#she can 100% have a redemption arc but it should | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

simpxxstan · 4 months ago

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HELLOOO!!! CONGRATS FOR THE 550 FOLLOWERS ON TUMBLR I HOPE U GET MORE FOLLOWERS BC UR WRITTING?? DELICIOUS 💗💗

But I would like to request seungcheol + dilfism ?? Like have u SEEN that man??

Thank you!! Have a good day!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY FAVOURITE MAN <333 thank you for sending this in! LOVED writing dilf cheol. i swear this man and his sexiness of 30s will be the death of me. inspired completely by his new glasses look at caratland 2024.

this is a part of my 550 followers event, but requests are now CLOSED.

genre: smut, enemies to lovers, age gap, dilf!seungcheol, lawyer au.

word count: 13k words.

warnings: MINORS DO NOT INTERACT 18+ nsfw content. 13 YEAR AGE GAP, mention of suicide, single dad!seungcheol, a ton of legal terms (not vouching to be accurate because i am neither a lawyer nor a law student nor is my research perfect), seungcheol is a bit selfish and toxic (but there's a redemption arc), ANGSTY angst, but A LOT OF FLUFF TO COMPENSATE. smut warnings: protected sex, oral receiving (f and m), mild dirty talk, implicit size kink, implicit spit kink.

"it's my first case!" you whine in surrender, slumping on the shoulder of your friend, as you both re-read the case file in front of you for the n-th time this morning. yoona pats your head, but she knows even she can say nothing to console you. it must be either sheer bad luck or some unknown person's vengeance, that you're against choi seungcheol in the very first case of your life.

y/l/n y/n: the lawyer of the plaintiff, hwang seola.

choi seungcheol: the lawyer of the defendant, KNT enterprises pvt. ltd.

nothing can save you from losing your first case in the worst way possible. not even the stellar letters of recommendation from your professors. not even your exceptional performance in the national lawyers examination process. not even your diligence during your interning years that's earned you the title of golden rookie. everyone expects you to make it big, including yourself- but that's clearly not going to happen if you lose the very first actual case you have to face in your life.

"at least no one will mock you for losing," yoona says in a meek voice. you scoff indignantly, "as if that's any comfort. still doesn't change the fact that i'm going to start off my career on the worst foot possible. why does my luck have to be so shitty?"

"hey, think about the positives. imagine how much of a learning experience it'll be. i know best how much you consider seungcheol as your idol."

you sigh. five years ago, when seungcheol had blown up across the country because of his historic debut in the court of corporate law, winning case after case and setting precedents that were welcomed with open arms, you'd looked up to him. five years ago, he'd walked into your college for an invited seminar during your first semester and blown your mind away. five years ago, you would cry in joy at the opportunity to even spend a minute in the same courtroom as seungcheol and see him in action. five years ago, he'd been the ideal man of your dreams- perfect in every damn way possible.

the only issue with that is that he's still the ideal man in your eyes. even if losing the case against him won't make your nervous, just being in close quarters with him for long hours will make you infinitely nervous.

"maybe i should recommend boss to let you take up the ca-" you tease yoona, and she squeals, whining protests instantly. "no thank you!" you laugh, hoping to lighten the tension of the moment. but the relief is only temporary, and the weight of the upcoming case lingers in your mind for hours later.

the first trial of the case is a week later. before that, you decide to change your mindset to a better thought process- even if you simply assume that you're going to lose this case, you're still going to give in your 100% so that you can step away with no regrets and only more knowledge gained. the first step to that, of course, is speak to your client personally, without the intermediation of the firm you work at.

mrs hwang turns out to be a woman just a few years older than you. the primary reason why she's suing the company her husband used to work at is because her husband had been driven to suicide by the constant pressure in his workplace to keep some illegal activities and fraud under the covers, which had not only harmed his mental health and morals but also affected the way his superiors judged his work performance. she may be young, but she's lost her husband merely three years after their marriage, and just one look at her face makes your heart ache in sympathy.

this isn't the first time you've seen such a case. during your years of study, you've studied plenty of cases involving companies ill-treating their workers and leading them to take up drastic steps in desperation. not only does this case come under a serious mistreatment of employees under labour laws, but also violates laws governing corporations which demand them to steer off illegal activities and maintain integrity. it's a very interesting case, and you're highly intrigued and instantly drawn into the case. there are several nuances that you know you may miss out by a hair's breadth if you're not careful. but you cannot take chances. if you have to even put up a fair fight against choi seungcheol, you're going to have to leave no stone unturned.

at the end of your discussions with mrs hwang, you're fully convinced that the company is indeed at fault here. however, you're going to have to prove it in court with the meagre evidence you have- which is low anyway, considering how big companies use their financial and social capital to turn such cases remarkably in their favour. the primary example of that being them getting seungcheol, the country's top corporate lawyer, to represent them, while mrs hwang can only hire you, a rookie lawyer at a lesser reputed firm.

however, as you walk into the courtroom, you convince yourself to not think about how the odds are against your favour from the first moment itself, to calm your nerves. you're here to debut with a bang, and you will fake it till you make it.

it doesn't work.

it doesn't work because the moment you enter the courtroom, you see choi seungcheol sitting next to the defendant's CEO on the other side of the room, dressed in the most immaculate suit, his glasses perched on his nose as he inspects the documents you've submitted in court prior to the trial as preliminary evidence. when you walk towards the bench you're going to sit at, he looks up at you.

it's a careful, measured glance. a glance of confidence, a glance of self-awareness. he knows he's going to win. and yet, he smiles at you indulgently.

moments later, he meets you halfway across the room.

"good morning. i'm seungcheol," he extends his hand for a shake, his nose upturned as he looks down at you with an aura that nearly blows you away. you wish that you hadn't worn heels tonight- because if he keeps looking at you like that, your knees are going to give up.

"of course, who wouldn't know you?" you steady your voice mustering a smile.

seungcheol's smile does not change. "it's nice to meet the golden rookie finally."

his words send shivers down your spine. there's just something about meeting your idol from so up-close that you want to submit instantly to his infinitely higher knowledge and experience to you. there's also something particular to him that's affecting your mind and body- because if seungcheol at thirty-one was handsome, he's absolutely godly at thirty-six. he's aged like fine wine- the rimless glasses sitting firmly on his nose, tiny wrinkles around his eyes, and a few graying hairs around his sideburns.

you don't get a chance to respond as the judge enters the court and you're pulled away to your bench, sitting next to a very nervous-looking mrs hwang. you forcefully drag your eyes away from seungcheol, who still has that tiny smile on his face as he talks to his client, and focus on your client, giving her much-needed confidence boosts (needed both by her and by you).

as anticipated, the first trial does not go well. it's just your fucking luck that the judge knows seungcheol already- but then, it was wrong of you to not consider that already, knowing how famous he is. on top of it all, mrs hwang breaks down in the middle of seungcheol's questioning, shaken completely by his straightforward questions and uncaring gaze, and the court gets adjourned, leaving you stranded without any proper progress against seungcheol's stronger case. the next trial is scheduled for a week later. you wish you could think that your work has been cut out for you, but it's far from that.

the second trial comes quickly- but it doesn't let you progress much further. seungcheol looks even more nonchalant on the second trial- dressed in another suit, he's less fierce today during his questioning. you don't notice it, because you're too flustered with your own work, but his eyes stray towards you more often. his eyes glaze over with something soft every time you make eye contact, and you immediately look away, like you've been caught in the act. but seungcheol doesn't let it slip- he keeps up his passive aggression when he's shaking hands with you before exiting the courtroom.

"tough luck, rookie. focus between the lines more."

his words make you even more nervous than before, but you put on a brave face for seola's sake. this motivates you to change your gameplan, and you decide to stop focusing on existing evidence, which is scarce, and use more verbal reports of other employees who have willingly stepped up to speak the truth after the suicide of their friend and colleague. by the time you're just three days before the third trial date, you have a solid set of verbal witnesses who will provide evidence on your side, but every time you feel slightly more confident than earlier, seungcheol's voice rings in your ears and you lose all hope.

on the morning of the fourth day, you receive an email from your boss.

y/n, please attend a lunch meeting on my behalf with some of our older clients (whose list i have attached below) today.

you jump to the opportunity- being provided a chance to interact with the old clients of the firm is a lucrative opportunity to impress those who've stayed with the firm from the beginning (and naturally, have graduated into stakeholders at the firm).

so it's safe to say you're in for a rude shock when you reach the lunch spot at a five-star restaurant along the banks of the han river, and find none of your clients but instead you find seungcheol waiting for you.

"close your mouth and stop drooling," jeonghan's voice somehow appears in his mind when he sees you enter the restaurant. "you make it obvious how hot you find women in suits."

but seungcheol cannot take his eyes off you. hasn't been able to for the last two times he's seen you. even if the courtroom is no place for indecency, he's had plenty of indecent thoughts whenever he's seen you, dressed in your suits and blazers, your curves prominent and your hair tied up in a practical ponytail. he should not think like this about you- he knows it. you both are set up at natural odds because of the case- but somehow, that makes him more interested in you. and seungcheol would not have it any other way. he looks forward to each trial of an otherwise boring case just to see you- the passion on your face whenever you're arguing your case, the way your mouth opens in shock whenever seungcheol casually dismisses a piece of information you've clearly worked hard on, the way you stare in exasperation at the witnesses when they speak against your stance, the hunger in your eyes whenever you're questioning his client, and the fire in you that burns you to work harder before each trial. seungcheol hasn't seen a lawyer as passionate as you in many years- most would have given up even before starting just due to his formidable reputation, but you're not even intimidated by his on-brand dead stare that works on everyone.

"i was told i'm here to meet clients of my firm. i didn't know you hired our firm for your personal needs," you cock an eyebrow as you stand in front of him, and seungcheol smirks. that attitude does nothing to filter his thoughts.

"would you have come if i'd invited you personally?"

you open your mouth to say something but he beats you to it. "have a seat, please. let's enjoy lunch."

you do so immediately. submissive. "but i still don't understand why i'm here." bratty.

he places a finger on his lips as the food he's pre-ordered arrives. the smell of the delicious food breaks your frigid attitude, it obviously helps that seungcheol's ordered your self-proclaimed favourite dish on your public instagram account. "i'm sure you must be hungry." seungcheol digs in himself, his eyes on yours as he carefully licks the spoon clean. your eyes flicker to his lips instantly before you're staring back into his eyes, defiance laced in your gaze. you pick up the spoon and start eating as well. seungcheol smiles.

i'm a dad to two daughters. i know how to tame brats.

after a few minutes, he finally speaks. "do you know the first step to winning a battle, rookie?"

you look up and tilt your head slightly in question.

"knowing your opponent."

"i already know you."

"that's what you think. that's why you're not going to win."

your eyes flash with anger. "are you just going to rub that into my face? is that why i'm here?"

"so what? you don't want to win? isn't the most loved story of human history the tale of the underdog?"

"frankly, my opponent isn't even you. it's your client, who isn't even here. so i don't understand the point of this meeting."

"so much can be learnt merely through observation, rookie. you can't know someone by looking at their annual reports and how much money they pay their employees."

"i don't need to know anything more than that! unlike you, i don't wish to meddle in people's personal lives to win cases. i don't need your brain games."

seungcheol chuckles. "the courtroom is nothing but brain games, rookie. think how far facts can take you, and then think how much further imagination can take you."

you gasp, pinching your nose. "i'm sorry, what? imagination? i'll win on evidence and evidence only. i used to admire you as an icon of law. but now, when i see you defend an obvious criminal with such blatant stubbornness, i'm having second thoughts."

"obvious criminal? are you telling me you've obtained the evidence you need to prove my client guilty in court?"

"and what if i do?"

seungcheol sits back, squaring his shoulders to his full stature. "you shouldn't tell me about it then, rookie."

"when you'd walked into my law school five years ago for a seminar, this wasn't the choi seungcheol i'd grown to love as an icon."

fuck. five years ago? just how young were you?

"i'd advise you not to get emotional about the case. the courtroom is no place for admiration or lov- or any other emotions."

"and yet, you have no desire to live up to the expectations of hundreds of law students like me who look up to you? you don't care about the youth you're letting down with this attitude?"

"why should i? i'm surviving just fine, aren't i?"

by this point, seungcheol can see the way your nails dig into your own palms in frustration. it's so amusing, how emotionally you're dealing with this. in a world of black and white, seeing you behave gray in every scenario makes seungcheol think he's lived thirty-six years of his life incorrectly.

finally when you cannot come up with any rebuttal, you stand up, dragging your chair on purpose to make noise. "there's absolutely nothing more for me to talk to you about. i hope you've learnt about me today, choi seungcheol. i've certainly learnt a lot too." and you walk away before he has the opportunity to say anything.

lunch with seungcheol leaves you shaken and stuttering. even as you open the door of the cab outside and ask the driver to take you to the office without a second thought, you spend the entire journey lost in your own thoughts. every little moment of the meeting lingers in your mind, unsettling your confidence. from the way he calls you rookie to his quiet arrogance and confidence, everything about him is so frustrating and yet... he draws you in. your perception about him has definitely changed after today, but even with the added understanding of just how selfish choi seungcheol can be, you can't ignore the sheer attraction you feel towards him.

it stays on your mind through the next three days. and on the morning of the third trial, you're stuck with two different thoughts plaguing your mind.

the first: a genuine concern about how the third trial is going to pan out. it's likely to be your last chance to even bring the judge's opinion to your side, because if you can't present good enough evidence today, there's no way to sway the jury to your side.

the second: choi seungcheol is a man who annoys you but you also have this innate craving to impress him. your respect for him hasn't changed, but your conversation with him has revealed to you just how cutthroat the world of law really is. and his suave attitude, the confidence with which he's so sure he's going to win, and his infinitely superior experience to you makes some part of you so desperate to seek his attention and impress him. show him that you can do well too. show him that you're not going to make beginner's mistakes. show him that you're more than a mere rookie.

but when you walk into the courtroom, seola next to you, your sunglasses perched on your head, you stare at the empty bench behind you. it was supposed to be full with the four witnesses you'd invited today and were relying on to sail through the the third trial. frantically, you ask your colleague who's assisting you in the trial, "where are the witnesses? are they running late? can you ple-"

"they're not going to come today, y/n."

seungcheol's icy voice cuts through the chaos and reaches you sharply. you spin around to find him dressed immaculately in a midnight blue turtleneck that shows off the stubble growing down his jaw.

"sorry, what?"

"you heard me the first time. none of them are going to come today."

"and how do you know?"

seungcheol smirks as he shrugs and takes a step closer towards you. "i have my ways, rookie."

you're fuming at this point, but you really can't speak your mind because seola breaks down in tears right next to you and you can't help but shift away your focus from seungcheol's dangerous eyes and take care of her.

it's honestly a miracle that after the complete sweep that seungcheol presents in the third trial, with no new evidence nor substantial evidence from your end, you still get another chance at a fourth trial, scheduled two weeks from now, in a pitiful announcement from the judge, imploring you to use this final chance to collect as much as evidence as you can.

when the trial ends, you ask seola to go home, and you lock yourself up in a bathroom stall in the court building, trying to come to terms with everything that's come to pass today. it's been an overwhelming morning and you're still shaken badly by it all. every moment you spend in this world with seungcheol, he seems to make it his personal mission to show you that there's no place for softness or emotions in this cut-throat world.

when you exit the washroom, you find seungcheol standing outside, an unlit cigarette between his lips.

"did you bribe them?"

he turns to look at you, his eyes clearly wide in surprise. "what are you saying?"

you take a step closer to him, your entire body shaking with fury. "did you bribe the fucking witnesses?"

"we're in public, woman, control your tongue."

"i'm not ashamed of anything i'm saying though, are you?"

seungcheol's lips twist in distaste and he drags you away from the public place to a quieter spot secluded near the parking lot. "i understand you're frustrated because of that no-show today, but you're speaking nonsense-"

"i'm speaking perfect sense, seungcheol! only you knew that i was going to bring in witnesses today."

"only me?"

"except two people at my firm, one of who is my best friend, and the other is a colleague who's assisting me in the case."

"who knows? maybe your friend's the snitch-"

you step closer to him, seething in anger. "don't you fucking make false allegations, choi seungcheol!"

"you're the one making false allegations here, really."

"you'll have to admit it, seungcheol. someday. if all your fame and reputation has been through such cheap tricks and under-the-table dirty business, you'll have to pay for it-"

"or what?" seungcheol puts back the cigarette between his lips, and lights it with a lighter. he takes in a big puff, and exhales right into your face. "or what, y/n? maybe you should take my advice instead. and stop making rookie mistakes."

as he walks away from you, you shout behind him, "i'm going to expose you, seungcheol!"

"empty threats, la la la." his voice trails back, sending shivers down your spine, as you're left alone in the dark parking lot, wallowing in your own pathetic helplessness.

your search for further evidence has led you to a complete dead-end. the most important thing that you need, the one that will clinch the case for you absolutely, is any - even one- document directly coming from KNT to seola's husband. unfortunately, you've gone through his emails and fax multiple times, but found nothing. nothing on his laptop, no hard drives, no soft drives, no external devices, nothing on his mobile phone or other such devices either. today you're searching all his belongings again and again, but it's still the dead-end. you realise that there's no point looking for more witnesses because seungcheol's just going to drive them away by whatever tricks he's using. and you're confident that seungcheol's thinking a step ahead of you- so any new evidence sources that you might come up with now might have already been dismissed by seungcheol through some back-up plan of his.

"seola, i need you to think once more, please. did he use any other device apart from the one at his office and the one at home? any laptop or any other mobile phone?"

"no... i can't remember anything else, really. we couldn't afford anything more too..."

you grimace. "i hope you don't get offended, but i'm sure he received quite a bit of money from whatever services he was providing KNT. enough to motivate him to keep quiet and hold on for so long. otherwise an honest man like him wouldn't want to get into this mess, would he?"

seola doesn't reply immediately, tears silently dropping down his cheeks.

you sigh and place a hand on her shoulders, rubbing softly as she breaks down into more tears. in the last few weeks, you've become surprisingly quite close. you've comforted her through her worst moments, feeling compassionate both as a woman and as a lawyer. and she, in turn, has helped you without any qualms, in not just the case but also lent a patient ear to you whenever you've wanted to rant, made ramen for you whenever you've worked till late, and let you stay over at her place whenever the rain outside's become too torrential for you to take the bus back home.

after a few long moments, seola is finally able to gain back her composure. "y/n.... he did mention something about an outstation office... towards the outskirts of the city. he used to go there twice a month. he told me it was for sending out packages to the other branches of the company... but maybe you could see there once?" your eyes light up with excitement as you hear seola's words. is this finally the breakthrough you'd been looking for through high and low? is this finally going to be your trump card to win the case? your rational side tells you to not become overjoyed immediately, but something in you is desperate to see that cockiness wiped off seungcheol's face, and bring him down to earth from whatever higher place his arrogance has placed himself at.

