#this building was a huge part of why I decided to go to u of t
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quaintii · 1 year ago
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Across the Street
Part 1
Summary: It's been a couple weeks since a new family moved in, across the street. You go pay them a visit with an offer.
Warnings: no smut yet... just some build-up. Miguel x f!reader (I got the pic from Twitter, the @ is @kimmy_arts0912!!) also sorry that its hella long, plot ykk (pls read a/n at end!)
Part 2 <-
Part 3 <-
On a Sunday afternoon, you decided to go out with your friends at the mall. You hear a knock on front your door and open it. "Hey! I came here early again, didn't I?" Your friend said "Hey Ash! You motion your hand inside your house.
She takes a seat on the couch, smiling and giggling. "Heyy, why are you like that?" You furrow your eyebrows together with a grin on your face, giving her some juice.
You jolt as she stands up quickly and grips your shoulders.
"Did you see that guy across the street?!" She fans herself with her hand, exaggerating and giggling. You raise your eyebrows, not knowing who she's talking about. "No..., why? You like him?" You nudge her shoulder with yours in return. "A man like that.. can fuck my brains out!" She exclaims.
You quickly slap her thigh in response, getting a groan from her. "Fuck you do that for?!?" "My parents are home! You mumble. In shock, she covered her mouth with her hand. A few seconds later, you hear a ring from the front door.
You open your door to your whole friend group, the 5 of you in total. You greet them all in and spend a couple minutes inside before heading to the car altogether, carpooling.
"Hurry up!" One of your friends yell at the other one. Your eyes avert to what Ashley was talking about earlier, you see a big U-haul truck with multiple men pulling out furniture.
None seemed to be the man your friend described until you see a man from the huge window pane talking and motioning his hands where to place the furniture. Seems like your friend wasn't exaggerating at all. He wore a black button up shirt, some buttons loosened on top. Adjourned with some dark grey work pants that fit between some-what tight and loose.
What really caught your eyes were his glasses, sitting perfectly on his nose bridge. As he looked around his surroundings, he caught your gaze and gave a small grin. You snap out of it and return back to reality and enter the backseat, engine starting and loud booming music playing.
*ੈ✩‧₊˚ ~
You sit down with your legs crossed over the other, waiting for the waiters to take the group's orders. You rest your chin on your palm, sighing. One of your friends seem to notice.
She touches your shoulder, "Something up?" She asks. You nod your head, resting it on her shoulder. "Yeah... my parents told me I have to start paying rent to stay at the house." You let out another breathy sigh. "I mean I don't even know how I'm going to manage when I'm focusing on paying back my student debt from last year and with my one job not being enough.." You muttered softly.
Your other friends eavesdrop and reassure that it'll be fine and to not pressure yourself into becoming a total workaholic. you let out a small laugh and the waiter finally heads towards your table.
*ੈ✩‧₊˚ ~
The next morning you wake up with a bad hangover, only remembering your friends' went to a club and its a blur after that.
You get up and change your bed sheets and take a relaxing shower. As your in your bed with your laptop working on your AP classes, your mom barged in.
"Get your ass up and do something! I'll be making you pay rent by the end of the month!" She raised her tone at you, annoying your peace.
"Mom, I'm already busy with paying my student debt from last year with my on-going job right now!" You exclaim back. "I've applied to other places for a job, they keep rejecting me." Your mom gave you nothing but a scoff and a cold glare. "Are you positive you've looked everywhere for a job nearby?!" She stepped into your room further.
You nod your head, annoyed how she always had an attitude with you.
"Well it looks like you didn't look close enough, the new neighbor across the street is looking for a babysitter." She said while touching your posters, eyeing the window.
"How do you know?" You asked. "He posted an obvious sign outside his front yard 3 days ago." Your mom sighed. "Look.. just give that one a try or move somewhere else with your friends." She's finally out of your bubble.
You groan and place your head on your laptop as you closed it. You slip into your shoes and head downstairs and walk across the street. "Seriously, what a nagging bitch.." You mumble under your breath and ring the doorbell.
The door opens sooner than you expected, facing a tall figure towering over you. It's him.
"May I help you, Ms?" He raised his eyebrow, expecting a response from you.
Finally being infront of him hit you like a stone brick, your vocal chords thrown out the window. You clear your throat. "Good morning, I don't mean to be a bother to you but I heard you're wanting a babysitter..?"
"Oh yeah, that reminds me..are you available later in the afternoon? If not, tomorrow if you're not." He gave off a small smile. "For afternoon, yes but if you don't mind me asking what for?"
"Oh sorry," he places one of his hands on his hip, other on the back of his neck. "For an interview, just want to do a small background check, that okay with you?" He tilts his head to the slide, letting a subtle smile stretch across his lips.
You nod and shake his head, heading back home.
*ੈ✩‧₊˚ ~
You walk up to his door to knock and check your phone. 4:05 p.m. You avert your eyes at him as he opens the door, smiling and greeting you inside. Miguel remains standing while you take a seat. He looks at you, studying your face, your movements, and the way you sit down. Once you make yourself comfortable, he sighs, looking away.
"Can I take a look at that?" He asked and you slide the folder file his way. He nods a couple times as he flips through the papers and starts typing on his computer.
"Do you have any experience with taking care of babies?"
He asks quietly.
"Yeah, I always babysat when I was in highschool."
He nods, seeming satisfied with the answer you gave. Miguel was quiet for a few moments, his mind going over a few things. He eventually speaks, and when he does, his voice sounds almost like a whisper.
"Could I trust you with taking care of my daughter then? With her safety and everything?"
He was quiet again.
"She's... very precious to me. I don't want her to get hurt."
"Yes of course! I would gladly take great care of her for you sir." You responded politely.
"Very well then."
He remains silent, looking at you for a moment longer, thinking about what to say next. The man then nods and starts talking again.
"She's five, and her name is Gabriella. She's a little angel... and she's mine."
Miguel took a breath and sighed, rubbing his face.
"She'll be home in a couple hours; I'll be gone..she's at her mother's house right now. I was planning on telling her that she'll have a babysitter, so she'll be excited."
He starts walking but then stops again. He then looks at you again and nods, as if he was thinking of something.
"Oh, I just need to set some rules and expectations for you to stick by, if you don't mind."
Miguel waits for you to acknowledge his words.
Your face turns a soft red, "Sorry, I was just spacing out but yeah of course." You smile back.
Miguel chuckles when you say you space out, and nods to acknowledge your answer.
"That's completely fine."
"First rule; you're responsible for her safety while I'm gone. No strangers can come in and stay, no party, etc." He seems to be thinking of more rules to add, taking a moment.
"Second; be nice to her. She's young and is easily scared or sad. So be kind."
He nods as if he finished, but then goes silent again.
"Third; no boys allowed without my permission. It's a rule for everyone, honestly." You continuously agree to his terms.
Miguel nods, still looking at you. His eyes seem to take a quick glance down at your clothes, studying you once again. He seemed to stare at your body as his gaze moved across your clothes; he didn't care that he was staring at you.
"I think that's it. Any questions?" "Nope!"
"Very well." Miguel nods, as if he was satisfied with the answer you gave.
"Then you will begin your babysitting job tonight when Gabi is here..." He pulls his cell phone and looks at the time on the screen before looking back at you.
"...in 2-3 hours. She'll be excited to see you, so make sure to make her smile." Miguel smiles at you and nods once again.
Miguel's eyes go back to your body, his gaze slowly moving across your curves from top to bottom. He then looks away.
"You will also find two numbers on the fridge; mine and the number for our family doctor. They are for emergencies."
Miguel then crosses his arms.
"That's all I have to say. Gabriella will be here in two hours. She'll knock three times before entering, okay?"
"Got that," you noted mentally.
Miguel nods one more time. "Alright, I'll be gone then. Don't worry, Gabriella is very easy to take care of."
He smiles and starts walking to the front door again. Before leaving, he waits to see if you had anything to add.
"See you tomorrow then Ms." You shoot a smile at him and head to the door first, which unexpectedly you stumble over a Barbie doll car. You stop from tripping onto your knees as you feel calloused hands brush over your waist, slightly gripping onto your skin. His hands around your waist made you shiver, the small skin to skin contact emitting some heat to your core.
You regain your posture quickly, embarrassed of yourself. "I'm sorry.." You blurt out. "Its fine really, Gabi tends to leave a trail of her toys around the house", he laughs lightly. "Ah okay...see you tomorrow then Mr.." You wait for his response. "Mr. O'Hara is fine." He says before shutting the door.
*ੈ✩‧₊˚
a/n: srry its pretty long, you guys can tell me down in the comments if you want a part 2 or if you'd like this to be a slow burn but somewhat fast? leave any tips!! ty :3
EDIT: PART 2
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heliianth · 5 months ago
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i think its infinitely funny that hxh 2011 decided that nagareboshi kirari should go 76-98 and hyori ittai should go the rest of the series until the end of chimera ant bc like. like
listen i get it. i understand why those songs were chosen for those parts of the arc. hyori ittai is the most thematically fitting so it gets put during the climactic second half and nk is a love song they mostly use as a killua leitmotif so it gets put at the start during a lot of emotional build up
but its hilarious bc hyori ittai is a huge bop and it plays right after some of the most emotionally devastating scenes in the world so ur just sitting there watching the banging ed like. 😨 dont get me wrong if i had to watch nk after smthn like 131 i wouldve killed myself but u understand right. its so funny
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dance-to-mythoughts-blog · 1 year ago
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Pro-hero Katsuki Bakugo x Pro-hero Black fem reader
Happy New Year Everyone! I hope everyone has a wonderful day and they enjoy themselves. I decided since I posted my first work earlier today why not provide a second one.
Synopsis: What happens when you fight fire with fire? You and Katsuki are the epitome of hatred. But when you are tired of his shit, what happens when fire meets fire?
Warnings: Dick in pussy, degrading, slight use of quirk play, nipple play, and swallowing, office sex, hate sex, nutting on ass, use of the word daddy ALL CHARACTERS ARE AGED UP.
MINORS DO NOT INTERACT!!
"Goddammit Katsuki! You always have to come and fuck up some shit dude! I told u I fucking had it! Now this bitch got away!" you screamed at the top of your lungs because again, Katsuki decided he wanted to take your shine away and paint you as a damsel in distress. You work for the top hero just like he does and can do the exact same things that he can but better!
"You sure about that brat?! Cause from the looks of it, you were about to get crushed like a fucking pancake until I saved your crying ass. So how about a little less bitching and a little more thanking since I saved you life!"
"You didn't save shit! I fucking had it. Now because you did that stupid shit dude got away. Not only did dude get away but you let that bitch Mirko get him and bring him to justice! MIRKO KATSUKI!!! OF all fucking heroes you let that nigga slip into her hands to bring him to justice."
You HATED THAT BITCH MIRKO. Since you guys were elementary-aged kids' you guys always had this fucking rivalry. Deep down you knew she was always better than you and you hated to admit that. And the fact that you guys had been going at it since yall were fucking kids and today was another mark on her Talley chart you were fucking heated! I mean heated so bad that the center of the earth would be damn cold because you were so fucking pissed of at him. You guys fought all the way back to the damn agency. Everyone knows you and Katsuki and oil and water but when you guys work together with your quirks, you guys are fucking unstoppable, which is why when the number one hero, Hawks added you guys on after graduation you were honored. There was so much paperwork that had to be filled out because you and Katsuki both had injuries and made kind of a big mess. It was late when people started dwindling out of the office when one of your mentors, Hellcat, stopped by your desk.
"Working late again sugar plum? You know it's not good to work all the damn time"
Taking in a deep heavy sigh " I know Auntie. But this work has to be done and I'm trying to take my mind off what happened earlier. I can't believe he did that goofy ass shit and let dude get away."
"You know baby, in watching the fight back again, he was actually right to defend you"
You looked at her surprised because you couldn't believe what she just said. She said that Bakugo had the right to defend you. That's fucking horse shit. "What!? Auntie that's crazy. Mans is self-centered and always wants to take my shine away. He's done it before so why is this time any different?"
"Well, that's part of being a hero. Accepting your flaws. Now I know both of you are fire. I went back to look at the fight and from the outside looking in, he did save you. You were about to take a huge hit that could've possibly killed you but you didn't because he did what he did. Sure, both of you came out bruised and a few buildings destroyed but if he hadn't, we would be planning a funeral right now for you. See you in the AM"
With that she left and really left you wondering why he decided to save your life. To think since you started working here 7 months ago and have been arguing with this man consistently and now he saved your life? Thats crazy. So, you decided to get on YouTube to see what Auntie was talking about. You typed i your hero name and the most recent fight popped up.
Dynamite saves hero name again. In reading the caption and the comments people were clowning you. They were saying how you should have not decided to be a hero but you should have done something else. It hurt. To see the people that you wanted to protect say such nasty cruel things about you hurt. You swallowed your pride and went to Bakugo's office. Upon nearing his office you could faintly hear him typing away on the computer. You knocked on the door.
"What?" Damn. This man is mean and doesn't have any fucking manners to just be saying what to people who want to talk.
"It's Y/N. Can I come in?"
"I don't fucking care". With that being said you opened the door and spoke to him. He mumbled something but you weren't able to hear what it was. He was focused on whatever the fuck he was doing on his fucking computer. Man didn't even look up once. You took the time to really study his features. Man was not ugly. He had a nice jawline, beautiful intense red eyes, and an undercut that you could see with the way he was angling his head. T-shirt that was tight enough to show his muscles, grey sweats that kind of hung low and some nike slides. He must've just taken a shower because he looks so good and looks like he is determined to finish whatever shit that he has going on.
"Thank you"
He looked up and cocked his eyebrow like he was confused.
"For?"
"Saving me. I went back and rewatched the fight with the villain earlier and I see how you came in and saved me. I appreciate it. If you had not done what you did I would completely be dead as fuck. Maybe you could help me train, considering those comments on YouTube about me are fucking nasty"
"What comments?" You went over to his desk to pull up YouTube. You pulled up the video, played it for him and showed him exactly what they were saying about you.
"Dynamite saves H/N. She sucks. He's going to be a fire ass pro hero. Sis is gone be like Daphne on Scooby Doo, the damsel in distress. Dynamite is fine as fuck. H/N is cute but her getting caught a lot makes her kind of dumb. H/N gradated at the top of her class at UA? More like on top of the monkey bars at the park because she's childish. " Hearing him read those comments out loud hurt a lot more when its read out loud than read silently. He could tell you're unconfortable so he decided to help.
"Oi.. you not trash. But you could be better. We jut have to work on your defense. Thats all. But you could stop getting your ass kicked every now and again "
"Well thanks. I still fucking hate you tho. But seriously. I am not a fucking damsel in distress. Sometimes I can take care of myself but what you did today was needed. "
"How are you going to tell me thank you then proceed to be a brat in the fucking process?"
"How are you going to be an asshole while I'm thanking you for saving my life? I bet you liked reading those fucking negative comments about me didn't you?"
He gave me a little smirk "I mean.. in a way they weren't wrong" God you felt so fucking offended. You were trying to thank him for saving your life and he round here playing like he ain't got no fucking common sense.
"Whatever. fuck you nigga" As you started to walk out, he grabbed your wrist. You looked at this man like he lost his fucking marbles. "what the fuck is you doing?! Let my wrist go ass"
"Oi..stop being such a fucking crybaby. You signed up for the wrong profession if you gone let some random motherfuckers make u cry like a baby"
"Are you serious? That shit they said is fucking rude and disrespectful. Not only that nobody likes your punk ass either. They to busy gawking over how big your dick is, if you have one, and how cute you are. They dont like yo bitch ass"
"WOW. Who said I dont have a big dick? If you wanna see it all you have to do is ask princess" he said smugly while he had a smirk on his face that made him look like a fucking god.
The name princess just kinda made you feels some kind of way. It made your cheeks blush red as a rose and your pussy started to get a heartbeat.
" For your information, I think your genitals are smooth like Barbie Ken because you act like a bitch and can't do anything right! Second of all, don't fucking call me princess. Third, fuck you. I'm officially leaving. You can try and find another partner who can put up with yo shit. Nigga im out."
The way he looked at you like you just pissed him off with that comment about barbie Ken.
"What the fuck did u say about my dick brat?"
You scoffed with a smirk "Hoe I said that you act like a bitch and you are so bitch made that you don't have a dick. You don't have anything down there where ya dick should be because you are a bitch. B.I.T.C.H" As you spelled out bitch and pointed to his face and pushed his chest with your pointer finger when you spelled out bitch. And boy oh boy did that piss him off beyond fucking repair. It happened so fucking fast that you didn't even see it coming. He stepped close to you and grabbed your throat and pushed you onto his desk, grabbed your throat to make you look at him and he looked deep into your eyes.
"You are such a fucking brat and I hate it. Like I said crybaby if you cant handle rejection and people talking crazy, then you need to pick a different profession. Stop doing that shit man. Fucking ridiculous. If you wanted to personally see my dick, then you could've just asked but no you have to go be a brat."
The whole time he was yelling at you, you couldn't help but think of all the nasty freak shit you wanted him to do to you. He just manhandled you in his office you're soaking wet like Niagra Falls. He leaned into your ear and said something that shook you to the core.
"Since you wanna know about my dick so bad princess, why don't I give it to you?" he said as he slightly bit the lobe of your ear and also dropped his voice deeper than normal. You don't know what came over you but you turned completely submissive. To let him have whatever he wants with you.
"Fuck. You can do what you want Katsuki. I don't care. you have permission to break me like an egg."
"Good girl" and he picked u up and pushed you onto the table. Spreading your legs so he had enough access to feel your core throbbing and being soaking wet for him. He kissed you passionately. His lips were soft and warm. His kiss was fierce with passion but gentle. He licked the bottom of your lip to gain access to your mouth. The make-out session became heated as he was grouping you and kissing dow your jawline and then moved to your neck.
