#this next drawing project was diamonds' idea believe it or not

[euclydya]

ok One (1) more gay ass yearning related drawing. and then we're Done for a while. prommy.

[lemme-just-oops]

Hii!! Could I request the arcana twilight boys x a pisces (zodiac sign) mc?

Alpheratz: Both of you are easy going, putting little effort into the things you want to do. He relaxes with you quite a lot. But you do seem to feel emotions more intensely. Whether you laugh or cry, you are a ball of energy for that. Sometimes you are contagious and he laughs with you.

Arcturus: Others will call you two the grandparent couple, because of your artistic hobbies. Not that he minds it, your hobbies may be weird or uncommon, but what about it? You encourage one another and often end up giving each other ideas. Challenge him to knit a full sized dragon and you will get it. And the same way, he will tell you what you can do with your hobby. But it took quite a lot of time for the two of you to confess. Seriously, he was too shy to mention it and you were oblivious to him being red around you. It got so bad, your friends had to interfere.

Pollux: Both of you need some work with your self-confidence. There is no way about it, you might end up pushing each other into a spiral of self-doubt by accident. But he has his ways of deleting those thoughts. Usually by taking you on an improvised date, where you might need to talk about your emotions. Despite being energetic, he admires that you talk so wisely and hopes to see more of your emotional maturity soon.

Sirius: His goal was to take advantage of your kindness, but it got boring quickly, because you never seem to judge anyone. So, he made sure to mess with your unpredictable mind by giving you hobbies you never imagined to have. You are known for your creativity, so you now have to find a creative way to solve sudoku. When you solve it, you get a reward of your choice. Even if you wish for a diamond ring. You tend to talk about other people in a positive way, but he wants to see their bad sides. Because sometimes, toxic people are the most charismatic ones and he wants you to be safe from such people.

Spica: The way you never seem to stress amazes him. In fact, he admires it a little too much. Maybe it is because he has more work to do than even the principal, but he wants your aloofness to rub off on him. And it does. After working, he only needs to hear your voice oe to text with you, because his troubles will vanish. When he is extremely exhausted and you sit next to him, he will rest his head on your shoulder. Don't worry, he makes sure to praise you a lot as well. For the impact you have on him. You are yourself and that alone helps him live more freely.

Vega: You are two opposites. Energy and calm, emotional and logical. A team of many sides, whole by themselves and still completed by one another. It seems that you are contagious to one another, "correcting" each other's flaws. He will learn to be more cautious with his words, and you learn to be more suspicious of other people's motives. Believe him or not, but he thinks the world is a good place, but he is unable to vocalize it. And your presence is the proof of it. Though if you need help with a creative hobby/project, his suggestions are dull to say the least. Want to draw something new? Draw a duck with wings.

[crazybutgood]

Self recs (origami)

Thank you for tagging me @tackytigerfic ! Love your list. Ahh this art list was harder to do than my fic one (partly because I just nice had 5 fics at the time 🙈) but I narrowed it down to 5, out of those that I'm allowed to reveal atm. I'm super nervous so I'm not tagging anyone 😅 but please join in if you see this and would like to do it, and tag me back too :)

Read under the cut, and please click on the images for better quality 😊

1. This was one of the first ones I did,, an origami crane wreath, one of the things I made for my wireless 2021 collab with Vukovich. I was still learning then, plus I've gotten much better at photography and photo editing now fjdjjd,, but it was a new challenge and I especially had a lot of fun making the wreath from scratch! Also I had so much material from Vuk's amazing fic to draw from to make this. It was the first origami project I did where I was able to go full on with the creativity and it inspired me to keep pushing my imagination for further projects too. On the left is the early stages of when I was trying to tie and dry the grape vines in a wreath after I had cut them from my garden, and on the right is the finished product:

2. The snowflake that I folded for my cluefest 2022 collab with fantalf ❄️ I had tried it last December just for fun to learn, not for the fest, and I botched up at some point when it was like well into the second half of being completed and I was super annoyed, plus my fingers hurt, so I just left it. Literally a few weeks later Lory asked if I could fold a snowflake for one scene 😂 I told them about my previous attempt, but that I'd still try again. They were so encouraging about my re-try (and so patient with my updates hfhej at one point I literally texted 'this next step is cursed') and I pushed myself to get it done and was satisfied with the result. Here is a close up of it, followed by the version of it on the header that was used for the fest work.

3. This diamond twist top box I made for shealwaysreads. I couldn't believe I finally made that twist top rose-looking fold,, I'd tried it twice on an origami hourglass I folded and that turned out okay-ish, but I think the attempt on this box was much better. I'd wanted to fold that for shealwaysreads the moment I read her fic and linked it to one of the origami models I hoard in my ideas folder 🙈 and I'm glad I managed to do it.

4. An origami mug collection that I'm working on~ I just fold stuff when I'm inspired by something, or fold mugs for others! (I'm still taking requests for that btw, feel free to hmu) I like this positive encouragement mug that I made because I aimed to be able to lift the spirits of anyone who happened to see it as they were scrolling, and I was happy to see that I was able to do that. I also really like this Cheers Queers mug because I just had so much fun making it

5. Origami lanterns~ I loved the idea of being able to fold them and actually placing a light in the middle to make it lit up and all. It was so fun,, I spent too much time on them hfhjfjd but it was so worth it. Here's an orange one with warm lighting I folded, and another blue one with bright lighting for samyiswriting's fic in reference to a scene in his fic (I'm keeping this spoiler-free here dw!):

[blockgamepirate]

On Philza and Tommy

I’ve been wanting to talk about this for a while but I just didn’t wanna rewatch ANY exile streams because they genuinely make me so depressed and anxious but I finally forced myself to rewatch the one where Phil visits Tommy. Or I say “rewatch”, I actually never saw the whole thing before, I kept popping in and out of the stream while it was live bc of the aforementioned anxiety and shit..

Anyway, I’ve seen arguments over the topic of whether Phil is a terrible person for not helping Tommy or not. And I wanted to offer my take on it. So I’m just gonna go through the arguments:

1: “Phil is Tommy’s dad and has a duty to look after him“

I’m not gonna spend too much time on this because for one thing it’s not really canon and for another, I actually don’t think it’s the relevant issue here. Even if Phil was Tommy’s dad, Tommy has already basically been living independently for a while. And even back when Phil and Will were still talking about the family relationships being canon, Phil said as much: that he doesn’t have authority over his boys, they’re independent people.

2: “Phil doesn’t even know Tommy and it’s unfair to ask him to look after a stranger”

I legitimately have no idea where this take came from or what it’s based on. I feel like it’s so obvious that they knew each other from before Phil even joined the SMP. Tommy recognises him right away (1), they act very familiar with each other, Phil immediately attacks Dream when Dream blows up Tommy’s house (2), Tommy tries to convince Phil to join NLM but Phil is torn because he’s friends with both Techno and Tommy (3), they plan to make their houses in NLM next to each other and Phil helps Tommy build his (4), Phil specifically gives Tommy one of the three friendship emeralds he has (5)... Also OOC Phil refers to himself as basically a father figure to Tommy (6).

The reason their relationship becomes colder is because Tommy doesn’t approve of Phil staying friends with Techno. I think this is made pretty obvious too. Tommy gets upset with Phil when he sees him hanging out with Techno (7) and when Phil comes to visit him in exile, Tommy immediately acts cold towards him and accuses him of being Techno’s friend before softening a bit when Phil gives him gifts (5).

Ref:

1: I assume you’ve all seen this one it’s in Tommy’s video

2: Philza’s Twitch Archive: Nov 16 (around 03:44:30)

3: Tommyvods: Tommyinnit speaks to Philza’s wife (around 37:40)

4: Philza’s Twitch Archive: Nov 18 (around 18:55)

5: Tommyvods: Tommy Is Holding It Together in Exile with Dream (around 24:35)

6: Philza’s Twitch Archive: Jan 27 (around 01:20:30)

7: Tommyvods: Tommy & Wilbur make Tubbo a gift and he hates it (around 19:30)

3: “Phil didn’t help Tommy at all while he was in exile“

Oh shut up, watch reference video 5 again. He brought Tommy tons of useful shit, a stack of coal blocks, 8 iron blocks, diamond boots, how was he supposed to know that it would all get destroyed by Dream? When asked, he also helped Tommy with his projects at Logstedshire.

4: “Even if Phil isn’t Tommy’s father OR his friend, he still has a duty to save an abused kid”

Okay this is finally getting to the actual point.

So I wanna refer back to video number 5 up there on my references list again and I’m gonna go through that stream here:

- Ghostbur brings Phil over to meet Tommy

- Tommy is mad because Phil is friends with Techno

- Tommy gets distracted by Phil’s new clothes and the vision of Tubbo reappearing

- Phil gives Tommy a bunch of presents, including “Tommy Slippers“ (for the cold) and a friendship emerald from Techno. Tommy is excited about the slippers, somewhat apprehensive about the emerald until Phil assures him that it’s a gift from him to Tommy, not from Techno

- Tommy decides that Phil is his friend after all

- Dream shows up and acts all casual and friendly, Phil greets him politely but doesn’t interact much with Dream unless prompted to

- Tommy asks Phil and Ghostbur if they’re even real because he keeps seeing Tubbo

- Phil asks if Tommy has been drinking the sea water

- another vision of Tubbo, only Tommy and Ghostbur see him

- Ghostbur shows Phil around while Tommy tells Dream not to tell Phil about the beach party because it’s a surprise

- Tommy asks if the reason why Phil didn’t visit earlier was because there wasn’t a path and if the path made it easier for him and Phil says yes, because he didn’t actually know how to get there before

- More Tubbo hallucination shenanigans which I’m gonna cut out from now on, just assume that it keeps happening

- Phil tells Tommy not to drink the sea water, Tommy goes “I DID DRINK THE SEA WATER BECAUSE IT TOLD ME TO!“

- Tommy asks Phil (and also Fundy who showed up) to leave the VC so he can talk to Ghostbur and Dream alone (about the secret beach party plan)

- Tommy is happy about the fact that the path he made seems to be working and people are coming to visit him

- Dream notes that they aren’t even really hanging out with him so they might just be visiting Logsted, not him (which... Tommy literally asked them to leave them alone so they could plan, Dream is just blatantly trying to fuck with his head) and Tommy deflates and agrees that Dream is probably right

- Ghostbur invites Phil and Fundy to help decorate the beach (not telling them what for but it’s like super obvious that they’re planning a party) and they do

- all five of them work on the beach for a whole while and goof around until the end of the stream

So from Phil’s point of view Tommy is acting kind of cold towards him and doesn’t seem to particularly want him around (combined with the fact that he later doesn’t get an invite to the beach party that Tommy was obviously planning). Phil brought Tommy basic survival stuff and the slippers to keep him from getting cold, not knowing that all of that is going to get destroyed by Dream anyway. He seems a bit worried about the hallucinations but assumes it’s because Tommy’s been drinking sea water and tells him to stop doing that. He also notes that Tommy looks kind of rough but doesn’t push the issue.

Meanwhile Tommy is being manipulated by Dream into believing that Phil didn’t actually come to visit him, even as Phil is literally visiting him, with named gifts and everything. And he’s already doubting if Phil is even really present because he keeps seeing Tubbo who isn’t actually there so Phil could just as well be a hallucination too, or he could easily be convinced later that Phil was a hallucination.

Basically Phil sees that Tommy is having a hard time but there’s no obvious sign of anything being wrong besides him not taking very good care of himself and feeling lonely. Tommy says he hasn’t been sleeping and that he’s been drinking sea water (which is probably a joke but anyway). Him and Dream seem to be very friendly with each other, they even keep having all these secret chats that Tommy is telling Phil to leave for.

So.... assume this is your friend who you’ve recently had a bit of a falling out with. What kind of conclusions would you draw and what would you do? Honestly, yes, Tommy’s condition seems pretty worrying, but everything just points to him being lonely and depressed about being exiled, which isn’t really something Phil can easily fix other than just visit him more. But then Tommy gives really mixed signals about whether he actually wants Phil there or not (which is because he’s planning the party but Phil doesn’t know that) and then when Phil finds out about the party he doesn’t get an invite to it (because Dream stole the invites but, again, Phil doesn’t know this). So Phil just kinda has to decide whether to go there uninvited and presumably unwanted, or just vibe and wait to hear from Tommy. Meanwhile he has stuff to do with Techno who DID invite him to hang out.

Also Tommy seems to be doing better, he’s very excited about his beach, he’s excited about the fact that he’s getting more visitors (not just Phil but Fundy too) and he’s convinced that there will be more now that there’s a path. So as far as Phil is concerned, it seems like things are getting better and Tommy might end up doing okay after all, despite everything

As a sidenote also, Phil is a bit of a hermit, right? I feel like that’s fair to say about his character. He doesn’t mind hanging out with people but to him living alone in the wilderness isn’t a bad deal at all. Obviously he understands that Tommy is not like him and needs company but you can see how he might not see the situation as all that urgent. And you can argue about what Tommy’s canon age actually is but he’s been living independently and taking care of himself like an adult during his entire time on the server, this shouldn’t really be that different. Obviously the fact that he’s exiled is bad and upsetting for him but there’s nothing Phil can do about that either. He doesn’t have control over L’Manberg or Dream.

And I just wanna point out that all of this is exactly how abusive relationships work, right? Dream is deliberately distancing Tommy from everybody he knows and making him think that Dream is the only one who cares about him. And that shit can be really hard to pick up on. It might just seem like your friend is becoming kind of distant and has different friends now. And I’ll tell you, even if you DO see the signs, it’s really hard to decide when or how to intervene, or if you’re just paranoid about it.

It’s easy to say Phil should do this or that when you’re watching Tommy’s streams and KNOW what’s happening, but try to put yourself in Phil’s shoes for a second and actually think about what you’d do in a situation like this. Also please do so while assuming that Phil is a real person with his own life to live too.

You can say that he should have been more worried and more suspicious of Dream and gone to see Tommy anyway, that’s fair. But that’s a normal human mistake and also something pretty much everybody else should have done too by that logic. And Tommy was not being very receptive to help because he was being manipulated by Dream. Honestly this was probably something where Tommy needed to figure out for himself to break free. Which he did. (And speaking from a narrative perspective: that was the best possible ending to that arc. Tommy finding his own strength and willpower again, on his own.)

I’m gonna leave this here but I might reblog with more points (or make a new post). It does take ages to go through the vods, though, and I only made it up to December 9th so far.

[fluffyglass]

WELCOME TO DILLYDALE! (UPDATED!)

The updated cast is finally here!

Y'know how I mentioned my sister and I were working on a project? Yeah, this is that.

Welcome to Dillydale! is a fanmade Reboot of The Mr. Men Show, thought up by two teenagers who have absolutely nothing better to do.

With a much more story-focused narrative aimed at slightly older kids, Welcome to Dillydale! features numerous small story arcs starring all your favorite little misses and mr. men!

Full Cast + Extra Info below the cut

Mr. Tickle - You know him, you love (or don't love) him, he's the absolute classic.

Mr. Greedy - Your friendly neighborhood chef, taste-tester and gourmet all in one!

Mr. Happy - Dillydale's favorite constantly-smiling TV host!

Mr. Sneeze - Achoo!

Mr. Bump - The accident-prone little dude himself.

Mr. Small and Mr. Nosey - that one gay couple who everyone knows and yet nobody seems to remember how they met

Mr. Messy - The filthiest resident of Dillydale.

Mr. Fussy - The least filthy resident of Dillydale.

* Mr. Clumsy - While not a resident of Dillydale, he occasionally pops by to visit his cousin, Mr. Fussy!

Mr. Nervous - Dillydale's paranoid jelly man. Don't startle him, or he'll melt into a puddle before your eyes!

Mr. Lazy - Possibly the second-most brilliant inventor in Dillydale - if only he had the motivation to act on his ideas.

Mr. Mean - Probably deserves Mr. Stubborn's catchphrase more than he does.

Mr. Bounce - Boing! Boing! Boing! Boing! Boing! B

Mr. Strong - If anyone in Dillydale had to be the most fitness-obsessed, it would have to be Mr. Strong. That's like - his thing, y'know?

Mr. Quiet - Can't hear you, next please!

Mr. Grumpy - Getting too old for this entire town's nonsense.

Mr. Skinny - Was incredibly easy to fit in this character list!

Mr. Cool - Whatever he is, he's too cool for you.

Mr. Rude - At this point, he's more tired of everyone's stupidity than actively rude. He's still rude though, don't get me wrong.

Mr. Scatterbrain - Can probably bend reality. If he could/can, he'd use it to make himself a sandwich.

Mr. Stubborn - May or may not be an alien. He's totally an alien.

Mr. Crosspatch - Violence incarnate.

Little Miss Bossy - Karen

Little Miss Naughty - A criminal

Little Miss Sunshine - Dillydale's favorite female constantly-smiling TV host! After all, they can't just pick between her and Mr. Happy!

Little Miss Tiny - Just you wait until she grows up! (She never will)

Little Miss Helpful - She is not helpful. But she sure does try to be.

Little Miss Magic - (⊃｡•́‿•̀｡)⊃━⭑･ﾟﾟ･*:༅｡.｡༅:*ﾟ:*:✼✿

Little Miss Shy - Barely anyone knows her, because she barely leaves the house. Poor girl, honestly.

Little Miss Splendid - Can afford to live in a way fancier city, but stays in Dillydale because she knows she can flaunt her wealth better there.

Little Miss Late - Her description was late, it'll be here in a few hours. Or days.

Little Miss/Mr. Twins - Which is which? Why, if they swap their bows, nobody could tell!

Little Miss Chatterbox - Oh, Little Miss Chatterbox is such an interesting character! Y'know, while I was drawing her, I remember thinking to myself "oh, Miss Chatterbox has such an iconic design!" and thus she ended up being one of the characters who's design didn't change at all, oh, speaking of characters who didn't change, I also-

* Little Miss Stubborn - Lives on a farm out in the countryside. Still pissed that an alien stole her identity.

Little Miss Fun - Can't sit still for more than 3 seconds at a time.

Little Miss Somersault - Good at basketball, probably

Little Miss Scary - RAWR!!!

Little Miss Whoops - Probably the clumsiest resident of Dillydale, much to the dismay of her brother, Mr. Bump.

* Little Miss Calamity - Disappeared from Dillydale years ago. Her whereabouts are still unknown.

Little Miss Princess - Wait, wasn't Dillydale's monarchy overthrown?

Little Miss Hug - *Hugs you*

Little Miss Inventor - The actual most brilliant inventor in Dillydale.

* Little Miss Daredevil - She moved to the moon, but visits home often. Why did she move to the moon? She's Miss Daredevil, that's why!

Wow, what a lovely group of characters!

BUT WAIT, THERE'S EXCLUSIVES!

(Aka ocs we put in for funsies)

Little Miss Autistic - Dillydale's resident "if you ask me about this book series I will tell you every fact about it known to man" girl.

Little Miss Gleeful, Little Miss Rampant, and Mr. Witty - Miss Bossy's three little tyrants.

Mr. Fancy - Prettier than you.

Little Miss Perfect - Perfect, perfect, perfect.

Little Miss Purity - The purest diamond around. Or so she'd like you to believe.

I reached the image limit for a tumblr post, so the remainder of the characters shall be in a reblog! See you there!

[bangtae-sohotddaeng]

we’ll be counting stars | k.th. | 1

(^ gif cred: ON THE VOYAGE | pinterest)

pairing: idol!Taehyung x publisher!Reader

rating: nc-17 (for language and themes)

summary: You’d sworn off love and relationships forever. You were here to do your job - work with the biggest boyband of the world. Not forge friendships and...and whatever it was that you and Taehyung were building up with these sneaky glances. It was, to be very fair, your Chief Editor’s fault that you’d landed in this mess. Maybe you should quit your job? Maybe you should quit life -

Oh, he was staring again, and did he freaking lick his lips?

warnings: swearing (reader’s got a potty mouth) + this is set like 5 years in the future + reader has emotional issues, she's a relationship phobe + mentions of weed

genre: so much ANGST ugh + fluff + comedy + some crack

words: 2.1 k

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series masterlist

gimme feedback, much much appreciated!

SIX MONTHS AGO

“Wait a second, really?” You blinked up at the Chief Editor, your boss, in wonder. “Heading this?” 

The chocolate skinned, tall woman smiled at you. “Yes, heading this. I’d been looking to hand you something from a really long time, to be honest. This is just the right fit."

