#sheesh its really been 2 years

[lucretiaadventurezone]

TAZ Balance Dashboard Simulator

💪 bagnus-murnsides

↻ lactosewarrior5000 Follow

💪 bagnus-murnsides

happy rise and grind reclaimers wednesday monday

✨ you-know-from-tv Follow

its literally friday ?

🔥 lup-da-lup Follow

HAPPY RISE AND GRIND RECLAIMERS WEDNESDAY MONDAY FRIDAY

👖 lactosewarrior5000 Follow

#the additions are KILLING ME #laugh rule #tumblr days of the week #scheduled

(2,358 notes)

📔 sheesh-creesh

[REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED]

#bureau business #inoculated #txt

(0 notes)

🔎 ango-mcdango

↻ you-know-from-tv Follow

🌱 merlehighchurch1

give me that username lup. stop impersonating me

🌱 merlehighchurch Follow

no

(893 notes)

🍵 potion-master-69

CALLOUT FOR GARFIELD THE DEALS WARLOCK

so im not trying to start anything, but it has to be said. garfield has been collecting blood from various people and using it for nefarious purposes, as well as just kind of being a dick.

receipts under the readmore vv

Keep Reading

#callout #gore tw #lilian don’t look

(41 notes)

🔎 ango-mcdango

↻ lesbian-orc-lover Follow

👁️ hungry-hungry-hunger-deactivated20170817 Follow

Life is meaningless and nothing matters. Everything sucks and we should all just give in. Submit to the Hunger.

🌱 merlehighchurch1

this is exactly what ligma was saying a few years ago

👁️ hungry-hungry-hunger-deactivated20170817 Follow

What is Ligma? Some minor god you think will save you when your plane is consumed?

🌱 merlehighchurch1

LIGMA BALLS OHHHHHHHH

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ohmygod you killed him

(53,007 notes)

🍑 juicy-wizard-official

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🚀 cap-n-port Follow

A picture of the moon I took with my new camera! If you look really closely, you can see the B.O.B. on the left side.

🌱 merlehighchurch1

🚀 cap-n-port Follow

You can't do that here

(68,913 notes)

🌱 merlehighchurch1

↻ merlehighchurch Follow

🌱 merlehighchurch Follow

hey guys! it's me, merle hightower highchurch. just wanted to come on here and say that i'm a total loser and lup is the coolest bitch alive

🌱 merlehighchurch1

STOP

#this is elder abuse

(1,002 notes)

💀 reaper-kravitz-official

.

#my coworkers are driving me CRAZY rn #what do you mean it was 'just a little bit' of necromancy #WE ARE LITERALLY REAPERS LIKE HELLO #and now rq will be pissed at me. great #vent #do not rb

(2 notes)

🕸️ krav-dementia-raven-way

i fucked up i fucked up i fucked up i fu

#ohhhhh my god accidentally posted on the wrong blog #i didn't realize until BOTH of my coworkers had seen it fuck me #i am dating one of their brothers as well so #dreading our next work meeting and my date plans tonight

(1 note)

🌈 lucretiaadventurezone

i need to pick up taako by the scruff of his neck and shake him around

[genericpuff]

I feel mean criticizing an author's old work that they've deliberately buried, but sheesh the dialogue in Rachel's old stuff is really stilted. As awkward as LO's writing is, it honestly does show some improvement, so like...good for Rachel I guess?

I mean, it hasn't really improved though? Normally no, I wouldn't criticize someone's older work because by the virtue of something being old, it will naturally be improved upon and shouldn't be judged against what's created in the present (trust me, as someone with work from 10 years ago that hasn't aged well, I get it LOL).

But what's in the present... has all the same issues. I think it's easy to convince ourselves LO's writing is "better" because it relies on Greek myth to piece itself together, but when you aren't filling in the blanks for her based on assumptions made from the source material (which you shouldn't have to do) her writing in LO still doesn't have much to offer. Like, can we really call this an improvement?

If anything the writing in LO got even worse over time because it started to feel like ChatGPT was writing the dialogue and the narrative was crumbling under the weight of Rachel's lack of foresight / planning ahead.

I mean, just to get my point across, let me ask you one simple question: What is the actual theme of LO? What is the conclusion it comes to by its end to contribute to that theme?

This isn't me trying to minimize whatever improvements she may have made between the past and present, I just don't see those improvements, and there's a lot more to suggest that she was a lot more prolific 20 years ago as an artist than she is today. All of that stuff about Persephone / herself being a "workaholic" is based on stuff she went through 20 years ago that she doesn't even put on display now because it's all buried in deactivated Tumblrs and LiveJournals. But that's besides the point.

I think at best the "improvement" simply boils down to "at least she finished this one". But that's not necessarily a good thing because it's clear LO went on longer than it ever should have and that the only reason she even made it this far was because she was bound to a contract through WT. I guarantee you if it weren't for the success that WT's gave her through constantly advertising LO everywhere (and the fact that LO fit a very specific niche that was popular at the time) she would have ended LO ages ago, because just about every series she's done up until this point have been passing fancies that she's bounced between while still retaining a lot of the same tropes and crutches she always has.

LO is about a naive valley girl with mommy issues who goes to school to better herself. This is also the plot of The Doctor Foxglove Show. And while comics like Castle Castle, Woman King, and The Maiden don't involve school settings, they do still center around "girlboss" characters who hate their parents. LO isn't really an "improvement" among these tropes, just another rehashing that's hidden way better because 1.) she put it behind the veil of Greek myth and 2.) she's done everything in her power to hide the fact that she's been writing about the same pink-haired girls with mommy issues and trauma from evil men "except for that one guy who's perfect in every way" for 20+ years now.

And that issue of stilted dialogue goes way beyond even the comics. Read transcripts of her interviews or the Q&A from the end of the series that she did in her Discord and you'll see she has a really hard time finishing the thought she started on. I'm sure a lot of this can be chalked up to her ADHD / dyslexia, which is totally valid, but it just goes to show she hasn't done any work to actually improve her work in spite of her hindrances. She doesn't know how to separate Internet trolls from valid criticism and she seems to absorb any and all criticism as "proof" that she's better than everyone else, actually, and it's not her fault that other people are stupid and don't get her "vision". And I'm not pulling this assertion out of thin air, she's displayed this exact behavior before both within the LO fandom as well as her pre-existing fandoms around her other series.

Like, I can totally get the sentiment that "hate mail is a sign of success" and turning a negative into a positive, but there's a difference between deflecting hate mail from trolls and deflecting genuine criticism that's meant to identify your weaknesses and help you grow. That's what makes it all the more telling that she's built an audience around protecting and enabling her weaknesses rather than celebrating her strengths and empowering her to do better. She can't fall back on Webtoons as the only excuse for why the writing in LO is bad, her writing has always been like this and I feel like that's half the reason she's trying to hide it.

[lavenderbang]

Drunk-Dazed

 Vampire! Park Sunghoon x reader

genre(s): vampire au!, non-idol au!, Sunghoon is also your tutor, mystery (not really cause dramatic irony), fluff, horror, Jake is your best friend cause I’m a simp, also feat. the rest of enhypen, mainly Heesung and Jungwon tho

Warning(s): blood/gore, swearing (obviously), biting (OBVIOUSLY), and probably crime (if you consider killing a classmate and drinking their blood a crime)

W.C: 17.2k (Sheesh this is long...)

Summary: When a fellow classmate was found dead on the soccer field with all the blood drained from them and two pierce marks in their neck, you took it upon yourself as president of the paranormal club to find the vampire. 

A/N: Y’all, when I say I am OBSESSED with Drunk-Dazed! That song literally made me an Engene overnight and honestly I can’t stop thinking about writing this fic. I don’t usually like monster stuff, but watching the MV (which is here) really inspired me. Also I love Park Sunghoon with my whole heart... anyways, Enjoy!

A/N 2: If you couldn’t tell from the previous author note and the title, this has been sitting in my drafts since the Drunk-Dazed MV dropped. It’s clearly been a long time since then, but I’m now finally posting this fic under a random spurt of inspo. I hope you enjoy it cause I love this fic (its my baby) and its been two and a half years in the making!

he’s so ethereal

“uhhh, you’re late dude,” You scoff at Jake, “Slept through your alarm?” Your best friend doesn’t respond, and only then you realize how serious he looked; Jake’s face was pale, and he seemed to fumble with his bag as he sat down beside you in his usual seat for biology. His eyes were darting all over the place before finally landing on you; you grabbed onto his hands to stop it from shaking.

“Hey, you okay?” You ask, frowning at your usually cheerful friend, “what happened?”

“I went out to the field this morning to get a bit of early practice...” He starts off, licking his lips nervously before continuing, “When I got there, there was someone laying out in the middle of the field....”

“who?” You ask but are soon interrupted by the chairman of your school and the chief of police coming into the classroom. Jake immediately looks at his shoes, not wanting to look at the two men at the front.

“Good morning everyone,” The chairman greets in a serious tone, “I have some grim news to share with you all. Now I’m deciding to share this with you because you are all young adults and deserve transparency on the situation.”

“Whats going on Jake?” You whispered to your friend, who was trembling in his seat.

“This morning at 7:32 am, were were alerted by a student that there was a body found at the soccer field.” The chairman stated solemnly. The amount of tension in your classroom was suffocating, “by 7:46, we had identified that the victim was a student by the name of Lee Geonu.”

The mood quickly turned from tense to absolute shock; You couldn’t believe that Geonu, the guy that asked you to borrow a pencil just last Tuesday was now dead. It didn’t make any sense whatsoever; its not like you were friends, but Geonu was a good guy, healthy too. 

“I know this is frightening and disturbing news, but we will only take a few more moments of your time.” The chairman turned to the chief of police and continued, “I will now turn it over to police chief Kim to bring up what’s important.”

“Thank you sir,” The police chief nodded before looking down at the document in his hands, “Now upon inspection, it seems that your classmate was found with two distinct holes in the middle of his neck on the left side, as well as a very low blood volume. As of now, we are unaware of where his blood went, but we suspect it sank into the ground.”

You feel Jake’s hand tighten in yours, eyes brimming with tears from the traumatic experience. You squeeze his hand to comfort your friend, feeling sorry that he had see something so horrific.

“Now, we think time of death occurred at around 10:00-12:00 last night,” The police chief continued, before looking up at your class, “If any of you have any information as to what happened or anything you might know about the victim that is relevant to our investigation, please don’t hesitate to come to us.”

The room was silent for a moment, aside from a few sniffles in the back along with the anxious tapping of someones shoes on the floor.

“Lastly, I’m sorry to all of you for your loss.” Chief Kim smiled sympathetically, “I want you all to know you are safe and any information you can give us can help us find whoever did this to Geonu and give him justice.”

And with that being said, the two men exited the room, leaving a atmosphere of despair and melancholy over all of your classmates. You turned to Jake, patting his shoulder gently. He sniffled, blinking back tears. As hard as it was, your teacher put you all to work on a simple worksheet, hoping that it could take your guy’s mind off the current news.

~~~

“It was weird... The holes were small, no bigger than half a centimeter.” Jake explained quietly, whispering to you as you sat down at your lunch table, only to be followed by your friends Jungwon and Heesung.

“How far apart?” You asked cautiously. You still felt worried talking about this topic with Jake, as he seemed pretty shaken up yesterday morning. Since then he seemed okay, as it was a pretty big school and he didn’t know Geonu that well, having no classes with the guy.

“Maybe an inch, inch and a half?” Jake explained, opening his bottle of ice tea to take a sip.

“Strange...” Jungwon responded before teasing shoving your shoulder with a smile, “Maybe it was a vampire, right (Y/N)?” This made the boys chuckle, obviously amused to poke fun at you and your paranormal beliefs.

“That’s what I was thinking...” You responded staring at your sandwich, deep in thought. The laughter died and the boys all looked at you confused.

“Are you serious (Y/N)..?” Heesung asked, furrowing his eyebrows at you.

“Of course,” You replied, looking up at the oldest with a frown, “What else could it be?”

“Something real? Like a human maybe..?” Jake suggested, clearly concerned with your thought process.

“That doesn’t make any sense! Who kills a guy with two small holes in the neck and drains almost all of his blood from his body?” You leaned forward, picking at your food before sighing, “Besides, you guys are in the Paranormal Activities Club too, so why don’t you believe it could be a vampire?”

“Honestly, talking about ghosts and monsters and stuff during our PAC meetings is fun,” Jungwon started off before brushing his hand through his hair and sighing, “But it was never that serious. Not like ‘I think a vampire murdered our classmate’ type of club.”

“But don’t you believe in the paranormal? isn’t that the whole point of PAC?” You asked, seriousness dripping from your tone, “I just think it’s our duty to discover if this was actually a vampire-related incident or not.”

The boys looked at you like you had three heads, letting the silence be word enough that they thought you were insane.

“I mean, if its not, then no harm no foul...” You sighed, crossing your arms across your chest passively, “But it if it, that means we have a vampire on the loose and we need to find out who it is, as the closest thing to experts this school has.”

“I mean, it could be kinda fun to look for clues and stuff...” Jungwon smiled softly.

“We’d be like the Mystery Gang from Scooby-doo!” Jake beamed, suddenly interested in the idea of investigation.

“I guess we technically have to have other club activities besides chatting to count for credit..” Heesung agreed, shaking his head at the thought of actually agreeing to a vampire hunt.

“So PAC investigation to find the vampire?” You smirked, feeling excited to maybe see a real live monster.

“Yeah it’ll be fun!” Jake finalized, taking a bite of the apple he had pulled out of his bag sometime while having this conversation, “Lets meet back at the school tonight to look for evidence.”

“No can do actually...” You interrupted, shocking your friends at the odd change in attitude of inspiring them to do this and then suddenly bailing.

“What the heck (Y/N)!?” Jungwon huffed, throwing his hands up dramatically, “Why can’t you come?”

“I’ve got Calculus tutoring tonight.” You stated simply, “but you guys can go look for clues without me tonight and you can report back at tomorrow’s PAC meeting.”

“You have a tutor?” Heesung asked, “who?” You turn in your chair and point across the lunch room to a pretty boy sitting at one of the corner tables, headphones in and doing homework.

“Park Sunghoon.” You answered simply, “We go to the campus library every Tuesday and Thursday. One day he helps me with Calc and the other day I help him with Bio.”

“He’s in our biology class?” Jake asked shocked, scratching his head sheepishly, “I didn’t even notice him...”

‘Yeah he’s pretty shy, but nice enough.” You nodded and stuffed sandwich in your face before continuing with a mouth full of bread, “I don’t think he likes me very much though.”

“I wonder why...” Heesung cringes, watching bits of sandwich squish in your mouth as you talk with it full. Before you look away, Sunghoon looks up and around the room, only to catch your gaze. He blinks a couple of times before politely nodding at you. Feeling embarrassed you got caught looking, you whipped around and faced your friends again, feeling the burning sensation crawl up your neck. Of course, this appeared as the perfect opportunity for the boys to make fun of you; but you didn’t mind, as it was nice to see some cheer from the gloomy atmosphere that was hanging around recently.

~~~

Bzzt!

You looked down at your phone to see that you had gotten a message.

Sunghoon: hey, do you mind meeting me at the front of the school for our session?

You tilt you head in confusion, but nonetheless type out a response before packing up your things you had set up for your session.

(Y/N): sure, I’ll be right there :)

Quickly making your way to the front, you see Sunghoon standing there, expression blank and scrolling through his phone. Once he sees you, He puts it away and approaches where you stand.

“Hey (Y/N) I’m sorry about this, but do you mind if I teach you somewhere else today?” He asked, worry and urgency evident in the shakiness of his voice.

“I mean, I guess,” You respond jokingly, smiling to hopefully put the boy at ease, “I would have loved it you let me know BEFORE I set all my stuff out though.”

“I know and I’m sorry about that,” Sunghoon apologized, walking out of the building with you following, “My coach changed my practice to earlier so I had to make adjustments...”

“So where are we going?” You asked, walking beside your tutor fumbling with the zipper on your binder.

“My apartment, if that’s okay.” He replied, not looking away from where his eyes focused ahead, “since my practice is earlier, I’l be saving time by not having to travel home to grab my things before going to the rink.”

“Sounds good to me...” You agreed before falling silent. You felt a weird sensation bubble up in your stomach that you had never seemed to feel before. Maybe nervousness because you’ve never been to Sunghoon’s home, but why would you be nervous about something like that?

Silence filled the air as you walked onward. The sun was starting to set, setting a warm orange glow over the environment as you walked; Even in this light, Sunghoon looked pale; his eyes looking down at his feet as his dark hair swept across his forehead with ever step. Somehow you had never noticed until now, but Sunghoon had a mole right on the edge of the bridge of his nose. You though it suited him, even though you rarely talked about things other then your respective subjects.

“So” You cleared your throat, wanting to break the silence and overall your sudden appreciation for your tutor, “You play a sport? you said your coach moved practice...”

“Ah, yeah!” Sunghoon responded with a smile, turning to look at you for the first time since leaving the school, “I do figure skating” (A/N: I had to, I love ice prince Sunghoon). You nodded, finding it surprising that out of all the sports, he picked something elegant and precise as figure skating.

“Really? That’s cool!” You praised, excited to get to know more about him, “how often do you practice?”

“every weekday,” He answered, “usually after we have our session I go home and grab all my gear and head to the rink, but for some reason my coach moved practice ahead by an hour.”

“Damn coaches, Huh?” You joked, “Always ruining a perfectly good schedule. Not that I would know, as I don’t do a sport...”

“Oh yeah, you have your own club, right?” Sunghoon recalled, making a right turn as you continued to his house, “What’s it called again..?”

“Paranormal Activities Club.” You explained, “We usually shorten it to PAC because it’s a bit wordy...”

“Catch any ghosts?” Sunghoon asked smiling cheekily.

“We don’t catch ghosts, we talk about them.” You said before cracking a smile, “Behind their back of course, like we’re in middle school” Sunghoon laughed at your silly joke, warmth radiating from deep in his chest. For some reason, it felt good to make the boy laugh; maybe it was because he was so reserved that you were happy to see him ease up a bit with you.

You arrived at Sunghoon’s apartment within about ten minutes. As you stepped in, you noticed the simplicity of it; white walls, a glass coffee table, and a bookshelf off to the right. To the left, there was a small corner kitchen and a hallway that you assumed lead to the bathroom and Sunghoon’s bedroom. The only thing to note was the furniture; a expensive looking maroon love-seat that was perpendicular with the coffee table and a deep red, velvety sofa pushed up under the window. 

“You can set your things down here and we can get started.” Sunghoon motioned to the coffee table before going into the kitchen, “want anything?”

“a glass of water would be nice,” You respond politely before setting your binder on the table. You looked at the sofa, before ultimately deciding to sit on the floor in front of it, feeling the furniture looked to expensive to touch. Sunghoon returns, placing the glass on a coaster and then on the table.

“Thank you.” You accepted the glass shyly, feeling a sense of awkwardness being in the private of his home.

“Why are you on the floor..?” Sunghoon chuckled lightly before sitting on the sofa, “there’s a sofa right behind you... I mean if your more comfortable on the floor we can sit there-”

“No I’ll move!” You exclaimed, getting up and sitting beside Sunghoon on the velvet cushions, “It just that your furniture looks so expensive...”