"You so fucking sexy. You know that?" he whispered to me while he was starting to unbutton my shirt. The way my hero costume is you have to unbutton it from the front. We're working on a new costume anyway. He unbuttoned the top half of my uniform to reveal my bra that had the girls sitting up there like I had surgery.
"Fuck these titties are pretty. When was the last time you had someone suck on em?" he asked as he popped a pretty pierced brown nipple into his mouth. You moaned at the feeling because it had been a minute since you'd had a mans touch. Honestly, you hadn't had any action since you stopped dealing with Denki.
"Fuck.. I-shit.. it's been a minute. God that feels good." He took that as a cue to pop the other nipple in his mouth and kneed your tit like he was making biscuits. It felt so fucking good. Here you are, being submissive to Katsuki Bakugo, AKA, Dynamite because he was making you feel good as fuck and also about to possibly fuck you senseless into the new year.
"You got me all hard and shit. Look" He pulled back so you could see his hard-on through his sweats. And he looked fucking massive. "You did this shit and now you're gonna fix it. Get on your knees princess."
You did as told and got on your knees. He whipped his dick out and it was so impressive that it had you speechless. It was pretty. It was long and thick with a massive vein on the topside of the shaft. Very suckable. You immediately got to fucking work. You used two hands to hone into the dick and suck it like your life depended on it.
"Fuck... Like that princess. Spit on it baby" You spit on it. Made sure to go all the way up to his tip and suck antagonizing slowly. "If you keep that up im coming... Shit." with that he nutted in your mouth. You swallowed all of it like a good girl and decided to keep sucking after he came. You spit his cum back on his dick and slurped some more and made him come again. You didn't even need prepping with how big his dick was.
"Hurry up and fuck me please." you whined. Man oh man was he taking his sweet everlasting time with you. He grabbed you by your throat and provided a super sloppy kiss to you and then started to pull the pants down from your hero suit. Soon as he did, it was a large wet spot. Clearly you were soaked by being manhandled.
" Damn princess. You're soaked and I haven't fucked you yet" You let out a loud whine because you were tired of being teased. He teases you all fucking day for 7 months to be teased again while attempting to get fucked. He didn't even need to prep you because you sucking his dick and picturing his face while he put his hot cum down your throat was amazing. Made your pussy wet like fucking Niagra Falls. He turned you around so you were facing the back of his office with your ass facing him. He gave your ass a nice smack.
"Smack it again" He smacked it again and again. "Babe smack it again with your quirk activated" He looked at you with a mischievous grin. "You sure about that princess. Might be a little much for you to handle."
"Dammit I-" before you could even attempt to complain you heard little pops coming from his palm. Before you knew it, he activated his quirk and smacked your ass. "Fuck...do it again baby" He smacked your ass with his quirk activated a few more times before he stopped and placed a kiss to the red ass cheek. He finally put the tip to your entrance. You started throbbing before he could even do anything.
"look at you. being so fucking needy for me" he finally stuck the tip of the dick in and it felt fucking amazing. "Damn princess. Didn't realize you would be this tight" He bottomed out and started moving hella slow.
"katsuki.. please move" he let out a chuckle. "since you said please. your wish is my command." He started to really fuck you. And I mean fuck you! The man was rearranging guts that you didn't know you fucking had. You were rocking forwards so hard from him thrusting into you that you damn near knocked his computer over.
"Yes... Fuck..Ohh" you damn near screamed because he was fucking you so good. Fucking you better than Denki ever could. "Thats it. Right there."
"right here?" he asked as he sped up his pace and smacked your ass and activated his quirk. "you nasty slut. you like taking this big dick huh?"
you could barely talk and managed to squeak out a "yes daddy" as he fucked you into oblivion.
"this is for calling me a cunt when they first partnered us together." smack to the ass. Every time he smacked your ass he knew you like when he activated his quirk. "This is for talking about my dick" smack. "this is for letting the sled monster go" smack. This next smack was lethal and had you on the brink of coming everywhere. "this is for almost getting yourself killed earlier today and being a brat about it."
"ohh shit, I'm sorry! fff-fuck you feel so damn good baby" you cried out. "its to much baby...I can't" you wailed out. It hurt but it felt so fucking good. He was putting you on cloud 9 and scrambling your eggs to oblivion.
"take it baby" was all he said before he out one leg on the desk and started to really plow into your pussy. "fuck.. Im coming, im coming, im coming!" you cried out.
"Do it. Come all over my fingers princess. Make a mess for me." with that you had the biggest orgasm of your life! "pull out and cum on my ass daddy!" he pulled out and came all over your plumb brown ass cheeks. Best dick of your life! You also didn't fake it. You let him hit and he gave you a fucking orgasm that has you on cloud 9. Both of you breathing heavily you took the opportunity to look at him.
"What?"
"You are so fucking fine but such an ass. I can't believe you got good dick and you just scrambled my eggs like that" you laughed. He laughed too and just smirked. "I fucked the great Dynamite, AKA Katsuki Bakugo."
"well if you like it.. how about we do it more? I'll pick you up this weekend and we can go out so you can get some more. If you act like a brat you wont get shit."
You pondered about it for a second. "What if I want to act like a brat? Will my punishment be you fucking me to the oblivion again?"
"Only one way to find out princess," he smirked at you. "Be ready because when I come get you we going to eat."
"Fine" you planted a small kiss on his lips and sat on the desk while he went back to doing what the fuck he was doing on the computer.
@fantasydaydreamers @dabisqueen This is the second oneshot I wrote. I hope you enjoy. Wanted to tag yall that's all lol
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isa-ghost · 7 months ago
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Oouuu h h .. u wanna talk about your hcs for early years Phil… ooh …(expanding from The Beginning if you want ! What you think the continuation could be, anything before, etc :) )
Oh god oh fuck I have so many thoughts and not enough braincells to put them into words, uhhh
Phil headcanons masterlist
His start, as we know it, is just a humble tinkerer and explorer with big dreams and even bigger ambitions.
I mean we been knew but HE IS A FUCKING GENIUS AND JUST DOWNPLAYS HIMSELF TO HELL AND BACK. He is SO SMART, sketching and studying and calculating things. He's SO PERCEPTIVE and GREAT at adapting, much like the birds he admires so deeply!! He NEEDS his brain busy. He can CRAFT, and a lot goes into that!!
Actually, his downplaying, lack of self-confidence, and inability to see his true skills and worth might come from all his failures trying to fly. He fucked up so many times, nearly killing himself a few and falling harder and harder each new time he failed. Every one of those failures just reinforced the thinking. And he had no one there to beat the doubt out of him and keep him going. Loneliness is a good way to get too deep into your own head.
His skills were and perhaps still are mostly (subjectively) smaller scale things such as the wings. It's once he found the builds of the deities that things kicked up a few notches. The structures were already built to the scale he thinks he can't pull off himself, all he had to do was restore, repair, and improve them. This is what eventually got him on Rose's radar. Even so, even doing little things on those monumental builds helped boost the size of which he can create things. His love slowly changed from tinkering to architecture.
A part of him fears (or perhaps knows deep down) that he is doomed to always eventually lose his wings.
But luckily, Kristin made them very resilient when she gave them to him. Based off what we know from observation, (and biology of birds maybe?) they heal and repair themselves over time.
And when they're severely damaged, he has Rose. After all, she chooses to be a sort of guardian for him similarly to Kristin. When he needs it, she can restore them each time he returns to Hardcore, the same way he restored her creations. It's how she shows her gratitude. All he needs to do is be in the right world. She can't do it across realms.
If there's anything to remember from the animatic, it's that Phil never quits. It takes A LOT to make him do so, and even then there's a chance that some period of time from the moment he decides to throw in the towel, he'll get back to it with fresh eyes and renewed determination. He's stubborn in more ways than one.
To this day, he wonders why crows seemed so heavily present around him in the first place. Of course he loves them, they fascinate him with their looks and symbolism and intelligence and adaptability. But... why did they one day just become so present? He's ""too fuckin dumb"" to think of why, so he doesn't bother. He just enjoys them.
Which brings me to another point. Oh my god is this man allergic to willingly sitting down and confronting huge potentially life-changing shit, especially stressful and negative big shit. Look what he did with the possession. He pretends he does not see it until it's too late, which backfires often.
His interest, if you can call it that, in [not super high stakes] combat developed once he met Techno. As he honed those skills, he applied his agility and the knowledge he had of movement from all his flying to it. He is a Very flexible, graceful fighter.
In general, he's very attuned to his body, both because of what he's had to learn in order to fly, as well as being careful in Hardcore. His self-control is fantastic.
In one of the first few headcanon sets I made, I said Phil fears lacking control of himself. That not only goes for autonomy, but physical control of himself too. It originates from all his falling and being grounded against his will. It's another reason that Ender King not only possessing him, but taking away his wings in the end is such a brutal blow to him.
Kind of a given, but between being an explorer, and once he picked up that interest in crows and desperation to fly and stay airborne, he spent way more time outside than in. We crows see it present day, he really only goes in to sleep and to store things.
Kristin gave him boons, so to speak, such as his wings, when they initially met. She's also the reason he can understand the crows and actually speak to them. He built Brian because Brian makes it even easier for us to communicate with him, but generally speaking, he can still understand us even without Brian's aid.
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ventiij · 1 year ago
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clothes shop employee!scara x customer!reader
enstablished relationship | romantic | lemon | genshin au but kinda modern? since I implied existence of technology.
I just had this idea while shopping so like thank me later
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of course you knew. he was always around you, save when he had to work. why get a job, though? wasn’t what you financially provided enough? did he trust you’d leave him, one day? no, nothing like that. he talked it out with you, he took the first good-paying job that didn’t take all of your time toghether, he just wanted to not depend on you too much and be a “burden”, thing you reassured him on multiple times, but still.
you decided to let him do his thing and keep his freedom, so to not to bother during his shift.
one time though, on a festive day, you decided to go on a shopping spree by yourself, since the shop your s/o worked at was a full time one (luckily he took care of everything during the morning) and you decided to pay him a visit.
there he was, carrying boxes around a deserted area of the huge building, you had to wander around for a bit to find him. “there you are, love..” you said, he jumped and turned around just to find you with three bags full of brand new clothing.
he sighed and laid the boxes on the ground, looking embarassed: “what.” you took a good look at him before thinking out loud: “that uniform looks good on you…” you litterally had heart-shaped pupils. “perhaps I should become a regular here.” he facepalmed and replied: “is it even possible to become a regular at a clothes shop?” while looking at you in disbelief. “for you, pookie, anything is possible.”
he facepalms again. “alright, love you and all. now go before someone catches me slacking off - I think I might even get a raise pretty soon.” your face shifts to a surprised one. “already? you must be the best employee, then… are you already part of your boss’ graces?” you got closer to him as you formed the question.
“yes, and I don’t want that to change.” you pouted as you finally hugged him from behind, then grabbing his chin and bringing it closer to you, making him face you. looking straight into his eyes, you demanded: “you’re so good for them, why not be even better for me?” he blushed and tried to squirm out of your embrace, as he refused to with all his will, just before you assured “no one’s around. are there any cameras?”
he though about it for a second and brought you along with him behind a couple of big boxes. “we should be out of reach here. make it quick though, whatever it is you want to do.” you smirked and pulled him in closer, dropping alm yout bags on the floor, just to start peppering his lips and cheeks with kisses, feeling the need to do so on such a happy day, on such a soft and cute thing like him.
But was that enough? HAHA not even close. So, sliding down to mark him, you made him shiver in a need for your attention he hid didn’t know he had. not today, at least.
“s-stop, you’re gonna get us caught, you imbecile!” he whined, kinda in an undertone. you kissed his lips once more, one hand up on his head, grabbing his hair just enough to keep him in position, sliding the other hand on his butt, squeezing it.
he didn’t have the chance to moan, but he did let out some pretty whimpers while making out with you.
he was a blushing mess. he pulled away to breathe and pushed you off of him.
“alright, you got what you wanted. now let me work in peace, you idiot.” he returned to his normal expression, but still tinted of red. “fine, fine.” scara turned to the opposite direction as you finished talking, forcing you to stop torturing him (and to leave asap unless you wanted to buy something).
hope you enjoyed lolololololol have a good day
(requests are open - check the pinned post - i’m new so any req/idea/anything is much appreciated love u all xoxo)
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streamdotpng · 2 years ago
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acting news
streamer enid au! once again part 2
There's a taste on Enid's tongue when she speaks. It's sweet, flavorful and distracting - addicting she can almost say. No wonder she keeps talking and talking, murmuring about anything just to taste that drug stuck in her mouth. 
It's why she couldn't fully focus on her stream, why her eyes aren't drawn to the colourful lights of the game she was playing on autopilot. Something was distracting her and she didn't know what. 
It isn't until she hears the slow yet measured footsteps passing by her door that it finally clicks and a smile grows on Enid's face.
Right, she ate well yesterday. 
Chat is as noisy as always, clamouring with their normal chatter but they seem to be confused as to why Enid suddenly decided to shut up. 
"streamer going insane?" 
"U see that glaze in her eyes? Bet she’s high on chocolate"
“You can get high on chocolate???”
“Ofc not this is y u dont believe everything in the internet” 
The werewolf quickly looked back to the game, a lil snort bubbling in her throat. Chat definitely has their moments, these were one of them. To think people wonder why she was streaming, it's for dumb reasons like this.
"hi guys what's happenin" 
"ur mom is what's happenin" 
“Yall so rude ;-; i was just asking”
A sound alert is the one that fully snaps Enid back to attention. With a quick thank you to one Sokoe-chan, she finally dragged her eyes away from the game to give a very concerned look at the camera, her eyes just reading that mess of a convo. 
“What the fuck chat?” she murmured, but the tone definitely couldn't hide the upward quirk of her lips. “Also I don't get high on chocolate, that's not how werewolves work.”
Chat begins to spark at that, questions of ‘duh, dogs are allergic that makes so much sense’ to ‘who made you the werewolf expert huh!?’ 
It makes Enid lean back as she builds a house. She’s playing minecraft after all, albeit one with horror mods but considering that the sun was up and her chests were full, she decided to go and finally build a house.
Before her chat remembers and calls her homeless.
She shivers at that, can you really blame her? It's hard to build things when you’re being chased and only have your own flesh and bone to keep you running.
The sound of rattling bones rings through her headphones and Enid’s cheeks burned as she gave her full attention back to chat. It's still a little shocking to have people pay for a free live stream, so she does try her best to give her gratitude to any supporters. “Thank you again Sokoe-chan for the ten gifted!” 
The text to speech drawled in reply “did you hear that Lunal curse is getting a movie adaption exclamation mark exclamation mark question mark.”
Enid’s eyes widened as she immediately straightened and pulled herself close to the camera. “Really?!” she places a hand on her chest, leaning back with a dramatic sigh. “My wife is going to do amazing, I'm telling you.” Enid points at the screen, a bright smile on her face. “Ain’t nobody can beat my woman! Imagine being a director and the main actor-”
As the werewolf goes on a tangent, chat meanwhile has their own thoughts.
“There she goes”
“Can you blame her?! Wednesday does such a good job as Viper”
“It just feels a lil self insert for the author to act out the main role yknow?”
“Hey now, if it works then it works”
“Just sayin!”
“Brother ur in the wrong channel to be dissing Wednesday”
“Endespair is a huge W.A simp after all”
Enid paused in her words to raise a brow. “Hey hey, nothing wrong with saying your thoughts but you’re treading a thin line there man.” she waves her hand around. “She’s giving good content and getting that bag! Besides, she auditioned for that role and the others greenlit her to be Viper.” 
Most of the chat agrees, some even citing a few articles of the process. This definitely wasn’t a new topic in terms of Viper’s casting.
The tone overall seemed rather easy going, everyone vibing until a comment pops in that makes Enid’s lips drop and her brows to furrow.
“Trust a dog to be at someones heel”
“HEY”
“Too far dude wtf”
“MODS”
“U AINT ACCEPTED HERE”
A stormy look crossed Enid’s face and the ban hammer dropped. The wolf sighs, escaping the game to the menu as she gives a look. 
“we’re boutta be scolded againnn”
“Its not our fault!”
“Sjdklajdklsja father forgive us”
“Pls not again, i havent recovered from the last lashing”
Enid’s look is affronted, but chat’s lil attempts to make her smile works. “You guys make it sound like I abuse you or something,” she laughs and for a moment, chat thinks they’re off the hook before she removes her glasses to raise a brow at the camera.
A classic look of disappointment.
“Dangit thought that was going to work”
“Lowkey i dont mind being scolded if its endespair”
“Daddy issues right here”
“Ay no need to call me out like that”
Normally, Enid would hold out for a few more seconds, just to make the tension palpable enough to fuck with her audience until the loud sounds of bones rattling makes her shoulders drop.
This is why she can’t be serious until it's really needed.
“Lunaslandingpad threw 50 gifted subs into the pile” spoke the alert but just before it could continue, Enid paused it to let out a harsh and very tired sigh.
One so filled with emotion that it makes Chat pause themselves as she rubbed at her eyes before sliding on her frames.
“One, no bribing me to feel better,” Enid starts and immediately, chat clammors in agreement. “Two, none of those dog comments. Not only is that a shitty thing to do but I have werewolf tagged on stream to make sure others like me find it easier so don’t make me regret it.” A shine of white is shown, her fangs seemed to almost be bared if it weren’t for the hand that covers anything below her nose. “Last, there is nothing wrong with criticising a piece of work but don’t bring that stuff here.”
Silence filled the air as Enid leant back, her lips pursed as she crossed her arms. “Got it?”
“Ofcourse!”
“Yesser”
message deleted by moderator
“WE SAW THAT” “Caught in 4k”
Soon, Enid’s scowl turned into a bigger raised brow before rolling her eyes as she opened up the mod log to see the rather.. Thirsty comment. “You all really gotta think before you type.” her head shakes as she laughs. “you guys are lucky i wouldn’t have you guys any other way.” 
