#this second time I got her waterfall romance scene in act 1 on my literal third long rest of the run

[rocketonthemoon]

shadowheart imposter syndrome i have been thinking about this nonstop ever since i started playing bg3 like 5 runthroughs ago. when i romanced her during a durge run, i was thinking about the intersection of durge have to suppress these desires (if you're doing a good play) and feeling like such a poser and scam artist and then shadowheart feeling inadequate after being so chosen for the biggest tasks of any sharran ever. anyway just had to drop in because of your tags lmao

I'm only on my second run (technically 1.5 cause I never actually finished the first one but I missed basically all of act 2 so I just decided fuck it) but Shadowheart's bluster just SCREAMS "I don't know what I'm doing" to me. Combine that with how quickly she's willing to trust you - something sharrans aren't supposed to do? - and then her suppressed memory I just have to believe that she's constantly battling with her guilt and desperately needing to prove herself to Shar.

[thedefinitionofbts]

Of Stardust and Spacetime (3)

Ch. 1 | Ch. 2 | Ch. 3 | Ch. 4 | Ch. 5 | Ch. 6 | Ch. 7 | Ch. 8 (Final)

Pairings: Jeon Jungkook x Reader | Kim Seokjin x Reader 

Genre: Scifi, Angst, Fluff/Romance, Comedy

Words: 3.8K

Description:

On clear nights he looks up at the sky, and he can still see you. He can see the image of you transcending alternate universes tied together by iridescent ribbons, passing through the iron cores of distant stars, and sliding across Orion’s belt to meet him in that magical place between the stratums of space and time. And he can remember that you existed, and that you stood next to him, just like this.

 The lights on the staircase turn on the moment Jungkook’s footsteps are loud enough to trigger the automated system. He makes his way to his apartment with the thought of you still hanging heavy on his mind and the feeling of your intertwined hands still fresh on the bare skin of his fingers. He’s having a hard time believing he visibly saw you for the first time in his life, all these years convincing himself that you were only a product of his active imagination out the window.

Of course that doesn’t mean he’s not skeptical anymore because he undoubtedly still is. Wanting nothing more than to continue believing you only existed in his mind because that was much easier than finding a concrete explanation for whatever phenomenon he’d been experiencing for the majority of his life. Seeing a person who is invisible to the rest of the world (and even himself up until this evening) is something that would get him a referral to a mental health clinic, but he’s almost certain he’s fine psychologically. It wouldn’t make sense for him to have no other symptoms of hallucinations besides knowing a girl who doesn’t even exist in the physical world. Oh god, it’s starting to sound ridiculous again. He squeezes his eyes shut, rubbing the bridge of his nose as he pauses mid-step. You can’t be real, but your hands were so soft, so tender, so tangible, and Jungkook finally thinks he knows what it means to have someone’s hand fit perfectly in his.

He is so fucking conflicted.

He reaches into his pocket to fish out his keys, trying to be as quiet as possible. He didn’t want to wake up the neighbors or Hoseok for that matter, since said male was probably fast asleep by now because as far as he could tell from the window, it was pretty damn dark inside.

“Finally!” Hoseok’s resounding voice is the first thing that welcomes him the instant he opens the apartment door and steps inside.

Jungkook jolts in alarm, flicking on the lights at warp speed. “Fuck” He mutters, clutching his chest. “You’re still up?”

“Sure am”

Jungkook’s eyes land on the older male who was wrapped in three blankets, curled up on the couch with a weak-ass pillow fort acting as protection for whatever was going to pop out of the scary movie he was evidently watching- alone, when he knows it’ll give him nightmares for days.

“So how was it?” Hoseok reaches for the remote and turns off the TV, hand still trembling from earlier jumps of fright.  

“How was what?”

“The date! What else would I be referring to?”

Jungkook plops down beside him. “Oh uh, it was alright…” He responds inattentively, fiddling with the corner of one of the blankets, still deciding if he wanted to talk about that thing that was still on his mind. That same thing that he has never told anyone but has him so conflicted he swears he if wasn’t insane before, he’s about to be real soon.

