#years even if he's good guy now. plus he's very ambitious and passionate i really doubt that he'd just happily settle at a bar

[tackykachowch]

Guys can I confess something guys...I low-key hate au Silco guys.....Guys I'm sorry......

OBVIOUSLY he's still the prettiest handsomest styliest gorgeous girl in town but...he kinda lost all of his sauce. The line about forgiveness is the most egregious example ofc. It's not only that it's extremely out-of-character for him to say (EVEN as a good guy!!!), but also because he didn't give Ekko a little smack for even asking him about this all of the sudden. Silco would NOT just let some little brat ask him why he forgave his friend more than 7 years ago and not do anything about it. That's ridiculous. But also it's ridiculous in general?? Why is he not at all bothered by that??

Also it's just. His overall vibe feels very flanderised but I can't quite put my finger on why I feel this way. Maybe it's just a me problem idk.

[jisungsplatforms]

[Chapter I: Let’s Party!]

Pairing: Producer/Music Major! Han Jisung x Photographer! fem! reader

Genre: NSFW! Smut; non idol au, college au, strangers to lovers

Warnings: strong language, use of alcoholic beverages, drunken antics, ?? jackson wang is throwing a party?? (jk he’s not aljsks. changbin is tho), nothing filthy in this chapter, unfortunately :/ just plot build up

Chapter word count: 2.6k words

Taglist: @hyunjeongins @seungstarss @es-kay-zee @hyunjinsplaything @formidxble @freckledquokka (want to be added? send an ask or a dm! <3)

Haven University; school of the elite. From the academically inclined to the artistically blessed, only those who were gifted with such talents are accepted to augment their potential. The perfect school for the sensational.

...And like every other school with young hormonal adults, also the perfect school for a good fuck.

“Another outstanding submission, Y/n! Keep up the great work!”

You smiled at your photography teacher, Mr. Kim, bowing humbly as you thanked him. You were proud. Praise after praise for your picture taking skills only heightened your motivation to be the best even more. Photography has always been your passion. Ever since you were given your very first camera at the age of 5 years old- which, in retrospect, was actually a toy camera, you already knew that it is something you would want to pursue.

In the middle of your teacher’s praises with another student, the bell rang. “Looks like we ran out of time, folks. Great job again, Seungmin. Everyone, class dismissed,” he said, jokingly using shooing gestures. “Now hurry up and get out of my face, you delinquents. Lunch time awaits. Go replenish your life force.”

You began gathering your belongings, slinging your precious DSLR camera around your neck. “Outstanding submission, young photographer.” You heard someone say. You turned around to see Seungmin grinning at you.

You snort out a laugh. “Thanks. Great job to you too, Seungmo.” Seungmin was about to respond when your instructor’s voice interrupted.

“Oh. Except Y/n. Please stay a little bit after class, for me, dear.” You and Seungmin shared a glance, nodding for him to go ahead without you. He pats your shoulder, bidding you goodbye. You continued packing your things into your bag. As the rest of the students left the room, you walked towards Mr. Kim’s desk, waiting for his word. “Hello, Y/n.”

“Hello, sir. You wanted to talk to me?”

“Ah yes. I wanted to ask you this,” your instructor paused, sitting on his desk. “How much do you love photography?”

You paused, wanting to convey the exact feelings you wanted to express. “Photography is an escape for me,” you answered. “It’s another form of art that helps people convey the emotions and stories people want to tell. Some people express their emotions through music and lyrics, others through paintings, and others through dance. For me, personally, I’m not all that good in any of those aspects, sir. That is why I work so hard when it comes to this class, and in photography in general.” You unconsciously caressed the camera slung around your neck. “And to me, the stories behind a photo is a lot more intimate in a way that I just can’t explain.”

“Because...this is the only way for you to express yourself? Is that what you’re trying to tell me?” You nodded. Mr. Kim hummed in thought. “I see.” He stood up and walked to you, placing his warm hands on your shoulder. “I admire you, kid.”

“You...admire me?” You were confused. The teacher admires his student? Isn’t it usually the other way around?

“Oh yeah. Is that hard to believe?”

“Uhm...Kinda, yeah.”

Mr. Kim laughed mirthfully, amused by your bewilderment and doubt. “Well, believe it. You have spunk. Soul. Your work impart emotions I have never seen from my other students before. You’re passionate about what you do, and I like that. You take digital arts very seriously.”

You laughed awkwardly, the amount of praise your instructor was giving you made you happy. “I do, sir. Kinda a shame not a lot of people even consider it an art.”

“Indeed,” he replied, sitting down on his desk. “Which is why I wanted to give you an impromptu assignment. I want to assign you a story telling type of assignment; to write a story using your photography skills, if that makes sense.”

“Hm, yes? I think I get a jist of what you're trying to tell me.”

“Excellent. I just want to use this to monitor your skills, Y/n. You’re a very talented person, the most talented I’ve ever had even. I just want to see how much of that potential you really have so I can help you blossom it into something greater.”

“Oh,” you draw out, somewhat understanding why he picked you. “I see, sir. I’m honored that you’ve picked me.”

“You should,” he joked. “Now, I want you to photograph the following- write or type this down before you forget.” You hastily whipped out your phone from your pocket. “Ready?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Okay. I want you to capture the perfect scenes. Give me something that gives you joy. Something that makes you emotional, good or bad or even both, if you can. Something you fear, and finally, something that you love unconditionally. These are all supposed to be different photos, by the way. Got that?”

You finished typing a few seconds later. “And...got it.”

“Awesome!” he smiled. “Just know that I’ll be giving you only 3 months to complete the assignment. I hope that this isn’t too much to ask of you, but I’m sure someone as ambitious as you doesn’t mind, right?”

“Nope, sir! Everything will be a-okay!”

“I’m glad! Now move along and get to the canteen already. I’m sure you’re just as hungry as I am.”

You giggled, making your way to the door. “Thank you sir! I’ll see you tomorrow!”

“Oh, finally! There you are! We were starving waiting for you!” You rolled your eyes at Minho, who immediately decided to pick on you the second you entered his field of sight.

“Shut up, you could’ve eaten without me you know?”

“Nah, cause what kind of friends would we be if you ate without you?”

“You just want to steal some of my food, don’t you?”

Minho scoffed and went quiet, prompting Hyunjin, Seungmin, and Jeongin to laugh. “Caught you red-handed, Hyung,” Hyunjin teased, which backfired immediately causing him to chant an apology after Minho gave him a look.

“So why did you take so long, Y/n?” Jeongin asked.

“Oh, Mr. Kim wanted to give me an extra assignment.”

“Extra assignment?” Seungmin questioned. “What for?”

You shrugged, sitting down. “Uh, to test me? I’m not sure but I honestly think that there’s something more behind it. Not in like a bad way, just to clarify. I mean, he did acknowledge that I’m the best in his class after all.”

Seungmin snorted. “I just know you meant that unironically.” You jokingly blew a raspberry at him.

“Of course Y/n is the best!” Hyunjin stuck his chin up. “Let’s be honest, anyone could be the best if they use me as their model!”

“Hey, Hyunjin? You wanna eat this straw?” Minho threatened, making Hyunjin shut up.

“No...?”

“Good. Get off your high horse, prince charming.”

The three of you laughed. “Poor Hyunjin,” Jeongin sympathized sardonically.

“Hyunjin please stick to dancing and uh- not dying,” you said. “I still need you alive for some more upcoming projects.”

“For me too,” said Seungmin. “I might start using you as my model as well.”

Hyunjin fake cried, “Y’all just like me for my looks!”

“I mean, there’s no denying you are incredibly handsome but we like your personality too, Hyunie, don’t worry,” you cheered him up, then turned to Jeongin. “What about you, Yeni? How’re you holding up now that Lix is gone?”

Jeongin gasped. “I miss him! I’m so lonely now, especially when I have theatre! I feel so awkward now that girls swarm up to me instead- and you know I’m a shy boy!”

“Hey! At least you’re more popular now!” Minho laughed.

“Well, now we have no choice but to remember Felix in our hearts,” Seungmin replied.

“I’m not fucking dead. I just switched majors!” the four of you turned to see Felix pouting at you all.

“Well, you’re dead to me!” Jeongin wailed. “Going from a theatre major to a dance major. How could you?!”

Felix chuckled, sitting down between Seungmin and Jeongin. “I’m sorry! You know I’ll still see you though, buddy!”

“Why don’t you just switch to a regular vocal major next semester, Yeni?” you asked.

“Nah. I originally did want to go for just regular vocal studies but, you know, even if I did accidently sign up for the class, I ended up finding something else I wanna do. Plus, theatre is surprisingly fun! You know, find something new that’ll change your life every day.”

“Yup! Especially since they often collab with the dance majors so we get to see each other a lot!” Hyunjin beamed while Minho nodded in acknowledgment.

“Oh, speaking of dancing,” Minho chimed in. “You guys wanna go to a party I was invited to?”

“No,” Seungmin immediately responded.

“No, not you, I knew you would say no. I meant the others.”

Hyunjin nodded, “I was invited to the same party you’re talking about, so yeah.”

“Can’t,” Felix replied. “I’m still getting used to my new major and I still have a few assignments to catch up on.”

Jeongin hummed in agreement. “Same here. We have a play coming up soon and I’m a lead this time, so I gotta stay home to rehearse as much as I can.”

Minho made a stank face, “Aww. Lame.” He turned to you. “What about you, Y/n? You down?”

You thought about it for a moment. “Yeah, sure. Why not?”

“Really?” All 5 boys looked at you incredulously.

“Yeah. I might find some inspiration while I’m there. Besides you know I’ll just be leeching off of Hyunie and Min the whole time.”

Minho and Hyunjin high-fived, cheering a quiet ‘yes!’ Hyunjin giggled. “This is great cause we might need a designated back up driver in case I get drunk and Minho-hyung abandons me!”

“Now that you’ve said that, I might seriously consider that,” Minho grinned. “We’ll pick you up at 8 sharp! Y/n!”

‘8:53pm’ You wanted to go home already.

The boys, true to their word, picked you up at 8:00pm. With little to no traffic- and the fact that Hyunjin actually got ready early so that they wouldn’t be an hour late- the three of you made it to the party around 8:20pm. Even then there were already a lot of people there.

“What the fuck. This house is huge!” you gawked. “Can you even consider this a house still?!”

Hyunjin shrugged. “I’d say this more of a mansion at this point.” All you do mutter a constant chant of ‘what the fuck. what the fuck’ over and over again. “Who’s house is this again, Minho?”

“Changbin’s, remember? Jisung said they’re celebrating in his house,” Minho replied.

“Well this Changbin dude is LOADED,” you mused. Even in the dim lighting, you could see the elegance of the house, which most likely costs more than your entire tuition. “I’d hate to be the one who has to clean up the place.” The boys lead you to the kitchen, helping you avoid the crowd cause, in your words, ‘ew yucky people’. There, they brought you to two men wearing all black, who were hanging out on the island counter. Their names were Changbin- the handsome rich boy who owns the house, the lucky bastard- and Chan- another handsome rich boy with the cutest laugh and dimples, both really sweet and hilarious men, whom you very much enjoyed talking to...

That was the last memory you had before it went downhill.

It took 33 minutes and 4 soju bottles later for Hyunjin to get drunk. Chan and Changbin were back at the booth, manning the song list for the night while Minho was somewhere with some guy in a red beanie doing absolutely nothing, so here you were: stuck babysitting your best friend. “Y/n! Y/n!”

You sighed hearing Hyunjin drunkenly call you. Again. “Yes, Hyunie?”

“I looove you~!” he sang while giving you finger hearts, rocking on the balls of his feet. You sighed again, rubbing your temple.

“Yeah yeah. I know. Love you too.”

“Y/n!” Your left eye twitched. You whipped out your phone from your bra to text Minho.

Me: You bitch.

Help me

Minho ho ho 😼: Hi

No

You glowered. You quickly glanced up to check Hyunjin, who was now sitting on the carpeted floor in front of you, counting his luscious black hair.

Me: He’s-he’s counting his hair… Please get him. It’s like watching a bird repeatedly hitting glass

Minho ho ho 😼: At least he’s not making any trouble now, is he?

He fucking jinxed it. Hyunjin stood up with a shocked look on his face. “What’s wrong, Hyunjin?”

“It’s my favorite song!” he cheered, starting to dance along. You have to admit, even when he’s drunk, he’s still an exceptional dancer. Texting Minho a quick ‘fuck you’. You put your phone back between your breasts to go back to monitoring him, preparing yourself in case you needed to tackle Hyunjin down.

“Heyyy, Y/n!” Minho suddenly draped his arm around your shoulder. Taking your eyes off of Hyunjin, you glared at your lazy, backstabbing friend, shoving his arm off of you.

“Asshole, you’re ten minutes late.”

“Oh I'm not here for Hyunjin. I need your phone.” You look at him audaciously.

“What the- why?”

“My-uh-phone died?” he said awkwardly, rubbing the back of his neck. Your eyes briefly flickered towards Minho’s friend, who, in return, looked down bashfully, red faced. Hm. Weird. You rolled your eyes, nonchalantly reaching into your shirt to get your phone. Minho didn’t even hide his grimace. He cringed, “It’s warm...and wet?”

“Shut up. I’m sweating, okay? And I don’t have any pockets on me.”

Minho nodded, going back to his little friend. Before you could scold him, you heard Hyunjin screaming. You turned around to find him running to the front door. Oh shit. You started pushing people to run after him

You groaned in disgust, wanting nothing more than to get the hell out of here. You pushed your way out of the crowd, cringing at the feeling of touching numerous dirty, unknown people. Where in the world is the fucking exit? In the midst of the sweaty, drunken bodies, your eyes met. It was like time had stopped; no one within the vicinity seemed to not have mattered anymore. With just a smirk and a flirty wink from the chubby-cheeked boy in the red beanie, you knew…

...you just had to fuck him

Hold on, Y/n. Your friend might get fucking ran over! You snapped out of it. With a flustered face, you continued shoving your way through, wrangling Minho on the way. “Come on, fucker. You’re helping me. Let’s go,” you sneered while Minho complained.

After 30 minutes of chasing and wrestling, the drunken beast was tamed. The night ended with Minho driving you all home instead while you and Hyunjin cuddled in the backseat against your will. Minho took great pleasure in knowing that he wasn’t Hyunjin’s cuddle buddy, laughing every time you tried unlatching yourself from him, which made the long haired boy cry. Your sadistic friend dropped you home first, apologizing for not being much of a help tonight. “To make it up to you, I have something for you,” he suspiciously said, wiggling his eyebrows, before giving your phone back and driving off.

You relaxed on your bed, happy that you were rid of those dirty, smelly clothes. You grabbed your phone to text Minho. Assuming that the messages app was left on your conversation with him, you started texting, not paying any mind to the fact that the chat was blank.

Me: Thanks for taking me I guess. I didn’t get anything other than unwanted kisses from Hyunjin ew but it’s aight.

Speaking of aight…Do you think you can give me your friend’s number? 👁👁 The one with the red beanie.

Cause sir, not to be nsfw or anything but he is one fine ass man that I’d like to fuck

Almost immediately, the three bubbles appeared. You were surprised that Minho would reply that fast, thinking we was still on the road with Hyunjin. The reply you got, however, made your heart drop.

Min’s hoe: uh...hi? 👋🏻

this is minho’s “fine ass friend with the red beanie” 👁👁

Shitshitshitshit SHIT

[NEXT CHAPTER]

A/n: Sorry no smut in this chapter just plot build up :(( (which i’m a sucker for) and a lot of dialogue. But Trust me. Everything written in this chapter will fall into place with the future chapters. And who know, next chapter might be 🥵

[plutoswrath]

hi luca! whos chart in nct r ur fav?? <3

Hello! x An eXCELlent question, truly, one of my favorite activities became gushing over anything nct related at this point asdfgh. Short disclaimer: No ones birth chart is ‘bad’, in astrology there isn’t such thing as a ‘bad’ birth chart, this is all just my personal preference and has nothing to do with the native of the natal chart, there’s no favoritism playing into this, just plain astrological interest! 

Continue to read under cut, long post ahead!

Taeyong: I think I’ve mentioned before that I really really like his birth chart!! I love the different elements and modalities playing into it, it truly is a very good representation of the chaotic, yet sincere and creative individual he is, just really following the beat of his own drum! Also, he’s such a warm and kind person that just really shows in his chart. I do have to say that I love love love Virgo Mars people, I generally love Virgo placements and people with profound Virgo influence, but Taeyong is really hard working and caring and it truly ties to the expectations he not only has for himself, but also that he feels responsible for other people by nature probably (Mars in Virgo in the 7th, especially in opposition to his Saturn) and his really bright and carefree creative streak really shines through with that Sagittarius MC and Gemini Mercury and Venus!! I also mean this with 100% positivity when I say he’s really quirky, always a little bit ‘out of the box’ compared to other people and still just a really authentic person, no matter how ‘odd’ he might come across and his chart just really shows that: being true and sincere because there’s nothing else he can do than being true to himself! An absolute unit, a cancerian enigma as it is written in the books!! 

Jeno: Finally I get the opportunity to talk about this chart!!! Because oh boy do I have opinions on this!!!! First of all: He is an earth sign with a Sagittarius Moon and I love love love this combination in general, especially with his Venusian sun and a Jupiterian Moon it makes for a person that can create a really nice atmosphere, just really pleasant to be with and probably values the good things in life (that defenitely included the small things!!). Looking at Jenos joyous vibe the combi just seems to make sense, I also love the combination of his Taurus stellium and the Aries Venus and Mercury, the dynamic of fixed earth and cardinal fire usually makes a person that is really determined and ambitious. I know it’s not the same as having an Aries Mars, but nontheless Aries energy can create sparks of creativity that the Taurean nature wants to pursue and can actually pull through, because if there’s one thing Taurus is good at then it’s being persistant about anything they love and put their heart in! 

Yuta: I’ve written quiet a bit about his chart, and to be honest my opinion of his chart changed over time, because of his personality and the way we got to know him. In a way, the more I’ve seen of Yuta, the more intruiged I was by the way his birth chart lives out; his chart seems pretty overwhelming at first glance, but what I do love are his two stelliums of Scorpio and Sagittarius. The dynamic of these two neighboring signs is literally diving deep, feeling even more deeper and then fully letting go of it to look into the future and at life with a hopeful and excited attitude. I think his birth chart also reflect the potential of someone self reflected and restless, always being up for transformation and not stagnating, because self developement is the only thing that make sense: with his the individual might feel like they need to surrender to this energy, and eventually it’s true. I think..he’s just a good reflection of his birth chart, I think there’s no other way for him than making sense of all this energy clusters that are in his chart anyway, but yes! I think he’s just an enigma and I’m here for it!!!

Xiaojun: Okay, I will say one thing I love Leo sun in combination with cancer placements, preferably Moon and Mercury. I just noticed that Leo people with profound Cancer in their chart are so incredibly warm people and they just want nothing more than love, they really just want pure and unfiltered emotion and they gladly give this back in return. I think needless to say this makes for a very sensitive person, and Xiaojun defenitely is that too, but it also makes them give that same amount of empathy back and especially the combination with Virgo Venus creates it a wish for devotion. I will be honest I usually I am always a tat critical when I see Scorpio Mars placed in the chart of a fire sign, but I think with him it just adds to this wholehearted and passionate nature of his, plus I think this makes for a really tough cookie, I think viewing his chart critically the first thing that one would notice is the huge water sign energy, but he also has lots of fixed sign modality playing into it, so I firmly believe he is a real go getter, motivated by his passions and working quietly on it instead of being a bragger (because this might just bite him back in the end). 

Kun: I will be very honest, the first impression of his chart was a ‘........oh no’ for me asdfgh, same with Yutas chart, just because of the huge stellium they both share, for Kun it would be his 5 planets in Capricorn. Stelliums are usually known to be a very tricky thing to have in ones birth chart, most of the time stelliums can symbolize a crossroad of potentials and thus can end in a lot of indecisevness for an individual. I think Kun is just one of the best examples of how far one can push the possibilities of a stellium, especially if we consider his confirmed birth time, thus giving him also a 6th house stellium. I think I’m just really fascinated how 6th house stelliums play out (look at Bang Chans 6th house stellium, that guy does everything and is everyhwere, just like Kun) and if we stick to the rules of astrology, hoh boy does his facial bone structure reflect this huge Caprciorn influence, and now to top it all of with my personal preferences: I have a huge huge soft spots for Taurus Moons and I think I like the combination of his Capricorn sun and Taurus Moon a lot, overall his chart just reflects his determination and ambitious nature, work is done thoroughly and attentively, and let’s not forget that his determination is also a big representation of how much he cares (Taurus Moon in the 10th?? It’s more likely than you think asdfgh). 

Jungwoo: It’s all because of his Scorpio Moon, I’m outing myself now, Water suns with Water Moons, especially when the Moon is in Scorpio and Pisces, usually have something very magnetic about them, same can be said with Water suns with Water risings. I think the interest and strong liking I build for his chart came along with his personality, another enigma at hands, Jungwoo is a really nuanced person and I really enjoy when he talks honestly about his feelings and other members in interviews, or just talks casually in vlives, because it gives you a good glance of anything beside his really funny and goofy side (which is by the way no form of complaint here, if there’s one thing no one wants to miss it’s Jungwoos shenanigans asdfgk). I don’t know why but teh first time I looked at his chart I just said ‘Huh???’ out loud because I was really suprised by his Moon sign and Venus. He has an Aquarius and Pisces stellium and i think this might overshadow the other placements a lot, especially since his Sun is in a degree of 0 and his Neptune as well (as Neptune rules Pisces it would be good to look at that planet as well lol). Well yeah, i think it only make sense that everyone got so intruiged by Jungwoo over the last time, I kind of feel the same as with Jaehyun with him, all that Aquarius and Pisces makes people have a harder time seeing them ‘clearly’ at times and also probably projecting a lot on them, so yeah. This is my statement asdfghjk

Sungchan: He’s a Virgo sun, what can I say, that already made me happy asdfghj but I do like the Earth Sun and Water Moon combo, it’s also funny that he has a planet occupying every sign from Gemini to Libra, especially since they’re all personal, plus his Mars in Capricorn of course. Since Sungchan is new to nct I still am very hesitant to making any statement but overall I just like to look at the chart, it seems just very balanced and I can’t wait to sotr his placements to various reactions and moments in a year when we have a lot of content at hand! 

Chenle: I know his sun sign could actually vary, but I will hold close to him being a Scorpio, he has an Aquarius stellium as well (seriously 60% of nct has an Aquarius stellium, despite the fact that they already have so many Aquarians in the band asdfghjkl), which squares his Scorpio stellium, and then add the trine to his Saturn and his Jupiter to it. Maybe that’s a very weird reason, but I like the way the chart physically looks (yes that is maybe not really based on any astrological explainations, but it’s just really interesting to look at). I also do know another Scorpio sun with Aquarius Moon in real life, and they do have their similarities, I also see a lot of Aquarius and Scorpio friends and couples in real life, so even though these signs square the other, I think they seem to find common ground or make amends pretty quickly. I think it’s just the mix of energies that clash here that are really intruiging to me!

[phantaloon-books]

(some) Riordanverse characters (bc I never read TKC) and which Hogwarts House I think they would be in

Warning: this is a long one

Nico: the dude is definitely Gryffindor without a doubt. Like Sorting isn't about some traits and some characteristics, it's about core personality. He may have gone through some of the roughest stuff when he was 10-12, and he was resentful and bitter, but he was brave and bold af throughout everything he did. From learning about his powers, to using them relentlessly despite knowing how exhausted he is afterwards, to his willingness to do whatever is necessary to do what has to be done, because it has to be done. You can't change my mind that he's Gryffindor lol.

Grover: Do I even need to explain why he's Gryffindor? He's a satyr, and even if we're shown strong satyrs, they're not really supposed to be brave fighters. Yet he is one of the strongest, bravest nature spirits we've ever encountered in the Riordanverse, and one of the bravest in general. Like he's so passionate about doing what is good, he's a hero, and the only thing he doesn't match with common Gryffindors is that he's humble and as far from arrogant as could be possible, but it doesn't take his courage away.

Hazel: She's Gryffindor, and core personality-wise, she and Nico are very much alike. They don't ever think about themselves, like Hazel really always does what has to be done, no matter the cost, I mean she literally died preventing Gaea to rise the first time, and she freed Thanatos while believing he would take her back to the Underworld. She's brave af, and she has one of the most strong willpower we've seen in the Riordanverse. She's a passionate hero, and she's the closest thing to a real knight in shining armor.