"seola, can you give me any tentative location for it? i'm going to go check it now."

"now? but the forecast is showing there's going to be thunderstorms tonight! there's so much thunder grumbling out there-"

"it doesn't matter, seola. i can't afford to lose any more time."

seungcheol's been stuck in traffic for almost an hour now, and the windshield wiper is absolutely useless in preventing the rain from cascading on his front window. the rain is relentless- just like the thoughts tormenting his heart. the reason he's returning home so late is because there had been a dinner party at the workplace cafeteria, hosted by his colleagues and closest friends, jeonghan, joshua, wonwoo and minghao. they're all lawyers with their own reputations, and the only friends they all have now. the point of the dinner? celebrating seungcheol's (upcoming) win in the KNT vs mrs hwang case. (and also to get seungcheol's mind off y/n, who's distracted him from his work all week, ever since their encounter at the parking lot of the courthouse.)

it'd been a mistake to stay out for so long. a sheer lapse of judgement, and seungcheol has not choice but to curse at himself right now. his daughters have called him already, their voices sleepy as they stay up for their father to return home to eat ice cream with them, before they fall into bed.

"and yet, you have no desire to live up to the expectations of hundreds of law students like me who look up to you? you don't care about the youth you're letting down with this attitude?"

y/n's words ring in his mind.

as the rain pours down cruelly, seungcheol's heart lets out silent cries.

he's a failure.

he's failed his family. thirteen years ago, when his parents had cast him out of their house after he'd failed to get a job at a good law firm.

that attitude's gonna get you nowhere, kid! stop running your mouth and focus on your work!

he's failed his first love. nine years ago, four years before he'd finally made his mark in the country's law scene, his wife had divorced him and left their children with him, because he'd not been able to earn enough for her.

stop being such a social activist, seungcheol! the world isn't soft like you. stop being so stuck up and emotional!

and now he's failing his daughters. day after day, they'd stay up late, waiting to spend some quality time with their father. night after night, they'd end up sleeping alone because seungcheol's insomnia didn't let him sleep with them. month after month, he'd promise to take them to their long-due vacation, but he was always too busy to take leave for two weeks at once. year after year, they'd wait for him to come to sports' day but seungcheol could never make it.

appa, if you can't take us to jeju... can we go for the school trip this year to jeju? all our friends are going to go for it...

all these painful thoughts triggered simply by one person- you. you're an unprecedented variable in his life, someone he couldn't even imagine to be a part of his life even a month ago. and yet, you've made him feel so many emotions, that had become dormant for years, in such a short span of time.

he's disappointing you too.

he doesn't know why it hurts what you think of him. seungcheol had thought that at thirty-six, he's finally ascended from these petty thoughts. but somehow your judgemental gaze, your innocent words and your fresh perspectives have shaken him to the core.

or perhaps he does know why, and he doesn't want to acknowledge it.

you remind him of himself.

but you're far better than he was. he'd been a coward, a loser, too quick to give up, and too hasty to drown in his own pity party. you're a fighter, a challenger, not accepting the cruelties of status quo, and too passionate to give up your sense of justice just to fit in with the cut-throat dirty reality.

you're 10 times the lawyer than he could ever be, and something about that makes him so inexplicably drawn to you.

because you're the person he's always wanted to idolised.

no wonder that when you'd told him that you'd looked up to him as an idol, he'd laughed at himself.

the traffic jam disperses slowly, and seungcheol breaks out of his daze. the clock shows 10.30 pm, and the rain shows no sign of stopping. thankfully, the traffic is now moving smoothly.

after almost half an hour of standing at the bus stop, waiting for something to pass by, there's finally a car with a very bright beam slowing down in front of you. it's a private car, but you hope it can give you a l-

"what are you doing here?!" the words escape your mouth as soon as you notice who's in the driver as the car window rolls down.

"get in, rookie."

you consider hesitating, but seungcheol's car looks warm... and safe. so you do get in, hating how there's water everywhere you're touching, spoiling the clearly expensive leather of the seats. but seungcheol doesn't say anything even as you shuffle in and finally settle on the passenger seat.

he thankfully doesn't ask you anything as he lets you take a breath and get warm enough. so about five minutes pass before he asks you, "what were you thinking, standing out there in this rain?" his voice is low, almost cracked, but laced with serious concern. you notice that he's still dressed in his typical suits. is he returning from work so late?

"i had work here," you say carefully avoiding the connection about the case.

"so late at night?"

"it was important."

"that it couldn't wait till the morning?"

"no."

you're aware by the way his jaw is clenched that he's getting annoyed by your short answers. but you have no option except to be as vague as possible- his mind works too fast for you.

"where's your home?"

you tell him the locality, and he sighs. "that's on the opposite side of town."

"i know, just... maybe you can drop me at a more crowded bus stop? the one where i was waiting was a bit remote, but a more crowded one will definitely have more frequent buses-"

"you're out of your mind."

"huh?"

"just because you're irresponsible doesn't mean i will be too. i cannot and will not leave you in the middle of the road in this rain so late at night."

"seungcheol, i don't want to barge-"

"you're not barging into anything. you'll come home with me, change into drier clothes and sleep in for the night so that you don't fall sick."

"y-your home?"

"yes. do you have a better idea?"

you gulp, his gaze stern. you don't have a better idea, in fact getting to change into warm clothes and get into someone's house sounds divine right now. the only problem is that it's.... seungcheol's home. if you can't handle him in his everyday suits, you wonder what thoughts seungcheol in his natural abode will spark in you.

"i'll always be grateful to you."

seungcheol nods, and the rest of the journey is silent.

seungcheol doesn't know yet if it's a good or a bad idea. he did it as an impulse- perhaps some part of him hopes he's still redeemable in your eyes, so he wants to do the right thing for once. but he won't know if it's the right think for everyone until he reaches home.

when he parks the car and takes you up to his flat, he can hear the television blaring harry potter from outside the flat, and he can see the way your eyebrows furrow at the sound. so he slowly unlocks the door, to reveal his two daughters sitting on the couch, undoubtedly watching their favourite harry potter movies again, wearing identical pyjamas specially designed for the identical twins.

he can hear you gasp as you step into the house, and the girls come into your view.

there's an awkward moment of silence and staring, before sol comes running to him and wraps herself around his waist. "appa! we're right at the last scene of prisoner of azkaban, your favourite part!"

seungcheol almost tears up. how can they welcome him so warmly every night even though he's come home so late?

he clears his throat. "sounds like you've been having fun, girls. but first, say hello to y/n unnie-"

"imo," you whisper next to him, your figure shrunk with the cold.

"no unnie," he whispers back. "this is choi sol, our maknae, and that's choi byul, my eldest." the girls wave and shyly say hello, their dimpled smiles flashing politely as they bow. you bow back, "hi sol and byul! sorry you're meeting unnie in this state~"

"are you also a lawyer?"

"did you get caught in the rain?"

"do you work with appa in his office?"

"do you want fresh clothes?"

you giggle at the contrasting questions from the two girls, their starkly different personalities evident. "yes, yes, no, and yes please, if you could be so kind," you smile back, your dainty lips curving into a pretty bow that takes his breath away. sollie shifts from where she'd been wrapped around seungcheol to take your hand gently. "do you think my clothes will fit you? i think byul's clothes will. she has a very warm nightdress..." and she drags you away to her room, welcoming you in without even a single moment's hesitation. byul is more reserved in her welcome, but still warm. she follows the two of you shortly, and seungcheol is left at his doorstep alone, but filled with such a flurry of emotions in his heart that leaves his soul warmed unlike he's felt in years.

about twenty minutes later, he comes out of his bathroom after a refreshing warm shower, his hair soft after the shampoo. he can hear voices from the kitchen, loud-pitched voices of his daughters and the softer, lower voice that he recognises as you.

"unnie, do you want to have ramen?" byul's voice rings out. "we were going to have ice cream but you might feel too cold for that." sol adds, "did you eat dinner, unnie? didn't appa eat dinner with you?" "no, w- we- he picked me on the way when he saw me stranded in the rain. we didn't have dinner... together."

seungcheol's heart breaks and heals a little at the same time. he's taken the right step for now... but seeing his little girls like this have generated images and thoughts in his mind that he had shelved away forever.

the idea of a family.

the idea of giving them a new mother figure.

as he walks towards the kitchen, he can see the way sol and byul cling to you although they've met you barely half an hour ago. perhaps it's because they don't have any cousins and you feel like a sister? perhaps it's because they like bossing over adults, especially since they boss over him so much? perhaps it's because they've already been charmed by your magnetic appeal- your softness and your innocence, mingled with an intelligence that lets you befriend everyone.

"are y'all annoying y/n already?" byul immediately faux pouts, and he can see your eyes light up. "seungcheol, she looks exactly like you," your voice whispers with the revelation. "yes, she's my daughter. kinda expected, don't you think?" he laughs. it's sarcastic of course, because sol and byul actually resemble him more than any other father-daughter pair he's seen in his life. it's almost like they haven't gotten any of their mother's genes. and seungcheol doesn't really regret it. it's been nine years, he's gotten over that pain. his only regret is to not be able to provide a second parent to his children, who'd grown up in spite of being cut off completely by their mother. and his busy life has left him with no space to date or even think of marriage...

except right now.

right now, when he sees you wearing byul's nightdress that barely reaches your knees, cooking ramen with sol sitting on the kitchen counter next to you, chatting away about harry potter, and byul carefully carving out ice cream into bowls for the four of them, seungcheol thinks maybe it's time.

maybe he's found the one.

and maybe, he's already fallen beyond scope to return.

you didn't get much chance to talk to seungcheol last night, but when you wake up on the guest bed the next morning, you can see him as soon as you open the door. he's sitting in the balcony, sipping a cup of tea, reading a newspaper, his glasses sitting prettily on his nose.

"morning," your voice is still raspy in spite of your sleep being perfectly fulfilling.

he turns to look at you, his gaze uncharacteristically soft, much different from how he sees you at court.

"hi. tea?"

you nod, and wobble over to sit next to him. the tea clears your throat a lot, and you can finally open your eyes wide enough to see the glorious view from his balcony. so you soak in the nature for some time, while seungcheol buries his nose into the newspaper again.

"i didn't know you were a father."

seungcheol hums. "did you like them? my girls? they liked you a lot."

"can't help but not like them. they balance each other so perfectly- as if they're your twin personas."

"that's deep."

"but it's true."

seungcheol chuckles and goes back to his newspaper. the morning air hits your face and you feel so much more alive than you'd normally do on a thursday morning. "when do you have to get to work?" he asks you.

"i still have about an hour and half left."

"will you go home and then-"

"yeah. the office is really close to my place, like a minute's walk. so i'll leave soon, don't worry-"

"you'll stay for breakfast." seungcheol says firmly. "the girls will want to see you before you leave."

and you can't turn that down. so you simply nod in agreement, carefully taking a look at the man sitting across you. seungcheol at home is so unimaginably different from seungcheol at court. if he's fire in the courtroom, then he's water at home. he's cold and practical in the real world, but with his daughters, he's the most gentle person you've met. something about the soft smile he gives when he indulges his girls. something about the way his eyes light up whenever they talk to him about anything, even if it's trivial. something about the way he's taken care of you since last night, not just giving you a shelter during a terrible night but also giving you so much warmth from his personal life. it's all made you see a completely different side to seungcheol than you'd met at the courtroom, and it's changed the way you've grown to see him completely.

now you know that seungcheol was not harsh to you that day at lunch, he was simply being realistic. his cockiness and arrogance is just self-confidence, it doesn't define who he is as a person. and he's still a man you can look up to and admit, without shame, to yourself that this is the ideal man in your eyes.

your phone pings right then, and you open it to see the mail that's arrived.

the cup of tea almost slips and falls from your hands as you jump up in your seat in joy. seungcheol looks up at you in alarm, "what happened?" your smile is bright, just like the sun this morning. "i have an emergency at work, i'll have to leave now! please say goodbye to sol and byul from my side!" and you rush into your room to change into your clothes from last night, still damp but at least cleaner, and you literally run out of the house, waving and thanking seungcheol again and again, leaving him very very confused indeed.

seungcheol feels incredibly at peace the next day when he walks into the courtroom. even though you'd disappeared suddenly like that without any explanation, he's quite sure that he's back in your good books. not that it matters much- because what really counts is how he's feeling about himself. and after many years, he's feeling good. the usual guilt that engulfs him as a whole every day as he wakes up to face a new morning, isn't bothering him. he feels like he's achieved something, he's done something right, and he's going to get better from now on.

but as soon as he pushes open the doors of the courtroom, he feels like he's missing something out. everyone on his side of the bench seems flustered as hell, papers rumpled and expressions distraught. but he doesn't get an opportunity to ask what's going on because you catch his attention first.

"seungcheol, can we talk for a second?"

"not right now, i have to talk to my team-"

"this is urgent. you'll want to hear this, i promise."

seungcheol lets out a long sigh as he takes in your words. there's a crisp confidence in your words today that intrigue him. "okay go ahead," he finally replies.

"in private, if you please." he follows you wordlessly out of the room, and you lead him out towards a small isolated office in the corner of the building, that's totally deserted. seungcheol leans back against the closed door, completely silent as he waits for you to settle your papers and finally look up at him.

"so what's this about? you wanna kiss me or someth-"

"you're going to lose the case today. i've found enough evidence to prove the absolute guilt of KNT, and the ceo will go to jail by the end of the court session today."

"you're bluffing me."

"i can show you the evidence, but i'd rather you'd see it in court."

"then why are you telling me this now? to pity me?" seungcheol's mouth fills with bile as a dread settles over him. the tables are turned- now he feels as rattled as he had seen you feel that day at lunch. what if you're being serious right now? what if you've actually found incriminating evidence? but he's gone through all potential sources of evidence with his client, left no stone unturned to hide all tracks-

"so that maybe you can step off the case in time. do you really want your daughters to find out you've been defending your client for so long knowing you're defending a criminal?"

seungcheol's heart skips a beat.

"do not bring them into this."

"i'm not bringing anyone into anything. this is just me being nice to you because i know what it feels like to be disappointed by someone you look up to."

"do you hear what you're saying, y/n?" he takes two steps closer to you. "this is borderline blackmail. i don't even know if you're bluffing or not, and you're already blackmailing me using my daughters. have you fallen to the same crude level i'm in? are you going to disappoint me like this?"

his words have the expected effect on you. he can see your cheeks flush pink. "seu-seungcheol, don't twist my words." you take a step back, your back straightening as he sees confidence seep back into your face.

"and maybe you should stop worrying about my morals and worry more about how badly you're going to lose the case. from next time, don't make rookie mistakes." your finals words, before you leave the room, ring in his ears and cause goosebumps to erupt all over his skin.

as soon as you're gone, seungcheol slams the desk in front of him, his brain running at a hundred miles an hour. what might have slipped from his sight? what might he have missed? he immediately calls the ceo of KNT enterprises.

"what have you been hiding from me?"

"oh? mr choi, what happened to greetings? good morning to yo-"

"nothing's good about today morning, mr kim. what have you been hiding from me? i'm not going to ask you again."

"nothing! i've bared my entire soul to you for the case."

"mr kim, there's a fresh piece of incriminating evidence that's been found, and i cannot do anything to stop mrs hwang's lawyer from submitting it to the court unless you tell me what it is exactly."

"mr choi, you're mistaken, there's nothing left to be wiped-"

"the first rule of a client and lawyer relationship," his voice is seething and snarky, volume rising with each word, "is that you should never lie to your lawyer." seungcheol knows if mr kim was in front of him right now, he'd be quaking in his shoes. he can imagine a similar situation on the other side of the phone too. he knows he's intimidating enough when he wants to be.

"i didn't think it would be important-"

"you're not the person to judge what's important and what's not, mr kim."

there's a sigh and the voice becomes shaky.

"there's an outstation branch..."

the case ends unceremoniously. there are no paparazzi waiting for you outside the courtroom, ready to capture your life's first win. there are no cameras flashing on you, no historic moments being documented, no crowds gathering to celebrate this win for the masses.

there's just seola's happy tears and a wildly beautiful feeling of victory in your heart as realisation ultimately sinks in for you. it's a clean win- the evidence showing unmatched proof of orders coming from KNT to mr hwang, detailing all sorts of illegal activities and even records of payments being made to mr hwang. it's really crazy how it's not been eradicated cleanly already by seungcheol. clearly, either he or his client had underestimated you.

but you'd proven them wrong.

yoona's the only who comes to see you outside the courtroom after the win. there's a bright smile on her face as she hugs you and congratulates you. seola promises that she's going to take you out on a treat right now. other colleagues from your workplace call you to congratulate you on the win.

and yet you feel empty.

seungcheol's gone. he hadn't come for the trial. he'd not been in the courtroom for the final statements, his aide quoting something about a family emergency. he'd run with his tail between his legs, ashamed of his failure and finally realising his stupidity. this thought should be giving you satisfaction, but surprisingly, it doesn't. it leaves you feeling empty, still wanting something even though you've won the case just now.

but there's no way to reach out to him. you don't even have his number for god's sake, and it would be awfully awkward to go to his house. and what would you say? that you missed seeing his sad face in court when the verdict was announced? that you wanted to see if he'd be proud of you for winning the case? that you wanted to impress him by beating him in the case cleanly without any dirty tricks? so you go to eat out with yoona and seola, and decide to stop thinking about seungcheol any further.

it's about seven in the evening when you make it back to your tiny flat in a shabby part of town, the house dark as you'd left it in the morning after rushing home from seungcheol's place. you smile to yourself when you unlock your home using the password on the door, thinking of how you'd been with seungcheol's adorable daughters last night, and how much fun you'd had with them.

your bag falls from your hand as you open the door.