“Tell me the details.” Hoseok urges, wiggling his eyebrows and nudging him a little.

Jungkook scratches the back of his neck awkwardly. He should do it. Now was a good time…right? “Actually, there’s something I need to tell you.” He can’t believe he’s doing this.

Hoseok gasps. “You stole my credit card and used it to pay for your date tonight?!”

“What? No!” Jungkook defends, shaking his head in confusion. “Why would you jump to that conclusion right off the bat?”

“Hey, it’s not my fault you make me pay for literally everything, and I know for a fact that you’re broke.” He shrugs as if he hadn’t just jumbled all of Jungkook’s carefully arranged train of thoughts. “So if it’s not that, what is it then? Is it life changing? Should I prepare myself?” Hoseok adjusts his position on the couch and flashes Jungkook the you-have-my-undivided-attention look.  

“Well…kind of. I mean, not really?” Jungkook takes a deep breath. This was it. He was going to let out the secret he’s kept for years. “So I have this friend who I’ve known since I was like five, and-”

“And you just realized that you’re actually in love with her, but never had the guts to admit it until now.” Hoseok butts in and finishes the sentence for the younger male.  

“No! I mean…maybe?” Jungkook pinches his nose in mild annoyance. This is not going as smoothly as he had envisioned, but why was it so difficult to explain? He’s starting to regret even bringing it up, but his roommate and best friend is the only person he can go to for help. He stalls with another long exhale. “I can’t see her, and she’s like not actually here, but - ”

“Have you tried calling her? Ask her if you guys can like meet up?” The questions begin pouring out of Hoseok mouth like a waterfall. “You just need to be upfront with your feelings, Kook. And why are you thinking about her when you just went on a date with someone else?”

“My date didn’t show up.” Jungkook grumbles hastily.

“Aww, Kook” Hoseok’s expression turns into one of compassionate concern as he scoots over and offers a consolatory hug. “It’s their loss.”

“That’s not the important part, ok?” Jungkook snaps, frustrated that the older male keeps cutting him off. “Will you just let me finish explaining?”

Hoseok tenses in alarm, but nods obediently and makes a motion of zipping up his lips and tossing the key.

It takes a full two hours to clarify enough details about you for Hoseok to realize Jungkook isn’t kidding or mentally ill when he says he’s known a girl who doesn’t really exist for almost twenty years. 

He starts from the very beginning, when he was five and ran into the forbidden forest, only to refer to you as his guardian angel after you saved him from that “near death” experience. As he got a bit older, it was brought to his attention that most kids his age would have companions labeled as “imaginary friends”, and that was when he first thought he had finally figured everything out. Of course, he hadn’t really understood why every other kid could describe what their imaginary friend was like, their personality, physical traits, preferences…etc, when he didn’t even know your name. 

It wasn’t until he was thirteen that he finally acquired that critical piece of information, which he is still uncertain of how it happened because you had always told him you didn’t even know yourself. At that point he started to wonder if you were a spirit because he had read stories of people who would forget about who they were after death, but that also didn’t make any sense because later on you told him you were alive and you had described coming from a place that did not sound like earth at all.

He’s completely exhausted when he finishes, and he feels like he has just given a presentation on gravitational waves to a room full of high schoolers because Hoseok gets confused every five seconds and asks him to repeat statements like “I can hear her voice in my head” and “she’s humanoid by most likely not from earth.” He’s relieved when he finishes with the events that occurred tonight. The ones that rendered him certain that you were real and compelled him to even reveal all of this to Hoseok.

“You saw her?” Hoseok’s eyes widen to an unnatural size. “And you held her hand?”

Jungkook purses his lips and bobs his head in affirmation.

“So you can only see her when you’re trying really hard?” Hoseok’s slack jaw makes his sentence sound kind of slurred. He’s still reeling from all the information that Jungkook just poured on him.

