#sorry it’s so small i had to take a picture of my tv lol

[astral-herald]

WHY DID NETFLIX CHANGE THE COVER/THUMBNAIL TO THIS TRIO ???

[m0nsterqzzz]

word count: 3k

- Liar Liar - 

Wanda Maximoff x reader

summary - in which, you stumble upon the most beautiful woman you've ever seen while in search of a job you can put your piano skills to use at. The only thing? She's a teacher who thinks you're in search of lessons. All's far in love and music right?

a/n - wanda + music = me fucking dying. lol. haven't updated in a while that's my bad. i love you guuuuyyyyyysss.

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You hadn’t meant to lie.

You’d went into the slightly shady neighborhood in search of a job, preferably one that let you play piano- your passion- and still had a decent amount of pay so you would be able to afford that apartment you got recently.

It’s a small town though, and no one really has any need for music as they own record players and other forms of listening devices. No one cares about classical music anymore.

Maybe you should have listened when your father told you music would never be a good career.

So you gave up hope, walking downtown to the store to get a simple and cheap frozen dinner that you could watch while sulking in front of the tv. Being an adult is hard, and you often find yourself wondering what you would do if you had just been given one chance to go back in time and not rush growing up.

You heard the familiar and peaceful sound of piano, and just like anytime you hear it, you freeze in the middle of the sidewalk to simply listen. There’s a small store next to all the tall and beautiful ones, one that probably gets lost a lot in the sight of all the other, more important buildings. A young woman is sitting inside near the front, visible through the big glass window that you silently watch her through. Her skilled fingers dance across the keyboard, creating an aura in the world that has you stuck in a magical trance.

The song slowly goes quieter, and you watch her take a deep sigh before turning her head to look out the window- as if knowing you were there. You panic, blushing in embarrassment before you pretend to read the signs taped to the door.

A bright smile graces your face as you actually begin to read them. A few of them just talk about upcoming concerts in town square, but one big one smack dab in the middle catches your eye;

Hiring!

Tutors, managers, cleaners

$16.45 a hour

It’s not a lot of money, but it’s enough and you’d get to do what you love while seemingly getting to hang out with a pretty girl. It’s a win, win, win. For you.

“Sorry. That sign is old. My friend was supposed to take it down.” Someone quietly speaks beside you, and you almost jump in fear when you see that the woman you had previously been looking at through the window is now standing right next to you, staring blankly before she tears the sign off the door. She’s even more pretty in person, from her long auburn hair to her piercing greens eyes that most people would fear as she stares at you silently though all you feel is nervous and giddy.

“Right…well….do you still have any openings?” You ask, placing your hands in your pockets as you rock back and forth on your heels. She watches with curious eyes, crossing her arms over her chest.

She answers quietly, a stark contrast to your happy mood, though she doesn't exactly seem upset. More like calm. “Yes. Lessons are 10 dollars for an hour and a half.”

You frown in confusion. Does she think you’re looking for a teacher? You go to tell her you’re looking to be a teacher, but your eyes fall on the little picture on the door that has a photo of her next to a few others of other people. Under her’s is the title; “owner and teacher”

“Would you be my teacher?” The words fall out of your mouth before you can stop them, so you purse your lips to stop yourself from saying anything else.

The girl’s lips turn upwards in the beginning of a smile. “Yes. I would.”

You practically grin, and it’s like you don’t even remember the several years of college you went through to get a career in music as you say, “Then I’d like to take lessons from you. I like piano. I want to learn how to play.”

She does smile now, nodding as she opens the door which makes the bell above it ring. “That’s great. Follow me and we’ll get you signed up.” You do follow her inside, taking in the beauty of the hidden shop. There are pianos and other instruments everywhere, ones that look worn out yet still pretty. Open songbook’s litter every open space and she gets to the front desk before digging through a pile of them for the forms you need to sign.

After signing way to many forms and paying a small fee, you shake her hand with the one that isn’t cramping.

“Thank you for choosing Scarlett's Melodies. I’m Wanda Maximoff. I own the shop and tutor most of the students.” You smile, squeezing her hand before you awkwardly place your hand in your pocket and introduce yourself.

Wanda. A pretty name for a pretty girl.

You obviously don’t say that though. Anxiety exists yall.

Instead you leave with a new found pep in your step.

That is until you remember that you just spent a ton of money and don’t even have a job. Wow. What the fuck is Wanda Maximoff doing to you?

— – — – — – — – —

After that, you have to get a job, so you get one at the nice restaurant in town that your friend works at. You spend most of your day serving customers, taking orders, and cleaning, and the only reason you continue to do it is that every other day, you just have to think about the fact that once work is over, you get to go see the beautiful piano teacher.

It’s not hard to play down your skill, but it is a little bit funny every time you slip up and tell her you already know something and then have to make the excuse that you’re doing some studying on your own time as well.

Wanda has a sweet personality, though she is a bit cold and standoffish sometimes. You learn a lot about her over the past few weeks though, like her late brother Pietro, her friends Natasha and Clint who are also workers at the store, and how she came to love music so much as to start up her own store for it.

“You’re late.” She says when you run in six minutes past the time you’re supposed to be there, but her tone is light and teasing as she scans through some notes on her sheet music. She lets you take them home sometimes to study them, but you mostly just study her pretty handwriting and the little doodles she leaves for you to find.

You chuckle, taking off your coat and hanging it up next to her leather jacket near the door. The place is cozy and if not for the workers constantly running in and out, you’d say it feels more like a home than a store.

“Sorry. I was at work.” She nods as you speak, handing you a book she made more notes in before pointing over to a piano set up against a wall. It’s nicely toned and made of a beautiful wood, and once she learned it was probably your favorite, she “teaches” you at that one every single lesson.

You sit on the bench, trying your hardest not to blush when she rubs her hand on your back before sitting closely next to you. It’s one of your favorite parts of the lessons- when she sits close enough that you can smell her perfume. Vanilla with a hint of sage, and it’s quickly become one of your favorite scents.

“We’re gonna work on something a bit harder today alright? I think you can do it, but the notes are in a slightly weird pattern and may be hard to remember.” Wanda says, flipping to a page in the book before setting it up on the music rack. 

It’s one of your favorites and quite easy to play after years of practicing, but you don’t tell her that.

By the end of the almost two hour lesson, you have pretended to learn the first part of the song, purposefully messing it up every once in a while so you don’t expose yourself.

You’re starting to feel a bit guilty about the lying, but then she smiles proudly and showers you in compliments and you forget all about it.

Wanda walks you to the door, leaning on the wall as you put on your coat and grab your stuff. You’re tired, but that feeling doesn’t even begin to compare to the one that comes when she holds your hand and smiles towards you.

“There’s a small event in town this weekend.” She starts, pointing towards the sign up on her big bulletin board. “A few people playing pieces, some nice food. I think you should join. You’re one of my most advanced students.”

You grin, hesitantly nodding. “I’d love to. That sounds like so much fun.”

The redhead nods as well, smiling slightly as she writes your name down on the sign up sheet. You’ll play after a few other students and teachers, and you must tell her what piece you want to play by tomorrow so you can spend the next few lessons practicing it.

With that you say your goodbyes, lingering in a hug with the Maximoff girl before you finally leave, walking home with a love sick smile on your face. Little did you know, the same one is gracing Wanda’s face as she closes up the shop and makes her way home.

— – — – — – — – —

When the day of the concert comes around, you’re nervous.

You don’t know why. You could play this piece in your sleep, but for some reason, the same nerves that were with you during your first performance as a child are now fluttering around in your stomach as you sit on a piano bench in the town square.

Wanda is talking with some of the other students, and you try and distract yourself by looking at her with adoration in your eyes, but it all comes back at a higher level when she notices you and winks your way.

She’s so pretty, and you fight the urge to slam your head on the instrument as she finishes up her conversation and begins walking towards you.

“Hey hon. How you feeling?” Wanda stands behind you, rubbing your shoulders reassuringly as she reads over the notes on your sheet music. You shrug, blushing brightly at her touch as you pretend to be focusing on smoothing out your shirt of non-existent wrinkles.

“I’m okay. Kinda nervous.” You say, and the blush only deepens when she hums in understanding and places a kiss on the top of your head.

“Don’t be. You’re going to be great.” Her words make you grin, and you lean your head back to rest on her stomach as she gently runs her fingers through your hair. Someone calls her name, so she gently caresses your face before patting your back and walking away.

Oh the things that Wanda Maximoff does to you.

While you’re waiting for your turn on stage, you get bored, so you sit back on the bench and begin to quickly play through one of the hardest songs you know. It took forever to learn and you still mess up every once and a while, but it still would sound beautiful to anyone and by the end of it, you do hear someone slightly chuckle in shock.

It isn't a happy laugh or happy shock though. That much you can tell.

“I didn’t teach you that.” A slightly bitter tone speaks, and you slowly turn around to come face to face with Wanda, fists clenched at her sides and a curious but slightly annoyed expression on her face.

You want to continue to lie, to tell her you’ve been working hard and her lessons are paying off, but no one who’s only been playing for a few months would be able to play that and she obviously knows the truth now.

“You wasted my time.” She says coldly, crossing her arms over her chest. She’s no longer the bubbly girl you’ve come to have the pleasure of knowing, instead going back to the closed off woman you first met. It’s all your fault.

You look down in shame, letting the bouquet rest by your side. “I’m so sorry Wanda.”

Wanda scoffs, glaring at you before she storms out of the room. She’s pissed, but a warm feeling settles in her chest at the knowledge you went through all of this to hang out with her, even with the thought that you don’t have a chance with her. You still wasted her time though, and you lied to her for weeks, almost months. How can she trust that you truly aren’t just some psycho?

You stay in the middle of town square, tears forming in your eyes as more and more people gather to listen to the other pianists. You’re falling in love with Wanda Maximoff, and up until this point, it’s only ever been clear and sunny skies. What are you supposed to do now that your first cloud has appeared?

— – — – — – — – —

After that, you stop going to your lessons.

Wanda finds herself missing you every time 6 o’clock comes around and you don’t come sprinting into the shop with your work uniform still on, rambling about something a stupid customer did like you’ve known Wanda forever. It feels like that, that’s for sure.

You spend every day in an endless cycle. Get up, go to work, walk the long way so you don’t risk running into Wanda outside of her music store, work a nine hour shift, and return to your quiet apartment where you sit in silence and mourn for someone that still lives. 

Maybe you should adopt a dog.

One especially rough day, you wake up late, your alarm clock having turned off during a storm last night and reset itself all while you were asleep. Because of this, you wake up with five minutes to get ready and even less time to sprint to work, so you can’t take the long way like you usually do.

It’s lightly sprinkinly outside, so you don’t bother taking a jacket in the midst of chaos. That was clearly the wrong decision, as only a few minutes into your walk there, it starts absolutely pouring, and just like that, your uniform is soaked and you’re shivering. You don’t have any time to go back though, so you fight on, staying right next to the buildings for a bit of protection and you don’t even notice the person carefully watching you as you fastly walk down the sidewalk.

“Hey!” Someone calls out, grabbing your wrist and pulling you into a familiar building. It’s calm and quiet music is playing somewhere, but all you can focus on is that Wanda is standing in front of you, holding out a dry towel for you to grab.

You hesitate, grabbing it and holding it closely around your body in hopes of stopping the cold feeling in your bones. It’s much warmer in here and the only rain is tapping against the window from outside, but Wanda is here and she looks at you with a type of distaste you’ve never seen before.

“I need to get to work. I’m late.” You mumble eventually after a few minutes of silence, but she just puts her hands on your shoulders and rubs them to bring you more warmth as she replies calmly, “No. I don’t want you to catch a cold.”

You go to argue, but she simply shakes her head and sits down at your piano on the other end of the room. She begins to play a simple but calm song, and she watches in the corner of her eye as you sink down on the couch next to the fireplace and slowly close your eyes. You’re still awake though, that much she can tell by the way your fingers tap along to the pattern of the music.

Finally she slowly stops the song, letting her hands fall to rest on her thighs as she stares at the keyboard with her eyebrows furrowed.

“Why would you lie to me?”

You open your eyes, watching with a guilty but sincere look as she chews on her lower lip and gently presses a few of the keys. “I’m truly sorry Wanda. I figured if we spent that time together, I would be able to learn more about you…in hopes of eventually asking you out. It was stupid, and wrong, and I’m sorry.”

She sighs, closing the keyboard cover and turning to face you. “If you had asked, I would have said yes.”

Your eyes widen in shock. Is she messing with you?

Wanda continues, “If you had just told me all of that when we first met, we could have gone out and gotten dinner or- or lunch or on a picnic like normal people.” You nod along, silently fidgeting with the bottom of your shirt. “So go ahead.”

You’re silent for a second, looking around as if wondering if she’s talking to you to which she giggles and nods. That laugh could fix all your issues.

“Wanda Maximoff, I’d really like to get to know you. The right way this time. Will you go out with me?” You ask nervously after clearing your throat and sitting up in your seat.

Wanda smirks, rubbing her chin as if in deep thought. “I don’t know…”

You laugh a bit when she does, though you’re too busy smiling brightly as she nods. “I’d love to go out with you. No lying to me this time though. And you have to teach me that song you were playing at the recital.”

“No way. A magician never reveals their secrets.” You tease, sitting next to her on the bench as she laces your hands together and says with her own smile, “Oh really? So I just agreed to a date for nothing? You’re mean.”

 All is fair in love and music though.

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[cherubshert]

hihi !! i was wondering if u could make a fic about how reader has glasses and enhypen thinks its saur cute (separate members ofc)

thanks so much for reading this!

(֊⎚-⎚)

a/n: these are low-key bad and rushed lol. not edited, this is just fiction:). i hope u like :0

희승

The soft click of the camera signals the end of a session, polaroids hung around to dry, make-up and props littered around your desk. it's small, just you and heeseung, going all out for photography project you had. you pull off your glasses, resting them on the very uncomfortable surface you were sitting on. the dress you have on is simple, hand made by one of your other very close friends. you use your hand to raise it so you don't slip and fall, making your way to were heeseung was crouching.

"are they nice?" "very..." he replies distractedly his attention drawn to the picture in his hand. your head rests on his shoulder, "are you sure my glasses don't ruin the pictures?" "i wouldn't have told you to put them on if they did,you look cute." he leans back to kiss you, short but enough to have you hiding your face in his neck. he smiles before shaking you off. "come on we still have so many to take."

제이

Jay slowly pulls away from you, his face flushed , his hair slightly messy, falling into his eyes. "what happened?" you question, shifting you hands to rest on his shoulder. his smiles and tilts his head admiring your face before answering, "your glasses... kept poking at me." "sorry" you mutter your hands raising to take them of your face. his follow suit, gently brushing your fingers away, his large hand cupping your face. "don't get me wrong, m'not complaining. " his fingers follow the frame of your glasses, tracing round your ear . "it reminded me of how cute you look like this." "like how?" leaned in, rubbing your noses together. you shyly shift away, your back pressed against his desk. your hands going up to adjust your glasses. "like this." he pinches your cheek.

제이크

you let out a sigh, pushing your glasses up to rub your eyes. it's getting late now, the clock turning the second you looked at it '10:36p.m.' you turn over your shoulder, jake seating very comfortably on the couch, the tv playing so low that you were sure he couldn't hear anything. but his consideration to you made your heart flutter.

you stood to your feet, silently making your way to where he was. he jumps slightly when you sit next to him, once he calmed down his hand wrapped around your shoulder pulling you close. "you done with work?" "no but I was getting tired, needed a break." you reach forward grabbing the remote. you lean back into his arms, increasing the volume to the tv.

jake is silent the entire time, his breath so soft you thought he had fallen asleep.

feeling your glasses be pulled off your face, shot you out of your trance. "these are so cute on you." he puts it on, turning to you with a smile. his change in energy is definitely alarming, but nothing you're not used to. you mirror his smile reaching forward, cupping his face, squishing his cheeks. "they're even cuter on you." laughter erupts between you two.

you both calm down very quickly, your back pressed to the couch, Jake hovering over you. he very messily puts your glasses on your face, pressing a kiss on your forehead. "you're so gorgeous, but these bring out a different type of beauty." he says drowsily, you giggle, hand raising to brush his hair out of his face. he leans into your touch, sleep easily overtaking him.