You grinned at her, hugging the contract file to your chest. In your thirteen months of employment at the publishing company, through the departmental transfer from HR to Editorial and then the promotion to the Associate Editor position, this was the best thing to happen to you, so far. You finally had a project you were gonna head. You would finally, finally get to handle things on your own—curate your own team, work on an individual project where you made all the decisions.

You breathed out, happily. “I’ll read this thoroughly and report back within an hour, boss. With my sign on it, in all likelihood.”

“I’m counting on it.” Your boss smiled at you.

You looked down at the file. You were going to work with a K-pop group on their auto-biography. You were gonna fly to fucking Korea, for six full months. This was huge. This was awesome. This was what you fucking needed, right now. Your best friend that you had been rooming with for a year was starting to get too comfortable. You were so not up for that kinda shit again.

You looked at the bottom of the front page. Athena had drawn up this contract. Your eyebrows arched. It was no secret that she was your boss’s favourite Acquisition Editor. Some even suspected they were having an affair, despite the gleaming diamond you could see—even right now—on the woman’s finger. 

This project had to mean a lot to your boss. And she’d picked you to head it.

“This sounds big, boss,” you mumbled, leafing through the hefty files. You were gonna need a couple hours, maybe, to go through this properly. “And looks big, too.”

“It is big, Y/N. In all the ways. This idea had been brewing in my head for a really long time. I had Athena make the proposal to this K-pop group’s management company, a few months back, and they said yes. She and I had been brainstorming how to approach this. Those guys are pretty tight about their privacy and, um, well. Fraternising policies. It’s all in there, you’ll see.” She pointed a finger at the file in your hands. “We were finally able to draw up the contract with the company’s CEO and Manager. And you were the only one I had in mind when we thought up of building a team and having someone head it so that we don’t have to leave.”

You gave a small, delighted giggle. “Thank you so much, boss. I won’t disappoint you.”

“I know you won’t.”

You got back to your desk and flipped to the first page of the file.

BTS

Your eyes bulged. You had been a busy—and irritable because of all the stupid shit that just constantly kept on happening in your personal life—woman during the past couple of years and really uninvested in anything and everything that had to do with entertainment. This past year had been especially rough ever since your move to the States. You freaking smoked pot when you needed to unwind, what could be worse than that.

But. But—before, when you were a normal, happy woman with a soul, BTS had been kind of a really humongous deal. Did that somehow change in the past couple of years? You strongly doubted it, recalling how huge they’d been growing worldwide, the last time you kept a check. Which you did like crazy.

You momentarily wondered if your boss would still have you as the first consideration if she knew about your crazy ARMY days…

You blinked, coming back from the mental journey, and turned the page. BigHit’s owner was still the same, obviously, but the group members now apparently had individual managers. You blinked, uncomfortable at the knowledge. Reading further, you found something that disturbed you even more.

All the BTS members were done with their Military Service, with Jungkook, Jimin and Namjoon having returned from it just this year.

You swallowed, thickly. A lot had changed in the world outside of the one you’d been living in, too, apparently.

You read through the terms and conditions and your duties, thoroughly. Few points were pretty obvious and things you’d been expecting, but some of them made you frown.

You brought one such issue to your boss’s acknowledgement when you were done reading the entire booklet of a contract, nearly two hours later. You were ready to sign the thing, otherwise.

“And? What about it?” Your boss blinked at you, unfazed.

You sighed, and lifted your left hand up, pointing at your empty ring finger. “No ring, no fiance, boss. They want the team members to be at least engaged. I’m as single as it gets.”

She chuckled at that. “Tell me honestly, are you unprofessional enough to fraternise on your job? Such a high profile one, at that?”

You worried your bottom lip between your teeth. “I don’t think they’d care about what I think, boss, or that they’d even ask.”

Your boss gave an exasperated sigh. “Okay, let me put it in a different way.” You tilted your head to show your interest. “What’s your opinion on relationships, in general?”

You grimaced, unable to help your knee-jerk response. But then you shrugged, trying not to scowl while you said the words you’d started to believe in since the past couple of years. “Well, as I’d informed you through my quite less-than-professional letter at the time of my joining, boss, I think relationships are pointless. Humans keeping relationships beyond professionalism with each other is pointless, actually, because with a personal attachment comes a buckload of expectations, and then it’s just a rabbit hole down the middle of the earth. At the end of which, we burn.”

Your boss seemed to be suppressing laughter. Did the moral of your life amuse her? “You actually quoted the letter word by word, there, Y/N.”

You sighed. “That wasn’t something I’d thought through when I mailed it, boss. The voice input tool turned my rants into a letter. And my frustration over your concerns about fraternising in the office made me mail it.”

Your boss nodded. “Well, I talked to BigHit’s manager over the phone. The company’s not the group’s,” she added when you frowned in confusion at the singular term. “I explained to him about where you stood—taking references from this letter—and explained to him why I needed my most valuable Associate on the team.”

Your cheeks heated up, both due to the huge praise and embarrassment over the exposure of your letter. “Oh, um. Thank you. I guess?”

“Ugh, sign the damn piece of paper and start collecting the damn team, Y/N!”

You’d resorted to staying back at the office till late hours just to avoid your roommate.

When you’d moved to the country, thirteen months back, and decided to share your decade old friend’s flat—feeling lucky as shit that he worked in the same city as you—you and him had been on the same page. You’d both been fed up with the concepts of relationships and entanglements, even the strictly-physical ones, and wanted to just burn away your youth on the grind and pot-smoking weekends.

But then, gradually, you noticed the shift in him. He was trying to get into your pants. It could not end well.

It wasn’t to say you weren’t attracted to him. You’d jump the gorgeous guy’s bones in a heartbeat, in an alternate universe. But in this one, you’d had a first hand experience of ruining multiple friendships, and you so did not wanna risk another.

That idiot didn’t get it, though.

Hence why you were brainstorming your project’s team at ten oclock of the night in your nearly empty office building.

“Any luck?” Your okay-ish colleague—the least clingy out of the lot—peered at your spreadsheet over your shoulder.

“Why the heck are you so against it, Sana?” you groaned into your palm, frustrated.

“Because I’m ARMY!” she said in an aghast tone.

“So? Dude, that’s nearly 70% of the earth’s population, at this point, I’m guessing.”

“Um, maybe, but. I don’t trust myself to be professional, Y/N,” she morosely mumbled, dropping into an empty chair on the table next to you.

You looked at her from above your glasses. “Why the heck not?”

She ducked her head, her honey blonde hair covering almost all of her face. But you still spotted the red that bloomed across her face. “Because I have a crush on Yoongi, the size of freaking America, Y/N!”

“What? What? That’s your reason?" You covered your mouth with a hand to hold back your laughter. "Lame fucking reason, Sana!” You glared at her when she nervously looked back at you. “Get your shit together, and pack your bags. And give me your husband’s number, I wanna tell him something.”

You hadn’t imagined that picking out five people from a group of thirty would be this hard. You had spent an entire week literally running after these people to convince them. They were all married or engaged save for one, who had plans of proposing to his boyfriend a few months later, during Valentine’s before you convinced him to do it now so that he’d be able to join the team.

You’d come up with a total of four women and two men, including Sana, that were all fluent in Korean. That was kinda one of the biggest prerequisites, other than being in a committed relationship. You’d briefed the lot of them about what was to be done on this trip, who you were dealing with, and how long you’d be off for. They were all on board, now, and the only thing required was your boss’ approval.

And now you were all standing in the Chief Editor’s cabin, waiting for her to finish reviewing the team members’ profiles you’d collected and presented to her.

Your brain was nearly short circuited, at this point. If she said she wasn’t happy with any of your selections you were prepared to tell her to make the new selection herself, because there were only three more married people in this office, and none of them spoke Korean. There were only two more Korean speakers, but they were both female interns who’d be the worst nightmares to put on this project.

You looked at the six people standing next to you, all looking a varied degree of nervous.

But your boss looked impressed as she perused the file. She beamed at all of you, and then nodded. “Prepare for a six months’ stay, people, and prepare to do your best there. The only two real rules to remember are to keep it all a secret until the BigHit people are ready to disclose the news, and not fall in love.”

You all grunted in barely concealed annoyance at the last part, excluding Sana who bit her lip. You rolled your eyes. “It’d be a bigger concern for their partners than it would be to you, if that happens, boss. Don’t worry. We’re all a bunch of professionals, here.” You reassured your boss, shooting a glare at a fidgety Sana. 

“I have complete faith in y’all. Now, off you go. Brush up your Korean, spend time with your partners.” She looked at you. “Or just, you know, catch up on lost sleep. You fly to Seoul this Friday.”

Three days from now, oh God.

You all trickled out of your boss’ cabin with furrowed foreheads. You had the most workload out of them all, though, because in addition to preparing to spend six months in a foreign land, you also were to prepare a formal itinerary for said six months. You, of course, were clear on the details because they were mentioned in the contract, but writing them out for your team would definitely take a lot of time.

You briefly wondered if you should employ Sana’s help, before quickly deciding against it. It wouldn’t do you any good to do anything to sway your professional relationship by asking for personal favours.

“Hey, Y/N, all okay?” Simon, the guy that was proposing to his boyfriend early because of you, asked you when you dropped into your office chair with a huge thump.

You turned to scowl at him. “You guys have got to stop asking me that all the time! When have you ever gotten a good answer?”

Simon’s eyes widened, and he quickly shook his head. “My bad.”

You kept squinting at his retreating figure. Another member of your team met your eye, before quickly scrambling away.

You hummed in thought. Did they all think you were a bitch? Maybe you were.

Good. It’d do you some good in Korea.

gimme feedback, much much appreciated!

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Tags: @tangledsparkles​

[cupcakemolotov]

Far From the Shallow Now

Synopsis: Caroline needs to get her head on straight after the ball and is still awake when Klaus drops by.

Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence × Pre-Relationship × Technically Tyler and Caroline Are Still Together × No cheating × Still Mostly Tyler Friendly × A Moment After the Ball × a what if × Domestic Fluff × Sort Of ×

A tiny pieces would be part of the random snippet series. Just a bit of a what if Caroline had been up when Klaus dropped off the drawing. You can read it here on A03 if you prefer.

                                                       -

The kitchen smelled like her childhood. Warm brown sugar and melting chocolate, the memory of afternoons spent baking with her dad were precious moments that still ached. Pre-vampire Caroline has really hated cooking, and she’d found her opinion hadn’t changed much over the past few months. But baking? With its necessary precision and attention to detail, even the most finicky of recipes soothed her. It had been her dad that had first put a wooden spoon in her hand, who had sighed at her scrunched nose and red face and smoothed her bangs.

“Come on, Care Bear. Let’s try a new recipe today. I’ll let you pick.”

But those memories had been filled with afternoon sunshine and the blare of a radio, and they had been a long time ago. Long before the silence between her parents had grown cold and Bill’s business trips had taken longer and longer. Her childhood was bittersweet and it clogged her throat to think of all the things she’d lost.

But that was for another night.

Tonight, all she had was the silence of her home and the shadows of the neighborhood around her. With her mom working the graveyard shift, she had the house to herself. It had been a relief to come home to shadows and silence after the noise and color of the ball. A chance to process and detox, push away the memory of Klaus’ hands on her skin, the boyish, curling smile on his face and the anger as she’d walked away from him. Breath shuddering in her throat, she stirred the cookie dough a little more thoroughly.

A little pre-baking cleaning had helped calm her juggling nerves and here she was, getting worked up again. The fridge was stuffed with sympathy casseroles, and she’d thrown out dozens of wilting flower arrangements. The cards were neatly stacked and organized in piles alphabetically and according to whom she still needed to reply to.

Her mom probably wouldn’t even notice.

Tomorrow’s project would involve freezing what was left of the food that her mom would eat, she’d already packed the leftovers into Tupperware so she could return the pans to her neighbors. But her dad had taught her to never return a dish empty, so at least her midnight baking would have a purpose. Absently licking at a smear of cookie dough, Caroline watched the clock on the oven click over past 3 AM, and mentally counted her blood bags. She’d need an extra tomorrow, to offset her lack of sleep, but her mind couldn’t stop spinning.

Is it so hard to believe I fancy you?

She’d showered as soon as she’d gotten home, needing to remove Klaus’ lingering scent from her skin. She scrubbed herself pink with her favorite soap, and stood in the shower far longer than needed. The dress was already folded and packed in the box it had arrived in, her bra and underwear at the bottom of her dirty clothes hamper. Now she was sitting in her kitchen in old cheer sweats, and surrounded by two dozen cookies while she worked on the next batch.

And nothing had managed to stop the wheels spinning in her head.

Running a hand down her face, Caroline tried again to decide how she felt about the fiasco that had been her night. The dancing, the hunger and lust in his gaze, those falsely boyish smiles and the rage that had burned when she’d flung his diamonds back at his face.

Klaus had meant every word he’d said and none of it. That was the game he played. Perfection and coercion, falsely sweet words that clung like poisoned honey. It’d been easier to push aside her curiosity, that niggling fascination for how his brain worked before he’d turned his gaze towards her.

Klaus was a monster. But he was a smart one, always steps and steps ahead of his enemies. She didn’t want him, she needed to not want him, and she was pretty sure he didn’t want her either, and it stiffened her shoulders to think he saw her as the distraction Damon insisted she play or his very own potential Trojan horse.

She would never betray her friends.

But Caroline didn’t want to die.

Eyes closing at the thought, she took a careful breath. The games Damon played were dangerous. Esther, Bonnie, all his siblings were spinning on a course that could only lead to collateral damage, and she was sick of it.

Tyler too sometimes only saw her as useful. Her dad had died helping him and still the last time they’d talked he’d wanted her to play more games. As if she wasn’t drowning in grief and what if’s, as if her world hadn’t been twisted as violently as his, as if she wasn’t trapped in a spiderweb she had no idea how to escape. Her fingers tightened on the wooden spoon, and she exhaled slowly.

She and Tyler hadn’t chosen what had been done to them but they could choose how they responded and she was starting to feel less and less comfortable about the bitterness he carried. The hard edge of rage. Whatever had happened when he left and found Hayley had sharpened parts of Tyler she hadn’t known were there and she wondered what he saw when he looked at her. If what he saw made him as uncomfortable as it made her.

Lips flattening at the thought, she reached for the bag of chocolate chips and froze at the sounds of her front door opening. Eyes snapping up, body going taut at the potential threat, her stomach knotted at the sight of Klaus stepping into her home.

For a long moment, they just studied each other.

In the hours since she’d left the ball, he’d ditched his jacket and bow tie, his white waistcoat nowhere to be found. His hair was no longer so perfectly arranged, he’d rolled his shirt sleeves to bare his forearms, and if that wasn’t enough to spike her blood pressure, he still wore his suspenders. Hidden behind the counter-top, her nails dug reflexively into her palm. He’d been stupidly good looking earlier at the ball with his sly smiles and dimpled promises, but this? Rumpled, lips bitten red, his gaze dragging along her body with a slow perusal that set her nerves of fire was something else entirely.

Klaus smiled slow, cheeks creasing, all of the anger from before tucked beneath charm and guile. “I’m surprised you’re still awake, love.”

“Your family is exhausting,” she agreed tartly, straightening her spine. “But of the two of us, I’m the only or who is expected to be here at all. Kind of rude, just bargaining in, don’t you think?”

He gave an elegant little shrug and strolled closer. Her jaw flexed, and he reached into his pocket, pulling out a velvet box and setting it on an empty space on the counter. “I do have an invitation. And perhaps it is also just as rude, don’t you think, to return gifts?”

Shoving the wooden spoon back into the cookie dough before she was tempted to smack him with it, Caroline settled a hand on her hip and faked her bravado. “It’s way ruder to offer gifts with so many strings in the first place.”

An amused glance from beneath his lashes before he peered at her cooling racks of cookies. “Most women enjoy apology jewelry.”

“I must have missed the apology.”

One dimple peaked high on his smile and he snagged a cookie. “I didn’t realize you baked.”

She narrowed her eyes as he took a bite, his clear dodge. This entire conversation felt surreal, a little bit domestic, and a lot concerning. Wasn’t she just thinking about how dangerous he was? This, this charm, only highlighted that danger. He slipped so easily from mood to mood, as mercurial as the wind and she needed to remember that.

Promises or no.

“It’s not like we really exchange small talk. And that’s the only cookie you get. I have a dozen dishes to fill and I need this done before mom gets home.” She tipped her chin towards the dining room table where the clean dishes and tinfoil were waiting for her. She was willing to bet he'd already noted the dishes, but so what. “So why don't you get to your point and leave?”

Klaus made a thoughtful noise as he finished the cooking, dusting his hands of crumbs. “Need help?”

“From you? Absolutely not.” The words slipped out before she could catch him and find something politer to say. This was her grief, her method of coping. He didn't get an opinion and he didn't get to pretend they were friends. Not when he wold kill all of them if he thought it necessary. This? This mess and this grief and this small thing to help her mom was hers.

The smile died on his face but she didn’t flinch. She didn't know what he read on his face, but his head tipped in a silent acknowledgement. Instead of baiting her more, his hand returned to his pocket, and this time he produced a rolled up piece of parchment.

Caroline looked at it warily. “What is that?”

“Part of the apology,” he murmured as he set it delicately on top of the box holding the diamonds. “The bracelet is yours love, no strings. Do with it what you will. As for the rest.” He paused, blue eyes narrowed as he studied her, a hint of gold burning the edges of his iris. “The games my mother plays are not kind to her pawns. Be sure you don’t find yourself in over your head, Caroline.”

She lifted her chin to hide her tremble. “Threats?”

“Call it a warning.” Klaus said. “Likely the only one you’ll get.” Just as quickly, that sense of danger melted under another smile and he snagged a second cookie before turning and sauntering away at her protest.She slid her tongue between her teeth at the sight of just how well his pants were tailored and the way the suspenders highlighted the length of his back. The image was going to be burned behind her eyes for days.

As if he could sense her gaze dragging down his spine, he cast one more boyish smile at her as he opened her door. “The cookies were delicious, love. I do so look forward to learning what other secrets you're keeping.”

She watched him go, barely breathing, a mix of alarm and arousal mixing with adrenaline. So many layers. The hidden threat in his words, the reminder that he could walk into her home whenever he wished. The return of the bracelet, that little bit of claim he’d laid on her life.

An apology.

Swallowing, she wiped her shaking hands on her sweats and reached for the parchment. It unrolled to show the familiar lines of her face and the perfect image of a horse.

Thank you for your honesty.

Swallowing, she set the drawing down and didn’t know what to think.

[ootori-sibs]

Kyoya's second shot

Episode ten: Tamaki makes a discovery!

Tw: self harm (mentioned and implied) starving (mentioned)

The next session was more peaceful, he didn't have to talk to any guests, he could just watch Tamaki, whilst stirring his coffee lazily. Tamaki's way of acting evil was incredibly satisfying to watch; he kept pressing gentle kisses to the prop skull, running his tongue against his perfect teeth, the way he purred his words towards the girls- playing up his natural accent to make the ladies swoon, he drew his words out, lounging about in lazy regality. Kyoya had no idea Tamaki could do that, it was incredible… nearly enough to make him drool if he was honest. He wanted nothing but to sit there under Tamaki and let him woo him like that… but that could never happen. Kyoya looked at the girls, the guests, laughing and giggling and watching Tamaki with wide eyes… and he was consumed by jealousy. How dare they, how dare they get to enjoy so much attention from Tamaki, whilst Kyoya has to sit there, just wishing. They're so horrid, so vapid, they're worse than Haruhi, they don't even deserve his hatred.

Oh. The coffee stirrer had shattered in his hand, he growled under his breath and pushed the cup away from him. He turned to his laptop for comfort, opening the finances, he's not doing anything, just toying with the graphs and such. He takes out his phone as well, opening the council group chat.

Shadow king: Seika, I need you to do something. Now.

Woman#2: Ooh, someone's pissy, what happened?

Shadow king: That is irrelevant, just do something.

Hurt her.

Woman#2: You want me to hurt her? How? Are you sure?

Shadow king: I don't care how. Just do it.

He put his phone back in his bag, hands shaking from the anger. He wanted to leave, he felt angry, he felt he was going to scream. He took his glasses off, rubbing his face and running his hands through his hair, deep breaths, he just has to take deep breaths.

"Senpai?" Haruhi's soft voice cut through his calming breaths, sparking the rage in him again, he looked at her, putting his glasses back on. She looked worried, a soft smile on her face, she had no idea how much she was hated, "are you alright?"

He tenses up, did he have the strength to lie? He felt like punching her in the face here and now, but he knew he couldn't do that. He was tapping his nails on the table, trying not to tell her to fuck off, his lack of ease was clear to her, as he gritted his teeth and forced a smile. "Of course I am, why wouldn't I be? I'm just sorting out the finances right now, did you need anything Haruhi?"