The younger male nods again. “More or less… In recent years, she’s been coming even when I’m not thinking about her really intensely.” It’s true. Jungkook has been noticing that you’ve been showing up on your own, and he can’t say that he’s disturbed by it at all. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. He used to feel bad about making you spent time with him, if what your sensory interactions can be called “spending time together”, but now that you’ve been coming to him without him initiating, everything is driven to feel much less one sided. Albeit, he still wonders if it’s too early to say your feelings for each other are mutual. Jungkook has jumped to conclusions in the past, and let’s just say they didn’t all end up well.

Hoseok’s eyes pop out, and he begins looking around the room in noticeable fear. “C-can you see her now?”

“She’s not here now,” Jungkook mutters with an urge to roll his eyes. “And can you please stop acting like she’s a ghost?”

Hoseok swallows, having a fleeting flashback to a scene in the movie he was just watching. A shiver runs down his spine. “Sorry, sorry, it’s just…I don’t know…can I sleep in your bed tonight?”

Jungkook laughs. “I have class tomorrow morning.” He reminds, knowing that Hoseok likes to sleep in whenever he doesn’t have work. “But yes, you’re welcome to crash with me.” He smiles, knowing the older male would be lucky to get a wink of sleep if he were left alone after watching a horror movie and listening to Jungkook’s unusual life story.

Hoseok lets out a breath he didn’t know he was holding. “Thanks, Kook…” He pauses. “But what are you going to do now?”

“I’m going to find some scientific explanation for it.” Jungkook replies matter-of-factly, despite the doubt that there even is one.

“Are you just saying that because it’s what you study?” Hoseok cocks a brow as he smirks playfully, nudging the younger male’s arm.

Jungkook huffs a laugh, hiding the fact that it’s literally what his whole life has been dedicated to ever since he met you. “Yeah, well, I feel like science is more reliable than magic or some supernatural shit.”

 …

 “You know what they say~ ” Jimin singsongs. “It would take a whole 8 minutes for us to realize the sun burned out.”

“Ok, that was random” Yoongi folds his arms across his chest as he waits for the projector screen to turn on. He can almost sense the younger male trying to come up with a comical rebuttal or some lame joke to cheer him up, and as much as he wants to pretend isn’t charming, it is.  

The two of them were preparing for class on a crisp autumn morning, or more accurately, readying themselves for a day of introductions and failed attempts at sparking the interest of nerdy grad students, who either already knew what they were getting into or just waiting to have their minds blown away.

This was Min Yoongi’s first semester teaching the paradoxical merging of Quantum Mechanics and Relativity, and he wanted to make a good impression on the lost souls who were going to stumble into the ancient smelling lecture hall in less than twenty minutes. And he was more than glad, although he would never admit it, to have his long time friend and colleague, Park Jimin, by his side as his head TA.

“Hey, we’re members of the theoretical physics department. Nothing is truly random around here.” Jimin laughs, dropping his stack of syllabi on the grimy table, causing a plume of dust to diffuse throughout the air.

“We were discussing how to handle tardiness.” Yoongi flashes him a bored expression, something he always did when his overly zealous assistant got sidetracked.

“Exactly. That’s why I was going to suggest asking them how far they had to travel.” Jimin waits for the dark haired professor to burst into giggles, but it obviously doesn’t happen.

“We both know that sort of delay is negligible for proximal objects.” Yoongi mutters, wondering how on earth Jimin, a Ph.D candidate in theoretical physics, could come up with such a flawed idea. 

“Ah, you’re no fun.” The younger male sighs as he slides over to his computer.

Soon the students start entering one by one, and quite literally too, because watching the rows of vacant seats being taken was like watching a dripping faucet attempt to fill a ten gallon water tank. In other words, not going to happen. They’ll be lucky to get 1: 2 instructor, student ratio at this rate.

One kid with wavy grey hair looked like he was lost, but ended up taking a seat anyways. Minutes later, another with dark bangs covering his eyes awkwardly took a seat next to him.

Yoongi and Jimin wait for more students to show up, but only three more arrive before it’s time to start class.