“Really?” He scrunched up his nose before opening his textbook and flipping through it to find the assignment, “I found these at a garage sale for like $100. Some little old Victorian lady was selling them. They’re really nice, but it’s really hard to get stains out of them...”

“Oh, I see.” You nodded, feeling the fabric under your fingertips before grabbing your pencil, “So should we get started?” Sunghoon hummed in response and you began the homework you were supposed to finish for tomorrow. 

After a bit, things went back to normal and you didn’t feel as weird or awkward; it was like every other Tuesday in the library. It wasn’t long before the sun set, and you were packing up your things to go home.

“Thank you so much for accommodating my schedule today.” Sunghoon thanked, holding his door open for you.

“No problem! It was a nice change of scenery.” You said brightly, trying to be polite about the abrupt change of plans, “Have a nice night Sunghoon; see you Thursday!” You went down to the lobby and messaged Jake, hoping that the boys actually went to the soccer field to look for evidence while you were busy.

(Y/N): [dropped 1 location]

(Y/N): hey, pick me up cause its dark and there is a vampire on the loose?

Butt-head~: Of course, your highness. It’s not like I was just about to get into the shower or anything after being out in a field for an hour...

Attached to that message was a GIF of a dirty servant from that one medieval show doing a full bow. you rolled your eyes at Jake’s sarcasm.

(Y/N): if you’re busy, I’ll just walk home alone

Butt-head~: Don’t you dare

Butt-head~: I’m literally already in my car omw

Chuckling to yourself you sit down in the lobby and do what any person would do to pass the time; scroll through memes. It isn’t long before you get another text from Jake saying he’s outside. You hurry out and hop in the passenger side of his old red car.

“Hello your highness, I hope this chariot is to your standards.” He teased in a fake posh British accent, which wasn’t far from his usual accent.

“Well, there could have been a harp or trumpets playing when I entered, but this’ll have to do,” you sighed before smiling at your silly friend. 

He suddenly turned on a loud, heavy bass song and drove in the direction of your house. You both jammed out for a bit, rolling down the windows and screaming out the lyrics at the top of your lungs. Eventually Jake turned down the music in exchange to chat with you.

“So me and Jungwon went out to the field and-” Jake started before you screeched out and stopped him.

“Don’t tell me!” You hushed, almost reaching out to put your hands over Jake’s mouth, “Wait until the meeting tomorrow!”

“I just thought you’d want to know about-” Jake started again but you shouted out to avoid hearing about what the boys found. Jake sighed and shut his mouth, clearly not going to be able to tell you about the investigation.

“Wait, where was Heesung?” You asked, quirking your eyebrows becasue you were cofused on why he wouldn’t show.

“He said he had something important to do instead.” Jake responded flatly.

“What’s more important than vampires?” You huffed.

“I know, this is the most important thing in our lives right now.”

“Exactly! This is serious stuff he was missing.”

The two of you were silent for a moment, but it wasn’t uncomfortable. Though, you soon broke the silence.

“i’m sorry I wasn’t there...” You apologized, fiddling with your things and feeling a bit bad, “I failed as a president today...”

“Dude, don’t worry about it! Your trustworthy vice-prez worked very hard in your place.” Jake complimented himself and jabbed a thumb at his chest; you giggled at his antics, glad he wasn’t upset with you.

“So how was tutor session with pretty boy? I’m sure you got lots of calculus done.” Jake teased, poking your shoulder.

“As a matter of fact, we did get a lot of calculus done,” You rolled your eyes and pushed his hand away before continuing, “Besides the awkwardness of me being in his house for the first time...”

“Finally seeing pretty boy’s house? Or were you too busy kissing him to see?” Jake teased yet again, followed by gross, wet kissing sounds. You give the boy a hardy slap to the shoulder before chuckling at his antics.

“That’s the second time you called Sunghoon pretty.” You joked before cracking a big smile, “You know, if you’re so jealous of me, I could introduce you two so maybe you could kiss him.” You then copy the kissing sounds Jake made moments before only to earn a laugh and a shove. 

“Thank you for the offer, but I’ll pass.” Jake finally said and pulled up in front of your house, “Anyways, here’s your castle Your Highness.” You jumped out of Jake’s old car, collecting your things. You said a sincere thank you and waved goodbye before scurrying inside to eat and then sleep. Besides, you had a big day tomorrow filled with excitement from vampire hunting.

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

“Alright as all of the members of The Paranormal Activities Club have arrived, as president I officially begin this meeting.” You sat down after saying your opening speech and look at the three boys in front of you. PAC always met in room 300, so you pushed four desks together to make a meeting table. The lights were usually off as well, with only a couple of flashlights and a single candle lighting your meetings; but since there was more serious stuff to discuss this meeting, you opted to keeping the lights on.

“Now, to start off this very formal PAC Meeting, I have something to go over before we talk about the findings from last night.” You said before turning to Heesung and pouting, “Where were you? I though you were all good for the soccer field last night...”

“I thought these two knuckleheads could handle it without me,” Heesung points at Jungwon and Jake before continuing, “So I went to the public library to see if I could dig up any similar instances of killings in the same manner. I just wanted to see if there was a history of a murderer or serial killer that murdered in this way, but no luck..”

“That’s because it was a vampire, not a serial killer but whatever...” You responded passive-aggressively before smiling, “But thank you for double checking, I appreciate the work you’re putting into this.” Heesung simply gives a thumbs up and looks to the other two boys.

“Alright, so now that that’s settled,” You sated, turning to the other boys as well, “Lets go over what our investigation brought to light.”

Jake stood up and walked to the white board where there were a couple of magnets. He pulled them all off the white board and turned to you all.

“Jungwon, You have the evidence right?” He asked. Jungwon dug around in his backpack before pulling out a file-folder and scurrying up to where Jake was standing. They first began by placing random photos of the scene on the white-board, including a blurry selfie of the two of them and a picture of the sun reflected on the school windows. Jake cleared his throat, trying to appear as professional as possible.

“I will now account what happened when we arrived.”

-

“Ow, I think that’s the seventh mosquito bite!” Jungwon groaned and slapped his arm. 

The boys trudged through the surrounding trees by the field. The area where Geonu’s body was found was roped off with police tape so Jake had opted to start looking in the surrounding area instead. 

“Quit complaining, we are supposed to look for evidence of a vampire.” Jake scolded before shuffling around in the bushes.

“This is stupid.There’s no way it was a vampire.” Jungwon huffed before sifting through a pile of dead leaves, “(Y/N)’s bonkers. I can’t believe I agreed to this...”

“Maybe, but it would mean a lot to her if we just looked anyways.” Jake reasoned, pushing through-

-

“Do you really need to be telling me all this? Especially the part where you guys basically say I’m nuts?” You frown before being shushed by Jake, who continues on.

-

“Hey there’s a footprint here in the mud!” Jake pointed out before turning to Jungwon, “It could be our vampire.”

“Or a random person going through the bushes.” Jungwon huffed.

“Just give me the camera Jungwon.”

“Fine...”

-

Jake places the photo of the footprint on the white board, securing it with a magnet.

“From my deduction skills, it is around a size 7 males shoe.” Jake confirms, “I’ll be studying the tread to see what kind of shoe it is.”

“Okay sounds good.” You praised, nodding to Jungwon, “Continue on with what happened.”

-

“What exactly are we looking for that the police wouldn’t have already found?” Jungwon sighed, climbing out of the treeline onto the red gravel track that separated the woods from the field.

“Paranormal stuff.” Jake answered vaguely, walking down the path closer to where the body laid just yesterday.

 He felt a strange sense of dread looking at the police tape, remembering the graphic scene all to well. It had etched itself into his head, not letting him get a wink of sleep the night before.

“Like... this?” Jungwon asked nervously. He held up a single silver ring, holding it up to the sky to get a better look at it.

-

Jungwon pulled the ring out of the folder; he had it in a zip-lock bag, almost afraid to touch it. Jake gave him a magnet, to which he hung the bag on whiteboard beside the footprint photo.

“What is that on it..?” You asked, leaning closer to get a better look at the ring. you could see that almost three-quarters of the outside of the ring was stained with some sort of black liquid.

“It looks burned in...” Heesung suggested, squinting to see the small piece of jewelry.

“Hey, I’m not done with the evidence yet!” Jake interrupted, trying to keep your attention, “Can we please stay focused?”

-

“Do you think we should go in there?” Jungwon asked, standing right on the edge of the police tape, “I feel like at that point, we would be tampering with actual police evidence...” 

Jake fiddled with the bright yellow tape, allowing it to slide in between his fingers, assessing the option of what they should do. He looked to the spot where Geonu had been, trying his best to recall every detail he could when he discovered him. Blanking on what happened, he turned away from the tape and went back onto the path.

“I think it’s best if we go home. The photos are good and the there’s that ring you found too.” Jake decided, turning to walk to the direction of the front gate. In all honesty, he just couldn’t bring himself to got to that spot in the grass; but he couldn’t just say that to Jungwon.

“Sounds good to me, I wanna take a shower, the bush was gross.” Jungwon said, jogging to catch up to Jake. the boys walked to the entrance of the school.

“Wait! I want to get a picture!” Jungwon insisted, pulling out his camera to get a photo of the reflected sunset on the windows. Jake waited, leaning against the gate of the school and gazing at the building.

-

“This doesn’t seem very relevant to our investigation...” You chimed in before Jake groaned and rolled his eyes.

“Oh my God! Can you just listen? I was literally getting to the relevant part...” He scoffed, crossing his arms over his chest, “Don’t interrupt, Stink-ass.”

“Sorry.” you responded, promising yourself not to interrupt again until the boys were finished.

-

The school was big and made of brick and glass; but something else was catching Jake’s attention.

“Hey, that flock of crows is trying to get into the dumpster over there!” He chuckled, before jogging over to the dumpster that was on the edge of the parking lot left of the building.

“dude, its actually called a murder of crows.” Jungwon corrected, earning a ‘whatever’ from Jake, who seemed much more interested in what was attracting the crows to the dumpster. After getting a nice photo, Jungwon came over too, curiosity getting the better of him.

“It’s whatever’s in this drug store bag...” Jake deduced, pointing at the thin, white, plastic bag tied tightly on the top of the trash.

“What do you think is in there..?” Jungwon asked, voice barely above a whisper. He seemed concerned, mostly due to the big, dark spot covering the bottom of the bag.

“I guess there is only one way to find out.” Jake gulped before grabbing the bag by the handles with one finger and dropping it to the cement, “I mean, if we really want to open it...”

“What would the Mystery Gang do?” Jungwon asked, half-joking/half-seriously.

“I think they would open it.”

“Okay so lets open it then”

“You open it. I don’t want to touch it...”

“Me neither! Besides, you already touched it!”

“Yeah, so it’s your turn.”

“How about we rock paper scissors for who has to open it?”

“That sounds fair.”

-

“This is what we found in the bag, and in all honesty, I don’t feel like I should even have it because its like... actual evidence...” Jake grimaced and opened his backpack to reveal a brown paper bag.

 He rustled in it before bringing out what was inside and pinning it to the white board. The room was silent as you stared at the item, feeling a sickness bubble up into your stomach.

Pinned to the whiteboard was an over-sized, white, male’s dress shirt; all around the neckline and dripping down, soaking into the chest area was dried, brown blood that had obviously been applied wet. The cuffs of the sleeves going up the arms was also covered in the dried liquid, tainting the pure white fabric.

“What...” You begin, not really knowing what you were going to say. What you even could say.

“We have to give that to the police.” Heesung stated frantically, like it was obvious, “That’s serious piece of evidence for their investigation and we shouldn’t have that.” The rest of you didn’t respond, earning a scoff from the eldest.

“You don’t think we should keep it, right?” He asked, clearing accentuating his tone to signify how stupid he thought that idea was.

“No, I don’t think we should keep it!” You exclaimed matter-of-factly, approaching the shirt and gently touching the hem of it, “But we could get as much information we need from it...”

“You’re joking right?!” Jungwon cried, clearly disturbed.

“Look at where the... blood is.” You pointed out, having a hard time actually say the word, “If it wasn’t a vampire and was just some guy, there wouldn’t be a focus of blood on the highest part of the shirt. We need all the clues we can to find out who our secret vampire is and this shirt has some.”

“I mean, we would only have it for a little longer and then after we get all the information we can from it, we give it in, right?” Jake supported, sitting down at the makeshift table to get away from the shirt. Heesung turned to you, worry and sincerity flooding his eyes.

“(Y/N), I don’t know how comfortable I am with this...” He warned, grabbing hold of your arm, “I really think we should give this in as soon as possible, along with everything else the boys found...”

“We will.” You answered firmly, holding Heesung’s grip on your arm with the opposite hand, “Just after we get the clues we need from everything.”

“How about a vote?” Jake suggested, “All in favor of keeping the evidence for a little longer and then giving it to the police after we are done?” Jake raised his hand, followed by you raising yours. 

“All in favor of giving it to the police right after this vote?” Heesung countered and raised his hand. The three of you then looked to the youngest boy who had not voted for either.

“Jungwon?” You asked, and he looked at you and you could see the inner conflict he was going through in his head.

“We give it back as soon as we are done..?” Jungwon asked hesitantly, playing with the cuffs of his jacket nervously.

“As soon as we finish documenting all the information we need.” You reassured, “Not a minute longer than needed.” Jungwon nodded along to your words, hummed and bit his bottom lip out of habit. He tapped his foot, deep in thought before finally nodding again.

“Okay, but only if we don’t touch it without gloves or something so we don’t wreck the police evidence...” Jungwon finally decided, to which you quickly agreed to his terms.

“I guess it can’t be helped,” Heesung sighed, brushing his hair back to release his stress, “but just for the record, I’m not touching any of that and this is a bad idea...”

“Noted.” Jake finalized before standing and making his way to the door, “I’m going to sneak to the biology lab to get some gloves and tweezers to start looking for clues, you guys should start photographing the things we are giving to the police.”

With tasks assigned you all got to work in documenting any clues you felt could lead you to the identity of the vampire.

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

(figure) skater boy: Hey, do you mind if we are at my house again today for our session? Coach switched practice for the next two weeks...

You immediately switch directions, walking towards the front as opposed to the library where you were planning on meeting Sunghoon until he messaged you. you typed out a quick reply that consisted of the absolute poetry of ‘k’.

As you approached the lobby, you saw Sunghoon standing by the door, except he was taking to someone today. It was a guy that you had occasionally seen your tutor with, but you had never actually spoken to him before. The stranger met your gaze and smiled as you walked up to the duo.

“I hope I’m not interrupting.” You said politely, turning your attention to Sunghoon with a smile.

“Not at all, (Y/N).” He reassured, before motioning to the stranger, “ Have you met my friend Jay?” 

“I have not.” You confirm, reaching your hand out to shake the other man’s hand, “I’m (Y/N), I tutor your friend.”

“Jay. I’m friends with your tutor.” Jay joked, taking your hand and shaking it. Feeling nervous, you look at the floor before finding the perfect thing to say to be less awkward.

“Woah! I love your boots! They look really cool.” You gushed, not taking your gaze off Jay’s feet. He was wearing a pair of combat boots that went up to his mid calf, and they looked to be made of an expensive material with shiny silver buckles on them.

“Hey thanks!” He chuckled in response, tilting his foot to model them, “I ordered them custom made because I thought they’d look cooler with my own personal touch, y’know?” You hummed in response, before feeling a tug at your sleeve, gaining your attention.

“We should get going if we are going to finish the biology assignment.” Sunghoon urged then turning to his friend and smiling, “See you! I’ll message you after practice.” Jay nodded in agreement before sending you off with a ‘nice to meet you’.

You begin the walk to Sunghoon’s place in silence before you decide to break it like you did yesterday.

“Jay seems nice.” You stated simply, hoping talking about his friend would help Sunghoon open up more, “How long have you been friends?”

“A couple of years now.” Sunghoon responded before smirking to himself, “You like him?”

“Sure, he seems pretty chill.” You said, given that you only had about a minute to interact with the guy.

“He’s a good guy.” Sunghoon finalized, looking out into the distance seemingly in thought, “He’s the kind of guy to have your back no matter what.” You hummed in response, falling silent as you walked towards Sunghoon’s apartment. 

Maybe it was the fact that you were going to his house, but you felt that maybe you’d become a bit closer with the introverted boy. Maybe he at least didn’t dislike you, but you were certain he didn’t like you. But maybe that could change, just given a bit more time.

You were pulled out of your thoughts due to Sunghoon roughly grabbing your arm and pulling you to the left, just narrowly avoiding walking into the busy street. You stumbled a bit, catching your balance on Sunghoon’s shoulder.

“Watch where you’re going!” He huffed, clearly anxious, “Gosh, I thought maybe you didn’t know we had to turn here, but I didn’t expect you to try to walk into traffic.”

“Sorry, I was totally zoned out,” You apologized, letting your grip loosen from his shoulder. You both continued to walk, but he didn’t let go of your arm. For some reason you felt a warm feeling bubble up in your chest from the contact, “Thanks for yanking me to safety though.”

“Did I pull you too hard? Sorry about that, I was just worried.”

“Don’t worry about it, you were just helping me not get hit by a car.”

“Pay more attention next time. You must have been thinking about something important to zone out that badly...”

You blushed, realizing that you were in fact, thinking about Sunghoon and if he was your friend or not.

“Oh? You’re blushing. You must have been thinking about something embarrassing.” Sunghoon teased, finally letting go of you. You surprisingly felt disappointed in this action, “Maybe it was your boyfriend..?” You turned to him, confusion and embarrassment flooding your features.

“Boyfriend? I know you’re not talking about me...” You joked, looking at the sidewalk beneath your feet as you trudged along. It was Sunghoon’s turn to be confused and he tilted his head and stared at you.

“Aren’t you dating someone?” He asked to which you shook your head no; you could feel the shame of this conversation burn up from the base of your neck.

“What about the guy that picked you up on Tuesday that you always hang out with?” Sunghoon questioned you, to which you burst out laughing from the misunderstanding.

“Jake?” You spat between a fit of laughter, “No way! He’s a really good friend that’s all.” It was Sunghoon’s turn to be mortified, his ears turning red as his eyes darted anywhere but you.

“Ahhhh! I’m sorry for jumping to conclusion, you guys just seemed really close at school and the he picked you up and I just assumed and-” He rambled before you cut him off.

“It’s okay. I understand why people might think that,” You assured before smiling to yourself, “He’s my Jay.”

“Your Jay?” Sunghoon asked, finally able to turn and look at you. You catch his gaze and give him a soft smile.

“The best kind of friend that would do anything for you.” You explained simply, “My Jay.” Sunghoon seemed to understand your comparison, smirking to himself because of the cute analogy.

Soon, you make it to Sunghoon’s apartment and begin your biology work. You immediately sat on the sofa this time, not fumbling with the floor; this time, you were conscious of how close he sat beside you, the warmth of his body radiating on your side. It made you anxious suddenly, having him this close to you. You were self-conscious of everything, like how your breath smelled or the way your hair laid. This feeling was one that you couldn’t seem to shake, no matter how hard you tried to focus on teaching Sunghoon about DNA; it was driving you bonkers

“Can I use your bathroom?” You asked, bouncing your knee nervously. He nodded and motioned to the door on the left before continuing working on the question you were on. You quickly shuffled into the bathroom and locked the door behind you, taking a deep breath. You washed your hands and looked up to fix you hair in the mirror.