Lester: I'm gonna place him in Gryffindor because I don't think he fits in in the other houses lmao. That said, as Apollo he's very shitty, but as Lester, he's one of the most courageous people. He's grown so much, he's so willing to actually do stuff now, and sacrifice everything to do what's right, including his life, even if he doesn't know he's gonna survive. Hell, he really went most of TTT with an incredibly painful wound that nearly turned him undead, and he cared more for the future of Camp Jupiter than his own life. Additionally, he's a bit arrogant and cocky, but he truly means well, I love Lester so much.

Clarisse: Look look, all I have to say is that no one could have pulled off less than half the stuff Clarisse has done, she's so Gryffindor it hurts. She's reckless and impulsive, but she's driven by her passion to do good, even if she's the daughter of war, and was bullied by her own father. She's daring, she's bold and she is the hero. She's also arrogant and thinks she can solve everything by herself, something characteristic more of the canon Gryffindors in the books, rather than what the fans have shaped. In fact, she's very much like Gryffindors in the books, who are actually very rude to other houses and think they're the best. Still, at heart, she's in this house.

Alex: I'm in a huge dilemma about where to put them, but I reckon they'd fit pretty fine in Gryffindor. Not only are they daring and courageous, they're proud of who they are, but not in a too full of themselves kind of way, rather in a 'I am who I am, and if you can't accept me, fuck off' kind of way. They can get carried away rather easily though, and very arrogant, thinking they don't need anyone else, when they do in fact need some company. They are one of the kindest and at the same time most ambitious characters we've met, but they are brave beyond understanding in a very personal way, thus, Gryffindor.

Percy: I think it's fair to say he'd be Hufflepuff, because loyalty is literally his fucking fatal flaw, and he is the kindest sweetheart to all those who deserve it, he goes out of his way to help those who need help, whether that be mortals, halfbloods, gods, magical creatures or even his own enemies. He's too good for this world, and even if he's grown a bit bitter, he always looks to fight justly for what is right, and never loses faith in others. That, and the fact that he turned down immortality so that the olympians were more inclusive of minor gods, and their children were treated better. He's just a lovely soul, he's like 80% Hufflepuff so that's enough for me. All that and he's stubborn as hell.

Jason: Hufflepuff. Just, undoubtedly Hufflepuff. Like he seems to be this cold and self centered hero with a superiority complex (bc of all the son of Jupiter stuff) but he's the softest guy there is. Not only is he hardworking, open minded and kind, he appreciates justice but he doesn't seek for revenge or anything, he makes sure people are treated fairly and wants everyone to be accepted. Proof of that is how he continued Percy's job of including more gods, and made sure Nico felt comfortable with who he was. He truly has a heart of gold. (He deserved better btw)

Meg: God I can't decide between Hufflepuff and Gryffindor, but I think I'll go with the former. She's so strong, my baby, she's faced so much wrong, but she's still so kind and understanding of others, especially those who deserve kindness. She puts up such a hard facade, but she's so patient and warm and inclusive. She's brave and strong (as strong as the big three kids, if not stronger), but she's also so loyal to her beliefs despite how she was forced someone else's beliefs for years, so I'll keep her in Hufflepuff. Also, she's stubborn af, and she can be lazy, so that settles it.

Will: I KNOW some people will say Will could be in other houses that are not Hufflepuff, BUT I won't have it any other way. Will is literally the warmest person ever. He is kind and sympathetic and enthusiastic and patient and inclusive. Like Helga Hufflepuff would take one look at him and lose her shit screaming "mine". He's the guy who saw the son of Hades so many people were scared of and immediately grabbed his hand and transfered him some warmth and didn't let him go ahead and get himself killed. He's also the one who everyone loves and likes, so much that Clarisse gets along with him and he can calm her down. He's the ideal Hufflepuff, you can't change my mind.

Magnus: I mean, what else can you expect from the son of the god of summer? He's literally a guy who heals others with warmth. He's also the guy who spent years on the street with the most difficult situations, and accepts every single person the way they are. He's inclusive af, and tolerant of everything. He's the guy who's closest include a deaf elf, a Muslim valkyrie, and a black dwarf, and he's dating a genderfluid person. Yes he's brave, and he's kinda smart, and he's ambitious, BUT none of those qualities overpower his Hufflepuff nature.

Piper: Kinda debated whether Gryffindor or Ravenclaw fits more, but in the end I went with Ravenclaw. Even though she isn't a fighter, she's very very brave, yet her bravery isn't compared to her wits. Like others in the PJOverse, she wins her fights by outsmarting her opponents, but unlike others that's one of her strongest traits. She's witty and creative and a little on the negative side, she really struggled to work in a group rather than by herself. On another note, she's able to keep calm in crazy situations and come up with the craziest most unthinkable solutions (I'm talking borderline ridiculous) that always somehow work. She's not booksmart, but she knows so much about everything, and she's lifesmart you know?

Reyna: Why are some of these so hard? Deeply debating whether she'd be Ravenclaw or Slytherin. In the end I'd go more for Ravenclaw though. Reyna's smart as hell, she's strong and sharp, and she always sees the best way out of a situation. She's witty and observant, being able to keep her cool in battle and lead others in the best direction. She's always looking to grow, and she prefers to do things on her own, but she's a great leader. She has some Slytherin qualities, and she's not learning as learning oriented as others, but she's definitely Ravenclaw.

Sam: Let's face it, Sam has the only active neurons in all of MCGA, she's definitely Ravenclaw. I'm gonna be honest though, I've only read MCGA once, so I can't remember much of their personalities, but Sam is witty and clever, pretty much the only one who can come up with competent plans, while the others rely mostly on luck and whatever plan they can cook up in 5 seconds. She's loyal and true to who she is, and she's extremely courageous and proud of who she is, but her sharpness is what she stands out for me, which is why I put her in Ravenclaw.

Annabeth: I know the obvious option is Ravenclaw, but I genuinely think she's also Slytherin. Yes she is booksmart and wise like Ravenclaw, but her personality matches Slytherins' ambitious, cunning and resourceful nature. She's smart as fuck, but she's calculative, she always finds a way to end up winning, and while she does so by outsmarting her opponents, she wouldn't need to outsmart them if she weren't so competitive. I feel like there's this 40/60 odds on Slytherin rather than Ravenclaw, but it's that small difference that counts. Plus her leadership skills are so powerful that people don't ask, they just know she's the boss.

(Also just picture the sweet and loyal Hufflepuff boy with the strong and cunning Slytherin girl, like it should be as opposite as it is with Poseidon and Athena, but they're so cute)

Leo: Idk what you can expect that's not Slytherin. This boy is the embodiment of ambition and determination. Reminder that not all Slytherins are bad btw (I'm slytherin myself), but like he's life smart and cunning, and he can analyze situations faster than anyone else. He's charismatic and talented, and there's no one to stop him from triumphing. I don't have much to say, I just know he'd be in Slytherin.

Rachel: She's kinda a difficult one, and I struggle between Gryffindor and Slytherin, and tbh I'm still not sure. But I think I'd place her in Slytherin, because even if she's brave af (especially since she was a mortal fighting in a war out of her power), her main trait is her determination. When she's set on something, she gets it done. You can't tell her she can't do something, because she will find a way to do it. She's kind, and she's only a mortal, but she still has incredible power unlike any other. I don't think I can really name it, but I think she'd be put on Slytherin with much difficulty from the Sorting Hat.

Luke: Where else could Luke possibly go? On the meaner side Slytherins have created themselves, Luke would be part of those misled by who preceded them, by those who want to take advantage of their mistreatment (bc let's face it, Slytherins are mistreated by both students and Hogwarts staff), and turn them cold and bitter. Luke is ambitious and manipulative, being manipulated himself, and it comes easily because of his natural charisma and talent. He's very freaking determined and cunning too. He'd fit right into Slytherin, but he'd be viewed as one of the rotten lot.

Thalia: I don't have much to say about this, but Thalia is the girl whose fatal flaw is their desire for power (or smth along those lines), just like most Slytherins. She's ambitious, she's smart, she's truly talented, she stands out between the rest, and she knows it, and she actually kinda likes it.

(Also I put Annabeth, Thalia and Luke in the same house because they're all kinda similar, even if their beliefs and postures are different.

Frank: Ngl I'm having more difficulty with Frank than anyone else. I'm kinda torn between Gryffindor, Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw. I literally can't choose. He'd fit perfectly in any of them lmao, I just can't decide where he'd go. You decide this one yourself.

Please keep in mind, this is my personal opinion and my take on the characters, and not all of you will agree, and that's fine! You can let me know what you think (kindly please, don't come at me), and if you want to, send me an ask on a character you want me to do the same as these (as long as it's not TKC, I'M SORRY I haven't read those) go ahead, don't be shy!

[dream-a-little-bigger-x]

Chapter 25 -- Perfect Harmony | Charlie Gillespie

Summary: Emily Fox is a talented 17-year-old with a passion for all things music. Her dream is to become a successful singer-songwriter one day. But to achieve that dream, she needs to get into one of the most prestigious music schools in her district – it’s all been part of her plan since she was six. Sadly enough, those schools cost a ton of money that her parents don’t want to invest. They don’t even want her to pursue her dream. So, now Emily’s hustling, working at the music store to save up to get into college. That’s until she meets Charlie, an annoying seventeen-year-old boy with the same dream as her. The only difference is, he’s just doing it. He doesn’t need a fancy college to pursue his dream to become famous with his band. He just writes his songs and books small gigs here, there and everywhere. Will meeting Charlie defer her from her dream college, or will he actually help her achieve the dream?

Pairing: Charlie Gillespie x OC (Emily Fox)

Warnings: mentions of death, sexual assault

Important note: the characters of Charlie, Owen, Jeremy and Madison are based on the characters they play on the show and i do not own their names, only OC are mine. The songs aren’t mine either, they’re all from the show except for one.

~|Emily Fox|~

The boys and I have spent every waking hour together, working on music, working on the band. The dark void in my heart having been filled up by these three wonderful dorks and our music. While I’m building up my idea of a new future again, the boys have been building me up; giving me more confidence in my singing and my being. They supported me with every thought or idea I had about what college to go to or what idea I had for the band. Anything I said, the boys were 100% behind. It’s rewarding and refreshing to find a group of people to vibe off of so easily, especially after being a time apart and realizing how big of an impact they make on your life. It’s brought life back into a world that has crumbled apart. “That sounded tight, you guys!” I say, high-fiving Jeremy when we call in a break on rehearsals. “I can’t wait to play these songs live!” The boys chuckle while putting away their instruments or, in Owen’s case come from behind their instrument. “If we ever book a gig again,” Owen says solemnly. “Don’t give up hope, you guys. I’m sure we’ll book something soon,” I reassure them, and myself. Besides the Open Mic Night, we haven’t had the opportunity to play anywhere. Mostly because I was coped up in my room, crying all the time, and didn’t see the band for a good week. But you know… Still sucks. “Yes. You. Will!” Mitch’s voice resounds in the store. I hadn’t even heard the bell over the door ring; we were too busy chatting about gigs and rehearsals. “I think I might have a gig for you, Muffin.” He holds up a piece of paper, smiling smugly. “At the Orpheum,” he replies. I glance over at my bandmates to check if they heard it too. Judging by their bulging eyes and surprised glances, I’m sure they did. “Albeit it’s a school event, but you know… Still the Orpheum!” “What’s the gig exactly?” I ask, urging him to elaborate. “Bobby’s old school is holding a benefit. At first, they wanted to just do it in the school, but they booked a lowkey famous band and sold so many tickets, they can’t pack them all in the gym. And they’re looking for a band to open for them. You want me to make a call? I think you being Bobby’s niece will help us out a little.” I look up at the boys to see what they’re thinking. They’re eyes are sparkling like never before. The Orpheum has been a dream since they were Sunset Curve. “Please, try!” I tell Uncle Mitch. He grabs his phone and dials a number. The boys come closer to me as we watch Mitch in anticipation. We just hear a lot of ‘yes’ and hums until Mitch hangs up. “What did they say?!” I ask impatiently when he’s not telling us anything for an agonizing minute. Mitch almost looks upset, like he doesn’t want to disappoint either of us. “EMILY AND THE FOXES IS PLAYING THE ORPHEUM, BABY!!” He shouts really, really loudly. The four of us burst out into cheers and happy jumps and high fives. Without thinking twice about it, I grab Charlie’s face in my hand, staring into his eyes, and yelling, “THE ORPHEUM, CHARLIE!” When I realize how close we are, I slowly let go. For a while, we just look at each other until Jeremy and Owen make us snap out of the trance. That night, we celebrate in Jeremy’s garage with pizza, a movie and just each other’s company. My heart is full.

“Your VIPs are here,” Amanda, the showrunner, tells us as she knocks on the door of our dressing room. Today is the day; we’re playing a gig at the Orpheum. The gig we’ve been practicing all day and night for. “Come in!” I shout and get ready to greet Mitch, Madi and Charlie’s and Jeremy’s parents. Instead, I find my parents head in first, followed by two people I don’t know. They’re around my parents’ age. Neither of them seems too happy to be here either. “Mom? Dad?” I hear Owen say as he joins me at the door. “Surprise!” Madi and Mitch say at the very same time, showing off jazz hands. “Y—You… What? Huh?” Owen stutters and stumbles over his words, not sure what to say. I know they don’t have the greatest relationship either. He must be as surprised, if not more, as me. “Your Uncle Mitch called us,” mom starts with a small, careful smile on her face. “He caught us up on everything and told us about your show tonight…” dad continues. “We didn’t believe our little girl was playing the Orpheum!” I glare at my mother. “I thought you didn’t want to support my music career?” I ask, gritting my teeth. “We didn’t at first… But you have to know, Princess, we’re very proud of how far you’ve come,” says dad, placing his hands on mother’s shoulders. “Yeah, I came this far without you. Instead of you supporting me and believing in me from the start, I had to turn to my uncles. They didn’t choose to take care of me, but they did anyway. They love me and support me with everything I do.” Mitch gives me an appreciative smile. “I came this far because of Madi being by my side every single moment of every day I was angry and sad about my own parents not even loving me enough to be behind me 100%.” She grabs my hand and kisses my knuckles. “I came this far because of Charlie, Jeremy and Owen. They all became my family who supported me and cheered me up and comforted me because my own family couldn’t even do that for them.” I turn to Owen’s parents. “With all due respect, misses and mister Joyner, but your son is the most amazing and thoughtful person I have ever met. He’s been like a brother to me, and I can’t believe you as his family would ever do to him what you did to him. So, I’m sorry…” I turn back to my own parents. “But unless you’re all 100% behind us, I want you to leave.” “Emily…” Owen starts, but his father interrupts him. “No, she’s right, Owen. We should’ve been there for you and listened to you to learn about your world. We shouldn’t have reacted the way we did and we’re so sorry…” “We’re really proud of who you’ve become, Owen,” his mom chimes in, “Because you’re proud of who you are and everything you’ve achieved all by yourself. So, I hope you find it in your heart to forgive your old folks?” Owen glances at me, and after I’ve given him an encouraging smile, he launches forward and embraces his parents. My heart swells at the sight. “Emily…” my mother captures my attention. “Please, let us stay? We really are sorry for what we did to you. We should’ve never kicked you out. We should’ve never doubted you could make something of yourself. You’re part Mancini after all…” This is the first time she’s ever even slightly mentioned Uncle Robert. “I see so much of my brother in how you act and how ambitious you are… Please, let me just witness how you grow into a performer the way he did?” She sniffles, and that’s when I realize I’ve started crying too. I nod my head, granting them the permission back into my life, and the three of us hug. Mom holds me the way I wanted to be held so many times since the day she kicked me out. It’s nostalgic and rewarding. “What a sight this is,” Uncle Mitch says and when I look up, I find Charlie and Jeremy hugging their families too. For a while before the show starts, all of us hang out in the dressing room with our families. Luka, Owen’s sister has joined, as well as Jeremy’s two brothers. I’m glad I got to know all of them. Now, our Emily and The Foxes family has grown from the band-plus-Mitch-and-Madi to one big, happy family. Nothing can take this away from us now.

I take a deep breath, glancing over at our families in the front row, and after hearing Charlie’s “You got this”, I start playing the first notes on the piano to our new song. “Running from the past Tripping on the now What is lost can be found, it's obvious And like a rubber ball We come bouncing back We all got a second act, inside of us” The boys then chime in with their instruments as I grab the microphone, joining the boys to jam out with them. “I believe I believe that we're just one dream Away from who we're meant to be That we're standing on the edge of Something big, something crazy Our best days are yet unknown That this moment is ours to own” I turn from Jeremy to Owen and then to the crowd. I can’t look at Charlie yet. I know that if I do, I’ll want to kiss him, and we can’t have that. Got to stay professional. “'Cause we're standing on the edge of great” “On the edge of great” “Great” “On the edge of great” “Great” “On the edge of great” “'Cause we're standing on the edge of great” Charlie then takes the next verse whilst I walk out to the edge of the stage to interact with the crowd. “We all make mistakes But they're just steppingstones To take us where we wanna go It's never straight, no” I glance back at him as we sing together. He even gives me a little nod to beckon me to him. “Sometimes we gotta lean Lean on someone else To get a little help Until we find our way” Instead, I walk to Jeremy’s side of the stage, giving those people a bit of attention. “I believe I believe that we're just one dream Away from who we're meant to be That we're standing on the edge of Something big, something crazy Our best days are yet unknown That this moment is ours to own” I make my way back to Jeremy, dancing along to the rhythm he and Owen are giving me. “'Cause we're standing on the edge of great” “On the edge of great” “Great” “On the edge of great” “Great” “On the edge of great” “'Cause we're standing on the edge of...” I step onto the piano stool to give me a boost onto the grand piano itself. I crawl across, staying put on the edge as the boys and I go for the bridge together. “Shout, shout C'mon and let it out, out Don't gotta hide it Let your colors blind their eyes Be who you are no compromise Just shout, shout C'mon and let it out, out What doesn't kill you makes you feel alive Ooh-oh” Jeremy and Owen quit playing their instruments, and though we’d said this would be an a Capella moment for me, Charlie’s guitar riff surprises me instead. As I kneel in the middle of the piano, he makes his way over to me, giving me an encouraging smile. “I believe I believe that we're just one dream Away from who we're meant to be That we're standing on the edge of great” While I hit the high note, standing up onto the piano, the boys continue with the chorus. “Something big, something crazy Our best days are yet unknown That this moment is ours to own” We lapse into the chorus again, the crowd getting rowdier and cheerier with the second. This feeling right here is one I want to feel forever. With Charlie and Owen and Jeremy. And with Madi and Mitch next to me. The boys quit playing their instruments after the last chorus as I take my seat behind the piano again, securing the mic into the stand. To my complete surprise, I feel Charlie coming to sit next to me, and we sing the very last bit together in the same microphone. “Running from the past Tripping on the now What is lost can be found, it's obvious” As the crowd breaks out into a loud cheer, I can’t move anymore. All I can do is stay put and stare into Charlie’s beautiful hazel eyes that I’d missed so much. I inch closer. He inches closer. All the way until our lips touch in a soft, love-filled kiss. A kiss I’d missed for so long. “I love you, Emily Fox,” he whispers, his forehead pressed to mine. “I love you too, Charlie Gillespie,” I whisper back. Little do we notice my microphone is still on until the crowd bursts into even louder cheers. The both of us look up into the crowd first, then to Jeremy and Owen, who simply give us a proud smile, and then back at each other. He grabs my hand in his and leads me towards the middle of the stage where the boys join us too. Jeremy takes my hand, and Owen and Charlie hold hands too. The four of us take a bow, soaking in the feeling of the cheers at the Orpheum. We actually played the Orpheum. Emily and the Foxes. Me and my boys. Me, my two best friends and the love of my life. Forever. Together.

Taglist: @parkeret​​ @lukeys-giggle​ @gingerxarmy​ @lovesanimals​ @hannahhistorian92​ @marinettepotterandplagg​ @thequirkybookaholic​ @ashleyleblancx​ @calamitykaty​ @lolychu​ @bookdealer5​ @tenaciousperfectionunknown​ @hemmingsness​ @siennanoelle01​ @iainttakingshitfromnobody​ @ifilwtmfc​ @luckylouiebug​ @kiss-themoongoodbye​ @camiladelrio98​ @myfriendscallmebeans​  @caitsymichelle13​ @thedarkqueenofavalon​

[retvenkos]

(PART ONE) Hello! Congratulations on your milestone! Can I request a :fire: for Harry Potter? I’m a straight female, My zodiac sign is Scorpio, I’m also a Slytherin. My personality type is Estp-t. I have big goals for my future such as being an actress. I also play the electric guitar and I also really enjoy skateboarding. My favorite music artists are lil peep, Ghostemane, and suicideboys. My friends say that I am very adventurous and I’m emotionally strong.

(PART TWO) they also say that I’m not afraid to take any risks. I can be a bit stubborn at times, I have a hard time trusting people. My aesthetic is a dark grunge. I am an ambivert, I’m not afraid to dream big too. I am also very passionate about witchcraft. I don’t like too much physical contact. I am very protective of my personal space unless I am with someone I’m very close with. Thank you! <3

Harry Potter:

I ship you with Regulus Black!

now, at first this may not seem like the best idea, but i’ve put a lot of thought into this and can say that this is a good idea

from what i gather about scorpios (astrology is not my strong suit) you are the stereotypical slytherin - bold, ambitious, maybe a little secretive... you definitely have the potential to swing either way on the villain/hero scale. you are sharp and intelligent, and more stubborn than anything else, but none of these qualities are necessarily bad. 

truth be told, a lot of these traits are sirius’ personality traits. you’re very similar to him, and therefore, very different from regulus.

where you are bold, regulus is cautious; where you are ready to jump into battle, regulus is patient; where you are defiant, regulus is flexible and goes under the radar; where you are prone to taking risks, regulus is calculated.... and the list goes on.

on the surface, the two of you look like you would never get along - and i’m usually not a fan of opposites attract - but i have some key points that i want to get through to help explain where i’m going with this.

(1) regulus has lived with sirius for his entire life, and since you are so similar to sirius in personality, he understands you really well. of course, he probably doesn’t like you right away, but he knows how you operate and either the teachers catch onto this and make you partners or some of regulus’ friends realize this and task him with getting you to go help them out.

(2) both of you could become either the villain or hero of the story. regulus is a bit of a tragic character, really, because with the push in the right direction, he could have made a lot of change a lot sooner than he did, and maybe the most cruel thing was the time stolen from him. he’s extremely vulnerable to influence, just due to his personality, and so had he been given someone who believed so adamantly in dumbledore and the other side of the war, regulus really could have been the hero - no need for harry potter to grow up, because regulus could have taken center stage and defeated voldemort himself, with the help of the order of the phoenix. from what i know about scorpio, slytherin, estps, you could have a very similar story. because you have all the determination and ambition to go one way, but you are also transformative and can turn with the right influence, and be adamantly the opposite. both you and regulus are perfect for redemption arcs or bastardisation arcs, depending on what influences you have.

and, since you are the more bold and steadfast, of the two, you would be a driving force in regulus’ turn to the good side - you would supply him with all of the confidence and practicality, and the two of you could have honestly stopped voldemort together, that’s in no way a joke.

(3) you are incredibly forgiving, and this is because you have faced the darkness within yourself, so you are not afraid of it when you it in others. furthermore, you are incredibly perceptive and intuitive, so even though you are slow to trust, you know deep down when you can trust someone and perhaps hold them at bay for a while until you are 100%. but when you’ve seen them, and this usually happens early on, you know. you’re just praying your not wrong. (but girl, trust yourself. you are among the most intuitive slytherins out there, and you are rarely wrong).

(4) you both think big! this is usually rare for an estp, but it makes sense since you are a slytherin. you both have goals and will stop at nothing to achieve them. when you and regulus know what you want, you get it, no matter the cost, and that’s really iconic of you.

something i love about you and regulus is that you will bring dreams to him. regulus has never really had the luxury of foreseeing an ideal future for himself, but you are not afraid to dream, and you can bring dreams to him. it’s definitely one of the reasons why he first fell for you - you talk about the future like it’s something meant to be seized, and you talk about dreams like they’re meant to become reality.

i also think that your stubborn side is good for regulus - he can often be gripped with indecision, but you will take the reins and soldier forth with the idea you know think to be the best. you are bold and direct and original, all of which regulus thinks he is not. you are the person that shows him he is, indeed, all of those things - he’s standing up to the dark lord, after all.