"seungcheol?!" your voice is a shaky whisper, shocked to see him inside your house. "how the fuck did you get in?"

he's still wearing the suit he'd worn in the morning, and yet he looks divine in the dim reflection of lights from the world outside the window.

"your password's your birthday. got it on my first try."

"and how do you know my birthday?"

he takes a step closer, his body towering over yours. "shhh. it's called knowing your opponent."

there's something so oddly intimate about seeing him in your flat, in the shadows of your home. the street light illuminates one side of his face, and you can't breathe because of how gorgeous he looks.

"why do you know my birthday, seungcheol? really it's not going to help you in any way-"

"it did help me get into your house."

you lightly pick up the bag from on the floor next to you, and you walk past him. "which brings me back to the first question. why are you here?"

you're purposely avoiding his gaze, the intensity making you feel things. there's a plethora of emotions in your heart right now- finally the emptiness in your heart dissipates as you can feel yourself surrounded by seungcheol. you're taking off your blazer, untying your hair, walking over to the sink to wash your face... but you can't ignore the way you can feel seungcheol's eyes on your back. his heady scent clouds your senses, and you feel weak in your limbs. first he's intruding your house, and now your heart too?

"i have a question to ask you." he speaks after a long time, when you've finally cleaned up and taken out a cup of strawberry yoghurt from the refridgerator.

"you could've asked me on the phone." you lean back on a wall, putting yourself as far away from seungcheol as possible in your tiny flat. he's in the darkness, you're in the light, but you're still feeling small and vulnerable under his gaze.

"i couldn't. it's serious." he starts walking towards you.

"seungcheol, if this is about me trying to expose your shit, i'm not going t-" seungcheol puts his hand on your lips, pushing you against the wall.

"fuck that. this isn't about that."

you cock your eyebrow, mumbling against his hand, "then what is it about?"

seungcheol doesn't answer at once, his gaze continuing to pin you against the wall, and a hand comes around you to trap you between his bigger body and the wall. "seungcheol?"

"answer me honestly, okay?" his voice is raw, slightly wobbly, and you're getting more and more curious. you nod slowly, encouraging him to say whatever's on his mind. but he doesn't say anything. a few minutes pass just like that- or maybe an hour. his scent makes you dizzy, you can't think of anything but how his big figure is over you totally.

"when you said you looked up to me in college... i know i ruined that image. b- but... can you... fuck. wait. canyoueverforgiveme?"

"what?" you ask, confused at what he just said. he removes the hand from your mouth, standing even closer than before.

"can you ever forgive me? will you let me show you a better side of me? can i ever get in your good books again?"

your breath stops for a second. why does this matter for him? doesn't he already know the state he's left your heart in since last night- ever since he'd brought you into his car, he's already been promoted to your ideal man again.

"show me a better side of you? what do you mean, seungcheol?"

he sighs for a second, before straightening his posture, becoming impossibly even bigger.

"will you ever see me as a man, y/n?"

your knees almost give in. the fuck is his implying? are you dreaming this? is this a fever drea-

seungcheol leans in and kisses your cheek, close enough to your lips, his breath falling on your skin, and making your body tingle. "will you let me show you myself to you like this?" on instinct, you tilt your head away to give him more access, your body shivering with the intimacy. so he kisses your cheek again, closer yet to your lips, and you turn your head slightly to capture his lips, but he moves away.

"y/n, don't leave me hanging please. i know you might find this odd... but i've come to feel things for you that i didn't even know remained in me. you're an extraordinary woman, one of a kind. in all my life, i haven't met anyone like you. not even my ex-wife. you don't know this yet but you're the ideal image of perfection i've always thought of."

then he stops talking for a second, clearly expecting an answer from you. but your mind can't form words, not with the way you have tunnel vision on his face right now, your eyes drifting to his pretty cherry lips, to his long eyelashes, to the beautifully expressive eyes you've fantasised about since your college days.

"y/n, say something please." his voice is desperate, and you break out of your daze.

"you're my ideal man too, seungcheol. you have no idea for how long." there's a blush creeping on your cheeks, but in the dim yellow lighting, you can see an identical blush rise on his cheeks too. so you lean in and finally kiss his elusive lips, feeling the taste of his chapped but pretty lips on yours, feeling the way his body steps even closer to yours, one arm wrapping around your waist, pulling you to him, and your body melts as you feel the warmth from his body. the kisses slowly grow in pace, the momentum rising, as he kisses you more and more hungrily, his tongue entering your mouth too, as he begins to bite your lips and leaves you breathless and moaning just from a few kisses.

"god, rookie. you sure know how to kiss."

"i know how to do a lot of things, seungcheol." you know you're bad at dirty talk, you've never really succeeded at it during your few college experiences of sex. but somehow, seungcheol's eyes roll back at your words and you feel his heartbeat quicken up too. maybe it's working on him?

you try to test your hypothesis by gently wrapping your hands around his neck, slowly untying his tie, slipping it to the floor. once it's off, you rub your hands all over his chest, feeling the pure hard muscle flex under your muscles. his breathing is as hot and heavy as yours, and you slowly untuck his shirt from his pants, unbuttoning it carefully.

"must you torture me like this, y/n?" his eyes are glazed over, but you look up at him innocently. "what, seungcheol?" "fuck it, you're such a tease, princess." princess. he pushes you against the wall and kisses you again, one hand wrapped around your hair as he pulls you in, and another hand helping you unbutton his shirt and get it out of the way. seungcheol doesn't stop kissing you even when he begins to unbutton your own shirt, but his hands wander all over the skin he slowly unravels. it's like his own adventure mission, the gentle but urgent way he touches your skin, almost worshipping.

"you're so perfect, y/n." you whimper when he cups your breasts from over your simple black bra that does nothing to flaunt your tits, but somehow seungcheol's appreciating it all. are you really his perfect woman?

"do you mean it, seungcheol?" your voice is so weak, but it takes seungcheol aback. "what do you mean, y/n? you don't think i find you beautiful? is that why i've been dreaming about you every night these days? is that why you're always on my mind? is that why i died and came back from heaven last night when i saw you with my kids?" your breath hitches as he tilts your face to look at him. "you're the most perfect woman i've ever met, i told you. you've gotta believe me, y/n. or do i have to show you?"

"maybe, yes?"

he groans at your words, and his eyes become darker. "fuck, where's your bedroom, babe?"

seungcheol's touch is like moonlight caressing the ripples of a pond at midnight. a soft, gentle touch that lights up every inch of your skin that he touches. as the moonlight kisses the water and makes it ebb and flow with it, seungcheol's movements guide your body too. he's laying you out on a bed, his hands wandering all over your skin. as he takes in your figure, you let him, because he's making you feel so good. he kisses all over your body, your limbs tangling as you can't get enough of each other. seungcheol is all muscle, his hard planes flexing against your supple skin. he pins you against the headpost of your small double size bed, one hand wrapped around your waist, and the other caressing your breasts, making sure there's not even a single inch of your skin that's left untouched.

"did i tell you i think you're perfect?" his words are feverish, and leave you lost for words. so you can't reply to him, hoping he gets the way you feel about him too through your desperate whines and moans, pulling him closer if he puts even a hair's distance between your bodies. something about him being so big and engulfing your smaller stature is so hot, you can feel yourself getting aroused by the minute.

"seungcheol, i w- want to... touch you," you finally whisper out, and he pulls away from where he's been kissing your neck. "but you are?"

you shake your head and shove him lightly until he's on his back, and you're hovering above him. he's still wearing his pants while he's stripped you naked, so you do the honours for him. "what are you doing," his voice is strained. "want to touch you there," you focus on taking his trousers off until he's just in his underwear under you- his bulge quite obvious to you. if you weren't wet enough earlier, seeing the massive wet patch on his grey boxers leaves your own underwear soaked. is he this aroused because of you?

seungcheol seems to read your mind as he brings your face towards his own, whispering with hot breath, "do you see what you do to me, princess? got me wrecked and ruined." his confession is so raw, you lean in to kiss him again. as you do, your hand wraps around his clothed dick, and he groans into your mouth. "fuck fuck fuck," he curses as you begin to rub it softly. "i'm going to cum right now if you do that- babe, p-please!" he finally gets your hand off his dick, eyes large.

and then you giggle. something about seeing seungcheol so desperate triggers something off in you, makes you more determined to ruin him. so you pull off his boxers and take his erect, red cock straight into your mouth. seungcheol's body trembles with surprise, your name leaving his mouth in broken moans as he cannot take the pleasure of your mouth sucking him off in an excruciatingly slow speed. and you don't stop, even when his hand comes around the nape of your neck to keep you in place, even when you feel his entire body tense up with the imminent orgasm. you don't stop until he comes inside your mouth, spewing string after string of his hot seed, and you swallow it all. his breathing is laboured as he watches you lick off the last bits of the orgasm from his dick.

but your self-satisfaction of having the upper hand only lasts for so long. seungcheol's competitive side kicks in soon and he quickly flips over to pin you under him on the bed, his teeth nibbling at your chest, leaving pretty hickeys all over.

"let me return the favour, darling."

you don't know what he means right then by return the favour, but never in your wildest dreams, did you think it would include seungcheol burying his face into your cunt, his nose rubbing against your clit as his tongue laps up your wetness.

"fuck! no- seungcheol- pl-please, cheol!"

"do you want me to stop?" he asks you, his face barely moving up inches from your pussy to look into your eyes.

you hesitate before answering, so he softly kisses your stomach. "tell me, princess."

"i've never done this before..."

"what? sex?"

"no. oral. like no one's ever gone down on me before..."

and seungcheol doesn't waste another minute. he uses his teeth to push aside your panties and inserts his tongue right into your sloppy cunt, and you scream out his name. he doesn't go slow, and you don't want him to go slow. he's showing you all the stars in the sky, so you grab onto his hair to move his head back to a particularly good spot, and he moans incoherently when you tug at his locks. and within minutes, you're reaching your high, your screams getting stuck in your throat as you close your eyes and arch your back off the bed.

thankfully, seungcheol gets his face out of your cunt and hovers over you to take in your writhing figure under the impact of the orgasm.

"so how was your first experience?" he asks you when you finally open your eyes and look at him, his lips smeared with your essence and his body.

"heavenly," you whisper, before pulling him into you, and kissing him again. you can get drunk on his kisses. he's leaving your lips abused and raw, but when he's spitting into your mouth, you wrap your legs around his waist to pull him closer, feeling the toughness of his back muscles shift under your touch. this position ends up making his cock graze against your clit, and you jerk in overstimulation. but you can feel how hard he's getting with the kissing and the way your hands are tugging his hair. the heavy length rests on your stomach, and seungcheol pulls away.

"need to be inside you now, princess." his words have this rawness to them- long gone is the smooth-talker lawyer choi seungcheol. it takes several moments for you to process that you've caused him to descend to this desperation.

"do you have a condom?" he asks you.

"hmm, i do." you point towards the dresser next to your bed, and he casually bends away to take it out from the dresser. you're getting more turned on by his easy flexibility, and as soon as he's got the condom rolled on to his dick, you pull him for kisses again.

"patience, baby," he laughs, as he pulls away again after kissing you, to nudge the tip of his dick on your folds. "nooo, need you now. need your lips." "did my kisses break you?" "i think so," your voice is a whisper and he leans in to kiss you again, a beautiful smile showing off his dimples.

and then he's slowly pushing inside you, making you whine out his name as you feel him stretch you. it's not an easy fit, but his kisses make the pain easier to bear. when a tear escapes your eyes, he asks you, his eyebrows furrowed in concern, "is it very painful?" "not very but it's been a while." he leaves kisses on your hairline. "i'll be gentle, princess."

you grip his locks tighter, pulling his face away to make eye contact.

"you better not dare, choi seungcheol."

something breaks in him. his hips begin to move faster, as he pushes your hands above your head, holding them as if handcuffed, and he's biting hickeys all over your neck. he's thrusting harder now, and your second-hand bed is already making noises. but it seems to arouse you more for some reason. something about him shaking everything around you and moulding you and everything about you to him makes you want him more.

you can't stop moaning his name, as he whispers into your ear, "i can feel how close you are baby. can feel your cunt clenching around me." "pl-please, cheol. need you more, please!" "more? faster?" you nod feverishly, and he pulls away, biting his bottom lip in concentration, one hand gripping the bed, and the other your leg around his waist, as he fucks into you.

you take in his full form, towering over you like adonis. beads of sweat falling down his pecs and his hair falling into his eyes. the sight is so beautiful that you cum right then, even as seungcheol fucks you through the orgasm.

you can feel that he's close, his dick twitching inside you, as he's making your eyes roll back. even after one orgasm, he keeps fucking you. "give me one more, baby. cum with me." and then he shifts one hand to rub your clit, and you moan under the additional touch. the last straw is when you clench around him so hard that he lets out a strangled moan and reaches his climax too. you can feel the condom become warmer, and you tremble all over as you cum again because of that sensation.

when your eyes open again, seungcheol's pulled out from you, but he sneakily lets in a finger in between your folds and licks it clean.

"seungcheol?" your broken whisper makes him look up at you.

he smirks. "you taste like nectar, baby."

seungcheol's insomnia doesn't let him get a full night's sleep on most nights. if he's lucky, he'll sleep for four hours at once, dreamless rest that leaves him fully charged for the next day. on other days, he'll stare into the night sky for hours, sleep eluding him. some nights he'll go to his daughters' room, and watch them sleep, his heart filling up with a warmth that's comforting like chicken soup. on other nights, he'll open his laptop, put on his glasses and finish his case files.

everyone wonders how seungcheol is so efficient at his profession. only he knows why.

but ever since you've come into his life, everything's changed.

he can no longer focus on work. he's distracted, making silly typing errors and forgetting details. but he's sleeping the best ever in a long time. he doesn't remember when was the last time he'd slept this well. it must've been before the fights had started with his ex-wife.

today, seungcheol sleeps for eight hours straight.

and he knows why.

it's because he's wrapped around you, your body melting into his under the duvet. your head's resting on his arm, but his arm doesn't hurt at all. your hair shines with the sunlight streaming in through the gaps between the curtains, but you sleep through the slight pouring into your eyes. you look particularly angelic today morning, and he feels his entire being shiver with the new-found affection for you.

you're his.

finally.

well, hopefully.

jeonghan had told him yesterday when he'd told him about his feelings for you, you've not been turned down until you've been turned down. so shoot your shot.

and oh, he had shot his shot. shot it too fast in fact. the clarity of the morning makes him suddenly worry if going straight into your bed last night had been too quick and you'll think poorly of him now. then there's the worry about you going to sleep without eating dinner last night- what if you wake up angry? another worry crops in his head as he realises it's a saturday. he doesn't have to go to work today, but you might have to. what if you get upset at him for not waking you up on time? the warm, glorious light in seungcheol's heart dims slightly as he realises you have so many reasons to turn him down.

so he lightly shakes you, whispering your name in your ear, until he feels you whisper out a soft five minutes. it makes his heart melt again, but he's more worried about you missing a work day.

"wake up, princess, you're going to be late."

as if hearing a magic word, you jolt awake, staring right into his eyes.

"late?! what's the time? fuck, it's nine-thirty!"

"it's saturday though. do you have work today?"

and then you fall back on his arm with a huff.

"saturday! of course i don't have work today. why did you wake me up!" you whine and turn around so that you're now snuggled into seungcheol's bare chest, your hair only slightly tickling him. the warm light in his heart shines bright again as he feels you cling to him.

"i didn't know if you work on saturday or not." seungcheol leaves a kiss in your hair, and you let out a satisfied sigh.

"now you know. never forget, okay? never wake me up on weekends."

never forget.

"i won't." another kiss in your hair. another sigh that makes his chest buzz. another kiss. and then you open one eye to peer at him, and he smiles at your cuteness. so there's another kiss, and then another, and then-

"stop!" you move out of his arms, giggling, your eyes finally open.

"i can't. you're too cute."

"shhhh!" you lean in to kiss him on the mouth, a gentle peck, and seungcheol takes the opportunity to wrap you in his arms again. "don't go far away." he's more serious that his tone implies, but somehow you realise that too. so you snuggle in closer, your head almost on his chest now. "i won't."

after a few long minutes of you being still in his arms, and him smelling your scent through your hair, you finally shuffle and pull him down so that his head is now resting on the pillow and you're resting your head on your palm, perched on the pillow using your elbow as support, looking down at him with clear fondness in your eyes.

"you're very romantic today, mr choi."

"do you not like it?"

"no. on the contrary, i love it."

at your words, he smiles, and you let out a fake gasp. "the rabbit has dimples!" and you attack his face with kisses, leaving him giggly and blushing as you smother him with love.

when you're finally done, he pulls your face in for a kiss and then you go back to your position to look at him from above.

"come lie down next to me."

"no this view is prettier."

seungcheol scoffs, hiding the way his heart is racing with your words. it's been years since anything barely romantic- a few dates here and there. but this is teenage seungcheol again, falling head over heels for a girl with a pretty smile and a cute way of speaking her mind.

"this view is the prettiest," he says and he's rewarded with your pretty smile again. so he spends a minute staring at the view, taking in your beauty.

you've not been turned down until you've been turned down. so shoot your shot. somehow jeonghan's nagging voice comes up in his head again and makes him remember that he's yet to ask you properly.

so he counts to three and says it.

"i like you, y/n. a lot. as i told you last night."

a strawberry latte blush taints your cheeks.

"and as i told you last night, you're pretty much my dream man, seungcheol. i've been crushing on you since my freshman year."

well that was easy.

"that long?" seungcheol feels his confidence cruise back, a smirk on his lips.

"don't laugh at me."

"i'm not. it's just unbelievable that you liked me back then. i wasn't even well off back then."

"who even cares about that! you were confident, manly, intelligent and passionate about your work. and so, so handsome. how could anyone not like you?"

"am i not handsome now?"

"of course you are, silly. that's why i still like you." you roll your eyes, as if it's so obvious. "i couldn't even date guys for a long time because i kept comparing them to you in my mind."

seungcheol's eyes go wide. "wait, really? that's kinda sad."

you laugh. "maybe, but who cares? none of them were nice in the end. that's why i kept going back to crushing on you." you lean in to kiss the mole on his cheek.

"how long has it been since your last relationship?"

"hmmm, about seven months? broke up before i graduated."

"and sex?" he hopes you can't see the way he's holding back his breath as you answer. "about a year."

and then he lets out his breath.