Only, there wasn’t a mirror there. It was just a blank wall in front of the sink.

You frowned, blinking a couple of times to make sure you weren’t just seeing things. When you finally reached out and touched the wall you finally confirmed you weren’t crazy and there really was just no bathroom mirror.

Drying your hands and heading back to the living room, you debated bringing up the bathroom mirror. Maybe he just broke it and hadn’t bought a replacement yet?

Thinking that it was no big deal, you dropped it and decided to focus on the task at hand. Sunghoon had finished the problem you were on before you left and had moved on to the next one. The whole mirror situation had shaken you from whatever you felt earlier and you were finally able to focus on biology; so much in fact that you finished the assignment early.

“You can stay a bit longer... If you want.” Sunghoon offered, biting his bottom lip and leaning forward on the sofa, “If you’ve got stuff to do, I understand too.”

“I can stay for a bit.” You agreed, putting all of your things in a neat pile by the door before taking a seat on the opposite end of the sofa as Sunghoon, “Besides, I was supposed to be here teaching anyways. And it’s not like I have a ‘boyfriend’ dying to see me.” Sunghoon buried his head in his hands and groaned, making you giggle from the successful teasing.

“I’m so sorry about that, honestly.” He apologized again before cracking an shy grin, “I just though since you spent time with him and you’re...” He trailed off shaking his head from the thought, ears turning a nice shade of pink.

“Oh wow, was Sunghoon going to say something nice to me?” You gasped, placing your hand on your chest dramatically, “Could it be that, THE Park Sunghoon doesn’t hate his biology tutor?”

“Of course I don’t hate you, I assumed we were friends!” He exclaimed.

“Friends? If we were friends, I would have known more about you.” You countered.

“Like what?”

“How about the fact that I just learned you live in an apartment, have old antique couches, and that you figure skate less than a week ago, yet I’ve tutored you all year.”

“Okay that’s fair.”

“And how about the fact that we don’t hang out other than tutoring? Not very friend-like...”

“Okay I get your point. But maybe we should.”

“Should what?”

“Hang out.”

Sunghoon shifted his weight, turning to you before saying something you never expected in a million years.

“I have a competition this weekend, do you maybe want to come watch?” Sunghoon asked, smiling sweetly at you. You taken-aback for a moment, thinking you misheard the boy in front of you. He really wanted to see you outside of tutoring?

“I.. uhh.” You stammered, blinking a couple of times before grinning up at him, “Sure. I’d love to come and cheer you on.”

“Cool. And don’t worry, Jay’ll be there too!” Sunghoon reassured you, “So that way, you wont be all alone when I’m on the ice.” 

You replied with a small ‘cool’, feeling like your soul left your body. All this time, you were worried the guy didn’t like you when it turns out that he thought you guys were friends the whole time. It made you feel good that he actually wanted to see you, a sense of pride burning in your chest.

“Well, I better get ready for practice...” Sunghoon said, subtly hinting in it being your time to leave. You caught his drift and stood, making your way to the door and picking up all your gathered things.

“I better text Jake to come get me.” You responded from the door, slipping your bag over your shoulder.

“Does he usually drive you home from our sessions?” Sunghoon asked, leaning his back against the kitchen counter, seemingly like he was about to prepare food right after you left.

“He didn’t,” You replied, shifting from foot to foot, “but since you live far from me and.... well... there was that guy Geonu a couple days ago so you can never be too careful.”

You see Sunghoon visibly stiffen at the mention of Geonu. His smile falters for a fraction of a second before he approaches you at the door. He helps you with your things and opens it for you.

“It was a terrible thing that happened to him.” Sunghoon said weakly, voice barely above a whisper as he holds the door for you, “I hope whatever monster did that to him pays for what they did.” 

You walk out into the hallway before turning back to face Sunghoon, Feeling a strange sense of dread leaving the apartment. He was smiling, but you could tell it was fake. Why...

“Stay safe (Y/N).” Sunghoon warned before waving, “Have a good night. I’ll text you about my competition later tonight!” You waved back, turning away from his door and walking down the hall to the elevator. Once in the small, confined box, you shook away that sense of dread.

“Get in loser.” Jake called to you from the red hunk of trash he called is car. Hopping in, you quickly did up your seat-belt and Jake was off.

“So, how was tutoring with pretty boy?” Jake asked in a sing-song voice. Ever since he found out about your tutor, he teased you relentlessly, calling him ‘pretty boy’ and saying some obscene remarks about how much “””work””” you guys do.

“Good.” You stated simply before grinning to yourself, “He invited me to watch his figure skating competition this weekend.”

“What! That’s totally a date!” Jake exclaimed, pushing your shoulder over and over, “(Y/N)’s got a date, (Y/N)’s got a date~”

“Shut up! It’s not a date, dumb-ass.” You pushed Jake back, shaking your head, “His friend Jay is going too, so it’s just a friend thing because we are friends.”

“Pretty boy has a friend?” Jake asked, seemingly confused, “I thought he was a loner; Shy boy style...”

“Of course he has a friend,” You scoffed, rolling your eyes a Jake, “For your information, I met him today and complimented his really cool custom boots.” Jake seemed interested in that comment, perking up at the mention of shoes.

“That reminds me! I went searching online for the treads of our vampire’s shoes.” Jake informed you, quickly catching your attention, “But I couldn’t find anything that looked remotely close to the footprint.”

“Really?” You asked before humming in response, thinking about what to do, “Maybe you haven’t looked for the right brand?”

“There doesn’t seem to be any brand like our vampire’s shoes, but I’ll keep searching.” Jake sighed, “So far, all of the major brands were busts because they have their own distinct styles.” You tried to remember back to the photo of the footprint, thinking about if there were any distinct marking on the tread. But to no avail, your brain couldn’t produce an image of value.

“That’s really odd...” You said flatly, deep in thought, but turn to your friend with a sympathetic look in your eyes, “But I appreciate all the work you’re doing to find the evidence.”

Jake let out a small, defeated ‘thanks’ before slowing to a stop. You get out of his car (not without an awkward, sitting down car hug) and scurry inside your house, waving frantically to your friend as he pulled away.

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

“Did you hear the news? Apparently there was another attack down by 42 St.” Jungwon exclaimed, catching your attention from the sudden news, “They didn’t die, but the victim was hospitalized and is in serious condition...”

You had gathered in the lunch room at your usual table; it was just you and Jungwon for the moment as Heesung was busy doing a make-up exam in History.

“Hey, pretty boy lives pretty close to there!” Jake revealed, returning from a bathroom break with a bag of chips and an ice tea. He sits beside you and fiddles with the plastic bag.

“Who?” Jungwon asked, tilting his head like a puppy out of confusion.

“Sunghoon.” You replied before chewing your cuticle anxiously.

“Yes?” a voice from behind you asked, causing you and Jake to whip around to reveal the man himself. He was standing with Jay and another boy you hadn’t met before.

“Oh, we were just talking about the attack that was on the news.” Jungwon explained, glancing between you and your friend tutor. Jay stiffened, looking like he’d just seen a ghost while Sunghoon glanced between his friends.

“I heard about that,” The other boy said; he had a cute face and raven black hair that gave him a mature aura despite his adorable features, “It was only a block from your house, right Hoonie?” The group was silent, but you watched as Jay shifted his weight from foot to foot. 

“Yeah, it’s pretty close...” Sunghoon confirmed. He seemed slightly awkward, but you guessed it was because he probably wasn’t used to all the attention being on him. Jay seemed much more uncomfortable though, looking anywhere but your table. He chewed on his bottom lip before swinging his arm around Sunghoon’s shoulder.

“We should get going.” He urged, before smiling politely to you, “See you at the competition tomorrow (Y/N).” You nodded and grinned at Jay, noticing his strange behavior.

“Stay safe, Sunghoon.” You warned, earning you a soft smile from your tutor.

“I’ll be fine, don’t worry.” He replied before the boys were off, going to sit in the corner table where Sunghoon usually was found. You turned back to your friends and they looked at you expectantly.

“Please tell me I’m not the only one who thought they looked uncomfortable...” Jungwon said, eyes darting back and forth between you and Jake.

“No, they were definitely uncomfortable.” Jake said and turned to you, “What was with that Jay guy? He looked like he wanted to sprint out of here as soon as we brought the vampire subject up...”

“I don’t know.” You frowned, glancing over to their table where they seemed to be back to normal, joking and laughing, “When I first met him he seemed pretty chill but he was super on edge the whole time he was here...” Your table fell silent, cogs turning in your brain that you weren’t sure you wanted turning. Your thought process was interrupted by Heesung sliding into the chair next to Jungwon.

“Hey nerds, I just failed that History test.” Heesung said nonchalantly before switching his demeanor upon noticing your serious moods, “What’s up? You all look like you saw a ghost!”

“Hey (Y/N), you said Jay had custom boots,” Jake asked slowly, hinting at exactly what you were thinking. You nodded looking between the boys, “do you think the treads would be custom too..?”

“We think we just met our suspect for the vampire incident.” Jungwon revealed, causing the lingering tension to suffocate your group and fill your stomach with worry.

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

“You know the plan right?” Heesung asked, leaning forward from the backseat of Jake’s car.

 It was 2:00 on a Saturday and you were just outside the rink in Jake’s car with the boys; you were supposed to be going to the rink to support Sunghoon but because of the groups suspicions, you take it upon yourself as president of the PAC to do some spy work on the suspected vampire Jay. 

“Of course I know the plan.” You rolled you eyes, going to open the door to get out before a flurry of ‘aye’s came from the three boys in the red car with you.

“We should go over it again once more to be sure.” Jungwon suggested, agreement coming from the other two boys. You sighed, but retraced your hand from the door handle

“Okay so you need to get his shoe size and look for burn marks from the silver ring.” Jake re-iterated for what seemed like the tenth time.

“A confession would also be useful,” Heesung stated, “But those first two things would be most important.”

“Also, check the tread to see if the shoe is actually the one we’re looking for.” Jungwon added.

“And make sure you bring up the attacks and see how he reacts.” Jake pipped in.

“and-”

“Guys,” You interrupted, clearly annoyed at how they don’t think you already know all that, “I’ve got it.”

“This is really important (Y/N), don’t let the club down.” Heesung said and grabbed your shoulder reassuringly. You nodded to your group, trying your hardest to exude confidence before opening the door and stepping out.

“Oh yeah, one last thing,” Jake called out to you before you shut the door, grinning from ear to ear, “Have fun cheering on pretty boy.” You shouted that you would before hurrying into the rink, wanting to see Sunghoon before his turn.

Ever since he said he’d text you about the competition, you had began to text back and forth nonstop. You were really starting to enjoy his company and for some reason, you couldn’t help but smile whenever you’d get a notification from him. That’s why the whole thing with Jay was so hard...

You didn’t want to jeopardize the relationship you had with Sunghoon because his best friend was allegedly a vampire. As much as you hated to admit, you really were starting to like Sunghoon and you wanted to become even closer friends with him; and you were pretty sure straight up accusing Jay of murder would not bode well for your relationship with Sunghoon....

As you entered the skating rink, you first felt a blast of coolness from the low temperatures. The second thing you felt was excitement because you could see Sunghoon tying up his skates on one of the benches across the arena. Even from across the room, you noted how beautiful he looked and you finally understood why Jake’s nickname for him was ‘pretty boy’. He wore tight fitted black pants that accentuated his long legs and a rich, red coloured shirt that made him look like a prince. 

Tearing your eyes from Sunghoon, you scanned the crowd to find Jay; you see him sitting with the boy from yesterday and yet another unknown guy in one of the very front rows. How many other friends did Sunghoon have?

You scurry over to them, before poking Jay in the shoulder.

“Is this seat taken?” You asked with a smile, causing all the boys to turn and look at you. Jay smiled and scooted over, making room for you between him and the cute boy from yesterday.

“Hey (Y/N).” He greeted as you sat down, “Glad you could make it.”

“He’s on the ice now!” The newest boy pointed out, watching as his friend got onto the ice to warm up.

“Oh yeah, you must not know these two knuckleheads,” Jay said casually, getting the attention of the two boys he was accompanying, “Don’t be shy, fellas.” 

“I’m Ni-ki.” The newest boy greeted shyly. If it was possible, he seemed even more shy than Sunghoon, eyes meeting yours for a moment before looking back out at the ice.

“My name’s Sunoo!” The cute boy from yesterday sing-songed, grabbing your hand and shaking it excitedly, “So you’re the (Y/N) Sunghoon won’t shut up about?” Jay shoved his overly excited friend for revealing that Sunghoon talked about you. You felt your cheeks heat up at the thought of Sunghoon gushing about you to his friends like a schoolgirl, but tried your best to act cool about it and like you definitely didn’t care.

Speaking of Sunghoon, there was a knock on the plexi-glass that got your attention; He stood on the ice, adorning the biggest smile you think you’ve ever seen on him. You got up and walked towards him, followed by the three other boys.

“You made it!” Sunghoon cheered, although his voice was muffled through the layer of glass between you two.

“Well, I was pretty busy, but I managed to squeeze this into my schedule.” You teased, checking your nails for the dramatic effect. The boy on the ice just chuckled at your teasing, the sound causing you to smile.

“Thanks for coming, I really appreciate it.” He thanked you sincerely.

“Of course. I wouldn’t miss it.” You said sweetly before cracking a goofy grin, “It’ll be nice to see you do something besides fail at biology.”

“Good luck out there buddy!” Jay encouraged, giving his friend a fist-bump through the glass.

“I’m sure you’ll be great.” Ni-ki assured, nodding at the boy on the ice before retreating to his seat.

“We’ll be cheering you on Hoonie!” Sunoo exclaimed, making a fist before returning to his seat as well. Sunghoon waved as he skated back to the bench to prepare for his turn, which would be happening in less that five minutes.

“After you.” You gesture for Jay to go first, swaying your hands dramatically towards the isle.

“Thank you.” He bowed, before going to his seat. You are then reminded of the task at hand, and you make a mental note to ask Jay some of the questions you prepared, trying your best to come off as natural. You sat back down in your spot between him and Sunoo.

“So, how have you been?” you asked nonchalantly, “Busy week?”

“Not really.” Jay answered simply, “Mostly schoolwork and then hanging with these dudes. You?”

“Well, just tutoring and managing my club.” You said, grinning sweetly at the boy.

“You have a club?” Sunoo gasped, before pouting, “I wish I had my own club...”

“What kind of club is it?” Jay asked, seemingly interested in what you had to say.

“It’s called the Paranormal Activities Club. PAC for short. We meet every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at around 4:00” You explained, glancing at Jay as you continues, “We talk about all sorts of paranormal stuff like ghosts, werewolves, demons... vampires...” Jay shifts in his seat at the mention of monsters, and you of course take notice of this.

“That’s really cool.” Ni-ki admitted, smirking at you before looking away.

“Yeah... cool.” Jay agreed, a hesitance slightly present in his tone.

“Do you believe in anything like that, Jay?” You asked, relaxing your demeanor and trying to seem as inconspicuous as possible.

“Me?” He said and cleared his throat, “Not really. It’s possible, but super unlikely...” You hummed in response, taking note of how he copied your stance by relaxing his back and opening his legs a bit more to seem comfortable. He wouldn’t meet your gaze though.

Interesting...

Just as you were about to say something else, The announcer came over the loud speaker and announced that it was time for the next skater to go and Sunghoon skated out to the center of the rink and stood in front of the judges. He bowed before doing a half a lap and gliding the other half with his arms spread, greeting the crowd. You clapped along with everyone else, making a mental note to put the whole vampire situation on pause and focus on Sunghoon.

He returned to the center where he waited; the music began. It was a a soft piano track and it filled the rink with the sweet melody. Sunghoon then began to skate and you could swear you felt all the air leave your lungs. 

As he glided, Sunghoon twisted and turn on his blades, spreading his arms like a delicate swan. As the song grew to a peak, He dug one of his blades into the ice and used it seemingly as a launchpad, jumping and spinning in the air like gravity didn’t effect him. As the song continued, he swiveled on one of his feet before jumping and spinning again; your eyes followed him, in awe at how beautiful and graceful he moved around on the ice. He then spun in one spot, long leg outstretched at a perfect 90 degree angle before transitioning into holding  his blade and creating a ring with his body, all while continuing his turns. You watched, almost in a trance as he moved along with the symphony, skating right by the crowd and right past the judges before launching into another jump. As the song came to a close, Sunghoon got into his finishing stance, which was his arms outstretched forward and sliding on one knee towards the judges, a 5-star smile on his face. You can feel your heart pounding in your chest from his performance, taking a moment to calm down before applauding your tutor friend. (Did I watch a ton of vids on Sunghoon skating today? Yes.)

“He did fantastic.” You whisper breathlessly to Jay, who stands and starts to holler at his friend.

