#tw fictional background character death

[ratteni-da-rotten]

A Mouse Among Owls? - Chapter 01

Fandom: Murder Drones

Warnings: Background Character Death, accidental baby acquisition

Characters (so far): Serial Designation V, Uzi Doorman

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A vibrant yellow cross stared at the small thing on the floor. The feathered beast’s head tilted slightly to the side trying to figure out what it was. She felt her tail gently swishing behind, disturbing the ever-so-frigid snow. Serial Designation V’s thermal sensors detected heat emanating from it, the object’s red-yellow-green colours contrasted against a sea of blue.

Pained and terrified cries were still echoing near her. Their source was a worker who was in the process of dying. The disassembler lacked any care for its pathetic whimpering. In her opinion, their suffering made great background music. Maybe she would record it and add it to her internal audio collection folders so she could listen to it during boredom spells.

There was no need for pity; the gashes inflicted on the lesser drone’s chassis would make it soon go into FATAL ERROR by oil loss. At least, it wouldn’t be a lonely death since the rogue machine would join their fallen peers around them. Dark liquid haphazardly painted the cold surroundings, its tantalising smell as if seducing the killer angel for a taste.

No need to rush things, the workers wouldn’t return to life and flee nor would the winged lass allow any other rival disassembler to steal her sweet spoils. Normally, V would be playing and taunting with the remaining worker on its deathbed but her focus remained on the mysterious item. By reviewing her recent memory files, the metallic beast recalled it had been thrown near her feet when she dove from the sky and attacked the wandering group of toasters.

Perhaps it had been a distraction attempt? SD - V doubted the workers were smart enough for that, they were nothing more than mindless machinery. Maybe their rudimentary AI had come up with the conclusion that less weight meant it could run away faster.

The interesting oval-shaped object was wrapped by a purple and white rabbit-themed blanket, what was once snug around the thing now had noticeably loosed but still concealed the small hidden item’s identity.

She kneeled and leaned forward, both clawed hands on the snowy ground, as if essentially cornering the motionless mystery would improve the inspection. Carefully, a finger-blade lightly tapped the fabric only to feel something solid underneath. V licked her chops and removed the blanket just enough to reveal its contents.

It was like her servos had frozen; even Serial Designation V’s tail stopped dead in the air. Neon purple eyes, hollow and shaking, adorned with stress lines, stared back at her. The stare remained locked into each other’s visors until the nearby sound of sobs stole the smaller robot’s attention. Mangled worker drone carcasses were on full display, and the twin moons’ tender light made their spilt oil gleam beautifully. One had yet to pass away, its off-putting sounds worsening the situation tenfold.

A strangled whine escaped the pill baby’s voicebox, momentarily restraining itself, before scaling into full grating wailing. V’s stringy tail lowered to the ground and curled up around one of her pointy legs, the toxic yellow cross on her visor quickly was replaced by normal drone eyes. The disassembly machine had an unreadable facial expression, her body was as still as a statue except for her quivering claws.

“Shit shit shit shitshitshit,” were the words the murder bot gal started to scream within the confines of her mind. Mind, core, and code began to caterwaul against each other as if trying to bend the rivalling wants to its will by being the loudest.

Drones like her were made to adapt to every environment and situation with the sole goal of completing their mission. Yet this scenario was new; she had no prior experience, and the expected outcome would surely leave a bitter taste in her jaws. What was she supposed to do when every part of her was in conflict?

Serial Designation V’s gaze briefly wandered to the suffering, bleeding, worker not far from them. Its suffering was finally reaching the end, the rogue machine would be of no help if it was dead. The untrained neural network wouldn’t last long if V allowed them to “flee” together, other predatory robots would be attracted by the dark sweet liquid leaking from their wounds. She doubted the thing would even make it very far, a few metres and the drone would undoubtedly collapse back on the polar desert’s cold surface.

“Maybe… maybe I could just leave it he–”, the usually fierce disassembly machine shook her head. Starvation would claim the tiny aluminium infant, a drawn-out demise if not found by others, and terribly agonising for a being who isn’t familiar with neglected hunger pangs. Stabbing through its CPU would be quicker and, hopefully, less painful. Furthermore, it was unlikely another disassembler would terminate the thing if they stumbled on it. “Too little oil, not worth the effort,” they would probably think to themselves.

V lifted a single, trembling, sharp blade ready to spear through the artificial baby’s visor. Seconds passed by, the deadly claws hovering over its smaller form, and she couldn’t compel herself to do what was supposed to be her job. The ferocious hunter, the one who enjoyed prolonging her prey’s misery and experimenting with how much damage it could sustain before permanently shutting down, was reluctant to tear a UNN to shreds. If other squads became aware of this, they would surely crack up at this fact.

Poor thing was crying its speakers out, scrunched LED eyes, wiggling erratically on the ground. So utterly defenceless, they couldn’t even try to turn tail as it lacked any limbs, under the claws of an oilfeeder. Looking closely at the thing, it resembled the– Nope, not thinking about that right now!

No living being stays young forever, untrained neural networks get older and moult from their infantile shape. When this one achieved the milestone, it would die by her claws or by her teammates. And if the pill drone died before that due to someone else’s actions, that would still be alright. V will turn a blind eye, as long it isn’t her fault.

SD - V swapped her claws back to her ordinary hands and gingerly cradled the robot infant close to her chest. The embrace was warm, so different from Copper-9’s freezing winds. For that moment the taller being’s fans were audible to the pill drone, the proximity allowed so. Her cries decreased in intensity, the gentle back rubbing and the ceasing of death gurgles lulled the tiny one into quietness. Bawling took a toll on the pill baby, making it enter SLEEP MODE. Dormant in a monster’s arms, killer of her kind, it was comforting nonetheless.

[bangtans-momma]

Bully Me

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Pairing: Jungkook x Curvy Bully oc

Word Count: 12.7k words (sorry it’s so long again!)

Genre: Bully, BTS AU, One Shot, Smut, Yandere, Non Consensual, Cult, Demonic, Supernatural, Curvy Girl, Original Character.

Rating: 18+ MATURE. Smut, Adult Themes, Non Consensual, violence, death and gore, hard swearing.

Description:

Jeon Jungkook’s bully is an older woman called Dria, she trips him over, laughs at him and she’s always humiliating him and calling him horrible names. The thing is, Jungkook likes it just a bit too much because when she does it she’s giving him attention. He likes what she does and regularly runs off to the bathrooms or his apartment to relieve himself.

To everyone else Jungkook is a quiet studious student with only two friends, Jimin and Taehyung. But when he’s not at college he’s someone else entirely, too bad that Dria realised it just a little bit too late.

Content And Triggers:

BTS AU, College Setting, Yandere Jungkook, Sadomasochistic Jungkook, Stalker Jungkook, Demon Jungkook, Switch Jungkook, Deviant Jungkook, Bitch OC, Bully OC, Bratty Rich OC, Switch OC, Curvy OC, Older OC, Bullying, Violence Towards Jungkook, Jungkook is obsessed, Forced Marriage, Arranged Marriage, Satanic Cult, BTS Demons, Rituals, Virgin Sacrifice, Supernatural powers, Possession Of Someone, Mention Of Gore, Use Of Knife, Death of Minor Character’s, Swearing, Smoking, Blood Kink (Drinking Blood), Drugging With Substance, Mind Control, Evasive Thoughts Projected Into Head (Oral, Use Of Strap On, Fisting), Non Consensual, Dubious Consent After Corruption, Smut, Stalking, Dirty Talk, Masturbating (M), Exhibitionism, Ritual Sex, Use Of Supernatural Powers, Choking, Spiting, No Protection, Breeding Kink, Forced Pregnancy, Raw Sex, Squirting, Oral Sex (F), Face Sitting, Anal play, Marking, Hair Pulling, Biting, Hickies, Use Of Mommy and Puppy In Fantasy, Degradation, Forced Public Sex. Corruption Kink (Corruption Of Soul).

Author’s Notes:

WARNING ⚠️🔞

Hope I have written down all the TW’s this is yandere AND non consensual through mind control. Please read the warning!

🔞NO MINORS ON THE BLOG PLEASE, THiS STORY HAS ADULT THEMES.

Tried to take away too many descriptive appearance words, it’s hard to not describe anything about someone when I’m used to visualising someone ha ha. But I tried to not describe hair or eye colour on FMC, so no hair colour of eye colour. So you can imagine her as you want. She is a Curvy reader though and I have to represent us curvy girls too. So she is mentioned as being curvy and her body is mentioned.

I do not own BTS or their likeness. This is only fan fiction that comes from my own imagination and any depiction of BTS in any of my stories does not represent them in real life. None of this is real life, only pure fiction. None of the behaviour of the BTS member’s namesakes OR anything else that happens in my stories represents them in reality. Picture is part AI, part mine as I added and changed things to it, like the eyes being black, more like Jungkook, the background and made the wings more messy etc.

MASTERLIST: here

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Bully me.

Jungkook is laid on his bed tugging at himself as precum leaks from his swollen tip, groaning as he covered himself in a layer of filthy cum and sweat. He just can’t stop himself as he thinks of her, his bully, Dria. She turned up here last year and is one of the older students at age twenty five, he is twenty two.

Those sexy curves, her full breasts and her beautiful natural plump pout. Her long luscious hair that stops at her thick ass and her stunning piercing eyes.

He just knows her thighs are thick and juicy too, he can’t wait to mark them. She always wears fitted clothes and those stiletto high heels that he wished she would press against his hard length.

The way she sneers his name and chucks things at him, how she laughed at him when he dropped all his books after she shoulder checked him. And how she called him puppy earlier and sniggered when she realised that he was rock hard in his trousers because of her.

The harsh tug of his hair as she looked down at his hard erection with a wicked grin was like wet dream fuel for him. Jungkook can’t help thinking that she is an evil bratty bitch, but he likes that as he knows her real thoughts.

“Aww Puppy! Are you hard because I just humiliated you? Fucking pathetic little thing aren’t you?”

She had taunted him as she squeezed at his hard length, digging her nails in as she yanked spitefully at his dark hair, hurting him so damn good. Before finally spitting on his face and watching as it dripped down landing right by his lips.

Her worried eyes widened like she only just realised what she just did to him and Dria abruptly let him go before turning to leave immediately with widened disturbed eyes.

She does that a lot, it’s like she suddenly realises just how far she keeps going with her bullying. It’s been getting worse as It has been turning out to be increasingly sexual lately. Jungkook knows that the very thought of her own behaviour scares her.

Not that he cares as he would gladly bury his face in her wetness if she told him to get to his knees and pleasure her whilst spitefully pulling his hair.

He stared at her with sinister hungry orbs as she waltzed off cackling at him like she wasn’t just shocked by her own deviant behaviour, his length was twitching violently in his black slacks at her sinful actions. Her curvy hips swaying as she walks off looking divine in her tight dress, her spank worthy ass looking exquisite.

Smirking like a deviant himself, he licked the spit off his lips with a lewd obscene groan as he threw his head back.

This one interaction would usually give Jungkook enough spank bank material for weeks. But he needs more, much more, he has to have more because he’s been waiting so long for her to be his.

Because he has been saving himself for her and only her. She is going to be his soon. . very soon.

He’s unhealthily obsessed with his bully and can’t wait to get his hands on her plump ass and slap it. Dig his fingers into her voluptuous flesh around her stomach and bite at her chubby cheeks.

Jungkook wants to wrap his hand around her pretty neck and bury himself in her and never leave. His tugs get faster as he thinks of the older woman and how perfect she would feel wrapped around him.

How good he would feel filling her up and breeding her like the good little Mommy she is. She’s going to be the Mommy of his child, so tonight he’s calling her Mommy like the pathetic little puppy she thinks he is. But he’s anything but a puppy, he’s an apex predator, a nightmarish predator. Shame she won’t find out until it’s way too late for her to do anything about it.

“M-Mommy, so good”

Jungkook sinfully whines, thrusting his hips up into his hand with his eyes closed thinking of her. Using the copious amounts of cum from his messy stomach as lube.

“Fuck, just like that Mommy. . . yesss ahh!”

He hisses whimpering as he ejaculates all over his tensed tattooed abs, his teeth biting into his bottom lip.

“Such a dirty slut Mommy, I’m gonna fuck my babies into you and make you mine. Not long now my precious, I’ve seen to it. Mine forever”

Jungkook pants and finally collapses onto his bed with a malevolent grin on his face as his messy hands grab a cigarette and he lights it with his zippo lighter.

Inhaling the smoke harshly he lays there contented and covered in his own filth, as he finally feels satiated after jerking off four times. Grabbing his phone he clicks on the app and checks on the cameras inside of his obsessions home.

“Hmm she’s having a shower, fuck! Look at that ass, can’t wait to sink my teeth into that soft juicy skin. Fill it up with my cum until it’s leaking everywhere. So perfect for me”

He lewdly groans watching her with his twisted onyx orbs that fool so many with their doe eyed innocence in public.

His phone rings showing his father’s name, a wicked smirk climbs on his face as he answers.

“Hi Father”

Jungkook replies, sounding relieved to hear from him, he was going to call him anyway as he’s getting so fixated on having her that he’s starting to feel bitterly impatient.

“Hello son, how are you?”

His father replied with the same sort of tone, sounding relieved that he had answered him right away.

“I’m absolutely perfect, father. Have you got what I wanted sorted out yet? I have been waiting rather patiently”

He demands, sounding like a spoiled child. Even though he’s anything but a child.

“Of course I did, my son. Her parents were most agreeable when he gave them a deal. But her greedy parents were worried she might sabotage it”

His father sniggers and Jungkook can feel himself getting hard again when the thoughts of finally having her invade his fixated mind.

“Don’t worry, there is nothing she can do to sabotage it, father. No matter what she does, it won’t deter me in the slightest. I should thank you for helping me so quickly. When is it?”

Jungkook asks with a sinister grin taking another drag of his cigarette as he lays there still covered in his own filth.

“It’s all set for Sunday, so four days”

A malevolent grin grows on his face as she’s going to feel his unholy deviance as soon as Sunday night comes.

“Can’t wait, thank you Father”

Jungkook replies sounding childish in his own head, but all he can think about is his thick length twitching as depraved thoughts of her consumed him again.

“Anything for you son, I remember how hard it was to get your mother. I had to threaten her parents at first. It’s okay though, sometimes they need a tiny persuasive nudge. That’s why I ended up contacting our father, I didn’t care as long as I got your mother. Of course the price was you and that I became his vessel when needed, but I don’t regret it. So when are you coming back to the village? The earlier the better I think son, maybe get here Friday as we need to do the necessary traditions first. I’m glad you found your chosen one. I was a bit sceptical of you going to college to find your chosen one at first, but it’s all worked out. Do you have the small thing ready that you have to bring?”

His father chuckles in amusement.

“Of course Father, I know it has to be something you will miss so it’s gonna be my girlfriend Minji. A relationship of three years should be a good one right? This is exactly what I cultivated the entire relationship for”

Jungkook nonchalantly speaks and his father cruelly laughs at his reply.

“Good idea Jungkook, I always thought she was too pure and shy for you. Too skinny and mousy to produce a Jeon heir. I seriously thought she was going to be your chosen. You had us all worried for a second there. Jimin’s description of her was very telling. I hope this other girl is more compatible to be your chosen one”

His father sniggers spitefully when talking about his pathetic girlfriend.

“She’s something I passed the time with, got a perfect mouth, but I left her purity intact on purpose. I picked her because she wanted to wait until marriage. I wouldn’t have ever gone near her otherwise, it’s been a bit exhausting to play the good boyfriend for three years, but it was needed. Dria is perfect for me, you will see. She will be easy to corrupt”

Jungkook smirks cruelly as his father starts laughing maniacally.

“Oh he will love that! Yes I can imagine how vexed you were to entertain that, son. Can’t wait to see your chosen one”

Jungkook’s father says enthusiastically.

“See you on friday night Father, I have to go clean up”

Jungkook tells him, stubbing his cigarette out in the ashtray.

“Goodbye son, see you Friday”

Jungkook puts the phone on the bed and sighs looking at his rigid erection.

“One more time won’t hurt, I just can’t help it when I think of my chosen one”

Jungkook grunts tugging at his sensitive shaft, his length is always insatiable for her.

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Jungkook is leaving for his village tonight, Jimin and Taehyung are of course coming back with him as his underlings. His stupid idiot of a girlfriend is coming too, stupid naive bitch thinks she is going to meet his parents. She is meeting them, but not in the way she thinks. Jungkook can only think of Dria and how good she’s going to feel wrapped around his starving shaft, he’s ravenous at this point.

He’s on his way to get some food in the cafeteria and he comes across Dria who smirks maliciously when she sees him.

Jungkook tries to school the pure glee on his face when she yanks at his hair and pulls his face to hers. He can’t help going hard already as she goes to spit onto his face again. An idea pops into Jungkook’s mind as he smirks to himself thinking about how she just gave him an idea to completely stop any sabotage from her.

He yanks her to him by her hair, biting her lip harsh enough to draw blood, he starts sucking at it harshly, swallowing some of her life essence groaning.

Jungkook bites down on his tongue, sucking hard to fill his mouth with blood.

Before plunging his tongue in her mouth, transferring loads of it into her mouth as his tongue bleeds profusely. Knowing that when it comes down to it she will never be able to disobey him.

She finally pulls him away from her mouth by his hair in mock disgust, he flashes her a disturbing grin, a blood splattered grin with macabre blood stained teeth. She looks like she is going to spit it out so he intervenes.

“Tsk! Don’t be a bad girl for me. Fucking swallow it”

Jungkook menacingly growls, yanking her head back and pinching his fingers over her nose and covering her mouth with his palm so she has no choice.

She tries to deter him by digging her fingernails in his arm and slapping him, but nothing moves him at all, he’s like a steel wall. Her wide eyes look frantic when she realises that she has no choice but to ingest his blood.

Dria gulps it down panicking and starts to struggle harshly grabbing at his hair again, she flails about but Jungkook is inhumanly strong. As soon as she sucks against his hand trying to desperately get air he finally moves his hand from her mouth. She gasps in air, then gags as Jungkook cruelly sniggers at her.

“Good girl”

He mocks her with a sinister smile as she stares up at him in disbelief.

“You fucking freak! Gross!”

Dria screams at him wiping her mouth, letting go of his hair and running off to the female toilets.

He can hear her thoughts, she’s not disgusted by the blood, she’s disgusted at herself for liking what he just did to her. He giggles like a psycho as she storms off.

“Hmm, fucking delicious. Can’t wait to see her face on Sunday. But you are not throwing that up, STOP”

Jungkook groans with excitement as he watches her sexy retreating figure, he clicks his fingers and she stutters then carries on walking. His grin is maniacal when he realises that his plan is working already.

He knows that if he doesn’t get a release now he will be hard for hours thinking about her sweet bloody lips and how delicious the sweet iron tinged blood tasted on his starved tongue. So he goes to the male bathroom muttering to himself about her as he thinks about destroying her little pussy.

He already feels her lifeforce coursing through his body after drinking her blood and it’s exciting him as he starts to put macabre disturbing thoughts into his chosen ones head. Thoughts of her drinking his blood and licking it off Jungkook’s body, he makes her orgasm hard in the vision, just to torment her even more.

He sniggers as he imagines her being both disturbed and turned on by these visions and later on her dreams. She’s just as much of a deviant as he is and she tries so very hard to deny herself of the truth about her lustful feelings.

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Jungkook is in a car with Jimin, Taehyung and Minji driving to his village.

It’s currently seven thirty pm and he’s feeling so happy that he’s going to get his chosen one in just a few days. His whole act with Minji and others at college can finally drop as soon as they are home. Although he won’t be going back there anyway, he’s already finished and completed his final papers and coursework anyway.

Taehyung smirks with a sinister glint in his eyes as he glances back at Jungkook, he gives him a wicked wink as they drive down the long private road to the isolated village. The vibe in the car has changed and Minji nervously bites at her lip with a frown growing on her face.

Minji comments how remote it is out here and Jimin sniggers saying they need it that way for privacy. Making Jungkook and Taehyung chuckle with matching malevolent expressions. Minji suddenly shifts in her seat, feeling very uncomfortable for the first time on the trip, goosebumps climbing up her panicked body.

As soon as they get to the secure gated community Minji doesn’t look so well anymore and is slightly pale. What did he mean by the way he said private, it had a sinister undertone. The security guards are all so gleeful to welcome Jungkook back, they all call him Master and tell him they are looking forward to the unholy union.

Jungkook thanks them with a monstrous looking smile and Minji’s heart speeds up thinking that she has made a grave mistake coming here. But why wouldn’t she trust Jungkook, he’s been nothing but a gentleman. The very fact that there are security guards and a very high fence with razor wire around this village has alarm bells ringing in her head.

Jungkook is greeted at a huge mansion by an older female who is in her late thirties or she just looks very young. And a man who looks like he is around fifty, maybe sixty. The woman is definitely his mother as they have the same face shape and the same kind of nose. But the father is about five inches shorter than Jungkook and there are no signs of them being related at all, maybe he’s a step dad.

“Son! We are so glad to welcome you home, we are so proud that you found your chosen one. I can’t believe that you finally found the one. She will be here tomorrow, her parents are bringing her for the ceremony. They both agreed to the union”

The woman who is Jungkook’s mother declares with a manic looking grin on her lips.

Minji feels a little comforted when they mention the chosen one as she must be the chosen one they are talking about. The word chosen is weirding her out but she’s happy that they accept her.

That is until they tell him that she will be here with her parents tomorrow for the ceremony, she now thinks they are talking about an arranged marriage. One that doesn’t involve her.

Why is she here then? She thinks to herself, as tears start stinging her eyes.

She realises that he’s having an arranged marriage and he thinks that she’s going to be content to be some pathetic mistress. Minji is really hurt that Jungkook never told her that he would have to be in an arranged marriage. She wants to go home right now.

“NAMJOON!”

The father yelled out abruptly with a stern expression that scared a dazed Minji out of her internal panic and a man came so abruptly that it’s like he almost appeared out of nowhere.

“Take the blood sacrifice to the cells, protect her as she is pure and not to be touched. She is for our father”

As soon as he points at Minji she starts hyperventilating and looks at Jungkook with an expression of utter betrayal.

“J-Jungkook! What. . no! Please don’t! Wh-What is going on? No!!”

Minji pleads now sobbing as Namjoon grips her arm harshly and actually teleports away with her. He just stares at her like she disgusts him.

She’s pleading with Namjoon to help her, who glares at her with pure black orbs growling at her. She also can’t forget that sinister glare on Jungkook’s face as she got dragged away. He was cold as ice as he sneered at her in complete disgust.

