#she only knows life as a trainee essentially since they all start so young

[mal8te]

okay but think about how much music means to malee and her group for them all to have gone through so much throughout their careers without tapping out

[fyeah-bangtan7]

BTS' Jung Kook on 'Dynamite,' Loving ARMY, and Learning From Ariana Grande

"During the training years, I'd wait until the other guys had fallen asleep so I could wash up by myself in the middle of the night," says the singer

We’ve known each other for so long,” J-Hope recently told BTS’ youngest member, Jung Kook, 23. “And I love how you haven’t changed at all.” More than any other member, Jung Kook grew up in BTS; he was only 15 when the group debuted in 2013, and he’d been famous for years by the time he graduated high school, with the other members attending the ceremony. With formidable singing and dancing skills, he’s always been a born pop star, with multiple agencies trying to recruit him as early as 2011. Since then, he’s more than fulfilled his promise, playing a key role on BTS’ biggest songs, including “Dynamite.” In a conversation from his label’s Seoul headquarters, where he wore a plain white sweatshirt with a matching white mask and a black bucket hat, he discussed making “Dynamite,” his vocal evolution, his Ariana Grande fandom, and more.

On the recent Let’s BTS TV special, I thought it was really beautiful when you were surprised with the videos of ARMY singing along to “Life Goes On,” and it looked like you were moved as well. Did it remind you of how much you missed seeing fans in person? I’m a person that really loves to be onstage and really loved hearing from our fans, so when our tour got canceled in March last year, it was a bit of a shock and it was kind of hard to take in. The roar of crowds and of ARMY is something we loved. And when we do TV programs or promotions, it gets our heart racing and makes us long for it more and more. And as you said, on Let’s BTS with the “Life Goes On” performance, when we heard ARMY taking part through the internet, that reminded us of the actual roar of the crowd. It made me miss it even more.

How has it affected you to essentially grow up within BTS? I started my trainee years when I was growing up, and one thing I think is a real blessing for me is I got to meet these wonderful, nice, good six members. I think I matured into a really good person that can be loved by a lot of people. I’m really grateful for the fact that other members, the older members, have given me a lot of feedback, positive or negative. I’m really grateful to have met them.

Do you ever wonder about what you may have missed from ordinary life? It’s true I couldn’t spend a lot of days at school, but I think I gained more than I lost. I sometimes felt envious of all my friends hanging out or going on a trip. Maybe those are the things that I missed. But again, I think I gained more than I’ve lost.

Was this past year maybe a chance to live more normally for you? Just because we didn’t have a lot of work compared to before, or just because we couldn’t go outside, it really didn’t mean we had ordinary life. We still had to be cautious of our behavior. And just because we couldn’t go on tours, it didn’t mean we could stop improving. So I tried to discover new things and I think I spent a relatively busy time inside. But I did have some time to really rearrange my emotions, and I think I grew up as a person as well.

People call you “golden” because you’re good at so many things. But as you’ve said before, that comes with a lot of pressure, doesn’t it? People say that I excel, that I’m an all-rounder. Of course I excel in some areas, but I don’t think it necessarily helps to bask in those talents and gifts. You can only improve in a certain area when you really practice, when you really try, when you deep-dive into it. So I really don’t want to think myself as an all-rounder. I just want to keep trying and working hard. And of course I do feel pressure, but those pressures can also drag me to work hard and do best at what I do.

You had offers from multiple agencies, but you chose Big Hit because of RM. What did you see in him? I can’t clearly remember what happened at the time, but I just simply thought that RM was really cool. At that time, I really didn’t know a lot about being a singer. But when I saw him rap, I just thought he was really, really cool and awesome. And I believe maybe it was fate that drew me to him.

I talked about this with J-Hope as well, but it’s very interesting to look at the early style of BTS, both the clothing and the music, and see how it evolved. What do you think when you look back at those early songs and videos? When we first debuted, we had kind of fierce makeup, with our eyeliner and stuff, and dark outfits, fierce-looking outfits. At that time, our company was relatively small and we couldn’t put a lot of budget into the outfits. But now we devote a lot of time and we hold a lot of meetings to choose the outfits and the style that would go well with the songs and the album. So I think the visual aspect is really important. The song, the dance — every individual aspect is really important.

Can you share some memories of recording “Dynamite”? I thought I was getting these lines out correctly and pronouncing them well, but as we were recording and practicing, I realized there were still things I needed to work on. My pronunciation was not that good. My tongue just wasn’t loose enough to really get these English words out! But the more we practiced, the more we sang, the song became more familiar, and became more natural. So it was a good learning experience for me.

The song “Euphoria” is one of your best moments. I know it’s already a few years ago, but what do you remember about putting that one together? I specifically like “Euphoria” among many BTS songs because it has a voice that’s between a very young boy and a very mature man. And that’s why I had a tough time recording it. I had to translate those emotions into the recording, and I went into it thinking that I have lost my original voice and I really didn’t know how to sing. And I think those emotions I felt translated well into the recording. After listening to the whole thing, I was like, “Wow, I really did a good job.”

What other artists have given you something to aspire to? If there is one moment that really stayed with me, it was when we went on one of our overseas tours, and I had a chance to go to an Ariana Grande concert. I was really impressed by her stage presence. She’s a very small person, and the volume of her singing and what she was able to do was really moving, really impressive. And it just seemed like something I wanted to emulate and learn from. It made me want to develop and continue to grow.In general, I’ve tried to listen to a lot of different music. To really find the voice that I have right now, I listened to random music and just tried to sing along and learn how other artists sing.

The other guys have said that when you were young, when you first started, you were a little bit shy and introverted. What do you remember about that? [Laughs] During the training years, I’d wait until the other guys had fallen asleep so I could wash up by myself in the middle of the night. But I think time really solves everything. If you spend such a long time with the same people, it really affects your personalities. The other members had a lot of influence on me, and I could just feel comfortable because they are such good people. And they encouraged me to open up to them and mature into a good person.

Out of all these years so far, what has been the most mind-blowing moment? Topping the [U.S.] charts, being nominated for the Grammys, getting all those awards, were of course great honors and great experiences. But the best moment in my life, from when I was born until I die, is seeing ARMY from the stage. And that will never change.

© source

[krispydefendorpolice]

The Demon’s Bride (4)

Call out to @vitaliciouscreations for their “Drop of Paradise” story. I’m using the same name Tiān but they came up with it (to best of my knowledge). Another fun read. Anyone interested in me putting up a random maribat recomendation in this part?

On to the story

Beginning Previous Next Masterpost

_________________

Chapter 4

After dropping Mari in front of the hotel she was staying at, where the teacher definitely had not noticed she was missing he fumed, Damian returned to the Bat cave. His father, all three of his brothers, his sister, Alfred and the rest of the extended Bat Clan were waiting.

“You never turned your comm back on,” Bruce commented.

“I needed to speak with Mari before talking to you,” Damian said, passing his father and pulling up files on the Bat computer.

“We had noticed. It would have been nice to know you were alright after she took down Jason the way she did.”

“Hence the reason I left my tracker on instead of disabling it. You knew where I was.”

“Who is this mystery girl the boys are talking about?” Barbara, aka Oracle, asked.

Damian ignored the question while he filtered through the files of the Wayne conference attendees for the school group staying at Mari’s hotel and down to the students on the trip. He pulled up the school picture of Mari and the information they had on her.

“She is a friend from my childhood,” he finally said looking at the information. He saw that her name was Marinette Dupain-Cheng, her parents on file were listed as Tom Dupain and Sabine Cheng. So they hadn’t changed it, he thought, disappointed in himself because he never looked.

Damian turned when no one said anything after his declaration. Leaning against the console he waited for their responses.

“Bull shit Demon Spawn. You’ve never mentioned friends other than Jon and the Titans before,” Jason said, “and even then it’s because they are not your friends.”

“I assure you she is,” Damian said.

“Then why is this the first time any of us have ever heard about her?” Dick asked.

“None of you have ever shown a particular interest in my childhood with the League of Assassins before now, so why would I have talked about her to you?” Damian answered with a question of his own.

“Because you bit off our heads every time we asked anything,” Tim argued.

Damian narrowed his eyes, “The last time anyone asked me anything about the League I was 11 years old, had just moved in with a bunch of strangers, and had witnessed my family and my whole life destroyed by a madman. Of course I fucking yelled at you. I couldn’t handle it. I couldn’t cry, yell or rage about the unfairness of watching my family, my family,” he emphasized, “die because I was with strangers and emotions make you vulnerable and I could not afford any more vulnerabilities with the unknown situation I was in.”

The entire clan was silent during his tirade, and a bit ashamed at what he was revealing to them years afterwards.

“I’m sorry Damian. We should have realized that and asked you how you were handling the changes at the time,” Bruce was the first to apologize.

“So you weren’t just rabid from Mom’s Tender Loving Care?” Jason asked.

“Master Jason,” Alfred chided while the rest of the clan just gave Jason a Really? look.

“In the 10 years I lived with her I probably spent less than two in her actual company,” Damian said. “I don’t think I would have responded well at the time even if you had realized,” he acknowledged Bruce’s apology.

“Can you tell us about her?” Bruce asked.

“I can but there’s a lot to talk about to really understand everything. I’m meeting her tomorrow for her free day, we can come here for dinner. I can give you some of that background information now and she can answer any of the questions about herself that I can’t answer.”

“Alright. So tell us what we need to know.”

“Might I suggest we move this discussion out of the cave and to the parlor where we might be more comfortable while we talk,” Alfred interrupted.

“That sounds like a good idea Alfred,” Dick said.

**************************

They did as Alfred suggested and moved to the sitting room so they could sit comfortably while talking about Damian’s past. They were all aware that before he came to them at the age of 10 he had lived with his mother and grandfather and with the League of Assassins. He had been volatile and reckless even while he was taking up the mantle of Robin and began following the others into the vigilante lifestyle.

But apparently there was more to his actions as a kid than just being a snobbish brat raised to believe he was better than everyone else.

Damian sipped at his cup of Black tea while settling his mind around what he was going to discuss. He had spent the last 7 years trying not to think of the other half of his biological family and believing the rest were dead so that he hadn’t had any other reason to reflect on his youth in the League. But that had obviously been a mistake. If Mari survived did anyone else? Can I get my family back? He wondered to himself while the rest of the clan settled down with their drinks of choice.

Finally everyone was settled. Bruce was the one to set the ball rolling.

“So what should we know?”

“Before I start about what I know,” Damian began turning to Jason, “I need to know more about what you know of the League, Todd.”

Jason raised an eyebrow and looked at him stonily. If Damian was quiet about the League as a kid (lies, he really wasn’t because he was an Al Ghul dammit) then Todd was a monk who had taken a vow of silence (slightly less a lie, he didn’t talk about it but he did rant about what a bitch Talia was). None of the Bats knew much about his time with the League other than he met Talia before returning to Gotham to seek vengeance on the Joker.

“Like what, Demon Spawn?” Jason asked.

“Well, first, did you have a designation?”

“A what?”

“That’s a no then. Consider yourself lucky, or not, since you were one of mother’s various pet projects then.”

“Damian,” Dick warned as Damian still had a tendency to be very blunt, to the point of being abrasive, when talking about other’s trauma’s.

Damian frowned before nodding in acknowledgement of the warning and in apology for his tone.

“I suppose the first thing you should know is that the League of Assassins is only about two hundred years old, while Tiān the city from which it was established is thousand of years old. Grandfather found it years ago and started to recruit certain prized and influential citizens and families into following him. Eventually the majority of the city were members of his cult and doing his bidding. We can get more into why the League as its own city is important tomorrow.

“Now, since the League is a cult and it was born out of an independent city how has it maintained it’s membership for so long? And I assure you it wasn’t because grandfather shared the secret of the Lazarus Pits with anyone” he asked.

“They recruited new members,” Dick answered with a shrug.

Damian gave him his own Really? look. “Recruits only account for about 25% of the new trainees and they are usually older teens and young adults. The people that are disenfranchised from the society outside of the League. Individuals with knowledge of the world outside shaped by influences from outside and not by Ras Al Ghul,” Damian said. “I was one of 79 children born in my year group. I was not raised by Talia no matter how she spins it. Despite having a personal bodyguard, private tutors and a nursemaid because I was an Al Ghul heir, I was raised with the other children my age in the al’akadimia*.”

“Talia didn’t raise you?” Barbara asked.

“She oversaw my training, instruction and education which seems to be her impression of parenting, but no, she was not involved in the day to day of my life growing up. I got more of that with Father in the first few months than I did from her in the entirety of my time with her,” Damian answered.

The Bats were silent as they digested this new piece of information from their youngest.

“In the cave you mentioned losing your family. It sounded like it happened in Slade’s attack. If not Talia, who were you thinking of? The girl?” Tim asked.

*academy- Arabic via Google translate

_________________

So, this chapter f*cked with my head. I was just writing and playing with the story and had to come up with a reason for Damian being such a little shit as a kid. And I threw in the line about him losing his family and moving in with strangers when I had an oh shit moment of enlightenment.

In the Son of Batman, Damian witnessed his grandfathers death. His mother brought him to strangers and essentially dropped him on their doorstep. Then we get into the fact that most likely he was essentially abused growing up (how else do you get a kid that wont show emotions) but they were still his family and yeah...

I try throwing in a flippant reason but really it kinda sounds like a canon reason too.

I had never thought about why canon Damian was the way he was especially in that first movie and now my head hurts. I’m curious if anyone else has ever given that a thought or if you’re just now having that oh shit reaction?

Taglist: I’m so happy so many are enjoying it. I’m trying to get everyone but if I miss you I’m sorry but it’s not intentional. Also, I appreciate the comments but unless you ask I won’t tag you so if you’ve commented and not been tagged it’s cuz you didn’t ask or because I overlooked it trying to find everyone who’s asking to be tagged. And I’m going to ask that you message me since I’m having trouble finding all the asks in the comments. Thank you.

And thank you all!

@ozmav @multifandomscribette @mochinek0 @inevitableenquere @zebrabaker @poshplumcot @tog84 @luciferge @sonif50 @ravennightingaleandavatempus @northernbluetongue @actual-human-disaster @clumsy-owl-4178 @aarushi-03 @bluerosette23 @g-arya @moonyloonyx @fertileleaf @shreky-boi @thanks-captain-obvious @panda3506 @hinata3487 @thequestionablyhuman @dontgiveaflyinflip @dast218 @chocolatecatstheron @asianfrustration13 @slytherinsheashire @weird-pale-blonde-person @yin-390 @mycupisbroken @vixen-uchiha @kuroko26 @autisticlinx @worlds-tiniest-spook-pastry @mariae2900 @zalladane @hypnosharkrebeldreamer @tbehartoo @novicevoice @violatiger8 @thebookish3lf @fandomkitty8 @redscarlet95 @gingersnapnoir @chewbaccaatemythoughts

[liquidink21]

If I were doing the Avatar Remake

Just a list of things changes and tweaks to the original I would make to Avatar if I was in charge of this netflix remake, given that we’ve all lost hope in it and now I’m just speculating to make myself feel better. I’ve already made a list of things it really needs, and this list includes them, but I’m just going to go hog wild with my imagination and opinions on Avatar. In a rough order of when I think and them and what episode it becomes relevant.

How long are these new episodes going to be? I’d like to extend them for more story content, though am wary of overdoing it. How does thirty minutes sound? Enough for some more depth to some episodes.

I think it should be pointed out earlier on that there are more villages across the South Pole. This is canon, and would make the Southern Water Tribe feel more alive.

Aang’s friends from the past: in addition to Kuzon and Bumi, give him a Northern Water Tribe pal. He’s never been to the South Pole, and was deliberately coming to make new friends somewhere the Monks wouldn’t think to look for him. We can reference this friend again when we reach the North Pole.

Somebody, probably Iroh, mentions Zuko’s name in front of Aang. It’s always infuriated me that the Gaang know’s Zuko’s name suddenly in Warriors of Kyoshi without anyone telling them what it is. I don’t think it needs its own episode, just somebody says it while he’s captured.

The terms of Zuko’s banishment don’t restrict him from the colonies in the Earth Kingdom, so they don’t consider those colonies to be proper Fire Nation territory. I feel they should have their own name, just to make the politics of the show feel deeper. “The Eastern Protectorate” is a nice reference to the Chinese “Protectorate of the Western Territories.” Zhao can namedrop it when they go to his port.

The fact that Kyoshi Island has such a different culture from the main Earth Kingdom should be brought up. The answer is a mix between isolation and cultural exchange with the Southern Water Tribe. Katara and Sokka probably have a passing knowledge of the island. “Oh, that’s where we are.” Also, if Aang knew to come here for the Koi fish, how didn’t he know about there being Kyoshi revering settlements there?

There should be an adult Kyoshi Warrior training the others. She approves of Suki training Sokka, and comments on the rarity of outsiders and men being Kyoshi Warriors. I feel Sokka is the first outsider, but there was another man. Adult warrior gives the explanation that when she was a young trainee, a man working on the docks was teased for “fighting like a girl” so warriors taught him exactly like a girl.

There should be an Earthbending Kyoshi Warrior. I mean Kyoshi herself was a bender, the art can’t be exclusively a non-bending form.

Maybe point out that there are multiple villages on the island. This is in fact canon.

Haru’s mother and village could use some actual names.

We never see any non-bending Earth Kingdom soldiers. I loved how the Fire Nation has different uniforms for its bending and non-bending warriors, and I’d like to see the same for the Earth Kingdom troops.

I want to know more about those pirates? The captain is ethnically a Fire Nation citizen. Is there a story behind that? A navy deserter? Like an opposite of Jeong Jeong, deserting not for ethics but because he didn’t like duty getting in the way of fortune? I’m probably just overthinking it.

The names of the Freedom Fighters are obviously pseudonyms, and Jet probably urges the Gaang to adopt some themselves.

While I don’t actually feel that Aang lying to the two groups in The Great Divide is an unforgivable wrong, I feel the lie itself was a little demeaning and could have been a little more sophisticated.

I have seen that post saying there needs to be more Indians in Avatar than just Guru Pathik, given how many Indian concepts are in the show. Many people also share the opinion that there should be Indian airbenders, so yes they should appear in the flashbacks in The Storm (and The Southern Air Temple as well). Also some Earth Kingdom villages should be Indian based as well. I think the market from The Waterbending Scroll could be a good place to start, maybe the port from The Storm as well, though probably somewhere that isn’t just a background place as well. Maybe the nuns in Bato of the Water Tribe too.

Iroh could be less creepy with June.

Ah, The Northern Air Temple. Honestly I feel that while the ultimate message of Aang being okay with the Mechanist and his people settling in the Air Temple is okay, I feel it needs to end with a greater emphasis on the Mechanist’s people being more respectful to the site. Ramming pipes through historical mosaics and demolishing statues is really not on. Also, while Sokka being cool with industrialisation is in character, I do think he’d disapprove the desecration.

I feel the fact that a lot of the Fire Nation’s technological might (not all of it, though) is riding off the back of a blackmailed Earth Kingdom citizen is something that could be brought up more often.

Yue’s story with the Moon Spirit needs to be explained almost immediately, so that it’s not kind of an arse-pull when the plot needs it.

Legend of Korra makes a big deal about the South gaining independence from the North, but they’re already treated as separate nations? I think it should be mentioned somewhere, probably from Hahn, that the South is technically subservient to the North, though operates with a great deal of autonomy that comes with not being able to contact each other.

The North is pretty sure it’s the original Water Tribe, but can’t say for sure. Hahn thinks of the South as nothing but a colony, though Arnook is more progressively minded and notes there are no records of who came first and treats the South as a sister tribe.

I think there’s another character worth adding, a captain of the Northern warriors. He can appear several more times throughout the series, which I’ll elaborate on.

