#oh shoot i should tag this as another entry in the au. to convince the non-beleivers into the church of little apple untamed lesbian

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

THE LITTLE APPLES HAVE UNDERGONE MITOSIS AND UNIONIZED!!

My (30M) apples (littleF, littleF) have unionized

@poorly-drawn-mdzs

[thanksjro]

Polyhex Wars, Book 1 Part 2: The Timeline for the Robots Being Gay Goes Back Further Than I Thought

Ratchet wakes up from that whole, “mystical passing out” thing to find himself strapped to a table with his head all poked into with wires. Optimus and Prowl are also being subjected to this treatment, but they’re not awake yet.

I guess we all have that one character we just latch onto, don’t we?

Chromedome was there when all three of these guys collapsed, and went to go get help. Ratchet explains that there was black fire and breaking glass and it was all like some god-awful acid trip.

No kidding, doc.

Ratchet seems to think that all that actually happened, but it turns out that it was all in their heads, much like everything else that they’d seen. Chromedome just saw them drop with a flash of light.

Optimus wakes up, and First Aid explains that their mental trips into Limbo are coming closer and closer together,  and becoming more violent as a result. There’s a good chance that the next time they have an attack, they’ll be sharing a dreamscape.

Prowl hasn’t woken up. Optimus is worried that he’s stuck in Limbo, and demands that they be put back under to guide him back to the land of the living. First Aid has his reservations, but what is he gonna do, argue with the space pope? Optimus and Ratchet are sent back in with the power of mind-transfer.

Let’s take a quick look at some Chromedome canon before we move on to the next chunk of story, because I want to try and get a feel for why Roberts seems to like him so much.

In the Marvel comics, Chromedome was kind of a reclusive computer nerd, who very much disliked the fact that all his programming skills were only being applied to the war effort as opposed to literally anything else. When Fortress Maximus decided to up and leave, he went along gladly. He ended up getting paired with a very outgoing, vain Nebulan partner named Stylor when the whole Headmaster thing happened. They had their differences, but ultimately were brought together by the common goal of kicking Decepticon ass for the greater good. Comic Chromedome is a relatively nice guy, if a bit cowardly- his final entry in the series was heading for the hills when Unicron showed up, but honestly I can’t really fault him for that.

And then there’s the Headmasters anime. Yeah, Chromedome was an anime protagonist back in the 90’s. Anime Chromedome is a completely different entity than his comic counterpart. His whole thing is that he wants revenge for the murder of his friends at the hands of Sixshot. He’s also a Headmaster- no shit- but it works a little differently, in that he’s the only one involved with the process. Chromedome himself IS the head, and the big body he plugs into is just this sort of inert mecha that he pilots when he wants to be able to reach the higher shelves at the supermarket.

Anime Chromedome is the second-in-command to Fortress Maximus, and he’s a bit of a jackass at times, but he seems to have his heart in the right place. You know, when he isn’t busy beating Decepticons to death. Anime Chromedome goes hard.

Getting back to the story, we return to the scene we left at the end of Part One, with the 40 Autobots having been caught in a trap in Darkmount.

Well that lasted all of five minutes. Poor Grandpa.

This starts a chain reaction, and it isn’t long before all the Autobots are throwing punches. Blaster goes full cowl, taking four guys on at once, and potentially kneeing someone in the nuts so hard they flies up into the air and are promptly exploded by gunfire. Blaster throws a gun to Sights, who is a sniper, and then is right back in the center of the fracas.

Sights is a sniper here, but it looks like the only Sights in Transformers canon is a bird who can turn into a fusion cannon. They probably aren’t the same character, unless there’s something I don’t know about birds.

Sights hauls himself up to a ledge using a grappling hook, and starts picking off Decepticons. Things seem to be turning around for the Autobots at this point, because Sights is the best.

Sights is what some might call a Mary Sue- he’s the best at sniping, rivaling Optimus Prime himself with his accuracy, everyone seems to know him, and he singlehandedly has turned the tide of this fight. As the Autobots escape, he manages to explode a key piece of Decepticon equipment, killing over a dozen enemy troops.

This is an earlier work, if you couldn’t already tell.

We do see some neat transitions in the writing, though.

Ratchet and Optimus have entered Limbo, and are feeling a little manic about the whole thing, especially since the space is just filled with corpses from the Time Wars. Like, it’s a carpet of dead bodies.