She paused, sensing the danger though being unable to see why, her smile turned to a frown, "I… no, I just wanted to check on you, I'll… go back to my table now." She took a few steps back before turning and heading back to her customers, she should have been focusing on them anyway. Kyoya felt a little worried about how she'd clearly noticed something, wondering if she realised how much he hated her.

He couldn't focus on anything, nothing at all, so instead he took out his notebook, beginning to doodle. It was a human, it had sharper features then a human; a pronounced nose, a tiny neck, very sharp shoulder blades- Haruhi was softer than that, was he drawing Haruhi? He fixed the shoulder, smudging the offending ink with his finger and rounding off the shoulders. He focused on her hair, it was similar to Tamaki's, but uglier, flatter, brown. Her expression was one of disdain, one Kyoya had never seen on her face before, she was disgusted, like he knew she would be when she realised what he'd been doing- if she realised, commoners were never smart. Was the school badge on the wrong side? He always struggled with mirroring, it was hard to remember. Her eyes were bleeding silver from his pencil, he would have grabbed a pen but he had no blue, he didn't want to touch his red, it was the only red pen he had- Haruhi didn't deserve it.

She was disgusting, selfish, she didn't deserve Tamaki, she was just some dumb commoner… commoner, commoner, he said that word a lot, but Yuuichi had said it was regular- just regular people, they were the minority in real life. It was a strange feeling, they all had so much power yet there were so much more commoners in the world, it was strange, it was… odd. His breaths shuddered as he wrote words, the same word, over and over and over and over again around his sketch.

Commoner.

She's a commoner, and he hates her.

The session ended after a while, and the tables were pushed together, guess Tamaki had ordered a meeting. The others had gone to get dressed, so Kyoya hesitantly followed. When he got to his corset, he really didn't want to leave it, besides, the others hardly ever do any inventory so it's not like they'd notice it missing. He toyed with the tightness for a little, before slipping his shirt and blazer over it, something sparking in his mind as he put his tie on. An idea that led him to pull said tie as tight as it could possibly go… then loosen it a little- a tie isn't as safe as a corset apparently.

He took his place at the table, opening his laptop and closing his book, "so, what's this meeting about then Tamaki?"

Tamaki paused, looking unsure for a moment, there was something about how he'd looked at Kyoya that made him suddenly very uneasy, "well, just about everything and anything, just thought I'd switch it up, cause I uh- I wanna do something on Friday!" He smiles, clearly having just made that up, "care to give us a finance report?"

Now that was something Kyoya could do, he nodded, opening the finances graphs and charts and tables. He took out a remote for the projector that sat in the ceiling, waiting until Tamaki got the whiteboard out for him, then he projected his screen onto it. "So," he actually smiled, he loved talking about numbers, "we're actually doing rather well, profits are up and I have to say welldone, all of you are contributing to the profits equally, although of course, Tamaki is still number one." He pulled up a chart depicting each hosts individual profits, complete with images; obviously he'd manipulated the graphs, the twins were actually doing better than Tamaki by 2% but the graphs only purpose was was to make Tamaki feel good, and to hide the fact that Kyoya himself literally avoided hosting at all costs. The hosts seemed to enjoy the graph, though Haruhi had frowned, to which Kyoya nodded, "unfortunately, Haruhi has been slacking recently, is there a reason for this?"

All eyes were on Haruhi, and Kyoya felt incredibly vindicated by this. She paused, blinking in surprise, "well I don't think I was falling behind, I could've sworn I did more hosting then you have senpai…" Her tone was a pondering one, but Kyoya felt the rage spark up again.

"Well there's no need to be so rude about it," Kyoya glanced around, hand on his heart, maybe it was time to take a risk, "you've been awfully spiteful towards me lately and I'm not sure why, is something the matter Haruhi?" He kept his tone soft and almost hurt sounding, hand pressed against his head as the other loosely held the remote for the projector, he did his best to paint Haruhi as the aggressor- he could tell Tamaki was still too hurt from her distance on Sunday to stand up for her, but he looked torn, not sure who to believe. The twins glanced at each other, then between Kyoya and Haruhi, they'd been privy to the discussion that morning and were likely still hesitant. Honey and Mori were the wild card, Mori was unreadable as always but Honey looked sympathetic to Kyoya, and Kyoya felt a little spark of victory.

Haruhi stared across the table at him, trying to read him and failing, Kyoya was not going to let his guard down. So she sighed, "I haven't been rude to you senpai, you've just been jumpy, I even asked if you were alright this afternoon, remember?" Oh god, she was being honest, he wasn't sure how to combat honesty, unless he could twist her words into what he wanted…

"Haruhi, I'll be perfectly honest here, you should probably stop neglecting your duties. As I said this afternoon, I was too busy to converse with you, and you had clients anyway so you should have been at your table instead of bothering me with questions about whether there's anything wrong with me." He paused, taking a breath and letting it sink in, he was taking a huge, huge risk here, and he hoped it would pay off. The twins seemed to at least somewhat agree that Haruhi should have been doing his job, Honey seemed concerned about what was said, Mori was still unreadable, and Tamaki… Tamaki looked almost angry, but at what, Kyoya wasn't sure.

Haruhi was startled, "I… I didn't mean it like-"

Kyoya shut her up with a wave of her hand, "that doesn't matter Haruhi, what matters is that you left your station, and should pay more attention to your duties, are we in agreement?" She nodded and he smiled, changing the slide, "but yes, profits are up, even if the recent theme cost quite a lot, namely in the diamonds for Tamaki's prop skull," he glances down at the king, seeing Tamaki's smile made him feel fuzzy inside, he's so glad these idiots don't think about things for more than three seconds.

But then Tamaki spoke, "oh, about today's theme, I made sure to put all the costumes on the hangers when you were all setting up the table… Do you remember where you put your corset, Kyoya?" Oh god, oh fuck, Kyoya instantly glanced away, hand going to his abdomen, feeling the bones of the corset through his shirt and blazer.

"Well I-..."

Hikaru snickered, holding in a laugh, "did you keep it on? Couldn't you get it off?"

Karou joined in at that, chuckling softly, "like when you took too long this morning? Were you actually just struggling?"

Kyoya felt his face go red, and was glad of the makeup, he frowned and glared over their shoulders, "that's… that's not why I-"

"So you did keep it on?" Honey spoke up, tilting his head, smiling, "but for a different reason?"

Tamaki sighed, "aww Kyoya, I offered you help you if you got stuck, there's no shame in it." The tone he used, it was one you'd use for a jumpy, frightened animal- he was offended but he couldn't say it didn't sooth him slightly. He also felt the idea of Tamaki helping him with the corset was certainly someone that made him feel fuzzy but he was too tired to protest too much. He just sighed.

The meeting was cut short a little, Kyoya wasn't entirely sure what happened, he remembers the twins did a talk about the costumes they have for the themes lined up, and Honey gave feedback on the cakes he had ordered… but Kyoya was a little fuzzy through the whole thing, maybe the corset and the combo was a little too much. He could glance back down at his notebook to clarify that he was taking notes, though it was a larger font.

16:26 - Clothes look good, cake was dry...

It trailed off, and Kyoya's face feels hot, he's dizzy, and feels like he's so close to passing out. He closed his eyes and felt cold fingers against his skin, opening his eyes he saw Tamaki carefully untying the ribbons of his corset for him, his eyes were full of concern, "Kyoya… this is way too tight… how could you breathe?"

"Hm… couldn't…" Kyoya's words were slurring, god, he really was about to pass out.

Tamaki's eyes flickered up to Kyoya's face, noticing how clouded his eyes are and sighing, "oh no…" he reaches up, loosening Kyoya's tie for hum, their faces were so close, and Kyoya wondered if Tamaki could feel the heat from his face, "you tied your tie too tight too… please don't tell me it was on purpose…" he looked at Kyoya with those big doe eyes that Kyoya can't resist, and something in Kyoya just breaks. He's crying now.

Shocked, Tamaki pulls him into an embrace, just letting him cry, "oh… oh Kyoya… why? Why would you do that to yourself? Does this mean you lied about the reason for your starving too? Is this why you've been so antsy?" Kyoya didn't answer, he was sobbing now, the floodgates were open, there was no moving until he was done. Tamaki let him for now, a lot of things probably making sense in Tamaki's mind, he shifted so Kyoya and he were both more comfortable. The curtains parted slightly and Kyoya couldn't see who it was but Tamaki snapped, "hey! Don't look! Let him have privacy, just go home." Kyoya appreciated Tamaki caring so much for his privacy but felt a little bad at intruding on his.

Tamaki cradled him softly, rocking back and forth as Kyoya sobbed in his arms, Kyoya felt awful, absolutely horrible, he had been hurting himself, he had and that was awful, he had upset Tamaki, he upset his darling best friend and crush by letting him find out about the self harm. He was a horrible friend, he should have hidden it better, god he was terrible…

"Kyoya," Tamaki hummed Kyoya's name, pushing back slightly to look Kyoya in the eyes, wiping his teeths gently, "you know you can talk to me about anything right? You're my best friend and I love you, you're very important to me and I don't want to see you so hurt. Take care of yourself, I know it's probably hard, but just try your best, ok?" He smiled softly at him, his hand on Kyoya's cheek, Kyoya's own hand came up and touched Tamaki's, his eyes were wide and he couldn't help but smile. Tamaki's so wonderful, so brilliant, Kyoya loved him with every inch of his being, Kyoya simply adored him. "Promise me I won't ever see you so hurt again?"

Kyoya just nodded, he would hide it better next time, he wouldn't let Tamaki see even the idea of Kyoya being hurt, he hated himself for how he'd upset Tamaki- he wouldn't let it happen again. Tamaki had smiled and stood up, helping Kyoya up before fully undoing the corset, letting it fall to the floor. Kyoya felt a shiver run down his spine and Tamaki gasped, "oh you must be so cold! Here, let me help you with your shirt!" He bent down and buttoned Kyoya's shirt back up, humming a sweet little melody, one that made Kyoya's heart soar like a bird. He stood and put a gentle hand on Kyoya's shoulder, "I'll see you tomorrow mon ami, take care of yourself."

Kyoya was silent on the way home, his bodyguards couldn't get a word out of him, his fingers drummed on the cover of his black book, he wanted to write, but he didn't want to have to get his pen out of his bag. They got home eventually and Kyoya stormed up the driveway and into the mansion, he practically ran upstairs, slamming the door to his room the moment he entered it. He threw his bag at the table, before following it and kneeling down, placing his book down and opening it.

17:56 - Tamaki realised why I had the corset so tight, he helped me take it off, his hands are so soft. He knows about the self harm, I promised I wouldn't let him see it again but it's too late: he knows, he knows, he knows, he knows…

[starkergames]

Title: Dance Me to the End of Love Artists: @still-lovelygarnet (sketch), Lighinz (Ink),  @the-mad-starker​ (Color + Writer) Notes: Lighinz: This was the first piece of starker fanart I’ve ever worked on and I’m so glad it was with my lovely teammates. They’re such inspirations! It’s been amazing seeing this all come together. ❤️❤️ Garnet: This drawing has been a journey for me, and I am so happy to see it finished! It’s a beauty and I am proud of my wonderful, stunning, hard working and stupidly talented teammates, @the-mad-starker​ & Lighinz! And let’s not forget the fic that comes with it, Mads being an absolute trouper as always. ❤️❤️ Thank you guys for having me! Mads: I had absolutely no idea how much work coloring was but my teammates were always so encouraging and supportive. QAQ I’ll never take fanart for granted again QAQ But I’m happy I gave this a shot and I’ve learned so much. Thanks to my teammates and for this event for bringing us together 💗 The social media sites and media had gone apeshit over the leak. A certain document started circulating, a marriage license. 

Tony Stark was married. 

The only problem was, whoever had done it had blurred out his spouse’s name. Fic below the cut!

February 14, 2020.

A Friday night to remember since it was not only Valentine's Day but also the Stark Valentine's Charity ball.

Every year, Stark Industries would raise thousands and this year, it would be no different. Most likely, they'd be able to raise more than any other year previously since the spotlight had been on Tony for the past week.

An important document had been leaked.

A marriage license.

It came as a shock.

The social media sites and media had gone apeshit over the leak. A certain document started circulating, a marriage license.

Tony Stark was married.

The only problem was, whoever had done it had blurred out his spouse's name.

And so the paparazzi were on the hunt for a Mrs. or Mr. Stark only to find out Tony had taken a two week business trip.

False, they had discovered. The business trip was actually a honeymoon and the trail went cold until now.

Tony had managed to avoid them once he came back, no husband or wife in sight. That caused an even bigger commotion since it piqued everyone's curiosity. It was easy enough for Tony to remain unreachable, considering the man lived in the penthouse above Stark Industries.

It wasn't as easy for Peter though since he still lived in Queens with his aunt, but no one was all too interested in him. No one, except Tony.

Tony, who, despite Peter's insistence that he didn't need to be picked up, had arrived at his aunt's 5:30 on the dot. It wasn't unusual though since Tony was just spontaneous and hard to say no to.

Peter's boss and mentor sat beside him in the limo driving them to the event. He couldn't help but let his eyes wander over the man sitting beside him.

Tony Stark was aglow from all the sun he'd been enjoying and more than that, he was genuinely happy. The smile on his face said as much, a charming and almost dopey smile that not many were accustomed to seeing. Marital bliss suited the older man even if his smiles deepened the lines on his face.

To Peter, Tony has never looked so handsome.

He fidgeted in his seat, still not used to wearing the kind of attire that's required for these things.

Tony picked out his suit though, a cream-colored piece that only seemed to accentuate his slim but fit body. In contrast, the older man had worn a navy blue suit along with a very light, almost white, pink shirt. A rose was tucked into his shirt pocket and Peter smiled at the sight.

"The polls for the identity of Mrs. Stark is pretty funny," Tony mused as he scrolled through the media sites on his phone.

"Who's winning now?" Peter asked as he leaned closer to peek at his phone.

Pepper Potts's name was nowhere in the list but only because she had adamantly denied it from the very start. The paparazzi had also proven that Ms. Potts had been attending a company business while Tony had disappeared for his honeymoon.

"Who is that even…?" Peter laughed. "Natasha Romanoff…?"

Tony bumped his knee against his and chuckled.

"They got a hold of the guest list," Tony explained, "that's why she's jumped up in the polls."

Peter hummed but leaned back.

"Too bad the only person accompanying you is your protege," Peter said, knee bouncing as he scrolled through the list.

There was a separate poll for men, too, since Tony wasn't exactly shy about his preferences. Peter's heart skipped a beat when he saw his own there, listed near the very bottom at place number twenty-one out of twenty-five.

Warmth. Tony's hand settled on top of his bouncing knee. His wedding ring glinted in the light, a simple golden band with one studded diamond embedded inside.

"Breathe, kid," Tony instructed gently. "You sure you wanna do this? I know these public things aren't your scene."

Peter was anxious and it was obvious. He took a deep breath, stopped his fidgeting, and focused his runaway thoughts.

He knew that if he had said so right now that Tony would bring him home.

That, more than anything, was what had Peter returning the smile. It was a bit strained from the upcoming event, but it was there. He settled a hand over Tony's and felt the smooth, hard metal beneath his fingers. A gentle squeeze was given to show his appreciation.

"I can do this," Peter said and then corrected himself. "I want to do this."

"That's my spunky little intern," Tony smiled back at him.

"Not an intern anymore," Peter reminded him with a fond shake of his head.

He hasn't been an intern for almost two years and was expecting to take over as the R&D department manager of Stark Industries within the next six months.

And the relationship between him and Tony...

Tony grinned at the correction.

"Of course not. How do I keep forgetting?" Tony pretended to chide himself.

Peter was about to make a quip about his age but then the limo came to a stop at the entrance.

Outside, he saw the crowd of reports just waiting to catch a glimpse of Tony's spouse who they expected had ridden with him. He wondered how they'd react when they see just little old Peter Parker trailing after his boss.

Everyone was used to seeing Peter by Tony's side since he joined SI. Tony, himself, had called Peter his protégé, his next big project, the rising star of SI… the list of affectionate nicknames go on and on and has accumulated into a big pile of endearments.

Peter cherished each one.

"Knock 'em dead," was the last thing Tony said before they went to face the crowd.

The camera flashes were blinding. Even after two years of it, Peter still forgot to expect them until it was already too late and dots were dancing in his vision.

As expected of Tony Stark, he owned the audience's attention and smiled at every camera turned his way. Peter followed behind and was careful to keep away from the reporters.

No one was really interested in him since it was Tony that they wanted to get at.

Peter watched, amused, as Tony deflected every inquiry regarding his spouse that was thrown his way. This was a charity ball, after all, and the older man turned every question into answers that promoted and brought the attention back to the event in question.

Peter didn't know how he did it but it was a superpower he'd have to learn in the future.

The event area was decorated in a beautiful mess of Valentine's Day colors. The tables were set in white with stunning displays of bouquets. The roses were in full bloom, vibrant reds that popped out when surrounded by the more gentle pinks and whites of the surrounding flowers.

Crowds of people already sat at their tables, socializing and having a good time with wine being served.

It was a very large event and just standing there, taking it all in, Peter felt he could've easily lost himself in there. But then he felt a strong and familiar presence by his side and he turned, finding Tony right there beside him.

At that moment, the room could've been filled to capacity and Peter wouldn't have noticed anyone else besides Tony.

To him, it was obvious that he was in love with his boss. To others, maybe it wasn't as obvious since they liked to think of him as Tony's mini-me.

A lot of people also felt that they knew what Tony's feelings and thoughts were. It was easy to believe that since Tony was such an outspoken and outgoing person. He could talk on and on about something, injecting his insights and thoughts on a subject, and the listener would only have a glimpse of who Tony really was.

So, everyone thought that they knew Tony Stark because of his past reputation and his easy-going personality.

Then Tony did something like secretly getting married and people suddenly realized how very little they knew about him. They hadn't even known he was dating, let alone serious enough to pop the question.

They didn't see Tony the way Peter did, didn't know him the way Peter did so how could he blame them for being so oblivious?

Every smile Tony gave to others, he gave twice as many to Peter in darted glances and quick flashes. He always pulled Peter into the conversation and Peter wondered if others recognized just how often Tony spoke about him.

Maybe they did. Maybe they brushed it off.

That would change tonight.

Many had asked about the mysterious Mr. or Mrs. Stark. Curious eyes searched for Tony's spouse by his side and seemed to slip right over Peter. It didn't upset him at all. It made him happy that he was such a well recognized figure in Tony's life.

The money came pouring in for the charity and Tony gave them his dazzling smile. Appetizers were served, the guests' chatter dropping to low murmurs as they were served finger foods that could've easily replaced dinner with how generous it was.

A short speech was made and Tony looked so handsome with the mic in his hand and a bright gleam in his eye.

Peter, from his seat at the front table, could practically feel how the guests were hoping for Tony to introduce his spouse.

And like the tease Tony was, just shortly before concluding his speech, he had the audacity to say, "I know many of you are dying to meet my sweetheart." He gave the crowd a wink, "And it is Valentine's Day so it would make sense, huh?"

A pause as the crowd waited patiently or impatiently for the big reveal.

"But this ball isn't about me or my newly beloved, but we'll see if we can get some more surprises in by the end of the night. Dinner should be coming out shortly and then, we'll get to the fun part of the evening. Dancing!"

Tony rejoined the first table, completely at ease with his selected dinner mates. He flashed Peter a quick grin before he nudged his seat closer.

"What do you think? Will they be lucky enough?" Tony leaned in to ask.

Beneath the table, a warm hand settled on his knee, a reassuring weight. Peter had to fight to keep the smile from splitting across his face.

The whole dancing part of the event made him nervous and Tony had promised him that he didn't need to. Just thinking about it made his heart pound but when he looked at the older man, he felt it melt into a mess of goo and affection.

He subtly slipped his hand beneath the table, settling it above Tony's and gave it a squeeze.

"Maybe," he said with a faint smile.

They withdrew both their hands as the waiters came out and served dinner. The dinner SI provided for their guests was almost decadent. It warmed their bellies with good food and along with the alcohol from the open bar, laughter and smiles were being exchanged with ease.

The clatter of utensils working over near and veggies filled the room and the soft quiet conversations lulled as people ate.

And just as dinner was wrapping up, a familiar tune started to play. Peter glanced and Tony and found the man staring back at him, unabashed and grinning from ear to ear.

He returned it with an exasperated shake of his head, but when Tony held his hand out… Peter took it.