Zhao comments “there’s a reason they’ve survived a hundred years of war” whereas other comments suggest the Northern Water Tribe has been sitting out of the war. Apparently the North did take uniforms from soldiers 85 years ago, so I think the idea should be that they received one big siege back then, and since then they’ve been experiencing raids since then culling their villages and forcing them into that single fortified city-state. Since then, their ability to send ships out has been impeded by Fire Nation ships patrolling those water but not engaging the city itself until Zhao’s siege.

Yue, when mentioning the waterbenders learning from the Moon, should reference humanity receiving bending from the Lion Turtles, just to introduce the concept that bending could be given and therefore by implication taken away.

There’s a historical character I want to introduce: an Earth Kingdom general that was nearly able to push the Fire Nation out of the Earth Kingdom around half-way through the 100 Year War, but was taken down by internal Earth Kingdom politics. The Fire Nation had to do its conquests all over again because of him. It would help fill out a century of history that is poorly explained. I think he could be introduced by Sokka asking General Fong how they still have an outpost on the west coast when most of that region has been occupied by the Fire Nation.

Azula’s blue fire should be depicted like blue flames are in real life: very straight jets rather than the flickering things you see in the animation. Since it’s basically just powerful fire, I think it should be seen with a couple of other firebenders, though Azula is the only one that exclusively uses it. Jeong Jeong and Iroh would be good people to use it.

I saw a post once by a Korean rightfully upset that the only Korean characters in the show (Song and her village) are lumbered in with the essentially Chinese Earth Kingdom as if they’re the same culture despite Korea obviously being separate and having a poor history of China attempting to enforce hegemony over it. I think maybe something could be made of Song and her people being a distinct culture that has had a generally poor relationship with the Earth Kingdom at large. Maybe the previously mentioned Earth Kingdom general was screwed over for being of this culture.

I’m not sure how to depict the Swampbenders. They'll no longer be caricatures of the guys in the next studio, so they’ll be more respectfully treated and not hillbillies. I’m not sure if they should be Vietnamese (given the original characters have Vietnamese names) or southern Native Americans (given they’re waterbenders, and the other waterbenders are Inuits).

After failing to get Bumi as Aang’s earthbending teacher, they throw around suggestions. Since Aang is learning waterbending from Katara they consider a similarly aged Earthbender. Katara suggests they go find Haru, while Sokka suggests the earthbending Kyoshi Warrior I mentioned before.

I saw a post once suggesting that the Beifongs were collaborators, and while I think this is somewhat extreme, I would like to explore the interplay between their wealth and their position in the war. Also, the fact that Toph had been sheltered from the war and has far less of an emotional stake in it needs to be explored in more detail.

In the Zuko Alone flashbacks Azula really needs to be made out as a normal child with a bad influence (her father) instead of an inherently bad child. My sister points to this episode and claims Iroh or Ursa should have just drowned her and that’s something incredibly fucked up to say about a ten(?) year old.

In that vein, Iroh’s “no she’s crazy and needs to go down” line really needs to be changed to something more compassionate. Most Avatar meta states that Iroh doesn’t actually hate Azula; he’s just prioritising Zuko’s safety, and his line here needs to reflect that.

Aang should recognise the Lion-Turtle, and know that they gave humanity their bending powers. Just to keep that concept in mind, so that when it comes to the energybending climax it’s less of an arse-pull.

Wan Shi Tong’s morale compass and lumping a bunch of kids attempting to avoid genocide in with conquerors needs to be called out more, and I feel Katara should be the one to do it.

Suki gets to stay on for one extra episode and help fight the Drill. It also makes for a better explanation of how she got back. Right now it’s implied she went back across the Serpent’s Pass; in my own she’d explicitly head along the wall and go back with the ferries.

I want more discussion of Ba Sing Se’s social stratification. Was Jin able to visit the Jasmine Dragon? Or was she blocked from entering higher rings?

Toph’s lie detecting thing made into a spiritual or chi related thing. The whole heartbeat thing is pseudoscience.

The Northern Water Captain I mentioned earlier reappears, having met and joined his men with Hakoda’s. Hakoda praises his son with helping bridge the gap between the two water tribes.

Ty Lee gets more appearances in Book 3, even if just in the background. She got some nice development in The Beach and I want to see more of it as Azula’s brought her out of that circus and back into the Fire Nation nobility.

Sparky Sparky Boom Man’s tattoo has a different design that is not a villainised appropriation of a Hindu symbol. Something nice and geometric, maybe sun based.

Hawky at some point returns to Team Avatar. I want them legitimised as a member of the Gaang! Equal status to Momo and Appa! Also I suppose bringing a letter back from the Beifongs could have significance to Toph. But let Hawky return!

Hama has a more compassionate ending. I feel after she’s led away, Sokka figures it’s pretty fucked up that they’re handing one of their own over to the Fire Nation so they go and rescue her. They give her a choice between joining them to fight during the eclipse or returning to the South Pole to help rebuild the Southern Water Tribe (given that there’s Notherners helping rebuild she could help make sure they rebuild it in the style of the south and not a facsimile of the north). She chooses the latter.

No weird Guru Pathik during Aang’s hallucinations please.

While discussing the allies that Hakoda picked up, he mentions some people he couldn’t get: they couldn’t find the Kyoshi Warriors, the Sandbenders didn’t want to come, the Omashi Resistance wanted to use the eclipse to retake their city, and General Fong’s outpost had been overrun. Just flesh out things a little.

Sokka and the other Water Tribe warriors should be wearing that facepaint for the Invasion.

I want more interaction with The Duke, Haru, and Teo with the Gaang.

Chit Sang’s girlfriend and friend join with the second escape instead of being strangely absent. Also, who is he? Sokka probably looks him up to make sure they’re not bringing a serial killer into their midst. Preferably not, I like to think they were thrown in there for opposing the war.

I’d like Suki to learn from Hakoda that the other Kyoshi warriors are alive, if imprisoned.

Suki doesn’t like wearing prison clothes and attempts a facsimile of Kyoshi islander clothes by stealing Katara and Haru’s clothes.

Some more emotions between Sokka and Suki relating to her imprisonment please. There’s a lot of pent up trauma there and I’d like them to work through it.

People like to play up Katara’s “you obviously didn’t love her as much as I did” line into an insight to a horrible character rather than just something stupid said in the heat of the moment, though I do think Katara should apologise, if only to show the haters that this isn’t her personality.

Training with Aang, Zuko finds out he has the peace of mind to do lightning. He wouldn’t use it against Azula, but it would be a nice demonstration that his inner turmoil is more or less resolved.

The adult Kyoshi Warrior I mentioned at the very beginning of this reappears as a White Lotus member. She, for whatever reason, has a replacement warrior uniform for Suki, because I feel Suki shouldn’t have to go through the climax in a Fire Nation disguise. Also maybe Sokka should be wearing his warpaint too? I mean it’s culturally significant to him.

You want lightning? No I don’t. Azula’s growing inner turmoil denies her the use of lightning, mirroring Zuko’s original inability to use it when he was lost and confused. So when it comes to sneakily zapping Katara it’s just her fire, but a flame more concentrated (and by implication, rage-fueled) than we’ve ever seen from her. A veritable beam that Zuko has to put his all into deflecting, opening him up to an attack. A non-lethal attack; Azula still has that line about “the family physician”. She doesn’t want Zuko dead and leaves him be when he’s down. Despite going off the deep end there is a spark of compassion in her that stops her from doing that.

As I’ve stated previously, Aang needs to do something slightly more significant and spiritual in order to access the Avatar State again rather than that stupid rock. Some sort of spiritual lesson.

As I’ve said a few times now, the Lion-Turtles should be known to the audience by now, along with their ability to give bending to humans, so that the ability to take bending has been implied.

The weird orange-vs-blue lightshow with the energy bending was kind of melodramatic, though the corruption-vs-purity thing could still be visually represented by Ozai trying to physically overpower Aang and failing.

Possibly to be continued.

[harostar]

Hi! :) What are your thoughts on the latest snk chap?

I HAVE A LOT OF THOUGHTS AND FEELINGS.

First and foremost, I agree with many other people that things seemed rushed. I suspect that we will have numerous flashbacks to fill in the gaps, in upcoming chapters.

We know how our cast got from their lowest moment to now, where they are finally starting to move. Finally deciding what they want and what they can live with.

Levi’s full condition remains obscured for now, but I think it’s obvious he won’t be joining the battle on the front lines for a long time. That his lower body remains covered makes me wonder whether he has serious injuries that are going to leave him crippled, beyond the injuries to his face and the missing fingers. 

I already enjoy the dynamic between Hanji and Pieck, both strange intellectuals. I enjoyed the acknowledgement of Hanji as a Titan Researcher, as a scientist on par with the Titan Researchers back in Marley. I’ve been waiting for these parties to sit down at the proverbial table and start talking, because......like damn. They might have fought each other in the past, but their goals ultimately align. None of them trust the Old Marley, and they want to rebuild the world without destroying it. These are all smart, experienced, level-headed folks for the most point. 

Connie’s internal turmoil was painful to watch, but it’s been a long time coming. I ultimately think the confrontation and conclusion were suitable. Maybe not drawn out as it could have been, but Connie needed to explode with emotion and re-examine his priorities. He needed the reminder that the Nine Titans are not a good thing, that they come with a terrible burden and what he was going to do would have disappointed his mother. He’s been on a dark path since Sasha died, and he needed that wake-up call in realizing that he didn’t want to be that person.

Armin, as per usual, defaults to a plan that is basically:

Connie reminds him that constantly trying to get himself killed is stupid. 

Gabi and Falco have a breakdown in the background, which isn’t entirely satisfying but I think worked. We already knew that his reaction would essentially be horror and grief over the deaths that took place. But the bigger focus was on resolving Connie’s downward spiral, and him reaching a point of figuring out what he really wanted. 

The scene with Mikasa and Louise was incredibly tragic. Other people have talked at length about how Louise was ultimately a girl chasing a distant figure, worshiping her idolized vision of a person. She met Mikasa ONCE as a child, and created this entire fictionalized person in her mind to follow. She saw Mikasa’s devotion to Eren, and mimicked it blindly without understanding a single thing about them. She kept telling Mikasa how she was doing things BECAUSE of her, but they were always the wrong things. Chasing after an ideal seems to be a common issue in the series, with people coming to realize what they imagined is not the truth. Louise refused to understand the REAL Mikasa, continuing to insist that she was doing things for her.....while never bothering to listen to Mikasa, or ask how she felt about those things. 

Louise was, ultimately, kind of an obsessed stalker. She didn’t see Mikasa as a person, just an ideal to chase after. And that obsession led her into dark places, and now will end her life. She’s unrepentant, no matter how much Mikasa showed her disapproval or distress. It’s.....disturbing, honestly. And its little surprise that Mikasa ultimately has to walk away from this girl, taking back her scarf as she prepares to confront Eren. She can’t save Louise from her own self-destructive obsession, and she might not be able to save Eren. But Mikasa, at least, is asking questions and realizing what she needs to do.

Floch just.....really needs to be punched in the face until he stops moving. He’s become more and more of a monster, as the story progresses and he finds himself with more power. He gleefully wields it to stir up the masses, justifying Genocide and spinning it as a glorious thing worthy of a festival. It was chilling to watch, honestly. Floch is an evil that needs to be stopped. 

On the other hand, it was refreshing to see those old bonds renewed. Their serious discussion about Annie gets derailed because she’s right there, shoving her face full of pie. I loved that nod to Lost Girls, and Annie freaking out over the donuts. Even when confronted by the people she betrayed, Annie still awkwardly prioritizes finishing what she’s eating. 

Her face is so comical, I don’t blame Connie for losing it. After everything that has happened, I think that moment of levity was exactly what everyone needed. They’ve been through so much, and just.....reconnecting to their Trainee years, and laughing over the Ever-Serious Annie shoving food into her face was what was needed to break the tension.

Connie and Sasha always were good at breaking the ice. Good to see some things haven’t changed.

I’m sure that we’ll see more of that conversation later, how they got from that awkward meeting to being on the same page. I’m also curious as to how much the Warrior Kidlets know her and know OF her. 

And again, we go back to FUCKING FLOCH. Preparing to execute people who don’t fall into line and welcome their new Eldian Masters. He’s eager to start the genocide and purging within Paradis, because he’s drunk on the power leading the Yeagerists gives him. He’s enjoying wielding it to abuse others, and he’s eager to see anyone that doesn’t obey him die. It would start with Volunteers and Marleyan prisoners, but it would end the same way it did before with a Secret Police murdering anyone that steps out of line. In the old days, Floch would have been eagerly torturing Erwin’s father or shooting Armin’s parents. 

Onyankopon knocks it out of the park, calling the Yeagerists out on their hypocrisy. The world they are going to build is no different from the one Marley was trying to make. They have become the oppressors, eager to slaughter innocent people just trying to survive. I’ve always liked him and I love him this chapter, standing up to the mindless hatred and cruelty he is witnessing. He refuses to be a part of that. 

I’m wondering how long before we see how their plan ultimately came about? Either way, I’m forever dying at the conversation with Hanji asking Pieck whether she brushed her teeth as a Titan and Pieck insisting that’s a rude thing to ask a lady. I just......I want to see more of them interacting, their dynamic is already great.

Jean lays out the ultimate reason for everyone acting this chapter, referencing waaaaaaaaaay back to the beginning of the series. So much has changed since Trost, but Jean continues to weigh decisions based on whether he’s honoring Marco’s memory or not. The young man that wanted an easy life of comfort and safety was destroyed when his hometown became a battlefield and he had to burn the mangled corpse of his best friend. Floch tries to recruit him by referencing the selfish kid Jean used to be, and ultimately reminds Jean of who he wants to be. It was a great moment.

And okay, I just.....I just really love that after 4 years, Annie greets Reiner by kicking him in the face. It’s just their dynamic down to the most basic elements. She has no patience for him, and just kicks him out of a coma. The kids provide the buffer between old enemies, while Reiner has another moment of terror revisiting his past and everyone looks at him with such cold eyes. It seems they’ve cleared the air with Annie, as much as possible. 

It’s fitting that Connie is the one to greet Reiner and explain things, because they had such a close friendship. I’ve long wondered whether Connie’s promise would ever be revisited, and how these two would handle a reunion. We saw Reiner completely break down when confronted by Eren. Now, it’s time to see he handles meeting his former comrades. He’s been on such an ugly spiral of despair for so long, so desperate for an end to his pain and only able to continue moving forward because of the kids. He’s got a motivation to keep going in finally, TRULY helping to save the world. But there’s so much unfinished business and so much pain and trauma for the 104th to hash out. 

It’s going to be a wild ride.

[afandomroom]

Talk about your ninjago oc's?? I saw a couple of posts in the tags and I wanna know more!

Oooh sure! :D Buckle up because I have a ton and this is probably gonna turn into a lonnng answered ask. 

I'll stick to general answers so it doesn't get to long. If y'want more specific stuff about any of them, just ask!

Ok, to start with newest edition of them all.

Siege (Also know as "The General" or "Zero") 

- They're specific to my Redeemed Cryptor AU.

- They're part of the Overlord's nindroid army in season 3, yes they're a nindroid. 

- They replaced Cryptor as the Overlord's general after Cryptor was discovered to be a double agent and traitor. They were also placed in charge of getting information from Cryptor on the ninja and their whereabouts, and in erasing any traces of Cryptor from the Overlord's ranks. 

- Post- Overlord's defeat, they refused to let Cyrus reprogram/recruit them for his security, so they ran away and disappeared.

- Absolutely hates Cryptor and wants him dead for  betraying the Overlord. 

- Overall they're an arrogant jerk, kinda murderous and very cruel. 

------------------------------------------------------------------

Moving on to, The Partners in Crime. My first ocs. 

Sage Brooks and Asher Woodman. 

- Sage and Asher are a pair of thieves for hire. They were introduced to a life of crime by Ronin at a young age. 

- Sage and Asher met during a skeleton horde attack as kids and they've stuck together since.

- Sage is an archer, with a lot of guilt over things she has done. She's sorta the mom of the group, though Asher, Sage, and Marion all view each other as siblings. She tends to be more heroic than Asher, stopping to save lives during villain attacks and such. 

- Asher is hand to hand combat based, and tends to put on a brave face and push away his own emotional stuff to instead support Sage and Marion. He's a troublemaker. He really only cares about himself and his loved ones safeties, preferring to stay away from villain attacks or at least stay on the villains good sides. The only exception is fellow thieves/criminals. He'll fight them, specifically if he thinks they're a threat to his family, without hesitation. 

- I actually have files for them somewhere on here, but they really need updated. Specifically Sage's. 

- Asher has a girlfriend/wife named Katlyn Mcbrian. She was a fellow thief that he met on a job. They continued a life of crime after marriage, up until Katlyn was pregnant with their twin daughters, Willow and Cedar Woodman. 

---------------------------------------------------------------

Marion Nettle

- He's Sage and Asher's little brother. Sage saved him from a group of SOG members back in Garmadon's take over. 

- He's an elemental master, specifically the elemental master of fear. I also have a file for this element somewhere on here. 

- As mentioned in an earlier post, he was trained by Morro. He was one of Morro's first students after redemption, to be specific. 

- Most people don't react well to his presence, thanks to his element. It hurts but he's gotten used to it. He's also a soft ray of sunshine, a cinnamon roll.

- He's an inbetween ninja, as in he's somewhere between the current ninja and the next generation of ems. As an adult/older teen he leads a small warrior squad named "The Shadow Squad", who watch over Ninjago and help train the next generation of the elemental masters. 

--------------------------------------------------------------------

Safa Mayfield

- She's from my Redeemed Bizarro Series, and is Daemon (Bizarro! Cole's) little sister. See " Gone Soft"

- She's a really sweet kid, even when she's a teen who acts all tough and sarcastic. 

- Really looks up to Daemon and Blizzard (Bizarro!Zane), and aspires to be like them. Daemon taught her self defense and Blizzard taught her weapon based combat. 

- She becomes a viglante named "Nightmare", and essentially becomes the Shadow Squad's Samurai X later on. She wears red eye contacts as part of her vigilante uniform,  a nod to and attempt to hold a likeness to her bizarro brothers. 

- Does not like the ninja, with the exception of Cole and Marion. And Morro, kinda.

- She's the youngest member of Shadow Squad by two years. Was worried the trainees were scared of her; they aren't, even though she's intimidating.

---------------------------------------------------

Calvin Rune

- Calvin is a dark sorcerer, and a member of the Shadow Squad.

- He lives with his brother, Jerome, who is also a sorcerer, but not of the dark variety. More on him later.

- He is a bit sarcastic, very tired all the time thanks to studying magic for hours on end. 

- He's a bit of trickster, encourages the trainees to prank eachother and place bets (with candy) on stuff. 

- I still need to figure out more for him 😅

------------------------------------------------------

Zoe Rose Johnson

- Zoe is a non-em ninja and a member of the Shadow Squad. They're a team healer.

- They were one of Garmadon's season 3 students. They very much admire him and were inspired to learn how to defeat an opponent without fighting them from him. 

- Has learned chi blocking. 

- They're kind hearted, but are also incredibly stubborn and won't hesitate to physically drag you to the med bay of you refuse to have your injuries looked at. Which is good because Safa will try to walk it off, Calvin will be to tired to take care of himself, and Marion doesn't wanna bother Zoe. 

-------------------------------------------------------

Jerome Rune

- Jerome is Calvin's older brother, and is a Light Sorcerer (? The name is in progress)

- He runs a tea shop known as "Mystery Teas" along with his husband. Before joining Shadow Squad, Calvin worked there, or babysat Jerome's triplets.

- Jerome once had a very strong connection to his magic, and was a powerful sorcerer. He was a capable fighter, as well.

- However, after a near-death experience (with the outcome of severe injuries) during a villain attack, where he attempted to help civilians, he lost his connection to his magic. 

- This isn't connection that can be regained. Once severed, it's gone.

