”

Yoongi leaned forward, clasped his hands in front of him, “You find me attractive right?”

“You know the answer to that,” you replied curiously, wondering what he was thinking about.

“I think I know a way to get out some of this pent up energy we have.”

“What are you getting at?”

Yoongi stood up and slowly stalked his way toward you, “You know how, when we used to get bored while working and would sneak away to the supply room, or how sometimes when we had nothing better to do we’d end up at the other person's house?” He put your book on the coffee table and sat down beside you.

“Are you trying to tell me you want to have sex?” You asked, voice full of amusement.

“I’m saying that we should try. We knew each other's bodies pretty well while we were alive. It might be a little awkward at first because we’ve changed, but it’ll be fun to see what we are capable of now.”

Your eyes and ears scanned to see if anyone was near the house. You made sure the coast was clear before answering him. “Okay, let's try it.” you put one leg on the couch so that you could face him. “Let's take it slow. And we both need to pay attention to make sure Jimin doesn’t walk in on us.”

“We could always just ask him to join,” Yoongi quipped with a mischievous grin as he slowly leaned toward you.

You both froze when your lips brushed against each other, neither of you were expecting such a strong feeling from such a light touch. You took your time sitting there and exploring each other's fully clothed bodies. Every intimate touch felt orgasmic and it made you both wonder what an actual orgasm as a vampire would feel like.

After what felt like an eternity you grabbed the back of Yoongi’s neck, pulling his lips to yours. Your body's reaction was stronger than either one of you ever expected. The two of you became lost in each other as you kissed, nipped and let your hands explore further than they’d done before.

Yoongi, irritated with your shirt, used his strength to tear it off of your chest. You laid back on the armrest, arched your back and softly cursed at the feeling of his soft tongue circling around your nipple. The two of you were in a field of ecstasy and you knew if you didn’t pace yourselves you’d both cum way before you wanted to.

The second your hip began to move, rubbing your covered core against Yoongi’s abs, you felt a hand gently tilt your head back.

“Easy, love,” Jimin whispered in your ear, “or you’ll finish before the fun even starts.”

You couldn’t speak. You laid there panting and looked down at Yoongi who was still exploring your torso with his hands and mouth. Yoongi’s eyes landed on Jimin and then back at you with a smirk as he kissed, nipped and sucked his way to your panty line.

“Just fucking rip them off,” you said breathlessly.

The feeling of Jimin’s hands on your chest as Yoongi tossed your underwear to the side and kissed his way up your inner thigh made your eyes roll back when the most intense feeling of pleasure you’d ever felt spread throughout your body.

“Make her cum, Yoongi,” Jimin’s breath fanned across your neck as he spoke. “Don’t hold back. I want her to feel what it’s like to be fucked as a vampire.”

Your body was about to explode with the mixture of pleasure and pain that flooded your senses. Yoongi didn’t hesitate and quickly began his attack on your womanhood with his mouth. While at the same time Jimin attached his mouth to your neck, the feeling of his extended fangs breaking your skin before he began to gently suck was its own thrill.

You came harder than you ever had, screaming and cursing both of their names. You could hear the fabric of the couch begin to tear as your nails dug into it.

You opened your eyes the second Jimin’s fangs left your neck. Before you could catch your breath, he used his strength and speed to position you on all fours the moment Yoongi moved away to sit on the arm of the sofa.

You took Yoongi’s stiff cock in your mouth while Jimin adjusted your legs on the couch. You let out a muffled moan when Jimin’s hand smacked one of your ass cheeks before he slammed his cock inside of you.

Pleasure coursed through your body along with theirs as you took both men at the same time. Using Jimin’s movements to your advantage, the harder and faster his thrusts became, the harder and faster your mouth moved over Yoongi’s cock.

“Fuck, I’m getting close,” Yoongi hissed and moved your hair so that he could see you better. “God, Y/N.”

Jimin, not too far from his own orgasm, reached one hand under you to rub your clit before picking up his pace.

You were the first to cum with the men quickly following.

Once again before either of you could recover, your positions were switched. Your body wanted more. It needed more.

This time it was just you and Jimin on the couch. Yoongi moved over to the chair he was sitting in earlier. He stroked himself and watched you both as you chased your highs again.

The house filled with your moans and pleas while Jimin thrusted into you as hard and fast as he could. At some point you put your hands on the arm of the couch behind your head to use as leverage. When that broke under the pressure, Jimin scooped you up in his arms and laid you across the coffee table.

You turned your head to the side and watched Yoongi, sitting on the edge of his seat, biting his lip and stroking himself at the same pace as Jimin moved. His knuckles whitened and his breathing quickened as you let one of your hands roam his bare chest.

Jimin's hand gently touched your cheeks and turned your attention back to him. “Don’t you ever die on me again. You hear me,” he said, not slowing his pace. “You are ours!” He looked at Yoongi before continuing. “You are both of ours.” He then motioned for Yoongi to get closer. “We are going to mark you so that everyone knows who you belong to.”

A new feeling of excitement took over your body as you nodded in understanding.

You replaced the hand Yoongi was using to pleasure himself with your own, allowing both men to have a hand free to roam your body. Both of their mouths moved to your neck. You moaned at the feeling of their mouths.

The second the pleasure inside your bodies came to its breaking point the two of them sank their fang into your neck, marking you as theirs.The feeling of the connection coming alive left the three of you speechless for a few moments as you laid there.

“Just so we are clear,” Jimin whispered breathlessly in the crook of your neck. “You know what we just did right?”

“Yes,” you answered, allowing your eyes to flutter closed as the comfort of being near both men took over. “I now wear the markings of our bond.”

The three of you moved to the floor where you laid and just enjoyed the feeling of being close to each other.

“Come on you two.” Yoongi said, standing up with a stretch after almost an hour. “I’m hungry.”

You opened your eyes when you felt Jimin’s weight leave your body, “I think I worked up a small appetite.” You grabbed the hand Jimin offered, helping you up.

“If your appetite is only small, then we can keep going to work up a bigger one,” he smirked.

“Jimin, our bodies aren’t as used to this as your’s. How about we slowly work up to the all-nighters,” Yoongi retorted, wrapping the throw blanket from the back of the couch around you.

Jimin sighed and rolled his eyes. “Fine.”

#jimin x reader #bts jimin #jimin #yoongi #yoongi x reader #bts smut #bts one shot #bangtan #bts #jimin smut #yoongi smut #vampire jimin #bangtanwhq #jimin x yoongi x reader #vampire yoongi

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velvetdaisies333 · 4 years ago

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OMG UR CAIUS FIC WAS SO GOOD COULD YOU DO SOMETHING AB ARO PLEASE

a/n: Thank you so much! I’m very excited to write for Aro, he’s one of my favourite characters, more so because of Michael Sheen’s performance. I put a slight reference to something in this, you might catch it if you know other projects Michael Sheen has been in, but you might not, and that’s alright. Hope you enjoy <3

another a/n: I did put one or two feminine terms in this work, such as ‘mia regina’ which is ‘my queen’ in Italian, so do skip over it or replace it with something else if you’d like. I love writing this type of material in the middle of my classes, it adds so much adrenaline to not get caught.

Aro Volturi With A Human Mate

Instead of being angry and frustrated like Caius, Aro was more excited.

Like as if he was getting ready for a big party.

A human for a mate was inevitable for some vampires, of course, but Aro didn’t expect to be included in the some.

He was excited since it was rare for such high profile vampires to socialize with humans.

Aro often gushed to his brothers, excited to meet you, but also for them to meet you.

He wanted to host a ball for your welcome.

But Marcus noted that it would probably be slightly frightening for you to be in a room full of vampires.

Most of the vampires would look at you as if you were some sort of a snack.

Because it Marcus’ comment, Aro assumed it would be a greater choice to send an invitation to a tour of the castle.

Free of cost, of course.

When you had received the invitation, you were beyond excited.

An invitation to a tour of an ancient castle with endless legends, for free?

Absolutely.

The tour was the next day, so of course you were slightly nervous.

When the tour commenced, a very pretty woman named Heidi lead the tour group.

She began to speak of secrets of the castle, as well as secret corridors and legends.

Some things a normal tour guide would most likely have no idea about.

Heidi then looked in your direction, and smiled brightly at you.

“It’s very lovely here. I’m sure you’ll love it.”

Just when she had finished her sentence, she opened the doors where there were three men sitting in thrones, and what seemed to be 4 guards.

The man who sat in the middle, greeted everyone and began speaking greatly of the castle.

He had only stopped when he motioned for your tour guide, Heidi, to come forward.

She did as told, and held her hand out towards him.

You would have thought it was to greet him, but it seemed like he was concentrated, or zoned out.

“Magnifico! I will get Demetri to escort them.” (Translation: “Magnificent! I will get Demetri to escort them.”

A man who you assumed was Demetri, walked in your direction.

“Come with me, all will be alright, rest assured. However, do not look behind you.”

You went with him, doing as he said, but immediately turned around when the rest of the tour began screaming.

“What the hell was that?!”

Demetri just grabbed your wrist and brought you upstairs.

“Just stay in here, I’ve been instructed to keep you under my eye. Aro will explain everything to you.”

“Aro?”

“The man who sat in the middle throne.”

You nodded, and decided to sit on one of the window seats.

You wanted to ask Demetri as many questions as you wanted to, but you didn’t want to bother him, or disrupt him from his job.

When the door had opened and Demetri bid his farewells, you had turned around and saw Aro.

“You must be Y/n, correct?”

“Yeah, and you’re Aro?”

“I am, I assume you have a good amount of questions?”

You nodded, and Aro moved swiftly but smoothly towards the opposite side of the window seat.

“May I?”

“Of course.”

He sat opposite to you, and smiled slightly at you.

“There’s no need to be afraid of me, or the others. You’re the most safe you could ever be in the castle. I promise you, I will keep you safe.”

“May I ask why the rest of the tourists were screaming when I left?”

“I sense that that question should be answered later, appropriately.”

You were slightly frightened as to what the final answer would be, it could be anything.

Perhaps there was a reenactment of the past after you had been escorted, one of the tourists got pushed and the rest screamed since one of them fell, or the worst:

They were murdered.

“I feel like I already know what happened.”

“I sense that you do know, too. I will tell you everything in a moment. But for now, would you care to lend me your hand?”

You trusted Aro, though you were positive your ancestors were screaming from above or below not to trust him.

You held your hand out in front of him, and before he held your hand in his own, he asked for permission or something else.

“I want you to think of the happiest memory you have stored in your mind, I will describe it to you. I will not see anything else besides the things you want to show me, unless I have your permission.”

You thought of a memory, and then placed your hand in Aro’s palm.

He covered the back of your hand with the palm of his other hand, then he began telling you small details of your chosen memories you had even forgotten about.

When he was finished, he brought his head up from looking down, and smiled at your face of bewilderment.

“That is so cool! Is that like your superhero power?”

Aro smiled widely at your interest in his gift, and began explaining what his was.

“I have a gift, it’s called tactile telepathy. I can read everyone’s thoughts and memories with a single touch. The others in this coven have multiple different gifts, they help keep us safe.”

“So you’re all like superheroes?”

“Vampires, darling.”

After that, Aro enjoyed seeing your memories whenever you two were apart for some sort of time.

Especially say you were having a difficult time attempting to explain something to him, he would hold your hand and immediately understand what you were trying to say.

“I understand you, cara mia. I always will.”

And he was right, he understands you in every way possible.

Aro memorized your body language on how you react to different things, as well as your facial expressions.

When you’re uncomfortable with something, he will do absolutely everything in his power to make you comfortable.

Aro will burn down the entire world for you.

When it’s time for you to go to sleep, you best believe that Aro set up the most lavish and comfortable room for you.

The best and most comfortable bed, of course.

You lay down on his chest, and he brushes the hair out of your face, admiring your tired eyes looking back at him.

��Would you like for me to read to you, dearest?”

You nodded your head, and Aro would get up from wherever he was seated, swiftly retrieve a book, lay back down next to you, and begin reading.

He loved having you hold his hand while he read, it lets him see what you’re imagining the scene that he’s reading to you.

And when you fell asleep while he was reading, he would be so very content.

You curled up next to him, sound asleep on his chest.

Aro adored seeing what you were dreaming.

He loved how humans brains worked while they were sleeping, keeping your mind entertained with multiple little scenarios.

When you woke up, however, Aro would prefer to have you describe your dreams, if you remembered them.

He loved to learn more about humans, especially in the modern age.

And you loved to learn more about vampires, especially in the ancient times.

Aro would often tell you stories of each coven he encountered, his old family and friends, and his past human life.

As much as he wants you to be changed into a vampire like the rest, he can’t help but smile whenever you got slightly nervous around him, stuttering over your words, and hiding your face with your hands out of embarrassment.

He pays attention to little details about you.

Especially your eyes.

Even the shade of your eyes stops him from changing you. Your eyes wouldn’t be as unique anymore, they’d be the same red as everyone else’s.

“You have the most magnificent shade of colour in your eyes, mia regina. I simply cannot get enough of them.”

Being absolute best friends with Demetri.

But wherever Demetri was, Felix wasn’t too far behind.

You three are like a troublemaker trio, always causing trouble and pulling pranks on different members of the guard.

Never Jane or Alec, though. Unless it was a scheduled board game night or something along the lines.

Which Alec loved to take away different players senses, allowing him to cheat in the games you’d play.

He doesn’t do it all the time, though.

Marcus was a lot more welcoming towards you, perhaps more than anyone else.

Whenever Aro couldn’t, he’d show you different areas of the castle you hadn’t seen yet, and would give you wonderful pieces of advice along the way.

“Remember to stay true to yourself, never let anyone think for you.”

Aro will spoil you insanely.

If you mention a specific piece of clothing even once, you better expect that when you wake up the next morning, Aro has an elegantly wrapped package placed at the foot of your bed with a note written in fine handwriting.

“Mia amato, I have seen you speak of this article of fabric, and I have gone out of my way to make sure you have every little thing you admire. I need you to be the happiest you can possibly be. Please accept my gift, and meet me by the gardens by noon. I’ll see you then. Cordialmente, Aro.”

You two have annual walks throughout the garden, usually during golden hour. The sun still above, but setting at the same time, making it seem like Aro was made of a trillion Tiffany Yellow Diamonds.

He loved finding a flower that suited your mood for the day, and putting it behind your ear.

“My beautiful.”

You two often walked either arm in arm, or hand in hand, but sometimes you would hold him closer with your arm wrapped around his waist, your head leaning on his side or shoulder.

Often times, when the moon is visible, you would slow dance together, looking at each other with smiles on your faces, just appreciating each other’s presence.

Usually, Aro would come back into the castle around 2 in the morning, carrying your sleeping self up to your shared room, after you had fallen asleep on his shoulder while sitting in the garden.

The rest of the kings and guards would be predominantly more happy than from before you had arrived.

You had given Aro something to look forward to after trials and mountains of work, something he didn’t have for hundreds of years.

Though, Caius was still slightly jealous of you.

You had practically stolen one, if the not the most, needed member of the vampire world. Aro was nearly as focused on you than he was on trials and legislature.

He’d warm up to you eventually.

At least, you hoped.

Speaking of trials, you wanted to sit in and watch the trials, to see what it was about, and how it worked.

You knew the most of it, of course, Aro had already told you. But you wanted to see it live.

Aro was quick to say no, he didn’t want you to get hurt, or worse, killed.

He understood what would happen to him if his mate was killed, Marcus was the example. He couldn’t even bear the thought of you not being by his side.

Though, you owning the key to his heart, convinced him to let you watch, letting both Jane and Alec stay on either side of you, protecting you if anything were to go wrong.

You would usually sit on Aro’s lap, and then the throne when he had to see what was truly going on by using his gift.

Jane usually stood on the left of the throne, and Alec on the right.

Mainly since Caius sat on the throne in the left, and Jane loved to torture the criminals.

He loved the front seat view.

Constant look backs of reassurance to make sure that you’re alright.

Nearly always having your hand in his.

Forehead kisses.

Constantly bringing the back of your hand up to his lips.

Getting the absolute best care in the world, health wise especially.

When Aro proposed, it was in the bedroom the both of you share, and he was reading some poetry to you.

All was going swell, and then he got to one page.

“I can write no stately poem

As a prelude to my lay;

From a poet to a poem

I would dare to say.

For if of these fallen petals

One to you seem fair

Love will waft it till it settles

On your hair.

And when wind and winter harden

All the loveless land.

It will whisper of the garden,

You will understand.”

At the end, you were leaned up closer to him, looking at him in awe.

He closed the book, and placed it aside gracefully, before leaning slightly closer to you. Placing his hands overs yours.

“Do you remember who wrote that, cara mia?”

“I do. That’s Oscar Wilde, right?”

“That’s right. There’s so much I want to say to you, especially in this particular moment, but I don’t think there’s enough words to express my love and affection towards you. I’ve known you for a little while, and I can feel the bond between us, and I know you can feel it, too. The universe has guided us together, and I am so very thankful for every second we have spent together, and I’m even more thankful for the rest of eternity we have. However, I am the most thankful of the fact that I have the most gorgeous human as a mate. I love you so much, anima mia. Will you do me the best thing that could ever happen to me in my thousands of years, and marry me?”

You said yes, obviously, who wouldn’t?

You leaned over to press your lips against his, as he held one side of your face with one hand, and the other hand slid a ring on your ring finger.

While Aro wanted an extremely lavish wedding, with all the diamonds in the world, you wanted something more of a homely essence.

So you compromised, and had a bit of both.

Aro invited nearly every vampire to the wedding, wanting to show you off in every way he could.

The Denali’s, Cullens, Irish coven, everyone was invited.

Except for the Romanian coven, Vladimir and Stefan. Not trusting them to be in your presence.

The wedding was held in the garden, the arch where Aro stood had your favourite flowers intertwining around it, with diamonds pressed in the centre of each individual flower.

Demetri walked you down the isle, smiling proudly when he handed you over to Aro.

Proud that his leader had finally found true love, and that one of his best friends is finally where they need to be.

After the official wedding ceremony, the rest of the night and day were spent smiling and showing off each other to the guests.

When the night ended, it was finally time for you to be changed to a vampire.

Aro sat by the bed were sitting on, making sure that you were absolutely ready to be converted to a vampire for the rest of eternity.

“Are you ready, my darling?”

You nodded your head, and Aro took one final look into your coloured eyes, attempting to remember every small detail of them.

Aro then moved your hair away from your neck, before placing his lips over where he would finally bite down and turn you immortal.

“Just say when, and I’ll see you after.”

