#you are seriously telling me the same man who changed his entire career path to try and save his sister's life

[jeyumi]

So Naoto fans, how we feeling about the Tokyo Revengers ending?

[lubdubsworld]

Better Man. ( Taehyung x Oc)

Rated 18 +

Post Divorce, Getting Back Together, Second chances, Angst. 

Chapter 1

Chapter 2  ~ Its okay to want something to end and also be sad that its ending. 

With infidelity, its never black and white. 

There’s different kinds of infidelity and you can’t ever say which is worse. That depends entirely on the people involved and the values they hold dear. What may be a small indiscretion to someone, may well be an unforgivable act of betrayal to someone else.

 And that’s fine. People aren’t one dimensional. We can’t all have the same perspective. 

So infidelity is also never one dimensional. 

Sometimes its a one night stand. Something done and forgotten. Discarded from the mind like the used condom in the motel room floor. 

Sometimes its a dear friend who betrays you, your best friend who apparently always had a thing for your husband and felt perfectly fine making a move on him. That one stings . Because you lose two people. Two very important people at the same time. 

Sometimes its a coworker, someone who stays by their side majority of the day. Who offers a sympathetic ear when your husband wants to relax.

Sometimes men just fall out of love and are too much of a coward to say it out loud, opting to cheat on you instead. 

Sometimes, they are jealous, of your career, of your kid, or your friends. Too lazy to win your affection they go find satisfaction in some one else’s bed. 

Sometimes it never even gets physical. Sometimes its just someone catfishing your husband or sending him nudes.

And sometimes, its an emotional connection. They actually fall deeply in love with someone else and I think, for most women, that would be the one that would sting the most. 

With Taehyung, it had been a night of drinking. He had had one drink too many, had tumbled into bed with some trainee a decade younger and had broken our marriage vows. 

Not really a very thought out or planned mistake. He hadn’t cheated with the intent to cheat. He had just been too drunk to know better. 

So, why did I leave him?

Because it hadn’t been about the cheating. 

It had been the drinking. 

When we first met, Taehyung couldn’t hold his liquor. Not that it mattered because he didn’t like it all that much. Didn’t mind sipping juice when other’s nursed beers. 

But as he grew older, as he grew more successful, he had started accepting drinks from producers and directors and fellow actors... Because, it was rude not to and Kim Taehyung was nothing if not the personification of politeness. 

 His tolerance hadn’t increased but his drinking had and that was a bad combo. 

:”You need to stop doing this Tae. You can’t just come home black out drunk, every time you have an after party.... You’re going to hurt yourself or god forbid someone else... some day and I’m not going to sit here and wait for you to wreck your entire life over a stupid drink....” 

It was a speech I had made way too many times. The words recycled and reframed, and rearranged to try and give them more  weight , to help him realize how  serious  the issue was. To help him understand that what he was risking, it wasn’t just his reputation. It was his entire career, his  life  if he somehow got behind a wheel someday. 

And Taehyung, who had won a bunch of Daesangs for his acting always convinced me that he understood what I was trying to say. That he understood the magnitude of my words and would heed them the next time. 

So really, what people didn’t understand was that....

That evening, when he stood in front of me and said that he slept with another woman because he got drunk out of his mind, it wasn’t the sleeping with the girl that had bothered me. ( at least not that much. it hurt of course but it wasn’t that strong. it stemmed more from a place of “why didn’t you just ask someone to drive you home, you idiot.”.. rather than, “ how dare you sleep with another woman?”  ) 

It was the got drunk out of my mind thing. 

That was what I ended my marriage over. 

That was it. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The details were hashed out easily and I didn’t particularly protest or change anything. Taehyung suggested an equal division of assets and I quickly disagreed. I wasn’t exactly poor. I worked as the Head of Marketing in a successful conglomerate. I had no use for excessive amounts of money. After some debate we agreed on setting up a trust fund for Hoshi with the money. He could use it after he turned twenty five. 

And then came the next part. 

Compensation for physical / Mental Damage. 

I felt like i was spiraling. 

