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fadedneonzzz · 3 years ago

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My Top 10 RWBY Characters

Because I feel like it, and I’ll give a brief explanation for every character on this list.

First up, Honorable Mentions. In no particular order

Team CFVY

I know it seems lazy to put them all in one, but they’re here for essentially the same reason: lack of meaningful screen time. I appreciate they were amazing in the books, but it’s optional material. Also if it weren’t for Velvet’s popularity, CFY wouldn’t even exist.

Salem

While I do enjoy her for the most part, I feel there are other villains that are way more interesting. I also don’t enjoy villains who act like gods without something else going for her. However she is a master of destroying hope and has a terrifying presence, I will definitely give her that.

Neopolitan

This might come as a shock to many of you as all I do is complain about Neo, but I’d be lying if I said there wasn’t some kind of charm with her. My distain for her isn’t really her fault as it stems primarily from the FNDM overhyping her along with CRWBY doing the same. I think many people would agree with me that Neo is by far RWBY’s most overrated character. But damn did I love her in V2 and V3.

Blake Belladonna

This may also come as a surprise because at one point Blake was in fact my favorite character. But everything about her arc V4 onwards was pretty weak, though V5 was actually pretty good for her, it wasn’t enough to stop her from falling to Honorable Mention status. A lot of what made her interesting is gone, though I still like her a lot.

Emerald Sustrai

While I have enjoyed her character since V3, her redemption arc was by far the weakest part of V8 and if it doesn’t continue in V9 or V10, it’ll be one of the weakest redemption arcs I’ve ever seen. On a more positive note, I found her snark to be great and she was probably the second most interesting of the villains around V3. As it stands however, I cannot put her in my top 10.

Now on to the top 10!

10) James Ironwood

Now don’t worry I’m not one of those crazy Ironwood stans that think he was right all along and RWBY was stupid not to follow his orders, but he was one of the best written antagonists in the show. Seeing him “lose his heart” was one of the most heart wrenching scenes in RWBY because you know he means well, but his methods aren’t. You didn’t want to see him turn antagonistic, but he did, and in the end it’s what causes his ultimate downfall.

9) Neon Katt

Nothing really too special, I just think she’s a fun character to watch and I love her bubbly personality. That and she really likes talking shit to people, but wants to be your friend afterwards (after you beat her ass of course). She’s been a favorite of mine since V3 mostly due to her fight with Yang. I hope to god she’s still alive.

8) Jaune Arc

Ironically he became a better character with worse hair. Honestly, it wasn’t until V7 and V8 where he really started to grow on me. I loved that he grew as a character, I’m glad he’s not fixated on revenge like some of his fans want him to be. He has shown time and time again that he is the most level headed of the main team. It seems now he understands what Pyrrha’s sacrifice really meant and I hope he keeps growing.

7) Winter Schnee

Thanks to V7 and V8 doing wonders for her character, Winter has become a delight to watch. I can’t wait to see where her character goes now that she’s the winter maiden. I like that she had to change as a person before inheriting the powers. At first she wanted to do it because Ironwood said so, but then she used the powers for something more important. In a way, she cut her puppet strings like Penny did.

6) Ruby Rose

The thing about Ruby that I’ll always love about her is that she stays optimistic even during the darkest of times. While she may not be as interesting as other characters, she definitely grows and matures which is all I really need. In V6, it was cool to see her take charge after being sidelined in V5. Now Ruby is the light that everyone needs to keep moving forward. She is becoming the heroine she always dreamed of becoming.

5) Nora Valkyrie

All I really ask from any character is 2 things: either be interesting or have character growth. Nora represents the latter as for the first 6 volumes, Nora was just there for me. She wasn’t particularly interesting, but not boring or annoying. However that all changed when V7 hit. She showed she’s more than just the comic relief character. It’s also very mature of her to want to find out who she really is, it may have taken a while, but better late than never I always say. She has quickly became my favorite member of JNPR.

4) Arthur Watts

Also known as Revolver Mustache, is my second favorite antagonist in RWBY. While he hasn’t directly interacted with any of the main characters, I do like his connections to Atlas and the people there. He had a pretty good fight against someone who could’ve easily beaten him. And his voice is amazing.

3) Yang Xiao Long

One of my all time favorite characters since the beginning, I loved seeing her get back up from having her arm cut off and maturing as the series went on. Some of her highlights include her talk with Weiss in V5 where we see a more vulnerable side to her. I liked her final confrontation with Raven as well, and so far she stuck to what she said. Yang might be afraid of Salem and all the future hardships she may have to endure, but she won’t run.

2) Cinder Fall

In my opinion Cinder is the most interesting character and the best villain in RWBY. Some may disagree with me, but she is just as much of a main character as the heroes. Her story arc is very relatable and compelling. What keeps me hooked to her character is that the writers can go whichever direction they want with the character. It’s rare to see a villain go through character growth that doesn’t (immediately) lead to a redemption arc. Villains are mostly static characters who are for the most part set in their ways, but not Cinder she became a better villain after so many failures. Some hate her because she fails so often, but honestly that’s more realistic than one would think. I’m really excited to see where her character goes in the future.

Now who could possibly top Cinder?

1) Weiss Schnee

Probably the most consistently well written character in RWBY for the past 4 (arguably 5) volumes. Even when RWBY at it’s lowest point, Weiss was a joy to watch. I loved how she started off as a cold hearted bitch, but in V4 we found out where it stemmed from. Like her jumping into Yang’s arms after reuniting with her just shows how much she has grown as a person. While it took many of these characters a while to become my favorite, Weiss managed to be my favorite throughout. I also love how she managed to stitch her family back together by the end of V8.

So what do you think of my list? What’s your top 10 characters?

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thatsjustrwde · 4 years ago

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For the RWBY character prompt thing: you gotta tell me about Ironwood for sure! And if somebody already asked, how's about Qrow? :)

OH BABEY A DOUBLE (I’m gunna put Qrow in a separate post to avoid making this too long) thank you so much!

Warning: This is a PRO IRONWOOD POST. I also go into team RWBY taking responsibility for their abuse towards Ozpin. Don’t read this if you don’t like it. You’ve been warned

My top three two ships for Ironwood

1) Ironqrow (Ironwood x Qrow) {Volumes 3-7}

I have loved the idea of these two since the fall of beacon. When they first interacted, I wasn’t too sure about them because it seemed like they didn’t really like each other.. but that scene where all the robots were turning on beacon and Qrow spotted ironwood, ran at him with his scythe, only to jump over him and save him from a Grimm, sold the ship to me. It was clear that they didn’t actually despise each other. Qrow wasn’t quick to point fingers; he knew that what was going on wasn’t James’ fault, and he even tried to add a little bit of comic relief to the scene. (When ironwood’s ship fell, and Qrow smirked “well, it won’t be much of a walk”)

My love for the ship was reinforced in v6 (yeah I know it was the fan service volume but I’m rolling with it anyway). Qrow knew that they HAD to get to ironwood in order to complete their goal. He trusted James, and he knew that he was a smart and capable leader who would know what to do (ah,, the good old days ;;)

And then in the early episodes of v7, their bickering that we once saw in v3 was non existent. They were happy to see each other, and James even initiated a hug. He was just so relieved to see him ;; it made my heart melt, I remember posting about this moment so much, all over instagram and tumblr. I loved them so dearly.

2) Ironwood x Glynda (idk if they have a ship name)

God,, I always loved them. that scene in v2 with Ironwood and Glynda standing together in the dead of night looking over the city of vale was so special to me. I love Glynda and her character, she is so dynamic. that scene with her and ironwood showed to us that she truly respected and cared for him and his well-being. She was worried for him as well. I just wish they had more interactions before his death. they would have been very sweet and POWERFUL together.

My three least favourite ships for Ironwood

1) Ironqrow {Volumes 7-8}

Oh boy. RT really knows how to take something good and just, ruin it huh.

I feel as though I don’t need to dive too deep into this (as I’ll be covering Ironwood’s fall from grace later) but yeah... The fight with Qrow and Clover was.. unfortunate. Everyone seemed to lose their braincells in that scene, and the moment it was over, Qrow was dead set on killing Ironwood for some reason even though he was the one who decided to side with a literal murderer, but go off MKEK you really did something there...

Yepp this absolutely killed the ship for me in canon (though I stilln love thinking about them out of the canon setting), I was an absolute wreck after this scene. they deserved better.

2) Ironwood x Winter

don’t worry I’m not about to pull the “IRONWOOD WAS AN ABUSIVE FATHER FIGURE AND GROOMED HER CAREERRHYUGGHR” no.

I always saw Ironwood as a POSITIVE father figure to winter, even before v7. We knew that winter was one of his best soldiers, and was most likely one of his students before then. I believe that Ironwood gave winter a chance at something great, to leave her actual abusive father and hone her skills as a soldier instead of becoming the heiress to a company that she did not want to be tied to. I believe Ironwood was a stellar father figure and role model to her, and that is the reason why I do not ship them. their relationship was so much deeper than that. it was found family.

3) Ironwood x Salem

What the fuck. Like actually what? This was a thing? What is it with this fandom and glorifying abusive relationships... I remember seeing a lot of people trying to justify it like “awh salem was so sweet with him she just wanted him to stop fighting. She would leave him alone after!!” Thats manipulation honey, we don’t fuck with that here. no. Absolutely not

My biggest criticism for Ironwood

See: the reason I made this side blog

It’s no secret to us in the RWDE community that his fall into the role of the villain was POORLY WRITTEN AND WE ALL HATE IT SO FUCKING MUCH. where the hell did this even come from? oh I know! TEAM RWBY LYING TO HIS FACE AFTER HE WAS NOTHING BUT KIND AND GENEROUS TO THEM. god I’m heated already.

I’ve talked about his stupid semblance before but it doesn’t even matter because his semblance wasn’t the cause of his descent anyway. We were all HOPING that it was but nope! it was him “losing his humanity” because he lost his other arm. How fucked up is that.

Shitty writing aside, I know James had flaws even before the shitshow that was v7-8, but honestly there was nothing he did that I can criticize harshly. He was a good and honest man with good intentions and a pure, big heart made of gold. Of course he made mistakes and of course he wasn’t perfect, but he was always trying to do the right thing to protect the people. He was a good man until MKEK decided they needed a reason to kill off another headmaster.

My favourite thing about Ironwood

his MUSCLES

His willingness to sacrifice himself to save others. During the fall of beacon he told the students that they didn’t have to stay, even though he could have used the help greatly. But he KNEW that they weren’t ready to handle a crisis like this, and he didn’t want to force them into a responsibility that could have left them emotionally/physically damaged, or worse.

During the Ironwood and Watts fight, IRONWOOD MANGLED HIS OWN ARM TO CAPTURE WATTS. He was so headstrong and brave and he wanted to do everything he could to prevent Salem, even if that meant hurting himself and losing another part of himself. God I miss him so much ;; I’m tearing up a little writing all of this...