- He got lucky, a specialist managed to salvage some of his magic with a rune of his choice. The magic that remained was condensed into that specific rune, and with practice and concentration, he'd be able to perform the spell that matched that rune. 

- He chose a shield rune.

------------------------------------------------------

Villains 

- Puppet Master

- She's Marion's villain, and is the elemental master of string. This allows her to control people like puppets. 

- Aerial is one of the people under her control, and is Zoe's villain. 

- Ms. Fortune is a follower of Puppet Master, willingly. She is Calvin's villain.

- Yes, they're all carnival/performer themed. 

----------------------------------------------------------

The Trainees

- Aurora is the next em of illusions

- Jaxon is the next em of nature

- Damian is the next em of mind

[resonanteye]

via http://resonanteye.net/originals-will-be-for-sale-nov-15/

Originals will be for sale, Nov 15

Two are spoken for.

All the local galleries are full of artists that they were showing last year, my kickstarter to get full scale prints made did not get funded (really bad timing). I’ll eventually be releasing a small art book containing all of these, I hope. I had wanted to show them as a group but I do not think I’ll be able to do that. so,

here are the originals I’ll be selling. There will be a second post with purchase links on the day, and you’ll be able to message me to purchase as well. Full sized prints will eventually be available but I don’t have a date for that.

Paintings from Quarantine, a series, 2020

all are watercolor paintings. charging by size and scope…

  12×16″ are 150$

18×24″ are 500$

22×30″ are 900$

36×50″ are 1500$

shipping to US/CAN included: all will be rolled for shipping, unframed. I’ll ship any country, but will have to calculate for anywhere but US/CAN. rush shipping on request at cost.

no. 1 – Milan (quarantine paintings, 2020) watercolor, oil, gesso on arches paper, 18×24″ dedicated for Dr. Marcelo Natali 1963-3/25/20 “We certainly weren’t prepared to face such a situation. Especially those of our generation, that of the post-antibiotic era, who grew up thinking that a pill against the disease was enough.”

no. 2 – Northwestern United States (quarantine paintings, 2020) watercolor, oil, gesso on arches paper, 18×24″ dedicated for Dr. Stephen M. Schwartz (January 1, 1942 – March 17, 2020) “There is no way to summarize a person as complex as Steve, but I’ll say this: I have never met a person with a finer mind, a greater passion for ideas, or who had a greater love for science,” Dr. Chuck Murry “This beer virus I call it — they call it a coronavirus, I call it a beer virus — how do you like that?” Rep. Don Young

no. 3 – Iran (quarantine paintings, 2020) watercolor, oil, gesso on arches paper, 18×24″ dedicated for Dr. Shirin Rouhani (unknown- 3/19/20) “She treated patients at Masih Daneshvari Hospital in Tehran while receiving IV therapy, because there were not enough doctors. Hospitals are faced with a lack of protective gear including medical gowns, N95 masks, gloves, and disinfectants.” -Javad Tavakoli ” Tell medècin sans frontiers that we do not need hospitals established by foreigners”. -Health Minister, Alireza Vahhabzadeh.

no. 17 (final) – New Orleans, LA, USA⁣ (quarantine paintings, 2020)⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣ ⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣ watercolor, oil, gesso on arches paper, 18×24″⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣ ⁣ ⁣ dedicated for Ronald Lewis⁣ 7/17/1951-3/20/2020⁣ ⁣ “Right here in the Ninth Ward was where our people chased the American dream.”⁣ ~ Ronald Lewis⁣ ⁣ “The federal government rose to the challenge and this is a great success story and I think that that’s really what needs to be told.”⁣ ~Jared Kutchner

no. 4 – Rikers Island, New York (quarantine paintings, 2020) watercolor, oil, gesso on arches paper, 18×24″ dedicated to Michael Tyson, 53 “Incredible anxiety and fear. You cannot implement effective social distancing in a room that sleeps forty men. You cannot implement effective social distancing when those forty men are using two or three sinks and one of them may be broken. You cannot implement effective social distancing when the staff interacts with all of them and has to touch all of them in the course of a day. They know that better than I know that. So when I was talking to them, I was sort of feebly saying, “We want to try to encourage people to be even more diligent about hand-washing, etc., etc.” They were, like, “O.K., we don’t have our own cleaning supplies.” They can’t wipe down their own surfaces. They have to wait for someone to come in and do that for them.” “The largest category of people in city jails are those awaiting trial — people who have not been charged but not convicted. In the ordinary course of events, getting someone in this position out of jail requires an application made in court before a judge.” -Dr. Bedard New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced on Monday that the state had found a way to counteract price gouging on hand sanitizer amid the COVID-19 outbreak: by deploying cheap prison labor. Incarcerated people will be producing the disinfectant… “This is a superior product to products now on the market,” Cuomo said in a briefing, adding that the state’s sanitizer has a “very nice floral bouquet” that includes hints of lilac, tulip, and hydrangea.

  no. 5 – Los Angeles, Mercy⁣ (quarantine paintings, 2020)⁣ ⁣ watercolor, oil, gesso on arches paper, 18×24″⁣ ⁣ dedicated for Francisco Garcia⁣ ⁣ “There’s a very limited supply, it’s a scary situation. Just going to work, driving to work, you’re worried you’re going to get something. It’s changing by the hour and by the day.” S. Beltran, ER nurse . ⁣ ⁣ ⁣ “This week the State Department has facilitated the transportation of nearly 17.8 tons of donated medical supplies to the Chinese people, including masks, gowns, gauze, respirators, and other vital materials.” -Mike Pompeo, Feb 7 2020

⁣no. 6 – Wuhan (quarantine paintings, 2020)⁣ watercolor, oil, gesso on arches paper, 18×24″⁣ ⁣ dedicated for Dr. Li Wenliang (1986-2/7/2020) “I think there should be more than one voice in a healthy society, and I don’t approve of using public power for excessive interference.” -Dr. Li Wenliang “Now, the Democrats are politicising the coronavirus… this is their new hoax.” -Donald Trump “Trump has botched the response to coronavirus pandemic…classifying deliberations makes it harder for health experts in government without security clearances to be in key meetings. This is unprecedented, unnecessary, and damages our ability to respond to the pandemic.” -Gregg Gonsalves, a Yale epidemiologist “You, Dr. Li Wenliang, have been making false comments on the Internet, and will sign a letter of admonishment.” -Police from the Wuhan Public Security Bureau, Jan 3 2020

no. 7 – Madrid (quarantine paintings, 2020)⁣ ⁣ watercolor, oil, gesso on arches paper, 18×24″⁣ ⁣ dedicated for Dr. Isabel Munoz ( 1961 -3/24/2020) “Her only obsession was not to infect anybody.” -Jesus Munoz “Even if we all get sick, I’d rather die than kill the country.” -Glenn Beck

⁣no. 8 – Johannesburg⁣ ⁣⁣ (quarantine paintings, 2020)⁣⁣⁣ ⁣⁣⁣ watercolor, oil, gesso on arches paper, 18×24″⁣⁣⁣ ⁣⁣⁣ dedicated for Simon⁣ (unknown)⁣⁣ ⁣ ⁣ “They put us here and now we are close to one another. This is why we will be vulnerable to catching Corona. Our government has failed us,” Simon, homeless man moved by police to stadium from the street.⁣ ⁣ “The lockdown has caused problems, but it is a necessary thing that South Africa had to do,” -Maider Mavi, Mozambique Health Ministry. “Anyone showing symptoms who goes to a state hospital will have their COVID-19 test for free.” ⁣ ⁣ ⁣ “The goal here is to keep Covid out of this community,” says Sasha Lalla, a leader at COSUP, a city-supported substance abuse program.⁣ ⁣ “I think then we will be seeing a situation where people with compromised immune systems are not just at risk of Covid-19, they are at risk of death. We have a responsibility to keep our most vulnerable safe,” he said. “One case here, it would be like wildfire.”

no. 9 – New York City⁣ ⁣⁣⁣ (quarantine paintings, 2020)⁣⁣⁣⁣ ⁣⁣⁣⁣ watercolor, oil, gesso on arches paper, 18×24″⁣⁣⁣⁣ ⁣⁣⁣⁣ dedicated for Father Antonio Checo⁣ May 6, 1952-April 1, 2020 ⁣ “Words cannot describe the sadness and hurt as well as the frustrations that this pandemic has brought about to our daily lives here and across the city…Effective today, all Episcopal churches have been ordered closed until May 17, 2020…we as your clergy are still accessible via phone as your pastors in these times. And since we cannot gather as a community until May, we want to begin to periodically send you the weekly bible readings as that you can use for private prayer worship.⁣ …take an hour each day to pray these prayers remembering those who have died because of this pandemic, as well as those who are sick and those “essential” workers on the frontlines who ensure we as citizens have access to life sustaining resources for day to day living. We ask for the blessing of peace and hope to you all, and that all are safe in this time of uncertainty and anxiety.”⁣ Rev. Antonio Checo and Rev. Jason Moskal, St. Mark’s Episcopal Church⁣ ⁣ ⁣ “We brought in 13 machines that basically kill every virus in the place, and uh, if somebody walks through the door it’s like, it kills everything on them. If they sneeze, it shoots it down at like 100 mph. It’ll neutralize it in split seconds. We have the most sterile building in, I don’t know, all of America.”⁣ -Rodney Howard-Browne, River Tampa Bay Megachurch

no. 10 – Tokyo ⁣⁣⁣ (quarantine paintings, 2020)⁣⁣⁣⁣ ⁣⁣⁣⁣ watercolor, oil, gesso on arches paper, 18×24″⁣⁣⁣⁣ ⁣⁣⁣⁣ dedicated for Ken Shimura (20 February 1950 – 29 March 2020) “I never feared getting an infection myself,” he said, because he knows “how infection control should be done.” But aboard the Diamond Princess, “I was so scared of getting COVID-19.” “The cruise ship was completely inadequate in terms of the infection control.” -Kentaro Iwata, who has dealt with infectious outbreaks, including Ebola, cholera and SARS, for more than 20 years. “I’m choosing not to do it.” -donald trump, on masks

no. 12 – Washington, DC⁣⁣ (quarantine paintings, 2020)⁣⁣⁣ ⁣⁣⁣ watercolor, oil, gesso on arches paper, 18×24″⁣ ⁣ ⁣ dedicated for ⁣⁣ Rabbi Romi Cohn⁣⁣ Holocaust survivor⁣⁣ March 10, 1929-March 24, 2020⁣ ⁣ “The crisis caused by the coronavirus may be the time to consider a universal basic wage.”⁣⁣ -Pope Francis ⁣ ⁣ “God will shield us from all harm and sickness. We are not afraid. We are called by God to stand against the Antichrist creeping into America’s borders.”⁣⁣ -Tony Spell3

no. 15 – Paris⁣ (quarantine paintings, 2020)⁣⁣⁣⁣ ⁣⁣⁣⁣ watercolor, oil, gesso on arches paper, 18×24″⁣⁣⁣⁣ ⁣⁣⁣⁣ dedicated for⁣⁣⁣ Dr. John F. Murray⁣ pulmonologist⁣ June 8, 1927 – March 24, 2020⁣ ⁣ “In all his dealings in the ICU, John treated every person with respect and held them to high standards, whether it was the intern just starting in the ICU or the fellow who was a much more senior trainee, or the nurses or the therapists. Everybody had something to offer and was treated as a member of this team.”⁣ -Courtney Broaddus⁣ ⁣ “You have to do what’s best for your business.”⁣ -Wayne Hoffman

“Audience Participation, London” 22×30″, watercolor

Houston has its Time 22×30″, watercolor

Calling in the Forces, Sunflowers 22×30″ watercolor

Skating in New York City watercolor, 22×30″

The Observers (Germany) watercolor on arches, 12×16″

  no. 13 – Atlanta⁣ (quarantine paintings, 2020)⁣⁣ ⁣⁣ watercolor, oil, gesso on arches paper, 18×24″⁣⁣ ⁣⁣ dedicated for⁣ Rushia Johnson Stephens⁣ music teacher⁣ 1954-2020⁣ ⁣ “Given our population density, high rate of asthma, and various underlying health conditions found within our city’s populations, I am issuing a Stay at Home Order for Atlantans.”⁣ -Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms⁣ ⁣ ⁣ “adding a public option to Obamacare is the best way to lower costs and cover everyone. 160 million people like their private insurance.”⁣ -Joe Biden

SOLD:

no. 11 – The Bronx⁣ (quarantine paintings, 2020)⁣ ⁣ watercolor, oil, gesso on arches paper, 18×24″⁣ ⁣ dedicated for⁣ Rakkhon Kim, a member of Branch 36 in New York City⁣ 1970-March 25,2020⁣ ⁣ “It is not an exaggeration to say that our men and women in the Postal Service, who were already performing one of the most important jobs in America, are now literally putting their own lives on the line to deliver the food, medicine, and essential supplies that hundreds of millions of Americans depend on every single day during this pandemic.”⁣ -Senator Bernard Sanders⁣ ⁣ “It’s been losing billions of dollars a year for many, many years… this is the new one, I’m now the demise of the Postal Service. I’ll tell you who’s the demise of the Postal Service, are these internet companies that give their stuff to the Postal Service…They drop everything in the post office and they say, ‘You deliver it.’ “⁣ -president Donald Trump

no. 14 – Lansing⁣ (quarantine paintings, 2020)⁣⁣⁣ ⁣⁣⁣ watercolor, oil, gesso on arches paper, 18×24″⁣⁣⁣ ⁣⁣⁣ dedicated for⁣⁣ Lisa Ewald⁣ nurse⁣ 1966-2020⁣⁣ ⁣ “COVID-19 has impacted the lives of so many citizens throughout the state of Michigan, and even more pronounced in the city of Detroit, as we are the fastest growing city nationally with casualties related to this deadly disease.”⁣ -Rep. Sherry Gay-Dagnogo⁣ ⁣ “LIBERATE MICHIGAN!”⁣ -Donald Trump⁣ ⁣⁣

[static-valkyrie]

Guardian Mapleshade AU

Cause tbqh Mapleshade is a great villain, but her backstory has so much potential here’s an idea I had.

Mapleshade, after her death, finds herself separated from her kits, and stuck in the Dark Forest. All that time to think gives her the opportunity to realize her mistakes, but also to cement her resentment at her clan, Riverclan, and Starclan, and how they treated her.

So she decides to do what Starclan won’t, becoming a guardian for Queens who broke the code. She-cats who fell in love outside of their clan, medicine cats who fell in love. 

Those stories are below the cut:

Yellowfang… tbqh I haven’t read her book so, idk the canon exactly, but I imagine when she realizes she’s pregnant in this AU, she falls asleep, troubled, and finds herself in the Dark Forest. She’s suspicious, having never heard of this punishment for cats not good enough for Starclan, but knowing this isn’t right. Mapleshade approaches her, one of the only ones to show her any sympathy, telling her that her path will be filled with pain, but she is strong enough to handle it. Through the pregnancy and drama of figuring out what to do with the kit(s), Mapleshade visits Yellowfang’s dreams, offering her the support she didn’t get from Raggedpelt. When Brokenkit’s sibligns die and he is given to Lizardstripe, Mapleshade offers her the comfort Raggedstar refuses her, and through her time in Shadowclan occasionally visits her to comfort her. 

Bluestar, this one is… complicated of course. Again, its been a while since I read her story, so i’m going off the wiki and changing things I don’t like. Cause its an AU and I can do that. Like with Yellowfang, Mapleshade visits her not long after she finds out she’s pregnant. Mapleshade sees a situation she recognizes too well. She tells Bluefur her story, honest with this ambitious she-cat that has no reason to trust her. Bluefur refuses Mapleshade’s comfort, stating she isn’t Mapleshade, and Oakheart isn’t Appledusk. Mapleshade, still harboring some of her anger exclaims that he is Appledusk’s kin, and she wouldn’t watch that family destroy another Thunderclan she-cat’s life. After the vision of Thistleclaw, Bluefur, who still occasionally dreams of the Dark Forest, Mapleshade caring too much to leave her alone, seeks out the older warrior. She seeks the comfort she had refused, horrified at the thought of history repeating itself, but horrified of the consequences if she didn’t take action. Mapleshade, having observed Riverclan for as long as she had, and who’d been at fault for a lot of the agony in Oakheart’s life before she exhausted her anger (in this au her actions against Crookedstar ended before Bluefur and Oakheart’s romance, probably sometime around his mate’s death), and having returned to see what kind of cats Appledusk’s kin had become admits that Bluefur was right. She offers to watch over Bluefur, admitting that Bluefur has a hard decision ahead of her, and that Starclan would not make this easier. Mapleshade’s shade hehe travels to the Sunningrocks with Bluefur and her kits, invisible to them, but still watching over them. She offers some comfort to Mosskit before the young one goes to Starclan, assuring her she’d watch over her family, and offering a silent witness to Bluefur’s sorrow as Mistykit and Stonekit go with their father. That night she is Bluefur’s confidant, promising her that she would do whatever she could to protect them, Bluefur made the right choice. 

Silverstream was Mapleshade’s chance at redemption in her eyes. Appledusk’s great-great granddaughter give or take a great. Silverstream is young and in love, and Mapleshade approaches her, attempting to be as impartial as she can. She resents Silverstream for having what she wished she could have had, but when Silverstream looks to her for comfort, feeling something is wrong, still offers what she can. When Silverstream’s labor starts to go wrong, Mapleshade’s ghost is there, frantically begging Starclan to spare the younger she-cat, but is not heard. Silverstream dies, and Mapleshade again vows, to no one present this time, that she will watch over these kits.

Mapleshade continues to check in on the cats and kits she watched over, offering comfort to Yellowfang after she has to kill Brokenstar, watching her ascend to Starclan, proud as though the younger she-cat was her own kit. When Bluestar dies, finally getting a moment with her kin, Mapleshade mourns as well. She is thrilled to see Stormpaw and Featherpaw mentored by Stonefur and Mistyfoot, tagging along to watch their training. 

When Featherpaw and Stormpaw are nearly killed, Mapleshade is frantic, watching the four kits she promise to watch over and praying for their lives. Stonefur, standing to fight for the apprentices, near death, sees Mapleshade and her fury trying to save him. When he finally dies, pausing before he goes to Starclan, she tells him how proud she is of him, and to send her love to his mother. 

When Feathertail goes on the journey, Mapleshade is along too, because now the young warriors are practically her kits in her mind, especially after Graystripe went missing. She sees Feathertail falling for Crowfeather, and knowing the pattern, enters Feathertail’s dreams the next night. She tries to warn Feathertail, telling her how only sorrow follows these romances. Feathertail tries to heed her advice, but she’s young and in love. When Feathertail makes the jump to save Crowfeather, Mapleshade can feel her heart breaking a little more. She tries to comfort the young warrior as she dies, telling her she did so well. 

When Leafpool falls for Crowfeather, Mapleshade, having seen this pattern so many times, tries to visit the young medicine cat. She has difficulties, but finally manages to see the medicine cat when she elopes with Crowfeather. Mapleshade tells Leafpool that this romance will only bring her pain, that there is a long, hard future ahead, no matter her decision. Too little too late, it seems, as the next time Mapleshade sees Leafpool, the she-cat is pregnant, and making her plans with Squirrelflight. Mapleshade can’t offer Leafpool as much support, as the younger she-cat knows of the Dark Forest, having had the opportunity to bond with Brambleclaw more, the tom needing someone to talk to about what he experienced and thinking a Medicine Cat apprentice the best choice. Leafpool, realizing what kind of cat she’s talking to, accuses Mapleshade of trying to get revenge on Thunderclan for soemthing. Mapleshade, recognizing this distrust, and frustrated, tells Leafpool that she’s had her revenge, and it did Nothing. 