Roberts was all about that edge from the get-go, huh?

The two robots start walking, looking for Prowl.

Over with Red Alert on the Celestial, he’s not really feeling the vibe on this spacecraft. Neither is Hot Shot, but neither of them can really pinpoint why exactly that is. Sideswipe points out that Getaway doesn’t have his Nebulan partner with him- for this particular story, we’re going with the take on Getaway as a Powermaster, which means he has a smaller person who plugs into his body to act as a battery, kind of like a reverse parasite.

Comic books are weird.

Toy gimmicks are also weird.

This cues in the Autobots that things might not be on the up and up here. You know, that and the whole “Witterquick” thing. The boys load their weapons, but keep them concealed as they approach not-Blaster, who’s beginning to worry that he’s been caught after all this time.  He must have sort flavor of social anxiety, because he’s kept his cool over the video chat for the last few weeks, but the moment Red Alert enters the room, he blows his cover and orders the Decepticons to attack.

Back at Darkmount, it seems we’ve lost a few people, as the count has gone from 40 to 29. The boys are running through the halls, completely clueless as to where to go in order to escape.

Don’t be shocked by the language, this is G1 Silverbolt, not the one who fucks is a complete gentleman to a spider.

I’m still convinced that this Courier guy is evil. You should be tossing him out the window, not looking to him for help.

The Decepticons are gaining. Hound, exasperated, asks as nicely as he can for Silverbolt to try and wake Courier up as they attempt to keep the distance between factions as wide as they can. Laser fire quickly becomes involved, and Swerve and Bumblebee go from the back of the pack to the front. Little fellas can move when they want to.

While Sights does another cool thing with some guns he stole, Courier wakes up and says- with some trouble, since he’s just woken up and still bleeding from that leg wound- that they should jump into the sewers to escape.

That’s all well and good, but if they intend on doing such a thing, they’ll need to put a bit more distance between themselves and their assailants. Everyone starts shooting at the ceiling, attempting to bring it crashing down. Everyone except Sights. No, instead Sights goes on picking off any Decepticon who gets too close for comfort, until they manage to bring the house down.

The strong, silent type, Sights is. Tall, dark, and handsome, too, most likely.

Back in Limbo, Ratchet’s starting to crack.

As if on cue, the ground starts to crack, revealing lava of all things, and the whole scene turns into Dante’s Inferno-flavored Hell. Yeah, proper noun Hell. Optimus and Ratchet are exploded by contact with a downpour of acid rain, then their bodies reconstituted, only to be burned to crispies by the lava. When they wake up from that, they find themselves stuck on a spinning silver plate in the sky, where they have an excellent view of where Prowl’s gotten to- he’s stranded on an asteroid with a big, scary Decepticon, who’s about to complete wreck his shit.

You know, the snark has always been there in Roberts’ writing, but it didn’t really hit its stride until after this piece of work.

Meanwhile, in the sewers, our Autobots aren’t doing so hot. Courier’s probably going to die if they don’t get him medical attention soon. I guess they just didn’t have any sort of medic on the Celestial when it was overtaken, which seems like a massive oversight. Or maybe they’re dead.

We don’t have time to worry about the hiring practices of the Autobots right now though, because a few Decepticons just arrived on the scene.

Well, there goes the token girl character.

Seems like nobody told these ‘Cons to not hit their deep cover operative. There goes several thousand years of Autobot secrets, dumbasses. Soundwave’s going to be so pissed.

The Autobots quickly fall into formation and start defending themselves. Turns out Rev-Tone’s on the scene.

Hi Rev-Tone!

Someone gets shot and proceeds to explode, which causes enough chaos for a Decepticon to load up a missile launcher without being noticed and fire it into the crowd.

Things are looking hopeless, so that means it’s time for Sights to make his Heroic Sacrifice™. Hound begs him to stay, because he can’t bear to lose anyone else.

Unfortunately, the Hound/Sights coffeeshop AU slowburn fit written by Rewind will have to have a fix-it fic tag, because Sights is almost immediately and literally ripped apart by a smattering of Decepticons. Knowing his time is running out, he busts out the big guns.

Oh my god he’s got fucking laser vision.

That isn’t quite enough though, so he initiates self-destruct, thereby saving his fellow Autobots and dying a hero.