A head canon I have for Ironwood

I love creating head canons for characters, it always makes them feel more real to me. one of my biggest head canons is that, in a peaceful world setting, he would enjoy sleeping in on the weekends. ;;. He is a headmaster AND a general which means he has to follow a strict schedule all the time. Maybe this is coming from my desire to take care of him and make sure he is happy and healthy and not stressed out.. But yeah, lazy Sundays, sleeping in late. pls let him sleep he needs so much sleep. What I would change about Ironwood if I were making a rewrite

Strap in kiddos I’ve been thinking about this for a very long time. I’m sure that someone has come up with a similar concept, but I will share my ideas anyway (: I am going to preface this by saying that for this rewrite to work, we need to have Winter receive the Winter maiden powers from Freya in V7. To start, we will have to go back all the way to v2 when Ironwood was first introduced. I would have Ozpin and Glynda share their concerns to each other about Ironwood bringing all of his ships to look over the festival, but I would take that time to thoroughly explain his semblance. His semblance is stupid, so I would make some changes. To start off, I wouldn’t make it passive. The way it is now is just,, a weird way to give him a mental illness without actually giving him a mental illness. Activating it would have to be a decision that he made if he knew that he had to make decisions that would be hard for him. This way if his semblance caused him to do something actually horrible, he would be directly accountable for it, instead of blaming him for something that he couldn’t control. Semblances are a representation of the user, so with time and with more stress put onto Ironwood, I could see him falling victim to his own semblance if he were to abuse it too much. This will help as we lead into a better way to write his fall from grace.

From there, I would keep pretty much everything the same until we get to v7. Team RWBY arrives in Atlas and gets arrested and brought to Ironwood just as they do in canon. This time, however, we have Oscar explain EVERYTHING. No lying. Salem cannot be killed. Oscar explains that Ozpin shut himself off after team RWBY forced the truth out of him, and while the truth is a lot for Ironwood to handle, he understands why Ozpin kept it a secret. He shuns team RWBY for their methods and explains why their actions were unnecessary and abusive, but agrees to help them anyway since he knows that they all need to come together if this is going to work. Hence, his arc kind of goes backwards. Instead of team RWBY having his trust from the beginning, they will need to work to gain it back.

He takes Oscar under his wing to try and draw Ozpin back out. He greets Qrow, they fall in love, he also formally introduces the team to the Ace Ops. The Ace Ops take an IMMEDIATE backseat in the story. We don’t need more characters. For the sake of this rewrite specifically, they are barely around. We are focusing on Ironwood and his growth/relationships. I would explore more times to show the deep connection between him and Winter. As I said earlier, I see him as a healthy father figure for her, so I would definitely focus on that for a bit. At this point, Winter would not have received the maidens power yet, so we could have a scene of him assuring her that she is a perfect fit for the role, and encouraging her and just,, you know, solidifying that he wasn’t pressuring her into doing it.

Carrying on with the main plot, instead of being left in the dark for the whole season, Ironwood is already aware that Salem cannot be killed. This gives him and the rest of the team a lot of time to work on a new plan to defeat her. They spend lots of time training, Ironwood takes care of them, offering his resources to them. Overtime the team do start to gain his trust little by little again, but this will all kinda fall apart when Salem arrives.

With stress levels higher than ever, he activates his semblance. Team RWBY and friends KNOW about his semblance and they understand why he is acting irrationally. Maybe they have different ideas than him, but they would not directly oppose him. This completely fixes him from becoming a cartoon villain. Team RWBY and friends would work WITH Ironwood at a distance to fix amity and get global communications back up safely. From there, Ironwood could deliver a message to the world about Salem. Since people know who he is, it will make the message more impactful. Just like he did with his message to Mantle.

Qrow and Winter are positives in his life. They keep trying to ground him and bring him back to reality, but he will not deactivate his semblance. He is too scared of what’s to come with Salem. They support him in this, and do not turn their back on him.

Winter receives the maiden’s power, and is told to open the vault to obtain the staff and raise atlas further into the sky to save his people. Winter agrees, why wouldn’t she? They have already evacuated most of mantle to atlas anyway. In situations like this it’s impossible to save everyone. RWBY could whine and bitch if they wanted to, but there is nothing they could do in this situation because, for the sake of this rewrite, they wouldn’t be as stupid as they are in the canon proper.

The vault is open and the staff is vulnerable. It is in this moment that the ACTUAL VILLIAN comes into play. Watts took advantage of the security from behind the scenes, giving Salem the exact time that the vault was open. And thanks to him overhearing everything, he knows that all she needs to do is use the staff, and Atlas will fall. Salem appears in the room, and the big finale battle would occur. They weren’t ready yet. They hadn’t finalized the plan to stop her without killing her. Team RWBY Oscar and Qrow would do their best to keep Salem distracted while Winter and Ironwood speak to the staff. Meanwhile, Neo could breach Ironwood’s office and retrieve the relic of knowledge for Salem.

The battle plays out, she keeps coming back, the team gets tired, Salem loses her patience and just PLOWS through them to get to the staff. She enters the realm and the mystical world around them begins to shatter and break. With that much concentrated evil in this place coming up out of nowhere, it would be sure to shift the balance.

She goes head to head against Winter and Ironwood for the staff. She knows that using the staff will cause Atlas to come crashing down, so that is exactly what she does. Since he is already out, she just gives him a command. It doesn’t matter what it is. Atlas starts to fall. She strikes a lethal blow to Ironwood (Keeping the theme of her killing headmasters) and flees with the staff. Qrow runs to his side, he and winter are crying, Team RWBY is upset, OZPIN IS UPSET. With his aura broken and his semblance down, he smiles at them all, says that he is proud of them for their work and he knows that they will find a way to defeat her. He tells them to get out and save themselves, save as many people as they can. They do that, but for further angst, Qrow stays with him, holding him and crying against him as Atlas falls. Team RWBY use the gravity dust keeping Atlas falling slowly to their advantage. They get as many people as they can into airships and send them to mistral. They then make their own way to Vacuo... Since global communications are back up, the world would know about this. This would give Shade academy a good chance to prepare. (damn I could write a fic)

What I think of Ironwood’s allusion and what I would change.

It’s dumb the way that CRWBY has portrayed it. In the story of the Wizard of Oz, the tin man doesn’t have a heart, but learns to love overtime. I used THIS aspect for helping my rewrite of Ironwood. He was hardened at the beginning, but managed to trust again and eventually smiled and said that he was proud of team RWBY and friends in his dying moments. It’s just more impactful that way I think.

#long post #ironwood #pro ironwood #ironqrow #rwde #rwby crit

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technoskittles · 5 years ago

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Pure Feeling Playlist

Okay, so I had someone on twitter express interest in the songs I have for my playlist for Pure Feeling and figured, yeah, I could share it. I don’t have a spotify (I don’t like the interface plus the music selection is way too limited for my taste) and the playlist itself is on Youtube Music. It’s also private because I don’t really want random people seeing it or other people messing with it if I unlocked it, so I’ll just type up all the songs here with links that way y’all can scroll through and listen to what you want.

I understand there’s probably an easier and faster way to do this probably, but hey, with the quarantine I clearly have some extra time on my hands so why not?

Though, couple of warnings:

1. It’s LOOOOOOONG (it’s 300+ songs in total) (don’t worry I’m gonna put this under a cut)

2. Some of the songs aren’t going to make much sense in terms of the AU. This is for two reasons: a) Some of the songs allude to events/characters that haven’t shown up in the story yet (there’s a LOT of songs regarding Mara’s father) and b) some of them are just general songs that I use to get a basis of emotion/vibe when writing particular types of scenes.

3. My music tastes are all over the place (and this doesn’t even include some of the other genres I listen to just because it doesn’t fit this AU lol)

But this playlist is my main muse and is probably one of the best insights to my process/inner thoughts so, without further ado.....my full playlist.

(I grouped the songs from the same artist together for the easiest convenience)

(And some songs might kind of be repeats if I listen to multiple versions for the purpose of this fic)

Got any favorites? Any songs that worry you about the future of this fic? Or just something you might want more clarification on? Feel free to shoot me ask about it!

South London Forever by Florence + The Machine

Patricia by Florence + The Machine

I Will Be by Florence + The Machine

Too Much Is Never Enough by Florence + The Machine

You’ve Got The Love by Florence + The Machine

Never Let Me Go by Florence + The Machine

Dog Days Are Over by Florence + The Machine

Cosmic Love by Florence + The Machine

Ship To Wreck by Florence + The Machine

St. Jude by Florence + The Machine

Over The Love by Florence + The Machine

Pure Feeling by Florence + The Machine (hey look it’s the fic title)

Heavy In Your Arms by Florence + The Machine

What Kind Of Man by Florence + The Machine

Stuck On You by Meiko

Stuck On You (Acoustic Version) by Meiko

Adventure of A Lifetime by Coldplay

Sky Full of Stars by Coldplay

Hymn For The Weekend by Coldplay

Simple and Clean by Hikaru Utada

Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence - FYI - Hikaru Utada

Be My Last by Hikaru Utada

Colors by Hikaru Utada

Distance (M-Flo Remix) by Hikaru Utada

Without You (Justice Skolnik Remix) by Oh Wonder

Rockabye by Clean Bandit ft. Sean Paul & Anne-Marie

In The Rain (an unofficial rendition from Miraculous Ladybug by David Russell)

Stone Heart (an unofficial rendition from Miraculous Ladybug by sxrlove06)

Lost In The Moment by Daniel Lee Kendall

Fragile by ARCADES

Daddy Issues by The Neighbourhood

Scary Love by The Neighbourhood

Sweater Weather by The Neighbourhood

Sweater Weather (Vaski Remix) by The Neighbourhood

Honest by The Neighbourhood

Alleyways by The Neighbourhood

Stuck With Me by The Neighbourhood

Lights by Ellie Goulding

Goodness Gracious (The Chainsmokers Remix) by Ellie Goulding

Still Falling For You by Ellie Goulding

Starry Eyed by Ellie Goulding

Don’t Need Nobody by Ellie Goulding

Candy-Coloured Sky by Catmosphere

‘Till We’re In The Sea by RKCB

affection by Jinsang

summers day v2 by Jinsang

Let Go by Frou Frou

Must Be Dreaming by Frou Frou

I Just Want You by Robert Duncan

Forget by Alicks

Dinner & Diatribes by Hozier

Nevermind by Dennis Lloyd

Let It Happen by Tame Impala

Think About You by Kygo ft. Valerie Broussard

First Time by Kygo ft. Ellie Goulding

Fragile by Kygo ft. Labrinth

Feel Your Love by Nyquill

I See You by MISSIO

Learn To Let Go by Kesha

Praying by Kesha

I Love My Life by Justice Crew

Sex by Cheat Codes x Kris Kross Amsterdam

Everlong by Foo Fighters

Party Like It’s Your Birthday by Studio Killers

The Disappearance of The Girl by Phildel

Soul On Fire by Mystery Skulls

we’ve never met but, can we have coffee or something? by in love with a ghost

What is Love? by Y//2//K & Yung Death Ray ft. Jaymes Young

A Manner to Act by Ra Ra Riot

Suckers by Ra Ra Riot

Do You Remember by Ra Ra Riot

You And I Know by Ra Ra Riot

Oh, La by Ra Ra Riot

Can You Tell by Ra Ra Riot

Consequence by The Notwist

Anyone Else by PVRIS

Dead Weight by PVRIS

Can You Hold Me by NF ft. Britt Nicole

Young Folks by Peter Bjorn and John

No Fear by Dej Loaf

I’ve Been Waiting by Lil Peep & ILoveMakonnen ft. Fall Out Boy

Give U Up by CALVIN (I’m sorry in advance for this one)