Taglist: @agathaharkness-simp​ @lunaslandingpad​
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rah-nee-yah · 3 months ago
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i literally planned to post this like two weeks ago but i was scared people would think im delusional (i am, actually)
BUT im on a high rn after that vi clip and im just bouncing off the walls and im actually so excited and after linkin park was finally announced to be part of the ost i really wanted to post this…
but what if chappell roan is the mystery artist on the ost…
I KNOW WHAT UR PROBABLY THINKING BUT JUST HEAR ME OUT DUDE (this is a joke pls dont take this seriously 🙏🙏)
HERE IS MY EVIDENCE:
i made a post of how chappell and jinx have a joan of arc inspired getup
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this one is obviously a very big stretch because anyone can reference joan of arc, so i would like to turn your attention to her vma performance.
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first off, the obvious reference is she has two braids for jinx. but lets observe the prop she has in her hands. a crossbow headed for a castle…almost a parallel to an ultra mega death rocket hitting a certain council building…
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when she shoots the crossbow, spark effects form an X and the lighting turns BLUE, not an expected red or orange, again another reference to jinx.
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i think what really made me start developing this theory is this pose chappell does. she does it twice during the performance. i think it might be a reference to jinx’s obsession with guns and this little moment. also why tf would she go out of her way to make this pose?? when she’s singing in this part, she isn’t saying the lyric “shoot another shot” (which is when u would expect her to make this pose).
this may also explain why track ten has been hidden. around a year ago, when someone from arcane said they were in contact with a big artist, which im assuming is linkin park (theyre ranked like 34 on spotify), chappell wasnt a huge celebrity yet. it wasnt until around april that she really started to gain popularity, and i mean A LOT of popularity, probably to almost the same degree as linkin park. at this point, the team prolly just decided to hide her song for shits and giggles like they did with the linkin park song.
anyways this is the part where my theory is based off pure no evidence speculation and personal indulgence, but if this ends up coming true, i hope her song ‘subway’ is the one for arcane cuz it fits caitvi so well and i need that banger released NEOW. not to mention, if it is track ten, it would be played in the middle of the season, which is during the speculated caitvi divorce arc. (also, im pretty sure chappell started performing the song in early june and yk what else came out early june?? THE ARCANE S2 TEASER)
either way, it probably isnt chappell roan (EVEN THOUGH I WOULD LOVE IF IT WAS). im dying to know who the track ten song belongs to. why is it still hidden?? is it somehow an artist bigger than linkin park?? someone mentioned rihanna since fenty worked with riot on mel’s design, and i really like that idea (although it is DEF not happening rihanna is too big of an artist). now that i think about it, i would love a song about mel…
anyways this is a complete shitpost (that i spent WAY too much time on) if ur reading this and somehow put up with me yapping about my delusions, thank you ur a real one 🫡🫡
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planet4546b · 5 months ago
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signoise questions!!! feel free to ignore as many as u want, sorry there are so many i am just very 🙇 (emoji of person leaning on folded arms and looking interested if it doesnt load right- just looked this up and it is actually a person bowing??? i have always parsed it as like a more restrained :eyes: emoji. huh) abt all of the parts its very cool!!!
-decade: have u read the city & the city by china mieville? whatre the inspirations for this if u have any off the top of yr head? was this like a rogue architect (i am thinking of the cartographers without borders post about a flat and level kansas watch out for the 900ft cliff bisecting kansas city post) or was it an official govt project or something?
-twins: i really like the name lariat for a city thats v cool also since theres a bunch of plays, are they all extant in their entireties or is it like a classical texts situation where we have fragmentary records? im really interested in the mixed media part of signoise & how different parts might be told, are u thinking of adding video or audio or anything?
-bell expedition: SO interested in how a caver becomes "disgraced." excited to see a bunch of cave content about the mar.
-pareidolia: a) VERY cool name i love it b) are u going to make the photographs they take?
-pepper's ghost: i dont have a specific q about this one i would just like to register my extreme excitement to see what happens w it.
& i guess just a more general q, do u have a rough idea of what media(s) each story is going to be in? also i am really really liking the name choices youve made for places etc.
i misread bowing as bowling and my confusion about that emoji only grew. but ozzy hi!!! thank you for the questions im gonna try to hit all of them :D
1. i HAVE read the city and the city (really enjoy it) although it ironically inspires a different city on the map (primary and meridian, which is where the playwright stuff mostly takes place). decade’s primary inspiration is pretty explicitly superstudio’s continuous monument, as well as a handful of other postmodern avant- garde architecture concepts, like constant’s new babylon. visually also something like blame, though i have yet to actually read blame i know not by reputation alone. the vibes of it are actually very much that pefectly level kansas post LMAO
decade’s architect is a supercomputer (also known as decade) that produces the plans that the people then construct (also very invisible cities, i’m just blanking on the name of the city itself that’s constantly building). a lot of decade’s story is pure mystery for this reason: how did they build a supercomputer? how and why does it create its plans? what is it building for? why is it that the only records of the city are from decade itself, and next to no records from its citizens exist? what was their form of government, who did decide to build, who led this project? much to uncover!!
2. mairzy finch was a relatively minor playwright during their life, and had one play that really became well known and four or five other less known ones. the bulk of their history is about a massive series of plays that are in fact fragmentary and were all found after their death and are being ‘completed’ and published by almas verrier. so there is a lot of classics to it in how those plays are reconstructed, published, and continually found (and the controversy around all of that), though this is not a project that gains a lot of scholarly attention, its pretty much only verrier and samira that are interested at all.
i would absolutely LOVE to add audio especially to these plays, within my ability as a single creator. although i will likely needle my sibling who used to act to get notes on things like stage and audio design (the entertainment interlude in kentucky route zero is a HUGE inspiration here).
3. quite simply, eric has previously led groups in which multiple members died, and while it is generally understood that that’s a bit of an occupational hazard, the general caving community has concluded those specific deaths could have been avoided if eric was not pushing the group to fuel his own ego. Oops! and glad you’re excited for the cave content because ohohoho so am i!!!!
4. my favorite thing about the name pareidolia is that when i’m researching other things i ALWAYS run into this word and go oh cool and go to its wikipedia page and forget one of the first images on the wikipedia page is a cave formation LOL. and yes i almost definitely will be!! i will at minimum be recreating them via digital art, but i have So many cave photos i can use various ways, and im thinking about getting some cheap ass camera to print physical photos as well. i have in my mind what his most famous photograph is and im so excited to recreate it GAH
5. i’m also SO excited about this one so glad to hear it!!! these two are characters that are close to my heart but have been at the fringes of signoise’s main story for a while, getting to spotlight them is super exciting for me. and there’s some weird late game plot developments with them that are fun. they also are the mechanism for my favorite Samira Realization and a catalyst for her downward spiral. woohoo!
6. the mixed media aspect of signoise is BRAND new and a lot of that i’m still brainstorming to figure out what’s even possible for me to do, but what i do know is the general format for each:
playwright: play scripts and academic papers (possible audio recordings/set plans)
decade: architectural plans, radio transmission transcripts
bell: interviews with bell and everett (god i would love so bad to make and photograph minis for specific cave scenes here)
pareidolia: photographs, research notes (?) i need…something else here but im still figuring out what (largely photo manips and limited animation. hopefully via physical camera)
peppers ghost: radio broadcast transcripts (i have the least wiggle room for other media in here i think, iltheres too much of it to be voice acted via just like dragging in family and friends and it’s pretty limited to radio. but i’ll find something im sure)
and thank you!!! naming things is difficult (the like…7 hours i spent trying to find names for all the new characters. god.) but i have quite a bit of fun with it. i like sounds ^^
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nyaagolor · 1 year ago
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Oooh! What's Butterfly Effect about? I'm curious!
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I AM SO GLAD U ASKED
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I am, unfortunately, a huge Nuzlocke fan. A large part of why I love pokemon as a franchise so much is because of it's sandbox-y nature and the celebration of fans and even canon side content doing interesting spins on characters, stories, and scenarios (ie nuzlocke comics, pokespe, masters, etc). I also just adore the way that Nuzlockes provide new frameworks to play around with, and so I've been making stories out of my playthroughs for almost as long as I've been playing Pokemon at all. Butterfly Effect is one such story, and based off a playthrough of SwSh. I like the vibes of SwSh's plot but almost none of the story decisions, so I decided to really play around with everything the game presented to make my own version. One of the ways I often find plots is by adding a gimmick to the world and then worldbuilding and forming the plot from those constraints (for example, my Kanto story is based around the constant remakes all being canon at once, my Johto story is based off Legends-era stuff, my Hoenn story is based around the intersection of PMD and the mainline games, and my Unova story is based around a "bad ending" of BW)
For my Galar story, I decided to make the gimmick "what if like 30% of the population were gijinkas"? I ended up tying this heavily to the concept of Dynamax, and building the plot up around that and the power crisis (which I moved to the present day). The protagonists (there are three, Agnes, Tego, and Viking) end up wrapped up in the conflict and the shady dealings of the league just as everything comes to a head. It's more or less a fantasy story about nuclear energy but also there's dragons and radiation poisoning just turns u into a furry instead of killing you. If you look at the tag "story: butterfly effect" there's more info there-- I'm also going to make a post about the sliding scale of gijinka-ness and how that all works. Thanks for the questions and feel free to ask if anything is unclear / you want to know more abt anything specific :)
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uhlatcha · 9 months ago
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ROCK WITH U - SEVENTEEN 70s AU - CHAPTER ONE: THE BOYS IN THE ROCK BAND
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WATTPAD | AO3 | PLAYLIST | ROCK WITH YOU MASTERLIST
SUMMARY: California, 1970's. After being discovered by a major label, Seventeen are rock's newest promise. But before they can get a deal, they need to prove their worth, so the label makes an arrangement with the company's most successful band, for the newcomers to go on tour supporting the veterans. But what begins with the promise of a promising tour ends up taking a tortuous path thanks to the "sex, drugs and rock and roll" philosophy that led the golden years of rock and roll. FANDOMS: SEVENTEEN WORDS: 7454 PAIRING: KMG X OC | CSC X OC | JWW X OC GENRE: FANFIC, ROMCOM, DRAMA, 70s AU, ROCK BAND AU NOTES: ENGLISH IS NOT MY FIRST LANGUAGE, ANY FEEDBACKS ARE WELCOME.
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CHAPTER ONE: THE BOYS IN THE ROCK BAND
Spring Of 1979 - A Few Weeks Before "Heaven is Here" Tour.
When Mya and Tea got out of the car on that warm late spring morning and walked towards the doors of the company, they thought that it would be just another normal pre production meeting to finalize some decisions about the world tour that they would start in the summer.
The duo, who already had a few years of career, had already done three tours around the country and some international shows, mostly at festivals or special events and talk shows. They were used to being on the road, but this tour was different. It was their first world tour. They would go to three different countries. It seemed unbelievable that so many different people in so many different places could be interested in the music of two girls who grew up in Los Angeles, but there they were.
Tea, who had been born in England and moved several times before her parents finally settled in Los Angeles, had never imagined that life, not until she met Mya. She was the one who convinced her that music was worth giving up everything for, which was crazy but turned out to work out well in the end.
As soon as they entered the record company building, the girls went to Jihoon's room. Woozi, as he was known in the music world, was a short guy with feline expressions. Most people didn't take him very seriously when they first met him, which was a huge mistake, as he was extremely talented, and slightly aggressive towards those who made fun of his height. Woozi had worked with the top-notch bands. He had been working with Mya and Tea ever since they left the band they were in and became a duo. Woozi had produced all the girls' albums and was largely responsible for their success. And to the girls, he was much more than just a producer, Woozi was part of the family.
Tea knocked at Jihoon's door, but Minghao was the one opening the door. When the girls entered, they greeted Minghao and sat on the couch on the other side of the room while Jihoon finished a call, but it didn't take long before he went to greet them, carrying a folder that he placed on the table.
"Let's get down to business girls." He announced, after greeting them and asking his assistant to bring tea and drinks. "We have one more thing to discuss about the tour."
"I thought everything was already settled." Tea said, stirring her tea.
"Almost everything." Minghao pointed out "But there's one small detail that we have to discuss."
"Then why isn't DK here?" Tea asked. DK was their tour manager; he was the one settling everything when it came to hit the road.
"I thought it would be better to talk with the three of you and him separately." Jihoon explained.
Mya got up and headed towards the bar, sensing that something not very pleasant was about to be announced,
"I think I'll need a drink before you spit it out, Jihoon. "
She poured her drink then came back to her sit.
"What's the problem?"
"It's not a problem." He guaranteed. "The company just decided that it would be more practical, to have just one opening act for the whole tour instead of having an opening act for each city."
Tea directs him a suspicious look. They liked having a different band opening their shows in each city. It was a good opportunity to make new contacts and give opportunities to local bands. It was also great to avoid spending a lot of time with unknown people who could get in trouble along the way on such a long tour.
"So, you called us here to choose the opening band?"
"Not exactly." Jihoon commented, then looked at Minghao. They clearly talked about that before.
"Remember when you joined the label and to test your popularity before signing a real contract, we made you a contract to open for Day6?" Minghao asked.
"Of course," Tea answered, thinking about the days she and Mya were on tour with DAY6 "How could we forget? Everything was so amazing."
"Our first tour as High as Hope, supporting an amazing band." She said, "We couldn't have had a better start."
"And the audience loved you." Jihoon commented "Which yielded a very advantageous partnership for both you and the label."
The two agreed. They had nothing to complain about the label. Thanks to their popularity and good reputation, the two had a lot of creative freedom.
"That said, I think you understand what a good opportunity this type of contract can be and would like others to enjoy the same opportunity." Jihoon asked.
"Of course." Tea said, and Mya nodded.
"Okay, we already understood that you already chose the band." Mya pointed out "Are you going to tell who they are or not?"
"Seventeen. It's a band that's been quite successful on Sunset." Woozi began "I went to see some of their shows, and I think they have potential."
"If you think so they probably have." Tea said. She trusted Jihoon a lot, he had a very good ear for new talents.
"We recorded a demo, and the label is interested... But they don't have the best of reputations, so they want to test their behavior and popularity of the boys, before signing them definitively."
"I knew you hesitating this much wasn't a good thing." Mya commented, pointing from Jihoon to Minghao.
"But don't worry, I've had a lot of talks with them, and I'm putting together a temporary contract that includes a clause that guarantees they don't cause trouble. And they're desperate for a contract, they will behave. And if they don't, they're out of the tour, and lose their contract offer."
Tea and Mya exchanged a suspicious look, wondering if this was even a good idea.
"Here is the contract." Minghao pointed, giving a copy to each girl. "Read and tell us your impressions, if it's okay or if you want to change something."
"Is this a request we can refuse or has the label already decided?" Mya asked after reading the contract.
"You can refuse," Minghao said.
"But they're good people, and they're talented, they're just misfits. But I give you my word that if they cause trouble, you can kick them out of the tour." Jihoon added.
Mya looked at Tea again and could see in the soft-hearted girl's thoughtful look that she wanted to give the boys a chance.
"Can we meet them before giving a concrete answer?" Tea asked.
"I figured you would want this." Jihoon commented "They're playing at Troubadour tomorrow, if you're free..."
"We can go out for lunch, and you can watch the sound check and talk to them." Minghao suggested.
The girls were silent for a few moments, exchanging thoughtful glances.
"So, what do you say?" Jihoon asked.
"I'm up for it if Mya and the boys are up for it too." Tea said, talking about the rest of their band members, looking at her friend, with bright hopeful eyes that begged for a yes.
"I'm in if the boys agree." Mya agreed, still a bit apprehensive "But if I don't like them, forget about it." Mya said, pointing a finger at her friend, who clapped excitedly.
Tea understood Mya. She knew she was apprehensive about letting other people into their bubble. They've had problems before, with their old band and, but they eventually found they had each other and they are not so new band mates, people that they could trust. But it was hard for Mya to say no to Tea, who was soft-hearted and loved to give chances to anyone abandoned dog that appeared in his path. So, she decided to at least give it a try.
******
The phone rang at least five times before Seungcheol gathered the strength to get up and answer it, as none of the other boys dared to do so. He understood that everyone was tired, but so was he. But unlike the others, he couldn't ignore the call, it could be something important, and they couldn't miss important calls. Sometimes being the leader wasn't easy.
"Hello?" he said as he answered the phone in the kitchen, yawning.
"I talked to the girls today." Woozi announced, without even saying hello, and Seungcheol woke up immediately.
"What did they say?" Seungcheol asked, holding the phone tightly.
"They want to meet you before giving a concrete answer, '' Woozi announced, making him even more nervous. "I explained the whole situation, Tea is actually excited to meet you guys, it's not hard to win her heart, Mya it's a bit more suspicious, so she's the one you have to impress. And by that, I mean all of you members must cooperate. They must be the nicest, polite people, do you understand?"
That was the hard part. Seungcheol loved their friends, they were nice and talented people. but they weren't exactly polite and collected. They were crazy and chaotic. Buta that was important. If they behave, they will get a deal with a big company. They needed to make it work, their dreams were at check.
"They will behave." Seungcheol promised.
"I hope so." Woozi commented "The girls are coming to see you at Troubadour." He announced, "I'll take them to soundcheck so they can see you practicing, then we can have lunch together."
"Okay, we'll see you there." he said and Woozi hung up.
He put the phone back in the cradle and sat down at the counter. They were so close to what they always wanted. All they had to do was convince the biggest star from the company that they deserved a chance. It wasn't far that two girls that didn't even know then should decide their future. But it couldn't be that hard to make them like them, right?
He heard footsteps in the backyard then the door hung open as Jeonghan entered, hands full of paper bags with groceries.
"You are already up?" He asked, surprised. "What happened, did you fall from bed?"