He was pulled from his seat and led onto the empty dance floor. The music swirled around them and the entire hall fell into a hush as more and more people noticed the pair on the floor.

Tony led Peter in a dance and it was there that everyone's eyes were finally opened to the truth.

The person they had been looking for all evening had been by Tony's side the entire time.

There was no doubt about it now, as the audience's eyes followed the pair. Fluid, graceful movements… Hand in hand, they swept across the dance floor, perfectly in sync in body, as well as mind.

It was undeniable, the tenderness that spread across Tony's face as he looked at Peter

Undeniable, when Peter smiled so sweetly at him.

They danced and danced and to Peter, it was like the entire hall disappeared. There was no one else but them and all the anxiety, all the doubts faded away as he looked into Tony's eyes.

They had taken a long path to get where they were today. What started as a simple, professional relationship slowly transformed into a quiet, but comfortable silence as they worked.

The silence became filled with chatter and once one started talking, the other would answer. Their quiet work hours became filled with laughter and scandalized jokes then with soft teasing. The hunger for each other's company grew until it spilled out of the lab and brought them together in movie theaters then quiet little evenings in Peter's apartment.

Their first kiss was a memory that made them both grin and laugh. A moment of spontaneity as Tony babbled on and on, a flush of excitement tinting his cheeks red. Then shocked silence as Peter shut him up with a press of his lips.

Do that again, Tony had dared and Peter hadn't backed down since. He'd done it countless times until they were both breathless from it.

Countless dates and secret smiles being exchanged at the office. I love you's being exchanged softly and meaningfully. Reverently. Then the ease in which those words came, each dropping it casually in their texts and whenever they parted. It didn't make those significant words any less meaningful. In fact, it only reaffirmed, over and over, how they felt about each other.

Months fast-forwarded and then Tony was kneeling in front of him, a black box in hand and Peter staring dumbly at him like he hadn't expected it at all. The mister to my Mr. Stark, Tony had casually said once upon a time and now… Now, the ring sat on Peter's fingers, a quiet but unbreakable declaration.

All those memories whirled around them as they danced. The ease in which they trusted one another was obvious. The love they had was now glaringly obvious, as obvious as the beautiful sparkle that Peter's diamond ring gave off, a perfect mirror to Tony's wedding band.

And when the song came to an end, Tony's mic turned on. That voice that Peter has heard whispering love into his ears come on the speakers, breathless from excitement and exertion.

"I don't need to make introductions," Tony said while looking into Peter's eyes. "You all know who he is." -- Thank you to our wonderful artists and writer who participated in the first Starker Games!

[baekhyyun]

Accused Love | KNJ

» pairing: kim namjoon x reader (ft. lim jaebeom and byun baekhyun)

» genre: angst(???), cause it ain’t fluff children rn, sfw, mystery, stranger to semi-lovers

» rating: PG13

» word count: 3.3k

» Warnings: strong language, the lack of namjoon's name being used, jaebeom and baekhyun got more screen time than the damn main character i’m sorry

a / n: THIS IS ACTUALLY A NAMJOON FIC JGSKVSDS , even tho i mention his name like 5 times (ITS NOW 8) throughout the whole this fic (!!!!!) , this is also my first full fic so bare with my shitty writing and it's debuting after 5000 years. This beauty is apart of the Luv Library Project under the mystery category! There will be more than one part !!!! I wanted to post something before we got to the good part jfksnkvjdfkj. Thank you to everyone who has helped me and encouraged me with this fic!

Special thanks to @jungtaeyoongles for being there with me from the beginning, bouncing ideas off with, helping me plan this whole story and beta reading as well! Thank you to @meowxyoong for bouncing ideas with me too! Thank you to @thinksshesawolf and @ dee-ehn for beta reading this mess and clowning me in the process. We know who the real main character is in this fic.

The night sky was pitch-black, making the stars shine bright like diamonds against the darkness. Being located in the heart of Seoul, the stars shined brighter than the lights hopping off all of the tall buildings in the quiet, busy city. Jaebeom, one of the many infamous mafia leaders in South Korea, found himself waiting in the night for his next crime. Being the head meant sending someone under him to do the crime itself without getting his hands dirty. Yet with bad timing, he was out of luck for the night. All of his men found themselves in different missions committing different sins to bring in the money that the head wanted.

 After becoming the head boss, he stopped going out and living life to protect his own, his hands never touching anything besides the gun strapped to his chest hidden from the public eye or the money that was earned by his henchmen. He felt like he was on top of the world again after being away from the scene for so long. Jaebeom, believing his skills were rusty, turned to money laundering to build up his skillset again. Oh, was he wrong.

 He was on a hot streak and subsequently oozed cockiness from each movement he made. Every step Jaebeom took felt like pure muscle memory. He was a greedy man that wanted money. Money made the world go round. You could buy anything and anyone with a couple of hundred-dollar bills. The man had an insatiable desire for money. $100,000 was not enough to sustain his need for money.  He wanted more. He wanted $500,000. It felt right to him. Not bothering to double-check his work, he just went for it as his life depended on it.

 Never in a million years, would he have thought that he would be wiring money from a gaming company. Tencent, one of the largest Asian companies and known worldwide, did not scare him. He felt that this job was easy. Getting access to this place was a piece of cake, he thought. His charming personality is what got him the keys to the records room, housing every transaction that the company has ever made.

 Jaebeom thought everything was going smoothly, but he could not be more wrong. After being here for three hours wiring this money, he realized that he made a rookie mistake. How could he use his ID card to get access to the files? Why did he not use his boss's card to open up the files? All these questions went through his head at lightning speed that caused his heart to start racing, he felt like his ears were going to burst from the sound of his own heart. The world around him was crashing down at a fast pace that he had to think of something fast.

 "Fuck, fuck, fuck!" Jaebeom hissed to himself. How could I be so reckless? I can't let myself get caught over this shit. I gotta get out of here!"

 His senses went haywire where he couldn't think straight. Getting caught in this building around this time was the least of his worries. He needed out and that's what he was trying to do with his mind racing.

 As the clock ticked, Jaebeom rushed out the building to his car that was parked 5 blocks down the road. His only thought was to find a solution to this shit show that he had created the minute he walked in that building. His luck ran out.

 "Fuck me, man!" he continued to tell himself while running as fast as he could.

 "T-this is the o-one that f-fucks me o-over, and it's the simplest-t s-shit that gets me," he stuttered trying to control his breathing.

 Relief washed over him as he spotted his car hidden behind a dumpster. He still wasn't out of the clear. Slowing his pace down, a new thought popped in his head: should he have called someone to help him out? He thought it was best, but he didn't want to feel embarrassed at the thought of his underlings catching a whiff of the mess he created doing a simple job. He was the mafia boss for crying out loud. Making a mistake was out of the question, getting help was out as well. The more he thought of calling someone the more he got frustrated with the idea.

 The car roared to life, one hand reached the gear shift and set the car in reverse then back to drive. Hitting the gas pedal, he drove off with nothing but a dust cloud left behind. For being a mafia boss, he sure is fucking stupid, never once did he think that he would be making a mistake like that.

 Reaching a red light at an intersection, he noticed that the city was waking up to begin their day. He only had a couple of hours to come up with a solid cover story until he was supposed to show up at work again. Looking out the window he noticed the cars pass by; one car caught his attention. He thought this was his chance that he couldn't miss. It was a perfect idea from his point of view. Framing someone else was a bit of a bitch move but if he got out the clear, fuck, he would do it a thousand times over.

 He thought that using his rival would get rid of him for good so that he could be number one and rule Seoul from behind the scenes. Having everyone shirk in fear brought such joy to Jaebeom that he needs to go through with this plan. Becoming power-hungry made him crazy. He was thirsty for it and was going to do anything to get it. 

 Realizing that the light turned green, he makes his way back to the company for damage control. Who knew that bringing an end to his rival would make a man smile like a mad-man, but he thought it was so worth it to do so.

 The ride back was fairly quick for Jaebeom. As he got closer to Tencent, the police were there parked in the front of the building. He had to find a way into the building without being spotted. Circling Tencent, he decided to go through the backway. He still had his ID card on him, so if the police caught him right there he for sure would kiss the $500,000 goodbye.

 Parking his car in the alleyway behind the company, Jaebeom made his way to the back door cautiously. The perks of being named leader, it showed that you can handle any situation no matter the outcome, finding a solution to the mess he created was ironic.

 Slowly making his way up the stairs, he avoided any main hallways, not wanting to draw unwanted attention. Climbing twenty flights of stairs was not something Jaebeom planned for. He felt more guilty with each step he took for messing up a simple thing. He wished he had powers to reverse time and start over from the very beginning, but alas, he was never going to get that wish.

 Reaching the eighteenth floor, Jaebeom noticed no one near the entrance to the stairwell. He silently thanked the gods above to have come all the way up without getting caught. Twisting the knob to the door he slowly opened it and peaked his head to see if the coast was clear and surprisingly it was. Closing the door again, he stayed put in the stairwell. He found it strange that no one was guarding this floor, the floor where Jaebeom was located a couple of hours ago.

 Jaebeom's suspicions grew more as he stayed put, thinking of all the possible outcomes of this situation. None of his answers made any sense, the dots were not connecting at all. This pissed him off more than it should have.

 Deciding to give up, he moved on to the top floor where the CEO's office was, along with his own. Jaebeom's job title wasn't much, but that charming personality of his got him that spot on the top floor alongside the CEO. Everyone hated that Jaebeom got special treatment because he came here with no experience. He created enemies, did he care? No. It made him mad with power. He enjoyed that idea of people hating what he had and what they couldn't get.

 There was a scream that pulled Jaebeom out of his thoughts. "Where is he?! What do you mean you can't find him?!" one of the cops said into his phone.

 This is where it became challenging for Jaebeom, finding a clear path into the hallway without getting spotted by anyone. Peeking through the crack of the door, he noticed a tall man with a tan trenchcoat dressed up in an expensive suit. The realization hits him when he notices who the man was. It was none other than Kim Namjoon, a leader in the underground business and upper business, but to Jaebeom he was just a rival.

 He wondered why Namjoon was here, he had no business being here. Yet here he was waltzing into the company like he owns the place. The confidence that Namjoon gave off made Jaebeom sick to his stomach. How could someone just act confident all the time?

 "God, he's so infuriating, like can't this man even act normal," Jaebeom muttered to himself. "I just want to punch that stupid smirk off of his face."

 The wheels were turning in Jaebeom's head that after everything, he was getting some luck after the morning he had today. Reopening the door, he noticed Namjoon walking away from the coat closet. This was his opportunity to get rid of his ID card.

 He couldn't go out into the main hallway, he would get spotted quick. He needed to find a way to get himself into that coat closet. He had to think of something fast, there wasn't much time to waste. Looking back to where the officer was, Jaebeom couldn't find him.

 "Where did he go? He was just there," he told himself. Another voice caught his attention and it was from the CEO, Baekhyun. He was talking to the officer that Jaebeom was looking for. He felt so blessed to have him occupied. Looking left and right, he noticed that the coast was clear and booked it straight to the coat closet.

 Closing the door behind him, he was met with darkness, looking for the light switch with his hands. As he found the switch, the small closed space lit up. "Now where is that trenchcoat of yours," he whispered. "Ah, I found you, my dear sweet savior. Oh, how you are saving me from so much work."

Grabbing his ID from his coat pocket, he quickly placed it in Namjoon's trenchcoat and turned back around. Opening the door, he made sure the coast was clear once again and stepped out. Jaebeom made his way to the CEO's office and knocked on the door. Baekyhun and the officer turned their heads, noticing that it was Jaebeom.

 "There he is! Get him," Baekyhun loudly spoke.

 The officer was charged towards Jaebeom and before he could utter a word his hands were behind his back and his body slammed against the door. Groaning out loud from the impact Jaebeom asked, "What's going on, why am I getting slammed on a damn door by an officer?!"

 "Quit playing coy, Lim, what did you do with the money you stole from the company?" Baekhyun asked.

 Facing the man who asked the question, "I don't know what is going on, I just got here," Jaebeom's voice dropped a few octaves deeper.

 Baekhyun darted towards Jaebeom pushing the officer out of the way and turning Jaebeom around to face him. "Lim, I won't ask you again. Where is the money?!" he yelled, stressing each word as he spoke.

 "And I'm going to tell you again that I don't know what you are talking about!" Jaebeom rebutted back to the CEO.

 Baekyhun was just fuming with anger from Jaebeom's answer. Baekyhun swore that he was just bluffing and acting dumb, but the confusion on his face made his story more believable. Letting go of Jaebeom, Baekyhun walked towards the window of his office that gave him the best view of the busy city below. He was at a crossroads, not knowing what to do. He wanted to believe Jaebeom but the evidence was right there.

 Jaebeom silently watched his boss freak out, trying to understand the words that he spoke. His boss was at war with himself. Jaebeom thought he could use this as an advantage; to confuse the man more than he was.

 "Baekhyun, you know that I would never do anything to harm this company or to betray your trust," he spoke out loud.

 Baekhyun just stared at the man, his expression unreadable. Jaebeom couldn't figure out what he was thinking. Was Baekhyun figuring out that everything he's said was a lie? Jaebeom couldn't go down like this, this was not going to be the end.

 "Baekhyun, please I don't know what is going on, but I can tell you that I haven't seen my ID since yesterday. If that can help my case in any way," he hopelessly said.

 Jaebeom silently pleaded with Baekhyun to give him a chance to hear him out, which reluctantly he did. Baekyhun gave a hand signal to the police officer to leave the room and give the men privacy. "You have five minutes to tell me your side of the story or I'll ask the cops to take you away from here," he insisted.

 "As I said before, I haven't seen my ID since yesterday. The last time I saw the thing it was on my desk in my office. After that, I couldn't find it," Jaebeom lied through his teeth.

 "You lost your ID and didn't bother telling anyone about this?" Baekhyun questioned him.

 "Listen, I didn't think much of it when I couldn't find it after I left work. I thought I could find it when I got here today, but here we are." Jaebeom briefly paused.

 "I was planning on telling you today if I ended up not finding it!" he continued, "I can show you where I left it in my office and you can let the officer search too."

 Baekhyun was hesitant on taking Jaebeom's offer on searching his office, he was stressed and he was doubting everything that was said by this man. His trust in him was dropping rapidly, but did he have another choice? He had to go for it even if he ended up looking like a fool.

 Rising from his seat, Baekhyun walked around his desk and stood in front of Jaebeom and just stared him down. "If I found out that you are just fucking around and we find that ID of yours, you are out of here and out of my sight," leaving Jaebeom in his seat, Baekhyun walked towards the door and looked back, "Hurry up, we don't have all day. I have to do damage control because of you."

 Jaebeom quickly got up from his seat and followed his boss from behind, making their way to his office. The officer trailing along asked where they both were heading, Baekhyun quickly answering, "To his office, we are going to search for that ID card of his that supposedly was lost."

 "But sir, we don't have a search warrant to partake in this. We will not be able to assist you," the officer explained.

 Baekhyun continued to make his way to Jaebeom's office, telling anyone that walked past him to follow. Not a word was uttered when he spoke to anyone. The workers just simply followed like mindless slaves, not questioning his orders.

 Walking into the office, Baekhyun strolled quickly to the desk in the middle of the office and began to rummage through the files that laid on top neatly. Everyone that followed along began to do the same, going to different parts of the room and not leaving a corner unturned. Jaebeom just stood by the door not knowing what to do with himself besides watching the disaster unfold.

 Looking up to face the man that caused all the distress, Baekhyun spoke out loud, "Lim, it is best if you stepped outside and just stood by with the officer. You are truly not needed here."

 Jaebeom was offended by the words that the man spoke to him. It never crossed his mind that he would be pushed out of something that involved him. "To be fair Baekhyun, I don't think that is a good idea. What if one of the workers here is the culprit and trying to frame me over what happened? I'm sorry but I am not leaving this room until you all leave with me." His voice roared across the room.

 Baekhuyn rolled his eyes at his subordinate's stubbornness, it made him feel sick to his stomach that he did not want to walk. This was something that Jaebeom took very seriously. Never once did this man raise his voice at anyone during the job. He took everything that was handed to him without a single complaint. It scared Baekhyun that Jaebeom stood his ground and didn't budge one bit.

 "If you won't leave then stand by the door and don't get into anyone's way, Lim," he spoke with venom in his voice.

 Pleased with the response from his boss, he walked back to the door and just watched. No one knew what was to come at the end of this search. It was entertaining to watch everyone look through his belongings. They were never going to find anything and it made him ecstatic to have this type of knowledge over people.

 "Sir, we couldn't find anything in the cabinets,"

 "Sir, the bookshelf is clean,"

 One by one each person that Baekhyun brought with him ended up not finding anything. This made his blood boil, that not only could they not find anything, he as well couldn't come up with anything. His whole office was clean. Countless thoughts came to mind that gave him a migraine. Where could that ID of his be? Who took it? All these questions came to mind and none of the answers that he came up with seemed logical.

 With a huge sigh, Baekhyun told everyone to go back to work, this was a huge blow for his ego. Being proven wrong was his least favorite thing in the world. Being right about everything made his day, the power he felt was his drug. It was intoxicating to him. He needed this. Slamming the folders that laid on the desk, Baekhyun paced towards Jaebeom with anger in his eyes, he was not pleased when everyone came up short in their findings.

 "I don't know where you hid that ID of yours but if it's not found in the next twenty-four hours, you are on your own." he spat.

 Jaebeom wasn't shocked that his boss was worked up over not finding the missing ID. It actually made his day. Playing coy was his strongest suit; he enjoyed playing clueless. This was a win for him, the sight of his boss losing hope little by little. Everything was falling into place on how he imagined it, sweet victory was close. All he needed was the last piece to fall into place.

 Baekhyun sighed out loud, finally releasing Jaebeom from his grip and walked out of the ruined office. Jaebeom looked around and just smirked like a mad man and decided it was time to wrap things up. Shouts could be heard from his office, which made Jaebeom run out to where the commotion was. All he saw was three cops surrounding Namjoon, who was confused with everything trying to explain.

 One of the officers quickly grabbed hold of Namjoon and roughly pushed him against the nearest wall, "Kim Namjoon, you're under arrest!"

 Copyright © 2020 franklytae. All rights reserved. Please do not repost on any platform or translate without permission.

[suspiriu-m]

About Me

Hello! My name is Sal and welcome to my blog, Suspirium! Suspirium is a word that originates from one of my favorite movies, Luca Guadagnino’s 2019 remake of Dario Argento’s classic italian horror movie Suspiria. According to World of Dictionary, Suspirium is a Latin word meaning “Deep breath, sigh”. It’s also the title of one of my favorite songs from the soundtrack to the movie produced by Thom Yorke of Radiohead. I’m a huge horror movie buff so expect to see a lot of that sort of content on my blog if I can incorporate it into any of my work. I chose this as the title of my blog because of how well the word fits into the movie, and I just love the way it sounds. Anybody who’s watched the movie will understand, but I won’t go into detail as to not spoil it for anybody who hasn’t yet seen it.

Throughout my highschool years I technically went to two schools. My main and home school was Middletown High School, and my secondary school was Orange Ulster Boces in Florida New York. In high school I was always in media production and art classes. For example, photography, video editing, drawing & painting classes and my favorite was an Elements of Horror class I took my senior year. Horror being my favorite genre, I absolutely had to take a class that’s dove into the origins of classic horror novels, films and short stories. Leading to me finding my favorite classic horror story Dracula by Bram Stoker, and a multitude of stories by H.P. Lovecraft. Continuing on now to college i’m now majoring in Media Production while also still taking some classes in Marketing and Design! I really enjoy both a lot so it’s hard to kind of pick exactly which I want to do, but it’s nice knowing that no matter what path I finally choose I'll still have some experience in the other!

Aside from my education, I love to watch horror movies and read stories in my own free time. Movies in general are a huge hobby of mine and I watch at least 3-4 a week given I have the time. Some of my favaroties of all time concerning classics have got to be the Halloween series, The Evil Dead series and all four of the Scream movies. Other hobbies of mine that take up a huge part of my life and time are video games and music. I have a pretty big record collection that’s continuously growing with at least 80-90 albums and counting. I just recently purchased a few more to add being Sade’s Diamond Life, Whitney Houston’s Whitney and Whitney Houston albums, Lazaretto by Jack White, Texas Sun by Khruangbin & Leon Bridges and Petals for Armor by Hayley Williams. Hopefully my next additions will be What’s Your Pleasure? by Jessie Ware and The Baby by Samia. I’ve been collecting them for years, but especially now since even CD’s are starting to go out of style. I’m the kind of person who still likes to have physical copies of all my music and movies and games so having such big collection is super special to me.