Heartbeat by Scouting For Girls

Keep It Simple by Tove Lo

Sweettalk My Heart by Tove Lo

Glad He’s Gone by Tove Lo

Not On Drugs by Tove Lo

Got Love by Tove Lo

Crave by Tove Lo

Paradise by Tove Lo

Moments by Tove Lo

Talking Body by Tove Lo

Habits (Stay High) by Tove Lo

Scars by Tove Lo

Out Of Your Mind by Tove Lo

Vibes by Tove Lo

Lies In The Dark by Tove Lo

Come Undone by Tove Lo

dont ask dont tell by Tove Lo

Cherry Blossom by ALA.NI

Feels Like Home by The Him ft. Son Mieux

Quiet by Lights

Skydiving by Lights

365 by Zedd & Katy Perry

Left to Right by Marteen

Could You Love Me? by Black Saint

Midnight City by M83

Marble Soda by Shawn Wasabi

Crystal Dolphin by Engelwood

Pusher (Shawn Wasabi Remix) by Clear ft. Mothica

She’s A Riot by The Jungle Giants

Stranger by Jay Hayden & King Vodka

Now That I’ve Found You by Carly Rae Jepsen

Marty McFly by Luke Christopher

Rocks by Imagine Dragons

All Day And Night by Jax Jones ft. Madison Beer & Martin Solveig

Run Free by Deep Chills ft. IVIE

Maps by Maroon 5

Feelings by Maroon 5

blue by Pools

High Hopes (The Lucifer Edit) by Quails

breathin’ by Ariana Grande

Into You by Ariana Grande

Shy Girl by Kedam

Something Good Can Work by Two Door Cinema Club

What You Know by Two Door Cinema Club

Sleep Alone by Two Door Cinema Club

This Is The Life by Two Door Cinema Club

Do You Want It All? by Two Door Cinema Club

Sun by Two Door Cinema Club

Eat That Up, It’s Good For You by Two Door Cinema Club

Undercover Martyn by Two Door Cinema Club

Sunflower by Post Malone & Swan Lee

Señorita by Shawn Medes & Camila Cabello

Her Morning Elegance by Oren Lavie

Everybody’s Angel by Down With Webster

All Fall Down by OneRepublic

Counting Stars by OneRepublic

HOLD ME TIGHT OR DON’T by Fall Out Boy

Jenny by Walk The Moon

Youth by Daughter

Get Lucky (Cover) by Daughter

Love by Daughter

River Flows In You by Yiruma

Girls And Boys In School by Neon Trees

Girls And Boys In School (EP Version) by Neon Trees

Helpless by Neon Trees

In The Next Room by Neon Trees

Beings by Madeon

Dried-Out Cities by Fallulah

Bloodline by Fallulah

Almost Home by Mariah Carey

Headlock by Imogen Heap

Closing In by Imogen Heap

Lifeline by Imogen Heap

Goodnight And Go by Imogen Heap

First Train Home by Imogen Heap

I Am In Love With You by Imogen Heap

The Walk by Imogen Heap

More by Kaskade & Felix Cartal ft. Jenn Blosil

Lay Down by Kaskade & Late Night Alumni

My Distance by Kaskade

Lessons In Love by Kaskade ft. Neon Trees

Kill The Lights (Audien Remix) by Alex Newell ft. DJ Cassidy, Nile Rogers, & Jess Glynne

Fall In Love/Lie by INNA

Cola Song by INNA

Caliente by INNA

Iguana by INNA

Ruleta by INNA ft. Erik

I Like You by INNA

Love by INNA

Shining Star by INNA

Bebe by INNA

Bebe (Yaniss Extended Remix) by INNA

Better Not by Louis The Child ft. Wafia

Living Island by Pogo

Still Into You by Paramore

Hard Times by Paramore

Emergency by Paramore

Ignorance by Paramore

I Caught Myself by Paramore

Letting Go by HERB x Kendall Miles

To Be Human by Sia ft. Labrinth

Big Girls Cry (ODESZA Remix) by Sia

Elastic Heart by Sia

Angel By The Wings by Sia

If You Didn’t See Me (Then You Weren’t On The Dancefloor) by Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr.

Butterfly In The Still by Iwasaki Taku

Dare (La La La) by Shakira

Me Enamore by Shakira

Loca by Shakira ft. Dizzee Rascal

Te Aviso, Te Anuncio (Tango) by Shakira

Addicted To You by Shakira

Whenever, Wherever by Shakira

When A Woman by Shakira

Can’t Remember To Forget You by Shakira ft. Rihanna

Better Than Yesterday by HollySiz

This is What You Came For by Calvin Harris ft. Rihanna

Sweet Nothing by Calvin Harris ft. Florence Welch

Rain by Pueblo Vista ft. .Eehlou & Shiloh Dynasty

G.B.D. Pressure (Extended) by Chillster

Valentine by Aether ft. Veela

Lemme See by Usher ft. Rick Ross

Promises by Aly & AJ

Like Whoa by Aly & AJ

Silence by Aly & AJ

Find A Way by Safety Suit

Ordinary Day by Emilie Mover

Green Light by Lorde

Don’t Feel Like Crying (MK Remix) by Sigrid

Crazy in Love by EDEN ft. Leah Kelly

Broken Girl by Matthew West

Crazy in Love by Sofia Karlberg

This Is What Makes Us Girls (The Confect Remix) by Lana del Rey

1901 by Phoenix

Lisztomania by Phoenix

Please Don’t Touch by RAYE

Island In The Sun by Weezer

God Is A Dancer by Tiesto & Mabel

Tighten Up by The Black Keys

Do I Wanna Know? by Arctic Monkeys

Lazy Eye by Silversun Pickups

Don’t Play by Halsey

Bad At Love by Halsey

Young God by Halsey

Now Or Never by Halsey

Hurricane by Halsey

Drive by Halsey

Eyes Closed by Halsey

Eyes Closed (Stripped) by Halsey

Haunting by Halsey

Strangers by Halsey ft. Lauren Jauregui

100 Letters by Halsey

Ghost by Halsey

Break A Sweat by Becky G

Little Talks by Of Monsters And Men

I wanna be your girlfriend by girl in red

Run by Alison Wonderland

I Want U by Alison Wonderland

Peace by Alison Wonderland

Peace (Acoustic) by Alison Wonderland

Dead To Me by Kali Uchis

Good Enough by Evanescence

Go Slow by Gorgon City & Kaskade ft. Romeo

Feel Good Inc by filous & LissA

All I Need by Within Temptation

A Lot Like Love (Oliver Heldens Edit) by The Voyagers ft. Haris

Hideaway by Kiesza

Memories by KSHMR ft. Sirah

American Sadness by XYLO

One Step At A Time by Jordin Sparks

Your Shirt by Chelsea Cutler

Hope Of Morning by Icon For Hire

Collect Call by Metric

Flowers On The Grave (Acoustic) by The Maine

Fabulous by Ally Brooke

Falling (blackbear Remix) by Trevor Daniel

You by Petit Biscuit

Unlove You (Drop G Remix) by Armin van Burren ft. Ne-Yo

Formation (R-TRAX Trap Remix) by Beyonce

Schoolin’ Life by Beyonce

Simmer by Hayley Williams

Ruby by Foster The People

Moral Of The Story by Ashe

Colorblind (Left/Right Remix) by Karma Fields ft. Tove Lo

Don’t Stop The Music by Jamie Cullum

Goody Two Shoes by Adam Ant

Don’t Stop the Fancy Footwork (Chromeo vs. Rihanna)

She Wolf (Falling To Pieces) by David Guetta ft. Sia

Slow Burn by Audiograf

Write My Story by Olly Anna

1 Thing by Amerie

I Like That by Janelle Monae

Your Favorite Place by Joey Pecoraro

Beauty Mark by Parov Stelar ft. Anduze

Dead Hearts by Stars

Change of Seasons (EP Version) by Sweet Thing

Larger Than Life by Pink Zebra ft. Benji Jackson

Are You With Me (Pretty Pink Remix) by Lost Frequencies

Nothing But by Skin

In Common (Kenny Dope Remix) by Alicia Keys

Resonance by HOME

All Stars by Martin Solveig ft. ALMA

Lavender’s Blue Dilly Dilly [From the Cinderella (2015) OST]

Besame Mucho by Jorge Blanco

Touch You Right Now by Basic Element

Dinero by Trinidad

Icon (Reggaeton Remix) by Jaden Smith ft. Nicky Jam & Will Smith

Make Me Sweat by Kat DeLuna

Sombredosis by Kat DeLuna ft. El Cata

Real Love by Memory Tapes

Feelings by Hayley Kiyoko

This Side Of Paradise by Hayley Kiyoko

Wanna Be Missed by Hayley Kiyoko

Gravel To Tempo by Hayley Kiyoko

Pretty Girl by Hayley Kiyoko

Fiesta (Remix) by Bombe Estereo ft. Will Smith

Love by TeZATalks

Had by TeZATalks

Heal by Loreen

Analyser by AlunaGeorge

Attracting Flies by AlunaGeorge

Damaged by Plummet

My Kind by Hilary Duff

Sparks by Hilary Duff

Talk by DJ Snake ft. George Maple

First summer without you by Outgoing Hikikomori

First birthday without you by Outgoing Hikikomori

2 Heads by Coleman Hell

Mathematics by Little Boots

Hearts Collide by Little Boots

Meddle by Little Boots

Parachute by Cheryl Cole

When she went away by Max Richter

When she came back by Max Richter

Who Knew by Pink

Lash Out by Alice Merton

Back To The Start by Mr. Little Jeans

Perfecto. by Ayo. & .Disfnk ft. Daniela Andrade

service by j^p^n

I’m In Love Again by tomppabeats

Close by Nick Jonas ft. Tove Lo

Falling Apart by Michael Schulte

Dusk ‘Til Dawn by ZAYN ft. Sia

Pillowtalk by ZAYN

Minimal Beat by Lindsey Stirling

Perfect Illusion by Lady Gaga

Do I Wanna Know? (Cover) by CHVRCHES

La Familia (Guy Sigsworth Remix) by Mirah

Broken Parts by The Ready Set & Mokita

Invisible Chains by Lauren Jauregui

Lonely Gun by CYN

Cartier by Dopebwoy ft. 3robi & Chivv

Boss Bitch by Doja Cat

#1 #2 #3 #4 #5 #pure feeling #ash writes #pure feeling playlist #playlist #if some of these links are wrong or repeat forgive me #I wasn't about to go through and double check them all #if nothing else you have the titles and these are all on youtube #will probably be adding onto this as I add more songs to my playlist #so I just realized that the links aren't showing up for some reason on the published post #even though when I went to edit they're still there???#I'm very sorry about that #just copy and paste into youtube I guess?

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honeyedhoseok · 5 years ago

Text

Another Time After That | V2 Drabble

Genre | Smut, V2 Taehyung x Reader

Word Count | 5.4K

Warnings | Language, detailed smut, oral, dirty talk, abuse of library property (yikes!), Taehyung and Y/N living out my dreams, etc.

A/N | Hi, this is completely self-indulgent ridiculousness from my wine-drunk brain. I pumped the second half of this out in like two hours and didn’t edit much, so I hope you enjoy! <3

Read the rest of The V2 Series HERE!

You pull into the parking lot of the Belmont Public Library, taking the convenient parking lot near the back for employees and sidling your own vehicle right into a space next to Taehyung’s black Honda.

