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machine-gun-casie · 4 years

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tavern music

synopsis: corpse hears tavern music coming from your room (gn!reader)

warnings: rpf, reader gets cheated on, kind of unrequited feelings, mostly hurt/comfort and physical affection tho (what im trying to say is that this is mostly self indulgent)

wc: 1.7k

a/n: havent written in a while but i found this in my arsenal, fixed it up a bit and viola. original plans for this was definitely something longer that would end with them being together but im not up for writing rn. been feeling really shitty lately and ive been needing something like this in my life. hope u guys like it ♡

He couldn’t hear it at first. His headset was on and everyone was being so loud on the discord call. When he started the stream, he really thought it was gonna be a long one. But he’s only two hours in and he’s ready to get the hell off because something was definitely wrong.

“Corpse?” His name being spoken finally broke him out of his trance, he only hummed in response. “You’ve been really quiet. Are you sure you’re up for another game?”

“Actually,” he starts as he closes a few tabs, “I think I’ve gotta go. Today was fun, though. Thanks for having me guys.”

After a chorus of ‘goodbye’s and ‘see you later’s, Corpse disconnected from the discord call. “Thank you guys for being here,” he addressed the chat, “sorry I’m ending so early today. I promise I’ll make it up to you next time. Take care of yourselves. Later.”

After hanging up his headset and getting out of the chair he’s been sitting in for far too long, Corpse made the short trek to your room.

You had only been roommates for less than four months, but Corpse could confidently say that you have become one of his closest friends. Getting a roommate was the last resort that he never wanted to actually resort to. But alas, medical bills were piling up and youtube and music don’t make half as much money as people think they do. So cutting rent in half was the best plan he could come up with. He did have an extra guest room that no one ever stayed in. Of course having someone move into his personal space was terrifying to him. He didn’t just want to post an ad on craigslist or something. So he asked a couple trusted friends to ask a couple trusted friends… And that’s when you came in.

You were the trusted friend of a trusted friend of a trusted friend. When you met, you didn’t make a comment about his voice. Your face sure as hell showed your surprise but you didn’t say anything. To Corpse, this meant one of two things. You either knew who he was but didn’t want to freak him out, or you didn’t know about his online persona and were just genuinely shocked by his voice. It only took a few minutes of knowing you to know that it was the latter. Thank god. You were like anyone your age with social media. You had a few accounts, followed a few people, but mostly used it to stay in contact with friends.

It only took you guys a week to realize you had way too much in common. After many a late night when he wasn’t streaming, and many an early morning when he was just done streaming, you two became inseparable. Nothing could keep you apart.

Except for one thing.

You had a boyfriend.

There was nothing wrong with your boyfriend, per se. Just the fact that he was your boyfriend and Corpse was not.

Yeah, Corpse definitely had feelings for you.

But right now, feelings didn’t matter when he could hear tavern music coming from your room.

He knocked lightly and pushed the door open slowly. “y/n? Can I come in?”

No response came, just sniffles and sobs. The lack of refusal on your part gave him the courage he needed to open the door wider and step into your room. He had only been in your room a couple of times since you had moved in. But he had never been in a room that gave off the feeling of a person so well.

You were curled up on your bed, facing your open laptop screen and the tavern music coming from its speakers. With every sob shaking your chest, Corpse felt his heart break. “y/n,” he murmured softly, “what’s wrong?”

“It’s not working.” Came your reply, heavy with tears. “You said it would make you feel like you're going on an adventure but I still feel like crap.”

“What happened?” Corpse asked as he sat down on your bed, facing you. You slowly sat up and crossed your legs at your ankles in front of you.

“He-” You sighed heavily. “He cheated on me.”

“What?”

“He cheated on me -has been cheating on me- with my best friend. My little brother found out.” You groaned and dramatically dropped your head onto Corpse’s thigh. His hand immediately came in contact with your cheek as he brushed a few stray tears away.

There was rarely any physical contact between you and Corpse. Sometimes you’d give him a high five, sometimes he’d give you fist bump. And there was that one time you came up behind him at the grocery store and hugged his arm to your chest. You immediately whispered something along the lines of ‘creep won’t leave me alone’ followed by a loud ‘hey babe!’

Corpse could barely admit to himself how much he liked that.

But this? This felt good. Corpse’s large warm hand on your face somehow made you want to cry more but in a good way. The tenderness with which he held your face made your heart squeeze as it remembered moments like this with your boyf- ex boyfriend. But then it remembered your brother’s words.

“Hey, what’s up?” You spoke as you answered his call. Your brother wasn’t much of a caller, so it made you worry.

“Hey, where are you right now?”

“I’m home, why?”

“y/n… There’s something I gotta tell you.” He sighed and you could clearly hear the guilt.

“Did you break my DS!” It was your first thought as you had given it to him the last time you had seen him. “Dude! I’ve had that since I was seven!”

“No no, I called about something else.” He cut you off mid-whine. “But also I did lose the pen.” You huffed out a sigh of frustration but stayed silent so he could tell you what he wanted to tell you. “I saw your boyfriend at the park today.”

You furrowed your eyebrows. “And?” How did this warrant a phone call?

“He was with Bob.”

When you had met your best friend, your brother was only a toddler. He had decided that her name was Bob, so it stuck. You always called her Bob, she was saved as Bob in your phone, your whole family called her Bob. But you still didn't understand. Why was he calling you to tell you that your boyfriend and your best friend were at the park?

“Why are you calling me about this? You know that they’re friends, right?” You let out a chuckle, albeit still pretty confused. “They’re allowed to hang out without me.”

“They weren’t hanging out.” You could hear your brother push out a strained sigh. What wasn’t he telling you? “They were making out on the swing set. As in, both of them on one swing. And I double checked, it was definitely them. I-I told mom and she said not to tell you, but I couldn’t not tell you when I’m the one who saw it!”

You couldn’t bring yourself to say a word.

“I’m sorry, y/n.”

There was no lying to yourself, you had doubts about your best friend and your boyfriend. But you constantly brushed it off. He wouldn’t hurt you like that. Hell, she couldn’t hurt like that. Not after everything you had been through together.

But you had seen his call log by accident one time, he called her more than he did you. She face-timed him one time to ask his opinion about a dress she was going to buy while you were in the changing room. She had done a handful of things since your relationship with your boyfriend started that made you uneasy. If this was their first kiss, which was something you doubted, then they’ve both been emotionally attached to the other for far too long.

All those tender intimate moments, all those dates, throughout everything, he wasn’t faithful. Not emotionally, at least. None of those moments that you cherished meant anything to you anymore. He had played you. With none other than your best friend since middle school. You didn’t know who to be more mad at.

The thoughts of betrayal from someone who you considered a sister and the hurt of being cheated on made you nauseated.

So when the large warm hand on your face stroked your cheek again, you didn’t mind it. This was Corpse. Not your cheating boyfriend. Not your lying best friend. Corpse. And you knew that he would never hurt you.

“He’s been cheating on me for a while I think.” You mumbled against his sweatpants. “Maybe a couple months. I don’t know.”

Corpse furrowed his brows in thought. You had told him you were going to visit your boyfriend for your one year anniversary next week. “Weren’t you go-”

“Yeah.”

“And Bob’s been your friend since-”

“Yeah.” Your chin wobbled as you answered. You brought your arms up around Corpse’s thigh and hugged it. It was a strange position, but you didn’t care. He was so warm and nice and hugging him properly required more movement on your end than you were willing to do.

“Oh, sweetheart.” Corpse sighed and reached out to untangle your arms from his leg. He gently pulled you across the few inches of bed between you and sat you in his lap. You wrapped your arms around his neck and your legs around his waist, immediately sobbing into his shoulder. “Do you want me to turn off the music?” You shook your head no against him and he chuckled before he solemnly sighed. “When did you find out?”

“When I came home.”

“But you came home hours ago. Have you been in here this whole time?” You nodded. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“You were streaming, didn’t wanna interrupt.” You shrugged.

“y/n,” he sighed disappointedly, “you’re my best friend. I can end a stream if you need me.”

“Okay.” Your voice, broken and weak and tired, made him feel so guilty. You had been crying your heart out for over two hours just down the hall from where he was.

He gently grabbed you by your hips and tried to push you away, but you only held on tighter and whimpered. “I just wanna get you some water.”

“I don’t want water.”

“Then what do you want?”

“You.” You whispered. “Please stay.”

Fuck. How could he say no to that?

So he stayed.

#corpse #corpse husband #corpse x reader #corpsehusband #corpse husband x reader #corpse husband fanfiction #corpse husband fanfic #corpse husband fluff #corpse fanfiction #corpse fanfic #corpse fluff #gender neutral reader

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shochmonster · 4 years

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84 Questions

original: https://fuckyeahsurveys.tumblr.com/post/61049002526/84-questions

Put your music player of choice on shuffle and list the first 10 songs Guns of Brixton - The Clash Holiday in Cambodia - Dead Kennedys Chainsaw - Nick Jonas California - Joni Mitchell Make It Wit Chu - Queens of the Stone Age This Woman’s Work - Kate Bush The Bad Thing - Arctic Monkeys Between the Bars - Eliot Smith Drown - The Smashing Pumpkins Different People - No Doubt

If you could spend a week anywhere in the world, where would it be and why? Would you take anyone with you? I’d take @duoloopo to the UK. I’d like to see places other than London.

What is your preferred writing implement? (eg. Blue pen, pencil, green pen) I use my iPad stylus the most, but I have this heavy mechanical pencil I really like for drawing.

Favourite month and why? October. I just love the fall vibe.

Do you have connections to any celebrities (even minor)? List them. I went to undergraduate school with Rebecca Sugar. We used to ride the bus between NYC and DC together on holidays.

Name 3 items you could pick up from where you are. Can of seltzer, pencil case, stack of bills

What brand logo is closest to you currently? REAL Skateboards

Do you ever play board games or other non-computer games? Got any favourites? I love Small World and Munchkin.

A musical artist you love that isn’t well known Laura Stevenson and the Cans

A musical artist you love that is well known Red Hot Chili Peppers

What is your desktop background currently? Thomas Barrow on the beach in the Season 4 Christmas Special

Last person you talked to, and through what you talked to them @duomaxwell02 with my face :O

First colour name you can think of that isn’t in the rainbow White

What timekeeping devices are in the room you are currently in? Two wall clocks, though one is very old and doesn’t wind anymore. I also have a clock @duoloopo ‘s dad made for me. It’s on the piano.

What kind of headphones do you use? JBL Bluetooth, noise canceling

What musical artists have you seen perform live? Foo Fighters (3x), Incubus (3x), Red Hot Chili Peppers, Smashing Pumpkins, Beastie Boys, Audioslave, Justin Timberlake, Troy Sivan, Arctic Monkeys, The Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton, Queen (but with Roger Daughtry, not Freddy... for obvious reasons.). Probably a whole bunch of others I’m blanking on.

Does virginity matter to you? Not really.

What gaming consoles do you or your family own? PS4, PS2, PS1, XBox 360, N64, Gamecube, Wii, NES, SNES, various Gameboys, Nintendo DS, PSP

What pets do you have? What are their names? Two cats, Hemingway and Renji

What’s the best job you’ve ever had? I like freelance art gigs the best. As for ‘normal people jobs’, I once was a sign painter for Whole Foods. That was pretty fun, minus the work drama.

What’s the worst job you’ve ever had? Food service.

What magazines do you read, if any? I’ll pick up Time once in a while

Inspiration behind your URL? My classic original URL was LinkWorshiper and had been since AIM first existed. I picked it because Zelda was the first fandom I ever joined. Now I’ve changed all my handles (except on AO3) to reflect my actual name, as my literary agent thinks it’s more professional.

Inspiration behind your blog title? Mean Girls. I always chuckle imagining Thomas and Jimmy as some Edwardian version of the Plastics.

Favourite item of clothing? My Downton livery waistcoat. And the stiff bosomed shirt and collars I have to go with it.

Are you friends with any exes? Nah. By the time I felt comfortable enough to possibly try, I also didn’t care enough to.

Name at least one book you loved as a child. His Dark Materials (the trilogy by Philip Pullman). I still love them and am jazzed that he’s writing more these days.

What’s your native language? If that language has distinct regional variations, which variation? (eg. AU English, US English) US English, mostly a northeastern dialect/accent

What email service do you use? Gmail

Is there anything hanging on the walls of the room you are currently in? So much stuff. I have a mood board full of Downtons stuff over my desk, various DA posters and memorabilia, plus some artwork I’ve done, and some of my JC Leyendecker collection. The aforementioned wall clocks, a San Francisco cable car bell, Sailor Moon and a few other little knickknacks, like my hamsa. To name a few lol.

What’s your favourite number, and why? 212 because it’s Manhattan’s area code and also because it used to be the notation for one of my favorite ships in an old fandom.

Earliest moment in your life you can remember? Sitting under the table and looking at my grandma, who was wearing a Cruella Deville dress she’d knit herself. Like, it had the actual Disney character on it. Pretty cool to a little guy, I guess!

What did you have for dinner yesterday? Quesadilla

How often do you brush your teeth? Whenever they feel gross

What’s your favourite candy/chocolate? Lately, I’ve been into Junior Mints.

Have you had other blogs on Tumblr? Do you have any other blogs currently? This blog used to have my old handle, linkworshiper. I did a small Whole Foods blog when I worked with them, but it never went anywhere.

If you were suddenly really hungry, what would you choose to eat? Sushi

What fandoms would you consider yourself a part of? Downton Abbey, though lately I’ve been crazy busy and not as active as I once was. Casually still poking at old fandoms like Zelda and Gundam Wing to name a few.

If you could study anything, what would it be? More art education can’t hurt. Maybe some formal history education.

Do you use anything on your lips? (eg. Chapstick, gloss, balm, lipstick) Chapstick

How would you describe your sense of humour? Seinfeld

What things annoy you more than anything else? Mouth noises

What kind of position are you in at the moment? Sitting

Do you wear much jewellery? Nope

Who is the leader of your country, currently? Any other levels of government with leaders? (State, region, province, county, district, municipality, etc) Three supposedly equal branches of government, currently being run into the ground by a clown

Last 3 blogs on your dashboard, not including any of your own @halcyondaze @mab1905 @lavender-hued-melancholy

What do you carry your money in? I try to never carry cash, but I carry a small wallet

Do you enjoy driving? Why or why not? I like it but sometimes it feels like a chore, especially during a commute. @duoloopo thinks I’m a shit driver so she tries to drive whenever she can, which has pluses and minuses.

Longest drive you have ever been on? Savannah GA to San Francisco, CA in a UHaul

Furthest away from home you have ever been? Germany

How many times have you moved house? God, I don’t even know. More than ten.

What is on the floor of the room you’re currently in, not including furniture? Cat toys, unused canvases

How many devices do you own which can access the internet? Phone, computer, iPad, various game consoles

Is there is anything that is guaranteed to always make you happy? Thomas and Jimmy <3 <3

Is there anything that always makes you sad? Thinking too hard about being a failure

What programs do you currently have open? I just rebooted, so only Chrome, Spotify and Photoshop

What do you associate the colour red with? This line in the Kate Bush Song Blue Symphony, which goes, ‘I associate love with red, the color of my heart when she’s dead.’

Last strong smell you can remember smelling? The Greek food I ordered in for dinner

Last healthy thing you ate? Roasted veggies

Do you drink tea or coffee, and how much per day? I prefer tea, and I drink coffee for energy, though sometimes I think it just makes me crash harder.

What do you associate the colour blue with? The sky

How long is the closest ruler you can find? 12 inches

What colour pants/skirt/etc are you currently wearing? Dark blue

When was the last time you drank water? About a minute ago

How often do you clear your browser history? Rarely

Do you believe nude photos can be artistic, rather than erotic? Yes

Ever written fanfiction for anything? Oh God, yes. You can still find it under Link Worshiper on AO3, though some of my ‘classics’ have been removed since I turned them into original manuscripts

Last formal event you attended My cousin’s wedding

If you had to move your birthday to another date, which one would you choose and why? Maybe inch my birth year up just by two so that I’d stop being called a damn millennial. At my age, I really just don’t relate to the generation even though technicalities make me a part of it.

Would you prefer to be at a beach or in the countryside? Beach

Roughly how many people live in your town? 52,000

Do you know anyone with the same birthday as you? Leonard Nimoy :D

Favourite place to shop? Can be a certain store or a place where there are multiple stores I haven’t really gone shopping since the pandemic. Right now, it feels like the only place to buy anything is Amazon XD

Do you have a smartphone? What kind? If you don’t, do you want one? Samsung. It’s not a Galaxy but is a new model and a fraction of the price.

What is your least favourite colour, and why? I don’t think I dislike any colors honestly.

How do you spell grey/gray? Grey. I’ve got too many British online associates to ever go back.

Go to your dashboard and describe the image shown in the radar section (below the “Find blogs” link) It’s Umbrella Academy fanart of Klaus. He’s in black and white with this hands over his eyes and the background is red. It’s very graphic.

What difference is there between how many followers you have, and the number of blogs you follow? 736

How many posts do you have? 8,859

How many posts have you liked? I can’t find the stat D:

Do you post mainly reblogs, or your own content? Mainly reblogs but I pepper in my own content when I can. Lately, I haven’t had time to do as much fanart though, and I kind of feel like it’s not worth bothering to post my original stuff. Nobody follows my blog for that.

Do you track any tags? No.

What time is it currently? 7:33 PM CMT

Is there anything you should be doing right now? Waking up @duoloopo. TIME TO JUMP ON THE BED.

tagging, if they feel like it: @abbys-little-whippersnapper @bumblebarrow @irrationalgame @downtoncat @mab1905 @duoloopo

and everyone who I’ve forgotten

#personal #about me #questions

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the-invisible-queer · 4 years

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Bedroom Poster Tour!

Since I cannot talk due to my cheek being huge its gonna be a silent photo+caption tour.

My room is on the attic. I moved into this room in the summer of 2009/10 I don't remember. It was right before 8th grade.