Minji is so terrified that she faints as he puts her in a dark concrete floored cell, placing her on the floor.

Jungkook is currently laughing and joking with his mother and surrogate father, his real father isn’t even in this realm. . . yet. They snigger about how utterly pathetic Minji is and how his father will love the blood of his virgin sacrifice.

Jimin comments that he can’t wait to see Dria’s face when she realises she is meeting Jungkook here for marriage.

Jungkook laughs maniacally as he tells them that he transferred blood earlier so she can’t do anything but obey him.

They all delve into loud maniacal laughter, finding the very thought of her being unable to resist hilarious.

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Dria is extremely irritated today as her parents threatened to cut her off for good if she didn’t meet this man who gave them an extremely good marriage offer. They are being so pushy about it.

She smirks as she sits in the back of their car, she knows that she will sabotage it exactly like she did to the other twenty one men that they tried to marry her off to.

Her parents are not going to get her to marry some rich douchebag in an unloving arranged marriage. Most of those men tried to sleep with her and although she’s not a virgin, she’s also not sexually experienced either. One actually tried to assault her and put his hand up her skirt to touch her panties whilst eating at a restaurant.

She is feeling so tired today, her catch up nap earlier was interrupted by nightmares numerous times and she doesn’t know why. Dria wonders if the incident in the hallway with Jungkook earlier freaked her mind out. The dreams were monstrous, macabre and explicitly deviant. Blood, sexual depravity and gore filled her dreams.

She doesn’t know where these horrific monsters in her dreams came from but the violent version of Jungkook with the harsh voice was prominent, but it’s all she dreamed about, Jungkook and demonic looking creatures.

One dream had four versions of Jungkook all having sex with her at once and she felt overwhelmed as they all filled her holes whilst the forth one choked her and savagely assaulted her breasts. Biting spitefully around her areola with his sharp canines and making blood drip down her torso.

Her parents have never been this annoyed and aggressive towards her though, but they were absolutely insistent on the marriage arrangement this time. Maybe it’s someone with loads of money, influence and power, so they don’t want to aggravate the affluent family. Dria wonders where the hell they are going as they get further and further out into the remote countryside.

A little chill invades her body the nearer they get to this place, Dria wonders why.

She shifts in the back of her parents car as they drive on a long winding country road that has zero turn offs or street lights on it. She almost wonders if they are lost as it’s actually out in the middle of nowhere.

A few private property signs were spotted by her along the way too. And others were warning about trespassing, with a warning saying that there are security, electric fences and guard dogs in the area. It’s very isolated here. Her parents seem to know where they are going though and don’t seem that worried about the situation.

As soon as she sees lights in the distance she exhales as she finally sees some signs of life. It’s gotten so late that they are surely staying in this village for the night. The place looks like it might be a gated village, because as they get nearer she sees a huge steel gate and a very high fence with razor wire on the top that seems to be placed around the whole village. It’s blocking anyone from getting into the area without going through the security gate. There are also cameras.

The security guards all surrounded the car and made her father roll down all of the car windows. One guard with narrowed cat shaped eyes looks through the windows at all of them and a sinister smirk grows on his face as he finally looks at her.

She shifts as he looks at her for about a minute before moving away. Dria shivers as his eyes look wrong, they seem to be black and shining with a disturbing malevolence in the dark of the night. This whole situation seems weird and the over the top security is strange.

“Let the chosen one and her parents in, I’m sure the Master will be overjoyed to hear that she is finally here”

The creepy man finally speaks as someone else mutters at him.

“Okay Yoongi, open the gates Sungmin”

Whoever mutters at him suddenly commands someone with a harsh voice, sounding a little off.

The gates open and Dria is suddenly not so smug anymore, she knows that something feels seriously off about this whole place and something is wrong with those creepy guards. That guard's whole demeanour was exuding sinister intentions and her body is now drenched in anxiety.

When the car stops, Dria’s father gets out and so does her mother, the place they have stopped at is a huge mansion. Dria can’t help but huff out some annoyed air as her father opens her door for her, forcing her to get out of the vehicle and greet them.

A couple is standing there waiting for them and their grins look insincere, almost like they are fake and saccharine. But there is a kind of ominous darkness in both of their eyes and it’s actually disturbing. Dria gets insane chills again but this time it’s from a shadow she notices staring at her, they are standing in a window on the second floor.

“Welcome! We are so happy to welcome you to our home! I’m Eunji his mother”

The lady exclaims with an overjoyed but jittery expression on her face, she notes that she’s not that old, maybe late thirties, early forties maximum.

“Ahh yes, hello dear! I’m Jungmin. Hmm, I can see why my son is so enamoured with you. He will be here first thing in the morning to meet you”

The older man adds with amused eyes, he’s at least fifty, maybe fifty five or sixty.

He’s definitely the ladies husband as his hand is now around her waist. There is a possessive air to the man's movements around his wife.

She can’t help but latch onto that man’s comment though, wondering if she had already met his son and she doesn’t realise it. But does that mean his son already knows her and chose her specifically? That got her thinking about who he could possibly be.

“Hello Jungmin, we are extremely glad to be here. I’m absolutely certain our daughter will love your son. Won’t you, Dria”

Her father says in a threatening tone as he glares at Dria when he mentions her name.

“She won’t let you down, she’s going to behave. Aren’t you, my daughter?”

Her mother now informs them adding another layer of threat towards Dria with her pronounced words. She just nods with an uncomfortable smile that she’s sure looks like a grimace.

She’s now wondering just who these people are for her parents to be extra guarded and throwing passive aggressive threats towards her. They usually just complain and tell her to at least try to get on with her potential husband, but this time they are both directing thinly veiled threats at her.

They were always exasperated and would sometimes threaten to cut her off from her inheritance, but they never did.

Dria realises that this time is different, something about this entire situation is.

This worries her as they have never actually made her think they were serious about their threats before now.

As they all sit down to late supper, Dria can’t help but notice all of the staff’s stares when they notice her. They look like they are all assessing her, like they are checking her for something. Some smirk at her and others have a ghoulish smile on their face.

The creepy man called Hoseok that shows them to their rooms gives her a grin so wide that it actually looks menacing. And he called her Mistress, which was extremely weird.

Dria is currently deciding that she’s going to create havoc, she has to sabotage this whole thing. The whole vibe is creepy and shady.

Hoseok tells her that the shower has a mix of natural herbs in the water that come out first and they are extremely good for her skin. She frowns but nods at him anyway, still stuck in her own thoughts about the weird situation she now finds herself in.

Then he looks almost aggravated with himself after he exclaimed in a manic glee that the young Master will be meeting her tomorrow. It’s like he was trying to restrain his unadulterated glee a little and failed to contain himself. But he carries on, clearing his throat as he completes the task regardless and shows her all the toiletries in the cupboard.

Maybe this mysterious young Master has been waiting ages for a wife and he finally thinks he will be successful. She thinks that the young Master could be the most handsome man on Earth, but she’s not going to stay in this spine-chilling place. Everything here is wrong, something is amiss.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Jungkook has been thoroughly cleansed in special herbs in the tub this morning and was given the fertility concoction.

He’s annoyed that he can’t smoke or drink at the moment but he has to do it.

If he wants the ritual to go well.

He will be taking the stamina potion just before the ritual too, he doesn’t need an aphrodisiac for her though as she gets him hard with just one glance. Although he will shower one more time after eating, it’s needed to cleanse himself of earthly toxins.

His chosen one was given a fertility concoction in a desert last night and will be given an aphrodisiac just before the ritual in her ceremonial wine. The shower has been rigged to shower her in cleansing herbs too, Hoseok had told her to not worry and that it’s a special blend for good skin. So she will be told to cleanse again after dinner, due to the wine and food in her system.

Jungkook is sitting in his room talking to Yoongi who tells him that his chosen one is indeed stunning and is so much better than the sacrifice. He comments that she has superior breeding hips and looks better than skinny no ass Minji.

Yoongi tells him that more of his blood was mixed in with the Mistresses orange juice and Hoseok told him that he took more of Dria’s blood in her sleep.

Handing it over to Jungkook who gives him a twisted grin and drinks it immediately with a debauched groan. He licks his lips like it tastes delicious.

“What time is it, Jimin?”

Jungkook sternly asks him and he comments that it’s almost five pm and dinner will start very soon.

“Hmm, can’t wait to see the look on her face when she realises it’s me and that she’s not going anywhere”

Jungkook chuckles evilly as he gets Taehyung to do his cufflinks.

“She’s been such a bitch to me, but it got me so hard when she yanked my hair and spat on my face, fuck! I’m going to make her pay later on when she’s screaming with my cock up her tight ass”

Jungkook growls out lewdly as his eyes flash showing his unholy visage for a second before flashing back to normal.

Everyone around him starts cruelly laughing at his obsessions predicament.

“Let’s go, Master. It’s time”

Jimin’s malicious grin grows on his face.

“Yes, let’s”

Jungkook replies as a wicked smirk paints itself on his handsome face.

As soon as the men get to the huge dining room they notice all of the servants standing around as Jungkook’s personal underlings all accompanied him. Dria is sitting there looking so damn sexy, Jungkook thinks as she looks up at the sudden activity. Her face is a masterpiece as she pales at who just walked into the room.

“Mother, Father, Mr and Mrs Finch, Dria”

Jungkook greets everyone and accentuates her name like he wants to devour her.

He sits down next to Dria and his underlings stand behind him, all with matching ghoulish grins. She notices Jimin and Taehyung behind him with that man Yoongi from the gate and Hoseok from earlier.

“Nice to see you again, Jungkook”

Her father smiles at him with a huge smile and Dria is clearly having a meltdown in her head as she stares at Jungkook who now has piercings and tattoos on show. He looks totally different from his college appearance and Dria is shaken for all of about thirty seconds before she just stands up to leave, feeling mortified.

“Sit the fuck down, Dria”

Jungkook abruptly barks, snapping his fingers at her and she sits down with a look of betrayal at her own body’s failure to move and disobey. It feels like she’s not in control of her actions or mind at all.

“Good girl, be quiet and listen to me. So you are marrying me tonight whether you like it or not. Your parents have already done a deal with my father. They get riches and success, and I get you. They can’t back down or my father gets their souls. You aren’t going to sabotage this one, Dria. It doesn’t matter what you do to me, you are mine. You drank my blood so you can’t disobey me, darling”

Jungkook’s eyes completely turn red as he sends her a sinister grin and she just stares at him in shock, unable to move.

“So let’s eat dinner and then we can get ready for the ritual ceremony”

Jungkook commands and his parents and hers all nod with nervous grins. She has a feeling that he is in charge and everyone is a bit scared of him.

Her parents smile at him, tucking in to their meal and they act like he didn’t just say that to her. Dria is looking at them all now with a look of disbelief and betrayal as she realises that his mother looks like she is definitely Jungkook’s mother but the father, not so much.

And why the hell are Jungkook’s eyes flashing a blood red colour?

Her thoughts are racing, what does he mean that he will take their souls?

She’s willing her body to refuse and run, but it’s like she’s a puppet and can’t do anything else but behave.

Jungkook also looks totally different and his demeanour has completely changed.

He was always a shy quiet boy at college and she’s wholly regretting ever bullying him. Although he acted weirdly on Friday.

Dria couldn’t admit to herself that he did something to her body, she wanted to dominate the shy him, make him get on his knees and she couldn’t handle that thought so she bullied him.

He’s glaring at her like he wants to actually eat her and it’s like he can read her mind because a shit eating grin climbs on his face. Dria flushes looking back down to her food and acting like it’s the best thing she’s ever tasted.

A flash of her on her knees with Jungkook sadistically smashing his hips against her face and tugging harshly at her hair, assaults her brain like a 3D headset playing in front of her eyes.

“You are my little whore now and I’m gonna do whatever I want to you. My slutty little wife. Choke on my cock, Dria”

Jungkook in the visual growls sounding feral as he goes faster making her gag and choke on his massive cock.

The vision disappears and Dria is gripping the table with damp panties wondering what just happened. Jungkook smirks cruelly at her, slowly licking his fork like he’s trying to seduce her with his inhumanly long tongue. How the fuck did he just do that to me? Dria thinks, her mind is reeling.

Her mind gets invaded again and this time she’s fucking Jungkook with a strap on and yanking at his hair.

“Th-This is what you want, right Mommy? Yes fuck me, Mommy! Ahhh”

Jungkook whines pathetically as Dria savagely fucks into him from behind.

Dria’s pulse quickens and the vision changes to him riding her strap on as she tugs at his leaking cock.

“Yes puppy, cum for Mommy”

Dria moans as he whimpers cumming all over her tits.

The vision disappears again and Dria realises that Jungkook is fucking with her head somehow, as he winks at her with a malicious grin. Dria is almost panting from the unholy visions that invade her mind and all she wants to do is run from the table and get as far away from here as possible. Dria gulps down the red wine and as soon as she finishes it she knows that it was a huge mistake as Jungkook’s eyes flash at her with a villainous expression.

“Is everyone finished? Let’s get the paperwork signed, It’s time to get ready for the festivities”

Hoseok suddenly declares to everyone at the table who nodded.

He produces a piece of paper making Jungkook’s father sign something, then so does Dria’s father. Then Jungkook signs it, giving it back to Hoseok, who brings it to her telling her to sign here.

It’s a marriage certificate and Dria pauses just staring at it in shock before looking up at Jungkook.

“Sign it darling, be a good girl now”

Jungkook commands in a threatening sickly sweet voice, clicking his fingers.

She can’t stop herself as she signs her name and hands over the pen to Hoseok. Dria’s heart is beating so damn fast and she doesn’t know what to do.

Everyone starts getting up to leave and Jungkook chuckles looking at her.

“Oh, go get ready for me, my darling wife. Don’t be late, you have thirty minutes. Hoseok, Jimin help her and make sure she behaves”

Jungkook commands mockingly, clicking his fingers again making her stand up and get escorted by Hoseok and Jimin.

Dria can do nothing but obey as nothing she does can break the commands he gives every time he clicks his fingers.

They tell her she has to shower one more time, so she does. As she gets dressed into the red cape with a hood that she was given, she huffs out an annoyed air. She had baulked earlier at Hoseok when he had told her what she is supposed to wear for the ceremony, trying to argue with him.

How can she wear nothing else but a hooded cape? But Jimin had threatened her, saying he can always get Jungkook to come here and force her to get dressed in front of them all. Of course she obeyed after that as she’s not dressing in front of all of his minions.

As she stands in front of the bathroom mirror another vision invades her mind and it’s so strong this time that it knocks her for six.

“Fuck, yes my pretty little slut. Tight little cunt is taking my whole hand, such a fucking whore for your husband, Dria. Mine! You are now mine forever!”

Jungkook sinfully groans as he stares down at the debauched view.

Dria’s legs are shaking as she clings to the edge of the sink, she can feel every single harsh thrust of his hand and a warmth starts to flow straight to her core.

She can’t believe that these scenes are now turning her on so badly that she’s struggling to stand, she whimpers loudly before the vision disappears.

Dria is literally panting as she splashed water on her face, she wasn’t allowed to wear makeup or anything else like perfume either. So she has a bare face right now. Jimin had told her that earthly things will corrupt her detoxification, whatever the hell that’s supposed to mean. So she just brushes her hair and puts the crimson cape on, tying the ribbon up and feeling really exposed, as the cape is all that covers her nakedness.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Jimin and Hoseok now have black capes on as they escort her to a huge ballroom that has part of the ceiling dome open showing the blood moon. The place has red candles everywhere and a ton of people are standing around wearing black capes. Their heads all creepily turn around to look at her at the same time as they escort her to Jungkook who has on a black cape with a weird symbol in gold on the back of it.

Jungkook’s father Jungmin is standing there wearing a long black gown too with the same weird symbol on it. Dria’s parents also have on the black robes too and so does Jungkook’s mother who also has the symbol on hers.

“We are here today for Jungkook’s unholy union with his chosen tonight on this auspicious blood moon. First we will send our worship to our father with hopes that he will appear and bless the union of his son and his chosen one”

Jungmin exclaims in a loud commanding voice that echoes around the room.

Dria frowns as that means Jungmin is not his father, but she’s confused about him hoping that his real father appears, as that’s weird. She watches as everyone bends their heads and starts chanting in a strange language she doesn’t know.

She pales when a man with full black eyes with black sclera brings a terrified girl into the room. Dria pales when she recognizes her from college, she is called Minji and she’s naked with bloody harsh symbols cut everywhere on her body. Her arms and legs are tied up and she is sobbing behind a gag on her mouth.

Dria is definitely starting to wonder if this is a dodgy cult and she’s now even more worried about who they worship. She jolts as she abruptly realises that there is a whole ass altar with blood, a live snake, an upside down pentagram, a wet bloody heart, a skull, an athame, chalices, loads of different oils and minerals, pieces of wood and many other things.

Are they a satanic cult?

Her parents just stand by the altar like it’s perfectly normal and this whole thing is absolutely fine. Are her parents actually in this cult? Dria’s thoughts are reeling as she can’t believe that her parents are cultists.

She is transfixed by Jungmin who is putting some herbs and ingredients in a poultice and grinding it. Dria almost gags when she notices him cutting a slither of flesh from the heart adding it to the mix.

After that he places the whole macabre concoction into the golden chalice. When Jungkook pulls her nearer to him and grabs her hand she goes to resist, but he’s whispering a threat in her ear.

“Be a good wife for me now, behave and do everything you are told. You are mine now and you are going to be mine forever, my wife. Even in hell if we die, there is no getting away from me Dria, not ever. I’m gonna fuck you for eternity”

Jungkook’s gleeful grin is what she notices, then the fierce glow of his full blood red eyes, then the click of his fingers that snap the poor girl back to being fully controlled.

Everything goes dead silent as the poor woman gets tied upside down on a damn inverted cross, her muffled screams and protests are the only things heard as they echo across the vast hall.

Dria’s can only stand dead still and witness the gruesome blood curdling scene. No one else bats an eyelid and they all just watch on with sinister intentions.

Jungmin now moves towards the poor woman with an athame in hand and the gold chalice with the bloodcurdling mix of ingredients in it. Dria can hear her heart beating so loudly in her ears now.

He starts to speak in a harsh guttural tone as he speaks the unknown language again. Every sentence he speaks gets creepily repeated by everyone in the room.

Dria is just watching on in horror, until he gruesomely slits the girl's neck and holds the chalice underneath to catch the blood. Her macabre gurgling noises mixed with screaming are horrific and Dria tries to close her eyes.

“Watch everything darling, don’t you dare look away my wife”

Jungkook husks in her ear and snaps his fingers at her. Dria can only watch as everyone starts chanting again and poor Minji finally goes limp.

“We are up next my wife, do as you are told or I will punish you, Dria. You are only to drink from the chalice and say I obey and give myself to my husband when asked to talk”

Jungkook groans loudly in her ear, licks at it and pulls away looking down at her giving her a huge terrifying grin.

Jungmin walks towards the couple and offers them the chalice after chanting something over it. Jungkook drinks from it first, then it’s offered to Dria who can do nothing but drink from it feeling sickened.

Her stomach clenches but it’s like she’s watching everything through someone else’s eyes. This whole scenario makes her feel like she’s on some sort of psychedelic drug and is having a bad trip.

“Talk now darling”

Jungkook coos at her in a mocking tone and she repeats the words that he told her to say.

“Good girl”

He rasps, winks and gives her a chilling smirk, his eyes glint like he’s having impure thoughts about her.

“I Jungkook, ask for my father to bless our unholy union and grant me his power tonight to seal my union with my chosen forever. Father, I beg you to preside over this ritual and come forth. Please give your approval of my mate”

Jungkook’s whole eyes are red and glowing, his animalistic voice sends a spine chilling shudder right up Dria’s back. His hand is firm as he holds her hand to keep her by his side.

Jungmin starts to look ominous and a dark cloud gathers around him, his eyes start glowing and they can all see that he now has glowing golden eyes. His whole body is covered in an unnatural swirling darkness, there is a cold unholy chill in the air now too and the horrid smell of sulphur and fire.

It’s like he’s grown in stature as the air crackles dangerously around him, everyone gasps and suddenly drops to their knees like they are kowtowing.

Jungkook drags Dria to her knees and she’s actually glad as her knees already felt like they were going to buckle in terror.

“My son, rise”

A hair-raising voice booms around the room and Jungkook rises, pulling up Dria with him.

“So proud of you son, you have sent so much power to me in my name. Not long now, your son will bring about a new age. I bless your unholy union. Disrobe”

He tells him in a formidable unearthly voice.

Jungkook removes his robe letting it fall to the floor and she now sees that he’s also naked under that robe and is covered in tattoos, he has tattooed some strange symbols on his torso too.

Jungkook turns pulling her hood back, then he unties the ribbon on Dria’s robe, the blood red robe falls and drops to the marbled floor.

She flushes but she can’t do anything but obey Jungkook and she’s now absolutely tormented by what Jungmin looks like right now too, as his unearthly appearance is definitely not human.

Jungkook smirks wickedly at her as his crimson orbs slowly roamed down her voluptuous body with an obvious lustful intent. His eyes connect to hers. The fiendish Jungmin moves forward whilst swirling his dark smoke-covered finger in the blood whilst chanting. The vile mixture turns black and hisses ominously.

He then paints a symbol on both of their torso’s, on their breast bones, chanting words that sound malevolent and bestial. His wife gently takes the chalice from him like she’s used to it by now.

His palm goes to Jungkook’s forehead then Dria’s at the same time, she feels a dark sinister corruption flow through her and a large tattooed symbol appears on their chests where the painted concoction from the chalice once was.

She glances at Jungkook’s to see he now has the same mark as hers on his breastbone too. But Dria jolts as she suddenly realises that Jungkook now looks so much bigger, taller, buffer and has these thin black veins all over his body as Dria’s eyes roam over him in shock. The terrified girl thinks about how damn beautiful he is, if only he wasn’t such a crazy psycho.

Red crimson horns have appeared on his head and matching vermillion wings are now visible on his broad back. His black hair is longer, much longer.

When he grins evilly at the terrified shock in her eyes, she now notices his sharp canines too. A long forked tongue lewdly licks across his pierced lips like he’s about to eat something delicious.

Her first thought is ‘oh shit, he’s a fucking demon isn’t he?’ Her mind is in a state. The thoughts are muddled and racing as her whole being screams at her to run. The thing is. . . she can’t as her feet are literally plastered to the stone marble floor.