#twilight x reader #twilight preferences #twilight #twilight imagine #aro volturi #aro twilight #volturi preferences #volturi kings #aro #volturi #aro volturi imagine #aro volturi x reader #aro volturi oneshot #twilight aro #volturi oneshot #volturi imagine

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spanishskulduggery · 4 years ago

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Do you know of any fossil words in Spanish, words that used to be common but fell out of use and are now only preserved in idioms? I tried looking on Google but all the results were English-only examples

I'll try and think of some others but here are the ones that come to mind; and I’m not sure all of these will be what you’re looking for.

si fuere menester = "in the event of" el menester used to be fairly common especially in the Medieval period, where it was another word for "need" or "necessity". Today you only see menester in si fuere menester which is an unusual construction as it is, since fuere is the future subjunctive - which is an obsolete tense - and so it literally means "should it be necessary". This expression only now shows up in contracts and legal contexts normally as "in the event of"

donde fueres haz lo que vieres = "when in Rome... (do as the Romans do)" Again, this is future subjunctive; literally "wherever you go, do what you see".. but in a more obtuse future subjunctive way "wherever you should happen to go, do whatever you may happen to see"

la urdimbre y trama = "warp and weft" The idea of this is related to "weaving", and though this phrase is rather antiquated or particular, it occasionally shows up as something like la urdimbre y trama de la sociedad or something where that's "the fabric of society". It's not the way you say that so much now [el tejido or la tela are more common], but urdir "to warp" was related to working a loom. You still do use tramar but it's not often that you see it related to weaving anymore... tramar is "to plot" or "to hatch a scheme", but you can see how "weaving" would go into "plotting"

so pena de = "under pain of" You don't often see so used in Spanish today, since it's a more direct link to Latin and Italian. And today la pena rarely means "pain" in the physical sense, it usually means "sorrow" or "anguish"... but again in legal cases, so pena de muerte is "under pain/penalty of death"

a diestra y siniestra = "all over the place" This expression literally means "to the right and left". The word diestro/a is still "right-handed" (also means "skillful" or "dexterous"), but siniestro/a used to mean "left-handed"... the idea that the left hand was more evil and "sinister", and "under-handed". In older contexts, siniestro/a means "left-handed", but in modern contexts you say zurdo/a for "left-handed"

al tuntún = "impromptu", "improvise", "on the fly", "by ear" This expression is derived from Latin, ad vultum tuum which is literally "to your face" in Latin. You never see tuntún anymore unless something is done al tuntún but it might be more regional; it just means you're making it up as you go

dormir como un ceporro = "to sleep like a log" Most people today say dormir como un tronco which is the same idea; el ceporro is a variation but it's extremely unusual to see it. Most people will use tronco if they have to

tuerto/a = one-eyed I'm actually not sure if people use tuerto/a still, since there are other ways to say "blind in one eye" or "one-eyed". In older Spanish, tuerto could show up as a "grievance", but in the expression en el reino de ciegos el tuerto es rey is still used sometimes, literally "in the kingdom of blind people, the one-eyed man is the king"

(el) haba = bean [technically haba is feminine] Not common to see el haba used much anymore except in certain contexts, and it's the root of la habichuela "bean". In Spain, sometimes haba is "idiot" so if you see el tonto del haba it's like "the biggest idiot that ever lived"

Vuestra Merced = "Your Lordship/Ladyship" This is the original form of it, but it eventually turned into usted "you" used for polite things. The title was Vuestra Merced and it was how you addressed someone without knowing their title, so it became very polite. In older Spanish you'd abbreviate it as Vd. which eventually became Ud. as the abbreviation for usted. Keep in mind that at a certain point in time, Spanish wrote the U sound as a V, and it followed more of the Latin pronunciation where the V had a softer U/W sound at times. Outside of Spain and works set in older time periods, you're unlikely to use vuestro/a - it even became informal plural "you all" in Spain - but you rarely ever see merced used. Chances are you're only going to see it was vuestra in front of it. But just know that vos has a very different meaning today than it did in the Middle Ages

meter/sembrar cizaña = "to sow discord" You're never going to see cizaña used in any other context unless you happen upon some botanical book. The literal translation is "darnel" which is sometimes called "false wheat"; basically la cizaña looks like trigo "wheat", and it grows close to wheat but it often has a fungus that's poisonous so you need to separate it. The idea behind it is that if you're deliberately planting cizaña you're actively trying to poison someone or make things worse

la celestina = "a go-between, a mediator" This word comes directly from La Celestina a novel written in Spain's Golden Age by Fernando de Rojas. In it there's a woman named Celestina who sets up meetings between women living in convents (who weren't always nuns) and men; acting as a go-between and chaperone for love affairs basically. The term was also la alcahueta but became celestina after the character in the book. Certain characters in literature are considered celestinas like the Nurse in Romeo and Juliet; basically the girl/woman can't risk her reputation so she has her maid or chaperone working to arrange things, and they're often the catalyst for things going wrong. In other contexts, celestina or una alcahueta is a "pimp" or "madame", or sometimes "a gossip"

pardo/a = brown, brownish-gray Today you’re only really going to see pardo/a used with animals. Specifically, el oso pardo is a “grizzly bear”, and pardo/a can be used with horses as “dun”. I don’t know if “grizzly bear” counts as an expression but anyway. In older Spanish pardo/a was another word for “brown” when it came to people too. Today, if you’re describing hair color as “brown/brunette” you’re using castaño which is literally “chestnut”, either castaño claro “light brown” or castaño oscuro “dark brown”. When it comes to things that are brown, the typical word is now marrón or sometimes you see it as color café which is “coffee-colored”

ser un caco = to be a thief Not commonly used as ladrón, ladrona “thief”, but un caco literally means “a Cacus”. Basically, Cacus was a mythological figure who stole some cattle and Hercules killed him. In some places people use un caco to mean “thief” as a euphemism

la Parca = the Grim Reaper Orginally, las Parcas were the Parcae in Roman (originally Greek) mythology. They were the sisters of fate who would measure someone’s life and eventually cut the thread. Today, it’s just one Parca and it’s typically a male figure, skeletal, with a scythe as the “Grim Reaper”, rather than it being a woman with scissors. That’s because during the Plague, people thought of Death as being a skeletal figure that held a scythe, the symbol for “reaping” wheat that was ripe.

manjar de los dioses = “nectar of the gods” / a delicacy el manjar is used in some places in certain contexts but it originally came from Italian as “food” or something “to eat”. Today, manjar is usually a “snack”, or in some cases it’s dulce de leche, but most of the Spanish-speaking world doesn’t use manjar so much. It is sometimes “delicacy”, but in older contexts it was code for “ambrosia”, the thing that the Greek gods couldn’t get enough of. The world manjar still feels very antiquated to me, but when it’s used it’s some kind of good food or eating a lot of food

valer un potosí = “to be worth a fortune” un potosí is pretty antiquated, but it came from the city Potosí in Bolivia which was famous for its silver mines that the conquistadores exploited. There are still some places that will use potosí as “something of great value”, though it’s not so common anymore unless you’re talking about the actual city.

moros y cristianos = “beans and rice” Usually it’s black beans and white rice, though this is literally “Moors and Christians”. You still use cristiano/a today but typically you only use moro/a in a historical sense

Also there’s the expression más sordo/a que una tapia where it means someone is really hard of hearing; literally “as deaf as a garden wall”, but I’ve never seen people use tapia ...only a muro or a cerca as “wall” or “fence”. The idea of tapiar is related to “mortar” and “masonry”

There are also some expressions related to metal and older words for it. For example, saturnino/a is an older word for “gloomy”, though it now refers to “lead-poisoning”. Saturn was linked to “moodiness” in alchemical society, and the symbol for Saturn was the older symbol for “lead”.

This is similar to how áureo/a is “gold” but also linked to the “sun” because the Sun and gold are linked.

Another is el azogue which is the older word for mercury so it’d be “quicksilver”. You may see azogarse in some texts where it means “to be fidgetty” and it’s related both to mercury-poisoning, and probably to the idea of Mercury/Hermes being the messenger god so always on the move.

There is also hidalgo/a which doesn’t have quite the same meaning it did originally. Today, hidalgo/a is sort of like “having noble blood”. It literally means “son of something/someone”, where originally in Spain hidalgos were the children of nobles - specifically, it tended to refer to the children of nobles who weren’t the firstborn male. Firstborn sons often got about 2/3 of the money and were expected to run the estates. The second or third or fourth children were usually on their own. It became a running joke that the firstborn became the lord, and the others would either join the army or the clergy. In Cervantes’s time, hidalgos could be among the poorest of society, even poorer than slaves in some cases. They were still “noble” in terms of blood though, and hidalgos couldn’t be tortured by the Inquisition because of it. So they were afforded certain rights, but usually tended to be poor or lower than you’d expect a noble to be. Today it just means “of nobility”, but in Cervantes’s time a hidalgo was the symbol of Spain under the Holy Roman Empire - wealthy and noble and glorious in theory, much poorer in reality.

I'd also add the phrases levar ancla "to raise anchor" or "anchors aweigh/away", where levar is rarely used today aside from nautical terms. Similarly, izar la bandera is "to hoist the flag"... not a lot of chances to use izar if it's not related to "flags" or la vela "a sail"

I also would say errar is less common today in Spanish. It's still used, but you normally say cometer un error "to make a mistake". Still, errar es humano, perdonar es divino "to err is human, to forgive divine". Also errar is weirdly irregular at times, it turns into yerro as present tense yo

And I’m also going to include when la manzana means a “city block”. Today manzana is not rare, it means “apple”. But manzana as a “city block” was originally mansana where it meant a “collection of manses/houses arranged in a block on a grid”. So there’s that. If you ever see manzana used for blocks in a city, it’s technically a separate word

Also depending on context el mar “sea” will be la mar with the feminine article. That’s usually more particular, usually meaning “open water” or deeper waters like alta mar “high seas”. The more poetic or open the water is, the more likely it is to be feminine, and so la mar isn’t quite so antiquated but it’s a little special

#Spanish #language #langblr #langauges

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btsficsforthehumble · 4 years ago

Text

adj.: 1. Modern, unfamiliar, or different

2. Not based on or conforming to what is generally done or believed

pairing: reader x ot7

genre: college au; angst, fluff, smut, poly, ot7

Summary: You begin your first year at a prestigious university, set out on achieving your academic goals when a series of men step into your life that change the way you view the definition of love.

Part Four

Warnings: explicit language

Word count: 2k

Your alarm forces you out of a deep sleep at eight on the dot. Groaning, you blindly press the snooze button and flip your face into your pillow, not quite ready to deal with a new day. You let yourself doze for a few minutes, longing for the dark pull of sleep to take you back.

Now, you had to be at your class in under an hour and you were stressed. Seeing how much time had passed in your drowsy state allowed a fire to be lit under your butt, encouraging you to quickly jump in the shower and get ready for the day. All the while, all you wanted to do was answer the call of your abandoned bed.

After rushing around your apartment, you finally stepped out in some light brown corduroys and an embroidered blouse tucked into the waist. A light jacket thrown over top, you felt put together enough to start your day. Even with the rush, you managed to grab a couple of your million muffins from your baking spree yesterday and a to-go mug of coffee. You learned your mistake yesterday, when you showed up to morning classes without caffeine to push you through.

Walking across campus, you watch other students scurry off to their own morning classes. It still being the first week of the semester, most people hadn’t lost the motivation to go to their early classes just yet. You really hope that you won’t fall victim to that… you can’t afford to skip in a class you struggle with.

Once you arrive at your classroom, you head to the same spot you sat last class, and plop your bag down as you get your muffin out to eat before class. Setting it out, you sip your coffee and scroll though your phone, checking your inbox that had accumulated honestly way too many emails overnight.

Your eyes glued to your phone, you don’t even notice when a large hand swipes the muffin right off your desk.

Still absorbed in an email about volunteering for a local animal shelter, you hear someone sit loudly in the seat behind you. Ignoring it, you continue to read though the details of the email --- it looked like the animal shelter for your city, Autumn Leaves Adoption Center, was accepting new volunteers and was looking for students from your university specifically. You had always had a huge soft spot for animals, so you were excited at a chance to spend time helping out.

You glance up from your phone when you finish, and immediately notice your muffin missing from it’s spot on your desk. Bewildered, you begin to search around the classroom with your eyes to locate the stolen baked good. Not finding it with anyone on your sides or in front of you, you swing around to check out the suspects hiding from view.

Ding ding ding!

You found it. Well, you found half of it. The attractive boy that had pestered you yesterday had the other half of your precious muffin stuffed in his cheeks like some sort of squirrel. Caught, he gives the best grin he can with his mouth full, including his eyes crinkling and his eyes shining with mischief.

“Excuse me, you can’t just steal people’s breakfasts right off their desks! Who raised you?!” you whisper yelled. You could feel the blood rush to your cheeks from being flustered, and hoped he couldn’t see.

“Wuh yahr warn ehten et,” he replied, cheeks still full.

“Ugh, at least swallow first you animal!”

“Well, you weren’t eating it,” he flashes a grin.

“Um, excuse me sir, who allowed you to go around stealing people’s food the second you deem them to be not interested in it,” you snapped.

“Oohhh, can you say that again?” As he spoke, he raised an eyebrow while his eyes traveled up your body.

“Say what?” Your flat tone gave away your high level of irritation at him.

“Call me sir again, sweetheart. I think you and I both liked it,” he leaned forward as he spoke. His gaze was challenging, almost to see if you were able to handle him.

The truth is, if this asshole hadn’t just stolen your goddamn muffin you’d be happy to do so --- outside of the classroom --- anytime. The guy, you remember being named Taehyung, had gorgeous dark curls that anyone would dream about pulling on. His dark eyes were enigmatic, and by every definition intense. Tanned skin, clear and smooth only made him seem more ethereal. HIs natural looks, coupled with an artistic and sophisticated fashion sense, made him look like a character of a k-drama.

But, this guy had some audacity if you’ve ever seen any. So, you weren’t going to give into his charm as easily as he wanted.

Slowly, you lean forward on his desk, allowing him to get a good view of your tits while you lift a hand to his mouth, to swipe away excess crumbs that had been forgotten during his cookie monster moment. You lightly trace his bottom lip with the pad of your thumb, pushing down just hard enough for the flesh to ripple.

His eyes become more hooded, obviously thinking he had won you over with his charms.

“Why would I call someone sir, if they need to clean up after like a child, hmm?” You dropped your voice as you spoke, not only trying to limit prying ears but also to give yourself a more sultry sound.

You lean back and retract your arm. But instead of letting it drop, you raise the hand you had reached out to him to your face, and pop your thumb into your mouth. While your lips are still encircling your thumb, you let your eyes meet his.

Honestly, you weren’t expecting him to look as affected as he does. His eyes are narrow, surely from your jibe. However, you see that he seems to be breathing a little heavier than before, and that his hands were gripping the edges of his desk with more force than would be considered normal. This makes the veins and tendons pop on his already large and beautiful hands and you can’t help but let your eyes linger on them for a little.

“Mmm, I did a good job with these muffins, I can tell even with just crumbs,” you say after popping your thumb out of your mouth.

Catching you off guard, a cheery voice asks from over your turned around shoulder, “Oooo, are you sharing muffins? I love muffins!”

You turn around in your seat quickly in response. “Oh, uh, yeah.” You bend over and grab the other muffin you brought with you, thinking you’d eat it as a snack later in the day. Oh well.

You hand the muffin over, and quickly realize this is the same guy that sat in front of you yesterday, the cute one with the even cuter smile.

“Yay! Thank you so much! You’re my new favorite person!” he declared. He was giving you a smile even bigger than the one that you had swooned over prior, and really looked like the embodiment of sunshine. “My name is Hoseok, but you can call me Hobi.”

“I’m y/n! And don’t worry about the muffin, I have about a million back at home. I went on a bit of a baking spree yesterday,” you giggled.

You hear a surprised scoff come from behind you. Apparently, Mr. Tall Dark and Handsome is unhappy with the heat you gave him, now knowing that not only did you have much more at home, but had another with you. And you gave it away. You can’t help but let out a small smile at his indignation.

“It’s nice to meet you y/n! I hope I’ll get to have more of your treats in the future, this is delicious!” Hoseok says, already taking a bite.

You give him a wide smile in return. “If you want, I can save you one of whatever I make. I love to bake new things all the time.”

Hoseok begins to reply, but is cut off by the professor starting class. His eyes widen a little, surprised at the intrusion, but quickly sends you an apologetic smile as he turns around to face the lecturer.

Prepared for social hour to be over, because frankly, this was way too much for you at 9 am, you pulled out your notes. As you straighten up, you feel a presence behind your ear. Being this close, you could smell a musky, dark, masculine scent wash over you.

“I hope you save some for me too, sweetheart. I’m a growing boy,” Taehyung huskily murmurs, quiet enough to be missed by anyone else.

Cheeks hot at the double meaning of his words, all you manage to get out was a flat, “No promises.” Hoping to appear unaffected by him, you go right back to paying attention to your professor. Hoseok, in front of you, was oblivious to your and Taehyung’s hushed conversation and was busy scribbling away in his notes. You take a deep breath, and follow suit.

Unfortunately, calculus is as hard as you remember. As the professor lectured, you could feel whatever understanding you had previously drift away. You write notes at a furious pace, in hopes that whatever you copy down you’ll understand at a later time.

You sigh after your professor dismisses class. You are feeling frustrated that even during the first week, you seem to be slipping behind in your understanding of the class material.

“Hey are you okay? Class was a lot today, huh.” Hoseok turned around in his chair to speak, seeming to have caught your pitiful sigh. You glace up to meet his eyes, your expression slightly sheepish.

“Yeah, I’m okay, just not very good at calculus,” you admit with a small smile.

He gives you a sunny smile in return. “Do you wanna study together? I actually like math. I know, I’m strange for that.”

Your eyes widen a little in surprise. He barely knows you but is offering to help you with the subject you struggle with the most. It was a no-brainer.

“Oh my gosh, yes! I’d love to have a study partner for this class. I’m so worried about falling behind.” You feel your face fall into a small pout at your confession.

“Can I join? I’m not too great at math either.” You jump a little, completely forgetting about the human pain in the ass behind you.

“Of course! The more the merrier!” Hoseok beams, looking past you to the boy behind. “I’m Hoseok, but everyone just calls me Hobi.”

“I’m Taehyung, nice to meet you.” He gives Hoseok a grin as he introduces himself, seemingly never not up to trouble.

“You too! Do you guys want to meet tomorrow? We can go to the coffee shop around the corner from here,” Hoseok suggests.

You nod, and Taehyung gives a noise of agreement behind you, before asking, “Do you guys want to trade numbers? That way we don’t have to wait to see each other to get help.”

Internally, you sigh, having a feeling he was going to use your number for more than just that. Regardless, you comply. The three of you swap your phones, inputting your contact information, and stand to exit the classroom as a new stream of students enter waiting for the next class to start.

“Bye guys! See you tomorrow!” Hoseok flashes his signature sunny smile as you depart.

“Bye Hobi!” You smile at him in response. Taehyung gives his own goodbye to the boy.

After Hoseok heads off a different direction, Taehyung leans closer to you to give you your own farewell. “Goodbye y/n, see you tomorrow sweetheart,” he basically purrs at you.

You give him a glare in response. “Bye, Taehyung.” After, you swiftly make your exit. That boy was a handful, to say the least. But, as much as you hate to admit it, he was hot. Like really hot. While Hoseok had that ‘boy next door’ quality, Taehyung oozed sex appeal. You were really going to have to train yourself to act normal around those two, if you were going to be spending extended time alone with them. Heading to your next class, you decide that is a problem for later.

#BTS #ot7 #ot7 x reader #poly ot7 #fanfic

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megsironthrone · 5 years ago

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Ballerina

Based on this request: Could you write a Modern AU where Sandor is dragged to a ballet by his employer Joffrey and his fiance Sansa and Sandor is not excited for it at all but ends up being mesmerized by the ballerina. Next day, he runs into her at a bar or something? Thanks so much!

Here you are! *Characters are NOT mine!*

Warnings: Modern AU, my limited knowledge of the ballet, Fluff(platonic with the potential to turn into romance?)

Pairings/Characters: Sandor Clegane x fem!ballerina reader, brief mentions of Joffrey and Sansa.

There were times when Sandor really hated his job. Now was one of those times. Joffrey had insisted on taking Sansa to the ballet for her birthday. While the young boy himself hated the ballet, his fiance loved it and he was trying to keep her happy for the moment. Unfortunately, that meant Sandor had to tag along.

While the man could appreciate the physicality it took to dance ballet, he didn’t like going. The music hurt his head after a while and he always felt out of place. Why would a monster like him be around all the beautiful people that attended and danced in the ballet? Still, he had no choice and he knew it. He had no idea that this time would be different.