(okay, sidebar, but now i really want to read a series with you and regulus. you are fellow pureblood slytherins who believed in supremacist ideologies because you were raised that way, but in your 6th year at hogwarts, the two of you are forced to become death eaters, and slowly from there, you realize what the death eaters truly were - murderers and thieves and terrible, terrible people who are willing to do terrible, terrible things for no real end. and the two of you decide to leave together. you find the first horcrux and succeed in destroying it, and then the two of you start to fight against voldemort alone, until you eventually join the order of the phoenix and start to take voldemort down. in this version, there is no prophecy and harry potter isn’t the boy who lived because you and regulus take down voldemort yourselves. sirius, james, and remus both join your sides (peter can still be a traitor, or not, it’s up to you. same with snape - i feel like without the harry storyline he wouldn’t swap sides.) and we get the marauders plus you two destroying the horcruxes. can you imagine how great that story would be?)

okay i have rambled too long, let me give you some random headcanons.

as i have said before, regulus listens to music religiously so i 100% see the two of you listening to music while on the run, debating about who’s band is better.

and that’s another thing! you guys have debates like no other - it’s really a wonder the two of you care so deeply about each other, because to the untrained eye, you both look like you annoy the hell out of each other, and it’s very funny when people realize you are such good friends.

(oh yeah, enemies to friends to lovers. although now i get just friends vibes, but i’ve put so much effort into this match up.... friends or lovers. your choice)

i definitely think that the two of you have stargazed throughout your travels - regulus probably told you all about his family one night, when you’re looking at the stars, and you comfort him.

oh! since you want to be an actress, headcanon that the two of you have to go undercover as muggles for a while in your attempts to defeat voldemort, and you end up really falling in love with muggle movies, and after the two of you have a marathon one night (maybe you get a night off or something, idk), you talk about how you want to be an actress. and then, regulus prompts you to dream for him - what would this actress life be like, if when it happens?

and you spin an entire story for him, a dream - a hopeful one - without the war and the suffering, without magic and death eaters, where the two of you are happy - you as an actress, and regulus as a screenwriter, only crafting the most complex of characters for you to play.

and he’s pleasantly shocked that he’s in this dream of yours, and you confidently tell him that no matter where you go, he’ll always be there, at your side. “you can’t get rid of me now, you realize that, don’t you? you’re stuck with me, black.”

and he doesn’t say anything in that moment, but he thinks that maybe that’s not such a bad dream, after all.

okay, i popped off with this one, but now i really want this regulus story to be a THING,,,,,,,,,,, ugh. can you imagine how great it would be? okay, just imagine if it were a mini series and it had the greatest soundtrack ever, and the palate was dark greens and blacks,,,,,, i got carried away but can you imagine.

[mitchsenweek]

MITCHSEN WEEK

DAY FOUR - MUTUAL PINING

Hello team! I hope you’re all enjoying mitchsen week.

Reminder that if you’re publishing anything of any kind to let me know - the tag is basically me and @imnotasuperhero and I keep refreshing it in case I find someone else there.

Day four fic below the cut!

Aubrey Posen was sitting at her desk stewing over the events of rehearsals that afternoon. She couldn’t pinpoint what was going on, but that little freshman with the piercings really bothered her. She had a bad attitude and she looked nothing like a Bella should. She knew it would be stupid to admit her but Chloe had talked her into it. Now, in one afternoon, she’d been proven right.

It still didn’t explain why she was sitting here obsessing about it hours later. She was roused from her funk by a knock at the door. Opening it, she was shocked to see the freshman in question standing there, looking hopeful. She didn’t let her guard down, just stared at the girl.

“Can we talk?” Beca said. “I kind of want to apologise.” Aubrey opened the door wordlessly and Beca entered nervously.

“Um,” she said, settling against the edge of Chloe’s desk. “I know I went off on you today, and I’m sorry for that. I can be very defensive... without going too far into the backstory it’s pretty much how I handle most confrontation. But it wasn’t cool, so I apologise.”

“Apology accepted,” Aubrey said. Beca wasn’t done though.

“But I want to make it clear, that regardless of what I said, you made a couple of snap judgments on me, none of which were correct,” she said. “And you don’t know me, you’ve barely spoken twenty words to me. I feel like that was unfair, especially since you’re in a position of leadership in that group. Whatever you say about me in that setting can seriously damage not only my reputation, but group cohesion, and that’s not what the Bellas need.” Aubrey was flabbergasted. Nobody had stood up to her before like this. Because she was right, essentially. But most people just apologised and bailed, but Beca was still there awaiting - an apology of her own?

“That’s true,” Aubrey said. “I’m sorry. I guess I can get a little single minded. I’ll make it clear that what I said about you was unfounded, I promise.”

“And finally, I want to assure you that the whole Treble thing is not going to be an issue,” Beca said. “I work with Jesse at the radio station but we are not ever going to be anything more than friends.”

“How can you guarantee that?” Aubrey asked. “He looks at you like he wants more.”

“Yeah well I’m like, ridiculously gay, so that’s never gonna happen,” Beca said dryly. There was a pronounced silence. “So can we start again?”

“Sure,” Aubrey said. “Let’s start again.”

“Great,” Beca said with a smile. “I’ll see you at rehearsal tomorrow then.” She headed out and left Aubrey sitting where she was. About thirty seconds after the door closed it hit her like a ton of bricks.

“No,” she whispered. “I can’t... have a crush on her?”

Beca was walking back across campus, her hands shaking slightly. She wasn’t very good at conversations like the one she’d just had, but it was important to her that she set things right with Aubrey.

In reality, she’d barely stopped thinking about the senior since she first encountered her. And she knew she had a tendency to prickly and defensive, so when it became clear that she and Aubrey were at loggerheads, she knew she had to do something. Because she didn’t want to fight with someone who made her insides swoop like Aubrey did. She didn’t want to grow to resent the other girl, not when she kind of spent a lot of time daydreaming about her.

So she sucked up all her courage and pride and apologised. It at least seemed to have gone well, which was a good sign. Now to work on reigning in her temper and holding her tongue. She smiled to herself as she recalled what Aubrey’s face had looked like when she’d casually tossed out that she was gay. She’d been surprised, and just a little bit curious. Beca hoped that meant Aubrey might actually be into girls, or she was about to spend the year crushing hard on a straight girl.

Aubrey was at her desk on her laptop. She felt like an absolute creep, but she was scrolling through Beca’s facebook and trying to learn whatever she could about her. She skimmed the basics - a couple years younger than she was but not problematically young, had come to Atlanta via the Pacific Northwest. There was nothing telltale in her history at all, so hoping even just for a tiny bit of background, she clicked on Beca’s high school page to see if she was mentioned. Feeling a tiny bit guilty, she moved over to her bed. If Chloe was to walk in she could see anything on Aubrey’s laptop if she were at her desk, but here it would only be her. She put Beca’s name in the search bar.

“Wow,” was the first thing out of Aubrey’s mouth. Beca was mentioned on her high school’s facebook page a lot. Like, a lot. Winner of Pacific Northwest Region songwriter’s competition. Winner of Oregon State Arts scholarship, three years running. Winner, Young Composers Award Cornish College of the Arts, Carnegie Mellon Music Award Finalist, Philadelphia University of the Arts - Highly Commended in summer session. There was a stream of news articles about any one of a million music awards the girl had won during high school, junior high.

Now she felt bad for discounting everything she said out of turn during rehearsal. She clearly knew what she was talking about. Closing her laptop and pulling out her acapella binder, she looked to see if Beca had filled in the space to mention her major or if she was undeclared. Nope, she’d declared. Music Theory & Comp, plus a second major in Production & Engineering. Impressive, was the first thought Aubrey had.

Chloe came in at that exact moment, so she casually closed up her laptop and set it aside.

“Hey,” her roommate said. “Beca find you? She was looking for you earlier.”

“Yeah, she was here,” Aubrey said. “She apologised for going off during rehearsal. And then I apologised to her for making assumptions and dragging her in front of you guys.”

“Really?”

“Yeah,” Aubrey said. “She made valid points. Plus she also said that she and the treble are never getting together ever in a million years.”

“Well, duh,” Chloe said. “She’s gay.”

“Did she tell you that?”

“No, but she didn’t need to,” Chloe said. “She’s gay, so is Cynthia Rose and Stacie is definitely not straight.”

“You sure about that last one?”

“Uh, considering I made out with her over the weekend, yeah, I am.”

“Oh, are you two together?”

“No,” Chloe said. “One time thing. She’s cute, but she’s not interested in a serious thing and neither am I. It won’t make anything weird at Bellas, promise.”

“And you can just tell that the others are gay?”

“Same as I could with you,” Chloe said. “I’m not about to start waving rainbow flags around the group and announcing other people’s business, mind you. Stacie won’t care, she’s pretty much uninhibited in every sense of the word.”

“Yeah she strikes me as such,” Aubrey said. Chloe was right though. Nothing remotely changed between the girls during rehearsals. She watched them, looking for a sign, but there were none. She hoped the crush she had on Beca was equally as unobvious. She decided that the easiest way to make sure nobody was clued in to the way she felt about Beca was to avoid looking at her unless necessary.

It worked okay for a while. But as Aubrey learned more about Beca’s musical capabilities and how she could help the Bellas, they began to spend more time together. They worked on arrangements and talked about music, and Aubrey knew she was going to slip up one day soon. She was enamoured, plain and simple, but she didn’t see what she could possibly offer Beca, so she kept it to herself, except for when she vented it to Chloe. Which was often. Chloe tried her hardest to convince Aubrey to take a chance, but Aubrey couldn’t hear it.

Beca was trying just as hard as Aubrey to mask her feelings, and she was just as sure that she wasn’t going to keep it up for much longer. Aubrey was beautiful, and she was smart, and passionate. Yeah she was definitely bossy, but Beca kind of liked that too. She liked everything about her, to be honest, and she was not good at hiding it, which she discovered when she was busted staring at Aubrey during rehearsal by Stacie.

“Dude are you staring at Aubrey?” Stacie asked. “Like are you into her?”

“Of course I’m staring at her,” Beca said, after conceding that she couldn’t really deny the obvious. “Let’s just tally this shit up. First off, she’s gorgeous. Like get the fuck out of here with your face gorgeous. Second, she’s hella smart. She’s ambitious and she’s got a nice voice, she’s funny, confident... but she is like about ten leagues above me. So yes I’m staring but I’m okay knowing it’s not going any further than that. I’m nothing if not a realist.”

“Aw, don’t sell yourself short,” Stacie said. “Is she even gay though?”

“Don’t actually know,” Beca said with a shrug. She stopped listening to Stacie’s badgering after that. She was too busy watching Aubrey.

She knew she was in a world of trouble with this crush. Even the scent of Aubrey’s perfume was enough to send her head spinning. She wanted to know what it would be like to lean in close to her, breathe that smell in as she kissed her. She almost snorted as she registered her own creepiness.

“You okay?” Aubrey asked her. Beca feigned ignorance so she wouldn’t have to explain.

“Fine,” she said. “I should be able to get the next bit of the arrangement down in about ten minutes.”

“I’ll leave you to it,” Aubrey said. “Stacie, can you come give Chloe a hand with choreo?” The freshman got up and made her way down to where Chloe was at the front of the room, leaving Beca sitting on her own.

Aubrey couldn’t help but watch Beca as she worked. She’d said she leave Beca to it, but she wasn’t able to tear her eyes away. There was something about the confidence of her right now, the way she knew absolutely what she was doing. She’d never seen anyone write on music charts the way Beca was doing, laying line after line on the page and barely ever going back to question what she’d done.

Plus she had this habit of poking her tongue out just a touch through her lips. It was cute. Beca was cute. She couldn’t believe she’d almost destroyed any chance of even a friendship with the girl the first practice they’d had. Thank god Beca had enough balls to stand up to her and they were able to start again.

Now the girl was writing mind-blowing vocal arrangements and dropping by her dorm to kick ideas around every other day. They were friends, but Aubrey kept feeling this tugging low in her gut telling her that she wanted more. She knew she was crushing hard, but she needed to ignore it.

“Dude, stare harder,” came a voice.

“Sorry?” Aubrey directed to Cynthia Rose.

“You’ve got the smitten face,” she said with a smug expression. Aubrey blushed a little. “Look I get it. Little B is an interesting character and whilst she isn’t exactly my type she definitely qualifies as a total hottie.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Aubrey said dismissively, but the red of her cheeks betrayed her.

“Sure you don’t,” Cynthia Rose said. “Whatever. Your secret is safe with me. But for whatever it counts, you two would actually make a hot couple. If either of you sacked up enough to make the first move, that is.”

Aubrey just shook her head dismissively. Cynthia Rose wasn’t one to pry, so it wasn’t brought up again. Until she was back in the safety of her room, with only Chloe there to hear as her reliable safety net.

Chloe didn’t mind hearing Aubrey go on about Beca. It was actually kind of adorable, she thought. Aubrey wasn’t the type to get all soft and swoony over anyone or anything, but she was so far gone for Beca it was crazy. So her only real problem with the entire situation was that despite her very earnest suggestion that she do something, say something, Aubrey kept saying no. That Beca wouldn’t be interested in a girl like her. It was maddening.

Beca was less restrained about her crush on Aubrey as time went on. She only really spoke openly about it with Stacie, normally at Stacie’s encouragement, but all of the Bellas could tell Beca was into Aubrey. She had absolutely no poker face so whenever they were in the same room as each other, Beca’s feeling were written all over her face. Aubrey flustered her with even the slightest of glances, and if the captain gave her some kind of praise or compliment during rehearsal she got so goofy and happy that it was visible on her face for hours.

When Stacie told her over and over that she should go for it with Aubrey, Beca would always counter that she wasn’t the kind of girl who ended up with someone as amazing as Aubrey. Stacie told her she was being ridiculous, naturally, but Beca was never going to take that step. So Stacie decided that she and Chloe should do something about it.

“I’m going to ask you something point blank here,” Stacie said. “And I know it might be breaking the best friend code on both our parts to be having this discussion but I think it’s important.”

“Oh this sounds interesting.”

“Now I only have suspicions, because Aubrey is pretty secretive, but am I going mental or does she have a massive crush on Beca?” Chloe looked surprised.

“Um....”

“Chlo.”

“Yeah, she does,” Chloe admitted. “Huge. Aubrey doesn’t do crushes. She’s head over heels, though.”

“Okay, good,” Stacie said. “Because it’s all too obvious that Beca is ridiculously into Aubrey. She’s not very good at hiding it and the only drama is that she is extremely gun shy about making a move.”

“Bree, too,” Chloe said. “So what do we do?”

“Leave that to me,” Stacie said. “Tell her the four of us are having lunch Saturday. Let’s meet here. I’ll take care of it.”

Chloe managed to convince Aubrey to come out with the girls for lunch by the weekend, so the two of them headed to meet Stacie and Beca at the Bellas auditorium.

“So where’s lunch?” Beca asked from her seat in the front row.

“We’re not going,” Chloe said.

“What do you mean?” Aubrey asked. “Isn’t that the whole reason we’re here?”

“Sit down,” Chloe said, gesturing to a seat near Beca. Confused, Aubrey sat, whilst Stacie got up and confronted the two of them.

“Okay,” Stacie said. “This thing between you two has gotten beyond a joke. All Beca can talk about is how amazing you are, Aubrey. How smart and beautiful and all of those nauseating things that a girl with a full blown crush notices. And Chloe here tells me that all she hears about on the regular is how unbelievably smitten Aubrey is for you, Beca. You’re so talented and confident and gorgeous and so on. So now that I’ve sufficiently embarrassed you both, Chloe and I are leaving so you two can do something about the super dramatic mutual pining.”

The two of them sat side by side with scarlet faces for an awkwardly long time. In the end Aubrey decided she was going to have to go first.

“So what Stacie said about me is true,” she said. “About how I feel. I’m kind of very into you.”

“Huh,” Beca said. “And it’s not exactly low key that I’m super into you. I think everybody can tell.”

“So... if our friends are shoving us toward this point,” Aubrey said, “maybe we could like, go on a date?”

“Before you suggest that though,” Beca said, her face going scarlet all over again, “it’s only fair that you should know I’ve not done this much. The dating thing. I’ve only had one girlfriend before.”

“I’ve never had a girlfriend,” Aubrey said. “One boyfriend. So inexperience isn’t just on your side. But even if it wasn’t, I’d still want to go out with you. I haven’t stopped thinking about you since you came to my room and apologised after the first practice.”

“I haven’t stopped thinking about you since then, either,” Beca said. “So yes. Please. Let’s go out.”

“Now? I mean, we did have lunch plans and they just left, so we may as well.”

“Yeah,” Beca said. “Um, I know a decent place if you’re okay with me driving?”

“Lead the way,” Aubrey said. Beca navigated them both toward her car and opened Aubrey’s door for her. They sat in silence for a few moments during the trip until Beca thought to put the radio on, the both of them singing along for a few songs.

“You have such a gorgeous voice,” Aubrey couldn’t help but saying.

“Thanks. Yours is nice too,” Beca said.

“I’m flattered that you would call mine nice, but honestly, my brain sometimes stops when I listen to you,” Aubrey rambled. That compliment brought a blush to Beca’s cheeks.

Beca ended up taking Aubrey to a simple sort of restaurant, nothing super weird or adventurous on the menu and it wasn’t too romantic for a first date.

“Hope this place is okay,” Beca said after they’d ordered. “It feels kind of coupley but not like overly so?”

“It’s fine,” Aubrey said. The two of them slipped into talking while they waited for their meals, and they admitted to each other just how far their crushes went. It was a relief to both of them that they seemed to be on the same page, but they also lamented that they hadn’t done anything sooner.

Once the food was gone and the bill had been delivered, Beca reached out for the slip.

“You should let me pay,” Aubrey said.

“I’ll get this one, since I picked it,” Beca said. “You can get the next one?”

“There’ll be a next one?” Aubrey said hopefully.

“Lots of them, I hope,” Beca said. “I’d really like that. Dating?”

“So would I,” Aubrey grinned at her and they got up and paid the check before heading outside.

“Wanna walk for a while?” Aubrey said. Beca nodded and slid her hand into Aubrey’s. Their fingers locked, both of them smiling as they strolled along the shopfronts.

It was a nice way to waste a little time. They just walked, and talked a little as they moved. But mostly they were both quietly appreciating the way even just holding hands felt, the racing in their chests every time their eyes caught a little. After a while they figured they should probably head back to campus, so they walked back to the car.

Beca slowed them to a stop right next to Aubrey’s door. She wanted to kiss her, provided Aubrey was okay with that. She looked up at her, almost hopefully, and saw that Aubrey was waiting, it seemed. So she bit her lip for a split second and then moved in to kiss her.

“Ow shit!” Aubrey exclaimed. Beca realised that in her eagerness she’d trodden directly on Aubrey’s mostly bare foot, thanks to the ballet flats she was wearing.

“Shit, sorry,” Beca said. “Real smooth, Mitchell. I’m sorry, Aubrey, truly. I’m just nervous.”

“Nervous?” Aubrey asked, her head tilting slightly. “Why would you be nervous?”

“Because I’ve been thinking about this, about you and me, about this moment for like... months,” Beca shrugged. “And I wanted it to be perfect. But instead I stood on your foot with my heavy ass boots and ruined it.”

Aubrey swooped in and kissed her soundly. Beca’s hands fluttered at her sides for a moment before she came to her senses and slid her arms around Aubrey’s neck. As she breathed in she could smell that perfume that drove her mental on every other day but it was a tiny, inconsequential thought when compared to the very idea that she was kissing Aubrey right now.

She felt hot everywhere. Her face was surely pink and she could feel a heat coursing through her and settling in her stomach. And when Aubrey pulled back she just knew she was smiling ear to ear.

“See? Nothing’s ruined,” Aubrey said. “I’m completely okay, I promise.” They shared a handful of kisses, softer and shorter than the first, but no less euphoria-inducing, before Aubrey was ready for them to head back to campus. Beca got back into the drivers seat and steered them back, Aubrey’s phone chiming just before they got there.

“Everyone’s hanging out to see how this turned out,” Aubrey said. “They’re all waiting in the auditorium.” Beca rolled her eyes.

“As much as I’d love to just not deal with that shit,” Beca said, “they’re going to be torturous whether we deal with it now or tomorrow or some other day. Let’s just do it now. While I’m still riding the high of finally getting to kiss you.” She parked the car and Aubrey was at her door as she got out.

“Hey,” Aubrey said. “That whole high feeling, that happiness at this finally happening?” Beca nodded.

“Not just you,” she continued. “I just want you to remember that. I can’t believe we just went on a date. My brain is melting down as we speak. I’ve wanted this for months, too.” Beca kissed her, soft and easy, letting herself take her time with it.

“Okay then,” she said. “Let’s do this.” Aubrey’s hand immediately found hers. They didn’t have any need to speak while they walked. Beca paused for just a second outside the doors, long enough to take a deep breath. Aubrey squeezed her hand tightly and opened the door. They walked in together, hand in hand.

Immediately their friends began clapping and cheering. Beca was blushing, she could feel it, because it was mortifying that all their friends had been so clued in to the immense crushes that they’d both been sporting. But Aubrey was slightly pink in the cheeks as well.

“So,” Aubrey said, “as you can probably see, Beca and I have decided to do something about the - what did you call it Stacie? Oh yeah, super dramatic mutual pining.”

“Largely that it’s no longer pining,” Beca said. “It’s more like dating. So yeah. Uh, thanks for shoving us toward this point, I guess.”

“And now we’re leaving,” Aubrey said. “Text if there’s dinner plans or something.” Amy wolf whistled at them as they left, neither of them turning back as the doors swung closed.

[ocular-intercourse]

OC MASTERPOST

Alright, putting this together you really notice how old most of these characters are, theres a lot of cliched and coincidental stuff in there that i & others came up with when i was 15-21. Finn got the whole brunt of my edgy scene teen angst phase... but then again Asher is brand new and not looking any better so there’s that. Sorry children, i love the drama. Also all of them being queer men is absolutely just teenage me living out my queer male identity through them before i even knew it hasghj.

NAME/NICKNAME: Finnegan Bastien Jeong-Bak / Finn, Junebug (by his fans) (his terrible mish mash of a name is product of his parents forcefully pushing their heritage away to make it easier for Finn to fit in, once they reached his sister they were more relaxed about the problem)

AGE/BIRTHDAY: 27 years / 17.04.

NATIONALITY/ETHNICITY: French Canadian / Asian (South Korean)

BASED ON: /

GENDER/SEXUALITY: Cis male / bisexual (probably pan if he’d be more informed)

FAMILY: FATHER | Jin Hee Jeong | 48 years | janitor | very difficult relationship, for most of his life he considered his father to be a good dad till the drinking started and then the abuse, hes still not quite ready to let his relationship with his father go, so he keeps in contact, which often led to fights with Shawn, as well as the fact that Finn still has not outed himself in front of his father out of fear of rejection

MOTHER | Yeon Soo Bak | 47 years | owns a café | similarly rocky, they are now at a good point but he knows his mother struggles with his identity and life choices, so much she tried to manipulate a lot of things in the past but learned to leave that be, he is grateful towards her for leaving his father when she did. he bought her a café cause he loves her so much

SISTER | Sun Marise Haywood, née Jeong-Bak | 24 years | stay at home mom | he was always close to his sister, she just assimilated into his friend group in high school, and still is an important part of his life, or is again, they had a phase of not talking after some jealousy issues regarding his relationship with Shawn and her friendship with him, Sun is very protective over her brother and his mental instability and does her best to keep him healthy. That includes a very strict anti-Shawn stance, regarding the pain he has caused her brother in the past. Sun is happily married and has a daughter, a fact that somewhat relieves Finn, at least someone in the family that fulfills their mother’s wishes.

NIECE | Molly Florence Haywood | 4 months | A literal baby. Finn famously is not very keen on children, especially babies and goes out of their way. His niece however managed to steal his heart, plus he can just give her back to her mother when she becomes troublesome, the ideal arrangement. He likes to spoil her.. not that she would care at this point.