Before it was my bedroom it was my brother and my playroom. Hence why there is writing and holes in the wall.

The Big Time Rush poster was the first poster I ever bought. I was the second poster in my room. They watch me sleep every night. I am still a huge BTR stan.

Below is a photo of my love, Rachel Brosnahan. It was an ad for the Marvelous Mrs. Maisel on a Cosmo issue and I put it on my wall because I love her.

I have two of this Sheldon Cooper posters because for the 3 years my family had cable I was OBSESSED with The Big Bang Theory and I related to Sheldon a lot. Idk where the 2nd one is.

This is my little memorial for Cory Monteith. He passed in 2013 and I took that loss so hard because he was such a hero to me. This shrine is made of photos from my Glee calendar that I cut up.

Then we have my Iron Man 3 poster because I have been in love with Tony Stark for like 12 years and I needed to represent that in my room.

In this pic I have 2 Beatles posters. The second is hidden behind my headboard. I don't have to tell you I am obsessed with the Beatles. Those posters were made by my sister in law.

The Sharply Evans poster is an AUTHENTIC High School Musical poster from like 2007. Because even as a 23 year old adult I still will watch HSM and sing along to the songs.

Above her is more Glee stuff. Everything that is Glee related in my room is from ONE calendar.

Then there is my Joker poster which I love with my soul.

Every basic bitch Beatles stan has an Abbey Road poster. Funnily enough, I got this poster BEFORE my Beatles obsession started. I wanted it because my favorite teacher had it and I liked how it looked.

A HSM2 poster from the HSM game I got for DS on Christmas.

More Glee shit.

The Killers thing because I loved that movie when I first saw it. Tbh haven't seen it in years.

That paper and poem were important to me in middle school and I just haven't taken them down.

Behind my record player is a pic of HSM1 Troy Bolton. And Nicole Kidman.

Can't really see the Prince Caspian poster but yes I was a Narnia whore.

And that Peeta poster I got before I watched the film - which I actually hate - I bought it because I read the book and Peeta was my favorite character.

Some Camp Rock stuff from my Camp Rock calendar. I got a lot of themed calendars in my youth.

These are all from that Glee calendar. I have more but this is all that fit in this pic.

My dad bought me this for Christmas a few years ago because I love New York City so fucking much. Its where I was born and where I strive to live when I can afford it. I haven't taken the cardboard off because its not where I want it permanently and we're also moving soon.

BONUS:

This framed Beatles was $200 at Pilgrim Furniture and it is my most prized possession. Tied with my laptop. Its not in my room, its at the entrance of the stairs to get to my room. My room walls are weak af so I couldn't it them in my room

This painting also isn't in my room, its at the top of the stairs that lead to the front door. My dad's co-worker painted it and my dad bought it. He surprised me with it and I fucking love it.

MY DAD SAYS SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL ARTISTS!!!

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rant4hsmtmts · 5 years

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Caswell cousins

I thought of writing this ages ago but forgot to finish it- so here is a small story about Ej and Ashlyns childhood.

Sorry this is kinda a mess and jumps all over the place lol. Anyway enjoy!

@uglyballerina @beese-is-cheese-for-bees

“I’m proud to call you my sister”

“-close enough”

Both being the only child in their families, the Caswell cousins were quite close. Ej’s parents worked a lot. They were people of high profile jobs, taking any opportunity to just drop their son around the corner to Dennis and Debbie’s house. Ashlyn was happy to see her cousin, but she could see it was kinda hard on him that he never got to spend time with his parents. He spent a lot of time at her house as a child, to the point he could walk around blindfolded (which he did do once to prove a point).

She was always there for him, and he was always there for her. He would always wait for her clubs to be finished to walk home from school together and they always shared what happened that day. You’d expect such a popular guy to complete disown his cousin, but it was more the other way around... Ej was terrified that he would eventually do something so stupid that Ashlyn would disown him. Even after some of the things he had already done, it as a wonder to him that she still hung out with him.

Growing up Ej was the first person she went to for advice. He was an intense people pleaser, but once he got comfortable he had no problems being very blunt. It meant she could always rely on him for truthful advice, of which her shy jazz musician and quiet writer parents usually were too nice to give.

So when she wrote her first song- he was the first to hear it. His loud thunderous applause made Ashlyn feel like she had written the greatest song in the world. Along with his encouragement, he suggested it needed an instrumental solo, his idea was to add a harmonica solo (something that was joked about for years to come). In the end, she added a beautiful piano solo in the middle, all jokes aside Ej knew that Ashlyn really had a gift for songwriting.

Something that was really a great way for her to express herself. Ej never really found his own expression til much later.

They grew up on the edge of new technology, seeing the ipod and ipad come through but they were nothing compared to the very first gadget they both owned, the Nintendo DS. As their parents worked through the day, leaving the two to their own devices, the Caswell cousins would often play pictochat hide and seek. Though they could only draw and type to each other they would spend hours trying to find the best spot that would leave the seeker scrambling.

The overall winner was Ej (or so he claims) because he once had the ‘genius’ idea of hiding in his parents car. It was the only time that Ashlyn had to actually accept defeat as the sun had set and their dinner was ice cold on the table.

His competitive spirit was clear from childhood. Ash knew when he said he played to win he wasn’t kidding.

Ashlyn had just finished fourth grade when they officially banned Caswell game nights in the house, after a night that went down in history as the 2013 Monopoly disaster. Ej wouldn’t speak to Ashlyn for over a week due his bruised pride (and that was even after flipping the table just before landing on Parklane). After that Debbie, Dennis, Carolyn and Adam all decided that it was probably better (and safer) to just have family dinners on Thursday nights.

As they grew older Ej and Ashlyn’s hobbies started to grow apart. Ashlyn had her clubs, her songs and Ej had his team but musical theatre was something they still shared.

2014 just starting year 7, Ej started to play waterpolo, he was always quite a strong swimmer- never fast enough for the big leagues but had the perfect upper body strength from basketball. He loved it, although his competitive nature definitely got the better of him a lot.

Waterpolo has one major risk of injury, well whether you can call it injury is subjective, but one major risk of the water sport....sunburn. Ej’s play to win attitude always court him out in one way or another, Ashlyn knew this quite well.

However it had never been so evident until he rocked up for Friday night family dinner with every visible area of skin a rich red lobster colour that could made him hiss every time he had to move. After finishing dinner the two went to the living room, as their parents started an in depth discussion about whatever drama or crisis they were facing. Both Caswell kids were quite oblivious to this at the time, but EJ knew the looks that his parents would give each other meant there was something going on. Anyway, the two went on the night playing some version of ‘New Super Mario Bros’ on the Wii. They had done this for years- it was a constant they could always count on. As Ej got older and stopped openly talking about what he was going through, Ashlyn knew a couple rounds of the Mario/ Luigi power team would help him settle down and let it out.

Due to his parents lack of attention, Ashlyn knew that her cousin had always craved positive praise and interest from other people. He used his insta ‘fame’ to try and fill the void but she knew empty likes and followers would never fix something like that. After a disappointing Waterpolo game, he lost the game, his parents didn’t come and the team had a go at him, the cousins started their trek back home down Pakington Road. Ash suggested that they have a look at the Pet Shelter and she knew cuddling all the animals could get anyone out of a bad, self deprecating mood.

After spending a little while playing with all the tiny kittens Ashlyn looked up to see Ej in the corner slumped against the wall patting a small Labrador puppy. The lop sided grin Ej made as the puppy wagged his tail, Ashlyn knew that the little dog had captured his heart already. Preceding a long argument with his parents, he finally convinced them to let him adopt the puppy.

Practically prancing down to the shelter, Ej adopted Remy, and made sure that the little puppy would never feel rejected again.

Having Remy around had confirmed one thing for Ash, although she loved the dog, she was definitely a cat person.

Since Ej got Remy, and managed to look after him by himself, it was a lot easier to convince her parents that she could have a pet. If Ej could do it… she could definitely do it.

Ash knew the moment she saw her curled up in the shelter that she couldn’t leave without her. Soft spoken meows, cautious, it was such a contrast to the brash energy that Remy had. Scarlett was the smallest of the litter, she was a gorgeous little Burmese cat.

Scarlett was always there for Ash, listening to her practice lines, watching her bake cakes, looking unimpressed when Ej would tell Ashlyn all the dumb things he managed to get up to, and being the very first fan of all her songs (as she would always make a little meow at the end).

Unfortunately, Ashlyn is the only person Ej trusts to look after Remy when he’s not home. Safe to say, Scarlett is not impressed. Remy and Scarlett tried, well at least Remy did, bouncing around the small cat wanting to play a game. Scarlett was very displeased with the notion of having to entertain the dog, so she found a loving sunny spot near the windowsill and decided to have a siesta for the arvo.

They have been there for each other through thick and thin, including discovering and having a rough lesson in heartbreak.

The very first girl Ej Caswell ever really liked was Anna Madden. It was freshman year and Ashlyn had seen the way his eyes would light up every time she was mentioned or how whenever she would call he couldn’t help but smile. But the problem with Ejs love life is he would fall hard, and fast. Saying ‘I love you’ way too early or something just as scary to a freshman who doesn’t understand commitment. After Anna dumped him for Justin, the captain of the Basketball team, Ej shut down for a while. He didn’t express his emotions as openly as his former self, he felt the rejection of his childhood once again.

Ej didn’t know why he was such an a**hole after that. He always tried to do the right thing, but at the end of the day, his lack of regard for the consequences of his actions would always come back to bite him. He really did want to have a relationship, be a good boyfriend but he was terrified of reliving the rejection, so he just had causal flings. Winked at all the girls, hanging out but at a far enough distance so that he didn't get too involved.

So when Ashlyn heard that he told Nini that he loved her- Ashlyn knew that she was different. She knew her cousin had messed up, and so did he, but she tried to plead with Nini... knowing that the girl had unlocked a part of Ej that Ashlyn thought was long gone.

Their personalities were really quite different.

Although somewhat quiet at school, Ashlyn was quite a loud person a home. She was a chatterbox that would spend every dinner retelling the details of her day with great dramatic hand gestures. Like the time she was in fifth grade, and people started a riot outside the canteen because raised the price of cookies from 50 cents to a dollar. She never really had this confidence at school but Ej knew the bright dramatic personality that hid in the shy school girl.

Ej however was rather the opposite. It was almost like his outside life he was constantly trying to entertain everyone and make them happy, while painting himself as a cool, smart and all around good guy. His constant façade was rather tiring for a guy that liked to go home and spend an hour reading the works of William Shakespeare every night.

But through all their differences (and all of Ejs stupid choices) the Caswell cousins were always there for each other. Advice, a laugh, a dangerously competitive game- they would always have each other’s backs.

#hsmtmts #high school musical the musical the series #ashlyn caswell #ej caswell #nini salazar roberts

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gwoongi · 4 years

Text

(abandoned) all i want for christmas is woohoo

kim seokjin / kim namjoon genre: uni au, fluff, crack rating: general words: 4.9k warnings: clownery, i knew nothing about uni, character dynamics based off a fic none of u have read a/n: incomplete prequel to the yoonmin fanfic i wrote three thousand years ago. i will never finish this so here’s what i started and left behind for the dogs to have at

The stranger makes a noise of voiced agreement. “Mood.”

September 8th.

One thing they never tell you before going to Uni, is that it’s fucking mental on Move In Day.

Obviously, he had some idea that the student digs would be fairly busy with students moving in, but he never expected to be waiting in a thick line of tired and excited first years for around fifteen minutes, only to then wait another twenty just for the student- who, by the way, was way too busy picking at her purple nail varnish to give two damns about Namjoon’s clearly very important moving in schedule- to find his key on the board barely 50 centimetres away from where she was sitting.

So, yeah- when his sister comes to Uni after him, he’s definitely going to warn her about the madness that is Move In Day, because clearly nobody else had cared if Namjoon was stuck waiting like a doormat for one student who thinks she’s something to hand him a key. I mean, how hard can it be? He doesn’t get it.

“Sorry about the wait,” another male student, who noticed the lack of enthusiasm from second year student apparently named Jisoo, says as he moves from behind the desk to give Namjoon a silver key on a chain, with two other keys present. “Here are your keys- one’s for the front door of your flat, second is for the main building in-case you’re late after hours and the third is for your pigeon box.” He pauses: “no help from your parents?”

Namjoon shrugs politely, “Just me. My parents are back in Ilsang, couldn’t make it.”

“Bummer,” the student replies. Along with the keys, he shoves a brown paper bag into Namjoon’s hands with a toothy smile. “Your complimentary moving in gifts, from the students who moved out! Thanks for picking Blossom Island as your student accomodation!”

Although Namjoon wants to tell him that Blossom Island was the only cheap option out of three absurdly priced accomodations for first years, he doesn’t; instead, he smiles, lips closed and dimples on display, nodding his head and turning all within the same second. The student moves away after, so he doesn’t feel bad about ending the conversation so abruptly.

Blossom Island is located smack bang outside of campus, across a small stream that Namjoon thought would be filled with blossom, but instead is littered with algae and tinfoil. It’s large, tall like a regular apartment complex, with a courtyard out the front with a bouncy castle that Namjoon can already see some people jumping on with what he assumes is their new roommates.

Namjoon leaves the lobby- should he call it a lobby? It was more of a downstairs kitchen and living room, with two small sofas and a mounted flat-screen, a pool table pushed weirdly in the middle of the colourful boxed room and a door near the back wandering into the community study area, another door for what he guesses is for laundry. Hauling his suitcase and big, cardboard box in his arms across the courtyard, he follows the number on the key- number 8, floor 6, Kyoto Building and barely makes it five steps without almost dropping the box entirely, all thanks to some jerk wearing Thrasher and a beanie.

“That’s what you get for not tying your shoelaces.”

Mid-crouch, Namjoon looks over his shoulder and spots Min Yoongi stepping out of the building, followed by a rather proud looking set of parents, preening at the fact that their son is going into Nursing. Due to that, he bites back a curse word he figures would be impolite for the elders, and manages a smile in the sun.

“What? He clearly pushed into me,” Namjoon reasons, standing upright and saying a hasty hello to Yoongi’s parents, who, in all honesty, have never really liked him much. He laughs breathily, waiting for a few seconds before asking, “where are you?”

Yoongi checks his key. “Number 13, Floor 0, Juko Building. What kind of name is Juko, anyway?”

“Beats me,” Namjoon scoffs. “I think Juko’s close to Kyoto. I’ll come visit when you’re all settled and moved in, yeah?”

Yoongi nods, already beginning to walk away. “Yeah, I’ll get your mug out ready.”

That’s the thing with Yoongi, Namjoon thinks as he walks away; he’s always been about the little things in life. In the many, many years that Namjoon has known Yoongi, he’s never really changed- Yoongi has always been compassionate and cutely caring, buying two mugs instead of one and making pasta for two when he knew Namjoon was due to visit on days his parents were working late. And he feels bad, because Yoongi is a giving guy, not a receiving one.

He watches as Yoongi leaves with his parents, and he feels weirdly sad. It’s none of his business, too, as he watches the three Min’s enter the Juko Building, painted a pastel pink with mint compliments, swirling patterns dancing as the leaves on the trees move in the whisper of wind.

Namjoon now has the urge to paint.

In Number 8, Floor 6, Kyoto Building, Kim Seokjin finally sets down the last potted plant on the sparse looking shelf above his desk, and he steps back with his hands on his hips to admire the minimal effort. Although it definitely took some struggle, what with his Dad accidentally dropping his bag with his Nintendo inside and his Mother judging his absurd amount of pink bath-towels, Seokjin has a feeling in his stomach- the feeling where you know that everything is going perfectly.

There’s a smell in the air; blossom from the large tree outside his window, propped open on the hatch to allow a breeze air out the room. Since his roomie hasn’t arrived yet, the least he can do is get rid of the stuffy smell, something strangely similar to pool chlorine. He inhales it deeply, a smile tugging at his lips. Seoul weather amazes him- even though Gwacheon is a blink away, Seokjin is already starting to feel like a new person.

Maybe it’s just University excitement. Maybe it’s University nerves. But, maybe it’s also because he really needs a wee and can’t think properly.

He waits nicely for his parents to finish up straightening every single crease in his bedsheets before saying goodbye. Although he might tease to their faces that he won’t miss them, and they won’t miss him, Seokjin knows from the minute they open the door to head back out to the corridor that it’s going to take a while to adjust to life without the nagging, but endearing, guidance of his family.

Because Seokjin has always sort of been the baby boy of the Kim’s from Gwacheon- his older brother inherited a type of broodiness that Seokjin is thankful he hasn’t got yet, and so Seokjin’s always been the favourite. The favourite crawler, the favourite footballer, the favourite baker and painter- in honesty, Seokjung never wanted any of that. Seokjin’s proud of who he is- he’s so fucking proud of his family. So he sort of takes pride in being the baby boy of the Kim family. He wears it like armour, glistening armour that represents him in front of a whole army of potential threats and friends.

Jinyoung, an old friend, used to say it was embarrassing- as if Jinyoung doesn’t have a comfortable enough life with parents who would murder for him, but Seokjin doesn’t care. Why should he be ashamed of being loved? Most families aren’t as close as the Kim’s, so he takes extra care in making sure his family know that he loves them. That’s the sort of guy he is- giving, occasionally receiving, but giving, giving his whole heart and soul to everybody else in order to make others happy.

Seokjin pinches the bridge of his nose as the door closes with a sickening click, the noise muting around the faint buzz of traffic across campus and the baby birds in the nest a few floors down on a branch, fluttering in the wind like wings. He’s so lost in the way the small twigs are woven together, like the way a spider builds a web, or an ant a colony, that he doesn’t realise three minutes have passed.

Now he really needs a wee.

When Namjoon opens the door to room 8, he’s surprised.

Not shocked, but surprised. Because there’s a difference between shock and surprise- shock is entering a room and finding a serial killer, but surprise is walking into a room and finding a party. The difference is in the level of reaction, and Namjoon hadn’t walked in and been completely thrown off by a wall of cute posters and the obvious collection of DS games and a cool looking computer. If anything, he’s intrigued. Surprised. Pleasantly surprised, perhaps.

