#that quote in bird boy's section is also a quote from my notes

[einsatzzz]

fuuta ranking ☆ Top 5 most compatible khr characters with Kana ♡ I would like the tea

Thank you for sending this Jojo! 💜✨Considering the type of person Kana is and her lore, this was quite hard to come up with. I think for her, an incompatibility ranking would be easier to make 🤣🤣🤣 (e.g. yeah she hates this guy, yeah and this guy too!)

After much thinking, here is the top 5 most compatible characters for Kana-chan!

1. Kurumi&... (x)

Though the stream is divided by a boulder in its swift flow, I know the twain will soon unite again.

2. Kurumi!!! (x)

Into the gaps between the flower petals, the two of us come falling down How many times have our hearts crumbled? If it has to come to letting go when our hands have finally joined, It doesn't matter if our wishes don't come true As long as you're there with me.

3. Kurumi... (x)

Even with my heart beyond help… I walked together with you...

4. Kurumi...? (x)

In our days together, the smile you showed me Is so kind and tender, It will never disappear Please stay like that for eternity You don't have to understand anything.

5. Kurumi(?) (x)

When in sleep— Is only what we see then To be called a dream? This fleeting world, too, I cannot see as reality.

Phew! Now that the legally required special Kurumi category is done, we can move on to the top 5 most compatible canon KHR characters with Kana.

For this one, the main criteria we looked for are people she gets along/would agree with without the divine Kurumi intervention (regardless if they will ever even meet or not), so I'm dissecting her brain a bit. But just a little bit, otherwise it'll be dangerous 💀💀💀 (stalking her in my brain w/o the Kurumi or Yui factor is hard ueueueue)

Anyway, top five in no particular order (for now), except #1 is kinda obvious:

◆ Yamamoto Takeshi

She has nothing against genuine and earnest people like him, she appreciates them actually. Even moreso, if it's someone who can live by their ideals no matter what. Despite his natural talent as a hitman, he somehow has this interesting stubbornness to not kill people, even if his own life is in danger. She personally finds such a thing difficult to do, it's way easier to kill them quickly, so it's something she can respect.

That's why when she was asked to assist in training him, she didn't really argue against it, even though he's technically already someone from Vongola by then. He's smarter than he lets on, that much she knows. She wonders how long he'll pretend that this is all a game of mafia.

When Yamamoto came over to the Ninomiya Estate to train with her, he introduced himself to her parents (who happened to both be home at that time) as her friend. Upon hearing of such a thing, Kana's parents started tearing up dramatically in such an exaggerated manner. "Ah! Our beloved Kana-chan finally has a friend outside of this Family!"

◆ Giotto (Vongola Primo)

"The Vongola Primo believes that someone who abandons their own friends cannot be entrusted with the position as the boss of his Family."

Due to Oniyanagi and Vongola's long history together, he always makes it perfectly clear to his father how difficult he finds it to trust the Vongola Family, even if both organizations currently have a stable business partnership. A long history like this can only serve to lower one's guard, opening an opportunity for betrayal.

However, the thing he can agree with from the bottom of his heart (if any) regarding Vongola Primo is that they both wouldn't abandon their respective Families. If shit hits the fan, his priority is his own Family. The succeeding Vongola boss is just gonna have to fend for himself.

"But didn't the book say "friends" not "Family"?" "Aren't they technically the same?" "Yesn't."

◆ Reborn

Reborn being world's strongest hitman is something they found to be quite respectable, they even passed by each other on a few missions before. But him trying to be their tutor is something that they find to be quite troublesome. Their parents told them that the only ones getting "tutored" is Tsuna and his potential guardians after all. Nevertheless, it's not like they don't understand the lessons that he's trying to teach them. It's just that they're not in the mood to improve themselves in such a manner.

There are a good several times though when their brains would eclipse and the endpoint personal victim would be Tsuna.

"Kana, I need you to do something." "No thanks, I'm busy right now." "If you follow through, Tsuna will get punk'd in the end. Kurumi might just laugh if it's funny enough." "Ok."

◆ Hibari Kyoya

He's an admirable person who carries himself with such confidence and with full belief in himself. Undeterred by what's considered common by people around him, he paves his own path solely based on his own ideals and beliefs. It's almost as if he can overcome anything with his strength no matter what.

Whenever they slightly let their guard down, he might just remind them of a person they look up to. With the phrase itself "look up to" being an extreme understatement. Whenever they see the sight of that black coat of his hanging off his shoulder, swaying in the air, they can't help but think: "Isn't it disgusting? When you begin to recall such a warm memory, but feel thoroughly cold instead."

It's precisely because he's the exact type of person that they would've been fond of long ago that they need to deny anything he asks of them beyond arm's length transactions. Yet, look what he's trying to get them into, provoking them to reveal all their cards so early? What a bastard. There must be something wrong with him. But, who are they to criticize him in the first place? When, surely enough, there's a lot of things wrong with them, way more than whatever is wrong with him.

Proud battle-sexual vs Closet battle-sexual - where the former is trying to get the latter off the closet by bulldozing through them. But the latter keeps finding new closets to hide in. Their LG/BT stands for Lethal Gruesome Beatdown Tournament. They are both having a fun time, no cap.

◆ Checker Face

Compromising the lives of a "few", for the "greater good" is something they would agree on. Though, what they respectively consider as "greater good" might be different.

The means to an end only matter if you have viable options to choose from in the first place. If there's no other means, then it unfortunately just couldn't be helped, right?

"Forgive me Father, for I have sinned. And as I kneel here now; hands red with blood, I know deep down, that I'll do it again."

[kitazura]

Um hi I just found your blog ur a really could writer um could I request like a cuddle movie night with Atsumu,Sakusa and Bokuto (and if u have a anon list could I be 🦊 anon)

watch a movie with miya atsumu, sakusa kiyoomi, & bokuto kōtarō 0.2k words each

note: hi 🦊 anon!! you can absolutely have some cuddly movie night scenarios with the boys <3 aa im sorry it took so long for me to post i had to rewrite this like 4 times bc i didn’t like how my drafts turned out LMAO but i hope u enjoy!

— ATSUMU

His fingers have been fiddling with your hair for the past two hours, and you’re sure the section he’s been toying with has turned into a bird’s nest. Not that you have any right to complain, anyway; your head’s on his chest, and your hand grasps the fabric of his shirt, the strength of your grip changing according to the intensity of the events playing out onscreen.

The movie’s finally arrived at the big, climactic fight scene. You grab onto Atsumu’s shirt like your life depends on it, holding your breath in suspense. He thinks it’s cute, the way your eyes are wide and twinkly from the glow of the tv. He’s almost content to leave you in peace, but he can never pass up the chance to tease.

“Y’know, by the time this is over, I don’t think any amount of ironing is gonna get these wrinkles out, what with all your grabbing.” His smirk blooms into a chuckle as you tear your eyes away from the screen to glare at him, albeit insincerely.

“As if you iron your clothes in the first place,” you shoot back. Well, you got him there.

Defeated, he lets you return to your attention to the movie, pressing an apologetic kiss to the crown of your head when you grumble about having to rewind it to see what he made you miss.

— SAKUSA

You have to stifle your giggle when you steal a glance at your boyfriend. Sakusa’s brows are knit in concentration, eyes glued to the screen. He notices your amusement nonetheless, giving you a questioning look.

“What is it? Did I miss a joke?”

You shake your head. Truthfully, you’re not paying much attention to the movie, finding more entertainment in the expressions Sakusa makes as he watches, so the answer you give him is pretty baseless.

You cozy up further into his side, mumbling, “You’re warm.”

He turns even warmer, his face flushing at your absentminded comment. The arm he has wrapped around your shoulders gives you a gentle squeeze, pulling you impossibly closer to him. You put your head on his shoulder, and he rests his head on yours. You hear him let out a breath and take it for a sigh of content. (He’s really just resisting the urge to sneeze; your hair is tickling his nose, but he doesn’t want to ruin the moment.)

Half an hour passes; Kiyoomi’s gotten so caught up in the movie that he doesn’t notice you’ve fallen asleep until your head nearly lolls off his shoulder. He’s quick to catch you, and makes a mental note to move as little as possible.

Pulling the blankets up to your chin, he begins to think about how to summarize the movie once you wake up.

— BOKUTO

“Oh, oh! it’s almost time for his confession.” Bokuto’s voice is oddly hushed, not wanting to break the quiet. “I never get tired of it.”

“Yeah, you also don’t get tired of crying every time it comes on” you reply playfully. Unlike him, you speak at a normal volume.

You reach over to the popcorn bucket in his lap, which he instinctively tilts towards you. “By the way,” you say through a mouthful of popcorn, “why are you whispering? We’re at home.”

“For the ambience, duh.” Bokuto rolls his eyes at you as if it’s the most obvious thing. You can’t help but laugh and cup his face in your hands, pulling him in for a kiss. He obliges, pecking your lips, your cheeks, and one more on your nose before settling back down.

There’s a beat of silence before he asks, “I used the word ‘ambience’ correctly, right?”

You pinch his cheek endearingly. “Yeah, you did.”

He beams with pride before shushing you, buzzing with anticipation as the confession scene begins.

You must have watched this movie a million times by now, and have replayed the confession thrice as much. Unsurprisingly, Bokuto’s got it memorized; you can hear him saying the words with the actor onscreen, matching the emotions in his tone.

You turn to tease him, only to find that he’s looking at you intently, eyes shining with sincerity as he quotes the last few words:

“So I can say to you now, with absolute certainty, that I am irrevocably in love with you.”

— postscript

i am a sap. a Sap!!!! honestly i pulled bokuto’s quote from one of my scrapped fics lolol the venn diagram of the characteristics of 12 year old me and 17 year old me is a circle. but anyway !! mayhaps ill get some fics out soon hehe

[dailymeruem]

How much does Meruem weigh?

Being a fan of a particular series or character means you want to know everything you can about them, even when certain information is not explicitly stated. Although we are privileged to follow Meruem from his conception to his death, there is still a lot of information we are not given about him. One such mystery is his weight!

Fellow Meruem lover and colleague Lurm (Wicked_witchart - Insta, TikTok) has done some casual sleuthing and maths, and has come up with a reasonable estimate as to how much Meruem would weigh!

I have received permission to share that info with you here, so if you would like to find out how much mass is contained in this tiny chunk of man, read on!

First of all, as noted at the outset, we are never given official specific physical stats in the manga by Togashi or in the anime. There is Meruem’s entries in the HxH guidebook(s), but the credibility of the guidebooks is often debated. Thus, these findings are by no means canon, but are a fun estimate that might add to your appreciation of the character, or could help members of the HxH fandom in fanfic, rp or art endeavors! 

To begin, we will be establishing some base estimates regarding one thing we have a better idea about: Meruem’s height. This will be the base of our weight calculations, as you shall see.

Again, Meruem’s exact height is not stated in canon, but we do have 2 clues: the HxH Guidebooks, and comparing his height visually to characters we do know the exact height of. I won’t be getting into finding all that here, that’s another topic, but I will be using these two sources for my base height estimate:

This video that was put together by a fan based on speculation and the HxH guidebooks;

and this chart made by a fan on Reddit based on the same sources.

Based on these, we came to the conclusion that a relatively acceptable estimate for Meruem’s height would be 169cm (nice), or 5′5″. Short King!

~~

Step 1: Base Assumptions

This brings us to the beginning of our calculations. Before we figure out his main body weight, we need to consider one very important extremity: his tail.

Starting from our base assumption of Meruem’s height, we are going to attempt to decipher the length, diameter, and then volume of Meruem’s tail. We can then figure out how much his tail would weigh, which we can add to his total body weight at the end!

Fig 1.1 is our base assumptions for our calculations. Using Meruem’s head as a measuring guide, we see he is approximately 6 heads tall.1/6th of 169cm = 28.2cm, so we will use that figure as a Head Height.

To figure out his tail width, we will take these things into consideration:

 his tail is made up of 10 segments

each segment seems to be around the width of his hand (measuring the segment width vertically down the tail)

2 measurements of Meruem’s hand width = 1 Meruem head height 

With this info, we can conclude that Meruem’s tail is about 5 Heads long, or 5/6ths of Meruem’s full height. Subtracting the Head Height from the Full Height will give us the tail length:

Full Height (169cm) - Head Height (28.2cm) = 140.8cm Tail Length

We will use this measurement next to find out how much the tail would weigh!

~~

Step 2: Tail Volume

Fig 1.2 is going to help us visualize how we find the diameter of Meruem’s tail in order to plug it into our calculation.

Looking at official Meruem art for the anime (which is what we are using for this research as anime refs tend to be more consistent), his tail appears to have the same approximate diameter as Meruem’s face, from his chin up to the “brim” of his hat. 

We have to rely on eyeballing for this, and this boy has a big noggin, so we are going to be generous and say that the diameter of his tail is 1/2 of his head height, to allow for the rest of his head, the height of which is depicted often inconsistently, even in the anime. 

1/2 of Head Height (28.2cm)= 14.1cm Tail Diameter

We now have the Tail Length and Diameter. Now the math begins.

The tail is a cylinder, so we will be using the formula for the volume of a cylinder-  V = πr2h

Radius = 14.1 (Diameter of Tail) divided by 2 = 7.05 Tail Radius

V= πr2h = π·7.052·140.8 ≈ 21985.21725

V ≈ 21985.22 cm3

So, what do we do with this number?

~~~

Step 3: Tail Weight

When thinking about weight, you need to think of *what* is making up that weight. In humans, aside from fat, a major factor in weight is skeletal muscle.

As you may know, muscle is quite dense, and for a being of Meruem’s power, I’m sure he has a lot of it. Judging by the speed, power and precision that Meruem can swing his tail around, it’s safe to say that thing is probably entirely muscle mass. We are going to figure out the weight of Meruem's tail using it's volume measurement and the weight measurement of skeletal muscle per cm3!

> OBJECTION!!!! <

But Beamie!, you may exclaim, Meruem is an ant! He doesn’t have a skeleton! But remember, Meruem was made up of entirely human genetic material. He’s not all human, but he is also not all bug. I am going to quote Lurm directly here as they explain their reasoning:

I would argue that he does have an inner skeleton

His hands don't seem to have any junctions, and his face has too much free movement and is too smooth to be made of such hard material

But at the same time it's not floppy meaning he has something on the inside keeping it together

For me it makes no sense for him to have lighter bones (like birds) cause he needs the structure to keep his body erect and suspend his helmet, also higher risk of fractures which we have seen he's very resistant against

Also also he has a freaking big ass, muscular TAIL which probably adds quite a few kilos to his total

For the reasons above, we are going to go with the assumption that Meruem does indeed have some sort of inner skeleton, as a supplement to his exoskeletal parts.

Back to the calculation. Skeletal muscle weighs 1.04 gram per cubic centimeter. So to find out how much the tail weighs, we are going to multiply this weight by the volume we figured out in the last step.

1.04g/cm3 x 21985.22 cm3 =  22864.63g

Tail Weight = 22.9 (50.4lbs)

That’s one heavy tail!

~~~

Step 4: Body Weight

Almost there! This is the section where we are going to do the most estimating. Meruem is not a tube we can easily find the volume of like his tail, so the closest thing we can do is compare his body to a human male of the same stature.

Looking up average body weights of a healthy human male of 169cm, the ideal range is between 57.1kg (125.8) and 71.4kg (157.4lbs) . Because Meruem’s is most likely entirely muscle, we are going to go with the highest number here to cover our bases. This is a dense chunk of ant man.

With the body weight of 71.4kg, the final piece of our puzzle is the exoskeleton. We have no way of knowing a)precisely how much exoskeleton we are talking, and b) how much it would weigh, as we don’t know how thick it is. There is no real way to measure the weight of a real bug’s exoskeleton either, aside from weighing molted skins or something. The best we can do is to compare the material of an exoskeleton (chitin) to something similar. Keratin might be the closest we can get. 

Lurm came up with the ballpark number of 5kg (11lbs) for the exoskeleton weight through their science ways and I don’t know about all of you, but that sounds reasonable to me.