HALFBROTHER | Bryant Cole Reno | 7 years | student | His father’s illegitimate child with an American prostitute. Classy. But not Bryant’s fault. Finn learned of his existence when he was 3 and has since then sort of taken part in raising him, not that he would ever consider that to be true. He is very sensible to his brothers living conditions considering the bad stuff he himself experienced growing up, and does his best to ensure him to grow up happy and healthy, which includes denying him contact with their father (despite not pulling the same measures for himself). Bryant is a smart kid, overachieving, Finn already feels like he is dancing circles around him, and truly does not know where the kid gets it from.

FRIENDS: Noteworthy are on the Canadian side: His childhood/youth best friend Kitty (deceased), almost equally important Logan & Colin (all three of them share a brain cell), his ex-girlfriend of 5 years Emily (rocky long distance friendship atm), ex-affair & close friend Raphael (his voice of reason). On the American side: Close friends Randy (trashfire bff) & Jade (cinnamon bun), his ex-boyfriend of ~4 years Shawn (heartbreak!!).

S.O.: No one atm cause he is, even after 2 years apart, still very much desperately hung up on Shawn and not getting over that breakup anytime soon. Learning that Shawn is in a new relationship has thoroughly pulled the rug out from under him and left him questioning why Shawn managed to move on so much quicker (and if the other guy is more attractive than him). He also struggles very much with the fact that Shawn has made extremely positive progress in the two years without him (unable to see that the same is applicable to himself too).

I guess that still deserves an entry here:

Shawn Alexander | 28 years | currently Barkeeper & Musician | Shawn comes from a rich family and therefore has the polar opposite starting conditions to Finn, but nonetheless experienced many shared interests, but also miseries, from abusive fathers to drug use. With two general distinctions: While Finn’s mother acted after discovering the abuse, Shawn’s mother stayed complicit. While Shawn escaped into his heroin addiction, Finn developed an strict anti-drug stance after Kitty’s death. They were a volatile mixture, the good times were extraordinarily good, the bad ones catastrophic, with Finn quickly acting out when cornered and Shawn reacting aggressively, their fights were often ruthless. Finn has considered many times since they broke up that maybe people who love each other, even this strongly, are not necessarily automatically meant to be together. That does naturally not have any impact on his feelings or his lacking ability to act reasonable when it comes to emotions.

OCCUPATION: Professional Tennis Player (out of spite)

CHARACTER: self-confident | loving (to ppl close to him), mostly distant or rude to ppl he does not know | does not hide his moodiness or discontent just to be polite | charming | energetic | passionate | ambitious | helpful & loyal towards his loved ones | savior/helper syndrome | self-sacrificing | engaging | resourceful | proud | vain | irritable | competitive | playful | needy | keeps problems to himself | mayor problem with authority figures | moody | hyperactive | has NO patience for stuff that does not interest him/seem unimportant to him | messy | unforgiving | stubborn | struggles with feelings of guilt towards many things | has bipolar disorder and changes between episodes of excessive confidence, an appetite for risk, high motivation and sex drive, and episodes of apathy and depression with reoccurring suicidal ideations, but he has in later years learned to manage these mood swings better with a mixture of medication and rigid routines

ABILITIES: highly athletic, good cook, excellent singer & musician, good technical understanding (esp. towards cars), fluent in french (native) & english, minor knowledge of korean

INTERESTS: cooking, music, sports, cars, video games, podcasts about movies, games, techincal innovations and whatever obscure topic interests him at the moment (podcasts, games and other media is stuff that he only recently discovered for himself, since his job does not allow for a lot of time with his friends, so that’s his compensation)

APPEARANCE: 6′3″ tall and muscular (but too lean for his liking, he cannot built up mass for the love of it), dark brown eyes and nearly black hair, currently a little over chin long but worn in a bun or ponytail (he feels like short hair makes him look like a child, but he’s also just too busy/lazy to get haircuts every couple of weeks), a prominent scar runs through his left eyebrow, he has multiple tattoos, a flower pattern on the inside of his right arm, a skeleton with a laurel wreath on the inside of his left arm, a geometric pattern just above his ankle on the inside of his right leg, more geometric patterns on his shoulder blades and a moth in the middle just below his neck

PLOTPOINTS: born in Montreal to south korean parents | best friends with Kitty (Catherine) | best friends with Logan & Colin | struggles in school because of growing up with multiple languages, hyperactivity and later problems with authority figures | free time either spent on the streets with his friends or with his father at his job as a mechanic | relationship with Emily age 13 | growing behavioral issues at first misunderstood as ‘only’ adhd | starting music (drumming, later other instruments) & sport (tennis) to make him tired | dedication to sport & music as compensation for bad schoolwork, to show he’s at least good at something | father loses job, becomes driving instructor | move to poorer area of town | added stress in family setting | with 15 diagnosis BPD after behavioral issues became increasingly dangerous | Finn becomes aware of his father’s drinking problem, often being the one to take care of him during and after these times | with 16 affair with 25 yo Raphael (in hindsight Finn finds this somewhat alarming) | more time spent away from the family, more time on the streets with minor criminal activities & drug use (in varying degrees, Kitty taking heroin being the strongest) | school work evens out through good grades in subjects he was interested in vs bad grades in everything else | with 18 family vacation in New York, Finn meets Shawn, they have an ons | break-up with Emily, after she finds out about his affair & one-night-stands | after Finn & the others were away for another vacation they come back to find out that Kitty has used the opportunity to kill herself with a planned overdose, Finn never reads the good-bye letter, he spends the next months in a state of emotional crisis and gives up on finishing school, when he can get out of bed he spends his time with sports as an distraction | Jin-hee’s alcoholism & job clash as he and a student get in an accident with alcohol in Jin-hee’s system, he loses his job and the trial, now having to pay heavy compensation for the damages, pushing the family further into poverty | Finn and his father start to fight more and more, with Jin-hee’s condition worsening and Finn provoking him, either actively, or by choosing not to carry his weight in the family and generally being an undesirable son, resulting in Jin-hee venting his anger by hitting his son | with Finn turning 21 his mother definitively discovers what had been going on, she leaves Jin-hee in an ugly divorce, takes her kids & moves to New York | despite everything Finn keeps contact with his father and has somehow managed to mostly forgive him | Finn & Shawn meet again & quickly end up in a relationship | when Finn learns about Shawn’s heroin addiction he wants to end things, but decides to give him a chance | what follows is 4-5 years up and down with two break-ups, one after a series of misunderstandings and meddling from Yeon that end up with Finn cheating, another one after a burned Shawn learns, after giving it another chance, about things that Finn has hidden from him, such as Jin-hee’s illegitimate child that Finn himself has only recently met, and a row of events unfold that lead to Shawn attempting but failing suicide | when he learns about it Finn declares Shawn as dead in his eyes and tells him he never wants to see him again | another emotional crisis for Finn and again he throws himself into sports to drown out the bad thoughts and make himself too tired to think, only this time he meets the right people and with the right support ends up gliding into the professional sports world | he spends the next two years building up his carrer like a madman and thoroughly enjoys being occupied at all times, as well as for the first time in his life having a stable and strict rhythm to his days, a healthy sleep cycle & positive reaffirmation that help with his mental stability.. oh, and he’s pining for Shawn of course

BONUS INFO: I created him when i was a wee teen but wrote him in different RPGs almost till today, so there were a lot of different versions and revisions. Originally he was a caucasian redhead, it was only years later that i put it together that much of his family dynamics and some of his character would very much fit a minority/immigrant narrative. He was always french-canadian, but in the beginning he moved to England instead of New York (fun fact: it was Canterbury, which is why i later used the city for Teddy instead). Really sad to have lost Shawn’s accent, but honestly it makes much more sense for the city to be so much closer to home. If i would call any of my OCs my main OC it would definitely be Finn, he is my obsession, there’s next to no days where i don’t imagine him in some sort of scenario, AU or canon. I am however hesitant to use him for anything, since part of his story, meaning Shawn’s character, belongs to my friend Mel, who i’ve lost contact with. When i was last writing him in a RPG i used korean actor Kim Bum for his faceclaim, and i still like to reference his pictures, look him up and you’ll see what i mean with Finn looking younger with shorter hair.

NAME/NICKNAME: Wendell Theodore Parker / Teddy

AGE/BIRTHDAY: 19 years / 23.09.

NATIONALITY/ETHNICITY: British / Caucasian (or whatever the god side counts as)

BASED ON: originally comes from a Percy Jackson RPG

GENDER/SEXUALITY: Cis Male / gay

FAMILY: FATHER | Julien Samuel Parker | 45 years | cardiologist

MOTHER | Demeter | goddess of harvest, agriculture & fertility of the earth

STEPMOTHER | Katherine Marie Parker | 44 years | lector

HALF-BROTHER | Bradley Howard Parker | 24 years | author (alias J. B. Baxter)

HALF-SISTER | Amanda Carrie Parker | 20 years | student of cultural sciences

+ a shitton of half-siblings on Demeter’s side

FRIENDS: Rufus Whitmore | 19 years | Son of Apollo | Actually Zeke’s best friend and No. 1 in the ‘kick Zeke in the ass to make him stand by his feelings club’ which is why Teddy is phenomally thankful for the support. Maybe due to his dad Rufus generally has a very healing, hardworking and good-natured personality, though combined with a bit of a superiority complex.

Caspar Renier | 19 years | Son of Dyonisus | With Dyonisus practically being the party god and all Caspar is very much the agent of chaos in Teddy’s life. He lives for experiencing new and exciting things and likes to incite the same in others. While Teddy loves all things safe, Caspar brings the risk, but somehow the two manage not to annoy each other, but to balance things out. Caspar is Teddy’s best friend since the early days of the academy and reason for many good things that Teddy would have otherwise been too timid about.

Riley O’Donovan | 20 years | Son of Ares | Basically Teddy’s arch nemesis since the early academy days. For some reason he has decided that Teddy was just the right person to push around and pick on, supported by his twin and another half-brother. Teddy, being the pacifist that he is, and generally trying to avoid confrontation, did his best to stay out of their ways, telling himself that fighting back would only make them fight harder. Teddy was with them when the academy was attacked and Riley’s brothers died. Together they fought and survived. At their next meeting they quietly recognized that the experience had connected them and to let bygones be bygones. They are developing an akward friendship with lots of guilt and grief, that’s mostly consistent of helping each other out and, weirdly enough, unquestionable trust through shared trauma.

S.O.: Zeke... i don’t remember his surname, since Teddy is a RPG character he is obviously another person’s character, i’ll try to think back on more info. As a Hermes son he is the charming wayfarer type person, with a guitar on his back and a taste for freedom, i believe he was a year older than Teddy. The relationship is rocky at best and Teddy feels unloved most of the time but his intense feelings for Zeke make him want to hold on and hope for the better just for a little while longer.

OCCUPATION: Student

CHARACTER: honest | childlike | naive, gullible & foolish | clumsy | ambitious | enthusiastic | family oriented | safety & harmony loving | loyal | nervous & talkative when unsure in social/new situations | sulky & stubborn when unhappy | imaginative | resourceful | huge need for affection & validation | unknowingly competent in dangerous situations | meek | kind | helpful | justice loving | superstitious | clingy | hyperactive | chaotic | defensive | diplomatic | jealous | emotional | caring | empathic | curious | fair | friendly | happy-go-lucky | generous | sociable | lively | manipulative | self-indulgent | open | pushy | romantic | tolerant | impatient, but unpunctual | fear of loss | playful | wavering | brave when it counts | pacifistic

ABILITIES: [supernatural] control over plants and weather in the immediate vicinity, too much use of his abilities quickly causes hunger, headaches, nausea & exhaustion | an integral instinct about the beginning and natural end of lives, when he concentrates he can tell a person’s age, or if they are close to the end of their lives in case of a natural death. he chooses not to use this ability | his control of plants is quite trained, changes in the weather are mostly out of his control & follow violent mood swings. They show themselves as changes in temperature in his immediate vicinity

[other] low abilities in sword fighting (he shows little motivation because of his pacifistic nature, but has good instinct when it is necessary), slightly better at archery & hand to hand combat, good at riding & general animal handling

INTERESTS: monsters, he has an affinity for anything monstrous and creepy, in fiction & reality, as a unusual choice for Demeter children he wants to work with monsters in some capacity in the future | animals | plants

APPEARANCE: unkempt wavy to curly blonde hair in various states of darker blonde to bleached to grown out color, darker blue/green eyes, 5′10″, cycles through being slightly underweight & healthier depending on his mental state, his clothing style has no apparent rhyme or reason and consists of anything he likes, mostly color- & youthful, wears a leather necklace with a coin pendant at all times. he chooses to be mostly clean shaven, but has a surprisingly strong beard growth

PLOTPOINTS: born, officially, as the 3rd child of the parker family based in Canterbury, happily growing up in a loving upper to middle class family | only trouble so far is the inability to sit still and concentrate on school classes | with 14 he learns of his true nature and the world of gods & demigods | spirals into thoughts of being an outcast and disruptive in his family, considering his father’s infidelity and his ‘mother’s’ will to live with her husband’s illegitimate child | decides to run away after witnessing a fight between his parents while on vacation in America | gets picked up by Zeke, another runaway child, and as it happens another demigod | after sharing their stories Zeke reunites Wendell with his family against his will, Teddy initially resents him for it | the family reconciles, Wendell’s ‘mother’ confirms how much she sees him as her own son | Teddy starts to visit Gaia Academy during his regular school holidays, where demigods get educated and trained according to their special circumstances eg. myths, monster attacks & magical abilities | his brother begins to write about a fictional character based on Teddy’s life and has success with a series of children’s books | reconciliation & later close friendship with Zeke | big homesickness | a bad first romantic/sexual experience, the adjustment to the world of myths & the stress of constant change between regular school & academy life leads to an overwhelming sense of loss of control, which results in an eating disorder that he learns to control via therapy and his family’s support | dreams of becoming a monster herdsman despite his lack in battle prowess due to his strict pacifistic beliefs | is bullied by 3 Ares sons during most of his time at Gaia | gets in the awkward situation of falling in love with his close friend and self-proclaimed heterosexual Zeke, feels the situation is too hopeless and the friendship too precious to do anything about it | pines for years | drunkenly kisses Zeke after receiving a thoughtful birthday gift (aforementioned necklace) | panics about said kiss after Zeke steers clear of him for the rest of the week | turns out Zeke just had a whole week of gay panic™ and needed some time to come to terms with maybe possibly being in love with a guy despite not usually being attracted to men | Zeke confesses & agrees to a relationship | the thing is messy, with lots of sneaking around and no pda, even in private, allowed as Zeke struggles with a religious upbringing and acceptance of his new identity | as a whole Teddy deals poorly with this behavior but endures for the chance of being with his hopeless yearlong never gonna happen crush | meanwhile the world of the demigods is in chaos with wars between different pro- and anti-god-fractions | when an anti-god-organization attacks the academy, Teddy is forced to fight and kill to survive next to his longtime bullies | he & his loved ones survive but afterwards he is not only traumatized by his own actions and the things he has seen, but also the fact that he of all people survived while better fighters died | while the academy reorganizes itself he spends time at home and struggles with the discrepancy between his vs his family’s experiences and not being able to share what happened with a medical professional to work through his trauma | disillusioned he decides it is time for him to mature, when the academy reopens at a new location he dedicates himself to more battle training and after reconciling with the one surviving bully through their shared experience even asks the ares son for personal training

BONUS INFO: Oh, Teddy boy! He also went through several RPGs and rewrites. The first one was a pretty basic Percy Jackson RPG, with Camp Halfblood and all. In that version Teddy was a child of Hebe, and chose to leave his home in one of the many Springfields in America for the safety of his family, since monster attacks suddenly started happening. On his way to the Camp he met Zeke, they had a little road trip and fought their way to their destination. It was a lovely story of hurt/comfort with Teddy being helplessly lost and scared and Zeke taking care of him. An unlikely team that strangely worked out. The whole runaway thing in his current story might not make a lot of sense, but it was our way of incorporating the original runaway/road trip story that was near and dear to our hearts. I’m not sure why i ended up making him a brit when we switched forums, maybe because i missed British Shawn and had to make up for it. The new RPG obviously had a lot of changes on the Percy Jackson Story, it was just inspired by the idea of demigod children but that was about it. Again, since Zeke is not my character i am hesitant to work with this, also i would like to make the setting more original, though i guess there’s only so much you can do with demigods, maybe creating an entirely new pantheon idk. That’s the problem with RPG characters i suppose, they are rarely uninfluenced from other people’s creations, and often based on preexisting works, but i refuse to give up on him. When i first created him i had Boyd Holbrook in mind. (Which is very fun considering his look in Logan, i imagine later Teddy to look like that and what a big fucking ooc contrast that would be to him rn.) Here is an avatar that captures the Teddy feel during the original road trip very well, bonus the matching Zeke ava (obviously portrayed by Jackson Rathbone), bonus bonus a Rufus ava, ft. Aaron Taylor-Johnson:

NAME/NICKNAME: Avery Sanders / Ace of Spades (a sort of artist’s name), Ace

AGE/BIRTHDAY: 22 years / 15.05.

NATIONALITY/ETHNICITY: American / Caucasian? (or whatever, the god thing, plus he does not know his dad)

BASED ON: said Percy Jackson inspired RPG

GENDER/SEXUALITY: Cis male / asexual (/ poly/panromantic?? he does not know either or really care honestly it’s all just whatever)

FAMILY: FATHER | Michael Hide | deceased

MOTHER | Nyx | goddess of the night, daughter of chaos

HALFBROTHER/LEGAL GUARDIAN | Dale Sanders | 42 years | ?? occupation: lying bastard weasel?? | Their relationship sure is something. In short Ace IDOLIZES his brother big time, though he would never say those words out loud but it is very fucking clear to everyone. He is like a miniature Dale, or trying to be, or trying to surpass him. This makes the last developments in Ace’s story very very complicated. He’s still kinda brainwashed enough that he’s still holding on to the hope that he’s just not informed enough to understand his brother’s motives.

FRIENDS: Benedict Bovine | 21 years | Son of Morpheus | Ben & Ace were roommates in the academy, and no friends for a long time. The Morpheus son was just too much for him, too happy, too optimistic, too intrusive, too annoying. But that’s probably exactly the personality you have to have to stick with Ace and not give up on actually truly befriending him. Somewhere along the way they ended up being best friends which Ace is secretly desperately clinging to because not too many people bother with trying to get close to him even with him being actively unapproachable. Ben has gained a special status in his life and therefore special treatment, namely experiencing Ace’s more positive characteristics and rare insights behind the mask.

Elisabeth Fendi | 22 years | Daughter of Nike | As a Nike daughter she likes challenges, and befriending or even dating Ace certainly is just that. But she had positive reinforcement by looking at Ben’s & Ace’s relationship and knew the goal was achievable. Long story short Ace lost a bet and had to go out with her, and actually kinda enjoyed her ambitious, competitive nature. She whittled him down to becoming friends at least. They certainly do not treat each other overly tender, but that suits both of their nature’s just fine. Elisabeth just kinda started hanging around Ace & Ben and the three are now sticking together.

S.O.: Well not sure actually, there was one version of the Story where Ace dated a girl named Liz, and Elisabeth certainly has some of her characteristics. But it definitely occurred to me that Ace himself has no desire to actually pursue a romantic or sexual relationship of any kind, but has no problem having sex if it just happens to happen. In another version of the story Ben, Ellie & Ace end up having a threesome under somewhat dramatic circumstances and i’ve been playing with the idea of both Ben & Ellie looking to enter a polyamorous relationship with Ace and him just kinda going along with it cause it’s whatever to him and he loves and trusts them and likes being close to them so it’s not a huge difference to him anyways.. which would just be Ace clumsily trying to show his genuine feelings for once and learning how to express affection, both physically & romantically and probably failing a lot. I think i’m sticking with it but i’m not sure about the circumstances yet.

OCCUPATION: Student

CHARACTER: callous | unimpressed & unfazed | has built up a pretty impenetrable unapproachable wall & layers of alter-egos before anyone can end up actually getting to know HIM | lone wolf | slightly misanthropic traits | paranoid & suspicious | fake superiority complex, talks himself into feeling superior to cover up insecurities | cool | hardy | streetwise | casual, mostly outwards to reaffirm his cool, relaxed persona | stoic pokerface | disrespectful unless respect is earned (mostly through undeniable talent in skills he considers worthy) | rebellious, tactless, provoking | trouble with authority figures | might not show his emotions but has no trouble speaking his mind even in unhelpful ways | critical, towards himself and others, actively looks for flaws | show-off | willing to learn & commit himself to bettering his abilities at all times | proud (of his abilities and his reputation) | long-sighted, analytical & strategic thinking | intuitive | resourceful | has talent to lead but decides not to, does not want responsibility over the actions of others | keeps his word always, to a fault, even when joking | persistent | humorous, ironic & sarcastic | underneath his fake persona actually awfully sincere, it just takes time to get there | pathologically loyal | protective, self-sacrificing & caring towards close friends | despite everything and unbeknownst to himself actually undeniably morally good & heroic

ABILITIES: [supernatural] control over shadows | sensing nightmares | Ace is rather trained in hiding in or concealing his movements with shadows, depending on the time of day and the contrast in shadows he can completely hide his presence, the later it gets in the day the easier it is. The control over seeing other people’s fears and nightmares on the other hand is completely out of his hand, it usually happens against his will and leaves him with an aftertaste of said fear that he then carries around for a couple of days.