To the right, Namjoon hears the toilet flush and he knows that he has a couple seconds to look around the room and plonk his bags and box on the plain bed before his roommate emerges from the bathroom. As he sets them down, he casts a gaze towards the right side of the room where his roomie has claimed a bed, a desk and a small looking wardrobe near the door. On the wall next to his bed, a collection of posters have been washi taped to the boring blank canvas- although, as an artist, Namjoon considers anything blank and white to be inviting and anything but boring, because a canvas holds endless opportunities- and his bed covers are a washed out blue, a colour that now, actually, as he’s looking at it, is becoming more chiffon coloured.

It’s evident his roommate likes video games- half the posters on the wall are related to games he knows that they must like; Animal Crossing, a small Stardew Valley postcard and a commissioned drawing of Jinx from LoL, taped next to a large artwork of Mario Kart and more postcard art of games Namjoon thinks he’s heard of but isn’t sure- The Last of Us, Tekken, Zelda. He pretends not to notice the small Minecraft postcard in the corner of the mural but weirdly enough, he finds it endearing knowing that someone at University still plays Minecraft.

Most of all, Namjoon notices the strange obsession with The Sims, as seen through multiple artworks and the fantastic collection of Sims3 Expansion packs sitting on the shelf above his bed, next to pop figures and a photo frame of a group of friends.

He wonders if his roommate will let him use the expansion packs when he’s bored.

“Oh, hey.”

Clearly having not heard the bathroom door open, Namjoon spins on the spot to look back at the bathroom, where his roommate stands with his hand animatedly raised in a wave, a smile lifting his cheekbones. They look pale, almost watery, but Namjoon doesn’t say anything. He knows why.

“Hey. Namjoon,” he says, leaning forward to shake his hand. For a moment, his roommate stares at the hand, as if wondering what to do with it. “What?”

His roomie shakes his head, moving to shake his hand once, up and down, before letting it drop. “Nothing. It’s just, well, how many people give handshakes nowadays?”

Namjoon thinks it over in his head. “Well, a lot of people. Useful in business, and stuff. A manager might want to shake your hand at a job interview.”

As he says the words, Namjoon can tell by the passing look on his roommates face that he wasn’t expected to give an answer. He stops talking after that, looking back to his bed with a feeling similar to embarrassment, while his roommate moves towards the window and clears his throat awkwardly.

“Seokjin.” He finally introduces himself. Seokjin- it has a ring to it. Namjoon says it over in his head, growing familiar with it. Now that he’s mentioned it, Namjoon looks back over his shoulder and realises that he looks like a Seokjin. The name suits him. “What’re you studying here?”

“Art and Design,” Namjoon replies with a brief smile over his shoulder. Seokjin isn’t looking, anyway. “Nothing too crazy.” He looks at the wall of posters- “Are you studying graphics?”

“Yeah. I’m studying Digital Art,” Seokjin replies, and it’s clear in the way his whole body moves as he says it that he’s passionate about his subject. He laughs shortly, “Isn’t it funny how we’re both doing art and we got pushed together? Do you think that’s intentional?”

Namjoon shrugs, taking out his clothes first from one of his suitcases. “Maybe. I’m glad you’re Digital Art and not Performing Arts. One, this room is not big enough to dance and sing and two, I don’t want to be woken up by a classical alarm clock. You know?”

Seokjin laughs and it suffices as a reply.

As Namjoon sifts around his bag and pulls out the remainder of his clothes, Seokjin turns around and watches for a swift three seconds, and then moves back towards his desk and absent-mindedly moves around his keyboard, straightening it up.

“Do you need any help?” he asks, and as Namjoon turns to catch his eye, he notices he means it genuinely.

“Uh, I’m alright,” Namjoon replies, and even though Seokjin can clearly see the amount of work he has left to do to his half of the bedroom, he doesn’t pry and decidedly drops it. He shrugs.

“Alright then. I’m gonna head out,” Seokjin says. He gestures with his head to the hallway. “Out on campus, they’re doing that thing. What do they call it- Wildflower? I think I just wanna go meet some people. I can wait for you, and we can go together, if you want?”

Namjoon does want. He really wants to. But he takes several glances back at his boxes and frowns deeply. And anyways, he’ll have plenty of time to hang out with Seokjin later, won’t he?

“I’ll pass,” Namjoon rejects him softly, a smile on his lips as if to say, I do want to come but I’m way too busy. Seokjin’s lips twitch into a pursed mouth and he nods. “I’ve just got a lot to do. We could hang out later, if you want?”

“Sure,” Seokjin replies, already inching towards the door. “Yeah, alright. If you need help, just text me. I’ve got my number on the pinboard above my desk- just incase, you know?”

Namjoon glances over; surely enough, on a corkboard pinned to the wall above his desk and beneath the shelf, he can see the sleek black letters printed with “emergency number” written next to it in messy handwriting. He smiles, mostly because he’s never seen someone have their own phone number hung up in their room before, and nods without looking in Seokjin’s direction. “Okay, thanks, Seokjin-ssi.”

Seokjin makes a sound similar to a laugh, air through his nose, a small intake of high pitched breath afterwards. Out the corner of his eye, Namjoon can see him hovering his hand over the handle and to be polite, he finally looks over. Something tells him he was waiting for that.

“Seokjin should be fine,” Seokjin replies with a smile.

By the time Namjoon finishes sorting out his things (and by sorting out, he means that he’s hung up his clothes and kicked the cardboard box towards his desk out of the way), Seokjin’s still not back from Wildflower, and quite frankly, he’s bored.

As if by a magnetic pull, he finds himself leaving Kyoto building to trudge in the mid-move-in-manic, across the small courtyard where the bouncy-castle has deflated thanks to someone jumping on it wearing shoes, and towards Juko building, a big clump of pastel next to the white blossom tree that Namjoon is jealous of. Yoongi’s room, even back at his home in Daegu- where Namjoon had lived throughout his entire high-school life before his parents moved back to Ilsang during his final year-, was somewhere Namjoon had felt completely and utterly accepted. At home.

He always found it funny how Yoongi said the same thing for him- his bedroom back home was small, smaller than the dorm room he has now. It was an average room, with small bold letters spelling out his name on the front of his door, and his walls were painted a navy blue with dark wood floors that went through the entire house, with thrown around covers and three pillows to sleep with and furniture which didn’t match the colours. But Yoongi’s room was different. Yoongi’s room was Yoongi.

Slanted ceilings and an off-white coloured paint-job on the walls, with grey curtains and white sheets and an electric piano pushed up against the window-wall, overlooking a small line of houses out the front of the street Yoongi lived on, a tree that turned orange in October. On his walls, Yoongi liked to keep it minimal, minus the posters of his favourite artists and a little area above his desk for pictures of him and Namjoon, his first family pet, a ticket to his first family vacation when he was thirteen, dried flowers from a tiny bundle he was given on a Valentine’s Day. His first Valentine’s gift. A memory. A wall of memories, stuck with shimmery tape and dried blue-tac on the white, unremovable, stuck like glue. It was everything Namjoon wanted in a room. It was everything Namjoon needed in a place to feel completely and utterly safe.

Namjoon wasn’t surprised that Yoongi had stuck with the bland style of dorm room, compared to the bed next to him which his roommate- a kid studying Music with an incredible obsession with BoA and Michael Jackson- who, even though he was an amazing artist, Namjoon always felt weirded out by.

He stands by the doorframe as Yoongi shuffles to straighten his blanket at the end of his bed, simply looking at the decor, taking it all in with a deep breath. His roommate stared at Namjoon waiting in the doorway and pulled his lips to a frown, excusing himself, “...heading to Wildflower, bye,” being the only words he ever said to Namjoon.

“Namjoon, I hate it.”

“You’ve been here for two hours,” Namjoon frowns, sitting on his roommate’s bed. He won’t mind (only he does, and he notices the imprint of Namjoon’s arse left behind which he thought would disappear after five minutes.) “It’s not that bad, surely?”

Yoongi shakes his head adamantly. “I wanna go home, Joon. I don’t wanna do nursing.”

“You might really like it, though,” Namjoon sighs. “You never know!”

“I don’t want to study nursing,” Yoongi repeats himself through pouted lips that Namjoon can hear. “I wanted to do art, or music like my stupid roommate. I don’t know why I’m here, Namjoon, I really don’t know why I’m doing this to myself.”

Namjoon knows it’s hard for Yoongi. His family expect too much- like most parents, actually, Yoongi knows they want the best for him. But, the best isn’t forcing him into a nursing degree.

Toying with the frays on Yoongi’s roommate’s blanket, Namjoon says, “hey, hey, calm down. It’s fine- if you don’t like the first three classes, you can’t be expected to stay. You’ve got to do what you want to do.”

Yoongi bites his lip before replying. “I have nowhere to go if I drop out. I’ll do a year, maybe. Maybe half a year. Oh, I don’t fucking know. I don’t wanna give up and let down my family, you know?”

Namjoon does know. His parents had wanted him to be a lawyer. His sister, Kyungmin, wanted Namjoon to do something with his music. But, like the delinquent he is, Namjoon always knew he had a passion for art. Drawing made him happiest- letting his thoughts draw something on a blank canvas was the closest thing to real magic. Singing your feelings is one pleasure, but capturing the colours and movements onto paper was something Namjoon found absolutely rewarding. Thankfully, his parents knew there was no point in forcing him into doing something he wouldn’t enjoy. He was lucky.

“Yeah, I know.”

Yoongi knows Namjoon knows, and he also knows Namjoon doesn’t know what to say. He pulls at the bridge of his nose and lets out a low grunt. “Anyway. How’s your roomie? A weirdo?”

Namjoon shakes his head. “No, not really. I mean, he’s really into video games but it’s not overbearing. Kinda endearing. He’s fun. Seokjin.”

“Oh, cool,” Yoongi replies, nodding slowly. “You get all the good stuff, you know that?”

“What’s mine is yours,” Namjoon says with a frown.

At that, Yoongi smiles. “Yeah. I know, Joon.”

Wildflower lives up to the frantic Google search that Seokjin did moments before heading down to check it out. Even before arriving, he could smell the variety of foods on rickety stalls, and hear the experimental strum of a live band getting ready to play near the main building to the University campus.

Ducking his head underneath the waving arm of another female first-year, Seokjin took a stroll around the small section of Wildflower, politely looking at the bits and bobs he could purchase, like complimentary University flags and tapestries for walls, or a coffee where the change went to a local suicide-prevention charity. He bought one, a tea that was too milky for his taste, and continued walking.

He hadn’t bought much change with him. After the rather awkward first meeting with Namjoon, Seokjin had let it slip his mind. Regardless, he wasn’t willing to let the lack of coins and a credit card spoil his First Day mood. Inhaling the smell of a nearby Jjinmandu stand, he let his stomach steer him towards it, collecting the spare change in his pocket- luckily for him, he had around 4,000 in his jacket pocket which more than comfortably paid for a portion of Mandu.

“Here you go,” the server hands Seokjin his small paper dish of Jjinmandu with a smile, a smile that reminded Seokjin of his third-year teacher back when he was a child. Warm, inviting, kind, a mother’s smile. She smiled toothily when Seokjin handed her more than he was being charged, saying it was a tip, first day luck, or something. She bowed her head meekly.

Without wanting to hold up the slightly growing line, Seokjin moves out of the way and towards a small cluster of metal tables and chairs, shivering as the umbrellas moved in the wind, passing the sauces with a thoughtful pause. He has time to kill; he puts his dish on the small counter and puts a tiny blob of sauce in the corner, and he dips his finger in to taste it. He recoils visibly, finding the taste too bitter.

From somewhere behind him, Seokjin hears what sounds like laughter and he turns, surprised, and finds another student with a bright orange lanyard hung around his neck. He’s a total stranger, with hair pushed into a black beanie and a denim jacket covering a brown shirt, with some black jeans with the knees cut out. On his feet, worn out Converse. Seokjin does a double take.

“You know that’s spicy BBQ, right?”

Weirdly enough, Seokjin finds that he sounds exactly like what he thought he would. He stares at his glasses, first, and the way they slide down his nose, slightly oily because of the heat.

“Don’t you usually have teriyaki with Mandu?” he continues, wandering over to glance at the bottles of sauce, before pushing a slightly stained bottle towards Seokjin with a smile. “There. Honestly, scrape off the BBQ, this will taste so much better.”

Seokjin feels dumb. “I only usually have the tomato chilli. “

“Yeah, and BBQ?”

“No,” he replies, and then he laughs quietly, “no, never BBQ. Let’s call that...first day experimenting.”

The stranger nods along, shoving a mouthful of his own Mandu. Seokjin wants to point out that he has sauce on the corner of his mouth, but it feels rude. He barely knows him.

Glancing at the lanyard around his neck, Seokjin finishes his mouthful- “Are you staff?”

“What?” the stranger asks, caught off guard. Then, he looks down at the lanyard and smiles, politely, not in mockery, and shakes his head, disturbing feathery hairs that were once tucked up into the beanie. “Oh, no. No, I’m a first year.” He chortles at Seokjin’s stunned expression. “What, do I look really old?”

“No,” Seokjin replies. “I was just...surprised. I don’t know- today’s been weird for me. I’m all over the place.”

The stranger makes a noise of voiced agreement. “Mood.”

They stand in silence for a couple moments after that, eating, staring off at the little stream that ran around the perimeter of the small square, listening to the sound of the live band kicking off their setlist with a slow song appropriate for the weather.

The stranger swallows his Mandu, pointing at Seokjin with his spork without really realising, “oh, I’m Hoseok by the way.”

Hoseok. A name to the face.

“Seokjin,” he replies. Now he’s finished his Jjinmandu. “Digital Art.”

Hoseok makes a noise. “Woah, no way.” Gesturing to himself, “Art and Music.”

Seokjin wants to laugh. “That’s so weird. My roomie also does art. It’s like I’ve been thrown into a pool full of art students.”

“Yeah. Well, we are in the Arts Square. Wouldn’t it be weird if I was doing Chinese studies and I hung around in the Arts Square on my first day?”

“True,” Seokjin nods.

Talking to Hoseok is easy. It’s so fucking easy- it’s as if Hoseok has been a friend for years. They walk together, along the small path that barely fits them both, weaving around the stream. Seokjin learns that Hoseok is from Gwangju, and has a sister who designs clothing in the city. Hoseok, in return, learns that Seokjin barely escaped being a lawyer and comes from a family inheriting endless zeros. It doesn’t bother him. It usually bothers people.

“It’s cool that you got to do what you wanted to,” Hoseok says as they walk further along campus. Now, they’ve reach the on-campus convenience store, the artificial lighting making Hoseok squint, even though daylight still pushed on. “Most kids don’t when they’re in your kind of position.”

Hoseok quickly looks over, “I don’t mean that in a bad way, I only-”

“No,” Seokjin agrees, nodding and thrusting his hands into his pockets. He dips his head upwards, inhaling the smell of the sunshine, before looking at Hoseok with a friendly smile. “No, you’re right. Most kids don’t. I’m lucky.”

Hoseok’s grateful Seokjin didn’t misunderstand. “Hm, maybe we’ll be in each-other’s classes.”

He says it with a hopeful tone, lightly nudging Seokjin’s shoulder with a small smile, that caused dimples to spread across his lower cheeks.

“I hope so,” Seokjin replies, but the sound of the stream covers it. Hoseok keeps walking, not making it known if he heard. He probably hadn’t.

Namjoon rolls over the next morning, not quite remembering how he got home and when, and squints at the Sepia screen of his phone. It reads 6:45am, too fucking early to be awake on a Saturday.

did you get home ok yoongi

dont think i care about you or anything yoongi

Namjoon snorts quietly, wincing when he thinks he’s woken up Seokjin across the room. But, when he looks over towards Seokjin’s side of the dorm, he notices that he’s not even in bed. His sheets are tucked in tightly, and his jacket is absent on the coat hangers on the back of the door.

Holy shit, Seokjin gets up early.

yeah. hows minjoon, the name robber joonie

seriously fuck off he’s playing fred videos yoongi

it’s fucking 7am yoongi

Namjoon scoffs, mostly to himself- because who else is he going to scoff too?-, and rolls over flatly to press his feet onto the flattened out carpet of his room. The sun barely peeks through the shitty curtains, and he yawns loudly, feeling the euphoria of a morning stretch. Namjoon sighs with pleasure at the feeling of his body stretching out, letting his arms drop and grabbing his phone to reply to Yoongi, who Namjoon’s surprised is awake, even when Fred is involved.

i thought fred had died, fr joonie

bitch me too but here we have his channel, still screeching away about rubber sharks in his tiny swimming pool yoongi

im really not joking joon. i wanna quit so bad i’ve been here less than 24 hours and i’m already fantasising about drinking the bathroom bleach yoongi

He’s about to reply when the door to their dormitory room swings open, and the hostility of the swing almost makes him drop his phone on the floor. Namjoon scrambles to catch it, staring up with surprise at the sight of Seokjin carrying two mugs of what appears to be tea. Namjoon smells the cranberry as Seokjin comes closer with a sheepish, yet almost smug, smile. Bare in mind, Namjoon hates cranberry tea; at the smell he smiles and fakes joy.

“Saw your post-it saying you had to set an alarm for seven,” Seokjin said casually. “Figured you’d be up by the time I came back with this...hope you like cranberry.”

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marvelousbirthdays · 5 years

Text

Happy Birthday, wintershadowkat!

July 16 - A TaserBones with the"Soulmate identifying mark" trope for @wintershadowkat

Written by @backwardsandinhighheels

Darcy was in her freshman year at Culver when word spread around the campus that the feds were taking apart the science department.

Like every other bored student, Darcy joined the crowd of people pretending to walk past while jostling for a better look at the men in black carrying computers, files, and various bits of machinery to waiting vans. Through judicious use of elbows, she squeezed her way close to the entrance at the front, craning her neck to see into the building.