In terms of video games, I try and play as wide of a variety that I can because I believe I can find something I like in any genre. Strategy, shooters, brawlers, online competitive games etc, but I think my favorite style of game is single-player, narrative driven experiences. Most recently I played The Last of Us Part II and was absolutely enthralled with it. I loved the first game so much so getting a sequel was something I was extremely grateful for. I don’t think video games get enough credit for what they do for storytelling. TLOU 1 and 2 are some of my favorite stories that I have experienced in any form of media. The heartbreak, pain, love, fear and excitement those games have succeeded in giving me while just sitting in front of my TV is something no other form of entertainment has brought me. Some of the most touching moments, but also the most excruciating. They also had a queer women front and center throughout the games which is something that isn’t very common in video games so seeing that was really nice to me. Other than The Last of Us, some other solid narrative driven games I’ve played are God of War, Uncharted 1-4, Marvel’s Spider-Man, The Tomb Raider Reboots, Ghost of Tsushima, the Batman Arkham series and Control.

Although story based games are my favorites that doesn’t mean I don’t have a place in my heart for some good old fashioned fun as well! I also really enjoy a lot of the Super Mario and Legend of Zelda games as well. My biggest pet peeve that I have with the gaming industry right now though is Fortnite. I think it’s literally the most annoying game ever created. People spend hundreds and thousands of dollars just to buy skins and weapon packs and I think it’s absolutely ridiculous. The fact that I work at a major video game retailer and constantly have kids running through my store screaming about the damn game at least once a day could also contribute to my hatred. Either way, I want no part and absolutely nothing to do with it.

Going back to queer representation though. I recently watched Pose over the summer. Not only was the show heavily based during the AIDS epidemic in New York City, almost the entirety of the main cast was comprised of Transgender Black women. On prime time television! This is the first show to ever achieve such a feat. Not only was the cast extremely talented, I thought the writing and production of the show as a whole was brilliant. It definitely has its flaws and I could point out a few of them, but I believe all of the good of the show far outweighs the bad. It’s not afraid to tackle extremely real and difficult subjects the Transgender and Black communities have faced in this country and all over the world. It’s so important to see content like this on television as well because EVERYBODY deserves representation. Not only was the cast Trans, but one of the lead writers of the series Janet Mock is also a Black Trans woman! Pose was filled with heartfelt moments that truly had me sobbing in my bed as I watched. I think I actually cried at pretty much every single episode for both seasons. The cast is brilliant, the realism and talent and star power they bring to the show is like nothing that I’ve ever seen before and I’m so glad to be able to see them up on my television. I so badly one day hope that I can be behind the scenes of producing a show of this caliber some day.

While I have yet to help in the production of a show like this, I have had my fair share of of making short films, music videos and even assisting on a friend of mine’s first full length movie that he submitted to festivals. Last year, I had the opportunity to shoot a short horror film with my classmates for our final project. The film was based around a young woman getting trapped at her school in the middle of a blizzard, and slowly beginning to realize that she may not be alone. In a fight for her life, she has to survive till morning while going up against a mysterious killer who lurks the halls of her small town college. Sadly, we didn’t have enough time to produce a full and finalized cut of the film but coming together and working with a few other classmates was still a really fun experience. Not only was I able to play the role of the killer, I aided in audio, music selection, location scouting, props department, shot planning and writing the movie and it was a great time. I also had the pleasure of helping out my friend Matt Vincini in shooting his short film The Cattle Farmer. A horror/thriller film about a boy who is adopted into a family, only to realize that his life might have been planned from the start. It featured a mysterious woodland family who may or may not have had cannibalistic tendencies that included their adopted children. It was a super cool experience to be on a set with a bunch of actors and seeing my friend in action in the role of director. Collaborating on projects like this with friends is always a fun time, even it does get stressful at some points. At one point in the film, one of the characters realizes that the dinner he is currently eating could quite possible be his last meal ever. Which kinda let me to thinking what my last meal would be. After some thinking, I think i’d definitely have to choose my families homemade pasta and meatballs. I know, pretty stereotypical for an Italian family but it’s just so good. We make our own sauce every september and it’s a huge family event. Everybody comes together and one of our houses and it’s literally a whole days worth of work. The best part? At the end of the night, we all have a huge feast and make pasta and meatballs with all of the sauce we just made. It’s one of my favorite things to do with my family and always one of my favorite meals. Not only is it delicious, but also sentimental.

This is all for now! Thanks for stopping by my blog and reading a little bit about me. I could probably keep rambling on for hours but I don’t think that’s the smartest idea. I can’t wait to fill this blog with more content this year and hope to hear from you guys as well! Until then, i’ll be watching more movies and DEFINITELY playing some more games. At this point i’ve been playing the new Marvel’s Avengers video game so, let me get back to kicking some AIM ass!

[erekiosuncreativeideas]

The Part-Time Puppeteer - Chapter 04

<= Chapter 3

Summary : Lukas has a totally normal day at work (spoiler alert: he doesn't). Also available on AO3 : https://archiveofourown.org/works/23828971/chapters/57890368

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New chapter ! I hope you'll like it ! Don't hesitate to leave a comment if you did, it helps me a lot, I can assure you !

Sorry about the drawing not being finished, my tablet is dying and I couldn't do more. I probably won't be able to draw anything for this fanfic until I either solve the problem or buy another tablet...

Anyway, happy reading !

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Chapter 4 - “I’m… I’m sorry?”    

Kaleb did say that Lukas was going to have a lot of work because of the auditions… But the young man really thought it wouldn’t be that bad. For several hours, the student had to do many tasks, a lot of which involving physical efforts. He wasn’t very sporty usually, so it was quite demanding for his body. All his muscles seemed to beg him to stop after a while. After all, spending a few hours moving heavy props around and building stuff was not easy for a young nonathletic man like him. When his mentor, Tom, told him he could take a break, Lukas felt like he was hearing angels singing in the background. The student stretched, feeling his joints crack at the action. Oh, he so needed that.

Lukas approached the coffee machine in the room and prepared himself a cup. He had to drink at least one cup if he wanted to survive for the rest of his shift. He looked at his watch and was relieved to see he only had an hour or so before the end of his workday.

“Thank God,” he thought to himself with a sigh. The day had been quite tiring, both mentally and physically, and the idea of just collapsing onto his bed was extremely appealing to him. Though he knew he had some assignments to finish and that he wouldn’t be able to go to sleep before midnight. Welp, this had to be expected, with his studies and the fact that most of his free time would be taken by this gruelling job.

At least, Mike had done everything to make him feel at ease. His new friend also helped him to get acquainted with the other members of the team and Lukas was really thankful for that. The other man also got to explain why his evil twin was there and it only made the student’s day even more tiring than it already was. Apparently, when the guy had learnt about his brother’s participation in the project, he had “offered” to play a role and was given the antagonist part. However, “offered” wasn’t quite the right word and Lukas guessed that MJ forced himself in the project, from Mike’s face while the latter was explaining it. In a way, his presence was a good thing for the show, since MJ was very famous, even among children. His participation in the project would only raise the ratings of the show and this was something they deeply needed for the show to keep airing. However… MJ’s attitude on set was definitely not needed.

The guy was absolutely detestable, an opinion apparently shared by most people in the team. He was like a diva, but ten times worse. Not only did he criticize most of the stagehands for things he had no responsibility in, but he was also unquestionably disrespectful and odious to everyone, even Grooves himself! The nerves this guy had! He seemed to think he was superior to every person in this room! The only one to whom he was less displeasing was his brother, though Lukas didn’t envy him. If MJ wasn’t mean to him, he was at best condescending and at worst passive-aggressive.

Lukas also had to deal with him at some point, with MJ always pointing at his mistakes and wondering aloud why they hired a student out of all people in need of a job. No need to say that the only thing preventing Lukas to punch him in the face was the money he really, really needed at the end of the month. He hadn’t noticed how patient and calm he could be until now, if he had to be completely honest.

Did this execrable actor have some quality to compensate how rude he was? Not really. However, he did know how to act, almost perfectly. The young man had to admit that, at least. If only the other’s personality wasn’t so terrible… Lukas had been admirative of MJ in the past, when he didn’t actually know him, but now, his admiration had been thrown away. Very, very far away. The question was why no one had actually talked about it on the Internet or in the news. He would have to ask Mike about that, the next time he was alone with him.

His inner monologue was cut short when he heard a knock on the studio door. Well, that was unusual, since the team members came in and out without knocking. It then opened, revealing a man in his forties, soon followed by a little girl, hand in hand. The man was wearing a formal suit, as if he had just left an important meeting. His haircut was well-groomed and while the suit made him look like a strict person, his face seemed rather welcoming.

The little girl was quite young. She probably was an eight or ten years old kid, though Lukas didn’t know much about children, to begin with. She was wearing a black shirt with a glittery pattern the student didn’t recognize from where he was and she had white sleeves underneath. She was wearing light blue jeans overalls as well as a red jacket tied up to her waist by the sleeves. Nervousness could be seen on her face as she and her (probable) father entered the room.

They were probably here for the audition. The studio was looking for children for the main protagonists. Other families had come during his shift to have an audition, though Lukas had been too busy in the backstage to actually watch them. This time, however, he hoped he would be able to during his break. Witnessing an audition in a famous studio! If he had been told that a month ago, he wouldn’t have believed it.

The family was greeted by DJ Grooves and the little girl was handed a script for the scene. Lukas couldn’t hear anything from where he was standing, but he had no problem imagining that the child was been explained the scene she was going to play. Well, she probably rehearsed it plenty of times before, though the anxiety could still make her look for her words. It was just a precaution.

The director then called MJ over. Since the latter was the only actor playing one of the main characters, for now, he had to help with the auditions. The student thought the other would see it as a chore but, on the contrary, he was way too happy to show off his acting skills.

Yep, that was it. Lukas couldn’t stand that guy.

Lukas got closer to the shooting set, hoping he could watch a bit of the audition before going back to work. He held his cup of coffee to his lips, pretending to drink it when he had actually finished it a bit earlier. At least, he would look somewhat busy.

The little girl got up on the shooting set, doing her best to remain calm and taking deep breathes. Her father was watching her carefully with a mix of worry and pride on his face. MJ, on the other hand, seemed just fine and absolutely not anxious. Well, he was used to that kind of thing, so that made sense. And then, MJ’s eyes met his and the other smiled at him hypocritically, just to mock him. Lukas replied with a glare, which only made MJ snicker.

The student hated him. So much.

The actor took a puppet which had been given to him by one of the other stagehands. He readied himself and held it as if it was floating around the child. It was a puppet representing a character with blue skin and a red long coat. His head had the form of a croissant, and its eyes were grey and red, one of them having red diamonds in it. Its fingers were sharp like claws and some fangs could be seen from the puppet’s mouth.

Woah. Creepy.

Just as they were about to start the audition, a loud noise interrupted them, just like Lukas’s train of thoughts.

The door of the room had been opened abruptly, revealing the Conductor, out of breath. His face was covered in black, as if something had exploded next to him. The student did his best not to laugh at his frustrated and angry expression and looked away, not wanting to incur the Conductor’s wrath.

-“You’re late, darling”, remarked Grooves, without his usual glamorous tone. The reproach in his tone of voice was crystal clear, though. The other director lifted his hand to make him stop talking.

-“Oh don’t pecking start, Grooves!” retorted the Conductor, with his strong Scottish accent, emphasizing his partner’s name in a hateful way. Welp, they really couldn’t stand each other, could they? The Conductor approached DJ Grooves as the latter started talking again:

-“Well, I guess someone had another accident today,” said the DJ with a mocking tone: “What was it this time? The train engine blowing up in your current movie?”

The older man took a seat next to Grooves, not even greeting the little girl and her father while doing so. Boy, this audition sure was lively… Lukas couldn’t help but hope the child wouldn’t get too distracted by it. He couldn’t imagine how he would feel in her shoes.

-“Peck off, I’m not in the mood,” warned the Conductor darkly, before taking a speaker cone next to him. DJ‌ Grooves simply rolled his eyes and sighed, as the other director shouted a loud “action!”, still not greeting the family. Well, seemed like Lukas found another person to add in the “not having any fucking manners” list. It sure was getting long after only two days of work…

The child jumped at the loud order but quickly pulled herself together. She took another deep breath and started talking, saying her lines with a confidence Lukas would never have. She was really talented and, even if he hadn’t seen the other candidates earlier that day, he couldn’t help but think she had something. Something which made her different. The way she moved across the stage, the way she said her lines and reacted to MJ’s ones, the fake expressions on her face as she acted… She was talented. Well, Lukas didn’t know much about acting anyway, but he did know that he was really impressed at the performance. It was also easy to see that the little girl was having a lot of fun playing her role. The student didn’t think this day would be enjoyable in any way, but there was something about watching this audition that made his shift infinitely better than what it was before.

That’s why he was astounded when he heard Grooves interrupting the audition with a “cut!”. Why? The young man didn’t understand! She was skilled!

The child’s expression went from the excitement of acting to a much darker one which Lukas knew very well: a mix of anxiety, sadness and disappointment. He felt a huge heartache seeing her like this and couldn’t help but relate. “How disappointed she must be!” was all the student was able to think as he was looking at her.

However, his distress disappeared completely with Grooves’s next sentence:

-“I don’t know… There’s something bothering me with the puppet.”

The words hit Lukas like a train as a huge feeling of surprise settled over him. The… Puppet?

MJ seemed to have the same reaction as him. His eyes widened, as if he had never expected criticism in the first place, which was probably the case in retrospect. The actor furrowed his brow, confused and slightly offended at the same time.

-“What do you mean?” questioned MJ almost innocently, yet it was very easy to see that he absolutely disliked where this conversation was going.

-“Well…” Grooves thought for a few seconds and then pointed to the puppet: “I’m wondering that maybe it might be a little too scary for the children watching the show.”

MJ was about to retort something but the Conductor was quicker and added:

-“For once, I’m gonna agree with DJ Peckneck,” the name made his colleague pinch his nose in disapproval: “It’s terrifying.”

MJ remained speechless for a few moments as if he couldn’t believe what he had just heard. Well, it was true: Lukas was not a puppet specialist or anything, but it was scary as hell. The fangs, the claws, the corpse-looking skin… How could it not be creepy?

The actor straightened himself, looking around him like he couldn’t understand what was being said to him. He seemed like he was searching for someone who could back him up. Mike, who had entered the room not long ago, certainly because of the sudden agitation, noticed his brother’s distress and carefully approached the directors:

-“I-I’m sorry, but…” the lead designer gulped and tried to support his twin: “You asked for a spooky puppet, so I tried to-”

He was soon cut short by the Conductor, who glared at him:

-“Well, yeah, but look at it!” he demanded, pointing to the puppet.

Grooves agreed:

-“It is quite unnerving, darling. Can you, perhaps… Make it cuter or something?”

-“Cuter?!” MJ’s offended voice echoed in the room. His eyes glanced between the directors as he spoke again, full of sarcasm: “I’m sorry, I thought you wanted a villain, not a tea-party monster!”

-“MJ…” Mike warned his twin, surely knowing very well where all of this was going, by the expression on his face. But MJ was not having it.

-“What, Mike? You’re going to let them criticize our work without saying anything? What are you, a doormat?”

Lukas winced at the words and felt his anger coming back full force. How could someone say that to their own brother?

All the stagehands had stopped working and were witnessing the young actor’s outburst.

Mike only remained silent, as the Conductor slammed his fist on the armrest of the chair he was sitting on:

-“That’s enough!” yelled the older director, without even needing the cone speaker to be heard all across the other side of the room.

A few moments passed with deafening silence, as MJ gave the Conductor a death stare, clenching his fists and his jaw, refusing to lose. But the other man was much more persistent than him and soon, MJ just threw the doll onto the floor with a force intensified by his anger.

-“You know what? Fine,” concluded the diva, with a faked gentle tone: “See if you can finish the audition without me, I’m done for today. Do not bother me.”

Lukas saw Mike cringe at the sound of the puppet hitting the floor. As a lead designer, the student couldn’t imagine how painful it must be to see the props you worked so hard on getting thrown away like they were just garbage.

That was it. Lukas was done taking that guy’s bullshit. He had to say something! But what if he lost his job after that? He couldn’t allow himself to lose an opportunity like this! Sure, the job was hard, but this was the only way he had to fund his studies! If he ever lost it…

His nervous and conflicted thoughts were interrupted as he saw MJ leaving the scene, stomping with fury. But as he was walking with heavy steps towards the door, one of his feet got caught up in the multitude of cables laying on the ground and he fell onwards. The actor’s face met the ground with a loud bump, resonating in all the quiet room. A quiet room which was soon filled with powerful waves of laughter. All the stagehands, even the directors, were laughing at the entitled actor’s fall. Mike, on the other hand, was the only one not laughing at all. On the contrary, the lead designer was watching his brother like one would watch a bomb about to explode. MJ lifted his face off the ground, utterly humiliated and Lukas found it absolutely priceless. The guy got just what he deserved!

And so, Lukas opened his mouth and laughed.

The actor’s face! The way he just fell down to the floor! This day had started so badly but now it was a hundred times better! Oh, he would never forget that!

He laughed for a few more seconds until he felt like something was wrong. And then it hit him like a train: he was the only one laughing now.

The student stopped immediately, closing his mouth as the realization hit him. That’s when he noticed that everyone was staring at him, their eyes widened and their face full of surprise. Oh gosh. It had happened again, hadn’t it? Lukas had laughed too loud and everyone had heard him. Instantly, he put a hand on his mouth.

The young man had always been very insecure about his laughter. For many people, laughing was something normal and easy, but for Lukas… He was absolutely ashamed of the sound and volume of his laughter. A lot of people had made fun of it at school just like many others had pointed it out to him years later.

Thus, with years of bullying and self-confidence destroyed little by little, Lukas had come to hate the sound of his laughter. And now, everyone was just staring at him in bewilderment. As for MJ, the man was glaring at him like he had never before, clenching his teeth and squinting his eyes. Oh, well, now Lukas’s hatred for the guy was mutual. Great.

The student wanted nothing more than to dig his own grave and bury himself in it. This was only his second day of work and somehow, he had managed to screw everything up again. God, what could he do to fix that? Could he even save himself from this situation? And oh, he couldn’t even imagine how MJ was going to go back at him with that… The student was not sure he would stand new hours of bullying about his laughter when he had just managed to keep his anxiety under control only a few years ago. And said anxiety was still hard to control today!

Lukas let out a nervous chuckle, glancing at the other team members, dread settling over him. What could he do, what could he do?

-“Hum… Sorry. I- uh, I’m going to go to the toilets now… Sorry again…” he mumbled, pointing to the door tensely and trying to speak as the words had trouble leaving his mouth. He had to get away, otherwise he would become a total nervous disaster. He had to get away, get away from all these people staring at him…

-“Hey, wait a second,” the Conductor’s voice arose in his back as he tried to leave, stopping him on his track. Oh God, could he get fired for laughing too loud? No, he knew it wasn’t possible, he knew how laws worked! This was just his anxiety talking! He was being irrational! His feelings were a mess and so were his thoughts.

Lukas just wanted to disappear as soon as possible. Yet, he turned back, facing the crowd of people again. The directors were staring at him with a look the student couldn’t recognize. His anxiousness intensified even more. Oh great, even more things to get scared about. He only waited, feeling like he was waiting to be given a death sentence. Finally, after what felt hours to Lukas, the Conductor started talking again:

-“Did you…” he paused, glancing between Grooves and the young man with a mix of confusion and curiosity on his face. It was strange not to see a negative expression on the director’s face. Seeing how the Conductor was looking for his words, Grooves took the reins of the discussion, though very much confused and curious as well:

-“Is that your real laugh, darling?” was the question the DJ asked him.

Lukas was mortified. He was only able to nod slightly, absolutely unmoving. In the corner of his vision, he saw MJ getting up, throwing the cables away from him furiously. When the latter looked up and met the student's eyes, there was definitely hatred in there. Yet, there was something else. And when the other started to smile, Lukas understood that he had been right: the actor would never let him forget what happened today.

He was so screwed.

The directors looked at each other, then glanced between Lukas and MJ. Wait, why were they staring at him too? The student felt like he had missed something, something huge. And when Grooves opened his mouth again, the young man was dumbfounded:

-“How about you got your chance at an audition?”

The word “astonishment” was clearly not strong enough to express Lukas’s state of mind at that particular moment. What?