성훈

"cut!" you sigh, resting your head on the table. sunghoon silently places a bottle of water beside you, settling in the desk before you looking over his script.

your head rises up finally, leaning on your wrist. "I'm so tired." he smiles at you. "we are almost done for today. just a few more hours." you only grumble in response.

the next hour flies by fast, and soon its time to go home. you two thank the staff , filing out with your small group of managers. "we could go out for a little snack first." sunghoon suggests, you tiredly nod in agreement, following behind him to a café nearby.

its small and cozy, the smell of coffee beans and pastry sugars filling the air, you get something small, sitting by the window to look over the scenes you'd be focusing on tomorrow. your glasses hanging on the bridge of your nose.

you don't notice his staring till your orders arrive, looking up to find his eyes on you before they quickly shift away, thanking the waiter.

"you don't wear your glasses very often." you look at him. "oh no, i usually have contacts. " he leans his head on his palm, smiling at you. "they look very cute."

선우

You were rather hard to miss, seated in front of him, your head often hidden behind a book. you're both on very different levels socially. sunoo always being surrounded by a crowd of friends and people he admittedly never met or even cared about. and you, there was only one person he'd ever seen you with.

you drew him in, often finding himself lost in delusional daydreams, surrounding your very unique beauty. a flower, often graced by the sun, your skin shines so magically. one of his favorite things about you was your glasses.

rather large for your face, but ever so beautifully added to your aura. the way you pushed them back when they slipped off your face, the pretty charms you often adorned them with.

so when you, turn back, your eyes meeting his through the lens, his heart flutters, immediately turning back to his note book. he stares at the empty page in distraught, not registering the shuffling of the other students moving around the room, or even the chair placed by his table.

"sunoo?" his head shoots up so fast, "we're supposed to work together on the project." you say as you placed your books down. "oh? okay" he feels a little dazed, closing his notebook and placing them away.

정원

The nurse's office is not really where you wanted to end your day, your leg being bandaged, the nurse giving you advice on how to care for your injury. how did you get hurt? taking pictures of the football team for your school's yearbook, you weren't expecting to be turned into a target of a stray ball...

Jungwon rushes into the room when the nurse exists, an apologetic look on his face. your glasses are held gently in his hand, he's still in his football uniform, telling you he's been waiting since you got here. "I'm really sorry again, i should have been very careful." "it's fine, i was also being reckless." you reach out for your glasses, grabbing them a lot harsher than you wanted.

you put them on, pushing them to a comfortable position. you try to get on your feet, but the bruise on your leg, though small sends pain through you. jungwon very gently pushed to help you walk, some how convincing you to let him walk you home.

The walk to your home is silent, and once you reach your apartment complex, he pass your bag to you. "thank you." "um, by the way, you look really pretty with your glasses on." you turn back to him, your backpack half way on your shoulder. he blushes, "i mean you look pretty in general, but I, you-" "thank you." you say with a smile, pushing your glasses up. "i hope I'm not making you uncomfortable." "not at all, you're very adorable you know. " the last part is so light he barely hears it, his shyly playing with his fingers."thank , thank you." he replies bashfully, "if you still want to take more pictures of the team, i would love to help." "that would be helpful... see you tomorrow." "yes... see you tomorrow."

니키

you dust off your outfit, fixing your jacket and mic. your stylist fixes off your make-up, passing a pair of glasses to you. you put them on, thanking your staff, before rushing to where you were supposed to wait. the director gives you some directions, and telling you the basics about how things will be filmed. you don't notice niki till you turn around, you bow at him and he does the same.

you both stand around awkwardly, waiting for your cue to start. when the instrumental starts, you shift closer to him."your glasses..." he says softly, "they look cute."

[ilikeredcars]

Two hearts, one love

Charles Leclerc x Wife!Reader

Summary: Formula's one cutest couple also happens to be between a reporter and a certain pilot in red

Warnings: Broken bone (leg)

An: Hiiiiii!! I'm very very proud of this work (so if you don't like it pls don't tell me 😌) anywhoss, just remembering yall that I'm brazilian so English is not my first language, that means you have to forgive me if I make any mistakes LOL, ENJOYYY!

Being a reporter for Formula One truly isn't easy, but you love it and always did. You were indeed always fascinated by all the cars, drivers, teams and everything that had to do with the sport, so it wasn't surprising to anyone when you graduated college and soon got a job as a reporter to a highly successful TV channel. Your job was great, you could do together the two things you loved most, work for TV and Formula One. And that is how you met the third thing you love most: Charles Leclerc. He had just signed with Scuderia Ferrari when you two met. It was your first year as a field reporter, which meant you went around interviewing drivers, mechanics and team principals, basically anyone that you passed through who had time and knowledge enough to be interviewed. The day you two officially met was in the first Grand Prix of the season, it was qualifying day and Charles had just done amazingly well for such a young driver, fortunately the universe was on your side and you managed to get a interview with him, il predestinato, all dressed in red and with sweat dripping from his hair to his forehead and onto the sides of his face, that was the first time you saw him so close, and the moment he looked inside your eyes, the driver knew that the purpose of his life, was to make you his wife. And he did it, two years later you married in a beautiful church just outside Monaco, and it was the happiest day of your lives.

Current days

It is race week! And you couldn't be more happy with the excitement of every fan who passes by your side, you just love everything the paddock has to offer, maybe except for the giant cast on your right leg that couldn't go by unnoticed even if you tried. The week before you were walking home and in your way you encountered an old lady whose cane had fallen, without thinking twice you bent down to pick up the object for the poor woman who could clearly barely bend down, unfortunately for you, a car next to you lost control and hit you hard, fortunately he was not driving at a big speed and so the only injury you received was a broken leg, you were released from the hospital a day later with a cast on your leg and a crutch. And that's how you ended up here, this is officially your first race as Charles' wife and not as a reporter and you couldn't be more excited, with Charles help you got out of the car and was immediately flooded by questions and fans wanting to take a picture with your husband or wanting an autograph, you told him it was okay and gave him space to talk to the fans for about ten minutes. After some of the fans went away he walked slowly toward you with a giant smile on his face, "Sorry about that mon amour, let's get you to the garage okay?"

"Okay" You smiled and gave him a small kiss to his cheek, "I love you so much angel" "And I love you more bébé"

As you were walking to the red garage that was near the end of the paddock a reporter stopped you and you immediately recognized her as Rachel, the girl who was filling in for you until you took off your cast and could go back to work.

"Charles! YN! How are you love? Are you getting better after the accident?" She asked smiling towards you. She had a microphone in her hand and the cameraman had the camera pointed at you, Rachel can be your friend but this was still an interview and you had to be careful with what you and Charles said.

"Hey Rach! Fortunately I'm great! The accident wasn't too bad and I'm not feeling pain at all!"

"That is awesome YN!"

"Yeah! And let me tell you a secret..." You felt your husband's hand wrap around your waist and smiled. "...I have this great guy by my side who is helping me with everything I need!"

You turned to Charles who gave you a passionate smile and slowly pulled you in to give you a loving kiss (appropriate for the cameras around you, of course), you smiled and found home in his embrace.

"Okay okay, let's let the lovebirds be! Haha! It was great seeing you both. Good luck on the race today Charles and hope you get better YN!"

"Bye bye Rach! Thank you!"

"Merci Rachel" Said Charles before turning once again to you and helping you continue your way toward the garage. As soon as you entered the space you grabbed your husband's hand carefully.

"I love you so so much and I'm so proud of you my love. You have no ideia how much I look up to you"

"Je t'aime tellement mon ange, je l'ai toujours fait et je le ferai toujours"

*I love you so much my angel, I always have and I always will*

[peachmangofuzz]

7 minutes in heaven - shohei ohtani au

summary: Y/N snoops around famous football player Shohei Ohtani’s locker in search for a scandal against his clean record but ends up in one herself.

tropes: friends with benefits, friends to lovers(?)

tw: *slight* smut, mentions of sex, oral (f receiving)

word count: 30,033K words (i'm SO sorry in advance holy shit)

hi! it's been a while. when i made this account, i vowed to write at least once a week but it had been so difficult this month juggling work, my chronic migraines, and seasonal depression (lol).

please note i did not proofread this so plsssss i apologize for grammar mistakes and inconsistencies!!

posting this on the last day of 2023, hoping to give everyone a good read before we welcome the new year. so thankful for this small space to try, linger and reset all over again. hope you had a very merry holidays with your loved ones.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously.

==================================

Locker Lockdown

At around thirty minutes past four in the afternoon, I skimmed the clubhouse for any signs of life. It was only the quiet that prevailed. Clear. 

I tiptoed my way towards the player locker room. I only had around ten minutes to locate the correct locker and take whatever I could find. Discovering the locker area to be empty and unguarded, I felt a surge of excitement. 

Six years later, I couldn’t get my big break and decided sports journalism could catapult me into somewhere big in the industry. This is my last chance to prove myself, otherwise I’d have to reconsider going back home and write Hallmark greeting card messages again. 

Shohei Ohtani’s jersey number is the number 17. Lucky bastard, after all these years and even after going through free agency, he got to keep his famous number, even at the cost of having their senior player give it up for him when he joined the football team. 

And here you might be wondering why I’m doing this aside from my sheer desperation to get an official spot in the workplace and not eat scraps of topics editors discarded for themselves. 

Some people are privileged to a fault.

And I hate seeing him on TV. Or on social media. Or his Colgate-white smile plastered all over my favorite beer and skincare brands. 

Some would say this is the TMZ tabloid level of writing. I say this is investigative journalism. Find out if the famous favorite son-in-law has any flaws of his own and wrap around a bowtie of hidden horrors of sports documentaries. 

And where else can we find this but in the athlete hotpot: their locker room.

I found Shohei’s locker right away as it was the tidiest locker among all on display, with nothing but brand-sponsored clothing hung neatly on the rack. He also donned the top shelf with some dog-eared self-help titles and vitamin bottles. While the rest of the athletes have pictures of their girlfriends, wives and their kids, Shohei has an unreleased polaroid selfie with his dog, Dekopin, just right beside his perfume bottles. Dekopin was looking away, captured in mid-yawn, with his ears raised, and Shohei, smiling into the camera with pursed lips and a snapback on.

I got so immersed into reading the ingredients of his vitamin bottles, trying to find anything remotely related to steroids, or any form of illegal bodily enhancements, that I didn’t notice footsteps from outside the hall.

“What are you doing here?” a voice loomed behind me and I dropped the diet supplement bottle in panic.

Only the sound of the bottle rattling could be heard as I locked eyes with Shohei Ohtani, tall and all muscular. His hair was sweaty and unkempt and his eyes held mild anger and confusion. After the bottle stopped rolling and settled somewhere on the floor between us, there was only silence and the cold sweat building up at my back. 

I swallowed hard. I planned everything from studying the stadium’s entrance and exit doors but I didn’t plan on bumping into him. Not like this. Not when I’m at the lowest level of the social hierarchy right now. 

I could only be ashamed. 

Brain still befuddled at the thought of getting caught, I urged my limbs and picked up the vitamin bottle and returned it back to Shohei’s locker. The plan was not to respond at all and run as fast as I could before the rest of his team arrived. That was the only way to keep whatever dignity I have left. 

“I said, what are you doing here?” He caught my arm mid-exit and pulled me back, tightening his grip. 

“Let go of me.” I struggled to keep my balance and the way my voice wavered was no help at all. 

Shohei saw the camera slung over my shoulder and looked back at me, realization hitting him.

“Y/N, are you a sports journalist now? And were you looking through my stuff?” he said, sounding almost disappointed. 

“That’s none of your business. Let go of me.” I kept my voice steady but his grip only tightened. The sides of my eyes slowly formed tears. 

“What tabloid media do you work for? I should report you. Would you like that? What a shame you’ll be banned from all the games now, right? You nasty journalists just won’t keep your noses away from my business.” he took my camera and deleted all the photos I took of the contents of his locker. I tried to leap for it but he was obviously inches taller than I was and I was no match for that.

“I don’t write tabloid news. If I was, my name would have been all over TV by now.” I grabbed the camera from him and sighed morosely at the lost media. A day’s work is all lost.

“My boss gave me a green light to do a documentary about the team. And the star player.” I wiggled my fingers in front of him, as if to emphasize the word “star” in front of him.

“I came here assuming you and the other players would be here for an interview but no one was around yet. So I hung around a bit and took interest in your nutritional supplements.” Lie after lie after lie. I gritted my teeth and faked a smile. The most convincing lie I’ve learned on almost all my failed dates and relationships was to stroke a man’s ego and have him talk about all the things he is interested in, making him divert his attention to something else. 

“You’ve got really good, um, vitamins for muscle recovery there. Maybe that’s why you got so big and strong, right?.” He looked at me dubiously, nodding responsively to be polite. If he took the bait, then he is obviously just like any other guy I’ve ever met. 

“I mean, I guess? I’ve been doing deadlifts so–”

Approaching footsteps and faint voices were heard from the hall. Shohei pushed me toward the opposite end of the hall, where the showers were located. 

“Wha–” I started but was shut up when he pushed me further into the back of the shower room, swiping the doors closed. 

“Shut up if you don’t want to be caught.” He growled and I recoiled back into the tiled corner. On top of me was the almost rusting shower head who had seen better days, and two bottle pumps for shampoo and body wash. 

Voices and conversations were starting to fill in the locker room that was empty only a few seconds ago. The voices of men echoed through the shower rooms.  You could hear the sound of water turning on from neighboring shower stalls, laughter and tired conversation in the locker area. We were surrounded.

Shohei could be heard laughing with his mates while blocking the door to the shower room I was hiding in. 

“Are you using that, Sho? I could use a hot shower right now.” one of his teammates said. 

“Uh, no, I was just about to use this room, sorry.” he said, almost hesitating. After a few seconds, he entered the shower room and started undressing. 

I widened my eyes and shot him daggers. When he unhooked his shirt from his armholes, I was rendered speechless. 

He had the body sculpted by the gods with his wide shoulders and large pecs that glinted under the light. How could someone look handsome and beautiful at the same time? 

So when Shohei reached for the waist belt of his pants down, I didn’t know why I had choked on a silent scream. I looked away, embarrassed to have reacted like an inexperienced teenager. I have seen and have been with naked men before. This should be nothing new to me and my level. Or so I thought.

I stole a glance at Shohei, who was slowly walking towards me (or to the showerhead, where I stood under, obviously)  in only his boxers on, gazing at me in wild amusement.

We were almost inches apart from each other, foreheads almost touching, breaths almost converging, if you may. If I stand on my tiptoes, I would be almost at his eye-level and I could peck him on the lips if I wanted to. 

If I wanted to.

“Sorry, but I need to shower or someone else will try to take this stall.” His voice broke my salacious thoughts. He looked at me and turned the shower on.

“Are you serious?”

“Yes, I’m supposed to. Aren’t I? I just got off practice and I stink.” He said almost sarcastically.

“So I’m supposed to just watch you bathe and hope I get out here alive?” Water slowly dripped into my shirt, soaking my chest and exposing a bit of my underwear. 

“If you didn’t sneak in here, we wouldn’t have this problem.” He concluded and pursed his lips, not looking at me. 

“Shohei? You okay? You sound like you’re talking to someone.” a familiar voice floated into the shower room.

“It was a video on my phone that I forgot to pause, Ippei-san.” Shohei’s face turned red but recovered quickly, glaring at me. 

“Oh, well then, I thought you finally had a girl in there. I was wrong.” Ippei laughed.

Shohei started lathering body wash on his body at the slowest pace possible. His hands glided through his chest, stomach, and into the dick he’s restraining inside his boxers. Simply having this view had me almost whimpering. If it had been another day, I would have obviously enjoyed this, having a sexy man bathe in front of me, because who wouldn’t? But under my circumstances, I’m only fairly annoyed at being a flustered, hot mess and I couldn’t do anything about it. 