Her interest must have been too obvious because a guy in a black bulletproof vest focused in on her as he ushered students away. “Nothing to see here, miss. Move along, now.”

At those words, Darcy stared up at the guy in shock for a good ten seconds, before finding her voice. “Are you serious? That is such a lie. That’s like the biggest, most blatant lie I’ve ever heard and like, I knew it was probably going to be a lie but I didn’t think it was going to be that bad.”

It was at the end of her rambling that Darcy realised three things:

1. They were in public, surrounded by hordes of students with nothing better to do than gawk at whatever entertainment came along,

2. Whatever qualms she had about having a lie curving around her waist, her soulmate had her rant about lying somewhere on him and that kinda made up for it, and

3. Her soulmate was tall, dark, and seriously hot

Also, he was looking at her with an unreadable expression that somehow made the rest of the world quieten away.

“You’re too young,” he said finally, and she felt her stomach drop.

“What do you mean? Are you rejecting me?” She’d heard the stories, but never imagined it could happen to her.

Thankfully, he shook his head. “I’m not saying no, I’m saying not yet. You need to grow into yourself first.”

“That’s… fair.” Well, it wasn’t ideal, but she was sure that once she’d gotten over the shock, she’d be grateful he hadn’t proposed on the spot. Her cousin swore up and down that had happened to an old classmate of his. “You want my number?”

His eyes sharpened. “You got an email? It’s probably more reliable.”

Darcy nodded and went to write it down. Halfway through the first email she’d made when she was twelve - and her mom was right, she really needed to get a more ‘professional’ one - she scribbled it out and wrote in her college email instead. There was no way she was introducing herself to her soulmate with [email protected] (listen, underscores used to be cool, all right?) which reminded her - “I’m Darcy,” she said. “In case you were wondering.”

“Brock,” he replied.

“Like from - “

He sighed. “Yes, like from Pokemon.”

She pressed her email into his hand. “Nice to meet you, Brock.”

~~~

Their communication was sporadic, interrupted as it was by exams (Darcy) and super-secret overseas assignments (Brock), but over the next little while, Darcy discovered her soulmate was kind of a dork.

Sure, he’d mastered martial arts she’d never even heard of, refused to listen to music past the year 2000, and admitted he’d never actually played Pokemon. But when she sent a Nintendo DS to the post box he’d finally admitted to having, he kept her up to date on his progress through Pokemon Pearl and argued with her on her choice of starters.

Best of all, however, he asked about her. He quizzed her at length on her childhood, on her family and friends, and in return, she heard about the life of an army brat who never really saw himself doing anything else. She told him all about her degree, bouncing essay ideas off him when he was in the country long enough to reply in time. He was especially interested in her own ideas on the sliding scale from freedom to security, positing hypotheticals that ranged from the silly to the downright chilling.

As time passed, she began to hint about meeting up, but he would deflect, telling her it wasn’t the right time. Eventually, she gave up. The first email after she stopped hinting had a distinct note of relief, so Darcy resigned herself to a platonic bond.

Brock was not impressed when she landed an internship in the middle of New Mexico, but then, his emails had a rather overprotective streak, so Darcy wasn’t fussed. She decided against giving too many details after the whole ‘Loki and the Destroyer’ thing, but he somehow found out anyway.

Boy, that was a fun set of emails.

After that, their first real fight, conversation sort of… tailed off. Brock didn’t stop emailing, exactly, but he was more distant, less interested. By the time Jane landed a job at Stark Industries, Darcy in tow, she’d whittled him down to a penpal in her mind. A friend. Someone she’d met once, a long time ago. When a server glitch at Culver disconnected Darcy's email address, she barely noticed. It didn’t hurt at all. Really.

~~~

"Who is Crossbones?" Darcy asked, running her finger down the list of guests for Tony's event for superhuman, enhanced, or otherwise heroic individuals.

"Hmm?" Pepper glanced over from where she was doing final detail checks on the schedule. "Someone Steve knows from Washington. Ex-SHIELD, possibly ex-Hydra. I think Steve said something about him being a double agent, but until we know his reasons for turning, Tony is hesitant to have him on the team."

"Fair enough," Darcy agreed. "I won't seat him with the rest of the ex-SHIELD crew then. Oh, have you taken a look at your speech? I emailed the revised version to you this morning."

"No, I haven't. Thanks for reminding me." Pepper made a note on her tablet. "Will Jane be coming, do you know?"

Darcy shook her head. "When I checked this morning, she said she was done with superheroes and promised not to blow a hole in the time-space continuum if I brought her canapes afterwards." She looked down at her list again. "I still think we should have nametags. What am I supposed to call this guy? Mr Bones?"

“You could just ask him,” Pepper suggested.