-“I’m… I’m sorry?” he wondered aloud, certain he must have misunderstood something. There couldn’t be any possible way that he had been asked to try auditioning!

Grooves was about to answer but another voice interrupted him: MJ.

-“Are you kidding me?!” yelled the actor, both furious and confused: “He’s a student! He knows nothing about acting! What role would you give him anyway? A fucking tree in the background? Hah!”

MJ scoffed at his own joke, glaring both at the directors and the student in a superior way, as if he knew that he had always been right all along. But then, the Conductor answered his question, absolutely blowing MJ’s mind, just as Lukas’s.

-“We’re going to give him yours, you peck neck diva.”

Lukas felt the world turning around him. This was all a dream, right? This couldn’t be possibly happening! He was going to wake up and laugh at his stupid dream, and start his day as if nothing had happened! Because that could only be the case, right? This couldn’t be real!

But MJ’s scream, on the contrary, was very much real:

-“What?!” the actor’s voice resonated in all the room: “You’re going to do what?!” His intonation was loud and deadly serious.

Grooves was the one to reply, darkly, glaring at the young actor through his star-shaped glasses:

-“You heard us, darling,” was all the DJ had to say to shut MJ up.

A few moments passed where the latter stayed motionless, shaking from the rage he was trying to contain. In the other side of the room, Mike was watching his twin with extreme worry. And then, the bomb exploded. MJ screamed and stomped to the door, knocking all the shooting equipment on his way out, still screaming all while he did so. All the other stagehands could only stare in bewilderment, not knowing what to do. But before anyone could try to stop him, the actor stormed out and slammed the door behind him. Mike soon followed him, though it was easy to tell from his face that it wasn’t the first time something like that happened.

Lukas, on the other hand, remained unable to move, completely swamped by the events. It is only when he felt a tap on his shoulders that he came back to reality. He turned back, his face extremely pale. His eyes widened when they met Grooves’s ones. The latter was handing him a script, which the student stared, astonished.

-“We still have an audition to finish, darling. Why don’t you come help us to take it up again?”

This couldn’t be real. This couldn’t possibly be real!

But then, the student’s hand mindlessly grabbed the script and, when his fingers felt the soft surface of the paper against his skin… He knew that he was very well awake.

How did he get himself into such a situation…?

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Welp, what a day for Lukas, right? And that's when MJ's true hatred for Lukas starts :)

See you on the next chapter ! Stay safe everyone !

Chapter 5 =>

[ryqoshay]

What are your favorite NicoMaki doujins? (Totally not asking for recommendations)

Oh dear, where to start? ... Uhm... all of them? Well, I suppose there are a few with plots I’m not particularly crazy about and some with art styles that do little for me, but I suppose I can make a quick list here.

I’ll divide up the list based on (N)SFW status for those wishing to avoid such stuff.

And it apparently got really long. I was originally just going to put the NSFW stuff under the cut, but there’s just so much awesome NicoMaki stuff out there, and I’ve even been skipping stuff, and only sticking to what can be found on Dynasty Reader... so I guess the whole thing needs to go under the cut now.

Safe (and probably quite fluffy)

 - Happy Family - Easily earns its “Moe up the butt” tag. Set in the manga’s universe where Nico only has sisters, no brother.  - You Can’t Escape the Yazawas!! - Another by the same author. Flustered Maki is always adorable.  - Never Let Me Go - A short, cute taste of angst.  - NICONICO MAXIMUM double happiness - Created before the anime and deals with the couple’s use of honorifics back then.  - NicoMaki Dating Life: 1 Week, 2 Weeks, 3 Months - Tiny glimpses into the early dating life of NicoMaki. (4 months is NSFW and will be linked below)  - Colorful Shuffle - An interesting take on events from S2 E06. I will never have enough NicoMaki as portrayed by RinPana   - Scandal - tmfly draws adorable NicoMaki (same author as above)  - Let Us Stay For Longer - So of course I need to include more tmfly  - Don't Accept Unpardonable Acts at a Public Place! - and still more tmfly  - Blanket - More moe up the butt  - 365 - A nice collection of adorableness  - NicoMaki Manga - Feels like a chapter left out of the collection above  - Home Sweet Home - More adorableness with the twins  - Oblivious Nishikino Maki - Three chapters of Kou’s utter adorableness  - Kou - Honestly all of Kou’s work is awesome, so I’ll just link it all  - Your Ring Finger - Maki got a ring from...?  - Drill - Another artist who’s NicoMaki work is amazing. I think their portrayal of Nico is a bit more dense than I personally headcanon - I see Maki as being slower on the emotional uptake - but all of the NicoMaki tags on this page are worth checking out, as well as this image in particular, as it was what inspired part of my scene Reconstructed Reunion.  - NicoMaki Relaxed Manga - I doubt I will ever tire of casual, slice of life, domestic NicoMaki  - NicoMaki An Easygoing Birthday - More of the same. Murata has three other on Dynasty Reader, but I’m not quite as crazy about them as I am about these two, so I’ll leave them off this list. Fair warning that two are NSFW  - Maki-chan Kawaii Ka Ki Ku Ke Ko - Flustered Maki is Adorable Maki  - Nico Maki Maki - Probably the best gift one could give to Maki  - NicoMaki Interdict - By the gods do I love this one. The fact that Umi, of all people, is picking up on the NicoMaki vibes, is enough to make me laugh. A lot. And I believe I’ve mentioned that at least once in HtHaN.  - Magnetic Box - An adorable collection from the same author as the last two  - No, 1 - Three long chapters filled with amazing art, a pinch of angst, a sprinkle of spiritual power and many wonderful NicoMaki moments.  - Karuha - I cannot tell you how many times I’ve reread this author’s works. Even the NSFW entries are “porn with plot” and are the kind of thing I would want to emulate should I include such a scene in HtHaN. Honestly, just having linked these here makes me want to reread them all again.  - NicoMaki!! - Tsundere’ish Maki is adorable  - Not a Lover NicoMaki - Never enough cute domestic NicoMaki. I have a handful of notes for future scenes in HtHaN because of this doujin. And someday I may even write them.  - NicoMaki Kiss - A cute depiction of the couple’s first kiss  - NicoMaki Kiss (part 2) - One is never enough  - Springtime Chocolate Day - Honesty may be the best policy, but that doesn’t make it any easier  - NicoMaki Days - A wonderful collection of 4-koma that takes us from Friends, to Dating to Living Together and finally to Married. Always worth a reread.  - Adult NicoMaki - An interesting take on the couple grown up  - My Idol, My Star - I’m not crying, it’s just raining  - Happy Wedding Vacation - Probably the safest Ooshima Tomo work there is. And among my favorite, though Honeymoon Baby down in the Mostly Safe’ish section holds strong in first place for me.  - Nico Senpai Was Hypnotized - Another amazingly safe Tomo work.

Canon Works

 - Love Live! School Idol Diary ch06: The Seven Mysteries of Otonokizaka Academy - Maki is afraid of ghosts. And someone else might be as well...  - Love Live! School Idol Diary ch02: Work, Summer Girl - Nico sells softserve and Maki visits. Adorableness ensues.  - Love Live! School Idol Diary ch04: On The Night Of The Fireworks - NicoMaki wearing yukatas, watching fireworks and being cute together.

Mostly Safe’ish:

 - Sotto Okoshite Yume Misete - Cute short little dream thing. In this set due to a couple camera angles.  - Itsumo Doori ni Dekinai - Is technically SFW, but I put it here because it’s a direct sequel to the one above.  - NicoMaki Had a Baby With iPS Cell Technology - Maternal NicoMaki is always welcome, imho  - NicoMaki Had a Baby With iPS Cell Technology 2 - Thankfully, Tomo feels the same way I do about more maternal NicoMaki - Honeymoon Baby - One of my all time favorite NicoMaki doujins, so much so that it’s directly influenced many of my headcanons as well as plot points in HtHaN. Also, this is about as SFW as Ooshima Tomo gets.  - Back-and-Forth Initiative - Perhaps could be placed on the Safe list, but just in case I’ll put it here. I’ll probably be borrowing some of the ideas here for HtHaN.  - NicoMaki Medical Check - I love the premise and the plot, but one line from Maki makes my eye twitch a bit and thus it ends up in this section of the list.  - Pickle Love - Safer than the inuendo implies. Only dirty minds make it necessary to put in this part of the list  - Nico-chan Wants to Push You Down Too!! - Pretty safe Tomo work.

NSFW

 - NicoMaki Dating Life: 4 Months - The conclusion of the clips from above.  - Rabbit-like Girlfriend - Nico knows how to get what she wants from Maki  - Want Me! - Awkward first time. I’ll likely draw a bit from this should I ever write such a scene for HtHaN.  - Udon - Udon’s work is a mixed bag of Safe and NSFW, but pretty much all cute. I linked my favorite Safe work up above. My favorite NSFW is Good Morning, Good Night.  - Of Course I know How to Use the Public Bath! - Ecchi rather than hentai, but still probably belongs in this section.  - Ooshima Tomo - Most of her doujins are NSFW, but I like the characterizations presented in them. I’m not particularly fond of Offering a Poem of Love to the Upside Down Sun as the tone feels off to me and Limited Edition Yuri Book is futanari, which has never really been a kink of mine. Also, many of her works seem to share a timeline, but she did a team project with EERR which is the next entry  - Crystal Sugar and Machine Gun - A multi-chapter introspective angst fest with a NSFW ending. I hesitate to call this work one of my favorites, but I’ve reread it multiple times nonetheless. Each time it makes me think about the directions I’m taking HtHaN and makes me wonder if I shouldn’t include more angst from time to time. And even if I don’t include it directly, I might reference it via Nico or Maki being introspective and considering less-than-desirable alternatives to how their lives are.

So, yeah... there you have it; what was intended to be a quick and dirty little list of my favorite NicoMaki doujin. And I didn’t even get around to linking to stuff I’ve found on other sites, though some I’m not sure I’d want to link directly to anyway; I’m hoping that stuff will end up on better sites eventually. And for every translated NicoMaki, there are at least half a dozen that remain untranslated; enough that I’m seriously considering learning Japanese just to read them.

There is just so much out there; 9 pages on Dynasty Reader. Compare that to the 5 for NozoEli, 2 for KotoUmi and RinPana. We’re pretty lucky as NicoMaki fans when it comes to quantity of awesome fanworks. I’d highly encourage exploring the rest of the works on Dynasty Reader to see if there is a diamond in the rough that I missed or appeals more to your tastes or whatever.

[carolinesbookworld]

tagged by @kabeswaters and @swellwriting <3

on a scale of 1-10, how excited are you about life right now? 0

describe yourself in a hashtag? very similar to @fortisfiliae #stressedanddepressed

if you could do a love scene with anyone, who would it be? Harrison Osterfield

if your life was a musical, what would the marquee say? prepare for disaster

what’s one thing people don’t know about you? um...idk my boyfriend knows basically everything about me sooooooo

what’s your wake up ritual? wake up, turn off alarm (bc with this at-home learning stuff i’ve been waking up like literally 1 min before my alarm goes off???), text good morning to my bf, snapchat, discord bc moonlit fam talks allll night, tumblr, get out of bed, wash face, get dressed, coffee and breakfast it’s very specific

what’s your go to bed ritual? wash glasses and face bc my skin is soo oily by the end of the day so you best believe my glasses be needing washing everyday, shower, say goodnight to fam, text bf for like 15 mins or until he says goodnight, turn alarm on, plug in phone, go to sleep

what’s your favorite time of day? morning but specifically from 7:30 until 9  

your go to for having a good laugh? FRIENDS as in the show

dream country to visit? Australia bc my dad once got to hold a baby koala there and i wanna do that so bad

what’s the biggest surprise you’ve ever had? so my family moved before my sophomore year so me and my bff started trying to surprise each other whenever one of us came to visit and the weekend of my birthday, she skypes me as she’s walking around what i thought was her house and then i start hearing an echo and next thing i know she’s standing in the doorway of my room and that was pretty much the best surprise ever

heels or flats/sneakers? sneakers converse

vintage or new? new but i love vintage aesthetic i just couldn’t live with it

who do you want to write your obituary? karli @swellwriting bc she is my brain twin and i would be mocking her horrible grammar and spelling from my grave and we would both get a good laugh about it in the afterlife

style icon? the mom i babysit for haha she’s like one of my best friends tho which sounds really weird but it’s true

what are three things you cannot live without? books, dogs, days that are exactly 65 degrees

what’s one ingredient you put in everything? um idk chocolate??

what 3 people living or dead would you want to make dinner for? Sarah J. Maas, Eddie Redmayne, my boyfriend bc i haven’t had dinner with him for 47 days

what’s your biggest fear in life? losing the people i love...and spiders

window or aisle seat? window bc aisle makes me anxious that i’m in people’s way

what’s your current tv obsession? the cw’s nancy drew it’s so good please go watch it

favorite app? instagram, discord, or tumblr, depends on my mood

secret talent? um idk i can draw very realistic portraits of people when i take the time to

most adventurous thing you’ve ever done in your life? okay so technically this wasn’t me who did it but i was part of the adventure. when me and my boyfriend were just “friends” ie. liked each other and knew we liked each other but were too scared to admit it. anyway, we had this elaborate plan to shave our youth group leader’s head if we were able to bring in a certain amount of food for the food drive during vbs week. so yeah we spent like three days planning the whole thing out and then decided to go price shopping at walmart with all of our younger siblings bc we needed supervision or something lol to see how many individual things of food we could buy with $20 each we ended up just getting like 20 huge boxes of ramen and then his sister ended up throwing up so we took her home and then went back to church where my car was parked but instead of turning to get to church my boyfriend decides to go straight through the stop light (it was green okay) and spontaneously drive up into the foothills. well we get to the top of the foothills and we’re at the lake and we all get out to look at the city and my boyfriend claims that we need to document this moment so he takes a selfie with all of us and we somehow ended up right next to each other in it and i only found this out like three months ago (this happened back in june) that he only took the picture because he wanted one of us together in case we didn’t start dating lol so sweet and yeah, that was a very long story but i needed context instead of just saying “yeah we drove up a mountain”

how would you define yourself in three words? loyal, anxious, passionate

favorite piece of clothing you own? this dark coral dress that makes my eyes and hair look really pretty

a must have clothing item that everyone should have? a hoodie

a superpower you would want? i want to be able to project my thoughts into someone else’s mind bc i’m so bad at explaining stuff sometimes especially when it comes to how i feel

what’s inspiring you in life right now? ACOTAR series by Sarah J. Maas, highly recommend

best piece of advice you’ve received? opening up to more than one person is important because if you lose that person then you’ve lost all your support

best advice you’d give your teenage self? the friends who have stuck around this long are the ones you want to hang onto and the ones that you need are the ones you don’t always see

a book everyone should read? The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

what would you like to be remembered for? being a crazy dog mama

how do you define beauty? confidence in yourself and not caring what others think about you

what do you love most about your body? my metabolism

best way to take a rest/decompress? open a window to feel the breeze and listen to Islands by Hey Ocean! which is so calming to me

favorite place to view art? nature or tumblr

if your life was a song, what would the title be? we’re going with a fob/p!atd theme here and calling it “depression screwed me over so i screwed it back and ended up worse off”

if you could master one instrument, what would it be? piano

if you had a tattoo, where would it be? probably on my forearm or by my left hip

dolphins or koalas? koalas did i mention that i want to hold a baby koala

what’s an animal that represents you? great dane puppy ie. very excitable but will also take a four hour nap when tired

best gift you’ve ever received? my best friend made this photo collage for me when i moved that is hanging in my room and it has a bunch of pictures of me and her over the years and i just love it

best gift you’ve given? for christmas i gave my boyfriend a hammock and the bookshelf addition of clue, two things he had no idea i would remember him mentioning and his face was priceless. also i made my mom a cake for her birthday this year and she was so happy and said it made her feel very special <3

what’s your favorite board game? clue or ticket to ride (specifically nordic countries)

what’s your favorite color? currently a pale turquoise

least favorite color? any shade of light brown

diamond or pearls? diamonds

drugstore makeup or designer? drugstore bc i don’t wear makeup enough to validate buying designer, also i don’t really care

pilates or yoga? yoga

coffee or tea? coffee coffee coffee coffee coffee coffee coffee coffee cof-

what’s the weirdest word in the english language? palindrome is wild because it means a word spelled the same way forwards and backwards but it itself is not one such word

dark chocolate or milk chocolate? milk

stairs or elevators? stairs

summer or winter? summer but like, only june

you are stuck on an island, you can pick one food to eat forever without getting tired of it, what would you eat? panera mac n cheese

a dessert you don’t like? red velvet cake which btw is not red-colored chocolate cake as many would have you believe

a skill you’re working on mastering? writing

best thing to happen to you today? i got to put all of my new plants in my windowsill and i named one of them (its name is albert in case you were wondering)

worst thing to happen to you today? idk today’s been pretty good as far as quarantine goes

best compliment you’ve ever received? my boyfriend calls me beautiful all the time and he always reminds me that that is describing looks and personality

favorite smell? coffee or my boyfriend’s sweatshirt for the week after i steal it

hugs or kisses? can i choose both?? depends on my mood mostly but i guess hugs if i just had to pick one

if you made a documentary, would it be about? literally anything relating to the mcu

last piece of content you consumed that made you cry? a court of wings and ruin by sjm

lipstick or lipgloss? lipstick

sweet or savory? sweet

girl crush? literally any female in the teen wolf cast

how do you know you’re in love? hahahaha haha what's love

a song you can listen to on repeat? we fall apart by we as human or uma thurman by fob

if you could switch lives with someone for a day, who would it be? idk my boyfriend probably, this is something we have discussed in depth

what are you most excited for/about this time in your life? for life to go back to normal

tagging @finnofamerica @woakiees @beskarjedi @outerlacy @swanimagines hahahahaha have funnnnn this took me an hour to answer

[undertaleartistshit]

Ao3 link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23186284/chapters/60573760#workskin

Aaand the next chapter of my fanfic is out! Btw, does anyone know how to put it under a cut? Cuz idk how 👀

____________

Chapter 2: Morning Meeting

The loud, repetitive beeping of the alarm shook Ink out of his slumber. He didn't dare open his eyes, his head felt too groggy and hazy to even think about properly waking up, however his alarm didn't fail its job of annoying him awake. Despite having no true emotions and having to rely on bottles of paint to feel, Ink made it day to day acting - almost - like a normal monster. He was happy, sassy, bright, he got annoyed *very* easily, and... he was forgetful. Was that an emotion? Ink didn't know, no one ever told him. No one explained exactly what feelings were to him. Since he FELT forgetful, he just assumed it was a feeling everyone got, just like happiness or sadness or whatever else.

Ink opened his eyes to a ceiling marbled silver and gold and walls filled with papers and ideas, sketches mostly. Color peeked through every few inches, giving the room an incomplete feeling and giving Ink the adequate motivation to get up. He hated incomplete things, hated the way it made his head ache and his spine tingle and his chest tighten. He switched the alarm off, wincing at the bright red colored numbers. 6:30. He slid his legs off the bed onto the hardwood floor, not bothering to make the bed. By his logic he was going to sleep in it again in a few hours and felt no reason to waste time on tidying it. Although it was quite contradictory to his hate of incompletion, Ink just didn't have the energy to care about the bed. It wasn't like magic or a drawing; sometimes it doesn't do what you want it to. Some days the fabric is just wrinkly, for example.

He stood up slowly, careful to not jostle his skull too much, and wove his way through the stacks of notebooks and papers and whatnot, careful not to knock anything over as he made his way to the door, the only think uncovered by paper. He took his sash off of the hanger set off to the side and made his way through the house to the living room. It was empty.

Ink was then hit with the memory of the previous night, realizing his mistake far to late.

Meanwhile, Blue was already awake in his tidy room, silently scribbling away ideas and plans at his large desk. He rarely needed sleep and he considered himself lucky, for the most part. He had only slept 3 hours the night before, but he didn't dare go to the kitchen or turn on any significant light source, in case Dream was awake. Dream was like an older and overprotective sibling, however Blue refrained from considering Dream a brother.

He wrote down idea after idea, answer after question, in beautiful cursive handwriting. He was almost done when a soft alarm went off in his pocket. He took out his rather modern phone, shutting off the buzzing immediately. He sighed softly, looking at the time. 6:30 already. Unlike the other Star Sanses and despite what people thought about Blue, he preferred to keep his phone on a dark setting and color scheme. In fact, most objects in his room where either a soft neutral color or a darker color. His eyes didn't burn that way.