He sits in it with the windows down, reclined in his seat in an absurdly low position. The only way you know he isn’t asleep on his break is the long stream of smoke that escapes from his window, courtesy of the cigarillo tucked neatly between his index and middle fingers.

The sun sets behind the library, just barely dipping below the horizon but throwing a myriad of warm, snooze-inducing colors on Taehyung’s windshield. When you round the car and stand beside his door, he opens his eyes slowly from his relaxed state, giving you a lazy grin.

“Hey, beautiful,” he murmurs. “You’re here already?”

You look down at your phone, the screen momentarily lit. “You told me to be here by 6:30.”

Taehyung’s eyes open a little wider. “I’ve been out here for that long?” He flicks some ash off his cigar, pulling a lever below his seat so that he’s anchored back up in a sitting position. “Shit, I’ve got to finish the returns.”

You hold up the bag in your left hand, dangling it outside the window with a grin. “Well, I brought us food.”

Taehyung groans, rolling his window up and stepping out of the car. “And that’s why you’re my favorite person in the whole world,” he says, giving you a wink. “Let’s go.”

The inside of a public library after closing might just be the quietest place you’ve ever visited. Although a calming, studious atmosphere fills the spaces between the shelves in the daytime, at night it’s a sort of hollowed emptiness that resides there now, and you try to fight the chill that threatens to crawl up your neck.

“You don’t get weirded out being in this place alone at night?” you ask, trailing behind Taehyung as he leads you back to the receptionist's desk.

“No,” he says with a laugh. “Why? You scared?”

You scoff, but your inner feelings betray you almost immediately when you jump a little at the loud slam the swinging half door makes behind you as you walk into Taehyung’s work space.

Taehyung chuckles a little at you, shaking his head as he drags another rolling chair up beside his own. You place the food bag down on the desk, not bothering to separate it’s contents into two different piles because Taehyung is probably going to ask for some of yours, anyways.

“Chopsticks?” he asks, and you hand him a pair. He pops open the first container of Chinese, bringing some lo mein into his mouth with audible slurps. “Mmm, god,” he murmurs through stuffed cheeks. “Fuck, this is good.”

“Long day?” you ask, smiling. You open the other container of sesame chicken, chewing a piece quietly while you watch Taehyung eat with vigor.

“No lunch,” Taehyung grumbles. “I didn’t have time. What’d you do today?”

“It was my day off so I just caught up on laundry and my shows,” you say.

“Can I have some of that?” he asks, pointing at your container with his chopsticks. “Let’s trade.”

You hand it to him. “Do you skip lunch often?”

Taehyung looks up from his food, noticing the worry lines starting to form on your forehead. “I mean—no, and yes. It depends on what’s going on, but sometimes there’s just too much to do. But I’ll make up for it by going home an hour early or something.”

“You’ve got to take care of yourself,” you chide, frowning. “Start calling me, Taehyung. If I’m free, I’ll bring you something to eat.”

He nods only to sate you, but you know he won't actually call unless he really, really needs to. Taehyung always thought he was bothering you, which was ridiculous. Today, he'd only suggested you give him company while he worked after closing—it was you who'd said something about food, which Taehyung eagerly obliged to.

"So what's on the agenda tonight?" you ask, watching as Taehyung leans back in his chair, kicking his feet up on the desk as he continues to much happily on his dinner.

He looks incredibly good in his work clothes—his black slacks slim-fitted on his legs and his blue button down rolled up at the elbows, showing off his toned forearms. You trace muscle down to his hands, his fingers gripping the chopsticks easily, the silver ring that rests around his right thumb.

You watch as he brings another mouthful of food to his lips, his tongue darting out to lick the sauce off his plump bottom lip. You're so focused on the sensual movements of his mouth you miss the words coming out of them, and you shake your head a little.

"Sorry, what?" you ask with a smile. "I zoned out for a second."

"Yeah, I see that," Taehyung says. He raises an eyebrow at your dazed expression. "There something on my face? I was trying not to get anything on my shirt, but it's kind of hard."

You clear your throat. "Nope, you're good," you say. "Did you say you're shelving?"

"A fancy word for putting books back on the shelf, yes," Taehyung responds. "It can be fun, though. Sometimes people check out some really funny stuff."

You turn around in your seat, looking at the cart Taehyung points to over your shoulder.

"All of those?" you ask incredulously. "And you do this by yourself at night?"

"Whoever closes does." Taehyung shrugs. "I promise it's not as bad as you think!"

“Whatever you say.”

It’s quiet for a few beats.

“So,” Taehyung says, scraping the bottom of the carton, carefully avoiding your eyes as he picks his next topic of conversation. “What’s Hongbin up to tonight that lets you be with me?”

You shrug nonchalantly, suddenly finding the cuticles on your right hand extremely interesting. “Oh, you know. Stuff.”

“Stuff?” Taehyung repeats, trying to keep the smile out of his voice. “Can you be any more vague?”

You sigh, finally looking him in the eyes. “I honestly don’t know, Taehyung,” you say simply. “I guess he’s working over, or whatever.”

Or whatever was more like it, if you were being honest. You hadn’t heard from Hongbin since that morning, and you were too stubborn to reach out because it made you look weak to constantly be bothering him. If he was working, what did you look like whining about him being gone a little longer than usual?

Taehyung’s eyes narrow just a fraction, and he shakes his chopsticks at your telling expression. “He didn’t even let you know? How shitty,” he tuts. “He’s probably off at some fucking bar grabbing a beer with his coworkers, like last time. I don’t get why he wouldn’t want you there, Y/N—”

You cut him off before he can say any more. “Yeah, well I wouldn’t want to be there anyways,” you say. “I’m happy right here, with you.”

Taehyung’s expression softens, and he quirks a playful eyebrow your way. “Oh yeah?” he says. “Well at least we agree on that, I guess.”

You give him a half-hearted grin, glad momentarily that he isn’t going to press you on the subject. If there was one thing you avoided talking about to Taehyung—which was rare, because here lately, you told him everything, right down to the petty drama with your friends—it was the status of you and Hongbin’s relationship. It just didn’t feel right to talk about it with him.

Taehyung suddenly leans up from his reclined position, tossing the now-empty carton of sesame chicken in the trash. He realizes what he's done as it hits the bottom with a thunk, and he looks up at you sheepishly under his light curtain of hair.

"I hope you didn't want any of that..."

You sigh, shaking your head and handing him the rest of the lo mein noodles in the bottom of your container. Taehyung grins at you, taking it happily out of your hand and finishing the food off with long drawls of his mouth.

You don't want to, but you catch yourself staring at him again—watching that sinful tongue sneak out to lick at his pretty, glistening lips, and you reach down to secretively pinch the skin of your thigh for being this way. Why were you sexualizing Taehyung eating, of all things? Although the chemistry between you and Hongbin hadn't been great lately, were you really going to get turned on watching Taehyung lick sauce off of his lips?

Yes, you think to yourself. Because you knew plenty of other things that tongue, those hands, those fingers, were capable of. The thought alone is enough to make your stomach stir with excitement, and you cross your legs tightly, struggling to focus on anything other than the parts of Taehyung’s body that turn you on.

It’s a little while later, when you’re trailing behind Taehyung between bookshelves as he does returns, that he suggests a game to pass the rest of the time quickly.

“The rest of the cart is just young adult fiction,” he says, turning a corner. “Before we put a book back on the shelf, let’s see if we can flip it open and stop on a page that has something sexual going on in it.”

You give him a pointed look.

“What?” he says, chuckling. “That’s all these books are about.”

You laugh, shaking your head. “What? That’s crazy. YA is really like that?”

“Oh, definitely,” Taehyung says with confidence. “All the young girls check out those vampire books because it fills some weird desire deep within them—sex with humans is so out, Y/N.” He says the last part in his best posh, teenage girl voice, sending you into a fit of giggles.

He pushes the cart to a stop in the middle of an aisle. “You gonna play with me, or what?” he says, looking over his shoulder at where you stand behind him.

You try not to focus too hard on the lilt of double intention in his voice, and nod your head unsurely. “I guess so,” you say. “Just pick a random one?”

“Yup,” he says, popping the ‘p’.

He gestures to the array of books left on the cart as if offering you endless possibility—and with Taehyung, most of the time that’s exactly what it felt like. You grin and let your hand drift over their spines, loving the grin that spreads across Taehyung’s face when you pick one.

You know it’s a dumb game to play with him when you two are alone, but with his eyes sparkling with mischeif when you catch his gaze, paired with the playful wink he gives you as you flip through pages, how are you supposed to say no?

You choice is a small, square novel titled Dead Is So Last Year and you open it directly in the middle.

“Doppelgangers love to create chaos and we cannot let that happen!” you read, closing the book shut and placing it on its proper shelf. “Nothing sexy about that. Your turn.”

Taehyung looks disappointed, but eyes the cart warily before he makes his choice: The Vincent Boys by Abby Glines.

“Ooo, this looks spicy,” he comments, showing you the cover of a man with a plaid, button-down completely open so that his bare chest peaks through. “Let’s see what I can find.”

You lean on the cart, trying not to smile at the concentration and focus Taehyung is putting into a game as silly as this. A few moments later, he clears his throat dramatically.

“We were standing right outside the church where anyone could walk out and catch us, but all I could think about was pressing my lips against his. Beau was becoming a necessity, and nothing about such a revelation could be considered positive,” Taehyung reads. When he is finished, his gives you a look over the top of the book in his hands, wiggling his eyebrows. “I’d say that’s one point for me.”

You roll your eyes, but quickly make your next choice, determined to find one now that Taehyung had made it look so easy.

“Perfect Chemistry,” you say, showing Taehyung the cover of a young couple embracing each other. “This looks good.”

Taehyung waits patiently, inching closer to you as your voice drops a little in embarrassment for reading the scene you have stumbled upon aloud.

“A satisfied sigh escapes Brittany’s mouth, as if she’s content to stay in my arms forever. I brush the tip of my tongue against her lips, enticing her to open her mouth. She tentatively meets my tongue with her own—” You stop, pushing the book into Taehyung’s hands to put away. “God, this is so weird to read out loud! But that’s a point for me.”

Taehyung grins at you, nodding approvingly. “That was kind of hot—you ever thought about being an audio book reader?”

You roll your eyes again, but the way Taehyung is looking at you makes you want to read more. His eyes have darkened a fraction, his lids sitting a little heavier as he takes you in. You turn your gaze to the cart, trying to ignore the heat licking at your skin where his eyes graze. “Your turn,” you murmur.

Taehyung picks up his next book, a thicker one titled Easy.

“How about we switch it up?” he asks, a devilish grin threatening to break across his face. “I read a little heated scene in this until you start blushing.”

“Do you really think I’m that much of a child, Taehyung?” you ask, crossing your arms. “That I would get flustered over a teenage love story?”

“I think you will when I read it,” he says, voice lowering a little. His mouth quirks at the edge as he adds on, “I read a little differently than you do.”

You tilt your head, playing along. “Because you’re a librarian?”

“Because I’m not afraid of the story,” he says pointedly. “You’ll see,” he adds. “Let me just find a good spot.” He flips pages for a moment until his eyes light up. “Okay, here we go.”