“Doubt it.”

~~~

Darcy was making the rounds, clipboard in hand and desperately wishing for nametags, when Steve caught her eye. Once he had her attention, he beckoned her over to where he stood with another man.

“Rumlow, this is Darcy, our coordinator and facilitator. Darcy, this is -”

Darcy’s jaw dropped. Also her clipboard, but she barely noticed. “Brock?”

The man next to Steve caught the clipboard, his own stunned gaze meeting hers. “Darcy?”

“How - what - what are you doing here?”

“Could ask you the same question.”

“Do you two know each other?” Steve asked, looking between them, bemused.

Darcy plucked the clipboard from Brock’s hand and passed it to Steve, her eyes never leaving Brock’s face. “Be a dear and sign people in, would you?” Taking Brock’s hand, she dragged him through one of the staff entrances and into a storeroom she’d inspected earlier.

“You’re Crossbones?” she demanded, as soon as they were alone. ��You’re the ex-Hydra guy?”

“How did you know about that?” Instead of letting her answer, he cupped her cheek with his hand. “I can’t believe you’re here.”

She pushed his hand off her face. “You can’t just - it’s been six years!”

He dropped his gaze and his hand. “I know. I’m sorry, I didn’t think. Are you - is there someone else?”

“No,” she responded immediately, and his drooping shoulders straightened. “But I thought you didn’t want me!”

“Darcy, you were too young.”

She paused. “I’m not in college any more.”

“No, you’re certainly not.”

“Oh good,” Darcy said, before dragging his mouth down to hers.

It was a few minutes before they broke apart, Darcy’s fancy updo in curls around her face and both of them breathing heavily.

Brock shook his head. “I had a whole speech, you know. For if I ever saw you again. I was going to explain everything that went down at SHIELD.”

Darcy waved a hand in dismissal. “I already know most of that. I need to know if you’re going to stick around.”

“Do you want me to?”

“Of course!”

He didn’t even have to think about it. “Then I will.”

“Oh good.” She began to pin her hair back up. “We should probably go out and rejoin the party. Oh! Did you know there’s another Pokemon game out?”

Brock snorted. ‘You’re going to ruin my image with Rogers.”

“Is that a yes, though?”

“Yes.”

Giggling, she slipped her arm into his and snuggled against his side. “Let’s go.”

#TaserBones #Darcy Lewis #Brock Rumlow #soulmate AU

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nebulousneuroticism · 5 years

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Here follows a very long and involved retrospection on the past decade, beginning in 2010, and a long, rambling planning session for the new decade, the roaring 20′s. It’s very long. But I think it was useful.

So here we are, in the year two thousand and twenty. How strange. A whole new decade awaits. At this time ten years ago, I was a junior in high school. I lived here, in this bedroom. I got up super-early every day, because school started at eight am, and it was a drive to get there. I suppose as a junior, I would have been starting to worry about college applications. Looking back, I seem to recall being somewhat depressed that winter (or maybe it was the previous one).

It’s so strange to think that was all ten years ago... I’m somehow simultaneously shocked at how long it’s been, and also at how much has changed.

Since then, I graduated high school. I chose a college, went there. Fought depression, got good grades, graduated. Got a job, moved across the country. Worked and saved money. And now I’m here.

Perhaps it will be useful to me, as I contemplate what the new decade will bring, to also contemplate what I did well (or poorly) in the past years.

My goal throughout school was always pretty straightforward and traditional: get good grades to get into a good college, get good grades there to get a good job, do well there to earn money. In that respect, I’ve done pretty well. I did well in school, and I got a pretty nice job. But I no longer see that nice, well-defined path forward. I’ve saved some money--now what?

Socially, my life has been less good. In 2010, I had a solid core of good friends and acquaintances. I wasn’t a social person, by any stretch of the imagination, but I had close friends. In college, I failed. I found only one or two friends, and it was enough to get by, but I missed a lot. And in my working life... well, until this year, I wouldn’t say I had made a single friend in my new city at all. I’ve done an okay job of keeping in touch with some old friends from high school, but also I totally lost an equal number, including almost every one from college.

Romance is a side of socializing, I suppose. I’ve still never found the guts to ask anyone out besides high school prom. The only change here is that a couple years ago, that cute girl found the guts to ask out me, and now I find myself in a very unusual relationship. This is an area of active change, and I’m learning more all the time.

Maybe hobbies deserve their own paragraph. The media I consume, the way I spend my free time? My hobbies have changed over the past decade. In high school, I read voraciously, watched television with my family, and occasionally played a game on the DS or Wii. In college, with all my own free time, that shifted--I still read a lot (I have a very fond memory of reading all the Game of Thrones books on my freshman roommate’s bean bag chair), but I started to spend a lot of time on video games (I have equally fond memories of endlessly playing Team Fortress 2 at a creaky dorm desk). And that shift only continued after college, when I suddenly found myself with much less free time. Are these trends good or bad? Neither, I think. They simply are.

As for my more creative hobbies, they remain mostly unchanged--in college, I sometimes took classes that encouraged me to pursue them, but other than that, I never truly succeeded in writing or programming anything to completion, and putting it out into the world.

What else is there? My health? I’ve been lucky in that regard--no major illnesses or injuries in the past ten years. Well, except depression, of course, which is an illness of a different sort. My physical health has been fine. I’ve been a little worried, recently, that the inactivity of my job is taking a toll--I get winded more easily, and I’ve noticed a little more body fat--but I wouldn’t say I’m unhealthy. Even so, through the college years, I used to walk and bike a ton. All that is gone now, and that’s bad.

So. This retrospection has been instructive. What does this mean for the decade to come?

Well, I guess there are a few things that could use improvement:

professional goals: I need to figure out where my career goes next and what I do with the money I’m saving

social life: I need closer friendships (not necessarily more friendships, but I should try to form some deeper bonds)

creative drive: I want to finish my side projects

physical health: I need to be more active and monitor my health better

Do those things make sense, or am I just listing the things I already know I need in my life, but never take action to gain? Do I have a hope of achieving these things? I feel like my greatest success in the last ten years was in the area where I had the clearest plan, the clearest path forward: grades to college to job to money. Those are the clearest, most concrete goals I’ve ever had, and they were provided to me by... well, by society. So now, just telling myself, “you need to figure this out” is not useful. Only with a very clear plan will I make a change or any progress in my life.

So what do these things actually look like?

For professional goals, it seems like I have a few options: stay the course and just stay where I am and climb the ladder at my existing company; shop around looking for a new job, possibly closer to home, possibly with higher risk/reward; and then the wild and wacky options, like starting my own business or going back to school. I suppose those are in order of increasing risk--and the more I think about it the more this really does seem like a risk tolerance game, since the savings I’ve been trying to earn for so long are a buffer against risk. Going back to school would also require reevaluating my priorities altogether, depending on my chosen degree.

Improving my social life is hard and scary for me. My D&D group is a good start (frankly, it’s the only positive development in my social life in a long time). I need to continue to maintain the friendships I already have, even the long-distance ones; without my best friend, for instance, I would be completely lost. And maybe this ties in to my creative goals--one way to try to finish a side project is to bring in collaborators or join a community.

Creative drive and physical health will both be a time commitment. That seems obvious to me. I need to commit to them, be organized, keep a schedule, be conscientious and principled. And that means taking time from my other hobbies--less time whiled away in front of a video game or a twitch stream. It’s a tradeoff, as simple as that. The real question for these two is: how committed am I, really?

This is all a lot of words, huh. What does it mean? What’s the big, ten-year plan?

I suppose after all of this, the very vague big plan would look something like this:

Do a risk calculation to figure out my next professional move. How much of a buffer do I need to make it? Stay the course in the meantime. Keep developing my friendships where I am, e.g. with my D&D group. Rearrange my schedule for exercise and creativity. Find a community to support me creatively, and complete my first side project.

Next, make whatever move it is I decide to make at work. That may involve moving, which could be a setback socially and emotionally; I’ll have to deal with that. It may also change my schedule, and what it means to be active and social. Complete more side projects, develop my relationships more deeply. Increase my goals for fitness (if desired).

At this point, I should be settled professionally for a bit, productive creatively, and slightly more secure socially. This would be the time to consider more risks creatively or socially: depending how things are going, consider upgrading my creative pursuits from hobby status to something more, or starting to seek out or develop relationships romantically.

In terms of concrete goals for the year, this would mean:

Determine my professional goal and the proper timing for a change

Exercise at least 52 times (1/week)

Develop a friendship in my D&D group (meet and be comfortable outside of that context)

Complete a side project (that is, publish it publicly)

And in terms of what to do tomorrow:

Risk calculation of different professional options

Make a schedule for exercise, creativity, and other hobbies (probably weekends?)

Maybe this is all just hogwash. But I feel better having hashed it out, and who knows--maybe I’ll stick to it.

Introspection is hard work. That took like two hours of writing and thinking. You know, they say that what you do when the new year starts will define your entire year. Perhaps I’ll spend all year writing tumblr blog posts. Perhaps all decade.

Happy 2020, everyone!

#in which I retrospect on a decade

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ofnailbatsandaxefives · 5 years

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November Short Stories (Week 1)

okay, so since I have no time to properly dedicate to NaNoWrimo, I’ve decided that in November instead of having a word goal that I can’t make, I will write 4 separate short stories over the course of the month. My creativity has been lackluster lately because of stress and other factors, so this is a way for me to get back in the game. So, without further ado, below is my first short story of the month about what happens when two best friends are dared to go into their small town’s “haunted house” based around the quote “You can’t see me, can you?” (P.S. It’s probably completely crappy and nonsensical cause I wrote it at 1 am and honestly had no idea where my brain was going)

*under read more for length*

----

The house at the end of Cherry Hill Lane had become the object of many dares for the middle school and high school aged residents of Jasper Groves for the past thirty years. There had been different stories over the years about what had happened in the house. One said a whole family had been murdered there, another that a 16 year old girl had been possessed and killed her parents and little sister in their sleep, and still there were more. The only thing consistent in all the stories is that the person who committed the crimes had no memory of what they had done.

Miles stood with his best friend, Patrick, at the bottom of the steps, both trying to steady their nerves.

"What are you waiting for?" a voice came from the sidewalk. It was Robert Wizensky. One of the Wizensky twins that had dared the two to go inside to prove the weren't scared.

Miles clenched his fists down by his side, muttering to himself that he wasn't scared before making his way up to the door and stepping inside. Patrick was just a few seconds behind him.

Neither of them had been sure what to expect inside the house. Maybe, that all of a sudden some ghost or demon or other supernatural force would jump out at them, but nothing happened. It was just an old house with peeling wallpaper and an old smell that reminded Miles of his grandmother.

Patrick pulled his phone out, "five minutes" he said, pushing the button to start the countdown, and then slipping the phone back into his pocket. Five minutes. That was how long they'd been dared to go inside. If they succeeded then they would hold the record for having been inside the house on Cherry Hill Lane the longest. The current record was held by Peter Hermann, who had lasted 3 minutes and 27 seconds.

Content with just staying right inside the doorway, Miles took a seat to wait out the time. Even if there were ghosts he was close enough to the door to get out quickly. Patrick, on the other hand, was ready to explore. He'd always been the more adventurous of the two, a quality that Miles both admired and hated about his friend, usually because Patrick was good at getting him to tag along and do things he didn't want to, albeit very reluctantly.

Miles wasn't sure how long Patrick had been exploring the other rooms in the house, his own phone had been taken for two weeks after receiving two Ds on his report card, until the sound of the alarm, signifying the five minutes had ended. They'd done it. They'd beaten the record, proved they weren't scared, and with that hopefully earned the respect of some of the most popular kids at Jasper Groves Middle School. Something was wrong though. The alarm was still going long after Patrick should have shut it off.

"Patrick?" Miles called out for his friend, going further into the house and trying his best to follow the sound of the phone.

The alarm grew louder and louder as he went back towards the bedrooms, until finally Miles found it. Laying on the floor of the room at the very end of the hall on the right. "Alright, come out Patrick" he said stepping inside and picking the phone up to turn the alarm off. He took a look around, trying to figure out where Patrick could be hiding. The only real place in the room was the closet, but when Miles opened the door there was nothing inside. He checked the room next door, and then the bathroom, and the linen closet. Still, Patrick was nowhere to be found. "Okay, Pat, this isn't funny" he swallowed, and his nerves grew worse and worse as each second passed that Patrick hadn't jumped out and yelled 'gotcha' or 'boo' or something else that would have let Miles know he was okay and just playing a joke.

He searched the entire place, but found no trace of Patrick, other than the phone that was now gripped tight in his hand. It was like he had just vanished into thin air. Was that even possible? Could someone just disappear like that?

A week passed and then a month after Patrick had vanished. There were missing persons pictures up all over the town, featuring a picture from Patrick's Bar Mitzvah party that had been just two weeks before the dare. He was the first kid in almost twenty years to have gone missing, and while the town seemed to be concerned that he was missing, there were still people who liked to spread rumors. He had just run away from home, his dad had murdered him and buried the body, his parents were hiding him in their basement and had made up the story of him going missing for attention.

Miles knew the truth, though. He knew something had happened inside the house that day, even if he didn't know what exactly. Every day he found himself going by the house, sometimes simply walking by, and others he found himself at the bottom of the steps and staring up at the door. He never went in though, even when he felt a pull to go inside. It was like the house was calling to him, wanting him to go inside, and part of him wondered if that feeling wasn't the house, but Patrick. Each time he shook his head, telling himself that was stupid, before leaving.

One day as he passed on his way home from school, the feeling was stronger than it had ever been. Strong enough that this time, he went all the way up to the door. "Patrick?" he opened the door, before muttering to himself that this was stupid. He took a step inside though, calling his friend's name again, not sure if he actually expected him or someone else to answer back. "Patrick if you're somewhere you have to tell me. I'm your best friend and best friends tell each other things." If Patrick was somehow here, he deserved to know it.

"Okay, I'm leaving then" Miles said when there had been no answer or other sign. However, when he actually started to step back out of the house there was a noise that sounded like a loud thud. "Pat?!" Miles went back to where he thought the thud had come from. The same room that he had found Patrick's phone. He looked around. Just as it had been a month ago, there was no sign of the other boy, and just like then none of this made any sense. It came again, though, it sounded like it was coming from the closet. Miles opened the door, but nothing was inside. THUD. There it was again, only this time it was louder. Thud. Thud. Thud. It was getting louder and happening more and more frequently. It sounded like it was coming from the wall in the back of the closet.

Miles didn't know what to do. His heart was pounding and all he wanted to do was turn and run out of there as fast as he could, but his legs wouldn't move. Why wouldn't the stupid things move? Then almost as quickly and out of nowhere that they'd started, the thuds stopped.

"Miles?"

That voice. He knew that voice.

"Patrick?" it couldn't be, though.

"Miles!"

"Where are you?" Miles asked, this didn't make any sense. How was he hearing him right now when there was no one else in the room, or even the house. "Can you see me?"

"I can see you"

"Okay, but where are you?"

"I'm in the closet"

Miles frowned, as he was looking in the closet right now and it was completely empty. "What are you talking about?"

There was a long pause, "You can't see me, can you?"

"No" Miles shook his head. "Patrick, what's going on? How can I hear you and how can you see me, but I can't see you?" There was a part of him that wondered if Patrick was a ghost, but he would have found a body or something, right?

"I don't know."

After thinking for a moment, Miles spoke again, "Okay, umm, do you remember what happened last month? Maybe we can figure out what happened that way."

"I left my phone on the floor and hid in the closet so I could jump out at y- last month? What do you mean last month?"

"Last month. The Wizensky brothers dared us to - "

"Yeah, yeah, I know that, but what are you talking about it was last month?"

"I - what are you - never mind-" How long Patrick thought it had been didn't matter. "Okay, so you hid in the closet and then what?"

"When I opened the door to jump out at you you weren't there. I looked around the whole house, and you weren't anywhere. I thought you'd left, but that didn't make sense. Best friends don't leave each other behind."

Miles bit his lip, tapping his finger against his chin, and making a soft hmmm sound as he thought. "What if you hid in the closet again? Maybe if you hide again, this time when you open the door you'll come back?" It sounded stupid when he said it out loud, but it was worth a shot, right?

"I've tried" Patrick sighed, his voice filled with defeat.

If he'd tried and nothing had happened, then Miles really was at a loss for what to do. He thought of something then, it sounded absolutely crazy, but then again this whole situation was just that. He took off his shoes, placed them inside the closet, and shut the door. After counting to a hundred he opened the door. His shoes were missing.

"Check the closet, Pat. Are my shoes there?" he asked, a slight excitement in his voice. Even if he couldn't figure out how to get Patrick back, maybe he'd at least figured something out.

"Yeah, they're here" Pat said after a moment, "man, you really need to get some new shoes."

It had worked! The shoes were there, wherever there was. His thoughts had been right. Inhaling deeply, he took a step into the closet and then another. "Best friends don't leave each other behind" he whispered to himself before closing the door.

#short stories #writing #none of this was edited so forgive any grammar mistakes #mostly doing this to get back in the groove of writing #so this is definitely more for me then anyone else

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surveys-at-your-service · 5 years

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Survey #220

“as long as god in heaven dwell, your soul, your soul shall scream in hell.”