[other] excellent speed & sword fighting | years of hellish training with his brother have left Ace with an uncanny reaction speed and instinct towards incoming danger, his battle prowess has led to many monster encounters that at this point are neither hard nor surprising.. and honestly kinda fun | musical talent | Ace has lost his heart to electronical music and uses much of his free time to create his own tracks under the pseudonym Ace of Spades. They are mostly rap & electronic mash ups and remixes of popular songs with his personal spin added to them | composure | at any given time Ace has trained himself to stay calm and not show his feelings, so much that at this point he can hardly stop it, which leads to many frustrated people in his life who constantly have to guess what he’s feeling or if he’s even feeling anything at all. It has also made him a practically unbeatable poker player

INTERESTS: music | big city life | close quarter combat | technical gadgets esp. for creating music  | challenges | irony | birds | movies & games & writing reviews | dumb irony, he lives for it, he has picked the elective prophecy class that is meant for the demigod children that actually have some sort of fortune telling ability, just because he thinks it is funny to sit between these actually clairvoyant people as a clearly non-gifted person trying to read something in tea leaves or whatever that has no reason to be true, he goes very long ways for stupid jokes & stories that might end up amusing just himself

APPEARANCE: light blonde hair cut into a buzz cut for convenience, almond shaped light blue/grey eyes, with his 5′8″ a little under average height with a broad build, average weight, his athleticism is countered by bad eating habits and most of his hobbies consisting of siting around for an extended amount of time, almost perpetually wearing a pair of ray-ban sunglasses (he’s light sensitive and likes to hide his eye-movements, but also just thinks it’s cool, as an added bonus it seems to provoke people), his clothing is mostly athletic and casual but he also enjoys throwing people off with unusual pieces, often seen with baseball-caps front or backwards facing, generally not a lot of effort put into his appearance aside from maybe considering what would make the look ironic, also owed to lack of money, lots of his clothes are worn out hand me downs from his brother peppered with the weird shit you can get at thrift stores

PLOTPOINTS: Since his father died while his mother was pregnant she had to improvise and ended up leaving the baby at one of her other son’s doorsteps | Dale, probably rather incompetently, improvised and with lots of peculiar quirks, raises the kid in a tiny, rundown Chicago apartment supporting both of them with occasional part-time jobs | With his knowledge of the world of the gods Dale decides to prepare his half-brother early | Once he learns that that is not normal Ace spends some time worrying about his brothers sanity, regarding the unusual habit of teaching a kid sword fighting and testing his abilities with surprise attacks, but enjoys himself too much to question it (he never thinks about that the constant vigilance and dedicated training might be considered somewhat abusive living conditions for a child - might not have been healthy but it DID make him stronger and that was surely a good thing Dale had in mind, very normal, totally okay.. he is incapable of seeing, or wanting to admit to his brother’s flaws) | They live off fast-food or anything they can get their hands on, with occasional unpaid electricity bills or similar poor conditions, but with a strong sense of solidarity | School was not his favorite thing, he had to get out of his - in his eyes - fun unusual living conditions to sit still and be well behaved and listen to weird stiff adults, and the children made fun of his ragged clothing and general otherness | Spends his free time exploring Chicago, roaming the streets, getting into minor trouble here and there, or with his brother, fighting or watching him make music or play around with electronics, or watching movies, playing games | As is tradition, learns he is a demigod with 14 which honestly does not really come as a huge surprise to him, at least his brother did not turn out to be some weird doomsday nutjob and had a reason for all the sword fighting | Gets kinda excited in hopes of getting along better with other demigods than he did with the other human students.. turns out him being a demigod was not the problem in the first place. Does at least find some like-minded people in his half-siblings. | At home he starts part-time jobs to support his brother, starts making music himself, has several blogs with movie and game reviews, and of course the usual duels between him and Dale, which he never once wins | After graduating regular school with 19 he is not very motivated to continue his training at the academy, but is basically tricked into finishing it anyways, by his brother suggesting he would win this one since he himself has never graduated Gaia. At last, something to be better at than his brother! | When the academy is attacked by an anti-god-organization Ace fights easily and competently.. till he is faced with fighting the one person he has never beaten, his brother. He fights him anyways, conflicted by the feeling of betrayal and sheer disbelief that this could actually be happening. Naturally he loses and ends up skewered through his torso by his brothers sword. When he is unconscious he gets saved and healed by Apollo children, and the fight is over when he wakes up again. He first of all tries to find out if his brother was maybe captured or killed, but finds no trace of him. | When he returns home while the academy reorganizes he finds the apartment empty, half hoping for his brother to come home so he can confront him, his top priority being to learn why his brother has been acting that way because he still refuses to believe that he actually tried to kill him, and rather wants to think that Dale must have had SOME kind of reason that would make all of this okay. | Dale never returns. Ace bitterly sells all of Dale’s belongings to pay for the bills of the apartment that he is suddenly sitting on all by himself, which makes his home very sad and very empty | Ellie and Ben visit him, well aware that Ace’s entire worldview has been shattered and not trusting him not to do something reckless [enter possible threesome here?] | Ace starts to obsessively try to find out about Dales whereabouts and the group he was working with, both Ellie and Ben being annoyed and worried about him doing this on his own refusing any help or interference | Ace manages to find what he believes to be a temporary hideout for the organisation and some documents that he hopes to find further clues in | When the Academy re-opens Ellie & Ben convince him to go back there, with Ace secretly just hoping to hear more about the official measures of the demigod world that have been put in place to find and stop the organization | He shares the found information with what is basically the equivalent of the police in the demigod world, and exclaims to be eager and capable to join any deployment, but is of course refused | Instead he silently plans to take off on his own again, hoping to find his brother for answers or revenge, depending on the outcome

Okay, but here’s the FUN part of the whole story, something that Ace is not even aware of anymore: When he is 18 he finds out about his brothers activity in the anti-god organization (their name is rubicon by the way) and is as always immediately willing to copy his brother and join them, regardless of their shady morals. Thing is, they have a selection process where they have an oracle check potential candidates, turns out the oracle decides that Ace’s heart is just too good and pure in the end to make him an effective member. They alter his memories, fill them with a normal summer of an 18 year old Ace, and send him back home none the wiser that he would have absolutely done the exact same things he found so impossible for his brother to be doing that it ruined his entire conception of the world. Fun. I hope he does not find out.

BONUS INFO: I cannot begin to describe how funny it is to read Ace’s character sheet. Sounds conceited maybe, but every time i reread it, which is maybe once every couple of years, i make myself cry from amusement. It’s so stupid. It is completely written in his voice and it is fucking hysterical, he is such an idiot wow. His vita starts with a rewrite of Will Smith’s Prince of Belair rap, and that’s just the beginning. I wish i could show you but it’s in German so that’s probably useless for most of you. But please know that i really fucking love it and am amazed that i wrote that at some point. I always had trouble figuring out how i want him to look. I believe i used Garrett Hedlund as a faceclaim on the RPG site, but it was not 100% fitting. Dacre Montgomery’s portrayal of Billy in Stranger Things has some Ace vibes, but also not entirely. Imagine their lovechild i guess. I also never planned on him being asexual, the connection to his name was not planned at all, it just hit me a couple of months ago out of nowhere and i immediately knew it was true. Of course he is asexual!! Also i have not yet decided whether his brother is an absolute cold bastard, or if Ace’s instincts about him having reasons are right. Regardless, Dale’s treatment of Ace is not okay from the very beginning. That’s where this whole story started, cause i found it so interesting for the idealized bigger brother that just seems to be cool and fun to actually be somewhat or very much abusive, e.g. Dave & Bro Strider in Homestuck who were very much the stepping stone here. I really liked Bro when i first read it as a baby teen, and then later saw the discourse over him being abusive, and only then did i realize shit you’re right in actual real life that stuff would be ptsd inducing wow, in that very moment i myself was Ace and had my weird idealized image shattered, so i wanted to make a character that could show how easily it is to overlook this stuff sometimes. Also totally just forgot for a while how sad a lot of his character is, ppl did not like him even before he made himself hard to be liked so he’s very distrusting and negative towards people for a long time.😥 Better make up a weird persona for people to dislike at least they’re not disliking my actual self cause they never actually get to see it. WHELP most of my other characters are either fun or tragic depending on the situation, Ace is just both simultaneously at all times

NAME: Asher ? [he is still unfinished since i never used him for anything so don’t mind the questionmarks]

AGE/BIRTHDAY: 21 years / 06.07.

NATIONALITY/ETHNICITY: American / Caucasian

BASED ON: /

GENDER/SEXUALITY: Cis male / gay

FAMILY: FATHER | ? ? | 42 years | multibillionaire business man / sociopath criminal | their relationship can very much be described as a hostage situation, there is nothing pleasant here, his father obsesses over his legacy and the idea of what he wants Asher to be and Asher resents him with a burning passion

MOTHER | ? ? | 41 years | unfortunate trophy wife | there is not much of an actual relationship here, since he started art school they have pretty much not talked a single word, he resents her for being distant and quiet and complicit in his father’s behavior

SISTER | Claire ? | 22 years | various creative part time jobs | the one that luckily got away!! Claire dodged a major bullet and got out of there as soon as she could, living her dream as a independent artist in various fields from writing plays to performance art, Asher adores her & would never tell her about the truth of his situation since she got out of there unscathed, they call each other regularly, but don’t see each other as much as they would like to, she is a big reason for his own interest in art

SISTER | Stella ? | 5 years | Kindergartener | Stella is loud and quick and knows no boundaries, a happy energetic little girl. Asher probably spoils her. 

BROTHER | Leo ? | 5 years | Kindergartener | Stella’s twin brother but the polar opposite. Timid, soft-spoken and kindhearted. Asher probably spoils him too. Asher is also fiercely overprotective in regards to his brother, cause he knows how his father likes to treat his sons. Luckily he also knows that his father would takes his sweet time before revealing his true self, but he dreads the possibility of his father involving his brother earlier nonetheless.

FRIENDS: May ? | 21 years | photography student | awfully loyal, May comes from a rich family herself and can therefore understand or excuse a lot of Asher’s less pleasant traits, she is too stubborn to let him push her away and is glad he has mostly given up towards her, now she just has to get him to treat others the same way. knows he has troubles with his father, but does not know the specifics since Asher would rather take that info to his grave to protect her. is worried, always, since Adam disappeared, but has no other solution but soft encouragement for Asher to move on

S.O.: Devin ? | 20 years | animation student | Half Mexican/Half Afro-American. Anxiety kid, moves to his father’s new family & his sister because they live closer to his future art school, falls in love with the wrong white boy. Big nerd, big introvert, all about anime & games, spends more time on the internet than anywhere else (sound familiar anybody?🙈). Romanticizes the wrong behaviors. Draws, a lot, any given time, super talented, Asher envies him. Big cuddly, kind, somewhat shy and self-conscious, cannot say no or be mean most of the time. Just 100% good soul. Shows Asher the wonderful world of fiction and other entertainment cause that guy apparently grew up in a cave. Asher is 100% hurt and Devin is 100% comfort, Asher feels bad about that. Devin is impressively patient and supportive and the sole reason Asher can breathe again. Sometimes. Asher does not know what he could possibly be bringing to the table but Devin seems content, Asher does not understand why.

OCCUPATION: Student of Photography/Economics Night school

CHARACTER: i feel like Asher needs two separate character descriptions since he’s living in extreme circumstances that have greatly changed his characteristics over the course of a year or two, but i’m sticking with Asher today, just know that he used to be happy, carefree, outgoing, a huge charmer, even a flirt, remnants of some of these more positive traits can still be found if you catch him in the right moment.. and then there’s the things he mostly pretends to be that don’t really belong there either, but i guess that shows how others perceive him

mean | snobbish | intelligent | dedicated | disciplined | hard working | gloomy | moody | prone to breakdowns & panic attacks | snippy | judgmental | cocky | angry | volatile | creative | a good eye for aesthetics | charming if needed | standoffish | pushes people away by being deliberately cruel | generous | righteous | pacifist | caring | puts other’s safety before his own to extreme measures, self-sacrificing | puts others first in general | detail oriented | meticulous | fussy | spoiled | controlled when he has to be | overtly loving & affectionate when possible | excitable | goes to extremes in anything | quick & easy liar | hedonist | tense | intense | stands up for others in threatening or unjust situations | thoughtful | pathologically vigilant, paranoid & distrustful | enduring | ambitious | careful | cynical | unboastful | on a dnd alignment scale i would actually put him on either lawful or chaotic good, he wants to do the morally right thing in all situations | guilt riddled & self-punishing | loyal | devoted | confident

ABILITIES: His father’s irrevocable antiquated notion of how a person of his status has to be educated resulted in a flashflood of tutors from the moment Asher was capable of learning things, involving classical music, several languages, riding, sailing, debating and the more exceptional choices of self-defense through various ways including knife and gun handling, owed to his father’s choice of a rather dangerous lifestyle. The only ability that grew out of his own interests is anything regarding photography. He also has the uncanny ability to switch personas in an instant, he can go from cold asshole to so charming that it puts others at ease, to collected proud superior son in a second, depending on what is needed, these different modes are crucial for his survival.

INTERESTS: Art | Music | Culture | Traveling | Minor Drug-use | a budding interest in manga, anime and video games of all things, thanks to Devin

APPEARANCE: Groomed snobby rich boy that looks down on you. Black hair, pale blue eyes, 6′0″ tall, lean. Judging by his clothes alone obviously wealthy. Mostly somewhat sophisticated with lots of dress shirts and classy cuts. A serious young man! Contrasted by more relaxed clothing choices in his personal space. Mostly black & darker colors. Tattoo of a dead raven on the inside of his right underarm, he hides it in front of his father who hates it. Unquestionably a pretty boy™ but Asher has grown to detest his looks, avoiding mirrors or photographs. He looks too much like his father. Has dimples if he smiles brightly but nobody gets to see them anymore.

PLOTPOINTS: The most entertaining way to start the story is probably through Devin’s POV, and then explaining Asher’s behavior with his life story. Very quickly: Devin, moving to his father to visit the art school in an nearby town, is searching for a new therapist he had been visiting for social anxiety, through a work connection his father organizes an appointment with an prestigious therapist before the schoolyear starts. He gets curious about this well dressed tense looking guy he sometimes meets in the waiting room, and starts to hope to see him more often, but never manages to work up the courage to say anything, till one day the guy storms in mid breakdown to interrupt Devin’s session and demands that the therapist had to see him immediately. Devin uses the opportunity to get his attention for once and earn some bonus points, graciously offering him his session. He even gets a thanks later when they meet at the pharmacy, so he’s happy, and hopelessly crushing on this dude. With help of his sister he figures out that the guy is actually local celebrity, billionaire son Asher, that just happens to visit the very same art school Devin will be visiting soon. So Devin very much looks forward to that and spends lots of time daydreaming about getting together with Asher, who actually kinda seems pleasantly surprised to see him again in the school setting. Asher is distant, but friendly at first, and thanks to Asher’s  friend May who is welcoming and inviting in Asher’s stead, Devin somehow luckily gets roped up into the group that sometimes hangs out with Asher, with him graciously paying for any expenses. Devin manages to overlook Asher’s more unpleasant sides, willfully focusing on the good stuff instead, not wanting to give up on his little fantasy just yet, with Asher warning that he would and should come to hate him eventually. What follows is a wild up and down of Asher either being sweet or an complete asshole and Devin being thoroughly confused yet intrigued, the guy is obviously troubled, often leaving class early in a panic or not showing up at all and generally looking like a nervous mess on some days, which just makes Devin want to get behind the reason for everything. On one of the sweeter nights he manages to get a kiss out of Asher, only for him to show his cruelest behavior yet the following days, either ignoring him completely or reacting aggressively.  [Cue Asher’s Story:]

Born in a cozy coast town to a filthy rich family. | Firstborn son therefore in his old-fashioned madman of a father’s brain his legitimate heir, instead of his two years older daughter (lucky her tho) | Father puts every breath of his being into grooming Asher to be his successor, which includes high pressure, expectations and next to no free time from an early age. No failure allowed. Knowing nothing but this high pressure environment Asher just complies and honestly somewhat enjoys putting maximum effort into things to please his father and his own ego. | Somewhat sheltered upbringing due to wealth & little free-time | Easy time in private elementary school where a lot of pre-existing effort lets him relax a little more. He makes a row of superficial friends, but still spends most of his time studying, only socializing when socially expected. | Still very success-oriented in high school, but learns to relax a little more around newly made friends of less stressful backgrounds. | Gradually without really realizing when it began ends up in a relationship with lower upper class boy Adam, they later discuss and decide they started dating somewhere around age 15. | The relationship is accepted and free-time allowed as long as Asher continues to perform exceptionally well in everything. | Both boys share their love for art, while Asher starts getting interested in photography, Adam focuses on painting, both inspired by and potentially aiming to later visit the prestigious art school in their hometown | The twins are born! Asher is instantly smitten with the little creatures and proceeds to be a loving brother | Asher’s father starts to take him to business meetings and other professional settings as insight into his later life as his father’s successor. | Asher, most likely not unaffected by his wealth & prominence of his family, has some successful exhibitions of his photographs and gains a small amount of recognition in the art world. He decides to pursue the profession full-time in the future, not entirely revealing the decision to his father just yet, who lets him play around with his hobby as long as he brings home achievements in that area as well | goes into prolonged discussions with his father regarding his wish to study photography, who eventually caves under the condition of Asher simultaneously visiting business classes on weekends or in the evening | Both Asher and Adam get admitted to the art school (it needs a fancy name i just dont have one yet) and study there after their graduation from high school | The meetings Asher’s father brings him to start to kinda rub Asher the wrong way, as some criminal elements get revealed, his father’s comment being that it was time for him to learn about these essential things as well. Asher is morally appalled, but has not even begun to realize the extent of his father’s criminal activities, to which he begins to introduce him more and more in the following years. | Asher eventually fully understands that his father is head of a self-built mafia-like organization that seems to reach most of America in some way, and that that is the true succession his father is grooming him for. While Asher might be able to agree with some of these duties, he soon realizes that most of what his father is expecting him to do from now on are things Asher is not willing to do under any circumstances, like brutally punishing people for offenses against the family in varying ways, that Ashers father insists on carrying out personally to further his ruthless reputation and control over his underlings, partners or rivals. | For the first time in his life he fails to meet his father’s expectations and actively goes against orders which results in his father pressuring him in any way he can. When Adam suddenly disappears without a trace when Asher is 18 he immediately has the uneasy feeling that his father was involved, he did not however anticipate his father actually truly murdering his son’s boyfriend to set an example of what happens when Asher disobeys. | Asher has a complete breakdown, spends some time at a mental health facility, and comes to the decision to tell everything to the police, only to have them call his father and have him pick him up. Further tries to tell any authority about what happened end in similar ways, his father seemingly having control over everything or always being one step ahead. Eventually he threatens Asher that if he continues, he would have him convicted of Adam’s murder, having plenty of psychiatrists to falsely attest to his guilt. Asher refrains from trying to out his father, half because he was scared of the consequences, half because if he truly would go to prison - which at this point did not eve sound bad to him - his father would most likely just shift his attention to his younger brother instead, which ends up as the main intervention to Asher being able to escape the situation in any way. | From now on Asher spends his time terrified and traumatized, trying his best to please his father in ways that do not include physically harming other people. At the same time he starts violently pushing every friend or acquaintance away, to make sure his father would not find another person to use as motivator and punishment. May being the only remnant of his former friend group that refuses to leave his side despite him lashing out against her here and there in hopes for her to finally get it and leave him alone. | A year later there’s this black guy about his age that apparently has the same therapist and ends up in the same class at school and is genuinely nice to him without asking for something in return which hasn’t happened in a while and feels so nice he forgets himself and gets carried away, being nice right back, and unfortunately can’t help himself having lapses in his self-control towards this guy over and over again, cause he’s just so kind and warm and welcoming, and it feels so so nice, but instantly regretting it as Devin gets clingier and bolder, but still not being able to stop entirely, till he stupidly kisses him one night and immediately has nightmares of his father murdering Devin, which allows him to draw the line and finally be as repulsive towards the guy as he should have been from the beginning. I have various potential scenarios in mind for the following  but they mostly go like this: Devin, trying to figure out why Asher is like THAT, learns about his long-time boyfriend disappearing last year and never being found, with the police claiming there were signs of him just running away to a bigger city, but Asher and Adam’s family believing that something must have happened to him. He deduces that Asher has developed a massive fear of abandonment (which in a way is true but way understated) which is why he keeps pushing him away when he gets too close. When he confronts Asher he just gets furious at the mention of Adam and eventually gets so worked up that he starts talking about Devin not understanding ANYTHING and that he has no idea in what kind of situation he could end up in when he sticks too close and that he should just fuck off, but Devin naturally just picks up on the weird shit and Asher sounding increasingly scared, so he keeps poking at the topic till Asher finally breaks down and tells him that his father is basically a sociopathic criminal mass-murderer and being Asher’s friend let alone boyfriend paints a big fucking target, and then he just ends up having to explain the entire situation in hope that Devin learns and just stays quiet but most of all stays the fuck away. Long story short: he doesn’t. He vows not to leave Asher alone with this any longer, and now that he knows that Asher actually likes him there’s no way he would stay away anyways. Asher still very much tries to convince the other one to leave him be, but to no avail. The rest is them finding an arrangement that works out with lots of secrecy and sneaking around and pretending to not even know each other (more or less successful), Asher panicking a lot, and dealing with a shitton of guilt, but kinda learning to live again and not just function miserably, and them trying to find a solution to Asher’s problem that does not involve people potentially dying, and Asher just dreading the next time his father calls him in and what he might expect him to do then. I have more plot points planned out but i’m just gonna keep them for myself for now. 😋

BONUS INFO: First i gotta say Asher is very much a character i created to cope with stuff when i was feeling really fucking low last fall. I made a character that’s hanging on by a thread, because i was, so i could at least use these feelings for more lifelike daydreams and give them more of a purpose and direction. The initial idea that sparked the storyline was a person falling in love with a clearly unwise choice, which ended up being Devin crushing on the dude having a mental breakdown at the therapist’s office (genius boy). Somewhere along the line the main character shifted to Asher because of the aforementioned reasons. Devin’s POV is probably really more entertaining though, since he gets to unfold all the mysteries that Asher is keeping from him. Inspirations? Uhm, i guess Life is Strange (a mixture of Nathan & the Prof, and the art school setting), the general John Wick world and Veronica’s family in Riverdale, god also laurel’s family in htgawm

[kookiesbadhabits]

My Firsts [M] no. 1

gif credit

Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3 / Part 4 / Part 5 / Part 6?

SUMMARY: three hot boys. one girl. college!au.

PAIRING : vminkook x reader

WORD COUNT: 3.1k

GENRE: fluff, introduction

Part 2 (real plot) coming 5.21.18-5.23.18 

Description

A love... square? I love me some maknae line okay?

So this might be the ONLY story I have ever made a draft for with an ONGOING series in mind, instead of just a smutty oneshot. Don't get me wrong, there's going to be a whole lot of sin, but expect minimal porn logic, but real plot. These boys' characters are based on my life, but in not wanting it to hit too close to home, I'm adding a bit of a twist. 

Based on a true story: that is my mess of a love life (like seriously my life can seem very fanfiction with the level of drama with these three boys. also minus the smut in my life of course, i wish my sex life were this exciting, but maybe in a world with almost no risk of contracting STDs or a world with effortless straight As in university courses) The characters are inspired by some past loves in my life, so this should be a fun little ongoing series I want to try out. 

Also, for context, all three boys plus reader are the same age. 

Opening/Prologue?:

*READER POV*

Boys in general sure are dangerous, but god, these three in particular are on a whole other level. How did I earn such luck to find myself with our paths all intersecting at once?

THE BOYS:

Kim Taehyung was my first everything. Well, every "first" a clueless 8-year-old could comprehend. The first crush, the first boy to push me on the swing, the first guy best friend, the pure-and-filled-with-curiosity-and-confusion first kiss, the first boy I asked to be my boyfriend after all my classmates started asking each other out. He was the first to make me laugh the hardest I ever thought I could; the first to make me cry the hardest I ever could. The first boy to break my heart: my first "almost love". That was who he was to me from elementary to junior high. 

Can you blame me for taking the emotions so seriously? I was just a young, ignorant tween with all my hormones out of whack. None of that should matter anymore, it was a small piece of my past, a small milestone in life, it should have been completely irrelevant to who I became and where would bring me, or us. I guess I was a fool to think it would be entirely irrelevant, we are attracted to what we're familiar with after all. 

Nevertheless, Taehyung was such a blurred fragment of my past, I was already a completely different person by the time we ran into each other for the first time in six years, right there on our university's orientation day. So why did bumping into him and slowly recognizing him feel like a truck against my chest? Seeing him shouldn't have struck such a heavy chord with me, so why?! 

The least of my worries should be none other than Park Jimin, I know this for sure. He was my high school sweetheart, my first real boyfriend, first real kiss . . . first to be intimate with. Two years of growth well spent, back when neither of us had developed a sliver of personality. Our relationship had its fair share of cataclysmic moments, but it was worth it in knowing how well we existed together in that snippet in time. 

We fought frequently due to the difference in our values and passions, and our clashing personalities in general. He was my exact opposite, aloof, childish, an improviser, clueless, innocent and hopeful. I was reserved, serious, ambitious, a careful planner, too mindful for my own good; a realist. I was aware that our relationship had slim chances of keeping its strength after graduation, with him not enrolling to the same post-secondary school. Not to mention, our relationship had been kept a secret from my family for its entirety due to my parents and their rules to keep me focused on my studies. 

As I predicted, after high school graduation we had grown stagnant in our relationship, no longer growing as people. He was a safe anchor, a source of unconditional love, so unconditional that neither of us worked to help improve the other anymore. I loved him but I outgrew him, so naturally I broke up with him on the worst possible day: the day after our 23rd month together, the same day as his father's first death anniversary. I knew it would paint me as the worst person in his eyes, but maybe that's just how I wanted it.

Finally, there is the most dangerous of all, in that I cannot deduce why I feel such a strong pull towards him. He is exactly not my type and it doesn’t add up. I was introduced to him as I was being absorbed into a friend group by my first uni friend, he instantly became the first man in uni to have an energy that effortlessly drew me towards him. This man is Jeon Jungkook, a cheeky flirt clearly hiding behind the mask of a self-fulfilled prophecy as an asshole. 

In the first instances we had met, Jungkook spent two hours pining for my attention, like a child scrambling towards a shiny new toy. Killing time in the library, our "study" group played a bootleg version of Cards Against Humanity. I had read him enough to know what would make him laugh, and he proved so in his verbal praise on my anonymous answers. The whole while we felt connected, we met after all. In just meeting, I knew the universe had already shifted for us. He spent the whole rest of the day finding excuses to continue to spending time with me, actually the whole rest of the term. 

Sadly, I knew he spelled nothing but trouble. Fortunately, it was the kind of trouble I was longing for.

Anyways, enough blathering on about these three boys with such vague air to it, why don't I start from the beginning? I'm ________, 18 years old, in the middle of my first year of university, and had no idea what I was about to get into.

Chapter 1 - Chance Meetings

“CHILDHOOD FRIEND: THE FIRST CRUSH”

"Hey ______," an unfamiliar and rather deep voice calls out to me as I brushed past a small huddle of friends in the crowded university centre.