Taehyung steps a fraction closer to you again, his voice a murmur as he reads low voice: “His breath in my ear, he ran his tongue along the curved edge—”

Your breath hitches a little in your throat when in one fluid movement, Taehyung has brought his hand up to your face, fingertips brushing your ear lobe in a soft movement that has your entire spine tingling.

“—my eyes drifted closed while I babbled a weak sound of longing. Nuzzling my neck—” Taehyung’s hands drop to your clavicle, where he rubs a fingertip along the prolonged edge of your collarbone. You curse yourself for wearing a thin blouse, eyes closing as the heat of his hand sparks a trail of warmth along your chest.

“Say stop whenever you want to stop. Understand?”

You open your eyes a little, confused as to whether or not he is talking to you or still reading. His eyes capture yours for a brief moment before he looks down at the page again, continuing.

Taehyung’s hand flits from your collarbones, fingertips trailing along the line of your jaw until he’s caressing your face and rubbing a thumb over your lips slowly.

You don’t take your eyes off of his face, trying embarrassingly hard to control your heightened breathing. Your lips part involuntarily as Taehyung touches them, and it’s only then that you feel the hard wood of the bookshelf behind you pressing into your spine, realizing Taehyung has you pinned and exactly where he wants you.

“I stroked his tongue with mine, sucking it deep into my mouth, and he groaned—” he pauses long enough to push his thumb past the seal of your lips, looking with hooded eyes as you pull the digit into your mouth, letting your tongue wrap around it. The cold metal of his thumb ring brushes against your chin and you welcome it’s chill; the game was more than over now. You were sure it wasn’t just your cheeks that were flushed; your entire body felt hot and weak under Taehyung’s influence.

Taehyung stutters a little on his next sentence when you give a particularly hard suck, and the sight of his eyes fluttering sends a wave of desire straight to your core.

“I pushed him onto his back and straddled him, feeling him hard and ready through our two pairs of jeans—”

You knock the book out of Taehyung’s hands, finally, tired of the games. It hits the floor with a slap, landing right on the front cover, and you know Taehyung is completely preoccupied because he doesn’t bother to scold you for treating it so carelessly.

Taehyung removes his thumb from your mouth—now glistening from your saliva—and you are panting, aware that he looks more than a little flustered as he gazes back at you.

“Touch me,” you say breathlessly. “Please.”

Taehyung brings both hands up to hold your face as he smashes his lips onto yours, pressing you hard against the bookshelf behind you. His body molds against yours but you try to bring him closer anyways, wrapping your hands around his neck while tilting your head and opening your mouth to deepen the kiss. It’s fevered and needy, tongues and teeth clashing a little from the force of desire flowing through both of you--you can tell from Taehyung’s frantic movements that you are not the only one to be heavily affected by his little reading game.

That, and because when he presses a little harder against your body, you feel the faint trace of his hardened cock in his pants sitting nicely against your stomach.

You whimper with satisfaction when Taehyung’s hands leave your face, sliding down your ribcage, fingertips dancing along the curves of your waist. He pulls your shirt up to press warm palms against your sides, hands massaging the skin there in time with the languid laps of his tongue against yours.

When he pulls back a few heated moments later, his eyes are heavy with desire, lids fluttering over the dark, obsidian irises that hold your own. His chest rises and falls with his pant-like breathing, and his lips—god, his lips—are moist and pretty and so close to your line of sight you can’t think about anything else.

“Should we get back to the game?” he asks, smirking.

“Fuck the game,” you respond, leaning in to connect your lips again, only for Taehyung to pull his head back.

You narrow your eyes at him but he grins lazily, hands still rubbing patterns into your flesh underneath your t-shirt.He lets his thumb graze the jut of your hip bone and you jump a little at the ticklish sensation.

“Tease,” you murmur at him.

“I’m the tease?” Taehyung asks, cocking an eyebrow at you. “You seduced me in my workplace, knowing very well that I can’t have you like I want you here.”

The intent in his words makes your stomach flip-flop, but you decide to go along with his games along for a little longer. You know he loves to bait you until you can’t take it anymore, but sometimes, he liked to be on the receiving end of that baiting, as well.

You decide to test the waters to see how he’s feeling tonight.

“Come on, Taehyung,” you coax in a hushed voice. “Instead of the game, can’t we just play together?” you ask, bringing one hand from the back of his neck to caress the side of his face. “Doesn’t that sound better?”

You lean in again and Taehyung attempts to jerk away playfully for a second time, but your hold on his face stops him from completely moving out of your reach. You bring him back close, skimming your nose along his jaw as you speak.

“Right?” you ask, giving a protruding vein on his neck a kitten-like lick. “No one is here so we can play, right?”

“Y/N,” he warns in a low tone, but it comes out sounding more breathless than scolding.

You smile in victory against his skin—you have him right where you want him. You lean up on your tiptoes, kissing a wet spot onto Taehyung’s neck with slow laps of your mouth, loving the way his grip tightens your waist and his breath hitches quietly.

After a few moments, Taehyung groans in his throat and his hands slide to the front of your body, knuckles brushing right under your bellybutton as he fiddles with the button to your pants. The thought that you two are about to fool around in the place where he has to work every day only excites you, and you continue your ministrations with more enthusiasm.

You suck harder on his neck, grazing your teeth against the spot to encourage him to keep going. Your panties have been sticking to you since you two started, and you almost gasp with relief at the first press of Taehyung’s fingers against your sensitive bundle of nerves.

Your head kicks back and you release a sigh, finally allowing Taehyung control of the situation—which he absolutely loves more than anything else.

“This what you wanted?” he murmurs, making slow circles against your clit. “God, you feel so fucking wet for me already.”

“Please,” you mewl. “Taehyung, I—”

Your words get lost in your throat at an expert twist of his wrist, and Taehyung presses his lips hard against yours to drown out any oncoming noises as he slides a digit down, dipping a finger into your core. “Fuck,” he murmurs, playing in your wetness for a moment.

You are weakly pressed against the bookshelf, only still able to stand up straight because of the firm arm Taehyung has wrapped around your waist while his other hand works magic on your most sensitive bits.

“Ah, Tae—” you gasp out when his fingers finally find purchase, sliding into your slickness with ease and pumping slowly.

“Mm, god it’s so tight,” he murmurs, mouthing away from your lips to suck on the soft skin underneath your ear. “Fuck, you’re such a good girl for me.”

The dirty talk only excites you further, core clenching around his fingers. Your hands dig into his shoulders and you hitch one leg onto his hip, allowing him better access to go deeper. When he does you cry out in pleasure, sparks shooting behind your closed eyes as Taehyung hits that perfect spot within you with each curl of his long, beautiful fingers.

“Don’t stop,” you pant, feeling the coil in your stomach begin to tighten. “Taehyung—”

“That’s it, baby,” he murmurs darkly against your ear. He rocks his hips against yours, struggling to sate his own feelings with any touch that your body can give him. You’ve always admired Taehyung’s ability to put his needs second to yours. It’s a gift you’ve never understood but immensely appreciated—especially in times such as the present where you’re quite literally begging to cum and can’t think of anything other than that impending snap of the tightening in your stomach.

“Tae, ah—right there, please—” you beg, ignoring how shameless you sound. “Please, please, please—”

Taehyung groans at your neediness, quickening the movement of his fingers in and out of you. The sound of your slickness is muted by the amount of clothes you have on, but turns your on anyways. “You sound so when pretty when you’re begging to cum,” he growls in your ear.

It’s a compliment and an encouragement all at once. A wanton moan tears from your throat as Taehyung rubs the last bit of self control out of you, your body slumping against his as you cum, clenching rapidly around his two digits still pumping in and out of you.

As his fingers slow, Taehyung’s mouth captures yours in a triumphant kiss, his upturned lips apparent against yours as he presses small pecks against your tired mouth. He waits until you can stand upright by yourself before he removes his hand from the recesses of your pants, looking at the slickness coating his ring and middle fingers and smirking a little at you.

You waste no time, bypassing buttoning your pants back and dropping to your knees, fingers fumbling at the belt holding up Taehyung’s slacks.

“Y/N,” he mumbles with bated breath, “You don’t have to—”

“Shhh,” you say, placing a small kiss on the spot right above where his briefs hit on his hips. “I want to.”

You pull Taehyung’s underwear down just a fraction, enough to let his cock spring free and you run your tongue over the tip eagerly, gathering up the taste of his leaking precum in your mouth.

Taehyung threads his fingers through your hair, bringing your warmth a further over his dick as he moves his hips in time with the dips of your head. He does so in a slow and controlled manner in order to not choke you. Again, you appreciate his precaution but you go deeper to sate him, loving the way he grunts a little when your nose gets close to the trimmed bit of hair that sits on his pelvic bone.

“Fuck, Y/N,” he says, breathing heavy, “You’re so good at this, baby.”

You keep your mouth around him, opening your eyes a little to look up at Taehyung, who meets your gaze with half-lidded eyes. His bottom lip is tucked between his teeth, and he chews on the soft skin a little in order not to let the full extent of his pleasure bubble over his reddened lips.

He looks so hot like this: standing in the middle of a library, head thrown back in pleasure so that you can see the extensive tan skin covering his throat and his chest, which peaks from between the top buttons on his shirt, little grunts escaping his lips as you bring him closer to his much-awaited end.

You move your hands to his ass, knowing that Taehyung won’t care from the fucked-out expression you just witnessed in his eyes, and grip the flesh there tightly, aiding him in the snap of his hips up into your mouth.

Just as you feel his rhythm getting sloppy, feel his muscles tightening at he focuses on cumming, you hear a voice come from somewhere on the other side of the library.

“Taehyung?” a woman calls. “Hey, Tae, are you still here?”

You freeze and so does Taehyung, and when you look up at him, he has a finger pressed closely to his lips as a warning.

“Yeah, Yeseul,” he calls out, and you wonder if she hears the nervous lilt to his voice. “I-I didn’t know you were coming back.”

As quietly as you can, you slide your mouth to the end of Taehyung’s cock, replacing the movements with flicks of your wrist as you twist down to the end in the way you know makes Taehyung week in the knees. On instinct, his eyes flutter closed above you as he strains to listen to Yeseul’s footsteps through his clouded brain.

You normally wouldn’t be so brave, but you’d just felt how close Taehyung was before this girl interrupted—and now you’re determined as ever to have him fall apart above you.

“I forgot my house keys,” she says, sounding a little closer. You wonder what aisle she’s on, if she’s searching for Taehyung’s exact location. “Have you seen them?”

“I think—” Taehyung pauses as you begin to fondle his balls, swallowing harshly. “I think they’re um—in the office, m-maybe?”

You suck on his dick once more, letting the saliva drip from your mouth in wet streaks as you pull away, lubricating Taehyung in the best way you can before you give his impressive length another tug with your hand. The squelching noise is pretty obvious now, and you give him a devilish look beneath your lashes as you continue to pleasure him, daring him to do something about it.

Your attempts are obviously too loud for Taehyung, though, for he suddenly places his hands on the back of your head, slipping his tip past your sealed lips so that your nose is pressed against his pelvis as punishment. He tilts his hips into your mouth, making you take the full extent of his length to the back of your throat.

You breathe shallowly from your nose, focusing on not gagging at the way he uses you so recklessly—you asked for this, technically, and your already spent core clenches around nothing at his unrelenting control of the situation.