He stood up, putting his pen down and pulling out a sweatshirt to wear instead of a tang top. It reminded him of his battle body. He never put it on anymore. He was pretty sure he burned it or at least tossed it. In the past. He shook his head, pulling the grey article of clothing over his skull and left the room soundlessly. He wasn't in the mood to get snapped at by either of his teammates, and no amount of them saving him could put him in the mood for that.

He stopped before going into the living room, taking a second to stop and self reflect. He was still riled up from being kidnapped just two days ago, plus last night's argument between Dream and Ink, and he needed some time to calm himself. He couldn't go into battle like this or even simply have a civilized discussion without his survival instincts kicking in. He had to tell Ink and Dream about it but he had no idea how the two would react. He wanted to put it off but if something happened than he would have no choice. Despite this, he decided to wait.

Blue casually strolled into the room, sitting down besides Ink on the couch, who seemed to be just... blah. "Mornin' Blue," Ink mumbled with a sour biting tone. "Good morning, Ink. Did you sleep well?" Blue inquired softly, keeping his naturally attention seeking voice low. Ink let out a 'hmpf', and let his head flop backwards. "I got sleep but there was no quality to it, if you understand what I mean." Blue didn't quite know what he meant, but he nodded believably anyways.

Dream suddenly walked into the room with a bright and happy pace. "Up and at 'em you two! We have things to do today." Ink groaned rather dramatically, and Blue sighed in frustration. Blue was generally a bright and happy person, but... today he was just so out of it. He was recovering, for Christ's sake. He wasn't happy about being kidnapped at all, and he had a lot on his mind lately.

But, being him, Blue reflected a bit on what the other two are dealing with. First off, they were immortal GODS who needed to protect and help the millions of AUs out in their Multiverse at any cost. That was already almost a good enough reason to spare them a lecture. And Blue could see why having an active mortal ally would be stressful to deal with, especially when going up against the Dark Sanses, who are by far the most dangerous beings out there. The two Gods had to watch their FRIEND get manhandled and get beaten within an inch of his life every single time they went out to fight. It must be hard on them. But Blue had to really wonder for a second. If they cared so much about him, why would they leave him to get kidnapped? The way it happened was quite stereotypical.

Before Blue could start becoming self conflicted, and start another argument within himself, a screeching ringing startled the three skeletons out of any security and peace they'd found in the last few minutes. Dream flinched harshly and wiped his head to the side and glared at the telephone with an intensity that could slice diamond. Blue had a deep blue bone club materialized in his hand in an instant, his stance tense and ready to strike at a moment's notice. Ink had his paintbrush in hand, his eyes already red, pointed and alert, his body language radiating an aura that could startle the most conditioned soldier.

But it was just a telephone call. After a few moments of just sitting there staring daggers and curses into the poor phone, Blue huffed and flopped back down on the couch with a soft thud and dissipated his club. Ink relaxed soon after, not dismissing his brush yet, and Dream grabbed the phone swiftly, not wasting another second. "Hello?... Uh, yes, we have plenty of time... Yes, we're all here toge..." Dream trailed off and his eyesockets widened, a glimmer of happiness dancing across his face. Blue and Ink looked curiously at their teammate, the two sensing either mischief or pure and utter relief and joy coming their way. Or maybe both.

"OHMYGOSHYESI'LLTELLTHEMASAP" Dream blurted, looking at Blue and Ink with a stupid wide grin. "Core found a lot of useful information about the concert thing. They said that they are actually pretty proud of their work!!" Ink cocked a bone brow in confusion and spoke with a cautious tone. "It's great they found that but... what do you mean that they're 'actually proud'? Core loves all the things that they help with."

Blue looked at the two skeletons with a tired glance. "Nevermind that Ink, make a portal already," Dream snapped and quivered with excitement. Ink rolled his eyes and and stood up with his brush, making a portal to Core. Core took a step into the room with a stack of notebooks, binders, and papers and smiled politely. "Nice to see you all again. I have some useful info."

The Star Sanses all smiled softly, except Dream, who was practically vibrating with pure euphoria. "Please sit down on the couch, Core!" Dream grinned as he ushered the monochrome seer to the couch. Dream wedged his way between Ink and Blue, hissing at the latter quietly to scoot. He patted the remaining space besides him for Core, who smiled brightly and laid their stuff out on the empty coffee table in front of them.

Blue blinked a bit, listening as Core started to explain and habitually ignoring Dream's rude gesture. It wasn't a full on conversation, so it was somewhat easier for Blue to follow. Everyone settled in, patiently listening. "So," Core began.

"I have gathered some information about the concert, and although it isn't much to go off of, it's enough to give an idea about how... well, in honesty how thought out this entire event is. First off, general stuff. The place is set in an empty AU, titled "\\\\\tale" and has 3 fixated portal ports, presumably for crowd control. It is accessible by every AU, which may be a problem with culture clash and whatnot. And the date and time is pretty straightforward, maybe they rely on people to translate timezones? We may need to do our part in sending out important points to others if that's the case. The music selection will mostly consist of EDM, house, alternative rock, electro, and remixes of all sorts of other things. Any more info is in these files here."

Ink interrupted quickly. "Uh, I've never heard of \\\\\tale. What is it?" Core hummed for a second, than reached towards a binder, flipping through organized pages filled with notes and a greyscale color spectrum. After a while, Core ran their finger across a line or two, their lips moving ever so slightly in sync. "Oh, it's just an empty copy. Nothing dangero-"

Ink coughed, and pushed away from the three on the couch, and puked putred black ink all over the light colored carpet. Blue made a somewhat frustrated, somewhat skeptical grunting sound, and raced to the closest closet to grab cleaning supplies before the ink stained the carpet. Well, badly, anyways. Dream rushed over to Ink, holding him up a bit while Core sped off to the kitchen with a pitiful "oh dear".

Core scurried back to the living room with a rag and a glass of water in tow. Blue waited until Ink was safely seated on the couch before he began cleaning the carpet vigorously, spraying anti-stain detergent onto the pale flooring, and not holding back with scrubbing. This almost reminded him of the honey-stained floors of his bro's... Blue resisted the urge to knock on his head to erase those past-thoughts out.

Ink rubbed his head, mumbling a soft apology. "Uh..." Ink started slowly. "What were we talking about again..?" Blue sighed, and muttered quiet annoyed curses to himself. Before anyone else could react, Ink glared at Blue, albeit hazily, and he growled defensively. "What's *your* problem..?" Blue glanced up at Ink with a blank expression. "Ink, I'm sorry, but the last few days have been a bit hard on me, and you and Dream as well. I didn't want to deal with your... uh... condition, so to speak on top of everything else."

Ink paused, his facial expression unreadable. Then, slowly but surely, it twisted into confusion. "What the heck happened? And you mean the puking thing right?" Blue sighed and inquired with a gentle but firm tone, balancing between patient and angry, "Do you remember ANYTHING about the concert?" Ink's eyes narrowed in suspicious perplexity, and he shook his head. Blue huffed, picking the cleaning supplies back up and placing them back where they belonged.

Dream sighed softly, putting his hand on the back of his fellow immortal. "Ink, I'll fill you in on what happened." Blue sat down in his spot, Core sitting down next to the former. Ink stared at Blue for a second, as Blue stared at nothingness with an exhausted expression. "Blue...?" Dream asked after noticing his teammates vacant air. Blue looked at the people on the couch with him, and slowly voiced his concern. "We need to work on Ink's memory." Ink looked somewhat offended, but before Blue could elaborate his reasoning, Ink blurted out in outrage.

"Yeah, you think I haven't tried?! I've tried taking notes, sending it on my phone, using connections to things or whatever!" Blue blinked at the outburst, surprised Ink got furious about such a thing. He wasn't exactly a self conscious person... maybe feelings from the fight with Dream last night were putting pressure on his already poor self control. "Well, uh... maybe there's something we haven't tried yet..?" Blue suggested. Blue felt rather helpless. Maybe he should have waited until Ink was filled in on the situation before pointing out the age-old nuisance that plagued his mind.

Ink scoffed, averting his eyes from Blue, with a shaky hiss. "Even if there were alternatives... I don't want to hear them right now. I. Don't. Care." Blue stiffened at the tone, that phrase always seemed to bring back memories after all. He took a deep breath, and-

"Ink, please calm yourself!" Dream begged. Blue blinked and nodded in agreement. "Please?" Ink glared at Blue and Dream. An eternity of silence and harsh tension passed. There was only hostility and anger in Ink's gaze. He was truly offended that Blue thought that it was an easy thing to fix.

Blue was... not in a good mindset. He wanted to smack Ink for not using his brain, he felt like crying or screaming. He wanted to snap at the others for not prioritizing such a huge problem that really needed to be fixed. He was so frustrated and stressed, and he was just so overwhelmed. He was sad and hurt that Ink turned on him so fast as well.

Dream and Core sat helplessly as Ink continued with his rant. "You know what? NO!" he screamed at Blue, grabbing his upper arm with a steely death grip. Dream gasped, reaching out to Ink to make him stop, but Ink pushed him back down. "Dude what the-" Blue panicked. It was too familiar. Too close. Too parental.

Core sat uselessly on the couch. They were worried out of their mind, as well as Dream, but they simply didn't know any of the skeletons, besides Ink, to do anything for them in the situation. If they said something, they were truly worried about the repercussions that would stem from Ink later on.

Blue struggled to get away from the Protector's angry grasp, his mind tittering between pure panic and a sense of normalcy. Ink dragged Blue to a back room. Dream sprinted after the two other skeletons before jumping and holding Ink in place. He could sense that all Ink wanted to do was to hurt Blue, and it made Dream *sick*. Blue released himself from Ink, running to his room before he had the chance to get caught again.

"ALL I WANTED TO TO WAS TALK TO HIM IN A SEPARATE ROOM!" Ink screamed at Dream and he tried to struggle out of his companion's grip. Dream held on tighter and said in a calming voice. "No, you didn't. You wanted to hurt him all because he wanted to get rid of your memory problem. He didn't know it would offend you." Ink still struggled, although too a much lesser degree. "C-c'mon Dream! That was a horrible time to bring it up though! Give me some credit here!" Dream squeezed tighter. "You don't deserve credit here, Inky. Calm down, please." Ink stopped struggling, and began to melt into the tight grip. "I... I'm so sorry..." he whispered. "You need to apologize to Blue, not me. But I forgive you anyways! And, uh, give Blue a minute to cool off before talking. He's probably really mad." Dream released his hug, and looked at Ink as Ink smiled. "Ok.."

The two walked back to the living room where Core was sitting. Dream was beginning to shake as he sat down on the couch, and Core noticed. "Dream..?" Core asked fearfully. "I'm fi... fine..." The sentence started out confident, but then Dream shivered and collapsed on Ink, who was beside him. Ink flinched, as he started to panic as well. "Uh??" Ink's confused voice rasped. "Oh. Uh. Dream probably passed out because of the abundance of negative emotions," Core commented calmly. "It would make sense after all."

Ink nodded, getting up after shrugging Dream off of his side onto the couch so that he was laying where Ink was formerly sitting. Core got off of the couch, lifting Dream's legs up and helped Ink shift Dream's unconscious form into a seemingly comfortable position. A blanket was draped over Dream, and the Guardian of Positivity's golden crown was removed and placed on the table.