When the three kits are born, and Tigerstar starts to gather forces in the Dark Forest, Mapleshade becomes concerned, harboring fury for Stonefur’s death and knowing what kind of cat Tigerstar was. When Jaypaw wanders too far and finds himself in the Dark Forest, it’s Yellowfang and Mapleshade that interfere, protecting him from Tigerstar and Hawkfrost. Mapleshade entrusts Jaypaw to Yellowfang, the Starclan cat thanking Mapleshade before she essentially drags Jaypaw away. Mapleshade faces the two toms, finally meeting Tigerstar face-to-face, and tells him that those kits are hers and if he even thinks of messing with them, she’ll end him. Mapleshade is present at some of the meetings, lurking on the outskirts, dragged in by Tigerstar’s forceful presence. She sits in when Lionpaw trains with Tigerstar, a somewhat faded presence that Lionpaw comments on. Tigerstar taunts Mapleshade, asking if she’d like to offer Lionpaw some training as well. Mapleshade joins the training, only to ensure Lionpaw’s safety, fearful for the kit. When Lionblaze confronts the three in the Dark Forest, Tigerstar tells him they all knew from the start. Lionblaze and Tigerstar begin to fight, but Mapleshade intervenes, knocking the two toms apart, snarling at Lionblaze to leave, never return. After Lionblaze leaves Tigerstar tells Mapleshade of his plans against Starclan, trying to lure her in with her anger towards Starclan. Mapleshade knows she is being manipulated, and pretends to join. She offers basic training, working with younger cats. Then, during a meeting, Tigerstar calls on her to show them how why she is one of the deadliest cats here. Mapleshade steps forward, eyeing the dreaming cats, and tells Tigerstar she’d love to give him a taste of what she gave the last cats who wronged her. Tigerstar, uncertain of her meaning, agrees, and the two battle. Closely matched, Tigerstar and Mapleshade’s battle is vicious, the she-cat channeling all her fury into the confrontation, and when the battle is called off, Hawkfrost and Brokenstar breaking them up with help from some of the other residents, Mapleshade tears part of Tigerstar’s neck ruff from him, refusing to let go. Tigerstar, shocked at the she-cat’s viciousness, recovers and reminds his trainees that the enemy will be out for blood. 

After the trainees leave, the confrontation continues, both spectral warriors bloodied, and the other residents watching, suspicious. Mapleshade bares her teeth, grinning vicious, when she tells him he shouldn’t have touched her kits. 

In the Great Battle, Mapleshade fights against the Dark Forest, teaming up with Yellowfang to take on Brokenstar, joins Stonefur, Blackstar and Bluefur in taking on Darkstripe, Thistleclaw and a partrol of nameless Dark Forest residents, and when Tigerstar reveals himself, she is the one to attack him first. Other Dark Forest cats rip her away, and bloodied and exhausted, she can’t resist as they chase her away, allowing Tigerstar to take on Firestar. I’m unsure how the rest of the Battle goes, but Mapleshade survives, and takes the time to reunite with the she-cats and kits she guarded. There’s a moment, then, where Mapleshade’s name is called. Coming from the Riverclan cats Mapleshade sees Appledusk, his mate, and Crookedstar and his mate, Alongside them are Frecklewish and Ravenwing. Mapleshade shrinks then, seeing anger in their eyes, until a pair of familiar silver cats step in. Feathertail steps in front of Mapleshade, and Silverstream between her daughter and her father. They tell Crookedstar and his kin of Mapleshade’s protection when they were left behind by Starclan. Appledusk is furious, insisting that she deserved her punishment, especially after all she’d done to their kin. Then Mapleshade apologizes, and realizes that she really does mean it. The area is quiet, most of the living cats spending some time with kin, and Mapleshade tells them how sorry she is, how she knew it was wrong and knew she’d caused so much harm, but begs that they let her live(or continue undeath?), let her continue to protect the ones she’d vowed to guard, let her help those that Starclan forgot.

Idk how exactly to do it, but there’s a nice twist at the end, and Mapleshade is allowed to continue to protect her kits and her queens.

[ahgapride98]

JINYOUNG’S MEMORY LANE 🍑🧡

The fourth post of the series ‘Memory Lane: Got7’ is dedicated to The Nation’s First Love, one of the best actors in the world (you can totally see how un-biased I am, right? 😂) and mother of Got7: Jinyoung!

Park Jinyoung (박 진영) was born in South Korea the 22nd of September, 1994. Known by the ahgase fandom as Jireongie, Pepi or Park Gae (Wang Gae Park Gae forever!), Park Jinyoung has been gracing us with his singing, dancing and acting skills since 2012.

Born in a loving family, Jinyoung spent his childhood surrounded by the unconditional love of his parents and two older sisters. Even though we don’t have a lot of information about his childhood or pre-debut life, it is known that when he was young, he mostly played with dolls instead of other toys that are more “suited” for boys (this is thanks to his sisters 😊).

Also, we know that he graduated from Kyunggi High School, where he was the president of his class (we love a responsible boy). In a TV program, he said that he still stays in contact with his homeroom teacher, because she is the one who guided him to become who he is today (thank you very much Jinyoung’s homeroom teacher, ahgases own you a lot! 😭).

But he wasn’t just a responsible boy, he was also a really good person. Some time ago, a boy that went to the same high school as our Prince revealed that even though he was bullied and an outcast, Jinyoung would get his friends to sit and eat with him so he wouldn’t feel alone and left out. This boy said that he felt really thankful for what Jinyoung did, and that he was a really good hyung (it seems clear that our boy has had a heart of gold since he was young, no wonder why people love him so so so much 💛).

Jinyoung once commented that since he was a child he wanted to be a singer but never did anything to achieve his goal, until one day his dad told him that he would not be anything in life. That hurt him so much that from then on he decided to prove his father wrong and show him that he could become whatever he wanted (his dad was a bit harsh, but his words surely served as motivation for our boy, so... thanks?).

So, our Jinyoung started to practice dancing and singing, and signed up for JYP’s Open Auditions in 2009 where he tied with JB for first place, officially making him a JYP Entertainment trainee. There, he trained for 2 years and 6 months before debuting.

However, while he was preparing for his idol debut, he appeared in a few dramas along with JB. He first made his acting debut in KBS2’s “Dream High 2”, and then appeared in the drama “When a Man Loves”.

Finally, on the 20th May 2012, he made his debut as a member of the duo JJ Project (along with 🌴) with the song ‘Bounce’ (I can hear Yugy, JJ Project’s fan-club president, singing his heart out to this song, it was the bop of the century!).

What I didn’t mention before was that Jinyoung and JB have been friends since before being JYP trainees, making this one of the reasons why they decided to audition together for JYP Entertainment (my JJ Project feelings, they’re so cute! 😭). At the auditions, they attracted the attention of the public through their exceptional talent, and that’s why they debuted together.

Even though his stage name tight now is Jinyoung (thanks to his parents), I have to highlight that the reason why Jinyoung originally debuted under the stage name “Jr.” was because he shares his real name with JYP Entertainment’s founder, and therefore J.Y. Park himself wanted him to be a younger version of himself (I kinda prefer our boy to have his real name tbh 🤷🏻‍♀️).

Jinyoung not only debuted as part of JJ Project back in 2012. On the 16th of January 2014, Pepi debuted along the rest of the members of Got7 with the song ‘Girls Girls Girls’ (I have to say that style wise, he didn’t look that bad, but the colored green eyeshadow was a bit to much for me 😂).

This was the continuation of his dream alongside JB (his longtime friend) and 5 new brothers who would become his “sons” over time, because he is known as the one who takes good care of them. Therefore, he is the mom of the group (our “mommy” Jinyoung has a rough life taking care of the kids).

It’s been 7 years since his debut, and our Jinyoung is known as a super hard worker, not only for dancing and singing, but for acting. He starred in the web-series “Dream Knight” along with his fellow Got7 members in 2015 (confession time: I find the drama cringy to watch, but I love it so much I’m sure it’s become unhealthy). He acted in “My Love Eun-Dong” in 2015, where he got a huge amount of praise from the public, other drama directors and actors. He acted in “The Legend of the Blue Sea” in 2016, where -once again- he received tons of praises and offers form different directors. He acted in the JYP drama called “Magic School” in 2017 together with 2PMs Nichkhun and Park Yoon. And also, he acted in the movie “Snowflakes” (also known as “A Stray Goat”) in 2017, where he made his debut as a movie actor.

Currently he is filming his new drama called “He Is Psychometric” (2019) along with Shin Ye Eun (a really talented JYP actress, and gorgeous too 😊). This is the first time our Jinyoung has a leading role in a drama, and I seriously can’t wait for it to aired and be swept out of my socks and see my wig flying to South Korea.

But he has not only shown his talent in acting. He has become an amazing composer for the group, creating songs full of meaning and feelings like ‘Face’, ‘My Youth’ or ‘Thank You’ (you know, the ones that make you think and cry all at the same time, aka my fave songs 🤣). Jinyoung has said that he finds inspiration in ahgases’ love and his own life experiences, and I can only aspire to be half as talented as he is one day (probably that won’t happen, but at least I have him to be by my side🥰).

Going back to JJ Project for a little bit now. After 5 years since their debut, these boys made a comeback in July 2017 with the song ‘Tomorrow, Today’ from the album ‘Verse 2’. You can definitely see how our Jinyoung has changed over the years, and how much he has matured. The songs he composed for the album are full of feelings and are relatable to everyone. He said that ‘Verse 2’ was meant to be an album that could help people going through a hard time to not feel alone, as they could easily relate to the lyrics of the songs (my honest un-biased opinion: THE ALBUM DESERVED A FUCKING GRAMMY!)

In this 7 years he has achieved many things. He first debuted with his longtime friend JB (🌴) in JJ Project, then debuted again in Got7 and became the mom of the group (and somehow married JB, as he is the dad of our babies), acted in many dramas and finally starred in one, opened his Instagram after Got7’s first win, composed and wrote many songs for the group’s albums, went on a World Tour (he blew me a kiss in the Paris Concert, your girl almost dies right then and there!),etc.

It’s clear that he is a really talented person, and I’m so happy he debuted again with Got7. He truly is an essential part of the group (just like the rest of the members) and I can’t imagine a better mommy for the group.

Also, I have to apologize to all of you for being missing for such a long time, and not post as I planned to (this series would have been finished by now if I had sticked to my plan). I’m a college student, and for the past month or so I had to study for my finals (good news, I have passed all of them: YAY ME! 😊). But I’m back now, so I’ll keep posting for this series.

Another thing I wanted to add was that, if you are curious about my experience at the concert, I can make a separate post on it, and show my pictures and videos (I have a clip of Jackson dancing ‘Paradise’ in front of me that is pure gold), and also talk about how it was.

That being said, I love you all ahgases! I hope you have an amazing year! (I’m a bit late, I know... sorry 🌝).

[yodawgiherd]

Candyman

Rating : M

>>> Read on AO3<<<

Originally, I wanted to do something altogether different here, but then ch. 116 happened and few people I follow went insane over Eren's abs (not that I blame them, boy’s a snack).

So, I made this instead :D

Enjoy!

Levi almost forgot how good it felt, with the recent weeks spent buried in annoying paperwork. The rush of a fight, the strain of body, the way his senses sharpened, and mind cleared, one singular goal remaining in his mind. To win, to defeat whoever was on the opposite side of the ring, who just happened to be his sister. Mikasa’s lips were thinly pressed together, with sweat beading on her forehead, a proof that she was taking this duel as seriously as Levi was. She always took her opponents seriously, no matter who they were, and Levi thought that it’s surely a very good trait to have. After all, you never truly knew who you’re fighting. She was keeping her distance, trying, testing, hoping to find a way through her brother’s defense, but it was perfect so far. Levi might not have much tournament experience himself, but he had an amazing talent and years of hard work behind his moves, and when he gave it his all, he was an amazing fighter. Then again, so was Mikasa. The hits landing were fast, and strong, shaking Levi’s body, but he kept his hands up, searching for the true moment to strike. Patient, and silent, like a wolf, waiting for his moment to bite. And as on cue, he got one.

The footwork was easy to miss, but he knew Mikasa like the back of his hand, or he liked to think that he did, the years they trained together giving him insight into her fighting style no one else will ever have. The tiny step back, the spacing and preparation, it gave him a very short notice of the high kick that was coming, but still, it was a heads up, and he took full advantage of it. The plan was simple. Block the kick, push her leg away to upset her balance, and step closer in order to fully abuse the hole in her defense. Bracing himself, Levi took a wide stance, expecting the inevitable. The kick landed like a thunder into his block, the sheer strength alone making him stumble a few steps backwards. Okay, he was right about his prediction but simply underestimated the power of the attack, as he was now the one reeling backwards, unable to do anything but prevent himself from falling on his ass.

“Damn, you actually caught that.”, Mikasa had a surprise written all over her face, hands dropping to indicate that she was ready to take a breather. One that they both desperately needed. “I was sure that I had you this time.”

“Too slow.”, he gritted through clenched teeth, working his shoulders before the stiffness had a chance to set it. Fuck but that last hit stung. Luckily Mikasa didn’t seem to notice his struggle, casually drying her sweaty face with a towel.

It was amazing seeing her grow like she did, both as a person and as a fighter, and Levi couldn’t help but feel a sense of achievement, watching her now. Back then, when she first came to him, she was broken, shattered, without a goal in life or any guidance that could show her any. It was Levi, no one else, that picked up the pieces and melded them back together, made her into the successful young woman that Mikasa is today. Sure, he made some blunders along the way, but who wouldn’t. And if she was just a hair’s breadth away from beating his ass, then so be it. What trainer wouldn’t take pride in his trainee’s strength. Through the years, Levi molded a champion, and while he of course knew that Mikasa’s hard work and dedication was essential to becoming who she is today, he allowed himself to be selfish for a minute. It felt good.

“I missed this you know.”, she said, interrupting his self-praise.

“Missed what?”

“Fighting all-out, really sparring, I couldn’t do it ever since An… ehm.. I mean, couldn’t do it for a long time.”

It was rather obvious what she wanted to say originally, but Levi was not the type to rip open an old wound. He had enough of those himself.

“What, Eren isn’t up to the task?”, he asked instead, trying to ease the tension. Successfully, since Mikasa chuckled.

“Oh, you know him, he’s doing his best.”, Eren was strong, that was for sure, and after helping her train for years at this point, more than an adequate opponent, but the likes of Levi or Mikasa were still a class above him. Must be the Ackerman genes. “Give him a few more years and maybe he’ll get there.”

“Indeed, I can totally imagine you two clashing for the title of an MMA champion.”, Levi snorted, “You’d probably start making out or some shit.”

Mikasa didn’t even have the decency to blush.

“That’s possible. Fighting always gets us…. hmm… excited.”

“Yo, keep the details, I don’t need to hear them.”

“As you wish brother dear.”, taking a measured sip of water, Mikasa stretched, groaning in satisfaction at the pleasurable soreness of her muscles. The talk about Eren however did make her remember something, so putting her bottle down, she got Levi’s attention by clearing her throat.

“What?”, he blurted.

“You never told me; how did your talk with Petra go?”

“So, you know her name huh?”

Mikasa shrugged.

“Well she was at the party, so we talked for a few minutes.”

“It was okay. I explained to her why I had to make such an exit from college, and she seemed to understand. We’re cool now.”

“Cool? Just cool?”

He narrowed his eyes at her smirking expression.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Petra, Hange… You know, out of all the people I know I never imagined you being in a love triangle.”

The casualness of her tone, the smirk, everything about the way she pronounced the accusation made Levi’s blood boil. Hey, he loved the girl, but what did she know?

“What? What triangle? There’s no fucking triangle. Shut up.”

“So defensive…”, Mikasa clicked her tongue, the smile remaining, “I wonder why…”

“I said shut up.”, throwing the towel over the ropes again, he took his fighting stance, nodding at his smirking sister. “Get ready brat.”

Mimicking his movements, Mikasa fell into her own, a bit more relaxed stance, nodding right back at him.

“Bring it on, midget.”

And soon thoughts about anything else but the sparring disappeared from their minds, as the thrill of a fight overwhelmed them once again.

Of course that Eren talked big, coming home from work, the classic rant that he’s not tired at all, while his lids were literally dropping, and that they can do something together, no problem. But Mikasa saw the same behavior on a number of occasions already, so she suggested watching a movie, something relaxing after a taxing day. Sounds good, doesn’t it. Exactly as she predicted, Eren fell asleep about five minutes after they sat together on the couch, head dropping back. She waited for a moment, to see if he perhaps wont wake up after a short nap, but judging from the sounds he was making and the overall stiffness of his body, Eren was done for the day.

Turning the tv off, and gathering his considerable bulk in her arms, she couldn’t help but grunt as his full weight settled in her embrace. Normally she had no problems with carrying him, but today’s workout was especially taxing, and that combined with the sparring against Levi, who wasn’t holding back at all, exhausted her more than she anticipated. Eren was broad shouldered, tall, and the muscle mass she helped him build herself came back to haunt her now, weighing down at Mikasa heavily. Yet it wouldn’t be Mikasa Ackerman if she backed down from a challenge. Pressing her lips together in determination, she braved the journey up the stairs to the bedroom, not letting out another sound, lest it doesn’t wake Eren up. Successfully finishing her escort mission, she carefully laid him to the bed, diving in after too, ready to call it a night. Or so she thought.

For reasons unknown to her, sleep just avoided Mikasa, making her roll left and right, unable to find any rest. It didn’t make sense. She was dog tired, exhaustion deep in her bones, but still, her eyes couldn’t remain closed. Sighing, she turned on the other side again, restless eyes sliding over Eren, who was understandably obvious to her trouble, lost in whatever dream he was having. Out of options, Mikasa decided that she just might as well watch him sleep for a while, that might inspire her body to finally snap out of it and do the same. With one hand behind his head, facing the ceiling, Eren was the picture of peacefulness, his features completely still. Usually, Eren was the one watching her sleep, and while Mikasa found it kinda creepy at the start, the soft looks and touches grew on her, and a few times she even only pretended to be asleep so she could bask in his loving gaze. Well, since she can’t sleep, she might as well try that too.

Shuffling a bit closer, Mikasa leaned in, inspecting Eren’s face from up close. He always had a pretty face, nice to look at, although it was different, now that the most dominant part of it, his blazing green eyes, were hidden beneath heavy lids. Tracing the shape of his chin, Mikasa couldn’t hold in a soft giggle when her fingertips encountered a very short stubble. Eren really needed to shave in the morning. Over the neck and down, she took her time in admiring the rise and fall of his broad chest, still remembering how skinny he was when they first met. Lot of hard work on Eren’s part, but the results were rather mouthwatering. Before meeting him, Mikasa never saw muscles as something nice to look at. Society doesn’t really judge female beauty by how distinct her abdominals are, does it. They were functional, allowed her to be faster, to hit stronger, to last longer during her workouts, they weren’t an aesthetic. But then Eren and his fascination with Mikasa’s midriff came around, and suddenly she found herself reevaluating her beliefs. What did it matter what others wanted, if her boyfriend could spend literally minutes just tracing the outlines of her abs, grinning like a child who got a new toy.

And now, years down the road, Mikasa was the one staring at Eren’s stomach, feeling her excitement spark upon seeing the subtle movements of his core. Maybe he had a point. Biting her bottom lip, she slowly dragged the cover lower, exposing more and more of the very nicely outlined abdominals. Splaying her fingers on the warm tanned skin, careful not to put too much pressure on him, Mikasa did what Eren always enjoyed, and started tracing the shapes of each individual part with the tip of her finger. It felt funny, and admittedly even a bit exciting, because damn it but her fiancé was hot. Realizing that it was partly her doing too, as she was the one who pushed him to go to the gym with her in the first place, Mikasa decided that it’s time to enjoy the spoils, and dived in with a renewed vigor. Poking and prodding, fully engaged in her task, Mikasa didn’t even notice how Eren’s eyebrows furrowed, and the little groan of discomfort that followed, but he didn’t wake. Just as she was running out of ideas of what to do, another thought struck her. There was one more thing that Eren loved doing to her stomach, one that he arguably enjoyed even more than just touching it. Risking a quick look up, making sure that he was still sleeping, Mikasa leaned even closer, and after a moment’s hesitation pressed her lips against the abs. Wasn’t the first time she was kissing this area, that was for sure, but she’s never done it before with Eren sleeping, and it gave her a rush of adrenaline. It felt like she was doing something forbidden, but who doesn’t want to be the bad girl from time to time. Bold, she stuck her tongue out, licking a broad stripe along the muscles, and that seemed to finally cross the line, because above her, certain someone cleared his throat, making her look up.