“Time for the first mating under the blood moon, Son. Take your chosen mate for all your loyal followers to see, complete the unholy union and seal the bond to make her your mate forever”

Jungmin tells Jungkook in a hair raising, proud sounding growl and Dria realises that it’s one hundred percent not Jungmin controlling that body anymore.

But thinking about who or what is possessing Jungmin’s body right now, is something she just can’t comprehend.

She’s too terrified of being killed right now, so she tries to make sure that she just survives the night. Dria tries to ignore the fact that he just told Jungkook to take her in front of his followers.

Jungkook immediately picks up Dria who lets out a little yelp, he gives her a huge disturbing grin as he places her naked body on the stone altar. He looks so much bigger than before as he looms over her at the end of the stone altar and spreads her legs with a loud cuss.

Jungkook doesn’t wait as he impatiently tugs at his huge thick length and rubs his tip against her soaked folds, slamming in her with a voracious guttural growl making her arch her back.

Dria feels like she’s been impaled by something that’s way bigger than any normal human dick, and it’s pushing her way past her limits making her cry out in pain.

Her mind just can’t compute what’s happening to her right now and she’s utterly disturbed that she feels more turned on right now than she has ever felt before. Dria thinks that Jungkook looks like he’s at peace after he bottoms out inside her with a content sigh, his eyes closed. Before opening his crimson eyes and giving her some serious eye contact that makes her squirm.

“That’s it my wife, taking all of my demon cock like a good girl should”

Jungkook sinisterly smirks at her. His predatory eyes fiercely glow as they glint with infatuation, showing hunger mixed with an intense craving. So he is a demon, Dria says in her head.

The blood moon mocks her as it turns a darker blood red, like an ominous omen.

Everyone is now chanting again and the foreboding swirling silhouette of Jungmin is chanting again and it sounds beastial and hair raising making her shiver.

Jungkook’s hands are roughly gripping her thighs as he pounds into her with a lewd groan.

Dria is crying out in both pain and pleasure at every single slap of his skin against hers. All she can do is moan and writhe, she can’t protest or stop him.

Her ample chest is bouncing and her mouth is parted as she stares up at Jungkook who is devouring the scene with his ravenous red fiery orbs.

His tattooed hand roughly palms her breasts and spitefully pulls at her nipple making her squeeze around his huge girth. Jungkook’s smirk is both unnerving and sexy at the same time as he tongues at his piercings on his lip.

“So fucking tight around me, my wife”

He chuckles breathlessly as he thumbs Dria’s clit making her moan out and writhe underneath him.

“Such a fucking slut for my cock, darling. Pussy is squeezing my length so well”

Jungkook mocks her, spearing her harder with a harsh growl.

He leans over her sucking and biting at her tender nipples before sucking harsh marks and biting roughly all over her torso. Jungkook savagely bites down around her areola, his canines penetrating her tender abused skin. He moans perversely around it, sucking and licking at the pooling blood.

She is horrified to like it and as his sharp teeth pierced her skin she abruptly falls into a full blown orgasm, clenching intensely around him and wailing.

Jungkook’s red orbs look up at her with a smug satisfaction on his face.

Jungkook spitefully grabs her around the mouth digging his vicious black fingernails into her skin. Forcing her to open it as he leans over her gathering a huge glob of bloody spit before letting it drop straight into her mouth.

“Swallow it, Darling. Only fair you taste my spit when I so greedily licked yours from my lips the other day. Hmmm, you swallowed it, dirty girl”

Jungkook maniacally grins down at her like a deviant, his eyes deviously glinting at her. Dria mewls loudly and lewdly flutters around him as he fucks her through her oversensitivity.

“That’s it, milk my cock my little whore. I knew you were the right one, my chosen”

Jungkook filthily moans and stands back up impaling her faster with an animalistic groan. His large tattooed hand goes to Dria’s neck, cruelly choking her, she feels dizzy and squirms on his demonic length.

“Yes, you are so fucking snug for me, such a tiny little pussy, my wife”

He hisses, sadistically thumbing at her sensitive clit again.

Her breathless raspy cries are turning Jungkook on as he ruthlessly strums his thumb against her nub. His bulbous tip assaulted her g spot with every single rough buck of his hips. Jungkook’s depraved hand tightens violently around her neck when she grips tighter around his cock. Her whines and whimpers sound raspy as poor Dria nears her second orgasm.

“Hmm yes, look at you creaming all over my big cock like a messy baby. Saturating me with your mouth-watering juices, looks so delicious. Can’t wait to make you squirt down my throat”

Jungkook vulgarly growls, staring down at where they join with a carnal intensity, devouring the scene with his carnivorous vermillion red orbs.

Her senses are all automatically heightened and she can now hear and feel exactly what he’s talking about.

The lewd sloppy suction noises are now deafening to Dria’s ears, every single time his length slams into her again, stretching her poor abused pussy out.

Dria can definitely feel how sticky it is around the base of Jungkook’s shaft and how her creamy juices are overflowing down her taint to drench his balls.

“Come on, give it to me, my wife. Drench my dick again with your slutty juices. I’m gonna breed you so well, fuck a son into you. Pump you so full, all night long until all you can feel is my cum. You are gonna be so swollen with my seed, my perfect mate”

Jungkook growls sinfully, as pathetic little whimpers escape her lips.

Dria feels delirious as black dots invade her vision from his unrelenting hand.

She feels horrified by how horny and ravenous she feels, especially when she starts to orgasm so intensely that she is sobbing. As soon as his merciless grip around her bruised neck loosens she squirts all over him.

“Fuck yes, that’s right cream my cock! So filthy, shit. Squirt all over me, my wife. Hmm your hot cunt feels exquisite”

Jungkook groans blissfully, feeling addicted to the feeling of her pulsing around his girth as he twitches inside her, hardening like steel as his balls tightened.

His eager hand goes to her hair, yanking it back to expose her pretty neck.

Leaning in he animalistically growls and buries his sharp fangs into her soft skin, right on her erogenous zone.

A muffled rough moan sounds out as she descends into another smaller orgasm, squeezing tightly around him.

Jungkook tugs sadistically on her hair, stinging her scalp and sucking harshly on her neck, tugging on her neck with his teeth as he savagely presses his teeth further into her sore neck.

Dria raked her nails across his broad shoulders as she cried out grinding up against him trying to ride her orgasm out. Dria has forgotten exactly what position she is in right now, as Jungkook’s followers all watch on in awe.

His length pulses and unloads into her with a vicious feral slam as he bottoms out stuttering his hips. Painting her cervix with his large creamy load, and a satiated whine vibrating on her tender skin.

Dria can feel the harsh breathing of his nose against her skin as his cum keeps pumping inside her. She’s panting hard underneath him as he pulls his canines from her skin and licks at it a few times before standing back up.

The look on Jungkook’s face is one of absolute triumph as he palms her skin like it’s precious. His possessive infatuation still shines brightly in his crimson eyes, as he shamelessly devours her marked up bare skin.

“Tis done my son, you are mated”

The dark malevolent Jungmin declares as he walks over, placing his palm over Dria’s womb and chanting again. She shudders because his touch is like a sinister malevolent nightmare, filled with a hellish deadly chill as his shadowy palm presses against her skin.

“It will be so, a son shall be born. He will be very powerful and magnificently strong, worthy of Lucifer's grandson. I can see it now”

He unnervingly chants again with those scary menacing gold orbs looking down at the small of her stomach. Dria looks from his hand to Jungmin’s face and the grin he flashes her is gruesome as he sees the realisation in her shocked eyes.

“Welcome to the family Dria, can’t wait for my grandson to be born to bring about the demonic prophecy. Well done my son, your mate is clearly perfect for you”

Then Jungmin visibly sags looking tired and way less formidable than he just did. He looks much smaller in stature too.

Jungkook’s hard length is still snugly seated inside her and it doesn’t look like he will pull out of her yet or go soft. His bloody teeth show as he grins down at her with a sadistic gratification.

“You are mine forever now, you aren’t ever going anywhere. Hmm you are so exquisite, my little wife”

He groans possessively, gently palming her womb as he thrusts against her.

“Such a good wife giving me a son, I knew it would be you from the moment I first met you. My precious mate, hmm I feel so horny I could go again. You make me so fucking hard!”

Jungkook whines, lewdly twitching inside her already, making Dria whimper.

She is interrupted by all of the hooded followers walking up, giving her blessings and touching her womb area in such a way that they act like she’s utterly precious.

Dria narrows her eyes at her parents who look absolutely overjoyed by this development, their greedy expressions are obvious as they touch their daughter and give her their satanic blessings. Dria feels utterly betrayed but she’s still being controlled by Jungkook who just stays seated inside her, staring down at her with a wide menacing smile and a twisted besotted expression.

“Do you think our master will let her join the orgy afterwards? I would love to feel her. Her tits are fantastic”

A voice says a little too loudly and Jungkook’s expression now looks utterly murderous, a dark red cloud of smoke bleeds from him and his hand conjures a blue and red swirling ball of fire.

The air crackles and a harsh air blows through the whole hall and it darkens, dark shadows of monsters start to bleed out of the walls groaning.

“Who just fucking lusted after my mate and so fucking openly?”

Jungkook’s harsh guttural voice booms around the room, he’s absolutely furious.

Everyone panics and immediately drops to the floor begging for their lives.

“I said who was it? SHOW YOURSELF! NOW!! I will fucking decimate all of you if don’t tell me who it was!”

Jungkook roars out menacingly, his wings are stretched out behind him and Dria can’t help but lust after his dark but magnificent aura.

She realises that this form turns her on, he looks down at her giving her a smug knowing look and glances back down at the people with a look of disgust. Some poor people are shaking and one has clearly peed themselves.

“YOU! Do you forget I can read your minds? If you had openly admitted to it I may have shown you mercy. Get the fuck up now, do you think you can insult me and talk about MY MATE!! I WILL FUCKING EVISERATE YOU!!”

Jungkook savagely growls, sounding and looking utterly terrifying as his voice booms around the room.

The older man stands up visibly shivering with a look of absolute terror.

The ball of fire shoots at the man burning him to dust immediately and a few gasps and cries of fear are heard.

Another is abruptly conjured.

“NO ONE IS TOUCHING MY MATE, HOW DARE YOU THINK YOU CAN COVET MY WIFE!! SHE IS MINE! Now the rest of you get here and finish your unholy blessings or I’m punishing the fucking lot of you!”

He possessively growled, his voice thundering at everyone, Jungkook looked pissed right off by the whole incident.

Jungkook looks back down at Dria and his monstrous demeanour calms down immediately and the shadows disappear, it lightens up again and the ball of hellfire he conjured gets snuffed out.

Jungkook picks Dria up after the rest of the satanic blessings, telling everyone with a maniacal laugh that he’s going to his bedchamber to play with his pretty wife. She has to give it to him, he’s still seated inside her and carrying her like a baby, like she weighs nothing at all.

The earlier incident was forgotten as everyone congratulated him with smiles.

No one says anything or bats an eyelid, in fact they are all starting to disrobe like they are getting ready for an orgy, this must be a common occurrence. There are now many who now look like demons, mixed in with the satanic cult followers, including all of Jungkook’s friends, all of them are different types of demons.

The last thing she sees are two of Jungkook’s friends fucking her mother and very sadistically as she wails. And someone she doesn’t know is getting her father to suck them off as another smashes his hips against her fathers ass cheeks. This was a sight she never wished to see, not in any lifetime.

Dria feels like she has no one who could help her now as her parents are clearly in this cult and they will help Jungkook for the riches and fame. And all at the expense of their daughter, they chose riches. If there are demons, are there no angels here on Earth?

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Dria shudders as she realises that this is it, she’s married to Jungkook legally and spiritually. There is no going back, he’s never letting her go, she knows this deep down inside her darkening soul.

She can also feel the satanic corruption taking root in her body and she can’t fight it. It’s way too strong as it slowly consumes her light and replaces it with utter darkness. Jungkook’s mark on her seems to be pulsing.

The power of her child inside the tiny egg is already pulsing through her and the sheer force of malevolence he is emitting is dizzying and frightening. The sperm must have only just joined an egg yet his power is taking root in her soul already. She wonders if demon’s usually get women pregnant so easily or quickly, or is it just the really powerful ones.

“Welcome to your new bedroom, my wife, mother of my child. This is it Dria, you are mine for eternity, so I suggest you accept it. I’m going nowhere either, I’m immortal, the son of Lucifer. You can’t hurt me, kill me or get anyone stronger than me to help either. I’ve looked the same since I turned twenty one. I won’t age anymore. Even if I got killed by some miracle it would only take me a year to get back to you. I would get sent to hell and be able to get strong enough to get out in no time. No one is stronger than me, only my father. So stop with the useless errant nonsense that your mind keeps spewing. And NO, there are no arch angels or seraphim left, well not anymore. We killed them all! Didn’t you realise that this is the age of the demons? Everyone has turned to the side of the sins, everyone is drowning in sin. My father is reigning supreme and we have cults everywhere on Earth, this is just my inner circle”

Jungkook laughs manically as he presses her into the wall and bottoms right out again, fucking her into the surface with a lewd groan.

“Gonna fuck you all day, every single day, my wife. Ugh, so tight and wet! I don’t have to jerk off to sinful thoughts of you ten times a day anymore. I have the real thing. Best pussy ever, looks so good taking my cock. That’s it, fuck! Cry for me my little mate, you won’t be getting any rest at all tonight. You’ve denied me for so long that I’m ravenous for you. Good girl, my perfect little cock slut wife”

Jungkook growls greedily as he drives into her so fast that she’s wailing, his demon tongue licking the tears off her face with a sick, eager satisfaction.

Dria’s tears of realisation and her wails because he’s plunging into her so hard and roughly, are only turning him on more. His hand chokes her, cutting off her oxygen as he rails the hell out of her.

She doesn’t want to give Jungkook his sick satisfaction, but she’s mourning the loss of her whole life. She can only follow his commands as he controls her like a little doll, a plaything. His growls and moans as he fills her up with his seed again are debauched and filled with a feral need for more already.

Dria sinks more and more into the controlling force of her powerful son and his merciless father. The infernal demonic madness corrupts her and the utter despair inside her heart starts to dissipate like a puff of smoke, it happens as soon as her mind starts to accept her iniquitous husband. He’s the fiendish son of the devil, there is no fighting how strong he seems and their son is a tiny brand new embryo and he’s controlling her thoughts already.

Jungkook grins sinisterly, forcing her to sit on his face, moving her like a puppet with telekinesis. Telling her to squirt down his throat like a good little whore wife, seemingly not caring that she has his cum dripping from her entrance. Her new husband is a debauched demon with sinful tendencies and wicked intentions glinting in his eyes.

Dria just moans out yes Master as she immediately complies to his demand. Instead of her being forced to do it like a remote controlled doll, she does whatever he wants her to.

Jungkook roughly shoves two fingers in her pussy, coating them in both of their juices and removes them, sadistically plunging them into her ass in one go.

She mewls out in pain and pleasure, drowning in the hedonistic sin. She knows that there is no fighting against Jungkook, it’s hopeless.

And the perverse, unholy darkness that surrounds and fills them both starts to feel a little too good to Dria. It feels like a sinful glove, like the greedy need for more, unadulterated gluttony to consume more of her mate's body, an unholy ravenous lust that builds in her and every other sin you can think of is gripping her soul hard. Pride that she has such a powerful mate who everyone is scared of and envy for anyone who has felt him like this. This ignites some wrathful thoughts.

“That’s it baby, give yourself to your husband, to your soulmate. Give in and let me devour you for all eternity. Once you become my mate you slowly become a demon too, let the darkness take you, my pretty pet. Give in to the sinful temptation, drown in it darling. Accept me, don’t make me control you forever my wife. I want you to accept that you will always be mine, my desire, my everything, my obsession, my possession, my whole world, mine! I knew you’d be mine the second I laid my eyes on you, I had to have you. No one else has ever had my cock in their pussy, only you my mate. Those whores were only good to suck my dick, nothing else. Only you deserved to have my cock, baby. I’d only let you fuck me up the ass with a strap on. You taste so fucking delicious, damn! I’m gonna penetrate you with my tongue, my tantalising tasty slut!”

Jungkook indecently groans as he pumps his fingers into her puckered hole, abruptly penetrating her with his thick long forked tongue.

As Dria grinds her hips to ride his long demonic tongue, something abruptly snaps in her, the chill of submission suddenly invades her mind and she completely gives in to her husband, Jungkook. To corruption.

It grasps around her soul caressing it with its depraved malevolence, she lets it in gasping from the force of it. She always wanted him and now she has to stop kidding herself, she has him all to herself forever. Jungkook is now hers.

Jungkook can read her mind and is extremely pleased, his expression is disturbing as his predatory, obsessive, blood red orbs glint with a fervent ravening glare up at her.

They say “Say you are MINE!”

‘Hmmm yes, I can now talk to you telepathically, good girl for submitting to me. I want you to squirt all over my face, my love. Soak me in your filthy juices. I’m yours and you are mine, always. Say you are mine baby, that I’m yours’

Jungkook lewdly growls inside her head as he can now talk to her privately. Dria moans out desperately, she’s dazed like she’s drowning in delicious syrupy lust and it’s so thick and seductive.

Jungkook can see her eyes start to blacken and magnificent dark wings erupt from her back, her pretty horns grow and he knows he has her. Being blessed by Lucifer and marked by Lucifer as his official family, along with being marked and mated by Jungkook, Lucifer’s son. And now bearing a strong demonic child were all too much for her to ever fight the darkness.

Her soul has fallen to darkness and she will live forever with him drowning in sin.

He digs his nails into her ass cutting into her plump flesh and his canines savagely bite onto her mound knowing that she will heal no matter what he throws at her.

“Yes, yes! Ahh Jungkook, mine! Hmm, yes my mate, yours for infinity. I’m yours Jungkook”

Dria drowns as she lets the darkness pulse through her and accepts that he’s hers too.

She feels exquisite pain and mind blowing pleasure, as he laps at her bloody pussy and thrusts another finger into her ass making it three. The primal moan she emits is loud and makes him groan in an animalistic manner.

“That’s it my wife, show me how much of a queen you are. Show me how much you really want me, drown me in your unholy slutty juices. Ride my face like it’s your throne, fuck my tongue baby. I’m gonna claim your ass after. Then you can claim mine after I claim that pretty little mouth of yours”

Jungkook savagely growls, penetrating her with his long demonic tongue again.

“You're now mine, my king”

Dria wickedly growls looking down at him, his eyes show amusement when she yanks at his raven coloured hair lewdly moaning as she grinds on him. She can feel how consumed he is with her, how much he worships her and the feeling is completely voracious and ravenously possessive.

He feels her emotions and knows that her soul is completely demonic, but he can feel the same adoration, devotion, obsession and possession for him that he feels for her. Demons can love but they love so fiercely that the feelings are stronger. More power is behind it, they love with everything they have.

Jungkook finally feels complete and he can’t wait for their son to bring about hell on earth like he was always supposed to. For him to release Lucifer and fully release all of the seven deadly sins powers. All of his minions are the sins and he’s the epitome of the sins. He is the sin of pride which means that he incites them all.

People get selfish when prideful, they get egocentric and they encourage other sins. Like thinking they can get as many women as they want, inciting lust. Others are too prideful telling everyone that they are the best at something inviting envy or maybe that they have something better than them, inviting greed from others as they want that too. Gluttonously claiming they can eat or drink more than someone else, it’s all ego and pride. Even wrath is born out of pride, their pride causes an argument and then a fight. Others are lazy and have pride in the fact that they are eating and sleeping their time away.

The others Yoongi, Taehyung, Jimin, Namjoon, Jin and Hoseok are the other sins. Hoseok is envy, Namjoon is wrath, Yoongi is sloth, Jin is gluttony, Jimin is greed and Taehyung is lust. They are all waiting patiently for their real powers, Jungkook only has a small amount of his real power but it is still much stronger than theirs. But they all respect him and his leadership, they were all hand picked by him to become the sins.

His son's very presence on earth is already corrupting it, he can’t wait for these pathetic humans to bow down in terror. The stronger his son gets the stronger he gets and Jungkook will finally get his real strength once the apocalypse begins on Earth. He can’t wait.

His plans are going swimmingly and now he also has his soulmate to devour whenever he wants. . . forever.

MASTERLIST: here

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

©️ Bangtans Momma.

Please do not translate, copy, steal or repost my stories as your own, or any part of my story as your own without my consent.

Do not feed any part of my stories into any AI software either.

Sharing the link or re-blogging is perfectly fine of course.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

.

[infinityyrp]

Muse List: Teen wolf 🐺

☆Sundina Gloriana Deaton-Villanueva (TW/BTVS/shadowhunters OC)

☆Mieczyslaw 'Stiles' Stilinski

☆Isaac Lahey

☆Kira Yukimura

☆Malia Hale

☆Vernon Boyd

☆Romeo Bennett (TW/TVD OC)

RULES and what I'm looking for:

☆Always looking for partners.☆

•25+ MDNI.

•All Muses 21+, mature and dark themes will be present. Looking for MXF or FxF Roleplays, with me in the F role for mxf: I NO LONGER DOUBLE UP! I PREFER THE FEMALE ROLE DUE TO UNFORTUNATE EVENTS OF PARTNERS NOT BEING EQUAL AND TAKING ADVANTAGE OF ME AND MY MALE MUSES.

☆My Muse for my OC is always high: Replies, posts, and starters for her will be rapid fire. Medium-high activity.

♧My Muse for my cannon characters vary: so that means replies, posts, and starters for them will vary. Medium-Low activity.

•Looking for a partner to play as Derek Hale and Scott McCall: I am okay with Genderbent!F Muses for them as well! (If you need ideas for FC's I have a few in mind.) Please actually enjoy it and want to play them as well. It's not fun for anyone if both parties don't enjoy it.

•Looking for Clark Kent from Superman and Lois:

•Looking for a Faith Lehane from BTVS: My main OC has a slayer verse. She was a potential slayer (unfound) and when Willow did the slayer awakening spell, she arose to the occasion.

•Looking for Tasha Williams from The L word: But make it supernatural

•Looking for Angel Reyes from The Mayans: But make it supernatural.

•Looking for Ricky Underwood from SLOTAT: but make it supernatural.

•Looking for Jace Wayland from Shadowhunters: Post series.

•Looking for Zade Meadows from Haunting Adeline:

•Looking for Zeke Landon from manifest: But make it supernatural.

•Looking for someone to make an OC out of Devale Ellis.

•Looking for someone to make an OC out of Taye Diggs.

•Looking for a MALE OC of YOUR choice if the chemistry is there!