You know, if you stack Sights on top of what was left of Quark after the interrogation scene, you make a whole robot. Worst. Duobot. Ever.

Not to worry though, because Wheeljack’s taken the opportunity to be all weird and cryptic, and insinuates that they potentially COULD bring Sights back from the dead. Because of course he can.

We don’t get to find out how that magic’s going to happen though, because it’s time to check in on Optimus and Ratchet.

Things aren’t going great. They crashed the disk, and it turns out that the giant Decepticon threatening Prowl and throwing body parts at him is Galvatron. Optimus leaps into action, attempting to use his magnetic repellence on the enemy.

I guess that’s a thing he has.

It works, but it’s taking a lot out of Optimus, so they need to figure something else out fast. Optimus, ever light on his mental feet, surges the power so that Galvatron explodes. Ratchet goes over to Prowl to see what his deal is, and it’s looking like he’s going to need brain surgery.

“Now back the hell up, Optimus, you’re breathing contaminates all over Prowl’s exposed brain.”

Back on Cybertron, it turns out that things might just be okay after all, as Hound and company have stumbled across the lost city of Subterrainia. Subterrainia did not exist in Transformers canon at the time of this writing, but it would in 2012, when Roberts used his immense power as a hired writer for the franchise to make it so.

Now that they’re in a place that has medical equipment, they can heal their wounded and indulge in a little lore. Trasher provides us with the backstory of this lost city.

Long before the War, Transformers lived on the surface of Cybertron. Then, one day, someone said, what if we didn’t do that? Then they built Subterrainia and lived there instead. Then the War happened and people sort of just forgot that it was there. The end.

That’s literally it.

After that riveting explanation, we check back in with Optimus, who I suppose forgot to put on his patience hat this morning, as he asks Ratchet to hurry up with the life-saving field surgery he’s currently in the middle of. Ratchet calls him out on it, as he should, and Optimus apologizes, going back to worrying about his troops outside of Limbo.

Over on the Celestial, Red Alert’s just had his arm shot off, and there’s a continuity error running amok.

You are supposed to be back at base, mister!

The Autobots are getting their asses kicked, and it’s not hard to see why- a lot of the Decepticons on this spacecraft are heavy hitters. Starscream’s here, the entire Combaticon team, it’s wild.

Then Starscream calls for escape plan 3 to take place, and they just… leave. It’s strange, and it’s sudden, and the Autobots can’t help but agree. Red Alert decides to see what’s on the computer to try and figure out what they’re planning, and ends up setting off the countdown for a bomb. Slapdash yells at him for being an idiot.

Back down in the City of the Mole People, Getaway’s come back from checking out the place, and informs Hound that it’s completely abandoned. He theorizes that the Decepticons killed everyone who lived here, an will probably come looking for them sooner rather than later. That’s all fine though, because Courier’s back and better than ever.

I still don’t trust him.

He says he knows how to get out of Subterrainia- which only chalks up more points against him being a true Autobot- but hold on! What about Sights?

Sights just got Goldbugged. It’s Ammo now.

Roberts will never let a pair of robot titties go unnoticed. I can’t believe that Wheeljack, with the limited time they had, would go and make Ammo this attractive, and then have the audacity to show him off with a dramatic reveal. It was completely unnecessary, but here we are, staring at Ammo’s strong arms and thighs, wishing to be held by Hotbot 9000 over here.

Hound is all about this overhaul. Look at him, getting all flustered.

Ammo as character is present in the IDW run of the comics, but in name only. They are very different creatures, much like the different iterations of Quark. Roberts is very into recycling, and here is no exception.

After Ammo’s debut, the narrative checks in on Autobot City, where things aren’t nearly as sexy; Starscream made a beeline for the place the moment they left the Celestial, and they’re wrecking shop. He’s doing this without orders to do so, by the way. This is just how Starscream wants his Monday to go, I guess. It’s looking pretty grim for the Autobots, and Optimus is still stuck in Limbo. Hopefully he gets back soon.

[bangtanstanst]

Bangtan Unsolved: the Spoopy Spirits of Franklin Castle || 1 AM

prev • next

The investigation is in full swing.

series masterlist | bangtanstanst masterlist

characters: reader + hoseok, ft. the rest of ot7

genre: ghost hunter!au, horror I guess?, attempts at humour

warnings: (mentions of) ghosts & demons

word count: 4.3k

a/n: another week, another part! This might be my favourite out of the three I’ve uploaded so far :) I hope you like it!