“So… uh…. Do I want to know what you’re doing?”

Eren’s gaze was half sleepy, half surprised, as he was looking down at her with total confusion on his face. Slowly, Mikasa hid her tongue back inside her mouth, trying to find any explanation for her actions. But she came up blank.

“Nothing?”, she tried.

“Well, it did look like you were licking me from my perspective.”

“Nah…”

“Right…..”

The irony was so thick in his reply that it was enough to make Mikasa snap.

“And what if I did?”, even with her cheeks coloring, she held his gaze without flinching, “You have your mouth on me all the time, maybe I wanted to get a taste too!”

Lame excuse, really, but it’s not like she had any better one.

“I do, don’t I…”, Eren seemed to be thinking about her statement for a second, but when he looked back at her, his eyes had a new kind of fire inside them. One that Mikasa knew very well. With a twist and flip, she was on her back before she realized it, with Eren looming over her, a huge grin spread on his lips.

“Now that you mention it,”, his lips were close, and Mikasa thought that he’s going to kiss her, but then he moved past, whispering into her ear instead, “I think that I’ll go for a midnight snack.”

In her disheveled state, Mikasa was just about to ask him if he can make her something to eat too, but then she noticed the way he sliddered down her body, littering kisses everywhere, and it finally clicked for her what kind of a snack he had in mind.

“I love that you wear those tiny tank tops to bed.”, he murmured, lips brushing Mikasa’s defined abdominals as he spoke, reversing the position he found himself in after waking up, “Leaves the best parts uncovered.”

Mikasa was just about to inform him that she knows very well that he likes them, and it’s partly the reason why she is wearing them in the first place, but Eren was on a mission, so her explanation got cut off because he moved fast, kissing his way between her legs, to the place where she wanted him the most. Eren took it slow, teasing her, enjoying the way she arched against him, the way the heels of her feet pressed against his back, desperate, needy for his attention. He loved making her come undone, both because he genuinely enjoyed pleasing her, but also because knowing that he has the power to make Mikasa Ackerman, the undefeated queen of the ring, who always beat him so effortlessly when they sparred, the overall toughest and strongest woman he knew, trash helplessly beneath him and sob his name, begging for release, one that he allowed her only when he had his fill, was quite an ego boost. Only when the last tremors of her finish began leaving Mikasa’s body, Eren made his way back up, coming to stop in front of her flushed face.

“You want to sleep now?”

To Eren’s surprise however, Mikasa shook her head, pulling him closer and pressing her lips to his, while wrapping her legs around his waist.

“Make love to me.”, she whispered in between the kisses, a certain need in her voice that Eren was more than happy to fulfill. Pressing his forehead to hers, Eren slowly pushed in, in completely no rush, watching her lids flutter and mouth drop a bit open as he filled her.

The activity had a certain intimacy in it, one that couldn’t he found anywhere else. There were no toys, no bindings, no roleplaying, no costumes, just them, pure and raw, as close as they physically could be. Sure, there were much better positions to reach deeper, to do it faster with more strength, a better angle, but like this, staring into each other’s eyes, this was exactly what they needed right now, and it was more than good enough. When Mikasa came, it wasn’t with a scream, but a choked gasp, followed by a long exhale, her walls collapsing around Eren’s shaft to squeeze it, the stimulation overwhelming. Three thrusts later, he was done, breathing heavily into her chest, where he fell for the moment being. It was rather comfortable resting place, made even better when her slender fingers began to comb through his long hair.

Minutes later, when their bodies calmed, Mikasa tapped Eren’s shoulder, making him look up at her.

“What’s up?”

“Can we talk?”

“Sure thing babe.”, rolling to the side, Eren groaned as his back hit the mattress, turning to his side after to get a better look at his lover, peeking at him over the rim of the covers. “What about?”

“I’ve been… thinking lately.”, seeing how quickly he began answering that, she held up a finger, “And if you’ll say that stupid “You can do that?” joke, you can look for a new girlfriend.”

Eren zipped his mouth. Uninterrupted, Mikasa continued.

“I’ve been trying to figure out, what are our limits?”

His brows furrowed in confusion.

“Limits of what?”

“Well, you know…”, her cheeks were already red from the physical activity, but somehow they managed to get a shade deeper, “vegan steaks.”

“I… I’m not sure I understand…”

“It’s just, we’ve done some really crazy stuff together, and we keep digging deeper and deeper, so I just find myself wondering, when do we call it quits? Lately, I’ve been spending basically every evening tied up, and it doesn’t matter if its shibari or the bed cuffs, in costume, or in some play. I’ve had the collar on me so much that I almost forgot to take it off before going out this morning!”, the memory was still embarrassing, especially when Mikasa imagined what would Levi say if she turned up at the gym wearing a leather collar around her neck. But somehow, for reasons she didn’t quite understand, the thought of it was also just a little bit… hot?

“That would be funny.”, Eren grumbled, earning a judging look from her.

“You know that some people do that, don’t you? Wear stuff like collars publicly, and… other things.”

He just shrugged, not sure how to react to that.

“So where is our limit? Am I going to start wearing a collar around my neck 24/7? Am I going to live in a cage here? Are you going to take me out for walks on a leash or something?”, worst of all, even just thinking about this, Mikasa could feel the familiar excitement smoking in the pit of her stomach. Oh lord, if she was already this far gone, what could even help her? Dropping her voice lower, she sighed. “Will I need to be tied up to even get aroused in the future? Or spanked? What is going to happen to us?”

Eren seemed to ponder over her outburst for a few seconds, working his jaw, but after that, he simply shook his head.

“Nothing.”

“Nothing?”, Mikasa looked up, arching an eyebrow, “What do you mean?”

“Exactly what I’m saying. Look Miki, all these roleplays and stuff, they are amazing, but the most important part of it is just you, nothing else. I can’t even imagine doing things like that with anyone else.”, reaching out, he ran his hand over her upper arm, “We can do what we want as long as we both want to try it, but you never have to fear that I’ll try pushing anything onto you that you’re not comfortable with. Ever.”

“So it’s okay with you if we just drop the act and just go at it like this?”, blinking her greys at him, Mikasa felt like she could melt in that warm look that Eren was giving her, “Sometimes I just don’t want to be hardcore fucked, sometimes I just want to, you know, make love.”

“Please,”, he snorted, “The day when I’ll say no to that will be the day I die.”

She grinned back feeling the insecurities thaw inside her heart.

“Have I told you that you’re awfully sweet from time to time?”

“Of course. My friends call me sugar candy man.”

“No they don’t.”

“True. But they could.”

Chuckling, Mikasa wrapped her arms around him, feeling Eren return the hug as she buried her face into his chest, the sleep finally washing over her body.

“I know I’m sweet, but please don’t lick me again.”, he whispered into her ear just as she was going under, smiling when she groaned against his skin.

Perhaps for that reason, Mikasa’s dreams were filled with abs made of different types of candy, which tasted pretty good when she tried them. All things considered, it was quite an enjoyable one, as far as dreams go.

[minijenn]

Keys to the Kingdom Chapter 7

AN: SURPRISE new chapter of Keys so soon after the last one (that I forgot to fucking post alksdjalskdjklad) but yeah, this one’s kind of a lot shorter than I thought it would be, but I do like it quite a lot, so I hope you will too. Enjoy!

Previous: https://minijenn.tumblr.com/post/184403048029/keys-to-the-kingdom-chapter-6

Chapter 7: Promising Beginnings

You’re only everything I’ve ever dreamed Ever dreamed of, ever dreamed of

For as long as she had been able to remember, whatever life Kairi might have led prior to her arrival at the Destiny Islands had been a complete and utter mystery to her. It was as though her memories of her birthplace, the first few years of her life in general, had been washed away by the very same tide that had landed her on the island’s shore in the first place. At the time, the only piece of fleeting knowledge the girl had carried with her was her own name. And for the longest time, the absence of those essential memories, of a home, a family, friends, anything else she might have once known, had created a deep, almost aching emptiness within her heart. An emptiness that, in time, had been filled by new memories from the new life she had come to lead. By the sound of the surf washing up onto the sand, by the way the pale glow of the moon would illuminate the small, peaceful village at night, by the seagulls and sand crabs and paopu fruit hanging from the lofty palm trees. By the mayor and his family, who had kindly, warmly taken her in and raised her as their own. By Selphie, Tidus, and Wakka. By Riku and perhaps most of all, by Sora.

And yet… the moment Kairi stepped foot into the rising city known as Radiant Garden, she knew. This was exactly where she had come from.

The spark of familiarity that had burst inside her heart upon even so much as a glance at the city’s famous central plaza was undeniable. Though the memories of her childhood here were still distant shadows locked away in the back of her mind, Kairi was confident that she had walked these cobblestone streets before. She had a connection to this place, to her home, her real home, and the suddenness in realizing that connection was more than enough to rattle her to her core. She let out a shallow breath, her eyes wide as she pressed up against one of the courtyard’s shorter walls, a hand pressed again her head as she tried to remember something, anything else about her now former home.

And yet… the only memory that stirred was that of a woman’s voice, kind and gentle, followed by a burst of warmth centered around the very same pearl necklace Kairi still wore to this day. “I just cast a magic spell on you,” the woman’s voice said, her image all but indiscernible in Kairi’s practically faded memory. “One day, when you’re in trouble, the light within you will lead you to the light of another. Someone to keep you safe.”

Kairi’s gaze drifted down to the charmed necklace, her fingertips grazing it ever so slightly. She still had no idea who the woman in her memory had been, but she couldn’t help but feel as though her spell had rung true. Because for some reason or another, it had led her away from this place and to the Destiny Islands instead. To Sora and Riku. To someone who had kept her safe.

“Excuse me, are you all ri—oh! Wait… Kairi?! Is that you?”

“Huh?” Kairi blinked out of her thoughts, realizing that she had slid down to sit against the wall. Focusing on the present once again, she noticed a young woman, clad in pink, with long, braided brown hair, her face filled with concern as she knelt down in front of her. A face that, after a moment or two, Kairi quickly recognized from her rather brief stint in Traverse Town well over a year ago now.

“Aerith!” she exclaimed with a surprised smile, not hesitating to embrace the older girl. “It’s great to see you again!”

“Same to you,” Aerith chuckled warmly, returning the hug before extending a hand to help Kairi up. “Look at how much you’ve grown! What brings you here to Radiant Garden?”

“I’m actually here to train to use my Keyblade under Merlin the wizard,” Kairi informed.

“Oh, so you’re the other pupil he mentioned earlier!” Aerith said. “Well, in that case, it’ll be great having you around here for a while.”

“Thanks,” Kairi grinned, glad to know that there would be familiar faces around to help, even in some small way, ground her amidst the uncertainty she was facing in the new regiment she was about to undertake. “Actually, Aerith, could you maybe point me in the right direction to Merlin’s house? I… don’t really know my way around here anymore…”

“Say no more. I’m actually heading there myself,” the older girl turned to head off, beckoning Kairi to follow her. “The other members of the committee will be done their own rounds soon, but we’ll probably still be the first to make it back.”

“Committee?” Kairi asked as she walked alongside Aerith through the calm city streets.

“The Radiant Garden Restoration Committee,” Aerith explained. “For over a year now, we’ve all been working hard to rebuild our home to the way it used to be. There’s still plenty of work to be done, but for now, Leon says we’ve made pretty good progress.”

“What exactly did Radiant Garden need to be restored from?” Kairi wondered, eager to learn more about her former home.

Aerith’s expression saddened at this as she turned her glance over to the castle towering high over the city’s smaller homes and shops. “Several years ago, this world was overrun by Maleficent and her endless army of Heartless.”

“Maleficent?” Kairi interjected, familiar with the dark fairy’s name. “Isn’t she that witch who captured me and the other princesses?”

Aerith nodded gravely. “She came here completely without warning. We fought to protect the town the best we could but… it wasn’t enough. She took over, and Leon, Yuffie, Cid, and I were some of the only survivors that made it out alive. It wasn’t until Sora and his friends defeated Maleficent that we were able to take our home back and start rebuilding it.”

“Oh,” was all Kairi said, even though her thoughts were practically exploding upon hearing all this. She wasn’t positive, but she had a strong suspicion that Maleficent’s conquest of Radiant Garden had been the event that had somehow caused her to be cast out of her former home in the first place. She didn’t know how exactly, or why her memories would have been stripped away from her when Aerith’s seemed to be completely intact, but it made sense, given that it had been enough to drive most of the city’s other residents out. Still, that didn’t explain how she had ended up in the Destiny Islands in the first place, but she supposed that was a question for another time.

For now, their brief travel through the city had come to an end as they reached a seemingly small home tucked away between several others. However, upon venturing inside, Kairi was surprised to see that it was much more spacious than it appeared to be. A large computer mounted the wall on one end of the main room, a round meeting table filling out the center and still leaving ample space for several bookshelves and other collections of various items. She marveled in silent wonder at the almost impossible space as she followed Aerith into it, realizing that aside from the two of them, no one else seemed to be there. Until….

“Ah, Aerith, there you are! First to arrive back, as usual. I trust your patrol went well?”

“Yes, it did, Merlin,” Aerith responded dutifully to the wizard’s seemingly disembodied voice. Confused, Kairi looked all around for any signs of him, though sure enough, Merlin himself soon materialized before them in a burst of colorful magic.

“There, that should do it!” the wizard exclaimed, mostly to himself as he brushed a bit of dust off of his shoulder. “Forgive me for the abrupt appearance, my dear, I was just putting the finishing touches on the training grounds for our soon-to-be Keyblade trainees.”

“Speaking of trainees,” Aerith grinned as she stepped out of the way. “I happened to find one of them while I was out on patrol.”

“Well, what a spot of good luck that was!” Merlin exclaimed excitably as he stepped up to shake his newest pupil’s hand. “You must be Kairi. I’ve been expecting you for quite some time now, though I don’t blame your relative tardiness on you. Yen Sid does have a terrible habit for rambling for far longer than necessary, which I’m sure was exactly what he did before sending you off here.”

Kairi almost laughed at the wizard’s bout of witty humor, though she held it back in favor of maintain the proper respect for her new teacher. “I-I’m very glad to meet you, Master,” she said with a humble bow. “It’s an honor to be training under someone as wise and powerful as yourself.”

“Oh, huff to all that puffery!” Merlin scoffed with a wave of his hand. “You don’t have to be so formal around me, my dear. Just calling me Merlin will suffice.”

“R-right,” Kairi nodded, somewhat embarrassed. “Sorry.”

“Now, now,” the wizard said with a good-natured grin. “I can tell you’re feeling a bit anxious about this undertaking, but fret not. It’s been quite a while since I’ve taken any pupils in under my tutelage, but I can assure that you I am nothing if not a fair and competent teacher. And from what I’ve heard of you thus far, Kairi, I’m sure you’ll be quite a receptive, model student. Why, by the time we’re through, I guarantee you’ll be well on your way to becoming a true, bona-fide Keyblade Master!”

This assurance did the trick in finally setting Kairi at ease. Ever since Yen Sid had tasked her with this training, she couldn’t deny that she had been worried about it for more reasons than one. She had only the barest knowledge of how to use her Keyblade, and even then her skills were minute at best. She was nowhere near the level that either Sora or Riku were on, of that she was certain, and though she wanted to strive to accomplish the strength they both knew, she couldn’t help but fear that she never would. After all, she was already so far behind both of them, weak and under-skilled, a novice through and through. She would certainly have her work cut out for her to even just become competent with her Keyblade alone. But to hear Merlin voice his vote of confidence in her so early on gave her just enough hope to think that maybe starting from the bottom and working her way up to the top might not be so difficult after all.

However, before she could properly thank the wizard for his kind words, Kairi was all too quickly reminded of the other major misgiving she had when it came to her training the moment the door burst open behind her. “Alright, gramps,” Lea trudged into the house, apparently disgruntled as he glared over at Merlin first. “I’ve been looking all over town for that portal you opened up, but I haven’t been able to find it anywhere! What gives? Is this some sort of a secret test or something?”

“No, actually, it wasn’t,” Merlin pointed out patiently. “The errand I sent you on was for the sole purpose of finding and bringing your fellow pupil here.”

“But…” Aerith interjected with something of a wry grin. “It looks like I beat you to it, Lea.”

Lea prepared to fire back a sarcastic retort, though he immediately stopped short the moment he spotted Kairi standing stiffly beside Aerith. “Oh… h-hey, Kairi,” he greeted, his tone quite awkward compared to the cool confidence it usually carried. “L-long time no see, huh?”

Kairi took in a deep breath at this, her lips pressed into a thin line as she kept a cold, scrutinizing gaze on the former assassin. She knew, based on what she had been told, that he wasn’t a Nobody anymore, nor did he carry any further ill will towards her or her friends. But as far as Kairi was concerned, that was all just hearsay. Because when she looked at Lea, she still saw Axel, the man who had kidnapped her, who had dragged her away from her home again, all for the sake of hurting one of her closest friends. And even if all that was said and done and in the past now, Kairi still couldn’t help but harbor some mistrust towards him all the same. “Yeah,” she answered flatly before pulling her sights away from him quite intentionally.

Lea seemed to start at this, almost as if he wanted to say something else to her, though he didn’t get much of a chance to before Merlin intervened. “Well, its good to know the two of you are already acquainted with one another!” he exclaimed brightly, though it was clear he didn’t know exactly how they were acquainted in the first place. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to check over the area I’ve prepared for the two of you to train in one final time. Be back in a jiff!” And with a simple wave of his wand, Merlin disappeared in a puff of magical smoke to do just that.

“And I should probably go out and find Leon and the others,” Aerith remarked as she began to head out herself. “They’re usually back by now, unless they got held up by something. Either way, I’ll see the two of you around!”

Kairi almost spoke out to ask Aerith to stay out of nerves alone, though by the time she decided she didn’t particularly want to be left alone with her former kidnapper, the older girl had already stepped out the door. An uncomfortable silence filled the room almost immediately, with Kairi quickly diverting her attention towards a nearby bookshelf in an attempt at distracting herself away from Lea. She hoped that the next several minutes until Merlin’s return could pass in that silence, but of course, the former assassin couldn’t just leave her well enough alone as she would have preferred.

“So…” Lea began, leaning against the nearby wall as he tried to put on a casual front. ‘H-how ya been?”

“Fine,” Kairi answered tersely, forcing both her expression and her tone to be apathetic and unyielding.

“You feel like you’re up for this whole training thing?”

“Mm hm.”

“You really think that wacky old coot can actually teach us anything when it comes to Keyblades?”

“Yes.”

Lea’s coy smile fell as even his attempt at reaching Kairi through humor fell. In fact, his attempts at striking up an actual conversation in general seemed to be getting him nowhere as she would barely even spare a simple glance over at him. So instead, he decided to go with a route he wasn’t entirely used to taking: being genuine. “Ugh, Kairi, look,” he sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose as he pressed against the wall. “I’ve been thinking about this ever since the old man told me we were gonna be training together, so I might as well just come out and say it: I… I’m sorry.”

Kairi’s frigid manner quickly broke at this, mostly from just how much it surprised her. “W-what?” she asked, finally looking over at him fully.