Thank you! ♥️

•Looking for all other cannon characters for platonic interactions— potential romance:

•No guarantee on interactions: just because you send a starter to me or reply to one of my open starters, does not mean I will reply to you. I will kindly decline a roleplay if I don't vibe with your style. I will never ignore you though, that's very rude and disrespectful. You will get nothing but kindness from me and I expect the same in return.

•Semi-selective.

•NOT GHOST FRIENDLY: Please be an adult and communicate the issue so we can either change things up or part ways respectfully.

•Mun is 29 almost 30: I am an adult and want to be treated as such. Drama will not be tolerated, if you can't respect me, you will get blocked.

•This blog is for entertainment purposes only: It's purely fiction and is supposed to be fun. I'm not here to fulfill some fantasy that you have, I am married and a mom and write for the storylines. Nothing more.

•No god-modding.

•Respect my limits and triggers and I'll respect yours:

No rape, pedophilia, blood incest, heavy mentions of abuse, heavy mentions of death, extreme gore, and bathroom play. Those are my HARD no's.

•My preferred method of roleplay is on Discord. My UN is: infinityyrp

TUPPERBOX IS A REQUIREMENT.

•I will roleplay here if need be.

•I prefer the female role, with the exception of my side/background male cannon characters.

•I will not accept anything less than a paragraph: Though my motto is always quality over quantity.

•I enjoy text style roleplays from time to time: Especially when things get busy for me/us.

•50\50 smut and story: Fluff will be kept at a minimum. I enjoy drama of all kinds(cheating, love triangles, double life, pregnancies, one night stands.) The list goes on. If that's not your cup of tea, then I'm not the partner for you.

•please be POC friendly: my main OC is a woman of color— Alan Deatons daughter.

•lgbtq+ friendly.

•I give everyone the benefit of the doubt, but I do have the right to decline a roleplay, just as you do.

•Communicate effectively.

•Please be consistent: Consistency is key in my book. If I'm waiting days for a reply (without communication), I lose interest. I understand life happens, I have a job m-f, but I also know most of us have our phones on us at all times, and it literally takes 2 minutes to send a message explaining your absence.

•Please be willing to talk ooc and be enthusiastic about our stories: I like to make Playlists and plot and talk about our ships and be friends outside of the roleplay.

•Most important, have fun!

•Open starters will be in the comments: DM me about which one you like and I'll tag you in a starter on the TL or we can make a server on discord and go from there!

•You can add me on discord and message me anytime.

•My DMs are open for discussing potential partnership/plots.

•Kink friendly: Will discuss privately

•Taboo friendly: will discuss privately.

Are we besties yet?😉

Send an Emoji when you DM me to let me know you've read and understand my preferences and rules:

Thank you for your time! ❤️

[oskarpaffzz]

TW : ANY ABUSE MENTION, RUSSIAN TEXT

Hello everyone. About six months ago, I repeatedly mentioned in tumblr that I wanted to create my own visual novel based on my HTF au, and a lot has changed since then, but one way or another I was still able to finish the first chapter of the game.

The visual novel is called "Memento Mori", the roots are taken from the idea that HTF characters die from time to time in a web series, sometimes remembering that they once died (for example, Cuddles), and "Memento Mori" is translated from Latin as "Remember death."

"Mori" also means "Forest" in Japanese, and the plot takes place in a remote village located near a forest.

Initially, the novel was supposed to be created in Visual Novel Maker, but it was so difficult that I switched to Kocho. I created almost everything alone, with the exception of some OST (my friend made them, he's use - @zechcoro ) and backgrounds. I took inspiration from many vn, but for the most part my work is based on the setting of "Higurashi When They Cry" from 07th Expansion.

Unfortunately, the game is exclusively in Russian, because English is not my native language. And most likely, the release of the game in the public domain will be only when I finish with the entire vn or at least half of it.

I'm also still worried about the reaction of the fandom to my project, because not everyone can correctly understand how I describe some trigger themes in the game, such as mental, physical or s*xual abuse. Some people will find this problematic, but in fact, I do not support any of the above in any way, but just want to show an example of how characters cope with their trauma and show that no matter how sad things are, there is always a way out.

In fact, the game is a psychological thriller, horror that is shown not through guro, but mental trauma and the theme of war, which is more close to reality.

Here are some screenshots of the vn:

Title screen.

«Restless facial expressions, blinking constantly, fidgeting in place. You're acting like you're lying. But I don't think it's "like."»

I hope they will support me and the project will be released. Remember - everything that happens in vn is fiction and does not affect the reality and canons of Happy Tree Friends in any way.

[justabigoldnerd]

Hey y'all, in just two days it'll be Grief Month, so I've decided to compile a list of things that people who haven't experienced the loss of a close loved one might not think about when writing grief in fiction.

*eye twitches*

This is definitely a healthy way to cope probably

ANYWAY (below the cut because TW for death and grief)

Absence. You notice what's *not* there anymore, and you notice it *loudly*. This is the big one that I don't see in a lot of media. The space just feels empty. Devoid. For a real life example, I had a beloved cat who would literally scream for attention because he didn't understand how to come up and ask for it. When he disappeared, I couldn't stop thinking about how quiet it was. Something was very obviously missing. So, make your characters notice the lack of the person they're mourning. A lag in conversation where they would've added a quip, the kitchen being silent when it was always bustling, a character who always left the TV or radio on passes and suddenly there is no show or song playing quietly in the background. The quiet, the absence, it's oppressive. It makes you want to cover your ears. Oddly enough, sometimes that helps. A song that covers this well is "Through Me (The Flood)" by Hozier.

Memories. This one seems obvious, but it's not just crying in bed to a photo of them. It's *avoiding* photos of them, reminders of them, rooms they've been in, places they've frequented. Everything that reminds you of them feels like it's tearing your body in two with rusty shears. I once locked myself in the middle bathroom of my house because being in any other room reminded me too much of my dog who had passed suddenly at 9 months and I had a panic attack fueled by memories of her. I couldn't even sing or dance anymore for a long time because that's what I was doing with her just the week before she passed. I've only recently been able to look at photos or videos of her again.

Time. In mid September, it will have been two years since my best friend, that 9 month old pup passed. I am still reeling with grief. Your body is a clock and it *will* remember when your loved one passed, even if your mind doesn't. You'll start to think of them more often, you'll start going through the cycle of grief again and you won't know why, until it hits you. It's that time of year again.

Blame. Irrational blame, specifically. You'll blame yourself, others, "if only I had been quicker", "if I had known", "if they'd have just locked the door like I kept telling them to", "if they paid closer attention", and even "If they'd have *cared* this wouldn't have happened." It's wrong, it's bitter, it's hurtful, but it's a part of that grief.

Keepsakes. Not your father's watch or your grandmother's blanket (which are still perfectly lovely and valid!), but the pants with holes in the ankles from my late dog's teeth, or the glasses with a crack splitting one of the lenses from where she grabbed them and took off. I was so angry at her for it at the time. Now they're some of my most prized possessions. I could never get rid of them. They still have her marks. In that same vein is the amount of stray hairs of hers I would find. I kept them all. Sometimes I would just sit on the floor and pick up her fur. The day I realized her fur had stopped showing up on my clothes, I sobbed.

Love. We all know the quote. "What is grief if not love persevering?" As beautiful as it is, I call bullshit. Grief is selfish. It takes all the love you have inside of you and covers it in cement because if it can't have it, no one can. It prevents you from loving. In fact, it made me hate one of my dogs, Petunia, for a long time. It wasn't her fault. She is a beautiful, sweet, sensitive little flower and I do love her now. But grief made me look at her and feel so much rage. Because that was supposed to be *my* pup, not this new thing. I still can't love in the same capacity that I loved Giz (my 9 month old pup, my best friend, my world). I love my dog, the dog that chose *me*, Laika, in a different way. She wormed her way past the walls that grief had built up and made a home in my heart. But Giz lives there too. Laika is my girl, but she'll never be my Giz.

That's all I can think of right now. I might add more as the month wears on and I remember things. Hope this was at all helpful and not just. Idk. Sad.

[gancegancerevo]

Insatiable Fiesta and Carol; or an Example of (too) Real Transphobia in Fiction

[First seen on my Twitter.com but I don't trust it anymore so reposting here]

TW: transphobia and sexual harassment

For me, the failures of the trans representation in the story stem from the fact that Aisno chose being trans as one of their sub-conflicts.

Insatiable Fiesta is one of those events where you interact with a lot of people and see several people that are affected by the situation/Sinner (think Sloane street for another example).

Ryan’s fear, the blogger’s performative veganism, the waiter’s Syndicate background, etc. etc. are all small stories of people being imperfect and getting severely punished for it. And the story makes us sympathize with these random people who have fears and worries that are suddenly put on display and denounced as sins worthy of essentially death.

Carol is no exception, but she is unique among them. Not only because she’s actually quite honorable even before shit goes down but also because her judgement is even more egregious: everyone else hides who they are, Carol is punished for being who she is.

Being transgender has so many aspects and facets and story possibilities that a lot of us who want to see good representation will scrutinize these stories and discuss when they do well and how they fall short.

And for me, the story’s main stumbling point is in how it doesn’t really protect or advocate for its trans character. It’s disgustingly realistic how they weaponized Miss against Carol and how McGrath AND Cabernet make snide comments about her.

And let’s not forget that she was outed by some creep who was stalking the women’s bathroom in such a way that he saw her genitals. It’s fucked up that the peeping tom wasn’t punished on-screen but that is a point in favor of how realistically the transphobia was written in the event; that in the effort to out and demonize trans people, lots of creeps feel empowered to violate women’s spaces.

The biggest point against the story is that the narration misgenders Carol during her "elimination". That sort of choice on some level legitimizes calling Carol a man which is frankly, shit. Such a simple letter can really change things.

On the topic of Carol and Macchiato's interaction at the end, This moment with Carol was satisfying to me in that after all the shit others gave her, Carol found someone who complimented her even after shouting that she was a man in a dress. Now, would I have been happier if Macchiato affirmed Carol's gender a bit more definitively? Yes, definitely. But in terms of the 3 line resolutions that are usually given to these side conflicts, this gets a passing score from me.

I guess my personal preferences make me less concerned by the fact that none of the transphobes got directly punished because I prefer stories that maximize positive relationships. Like, I don’t care for the opinions of transphobes and I’m certainly not in the mood to see more people getting hurt/punished after that terror of a party.

It goes back to how there are so many ways to write queer media. Seeing someone deny herself after McGrath's nonsense is an interesting narrative and it's just disappointing that Aisno didn't follow through on this in several minor yet noticeable ways

Thank you very much for reaching the end of this rambling :)

I do want to analyze more PtN stories in the future and I do hope Aisno steps up and advocates for gender and trans issues more strongly in the future

BTW: required reading

[stayarmytinyzenmoa-l]

Without a Trace [Ch. 11]

Vigilantes AU TW: Language, Graphic Depictions of Violence, Graphic Descriptions of Blood, Minor Character Death, Gun Use, Knife Use, Major Character Death, Body Horror/Gore, Descriptions of Murder, Physical Assault, Implied Mental Assault Genre: Drama, Angst, Light Comedy Pairing: ATEEZ x Reader Y/N Pronouns: Gender Neutral (They/Them) Word Count: 13.4K Summary: Vigilante work has been outlawed, thus sending nine prominent vigilantes either into retirement or into lower ground and, while some abide by the law, a few continue on. Then, one day, a greater threat forces these vigilantes to come together once again, regardless of the law.

(11/11) [First] | [Previous] [Other Groups Masterlist] | [Without a Trace Masterlist]

Notes: HOOOO BOYYYYYYY AHA I DID IT GUYS, I COMPLETED A SECOND SERIES AHAHAAHAHA stay tuned for the end for a special note from me!. Disclaimer: Please remember that this is an AU and a work of fiction, obviously the idols mentioned/written about in this story would never partake in these actions. The idols mentioned in this work are meant to be seen more as face claims rather than the actual idols themselves.

Feedback is greatly appreciated!! Thank you for reading!

You felt disoriented, like your brain was doing flips and your eyes were spinning faster than merry-go-rounds. You rose a hand to your head to try to soothe the throbbing pain in it. Memories seemed to overlap or even completely rewrite, and there were even some memories that seemed fuzzy and incomplete, like they were nothing more than distant dreams.

“If we’re coming back, let’s do it the right way, no more skirting around the law, we both have common goals, right?” Mingi says. You look up, you were standing in the Warehouse now with the other members of the team. “If we cooperate, we could amend the law and get back to what we do best.”

“Plus, I wouldn’t mind a paycheck,” Wooyoung huffs.

Something’s off.

“I’m going to have to disagree with you both,” Yunho spoke up next to you. “I of all of you know how fine print contracts work, for all we know they could arrest us as soon as the Charlatan’s captured.”

“I hate to break it to you two, but some of us have lengthy records on us, not to mention warrants for arrest,” Seonghwa glances over to you and you glanced back. What was this intense feeling of deja vu you were having? “(Y/N)?”

“Uh…” you paused. This conversation just seemed too familiar. “I don’t know, I think we should discuss it more before making a concrete decision,” you finally answered. You looked around the room, something had to be up, now, you were sure. San was skeptical, Yunho was calculating, Hongjoong was waiting, Mingi was worried, Yeosang was busy, Wooyoung was confused, Seonghwa seemed decided, and Jongho… You stopped on him, both of you having made eye contact. Jongho was silent, but he tapped on his wristwatch instead before silently shushing you with a small nod.

“Professor Jung assured to me that our work would be kept under lock and key,” Hongjoong says, pulling you both out of your staring contest. But the conversation started to fall into the background for you, you were too concerned with another matter at hand, too concerned with the way the Timekeeper’s attention landed on you for a second too long.

“If I may,” Jongho, who’d been silent, speaks up now, diverting everyone’s attention to him. “I think we should work independently. We’ve been fine on our own until now, and we will continue to be fine on our own in the future.” He looks to you again. Bingo, the pieces started to connect. They connected faster than you could realize.

Then, you remembered it all. You turned to look at San, who seemed as aloof as usual, neither adding to nor moving the conversation along, and as soon as you took a step toward him, Jongho was quick to intervene.

“What do you think, Spades?” He interjects and the argument ceases. You froze in place, having been caught off guard, and Jongho senses your unease. “Well? Work with the police or not?” Your expression tensed for a moment. The police? What was the correlation there? You had to have been brought back to this moment for a reason, Jongho singled out this sole moment for a reason. Last time, you cooperated with the police, but how did that land you in that situation?

…

Mingi. You looked over to the man who had been nervously fidgeting around with the ball in his hands. Was it really the police’s fault that he got caught?

Come to think about it, maybe they were responsible for so much more.

“I vote no, we should work on our own,” you finally answered. Jongho seemed to relax.

“We were self sufficient before, I’m sure we’d be fine still,” Seonghwa adds. “Like I said, working on our own, especially for some of us, is our best option,” he says.

“Then, it’s decided, I’ll relay to the professor our choice,” Hongjoong says. “Meeting adjourned. We’ll sleep on it and discuss the plan tomorrow,” he turns away, phone in his hand already. 

“Hey, hey! Look what I found!” Wooyoung’s voice was chipper while he pried open the fridge. “How old do you think these are?” He pulls out a pack of beers.

“Well, considering I just restocked it, about three days old,” Yunho laughs, taking the box from him and opening it easily. You, meanwhile, turned to San, ready to corner him, but someone rushed past you and grabbed your arm.

“Don’t lose your cool,” Jongho says. “He doesn’t know what we know,” he tells you. You swallowed harshly, looking at San, who was speaking to Wooyoung, one more time. “Let’s talk outside,” Jongho whispers. You nodded and followed him out. The sun had already begun to set, and you never really thought of it back then, just how quick all of this played out. Getting on the Charlatan’s list, forming this group, nearly dying, and more, it was all over the course of little over a week. How quickly time passed by when you were busy with other things.

“What the hell is all of this, then?” You asked. Jongho glanced at the security camera before looking to you. You glared at him but, with a flick of your wrist, the camera was disabled with your knife embedded into it. “Talk.”

“There’s a reason why I chose the name Timekeeper,” he says before tapping his watch.

“Okay, bravo, you cracked time travel. What’s that got to do with me not sticking a knife in San’s head?”

“Let’s not be too rash, you remember that video, I know you do. He didn’t know either.”

“Why are you vouching so hard for him? You knew from the beginning why I did this vigilante shit, it was so I could kill whoever started this whole mess,” you argued. “Fuck, I just can’t believe I’m arguing with you instead of him.”

“Looked like you weren’t even going to give him the chance to explain it,” he shook his head and you took a deep breath. Unfortunately, he was right. After you saw that video you were so set on confronting him already. You left the room with that intention, and when you saw that the bars had descended you didn’t even think twice before stepping through the door he went through. And after you saw those articles strewn across the floor? You lost it. The drumming in your ears, the Charlatan’s taunting voice, and the memory of coming back to a dead body.

You really were going to kill him.

“I brought you back with me for a reason, (Y/N),” he says.

“You know something I don’t, huh?” You asked him.

“I do, but you’re going to have to trust me,” he says.

“How many times have you gone back?” You asked him.

“Enough times to realize that my old memories are becoming my new ones,” Jongho mumbles. “The last time I brought someone back with me it spelled disaster for that timeline.”

“Oh, I feel so special.”

“That’s not the point, (Y/N).”

“So, what? You want me to show him some sympathy?”

“No, not necessarily.”

“What’s so important about him anyway? The world would be better off without him.”

“(Y/N), I need you to listen to me.”

“Dammit, Jongho, what am I supposed to do?!” The argument continued forth, but Jongho kept a level expression. “I spent my whole life looking for the person that killed Eric. And he’s in there, having a drink with Wooyoung. Jongho, all of my friends have went through so much shit, it has to amount to something, all that pain we went through needs its closure,” you said steadily.

“And you don’t need to kill someone to do that,” Jongho shook his head.

“Why do you care?”

“Because I’ve always cared about all of you,” he says. “You know who really killed Eric. You’re just upset that San got to him before you did.”

The senator sends his regards. San’s voice was so clear now that you knew it was him. 

“Alright, I’m listening,” you took a deep breath. “Why did you bring me back with you?”

“You remember everything that happened clearly, right?” Jongho asks.

“Sure.”

“You remember everyone’s injuries?”

“Yes…”

“You remember what everyone said?”

“Vaguely, but what does this have to do with me?”

“I need you to pull out of this,” Jongho says. “The team, I need you to go back and say you’re out.” You stared at him, processing what he’s saying.

“No, I can’t do that,” you said. “I can’t just leave them to deal with the Charlatan on their own, they’re dangerous, I can’t in good faith let my friends chase after them alone.”

“You have to, (Y/N),” Jongho insists. “It’s the only combination I haven’t done yet. Even all that shit I said in there to get the police off our backs, that timeline ended up with Hongjoong shot dead by them,” he argues. “Do you understand what I’m saying? Every time I’ve repeated that sequence it always ends in all of us dying because of this guy. We have never won against the Charlatan,” Jongho shouts. You took a step back, the suddenness of Jongho’s outburst being something you’d never have expected from him.

“How many futures have you seen?”

“A lot.”

“There has to be one where we win.”

“I thought there was, the one where I went back and convinced you not to join at all. But, in the end, the Charlatan got you. He got all of us,” Jongho shudders. “It was the longest timeline we’d went, I thought I finally found the perfect sequence. Ten years, we were all fine for ten years before that bastard came back to finish the job,” he says. You listened intently.

“Then… do you know who the Charlatan is?” You asked quietly. Jongho made a nodding motion, before shaking his head instead.

“Yes… but also no.”

“Oh, bullshit.”

“I’m serious, (Y/N), the Charlatan has been different every time,” he says. You held back a remark.

“What do you mean?” You shook your head slightly.

“My first timeline the Charlatan was a man named Derek Watts. Ordinary guy, interested in hypnotism, and hated vigilantes because during Aegis’ first bank save his dad died getting caught in the line of fire.”

“Huh, textbook villain.”

“Yup.”

“And then?”

“In the next, a man named Zhang Li,” Jongho crosses his arms. “Young college graduate, girlfriend died in a botched save from Mono.”

“Another textbook.”

“Exactly. Hundreds of timelines, hundreds of Charlatans. Hell, in one of my timelines, you were the Charlatan,” Jongho said in a low voice. “Eric died, you looked everywhere for help, and got none. Your friends died too. And you were left alone. I don’t blame you.” You couldn’t answer. “But then, I thought, what if you knew. What if you had some general knowledge about what was going to happen already, and I figured I’d try it. The last time I brought someone back it went to shit, but maybe this time it’d work out.”

“Who’d you bring back the last time?” You asked. Before Jongho could answer, the door swung open and San, face tinted pink, held two beers in one hand and a half drank one in the other.

“You two making out?” San chuckles through his slurred words. “I’m joking, come join us, we’re getting caught up,” he offers the two bottles to you both and, once you take them, returns inside.

“Him, he was the last person I brought back,” Jongho said once he was out of earshot.

“Him?” You asked with disbelief.

“He’s smarter than you give him credit for,” Jongho says. “We went pretty far with his help too, eight years.”

“What did he do differently?”

“I made sure he didn’t kill Eric,” Jongho said quietly. You looked at him.

“And?”

“Eric became the Charlatan.” Your breath caught in your throat.

“Why?”

“After the ban was passed, he was furious. All that work he did, all that effort he put into everything, he was repaid with a stab to the back.” The way he spoke bothered you. He was just so nonchalant about it, like he’d seen so many of the same outcome so many times he’d become wholly desensitized to it. “I’ve been keeping tabs on everyone who’d been the Charlatan, at least. You’ll never know if a timeline decides to repeat itself, right?”

“Even me?”

“Especially you.”

“Hey! Are you two coming in or what?!” Wooyoung’s voice boomed from inside and you both laughed.

“Yeah, yeah, we’re coming in,” you answered back. “We should go, before they suspect anything.”

“Sure,” Jongho held the door open for you but, before you could step in, he grabbed your arm again, “don’t make any rash decisions.”

“If I did, you’d just twist that watch of yours and go back, so why would it matter?” You shook his hand off and you both filed in. The boys were all seated, beers in the middle table and in their hands.

“About time!” Yunho grins. You popped the cap off of your bottle against the table and took a seat on one of the plastic chairs. “Ask (Y/N) next!” He says.

“Ask me what?” You drank some of your beer while Wooyoung spoke.

“Fuck, marry, kill Outro,” Wooyoung says.

“What are we, kindergartners?” You rolled your eyes, but Wooyoung’s expectant eyes said it all. "Fine, fuck Hope, marry Mono, and kill Agust,” you answered before drinking more. “Nothing against Agust, other than the fact that his inventions backfired on us a couple of times.”

