#no seriously this is five years old

[maximura]

So I wrote a maybe draft for a Gang AU with Ateez that I maybe will finish, if anyone is into that kind of thing. It has swearing and mentions of blood.

****

It’s a chilly Saturday night in downtown Seoul and Seonghwa can hear the muted throbbing bass from the club on the other side of the bathroom door. He can smell the sweat and smoke of too many people and feel the stickiness of spilled vodka underneath his boots. It’s disgusting but that’s why he’s here. 

The graying strip of fluorescent light above his head flickers as bugs fly head first into it. He muses over the fact that he feels the same. But he can’t go home yet, his watch tells him it’s only 11:45pm. Only three hours to go. 

The mirror is dirty, spotted with fingerprints and water and whatever else he doesn’t want to think about. Not that this was the time to contemplate hygiene. 

Seonghwa’s black Dior suit hides the blood stains but his white shirt doesn't. It takes five minutes of scrubbing to make himself presentable and not alarm other people into calling the cops because some guy is washing a bloody shirt in the bathroom of a dodgy club. But nobody asks. Maybe it’s just wine. Normal people like to think the best, it helps them sleep at night while the monsters are out running the city.

He’ll burn the shirt later. 

By the time he leaves here there will be countless amounts of DNA smeared all over this bathroom. It’ll be impossible to trace anything to anyone without implicating half the youths of Seoul. 

Seungcheol told him that once and he doesn’t forget it as he rinses off his knife in the sink. Stellar, it was called, carved in cursive across the dark wood handle and given to him after his first kill. 

With his blade and clothes as clean as he can get them, Seonghwa raises a wet hand to wipe a stray smear of blood from his cheek. He can't remember whose it is. Not that it really matters. 

He runs a hand through his hair, grimacing when it sits awkwardly for a moment before hurriedly raking the dark strands the other way. 

There’s a soft buzzing from his pocket, just three before it stops.

“You alone? Line clean?”

“Not yet.” Seonghwa replies, exiting the bathroom and making his way through the back of the club.

The person on the other end waits until the thumping bass fades away and Seonghwa steps through the door into the empty back alley. 

“You good?”

“Yeah, I’m good. Issue?”

"Kim's missing."

His weariness turns sharply sober and edgy. He stops breathing for a second, stomach falling to the ground without warning. 

God, he fucking hates surprises. 

There’s millions of Kims in South Korea but only one that means something. It’s the last thing he needs to hear. It’s a guarantee there will be no sleep in his future. 

“How? When?”

He almost doesn’t want to know.

"Not over the phone. Come in. Pick up the kids on the way, usual place.”

“Yeah…..alright, sure”. 

Seonghwa hangs up and strides to where his black AMG is parked next to a few bikes. He takes three deep shaky breaths, wills himself to dissociate from the feelings he’s stamped down into the ground and puts his ‘At Work’ mask back on. Revving up the growling engine, he pulls the AMG onto the highway towards Lily’s Diner, driving well above the legal limit but knowing the cops in the area have bigger fish to fry right now, he made sure of that. 

Predictably, the “Kids” are right where he thought they'd be. He can see their mouths moving from inside the Diner, an argument in full swing no doubt, and that’s even before he’s even pulled into the parking lot. Some things just never change. It’s almost nice, if he was someone who regularly indulged in the sentimental. 

The kids don’t see him so he calls the one more likely to answer. 

"Yeah?"

“I’m in the parking lot. There’s a call-in, we gotta go now.”

There’s a heavy pause on the other end. 

“How bad?”

“Worse.”

Yunho has always been quick to read people, even through the smallest twitches on their face or slightest shifts in their voice. It was a useful skill in the field but Seonghwa has never liked it being used on him. He’ll make an exception tonight if it means less bickering.

“Okay. We’ll be out.” 

They hang up and Seonghwa waits, digging around the glove box to locate some Skittles before remembering that he ate them already. 

Fuck this Long Night.