“Oh, fuck, now you got me wet.” I blurted a little loudly as the water splashed and got into my socks. 

Shohei’s widened and panicked eyes shot at me.

In between those short seconds, Shohei was able to respond quicker than my brain could. He had faked a laugh and said loudly, “Well, that’s awkward, the video keeps on playing on its own. Let me turn my phone off instead.” gaining laughter from outside the shower area and then reaching for the small of my neck and closed whatever space was seen between us. 

Based on what I had learned in self-defense training, my initial bodily reaction should have been this: If someone is coming at you from the front, a groin kick may deliver enough force to paralyze your attacker, making your escape possible. 1. Stabilize yourself as best you can. 2. Lift your dominant leg off the ground and begin to drive your knee upward. 3. Extend your dominant leg, drive hips forward, slightly lean back, and kick forcefully, making contact between your lower shin or ball of your foot and the attacker’s groin area.

Instead, when his lips touched mine, I felt my arms throw around his neck and pulled him closer. They say we’re all beggars for something, and this indulgence I had let myself be greedy for. 

When his lips reached mine, I parted like the Red Sea almost immediately, welcoming him and everything that he could offer: the taste of his tongue on my mouth, the smell of honey orange and apricot from his body wash seeping through my nose as I peppered kisses on his chest, and his obviously hard dick grinding against my stomach. When I palmed him, he managed a low growl and caught my wrists.

“Not here.” he groaned.

I pushed my head back inquiringly, both of us breathing too hard. 

“I have no condom,” he tucked a wet strand of hair behind my ear. Under the dim bathroom light, I could see his face and chest were flushed. “Next time?”

“Well, usually when two old friends meet after a fall out in college, they just catch up and have coffee.” I said.

He laughed and said quietly, “Okay, so I owe you.”

“The coffee or the protected sex?” 

“Uh, it could go a lot of ways.” Before he could say more, I palmed him through his boxer shorts and looked up at him, trying to find his limit.

Shohei bit his own lip and tugged the roots of my hair in a bundle, pulling and tugging from the pleasure. To keep himself from making such ungodly hot sounds, he pushed his tongue down my throat and thrusted his hips back and forth against my hand.

As if to make it even, he unclasped my bra and sucked on my already soaked breasts, a satisfied groan slipped from me. We both pulled and pushed and sucked and kissed each other in the crevices the shower splatters couldn’t reach, silencing the moans before it could escape us.  

In that brief and elating moment, while we muted the noise from unsuspecting people, we smothered each other’s groans and reached our highs in the quietest, most pleasurable way possible. 

=========================================

7 minutes of heaven

It’s strange how I always find myself in the most ridiculous situations. 

The next few occasions that I’d meet Shohei would be wordless and timed interactions in enclosed spaces. We’d see each other in public and pretend we didn’t know each other but slip each other notes of the next place we’d secretly meet. It all felt strangely exhilarating to keep a secret like a fifteen year old would, with all the sneaking and running. 

We’ve explored almost every nook and cranny of the stadium, discovering hidden spots of our rendezvous. We’d meet up in a different bathroom and he’d push me on my back while he fucks me repeatedly on the bathroom sink. Pre-game preps meant I gave him blowjobs in his manager’s office hours and hours before everyone even arrived. 

Of course, when we ran out of places to hide, we’d go as far as looking for the next empty parking lot and tried to fuck each other noiselessly.

“So when can I take you out for dinner?” he had asked one day, when he dragged me out to meet with him around after midnight. I wouldn’t let him inside my apartment and I refused to do the deed in his either, so he’d bring me to places that only us knew, to fuck, to kiss, sometimes to talk, but more often, to drive each other’s pleasure and only that. 

Because god forbid we both catch feelings and lose the fun, right?

So no talking, no sharing of personal details, no anything. 

We were in an empty parking lot, away from the lampposts and streetlights. Shohei had made sure that we were well hidden in the dark. 

He had his legs spread while sitting on the driver’s seat. His hands, warm and wide, rested on my hips and thighs, lightly urging me to ride him slowly.

Soft RNB music played on the stereo, it was a quiet, still night. It was both our day off so he had wanted us to chill and take the sex slowly.

Slow meant gazing at each other’s eyes–gaze, not look–with endearment or adoration, not lust or pleasure. Slow meant thinking the unthinkable thoughts. Slow meant being vulnerable while coming undone.

And I don’t want the slow and quiet moments. I wanted the fast and rough with no time to talk, gaze or even think, just one hundred percent fun and debauchery. 

“Mmm. Maybe when you show me your photos,” I avoided the question but I also knew Shohei would never show me the photos he had taken–past and present. Even when we had been buddies for an entire semester, he had, not once, shown me his portfolio. 

“So probably never, right?” he gazed up at me with his creamy brown eyes, hands caressing my stomach lightly. 

“Probably,” I muttered and with that he had gripped my thighs tightly and moved his hips upwards to meet me. I moaned when he hit me in the right spots. Any sign of softness he had shown a few moments ago was gone, and only the roughness and unsettling disconnection remained. 

This particularly fine day, I would be standing at the mercy of his mouth. He had dragged me to an empty storage room in the east wing of the stadium, hours after practice. According to him, the area stands the exact opposite from the lockers so most people hardly come by. How he had found out about this, I had no idea. 

He was kneeling in between me, my right leg hooked on his shoulder, giving him more access and my hands tugged at the strands of his hair every time he licked my sensitive clit. 

Shohei’s tongue grazing against me had left me quivering in delight. He stands up and kisses me, giving me a taste. My fingers started unbuckling his belt when he felt his phone vibrate. 

“Oops, Ippei’s looking for me.” He pockets his phone, looking forlorn, as if telling me he didn’t really want to go yet. “See you again next time?”

“Yours or mine?” I had asked, brushing up and straightening my wrinkled dress. And when I realized what I had done, Shohei’s eyes shot up and he beamed widely. 

“I just– I- I want a proper night with sex, you know.” I explained, trying to sound nonchalant. “It’s so uncomfortable having to go commando at work after you had just literally sucked the life out of my vagina, Sho.”

“Mmm-hmm.” He smiled even more.

“What?”

“Nothing.”

“Okay.”

“Okay?” 

“What? Fuck off.” By this time, my face felt hot and had probably looked red like a tomato, which probably amused Shohei even more. 

“Your place, then. I’ll call you.” he gives me one last kiss then heads out first, leaving me a dazed and pulsating mess.

A shrill sound knocked me awake. It felt like seven thousand screaming hungry babies in my ear, bouncing off around my brain like a pinball. 

I looked at the digital clock on the bedside table and saw the time glinting behind the glass: 8:41 PM. I must've fallen asleep after taking a half day off from work, feeling nauseous and slightly feverish. It seemed that whatever body malaise that I have been carrying inside me earlier had sprung into a full-blown ailment.

 I pushed my body up and walked groggily to the source of my misery. 

Someone was buzzing the doorbell and repeatedly pounding on the door. Great.

“If you’re not dead or dying behind this door, you’re about to be.” I croaked harshly, throat burning; putting all my remaining energy in pulling the door open. I was greeted by an extremely tall man with frantic brown eyes, searching my face.

“Oh, thank fucking god. I’ve been knocking for half an hour.” he wrapped me in a tight hug, I almost collapsed. Partly because of the throbbing headache and overall discomfort that I already felt, but hugely because of the warm minty scent of Shohei Ohtani. 

“Jesus, you’re burning up!”

“What are you doing here?” I said, struggling in his grip, his face resting on the curve of my neck. “You’re not supposed to be here.”

“You don’t text someone ‘at least i’ll die happy today knowing that my last meal was shoyu ramen’ and then not fucking reply after.” We were still standing by the entrance, his face now angled towards me, a look of concern or anger mixed in his face, I couldn’t tell. My cerebral cortex functions seemed to have shut down after witnessing this unexpected tenderness. 

“Medicine knocked me down cold.” I shrugged weakly. 

Shohei pulled me into the bedroom and tucked me back in, apologizing for his intrusion, putting down plastic bags of what seemed to be groceries on the kitchen counter, and went back to lightly scolding me for proper texting etiquette to family and friends, to anyone really. That my dark humor doesn’t translate well in messages and that I could have really died and people would think I’m joking but really, he got so scared that he went here as fast as he could.

I don’t remember much but in between fever dreams and my ibuprofen haze, I faintly remember the savory taste of rice porridge exploding in my mouth, the constant dabbing of a cold towel on my face, neck and chest, sometimes, my back, too; the smell of rubbing alcohol and a large, gentle, almost loving touch. 

I don’t remember much but in between waking up in the darkness and stone-cold silence, I remember soft forehead kisses until I drifted back to sleep; of big strong arms enclosing me into a big embrace, as if to tell me, you can put your guard down now. you are safe here. 

I don’t remember much from coming in and out of slumber, but I remember thinking: wouldn’t it be nice if this wasn’t a dream?

======================================

Reset

In the end, I quit sports media on my own volition and got into a friend’s ceramics house. I have always had a thing for ceramics and sculpting as early as college, where I had met my then-professor and now friend–who happens to be the owner of mentioned ceramics house. She had always praised me and encouraged me to join her when she first opened the shop, but as someone who had musings for writing at the time, I politely declined and pursued, you guessed it, journalism. 

I’ve always been good at writing, no doubt, from the way professors always had a good word for me, but I always seem to get into the wrong places every time. Time moves fast if you’re a journo, if you’re slow, then the news is rehashed news, it would just be a late-night recap at a midnight slot that no one is ever awake to watch. 

Here, inside her shop, it was quiet, and time moved slowly. I can get into my laziest clothes and no one bats an eye. I can finally retire my stilettos and straight cut blazers. 

It was all so going well. The customers were always mid-twenties who got interested in our social media marketing of creating your own mugs and other ceramics and always came in in groups, duos, and solos. 

Slowly, I realized that not everyone gets to the places they want. Even when you work blood and sweat for it. Not all were built like, say, Shohei Ohtani, whose talent was recognized early and afforded him an automatic slot in the big leagues.

Some are born to be big icons and some, like the rest of us, are meant for smaller, softer spaces. I get that now. It finally felt like I was in the right place and pace. 

All this positivity and good timing felt all too good to be true and been proven accurate when the scandal blew up. 

Shohei Ohtani photographed exiting his LA apartment with a woman in his arms.

Shohei Ohtani’s rumored girlfriend receives backlash from fans: READ MORE

EXCLUSIVE: More photographs of Shohei Ohtani and rumored girlfriend driving away in his Porsche

Rumored girlfriend of Shohei Ohtani: Who is She?

When I say it was everywhere, I meant it exploded right in front of our faces like a million confetti, falling and twirling fast. It was unstoppable. It was inevitable.

I felt my limbs go numb when I read the morning news. There in bold and black letters was the headline, my name and a clear photo of me holding Shohei’s arm, smiling. A certain news outlet had gotten juice of us and our secret hideouts and had spread all over social media like wildfire. You know what’s funnier? The media outlet that released this was my previous employer. The same company that asked me to snuff out a controversy. While I had failed to give them the news they wanted, I had unintentionally brought them an exclusive that wrote my entire name–and face–off the map and potentially ruined Shohei Ohtani’s clean record. 

Shohei Ohtani, despite his happy-go-lucky and passive demeanor, was a very serious and straight-laced person. I already knew this in university but I got to see more of this side of him when we had started the fucking thing. Even though I had clearly told him that I didn’t want any strings attached, it was unavoidable to give and receive bits and pieces of each other when we’re not naked. 

I  did enjoy talking to Shohei under the sheets. His ingenious ideas and the way he talked about the things he adored spilled all over him, like afternoon sunlight streaming in between curtains, making way even through the small spaces to cast his light. I basked into this warmth as much time allowed me, because who knows when I can experience the glow of his presence again after all the chaos. 

He was exactly like the golden hour: a warm afternoon orange luminescence that usually only stays for ten to fifteen minutes a day. If you wait too long to look up, he disappears quickly as he goes, leaving only the faint orange, yellow and pink hues chasing after him before the black of the night takes over you. 

Well, now the fairytale has run its course and the sun has set to announce that golden hour is over. Night has finally fallen on me and I’m feeling scared and alone.

The first thing I did was to grab as much stuff as I could and put them all in my luggage and filed for an indefinite leave. 

As if like clockwork, my phone rang and saw Shohei’s name on the caller ID. I didn’t answer. I couldn’t. What could I possibly say to him? That I used him just for the clicks and the views? That after all this time we spent together, he would realize that I am still the same despicable, scathing piece of garbage who’d trample on anyone just for a few cents?

So I don’t answer. Even when he calls back again and again and leaves me twenty or more messages by the hour. I turned my phone off. The latest message from Ohtani coming up on the notifications bar read, “Where are you?” before the screen flashed to black. 

I have nothing but my pride left. I’d like to keep it that way.  In such a way, I was embarrassed, too. I thought I finally had something to brag about. A job that I actually liked and enjoyed, a peaceful mind, and the possibility of liking a guy who had shown me nothing but kindness. 

And because I couldn’t handle all of this, I handled it like I have always handled things: I ran away like a coward. 

I rode a bus without reading its destination card and let it drive me away as far as it could, to someplace where no one knew me or Shohei Ohtani, or had any idea about the news. 

The bus drove away and I never looked back. 

================================

Waiting Until My Spring Comes Again: Shohei’s POV

Just like that I lost her. She wasn’t even mine to begin with. 

When the news broke out, I was so furious that I wanted to drive to the news outlet that published the article and give them a piece of my mind. I knew my blind rage would have done more damage so I didn’t.

Instead, I looked for her and wanted to let her know that whatever happens, I won’t drop her just like that. That I’m willing to acknowledge the rumors and make it official, if she wanted to. 

I’ve always been open to the idea of taking it to the next level with her but every time I broached the subject, she would change the topic, get into a foul mood, or try to pick a fight with me. Which I found endearing. She’s so adorable when she pouts. And when she pushes her luck thinking a five foot four girl like her can withstand someone as tall as me. 

I just can’t help but laugh and feel a flutter in my stomach. She’s someone who has been adorable and held a special corner in my heart. 

Y/N’s face was so expressive and whatever emotion she was in it would always be evident on her face. When she’s happy, a dimple on her cheek shows up. When she’s feeling sad or down, she’d look downcast and would prefer that you leave her alone. When she’s thinking about something deep, she would chew on her lower lip and always had a blank almost unfocused stare. Despite her many faces, I’m sure as hell that I love all of them. I wanted to be by her side when all this shit happened, I wanted to see which face she was making. Is she pissed like I was? Is she sad? I wouldn’t know. The moment her number didn’t connect after I had tried reaching her, I already knew that she was avoiding me. 

I lost count of how many messages I had sent her, of how many missed calls and voicemails I left her. She was unreachable. She gave me her spare key so when I tried visiting her apartment, it was empty. 

She was gone. 

And only the traces of her lingered in her apartment. Her unwashed mug with leftover stale coffee was on the kitchen counter, specks of lipstick staining the mouth. Dirty clothes hanging on her bathroom door, forgotten and unwashed. The peachy scent of her purifier that always latches on to her clothes whenever we go out. Her unread books on her coffee table, some dog eared and annotated. 

Everything that I love about her is here except for her and I miss her. 

For the next couple of days, I dodged the media and focused on training, playing and practicing. Those three over and over again. I tried to not think about her and lose sleep because of her. An athlete’s wellbeing is connected to quality sleep. 

But she was everywhere I went. Pieces of her were scattered all over the places I avoided, and it was my fault really, for bringing her to places we usually hid. For hoping that someday, the secrets we hid would be our stories to tell. Now I just let her memories rot inside my heart, where she should be. 

I thought it would be easier when you just let it slip by but the more days that passed without seeing her, the more I feel a gnawing pain in my heart. She had sucked all my sunlight and took it all away with her. 

I want her back. 

=====================================

My Answer is You

Eleven days. It took me nine days to realize running away was a bad idea. 

When I first got off the bus, I thought the place looked familiar. Turns out, I rode the bus to my hometown, to the very south and the last bus stop until it turned around to go back to the city. 

When I appeared in front of my mom–the first time in a long time–she had immediately said, “Did something in the city?”