“See, told you,” Yeosang nudges Wooyoung’s arm and the latter frowns.

“Is drinking before an operation a good idea?” Jongho asks, can of beer still unopened.

“Probably not,” San masks his burp with his fist, “but fuck it, right? I haven’t spoken to any of you for ages,” he shakes his head.

“I know! What have we all been up to, anyway?” Wooyoung’s voice overpowered San’s. But, even with the chatter, you couldn’t stop that nagging voice at the back of your head. You looked at all eight of them. Yunho’s shoulder was fine, he was moving around as much as usual. Yeosang was standing upright with ease. Everyone was… fine. You saw the future, or you were from it at least. According to Jongho, it should be different now without the police getting in the way, but you couldn’t help but worry. Was everyone’s safety so infringed on your involvement? Everyone’s wellbeing? You could feel the weight of their lives settling on your shoulders now, how could Jongho do this too? And how could he seem so… You looked at him now, his face stuck into one of indifference. No, you could’ve sworn that at one point he was as loud and cheery as the others.

When did he change? You wondered.

But your thoughts didn’t dwell on him for long, no, instead you looked at the boy next to him. He had discarded his jacket long ago, instead sporting his usual black tee that had some frays and faint blood splatters. His shoulders were relaxed while he laughed fully. How could he? How could he laugh like he didn’t ruin your life? It was almost funny, though, at one point you would’ve said that he saved your life. He was there after everything happened, picking up the pieces like…

Your breath caught in your throat.

He was there. Picking up the pieces like he felt obligated to. There was no doubt about it, San’s appearance in your life was due to whatever guilt surfaced when he realized what he had done. So what were you to him, then? A charity project? A way to repent besides turning himself in? All those soft smiles he showed you, the small gifts from him that you thought he wouldn’t have known about, and the days he’d walk you home thinking that he’d keep you safe, he did all of those knowing that he murdered your best friend.

And all that time you had no idea.

What was it like for him?

To take care of the person who was left behind? And to have no one to go to to talk about it?

“You alright, (Y/N)?” Yunho was next to you now, crouched in front of you while he waved a hand in front of your face. You blinked back into reality. “You good? I know when you’re thinking,” he takes the bottle from your hands and places it just out of reach. You straightened your position and took a deep breath.

“I'm backing out.”

~

And that’s how you ended up watching from afar.

Hongjoong wrote up a new plan, it took all night, but he came up with something else. Nothing he could do about you not being there with them, anyway.

Hell, you weren’t even in the general vicinity of the city.

The sunlight was surprising soft, the sea breeze rushed passed you while you adjusted your sunglasses and took a step off the train. And, directly ahead of you, was the person you’d called for a favor.

“(Y/N), over here,” Jisung rose his hand from its place in his jacket’s pocket, and you walked over to him while waving too. “Glad you called, she’s waiting for you,” he says.

“I bet, she’s been waiting for a while, huh?”

“Year and a half, give or take,” Jisung shrugged and opened the car door for you. “But, well, she was always the more hopeful one out of all of us,” he slides into the driver’s seat. Once you’d both closed your doors, he takes a deep breath. “So, what happened? They kick you out?”

“I left,” you answered while he started the car. “Call it a gut feeling,” you added, stopping yourself from remembering what you did to San before.

“Well, it’s never been wrong,” Jisung says. “You felt it before with Jeno.”

“And since then I’ve never ignored it.”

“Exactly,” he says. “But, it’s not like you to pull out of an operation so abruptly.”

“What do you know about me?”

“More than you think,” he chuckles. “We used to be close, remember?” He says with a teasing tone.

“Yeah, yeah.”

“How long are you staying?”

“Until I see that son of a bitch on the news,” you looked out the window as Jisung turned up onto a hill.

“So… couple of days?” Jisung asks.

“Sure,” you nodded your head slightly. Hongjoong had told you to lay low and go far since you were technically the most at risk in terms of the Charlatan. Originally, you’d planned to hide out in your apartment, but it’s been compromised too much for you to stay there. Then, after moving around the city, you remembered a certain someone who’d been trying to reach out to you for a while now. A person who you knew was in a secure location.

“We’re here,” Jisung pulled into a parking space and got out of the car with you following close behind. You pulled the door to the care center open and quickly stopped while someone stepped out.

“Oh, thank you,” the older man grinned. His grip was tight over the handle on his cane, and he walked with a noticeable limp. One quick glance was enough to see how badly burnt one side of his body was, as the scars creeped up to his face. He stared at you as long as you stared at him. He looked familiar. “Oh… is that (Y/N)?” He asked, his voice unstable but recognizable.

“Mr. Lee?” You chanced your first thought and he nodded. Jeno’s dad. How fitting.

“My god, look at you,” he hobbles closer to you and looks at you with caring eyes. “And Jisung too? My, my, what are you both doing here? You’re both too young to have to be at a place like this,” he shakes his head sadly.

“Mr. Lee, let’s have a seat over there and then we can get caught up,” Jisung looks over to the bench on the side and walks next to the older man, supporting him by the shoulders as the three of you sat down. “Our friend Giselle’s been staying here too, actually, so we came to visit her,” Jisung says.

“Giselle is also here? As a patient?” He asks in a melancholy voice. “Why her, of all the people? She has such a bright future ahead of her,” he frowns.

“Just… you know,” you couldn’t tell him the truth, “things happen. Wrong place, wrong time.”

“It always was that way,” Mr. Lee shakes his head. “So tragic, what happened to all of you because of vigilantes. Eric, Giselle, and even my Jeno, oh, it still hurts to think about what happened to my little boy,” Mr. Lee rubs his face with his hands. “I don’t know why he got caught up in that business anyway,” his voice shakes. “You both give Giselle my wishes, alright? Poor girl,” he mutters.

“Wait, but, Mr. Lee, what happened to you? You’re a patient here as well?” You asked.

“Yes, I am, but I usually stay with my wife,” he says. “I was just getting groceries until I was caught up in a heist led by TNT, I think his name was, and I got caught in the blast,” he says.

“That’s horrible, Mr. Lee,” your own voice nearly got choked up. You were there. You were there and you couldn’t even do anything, what with you nearly getting caught in the blast too, and now you were hearing that your friend’s dad was there at the same time? You could defend yourself, sure, but Mr. Lee? One look at his cane told you everything you had to know.

“This thing? It’s okay, I’ve gotten used to it,” he says wistfully. “It makes me look a little cooler now, right?” He chuckles. “But, I don’t want to hold you any longer, I know your friend is waiting for you both.”

“Will you be alright on your own, Mr. Lee?” Jisung asks.

“I’m old, not crippled, boy,” he says in a teasing voice and Jisung laughs.

“Alright, alright, I get it, old man,” he says. “Who’s picking you up?”

“The wife, of course,” he grins. “Now, go on! Leave this old man to his thoughts,” he insists and, slowly, you both got up and exchanged your goodbyes again before entering the facility.

“Welcome to Jaramedica, the rehabilitation center for all those damaged by vigilante or villain exploits,” the woman at the front desk greeted you as you neared. “Mr. Han, here to see Ms. Uchinaga again?” She asks.

“Yup, I brought another guest with me though,” he nudges his head toward you. 

“Alright, full name, please,” she asks.

“(Y/N) (L/N).”

“And recorded, please enjoy your time,” she hands you and Jisung key cards and you walk through.

The inside was akin to a paradise, or at least in your terms it was. It was as grand as those resorts you used to see on commercials, and somewhere was Giselle, who’d been here for a while now. Her parents wanted her to rehabilitate in the best of facilities, after all, and no where was better than this one. The air was clean, the area spacious, and the people, god, just looking at them made you feel happier too.

“Inside here,” Jisung tugs you into one of the cottages and you locked the door behind you. “Gigi, I brought a surprise,” Jisung announced. You heard the TV’s volume lower.

“I’m in the room, Jisung, come in whenever!” That was the first time you’d heard her voice in… a while. You didn’t know what you were expecting it to sound like, maybe tired and strained, but no, instead it was the same as you’d remembered it. That made it even the more sadder, and couldn’t stop the guilt that circled your heart. You followed Jisung quietly, and when you stepped into the room, you were surprised by how bright it was in there with the window wide open and the breeze flowing through.

But it was nothing compared to her, you old best friend, who sat tucked into bed with her lunch on the table next to her, and her widened eyes that stared at you like they’d seen a ghost.

“Hey, Gigi,” you said quietly. And, immediately, her lips fell into a frown, but not the disappointed kind, no, the sad one, the one that scrunched her eyebrows together and formed tears at the corner of her eyes, the one that was the exact opposite of what you’d expected. Then, as if she’d been waiting, she opened her arms, and you melted into them, your face buried into her shoulders while she pressed her head against yours.

“I missed you so much, (Y/N),” she mumbled. “Look at you, wow,” she pulls away from you first, holding your face in one hand. Then, in a quick turn up, she whistles. “This one looks like a close call," she traces the scar under your chin.

“Too close for comfort, that’s for sure,” you answered. Then she pulled your wrist, looking at the scars that decorated your arms from the many fights you had. “Well, at least you got most of these when we were still together,” she says.

“Sure, that too,” you said while Jisung pulled up two chairs.

“Now, where did you find our littles Spades?” She asks Jisung.

“Technically, I found him,” you corrected her.

“I let you find me,” Jisung rolled his eyes.

“Whatever,” you shot back.

“And still with the banter, it’s almost like nothing ever changed,” Giselle laughs. You leaned back on the chair and then it caught your eye, a picture frame off to the side next to her. A closer look showed that it was a picture from before all of this, before your lives went to shit, and before vigilantes were even in the public eye. The five of you stood next to each other, arms wrapped around the person next to them and smiles brighter than ever. “I did say almost.” She catches the center of your attention.

“Yeah…” you looked away.

“So, you look like you have a lot to tell me,” she says.

“I do, I do, I don’t know where to even start,” you shook your head. 

“We ran into Jeno’s dad just now, actually, he sends his regards,” Jisung says.

“Oh, is Mr. Lee here too? Is he alright?”

“Burns from a TNT heist,” you answered. “He’s still walking, but he has a cane now,” you explained.

“Oh, god,” Giselle frowned. “Next time he comes, I hope I run into him too,” she continued. “I’ve been going outside much more now, actually, the doctors say it’s good for me, so hopefully I see him sooner than later,” she says. Then, like a switch flipped in her head, she spoke again, “actually, before we continue on and before I forget, (Y/N), Jisung and I have something for you,” she snaps her fingers and opens the drawer next to her before handing you a box inside. “Go ahead and open it,” she says. You pulled it open took the SD card from inside of it.

“What’s this?” You asked.

“A gift,” she says. “There’s a computer in the next room, you can go watch it there.”

“Is it something I should watch now?”

“Well… we have time, I think Eric would want you to see it too,” Giselle urges you. Jisung nods.

“A surprise for a surprise, fun,” you flipped the card in your hand and stood up. “It won’t take long, right?”

“Depends on you, (Y/N),” she says.

“Yeah, yeah,” you walked into the next room, Giselle’s and Jisung’s voices growing quieter with the distance, and pushed the SD card into the monitor. You clicked onto the file that appeared on the desktop and what had to be hundreds of video files opened up before you. You clicked the first one and felt your heart stop.

You knew this video.

Eric tapped on the screen of the lens.

“Man… (Y/N) is so going to kill me if they see this,” Eric adjusted the camera to better get a good range around the bedroom. “Okay…” he looks at his phone screen. “Should be fine… I’ll just turn it on when I’m out, I guess…” he continues to mumble to himself while walking around the room. Your bedroom to be exact. The camera caught everything, from the bed, the closet, to the window, it had a good vantage point. “Crap, the one in the living room’s offline again.”

It was the same as the first time you’d seen it, except this time it kept going. You watched Eric move around the whole apartment checking on these hidden cameras you didn’t even know were there and, you were sure, might still be there, just unused and offline.

“Shit… I really hope (Y/N) doesn’t find these but… dammit, I can’t have a close call like that again,” he speaks to himself. “I’ll have to make sure I’m not followed back next time, (Y/N) could…” he stops muttering and shakes his head. You moved on to the next video.

This time, Aegis tumbled in from one of the windows, but as quickly as he came in he stopped to duck behind the curtain as you walked into frame, headphones on and humming whatever song was playing through them, and soon you were out of frame and Eric ran to the bedroom, emerging again in normal clothing and running to the front door. He cleared his throat and loudly announced that he was home and, there you were again, headphones around your neck with a smile.

The next series of videos were either of an empty apartment or of you doing whatever around the area. Occasionally there was a video where he was almost caught and occasionally there was a video of him tinkering with the devices. Then, a strange difference.

Aegis once again tumbled into the apartment and, after a quick check confirming that you weren’t home, Eric removed his mask and took a huge breath, but his eyes widened in shock as soon as he heard something break behind him. He turned around quickly, shield at the ready, before dropping it altogether as someone entered the frame.

Jeno.

“I can explain,” Eric says quickly.

“Holy shit…” Jeno had an apple in his hand and his jaw was practically on the ground. “You’re…”

“Into cosplay!” Eric quickly covered. “Looks good, right? Aegis is awesome!”

“Come on, Eric, I’m not that dumb,” Jeno runs a hand through his hair. “Have you told (Y/N)?”

“Have I told (Y/N)?”

“Have you told (Y/N)?!” “Of course I haven’t told (Y/N)! Are you kidding me?! Have you seen the people after me?!” Now it was Eric’s turn to be frustrated.

“I… holy shit… my best friend is a super hero he’s… he’s the hero!” Jeno freaks out.

“No, no, definitely not a hero, just a guy with a shield,” Eric quickly corrected him. “You can’t tell anyone, Jeno.”

“I won’t!”

“Not even (Y/N).”

“But… wouldn’t… I’m surprised (Y/N) hasn’t figured it out.”

“I can be sneaky when I try. But (Y/N) can’t know. No matter what happens, (Y/N) cannot know. I can’t put them in danger like that, do you understand?” You’d never heard him so serious before. Jeno, who’s countenance was usually so cheery, had grown serious. “Even if I die, (Y/N) cannot know.”

“Christ… that’s dark, man.”

“It’s for their safety.”

“What am I… what do I do if…”

“Don’t tell them, just let the police run their investigation.”

“And if they find your gear?"

“They won’t,” Eric said this as he removed his uniform, clearly showing Jeno where he stashed it and exactly where you remembered it. “Listen, Jen, if anything ever happens to me then you take everything in here and you burn it, got it? (Y/N) can’t be connected to Aegis, god knows who’d be after them,” he says sternly. Jeno only nodded curtly. “If someone else finds these and, I dunno, takes my place, then that’s even better. It would draw attention away from all of you. I originally took this up to protect you all, so I don’t know what I’d do with myself if any of you got hurt because of it.”

It was like everything connected in that moment. Sure, Jeno was the most excited to try the vigilante thing, he showed the most promise, but he never said anything definitive until “Aegis” broke his hiatus. His motive was never ‘what happened to Aegis?’ It was always ‘what happened to Eric?’ Who, thanks to San’s interference, had been removed from Aegis’ history nearly all together.

And when Giselle’s accident happened? Jeno was the first to bring up the idea of pumping the breaks.

And then what happened to him in your next operation?

You moved on to the next video, flipping through until you once again saw Jeno and Eric talking to each other.

“Yo… (Y/N) is going to kill you if they find out about this,” Jeno taps on the camera lens.

“I know, I know!”

“Can you imagine? ‘The Great Aegis killed by angry significant other.’”

“Now that’s a headline,” Eric laughed. “But, I’m only telling you about it because if anything happens you need to take all of the cameras out and take the SD card they’ve been uploading onto. It’s connected to my desktop so just pop it out.”

“Got it, got it, I’m guessing you want me to destroy it, right?”

“Sure, do whatever, just make sure it doesn’t fall in the wrong hands. Who knows what anyone would do with these?”

Wrong hands? The Charlatan had this last time, it was the only way for them to have had the footage. So that left one question then, how did they get it? You continued flipping through videos, only stopping when you got to that one. The one that nearly made you lose your mind.

You skipped through it.

The next video was exactly what you thought it would be. As you expected, it was Jeno, just Jeno, with tears in his eyes and the tip of his nose reddened, you watched him approach each camera and removed them from their spot before you saw him walk to the closet and pull the back panel out. Then you watched his shoulders relax with relief seeing that it was empty. All traces of Aegis were gone. You wondered if Jeno ever suspected the new Aegis, but then again your apartment was privy to burglars and with every window open it would have come as no surprise that Jeno had to consider the possibility. You looked at the date on the corner and, yet another variable, it had been a month after Eric had been murdered.

You didn’t even stay in the apartment that month, no, you stayed with Yuna, who had successfully gotten the cops involved in her case and was now living on her own.

Jeno was smarter than he let on, no wonder he didn’t jump to conclusions. Not in the same way you did, at least. 

“Jen? What are you doing in my bedroom?” Your voice was clear.

“Uh… nothing,” Jeno closed the closet door quickly, but quietly, and before running back in the main room grabbed the final camera and, presumably, the SD card you now had in your possession.

“Sure, Jen, stop creeping over there,” Giselle’s voice was as loud as ever, then the video stopped.

You thought that was the last one, but there was one left, and this one was much different than the others.

This time it was in Jeno’s bedroom.

“Hey… (Y/N). Or, at least, I hope it’s you, (Y/N), so if it’s not you just, uh, do me a favor and don’t watch this, or do… I guess,” Jeno rubbed the back of his head awkwardly. This was a different Jeno than the one you’d seen in the earlier videos, he was older, tireder, and maybe a little more jaded, and when you looked at the date on the corner you knew exactly why, it was recorded the day before the altercation with Absolute Zero. “Uh… if you’re watching this then, uh… I guess I’m gone.” You felt your throat choke up and you took a deep breath. “Look, I just had a bad feeling about tomorrow so I wanted to leave this here for my own conscious, ya know? Maybe it’s a little selfish, but you deserve to know everything, (Y/N).”

~

Jeno rubbed his face tiredly again, feeling the bags under his eyes weigh heavily. He looks over his shoulder and picks up the camera, one that was hidden in the stuffed bear he remembered Eric giving to you a while ago.

“Uh, just to be transparent and everything, here you are,” he shows you asleep on his bed, you’d both agreed to meet up the night before to prepare, then he set the bear down again. “You’re really knocked out there, (Y/N),” he laughs. “But, uh… back to the message and all, this should be the last video on the card, so I’m assuming you watched everything else. Don’t worry, I didn’t watch anything at all aside from the ones I was in, I’m not a creep like that, but I just wanted to tell you that Eric cared so much about you. He really…” Jeno trailed off when he heard you stir.

“Actually, let me move to the kitchen,” he picked up the bear and left the bedroom, closing the door as quietly as he could before placing the bear down on the counter and sitting in front of it. “Eric only wanted the best for you, he wanted you to see him at his best, so I don’t want you to beat yourself up about what happened anymore. I’m sure you have questions, and I’m sure at least one of them is why I didn’t tell you and just…” Jeno trails again, “I’m sorry, this was all kind of spontaneous, I wasn’t planning on recording anything, but there’s just this gut feeling I have and it’s bothering me, you know? But, well… I told Jisung to take the SD card if anything happened so, yeah, he may have abandoned us but at least he agreed to do that,” he chuckles. But, as it died out, he zoned out for a moment.

“Just… just to toss things out there, I never said anything to the new Aegis,” he says. “I'm not sure if he was the one who killed Eric or if he just looted your place after it happened, but I never said anything. But, you know what, (Y/N)? He cares about you too. I hung out with San a couple of times, actually, just guy stuff, you wouldn’t care. Gym, garage, and golf, the three Gs we called it,” he laughs again. “I don’t think he killed Eric, though. And if he did, he didn’t do it from his own personal vendetta, there’s no way. But, I’ve seen the way he treats you, maybe you could hear him out one day, lend him a talking ear or something, I don’t know. The guy just seems lonely. At least we have each other, you know? I don’t know who he has,” Jeno shakes his head.

“Actually, I take it back,” Jeno backtracks. “San did say something weird to me once when we went drinking, but I never really thought too much about it. He kept saying that he “wronged you” or something like that, he kept talking about how nothing he’d ever do would make up for what he did, and after that I had a feeling. I had a feeling but while I was watching him I couldn’t be mad at him. I know, hate me all you want, curse me or whatever I’m probably dead anyway, but (Y/N), you have to understand, if he killed Eric in cold blood why did he try so hard to help you get back on your feet? Why would he have put so much effort into supporting you if he wanted to hurt him so much? I wish I had the chance to ask and, well, if you’re seeing this then I never made it to that bar hang out we agreed on,” he shakes his head. He was rambling, he knew he was, and in some strange way it comforted him. Saying everything out loud and breaking down everything he learned and observed had this strange cathartic feeling to it that he couldn’t describe. He couldn’t look at the camera, for some reason, it felt as if he was looking at you. But, for this last part, he forced himself over that fear.

“(Y/N), I’ll be so honest with you, I don’t want to die,” his voice was strained and he held back tears. “When I agreed to become a vigilante with you all, I think I was just excited. I wanted to be like Eric too, and I thought that I could, but…” he swallowed harshly. “After what happened to Gigi I… I don’t know anymore. Eric told me he chose to do this to keep all of us safe, and I wanted to honor that legacy of his, and then I failed,” he said this slowly now, taking deep breaths when he could.

“I guess, what I’m trying to tell you is… no matter what happens to me tomorrow, don’t hold it against yourself. Everything I do tomorrow and everything that happens is on me, alright? Just, uh… remember to take a couple of steps back. Don’t lose yourself to the hype like I did, take a page from Eric’s book and remember your place. We’re not heroes, and we’re not villains, we’re just people who decided they like to beat things up,” he laughs pathetically. “And don’t rush into things head on! We won’t be here to back you up this time and I don’t know if you would have anyone after us to do it either! If you do, then by all means, beat the shit out of whoever stands in your way, but otherwise take your time and figure things out before making decisions, yeah?” He points to the camera every now and then before sighing and shaking his head.

“You are one of the closest friends I think I’ll ever have, (Y/N). I’ll keep Eric busy for you, so I’d better not see you again for another 100 years, or whatever,” he says quietly. He’s silent for a while, the sound of the clock ticking behind him being the only sound in the video before he shake his head again. “Take care, (Y/N), and good luck on everything, yeah? You can do it if you put your mind to it, I know you know right and wrong, and I know you know how to choose your friends carefully. No matter what it is you’re doing now, we’re always backing you up,” he says. “Good bye, (Y/N),” he smiles at the camera before leaning over and turning it off, and only then did he take the time to wipe the tears that cascaded down his face.