Sandor let his eyes travel to the stage and his gaze caught your movements. You came out with the rest of the ensemble, a smile on your face as you leapt and twirled and danced with more grace than even the star ballerina. She could have done every move perfectly and Sandor still wouldn’t have noticed. There was something about the way you moved and smiled. There was a joy from inside you that was practically bursting forth for the entire theater to see. If anyone had asked him who he thought the star of the show was, he would have said you.

You were positively mesmerizing. Sandor could not pry his eyes off you, despite the fact that he was technically working. For the first time, he was grateful to have such wealthy employers. He was able to see you up close. You had a beautiful face to match the exuberance that radiated from you. It was clear that dance was your passion and nothing was going to stop you.

What normally would have felt like hours passed in no time at all for Sandor as he watched you. Before he knew it, the ballet was over and everyone was leaving. Unfortunately, that didn’t mean he could go home. Joffrey had managed to secure passes so Sansa could meet the prima ballerina. That meant Sandor had to tag along back stage and keep an eye on the little brat.

Backstage, Sandor froze. You were there, right in front of him. You had nearly run into him in your hurry. “Oh, excuse me!” you cried with a smile. Sandor didn’t have a chance to respond before someone called, “Y/N! Come on!” You smiled at him again as you skirted passed. “I hope you enjoyed the show!” you called back to him as you were dragged away, presumably to change out of your costume.

*short time skip*

Sandor breathed a sigh of relief as he left work that evening. He had the next day off so he decided to go to the pub. He had been feeling strange since the night before when he came face-to-face with you, the ballerina who had had him on the edge of his seat. He hadn’t been able to get you out of his head which was odd for him. Considering the fact that he would probably never see you again, that is. You obviously ran in different circles.

As it happened, Sandor was wrong. He would most definitely see you again. In fact, the moment he stepped into the pub, his gaze instantly fell on you. You were seated at the bar, nursing a drink with a soft smile on your face. People kept coming up to you, speaking for a minute, and then leaving. Sandor thought about turning around and leaving, but then you turned your eyes to him and he stopped. Why was he running? He hadn’t done anything wrong. So he wandered over to the bar and ordered a drink.

You were still looking at him curiously. “You were at the show last night,” you finally stated and Sandor nodded. You smiled. “I thought I recognized you. You came in with that spoiled rich kid and the girl. She’s sweet. Him, not so much.” Then, you looked embarrassed. “Sorry! I speak before I think sometimes.” Sandor let out a laugh.

"Don’t apologize. You’re right. He’s a spoiled prick. The girl’s alright, but deserves better.“ You hummed before taking another sip of your drink. Sandor gestured to the beverage. "Thought you dancers didn’t drink?” You chuckled and shrugged. “Not typically, but we’ve just finished our show and have a few days before we start practicing for the next. Besides, that was my very last show. I’m celebrating the start of something new.”

"Last show? Why would you quit? You’re good,“ Sandor said, his voice getting softer. He wasn’t used to paying compliments or people accepting them from him. You rolled your eyes a little, albeit playfully. "Thank you. But I’m not quitting dancing. Not really. It’s just…I have an opportunity to do something better. I saved up enough money to buy my own studio space where I can teach kids who want to dance but can’t afford the fees most dance schools demand. I want to share my love of dance with them.”

Sandor couldn’t reply for a moment. He’d met few selfless people in his life, but here you were, deep in your own career, giving up your dream to help others find theirs. “You’re something else,” Sandor muttered, but you heard him anyway. “I will take that as a compliment…Person whose name I still don’t know,” you said with a slight giggle.

"Sandor,“ he told you. You stuck your hand out for him to shake. "Nice to meet you, Sandor. I’m Y/N, although I’m pretty sure you knew that already seeing as my friend decided to scream it across the theater last night.” You rubbed the back of your neck with your free hand. You were utterly adorable and dorky and Sandor had no clue how to handle it. He felt himself growing uncomfortable suddenly, something you seemed to notice.

"Hey, did I do or say something? I don’t want you to be uncomfortable.“ He shook his head. It wasn’t you. It was the entire situation. "Good, because you seem like a nice guy and I’d like to get to know you. I could use a few more honest friends.” Sandor’s brows furrowed. You thought the two of you might become friends. That wasn’t something Sandor heard.

"You sure? You wanna be friends with the likes of me?“ You arched an eyebrow. "And what’s wrong with you?” Sandor found it funny that you sounded so defensive over him. “Look at me, woman. ’M not exactly the type of company you keep.” You shrugged. “Your point? I think you seem pretty down to earth. Those are the kinds of people I like to be friends with. As for you scars, who freakin’ cares?! They’re just scars, okay?”

Sandor wasn’t sure how to answer, so he simply nodded again, making you smile. “Good. Now how about I buy you another drink and we can talk some more? The rest of the company is having a good time in their own way and I’d like to have a good time with my new friend.” At Sandor’s hum of approval, you did what you promised. You bought him a drink and the two of you sat talking until the bar closed. You parted ways, but not before you wrapped your arms around Sandor in a hug and gave him your number, telling him to call any time, day or night. For the first time in a long time, Sandor went to bed with a smile on his face.

(a/n: I hope you like it. I’ll be honest, I haven’t had much inspiration for writing lately but hopefully I’m back in the swing of things.)

Forever Tags: @fizzyxcustard @brewsthespirit-blog @littlemisscaptainfandom @etherealpotter @line-viper @frozenhuntress67 @cd1242 @gruffle1 @smalltownbigheart @igotmadskills

Sandor Clegane Tags: @songoficecreamandfireworks @silversprings98

#george r.r. martin #game of thrones #modern au #sandor clegane #sandor clegane x reader #sandor x reader

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bffsoobin · 5 years ago

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Windflower

01|02|03|04|05|06

↳ after a heartbreak you find yourself in a small town looking for purpose. you find employment with Choi Soobin and his impressive ancestral home. when you start to fall in love again, there’s no way for you to predict what you find in the depths of the home and Soobin’s mind.

➤ hanahaki au, fluff, angst

Word Count:1,568

Warnings: mentions of food, some swearing, mentions of past relationships/unrequited love, mentions of surgery (not in detail). General warning that its 11 pm here and for me that’s late (old lady alert) and I didn’t proofread as usual.

A/N: Another character building chapter! There is very important info about both Soobin and reader in here, so make sure you pay attention and read well!

•:•.•:•.•:•:•:•:•:•:•:•☾☼☽•:•.•:•.•:•:•:•:•:•:•:••:•.•

Dinner was surprisingly good, given the two of you had just thrown a frozen pizza in the oven. He had fussed adorably over adding extra cheese to the meal before popping it into the shiny appliance. It was easy to tell Soobin still felt awkward due to almost seeing you naked because he kept at least 5 feet of distance between your bodies for a long while. His skittish nature made it difficult for you to help set the table, but you let it slide. You don't know much about him; so it felt wrong to pass judgement on the way he couldn’t even keep eye contact for a while. It was okay, though, because his behavior still managed to rustle up glee in your stomach. The pizza was one of the best meals you had eaten in days, and you thanked Soobin profusely for it. He smiled awkwardly, waving you off with a joke about owing him breakfast in the morning. His personality had brightened ten shades with the help of food and his favorite tv show on the big screen television mounted on the wall of the living room. He had a whole pint of Half Baked ice cream open on the coffee table that was just for him. He had offered to share, but you turned him down upon seeing the absolutely ravenous look on his face; worried that he would combust on the spot if you didn’t let him have the pint to himself. So you settled for watching the show absentmindedly until your mind began to wander. Intrigued by the contrast between the home’s age and the modern interior, you finally decided to ask Soobin.

“Did someone do renovations here?” You mentally slapped yourself. Well duh, Y/N. Soobin’s ancestors who posed for oil portraits that now hung in ornate golden frames certainly didn’t install the stainless steel refrigerator and pick out the large leather sectional you were currently lounging on. He didn’t seem to catch the poor wording of your question as he nodded from his spot on the couch next to you with his legs tucked underneath him. You couldn’t help but notice how adorable he looked sitting that way.

“Yeah, my cousin did most of that kind of stuff. He’s a few years older than me so he was able to update the house for us when he was still living here. That’s his whole thing,” Soobin wiggled his fingers in the air, “interior design. Consulted at the shop a few towns over and everything.”

“I heard that he moved, why?” The back of your neck grew hot when you realized how insensitive that question really sounded once it was said out loud. “You don’t have to answer me, by the way,” you hoped that the attempt to backtrack would be enough to curb potential awkwardness. God knows the two of you couldn’t afford any more of that.

“He met a girl online who lives a few states away and fell in love with her. He was wasting all of his money traveling back and forth to see her, so he finally decided to just move. The only things keeping him here were me and taking care of the house. I miss him sometimes, but I can’t blame him. He was starting to grow flowers for her, and she made it very clear that unless he could move to live with her, he would have to get the surgery.” Soobin’s voice had taken on a very odd tone that felt too complicated to unpack at the moment. Besides, your own chest began to burn at the mention of growing flowers.

The boy must have noticed the way you gently grasped the soft fabric of your t-shirt between your fingers as his eyes widened like a deer in headlights. He made a miniscule scooch over the leather cushions to get a bit closer to you and place a hesitant hand on your shoulder. His voice was extremely soft and quiet even for as close as he was to you.

“I’m sorry Y/N, I didn’t mean to make you feel uncomfortable, I didn’t know that you…” he licked his plump lips as he hesitated, “Did you have surgery? You don’t have to answer me either, by the way.” Of course you had seen the question coming, but hearing it in the softest tone of voice you had ever heard from a human being struck a different chord in your heart. You couldn’t find it in yourself to confess your woes to his face, so you turned to your left to admire the garden from the window view. Earlier, he had happily told you the names of some of them and their meanings. Buttercups signifying innocence, Forget-me-nots representing true love, Marigolds standing for bliss. Flowers; dictating so much of your life.

“Yeah, I had surgery.” You cursed the shaky edge in your voice. “I was in love with my best friend from college, we were roommates and he was everything I ever wanted from a boyfriend. And I thought he liked me back so,” you swallowed thickly and finally turned your head to see a confused furrow in Soobin’s brow. You knew why he looked so confused, but he would understand your emotions soon enough. “So I thought I had just caught some kind of bug when I started to grow flowers, and he was taking care of me. One day I went to the bathroom to puke and out came little purple petals. It was so confusing. He thought they were for someone else, so he comforted me and I didn’t understand why that only made me cough up more.” A hot tear escaped down your cheek and you cursed at it. Soobin’s whole body was rigid, as if your story was enough to stop all of his bodily functions in their tracks. You supposed your societally unusual show of emotions for a past love would be more than enough to elicit that response.

“Obviously, I found out that he didn’t love me back so I went for surgery. They deemed it successful and I moved back in with him so we could just live as best friends. No flowers, no icky feelings, right?” The question was obviously rhetorical yet Soobin nodded as if cheering you on. “And everything was great, for close to a year. Until one night I woke up in a coughing fit when he wasn’t home and ended up with another god damn purple petal in my hand.” Your fist clenched at the memory of the disgustingly wet petal that had landed in your palm just to mock you. “So I went back to the hospital and they did all their tests. There’s nothing left for them to remove. No new growths, just. There’s something wrong with me. The doctor said he had read about it before, people who can’t fully move on even after removal. That was just two weeks ago. I couldn’t stay there and pretend the first surgery actually ended my feelings for him. That’s how I ended up here, with you.”

Soobin’s face was unreadable. A horribly timed laugh track blasted from the tv speakers and made you cringe. How awkward could this first day as an employee and roommate be? He had nearly seen you naked and now he knows all about your past heartbreak and medical anomaly. You inhaled a shuddering breath through your nose and busied yourself with watching the sun slowly disappear behind the trees of the property.

“I’m so sorry. I don’t even know what to say. I can’t even relate with,” he gestured awkwardly toward his own chest, “growing flowers. I never have. That’s why I grow so many in the garden. Well, that and the family traditions. But mostly because I have always wondered what I would grow if I were in your position. And I memorize what they mean because one time I read a story that said your flowers can signify the kind of relationship you have with that person; especially since they change with every relationship. But I guess it’s kind of a blessing I’ve never loved anyone yet, huh?” You scoffed at his confession.

“You have no idea, Soobin. I’d give everything to fall in love with someone who loves me back and push those stupid purple petals out of my system. Or to just have normal anatomy. But we live in a cruel world sometimes.” The atmosphere of the living room existed in direct opposition to your statement, as warm hues of sunset casted over every surface in a blissful haze.You could see particles of dust falling through the air as if in slow motion. Soobin hummed thoughtfully and got up to stand in front of a window. The light framed the outline of his body like a halo.

“Lets hope,” his voice sounded just as light and airy as the room looked, “that the only flowers you encounter from now on are just the ones from the garden. No pain included.” You weren’t sure how much stock you should take in his insinuation that being here, with him, wouldn’t end in you growing flowers again. Was that an underhanded confession of attraction? You certainly didn’t have the guts to ask, but the idea made you feel weightless.

“That would be very nice, Soobin. No pain included at all.”

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sparrowwritesforobeyme · 5 years ago

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NSFW Alphabet x Diavolos Dad

@fellulahh started a movement, which I fondly call “the devil daddy stan-squad”

It is very inspiring!

So to support this great developement...have some NSFW-Alphabet promts for Dias father.

(Since he is not an actual character in the game (yet!) none of this is remotely canon!I wish....hahah)

A-ftercare

This mass of a man is not used to real affection. He never took a real interest in anybody, neither did he have the time for that.

It actually takes him a while to open up, but even after he feels more comfortable with the relationship, his way of showing affection is more subtle.

For instance he will pull you into him in order to “straighten up the sheets” on your side of the bed. You can be sure that he will just not let you go again.

B-ody

Like his son, this man is huge.

The Demon King takes pride in his impressive height. He loves the way he tower over his lover wherever they go, but also in bed.

You could say that he has a decent size kink!

The thing he lovey about his lover would be their hips and butt.

I headcanon that he is a booty fan! Small booty, big booty, he approves!

You can be sure that his hands constantly leave prints on your deicate flesh from how hard he grabs you.

C-Cheesy

If you thinks that this man is all grim and moody...you are on the right path. He had an image to uphold!

But seriously...I believe that he has the ability to be Cheesy, at least with his lover.

Diavolo probably inherited it from his dad!

But his goofy side will not show during the act itself. Sometimes he´ll tease you during foreplay, but this man prefers passion over goofyness in bed.

D-irty Secret

Is this man the ruler of a whole realm? YES!

Does he enjoy to have his lover ride him once in a while? Hell Yes!

Please give this man the right to watch his lover be on top of him once in a while!

E-xperience

The demon lord is almost as old as time itself, to be fair, he spent a big amount of it in a slumber...but he gained experience.

Demons are just not able to resist temptations!

The Demon King puts his experience to use with his lover, he has a lot of great ways to make you loose control in the sheets (and probably every other surface of the palast)

F-avourite Position

finding positions during sex is quite difficult for the two of you.

while his height has many advantages....sex isn´t one of them

you actually tried quite a few ones, but many tries ended not as expected

Positions like 69 will simply not work out for the two of you

He actually went to the human work in secret and got a book for sex positions to find something that suits the two of you. He´´ll never admit it openly and you can´t deny that it did something to you when you caught him being engrossed in a book about “human mating” (it probably was a porno magazine..this man has no clue of human media), while sitting at his table, looking all serious.

If he feels more emotional, he´d want to spoon you during sex or sprawl you out on the bed in front of him. Looking at you during the deed is the epitum of intimacy to him!

after a while you found many position that work out for you.

His favourite ones include bending you over a piece of furniture or having you ride him.

G-oofy

The only time he´ll break his serious stance in the bedroom is during foreplay

He´ll tease you A LOT

“Hmmm...so wet for me already...quite desperate my love”

“cat got your tongue? How unfortunate...I came up with one or two ideas how you could use it!”

H-air

The demons King strikes me as a rough type of handsome, but that does not mean that he just let´s everything grow wildly!

He always makes sure to groom his royal area to perfection.

Also he read about humans facination of the happy-trail...he makes sure to adapt

I-ntimacy

being intimate with the devil in person is quite a challenge sometimes.

He is very busy, but when he finds you, he´ll make sure to make up for it in any way you can imagine

Sex with the Demon King (he needs a name srsly) can be either extremely passionate or extremely intimate, this man does not make compromises!

One thing is clear...you are his Queen/Partner and he will make sure that you are satisfied, even if it means that he has to man up and share his deepest desires with you

J-ealos Sex?

you´re in an entanglement with a King...he knows that there is no one better than him, at first sight at least.

He might have a hard time to admit it to himself, but sometimes he wonders whether he is really capable of making you fully content, since he has so little knowdledge of the human world and it´s culture.

This adorable mass of a man spents his free time listening to you or reading human-literature in order to fully grasp what humanity is about.

So if you actually went to the human world and there was a person that connected with you or talked about some human thing he is not able to understand just yet...he will get jealous.

How cam a peasant believe they can just walk up to the queen of devildome and pretent to be better than the King himself!

He absolutely will show you that he understands you and your body better than anybody else, when you get home,( or in a secluded area nearby)

K-ink

like already mentioned he loves the size difference. It does not matter whether you are tall or short, in comparision you are tiny, also you should not forget that he can influence his human form and he may or may not make sure that he hovers over you at all times.

Demons have their own way of showing affection to their chosen one, one these ways is marking their partner

The Demon King would proudly show off his partner plus lovebites he left on them.

If his partner is a female the next stage for him would be breeding. I can see him getting exited by the thought of seeing his woman swelling with his son growing inside of her, showing the world that she is his.

L-ocation

What use does a palace have if you can´t use it?

He´ll want to sleep with his partner in any place they can imagine, but his favourite places, would be either his throne (serious powerplay...just imagine you riding him, while he sits on his massive throne) or your shared bed (because he knows that you´re most comfortable this way)

M-otivation

Many things get the King going, but his absolutely biggest trigger is you being the Partner/Queen you are.

Seeing you tending to Devildomes Subjects with love and care will make him want to sweep you off of your feet and carry you to your shared bedroom.

Another thing that gets him going is praise. When you call him “my King”, “Your majesty” or simply “love”....you are in for a ride

N-O

What he absolutely would not do is having a threesome with anybody, especially not Diavolo!

Another thing he´d not even want to try is BDSM on him or you. He can get a bit rough with you, but he is scared to hurt you too much if you tried implementing pain in your sex life.

His sadism is dangerous sometimes.

O-ral

He just adores the sounds you make when he goes down on you ang god---- he is skilled!

He likes receiving just as much as giving.

Watching you go down on him, clearly having a hard time taking all his glory in, will make him painfully hard in your mouth.

P-ace

His pace depends on his mood and the situation that lead to sex.

If the two of you jokes around and indulged in a more playful kind of sex, he would be on the faster side, relishing in the lovely souns he can get out of you

If the two of you have a more passionate session, he would take his time and force every little bit of pleasure out of you.

Q-uicky

Due to the time issue Quickies are normal for the two of you, though he prefers to make you scream all night.

Usually Quickies re some sort of teaser to prepare you for whats going to happen this night.

Saying that it happened once or twice that a Quick Round activated his hunger, poor Diavolo( and Lucifer) had to take care of all the work, because the King himself had a meeting to attent

Of course they know his true intention and tbh it´s still hard for them to accept that their friend is now the partner of the Demon King himself, especially since they both showed an interest in you as well

R-efraction Period

a matter of minutes..demons have just more stamina than humans do.

But he will make sure to stop, when you can´t take it anymore!