“I said I’m sorry,” Lea huffed once more, clearly swallowing his pride as he spoke. All the same, his expression was earnest, perhaps even a bit remorseful as he elaborated on his initial apology. “Ya know, for the whole… kidnapping you thing. To be honest, I’ve sorta been sorry about it ever since I did it.”

If you really had been sorry, then you wouldn’t have done it in the first place, Kairi thought rather crossly upon hearing this, though even so, she said nothing as he continued.

“But since I can’t really undo any of it now,” Lea frowned, scratching the back of his neck as he looked down. “I want you to know that… well, I regret a lot of things that I’ve done in the past. And what I did to you is pretty close to the top of that long list of regrets.” He paused for a beat as he crossed his arms, still clearly not satisfied, even despite his sincerity. “Just figured I’d lay all that out on the table before we really get the ball rolling here. So… are we good?”

Of course, Kairi didn’t answer this right away as she continued staring at the former assassin, trying to wrap her head around everything he had just said. In her few brief past encounters with Lea—or rather, Axel, at the time—she had only ever seen him act callous and arrogant and cunning, a personality befitting one of Organization XIII’s cold-hearted cronies. And yet here he was now, standing before her showing guilt, remorse, honesty—things that, even despite her still-lingering uneasiness, Kairi didn’t doubt was genuine. Yet even so, she still didn’t know if she had it in her heart to forgive him, especially when she remembered exactly why he had kidnapped her in the first place. The fear and danger he had brought to her was one thing; but the fact that all of it had happened simply out of Axel’s malicious attempt to use her to get to Sora, to hurt Sora, was what Kairi just couldn’t look past after just a few mere words of supposedly earnest regret.

And she was more than prepared to tell him exactly that too, with all of the honest, pent-up frustration and anger she had to give. Or at least she would have had not both of them suddenly disappeared into thin air entirely without warning.

Fortunately, they reappeared just as quickly, though when they did, they found themselves in what felt like a different world from the wizard’s house entirely. The pair now stood within a vast, dense forest, with large, lush trees stretching out for as far as the eye could see, their wide branches reaching up towards a cloud-speckled blue sky. The entire wood was drenched in silence, no birds singing or crickets chirping as only the gentlest of breezes rustled the leaves of the trees. It was quite a beautiful place, though all the same, something about it felt strange, ethereal almost, and their abrupt arrival was more than enough to leave both Lea and Kairi in utter confusion as to how they got there in the first place.

“What in the worlds…?” the former assassin muttered incredulously as he looked around.

“Where are we?” Kairi wondered aloud, though her question didn’t hang on the empty air for too long before receiving an answer.

“A marvelous question, my dear!” Merlin’s voice suddenly broke through the otherwise quiet wood. The wizard himself was nowhere to be found, something that only bewildered his two new pupils even more as he began to explain. “Behold! Your very own training grounds, created by yours truly, of course. In this magical realm, time stands completely still, which means that you’ll both be able to hone your skills and abilities with almost no time at all passing in reality itself. Its quite brilliant, don’t you agree?”

“So what, we’re just supposed to hang out here, knocking our Keyblades against a bunch of trees until you decide we’re pros at it, gramps?” Lea asked, flashing a sardonic smirk as he called back to the unseen wizard.

“I’d watch that sharp tongue of yours if I were you, my boy,” Merlin said, clearly disgruntled by the former assassin’s playful teasing. “You’d be much better off saving that cutting wit for the battlefield instead. Let that be your first lesson.”

“Excuse me, Merlin,” Kairi cut in, much more politely. “But I’m afraid I don’t really understand either. Exactly what do you want us to do here?”

“Why, I figured that would be quite obvious,” Merlin remarked. “A training grounds is for the purpose of training, is it not? So here, you’ll both have ample time and space to do just that. In fact… I see no reason to not give the two of you a… running start, so to speak…”

The pair exchanged a somewhat worried glance as the wizard’s tone turned rather ominous. They immediately realized what he had meant, however, when out of nowhere, a sizable horde of shadows sprung up from the ground, surrounding them both instantly.

“Heartless!” Kairi gasped, startled as she took a frightened step back away from the twitching creatures.

“Mirages of a weaker subset of them, yes,” the wizard mused from wherever he was. “But still, they should prove to be a suitable test for me to gage the level of your current abilities. So, let’s see what tricks both of you have up your sleeves! And remember: I’ll be watching!”

“Greaaat…” Lea deadpanned as the Heartless began to move in. “As if this whole thing couldn’t get any more creepy. But no problem; this is just a little case of pest control.” The former assassin smirked as he called forth his pair of chakrams, sparks already bursting around them in anticipation for the battle ahead.

“Ah, ah, ah!” Before Lea could lash out, however, his usual weapons suddenly disappeared in two puffs of bright smoke almost as soon as Merlin spoke out. “I’m afraid there is a strict policy against using any weapons ASIDE from Keyblades in this realm. After all, that’s what you both are here to learn how to wield in the first place, correct?”

“Ugh… you’ve gotta be kidding me, old man…” Lea groaned, exasperated as he took up a weaponless defensive stance instead.

“Keyblades…” Kairi repeated thoughtfully to herself as she looked between the pair of Heartless inching towards her and her own hand. Slowly, she reached forward, recalling the same movement she’d seen Sora and Riku pull off to summon their own Keyblades many times before. And yet, despite her own attempt at getting her own weapon to materialize, for some odd reason, it just wouldn’t appear.

Lea found he was facing a similar issue, for much like Kairi, he had only ever summoned his own Keyblade once before. The effort and subsequent lack of a response frustrated the former assassin even further, to the point that he ended up simply kicking one of the Heartless that leapt at him first away with his boot. Still, it hardly kept the creatures as bay as they persisted towards the pair, neither of whom really had any sort of means of defending themselves against them with their Keyblades as absent as they were.

“This is stupid!” Lea finally shouted angrily, glaring up at the sky. “How are we supposed to fight these things if both of our Keyblades are no-shows, huh, gramps!?”

Surprisingly, Merlin didn’t offer a response to this, not giving either of them any sort of hints on how to proceed through this perilous exam. So instead, Kairi decided that there was only one immediate option left for them now: running.

“Forget it!” she exclaimed, pushing her way through the horde of shadows to break through their wriggling line. “Just come on!”

Lea didn’t argue as he followed after her, effectively fleeing from the Heartless as they ran deeper into the forest. Of course, the creatures made sure to give chase, diving into the shadows and speeding after them, forcing them to run even faster just to outdo them. Neither of them had the faintest idea as to where they were going, and even if they did, the woods itself seemed to constantly be shifting and changing all around them, disorienting them even more. Eventually, the forest maneuvered itself in such a way that it ended up cutting their escape off, trapping them between a tight thicket of trees on one side, and the encroaching group of Heartless on the other.

“Tch, cornered,” Lea said, scowling the Heartless down as they both cautiously backed away from them as much as they could. “Got anymore brilliant ideas over there?”

“Hey, at least I had an idea!” Kairi countered harshly. “I guess we’re just… gonna have to fight them with our Keyblades!”

“Oh, yeah,” the former assassin scoffed, rolling his eyes as he held his hand out inseriously. “Because summoning a Keyblade out of thin air is just soooo easy and-” Lea cut himself off with a gasp when, completely out of the blue, his fiery Keyblade suddenly flashed into his grip just in the nick of time. “Well, I stand corrected,” he remarked, a brazen grin crossing his features as he poised his weapon to attack. “Now we’re talkin’…”

Without any further hesitation, the former assassin rushed forward, blindly and rather haphazardly swinging his Keyblade at the opposing Heartless. There was little skill or finesse to his movements, but his brute-force attacks still managed to get the job done in downing several of them, though still more came to take their place in the wake of their defeat. All the while, Kairi simply stood by, watching Lea fight with an increasing sense of rising fury. In truth, she found she was angry at several things all at once: at Lea for being able to summon his Keyblade with such ease, at herself for not being able to so much as even call upon hers, at this test as a whole for proving just how of a disadvantage she was at, even compared to the former assassin. And as one of the Heartless managed to skitter past Lea and make its way towards her instead, Kairi found herself unable to contain her anger over just how unfair ever single part of this whole ridiculous situation was any longer.

“Kairi!” Lea exclaimed in alarm as he noticed the shadow rush for her. “Look out!”

The former assassin moved to take out the attacking creature himself, though ultimately, he found he didn’t have to. For in a flash almost too quick to catch, a bright, colorful Keyblade appeared in Kairi’s hands and with one single, swift swing of its radiant edge, the Heartless before he was no more.

“W-whoa…” Lea remarked, genuinely impressed, though Kairi herself didn’t take a moment to revel in her accomplishment. Instead, she continued acting on her frustration, rushing into the fray with Destiny’s Embrace tight in her grip. Despite how mild-mannered she usually seemed, the former assassin couldn’t deny that his fellow pupil had an odd sense of urgency and ferocity in the heat of battle. Things that not only completely caught him by surprise, but instantly forewarned him that, regardless of whatever he may have thought of her before, she was not one to be underestimated.

All the same, both of them were quick to fall into the steady flow of the fight, their stances keeping them back to back as they rounded out what was left of the surrounding Heartless. Overall, they did well to cover each other, though their swings were largely still uncalculated and unskilled, and their maneuvers sloppy to the point that their stamina was quickly drained. But fortunately, just as exhaustion was starting to wear down upon them both, the Heartless finally petered out, marking the end of their first, rather arduous test.

“Well now, I’d call that a wrap!” Merlin announced across the wood as the pair finally paused to catch their breath. “For beginners, I must say that you both preformed admirably, though you certainly have much to learn in the art of the Keyblade. Fortunately for you, that’s what I’m here for! All the same, I’ll give you both a generous pass on your first exam. And might I add that you two make a surprisingly handy team! Training together will do both of you a great deal of good, I can already tell. And with that, I’ll give you both a chance to rest up until our next exercise. For now, feel free to explore this realm, as well as your own abilities, to your heart’s content. I’ll be back to check in on you before you know it!”

“Hey, no rush, gramps!” Lea called back to the wizard, even though he was no longer actively listening in on them. “Especially if you have any plans of sicking more Heartless on us.”

Kairi almost laughed at this, though she was quick to stop herself, instead opting to let her Keyblade disappear as she turned her attention back on the forest instead. It seemed as though stiff silence was about to fall upon the pair again, but this time, Lea was quick to fill it instead.

“H-hey, so… back what I was trying to say before we were so rudely interupted,” he began with a huff, though his manner soon turned serious once more. “I really am sorry about what I did to you. I… I know its probably not gonna be easy for you, but… I hope you can manage to forgive me for it eventually, even if that’s not anytime soon.”

“…You’re right,” Kairi sighed, crossing her arms. “It really won’t be easy for me to forgive you.” Surprise, and what almost looked like genuine dejection washed across Lea’s face, and though Kairi wanted to revel in that, she found she ultimately couldn’t as she continued slowly, sadly. “I’m just… trying to understand how you could do something like that, how you could drag me away from my home and try to use me against my best friend, and then just… turn around and act like none of that means anything anymore just because you say you want to help us! Everybody keeps saying that you’ve changed and that you’re a good person now, but how do I know that?!”

“Because,” Lea interjected, his tone and expression both surprisingly hard. “Maybe you’d understand if you knew why I was willing to go as far as kidnapping you in the first place.”

“…W-what?” Kairi asked, both confused and appalled all at once.

Lea sighed, running a hand through his crimson locks. “I… I wanted to get Roxas back,” he admitted, looking to the ground morosely. “It was all I could think about. I’m pretty sure losing that kid drove me half crazy. Crazy enough to come up with a hairbrained scheme that, if I’m being perfectly honest with myself, probably wouldn’t have even worked. See, Roxas is Sora’s Nobody, so, I thought… I thought that if Sora lost his heart…”

“…I-it would bring Roxas back?” Kairi finished, shuddering at the thought of Sora losing his heart again. Even so, her tone couldn’t help but soften all the same when she heard the sheer longing in Lea’s voice when he spoke about his lost friend. This was a side of the former assassin she had never seen before, one that she found she couldn’t truly be angry with, no matter how much she wanted to be.

Lea nodded, though he shook his head soon after. “It was a dumb plan. The only reason I got you involved was because I knew you’d be more than enough to lure Sora in. But then Isa—I mean, Saïx had to go and stick his nose where it didn’t belong and—everything just got screwed up from there. Though I guess, looking back, the whole thing was pretty screwed up in general, huh?”

“I can’t argue with that…” Kairi frowned, rubbing her arm.

“Wanna know the worst part of it all?” Lea asked, leaning up against a nearby tree as he looked deeper into the forest. “For the longest time, I tried telling myself that what I did was what Roxas would have wanted. Guess it was the only real way I could justify it all to myself. But… knowing what I do now, I don’t think that could be any further from the truth.”

Needless to say that Kairi had no idea how to respond to any of this. She had never really considered any sort of personal motivation behind Axel’s actions before, and until now, she had never cared to. She had always just assumed he had been acting on the orders of the twisted Organization he had been a part of. But now that she knew that it hadn’t been for them, but for Roxas instead, it was as though her entire perspective on the former assassin had shifted. Kairi still wasn’t sure if she was willing to go as far as to excuse his slights against either herself or Sora, but she was willing to admit something that she hadn’t before. That perhaps, in all her close-minded anger, she had only believed that she was being treated unfairly by having to train alongside Lea in the first place, without even realizing that she had been the one to treat him unfairly all the while.

“Ax—Lea,” Kairi quickly corrected herself, her tone even and sincere as she addressed him. “To be honest, I… I’m still not sure if I’m ready to forgive you just yet.”

“Hey, no worries,” Lea said with an amiable wave of his hand. “I get it. Take all the time you need.”

Kairi couldn’t hold back a small sigh at this. He really was quite hard to dislike, though not even for a lack of trying. “Thank you,” she nodded earnestly. “Still, just because I’m not forgiving you yet, doesn’t mean that I’m not willing to meet you halfway. Which means… I’m willing to be part of the ‘handy team’ that Merlin said we make,” she extended a hand out towards him, offering him a small, if not reserved smile. “That is, if you’re up for it.”

“One thing you should know about me,” Lea grinned, genuinely glad this time as he met her hand in a solid, solidifying shake. “Is that I’m up for anything. Got it memorized?”

“Yeah,” Kairi chuckled, amused. “I do.”

The former assassin’s smile widened at this, though it quickly faded out as their handshake ended and he looked down to her again. An odd sense of concentration filled his expression as he stared at her in scrutinizing silence, almost as if he was searching for something he had lost. Admittedly, his tight focus on her made Kairi somewhat uncomfortable, which was why she didn’t hesitate to speak up and address it just when it felt as though he had been staring for too long.

“Um, Lea?” she asked, tilting her head in confusion. “What are you looking at?”

“H-huh?” Lea blinked, shaking his head as if to clear it. “Uh, i-its nothing. I just… I could have sworn I saw…” he trailed off, his brow furrowing in thought before he shook his head once more. “Never mind. I think I was just trying to remember something I forgot.”

“Oh?” Kairi implored, somewhat curious. “Like what?”

Lea frowned, genuinely perplexed as he glanced back over at her again. “Don’t know,” he said truthfully. There was a hint of what sounded like sadness in his tone, though he was quick to replace it with his usual casual manner as he began walking on ahead into the woods. “I’m sure it’ll come back to me sooner or later, though. For now…” he grinned wryly as he glanced back over his shoulder at her. “The old man said this whole place was basically ours to explore. You feel like taking him up on that offer?”

“One thing you should know about me,” Kairi quipped, essentially mimicking the former assassin with a playful smirk to match his own. “Is that I’m also up for anything.”

“I’ll make sure to get that memorized then,” Lea laughed as he began leading the way onward. Kairi couldn’t help but chuckle herself as she followed after him, realizing that she was much more at ease than she had been in quite some time. When she really thought about it, it was less what the former assassin himself had said that had led them to the relatively stable place they were in now, though that had been part of it. Instead, Kairi quickly realized, what had brought about the newfound fledgling camaraderie between them had been her deciding to let go of her own resentment and anger, perhaps not entirely, but enough to make peace between the two of them. It was a humbling thought to say the least, to make some sort of amends with her now-repentant kidnapper. But for the sake of their important training, and perhaps even her own peace of mind, it was a necessary sacrifice to make, for now at least.

All the same, the thought of just how strange, perhaps even impossible it was that she was now working alongside someone like Lea, who had chased her, captured her, effectively caged her, had all but drifted to the back of Kairi’s mind as she easily walked alongside him through the woods. What thoughts filled her mind instead, was the possibility that perhaps someday, with enough time and enough effort, the former assassin might actually be able to prove to her that he deserved her genuine forgiveness. They were still quite a ways off from being anything close to actual friends, but still, there was one thing Kairi couldn’t deny when she considered Lea’s earnest attempts at apologizing and setting things right:

It was a start. A small start, but a meaningful one all the same. One that she would make sure, above all else, to get memorized.

Next: 

[fmdminji]

* ⠀⠀ ♡ ⠀⠀ ─── ⠀⠀ hello, sweet loves ! guess who ?? it’s 𝐑𝐘𝐀𝐍 and i’m back at it again with a second muse, and to some of you, she may seem familiar at first glance ! so, without further ado, i’d like to introduce you to my beautiful babe, 𝐉𝐔𝐍𝐆 𝐌𝐈𝐍𝐉𝐈, wish’s leader, and main vocal. i’ve based her slightly on my first ever muse in this group, yeo yeoreum, but i’ve updated her, and revised her, so that she’s more well-rounded in my eyes ! below the cut, you’ll be able to find a tl;dr version of her biography, some fun facts that weren’t mentioned in her bio, as well as some plot ideas ! if you’re interested in writing with us, don’t forget to 𝐏𝐎𝐔𝐍𝐃 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐋𝐈𝐓𝐓𝐋𝐄 𝐇𝐄𝐀𝐑𝐓 in the corner so i can message you. love you all v much !

* ⠀⠀ ♡ ⠀⠀ ─── ⠀⠀ BIOGRAPHY HIGHLIGHTS !

born in seoul, south korea to a single mother in seoul, south korea, minji’s upbringing wasn’t like many others in her class. she, her grandmother, and her mother all lived in a two bedroom apartment, and while the two women in her life worked hard to provide a great life for her, she was often dragged along to both of their jobs; finding a deep love for books, films, and television dramas, from a young age ! after all, she had to find little ways to entertain herself, so when she wasn’t keeping her nose tucked between the pages of a novel, she was lost in a land of fantasy; one where she was often the princess, and she was being rescued by a prince — a man that would save her from this lonesome upbringing. her obsession with romance started at an alarmingly early age, and by the time she was eight, she found herself filling up pages of diaries with love letters to boys in her class; keeping all of them a deep-dark secret from everyone !

however, when she was about to go and give her most coveted crush a valentine she’d saved a lot of money ( you know, a lot of money for an elementary schooler ) to buy, she was interrupted by another girl who, essentially, swooped in and stole her man, hah. the amount of jealousy and rage that flooded through her in that moment was so immense that, even to this day, those feelings of jealousy and wrath ( two of the deadliest sins to exist ) still have never left her, and unfortunately, they’re two of her most fatal flaws. that, and well, being almost desperate for a chance to fall in love with someone.

her teenage years were fairly mild, too, but every time she became entangled in a loving romance, she’d ruin it time after time for being controlling, possessive, and jealous, and it was hard for her to not only keep love interests for long periods of time, but her friends often found her hard to be around, too. her emotions were intense, and to be honest, all of them would find her exhausting to be around after awhile. so, even though she was able to make friends, they often left her alone, too, and the reason she was so attached to keeping men in her life is because she’s never had a father, nor any positive male influence, in her whole life. so, she uses romance as something to fill this void inside her.

though, when she was fourteen, she went with her mother to see a concert of decipher’s — a new boy group who had just débuted. they became her latest obsession, and her mom used money she’d saved up to treat her daughter to a day of fun together. though, while there, she was decided by bc entertainment scouts. her beauty is what made her standout, but when she auditioned, they realized she had a big voice, but little to no idea how to use it. so, after a private audition, they offered her a trainee spot.

her trainee experience was... rough. during this process, she learned to better control her voice, and she even picked up on how to play the piano pretty well, but after awhile, she got a bit bored with everything, so she made the bold decision to ignore the dating ban put in place and start playing the field. this is when she met her first love ( wanted connection ! ) and they began a relationship together that lasted a good while. he was in line to début in knight, and she was set to join the group now known as lipstick, but while the girls’ lineup was being finalized, they caught onto the two of them, and her punishment was that she wouldn’t début as lipstick’s lead vocal, as she was once told. they also forced her to end the relationship she was in, and her heart was broken.

so, in bc she remained, and she learned a lot about herself in those moments. not only did she get into trouble for even being in a relationship, but her jealousy continued to rise up back then, too, and she’d bully her fellow trainees — really, anyone who even dared to talk to her now ex-boyfriend while they were dating. deciding that she needed to focus on herself and her career so she could help her mother and grandmother out in the future, she quit screwing around and got to work, and later went on to début as wish’s main vocalist, and leader.

things started out well, but a few years in, she was beginning to realize that, while many of the other girls in her group were gaining traction and immense popularity, she was somehow falling behind. with hana now starring in dramas, sooyeon releasing tons of solo material, and now june about to make a solo début, too, her jealous rage is kicking in again. she went from a loving leader to someone that’s overwhelmed with envy for her own members, lol. so, that’s where she’s at now... wanting to kill all the girls in her own group that are more popular while she slowly starts to compete with them.