~

You sat in silence, the restart button staring at you while you waited. What were you waiting for? Some surprise character to enter this story? You wiped your tears away while you sniffled and you tried to regain your composure.

God, that Jeno, he always knew how to get you in the end.

“I… um…” Jisung started behind you, you turned your head just enough to barely see him. “Jeno said he had a bad feeling about Absolute Zero, and if I saw his name on the news to go to his apartment and grab it.”

“You couldn’t have given this to me earlier?” You asked him.

“We weren’t exactly on speaking terms until recently, you know,” he deadpans.

“Right…” In the end it was your fault. What an ironic connection. “I’m guessing you and Gigi watched it.”

“Just the beginning, and that last video too,” Jisung says. You pulled the SD card out and stared at it, it was just ordinary, no one would have known what was on it and no one would have suspected anything. You placed it in your pocket and pushed past Jisung to go back to Giselle.

“That was fast,” she comments.

“I didn’t want to dwell too much on it.”

“I understand,” she smoothened out her sheets. “(Y/N), Jisung’s been keeping me updated with everything,” she says while reaching for your hand and holding it between hers. “You’ve been through a lot.”

“I know.”

“Now that you have your answer, what will you do?” You were silent. “Maybe you should take it easy now, I don’t think Eric would have wanted you to go on this rampage for him.”

“You’re right,” you nodded your head slightly.

“You’re not going to fight me on it?”

“Why would I?” You sighed and Jisung entered the room.

“Not to be that person, (Y/N), but we’re worried about you,” he says. “Every time the Ace of Spades came up on the news they were further and further from you. Maybe it’s time to drop the knives, (Y/N),” he says. “You know as well as I do, the Charlatan is out of our league. Just leave them to those eight idiots.”

“God, they’re gonna get themselves killed,” you brought your hand to your head.

“Good faith, (Y/N), they’re not that hopeless,” Giselle laughs. “Gosh, look at us, the reunion of Aces.”

“Minus one.”

“Not to be sentimental, but Jeno’s always with us,” Giselle squeezes your hand. Jisung leans against the wall and crosses his arms.

“I should’ve been there,” he says.

“Hey, too late for sympathies,” you cut him off.

“(Y/N), really, you should think about retiring,” Giselle says suddenly. “After everything that’s happened to you, you should put yourself first. You have your answer now, you know what happened, it’s time to give it a rest,” she insists.

“I guess I could…” you looked up and then you hesitated.

Something’s wrong.

That gut feeling of yours was kicking in again. You looked around and your two friends, who’d known you long enough, easily caught on to your unease. Jisung, though, was the one to really take initiative, standing up from his spot and playing around with something hidden in his sleeves.

Then, you looked up, specifically at the window.

You couldn’t get a good look at who it was, you only caught the shadow of them moving away. Shit, did the Charlatan find you? How? Why? This place was supposed to be secure! But a quick shared look with Jisung made all the pieces fit together.

Two targets in one place. Vulnerable. The Charlatan wouldn’t have missed an opportunity like that.

“I’ll be right back,” you stood up slowly and, before you could take a step to the door, someone grabbed onto your wrist. You followed it and looked to Giselle. “Sorry, I’m sorry, I just have a hunch,” you told her.

“I’m not stopping you, I just want to tell you to be careful,” she says.

“I will, I always am,” you reassured her. Jisung looked out the window.

“I’ll stay here with Gi,” he says.

“Yeah, no telling what can happen now. I know security is air tight here but…”

“You know what you’re up against better than we do,” Jisung fills in the blanks for you.

“Yeah, stay safe, hopefully I’ll be back soon,” you approached the door.

“See you later, (Y/N),” Giselle’s voice was distant as you left the small home.

The outdoors was bright and the cheery voices around you contradicted the intense feeling at the back of your head. You knew you were being watched, but you couldn’t tell who was watching you. There was no sight of anyone suspicious from earlier and the crowd made it hard to pinpoint where he could have gone, until a sudden movement caught your eye, a door shutting a little too quickly and a little too suddenly, so you moved toward it without hesitation.

The layout was near identical to Giselle’s home, save for the fact that it was littered with unopened boxes with a noticeable layer of dust on them. They were still sealed shut with tape and they were stacked amongst each other in various places throughout the room. The windows, likewise, were blocked by various pieces of cardboard that were held together by even more tape and even more boxes. Despite those, the room was empty, you were pretty sure. In fact, to the untrained eye, it looked like you were alone.

You knew that the Charlatan’s lackey was in here somewhere, you could feel it. You thought this as you walked further in, looking behind boxes and peeking into the rooms.

Where?

Where did they go?

There was only one way in and out of the cottages, even the windows couldn’t be opened that far by design. You stood in the middle of the room now, how could you miss them?

Clang!

You hit the floor with a loud thud, the metal cane dropping next to you being the last thing you saw before blacking out.

~

Jongho was right. Everything was going perfectly. Everyone was in relatively good shape, too. He saw this as everyone regrouped in the warehouse that Yeosang had finally traced the signals from the broken Charlatan mask to, they found everything they needed and more than enough evidence to break down the Charlatan’s modus operandi. They found the missing vigilante weapons, they found many of the missing people, all of which were somewhat familiar to them, and they found the source that supplied the Charlatan with all the information to begin with: a simple flash drive. God, did Yeosang yell, a simple flash drive was what brought so many people to their demise? The hacker almost laughed out loud at the sheer ridiculousness of it.

But, the strangest part of that flash drive? The chicken scrawl behind it that simply said ‘Loveholic.’

The legend themself, the unknown variable, and, arguably, the reason why the vigilante ban was passed in the first place. But Hongjoong was skeptical, the coincidental intersectionality between the Charlatan and Loveholic just seemed too convenient, like it was set up just perfectly like a trap made for an animal. Call it anxiety, instinct, or experience, Hongjoong knew something was up.

It was just too easy. Everything was laid out already and all they needed now was the person themself. The Charlatan. Whoever they were, they did well in covering their tracks, but with everything they found it was easy to breakdown the main details.

“How much longer do we have to stick around here?” San groans. "We’ve basically checked everywhere already, I don’t think the Charlatan’s here,” San says.

“I agree, I think we’ve exhausted this warehouse,” Yunho says.

“But we have to find them, if they’re not here then we look everywhere else,” Jongho says.

“Shit… maybe we should’ve agreed to let the police help us,” Mingi huffed, stuck in his own thoughts. “This isn’t even finding a needle in a haystack, it’s more like finding a strand of hair in the ocean,” he shakes his head.

“It should be possible with Cypher’s help, right?” Seonghwa asks.

“Maybe, but don’t rely on me only,” Yeosang said worriedly.

“We haven’t checked that one room yet, the one that was locked earlier,” Jongho interjects. “The one of the first floor,” he reminds them all. In the last timeline it was the room where he and Hongjoong found Mingi in but, with Mingi in front of him very not brainwashed, who knew what was in there?

The Charlatan, hopefully.

“What can we do, though? It’s locked,” Mingi says. Everyone stared at him. “What?”

“I’ll handle it,” Wooyoung rolled his eyes. “Let’s just head over there,” he leaves first and everyone follows. On the way, Wooyoung pulled out some kind of multi-tool from his belt and rifled through it until he tugged off a bent and a straight pick just in time for them to reach the room. Carefully, he pressed his ear to the door and pushed both picks in, listening carefully to hear the barrels click into place.

“Do you think he’ll get it?” San asks.

“Shh,” Wooyoung shushes him with a glare. 

“Don’t be too hard on yourself if you can’t get it,” Yeosang teases.

“Quiet, I can’t hear the mechanism,” Wooyoung grumbles.

“Maybe I should’ve asked if he knew what he was doing,” San corrects himself.

“Can you all be quiet for two minutes?!” Wooyoung straightens himself suddenly and grabbed onto the handle to balance himself, the knob pushing down and the door swinging open.

“Well would you look at that, it wasn’t even locked anymore,” Yunho deadpans.

“No wonder we couldn’t hear anything either,” Seonghwa sighs.

“It was locked earlier!” Wooyoung argues.

“You didn’t think to maybe check the door knob?” Hongjoong pinches the bridge of his nose.

“Be for real, if I did check it you all still would have made fun of me,” Wooyoung rolls his eyes.

“Can we go into the room already?” San cuts in.

“Actually, that’s a great idea! Let’s finish investigating the creepy-ass place so we can go home and find the Charlatan tomorrow!” Wooyoung enters the room first and turns the light on, immediately gasping after.

“What?! What happened?!” Mingi runs in after him and nearly bumps into Wooyoung while everyone else filtered in, the air around them going still as all of them realized who was in the room.

The sound of chains dropping to the ground echoed in the room as the figure who was once chained to the chair stood up. The Charlatan’s mask seemed to reflect the scene in front of them with blood dripping down either side of it and trailing along the curves of the mask’s artificial smile. Behind them was an older man who stood tall while clutching onto his cane that sported a noticeably fresh coating of blood. 

“How nice of you all to join us, finally,” the old man says. “Allow me to introduce myself,” he says. “My name is Lee Muyeol,” he taps on the handle and, with a short chuckle, he grins. “And I am the Charlatan,” he looked confident. Like he had just won.

But none of them were paying attention to him.

No.

Just the last lackey next to him. The one who, instead of wearing the usual white jumpsuits, sported a black uniform with an encircled A on their right shoulder.

“No…” Jongho’s face fell into despair, something that everyone caught onto. Jongho was clutching onto his wristwatch now, the face of the clock cracking from the pressure he was putting on it alone.

“The Ace of Spades, who knew they were so much closer than I thought? It was a bit hard to break this one in, but they always come around eventually,” Muyeol says. In that moment, Spades pulled out their signature knives, the steel glinting under the light. “Now, the Ace of Clubs was a problem, it was better for me to have just knocked him out and, well, Hearts is already debilitated. Diamonds, though, may he rest in peace,” Muyeol shook his head. “Deal with them for me, Ace of Spades.” Spades readjusted their grip on the knives before flinging both toward the group.

“Disperse!” Hongjoong shouted before everyone ran out of the room. At the flick of their wrists, the knives returned to their owner.

“Twine, god, (Y/N) is a genius!” Yunho marvels.

“Not the time, Yunho!” Everyone shouts.

“Huntsman, focus on the Charlatan,” Hongjoong says.

“Got it,” Seonghwa made distance and loaded his rifle.

“Everyone else, try to hold back,” Hongjoong finishes. Next to him, Jongho adjusts his watch.

“Cheshire! Go!” Jongho shouts. Wooyoung, though confused, nodded his head.

“(Y/N)? Hey, friend!” Wooyoung runs up to Spades first. “Wake the fuck up!” He grips onto his knuckles and right hooks them.

“I said to hold back!” Hongjoong shouts.

“They’ll live, they’re hard headed like that,” San pulls the shield off of his arm and flings it toward the Ace of Spades, Wooyoung catching it with a slight clang as he bashed the front side of it against them. Spades grabbed a hold of the shield and flung it to the side while grabbing onto Wooyoung’s collar. Seonghwa, meanwhile, released the breath he’d been holding and pulled the trigger.

“Spades,” Muyeol’s voice was commanding and Spades released Wooyoung, running toward Muyeol instead. Jongho adjusted his wristwatch.

“Don’t shoot!” He shouts, but he was a second too late.

“No!” Wooyoung lurched forward but he wasn’t fast enough. Instead, he watched Spades take the bullet instead. With a steadying step back, Spades gripped onto their shoulder before steeling themselves.

“Shit…” Hongjoong grit his teeth.

“Some friends you have, Ace of Spades,” Muyeol says. “They just keep hurting you. Beating you. Shooting you. Drowning you,” he looks to Hongjoong. “Abandoning you. Dying on you. You really should get your priorities in check,” he shakes his head.

“Shut the fuck up, old man!” Wooyoung shouts. Behind him, Jongho adjusts his wristwatch. 

“Cheshire, on your left!” Jongho shouts. Then, as knives lodged in the ground next to him, Wooyoung bounced back in time for San to grab ahold of his shield again.

“Sorry, (Y/N),” Mingi approached from behind, turning the pistol in his hand to hold onto the barrel while he slammed it down on their mask. Spades pivoted on their heel, bent down low, and swept their leg behind Mingi before pulling their knife out but, before they could throw it, a bullet knocked it out of their hand and Spades’ head whipped to the side, spotting Seonghwa gripping onto his rifle tighter than before. Spades rolled their shoulder out and made their way toward the rest of the group, knives at the ready.

“I guess we kind of are shitty friends,” Yunho says.

“Yunho!” Everyone shouts.

“What? Yeosang said that all the lackeys are still somewhat conscious, it’s like some hypnosis shit,” Yunho argues. Jongho adjusts his wristwatch.

“Hypnosis, right,” Jongho runs a hand through his hair. “Shadow! Keep Spades busy,” Jongho takes a step back and holds his head with his hand and Hongjoong speaks up.

“Jongho, you know something, don’t you?” Hongjoong asks. Jongho looks at him with an expression Hongjoong had never seen on him before, desperation. In front of him, Mingi grabs onto the Ace of Spades and drags them back, gripping onto their arm and slamming them onto the ground.

“(Y/N) is going hate us,” Yeosang cries.

“(Y/N) is going to kill us!” San corrects him.

“Oh, this is so fucked, this is so fucked!” Wooyoung panics. Once again, the knives just barely miss their mark but before Spades could recall them Mingi grabbed onto one of the twines and snapped it in half, all while the second one returned and lodged itself in his back. Spades pushed off of the ground grabbing onto Mingi’s shoulder with one hand and using the momentum to grab onto the knife in his back and pull it out. Jongho, meanwhile, adjusts his watch.

“Huntsman, aim for the second twine,” Jongho says. Hongjoong grabs his shoulder.

“Explain, Timekeeper,” he says firmly. Jongho is shocked into silence and, instead, he adjusts his wristwatch.

“I can’t,” he shakes his head. Then, the sound of a sharp break caught everyone’s attention as Mingi slid to a stop in front of them, clutching onto his arm tightly. San stepped up next, tossing the shield aside and cracking his knuckles.

“Alright, my turn,” he cracks his neck and charges.

“Blackguard, stop!” Jongho shouts.

“Nope, make me,” he catches Spades’ arm and twists it behind their back before kicking them down, but Spades recovers quickly.

“Look at him, he’s just watching,” Yeosang looks at Muyeol.

“We can’t target him, (Y/N) will just take the blows instead,” Seonghwa says.

“I know,” Yeosang mutters. The sound of material breaking caught their attention. The fissures in Spades’ mask were obvious even from their position. Yeosang, helps Mingi up from the floor and supports his weight. Then, something strange, Spades and San are caught at what was like a neck-and-neck finish.

“Shit, when’d you get this strong?” San breaks a sweat but keeps his force steady.

“San, listen to me,” your voice was muffled by the mask.

“Huh?”

“Don’t break concentration, dumbass,” you spoke. “You all came just in time, any longer I think I would have lost it,” you said.

“So, what, you acting?”

“Keep your voice down. If Muyeol suspects one thing the whole place goes down,” you say.

“So why’d you break Mingi’s arm then?”

“I didn’t, you idiot.”

“Then what did we hear?”

“Look at the knife over there, the second one I lost,” San glanced over quickly but, it was obvious, the handle had been crushed. “I’m not so evil I’d break your bones to prove a point, but I need you to make this believable,” you pushed against him and you both stumbled back. San only nodded and shook out his wrists. You pulled out two more knives and spun them in your hands, running toward him and plunging one into a non-vital area of his arm.

“Ouch.”

“Shut up. When you give the signal we all charge Muyeol,” you explained.

“Me?”

“Yup. Break the mask and those other two run. I told them not to tell the others,” San pushed your arm out of the way and you plunged the second knife into his other arm.

“Ouch.”

“Be serious, San,” you said curtly. “As soon as this mask falls off, Seonghwa will take the shot and you and those other two will grab onto Muyeol. He’s confident, but not invincible,” you explained.

“Got it, I trust you, who else knows?” He pushed away from you and picked up his shield.

“The obvious, of course,” he could hear your grin as you grabbed onto the shield and pulled it toward you. San kept his grip strong and he leaned in, other hand readying to uppercut. “Only one of us is crazy enough to come up with this stunt.”

“Jongho, calm down,” Hongjoong grabs Jongho’s hand before he could reach for his watch.

"I can’t,” he says.

“It’s okay.”

“It’s not,” Jongho shakes his head slowly at first.

“It is,” Hongjoong said firmer. “Jongho, we’re winning.” Jongho blinks once and, finally, the sound of the mask breaking in half and falling on the floor, followed quickly by a bullet loading into place, followed by Mingi and Wooyoung running forward, and finished by the sound of San’s shield slamming into Muyeol.

~

“So, basically, I told (Y/N) as soon as they backed out of the plan about it, I’ll admit, the plan was rough around the edges, but I knew it’d work out,” Hongjoong explains.

Now, a few hours and a couple of ex-vigilantes freed from mind control later, everyone sat in your still decimated apartment around the only thing still standing, your dining table. You had turned your TV on for some background noise, but the earlier fight had left visible breaks in the video on the monitor, but it was still largely watchable. And, of course, along the table were boxes of pizza well deserved.

“That’s… insane. And you agreed to do it?” Mingi asks.

“Sure, anything to catch the bad guy,” you jut your thumb to the side, Muyeol sat next to you with a large piece of duct tape sealing his mouth shut, the words ‘Bad Guy’ scrawled messily along the tape. “When I first heard the plan, I was kind of impressed so I wanted to see how it’d go. Plus, I knew there would be insurance if it really backfired,” you glanced at Jongho quickly before looking away.

“Wait, wait, let me get it straight just in case though,” San says. “So, (Y/N) backs out of the plan first?”

“Yes,” Hongjoong answers.

“Then, in front of us, you tell (Y/N) to go somewhere far away and secure?”

“Yes,” Hongjoong repeats.

“But, after we all passed out, you woke (Y/N) up and told them the actual plan?”

“Yes.”

“Which was basically that (Y/N) would walk right into the Charlatan’s trap, get captured, endure hours of torture, become the last resort, get beat up, and then catch the Charlatan?”

“Well, yes, but it was a little more complicated than that.”

“And what if it didn’t work?”

“Like (Y/N) said, we had insurance,” Hongjoong says.

“And what if the Charlatan actually broke them?”

“Did he?” Hongjoong asks while he looks at you.

“I still feel like me,” you shrugged.

“Reckless, that whole plan was just… reckless,” Mingi sounded stressed. “How’s your arm, (Y/N)?”

“Not bad, I just wish I had the brains to not let the bullet hit my dominant arm,” you rolled your eyes.

“The whole plan was dependent on two things, one is that (Y/N) had the mental fortitude to hold out, and the other is that we needed to ensure the Charlatan thought he won, both of which were satisfied,” Hongjoong says. 

“And now all that’s left is to turn the sucker in,” Wooyoung claps his hands. “Vigilantes will be loved again!” He says hopefully.

“Well… not exactly,” Yunho shakes his head. He points toward the TV.

“This just in, the reward for turning in rogue vigilantes has been significantly increased to garner more incentive among the general public. Please check the police department’s website to see the updated reward amounts,” the newscaster said. 

“Aww, man, what the hell?!” Wooyoung cries.

“We’ll just never be in a good light for them, huh?!” San laments.

“After all the shit we went through? Are they serious?” Mingi’s voice was dejected.

“They really just hate us, huh?” Yeosang mutters.

“Wait, I thought we had a deal with the police?” Seonghwa asks.

“There wasn’t a deal, I told professor Jung that we weren’t interested, so we never got any protection from the police force,” Hongjoong explained. “Which, in hindsight, maybe it would have been nice so we wouldn’t have had to deal with this headache, but I digress.”

“But maybe they’ll be kind when we hand over the serial killer!” Yunho bargains.

“No, we will definitely be arrested on the spot,” Seonghwa shakes his head. “Property damage, reckless endangerment, probably manslaughter, and who knows what else? We’re felons, Yunho.”

“Way to take the fun out of our victory,” Yunho frowns.

“It’s so shitty that this is how the city still treats us,” San grumbles.

“Again, if I may direct your attention to the TV,” Yunho cuts in.

“… but despite the increased rewards, many citizens were seen voicing their support for the vigilantes and even showing excitement in regards to the newest team-up of vigilantes we’d recently seen. Could this be the stepping stone to a new era?”

“Oh, I take it back,” San whistles. “I guess we did good, huh?” He grins.

“It’ll be slow, but I can see vigilantes being accepted once again,” Jongho says.

“Wait, but I still have a couple questions,” Mingi says. “About the new plan, I mean.”

“Fire away,” Hongjoong invites him to continue.

“Wait, yeah!” Wooyoung cuts in. “Why didn’t you tell any of us? I had to hear the details while (Y/N) beat the shit out of me.”

“Beat the shit out of you? Did you see me?!” Mingi points at himself.

“Wait, breaking the knife handle was so clever,” Seonghwa says.

“I know, right?” Mingi smiles. “(Y/N) was like ‘I’ll break the handle on this so pretend I broke you arm’ and I was like ‘metal, okay.’”

“I can’t believe I had no idea,” Jongho shakes his head.

“(Y/N) and I decided to keep it on a need to know basis to ensure that everything went smoothly. Like I said, we had to be certain that the Charlatan thought he won,” Hongjoong explains. 

“I didn’t even have a clue until Hongjoong told me right after I fired the first shot,” Seonghwa shook his head.

“Shit… now that’s saying something,” Yunho crosses his arms.

“Any other questions before we bury this hatchet?” Hongjoong asks.

“Yeah,” Yeosang rose his hand. “What is this insurance you keep talking about? Vigilante insurance? What does it cover?”

“It’s not literal insurance, I meant Jongho,” Hongjoong nods his head toward the youngest member.

“Oh, why?” Yeosang asks.

“I’m a time traveller,” Jongho says absently.

“Oh, fun,” Yeosang grabs a slice of pizza. “Wait… what the hell did you just say?!”

“I’m a time traveller,” Jongho points at his wristwatch. “With this device I can go back to any point in my timeline that I had it.”

“Yeah? Prove it then,” San insists. Jongho adjusts his wristwatch.

“On your left, Mingi,” he says without looking. Mingi moves to the right just in time for the overhead light to fall and just barely graze Mingi’s right arm.

“… whoa,” Mingi gasps. “You’re a time traveller.”

“Yes. Although I had no idea of the plan either.”