S-ecret

He was aware of you way before he officially “awaked”

after a while he fell for you, only after that he decided to make a move and claim you as his

The Demon King was aware of his sons plans and watched it all unfold (not being happy at all) but you piqued his interest.

“A weak human making pacts with some of the strongest demons of Devildome?”

T-oys

The Demon is old-fashioned, he prefers to be the the thing giving his lover pleasure, not some damn piece of plastic

Also he is not advanced in technical knowledge, it was quite a shock to him to wake up to a modern devildome

U-nfair

BIG TEASE

it goes hand in hand with his powerplay-kink

the King just loves to see you loose your mind, almost begging for him. It does wonders for his ego!

V-olume

Entirely depends on the situation you guys are in

W-ild Card

Usually he just grunts or groans, but if you have a particularly passionate session, he´ll press orders to his theeth

“Shi- look at me! Don´t look away!”

“Tease me one more time and I´ll make sure you won´t walk for the rest of the week, lttle one”

He enjoys having you nearby at all times, even during work. Usually when he works you lay on a couch in his study and do shoolwork or read, etc

He´ll get moody if you can´t be there due to you having a life outside of the palace and friends.

He wouldn´t say it out loud, but he is slightly jealous that the demon brothers get to spent so much time with HIS Partner

X-Ray

Oh Boy...not saying numbers, but it takes some time to prepare you. This man does not only have big hands...

Y-earning

The Demon King can be needy behind closed doors

From the outside he appears cold....angry at best, but when you´re alone he yearns for his lovers affection.

He´s touch deprived, even if he´s had some...company in the past, it was never on a real intimate level.

This is completely new terrain for him, so he needs to learn how stop the intense craving for you

Z-zzz

He slept centuries...he needs no sleep

The King knows that you need your sleep and he makes sure you get enough, but as soon as you fall asleep after a rather long session of love-making, he impatiently waits for you to wake up, slowly falling asleep after pulling you close to him.

#obey me #obey me one master to rule them all #otome #obey me diavolo #obey me lucifer #obey diavolos dad

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your-brilliant-lady-m · 4 years ago

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South Korean music industry at a glance: an outsider perspective

I watched one particular AMV last week. The song used for the video was “I’m afraid” by Korean rock band DAY6. I was pleasantly surprised as someone who values lyrics in song first and foremost. The music itself was great. I’ll listen to their songs again. It’s a nice fit for my music taste. Naturally, YouTube’s algorithm decided that I’m a fan of everything Korean after 1 video and started spamming my recommendations with k-pop songs, documentaries and everything in-between.

I watched a couple of videos, listened to some songs and discovered fascinating patterns. So, I went down to the comment section. And it was rather interesting experience, should I say? The concept of entertainment industry in South Korea simply begged to be explored more after this. I dug deeper and visited Tumblr k-pop tags and briefly glanced upon Instagram and Twitter. And, oh...

I am a big picture person and I enjoy both studying and creating systems. This one was particularly fun to explore. I discovered a lot of new things for myself. Perhaps, you can discover something new for yourself too or take a step back and look at this from a new angle.

Disclaimer: it’s impossible not to offend someone on Tumblr, so keep that in mind. That being said, I do NOT intend to insult of offend anyone. It’s just a little research done for fun, because I love research with a purpose. This post is NOT A HATE post. No hate intended for fans, artists or other people involved. It’s meant to be a discussion, nothing more and nothing less. If it sounds like hate, it’s just my sarcastic sense of humour.

Content Warning: I mention suicide, death, depression, rape in a couple of sentences. There’s nothing major or graphic, but it’s there.

In this long post I decided to share with you my opinion, a so-called outsider perspective, on the world of music entertainment industry in South Korea and people involved in it on different levels. I use the word “outsider” mainly because, that’s exactly what I am in this case, as someone who is in no way involved in k-pop community. I can’t name you a single band or their members. I don’t know any solo artist and can’t neither sing nor name you any song.

And to be completely honest, I don’t think I will set my foot into k-pop fan-circles ever again after everything I saw.

Think of this as “In this essay I will...” meme, except there’s an actual essay.

As far as I know, in South Korea “k-pop” refers to all music produced in SK, including solo artists, various bands, singers-songwriters. It doesn’t even have to be pop music. Koreans include in this definition all genres of music. However, around the world “k-pop” means primarily music made by idol groups and bands marketed for children, teenagers and younger people. In this post I use the latter definition, because that’s how most people understand “k-pop” in other countries. Therefore, my statements, opinions and conclusions here would concern only idol music.

The music industry in South Korea is heavily influenced by culture and traditions of the country, just like all things are. And there’s nothing wrong with that. After all, different backgrounds are what makes people so interesting and unique. However, when combined with consumer mindset, desire to generate profit at any cost and fast-paced nature of modern life these neutral cultural elements could produce something concerning, and it can lead to disastrous consequences.

1. Idol

These people are called artists, musicians, singers, bands, groups, performers. In South Korea and in Japan, however, people call them Idols or Stars. I’ve also seen Muses, Princes and Queens. Interesting, isn’t it? The terminology used to describe these musicians in South Korea is one of the key elements in this whole entertainment system. You’ll see why.

But who or what is an idol exactly? Let’s take a basic definition from Wikipedia.

“In the practice of religion, a cult image or devotional image is a human-made object that is venerated or worshipped for the deity, person, spirit or daemon ... that it embodies or represents. In several traditions, including the ancient religions of Egypt, Greece and Rome, and modern Hinduism, cult images in a temple may undergo a daily routine of being washed, dressed, and having food left for them. Processions outside the temple on special feast days are often a feature. Religious images cover a wider range of all types of images made with a religious purpose, subject, or connection. In many contexts "cult image" specifically means the most important image in a temple, kept in an inner space, as opposed to what may be many other images decorating the temple.

The term idol is often synonymous with worship cult image. In cultures where idolatry is not viewed negatively, the word idol is not generally seen as pejorative, such as in Indian English.”

Cambridge Dictionary defines idol as follows:

And here’s the definition from Oxford Dictionary:

This is a centrepiece of this tapestry. Surely, you have noticed by now what these definitions have in common.

Idol = a cult image of a god, a deity

By calling these musicians “idols” industry makes society and audience treat them in certain way, namely as gods. What characteristics do gods possess? They are beautiful, talented, funny, confident and graceful, blessed by eternal youth of immortality. Gods have no flaws, they do not bleed, they are above human concerns. They are an embodiment of perfection. They are stars, you could not reach.

But real people are not like that. They can be sad and angry, insecure. People don’t have perfectly symmetrical faces. They can’t dance in sync without preparation. They can’t sing like angels at any given moment throughout the day.

What happens when idols accidentally reveal their humanity? What happens when people see, that they make mistakes and do stupid things, that they need to train hard to appear graceful on stage?

I will tell you. And it’s not pretty. But, first, let’s look at other elements of this system.

2. Y/N and Self-insert fantasy

Aside from the music, K-pop sells the self-insert fantasy to the audience. It’s carefully arranged to appear real, where the cracks are masked and every word is scripted. The reality is so vivid that one doesn’t even have to use imagination all that much, because all scenarios and decorations already exist. Countless interviews for TV and magazines, fan meetings, talk shows, reality shows made sure people are privy to all juicy details of personal lives and opinions of musicians. And also one word - merchandise. Some of that merch made me question my life choices. Some of it is, ah, creepy or has weird vibes. All of this provides plenty of material for people to work with. Fans can effortlessly imagine themselves beside their idols or even in their place.

In a highly competitive society, where people throw themselves into studying and work since young age, forming deep and lasting connections with others is very hard, sometimes impossible. As a result, people long to have a group of close friends with similar interests, a loving partner who would cherish them endlessly. People want to be rewarded for their backbreaking efforts to succeed by the carefree life of fame and music, everlasting friendships and love. And in a way you can’t really blame them for his.

Does this dream life sound familiar? We are looking at K-pop bands here. It doesn’t really matter if their members don’t always get along or that they can live in debt, that fame is fickle and adoring fans can tear your self-confidence to shreds. Audience wants the glamour of fantasy and the industry is more than happy to cater to these desires.

Perhaps, knowing that even for idols this fantasy is sometimes unattainable makes the whole set up feel just a little cruel.

3. Fans, stans and fandom culture

We’ve already established earlier that idols are gods in the eyes of people and listed traits they must possess. So, what else do gods need to exist? Worshippers. Because a cult is worth nothing without its followers. Gods need a group of people to worship them and spread their beliefs. The role of worshippers is performed by a fans in this case.

Apparently, there is a running joke that girl groups need to win a general public popularity and boy bands need a big passionate fandom. It seems to be true according to my observations.

In k-pop fandom people use the word “stan” to state that they like or support particular group. Now, I am sure everyone here knows that in other fandoms, dedicated to movies, shows, books and games there’s an important distinction between being a “fan” and a “stan”. What is it?

A fan is someone who likes a ship or character, creates and/or consumes fandom content, supports certain ideas, discusses things they enjoyed and disliked, criticises canon. Stans, however, are a different breed. They engage in all typical fandom activities, but their support and enjoyment becomes obsession. Stans believe their favourite characters and ships are immune to criticism, that they are superior no matter what others say. Stans start shipping wars, send anon hate, death threats over fictional characters and hurt real people. Stans are considered toxic fans. And majority of normal civilised people don’t like them and try their best to let stans hang out in their echo chamber by themselves.

In other fandoms and communities, to be a fan means to love, support and enjoy something, while to stan means to obsess over and hyperfixate on these same things. Words “I stan” rarely mean “I support” for most people, and if they do mean that, it’s only used in a joking manner (”We stan procrastination legend!”, “I stan our miscommunication kings”).

Everywhere else “stan” has only negative connotations, except in k-pop. But what has changed? What’s the difference? Why do international fans scoff at “shipper stans” and then turn around calling themselves “stans of X k-pop group” at the same time? Does it make you wonder?

And this is another core theme of k-pop, in my opinion. In fandom where stan = obsession = support, you can see interesting patterns.

Fandom loves their flawless gods. But watching them from afar is not enough for some people, because unlike deities in different religions, these gods live among us. People are very much aware of that. Industry has created a cult and laid the groundwork for worshippers to express their adoration in every way including personal contact. And who wouldn’t want to meet their god? Who wouldn’t want to know more about them or tell them how much you love them? In talk shows and fan meetings there is only so much one can do after all.

People desire to know more, to have more so much that their obsession transforms into concerning stalker tendencies. These crazy individuals follow idols, stalk them on social media, in hotels, research flight numbers, bribe security. Musicians were attacked and poisoned. I strongly suspect there were cases of rape that no one knows about. There is even a special term for these fans - “sasaeng”.

Is there a definition for stalkers of actors or musicians in western world? No, I’m pretty sure there isn’t. They are just called “invasive/obsessive fans” or “stalkers”.

Also, there are sasaeng memes. Yeah, you heard that right. I enjoy some classy dark humour as much as the next person, but there is a fine line between normal and questionable.

Back to the topic of stalkers. Do you realise how disturbing that is? Such behaviour is so common that there is a term for it. You create a fandom-cult, encourage people to worship k-pop idols as gods and then act surprised when members of said cult become fanatics and their adoration becomes obsession.

And it’s so easy to step on this slippery road. The system makes it ridiculously easy. Lines begin to blur. How much is too much? Where do you draw the line?

While sasaeng fans engage in extreme real-life obsession, people online aren’t that far off, to be honest. I’ve seen it all: imagines, headcanons, fanfiction, real-person shipping, reactions. Real person shipping is a controversial topic. Some people support it, others don’t. I suppose I’m among those who don’t get it. I’m not exactly against it, but I find it strange. Mainly because it’s based on assumptions made by fans about personalities and behaviour of real people.

Assumptions. Dear me! K-pop fandom has this thing with video compilations. I’ve never seen this phenomenon being so widespread in any other community or fandom. Basically people edit together a collection of short clips from talk-shows, interviews, Instagram stories, some YouTube videos, etc and then proceed to analyse every gesture, word, facial expression of idols and provide both audio and on-screen commentary. These videos and many other forms of similar analysis allow people to imagine what kind of personalities idols have, what kind of life do they live. It’s the source material for fanfiction, imagines and headcanons.

But it’s not real. It’ll never be real. It’s an illusion, an image, a stage persona. They fall in love with a face and made up personality. And I think that when people create this content they can forget this. Fans can develop certain emotional dependence and unhealthy attitudes in the long run. In some YouTube comments even supportive and encouraging words sound whiny and obsessive. And semantics of being a “stan” of certain group or individual doesn’t help.

4. Industry, companies and liars

At last we arrive at the most important aspect of music entertainment industry - its creators.

Have you seen “The Road to El Dorado”? It’s one of my all time favourites. It has iconic characters, adult jokes that I didn’t get as a child and iconic soundtrack. I’ll quote “It’s Tough To Be A God” a lot here.

In South Korea music industry is a factory, the production line to be exact. This kind of set up affects everything in the grand scheme of things. Companies and agencies play the role of training centres and record labels. And there are so many of them that a whole new scamming system developed based around fake idol agencies. It implies that there are people who fall for offers of these agencies and continue to do so. I suspect that victims must pay a fortune upfront before they realise their mistake. Are there any kind of legal protection against such scams? How can people verify the authenticity? Because a well masked scam can exist for a long time before someone discovers it and calls them out on their nonsense.

As far as I understand legal companies work like this. After high school, which is often focused on performing arts (and private schools can get away with using talents of students for personal gain, which is totally not surprising), young people can audition for an agency and become an idol in training or idol-trainee. And passing audition is hard. But good recommendations can help, connections too.

During training you don’t get paid. Only a few companies pay aspiring musicians. People can spend years in training and don’t debut. But rent, necessities, clothing and food (not that you need much of it, but more on that later) cost a lot. Where do you get the money to live then? Support from parents, one or two part time jobs at most and bank loans. Surprise! We found an unexpected (just kidding, it’s very obvious) party, who reaps benefits from the system.

You need skill to be an idol. Natural talent helps too. The more skills you have, the cheaper and faster your training is. To level up your game you attend classes every month offered by your agency, which are not cheap (dance classes range from 400$ to 1000$ per month, sometimes more). There are four main categories in evaluation process: vocals, rapping, dancing and visuals. Idols are multitaskers, to have a chance on stage one must be perfect at everything. And people are ready to invest thousands of dollars into their kids training so that they could have a chance in entertainment industry. South Korea thrives on revenue k-pop industry generates every day.

Let’s pause here for a second and think about what kind of people come to these agencies. The answer is easy. People who have a dream, a desire, a real goal. You don’t wake up one day and decide to become a k-pop idol. Sometimes people get invited by agencies (after prior acting, modelling career or any other form of exposure). These people are usually very young. Some start straight after high school, some after university, but 25 years old is considered a late start. Compare that to western musicians who start singing at any age and still become famous.

But why this age limit? Because idols are eternally young. So that in public eye musicians are remembered as 20 year old gods. People would listen to their music and imagine a young attractive face. Career in k-pop is short, it lasts 5-7 years, rarely longer than that. It’s even less than modelling or acting can offer. And professional sportsmen retire in their late 30′s. Some play longer, but usually, that’s it.

If you live in Los Angeles and say that you want to be an actor or performer, no one would bat an eye. It’s like saying that you want to be an engineer or accountant. Similarly, in South Korea becoming an k-pop musician is a real career. Because part of the self insert fantasy that the industry sells is the idea that anyone can be an idol. It’s easy after all. Anyone can pass auditions and become a trainee. A trainee with no guarantee of debut. But one should never underestimate the power of idol-dream. After all, idea is the most resilient parasite.

“My friends started training in kindergarten. They have wanted to become idols since young”

“A lot of young kids get interested in Korean music”

A 6-year old child sees the performance of k-pop group for the first time on TV. Let’s say it’s a girl. She is enraptured and decides that she will be like that too someday. She grows up, while being part of the fandom, just like all idols are in one way or another and whose fan-obsession transforms into desire to succeed. Her parents spend time and money to find her tutors, to fund dancing and singing classes. Perhaps in high school this girl decides to fix the shape of her eyes and make nose straighter. She trains hard and passes the auditions in her dream agency. And during training this girl faces the reality of behind the scenes life in music industry.

“Why are you crying? I’m not even pushing you”

“How many times have I told you? The rest are doing it perfectly”

“She is dancing like an elementary school student“

“I watched your performance as a spectator who bought a ticket to your concert. I want a refund“

“You make my ears hurt. I don’t want to listen at all”

“Listening to you was tiring”

“I’ll kick you out instead. You won’t debut”

“I thought I was going to die. That’s how determined I was”

While I do understand that keeping a high quality standards in media industry is important, there are more productive and healthy ways to motivate someone to improve and be more passionate, you know? Constantly insulting people with sadistic glee and putting them down at every opportunity or calling them ugly to their face doesn’t do much.

Do you think that children know about this? Do they know about soulless teachers and belittling managers? Do they know about friends who are really your competition, so you shouldn’t get attached? Do they know about living in debt? Do they know any of this? No, I don’t think they do.

Children dream about the stage, about the sea of lights and crowds who chant your names. They want adoring fans and photoshoots. They want to appear on TV and magazine covers. Teenagers want the thrill of performance, they want to share their music and dancing with others.

“I don’t know how many times I cried alone”

The truth is cruel. But they won’t give up easily even if it means sleeping 4-5 hours and consuming no more than 500 calories per day. Because giving up means that your whole life was a lie. One can’t afford not to be good enough. Giving up means admitting that all efforts and money your family invested into your dream were in vain. It means losing face before your family and friends - a fate worse than death. Imagine living this idol dream and building your whole future around it and then being told that you’ll never debut because of the circumstances outside of your control or something minor, like face shape or 1 kg of weight that your body refuses to lose. It can break you. Especially if you are like 18 or something.

5. “And who am I to bridle if I'm forced to be an idol If they say that I'm a God, that's what I am”

“I don’t think there’s anything a tough as being a trainee in Korea”

Once you are a trainee at the agency your personal life does not belong to you anymore. You can’t go out without permission of the agency. You phone is taken away. Your diet and weight are monitored. Bad habits are not allowed (no smoking, drinking or drugs). Oh! I think I found the good thing in the system! Unfortunately, it won’t last. Trainees can’t date or meet with family without permission of agency. Dating is very taboo. Even established idols can’t openly date.

Why is that? Because gods can’t belong to anyone. Their lives are property of the fandom. Because openly dating idols destroy the self-insert fantasy. There was a former idol girl who dated another musician. She was called a whore by her fans, her loving and adoring stans. You might know who I am talking about. Would you call an American actor or singer a prostitute for dating someone?

Trainees sign the contract. And how can a young person straight out of school or university know much about what makes a good contract in entertainment industry or what makes a good contract in general? Even if you do understand the terms fully you would still sign it because if you have come so far, you can’t let your dream slip this easily. There isn’t a choice. Not really. If you want to debut, you will agree to anything.

What about life after debut? You have to pay off your loans. And company takes 60-70% of your group’s earnings. Artists themselves get 30-40% and split it between themselves. K-pop groups have from 5 to 10 members or more than that. Each person gets less than 6%. Idols are not filthy rich. They are not. These earnings are practically nothing compared to the work you have put into this.

Idols are musicians, who often don’t even write their own songs, music or create choreography. But if public doesn’t like the song and musical number the company created, they blame idols for the failure. Such an amazing logic we see right here. But people say that sharing music is the best part of idol life. But whose music?

Models on catwalk are not there to demonstrate their physical beauty, they are blank canvas for works of clothing designers. Same with k-pop musicians. They act like puppets in a way, whose faces and voices are used to show audience someone’s music and songs. Some groups do write their own music and lyrics and it’s nice to know that. But those, who don’t are rather unfortunate. It’s a nice tool of psychological control and pressure for an agency. They can hold it over group and use the following rhetoric: “We gave you everything! Why can’t you follow the simple instructions” or “Where would you be without us? It’s not even your music!”