The moment she asked, I broke down in tears. She shushed and consoled me while I cried like a little kid. Like the way I had bawled to her when my first boyfriend broke up with me, or when my love birds died from illness, the other from loneliness. 

It feels like I would die of loneliness, Mom. I had said.

Did he really say that? Did he tell you that it’s over? She cooed.

I was embarrassed to admit to my mom that no, Shohei had never told me anything because I had shut him out even before I could give him the chance. But what if that call was already the end of it all? What if answering his call meant exactly what I had thought. That would shatter me more. 

So, no, Mom, you can call your daughter a coward but in her heart, it’s all over. 

The next forty-eight hours at home was a blur. After feeding me with what feels like a day’s worth of homemade dishes, she made me wash the dishes, clean my old room, and the living room as well. And when that wasn’t enough, she made me go with her to the night market and bought whatever seafood she could find to feed me. 

Is this what you did when Dad left? I wanted to ask her. Did you go around acting as normal while nursing a wounded heart? Did you go all through that facade just to show me that you were strong for the both of us?

She had her back to me, her hands pale and creased with age, showing signs of passage of time and her hardwork to put me to school. I know she was trying to make me busy to keep my mind off of Shohei. I’m not sure if she fully understands the scandal but she was trying her best to keep my head above the water. Probably just like how she always did. 

I wish I was strong like you, Mom. 

On the fourth and fifth day, she had let me work under the sun harvesting corn. Which I absolutely despised. I had to wear sun hats and these jumpers to cover myself from the heat. 

“It’s cheap labor for letting you stay and eat my food,” she said when I complained. “Tomorrow, you’ll help me sell these at the market.”

As the days grew idly by, I’ve grown more accustomed to rising early and eating less meat and more vegetables. I willingly went out of the sun more to do housework, like hanging clothes, watering Mom’s plants, however, I was still not willing to harvest her vegetables, which she made me do a lot. When I say a lot, it means everyday since then. 

On the eleventh morning, I woke up earlier than usual and found my mom already awake. She busied herself with a cup of coffee. 

“Good morning, mom.” I yawned, grabbing my own mug. 

“After breakfast, pack your things and go back to the city.” She said quietly.

“Huh?” I’m not sure I heard her right. Is she kicking me out?

She pushed today’s newspaper into my hands and pointed at an article. An article shows a picture of Shohei smiling at the camera, behind him was a framed candid photo of me turning my head just in time when the camera clicked, I was wearing a sleeveless shirt, a shawl draped over my shoulders, and the wind blowing my hair and covering my face slightly. Just by looking at the photo, it looked like a time when Shohei and I drove to the beach. He had brought his camera and took a lot of photos. 

The article said, “Portfolio on Love: Shohei Ohtani’s Photographs Displayed for A Cause.”

“....and when the powerhouse athlete gets a day off, he plays around his camera and takes photos of anything, everywhere. He reveals Insider Today that for the first time ever, he is displaying his portfolio to the public at the Grand City Museum starting today until the 31st of the month, with the theme of “hello, love, are you there?”

“...’I don’t know how else to define love but this. I hope when the public sees this, they will instantly know that my photographs are a reflection of my love,’ he said.

“When asked if this was a confirmation to the rumors flying around recently, he just smiled sadly and said, "I'm hoping that this answers everyone’s questions, especially hers.”

“If your face is plastered on all of the newspapers, it wouldn’t make sense to stay here longer.” Mom said after a while. She had finished her breakfast and took them away to the sink.

“It doesn’t end well if you’re too afraid, my darling.” she said, not looking at me. “To love and to be hurt is to be brave. If it doesn’t work out after facing him, then by all means. Come home. My doors are always open for you. And I will feed you rice cakes while you harvest my corn.”

I couldn’t help but laugh. She wasn’t a hugger but welcomed my hug and patted me on the shoulders. “Now go, before all the chismosas wake up and corners you.”

I packed my bags and left home, my heart pieced back together. It was not wrong to go home and seek shelter. What I did wrong was leaving Shohei all alone when he took most of the fall. 

Five hours, one taxi ride, and a ten minute walk later, I arrived at the city museum, nervous, anxious, feeling a little lightheaded and hesitant. I wiped my sweaty palms and got inside. 

It was not as packed as I had expected, probably because it was a little over after lunch, though there was still a relatively big crowd overall. 

When I stepped into the hall featuring Shohei’s displays, I felt a surge of emotion. It was a collection of all the photographs of his loved ones. In a black and white collection, he had photographed his parents holding hands while walking in the snow, a photo of his dog sleeping idly on his couch, a photo of the football stadium in a wide angle shot, showing Ippei and the rest of his teammates playing a warm up game before practice. 

When I turned to a corner, that’s when I saw it. There were multiple frames hanging intricately on one side, showing all of the photos he took of me. One during university days, where I was showing him a strangely large eggplant during our photo walks at the market. There was another with me looking at him angrily for reasons I couldn’t remember, and a more recent one, in the middle, where he was holding my hand while I walked forward, back facing the camera. 

On the metal plate below were words that read in cursive: “2009–present. Moments of love that I hold dear.”

At that moment, tears had started rolling down my cheek and I couldn’t help but sob. The onlookers nearby started moving away, probably weirded out by the sudden burst of emotion over some piece of art.

They weren’t just pieces of art. These were moments when Shohei and I were together and maybe realized that it was love.

By then, someone on my left offered a handkerchief and I gingerly took it, wiping my tears-strewn face. I muttered an apology for ruining the fabric.

“This is not the first time someone cried in front of my photographs. Some were absolutely heartbroken after seeing them.” a man’s voice said. And that reeled me back as I turned around and saw Shohei standing in front me.

“I knew this would lure you back,” he said, smiling.

His face was a little gaunt and tired. He had dark circles around his eyes that I’ve never seen before. I could only look at him and he looked back. I had so many things I wanted to say to him, so many things I wanted to explain but he spoke first and said:

“Did you get a tan?” he started, raising an eyebrow.

“I-I was harvesting corn!” I said, covering my face with both hands. I didn’t even have the time to put on makeup or a swab of lipstick and that’s the first thing he notices.

He took my hands and held them tightly against his chest. “No one looks this beautiful even after harvesting corn.”

“Shut up,” I said looking away.

He tipped my chin and held my face. “Let’s start again, shall we?” 

I raised an eyebrow in question.

“Hi, my name is Shohei Ohtani. I’m an athlete and an amateur photographer sometimes. I’ve been in love with the girl in the photographs since forever.”

I managed a smile and laced my hands around his neck. “Hi, I’m a ceramics maker and sometimes, a farmer, you should see the corn I harvest. You look so familiar. I think you look like my future boyfriend.”

His eyes perked up and laughed at our silly little game. He went in for a kiss and I obliged, feeling safe and brave in his arms.

Let them take the damn photographs and write the articles all they want, but they could never take my sunshine away ever again. 

[alphaofdarkness]

For the Sabezra Secret Santa ask game:

🕐, 🧠,🌟 and 🎄

Thank you so much for the ask @bart1607 ! ☺️ perdón for the absolute insane rambles lol~

🕐 When did you start shipping sabezra?

Ooof, take me back to 2015-2016, I think I remember liking a few things from The Force Awakens back when it came out and remember being recommended a few arts here and there of Star Wars. Eventually, Sabine popped up and fell in love with her design + art of her, I also saw a few here and there with Ezra.

I can’t recall the specific artists (it may have been one of arrival-layne’s draws 🥺) but like, I just LOVED their color scheme and how well they meshed and twined together on the art (sometimes I fall for couple just by their color palette and how well they fit together lol). I think I liked a couple more works and just loved how cute they looked together based on their season 1-2 designs!

I think at some point after, maybe some time in early 2016 or later into season 3, I saw that the series was playing on the tv and remembered the art on the two of them and was immediately drawn in to watch the show for them (gradually just falling more in love with Sabine and Ezra as individuals and together + the rest of the ghost crew 🥺).

I think the episode that overall solidified my love for sabezra was likely Imperial Supercommandos, just the whole episode showing their partnership, their trust in one another, the whole jet pack ride and the insane in sync moments of trust, like Sabine flying back to Ezra and him trusting her to catch him like 😭 and the end where he returns the action by catching her by her hand when her jet pack is shot ✨

Y’all I’m going to eat them I’m sorry 🐺🐺😌😌

This episode just makes me giddy and soft, the growth of their relationship is just beautiful to me!

I will also say that when I got into watching the show, I had only seen a few clips and gifs here and there where Sabine gifted Ezra the holo picture of his parents and I just 😭 I will say that moment comes a close second to how I fell for sabezra 🥺✨ I have since grown to appreciate that scene as a warm and endearing moment of Sabine showing her fondness for Ezra and appreciating his presence as a member of the Ghost crew and a growth to them becoming friends; officially saying his name, “Happy Birthday Ezra Bridger.”

🧠 Any favorite sabezra headcanons

I had to think about these for a bit 👉🏼👈🏼 I try and list 2 and if the question is asked again I list another 2 ✨💜

1. I love the idea of Sabine and Ezra maintaining some communication while Sabine was on Knowest, I can’t recall how long she was away, but just the idea of them talking to each other late at night or whatever the other was available to talk makes me tear up 🥹. Sabine telling Ezra how boring and how colorless her home feels after being away for so long. Or how she misses the warm red and oranges of Antallon (the bright orange that is Ezra hehe) and just the explosion of color with the rest of the Ghost crew; but is excited about nearing the search for her father and talk to him about the art and her art style growth. How she misses him— and the others too! 🥺

Ezra talking about all that is happening in the rebellion, how he almost helped Kallus break out from the Empire and likely sharing about the art Thrawn has collected of hers (which makes her angry >:( how dare he!). I feel like he would also make some small details about how Maul is no longer an issue to deal with and about how he misses her too 🥺

They would stay up as much as they could to talk to each other 👉🏼👈🏼

2. I also have a headcanon of Sabine complementing on Ezra’s doodles whenever she gets a glimpse of them, she was very taken aback by his simple sketches of Lothal and his tower and his loth cats (his draws taken from his journal/diary that he has) and can’t help but praise him (artists always praise all doodles) 🥺🧡 He is very bashful about them at first and always mentions how hers are always more beautiful and incredible.

To which she playful punches his shoulder, how she is serious, his draws are adorable and he should keep trying at them. I love the idea of them just developing this soft friendship over the course of s1-2 with art, Sabine maybe gifting him a small drawing book for him to keep practicing on, especially after she allowed him to draw a few things in hers. To which she often reflects on over the years ahead, especially during her time on Krowest and soon after he was purrgiled.

I don’t know 👉🏼👈🏼 I’m sure Sabine allowed him to used her spray gun whenever they were defacing the Empire propaganda ✨ also Ezra keeping his drawing book or making one while he is in exile in Peridea and keeping up his drawings to show Sabine when they reunite 🤩 HER FINDING IT IN HIS POD AFTER RETURNING BACK WHEN EZRA DEPARTS WITH THRAWN 😭

The feelings of art ✨💜🧡

🌟 Favorite Christmas tradition!

Y’all may laugh (or it maybe more common than I believe) but I didn’t know till I transferred college basically, outside of my hometown, that Christmas festivities are normally celebrated on the 25th 😅

I come from a Hispanic household and a border town in Texas that usually celebrates Christmas on the 24th. The actual Christmas Day is spent sleeping in, eating the leftovers from the day before and just relaxing, enjoying the break and holiday with my parents and sister (occasionally a few tios drop by for some lunch or to drop off or pick up other gifts).

Anyways~ all this to say, my favorite tradition is literally waiting until midnight of the 25th with all the family and friends to basically open the gifts 🎁 While I have since grown up not caring much about the gifts, it’s just being able to see the family siting together, often full of laughs and jokes here and there about the gifts received. We have done the white elephant gift exchange a few times some of the years before and it was always just a loud bustle of laughs with the family, full of jokes and tease and it just warms my heart thinking about it.

There was a year where everyone was just getting bofandas (scarfs 🧣) and it was just hilarious each time someone opened a present.

And then onwards to more drinking and partying until like 3-4 am ✨ personally, I’m 27, almost 28 😩, (I’ve never been a party or social person) and I get tired and sleepy very fast so uwu catch me passing out in my bed ✨

🎄 Real tree or artifical and how long do you leave it up for?

Ah, I’ve only ever had artificial trees and they are just as messy to put up lol. I don’t think I’ve ever known anyone to have had a real tree before 🤔

Personally, I would probably leave it up the whole year if I could lol, when I was living with my parents, I would like to see it linger till the end of January, but they like to put it away as soon as they can. Maybe lasts till the second or third week after Christmas 🎄

—

Have a good day everyone! Happy thanksgiving 🦃 to all who celebrate, and to those that don’t, I hope you have a delicious meal and a wonderful day ahead 🥰💜

[lovediives]

secret, mistake and midnight for…erm…lets see…skims thru…yes…all of them 😊

haii oomfiee thank you for feeding into my craziness like usual ehehe

secret: What's one secret your OC never wants anyone to know about them?

sloth; the fact that she has her friends soul trapped in the doll. no one can know the true meaning of the doll. thats why she carries it around. shes afraid someone will hear the doll one day. hear her friend talking back to them so she has to make sure no one is alone with her. theyre together forever even if its not what she wants.

envy; :/ her shrine. her shrine is really fucked up in a sense of the fact shes been following this idol around as a "fan" taking pictures when in reality she was capturing different angles so she can get a better image of what her face looks like so she could replicate it. its kinda insane. she hates herself for it. but she thinks its what needed to be done.

pride; if anyone finds out he sometimes cries himself to sleep. they might unironically go missing. no one will ever know that.

greed; he's a mommas boy. he misses his mother from the bottom of his heart but he cant get her involved in his lifestyle. he knows that if anyone finds out who she is. they can link back everything to him. plus his mom wouldnt be proud of him. shes still convinced her precious baby is a lawyer whos gonna get married one day.

mistake: What's the worst mistake your OC ever made? What led to them making it? Have they been able to fix it? How have they moved on?

sloth; girl falling asleep one the day she promised to show up to the hospital to visit her friend. she PROMISED IT WEEKS IN ADVANCE after putting it off for so long just because she didnt want to see the state her friend was in. it haunts her every night because the reason she took a nap was because she was up all night watching TV. no she cant fix it, its too late to fix it, and HELLL NOOO SHES NEVER MOVED ON!!

envy; changing her face/her deal with the devil. she HATES that she did that. she HATES looking in the mirror when that woman exists and she has that life that envy can never have still until SHES GONE. she cant fix it but she "can" the second she can kill her... it will be over and she can take that life and live it instead of the horrible excuse of a life she has now...

pride; lemme scratch my ass. he doesnt THINK anything he does is a mistake. its intentional. he can NEVER do anything wrong according to him. but if i had to say off the top of my head. taking over the company when he has no expertise. hes lowkey getting told what to do to properly run it by the devil while he takes the full credit. he doesnt realize the hell hes in when it all comes crashing down. but everyone just thinks hes so smart so he doesn't' care. 💗

greed; HIS WIFE. he could have had a WIFE but he gambled that away. if anything he would have had MORE money to gamble if he wasnt such a greedy bastard and lied to her and exploited the money she was giving him. if he ran into the negatives, she'd bail him out. if he didnt lie to her and she didnt find out how much of a sleazy dirt bag he was because of it. he would have still been a lawyer lol. he only fixed it by giving up on the law and doing what would make him cash fast. he thought about having her killed before but he has no way to do it scott-free.

midnight: What keeps your OC up at night? Do they have nightmares? Fears? Anxieties? What do they do in the small hours of the morning when they should be sleeping?

sloth; buddy. what doesnt keep her up at night? replaying the funeral, replaying showing up late at the hospital to see her dead friend. everything keeps her up. her guilt, the pain, the regret, even her deal. the doll is her only "peace" and even that torments her so much. she talk to her friend then. apologizing for not showing up. apologizing for locking her in the doll just so she can say sorry until her friend forgives her. she knows she cant sleep because of her own mistakes. but she cant stop herself from blaming her friends death on herself.

envy + pride; theyre part of "i drank too much coffee so fuck now im up all night" by themselves, they just do whatever they focus on. envy ends up doing more search on her idol... or sometimes she looks up the latest fashion to maybe one day find an outfit that will make everyone find her super hot and attractive. pride likes to look at pictures of cats and watch dog videos. TOGETHER oh my god. its so annoying. its just pride annoying envy all night like "hey you up ;)" and she responds with a "no" and the two of them end up "bickering" because pride wont leave her alone and envy is trying to do work since he OBVIOUS has nothing for for him!!

greed; answered!