Meanwhile, Blue laid on his bed, experiencing one of the worst panic attacks he's ever had. He was in the past, and the present and future paid him no mind.

~~~[]~~~

Hate, worry, apprehension, fear, anxiety, panic, frustration, anger, nervousness, sadness, and betrayal.

Nightmare's single resting eye opened from his slumber. He took a deep breath, relieved at the singular negative emotions coming from an unknown source. He stood from his simple bed, leaving and walking towards the kitchen, where his fa-... minions were eating breakfast.

"Mornin' Boss!" Cross grinned. "Good morning everyone," Nightmare greeted, walking to the coffee machine, by which Horror was leaning on the counter, his singular eyesight fixated on the filling pot. "What's gotten you up so early?" Horror inquired, slowly. He was never a quick speaker, and the gang respected that. "You're one to talk," Killer snickered. Everyone responded with various levels of laughter and chuckles. "Well," Nightmare began. "I woke up because there was a huge influx of negative emotions from some random unknown place. And I have a feeling that if we go there, we can really fuck up whoever has those feeling, y'know?"

Dust grinned creepily. "Soo you're saying this isn't a slaughter, but a torture?" Nightmare chuckled, "That's one way of putting it. I have the coordinates so we can go right after breakfast. I've never seen code like it before though, we should be careful." All the Sanses agreed, as they began to cook and sip on their preferred drinks.

Little do they know...

[lolibat]

Queen

Summary:

"You know, in another world, I killed you." Those words aren't what Sasori expected when he returned to his hideout from a meeting with one of his informants to find a pink hair woman sitting atop his work station like she belonged there. She's not exactly what he expects, even if she does leave heel shaped indents where she kicks his desk.

Prompt fill for fandom bingo card, "Queen"

AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19369516

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Dedicated to cywscross (for fandom bingo), itsthechocopuff (thanks for writing Pulling My Weight!) and blackkat (for rare pair).

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"You know, in another world, I killed you." Those words weren't what Sasori expected when he returned to his hideout from a meeting with one of his informants to find a pink hair woman sitting atop his work station desk like she belonged there.

He assessed the stranger through clinical eyes; a pink haired kunoichi- obviously- of petite build, dressed in a red qipao and a pair of beige shorts. A taijutsu user, judging by the combat gloves stretched taut over calloused knuckles and the wry muscles on her frame. He spies a purple diamond on her forehead and knows of only one other in the shinobi world who wears it (or dares to). "And pray tell, how did you kill me, kunoichi?" He doesn't insult his hypothetical would-be killer by implying she's anything less.

She's entirely relaxed- sure and confident- as she looks at him. She judges him as much as he does her."Your grandmother helped- but I was the one who delivered the killing blow." She points at him. "Straight through Hiruko, and through whatever modifications you made-to the chakra core at your center."

"That old hag?" He sneered. He tries to ignore the way his chakra heart skips a beat, a slight irregularity in face of the mere possibility that his immortality can be snatched from him. Taken down by a ninety-year old pile of bones and a pink haired medic, he thinks dryly. He wasn't sure how embarrassed he should be on behalf of his future self, but he's sure that somewhere beyond death, his future self is embarrassed enough.

The unknown kunoichi hummed in agreement. "If it makes you feel any better though, she died shortly after bringing the then Kazekage back to life." She shrugs, as if it is all old news- to her, it probably is.

Sasori raised an eyebrow at the girl’s callousness from under his Hiruko. That sounds like a long tale to behold, he thinks. Especially if she managed to live through all his poisons; he's sure that his future self must have hit her with enough poison to down a horse, but here she is. There are more pressing matters to handle though.

"Have you come for a repeat performance?" He asks dryly. He doesn't quite show his back to her, but given that she willingly lost her element of surprise, he can't say he's too concerned about his imminent death.

She startles, green eyes wide with surprise." She stops kicking his desk. “Oh, no. No, nonono. I'm definitely not here to kill you."

"Then what do you want, Kunoichi?" He asks, exasperated. His desk now sports two heel shaped dents, he observes. Three guesses who her mentor was.

She grins, sure and slow. "I don't want to kill you- I want to learn from you."

What?

In the coming days, he learns from her as much as she does from him (though her way of asking is unique).

She is Haruno Sakura, twenty-one year old pupil of Slug Sanin, Senju Tsunade, who killed him and neutralized his poisons at sixteen, saved the world at seventeen, and retired to be a housewife at eighteen.

She is a time traveller - "dimension traveller," she corrects. "Time is a nonlinear stream that flows; it may loop and twist, but it never returns to where it has once been. Dimensions, on the other hand, overlap each other on parallel planes- it is much easier to hop between planes than it is to guess where time will flow."

A seal master - "not at all that uncommon" was her nonchalant response when he asked once- "only the Uzumaki and Konoha are really loud about having seal masters. The really good ones won't even appear on the Bingo Book. They know better than to something so phenomenally stupid.”

A medic- "I was always a paper ninja," she said with a hint of old bitterness in her tone. "My chakra control is in the 99th percentile- combat medic made sense."

All at once. Of all her epithets, the only he questions the most, is housewife.

"Why?" he asks just once, a million questions in one word. A combat medic neutralizing his poisons on the fly- impressive, but believable. Chakra-enhanced strength to make up for the weakness of a medic? Admirable- and would make sense, given his puppet army. The end of the world? Sure- why the hell not. But after all that- to be a glorified wallpaper decoration?

Amusement flashes through her eyes- a glimpse of younger days- "I didn't want to fight after the war, and things slow down in peacetime, I guess. Maybe I just got tired of my old teammate's bitching in the end and married him just to shut him up."

As always, there is a tale behind everything she says, but Sasori knows to pick his battles. He stays quiet.

He's not entirely sure why he accepted her semi-aggressive way of asking- for all she has already proven herself half-competent by locating his hideout and gaining entry without disabling the traps, he has no reason to entertain his once killer. Perhaps he is as his future self suggests, in need of a pupil to pass down his art. Or perhaps he is just bored, working monotonously day in and day out as a missing-nin.

Haruno Sakura is undoubtedly the most interesting thing that has happened to him since his defection years back, he admits without shame. Immortality brings with it tedium- a small price to pay for his art, but she brings with her a vibrancy rarely seen- flash of color- as she crashes into his life, fist first.

He doesn't regret taking her in as his pupil; she has potential, Sasori thinks. Her casual disregard for human life goes beyond the shinobi way; she has a keen sense of the line between life and death and how to pull and push that line to her liking. She learns quickly and thoroughly, her memory only second to her creativity. Her background in medicine shows, in the way she handles the puppetry equipment with professional ease- the way she holds the scissors with four fingers, the way she blades a scalpel and sews the wounds shut, how she jabs a needle at precisely the right place without hesitation.

Rather unique circumstances aside, Sasori is glad for such competency; he doesn’t suffer fools, and he has no time for novices. He doesn't hold back in his teachings- once they've establish that she isn't here to kill him in any way- to have such a competent and interested pupil is a gift to any master, and Sasori is no different. He teaches her the basics of puppetry- sits down and grinds out the movements of a chakra string painstakingly slowly for her- and allows her the privilege of practicing with his old wooden puppets.

To her credit, Sakura observes his action with keen eyes only once, asks a couple of well-thought out questions, before short, flickering strings of chakra began to glow between her fingers. When he was learning puppetry as a child, it took him a week to perfect his chakra strings. It takes Haruno Sakura three days.

"How do you manage to cut through the body without altering the chakra network?" Sakura asks thoughtfully, her twitching fingers making first puppet dance to an invisible tune. She finished her first wooden puppet; a small quarter-life sized version of her named Sacchan, outfitted with a white sundress and a wide brimmed straw hat. She twirls in all her wooden glory and takes off her hat in an actor’s bow.

Sasori didn't look up from where he was tinkering his next project- a particularly unfortunate hunter nin from the Mist who wields the Hyoton. "I created a special contrast medium that injects into the veins and lights up through the chakra network when my own chakra is applied as an overlay." It wouldn't take her long to move onto human puppets- talent of her calibre is simply wasted on mere wooden puppets- but one or two wooden puppets would teach her the basics of their art.

"That's ingenious," she admits, and adds after a moment, her mind running a hundred miles an hour: "but I think I can do better."

Sasori turns with a raised brow to see her jade eyes glittering in thought. "And pray tell, how would you do that?"

"I presume that the contrast is a poison of some sort- a chakra responsive accident that you created?" Sakura asked. Sasori nods. Accident isn't what he would call a poison designed to shut down the chakra network, but sure. Why not.

"The chakra network runs closest to the body's lymphatic system," Sakura draws her fingers together, making Sacchan sit prettily on the table. "The quickest way to make the contrast run through the body would be through the arterial system, or failing that, the venous system. Usually the chakra vessels run in close conjunction with both, but there are some places where they diverge- about ten percent of the time. Counting anatomical variation, it can be anywhere from three to thirty. Whereas with the lymphatic system, they follow that almost one hundred percent of the time. If you could make the contrast circulate long enough where it gathers through the lymphatics, you would lose fewer chakra vessels to the process and have a more responsive puppet and have less chakra bleed through, either in the form of chakra signature or as visible chakra."

Sasori ponders upon her point- he did consider the very idea once upon a time, but he shot it down in the end; the loss of a few chakra vessels wasn't worth the trouble of keeping the heart beating for longer. And even if he could make the organs work with a few well placed strings, the body would just be circulating deoxygenated blood, which causes damage to the muscles in the long run and makes for a weaker puppet instead. He says as much as a reply.

"Not if you have a medic on hand," Sakura rebuts with a smirk and tugs her gloves up. She nudges her way over to where Hiruko was bent over their newest project. "Here," she says, her hand glowing an ominous green, "Try the contrast now," she says. He watches she colors the body green, and acquiesces.

Three weeks later, Sakura christens his new puppet "Haku". He doesn't care what she calls him- the response time on him was a dream.

"Wouldn't you want to do something else other than puppetry?" He asks on the off-hand once. He shakes off drops of rainwater off his hat- making a trip out to Ame was always tedious, but at least he got a new project out of the whole trip. He tugs the body bag through the air with a chakra strings and sends it to the processing area on the far end of the cave.

"Hm?" Sakura asks, her reading glasses slipping down the bridge of her nose. She slides a bookmark in her latest book- a tome on the bloodlines of the Mist- and turns to him.

"You did travel across dimensions." Don't you have something better to do than to be here? He asks in his mind. They always do- everyone always does.

"No, not really," she shrugs apathetically. "Oh, the end of the world, you mean?” She speaks of it so causally, Sasori almost sighs. Like airing out laundry.

“I slipped Shishou a scroll on the events of the future through Katsuyuu. I forged her handwriting, so she probably thinks she's the one who sent back the scroll. If it all pans out, she should be Godaime a lot sooner than before, and she's not going to let the Fourth Shinobi War happen again." Sakura shrugs. “Once Shishou puts her foot down, it stays down… No matter who happens to be underneath.”

"I was bored," she continues. "I could only sit around and pine for so long- I got to doodling seals, and well Naruto was trying to recreate the Hiraishin and left his notes out- one thing lead to another, and this happened."

She shrugs again.

Sasori sees, but doesn't quite comprehend the enigma that is Haruno Sakura.

"It was really just something your dead self said," Sakura says the next day, casually discussing his murder like the weather. "When I pulled the core out, your last words were that maybe, in another life, I could have been your student."

She strips her latest project- her first human one- and inspects for any lingering wounds with a clinical eye. A customary swipe of a green hand reveals no wounds. "I didn't think much about it at the time to be honest, since we had the end of the world and all that comes with it. But when I really sat down and thought about it- I thought, why not?"

Why not indeed, Sasori thought drily. He could hardly imagine someone as sanctimonious as the Slug Sage approving of his bastardization of the medical practice; it is essentially anatomy class- for the non-medically inclined.

Sakura sterilizes a bucket of water with one chakra-green hand and gathers her equipment. She scrubs up with the efficiency of one long-practiced in the art. "After the war, Suna tries to find your hideouts, you know. They didn't get very far," she says with a grim twist of her lips.

No, he imaged they wouldn't have, he thinks- his smile mirrors hers.

"And besides, something as delicate as an art like this can't be learned through notes," she says offhandedly. “That’s like trying to learn how to heal from scrolls.” She scoffs at the idea, tugging up her sterile gloves in one smooth motion.

Perhaps somewhere deep down in his core- he feels a bit of warmth. Or at least, a lot of smugness, that someone would travel dimensions to be his pupil. Of course, not that he thinks his art deserves any less.

He watches her cut with cold eyes. Her cuts are different from his; he cuts for the aesthetically pleasing- or for convenience for where he plans to insert various bits of weaponry and poison.

She cuts along anatomical planes, along the most avascular planes as a practiced surgeon would. She fits her weaponry along the curves of muscles, hides them amongst networks of vessels and natural tunnels- undamaged by her care.

He alters the body to house his weapons; for the puppet to be the exterior that best showcases the poisons and artillery at its core.

She alters the weapons to fit the body, for the body's kekkei genkai or style to shine, and the poison or the weapon to be second- to work around the body's own capabilities.

She chooses to keep the ash grey color of the dead, their eyes unseeing. She keeps them as anatomically intact as possible. He chooses to turn them to the red-brown of wood, for the aesthetics of a puppet. Her works are more chakra responsive, faster by milliseconds, more subtle in weaponry- as subtlety goes. His have more firepower, and his army speaks for itself.

It would be boring, he supposes, if her style was an exact copy of his. Every craftsman has his own signature, and their difference in the interpretation of the concept of human puppetry define them as artists. At least, they both agree that that the Sandaime Kazekage is a true masterpiece, Sasori thinks ruefully.

He doesn't think it'll be long before she leaves for hunting trips herself. So long as the last vestiges of morality leaves her, he doesn't particularly care.

She returns from her foray to the outside with a body bag in tow.

“Had a successful trip?” Sasori asks, tinkering with his beloved Hiruko.

“Oh yes,” she says with a particularly vicious smile.

Sasori judges her expression and decides that this one must be personal. He waits for her to spill and doesn’t have to wait long.

She hauls the bag up as if it was made of air and unzips it. “This” she says, holding up a corpse by the hair, “is Yakushi Kabuto- Orochimaru’s greatest experiment and your once-spy”.

He sees her coo lovingly to the ash-pale face and think that this person must have done a great deal of damage to her, once upon a time. He’s not particularly wrong.

Kabuto, or “Mushi”, as she has taken to calling him as a bad pun, takes her more than a month to finish.

The project reaches a halt when she decides to keep his kekkei genkai.

“His bloodline limit works by regenerating damaged cells at a phenomenal rate- a form of mitotic regeneration” Sakura murmurs, a lock of pink hair curled behind an ear as she works out chemical equations for her own special brand of preservative- to keep the aesthetics of the puppet as close to its living appearance as possible. “But since the cells of the puppet are dead, there’s nothing for them to regenerate.”

Sasori thinks that this person must have been useful, once upon of a time, if he had this sort of bloodline and managed to be a medic at the same time. It doesn’t solve Sakura’s problem in the least; he leans over and peers at her equations with keen eyes. With a single chakra string, he twitches the pen out of her hands and casually corrects the math.

“A self-regenerating puppet would be useful,” he agrees. Especially since Sakura’s puppets have a tendency to look rather human-like in death.

“Yes, but the cells can’t regenerate if they’re dead,” she says, frustrated.

“Then restore them, if they can’t regenerate” Sasori points out.

There’s no difference between then, she opens her mouth to say. Then she pauses- but there is. Her mind whirring at a mile a minute, she hastily flips the piece of paper over and sketches a seal. Within seconds, she fills out the circular diagram until there is nothing left but scribbles cramming their way sideways onto the margins.

Sealing, is something Suna lacks, Sasori thinks drily as he watches Sakura design a seal, her pencil a blur as it flies across the page.

“A time space component- to restore to a set point in time,” she mutters. “And the kekkei genkai to push the seal to near instantaneous speed... to remove the telomeric limit on cell regeneration.”

Sasori leaves her to her work; after all, teachers must let students learn on their own. Nonetheless, he sees her green eyes narrowed in thought, her lips pursed, and he wonders if such a look of concentration was ever echoed on his own face.

The day she finishes Mushi is the day she releases her hold on morality.

She cuts with no hesitation, thinks with no limits. The mark of a master herself, Sasori thinks; there is a warm, bubbling feeling that comes with the thought, and he isn’t quite sure what to think of it. Pride, he supposes.

Nonetheless, there is still- and always will be- room for improvement. As her master, it is his duty to polish those flaws until the diamond in the rough shines bright and clear.

She brings home projects, each more difficult than the last. To Sasori’s endless amusement, she seems to take genuine pleasure in poaching off the Snake Sanin, hauling home his prized Kaguya one day.

“It’s not like anyone will miss them,” she says, defensively. “They’re all missing-nin anyways.”

Still, Sasori spies a twisted glimpse of pleasure shining bright in her eyes, and he thinks that it is simply more than that.

“He has a lung disease that needs a bit of work,” she admits, “but the kekkei genkai should be intact.”

She holds up a piece of bone to her eye, as if it was a piece of fine china for inspection. “This bone- it’s not really bone. It’s calcium phosphate; this kekkei genkai causes the body to build up an abnormal amount of calcium and phosphate- in the expectation that it will be expelled outside of the body. But that build up- when it isn’t cleared- stays inside the body... mostly in the lungs as granulomas.”

Triumph flashes in her viridian eyes. “That is the basis of his lung disease. But maybe if I just tweak the kidneys’ function a little....” she waves a green hand over the chest cavity and another over the abdomen.

Sasori doesn’t know why she bothers, exactly. The Kaguya is dead. Whether the lungs are filled with tumors matters not- just cut it all out and fill it with something else.

But Sakura is a meticulous craftsman like that; if it will improve the performance of her work by one second- one millisecond- she’ll fix it. Whereas Sasori has not the patience to bother, Sakura sits and gets to work.

Her poaching continues steadily until one day Sasori asks when she’ll go after the Sanin himself. It’s only logical, he thinks. Even he has the Sandaime Kazekage as the glorious center piece to his collection.

“What?” Sakura looks up, elbows deep in what appears to be amorphous goo. She blinks, a bit dazed at Sasori’s suggestion that she dare tackle a Sanin.

He doesn’t see why she can’t; she’s poached just about all of the man’s henchman, including this absolutely fascinating specimen who can turn his entire body to water. He’s almost tempted to ask just how she manages to locate rare kekkei genkai with astounding accuracy, and then the remembers the dimension travel.

If he was more juvenile, he would remark on the unfairness of her knowledge. But he won’t. Maybe.

Ruefully, he thinks that the world would be rid of all its future powerhouses if it was him who was going back in time. He imagines himself collecting them all, each a prized chess piece for his collection. Perhaps it is for the best for everyone involved that his skills in sealing does not extend that far.

He’s intrigued to see how she will work the chakra strings with a puppet that literally melts; with nothing to hold onto, can a puppeteer still play? He is confident that with her genius, she will find a way. Sasori looks forward to seeing the end product. It will be- has to be- magnificent.

“I can’t possibly take Orochimaru,” she says with a laugh and a dismissive wave of a hand. She doesn’t clarify “take” in what sense, he notes shrewdly. Whether the Sannin is a decorative souvenir or an opponent remains unseen.

But Sasori is as always, dead serious.

“Alright, I’ll think about it,” she concedes finally.

He knows it’s the most he’ll get from her, from the stubborn set of her chin. So he turns to his own work.

She returns to the lair with not one, but four corpses trailing behind her one day. One has extra arms, another has an extra head.

Sasori raises an eyebrow.

“They were trying to find me,” she confessed.

“But I found them first,” she said with a toothy grin and a playful wriggle of her fingers.

Both of them knew how dangerous the motion could be in their art.

He shrugs and points out the obvious. “You’ll have to figure out how to split the chakra strings evenly with the extra tenketsu if you want to find any use in them.”

She thinks for a bit- “Hm, good point. I didn’t really consider that. Oh well, I’m sure I’ll figure it out somehow.” She hauls her prize onto the nearest dissection table and starts scrubbing up.

It really is a nuisance, Sasori think. If he was controlling a puppet army, surely having one or two specific puppets that have special needs would slow him down more than anything else. If it was him? He’d just saw them off, surely.

But each to his- or her- own.

The day they face Orochimaru is the day Sakura’s puppet brigade is completed.

She puts finishing touches on a rather peculiar puppet- one dyed scarlet. She is blood red: everything from hair to eyes to glasses and clothes. “The Black Widow,” she christens this one.

“This one’s a healer, of sorts,” she says, cocking her head. “More of a sensor than anything else,” she amends. She holds her scarlet puppet gently, as if she was a friend than a corpse.

Her team holds the highlight of her collection: her Mushi, her Black Widow, the Kaguya, the Hozuki, and a transformed beast of a man she simply calls “Curse”. They’re her best team- second to the mutation quartet (as Sasori has taken to calling them).

While he revolutionalized human puppetry, Sakura refined it. Her puppets have the ability to heal- to regenerate- because she herself can heal. Between her seals and her medicine, her puppets can regenerate an astounding amount of damage. She’s since made some alterations on his puppets- where able- so she can regenerate his as well.

Even the Sandaime Kazekage in all his glory is destructable if his iron sand can be penetrated. But with Sakura’s puppets, anything less than a fatal blow on a human is regenerated. The first puppet of Sasori’s that she alters is the Sandaime; she’s nearly as fond of him as Sasori is. He’d be wary of her (now for a different reason altogether- the Sandaime is his, dammit) if he didn’t think that Orochimaru makes a far better centrepiece for her gallery.

A hundred of her puppets would hold a candle to his three hundred, easily.

She didn’t find Orochimaru as much as the snake found them first- he announced his arrival as a man like him would.

Sakura reflexively catches viper lunging towards her jugular with one hand, the dripping fangs two inches from her neck.

“Not now, Sasuke,” she says with an impatiently. She was busy performing maintenance for her Widow- tinkering with the seals that make the kekkei genkai work to improve the sensing range.

“Sasuke?” A voice asks curiously from the entrance.

She barely spares him a glance. “My husband,” she replies curtly. She hardly seems surprised at seeing her unwanted visitor.

He glances at the diamond on her forehead, then at the medical gear scattered around her and raises an eyebrow. He knows full well that Tsunade hasn’t taken an apprentice aside from Shizune, so who is this kunoichi? Curiouser and curiouser.

“How peculiar,” he muses, striding closer. Sakura clenches her wrist, quietly sending Suigetsu  behind Orochimaru and Kimmimaro in front. She twitches her right index finger, and the Kaguya smoothly whips out a bone blade.

‘Guess I’ll be wrapping this up soon,’ she thinks with a sigh and closes Karin’s chest cavity. She wipes her down with polish and sets her sitting up with another flick of a wrist.

“My! A medical puppeteer. And you kept their kekkei genkai functioning at that.” If anything, Orochimaru appears absolutely fascinated by the medical work involved in Kimmimaro’s creation. However, Sakura is not fooled in the least- there lies beneath the grin a spark of madness. She feels an uneasy fear crawl up her back, as is her instinctual reaction to Orochimaru since their very first encounter in the Chunin Exams.

But she is no longer twelve, and this is not the Forest of Death. She summons her other puppets from her hammerspace seal and tugs on her gloves.

To her side, Sasori appears unaffected, but she sees his puppets seemingly meld from the clay-red walls to join hers, staring at the intruder with unblinking eyes.

He knew it was really all a matter of time before the Snake Sanin comes knocking; he isn’t surprised that he bypassed the traps set at the entrance. A tad resigned, for surely they will have to move locations after this. But he pulls out his puppets for her- all three hundred of them and his beloved Sandaime.

Soon, the cave descends to pandemonium as four hundred puppets swarm the Sanin at once. Sakura jumps into the fray with her beloved masterpieces, coordinating them around her own movements.

It would be nice if she could work on not causing a cave in, Sasori thought dryly as the ceiling shook once more. Soon, he’ll have to send the Sandaime’s iron sand to hold up the structural integrity of the roof. He’s sure the man would be absolutely scandalized if he was alive: it’s one of the many reasons why he isn’t. Nonetheless, he sends his puppet back into the pileup with a swipe of a hand.

In the end, it is cunning and trickery that spells an end for Orochimaru. In between dodging the Iron Sand and various pieces of bone, even Orochimaru missed Suigetsu’s presence.

That is the genius of Sakura’s design, Sasori thinks. For a medic nin to be able to heal a person, they must be able to align their chakra signature to the patient’s chakra signature- or else there would be chakra poisoning and acute rejection. Sakura’s 99th percentile chakra control serves her well in this, and she is the one holding the ends of Suigetsu’s chakra strings. She utilizes Suigetsu’s bloodline limit with her own chakra control to mimic the target’s own chakra even when Suigetsu is turned to water.

No one expects an attack from themselves- from within- and thus the body automatically ignores its own chakra signals. And by proxy, a medic nin’s.

Slowly, yet all at once, Suigetsu rose up like a vengeful shadow from behind Orochimaru and wrapped unforgivingly around the Sanin’s neck, onto the head and to the eyes, the nose, the mouth, the ears. Anywhere, really. The man stumbles, as most people would, and Sasori twitches his finger the same time Sakura does; the Sanin is suddenly short an arm and a leg respectively.

The snake bites down hard on Suigetsu, tearing off chunks and pieces. That too, was well within the design- running through the bloodstream of the puppet are at least twenty kinds of poison (that Sasori spied, at least). When ingested, it was absolutely lethal... even to someone nearly immortal like Orochimaru.

The two of them were about to slice off the other two limbs, when the Sanin’s neck suddenly elongated and bent, opening wide.

“Sasuke did say that your actual body was an eight headed white serpent,” Sakura remarked, fairweather attitude same as ever. She shaded her eyes with one glowing hand as the serpent rose to fill the cave almost entirely. Clouds of green acidic poison ate away at the stone surrounding them, melting it off the cave walls. Even Sasori, immune as he is, felt uneasy by the concentration of poison around him.

“Well, time to get some air circulation around here,” Sakura said matter-of-factly and punched straight through the ceiling.

Sasori sighed.

Their fight with Orochimaru ends in victory for them and a brand new project for Sakura.

They didn’t win without sacrifices though, and the two artists mourn their losses and repair what they can. In particular, Sakura agonizes over her repairs for Suigetsu. They move, rebuild, and soon find themselves in another cave.

“You didn’t have to help,” Sakura said one day over their work. To her left, Orochimaru drifts in a tub of formalin mixture, all four limbs reattached and whole. “I know the Sandaime got damaged too. I’ll fix him up later.”

Sasori waves her concerns away. “It’s no great loss,” he says. “The Sandaime is repairable. The rest of them, if irreparable, are replacable. Consider it... a graduation gift.”

In reality, Sasori wasn’t sure if it was his gift to her or his to him. Seeing her fists fly in the midst of a battle, her viridian eyes flashing, her back to both her puppets and his... he finally understands how his future self loses to her. And why it is no great loss, no great embarrassment to lose to her.

He sees her as a point of pride, even- that she was the one to defeat his art, and to come back across dimensions only to prove it.

Deep in the recesses of his mind, he thinks quietly that it’s perhaps a good thing that she’s not so prone to calling him “Master” the same way his once-maybe-never student does. He’s not entirely sure if his mind can take it.

And he isn’t her master; the title is not fitting to the role. She bows to no one. She stands not beneath him as a student but beside him as an equal. A queen fit to his king.

With a faint smile, he idly flips through his project notes until he finds the ones he made on himself. Perhaps he has just one more graduation present for her.

When the Akatsuki comes knocking one rainy afternoon, Sasori greets them coldly. He has no desire to bow and scrape to a wanna be god, especially since it puts him in the warpath of the likes of Hatake Kakashi and the remaining two Sanin.

“I have no need for an organization,” he says bluntly. He is not his other self, plagued by ennui to the point of being lead on a leash to his death.

The blue kunoichi looks at him with a hint of curiosity.

“You have a partner,” she says, amber eyes keen. Her eyes flicker to the far back of the cave, attention caught on a particular signature. She’s a sensor, by the looks of it.

“I’m afraid she’s... otherwise preoccupied at the moment,” he says mildly. And would be, for as long as the process takes. It would be foolish to try and hide from a sensor like her. He doesn’t even bother trying.

He twitches a finger, and Orochimaru serves them a tray of tea.

The kunoichi’s gaze is drawn immediately to the Sanin, dark eyes and porcelain skin same in death as in life.

“We,” Sasori emphasizes, “Have no need for your organization.”

She looks at her cup of tea but makes no motion to pick it up. Slowly, she smiles and gets up. She takes her leave without a further word. Sasori offers her no words of farewell, except to send Orochimaru to see her out.

He has more important things to do; for one, his queen needs him to take notes, and she's quite bossy about it.

==========

Notes:

Here’s my prompt fill for the fandom bingo card I got like years ago from cywscross. I got the inspiration from that one chapter I read somewhere that had a different take on the Sasori/Sakura battle, where Sakura says “maybe in another life” to Sasori’s offer of tutelege.

I always figured Sakura wouldn’t be content to just be a housewife. It’s such a phenomenal waste of her talent; if she didn’t have Sarada, what would she do? Would she leave? I always believed that Sakura’s character growth is amazing and that she deserved better in the end. My Sakura here is particularly vindictive; don’t you think she’d hold a grudge?

Body horror isn’t a genre that I write for that often, but tbh as a full time doctor, it’s not really that “horrific”. It’s a bit of medical science mixed with me trying to logic my way through Kishi’s universe. And well, in learning so save people, you pretty much learn how to not accidentally kill people, which just means you know a lot of casual murder knowledge. Makes for very awkward dinners. But you know, it’s probably just a Tuesday for your average doc.

Anyhow, I’ve gotten beyond rusty with my writing, and this entire thing was mostly typed in chunks at early morning hours on call, so please excuse the odd sentence structure and any grammatical errors.