“Did you find them, Yeseul?” he calls out, still moving his hips in a timely manner. “That’s where I last—saw them, I think.”

“I’m looking now,” she answers back, and you’re relieved to recognize that her voice sounds a little further away.

A tear escapes from your eye at the pressure Taehyung is putting on the back of your throat, but you relish in it, loving the way his entire body is trembling from how close you have him to falling apart.

“Ah, Y/N. Fuck,” he murmurs brokenly, as quietly as he can, slowing the pace of his hips. “Let me just—please—”

You can’t tell if he wants you to stop or continue, but when he doesn’t push your head away, you move faster, pumping him in and out of your mouth in a sloppy manner until Taehyung is gripping your hair hard, releasing his pearly cum in streams in the back of your throat.

You slow your movements, milking Taehyung for all he has until he slumps against the bookshelves, chest moving up and down rapidly. His upper lip is beaded with sweat, as are the edges of his hairline and when you stand, you run a hand through the fine threads, pushing them back from him handsome face.

He looks at you with an odd sort of satisfaction, pulling you close to press a brief, silent kiss on your lips before he remembers your current situation.

“Yeseul?” he calls out, voice sounding much stronger this time. “You still there?”

“Found them!” she chirps, following by the tinkling of keys hitting together. “Hey, you need any help? It’s getting kind of late.”

Taehyung looks over at you straightening your clothes and wiping off your mouth with the back of your shirt shamelessly. He gives you a grin and a wink that has your heart fluttering a little before he answers, “Nah, I’m all good here. Just finished, actually.”

“Okay,” she calls back. “Goodnight, Taehyung.”

You both wait for her footsteps to disappear and the sound of the glass doors sliding shut at the front of the library before either of you speak. You have to admit, you’re a little shaky from the whole interaction—you bring a trembling hand to push the hair out of your eyes—but mixed with that feeling is an unbelievable energy, adrenaline pumping through your veins at sharing such a passionate moment with Taehyung in a public place.

Taehyung hitches his pants back around his hips, jumping in place a little before he refastens his belt. “That was—” he begins, shaking his head.

“—Hot,” you finish for him, smiling a little. “I can’t believe we just—” you trail off, feeling the heat return to your cheeks, and you look away from Taehyung for the first time all night.

“Don’t get shy now,” he murmurs, stepping closer to you and caressing your cheek with a warm palm. “Thank you for that,” he says with honestly. “But you better hope they don’t have a reason to look at the security cameras this week.”

Your eyes widen to the size of saucers. “What? Taehyung!” you exclaim. “There are cameras? You could get fired, or, or, put in jail, for fucks sake—”

Taehyung grins, winking at you again with such ease you hate him for it. “I’m just kidding, love. There’s no cameras. In this small ass library, what are people going to do—steal this copy of Easy?”

He picks the novel off the ground where you knocked it out of his hands earlier, tsking disappointedly at a corner of the cover that got bent from its fall. “You should be ashamed, Y/N,” he says. “How are you going to make it up to me?”

You smile wider, sidling up to him and shyly pecking his somewhat swollen bottom lip. “Oh, I’m sure I can think of a way or two.”

#taehyung x reader #taehyung smut #bts x reader #kim taehyung smut #bts scenarios #bts smut #bts angst #kim taehyung x reader #the v2 series #honeyedhoseok #the v2 drabbles #disappearing act drabbles #another time after that #!!!!

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saltwukong · 6 years ago

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Volume 6 Episode 11 aka Torchwick is rolling in his grave.

This is the moment of truth. This is where things went to shit last volume...so let’s see how the looming Blake and Yang vs. Adam goes.

Cordovin could literally go up in flames and I wouldn’t care. She’s like the anti-Maria Calavera. I would rather have Flynt and Neon back, the actual fucking memes, than listen to this transplant from a shittier anime go on about the greatness of Atlas anymore.

Remember last week, when I complained that Jaune shouldn’t be a strategist when Ruby is in the room? Yeah, that’s still an issue. I am sick of listening to the experienced combatants in the room listen patiently to and take orders from Vomit Boy.

I talk a lot about how ugly Ruby’s semblance has become, but I didn’t think Monty’s iteration of it involved Ruby literally becoming encased in a weird red tube. Slow-mo-ing the effect of it un-summoning from around an already re-formed Ruby was not to this abomination’s benefit.

Alright so we’re ripping off Metal Gear Rising now? Least we’re ripping off something I’ve heard of now.

Is that another goddamn Mirror Mirror Part 75?!? Jeff Williams, shut the fuck up already!

The water splash effect is still gross, but now we’re up close and personal with it.

Okay, ya know what, rather than simply transcribe the individual errors of this fight, let me just break it down to its base issue: rather than Volume 5, where the fights could’ve been really great had Rooster Teeth not been exceptionally lazy, we have now entered territory that is genuinely beyond RT’s capabilities. Three different teams of fighters all doing different things is simply not their forte, proven again by the fact that Maria does almost nothing in this fight. All I can think of is the Paladin fight from V2, which worked way, way better.

And they still think slapping a rock-out, guitar-laden track onto it will make up for this.

No one at Rooster Teeth will have my respect as long as they continue to use those goddamn spinning discs. It’s been years. Literal fucking years. How have you not had time enough to learn the proper way to animate spinning objects?!

At this point, Firefox decided to freeze for forty minutes. Mood is not improving.

Remember Weiss’ Queen Lancer summon? Now you can see it again, with no leg or cephalothorax movement whatsoever. It simply sits still in the air, only its wings moving.

Really great strategy! I can totally praise the brains and brawn used to bring down a giant mech that effectively had a giant “kick me here” sign on its back!

See, here’s the problem with trying to create a mech fight on this scale: the whole point of going for that shield generator is so Nora’s grenades can get through...when they’re not really going to be much more than a nuisance regardless.

The team all get smacked mid-air. All of them make it to the cliff without aid, but Ruby for some reason needs her Semblance to do so. And then she just....stops mid-air and falls. There is no reason for her Semblance to deactivate before she can reach the cliff, but it does so. We’ve reached a point where I just legit don’t understand what Miles and Kerry are trying to show me here.

Clearly Miles and Kerry directed the mech fight, while whoever was doing Tock vs. Maria is spending their time on Adam vs. Blake. I can tell.

Gambol Shroud got broken. That’s another RWBY weapon in the chipper.

I still don’t get the point of the blindfold.

Well, they got the markings off.

Firefox froze on this frame for ten minutes straight, it really hates me and everything I stand for today.

And they lost Bumblebee too.

I can actually say good and bad things about this fight. The good thing is that it looks complete and competent...for what we’ve had so far. The bad thing is that Adam vs. Yang is not a Miles and Kerry production. This looks a lot like the leaked Adam vs. Yang from Volume 3 that came about right after the Adam Short. The similarities are uncanny.

But I was right overall: it was route A: Yang is somehow fighting on Adam’s level despite having had no real boost to her power, speed, or skills--and having recently spent months recovering from trauma and injury.

And she just tanks Adam’s super-duper mega-strike beam slice even though she got de-armed last time. There is no explanation for this.

“She’s not protecting me, Adam. And I’m not protecting her. We’re protecting each other.” I think I died a little bit at the ill logic here. A^2 + B^2 = C^2 does it not?

Oh my god I’m done. I’m finally fucking done.

#v6 thoughts #rwde

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pinksrs · 7 years ago

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v2 is going good i guess. i don’t remember what it was to start with but honestly? i didn’t have a lot to do today which is a good sign. i decided to go easy on myself because i really didn’t wanna work in the first place but the prologue for v2 is kind of the hardest thing i’ve ever had to do and editing it isn’t any easier. it’s only like 1500 words but boooooy did it put a knot in my stomach.

so if i have to suffer, so do you! this is always a trigger warning for pink because death is a constant but there’s BIG OLE trigger for death in this one. because it’s from v2, you may not want to read it if you haven’t read v1. i promise you though, it’s spoiler free. this scene is mentioned really early on in v1 so it’s not really a spoiler, and it happens 5 years before the book even starts. just a heads up i guess.

2010

Set the clock to sixty seconds.

Let’s begin.

It was a Tuesday that The Universe decided put Its plan into action. As Tuesdays went, it was an especially dreary day for London. The skies are beyond grey now, turned black as the sun disappears from the sky (the sun had worked hard today, and not a one of them had noticed). Night was falling, with charcoal clouds eating the stars and the moon.

The three of them were a flurry of laughter as they rushed down the stairs, down to the subway. Like rats, they navigated the city through underground tunnels.

And rats they are. Each of them is worse than the last. There’s not a pant-leg in sight that hasn’t got holes in it, and each one of their boots look made for stomping. It’s clear that all three of them are desperate to cling onto the past. They all reek of nostalgia for a time when none of them had even been born yet.

Where his friends have their heads in the clouds, Peter is as firmly grounded as he always is. He’s the calm in the storm, aside from those times when he is the storm. Maybe he’s not as grounded as he’d like to think he is. The coif of hair meticulously styled is a signature, like the cuffs of his jeans turned up. Confidence oozes off of him, and he can’t help but walk into a room and feel like he owns it. He walks pelvis-first into any situation.

A hidden flask has treated the lot of them well. It left the smallest of them with reddened cheeks. He’s the definition of an awkward phase, with knobby knees and a posture that shrinks him down. His hair is thicker than he knows what to do with. By the looks of it, that black mange is the result of a failed experiment. For someone only sixteen years old, Ivan Duffy has seen some shit, and it’s written all over him.

Why wouldn’t he cling to a lifeboat?

Jamie’s arm is plenty enough to cling to.

He’s the sort that’s hard not to notice, and not just because of his height. The hair definitely doesn’t help, with shaved sides and bleach ruining it down to the roots. It’s looks more like straw. Jamie’s leather jacket has been abused too many times. It's scuffed from fights and hastily covered with patches, buttons, and paint.

If looks are everything then he hasn’t got very many prospects in life. At nineteen, it seems he’s already given up. But at least he’s enjoying himself.

Fifty five seconds on the clock.

Somewhere on the subway platform, somebody is playing music. It’s not but cacophony from this distance, but it charges them and makes them restless.

Jamie shakes Ivan from his arm, rounding on his heel to face him. He walks backwards with one of those lazy grins on his face. His natural expression is a smirk, and a sharp stare when brown eyes closed in on you.

There’s a two second pause before Ivan’s brows knit in worry. “What are you doing?”

“Nothin’,” Jamie shrugs, continuing his slow walks backwards. He steals a glance over his shoulder.

With a pleading look from Ivan, Peter steps in. “C’mon, Jay, don’t be an idiot.”

The ruffian almost laughs. “Aren’t I though?” Another glance over his shoulder, and he finds that he’s neared the do not cross line at the edge of the platform.

The both of them are after him. Ivan reaches a hand out with a wiggle of his fingers. “Please get back here–”

“It’s fine, Ivy.” Jamie is pass the line now, and dares to take one more step backwards before he stops in his tracks. “See? Fine.”

“Okay,” Ivan snaps. “Now get back here.”

If they hadn’t been on the platform that dreary Tuesday evening, they would go unscathed. They would walk Ivan home before curfew, and that would be it. But this Tuesday, The Universe has other plans.

Any other Tuesday, Jamie would be fine.

But today, it only takes one misstep to seal his fate.

That one wrong step sends him over the edge, his foot having stepped into air and soon the rest of him followed. Has gravity ever done anyone any favors?