“Well, that was uneventful,” you mutter, glancing over your shoulder as you exit the dining room, Hoseok trailing right behind you. After your little joke, you stayed in there a while longer, doing some more ‘contacting’ even though, as always, it didn’t give you anything. “Is that all you’ve got?”

He sends you a grin. “Not even close.”

Narrowing your eyes at him, you come to a stop in the middle of the hallway to allow everyone to catch up to you. “You look way too enthusiastic for someone who has once again made a fool out of himself.”

“Please,” Hoseok scoffs. “The piano thing was enough in and of itself.”

Rather than going into the whole discussion once more, you roll your eyes, turning on your heels. “So where to next, Scooby?”

He ignores the nickname, pointing to a doorway right behind you. “Ballroom,” he says, already brushing past you on his way there. “I’ve seen pictures of it – you’re gonna love this one,” he says over his shoulder, some loose pieces of concrete on the floor crunching underneath his feet like gravel as he steps closer to the dark entryway.

“Oh, I’m sure,” you say sarcastically, following him, briefly glancing down at your GoPro to check if it’s still doing okay. “Just like the parlour blew my mind, hm?” you say, still looking down at your camera as you check some of the settings, which is why you subsequently bump into Hoseok, who has apparently come to a stop in the doorway. With a yelp, you steady yourself, stepping back. “You gonna go inside, or what?”

Hoseok remains frozen and you hear him sniff.

You chuckle a little. “Are you still on that? We’re not even in the dining room area!”

“No, Y/N, it’s not food I smell,” he shoots back, voice a bit hoarse. You swear you hear a slight tremble, which makes you frown a little.

“Then what is it? More bullshit?”

He doesn’t react the way he normally does, like roll his eyes or poke you – this time, he subtly shakes his head, sniffing once more. “Seriously, you don’t smell it?”

You throw your hands in the air, gesturing at his back and turning towards Jimin’s camera with an annoyed look on your face. “Not if you stay in the doorway, no,” you tell him.

He finally turns, stepping away from the entry rather than actually going inside. You frown at him once more. “You’re really not going in there?”

“You first.”

Even pursing your lips doesn’t seem to help you suppress your amused smile, though you walk into the ballroom without another word, taking in your surroundings.

It’s a large room, and it’s almost completely empty. The temperature is slightly better than in the other rooms you’ve been in, but it’s still too cold to take off your coat. The floor is covered in a layer of filth, but underneath it, you can see it used to be quite beautiful. There’s a lot of windows, almost as if they didn’t have enough bricks and just decided to put glass everywhere instead. Most of them are relatively intact somehow, looking out over the dark and empty garden, trees littering the area. You figure it conceals the ballroom quite well, shielding any dancers from the judging onlookers that happen to be walking past.

You breathe in, expecting the strange smell that somehow reminds you of wet dust, if that even exists, though your face contorts when an even stronger, even heavier smell hits you.

“So?” Hoseok asks from behind you, and you spin around to face him. “Smoke, right?”

You almost don’t want to admit it, though you feel yourself nod slowly. “Yeah,” you mutter, turning back around to scan the room for anyone who could’ve made a fire in here.

As you expected, though, the room is empty.

“Fucking knew it,” Hoseok mumbles behind you. Even though his voice is soft, the words still echo through the room, bouncing against the walls and back to you.

“Doesn’t mean it’s ghosts,” you say, still looking around the space, eyes gliding over the moonlit walls and floors. Finally, you spot a fireplace across the room and walk towards it, the smell of smoke growing stronger with every step you take.

“Doesn’t mean it’s not, though,” Hoseok shoots back as you stop at the fireplace and crouch down in front of it, tilting your head with a frown. “Don’t get too close, Y/N,” he warns as you hear the footsteps of the rest of the crew patter around the room, too. “People have seen it suddenly being lit on fire.”

You let out a laugh, turning to look over your shoulder. “Ha! Are you serious? There’s not even wood in here!” you ask in amusement, shuffling a little closer and sticking out your hand to hold it over the ashes still left in there, not breaking eye contact with Hoseok, whose eyes widen, lips parting.