Total Body Weight= 71.4kg (157.4lbs) + 5kg (11lbs) = 76.4kg (168.4lbs)

~~~

Final Results

Meruem’s total weight:

Body Weight 76.4kg (168.4lbs) + Tail Weight = 22.9 (50.4lbs)

99.3 kg (219 lbs)

Solid, but still within lifting range. If you worked out, you could carry him bridal-style. Can’t knock this boy over with a pail of water. He can sit on your lap but your legs might fall asleep/need amputating. Nice!

I hope you enjoyed this scientific journey!! Over-analyzing anime characters is what we do best here at DailyMeruem. Peace!

[the-hunchback-of-notre-dame]

Screenwriter Tab Murphy Talks “Hunchback,” “Atlantis” and “Brother Bear” During Walt Disney Family Museum Happily Ever After Hours

by Tony Betti | Source (x)

Over the weekend I had the fortunate opportunity to attend the Walt Disney Family Museum’s Happily Ever After Hours Virtual Program featuring screenwriter Tab Murphy.

Tab Murphy has a wide embodiment of work for the screen, but this program primarily focused on his work for what is now known as Walt Disney Animation Studios. He contributed to The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Tarzan, Atlantis: The Lost Empire, and Brother Bear.

Right off the bat, Tab said that his first foray into animation was a bit jarring. He wrote the script, and then partnered with Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz who, as he put it, had the script posted on walls all around a room and would then go up to certain sections and draw big Xs through the words and say “this is where we think a song should be.” As they worked together though, Tab said he realized how right they were to do that, and the end result is simply amazing.

Anybody familiar with the original story of The Hunchback of Notre Dame may recall that there are a ton of characters present in the original novel aside from the namesake Hunchback, Quasimodo. He said that was where one of the hardest parts of writing the movie adaptation lied, especially for a Disney animated film, noting that there was a certain “checklist” of sorts for a Disney film that the characters had to hit. So they developed the film around the characters that would best fill the roles of the principal lead (Quasimodo), the Hero (Phoebus), and the Princess (Esmeralda), along with the obvious villain, Claude Frollo. He said that the story was exceptionally dark for a Disney film, but he found the heart in it when you would take away everyone else leaving Quasimodo to do his own thing with the birds or the gargoyles, and the world got bright and colorful. This sentiment is actually echoed in the production design of the film, whenever Frollo is present, the colors are grays and dark shadows, and muted and boring hues, but whenever Quasi is involved in his own thing there are far more colors and brightness.

He also elaborated on his love for writing the character of Esmeralda, saying he felt that she was Disney’s original activist, and she was most definitely not a damsel in distress, standing up for the issues, with Tab citing the line (though he flubbed it a little) “You mistreat this poor boy the same way you mistreat my people. You speak of justice, yet you are cruel to those most in need of your help!”

When asked about the development of Quasimodo, Tab pointed out that more classic adaptations of the story, such as an earlier incarnation from Universal in their horror movie craze, took the character and turned him into a literal monster, some sort of terrifying creature. “This is a human being,” Tab said, adding that his version would not scare you but draw out empathy. But he still had to be realistic. He couldn’t be the hero either, that wouldn’t be true to the source material, but he echoed thoughts and ideas shared by animator James Baxter in a recent program from the museum, that he needed to be gentle and warm to reinforce that this was a human and not a monster.

Interestingly, Tab said that he had not watched the film in its entirety since the world premiere back in 1996 up until about two weeks before the program, forgetting how beautiful the final product turned out. He said he cried his eyes out and believes that story holds up because of that emotion, something that everyone can relate to at some point in their lives, that they’re different and feeling alienated and an outsider who overcomes that. “Everyone who worked on that movie, everyone was on their A-game.”

After Hunchback, Tab was assigned to tackle Tarzan, though he openly admitted he wasn’t as involved in that one as much as people think he was. Shortly after he began, Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise (directors of Hunchback) asked him to join their team for a radical new movie that would buck the trends of Disney Animation, Atlantis: The Lost Empire. According to Tab, the pair pitched him the idea while comparing it to Disneyland, saying “You know how you go in to [the park] and go right into Fantasyland, through the castle, see the princesses and fairy tales. Well, we’re going to take a hard left straight to Adventureland.”

Tab was excited, this was going to be something so out of the ordinary and he would be a part of it. He noted that he was especially excited because of the subpods that would shoot out of the Ulysses. At another point in the session, Tab mentioned that he was never worried about budget when writing for Disney animation, noting that the animators were so good they would figure out how to get what he wrote onto the screen successfully, with the Subpods off the main submarine as they battled the Leviathan an excellent example of that. He also elaborated on what he referred to as “movie moments,” those special quotes that you know, when writing them, people will always remember and associate with the movie, with Atlantis having one of his favorites, when Helga is firing the flare gun at Roarke’s balloon and uses his own words, “Nothing personal.”

As many know, the film was not an immediate box office success. It didn’t do poorly, it just didn’t reach the numbers that Disney likes to see. Because of that, Tab thought he had written Disney’s first flop. The film came out in 2001, and he said it wasn’t until last year when he was stuck at home that someone had exposed him to the following that Atlantis: The Lost Empire has acquired over the years. He even started getting letters and messages from fans, some saying that the film had inspired them to be linguists or archeologists as those who were younger when they saw it are now adults exploring their career path.

Tab has an almost Jeff Bridges-like quality to him, almost channeling the Dude from The Big Lebowski, and elaborated on the sentiment of career paths, commenting that when he was in school, he was studying forestry and biology. In one of his best pieces of wisdom from the session, he said that “Part of knowing what you want is knowing what’s not meant for you.” It was his love of movies that continued to grow prompting him to get into the industry as a screenwriter. However, that background in forestry and wildlife would come in handy on his next assignment, Brother Bear.

Tab said goodbye to the kids, and jetted off to Florida for a short-term residence at the Yacht Club resort where he would go to the Animation studio that was part of the Disney-MGM Studios (now Disney’s Hollywood Studios) where Brother Bear was in production. Most of the original story, he said, was created from campfire stories that he and director Aaron Blaise would share. Together they wrote the original story which was mostly similar and had Kenai being transformed and subsequently mentored by an older bear named Grizz, voiced by Michael Clarke Duncan. He packed up and left and only after that did they change one prominent piece of the writing. Grizz would now be dropped for a younger bear, Koda, and that one “movie moment” as Tab says, where Kenai has to say the “he did something bad.”

Tab said the story of what happened on Brother Bear is truly the story of animation. It’s living and breathing. Things get dropped, added, changed, tweaked. He felt like a starting pitcher in a baseball game, there to set you up for success and then be moved or changed out to make sure the game is won, but also only one part of the greater team as a whole. When asked about how he would draw out emotion in his writing he said he would only put the words down, and it was the rest of that same team that would succeed in making you feel something, adding that he might have words that touch you emotionally in scene, but the rest of the team knew how to enhance those words and make it something truly special.

[sssshhhthefilmsabouttostart]

The best and worst films of 2020

Let’s be honest - 2020 was an extremely shitty year for moviegoers everywhere, as the Queen would say an annus horribilis.

Due to the Covid pandemic’s dramatic impact on nearly every facet of human life, cinemas closed, film festivals went virtual and film productions became an intricate mess of insurance and safety challenges.

Yet despite these dire challenges and an unpredictable future, cinema remained very much alive throughout the year, with a wide range of ambitious undertakings snaking their way into whatever form of release seemed viable. Blockbusters receded to the background, allowing a wide range of movies to trickle through an uncertain marketplace that would have been hostile to them even in pre-pandemic times.

So what cinematic gems and unmitigated disasters were dropped upon audiences during the year?

Ladies and gentlemen, may we please offer for your consideration...

HONOURABLE MENTIONS

THE CURRENT WAR - THE LIGHTHOUSE - IN FABRIC - BEING FRANK: THE CHRIS SIEVEY STORY (D) - BOMBSHELL - THE PEANUT BUTTER FALCON - THE SOCIAL DILEMMA (D) - LIGHT OF MY LIFE - THE ASSISTANT - THE LODGE - THE GENTLEMEN - THE WAY BACK - DARK WATERS - 1917 - THE BURNT ORANGE HERESY - THE HUNT

2020′S TOP TEN BEST FILMS

10. THE WOLF OF SNOW HOLLOW

Hot off the critical success of his debut feature ‘Thunder Road,’ writer-director Jim Cummings’ refreshing yet effective take on the werewolf genre amped up the dark comedy whilst delivering quite a few chills. Tinged with realistically flawed characters and clever scares, ‘The Wolf of Snow Hollow’ might not have been your typical werewolf flick but it successfully managed to bring that classic legend to life once again.

9. LET HIM GO

Previously last seen together as Clark Kent’s adoptive parents in ‘Man of Steel,’ Diane Lane and Kevin Costner were reunited onscreen as husband and wife again in writer-director Thomas Bezucha’s neo-Western drama ‘Let Him Go.’ Adapted from author Larry Watson’s 2013 novel, the film featured stunning landscapes, full-blooded moments of sudden violence and compelling performances from Diane Lane, Kevin Costner and, most memorably, Lesley Manville’s turn as a gritty and cunning matriarch.

8. COLOUR OUT OF SPACE

Based on the classic short story by HP Lovecraft and featuring another scene-stealing performance from Nicolas Cage, this clever adaptation was an effective horror film with an unrelentingly grim sci-fi bent. In addition to the truly disturbing and inspired images of queasy body horror, ‘Colour Out of Space’ also marked the eagerly-anticipated re-emergence of filmmaker Richard Stanley (his first time back in the director’s chair since being fired from his 1996 remake ‘The Island of Dr Moreau’).

7. THE INVISIBLE MAN

Who knew a remake could be so refreshing? With this updated take on the H.G. Wells tale, writer-director Leigh Whannell did just about everything right, delivering a tense, clever thriller with touches of both horror and sci-fi. As the fascinatingly flawed yet appealing tough protagonist, Elisabeth Moss gave a captivating performance in a film that was chilling in all the right ways, packed with plenty of twists and a deliciously nasty resolution.

6. THE TRIAL OF THE CHICAGO 7 (NETFLIX)

Whilst the subject matter of ‘The Trial of the Chicago 7′ shared an uncanny relevance to today’s politically charged times, as a gripping courtroom drama with a stellar cast, the film ticked all the boxes. ‘West Wing’ creator Aaron Sorkin put his trademark traits - razor-sharp wit, rhetorical flair and political insight - to very good use in this masterful retelling of the trial following the 1968 anti-war protests outside the Democratic National Convention.

5. HEARTS AND BONES

In his debut feature film, Australian director Ben Lawrence created a spiritually rich and immersive drama about the relationship between a grizzled, broken war photographer and a Sudanese refugee. Whilst Hugo Weaving was note-perfect in his portrayal as a crumbling man wrestling with his past, equally impressive was first time actor Andrew Luri who delivered a quiet yet memorable performance in what was an affecting piece of cinema.

4. TOTALLY UNDER CONTROL (DOCUMENTARY)

Watching a documentary about the COVID-19 crisis in the middle of a global pandemic might not sound appealing but prolific filmmaker Alex Gibney’s latest work was easily the most essential non-fiction film of 2020. Shot safely in secret for five months, ‘Totally Under Control’ played out like a tightly-wound thriller as it placed the Trump Administration’s inept response to the coronavirus pandemic under the microscope.

3. BAD EDUCATION (HBO)

As far as crime stories go, embezzlement isn’t always the most thrilling subject. However, ‘Bad Education’ turned a relatively simple white collar crime story about a New Jersey school administrator caught stealing money into a compelling drama, thanks to an incisive and nimble script and spot on performances from Allison Janney, Geraldine Viswanathan, Ray Romano and especially Hugh Jackman.

2. MANK (NETFLIX)

Director David Finch’s dazzling portrait of Herman J. ‘Mank’ Mankiewicz, the screenwriter who collaborated with wunderkind filmmaker Orson Welles to write the first draft of ‘Citizen Kane,’ was a cinematic jewel from start to finish. Similar to last year’s ‘Once Upon A Time in...Hollywood,’ ‘Mank’ delivered a layered depiction of the filmmaking process, whilst Gary Oldman continued to excel at immersing himself in playing real-life characters, this time as the hard-drinking, intellectual screenwriter.

1. NOMADLAND

Writer-director Chloe Zhao’s intimate drama about an unemployed widow living as a van-dwelling modern-day nomad was a thoughtful, contemplative and reflective piece of storytelling. It may have touched upon mature themes about loneliness, financial instability and restlessness, but ‘Nomadland’ remained an uplifting and hopeful piece of cinema that captured the various bittersweet reasons people choose to live a life on the road.

With an outstanding performance from Frances McDormand, brought to life through the charm of the ‘real life’ supporting cast, great direction and Joshua James Richard’s mesmerising cinematography, ‘Nomadland’ was the perfect film for 2020.

...AND NOW THE WORST!

DISHONOURABLE MENTIONS

VAMPIRES VS THE BRONX - BAD BOYS FOR LIFE - THE OLD GUARD - PROJECT POWER - ISN’T IT ROMANTIC - THE RHYTHM SECTION - WHERE’D YOU GO, BERNADETTE - I’M THINKING OF ENDING THINGS - MIDWAY - YOU SHOULD HAVE LEFT - BABY DONE - FORCE OF NATURE - CAPONE - THE NEW MUTANTS - DOOLITTLE

10. WONDER WOMAN 1984

To quote Red Letter Media’s resident film critic Mike Stoklasa, “this movie was the cinematic equivalent of the Bluesmobile.” Directed by Patty Jenkins, this 80′s-set sequel to the 2017 DC superhero hit was lethargically paced and featured a completely bonkers narrative that made absolutely no sense. Horribly scripted, disjointed and overstuffed (a runtime of 2.5 hours), ‘Wonder Woman 1984′ sadly jettisoned everything that made Jenkins’ original film so compelling. The result? An appalling misfire.

9. THE GRUDGE

A curiously talented and interesting cast were somehow lured into - and subsequently wasted in - this pointless, tired, reboot/revival of the long-running ‘Ju-On’ Japanese-based horror series. Despite director NIcholas Pesce’s attempt to disguise the rudimentary nature of the plot via back-and-forth timeline jumping, ‘The Grudge’ was just a formulaic paint-by-the-numbers meander through a poorly developed story that existed only to prop up a bunch of uninspired jump scares.

8. BIRDS OF PREY (AND THE FANTABULOUS EMANCIPATION OF ONE HARLEY QUINN)

There are many movies that have no reason to exist - and this latest misfire from DC Comics was one of them. Directed by Cathy Yan, ‘Birds of Prey’ was a mire of uninspired ideas and recycled genre conventions that got old real quick. Penned by Christina Hodson (’Bumblebee’ being the ‘highlight’ on her resume), the script was as simplistic as it was thin, with needless subplots merely introduced to inflate the film to a decent running time. Even Margot Robbie’s manic performance as the ‘Mistress of Mayhem’ couldn’t save this mess.

7. JAY AND SILENT BOB REBOOT

What could’ve been a dream film for fans of these two classic stoner characters instead was nothing but a string of cameos and callbacks in a plot-less bore. Director Kevin Smith sucked all the life and fun out of this watered-down story, that suffered from a constant series of awkward and forced jokes that were painfully unfunny. An unfortunate stinker.

6. AVA

This latest foray into the ‘female assassin for hire’ genre was about as cliched as you could get. An emotionally troubled female killer whose male mentor assumes the role of the surrogate father? Check. Pounding dance music score? Check. Obligatory nightclub fight sequence? Check. Confused love interest? You betcha! Humourless, dry and uninspired, ‘Ava’ played out like a poor man’s ‘La Femme Nikita.’

5. FANTASY ISLAND

Hollywood’s obsession with repackaging Gen-X childhoods continued with this absurd attempt to reboot the classic 1970′s TV series as a low-budget horror joint under the Blumhouse label. At a dangerously close two hour runtime, there was simply nothing interesting about the film’s characters or its inane plot about a mystical island that grants wishes (a’la ‘The Monkey’s Paw’). Our advice? Turn ‘de plane’ around if you ever plan to visit this ‘Fantasy Island.’

4. ARTEMIS FOWL

For every ‘Harry Potter’ that explodes into the public consciousness, there always seems to be a dozen or more failed franchises. Sadly, Disney’s ‘Artemis Fowl’ found itself in the latter category. Director Kenneth Branagh’s dull and superficial attempt to transfer this popular children’s book series from page to screen suffered from a lack of character development, an over-reliance in CG effects and featured a lifeless performance from newcomer Ferdia Shaw as the titular character. 

3. HUBIE HALLOWEEN (NETFLIX)

A month before last year’s Oscar nominations were released, Adam Sandler joked on ‘The Howard Stern Show’ that if the Academy snubbed him for his role in the film ‘Uncut Gems,’ he would make a movie “that [was] so bad on purpose.” And that’s exactly what happened. Supposedly a comedy, ‘Hubie Halloween’ was unfunny, disposable and completely devoid of any originality. Sadly for audiences, Sandler signed a four-movie deal with Netflix last year, worth up to $275 million - so we can expect to see more of this shit soon!

2. ALIEN ADDICTION

Aliens visit New Zealand and get high smoking human faeces? Someone should have advised Kiwi director Shae Sterling that audiences have moved on from such puerile comedies as this abomination. Suffice to say, if anybody ever admitted to finding this film remotely funny, they’d probably be outcast from society. An embarrassment to all those involved. 

1. THE BEACH BUM

Director Harmony Korine’s generic stoner comedy about a prolific poet who drifts through life in a drug-induced haze had all the natural high of an unfiltered, soggy joint and was easily, hands down, 2020′s worst film.

‘The Beach Bum’ was a pretentious and uninteresting movie whose lead character, considered to be an ‘artistic genius,’ was nothing more than a relentless shithead to everyone around him. As Moondog, the semi-naked, bongo-playing, pot-fuelled beat poet, Matthew McConaughey was insufferable and grating in his portrayal of a character you would quite easily want to punch in the face - repeatedly. Blazed and confused, ‘The Beach Bum’ had no plot, no class and no entertainment value whatsoever. 

MOVIE POSTERS

From the classic to the abstract, here is just a sample of some of the best poster designs from a highly unusual year of movies.

...AND FINALLY, WHEN WHEN IT COMES TO DIRE-LOG, THEY SAID WHAT!?

“I've never wanted anything more. But he's gone, and that's the truth. And everything has a price. One I'm not willing to pay. Not any more. This world was a beautiful place, just as it was, and you cannot have it all. You can only have the truth. And the truth is enough. The truth is beautiful” (’Wonder Woman 1984′).

And who could forget this little chestnut of advice...

“That is the only truth and truth is all there is. You cannot be the winner because you are not ready to win. And there is no shame in that. Only in knowing the truth in your heart and not accepting it. No true hero is born from lies” (’Wonder Woman 1984′).

[a-distant-story]

A contradiction

"I sometimes wish I'd never been born at all..."

It was the summer of 2006 my parents were killed in a hit and run. My grandparents were still alive and kicking and being that they were my only legal guardians at that time, I was sent there to live.

Pops was an old man with the temper of a bull and the physique of a pig. But it didn't stop him from coming at me with his old handy cane and beat the shit out of me when he was angry. After he was done, he would go back to his old garage and tinker with his little wrenches and bolts and scream at his old lady for a pint of muddy beer.

I was a young kid back then and didn't know the ways of the world. But I also couldn't take the beating anymore. So I ran away.

"Oyy, you little cunt" was the last thing I heard from that old man.

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

Fast forward to the present day.

I live in the old slum near the park. Gents are kind enough to lend a pence or two when I sit by the park. Little kids don't like me... something about the bearded weirdo... maybe they are talking about puny Ralph back there. In the evenings I like to puff a joint from the teens who come around selling white powder. I have not really tried it, I would like to someday though. My whole day goes like that. The bakery at the end of the street was kind enough to lend me stale bread. I really like the smell of the bread they bake in the mornings but beggars can't be choosers, am I right.

It's been a rough couple of weeks. The bakery refused to give me any more bread. The new owner did not seem to like me very much.

"No need for scum like you," he said. I said I would remember him but funnily enough, I seem to have forgotten what his name was.

I was walking back to my shed when I saw Ralph smoking a cigarette.

"Say, Ralph, you wouldn't happen to have a cent on you would 'a"

"Nah, Mikey. I spent it on this cig. The kids are calling it vixozen. You hungry or what"

"Nah Ralphy all good."

The growl in my stomach said otherwise.

"Here have a cent. Don't go buying cigs now. Mother used to say big boys like me don't do drugs. See mommy I don't do drugs" he held his head high and started to laugh in the middle of the street.

My stomach was killing me now. It had been 3 days since I had eaten. Well, at least I will get some corn with the money I have. I headed towards the departmental store. The girl there is very nice. She doesn't mind me. She sometimes even gives me a lollipop but I never get my cent back. but for a beautiful lady like that, I can forgive that.

I went inside the store. All the lights were turned on. The girl was also there. I smiled at her, She smiled back and waved at me. What a surprise. I waved back but a man overtake me and hugged her and what... he even kissed her. Oh god, my dream was shattered. Who is gonna love me again?

I was sad at that moment but my mouth is bigger than my heart and my mouth needed food. I went to the grocery section. There were very few people in the store. It was almost closing time. I think that's why.

Suddenly all the lights switched off. Only a single bulb was glowing now. It was flickering now. What is happening right now? A drilling sound was coming from below the ground. and everything happened so quickly.

A creature... no a snake... no it has wings... a bird... no it is a snake...no it is a lion... no a shadow... a creature is coming towards me. I started to run but I slipped and fell face forward. The creature was charging towards me. I gathered up my courage and started to run. I can eat the food later. I need my life right now. But as I started to run, my body couldn't move. I couldn't feel my legs. I looked down and saw that both of my legs were gone. I was on the ground.

The creature was close now. All I could do was crawl but my left hand fell off. The dragon was coming closer... and closer and it was in front of me now. I used my only hand to shield myself but it was of no use. The creature tackled me and all I could see was red.

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

I was dead. There can be no other explanation. All I could see were white clouds.

"So you are here at last" A man in a silver cloak was standing in front of me.

"Dad" My old man was there.

"Tell me Mikey how do you feel. You have been through a lot"

"I don't know"

"Tell me. Do you feel angry, sad, happy"

"I missed you"

"Oh my boy I missed you too"

"Why were you not there for me" I started crying. All my emotions anger, sadness everything started to come out.

"Pops beat me every day. Where were you then?" I didn't know what was in me but I started hitting him. maybe just maybe 17 years of abuse would have been sorted if I hit him just hard enough.

And he hugged me.

"Oh, Mikey from now on we will always be together" A hissing sound came from his mouth.

"Always Together" And he bit me

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