******

"So get this Seonghwa-"

“No names in the field.” He scowls. “Wait till we’re out of ear shot at least.” 

Mingi just never learns. Blessed with freakish energy and strength but cursed with recklessness and a voice that carries too loudly across any parking lot. 

“Paranoia getting to you again?” Mingi asks with a wide grin. “It’s midnight and the only dangerous people here is us."

Seonghwa regards him through the rear view mirror; sharp tense eyes meeting bright curious ones. He knows for a fact that Mingi’s job tonight was tough but looking at the blonde in the backseat now, with his hair being tousled by the night breeze, you’d mistake him for any other carefree kid on a night out.

Seonghwa is wrestled back into the present when he feels eyes boring into his face. While he’s been looking at Mingi, Yunho has been silently watching him, stealing whatever information he needs to arrive at whichever conclusion he chooses. 

It’s unnerving. 

“You two have any problems tonight?”

Work talk. Shop talk. It’s a safe topic. Seonghwa will keep it going as long as he needs to because he can feel all the questions on the tip of Yunho’s tongue. 

They both know Yunho feeds on information; possessed with a desire to know everything about everyone in every situation. He hadn’t always been like that, Seonghwa thinks regrettably. The twenty-three year old staring at him now is nothing like the scrawny insecure kid he met all those years ago on the street. 

They both also know that Seonghwa holds all the secrets and does not surrender them easily, if at all. There are some secrets that not even Seungcheol, their leader, knows. Secrets that will be buried with him when he dies. 

“No problems.” Yunho replies shortly. “It was fine.”

“No it wasn’t! I need new weapons!” Mingi protests, ignoring the silent battle of dominance playing out in front of him. 

“What’s wrong with your current lot?”

“Ugh, it jams every time it gets damp!” Mingi cries, throwing his hands in the air and nearly taking Yunho’s eyes out. “I’m going to ask Wonwoo for some new shit when we get back. He said I was his favourite and I’m going to capitalise."

Like a switch, Yunho’s stony face lights up with laughter. “What? You are definitely not his favourite. He was being sarcastic.”

Mingi pauses, hand on his chest like he’s wounded. “No, but he said it fully serious.”

Yunho rolls his eyes. “That’s just how he talks, Mingi. He tells us we’re all his favourites. That’s the joke because none of us are his favourite.”

Seonghwa snorts out a laugh. 

“So this whole time…” Mingi trails off, a look of betrayal flitting across his face. 

“Yeah, he finds you as annoying as the rest of us.” Yunho says with a chuckle, petting Mingi’s blonde hair fondly. “He hates everyone.”

“Everyone?”

“Well, almost everyone.”

There’s a beat of silence and Seonghwa lets go of some of the tension in his shoulders. It lasts approximately ten seconds before Mingi’s head suddenly pops up next to him. 

“Hey Seonghwa, I’m still your favourite though right?”

******

When they arrive at Headquarters Seonghwa punches in the new code and nods to Stanley, the security man pretending to be the Gardner, as they drive into the gated property. As far as he knows, there were no flowers that bloomed solely at night, but their neighbours were either stupid, apathetic or just as crooked as they were to ignore it all. 

Once inside, Seonghwa sends Mingi and Yunho to clean up but he makes his way up to the main office. 

“Well? You found him yet?”

Seungcheol is at his desk when Seonghwa bursts through the door, hissing a loud ‘fuck off!’ at the two guards who attempted to search him. 

Seungcheol allows it, nodding for the guards to stand down.

“Well?” Seonghwa asks again. “Do we have anything?”

“No.”

Seonghwa slumps heavily into one of the leather chairs in the room. 

Seungcheol regards him quietly and calmly. “I was going to wait till the others got here.”

“Oh fuck that, I deserve to know first.” Seonghwa spits out, knowing that, despite his own seniority, Seungcheol is still older and he’s dangerously close to stepping out of line here. 

“Hongjoong was contracted to take out Big Red tonight.”