* ⠀⠀ ♡ ⠀⠀ ─── ⠀⠀ FUN LITTLE FACTOIDS !

as mentioned before, minji knows how to play the piano, and towards the end of her trainee years, she began writing her own little songs for fun; she has a few done and complete. she doesn’t really think she’s much of a composer / producer, no, but she aspires to write her own solo music when the time comes for her to make a début.

ever since wish was able to make their own individual social media accounts, she’s taken that allowance in stride, and has become quite popular on instagram ! she not only posts beautifully edited photos of herself, and her surroundings, but she’s also known to post acoustic, piano-led covers of songs she loves.

she currently feels as though she’s not getting as many lines on wish’s tracks as she was in the beginning, and hates that she’s really only there to hit all the high notes and call it a day, lol. she wants to be trusted with more than what she’s given, tbh.

not very surprisingly, she’s been involved in a few dating scandals in her past career, but shockingly, they weren’t true, and since her début, she hasn’t really had a serious bf.

* ⠀⠀ ♡ ⠀⠀ ─── ⠀⠀ LITTLE LIST OF PLOT IDEAS !

as denoted above, i’d looove to see her first love plot taken up ! i’ve envisioned the spot being taken by a member of knight, especially if they trained in bc from 2009-2012. they débuted first, so bc wasn’t able to truly punish them as badly as they were able to punish her. however, if you’re interested in this plot, and your muse isn’t a member of knight, but instead a member of charm, we can try to make that work somehow, too !

also mentioned above, she was a bit of an asshole to other girls while she trained from 2009-2012, and she softened slightly from 2012-2015. i’d love to see a plot where your muse was one of those girls she was really harsh to, and she’s had to try to make amends to her for it. in my eyes, this plot would make most sense if your muse is a member of lipstick, but we can see if we can make it work if your muse is in wish, too !

additionally, i’d love for her to have a best friend — male, female, or whatever else. this is someone who isn’t afraid to call her out when she’s acting like a brat, and though she gets so frustrated by that, she also appreciates it a whole helluva lot. their relationship will be really sweet, and they’ll be almost brutally honest with each other, but everything said is only out of love and respect, as they’d never want to truly wound one another.

i’d geek out really hard if like, your muse ( a member of decipher ) just so happened to be minji’s bias in the group, as she’s an avid fan, and she has a mad crush on them, and they either exploit how she feels about them and toy around with her, or they just avoid her at all costs because she’s... a bit much for them. that, or really, we can discuss other options if those two things wouldn’t fit your muse. i just think it’d be fun !

it’s no secret that my bbg loves love, and at one point in time, she became curious to know if she was interested in women, too. she tried to date your muse ( female-locked ) for awhile, but it didn’t work out, so she ended up breaking up with them. it could’ve ended really horribly and your muse hates her now, or they could be good friends. it’s up to your and how your muse would react to being led on by a confused straight girl.

being that minji dabbles in writing her own lyrics and playing the piano, i’d looove for her to have a producer friend, or partner of sorts, that’d start a soundcloud account with her. they’d release their own lo-fi, soft songs there, whether they be solos or duets, and it’d just be a really creative, fun-loving relationship. this could lead to a romance, or they could just remain close friends and creative partners; either option is fine with me !

speaking of romance: i’d love some people who really love playing with her heart, or who just use her for sex, and run the fuck away from her when she gets too attached.

the flip-side of that: i’d love for a guy, or girl really, to be really interested in her, but she’s too blind to see it, and instead, using them as like, a personal diary and spills all of her feelings to them about other people all the time. she doesn’t realize they have feelings for her, and it kills them when she talks about other people all the time, but they’re too afraid to really say anything to her rip.

i’d also like for her to have some lowkey fwb relationships, too. i just can’t promise that she won’t daydream about getting married to your muses, but you know... lol.

additionally, if you’re interested in discussing a more personalized, end-game romance plot that’s a slower burn, or something that burns up a little fast and they’re now stuck in a mess together, or whatever else, i’m open for discussions too ! don’t be afraid to let me know and we can talk about it a lot more !

[ofvivicnnes-blog]

                 hi everyone ! my name’s 𝖘𝖙𝖔𝖗𝖒 and i’m really happy and excited to be here ! i was in a group a v long time ago that had the points system before, so it’s really cool to be a part of a group that has a similar concept ( so shout out to the admins ) ! anyways, i’m 21+ and my pronouns are she/her, but they/them is okay as well. i’ve had kehlani’s mixtape on repeat pretty much since it came out, i have an affinity for writing intros at 2am while simultaneously working on editing themes, i’d let yeji choke me with her ponytails, and jackson wang owns my ass ! this is my very first time i’ll be playing kang seulgi after seeing exactly one (1) image of her on pinterest, and i hope i can do her justice with my mess of a child, vivienne ! 

“who are you & what is one thing that people would know you for ?” 

‘ i don’t know who i am -- i’m a lot of things. on the surface, i’m a daughter. i’m a former idol and a girl who’s still chasing her dreams. i’m vivienne, always, but i haven’t discovered who i am underneath all of that yet. one thing people know me for is my personal life. it’s not all that pretty. ’

“if there is one thing you could change about your career, what would it be ?”

‘ hm, i don’t know if there’s anything i would change, but i wish there were some moments i could have done a bit differently. my career as been great, but it’s nowhere near perfect and it never will be. ’

“what are you willing to do to be in the top ten ?”

‘ anything, but within reason. truth be told, i’m not afraid of anything that might get thrown my way, but i’m not saying i would throw someone under the bus ... not yet, anyways ! ’

name  :  vivienne ba-rom park.

nickname(s)  :  viv, vivi, & v.

age  :  twenty-four ( 24 ).

birthday  :  february 8th, 1995.

zodiac  :  aquarius.

moral alignment  :  chaotic neutral.

gender  :  cisfemale.

pronouns  :  she/her.

height  :  5′6″ ( five foot six inches ).

hometown  :  santa clarita, california.

nationality  :  korean-american.

ethnicity  :  korean.

occupation  : former k-idol, solo artist & dancer.

label(s)  :  the intangible concept, the lost soul & the sybarite.

aesthetics  :  glittery eyeshadow, roses on silk sheets, stained wine glasses, wire rimmed glasses, bare feet in the mornings, messy ponytails, ignored alarms, clear boots, shoes with red soles, messy bedrooms, diamonds, gold jewelry, oversized sweaters, strawberry chapstick under red lipstick, sexual tension, golden sunset, hickeys, long eyelashes & flushed cheeks, fuzzy socks, bright lights on a stage, disco balls, concerts, screaming until you lose your voice, love confessions, holding hands, sharp eyeliner, face masks, ripped denim jackets, fluffy clouds, drinking with friends, red wine, ignoring texts & making eye contact with someone you like.

          vivienne park was born on a cold ( california cold, that is ) february morning to na-young & nam-il park in santa clarita, california. vivienne was a happy baby that brought her parents joy, as they only had intentions to have one child and give them the world. if only the young couple knew that their daughter would grow up to be something like a thorn in their side, expensive perfume, 

          middle school was the time when the couple noticed a chance in their daughter. she wanted to be dropped off a block away from her school, she had a terrible habit of defying her school’s uniform dress code & mostly kept to herself, never inviting friends over for typical things like sleepovers. after watching from afar, vivienne’s parents questioned their daughter as to why she was acting this way. turns out, she didn’t like that her parents drove an older car in comparison to the other kids, whose parents drove newer & fancier cars. she thought the school’s uniform was stupid & it was hard for her to make friends with the other girls because she didn’t have the latest clothing trends or the latest gadgets.

          to put it simply, vivienne believed that she was supposed to have more & that she was ENTITLED to having more, but her parents weren’t able to provide that. her father was an elementary school teacher & her mom was a nurse, so the family lived comfortably, but nowhere near as lavishly as her classmates. vivienne wanted the pricey handbags & shoes, the beautiful blown-out hair & essentially whatever she wanted, so there were a lot of over the top arguments between vivienne & her parents whenever they said, ‘ no, vivienne. you cannot have a handbag that costs a semester’s worth of tuition. ’ 

          despite her slightly selfish & materialistic ways, vivienne was very interested in music at this time. she spent a lot of her time singing in her church’s choir & she was in the theater club at her school, so her life completely changed when she was introduced to k-pop by one of her friends in seventh grade. she immersed herself into the genre & became the girl who spent her time learning the choreography to her favorite songs. by the time high school rolled around, vivienne set her sights on becoming an idol & while her parents thought her dream was a little far-fetched, they eventually allowed vivienne to leave santa clarita for seoul in order to audition for one of the companies. 

          she lived with her aunt for a few weeks before she successfully auditioned ( at the age of fifteen ) & moved into the dorms with fellow trainees. vivienne thought she was doing well, but during her time as a trainee was the first time she felt constant rejection due to always being overlooked when it came to debuting. so, she trained hard for two years & debuted with her group NIGHTMARE x PARADISE in 2012 ! vivienne was the lead vocalist & rapper of the trio, went by ‘vivi’ & they debuted with their ep twinkle. NxP found success with their group & their debut was very well received. they remained together until early 2016, after vivienne was the last to debut as a solo artist with her ep i just wanna dance.

          after NxP’s breakup, vivienne’s bandmates found success in their new ventures, while vivienne slightly spiraled. she was now 21 & after spending the last four years with her bandmates, so she wasn’t really sure of what to do next. vivienne took a hiatus from music ( minus one song she released with far east movement titled don’t speak ) & she then found herself in a relationship with an idol from another company ( think jennie & kai with the way their ‘relationship’ was exposed ). hmm, if i’m being honest i’d love to have that as a wanted connection ( if it fits with your muse ! ) they tried keeping it on the down low since her boyfriend wasn’t supposed to be dating, but a few sneaky fans of his group snapped pictures of them leaving a hotel, so that sparked off a lot of controversy.

          vivienne’s boyfriend had been training to be an idol for a very long time & she didn’t want to be blamed for ‘ruining’ their career, so she decided to end the relationship after four months of dating secretly. one thing that continued to happen was the hate she received on her socials for dating the previously mentioned idol. vivienne liked to believe that she was a girl that didn’t allow anything to get to her, but the constant berating & harassment caused her to delete her accounts and move back to california, where she decided to debut as a solo artist. within a few weeks, vivienne found herself in yet another scandal when she was caught leaving a club with some prominent figure in los angeles, which caused her to fall under the scrutiny of the media & the public once again.

          she was dubbed as something of a sleaze, so she decided to start living up to that title. she returned to social media, but fans of vivienne during her NxP days were a little confused at her new personality ( which is all truly a well constructed act ). the scandal brought her some attention, so she released remember me, the theme song of the disney film coco in 2017. she released her first song as a solo artist, over my skin, in 2018 & signed to columbia records. currently, vivienne’s working on more music & other ventures, but doesn’t really know when she’s going to be releasing anything. vivienne currently lives in a super cute dtla apartment & she finally stopped being a punk towards her parents, so their relationship is better than ever !

          as for her personality, vivienne is very much the girl who puts on a facade. that’s not entirely weird when on stage because different eras usually means a different ‘personality’, but to the public she kind of carries herself as the girl who doesn’t care & she’s like a sexual deviant aka sexually liberated, but in reality she’s the polar opposite. to the public, she’s the girl who’ll be plastered on supermarket tabloids because she got a little too drunk at an album release party or she got papped with some other guy. in reality, she cares ( probably too much ) about what other people think of her, she hates when she feels like people are talking about her when she’s only a few feet away & she truly wants to be liked for who she is & not for what she can do. while her debut as a solo artist has been well received, she does sometimes get overwhelmed with the feeling that she’ll never reach that level of stardom again. tl;dr: she’s actually really nice & really wants to do well in her chosen career, especially now as a solo artist but she’s more than likely going about it the wrong way.

[purple-moonlights-blog]

STRAY KIDS 10th MEMBER AU

INTRODUCTION

This AU is heavily inspired by @k-llama-llama ! If you don’t know her I highly suggest checking out her blog, she and her writings are really sweet (also some good drama just started in her AU). 🌸

I’m not 100% sure where I’m going with this AU, so please feel free to request and suggest what could happen. I really want to take in ideas from people who are interested in the story. Don’t be shy loves! ♥︎ 

☾☼ 

Btw. I didn’t use her name until the very end because my dumb ass forgot to give her a name.

Also, in this scenario, Stray Kids themselves aren’t very present since it didn’t really fit. However, I promise that next time will be a lot of Stray Kids content! 

▸ Check out the Profile HERE

▸ Request for the AU HERE

▸ MASTERLIST

Words: 2342

Warnings: Swearing?⎮ And weird grammar and spelling mistakes, English is not my native language⎮

I. NEW 〈NOVA〉

(gif not mine)

With her eyebrows knitted together and her upper-lip slightly twisted up, an expression her friend David stated to be her “trying to be polite but can’t help but judge“ look - or in other words, her being a twat visage - she stared at the man, probably in his mid-thirties, in front of her. 

For the past five minutes he spoke very fast and in a very strong Satoori accent, she had difficulties to understand, and thereby wildly gesticulate with his arms. The longer he talked the more he began to sweat and looked noticeably more nervous. She wasn’t intentionally trying to be rude by not saying a word the whole time, even though she was more than once encouraged to respond to his rambling. However, due to her having a hard time progressing what he was saying - her Korean might be quite good, thanks to her mum compelling her and her brothers too Korean lesson since the early beginnings of their childhood, yet she only learned standard Korean - and immediately doubting what he was saying to be true, she kept her mouth shut until she had a clear picture of what was going on. From what she could grasp, the man was responsible to recruit trainees for entertainment companies, which in the end should turn them in successful idols, that bring big profits and put the companies into positive spotlights. 

He explained that he was from JYP and that Park Jinyoung personally placed in order, after allegedly seeing a video of a street performance of her dancing and singing, to track her down and convince her to audition for his company. He further explained that JYP - the company - planned to form an idol group in the upcoming month of October through a survival show and JYP - the person - wanted her in it because she would in his opinion fit perfectly into the concept. 

Bullocks, she instantly thought when he told her that. 

She didn’t believe a word coming from his mouth. Yes, it was true that she appeared in multiple videos of street performances that are posted on YouTube, however, she was neither an outstanding dancer nor a Whitney Huston, at least in her opinion. The more he talked the more it sounded like the plot of a Wattpad fanfiction and as the result of her distinct sense of reality, which often came across as her being pessimistic, she knew stuff like that doesn’t happen in real life. It’s called Fan Fiction after all.  

The whole story sounded like a lie somebody, who kidnaps young girls and boys for human trafficking by exploiting their naivety and their dreams to make it big once, would tell. By that, she suddenly remembered her 14 years old cousin Junsuh conspiracy theory rant about the Korean entertainment industries. Two weeks ago she visited her relatives in Ilsan, where her Junshu, as usually, didn’t stop talking. According to Junsuh, the industry is through and through corrupt - a single stronghold of prostitution rings, human trafficking, child exploitation and even religious cults and a secret origination that controls the whole south of Korea. 

Even though Junsuh tends to get carried away with his theories - she strongly doubted, that one of the big three companies (he refused to tell which one) pays a religious cult to use black magic on the public, so they will only buy the albums of their artists - however, that it wasn’t only glamorous and that pressure and hard work take big role in the idols life, wasn’t a secret. 

Earning her livelihood through music has always been a dream for her. From small on she loved to sing - back then extremely out of tune - and dance around. When in 2008 her cousin Jia (Junsuh’s older sister), while she and her family visited their relatives in Korea, showed her Shinee’s debut MV Replay, she fell in love. Immediately she learned the dances and lyrics to the songs and dreamed of being an idol herself. The combination of vocal, rap and dance fascinated her. 

Yet, after time passes and she got older, her initial spirit disappeared almost completely. More and more she realized that she didn’t fit into the standard female idol category. Beginning with her appearance ending with her personality. She wouldn’t call herself a tomboy since she despite her boyish tendency still liked typical girly stuff. In end, she always thought of separating certain things in a boy and girl category as stupid. 

One day, her aunt took her to the toy store when she was made 5 years old. She asked her aunt if she could have Hot Wheels for her birthday present. The saleswoman, however, who should help her to find something, asked if doesn’t want something that is more fitting for a girl. Her five-year-old self suddenly feeling insecure choose a creepy doll, which the sale woman suggested - she ended up giving the creepy doll to the family dog to play with. 

„Look, you don’t need to say yes right now. But please just come to JYP building tomorrow for the audition. Well, it’s not really an audition, you are basically already in. You just need to say yes.“ The sudden change to a clean Seoul accent made her startle up from her thoughts. The man in front of her got now her full attention. He almost looked desperate. 

It is probably favorable for his career if he gets me to come to the “audition“. South Korea is highly competitive after all, she guessed

„Okay.“

„It doesn’t take long either you….wait, what?“

„I said, okay. When should I be there?“ He looked at her seemingly being genuinely surprised to hear her agree. Sure, she only accepted because she felt bad for him. Also, her class started in 5 minutes and she simply didn’t want to be rude and refuse after his effort. Nonetheless, the fact that he knew her name and where she went to University, still creeped her out. 

„Umm, well 10 a.m. Wait in front of the building, I will escort you in.“

„Good, I will be there.“ She said and then added quickly before she went ahead to run to the other side of the campus to still be on time for her class. „Have a good day.“

————

 At 09:30 a.m. sharp she was in front of the JYP building. She always tended to come over punctual, mainly because she included the time she will need in case anything goes wrong by her taking the bus - a short 25-minute ride - from Seongdong District on the north bank of the Han River to Gangnam District, which lies on the south side of the Han River. 

Traffic jam, traffic collision, plane crashes, nuclear attacks, apocalypse and what so ever. Her constant nagging anxiety back in her head made her throw her common sense out of the window more than once. 

Certainly, she didn’t expect anything, she highly doubted that the apparent JYP staff member was being legit. Either somebody was playing a prank on her or one of Junsuh’s theories will be confirmed and she is going to be sold. 

In a girl group, she would stand out and not in a good way like a pretty flower would. No, she would stand out like a purulent pimple in the middle of one’s forehead. Not like she was particularly ugly or different looking. The fact that she was not special looking was the issue. In general, she was glad about that. She was never big on being the center of attention. However, in the entertainment industry, like it or not, talent is not everything. And her being as interesting as an empty sheet of paper, surley didn’t take a chance. 