“He did.” Jay responded, showing a sense of pride for his best friend. The boys yell words of encouragement to Sunghoon as he bows to the judges and then to the crowd. You catch his gaze and feel a certain swell in your chest when he smiles just a bit brighter at you.

~~~

“You were gliding across the ice like ‘swooooshh’ and then you jumped up and spun like ‘trrrrt’!” Ni-ki gushed, rotating his finger as you were standing by the dressing room to congratulate Sunghoon. He looked even more beautiful up close, handsome features glowing in the place he’s most comfortable.

“You were awesome Hoonie!” Sunoo agreed, smiling so bright his eyes basically disappeared in his eye smiles.

“Thank you guys, really.” Sunghoon said out of breath, brushing his sweaty locks off his forehead, “I’m glad you all came to cheer for me.”

“Of course,” Jay scoffed, “What kind of friends don’t support their friend?”

“You should have seen (Y/N) watch you,” Sunoo exposed, moving aside to make room for you to talk to Sunghoon comfortably, “She couldn’t take her eyes off of you, and stared like this.” He then did an over-dramatized of you, eyes sparkling and jaw open so wide you thought he was trying to eat an invisible cheeseburger. You felt your face heat up out of embarrassment before Jay shoves Sunoo to get him to quit.

“For the record, I did not watch you like that.” You corrected, before grinning and holding out your hand for a high-five, “But you were really cool.” Sunghoon’s already flush cheeks reddened at your comment before letting out a small ‘thank you’ and lightly high-fiving you. When your hand touched Sunghoon’s, you felt a jolt of electricity and it made you giddy.

“Should we go out for pizza or something? To celebrate?” Ni-ki suggested, earning a murmur of agreements from the group. Sunghoon mentioned he had to go change and you were secretly upset by this. Just because you were friends didn’t mean you couldn’t think he was attractive right? He looked so good in that costume, the tight-fitting pants and loose shirt that left only a little to the imagination. You ogled his exposed collarbones for a moment more as he was talking to Jay about if he’d place; Although you had just now notice something that was there.

Right above his right collarbone, there seemed to be a small burn-mark that was previously covered with makeup but now was visible due to Sunghoon’s sweat. It wasn’t very big, but it looked like it was in a starburst shape and you wondered what could have caused it. Maybe a cooking accident with oil?

The ice price disappeared in the change room and you and the rest of the boys waited out front in the lobby. When Sunghoon did emerge from the change room, you all wasted no time and began to make your way to the closest pizza joint. You walked beside Jay, watching the other two boys tease Sunghoon in-front of you.

“So...” You said, trying to fill the silence; You didn’t know how to transition in to vampire talk so effortlessly. It was a weird topic to bring up out of the blue and you didn’t know how to ask Jay about his shoes without seeming like you had a foot fetish.

“Yeah..?” Jay asked before chuckling, “You okay? You look a little on edge; something on your mind perhaps?” Perfect.

“Well, its a little late and there have been a few attacks recently...” You said wearily, stealing glaces at the boy beside you.

“Oh yeah, there have been.” Jay gulped, brushing his hair out of his eyes, “But you’ll be okay if you stay close to us.”

“Me and my club suspect its a vampire.” You stated bluntly, wanting to see how Jay would react; he stiffens, but overall keeps a good composure.

“Really?” He chuckled dryly, “That’s interesting.”

“I know you don’t believe in that kind of stuff though.”

“yeah...”

“But we are pretty serious about it. We are just trying to find out who the vampire is.”

“Do you have a suspect?”

“yeah.” You answered and turned to him, pausing before speaking slowly, “We actually do have one...”

Jay stared at you, panic concealed in his glossed over eyes. Before he could speak, the boys lead you into the restaurant.You drop the conversation as you enter the building. You all squish into a corner booth and Ni-ki orders a pizza for all of you to share.

“what’s wrong Jay? you look like you’ve seen a ghost?” Sunoo asked concerned, placing his hand on his friends shoulder.

“Nothing’s wrong.” Jay said flatly, glancing at you before smiling, “I just can’t wait to eat.”

“Dude, I’m so hungry!” Ni-ki sighed, patting his stomach for emphasis.

“I’m not actually, so I think I’ll just hang out.” Sunghoon revealed, grinning softly. You were pressed next to him in the booth and for some reason you felt nervous.

 It must have been the vampire thing. 

Definitely.

Why else would you be nervous?

“What?” Sunoo exclaimed, “How could you not be hungry? You’ve exercised all day!”

“Not sure, but I’m good on the food.” Sunghoon explained, “I think I’ll just get an ice tea.”

Just then the pizza arrived and you all (besides Sunghoon) began eating. Lots of fun was had and you swear you felt like you were with your own friend group. The boys made you laugh and you felt pretty comfortable around them, even though you had just met Ni-ki and Sunoo today.

Not long after, it was dark and you and the boys had finished the pizza and it was time for you to go home; You still hadn’t gotten any information about Jay’s shoes or a confession about vampire activities. But you had an idea to maybe reveal some information, though you didn’t really want to do it...

As you guys stood up from the table, you “accidentally” knocked over Sunghoon’s half-drunken ice tea all over your shoes, drenching your feet and the surrounding carpet with the sticky drink.

“Ahhh!” You whined, feeling the coldness of the drink seeping into your socks. The boys reacted as quick as possible, picking up the glass and informing a waitress about the accident. You guys left the restaurant, embarrassed; You sat outside on the pavement, wringing your socks out, giggling about how silly the situation was. Now was the time to really get the information you need.

“What am I gonna do about walking home?” You sighed before looking at Jay playfully, “Maybe Jay will let me borrow his super cool boots! What size are they anyways?” 

Jay chuckled and looked down at his shoes before shaking his head at you.

“No way man! I don’t trust you with my babies.” Jay joked, “besides, they are a men’s size 7, so I doubt you would be able to fit into them.” That was the same size as the print at the scene...

“I know, I’m just kidding.” You chuckled, trying to hide the thought process going on in your head, “I’ll just wear these gross sneakers home!” As you began to put your shoes on, your vision is suddenly covered by a figure crouching down in front of you. 

“Hop on.” Sunghoon urged, looking over his shoulder with a smile, “You can’t live that far from here right?” You replied with a small ‘are you sure?’, to which Sunghoon nodded yes. You picked up your shoes with one hand before wrapping your arms and legs around the ice-prince. He stood up and adjusted you on his back, placing his hands around your thighs to support your body. You felt yourself become nervous, yet excited from the close contact, bringing heat to your face from these feelings. 

“See you boys tomorrow!” Sunghoon called out to the boys as you and Sunghoon prepared to leave. Ni-ki and Sunoo waved before starting their trek in the opposite direction, bickering back and forth. Jay lingered for a moment longer, feeling a sense of anxiety bubble up in his chest. Were you close to finding out about...? He didn’t like the idea of you and Sunghoon being alone, but he trusted his friend.

“You two be careful okay?” Jay said very carefully, eyes glued to his friend, “I’ll see you tomorrow Sunghoon.” And with that, he turned to leave and quickly followed after the other two boys. You tried to get a look at the bottom of his shoes, but you couldn’t see them very well in the dark and in the distance. 

You had let Sunghoon know where you lived and the two of you were off. For a bit, the only thing that could be heard was Sunghoon’s feet against the pavement and the beating of your heart in your ears. You found comfort in the smell of his cologne and the occasional street light as Sunghoon held you close.

“Hey, you didn’t have to carry me home...” You hummed, feeling slightly guilty about making Sunghoon carry you.

“Oh, my bad. I’ll just leave you here then.” He teased, loosening his grip on you. You squealed and clung onto his shoulders and let out a flurry of “no”s. He chuckled at your reaction before shifting his grip on you to hold you closer to him. You wrapped your arms around the boy tighter, burying your face in his shoulder. It was silent again, but only for a moment before you mumbled a quiet thank you; Sunghoon hummed in response, focusing on the warmth of you against his back and the thousand thoughts stirring in his head.

“Hey (Y/N), I have to ask you something.” He finally said; You had almost fell asleep on his back, focusing only on the sounds of his breathing. His statement intrigued you, causing you to perk up off of his shoulder.

“What’s up?” You said gently, tightening your grip.

“Say you had a really good friend...” He started out, voice low and serious, “and you found out they did something really bad, but it was an accident” You frowned, getting a sudden sense of dread. You suddenly felt how cold it was outside in the dark.

“What would you do?” He finally asked, “Would you stay friends with them?”

You were quiet for a minute, thinking of how to respond to this question. You had just passed the last streetlamp on the road you were walking so it was almost pitch black except for a few stars. The night atmosphere brought in a thick tension that made you feel nervous about the subject matter of Sunghoon’s question.

“I mean, I guess it really depends on what the bad thing is.” You stated, before continuing on, “But it was an accident and if I knew they were a good person, I guess I might stay friends.” Sunghoon nodded, thinking about your answer and breathing out weakly.

“Why? Did your friend do something really bad?” You asked suddenly, Jay popping into your mind. Sunghoon’s pace quickened a bit and you could feel his heart in his chest going crazy. He seemed anxious and you though about what that could mean. He adjusted his grip on you before clearing his throat.

“Nope. I was just wondering what you’d say.” He said flatly, seemingly more confident than before. You blinked a couple times, surprised by his sudden change of tone.

“Oh okay...” You replied nonchalantly, looking up to the sky and sighing, “I mean, if you did something bad on accident, I’d still be your friend because you’re a really great guy.” You didn’t even realize what you said until it came out of your mouth. You felt you face heat up and Sunghoon let out a hearty chuckle that made you even more flustered.

“Thanks I guess.” He said through giggles, Before chewing the skin on his bottom lip and responding back, “I think you’re a really great girl too.”

“Thanks” you can’t help but squeak, making you mentally want to punch yourself. There’s suddenly tension again, but for a different reason this time. Sunghoon’s grip on your legs is softer now and you notice his thumb beginning to mindlessly draw shape on your thighs. You held his broad shoulders tighter and you could feel him take a shaky breath as yours tickled the side of his neck.

But before the tension got too thick, you had arrived at your place. Sunghoon took you to the front door and let you down off of him before turning around to face you. His cheeks were red, but you were sure it wasn’t from the cold. 

“Thanks again for taking me home.” You said, feeling like your stomach was going to explode.

“Its no problem.” Sunghoon assured you, rubbing the back on his neck to get the goosebumps to go away.

“It’s pretty late, do you want me to call you a cab?”

“No I’m alright, but thanks for the offer.”

“Are you sure? I’d hate for something to happen.”

“I’m sure.”

Sunghoon bowed his head to you, bidding you a farewell. You felt your body move towards him and before you could even think to stop yourself, you did the unthinkable.

You leaned in and placed a kiss on his cheek, right on the corner of his mouth and you swore you must have looked just as surprised as Sunghoon did; His eyes were wide and he looked as if he was frozen in time.

“I- uhmmmm....” You stammered before saying the stupidest thing in the universe, “Good job skating today. Goodnight!”

 Sunghoon blinked a couple of times, finally seeming to wake up.

“Uh- Thanks!” He exclaimed, clearly flustered, before turning to leave you door. He had his hand on his face where you kissed as he waved back at you with the other when he realized he needed to say goodbye, “I- uhh, Goodnight (Y/N)!” 

It was official, you wanted to die.

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

“Jake, did you even listen to the rest of the story?” You huffed, embarrassed at your friends relentless teasing.

“If you didn’t want me to make fun of you,” Jake explained through fits of laughter, “You should have left the part where you awkwardly kissed pretty boy out of the story!”

You shoved Jake into room 300 because he was about to miss the turn into the classroom (and for your own personal gratification). Heesung and Jungwon were already there, putting the desks together to create your meeting table. Upon noticing your entrance they both greeted you and Jake before gazing at the cackling vice-president of PAC.

“What’s so funny?” Jungwon asked, pulling out all of the evidence photos from his backpack. Jake sighed, wiping a tear away and finally able to catch his breath.

“I mean, you should ask (Y/N).” He chuckled, “I’m sure she’s dying to explain.” You rolled your eyes, trying to fight your body from heating up.

“Nothing new, Jake just bullying me.” You shook your head and took your seat at the head of the table. After setting up the rest of the evidence, the boys sat down too and you officially started the meeting.

“Alright, so here’s what I got to find out about our suspect.” You said and went up to the whiteboard. You picked up a black dry erase marker and wrote Jay’s name before underlining it.

“First, when we were at the rink, I mentioned our club and asked if he believed in paranormal things and he said no, but with hesitation.” You said and wrote down a summary of what you said, “Then, when I mentioned the attacks, he got really antsy, especially after I mentioned that we were investigating for a vampire.”

“So no confession I presume?” Heesung asked, jotting notes down as you went along to keep your encounter documented after club was over and you had to erase the board.

“No, but he was very defensive any time I brought the vampire stuff up.” You explained and the boys nodded.

“And the other boys, you said they were named Sunoo and Ni-ki..?” Jungwon asked and you hummed in response, “Did they do anything suspicious?”

“Not a thing.” You said simply, “Sunoo seemed more worried about the attacks than I did. And Ni-ki was a bit more focused on pizza and figure skating than engaging in conversation.”

“However,” You continued before writing your thoughts on the board, “I have reason to believe Sunghoon knows about Jay being a vampire.”

“You do?” Heesung said, shocked at your accusation, “Why?”

“Well, I wanted to get more information about Jay’s boots, but I couldn’t bring up shoes without seeming weird so long story short, I dumped ice tea on my sneakers and Sunghoon took me home.” You said before writing a side note, “Oh and for your information, Jay’s shoe size is a 7 in men’s,  but I couldn’t get a good look at the treads.”

“Okay, that useful information.” Jungwon said and jotted that down, “But continue.”

“Anyways, He had asked me if I would stay friends with someone if they did something really bad, but I knew it was on accident.” You explained, writing the point form of that conversation on the board, “So I suspect he knows about Jay and doesn’t know what to do, stay friends or turn him in.”

“I mean, that is an oddly specific question.” Jungwon agreed, furrowing his eyebrows in thought, “Why would you ask someone that unless you specifically have an experience to go by.”

“Anything else happen?” Heesung asked, looking at you expectantly.

“Yeah (Y/N), anything else happen?” Jake, who had been quiet this whole time asked, eyes fluttering and a grin on his face. You groaned, pinching the bridge of your nose.

“Relevant to the investigation, no.” You said before sighing, “But I also gave Sunghoon a really awkward kiss on the cheek, but that’s irreverent.”

The room went up in a flurry, and you could have swore you wouldn’t have gotten a bigger reaction if you said you had found Jay to be the vampire. All the boys were talking at once and it was so loud, you almost didn’t hear a knock at the door. You shushed them before going to the door and opening it to reveal the man you were just talking about.

“Uh, hi...” Sunghoon greeted shyly. The rest of the boys peered over your shoulder to eavesdrop on the conversation until Sunghoon met their gaze, to which they looked anywhere but the doorway. You’re gaze dropped, not being able to his face, feeling the heat of nervousness and embarrassment creep up your neck.

“Hey, what’s up?” You asked, suddenly aware of all of the writing you had on  the whiteboard; You pulled the door a bit closer, blocking most of the room.

“I just wanted to uhh.... I wanted to talk to you about something.” Sunghoon mumbled, clearly nervous. The boys let out a loud ‘oooOooOoOOoO’ from behind you and you reminded yourself to hit them later. You rolled your eyes feeling bad for how your friends were being.

“Sure, let’s just go out into the hallway.” You said and closed the door behind you. It was quite out there and you finally had the courage to bring your gaze back up to his face. Your eyes settled on the spot where you had kissed him a couple nights ago and you couldn’t help the butterflies from fluttering around in your stomach.

“Before you say anything,” You sighed, trying your best to hide your embarrassment, “I’m sorry about Saturday night. I totally don’t even know what I was thinking doing that and-”

“Oh please don’t apologize!” Sunghoon interrupted frantically, before clearing this throat and fiddling with an envelope; You hadn’t even noticed he was holding it until now.

“I mean, I don’t mind you kissing me like that...” He said timidly, smirking to himself before holding the envelope out for you to take. You do take it, feeling the red wax seal on the front, “I wanted to give you that. But please don’t read it yet!”

“Alright, I’ll wait to read it.” You agreed and gripped the paper tightly, “Is that all..?”

“Well, I was also wondering if you want to come over later today?” He asked, biting his bottom lip; your eyes were trained to his mouth, but instead of his lips, you were focused on his pointed canine teeth; how cute that he had little “fangs”!

“Yeah, I’d love to, but as a date..?” You asked timidly, rocking back and forth on your feet. Sunghoon blinked and gazed at the ground, ears red.

“If you want it to be, I’d like that too...” He said and you nodded, feeling like your heart was about to explode, “So I guess just be in the lobby of my apartment by 8 and bring the letter. Please don’t read it until then.”

“I promise.” You agreed again, smiling like an idiot, “I guess I’ll see you later.”

Sunghoon said goodbye and gave you a kiss, much like you did to him a few nights ago; Only this time, his lips attached to your mouth for a moment and you felt like you could die happy. Except he tasted oddly metallic, but you were too excited to care. He waved goodbye and scurried down the hallway and disappeared from your sight.

You go back into the classroom and are met with three pairs of eyes on you. You stared at the boys and they stared back in silence.

“So are we gonna talk about pretty boy asking you out or..?” Jake finally said and you scoffed, approaching them.

“Let’s just get back to work on things that matter!” You huffed, but couldn’t stop the grin from gracing your features.

~~~

Ice Prince: you’re almost here?

You text back a reply and quickly close your phone. Jake glanced at you before patting your shoulder reassuringly while keeping is focus on the road.

“Hey, everything will be fine.” He said and smiled, “I mean, I think you’ll probably spill water all over his floor and probably trip in the elevator, but I guess he’s into girls like that.”

“Oh god, don’t jinx me.” You groaned, pulling down the flip-up mirror in Jake’s car to check your makeup one last time. You take a tube of lip-chap out of your bag and apply another layer, worried about your lips being crusty. Jake chuckled and parked in front of Sunghoon’s building, flipping the mirror up and startling you in the process.

“You look great, dude.” He said simply and gives you a lopsided grin, “Just breathe and be yourself and everything will go great.” You take a deep breath in and thank Jake before giving him a hug.

“Hey, when you tell me all about it later, make sure to leave out all the kissing parts.” He teased, grimacing as you got out of the car, “I don’t need to hear about you and pretty boy swapping spit.”

“If I knew you’d be so jealous of me, I would have set you two up instead.” You grinned and walked towards the front door, thanking Jake for the ride before entering the lobby.

(Y/N): I’m here!

Ice Prince: Be right there to see you :)

Ice Prince: Did you bring the letter?

After reading the last message, you texted back a quick ‘yes’. Just then, the elevator doors opened to reveal Sunghoon, who beamed when he saw you. He looked almost as ethereal as when he was on the ice (almost).

He had his hair parted in the middle and a simple, over-sized white dress shirt tucked into his black jeans. The shirt felt somewhat familiar, but you couldn’t place where you’d seen one like that...

“Hey.” He said, shakiness evident in his voice, “You look so beautiful...”

“Oh thanks.” You replied, trying to hide your nervousness, “I think you look beautiful- I! Uhhhh mean handsome! You look really handsome...”

You mentally facepalmed yourself, but it must have been showing in your features because Sunghoon laughed, releasing all the tension in the room. After all, this was your calculus tutor and a friend you were with. He lead you into the elevator. Sunghoon lived on one of the top floors on his apartment complex, so you'd be in there for a minute; Sunghoon took the time to try and ease his nerves, staring at the doors and humming a soft tune.

You glanced in the mirror in the elevator, wanting to make sure your hair was perfect. And that’s when you saw it; more accurately, didn’t see it...

You were alone in the reflection.

Feeling like your eyes were deceiving you, you turned back to see Sunghoon standing there, humming away without a care in the world. You turned back to the mirror and saw that he wasn’t in the mirror. You felt your stomach drop as everything clicked together.

No mirrors in his house, the burn on his collarbone, not eating after the competition, his question that night, the metallic taste of his lips, and that stupid shirt...

“Come on (Y/N),” Sunghoon beckoned from the hallway; you hadn’t realized the doors opened and he was waiting for you. Sunghoon smiled and your eyes snapped to his sharp canines you had noticed earlier today, “Sorry, was I interrupting your daydream?”

“Not at all.” You said nervously, leaving the elevator and following Sunghoon to his place. You had to fight the urge to run away from him and not let him be alone with you in his apartment; he could be trapping you and every instinct was screaming run.

But you were curious about him. If he really was... then as the president of PAC, you needed to know. 

“Hey (Y/N), you don’t have to be afraid.” He whispered, facing his door and opening it. He held his door open to you and softly grinned, which filled you with comfort, “Its just me.”

You entered his apartment and everything looked like it had the last time you were here. It had felt like ages ago now.

You sat on the couch, feeling surprisingly calm; But you always had felt pretty calm around Sunghoon (up until recently when you started getting butterflies because of your feelings), so it made sense.

“Do you want anything?” He called from the kitchen casually, like he does when you study here. He was looking in the fridge, as if he didn’t notice the change in your behavior.

“No, I’m alright.” You hummed, sitting with your hands in you lap; the atmosphere was thick, and you watched as Sunghoon closed the fridge and approached the couch and sat beside you, “So, what do you have planned?”

“First things first, I want to address that letter I gave you,” He said and looked at your bag that was still around your shoulder; You moved it and went to take the letter out of it, shuffling around in the bag, “And then maybe we can go out somewhere or watch a movie or whatever you want.”

“Sounds good, I have it right here.” You said, still looking for it in your bag. You ducked your head to look in your bag for it, surprised you hadn’t felt it yet, but you couldn’t see it in there, “It should be in here... somewhere...”