“Y/N…” he begins, though he doesn’t say anything else, knowing nothing he’ll say will talk you out of this.

You lean closer so your arm is now hovering above the ashes. “Like a real fire?” you tease. Just as Hoseok opens his mouth to say something, your head snaps back to the fireplace because, to your surprise and absolute confusion, you feel your hand start to actually warm up. Swallowing your next snarky remark, you just shuffle a little closer, pulling off your glove and holding your hand close to the ashes. “You’ve got to be kidding me,” you mumble, feeling actual warmth radiating from the grey powder.

“What?”

You let out a startled yell at the sound of Hoseok’s voice right beside your ear, not even having noticed him approach you. In your shock, you almost hit him in the face with your shoulder, but he skillfully dodges the blow, laughter echoing through the ballroom, his smile reaching from ear to ear.

You quickly turn around and stand up, putting your glove back on. “Promise me you won’t freak out,” you say, a small smile tugging your lips upwards.

His laughter has died down by now and his face has gone serious again. “This is only gonna freak me out more, you know,” he returns, the way his eyes widen only confirming those words.

You chuckle. “Point taken,” you reply, stepping aside to allow him full view of the fireplace. “The ashes are still warm,” you simply say, but it’s enough to make him gasp and crouch down like you did just before, swiftly pulling off his glove and feeling it for himself, completely forgetting the warnings he gave you himself just minutes prior.

“What the fuck?!” he exclaims, jumping back up and turning to face you. He looks elated and terrified at the same time – a strange combination. “What the fuck?!” he just repeats.

You laugh a little, nodding at him. “Yeah, it’s warm,” you say. “I’m sure ghosts made a little campfire in their ballroom to make sure their feet wouldn’t get cold.”

“Well, how else would you explain this?” he shoots back, gesturing to the fireplace.

With a groan, you put your gloved hands to your face, shaking your head. “Oh, I don’t know, a thousand different ways?” you insist, hands dropping back to your sides.

Your heart skips a beat when you spot exactly what you need right there at your feet, resting on the floor as proof that logic might still apply here. “Like squatters!” you say, quickly bending down to swipe the metallic can of Red Bull off the floor, holding it up to Hoseok’s face, then turning to show it to the camera. “It’s simple, really – they were just chilling here, having a blast in this castle they had all to themselves when they heard our van pull up and they bounced out one of the windows,” you continue.

Hoseok crosses his arms, sending you a doubtful look. “Yeah, sounds plausible,” he says with a scoff. “Absolutely not far-fetched.”

You just smile at him, carefully putting the can back on the floor. “Well, now you know how I feel when you tell me those stories you find on the internet,” you say innocently, dusting off your gloves when you straighten back up.

With a laugh, he just shrugs. “Speaking of, you wanna hear some?” he says, taking a few steps back to move towards the middle of the ballroom.

There’s a small smile on your face as you cross your arms. “Lay it on me, Hobi.”

“Alright, so,” he begins, coming to a stop in the middle of the ballroom, and Jungkook has to take a few steps aside so he’s out of frame. “It’s a ballroom, so people danced in here, obviously. They held a lot of parties, got drunk, threw up a little, committed a little adultery…”

You raise an eyebrow. “Sounds like the tea I’d like to hear.”

He grins, pointing at you. “Thought so,” he says. “So I did some more research, just for you.”

Putting a hand to your chest, you gasp dramatically, gaping at him. “For me? I feel so honoured.”

He smiles. “You should be,” he says, arm dropping back to his side. “Unfortunately, though, I couldn’t find anything beyond the fact that they did it.”

You scowl and shake your head. “If only they’d had TMZ.”

“Right? That’s what I thought!” Hoseok says with an enthusiastic nod. From the corner of your eye, you can see Namjoon hold back a laugh, shaking his head and pinching the bridge of his nose. The researcher probably had to sit with Hoseok for a while before they gave up on that part of the investigation. “In any case, having a room like this was just another way for them to gloat about how much money they had.”

You look around the space, eyes gliding over the vaulted ceilings and spotting some semi-intact chandeliers, nodding at Hoseok’s words. “Another reason why I’m glad clubs are a thing now. Don’t have to worry about that stuff.”

Hoseok snickers at that, though he doesn’t comment. You both know he’s tried to get you out of the house to various clubs plenty of times, and only actually succeeded to convince you to tag along about ten per cent of the time.