Cold dread settles uncomfortably in Seonghwa’s stomach, with worry and anxiety gnawing at him until everything is replaced with anger. 

“He didn’t tell me that.”

“I told him not to.”

“So you sent him on a secret suicide mission by himself? Not even a team could take on Big Red right now. What the hell, Seungcheol?”

“We had intel things would be favourable.”

Seonghwa snorts derisively. “Well, him being missing doesn’t make it very fucking favourable does it?”

They’re both quiet for a moment. Seonghwa talks down his rage; not just at the fact that Hongjoong is missing but at the sheer amount of disastrous decisions being made without his knowledge.

“The intel was bad. Jongho took care of the source.”

“No shit it was bad.” Seonghwa scoffs, as if a mole dying was meant to make him feel better. “So you don’t know anything?”

Seungcheol leans forward in his chair. “There’s not much to go on: we think Red’s still on the run because nobody’s called it in yet. The entire building they were both in burnt to the ground. No survivors.”

“That’s nothing to go on.” Seonghwa mutters. “How do you even know there’s no survivors? Have you looked?”

Seungcheol’s poker face flashes with something akin to regret. It’s barely there but Seonghwa caught it. 

“What? What is it?”

“Well, it would seem that your little pal got himself some kind of fan who saw the whole thing. 

Seonghwa is dumbfounded, staring lamely at Seungcheol as he continues. 

“If he's meant to be so hard to find and kill, I don't even know how this kid managed to track him down and follow him in the first place.”

“Wait, how do you even know this? Where’s this kid now?”

“Wonwoo’s feeding him in the kitchen.”

“What? Are you serious?” Seonghwa laughs incredulously, “You brought a fucking unreliable witness back here? Are we in the witness protecting business now? Have you actually lost your mind?”

Seungcheol lets out rare weary sigh. "You want to see him?"

No, he didn't. He's had enough of kids and stupid decisions for one night. 

"Sure."

*****

The Kid looks maybe 18. It was hard to tell. Maybe the tears made him look younger but the soot and grime made him look older. 

Wonwoo nods a greeting as Seonghwa enters the kitchen and stands up to leave them alone. 

Seonghwa sits down at the table. 

"You ok, Kid?"

"Don't call me that!” 

The snap was unexpected and Seonghwa can't help but be amused. Just seen death, kidnapped by a gang and this kid still has the balls to talk back. 

“Okay, so you’re not a kid. Got it. You have a home to go to? Parents?"

The Kid shakes his head. It’s a movement and answer that trips a wire in Seonghwa’s mind. 

"Okay then. You gotta name?"

"He said no names in the field."

And Seonghwa wants to laugh at that. Typical Kim Hongjoong.

"We're not in the field now though."

“Well, I’m not stupid enough to tell you my name.” The Kid huffs defiantly, even through the dirt and tears. 

This kid. Seonghwa can see why Hongjoong might've been tempted to let him get close. 

"Okay. Different question. How did you know him?"

"I don't. I just followed him around."

"Yeah? And he let you? You know what he is right?"

"He's a killer. Just like you."

The Kid turns to look him in the eyes. They’re as sharp as the ones he’s seen in the mirror and suddenly the teenager looks both young and old at the same time. There’s a weariness, sadness, tiredness but above all, the steely silver light of determination. 

"He's not dead."

The statement punches Seonghwa right in his chest. "What?"

"I couldn't find a body. It means he's not dead."

A few years ago Seonghwa might've been more naive, might’ve been too optimistic or pessimistic based on emotions, but now, he only plays with fact and probability. And right now, those tell him that despite the whole building burning down and no gang wars erupting over Big Red’s territory: no body means no kill. Assassins survive for a reason. Especially Kim Hongjoong. 

"You looked?”

The Kid nods. "Until the cops and fire guys came"

"Did you tell this to anyone?"

"Only you."

"Why me? How do you know me?"

"He told me to find you. He told me to trust you....." The Kid pauses. Obviously debating whether to trust anyone at all. "He told me to look for the model guy with the most expensive suit. That's you isn't it?"