Sunghoon watched as you start taking things out of your bag until it was empty; no letter.

“I could have sworn I brought it!” You huffed, frustrated and embarrassed you forgot the one thing you needed, “I’m so sorry. but maybe you can just tell me what it said..?”

“ahhh of course this would happen...” Sunghoon sighed, chuckling to himself, looking at the velvet cushion of the couch, “I can’t believe I have to grow the courage to actually say it, but you needed to know.”

“Maybe you don’t have to say it.” you grabbed his hands, causing him to look you in the eyes. There was a suddenly tension, and you could feel yourself growing meeker by the second, “Maybe I already know...”

Sunghoon was so close you could feel the heat radiating from his body. His eyes hid something you couldn’t read, but his expression laid stone cold. He licked his lips before responding to you, eyes not leaving yours.

“What do you know?” His voice was low, barely above a whisper.

“What you are.” You said breathlessly with your last ounce of courage. Sunghoon’s eyes flickered, leaning away from you and looking out the window. He pulls his hands from yours, placing them in his own lap.

“It was the elevator right?” He asked, continuing before you could answer, “I mean, I wouldn’t be surprised if you figured out my little secret sooner, you being the president of the vampire hunting club and all.” 

It was silent for a moment; Sunghoon still couldn’t meet your gaze, looking out the window into the lit city streets while you couldn’t stop looking at him. He was still beautiful as ever, and your eyes wandered to the mole on the bridge of his nose. You remember walking home with him that day an finally noticing it; You thought it made him look so much prettier.

He was still the same man as he was that day.

“What happened with Geonu?” You asked tentatively, leaning closer to Sunghoon to look out the window too.

“I had it all written down in the letter, but I can tell you about it because I owe you at least that much.” He said, his voice sounding weak and tired.

-

God he was so hungry. 

He was off to buy some beef to curb the cravings (Sunghoon eats it raw), but the market he went to was closed until the next morning.

But it didn’t help that he was hungry now and as time went on, his willpower was dwindling. As Sunghoon walked down the streets, hoping some fresh air would help with the intense burning in his stomach, before a familiar voice called out to him.

“Hey Sunghoon, Why are you out so late?” Jay called, jogging to catch up with Sunghoon. Jay was known to enjoy late night shenanigans, so it was no surprise to Sunghoon why he was out at night. But the smell of Jay’s sweat was killing him in ways he couldn’t explain to his friend.

“Wanted to go for a walk.” He answered flatly, trying to control his rampant desires. He kept walking, trying to get away from Jay, but his friend wouldn’t leave him alone.

“Hey dude, wait up! You don’t look so good...” Jay said, concern laced in his voice, “I’m gonna take you home okay, you need to rest up.”

As Jay reached out to touch Sunghoon, it was the last straw. Sunghoon grabbed his friend by the arm and yanked him, causing Jay to stumble to the ground in the adjacent alleyway, trying to process what was happening. Sunghoon lunged onto Jay, holding him down.

“Sunghoon get off of me!” Jay shouted, struggling to get out of the vice like grip Sunghoon had placed on his wrists. He saw the pure predatory look in his friend’s eyes and the growing of his teeth; The sight was something that would never leave Jay’s head.

“Sunghoon snap out of it!” Jay yelled, finally being able to throw Sunghoon off of his body. Sunghoon immediately made some distance between the two and burst into tears, laying on the pavement clutching his stomach.

“I’m sorry Jay...” Sunghoon cried, regaining the littlest bit of composure, “I’m.. It... It hurts so bad, Jay.”

“Hey it’s okay...” Jay said through heavy breaths, still trying to process what was going on and that this was real, “You should just go home and try to feel better okay?”

But just then, another figure appeared in mouth of the alleyway; Geonu.

He was studying late that night, stopping at the convenient store for some late night snacks. He was on his way back to the library when he hears shouting and fighting in the alleyway. And like any other person, he went to see what was going on and if he was able to help.

“Hey what’s going on? I heard shouting and fighting...” He explained, gazing at the two boys on the ground before approaching them. He stuck his hand out to Sunghoon, who was closer of the two to help him to his feet when the boy lashed out Geonu, digging his fingernails into his forearm and wailing.

Geonu pulled his arm away, crying out in pain and shuffling away from Sunghoon, holding onto the deep gash on his arm that was oozing blood. Once Sunghoon caught scent of it, his last bit of control was gone.

He lunged at Geonu, but he was quicker, stumbling to his feet and running in the direction of the school with Sunghoon in pursuit.

“Sunghoon! Wait!” Jay shouted, running after his friend to get him away from Geonu. He watched as they were heading through the front gate in the direction of the soccer feild.

Jay ran to the woods, hoping to cut off the duo; Suddenly there was a scream of anguish, sounding like Jay’s dear friend. He ran faster, emerging from the bush to see the two boys lying on the field.

Sunghoon had Geonu on his back, holding Sunghoon with his palms firmly on his chest. However, Geonu was wearing a silver ring that was burning into Sunghoon’s flesh near Sunghoon’s collarbone, which made the boy cry out. He ripped the hand from his shoulder before twisting the silver ring off Geonu’s finger and throwing it out at the track.

Sunghoon then fiercely lunged towards his neck, sinking his fangs into the center of his throat. Geonu’s screeched out in agony but it was already done. He weakly pushed on the boy above him, trying to get him off as he grew weaker.

Sunghoon sucked and chewed at the open wounds on Geonu, feeling the burning pain in his stomach subside. He held Geonu firmly until he ceased to move.

Jay watched in horror, his head spinning. He felt like he was in a dream as he watched his closest friend turn into a vampire and kill someone. Sunghoon unlatched from Geonu, realizing what he had done. He scurried away from Geonu’s body as fast as he could before wiping the copious amounts of blood from his mouth and chin area. He gazed at the red on his hands, feeling sick.

Sunghoon let out a pained scream, sitting on his knees as he let out sobs. Jay, shaken by his friends reaction, tried to approach the boy. Sunghoon looked at him,tears in his eyes.

“I-” Sunghoon choked, “God what have I done?”

Jay stared at his friend with wide eyes, kneeling on the grass.

“I’m a monster Jay.” Sunghoon wailed, shaking and crying, “I didn’t mean for this to happen... I was just so hungry and- and I killed him Jay. I couldn’t-” He broke into heavy sobs, pulling at his hair with red spit dropping onto his knees.

“Its... It’s okay.” Jay reassured, not exactly knowing what to do, went to his friend and wrapped his arm around him to sooth him, “You’re okay...”

“I’m a Vampire Jay, but I try my best to not hurt humans.” Sunghoon sniffled, wiping his face with the back of his hand before trembling, “But I did... I killed him and I don’t know what to do... There so much red.”

Without a word, Jay took off his jacket, before reaching for the buttons on Sunghoon’s dress shirt. He didn’t know what he just saw, but Sunghoon is his best friend and whatever killed Geonu wasn’t the Sunghoon who was in front of him now. So he helped his friend rid himself of the red on his shirt before tying it up in the bag Geonu had gotten from the convenient store and wrapping his jacket around Sunghoon.

He walked his friend to his house, where he cleaned him up and put him to sleep on his bed, watching over him as he slept, trying to get the nightmarish images from this night out of his head.

-

“What I did...” Sunghoon sighed finally turning to look at you with a serious face. Tears were brimming the edges of his eyes before he swallowed, “It’s unforgivable. I’m gonna have to live with the fact that I’m a monster forever.”

You stared back blankly, not sure of what you felt. Nothing felt real at this moment; you should be horrified, angry, or even a bit stressed, however you felt surprisingly calm. You resisted the urge to reach out and touch him, not knowing how he would react.

Sunghoon sight and looked back out the window, a weak smile.

“Y’know, I don’t blame you if you want to run away,” He said nodding slowly before swallowing, “I just wanted you to know the truth and I felt that it was the only good thing to do. I totally understand if you-”

“Stop.” You interrupted, causing Sunghoon to turn to you. Before your brain registered what you were doing, you leaned in and kissed Sunghoon, hands coming up to wrap around his neck. He was shocked, but quickly kissed you back cupping your face with his hands. You broke free and he blinked expectantly a couple of times.

“Listen, I don’t know what I think, cause this is a lot to process,” You started to explain, playing nervously with the hair on his nape. You looked at Sunghoon’s face; His soft lips, his pretty eyes and his pretty features, reminding you of who was in front of you. And with that, you made up your mind

“But, I don’t hate you, and I don’t want to leave.”  You said firmly, “You aren’t a monster; you’re Sunghoon, the dork who figure skates, who studies with me every Tuesday and Thursday. You’re the guy who carried me home when my shoes were gross and the guy who my friends tease me about liking. This doesn’t change anything. You’re still you and I love you the way you are. So I’m not going anywhere.”

Sunghoon held your face, thumbs caressing your cheeks before he leaned in and placed a gentle kiss on you lips. It was quick but sweet. He whispered a ‘thank you’, finally able to relax a bit. 

You wanted nothing more than to kiss him again, so you did, leaning in and kissing him deeply. You felt dizzy, but the only thing you knew was you never wanted to stop kissing Sunghoon.

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

“As president of the PAC, I officially begin this meeting. We have a few things on the agenda today.” You said simply, sitting down in your spot, breathing out a heavy sigh, “To start, I have an update for all of you about our vampire.”

You thought all night about what you were to do with the information that Sunghoon is a vampire. You had explained everything to him; about how you were looking for a vampire and how you had suspected his friend was the perp and not Sunghoon himself. and after much deliberation (and Sunghoon’s permission), you thought the best course of action would be to tell your friends the truth. it would be impossible to lie to them when you were so invested in-

“Is it that your boyfriend is a vampire?” Jake asked, leaning back in his chair and crossing his arms over his chest. You looked at him in shock, flabbergasted on how Jake came to the conclusion. Before you had the chance to speak, he nonchalantly tossed an envelope- the one Sunghoon had given to you - on the desks.

“You left this in my car when I dropped you off for your date.” Jake explained.

“So, you opened it and read it..?” you asked; Jake silently shrugged and you shook your head at him in disappointment.

“Anyways, the point is, he admits it in the letter.” Jake said simply, glancing to Heeseung and Jungwon, who looked between you and the letter, “I texted the boys about it while you were on your date.”

“And?” You asked, looking between all the boys, “What do you want to do with that information..?”

“What do you want to do, (Y/N)?” Jungwon asked, “I’m sure you have your feelings invested on what happens next?”

You took a deep breath and slumped back in your chair, “I mean, I think Sunghoon a good guy. I’ve known him for a while and obviously now that were dating, I believe it even more. I know the most logical thing is to turn him into the authorities... but truthfully I’m not sure if I can. But if you all want to, that’s your choice.”

The boys were silent before Heeseung cleared his throat.

“well, we have already talked about the next course of action.” Heeseung began, speaking gently as if you’d spook. Jake hummed, gaze soft as he watched your uneasiness rise. He swallowed before speaking, “I don’t know Sunghoon as well, but he seems nice. and he makes you happy. And I think everything will be okay if we just leave it at that.”

You felt a wave of relief wash over you as you watch Jake’s expression relax; it was as if he was just as nervous about the decision as you were.

“There was a lot of logic talk with it,” Jungwon explained, lacing his fingers together and placing his hands on the desk, “realistically, the police probably wouldn’t even believe us if we did explain everything to them, so there would be no point.”

“And we also thought it would be a cool opportunity to talk to someone who is paranormal.” Heeseung added, with a shrug and a smirk, “y’know, for more club activities.”

“Yeah! (Y/N), do you think you could get Sunghoon to come and we could interview him for our records?” Jake asked, almost jumping out of his seat because he was so excited. you chuckled at your friends, who not only seemed to be making the best out of this situation, but also who just genuienly seemed interested in supporting you and Sunghoon.

“Funny you ask,” You laughed, standing from your chair. You made your way to the door, “Because the second order of business is that we have a few new members joining out club today and I was waiting to introduce them.”

You open the door to reveal Sunghoon and Jay, who awkwardly wave at your friends.

“Sorry for the wait, you guys can go sit down at our makeshift meeting table.” You explained, watching as Sunghoon smiled at you before he leaned in a placed a kiss onto your cheek.

“Hey, uhm..” Jay began awkwardly, walking over to and pointing at the whiteboard, “Why does it say “Evidence Jay is a Vampire” on your board..?”

“Oh uhm, don’t mind that.” Jungwon squeaks sheepishly, going over to the board and quickly erasing it.

“Hey, what’s so wrong with that?” Sunghoon teased, wrapping his arm around you and nudging his friend with his other. The group let out a flurries of chuckles.

“Hey Sunghoon, come sit over here.” Jake gestures to the seat beside him, grinning wildly at your boyfriend, “I have so many questions to ask you!”

You watched as the boys settled in nicely; Jungwon was showing some of the ‘research’ of vampire Jay to human Jay, while Jake and Heeseung brought out notepads and began to ask Sunghoon about some of his habits. You couldn’t help the undeniable feeling your heart swell at the thoughts of what the future might hold. 

______________________

A/N: ITS FINALLY DONE!!! I know this writing quality probably isn’t good (it is from years ago), but I loved this concept too much and put too much work into this fic just to scrap it. I hope you enjoyed it and if not, stayed tuned for something better !!!

[meimi-haneoka]

Oh my!!!! Just read your post and the summary of the chapter and lmao, I am perfectly willing to wait for the volume to come out. First of all, congratulations to all of us YunaAki fandom that we actually got our favourite hobo to confess his feelings. Lmao, stuff his mouth with chocomint ice cream, Akiho! It feels a bit embarrassingly cute to finally have them being canon (officially that is!). Second, are we getting hints of a potential future arc that ties up with TRC/xxxHolic, especially since xxxHolic Rei is supposedly going to be revived? That description of Momo's scene makes me think that a book that is capable of rewriting the world would without a doubt be involved in TRC/xxxHolic shenanigans. I don't want to keep my hopes up too high given that CLAMP are ageing and have been working tirelessly for so long but maybe secondary author written light novels with illustrations from Mokona-sensei may be the way to go in the future, at least as far as CCS continuation goes? Given that Light Novels are at their all time popularity high right now and they have done it for CLAMP Academy before, fingers crossed! Although I believe we might take a few years before we get anything concrete on that side. Sigh! At least we have CCS CC anime Season 2 to look forward to now. Third, OMG!!!!! Tomoyo!!! I am now 100 percent certain that Sakura is going to be wearing a "King of Kwa" Qun Kwa, fully designed, hand embroidered and stitched by Tomoyo. There will definitely be two weddings - one at Japan (which will be whatever the couple chooses but I would love it to be a traditional Shinto one at the Tsukimine shrine) and a traditional Cantonese-Chinese one at Hong Kong (ain't no way the Heir of the Clan and his Japanese bride getting away without a "proper" and traditional Chinese wedding). Given that it takes at least a year for even an traditionally experienced embroiderer to create a King of Kwa, maybe Tomoyo mentioning this as they are entering 9th grade means that SS will really get married right out of high school. Like even her brain says whoops, I better begin the wedding planning and bridal dress designing already. Yes! Give us I-am-a-wealthy-Victoria-Peak boy Syaoran and his enormously large family being in sync over Sakura wearing a real gold and silver embroidered on finest silk from Guangdong with it weighing around 10-15 kg and that being the bare minimum because it brings the most fortune and fertility with its Nine Dragons and Nine Phoenixes. Buhahaha. And Sakura just going along with it because she does not really get to dip her feet into her husband's culture much and she is enjoying all the big family time because everyone, legit everyone in the family, is enamoured with her and how cute and absolutely precious she is. Ahahahaha. Sheesh, I am blushing so much. I had headcanons for so many years but these are all of them coming true!!! *shakes my head and arms vigorously in my fangirling heaven*

OMG Aubretiaaaaaaa!! YES!! We finally made it!! WEEE ARE THE CHAMPIONS, MY FRIEEEENNNDDDD 😂😂 Ok excuse my silly little moment but yes, can you believe that I would've NEVER imagined they would make him say THAT in canon? I've always thought that they would go "the subtle way", for several reasons (and it also makes sense, character-wise) and leave it at the true name reveal, but nope, they had to SHOCK ME even in the final, definitive special chapter!! 😂 It isn't a shock that Kaito is feeling romantic love for Akiho, not at all: the shock comes from seeing it spelled out "clearly" on paper! 😂 I even imagined that this could happen a couple of years later along the way, but it's perfectly fine like this. We talked about this before, right? The attraction he feels comes from a chemistry between souls, and there isn't anything shady going on. So everything else will still come at the right time (and it's not like CLAMP will portray any of it, so each one of us can imagine it however we like). I'm gonna write another post later about the chocomint ice cream because I realized I forgot to point some things out in my commentary! 😁

About the Holic tie-in, in this specific chapter it doesn't look like there's any hint (the "appropriate price" Momo paid is a concept that exists in CCS too), but it can still totally happen, even in Holic itself. Like a cameo from Kaito and Akiho (since it would be kinda weird to feature Sakura herself, and she would steal the spotlight wherever she goes). I don't know, I won't hope too much for it, but things in Clear Card definitely were left open enough for them to reconnect to it in the future!

And yes, I also am totally convinced that SyaoSaku will have a double wedding! 😁 Tomoyo can still totally create a western-style dress for the celebration in Japan, since usually after the traditional Shinto ceremony, there's the party and that's where the bride changes outfit and can wear the western-style dress! But yeah, I also cannot see them going without a ceremony in Hong Kong too, and I really appreciated the description of the King of Qwa traditional wedding dress, especially cause I looked for it and...YES, I CAN TOTALLY SEE HOW THIS "BEAST" REQUIRES AT LEAST A YEAR OF EMBROIDERY!! If Tomoyo is going to undertake this challenge, SHE REALLY NEEDS TO START NOW 😂 I mean, look at this....pink blossom, it's perfect!

It is so beautiful!! I can totally see Sakura wearing this! And YES, I agree, I think SyaoSaku will marry right out of high school 🥰 This special chapter really gave us "fuel" for so many future headcanons, right?? I really can't thank CLAMP enough for this!

[kosi-annec]

[HAIKYUU!!] Season 3 episode 8

Fuck 8-4 that's too big of a gap, they need to score the next points or else they're not gonna catch up..

Suga idk if it's smart to tell the enemy team your next plan, but it seems to piss tendo off lol

AAA NO ITS USHI AGAIN- OH nvm thx you for messing that up hskshk

No. 10 on field, let's go hinata! Get us them points back. Oh hey this background character (idk wat his name is) is doing pretty good.