"and you?" you ask him, running your fingers through his hair.

he hesitates before replying. "nine years," his voice is weak.

and then you do what he's been fearing for so long.

you laugh.

"wow. that's like... that is long." but your expression changes into a serious one soon. "but you haven't lost any of your technique yet. so it's a win in my books. i don't even have to be jealous of anyone else. who was your last lucky lady?"

"my ex-wife." seungcheol winces as he mentally prepares himself for all the reasons you might turn him down.

but you don't. your serious expression remains even as you're surprised. "you were married? is she the mother of sol and byul?"

"yeah."

you nod your head slowly, digesting the information. after a second you say, "i can't fathom why anyone would leave you and your two perfect little girls."

seungcheol's smile turns bitter. "she did. but it doesn't matter. she's found a better life now, after moving away to the US with her new husband. and i've found a better life too, moving away from her."

you nod again. "you're very brave, cheol." and you kiss his cheek again, and seungcheol's heart swells at how maturely you've handled this conversation. but there's yet more reasons for you to reject him.

when you pull away to look at him again, you softly ask him, "are your daughters okay with the idea of you dating again?" dating. there are tingles all over seungcheol's body as you finally quash all worries from his mind. "i haven't explicitly discussed this with them," he says with some hesitation. "that being said, i think they like you a lot. you made a very strong first impression. and trust me, for ten year olds as stubborn as mine, a first impression is all that matters."

"they're just like you," you giggle, your hand fondly cupping his cheek. "but seriously. they like me as a friend... as your colleague. what if they don't like me as your... girlfriend?"

girlfriend. seungcheol wants to flip you down on the bed and make love to you all over again, but he resists his urge. he settles for wrapping his hand around your hips and caressing them. "they'll love you, princess. they've longed for a mother figure for long enough." after a pause he says, "i'm worried they'll not see you as a mother figure but as a sister."

you burst out laughing. "what?!"

"i'm much older than you, y/n."

"so?"

"i'm thirty-six, y/n."

"that's not old. i'm twenty-three."

seungcheol chokes on his own words. "exactly. i'm literally old enough to be your father, y/n."

"well, you'd have to become a father really really early then," you say, laughing.

"y/n, be serious."

"i am being serious. i've met men who're twenty but act like they're forty. what really matters is what you've got here-" and you poke at his chest where his heart's supposed to be.

"i'm going to die thirteen years before you!"

"darling, i don't think that's how death works."

darling. seungcheol's heart hammers against his chest as he pulls you in for a deep kiss. and then you pull away from him. "you're a dilf, seungcheol. that's like 80% of why i'm attracted to you. bet i wouldn't be attracted to twenty-three year old you." there's a teasing glint in your eyes, but seungcheol still whines as he feels upset at your teasing words. "babyyyy!" you laugh at his deepening pout, and lean in to kiss his pout in a peck, before getting out of bed.

seungcheol's mouth falls open as he takes in your soft curves which look even more alluring in the daylight. something about the way your ass sways as you walk makes his dick twitch in interest, but seungcheol curses himself. he can't be thirty-six and this hormonal, for fucks' sake.

you open the closet door to pull out a loose t-shirt and shorts, wearing them without any underwear. "do you want to stay for breakfast?"

a lazy grin spreads on seungcheol's face as he stretches his body in bed, relishing the way you ogle his stretching biceps, and he casually pushes the blanket away from his hips to reveal his toned stomach to you too.

"i want to stay for the rest of my life, rookie."

he's left with no doubt of reciprocation of his feeling as he sees the blush on your face as you hide and run from him at his cheesy words.

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isagrimorie · 1 month ago

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I’ve been watching video reviews praising Agatha All Along, and while I more or less agree with their points, one thing that bothers me is the claim that Agatha remained 100% evil, and she didn't change, and that doesn’t sit right with me.

Agatha didn’t have a redemption arc (or as Schaeffer put it, “This lady did not arc out.”), and I understand why. In fact, I love that about her character. The show doesn’t try to sand down Agatha’s sharp edges. I love that Agatha can feel so deeply while still being unapologetically a dick.

But the reason it bothers me when people claim that Agatha didn’t change is because she did.

To put it into context, for a character who hasn’t changed and remains firmly on a villainous path, the reviewers should look at another comic book show that aired at the same time: The Penguin. While it’s not an exact comparison, there are notable similarities: both main characters love purple (sorry, Oz, I mean plum), have a fascinating, wide-eyed, unhinged brunette antagonist, a teen sidekick, and a ruthless quest for power. But there are key differences between Agatha Harkness and Oswald Cobblepot.

The Penguin is the story of Oswald’s rise to power as Gotham’s crime boss. Agatha, on the other hand, was already at the height of her power and villainy. Over 300 years, she killed fellow witches, schemed, and connived. This all came to an abrupt halt when Wanda trapped her in a hex. With the help of Rio and Billy, Agatha eventually clawed her way free from Wanda’s distorted spell.

Initially, it seemed like nothing had changed for Agatha.

But Agatha did change. The Agatha Harkness of three years ago—the witch killer—wouldn’t have sat around a campfire trading stories and feeling emotional about it. She wouldn’t have felt any remorse for accidentally killing Alice.

(It’s funny how, between Rio and Agatha, Agatha reminded me more of Dream than Rio. Both are capricious and prone to holding grudges. Both were held captive by mystical forces and when freed, they denied they had changed—even though their captivity altered them in both small and profound ways. In the end, both characters die because of their capacity to change and are reborn, metaphorically or literally, wearing white.)

I appreciated that the show didn’t dull Agatha’s sharp edges. She was, and remains, a killer. Even when we get glimpses of Agatha’s tragic backstory with Nicky, the show doesn’t excuse her actions. She was a killer before Nicky, during her time with Nicky, and after Nicky. In fact, she became an even more prolific serial killer after Nicky. Her contempt for fellow witches deepened every time they fell for her road scam.

So, it’s tiring hearing that “Agatha didn’t change.” The ending of Agatha All Along made it clear that while she didn’t change—because such a drastic shift can’t happen in just nine episodes for someone with a 300-year history—there was, as Jac Schaeffer put it, progress.

Agatha never considered the consequences of her actions. For example, when she tried to avoid harming Jennifer Kale back when she was a rootworker and midwife, she inadvertently hurt Jennifer for a century.

Agatha spent her life trying to fill the gnawing black hole inside her, running from pain and avoiding anything resembling personal growth. She finds the Darkhold, and she becomes invisible to Rio, her remaining connection to her life with Nicky.

And, even when the world around her burned, nothing truly touched Agatha Harkness—until she found herself in the Hex, facing off against the Scarlet Witch.

Agatha was overconfident. Armed with her vast knowledge and the Darkhold, she thought she was invincible. But she miscalculated, becoming powerless and losing three years trapped in Agnes the Nosy Neighbor's life.

This disruption in Agatha's pattern is enough that when Agatha was about to restart her Killing Game, it gave Agatha pause. When Alice shows up at her house hoping to visit the Road, only to end up dead in Agatha’s basement.

There was even a moment when Agatha went to recruit Sharon Davis as a replacement backup Green Witch, she had to take a moment to confirm to herself that she could live with killing Mrs. Hart.

Agatha’s story (for this season, at least-- because there will be another season or sequel, dammit) wasn’t a redemption—nine episodes isn’t enough to atone for 300 years of killing. It's a story of moving Agatha into a position to transform. Or, as Jac Schaeffer called it, progress. Redemption may come later, but progress isn’t linear. For someone who is an unrepentant killer and con artist, even the smallest shift is big.

Agatha All Along doesn’t try to make Agatha into a hero, nor does it attempt to soften her sharp edges. Instead, the show offers a nuanced portrait—a reminder that even an unrepentant bad guy can evolve, even if they don’t fully understand or accept it themselves.

Agatha Harkness might not be “redeemed” but she isn’t the same either.

#thinky thoughts #tv: agatha all along #agatha harkness #the story positioned agatha into a path #if she would take it or not is all up to agatha #100% THAT witch

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yumeka-sxf · 1 year ago

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Today's new chapter was so intriguing 👀

First off, nice to see the Authens again. Guess we're sure now that Endo will make them reoccurring characters! Yor's embarrassment about being called "Mom" ("okaa-san" in the JP version) was really cute.

They managed to translate this joke very well; in the JP version, the word "ebento"(event) makes Sigmund think of "obento"(lunchbox). Using the word "function" for "luncheon" was clever!

But the main highlight of this chapter for me was seeing the ever enigmatic Melinda again after so long!

She's a really a tough one to figure out, and this chapter only brought up more questions than answers. She seems extremely nice here, being very forgiving of Millie despite her harsh accusations against her husband. She also mentions that she'd be very resentful if anything were to happen to her family...which is kind of contrasting to her thoughts about Damian from the end of the bus hijacking arc.

I also loved the scene of Yor sticking up for Millie. Her expression was so blank yet so deep at the same time. It actually reminded me of Anya's expression when she punched Damian - in both cases, their blank expression doesn't match their action, but it makes sense because they're still unsure of how to act and what emotion to portray in many seemingly "normal" situations. Anger and annoyance aren't feelings that come naturally to them.

In Yor's case here, having to defend someone against such accusations isn't something she's had much experience doing (at least not for someone who isn't family), and at the same time she can't just outright kill the hostile party like she would on an assassination mission. So despite being in such an awkward situation, especially for someone like her who struggles with social interactions, she managed to remain remarkably calm. As usual, Yor gets easily flustered when it comes to her own feelings, but if she sees someone else being threatened, her capabilities shoot up to maximum! That unpredictable expression should be feared from both her and Twilight!

We also learn that Yor lost her parents in the war, which is something I always suspected. Her words in the below panel reminded me a lot of the thoughts she had during the end of the cruise arc. As I've mentioned before, despite her naivety about many things, she understands the tragedies that go on in the world, especially in terms of war - that it's not just soldiers who suffer, but the children and everyone else left behind. It makes sense that someone who understands that kind of loss and hardship has such outpouring empathy to others the way Yor does...

...which is actually contrasting to the way Millie deals with her loss, by lashing out at others. It's said that those who have suffered can become either very sympathetic or very resentful. It was interesting to see that subtle contrast between Yor and Millie here.

Speaking of Millie, it was nice to see her get some redemption and backstory. Like Camilla, I still don't think this makes up for all the mean things she's said to Yor before, but it's something!

Good to see McMahon again after so long. Don't think he's made an appearance since the cruise arc 👀

As usual, it's hard to say if this chapter is leading to a new arc or not. I'm sure things mentioned here, especially about Melinda, will come back later, but who knows if it will be right away or several chapters from now. I know we were all expecting something relating to Anya's backstory based on the previous short mission, but I still think there's a chance that what happened here could tie into that. We'll see! We're close to chapter 100 so I wonder if Endo is planning something special for that 🤔

#spy family #spy x family #sxf #spyxfamily #yor forger #sxf manga #sxf manga spoilers #sxf spoilers #melinda desmond

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peijizerojournal · 3 months ago

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issues and inconsistencies in "khaos reigns" [part 1, probably] :

i already have a post speed-reviewing/critiquing ‘khaos reigns’ and i touched on the sektor parable via a reblogged post, but grrahh, i still have tons of thoughts, questions and comments about the narrative and i need to excise them from my soul so here are some of them. apologies for any spelling mishaps or inconsistencies i may have missed. spoilers below, of course :

- the new era being — essentially — a multiverse, totally cancels out the idea of kronika being THE titan of TIME itself. her timeline was the ONLY one. i know that they tried to explain this away by saying that the fight between liu kang and shang tsung for the hourglass in mk11 was apparently so powerful that it broke the space-time continuum, but still! the way mk1 ended and how ‘khaos reigns’ continues the story basically takes away from the gravity of her position, and the weight of what it means to be the keeper of time. kronika painstakingly tinkered with the realms to achieve a golden balance, but now, since basically everyone and anyone can be a titan, liu kang's sacrifice seems moot. everyone just opens a portal to anywhere and everywhere and does whatever they want to his timeline. he may be reluctant to touch the hourglass out of fear of going insane or mucking things up, but the writers sure don’t mind i guess lol!

- according to titan havik, ‘time crystals’ come from geras (because he’s the only one to exist in all timelines), and they function in a similar way as jinsei (only jinsei is the 'essence' of the realms). so does that mean jinsei isn’t a thing anymore? or are the time crystals the ‘jinsei’ for the alternate timelines? what do they even look like? the needles in geras' back look like they are holding the same fluid that was injected into bi-han, so i'm confused by how they were extracting anything from geras at all...

i wouldn’t really care about this normally, but since they went to the trouble to bring back the kamidogu and insert a weak explanation from havik about the usage of these phenomena, then why not give us the proper exposition? i guess they didn’t bother because the kamidogu are essentially just infinity stones (‘the avengers’) or chaos emeralds (‘sonic the hedgehog’). hm, veryyy creative plot device…

- the scene with sub-zero and havik talking about the time crystals and kamidogu should have been longer. noob saibot's transformation was too rushed and havik’s motivations for corrupting him aren’t there. why didn’t we get sub-zero’s final stand fight scene either? it would have made sense to show that: giving havik a reason to actually keep sub-zero and turn him into a henchman (because of his formidable kombat skills and cunning to follow him into the portal, perhaps) and it also would have helped flesh out bi-han’s dimensionality, too (i.e. jumping into the portal to go after geras).

- geras and sektor should not have stopped noob from attacking liu kang at the end. bi-han needed to fight the fire god. it's such a long time coming. the pressure between the two of them has been building, bi-han’s frustrations have been surmounting and in that moment, he was ready to implode.

would he have lost the fight? yes of course, but that’s the point. bi-han needed to be humbled. maybe after liu kang defeated him in kombat, he might've cooled off a bit and been more accepting of help and willing to go to the temple of the elements instead of having to be sedated and taken there against his knowledge/will. and sektor being the one to break him out and tell him that liu kang 'abandoned' him and left him to rot -- while his last memory of being awake is his failed confrontation with liu kang -- does his redemption arc no favours. no wonder he went back to being 'bad.'

- i believe that sektor is not only bi-han’s enabler, but his full-blown sycophant. i don’t necessarily think she is 100% a manipulative mastermind, but if we ignore the bad storytelling going on, it’s plausible that she is a ticking time bomb of her own, and in her obsessive infatuation with bi-han, she is -- perhaps unknowingly -- sabotaging his opportunities to grow and confront his flaws and frustrations. and to be honest, they don't really seem 'romantically' involved to me, but rather have developed a strange codependency toward one another.

bi-han in mk1’s normal story mode clearly sought to be respected, maybe even revered, and acknowledged for his efforts, as well as exhibiting a keenness to take on more proactive role in leading earthrealm. to go from that to: “better to be feared than respected!” hmm… that doesn’t seem like the same man to me.

sektor’s constant smirking/lurking in the background of the cutscenes, however, makes me think that she’s been planting certain seeds in his head: encouraging him to embrace his negative traits (likely not even on purpose, just out of adulation), be the villain that everyone has already been painting him to be, and continue to isolate himself from everyone who might have ever stood up to his shenanigans or help him find a better path.

whether or not she actually has ulterior motives, it's clear to me that sektor prefers bi-han to be "bad," or unchanged, based on his presented mk1 persona. for her to be the first voice bi-han hears and the first person he sees when he wakes up after his mind is fixed... that's something poignant.

the man has been -- more or less -- 'lashing out' because of the departure of his brothers, and because for sometime now, he's been frustrated by his strained, untrusting relationship with liu kang. so, sektor is quite literally the only one he trusts and feels that he can trust.

but, this sort of 'all-in' attitude is, of course, toxic. when she says to liu kang that she stopped bi-han from attacking him because he 'would have gained nothing' from the challenge'.. uh, who is she to decide that? of course she wants bi-han to be restored: as in, made human again. but not redeemed. a 'redeemed' bi-han would be a different one than the one she has known, and a version of him that has been humbled (like if he fought liu kang at the end and neither her nor geras stopped him), or cannot be controlled (noob saibot) is probably not the one she wants.

she gives off: ‘i’m the only one that understands you’ vibes, but if he remains as noob, or if he were to be redeemed and healed as a better sub-zero, she cannot continue her power fantasy with him. to be honest, i think that would've been an interesting direction to take her character in: where in her mind, she has built up this idea of the lin kuei and the grandmaster, but in bi-han's fall from grace or in realizing her ambitions have diverged from his, she sees her disillusionment and in her delirium, proceeds full-force with the cyber initiative. THAT would have been one hell of a tower ending!

(side note: i also -- like many other people -- was almost certain that she would have looked down on bi-han in her tower ending, the same way she did with cyrax and kuai liang, and thus turned to embracing machinery and going full-on insane with her aspirations for the lin kuei. unfortunately, though... the writers introduced it only to then promptly throw it away.)

there is definitely more than meets the eye with all of this that is worth further exploration and analysis, as there are plenty of examples of her warped fanaticism (think annie, from ‘misery’ by stephen king), but it’s best saved for another post.

- there are too many contradictions between mk1’s base campaign and this dlc, INCLUDING tower endings and intro dialogue. i don’t know what is ‘canon’ and what isn’t anymore because technically, all of it is, if it’s in the game, right? but, it makes no sense for liu kang’s new era. what’s the point of introducing all of these plot twists when they don’t apply to the current timeline? from an ‘easter egg’ standpoint, it is what it is. but from a a lore/storytelling standpoint, it’s confusing and utterly inept. it seems silly to rewrite the lore while constantly referring to the 'old story' at the same time.

- NRS really do hate sub-zero and bi-han… but why? it’s clear that even in mk1, bi-han is shown to be a rather complex, emotional character that is grossly misunderstood and certainly not irredeemably wicked. i have a hard time believing that the guy who wanted to help lead earthrealm, who wanted to use his father’s teachings to guide him, who wanted to lead the clan alongside kuai liang first and foremost…. is suddenly a supervillain? who enjoys lying to his supposed ‘second-in-command’ (cyrax)? this contradicts mk1’s story mode so much (among other things) and it’s WILD. yes, he is extremely flawed, but it's clear that there is more under the surface than is being said. since it was a noob saibot-focused dlc, we needed more info about his upbringing, maybe; more insight into the bond with his brothers and even his subordinates, into his role as grandmaster... but it's clear that NRS can't wholly decide what they want to do with him. they villainize him in 'khaos reigns' except for his story chapter, and even that is nullified by his tower ending. another storytelling fail.