"The phone was ringing."
"Was it an important call?" Jeonghan asked, emptying the bags.
"Yes" Seungcheol commented "Woozi."
"What did he say?" Jeonghan asked, excited.
"He said the girls want to meet us. He'll take them to the Troubadour tomorrow to watch our show."
"Good." Jeonghan commented, thoughtfully. "I'll call him later for more details."
"I'll wake the boys up. I have an idea and need to talk to them."
******
All the High as Hope members, accompanied by their manager, arrived at The Troubadour twenty minutes before Woozi's scheduled time and when they arrived, the stage was already set up for the show. Security said the band had gone out to eat at least half an hour ago, after setting up their gear. Which made Mya stressed, thinking they wouldn't be back any time soon.
"Who the fuck goes out to eat when you have a lunch appointment?" Mya, who was at the bar with Minghao and Joshua, and already had at least three drinks, complained. Minghao, who was really stressed that day, agreed, putting some sticks in the fire she was building.
Woozi, as always, arrived just in time to find Tea and Jun by the piano, playing together while Dino was playing with the drums on the stage.
Mya expressed her worries to Woozi, who went out to look for the boys. Tea and Jun had already played at least five songs on the out of tune piano that was in the corner of the stage. They were playing to try to make Mya join them in their distraction, but had no success, until Tea started playing Martha My Dear by The Beatles but changing the name Martha for Mya. What really caught the other girl's attention, making her softer.
Soon she was by the piano, asking Tea to play Abba's songs and singing along to the melody, pulling Joshua to dance around with her. They were having fun playing and singing Dancing Queen when they heard a commotion coming from the backstage door and soon a bunch of guys entered the stage room, laughing and joking around. Woozi was just behind them with an annoyed expression.
They were a group with a lot of presence, Tea noticed that the moment they entered the room, all dressed in black. They were all tall and fit, but one of the guys was so big she couldn't take her eyes off him. Until the thin blonde one ran towards dino with an unhappy expression.
"Hey, don't touch my set."
Mya stopped right where she was dancing with Joshua, staring at the boy who just scolded her brother.
"Sorry man" Dino said, getting up and walking away. "You were late, and we were all bored and the drums were right there so..."
"So, you are used to messing up someone's set like this?" The guy asked, annoyed,
Tea stopped playing and looked at Mya who was just beside Joshua, she could feel her friend were about to go feral, and so did Minghao and Jun, who ran towards the commotion straight to hold Mya down.
"Stop, let him take care of it." Tea heard Joshua whisper to Mya, who took a deep breath. She knew Dino didn't like her intervention on his business, but it was hard for her to see her little brother being looked down by a pretentious stranger.
"Sorry bro, it won't happen again." Dino said, rolling his eyes to the boy who was now checking his set to see if Dino messed something up.
"I'm sorry about Hoshi." One of the guys from the band who saw Mya giving the blonde guy a look that could kill him. "But since we are all musicians, I guess you understand the jealousy we have towards our instruments."
The guy was big and had sort of an intimidating aura but was really trying to look apologetic.
"And you are...?" Mya asked, not happy at all.
"Oh right, we were not introduced yet." He commented and stood his hand to the girl. "My name is Seungcheol, but you can call me Scoups."
At that moment she decided to never call him like that.
"I'm Seventeen's leader." He added.
Mya didn't take his hand, but Joshua who was right beside her did.
"Hi, I'm Joshua." He said as he pointed to the others. "These are Mya, Jun, Dino and the one by the piano is Tea!"
Seungcheol looked at the piano and Tea waved at him with a tiny anxious smile. She then got up and got close to the rest of the group, right between Mya and Joshua, interlocking her arms with theirs.
"It's a pleasure to meet you all." Seungcheol said. "We are really thankful for the opportunity to work with you."
Mya scoffed, crossing her arms.
"Nothing it's officially seated yet." She spoke. "And if you were really grateful you wouldn't be late."
"I'm really sorry about that." Seungcheol said, looking a bit irritated. "We had a long ride to get here, my members were starving."
"It's okay, we understand." Tea said with a comprehensive smile trying to ease all the tension. "Why don't you introduce us to the rest of the band?"
Seungcheol agreed and called the other members who were at the bar. The first to be introduced were Seungkwan, a very excited guy with orange dyed hair. He played the keyboard and we're very excited to talk with Tea about her technique and told them to call him Boo. Vernon, one of the guitarists, had a very odd sense of style and looked a little bit lost but was very polite. Hoshi, the blond guy who fought Dino earlier, looked like a hyperactive child, he wouldn't stop for a second. And then there were the last two ones. Wonwoo, the bassist, looked very collected and kind of intimidating with a distant vibe. His sharp eyes were very cold, and his deep voice only made him look even more intimidating, but he was very polite and didn't leave Mingyu's side for a second.
Mingyu... The guy who caught Tea's attention the second the group entered the stage room. But how couldn't he? The guitarist was the tallest of the group, and everything about him was big. He had broad shoulders, strong arms. Adding the tan skin and the long wavy black hair that framed his beautiful angelic face? He was stunning.
"Hi, I'm Mingyu." He said with a big warm smile and sparkly eyes. giving Tea his hand. She who was very short had to look up to meet his eyes and notice his point canines showing when he took her small hand in his. The fangs would look intimidating in a big guy like him, if he wasn't the brightest person she'd ever meet.
"Hi" she said, smiling timidly at him "I'm Tea, nice to meet you."
"I know who you are, you are incredible." He said "I know all of you. My little sister is a big High as Hope fan, I took her to one of your concerts last year. Jun, you're her favorite."
"She has good taste." Jun commented smiling proudly, messing with Dino who rolled his eyes.
"Jun is everyone's favorite." Tea commented looking fondly at the bassist.
"JUN IS YOUR FAVORITE?" Joshua shouted, being the dramatic person, he was. Tea patted his chest comforting him. "What about me?"
"You are my second favorite."
"Joshua is your second favorite?" Mya asked.
"You are my sun and stars, the reason for my existence." Tea said, hugging Mya who laughed.
"I'm jealous." Joshua said.
"Don't be, love." she said, letting go of Mya, hugging him instead, batting her eyes.
"What about me?" Dino asked.
"You are my son, my baby boy." She said going to pinch his cheek. Dino rolled his eyes, he hated being the youngest and being treated like the youngest, but because it was Tea, who actually respect him besides calling him baby, he just smiled and brushed it away.
Mingyu was watching the whole scene with a curious smile, Wonwoo right beside him didn't look very interested in the conversation. It was clear they were like a big happy family by the way they were messing with each other. Mingyu was good at reading the room, and the people. And that was why Cheol gave him a special mission that day. A mission he was eager to complete.
"High as Hope" Minghao who was back at the bar with Woozi and a long-haired guy called and all the members looked at him. "Can you come here for a second?"
They obeyed. Tea almost ran into the bar, she needed to stay away from mister tall and handsome who was eyeing her a little bit much with that bright smile. She excused herself and received another bright smile.
"Okay band, I Mya introduce you to YoonJeonghan." Minghao said, pointing to the long-haired man. "He is Seventeen's manager."
"Oh, so he's the one we should blame for not arriving on time?" Mya asked and Jeonghan raised an eyebrow at her.
"I'm sorry for the delay, but we had a long ride to get here." He said the exact same thing Seungcheol did. "The members were starving."
"We understand.'' Tea said again, making Mya a little bit annoyed. She always had to be so comprehensive and nice to everyone.
"Yeah, but I did my research." Mya commented. "Your band doesn't have the best of the reputations."
Neither do you. Jeonghan thought, but didn't say a word, just smiled politely. They had to be a little bit more submissive if they wanted to make a good impression after being late. But he also did his research. The band didn't have the shiniest reputation either. He heard the girls were previously in another band that broke up after a series of ugly events involving drugs, jealousy and matters of creative power.
"They will behave, I will do my best to guarantee that." He explained. "We understand the importance of this opportunity."
"I hope so." Mya said, crossing her arms and giving him a yellow smile.
"Can we hear them playing now?" Tea asked, excited.
"Yeah, so we can go out to eat, I'm hungry." Dino commented.
"Yes, sure." Woozi agreed and signed to Jeonghan.
"Cheol." He called and the other looked directly at him "Can you guys play something to our guests?"
"Sure!" He answered and went straight to the stage, followed by his members.
"Let's go to the front row." Tea said, grabbing Mya's hand and dragging her closer to the stage.
While adjusting his guitar, Mingyu gave Tea a wink, making her blush and look away. Mya didn't look very excited about hearing them and the others stayed in their spots by the bar. The first song they played was very energetic and had kind of a sexy vibe. It was a good song, with a catchy chorus and a good instrumental. Mya rolled her eyes to the lyrics sometimes, because that was a song about how cool they were, and she wasn't ready to admit they were right. But by the end of the song, she was humming along, just like Tea, who was really enjoying the song, besides being shocked about who good Boo's vocals were. He could reach some incredible high notes. And on the total opposite was Won's voice, that was even deeper than when he spoke. By the second song, a song that was a lot more energetic and fun, the girls were already clapping on the band commands along the rhythm.
The boys really had a good stage presence and were singing and playing like they were having fun. Tea liked them right away, even more because of how they were enjoying the show as much as her. It was the kind of thing that created a connection between artist and audience. They were good and had a lot of potential. The third and last song was the girls favorite, the song was also very energetic and had a very positive message, and a super catchy rhythm.
By the end, they bowed as everyone in the room clapped. Even Mya, who didn't look very welcoming at first.
"Wow, you guys are really amazing." Tea said, when they came off the stage.
The boys looked very happy with her reaction.
"Your vocal range is absolutely amazing" Tea said, coming closer to Boo "The high notes? splendid."
The red-haired boy looked excited and full of satisfaction with her comments.
"What about me?" Mingyu asked, getting closer to her "Did you like my ranges?"
She blushed and licked her lips, nervously.
"Yes. You have a lot of stage presence." she said, timidly, trying to look composed. He smiled, a big, beautiful smile that made her feel like her heart was about to explode, so she did the rational thing, she turned away and looked at Wonu. "You were also amazing, all of you. But the bass lines really got my attention, I love how your presence is subtle but strong, it's not easy to have this presence as a bassist. Congratulations on that."
"Thank you." he said, blinking surprised, then smirking with her comment.
"I make Tea's words mine." Jun said, "Your bass lines are amazing."
Wonu thanks again.
"The guys are amazing and everything." Mya said. "But what about we talk about this and sit in the restaurant?"
"Let's go then." Woozi said "I'll pay for the lunch."
******
"Come on, spill the tea." Tea instructed, looking at her reflection in the restaurant restroom "What is your honest opinion about them?"
"Their music is good, a bit rough, but they have potential and a good stage presence." Mya admitted now that she was alone with her friend. "And they are not bad to look at., but I think you already know that, since you wouldn't stop blushing to Mr. Tall and Handsome."
Tea blushed again but hurried to change the subject.
"Okay, so we have the yes, what about the nos?"
"I want to punch the drummer in the guts." Mya explained "And that leader of them... I don't like his attitude, I bet he will be a problem. The manager too."
Tea had to agree. Jeonghan looked a bit pretentious and Scoups looked like someone who was used to being in control, someone who doesn't like to share power.
"Your impressions?" Mya asked.
"As you said... They have potential. Boo's vocals got me really impressed, the bass work too. They are good, I think the audience will love them. Besides being late, they don't look that much of a problem."
"So, they are in?" Mya asked.
"If you and Shua agree..." Tea shrugged. Mya bit her nails down. She wasn't totally against the idea, but she would keep an eye on the guy's behavior before trusting them.
"Come sit with us." Boo offered, pointing out the seat next to him when Tea and Mya left the restroom. At one side of the big table were Dino, Jun and Boo, on the other side, Mingyu, Wonu and Hoshi.
"Sorry but I need her at the adults table." Mya apologizes, holding Tea's shoulders.
"The adults table?" Boo asked, confused.
"The table where the big decisions are made." Jun explained, waving to the table where Woozi, Joshua, Seungcheol, Minghao and Jeonghan were sitting, apparently discussing something serious.
"Tea is one of the founding members, so her opinion is important, just like my sisters." Dino added.
"Oh right, Mya is your sister." Mingyu commented. "My sister told me this, but I had forgotten about it."
"Tea, Mya come here." Joshua called.
"We can talk and get to know each other later." Tea said, shrugging and heading to the other table, where she sat beside Joshua, who put his arm around her shoulders, smiling fondly to her.
"Are they a couple?" Mingyu asked. He got that impression earlier when Joshua said he was jealous of her, and she immediately hugged him.
"Tea and Shua?" Jun asked, laughing. "No. They are more like siblings with different parents. They are childhood friends."
"Why did you ask?" Dino asked, suspiciously "Are you interested in her?"
"What? No." Mingyu said with an offended tone Dino didn't like "I'm just trying to understand your dynamics." He was watching the other table trying to figure out what was being said but had no success. All he could see was Tea leaning to whisper something in Joshua's ear.
"Mya said she's okay with Seventeen joining the tour." Tea whispered and Joshua nodded.
He already had figured that she would agree after all, because Seventeen's songs were good and they kind of had a fanbase, which could be good to sell tickets from a different audience.
"Good" he whispered back, smiling at the girl.
Joshua was confident that good things would come from that collaboration he couldn't wait for the tour to start.
******
Mingyu's lips raised in a smirk as he felt the warm lips trailing sloppy kisses up his neck. Tracy... or was it, Trina? He couldn't remember her name at that moment, was running her nails to his chest while kissing his neck and getting close to his body. That was what he called a good morning. He grabbed the girl's waist and put her on top of him, making her sigh in surprise. She smiled at him when she saw him smiling first before kissing her on the lips. He was deepening the kiss at the next moment, making her week with his tongue. He was arching her back and moaning when the knocks on the door started.
He cut the kiss and the girl hissed in protest.
"Get in." he ordered to the one who was outside.
Wonwoo opened the door, peeking cautiously from the doorframe.
"I'm sorry" he apologized. "Cheol asked me to remind you that we have a meeting, everyone else is already up and ready to go, they are waiting for the two of us."
Wonwoo was Mingyu's roommate and couldn't get ready soon because Mingyu was using the room. They were normally okay with that arrangement, the one who had someone over could use the room while the other slept in the living room, alongside Hoshi and Seungkwan. Last night it was Wonwoo's turn to sleep outside. Most of the time it was Wonwoo's turn to sleep outside.
"Fuck...." Mingyu cursed. He had totally forgotten about the meeting. They had to go to the label to meet the tour manager and finish some details from the tour. They were probably going to be late because of his little one-night stand. But that wasn't that big of a deal, right?
"Okay sweetie" Mingyu said to the girl touching her chin "It's time for you to go."
The girl sulked and tried to grab his arm, but he was already getting up from the bed.
"If you can do this quickly it would be good, as you heard, we have an important meeting to go."
She looked at him, annoyed with how rude he was, but collected her clothes from the bed and started to get dressed. Wonwoo was still by the door, arms crossed watching the whole scene.
"Can I see you again?" She asked as she got up. Wonwoo laughed, receiving a killer look from the girl.
"Of course, you can, baby girl." Mingyu said with a bright smile. "Come to our tour and look for me."
He kissed her one last time and she left, not even looking at Wonwoo, who was shaking his head in disapproval by the door.
"You shouldn't give them hope."
"How can I not? Have you seen her bright eyes? I would break her heart." he said, sulking.
"Lying and giving them hope will break their hearts either way." Wonwoo pointed, entering the room and looking for a change of clothes in his drawer.
"Well In my defense, it's not my fault if they believe me" he said with a playful smile, shrugging "I'll take a shower" he she announced going out of the room with a towel in hand.
The rest of the boys were by the table having breakfast, Hoshi was eating cereal straight from the bowl, with no spoon. Seungkwan was eating pizza leftovers from the night before and Cheol was drinking a big cup of black coffee, to deal with the stress that was probably to come. Jeonghan was nowhere to be seen.
"Are you seriously going to take a shower right now?" Seungcheol inquired with an unpleasant face and an annoyed tone.
"Do you want me to go to the meeting smelling of alcohol and sex?" He asked, "Miss nice girl will not find me interesting If I look like a mess."
That was enough to stop Cheol from complaining. Hoshi laughed and Seungkwan side eyed Mingyu, suspiciously as he started to walk to the bathroom, towel in hand while he whistled a melody.
"You have five minutes." Cheol announced before Mingyu closed the door "If you are not ready by then, we are going without you."
Mingyu laughed, it was funny how Seungcheol managed to sound a lot like a father most of the time. He was always scolding the members and saying things that Mingyu was pretty sure he heard before coming from his dad's mouth. And just like a kid who lives to annoy his parents, Mingyu loved to make Seungcheol's life a little bit harder every day. And the mission Cheol gave him was another weapon to use in his personal war.
Before they meet the High as Hope members officially, Cheol asked Mingyu to try to seduce one of the girls, to ease the girls and make them like them, since their futures depend on that. Cheol asked him to take care of Mya, but he knew the moment he saw her, that she wasn't going to fall for him so easily. She was too smart and looked like she already decided not to like them. He knew he could conquer her if he wanted, but he thought it would be easier with the other girl, what was her name again? Tea?
He didn't even do anything yet and she was already on her knees for him, he could see it. So he decided to change the plan a little bit. And watching the band dynamics on the first day, he was right about her being easier to conquer, and that the others had her opinion on high consideration. So, he took what he thought would be the easy road. Cheol didn't protest, he wouldn't, if they got the expected result at the end. And Mingyu was very good at getting what he wanted.
Created with Sketch.
"Considering we have two bands the label agreed to get two buses." Woozi announced. "But in terms of room sharing... You will have to work some miracles."
"The girls need their own room, for the sake of their mental health." Minghao pointed.
"Well... I know they dont mind sharing with each other." DK commented. "So, one room for the two of them and the boys from both bands can share. We can put four or five of them in each room."