Seonghwa wants to laugh but his mind just reels from the information. This wasn’t just a random Kid. He clearly had some sort of relationship with Hongjoong, one that Seonghwa didn’t even know about. 

He pushes aside the feelings of betrayal and settles on processing the fact that this kid has spent enough time with Hongjoong to figure out what he might look like. It means Hongjoong has described him, in detail, to someone. Just in case something happened to him. 

This kid was the lifeline. And Seonghwa was the emergency contact.

Fucking Kim Hongjoong. 

The kid lets out a sheepish yawn and Seonghwa checks his watch: 2am. 

"You got anywhere to go? It's late."

He’s met with a non committal shrug. 

“You want me to drop you off somewhere?”

“I don’t know.”

“Someone out there is looking for you right?”

“No.”

Seonghwa just stares at him before taking in the worn out clothes, the Nike hoody that looks suspiciously like the one he got Hongjoong years ago, and the total lack of any real personal belongings near him. 

Seonghwa clears his throat uncomfortably. "Ah. Well. I'll talk to er, the others about where to...put...you."

He walks out of the room swiftly and finds Seungcheol in the main lounge room they used for most meetings. He must’ve had the strangest expression on his face because Seungcheol doesn’t even demand a status report right away. 

“What? What is it?”

“He…said he looked through the wreck of the building, after the fire was put out. He couldn't find a body. Any body. So maybe they're both alive.”

“Someone pulled them out.”

“I think so. It would explain why nobody’s claimed Hongjoong’s kill and Red’s minions aren't tearing themselves apart for a piece of the territory.”

He looks around room. The black couches in the corner now filled with the sleeping forms of the Yunho and Mingi. 

“You filled them in?”

Seungcheol nods, “Only what they needed to know: that Hongjoong’s missing.”

“Where’s Jongho?”

“He’s fine, just delayed by the ferry. Something about a storm over the ocean.”

Seonghwa nods. “The Kid. He’s a street kid. I don’t know who he belongs to, he says nobody but someone out there must be missing him. I'm not sure it was smart taking him here but he knows too much Seungcheol. He knows a whole fucking lot.”

Seungcheol rubs his temples. “That’s what I was afraid of. It’s part of the reason I took him here.”

“Part of?”

“Well, he also asked for you. By name."

They stare at each other incredulously, before simultaneously muttering, "Fucking Kim Hongjoong.” 

[batwynn]

Remembering that time when I was five and didn’t even know filters existed—never mind knowing how to stop talking—and I was out with my grandmother (divorced from my grandfather) having a lovely day in a lovely little Maine town in the 90s.

The thing about Maine in the 90s was certain things like smoking weed was illegal across the country and generally frowned upon, but Mainers simply Did Not Care and more than happily grew and smoked pot anyway. The other thing about Maine is most of those Lovely Little Towns are constantly full of out of state tourists coming to buy kitch and eat lobster. These tourists tended to be from states that generally did not have the same attitude about pot as Mainers did. It was still considered a Very Bad Thing To Do.

So when my five year old self saw an older gentleman smoking a classic tobacco pipe amongst a crowd of tourists I remarked, on the top of my lungs, that my grandfather had a pipe too! Not that kind of pipe, though!

There was literally a beat of shocked silence before my grandmother laughed a little too loudly and said something about it being a different color or some nonsense. Of course no one, like, ratted out my five-year-old self and my grandfather out to the police for that. But there were definitely some shocked button-upped folks in that lovely little town that day.

Anyway, that was the one and only time I was a snitch.

[lachiennearoo]

Childhood is thinking Les Légendaires is bad because it's gory with cute characters

Adulthood is realizing Les Légendaires is bad because it's written like shit

[dalesramblingsblog]

Two days since the special and I'm already seeing people go "Haha, that evil Moffat bastard must have hated this one because it focuses on the dreaded women and trans people!"

Welcome back, Tumblr's attempts at hot takes. You're just as ill-conceived and poorly-supported as ever.