- another conspiracy theory i have is that this dlc seems like it was supposed to be longer and larger, likely including noob’s full character arc, too, because so many things are missing. some of the leaked dialogue from last year was not in the dlc at all, and lots of the lines in the cinematics seem to not really fit… almost as if there were cutscenes that used to be there but were hastily edited out at the last minute or something. also some of the audio mixing and animations are a bit off, if you pay close attention.

- in his first moments as noob saibot, bi-han is literally more human than he’s ever been throughout mk1. strange, considering in the beginning of ‘khaos reigns,’ he is SO out of character and almost comically villainous, but yet… after having his mind broken and then freed from havik’s mental corruption, he is forthright with liu kang, shows distress towards his situation with his hubris on full display, and then he fights alongside the allies to protect the timeline without claiming ulterior motives.

despite the khaos magic still coursing through him, he does his due diligence. but then… all of this gets tossed away when sektor frees him in his tower ending. what was the point in the vulnerable moment where he showed visible concern for how his actions compromised the timeline? or when liu kang lets him know that his desires for a different future aren’t an issue, it’s the ‘methods for achieving them?’ (that scene needed to be longer too, tbh) in short: why introduce the concept of bi-han potentially being salvageable if at the end he’s just going to continue being bad, if not worse off than how he began? the whole dlc was like a flat circle in terms of progression; that's how little happened in it.

- the hand on noob’s hip was supposed to be explained. in the last kombat kast (and i think in that xbox article, too) they said its purpose would be revealed in the actual dlc but… that never happened. aside from the missing fight scene with sub-zero and havik, we didn’t even get a glimpse at his transformation, either. he was just suddenly there… with the hand on his hip and all of these new powers. it would have been nice to get a teeny bit of info as to how exactly khaos magic works for noob, like imagine a scene where havik explains to noob what he can do now, how the hand and the shadow work in tandem and how much more powerful he is compared to how he used to be? it would also have been a chance to explain the random telekinesis, too.

- smoke really, really, really needed to have a chapter in 'khaos reigns'. i have a feeling — as i mentioned earlier on — that the dlc was originally going to be a bigger expansion, but some characters/scenes/dialogue were cut along the way; likely to drip-feed the whole story back to us in a trilogy of dlcs instead (taking notes from BUNGIE i see… ahem ‘destiny 2: lightfall’).

but i digress: smoke having a chapter maybe just before noob’s would have been amazing. it would have been nice to see his visceral response to bi-han’s transformation, as he has claimed to have idolized bi-han in the past and was/is hoping for reconciliation between the brothers. i personally think the brotherly bond between the three of them is the most interesting part of the lin kuei story in mk1, and it sucks to see this angle being completely abandoned when the dlc focuses around bi-han.

we needed MORE BACKSTORY! more info about their parents, their upbringing, bi-han’s obvious long-standing conflicts with his life's purpose, the true nature of their father’s death (what actually happened?), etc. and the dynamic between the three of them with bi-han as noob would have also been really interesting. smoke was absolutely necessary as a the vessel for the more compassionate approach to bi-han’s downfall and ensuing redemption (instead of sektor, who is obviously evil) and bridging the gap between scorpion’s mercilessness and bi-han’s malevolence.

- it's not havik, but liu kang who was the real hypocrite here, and it breaks my heart. first of all, stopping bi-han from killing titan havik in order to ‘save innocent lives’ is such a weak, oxymoronic explanation from liu kang. let’s not forget that he wiped out two timelines in the base game: titan shang tsung's and quan chi's. a bunch of other titans died at the pyramid battle too. liu kang even says himself that without shang tsung to ‘hold the timeline together’ it would collapse! the actions of the final chapter of mk1 were already enough to kill BILLIONS of innocents, yet havik is somehow an exception. actually, leaving havik alive would have been worse, considering he didn’t want to destroy or merge the other realms, but have them tumble into anarchy and khaos instead. bi-han was 100% correct when he said that they were 'not safe until he dies.’

- another problem i have with liu kang is that says he cannot leave his timeline to go help get geras (which by the way… geras is his closest companion and confidant, another powerful being like him who has been at his side for EONS). that left me with a huge, glaring question: where is liu kang’s urgency?

it is so unlike him to be this 'laissez-faire' (but that’s a discussion for another post). he says that he cannot go with them because the timeline would be compromised without him, but that is a silly excuse because:

1) his timeline is tainted anyway, because 'damashi' already messed with it, and the fact that concurrent timelines exist negates this idea that his new era can ever be truly 'safe' again.

2) titan havik leaves his timeline all the time with his cronies… he’s been collecting every geras and kamidogu, so why can’t liu kang? havik said he'd be back to inflict khaos after taking geras, so it wasn't like he needed to wait in earthrealm and twiddle his thumbs. it was GERAS, for god's sake. he should have been right behind bi-han going through that portal, the way they built up the bond them in the main story.

3) liu kang literally DID leave his timeline in the base story mode… the first time, he went to look for titan allies to fight shang tsung, and the second time was when he went to the pyramid to defeat him. he is essentially repeating the former raiden’s mistakes with this sort of approach to protecting earthrealm.

on one hand, raiden was slightly too impulsive and tried to intervene a bit too frequently, causing a negative ripple effect to those surrounding him. i get that liu kang does not want to repeat his — or kronika’s — mistakes, but doing absolutely nothing until your hand is forced and trying to evade all conflict by letting [terrible] events play out is not the way to be doing things. defend your timeline, liu kang!!! get up and get moving!!! just as raiden 'jumping the gun' had its own consequences, so does remaining overly-passive and slow-to-react.

- i like the character of liu kang and i was initially excited at the idea of a timeline reboot with mk1. liu kang is known to be humble, kind, genuine, understanding, compassionate: all of those hero-like qualities that we know and love him for. but that being said, why claim to reset the timeline if everything is going to turn out mostly the same, if not worse?

from a development standpoint, i understand needing to have certain things remain static, no matter what game or era we’re in. for example: raiden must always have lightning, mileena/baraka must always be tarkatan, sub-zero and scorpion must always exist, etc. fair enough.

but having bi-han not even make it a whole game without becoming noob? having shang tsung, shao and quan chi continue their plotting? how come some characters got a pleasant rework (reptile, sindel) but others are thrown so far under the bus and are poorly-utilized/represented (sub-zero, smoke, havik).

constants are needed, of course, but variables are also important too. and there are not enough variables in mk1 for it to feel like a 'new era,' and cheap, low-risk 'changes' are not an effective way to reflect it. at this point, the game should have just been called ‘mk12’, full stop.

- cyrax deserved better. she starts off as what we expected of her, based on her new character bio, anyway. she is loyal, but inquisitive. ‘free-thinking.’ she has no problem pushing back on bi-han a little bit about his explanation for kuai liang and tomas’ departure, and she obviously doesn’t get along with sektor and doesn’t mind talking back to her, either. she is defiant, but noble, as presented. but then…

she spends the rest of story mode groveling to scorpion: following him around like a lost puppy and begging for his forgiveness and receiving the brunt of his anger and spite (which was completely unwarranted and undeserved.)

kuai trying to hold her accountable for something that had nothing to do with her is crazy and really out of character for him, and because of this, her story arc was thwarted by her constant seeking of his approval and validation. the same way sektor’s reliance on bi-han takes away her arrogance, genius and austerity, cyrax’s sudden flip from being honourable but discerning into being manipulated by scorpion is just so, SO unfortunate. both ladies deserved better than to simply be portrayed as the unsung loyalists to a pair of capricious, irascible men.

some insignificant [mostly nitpicky] honourable mentions :

- this was an observation made by gaming youtuber mike hollow who pointed out some telltale inconsistencies regarding believable power balancing: sektor’s camouflage, scorpion’s fire teleportation and rain’s ability to turn into water were all missing in this dlc. it’s like they forgot to include the characters’ defining abilities in the story at all. why weren’t they taking advantage of the cybersuits in the maze? using camouflage to hide from havik’s minions? where was scorpion’s kunai climbing rope? why did rain not turn into water to escape his crushing death? again, it's not that deep in the grand scheme of things, nor is it new to the franchise, but it's definitely something i noticed, as well.

- in that same vein: geras’ time freezing abilities could have stopped him from being kidnapped by havik’s minions. why didn’t he stop them? he casually stopped bi-han at the end from lunging at liu kang, and he had plenty of time to do it since sektor stalled the attack.

in sindel’s throne room, havik was going on a big, illustrious speech about how he was only here for him. isn’t geras on par with being a kind of divine being, considering he himself is a construct of time (i.e. made of the sands)?

perhaps his lack of reaction in that scene can be chalked up to just 'shock', but this is just another example of poor power balancing in mk1's story mode (and i say mk1 and not the other games because the current timeline has all kinds of titans and divine beings that are all fair game). another example of this would be: empress tanya being able to defeat noob, but noob easily defeats titan, kamidogu-powered havik. and -- if the khaos magic had something to do with it -- they should have shown that somewhere in the campaign.

- how come titan havik’s limbs suddenly stopped regrowing when noob fought him? is it because noob has khaos magic in him and thus, he can be defeated by his own powers, therefore stunting his ability to regenerate? they don’t actually explain this whatsoever, unless again: it is another misrepresentation of power scaling in the story, but it is what it is. (seriously though, we should have gotten a scene where havik explains to bi-han his new powers!)

- if bi-han and sektor knew that cyrax wouldn't go for the wedding attack (hence the pointless lie they told her about liu kang 'capitulating to outworld'), then why take her along in the first place? why even include her in their plans at all? this doesn't seem like the same cyrax that kuai liang was referring to in mk1's regular story mode when he said she would 'sooner abet' bi-han's corruption than follow him.

um... as soon as we meet cyrax, she is already weary of bi-han and it seems like she has been for a while, enough so for he and sektor to already suspect her lack of fealty. at that point, she shouldn't have even been given that suit.

(side note: AS SOON as they arrive at the wu shi academy, cyrax is already fighting against the lin kuei and going against bi-han's orders. when she comes down from the roof, she immediately eliminates two of her fellow lin kuei warriors before harumi is even captured. she was already over it even before learning about what really happened.)

it doesn't make any sense and does not corroborate kuai liang's observations from the main campaign. i feel like once more, this is another example of something being changed in this dlc somewhere between the initial leaks last year and the trailer drop this past july. it seems like there might've been more planned for 'khaos reigns,' but they got rid of it, or they're saving it for the next dlc (which i'm almost positive is the case, at this time.)

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

there are a million more things that are running through my mind, and if it comes to it, i'll make a part 2 to this post. there is still a lot to be said about the dlc on a corporate/business level that may be worth touching on.

that being said: the game design, stages, animations, cutscenes, characters, etc. are all absolutely gorgeous! you can tell the ground-level developers really care about their work and that's amazing. c-suite and the 'narrative department' however...

in addition, i've still got some conspiracies regarding liu kang, kuai liang and also... the khaos magic! has anyone out there played batman: arkham asylum? does anyone remember the TITAN VENOM? yeah, i have a feeling that the writers are doing some borrowing from other IPs beyond the obvious comparisons to the avengers (because, of course). the rabbit hole gets deeper and deeper.

i will leave the bi-han analyses to the experts in the community. there is already a lot of discourse out there about what happened to him but all i'll say is this... he deserved his comeback, redemption and victory lap. but... he was bastardized. again. bi-han 1000% deserved his moment. JUSTICE FOR SUB-ZERO!

anyhow, if you made it this far, thank you for reading! xo

#mk1 #mortal kombat 1 #mk1 khaos reigns #khaos reigns #bi han #noob saibot #mk1 sub zero #kuai liang #mk1 scorpion #liu kang #mk1 sektor #mk1 cyrax #havik #geras

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alipeeps · 1 month ago

Text

Episode 32

I feel like it was a really bad idea to leave Wen Xiao alone and undefended with her catatonic - but demonised - dad. Like... we literally know Wen Zongyu can control his hybrids...

And I am once again proven right....

Where the fuck is Pei Sijing?

Oh she's pointlessly trying to fight demonised lackey-boy at Chongwu Camp.

He's fucking invulnerable? He's the cdrama version of Luke Cage with unbreakable skin?!!

Ohhhh what the fuck did that do?

Well that doesn't look good!!

Is this another poison dream?

Because you're a bad guy. Next question.

His skin might be invulnerable, but that doesn't mean his eyes are. Shove that blade through his eye and into his brain. That should do it.

Where is "here" exactly?

Bits of Zhou Yichen's armour are flaking away?

Nooooo Zhao Yuanzhou caught him... and turned to protect him, taking the blast himself!!

Oh shiiiiiiit....

(I think this is the stuff Hou Minghao was filming on his last day of filming in that BTS video)

Zhuo Yichen would you please teleport all 3 of you out of there before you all fucking die?!

NOOOOO BAI JIU!!!

He can't be dead. You can't fucking do this to me, show

Oh fuck, they are not still dreaming are they?

Okay it's definitely still a dream, cos otherwise how would their bodies suddenly be there?

God the smoke still rolling off Zhao Yuanzhou's body....

This can't be real, cos no fucking way the entire team except Zhou Yichen is dead with 2+ episodes still to go...

Wait, is the bell missing?

And THAT's how he knows it's not real.

You're still in the fucking dream Zhuo Yichen!!

So is it kill yourself in the dream to escape? And that's why the dream shifted when they were about to do that before, making them think they'd woken already.

Ugh this is so fucking tense though because what if it's not!!!

Phew!!!

So the whole time it's only been Zhuo Yichen in the dream.

Wait, why did we just see Li Lun's primordial root shimmering and disappearing?

Is he coming to help? He sure does have reason to hate Wen Zongyu.

I thought he had to cultivate for 100 years though?

Yup, here comes our boy fucking Li Lun!!

God, the way Zhao Yuanzhou just shields Zhuo Yichen with his hand... and then Li Lun wraps around them shielding them both...

I thought he had to cultivate for 100 years to regain a human form?!!

Is that a redemption arc I see before me?

Ahhh dammit, as I suspected, by doing this he's sacrificing himself.

Oh DAMN. Li Lun really said, I only need a short while to fuck this guy up for you.

Oh shit yeah, the Truth Eye could wake him from the dream...

Oh what, it's not a permanent fix?

Then get him to Bai Jiu? Maybe he can detoxify him?

Oooh or even better Qing Geng to the rescue!!

Oh fuck he's gonna set Fei loose...

Yeah she's sure cos Fei would never try to hurt her.

Meanwhile... back at the Demon Hunting Bureau...

Why is there never anybody else around at the Bureau? This is why spies and enemies can just waltz in whenever they like and cause chaos. They need some more fucking staff!

Oop foster daddy is fighting back...

YASSSSSS it's Liu Yuning's banger of a track back in play - we haven't had it in aaaaages!!

Didn't do her much good though, sadly...

Was "Fei" a hybrid given the original Fei's powers? Or the shapeshifter hybrid?

He's not disintegrating so he's not a true demon... just another hybrid.

Oh I stand corrected, he is disintegrating...

That's not her core is it? She's not going to sacrifice herself too, to save Zhuo Yichen?

Xiao Jiu's bells... please let that be enough to wake him?

If all that was needed for him to be cured of the poison was for him to touch the glowy ball... why didn't she float it right up to him?

And it fucking was her inner core. Of course.

Not one single fucking demon we have met in this show has survived. Not one. This bodes extremely poorly for Zhao Yuanzhou.

Ugh, both Zhao Yuanzhou and Zhuo Yichen reaching out to catch him.

Hero shot.

Tell em where his core is Li Lun...

I mean... he might be afraid, but he's doomed himself anyway by taking human form too soon...

Oh Bai Jiu don't do something silly!!

Christ even Li Lun telling him to go, to save himself...

Now would be a great time for Bai Jiu to manifest some of mama Bai's divine power...

FUCK, that didn't look good!!

Where is he going with the feather?

Oh owwwwww....

Oh DAMN, I was thinking it looked like he was gonna straight up rip his arm off but I thought naaaaah, they wouldn't go there!!

If the puppet is broken does that mean his spirit will dissipate?

That's a no.

Go on baby bro, beat that fucker to death with your own severed arm!😁

YES!! Pei Siblings for the win!!!

Nah fuck you sunshine, you don't get to hold out a candy and make like you've ever cared for Bai Jiu...

So demonised humans disintegrate in the same way demons do. So fake Fei more than likely was a demonised human.

Well that was a fucking rollercoaster ride of an episode. So we end with ?Wen Xiao still being attacked by foster daddy at the Demon Hunting Bureau, and Zhao Yuanzhou, Zhuo Yichen and Li Lun being blasted with a mahoosive fireball.

Bring on episode 33!!

#fangs of fortune #episode 32 #liveblogging... kinda

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sapphic-agent · 1 year ago

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I know that this isn't a problem unique to MHA, and this isn't even a new complaint within the fandom, but the way the series deals with trauma (physical and mental) is off-putting.

Eri endures years upon years of isolation and abuse? Well, all she needs is a song and dance, and now she's smiling! Because of this, she's completely and 100% recovered from what all Overhaul put her through!

1A endures villain attack after villain attack after villain attack? Well, we've offered them counseling, not that they've been showing signs of burgeoning PTSD or anything, so they really don't need it!

Izuku mentally and physically pushes himself past his breaking point during the Dark Izuku arc, going without food, sleep, and ignoring his unhealed injuries? Obviously, all he needs is for 1A to drag him back by force and make him take bath! He's 100% good as new now!

I've already complained enough about Bakugou's bullying, so I won't rehash that.

Sir Nighteye repeatedly disregards All Might's boundaries in the name of protecting him from a horrible future, using two teenagers as a means to an end in this regard? It's okay! He had a point all along, and he truly cared!

Aizawa, Present Mic, and Midnight lose an incredibly close friend in a freak accident during their school days? Midnight's feelings aren't even explored, Present Mic neglects his own grief in favor of Aizawa, and Aizawa uses his grief as an excuse to be an asshole to everyone around him and play God with his students' futures, with NO ONE calling out his behavior as what it is.

I think the overarching problem with MHA is that Horikoshi simply doesn't know how to handle the subject of trauma or how victims can be affected by it.