"I bet Dino will complain." Minghao commented.
"Well... he can always sleep on the streets if he's not happy with sharing a room." DK announced.
Jeonghan nodded. The arrangement didn't look very fair, but he wasn't able to demand things yet. It was his first encounter with DK, the tour manager. He was tall and thin, he looked kind of dislocated from the other at first, with his bright orange suit, but besides his clothes, he had a very professional attitude. Since he first started talking, he seemed to know everything that needed to be set and done.
"Okay then. I suppose we talked about everything." DK commented on the bunch of papers he spent the meeting writing on.
"Not everything." Jeonghan protested. "The boys haven't signed the contract yet."
"That's on me." Woozi said "Hao and DK, you guys can go, I need to talk to Mr. Yoon alone."
The two men left the room, talking about going to lunch later to discuss some minor details. Jeonghan watched nervously while Woozi looked through his table for the document. The small man took a folder and gave it to Jeonghan, then sat right in front of him.
"I hope you and the boys understand the weight of this document," Woozi said, very seriously, handing him two copies of the contract "And the weight of the experiment this tour represents. You are going to work with our biggest and famous band. If their audience starts to support Seventeen, they are going to be as big as High as Hope is."
Jeonghan's eyes were glistening. They were going to succeed, the boys were charismatic and talented, they were great songwriters and performers. They were not only going to be as big as High as Hope, but they were also going to be bigger, so much bigger. They were going to be the biggest band of all time.
"I need you to read it." Woozi announced "I need all of them to read it. The clauses are normal, but we have a special one right here."
Woozi turned the contract page and pointed to one paragraph by the end of the second page. Jeonghan took a minute to read that specific part. Right, things were going to be good to be true. Basically, the clause said if the boys did anything to cause trouble or anything that affects the girl's success in the tour, the contract was over.
"This is not negotiable." Woozi added "They are the company's most rentable band. THey are our priority."
Jeonghan nodded, he knew that, and he also knew the boys wouldn't like that clause. All of them, including Jeonghan, Myabe especially him, had this thing of hating to follow the rules and living for disobey. But at least for a while, they would have to stay in line. It would be hard, but they had to.
******
"Knock knock" DK said, opening the studio door.
"DOKYEOM!" Tea exclaimed, jumping from her seat by the piano and running towards him. The man grabbed her by the waist, taking her foot from the floor. "I missed you so much."
"I missed you too, darling." he said, laughing.
Jun and Joshua came closer to greet their old friend; Dino just waved from his spot by the drums.
"Where is my lady?" Dokyeom asked, looking around for Mya.
"She's outside taking a drag." Joshua explained, going back to his place on the couch of the rehearsal room. "We are having a break."
"Oh, so you are not going to play me one of the new songs now?" DK asked, pretending he was about to cry, sitting beside Joshua.
"C'mon, you already heard the album." Joshua commented. "We're almost number one by now. And you heard it before everyone else, with Minghao and Jihoon."
"Yeah, but I wanted to hear it live." DK explained.
"You will, at least a hundred times, on tour. In soundcheck, rehearsals, on show nights and tv shows If we are lucky enough to be invited to them." Tea commented, going back to the piano.
"You will." DK guaranteed and Tea smiled at him, rooting for the man to be right. "The new songs are amazing."
"What's your favorite?" Tea asked, her eyes sparkling in anticipation.
"I'm not biting it." he said, shaking his head. "Last time you asked me that you didn't talk to me for two weeks because I didn't choose one of the songs you wrote. I honestly don't understand why you credit the whole band in all the songs if you are going to fight over lyrics credits unofficially either way."
"It's our charm." Joshua said, shrugging.
"Are you talking about me?" Mya asked entering the room with a smirk on her red lips.
"No, actually Joshua was talking about your endless narcissistic struggle for recognition when it comes to lyrics." Jun, who was laying the carpet floor said. He was playing with his own hands, covering the lamp light so it wouldn't burn his eyes.
"Oh, he's right, it's our charm." Mya agreed, getting closer to DK to hug him.
She sat right beside him, holding his hand, playing with his fingers while they talked.
"So... How is the excitement level for hitting the road?" DK asked.
"High as Jun is now." Dino said, DK laughed looking at the boy's situation.
"Have you meet Seventeen yet?" Tea asked, going to sit beside Jun, letting him lay his head on her lap. She started to caress his hair, running her fingers through his soft slightly long hair.
"Not yet." DK admitted "But I just met their manager, we had a meeting to arrange some details about the tour. Minghao will update you later." he explained before Mya could ask what they talked about in the meeting. "But I'm meeting the boys today for lunch."
"LUNCH?" Jun screamed, getting up from Tea's lap "Can we go with you? I'm hungry."
"Of course, you are, all that Molly would start to work sooner or later." Dino commented.
"Yeah, you guys can join us, I think it would be fun since you already know them."
"I don't think is a good idea to take a high Jun to a restaurant" Tea pointed out as Jun looked at her sulking, with pleading bright eyes, begging her to let him go.
"Oh, we are not going to a restaurant, we are having burgers at the good ol' Bib Boy" He said.
"I would love a Big Boy Burger." Dino admitted.
"I don't know if I'm in the mood." Mya said.
"Okay, don't come then." Dino said. "I'm going. "
"Me too." Jun said getting up. "Joshua?"
"I'll stay here working on something new." he explained.
"I don't think I'm in the mood either." Tea admitted "I'm a bit tired, I think I'll go home."
"You should at least come with us and catch something to eat, you don't have to stay," DK suggested.
"What do you think?" Tea asked, looking at Mya.
"I guess some French fries for the road wouldn't kill me." She shrugged.
"I would also love some ice cream." Tati added.
"You got me right there." Mya said, making an amused face, while taking her bag.
They were out in the hallway, next to Woozi's room when Jeonghan showed up.
"Hey dude, are you ready to go?" DK asked.
"Yeah sure, I think the boys are already waiting for us at Big Boy' by now." Jeonghan said, then noticed the girls "Oh, hello."
"Hi." Tea said, waving and smiling. Mya nodded to him.
"Are you coming with us?" Jeonghan asked.
"Not exactly" Tea explained "We are going to Big Boy to get some food, but we are not staying. At least not Mya and I."
"But we are." Dino said, pointing to Jun.
"Nice" Jeonghan said, not looking excited at all. "Let's go then?"
******
Cheol tried to stop the boys from ordering before Jeonghan arrived at Big Boy with DK, but they wouldn't stop complaining about how pizza leftovers and bits of cereal want exactly a good breakfast and how hungry they were, so he let them stuff their mouths, at least they would shut up.
When Jeonghan entered the restaurant accompanied by a tall fit man wearing an orange suit the boys were eating and barely noticed their presence. But Cheol was surprised to see that they were not alone, Jun, Dino and Tea were with them. But unlike Jeonghan and DK, the three of them didn't go towards the table, they went to the counter.
"Hey guys" Jeonghan announced, getting to the table "This is DK, the tour manager. DK these are the boys."
DK smiled, a bright smile, as always, while shaking the boy's hands. While he sat and started to talk with the boys, Cheol nudged Mingyu with his elbow under the table, nodding towards the counter, where Tea was reclining, looking intently at the menu.
A mischievous smile appeared on Mingyu's lips and a twinkle in his eyes as he excused himself from Wonu who was on the edge of the bench.
"I think I need a refill," he said, waving his half-full glass of soda. "And our friend DK must be hungry, I can order for you."
"Oh, don't bother, Jun and Dino came with me, they've already gone to order." DK said and tanked him.
"Oh, they're here? Cool. Good...I still need a refill. Anyone else want anything else?" he said, nodding towards the counter.
"I want a slice of cake." Seungkwan announced.
"Another portion of fries would be nice." Hoshi added.
"Apple juice, please." Wonwoo said.
"I still don't know what I want, you can send the waitress over here." Jeonghan said and Mingyu didn't even think twice before rushing towards the counter.
He walked over to Tea, sitting on the bench next to her. The attendant had just noticed her order.
"Excuse me, can you send a waitress over for month five?" he said, leaning over the counter and smiling prettily at the female lieutenant who looked not much older than he was. "The friends we've been waiting for have arrived."
"Of course," she said, blushing.
"And I also have a few more orders, a slice of chocolate cake, apple juice and another portion of fries." he said, and she started to write it down.
"I'll be there in a jiffy."" she announced smiling at him, Mingyu thanked him, giving her another one of his charming smiles, then she headed towards the kitchen.
Tea was extremely quiet beside him, trying to look busy as she peeked over the menu she already knew by heart.
"Hey" he said, turning to her a charming smile on his lips, the tone of surprise seemed extremely natural, as if he had just noticed the girl's presence at that moment.
"Hey." she said, smiling back at him, but turning back to face the menu shortly thereafter.
"Nice to see you here," he said. "You came with DK, are you staying? Come sit with us."
"Oh no, I don't want to disturb the meeting, Jun and Dino are interrupting enough, but they insisted on coming. I just took advantage of the fact that they were coming over to get some lunch for the trip. Mya is waiting for me in the car." She explained.
"Oh, too bad." he said, pouting "But at least I got to see you for a while and say hi." he said "I figured after that day at Troubadour I'd be seeing you more often on the label, but it seems our schedules don't really match. Which is a shame."
She smiled politely at the young man, then the waitress arrived with the to-go packages.
"It's twenty-five dollars." the woman announced and Tea started rummaging through her purse for her wallet.
"You can put it on the account of table five." Mingyu said.
"Oh no need to do that, I have the money right here." she said, showing her wallet.
"Please" he said "Consider a favor from a new colleague. You can return the favor when the tour starts. Will you?"
She nodded to him as he smiled full of hope, then turned to the waitress, nodding to her too.
"Thank you" she said, and he smiled proudly "It was good to see you, but now I have to go, Mya is waiting for me. See you soon."
"I can't wait for it," he said, then she nodded and waved to him before she left.
"Where is my cake?" Seungkwan asked when Mingyu came back to the table only with Wonwoo's box of juice in hand.
"The waitress will bring it in a minute," he explained. Then he went silent, thinking about the way Tea was visibly blushing when he offered to pay.
Later that day, when the bill landed on the table and Seungcheol was surprised by the extra amount on the bill and was about to complain to the waitress, Mingyu had to explain himself, but Cheol couldn't complain, he had done it for a reason, and in the future, they would reap the fruits of that small act. At least, Mingyu, hoped so.
Spring Of 1979 - A Few Weeks Before "Heaven is Here" Tour.
When Mya and Tea got out of the car on that warm late spring morning and walked towards the doors of the company, they thought that it would be just another normal pre production meeting to finalize some decisions about the world tour that they would start in the summer.
The duo, who already had a few years of career, had already done three tours around the country and some international shows, mostly at festivals or special events and talk shows. They were used to being on the road, but this tour was different. It was their first world tour. They would go to three different countries. It seemed unbelievable that so many different people in so many different places could be interested in the music of two girls who grew up in Los Angeles, but there they were.
Tea, who had been born in England and moved several times before her parents finally settled in Los Angeles, had never imagined that life, not until she met Mya. She was the one who convinced her that music was worth giving up everything for, which was crazy but turned out to work out well in the end.
As soon as they entered the record company building, the girls went to Jihoon's room. Woozi, as he was known in the music world, was a short guy with feline expressions. Most people didn't take him very seriously when they first met him, which was a huge mistake, as he was extremely talented, and slightly aggressive towards those who made fun of his height. Woozi had worked with the top-notch bands. He had been working with Mya and Tea ever since they left the band they were in and became a duo. Woozi had produced all the girls' albums and was largely responsible for their success. And to the girls, he was much more than just a producer, Woozi was part of the family.
Tea knocked at Jihoon's door, but Minghao was the one opening the door. When the girls entered, they greeted Minghao and sat on the couch on the other side of the room while Jihoon finished a call, but it didn't take long before he went to greet them, carrying a folder that he placed on the table.
"Let's get down to business girls." He announced, after greeting them and asking his assistant to bring tea and drinks. "We have one more thing to discuss about the tour."
"I thought everything was already settled." Tea said, stirring her tea.
"Almost everything." Minghao pointed out "But there's one small detail that we have to discuss."
"Then why isn't DK here?" Tea asked. DK was their tour manager; he was the one settling everything when it came to hit the road.
"I thought it would be better to talk with the three of you and him separately." Jihoon explained.
Mya got up and headed towards the bar, sensing that something not very pleasant was about to be announced,
"I think I'll need a drink before you spit it out, Jihoon. "
She poured her drink then came back to her sit.
"What's the problem?"
"It's not a problem." He guaranteed. "The company just decided that it would be more practical, to have just one opening act for the whole tour instead of having an opening act for each city."
Tea directs him a suspicious look. They liked having a different band opening their shows in each city. It was a good opportunity to make new contacts and give opportunities to local bands. It was also great to avoid spending a lot of time with unknown people who could get in trouble along the way on such a long tour.
"So, you called us here to choose the opening band?"
"Not exactly." Jihoon commented, then looked at Minghao. They clearly talked about that before.
"Remember when you joined the label and to test your popularity before signing a real contract, we made you a contract to open for Day6?" Minghao asked.
"Of course," Tea answered, thinking about the days she and Mya were on tour with DAY6 "How could we forget? Everything was so amazing."
"Our first tour as High as Hope, supporting an amazing band." She said, "We couldn't have had a better start."
"And the audience loved you." Jihoon commented "Which yielded a very advantageous partnership for both you and the label."
The two agreed. They had nothing to complain about the label. Thanks to their popularity and good reputation, the two had a lot of creative freedom.
"That said, I think you understand what a good opportunity this type of contract can be and would like others to enjoy the same opportunity." Jihoon asked.
"Of course." Tea said, and Mya nodded.
"Okay, we already understood that you already chose the band." Mya pointed out "Are you going to tell who they are or not?"
"Seventeen. It's a band that's been quite successful on Sunset." Woozi began "I went to see some of their shows, and I think they have potential."
"If you think so they probably have." Tea said. She trusted Jihoon a lot, he had a very good ear for new talents.
"We recorded a demo, and the label is interested... But they don't have the best of reputations, so they want to test their behavior and popularity of the boys, before signing them definitively."
"I knew you hesitating this much wasn't a good thing." Mya commented, pointing from Jihoon to Minghao.
"But don't worry, I've had a lot of talks with them, and I'm putting together a temporary contract that includes a clause that guarantees they don't cause trouble. And they're desperate for a contract, they will behave. And if they don't, they're out of the tour, and lose their contract offer."
Tea and Mya exchanged a suspicious look, wondering if this was even a good idea.
"Here is the contract." Minghao pointed, giving a copy to each girl. "Read and tell us your impressions, if it's okay or if you want to change something."
"Is this a request we can refuse or has the label already decided?" Mya asked after reading the contract.
"You can refuse," Minghao said.
"But they're good people, and they're talented, they're just misfits. But I give you my word that if they cause trouble, you can kick them out of the tour." Jihoon added.
Mya looked at Tea again and could see in the soft-hearted girl's pensive look that she wanted to give boys a chance.
"Can we meet them before giving a concrete answer?" Tea asked.
"I figured you would want this." Jihoon commented "They're playing at Troubadour tomorrow, if you're free..."
"We can go out for lunch, and you can watch the sound check and talk to them." Minghao suggested.
The girls were silent for a few moments, exchanging thoughtful glances.
"So, what do you say?" Jihoon asked.
"I'm up for it if Mya and the boys are up for it too." Tea said, talking about the rest of their band members, looking at her friend, with bright hopeful eyes that begged for a yes.
"I'm in if the boys agree." Mya agreed, still a bit apprehensive "But if I don't like them, forget about it." Mya said, pointing a finger at her friend, who clapped excitedly.
Tea understood Mya. She knew she was apprehensive about letting other people into their bubble. They've had problems before, with their old band and, but they eventually found they had each other and they are not so new band mates, people that they could trust. But it was hard for Mya to say no to Tea, who was soft-hearted and loved to give chances to anyone abandoned dog that appeared in his path. So, she decided to at least give it a try.
******
The phone rang at least five times before Seungcheol gathered the strength to get up and answer it, as none of the other boys dared to do so. He understood that everyone was tired, but so was he. But unlike the others, he couldn't ignore the call, it could be something important, and they couldn't miss important calls. Sometimes being the leader wasn't easy.
"Hello?" he said as he answered the phone in the kitchen, yawning.
"I talked to the girls today." Woozi announced, without even saying hello, and Seungcheol woke up immediately.
"What did they say?" Seungcheol asked, holding the phone tightly.
"They want to meet you before giving a concrete answer, '' Woozi announced, making him even more nervous. "I explained the whole situation, Tea is actually excited to meet you guys, it's not hard to win her heart, Mya it's a bit more suspicious, so she's the one you have to impress. And by that, I mean all of you members must cooperate. They must be the nicest, polite people, do you understand?"
That was the hard part. Seungcheol loved their friends, they were nice and talented people. but they weren't exactly polite and collected. They were crazy and chaotic. Buta that was important. If they behave, they will get a deal with a big company. They needed to make it work, their dreams were at check.
"They will behave." Seungcheol promised.
"I hope so." Woozi commented "The girls are coming to see you at Troubadour." He announced, "I'll take them to soundcheck so they can see you practicing, then we can have lunch together."
"Okay, we'll see you there." he said and Woozi hung up.
He put the phone back in the cradle and sat down at the counter. They were so close to what they always wanted. All they had to do was convince the biggest star from the company that they deserved a chance. It wasn't far that two girls that didn't even know then should decide their future. But it couldn't be that hard to make them like them, right?
He heard footsteps in the backyard then the door hung open as Jeonghan entered, hands full of paper bags with groceries.
"You are already up?" He asked, surprised. "What happened, did you fall from bed?"
"The phone was ringing."
"Was it an important call?" Jeonghan asked, emptying the bags.