AH OOF that's gotta hurt sheesh.. BUT KEEP GOING HINATA DON'T STOP- oh wow even TENDO was fooled by that. I gotta appreciate the fact that hinata was actually thinking before he spiked cuz he's not working w kage

wait hinata let himself get hit in the face ON PURPOSE?? I mean, if it keeps the ball up ig

"he shows no sign of the talent or intelligence of those other players" ouch, but true lmao

Ok you two (ushi & hinata) stop trying to assert dominance HSKSHS

Ngl kage just jumping up and down in the corner looked so silly

HINATA GET AN ICE PACK IF YOU CAN TASTE BLOOD, wat is with the karasuno boys getting hurt these past few matches, 2 have been sent to the nurse and now lil tangerine is technically bleeding just not externally

Nice Suga forcing him into a receive. Oh shit they're gonna do it again, oH THEY GOT THE POINT! Tendo was so caught up in trying to read em he didn't act

KAGEYAMA BACK ON FIELD LEZGO!! Pft- "better watch the back of your head, squirt" god i love the eng dub

All of this build up for kage's serve is either gonna end really cool or really bad. OK it went well- holy cRAP KAGE?? He was all the way from the back tf??? HOLY SHIT and we're back let's go!!!

hhh come on crows, they can't let shiratorizawa get any further ahead of them

Ok eita up on field. Wait he's also a setter? Ngl I don't remember. Yknow that's fair from eita ig, cuz everyone has eyes on ushi and ig tendo if only for his amazing blocking style, so it's nice to get that attention on you, if for a lil bit

FUCK- NOOO 12-9 they're getting too close to 15 for comfort..

YES BEST OLDER SISTER! These kinds of situations is exactly why there's cheer squads n shit. When the team is starting to feel down it's the audience's job to lift their spirits up, to let them know that someone believes in them

?? Is that a fucking anthem shiratorizawa's audience singing???

OK good save there tanaka, NOW JUST KEEP IT UP- omg OMG HINATA?? BLOCKED!? USHI!! holy crap LETZ GO THAT'S OUR TINY MIDDLE BLOCKER

Goshiki I thought you'd realize by now that no.10 ain't your average 1st year player, that tangerine is a monster

Aw kage basically telling kazuhito (finally learnt bg char's name) not to worry too much on how he plays

TADASHI GIVE US A GOOD SERVE! Yesss he's so confident in his abilities now, he's grown so much

CRAP nooo the crow's pinch server is out now- wait what?? OH goshiki touched the net. NVM THEN KEEP GOING TADASHI!!

Tbf kazuhito's the one that got hit and he's not used to the power behind ushi's spikes. aaAAA OK THAT'S OK BG GUY, you got a point that's all that matters right now

HSKHSJS OMG KAGE'S GROWN SO MUCH, he's literally adjusting himself to suit the spiker

YESSS the stress is getting to them, shiratorizawa's making mistakes, and by shiratorizawa i mean goshiki

Damn, that.. actually really sweet of ushi, cuz that man only says shit if he believes it, and goshiki needed that

GIVE US ANOTHER TADASHI- Ah fuck, and there goes the streak

FUCK, aaagh i thought he was gonna do a strong hit, ok so goshiki's not as reckless as i thought

14-13 COME ON KARASUNO!! YES OMG 14-14 JUST ONE MORE POINT, YOU GOT THIS CROWS

Ooh, old man flashback? Oof yeah that's the worse, where ppl deny you becuz you lack on something you don't have control over

Now back to present stress, JUST KEEP THE BALL UP CROWS! STOP HIS SPIKE- omg GOOD RECEIVE NOYA

I do find it interesting that the choice of music for this final point is not like hype or something loud, but more emotional and hopeful sounding. Idk im not a musician

FUCK NO! AHH they can't do another deuce again they HAVE to get the next 2 points..

Oh shit, coach?? Well, he's a man of few words, but those words are enough to light their fire again

Yachi?? wait- WAIT OMG IS HE BACK?? OMG TSUKI'S BACK!! THE CAVALRY IS HERE LEZGO

[sephie-books]

So because I liked the "Grey Gates" series by Vanessa Nelson so much I bought her other series "Taellaneth", which was 5 ebooks for 99 cents. Literally a steal, even if they possibly sucked.

they did not suck

These books had me hooked despite myself all week.

"The Taellaneth series" seems to be about elves (they're called Erith but they're basically elves. My only complaint about this book. Just call them fucking elves sheesh).

The MC is named Arrow, a word that is close in pronunciation to what the elves call her in elvish, which is "Abomination".

Arrow is half human, and was made a "tenured servant" (slave) to the rest of the elves because of her heritage. She is regularly treated like shit, beaten, barely fed, given the most threadbare shitty clothes, and is treated like the lowest of the low

However because she IS still elvish, she has magic (very strong magic) and has been extensively trained in its use, and if she had been a full blooded elf with rights, she would be a highly esteemed war mage with her own cadre of warriors

The story starts with her being sent to the shifkin (werewolves) as part of a murder investigation

The elves have been implicated and they must honor their treaty with the shifkin. However the shifkin hate them so they sent Arrow as she was viewed expendable and wouldn't be mourned if she was murdered by the shifkin in their rage

Book 1 is basically unraveling the murder and in the process they learn that humans have been summoning demons. Long Ago, humans tried the same thing against the elves and it was a horrific battle as they fought powerful demons loosed upon the land, barely winning. Now the ancestors of those same humans are trying again, and this time trying to frame the elves so as to start a war with the shifters.

Book 2 - Book 5 is Arrow continuing to get pulled into politics between the humans and elves because of her unique power - she's a shadow walker war mage, able to walk into the shadows and into the shadow realm. She's very powerful, so powerful in fact, that she created seals on her own power while she was in bondage so that NO ONE would know that she held such power because while in bondage she was oathbound to obey any command and she did not trust those motherfuckers one inch.

Shadow Walker mages are incredibly rare and none had been born in seen in hundreds of years. Her heritage denied her for so long, she honed her craft despite her own internal seals, and when at last she was free from her oath of servitude, she became a force to be reckoned with. For she could also sense and banish demons, which have been trying to breach their world again in an unseen war against all.

Arrow must survive against demons, politics and her own people while trying to save them and save the heart of the elvish lands, the source of all their power.

I really liked Arrow and enjoyed the story as she rose like a phoenix despite being beaten, battered, and almost broken. Her fierce loyalty, kindness, and indomitable will won her many allies and friends, which she never would have even thought to wish for in all her life.

My other complaint (besides wishing the author would just fucking call them fucking elves), is that I wish the story would have addressed her abuse more. Sure, some of the motherfuckers who hurt her died, but there was no justice. And the hurt she had endured was never addressed with Kester, the warrior elf who came to love her. Yes, there was initial miscommunications, and secrets hidden that later bit them both in the ass, but in order to understand her heart and the person that he pledges himself to, there has to be communication and trust. He has to know who her enemies are, who hurt her, and what her triggers are, what would currently hurt her.

Also I just really really really really really wanted Kester to just go full Riftan and vow to personally kill anyone who hurt Arrow. Like at least break some bones, maybe go full Bane and break someone over his knee like a glowstick. Maybe, perhaps, break someone's jaw or fingers. Like is that so much to ask???

Anyway, like I said, you can buy all 5 ebooks for 99 cents and the story kept me hooked wanting to know more.

5/5 stars

[nuttytani]

Celestia's Cruel Thesis

Fandom: Genshin Impact

Pairing: Tartaglia | Childe x Zhongli

Premise: Childe gets isekai'd to a Liyue where Rex Lapis still rules over it.

A/N: I'm cross posting my works from ao3 to tumblr. Also, please check out this beautiful parallel world zhongchi art by @karininogo. This particular art lived rent free in my mind until it compelled me to write a fic about it + this is a multi chapter fic.

Fic is also available on my ao3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/51194101/chapters/129353446

Chapter 1: Door to a new world

“Be careful, young man. I advise you not to accept any form of apparatus that measures time… Ah yes, particularly by someone in white. It will soon be the time for lantern rite after all, best avoid all bad omens at this time of the year,” the old man said weakly.

“That’s one strange superstition! But thanks, Luo Xiansheng, I’ll keep that in mind but I'm pretty sure that I won’t be receiving anything today,” Childe replied, chuckling to himself. The people of Liyue may have been freed from the rule of Adepti, however, their superstitions still remain. 

Oh, if only Childe could turn back time and slap himself, how wrong he was to ignore the wise words of the old man.

.

“Pay your respects! Yanwang Dijun has arrived, bow down to his imperial majesty!”

“Thousands of blessings to our lord!” the crowd yelled in excitement.  

“May you always protect our lands, oh almighty!” 

Sheesh, these people sure love their Archon huh? Childe watched warily, as he stood amongst the sea of Liyuens. He pulled at his white hooded robe closer, it was of Sumerian make, not that it mattered but the cotton was of good quality. Hopefully, his unassuming getup would help keep any suspicious eyes at bay…

When Luo Xiansheng had warned him about receiving gifts related to time and particularly by someone in white– he had not expected Paimon and the Traveller to drop by his office in Northland bank. And he definitely did not foresee them giving him an old hourglass. According to them, they found it in some mysterious domain in Mt. Hulao. 

He really shouldn’t have fiddled with that hourglass, at least not before getting it checked for traps and such. Well, most of the time, he would have done just that except, for some reason, he does– well did trust the Traveller. Though he is sure that it wasn’t her fault, neither did she know the consequences of using the hourglass. 

Ah, Lumine really needs to learn not to get her hands on every random thing she finds in obviously dangerous domains. 

.

Hmph, wretched fate he has. First it was the abyss and now he’s in some strange world where Zhongli– no, Rex Lapis, Morax, still rules over Liyue alongside the Adepti. Great, absolutely lovely! 

But, on a positive note, he isn’t even sure if it’s positive or at this point just… coping. He found out that the majority, if not all, of the people in the harbour were the same from his “world”. Like Iron tongue Tian telling his stories like always, Shitou selling his mine ores, that girl who always feeds the goldfish and Chef Mao, cooking as always alongside Xiangling. But none, not a single one of them recognise him. There is no such person as Tartaglia, Childe in this world. That he is sure of. He also figured that people don’t refer to the Archon as Rex Lapis, but as Yanwang Dijun. 

This Liyue may be similar in certain aspects but still has its differences from the one he’s used to.

Funnily enough, there’s Northland Bank, in its usual place operating like any other day, (which was very strange. Though, what hasn't been strange ever since yesterday?) but he’s too scared to take a peek. What point will it serve looking at his own people, who wouldn’t even know him? As if he can come knocking at their doors and say, “Hey! I’m Number 11 of the Fatui Harbingers, Tartaglia; code name Childe!” 

Super smooth. Yeah right. He’d get immediately kicked out for 1) disrespecting the organisation 2) telling blatant lies. Heck, he isn't even sure if Harbingers exist in this world. Hopefully not, he would loathe to look at his colleagues… probably ex colleagues now. Though he is adamant on that status to be temporary.

.

Childe and the locals have been waiting for a good half an hour now, though people have started cheering now, he wonders when “Yanwang Dijun” would arrive. Talk about punctuality! Standing around and doing nothing has made his appetite worse. He finished off all the grilled tiger fish he bought, and there’s not even an inch of space for him to move to buy a few more because of the crowd. 

Slowly, a single yellow petal landed on his nose– just when he tried to blow it away, another fell on his hair then his shoulder. Now it was raining thousands of petals. 

Before he knew it, the tanggu rang loudly thrice. With a flourish many officials emerged from behind a silken golden embroidered door. They arranged themselves in two orderly lines and bowed their heads like a puppet would. 

The people around him followed suit and bowed as well, while Childe in his confusion just stood there dumbstruck. Until some A-yi grabbed hold of his arm and whispered, “Such blatant rudeness! You may be a foreigner but the least you can do is respect our lord.” 

He quickly lowered his head down and replied to the A-yi in haste, “I’m sorry! Was a bit surprised, I have no ill intent, promise.”

That seemed to be the right answer, as the A-yi smiled back and nodded to herself and pointed discreetly upwards. “Keep your eyes and ears open, for he will be arriving any second now,” she spoke in a hushed tone. 

It was like a fever dream, Yujing Terrace was filled with excited cheers and words of worship but now it was deadly silent, except for the bated breaths of those around him. Childe included. There was something about the presence of divinity that brought about certain feelings– of what? He wasn't sure.

Childe dared to take a peek, and the moment he did, those bright cor lapis eyes looked down on the crowd. For a moment it felt like those very eyes looked directly at him. The same eyes Zhongli had at Northland Bank… While handing over his gnosis. He barely faced Childe during the entire meeting. As if he didn’t even exist. Not a single word from Zhongli even after several days. He felt his reality crumbling. Is this really his life right now? Perhaps this was all just a cruel joke played by the gods or a morbid dream that he needs to wake up from. 

But no, it’s real. 

He tried sleeping it off yesterday, hoping to miraculously wake up in the bed of his apartment. His disappointment was immeasurable when he woke on the steps of Heyu Tea House. Once morning came, he received looks of pity from people passing by. Tea master Liu Siu even gave him a few mora meat. He wasn’t poor by any means in this new Liyue, he still had 3 large pouches of mora on his person, but he definitely wasn’t going to reject free food. 

Number 1 priority for now would be to look for a place to stay. He wasn’t keen on being a bother for other businesses. 

.

“So, how can I talk personally with Rex– uhh…. Yanwang Dijun?” Childe inquired Lao Guai. He has lost count of the number of people he’s spoken to regarding this question. 

The people of Teyvat always say that the Archons and Celestia have the answers and solutions to all mortal problems, so surely, Yanwang Dijun can send him back to his original world? Or at least know a few ways on how to send him back.

“Yes of course but ah.. There is one issue…,” twirling his beard between his fingers, Lao Guai drawled on his words. 

“And that is?” Childe quirked his brow, he has a feeling where this is going. 

“Dear boy, it’s Mora! Obviously.”

.

A heavy pouch was dropped onto Lao Guai's lap. Seemingly satisfied, he started talking. And it was the same beat up words, as if reading from some script. 

Get an appointment from the Qixing. 

The damned wrinkly Lao Guai even dared to say, “the fastest way to personally meet with Yanwang Dijun is by becoming his…. bed warmer.” He waggled his brows and continued, “and if I do say so myself, you would scrub up quite nicely with proper clothes.”

Childe prayed for Raiden Shogun to strike this old fart down with her famed Musou no Hitotachi that very moment. But he really shouldn’t. After all, you should pay respect to your elders. 

“I am being serious, young lad,” Lao Guai added sweetly. 

Maybe except for this particular weirdo. 

.

“No, I cannot let you in,” Baiwen replied in a very exasperated manner. 

“Just a minute, please. I only need to speak with him!” he pleaded, growing increasingly desperate with every word and this damned lady was not making it any easier. The two of them were arguing for a good while now.

Childe was at his breaking point. It had been weeks of trying to schedule appointments with “Yanwang Dijun” but he was turned away with the same excuses each time. 

“His imperial majesty is currently busy.” 

“He’s occupied with another appointment.” 

“The Adepti are meeting with him.” 

“Yanwang Dijun is currently in a deep slumber.”

And they dared to say the last one while he saw the Archon walk lazily out of that overly embellished golden screen door. 

Baiwen grimaced, whatever professional facade she had on was crumpled and you could see the deep furrow between her dark eyebrows,“I simply cannot.” 

“Why not? At least give me a reason, and not one of those same reused excuses,” Childe snapped. He’s not going to back away this time. He’s had enough and today he will meet with Yanwang Dijun. 

Perhaps what he said struck a chord with her, Baiwen was glaring at him with what he assumed… disgust. 

“There is no way I’d let such a suspicious person enter Yiyan Temple. Look at your attire! What on Teyvat are you wearing?” with a huff of disapproval she turned away but not before haughtily adding, “and furthermore, his imperial majesty is an incredibly important and busy person, he has no time to converse with nobodies like you.” 

“Now please, be off before I personally call upon the Millelith and get you removed from these sacred grounds.” 

With a resounding smack, Baiwen closed the heavy auburn wooden door, in front of Childe’s face. The impact caused him to stumble backwards, almost falling to the ground. Did she really smack the door on his face? But more importantly, the entire time, the officials didn’t let him in because he looked like a suspicious person? What? These officials sure sit on their high horse and someone really needs to pull them down. 

“Bastards,” he grumbled under his breath, frustration starting to seep into his mind. For people who act all sweet and nice, they sure knew how to get under someone’s skin. These officials need some training in humility. Heck, even the fatui have better manners than them. 

The “attire” he wore was a loose plain grey cotton inazuman-style outerwear, with a tie lying on the side of his waist with some baggy black pants underneath it. He always wore the white hooded robe on top, to hide his bright hair, otherwise people would keep staring at him. The hooded robe however, didn’t work as well as he’d thought, the locals would steal sneaky glances at him every time he’d pass by. 

“Suspicious my ass, just say it’s because you’re too concerned about status and hierarchy.” He looked menacingly at the door. Childe stepped back, his body slumping in resignation while mumbling, “you could have saved me all the trouble by telling me the truth, from the start.”  

He kicked the ornate door. 

A beat of silence passed. 

He kicked it once more, now with more force. 

Another beat of silence.

“How irritating.” 

Right when he was about to give up, Childe took a glance upwards and saw a lithe hooded figure passing by the long corridor. At first, he thought it was just another official, but he saw those amber tinted locks of hair fluttering in the wind as the figure walked. 

That’s him. Must be him. 

Childe immediately braced himself. He slowly crouched and leapt against the solid ground, forcing his way over the tall door and onto the long yellow corridors. He landed right in front of the hooded figure, on his knees and one hand as support. There was a cracking sound, probably his poor joints. He really shouldn’t be doing such stunts, but desperate times call for desperate measures. 

The Millelith had their spears pointed towards him, but he didn’t care. Rising from his position, Childe grabbed the hooded figure’s robes and pulled him close. He looked straight into those cor lapis eyes, devoid of any emotion. 

“Zhongli! Do you recognise me? It’s Childe, Tartaglia,” panic laden on his every word, Childe pulls his own hood down to reveal his face. Those golden eyes slightly widen at the sudden actions. 

He took his chance, and continued, “Please you must help me, only you can send me back to my original world.” At some point, his hands ended up grabbing onto the slope of Zhongli’s shoulder, pulling him even closer. The brunet stared questioningly into his deep abyssal eyes, they were so so close, he could feel the warm breaths on his own lips.

Before he could say any more, the cold rod of a spear was digging into his adam’s apple, pushing him back. One, two, three.. No, Five spears were pointed towards his body. Locking his every move. 

“Stay away from his imperial majesty! Someone of your stature should not touch him so. How dare you get your filthy hands upon him,” the young Millelith who had his spear on Childe’s neck yelled, trying to pull him back from Yanwang Dijun, but his body was immovable, as if his feet were embedded onto the flooring. 

Childe didn’t care. Status and rules be damned. It was now or never. Uncaring of the throbbing pain on his throat, he pressed on and desperately resumed his plea, “I, the 11th of the Fatui harbingers, Tartaglia, personally sent by her majesty The Tsaritsa to wreak havoc in Liyue by releasing Osial from his confines. I played as the scum villain for a test orchestrated by you, to relinquish your duties as an archon and hand over your gnosis. So that you could live a life as a common mortal.”

Maybe the Archon will take pity on him and solve his problems. Maybe he’ll order for the spears to be put down, maybe he’ll ask for them to release Childe and just maybe he might recogni–

“Looks like he’s out of it, come on now, this isn’t a place to be role-playing. Take him away!” All the Millelith around him laughed like crazy, as if they heard some really funny joke.

But it wasn’t a joke. He wished it was. Or some fever dream he’d have to wake up from. If it was a dream, why wasn’t he awake yet? Why is he still in this strange world with cold faces? Why is it so that he misses the tedious act of doing paperwork for the bank? He misses the way Xiangling would holler at him to have lunch with Guoba by her side waving at him enthusiastically. He misses the annoying lectures of Ekaterina. He misses the bickering between Vlad and Nadia. He misses those weekly sparring sessions with Lumine. 