I instinctively replied hey back, only to stop in my tracks in realizing I didn't recognize the voice. Stunned, and a little confused, I glance over only to lock eyes with a complete stranger with a small friendly smile walking away in the opposite direction.

With a perplexed look plastered on my face, the stranger brushes past his group of friends towards me. My curiosity compelled me to stay put. My eyes, and head naturally tilted up slightly to keep eye contact. He was tall. His sweater was from some high school other than mine, so he couldn't be an old classmate. He just kept smiling at me, beaming like he had met an old friend.

"I'm sorry, do I know you?" I finally asked politely. 

He chuckled, "You don't remember me?" gesturing towards himself, pausing as if waiting for his appearance to sink in with my memories. I was still stumped no matter how long the pause, and honestly it was getting too awkward to bear for someone like myself, who doesn't usually voluntarily make small talk with people, much less with strangers.

"I'm sorry, I don't think I do?" I replied, furrowing my brows trying to will some kind of familiarity still looking up at him and his big boxy smile. 

"You look great though!" He continued, practically disregarding my current confusion. "You here for orientation too? This little scavenger hunt is pretty lame, don't you think?" 

Not wanting to be rude, I put on my best socializing voice. "Aww, thank you!" I replied, matching his friendly energy. "I'm actually not. My sister brought me to give me the tour herself, she told me how boring orientation would be."

As we carried on, I kept thinking about who the heck this mans could possibly be? We ended up talking about high schools, he went to XX high, and I mentioned I went to YY high. I noticed his hoodie was not just any school sweater, he was in vocal jazz. 

"So he sings," I thought as I pondered who I knew as a friend that was a good singer. 

Finally, his goofy smile sinks in, and my eyes grew wide and lips pursed into a small 'o' 

"Oh my god, Taehyung?!" I exclaimed, he only laughed at my reaction, though pleased I finally recognized him.

"Most people call me V now but hearing you call me that is so nostalgic," he smiled softly. 

I blushed a little recalling that he had said I looked great, what with the onrush of memories hitting me like a truck. Holy shit, he looked good, grew his hair, parted down the middle, but somehow he was making it work. 

We had talked a little more, asking for bits and pieces on the last couple of years we had been out of each other's loop. That's right, he moved after 7th grade, it had really been nearly 6 years, he had no social media, and our social circles never overlapped. 

We could only talk a moment more before realizing he was keeping his group waiting, and I, my sister. 

Before he could end up out of my life again, I impulsively asked, "What's your number? We should keep in touch!" 

"Wow, _______ since when did your introverted ass have the balls to utter such words?" I thought to myself, mentally biting my tongue, but what's done was done. 

He smiled warmly but with some slyness in his eyes, "I already follow you on Instagram, no worries." 

I was stunned once again, "His name had never shown up on my follower list?" I thought. Before I could say anything, he had jogged to catch up to his group and so I turned to my sister. 

“HIGH SCHOOL SWEETHEART: THE FIRST BOYFRIEND”

As usual, my last bus home from campus had to be unbelievably delayed due to the heavy rain. I was on the phone with my ex-boyfriend, now awkward best friend. 

"Are you sure about it? I can really just wait for another bus," I spoke into my phone as I huddled in the roofed shelter of the bus stop, the chilly night air starting to bite through my jacket.

It had gotten pretty dark, despite it only being six in the evening. However, the shadiness of downtown undoubtedly had me on alert.

"It's really no problem, I'm already finished my classes today," Park Jimin replied on the other end. "I don't like the idea of you being alone this late, downtown of all places."

I could hear in his voice that he was already getting up from bed to pick up his keys and head for his car. He already had his mind set and there was little I could do to stop him. He could tell from the pause in my voice I was unsure about the whole thing. The breakup may have been amicable, but it still hurt a little to be with him not being able to instinctively reach for his hand for comfort. In fact, I had been careful not to give him opportunities to come and see me. Yet, here we are.

A drunkard was already beginning to babble out in the streets, with people doing good to veer past him. I watched him warily, slouching to lessen the prominence of my chest, tucking my hair in the folds of my jacket to lessen chances of easily being pulled by the strands. 

"I guess that would be best," I admitted. "Please drive safely." 

"Keep the call on, okay?" Jimin requested with the usual soft concern. "I need to know you're safe there, too."

I smiled, "We couldn't be together anymore, but I'm really happy this is where our relationship led up to," I thought.

In less than twenty minutes, I could see a familiar car approaching towards my stop.

"Get in quickly, _______." he said, also alert by his surroundings now full of potential threats.

I scurried over to his car, and got in quickly, greeted by his familiar welcoming smile. I kept my hand from doing its conditioned action of opening to await his fingers to interlock with mine. He kept his hand on his gear-shift, despite never doing that before and with his car not being manual.

"This is a decent compromise," I thought and smiled to myself, letting my lids bat lightly, the day's events catching up with me. 

Slowly, I let myself fall asleep as usual in our drives, and he woke me gently upon nearing my complex. My roommate, Jean, waited patiently for me to get home safely, leaving a light on. 

Jimin and I exchanged a brief hug at the door, and I thanked him again for his kindness. I watched him walk away as I slowly closed the door. As I thought, there's still a bit of melancholic air in his smile when we see each other.

"I'm sorry, Jimin." I whispered under my breath with him too already too far away to hear. Not that he hadn't already heard that enough times before.

“THE STRONG PULL/NOT-MY-TYPE TYPE: THE FIRST MAN ”

"Oh yeah, since I'm practically absorbing you into my friend group, you've met Jin already but this is Jungkook," Kim started as I sat next across from her in our usual study spot in the library. 

I looked to him, establishing eye contact to give him a sup nod with a smile, he laxly raised a hand and raised his brows to acknowledge the greeting. 

I had met all Kim's guy friends from high school, but none of them piqued your interest in this way. Before even sitting down, I had already spotted him after my eyes found Kim. He was an unfamiliar and attractive individual, emanating energy with a distinct warning written all over it: "TROUBLE".

Nonetheless, I couldn't resist initiating the game that started the moment the universe decided to shift in tune with our meeting. 

In spending no more than half an hour with them, I found Jungkook persistently trying to shift my attention towards him whether it be to tell a witty remark or to try and make me laugh with poorly constructed jokes I had already read off the internet over five years ago. The cool air had to be a facade, all I could see was a dorky squish, spoiled for some attention.

I giggled none the less, to humour him (literally) and to end up one-upping him in the comedy department when we decided to play an app that was practically a bootleg of Cards Against Humanity. 

The phrase was "The worst thing to scream at my grandma's funeral" and my answer had been a blank where I typed, "RIP girl may your bingo wings flap your soul to heaven."

Jungkook, being the judge, burst into laughter mid-way into reading my answer out loud. 

"Whoever put that, good one," he said as he banged a hand against the table with his nose still crinkled in amusement. 

I raised a hand laxly, and he blinked at me, his eyes twinkled with a glint of further intrigue and curiosity. 

Jin ended up winning all the games, and when time came for Kim and I's class, Jungkook quickly got up with us. 

Growing tired of the library scene, Kim and I moved to go to the university centre to get some food. Jin and Jungkook naturally tagged along behind us. I don't know how they did it, but Jin and Kim disappeared for god knows what counselor, leaving me alone with Jungkook. 

We sat with no more and an inch separating us and he looked to me with the same curiosity and intense gaze. I had voiced my discomfort about being left alone. 

"Why are you scared to be alone with me?" Jungkook asked bluntly. "I don't bite."

"Ah, I'm not afraid of you, I'm afraid of being alone with people I just met," I corrected him. "Don't flatter yourself."

By this time, we had easily established some playful banter between us, with him every now and then joking about not being able to handle too much of gaze. Before I knew it, he was telling me a bunch of stories about parties and trips to Paris I didn't ask about.

"Yeah, I woke up with just some girl's bare ass bouncing on my jeans." He continued, trying too hard to show how admired he was by the ladies. 

"We get it, hun, you're hot," I thought through a split-second of lidded eyes before raising my brows again to politely portray my interest in his stories. 

As he was finishing up a story about a flock of French girls crowding him during his class trip to Paris, I sighed in relief to see Kim and Jin approaching. Jungkook was cute, but he was still a boy in my eyes, needy and arrogant. I was fascinated by his character nonetheless, I had never met someone who could sound so full of himself, yet  still seem like just some dorky squish.

Kim and I got up to start walking towards our class building.

"Aw man, it's probably rush hour so I can't drive home even if I wanted to," he spoke to himself aloud. "What class do you guys have?"

"Psych," Kim replied as he pulled the other strap over his shoulder. 

"I might as well sit in your class," Jungkook spoke casually, as if not to sound like he actually wanted to spend more time with us.

"You do you," Kim nodded as she gestured for me to follow her. 

It was only 2:15 pm. I looked over my shoulder to Jungkook, we locked eyes again, I swear I could see his pupils dilate in those big brown eyes. I gave him a small smile before following ahead.

He ended up sitting in our class, beside me the whole time trying to jokingly distract me every now and then. Many times, he showed signs of wanting to leave, leaning over into my ear to whisper.

"When does this class end?" His voice was low and hushed and too close to my ear.

I refused to give him any reaction for satisfaction though and simply whispered back, "Not for another 45 minutes."

He ended up pulling out a book, piquing my interest even more, "A boy into reading on his spare time?!" I screamed in my head. I, _______, had never in my life seen a boy reading a book for pleasure. 

We carried on with class this way, and I just smiled thinking to myself, "Silly Jungkook, everyone knows rush hour isn't until 4pm, you're not fooling anyone you squish."

~ END OF CHAPTER 1 ~

A/N: Ho man 2/3 of these stories are 100% true tbh I may as well have said their real names. It's 2:30 AM now that i've finished this. Worth it. I am so inspired by the comeback and have been craving to start writing again. So I can't wait to get to putting my ideas for this series into ink.

[chuwenjie]

My Story

After I posted my letter about starting a new job at Dreamworks I got a lot of messages and emails from people asking if I could talk about my journey more in detail and how I got here despite going to school in Pittsburgh for psychology and almost giving up on animation halfway through college. I know that I would have appreciated reading something like this a year and a half ago so I thought I’d share my story in the hopes that it might be able to help someone who is struggling. Plus: a detailed explanation of how social media has done so much for me as an artist.

Buckle in guys. Lots of text under the cut! 

starting college

I’d known for a long time that I wanted to make a living doing art, but understandably my parents were concerned about my future ability to support myself. While they’ve always been supportive of my decision to want to do art, they insisted that I go to university to get a “regular” degree so that I’d have something to fall back on if art didn’t work out. 

That’s how I ended up going to school studying to get an interdisciplinary degree in art and psychology. The majority of my classes were in the school of psychology, so most of my education consisted of statistics classes and writing research papers. While I did take art classes in college, they were very fine-arts oriented and not relevant to working in the animation industry. The way I’d describe the kind of art that the program favors would be like a pile of glass shards sitting on the floor of the MOMA. (Nothing against conceptual art- I enjoy looking at it and think it’s cool, but it’s just not what I’m interested in doing professionally.) 

the realization

About two months into freshman year, I suddenly felt like I’d made a huge mistake. I realized there were no resources or classes here that would help me with what I wanted to learn, and I started to panic. I decided that it would just have to be up to me to teach myself if I couldn’t get it from school, so during my free time I would constantly be drawing and working on portfolio pieces with the hopes of getting good enough to land a summer internship. Despite being in university where part of the experience is supposed to be to make friends and engage in the community, I didn’t have a social life for a while because all of my time not doing homework was going towards teaching myself how to draw. I started applying to internships and summer jobs. And that’s when I had....

The Worst Time Ever

I applied to every internship and job I could find, and I got rejected from everything. It didn’t matter if it was a big studio internship like Disney or a tiny indie game studio that no one had ever heard of. I applied to everything that I could find because all that mattered to me was getting my foot in the door and having something I could put on my resume. 

After 2 years of this, I started to give up hope and seriously doubt if I would ever be able to make it in the industry.  I thought for sure that if only I had gone to Calarts or if only I lived in LA, then maybe my situation would be different because I’d have access to people working in the industry and an actual entertainment arts education. I was full of panic because I felt like my time was running out, and soon I would be thrust out into the real world as a disappointment to myself and my parents.  

I was really depressed during this period of time, and just thinking about the future would make me cry, no matter what I was doing at the time or where I was. Everything seemed pointless, and I was in a lot of pain because I had attached my ability to draw to my own self-worth. I thought that if I wasn’t good enough to get hired, there was no point in even existing. (Of course, that’s not true at all and I know that now! But it was really hard to silence that voice in my head when I was going through this period of my life.) 

and then finally...

My situation finally changed because of social media. I'd been posting my work on Tumblr for a really long time, and as I gradually got better at drawing I started getting more followers and attention on my blog. 

My first major breakthrough came when the recruiter at Cartoon Network emailed me saying that someone who works at CN had stumbled across my blog and asked if I'd be interested in doing a background painting test for Steven Universe. I couldn’t believe it. I remember thinking it was some kind of elaborate prank at first and it took me 15 minutes of screaming and trying to validate the email by googling the email address before I finally believed that it was real. 

I was so thrilled because it felt like someone had finally recognized me. Even though I didn't end up getting the job, that little bit of encouragement helped to reignite my passion and gave me hope that I could make it. If someone had noticed me, then I just had to keep drawing and more people would notice too, right? I started posting on social media even more and making more ambitious projects and portfolio pieces. 

When spring rolled around, I applied to everything I possibly could again, except this time I finally heard back from Cartoon Network instead of getting rejected. I mentioned in my cover letter that I had done a background test and while I don't know if that's the main reason I heard back, I think it must've been at least a little helpful to get my application to stand out from the pile. Getting to intern there was amazing and eye-opening for me, and it gave me my first taste of what it would be like to work in the animation industry. My coworkers and fellow interns were so incredibly kind and talented, and it made me more resolved than ever to work hard so that someday I’d be able to come back.    

After completing my summer internship, I got discovered again on social media- this time through Twitter, and that's what ended up getting me freelance at Dreamworks TV, and eventually a full-time offer. I noticed the showrunner had followed me after noticing my GIRL GANG post, which had gained a lot of attention on social media. I’ve been a huge fan of his work for a while and I was really nervous about reaching out, but my boyfriend encouraged me to say hi so I messaged him through Twitter DM to say thank you and express how I admired his work. We had a short conversation and he mentioned that he was looking for new talent for his show, and that's how I ended up here. I’m graduating from school with my good ol psychology degree in two weeks, and I’m going to be moving out to LA to start working at Dreamworks TV as an artist! 

Advice

Social media was a huge part of my success and I truly don't think I would've been able to break in as an industry outsider if I hadn't been posting all of my work to the internet for so long. While I was at Cartoon Network, I also talked to the talent hiring staff and they told me that they actually keep tabs on all of the online artists they find. There's a huge spreadsheet where they keep the names and contact information of all these online artists, and they try to track down who's working and who's available so they know when to reach out when they're looking for new employees. This was totally mindblowing to me because it really goes to show how social media and the internet has changed the face of the game. Having prior connections helps a TON of course, but social media was what personally gave me my big break. 

You don’t need to go to the right school, or have the right major, or even go to school at all. So many people I met at CN and on the internet have been able to break into the industry with a lot of hard work and a little bit of good fortune. Everyone’s situation is different, and I can only speak for myself and my own experience. But for me, drawing a lot and sharing it online was what helped me despite knowing absolutely no one in the industry and living on the East Coast thousands of miles away from LA.

tldr;

I’m about to graduate from a university in Pittsburgh with a degree in psychology. After years of rejection I almost gave up on my dream of being an artist, but teaching myself how to draw and getting noticed on social media helped open up opportunities for me in the animation industry.

Whew! That was a lot of text, but I hope someone somewhere found that helpful. My final words of advice: 

1. Don’t be shy!! Reach out to artists you admire and say hi! 

2. Post your work online! Don’t wait until you make your life’s masterpiece to start posting because it’s never gonna happen. Keep sharing what you make and you’ll find that your following will grow as you get better!

3. Don’t be afraid of rejection. Speaking from experience, you can make it even if you get rejected a thousand times. A lot of times, getting rejected doesn’t mean that you’re “bad,” it just means you aren’t the strongest candidate at the time. Keep trying and growing and with a little bit of luck, your situation will flip around.

4. Support your artist friends! Grow with each other and pull each other up.

5. If you are determined and you have the time, you can teach yourself how to do anything.

Thank you everyone for reading and sticking around to the end! If you have any more questions, feel free to send me an ask here, on CuriousCat, or shoot me an email (chuwenjie96@gmail.com). I want to thank everyone again for supporting me along my journey! My story is only just beginning and I am so excited to grow as an artist and find out what the future holds for me. To anyone reading this who is in a bad place right now, I feel your pain and I hope you never give up on your dream. You can do it!

Best,

Kat

[theroguesharlequin]

I need some Misty Weather lovin'. Mardon and Nimbus, Criminal/Restaurant, pretty please. Maybe with a splash of kink. XD

Criminals+Restaurant(+plus kink~)=MistyWeather~

Hmmmm, I’ve only seen this pairing from what you’ve written, so lemme think… and wow I didn’t expect this to get so long XD

Mark and Clyde ‘settled down’ after their last score ended with Mark shot in the back from protecting Clyde and was paralyzed from the waist down.

So they decide to hang up their black hats and live their retirement dream earlier than expected by opening a pub. With their cooking skills, Clyde’s bartending, Mark’s business savvy, and a little help from a bunch of less than legit contacts their business venture is a huge success and it quickly becomes a good place to mingle and get information among central city’s criminal best.

They call it ‘Tempests’ officially, but those in the know nicknamed it ‘Saints and Sinners’. Seemed appropriate, even though there were remarkedly less of the former and an overflow of the later. The name stuck anyway.

A few years in and that’s when /he/ walked in.

Clyde had just got shot down again by Lisa and her smart little side piece for a threesome, (minutes after Clyde had also made the same offer to Cold and his new pretty CSI), and Mark just laughed as his brother pouted. Clyde aimed high, he would give him that. Must be on the outs with Rathaway and Jesse Jr. again.

Mark was sitting behind the counter with the register (and two well concealed handguns in case some dumb out of towner decided to push their luck), when the bar’s side of things got a little quieter than usual.

The Mist was (allegedly) a very good occasional thief and had recently (allegedly) wiped out most of the Darbinyan Family’s elite when they’d messed up by thinking they could frame him for some of their screw ups.

But Mist didn’t do the underground social scene, so there wasn’t anybody who really knew much about him, or would vouch for him. Mark could only think of one real reason the man would be here and, despite raving reviews, the food and drinks weren’t it.

Mark tilted his head to Clyde who was clutching one of the shotguns under the bar, and his brother backed off. Even the Mist wasn’t arrogant enough to pull anything too violent here, especially with over half the city’s biggest underworld names in attendance tonight.

And definitely not if he wanted to make a good first impression.

Just like he thought, the newly freelance criminal drifted right up to Mark’s desk and asked to open up a long term 'tab’. After a few exchanges full of double and triple meanings, Mark was confident enough to give him a trial period and vouch for him with whoever the guy tried to land work with, and gave him a few names to start.

Later that night, Mark was completely unsurprised to see Cold send Barry off to hang out with Lisa, Cisco, and Shawna while he and Mick held an impromptu interview.

Nimbus became a regular fixture at the pub after that.

It was nearly a month later when a few overly ambitious gangbangers trying to set up shop in Central decided to wait for him and Clyde after closing to try and knock them off.

The 'leader’ hadn’t even finished his threat before he had a second mouth to spout shit from, though all that came out was blood. Nimbus said he had left his coat apparently and asked if he could work off his tab a bit by helping 'clean up’.

Together the three of them wiped the floor with the rest of group. Mark really enjoyed the looks on some of the faces of the remaining trash as he happily crushed the windpipe of the ableist fucker who made the wrong kind of insult under his wheel after he was done shooting the piece of shit in all /five/ limbs.

It was almost a month before Clyde made the comment of Nimbus hanging around more often, but especially around Mark.

Mark had just thought Nimbus was being friendly. Most everyone was friendly towards him really, you didn’t piss off the person who could get you blacklisted with anyone worth dealing with in this city, but Nimbus did seem like he at least enjoyed his company for more than the occasional free drinks and discounted information that Mark sent his way (okay, yes, Clyde, so maybe he had noticed the guy wasn’t hard to look at).

But then Mark felt nervous. It had been a long time. Not since… The most he had down since then was gotten and given blowjobs a few blowjobs with guys he paid upfront and could send away without having to talk or give a shit about what they thought.

Nimbus never pushed, never made Mark feel rushed or uncomfortable, never did a lot of things that Mark hated whenever he thought he had met someone worth trying with. Nimbus never once looked at him like there was anything to be pitied or 'fixed’ about him, but he didn’t ignore any part of him either. He didn’t try to smother him and didn’t make things awkward.

He loved how rough and passionate Nimbus’ kisses were, (Kyle, he said to call him Kyle.) He found it cute when Kyle admitted to leaving his coat at the bar on purpose that night, hoping to talk to him alone after he had started developing an interest in him. An interest that had instantly turned into a burning attraction after seeing how gorgeous Mark looked while killing a man.

For the first time in a long time, Mark felt able to relax with someone enough to really be with them on an intimate level.

They hadn’t planned it the first time, despite trying to. Kyle had nearly gone to prison, covering for Clyde after Mark’s dumb, sweet, reckless, and caring little brother had tried to steal some new high tech off the market chair all on his own. (Clyde had been planning to surprise him with it for Christmas, the damn sap.)

He got away with the chair, but a bunch of holes in his plan had come back to bite him. (His baby brother was smart, but not the best planner.) Kyle had stepped in before Mark could and gotten arrested for his trouble.

Thankfully, Kyle had plenty of new friends and old favors to get out of it, even if it had been a close call.

When Kyle walked in a free man, the bar quickly vacated after only a few rounds when Mark let him fuck him over the bar top without giving a damn about who saw them.

And Clyde fully deserved a little mental scarring after his stunt, even if the chair was pretty damn great and the massage feature was fucking revelational. (And Cold had no right to complain as if Mark hadn’t noticed all the times he had played with and all but fucked his pretty badge on the pool tables, and the times Cold would actually take the poor boy with a barely hidden fuck in one of the booths. He was sure the two had been in his damn office too, but with Cold’s skill level he would never be able to prove it, the bastard.)

The sore ass he suffered through the next day was also completely worth it. (Luckily he now had a heated seat.)

As their relationship grew deeper, they were incredibly happy to discover that they shared all of the same kinks, even their more obscure ones.

The first time they exchanged 'I love yous’ involved a lot of lube, frottage, a vibrating plug, and Kyle riding him in a stolen classic sports car belonging to a local homophobic politician. (They heard all of the seats had had to be completely reupholstered.)

Their first year anniversary included moving in together, a shootout, fucking in the middle of said shootout, and Mark’s arms and legs being tied to the headboard of their new bed after a nice dinner spent scandalizing the city’s elite douchebags, his ass fucked and played with until he couldn’t scream any more.

After three years together and plenty of ups and downs, they got married at the pub surrounded by their most tolerated people, with a half sober Mick Rory as the marriage officiant (who for some reason was licensed to marry in ten states and three different countries. No one was insane enough to ask why.)

Happily (bloody) ever after : D

[arrowheadproductions]

The Seven + their Hogwarts houses? Perhaps some Percabeth/Jasiper in the mix?

Considering I spend a lot of time conspiring where these guys would be house-wise, I have to go for it. You can disagree with me if you’d like some aren’t totally set in stone, but some are (for me, anyway).

House Parties (Rated K+)

I can’t take the blame for the vigorous debate that’s buzzing all through camp, not this time anyway. A lot of controversy has surrounded me since I showed up 6 years ago. Actually, my existence itself is considered a controversy. So, I know what it’s like to be the black sheep and have everyone arguing over you. It’s kinda been my life for a while. 

This time? Not my fault, because all of you know by now that I’m not the kind of guy that starts a book club, let alone an entire discourse on a particular book. 

Before you ask, no, Annabeth isn’t responsible here either. I’m not just saying that because she’s my girlfriend and she’ll get mad that I documented my blaming her in physical writing for all of you to read. It’s really not her fault this time. 

This? The wildfire that has metaphorically and physically ignited across the campground? That is the fault of one Leo Valdez. Ironically, he didn’t start the physical fire, even though he totally could. That was Clarisse, but I’ll get into that later. 