Would people consider you more immature or mature? It depends on the context. Emotionally, I think I'm considerably mature. As far as eligibility to be a proper adult goes, yeah. No. Would people consider you more funny or serious? I personally don't think I'm very funny, but I'm not super serious, either. Are you currently in love with someone? Who is this person? So... I'm quietly pondering over whether or not I'm just biromantic, not bisexual. I genuinely think I'm in love with my girlfriend, I do, but we have so, so little actually sexual experience that I don't know if "bisexual" fits me. I totally adore her romantically, I know that, but maybe sexually, I'm not into her? I don't know. It's hard for me to say because when I picture doing certain "things," I can't really tell what I feel. I don't take that as an "I'm not into it" though, considering I've wound up liking things with a guy I didn't think I would with anyone, something I only discovered by doing it. This whole situation was driving me insane a few days ago to the point I felt sick, but I've calmed myself out of it to where I've accepted I just have to wait and learn, being long-distance. I'm still entirely invested in us and am going to be honest learning about myself. I haven't actually talked to Sara about it and don't want to unless I come to learn this hunch has credibility. Which room in your house are you in? What color are the walls? My bedroom; light puke green, Why God. What is your absolute favorite hobby? Who got you interested in it? I don't really know about my "absolute favorite." It depends on my mood, really. I think maybe watching my favorite YouTubers tops the list, something Jason actually started with PewDiePie; or RPing, which I got into myself thanks to Meerkat Manor. Would the people you know say you have a nice singing voice? Barely anyone ever hears me sing, so idk. I personally feel my voice suits only few songs. Would you say most of your friends are older/younger than you? Ummm, good question. All but two are very close in age range, but most of my friends/closer acquaintances are kinda split around either side. Were you named after anyone famous or anyone on television? Nope. Are you listening to music right now? If so, who’s singing the song? Yeah, I'm listening to Khemmis' cover of "A Conversation With Death." It's the intro song to that new game Man of Medan and is so badass. All the comments are like "came here from so-and-so's LP because this is epic" and same. What is your dream career? What inspired you to pursue this career? Probably meerkat biologist if I could handle the heat and was okay with moving, or paleontologist if I wasn't opposed to heavy travel. I love meerkats and dinosaurs v v much. If you have a significant other, do you get jealous of people a lot? No. What would you say is your favorite holiday? Why did you choose this? Halloween bc spooks and costumes and candy. Does it feel odd being around your friend’s parents? Why or why not? If I'm alone with them and don't know them very well, sure? What is your favorite fast food restaurant? Is there one in your city? Sonic, probably. And no, but in our neighboring city. What is your favorite sit-down restaurant? Is there one in your city? Olive Garden. See above. Do you ever take pictures with family members around the holidays? Mom pretty much forces it, lol... Have you ever thought you were adopted because of opposing interests? Y'ALL not kidding I legit asked my fucking mom if I was adopted in elementary school bc I thought she hated me one day versus my little sister lmfao. I went through a phase of feeling like she couldn't be "this mean" to her legitimate child. Are you more interested in indoor activities or outdoor things? Hm, that depends on the activities available. Most outdoor things are more fun, though. When is the next time you’ll see someone you’re crushing on? We were just talking a couple days ago about our next visit, actually. If I can financially, I'm probably coming up to see her for her birthday again, as that's when I have a decent break from school. Speaking of which, how many people are you crushing on right now? Lol I mean it's been just shy of two years, a "crush" doesn't cut it. Have you ever played Super Mario Bros. for Nintendo DS? Was it fun? No, actually. I didn't grow up playing Mario games. What exactly is your favorite gaming system? Do you have this system? The PS2. It had a giant graphical leap, contains SOOOOO many goodies, and you can still play PS1 games on it. How often do you talk on the phone? Who do you talk with the most? Very very rarely, pretty much only ever with my mom or dad. I hate talking on the phone. Do you normally do what other people around you want you to do? Depends. What does your trick-or-treat bag or pail look like? I don't have one anymore, but it used to be an orange, plastic jack-o-lantern. How old will you turn on your next birthday? 24... wow. What are your plans to celebrate? Probably just go out to dinner with family. What floor do you live on? I only have one floor. Do you have a balcony? No. What is your favorite fall drink, if you had to pick just one? None. Which X Factor audition(s) was/were your favorite? I've never watched it. Were you a straight A student in spelling and grammar? I'm pretty sure I was in my entire school career... Damn dude, proud. Were you a straight A student in math? HA hell no. I could get a C sometimes. Were you abused or do you know anyone who was abused? I wasn't, but I know people. Are you a Democrat or Republican, or neither? Neither. Independent. Who would take care of you if you needed surgery? My mom and dad, as far as bills go. Do you think you have an accent? Not really. Sometimes you can hear it, though. Have you been told you have an accent? Only when I was younger. I had a SERIOUS one. My family in NY couldn't even understand me sometimes, lmao. Where do you live (country or state)? North Carolina. If you could start a church, what would it be like? I wouldn't. Are there any shades of blue that you don’t like? If so, which ones? Nah. What is something you want to accomplish before you turn 30? Get a goddamn stable job. Do you know what your purpose in life is? Spreading the love and respect of animals and conservation. If you live in an apartment, what is the maintenance man’s name? N/A What are some fall activities you would do with your kids? Hypothetically, if I had/wanted kids, I'd enjoy carving pumpkins with them, obviously taking them trick-or-treating, autumnal crafts would be fun together, and watching Halloween/scary films appropriate to their age would be a nice experience. I'd decorate the house with them. Oh, a hayride would be cool together, I love those. AND DON'T FORGET JUMPING INTO LEAF PILES! I have a lot of ideas for someone who doesn't want to be a mom. Have you ever seen a fox? Yeah. At least one alive, a handful as roadkill. What color are the squirrels where you live? Brown. What do the trees look like where you live? Pine trees. Pine trees. What was the best vacation you’ve been on so far? Disney World as a kid. What is the best class trip you’ve been on? I really enjoyed the trip to Beaufort to an island of wild horses. The water was rough that day, and goddamn... watching the ocean in its aggression was unbelievable. Did you like field trips when you were a kid? UM, DID ANY KID NOT????? Do you find museums boring or interesting? Very interesting! Gimme a science museum and I'm SOLD. What are three issues you are passionate about? GAY RIGHTS, wildlife and nature conservation, women's rights and the pro-choice argument. What are three countries you have no desire to visit? North Korea, Iraq, and... uh... idk. I guess the Middle East in general. That shit's rough. Do you like your country’s flag? Sure? Stars r dope? Would you ever wear a shirt with your country’s flag on it? NO. What’s a medicine that makes you sleepy? Oh. My. God. When I was on three Klonopin a day (I'm now on just one and don't even take it every day), I literally could not function. There was one day in particular (I was on three very briefly bc of this) where I just slept until evening. I physically could not stay awake. I remember I was in the middle of watching a Game Grumps' Mario playthrough, and I'd only last like, ten minutes before I HAD to lie back down, and I'd fall back asleep in like, a minute. That was one of the most awful days ever, I was miserable. Do you like bath bombs? Sure, they're pretty. Who is your favorite neighbor? I don't actually know any. Who are your favorite small YouTubers? He's not very small, I think he's at about a million and a half subs, but Timmy Timato is so fucking iconic. He is an Actual Mood. I have no interest in what he actually posts; I just watch for him. As well, Johnny Paranormal is cool; he's a fuckin awesome guy and is chill and relaxing to watch. I don't watch him religiously, though. Rarely, actually. Who are your favorite big YouTubers? HAVE U HEARD OF????? THE MARKIPLIER GUY??????? What was your favorite girl group when you were growing up? I think it was the Pussycat Dolls, fuck off, don't say shit 2 me "Buttons" is still dope. Do you like Disney movies? Blocked & reported if you don't. What’s your favorite superhero movie? Man idk, I enjoy a lot. I enjoyed The Avengers, and Logan REALLY tugged at my heart. Do you have any credit card debt? I don't have a credit card. Have you ever been really late for work because you slept past your alarm? No. What was your favorite way to spend a summer day as a kid? Swimming. What’s the longest you’ve worked without a day off? Probably like... two days, lmao. It's not like I have a lot of experience. Have you ever been scammed? I don't think so. Where were you the last time you kissed someone? The airport. How’s your mental health? Are you feeling well? It's fine. Do you struggle with acne? No, not anymore. Do you have any uncommon interests or hobbies? RP is definitely the "strangest." Have you ever fostered an animal? No. Are you the clubbing type? Definitely not. Never been, not interested. Bar goer? No. I don't trust strangers + alcohol, and I'd be really scared of being hit on. Song you can’t stand? I don't think there's a song I've heard that I hate more than "Welcome To The Machine" by Pink Floyd. Well, correction, "Friday" by Rebecca Black. That autotuned to all fuck voice is just... major ew. Is your ex sexually attractive to you still? Jason is. Well, if he looks the same as last time I saw him, which was in 2017. Juan doesn't look half bad. Aaron's cute. What is unattractive about them? Jason: fucking communication skills. Juan: his reckless streak. Aaron: nothing that I know of, he's a sweetie and on a great path. Your hottest ex’s name starts with the letter what? J. Pick two highlighter colors: Yellow, Pink, Blue, Purple, Orange. Pink and orange. Has anyone ever written on you? Who hasn't been written on by friends with markers as a kid? Have you ever dated a fat person? Yes. Have you ever dated someone with a fine ass body? I mean this with total respect and love towards her: Sara's body is genuinely sexy. Her figure is amazing. Have you ever had any article of clothing tailored? What for? Yeah, for prom, as well as my sister's wedding. Do you welcome people back when they say they have returned? Yes. What are two foods you think taste good with whipped cream? I fucking hate whipped cream. How long would it take you to walk to the nearest fire hydrant? I've never paid attention, actually... Do you own anything that has the words or picture of ‘mustache’? Well my Mark tribute tat has the Iconic pink mustache on it, and the texting screen background on my phone is also a pink mustache collage-y thing lmao. When you see a feather on the ground, do you ever pick it up? Yeah, sometimes. If you eat it, what is your favorite way to eat beef? On a burger. How would you feel marrying the man you love who has already a son? I don't love a man, and I wouldn't marry anyone with a kid. Have you ever played Roller Coaster Tycoon? What did you think of it? No, but I had SeaWorld Tycoon or whatever it was called. I loved that game. When you are chopping onions, does it really affect your eyes personally? I've never cut an onion myself, but when I'm in the proximity of someone doing it, I feel mild irritation. How long can you hold your breath for? Is there anyone who is better? Idk, I don't feel like testing it. When was the last time you had a pet goldfish? What was its name? I couldn't even try to guess. Are you insecure about your height? What made you think this way? No. Do you enjoy mayonnaise with French fries? Why or why not? Um that sounds disgusting. Did your last significant other have a huge temper? Actually, he warned me that he can and he was nervous about me ever seeing it. I, thank Christ, never witnessed it, though. I would've broken the fuck down, I can't handle angry men. What was the topic discussed in the last meeting you attended? I don't know the last time I went to a "meeting." Honestly, when’s the last time you genuinely liked someone? Now. Are you Team Jacob, Team Edward, or you just don’t care? I've never been into Twilight, but I find Jacob way more attractive. Do you like it when questions are long and make you think? Yes. Have you ever had love at first sight happen to you? No. Do you think Avatar is really all that great? I'm assuming you mean the movie and not TLA? I never saw the full thing, but I would love it. Love or trust? Trust, I think. You can't love someone in a healthy fashion if you don't trust them. What do you think about sexting? Not about that personally. That'd be so awkward. Have you ever done it? Those days where RP mating scenes on YouTube were over private message, timeskipping wasn't a thing... oh boy. It WAS uncomfortable. Would you ever swim with dolphins? Yeah! Have you ever believed a stereotype? Probably at some point. Have you ever tried marijuana? No, though tbh I probably would (but not through smoking it) for anxiety and panic attacks if it was legal in my state. Is there any reason you should be in jail right now? Can you go to jail for illegally downloading, or it is just a fine? Idk. Did the house you grew up in have a big yard? I mean, it was decent. What has been the most difficult class you’ve ever taken? Latin. That shit was so hard. Do you have any medication that you keep with you at all times? Yes, for panic attacks. What’s something that’s much more difficult than a lot of people realize? Heartbreak. Were you raised by both of your parents? If not, then who raised you? Yes, but Mom played a larger role. Did any of the classes you took in high school count towards uni credit? No. First thing you wash in the shower? My hair. Do you plan outfits? "Not unless it’s a special occasion." <<< Are your parents strict? No. Would you go sky diving? Probably not. I'm afraid of heights, and I'd be really scared the parachute wouldn't deploy. Who sits behind you in your math class? Quite honestly, a bitch. She always has shit to say under her breath. Do you have good vision? No, it's awful. When was the last time you watched a show for people younger than you? Last I was with Sara. We're watching Avatar: The Last Airbender together. Have you ever snuck someone into your house before? No. Is there something your significant other does that bothers you completely? She's competitive and admits to it. A lot, particularly in writing, is a "mine needs to be better" thing. When was the last time you kissed someone on the cheek? When I saw my niece and nephew at my nephew's birthday party. How many best friends do you have? One. Did you ever get bullied as a child or were you the bully? Neither. Would you rather eat grape or strawberry jelly or jam? GRAPE. I hate strawberry jam/jelly. Do your parents ever send you to do their grocery shopping for them? No. Do you know anyone who has a speech impediment? I don't think I do personally. If you have your ears pierced, when did you get them pierced? When I was like... 11-12 or so, maybe? Possibly younger? Have you ever had a significant other who hit you? Fuck no. Do you own any exercise machines? No. Do you still leave/receive voicemails? If I need to, sure. School leaves me voicemails sometimes if I miss a call. Do you live in your hometown? No. Are you a festive person? Do you enjoy holidays? Not very festive, but I mean, I enjoy 'em. Did you/Will you attend college? I'm back in college now!! You’re feeling down - do you listen to sad music or happy? Sad. Listening to music fitting my mood helps me feel related to and not alone. You’re looking for some new music - what’s your preferred way to discover? YouTube recommendations. Do you watch the news? No. What hooks you to a television show? The most important thing is A GOOD PLOT!!! It needs to be really interesting to me, bc I do NOT get into shows easily. As for funny shows, they need to be fuuuuunny. I don't think I could ever get "hooked" on a show again, though. I just don't watch TV. Have you ever received anesthesia or morphine? Yes. On the morphine occasion, it didn't do jackshit. I don't think they gave me nearly enough. Is there anyone that makes your skin crawl? The #1 thing that most fits the definition of "skin crawling" to me is seeing a fetus move from outside the stomach, especially the further the mother is along. It's fucking alien-esque and actually makes me scream and panic. Are people more likely to tell you to tone it down or to speak up? It can be either. Do you have a dining room in your house? No. Do you know the alphabet in any other languages? Very close to all of German's. I blank and aren't sure on a couple. How many people have you had sex with? One. Have you ever been surfing? No.

#survey #quiz #questions #random #bored

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ebaeschnbliah · 6 years

Text

ABOUT THE MEANING OF SERIES ONE

________________________________________________________________

INTRODUCTION - USER MANUAL - CHAPTER LIST

A little while ago I made a short summary and overview of my ideas and theories regarding the events round the ‘Reichenbach Fall’ - including (mostly) the episodes ASIB, THOB, TRF and TEH - I called it: The Big Question.

This new post can be seen as a prequel to The Big Question. It deals with the episodes of Series One (including the Unaired Pilot). Unlike the other post, this is less about a possible decoding of the actual stories told in those episodes, but more about the probable funktion of Series One as ...

introduction (ASIP)

user manual (TBB)

chapter list (TGG)

,,, for Sherlock BBC as a whole. If S1 - and especially TGG - is, what I think it is, perhapst TGG as the ‘chapter list’ could provide some interesting hints regarding a possible continuation of the stoy, that feels at the end of TFP still very unfinished.

Enjoy this idea if you like under the cut ...

UNAIRED PILOT & A STUDY IN PINK

The most important function is, of course, the introduction of the main characters

Sherlock Holmes

Dr. John Watson

Mrs. Martha Louise Hudson - landlady not the housekeeper

Dr. Molly Hooper - pathologist

DI Greg Lestrade

DS Sally Donovan (different actors in PILOT & ASIP)

Philip Anderson - forensic scientist (wears a beard in PILOT)

Therapist Ella Thompson

Jeff Hope - serial killer

Mycroft Holmes (online appearance in PILOT)

Moriarty (name mentioned only ASIP)

Some interesting details of PILOT

The very first e-mail Sherlock opens is from Mycroft. He asks online for his brothers advice regarding ‘an impossible situation’. Sherlock answers with the famous canon Holmes quote: ‘When you have eliminated the impossible whatever remains must be the truth.’

Sherlock calls John ‘good, old Dr. Watson’ only hours after their aquaintance. This phrase is from the last paragraph of the last canon story His Last Bow and it continues: “You are the one fixed point in a changing age. There’s an east wind coming … ”

John shoots serial killer Jeff Hope from the house opposite 221b Baker Street. In the canon story The Empty House, this is the spot Colonel Moran (right hand man of Prof. Moriarty and only survivor of his criminal network) chooses for his planned assassination of Sherlock Holmes. He gets caught in his own trap.

The topics ‘chess’, ‘playing the game’ and ‘a choice between two different options’ appear for the first time and will turn out to become a recurring theme through all currently existing episodes.

Ella, the ‘changeable’ therapist is later in the story replaced by a dead therapist in an airing cupboard, then by Elsa who finally turns out to be Eurus/Sherlock

Near the end of the episode a dog barks in the night … and dogs too will become a main theme that runs throughout the whole story, culminating in RedBeard. (Shoes for the Hound Dogs of the Mind Palace)

ASIP is, basically, a repetition of PILOT. The main differences (among some strange and seemingly unnecessary ones X) are:

The barking of a dog can be heard again. This time though at the beginning of the episode, immediately after John wakes from his nightmare and before he meets Sherlock for the first time (X)

Instead of five, ther are four victims. All of them get names. The phone of Jennifer Wilson, the pink lady, can be located by a tracking device called ‘MePhone’ (MyHeart?)

While in PILOT Sherlock approaches the killer, in ASIP it is the killer who approaches Sherlock (X X)

The final confrontation between detective and killer is moved from 221b Baker Street to a public school. John shoots Jeff Hope from the twin building of the school opposite

While in PILOT John throws his gun into the Thames, he keeps it in ASIP

Mycroft Homes appears in person and, at first, incognito. He declares himself to be Sherlock’s ‘arch enemy’. This leads to the assumption that he could be Holmes’ famous antagonist from canon … Professor James Moriarty. Only by the end of the episode it becomes clear that the mysterious man is actually Sherlock’s older brother

Another main character is added .… Moriarty. He is the sponsor of serial killer Hope and a ‘fan’ of Sherlock Holmes. To introduce Moriarty already in the first episode is a major divergence from canon in this adaptation

THE BLIND BANKER

This episode seems to serve as an ‘user manual’ for the whole story which indicates how ‘the game is played’ by introducing certain elements that will recur again and again in different variations:

locked murder mysteries and a killer who can break into everywhere

protections of high security facilities are bypassed or fail or suddenly cease to exist

secret informations, ancient cypers, codes, hidden messages and the indication that there will be a regular change of those codes by using a different book (a different story/a different stage play?)

the search for something very small but most valuable (a memory?)

the past is important (valuable information is found at the National Antiquities Museum=history)

smuggling things of great wealth connected to the East (past?) …. drugs and antiquities (chemistry of love and memories out of the past?)

theatre stages on different levels, masks and disguises (X)

character mirrors ((Soo Lin//Sherlock; Liang ‘Zhi Zhu’//Mycroft & Jim Moriarty (the brother and the spider); Andy//John; city boy Van Coon//Sherlock; freelance journalist Lukis//John)

character switching (at the circus (on stage) John becomes Sherlock, Dr. Sarah Sawyer becomes Dr. John Watson)

family dynamics: sibling rivalry, dead parents, orphans

criminal networks (emotions?) connected to disused transport routes (bodily functions?)

the mysterious character M lurks in the background and pulls the strings of a criminal network (Mycroft, Moriarty, Mary, Moran, Magnusson, Molly, Mummy, ME//Sherlock himself? His own worst enemy?)

people behind masks .... a veiled attacker with a sword, a masked escapist who needs to break free in time before he gets shot, a masked attacker from behind … all of them from the ‘East’

a dangerous ‘dragon’ also from the East (because every ‘dragon slayer’ needs his dragon?)

a sister from the East who knows how to decipher the code

key-locations: high up in the sky (bank//Bart’s roof//CAM Tower) and underground (dragon den black tramway//Sumatra Station//London Aquarium)

things sitting behind glass that should be out in the open and used

the art of tea making

being observed and the sign of the eye (X X)

assassins pretending to kill Sherlock but don't do it because they want something from him

the period of … ‘five years ago’

a desired relationship that doesn’t come to pass

John fighting with a ‘machine’ (Sherlock?)

German language (X)

things coming in pairs (X)

secret tattoos

spiderwebs (X)

pouring water, rain, spilled water by Sherlock as well as his attacker

cats (golden lucky cats and lions)

a dog (Chow-Chow) hiding in plain sight

the colour yellow (X X)

William (one of 13 by the end of TAB)

Most likely this list could be continued ….

THE GREAT GAME

This episode looks very much like a chapter list for the whole story.

The ‘cold’ cases in combination with the new ones become very explosive. As it turns out in the end, every single case is connected to or planned by Jim Moriarty, the master criminal who later calls himself Mr. Sex.

The episode starts with a case in Minsk, the East (the past?) which Sherlock dismisses. Then 221b is hit by a massive explosion from the outside and right after that, Mycroft turns up with an urgent case regarding the missing plans for a very important defense system … called the Bruce-Partington-Plans. Sherlock pretends to dismiss this case too. Instead he puts his ‘best man’ - John - onto it.

5 PIPS - 5 DOUBLE-CASES .... A CHAPTER LIST for 5 SERIES?

The explosion opposite 221b reveals a pink phone (identical to that in ASIP but new) and leads to a series of cold cases, each one announced by a backwards countdown of five Greenwich pips. And each of those cold cases starts with the abduction of a seemingly random person …

a middle-aged woman

a young man

a blind old lady

a child

John Watson

Sherlock has to solve the cold cases in time, in order to prevent the death of the victims who are strapped to vests full of explosive material. Sherlock is eager to play that game, assuming he knows who is behind it.

The first pip - the first case - Series ????

A pair of shoes, dissappeared twenty years ago, reappears mysteriously in the basement 221C Baker Street (Sherlock’s subconscious?). They lead Sherlock back in time to his first case … the unacknowledged and therefore still unsolved death of Carl Powers, a champion swimmer who had a fit in the water and drowned during a school tournament. During the investigation Sherlock makes the aquaintance of ‘Jim from IT’. Though Sherlock can prove in time that Carl Powers had indeed been murdered, the identity of the murderer stays in the dark.

The bombing victim - a middle-aged woman sitting in a car on a car park - survives.

The first of the Greenwich pip cases feels suspiciously like the beginning of a story that stays unsolved and is still untold by the end of The Final Problem in Series Four.

The second pip - the second case - Series Two

Banker Ian MONKford disappears. Only the car he rented a day before his disappearance turns up with a lot of MONKford’s blood on the seat. It doesn’t take long for Sherlock to deduce that the missing man has faked his death, that his wife is in on the plan and that the car hire company JanusCars has helped with the execution of the fraud … including MONKford’s journey to Columbia in South America. Special feature of interest: half of Columbia is dominated by the high summits of the Andes (5775m) and sadly, that country is also one of the largest exporter of cocain worldwide.

The bombing victim - a young man standing on a traffic island at Piccadilly Circus - survives.

The second of the Greewich pip cases has a lot in common with Sherlock’s own fake suicide and the events following The Reichenbach Fall. Fake blood on a ‘borrowed’ body (car). People being in on the plan. Janus-faced Mycroft and his agents providing the means for Sherlock to go undercover … at first apparently in Tibet (according to the following episodes MHR and TEH). Sherlock lives, disguised as a MONK, in a monastery high up in the Himalayan mountains, where he exposes a blond drug smuggler who had infiltrated the monks.

The third pip - the third case - Series Three

Connie Prince, a media TV star and famous for her ‘make-over’ (cover up) programmes, dies. After a quick investigation, Sherlock knows that she has been murdered by Raoul de Santos, her house boy, who is the lover of Connie’s brother Kenny. After a severe dispute the ‘big’ sister threatened to disiherit the brother, whom she constantly bullied and ridiculed. Raoul de Santos, who had grown accustomed to a certain lifestyle, took revange and poisoned his lover’s sister. Sherlock solves the case and Raoul de Santos goes to prison while Kenny stays back with Sekhmet, his sister’s cat.