Yes, you keep track.

“Today, like I said, people have seen the fireplace just suddenly light on fire, and it’s rumoured the spirits like it when you play music in here,” Hoseok continues, pulling out his phone from his back pocket.

“What, they come out and dance with you or something?” you ask, genuinely confused as to what he meant by ‘the spirits like it’. “Or do you just wanna please them?”

He hums and nods at your last sentence, looking down at the screen of his phone and scrolling. “It might put them in a better mood, maybe they’ll be more likely to give us a sign, or at least let us go unharmed,” he elaborates in a tone so seriously you can’t help but laugh a little. You cover your mouth to muffle it, but he still hears you and he sends you a glare. “Just trying to help us out here.”

Pursing your lips to hold back another laugh, you nod. “Right, of course. Do what you need to do.”

He glances up at you from underneath his eyelashes at your sarcastic tone, though doesn’t say anything else, just continuing to scroll until he finds what he needs. With another touch on the screen, the simple sound of a piano fills the room, playing a melody you recognise all too well.

“Really? Für Elise?” you say, eyebrows raised.

Hoseok just smiles. “Yep,” he simply replies. “Now shush.” He puts his finger to your lips as the song continues. You shut your mouth, staying still as you listen to the melody echo through the ballroom, arms still crossed. Hoseok is looking around as if he’s expecting some ghosts to suddenly appear and start dancing to the song, his eyes carefully scanning every inch of the room. The rest of the crew is looking too, though a little less intently than Hoseok, while Yoongi seems to be rushing to adjust some of the audio settings to account for the music and the echoes that it brings along.

A minute or two later, the song is slowly drawing to an end, and an idea is starting to form in your mind. As the last piano notes echo through the ballroom, you silently hold out your hand to Hoseok, a small smile on your face. He frowns at you, tilting his head in a silent question. “I think I know a song that’ll really get them on our good side,” you say, just as the last notes of the song fade out, ringing through the ballroom.

Hesitating for just a second, he slowly places his phone in your hand, watching as you unlock it with the code you once saw him use. Silence falls as you scroll through his music for the song you’re looking for, tilting the screen towards your face so Hoseok can’t see what you’re doing. You scroll down and down to the letter ‘s’ and stop when you finally find the song, triumphantly looking up at Hoseok, thumb hovering over the title. And then you press it.

Hoseok’s face lights up in recognition at just the first few chords. You both start to jump right away, singing along to the song you both know and love – Shut Up and Dance. His phone’s speakers aren’t the best and they make the song sound a little tinny, but neither of you seems to care, moving along to the beat and practically shouting the lyrics as the chorus sets in. The rest of the crew can’t help but laugh at you, Jimin and Jungkook doing their best but having a little difficulty capturing the two of you as you keep jumping around.

You have to admit, ballrooms are pretty good for what they’re made for – dancing. You don’t bump into things or are restricted by low ceilings or walls that are too close together, like the living room or bathroom of any given apartment or hotel room. You can let the music take complete control of you, move your limbs without a thought in the world. It’s a weird moment of euphoria, dancing and singing in the middle of the night in the ballroom of a supposedly haunted castle, but you’ll take what you can ge-

You suddenly feel your foot slip away from underneath you, a certain treacherous can of Red Bull right underneath your toes. Your other foot is too slow to catch up and you’re falling before you know it, dropping to the floor with a ‘thump’, the fall forcing a groan from your lungs.

When you look up, the music has stopped and Hoseok is standing over you, a worried frown on his face as you groan once more, feeling the cold from the floor seeping through your coat. “You okay?” Hoseok asks, crouching down as you push yourself into a sitting position. You see the others have all stepped forward, the same looks on their faces, but too reluctant to step into frame and break up the shoot.

You chuckle, rubbing the back of your head, though it doesn’t feel like it actually hit the floor. Still, Hoseok quickly leans forward to check it out, fingers parting your hair to check if the skin is bleeding. “Yeah, I’m fine,” you reply. “See, this is why you shouldn’t litter!”

With a laugh, Hoseok stands back up, holding out his hand to help you up, which you gladly take. “Yeah, you’re fine,” he concludes, letting go of your hand as you dust off your behind as best as you can, face contorting in disgust at the filth you notice your gloves are picking up from your coat and pants. Hoseok, meanwhile, bends down and picks up the can. “And we’re throwing this away,” he says, wiggling it at you a little before shoving it in his pocket.