"Yes" Seungcheol commented "Woozi."
"What did he say?" Jeonghan asked, excited.
"He said the girls want to meet us. He'll take them to the Troubadour tomorrow to watch our show."
"Good." Jeonghan commented, thoughtfully. "I'll call him later for more details."
"I'll wake the boys up. I have an idea and need to talk to them."
******
All the High as Hope members, accompanied by their manager, arrived at The Troubadour twenty minutes before Woozi's scheduled time and when they arrived, the stage was already set up for the show. Security said the band had gone out to eat at least half an hour ago, after setting up their gear. Which made Mya stressed, thinking they wouldn't be back any time soon.
"Who the fuck goes out to eat when you have a lunch appointment?" Mya, who was at the bar with Minghao and Joshua, and already had at least three drinks, complained. Minghao, who was really stressed that day, agreed, putting some sticks in the fire she was building.
Woozi, as always, arrived just in time to find Tea and Jun by the piano, playing together while Dino was playing with the drums on the stage.
Mya expressed her worries to Woozi, who went out to look for the boys. Tea and Jun had already played at least five songs on the out of tune piano that was in the corner of the stage. They were playing to try to make Mya join them in their distraction, but had no success, until Tea started playing Martha My Dear by The Beatles but changing the name Martha for Mya. What really caught the other girl's attention, making her softer.
Soon she was by the piano, asking Tea to play Abba's songs and singing along to the melody, pulling Joshua to dance around with her. They were having fun playing and singing Dancing Queen when they heard a commotion coming from the backstage door and soon a bunch of guys entered the stage room, laughing and joking around. Woozi was just behind them with an annoyed expression.
They were a group with a lot of presence, Tea noticed that the moment they entered the room, all dressed in black. They were all tall and fit, but one of the guys was so big she couldn't take her eyes off him. Until the thin blonde one ran towards dino with an unhappy expression.
"Hey, don't touch my set."
Mya stopped right where she was dancing with Joshua, staring at the boy who just scolded her brother.
"Sorry man" Dino said, getting up and walking away. "You were late, and we were all bored and the drums were right there so..."
"So, you are used to messing up someone's set like this?" The guy asked, annoyed,
Tea stopped playing and looked at Mya who was just beside Joshua, she could feel her friend were about to go feral, and so did Minghao and Jun, who ran towards the commotion straight to hold Mya down.
"Stop, let him take care of it." Tea heard Joshua whisper to Mya, who took a deep breath. She knew Dino didn't like her intervention on his business, but it was hard for her to see her little brother being looked down by a pretentious stranger.
"Sorry bro, it won't happen again." Dino said, rolling his eyes to the boy who was now checking his set to see if Dino messed something up.
"I'm sorry about Hoshi." One of the guys from the band who saw Mya giving the blonde guy a look that could kill him. "But since we are all musicians, I guess you understand the jealousy we have towards our instruments."
The guy was big and had sort of an intimidating aura but was really trying to look apologetic.
"And you are...?" Mya asked, not happy at all.
"Oh right, we were not introduced yet." He commented and stood his hand to the girl. "My name is Seungcheol, but you can call me Scoups."
At that moment she decided to never call him like that.
"I'm Seventeen's leader." He added.
Mya didn't take his hand, but Joshua who was right beside her did.
"Hi, I'm Joshua." He said as he pointed to the others. "These are Mya, Jun, Dino and the one by the piano is Tea!"
Seungcheol looked at the piano and Tea waved at him with a tiny anxious smile. She then got up and got close to the rest of the group, right between Mya and Joshua, interlocking her arms with theirs.
"It's a pleasure to meet you all." Seungcheol said. "We are really thankful for the opportunity to work with you."
Mya scoffed, crossing her arms.
"Nothing it's officially seated yet." She spoke. "And if you were really grateful you wouldn't be late."
"I'm really sorry about that." Seungcheol said, looking a bit irritated. "We had a long ride to get here, my members were starving."
"It's okay, we understand." Tea said with a comprehensive smile trying to ease all the tension. "Why don't you introduce us to the rest of the band?"
Seungcheol agreed and called the other members who were at the bar. The first to be introduced were Seungkwan, a very excited guy with orange dyed hair. He played the keyboard and we're very excited to talk with Tea about her technique and told them to call him Boo. Vernon, one of the guitarists, had a very odd sense of style and looked a little bit lost but was very polite. Hoshi, the blond guy who fought Dino earlier, looked like a hyperactive child, he wouldn't stop for a second. And then there were the last two ones. Wonwoo, the bassist, looked very collected and kind of intimidating with a distant vibe. His sharp eyes were very cold, and his deep voice only made him look even more intimidating, but he was very polite and didn't leave Mingyu's side for a second.
Mingyu... The guy who caught Tea's attention the second the group entered the stage room. But how couldn't he? The guitarist was the tallest of the group, and everything about him was big. He had broad shoulders, strong arms. Adding the tan skin and the long wavy black hair that framed his beautiful angelic face? He was stunning.
"Hi, I'm Mingyu." He said with a big warm smile and sparkly eyes. giving Tea his hand. She who was very short had to look up to meet his eyes and notice his point canines showing when he took her small hand in his. The fangs would look intimidating in a big guy like him, if he wasn't the brightest person she'd ever meet.
"Hi" she said, smiling timidly at him "I'm Tea, nice to meet you."
"I know who you are, you are incredible." He said "I know all of you. My little sister is a big High as Hope fan, I took her to one of your concerts last year. Jun, you're her favorite."
"She has good taste." Jun commented smiling proudly, messing with Dino who rolled his eyes.
"Jun is everyone's favorite." Tea commented looking fondly at the bassist.
"JUN IS YOUR FAVORITE?" Joshua shouted, being the dramatic person, he was. Tea patted his chest comforting him. "What about me?"
"You are my second favorite."
"Joshua is your second favorite?" Mya asked.
"You are my sun and stars, the reason for my existence." Tea said, hugging Mya who laughed.
"I'm jealous." Joshua said.
"Don't be, love." she said, letting go of Mya, hugging him instead, batting her eyes.
"What about me?" Dino asked.
"You are my son, my baby boy." She said going to pinch his cheek. Dino rolled his eyes, he hated being the youngest and being treated like the youngest, but because it was Tea, who actually respect him besides calling him baby, he just smiled and brushed it away.
Mingyu was watching the whole scene with a curious smile, Wonwoo right beside him didn't look very interested in the conversation. It was clear they were like a big happy family by the way they were messing with each other. Mingyu was good at reading the room, and the people. And that was why Cheol gave him a special mission that day. A mission he was eager to complete.
"High as Hope" Minghao who was back at the bar with Woozi and a long-haired guy called and all the members looked at him. "Can you come here for a second?"
They obeyed. Tea almost ran into the bar, she needed to stay away from mister tall and handsome who was eyeing her a little bit much with that bright smile. She excused herself and received another bright smile.
"Okay band, I Mya introduce you to YoonJeonghan." Minghao said, pointing to the long-haired man. "He is Seventeen's manager."
"Oh, so he's the one we should blame for not arriving on time?" Mya asked and Jeonghan raised an eyebrow at her.
"I'm sorry for the delay, but we had a long ride to get here." He said the exact same thing Seungcheol did. "The members were starving."
"We understand.'' Tea said again, making Mya a little bit annoyed. She always had to be so comprehensive and nice to everyone.
"Yeah, but I did my research." Mya commented. "Your band doesn't have the best of the reputations."
Neither do you. Jeonghan thought, but didn't say a word, just smiled politely. They had to be a little bit more submissive if they wanted to make a good impression after being late. But he also did his research. The band didn't have the shiniest reputation either. He heard the girls were previously in another band that broke up after a series of ugly events involving drugs, jealousy and matters of creative power.
"They will behave, I will do my best to guarantee that." He explained. "We understand the importance of this opportunity."
"I hope so." Mya said, crossing her arms and giving him a yellow smile.
"Can we hear them playing now?" Tea asked, excited.
"Yeah, so we can go out to eat, I'm hungry." Dino commented.
"Yes, sure." Woozi agreed and signed to Jeonghan.
"Cheol." He called and the other looked directly at him "Can you guys play something to our guests?"
"Sure!" He answered and went straight to the stage, followed by his members.
"Let's go to the front row." Tea said, grabbing Mya's hand and dragging her closer to the stage.
While adjusting his guitar, Mingyu gave Tea a wink, making her blush and look away. Mya didn't look very excited about hearing them and the others stayed in their spots by the bar. The first song they played was very energetic and had kind of a sexy vibe. It was a good song, with a catchy chorus and a good instrumental. Mya rolled her eyes to the lyrics sometimes, because that was a song about how cool they were, and she wasn't ready to admit they were right. But by the end of the song, she was humming along, just like Tea, who was really enjoying the song, besides being shocked about who good Boo's vocals were. He could reach some incredible high notes. And on the total opposite was Won's voice, that was even deeper than when he spoke. By the second song, a song that was a lot more energetic and fun, the girls were already clapping on the band commands along the rhythm.
The boys really had a good stage presence and were singing and playing like they were having fun. Tea liked them right away, even more because of how they were enjoying the show as much as her. It was the kind of thing that created a connection between artist and audience. They were good and had a lot of potential. The third and last song was the girls favorite, the song was also very energetic and had a very positive message, and a super catchy rhythm.
By the end, they bowed as everyone in the room clapped. Even Mya, who didn't look very welcoming at first.
"Wow, you guys are really amazing." Tea said, when they came off the stage.
The boys looked very happy with her reaction.
"Your vocal range is absolutely amazing" Tea said, coming closer to Boo "The high notes? splendid."
The red-haired boy looked excited and full of satisfaction with her comments.
"What about me?" Mingyu asked, getting closer to her "Did you like my ranges?"
She blushed and licked her lips, nervously.
"Yes. You have a lot of stage presence." she said, timidly, trying to look composed. He smiled, a big, beautiful smile that made her feel like her heart was about to explode, so she did the rational thing, she turned away and looked at Wonu. "You were also amazing, all of you. But the bass lines really got my attention, I love how your presence is subtle but strong, it's not easy to have this presence as a bassist. Congratulations on that."
"Thank you." he said, blinking surprised, then smirking with her comment.
"I make Tea's words mine." Jun said, "Your bass lines are amazing."
Wonu thanks again.
"The guys are amazing and everything." Mya said. "But what about we talk about this and sit in the restaurant?"
"Let's go then." Woozi said "I'll pay for the lunch."
******
"Come on, spill the tea." Tea instructed, looking at her reflection in the restaurant restroom "What is your honest opinion about them?"
"Their music is good, a bit rough, but they have potential and a good stage presence." Mya admitted now that she was alone with her friend. "And they are not bad to look at., but I think you already know that, since you wouldn't stop blushing to Mr. Tall and Handsome."
Tea blushed again but hurried to change the subject.
"Okay, so we have the yes, what about the nos?"
"I want to punch the drummer in the guts." Mya explained "And that leader of them... I don't like his attitude, I bet he will be a problem. The manager too."
Tea had to agree. Jeonghan looked a bit pretentious and Scoups looked like someone who was used to being in control, someone who doesn't like to share power.
"Your impressions?" Mya asked.
"As you said... They have potential. Boo's vocals got me really impressed, the bass work too. They are good, I think the audience will love them. Besides being late, they don't look that much of a problem."
"So, they are in?" Mya asked.
"If you and Shua agree..." Tea shrugged. Mya bit her nails down. She wasn't totally against the idea, but she would keep an eye on the guy's behavior before trusting them.
"Come sit with us." Boo offered, pointing out the seat next to him when Tea and Mya left the restroom. At one side of the big table were Dino, Jun and Boo, on the other side, Mingyu, Wonu and Hoshi.
"Sorry but I need her at the adults table." Mya apologizes, holding Tea's shoulders.
"The adults table?" Boo asked, confused.
"The table where the big decisions are made." Jun explained, waving to the table where Woozi, Joshua, Seungcheol, Minghao and Jeonghan were sitting, apparently discussing something serious.
"Tea is one of the founding members, so her opinion is important, just like my sisters." Dino added.
"Oh right, Mya is your sister." Mingyu commented. "My sister told me this, but I had forgotten about it."
"Tea, Mya come here." Joshua called.
"We can talk and get to know each other later." Tea said, shrugging and heading to the other table, where she sat beside Joshua, who put his arm around her shoulders, smiling fondly to her.
"Are they a couple?" Mingyu asked. He got that impression earlier when Joshua said he was jealous of her, and she immediately hugged him.
"Tea and Shua?" Jun asked, laughing. "No. They are more like siblings with different parents. They are childhood friends."
"Why did you ask?" Dino asked, suspiciously "Are you interested in her?"
"What? No." Mingyu said with an offended tone Dino didn't like "I'm just trying to understand your dynamics." He was watching the other table trying to figure out what was being said but had no success. All he could see was Tea leaning to whisper something in Joshua's ear.
"Mya said she's okay with Seventeen joining the tour." Tea whispered and Joshua nodded.
He already had figured that she would agree after all, because Seventeen's songs were good and they kind of had a fanbase, which could be good to sell tickets from a different audience.
"Good" he whispered back, smiling at the girl.
Joshua was confident that good things would come from that collaboration he couldn't wait for the tour to start.
******
Mingyu's lips raised in a smirk as he felt the warm lips trailing sloppy kisses up his neck. Tracy... or was it, Trina? He couldn't remember her name at that moment, was running her nails to his chest while kissing his neck and getting close to his body. That was what he called a good morning. He grabbed the girl's waist and put her on top of him, making her sigh in surprise. She smiled at him when she saw him smiling first before kissing her on the lips. He was deepening the kiss at the next moment, making her week with his tongue. He was arching her back and moaning when the knocks on the door started.
He cut the kiss and the girl hissed in protest.
"Get in." he ordered to the one who was outside.
Wonwoo opened the door, peeking cautiously from the doorframe.
"I'm sorry" he apologized. "Cheol asked me to remind you that we have a meeting, everyone else is already up and ready to go, they are waiting for the two of us."
Wonwoo was Mingyu's roommate and couldn't get ready soon because Mingyu was using the room. They were normally okay with that arrangement, the one who had someone over could use the room while the other slept in the living room, alongside Hoshi and Seungkwan. Last night it was Wonwoo's turn to sleep outside. Most of the time it was Wonwoo's turn to sleep outside.
"Fuck...." Mingyu cursed. He had totally forgotten about the meeting. They had to go to the label to meet the tour manager and finish some details from the tour. They were probably going to be late because of his little one-night stand. But that wasn't that big of a deal, right?
"Okay sweetie" Mingyu said to the girl touching her chin "It's time for you to go."
The girl sulked and tried to grab his arm, but he was already getting up from the bed.
"If you can do this quickly it would be good, as you heard, we have an important meeting to go."
She looked at him, annoyed with how rude he was, but collected her clothes from the bed and started to get dressed. Wonwoo was still by the door, arms crossed watching the whole scene.
"Can I see you again?" She asked as she got up. Wonwoo laughed, receiving a killer look from the girl.
"Of course, you can, baby girl." Mingyu said with a bright smile. "Come to our tour and look for me."
He kissed her one last time and she left, not even looking at Wonwoo, who was shaking his head in disapproval by the door.
"You shouldn't give them hope."
"How can I not? Have you seen her bright eyes? I would break her heart." he said, sulking.
"Lying and giving them hope will break their hearts either way." Wonwoo pointed, entering the room and looking for a change of clothes in his drawer.
"Well In my defense, it's not my fault if they believe me" he said with a playful smile, shrugging "I'll take a shower" he she announced going out of the room with a towel in hand.
The rest of the boys were by the table having breakfast, Hoshi was eating cereal straight from the bowl, with no spoon. Seungkwan was eating pizza leftovers from the night before and Cheol was drinking a big cup of black coffee, to deal with the stress that was probably to come. Jeonghan was nowhere to be seen.
"Are you seriously going to take a shower right now?" Seungcheol inquired with an unpleasant face and an annoyed tone.
"Do you want me to go to the meeting smelling of alcohol and sex?" He asked, "Miss nice girl will not find me interesting If I look like a mess."
That was enough to stop Cheol from complaining. Hoshi laughed and Seungkwan side eyed Mingyu, suspiciously as he started to walk to the bathroom, towel in hand while he whistled a melody.
"You have five minutes." Cheol announced before Mingyu closed the door "If you are not ready by then, we are going without you."
Mingyu laughed, it was funny how Seungcheol managed to sound a lot like a father most of the time. He was always scolding the members and saying things that Mingyu was pretty sure he heard before coming from his dad's mouth. And just like a kid who lives to annoy his parents, Mingyu loved to make Seungcheol's life a little bit harder every day. And the mission Cheol gave him was another weapon to use in his personal war.
Before they meet the High as Hope members officially, Cheol asked Mingyu to try to seduce one of the girls, to ease the girls and make them like them, since their futures depend on that. Cheol asked him to take care of Mya, but he knew the moment he saw her, that she wasn't going to fall for him so easily. She was too smart and looked like she already decided not to like them. He knew he could conquer her if he wanted, but he thought it would be easier with the other girl, what was her name again? Tea?
He didn't even do anything yet and she was already on her knees for him, he could see it. So he decided to change the plan a little bit. And watching the band dynamics on the first day, he was right about her being easier to conquer, and that the others had her opinion on high consideration. So, he took what he thought would be the easy road. Cheol didn't protest, he wouldn't, if they got the expected result at the end. And Mingyu was very good at getting what he wanted.
Created with Sketch.
"Considering we have two bands the label agreed to get two buses." Woozi announced. "But in terms of room sharing... You will have to work some miracles."
"The girls need their own room, for the sake of their mental health." Minghao pointed.
"Well... I know they dont mind sharing with each other." DK commented. "So, one room for the two of them and the boys from both bands can share. We can put four or five of them in each room."