The bombing victim - a blind, old lady - dies, because she starts to describe the bomber’s soft voice. The presumed gas explosion, caused by a shot at the explosive filled vest the old lady was wearing, claims 12 lives in total.

The third of the Greewich pip cases resurfaces again in Series Three in form of a multilayered story carried out by several character mirrors … vividly indicated by the refelctions on the mirror panes in HLV. Basically this happens: the case doesn’t start but ends with a ‘big one’ being murdered ... Magnusson (’son of the great’), the media mogul who bullies, ridicules and blackmails anyone whom he deems useful for his purposes. Magnusson threatens to expose Mary’s secret, which she fears could cause the break-up of her established relationship with John. But it is Sherlock who decides that a certain lifestyle should be maintained. He takes revange, kills Magnusson and is ready to go to prison/exile while Mary stays back with John.

The fourth pip - the fourth case - Series Four

The case of Alex Woodbridge, a security man who loved to gaze through big lenses at the stars, before he was suffocated and thrown into the water of the Thames, leads Sherlock to the painting of an old master. Sherlock knows right from the start that it is fake but he still has to prove it. The Golem, a killer who is known for executing people with his big hands, is hired to keep the secret of the fake painting. He tries to stop Sherlock as well, but John comes to his aid. The Golem escapes. Time is quickly running out. In contrast to the privious cases, the bombing victim, a child, is only revealed near the end. But no visuals are given. Just a scared voice on a phone calling for help. No location where the abducted child is held captive either. Instead Sherlock is confronted with a countdown from 10 to 1. He finds the required proof in the very last seconds … the Van Buren Supernova …. a massive explosion that happened not earlier but later than indicated.

Sherlock solves that case and the child survives.

The fourth of the Greenwich pip cases contains several key elements which play also an important role in Serious Four. There is a strong connection to water: ‘When does the path we walk on lock around our feet? When does the road become a river with only one destination?’. Fake identities (masks/spray tan) are revealed. A serial killer appears, who prefers to suffocate people with his bare hands. Scared children are begging for help, either high up in the sky on a falling plane or deep down in the ground in a flooding well. Old family paintings and modern family pictures are moved into focus. There’s a countdown from 10 to1. A massive explosion, caused by the so called ‘patience (passions) grenade’, hits 221b. One could describe that explosion as ‘postponed’ because it could have happened earlier in the story … at the pool where little Carl died …. at Guy Fawkes Night under the parliament … but it happens later.

The fifth pip - the fifth case - Series Five?

The fifth case is a hidden one. There is no Greenwich pip for it. The case starts before all the other cases, right after 221b is hit by the explosion across the street … where the canonical ‘empty house’ is located. It is Mycroft who brings that case to Baker Street. Plans for a very important defence system have gone missing … the Bruce Partington plans. It’s the case Sherlock pretends to dismiss. He lets Mycroft believe that he has put John onto it. He doesn’t tell John anything either. Sherlock keeps completely silent about that one and tries to keep everyone in the dark. But it seems that Sherlock is very well aware of the importance of this case …. the case of the stolen DEFENCE SYSTEM plans.

In contrast to the previous four Greenwich pip cases, which are each treated in one block, the individual parts of the Bruce Partington case are embedded in the others. After Mycroft has delivered the basis informations, three visual scenes are presented, each one accompanied by the sounds of a barking dog:

1 - While Sherlock investigates Carl Powers’ shoes, John visits Mycroft to get more details about the Bruce Partington case. The visuals appear in form of a flashback. That flashback is followed by Sherlock who still investigates the shoes and now discovers the poison involved in the murder of Carl Powers.

2 - A text message from Mycroft reaches John right after he has completed his investigations at Woodbridge’s flat. At the same time Sherlock turns up at the Hickman Gallery and talks to Mrs. Wenceslas. John visits Westie’s and Lucy’s flat to gain more informations regarding the missing plans. When he comes back to Baker Street, Sherlock already waits for him and they set out to the Vauxhall Arches, where they will meet the Golem.

3 - Right after Sherlock has solved the Van Buren Supernova case, John receives another impatient text message from Mycroft but only after wrapping the Van Buren case in Scotland Yard, he is able to investigate the railway tracks where Westie was found dead. Sherlock joins him there and though he admitts that he hadn’t dismissed his brother’s case at all, he doesn’t reveal anything else. Together they visit Joe Harrison’s flat and Sherlock confronts the man with his investigations. A flashback accompanies Joe’s confession and reveals what really happened to Westie and the Bruce Partington plans.

Now Sherlock has the missing plans in his hands. Yet, he doesn’t reveal the true meaning of the case. Instead he misleads John even more by claiming that his brother’s case had been nothing but a ‘distraction of the game’ and that the last Greenwich pip is still missing.

SHERLOCK: Distraction over, the game continues. JOHN: Well, maybe that’s over, too. We’ve heard nothing from the bomber. SHERLOCK: Five pips, remember, John? It’s a countdown. We’ve only had four.

And when John asks him about the whereabouts of the plans, Sherlock tells him another downright lie and pretends that he has returned the plans into his brothers hands.

JOHN: Have you given Mycroft the memory stick yet? SHERLOCK: Yep. He was over the moon. Threatened me with a knighthood – again.

But the very moment John has left the flat, Sherlock contacts the mysterious bomber and arranges a secret meeting to hand over the Bruce Partington plans … interestingly at the same pool where once little Carl Powers died. This means that Sherlock associates the plans of the DEFENSE SYSTEM not only with the outstanding fifth pip but also with the first pip of ‘the great game’. And his first words at the pool confirm, that it’s not his brother’s case which Sherlock considers to be the ‘distraction’ but the other cases of the ‘game’.

SHERLOCK: Brought you a little getting-to-know-you present. Oh, that’s what it’s all been for, hasn’t it? All your little puzzles; making me dance – all to distract me from this.

Despite Sherlock’s conviction that he knows what’s going on, a completely unexpected surprise awaits him at the pool. The bomber finally reveals himself as criminal mastermind Jim Moriarty (the former Jim from IT). He admits that he is the one responsible for Carl’s death twenty years ago as well as being the creative mind behind the ‘great game’. Shockingly, the fifth bombing victim turns out to be John.

There is no solution for the fifth case in The Great Game. The episode ends on an explosive cliffhanger. A stand-off between consulting detective and consulting criminal. No one dies because Irene Adler - Mrs. Sex - enters the stage per phone call, before Sherlock can bring himself to shoot the bomb vest … and kill them all.

The most interesting features of the FIFTH CASE …. especially with regards to a possible FIFTH SERIES of Sherlock BBC

There is no Greenwich pip for the fifth case:

maybe because the last case is actually also the first case?

the end runs a full circle back to the beginning?

Two main characters are dramatically moved into focus:

Dr. John Watson - good old Dr. Watson, the one fixed point in a changing age

Jim Moriarty - the changable criminal mastermind who calls himself Reichenbach … Rich Brook

The fifth case connects two different cases:

an old one (the twenty years old murder of Carl Powers)

a modern one (the missing Bruce-Partington Plans - the very important DEFENSE SYSTEM of the government)

The fifth case also combines two ‘first cases’:

the missing shoes of Carl Powers, found in 221c Baker Street, are marked with the first of the Greenwich pips. Additional this case is called ‘Sherlock’s first case’, the case where he began.

Mycroft’s request/order to retrieve the missing Bruce-Partington Plans, is the first case for Sherlock after the explosion opposite 221 Baker Street

Both cases ultimately end(ed) in the water of the same pool

Carl Powers

Bruce-Partington Plans

Both cases are initiated by Jim Moriarty … Rich Brook … Reichenbach

All in all ... the case of the missing DEFENSE SYSTEM is defined by absolute secrecy. Sherlock lies, conceals, deflects and hides his intentions and actions from the moment the case is presented to him. He tells no one, confides in no one … not even John.

Sherlock assumes he knows … and yet, what a massive rug pull is waiting for him at the pool ….

Deep waters, Sherlock, all your life. In all your dreams. Deep waters.

Related earlier posts regarding the idea of TGG functioning as a ‘chapter list’: FOUR STAGES & FOUR CASES (stages inside stages) and THE FIVE HOSTAGES (foreshadowing of five episodes).

I leave you to your own deductions. Thanks @callie-ariane for the scripts.

The three promo pics for S1 (ASIP, TBB, TGG) can be found here

December, 2018

@gosherlocked @sherlockshadow @sarahthecoat @possiblyimbiassed @raggedyblue @sagestreet @loveismyrevolution @spenglernot @devoursjohnlock @waitedforgarridebs

#series one #a possible meaning #description and content #overview

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yeonchi · 5 years

Text

Thinking about the future of EDGN

I’ve never asked a lot out of my fans over the years, but to some of my close fans (you know who you are), I’d really appreciate some helpful advice because this is an important decision I’m making that will affect both you, the fans, and myself.

To cut a long story short for a tl;dr, I no longer enjoy posting about the voice languages in localised Japanese games because of some recent events and realisations and I want to retire from the English Dubbed Game News page altogether.

It’s been about five years since I started all this with the Koei Warriors Rant Series and since then, everything I’ve done that’s related to English dub has brought me nothing but hate. I know it’s a bit of an exaggeration and some of my close fans may have something to say to the contrary, but I’ve been feeling quite negative lately and because of that, I think it’s a brutally honest summary.

After ending the Dub Logistics series, I thought the one thing I could do to repay my fans for their support over the years was to continue posting on EDGN. Personally, I think I’ve done enough already and also, as I said in a post back in August, I’ve been having doubts about the future of the page and what I want to do with it given my current interests. There are several factors that led to me having these doubts, which I’ll be outlining after the break. (I can’t even put horizontal lines in my posts with the rich text editor now, thanks Tumblr)

1. I was never interested in any game outside of the Koei Warriors series or any game I played in the past (eg. Dissidia Final Fantasy).

This really shouldn’t be a surprise to my fans because in the past, I’ve rarely posted anything outside of the series I was interested in, including the aforementioned series. If I came across something by chance and liked it, then I would do some investigation into it, but these days, the spark just doesn’t want to light up anymore.

I’ve never really taken the chance to buy new games because my family doesn’t believe in buying things that aren’t important and as such, I took that mantra to heart. While I never brought a PS3, I did get a Nintendo Wii, but I traded it in later for a Wii U and not a PS4, which I still regret to this day. I pirated my PSP, DS and PC games (let’s face it, who doesn’t) and played with emulators on my computer. I only got a Steam account to play Team Fortress 2 (laggy though it was on my shitty computer) and I never brought anything from it, which made it difficult for me to add friends on there (not that they really cared in the end).

By extension, this applies to anime as well, which is the reason why I never post anything outside of the same few animes on the Waifu Network or on my Facebook pages. My belief on sexism in anime has also contributed to this disinterest; the only reason why I’m still posting the same few animes is because I’m still somewhat interested in them and I’m grateful for how they inspired some personal projects of mine.

2. Various factors have led me to lose interest in video games, including the Koei Warriors Series.

The reason why I started my dub crusade in the first place was because of Warriors Orochi 3 (Ultimate) and Samurai Warriors 4 not being dubbed. The reason why I decided to jump ship was because of Dynasty Warriors 9 being dubbed, just not with the same cast I had grown to love. I know that there were extenuating circumstances for the latter, but given everything that happened between that time, my hope that the old English voice cast (since Dynasty Warriors 4-6/Warriors Orochi 1-2) would return to voice that game (and other future games) was gone.

In addition to the previous factor, I started to find myself with more commitments than I had in past years, along with some different interests that I picked up along the way. At first, I didn’t feel like playing games because of my commitments, but eventually, it got to the point where I didn’t want to play most video games again because of the disappointment I’ve experienced from Koei Tecmo. Learning about all the things that AAA gaming companies do to reduce expenditure and increase revenue turned me off from video games as well. In my opinion, it wasn’t so much a boycott (per se) than it was a loss of interest.

3. The original group of people who inspired me to start writing these rants are now gone.

I know I’ve had other fans since the start of all this, but the original group had a special place in all this because of it. There were four people in the original group, who I met on Koei’s original Facebook page, and they were as follows:

The first one did comment on my older stuff, but he left quite early, possibly since DW8E’s release. I saw that he deactivated his account some time in 2017.

The second one had a YouTube channel and he was an admin on one of my Facebook pages for some time, but then he left after a period of inactivity without any explanation.

The third one was the more prominent because of his LGBT status and mental health issues. In the middle of 2015, he announced to everyone that he was deactivating his Facebook account because it was a burden on his mental health. He reactivated his account some time later, but he deactivated it again in September 2017 and hasn’t come back since. During that time, I saw a post from him stating that he was going to take a lot of pills and commit suicide. I reported it to Facebook in the hope that it might encourage him to find some help, even though I remember him stating that nothing works for him anymore. When I noticed that he hadn’t come back to Facebook months after he deactivated his account the second time, I assumed the worst.

The fourth one, also known as the family man or “the last one standing”, deactivated his account in June this year. We never really talked much, but as I said in this post, I’m still grateful to him for helping me find the new weapon and Musou information in DW8E when the Koei Wiki didn’t have it yet (because the game was just released at the time).

4. The impact of the feud’s aftermath still haunts me to this day.

When I agreed to end the feud on a mutual understanding a couple of years back, I promised myself that I would quickly move on from the troll behind it and not keep reminding myself of everything that happened. However, I’m a person that’s prone to anxiety when I think of worst-case-scenarios and at times, I found myself thinking about what would have happened had my Facebook account been deleted just because a troll couldn’t take the L when he got owned by someone half his age (compare that to Leafy who made terrible criticisms of people who are older than him, then claimed that he can hide behind the fact that he is younger than them). Him coming back out of nowhere earlier this year didn’t do any favours for anyone either. Regardless of that, I’ve got my bottom ground and I’ll continue to live on it regardless of what anyone else thinks of me.

I’d like to take a moment to digress and talk about cancel culture and political censorship. Because both parties in the feud weren’t exactly that popular (we had our own little fanbases, but that’s it), me and the other party “cancelling” each other (admittedly) didn’t seem to have as much an effect as we had hoped. Other factors that contributed to this could be that cancel culture (an extension to call-out culture) wasn’t that much of a thing two years ago and when the other party tried to cancel me, he made no attempt to spread the word to his fans. It was likely that he was trying to show mercy, but that doesn’t explain why he kept reporting my posts relating to him and current events in Hong Kong, knowing that I would eventually get banned if I didn’t call him out on it. I was as much a victim than I admittedly was an offender of cancel culture.

Following the feud, I’ve become wary of social media censorship because I experienced what it was like for someone to get petty and get people deplatformed by mass reporting them. Other pages like meme pages have suffered the same fate in the past (mostly because people take certain jokes too seriously), but despite my hopes, it didn’t seem like Facebook was going to do anything about the petty mass-reporting of those pages. Recently, however, I’ve been seeing news on tech companies being grilled over the censorship of conservatives and President Trump criticising them for the same thing. I’m not saying that I’m supporting Trump backing the pages that are being censored (conservative, far-right, alt-right, you name it), but I hope that this can hopefully extend to random meme pages being reported for petty reasons.

5. Ever since I decided to stop being toxic, I found myself conflicted when confronted with more toxic comments to the point that I’ve started to become paranoid over negative criticism.

When I decided to change the #NoDubNoBuy page to EDGN, I hoped that the hate towards my page would be reduced somewhat, but I never expected that it would be gone entirely. Since then, three people have made negative comments on the page; one was a girl who saw one of my posts being shared on a private group, misunderstood the (new) purpose of the page and despite her attitude, was still somewhat respectful, one was a Europoor dub hater from Spain (from what I’ve seen and learnt, Europeans tend to be sub fans and/or dub haters because of their English comprehension and ability to read subtitles) and one was an Americuck soyboy dub hater who pointed out about “crybaby fans” (”fans” as in the gatekeeping term “fake fans”, never mind my theory that people, especially men, who call other people, especially other men, “crybabies” are actually spreading toxic masculinity) who liked stuff to be Americanised but didn’t acknowledge the Japanese origins.

I’m gonna go off on a tangent and do a bit of an ad-homimem here (but it’s alright because I’m going to rebut his point next) and point out that I called the Americuck a soyboy because he had quite a long beard, but to be honest, if I called everyone who had beards “soyboys”, that would make people like Count Dankula and Sargon of Akkad “soyboys” as well, so it’d be a pretty slippery slope if I didn’t clarify who I was talking about.

Now, I’m going to move back on another tangent and rebut the soyboy’s point, because I think this is a pretty important point to address. No one is saying outright that they want Japanese games to be Americanised in terms of cultural references (if 4Kids has taught us anything). Saying that Americanisation is responsible for bad dubbing is a bit like blaming video games for causing violence. If someone says that they would like a game to be dubbed into English in localisation, then it is presumed that they want the dialogue to be dubbed in addition to the text being translated (or “dublated”). Any cultural changes made to the game or the dialogue are entirely the responsibility of those who made those changes, like the gaming companies who censor stuff for Western audiences, so if you’re complaining about a Japanese game being too “Americanised”, don’t take it out on dub fans because chances are that they didn’t want the dub to be too “Americanised” either.

Completing the square and going back to the original tangent, I didn’t post any of their comments to the dub hater comments album because I had deleted it after the feud in the hope that I wouldn’t be as toxic as I had been before. You can probably already see how toxic I would probably be if the above responses were posted on the page and directed back at them, which would mean that I’m not upholding myself to the standards I wanted to follow.

6. I’m becoming more and more concerned about current events to worry about things like English dubbing in video games.

If you’re someone who has unironically thought that I was making a big deal over something you thought was minor, then this is going to sound very ironic for you. From all these years of learning and research, I’ve attained an expansive world view and while I have made jokes about current events in the past to lighten the mood or express my anger, deep down I’m actually concerned about these things, particularly in regards to Hong Kong during this politically sensitive time.

For some reason, my desire to make posts has decreased because in addition to the above factors, I’ve been getting more and more worried about current affairs. Granted, the point of things like anime and video games and the Internet is to provide an escape from reality, but in the end, I guess that you have to face it whether you like it or not.

Making the decision to stop posting on EDGN hasn’t been an easy one, but all the factors I described above have gradually made it easier. Like the Undub page did, I had considered changing the focus of my page to merely report on the voice languages of games without saying whether we approve or reject it because it isn’t dubbed in English/Japanese; that is, we report on them with an unbiased viewpoint. Not adding excessively biased pro-dub comments on our posts has made it more neutral, but in the end, it didn’t stop the dub hater cucks. I should point out that one of the reasons why I wanted to change the #NoDubNoBuy page to EDGN was so that we could reduce the amount of hate we were getting.

What was the original goal of me starting this dub crusade? If you have read my rants in the past, then you will have picked up my hopes that Japanese games would be localised to the West with full Japanese and English dubbing and that if game companies couldn’t achieve that, then they should apologise and explain why. Would I say that I achieved or failed to achieve this goal? Not really, because over the years, I learnt a lot about the video game and voiceover industries and gradually realised that it’s not as straightforward as I had initially hoped. To be honest, it was kind of stupid of me to hope that gaming companies would say anything straightforward about this, but on the other hand, I learnt that gaming companies are like politicians as well; they say the things they want to say and not the things people want to hear.

To my fans, particularly my close fans, feel free to send me your opinions about my decision, however if you’re trying to change my mind, then I’m not sure if it can be changed so easily. If you think that I haven’t lived up to what you expect from me, then I’m sorry, but in the end, I have to think of myself as well.

If I could say one thing to the dub fanbase, I want to ask why no one else has ever tried to do something like EDGN. You have your groups and pages on social media and yet, it had to take two people pissed off with the dubbing direction of gaming companies to do it. Granted, that was how the Undub page started, with the lack of Japanese voices in localised games, and yet they didn’t get as much hate as my page did.