It think it's why characters like Izuku, Todoroki, Eri, etc. don't feel like real people sometimes. Because if he actually focuses on their trauma, he also has to make them more complex and complexity can be very ugly. If he keeps them surface-level (Izuku being friendly/saving others, Todoroki being blunt/dry, and Eri being a cute kid), he doesn't have to get into the nitty gritty of their characters.

It would also mean making it about 20x harder to redeem Bakugou and Endeavor.

If we had more than vague flashbacks of Endeavor abusing 5 year old Todoroki, beating Rei and pushing her into insanity, and willfully neglecting Touya as his mental health deteriorates more and more, he would be seen as a lot more than simply overzealous and misguided ambition that got out of hand. He would be seen as a monster. Horikoshi has to keep flashbacks of the Todoroki family surface-level or Endeavor's redemption wouldn't have been nearly as well-received.

And of course we've gone over Bakugou. He has to saturate Bakugou with comedy or the shit he pulls would come off a lot more disturbing. If every scene with him was like the Battle Trials, he wouldn't be looked upon nearly as favorably. He wouldn't be funny or endearing (he isn't to me anyway, but I'm talking about in general), he would just be deranged and violent.

There's also the fact that Horikoshi tries his best to keep things lighthearted. I think it's because he's more comfortable doing so and it explains why Dark Deku was so disappointing. To shroud the story in a darker tone- especially with a character he tries to keep light and cheery at all times- really didn't work for him.

I think the proof is in him keeping so many characters alive when they should have died. He is unable to write the affect characters like Gran Torino and Bakugou dying would have on Izuku which is why he couldn't commit himself to killing them off.

Problem with Aizawa is that no one (Horikoshi included) sees a problem with his behavior. He's justified in his "tough love" and is seen as such a good teacher. Although for Midnight and Present Mic, I feel as though he just doesn't bother giving them any depth at all. Midnight only exists for perverted jokes and Mic is simply supposed to be a contrast for Aizawa (a prop really). He actually did start to give Midnight depth and character, but it was only like five minutes before killing her off��

(It would have been nice if Midnight being an R-rated hero was a product of society. Her being sexualized her whole life because of her quirk/appearance and just deciding to embrace it because it was the only way to reasonably become a hero has always been my headcanon. Her civilian clothes aren't revealing (not that that really matters) and when it comes to being a hero she's very sweet and encouraging and so unlike what we see usually. When she was being interviewed about her costume, she actually started to give a really good answer before Horikoshi decided to make a cat fight out of it. That really sums up the story as a whole, it starts off really deep and intricate before eventually being interrupted by juvenile jokes and unnecessary situations)

I really wish we could have seen more of Eri's recovery. I feel like her trauma is really overlooked/ignored outside of being a plot device to be saved by Izuku and Mirio. I think the light novel of Aizawa having Bakugou of all people watch her is proof of that. Why on Earth would he take the chance that Bakugou- someone who has repeatedly dismissed others' trauma, attacked those weaker than him, and been insensitive to others' feelings, and has a destructive quirk- could trigger her? Why use Eri- an abused, traumatized kid- as a tool to make Bakugou better? But sure, Aizawa is such a good teacher, right?

(Seriously, what the fuck?)

Someone needed to tell Nighteye to shut the fuck up. This doesn't really contribute anything to this post, but I needed to say it. There's literally nothing good about him (HE STRAPPED HIS SUBORDINATE TO A TICKLE MACHINE TO FORCE HER TO LAUGH)

#anti bakugou katsuki #mha critical #bnha critical #ask #anti aizawa shota #anti enji todoroki #anti endeavor #anti sir nighteye #tw child abuse #tw trauma

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demigod-shenanigans · 5 months ago

Note

"I can go into why i dislike ToA (especially Tyrant's Tomb is. a book that exists) but box of pandora. Once open good luck shutting me up" (source: your tags)

Now that you said that, i'm geniunely curious. Open the box. I dare you

This should be obvious but @ the people who really enjoyed ToA, this post is not for you. I’m not sure I’ll even tag it because this is mostly me venting into the void because two people asked and not me wanting to ruin other people’s fun. These are just my personal opinions.

I also apologize if I get any details wrong, I did recheck a lot of the things mentioned but it’s been a minute since I read ToA and might not remember everything 100% correctly. Also, obvious spoiler warning.

*claps hands together* Okay, you asked for this but heads up, it’s going to be long. Maybe grab a snack and a glass of water beforehand.

My beef with ToA can be summarized into a few key points that I’ll elaborate on below but basically:

-It tries to wrap up character arcs for some of the seven (and Reyna) but does this through the eyes of someone with zero context and also treats these characters arcs as unimportant footnotes in the larger story

-Jason’s death and everything surrounding it was handled extremely poorly.

-I cannot remember any demigods staying mad at Apollo. Redemption arcs should not mean everyone has to forgive this character for all the shit they’ve done in the past.

-The death toll. This is not helped by the fact that a lot of the deaths feel like they exist solely for the purpose of making Apollo learn death sucks over and over again (Jason is the worst example of this, but there are others)

More grievances I have but don’t have enough to say about to justify a longer explanation:

-There are a whole bunch of new minor characters on top of the old ones already struggling for screen time. I don’t remember much about any of them, which is a shame because the idea behind some of them is really compelling.

-The story is centered around the Triumvirate as antagonists, with Python as a final boss, but book four just dumps an additional antagonist on you out of nowhere? Why?

-Reyna rejecting Apollo is nice and all but I still had to put up with him crushing on her and was very uncomfortable the whole time.

-Chiron sends a bunch of new demigods into what’s potentially a death battle and tells them it’s a fun field trip (what the fuck)

-This is a personal grievance more than anything but it took me ages (book five) until I really got attached to Meg. I feel like that could have been fixed if she at least got a few POV chapters.

-Dishonorable mention to the punch line joke. Two whole camps of people lining up to hit the canonically abused kid that saved them is not funny.

Details under the cut (Pandora’s box, I did warn you)

Character arcs:

The books really do try to tell meaningful stories for people whose arcs weren’t finished in Heroes of Olympus. With some of them, you can even tell the ideas behind wrapping up those arcs were solid. But the books also tells those stories through the eyes of a character who doesn’t know these people’s pasts and quite frankly doesn’t care a lot of the time. People will voice/do something that is huge for their character and instead of going into that it’s followed up with some random Apollo anecdote that’s only tangentially related at best.

Taking Leo as an example: Apollo has no idea why Leo settling down and finding a home somewhere after everything he’s been through is meaningful. That’s a story that could have been the focus of an entire book of its own, but instead it’s just a side plot to a completely different story. And that story really should have been told through Leo’s eyes, or at least through the eyes of someone like Jason or Piper who realize why this is huge for him.

Apollo also does not care why Leo and Calypso are fighting, so it’s not something that’s properly explored. Leo’s fights with Calypso are mainly mentioned/witnessed. You get some guesses as to how they started but they never mention the exact reasons. They both say they care about each other, but only to Apollo, when the other person isn’t present. When they sort things out it happens largely off-screen. I was also not a fan of the way many of their issues ended up being pinned on Leo being sexist when it was actually way more than that.

ToA does this a lot. It gives arcs to characters who honestly deserved to be explored more, but those arcs are barely footnotes in a larger story where these characters just cameo for a hundred or so pages.

The cameo stuff works okay for Percy and Solangelo because the books are very aware they’re cameos and they get to have fun but this is not their story. But the characters the series tries to give proper plots to are all over the place.

It’s said that Jason and Thalia are really close but they never interact in the books. Jason had a bit of a chance at a normal life finally but that’s barely gone into. (More on Jason later because my god did how the books handled him piss me off massively)

Piper’s struggles with her queerness get the random Apollo anecdote treatment. There’s some stuff about her reconnecting with her dad and her heritage but that’s not explored a ton either.

Frank’s firewood burns up and he’s fine, which is just sort of hand-waved and doesn’t feel meaningful, especially because I think the fireproof pouch was already a fine solution? Congrats on being free of this, now you can get stabbed to death like all the other characters, I guess.

Reyna gets a sort of arc but it feels really weird because it happens almost entirely off-screen. She spends a large fraction of the book chiding Lavinia for leaving her post, then gets her leg broken, is off-screen for a while and then just DIPS with the Hunters after her home suffered huge casualties.

I also think her joining the Hunters is a super lame way to resolve her arc in general (she just lays down one responsibility to sign up for the next, and a character not wanting romance/not wanting romance right now should be allowed to exist without having to join the eternal maiden’s club, but that problem isn’t isolated to Reyna and could honestly be a whole post of its own)

This also comes down to the fact that I’m here mainly for the demigods. I care about these kids having good arcs and good lives. I care significantly less about Apollo having to learn really obvious shit like “murdering my pregnant girlfriend was perhaps a little messed up”

Jason’s death and everything surrounding it

Killing off a major character (especially one whose arc isn’t finished) can be a plot twist that works at times. But it has to be handled well. Doing it to a character that’s suffered horrifically and is starting to heal is also a hugely shitty move, but I understand you want meaningful deaths for the plot sometimes.

But you cannot do it the way Rick did it with Jason’s death. If he was going to kill off one of the seven, he should have done it in Heroes of Olympus, with that character narrating and their friends getting to deal with the aftermath and grieve.

Instead, Jason dies in a book that he appears in for like. A hundred pages iirc? Two-hundred at most? You get Apollo narration on it, and sure, he’s big sad about it, but he also knew this guy for two days.

Piper gets a few pages to deal with his death, then disappears from the book and comes back for a heroic rescue later. Leo gets like two pages to deal with the fact that his best friend is dead. They then proceed to fuck off to Oklahoma instead of going to the funeral. For what reason? No idea. The book doesn’t bother to explain it.

Jason gets a Camp Jupiter funeral, with none of his Camp Half-Blood friends present, because fuck the fact that him belonging to both camps was a huge part of his arc, right?

Piper and Leo know Jason is dead but they cannot be there because they’d already used up their time as ToA side characters, I guess. Percy and Annabeth can’t come, they don’t find out due to demigod communication issues until the end of the series. Thalia also doesn’t get to go to her brother’s funeral. She doesn’t find out until the funeral is already over. We don’t even really get to see her grieving, her finding out Jason died happens off-screen too.

Because this is the Apollo show, Apollo is the guy who leads the funeral procession instead of, like, Reyna, who knew Jason for years.

Also, for some reason, the person avenging Jason is Frank? Absolutely no offense to Frank, he’s a great guy and I’m sure he cared about Jason, but that choice still feels deeply comedic considering I can remember exactly one meaningful interaction him and Jason had in HoO (Jason giving Frank praetor position at the end of HoH) and not a single conversation they had beyond that. If Rick had to write Leo and Piper out of the plot, why not at least have Reyna avenge him?

Jason dies specifically because Apollo broke a stupid oath he made on the River Styx. We’re told that people around him will keep dying because of this. He dies as a chess piece in a stupid game between gods, for the sake of Apollo’s character development. He dies so he can be brought up every hundred pages for Apollo to waffle about how sad his death was but how he’d also definitely not want to be brought back (I get it, we cannot revive people constantly, but having Apollo make this point when, again, he knew the guy for two days, is still really stupid. Nico also gets to make the same point at the end just in case the reader didn’t understand before that we’re not bringing Jason back)

Apollo is forgiven by everyone

Related to the above point. Like I said, we’re outright told that Jason dying is a direct consequence of Apollo’s oath. Apollo also knew taking them along on the mission would get Jason or Piper killed and he did it anyway.

Piper gets to be mad at him very briefly, but when he tries to apologize at the end of the book, she interrupts him and tells him “it’s fine” (her voice is described as “no anger, just natural heat”)

Thalia doesn’t get to be mad at him at all. Her baby brother died and she just pats Apollo on the back and tells him “it’s fine, Jason made his own choices. That’s what heroes do.” And then it’s made about how Artemis lost Apollo when he got transformed into a human instead of. Like. The fact that Thalia just lost her baby brother for the second time in her life.

IT’S FINE?? THAT’S ALL ANYONE HAS TO SAY ABOUT THIS??

Hell, Apollo even has a sort of dream hallucination of Jason’s ghost so that ghost can forgive him too.

Was that really necessary? Why do people think that a character learning to be better means absolutely everyone has to forgive them? Wouldn’t it have been a better sticking point for a god to learn people are allowed to stay mad at you?

The death toll

A lot of people die in these books. People dying in pjo books has always been a thing, but it’s never felt this pointless or this much like it was solely happening for a single person’s character development.

Jason is the most pointed example of this, but there are more. Starting with the fact that two of Apollo’s kids almost get torched in front of his face in the first book (Austin and Kayla) and somehow that is not a sticking point. I don’t think it’s ever brought up again afterwards.

Other characters that die so Apollo can learn death sucks:

-Several Dryads die saving the grove of Dodonna

-Heloise the Griffin

-One random unnamed demigod in Dark Prophecy (mentioning them because that’s where it occurs to Apollo demigod deaths also suck)

-Money Maker (Dryad)

-Crest

-Harpocrates and the Sybil of Cumae

The death toll in Tyrant’s Tomb is completely ridiculous. Like, “feels worse than Last Olympian despite not even being the final battle”-ridiculous. And unlike how Percy at least gets to use that tragic battle to change things in a fundamental way, the Camp Jupiter demigods don’t win anything significant. Their home is only almost completely destroyed. Some of them aren’t dead. That’s it.

If you remember the name of any side character Camp Jupiter demigod from HoO, there’s a very high chance they die in this book.

We don’t get exact numbers for how many people die. The book actually explicitly refuses to give numbers, stating “We didn’t count the dead. They weren’t numbers. They were people we had know, friends we had fought with.” (Which gets even more ironic due to the fact that, again, we barely have any named CJ demigods to begin with)

The closest thing we get to numbers are that 25 demigod members of the legion died in the battle before the book started, and towards the end there are fourteen total demigods still standing of the first to third cohort combined. Even if half the missing demigods are “just” so severely wounded that they can’t fight anymore, that’s still 60 dead kids! The pre-book battle was mentioned to have been hardest on the civilians. We don’t know how many of them died, and losses among the fourth and fifth cohort are also unknown, but that is a ridiculous amount of losses. Why are there so many dead kids in this book and why are we all just supposed to be okay with this?

Jupiter explicitly forbids the other gods to intervene. The only one who does is Diana, after an offering, and she takes her sweet time to get there. That camp is named after the guy! That’s people’s kids down there! I know the gods not helping their kids isn’t exactly new, but this is on a whole other level.

There are funerals but those are largely skipped over, and Frank announces that they’ll resolve this by asking Lupa to bring in more demigods so they’ll come back stronger, which. Baffling statement. Let’s just fix the dead people by replacing them.

TL;DR: Good on Apollo for learning to be better, but I really didn’t like how it was done. There were a handful of things I liked in almost all the books, not including Tyrant’s Tomb which wins the award for rrverse book I most wanted to chuck out of a window. Some of the ideas were good. I think the first and last book are mostly solid (largely due to the fact that those don’t try to shove in entire side character arcs). But the things I did enjoy just get very heavily outweighed by everything that annoyed and upset me.

I really wish ToA had been mostly new characters with maybe some minor cameos, and other people’s arcs had been saved for different books. I also think splitting the perspective between Apollo, Meg and maybe the HoO character who was trying to have an arc in that specific book would have helped.

#ToA crit #rr crit #salt #<- tagging those because I feel like people might have them blocked in case they don’t want to see stuff like this #if there’s anything else you want me to tag for posts like this lmk and I shall add it #tho this may remain an isolated salt incident. this is mostly supposed to be a fun little headcanon and ship blog #Eleena rants #Long post #very long post #Again you were warned in advance #answered asks #anon

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utilitycaster · 1 year ago

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🔥 each member of vox machina

Vax: really the sadboy narrative for Liam has always been stupid but it's egregiously bad that it started with Vax, who is like, sad for maybe a fifth of the episodes and largely because Liam O'Brien's actual mother was dying, like, with all due respect what the actual fuck, fandom.

Vex: I am the founding and probably only member of the "Vex is my favorite character and also I am 100% cool with Colville's depiction of her." The generosity she shows even very early on in C1 is still a generosity borne of some degree of security - they have a keep by then - and I also just don't think you have to like a character to write them fairly. Granted it's been a minute since I read early VMO but nothing stood out to me as out of line with my understanding of Vex.

Pike: repeating myself once again but I like Pike a lot and wish we could have seen more, but because we didn't, people who say she's their favorite in C1 do tend to turn me off in that I feel they're looking for a relatively flat and widely praised character to project onto rather than a character who goes through more messy development.

Grog: I think he's often underestimated and I was guilty of doing so myself, to be honest, until I saw Travis play more and until I personally got better at D&D. Also I still maintain that playing INT 6 sensitively and well is infinitely harder than playing INT 16, all things considered, and this is yet another reason why people should play high INT more often.

Scanlan: Also underestimated; I do understand being turned off by the whole extremely horny playboy thing but as I've said before Bard's Lament is a major litmus test for me: if you think Scanlan is completely at fault here, you are wrong, and if you think he's not partially at fault, you are also wrong.

Tary: I genuinely love him and think he's a great character and one of Sam's best, but while his character arc is strong the Taryon Darrington Arc of the VM Campaign, through no fault of his own (and partly bc I personally think D&D Hell, especially pre-Descent Into Avernus publication, is kind of boring), is one of the weakest parts of the campaign because it's kind of a grab bag of loose ends. With that said I would happily watch more Darrington Brigade-one shots.

Percy: Percy is also generally a litmus test in that it's like. Is he a good person? Eventually I believe he becomes one, and even before that I think he's very sympathetic and deeply traumatized and like, 24, so I get it, but also, who the fuck cares. This ties into the Essek and the Ashton opinions and all kinds of other stuff but why are people so invested in fucking absolving their blorbo of all sins? I want someone who's lived enough of a life to have done some heinous shit because that's fun and interesting and it's pretend and also because then they can have a rewarding character arc by either working towards redemption or coming to terms with who they are or spiraling into tragedy.

Keyleth: I like Keyleth a lot but I am, as this post indicates, far more sympathetic to Vex, and so while I do think Keyleth is a fairly good person she is also extremely sheltered and naive and terrified of doing the wrong thing and I would have, like Vex, wanted to scream at her half the time were I just a random NPC wandering about the campaign. On the other hand C3-era Keyleth? fantastic no notes she has grown up in such an interesting way.