[kdrama-movies-more]

놀아주는 여자 Web Novel Author: Park Soo-jung's Blog

[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7]

(google translate)

A: Visit to the Filming Set (2023)

"I visited the set of Playful Woman. I visited with the production company CEO and greeted the director and actors.

Because the weather was hot, we also sent a coffee truck to cheer them on. I went with Jun-soo and only Jun-soo took a certification photo…lol

The production company's PDs kindly guided me around the set so I was able to tour it all.

I didn't take any pictures because I was worried that someone might appear for an unreleased drama, but I looked around Ji-hwan's house, Go Yang-hee's office, Mi-ho's house, etc, and it was all so interesting.

I used to watch a lot of outdoor filming when I was a drama fan, but this is my first time on a set….

Ji-hwan's office and home really smell like a Romance male lead. Meow’s office was luxurious. Actually, seeing the appreciation plaque with Go Yang-hee's name on it was kind of amazing hahaha

(I will delete spoilers from below on haha)

On this day, Ji-hwan, Eun-ha, Dong-hee, and Il-young were on set.

Unfortunately, I guess Mi-ho and Hyun-woo actors didn't have any filming that day, and I was curious about Yena too...And the actor who played Miho's father is someone I like, so I was sad that I couldn't see him ㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ

First, I greeted the actors, watched them film, and got their autographs during the intermission after the scene ended.

First of all, our Eun-ha, Han Seon-hwa.

We happened to be filming a scene where Eunha was just throwing her heart out to Jihwan, and she was really pretty and good at it! He said it was amazing seeing the original author for the first time haha.

Before I met Uhm Tae-goo, I knew from entertainment shows that he was very shy, so I tried not to talk to him lol, but contrary to my expectations(?), he welcomed me very warmly.

When he signed it, he said, “I’m a lot smaller than you thought in the original…” (ㅠ_ㅠ) “No, you’re so cool!” I said that and I meant it lol.

He looks great on screen, but he's really cool in person.

I didn't get to tell you, but at the beginning of this year, I was actually wishing for Taegu Eom to have a huge success…

By the way, TMI but my husband's name is Uhm Tae-*, so Mr. Uhm Tae-goo is like no one else lol.

The next autograph is actor Yang Hyun-min, who plays the role of Jae-soo among the group.

Actually, the names and lineup of the characters are different from the original, lol. At first, I didn't know what their roles were. Sorry.

"But this author is a washout huh? I asked, and he was surprised and said, "The author is the best... How could I possibly say the author is a washout..."ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

I also got the autograph of DKZ Jaechan, who plays Donghee.

ㅋㅋㅋㅋ Among the writers I'm close with, there's someone who enjoyed Jae-chan's dramas, so I had to brag about it, so I looked for Jae-chan's autograph diligently, and he was resting on a chair that looked like a male protagonist (you'll know him if you watch it on TV). Actually, before this Junsu came back from the bathroom and said, "There are two really handsome guys in the bathroom." I found out that one of them was Jaechan. As expected of a professional idol, he was really pretty and handsome.

The last one is Il-young, actor Kim Hyun-jin, who I loved the most in the original work.

He's really handsome, of course, and his tall height and his face is… small. Lol.

Since there is a tall person in my family, most people don't think as tall, but found out that I am really tall… and later I looked up his profile and found out that I am 189cm tall.

Anyway, our Il-young is cool from the visual standpoint. He said he hasn't signed much yet and was wondering what to write as a comment, so I just said, "I love you", and he really did lol. Now that look, he even drew a heart.

Il-young should've just been mine… I made him get with Mi-ho for nothing (groaning)

I greeted you warmly and finished my visit to the filming set.

The production company gave me the script for episode 12 as a gift. My name is also printed beautifully on the cover :) I originally thought it was going to be 12 episodes, but they said it was going to be 16 episodes.

I hope the remaining filming goes well, and I also want to see you on TV soon."

.

B. Watching Episode 2 Live (2024)

"While Jun-soo and I were watching the 2nd episode, the food poisoning milk episode came up.

I had a feeling from the moment Eunha ran into the hospital- "Now the mothers will throw milk at Eun-ha and Ji-hwan will block it with his body XD"

"Of course Mom would know because Mom wrote it."

"No, no that's not something I wrote. It's an episode created by a drama writer."

"But how do you know?"

"Mom has a knack for romance lol"

But I wonder what happens when I close my eyes and count to ten. Will he handle the parents while counting to ten...

I'm curious so I'll watch next week too.

Let’s all watch together hehe"

[jinlizz-dragondrama]

TW: mentions of bullying, blood, slight cursing, and revenge plotting

Happy 4th of July!! I can't believe that this chapter has 2k words. Enjoy this chapter 💜

Chapter 6

Not Mrs. Cuddles

A few weeks go by after the "incident", and I only found out about it thanks to me hounding April on her sus behavior, hints about Donnie and I. She sent me a picture of us snuggled together and I couldn't help but blush darker than Raph's bandana. I've been busy with swim practice, ninja training and tons of studying getting ready for mid term

exams. But during my breaks in between studying and training, I'd stare at the picture and a smile would grace my face.

Cass comes into my room one day with a small package in her hand. She flops onto my bed while I'm doodling on my art pad and listening to music. Even with music on I was able to sense she came into my room, I pull my headphones off, turned my computer chair in her direction, and smile at her. Handing me a package I quickly open it and see the brown contacts I ordered finally came. Quickly running into my bathroom I place them on my eyes, it was a bit uncomfortable at first but slowly start to get used to them. I come out of the bathroom batting my eyelashes at Cass showing them off, she rolls her eyes.

"I don't get why you're letting those jerks get to you, they are just jealous of your natural beauty. Besides you can kick their butts and I'll help you hide the bodies" she says while folding her arms.

I sigh knowing she's right but I want to blend in and have a normal school life, but judging from the recommended teenage TV shows being bullied is a "normal" occurrence. I just couldn't deal with it anymore and was tired of crying myself to sleep feeling like a freak.

*Time skip brought to you by smug Leo*

Finally, I drop my mechanical pencil onto my completed Computer Labs test. Today was so stressful.with all.the tests i had to take, but it was fun to take Mr. Miller's advice and write my answers the way he taught us which wasted several sheers of paper to get my answer. But hey who am i to argue with a teacher. Quickly checking over my answers, I hand my test to Mrs. Anthony. She's a pretty cool teacher especially since she's pregnant and brings a bunch of homemade goodies for us to snack on! I grab one of her latest bags of treats chocolate chip cookies (if you don't like chocolate chip cookies, I am so sorry). I give her the peace sign and walk out of the classroom. While I wait for April to finish up with her text I open up the group chat between the turtles, April and I.

Green Apple: Hey guys are we still on to watch me during my TV show appearance?

Leon Neon: I'm only watching if Y/N is there

Mikey: Totally can't wait to see it

Donnie: 👌🏾 (Imagine the emoji was green lol)

Raph: Gotta support our best bud

Me: I'm so there

It's a nice change of pace to hang out with the guys and April. Hopefully, no one will bring up the snuggle sesh and the night will go smoothly. Once April joins me in the hallway we fist bump, as we get outside I clink my sneaker heels together and sloely glide on the gum infested sidewalk and make our way to our designated alleyway with a manhole that leads us to the lair. I notice that she gives me quick glances and after the third one I look at her.

"What do you think, is brown my color?" I ask.

"Uh sure, but D- I mean I prefer your natural eye color, it's very unique and well....you" she said

I mull over her words until we jump down the manhole and cover it back up, I could walk these sewers with my eyes closed. We get inside the lair and head into the living room where Splinter is watching his Scorpion Treadmill show. Honestly, it is a pretty funny show, sometimes Splinter and I would watch and laugh together.

We say hey to the boys and I look over at Donnie and he gives me a shy smile, which I return. He notices my brown eyes but doesn't say anything about them, while making a mental note to ask April about it.

Fingers crossed this won't be awkward

"Congrats on the acting gig! I'm so happy I could punch a rainbow" Raph says proudly.

"It's just a tiny basic cable show," April says

"Not so tiny it knocks Scorpion Treadmill out of its time slot," Splinter said annoyed at his show time being cut short. I couldn't help but chuckle a little.

Leo then appears out of nowhere and has Raph sit in the front row, I quirk an eyebrow but watch to see what happens. Raph takes a seat and the program starts, April appears on the screen and introduces a stuffed Bunny animatronic thing...named Mrs. Cuddles. Immediately I see Raph stuffed up and hearing that high-pitched voice made my skin crawl.

"Let's be fwends forever" Mrs Cuddles said

Raph jumps over Splinter's lazy boy recliner screaming "Nooooooo, not Mrs. CUDDLES!". Splinter breaks into a fit of laughter while his other three sons and April laugh. After Raph unsuccessfully tries to explain that he isn't scared of Mrs. Cuddles April suggests that he should go make a sandwich. Quickly leaving the room he goes to the kitchen to start on his sandwich, I follow him to grab a (pop/water) from the fridge. I open my drink once I grab it and as I take a sip Raph opens a cupboard and out pops Mrs. Cuddles in the flesh. As Raph jumps back I spit out my drink from shock, he backs up into the kitchen island, and several pots fall on his head. The gang comes out of their hiding spots and April explains how the boys knew Raph would freak out so they decided to do an innocent prank.

"No hard feelings big brother, let's be fwends forever," Donnie says in a Mrs. Cuddles voice.

I clean up the spill that I spat onto the floor and nearby counter, we both look up to see that she's gone. But turning around she's on the counter with a nicely made sandwich on a plate infront of her. Raph takes a bite of the sandwich and all of a sudden she's waving a pickle about and talking.

"It's alive!" Raph shouts and drops the sandwich

"This is some Five Nights of Freddy shit!" I yell as I drop my bottled water.

She starts to grow and a maniacal laugh echo from her. Apparently thanks to her villain monologue she grows from screams. We scream for the gang to come back to see that she's alive but like in most horror movies with the same scenario she goes limp and doesn't react.

"Not you too Y/N I thought you were better than this, feeding into Raphs fear," Leo says as he shakes his head.

In turn, this makes the rest of them roll their eyes and leave the room. When they leave we look to where we left her and she was gone. Raph rushes into the living room to warn his dad, as he makes a quick exit Splinter says very annoyingly "I will never marry them off" but I'm too scared to react as I search around for her. Raph finds Leo, Mikey, and April in the arcade and lets them know he can't find her. April goes to the kitchen looking for her, she hears her and assumes that it's Raph impersonating Mrs. Cuddles but she finds out that it's her talking, as April screams Mrs. Cuddles begins to grow again. Mrs. Cuddles then finds Donnie and gets him to scream by slicing the head off a bust that looks like him. We hear him scream and rush to investigate but are ambushed by her while she's swinging a chainsaw at us. While she swipoed st us she knicks my cheek a bit and a dropplet of blood rolls down. Consumed with fear my eyes glow, the contacts I'm wearing melt away revealing my purple eyes and I unleash my water-bending powers forming a water fist and punching her into a corner, Raph looks at me in awe but is brought back to the fight when she charges at us and he smacks her with Donnie's bust head. With her being knocked out we toss her into a locker and block the door to it. Leo and Mikey look on with a shrug and decide to go skateboarding. Splinter distracts us by having us get weapons to defeat her and unknowingly lets her loose while grabbing his blanket. When we get back we see she's gone.

Last but not least she finds Leo and Mikey which was a plus for her as Mikey is the best screamer that astronauts could hear, She ties them up and leaves them in a room. We find her in the skateboarding room and she's huge. She begins to attack by pulling a water pipe and the water splashes Raph but I'm able to bend it away from me. Splinter starts to laugh and she starts to shrink, Raph and I look at each other knowingly as we let Splinter laugh at his dad's jokes and we dodge her punches. Finally, she's back to her normal size and Raoh tosses her into her trunk. We hear the crew calling out for help but we ignore their calls and laugh.

"That'll teach them to think twice before pranking you and not believing me," I say while giggling.

After an hour or so I walk into the room where the gang is tied up. I'm wearing my peace sign pajamas (pictured above), my hair is tied into a long braid and I have a small band-aid on my cheek. I walk in smugly while munching on a piping-hot slice of pizza. Mikey was lying limp against everyone his stomach growls until he sniffs the air and looks in my direction, tears of relief start to bubble in his eyes. My eyes glow for a brief moment and I use his tears to create a sharp and swift slice against the ropes that release them from their prison, they all stand up and stretch their aching limbs. Donnie can see that my eyes are back to their beautiful violet color and it brings a small smile to his face.

"Pizza and Lou Jitsu movies are waiting for you guys in the living room," I say while smirking and I wiggle my index finger signaling for the water to wrap around it like a ring as I leave the room.

Mikey and Leo chase after me babbling a bunch of questions at once. Shrugging my shoulders and acting like I don't know what they are talking about. Donnie and April just stare at me with gaping mouths but they soon follow. While I'm watching the movie snuggled in a blanket on a bean bag chair April and Donnie are texting each other about why I wore contacts, he doesn't realize that he has one of his fists balled up tightly with his nails digging into his palm until April nudges him. Relaxing his hand he decides he going to see who these jerks are and keep a close eye on them. Soon there was only one slice of pizza left, we all glare at eachother, I quickly reach out for the slice, Donnies hand touches mine, we look up at each other and pink tints both of our cheeks but I flick my index finger with the water ring and use it the whip at Donnies hand and causes him to recoil his hand back. I giggle and rush out of the room with the slice, Donnie quickly gives chase with Tech Bo in hand. The rest of the gang give knowing looks and continue with the movie. I hear the patter of his feet as he chases after me, running out of the tunnel.and into the slate boarding room I hop over the safety bar and slide down the half pipe while giggling. Donnie activates his battle shell and he hovers next to me while I slide.

"This was fun and all but now I'll be taking that" he says smugly

But I push myself off the half pipe, jump off Donnies battle shell and jump off it creating a small pile of snow from the moisture in the air on the ground, while I'm falling he grabs my hand but I pull him down with me. We land onto the soft pile of snow, he lands onto of me with an "oof". After the snowdust settles we realize our noses are almost touching and my face turns beet red and his face was no better.

Snow is still falling gently around us, I start to awkwardly laugh and he soon follows. He rolls off of me and scratches the back of his neck.

I sit up and take a bite of my slice, "Well let's build a snow man and call me Elsa because the cold never bothered me anyway" I sing (Gotta love the Elsa reference)

"Hmmmm that doesn't suit you, how about Aquatina? Its kind of princess like and it goes well with your power which I will def have lots of questions about." He says while making a snowball.

"I like it maybe Aqua for short" I say smiling with a mouth full of pizza.

We fist bump, I melt the snow and start to make my way back to the living room as my back is turned he tosses the snowball at me. I turn around smiling at him.

"Oh just you wait til it's winter time I'll get my revenge" I say while laughing like a mad scientist as I skip away.

Donnie smiles as he watches me and shakes his head, places his arms behind his head, and follows me.

[thestobingirlie]

So much fic seems to miss how different things were in the 80s compared to now (also seem to forget how long ago stranger things is set... like season 1 is set 40 years ago this year.)

One thing I notice it a lot in is the talking about video/ the setting with Steve and Robin working at family video and just how home media worked.

First part of it, you can always tell when someone only grew up with dvd/ bluray/ video on demand. Because VHS did not have home menus, scene selection, or an additional features menu. You put the tape in and the only options were play, pause, fast forward or rewind. And when people write DVD instead of VHS for what family video offer. Like that format did not come out until the mid 90's and didn't overtake VHS until the early-mid 2000's, which lead to the monstrosities that were the combo DVD/VHS player. (I even saw one fic where Steve and Robin had to rewind returned DVD's. That is just not how it works.)