“Need to know basis,” Hongjoong repeats. “(Y/N) said that if all went wrong, then you’d fix it,” Hongjoong looks to Jongho.

“They’re right, I would have. I’ve been trying since forever now, actually, but this time I have a good feeling,” Jongho nods.

“Wait, forever? How long have you known how to time travel?!” Yeosang asks.

“A while.”

“How long is a while?” San asks.

“Who knows?”

“You know!” Yunho shouts.

“But do I really?”

“Yes!” Mingi’s turn. “Wait, now I need like a rundown on how time travel works.”

“Sure, I guess,” Jongho takes a deep breath and starts to explain all the details, maybe too many details, and after the first hour of the explanation, it was clear the others had had enough. “Then, using this specific metal, I was able to avoid the radar of the Sectors, long story, took forever to escape that prison, so—”

“Breaking news! The Charlatan has been turned in as of right now!” The newscaster’s voice was loud and, suddenly, everyone turned to the head of the table, seeing two chairs empty, and soon they were in front of the TV. “Just moment’s ago, the Ace of Spades came to the precinct with Lee Muyeol, father of the late Ace of Diamonds Lee Jeno, in hand and explained to the officers the situation. Despite earlier sightings, the Ace of Spades insisted that they found the Charlatan on their own and they turned him in even knowing that there were orders to have them arrested as soon as they were found. Now that’s vigilante justice! The Ace of Spades, identity still kept a secret, is now on their way to a highly secured prison made especially for vigilantes. More on this story as it is updated.”

“That crafty little…” Yunho trails off.

“(Y/N) took the fall for us…” Mingi says in awe.

“(Y/N) took the credit from us!” San corrects him.

“(Y/N) is in jail for us!” Yeosang gasps.

“I’m more concerned of when they slipped out,” Jongho mumbles as he removes his wrist watch. “I never thought that they’d do that for us,”

“But… we’re definitely breaking them out, right?” Seonghwa asks.

“Oh, yeah, definitely,” Hongjoong nods.

“What's the plan, boss?” Wooyoung smiles.

“Operation 2 of the…” Hongjoong waits for someone to finish his sentence.

“Team name! Time to brainstorm a team name! (Y/N) is just going to have to deal with whatever name we choose since they’re not here to add input!” Wooyoung says.

“Any ideas?” Hongjoong asks. Everyone’s silent.

“How about…” Jongho hums. “ATEEZ?” He offers. He is met with silence.

“What does that even mean?” San shakes his head in confusion.

“I was trying to incorporate the A’s on our uniform.”

“To be fair and transparent with you guys, the A is actually there because I wanted the discount, if I added a letter then I saved like 40% on the group order,” Yunho says.

“Really?” Seonghwa grimaces.

“I’m the Broker, I need to make a profit somehow,” Yunho scoffs, lighting the fuse for another entirely tangential debate.

“We still need a name, guys,” Hongjoong refocuses the topic and, as everyone begun to brainstorm possible ideas, the news continued on.

“Meanwhile, any vigilante still active or newly active are to be considered outlaws. As accordance to the vigilante ban, you must report anything and anyone related to vigilante justice,” the newscaster says.

And it was like a lightbulb had turned on.

~

Sitting inside your prison cell shouldn’t have been this peaceful. It was cold, bleak, the walls were white and the wall in front of you a perfect clear. Bulletproof, powerproof, lifeproof, nothing was getting through that glass. The only way in and out was the door to the side, highly secured, padded, locked, probably trapped. You didn’t want to try it. Ironically enough, this was the most relaxed you’d ever been. Your conscious had never felt more clear and a weight had been removed from your shoulders. Even if you’d never go back to your vigilante life, you did the right thing in the end. You turned in the monster that had been killing your friends and hurting much others. Maybe this would be a good way to start your retirement? Twenty years of reflection. You looked up at the ceiling. At least you had a safe place to stay, guaranteed three meals a day, and even a somewhat comfortable bed.

You didn’t know what to do next, you didn’t know much actually, but what you did know was that you owed so much to those eight boys. You couldn’t, in good faith, let them get arrested after that whole ordeal. If anyone was going to turn this whole Vigilante Ban around, it was them. And if so many timelines had been doomed because of you interference then maybe that was some kind of sign for you that it was time to hang up the costume for good. After your sentence maybe you’d move to a new country and start a new life, or something romantic like that. Your future was in your hands now and you couldn’t wait to see what those eight will do in the future, you were definitely going to keep tabs on them anyway.

“Stay in your place, inmate, don’t make any sudden movements or we will sedate you,” the guard suddenly orders. You looked at him without moving.

“Sure,” you responded. The door behind him opened and the last person you’d ever expected to see walked in. The guard excused himself and exited the room, locking the door behind him.

Professor Jung, meanwhile, sat across from you, with nothing but the glass wall separating you two.

“Well, well, so you’re the fantastic Ace of Spades,” he says. You rose an eyebrow.

“Expecting someone else, Professor? Someone more remarkable, no doubt,” you nodded.

“Oh, no, you’re perfect,” he smiles. 

“How’d you figure it out? I could’ve been anyone.”

“I’ve always known. Who do you think appealed the courts to keep your identity a secret?” He asks, not expecting an answer. He looks up at the camera. Within moments, it sparks and dies. You sat up now, more alert than before. “Don’t worry, that wasn’t me,” he says. “Friend of mine, though, I’m afraid I’m very limited in time, so I’ll make this quick,” he stands up and approaches the door, easily pushing it open at the swipe of his key card. You stand up now too, taking steadying steps back. “Relax, relax, I’m not here to hurt you, rather, I want to make you an offer,” he says.

“I’m listening.”

“Your little team up, I’m impressed, you’re a very good team player, but really, you’re always on the sidelines, aren’t you, (Y/N)?” He makes sure to emphasize your name. “The Aces and this new team of vigilantes, why do you allow your talents to go hidden for so long?” He asks.

“I’m afraid I don’t know what you mean, sir,” you reply.

“I want to hire you, (Y/N),” he says. “I want to have you lead an elite team I’m putting together, and I think you’ll be rather fond of your position,” he says. “You’ll have funding, of course. Provided by me through a third party to ensure both of our safeties,” he adds.

“Why me, sir?”

“Why you? I told you already. You’re perfect,” he repeats. “I should specify that these jobs you’ll be taking on, they’re not exactly stellar, they won’t be as clean as the Charlatan mission was,” he says.

“Ah, so it’s not that I’m perfect, I’m replaceable,” you corrected him.

“You could put it that way,” Jaehyun hums. “I’d say that you’re just good at your work. I’ve followed your movements for a while now, and after observing you in this operation, I had to give you this offer.”

“And if I say no?”

“Then you stay here, serve the rest of your twenty year sentence,” he shrugs. “Or, you come work for me.”

“What kind of jobs will I be doing?”

“Anything, but you’d mainly be working on assassinations,” he answers almost too casually. You narrowed your glance.

“I refuse your offer,” you answered quickly. “I do many things, but I don’t kill,” you say. Jaehyun lowers his glance.

“Oh, don’t be ridiculous, (Y/N). You’ve killed, many people, you just don’t want to accept it,” he says. You didn’t answer. “Plus, I think you’ll be interested in who your first target is. Don’t you want your closure?” He asks. You pressed your lips together. “Blackguard. He needs to be removed from the picture,” Jaehyun says. You remain silent. “Don’t play dumb, (Y/N), I know you know. Choi San killed Eric, don’t you want some justice for that?” He asks.

“I do,” you answer. “But not this way.”

“Hm, maybe I read you wrong then,” Jaehyun sighs.

“It’s too early to make any moves anyway,” you muttered. “Why do you want him gone?”

“Lets just say he didn’t just kill one person, (Y/N),” Jaehyun says with an elusive smile. “Of course, if Blackguard is off the table, I have a list of others instead. If you agree to work with me, I’m sure we’ll be a wonderful team,” he offers once again. You looked around your cell. “If you really think about it, it’s not as different as what you were doing before, only now you get a salary,” he says.

“Ah… what the hell, beats spending twenty years in here,” you sighed. “When do I start?”

“Immediately,” he says. “Any questions?” He asks.

“You still haven’t answered mine,” you say. “Why me?” Jaehyun looks to the ground for a moment.

“Have you heard of that saying? Keep your friends close and your enemies closer?” He asks. You nodded your head. He walks up to you and holds his hand out for a handshake. “I know you have me completely figured out, and I can’t afford to have you loose while I know this,” he says. You stared at his hand, thinking back to everything you’d learned over the course of the last few weeks. You did have him figured out. “So, what do you say, Spades? Do you actually accept my offer?” He asks. So, he knew you were lying. To be fair, you were planning on making a break as soon as you stepped foot out of this facility, but if your hunch was right then you knew better than to chance that.

“If I refuse… you’re going to kill me, aren’t you?” You ask. Jaehyun smiles. “Well then… I accept your offer, Loveholic.” Without another word, you shook his hand.

The Outlaws and the Ace of Spades will return in ‘Out of Sight.’

Ending Author's Note:

Hello, hi, hey, everyone! Holy shit, I finished this bad boy. After, drum roll please, 352 pages, and a grand total of 98,500 words (holy shit!) Without a Trace is officially finished!! I cannot believe that I actually finished it lmao but here we are with a completed fic! My second completed fic altogether (minus Covalence, which was released originally as a oneshot).

I started this fic like, what, two years ago? I know she's an oldie, this one, not old enough to be on the old blog but definitely old enough. So to those who stuck around, thank you! And to those who just joined, thank you again! I couldn't have finished this fic without you all and for that I'm thankful! I can't wait to tap into another ATEEZ fic soon, though, y'all know I love writing content for them!

But, regardless, thank you to all of you who supported this series! I am so thankful for all of you for taking time to read this little fic of mine. Who knows what I'll work on now lol, but I don't think Out of Sight will be released in a while, or at least until I complete another series, but y'all will see once it's out!

Until then, thank you. I hope you're all having a wonderful day, a safe night, and a fun summer!

Love Always, Crys

General Tag List: @stopeatread @bat-shark-repellant @raeincitizen @umbralhelwolf @yangsrose @kazooms @sadcoffeecritic 

Without a Trace: @naiify @sunsethw4 @leesalts @toxic-babexe 

If you want to be added to either tag list or removed just send me a reply to this post, and ask, or a DM and I’ll add you as soon as possible!

[weakherodiaries]

SPOILERS ALERT - Last Episode Reaction (Rant Part 2)

Tw: DEPRESSION, SUICIDE

Nah.. it turns out that for the sake of my blood pressure, I had to make two rant posts in a row.

Thank you, Seopass-jakkanim for writing and creating this wonderful work with Kim Jinseok-nim, but I'm sorry that I can't be lenient about the less pleasing parts. So here is my reaction and long rant part 2 (not that you two writers or anyone would care, but I had to vent). I also included the pleasing parts at the end of the post.

First, you developed the characters' backgrounds in such a meticulous and detailed way and now you've abandoned them, or so I heard, to move on to another work. I mean gosh GOSH. Thank you for creating them BUT NO, THANK YOU for abandoning their proper arc resolutions. What would Sehan / Forrest and the others do? What would Jihoon / Jimmy do? Why are you left them stranded? Who exactly is Seongje / Wolf?

I appreciate that you tried to highlight the issues on young males' mental health problems by writing one character as suicidal (YES IT WAS HINTED THAT BAEKJIN / DONALD WAS SUICIDAL THAT NIGHT, WELL GUESS WHAT, IT WASN'T WRITTEN REALLY CLEARLY, WAS IT? Hmph) and another as depressed (SIEUN /GRAY, WHO ELSE) BUT you don't do that in a swoosh kind of way. No matter if they're suddenly reunited with their crush or best friend or whoever. What the hell was that? Show them being encouraged, show them opening up.

You introduced juvenile crimes and adult crimes into the plot and it's good, but now it's come to nothing. Why were they inserted into the story in the first place? To emphasize Baekjin's cruelty? As if school violence cases alone isn't enough? You could've just highlighted the school violence aspect. Now that part of the plot is left unresolved.

I understand why you make Seokhyeon / Kingsley so obsessed and that he has now dragged Dongha and Seongmok into this, who didn't look very happy or pleased about it. I MEAN PLEASE LET THEM GO? I know that they did wrong but they were minors and this is fiction, fgs.

You make sure that friendship is one of the key themes of the story but after that death, everything comes to a standstill. Is that it? Is that the point? But why, when your characters are minors with their future ahead of them? Why deny Seokhyeon, Dongha and Seongmok future too, when this is fiction and you're in a hurry to wrap things up for Sieun, Suho and the others?

Well I must be fair that there are good things in the last episode, though. These are them.

Hakho / Jake who found closure with himself and moving on to take care of Gwangseok /Kenny

Suho being okay although it doesn't seem that he's gone back to school (again, a reality with many bullying survivors).

The kids went to meet Suho / Stephen together with Sieun to Donghae area. No school trip scene, though. Everything is cut.

Jihwan (Sieun's old friend) being surprised that the monster Baku/Big Ben is Humin and is all smiley.

And he was so shocked that the famous White Mamba a.k.a Baeksa (the White Snake of Legend) is none other than Sieun. BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH

Well there you go. It's been a wild ride and I still have some more stuff to post (lighter, happier ones). For now, ciao.

[andromedaexists]

The Death I Gave Him || Em X. Liu

★★★★★

TW: SELF HARM (ON PAGE, WARNED), SUICIDAL IDEATION, SUICIDE (PAST, MENTIONED), MAJOR + SIDE CHARACTER DEATH

I feel like I need to mention how this book was recommended to me

Now that we know this very relevant background: The Death I Gave Him is one of the most mind meltingly fucked up thing I've read in a while, and I've gotten into erotic horror as of late

It is a queer and sci-fi retelling of hamlet that managed to be even more fucked up than the original, something I didn't think possible. Did it hit the sci-fi mark? Yes absolutely as soon as Horatio was introduced that was a yes. Is it queer? 100% it is because idk how else to describe what happens with Hayden and Horatio. Is it Hamlet??? Absolutely it is Hamlet may not be present by name but good fucking lord is the story interwoven into the very fabric of this book.

This book is also very unique in it's presentation, which I fucking love omg. It starts with a prologue that's less of a prologue and more of an academic introduction into the rest of the book. You see, this book and the recounting of what happened that night in Elsinore Labs is a recreation by a student a hundred years later based on what remaining evidence they have of the events. This is really fucking cool!!! Please give me more books like this!!! Learning about the student and their motivations through footnotes in the book is so fucking awesome!! Seeing where they had evidence for what happened versus where they created a fictional account based on personality, probability, and remaining dialog…. Stunning. Truly.

I also quite loved the interspersing of mediums in this book. We have traditional fictionalized prose mixed in with excerpts from Felicia's article after the events mixed in with readings from Horatio's systems and message logs from Felicia's pager!

It's all just so brilliant.

I'm making the call here to add the spoiler warning because I want to get into the characters a bit, so just be warned [SPOILERS AHEAD]

So, as per Hamlet, the first thing to happen is the death of the King. This time, our King is Dr. Graham Lichfield. A renowned scientist and researcher working on the Sisyphus Formula.

His son is Hamlet, of course. He's known as Hayden in this book and we get to see his descent into madness mostly through other people's (or other AI's) eyes. He is a pathetic man with no spine, just the way Hamlet should be.

Hayden's Uncle is Charles, of course. He didn't work on research with Graham and Hayden, but he does run the labs more or less.

Then we have the security guard: Rasmussen. I think he's supposed to be a stand in for Rosencrantz & Gildenstern, but honestly I read Hamlet back in high school and though I watch it at least once a year (David Tennant is the best Hamlet, I will die on this hill), I don't really ever remember Rosencrantz & Gildenstern. So this is just an educated guess.

From here, we have the Xia's. Felicia Xia and her father, Paul Xia. They are security and they are our Ophelia and Polonius. The brother exists as well in Arthur Xia, however he is not physically in the building and does not show up until literally the last chapter.

That leaves one. Horatio. Also knows as the Elsinore Labs Operating System. He is the AI of the building that has slowly gained consciousness over Hayden's life. He is also intrinsically linked to Hayden after the man turns on his NeuralLink so we know a lot about what's going on in Hayden's head because that's where Horatio resides.

Of course another key player in Hamlet was his mother, and while she is present as a character, she is not physically in the building.

And why do I keep saying physically in the building? Well that's because after the death of Graham; Hayden, Charles, Rasmussen, Paul and Felicia Xia, and Horatio are locked into Elsinore Labs. That's right, this is a locked door thriller.

This book is everything to me, like I am genuinely just so…. god I can't even think of the words for it and I am writing this the day after I finished it!!!

I was on the edge of my seat the entire way through the book, especially when we get lines like these:

It was Hayden Lichfield who I remembered. Not because he was brilliant (though he was), but because he was afraid.

Hayden Lichfield was afraid of death, because he was afraid of failure, and he spent his whole life trying to reverse it.

Hayden was not like me, but he was afraid of the same things that I was, and his fear changed the world.

What we understand of Horatio is inextricably entangled in what we understand of Hayden.

I would haunt you very cautiously. Leave some vague messages alluding to my existential dread in your shower every morning. Nothing special.

The Sisyphus Formula wasn't enough. It was never enough.

Do you want to live because you want to live, or because you're afraid to die?

Then be afraid. I will take you afraid and alive over anything else.

He splits himself open, willing or not, digs fingers into himself, thinks maybe the edges of death are pressing in at the edges, maybe finally he will find repentance here at the end of all things.

Just because you've been a jackass doesn't mean you've messed everything up irrevocably. You'll have good days and shit days and eventually there'll just be days, you know?

I am feral for this book, I am foaming at the mouth. I need to be buried with this book when I die. This book is intrinsically a part of who I am not in the same way that The Teras Trials and Bloom are. It speaks to something in my very soul

Anyways! I think that's really all I can say on this book without writing a whole ass analysis of it (which I would gladly do if people wanted that), so I will leave it here!

[totacrbattery]

The weirdness of LilaCream in TotaCR

because good lord is it weird

tw: suicide, mental unhealthiness, angsty shit

So, Lilac and Yogurt Cream's relationship in totarun is really strange. I found it weird how Lilac is so tolerable of someone so lazy and uninterested in daily life like Yogurt Cream, and the way he just kind of...devotes himself to him without much thought to it is off-putting considering Lilac's emotional depth as a character. I understand Yogurt Cream in canon is Lilacs first real friend and the one person who makes him feel human after the Sneaky Sands Clan, (Abbreviated to SSC for the rest of this post) but I feel like their relationship wouldn't be all sunshine and rainbows for at least the beginning of it. I also really hate the "really rich lazy bitch" trope in fiction. I noticed Yogurt Cream isn't completely opposed to adventure in canon, seeking out treasures on his own on multiple occasions, so I tweaked the source of his "laziness"; depression. (Laziness in quotes because obviously people with depression aren't lazy.) In tota, Lilac and Yogurt Cream meet each other the same way they do in canon, via Plain Yogurt hiring him to assassinate Yogurt Cream. However, Lilac is coming directly from a place of emotional and physical abuse (because let's be real for a minute here, if you're raised in a clan of assassins and killing for money is all you have ever known, you are bound to be a little fucked up in the head) and he doesn't understand the concept of wealth and luxury until he meets Yogurt Cream, who is completely and utterly miserable living a life where he doesn't need to work for anything.

Now would be a good time to mention a few things.

I promise I'm not a sadist (this part is a joke)

I headcanon that Lilac is on the spectrum. With his sheltered childhood and no concept of true human emotion, I think Lilac would an extremely difficult time understanding why Yogurt Cream is so miserable despite having everything someone could ask for. This lack of understanding caused a majority of their arguments, and of course neither of them understood the real messed up state of Lilac's mind and thought processes.

Because of their horrendously clashing backgrounds, Lilac and Yogurt Cream fight constantly. Always with words, never physical, unless you count their very last argument where Yogurt Cream finally snaps, dramatically grabs Lilac by his collar, and tells him just how depressed he is, how miserable his brother and his father make him, and despite their constant bickering, how real and full of life Lilac makes him feel. From this argument forward, Lilac begins to notice the signs of his rapidly declining mental health, making him more wary of his words. Their relationship begins to heal, and they develop feelings for one another.

However, because I am incapable of making anything joyful, Yogurt Cream is pushed over the edge mentally by his brother, inevitably taking his own life before they could ever tell each other this.

Plain Yogurt never intended for his brother to die. (in that way, at least.) That was never his end goal, and in a last ditch effort to selfishly save his reputation, he framed Lilac for murder. As punishment, Lilac was to be banished from Yogurca.

The only thing Lilac would lose from his punishment was full contact with Scorpion, who basically raised him as an older sister. And four months after Yogurt Cream's death, Lilac is recruited by Red Velvet to join the NAE.

Don't worry; Lilac avenges Yogurt Cream, and he even shows up towards the end of the story.

[sertralineishere]

Welcome to Eucalyptus’s Tumblr page

This is a pinned page that any visitors to my account should read before scrolling down.

You can call me: Ain/Eucalyptus

About pronouns: they/them

Gender: ...Whatever you think I am

Aroace || accept fictional shippings but personally/real life do not want any form of romance || Bilingual || INTP (I swing between INTJ and INTP lol) || >16

Interested fandoms:

Some Roblox games(guts and blackpowder: every NPC but especially Jean and unnamed Prussian Officer💙)/death penalty/Nullxiety/creatures of sonaria/pressure)

fandoms: TMC (the mandela catalogue)*, Death Penalty^, Nullxiety*, creatures of sonaria*, pressure

keys:

*: read related fanfictions and fanarts but do not participate in creating them

^: fanart and fanfiction contents on based on personal guesses and assumptions of the game (since official has not posted any further information)

About each fandom:

G&B:

Okay this is all my personal view you do you, I’m just making clear what I like and what I don’t like.

I don’t care that much as long as they r not too ridiculous. Highlight warning that I do NOT take head canons that involves relating characters background stories (like bro they are npcs who the official couldn’t care less about, sad but the truth. I only follow the canon and SOME fanon depends😉)

As well as creating female original characters in this fandom. It’s fine as long as she is a civilian - anachronistic/historically inaccurate, simple as that.

Roblox Death Penalty:

Well now the whole entire thing is my head canon now lol.

Personally call the screen the Announcer/Simon/Damien(<- name from other creators in the fandom!)

Pressure:

I don’t know mate…I just play the game that’s all.

Interested areas/fields:

Philosophy, psychology, medicine, psychiatry

Things I dislike:

Politics related

Racism (BIG HATE, don't let me encounter this)

Homophobia (any disrespect or prejudice toward

Inappropriate nsfw (18+ CONTENT especially)

(pls be nice and polite under my any of my blogs!)