It all started when Leo was talking about how the camp library had Greek editions of the Harry Potter books, which were popular to pretty much everyone in our age range. Grover compares me to Harry all the freaking time, which can be annoying, but I’ll admit, the parallels exist. I know the Stoll brothers get prank ideas from the twins in those books (which is pretty unfortunate for the rest of us). Get Annabeth talking about the differences between the books and the movies and you have an entire evening’s worth of conversation dedicated to solely that. It’s mostly one-sided, but I like to watch her get all heated and passionate about a subject. Her cheeks flush and her chest heaves from breathing- sorry, easily distracted. 

“Man, this Hogwarts place sounds awesome.” He said as we all lounged in a clump on the beach. 

After everything we’ve been through, you can’t blame us for all hanging out together. No one understands the experiences we’ve endured except each other and we take comfort in that. We all practically laid on top of each other. 

“I’ve never read them.” I said. 

Piper lifted her head from where she’d been laying across Jason’s lap. “The shame!”

“That’s what I said!” Annabeth looked back at me from her position between my legs. 

“I’ve been a little busy with the world almost ending twice.”

“Newsflash, Seaweed Brain, I was there alongside you practically every step of the way. And I still reread the series.”

“Well, you’re a nerd.” I poked her sides so she squirmed. 

“Harry Potter is not nerdy. It’s super mainstream.” Jason said. “Even I’ve read them.”

“It’s my first time reading them.” Leo said. “And I’m digging every second.”

“They actually didn’t have Harry Potter at Camp Jupiter.” Hazel said. She was building a sandcastle and I was super tempted to fill the moat she was making with actual water.

“So, you’ve never read it either.” I said.

“No, I have. It just took me a really long time with the dyslexia.” She shrugged.

“See, Percy? And she’s from the 1930′s.” Piper said.

I stuck my tongue out at her.

“What house do you guys think you’d be in?” Frank asked.

I knew this much about the series. Annabeth talked about it enough for some of it to sink into my thick skull. Grover and Juniper did a couple’s reading of it (I didn’t know that was a thing) and he IM’ed me a couple of times about their reading pace. I made him swear on the River Styx to never give this idea to Annabeth. 

“I’d be a Gryffindor.” He said confidently.

Piper rolled her eyes. “Literally everyone says that.”

“But I’m brave.”

“We could all easily be classified as brave.” Frank said. “There’s more to it than that.”

He sighed and counted on his fingers. “I’d say I’m passionate, trusting, stubborn, honest, and blunt.”

“But you’re also cunning, adaptable, bold, and charming.” Piper said. “And those are all traits of a Slytherin.”

He scrunched his face up. “I don’t want to be them! They’re all doom and gloom. Save that for the son of Hades.”

“Not all Slytherins are bad. Most are good.” Hazel objected. “I think I’m one, after all. That, or Gryffindor, actually.”

“Agreed.” Annabeth said. “I’m a Ravenclaw.”

“Well, duh.” Piper laughed. “If you’d said anything else, I’d call you delusional.”

“That’s the brainy house, right?” I asked.

“It’s more about wisdom, wit, and curiosity, but there are intellectual components involved.” She said.

“So… Yes.”

She nudged me in the ribs, but I wrapped my arms around her waist to pull her closer. “All right, Wise Girl, I know you’re dying to analyze me to death and pick which house I’d be in.”

“Sad to say you two would be split up, house-wise.” Jason chuckled and wrapped his arm around Piper. “Whereas, Pipes and I would both be Gryffindors.”

“I could definitely see myself in Slytherin too, though.” She pointed out. “The way I use my charmspeak is definitely cunning and using my own abilities/devices to manipulate others is definitely ambitious enough to be considered Slytherin material.”

“Percy and I would do fine as a Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff power couple. We might even both make prefect status.”

“Hufflepuff?” I said. “Why do I have to be in the house that sounds like a Dr. Seuss character?”

“Sounds like Snuffaluffagus to me.” Frank said. “If it helps, I’d probably be Hufflepuff too.”

“See? You’d have a friend.” Piper smirked.

“He’s a Hufflepuff. They make friends super easily.” Annabeth turned to me. “Which you do, by the way.”

“Yeah, but I’m also all of the things Leo said too! And I’m funny.”

“Every house is funny in their own way.” Jason said. “That’s meaningless.”

“Plus, I didn’t realize you were funny.” Leo said. “Like, at all.”

“I’m funny!” I protested.

“I think you’re funny.” Hazel shrugged. “I mean, I can’t always get the humor, but I’m going to chalk that up to time period differences.”

I groaned. Annabeth kissed me on the cheek. “Look at it this way, Seaweed Brain: loyalty and dependability are like your trademark qualities. Bravery, yes, but your fatal flaw is literally the embodiment of the Hufflepuff house.”

It was tough to argue with that. For one thing, I didn’t know enough about any of this to actually come up with some good points of my own. Second, she leaned back so her head was resting against my shoulder and the fresh smell of her shampoo made it hard for me to concentrate on much else.

Leo fell backwards into the sand, book clutched to his chest. Look, I know reading is a popular past-time, but I found it really hard to believe any book could do that.

Frank, on the other hand, did not share this sentiment with me.

“Did you get to the ending?”

“Yeah.” Leo said.

I’d seen the movies before, because I’m not an animal, so I finally felt engaged in the conversation at hand.

“Dumbledorf dying?” I asked and Leo shot up to his feet faster than a jack rabbit. The guy looked like he was ready to murder me and cry all in one go. Everyone gasped and I could feel Annabeth putting some distance between us so she could properly glare at me. I honestly had no idea what I’d did wrong. They all wanted Harry Potter discourse and this was what they got. All I did was try and talk about the book.

“Come on, man!” Jason sighed. 

“Does that not happen? Is he not killed by Snake or whatever his name is?”

“Leo, cover your ears and go finish the series away from this moron.” Piper said.

“HE’S WHAT?”

“Um, did I say his name wrong or something?” I asked, growing very nervous about the way they were all looking at me. Did I have a poisonous spider on my face? Or did I accidentally just unveil a new life-threatening prophecy? Did my breath smell?

“Well, yeah, but that’s not the point!” Annabeth scowled, eyes stormy.

“What is the point?”

“You just…” Leo trembled and it looked like his whole life was falling apart. “You just ruined the series for me.”

“What?”

Everyone groaned.

“That happens in the end of book 6.” Frank said, taking pity on my soul while everyone else continued to alternate between shooting me glares and comforting looks to Leo. 

“And?”

“I’M ON BOOK 1!” Leo tugged at his hair.

My eyes widened. “Oh… So you didn’t know… Oh, crap.”

“Yeah, oh crap! That’s one of the biggest moments in the series.” Annabeth said.

“He said he got to the ending! I thought he meant the ending of the whole series.”

“You didn’t even read the books!” Leo said.

“I’m sorry!” I said. “I saw the movies and-”

“-Oh, you’re one of those people.” Hazel sighed.

“I’m-I am never talking books with you guys ever again.” Leo said. “Not until I finish them anyway.”

“And we can just do it while Percy’s asleep or something.” Jason said. “Just to be safe.”

“Or you could all just watch the movies like normal people.” I suggested.

“Nope, still too dangerous. He’s spoiled shows for me before too.” Annabeth said. “Remember Dexter?”

“I saved you from having to watch that firsthand. That was noble,” I emphasized. 

It didn’t seem to work, because she rolled her eyes. Still, she didn’t resist when I brought her hand to my mouth to kiss her knuckles. Instead, she laced our fingers. In our time of being together, she’d gotten really good at seeming annoyed with me while also finding it in her to be affectionate.

“What is this, book club?” Sneered Clarisse as she stormed the beaches. 

“Apparently, yes.” I said. “Please tell me you want to duel or beat the crap out of me or something more fun?”

She rolled her eyes. “Why does Valdez look like he’s already crapped himself?”

“Because Percy told me Dumbledore dies?”

Her eyes widened and her cheeks flushed. “He what?”

“He told me that Dumbledore is killed by Snape!”

She stormed forward and for a moment, I thought she was going to kill me out of anger, so I tried to protect Annabeth, but it was nice to know that my girlfriend didn’t want me to die over this, because she seemed pretty set on staying in front of me anyway.

Instead, Clarisse grabbed Leo by the shirt and hoisted him upwards so his feet were dangling. We all sat stunned for a moment and probably all very confused at the change of events.

“I HAVEN’T GOTTEN THERE YET!” She hollered in his face and I pitied him, because that probably did not smell good.

All of the color drained from Leo’s face in realization that in the wake of his own trauma, he’d just done the same thing to Clarisse. In an effort to repay him for ruining a hallmark book series for him, I decided it was only fair to divert Clarisse’s wrath to me. I was fairly used to it, anyway

“I’m just surprised you can read, Clarisse.” I said as I stood up from my tangled seating with Annabeth, who was looking up at me in confusion and also with a “I like your face not pounded in” expression.

Her mean mug turned to me and she turned as red as a tomato. “What did you say to me, Jackson?”

“I mean, we would have invited you, but we didn’t feel like sticking solely to picture books.” This was incredibly ironic of me to say, because I usually stuck to comic books, which were basically just picture books.

She dropped Leo into the sand and barreled towards me.

“See you guys later!” I called over my shoulder as she chased me. She resembled the Minotaur when she was angry and determined like this. I figured now might now be the time to bring that to her attention.

And that, my friends, is how Clarisse ended up starting a fire in an attempt to sacrifice me to the Gods. They didn’t accept the sacrifice, because they prefer regular food and all feared I’d be a bit too fishy for their tastes.

And no matter what anyone else tells you, it was all Leo’s fault.

[wavemaker9]

Hey lemme start off to make this easier by saying i’m gonna roll with isabel as the name for nyo spain until i come up with something i like more. It’ll work well enough just for posts so i don’t have to keep using ‘nyo spain’

I haven’t broken off of the merryweather idea for her yet. I think it’d be similar to how toni is in his crew, where she started off as the actual go to the scene sort but eventually made her way up to being more on the business/management/other internal organization level. I think her and toni actually met up while both were lower level, toni hadn’t started his crew yet, probably was in some other crew or just on his own. I just. A part of me very much likes someone calling for backup/security against some job he was working on and the pair facing off against each other but immediately clicking with each other between their similar styles (they both fight with a ferocity that matches that this should be to the death, but also with a fluidity and style to it that almost implies a dance) and when they talk they can tell the other also carries themself the same way with the casually fake shit and also upon realizing oh you’re from spain?? I’m also from spain! Same home country!! They let each other live (bel taking out the people he was working with is still on the table if expected though, whoever they were) with both considering that a favor the other owes them. God just i want toni tracking down isabel with a “you owe me for that time i let you live, help me with x” and her just immediately laughing. “I owe you?? In what world??? If anything you should have used my information to send me a thank you card and a gift basket” they finally work out that they owe each other and so they decide to work together with each getting something out of it, isabel offers aid from merryweather at a discount/free as long as shes involved so some of the savings can go into her pocket instead. Also sometimes he offers a job where he really only needs a person or two as backup, and she volunteers herself. Further cuts costs but also, similarly to toni, she kind of misses when she was on the field more. It was dangerous but man a part of her felt so much more alive than she does now behind a desk. Plus like the money she makes from merryweather isn’t bad, but the side money from the jobs toni does are definitely worthwhile too.

Since i’m including bel, i might as well touch on kylee and audrey too, why not bring them in. a part of me wants audrey in a federal company like the FIB or IAA, somewhere like that, but i think i like her more on her own, in a role of like matching up criminals to those who would hire them for heists when certain specialties are needed, and then occasionally joining in if a /very/ good sniper is needed. that’s how she first works with austin. There’s a jaw breakers job that requires two expert snipers on very different locations at or near the same time and austin can only be in one place at a time, so him reluctantly agreeing they need to find someone else with some skill. I also like her being the way that austin first works with mel and micha, her offering up them as contacts for certain jobs later on.

Kylee’s been the hardest. I half entertained the idea of her in/running a motorcycle gang, just because she’d be cute in half the bikers shit they got on gtao, and audrey running an organization then, but idk about that anymore. I think the best role for her is kind of like how in the main game you can do some of the side missions and get a contact later for a heist. Like that. Not officially part of any group, not actively as a for hire type for jobs. Just someone like kyle helped her out once so once she caught on that he was just as cool with crime as she was, she gave him her contact information in case he ever had a job come up where ‘he needed a better thief than him ;)’.

Also just to have this written down because i was also thinking about it when trying to flesh out how toni and isabel would interact, i don’t think any of the nyo-orig sets would actually have a thing. Toni and isabel would likely be the closest, playfully flirt teasing each other because that’s just how they naturally communicate with people when they’re wearing their mask, but I don’t think it would actually end up as anything actual. I could see them sleeping together /maybe/ extremely short term, but nothing more than that. Kyle and kylee /maybe/ play flirt with each other, but it’s only after they’ve built an understanding that it’s never meant seriously. They’re 100% platonic, but they do end up pretty good mates. Austin and audrey reluctantly appreciate the other? On one hand, they like the other’s professionalism and skill, but also it ends up a little competitive between whose skills are better, so they never 100% get along. They very much have a co-workers relationship first and that’s really it.

Bel would share similar opinions on Kyle and Austin as Toni does if she met them. Maybe a little more impressed with Austin compared to Kyle just because I don’t think she’d interact with him as closely as Toni would. Toni prefers Kyle to Austin because Austin is ambitious, but when he interacts face to face, toni can tell that Austin isn’t as strong and capable as he would have people believe. Again, in this au he’s more so than most other Austins, but it’s a core trait so even if it’s less so, it’s still there for him. Toni at least appreciates that Kyle’s more of a fighter, more determined and passionate, even if toni kind of thinks kyle’s still not super impressive with how he is more lacking that ambition and is only worried about having fun. Fun is fine, but it’s not going to last forever. If kyle’s fine with that (which he is, kyle doesn’t expect to live for ever, he wants to go out having a good time), then good for him, but it doesn’t line up with toni’s priorities so he can’t fully approve of kyle either. Basically kyle has drive but not specifically ambition, austin has ambition but not specifically drive. Toni knows both are important, but he feels like drive is more important. Ambition will help you live a good life, but drive on its own is what keeps you alive to begin with, it’s what helps you survive.

Anyway, bel wouldn’t see that austin is missing that drive unless she met face to face with him, which she likely would rarely if at all. Same with kyle, i can’t imagine them meeting unless through shared contacts. She just hears second hand about this one kid who’s fucking around, nearly getting himself killed all the time, and won’t commit to anything with a crew or an organization or company or anything. Compare that to the other guy who maintains a more presentable image and put himself into such a high role in the jaw breakers pretty quickly, and just based on that information it’s clear why bel would initially think more of austin.

Both austin and audrey would share a lot of opinions on others, same with kylee and kyle. The only difference there is that while austin and kyle don’t always get along, don’t always like each other, they’re still family. Austin grumbles about having to babysit kyle half the time to keep him from getting himself hurt or killed or otherwise fucked over but he still does it because that’s his cousin. He feels it’s his responsibility and he knows family appreciates having kyle still alive and also a part of him would also miss kyle if he lost him because of how much kyle has involved himself into austin’s life. The same is true in reverse, kyle’s cousin is a stuck up prick who thinks he’s better than kyle and makes that obvious as fuck but he’s also kyle’s cousin and he does help kyle so kyle can see that even if austin’s a dick like 90% of the time, there’s a 10% of him that’s actually kinda cool and kyle wouldn’t be able to make it without him. He loves his mean cousin, even if they don’t always exactly get along. Audrey has no connection to kyle though and kylee lacks the same for austin. Audrey sees austin putting himself out to watch over kyle’s worse habits and asks why austin wastes his time doing that. She gets the family thing and whatever, but if austin just lets the kid fall once, maybe kyle will learn he needs to manage that himself and then austin won’t have to worry about it anymore (austin explaining a, kyle’s never learned anything ever in his life, b, even when he has, sometimes he forgets, especially with things that mess with his mind like drinking, drugs, and even violence/other adrenaline things, c, the one time he lets kyle fall could be the one time kyle falls right into the grave, and he’s never been exceptionally risky so he’d rather not take the chance). Similarly Kylee gets the family thing too, 100%, she totally understands, but like. Austin’s the worst? She talked to him one (1) time and he was the worst? She could tell he literally started mentally judging her the moment he saw her, and once he opened his mouth he started vocally judging her too. What a fucking cunt??? Why do you hang out with him, he clearly doesn’t want to be around you anyway, just dump the dick????? Like family is family but like. Still. (Because it’s not /her/ family being discussed here. But family’s what’s important to kyle and that overrides everything else about austin. Kyle loves people in general but he especially loves family and you gotta /really/ try to get him to throw that away. + he does kind of owe austin for a lot of the help over the years. He’s helped back but he’s probably still the one in debt at this point.)

God i wasn’t gonna but what if audrey and kylee were cousins too? I’m not 100% on that, I just very much like kylee bugging audrey in a loving way like kyle does with austin. Idk i’ll come back to that later maybe.

Have i ever even touched on how kyle and austin view toni??? Don’t think i have?? It’s kinda simple though, kyle’s lowkey just as unimpressed with toni as toni is with him. He’s probably cooler with toni at first, but toni reminds kyle of his mom with that fakey smile shit and so he’s kind of soured on that with toni. Kyle wants people to like him but he also wants people to be honest with him. He also (if he finds out) doesn’t appreciate being called the boyfriend equivalent of vodka, that’s not. Great. Austin starts off with an okay view of toni, too, but like. It’s not even the fakey shit, he’s fine with that, it’s the shit toni pulls against him because toni doesn’t like him. Usually toni makes it just subtle enough where austin can’t really tell if toni’s genuinely insulting//threatening him or just sounded like it, but once or twice there’s like no misinterpreting that. Namely that time oliver invites austin to boys night and. Like oliver says afterwards toni is just playing rough for boys night, especially with a newcomer like austin, trying to see how much he could push him, but forgive austin if he didn’t appreciate being threatened to his face for simple things or things that were oliver’s fault. Also stop calling him weak??? You’re so rude!!!

Kylee and Audrey probably don’t talk much with Toni or Isabel. Audrey probably the most as someone who deals in connections- HOLD ON. can i undo what i said before about kylee just having that connection with kyle and instead say that was for audrey instead? Maybe happens later on as well with kyle and that’s how they meet, but audrey saves kylee’s ass once and kylee offers that audrey can call her next time she needs something stolen, no questions asked! And sure enough, audrey takes her up on that offer, putting her in touch with a crew who could really use someone who knows how to handle lock picking tools in the near future. Kylee doing what kyle does and working with a whole bunch of different crews, but instead of just shuffling around as she feels like it like kyle does, kylee does jobs as audrey offers them. Maybe at some point kylee and audrey both work on a job and kylee saves aud’s ass in return so technically they’re even but both kind of play it as “well i owe her” to justify sticking around each other. They’re at a point now where kylee knows she can reject a job if she wants to but usually agrees to the job to help audrey out, but similarly audrey knows kylee’s a good resource to have and also not so easy to force into doing a job she really doesnt’ want to do, so she tries to pick jobs that she knows have something appealing about them to kylee and reasons that if kylee rejects a job, it’s worth it to keep her around for future jobs than to break their ties over this one. Hey i love that? Oh oh also kylee taking on some criminal matchmaking for some of the roudier clients? Audrey has to find a few people for a job trevor phillips has, why go talk to him herself and deal with that maniac when she can send kylee who thinks he’s weird and a bit of a mean motherfucker sometimes but also can be really fun? 

Also relating back to the “why do you deal with kyle/austin” from the girls, the boys asking it back, “hey you’re dealing with kylee/audrey, like you can talk” with audrey reasoning she kind of owes kylee and at least kylee makes her money and austin counters kyle’s done some jobs for him too, with audrey shrugging and going well at least there’s some pro; kylee waving it off “she saved my life and she helps me make a lot of money. My apartment isn’t run down like /somebody’s/ i could mention.” kyle pouts/scoffs and says “Well i mean if money’s sooo~ important to ya.” and kylee just laughs and teases that it sounds like ~somebody’s~ jealous. (also kyle pointing out austin’s kind of saved his life a few times too. kylee like fine fine but also he’s still just the biggest dick and kyle laughing and agreeing, yeah no nobody’s arguing that.)

(audrey saving kylee from some attack or something, giving her a ride out of the area against her first instinct because kylee’s eyes are pleading for audrey to unlock the car door for her to jump in before these assholes behind her catch up to her. As they’re driving away, it turns out that. Like ~maybe~ kylee stole something expensive from them first. /maybe/. Audrey starting to stop the car, okay get out you got yourself into that mess back there, but kylee countering there’s no way audrey’s not at least a little cool with crime herself. Audrey raising an eyebrow and asking why kylee would think that and kylee answering that there ain’t a single person in this city that’s dressed as nicely as audrey is and can afford to do so legally. Audrey not laughing exactly but pulling her lips into a reluctant smile because. Okay fair and a little funny, fine, fine. After some consideration starts the car back up and heads back into town so they can talk further. It’s on a later mission where kylee helps audrey by taking out a threat while audrey was trying to get a target on someone and didn’t see the person sneaking up behind her.)

Anyway, back to the girls w/r/t toni and isabel. Audrey probably works with isabel quite a bit, they trade contacts for people to do jobs, audrey will offer people who merryweather can hire and isabel will pass on people already on the clock for them but willing to do some work outside the office as long as they get a cut. Isabel sees the same complaints toni has about austin in audrey, though isabel can at least compliment that audrey is trying to keep her distance and playing it a bit more safe. She only takes jobs herself if they have a low risk to reward ratio and, specifically unlike austin, she’s not tying herself up in a crew that has rivalries with others. She’s making more allies by working with multiple crews. She’s also kind of the lead on this (maybe she really should just run an organization and kylee helps with that) and taking charge versus austin letting oliver run things. Kylee has probably interacted with toni and isabel from working with audrey, either being hired to do a job for the Toros(i think that was toni’s crew name? Maybe not, i’ll look back into that later) or being in contact with isabel via the hiring trading and stuff. Kylee similarly to kyle doesn’t appreciate the too-cheerful teasing, but she’s largely indifferent. Buncha asses want to be all smiley and manipulative about their shit, let ‘em, i don’t give a fuck.

Also views on others? Mel & Micha, kylee probably gets along with well. A part of me says there might be a rivalry thing between mel and kylee for Who Can Be the Best once they meet, but i think eventually they’d stop and realize they can just work together and that’s better because then they can be friends. Much like kyle, kylee ends up really liking the both of them and def tries flirting with them for a short time after meeting them.

Cami! If i didn’t already mention it, cami as the second for toni. Both can play the good cop bad cop solo, but when toni switches bad cop, he goes for more physical damage while cami is /very/ skilled at the emotional/mental fuckery. Why break someone’s bones when you can break their spirit? After the first time meeting her, kylee favored working with cami over toni when she had to work with the crew, and she only grew to like cami more as they worked together. Ended up having a major thing for her and tried very hard to woo her too (including breaking into the gang base to deliver little notes and gifts because kylee also doesn’t fear death or punishment properly). Isabel likes cami and they get along well when they interact. Isabel flirts with cami a lot even if it’s mostly for play and because she know it lowkey flusters cami to no end. Audrey thinks camille is fine. Seems a little too nice but she doesn’t realize, audrey you fool.

Audrey maybe works with ivan getting him connections for a job once or twice, similar to toni? Probably met him once and diverted that over to be one of kylee’s jobs. You go deal with him, he won’t stop smiling and i Hate it. Kylee thinks Ivan’s cool and 100% approves when she finds out he and Kyle are dating. Except for me you don’t normally make good choices on friends, kyle, but this one (1) time you made a good choice, you have my blessing. (kyle pointing out he definitely didn’t need her blessing, he hasn’t even gotten austin’s blessing and he’s actually family, kylee saying that’s fine but he has her blessing anyway so like. Just accept it). Audrey maybe working with Anya? If so, likely a largely professional relationship/anya has fun fucking with audrey just a little bit sometimes and audrey Hates that too. Kylee meets anya through kyle probably and is just stunned. Here she was starting to think the only friends kyle had besides her were all bad but between ivan and anya he’s actually got a few cool ones, how did that happen? She probably flirts a little bit with anya and falls for her a little too. okay but kylee breaking into anya’s office to leave her cute little gifts and nots as well.  Whoops kylee knows too many cute girls how did this happen?