He misses the feeling of those warm amber eyes looking at him with amusement. 

He misses his Liyue. 

Ah. 

He’s homesick, Childe realised. 

His thoughts were interrupted as he felt the Millelith dragging him away by his arms. His rock bottom reputation in this Liyue is ruined anyway, go big or go home.

“Please send me back to my world, can’t you gods solve everything?! Listen to this poor mortal’s troubles, I beg of you, send me back, Yanwang Dijun!” Childe kept yelling as he was dragged away by 2 Milleliths holding onto him. Both sighing at him.

“Quit your yapping, we get it! Just shut up and get outta here.” One of them smacked his head as the pair of them dragged his body down the corridor. 

“I’ll shut the fuck up if you release me. Send me back to my world! Unhand me! I’ll keep coming back if you don’t listen!” He struggled and trashed in their hold, craning his neck to look back at the stunned figure, now looking smaller and smaller as he was roughly taken away.

They kicked him out of the same red door. The damned heavy ornate door. He hopes that Zhon– Dijun somehow feels pity for him and does something, anything really. He contemplates and starts to aimlessly walk away from the temple. 

.

Meanwhile, Yanwang Dijun’s eyes followed the resigned boy’s figure move away from the entrance. How intriguing, he thought. He had never met such a strange human in his entire 6000 years of life. But his words did shock him. He was aware of the fact that different worlds do exist, though he never ventured deep into that knowledge so as not to stumble upon any forbidden knowledge, lest he caught the ire of Celestia. 

He is broken from his trance as Ninnguang, quietly speaks under her breath who was watching the entire scene unfold right behind him, “I wonder what that was… Weird fellow.”

“Your majesty, are you… Unharmed? Should I call for the healers?” Ganyu asks in concern, who was also next to Ninnguang. 

Very sweet of her to care for his health, however, it would be quite impossible for any mortal man to cause even a scratch on his face. “I’m quite fine, my child. Not to worry,” he says before a pause and inquires, “Ganyu, are you aware of any man named as… Childe or Tartaglia?”

Her blue hair whipped back and forth as she shook her head, “I’m afraid, I do not know, my lord. I have never heard of any one going by those peculiar names,” she replied, looking at him with confusion. 

“I see.” 

Peculiar name for a peculiar boy indeed. He does believe in this “Childe’s” story, contrary to the children surrounding him. After all, there is no one in this world, alive, who would know of his true name, Zhongli. 

It's been centuries since anyone called him by that name. Not even many of his immortal friends know about it. 

A small smile graced the Archon’s lips. Things were about to get interesting in his mundane life, it seemed.

Author’s Notes for Chapter 1

[1] Someone in white - The colour white is known as one of the unluckiest Chinese colours because it is associated with funerals.

[2] Apparatus that measures time - In China, it is considered inappropriate to give a clock to someone as it sounds similar to bidding farewell to them on their deathbed. This cultural belief associates giving someone a clock with sending them off to the afterlife.

[3] Luo 罗 - Common chinese last name.. it means: gauze, to collect, to gather, to catch, to sift

[4] Xiansheng - Mister (in this context)

[5] Yanwang Dijun - Rex Lapis’ name in CN

[6] Tanggu- Chinese drum

[7] A-yi - Middle aged lady/ aunt

[8] Lao Guai - Old Guai

[9] Guai (name) - Weirdo/strange (so basically the name Lao Guai means weirdo old man)

(A huge shout out to my fav jiejie helping me with the CN part of this fic, you’ve no idea how many times I badgered her for different ways of addressing people.)

[10] Baiwen - Ninnguang's secretary in genshin.

[11] Childe’s attire so this was the closest robes I could find to what I had in mind ( Which was more commoner like and roughed out in texture) but make it grey like his in-game uniform.

Though, in Karin san’s art he’s wearing super loose robes that expose his chest, which is covered by white bandages and is also wearing some dark choker with a little tassel in the middle. Karin san also mentions that Childe is partially cross dressing? Perhaps the attire he wore was a bit more on the feminine side shrugs. In that context, I do suppose Childe being refused to enter would make more sense. But I opted for the status/commoner/nobody route.

[12] So before you guys get confused with the constant switching between Childe saying: Rex Lapis, Yanwang Dijun or Zhongli. To summarise, he says yanwang dijun when he’s talking with people of this parallel world Liyue, but when it’s him thinking or talking to himself in his mind, he says Rex Lapis or Zhongli. Probably says Zhongli when he feels emotional or remembers stuff.

[13] Yiyan Temple - A huge yellow/golden building you will see in Yujing Terrace, people come to worship and give offerings to the Geo Archon here. You will see an NPC called Bu’yun (Jade chamber guide) right next to it in the game.

I decided to make Yiyan Temple as Dijun’s home/place of work because it made sense, even though initially I wrote Jade Chamber but… For that, Childe would need to learn how to fly because no way he could reach the sky from a jump…this isn’t a xianxia story :”D

[14] Isekai - I’ll be roughly explaining this because while writing this fic, I was confused if this was even isekai in the first place? So let’s break it down! Isekai itself basically means “another world” and there are two types of isekai (which I’ll explain soon) and the new world could be anything! From parallel worlds, fantasy world, a video game, a novel, you name it.

a) Isekai tensei = in which the protagonist is reincarnated into another world (that’s the literal translation btw) by… well dying xD cause of death is usually by our favourite!! Truck-kun!! If not, many other reasons e.g. choking on a dumpling, being murdered, falling down a 3 storey building, etc. So there’s actually a sub-genre of this particular isekai, in which, after death, the soul of the protagonist occupies the body of another living being from the new/other world. This is called transmigration. Though some people consider transmigration to be a separate type of isekai on its own.

b) Isekai ten’i = in which the protagonist is either summoned into the new world or is teleported to it (again, the literal translation) via some item or channel that connects it to the new world. In this type of isekai, the protagonists don’t die. It’s something like sneaking into your uncle’s wardrobe and walking into some snowy plains of narnia.

[15] NPCs - all of the side characters that are in this fic are all in game characters and NPCs. You’ll find them if you search them up. At first I thought linking the NPCs to genshin wiki would be cool but then my author’s note would become incredibly long…er than it already is TT I’m sorry.

Alright, my comrades, I hope my unnecessary rambling in the author’s notes wasn’t so boring. You will see me with another chapter… I already have the second chapter outlines, just need to write it out. But it's currently exam season and I've been busy so next update might be around late November. Check me out on my twitter / ao3 / wattpad if you're interested! I go by @nuttytani for all :DD

(also unsure if anyone actually wants to get tagged for this multi chapters fic, if you are interested, let me know!)

[burgycreeper405-blog]

another long messy rant talk cuz I'm still angery

y'know what's funny

the way some people are calling me out on twitter is 'bcuz i ship Rexmet and Microknife'

their reason? stupid chet like "they're siblings" or "it's selfcest(for rexmet)" or sumchet like that

but when you think about it, it's stupid, cuz like,

(excuse for my messy explanation)

1.)

Rex and Emmet aren't really brothers, they're more like an AU character, (which is Rex or if you really think about it, it's tlm2 Emmet who's the AU one cuz like, Rex is the Emmet in the 1st movie and he went back in time to change the timeline lol), interacted with the canon character so they're like, AU x canon or AU x AU but they canonically interacted lol

even if i also see them as brothers, i know that they're not really brothers at the end of the day, they're just past version and future version interacted

same with Mic and Knife,

they be headcanoning that those two are siblings and/or even related by blood when they're no where near being related to each other,,

no, VA does not equal to the character they're voicing

cuz the va of knife and mic are siblings, (including soap and salt & pepper (if you don't know, they're 4 siblings, yes, i did research aka read the credits and ii characters wiki and chet)

(VA ≠ character),

just cuz they're both gray colors? and metal?? then why not add nickel to that sibling hc then and not ship them with knife, bet you won't

and then they get mad at someone who doesn't see them as siblings when it's not even canon that they're siblings, it's all just headcanons

AND they didn't even make sure if Justin (the VA of Knife and co director of II) is still okay with it or not,

a friend of mine has to ask them about it and guess what, this is gonna be mind blowing to y'all,

he doesn't even mind it anymore

2.)

I have been saying this ever since i started watching/drawing the Lego movie, I'm neutral with any ship

I'm fine with Rex x Emmet

im neutral with it

(i both ship them and see them as siblings but not at the same friking time obviously, sheesh)

cuz like, i have most of my AUs with them as brothers lol

i honestly mostly ship them cuz its funny and chet,

3.)

theyre not even canonically siblings like they make out to be, it's all just hcs and chet

4.)

(this one is mostly aiming at the osc twitter but some of the tlm fandom as well)

they be saying that Rexmet is bad cuz Rex manipulated Emmet, like T4€0m!€ isn't like that but more worse

wanna know didly darn why?

well, first off, it’s just so weird how theyre fine with T4€0m!€ but not Taco x Pickle or Rexmet lol

and T4€0m!€ is much more worse than those two cuz like, if you've watched ii, we have seen how Mic is so hurt, like bro, did we watch the same thing or nah? cuz like, most of yall osc just not acknowledge that, like, y'all don't like Pickle x Taco but you like Taco x Mic????

with Rex and Emmet, Emmet wants Rex to be happy and chet at the end,

Pickle and Taco, eh, but he kinds misses her, but mostly just s1/“before her real self reveal” her so yeah,

T4€0m!€ is mmm, kinda troubling cuz like Mic doesnt want anything to do with Taco, yet the osc just puts that info away in the trash

and its the fact that Taco just uses her to get the money,

Rex wants Emmet to not want what happened to him or something,

big difference there

Rex wants to help Emmet

Taco wants to help herself

Taco manipulated Mic for her own selfish deeds (aka "helping her to win the competition to get the money for herself") and Taco knows that,

Rex manipulated Emmet to not get him hurt (but backfired cuz what he's doing also hurts Emmet but he doesn't realized that until the end, what 5 years of being alone does to ya lol),,

well, both backfired

but atleast Emmet wants to help Rex get a second chance if it werent for back to the futuring,

Mic just wants Taco to not be in her life anymore

yet the osc on twitter be like "aww these two are so cute together",

like Mic didn't say "I thought I gained a friend, turns out, I gained nothing"

like that isn't clear enough that Mic doesn't want anything to do with Taco after that

5.)

"it's selfcest" (for rexmet)

yeah, so you must've hate au character x au character then, AND you must've hate yourself then, let me say this to you

shut up, you're just projecting

i have more words to say for this but that reason for why rex and emmet is bad is just so stupid that my brain just doesn't want to,,

selfcest ≠ incest

6.)

they're just Lego Minifigures and a knife and a microphone,

y'all fr acting like it's gonna be the end of the world or something if we ship them,

they're all canonically adults, not related to each other (rex and emmet are basically like, clones or like, au x canon or au x au or somethin like that) and they're not even problematic as they say they are

aight, that's the end of my rant,

there may be more in the future but yeah, I am in my hater arc/hj

[berryunho]

okay i know its already the end of january 1st but allow me to reflect on 2022 for a moment ! so ! if you want my sentimental ramblings feel free to read but LAKSJDFLKSJD

SO BASICALLY. the answer turned one year old in 2022. i started posting in april 2021. and thus she turned one in april. idk exactly what the stats were in april but i know that at the start of the year she was ~70k words and had ~3000 hits and like ~70 kudos. keep that in mind. KAJLFDKSJFJKL im really not like. a numbers person like. its motivating for sure when i know i have an audience but i dont let it get to me if things are down for whatever reason and anyways i thought that those numbers were CRAZYYYYY. like i was already out of my mind insane at the thought of so many people liking my fic and i was just so . thankful . and i still am !

but.... i felt that i was... missing something...... like ao3 is amazing and wonderful and i love it but.... i wanted more Connection! i wanted to be easier to talk to and more of a Real Person to my readers lol so i made my tumblr this year! and i waited a bit to start crossposting just bc i was such a huge chore and... i was really scared... but once i did the response was so immediate and so wonderful that i couldnt believe i didnt do it earlier !!!! like genuinely tumblr has been everything ive ever hoped for it to be and more and its so so so lovely to be here and i just !!!!! like sheesh . i had a blog long ago (like. 2014-2018.) and i just ... dont remember tumblr being like this then lol

and anyways. i feel like ive become a Real Fanfiction Writer now. like it is INSANE to me to think that there are people that look up to me like i used to look up to ff writers like .... YOU MEAN IM THAT PERSON TO SOME PEOPLE?????? I GET ANONS? I GET ASKS? REPLIES? DMS? PEOPLE WANT TO TALK TO ME ON THE MERIT THAT I CREATED SOMETHING THEY LIKE? holy moly baby. i still am so awkward w ff authors that arent my bffies bc i literally forget that i am ff authors. like i am in that crew now. KALJSDL;FKJSDLF so crazy so if you are a fellow writer reading this and we are moots and we've never spoken trust it is bc im just awkward i probably love you and your writing LKJALDSKFJLASDKJF

and like ... speaking of my bffies ... idk if theyll read this but hi if you do i cant say these things directly to you bc i have issues but. the 2 months that we have been friends have been very wonderful and i have very much loved getting to know you guys and i hope you like me bc you are STUCK w me now ! i wuv u or ... something ALKDSJFALKSDJ thank you tumblr for bringing us together KAJSDLFKJSLD

and ANYWAYS FOR REAL NOW the answer now is 144k. claps to me for doubling the length <3 and she has. 280 kudos. and 11,426 hits. and like i said. the numbers dont get me very much. what gets me is the fact that so many people have called the answer their favorite fanfic. people have complimented my writing style. people thank me for my work. people tell me that they hope im well out of the blue. people tell me that ive scared them people tell me ive made them cry people tell me their heart beats faster when they read people tell me they love my characters people tell me they love my writing and my mind and JUST ASKDLFJASDFJKLSLDFJ THAT IS WHAT GETS ME !!!! thats why i love tumblr and thats what im thankful for going into 2023 and i hope that this year i can continue to be a writer that you all love or at least enjoy and if not that ... tolerate ig ALKSDJFAKSDJ

SIGNED YOUR FAVORITE HOTTEOK (agree w me.)/AUTHOR OF THE ANSWER/BERRYUNHO/EGGYLEGGY/ lauren <3

[chl3borzoi]

SOOOOO i blocked my sister

Youre entitled to not like family after theyve done shit things.

Yes, my sister was a great resource when i was i my preteens letting me live with her during the summer, and for getting on my brothers for their behavior when i was in my early early teens but by that point it was kinda far too late

The thing that did it was on Thanksgiving last year she came with a woman weve never met before thats shes only known for 4 months saying theyre getting married in 2 weeks and moving to texas immediately after.

Our brother and his partner brought them out to lunch and tried to say hey we think youre going kinda fast you should take more time to get to know each other etc. They flat out told him theyre not invited to the wedding. Then when she gets home after that, she comes downstairs to find me and tells me theyre getting married, and she leans in and whispers "you're inviiiiteeeed~"

Shes in her early 30's

The thing is our MOM couldnt even attend because it was such short notice. And the marriage place couldnt get the shitty zoom stream to work. Our mom had to watch a recording of the service.

I looked out the deck window and saw her lying on her back on the porch watching the video and I knew her heart was broken.

Like. Christ im gonna put it all out there

I could tell stories of how my sister used to make me cry as a child, too. And where our parents failed to parent and the eldest should have taken the place of responsibility and etc she didnt give a fuck and YES a child should never have to act a parent role thats shitty but she was 15+ yrs old she shoulda fucking known better. (I have literally my entire family to blame for almost all of my issues, But still. During my crucial years i really do feel she did not care, and it didn't help that between me and her we have 3 THREE brothers who (one of which legitimately hated me ) too)) I DIGRESS

She let our childhood home turn into a jungle because she was too busy sitting in sweatpants smoking pot and drinking starbucks and begging our mom for more money to be put on her account,

(its all torn down, now too.)

We havent spoken very much,

Mostly just snapchats here and there

And a few days ago she sent me a chat on here saying shes revamping her account and wants to be active on here, so i blocked her.

Not only because i want tumblr to be an escape from personal real life shit but because i don't really wanna communicate or be reminded of her selfish dumb behavior.

Shes extremely hard to communicate with in person, too. Literally! I feel like im crazy trying to explain it. Shes so slow... it feels like trying to have a convo with her sometimes it feels like shes unintentionally gaslighting you. I know that sounds dumb but im fuckin serious.

She was so helpless when we helped her move, too. Pacing back and forth and fretting over all her shit (we're a packrat family yeah but holy fuck shes gonna end up being a fuckin hoarder) and me and our mom were just lifting stuff and carrying it out like :/

Sheesh

I don't hate her or wish her or her wife any ill will, its just. Fuck man. Walk in, break our moms heart (as if it isnt already broken after all the shit weve been thru as a family...) and act like everythings fine and perfect.

Also I literally witnessed my sister do/say this to her wife

"Hey, -blank-, come fight this pokemon go tournament for me."

Like

?!?!?!??!?

She was like "okay :D" but still thats so fucking bizarre

[tucommuter]

Overheard

Monday:

Person 1: Is it worth skipping ci on tuesday? I’m trynna work.

Person 2: Nah, go to class

Person 3: Skipping school for work is wild

Person 1: I need the money

Person 4: Are we hopping on later? Val cod or dbd

Person 2: Im down for dbd later

Tuesday:

Person 1: lmk bro when we can get lil adventure going

Person 2: U ain’t busy yo?

Person 1: right now?

Person 2: Later, I can dip 215ish

Person 1: yeah lets do it

Person 2: Bet, also I got mk1

Person 1: sheesh

Person 2: We can play a lil after if you down, when you trynna slide?

Person 1: I need to pump gas but in a few

Person 2: Cuz Im getting ready rn for the adventure, lmk

*hours later

Person 2: Yo thanks again for yesterday bru, I really had fun and a good time

Wednesday:

Person 1: We have to start practicing for the winter basketball league

Person 2: Yeah if it wasnt freezing just get on the game

Person 1: yall soft we used to be outside in this weather last year

Thursday:

Person 1: I feel like as time goes on theres always a fallout of the group

Person 2 : Yeah I agree sometimes change is good but a lil too much is bad

Person 1: I guess it comes with getting older

Person 2: Yeah man its been so long since I had deep talks with the boys it seems like they all are doing their own thing

Friday:

Person 1: Do you still want me to take the 12:30

Person 2: Yeah I gotta take the test in a bit

Person 1: kk

[bearpillowmonster]

I woke up and my dad was just getting back from getting his car inspected. I got breakfast and he stopped me after and talked to me for like 30 minutes, it started with money and I know my dad is a bit too obsessed with money, he feigns that he has so many bills to pay but they're not "bills" in the sense of utilities or necessary receipts, they're options, they're things he's bought over time.

He was asking me for money again. This is the third time in, what, a week? This time was because he preordered something 2 years ago and it just dropped without him knowing and blah blah blah. All good with that, average excuses. My dad has been waiting (not so patiently) for the money to come in from his stepdad's death, which I posted about and the funeral was 2 weeks ago so I get that it's been a little while but just hold out, don't start questioning the validity of your sister and everyone else because you don't have your money yet.