Tiberius: I think we, and by we I mean people capable of separating the art from the artist, can recognize that his concept actually fucking slapped and unfortunately he was played by someone who absolutely sucked in a myriad of ways. I would love to see the alternate universe in which the same general concept (prodigy sorcerer from Draconia who is full of themself) had to face not just the destruction of their civilization but the realization that they were taking advantage of the Ravenites and while they did not deserve to be killed by Vorugal, had done nothing to justify aid from those they had subjugated either. Like, the alternate world in which one of the current cast members or like, a close friend of the main cast (Ashly, Erika, Mary Elizabeth) played this is one I'd love to see.

#answered #burr-ell #unpopular opinions ask meme #cr tag

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thecleverqueer · 7 months ago

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I’ve been relatively quiet about Tales of the Empire, but it’s been secretly eating my brain, so let me give you my two cents…

We learned virtually nothing new about Morgan Elsbeth. She engineered the advanced tie fighter. That’s about it. Everything else we knew. I didn’t hate the episodes. I just found them to be underwhelming.

But then, we got Barriss, and I had a lot of feelings about that one.

Firstly, I kind of assumed that they would take the Inquisitor route with her. I knew that they wouldn’t retcon her into the seventh sister, but I also knew that was her ticket out of prison. I didn’t hate it, hate it. I didn’t get it. The Inquisitorius was everything that Barriss stood against in the Temple bombing arc, but the will to live is a powerful drug, I guess. It wasn’t badly done. You could tell that she wasn’t fond of anything that she was doing. She wasn’t getting off on using the dark side. She was just trying to survive, and I respected that.

Second, I was happy to see them give her the redemption arc that she deserved. It’s an interesting take that she continued to play along with the fourth sister after she slaughtered that whole ass village, but then a switch finally tripped when the fourth sister attacked that non-binary Jedi after they surrendered. I think it was one part opportunity, but another part the fact that Barriss was also tired of running and being alone. Also, I love the fact that they slipped in a non-binary Jedi character into this.

Third, Barriss becoming an old butch healer in the last episode was exactly what I would imagine her doing after her moment of redemption. I believe her insane accelerated aging was in part due to her giving her life force to heal those that needed her, but also to atone for her past mistakes.

I’m not 100% sold that the woman that she sent the family with the force sensitive kid to was Ahsoka. It seems to be likely implied? I don’t know. I just think Ahsoka is still too bitter about what happened to her in her series to have made peace with Barriss (I could be wrong), but also, I struggle to imagine Ahsoka even having “coordinates” at that point in the timeline for anyone to track her to. Maybe this was in the post Vader duel times, and Ahsoka was on Lothal with Sabine training? Maybe Barriss had the space equivalent to Life 360 on Ahsoka like Bo-Katan obviously does? Eh. There are possibilities, I guess. That is a reunion that should absolutely be something fandom sees. We’ll likely never get it is because it would be gay (flamboyantly so after everything *gestures vaguely*).

And lastly, that ending…. Why?

I mean, my fear going in was that she would die unceremoniously at the hands of the fourth sister and what likely happened? Her last act on the living plane was to save an Inquisitor from Kenobi that few really cared about? Come on. I guess it was ambiguous enough that they could bring her back into future stories, but they slept on her for over a decade. My hope for her, at this point, is that she shows up in whatever animated show is next (my thought is that it will be a Ventress centric show that may or may not have anything to do with the path… I struggle to see Ventress getting tied up in saving force sensitive kids, but who knows), her popularity grows and she ends up showing up in the Mandoverse to haunt Ahsoka.

A girl can dream.

#star wars #tales of the empire #barriss offee #morgan elsbeth

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andreal831 · 1 year ago

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Elijah and Stefan could live without Klaus and Damon

One of my tik toks about the end of The Originals has brought forward a lot of people saying Elijah "couldn't live without Klaus" or something to that effect. I've seen people use this same argument for Stefan. And I hate this thought process.

First, it is usually said to completely discredit their sacrifice. For instance, when I talk about how it made no sense for both Elijah and Klaus to die at the end of TO and completely orphan Hope. I will always argue that Elijah should have been the one to sacrifice his life and Klaus to live for his daughter. Would this ending have broken my heart, yes, but it would have aligned better with the character arcs and overall story.

When the fandom talks about Klaus' sacrifice, it's to say how amazing he was, how he finally got redemption, and how much he loved his daughter. When Elijah's sacrifice is talked about, it's to bring up Hayley's death and talk about his codependency with Klaus. The same thing happens with Stefan, they mention Elena and his codependency on Damon. Completely neglecting the fact that these characters did in fact sacrifice their lives for their family.

Second, it's canonically inaccurate. Elijah and Stefan both showed multiple times that they can live without their brothers. That, in fact, they are better off without their brothers. We don't know their full lives, but in most flashbacks we see, they are either separated or recently reunited. Stefan makes friends with Lexie who completely turns his vampirism around. She is his best friend and knows him better than anyone and she warns Damon to stay away because Damon has the tendency to push Stefan off his sobriety when he gets bored or angry. Damon actually does more harm to Stefan. When Damon 'dies,' Stefan creates a life for himself away from the supernatural. Sure the fans didn't like it, but he still moves on. Unlike Damon who wants to entomb himself because Elena is gone.

Elijah and Klaus do spend the large majority of their eternity together, but they also have spent large chunks of it apart. Specifically most of the 1900s. Elijah leaves in 1919 to lead Mikael away and only reunites briefly in 1933 to warn Klaus. They are only together for a matter of days before Klaus threatens to dagger Elijah. They go their separate ways again. We don't see how Elijah is coping in this time, but he does manage to live nearly 100 years without Klaus and seems to come out on the other side fine. Similar to Stefan, Elijah thrives without Klaus when he erases his memories. It's the happiest we see him throughout the entire show.

Finally, we see throughout both shows that Stefan and Elijah are a little bit unstable emotionally. They both view their lives as less than because of their trauma. Both Stefan and Elijah choosing to sacrifice themselves had less to do with codependency and more to do with self worth. They were both characters who felt an immense amount of guilt for all of the harm they had caused and viewed themselves as monsters. They did not think they deserved to live and be happy, unlike Damon and Klaus. So when we frame their deaths around their brothers, it detracts from their struggles and their deeper characters. I know the show liked to push the narrative that their lives revolved around Damon and Klaus because of ratings/Julie Plecs' weird obsessions, but it completely erases the characters to do so.

Elijah and Stefan could live without their brothers. They did and seemed to be happier. Obviously losing a sibling would be devastating and they would mourn, but it would give them a chance to find true purpose in their lives. Both families had a mass amount of codependency but it's usually only focused on Elijah and Stefan as a way to make their characters revolve around the other brother. It's sloppy and honestly tired writing. If the writers cared more about the story than ratings, we would have seen character growth and seen Stefan and Elijah learn to branch out on their own and break the toxic cycle.

These narratives that the brothers can't live without the other is simply pushed so the fandom can feel good about their sacrifices instead of actually looking at it for what is was: a sacrifice.

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hopepaigeturner · 6 months ago

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Hope's Review of S3: Creloise

Eloise Storyline…

For me it started well. Eloise started to realise how to be a true friend, and understand the privileges and flaws in her character. I HOLLERED at the screen when Cressida finally called Eloise out.

And then part 2 happens and it all got dropped like a dead fish. (see more below in my chat about Cressida).

It makes complete sense that Eloise went back to Pen. It was quite obvious. And I liked all the titbits and moments of build up to the reconciliation.

I do like that Eloise was protective of Colin and pushed Penelope to tell him. Was it done in the 100% best way? Perhaps not.

However, there seemed to be a complete 180 of Eloise with Cressida. No empathy. No sympathy. No understanding. “An absolute viper”, Hun, Pen sat in your drawing room for years and purposefully wrote about your sisters prospects to the point she was almost forced to marry Nigel Berbrooke. Where’s your empathy? Where's the Eloise that visited Cressida during calling hour to check if she was alright?

I like Eloise as a character and this season could have seen some real foundational growth. I had such hopes for her, for she is a character with such potential. But part 2 dashed my hopes…maybe next season?

I did like that she returned to wishing to change the world. I’m glad she’s leaving for Scotland and will hopefully be able to grow up a bit next season.

Cressida storyline.

For me it started so well. Cressida and Eloise’s friendship I thought was very good for both of them. Eloise called Cressida out. Cressida called Eloise out.

And then part 2…

They gave the set up, the screentime and background and then relegated Cressida to a simple antagonist.

Honestly, I feel that Cressida’s storyline suffers from the season being split in two.

For if you watched the season in continuity then you would see the overarching arc of a girl who had the potential to change, but instead descends into greater desperation and cruelty in an attempt to fight against the walls that are closing in on her. And the tragedy? Is that part 1 showed that Cressida could change if not for the stifling oppression bared down by her situation. Cressida did not have to be a mere antagonist; she could have been a tragic antagonist.

But with the series split, they literally ‘split’ Cressida. Part 1 Cressida showed a positive redemption arc for her. Then we had a break. And when we got back, we saw Cressida the antagonist, so I think her arc felt disjointed.

I also think that if one saw the overarching scenes, then the whole of Cressida's backstory scenes do have the purpose of setting up the blackmail plot. It would not be enough to just suddenly have Cressida find out about Whistledown. But again with the season split in two I feel that continuity was lost. With the ending we got, I'm not sure they needed that many scenes to set this plot point up.

Now, I must say that this does not excuse her behaviour. It does not mean Cressida's slate should be wiped clean. Even if she returns, she needs to actively make amends and apologise.

But the fact that she just gets carted off at the end of the season?

Hey? You know what would have been interesting? You know what would have been #girlboss and #feminisim? Eloise understanding that Cressida’s actions are wrong and harmful, yet having some actual empathy and understanding that Cressida is merely trying to save her freedom and future. The very things Eloise wishes to champion in women!!!! And so, helping Cressida escape. And Pen could show how she has overcome her past pain that festered in Whistledown and she will be the bigger person and use Whistledown to help Cressida. Or even use her wiles and Whistledown resourcefulness to mask Cressida's escape? Why not have Pen have this last word over Cressida? Why not show that Eloise is willing to actually do something for once?

You know what that’s called?

Gosh how they handled that infuriated me. The onyl reason I can think of to send Cressida away (as if she deserved her fate) is because they want her as a *shock* reveal in a future season.

In the meantime, I’m going to write a little plot for S4 that not only brings Cressida back in a productive way, but also showcases Sophie’s nature, and how Sophie is a BADASS + kicks Eloise up the butt for her character development. Oh, and links with the main plot. As the purple grape once said.

#two words #wasted #potential #the rage from this storyline #=#rage from reading #an offer from a gentleman #I'm ready to write some foefiction #hope's review of S3 #eloise bridgerton #cressida cowper #creloise

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its-the-sa · 1 year ago

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Do you think Artificer can be blamed for the death of her pups? At least partially i think.

She took the pups to the facility in the first place (Could been seen as child abduction as the father didn't agree with it), taking them to a very dangerous location instead of keeping them safe in the colony due to her own instability from ostracization.

Kept them isolated meaning the pups wouldnt understand societal rules like theft not being allowed, or even just the concept of theft.

This led to them taking the pearls and getting killed by the scavengers, who as you said in an earlier ask, use lethal force over minor disputes, like robbing a pearl due to the culture and the assumption of the cycle.

And when it all could have been avoided by Artificer allowing the pups to join the colony properly, she ran, killed her mate, and set it motion so much more death

yes to all of this! i am actually delighted that you've connected all those pieces, because this is exactly how i wanted the story to be percieved. i wanted to give arti a redemption arc, but i wanted it to be on hard mode: no room for anyone to tell her 'it's ok, it wasn't your fault.' so my entire thought process behind her backstory was pretty much just "how culpable can I make her before she becomes irredeemable?"

so yeah, she can definitely be blamed, and she knows it. she made a series of selfish, irresponsible decisions that led directly to her pups' permadeath, and she couldn't handle the weight of that guilt. so she tried to run from it, and she turned herself into the monster her colony always thought she was.

that's part of the reason why she's so awkward around children now; she's still struggling to cope with the fact that she was a bad parent to her own pups, and she doesn't trust herself to do better yet.

(however, I feel like I should add that arti isn't solely to blame... while she definitely made a lot of terrible choices leading up to it, the actual death of her pups was 100% the fault of the toll guards. it is common for scavs to kill each other over petty things, but even by those standards, it's still a massive dick move to kill a child over a single pearl. its like... imagine a grown adult punching a 7-year-old kid in the face for swiping their wallet. sure, the kid shouldn't have been stealing, but that's no excuse to treat them the same way you'd treat some dude at the bar. so, regardless of arti's own responsibility in endangering her pups, i do think her wrath toward the scavs who did the killing was completely justified. and if she hadn't gone on to slaughter the rest of the garbage wastes tribe too, most of them would've agreed.)

#rain world #artificer redemption au #artificer angst

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beargyufairy · 8 months ago

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Just My Thoughts Pt. 32

For Natsu, there isn’t much I have expectations for since he has been the main focus of the entire series. I want him to have a good fight with Ignia with some tension, trauma, and loss. I want END to have some kind of return either because Natsu goes feral from seeing his friends hurt (particularly Lucy) or he consumes Ignia’s flames and goes berserk again. I really need END to come back to its fullest point with scales, claws, maybe horns and wings. The actual design fell short to me compared to all the fanart and that really disappointed me. There were many fanart with tattoo-like designs and the color schemes were so good! I really thought Dragon Cry was a hint to what Natsu would look like but that obviously wasn’t the case. There also has to be some consequences on Lucy for rewriting a demonic book that was written by the Black Wizard. As much as I like Lucy I felt like she shouldn’t have been okay just because of Gray’s devil slaying magic. There was so much potential to this that I felt like was ignored to stay on the safe side of things. Imagine the pain of saving your best friend and willing to sacrifice yourself in the process?! It could’ve been a wonderful plot!! Natsu should also have some kind of backlash after being rewritten. The book was essentially his lifeline. I want to know more about it.

I desperately need another arc like Tartaros because it was peak. It had everything and considering how Ignia is Natsu’s half brother (with Igneel as their father) I need them to have some kind of interaction that’s not a battle. I need Natsu to realize something that’s either emotionally painful or have to make a choice between two things he’s not willing to sacrifice. Of course it doesn’t need to be these since it’s just my suggestions but I need trauma in the story with major loss.

Speaking of brothers, I need more Zeref content (maybe Mavis as well). I really like how Natsu has started to accept him as family which is really nice. Maybe he can go back into the in between at some point to have another life changing experience or just to converse with Zeref. Maybe more on their life before Natsu’s initial death. What were their parents like or even just their life? On the side note, I would love to know more on Mavis and Zeref’s afterlife with their children and just their relationship in general.

One thing I do need to have no matter what is Natsu and Lucy’s relationship becoming canon. It’s been long enough and we need to see their grow as adults who have mutual romantic interest in each other. Natsu can’t keep playing dumb at this point it’s getting slightly repetitive and annoying. His advancement as a character has gone downhill in the 100 YQ (I’m still upset about the pee joke regarding Lucy’s burn). So I need his redemption at least with Lucy and his feelings for her.

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xoxomoonlightxoxo · 1 year ago

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P&C | Ch. 6: You Can Be My Baby For Tonight

➪ Playlist (Spotify) l Series Masterlist

“Okay, that’s going to be an hour,” I say, pressing the power button. Finally, I made eye contact with Jungkook, who was now busy smelling the fabric softener in my basket.

“Hhmm, peaches, that’s why you smell so nice,” he grins softly, meeting my eyes. I hide my flustered state with a giggle and pack up. Hoping that something comes up so he can leave, I ask if he has any plans for tonight. He shakes his head.

“Nope, which reminds me, there's going to be a welcome party at one of the frat houses, you should come,” he says, his doe eyes sparkling under the basement lights. I genuinely try to give it a chance, but the mere thought of another party is making me nauseous.

“Oh no thank you, I really should just stay back and focus on school,” I reply with a soft smile, hoping he would get the hint.

“Come on Mira, it's only the second week. Plus, Jiah and Jimin will be there as well.” Jungkook says, not breaking our eye contact.

“Well, I'll think about it, but thank you again for the invitation. Anyways, why are you so determined to make me go?” I laugh, flipping my hair to the side feeling my ego rise as we speak.

“Have you become obsessed with me already?” I tease.

“Relax Kenough, I want to redeem myself from the last party. That was sleep-deprived Jungkook,” he scoffs, leaning back on the laundry machine.

“Ok ok well, can't wait to see your redemption arc,” I tease, sticking out my tongue as I make my way to the exit door. Jungkook follows behind.

When Jungkook said he didn't have any plans for tonight he really meant it. For the next hour, we just walked around campus and talked about our life before university. He was in a band with Tae and Jimin when they were in high school called, Bulletproof Boys. I had to laugh.

“And you dared to make fun of my shirt?” I cackle, trying to maintain my composure at the goofy name.

“YAH! That was the best option, be glad we didn't go with Tae's idea, The JJV” he quickly scoffs back, stuttering from frustration. I can't help but begin to hiccup from all the laughing.

“JJV? That sounds like a disease … or a cult. Did you guys even want to attract girls or …?” I giggle, looking him dead in the eyes. He pushes me gently before sitting on the bench in front of the dorm building.

“So, have you decided yet?” Jungkook quickly changes the subject as I take a seat beside him. Amid the giggles, I look up at him with confusion.

“Oh, you meant the party? I mean sure, I guess, I'm feeling better now. Anyways, who would want to miss out on the opportunity of seeing a not sleep-deprived Jungkook?” I smile at him, sticking out my tongue.

“Be careful Miraya, you might manifest something,” he leans in, giving me a grin. I pretend to puke and walk to the entrance. Again, Jungkook follows like a puppy, teeth peeking through his soft smile.

7:00 p.m.

Jiah: Hey lovely, are you almost ready? I’ll pick you up in about 15 mins.

I look down at my phone, hair still in rollers as I touch up my makeup. My body tenses up, nerves are at an all-time high. I’m still not 100% sure about going but evidently, it’s too late now. What’s the big deal? It’s just going to be me and Jiah, Jimin, Tae, and Jungkook. Stop it, Mira. I dismiss the tension and quickly fix up my hairdo with a layer of hairspray.