I called k-pop industry a factory. That’s true. Dozens of people become trainees every year. These talented young people are fully prepared to do anything to achieve their goal. They are ready to practice until they collapse, starve themselves and pour themselves into every song. Companies know that. Tell me why would they value their idols as individuals, as people, as human beings if they always have a replacement? Why bother with mental health of their artists if next year they could have a fresh set of people, who are younger and prettier? Why try to improve relationships inside groups if you could fire any member and replace them within a month or two?

In western countries famous bands have different stories. Some were friends since high school, who played in bars and during festivals and then they were noticed by some representative of label company, who offered them a contract. Some groups were formed by like-minded people who bonded and decided to share their music with the world. There are many stories, but ultimately the have one thing in common. Bands in the West often form themselves. These people had time to bond, connect, discover each other, solve some disagreements and learn to work around their differences.

K-pop groups are formed by their agencies. They are their property in a way. Company selects the best and puts together these total strangers, appoints the leader with marketable face and personality and then expects them to work together like a well-oiled machine. No one has time to bond during training, because other people are you competition, not friends. And then you must learn to work as a team and be best friends on camera for the audience to support the self-insert fantasy. It’s no wonder that k-pop groups don’t get along sometimes. And every member knows that they are replaceable. It doesn’t help in forming connections. Groups can’t just terminate contract and go to work with another agency. I heard it happens sometimes, but it’s not a done thing. Unlike in other countries where bands just sign the deal with a different label and release their music under their name if they don’t like the old conditions.

“It's tough to be a God But if you get the people's nod Count your blessings, keep them sweet, that's our advice Be a symbol of perfection Be a legend, be a cult Take their praise, take a collection As the multitudes exalt Don a supernatural habit We'd be crazy not to grab it So sign up two new Gods for paradise”

But is it really a paradise?

Idols are expected to act cute, to match personalities created for them by fans or media. They have to act according to the concept of their group. They have to be a symbol of perfection: skinny, single and with a face perfected by surgery. They are allowed to mess up, but only in a cute way. They can break down and cry, but only if it’s “aesthetic”.

Weight issues are a separate topic. Sometimes I wonder whether managers in companies understand how weight loss or human body in general works. To be honest, I think that scales in agencies are rigged. And only managers know that. I know it can be done from personal experience. Some beach resorts tweak their scales and make them show 4-6 kg less than actual weight, so people wouldn’t get upset if they gain some. There is no way a girl as tall as I am (173 cm) could weigh like 47-50 kg and be able to perform complex choreography on stage and sing without being out of breath, visit the gym on a regular basis and generally function as a normal human without fainting every other day.

“I developed a lot of eating disorders”

“I think I consumed about 300 calories today“

“Someone, please, trim the fat off her arms”

If you grow up thinking of idols as gods and then, when you become one of them you think that you must act as one too. But being an easily replaceable god is a heavy burden. The industry, companies and audience want you to be perfect, to always be on your best behaviour. And the thought of not being good enough or divine enough terrifies you, because stans have no mercy (black ocean concept is the most stupid thing ever by the way). This kind of pressure can destroy even the most resilient. And it does.

Almost everyone knows that situation with mental health in South Korea is not the best to put it lightly. In many ways it’s a cultural thing. But in k-pop mental health issues are treated with even less care. Gods are not supposed to be depressed or suicidal. They are not supposed to have fears or insecurities, can’t be upset or angry. They try hard to be this deity, this image. So, even when they realise they need professional help or even a friend to talk to, they either won’t seek said help or reach out only to be met with silence. Some agencies disapprove or forbid therapy altogether.

Sometimes fandom becomes self-aware.

“Don’t forget that idols are people too!”

“Your favourite idols are running out of breath just to keep you entertained“

“They are humans, who have feelings!”

Oh, but here’s the thing, my friend. The industry doesn’t want you to think of them as people. Companies and media repeatedly reinforce the idea that they are not people, they are your idols. And strangely enough, the audience supports this idea. People continue to call them idols, developing worshiping tendencies in the process, imitate them, scrutinise their flaws and triumphs. Because, you know, only “real and ordinary humans” can have flaws, not “idols”.

So people who say “they are human too” and people who say “wow, this concert was amazing, but vocals in the beginning were so off-key, I simply can’t” are one and the same.

This thought process would have been funny if it wasn’t so disappointing. But that’s just my observation.

And here’s another thing about sexualisation. I said before how appearances are everything, marketable face and body could drastically improve your chances to succeed. Companies know about this too and concepts and aesthetics of groups are designed accordingly. Girls are dressed in skimpy outfits, their dances are unnecessary suggestive, they wear heavy make up and try to have “mature” vibes. Boys don’t avoid such objectification either: suits, tight pants and dress shirts along with make up and hairstyle to give audience a promise of the things to come. Grown adults are not supposed to lust after 15-17 year olds. You can’t just create a sexy stage persona for teenagers. Do you remember my earlier words about creepy merch? Yeah. All of it neatly plays into the self-insert fantasy and encourages obsessive behaviour.

This happens in western countries too. In some way that’s understandable. Beautiful and sexy image with a hint of innocence attracts more people and sells, because it caters to one of the base human instincts. But some things make your skin crawl.

Sponsorships are another topic. Some k-pop bands seek out sponsors to provide financial aid and cover expenses, when earnings are not enough. Sometimes these sponsorships are fine, perfectly civil. But sometimes it’s a prostitution. Girl groups receive money and provide sexual favours to their patrons. It’s a way for the group to gain financial support and even find new opportunities in the industry. Companies can encourage such deals. Let that sink in for a moment.

6. “Any advice to those who want to become a k-pop idol?”

A lot of former idols and trainees have similar responses to this question.

“I don’t want to discourage anyone, but think twice”

“You only see the glamorous side, but don’t see all the hard work that goes into it”

“It’s not what you think”

“They think ‘Since I am good looking and can sing and dance really well, maybe I should become an idol?’, but there is much more to it“

“They think it’s something that is easy and will keep their family set for life financially”

And this implies that most people don’t know what kind of lifestyle k-pop stars truly have, despite the amount of information available online about “behind the scenes” proceedings.

7. Moving on

I am a practical person and every decision I make is subjected to scrutiny. And after seeing everything I can't help but wonder whether idols believe it's truly worth it. What keeps the industry alive is the idol-dream, the wilful ignorance of its reality and youthful idealism, the beautiful naïve belief that it'll get better, even if it never does in the end.

Sure no one would ever admit it out loud, because it's one of those things you never say on camera, no matter how sincere you have to be. It's the matter of professionalism after all, and idols have it spades. And also, because admitting this would equal admitting that you spent your best years doing something you both loved and hated, admitting that this was a mistake.

When you grow up in a society where appearances matter the most, where saving face and being polite is more important than staying true to yourself, where individuality is tolerated only to a certain point, it takes a lot of courage to admit that you need a break. I greatly respect those who decided that idol lifestyle is not for them and moved on.

8. Conclusion

To sum up, I hope you enjoyed my small research and this perspective, since you have read it all the way to the end.

You have noticed that entertainment industry is an intricate system and its every component makes sure nothing changes. Companies have power over idols and audience, fandom has power over idols and their careers, and musicians themselves have fame and their music, but not always the promised fortune or happiness.

It’s important to understand the big picture to draw your own conclusions and encourage positive and heathy attitudes in fandoms. Being open minded and allowing people to make mistakes and live their lives the way they want to is a part of being a decent person. People don’t owe anything to others. Art is about sharing your thoughts and feelings, promoting ideas and spreading beauty. It’s not always about money. And I think that this is what k-pop lacks as an industry. It turned dreams and human need for self-expression into business. Here everything is turned into a product. Everything idols touch can be sold, sometimes literally. Industry created problems, which can’t be solved anymore, because doing so would topple the system. And I find it tragic. Trapped in an endless chase after perfection creators of k-pop forgot that beauty lies in the eye of the beholder.

If you take a look at comment sections and posts on different platforms, what will you see? What kind of things resonate with audience? What makes people laugh and cry? When people start to appreciate the substance?

“Everyone needs to hear this song in their darkest moments”

“Thank you for your music!”

“They always deliver! These guys can’t make a bad song!”

“It inspired me to write again!”

“Their songs brought me and my sister together once again”

“This is what happens when you let groups write their own music - they make incredible things”

“They really are legends of k-pop! I love that they are not afraid to show their inner strength”

“Stay strong! You rock!”

I believe that the answer is quite simple: when it’s real, sincere. It’s all about the message you choose to send to your audience, because only superficial things cause obsession. When you say that the sparkly façade is all that matters, then that’s the only thing people will ever care about. Your audience will never give a damn about the meaning behind dancing, music or lyrics, if you tell them that performance is more important. No one would praise WHAT k-pop idols sing, instead they would prefer wasting breath to criticize HOW they sing or look or move.

I dare the k-pop industry to prove people that it’s not just about looks or perfection, or laser shows, or being a branding machine. Prove to your fans that k-pop artists are also passionate people with big dreams and talent, who love every moment of their job, who live and inspire, who are human just like us and whose humanity is real!

Do it, you cowards!

And now, I’m finished. I can hear the raging crowd of k-pop fandom in the distance, which means it’s time to hide. See you some other time!

#k-pop #korean music #k-rock #k-pop idol #k-pop meta #k-pop discussion #k-pop fandom criticism

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indigocloudofnarcolepsy · 5 years ago

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I got tagged by @tough-girl9 to list my top 7 comfort films which turned into a top 8

I'm more of a comfort song type, so that was a tough (girl) one

1.: Treasure Planet

I adore this movie! I loved it when I was smaller and I love it now. The only reason I didn't watch it to death was the fact that I lost the DVD. It's gorgeous and although the main premise is space pirates thanks to the focus on the characters it feels grounded and easier to relate to or to feel simpathy towards them. Besides Jim Hawkins being a childhood crush I could always relate to him. The feeling of being lost, aimless and the words

"- I can't watch you throw away your future like that!

- What future?"

always spoke to me. It's not an edge and teen angst fest tho, John Silver and his speech is both in character and always chokes me up and gives me hope that there are pathes that could lead to the future I want and that I wasn't abled to see.

It's the perfect movie for those who feel lost or confused and want to sail to far away planets from their current situation, those who want to be understood and given hope to.

(I could gush about the art and animation and characters for hours, but this is not the time)

Amazing background music and the songs fit well with the steampunk-ish style of the movie

2.: Ratatouille

A family classic. We even have the ps2 game and it's one of those rarities which my family could watch anytime. Besides being beautiful and having a 10/10 aesthetic (and a huge dose of food p0®π) it's a grounded movie.

The premise is as feaver dream-y and goofy as it gets. A rat learns english (or french? The movie takes place in Paris but it's either confusing or I'm just a dum dum) and thanks to an imaginary friend version of his chef idol ends up in his restaurant and makes a deal with the garbage boy of whom the chef thinks can cook and reluctantly agrees give him another chance to make the soup that was actually made by (fixed by) the rat aka Remy. So the boy Linguini and Remy has to team up where it seems like Linguini is making the soup but he is actually in Remy's control.

But the movie is actually about being an artist and coming from an unexpected place and being surrounded by people who don't support you or believe in you even if they were just trying to protect you or think that it's the best for you.

Fellow artists could definetly appreciate the movie. Whether you croche, draw, animate, sculpt, dance, act or do any kind of art I would absolutely recommend.

Le Festin is great and is on loop during dinner

Warning: get food ready because you WILL get hungry. Even if it's just bread this movie will make it taste like garlic bread just you wait

3.: Strange Magic

It's one of the controversial ones. Not everyone likes it and a lot hate it but that's okay.

It's one of those films where either you praise it to death or wonder which deeper layer of hell did it crawled out of. There is no in between. I'm one from the first category. Even my IT teacher called it a classic and I roped most of my friend group into the SM cult.

It has a certain tumblr aesthetic and feels like a fanficrion the best way possible. One of those where altho something unsuspected happens it's written well, the characters are in character it's finished and the grammar is proper as well.

It's a jukebox musical which is one of my fauvorite kind of musical, the covers are amazing and damn they can change up the originals songs aesthetic to it's opposite so damn well (Trouble - Elvis Presley)

It centers around love and I ain't no shipper nor romantic but even I was gushing over the main couple which is spoiler alert so that's all you get

I absolutely adore how the characters express themselves with their wings and body! I'm all about feelings and expressions!

So try it out and even if you don't like it you're allowed to stop. And if you like it: welcome to the fandom in this house we respect Marianne, the Bog King is a snack and must protect Dawn at all cost!

(this is a pick me up movie for me the other two more of a shoulder to cry on)

Speaking of crying

4.: The Little Prince

Not gonna lie I was extremely suspicious of this movie. I immediately categorised it as a cheap cash grab which only use sonething known and beloved because it's known and beloved so people will buy.

I expected the Emoji Movie, I got the LEGO Movie.

This movie. Hoo boy, this movie. You know, it's nothing, I only cried 4 times after all!

It's so respectful towards the material it's given. So heartfelt and creative and artistic! It's the Little Prince sequel that fits well in modern times.

In this film the Little Prince is a story that an old man tells his new young girl of a neighbour. Both of them needed a friend and it's one of those unexpected duos where the girl is forced to be mature way too early and the man is way too childish so they balance each other out and the man gives the girl (I can't remember their names god damn it) the breath of fresh air she needed.

This movie is so damn cute! I mentioned a shoulder to cry on movies and pick me up movies, this one is both! It's a bittersweet dream!

You are going to cry. So get ready.

5.: Hunchback of Notre Dame

Oh man oh God oh man oh God oh man

I'm obsessed with this movie (and musical)

It's dark and mature and definetly a-shoulder-to-cry-on movie. I love and relate to Quasimodo. Altho I'm not deformed I was always the weird girl everyone picked on and hated and I still can't understand why. I think I'm a perfectly normal person but when my mom calls me a freak/eccentric behind my back and my aunt gives me a gift with the words "since you looked nothing like the other girls on your prom..." I... I'm just more confused honestly. I'm always so damn tired and basically a hermit so thanks to that Out There hit way too close to home.

Esmeralda is a 10/10 role modell. She is a beautiful soul inside and outside. And she's romani. Which is the most hated minority in my country.

The movie deals with lust, abusive and manipulative parents, racism, religion, "ugly"ness, lonelyness. These might sound repelling but to see something similar happen to you/a character looking/being/sounding like you is worth more than life, honestly. Unless you can live through this kinship with a character, you have no idea how needed this is.

(I cried so hard watching The Grinch (2018) since I used to have Panic disorder and I'm an anxious person to see him being scared the way I do and to fiddle with his fingers and think like I do was the most comforting thing I felt in my life)

This movie is so damn gorgeous. I know I said that to almost every movie in this list but this is a biblical epic gorgeous. And of course, Hellfire is THE best Diney villain song FIGHT ME I'M RIGHT

The musical is even darker and more serious but damn it's worth a watch. It's on youtube.

6. Brother Bear

This movie is *drumroll* gorgeous. Each movie on this list is gorgeous in different ways. This is nature-gorgeous.

Pick me up movie, definetly. It's mostly adorable but they tap into some meaningful things and there are tragedies happening, my dude!

Like Hunchback of Notre Dame the main subject is "who is the monster and who is the man?". This movie shows some perspective, I tell you!

7.: Coco

I know the hungarian translation by heart

It's very family oriented, so if you don't have any or have a bad realtionship with it, this movie will give you a heartache

This movie takes place in Mexico and explores parts of mexican culture.

I adore and am interested in different cultures, folklore, tradition and religion so I was head over heels really quick with this movie!

Gorgeous imagery and music. Heartfelt, that last Remember Me WILL get you

8.: The Croods

Y'ALL

I know, it looks like a movie that made only for kids. But dude! It's about family, change and how people deal with it. It takes place in an alternative world, where animals we know are mixed together (MOUSELEFANT!! CROCO DOGGO!!) the most adorable way possible and it takes place in prehistoric times.

Oh god, this movie is full of feelings and gorgeous imagery! Pick me up, definetly! Of course, it's full of jokes but they are so witty to me!

Sorry, I got impatient by the end of it

I would tag people if I would know anyone well in this site. The 2 people I want to tag: is already tagged me and the other one is probably too busy

#treasure planet #ratatouille #strange magic #the little prince #the hunchback of notre dame #hunchback of notre dame #brother bear #coco #pixar coco #the croods #top 7 comfort movies #comfort movies #my comfort movies

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typewriterghcst · 4 years ago

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Title: But For Me It Was Tuesday Rating: also G-ish, but some allusions to probably what we would consider child abuse in the modern day lbr Characters: one (1) OC, Baron, Natori, Yuki Summary: The events of The Cat Returns, but told through the eyes of the smallest-- oh, sorry, my mistake— the youngest kitchen maid in the service of the Cat King. No romantic pairings. A crush or two may be mentioned, though. Notes: Written for the 2020 TCR Birthday Bash, even though I emphatically missed the deadline rip. This one was for the prompt of ‘Movie Extra’, which I took to mean, well, pretty much just what I wrote— the events of the movie as a backdrop to another character’s everyday life, lmao This is another one that isn't Entirely Finished, but I've been working on it since June-ish and I've just lost all motivation to finish it. Though, unlike the last one I posted that was unfinished, the only part missing from this one is the ending. There's also a part in here involving Natori that needed to be changed, but I liked the wording and imagery of it, and never did get around to figuring out where else to put it, so some of the pacing in here is Off rip

&&&

She oversleeps. That's the first unusual misfortune that happens to her on this particular day. Opens the day, no less, she thinks to herself as she forlornly stokes the ovens' gently smoldering fires. Her ears are still ringing from the boxing she'd received— the fact that Cook had had to include a little hop to even reach them means what little pride she has feels just as bruised.

Were she a more superstitious, flighty sort, she might even have taken this setback as the first of likely many portents of an upcoming stressful day. But instead she is only Topolina, the youngest (but emphatically not the smallest; more on that later) kitchen maid currently languishing away in the employ of the illustrious royal castle of the Cat Kingdom.

Of course, it’s there she stops herself. It’s only the chaos of the morning that has her using such bitter language. She should try harder, she tells herself, not to linger on the unpleasant aspects of her current existence, and instead focus on… on… well, she supposes there’s something to be grateful for in all of this.

Like…

Oh! She has a home. A relatively nice bed to sleep in. And meals, every day.

...Meals which she is most often forced to wolf down in the kitchen in solitude as she tends the fires and keeps a watchful eye on the simmering pots.

Ah.

Perhaps she needs a bit more practice with this gratitude thing, is all.

It’s entirely possible her recent light resentment had begun with her very name, Topolina, a name which had been quite fitting when she stood at least two heads shorter than all the other kitchen maids, one she'd even perhaps viewed with some fondness for its endearing quality. And yet, alas, it now exists as a name which seems only heavily ironic— that is, now that she's hit the tender age of fourteen and found herself towering over all but the very tallest of cats. It feels to dear Topolina like some massive, omnipresent joke that she remains her old timid, meek self, still eager to fade into the background and disappear... now without even the faintest hope of being able to do so.

Metaphorical salt in the wound is the undeniable fact that her pinafore's hem, once perfectly aligned with her ankles and cutely poofy, now drapes awkwardly far above its original position. Perhaps it’s comparatively trivial atop all her other complaints, but when she finds herself thinking back to her old unassuming silhouette, she can’t help but feel at least a little crestfallen. Nowadays, she feels quite akin to a pitifully overgrown shrub, no matter how many well-meaning words to the contrary she receives.