It was not my dad. It was the creature that was tackling me. I grabbed a barrel and threw it towards him hoping it would distract it. I started running.

It was not the grocery store anymore. It was a maze. I ran and ran and ran. Dead end. The creature was still following me.

"OH MIKEY WHERE ARE YOU?" It was taunting me.

I ran and ran and ran and came face to face with it. I started running in the other direction but the creature was fast. he grabbed me by the hair and threw me towards the wall of the castle. The creature shifted its form to be my grandfather.

"OYY, YOU LITTLE CUNT" and he hit me with his wrench.

Again and again and again.

I knew there was no escaping this garage.

And I let myself be taken.

********************************************* "What happened here" The police officer was taking notes on his board.

The girl from the previous night was in front of him.

"A homeless guy, I think... his name was Mike. He was lying there on the hardware section clutching a corn bag. I called immediately. I thought he was trespassing. Poor thing, he hasn't eaten since Ralph died"

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

Writing prompts of course with @the-buried-hopes

1. Start a story with a quote from a song- Bohemian Rhapsody

2. Begin A story with It was the summer of _____ when _____

3. Start a story with the phrases "My grandparents were"

counts right!

4. Write a horror story about buying groceries.

5. Write 2-3 short character descriptions and convo. I'll do another one don't worry.

6. Write a story that contradicts itself.

7. Write a character with 3 big problems-> Mental Illness, Abusive Relations, Homeless, and Starvation. Ki

[gleefail]

Glee Memories: 1x6 Vitamin D

A long, long time ago, as Glee was approaching graduation in Season 3, I found myself nostalgic with some rare free time on my hands. So I decided to rewatch the series from the beginning and jot down some memories, discrepancies that have arisen since, fave quotes, tally solos - all that good stuff, strictly for shits and giggles.

8 years later (eek!) and once more I find myself with an unexpected abundance of free time. With so many revisiting or being newly introduced to the show between binge watching during Quarantine and all the tragedy that has surrounded the show since it went off the air, I figured I’d finish what I started. And by finish, I mean go through the end of S3. Cause I truly cannot acknowledge what happened after that. Except for 5B.

Kicking this off by reposting the first 15 episodes I already went through. Enjoy!

1x6 Vitamin D Mr. Schue is worried cause the Glee club is being lazy and complacent. First time and still true until Sue came along to help the club.

Mmmmkay. And now Mercedes starts dressing kinda funky. Oh goody. :/

Ugh. Listen, I have adored Matthew Morrison since I saw him in Hairspray 10 years ago, but it’s still not at all appealing when he tries to lick that mustard off his own chin.

“I will hold my tongue no further.”

”You have to remember something: we’re dealing with children. They need to be terrified. It’s like mother’s milk to them. Without it, their bones won’t grow properly.”

“Ellen, that blouse is just insane.”

”I don’t understand how lightening is in competition with an above ground swimming pool”

BOYS V. GIRLS FOR THE FIRST TIME! <3

“Okay, split up: guys on the right side, girls on the left side…Kurt” *gestures for him to join the boys, not the girls* Kurt looks soooo pissed. And is such a baby-faced nugget!

A Mash-Up was just defined and used for the first time.

”We’re planning on smacking them down like the hand of God” yaaaaay, Sue’s Journal entries! I miss those. Hey, did she ever get that hovercraft she was working towards?

”Let me be frank: your husband is hiding his kielbasa in a Hickory Farms gift basket that doesn’t belong to you.”

”I’ve always thought the desire to procreate showed deep personal weakness. Me? Never wanted kids. Don’t have the time, don’t have the uterus.” #oops

“I think you should both pack up and move out of the district. Unless you wanna lose your man to a mentally ill ginger pygmy with eyes like a bush baby”

the Matthew Morrison mustard licking is even less appealing in slow motion. Ew.

Terri just wiped Emma’s mug off with her own spit. Even if you didn’t have OCD, that is not right.

“But you’re not a nurse. You don’t have any training…” “Oh please, Will – it’s a public school.”

Wait…Mr. Schue seems to be teaching music theory? WTF? Has this happened before? Since?

“She freaks me out in a Swim Fan kinda way”

“But her body’s smokin’…if you’re not into boobs” Finn re: Rachel

I don’t think I ever caught this before – Finn is rubbing BioFreeze on his legs and accidentally scratches near his eye…and you can see the effect set in and then he spazzes out. Ha! #BlessFinnsHeart

“My mom says I’m stretched too thin so I gave up homework but that didn’t help” #BlessFinnsHeart

“Puck, with respect, you’re more helpful when you don’t contribute”

“Where’s Quinn?” “Probably down at the mall looking for elastic waistbands”

“Let’s do the number and then build a house for Habitat for Humanity” oh, Finn on ‘vitamin d’. He has the mind of a child. Especially during this performance. Holy crap!

“No one at Glee is gonna judge you.” Oh, that will change Rachel.

Hahahaha, Quinn drew pornographic pictures of Rachel on the bathroom walls. I miss when Quinn hated Rachel. Just a little bit. Cause she did it so well and right now it would please my soul to see some of that.

Poor Howard Bamboo is so terrified of Terri and just pitiful. I just want to hug him and tell him to stand up to her! :(

“I see em’ together all the time – laughing, talking…all the stuff she never does with me”

Terri’s office looks like it’s the same as Emma’s…

“I am not built to work 5 days a week”

“I’ve been thinkin’ maybe that if you and I started seein’ each other on the side it might kinda cancel their thing out”

“She doesn’t like to be touched…by me.”

“Look at the two of us. You pregnant and me with psoriasus and one testicle that won’t descend.”

“Though I’ve been grouped with the boys, my allegiance still remains with you ladies. They declined my offer to do their hair in cornrows and all my artistic decisions have been derioted as ‘too costly’ because they involve several varieties of exotic bird feathers.”

Rachel’s goal is a Grammy, not a Tony. #oops

smack-talking Finn is a giant douche. Ugh.

“You being here is not good for our marriage.” “Spending time together is not good for our marriage?” She has a point…

“A lot of ants on the sidewalk today.” *long uncomfortable silence* “Pretty late in the season for that.”

oh, Ken proposing. I hated you from the first moment I laid eyes on you.

“Look, Emma, I know our relationship hasn’t been perfect. You won’t ride in my car. I can’t touch you above the wrist. Remember you cried for an hour that one time my elbow accidentally brushed by your breast? But I think about you all day long. I kiss that picture of us at the State Fair every night before I go to sleep. Emma Pillsbury, this is not an engagement ring – no, I mean it is, but it’s more than that. It’s a promise. Look, Emma, I know you have this thing about being clean. Now I can’t promise to pick up my underwear or squeegee the shower door, but I can promise to keep your life clean of sadness and loneliness and any other dark clouds that might float into it. It’s cubic zirconia. I know how effected you were by Blood Diamond.”

“Thankyousomuch,itreallyisapleasure.Whiletheboyschoseaselectionofsongsthatcastaneyeinwardontheirresponsiblelifechoicesandsexualhungeroftoday’smodernteens,wehavechosenaselectionofsongsthatspeakstothenationasawholeduringthesetroublingtimesfilledwitheconomicuncertaintyandunbridledsocialwoebecauseifthere’stwothingsAmericaneedsrightnow,thatissunshineandoptimism.” *awkward pause and Rachel finally breathes* “Also angels.” OMG. Maybe my favorite Rachel Berry moment ever.

Also, this was one of my fave musical moments (songs, singers, choreography) of all of Season One. Heather Morris is gangsta on this, dancing like she’s on crack. OMG. I love it. Every one of these girls is such a great dancer.

“Can you um…can you think of any other options I might have?” “Is that a reason to marry someone?” “That’s not what I’m asking.” See, Glee still does this – these weird conversations that are clearly about something else, but never really get finished and things are left in limbo but as if the akward moment didn’t happen, so I think I’m losing my mind when I look for the continuity….ugh. Headache. What just happened?

“You have no chance with my husband. Do I make myself clear? You might think there’s some kind of competition going on with you and I, but that’s like saying that a nail is competing with a hammer.”

“Do yourself a favor, honey. Marry Ken Tanaka. Oh sure, he’s dumb like sand, and his fondue pot of nationalities is gonna open your kids up to a host of genetic diseases…but he’s kind, and he’s generous. And he’s available.” I don’t like Terri but….truth.com right there.

“I need to talk to you, about the baby” “Is everything ok? You’re not having it right now, are you?” What?! No! Aren’t you supposed to be a nurse?”

“You want money from me?” “It’s gonna be your baby.” “Which means I’m gonna be paying the bills for 18 years – I think you can handle 9 months” Oh Terri.

Aw. My heart still breaks for Emma during this scene where she basically accepts Ken’s proposal and asks for a secret marriage. And says she doesn’t wanna spend the rest of her life alone. Gah – so sad! :(

“I don’t even remember performing.”

“I’m sorry for what I said the other day. For calling you contemptable and deplorable” “Ah, that’s ok. I didn’t even know what those words meant.” #BlessFinnsHeart

“My goals are too selfish.” Rachel. Why did you forget that lesson?

Howard Bamboo got arrested on suspicion of running a meth lab. Ha!

“You are oblivious to consequences” A running theme of this show.

oh Glee. Again with the weird situations…neither Will nor Emma even preTENded to be happy about her marrying Ken when she told him. How does neither of them address it? What just happened?

I remember the first time I saw this episode and I loved that Rachel Berry had changed to being a team player and making her goal about winning sectionals with the team. That didn’t last long. SOLOS: Finn (1), Artie (1), Rachel (1) MERCEDES TAKES THE GLORY NOTE: 2nd time

[xmagicxshopx]

Moon Monsters - Chapter 5

Genre: Fantasy Adventure, Romance (smut later), Comedy Rating: PG-13 Warnings: none at this time Pairing: Jungkook x reader, Jimin x oc, Taehyung x oc Notes: werewolf!bts au. Not idol!bts. Same goes for GOT7. Single quote marks ‘ ‘ are for thoughts and double “ “ are for talking. Additional Notes: Not crazy about the beginning but eh. Didn’t proof read most of it. And now I wanna watch The Emperor’s New Groove. XD

Tagging: @och-ako @jiminnies-baby @kfictionstories @justbangtanandjams @lizardsocial @breadcaaat

Summary: You’re the CEO’s new personal assistant. But there’s something strange about him and the company you work for.

SERIES MASTERLIST

“You got me a Hyundai Palisade?!!?”

“Yah. Yah. Pipe it down. You wanna wake the whole neighborhood?”

You paid Yoongi no mind as you stared at the group in awe. They all stood there with almost identical smiles. Well Taehyung’s was a bit boxier but that was just his signature way of smiling. Seeing all of them standing there, these people, they were your coworkers but in this moment they felt more like family. Brothers, sisters, cousins. For the first time in quite a long time, you felt like you had a real family who loved you and cared about you.

“Guys......I.......I don’t know what to say. This.....Everything. It’s too much. I can’t accept----”

“Finish that sentence and I’ll make you swallow that key fob.”

“Wow. We definitely need to get hyung home. He gets cranky when it’s past his bedtime.”

“Guys, I don’t have the money to make the car payments for this thing. Surly you were only able to put a down payment on it.”

You were about to ramble on but it was Namjoon who walked up to you and started gently waving his hands in front of himself before speaking softly in a warm and reassuring tone,

“Listen, listen. We knew this would be overwhelming and we probably could have done this in steps, but you see........the thing about us........that’s just not how we roll when it comes to taking care of others. We go big or go home. And after everything you’ve been through today, we weren’t about to go home. Not till we set the record straight. Not till we make things right.”

“But----”

“No buts. The car is paid for. In full. No payments. All you have to worry about is the insurance which if I understand right, you were already paying on your previous car. All of these expenses have been paid for and all we ask for in return is that you’re happy and healthy.”

“Guys----”

“To add onto that, the title is currently in my name but Monday we can work on getting the title transferred over into your name.”

You were about to try again when you watched Jungkook walk up beside you and traded you the keys for Swiper. You stared down at the orange kitten as he mewed up at you; staring with his large round eyes. It turned you soft. So soft that you could have melted. Sniffling and feeling tears lightly trickling down your face, you looked back up at everyone with Namjoon having since stepped back into his spot in the small crowd.

“We’re here for you, beautiful. I told you it’d get better soon.”

You stared up at Jungkook and sniffled with an apologetic smile. The feeling of his large warm hand rubbing your back was definitely soothing to you as you tried to find your words.

“Sorry. I just-----This was so selfless of you guys. Spending your hard earned money on me like this. Me. Why? Some of you don’t even know me very well.”

“Sometimes you don’t have to know the person to be able to help those less fortunate.”

It was quiet for a few minutes before Yoongi decided to break the ice in his own unique way.

“Well you’re welcome. It’s late. So let’s all turn in.”

“Come on, grandpa. Let’s get you home.”

While Jin, Namjoon, Hoseok, Jaebum, and Yugyeom all escorted the grumpy male to their cars, the youngest two stayed behind with their mates. Jimin had Mama Bird’s hand in his while Taehyung had his arm slung over Widow’s shoulders. Jungkook stood there beside you with his one hand still on your back but content with rubbing his index finger of his other hand back and forth across the top of the kitten’s head; Swiper loving the display of affection.

“Guys......all of you.......Thank you so much. I can’t possibly repay you for everything you’ve done today. Gosh.....I’m just really overwhelmed. I’ll be able to formulate better sentences when this all settles in.”

“Well you did drink quite a few cocktails tonight. That’s probably not helping you.”

You laughed at Mama Bird and felt your face warming up. She had a point. The alcohol in your system probably wasn’t helping you. Smiling from the group to down at Swiper, you leaned down and kissed the top of his tiny head once Jungkook had removed his finger. And that was when you had released a rather long and very open mouthed yawn.

“Oh my. Looks like someone’s sleepy. With all that supposed alcohol, you’ll be sleeping like a baby tonight.”

Jungkook stared at you lovingly but of course you didn’t notice because you were too busy cooing over the orange kitten. However, that didn’t stop him from correcting his hyung.

“Nah. She’ll be sleeping like a princess tonight.”

“Well then let’s not keep the princess up. Shall we go, my love?”

Widow smiled just as lovingly up at her mate as she nodded and glanced over at Mama Bird and Jimin. They too nodded in silent agreement. Turning towards you and Jungkook, the small female said happily,

“Widow and I had a great time today with you, Miss Korea. We definitely need to do that again soon. Oh! That reminds me! Everything is in our cars.”

And as if they had done this like a dance routine, you watched both girls turn to their boyfriends and bat their eyelashes dramatically with almost identical pouts. It was Taehyung who spoke up first.

“For the love of all things Gucci. Put that pout away. All you have to do is ask. My heart can’t take it.”

As the group chuckled, you followed them to the girls’ cars where your purchases were. Making sure you weren’t going to run into anything or anyone, you quickly stole a glance down at the kitten in your arms. Swiper had since started to try and climb up your body as if wanting to perch himself on your shoulder but the protective side of you wanted him safely in your arms instead.

Upon arrival, Black Widow unlocked her car and opened one of the back seats. For some reason, your cheeks started to warm up. Was it because they’d see the shopping bag that clearly stated you had went and bought lingerie? Or was it perhaps the lack of shopping bags you had compared to the trunk full the other two girls had?

“Ooouuu. Kook you gotta see what’s in this bag I-----Ouch!”

You were blushing like crazy as you watched Black Widow come to your rescue by smacking her mate on the back while he was hunched over and inside the back seat; apparently looking through your bags. Oh how you wanted to sneak a glance at Jungkook but you resisted. Mostly because you weren’t sure you could handle what you might find. Was he blushing too? Or did he find it funny? Gah.

With Jimin having opened the other back door, he too was also helping carrying the bags. However, your embarrassment only intensified when you watched the two coming out from within the back seats and easily carrying what purchases you had made; not even needing the third boy’s assistance. If anyone was going to make a comment, you were grateful that they seemed to be keeping it to themselves. It was Jimin who broke the silence by saying happily and casually,

“Let’s head back to her royal majesty’s new bed chamber, shall we?”

While Jungkook never spoke up, it was painfully obvious that he was going to have to take you on an additional shopping trip. There was no way you had enough in these bags to sustain a proper wardrobe. He knew you’d go kicking and screaming, but that was definitely one of the things on tomorrow’s agenda. Thank goodness tomorrow was Sunday. At least they’d have all day, for he also wanted to go grocery shopping so that you’d have all your favorites in the apartment.

The apartment.....their apartment. Just thinking about it made him giddy with joy. His mate was finally where she belonged. Home with him. Where he could protect you and care for you. Love you. Even though you currently weren’t returning his feelings, he could tell you were feeling the tug. That powerful force of nature from the Moon Goddess herself. That little incident in Namjoon’s office hadn’t went by unnoticed. He knew you were already starting to feel the effects even though you weren’t even turned yet.

Which meant he could only hope that one day you’d fall in love with him just as much as he had fallen in love with you. Hopefully living under the same roof would make that even more probable. He felt like the odds were in his favor despite how uncomfortable you still seemed with living in the same quarters as him.

With all the bags carefully placed in the little foyer section of the apartment, it was time to say goodbyes and see you laters. You had handed Swiper over to Jungkook so you could give each girl a proper hug and a proper thanks for everything they had done. It almost brought tears to your eyes as you felt them returning your hugs with genuine love and care. You had never had female friends so this was a big moment for you.

“You be good to our girl, okay Kook?”

“Yes, m’am. Of course, m’am.”

You were a timid, blushing mess as you watched Jungkook reply to Mama Bird’s words with a cheesy salute while Swiper was held protectively in the male’s other arm. Good lord. You wanted nothing more than to run to your room and hide; never to come out again. Boy was it hot in here all of a sudden. Resisting the urge to fan your heated face, you said with a whine,

“Yah yah. It’s late. You guys should be heading home. It’s always more dangerous to drive in the dark, anyway. Shoo. Shoo shoo.”

With the small group of four giggling and cooing over how cute you were, you closed the door and locked it before turning around to lean your back against the structure. Now openly fanning your face, you watched Jungkook chuckle while holding Swiper with both arms now. He knew you were embarrassed and flustered so he decided to take pity on you and left things at that. Instead, he asked casually,

“Want me to show you to the bathroom so you can freshen up before bed?”

“That would be wonderful. Thank you.”

And so after plucking the bag that had your nightwear in it, you followed the young male down the hall and watched him point to a door closer to the end. After giving a soft thanks, you shyly ducked into the bathroom to get ready for bed. After hearing his footsteps fading, you took a deep breath and exhaled to help calm yourself down. Gathering yourself up, you moved to stand in front of the huge lit up mirror.

Wow. Those cocktails really roughed you up.

To say you looked exhausted would be an understatement. The woman staring back at you definitely looked worn out. With another deep breath to help calm you, you reached for the faucet and turned the cold water on. Giving your face a good couple splashes, you cursed when you realized that.......you had absolutely nothing on you that could help with your nightly skin routine. Softly cursing for not thinking about purchasing that stuff while you were out today, you decided to move onto brushing your teeth........which you also couldn’t do.

Tears were starting to well in your eyes. You were stupid. Stupid stupid stupid. You weren’t even thinking of stuff like toiletries when you were out shopping today. All you could think about was having fun with the girls. Your new friends. You had been so wrapped up in having friends for the first time in your life that you weren’t thinking like an adult. An adult who had just lost everything.

Sniffling and trying not to bawl your eyes out, you slipped out of the clothes that Mama Bird had given you and changed into your conservative babydoll nightie. It was dark navy blue and went about mid thigh. You were too upset to even think about approaching Jungkook in it. Jungkook......god you were going to have to tell him......But how? How could you? God this was so embarrassing. You felt so pathetic. You didn’t even have a brush for your hair or hell----You didn’t even have shampoo or body wash for that matter. You had nothing.

You had nothing.

Jungkook had just set Swiper down in his cat bed when he immediately became alert. His mate was upset. Extremely upset. Why? He needed to find out and fast. Quickly rising to his feet, he was met with a tear stained face. Your face. It broke his heart. So much so, that he couldn’t even enjoy the nightie you were wearing. He watched as you sniffled and approached him; promptly stuffing your face into his chest. Your smaller hands gripping the back of his shirt.

“Hey, hey. What’s wrong, beautiful?”

“I’m stupid. So stupid.”

“Yah. No you’re not. Come here. Let’s take a seat.”

With his help, the two of you took a seat on his fancy off white couch and you tried to collect yourself. Gah you were working his self restraint already. You weren’t wearing a bra under that nightie and it showed. Good gravy. Trying not to audibly gulp, he put his focus back on you and taking care of you. In a soft and soothing tone, he asked while stroking the back of your head in a petting fashion,

“Why do you think you’re stupid?”

“Because I didn’t buy anything important today. All I bought was a bunch of clothes and shoes.”

“That doesn’t make you stupid, beautiful.”

“Yes it does! I have no toothbrush, toothpaste, hairbrush, shampoo, body wash. I don’t have anything for my daily skin routine. I have no makeup. Kook I have none of that stuff. Because it went up in flames like the rest of my stuff. I have nothing. It’s all gone.”

By this point, you were crying your eyes out and Jungkook had you wrapped up in his arms. Truth be told, he wasn’t thinking about those things either. Hell, he was sitting here thinking about how you needed more clothes than what you bought. But he definitely hadn’t been thinking about the hygienic stuff. Welp, it was definitely going to be another busy day tomorrow. Rubbing your back, he spoke softly,

“Well how about this.....tomorrow we’ll head back out. Just you and me. We’ll make a day out of it. We can have three nice meals out while we shop and get the things you need. And we can take your nice new car so we’ll have plenty of space for the shopping bags. We can even buy Swiper a couple cute cat toys. How does that sound?”

With a hiccup, you replied almost grumpily, “You’re too nice for your own good, Kookie. You know that?”

Flashing you that bright bunny smile that never failed to make your heart flutter and your cheeks turn pink, he chuckled and said in a tone that sounded an awful lot like he was teasing you,

“I knew you’d like the idea. So for tonight and in the morning, you can use my stuff. It’s not a big deal. I do believe I have an extra toothbrush unopened for when I’m an idiot and forget to charge my electric one.”

You flushed even more pink when you heard him mention that so casually. Gosh. Electric toothbrushes were expensive. The only thing you could gather was that he must make an awful lot more than you. Or maybe he’s obtained some kind of inheritance? Wherever he was getting the money, you had no idea. But there must be a lot of it.

Upon hearing a soft but high pitched sound, you both looked over to see that it was just the orange kitten stretching in his cat bed that was two times too big for him. Jimin had explained that the little guy would grow bigger before anyone could blink so it just made sense to buy the big bed now verses waiting. After a good stretch, the kitten went back to sleep; looking absolutely precious in your eyes. It was then that you felt a large warm hand rubbing your upper arm as Kook spoke up softly,