With another chuckle, you nod. “Sounds like a plan.” A last swipe at your coat and you decide to just give up and walk around with dust and filth on your clothes for the rest of the night. “Now let’s move on before I fall again, shall we?”

He laughs a little. “You sure you don’t wanna stay for another song?” he teases.

Raising an eyebrow at him, you chuckle along. “Yes, I’m sure,” you reply.

Just as you turn to walk out, Seokjin’s voice interrupts, saying, “Shall we set up a camera here, see if the fireplace lights back up by itself?” he proposes, at which Hoseok nods enthusiastically.

“I’ll go down to the van to grab it,” Jimin says from beside you and he turns to you. “Can you hold the camera for a second?” he asks, holding the piece of equipment out to you.

You nod quickly. “Sure,” you reply, taking the heavy camera out of his hands. Jimin rushes out of the room right away. With the shoot paused for a second, chatter picks up, breaking the eerie silence that had been hanging in the ballroom just before.

“Y/N, want me to clean you up a bit?” Seokjin asks you, walking towards you with a clothing roller in his hands. You don’t ask where he got the thing from, nodding eagerly instead and turning your back to him, Jimin’s camera still tight in your hands. “Wow, that floor really is filthy,” he mumbles from behind you, rolling the lint remover down your coat, carefully taking away the dust and dirt that has managed to cling onto the fabric.

“I don’t think I want to know,” you say with a chuckle, already hearing Jimin has returned with a camera and a tripod to set up in the ballroom.

Seokjin keeps cleaning your clothes diligently, taking off a seemingly never-ending layer of filth. The longer he goes on, the more you start to wonder if they should maybe mop the floor once in a while. Then again, you’re not the owner, of course, and you’ll admit it does add to the atmosphere. In the background, it seems Jimin has already returned, and you hear Hoseok discussing with him and Jungkook where they should set up the camera.

“I think that’s it,” Seokjin finally tells you.

With a sigh, you turn around, sending him a thankful smile. “Could you do my gloves, too?”

He chuckles a little, but nods and rolls the sticky surface over the fabric of your gloves a few times, removing most of the dirt that’s on there. “Thanks!” you tell him once he’s done.

He smiles at you and nods once more. “Just try not to fall again,” he teases, at which you huff.

“I can’t promise anything,” you reply, making him chuckle once more. As he turns around, Jimin walks back towards you, taking the camera from your arms. Your muscles are already aching a little, and you wonder briefly how the hell he carries the thing around all night, though you push that out of your mind as Seokjin announces the restart of the shoot, counting down from three and pointing at you and Hoseok as he mouths ‘one’.

“Right, so the second floor, you said?” you ask Hoseok, who nods in confirmation. “Can’t wait for all the spirits we’re definitely gonna encounter in there.”

“Me neither,” Hoseok says, though much less sarcastically than your own words. “There’s some really weird stuff that’s happened up there, you’ll see,” he assures you as you walk out of the ballroom, heading back into the dark hallway and towards the wooden stairs.

You follow him and come to a stop at the bottom, standing beside him as you both warily inspect the structure in front of you.

“If we can even get up there, that is,” you remark, testing the first step with your foot. It groans underneath even the small amount of weight you put on it. You scowl, looking over your shoulder at Hoseok, who looks even more reluctant to make his way up. “You scared?”

“No,” he replies weakly. You test further, putting your entire weight on the step, which creaks even more loudly when you do so.

Hoseok whimpers very subtly. His reaction, while it is the same one you’re internally having at the moment, only spurs you on, and you lean forward, putting your other foot on the second step, which creaks loudly. “They do tours in here, right? I’d expect they’ve reinforced it,” you tease him with his own words, raising an eyebrow at his scowl.

He just hums softly, face contorting a little, and he looks up into the dark hallway the stairs lead you to. There’s a soft breeze blowing in your face from upstairs and a shiver runs down your spine.

“You coming, Hobi?” you say, looking over your shoulder.

“Give me a minute, will you?” he returns. You feel a smile growing when he looks down at the first step and pulls a face, but gingerly puts his foot forward, slowly putting more of his weight on it. His hand is gripping the handrail tightly as if he’s hoping the small strip of wood will save him when the stairs collapse underneath his feet.