A lot of the time I think people don't understand is how new accessible home video/ home media was. Like when Steve and Robin start at family video, VHS was less than a decade old. Home video that was accessible and available to the masses only really came about with Betamax in 75 and VHS in 76. And because of that it was expensive, which is why rental stores were such a big thing. In the mid 80's a normal single-tape VHS could easily cost $80-$90, which is the equivalent of over $200. When Back To The Future was released on VHS in 86 it cost $80. So when its written that someone (often Eddie) has rented the same movie a few times, and they have Steve or Robin say that it would be cheaper to buy a copy, it just doesn't make sense.

Then its the time between theatrical release and home release. It could easily be a year between theatrical release and VHS release (Using BTTF again, theatrical release date was July 3rd 1985, VHS release was May 22nd 1986. So nearly 11 months.) And film companies didn't just release their entire back catalogue onto VHS right away. They looked at what was in demand. (Disney didn't finish releasing their "classics" onto VHS until well into the 90's). The one I see people getting wrong the most in fic is The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Now I could see Robin and Eddie loving Rocky Horror, but they probably weren't all that aware of it. It was released in 75, but it wasn't available on VHS until 87 in the UK, and 1990 in the US, and it wasn't broadcast on TV until 93. Yes, there were midnight screenings in a lot of cities, but it was rated R, and they just might not have heard of it. (Sorry, but Rocky Horror is my other hyperfixation/ special interest and I could talk about it for hours on end). But, yeah, unless they'd managed to get hold of a bootleg copy, they probably hadn't seen it.

Sorry for the long ask, but this is just something that bugs me a little, because it would take just a few seconds to google it to find out if what they've written actually makes sense with the time it's set.

i read a fic that mentioned they were all watching a dvd and i literally stopped reading the fic. it just totally took me out of it.

obviously if you’re younger you won’t know as much about vhs, but it’s not that hard to find out (also, someone had to rewind dvds??? come on man, never having actually seen a vhs, sure. but have these people never watched a dvd??)

$80? that’s so expensive! i had no idea! i do love how you know so much about this tho lmao

people focus on the rocky horror picture show too much. i think it’s the only queer media they know from around the 80s, and while it’s fun, i really don’t think robin/steve/eddie would’ve known much about it, and if they did watch it, would probably be post st canon.

don’t worry about long asks! small things like that bug me too lol, especially because they’re so small it would take two seconds to look it up! but i guess if you’ve never really experienced 80s shit, you don’t even know you have to look stuff up.

[nani-nonny]

Okay so i open AO3 and get slapped by the wholesome title that makes me smile immediately ✨🩷 i know for sure it's gonna be a great chapter because one, it's made by you. Two, it involve family wholesome moments + shenanigans.

I I honestly forgot about writing the review because i was actually too deep in the fic! Sorry 😝

I saw a part before the spoiler clip and am surprise to see Casey was with purple! Biggest betrayal since he's daddy's golden boy! And Leo fakin' his sleep was such a dad move because my dad used to do it whenever i snuck to take some bag of chips xD

I literally went 'Awww🥺' when Leo gave permission for purple to hold it and even told him how to take out of his arm. Dad + points💙

Leo pretending to think about purple's request got me like 'Oh you son of-' while smiling and giggling, JUST SAY YES! And purple begging saying 'please' while hugging it got me even more! If i was there i'd cover leo's mouth and say " he say yes, now go before he change his mind ".

In the next part i realized Casey was sleeping not helping Purple! Also can he do all of it in 3 hours?? I laughed and 'Aww'ed at how Donnie's begging leo to just give him the arm and save what left of his reputation ( that IF there's any left lol) ngl, i knew the ghosts had to interfere xD

Also when Leo was out of the bed i thought he crawled on four like this

" could be a thief trying to steal great ideas from a thrilling TV show " this got me LAUGHING XDD

Now the fact that 4 ghosts have to stay with leo and watch his favorite TV show for probably hours?! That's a real torture xD But it got better when Donnie admit ghosts are real!! Now what's left is leo... And probably blue.

" Playing on the wall is a series of dramatic background music and horrific editing that rival a PowerPoint presentation " Nani you really did PowerPoint dirty, do i sense a personal hate there?👀

Also papa Leo forgetting some Spanish made me think he and blue could have some bonding time learning it together.💙🩵

Little blue getting more tense and panicked by the lost arm - i also forgot he lost it too - got me worried about him, i wanna help him feel better, i wanna hug him 🥺

Blue asking about how it feels to have a new arm making feel worried for him, it's a right choice from leo to be honest with him about how it feels so blue can prepare himself for the future tho, and i even loved how he said 'you don't have to get an arm' because unlike leo, blue and the rest of the colors have time!

My smile turn back again as blue talk about how robotic arms are way cooler! Tho i wonder what can serve as new arm instead of robotic? Also leo is truly taking the 'am old so you have to dpeak up' excuse waaay better then i thought xD sneaky old man.

Seeing the second spoiler clip got me laughing knowing that the ghosts have to watch it ALL with leo and blue and they can't escape. God i gotta make a meme about this somehow.

I laughed at both Donnie and April's comments about papa leo xD but it's true tho!

When the noises came i was excited like " ohohoh~ what's happening now?!? " until it turned out to be poor mikey trying to do anything with his hands, but when April said " amputation " i was like " woah woah woah! What?!? "👀

When leo saw how small orange's hands are and called them baby hands my heart melted from cuteness.

I got more level of happiness when orange's hand got better then before, i know it hasn't been fully healed but still its better!✨🧡 "I’ll figure out a way to expel my ninpo into a form that will project into the physical world " this got my mouth gapping 🤩🤩🤩 COULD IT BE?!

My head imagined purple with red eyes as he need sleep morning then anything.

The kids's shenanigans are back again and am over here LAUGHING

The picture lollll that’s definitely how Leo was sneaking through the lair toward the kitchen where orange was hahah!

The PowerPoint jab was more at myself when I was introduced to slide transitions and all the animations it can do for you presentation hahaha it’s like the excitement of finding something new and trying everything available

Robot arms are definitely cooler but that’s not the entire reason Blue wants one. (Totally doesn’t want one just because Leo has one and wants to be like Leo)

And lol Donnie took the “take his hands” too literally

Mystic warrior Mikey talking about projecting his ninpo to the physical world definitely doesn’t mean anything /sarcasm

Peepaw *clap* bonding *clap* time *clap*

(And guests)

Your reviews/comments for this book are one of the reasons that keep me going! <333

[eschynite]

i did not!! i went right to the sunbeam f1 pro. i'll make another little list beneath a read more reflecting on my xp so far in case anyone is interested :)

i've realized that i don't only "not need a smartphone" - i usually barely even need my dumbphone. this is aided by the fact that i lack a social life, lol. what minimal calling & texting i do works fine on the sunbeam

2-factor authentication is much more annoying w/o a smartphone. this is something i read before making the switch and was like "ah, small potatoes" no.. big potatoes. big, frustrating potatoes..

my screen addiction has kind of shifted from a phone to my laptop, but i still prefer that to having a screen in my pocket at all times. it's fundamentally less intrusive

i still don't have a separate camera or mp3 player because i'm broke, but the sunbeam has its own music player (huge advantage over other dumbphones). the camera is fine for documentation purposes (taking a picture of an id, stuff like that) but looks really bad (the case across dumbphones, afaik). this would be getting on my nerves if i had more reasons to take photos. don't really count it as a con bc i planned on getting a separate camera anyway

getting into payment sites like cashapp and venmo has been a nightmare on my laptop, but that's because i had to abandon my phone number when i switched (my smartphone's sim card exploded). *try to keep your old phone number; if you can't, try to establish non-phone-verified login methods on all sites you regularly visit*

i got a tablet for streaming purposes (casting shows to my son's tv, mostly). it was a cheap tablet that i hate using. the whole thing has made me intolerant of casting in general, i've been looking for a used smart tv so i don't have to cast

the gps function on the sunbeam is simple but works great if you aren't tremendously navigationally challenged

*biggest problem with the sunbeam* and, based on what i've read, all dumbphones: the battery life is pretty horrible. with smartphones, we are used to them generally having battery life if we don't use them. like, it'll slowly fall, but still last days (at least, that has been my experience). when dumbphones aren't on the charger, they are dying. like, -10 % points in one hour. i'm really spacey and misplace things a lot, so for me, this means my phone is usually dead in some remote corner of the apartment. people have a really hard time getting in contact with me (however little they are trying to do so). over half the time, my shit is not even ringing bc it's dead.

i've realized my screen addiction isn't really a core problem, more something that fills the space made by depression and anxiety, so replacing one screen with a less accessible one hasn't improved my quality of life much or required *any* coping. the real challenge is doing things i don't care to do that require much more energy than scrolling. getting rid of my smartphone was an impetus for that realization, but i don't think getting rid of my smartphone was as important a change as i expected it to be

basically, because possession of a smartphone & development of acute mental health challenges developed sort of alongside one another for me, i assumed the smartphone/screen in my pocket had something to do with my mental health; it seems that instead, the smartphone was a way for my brain to get dopamine kicks as it stopped responding much to other stimuli due to depression, etc.

anyway, sorry this was long! i intended to make a post about how the switch was going earlier on but never got around to it bc, well, it barely affected me. overall, i think it's been a net positive in the sense that i have greater clarity re: my attachment to screens and the problems underlying it. i may switch back to a smartphone for convenience's (and keeping a job's) sake when i move on from stay-at-home mom life bc it wasn't the bogeyman i made it out to be.

i think i'm going to get a used kyocera duraxv extreme+... or i might get a cheapy (tcl flip pro probably) and upgrade to a sunbeam f1 pro when i can

stuff i think i'll need to supplement dumbphone...

small digital camera of some sort, i prefer the look of disposable camera photos but don't want to have to pay to develop them and replace the cameras all the time. they were so much cheaper in the 2000s

ipod nano :) pink just like the one i had as a kid

i have to make sure i can access my bank account on my laptop; will have to deposit checks in person, which will be motivation to get my license -_-

can access cashapp on laptop? or venmo?

i'm comfortable doing school/email stuff exclusively on my laptop

libby on laptop... check

kindle on my kindle :)

need to log in to all my bills accounts on laptop...

need a little notepad for writing stuff down. need to remember to keep my purse out of e's reach bc he's always emptying it and i need to be more "together" if i won't have a smartphone

i might be able to put streaming apps on the flip phone, there's some techy process to it but think i should be capable with thorough instructions. otherwise i'll need to pick an alternative method of watching things (i usually cast from a streaming app). my and e's future just might exclude "something on in the background" all the time, might be better for us anyway

i think google maps or waze will work on the phone stock, but if not i might need to get a gps unit. either way will need to be more attentive to my environment

[daisyful-gvf]

honey & chamomile, peaches & cream // by daisyful

18+

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

pairings: jake kiszka x reader

notes: this is kind of vulgar i’m ngl but in a sweet way sorry abt it . i barely edited this sorry for any errors lol

tags: fluff and smut, oral sex, fingering, praise, pet names, i guess what you’d consider dirty talk but it’s rly endearing 😋

word count: 3.8k

summary: you’re tired and jake wants to help you relax 💗

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

He handed you the chamomile tea before he climbed back into bed. It was perfect, just how you liked it, with honey and a splash of oat milk. You hummed at it and offered him a soft smile.

“Good?” he asked upon your first sip. He slipped under the covers with you.

You nodded, blowing on it softly to cool it.

Another episode of the nature show you were watching ended, and then it faded into the next. You felt so comfortable like this.

“Put your arm around me?” You asked him softly, taking another sip. He nodded and did as you asked.

You took a moment to look into his eyes. They were surreal. So soft and brown, so clear and mellow. Serene and interesting. Magnetic. Deep. You could get lost in them—a silly expression had never resonated more.

He let you look into them for a while without breaking the silence, without any teasing or questioning. He stared back, easy, and brought his other hand around to touch your face.

“I care for you so much,” he breathed. Your heart stuttered. You knew he loved you; he knew you loved him. This was his way of saying more. “You’re so special.”

You bit your lip, trying to help the grin that was appearing on your face.

“Does my girl like that?” he teased before softening again, “You are,” he repeated. He glanced over your face and hummed. “Drink your tea, angel,” he encouraged, sitting back how he was before, rubbing your shoulder with his hand.

You smiled and you did; sipped the warm tea, let your weight sink into the bed. Watched the bees swarm through the clovers on the TV.

After a long comfortable silence disturbed only by the nature sounds, Jake spoke again.

“I love you,” he said, low and quiet, “I love these kind of nights with you.”

You looked over to meet his gaze. He had a small smile, and his eyes watched your lips. His hair was a mess—not brushed, that’s for sure, pulled into a low bun with some strands untucked. He was shirtless, but had soft pajama bottoms on that grazed your bare thigh sweetly. You had on one of their band shirts, a size too big and extra cozy. He toyed with the hem of it with the hand that was around your shoulders.

“Me too,” you whispered back, taking another drink of your tea.

“Lemme try that,” Jake murmured, reaching for the cup. You gave it to him.

His eyes closed as he drank, and you wished you could have had your phone out fast enough to take a picture: his dark eyelashes thick with the low light, his large hands around the vintage mug, his lips pursed beautifully. Stunning.

He hummed, “S’good,” he wiped his lip as he handed the cup back to you, “Relaxing.”

You nodded, taking another drink. His hand moved from your shoulders, instead resting on your thigh under the blanket.

“You relaxed?” He murmured, tracing his fingers on your leg.

You nodded, “Almost sleepy,”

He nodded, then, still skirting his fingers up and down your leg.

“Drink your tea, angel,” he murmured again.

“Why do you want me to finish my tea so badly?“ You grinned, taking another drink. Almost done.

He licked his bottom lip, “Just wanna spend time with you,” he answered.

“Yeah?” you took another sip. You swallowed, “We are spending time together,” you pointed out lovingly.

He laughed gently, “Yeah,” he agreed, “I know.”

You cocked an eyebrow at his cryptic language, but dismissed him, as you were sleepy; maybe you were just missing something.

You took your final drink of tea and sat it on the nightstand.

When you moved to sit back down, Jake's hand was gently at your cheek, pulling you into a kiss. It was languid and loving. He sighed into you, his breath warm.

He pulled away slow, his smile full-fledging.

“More?” he asked, his voice a low purr. You nodded, sporting a similar grin.

You kissed him again, feeling his lips on yours, feeling his tongue swipe over your bottom lip, feeling the pad of his thumb on your cheek.

“You’re so sweet,” he breathed. He moved his kisses to your cheek, then to your jaw. He slid his hand down to hold your head, guiding it to the side so he could lean down and kiss your neck.

“What are you doing, Jacob?” you sighed, letting your eyes close. He chuckled at the name.

“Jacob, huh?” he nipped softly at your neck, “I’m kissing you.” he pointed out, matter-of-fact. You laughed again.

“I hadn’t noticed,” you giggled. He moved to the other side of your neck. Your skin heated slightly. Your body was still very dazed by a sleepy weight.

“I wanna take care of you,” he murmured into your skin, “That okay?“

You turned his words over in your head, “How so?”

He licked at your neck then, no longer soft and easy. His hand skirted over your thigh and between your legs to rub softly over your cotton underwear.

“Jake,” you sighed.

“Mm?” he questioned, licking at your shoulder, his body sinking lower down the bed, “This okay?” he asked again.

You nodded, reaching down to push the middle of your panties to the side. He breathed out, registering the motion, and sliding his fingers against you tenderly.

You let your head fall back, your eyes shut. You sank your body lower down the bed so your head could fall back into the pillow, knowing his hand would follow you, and so it did.

He moved, then, planting a final kiss to the top of your hand before settling between your legs. His waist down was covered by the white duvet. His skin looked sinfully tan contrasted against it.

He peppered kisses over your thighs, rubbing his large hands over the sides of them. The low bun looked ridiculously good on him; you wished he wore it like that more.