“What a nice turn out” Yoongi smiles stiffly as crickets chirp in the far distance. “Aish, fuck it.” He mutters. “Welcome to class, I’m Professor Min, your instructor for this semester, and this is Park Jimin, your TA.” He gestures to Jimin, who unlike Yoongi, flashes a bright and genuine smile to the five students huddled in the back of the lecture hall, straight up pretending like there wasn’t a sea of empty seats right in front of them.  

 …

 Jeon Jungkook didn’t know if sitting next to the only other student in an entirely empty lecture hall was a move too bold for the first day of class, but he does it anyways.

“Hey”

The silver haired male looks up. “Hi!” He flashes Jungkook a boxy grin, and Jungkook is almost taken aback by how good looking the guy is. Like weren’t physics nerds usually more….nerdy looking?

“Is this seat taken?” Jungkook asks, only to find that he had just unintentionally extracted the awkwardness out of the situation because there were clearly a million open seats. What an idiot. He should’ve just sat down.

“Nope, it’s all yours. I’m Taehyung, by the way. Kim Taehyung.” The hot dude, who Jungkook now knows as Kim Taehyung, introduces.

“Jeon Jungkook” Jungkook is now low-key attempting to act as casually as possible while taking the empty seat next to said male who just blew him away with his attractiveness. Jungkook swears he’s straight.  

“Jeon Jungkook?” Taehyung repeats, both eyebrows raised. “You don’t happen to play Overwatch do you?”

Jungkook’s eyes widen. “H-how’d you know? Is it that obvious?” Jungkook’s eyes dart down towards his shirt, praying that he didn’t accidentally wear his gaming shirt to class by accident. How fucking embarrassing would that be? To his relief, he’s actually sporting one of his nicer button ups.

“Ummm, you don’t happen to be…uhhh….nochu97….are you?”

Jungkook is now convinced that Taehyung is either a mind reader or the lord almighty himself because what the flying fuck. “H-how-” Jungkook cuts his query short because he suddenly has a realization that he has only ever told one person his gaming alias. “vante95?”

Taehyung cringes like he was about to receive a smack in the face. “I’m sorry, man. I didn’t mean to stand you up that day. I- I got nervous and chickened out last minute.”

“Why did you tell me your name was Taeyeon? I thought you were a girl.” Jungkook is starting to think Hoseok was right about not trusting people you’ve only met virtually. He’s not really annoyed or angry that Taehyung lied to him, but he can already hear Hoseok’s voice in his head singing, “I told you so”.

“I like to keep my identity…ambiguous.” Taehyung licks his bottom lip, clearly feeling a bit exposed. “Again, I’m so sorry…”

Jungkook nods his head without making eye contact. “Nah, it’s fine.” He chuckles lightly. “But what a coincidence that we’re in the same class.”

“Yeah, who would’ve guessed?” Taehyung huffs a laugh of relief, glad that the other male isn’t holding some kind of grudge.   

“Shall we start?” The professor’s voice cuts through the chitter chatter, and both Jungkook and Taehyung look up to see that the older male was looking directly at them. They had been so immersed in their own conversation that they didn’t notice class had already begun and said professor was getting mildly annoyed that no one was paying attention to his introduction.

Jungkook closes his mouth and shifts in his seat.

“As I was saying,” Professor Min continues. “Due to the fact that you are all graduate students, we will mostly be focused on a research topic that you will eventually present as your final thesis at the end of the year. You will be allowed two weeks to decide your topics and whether you want to work alone or with a partner.”

“I recommend pairing up. It’s much more fun that way!” The TA, known as Park Jimin chimes in with a bright smile, eyes transforming into a pair of crescents.

The professor nods, face devoid of emotion, and Jungkook wonders if he is perhaps annoyed that he was interrupted once again or if that’s just how he expresses agreement.

 …

 When Jungkook was in middle school he wasn’t exactly a social butterfly- not that he became one later in his life, but he used to be even more hermit-like back in the day.