Forty five seconds.

The thud when he hits the tracks is audible, but it’s the shout that snaps Peter and Ivan out of their state of shock.

They rush over to find Jamie on the tracks trying to get to his feet. Lucky him, to have missed the third rail. Unlucky for everyone else, though.

Everyone on the platform turned their heads to look. They gasped and held hands to their mouths, murmuring amongst themselves. “What do we do?” Not a one of them had any idea. They were powerless but to stand and stare, and pray, wish, and hope.

As he so often did, Ivan had erupted into tears. It was just like him to jump to the worst possible outcome, and just like Peter to keep his head above water. But he’s struggling. He watches Jamie, words catching in his throat. “What happened?”

“It’s my fucking ankle,” Jamie hisses as he finally get to his feet and leans an arm against the wall. Teeth grit, he puts little weight on his foot as possible and limps towards the utility ladder at the end of the platform. His heart may be beating right out of his chest, but he’s one for decisive action. Pain or no pain, he counts his blessings that he can still walk.

With Jamie hobbling along, it twists Ivan’s insides into knots. It’s anxiety and tension and the whisperings of the millions of things that could go wrong. But there’s only one.

And it’s hurtling towards them.

Thirty five seconds.

The train is down the track, and right on schedule. It will be arriving shortly, and Jamie’s clock is running out.

Jamie is twenty feet from the utility ladder, and the train is a hundred feet down the track.

The train vibrates the ground under his feet and panic sets in. Jamie’s urgency multiplies and spreads like mold. He’s got to pick up the pace, and damned his broken ankle. A broken ankle is a small price to pay when his life's on the line.

Peter and Ivan have been following him along the tracks, encouraging Jamie to keep moving. He was almost there, he's almost safe.

Somehow though, they all know that none of it matters.

But they keep at it, and Jamie keeps at his limpy run down the tracks, teeth grit and adrenaline fueling him.

How is he supposed to outrun a train hurtling at him? By some miracle, maybe The Universe would intervene.

Little did he know, It already had. From the start, this wouldn’t be something he ran away from.

Twenty seconds.

The inevitability of it has set in, and gravity has started to drag them all to a halt. Ivan crumples to his knees on the platform, reaching a hand out towards Jamie.

With time so precious and his fate sealed, Jamie stops to give Ivan’s hand a squeeze.

In all their time together, Ivan had never seen Jamie cry. “I’m sorry–” Now was no different.

Ivan held tight onto his hand, sobbing out the words. “I love you…”

Twelve seconds.

“I love you too.” Does he? There’s no time for Jamie to consider it, the words just spout out his mouth.

If this is the last time they see his face, then Jamie go out with a smile. It’s weak, forced, but it’s his best attempt at reassurance. He looks up at Peter. “Take care of him.”

Stoic, Peter has hardly shed a tear. None he’s let anyone see, anyway. His hands shake and his jaw is clenched like a vice; it’s a dead giveaway. “I promise – swear on your grave.”

Eight seconds.

Peter wraps an arm around Ivan to try and pull him away from the edge of the platform, but his grip at Jamie’s hand isn’t loosening.

Jamie’s got to pry Ivan off, one last time.

It’s Jamie’s last chance to breathe, and you would think he would savor it. But instead, he abstains. He can hardly manage to anyway. If he looks ahead he can see the train staring him down and getting closer and closer.

Five seconds.

Shouting out his name, Ivan has to be pried away from the platform, lest he lose an arm and a boyfriend. Wailing, Ivan drags Peter to the ground with him once they cross the line back to relative safety. His eyes are glued on Jamie though.

Jamie’s eyes, meanwhile, are glued to the train.

Three seconds.

Jamie turns his head to see his friends one last time, some of the only people he’d ever loved. His family wasn’t worth loving, but his ever-dwindling supply of friends was a different story. “Don’t let him see!”

Moments to spare, and Peter pulls Ivan to his chest. With his face buried there, it does him the smallest service of not having to see. Even now, Peter has trouble looking away. Eyes wide as saucers, he stares in horror.

Zero.

#pink updates #pink excerpts

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doorsclosingslowly · 7 years ago

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The Opening Act of Spring

Maul’s teacher has always been violence, and it’s never done him any harm. He should have no qualms about treating his apprentice the same way.

3.6k | pt. 3 of Runaways ‘verse | content warning for abuse | read on AO3

“What are you writing about, brother?”

“Mission dossier,” Maul replies. Not that their target deserves it, frankly. Ms Chykynn is a businesswoman from Corellia who sought fortune in an entanglement with the Banking Clan, and also a far-removed and minor former beneficiary and ally of Maul’s old Master. Somehow, she managed to bankrupt a rival family, possibly as a side effect of one of Lord Sidious’ myriad schemes, driving the parents to ruin and their daughter to suicide. Two days ago, the daughter’s widow set an astronomical bounty on the businesswoman’s head—detached only—but this information is unlikely to have filtered through to the target yet. She won’t even have hired security. Despite her tangled ties to Lord Sidious, she should be easy prey.

Maul had set their course for Corellia immediately, and they’ve been in hyperspace for two days now. They’ll drop out in eight hours to change lanes. They’ve slept and consumed their morning protein bars, they’ve meditated and sparred, and when there was nothing of any importance left to do, Maul had decided to begin preparing an in-depth dossier. He hasn’t done so in two years now, and he wants to keep his researching skills sharp.

It’s good that Savage’s brought Maul’s attention to what he’s doing, though. Chykynn is plainly ill-protected and weak. He has already read about Corellia, and even her city. This is superfluous busy-work.

Maul stretches his shoulders, and with the press of a button he saves his dossier attempt on the datapad he’s balancing on his knees, and then he closes the file. In its stead, he calls up the blueprints and notes for the DRK-1 Dark Eye redesign that he found in an office on Castell. Much more stimulating.

“What did you write?” Savage asks, not five minutes later. Currently, he’s sitting cross-legged on his bed, his posture almost a mirror of Maul’s. Almost. He doesn’t have the discipline, even now, to force his feet onto his knees. Also, silent work and rest does not become him. He’s fidgeting periodically. He is much too interested in Maul’s activities.

“Three colon null-seven colon two-five dash dash esk krill usk vev dash leth underscore one,” Maul says.

His apprentice’s face remains blank.

“The file name. Look it up yourself. There is a box of datapads by the door—” a box that hadn’t been there when Savage first abducted him; shockingly there hadn’t even been a single datapad on the Sheathipede then— “and all the Versafunction Eight-Eights are patched into the ship’s comm system, take one of those.”

“It is quicker if you just tell me.”

“Not for me,” Maul replies, and then, with over-exaggerated care, he holds up his datapad so that it blocks out the center of his field of vision. No more annoying brother. Methodically, he skips through the redesign notes: pressure sensors, photo-sensors, auditory sensors, a concept for olfactory sensors—a typically useless v2 idea—balancing software… There. The antennas of the current DRK-1 have an inconvenient tendency to break off at sub-zero temperatures, and Maul is curious how Sienar are planning to address the issue.

He can’t quite concentrate on the diagrams, though.

Out of the corner of his eye, he watches Savage instead. Maul’s brother untangles his legs and then flops down on his bed, evidently bored of fidgeting. Five seconds later, he rolls over, braces himself on his arms and one knee—the bed is too short—and starts doing lazy push-ups. The bed creaks. Despite Maul’s orders and his obvious restlessness and the fact that he asked for the information, the apprentice never even considered getting up and fetching a datapad.

This petty obstreperousness shall not be tolerated.

“Savage, read the dossier,” Maul says.

Another push-up, and Savage pretends not to have heard him.

“Apprentice.”

Creak, creak, creak.

“By now, you would have finished your reading, if you’d retrieved the datapad.”

“By now, you would have finished telling me about whatever it is you wrote,” Savage replies mulishly. “It would have been much more efficient.”

True. Irrelevant.

“I am the Master,” Maul says, because it must be said occasionally. He’s almost certain that Savage has forgotten that fact again, and more than a little worried that he himself might have, too. “You, Savage, are the apprentice. I have been lenient—” He doesn’t want to, can’t, imagine Lord Sidious’ retribution, should Maul ever have wasted his time like this. It would have involved force lightning, possibly, or skinning, if… if not worse. Master might have just left, might have simply discarded him for his lack of respect. Maul shudders. “I have been incredibly lenient, but when I tell you to read the mission dossier, I expect you to obey. With haste and diligence and eagerness. Without question. Being a Sith is a privilege. You are training to become the most powerful being in the galaxy, apprentice, and when your Master gives you an order, you will obey.”

Lord Sidious—his former Master, Maul thinks bitterly, it wasn’t because of his non-existent disobedience but nevertheless he was discarded—he would have laughed at this pitiful attempt at discipline. The obviously unfit and shy approach to training his apprentice.

(Maul had suspected, in small moments he never managed to eradicate entirely from his days, that He viewed his as little more than an attack dog, an assassin and errand-boy but not a successor, and here is the proof that He was right. He discarded Maul, didn’t need him for the Naboo mission or the grand millennial plan after all, and he was right.)

Maul is no Master. This is not training, this is…

This is a lazy, relaxed day.

This is wrong.

Some threat in Maul’s posture—he would be unduly flattering Savage’s mental capacity or commitment if he attributed it to the words—something that Savage can see in him now makes him stand up, quickly, and walk over to the datapad box.

DRK-1 schematics completely forgotten and trying to quench the anger at his own failure, Maul watches his unwieldy apprentice pick up the uppermost pad. It’s an Eight-Eight—pure luck, he’ll realize later—held together by spacer’s tape and chance ever since an unfortunate incident with a hilt prototype.

Savage shuffles back to his bed and then, with his back buckled and avid concentration, he stares down at the pad, but he’s pressing too many buttons. He’s pressing them seemingly at random. His left leg is beating against the blanket below it, thoughtlessly, restlessly.

“Apprentice, read the first sentence out loud.”

More fidgeting.

“You can’t read,” Maul says.

“I—”

“You can’t read. You should have alerted me, apprentice.” First the utter naïveté with money and the superfluous religious offerings and the propensity towards making unpalatable raw food, and now this. Maul will not fail, and he will not tolerate an uncivilised apprentice. “You should have told me that you can’t read. You used voice commands and holomaps to steer the ship, to hide your deficiencies from me, didn’t you, but we,” Maul snarls, feeling his patience fray, “are Sith. We are not barbarous outer rim yokels.” Or shall soon cease to be ones, at least, in Savage’s case. “We may be zabraks, but that will not limit us. There are certain standards I expect you to abide by, apprentice, and this is one of them. Everything important has been written down, and a true Sith shall not remain ignorant. You will become literate. You will start now.”

Savage is still sitting on the bed, clutching the datapad. He’s looking at Maul, eyes wide, but apart from that, his hurt—hovering in the aura around them, tingling at the borders of Maul’s mind—is hidden well in his posture. He’s learned something from Maul’s customary disapproving frown at emotional displays, at least. From the training sessions that are always harsher if he cries out at an injury. He can be taught.

(The reason had been minor, and that was the worst of it. Loneliness, maybe, since his nanny droid had just been decommissioned, or a broken finger or mockery, he couldn’t even remember why he’d started crying in the first place. He couldn’t remember anything through the pain. There was only one fact left in the world: Maul had started crying and his Master had seen, and the punishment wouldn’t stop until the tears did. Knowing this did not make stopping easier. It was a very long day.)