“I think Swiper has the right idea. Let’s get some rest for our big day tomorrow, yeah?”

“Okay. But what about all the bags at the door?”

“Eh. They can stay there. They aren’t going to go anywhere.”

“May I have a glass of water to take with me before I go to bed?”

“Beautiful, you can have anything you want, okay? You don’t even have to ask.”

You looked up to see him smiling down at you with that charming smile of his. He looked gorgeous while you looked like a train wreck. Sniffling, you nodded and he took that as the cue to help you up from the couch. His hand had slipped from your upper arm to where he could protectively wrap his arm around your waist to help keep you steady.

After pouring you a glass of water from his purifying pitcher, he handed it to you and even took it upon himself to escort you to your bedroom. Your new bedroom. Thankfully when you walked in, it no longer smelled like lingering paint fumes. Carefully setting the glass on the nightstand, you turned around to see Jungkook leaning against the door frame.

“I hope you’ll like it here, princess.”

Princess. That was new and different. You weren’t sure which made your heart flutter more. Beautiful or Princess. Smiling shyly from behind the canopy that surrounded your bed, you felt a blush coming on as you spoke in a small, shy voice,

“I don’t think you’ll have to worry about that, Kookie.”

Hearing those words made him smile with relief. So you were going to like it here? Perhaps that meant you’d stay. He couldn’t help but be hopeful of that. Oh how he wanted to gather you up and lay you in his own bed. Where he could protect you and keep you happy and healthy. But for now, he’d give you your space. He could be a patient man when he wanted to be.

“Well, then I guess this is good night. Sleep well, princess. If you need me, I’m just down the hall.”

“Thanks, Kookie. Good night.”

And with that, the two of you parted ways with him closing your door for you. Taking a couple slow sips of your water, you sighed gratefully at how cold it was. All that blushing had really warmed you up despite your thin nightie. Yeah. You probably should have worn something even more conservative but you could never sleep if you were on the warmer side during the nights.

When you went to lay down, a moan just about filled the room and then some. Wow. This mattress was freaking amazing! You had no idea who picked this particular one but if you ever found out, you were going to kiss their feet. Getting comfy, you tugged the covers up to your nose as you were one who liked to bury yourself in comfort. After everything you had been through within the last 24 hours, you definitely wanted to drown in comfort. The sheets smelled so good. Wow. They must have been washed before hand. You wonder if this was Jungkook’s fabric softener you were smelling. Had to be.

Speaking of.........

Feeling his mate’s heart rate slowing down and sensing you were on your way to dreamland, Jungkook was finally able to relax in his own bed. There was no way he was going to risk sleeping until he knew you were comfortable and resting properly. Since walking into his own room, he had changed out of his clothes for that day and was now lounging in a t-shirt and shorts. Normally he’d ditch the shirt but just in case you needed him, he wanted to be.....dunno.....decent?

“Okay, so what else will she need? Help me out here.”

‘Well......wait why are you asking a dog what a human female needs???’

“Good point.”

‘What’s on your list so far?’

Scrolling back to the top of his cell phone screen, he started listing off all the items he thought you’d need. The items you had listed earlier, more clothing, more shoes, groceries. He suddenly thought about things like medicine. Were you on any kind of medication? Oh! And were you a pads kind of girl or tampons? Just from his own heat cycle, he knew you’d be starting your period in a couple weeks. Wow. Women needed a lot of stuff.

‘Females are gorgeous, precious, but complex creatures, little one. You’ll learn that more and more as you spend time with her. Tis why we as the male need to care for our mates. They work hard and carry our offspring. The least we can do is care for them like the beautiful gems that they are.’

Jungkook could feel his chest swelling with masculine pride. Yes. He was going to take care of his mate. He was going to nurture her and care for her. Tomorrow would be a good day. He was going to treat you like the goddess you were. However, he could only hope that you’d allow him to treat you to nice things. It felt like a battle and a half just to convince you to take his credit card. Yeah.....you’ll probably put up a struggle tomorrow but he could handle it. Hopefully.

After adding a few more items per his inner wolf’s suggestions, the male finally decided it was time for him to sleep. It was hard though. His mind was just racing with everything that had happened today. Not to mention it was hard for him to sleep knowing you were just down the hall. Probably looking absolutely angelic all curled up in your new bed sleeping peacefully.

Or so he had thought.

After setting his phone on charge on his nightstand, he had just turned on his side and gotten comfortable when he felt.....something was off. Surly he would have noticed it sooner, right? No. Something wasn’t right. He could sense your discomfort. Fear. He smelled fear rolling up from under his door. It was you. You were scared. Maybe sleeping in a foreign home was making you nervous?

And then he heard your screams. Your blood curdling, hair raising screams and he was out of bed in a flash. Faster than the blink of an eye. Most of the time he was a clumsy bun, but in this moment, he was a graceful and swift canine ready to attack whatever was causing his mate pain. Barreling down the hallway, he wasted no time in opening the door to your room. The sight broke his heart.

There you were sat up in your bed patting yourself frantically. The sound of your hand practically slapping your skin sounding louder than it really was. You were crying and whimpering as you continued to pat yourself down for whatever reason. The only thing he could guess was that you must still be somewhat asleep and still in your nightmare. Carefully approaching you, Jungkook spoke softly,

“Hey....beautiful? You there? Hey. It’s me, Jungkookie. Are you awake?”

You must have been more awake than he originally thought because as soon as he started to speak, your head shot up and your eyes full of fear focused on his form slowly approaching you. It would seem that you were coming back to reality though as you suddenly started looking around the room. It was then that you slumped forward with your face in your hands; shoulders shaking from what.....he wasn’t sure of.

“Do you want to talk about it? Is there anything I can get you?”

You sat there hunched over with the nightmare still playing in your mind’s eyes. Dear god it had been awful. So much so, that there was no way you were going to risk falling back asleep. As you sat there remaining silent, Jungkook could feel the anxiety rolling off of you in thick waves. He felt helpless in this moment and it killed him. Surely there was something he could do?

“I’m sorry. I probably woke you. I’ll be fine. Sorry to bother you.”

“Hey hey hey. Let’s hold up a minute.”

While his voice was soft and almost like a whisper, he still felt the need to sit you down and get something straight. Sitting down on your bed in front of you, he turned and gently removed your shaking hands from your tear stained face. Gosh he was so tired of seeing you cry. But he also couldn’t blame you either. It just really broke his heart, though.

“You are not a bother. And you’re definitely not fine. You don’t have to talk about it, but you also don’t have to pretend like it was nothing either. What do you say we fix some warm drinks and watch a movie, hmm?”

“I......I was on fire, Kookie.......”

At first he didn’t quite know what you meant. But then it clicked with him. The way you were patting yourself all over earlier......you were patting yourself because you were trying to put out the fire. His heart clenched painfully in his chest and tears were threatening to well up in his eyes. You had a nightmare, alright.

You had a nightmare that you were burning alive.

“Okay. Ice cream it is.”

After helping you to your feet, it seemed like no time at all that the two of you were on the couch watching a Disney movie. After insisting that you pick, it was decided that you’d watch The Emperor’s New Groove as it was one of your favorites and it never failed to make you laugh. As soon as he heard that little tidbit, Jungkook was sold and immediately purchased it to rent.

Your giggles. Dear god your giggles were like music to his ears. Watching you take a spoon full of ice cream only to giggle around the spoon made his heart soar to the ceiling. You were adorable in every way. Precious. Absolutely precious. He had to fight the urges to kiss the top of your head or run his fingers through your hair. But thank the Moon Goddess you were subconsciously cuddling him. He at least got that much.

They were at the scene where Yzma was asking Kronk her famous line of “Why do we even have that lever?” when your giggles tried to turn into a yawn. There it was. The moment he had been waiting for. It would seem you paid it no mind as you went back to watching the movie, having since had your fill of ice cream. Your head was resting on his chest and he was pretty sure you had no idea what you were doing at this point. But he wasn’t about to stop you. No way.

Jungkook was pretty proud of himself. Since that first yawn, he had ever so carefully inched himself lower and lower till the two of you were practically laying down on the couch with you on top of him; using him as a literal body pillow. Not that he minded. Good lord he was in heaven right now. This definitely had to be what heaven felt like.

Needless to say, neither one of you saw the ending of the movie.

[queenlawrenceskingdom]

The Hunger Games: The Games

This section begins right after Peeta declared his love for Katniss and ends when Katniss goes to search for Peeta in the arena. We follow Katniss through the arena on her own and with Rue, and it makes sense that Katniss doesn’t even speak to Peeta in the arena until the section marked “The Victor”. The only time we hear of him is when they first enter the arena, when he’s with the Careers the first night, and then when he saves Katniss from Cato after the trackerjacker attack.

The D12 team rationalizing Katniss about Peeta’s love has always been an interesting part of the book to me. She wasn’t accepting or curious or flattered, she was downright enraged. Being seen as weak is one of Katniss’ biggest fears, and I think it goes back to when she was a weak 11-year-old trying to keep her family alive. One of her biggest regrets is not being able to pay Peeta back when she was literally at her weakest, and she instantly hardened to hold her own in the Hob and getting fair trades around the district. Any emotion with sensitivity is weak to Katniss, so she wants none of it. This is also why she gets upset when Peeta refers to Gale as her boyfriend.

The rooftop scene used to confuse me, but as the series goes on the central theme tends to return to this.

“I don’t know how to say it exactly. Only... I want to die as myself. Does that make any sense?” he asks. I shake my head. How could he die as anyone but himself? “I don’t want them to change me in there. Turn me into some kind of monster that I’m not.” I bite my lip, feeling inferior. While I’ve been ruminating on the availability of trees, Peeta has been struggling with how to maintain his identity. His purity of self... “Only I keep wishing I could think of a way to.. to show the Capitol they don’t own me. That I’m more than just a piece in their Games,” says Peeta

The Capitol has always had such control over the districts, saying where they can go, who can live, and how they’re treated. For the past 74 years children have been expendable pieces in their Games, the Victor only remaining to give hope to the districts. In classic Katniss fashion she has been worried about the practical side of the Games and looking into survival, while Peeta has been looking to be his own personal rebellion. Not wanting to play into the viciousness and gore the Capitol looks forward to in the Games, he even teams up with the Careers to try and prevent Katniss’ death even if it meant his own life. Sacrifice isn’t something seen in these Games, yet Katniss has sacrificed herself for Prim and Peeta has sacrificed himself for Katniss. These two were always bound to be an anomaly in the Games. They never wanted to just follow the crowd and play into the injustice, whether they knew it or not they have been ready to support a revolution. 

As Katniss rides in the hovercraft she looks out the window and notes “This is what birds see. Only they’re free and safe. The very opposite of me”. With Katniss’ history and future with birds and mockingjays, this small line is very heavy. As the Mockingjay of the rebellion, she will feel caged in more often than she wants to be at the hands of the Gamemakers, President Snow, and Coin.

In the initial bloodbath, Katniss blames Peeta for distracting her from getting to the Cornucopia. As mad as this makes her, there is a slim probability she would have survived so I think Peeta saved her life literally right out of the gates. Throughout the Games she makes so many plans she is confident in, yet there are continuous surprises she encounters. She’s lucky she gets the pack full of supplies which will each lead to her survival. The fact that Clove didn’t chase her into the woods is a bold move on her part. They all knew she was the primary target in the Games, yet she let her slip out of her hands when she could’ve had her. I’m sure she was kicking herself all the way up until Thresh smashed her skull in.

As Katniss navigates the Games alone, she’s really just relying on her survival skills and staying quiet. Without her bow she doesn’t have much in terms of defense, so she fills her days with hunting and staying out of the way. I would love to know what the sponsors were thinking when they saw her out there like she was on a little adventure. When the fire comes, she’s smart enough to realize the arena’s rigged and just needs to get out of the fire section. The symbolism of The Girl on Fire burning under fireballs could not be missed by anyone, and I’m sure Caesar and Claudius had a fun time with that one. While she thinks maybe Cinna’s designs were the cause of the attack, but because the parade occurs only a week before the Games, I’m sure they had bigger things to worry about than a seemingly normal tribute who would most likely die in the Games.

Rue is the first time I think anyone in the Capitol sees Katniss open up at all. Before this she has been stoic and quiet and refused to give anything up in herself. She said previously kind people work their way into her heart, and I think this is also true with the innocent like Rue. She is so small and reminds her of Prim, she has no choice but to take the girl under her wing and nurture her as much as she can. She opens up and makes her first offensive attack because of Rue; a lifesaving move that’ll start to kill of the Career pack. When she sings to Rue in the final minutes of her life, I can only imagine the reactions from the rest of the districts. District 12 admired Katniss before she even left, so there must be a sense of pride from them. In District 11 Rue was the first to signal quitting time in the fields, so there had to be numerous people who thought fondly of her and had small interactions with her. The film shows us the beginnings of uprising during this time in 11, but I’d be curious to see the results in the other districts. What was it like in 8, where obvious unrest had been growing in the citizens? Were there sympathizers in the Capitol who started to understand the horrors of sending little kids off to slaughter? Katniss’ perspective is limited to the arena, but there’s an entire country who’ve never seen such humanity inside a Hunger Games arena.

Sassniss and other funny quotes

And then, because it’s Effie and she’s apparently required by law to say something awful, she adds “I wouldn’t be at all surprised if I finally got promoted to a decent district next year!”

“This is just your tracker, Katniss. The stiller you are, the more efficiently I can place it”, she says. Still? I’m a statue.

Now the Gamemakers will always be able to trace my whereabouts in the arena. Wouldn’t want to lose a tribute.

I have to bite my lip not to scream every foul name I know at the fire starter.

Stupid people are dangerous.

I might fall straight into a pit of vipers, but I can’t worry about that now.

Maybe showing up stark naked in that chariot would have been safer for me.

...the little flames on my fingernails that are beginning to chip off. Good. I’ve had enough fire for a lifetime.

“How’s everything with you?” I call down [to the Careers]... “Well enough,” says the boy from District 2. “Yourself?” “It’s been a bit warm for my taste,” I say.

Glimmer I hear someone call her - ugh, the names people in District 1 give their children are so ridiculous - anyway Glimmer

I rank music somewhere between hair ribbons and rainbows in terms of usefulness. At least a rainbow gives you a tip about the weather.

[petuniatom]

Dangerous Animals || Tom Holland x Reader Mystery AU

Pairing: Tom Holland x Reader

Summary: In which you are an unsolved mystery enthusiast and when a murder happens in your own town, you don’t even know where to begin. It’s now up to you and your friends to uncover the truth.

Warnings: language probs, also mentions of death

A/N: welcome to the new & improved ch. 1 of “dangerous animals”

Series masterlist

Want to be on my tag list for this story?

You woke up that Friday morning much earlier than you were used to. Glancing back now, it feels almost like your body was warning you that something was coming, something unnatural for your city and for you all together. You should have paid more attention then, should have seen the signs before it all happened.

It was strange stirring in your bed at the time, only to hear the chirping birds outside your window as they greet the first burst of sunlight on the horizon instead of the quietness of the afternoon you usually hear. It was still fairly dim in your bedroom, and Tom — usually the early riser — wasn’t even up. You glanced over at the clock on your nightstand, noting the time of 6:03 a.m. that sits on its screen in red type. And while you want to go back to sleep, you know that you’re already up, and there’s no going back now.

So, you slid out of your bed, being careful not to wake up your boyfriend whose light snores were currently echoing around the room. He looked adorable, almost angelic, in between your white sheets. His hair is mussed and his face is void of any tension. It’s the last time you’ll see him this calm for a while.

You avoided that spot in your hardwood floor that usually creaks when someone approaches it, and slipped out of your bedroom. You decided to take a quick shower and once you saw a big red star marked on your calendar for the next day, you figured that a nice breakfast would help your boyfriend a lot. 

You whipped together some French toast, eggs, and breakfast potatoes, all of which you knew Tom favored in the mornings. When you finally wrapped up, your bedroom door swung open again and Tom stepped out. He had a confused expression across his face, which quickly disappeared once he laid eyes on you. 

“Morning darling,” he greeted, coming up to give you a quick peck on the lips. You smile and hand him a plate full of food. “You didn’t have to do this, you know.”

“I know,” you replied, “but I was up anyway and I figured you needed it. Is it the short film you helped out with coming up?” 

He shook his head. “Nah, just a wedding video, but these are some fairly important clients that could lead to something bigger in the future. I told you that Harrison is filling in for me today?” 

You nod your head. “He knows what time we start?”

“I gave him the full brief of how things work and he knows to call if he has any problems.”

You let out a long sigh. “It’s gonna be weird without you. First pod you’re not there for.” He frowned and gave your hand a comforting squeeze.

“I know, love, but it’ll be great.”

*** 

Some people were interested in Greek mythology, others in science. Growing up, you were always worried when you didn’t quite find your niche thing to be obsessed about. While all the other kids talked about their love of horses or in Pokémon, you always tucked yourself in the back corner and buried yourself in a Nancy Drew book.

Soon, Nancy Drew and Scooby Doo turned into an obsession with Psych, Criminal Minds and Law & Order: SVU. You remembered when you were younger, how you laid across your floor to listen to Nancy Grace figure out more about the Casey Anthony trial. You’d obsessively scroll through Washington Post, CNN, and other news outlets’ justice or crime section. It wasn’t until you were older that you realized true crime was your hobby, your niche. 

So, you went to school and got a degree in journalism. And about halfway through your university career, you’d gone to a college party, gotten drunk, and started talking about the details of the Texas Killing Fields. Other people slowly floated away, becoming uninterested in the conversation and not understanding why you wanted to talk about something so horrific. Across the room, there was a girl who looked at you with pure excitement stretched across her face. She practically leaped over to you and said, “Tell me everything.”

About a year later, you and her became best friends. Her name was Zendaya Coleman, different than yours, but you were pretty sure she was a carbon copy of you otherwise. You’d watch Psych together, and then rewatch it over and over again once the series ended. Other times, you’d stay up late and watch documentaries about unsolved cases and general ones centered on the justice department. 

One day, you had a broadcast journalism cast final you needed help with in terms of filming. You’d been recommended Tom in passing conversation for help, and soon, you met him for coffee and told him all the ideas you had. (At the time, you hadn’t noticed the sudden glimmer in his eye when he looked at you. It wouldn’t be for a few more months that you would.) When he came over to your house later that week, you finished the project together, with Zendaya co-anchoring, and celebrated its completion over wine.  

When both you and Z went into your usual drunk talk about unsolved cases, Tom looked at the two of you with interest and then spit out, “Holy shit, have you guys ever thought of making this a podcast?”

And now, nearly three years later, a drunk idea led to success you never could dream about. It took you a while to actually kick off the podcast — two years after that fateful night. Now, a year into the whole gig, your podcast was consistently in the top 50 on the iTunes charts, and you had a whole fan base that always engaged with you on all social media.

You hosted it with Zendaya once a week. Episodes usually ranged for about an hour and a half, filled with your dialogue surrounding situations with serial killers or cults. Tom worked as the quiet producer, who always sat silently in the corner to make sure your microphones were consistently operating at the level they should be. 

It was a nice way to live. You had a flexible schedule, and though you had plans for an upcoming tour, you could all stay in your respective homes within your quiet town. 

When the knock came at your door that day, you took a quick peek through the peephole in your door, smiling when you saw your best friend on the other side. You swung the door open, immediately greeting her with a hug. 

“Hey Z,” you greeted. You opened the door wider, noticing she had a bag in hand. 

“I went to Cheesecake Factory earlier, and you know I hella brought cheesecake back,” she said. She plopped the bag on your table. You opened the bag, a smile coming to your face when you saw the slice of Oreo cheesecake she bought for you. You thanked her, shuffling around your drawers and cabinets for plates and cutlery. When you returned with the proper dishware, you noticed the off expression on your friend’s face. She was looking around thoughtfully, like something wasn’t quite sitting right with her.

“What’s up?” you asked, passing the plate over. She pulled out her own slice of cheesecake from the bag. 

“I think this is the first time I’ve come to your home and Tom hasn’t been here,” she joked. “Even when we’re not recording, he’s almost always here.” You laughed at the observation. 

“He actually chose to go to his home today. He’s got a big deadline coming up this weekend, and said I was ‘too distracting.’” You pulled out the air quotes at the end, and Zendaya rolled her eyes playfully.

“Boy needs to learn to keep his dick in his pants,” she teased, taking a bite out of her cheesecake. “But if Tom isn’t here, who’s gonna be the sound guy?” You bit your lip.

“Okay, so hear me out,” you said, raising up your hands already defensive. Zendaya deadpanned.

“Please tell me Tom didn’t hire Colton Lancaster,” she begged. You narrowed your eyes.

“What? No, ew.” She let out a sigh of relief. “Why would you even—“ 

“He’s the only other audio guy I know in town! His news podcast is a little bit boring content wise, but he’s got some nice audio going.” You giggled and shook your head. 

“Nah, apparently, Harrison has audio experience.” Zendaya raised her eyebrows.

“Quiet one? Stutters when he does talk?” You laughed.