He kept to himself at school and didn’t really have any friends except a boy named Yugyeom who occasionally invited him to hang out with his gang of popular kids. They were all really nice and all, but Jungkook always felt out of place and, in his own words, “would much rather play alone”. But part of him knows that it would be a lie to say that wanting to be alone was his only reason for rejecting their offer of hitting up the convenience store during their lunch period. There was someone else Jungkook wanted to see, and he think’s he zeroing in on how to get you to magically appear.

He’s performed several iterations of trial and error for the past seven years, and he’s still not entirely sure how to get you to show up because he was only lucky enough to sense your presence twelve more times after your first meeting. The only thing he is certain of at this point is that he has to be alone, and he has to concentrate really hard on…he doesn’t quite know yet, but focus is apparently key.

And it’s on a blisteringly hot, humid, and cloudy day that you do stand next to him once more.

The instant he’s hit with that familiar feeling of companionship his eyes light up.  “You’re back!” Jungkook shouts in excitement before quickly realizing he was being too loud and peering around to make sure no one heard his burst of excitement. He had snuck out to the empty track field while all the other students were eating lunch in the cafeteria, and he could not afford getting caught at a moment as special to him as this.  

“I am” You reply with a warm smile that he can vaguely feel.  

“Sorry if it was a bad time.” He apologizes nervously. “I just…wanted to talk to you.” He adds a little more shyly.

“Don’t be, please.” You giggle. “I literally have no idea where I was or what I was even doing before getting here.” Your own cluelessness used to bother you, but now it just feels normal.

“So you still haven’t gotten your memories back, huh?” Jungkook lies down on the grass and looks up at the gloomy sky. The grey clouds were growing more ominous, a sign of the pending storm. He prays that the rain will be delayed because he doesn’t want to go back inside, not when you’ve just arrived and he wanted nothing more than to spend this time with you. 

“I guess so” You reply, walking over and waving an arm in front of him as he kept his fixation on the grey expanse. As expected, he doesn’t even flinch.

“Maybe playing a game will help,” He suggests, sitting up suddenly. “Like those question games people play to get to know each other better.”

“Ok” You accept, taking a seat in front of him and observing the way he seems to be looking straight at you.

“I’ll start.” He says. “So my name is Jeon Jungkook. I’m thirteen years old, and my favorite subject in school is physics.”

“Physics?” You repeat, wondering why it sounded oddly familiar.

“Yeah, you know, the study of matter and its motion, the nature of the universe.” He hints at the fact that this is common knowledge, despite the puzzled expression on your face that he is partially blind too. “It’s super interesting, and my teacher’s really good at drawing cartoon pictures of force diagrams. I think he’s one of the most talented teachers on earth.”

“Earth?”  Now this was even further outside your range of understanding. “What is that?”

Jungkook furrows his brows, sensing your growing confusion. “The planet we’re on right now, silly.” He laughs. “Wow, you must really have your memory wiped clean.”

You crinkle your nose in distaste. How dare this child make fun of your cluelessness? Is he aware that you are older than him? Wait…. “I’m nineteen years old,” You suddenly blurt out as that tiny piece of knowledge dawns on you.

“Whoa, you’re older than me?” Jungkook’s eyes widen. “Wait, you remember now?”

“I-I…it just hit me out of the blue.” You reply, eyes stretched open just as wide as his. You didn’t know how that was possible. How does an incongruent piece of information feel so indisputable? And how had you been able to just retrieve it?

“Does that mean you remember your name too?” Jungkook’s heart is racing as he listens so attentively that he’s not even breathing, and he’s concentrating so hard that he swears he can almost see an outline of your figure sitting in front of him. It’s not his imagination is it? A lightning bolt flickers across the sky, followed by a distant crackle of thunder.

“My name….my name….” You close your eyes and really try to dig deep. You can almost feel the syllables on the tip of your tongue. It’s within reach. “Y/N” You exclaim, opening your eyes and looking at him in astonishment. You finally figured it out, just as the pellets of rain begin falling from the sky.

“My name is Y/N”

...