“It’s probably fine, they’d have condemned it if it wasn’t,” you try to reassure him, patting his shoulder. “I mean, unless the ghosts have other plans, of course,” you add with a wink, at which he just glares at you.

“Thanks, I feel so safe now,” he deadpans.

You roll your eyes, but continue on your way, not stopping even when the steps feel particularly rickety underneath your feet. The crew waits at the bottom while you ascend the stairs, likely not wanting to disturb the audio. “So, tell me, what happens in here? People get thrown off the stairs or something?” you ask.

Hoseok looks up from intently watching his feet, seemingly a little distracted now. “Oh, this is where they’ve heard the babies crying through the walls. I’ve listened to some recordings and it’s super creepy,” he replies, catching up to you soon enough. The two of you stop at the top of the stairs, waiting for the rest to catch up before continuing your conversation – fortunately, they’re a little quicker than either of you.

“How do you know it’s not doctored?” you inquire, stepping further into the hallway. It’s completely dark and you turn on your flashlight to illuminate your path, careful not to trip over any of the loose floorboards. The doors are all still in their rightful place, though many of them hang half out of their frames and some other ones keep moving with the wind that passes through. Dark, windy, and creaky – the perfect spot to imagine things.

“You can never really know for sure, but it seemed pretty legit,” Hoseok says with a shrug, letting his flashlight glide over the faintly yellow walls and the wooden floor. “But that’s why we’re here, right? To check?”

You suppress a laugh, flashlight lingering on a floorboard that seems to have curled up in its entirety like a gross toenail, and you wonder if it actually did that on its own, or had some help. Human help, that is. “I guess so.” There’s a moment of silence. “Why not downstairs, though?” you ask, turning to him quickly, accidentally shining your flashlight in his face and he yelps, putting a hand in front of his eyes. “Sorry,” you say sheepishly, pointing the flashlight downwards.

Hoseok blinks a few times, waiting for his vision to return before he replies. “I don’t know, Y/N. Ghosts are weird like that.”

With a snort, you nod. “If we’ve learned anything these past few years, it’s that,” you mutter, glancing up at the ceiling. It’s a little less cracked than downstairs, though still almost worryingly so. “Anything else?”

“Mostly reports of shadows following you, and some people –“

“Shadows do tend to follow you, though,” you interrupt, looking back at Hoseok. “That’s kind of the point of shadows.”

“Not when there’s no light around to cast any shadows,” he argues, tilting his head with a ‘gotcha’ smile.

You smirk right back. “But then it’s all shadows, right?”

His smile falls and he huffs at you, waving his hand in a silent ‘never mind’ before walking further into the hallway, flashlight searching the space around him. He looks into several of the doors before moving on, probably inspecting them for any ghosts before turning back around. “I almost don’t wanna say what else they’ve caught in here.”

You raise your eyebrows at that, curiosity peaking. “Oh?” you say, cocking your head to the side. “You’re getting me curious.”

“You’re only gonna laugh at me,” he notes, crossing his arms, flashlight loose in his hands. It illuminates a spot right beside him on the floor.

Sending him a reassuring smile, you shake your head. “I’ll try not to.”

“I’m just the messenger here, okay? The only reason why I’m saying this is because it turned up in the research and some people think it’s a thing.” He narrows his eyes at you as you nod, biting the inside of your lower lip to suppress a smile. “People have caught…” He sighs, shakes his head, looking up at the ceiling. “They’ve caught orbs on camera.”

You have to purse your lips together at the mention of ‘orbs’, looking away in an attempt to suppress the laughter you feel bubbling in your throat. “I’m –“ you begin, sighing and shaking your head, an involuntary snort following. “I had no idea you were an orb guy, Hobi,” you say, looking back at him. “I can’t say I’m not disappointed.”

“I said I’m just the messenger!” he protests as you walk past him, glancing into one of the rooms, though it’s incredibly dark and you can’t see much beyond the small area of light from your flashlight. “I’m not an orb guy.”

You glance over your shoulder, taking a step back from the room. “You know,” you begin, turning around and pointing the flashlight at his chest, “that’s exactly what an orb guy would say.”

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a/n: thanks for reading!! Let me know what you thought of it or what you want to see happen in the next part :) Have a great day/night wherever you are!

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