"I bet Dino will complain." Minghao commented.
"Well... he can always sleep on the streets if he's not happy with sharing a room." DK announced.
Jeonghan nodded. The arrangement didn't look very fair, but he wasn't able to demand things yet. It was his first encounter with DK, the tour manager. He was tall and thin, he looked kind of dislocated from the other at first, with his bright orange suit, but besides his clothes, he had a very professional attitude. Since he first started talking, he seemed to know everything that needed to be set and done.
"Okay then. I suppose we talked about everything." DK commented on the bunch of papers he spent the meeting writing on.
"Not everything." Jeonghan protested. "The boys haven't signed the contract yet."
"That's on me." Woozi said "Hao and DK, you guys can go, I need to talk to Mr. Yoon alone."
The two men left the room, talking about going to lunch later to discuss some minor details. Jeonghan watched nervously while Woozi looked through his table for the document. The small man took a folder and gave it to Jeonghan, then sat right in front of him.
"I hope you and the boys understand the weight of this document," Woozi said, very seriously, handing him two copies of the contract "And the weight of the experiment this tour represents. You are going to work with our biggest and famous band. If their audience starts to support Seventeen, they are going to be as big as High as Hope is."
Jeonghan's eyes were glistening. They were going to succeed, the boys were charismatic and talented, they were great songwriters and performers. They were not only going to be as big as High as Hope, but they were also going to be bigger, so much bigger. They were going to be the biggest band of all time.
"I need you to read it." Woozi announced "I need all of them to read it. The clauses are normal, but we have a special one right here."
Woozi turned the contract page and pointed to one paragraph by the end of the second page. Jeonghan took a minute to read that specific part. Right, things were going to be good to be true. Basically, the clause said if the boys did anything to cause trouble or anything that affects the girl's success in the tour, the contract was over.
"This is not negotiable." Woozi added "They are the company's most rentable band. THey are our priority."
Jeonghan nodded, he knew that, and he also knew the boys wouldn't like that clause. All of them, including Jeonghan, Myabe especially him, had this thing of hating to follow the rules and living for disobey. But at least for a while, they would have to stay in line. It would be hard, but they had to.
******
"Knock knock" DK said, opening the studio door.
"DOKYEOM!" Tea exclaimed, jumping from her seat by the piano and running towards him. The man grabbed her by the waist, taking her foot from the floor. "I missed you so much."
"I missed you too, darling." he said, laughing.
Jun and Joshua came closer to greet their old friend; Dino just waved from his spot by the drums.
"Where is my lady?" Dokyeom asked, looking around for Mya.
"She's outside taking a drag." Joshua explained, going back to his place on the couch of the rehearsal room. "We are having a break."
"Oh, so you are not going to play me one of the new songs now?" DK asked, pretending he was about to cry, sitting beside Joshua.
"C'mon, you already heard the album." Joshua commented. "We're almost number one by now. And you heard it before everyone else, with Minghao and Jihoon."
"Yeah, but I wanted to hear it live." DK explained.
"You will, at least a hundred times, on tour. In soundcheck, rehearsals, on show nights and tv shows If we are lucky enough to be invited to them." Tea commented, going back to the piano.
"You will." DK guaranteed and Tea smiled at him, rooting for the man to be right. "The new songs are amazing."
"What's your favorite?" Tea asked, her eyes sparkling in anticipation.
"I'm not biting it." he said, shaking his head. "Last time you asked me that you didn't talk to me for two weeks because I didn't choose one of the songs you wrote. I honestly don't understand why you credit the whole band in all the songs if you are going to fight over lyrics credits unofficially either way."
"It's our charm." Joshua said, shrugging.
"Are you talking about me?" Mya asked entering the room with a smirk on her red lips.
"No, actually Joshua was talking about your endless narcissistic struggle for recognition when it comes to lyrics." Jun, who was laying the carpet floor said. He was playing with his own hands, covering the lamp light so it wouldn't burn his eyes.
"Oh, he's right, it's our charm." Mya agreed, getting closer to DK to hug him.
She sat right beside him, holding his hand, playing with his fingers while they talked.
"So... How is the excitement level for hitting the road?" DK asked.
"High as Jun is now." Dino said, DK laughed looking at the boy's situation.
"Have you meet Seventeen yet?" Tea asked, going to sit beside Jun, letting him lay his head on her lap. She started to caress his hair, running her fingers through his soft slightly long hair.
"Not yet." DK admitted "But I just met their manager, we had a meeting to arrange some details about the tour. Minghao will update you later." he explained before Mya could ask what they talked about in the meeting. "But I'm meeting the boys today for lunch."
"LUNCH?" Jun screamed, getting up from Tea's lap "Can we go with you? I'm hungry."
"Of course, you are, all that Molly would start to work sooner or later." Dino commented.
"Yeah, you guys can join us, I think it would be fun since you already know them."
"I don't think is a good idea to take a high Jun to a restaurant" Tea pointed out as Jun looked at her sulking, with pleading bright eyes, begging her to let him go.
"Oh, we are not going to a restaurant, we are having burgers at the good ol' Bib Boy" He said.
"I would love a Big Boy Burger." Dino admitted.
"I don't know if I'm in the mood." Mya said.
"Okay, don't come then." Dino said. "I'm going. "
"Me too." Jun said getting up. "Joshua?"
"I'll stay here working on something new." he explained.
"I don't think I'm in the mood either." Tea admitted "I'm a bit tired, I think I'll go home."
"You should at least come with us and catch something to eat, you don't have to stay," DK suggested.
"What do you think?" Tea asked, looking at Mya.
"I guess some French fries for the road wouldn't kill me." She shrugged.
"I would also love some ice cream." Tati added.
"You got me right there." Mya said, making an amused face, while taking her bag.
They were out in the hallway, next to Woozi's room when Jeonghan showed up.
"Hey dude, are you ready to go?" DK asked.
"Yeah sure, I think the boys are already waiting for us at Big Boy' by now." Jeonghan said, then noticed the girls "Oh, hello."
"Hi." Tea said, waving and smiling. Mya nodded to him.
"Are you coming with us?" Jeonghan asked.
"Not exactly" Tea explained "We are going to Big Boy to get some food, but we are not staying. At least not Mya and I."
"But we are." Dino said, pointing to Jun.
"Nice" Jeonghan said, not looking excited at all. "Let's go then?"
******
Cheol tried to stop the boys from ordering before Jeonghan arrived at Big Boy with DK, but they wouldn't stop complaining about how pizza leftovers and bits of cereal want exactly a good breakfast and how hungry they were, so he let them stuff their mouths, at least they would shut up.
When Jeonghan entered the restaurant accompanied by a tall fit man wearing an orange suit the boys were eating and barely noticed their presence. But Cheol was surprised to see that they were not alone, Jun, Dino and Tea were with them. But unlike Jeonghan and DK, the three of them didn't go towards the table, they went to the counter.
"Hey guys" Jeonghan announced, getting to the table "This is DK, the tour manager. DK these are the boys."
DK smiled, a bright smile, as always, while shaking the boy's hands. While he sat and started to talk with the boys, Cheol nudged Mingyu with his elbow under the table, nodding towards the counter, where Tea was reclining, looking intently at the menu.
A mischievous smile appeared on Mingyu's lips and a twinkle in his eyes as he excused himself from Wonu who was on the edge of the bench.
"I think I need a refill," he said, waving his half-full glass of soda. "And our friend DK must be hungry, I can order for you."
"Oh, don't bother, Jun and Dino came with me, they've already gone to order." DK said and tanked him.
"Oh, they're here? Cool. Good...I still need a refill. Anyone else want anything else?" he said, nodding towards the counter.
"I want a slice of cake." Seungkwan announced.
"Another portion of fries would be nice." Hoshi added.
"Apple juice, please." Wonwoo said.
"I still don't know what I want, you can send the waitress over here." Jeonghan said and Mingyu didn't even think twice before rushing towards the counter.
He walked over to Tea, sitting on the bench next to her. The attendant had just noticed her order.
"Excuse me, can you send a waitress over for month five?" he said, leaning over the counter and smiling prettily at the female lieutenant who looked not much older than he was. "The friends we've been waiting for have arrived."
"Of course," she said, blushing.
"And I also have a few more orders, a slice of chocolate cake, apple juice and another portion of fries." he said, and she started to write it down.
"I'll be there in a jiffy."" she announced smiling at him, Mingyu thanked him, giving her another one of his charming smiles, then she headed towards the kitchen.
Tea was extremely quiet beside him, trying to look busy as she peeked over the menu she already knew by heart.
"Hey" he said, turning to her a charming smile on his lips, the tone of surprise seemed extremely natural, as if he had just noticed the girl's presence at that moment.
"Hey." she said, smiling back at him, but turning back to face the menu shortly thereafter.
"Nice to see you here," he said. "You came with DK, are you staying? Come sit with us."
"Oh no, I don't want to disturb the meeting, Jun and Dino are interrupting enough, but they insisted on coming. I just took advantage of the fact that they were coming over to get some lunch for the trip. Mya is waiting for me in the car." She explained.
"Oh, too bad." he said, pouting "But at least I got to see you for a while and say hi." he said "I figured after that day at Troubadour I'd be seeing you more often on the label, but it seems our schedules don't really match. Which is a shame."
She smiled politely at the young man, then the waitress arrived with the to-go packages.
"It's twenty-five dollars." the woman announced and Tea started rummaging through her purse for her wallet.
"You can put it on the account of table five." Mingyu said.
"Oh no need to do that, I have the money right here." she said, showing her wallet.
"Please" he said "Consider a favor from a new colleague. You can return the favor when the tour starts. Will you?"
She nodded to him as he smiled full of hope, then turned to the waitress, nodding to her too.
"Thank you" she said, and he smiled proudly "It was good to see you, but now I have to go, Mya is waiting for me. See you soon."
"I can't wait for it," he said, then she nodded and waved to him before she left.
"Where is my cake?" Seungkwan asked when Mingyu came back to the table only with Wonwoo's box of juice in hand.
"The waitress will bring it in a minute," he explained. Then he went silent, thinking about the way Tea was visibly blushing when he offered to pay.
Later that day, when the bill landed on the table and Seungcheol was surprised by the extra amount on the bill and was about to complain to the waitress, Mingyu had to explain himself, but Cheol couldn't complain, he had done it for a reason, and in the future, they would reap the fruits of that small act. At least, Mingyu, hoped so.
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toumoromoro · 5 months ago
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Towelket 6 thoughts/rant/review?
I think towelket 6 is the only tk game so far that has become worse by playing it again. I had somewhat "fond" memories of this game since it's the reason I discovered towelket, but I think I had a pretty disorted view of it because of nostalgia.
It's hard to take this game seriously when in the first 3 minutes Warawau kills and then masturbates over the dead body of a dog out of nowhere. It's so over the top, ok Kanao I get it she's evil. Then in the next 5 minutes Minpou's mom and sister die without any fanfare. Oh and Warawau assaults Minpou. Everything happens so fast that you don't get a chance to grow attached to any of the characters. Remember how in TK2, Kanao gives you about 40 minutes to get to know the whole village and its people before the more serious stuff starts happening? Well, in TK6, you get at most 5 minutes before people start dying, and we're supposed to care about them. Also, any interesting dynamics or relationships that could have been explored are immediately cut short by Kanao. Seriously, you have this interesting dynamic with the three main girls, and then Kanao decides to sideline Nyanyamo until the end of the game. Also just when we might explore Minpou’s feelings about having to care for her mother, Kanao kills her off. Ironically, all of this might be the most interesting part of TK6 because once you leave the village, the most boring part of the game begins: the middle game.
I'm not exaggerating when I say this part is one of the worst in any Towelket game. Nothing happens for an entire hour. Kanao forces you to go through these huge, empty maps and calls it content. It's jarring, the village had a nice U-shape where you knew where everything was supposed to be, only to be thrown into the same 100 forest maps where no one has anything important to say. It's almost funny how Kanao went out of their way to make all 7 characters repeat the same thing. But it's not funny, it makes me want to jump from a building. This game desperately needed to trim down the main cast. Also the humor was meh, which made the middle game even worse. It's here that Minpou and Warawau lose their main character status, and it’s given to Agochu and Pucchi. This wouldn't have bothered me if they were interesting, but Kanao decided they needed to do the whole 'Pucchi, you are a moron' routine over and over again. Then suddenly, an hour into this, Kanao remembers this game has to have some sort of plot, so we get the 'collect three things to save the world' plot. This part is a bit better than the last one, but still suffers from some of the same problems, mostly that no one has anything interesting to say. However, I will admit that I did like some parts in isolation, like Nekoashi-Konbu's flashback, the scenes with Mary/Minpou and Oruchumahe, which was pretty unique. The flashback, in particular, kept me interested throughout the entire sequence (I love you Zucche). Of course, none of this actually makes the game worthwhile. This part had a very funny unintentional moment where PPU just forgets to tell Minpou who murdered her.
After this, we enter the late game where Kanao finally remembers that Warawau was supposed to be an important and evil character. Too bad we only have 15 minutes of game left! This part is, uh, not good. For some reason, Kanao decided to insert a chunk of Towelket 1 into this game like a tumor. This part is basically just filler, and all it does is remind me that I should have replayed that game instead. Nekojita's story was nice though. The ending is kind of funny, actually. Warawau suddenly loses her brain and confesses to having killed Nyanyamo and Minpou's mom, expecting Minpou to be happy about it and praise her. This makes no sense; at the beginning of the game, she knew people wouldn't want to be told this, which is why she always acted when no one could see her. But now? She's just crazy™, speaks in all caps, and laughs over and over again, because she's just so crazy, guys!
So yeah that was Nyanyamo's arc, she was kidnapped, was missing for most of the game and then was killed offscreen. Amazing Kanao.
Finally, Kanao the Pons are bad antagonists and it will never work.
This game was shit, but I'm grateful that it inspired so many people to write better versions of it to try to fix it.
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unlimitedtrees · 2 years ago
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so the game i made, 'UNITRES Dreams', is open source on github now
https://github.com/UnlimitedTrees/UNITRES-Dreams
hello. earlier i made my game 'UNITRES Dreams' open source on github. i want to talk about it. click the little 'read more' thingy to read da rest of this post. i had a lot of things i wanted to say about it and why i think open sourcing games is kind of awesome Lol !!!
also , By The Way, play da on newgrounds ehehehehe ~! or u can download it on itch.io too if you want
so. let me start off by saying that, although i was planning on releasing the source code for unitres for a long while, i was Not prepared to release it now. in fact, it kind of happened on accident.
in case you didnt know, earlier on twitter i was talking about how i wished there was a good way to release my archive of old builds for the game. i have a google drive full of old builds but i also i dont like using google drive. i sent a link to the drive in a reply to someones tweet, but there is one big thing i forgot: the game's project file is also in that drive.
anyways, instead of just deleting the reply or removing the file from the drive, i decided to just release the source code on github now, since i might as well. a part of me feels like i shouldnt have released it so suddenly... but also a part of me feels relieved.
you see, the unitres dreams source code is Bad. tons of messy code with almost no comments... a bunch of hackish solutions to tons of problems... everything is just incomprehensible unless youre me. considering ive been the only person working on the game for years, i understand most of the code and never needed to make comments (especially since making comments in construct 2 is Annoying).
my original plan for releasing the source code was to go back and clean everything up; improving tons of messy systems and adding comments explaining how everything worked. i also was planning on adding new content for a new update to the game aswell.. such as an options menu and maybe new levels and characters or something. i have Tried going back a few times to clean some little things up and work on a keybinding system... but i havent had the time to focus on it and do what ive wanted to do with it.
so, yeah. im kind of glad the source code is just Out now. it probably wouldve taken me Years just to do what i planned... and i think its best to just get it out now instead of just waiting years for something that might never happen, even if the source code right now is incredibly insane and unusable.
which leads me to something most people might be wondering: Why even release the source code in the first place? honestly, i doubt a lot of people will get use out of it, especially with the bad code and it being made in an old, dead engine that you cant even Buy anymore. but despite this... i think its good to release the source code for your games for a few reasons...
for one, its good for archival reasons. ive had a huge anxiety over losing all the source code for my games... its happened to me before and it really hurts. not only can you not use it in the future, but you lose a lot of work youve done, and for me ive lost a ton of games which were important to my journey as a game dev. nowadays, i try to hold onto all of my projects and have saved them to multiple computers and hard drives, but releasing them on stuff like github and google drive at least makes me feel a little better.. and hopefully with the unitres source code being public and the google drive for the old builds being out, it means that i wont have to worry about losing either of them.
another big reason is that, even if no one uses the source code for anything like mods or whatever, i think games having their source code out is good for learning game dev and understanding how games are made, even if the code is a big mess. even if i did get to go with my plan of cleaning up the source code... i feel like thatd be kind of dishonest, cus Most games Never have perfect code when theyre made. its good if you use the most messy code in existence just to get the game done... you can't always spend forever perfecting something, and at the end of the day the game eventually has to come out at some point. even big triple A projects will have weird code in some places... thats just a fact of life. i think having the source code out lets people see the kinds of crazy stuff that goes into a game, and maybe seeing my crazy code will influence others to do things a lot better in their own things. that's what i think, anyways.
and hey, even if My game never gets any sort of modding community, that doesnt mean Your game wont. there are a lot of communities out there who make some crazy things with mods.. and things such as open source games or decompilations can lead to some incredible stuff. with decompilations, youve got things such as mario 64 or the retro engine sonic games being ported to pretty much Everything, and then youve got open source games like Doom and friday night funkin which are being pretty much kept alive Because theyre open source and have a huge modding community. even if a game never gets as much interest as those.. it doesnt mean it never will, and having a game be open source can help a community grow so much more.
anyways umm yea. i think making games open source is awesome. there is a little part of me that feels weird about making unitres dreams specifically open source and the possibility that people might make fangames and mods out of it, as its something thats really personal to me (especially since the main character is named after me), but if people do make fangames and stuff with it i dont think ill mind, especially since a lot of my early work was fan games and unitres dreams takes a lot of inspiration from the media i love. all that i ask is that people include the original credits from the game in their thing, especially if you reuse any of the music from the original soundtrack.
i think, at the end of the day, my goal with this is to inspire more people to open source their games. a lot of good things can come out of it. that's all i have to say i think. play unitres dreams on newgrounds dot com ehehehe !!