All in all, she imagines such a thing might make anyone feel rather less than appreciative.

It’s as she’s sitting there alone before one of the nine stoves in the palace kitchen, contemplating her rotten luck, that she hears— well. She’s not sure, exactly. It’s something of a crunching sound, like rusted metal grinding against itself, and she can’t imagine what its source could be. She stands, and gingerly inspects the oven itself from every angle she can think of. She even studies her fire iron. Yet still she comes up empty-handed.

Defeated, she flops back down in her original spot.

And then— she squeaks, because the ground under her is moving, slowly twisting back and forth as if she’s sitting on a lazy top. She leaps (falls is more accurate) off the emerging ground once her mind comes back to her, once it stops panicking, and stares in confounded shock as the very spot she’d been settled atop transforms into what appears to be a long-forgotten manhole covering. How long had that been there?! She’s never been made aware of an old servant’s tunnel in this area!

Her perplexion only deepens when she spies just who has made use of this abandoned tunnel— a cat much like herself, though she thinks that he looks quite a sight better than she would have had she just crawled through a dirty tunnel. His off-white suit is pressed and smart, for one, and hardly has a tear nor even a wrinkle to show for the abuse he’s no doubt just put it through.

His sharp gaze falls then on her, and she’s suddenly acutely aware of her ill-fitting, nearly threadbare pinafore, the scuffs of dirt and soot smattered across it, and her probably unkempt fur, smudged and mussed from fire-tending. Oh, if she could just will the earth itself to open its maw and swallow her up—!

“Ah,” he starts, in a much gentler voice than Topolina had expected, turning to her and offering a hand to help her up, “I apologize. It was not my intention to startle you.”

“N-No, it’s okay,” she stammers, taking his hand without thinking. (Were she in a right state of mind, she’d never do such a thing— the very last thing her poor Young Maiden’s Heart could stand is for a handsome gentleman to struggle to lift her.) He pulls her up with little difficulty, though, and in her chest she feels a very peculiar thump, and then a flutter.

“A-Are you here for the king..?” She asks impulsively.

He doesn’t answer immediately, appearing to think that over for a fleeting moment, perhaps aware of the myriad of ways the pairing of her question and his response could be interpreted, before he makes his decision.

“Yes. I would like to have an audience with him. It’s a matter of utmost importance.”

“Y… you’re not here to kill him, are you?” She whispers, perhaps irrationally afraid that the king himself might be listening in on her. And yet, not too irrational— she’s seen his spying Cat’s Eye floating languidly about the castle on more than one occasion.

There’s something pitying in his gaze, she thinks, but he replies graciously enough. “You have my word, miss. I am not here to usurp or otherwise harm your king.” Then, while dusting some nonexistent dirt off his clothes, “I do believe I will need a change of wardrobe, however. It won’t do to adress a king while clad in anything less than my finest, will it?”

He says it without flinching, and in such an earnestly straightforward fashion, that Topolina herself is almost led to believe there really is some flaw with his clothing that she simply can’t see.

“Oh!” She says then in sudden inspiration. Without explaining herself first, she scampers to the open alcove behind him, separated only by an unfinished wall. The kitchen servants have long used the area as a makeshift coat rack, and one particularly bizarre ensemble has been there for as long as she can remember. She comes back around the wall bearing the large hat and cloak before offering it to him, embarrassed now that she realizes that, judging by her actions, this is what constitutes ‘his best’ for her: an absurd hat and a dusty, worn cloak.

He himself appears no less than enchanted at her offering, however, and when he stands before her with the hat cocked just slightly on his head and azure mantle thrown over his shoulders, Topolina finds she’s again being assaulted by those odd, vexing heart palpitations. Is she really such a nervous thing? ...Yes, she answers herself firmly. Yes, she is. But she’s far from convinced nerves are to blame in this instance.

“Oh,” she breathes eventually, clasping her paws together and resting them against the edge of her cheek. “You look like you came out of a storybook.”

Well… that was more childish than she meant it to be.

“Then it’s perfect,” he says succinctly. Then, removing the hat and inclining his head to her, he adds, “Thank you for your assistance, ah—”

“Top— erm, Lina.”

“Miss Lina, it is. I’m quite grateful for your help. I am sorry only to startle you and then run without so much as a token for your assistance, but it’s imperative I make good time.”

Topolina shakes her head. “It’s okay— I-I don’t mind!”

And with a final bow, he leaves her and the kitchen behind.

&&&

Peculiar dashing stranger aside, the rest of her day passes in relative normality. There’s a clamor about the servants some time later, and she catches snippets of an excited buzz about something happening with the prince (something that ties in with a group of special guests, but she’s yet to put together how) as she goes about her duties, but in all, for how bizarre the day started out, it all strikes her as rather uneventful.

She’s instructed eventually to scour the floors in the audience chamber in preparation for a banquet, which means filling an old rusted tub with hot water and soap, and then carting it to said room. She’s no stranger to the task, of course, and thinks nothing of trudging through the hall with this metal burden in her arms.

Perhaps as penitence for her lack of investment in the day’s continuing Wonders, another ill-fated obstacle is tossed onto the tracks before her. In this case, literally.

Earlier that day, a courier had accidentally overturned a loose stone in the hallway floor. Scratching his head, staring down at the disturbed piece of clay as though it had personally insulted him in the most obtuse way possible, he’d eventually looked from one end of the corridor to the other and quietly snuck it back into place, hoping it wouldn’t be noticed.

Unfortunately, Topolina notices.

With a decidedly unfeline-like squawk, she trips over the rogue stone; the tub in her arms ends up the victim of gravity, as we all so unfortunately are.

And who should turn the corner then but Natori, just in time to be the unwitting second victim of her bad luck— drenched by the ensuing sheet of warm, sudsy water and so jarred by it, it seems he can do little other than look rapidly from his own sodden person to her no-doubt horrified countenance for near a full two minutes. In the fraught silence that follows, his glasses clatter to the earthen floor, and the tiny sound echoes in her ears like a gunshot. Trembling, Topolina instantly drops to her haunches, paws clapped together in desperate and tearful pleading.

"I-I'm so sorry, sir! Please, I beg your pardon— I didn't mean— i-it was an accident!"

"...Topolina," Natori finally interrupts quietly, gently, even, but the hum of exasperation vibrates just underneath his patient tone like a trapped butterfly, "—retrieve a mop and a towel, please.”

“Of course, sir! R-Right away!”

&&&

It’s afterward, as Topolina does her best to mop around him while he tries to dry himself without incurring any extra… floof, that Natori deems an appropriate time to address his reason for coming this way in the first place.

“It’s possible that Cook may have instructed you about this task already, but the kitchen staff will likely be needing every pot and pan that can be spared for today’s dinner, so do ensure that you tend to the ones that have been, er, languishing in... that corner.” When she chances a glance at him, she sees that his gaze is inconspicuously trained on a particularly infamous corner of the palace kitchens, one where abandoned cookware is just shy of creating its own ecosystem by now. For a brief, heart-pounding moment, some measure of indignation rises in her; she’s so very close to telling him she isn’t the one to blame in this instance! ...At least, not the only one.

Ah. Alas, once more. Her courage withers in the face of this culpability, small as it may be. Instead, she goes back to her doleful mopping. Still, there is at least enough nerve left in her to present him with one continuing question on the topic.

"Is it... is it for the special guests?"

Natori pauses, giving her something of a searching glance. "...It is, yes." Then, after a few seconds spent appearing to think this over, he continues ringing out the bottom hem of his robe. It seems at some point while she was distracted, he’d laid the drenched towel at his feet. "I see word spreads fast through the kitchens."

To herself, she thinks that he has no idea how true that is, nor precisely how fast it truly does.

Finally satisfied with all that the towel can accomplish in drying him off (and evidently feeling his now damp robe will no longer leave any puddles as he wanders through the castle), he returns it to her. "Now, Topolina, please try to keep the mishaps to a minimum. We do have an exceptional guest today, after all."

She only nods frantically, all too aware of her ears flapping up and down. To this, he gives an approving nod of his own, and then finally turns on his heel and leaves. Secure in her admittedly paltry position for at least another day, Topolina breathes a sigh of relief as she puts the mop away.

...An exceptional guest, he’d said. Curiosity flares again, this time stronger than before, and she can’t stop wondering just who they could be. For the most fleeting of seconds, she remembers the cat who had interrupted her delayed routine this morning, but he’s quickly waved away.

Honored guests did not arrive to their own commemoration by climbing through old servants’ tunnels.

&&&

Once the dirtiest, most grime-caked pots and pans are finally scrubbed to perfection, she peeks around the corner in search of Cook or Natori, wondering what other (insignificant) part she may have to play in the care of these exceptional guests. To her consternation, however, the kitchen aside from her seems rather empty, present only to the sound of a maid or two prepping extra portions of stuffed mice on the off-chance they’re requested.

Cautious as always, Topolina all but tiptoes through, still careful not to draw attention to herself, and— once she’s certain she’s not being scrutinized— peeks out of the kitchen itself into the servers’ hallway. There’s music playing, muffled, down the hall in the great dining room— something elegant, bouncy. A waltz, perhaps. She wonders distantly who it is that might be dancing, and if the well-spoken cat she’d crossed paths with earlier is anything of a dancer himself. She could imagine him dancing… Oh, the flutter is back.

“Lina—”

“Yes!!”

She jumps impressively high, her hackles on edge and tail fluffed out in alarm. Yet, when she whips around to face her unexpected company, she’s met only with Yuki. Another of the kitchen servants, Yuki has existed as a consistently friendly, warm presence, to the degree that she’d willingly adopted Topolina’s attempts to shorten her, well, newly embarrassing name, something a few of the other servants (and Natori…) were still having trouble with. Her fright abated, Topolina tries to greet the smaller cat with a smile, but it wavers.

“Oh— Yuki, it’s you.” She’s carrying a large glass bottle, freshly-filled with some unfamiliar pink-tinged liquid, Topolina notices.

“I’m sorry,” Yuki starts in reply. “I didn’t mean to scare you.”

“I-It’s okay!”

“What were you looking at?”

Oh. That.

“I was looking for Cook,” Topolina admits reluctantly. “Or maybe Natori. I’ve finished the dishes they wanted me to clean earlier today.”

“I saw The Corner was all clean. It must have taken a while.” Yuki sounds impressed, perhaps. Topolina doesn’t mention it, of course, but deep down she’s a little tickled. “Natori’s already taken his place in the dining room, though, so I don’t think you’ll have any luck getting more directions from him.”

“Oh…” Thinking back now, she realizes she should have surmised that already. At least, if the banquet has progressed to the point that entertainment is warranted. “What about Cook? Have you seen her?”

“Sorry, I haven’t.”

After a short silence, it suddenly occurs to Topolina that Yuki seems… a little distracted. Troubled, even. Fidgeting, she gathers her resolve for the third time that day.

“...Are you okay? You look like… um, something’s on your mind.”

Just the mention of her evident disquiet is enough to erase its presence from her expression; Yuki almost instantly brightens some, shaking her head gently.

“No, no. I’m fine.” And then, before Topolina can press the issue, “How about this? Stay here— I have to go back in and serve refills. If I see Cook, I’ll ask her what else she wants you to do and then fill you in when I come back. Okay?”

Topolina is just about to enthusiastically agree (leisure time in the sparsely occupied kitchen? Not being the one to personally ask Cook for more work? Of course she’d be on board!), but a sudden eruption of screams and breaking glass from the direction of the banquet room means the two of them are turning their startled attention to the ruckus instead.

“Wh— what could it be..?” Topolina wonders aloud, shaken.

[ and that's it rip the ending i had in mind was that yuki tells topolina to find a safe place, topolina cowers probably in the kitchen the whole time, especially upon hearing an Explosion. and the next day there's all kinds of rumors and tall tales about baron and The Daring Rescue he pulled off. topolina connects the dots and. well basically becomes haru 2.0 crushing on him and indulging in fantasies where she's also swept off her feet by a dashing hero fjfjkda; ]

#the cat returns #do i #still tag it with the birthday bash tag....#tcr birthday bash #i guess #this was my first attempt at writing baron #also yuki

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nodesiretogrowup · 5 years ago

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alrighty, let’s recap this bitch!

LAUNCHPAD! I’VE MISSED YOU SO MUCH! PLEASE COME BACK!

I looked up when National S’mores Day is (because I’m a nerd) and it is August 10. So either the photo later was mislabeled or, more likely, Launchpad got the wrong info

Huey with the little baby scouts is TOO CUTE!!

I wonder if Violet’s there. Probably not because she would have been hanging out with Huey if she was. Or this episode was meant to come before Challenge

It’s a baby beagle boy! I wonder if he’s there of his own will or if it is part of some plan

He scared away most of the kids! Now they won’t get to enjoy s’more-y goodness

His s’more sounds DOPE AF, though it probably would give you INSTANT DIABETES

“Aw, not even a modern robot.” MY SWEET SON!

I know it was the bully saying it, but Huey should chill a bit when it comes to doing things EXACTLY and PERFECTLY. It’s just gonna cause stress

BOYD IS BABY AND I LOVE HIM

“Would you like to be friends?” “Sure. Wow, that was easy.” If only it was always that easy

I don’t know if Huey has the JWG as memorized as he thinks, going by Challenge and Quack Pack

“We’re just kids.” “Definitely!” *uses laser eyes to light fire*

This episode does a good job showing what a trigger word/phrase is like, though I’m not sure if that was the intention

I like that a squirrel with a burnt tail scurries out of one of the trees. It’s the attention to detail that helps elevate this show

Instead of jumping out of the way or hiding Huey jumps straight onto Boyd to try and help him. Huey already sees Boyd as someone worth protecting

The kid that just runs across the screen while his hat is on fire is great

Not sure why they took the time to change before going to Gyro but whatever

BOYD IS ADORABLE AND I LOVE HIM

“I’m more than an intern, I’m a scientist.” I feel like this might be hinting at Fenton’s arc for the season, possibly wanting to be seen more as a scientist than a superhero

I’m gonna pretend that using sunglasses on someone who is shooting lasers out of their eyes is a Cyclops reference. And they look pretty dope too

At least Fenton knows when he is in over his head...this time

Gyro trying to climb up on the table to avoid Boyd was kind of funny. And then him protecting himself with Lil Bulb

“Which one?” Manny is DONE with this shit

“Boyd? What idiot called it that?” Even when he’s not there, Gyro can still burn Mark lol

I figured 2-BO was a reference to something but wasn’t sure what. Apparently it’s a bit of a play on the name of Astro Boy’s in-universe creator’s son. Neat

Huey stays in between Gyro and Boyd to protect Boyd

Fenton’s face cracks me up. There are NO THOUGHTS in this man’s head lol

“You were an intern like me?” “Nothing like you.” Damn Gyro, why so salty?

I don’t know why Fenton is so surprised that Gyro was an intern. I feel like that’s a pretty standard thing

LOVE IS STORED IN THE BOYD

It make me sad when Gyro mentions how many times Boyd’s core programing was altered. Poor baby doesn’t really get a say in what happens to him

“ROAD TRIP!” Huey, you do these kinds of things ALL THE TIME. I feel like he should be used to this by now

“YOU’RE not going. GIZMODUCK is.” Does Gyro see Fenton and Gizmoduck as separate entities or is this just a no, but yes type of joke?

Huey standing up for Boyd is so sweet. They barely know each other but Huey trusts him

When the episode doesn’t have the theme song you KNOW shit’s ‘bout to go down

I wonder who’s flying the plane. My guess is Launchpad because Della would have been cooing over Huey making a new friend and go into embarrassing mom mode. He probably went of on his own adventure or did tourist things like buying collectables. Or maybe Gyro flew them there. Who knows

As many people have said, the art direction and animation for this episode are BEAUTIFUL. I love the pink tint the lighting has in most of the episode

SAILOR MOON CONFIRMED CANON

I bet Mark Beaks is a Sailor Moon fan

I like that the in-universe Sailor Moon is a bunny because Usagi is Japanese for rabbit

I love that going incognito nowadays means you wear a hat, a hoodie, and sunglasses. Boyd looks good in red (though red is my favorite color so I might be biased)

Gyro-takes one step and the fuzz shows up. NOICE

I like detective lady. She has a cool design

Huey and Fenton are awful at acting casual

“Crimes?” Oh my sweet Hubert. I’m pretty sure most if not all of Scrooge’s employees have had run ins w/ The Law

Gyro is like, move I’m gay

“I’m here on a very important...field trip.” ALL THE KIDS NEED A GYRO FIELD TRIP LIKE HOW THE GAANG GOT ZUKO FIELD TRIPS

Lil Bulb said FUCK THE POLICE

I wonder what it actually says

Fenton just watches as the inspector chases Lil Bulb

Seriously though, Fenton does a bunch of silly stuff in the background and this episode warrants a rewatch SOLELY for him

How did Lil Bulb know where to find them? And how did he shake off the inspector? I want to see his little adventure

FOR SCIENCE!

“Blah!” *arm armor attaches* I want this joke to come back

Fenton and Huey INSTANTLY nerd out. I love them

Fenton being a Gyro fanboy is ADORABLE

“AH, DUST IN MY EYE! The dust of GENIUS!” What a dweeb lol

I like that Fenton keeps the arm on for the whole scene

Poor Boyd, he looks so scared

Huey going into protective big brother mode

Doofus continues to be equal parts hilarious and disturbing

Where are their parents? Like, someone should be looking after these kids! ESPECIALLY DOOFUS!

“Do you need a hug?” I SURE FUCKING DO

Mark is such a prick lol

“NO WAY, A ROBOT BOY! DREAMS DO COME TRUE!” YOU DON’T DESERVE THAT DREAM YOU COCKWAFFLE

SOMEONE HUG THIS CHILD! BECAUSE I CANNOT!

“Seems like the little guy’s had it tough.” MY POOR BABY

Lil Bulb gets SO PISSED he blew a fuse

You really shouldn’t have left them alone, Gyro

Why does Fenton automatically jump to superhero for Boyd? I mean the theme of the episode is letting Boyd choose who he wants to be so of course Fenton would have his own idea of what Boyd should be, but why go straight to superhero? Do you want superbros, Fenton?

Huey already realises this might be a bad idea, because he’s more concerned about Boyd as a person rather than Boyd as a machine

“IN RETROSPECT WE PROBABLY SHOULD HAVE USED THE FIRST HOLE” Fenton, you dumbass genius

Dr. Akita’s setup made me laugh. I DIED when he “enhanced” the image

I recognized the character on the chips though I don’t know their name. I’m more of a western animation fan, so many of the references probably flew pass me

BOOP

I also have a key on my laptop that flies off (it’s the u key)

I LOVE BABY GYRO! It’s so cool they went with his og look (minus the red hair) to show him younger

I LOVE THE OUTLAW COUPLE! SO COOL! SO HOT!

Huey is so DONE with Fenton

I love the stupid G pose he does. PLEASE HAVE HIM DO IT AGAIN. PREFERABLY WHEN DW IS NEARBY

Such a polite boy

“My bones are metal!” This line and Boyd’s catchphrase of “Hi, I’m Boyd/2-BO, a definitely real boy!” reminded me of Olaf. The end of the episode gives Boyd even MORE Olaf parallels

Gizmoduck sliding by those boxes was cool

How did Gizmoduck get himself unstuck from that alley?

I loved the double take the female outlaw does

Huey is TRAUMATIZED

I legit thought Boyd was gonna light the oil on fire the first time I watched and I was like that won’t help

“So, what do we do now?” “I...don’t know.” This is why you don’t leave babies alone to fight criminals

Boyd reminded me of Calculester from Monster Prom when he asked the lady to return the money

STOP LEAVING THE CHILDREN ALONE! THEY ARE BABIES! THEY AREN’T EVEN TEENS!