Maybe they were wrong. Maybe you can go home again...

[iristial]

rider system album jin (zero one) | reiwa: the first generation

[roobylavender]

oomf @boyfridged is so right about yj98 ruining bart's design like on one hand is the yj98 art style cute yes for sure but it also certainly contributed to the idea of bart as this like. ridiculously dorky looking person. like i'm not saying a fifteen year old has to look ripped per se but bart's initial depictions gave you an idea of the extensive training he had been through and how he was always a very deeply thoughtful person if not the best at expressing his thoughts in a palatable manner. so his progressive regression into an immature person is infuriating and of course another instance to add to the treasure trove of "watch us regress a flash fam character when we put them in a team book" phenomena

[ruthiesrambles2]

Birthday month birthday month

Gonna treat myself by reading every fic tagged Mel/Ruth (again)

[socrates2point0h]

when did tumblr decide searching in a tag for "top posts of all time" means i want to see like a wall of posts from this month that got a medium amount of notes, occasionally interspersed by posts that are also from this month but got a few thousand notes, and absolute no posts from more than 5 years ago, regardless of how many notes they got. under no circumstances should i be searching for top posts of all time in a tag with thousands, hundreds of thousands, even, of followers, for a media with an internet following that originated 5 or 10 or fucking 15 years ago and get a 600 note post from yesterday at the top of the search. whats happening here guys. "oh well just use the tag feed instead of the post search" yeah so i can see 5k note posts from this year instead of 500 note posts from this year? WHERE ARE THE OLD POSTS. WHAT HAVE YOU DONE WITH THEM. I KNOW THEY EXIST

[lateseptemberdawn]

Ngl bad parents give me such an ick like stay tf away from me ew

[jeynewesterling]

I love how when you tell someone not to leave a rude comment on a fic, they always throw the "It was ConCrit!" defense and also get super mad that you criticised their 'criticism'

[trucbiduleschouettes]

Heartbearer InfoDumb Time: 

The tattoo on Brocéliande’s arm on the last doodle (and every eye motif in Heartbearer) is related to this guy right here! His current name is Hakan but he was formerly known as the All Seeing God- he just happen to be a bit more mortal rn and actively dying from the deadly rot caused by eating one of his enemies to try and stop the world’s imminent decay. 

Said enemy can sometimes uses his weakened state to take over his body and try to do as much damage as possible before he takes back control over her; his appearance shifts when the War Bringer goddess takes over, and the shift back often leave him closer to death. 

Funnily enough, although an ally of Brocéliande in the story, the closest to her he is, the easier it is for the other goddess to take control of his body, thus making it hard for those two to fight side by side in battle.  

Another fact: 

Hakan -or rather, Olcare as he was known when still a full god- was agender back then and reproduced asexually; many wolves and werewolves are his children. The last child he had before falling into a demi mortal form -Hakan- is a shifter being that was named Inu when found with him after his decaying wolf body crashed down on earth. 

[Do not use/repost] 

[littencloud9]

sometimes someone drops a kudos on like. a pokemon or atla fic i wrote wheni was 14/15 ish and i feel like a tiny cat holding up my arms trying to cover a screen that is comically larger than i am and going NO!! DONT LOOK!!!

[vegan-heterotroph]

Just talking about some books I've read this year:

I'm reading a second fictional book this year that takes place in England, and once againt the main character is always talking about/is drinking, (she's 16) and its just weird to me becaus I'm in my late twenties and I do not like alcohol, yet there are so many teens that love it?

Maybe it just me, but why not make these characters adults, because this same character talked about having several hookups after drinking, and I'm like "how old are you?!"

[th3-angry-bunny]

Setting her free

-

After being on a FNAF kick lately because of the movie, so I decided to redraw this image from 2017.

[david-watts]

I want to off myself

[wolfytae-exe]

my anons stay super sweet like. I wish this mofo would come in my inbox fuck around and find out dude, take off the anon and show the fuck up 🫶🏽