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readypanda · 8 days ago
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hi hi hi friend tell me abt ur stories if u want!!! just read ur pinned post... I am intrigued!
:O
which one do you want to know about?!?!?
(rather than waiting for an answer I'll tell you about the human and siren one since it's the furthest along, but feel free to ask about more if you're curious!!!)
Ok so the description says this story is about a human and siren starting a band, but it's ACTUALLY about the two of them working through their respective mommy issues. Bad parents are kinda a theme in this story.
SPOILER ALERT the reason the human (who's name is Haze) can talk to the ocean is because he's actually half selkie. I was inspired to write about this dynamic since in selkie folklore (which I don't know that much about so do not consider this a faithful representation) the stories of selkie women leaving their husbands who kidnapped them is pretty common, and I read on wikipedia that they would usually leave their children behind, too, if they had any. I also got the "talking to the ocean thing" from one of these legends, but I unfortunately can't find where I read that at the moment. This character and his sister also have non-human features (his hands and her face) that they hide from the other humans for fear of being ostracized.
Side note, one funny unintentional thing that crops up in this story is the fact that a couple other characters clearly have crushes on Haze despite the fact that he has ZERO rizz personality wise. I did this because I thought it would be funny, though it actually seems kinda relevant since selkies are supposedly seductive according to folklore. The story doesn't touch on this other than Haze showing absolutely zero interest in anyone despite this (though he could be read as just oblivious). It might be something I explore if I ever decide to write a sequel, though, since Haze being ace coded would be yet another contrast to the siren (who is a little boy crazy).
Where this story diverges from folklore is, most notably, the absence of a coat. It's something I could slide into the story if I wanted to but I never really thought about it. Maybe I'll consider adding it in the second draft, but it's just not all that important for two reasons: one being there's only one full blooded selkie character who appears in the story and the other reason being about why Haze's selkie mom actually left.
It's never stated directly in the text, but my hope was to portray Haze's parents as not the typical story of a man kidnapping a selkie to be his wife, but rather a complicated relationship that fell apart in time. Regardless of the circumstances, neither of his parents are around when the story starts, as his selkie mother left many years ago and his father died in a lumberjack accident. When I was first conceiving this story, I originally considered having Haze's father be abusive. This would explain more clearly why his mother left as well as giving my poor boy even more trauma to work through. I ended up not going through with this because 1.) it was too dark for the tone (and eventual audience) I was aiming for and 2.) the current version of the story gives me more room to explore Haze's feelings for his mother as a direct contrast to the siren character's feelings for hers. Speaking of...
The siren character, Lana, makes up the other half of this book. Unlike selkie mythology, which I did some research into, most of the siren lore in this book came entirely from my head. They still use songs for magic, but the spells they do go beyond just hypnotizing people (or fish, which is more practical for hunting). They use music to manipulate coral to build their houses on the reef, to transform their mermaid tail into legs for land, to summon bubbles underwater, etc. etc. Needless to say, music is a HUGE part of their culture beyond just magic. This poses a problem for Lana, who cannot sing underwater.
DISCLAIMER: Lana's story contains discussions about disability (specifically being deaf and/or unable to speak). I tried as well as I could to portray this in a sensitive and well informed manner, but I am only human and do not experience either of these disabilities, so if anything seems off or questionable please let me know if you're comfortable! I haven't done any sensitivity reading (other than one friend who knows sign language but is not deaf, who already gave me a lot of pointers in my portrayal of sign language) so it's entirely possible something has slipped through the cracks.
There is an explanation in the story for Lana only speaking above water (her gills were damaged in an accident, but she can still speak above water since the systems they use to generate sound are so different). I bring this up because I wrestled a lot with the depiction of Lana's disability and I worried it felt like it was erased by her not appearing disabled above water. After finishing the story, I feel a lot better about this aspect, since much of her story still takes place beneath water and going above the surface to talk is NOT a catch-all solution for her. Rather, she uses sign language most of the time, and part of the story is her convincing her family that there's nothing wrong with that and that they should engage with her signing rather than seeing it as less than speaking.
As I was developing this story, I wanted to portray more of the culture around siren sign language, since initially it felt like something only Lana did. This not only makes no sense world building wise (like if she's the only signer how did she learn?) but also feels inadequate representation wise. To bolster not only the setting but also Lana's relationships outside her family, I added another siren named Current to the story. He is deaf and heavily involved with the siren's sign language classes, which briefly shows some of the other sirens in that community. He and Lana also clearly have a thing for each other but their romance isn't heavily explored. That being said, I have brainworms about the two of them and would totally write about their romance in a sequel book if I scraped together a half-decent plot.
Anyways, let's finally talk about Lana's family.
In siren culture, siblings live together their whole lives. The oldest child is tasked with moving out of their parent's house when they are "of age" (never stated directly, but in my head, it's between 16-18) and preparing a house for their younger siblings to move into once they also come of age, which the oldest sibling will lead. It's generally accepted that siren mothers raise their kids with their siblings while siren fathers aren't generally a part of their kids lives (or even known by the kids), rather helping their own siblings raise their kids. Because of this dynamic, Lana has a HUGE family (at least compared to Haze). It's all comprised of her, her older sister Cordelia (who is of age and moved out), her younger brother Caspian, her three cousins, her mother, and her aunt and uncle.
Funny note about all that lore, when I went back to write the scenes at the siren school, I accidentally introduced a male siren who talks about his wife and kids, completely forgetting that sirens don't marry. I don't think I've fixed it yet but it's on the list lmao
Lana's sister is only one year older than her but has been working on their eventual house for three years. Lana was supposed to move out when she came of age, but didn't get around to it for a combination of her sister claiming the house wasn't ready and her mother not wanting her out in the world so soon. This builds on Lana's frustrations with how people treat her due to her disability. She has a common problem of feeling like people don't listen to her when she signs (evident with Cordelia and others) and she hates how her mother infantalizes her.
Lana's character arc is something I'm still kind of working out, since it's a complex issue. I need to resolve not only her own flaws (of which there are many) but also the mistakes other people in her life make without feeling like one overshadows the other dramatically. I haven't done a full second reading, but that's also something that's on the list. The complexity of her situation and my own lack of experience in the topic makes it a lot harder to write than Haze's arc.
When Lana and Haze meet each other, there's an immediate contrast. Lana is outgoing and not scared to take risks. She's a forward thinking person who makes plans and puts them into action, only stopped by other people in her life who don't do the same. Haze, meanwhile, is scared of everything and suffers from anxiety. He clings to the past desperately and doesn't like getting out of his comfort zone. They go back and forth throughout the story, and there's no shortage of the two of them butting heads. Through various circumstances, Lana convinces Haze to start a band with her. The first half of the story comprises of the two of them getting to know one another (and their secrets) while the second half actually has them playing in the band. I still think this pacing is a little wonky (ideally they would be playing in the band as soon as possible) but I'm okay with that for now because I don't want to restructure the entire story and deal with the plot point that prevents them from playing sooner.
and now, I get to talk about the secret third bandmate! Didn't expect that, did you? Well SURPRISE! This story has harpies, too.
The last character doesn't appear until the second half of the story and never gets a full chapter in his perspective. He's a harpy named Remiel who asks if he can join their band after their first show. He plays the harp (get it???) And to contrast Lana's outgoing energy and Haze's anxious energy, he's extremely chill. To demonstrate how chill, he gets exactly one exclamation in the entire story (said exclamation is also an inside joke in my family, which makes it funnier in my head).
Despite never getting his own chapter, Remiel isn't free of the bad parent curse, as he has a classic case of "high school musical dad" who wants him to join the family business rather than playing in a band. Unlike Lana and Haze, he's a lot more mature about his situation and seems to have come to terms with it. But that doesn't stop it from generating more drama between the characters.
I think he rounds out the cast well as the one mentally sane person in their crew.
LIGHTNING ROUND! Here's some out of context lines from random chapters to chew on:
"It would take an idiot to risk fishing in such a place. Haze was that idiot."
“Eat you? Gross! Human flesh tastes worse than rotten squid ink.”
"What was she gonna do, walk to his village with her fish tail and snitch?"
"If Cordelia didn’t want to talk, then she wouldn’t get a shopping buddy, either."
"But Haze was not smart."
“Why do you even HAVE this?”
“Lana, humans don’t lay eggs!”
“Yippee!”
"Lana made a rude gesture in its direction."
"Lana threw the prism fish toward Haze’s boat. Only, she missed, and it hit Haze in the face with a slchap instead."
"You’re making a layered collage for your boring situationship?”
“Mother always said you had a way with fish.”
“Can you swim back a little? We were just talking about holding your breath and having weird hands. What do you mean the ocean TALKS to you?”
"Listless didn’t even sound like a word to Haze anymore."
“No offense, but we’re not the shiniest fish in the sea. Some eye candy in our band wouldn’t hurt.”
“Have you really been swimming off to make out with boys?”
"Oh crap, he was being reasonable."
"Lana wasn’t sure what he was doing. She wasn’t convinced Haze knew, either."
"Lana expected excitement, even elation on his face. But instead, he stared at them, expression far, like someone might look at the remains of their pet guppy they pulled from the maw of a shark."
“That’s what I said! Is your head still half underwater?”
“Remiel is great on the harp, you straggly feathered old coot.”
"It took every fiber of his being to not smack his bandmates. What did he just say?"
“If we beat you at cards, will you tell us where your son lives?”
“Have you been using an illusion charm this whole time?”
"The stove in Haze’s kitchen was broken. Of course it was. Nothing could ever not break in his life."
"Besides, I wasn’t about to have Remiel ask his toolbag of a dad for one."
“Maybe the ocean is giving you the nicest version of an ugly truth.”
"Lana remembered Gus’ words about how being overwhelmed could turn some people into algae-sucking urchins for a while. He didn’t say that directly, but that was what she remembered."
“I have made a grave mistake.”
“You didn’t think at all! Is there a single brain cell behind that pretty face of yours?”
"She figured her mother should be a lot more worried about how Cordelia was ogling that harpy, but decided against drawing her mother’s ire."
“You told them I was WHAT?!”
Ok! This post has been a lot longer than I anticipated and I only got to talking about one story. If you're interested in asking, any posts I make for the other stories will prolly be shorter since they're not finished.
(unless you ask about the cyborg/flower nymph one. Prepare for impact if you dare peek down that rabbit hole)
Now I've gotta add a description of another story I've been working on to the pinned post...It's pretty far along but I never got around to it. We'll see.
Thank you for the ask and thank you for reading!!! Happy writing!!!
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sweeterthanmydreams · 5 months ago
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I'm really happy with how the house is coming along for my Legacy Challenge~~ So glad Jungle Adventures* introduces those cinder block wall bits, or else it'd've been impossible to get the look I was going for. The house is off the grid & finances are still tight (thanks Ultra Extreme Start) so I've gone with a rough look for the furniture; I enjoy the patina. u-u Meet my Legacy under the cut.
Legacy Introduction (Meet the Hemming-Byrds)
[Legacy Challenge Rules] [My Legacy Sheet] [Blank Legacy Sheet]
Ophelia's mother was a Hemming and her father was a Byrd so she's a proud Hemming-Byrd. Raised in Saint Kitts & Nevis in a community that was down on it's luck, Ophelia decided to put the Hemming-Byrd name on the map and establish a lasting Legacy. Honing her skills as an Artist, she works hard each day to make her beach home a little bit brighter.
If it's not obvious, Hemming-Byrd is a play on Hummingbird; I wanted her first name to carry that meaning but it's harder than it looks! Ophelia means "helper" and was picked both to invoke the painting Ophelia and the mythos of the hummingbird as a helper/healer; Ophelia (painting) has those colorful flowers in it, & she ended up being the Artist Archetype so it works out. Archetypes are the way I'm sorting goals within the challenge. I'm thinking Ophelia's daughter will be The Star, but that's awhile away. You can find Ophelia on the Gallery under my ID: DreamingTaffy.
I went with the Ultra Extreme Turbo Difficult Start 9000 (that's not what it's called but I'm not looking it up) so the first few weeks were spent living on a raised platform because those are free and allowed her to qualify for a Micro Home; I've built the existing house on top of it. It took most of the first year to pay back the "loan" for the property but they're officially debt free now. The house is also completely self-sustaining at this point with a HUGE energy surplus. Since I've gone with an Inheritance rule that requires her Heir to have the Child of the Islands trait Ophelia cruised the Sulani bar looking for a Spouse with it but most of her bachelorettes had terrible traits. u-u (Some of them were really cute, too! Disappointment central!) Lanuola is an Adventurous Music-Loving Goofball which is much better than the escalating "who can have the most negative traits" contest; I was really hoping for overlapping Child of the Island traits tho. I should have kept better track of their marriage date but I think it was Spring 1st; I was going to have them marry on Karamu (New Year's replacement) but I ended up forgetting. That means next year will be their first Kwanza (Winterfest replacement) together instead!
The First Year has mostly consisted of trying to get through as many jobs/Aspirations before they start a family. Summer was spent in the Spa knocking out Lanuola's Wellness Aspirations while juggling a Home Massage side hustle. Ophelia has spent a lot of time Painting, though come Fall she began juggling her Writing Aspiration. I'm hoping in their second winter (soon) they'll be able to start the Bodybuilding Aspiration together so they can become near immortal. Together they've held a lot of club functions with their Legacy Club members: Sulani community members that come by for painting, yoga, and conversation. The little pink shed-building is their new clubhouse! They're still uh... way off from getting all the Club perks. I was so sure that'd be easier than getting Gold on all party types.
The next updates will be seasonal, I think; I'm hoping to remember to take more screenshots so there'll be pictures next time. Thanks for reading my long-winded Sims babble. u-u
*(It's one of the lastest packs I've bought, that's why I reference Jungle Adventures like it's new)
[Next Part >>]
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definitelynotnia · 1 year ago
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o madhu o madhu is such a bengali thing and you will not believe what happened to me during 12th preboards.
so i woke up at 2:30am to study and opposite to our building there was an apartment being constructed AND AT 3AM i hear "o madhu o madhu i love you tumi tumi tuimi kore..." that entire verse playing and im like freaking out cuz A) its 3am B) WHY WOULD YOU PLAY MUSIC AT SUCH AN ABSURD HOUR
anyho then the next day it was "ki kore toke bolbo" (yk, the song which like gave birth to the hindi version called "suno na sangemarmar") and im like YOUVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME because why do absurd things happen the days i have exams (trust me. murphys law ALWAYS somehow in some way shape and form decided to apply the moment i have exams)
any idk why but uhm i just wanted to share so uhm yeah.
lmao 😭😭 why is it always the under-construction apartments doing all the shady shit, also pls give me the strength to wake up at 2:30am to study it's 3 rn and i haven't even gone to bed yet.
speaking of murphy's law literally the night before my math preboard in 10th there was some sort of a fest or smthn going on and my house is super close to this college and its a huge well-known college alright so its a massive fest with those concert lights which u can see in the sky and obviously excessively loud migraine-inducing music with bass that i could feel from my freaking bed. And literally from 3pm in the afternoon the music started and went on till 3am at night i was so sick of it. the worst part is, at some point after midnight idk wtf happened they decided to just play laila mai laila on LOOP for god knows how long and then they played baaki sab first class ONE TIME before going back to laila mai laila i would've cried if i heard the name laila one more time at that point.
i'm glad u shared lmao, we're supposed to be haters together 🤝
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deadgrantaires · 1 year ago
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THE THING ABOUT CHIMERA ANT ARC GON is that he suddenly turns around and is like 'yknow what? all of this was planned by ging bc he wants me to do something. he wants me to pass some test so he made me me kite he wants me to grow so maybe he set me up to meet killua. i cant leave the NGL if the worst happens bc i wouldnt be worthy to meet ging i would disappoint him'
and like... hes always CARED about finding ging but this whole turn around into like NO it was PREDESTINED and he HAS TO FOLLOW this path or hes not WORTHY to meet his dad.... contrasted to the audience seeing that ging literally. asked the greed island crew to send gon to kite if he was going with a group bc he was embarassed abt it. this change in gons viewpoint is like. sooo sudden and so frustrating but it MAKES SENSE
bc suddenly after becoming a hunter the amount of info he learns about ging builds and builds. and its always positive and its always 'he restored all these ruins' or 'he's so important u cant search him online' or 'yeah he's really famous he's one of the best hunters in the world' its always he changed someones lives for the better and he has all these friends who are powerful and who care about him and never like. huh. yeah it WAS fucked up he abandoned you! yeah it is shitty he boobytrapped the accompany card so he didnt have to meet you!
like it just. it HAS TO BE gon's taking his curiosity and turning it into idol worship and he already like. wasnt really. letting himself feel any abandonment about ging but what was 'i want to find out whats so great about being a hunter that my dad chose it over raising me' turned into 'i have to earn the honor of being able to meet my own dad' its just like. tragic. and frustrating. and you can SEEEEEE!!!! killua already having seeds of doubt when gon tries to go 'well maybe me meeting you was all part of gings plan too ^_^' LIKE KILLUAS LIFE BEING RULED AND DECIDED FOR HIM. AND HIS ABILITY TO CHOOSE AND MAKE HIS OWN FRIENDS. ISNT A HUGE SOURCE OF TRAUMA FOR HIM AAAAA
^ that also absolutley is why killua making friends with whoever. the octopus chimera is sooo fucking important bc NOBODY wouldve set him up to do that
.
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