“Why do we always fight when we’re on vacation?” Because this is Ducktales and there is no such thing as a normal vacation

Lil Bulb just kicking his lil feet

The “lab” safety poster made me chuckle. Then I remembered Akita is also a dog and I laughed more

LITTLE BABY GYRO GRADUATING! My guess is his professor/dean/principal influenced him on a personal level and is partially the reason Boyd is a parrot

Lil Helper blueprints. Nice reference to the og series

Has anyone talked about the poster with the cogs and the dogman in old-timey clothes that says GIZMOS on it? I think it’s a Dr. Who reference

IDEALISTIC GYRO AND BOYD IS TOO CUTE!

How did he NOT notice the second hole in the wall?

That is a surplus of handcuffs. Do you think she uses them for...fun times?

“I’m just a guy! With very bruisable skin!”

Poor misunderstood Gyro inventions

Boyd just politely waves at everyone

Huey is WAY calmer than I would be if I got lost in an unfamiliar city

Boyd says FUCK WORK

I love Huey stimming. Really hope Disney will let them confirm in words that Huey is autistic

Is it more common for two kids to wonder around by themselves in Tokyo? Because as an American I find it super stressful and would want to find their parents so they could be safer

THE BUNNY! AND THEN THE KITTIES!

Do cats just take buses on their own in Tokyo?

CHERRY BLOSSOM TIME BITCHES

“And I know what you’re thinking, what about ninjas?” I am ALWAYS wondering about ninjas

I like that Huey finally has a friend who shares the same interests and doesn’t mind info dumps

“Boyd, I don’t think you’re a killer robot. You’re just a kid.” “Aw, that’s the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me.” T_T

I CAN SHOW YOU THE WORLD

I like Boyd’s motief

Akita is us after the quarantine

When he complained about being stiff I was like mood

I like his Green Goblin disc thingy

The other people don’t give a shit about Boyd just FLYING DOWN WITH HIS ROCKET FEET!

Gyro shows up *dramatic wind*

His tablet has a duckie on it. I wounder if they have a Mac/PC thing going on with Waddle and what brand the duckie represents

When the adults argue and Boyd gets all sad and scared I FELT THAT

Huey doing his best to keep Boyd calm and defend him SO PURE

OH GOD HELP THIS POOR CHILD!

HUEY IS A GOOD BOY AND A GOOD FRIEND

“Because of you I’ve become an outcast.” I feel like you did that to yourself

ANIME HAIR POOF

ngl, that shit was TERRIFYING

“You don’t have to do what Akita tells you. Do what I tell you.” So close

“INTERN! FIGHT BETTER!”

Huey must weigh NOTHING if Gyro can pick him up

Akita’s tail looks like a cinnamon roll

Huey always finding that hidden info

The gibberish Gyro says is great

BOYD SAYS IT BECAUSE GYRO TOLD HIM THAT!

THAT HUG!!!

HOW DARE AKITA HURT BABY GYRO AND SWEET BABY BOYD?!

PROTECTIVE PAPA GYRO

NEEEEERRRRRRRD FIIIIIIIIIIIIIGHT

“You’ll never invent anything worthwhile.” LIL BULB HAS ENTERED THE FIGHT

Are doggos recyclable?

HUUUUUUUUUUUUUGS

Blue eyes=good robot

ANOTHER HUG

Be Only Yourself, Dude

I like that basically Gyro admitted that he was like Fenton if Fenton hadn’t had support

“That’s not technically how doctorites work, BUT I DON’T CARE!” Do you think Gyro doesn’t have his doctorate or do you think he assumed Fenton already had one?

“The hugging is a ‘just for today’ thing.” YOU CANNOT STOP THE HUG TRAIN!

“Leave. Now.”

Are they gonna go to the plane?

This season has been consistently knocking it out of the park! I’m a SLUT for backstory episodes, so I enjoyed this one a lot. I loved seeing Gyro when he had hope and faith in the world. It SUCKS that Akita took that away from him. Hopefully Gyro will see things slightly less cynical now. Fenton was a dweeb the whole episode and I love him for it. Boyd is SO SWEET AND PRECIOUS and in NO WAY deserved the treatment he got. I have a feeling there is more to Boyd’s creation/Dr.Akita that we’ll get later on. Huey was ADORABLE this episode. It’s really sweet to see him hangout with someone who gets him. Everyone deserves to have at least one friend like that. The fight scene was GORGEOUS! SO FLUID! I really loved this one and I hope we get more Team Science episodes because these characters play really well off each other.

#ducktales #dt spoilers #a bit later than normal but oh well

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tempest2k · 5 years ago

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[PAGES /85 TO /109]

Back at it again. Not as many pages this time because I value a good night’s sleep. Sort of. I meant to start my Homestuck reread blog before continuing Vast Error, but I have suddenly become so enamored by glimpses of what’s in store here that I just needed to keep reading this. If you’re waiting for my Homestuck reread blog, it’s coming. Just... don’t hold your breath.

After that weird note that Arcjec woke up to, I’m introduced to Albion! Albion is... interesting. She reads to me as a stock My Little Pony character, which is actually a kind of compelling concept for a character in a story like this. She’s also like Chip from Sonic Unleashed; extremely involved in some grand “prophecy” with a destiny of self-sacrifice (ignore the bits where Chip starts Sonic Unleashed with amnesia, it’s not 1:1). I don’t feel like I need to go over the entire story in every batch of pages I read, but I’m going to be experimenting with the format as I go here. Let me know what works, if you care.

Albion seems to be themed around a lot of superstitious ideas. Her guardian is supposedly a ghost of the previous twelve “star children”, which is evidently another descriptor of our protagonists. “Star Children” supposedly have gifts, of which Albion has none. Don’t worry, that doesn’t mean she lacks eccentricities. In fact, she’s practically all eccentricities. She forms pictures in constellations that supposedly tell old stories of Repiton, she does weird smell shit, she does it all, folks. She also has the mood ring in the picture above that you might have been waiting for me to get to. Alright, I’ll get to it already.

The mood ring is much like a real mood ring, except it’s pretty responsive, and actually seems to work. The different colors mean different things, and I wrote them all down in my notes, but as far as we’re concerned, Green is stable, Pink is love, and Red is rage.

Albion also seems to enjoy translating old scriptures, such as the one on her table. From what I can tell, old Repitonian text is flipped (y) flipped (x) daedric? I didn’t take a close look or compare it to anything, but I’m assuming it’s either default Alternian (flipped (y) daedric) and English like you and I are reading right now is New Repitonian, or Modern Repitonian or whatever, or old Repitonian is double-flipped, and modern Repitonian is single-flipped. Anyway, she’s translating this for her matesprit who is supposedly “behind on planetary customs” because of a sheltered life, whatever that implies. Based on the names that I remember, I’m going to pull a guess from a hat and say this mysterious matesprit is (digs through the hat and pulls out a small piece of paper) Jentha.

The recooperacoon is completely unremarkable. This is not a place of honor.

Oh god I forgot about funky modi. It’s been so long, but I’m not sure my brain can keep up with the logic train here. I’m gonna TRY, so hang with me.

So rather than following all the lines, I think the Spirograph modus is actually kind of simple? I see it more as a bunch of funky rings. than a big connected line. The center piece can be taken out at any time, and will naturally affect the flow of the other items inside. There are also certain rings where items are accessible at any time. There’s some organization shit you can do with this, but as far as I’m concerned that’s all you really need to know. Anyway, Albion is opening her sylladex to access her Astral Projector, which is a really cool brain computer.

I haven’t been this organized a day in my god damn life.

Ok ok ok ok this is fucking sick actually. We’re doing Astral Projection now don’t question it. There is a line here about “THE CELL” which is a wee bit fucked up and ominous. Don’t know what that’s about.

Welcome to Windows 3095. The brain is typically a place ripe for exploring a character, but there’s honestly not a lot here to tell us about Albion. It’s a pretty vague, abstract place. It’s organized and peaceful, sure but I’d imagine that’s kind of the point when you’re astral projecting. Also, this seems like a lot of work just to answer some messages and go to Newgrounds.com. That’s my headcanon for Albion, by the way. She is an avid Repitonian-Newgrounds visitor and has been for the last 4 sweeps, but has never made an account. Her favorite game is Super Mario Scene Creator.

Yo sweet desktop. Now we can really get analyzing. Here’s where the RIPE shit is. Actually, it’s not very ripe at all, since the narration heavily implies that the creature depicted here is what she’s going to combine with when the world ends? Or something? It made sense when I read it but it’s late. Also those are Homestuck clock hands, I’m pretty sure. They aren’t important but it seemed noteworthy. Once again I’m impressed by the tech here on these panels.

Skorpe, my arch-nemesis, returns for a third bout, but this version is weirdly the most normal setup so far. I mean yeah, Arcjec’s was pretty plain, but this feels more in-line with wacky Homestuck antics, which is the obvious point of comparison for something like this. Also, I didn’t mention it before, but Albion’s handle is demiurgeQuantified, which sounds like an achievement I would get after killing enough demons in Devil May Cry.

This conversation between Taz and Albion goes something like this:

TAZ: hey murrit told me about some game do you know about that shit

ALBION: the world is going to end and the twelve of us specifically are going to survive because of me

TAZ: oh cool

ALBION: you should probably talk to arcjec because if you think we’ll survive without FRIENDSHIP then you’re dead wrong sister

TAZ: ughhhhh fine

The page this panel from clarifies that Arcject and Taz are a bard and sylph respectively, which is interesting I guess. I also really like this art. It’s silly.

Anyway the ghost guardian (named Alavida) shows up and says “um actually you’re all gonna fucking die, IDIOT.” And that’s where my reading ends. Obviously they’re not going to die, but this makes me think that this is related to the titular “Vast Error”. The Big Mistake. The Gargantuan Fuck-up and so-on.

As usual this has been fun. See you next time! Sorry I didn’t really have much to say towards the end here.

#nukeve #vast error

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sm-entertain-me · 6 years ago

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Room Service (M)

Contains: Nakamoto Yuta x (f) reader, adult language, smut, depictions of sex, love hotel (rabu hoteru), unprotected sex, rough sex, choking, facefucking, creampie, love hotel worker!Yuta, love hotel customer!reader, dom!Yuta, sub!reader.

Synopsis: Traveling all over Osaka led you to a peculiar looking hotel that you had never seen before. What you thought was a normal, upscale hotel turned into something more than you bargained for.

ALL OF MY WORK IS PROTECTED BY COPYRIGHT LAWS. DO NOT COPY, TRANSLATE, OR REPOST ON OTHER SITES WITHOUT CONSENT FROM AUTHOR. COPYRIGHT SM-ENTERTAIN-ME (KELSEY), 2019

You had been exhausted from keeping up with your tour guide all day, constantly pulling your group over to the side to ramble on about the city’s culture, how his favorite sushi place was a little bit down the road, and talking about how his friends would go out and enjoy what the city had to offer them when everything went dark. Sure, you enjoyed the history part of it, but you really didn’t feel like listening anymore to his stories involving women and what he could make them do for over 10,000 yen....

Another sigh escaped your lips as you wandered the streets of Osaka, your eyes darting around to find some kind of hotel that didn’t seem to unsafe or too greasy. Osaka is a beautiful place filled with beautiful people and beautiful architecture, but you were convinced you were just on the wrong side of the tracks. That was, until you stumbled upon a peculiar looking building with modern-esque features, brightly lit red neon signs that showed off the Japanese characters, and bored no windows.

A little interesting, you thought to yourself as you walked through the frosted glass doors that opened to a large floor plan, decorated with sculptures, fancy fountains, and replicas of the finest art you had ever seen. Funny how the tour guide never once mentioned a place like this in Osaka. The building was absolutely beautiful and judging by the rates posted behind the large oak wood desk, it wasn’t too badly priced either.

The options they allowed at this establishment were pretty cheap considering the wonderful atmosphere, although you did find it a little weird that they offered rates for 1-3 hour “rests”. Whatever that meant. But still, you approached the wooden desk and came face to face with a well dressed employee with dark black hair that swept to one side, and a small smirk resting on his face as he greeted you, “Konbanwa.” (Good evening)

One good look at you and he realized very quickly you were a foreigner, so he decided to switch to a universally known language that almost everyone could speak: English. “My apologies ma’am, good evening. My name is John, but please call me Johnny, and I would like to welcome you on behalf of our own little rabu hoteru. How long are you looking to stay with us?” The employee behind the desk asked as his eyes grazed over your body momentarily, bringing himself to look back up at you and wait patiently for your answer. Rabu hoteru?

After a brisk conversation with the desk-keep, he finally gave you a key to your desired room and gave you instructions on how to get there. For one night, it only cost you about 10,000 yen as opposed to the other hotels in the area that would run you a pretty penny of at least 50,000.

As you approached your room, you noticed how dimly lit the hallways were with a thin layer of smoke from a fog machine, hearing a low rumbling sound around the halls as well to drain out some... interesting sounds coming from the other rooms. To be fair, the rooms did seem pretty soundproof and who were you to judge someone else and their sexuality? Everyone needs a little break here and there.

Sighing to yourself, you sat on your bed that felt like a cloud and immediately sunk into the comforter. Groaning out softly, you gripped onto the pillow and brought it closer to your face, relishing in the cold feeling of the fabric on your face that nearly coaxed you to sleep until the absurd ring sequence of the phone sounded next to you. Another groan.

Picking up the high tech phone, you pressed the receiver to your lips as you asked into the phone, “Yes?”

“Ah, Y/N, I forgot to tell you something during our conversation,” A soothing voice rang out from the other end, dripping with sex as he spoke. Johnny. You shifted uncomfortably on the bed, pressing your thighs together as you waited for him to continue speaking since you simply couldn’t get enough of hearing his voice. “Don’t forget to use our top notch services. I guarantee they’ll make your experience that much more enjoyable.”

The emphasis of the last word in John’s sentence had you cocking a brow to yourself, trying to figure out what he meant by that. Enjoyable. After you said your goodbyes to the desk-keep, you set the receiver back on its hook and decided to take a look at the “top notch” services Johnny felt obligated to tell you about.

Reaching into your bedside table, you opened the wooden drawer to reveal a leather bound book that read “Holy Bible” in gold script, and then a smaller red book that had Japanese characters dancing across the cover. Luckily for you, there were words written in English underneath the characters to act as a formal translation so you could know just what you were requesting. As you were flipping through the calligraphy filled contents, you were taken aback by just what was in that book.

Descriptions of sexual activities littered the page, explaining in perfect detail what sexual activities could be bought with the right amount of Yen. The acts themselves were ordered by price, from least expensive to most expensive, depending on how much sexual activity would be going on and who would be giving it. They even offered both male and female companions that each came with a list of their own kinks and “difficulty ratings”. One star being for beginners whereas five stars were for more experienced lovers. You were about to slam the book shut and go to sleep when you stumbled upon a picture of him.

At the end of the “Companions” section, you were greeted with a picture of a man with reddish brown hair, obviously dyed that way, with a nicely chiseled jawline, wide eyes that exuded lust, and a perfectly taut smirk that mocked your very existence. He knew he was hot, and that’s probably why he has the highest going rate and the highest difficulty ranking of all of the people in the book. Nakamoto Yuta was his name, and by god he was gorgeous.

You finally succumbed to the “top notch services” the hotel had to offer, requesting to have Yuta as your companion and informing Johnny that you didn’t care what kind of service Yuta was willing to give you.

“Are you sure you want Yuta to choose?” Johnny asked, the cockiness in his voice coming through perfectly clear. He knew what Yuta was capable of, which is why he’s the most expensive. He also knew that you had no idea what Yuta could do, but it was ultimately your decision in the end.

“Yes, Johnny. I’m sure I want Yuta to choose the service. I’m only in Osaka for a little bit and I would love to see what you guys have to offer. Money is not an issue for me,” You replied to your semi-concerned desk-keep who was typing away at the computer, making arrangements for the two of you.

“Very well,” Johnny said after you had ultimately signed your death wish, finishing the typing on his computer and sitting back in his seat to review the arrangement with you. “One Heaven on Earth package with our famed Nakamoto Yuta. He should be coming to your room in about ten minutes, so please dress to impress. 100,000 yen will be charged to your room balance at the end of the service, thank you for choosing to use our services and we hope to see you again in the future... Oh, and good luck.”

Your heart raced as you ran to the bathroom of your living space, running your hand through your hair to make it seem a little more presentable. You then stripped yourself of a bra just to make the process go faster and made sure to change into your sleep shorts that offered a bit more skin to the room, opting to change your shirt into just a tank top. When you felt like you were ready, you sat on the edge of your bed and thought about just what was about to happen. Until there was a short sequence of knocks coming from the opposite side of your door.

Swallowing your last bit of pride, your hand gripped at the door knob and turned it slowly, opening the door to reveal a man that was slightly taller than you, that same reddish brown hair that was swept back in the most attractive fashion you could think of, and that signature smirk still on his lips. Yuta.

“Well hello, darling. I hear someone wants to use me as a companion for the night, is that right?” Yuta’s deep voice spilled out, sex lining every single syllable as his eyes drank in your appearance. Yuta’s eyes took a liking to the fact you weren’t wearing a bra as he could see your nipples standing erect against the flimsy fabric of your tank top, licking his lips at the sight. When he noticed you didn’t answer, he lunged forward and gripped he side of your neck, the crook of his hand resting along your jawline as he forced you to look up at him with an intense hunger in his eyes, “Answer me.”

“Y-Yes,” You breathed out hastily, your breath catching in your throat as your heart raced uncontrollably, losing yourself at Yuta’s simple touches along your neck. He had you right where he needed you and knew you were going to be the perfect sub for him, no doubt about it. You were putty in his hands, someone so willing to take his orders and act them accordingly. Someone to wreck properly.

When Yuta was satisfied with your answer, he smirked at your desperation as he leaned in and captured your lips on his, kissing you roughly. Upon impact, Yuta’s tongue fell into your mouth and played with yours, pushing his tongue flat against yours and tasting you completely as his grip on your throat increased. Yuta could feel your pulse racing against his hand as he continued to toy with you, kissing you with so much raw passion that it nearly took your breath away. But before you could enjoy yourself any further, Yuta pulled his lips off of yours, a small string of spit falling from your lips.

Yuta loved how desperate you look for him by simply kissing you that he couldn’t control himself as his hand dropped from your throat to your shoulder, looking at you with a fiery glare, “On your knees. Now. And don’t make me tell you again, babygirl.”

Nodding at his demands, you assumed the position by slinking down to your knees in front of Yuta. His hands slipped to his belt buckle and unfastened it at a painfully slow rate, him watching the way your eyes would widen at the bulge that pressed against the confines of his black slacks. He loved to watch you fall apart without even touching you.

“Just know,” Yuta spoke as he unzipped his slacks and hooked his thumbs in between the fabric of his briefs and his honeyed skin, looking down at you to have your eyes meet. “You can stop me at anytime. I’ve been known to get a little carried away.” Before you could even muster up an answer or a nod of your head, Yuta’s hand was on the back of your skull, fingers entwined with a bunch of your hair, and his cock was being shoved down your throat.

Upon entering your throat, you gagged around Yuta’s length that was now pushing its way down your throat, smacking against your uvula with no resistance. Yuta’s grip would get tighter the longer he went as his head was thrown back in pure ecstasy, his hands forcing you to choke around him as he had complete control over the pace he made you comply with.