After awkwardly standing around for good 25 minutes, somebody came out of the building. She immediately recognized him as the man from yesterday. 

He wasn’t lying about working for JYP then, she thought. 

As he looked to his left and saw her standing there, he sighed with relief and beckoned her over to him. By his reaction, she assumed that he obviously didn’t believe that she will come. But she was not the type to do tell somebody she would be there and then shamelessly not come without giving the other person a notice.    

„You won’t regret this, believe me.“ He said as they walked through the lobby to the elevator. „They really want you in this group.“ Who he meant with they, she wasn’t sure. He chuckled awkwardly since she didn’t respond to anything he said but rather she just nodded and gave him a forced smile. Again, she wasn’t trying to be rude, for sure not, after all in her family having good manners was an essential part. Her very English grandmother would personally fly to Korea and beat her ass if she was being rude. 

In the elevator were already three guys, she guessed them around her age, absorbed in a discussion about, from what she could understand, song lyrics. 

„Listen, I swear it’s good.“ Said the guy, with the darkest hair of the three of them. „You can be Fiona today, I’ll be Shrek. Ugly kind immature swag.“

She snorted and quietly chuckled to herself. The guy closest to her with silver, curly hair her, who heard her laugh, looked over to her. He raised his brow’s at first and then gave her a shy smile, which she returned.

On the fifth floor, they left the elevator and male staff knocked two times on the first door in the hallway, before he opened it and showed with a quick hand gesture that she should follow him. In the room was big glass table where three men already sat. She immediately recognized the man seated in the middle. 

 It’s JYP, It really was not a joke after all.

„Ah, there she is. Please take a seat.“ JYP said and gestured on the chair opposite of him. She bowed and sat down. 

After he asked the staff member to leave he continued: „I’m really glad you are here. When I saw your performance I know you will fit perfectly.“ 

„I was told, if I would accept the offer, I will participate in survival show, right?“ She asked, slowing starting to feel excited. Even though, she gave up on her dream of being an idol a long time ago - better said, she never really tried in the first place. Deep down she still wanted to achieve that and such an opportunity she couldn’t refuse. Even if that meant she had to change herself to fit in. 

„Yes, exactly. I really hope you take this chance. Even though you don’t have a training period as the other trainees participating, I believe you have potential.“

„Okay, I’m in. Where do I have to sign“ she said, full of newly found elan. The three men chuckled surprised about her sudden enthusiasm.

„The formalities we will sort out later.“ JYP answered, „Stray Kids, the name of the group you might debut in, has currently nine male trainees, which your leader Bang Chan handpicked himself.“

„Boys?“ She questioned confused.

„Yes, the management and I decided by making Stray Kids a co-ed group it will be more favorable in the future.“ He continued undeterred. She had to stop herself from making a snarky comment and asking them if they are trying to be edgy be doing that. 

There is no need to act like a twat right now!

„But none of our female trainees fit in Stray Kids. So, I was obviously pleased when I found you. I hope I’m not going to regret this.“ The last part sounded bitter and her previous enthusiasm was slowly suppressed by the anxiety creeping up her throat, making her feel sick.  

She didn’t want to back away now. 

Maybe it’s better to be in a male-dominated group. It’s not like I fit in a girl group either, she tried to calm herself down mentally. 

However, the fact that all other trainees were chosen by Stray Kids leader personally and that she basically was being forced onto them, made her feel like she was going to vomit. 

„They are already informed about your addition to the group. In fact, I want them to get to know you right now. Teamwork is important and the faster you warm up to each the better!“ With that, he stood up, bowed to his colleges and told her to follow him. She bowed to the older men too and left after JYP.

„The kids are probably in the practice room right now. Since they got the chance to debut, they have been prating twice as hard.“ He said, obviously proud about the trainee’s dedication. „I heard they are very excited to meet you.“

Bollocks! I will be extremely out of place. No way any of them are excited for a possible female member. 

Despite, her anxiety she didn’t wanna give up this time. She can’t just run away every time there was a construction put in her way. At last, trying wasn’t going to kill. 

They went down to the second floor. At the end of the hallway, JYP opened the wooden door to the practice room and stepped in. As JYP and she entered, four guys who sat on the floor rushed to stand up and joined five other guys to bow to their CEO. Some looked very young to her. She would have guessed at least two of them fifteen years old at most.

„Please introduce yourself to them,“ JYP told her and encouraged her with a quick hand gesture to step in front. 

All eyes were on her now. Some of them seemed curious, others just stared at her expressionless. And then, there was the guy with the silver hair from the elevator. He looked at her like he wanted to burn her down with his gaze. She honestly couldn’t take offense at that. Like, she understood his seeming dislike of her. 

„My Name is Seol Nova and I hope we can work well together.

[jc-travels-the-world]

Hram

Hram. Village Day. One of the first words I learned from my PST host family. And one of the words I had a quite a bit of difficulty learning to pronounce because the H in Romanian is hard and a slight rolled R. Having H-R together felt strange in my throat.

I was lucky enough to have been able to go to both my PST Hram and my permanent site’s Hram this summer. As with everything in life, there are differences and similarities between the two. To begin, I will discuss Strașeni’s* Hram and then I will discuss Fălești’s* Hram. Then, I will discuss the similarities and differences.

(*Giving the Raion name, not the actual village name where I’m living)

Strașeni:

Sadly, Hram landed on a Thursday during PST so I, along with the other Trainees in my village missed the beginning. But, also thankfully, it was a Thursday! If you recall from a previous post I mentioned how on Thursdays we generally had Hub Site! We talked to the people in charge and we were given the opportunity to skip breaks to make the day move faster. Instead of Hub Site ending at about 5-530p we were able to leave at 330-4p. We invited other Trainees to come visit our village since there are often lots of rutiere and taxis. It would be easy for them to return to their village. The neighbouring village/other EE PST village came and some COD people came as well. (They needed to take a taxi but split between ~4 people it would only cost 25lei which isn’t too bad.)

So onto Hram! When we arrived in village, since Diamond and I lived in the center and closest to the stadion (where Hram takes place) we offered everyone to leave their bags at our place. Alleyce dropped her bag in my room and charged her phone while we waited for others to situate themselves. Mama was home and very jubilant. It was early but she said we were going to eat dinner now and then head out because the parade will be passing by around 6p. We sat down to eat and Alleyce was very happy with the food. Then Diamond and Angela came by. Mama had them sit down and join us for dinner. They, too, enjoyed the food. Since it was a celebration we were given a glass of wine.

Then, Nana Mila was at the front door yelling frantically and the four of us we confused and Mama began yelling telling us to leave the masa and go to Hram! We were confused but then we looked at the clock: it was 6p! We went running up the road just in time to see the parade passing with Ana-Maria walking in traditional clothes! The parade was a little confusing but it had to do with a reenactment of a wedding from a fable or something. I was confused. I asked Ana-Maria about it, she, too, was confused by it all. Regardless, it was pretty and I’m glad I got to see it!

Overall, we did a lot of standing around and mingling. There were manymanymany speeches, including a mayor from a village of the same name from Romania! (I hope to visit there someday.) Like everything, we were told dancing would begin at a certain time but it didn’t start until a few hours later….The surprise? We were going to dance! That’s why we wanted all of the Americans there to join us on stage! We had planned 2-3 dances but the night dragged on, more people left, and then suddenly I said to the group, “Isn’t that Ana-Maria on stage?” We walked over and it was her! We watched and then Kathryn came up to us saying frantically “WE’RE NEXT!” So we went running to the backstage. We ended up only doing one dance, Copperhead Road. I’d never done it before but it was easy enough! Everyone loved it. Sadly, since we were the only Americans left….no one was there to record it.

After dancing we were given a small masa and chatted with other people performing. Ana-Maria had gone home and changed into more relaxed clothing. We all hung out. Danu had been selling corn all night and he gave us free corn to eat. But as the night went on, people went home. Ana-Maria and I were the only ones left. She convinced me to go on the trampoline. While standing in line we met some classmates of her’s. They thought I was younger than her. :[

I say she convinced me because I was exhausted and wanted to sleep. I’m glad I went because I forgot just how much fun it was! I just wish I had changed into pants or shorts since a dress on the trampoline was not much fun…..

After that we met up with Beatrice. We walked around some more. Found Mama. We ate some cotton candy. Then I went home at 11p. My phone was at 5%. I went to plug my phone in when I saw there was a message from 1030p from Katherine saying there was a surprise masa for us held by the Mayors from Moldova and Romania. I told Ana-Maria I should go. Both she and Beatrice accompanied me. They stayed outside and I walked in alone. Very intimidating. While sitting there, both Ana and Beatrice walked in helping bring in more food! Kathryn, Katie, and Jorge were already there. As was Volunteer Clayton and Jorge’s friend he met at Hram. I stayed for about an hour and walked home (with a phone at 1%) at midnight. I felt safer (still significantly nervous) than in America.

When I got home no one was there, so I took a quick shower and relaxed on my bed. At about 1230a-1a everyone came home. We chatted for a while and I went to bed!

But, as I mentioned��.this was a Thursday. Friday I had Romanian at 8a. I woke up early, somehow was functioning and off to school I went!

Fălești:

I arrived at site mid-August and 11 days later was Hram! A great opportunity to meet people. But also an opportunity for people to learn that I’m in the village. The day before I had been to a birthday party with Mama and we were out until about 3a. Thinking Hram began at 10a (like it had in the past and the that’s when the other Hram had start in Strașeni), Mama and I woke up early and headed out. But they were still setting up at the stadion and people were playing soccer. We went back home and I slept a little more.

At lunch time we ate and a couple woman came over to join us. My stomach was nervous as well. Why? I was going to dance again! Ludmila, my partner, is the diriginta* of eighth form. The older classes prepare and perform on the stage. Three girls from the class and I did a five minute mishmash of the Cupid Shuffle, Cotton Eyed Joe, and Copperhead Road. It was fun! Afterwards Sergiu gave me a bouquet of flowers!

Before the performances we were hanging out behind the stage and I had the opportunity to meet the mayor of the village. She apparently didn’t realize I was the volunteer and thought I was 18...at least that’s what she said to me. She told Mama and others she thought I was 14. Darn my young face!

When I was finished with my performance I went into the audience and watched the remaining performances. After a while I went off with the students to see children wrestle for a rabbit. It was hilarious and wonderful. I hung out some more. We listened to some people from the village perform songs. Then the biggest draw arrived: a famous singer from Chisinau. While she was singing Mama and I joined groups of people dancing. People were impressed that I knew how to do their dances. It was difficult in a large circle to dance but it was lots of fun!

After dancing for a while people left to go eat dinner. Mama and I went home. I was tired and stayed home. Then, suddenly, I heard fireworks. I watched from my porch. I guess after I left there was a large disco. I wish I had stayed for it but there’s always next year! If only I was more of a night-owl partier.

Comparison:

I’d like to point out that PST village on paper has about 4.000 people in it. While my permanent village has about 2.500 people. This contributes to a lot. The PST Village had the rides and trampolines up for a couple days—into the weekend. But Site was on a Tuesday and I didn’t return to the stadion right after, but I assume everything was taken down. The trampolines were not like in PST and the Stage was built then taken down, unlike the permanent stage in PST. Also, PST did not have fireworks. My Site had more dancing from the audience which was a lot of fun!

*diriginta: a combination of a homeroom teacher and a guidance councilor. Essentially knows everything about everything in each student’s lives.

[avesagittarius]

lost mal-evolence // 2

WORD COUNT // 1725

summary ! The youngest of the Maximoff siblings had lived through heartbreak twice now. First her parents’ death and then her older siblings’ abandonment. She didn’t know what she’d done wrong, only that she searched for them for 3 years before HYDRA recruited her. She joined them when she learnt Pietro and Wanda had came here after leaving her. Now 6 years after their departure, she was in the process of becoming HYDRA’s best asset ever.

a/n ! sooo part 2, i was feeling inspired... hope you like it :))

warning ! okay so this isn’t really a warning but let’s pretend my baby Pietro is not dead in this series alright :)

GIMME FEEDBACK PLS :))))

part uno

________________________________________________________________

“You have to try HARDER” Madame HYDRA was now screaming at her. They had been training for five hours now, but Mal never backed down. She knew she had to control her power and if she had to train herself to exhaustion then she’d do it.

Katya Sarkissian, had succeeded her mother Ophelia and was now in charge of this operation. She was quite proud of her recruit, she’d accomplished so much since she had become a mutant. 

But the goal was to channel her protégé to the top. She could do great things now, she could do even greater if only she trained more.

“Come on Mal, make him do it !” Narrowing her eyes, the head of operations was getting frustrated with her trainee. “Stop.”

Mal’s posture immediately tensed, awaiting the worst. She hated not being able to do something, she hated disappointing Madame HYDRA. Because she knew her actions had consequences. 

She turned her 5′5 frame towards the imposing woman and kept her head high, not an ounce of fear radiating from her body. But deep down she could feel the dread coiling and tugging at her insides.

“What’s distracting you Mal ? You need to concentrate !” The anger in her tone made Mal shiver and want to lash out at her at the same time.

“Nothing, Madame. I have to try harder.” No emotions in her voice, she knew better than to show any vulnerability.

The sigh of frustration that followed her statement almost made Mal wince.

“Don’t lie to me Mal, why can’t you do it?” Miss Sarkassian was cold, she was going to get her to do what she wanted.

“It’s like I can hear the electricity of his nervous system” said the teen while nodding her head towards the man who had been standing there for a few hours now, “but I can’t seem to reach and interfere with it”

Mal’s hands were held in front of her as she has been instructed to do for six years now. When someone talked to her, they had to be able to see her hands, the most dangerous weapon in the facility.

Every person who worked here as HYDRA’s staff or scientist knew that with one touch of her hand they could be dead. 

Everyone but Mal. 

16 years old Mal Maximoff knew her powers were the result of an experiment that still haunted her at night. But she didn’t feel any remorse, she was proud to be special, to be someone who mattered for once. 

To be someone they needed. 

In fact, it’s the only thing that mattered for her. That for once in her life, those people weren’t going to let her go as easily as her parents or as her sister and brother did.

She didn’t really know who HYDRA were or what they needed her for, but to be honest she didn’t really care either. She had gained something from them.

Power and a strange sense of stability.

Mal was brought back to reality as the woman in front of her spoke once again. Calmer this time, but there was still an edge to it.

“Well we have to repair that. Try again” It was an order.

The young girl faced the man once more and concentrated. She could feel her own body thrilling and crackling with the electricity flowing through her veins.

She focused on the man and she could hear it, the millions of nerve signals running at incredible speed in his head. 

Madame HYDRA decided Mal was in need of a little motivation to achieve and complete her training session.

“You can do it, reach for it like you were reaching for your siblings when they left you, when they abandoned you” She smirked.

Mal reacted to that comment, her green eyes turning a glowing but gloomy purple. 

“Come on, don’t you want them to pay, for leaving you, for not caring about you. Once you control that man you control anyone, you control them Mal” 

The maleficent woman knew this kind of anger called her power to the surface. She had seen her achieve unimaginable things when annoyed with her past, with her siblings.

And she knew exactly what to say to get her to electrify herself as well as a whole city.

Mal knew deep down that Katya Sarkissian was only trying to get in her head, trying to anger her. But it worked.

Every. Single. Time.

She just couldn’t get past the fact that they had left her. 

So she growled while her features were morphing into one of intense concentration. A growing mist invaded the room, making the man cower a bit in fear, under the pressure of Mal’s dominating presence.

“If they had been there, they’d already have done it” That was the final straw. 

Mal was burning with anger, she had always been afraid of not being good enough. But she was done of that, she deserved more than being compared to her pathetic siblings.

She finally accessed his brain, hearing and feeling every part of his spine where nerve signals circulated as the man wanted nothing more than to get out of this place. 

Madame HYDRA’s words kept on repeating over and over again in her head, she had enough.

She wasn’t afraid. Not anymore. 

She intercepted the subconscious nerve signal which allowed the man to breathe without thinking about it.

She intercepted it and blocked it. Along with all the upcoming ones who were trying to seep through her barrier. 

She had to prove that she was worthy of this power flowing through her veins. She had to prove to the woman in the room she could trust her, that she could do it.

She wanted more than anything to prove to herself that she wasn’t afraid of death.

And so Madame HYDRA was left speechless and she saw the man clawing at his own throat and then fall limp head first on the floor.

His head cracking open with the impact.

Suddenly the mist vanished and Mal’s eyes returned back to their everyday color.

The head of operation couldn’t help but giggle at the sight of the corpse in front of her. She had expected Mal to react to her comments, to achieve the goal they had set for this session.

What she hadn’t expected was for her to be able to kill that soon. She had figured it would still take a few more months, maybe a year with good preparation and manipulation.

She clapped and went to hug an emotionless teen. 

“Congratulations my child ! You did it !” It looked almost as if she was going to start jumping and dancing around the room. It was a rather unusual sight for Mal to see Madame HYDRA that content.

“I am very proud of you, you will get a meal tonight !” She smiled at the young girl.

At this Mal lifted her clouded eyes, and smiled slightly. “Thank you Madame”

Mal never got more than a meal a day, so this meant her trainer was really happy with her.

But now that the anger had subsided, was Mal ever going to accept the fact that she had killed someone? Out of her anger for her family.

New York, Avengers Tower, a week after the first meeting.

“Sooo, anything new on Miss Thunderbolt ?” Sam chuckled when entering the lab where Tony, Steve and Bruce where currently searching for new informations on the girl that had fascinated more than one Avenger.

Tony looked up and pouted “I thought we had agreed on Mini Thor”  

“Nah, it’s too confusing” Sam winked and turned to Bruce who readjusted his glasses before speaking.

“Not since yesterday, I’ve tried countless times to run the facial recognition software on that picture but nothing comes out, it’s too pixelated”

Steve sighed and took a seat next to him.

“She doesn’t look very old, that’s what we know”

“How old ?” interrupted Clint who had just arrived.

“I don’t know, she doesn’t seem older than 20. Pretty sure she’s younger than the twins” 

Other than confirming that you were in fact part of HYDRA and that the Siberian facility had been in use for the past few years, only the underground part though. That’s why they hadn’t been aware of it. 

They weren’t coming up with enough informations to be flying out to Russia and bring down HYDRA.

Even though they knew everything about the location and Bucky had helped with the layout of the facility, they still couldn’t find the identity of the girl which was essential if they even wanted to try and free her of the hold the organization had on her.

“What about the leaders of her experiment ? Do we know anything about them ?” 

Ever since Clint had learnt that it was the evil organization behind the powers of the girl, he had tried to help. It felt like he just needed the confirmation that they were going to think this through and get a bit of rest.

Tony pointed his index towards him “That my friend, we can tell you more about”

He stood up “FRIDAY, files on the mean Lady please” 

He then proceeded to show them to everyone in the room, even though Bruce and Steve had already seen them. “That” he pointed to a tall and fierce looking woman in the picture “is Katya Sarkissian, head of operations at the Siberian facility, daughter of the infamous Ophelia Sarkissian”

“So she’s following in her mother’s footsteps” Sam was trying to piece it all together, the name seemed quite unfamiliar.

“Yes, well not exactly her mother, Viper, had an on-going narcotics business and was set on world domination, it seems our current Madame HYDRA inherited

the title but that’s it” Cap explained, a serious look in his eyes.

Tony nodded before continuing with the infos.

“We know she moved up the ranks pretty fast, having learnt quite a few things from her mother until now, where she is officially ‘researching on chemical and biological weapons for the Russian Army’. Those being human trials apparently.”

They all seemed to understand so he finished.

“We suppose she is the supervisor of the operation and she has multiple persons with advanced abilities under experiment including Mini Thor”

“Okay, that’s great” Clint was being sarcastic, he knew they had to bring this operation down before it took a nasty turn.                                                                                                                                               

part 3