Speaking of kyle’s shitty friends, kylee doesn’t like doug despite having a friend just like him whom she makes no connection to. Both kyle and kylee are fine when it happens to them but when shit happens to friend hey no you stop that you fuck off and leave them be! Similarly kylee is fine with summer, but not trusting of her. Kylee thinks Oliver is chill. Bit too much pink and pastel but hey, to each their own, least he makes it work. Audrey probably has doug as a contact for hire, but doesn’t talk to him outside of giving jobs to him. I don’t think she’d have any reason to talk to summer, i can’t even think of a reason for austin to outside of the kyle dies timeline which might not even be canon anymore. Audrey is fine with Oliver, a bit too friendly on the surface but austin assures her there’s more to it than that and austin seems to be good at spotting these things so she trusts him on that. Isabel probably only meets oliver and summer. she’s meh about oliver. Seems fine and whatever, they get along when they talk, but nothing special to her. she is 100% annoyed by summer but much like toni and summer are when they meet, she deals with summer with a smile and a bunch of just saying whatever shit is required to make this as painless on herself as possible. 

i think that’s everything? i feel like there was more i thought of but i’ll make another post if i remember

[sweater-vest-reid]

All You Need is Love: Chapter Eight “If I Fell”

A Love Story Told by The Fab Four / Inspired by “Across the Universe”

Spencer Reid: a genius, hardworking, dedicated FBI profiler. Persephone “Percy” Jacobson: a passionate, brilliant, ambitious FBI specialist, and the newest member of the BAU. Spencer doesn’t believe in soulmates. Persephone doesn’t believe in happy endings. Told nonlinearly, watch as time, each other, and The Beatles, proves them wrong.

Chapter List

~~~~~

A/N: So I removed the parts of the lyrics that talked about the guy loving another girl since it didn’t fit with my story. I also love the thought of seeing a show together, so I was really excited to write this chapter!

Listen here

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If I fell in love with you 

Would you promise to be true 

And help me understand

{2009}

“Thanks again for coming on such short notice,” Percy said as they took their seats in the theater.

“It’s not a problem,” Spencer replied.

Percy smiled wide, “So? Les Mis? Are you excited for your first musical?”

“Yeah, I am. But you know what? I’m also kind of nervous.” He said.

“Nervous? Why are you nervous? Spencer, you do realize that you’re just watching the musical, not playing Jean Valjean, right?” Percy joked.

“Very funny, Percy.” Said Spencer.

“But really, why do you think you’re nervous?” Percy asked, leaning closer to Spencer.

“I don’t know,” Spencer said, shaking his head, “I guess I just don’t what to expect.”

“Well, I can help with that,” Percy said.

Spencer smirked at her, “Really?”

“You’ve read the book, so you know what the plot is. This is a professional theatre, you can expect, at least, a baseline of enough talent. Believe me, I do support and believe in high school theatre. But I was not about to be your first musical be a high school production of Les Mis” Percy laughed.

“What’s so funny about that?” Spencer asked, a confused look on his face.

“I keep forgetting that you know absolutely nothing about theatre. Well, high school theatre departments can have a lot of success with many musicals. But some musicals just cannot be done well with a cast of teenagers. And Les Mis is at the top of that list.” Percy explained.

“Well, thank you? I guess?” Spencer replied, still a bit confused.

“You’re very welcome.” Percy smiled.

“Why did you stop doing theatre?” Spencer asked.

“I guess I grew out of it” Percy lied.

“Really? Because it doesn’t look like you grew out of it” Spencer commented.

And he was right. Percy was literally bouncing in her seat, like a child waiting to receive a present. Ever since that morning when she found out there was a show happening, she’d been giddy with excitement. Little did he know, but if Spencer was unable to go with Percy, she still would have gone alone. That’s how excited she was. And she was doing a terrible job of hiding it.

“Fine. The real reason? I wanted a stable life. Sure, I got a few lead roles in high school, but in reality, I never would have made it professionally. It’s such a competitive field. I don’t think I would have done well. So I decided pretty when I was pretty young that theatre was just a hobby. And it couldn’t become any more than that” she said.

“How old were you when you made that decision?” Spencer asked.

“15” Percy replied.

Sometimes Spencer hated that he was a profiler. He loved his job, no question about that. But he hated that he could read people’s faces, that he could tell how they were feeling from just a single glance. Right then, as he looked at Percy’s face, he could see how sad she was, how much she longed for simpler times. But part of him was glad she left her theatre life to join the FBI. He would have never got the chance to meet actor Percy. But agent Percy, Spencer got to see her every day. He got to work side by side with her, talk to her. She was the highlight of his days.

“What did you want to be when you grew up?” Percy asked, “Or did you always plan on being the handsome Dr. Spencer Reid: professional know it all with a gun”

Reid chuckled, “No, not at all. When I was younger I didn’t even think I had a single chance of getting in the FBI.”

“So, what was it then?” asked Percy, “Let me guess, did you want to be a doctor doctor, like a medical doctor?”

“Nope,” he said, shaking his head.

“An Engineer?”

“No”

“A professor?”

“A tightrope walker”

“Excuse me?” Percy squeaked.

“When I was four years old, I decided I wanted to be a tightrope walker. Unfortunately, I learned I had terrible balance. I still have a scar on my wrist from when I fell off my backyard fence” Spencer explained.

Spencer pushed up his sleeve, displaying his scar for Percy to see. She examined it and looked back up at him.

“I hope I don’t offend you when I say that I’m very glad you didn’t follow your tightrope walking dream” Percy giggled.

“You know what? I’m very glad I didn’t either.”

The lights began to dim, and booming music filled the theatre. They leaned back into their seats, preparing for the journey they were about to witness.

'Cause I've been in love before And I found that love was more Than just holding hands

“So, I need to know: what did you think of Act I?” Percy asked Spencer, the second the lights came up for intermission.

Spencer laughed lightly, trying to piece together words to describe what he just saw. “I’m…that was…wow.”

“I know right? This cast is incredible. And those kids? They have so much talent it’s unfair” Percy commented, flipping through the program again.

She was so happy in that moment, getting to share her passion with Spencer. Part of her was sad the show was half over. She never wanted this night to end. Percy didn’t want to go to work the next day and have everything continue the same way it had. Just Percy and Spencer, ignoring their feelings, never getting any closer to what both of them want.

“So, is there regular speaking dialogue in musicals? Or is it all singing?” Spencer asked.

“That depends. But in Les Mis, its mostly singing.” Percy answered, “I still can’t believe that you don’t know anything about theatre. I think theatre is the only thing I know more about than you”

“Come on, that can’t be the only thing” Spencer replied.

“Nope. It’s definitely the only thing”

They both laughed. It was rare that the two of them could just be alone. Just enjoying each other’s company, without work getting in the way.

“So, Percy,” Said Spencer.

“Yes Spence?” she asked.

“Do you know the words to all of the songs or do you just have the first act of Les Mis memorized?”

“I probably know most of the words. I mean it is a classic. Why do you ask?” Percy asked.

“Because you were mouthing along with the music,” Spencer revealed.

Percy blushed, “That’s not true”

Spencer nodded, “Yes, you were.”

“Whoops. I’m sorry.” Percy said, her cheeks burning.

Spencer smiled at her, “Don’t apologize. It was adorable. But, Seriously, why do you know all of the words? You weren’t in a production of Les Mis, were you?”

“Maybe..” Percy mumbled.

“That would be a yes,” Spencer stated, “When did you do the show?”

“It was my first show in college. Back when I was a bright-eyed freshman” Percy joked.

“So, who did you play?”

“You’re a genius. You figure it out” Percy teased.

“Okay, I will,” Spencer said, accepting the challenge.

He flipped through the program studying the cast list.

“Were you Fantine?”

Percy stayed silent.

“Madame Thénardier?”

Silence.

“Cosette?”

Nothing.

“Éponine?”

The corner of Percy’s mouth twitched slightly, and Spencer knew he had won.

“Wow, I bet you made a great Éponine,” he said.

“My Éponine probably wasn’t incredible. But, I did look great in her dress. So, that was a plus.” She said.

“I wish I could have seen you perform,” Spencer said.

“Why would you want to see me perform? You don’t even know if I was any good?” Percy joked.

“I know you, Percy. Believe me, I’m sure you were fantastic.” Spencer reassured, “But seeing you tonight, so happy and excited just to be in a theatre. I’m sure it was a real treat to see you perform in one.”

“Well, Spence. Play your cards right and you just might be able to.” Percy teased.

Spencer’s jaw dropped, “How? Are you in a show right now?”

“No, I’m not,” Percy laughed, “Do you really think I have time to be in a musical? I barely have time to sleep…and eat!”

“So what did you mean then? Were you joking?” Spencer asked, disappointment setting in on his face.

“No, no, no. What I meant is: when we were performing, my college recorded one of the shows. I’m sure I still have the DVD. It might take me some time to find it, but when I do, and if you are still interested- ”

“I would love to watch it” Spencer interrupted, “On one condition”

Percy raised her eyebrow, “Which is?”

“You watch it with me”

“Nope. Sorry, Spence. But I can’t do that” Percy stated.

“Why?” Spencer asked.

“I can’t watch myself act, or sing. I tried watching once, but I could only get five minutes into the show before I had to stop.”

“Really? You won’t even consider watching it?” Spencer pleaded.

“I’ll get back to you on that. You should just be thankful I’m letting you watch it. I never let anyone watch me perform, let alone tell them I used to perform.”

Just then, the lights started to go down, and the second act was about to begin.

Before it started, Spencer leaned over to Percy.

“Pretty please? Do it? For me?” He whispered.

Percy turned to look at him, their eyes locking together. The moment was intimate, their foreheads almost touching as she leaned into him.

“Sure Spencer, if you insist.” She whispered back.

If I give my heart to you I must be sure From the very start That you would love me

As soon as the music started, Percy became immersed in the show. Her eyes following the each and every movement. Her lips, still mouthing every word in time with the actors. Spencer could see the emotions on her face. She was moved by every lyric. Every moment of sadness on stage broke her heart. And every moment of triumph filled her with joy.

Spencer turned his eyes back to the stage, not wanting to miss any more of the action. Still, he would look back at her every once and awhile. For him, the best part of the night wasn’t the show, it was her.

Looking at the stage, he watched on as the little boy climbed over the barrier. Spencer, having read the book, knew what was coming. And he was not looking forward to the events that were about to occur on stage.

The first gunshot went off, narrowly missing the young boy. Percy audibly gasped. Spencer looked over at her, noticing that her eyes were beginning to water. Spencer quickly looked away, as he knew Percy wouldn’t want him to see her cry. The second gunshot went off, and Percy unconsciously reached for Spencer’s hand. The gesture startled Spencer, but he didn’t let go of it. Instead, he returned Percy’s gesture, intertwining their fingers together in support.

Whenever bad things happen in life, people always say to look back on fond memories. That looking at good moments from the past can help make the present more bearable. Spencer knew the second that Percy grabbed his hand, that this was one of those moments he would remember.

The show continued. With every gunshot, with every death, Percy squeezed Spencer’s hand. Neither of them wanted to let go.

It took Percy minutes to figure out she had grabbed Spencer’s hand. She hadn’t meant to. But she was not upset about it. Spencer rarely shook hands, let alone let someone hold his hand for this long. But Percy was glad he was. In that theatre, watching that show, sitting next to him, Percy felt safe.

If I trust in you oh please Don't run and hide If I love you too oh please Don't hurt my pride

“I’m so glad you enjoyed it,” Percy said as they walked into her apartment building.

The show was over. While neither of them would admit it, they were both sad that the night was coming to an end. Tomorrow would be another workday. A day where they would pretend there was nothing going on between them.

“I’m glad you invited me. I was wrong to avoid musicals my entire life” Spencer confided.

“Well, I feel very special that I got to teach Dr. Spencer Reid something new” Percy giggled.

As the begun to climb the stairs to her apartment, Percy debated what to do next. She wanted to invite Spencer in. But, Percy knew that whatever fantasies she had, they were not happening tonight. Besides, it was Spencer after all. Percy didn’t even know if he would actually come inside.

“Would you maybe, want to do this again?” Spencer asked, “Not see Les Mis again, but see a different musical, uh …... together?”

“Absolutely, Spence. I already have a list of musical you have to see. You need to see all the classics. Plus there are some less popular ones I think you will enjoy as well” Percy rambled.

Spencer laughed at her enthusiasm, “Sounds great to me”

They reached her doorway, and the atmosphere surrounding them became somber.

“Thank you for tonight. I had a really great time” Percy said.

“I did too. Tonight was amazing” Spencer replied.

Percy opened her door and walked inside. She turned back to Spencer before closing the door. They looked at each other again. Their faces inching closer and closer. The space between them becoming more and more intimate. But they both stopped dead in their tracks.

Staring into her eyes, Spencer finally broke the silence, “Goodnight Persephone”

“Goodnight Spencer” Percy said before the both separated.

Percy waved goodbye as she watched Spencer walk down the stairs and away from her apartment. When he was out of sight she closed her door and locked it. After the day she had, she was ready for sleep. But sleep would not come for her. Percy stared up at her ceiling, recalling the day’s events in her head. They came so close. So close to getting what both of them wanted.

That night, lying in her bed, Percy made a promise. The next time she and Spencer came that close again, she would take her chance. She had too. This had gone on for far too long. Little did she know that Spencer made an identical promise to himself as he lay awake in bed.

And both of them intended to keep it.

If I fell in love with you

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[cryptoriawebb]

My thoughts on “The Disaster Artist”

Oh, hai Tumblr

I won’t lie, I originally planned to review The Room before writing my reaction to the Disaster Artist. The more I thought about it, though, the more I didn’t feel I could do so, seriously. We all know it’s a bad movie. We know it’s quite possibly the worst movie ever made in the history of bad movies. We also know it stands apart from other bad films, in that it’s so bad it’s actually entertaining. Enjoyable. Dare I say “classic?” It’s the kind of movie you laugh and cringe and come away from quoting the rest of the night. The kind of movie you go into knowing full-well how awful it is and enjoying yourself, anyway.

I’ve seen a lot of bad movies, and The Room may very well be the only one I came away from with a smile on my face and laughter in my heart. I’d heard about and seen clips from it over the last couple of years, but I didn’t expect the full experience to be so…what it was. I’d honestly watch it again, I would. It’s something you want to share with others and be a part of, yourself. I joked with my friends that it might very well be “the Eighth Wonder of the World” but there is some loose-knit truth in that. It is a wonder. Fourteen years and still, people flock to it. They probably always will.

Where to begin my thoughts on The Disaster Artist. I was really impressed. I didn’t know what to expect going in—most everyone these days knows of Tommy Wiseau and his disasterpiece, The Room. If they haven’t seen it, they’ve at least heard of it, and if they haven’t heard of it, then they probably know someone who does.

There were so so many ways this movie could have gone wrong—everything from the humor to the narrative to Wiseau’s portrayal. I haven’t seen James Franco in a movie for some time, and I go up and down with his performances. I was a bit nervous when I heard he’d be portraying Wiseau, but the trailer looked promising (and admittedly I do find Franco attractive) so I figured I’d at least give him the benefit of doubt. Plus, I really wanted to see both Franco brothers on-screen, together. They didn’t disappoint! Nor did they read on-screen as brothers at all. Which is something I wondered about—if an audience member going into a movie knowing the co-stars were siblings would see them as such, regardless of the role. I didn’t, and I’m really fortunate I didn’t because these two gave quite the performance. Especially James.

Don’t get me wrong, Dave did a fantastic job as well; I genuinely felt his empathy and frustration towards his relationship with Wiseau and his career and the chaotic whirlwind around him. I’ve never read The Disaster Artist but I am definitely thinking about doing so, now.

James though, wow. I’ve never seen him in a role like this, ever. The dedication and commitment to this performance and this man practically oozed from him on-screen. He didn’t entirely look like Tommy Wiseau but he didn’t have to; everything else was spot-on. Biopics (can I call this a biopic?) can be tricky things: sometimes you feel for the person from whom the characters draw inspiration, sometimes you don’t. Sometimes you understand their pain and passion, sometimes you don’t. This movie, however? I really felt for both Wiseau and Sestero. They read like real people chasing after dreams they didn’t quite know how to reach but wanted to, desperately. That’s a feeling I myself know well and I was pleasantly surprised by how strongly that part of me resonated with the film. Nothing felt cliché or threadbare; it was all very real…and real is not something I see often from Hollywood, these days. I mean, the first trailer on its own looked promising but trailers can be so deceiving, I didn’t want to get my hopes up beyond a certain point.

Thinking about it, I’m wondering if I in part felt that passion from the film because Franco’s own bled into it. From what I’ve seen, he was pretty invested in adapting not only the book but telling Wiseau’s story. If that was the case, it worked. It worked really well (what is that called? Method acting? Haha…)

This movie also had a fair amount of humor sprinkled in through the drama, particularly scenes involving filming The Room. Now, that could be because I’d just watched the movie for the first time, before, so everything was fresh in my head and the jokes and concerns from the “crew” as Wiseau dragged them through the process reflected thoughts my friends and I shared while watching it.  I can’t tell you how hard we all laughed during the “sex scenes.” Or, of course, the scene in the trailer.

I want to give a shout out to Seth Rogan, here. While not a major character in the film (I’d say more like “moderate”), nor in the most comedic role I’ve ever seen, he managed to be quite funny. Maybe that stems from the environment happening around him, the grounded and skeptic “wtf” voice pinned against Wiseau’s erratic eccentricities.

Also, I had no idea Efron was in the movie. At all. Not until I saw him out of character costume did I realize I’d witnessed him threatening the hell out of “Denny.” Honestly, I really loved how many recognizable actors played such small roles compared to what I usually see them in. This is especially true for the opening of the film.

I’m sure the actors featured received some pointers from Franco/the screenwriter; the way it was shot and how they spoke indicated memorized lines as opposed to interview response. That said, I’d like to think there was some individual honesty and truth in their introduction. I really do think it was the perfect opening, not only to The Room and Tommy Wiseau but the impact they both made. It may not seem like it at first but step back and think about this: how many bad movies gain such infamous status among superstars/well known Hollywood personas? Aesthetically, the scene was lovely as well. Sometimes all you need is flat lighting and a black backdrop to garner attention. An interesting choice, too, to go the ‘non-fiction’ route; normally I only see that in documentaries. I definitely think it added to the film as opposed to hurt it. I will say at first I wasn’t sure if these actors were playing characters or not—I figured by the time Kevin Smith showed up, they weren’t (super glad to see him included, by the way. He would be the kind of guy to talk to about a movie like this!)

Also loved the throwback to Malcolm in the Middle and Bryan Cranston. I know it was in there for a reason but the nostalgic in me still associates Cranston with that show. He’ll always be Hal to me and it was kind of nice to see, on-screen…even if it was a source of conflict for Dave/Greg and a could-have-been turning point in his own career. That hurt, that scene. I wanted so badly for Greg to take that chance, as someone who is very self-motivated and ambitious and can, at times, feel anchored by certain relationships. That said, I understand loyalty to friends and how tough it can be on the heart. On the one hand, you feel for them, maybe even hurt for them. On the other...you see the disaster before the train derails and it’s so hard not to leap off the tracks. I admire Greg’s decision, I do. It shows what kind of guy he is, I think, and more importantly, what kind of friend. I couldn’t help but wonder what his life might be life if he had taken that job…if he’s happy, being a part of this legacy or if there’s something more he wanted, out of reach, because.

Jumping tone for a minute here, my favorite part of the movie by far was the shot-for-shot remake scenes of The Room. Not only were the lines on par, but costume and direction, down to the smallest gesture: like heads tilting back or the way a character smiled. Most of these scenes weren’t even part of the narrative—they weren’t included during the “screening” part of the movie. You’ve really got to love something to take that much time and effort, and pay such attention to detail.

Maybe it’s just me but I feel all of this really speaks to not only the impression The Room has made on the world but also Wiseau’s own self-view. Like…that he marches to his own beat, or seems to, and these actors, however famous they are, aren’t untouchable. He can be like them and achieve what they did. Which is funny because—and I was talking about this to my friends—he kind of did. Everything in the movie, what he said and aspired to be, as Franco or otherwise, came true. He did achieve his dream, and his movie put him on an unforgettable map. Hollywood actors watch and talk about The Room (from the interviews I’ve seen, anyway.)  It’s become a phenomena, a movie so bad it’s actually good; even I’d watch it again and I can’t say that about any other bad movies I’ve seen.

One last thing: make sure you stay until the end of the credits. If you haven’t heard why, just take my word for it~

[bumblebee1207-blog1]

He’s Perfect, But...

He went to an Ivy League School - Plus 1 pt

He’s an ER resident - Plus 5 pts

He’s 6 ft tall - Plus 5 pts

He suggested Wine Tasting for our date - Plus 10 pts

Before I even met the guy, he was already way ahead of all the pack. Let me break down my Bumble profile on a good week. 

I match with about 60/100 of the guys we swipe right on. (Yes, I mean we as in my best friends who are now also acting as my life managers. So Britney of me right?) 

Of those 60, I message about 40 . Out of those 40, half replies. Of the remaining 20, 10 will leave it at “How’s your weekend?” and now we’ve got 10 guys to bumble through. 5 /10 will tell me to “come over” and ask for nudes or just send me dick pics, turned out to be misogynistic, racist, or worst of all a guy who can’t differentiate between your and you’re. 

E, was a winner for sure. After a week of flirting through Bumble between his overnight shifts and my nonstop patient load, we finally settled on wine on Friday night. Mind you it was a long trek for me and he had just come from post call- so we were both pretty invested. 

The Lyft pulls up and E is already standing there waiting for me. He’s even more handsome in person with piercing green eyes. He opened doors and pulled out the chair and was overall a perfect gentleman. We do the usual first date talk and although our childhoods were vastly different, our goals and view on life were in sync. He and I both pursued medicine after another career. He studied Anthropology in undergrad and I studied Gerontology.  I found his curiosity and passion for helping others very endearing. The dreaded topic of “So what’s a successful and attractive person like you doing on Bumble” arrived about 3 tastings in. Immediately, I went into autopilot - except this autopilot is set on ejection mode. 

While he responded with a simple

 “I haven’t had much time to meet new people that share my similar views/ education levels”

I went into

 “Let me tell you about how I was engaged to this guy and our wedding was paid for in full and he called the wedding off after 4 years of being together because we couldn’t agree on kids among other things” mode. 

SO MORTIFYING. The funny/sad thing is I could tell the moment I opened my mouth, I knew I was being batshit crazy. I knew it! My mind was screaming “Retreat! Retreat! Retreat!” but I couldn’t stop. Eventually I ended the retelling of my tragedy with “But I’m fine! Everything is fine.” 

But I wasn’t fine. I wasn’t even okay. I had walked into the date with this cloud looming over my head. I was going to meet with a couple the next day to sell our wedding contract to try an recoup some of the money. There was so much hurt and anxiety there.  

Later on in our date, we ended up grabbing a bite to eat and bonded over our mutual dislikes of Orthos. E asked what my plans were for the rest of the weekend, A normal and sane person would say “Hanging out with family and friends” but not me! I brought up my wedding contract again and was spilling my guts out to this guy who looks at me with his gorgeous gaze. He kindly responded to my wreckage with:

“I’m so sorry to hear that! It must be so confusing for you. On one end, it’s a good thing to get that money back. On the other, it was supposed to be a significant event in your life.” 

At the end of our date, he offered to drive me home. We kissed goodnight and went our separate ways.

Let’s recap  He’s kind, thoughtful, articulate, successful, ambitious, intelligent, funny, attractive, he took me to wine tasting, and our views on life align. He’s basically the guy most girls would want to lock down. He has marriage material written all over him.

How did I behave around this guy? Like a tormented, melodramatic, walking time-bomb. He really is perfect, but... the problem isn’t him. It’s me. I’ve been burning through Bumble dates without having enough time to heal and reflect on my own hurt. I haven’t allowed myself enough time to sort through my feelings and instead I use these dates as therapy sessions, venting to a complete stranger. 

I eventually texted him the next day with an apology for bringing so much emotional baggage and he was nice enough (again so perfect!) to respond with “I believe you! It was so nice getting to know you. How’s your weekend?” 

We left it at that. Maybe I’ll run into E again in residency but he won’t be running into me. That is- the version of me that’s broken with my entire life being held together by a single bobby pin . If we’re lucky to meet again later in life, I’ll be me, healed and a complete person.