“He was only nervous because he thinks you’re cute! But yeah, him. Tom told me when they did theater together back in high school he was always the sound guy before he made his debut on the stage.”

“Oooh okay Harrison, I see you. When is he coming?” You checked your watch. 

“He said he’s going to run a little bit late, but he should be here in about three more minutes.”

As if you summoned him yourself, the doorbell rang. You glanced at the door, then back at your friend, “Or maybe right now.”

You strode over to the door again, swinging it open and greeting the man of the hour. Harrison looked a little bit lost as he stepped into the foyer of your home. He had a backpack slung on his back and his hands were digging in his pockets.

“Hey Harrison,” Zendaya called out. “You like cheesecake?” Harrison blushed slightly.

“Uh, hey Zendaya. And uh, yeah, I do…” He looked back over at you, seeking some reassurance. You gave him a nod.

In truth, you still didn’t know Harrison that well, despite dating his roommate for a little over two years at this point and seeing him more than a handful of times. Yet, you still considered him a good friend, and Tom told you Harrison thought the same of you. Maybe you weren’t knowledgeable on the intimate details of his life, but you understood him and his quietness. And most of all, you respected each other.

“Zendaya bought some from Cheesecake Factory,” you explained, as you stepped into your main dining area.

“You can have the other half of my slice,” Zendaya offered. “I’m stuffed.”

“Oh, thanks,” Harrison replied. “I should probably start on getting you lot set up though.”

Zendaya waved it off and said, “No rush.” He shot you a look, silently asking for your permission.

“Yeah, c’mon Harrison, hang out with us for a bit. We’re just chatting.” 

With that, he smiled, plopped in the chair next to Zendaya, and started eating the cheesecake she offered him. 

“So, what’s the tea in your life, Harrison?” you asked.

He raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean?” 

“Anything exciting going on? New shows you’re involved in?” He shook his head. 

“Just summer classes, lots of studying. I work at Soul Cycle, which is laid back.” He shrugged, then seemed to mull over something. “Though, we did have a couple arguing today in the shop. Don’t know about what, but it’s the most exciting thing to happen in there in a week.”

“That’s the trinket shop on the east side of town right?” Zendaya asked. Harrison nodded his head.

“Very small, but pays well.” Zendaya looked at you pointedly.

“We need to go there.” 

You let out a short laugh. “Why?”

“They have crystals! With all the shit that we talk, we probably need to cleanse our energies,” Zendaya insisted. “Besides, we can see Haz.” 

He blushed at the nickname and you tried to hold back a smile.

“It’s not a bad idea,” he murmured. Zendaya gave you an “I-told-you-so” look. “Really, I never used to believe in any of that. Always thought it was rubbish, but then Madame Auboin changed my life around.” He shrugged. “You never quite know what’ll happen to you. Best to take some preventative measures to make sure you’re keeping all of that out.”

And so finally, you agreed to go with Z and Harrison after enough convincing. Besides, everyone in town loved the owner, Diane Auboin.

After more conversation and eating, you finally went into your spare room that acted as your recording studio. Harrison sat at the computer, prepping everything up in the room, while you went over your unsolved crime again silently in your head and scrolled through the main talking points on your phone.

He gave you both the cue to start and you gave the introduction. “Welcome to ‘Anatomy of a Murder,’ where we dissect all the creepy shit serial killers pull so you don’t have to. Because let’s face it, it’s hard balancing work life with fighting off creeps.”

You were about halfway through the show when your phone started ringing loudly. Zendaya stopped mid-sentence and asked, “Did you forget to put your phone on Do Not Disturb?”

You shook your head. “Um, no, it’s Tom actually. He knows we’re recording, so he wouldn’t call unless something’s up. 

Harrison pressed the stop recording button on the computer and you picked up the phone.

“Hey babe, you okay?” you asked, stepping out of the room.

“Oh, Y/N, thank God. You’re at home, right? Harrison and Zendaya are still with you?” he asked. There was traces of panic in his voice and you grew more concerned. 

“Yeah… why? What’s going on?”

“Stay put, I’m on my way to your house right now. Don’t move, okay darling?” 

“I won’t,” you promised, hanging up. You stepped back into the recording studio. “Tom just did the weirdest—” 

But you stopped speaking when you saw their facial expressions. They were both staring in horror out of something on Zendaya’s phone. They both looked up at you and you saw Harrison visibly gulp.

“What’s up?” you inquired. Zendaya looked up at Harrison, then back at you, clearly at a complete loss at words.

Finally, she spoke, “They found a body out by Kinakee Lake. Well, two actually.” 

She passed you the phone and you saw a photograph of police vans over by the lake on the outskirts of the city limits. The headline read, “Two found dead at Kinakee Lake,” and naturally, had Colton Lancaster’s byline.

You heard the door ring and swallowed, passing the phone back over. “That has to be Tom,” you said.

You usually check the peephole before you open the door, but in your pure panic and eagerness to see your boyfriend, you neglected to do so. So, you swung the door open again that day, shocked when you saw a man and a woman standing at your front door with police badges adorning their suits.

“Are you Y/N Y/L/N?” the female officer asked.

“Yes, that would be me,” you answered.

“You’re wanted at the police station for questioning over two bodies recently discovered at Kinakee Lake.”

[abitterlifethroughcinema]

The Wrap, Part II: Return of the Curse of the Creature’s Ghost!

Film Reviews from the 51st Annual Sitges Fantasy/Horror Film Festival

by

Lucas A Cavazos

It would be of utmost denial to oneself to not take part in the occasional puff of marijuana and/or odd glass or two of red wine whilst shuffling about Sitges during this type of festival. I tell you, in this gayest of cities (and yes, I mean that in both senses of the word), nothing says loving like soaking up sun and guts while having the right side of your brain open. To quote Henry Miller…”The aim of life is to live, and to live means to be aware, joyously, drunkenly, serenely, divinely aware.” 

And it is in that vein, I present to you the latest film starring Nicolas Cage, Mandy ###-1/2…Could it be that Nicolas Cage might actually have something interesting to offer now that he’s well past 50 and ready to go beyond simple nut job roles and wannabe-buff, action hits and flops? Last year, this festival premiered the currently in-run and VOD film called Mom and Dad with Selma Blair, and if that was a thing of fun and delight, which is was, this film is much more darkly mirrored and rife with psychedelic imagery, and it must be discussed. To note, it does contain ye olde, ubiquitous screaming-whilst-having-a-psychotic-fit Cage scene, doubt ye not! Set in turn of the decade 80s, Red (Cage) and Mandy (Andrea Riseborough) have removed themselves from the majority of society and live a life of slight isolation, that is until one day, Mandy is abducted by some occult-like sect with grave intentions. Linus Roach (Priest) plays Jeremiah Sands, a man who can call forth demons and demonic creatures, and when psychedelia meets rancour, flames go up and and as they do, someone in them, as well. This is where the film turns into a contemplative narrative tale on revenge and turmoil, highlighted by a tinge of hallucinogens and wasp venom, and I cannot begin to tell you how eerily creepy it is to see Linus Roach after so many years in a role like this that sends chills down your spine in ways that create sheer panic and disgust. Watching Cage take revenge is a joy and wonder, and it should be noted that the film won two of the Sitges 51st Official Selection Awards for Best Director, which went to Panos Cosmatos and Best Actress going to Andrea Riseborough, who also comes up a bit later down below. A piece of rogue psychedelic modern art on celluloid if ever there was one, tinges of Wes Craven, Heavy Metal cartoon imagery and sleep paralysis demons make this Nic Cage vehicle one of the best things he has done in simply years.

Making my way over to The Retiro in the heart of bustling Sitges to screen the noir-like film The Dark ###, I realised that I was late and upon arrival, I was quickly ushered upstairs and had to make do with a single chair propped up next to an upstairs balustrade. The Dark is an eerie piece that preys on the power of the unknown to scare the viewer into wanting to know more about its strange characters…and then the film reveals those secrets in flashback. Despite its title, there is very little in relation to darkness other than the tone of the film and its narrative of teen spirit gone horribly awry. In a former entry, I spoke of how a screened premiere entitled Zoo had encroached upon fresh zombie territory, and until recently as just over a decade ago, zombie cinema was a mostly contained affair, and reserved to a select grouping of films annually. That all changed with the mid-noughties and this latest entry into its subject matter baits us with unexplained tidbits, starting when a one Josef Hofer (Karl Markovics), described as armed and dangerous, makes his way to a rather haunting locale, where death finds him in the form of Mina, perma-resident of this cursed abode in Devil’s Den, a forestal area with a history of hauntings and Mina is that person/monster haunting those very woods. But then she discovers Alex, a blind and also-scarred teen who had been Hofer’s captive, and together the two make off for a disturbing adventure, which borders on heartfelt while also sadistic. If anything, this piece certainly toys with emotions and good cinema ought to do just that.

The Sitges Fantasy/Horror Film Fest is divided into many distinct sections, such as the main Official Selections, Noves Visions,which promotes newer filmmakers and diverse subject matter, Melies Feature and Short Film sections, Asian Focus, Animated Fare, The Orbita promoting mixed big budget and indie fare, Fanastic Discovery Features promoting obscure (and often deeper) cinema, the B and Z-grade fare of the Midnight X-Treme selections, as well as, the Critics Jury Selection. All of that to say that there is nary a specific genre within the fantasy film/horror movie genres that is NOT touched on by this film festival. Winner of the Orbita Award for Best Picture went to the US studio outfit entitled American Animals ###-1/2 and what an astounding effort it provides its audience into a peek at the rather modern mindset of the ageing millennial. Telling a 2004 real-life story by British director Bart Layton, he of the haunting 2012 film The Imposter, this 2018 effort documents how four white youths from good, hardworking families failed to fully realise a masterminded effort to steal one of, if not, the world’s most valuable book. The multi-volume Audubon Society’s Birds of America, not to mention Darwin’s first edition copy of On the Origin of Species were just two of the books to be included in a heist that Transylvania University students Spencer Reinhard and Warren Lipka (played to perfection by Barry Keoghan and Evan Peters) foolishly decided to rob from the special collections library department. To say that the subject matter is mid-level at best might be a tad harsh but only just so; that said, the way Layton maps out the mental state of these middle-to-upper middle class boys should give all of us a hint as to where these boys, and millions like them, are coming from. The plan of a heist is bred with the idea that their spoiled lives have hindered their true creative identities, and so to tell the story, the director secured interviews with the actual perpetrators and spliced that with top grade talent re-enacting the actual events. The film cannot be heralded as a thing of wonder, as it truly details the dumbest snafu of a heist ever on American soil. But what it succeeds in showing is that insecurity, lack of identity, and seeds of doubt are rife amongst today’s young adults, and if we are not fomenting stronger individuals as siblings, educators, parents, et al…we will continue to create these spoiled races of highly non-autonomous individuals. Give them some tough love, for goodness sake. Worthy of a view for any parent or educator.

AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT…Lars Von Trier, he of the Dogme 95 cinema movement and so many odd, jarring and sometimes good celluloid pieces…see Celebration and this film as examples please…he of the “understanding Hitler, I’m a Nazi” joke he pulled a few years back at Cannes, which then had him banned for half a decade, premiered his latest work last week at Sitges. It a doozy of a film that garnered some decent attention and a European and Spanish distributor, for sure. It’s been a hot minute since we’ve seen Matt Dillon on the big screen, and the brief time with Uma Thurman at the film’s beginning is a dark scene of beauty…and then not. Here’s the thing, as always we are dealing with the tortured mindset of a Scandinavian director who seethes out his demons onto celluloid, but that alone does not make it exceptional art, although I truly believe he thinks it is. In turn, I truly believe that von Trier is quite likely a mitigated sociopath. That said, while there is a bit of reverential awe to his masterful ways of movie manipulation, it is his use of dark comedy that sets this film apart from other recent fare he has brought us. Matt Dillon plays the titular character and while amusing at first, he soon grows languidly repetitive and chauvinistic, and while there are scenes of comedic brilliance, such as an OCD-related clean up job that leads to an incident with a policeman or the bang-down job he does trying to dispose of bodies in a freezer, it is impossible for this student and teacher of history to not associate the fact that we are watching a man, a DANISH man no less (do your research as to why I emphasise that, chirren) play out his darker inner recesses for our viewing interest, but it surely makes me aware that we are also likely dealing with his pathos. That’s what really makes The House That Jack Built ###-1/2 really scary.

Lastly this entry, Nancy ###-1/2 brings up the actress Andrea Riseborough again, and I would like to note that often at awards season and ceremonies, actors get rewarded for an individual work, which often plays testament to all the other work they’ve done in their field that year. As Riseborough won Best Actress at this year’s Sitges Fantasy/Horror Film Fest, I believe this piece was much more deserved than the aforementioned Mandy for that award. I also find it compelling that she as an actress chose to make two, back-to-back films about tortured women with their names as the movie titles. Nancy is a quasi-failed career woman tending to her mum who suffers from some neural disorder and who is unintentionally suffocating her daughter with complaints and stress…but when mum dies suddenly, what is Nancy to do but discover that she was likely abducted years earlier and soon begins to associate herself with a long lost child case never resolved that might fit her theory about herself, however strained it is. What ensues is a emotional tour de force involving the parents of the long missing child, played to award-level precision by J. Cameron Smith as Ellen and Steve Buscemi as her hubby Leo. When Nancy sets up an appointment to meet with them, they take a shining to her at once and while awaiting DNA results, take her in to stay with them, including with her cat to which Leo is allergic. As scenes go by, even though this might be more in order in an indie film fest rather than here at Sitges, you also understand that the fantastical elements lie in the mind of the titular woman, as well as, in director Christina Chloe’s softly brutal touch. A film meant for those who understand healing and suspension of (dis)belief, Nancy gives Andrea Riseborough a chance at becoming a celebrated actress to emulate.

[silverglyph]

FRAME BY FRAME - All References in the MIC DROP Fan Video by Kiera and Arwen (with pictures and links)

First of all, go follow @seiyoko and @salukiart, they are amazing artists, animators, and creators!

If I missed any references, please message me and I will add them in!

The opening line of Dope - 0:13

At 0:08 in the video, all member’s names are graffiti’d on the walls.

A line from the song Come Back Home

From about 0:25 to 0:29, Steve Aoki’s eyes watch over the boys from the Mic Drop remix. Also, the TV says ARMY <3

Also at 0:29, there are posters lining the walls from BTS’s past comebacks. If you look closely, you can also see their logo on the controllers (this is much more easily visible later on in the video). The room MIGHT also be modeled to look like a room in their current dorm but I’m not sure.

At 0:30, the first screen of the game finally shows up, and it lasts for about 10 seconds. In that time, we can see:

The stage is modeled from their first music video, No More Dream

J-Hope (who’s character name is written as JHS in the game-- short for Jung Hoseok, his real name) is firing a Supreme gun that shoots fake money (lol).

The little mascot in the Info section is Van, a mascot from the BT21 series created by BTS and Line. Each mascot was made by/represents one member of BTS, except for Van, who represents ARMYs.

“Today, your dream begins! A new path has been opened, don’t hesitate!” I am pretty sure these are lyrics from one of their songs since, throughout the video, Van pretty much mostly speaks in lyrics. I haven’t been able to find this one though.

At 0:41, the stage changes to reflect their We Are Bullet Proof Pt. 2 music video.

Van’s quote “It’s like a desert here, there’s nothing but rocks” is a reference to the hidden song on the LYH album, Sea.

ALSO, a some of the monsters designs are based on lyrics and references from BTS’s music. I’m sure all of them are but I just can’t make the connection. Maybe the rock monster is also a reference to Sea?

Edit: Apparently most of the enemy designs are based off of album covers! This is according to Kiera’s twitter.

At 0:46, Suga joins the party as MYG (short for Min Yoongi, his real name).

J-Hope’s special attack at 0:48 is a reference to the short movie he stars in during the Wings era called MAMA (also the name of his solo song in the Wings album).

I’m not sure I even have to put this, but the great transition at 0:51 is a dead ringer for the iconic MIC MIC BUNGEE move that Suga and J-Hope do in the Mic Drop remix MV.

So now Suga is in the frontlines, attacking. His method of attack is the lighter he’s seen with throughout the entire HYYH series. It first made it’s appearance in the I NEED U music video (seen clearly at 0:29).

The stage has changed to reflect their music video N.O. The red and white color palettes of the monsters in this area are supposed to reflect the red and white album.

And at 1:05 (we’re only A MINUTE INTO THIS VIDEO WOW), they’re in the classroom setting from Boy In Luv. I have no idea what the monster is supposed to be. Is it balancing on a candle? Chalk? Does it represent the red string of fate???

Whoa hey, it’s 1:07 and we’re in the Just One Day music video! I’m fairly sure that paper airplane monster refers to the paper airplane J-Hope had in Spring Day? (At 3:20.) I don’t recall paper airplanes in their other MVs unless there was one in Just One Day that I missed?

Also, it looks like V has shown up! (As KTH, or Kim Taehyung.)

Suga’s special attack starts at about 1:09 and lasts until 1:14. In it, he throws a rock at the monster, an alarm goes off, and a piano falls on the monster’s head. This is a reference to the short film FIRST LOVE, released during the Wings era. In it, Suga throws a rock into a music store, where a piano sits, and an alarm goes off.

Back in the real world at 1:15, we can see more detailed posters from different eras. I just know the Dope era one on the right.

At 1:18, we’re in the underground subway setting for Danger. (If it wasn’t obvious, the stage appearances correspond to the order the actual music videos were released in.) V unleashes his attack, unfurling black wings and firing feathers. In the MV for Blood, Sweat, and Tears, as well as other subsequent material during this era, V was seen and associated with black wings. I think he’s fighting the Gucci snake? Because V loves Gucci in real life?

Also, Van is back! “It’s already your second year, time flows fast...” references their song Second Grade/So 4 More (which is an underrated BANGER btw).

Also, easter egg time: There’s graffiti reading “What Am I to You?” which is the title of one of their intro songs.

New player! Jin (aka KSJ, aka Kim Seokjin) appears at 1:24 and fights by blowing kisses :). Blowing kisses at ARMYs is pretty much his thing lol. Also, blowing kisses sends out hearts that hurt the enemy, and while that’s a common visualization for blowing kisses, I pray that its also a reference to Jin’s heart events.

They’re at the storefront present in the War of Hormone MV. The enemy he’s fighting is, I think, one of the black-clothed goons from Not Today and the Mic Drop remix MV. (It also appeared in Kiera’s last full-length fan animation of Cypher Pt. 3. That video is itself chock-full of references! Incidentally, I believe Van’s quote here is also referencing that song.)

Two seconds later at 1:26, Jimin (aka PJM, aka Park Jimin) makes his appearance. This time, they’re at the bonfire scene from I NEED U (also appears in their prologue MV I think). Their fighting a flower monster that I don’t know the significance of.

Jimin attacks with an umbrella. I think the umbrella is from the Love Yourself short films but I’m not entirely sure.

At 1:37, we get our first look at the achievement system in this game.

It’s all the awards they’ve won up until this point! Really awesome touch.

Two new players appear this time: Jungkook (JJK, Jeon Jungkook) and RM (KNJ, Kim Namjoon). I have no idea what Jungkook’s attack is: he pulls some string from his wrist and it transforms into a spear?  Jungkook’s attack may be referencing the move from DNA. Strands of DNA come oout of his arm and form a spear. (Thank you @bangpdofficial!)

The stage is a scene from their Dope MV. Van’s quote, “so this is Bangtan style,” references the same song.

I am almost certain that the lion enemy has a mane modeled after the lily flower that appears frequently in the Bangtan Cinematic Universe. It’s even got six petals.

At 1:46, Jimin unleashes his special attack. The attack involves him eating an apple and then teleport-kicking the enemies. I think this is a reference to his short film, LIE.

The stage is from the For You MV, a song/MV exclusively released in Japan. I am not sure what the enemies are supposed to be.

Jimin’s kick transitions into the next scene, where the stage is modeled after the tunnel scene from the RUN MV. I am pretty sure the enemy is a reference to Baepsae/Crow-tit, and this bird represents the wealthy older generation.

A wild BTS lightstick appears at 1:53! (Also, we got some new scenes of their room with some new posters.) 9:18 might refer to the date the Love Yourself album was released (thank you anon!)

A new stage shows up at 1:55. I don’t quite recognize it but it might be the Japanese version of I NEED U? We can also get a clearer look at the bird from Baepsae.

At 1:57 we come to yet another new stage modeled after the Japanese Run MV. It’s filled with graffiti of the names of a ton of their songs. 

V activates his special attack. A single lightbulb hangs from the ceiling and a table appears, which he kicks towards the baepsae. I believe it’s a reference to his interrogation scene in his short film, STIGMA.

Also, in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moment, V’s attack animation ends with him giving a peace sign and his adorable puppy Yeontan popping out of his pocket.

Two minutes into the video and we get a new stage (modeled after the Fire MV) and we finally see RM’s attack. He pulls out a giant lollipop and smacks enemies with it. He’s frequently seen with a yellow lollipop in the Bangtan Cinematic Universe.

And now they’re in a stage modeled after the Save Me MV.

Again, the stage changes into one based on Young Forever. I don’t know what that enemy’s supposed to be, but he’s pretty cool looking. And an animation for downed party members has never been so cute. (But what is that in Jin’s arms?)

At 2:08, RM provides an assist move that revives V and Jin. It takes the appearance of his BT21 mascot, Koya.

We get another look at the achievements screen at 2:10. It’s coming along nicely!

And a level selection screen a couple of seconds later! Not only does it show the title of the MV, but the description includes the album the song came from. The level code is also the date of the comeback (thank you @bangpdofficial)

2:18 shows a stage based on the Blood, Sweat, and Tears MV, as well as my favorite enemy design in the whole video: a dear featuring the circle designs from the Wings album cover. 

For his special attack, RM unleashes a phone booth to crush the enemies, referencing his short film REFLECTION.

More awards!

Also, seems like the boys have started taking notes. You can see a DNA strand drawn on the bottom one (blocked a little by the YouTube bar--sorry about that).

New stage at 2:30! It’s the train from Spring Day. Van’s line about forgetting shoes also references the lone pair of shoes featured many times in that video.

Jin summons his pet sugar gliders to restore the HP of the rest of the party (to the bewilderment of Van).