Other small stuffs:

First of all, I respect everyone.

However, if you are a self shipper who do not put on the right tag for your art please do not follow I won't care if you put on the right tag but if you don't I will take that as you do not consider other people's feelings. It’s something I personally don’t enjoy.

I also typically don’t like head canon that consider characters to be somehow family-associated. I don’t mind most of the ships unless they are too ridiculous.

TW content:

g0r3 content (crimson drawings)

expression of mental states (might be dark, depressing)

use of bright vibrant colours (sometimes) can cause pain in eyes or further body pain

My tags for my random shits and thoughts:

#sertralineisthinking

My tag for any stuff posted by me:

#sertralinesplace

Other than this, have fun!

[keepthisholykiss]

La Ruta is a tragic play written by Isaac Gomez that was originally performed in 2018. I am going to include photos from the original performance in 2018 as there aren’t production photos from the one I saw tonight and I want to tell you about this phenomenal play. TW below for femicide and death. Full TW list is on the website for the play and my longer explanation is below (no explicit spoilers)

La Ruta tells a fictionalized version of the very real and raw story of femicide happening in Ciudad Juárez in Mexico. The play takes place from the late 1990s until the early 2000s. These femicides still run rampant today however the time period highlighted in the play is around the origins of Casa Amigas and the Ni Una Mas movement which sought to bring awareness to this issue and make change in the horrifying reality of the missing and murdered girls. The image below is of the real-life pink crosses that are displayed to represent the women who have been taken, killed, and assaulted. Pink crosses can be found in many different locations and used to mark those lost to femicide.

La Ruta tells the tale of complicated grief, loss, and fear through the lens of fictionalized versions of real people’s stories. The playwright made it a point to represent real voices of those impacted by femicide and you can feel it in every piece of the writing. It is a raw story with screams, singing, sobs, and searching for answers to questions nobody should ever have to ask. Each of the characters represents a role in the entangled web of death and destruction within this horrifying reality.

As someone who grew up during this time period and was raised by friends and their families who had direct or indirect experiences like this I found the story realistic and important to hear and see. It’s a beautifully put together play and the cast we saw was phenomenal. If you grew up in Spanish-speaking households crying over the death of Selena and getting hit with your mom’s friend’s chancla then this is a story made for you. And if you didn’t grow up with any of those things then this play is not for you but is a story you need to hear. If you are ever able to read, see, or just watch this play online please do it is worth every moment. To learn more about the play you can visit the website for the rights and background here. And to learn more about the unsolved and horrific femicides in Ciudad Juárez you should read books on the topic and hear stories from people in Mexico. Some well-known books on the topic include Making a Killing: Femicide, Free Trade, and La Frontera by Alicia Gaspar de Alba, The Daughters of Juarez by Teresa Rodriguez, and If I Die in Juárez by Stella Pope Duarte. 

[dearclem]

[ davika hoorne, cis woman, she / her ] - was that KAEO "CLEM" DUPONT i saw by the lighthouse today? i heard that the TWENTY NINE year old who has been in nightrest for HER ENTIRE LIFE and works as an AUTHOR & PODCAST HOST has a reputation of being EMPATHETIC, but also IMPRUDENT. they reside in LOW POINT & people in town usually associate them with  EARLY MORNING FOG CONCEALING THE GROUND, THE SCENT OF FRESH FLOWERS AND OLD BOOKS, & WISHING UPON SHOOTING STARS. let’s hope the killer doesn’t go after them next.   ╱ pinterest. dossier. podcast info.

tw below: brief mentions of illness & maternal death. brief hints of abuse. tw pinterest: things related to mental illness.

BRIEF BACKGROUND!

born to a single mother who eventually passed away due to illness when clem was 5.

during the last two years of her mother's life, she had been working to convince clem's father to come back to town so clem didn't need to go into a home once her mother passed and, after being told of the small savings and life insurance policy he'd be the beneficiary of for the sake of raising clem, he did just that.

however, the love of her mother's life wasn't the same man she'd known ( or thought she did ). he had a temper, drank too much, and enjoyed gambling despite being horrible at it.

every loss was clem's fault and he made her pay for it daily; something that didn't stop until her 8th grade year when he sold her off to the grandma he'd been in debt to. surprisingly, that's exactly when her life finally started to look up.

the grandma cared for her as if she were her own grandchild, and clem never wanted for anything. she was fed, hugged, praised, helped; clem's heart was warm and, slowly, she began to blossom from her shell.

together with her grandma, she got through high school, the breakup with her high school sweetheart, her college degrees ( yes, she got two ), the birth of her podcasts, and the publishing of her first series.

at age 27, her grandma inevitably passes away and leaves her fortune to clem who, to this day, hasn't touched a lick of it. after the funeral, clem used the money she'd made from her book to relocate from stoughton estates to low point, where she's been ever since.

MESSY HEADCANONS!

--- participated in track throughout high school after being convinced by her grandma to try out rather than sticking to running around the neighborhood.

--- her nickname ( & preferred name ) clem was given to her by her mother who only ever seemed to crave clementines throughout the length of her pregnancy.

--- because of her home life after losing her mother, clem threw herself into studying and escaped via books, which is where her love of the latter came from and why she was always one of the top in the class when it came to her grades.

--- in usual clem fashion, after her relationship ended, she threw herself further into her studies & duel majored in creative writing ( focusing on fiction ) and psychology; received a bachelors in both and continued her education to get her masters in psychology, mainly to have as a fall back in case the whole author / podcast host thing doesn't work out.

--- speaking of her being an author, she uses what she's learned throughout her psychology degree to help weave the psychological thrillers she writes ( think like the type of books lucinda berry and freida mcfadden write, but clem's characters are always poc ).

--- as for her podcasts, she has two. brief descriptions can be found below, but more in depth information can be found at the link mentioned at the top.

httpfear, which is posted every wednesday: she reads mini horror stories; some are fictional that she's written, some are submitted to her by listeners, some are urban legends, etc. basically if it's horror related, it may be discussed.

dear clem, which is posted every monday & friday: it's an advice podcast, essentially. she centers each episode around a handful of questions sent in by her listeners that relate to a specific topic and she offers her opinion. she tells her own related stories, if she has any, discusses psychological and/or philosophical thoughts or theories that relate to said topic, etc.

--- has a siamese kitten named dao ( which means star ) and she loves her dearly.

--- i just realised i haven't really talked about her personality much, so i'll touch on that now. she's a soft lil cinnamon roll who will go above and beyond for literally anyone; is loyal to a fault; is always willing to offer an ear and/or shoulder, even if you were to show up on her doorstep at an ungodly hour; the best at keeping secrets; can be a lil' on the naive / gullible side and won't normally question anything you tell her unless she already knows different or has multiple reasons not to believe you ( and i really do mean multiple ); is deathly afraid of abandonment which is partly why she's as agreeable as she is and whenever she thinks abandonment is something she's going to experience, she can seem like a different person.

--- whereas writing is her preferred art style, she also enjoys painting and sewing. she has many of her paintings hung throughout her living space and the majority of her scrunchies / hair bows are sewed by her. probably gives them as gifts to her friends and random strangers, too.

--- flowers / plants are things she loves immensely, so don't be surprised when she stops to admire them whenever they're around. a very good person to hang around if you realise you haven't taken the time to "stop & smell the flowers" yourself in life.

--- also, given her love of flowers and her obsessive need to have fresh ones throughout the entirety of her living space, her signature scent is very flowery. the type of flower(s) can change depending on season, time of day, and event ofc but. if you get a sudden whiff of flowers, you'll almost always find clem nearby.

--- very quiet, in every aspect: the way she lives, the way she talks, the way she walks, etc. piggybacking off the aforementioned, would definitely be the type who could sneak up on just about anyone, if only her scent didn't give her away.

--- is very sensitive to the energies of others. given the years spent with her father, she's always looking for tells and notices small changes in the demeanor of others. always blames herself when it changes, too.

--- writes under a pen name. the timeline, mostly for myself, of her books is: published her first book during her senior year of university at age 22, which was part of a 4-book series, with one book being published each year ( she'd been working on them since high school ). published the last book of the series at age 25. took a break to enjoy time with her grandma and do the whole graduation thing with her masters. released a stand-alone book a year later, then her grandmother's health declined & all discussions of future books were put on hold. once her grandma passed, publishing a new book continued to stay on the back burner given the growth of her podcasts. for now, she has no intention of doing anything book related, much to the dismay of her agent, but mayhaps these bodies turning up on the beach is churning the gears? who knows!

[merrock]

CHARACTER INFORMATION

face claim: Josh Hutcherson

full name: Edward Cole Mackenzie

nickname(s) / goes by: Eddie

pronouns & gender: he/him, cis man

sexuality: heterosexual

birth date: July 14th, 1992

birth place: Merrock, ME

arrival to merrock: Merrock native!

housing: historical downtown

occupation: tech services

work place: The Memorial Library

family: parents (Marianne & George Mackenzie)

relationship status: single

PERSONALITY

Eddie is a little bit of a disaster. He was pretty sheltered growing up and it shows - he wants to be good at talking to people, but he just generally isn't. He stumbles over his words a lot (unless he's talking about something that interests him, then good luck getting him to stop rambling) and avoids eye contact unless he absolutely has to. While it sometimes reads as shy, more than anything, he just comes across like he's still figuring out how to speak to another human being. But under the awkwardness, he's a pretty friendly, pretty steamroll-able guy. Probably hasn't stood up for himself a day in his life.

WRITTEN BY: Kirby (she/her), cst.

BACKGROUND / BIO

triggering / sensitive content: death tw, child loss tw & anxiety tw

Eddie was born and raised here in Merrock, to a pair of very loving but very protective parents. They'd lost their first child when he was very young, so when Eddie came around, they overcorrected a bit with him. Being homeschooled up until middle school, he grew up pretty lonely and awkward, two traits that very much carried into his adulthood. Once he finally did start attending public school, and later on college, he continued to primarily keep to himself, buried in schoolwork or whatever extra curriculars he could get into. It was just easier than talking to anybody new.

That continued even as he got older, eventually graduating from the local community college with a computer science degree and getting a job at the library in town, which sort of felt like a dream come true for him. Working behind a screen in a place where it was basically frowned upon to talk to other people? Perfect. With a relatively steady income, he moved out of his parents' place when he was twenty-three, something they were both very much protested the entire way. Even with a very small selection of friends, it was still embarrassing to be a grown adult with a curfew.

Since then, he's done a little better for himself - really, really a little. He's started going out a little bit more, when his social anxiety allows, and he found a relatively comfortable friend group. They mainly interact as fictional characters in DnD, but hey, it was better than he was doing a few years ago. He can even maintain eye contact with baristas now (sometimes)!

[yourbestbuddie]

Fictober — Day One - ORIGINAL WORK

<< I thought I’d join this year to get me in the mood for daily writing. I’ll probably go in between fandom and original works. >>

Prompt— “it’s not too late, let’s go.”

TW: Character Death, mentions of blood, mentioned gore, decapitation

“It’s not too late,” a voice said behind him. Oliver turned to see Casper, standing over him. The look of panic that had crossed his face not but twenty minutes before remained, set in stone. Only this time there were splatters of blood covering the left side of his tanned face. “Let’s go. Please. We can get out of here. Winnie dragged Theo out, I saw them. We can get out too.” Casper’s words came out in a choked fashion, and Oliver’s mind was blank for only a few seconds before they registered.

Winnie and Theo. Only Winnie and Theo.

“Cas, you forgot Max and Isabel. Where are they?” Oliver asked. He tried to get to his feet, but swayed and would’ve fallen if Casper hadn’t grabbed him.

“Ollie…. You don’t remember?”

“Cas,” Oliver responded, his words shooting venom. Casper’s eyes were watery, shining with tears that had yet to fall. Oliver gripped Casper’s upper arms with a certain intensity. He needed what Casper was going to say to not be true. “Cas, where did they go? They got out. They got out, I need them to have gotten out.”

“Ollie, I--” Casper looked away, emotion taking over the panicked look on his face. “Ollie, please we need to get out of here.”

“No, no, no.” Oliver shook his head, mostly mumbling to himself. The library didn’t even look like a library anymore. The shelves and books were but piles of lumber and scattered scraps of paper. This had once been Oliver’s favorite place. He was standing where their tutoring sessions had once been-- three days a week which Oliver had originally been so distraught by the thought of. “Where are they?”

“Ollie, this isn’t my blood.” Casper’s words held a whole new meaning that Oliver didn’t want to figure out, but knew in an instant.

“No.” Oliver hadn’t meant for it to come out sounding as a strangled gasp, but it had. Max couldn’t be dead, he just couldn’t. Oliver shook his head and pushed himself from Casper’s grasp. He stumbled away as Casper tried to grab him again, crying out in a warning. Oliver didn’t care. He didn’t care if the Thing was still alive, if it was still lurking in the shadows of the broken library.

Oliver climbed through the piles of rubble. He’d never been the biggest fan of books, especially the ones he’d been forced to read in AP Lang and Lit. There were plenty of people who were enjoyers of the older fiction, who read them and defended them, but Oliver wasn’t one of them. However, seeing the distorted remainders of these books on the floor struck him in a painful way.

He scanned the area, looking for the pale freckled face of his best friend. Or a head covered in smooth black hair. Anything that would give him any indication of where his friend was.

Halfway across the space it dawned on him that he hadn’t just lost his friend, but Cas had lost his sister. His twin, no less.

He felt sick to his stomach. The same feeling that he’d gotten when he and Max had witnessed the police lifting Josh Hankin’s body from the depths of the quarry and when he’d seen Benny Harrison’s head fall from that washing machine in the Laundromat. It was a terrible feeling. He remembered Sammy Patterson telling him about that same feeling during their tutoring sessions the previous fall, when he’d discovered his own friend’s body.

It didn’t cross his mind, why Casper wasn’t following him.

Then he tripped, ripping his thoughts from his brain as he tumbled, floor bound.

He pushed himself up, and then froze, when his gaze met the deep brown eyes of his friend’s. Except this gaze was cold, empty. Lifeless.

It was then that Oliver went mute, screaming, crying out, but no sound was heard. It was like when he turned on the TV but kept it on mute, because all he wanted was something to have on in the background, but not a distraction.

He scrambled to his feet and ran to where his friend laid. Isabell was nowhere to be seen and a memory started to poke through from earlier in the day, one that he’d briefly forgotten after being knocked out a few minutes before. A cold breeze, a cloudless sky, an almost empty field, and a pile of forget-me-nots, enough to cover a body.

He shoved the thought from his mind as he collapsed next to Max, taking him up in his arms and sobbing as he clutched the body to his chest. He couldn’t remember crying this hard before. He doesn’t think he’d like to again. It was painful, if he was crying enough to not make any sound.

He didn’t like silence, but it engulfed him as he sat in the corner of the library, completely unaware of his surroundings.

He was crying so hard that the tears blurred his vision. So he shut his eyes.

Crying would be his downfall.

He died in the place that had once been his favorite, surrounded in silence, and clutching the body of his best friend.

He should’ve listened when Casper told him to leave.

These are my OCs in a story that I have like 25K words for so far, so I think fictober will help me write more of them (:

[murfpersonalblog]

All of this, thank you! I'm constantly baffled by the hypocrisy of book fans who hate the show cuz of Lestat's "character assassination," but love the movie. Like.... Were we watching the same film? 🤨 Lestat is CLEARLY not painted in a good light--not by Louis, and not by the film itself.

I've talked about the Villain!Lestat parallels, where Lestat is explicitly shown to be a horrible person in IWTV, who has no RESPECT for the living or the dead. Sure, Louis loves him anyway--Louis has GARBAGE taste in men! XD Claudia telling Louis to meet vampires WORTHY of his love rings so true--Lestat hadn't EARNED Louis' love in IWTV yet. So it drives me crazy when VC fans jump the gun by preemptively projecting too much credit onto Lestat as is is PRESENTLY, in IWTV, with the man he becomes AFTERWARDS, in the rest of the VC. Like, HELLO: Louis was mad at Lestat in IWTV, just as Anne Rice was angry with her own husband when she wrote IWTV in the first place--Lestat's not meant to be seen positively YET, y'all, stop.

I've talked about Ep5's drop scene parallels with the film--they BOTH show Lestat dropping Louis almost to his death, but it hits different. Book/film!Loustat had only just met, so the violence is par for the course with campy Gothic Horror. Lestat didn't seduce Louis--it was just accept vampirism or I'll kill you, period. I call book/film!Loustat "Vegas Married"--they were strangers, who struggled to get along from the very beginning. But AMC gave Loustat an ACTUAL courtship--they're married, so it's more of a tragic Gothic Romance. I love what AMC did with Ep5, cuz the emotional impact of the Lestat's violence is ELEVATED--you feel more for Louis as a HUSBAND who is being beaten by his spouse, than a drunk being jumped by a STRANGER.

As for trauma porn vs representing black struggle, I agree that AMC was VERY intentional about Ep5. IMO people have blown Ep5 WAY out of proportion.

(Under the Read More cut:) "And to see white IWTV fans sidestep this entirely back during the final stretch of season one to complain that having Lestat (who canonically abused Louis in other ways) assault Louis somehow ruined LESTAT’S character and THEIR SHIP. While completely sidestepping what themes they were intending and got across (you know like genuine media literacy) and the onscreen brutalization that happened without warning is disgusting.... White fans being disingenuous and asking Louis to fade into the background until Lestat (the white character) becomes the focus for TVL. While constantly mocking and ignoring the concept of IPV towards black people makes the point for me as to why this was an interesting and purposeful direction to head in. IPV is so ignored that when IWTV includes it, fans went out of their way to argue whether or not their favorite white boy would DARE TO DO THIS, and not why the writers did this and what they were attempting to say. IPV and queer victims of abuse are so ignored that after this happened people started making posts talking about APOLOGIZING TO A FICTIONAL LESTAT for writers “slandering” him!" @pretty-weird-ideas

Precisely. 👏 Some fans must have selective amnesia, to act like AMC!Louis is the first black person Lestat's terrorized, or that IWTV as a franchise has shown being brutalized. It's actually pretty interesting, cuz UNLIKE the book/film, AMC actively AVOIDS showing violence against most other black people, while STILL highlighting black struggle and racism. Like, we're TOLD about a lot of awful stuff that's happening--straight out the gate Ep1 has Bricktop raped/sodomized by the racist Alderman, but we don't SEE it, and there's no TW for it either. IIRC, other than Louis & Claudia, Charlie is the only DEAD black person shown in S1--although Claudia killed him, it's Lestat's disrespectful treatment of Charlie's body (and hers--the 1st of 3 times we see Lestat put her in a chokehold as literal child abuse) that made Claudia start to hate Lestat.

Even during Ep3's race riots, blink and you'll miss black people being hurt. (Claudia's mean auntie on fire is faceless, which is SUPER interesting considering how high yellow Claudia is, and her white "Uncle" Les being so believable). Louis focuses on the buildings on fire more than any people being killed--a true testament to his own effed up perspective and vampiric/capitalist nature. LOUIS doesn't see the violence done to black people (guilty conscience much? 💯), so we the viewers don't either. Ep5/6's focus is on LOUIS, and HIS pain & suffering--HIS body. AMC handles violence VERY uniquely.

Conversely, look at the movie's GRATUITOUS violence done to black people--especially black women.

In QUICK succession, the film goes from: 1st Act: Louis' first night in a coffin > Loustat having a threesome/killing a black tavern wench > DPDL plantation > Louis ALMOST biting house slave Thandy Newton (then rats) > interlude killing the rich white Evil Doer old lady & her boytoy (RIP her puppies) > (then birds) > whole bunch of slaves killed by Lestat/Loustat found in the river > slaves try to exorcise the demons with voodoo (Lestat insultingly calls their prayers "that NOISE!" as if they're the problem 🙄) > Louis kills Thandy Newton (the scene deliberately looks like rape) & carries her corpse telling the slaves "yes, your Master is the Devil!" > Pyromaniac du Lac burns down the plantation (Lestat whines about it) > Lestat kills the two black prostitutes (which TVL later retcons that since they were killing their johns, Lestat killing them was noble 🙄 and compare this to the treatment of AMC!Bricktop vs history's IRL Bricktop fighting/killing her johns) > 2nd Act: cue Claudia, who interestingly is only shown killing white people. The first THIRD of the movie is a RELENTLESS BARRAGE of black brutalization. The film actually goes out of its way to make killing black women look SEXY & FUN.

Meanwhile, AMC is intentionally VERY explicit about the assault done to Louis (and Claudia) being TERRIBLE to look at.

Daniel (a white man) is the audience surrogate, and his callous attitude towards seeing Claudia's SV diary pages represents the AUDIENCE'S perspective, the white gaze that actually SALIVATES over seeing black men & women be raped, assaulted & killed--which is why I'm GLAD Louis made Daniel seizure, eff him! (And what happens when the black father Louis tries to defend his black daughter's privacy? He gets SLAPPED IN THE FACE by a white man, while the brown man Armand holds Louis back!) AMC knows what they're doing, and so far it's been masterful work IMO. They offscreened what Bruce did, but I'm VERY curious to see how they'll handle Claudia's death in S2, and what Armand does to brutalize HER black body.

Like come on y'all, the first time we see Lestat on the show, he's talking to Miss Lily (a black prostitute) about black CONSUMPTION: cinnamon & caramel & FOOD. (And her death is offscreened, too.)

Like, NGL on one hand the show's violence doesn't really faze me. This is a show about VAMPIRES after all. Lestat punched a HOLE through a PRIEST'S HEAD, Louis ripped some dude's whole JAW off, Claudia spat out some guy's effing eyeball, the Alderman's intestines were dangling out of his torso, Antoinette got her finger cut off, etc.... The Body Horror is THERE, front & center, not a TW in sight. It's the subtleties that get me reeling--this whole effing show needs a TW for the non-gory/violent ways they depict the brutality of racism.

Every single instance of racism on this show boils my blood--Ep5 was just one more coal on the already raging fire! I've discussed how Louis symbolizes an entire culture of violence done to black people by white folk, well before Lestat's Ep5 IPV, through NUMEROUS instances of disrespect done to his black body that viewers seem to have casually/conveniently overlooked.

Louis being a victim of IPV and racism is not the show glorifying violence done to black people, but highlighting the reality of black brutalization.

Trauma Porn vs Representing Black Struggle in IWTV

TW: Domestic Violence (Focus) Rape (mentioned 1x)

Spoilers for the IWTV AMC Series

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