We were at the destination within the next hour, both of us looking great as usual. Jiah wore her new mini silk dress with a sweetheart neckline. Hair in a half-up, half-down style she was giving sexy princess vibes. I was contemplating between two options but decided to go with a black ruffle mini-dress with my knee-high boots, leaving my hair down in soft curls. Borderline looking like I planned on cosplaying someone from Pirates of the Caribbean, but hey, it looked good so who am I to change?

The welcome party was set at a huge frat house. Very surreal as I’ve never seen one in real life, let alone stepped foot into it. After leaving our Uber, I could see the mob of people flowing in through the entrance door lit by bright neon lights. Jiah gives me a reassuring smile as we blend into the madness.

“Hey, girls!” I hear Jimin’s voice waving from across the room. Jiah waves back as we try to make it through the crowd of people, some of whom are already tipsy while others are too busy busting down moves on the dance floor. The whole place smells of alcohol and a mix of every perfume you can think of.

“Hi baby,” Jiah melts into Jimin’s embrace as I say hi to the rest of the guys.

“Hey Flip-flops, don’t you look nice?” I hear Tae’s tease as he salutes a hello. My eyes can’t help but roll, as I giggle at him.

“Hey Tae, you don’t look too shabby yourself,” I grin with a soft smile. We spend some time catching up before I ask about Jungkook’s whereabouts.

“He should be by the food table, said he was going to get us drinks,” Tae replies as I nod and excuse myself before heading to the said place.

It was like looking for Waldo, everyone looked identical under the dim lights. Before heading back to the group with a plate full of various snacks, I’m halted by the feel of a hand on my shoulder.

“Hi Peaches” Jungkook whispers into my ear. My eyes widen as he smiles back, his doe eyes somehow still sparkling.

“Oh, peaches?” I giggle raising my right eyebrow.

“What? Tae can call you flip-flops but you draw the line on peaches?” he grins, leaning back on the table, taking the plates off of my hands. I try to talk back but he is already walking back to the group, looking back at my appalled state.

So far the party was nice, we talked, or should I say gossiped, ate lots of food, and drank. I am not intrigued by the idea of alcohol, but it fits the theme tonight so I let loose. However, from the few instances that I did consume it, I can definitely say I’m a light drinker. The phenomenon proved itself once again, as I found myself swaying on the dance floor after two tequila cocktails. Jiah and Jimin decided to take a breather outside, while Tae was busy playing beer pong with his other buddies.

“Please don’t stop the music … music … music,” I muttered under my breath as Rihana blasted on the speaker. With my hands in the air and eyes closed my body gave into the ambience. Before I could mutter the next lyric I was interrupted by Jungkook’s presence.

“There you are, baby,” he says, his body filling the space between us. His hands pretend to rest on my waistline, cautious to not make actual contact.

“Baby?” I question, looking up at his concentrated face. My eyes are hazed, lids heavy as I try to make out what is happening.

“It was either that or some random stranger disturbing you,” he whispers into my ear, as I feel his lip ring on my skin. I was too drunk to even notice the guy in question, but something about Jungkook’s protective side made me step closer.

“I like baby more than peaches,” I tip-toe, trying to reach his ear, placing my hands on his broad shoulders. Within a split second, my sober consciousness revokes my action, backing away as my gaze lowers to the floor. I try to shake my head before letting out a soft sorry.

Jungkook steps closer and lifts my chin with his index finger and thumb, his eyes meet mine as he lets out a little chuckle.

“You can be my baby for tonight,” he reassures, knowing dam well that he would be dead on a stick if I was sober. However, right now, neither of us protest the tension as our bodies groove with the music. My hands are once again on his shoulders, as he gently pulls me closer by the waist. Eyes locked on each other, the room becomes silent. For a moment, it was just the two of us.

“You look beautiful by the way,” he whispers into my ear as I lean my head on his chest, feeling the fatigue build up. I try to reply with a soft thank you before feeling my heavy lids close. Jungkook’s hold on my body becomes firmer, as I melt into his embrace, the smell of his cologne blending in with my perfume.

Before he could check on my state, Jungkook was interrupted by a bright flash coming from Tae’s phone camera. His boxy smile grows wider when he analyzes the situation on the dance floor. Pocking out his tongue he teases Jungkook with the photo, before taking a sip of water in hopes of sobering up.

“How did this happen?” Tae chuckles, trying to see if I was still awake. His hands inches away from moving some stands of hair out of my face before being interrupted by Jungkook tsk. Tae shakes his head, raises his hands and backs away with a wide smile, rolling his eyes.

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#bts #bangtan #jungkook x reader #jungkook x you #jungkook x yn #bts x yn #jungkook fanfic #fanfic #jungkook smut #romance #young love #college love #slow burn #jungkook angst #jungkook fluff #jungkook x female reader #jungkook #jeon jungkook #jungkook imagine

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blueberry-bubbles130 · 3 months ago

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A rough plan of the different arcs for the Unworldly Compulsion and Consumption au.

These are subject to change as this is a very rough plan. more arcs will probably be added and it doesn’t include most of the filler. The names of these arcs are not all permanent. I also don’t have names for all the important chapters/characters I’ve already thought of. I just wanted people to get an idea for what things there’ll be in this au and certain chapter titles I’m 100% keeping. This au also takes place roughly around 2012. However this is not including any arcs for bad ending.

The Beginning/Prologue arc:

Begins with Chapter 1 (Same old school days) and ends with chapter 8 (The day in question)

The beginning arc is mostly establishing things. Such as Chloe’s interest in history, adding Felix and Kagami to the class. Felix’s nature of being smart and secretive, etc.

The most important factor of these eight chapters is the quite sloppy foreshadowing regarding events in the past of the au. Andre, Audrey and Gabriel’s childhoods. Though most importantly Gabriel’s disturbing behaviour towards Audrey.

The second/Acquiring of the book arc:

Begins with chapter 8 (The day in question) and ends with chapter 12 (A lonely demise)

This arc begins the proper plot of the au. After Chloe gets her hands on the book it awakens the creature connected to it. The creature is able to communicate with Chloe in a very similar way in which Hawkmoth does with his victims. Over the course of the next month in the au, Chloe’s mental health worsens considerably due to the communication between her and the creature. Until she disappears at the end of chapter 11.

This arc contains more foreshadowing towards later arcs and important character developments. Such as foreshadowing towards the later Darkblade arc, Lila’s eventual redemption, Kagami and Chloe’s growing romantic feelings towards each other. And most importantly hints towards how the power of compulsion works. Also hints of the arcade.

The third/reawakening arc:

Begins with chapter 12 (a lonely demise) and ends with (chapter unknown)

Chloe’s parents panic with the sudden disappearance of their child. Meanwhile Chloe is brought back from the dead after being murdered by the creature. But she isn’t quite the same as she once was.

The first proper look at the creature, such as his appearance and character though there’s little information given on his character and his history.

Begins the storyline others gathering around Chloe to help her. This in order includes: Felix, Kagami, Sabrina, Luka, Alix and Lila. Bunnyx also makes appearances.

This arc begins to show small parts of Chloe’s compulsion power and hints as to how dangerous it can be. It also shows the side effect of the power with Chloe developing a growing hunger over the arc. Here we start to see the change in Chloe’s character such as further growing emotional instability and her changing dress style.

This arc ends with Lila joining the group after seeing Chloe feasting upon an animal somewhere while hiding from an akuma. And finding out the truth about her disappearance. Also hints of the arcade.

The fourth/growing destructive hunger and isolation arc:

Begins with (chapter unknown) and ends with (chapter unknown)

Chloe’s hunger finally hits and she starts eating sentimonsters to satiate herself. They’re built entirely off of magic and emotion. And due to her being kept alive by magic, they can satiate her hunger for longer. As well as using more of her power.

Chloe also begins to engage in new hobbies such as cooking, baking, cleaning and gardening. She does keep up with her history interest. The start of some time travel shenanigans with Bunnyx.

Lila also starts to fully go through a redemption arc with Alix being the main person who helps her through it. As well as Roger convincing Sabine and Tom to talk to Audrey and Andre.

There should be hints about the new place she lives that links into the Darkblade Arc. Hints of the arcade.

The fifth/ Arc;

Begins with (chapter unknown) and ends with (Don’t fear the reaper)

With Chloe growing more ravenous by the moment, she consumes more and more while her mental state further spirals out of control. While Gabriel continues to angrily search for the cause of the disappearing sentimonsters.

Here Felix starts to become more protective over Chloe as he sees the changes happening to her that he doesn’t like. Convincing Bunnyx to again take Chloe to some of her favourite parts of history to cheer her up a little. Hints of the arcade.

The sixth/ Arc:

Begins with (Don’t fear the reaper) and ends with chapter (Not a human, but a beast)

Having discovered the fact that akumatised people can satiate her hunger after eating Plague King, Chloe begins to eat more. Combined with both Sentimonsters and akumas, she finds herself growing a little more settled. However the desire to eat normal human flesh is growing within her leading her to make a massive decision with irreversible consequences.

The introduction and death of the first antagonist to the au. (Currently unnamed) is a corrupt politician who after the end of Don’t Fear the Reaper begins to obsess over Chloe in an attempt to find her and get some revenge. This also has Felix fully dedicated himself to finding Gabriel’s crimes and overall protecting Chloe.

The seventh/Despair Arc:

Begins with (chapter unknown) and ends with (chapter unknown)

Chloe attempts to grapple with what happened at the end of the prior arc. However these efforts are in vain as she falls into a heavy pit of despair. She tries to revel in destruction as she once did just a few months ago. But cannot do so, no matter. At one point during the arc, she ends up in charge of a small kingdom from an alternate timeline, with Felix taking the role as her advisor. She practically destroys the kingdom in her despair/bitterness which results in her nearly being executed by the kingdom. Even after this Chloe continues to try and find more methods to bring about her own self destruction. Is inspired by the songs Daughter and Servant of Evil.

The seventh and a half Arc/The Artist Arc:

This arc is a mini arc within the despair arc and involves Chloe getting multiple unnamed artists trying to create art of her. Such as a painter, a sketcher, an animator, a sculptor, a photographer, a pianist, a violinist, a doll maker etc. It’s after she nearly gets executed and is another form of self destruction for her. But also an attempt to see how people truly view her. She prods and pokes slowly so they begin to get irritated. And eventually paint her in the way they view her, which by that point is either a despised pest or an utter monster. After the artists finally quit and sometimes try to kill her, she keeps the art. As well as any diaries or documents they may have made during the creation process. She keeps them locked in a room in her castle, looking at them throughout the rest of the fic. The only people to ever see this room are Chloe, her parents and Kagami. Is inspired by the game Death Palette.

Near the end of the arc, Adrien finds Chloe and is shocked to see how she’s changed. This arc is just depressing/dark while showing what Felix will do to protect Chloe.

All the while Andre finally succumbs to years of unhealthy habits. Resulting in him becoming extremely ill for the rest of the au. Alongside this after the death of the politician, the only person willing and available to take up the empty position is Armand D’Agencourt. As a result D’Agencourt is able to claw his way onto the Parisian mayoral council.

During the overall seventh arc, nightmare Chloe makes her first appearance.

The eighth/Darkblade Arc:

Begins with (chapter unknown) and ends with (chapter unknown)

As apart of their time travel shenanigans, Bunnyx takes Chloe and Felix back to the medieval era. And this time Adrien claws his way along in order to spend time with Chloe and see just how much she’s changed from the beginning of her disappearance. Unfortunately Bunnyx has to attend to a matter leaving Chloe, Felix and Adrien stuck in that timeline. Leading to the three discovering the infamous Darkblade in first person.

Meanwhile the other members have the gang have to deal with their absence and go about their lives. With Lila focusing on organising the evidence her and Felix have already gathered on Gabriel. And Audrey finally admits to Sabine and Tom what happened between her and Gabriel when they were in school. Kagami starts to stop criminals in her spare time, while also watching over Chloe’s parents just in case something bad happens.

During this arc Chloe, Felix and Adrien get to meet their ancestors. And how they feel about Darkblade. Adrien also finally comes to terms with how bad Gabriel is as a person.

The ninth/first secrecy arc:

Begins with (chapter unknown) and ends with (chapter unknown)

While Chloe begins to come to terms with herself, A small group of obsessive individuals led by the fashion designer/tailor Richard Sphinx sets out to track her down and obtain her power for themselves. Adrien also starts to communicate more with Chloe and why things have became the way they are.

Taking extreme pleasure from Audrey’s anguish over Andre’s ill health, Gabriel seeks to use this to his advantage. Control over Audrey is Gabriel’s second highest priority. Yet no matter what he does, Gabriel can’t seem to kill Andre. So the next best thing? Just torture Andre. Poison his food? Give him too many painkillers. Whatever it takes to cause Audrey any pain possible.

This arc introduces the second antagonist Richard Sphinx, who at the end of the arc is offered a deal by Chloe. It also sees the death of Bob Roth, who is murdered by Felix.

The tenth/family arc:

Another day, another drama. And here come the grandparents!

In what can only be described as a bad turn of luck, nearly all the grandparents come to visit Paris at once. Ranging from Audrey inviting her parents to try and reconnect with them. To Amelie’s parents coming to see their precious little grandchildren. Nevermind Gabriel’s snobbish parents and Andre’s frankly not very nice mother. Hopefully Paris can handle all these new relationships.

At least Chloe can add more people to the family tree.

The eleventh/holiday arc:

Begins with (chapter unknown) and ends with (chapter unknown)

This arc covers both Halloween and Christmas. For Chloe nothing much truly changes. Her hunger remains the same, Pollen is continuing in trying to control her emotions. Her parents meanwhile and still trying to figure out why specifically the child, they think they don’t know, ate a fully grown man in front of them. As well as being a little obsessed with them. Reluctantly Kagami and Adrien as their hero persona’s agree to fabricate some information about Chloe to give to Andre and Audrey.

Chloe is taken back in time a few more times with her friends, a Halloween akuma or two happen.

But by the time Christmas rolls around Chloe falls back into her depression as she is unable to spend Christmas with her parents. She temporarily makes her friends forget her so they can spend the Christmas holidays free of her. Bunnyx however allows Chloe’s ancestor to come and take her back to his time to spend Christmas with her, just so she has some family to spend the holidays with.

The eleventh and a half/Hero Arc:

The class are set to go on a school trip for about a while. However someone needs to stay in Paris to stop the akumas. Sabine offers to wield the Ladybug miraculous to give Marinette and Adrien a break from being heroes. Tikki is somewhat pleased with the idea, but has her reservations about it. While Plagg is ecstatic and has his own ideas about who he wants to wield his miraculous. He tracks down Audrey, bullying her into wearing his miraculous. Which Master Fu isn’t happy about at all. As a result Sabine and Audrey have to fumble their way through being heroes.

Though in the meantime Gabriel continues his reign of terror over Audrey and Andre by throwing Andre down the stairs.

And Chloe gets to travel through time a few more times.

The twelfth/Angel arc:

As the class returns from their trip, Chloe continues on her time travel adventures from Bunnyx. However upon one of her trips, Chloe is caught by a group of servants who declare she is the spitting image of their employers dead daughter. Said noble has fallen ill past the point of recovery and calls out for his late daughter in the occasional feverish haze.

To bring him some peace in his final few months the servants get Chloe to act as his late daughter. Despite not completely enjoying said plan, and not being entirely bothered by the titles and estate she receives in his will. The experience does give Chloe some acceptance regarding death.

After some reflection Chloe decides that she doesn’t want to people die alone like she did the first time. So she starts to spend time with those she deems worthy in their final moments. So they won’t be alone like she was. While she mocks those she doesn’t seem worthy in their final moments.

World travels fast across lands and after a while she comes to be known as the Angel.

The thirteenth/Royal cult arc:

As she begins to accept her new identity and slowly incorporate both elements from both her old and new outfit styles. Chloe partakes in more positive aspects of life. From going out with friends, performing on stage to taking her girlfriend out on the best picnics she can make.

But old habits die hard and Chloe’s hunger still exists. As a result someone else dies by Chloe’s instinct, power and hand. Though this time the one that dies is an old mad king. Now his subjects see Chloe as the new ruler and gather round her in a cultish manner. All in the hopes she’ll stay as their merciful ruler who uses her power to their benefit.

They’re not too fond of the idea of their new monarch leaving either, threatening execution to any who try to take her. As a result, Chloe is left with no choice but to become queen once again, hoping she doesn’t mess it up again.

The fourteenth/Bloodbourne arc:

Begins with (chapter unknown) and ends with (chapter unknown)

A secret society who has been trying to gather information regarding Soren and his power. Upon finding out Chloe now has this power they track her down.

After getting Chloe, their plan is to try and sacrifice her to gain the power of compulsion. This goes horribly wrong as Chloe is undead, creating a monster who Gabriel tries to akumatise resulting in Paris being turned into a cursed land. As well as almost destroying the mansion said sacrifice took place in leaving Audrey, Andre and Chloe stuck in the mansion.

Felix, Kagami and Adrien set out to find Chloe and try to reverse the mess that has been caused. As the beast came from the attempted sacrifice of Chloe. All the while, Audrey and Andre come to the realisation of Chloe being alive all along.

This arc introduces the third and final antagonist in the secret society led by the former mayor and former (also unnamed) teacher of Francois DuPont who taught Gabriel, Audrey and Andre when they were younger. (I SWEAR THIS WILL SOUND LESS CRAZY WHEN YOU ACTUALLY READ IT)

Final Arc: The glitch in the system

Begins with (chapter unknown) ends with (chapter unknown)

At the height of madness after having a breakdown, Gabriel decides to create the ultimate akuma by akumatising himself again. He ends up taking over a game machine at the arcade to manipulate Paris to his very command. And our hero’s have to stop him.

By this point there is nothing left of Gabriel Agreste that may have been remotely positive. All that is left is malice, sadism and Hawkmoth.

So our heroes set out to stop him.

Epilogue:

Begins with (chapter unknown) ends with (chapter unknown)

After the defeat of Gabriel Agreste, everyone reflects on what has happened in the prior year or so.

Gabriel goes to court twice for his separate crimes and the judge/lawyers do not have a fun time dealing with all the stuff during his second trial. Including having magical creatures give testimony.

Chloe finally reunites with properly her parents and comes to terms with her actions and the new circumstances of her life. That she will never be able to use the bee miraculous again, nor will she be able to fully rejoin society. Though she does have friends and family that will stay with her. She also gets to meet her maternal grandparents.

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