Jin uses his special attack in the Not Today stage at 2:45. He takes a photo with the polaroid camera seen many times in the Bangtan Cinematic Universe, and it turns the enemy to stone. It crumbles away under his touch. This might relate to the way Jin crumbled as though he were stone in the Blood Sweat and Tears MV.

At 2:50, we’re taken to a new stage. I think it’s based on the Japanese MV of Blood Sweat and Tears. Van’s quote is another reference to the song Sea.

A closer look at the controller at 2:55.

Even more awards! Too many that I can’t even count ‘em.

And at 3:03, we see a DNA-based stage. Van’s quote is once again from Sea.

Jungkook’s special attack has all the other members in BTS appear behind him in succession before he delivers a punch to the enemy. It’s safe to say that this references the song (not the short film) BEGIN, which is something of an ode to the hyungs of Bangtan. <3 (song) (film)

3:20. Hey look it’s pretty much a direct replica of that one scene from DNA (at 3:49).

At 3:25 we get our first look at the game over screen. Among a bunch of other “you have failed” messages, there’s this one (”don’t be such a try-hard”) that further references Baepsae.

Looks like they keep getting knocked out in the Mic Drop stage. That weird rainbow ball from DNA is tough.

Van’s words of encouragement are nearly a direct quote from the best-known line in Sea. “Where there’s hope, there’s trials.”

Last but not least, BTS’s achevements have earned them a spot on the world’s scoreboard, their debut on Billboard’s Hot 100 as number 28. <3

This fan animation was absolutely stellar and the attention to detail was mind-blowing. Even the tiniest details like how each member’s idle animation would work had so much thought put into it. Again, mad props to @seiyoko, @salukiart and @yowgurt for their incredible work!  

[tastethegrace]

Analysis from Week 1 - Thomas Merton

I'm going to try to compile my notes this week into a brief reflection for each section of the passage.

“What is serious to men is often very trivial in the sight of God. What in God might appear to us as "play" is perhaps what he Himself takes most seriously."

I kept coming back to this quote every couple of days. This speaks to the great inversion of values, the difference between humans and God. I love how what God takes seriously is what might appear to humans as "play." Consider what this means. The first thing that came to my mind was...God has fun. And he takes his fun seriously. That might be obvious, but it's worth noticing. The second thing is that, considering what humans consider "play," this seems to refer to reveling in the moment, matters of the heart, matters of patterns, music, dance, joy, laughter...everything that makes life worth living. God is a God of play.

At any rate, the Lord plays and diverts Himself in the garden of His creation, and if we could let go of our own obsession with what we think is the meaning of it all, we might be able to hear His call and follow Him in His mysterious, cosmic dance.

What I found fascinating here was that God seems to set the tone by playing himself. Then, he invites us to play with him. We just don't hear him because we're too busy trying to figure out why creation is the way it is.

This reminds me a lot of Ted Dekker's books. In several, a Jesus figure is written as a boy, full of mischief and fun, but also full of uncommon depth and compassion.

We do not have to go very far to catch echoes of that game, and of that dancing. When we are alone on a starlit night; when by chance we see the migrating birds in autumn descending on a grove of junipers to rest and eat; when we see children in a moment when they are really children; when we know love in our own hearts; or when, like the Japanese poet Bashō we hear an old frog land in a quiet pond with a solitary splash--at such times the awakening, the turning inside out of all values, the "newness," the emptiness and the purity of vision that make themselves evident, provide a glimpse of the cosmic dance.

I love this section. Echoes of that dancing. As St. John of the Cross put it, "We realize that the Beloved has passed this way in haste...we see traces of the divine." All of these moments, whether they be the natural processes of creation, a momentary realization of pure innocence, or a window into real love...all of these things are traces of the divine.

I love the words Merton chooses here to describe all these moments....awakening, the turning inside out of all values, the newness, the emptiness and the purity of vision... On that last one, emptiness seems less to be about absence and more about patience. I only say this because it's easy to think about emptiness as someone taking something away...but I think it's more like a blank canvas. It's pure. It's waiting to be filled.

For the world and time are the dance of the Lord in emptiness. The silence of the spheres is the music of a wedding feast. The more we persist in misunderstanding the phenomena of life, the more we analyze them out into strange finalities and complex purposes of our own, the more we involve ourselves in sadness, absurdity and despair. But it does not matter much, because no despair of ours can alter the reality of things; or stain the joy of the cosmic dance which is always there. Indeed, we are in the midst of it, and it is in the midst of us, for it beats in our very blood, whether we want it to or not.

This section really got to me.

The first two lines really focus on the poetry of creation. How the world itself is the dance of the Lord. How the silence of the stars, sun and moon overhead is the music. How beautiful that is to think about! The heavenly bodies themselves sing in silence to accompany the Lord's dance, which is in fact, the Earth spinning and moving, teeming with life.

The middle section is interesting as well. Humans often misunderstand the phemonoma around us. We come up with "strange finalities" and "complex purposes of our own." I love these phrases. We think we've reached the end when we haven't scratched the surface. We make complex what is so simple. We force the purposes to be human-centered, when they are far more universal. We make what is big small, and what is small, big.

It is the end that got me hard. No despair we can possibly have can alter REALITY. No despair can stain the JOY of the DANCE, always there. It BEATS in our BLOOD, whether we WANT IT TO OR NOT. A few things here: I love this proclamation that the Dance will keep going, whether or not we acknowledge it. The Dance itself is reality. But not only are we the midst of this grand, cosmic movement in time, but that dance also moves through us. It is in the midst of us. It beats in our blood whether we want it to or not. I freaking love this visceral, physical image. Our circulatory system, our cells, our heartbeat...all of it is to the rhythm of the dance. And we can't stop it from doing so.

Yet the fact remains that we are invited to forget ourselves on purpose, cast our awful solemnity to the winds and join in the general dance.”

When someone forgets themselves, they do something that is not characteristic of them, or forget where they are/who they are with. Basically, it's usually by accident, and it's usually embarrassing. However, we are invited to do this on purpose and join in with what the rest of creation is already doing.

This reminds me of David dancing naked in the streets, and how pelased God was.

I have other notes I'm going to include here that are from Jim Finley's discussion of the text. I pulled so much from here that was important.

1. Merton once said at a talk that Creation was never a one-time thing. It happens all the time. Creation is absolute and perpetual. So, ultimately speaking, the infinite presence of God is pouring itself out, giving itself away, and presencing itself as the intimate immediacy of our very presence, the presence of others, and the presence of all things, which are nothingness without God.

--I have been chewing on this all week. Creation is absolute, meaning that it is total, without qualifications. Creation is also perpetual, meaning that it never ends. If you consider that it is the presence of God that creates, wouldn't that mean that his very presence is what sustains us? And what is another word for presence? Intimacy. Love. So therefore, the Love of God is what sustains us (more on this next).

--When we see intimate presence, whether in ourselves, other people, or in nature, that's because God is pouring his love out on that thing, always being present to it and through it. His love is the whole reason it exists in the first place.

2. “You are nothing -- absolutely nothing-- outside and other than the love of God giving itself to you as your very life. But it is your very nothingness without God that makes your presence to be the presence of God. That’s the paradox that lies at the heart of all reality, which then renders that the universe is God’s body -- embodying forth the love that is uttering it into being.”

--Jim Finley went on to use the following example. "If God stopped loving you when I counted to three, on three, you would cease to exist." God doesn't just create once and then make sure it keeps going, he creates every single breath, every single movement of cells, everything in me that grows, everything in me that dies...it's all a new outpouring of his love. Every breath is a new creation.

--I LOVE this idea that all of creation is an embodiment of the love of God. It brings concreteness to something abstract so that it can be grasped, at least in some form.

3. “In God, we live and move and have our being.” - Acts 17:28 “We’re living our life in the vast interiority of God, pouring herself out and giving herself away, as every breath, heartbeat, and passing moment of our lives.”

--First, this is a moment where God is referred to in the feminine. Again, I love that so much. It's beautiful. "Pouring out" is an action that is especially powerful when God is viewed as a mother.

--The idea that I am living within God's love, that it is so vast that it covers me, surrounds me, and penetrates within me...it makes me realize how hard it is to remember it.

--Jim gave the following example: Imagine that you lived in a mansion, but due to an unfortunate mental condition, you thought you lived in a tent behind the garage. A therapist might say to you, "I would never lie to you about this. You actually live in the mansion." And then you say, "No, I couldn't. I don't even feel worthy to go inside that place." This example SLAYED me, because it is me. It's why earlier in the week, I was surprised by how much anger and resistance was aroused by this meditation. It's like something in me recognized the implications of this before my mind did. I reacted as though I did not want the mansion to reach me. I didn't want the love of God to touch and embrace that thing within me that I hate so much. This week has been about learning to relent and receive in that way.

I am a blind man that, every now and then, is awakened to the reality that I live in the mansion of God's love, but then I go blind again. I forget. I cannot abide in it as I wish to. Which leads me to the next point.

4. “We are to put our faith in the love that is giving itself to us in our inability to abide in it. In my inability to abide in it, it abides in me, precious in my confusion and wayward ways.”

--In my weakness, he is strong. "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." 2 Corinthians 12:9

--The image that it is in the very fact that I am unable to abide in God, that God, that God abides in me even more...I am secure, even when I'm not. I am always held. God is relentless. God loves weakness. That thing I hate? God embraces it. Oh, sweet weakness! You are precious in the sight of God. My confusion is precious in the sight of God. My wayward ways are precious in the sight of God. Why? Because in my weakness, he covers me. The strength and light of his love protects me. His grace guides me. In my heart, I am a child, and God is my mother. I am the lost sheep that he finds over and over again, rejoicing every time. In my own strength, I am nothing. But in my NOTHINGNESS, I am everything, for God dwells in THAT place. k

Things that have challenged me this week:

- The idea that all of creation doesn't just testify to God's presence, goodness, and love, but that it in and of itself is divine, because God is dancing. When he dances, things come to life. His dance is a dance of love. Which leads me to my next challenging idea.

- I am God. Let me clarify this. I am not God himself. There is a separateness in identity. But I am divine in the sense that I am created in and through the love of God, constantly, all the time. I am One and always endeavoring to be more One with God. We are unified in that love. God makes me every moment and says, "It is very good."

These ideas push hard against what I've grown up with: an understanding that I am a lowly sinner that is totally undeserving. Here's the thing, though. I know that I am undeserving of God's grace. But I am not lowly. My righteousness is not as filthy rags. That might be what the biblical writers thought of themselves, but that is not what God thinks of me at all.

Perhaps it is good to begin in a place of understanding our humble place in the vast cosmos and our redemptive need for God's grace so that we do not grow entitled. But I think that I'm now beginning to grow up in my faith. I'm just beginning to embrace the constant newness, inversion, and divine nature that comes with being called a saint and a son of God. These things are true of us now. Right now. Yet I have been blind to see the fruit. I just want to breathe it all in, all of the goodness, all of the love of God, and keep breathing it. I want to see it move. I want to see the hidden things, the mysteries, unfold before my eyes in the smallest of ways. I want to dance with God. I want to know the steps. I want to laugh with him, and I want him to hold me as I cry with him. He is everywhere, and he is in me. I am one piece of his nature, completely unique, and yet totally Him.

All of this stuff may not hit you the way it's hitting me, and that's okay. I'll probably forget it this time next week.

But God is good, God is gracious, and God is Love. And so I will be grateful that He has opened my eyes, even for a few moments, to see just how big His love and His grace actually are.

[myurlgiveswidomsouregretseeingit]

Nagaraj ≠ Underground King

Short Summary: Nagaraj is not Underground King but quite the opposite of it.

I know many, myself included always thought that Nagaraj that destroyed underground city was same Underground King who supposedly built it (which didn’t made any sense), however as I was rereading and thinking more about it I’m starting to think that “Nagaraj” isn’t Underground King but rather his enemies. Kagune left there, isn’t one of Underground King but his said enemies.

Which would be V and Washuu aka two snakes from Uta’s tattoos.

Please be warned things I’m about to write are huge speculations on my part. Not to mention things I’m about to write shall be long read.

Spoilers, this theory shall be divided into next sections and contain following:

Why “Nagaraj” is mostly just figurative over literal (Very Short)

V = First Snake

Brief Mention of mah girl Eto

Uta’s tattoos of two snakes + connection to V and Washuu

Washuu = Second Snake (”Nagaraj” behind kagune)

So lets get this new crackpot of mine started.

“Nagaraj” Vs Nagas

Nagaraja is said to be king of snakes while Nagas are race of serpents. Interesting thing about this entire case that further makes me believe “Nagaraj” isn’t anyone’s name is for start difference in translations.

In Jaimini’s translations it is said that Nagaraj was one who destroyed it all which is king of snakes, while in MS translations it said that Nagas destroyed it all which are serpent race (V).

Regardless of Nagaraj or Nagas, lets go onto said V and how they come as first snake in all of this regardless of translation.

V Aka First Snake

V was created because of actions of Underground King in first place.

Lets take good look at this. Not only were they formed specifically to deal with ghouls and that said one eyed, but they’re also number one reason why that one eyed went to underground in first place.

But how does V come as Nagas the serpent race? I suggest reading this but to quote thing from there that not only indicates on V as Nagas / Nagaraj but Washuu as well being said Second Snake:

“ Someone on the Tokyo Ghoul wiki commented that if you combine the kanjis common to the names of all the Washuu family heads, you get the name “Vasuki”. (I know nothing of Japanese so I can’t comment on the accuracy of this, sorry). Vasuki is a King serpent in Hindu and Buddhist mythology. Vasuki is a naga.”

And boi but Kaiko got some serpent looking eyes there speaking of which.

Man literally got eyes like said snake there.

(Brief short mention of Eto), What I found interesting during my research is that mortal enemy of said Nagas is Garuda that is said to have form of large legendary bird that despises Nagas. This might connect to Eto as she despises V (Nagas) and has enormous kakuja as well as alias “One Eyed Owl” (though Garuda is more connected to eagle tbh).

Back onto V. So we have “Nagas / Nagaraj” who destroyed city of Underground King and V who are connected to said “Nagas / Nagaraj” that were created to destroy said Underground King in first place. This is that first step there that makes me believe that kids from underground weren’t talking about Underground King but his said enemies and that they were ones who wrecked city which makes far more sense then said Underground King who built it to destroy it.

However while kagune in underground might belong to someone from V (looking at Kaiko), I far more believe it from someone that is Washuu which I shall talk about last since now Uta’s tattoos are next.

If Uta Was “Underground King” Then His Snake Tattoos Might Refer To V + Washuu Over Himself

Lets take quick look at Uta’s two snakes tattoos.

First one are two snakes that appear to be surrounding kitsune (Japanese fox with magical ability to shape-shift). 

While second one appears to be of sun with two snakes init.

Funny thing is that both of these connect to V and Washuu as well as Uta himself. Lets start with second one.

When we think about sun symbol then what are two things coming to our mind?

One is Sunlit Garden which is founded by Washuus and place connected to V themselves as well. Hence how come both V ans Washuu might represent these two snakes in that sun in one way.

Second thing that comes to our mind or should I say person when it comes to sun symbol is Uta as someone who has not only sun tattoo right over his chest where his heart is located tattooed on but also sun symbol on his shop.

And he is also connect to sun tarot. 

Now even in this second way, V and Washuu might come in once more as two snakes assuming Uta truly was “Underground King”. 

(Link to Uta being Underground King theory)

Now it is time to get onto that first tattoo which is two snakes surrounding kitsune, which is where Uta comes in.

In 2014, Uta was drawn in illustration with kitsune mask on side wearing getup that looks awfully like silhouette of Underground King from chapter 128.

Other little fun fact about his kitsune link is that it also links to his alias of “No Face” as in Japanese legends, faceless ghosts (Noppera-bō) are often believed in legends not to exist but be mere disguise of kitsune. 

This all brings us to his two snakes surrounding a kitsune tattoo. If he truly was our guy from underground all these years ago, seeing this tattoo in particular, then my suspicions of Nagas actually being V (Washuu as well) might be further correct considering V was Underground King’s mortal enemy.

And before we go onto Washuu, I just want to note that if you look at position of snakes around kitsune then it beyond reminds on position of that huge kagune underground which brings us onto Washuu next and why I think that Washuu might be behind that kagune and not Underground King.

Washuu Aka Second Snake

Ah yes. The very thing that destroyed the city that is said to belong to said Nagas / Nagaraj. Position of it does remind on Uta’s snakes tattoo now doesn’t it? But that is not only thing this kagune leftover reminds on.

It looks like dragon when you look at it now doesn’t it. And what was thing Furuta said again in very same chapter that Underground King plus creation of V was mentioned?

How interesting name there, with quite peculiar statement to boost.

Thing we all know regarding said Washuus is that we never saw their kagune. Yoshitoki was killed off-screen. Tsuneyoshi as well. Only Matsuri remains but even he hasn’t showed his kagune yet. It is as if it was being hidden on purpose so we don’t know.

Our best stop would be Rize but we don’t know how much “Washuu” her kagune is meant to be. Regardless of it, thing we saw from people who have Rize’s kagune like Kaneki is that their kagune kind looks dragon-ish.

While kagune’s look depends on user’s imagination I do believe in base look of kagune existing that gives some sort of similarities to those sharing that kagune (coming from same blood). 

Since Washuu are just like V connected to Nagas / Nagaraj, V actually might as well be called splinter group of Washuu, then my bet is that huge kagune come from someone that was Washuu. 

Which is why it is possible that Uta’s tattoo there might refer to two snakes (V and Washuu) surrounding kitsune (him).

Very minor thing I thought to include assuming all of this might actually be onto something is thing from chapter 98 in where Uta was only one who had mask on when Kaiko was present.

This obviously might not be anything since Uta might have wore it just because but if we take all of what I just said into consideration and this was history that Uta may share with members of V (Kaiko himself even) then it would make sense why he is only one wearing mask in this moment. 

As always, we shall see but thought to share this thing that has been going trough my mind for quite some time.

[perpetually-jungshook]

Goldilocks || 10 (End)

Rated M (language, and suggestive content)

Warnings: handjob, fingering, just generally cringey stuff- yknow, the usual

Summary: After getting evicted, your two best friends Jimin and Taehyung offer you a place to stay until you get back on your feet. Needless to say, with a part time job and a mountain of student debt, that’s not happening any time soon. Eventually, they DO become really fond of having you around, helping with chores and even splitting rent. So when you come home one day to find someone has been sleeping in your couch-bed, well… it’s something you won’t take lightly.

Word Count: 7.9k

Out of context Goldilocks quote: “If I didn’t know that you used that atrocity to jerk off, I’d ask if I could have it.”

Links to: Goldilocks Masterlist || Previous || Bonus (All That Glitters)

Part 10:

It takes a few minutes to get Jungkook to the car, but you finally coax him into the passenger’s seat. His cheek is already blotchy red, spiderwebbed with vivid crimson. It looks like his father doesn’t pull punches.

Scurrying back to the front of the apartment complex, you pick up the textbook you’d abandoned earlier before slipping into the small liquor store to grab the first thing you can out of the freezer section. Only when you’re purchasing it and get carded do you realize it’s alcohol. Hard cider. Perfect. Two birds, one stone.

Getting back into the driver’s seat, you hand Jungkook the bottle.

He looks like he wants to throw it back at you, but you hastily explain, “Put it on your cheek until we can get you an ice pack.”

“I’m not gonna-”

“Do it.”

Jungkook presses the cold glass to his face, grumbling, but not loud enough that you can retort to any of it. The drive back to Jimin and Taehyung’s apartment is silent. You don’t really need directions anymore and you don’t have the energy or the desire to start a conversation. Apparently he doesn’t either.

What is there to say anyway? “Hey Jungkook, that sucks that your dad punched you?” Or “Sorry he’s an alcoholic?” Or maybe: “did you do something to piss him off because I think you’re an asshole and will project that image onto other parts of your life that you may or may not be responsible for or have control over?”

After parking, you lead the way up to the apartment door and immediately steer Jungkook into the kitchen, where you sit him down and none too gently press an ice pack to his face. You may have helped him with his textbook, but that doesn’t mean you’re about to make friendship bracelets and sing Kumbaya around a campfire. You take the bottle of hard cider from him and open it quickly, taking a swig.

The house is quiet.

From what you can see, Yoongi and Jimin have left the living room. Where have they gone? It’s not really your business, but you will have questions for the younger man later. As of now, you have questions for someone else.

You turn to Jungkook.

He probably won’t answer many, if any of them, but with your scalp aching from where Jungkook’s father had grabbed the hair at the back of your head, you’re hoping he’ll at least be able to tell you what’s going on.

Of course, his immediate response is, “It’s none of your fucking business.”

“Look, that man attacked me and I think I have a right to know why.”

Jungkook shifts his weight in the chair, scowling, “I already told you, I fucked a random girl in-”

“No, both you and I know that was bullshit,” you retort. “So take a moment, stop acting twelve, be a man, be vulnerable, and tell me why I got assaulted over a damn textbook.”

The golden haired boy’s gaze stays pinned on his feet, eyebrows knitted, looking like a chastised child. The silence sits heavily in the room. You don't move. You don't look away.

Jungkook finally mumbles, “My mom is filing for a divorce.”

Your expression contorts in confusion, “So your dad beats you for something your mom did?”