He looked up at you, his lips hovering over the skin of your thigh. His lips curled into a grin: sweet, not cocky.

“You’re lovely,” He purred, “you taste like home,” he licked a kiss over your thigh as if to prove his point.

You were blushing and you knew it, but it was too sweet to scold him.

“I wanna talk to you,” he said. He pulled your panties back over to cover you, and he rubbed the pad of his thumb gently over the fabric, over your clit, a loving sort of tease. “Can I talk to you, angel?”

You nodded, curious, “Of course. Where’s this coming from?”

Your eyelids were heavy, and you knew you were looking at him only half-way.

He giggled, “Sleepy girl,” he said, pressing a light kiss to your heat through the fabric, “I just love you,” he explained, “Just feel very in love right now, wanna make you feel cared for.”

Your heart fluttered at that: full-on butterflies.

“Yeah?” You glanced down at him, toying with the strands of hair that framed his face, “I love you,” you managed, a small yawn esapcing you.

He kissed you through your panties again, “If you fall asleep is it okay if I keep going?” he murmured, his empty hand tracing your thigh, “Not gonna fuck you,” he clarified, “just go down on you, finger you. That okay?”

You groaned, sleepy but aroused, “Yeah,” you breathed, “I won’t, though,” you grinned, “Couldn’t if I wanted to, I wanna feel it.”

He giggled, licking over your panties. A shaky breath escaped you. His touch was wonderful—nothing urgent, only loving, only soft.

He settled down, his head lowered between your legs, one arm curled under your thigh to hold your hip, the other elbow over your hip, fingers working lightly over your panties.

He licked at the crease of your inner thigh, and you whined.

“You make the prettiest sounds,” he breathed, licking again, “love how you sound for me.”

Your hand stayed on his head, sort of wound into the roots of his hair, only barely. Your other hand rested on your chest.

“Pull your shirt up for me, pretty girl?” He asked softly, “Please? Wanna see your pretty tits,” He licked over you again, and you knew the panties had to be soaking by now.

You complied, hiking the large shirt just far enough up to reveal your breasts, the fabric resting easily just above your nipples. The air hitting your skin made your hips writhe. He held you with his arm.

“Mm,” he licked his lips, looking up at you, “So perfect,”

You blushed again, grinning, feeling nothing but pure adoration for him.

He finally nudged your panties to the side. You watched as he sucked on two of his finger tips before bringing them down to rub over you. You sighed heavily, a smile finding its way naturally to your face.

“My pretty girl like that?” He asked, eyes fixed on his fingers.

“Mmhm,” you sighed, pushing your hips up to meet his touch.

“Good, baby,” he soothed, “I love my pretty girl.” His voice was so low and soft. It cracked often, in a devastatingly arousing way.

“You look like heaven, angel,” he purred, “I call you angel for so many reasons. This is just one,” he placed a soft kiss to your clit and you whined, “look like heaven, taste like heaven.”

He rubbed his finger over your clit again and you moaned, the flesh swollen from the teasing.

“Mm,” he encouraged, “sound like heaven, like some perfect chord,” he kitten-licked again and you let out a shaky sigh, “you like that, angel?”

God, you loved when he talked. You wished he would never shut up, especially talking in this sensual way, only for you.

“Want more?” he asked, genuine and soft—he wasn’t toying with you tonight, only serving you.

You nodded.

“Tongue or fingers?” he asked, rubbing his pointer finger over you mildly, like he just wanted to feel you.

“Tongue,” you replied, no contest, you though. You giggled to yourself at that.

“What?” He licked once at you, making you bite your lip, “what’s my angel laughing about?”

“I don’t know, I’m sleepy,” you answered, honestly, because you couldn’t put your finger on what you had giggled about.

“You can be as sleepy as you need, babe,” his words buzzed against your skin, his mouth so close, “I have you,” he gripped your hip a little as a reminder, “Want you to relax,”

“Mm,” you looked down at him, “what did I do to deserve this, huh? You’re being extra sweet,” you touched his nose softly. He smiled.

“Missed you,” he breathed, kissing your clit again, “and I always think you deserve this. Maybe I should be doing this more,” he licked over you firmly, finally, a thick and wet stripe. You ground your hips down into it as a groan fell from your lips.

“What is ‘this’ exactly?” you smiled, “you go down on me all the time.”

He chuckled, “But this,” he cleared his throat, “slow and relaxing,” he gently bit your thigh, “not rushing, not trying to tease you,” he swallowed, finding his words, “just treating you, angel.”

“Mm,” you nodded, “I like it.”

“Yeah?” he tugged at your panties, slipping them down your leg before looking back up to you, “God, your tits look good,” he shook his head, distracted, “Alright angel, just relax for me.”

The hand hooked over your hip rubbed your skin softly and melodically, a soothing touch.

He lowered his head and licked over you several more times, his tongue warm and slow.

You let yourself sigh and moan just softly, whatever noises decided they would escape you. You yawned again, not bored by any means, but relaxed.

He licked more, then, broader stripes, all the way over you. Softly, his fingers teased you, slipping easily over you, just feeling.

“So soft,” he breathed against you, “Here, baby,” he eased two fingers into you slowly, knowing you enjoyed the gentle stretch of both digits. You whined and rolled into the touch, “Yeah, angel,” he affirmed, “you like that, don’t you?”

You nodded lazily.

“Feel good?“ he mused, “my pretty girl feel full?”

His voice was so dreadfully loving and aroused at the same time, teetering on obscene.

“My fingers were made for you,” he murmured, his voice as if he was reading a poem, “maybe for the guitar, too,” he giggled, “but definitely for you,”

He curled them inside you, feeling, finding what you liked. He pumped them in and out in a languid rhythm.

“You fit so perfect around them,” he continued. He was keeping true to his promise about talking, “Always makes me want you. But I hope they feel good for you,” he pushed them all the way in and you groaned, a small gasp punctuating it, “Do they feel good for you, angel?”

You nodded, tired but now incredibly invested in this.

“You don’t have to say anything, babe,” he assured, kissing your clit, “Like I said, I’ll talk, I just wanted to know.”

Your cheeks were hot with his words—how could be be so sweet and so filthy at the same time?

He licked sloppily over you as his fingers dragged inside you, his spit and your wetness coating you. His tongue moved in lazy circles, with no urgency, just consistency. You could come like this, for sure—the slow build was perfect.

He gave you a gentle sucking kiss, continuing to move his fingers, but pulled his mouth away to speak, “How about my tongue?” His eyes peeked up at you, “Feel good for you?”

You nodded feverishly, brushing your thumb at the top of his forehead lovingly, “so good,” you breathed.

“Yeah?” he smirked, licking a stripe over you, listening to you whine, “That’s good, angel, I love making you moan like that. Do it for me again, pretty girl,” he latched onto you, sucking and licking with his hot tongue. You didn’t have to try, the moans spilled from you. He groaned against you.

You noticed something, then, as your eyes fluttered back down—

“Are you grinding into the bed?” You murmured, an amused smirk on your face.

He pulled his mouth from you and grinned, nodding, “Yeah,” he breathed, unashamed, “I’m having fun.”

You groaned at that, rubbing your hand over your face.

“That okay with you?” he smiled, giggling.

You nodded, letting your hand fall back to your chest. “S’hot.”

He smiled, “Good,” he licked over you again, curling his fingers. You yelped, the combination perfect. “There we go,” he mused, “Right there, huh?,”

He did it again, curling both fingers as he planted his tongue firm against your clit. You whined, feeling the heat in your belly.

“Mm,” he licked his lips, “you’re soaking my fingers, you know that?” he grinned, “feels amazing.”

You panted at that, and the only reaction you could give was to push your hips down against them.

He chuckled at you, “Love you so much,” he breathed, “I’ll fuck you with my fingers, you don’t have to do that, angel,” he bit his lip, “or you just like doing that? Grinding down on my hand?”

You nodded, repeating the motion. He sighed heavily, and you could see under the duvet the small motion of him grinding against the bed again.

“What about my tongue?” He licked over you, keeping his lips near you, “wanna rock your hips against me?”

You whined as he pressed his tongue flat to you, a resounding yes going through your head at his question. You nodded, doing what he said, grinding your hips down, grabbing his head softly with your hand, rolling yourself against his wet tongue.

He moaned into it, his eyes fluttering shut for a moment before coming open to lock with yours. You gasped at the feeling, at how willing he was being, how much he was getting off on this.

“You wanna come?” he breathed, breaking contact for only a second before returning his mouth to you. You whimpered and nodded, breathless, keeping the motion of your hips.

“Make yourself come, angel,” he breathed, flattening his tongue out for you, soft moans against you, his fingers helping you, rocking with a steady motion back into your grinding.

It didn’t take too much longer, especially with his eyes locked into yours, before you were there.

As conflicted as you were about losing eye contact with him, you let your back arch as the orgasm flushed you with heat, holding his head against you, feeling his drawn out moan.

As soon as it passed, he was planting small kisses to you, kitten-licking at your oversensitive center.

You composed yourself and propped back up on the pillows, looking down at him. He had the world’s most self-assured grin, and he looked sort of dazed, eyes glossy, struggling to focus.

“I don’t think there’s a thing I like more in this world than making you come,” he smiled.

“You sure?” you giggled. His fingers moved inside you still and you gasped, pushing against them.

“Yeah, they’re really fucking wet,” he groaned, acknowledging your gasp, “I love it.”

You panted, letting him work at you still.

“But yes, I’m sure,” he said, brushing hair from his face with his free hand before settling it back, arm hooked under your thigh, hand on your hip.

“More than the Les Paul?” you grinned. He nodded and hummed. Your jaw dropped.

“More than…liquor?”

He bit his lip and smiled.

“More than making yourself come?”

“Oh, yeah, easy,”

“More than music?“

He giggled, “Alright, a tie.”

You chuckled back, relaxing into the feeling of his fingers still slowly fucking you.

“How long you gonna do that for?” You murmured, wiggling your hips to help him understand your question.

“Mm,” he pondered, licking your thigh, “Wanna make you come again,”

Your breath hitched, and you watched his face.

“Might take a bit,” you smiled, “I’m kinda sleepy, remember?”

He nodded, “That’s okay,” he assured, “I’m having so much fun, angel,” he grinned.

“I can tell,” you smirked, petting his head, “How’s humping the bed going?”

He giggled, “Pretty good if I’m being honest,” He looked up at you, his expression suddenly changing, “I don’t want you to think I’m trying to get you to have sex,” he said, “With the bed thing. I really just wanted to do this for you. I’m just hard and it feels good.”

You bit your lip at his gentle expression, “You’re heaven-sent,” you sighed, “really.”

He giggled and pushed his fingers all the way in, pushing against your hip bone with his hand, making you gasp, “Just for you,” he said.

“Love how wet you are on my hand, pretty girl,” he murmured, “Can’t wait to lick my fingers,”

You whined, unable to help it at the obscene gesture.

“My girl like that?” He murmured to your thigh, “I love how you taste, angel. Makes me think about how you came for me.”

You nodded, dumbfounded at the way he was speaking to you—sincere and something borne of his arousal and love all the same.

“You’re like my pretty peach,” he murmured, “wet and soft for me. Your cheeks are pink, just like a ripe peach,” he grinned, bowing his head down to lick over you again, “peaches and cream,” he murmured, making himself giggle, “Could eat you all day, all summer.”

You exhaled with a trembling breath at his sweet and sensual ranting.

“You like me talking to you?” he asked softly, “I have a lot to say about my pretty girl.”

You nodded, sleep threatening to take you after the tea and the orgasm.

“Pretty girl,” he purred, “so sleepy, just relax,” his fingers worked slowly, “Get all sleepy and let me make you come one more time,” he licked at you with some amount of determination, a warm flutter against your swollen clit, “You don’t have to do anything,” he breathed in between licks, “Just relax against me, I’ll make you come, angel, trust me,”

You could hear him but it was distant—you weren’t asleep, there’s no way you could be with this going on, but it tempted you, a soft cloud hanging above you that you let kiss your skin. There was a warm glow in your abdomen that Jake had summoned, and you let him coax it, stoke the fire.

His tongue dipped lower, meeting his fingers at your entrance. You whined softly, the feeling wet and lewd.

“I knew you’d taste good,” he murmured, likely to himself at this point, “God, I wanna see you come again,”

His fingers worked steadily, not too rough, but certainly with a rhythm that could send you over the edge.

“Okay, angel,” he breathed, “When you’re ready, let me have it, be sweet for me,” he lowered his mouth against you again and let his tongue create a sweet pace, tempting the heat in you to spill over.

You took deep breaths, doing just as he said and letting yourself relax—letting his fingers work in you, his tongue over you, his hand grip your hip tight to keep you in place.

You came gently, shockingly soon for a second orgasm, riding the perfect wave against his tongue. You sighed his name quietly, in a strangled gasp. He moaned into you at the sound.

Slowly, you came down, head spinning and more heavy with sleep than before.

You watched him with hooded eyes prop himself up just slightly, keeping his mouth on you, soft licks, and then pull his fingers out out of you, pushing that hand down under the covers, around himself, and with only a few jerks of his arm, he was moaning again in to you, sucking you softly, trying to take his own pleasure without overstimulating you.

“God,” you groaned at the sight, the sweat on his forehead, his selfless but fervent need.

He looked up at you, soft groans still coming from him as he pulled his mouth from you, coming down, “You like that, angel?” he grinned, “You turn me on so fucking much,” he huffed a breath out, “and I didn’t even need spit, you drenched my fucking hand.”

You whimpered, sleepy but amazed at what he was saying.

He hummed to himself, pleased, planing a final kiss to the inside of your thigh.

“Let me clean us up, babe,” he laughed as he got up.

“I came in my fucking pants,” he shook his head and smiled in amusement, going to find a towel.

As he returned, you were fighting the persistent wave of sleep chasing you.

“Give it up, babe,” he grinned, wiping you off, “Go to sleep, angel. I’m just going to clean off and I’ll be right next to you.”

You nodded, murmuring the word, “kiss.”

He nodded and bent down, kissing you slow, his hand gentle on your face. He smiled softly as you started to succumb to your heavy eyelids.

You remember the weight of him sinking into the bed next to you, his chest pressing to your back as he held you, ready to drift off along side you.

“I love you,” he murmured into your ear, “love making you happy, angel. I hope you sleep well.”

You smiled, giving him a gentle hum and a slurred an i love you back, but he already knows. He always knows.

fin.

[silkythewriter]

I feel bad asking another hazbin ask. Sorry, but I loved your Vox and Alastor post. Can you do them seperatly with their s/o after vox and alastor have a terrible day (possibly caused by eachother, lol)

🏩Alastor’s and Vox’s S/O comforting them after a bad day!🏩

Summary: Alastor’s and Vox’s S/O comforting them after a bad day!

Small warning!: sorry for any spelling/ grammar mistakes and if their OOC! I hope you enjoy!

Small note!: I’m getting a lot of request for hazbin hotel! I personally enjoy it writing it! I hope you like this as much as the other one!<3

Fandom!: Hazbin hotel!

Daily song suggestion:

🦌Alastor📻

This man rarely gets mad so you know it’s bad when he’s absolutely pissed and tired

Today was not his today, he had many fights with overlords trying to prove themselves, of course he won in the end but it was still tiring when one came after the other

Usually he’d love it but today was your guys anniversary and he just wanted to spend some time with you and celebrate the occasion with a small dinner and maybe a slow dance between you two

Once he got to the hotel after all the fights he was quick to search for you

Once he found you he would refuse to leave your side and would most likely come up with an excuse for you to leave whatever your doing

He would explain why he was late but would leave out the part of him being a bit mad and frustrated- he doesn’t want you to worry about him after all!

But after all that he’d definitely take you somewhere romantic he is a gentleman after all! And if you don’t want to go out that’s completely fine! You and him can just bake or cook together while playing old time music in the kitchen and maybe dancing a bit!

Once you guys finish whatever you two are doing he’d love to just relax in bed for once and just have some small talk with you and catch up whatever he missed while he was busy with the hotel and overlords

He doesn’t really stay still for long in my opinion unless it’s an important matter or you guys are just talking, but right now he’d just like to lay in bed with your head on his chest or his on yours and spend some time together <3.