Through teary eyes, you managed to look up at Yuta, admiring the way his neck vein was surfacing against his skin and how his jaw was clenched tightly together to stop him from letting you know how good you were doing. In response to seeing him struggling to keep his composure as he throat fucked you harder, you hollowed your cheeks around him and gripped his thighs to keep you centered, moaning against the skin to feel his cock twitch in your throat. You even went as far as to reach up and grip his balls in your hands, but were quickly yanked away from him.

Confused, you looked up at Yuta to find out why he pulled out of you so quickly only to see a cocky look on his face, a smirk tugging at his lips again. Yuta chuckled as he reached down and grabbed your wrist rather harshly, pulling you up to your feet as he towered over you, “Careful princess, wouldn’t want to be punished... Would you?”

You shook your head vigorously at his question, not wanting him to get any rougher since your throat was now burning from the abuse of Yuta shoving his cock into you repeatedly. Although you were pretty sure you were willing to give everything for Yuta to completely dominate you in ways you couldn’t even imagine, you would much rather be able to walk out of the hotel room instead of crawl.

“Jump,” Yuta demanded as he got rid of the rest of his pants that were pooling at his ankles, bending down in front of you to hook his arms underneath your ass in order to pick you up. You kindly obliged and jumped into his arms, Yuta smiling at you brightly before his lips latched onto the skin of your neck, trailing open mouth kisses to your collar bone and began to suck harshly. As Yuta turned your neck red with busted blood vessels, you keened for him, leaning into his figure as he began to walk to you to the bed while digging his teeth into your skin to hear you moan louder for him.

Your back hit the mattress shortly after, relaxing into the soft fabric while Yuta moved up on your neck to your earlobe, whispering in a sultry tone, “Time to show you what Heaven on Earth is really about...” Yuta pulled away from sucking languidly on your ear lobe to look down at you with hooded eyes, piercing into yours with a look that one would describe as pure desire, “I’m going to fucking wreck you.”

And wreck you Yuta did. There was never a moment when his nails weren’t digging into your hips or wrists if he decided to keep your wrists restricted while he fucked his way into your guts, curses flying from his mouth with every thrust. Sweat was coating both of your bodies as you cried out in pleasure your nails digging into his forearms as Yuta pinned you beneath him, rolling his hips harshly against your throbbing clit.

“Fu-Fuck Yuta!” You screamed, feeling yourself getting closer to your release as Yuta kissed down your neck, peppering the abused skin as the intensity of his strokes never faded. Yuta smirked against your skin as he gripped your ankles that were wound tightly around his waist, pulling them off of him and spreading you wide so he could fuck you harder and much deeper than before.

With the new angle, Yuta’s cock could pierce into the deepest parts of your slick pussy, causing lewd squelching sounds to ring out through the whole room that only seemed to egg Yuta on. His grip on your ankles got tighter as he leaned forward, pushing your toes to the wall behind you as he completely buried himself inside of your seeping entrance, pulling out and looking at the thick sheen of your arousal coating his cock nicely.

Yuta continued to push your toes against the wall, leaning forward with each stroke to have his cock drag against the most pleasurable spots of your ever clenching walls, grunting with every thrust he forced on you. His grunts were low and short mixed with a few Japanese curse words, him throwing his head back and biting his lip to distract himself from bursting inside of you. The longer he fucked you at this angle, the more his resolve weakened. He needed you to cum before him.

As Yuta fucked you the hardest he’s ever fucked anyone before, he removed one of his hands from your ankle and wrapped it tightly around your throat, looking at you for a look of assurance. You simply nodded as your hand was placed on top of his, holding him there as he steadily applied more pressure to cut off your air supply in a euphoric way that had you arching up against him. The sensation of his groin rolling against your throbbing bundle of nerves, his cock burying deep inside of your walls to feel you completely, and the new act of restricting your airflow had you feeling too good for your own good. All that you remembered was you screaming out for Yuta, clawing at him to come closer to you as you let the wave of pleasure crash over you.

Yuta felt your walls clench tightly around his cock, sending him spiraling over his edge as thick ropes of cum could be felt deep within your pussy, Yuta moaning out as he completely emptied himself into you. Yuta seemed to sputter syllables that reflected your name in pure bliss as he let himself crash on top of you, the only feeling he could feel before passing out with you was the sensation of his cum struggling to stay inside of your pussy and began to leak on the sheets below you two.

When the two of you woke sometime after you had the best sex of your whole entire life, you looked at each other with fond eyes and bright smiles. Yuta was actually a funny guy when he wasn’t forced to act on his dominant persona for tips from his lovers, telling jokes and making you laugh to seem more comfortable with the whole idea of paying for sex in a love hotel.

“This was probably the highlight of my whole trip,” You said as you two cuddled afterwards, laying your head on top of Yuta’s toned chest and playing with the peaks of his abs.

Yuta shifted a little bit to give you a kiss on the top of your head, smiling against your scalp as you could feel him breathe in heavily like he was in a supreme state of relaxation with you, “I’m glad I was a part of it... I think I’m going to crash here with you tonight if it’s okay with you, you really wore me out.”

“And don’t worry about payment, I’ll have Johnny take it out of my pay. With a performance like the one you just gave me, I should be paying you.”

#NeoWritingsNet #Nakamoto Yuta #Nakamoto Yuta smut #Nakamoto Yuta fanfiction #Yuta #Yuta smut #Yuta fanfcition #NCT #NCT 127 #NCT smut #NCT fanfiction #NCT 127 smut #NCT 127 fanfiction #Kpop #Kpop smut #Kpop fanfiction

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vocaotome · 5 years ago

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Interactive Queer Fantasy Novel Review - Moonrise

A couple months ago I was invited to try out Moonrise, a text based urban fantasy interactive novel by Natalie Cannon. Although I usually stick to visual novels, since I had played and enjoyed other choice of games before, I decided to give Moonrise a try and write a review for it.

While the game had an interesting premise with smooth, enjoyable prose and witty modern humor, my overall experience has been a rather mixed bag, probably because I don’t appear to fall into the specific audience for the game. I’ll give a vague outline of the plot and share my impressions while trying to not give too much away. In order to prevent constantly switching between “the player”/“you”/“us” etc, when referring to the character we are playing I’m going to use “Heather” (a name from the list of choices available, you can also type in whatever you wish) and “she”.

Full review under the cut, or on wordpress if you prefer it instead.

Gameplay

The basic gameplay of Moonrise is the same as most games on the choice of games platform, all text with no graphics and only stat based choices. The game offers the option to choose between she/her and they/them pronouns at the very start, but as per the basic game premise (supernatural celebration of queer femininity), player cannot identify as male in this game so no he/his pronouns. Choosing between cis/trans/other/not saying is also available, though I felt that there was an assumption that the player is not cis or at least is someone who is pretty invested in using specific pronouns (early game it's mentioned that "you" talked to Alice about your pronouns).

While the game description claims that the main character may be asexual and there are dialogue choices which allow you to refuse romantic advances saying you are asexual, I felt that the narration didn’t really reflect that since there were many parts in the common scenes (regardless of route or picked choices) where you express strong attraction towards beautiful women. The 3 love interests were pretty likable and varied in their backstories and personality, although I wish all of them got equal amount of screentime (your roommate inevitably gets more scenes than the otherworldly goddess you meet in the last chapter). You can date just a single person or multiple people at once.

The players also get to choose between being “Fierce” (20% initial boost to Bloodthirst, Uncanny, Defense attributes) or “Civilized” (20% boost to Empathy, Responsibility, Snark attributes). The choices throughout the game either raise these attributes further or improve your relationship with the love interests.

For those who are concerned about homophobia, Moonrise very briefly mentions the existence of homophobic people but for the most part all the characters treat LGBTQA+ people as very normal (example: Heather finds Alice's puppy love for a girl in her class very cute), so no need to worry on that account.

Plot

The pace of the game is pretty fast right from the start, we begin with “Heather” directly being thrown into a situation where the player has just transformed into a wolf. Another werewolf called “Alice” soon finds us while Heather is confusedly struggling between canine instincts and human reason. I really liked the part where "you" still are convinced that you are a 100% pure wolf and are completely operating under that impression, lol. All the wolf related terms also are rather endearing, time to refer to all my close friends as my packmates <3

At first I was a little bit wary of Alice, who is revealed (within 5 minutes of playing) to be the one to have turned Heather into a werewolf, but she grew on me very quickly, especially with her youthful admiration of Heather and the open vulnerability she shows to us. I’m also grateful to her for helping Heather turn back human, the idea of getting stuck as a wolf forever (which Alice mentioned happening to some people) sounded pretty disturbing. (I did giggle at how Heather was like “bleh, wolves have it better, no student loans”)

Alice returns together with Heather to Heather’s home which she shares with her best friend and roommate Rosario, the first LI we run into. I liked Rosario’s character and sense of humor a lot (random: I bust a lung laughing when the narration mentioned them lightly smelling of weed), though I wish the narration used less jargon when explaining Rosario’s lifestyle as an adventurous and dynamic queer person (this issue popped up a couple of times later in the game too, though not frequently enough to be a deal breaker). The below paragraph made me stare for a solid minute before I managed to comprehend everything.

Rosario is super relieved to see Heather safe and quickly warms up to Alice, and in order to develop a relationship with Rosario (also if you’re interested in building up your empathy stat, very useful for diplomatic options) we must be friendly towards Alice and let her stay in our home. To be honest it's hard to be an asshole to Alice, she’s a cutie. I liked it when Alice was described during this scene to have corkscrew hair and dark skin, yay for varied designs!

Anyway, around this time we learn that Heather is a doctor-in-training working for their residency. I laughed at the part where after picking a choice, the prose apologized to me for doubting that I'd call work to inform my circumstances.This is the point where the free part ends.

Regardless of whether we go to our job, meet our coworkers and interact with patients, or go all SCREW U to your job and hang around in a park (irresponsible, imo, you’ve been missing for a day because of this whole wolf business), you run into the second LI, Chika, a seemingly cold and quiet young doctor who works in the same place as Heather and is actually also a werewolf.

She also seems to have harbored a strong crush on Heather for quite a while, even during routes where I've acted very distant towards her so far she pretty much immediately confesses and we get the option to kiss her. Personally I prefer more buildup in romantic relationships in my stories, but I guess this isn’t surprising considering that we have already spent about 2 chapters on the prologue and this is a short game consisting of only 8 chapters.

The next few chapters are a mix of slice of life situations where Alice, Rosario and Heather blossom into a pretty cute makeshift family, with optional scenes of bonding in wolf form with Alice. Alice also gives us a lot of information about the vampire and werewolf lore of this world, and informs Heather about the 2 opposing factions of the supernatural society: the masquerade, who prefer to keep the human and supernatural worlds separate and operate as an organization under strict rules of secrecy, and the rogues, who prefer a wild and free approach in life and wish to go public about the existence of supernatural creatures.

Not gonna lie, the masquerade sounds amazing on paper, being their part apparently means getting your university tuition paid and guaranteed jobs after graduation, that sounds like a dream lol. However they are a bit to stuck up for Alice’s tastes, especially because of her foster parent who is someone high up in the Masquerade and pretty unpleasant. Rogues sound rather bad at this point since Alice mentions being “hunted” early game and they are supposed to be the ones “after” her.

In Chapter 6 we run into Cassandra, a vampire and the foster parent mentioned above, who pretty much kidnaps us to her place. Over the course of a very tense and threatening conversation, she gives us plenty of reasons to NOT consider signing up for the masquerade, though I think that was the opposite of her intention. The game's description of Cassandra's attitude towards young people like they were "particularly ugly vase that begs to be shattered" sounds so accurate to how some old people act lol. We have to escape Cassandra by choosing either diplomacy or violence, and choosing the wrong option that you don’t have enough attributes for can get you killed.

(Random: Cassandra being portrayed positively in some future scenes after claiming to eat her servants is unnerving. I hope that was a joke ;;;;)

If chapter 6 was the one familiarizing us with the masquerade, chapter 7 is the equivalent part for rogues. We meet up with Chika who is relieved to see Heather safe (even out of her route she acts way too familiar when it comes to physical distance with Heather, her cold queen settings vanish when it involves the person she likes, lol), and reveals herself as the leader of the rogues. We get a bunch of information about the rogues’ motivations and plans, and the misunderstanding that they want to harm Alice is cleared up. (It’s also possible to get some more explanation earlier in the game if you acted all wolf-y right from the start and went on a solo wandering trip which Chika joins)

After the conversation Chika springs a sudden offer for a date on Heather, which made me giggle during the walkthroughs where I rejected her hard. It was extra funny because we had been talking about serious stuff™ right until that point. It is possible to go on a date with her and have a sexual encounter afterwards. All dates in this game can end in sex, but it is optional.

There is a scene with Rosario where we hang out and have some heart-to-heart talk soon after the encounter with Chika, and this can end up being a date depending on our choices, regardless of whether we are already dating Chika or not. I think there is a malfunctioning romance flag here because Rosario talks as if I’m dating Chika even if I have refrained from ALL romantic choices with Chika.

At the start of chapter 8 we are forced to choose between the masquerade and the rogues, though considering the way the representatives from these groups (Cassandra and Chika) have treated us until this point, choosing the masquerade seems like madness.

~~~~~~~

If we choose the Masquerade, Alice and Heather visit Cassandra again to join the society. We meet people other than Cassandra who thankfully are pleasant enough, and suddenly a masquerade member came to seek Cassandra’s help and we ended up being asked to help perform some ritual to teleport somewhere and rescue/steal Dracula's brides??? What? I was very confused during this part because the story flow suddenly became very fast and I was having difficulty keeping up.

During this mission there is a possible dead end (ironic, the people who we went to rescue end up accidentally killing Heather), but as long as things go smoothly, we encounter Ishara, the last LI who a special werewolf from some other far away place (planet? dimension?) and treated like a goddess by the supernatural community because of her special powers and JAW DROPPING BEAUTY. She likes the way Heather treats her casually unlike everyone else, and there is another sudden date offer.

After the rescuing of Dracula brides, we get a slice of life-ish scene with them, Cassandra, Ishara and Rosario in a coffee shop. This is where we finally get some backstory on Cassandra and learn about some of her positive points, being a lesbian Robin Hood of sorts isn’t something I expected from her XD

Although I don’t think it’s possible to keep your relationship with Chika intact in this path, you can talk with your other 2 love interests about the nature of your relationship (open/closed, romantic/queerplatonic). There was one playthrough when I somehow found Ishara sitting on Heather’s lap and kissing Rosario, wild.

Before the final fight, there is a brief scene where Chika meets up with Heather and is quite heartbroken over her choosing the masquerade. Soon after that the day comes where we face off against the Rogues who have decided on a kill or get killed approach.

~~~~~~~~

If we choose the Rogues instead, there is no falling out with Chika (she’s ecstatic to have Heather join them) and we visit the Rogues’ hangout instead. After some socialization we embark on a journey to find Alice’s biological dad who is a powerful but loner werewolf and a possible valuable ally for our fight against the masquerade. This course of option made a lot more sense to me than the Dracula bride thing in the masquerade route.

We manage to locate the man and he joins our cause (I laughed at Alice and his naked reunion, the side effect of transforming between wolf and human forms), not only because he’s annoyed by the masquerade’s way of doing things but also because he suspects them being involved in the death of Alice’s mother and Alice becoming a werewolf (werewolf genes aren’t hereditary). In the Masquerade route Cassandra claims to not have done it, so I’m curious what exactly happened.

We also run into Ishara while on this mission (I’m curious how she is here instead of wherever she was during the other route, how exactly did the butterfly effect work?), and similar to the Masquerade route, get the chances to flirt with her and go on a date. It was interesting how Ishara sex scene has a little more detail than others, and extra text about being trans if your character is trans too (If you are cis she just mentions it during the date).

After the mission there is a party where we can do a lot of socializing, and similar to the masquerade route, confirm with your love interest(s) about the nature of your relationship. Then once again it is the time for the final fight, only this time it’s the Masquerade attacking us.

~~~~~~

I must admit that I was somewhat disappointed with how brief the final fight was. The few paragraphs leading up to the fight are pretty much the same in the Masquerade and the Rogues version, then we simply get to choose between persuading for peace, fighting to kill or to defend. Every one of these choices only have one paragraph explaining the result. During my first playthrough this caught me by surprise as I was expecting to actually read a tear jerking speech about living together in peace, not just a super concise summary. The epilogue is also basically just that, a sentence each about the final fate of the characters who stayed with you until the end.

Final thoughts

Writing: The prose is where the game shines. The usage of uncommon (but not unknown) vocabulary in the more metaphorical imagery was lovely.

However, there are places where some unfamiliar LGBT terms or custom pronouns caught me off guard and made me pause to look stuff up. Personally I believe using too many technical terms in stories makes dialogue sound a bit forced and disrupts narration, but thankfully such instances weren’t very common in moonrise.

The humor was great, me frequently laughing over random things while describing the plot should be proof enough of that. The worldbuilding was done with a lot of care and the flow of plot was pretty logical for the most part, but towards the end I couldn't comprehend the logic behind some events and even after multiple playthroughs I haven't found any explanations for a couple of things, like the real mystery surrounding Alice's mother's death.

Characterization: Characterization was good but varying in quantity- Rosario and Alice were pretty well rounded character development wise and I loved their cute family-like interactions. I was all AWWW when Heather called the place with them her home ;v;

Compared to that Chika felt more of an enigma, but her date and the optional running off into the woods scene still gave her some chances to develop (though it mostly confirmed that she was a good person wishing for freedom and we didn’t really learn much about her personal emotions aside from liking Heather). Poor Ishara got even less chances, so all I managed to grasp was her loneliness. All three of the romance interests shared the issue of overly rapid romantic developments though, though in varying extents (repeat: poor Ishara).

Some side characters like Cassandra got detailed backstories, but it’s hard to grow to like her after experiencing ends where we got killed at her hand over something small. Because this story is only available in the masquerade path and there is no foreshadowing about her positive qualities before the route split, a lot of people might simply never play this path.

Player customization: I also wish the game description didn’t imply that the player character can be customized a lot. Considering how it was implied that the player had an abusive family and is trying to become a doctor because she wants to do and be “better’, imo the already present backstory is too defined for story to be immersive. I personally don’t seek to self insert so it’s not a problem for me (I PREFER this to a blank slate), but it may be for others who came into the game with wrong expectations.

One more thing I would like to see implemented in future versions is choosing if I was polyromantic/polysexual or not at the start of the game. Regardless of whether the player has locked into a romance route or not, "you" still keep thirsting after the beautiful possible LIs that cross your path. I found that rather distracting during my first playthrough since I was playing the game while planning to develop a monogamist cis lesbian character and I felt a disconnect whenever it happened.

Ending: Lastly, the ending. I don’t mind the short epilogues, but the description of the “final fight” was simply so short that it felt anticlimactic, so I will just hope that the ending will be more extended with detailed scenes in a later version.

In summary? Good prose, interesting worldbuilding but too-short romance and rushed ending. Worth a read if you like modern fiction with fantasy supernatural elements involving lots of queer characters and aren’t overly critical in your evaluation of the flow and logic in a story. The game is really cheap though, the amount of content you get is definitely worth $1.99, so if the game sounds like your cup of tea go ahead and try it out!

P/S: A short guide on maxing out the relationship points: being nice to the LI is a given, go on dates with them, and pick the following choices which might not seem obvious (I might be missing some choices that seem obvious to me but actually aren’t orz):

Chika: Ask Naoki to move but politely, Hold her hand (during date), Ask to come up for “coffee” (sex/literal coffee), Don’t choose the masquerade (duh)

Rosario: Embrace her, We let her (Alice) live here, Yes, spar without hurting

Ishara: Compliment, Flirt Back

#Moonrise #interactive fiction #interactive novel #queer fiction #review

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