“Yeah. No one ever said he was smart.”

“He attacks me and knocks you on your ass because he's stupid?”

He shrugs.

“Jungkook.”

“What?”

You grunt in irritation, slumping down at the small table next to him, “Why won’t you tell me? I’m not gonna make fun of you.”

“Right, because I'm fucking your friend and you don't want to scare me off.”

His tone grates on your nerves a bit, but you're not keen on starting a fight, “No. It's because even though I think you're the biggest asshat in the world, you're still a person.”

Pause.

“That's the stupidest shit I've ever heard.”

You drop your fist onto the table in frustration, “Fine, I'll tell you what you want to hear then. I don't think you care about Jimin. Not the way he wants you to care about him. I think you're an awful, selfish boy who is so focused on his own problems that he can't even look past his nose to care about other-”

“You think I don't care about hyung?” something lights in Jungkook’s eyes, the spark of defiance, voice dropping a few notes in warning.

“No, I don't.”

“You're wrong,” Jungkook leans forward, taking the ice pack off of his face and placing ominously gently on the table. “I may not want to date him, but he's not just a place I stick my dick when I’m horny.”

“Really? Because that’s what it looks like when you say you don’t want to date someone but fuck them over every surface in the house,” you meet his hardened gaze with confidence until:

“Because that’s not exactly what you do with Taehyung?”

For a moment, your retort locks in your throat. He’s right. You do fuck around with Taehyung while having no intention of dating him, and that doesn’t make you his dick sheath…

“That’s what I thought. So take a moment, stop acting twelve, and quit treating me like I’m the devil incarnate when all you’ve done is be mean to me,” Jungkook retorts, scowling.

You’re about to let his comments go in the hopes that maybe the two of you can be civil, but your brain catches on one small detail, especially as your scalp throbs. You retaliate, “All I’ve done? Really? I was being mean when I took you to your house and offered to go get your textbook without some really important context?”

“I didn’t ask you to do that.”

“No, but you needed it and I decided to be nice,” reaching across the table, you pick up the ice pack and press it against Jungkook’s bruised cheek. His hand instinctively comes up to either push you away or hold the object in place. You don’t draw away fast enough.

He opens his mouth to reply, but no words come out as his hand presses against yours and both of you freeze. Your heartbeat stumbles. Your throat pinches. Jungkook’s eyes search your expression. A small crease forms between his eyebrows, his fingers brushing over yours, causing hot rage to pool in your stomach, but for some reason you don’t pull away.

“Why do you hate me?” Jungkook’s voice is quiet, calculating, as if he’s trying to solve a puzzle. “What did I ever do to you?”

This is a difficult question. You want to answer it because how do you expect Jungkook to be honest and open with you if you’re not honest and open with him? But what are you going to say? “I don’t know” or “You’re rude to me and make me feel insecure” or, best yet “I’m already insecure about everything, especially the state of my home life so when you came and took my friends, kicked me out of my bed, and made me sexually frustrated…”

None of those seem like great options; yet out of all the things you can say, what comes out of your mouth is:

“My dress.”

“Your what?”

“Jimin’s party. You spilled beer on my dress. It was a present from my-”

Jungkook cuts you off with a humorless laugh, pushing your hand and the ice pack away from his face, “All of this over a fucking dress? And I thought my dad was insane.”

Maybe it’s the comparison to his dad that causes you snap.

“It’s not just the dress,” your voice gets small. “It’s you. You frustrate me.”

He scoffs, “I do what? You’re the one who gets mad at me about stupid shit like laundry. And right when I think we start to make progress you-”

You stand, walking over to him, picking up the ice pack, and shoving it against his cheek, this time making sure to pull your hand away, “For whatever reason my goddamn body wants you to fuck me, but you can’t and that is what’s so fucking frustrating.”

A peculiar kind of coldness seeps through your veins. You’d just said that out loud. To Jungkook. Being teased about it by Taehyung is one thing, realizing it’s true is quite another. But this? You prepare to be verbally skinned alive.

“What do you mean by ‘can’t?’”

“Even if you’re not dating Jimin, you guys are still a thing and-”

“We’re not exclusive.”

“Then you won’t. Same difference.”

“No. It’s not.”

You aren’t sure whether you want to slam his head on the table, slam your head on the table, or just melt into the floor. Even with you standing and him sitting, Jungkook wields all the power here. The worst part is, you keep talking.

“But the reason you make me so upset is because you know all of this. You know I think you’re hot and you use it against me.”

Maybe you expect him to yell at you. Maybe you expect him to scoff or laugh derisively. Maybe a part of you, the smallest part that’s made up of a diluted cocktail of hope and delusion expects the golden haired boy to get up and just kiss you already. But all he does is knit his eyebrows and remain silent.

“Just… let that sit,” you clear your throat, referring to the ice pack. Jungkook still chooses not to respond and you leave the kitchen feeling humiliated and confused. You close yourself in Taehyung’s room and curl up on his bed, knowing you’ll be haunted by the past hour for years to come.

Jungkook does not come talk to you. You don’t expect him to.

Jimin comes back just before dinner time. You know this because you can hear his distinguishable tenor voice shout in concern, “Jungkook? What happened?”

There’s murmuring as the boy with the golden hair probably tells him all about the adventure to his dad’s apartment. You have a vague fear that he also mentions what happened afterward. Does he have a reason to? Yes, absolutely. Will he? Probably not.

“Chim?” you call as soon as the murmuring stops.

“Yeah?”

“Can you come to Tae’s room please?”

In the twenty seconds it takes for him to finish his conversation with Jungkook and traverse the living room to get to the hallway, you consider asking Jimin a few questions. Does he know about what’s going on with Jungkook’s dad? His mom? What had Jungkook told him? About his black eye? About what you said?

But none of these questions seem appropriate, thus when Jimin opens Taehyung’s bedroom door and steps inside, giving you a tight lipped smile and a quiet “What’s up?” you ask lamely, “So where did you and Yoongi disappear to?”

You’re pretty sure he wants to say something (Jimin’s expression tells you this much) and you’re also pretty sure it’s about Jungkook. After all, what else could make his cheeks flush like that?

“We went for a walk.”

“A walk?” a humored grunt leaves your throat. “Yoongi hates being outside.”

“H-he does?” Jimin bites his lower lip for a moment, voice getting small. “We just went to the park and got smoothies.”

“Smoothies? Yoongi hates cold drinks.”

Jimin lets out a small wail, falling sideways until his shoulders and head hit the wall in despair. He slumps against it, “I fucked up.”

“He didn’t say anything?”

“No.”

Weird, because Yoongi is one of the most vocally opinionated people you know.

“____, what do I do?”

“Huh? Why does it matter?”

Jimin’s fingers tangle in his hair as he slides down to sit on the floor- well, on the thin carpet of dirty clothes that covers Taehyung’s floor, “I don’t know…”

“Well if he didn’t say anything, then I’m sure it’s fine.”

“You guys are friends right? Can you- can you ask him about it?”

“Why does it matter?” you let out a genuine laugh, finding his distress amusing. Okay, maybe he didn’t have something to say about Jungkook.

Jimin’s cheeks dust a darker shade of pink as he whines, “Stop asking me weird questions.”

You push yourself off of the bed to squat beside him to ruffle his hair, “Okay, Chim. I won’t tease you anymore. For now. But sure. I can ask him right now.”

“He- he’s out getting us food.”

“Us?”

“Yeah, there’s a new noodle place a few blocks down and he offered to buy it for the house as a

‘thank you’ for letting him stay.”

“Isn’t that nice…”

This is all about eighty percent too weird. Yoongi being emotional, going outside, buying food for people- you’ve known him for years and he would pine incessantly every time you so much as asked him to buy you a cup of coffee, not to mention get dinner to feed five.

Jimin opens his mouth, likely about to respond, but then you feel it and cut him of with a dread laced, “Oh no.”

“What?”

“Girl things. We’ll continue this conversation later,” you roll off of the bed and onto to your feet, scrambling to the living room, pushing past Taehyung who is looking through some DVD cases. When had he gotten home and why hadn’t he come to say hello? Whatever. Now’s not the time for that.

“Baby?”

“Just a sec.”

“Everything okay?”

You pause to look at him, mid motion of yanking open one of the drawers of the entertainment center, “Started my period.”

His lips part in a tiny ‘o’ as you pull out a pair of underwear and a pad. Yup. You’d kept them hidden in here instead of the bathroom after Taehyung opened the cabinet one day and was “attacked.” It was kind of funny, hearing him scream like a little girl.

Scampering to the bathroom, you lock the door. Oh lord. You wish you were wrong, but sometimes a girl just knows. Welcome to your monthly subscription to mother nature’s foot up your ass. Or, more accurately, your uterus. And these were your nice panties…

You sigh heavily, looking at the flower of red blooming in the crotch of your underwear. Because today couldn’t get any worse.

—

Taehyung’s eyes narrow as he pauses at the foot of his bed, running the tip of his index finger over his lips thoughtfully, “Okay, but how do you know I don’t have a blood kink?”

“Because you’re Kim Taehyung and Kim Taehyung pees himself at the sight of blood?”

“That was once,” he holds up his finger, lips tightening into a comically thin line. “We were like ten years old.”

“You still peed your pants.”

“Okay, in my defense, Jimin should’ve known to be more careful exiting the bounce house when it was clearly slippery and, on top of that, who puts a bounce house next to a bunch of gravel?”

“Jimin’s parents? But babe, you cried more than him.”

“He got a skinned knee at his birthday party, it was sad.”

“So sad that you peed yourself?” you’re barely holding back the bubbles of hysterical laughter.

Taehyung groans, flopping onto the bed beside you, “That was thirteen years ago.”

“And you will never, ever live it down.”

“But this is all beside the point,” Taehyung turns his head so that even though he’s on his stomach, he’s looking at you, head resting on his arms. “I’m not about to let a little blood get in the way of having sex. Now if you’re not in the mood I’ll-”

“Not in the mood, Tae.”

His eyes widen, “Oh, well that’s different. I’ll just jerk myself off after you fall asleep then.”

“Babe, I definitely did not need to know that.” you try to fight a smile.

Taehyung winks and even with the lower part of his face partially hidden by his arm, you can tell he’s smirking, “Hey, it’s my room, and it definitely won’t be effecting you.”

“But what if it gets on me? And I’m sleeping so I can’t wipe it off?”

“That is why I have my trusty cum sock.”

“Your what?”

“Cum sock. Hundred percent guarantee every guy who’s ever masturbated has one.”

You simultaneously want to gag and burst out laughing, “Is it just a sock that you serially jizz in?”

He shrugs, “Yeah pretty much.”

“Ew. Jizz feet.”

Taehyung starts laughing, hard, “No, you don’t wear a cum sock. I’m not that nasty. Maybe. But I lost the other one so why not put it to good use?”

“You can’t just buy another matching sock?”

To answer you, Taehyung rolls off of the bed to saunter over to his underwear drawer, somewhere you would never look even if he paid you. Lord knows how many pairs of underwear in there are actually clean (or… ugh… dirty). With an easiness that only comes with familiarity, Taehyung pulls out the ugliest sock you’ve ever laid eyes on. Unicorns pooping rainbows and ridding flying pizzas superimposed on the most hideous galaxy print.

“If I didn’t know that you used that atrocity to jerk off, I’d ask if I could have it.”

“Why?”

“Because it’s the stupidest, ugliest, coolest sock I’ve ever seen.”

“Do you want it?”

“Ew what the fuck? No.”

Taehyung starts laughing again, “It’s not like I don’t wash it! Dried jizz makes it all stiff and crusty which is-”

“Again, let’s file this under things I definitely didn’t need to know.”

At this point, you join him in laughter, thoroughly amused as he replaces the cum sock in the drawer and turns out the light, letting the room flood in the purple glow of his lava lamp. Taehyung’s easy smile doesn’t drop as he crawls back onto the bed to lie on his side facing you, “But really, what’s wrong, baby? Tell Taehyungie.”

“Nothing’s wrong-”

“Bullshit. You never say no to sex.”

“True,” you sigh heavily. “Earlier today, before you came home, I told Jungkook I wanted to fuck him.”

Taehyung almost chokes in clear astonishment, “Y-you did what?”

You repeat yourself and for once, Taehyung is contemplatively quiet. You aren’t sure whether he’s angry, upset, or (lord forbid) just thinking. Finally, he continues, “Well I mean… did he fuck you?”

“No. He didn’t even say anything.”

Your friend lets out a sigh of relief, and not for the reason you originally think, “I am so glad your funky mood wasn’t because Jungkook already fucked your brains out earlier.”

“Oh my god Tae.”

“What? I’m just being honest.”

“You’re terrible.”

“But… I’m honest.”

You both laugh, though yours is mostly to soothe your nerves.

Taehyung pulls you to his chest, “But let me get this straight, you’re in a mood- or not in The Mood, because Jungkook wouldn’t have sex with you?”

You sigh heavily, “No, I’m not that much of a hoe. Probably. I think I’m just a bit sour about the fact that I said something when I know he’s hooking up with Jimin.”

“Yeah. That’s pretty shitty of you.”

“Babe.”

“What? Remember, I’m Mister Honesty over here- ow. Ow! Okay! Let go of my dick! I’ll stop!”

You pat his butt, “Good boy.”

Taehyung hums happily, but then the sound fades, “Are you gonna talk to Jimin about it?”

“Why would I do that?”

“Because maybe he’d be willing to share. Hey, don’t give me that look. They’re not dating.”

“Yeah, but…”

“But what? Would you rather Jingleshit tell Jimin first? I mean how’s that gonna sound?” Taehyung picks up the most obnoxious voice imitation that sounds absolutely nothing like Jungkook. “‘Hey hyung~ noona said she wanted to fuck me the other day. What do you think about that?’ Because that’s exactly what he’s gonna say.”

“That’s not even close,” you grimace, too busy laughing to come up with an alternative.

Taehyung rolls his eyes and scoffs comically, “I mean who knows? Polyamorous relationships are on the rise. I mean, Jimin would probably not be down to smash but…”

“For all we know, Jungkook is gay too.”

“The way he stares at your ass? Only a man that’s into you looks at a fine piece of art like that because he wants to get into you if ya get what I’m sayin’ mm~mm.”

“If you keep talking, I will never suck your dick again.”

“Shutting up now.”

“I thought so.”

—

Without classes to give you an excuse to leave the house, suspiciously minimal homework, and only a four hour shift to spare you, you’re left with the awkward fact that yup… you’re stuck in the house with Taehyung, Jimin, Jungkook, and Yoongi today.

It’s a sitcom waiting to happen.

But then Yoongi and Jimin leave for work and Taehyung goes to another art show- whoops. Art “exhibition.” Excuse your terminology. Weird. He’d never really been into that kind of scene before. And now he’s gone twice. Weird.

Still, even more pressing is the fact that you’re left alone with Jungkook. Double sitcom jeopardy. You are absolutely not prepared. Bring it on.

Hour one. You somehow manage to power through your homework. Jungkook is in the living room.

Hour two. Now finished with homework, you decide to get a head start on final exams prep, considering that’s in two weeks. Jungkook is strangely quiet in the living room.

Hour two and a half. You give up prepping for finals and decide to watch Netflix instead. Is Jungkook in the living room? Is he even in the apartment at all?

Hour four. You decide to get up and make some food… and low key see if the golden haired boy left without a ride. He didn’t.

His bruise is a deep, angry red \ and makes you cringe. It’s so bad that it almost makes you forget about what you said to him yesterday. Almost. Jungkook looks up at you, eyes wide with something that’s a metaphorically lumpy mixture of fear, irritation, and apprehension.

You try to smile, but it probably comes out looking more like a grimace, “Heeyy Kook. I’m gonna be making some cup noodles. Want some?”

His expression softens just a bit, “No thanks noona. I’m not really hungry.”

Instead of the usual pulse of anger the honorific sends through your system, there’s just pity with the acrid aftertaste of embarrassment. What you did yesterday was sordid and tasteless- blaming him for you wanting to fuck him. Really, in retrospect, Jungkook is just a kid (a twenty year old kid) who’s had a bad life at home and can be a little bit of a rude asshole. But you’d just turned yourself into the monster you thought he was.

You clear your throat, slowing to a stop before you can get to the kitchen, “So… Jungkook? I just wanted to say I’m sorry about yesterday… and I know you said last time that an apology won’t cut it, but what I said was dumb, insensitive, and childish. I wasn’t thinking. And even if it doesn’t matter to you, I just wanted to like… put that out there.”

The atmosphere in the living room is heavy, but not full of tension. It’s just a sad sort of weight.

Jungkook nods slowly, his gaze falling to his feet, voice quiet, “Thanks.”

Awkward silence.

You turn and continue toward your original destination. Fuck the cup noodle instructions. Who has time to boil water and put it into the cup? Who cares if you get styrofoam poisoning? Not you. It would honestly relieve you from all of this humiliation-

“Noona?”

You almost slam your face into the microwave when you jump in surprise. That had been way too close to be coming from the living room. If this had been a sitcom, he would’ve absolutely wrapped his arms around you from behind. He doesn’t. Obviously.

“What’s up?” you try to be cordial, but don’t turn to face him, instead focusing on the buttons of the microwave.

“I was thinking about what you said earlier…”

Wait. Yesterday earlier? Oh god. Now you turn around, attempting to give yourself some kind of warning by reading his body language. Arms crossed, leaning against the counter, Jungkook and his expression are, of course, unreadable.

“And I wanted to say I’m sorry too.”

You wonder if your internal sigh of relief is so hard that he might be able to hear it.

Jungkook continues after a few seconds, “I guess we both haven’t been as nice to each other as we should be.”

“Yeah. The beer washed out. Mostly.”

“And I wouldn’t object to fucking you. Mostly.”

What.

He lets out a small sigh, “But I don’t want to hurt hyung like that.”

Silence. The wall clock ticks rhythmically. You watch him carefully. Jungkook watches you. You watch each other and… his pupils dilate. Your heartbeat hammers in your pulse points. He suddenly arches an eyebrow.

A challenge.

You slam into him. Or he slams into you. Does it matter? Yes. Because as your lips meet Jungkook’s, all you can think is Jimin’s name over and over and over but you can’t stop. It’s like a drug, a magnet, and all that other cliched crap you can’t think of right now because your mind is fogging over.

The kiss is too desperate. There is too much teeth and tongue, like you’re trying to eat each other alive, but maybe that’s the point. Jungkook’s hands immediately slip past the hem of your shirt, fingers dragging roughly up your back as your shoulders slam into the refrigerator, causing the contents inside to rattle. The handle digs into your skin, but you don’t dare move away.

Jungkook presses his body against you, warm and solid and fuck whatever cologne he uses that just consumes your senses and is so noticeably, recognizably him.

You pull away, breathing hard, but only long enough to yank his shirt over his head… and stare at what had been hiding underneath. Of course he’s built. Of fucking course.

“What?” he grunts, scowling, causing the familiar feeling of irritation to burn inside you, but in a new… satisfying way.

“Nothing.”

You place a hand at the nape of his neck, unabashedly pulling Jungkook back to your lips. His fingers travel up your shirt again, this time finding the clasp of your bra and unhooking it, allowing his hands to ruck up the material and palm your breasts roughly. You arch your back, pressing into his hands, lifting away from the refrigerator. Your shirt and bra fall somewhere onto the floor. His lips find your neck as you rake your nails down the expense of his back, mapping the curves of his muscles and shoulder blades, especially when they flex and move as his hands travel from your breasts to your hips.

Your bare chest presses against his and a shudder runs up your spine, warm pleasure flooding to the pit of your stomach as your nipples brush against his skin. Jungkook’s teeth graze against your throat and he laves over the spot with a quick kitten lick before his fingers find the hem of your pants.

That’s when realization comes crashing down like a two ton boulder. Or rather, more literally, a pad full of blood.

“W-wait,” you pull back as much as the refrigerator door allows, putting your hands and arms between your bodies like a wall. “I’m on my period.”

Jungkook scoffs, “You think I care? It’s just blood.”

“Really…? You strike me as the kind of guy who would be afraid of tampons and sanitary napkins.”

He arches an eyebrow, expression reading half appalled, half cocky, “What kind of idiot do you think I am? They’re just for personal hygiene.”

Great. Now you’re talking about pads. How do you always manage to kill the mood?

Jungkook sighs, “Look, if you’re not into it, I’ll back off. We can just pretend this never happened.”

“Or?”

“Or I finger you, you give me a handjob, and we call it even.”

“Deal.”

Picking a place is difficult. You don’t exactly feel Taehyung’s room is appropriate, Jimin’s room is out of the question, and the couch and kitchen aren’t that great of an option either considering their… “out in the open” qualities. The two of you pick up the stray clothes and you practically drag Jungkook to the bathroom. Classy. At least cleanup will be easy.

Jungkook’s pants and boxer briefs are thrown to the floor as soon as the door is closed. Of course he’d wear boxer briefs. Filling his palm with water from the sink, he takes his half hardened length in his hand, pumping slowly, gaze traveling down to your chest. He stills for a moment, fist wrapped around his base.

“Well? Get to it,” his voice sends a small shiver up your spine and you don’t hesitate to step forward. Fuck his cockiness. You love it.

Your hand finds his as you back Jungkook against the countertop next to the sink. He leans against it easily, free hand closing around the lip of the granite. His dick is warm, the skin is soft, and he’s just a bit larger than Taehyung, but it’s nothing you can’t handle. You will admit (to yourself) that you’d really like to lick and nip at his abs, hips, and thighs though.

The first few pumps are experimental, meant to get him hard and get yourself comfortable with the thought of pleasuring someone other than Taehyung. Much to your amusement, Jungkook practically melts at your touch. His forehead comes to rest on your shoulder, breathing unnaturally deep as he lets go of his dick to steady himself. You stroke faster, increasing the pressure of your grip. He lets out a sharp exhale just before you feel the warm wetness of his tongue press against your shoulder.

Jungkook sucks, licks, and nips any skin available to him, namely your neck, shoulder, and chest as you continue to push him closer to the edge. From what you can gather, he is intent on not leaving marks.

You switch the angle of your strokes, opting for a pulling motion instead of pushing and he lets out a small whine that sends heat straight to your core.

You smirk.

“Well, look who’s all fucked out already. What ever happened to ‘I can last for ten minutes?’” your voice is much too deep to be an accurate representation of him, but you really doubt he cares.

Jungkook growls, “Trust me, if I were actually fucking you right now, I wouldn’t need ten minutes.”

You pause mid stroke, pressing your thumb to the head of his dick and rubbing small, featherlight circles, “Are you bragging?”

“Fuck you.”

You tighten your grip as a warning, but not enough to hurt. He whimpers, thrusting into your hand. What a delicious sound and you drew it from him. All of those weeks of passively aggressively fighting for dominance and you have Jeon Jungkook’s dick in your hand and you are making him whimper.

“What did you just say to me?”

“Fuck. You.”

You start pumping again, faster, but his skin is starting to dry, making it harder to move. You get an idea. Dropping to your knees, you lick up the bottom of his length, making his next breath audibly hitch in his throat as his hips stutter forward in surprise.

“What are you doing?”

“Getting you off.”

“Well, don’t think this means I’m gonna eat you out.”

“I’m not that callous.”

“Bullshit-”

You sink down on him with relative ease. You’re not a “no gag reflex wonder” and your blowjob skills are likely subpar as you’ve only been able to practice half a dozen times or so, but judging by the look on Jungkook’s face, he definitely doesn’t care.