Overall he’s a bit out of character but can you blame the man? He just wants to spend sometime with you!

🖥 Vox📱

I feel like it’s a bit noticeable he’s not the best at hiding he’s emotions especially if he is EXTRA pissed off my man is scary-

Valentino and velvet basically use you as a meat shield from Vox’s anger 💀 this is literally how it plays out “Good luck y/n you were an awesome friend” “Huh?velvet what do you mean?” “Good luck trooper!” “Wait Valentino what the fu-“

They literally shove you near Vox and take cover in another room

Once Vox sees you I wouldn’t say he would calm down immediately but it would bring some comfort, He’d look you way and just cross his arms before walking towards you and taking you to your guy’s shared room

I feel like he would just grumble about how stupid today was due to Alastor messing up one of he’s plans

Like I’ve indicated before he doesn’t talk much but when it comes to him being angry there’s an acceptation for him because he just wants to rant how frustrating his day was

Like Alastor he’ll want to lay in bed but unlike alastor He’s more touchy like cuddling you closer, or making you and him tangle you legs together so on so fourth!

Baby just wants to watch some TV to be honest I feel like he wouldn’t want to play game or it’s just not a good idea cause he’ll just rage even more 💀 so he’d just like to cuddle and watch some horror movies or anything really 

Valentino and Velvet check in after you two fall asleep to make sure everything cooled down and to be honest they would probably take some pictures of you two cuddling for blackmail or just to tease you two 💀

Overall he just wants you to comfort him while he rants a bit about the long day he had, once he’s down though he just wants to cuddle and watch TV with you and maybe even watch some cheesy romantic movies just to laugh and make fun of it!

Hope you enjoyed Anon! Thank you so much for requesting again! I love doing these! <3

[reidsnose]

Advil (spencer reid x reader)

overview: reader is on her period and spencer tries his best to make her life easier

genre: fluff

a/n: i think he would totally do stuff like this also this ones pretty short lol sorry ab that

-

masterlist

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you sucked in a breath through gritted teeth as a cramp destroyed your lower abdomen, your hand flying to cover it instinctively. closing your eyes and furrowing your eyebrows, you stopped taking down a picture from our board and doubled over waiting for the cramp to pass, frozen in a painful state.

"y/n! are you alright?" Spencer rushed over from the other end of the board, voice laced with worry as he tentatively rested a hand on your shoulder.

"yeah, im fine its just a stomach ache,"you breathed, still doubled over.

"no this doesnt sound very good. we should take you to the doctor this could be appendicitis or-" he began.

"no spence it isnt-" you interrupted but he cut you off.

"or it could be an intestinal cyst or tumor, this could be very bad!" he fretted, bending down trying to meet your gaze.

"no i really dont-" you began but were once again interrupted.

"this could be life threatening and what if you-"

"SPENCER!" you nearly yelled, looking up from your doubled over position, "its just period cramps."

"oh." he straightened up, feeling very embarrassed. "well um..in that case do you want me to get you some pain killers? or maybe a heating pad, i read that that can help!"

"i already asked around the station and nobody had any. i have some in my go bag ill take them on the jet."

"ok, just let me know if you need anything."

"thanks." you replied, sending him as warm of a smile as you could muster before straightening back up, hand still covering your lower stomach, and beginning to take down more pictures. luckily, you had just finished a case, and were beyond excited to cuddle up with a blanket and your comfort tv show on your couch.

as you all boarded the jet you sat down in a far away seat and curled up into as small of a ball as you could. you heard a few confused murmurs from the team but didn't want to explain, instead, you just curled up tighter. after a few minutes as everyone settled down you heard something get set on the small table and the seat beside you shifted.

you opened your eyes and saw a glass of water sitting on the table, shaking gently with the jet. you looked over at the seat beside you and were met with the kind eyes of a very apologetic looking Dr. Reid. he held out his hand, revealing two Advils.

"you didnt take your painkillers, and i could tell you need them." he told you, jutting his hand out slightly more.

"thank you," you smiled weakly as you let him drop the pills into your hand. in his other hand he had already taken the water and was holding it for you to take when you needed to. you popped the pills into my mouth and flashed him a slightly wider smile as you took a swig of the water and washed the medicine down.

"do you want me to stay or do you need space?" he asked kindly, hoping you wanted him to stay. he absolutely adored you.

"whatever you want," you answered, not wanting to sound desperate.

"well, i read once that warmth helps cramps and blood loss results in a drop in body temperature so ill stay here. because my body is warm. and yours is.." he tentatively touched your fingers, nearly shivering at the difference in temperature while trying to ignore the feeling of electricity shooting up his arm, "yours is cold right now."

"thank you." you repeated, curling back into a ball.

his hand began gently rubbing your back, "is this ok?"

instead of verbally responding, you snuggled closer to him, allowing his whole arm to drape across you. he let out the softest chuckle you'd ever heard before going back to soothingly rubbing your back, causing a content smile and light blush to dance across you face.

the painkillers weren't non drowsy so you began slipping in and out of consciousness as the jet slowly rocked you to sleep and Spencer's arms cushioned you like the worlds comfiest bed. he must have been very tired as well because you felt the weight of his head resting on top of your own. it was incredibly comforting and you felt as though you could stay like this with him forever. right as you were about to fully fall asleep, you could have sworn you heard the shutter click of a cellphone camera and the slight chuckling of morgan and prentiss.

you felt yourself being gently shaken awake and when you opened your eyes you were met with a goofy smile plastered on morgans face as he held up his phone revealing a picture of spencer and you.

in your sleep, the two of you had cuddled up even closer to each other, your cheeks lightly squished together. you widened your eyes as you peeled your now warm skin off of Spencer's, feeling him stir as he too began to wake up.

"morgan put that away!" you whisper yelled, pleading with him not to show Reid.

Morgan wasn't stupid, he could tell you two had a thing for each other; the whole team could. hell, the only people who didn't know seemed to be the two of you.

"put what away?" Spencer yawned, blinking in attempt to adjust to the light.

"this picture," morgan smirked, showing it to Reid.

you looked up worriedly at him, trying your best to read his expressions and body language.

"i-" Spencer squinted slightly as he spoke, a light smile tugging at his lips, "could you send that to me?"

worlds littlest taglist:

@mac99martin

[shining-magically]

so I’ve wondered this since the trailer came out years and years ago and Chloe defended the movie - was the red shoes teaser written by the same team that made the movie? were they forced to market it like that, was that based on an earlier draft, etc?? not sure if you know but you seem like the leading expert!

Sorry, this is gonna be an absolute novel because you know I’m an animation fan and the history and production of Red Shoes and the Seven Dwarfs is SO interesting and insane. Like, Tangled levels of insane. Thanks for calling me an expert, no one else was gonna do it so I just kind of took up the helm lol.

Here’s the low-down... The timeline of the movie’s production is an absolute mess and kind of an extremely wild ride. It was in production for ten years, went through a lot of different crew members, and went through at least two other major versions of the story before landing on the final version.

Since there’s not a ton of info on the movie’s production, a lot of this is pieced together from different interviews and context clues, and also a lot of what I’ve read and what I am quoting has been translated from Korean, sometimes pretty roughly. But yeah.

Here’s the story of why the Red Shoes and the Seven Dwarfs teasers and poster were so, so bad and fatshame-y and the actual movie was so, so good and body-positive. (With pictures and production artwork!)

(This is a beast of a post so I’m putting it under a cut.)

All right, so. After its conception originally as a short story by the South Korean studio Locus Creative in 2009-2010-ish, Red Shoes and the Seven Dwarfs was being worked on and was set to come out in Summer 2017, as evidenced by this poster at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival, featuring a different logo and very different character designs for most of the dwarfs.

In early-mid 2016, the first teaser (in which we see Snow White undress and then two dwarfs recoil in horror at her fatness when she takes her magic shoes off) was released, after the film had kind of been slowly chugging along for 6 or so years. (I am having such trouble pinpointing when the second teaser was released (in which one of the dwarfs basically attacks Snow while she is sleeping to steal her shoes), but I believe it was around the same time.) The teasers didn’t get that much traction because this was a small film from a small indie studio in South Korea.

None of the final actors had been cast yet. At this point in the production, the story was different, one of the many versions that the movie went through. As in the final movie, the dwarfs were actually cursed knights/princes and Snow White switched back and forth between two body types due to her magic shoes, but in this version, the dwarfs needed to steal the shoes from her in order to break their curse (rather than needing “a kiss from the most beautiful woman in the world” like in the final movie).

The weird thing is, I believe they had JUST changed the movie’s story when the teaser came out. I’m almost positive it was released more as a proof of concept than as an actual trailer for the movie. They had just recently combined two separate characters (seen above), a typical pretty, skinny princess character (Snow White) and a cute chubby girl character (’Bonnie’), into one single character that switches back and forth between the two appearances when she wears the magic shoes (also they had just dropped literally half of the movie taking place in the real world, with a magic mirror portal, it was a whole thing). 

They didn’t have the details of this aspect of the new story hammered out yet, and the first pass at presenting Snow’s magically changing body type, was, yeah, not good and super offensive. This was a really inexperienced indie studio making their first film on a low budget, so even the animation and voice acting wasn’t great. I think they just wanted to get SOMETHING out there because it had been 6 years and they wanted to have something to show for it.

But here’s the thing. Despite how the teasers make it seem, this was always supposed to be a movie about body positivity, letting go of appearance-based prejudices, and loving yourself and others for who you are and for who they are, which we see in the final film.

I like to think of our film as a kindhearted one. Our intentions are nice.

- Director Sung-ho Hong

It’s important to keep in mind that this movie was made in South Korea by a 99% Korean crew, and, as I understand it anyway, in Korean culture, ‘fatshaming’ is not really a thing that is seen as overtly offensive. Also, children’s media there seems to have more adult things in it than in the US, which probably accounts for the more risque parts of the teasers. That said, I really believe that at this point in the timeline, the movie was on-track to be bad (or at least not very good) when it was released, and it would have ended up bad IF a few key players hadn’t signed on (which I’ll get to in a moment).

Interestingly, the movie’s producer, Sujin Hwang, said in a 2017 interview:

“[Both teasers] were solely produced to induce curiosity. They’re completely irrelevant to the actual story.”

- Producer Sujin Hwang

I think what she was trying to convey was that neither one is a scene in the actual movie, because while the teasers didn’t reflect the revamped story as it existed in summer 2017 (the time of the interview), they DID reflect the earlier version of the story where the dwarfs wanted her shoes, which is what the story was at the time they were made.

Now that we’re in post-teaser 2016, HERE’S where things start to turn around. After the teasers were released, my guy Disney veteran and native Korean Jin Kim joined the project. He and Red Shoes director Sung-ho Hong had been buddies for about eight years and Sung-ho had been trying to get Jin to come to Seoul and work with him at Locus for a long time, and he finally succeeded.

Jin and his twenty years of Disney experience as an animator and senior designer on films like Tangled, Frozen, Big Hero 6, Zootopia, and Moana, had a HUGE HUGE HUGE influence on the movie. He redesigned almost all the characters, oversaw all the visual development from the moment he signed on, and heavily (HEAVILY) supervised the animation, literally going frame-by-frame through preliminary animations and drawing over them, teaching the inexperienced animators at Locus everything he knew. (Literally almost everyone except him either only had TV experience or had no professional experience because they just gotten out of school.)

From an outsider’s perspective, it really seems as though Jin joining the project (and his gargantuan effort) made the quality SKYROCKET. Not just in character design and animation, but also in things like effects animation, story, etc. After he joined, Locus really started pushing HARD to make a good, high-quality movie, and his influence and experience from being a prominent figure at Disney was absolutely key. The studio also began to really study Disney films and other well-made animated films from other studios to really try and pinpoint what the DNA of a good animated movie really is.

I don’t have any solid evidence, but I’m pretty sure that Tony Bancroft (an animator and the co-director of Mulan) then joined the project because he’s good friends with Jin Kim. He is only credited as the voice director (the movie was recorded in English and the characters were animated to the English dialogue), but I am SURE that he probably also had a pretty big influence on the movie, because like... How could he not? I really really think there was more to his role than his title would have you believe, even though there’s almost no info out there about it.

So now the movie goes through a gigantic metamorphosis. Character designs, visual development, and animation quality are all rapidly improving, the story is tightening, and the themes of the movie (which, again, were always the same and intended to be positive) are being presented in a more sincere way. The movie is becoming the sweet, self-love-encouraging and body-positive movie that was eventually released.

I’m putting a gif from the credits of the final movie here. As we move into 2017, when the giant eruption of backlash occurred, please keep in mind that the story was finalized at this point and that THIS was the movie people were so mad about:

Chloe Grace Moretz accepted the role of Snow White immediately after she read the script and she recorded her lines (I think) in early-ish 2017. Her co-star Sam Claflin also immediately accepted the role of the romantic interest, Merlin, after reading the script and recorded his lines in (I believe) July 2017.

In the summer of 2017, the story and script were more or less the same as in the final movie. Promotional images from that time show that most of dwarfs had been completely redesigned by this point and didn’t have their teaser designs anymore.

They also released a few screenshots that look exactly like the final film. The movie was advertised as coming out in ‘2018′ at this point. Here’s a promo image from 2017 that is MUCH more tactfully worded than the infamous Cannes poster:

So now we’re in summer 2017. The Cannes Film Festival. The movie’s script and story have been basically nailed down, animation is underway, and the Korean film company Finecut is beginning to market and sell the movie to worldwide audiences. They are planning on showing some footage to potential buyers at the festival, and they make a poster to advertise the film there.

Unfortunately, it’s THIS POSTER:

Now here’s where there are some unknowns. By this point, the movie is basically in its final form, which is an adorable, body-positive story about loving people for who they are, loving yourself for who YOU are, and that provides commentary on society’s standards of beauty and how they affect how people are treated/viewed. So why this poster??? All I can really tell is that someone (I think Finecut) really, REALLY messed up and either horribly mistranslated the tagline, or didn’t do enough research to know that this kind of thing is REALLY NOT OKAY in western culture.

The above picture is shared and the internet backlash begins, fueled by tweets from prominent body-positivity activists like Tess Holliday. Even Chloe Grace Moretz speaks out against it, because she of all people KNOWS that that’s not what the movie is about. The internet then finds the old teasers from before the movie was revamped and it makes things worse. Producer Sujin Hwang profusely apologizes and says that that is NOT the message of the movie. Locus pulls the advertising campaign, and takes down the two old teasers.

“Our film, a family comedy, carries a message designed to challenge social prejudices related to standards of physical beauty in society by emphasizing the importance of inner beauty.”

- Producer Sujin Hwang

Voice director Tony Bancroft also tried to explain the situation:

“The truth is the film has a body-positive message as its core theme–it’s the opposite of what reports are saying. The problem is one poorly translated movie poster that has been taken dramatically out of context.” 

- Voice Director Tony Bancroft

And then... There was nothing for a while. The movie didn’t come out in 2018 and was delayed. From what I can tell, I DON’T believe this delay was related to the Cannes backlash. I think it was mostly due to Locus’s limited budget and resources, because as we know, animation is difficult, time-consuming, expensive, and easy to do badly but hard to do well. Also, probably with Jin Kim and Tony Bancroft’s influence, they REALLY wanted to make sure to do a good job with the animation because they now had a great story and they really wanted the movie to be a quality, worldwide hit that would kind of put South Korean feature animation on the map. Just take a look at how nice the final animation was:

The movie was released in South Korea on July 25th, 2019. Unfortunately, the damage was done in the English-speaking markets and it was not released to an English-speaking audience until June 22, 2020, when it was released digitally in the UK. At the time of this post, there is no set US release date, but the distribution rights were recently bought by Lionsgate and the MPAA gave the film an official PG rating.

So who’s to blame? There’s no good answer. You could blame Locus for making those old teasers. You could blame Finecut for the competely tonedeaf Cannes poster. You could even blame cancel culture for raging against the movie based on one poster and two old teaser trailers without researching what the movie was actually about.

All I know is, it’s a damn shame.