"How could you be so dead and stressed that you couldn't write a check? Or not even look online and see how much was in the 401k?"

That's horrible, that's selfish, He's said some things over the years about money that have just absolutely changed my opinion of his character and this is now one of them. Someone died and your thing is about the money to get from it? I don't care what financial position I'm in, I'm not going to look at that money and rely on it and plan to allocate it until after I get it.

My aunt went to the bahamas, which was planned, after the funeral, and really she deserves it, she plotted a lot and she's been looking like she's been worn thin. My dad is suspicious that she's using that money for that and I could see the caution coming with that but don't assume the worst, she's never done anything underhanded that I've known. Now he's about to call her out on it, mess up his relationship, probably what she thinks of him (if she doesn't already know this part of his personality) and maybe lock him out of the money somehow. He's even uprooting their past "She was weird too when our real dad died too."

If it's in a will, trust that it'll make its way over and trust me, I'm in the will too and I'm not throwing a fit and I've already been scammed by the other aunt, he's putting her on the spot too because he's not sure how any of this works because he's never been told (for this reason). I said about how this is the third time he's asked me for money, he still owed me from OCTOBER, I had to remind him, I didn't make a fuss, I don't see the need, I have my proof, I don't care when it happens, just don't expect me to forget because the next time you ask for something, that's the first thing I'll bring up. I hate watching someone's downfall and not being able to stop them from falling overboard even if they drag me with them because now I'm going to be just as outcast being associated with him. Sheesh. Never learned that throwing a fit doesn't solve everything, some things, but don't act entitled. If it was your work sending you your due then by all means but this is family.

[thoughts-onmars]

morning

Hello

Good morning Mars. Just another self care day. I love typing on this computer tbh and I love having this space. I really did this. We really did this. Sometimes I am like wow I really live in this state.

When we went to the rockies, it was soooo mf beautiful. How would it be living in a small mountain town I wonder. I would need to get my money up or have a business. I wonder how much it takes to run a business. Just a small 10K loan lol probably even more. I would say I have ideas but I should be doing more than just thinking about opening a business. I need to create a menu and find out about all the licensing it requires.

There are cute concepts of like smaller owned coffee/bfast on-the-go business' that I have seen on youtube. It's cute bc its like a bike and it opens up to a coffee place. So simple and it works. Is it successful? I mean it is on youtube. It creates the aesthetic. Maybe I should buy a camera? Like a camcorder and start recording my life and my hikes and what we do and just upload them.

Anyway back to the Rockies, it was SOO beautiful. So stunning. I am grateful now as an adult that I was exposed to altitude and hiking at such a young age and now as an adult it really is part of my life. I enjoy dedicating a day that is spent outside, breathing in the clean cold air and taking in all the sights. Just a lucky gurl, but not really because I had ambitions of a life like this <3

I still want to maybe move one more time but after being in the Rockies, that place placed a spell on me and I don't want to move away from CO. JP did mention moving more up north and I think I would be down. I would just have to transfer to the newer building that is up there because I am pretty sure he would just stay in Superior.

This work week was super lame. I have been feeling frustrated because I feel like I am the only one that cares about my job on the team I am in. Because of this I almost have felt like crying because there is no effort given by those around me and it effects me in that way. I am just an emotional bishhh lol like I am so annoyed and bothered that I feel like crying at work sometimes. Then I just breathe to try and relax and regulate and that helps. Since I have been missing my family also, when kids come around in their cute soccer uniforms, I get a little sad because I miss soccer saturdays way back way when Alice would have early saturday games and then sometimes we would go to the store with my parents or we would just to my crib or I would go to work. Sheesh that was in 2017.

I have plans to go home for Thanksgiving and it would be my 3rd time coming home this year. I feel like I already typed this. A lot of my thoughts are the same thoughts or maybe I am typing too often. Who knows and who cares bc it is me and my thoughts hehehehe. Flights are super pricy though, like 300 almost 400. The other day they were around 140 and I thought that was too much. I do want to go home because I do want to see all my nieces and I haven't even met my nephew and he is already 2! I need to hold a baby!!!!

Thats it for today. I already broke sober october but I nEED to remind myself how awful I feel the next day that I drink and how I have disrupted sleep when I drink. Last night I didn't sleep that well and I KNOW it's because I drank more like 3 beers lol like 4 or 4.5. I NEED TO DO BETTER. DO BETTER MARS!! Just finish the beers in the fridge today so that there are no temptations later in the week lol mary logic. okay PEACEEEE

[helgapatakii]

I'm collecting letters people write when they leave/move away from New Orleans. It is almost always transplants. Nothing is more polarizing than calling someone a transplant, its an instant test to see how secure someone is. Why is New Orleans the place people claim to be from but aren't? They get mad when I ask specifics about their time here "well, I didn't got to school here but I've been here X years." If I lived in Paris for 15 years as an adult I'd never said "I'm from Paris" when asked. Why are transplants so sensitive? is it because they find their title derogatory? The other night at a bar a woman came up to me unsolicited, I was there to hang with my friend who was bartending, which I told her. She continued to talk, which was fine for a bit because we laughed over some shared observations at the bar but it became annoying quickly. As soon as I realized this woman had no interest in having a conversation as she much as she had an interest in talking I gave up deep engagement. I figured she'd tire herself out and walk away. I unsolicited heard the story of her life in New Orleans. The other thing that set off alarms in the first few minutes of our conversation is she mentioned "I'm sure you can hear my accent" I couldn't. I told her she sounded like Rachel Green to me. Then I noticed a distinct switch and I joked she was "laying it on" after that point. It was a EUROPEAN accent and she had moments before told me she was from Nebraska or "wild Wild West" as she referred to it. She spent some time making fun of the mid-west and Nebraska for being boring. I decided to join in as I love making fun of places I've never been "What even is in Nebraska? I am not going there!" Her tone suddenly switched to a much more defensive one, "well Nebraska and New Orleans have a lot in common and are very similar." She cited the LOUISIANA PURCHASE. You know, that historic event in 1803? Nebraska was a part of Louisiana for about 60 years. Apparently that was enough time for all things NOLA to make their way up river. She kept saying "the river! the river connects us! We are the same!" Which really irked me so when she for the second time referred to coming to New Orleans on a freight train I teased "coming here on a freight train does not make you anymore interesting to me or any less a gentrifier" This is when the convo really started to turn of course, she was finally listening to a voice besides her own and detected that maybe, just maybe, there are humans on the earth who do not want to hear the story of her gutter punk upbringing. She came her 2 years after Katrina, I pointed out this was the worst wave of people because they came in when our city was most vulnerable and diluted what we had left of our culture. she didn't like that either. She began to make her exit "You know I don't share my life story easily, this is very personal." To which I responded as she was standing up "Yeah, your life story is a VERY personal and vulnerable thing to share with someone because you never know who you are talking to or how they may react."

She walked away. Sheesh.

[deadcactuswalking]

REVIEWING THE CHARTS: 26/08/2023 (Nothing)

We get a #1 switch-up once again this week as Dua Lipa takes the crown with “Dance the Night”, becoming her fourth #1 on the UK charts as a credited artist, dethroning the fellow Barbie soundtrack single “What Was I Made For?” by Billie Eilish. That’s pretty much all that happened, so skip this episode if you want. If you didn’t, welcome back to REVIEWING THE CHARTS!

Rundown

As always, we start this week - where nothing out of the ordinary occurred, I promise - with the notable dropouts, songs exiting the UK top 75 - which is what I cover - after spending five weeks there or peaking in the top 40, of which there were very few. We say farewell to “Barbie Girl” by Aqua, “What it Is” by Doechii, or the “Block Boy” version with Kodak Black, “DIal Drunk” by Noah Kahan, of course assited by its remix with Post Malone, and “Wish You the Best” by Lewis Capaldi.

We then welcome back “Everybody Wants to Rule the World” by Tears for Fears at #74, “Super Shy” by NewJeans at #72, “Riptide” by Vance Joy at #71, “Escapism.” by RAYE featuring 070 Shake at #65 and “Boy’s a liar” by PinkPantheress at #64, and as for our notable gains, we see boosts for “Bad Habits” by Ed Sheeran at #70, “Baby Don’t Hurt Me” by David Guetta, Anne-Marie and Coi Leray at #68, “I’m Good (Blue)” by David Guetta and Bebe Rexha at #67, “Kill Bill” by SZA at #63, “Die for You” by The Weeknd at #62, “UNAVAILABLE” by Davido featuring Musa Keys at #54, “Highs & Lows” by Prinz featuring Gabriela Bee at #47, “Feel It” by Jazzy getting a big surge at #45, “Popular” by The Weeknd, Playboi Carti and Madonna at #43, “Daylight” by David Kushner at #42, “Fast Car” by Luke Combs at #34, “Bittersweet Goodbye” by Issey Cross at #31, “The Weekend” by Stormzy and RAYE at #29, “Rush” by Troye Sivan at #28, “Dog Days are Over” by Florence + the Machine at #27, “Rich Men North of Richmond” by Oliver Anthony Music at #23 - I’m probably the only person happy about this - “Asking” by Sonny Fodera and MK featuring Clementine Douglas at #21, “Prada” by casso, RAYE and D-Block Europe at #20 and finally, “Baddadan” by Chase & Status, Bou and everyone else at #14. Sheesh, a lot of gains this week, some I’m excited about, some I’m not particularly, and given Drake probably isn’t coming next week, I can’t confirm that this stuff won’t stick around for at least a little while.

The top five of the UK Singles Chart consists of “Cruel Summer” by Taylor Swift at #5, a big surge for Doja Cat at #4 with “Paint the Town Red” - not complaining about that, though I honestly didn’t expect it to be a little come back for her - then “vampire” by Olivia Rodrigo at #3, and of course, “What Was I Made For?” at #2 and “Dance the Night” at the very top. Now, uh, for whatever is happening below, which isn’t much of interest… oh, wait. There are no new songs to review. I cover the UK Top 75, and have done since October 2020 when I expanded from the top 40, and this is kind of unprecedented. We’ve had a week or two where there are only one or two songs, and maybe there has been a similar week to this during the holiday season, so I knew it was coming eventually but this is still a first. I’ve had several plans for this over the years - do I take suggestions? Do I just review the new entries to the top 100? I can’t really do that since they might end up gaining into the top 75, and there’s only two new entries in the full region anyway. Hell, same thing could happen if I take suggestions, but I have done it before to fill in the gaps for Christmas episodes. Maybe I should review Donald Trump’s mugshot, that’s topical, right? I could bring back Off the Charts but I’m not really listening to new album releases as religiously anymore. Hmm… okay, I think I got something.

Genre Charts

So, one thing I don’t often talk about on this show is the wealth of charts based on genre that the Official Charts Company… provides, I can’t really call them a gift given the lack of a functioning website and some… questionable genre categorisation, as well as rules that aren’t consistent with the main chart, which means older songs stick around. For example, let me give you the idea for this episode: I’m going to pick the highest-charting song from four - or three, you’ll see - of the genre-specific singles charts that has not made the top 75 as of yet. Let’s start with the genre I’m probably most fond of out of the selection OCC gives us: rock. What’s the highest-charting song currently on the rock charts that has never made the main chart’s top 75, so even if I started this series in 1947, I would have never reviewed it?

Rock & Metal - “Break Stuff” by Limp Bizkit

Currently at #27, peaked at #17

Yes, I’m serious. The rock & metal chart is - kind of unexpectedly - full of old songs, and also, I’m serious that “Break Stuff” never made its way onto the UK Singles Chart, which surprised me. The newest song on there is the new entry of “Perhaps” by Guns n’ Roses, their first new song in a while that debuted at #36. Anyway, whilst I’m surprised by this never making the top 75, I’m kind of happy because it means I can talk about it here and for all the crap that Florida nu metal outfit Limp Bizkit have gotten over the years, a lot of it deserved, “Break Stuff” was an early shining moment for them. From their 1999 album Significant Other - which peaked at #10 over here - “Break Stuff” strips a lot of the overly ambitious, whiny, not-as-funny-as-he-thinks-he-is melodrama and self-indulgence that taints Fred Durst’s worst work away, as the song is raw and instinctual. Wes Borland’s gruelling riff is about as simple as it can get, yet it’s looming with menace, and the drums from John Otto find that great pocket between crushing and slightly distant, especially in the verses, wherein the staggered fills have always stood out to me. Of course, we do have to get to Fred Durst, who has always tried too hard to sound hard, and many will point to this song as an example. Personally, I think if you can’t give up your issues with Durst and sing along, or yell along, to the ever-relatable need to just let out that boiled-up anger. I always think that this song will lose its lustre when I’m not angry, or when I’m a bit older, but it just never happens. It will continue to go hard as all Hell, and a lot of that is due to that kind of hypnotic bridge, where Durst reassures you that he does indeed pack a chainsaw, before it crashes down into one of the hardest breakdowns in popular music possibly ever. Say what you will about the Limp Bizkit catalogue, and trust me, I’ll agree with most of it; this is a 10/10 song. It peaked at #23 on the Bubbling Under Hot 100 in the US, similarly not quite making it to the top 100, and charted highest in Portugal at #9. I guess the Portuguese were just really pissed off… or they liked seeing Jonathan Davis of Korn and Eminem mouth the lyrics in that now-iconic video, I don’t know. Now for the chart that the readers of this series probably care for the most, and the one that makes up much of the current chart…

Dance - uh…

OCC hates me this week, I swear to God. There is currently no song on the Dance Singles Chart top 40 that hasn’t been in the UK Top 75. Surely, the R&B and hip-hop charts will deliver.

Hip Hop and R&B - “Pink + White” by Frank Ocean

Currently at #23, peaked at #18

Okay, we’re getting pretty good luck with the songs we ARE getting. From his critically-acclaimed Blonde, which hit #1 in the UK back in 2016 and is now appreciated as a modern classic, we have “Pink + White”. I’ve never been as big a fan of Frank as many music nerds, and that includes this album… but man, I can’t deny this one. Frank reminisces on a sunset drive with his old friend, detailing a close friend of his - possibly someone who he was intimate with - who has most likely passed away. This seems to be somewhat contentious - I think the “glory from above” line makes it pretty clear - but either way, the relationship ends, yet he still latches onto the lessons he was taught, doing things “the same way [they] showed [him]”. Sonically, I mean, it’s Pharrell in his slick soul bag, with laid-back drums and an honestly kind of tense piano line that keeps the song from feeling too lethargic, alongside that acoustic guitar breakdown that is both very Pharrell and gorgeous. By the end of the song, Frank’s singing in a bed of gorgeous Beyoncé vocal riffs, produced with enough reverb to make them genuinely sound like they’re coming down from Heaven. The angelic choir by-product of their harmonies and backing vocal takes is one of the highlights off of the album and once again, with these genre charts, I have to say it’s a 10/10 song. “Pink + White” charted highest in the US, where it reached #84 on the Hot 100.

Afrobeats - “Lonely at the Top” by Asake

Currently at #6, peaked at #5

The Afrobeats singles chart seems to use a different charting and/or tracking week, but it doesn’t really matter. This is the first song - and artist - I’m covering in this episode that I don’t think I’ve come across before, on this show or otherwise. Asake is a Nigerian singer from Lagos, with this Blaise Beats-produced song coming from his second and latest album, Work of Art, which peaked at #20 on the albums chart over here earlier this year… and God damn it, this one’s excellent too. Sure, it’s a bit short, but that muffled rhythm is uniquely intimate and beeping for Afrobeats, and that flute just washes you away with the bittersweet vibes of the song, as a choir backs Asake up on his lyrics about the rise to the top and its ups and downs. Whilst a lot of sheer joy and surprise effortlessly emits from Asake and his choir, especially in his higher Auto-Tuned register, the song is grounded by those quieter strings pulling down on the carefree liveliness in the rest of the chorus. He gets closer to rapping in the second verse, as there are a lot of cute details from each backing vocal riff, a recurring percussion glitch and an awesome little horn blast that acts as a real pop-champagne moment. This may not be a 10/10 song - at least not yet - and it really is competing with classics in this episode, but it’s damn near close, and I was partly convinced it was when I heard that outro where the strings combat with the livelier tropical guitar for full attention for the first time, that was brilliant.

Conclusion

Maybe OCC should do this more often, I got to talk about three songs I love from a diverse array of genres and eras, revisiting passions of old and getting introduced to a new artist I need to check out more from. How’s that for a week where nothing happened, huh? Screw the UK Top 75, I’m just gonna review the Afrobeats songs from now on. See you next week!

[jim-fetter-illustrations]

MODERATION,... yeah right!

New study just out by Harvard Medical School research nutritionist team states to avoid just 5 foods that weaken memory and focus, Human Beings can live healthier and up to 40 years longer!

(wait for it).

Ya see, No matter how old you are, it’s never too late to start eating in a way that gives you the best possible chance of staving off dementia as you age and making sure that you feel focused and sharp every day just by avoiding foods that increase inflammation and thereby promote brain health, sharp thinking and good decision-making.

(wait for it).

It's really easy now that we know,..... RIGHT?

(wait for it).

Not so easy,.....................

Ya see those 5 foods are as follows,............

1. Refined or Processed Sugars, and most sugars are both, and sugars are in 99% of all foods we eat today.

2. Fried foods, ....... yeah, that's gonna happen!

3. High-glycemic-load carbohydrates, which is basically all breads, pastas, and anything else made from refined flour like breakfast cereals, desserts, pastries, and most crackers on the grocery shelves.

4. Alcohol, all alcohols, even wine that is been said to actually be good in moderation, but now its not!

5. Nitrates,.... deli meats and cured meats like bacon, salami and sausage...... again, like that's gonna happen!

Basically the taxpayer,THAT WOULD BE 'YOU' paid for a multi-million dollar Grant-study that says "Don't eat anything you've been eating for the last 40+ years if you want to stay healthy.

.............. and what was government thinking paying out all that money for a pie-in-the-sky nutrition science,........ and we already know that much, but we like to eat!!!!

So everything we've been taught by the food industry since the 1960's that was approved by the FDA we are now suppose to believe is what is killing us?!?!

And even if that's true, WHO's TO BLAME?

No one, because nobody wanted to know because of the HUGE profits gained, so everything was accepted as OK to eat in moderation by the FDA.

"OK to eat in moderation",.... within reasonable limits; not to excess. Which means a thousand different things to a thousand different people,........ and the food industry knows that all too well.

Why don't they do a grant study on that,.... "Why everyone has a different idea of what MODERATION means"...... because then we would know INDUSTRY has brainwashed us at an early age to like what they make for us, regardless if it's gonna shorten our lives 20-30 years down the road. And Industry mandates to our political leaders, NOT THE OTHER WAY AROUND,... because industry has the money to control our political leaders,...... True Story regardless of if YOU think that's not true, it is!

Ya see,.... we are slowly poisoning ourselves with almost everything we've been taught to eat that was said to be OK to eat in moderation by the FDA.

This is the governing body we voted into power, both republican and democratic approving the same damn foods they FDA'ed safe to eat in moderation.

All I got to say is,............ SUCKERS! (and I'm one of ya)

But at least I didn't vote for them, YOU did, and that fucked me!

I've voted Independent for the last 40 years!

But I still ate those foods, because there's really nothing else to buy but those foods basically, because they were all approved to be safe to eat by the Food And Drug Administration........... sheesh!