“Kneel down on the floor.”

The apprentice obeys quickly.

“Switch on your datapad. Search Sheathipede’s database for the Little Aurebesh.” Maul doesn’t know why he still remembers that title or that it was apparently often used as a test datafile and therefore might be accessible. He shouldn’t remember. It was so long ago, and he hadn’t even enjoyed Dirk forcing him to read it over and over and over because it was the only children’s book installed on his memory chips.

Savage is slower this time, pressing a button and then looking up at Maul and then pressing it again, and…

Alright, Maul can see the issue now. “Give it to me.”

The holobook isn’t there, only then he remembers to use reg expressions and change the directory and—Puddle Aurek-Besh by Kel-Shuuura. That’s it. Sheathipede is obviously ancient and yet, she has never been data-scrubbed and her memory banks still contain test files. The passphrases are probably still factory-set. An amateur oversight on Maul’s part, after the complete mechanical overhaul—he should take care of that security nightmare—but nevertheless serendipitous.

Lord Sidious never taught Maul how to read, that was Dirk the trusty rewired (or not) spy droid, and he adopts the methods he remembers the machine had used. It’s probably better this way. It’s easier to look at datapads when you’re not being thrown across the floor. (His Master laughs at his pitiful justification. Maul is unfit to train an apprentice.)

Kneeling next to Savage, he gives back the datapad and points at the scrawly illustration on the screen, the heads of two akk dogs meeting snout-first with thick red lines around their mouths forming the general shape of the letter aurek. “Look at those creatures. What do you see? What are they?”

“Maul, I am… forgive me.”

“Those are akk dogs.” Maul stretches out the sound. A necessary clue, perhaps, since his brother’s probably never even been to their wretched native planet. He stretches out the sound, and the seconds until he’ll have to… “That is the principle behind this book: there will be a well-known creature, and its visible body will be in the shape of the first letter of its name. If you know the animal’s name, you can deduce the letter. If you know the order of the letters, you can gain clues regarding its species. Two akk dogs. From Anoat. In the shape of an…”

Savage hums, low and anxious.

“Aurek,” Maul snaps. “See those slanting semi-circles. Aurek. You will try again and answer me promptly, apprentice.”

He is no droid and there is no electric prod, and Maul has never learnt Sith lightning, so he’ll conduct the lesson with what he has. His apprentice is not obeying fast enough, is not taking this seriously. With the flick of his wrist he calls his lightsaber close, and he tries not to feel cold. He knows what’s coming—whatever being will appear, Savage won’t know it. Savage will fail his order. He will be punished. This is the way lessons work: the desire to obey your Master, a harsh task, and the pain, the wish for survival, driving you to succeed. Savage will fail, at first, and he will suffer. It’s almost unfair.

It’s inevitable. Maul is Master, Savage his apprentice. Their roles were cut into stone and whispered and handed down long before either of them existed. Savage has—more or less voluntarily, if not intentionally—entrusted Maul with the sacred responsibility of teaching the ways of the Sith, of shaping him into the most powerful version of himself. He does not deserve Maul’s clammy hands; he deserves resolution. Help. He deserves to be taught. (Master looks down and laughs and laughs.)

With a deep breath and the press of a button, the next picture appears.

“Bruth!” Savage exclaims.

Something unwraps from around Maul’s hearts. He’s too happy to correct his brother for the fact that he should have recognized letter, not species. “Very good, apprentice. Now, the next one.”

Their luck runs out.

“Veeka-bird?” Savage guesses.

Maul’s fumbling hand only finds the lightsaber’s ignition button on the third try, but it does. In the space between them, the blade burns read.

“Palm-bird? No, please, brother… Give me more time. The Great Blind One? Moon-driver? No, just wait. Maul, you don’t have to do this, you don’t—Maul, no, wait, please…” Savage begs, but there is nowhere for him to go once he’s scrambled backwards against his bed. Nothing but Maul and Savage, Master and apprentice, and the ship and the saberstaff and the inevitable stream of wrong answers. There is nothing either of them can do to end this.

“The correct answer is cresh,” Maul says, and it tastes stale and empty inside his mouth.

Slowly, carefully, he brings the blade down.

(“Your timing has improved,” the droid said, and still it gave Maul a harsh shock that he couldn’t yet dodge. Not a disabling shock, although the exertion alone was enough to make him lie down for days. He stood up again and launched himself against the wall and backflipped. Another improvement. Another shock.)

The blade stops, still more than a decimeter above Savage’s arm.

“That’s good, Maul,” Savage says. There’s a tremor in his voice, and his eyes are fixed on the weapon that should, by now, have burned him. He’s very still. “That’s good. You don’t want to do this.”

And Maul doesn’t. He should, Master would, but—the ‘saber is so heavy in his hand.

“Let’s just… try this again, with the next letter? Can you do that?” Savage asks. “I promise I will get it right next time, brother.”

Maul can’t think of a better option—the blade will not move—and so he acquiesces.

Despite his promise, Savage doesn’t manage to name the next letter or animal, either, even though he talks for minutes and runs through a bewildering array of strange animal names, animals that Maul has never heard of, as if he could stop the lightsaber by inventing creatures, only interrupting the fantastical names to occasionally say Maul’s name.

It’s… whatever it is that Savage’s doing to defend himself, it’s working. The lightsaber is wavering too badly, now, and Maul switches the blade off. He is supposed to punish his apprentice, not accidentally decapitate him.

“That’s good, Maul,” Savage says, interrupting his litany for a moment to run his fingers across the scars on Maul’s hand, the hand that still clutches the saberstaff, and pulling it down towards the floor. Then he launches back into it, growing more erratic in his answers, not even bothering to match the type of animal—insect, bird, fish—to the clues in the illustration anymore.

It’s rhythmic. Meaningless. Soothing.

It’s utterly alien. The threats aren’t a motivation for self-improvement, the way Maul remembers them being, and Savage is just moving further and further away from any viable answers. It doesn’t make any sense: Maul had often loved his teacher and wished for his approval, and Savage does, too. Maul had wished to end his pain, and Savage is terrified. The situations are equivalent. There should be no reason why punishment doesn’t work now.

Savage should be learning.

There is no difference between now and all those times when it worked for Lord Sidous. No difference but two.

Savage.

Maul.

Master and apprentice, but not. Brothers. The lesson of lesson of strangulation, of near-death and terror, of dipping into the dark side to ensure your survival if there is nothing else left but your body and the hand of your Master cutting off your air supply—that lesson, just weeks ago, had been aborted as well because of Maul’s weakness. His inability to teach the way Lord Sidious does. He’d been terrified at the idea of accidentally ending his brother’s life, of losing whatever this new life is, and he had cried. He’d allowed himself to be held. Maul had been too weak to teach in the old ways then, and he is still too weak now. Will always be too weak. He doesn’t want to hurt Savage.

This failure, in hindsight, is entirely predictable. He took an apprentice too early, left and chose to challenge his own Master years before he was ready, and now he cannot even instruct Savage in the aurebesh, let alone the dark side of the force. He’d had no choice in leaving, at first, because Savage had abducted him, but—he chose to stay with Savage. Maul chose to make that mistake.

Naïveté and youth and the deep heavy knowledge that if Maul had returned to his Master, Savage would be dead now. It was the wrong choice, but it’s too late to go back now. It was wrong, but still, it feels…

He can hear Master laughing somewhere deep inside his mind (Maul is no Master—) and it only makes him grateful that his brother is still holding down his ‘saber hand.

Maul is no—

Abruptly, Savage’s voice cuts through the revelation. “Brother. I’ve taught before, showed children how to walk, how to sew and make weapons and fight. I know how to do it. Teaching’s not that difficult, really, if you care.” Something flashes across his force presence, unflinching white hatred, and then it’s swallowed again by love and anxiety and regret. “If you feel it is important that I learn how to read, I can show you how.”

If his would-be Sith Master can’t even execute a simple lesson, he may as well try. Maul is tired. He nods.

“Let go of the lightsaber, brother.”

A slow shuddering breath, and then Maul obeys.

“It’s alright to ask me for help when you don’t know what you’re doing, brother.”

This is—

Savage keeps his warm right hand wrapped around Maul’s, but he pulls it up slightly, away from the weapon, and Maul acquiesces. With his other hand, Savage gently rolls away the saberstaff, and then he instructs, “Show me the shape of the letter. The first one. Aurek? Trace it on the floor.”

Maul does, hesitantly and then over and over, pulling Savage’s hand along. This isn’t teaching, he thinks. It shouldn’t be this easy. This is wrong, but he doesn’t let go, even when he feels the ghost of electricity lashing across his skin.

(Maul misunderstood the point of lessons, in fact. Of punishment. Even though Lord Sidious wasn’t as invested in developing Maul’s mind himself and left the task to his servants, he wasn’t in the habit of him to do something as flat-out impossible as naming animals that Maul had never seen. He wanted his weapon to progress, after all. Moreover, the desperation for approval was usually enough.

He asked for things that could be accomplished, at least most of the time, unless he wanted to punish Maul.

It’s just that the pain doesn’t feel any different.)

“What do your datapads say of Wrath, brother?” Savage asks, later. The lights inside the cargo hold where they always sleep and where, mere hours ago, Maul almost hurt… Where Maul received yet another proof of his own failure. The lights are shut off and dark, now, except for the one lamp that always flashes its comforting green through the open door.

Maul’s wrapped up and warm inside the blanket that Savage insists he use, and he’s almost asleep. Blearily and angry and still uncertain, he blinks open his eyes again, and finds Savage’s irises shining at him through the gloom. “What,” he grumbles.

“Wrath. The first nightbrother. What do they say?”

“Learn to read and look it up yourself.” Maul pulls the blanket over his head. Slowly, the air grows damp and hot and stale around him, and it’s a sufficient rejection to make the room blissfully quiet.

It’s enough, for almost a minute.

“They say nothing, don’t they.”

Savage is entirely correct. Maul had looked for information, years ago when he was small and his droid caretaker had revealed Maul’s birth species. When, for a few hours, he’d failed to understand that the answer as to what he was was Sith, and that was sufficient. He’d read what little research there had been about the nightbrothers, but nothing had ever mentioned this ‘Wrath’ or anything else that Savage likes telling Maul about, not even the strange animals he spoke of today. (Nothing had ever mentioned that someone like Savage was waiting for Maul.)

“Nobody ever wrote about him,” Maul agrees. “I said that everything important has been written down, I never talked about this ‘Wrath’. I do not care about your backwater myths. It’s night. Shut up.”

Blessed silence.

Five minutes later—

“Who was Wrath, brother?” Maul whispers. It’s not quite an apology for today and as close as he’ll ever manage. Entirely by accident, those are also the words that are always used, the child’s call for the Elder’s recital.

Maul doesn’t understand why there’s a hitch in his brother’s heartbeats. He’ll never find out, but still he falls asleep with the soft age-worn cadences of strength and worship and ownership, of terror, of a man and a witch and a child and the long journey to bring that child back home entering his ears for the first time—for the thousandth time—for the first time he can remember.

Tonight, despite everything, he will not dream.

#a day in the life of two people who are only partially competent at being people #darth maul #savage opress #runaways 'verse #dimtraces makes things

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