If there is anyone out there who wants to follow in my footsteps and make a page like EDGN, let me be the first to give you my blessing because I’m not going to be like the Undub page when they discovered us and point fingers for copying their posts when in the end, games are the same to everyone. While transparency regarding voice languages has increased over the years, there was never a place where dub fans could know about what games were dubbed in English. You don’t have to be like me and make a series of rants about why some games aren’t dubbed, because I’ve already done it, but instead, I suggest going the unbiased route as I stated earlier. Of course, you don’t have to follow my advice - it’s your page, after all.

My plan is to retire from EDGN at the end of the year. I have 12 more games in the backlog, all with English voices, and I’m hoping to post them all on the page before then. I probably won’t remove myself as an admin (because I think there’ll be some petty, obsessed cuck who’ll dig out my posts and make a rant series on me or something), but I’ll probably have it so that I can forget about the page as time goes on.

With this, my dub crusade has come to an end. Once again, to the fans, I’m sorry and I thank you for your support. As always, it is your choice as to whether you wish to continue following me, whether on Facebook or Tumblr, after my retirement.

#english dub #video games #japanese games #japanese voices

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tessajayne18 · 6 years

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Wolf with Silver Eyes (Chapter 18)

Summary: Byun Baekhyun is an established detective in a world full of supernatural creatures. His life takes a turn when he transfers to a new town as one of the only humans in the town. Everything appears as normal as it can be until a mysterious group plagues the town. Will Baekhyun be able to solve this case or will a pseudo-deity put a stop to it?

Early in the morning, Baekhyun ran around frantically in his apartment. Visions of the events from several hours ago haunted his mind. He quickly took a shower, got dressed, and grabbed his keys and left for the hospital. His mind ran with several thoughts as he drove. A few moments later, he arrived and ran in.

“Good morning, how can I help you?” the nurse smiled at Baekhyun.

“Can you tell me what room Oh Kami is in?” Baekhyun asked, charm turned all the way up.

The nurse faintly blushed as she checked her chart. “She’s in room 1213 on the fifth floor,” she answered.

“Thank you very much,” Baekhyun smiled as he walked toward the elevator.

He waited patiently for the elevator to take him to the fifth floor. Once the elevator stopped and opened, he briskly walked to find the room he was looking for. He found the room and he carefully pushed open the door. He was greeted with the sight of Kami sleeping peacefully in the bed and Anaise playing a video game on her Nintendo DS in the chair across the room. Anaise looked up and immediately tensed up.

“I don’t suppose you would like to be alone with your girlfriend now,” Anaise coldly stated as she saved her game and shut it off.

“I just want to know why in the hell you shot her,” Baekhyun darkly replied.

“I already told you it was an accident,” Anaise shot back as she grabbed her bag and walked toward Baekhyun. “Are you upset that I was right about Kami?”

“I’m upset by a lot of things, and, frankly, you don’t need to know,” Baekhyun snapped.

“I’m not demanding to know, but since I’m here to work together with you—”

“All we ever do is argue non-stop about this case. What part of all of this is working together?!” Baekhyun interrupted as his voice was starting to get louder.

Anaise took a deep breath to control her emotions. “Fine. You do whatever you please. I’ll see you at the office,” she bitterly said as she stormed out of the hospital room.

Baekhyun released a sigh as he sat down in the chair and watched over Kami. He immersed himself in deep thoughts to pass the time while Kami slept.

Jongdae and Chanyeol were casually chatting while waiting for the others to arrive in the office. They were chuckling about a joke when Anaise stormed into the office. Jongdae glanced at Chanyeol and both of them grew concerned.

Chanyeol hopped up and walked over toward Anaise. “Hey you, everything alright?” he politely asked. Anaise stayed silent as she pulled out her notes. “I’ll take that as a no,” he awkwardly said.

“Sorry, Chanyeol, I’m just trying to stay focused,” Anaise replied as she looked up at him. “Don’t want to ruin everything we’ve all worked on.”

“Technically we haven’t started working yet, would you like a moment to vent?” Chanyeol politely suggested.

“I appreciate your concern, but I’m fine,” Anaise showed a sad smile.

“You’re not a very good liar, you know,” Chanyeol chuckled softly.

“I’m actually a very good liar,” Anaise chuckled. “I didn’t bluff my way to win a hundred thousand dollars in a poker tournament three years ago for nothing.”

“Makes sense,” Chanyeol chuckled. “In that case… I just read your bluff. I can tell you’re not fine.”

Anaise started to reply, but Baekhyun walked in the door. He made eye contact with Anaise for a brief moment before walking to his desk. Chanyeol sensed the tension between Baekhyun and Anaise. He patted her shoulder as he walked over to talk to Baekhyun. Anaise sighed as she wrote down a few more notes. She glanced up at Jongdae who was looking at her with a concerned expression. She quickly looked away to keep writing in her notebook.

“Alright everyone,” Junmyeon called out as he walked out of his office. “Now that we know the identity of Silver Eyes, where do we go from here?”

“We talk to Miss Kami and see what connection she has with Wonbin,” Chanyeol suggested.

“It’s pretty clear that Wonbin wants her, we could use her help in possibly locating him,” Irene added.

“Any word on her condition?” Junmyeon asked as he marked on the whiteboard.

“If her vitals look normal, she could go home today. The hospital should notify us when she’ll be discharged,” Baekhyun answered.

“As soon as she gets discharged, we need to send someone to make sure Wonbin doesn’t make a move since she’s the most vulnerable while she’s injured,” Junmyeon replied.

“It’s almost doubtful Wonbin would make a move right away,” Anaise stated. “If I were him, I would anticipate the cops trying to protect the one I’m after.”

“That’s a good point, but we can’t be too lax,” Junmyeon replied.

“I volunteer mister smooth talker over there to talk to Kami when she’s out of the hospital. He might be the best bet to get her to cooperate and talk,” Jongdae said as he motioned toward Baekhyun.

“Although she can be a little stubborn, I agree with Jongdae. Baek should go,” Chanyeol agreed.

“It’s settled then. Once we get word, Baekhyun will go to Kami and everyone else, keep checking the files for any other connections on where we could possibly find Wonbin,” Junmyeon commanded.

“Yes, sir!”

Junmyeon looked around and noticed the blatant tension between Baekhyun and Anaise. He walked over to Jongdae and Chanyeol’s desk to address the situation…

Baekhyun released a sigh as he pulled up to Kami and Wendy’s house. He collected his thoughts before shutting off his car. He walked up to the door and rang the doorbell. He waited a few moments before Wendy opened the door.

“She’s resting right now, and she isn’t in the mood to talk to any detective,” Wendy said before trying to shut the door.

Baekhyun lunged forward to stop the door from shutting completely. “Good, because I’m here to talk to her as her boyfriend,” he replied.

Wendy took a moment to contemplate her next decision. She calmly closed the door, and Baekhyun waited for what came next. A few moments later, the door opened again, but Kami was at the door. “Hey…” she quietly greeted.

“Let’s sit, you’re probably hurting pretty good,” Baekhyun suggested as he held out an arm to help her walk to the steps.

Both of them sat on the top step and sat in silence for a few moments. Kami took a deep breath and started speaking nervously and said, “I understand that you’re mad at me…”

“Who said I was mad?” Baekhyun interrupted calmly.

Kami looked up at Baekhyun, tears beginning to fill her eyes. “You’re not mad?” she asked.

“Am I upset and disappointed? Yes. But am I mad? No,” Baekhyun replied. “Why didn’t you just tell me you were a werewolf?”

“I was just really scared…” Kami answered. “Typically anyone who figures out how much power I have, they either run away or try to use my power for their own personal gain. With Wonbin being after me, I was just so stressed I didn’t know what to do. I was afraid, since you were a detective, you would leave…”

“Why would I do that?” Baekhyun grabbed Kami’s hand and smiled gently. “I’m hurt that you didn’t tell me everything. I understand that you were scared, but there’s no way to know how I’ll react if you don’t tell me. If you were just honest with me, I wouldn’t have cared.”

“But your case,” Kami protested.

“What about it?” Baekhyun blankly asked.

Kami looked away as the tears spilled out of her eyes. “Doesn’t it change anything that I’m the center piece to this case?” she asked.

Baekhyun reached over and grabbed Kami’s chin and turned her to look him in the eyes. “That just means I have to do all that I can to make sure you’re safe, more than I already do,” he answered.

“But I can handle myself… I don’t need to be protected,” Kami protested.

“I know you can handle yourself… but you don’t have to hold this burden all by yourself,” Baekhyun replied. “You’re strong, smart, and beautiful on top of everything. I don’t know if I could even live with myself if you got hurt.”

“I don’t want you to get hurt because of my shitty family history,” Kami replied.

Baekhyun carefully wiped away Kami’s tears and said, “I’m more than willing to throw myself into a fire if it means keeping you safe.” He smiled as he looked into her eyes. “It’s crazy… in such a short amount of time, you manage to snatch up my heart and run away with it,” he said.

Kami chuckled and replied, “That’s kind of cheesy.”

“It got you to smile, didn’t it?” Baekhyun chuckled with her. “You know I love you, right?”

Kami immediately stopped chuckling and stared at Baekhyun questioningly. “You what?” she asked.

“You’ve got good hearing right?” Baekhyun smirked. “You’re so cute when you’re flustered.”

“Shush,” Kami pouted. “If you must know… I love you, too.”

“Do you?” Baekhyun smiled as he leaned in closer.

“You may not be a werewolf, but you’ve got good hearing, too,” Kami laughed right before she quickly moved to kiss him. She pulled away and smiled.

Baekhyun mirrored her smile. A thought had crossed his mind and he asked, “I need to ask you something though… All your little quirks were because you’re a werewolf, right?”

“And by quirks you mean?” Kami replied.

“Your over-appreciation for meat,” Baekhyun started listing.

“Meat is delicious!” Kami playfully protested.

“Your fast reflexes and your ability to use them on the ball field,” Baekhyun added.

“I’m not the best player on my team for nothing,” Kami commented.

“And the reason you ran from that party was because you were transforming,” Baekhyun added again.

“Yep, my ears are typically first when I shift, but since they were exposed with the way my hair was, I couldn’t hide it very well,” Kami explained.

“Anaise was right… she suspected you were a werewolf and told me… but I didn’t listen,” Baekhyun admitted.

“She told me about that,” Kami replied.

“When?” Baekhyun asked, slightly taken aback.

“Late last night at the hospital,” Kami answered. “After the nurses took care of the wolf bite on her arm, she went to my room to check on me. I remember waking up to see her there and we talked for a while. She told me you didn’t believe her and she was clearly upset about it.”

“I really need to apologize to her, but I think she’s too upset with me to even want to talk,” Baekhyun said.

“I’d give it time. She’s not all bad and she really cares about everyone,” Kami said.

“You’re right,” Baekhyun smiled. “Maybe we can talk later at my place? If you’re not oppo—”

“Sounds good,” Kami smiled. “If you’re not opposed to helping me pack a bag, that is.”

“Not at all,” Baekhyun smiled.

“I’m going to need one of you guys to check on Anaise.”

“I volunteer Jongdae.”

Jongdae released a sigh as he held the motel master key in his hand. He looked up to make sure the room number was right. He knocked first and waited for a response. After receiving no response, he used the master key to open the door.

He walked in and didn’t find any sign of Anaise. He looked at the mess of bags on the bed closest to the door, then to the assortment of items on the table. His train of thought was cut short when he heard Anaise talk.

“How many times do I have to tell you, I’m here until this case is solved. You need to quit calling just to chew me out,” Anaise spoke in English.

Jongdae looked toward the direction of the bathroom and peeked through the mirror. He saw Anaise with her hair held back with a headband and wiping her face with a towel with her phone held to her ear with her shoulder. She put down the towel and noticed Jongdae standing in the room.

“Can you please just leave me alone? I’ve got important things to take care of,” Anaise spoke on the phone in English again. She quickly ended the call and groaned.

“You alright there, princess?” Jongdae asked.

“I don’t even know,” Anaise sighed as she sat down on the edge of the empty bed.

“You didn’t react when I called you ‘princess’, something is definitely wrong,” Jongdae replied as he sat down on the bed next to her. “Care to tell me what’s on your mind?”

“I don’t want to overload your problems with my own, they’re probably insignificant compared to everything else you deal with,” Anaise answered.

“I appreciate your concern about me, but on this case, you are an important part of this squad. Therefore, you are part of my concern,” Jongdae calmly argued. “It could also benefit you to have someone to vent to.”

“I don’t see the point in telling my life story when I know I’m only here temporarily,” Anaise replied as she looked at the floor.

“I don’t care about that,” Jongdae honestly said. “I care that you’ll be in a good state of mind while you’re here.”

Anaise looked up at him and looked into his eyes to try and find if he was being honest. She took a deep breath and said, “This stress is killing me. The constant stress from my father was already enough… now Baekhyun wants to continuously argue with me. I don’t know how much more I can handle.”

“I can already tell you that Baekhyun is going to get over himself soon,” Jongdae said, “but I have no idea what your family background is, so I don’t know how to help.”

“Long story short, my father is a demanding asshole,” Anaise bluntly said.

“So all those phone calls you would take… it was your father hounding you about your job?” Jongdae asked.

“You’d be right,” Anaise answered. “I keep telling him to leave me alone and let me do my job, but he’s so damn insistent on telling me how I should be doing this job.”

“You’ve been dealing with that all this time and none of us knew,” Jongdae said as he leaned back on his arms.

“I try not to involve personal matters when it comes to work, it gets in the way too much,” Anaise replied.

“You could always take the time while off the clock to talk to somebody about it,” Jongdae suggested.

“I’m a bounty hunter in an environment full of cops, do you really think anybody would understand my problems?” Anaise said.

“I do,” Jongdae replied in a quiet tone. “You’ve got all the pressure in the world to do a job you were thrusted into, and you want to do it your own way but your father is telling you to do it his way.”

Anaise stared at Jongdae in awe. “I guess you do know…” she mumbled.

“I’m more than just a dumb cat, you know,” Jongdae chuckled.

“Since you’re not just a dumb cat, care to tell me what I can do to combat my asshole father?” Anaise asked.

“The you I know would just tell him how you honestly feel,” Jongdae said, “but I also don’t know what kind of man your father is other than an asshole.”

Anaise looked at the floor in deep thought. “I never did get much choice in anything when I was a kid. He wanted me to carry on his legacy since my older brother ran away from home. If I didn’t do everything his way, I’d have to do it again. He always has to approve of any job I take. He’s calling so much because I took this job on my own without his approval,” she said.

“And without you, we wouldn’t have made so much progress on this case,” Jongdae replied. “It’s almost a shame that you’ll be leaving once the case is closed.”

“Is it bad that I agree with that statement?” Anaise sadly chuckled.

“Do you not want to leave?” Jongdae asked, almost joking.

“Not really… and just the thought of having to fly back home…” Anaise replied as she started staring at the floor again. She stayed silent for a few moments before tears started building up in her eyes. She fought hard to prevent them from falling, but she failed once she felt Jongdae grab her hand.

“Let’s not think about that right now. Let’s just live in the moment,” Jongdae calmly said as he squeezed her hand. “You are here, right now, using your skills to help out people in a completely different environment than you’re used to… and you’re doing a damn good job of it.”

“I appreciate that… I really do,” Anaise said, letting the tears spill out. She looked away and at the ceiling. “Dammit… I hate it when people see me cry,” she muttered.

Jongdae smiled as he let go of Anaise’s hand and reached up to wipe away her tears and said, “Then only let me see it.”

Anaise looked at Jongdae carefully and studied his expression. He kept smiling as he leaned in and gently kissed her lips. Anaise froze for a moment before closing her eyes and losing herself in the kiss. Jongdae slowly pulled away and stared right into Anaise’s eyes and smiled.

“Chin up, Anaise,” he calmly said, “all of this stress will be gone soon enough, and we can get the queen of sass back.”

“First I’m a princess, now I’m a queen, what else are you going to call me?” Anaise asked through her chuckles.

“Mine.”

See that off in the distance? Those are the ships sailing away.

#exo #exo baekhyun #baekhyun #exo scenario #exo fanfic #baekhyun fanfic #baekhyun x oc #supernatural #werewolf #vampire #Wolf with Silver Eyes

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tamtam-go92 · 6 years

Text

Pleasantview +25 years recap

Pleasantview +25 years is my attempt at joining all my favorite families through out the franchise in one save. I've spent about four days in creating over 45 families that populate all of the worlds I have in The Sims 4. And when I say I created them, I actually mean I downloaded them from the gallery. =//) I'm not particularly good at creating Sims... Willow Creek are only Pleasantview Sims, Oasis Springs are mostly Strangetown Sims, Newcrest are mostly rich Sims from all the games, San Myshuno is everyone I didn't know where to locate them, mostly single Sims, and Banacle Bay are the creative and LGBT Sims. I also really need to thank @homijoh for sharing her rule set with us some time ago. I loved it and I'm using it for this rotational game play. For more information (I warn you, A LOT of Information since I tell a thing or two about every family) look behind the cut!

Willow Creek:

Broke I Household: Brandi, Beau and Skip Junior – Brandi never remarried and did an okay job at raising three boys on her own.

Broke II Household: Dustin, Angela, Susan, Mitch, Melinda, Brad – Dustin had got Angela pregnant as a teen and from that day on, their relationship went downhill. Why they are still together? Probably because of their four children.

Burb Household: John, Jennifer, Michael – Michael is the recreation of a son the Burbs had once in my game. Never forgot him =)

Dreamer Household: Dirk, Lilith, Hugo, Irmi – Hugo and Irmi are twins and their parent's whole proud.

Dreamer-Goth Household: Darren, Cassandra, Manuel, Daniela, Dorothee – After a bad divorce from Don Lothario, Cassandra found true love in Darren Dreamer and they had two girls. Darren took her son with Don in, like his own flesh.

Goth Household: Alexander, Lucy, Agatha – Alex and Lucy are too buzy with their career to care for their only daughter Agatha.

Goth-Caliente Household: Dina, Nina, Simon, Enrique – Dina inherited Goth Manor from her decreased husband Mortimer and took her sister and nephew in.

Langerak-Pleasant Household: Daniel, Kaylynn, Trina, Zelda – After leaving Mary-Sue for the Maid, Daniel wouldn't have thought to ever hear teenage girls fight again, yet here he is!

Lothario Household: Don, Bianca – Don was a d*ck to women and here he is, estranged from his two sons. After an abduction by aliens and the birth of his daughter Bianca Don suddenly saw clear regarding his sexuality.

Oldie Household: Mary-Sue is divorced and moved back in with her parents. Since 25 years she's bickering with her elderly mother.

Oasis Springs:

Beaker Household: Loki, Circe, Atom, Ceres – With his clone children Loki could save Circe from a pregnancy and yet have his perfect family!

Curious Household: Pascal, Vidcund, Lazlo, Crystal, Tycho, Techna, Erik, Marie – Crystal has no idea how she managed to live with her brothers in law and their strange kids for over 20 years.

Grunt Household: Ripp, Buck, Jill, Ralf – People say the older sibling should be responsible for the younger siblings. Tell that Ripp Grunt...

Landgraab Household: Nancy, Geoffrey, Malcolm – Just the normal Sims 4 Landgraab family.

Loner Household: Ajay, Erin, Vincent, Linus – Ajay married Erin Beaker and had two boys with her.

Roomies Household: Zoe, Mitchel, J, Gavin – Just the normal Sims 4 Roomies household.

Smith Household: Johnny, Ophelia, Sally, Ginny, Ben, Dora – The only problem of this family is, which of the girls should share their room with their baby sister.

Zugovich Household: A family introduced in the Sims pet stories. Just a little gag to add some fresh blood.

Newcrest:

Alto Household: Holly II, Don, Trenton – My interpretation is, that the Holly Alto from DS is the daughter of the Holly Alto from The Sims 3. Trenton is a Sim from Lunar Lakes.

Capp Household: Juliette, Romeo, Cleo, Linea – Juliette married her big love, she had her happy ending with her Romeo.

Jacquet Household: Gilbert, Florence, Sébastian – I never really shipped those two, but I wanted to include both.

Summerdream Household: Bottom, Hal, Fiona – Hal and Bottom usually end up together in my game and make a decent couple.

Worthington Household: Frances J- III, Joyce, Frances J. IV – Frances has his trophy wife and a beautiful daughter to keep the name alive.

San Myshuno:

Bunch Household: Mary – Mary is a descendant of the Sunset Valley Bunches.

Elson Household: Craig II – Craig is named after his great-grandfather from Starlight Shores.

Fair-weather Friends Household: Keiko, Mateo, Anthony, Holly – Just the household form the gallery.

Gieke Household: Chester, Testee – Chester lives a life in retreat with his alien daughter.

Inkbeard Household: Opal, Jane – Opal is a descendant of the Barnacle Bay Inkbeard family and Jane is her wife.

Karaoke Legends Household: Miko, Darling, Akira – Just the normal Karaoke Legends Household from The Sims 4.

Newon Household: Garrett – Garrett Newson looked for a life in solitude after growing up in a crowded place.

Pancakes Household: Bob, Eliza, Igga – The Sims 4 Pancakes family with their gallery son Iggy just moved to San Myshuno.

Patel Household: Ramir, Ana, Louis, Maya, Mali, Kirian – The Patels form Belladonna Cove with their four children. They aren't related with Zoe Patel from Oasis Springs.

Sekemoto Household: Cecila, Len – Cecilia is the grand-daughter of Sam Sekemoto. I created her a long time ago in the Sims 2 and there she became Alexander Goth's wife (his wife in the DS version is called Cecilia. But now she's only the mother of Len Sekemoto, a Sim from Lunar Lakes.

Sims Household: John – Your average white guy next door and son of the tutorial Sims.

Tricou Household: Orion – Always a loner Orion lives in an almost empty penthouse.

Vatore Household: Caleb, Lilith – The Vatore family from Forgotten Hollow. I don't have Vampires, so they are just some ordinary Gothics.

Xio Household: Tian – He's from Shang Simala and just recently moved to San Myshuno.

Yuan Household: Kien – After a successful career as a k-pop icon, Kien retired in San Myshuno.

Brindleton Bay:

Climate Household: Arthur, Janine, Summer, Nicolas – Just the normal Climate family from the gallery.

Delgato Household: Supriya, Justin, Pierce, Evie – Just the normal Sims 4 Delgato family.

GilsCarbo Household: Goopy, Alice, Celeste – Everybody's favorite townie with his Sims 3 family.

Hecking Household: Just the ordinary Sims 4 Hecking family.

Lynx Household: Just the ordinary Sims 4 Lynx family.

Monty Household: Mercutio, Tybalt – After their hate turned into love, those two ran away together and now own a huge mansion in Brindleton Bay.

Ottomas Household: David – After growing up with much to many siblings, all David wanted to be was alone.

Una Household: Natasha, Joana – Nobody ever knew who Joana's father was. It's totally wasn't obvious!

I haven’t played much until now, only about 36 hours with the Broke I household. I suspect it to be a bit buggy with SO many sims (it’s already 147) but I hope my PC can handle it. I’m really excited to play this!

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