Jungkook tangles his fingers in your hair, not pushing you, not thrusting into your throat. What a gentleman. You take him out of your mouth to stroke him a few times, now slick with your saliva, before he comes, releasing all over your forearm and the tile floor, clocking in at approximately seven minutes. Not that you were counting.

Core throbbing, needing attention, you force yourself to get a wad of toilet paper to wipe up the mess. Even if you miss any, you can just blame it on Taehyung and everyone, including Taehyung, would probably believe you.

Part of you expects Jungkook to leave you high and dry. In fact, that ‘part’ is really ‘most’ as soon as you see his muscles relax, head quietly thudding against the mirror as Jungkook tries to catch his breath. Much to your surprise, as soon as you stand up to throw away the soiled paper, Jungkook’s hands fall on your shoulders, pushing you down to sit on the lid of the toilet. His fingers easily hook in the hem of your pants, dragging them down until they sit at your ankles.

“Scoot forward,” he instructs bluntly. You do.

Jungkook pushes your knees apart and moves your underwear aside. For a moment, you think he might hesitate. He doesn’t do that either.

His fingers are similar to Taehyung’s in length, but Jungkook’s are slightly thicker at the knuckles. It makes for a delicious stretch as he pumps like he has a vendetta against you. Well, he figuratively does on principle.

The angle is awkward and the sounds will haunt you for the rest of your life, but damn does he know what he’s doing. His rhythm is predictably unpredictable. He’ll keep a fast pace for a few moments before slowly dragging his fingers out of you, making you feel every inch, each knuckle. He pushes back in just as slowly before curling his fingers upward, causing you to buck against his hand. All the while, his palm presses against you for friction, pulling you closer and closer to that inevitable edge.

It doesn’t take long for you to drop into free fall. You come down hard, hunching forward to lean on him, fingers digging into Jungkook’s shoulder. The boy with the golden hair may be insubordinate and rude, but he works you through your orgasm generously, so much so that you have to arrest his wrist and push him away.

As he extracts his fingers from your entrance, he glances at them with mild disgust and mutters something under his breath, but you’re too busy coming down from your high to decipher it. You know you’re going to look down and there’s going to be a mess. You’ll probably gonna need to change your underwear. But worth it.

“Six minutes.”

“Huh?”

“Technically, six minutes and twenty four seconds,” Jungkook smirks, tapping his watch.

You can’t find it in you to argue. He washes his hands as you finally assess the damage. Unfortunately, you can’t exactly blame the blood on Taehyung too. The toilet seat looks like you just murdered a man, but things could be worse- oh shit.

“Move,” Jungkook shoos you out of the way with a wad of damp toilet paper.

You stare at him in awe. He doesn’t leave you hanging and he helps clean up? Why did you hate him again?

Jungkook doesn’t offer any words of encouragement or affection. He does separate your clothes from his and hand them to you though, just before leaving the room to, quote, “let you do what you need to do.”

After a quick rinse off in the shower and a new pad that you thankfully found lying in The Back of the cabinet under the sink (don’t even start wondering how long it’s been there), you exit the bathroom in search of a snack. Jungkook is in the living room, television showing some miscellaneous cartoon while he scrolls through his phone. It’s strange. There’s no hatred when you see him. There’s no burning need to make a scathing comment. You’re almost… apathetic?

Before you can get to the kitchen, the front door opens and Jimin walks in. Your throat immediately pinches.

“Hey ____! Surprise, my manager let me leave early,” Jimin beams, walking over to give you a quick hug. You reciprocate the embrace, but as soon as you touch him, you feel the ghost of Jungkook’s fingers inside you, the weight of his dick in your hand, in your mouth. You step away a little too quickly. Jimin’s eyebrows knit, “You alright?”

“Totally fine,” you try your best for a smile.

“Yah, hyung, come here,” Jungkook sits up, setting aside his phone and opening his arms, either purposefully or inadvertently saving you. Jimin gives you one more worried look before trotting over to the golden haired boy and taking a seat in his lap.

You silently excuse yourself to continue into the kitchen, yet continue to watch them warily. Maybe this makes you a creepy eavesdropper, but as you pretend like you’re looking in the fridge, you stand at an angle that you can still see them clearly over the door. The paranoia that Jimin knows what just happened in the bathroom eats at you, the confession boiling in your chest. What have you done?

“Hi Jungkookie,” Jimin coos, nuzzling against the younger boy’s cheek.

Jungkook reaches up, brushing Jimin’s hair back, away from his forehead, pressing a kiss to the newly exposed skin, “Hi hyung.”

“I missed you.”

“Missed you too.”

You’d seen these types of interactions before and they usually made you sick, but now you want to vomit for a whole different reason. They’re not dating. That’s what you keep telling yourself. They’re not dating so you didn’t just make Jungkook cheat on your best friend.

Jimin takes Jungkook’s hand in his, lacing their fingers. But then the older of the two stiffens, eyes narrowing, then becoming wide. He stands up, splaying Jungkook’s hand against his palm as if to examine it.

Anxiety tears through you. He couldn’t possibly know. Jungkook had washed his hands. There aren’t any traces. You got it out of your system and now things can go back to normal. You’ll never mention it and Jimin never has to find out.

“Is that… blood?”

If it were physically possible, your skin would’ve felt like ice.

Jungkook’s fingernails. Had he was under his fingernails?

Jimin’s gaze flicks up to meet Jungkook’s as if trying to figure something out. Apparently, he solves the mystery quickly because his attention then slowly slides to you.

“____, did you say you were on your period?”

“What?” in a panic, you play dumb. The wrong choice. You know it as soon as the question leaves your mouth.

“Did you…” Jimin stands to his full height, knitting his eyebrows and licking his lips, likely to buy time to find the words he knows need to be said. “Did you and Jungkook…?”

“Hyung-”

Jimin retracts his hand as Jungkook tries to grab it. There’s denial in his eyes. Denial and shame and fear and heartbreak. You wish he were mad. You wish he would yell. It would be a lot less painful. But like you deserve that kind of mercy.

The full gravity of the situation presses on you. As it should. Jimin likes Jungkook. He likes him and you just… the nausea resurfaces and your expression must confirm Jimin’s thoughts. His upper lip draws back in a grimace that makes it look like he’s fighting tears.

Jimin’s voice is quiet as his gaze slides back to Jungkook, “I took your side…”

“Hyung, it’s not like-”

“I took your side when I knew ____ didn’t like you and I- I defended you.”

“I didn’t-”

“Don’t bullshit me. I’m not stupid,” Jimin’s voice is breathy, uneven. He turns to you, speaking in little more than a whisper, “How could you do that to me?”

And that’s the thing. You can’t.

The scene fades from your imagination, wisps of guilt and fear left in its wake. Jimin is worth so much more than a half decent orgasm from a guy you can hardly stand to be around. It hurts to think you’d even considered it.

Silence. The wall clock ticks rhythmically. You watch Jungkook carefully. Jungkook watches you. The kitchen countertop digs into your hip as you lean against it. No matter how much you want to fuck Jungkook, you can’t because there are more important things than fleeting feelings of lust.

“I don’t want to hurt Jimin like that either,” your gaze drops to your feet.

The sound of keys jingling causes your collective attention to swivel to the front door.

Jimin walks in with a small, happy smile on his face… that quickly fades when he sees you and Jungkook in the kitchen. He pauses, gaze ping-ponging between the two of you.

“What’s up guys?” he asks with a small, nervous laugh as he takes off his shoes.

You clear your throat, responding first, “Nothing much. Jungkook and I were just talking.”

Jimin looks surprised, “Talking? Like, not trying to kill each other? I’m impressed. What were you talking about?”

“The fact that I’ll be moving out on Wednesday,” Jungkook says bluntly with a glance at his phone. You’re about to silently call him on his bullshit with a glare, but he continues. “Another friend of mine has a room that just opened up closer to my university. He’s even offering me a job at his uncle’s gas station.”

Wait what?

Jimin’s eyes, surprisingly, brighten, “Kookie, that’s great! No more early bus rides and some extra money in your pocket.”

Jungkook gives him a small, almost soft smile, “I know. I’m really excited. But yeah, a few more days and I’ll stop bothering you.”

“You were never a bother,” Jimin coos, pulling Jungkook into a hug.

Lies.

But oddly enough, you don’t feel the need to cut the young man a glare or even grimace. You’re almost… sad to hear he’s leaving. Almost.

“Well, after yesterday, I realized I need to just get… further away from home. But thanks for letting me stay,” Jungkook awkwardly pats Jimin on the back.

The older boy takes the hint and backs away, but continues smiling, “Stop acting like you’re leaving right now. We can still have some fun. Oh- but not tonight, Yoongi hyung and I are going to a movie.”

“A movie?” you and Jungkook ask simultaneously.

He nods, clearly excited, “Yeah. It’s part of a special feature foreign film festival! I was gonna drag Tae but then hyung suggested it. Out of the blue!”

Huh. Yoongi hates reading subtitles. He made that abundantly clear during the Japanese literature and film adaptations class the two of you took together last year. And yet he suggested it? What’s gotten into him lately?

Jungkook ruffles Jimin’s hair before heading back to the living room. Looks like the pleasantries fall on you.

“That’s great, Chim. You guys are gonna have so much fun.”

“I know,” he then launches off into a super detailed breakdown of the plot of the movie. You nod along, though stop listening at around the five minute mark. Instead, your attention travels to the boy with the golden hair on the couch. He doesn’t look at you. You don’t expect him to.

—

Wednesday.

It’s storming out and the bucket is in its normal place at the end of the hall, about halfway full with water as it drips from the ceiling.

Taehyung slings his arm around your shoulders as you watch Jungkook shuffle down the hall with his stuffed backpack and tattered biology textbook. The purple from his bruise is fading and the roots of his hair had noticeably started to show, so over the weekend he’d dyed it back to a natural brown. He looks… different. He’d been acting different too. Neither of you bickered or even cast each other glares since the brief conversation and your apology on Saturday. It’s strange.

“Babe, since Yoongi’s gonna be at the library and Jimin will be driving across town, wanna fool around a bit?” you whisper to Taehyung as Jungkook passes you, having definitely heard what you said. He doesn’t comment.

Taehyung lets out a small, thoughtful hum, “No thanks.”

“Excuse me? Who are you and what have you done with Kim Taehyung?”

He giggles, “Alright you caught me. I’m a shape shifter impersonating your best friend.”

“Ha! I knew it!” you poke his stomach, making him laugh. “But really, you alright?”

“Totally fine, baby,” he gives you a boxy smile. “I’m just trying to clean up my act a bit I guess.”

“Ah, so you’re calling me dirty.”

“No!”

“Right,” you playfully pinch his hip and step away as he tries to retaliate.

“That doesn’t mean we can’t like, drink some marshmallow hot chocolate and watch a movie,” Taehyung offers, clasping his hands behind his back. “Jimin just bought more and we haven’t had a movie night in literally forever.”

“Literally?”

“Yeah, literally.”

“Alright deal.”

Picking up an umbrella, the two of you head outside to find Jungkook throwing his bag in the back seat of Jimin’s car, Yoongi leaning into the driver’s side window, and Jimin trying to decipher a set of printed out directions in his hands. Why he doesn’t just use his phone’s GPS is beyond you, but if it makes him happy…

Yoongi points at the paper, “You can’t drive downtown right now. It’s rush hour. And in this weather? You’ll be in stop and go traffic forever.”

“But hyung-”

“No buts. Go this way. Even though it looks longer it’ll be faster and-”

Jimin places his hand on Yoongi’s arm and even at this distance, you can see the older boy freeze, eyes getting wide and cheeks dusting pink. Jimin smiles softly, “Okay.”

“Hey, you know what’s ironic?” Taehyung asks, keeping his arm wrapped around you and drawing your attention back to the fact that you’re standing in a puddle shivering.

“What?”

“Even though Jungkook’s leaving, Yoongi’s still gonna be sleeping on the couch. So we’re still sharing my room~”

“Yoongi? What are you guys? Like buddy-buddy now? It took a year and a half for him to let me drop honorifics.”

“Baby, when you share your porn collection with someone, they usually let you speak informally to them.”

“I’ll definitely keep that in mind-”

“Drive safe,” Yoongi steps away from the car, scratching at the back of his neck, laughing nervously.

You’re about to let Jimin drive away with the golden haired demon that made your life hell for the past few weeks. He metaphorically spit on your emotions, figuratively shit on your self image, and directly, inherently changed all of the relationships most important to you. And yet Jungkook definitely taught you something about yourself too- how childish you can be, how assumptions about other people often say more about you than about them.

You break away from Taehyung to rush up to the car, past Yoongi, knocking on the passenger’s window. Jungkook rolls it down with a look that clearly reads “what the fuck do you want?” You shield your eyes from the pattering rain.

“I just wanted to say… if you ever need a ride, text me, okay?”

Jungkook stares at you for a moment, his expression softening into neutrality. He nods once. You step back. He rolls up the window. Jimin pulls away from the curb. And that’s when you realize you don’t have Jungkook’s number.

Oh well. You can get it from Jimin later. Probably.

✩✩✩♔✩✩✩

A/N: Who loves Goldilocks Taehyung? I definitely do. Want to see him again? I DEFINITELY DO. I wonder if anyone will be able to find the prompt I set up to bring him back... 🤔 but I won’t write it on my own. You gotta like, summon him. And it doesn’t involve standing in front of a mirror in the dark or making your proper sacrifices in bloodstone circles 😂

EOPQ 22: Since I’m sure people will tell me their thoughts anyway, just another curious question this time- why did you start reading the series??

Send me your thoughts/answers here. Or just come say hi ;) Please include the End of Post Question number upon submission, thank you!

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Much love ~🐰 xx

[pabotofus]

A Long and Screamy Rant

So this is a rant dedicated to @apvrrish's fic (aknightley on AO3) 'calling me to come back', a gem of a fic and a sincerely gorgeous work. (If you haven't read it yet, go do it here and now!! Seriously, you won't regret it)

I was originally going to make this only about how I felt, but she writes so well I have to put something about her writing style there

Spoilers for the fic under the cut!!

1. Her worldbuilding

Literally once the fic started, I had such a good idea of what the shop looked like. Even if it may not have matched her mental image, it was so clear in my head (which is extremely rare for me). Apvrrish also does amazing descriptions, and it's like I'm actually living in the moment. It's so awesome!!!

2. Characterization

She nailed it. Completely and actually nailed it; bullseye after bullseye; on point. Shiro and Keith's relationship, later on Keith and Lance's relationship, Pidge (idk why I really liked the mental image of Pidge with a bun. I just did) staying up really late to help Keith, the way pIDGE CAN USE HER MAGIC THROUGH ELECTRONICS HDKCKSKCKFD

3. Lotor and Honerva/Hagar

Honestly, I was going to make this a side note on characterization, but this is so good it deserves its own topic. Honerva is so extra and I love it? I mean obviously it's not cool that she literally tried to kill Lance so that Lotor could go to a school. But that is something that she would totally do, and I can't really express my love for the all of this.

I also love the way aknightley wrote (or rather, mentioned) Lotor. Here's a beautiful beautiful quote: "Lotor was evidently interested in genetic science, something that Alfor specialized in, but Alfor was also specialized in avoiding people he didn’t care for, something Keith found enviable."

So maybe that quote doesn't focus on Lotor specifically, but it's such a GOOD SENTENCE. It wasn't the type of funny that would make me burst out into laughter, but the kind of brilliant genius that made me stare at my laptop screen and re-read that sentence five times, because it's that good.

4. While we're on this topic, QUOTES.

"Scrolling to a number that’s only labeled with a small bird emoji and a poop emoji, he texts, Can you do some research for me?" It isn't really the quote itself that I liked, per se, but the idea that Pidge's contact name is a bird and a poop emoji. That is perfect?? And I love it so much???

“Am I wrong, Sunshine?” Lance asks, tilting his head and smiling slyly." Lance calls Keith Sunshine. LANCE CALLS KEITH SUNSHINE OH MY GOD I CANT??? !!!!!!!

"You don’t need it to look pretty, Keith thinks, unbidden." Do I even need to explain here? Seriously, look me in the eye and ask my why I love this quote so much, I dare you. KEITH ADMIRING LANCE'S BEAUTY IS MY GODDAMN JAM

"“Sure, kiddo,” Shiro says, taking a sip of coffee with raised eyebrows." This. THIS!! The amount of pure goodness in this line is enough to make me cry. Shiro knows. Shiro knows!!!

"“Besides the obvious reasons,” Shiro says, raising his eyebrows. Keith gives in to pettiness and uses his magic to fling the pieces of cereal still on the counter at his face, grinning when they nail him directly in the nose." THIS IS THE GOOD BROGANES CONTENT THAT I LIVE FOR DID YOU KNOW??? Again, with characterization,, such perfection.

"“A customer,” Pidge says, doing air quotes. “A customer you dream about and who makes you go super smiley when he calls you on the phone.”" PIDGE KNOWS. SHIRO KNOWS. THEY ALL KNOW AND STILL KEITH REFUSES TO ACKNOWLEDGE IT. A GOOD TROPE. I VERY MUCH APPROVE.

"“So I guess I should -- um -- take this off?” He pulls lightly at the material over his chest and Keith feels his own face heat up." FLUSTERED KLANCE IS BEST KLANCE. NO, I DONT ACCEPT OTHER ANSWERS. THIS IS LAW.

"Lance leaned in close so he can peer into Keith’s face.

Across the room, a cedar branch catches fire." AGAIN. FLUSTERED KLANCE IS BEST KLANCE. NEED THERE BE ANY MORE PROOF? (Also, I hope all these quotes convey the immense love I have for aknightley and her writing)

“I’m going to have to buy her something very sparkly,” Keith murmurs to himself, smiling at the little heart she’s drawn next to her name.

Just,, sparkles!! ✨✨give Allura all the sparkly things 2Kforever please and thank you :)

“I’m good, Sunshine,” Lance says, stretching a little. “In fact, I kind of feel lucky right now.”

OHHHHHH BOY. THIS IS THE CLICHE BUT WONDERFUL TYPE OF THING THAT A HERO GENERALLY SAYS BEFORE THE BIG SHOWDOWN AND I LOVE IT A LOT??? ITS BEAUTIFULLLLLLL GIVE ME EVERY AND ALL THE CLICHE TROPES

5. Keith taking off his protections so that he could talk with Lance in his dreams

I'm probably reading way too much into this, but Keith literally let Lance inside all of his defenses. This is his how much he likes Lance. He stripped down all his protection that he's had for like, forever and let himself be vulnerable ALL FOR LANCE. I CANNOT BELIEVE,, THE SHEER EMOTION AND TRUST SHOWN IN THIS SCENE,,, UGH MY HEART

6. Similarly, the garden scene

This is Keith's private place. This is where he goes to remember his parents, and he let Lance come with him. Again, probably reading way to much into this, but Keith is actually letting Lance in? I mean it's never stated explicitly in the fic but I don't think Keith really goes around sharing the garden with people... wHICH MAKES THIS SO MUCH MORE SPECIAL HDJCKDKSKC I WAS LITERALLY CLUTCHING MY CHEST I CANNOT BELIEVE THIS

7. Keith giving Lance his mom's jacket

Keith didn't even let Shiro, his own brother, keep some of his parents' books from him. Granted, it was a different situation, but still. Keith is incredibly protective of anything and everything related to his parents, so the fact that he let Lance wear and KEEP his mom's jacket?? Is like the equivalent of other people literally ripping out their heart for someone else. The Klance here is absolutely wonderful.

8. The 'fuck your emotions' scene

WELL DAMN, APVRRISH, FUCK WITH MY EMOTIONS WONT YOU?? THEYRE BOTH SO GODDAMN SELF SACRIFICIAL??? LIKE LANCE I GET IT YOU LOVE HIM AND DONT WANT HIM TO GET HURT BUT DONT PUSH HIM AWAY LIKE THIS PLEASE,, ON ONE HAND THIS SHOWS HOW MUCH LANCE CARES FOR KEITH AND WANTS HIM TO BE SAFE BUT ON THE OTHER HAND 'FUCK YOUR EMOTIONS' LANCE QUOTES LIKE ITS NO BIG DEAL... stop taking both mine and Keith's hearts and stomping them into bits you HEARTBREAKER

9. "The bell, when it rings above Lance's head, still cruelly sounds like laughter."

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA. CATCH ME SCREAMING INTO THE VOID BECAUSE DAMNNNNNNNN. THE HOLY UNION OF BEAUTIFUL WRITING AND ALL OF THE FEELS IN THE WORLD. My eyes do not deserve to see the glory that is this sentence,, I had to give it a separate topic from Quotes because it was just. So good,,, Even now I feel like I'm not doing it justice, but it's so MIND BLOWINGLY AWESOME that I just can't. 👏🏻👏🏻 you did good, apvrrish.

10. Keith realizing he loves Lance

Need I say any more? Literally ALL I could dare to ask for. It's beautiful and I love it a lot. I also like how you didn't make it this big panicky moment for Keith, because honestly? Finding out that you're in love with someone isn't supposed to be all 'oH MY GOD WHAT DO I DO THIS IS BAD'. If realizing that you're in love with someone is bad, well, why are you in love with that person in the first place?

I kinda went off on a tangent there but anyways!! My main point- I really REALLY liked you portrayal of this scene and the way you wrote it. *swallows down the screams of the damned my emotional heart*

11. The dandelion

They're soul bound. They're soul bound, and Keith used a love spell thingy to track down Lance because he loves him and holy hell they're SOUL BOUND. I mean, the whole soulmate thing is low key overdone, not just in this fandom but everywhere. Yet apvrrish manages to put her own unique spin on the whole thing, incorporating magic and the idea of 'marriage bonds', which is really unique.

12. The idea of modern magic

Okay so I've been trying to go in chronological order but as I keep reading I just find this world so so cool. Most times there's a magical AU, the characters are somehow in the past, or it's a different world. But this, this is a combination of modern tech and somehow also these awesome magical abilities. There are potions with real life ingredients (certain types of wood, flowers, stones or minerals, etc.) and for realistic purposes. This is so realistic that I can actually imagine it happening, which is GREAT because it shows just how good of a writer that apvrrish is, but at the same time, makes me wish so so hard that I could be part of this world. Modern magic,, hdjckskc stab me in the heart with everything I've ever wanted, won't you?

13. “True love or some shit, I think,” Lance says cheerfully, and waves his hand.

Another quote too good for the Quotes section. He says this so nonchalantly?? It fits Lance's character SO WELL and so was really funny (idrk why it just made me smile a lot). Also, they're in LOVEEEEEEEEEEEEE~

14. Red!!

Beautiful cat child is cute and deserves all the love. I ADORE witch familiars, and Red helping Keith out with the exorcism thing was really pleasing to read. Also,, Red and Lance interactions. The pLaYFuL bAnTEr between Keith and Lance. Hhhhhhhhhhhhh I love this so muchhhh

15. The ending

tHE ENDING, OH MY GOD THE ENDING. THEY LITERALLY RODE INTO THE SUNSET ON A MOTORCYCLE. IM CRYING ITS SO CLICHE BUT BEAUTIFUL??? ME, SOBBING? ITS MORE LIKELY THAN YOU THINK BECAUSE THIS IS A GORGEOUS CONCLUSION.

Also! "“Why not?” he says quietly, leaning back against Lance’s chest. “We’ve got time.”"

That. THAT. I've already said this in a comment on the fic itself, but this is so good it needs to be said again. This entire story has kind of a recurring theme of how Keith doesn't have enough time with his loved ones (his parents and Lance because of the curse). But now that he broke the curse, he finally had time to be all cutesy and happy with Lance because they have time. Lance is no longer in danger of dying, and so they can take the long way and enjoy life just because now, they can. Catch me screaming into the void again because THIS IS BEAUTIFUL.

A last note- I found a song that kinda fits for this fic. The lyrics match the best, but in general the song is also super pretty!! So if you have time give it a listen because it's,, so good (jUST LIKE THIS FIC).

I still feel like all this ranting isn't enough to do this work of art and perfection justice, but anyways!! Apvrrish, continue being the awesomely amazing writer you are.

~Paladin