“None On my side. None.” Taehyung said quickly and I swallowed. 

Ms Lee gave me an encouraging smile. 

“You can be honest Mrs Kim. We’re trying to go for a clean break between the two of you without any resentment carrying over. So its best to be honest. If you feel you need recompense for any emotional distress or abuse Mr. Kim may have put you through, you’re free to tell me. I’ll make sure it goes into record.” 

And this was why I hated the idea of getting divorce. 

That entire dialogue had sounded so...so... terrible. So accusatory and ugly. It wasn’t at all the way I felt about my husband. 

It was just hurt. Plain and simple hurt because he didn’t take me seriously. Because he didn’t think my words were worth listening to. It was hurt laced with fear because he was putting himself in danger with his reckless actions and I wanted him to stop. That’s all it was. 

It was hurt. 

Taehyung had hurt me but it wasn’t emotional distress. It sure as hell hadn’t been abuse.

“None for me either.” I said firmly, honest . 

I glanced at my husband, trying to tell him that I wasn’t just saying it. That it was true. I really didn’t want him to pay me money for what had happened. 

But, Taehyung wouldn’t meet my eyes.  

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Taehyung signed over full custody of Hoshi with a smile. 

“I trust you. “ He said quietly, penning his initials carefully on the document. 

I nodded, feeling a little like drowning.

 We had a very comfortable way of doing things as far as our son was concerned. Taehyung got Hoshi anytime he had time off and also on weekends. 

With a very shifting schedule it was hard for Taehyung to pin down exact dates so we had long decided we would make things easier for each other. He would call me a day or so in advance and i would drop him off at Taehyung’s penthouse or the company. Special days like birthdays were always celebrated in a neutral place with both parties attending. 

Hoshi loved it because it was a pleasant surprise for him, when his dad swooped in out of nowhere and took him off to amusement parks or arcades or swimming. He loved Taehyung . 

So the visitation rights were easy to sketch out. 

It was nothing new but to have it all put down on paper and initialed and notarized....it just felt invasive. Some judge somewhere would read all about how my marriage had crumbled to ashes and would pass judgment on me and that just felt odd. 

 Like airing your dirty laundry. Like letting strangers into your bedroom. 

And the worst part was this :   I felt myself getting upset , anytime Ms. Lee gave the slightest negative connotation to Taehyung’s actions or responsibilities. Anytime she tried to imply that he couldn’t be neglectful as  a father, I wanted to jump right up and defend him. To tell her that he was a better father than the ones who lived 24/7 with their kids and didn’t know a damn thing about them. 

That even as my husband,  he had been so good to me. Had treated me like his best friend, his confidante, his lover. Had never shied away from showing me how much he loved me. Had been the best husband in the whole entire world. 

And I hated myself for it. 

What was wrong with me? 

Why was  I still so fiercely protective of him, I wondered. I hated the idea of him being criticized by anyone for any of it.

 And it made feel like such a hypocrite because if he was so amazing, why on earth were we here??

Why on earth were we getting a divorce if Kim Taehyung was husband and father of the fucking Year?!! 

Was I making a mistake? Had I made a mistake? 

It confused me. These feelings that just refused to go away. I would never act on them because therein lay the path to misery but why were they still there? 

 This desperate clawing urge to make sure he came out of this whole debacle as a good guy. To make sure no one would brand him as a cheater . Because they would. When the divorce went public, they would dig things up and they would know. 

 I didn’t know how I’d gotten to this point where , I could somehow forget everything that was wrong, simply because I wanted to focus on what felt wrong....

Technically I should be happy. 

Taehyung did something unpardonable ( for me, at the time. Now I wasn’t so sure. Now I felt like I could forgive him for it but he hadn’t asked for forgiveness. What he’d asked for was a divorce.  ) and I left him. We were separated . And now finally we were getting a divorce. 

Divorce meant we could finally get out of this no man’s land of uncertainty where we had hung for two whole years and move on, from each other and finally give a label to where we stood. Exes. We were exes. We were done. It was over. 

Hadn’t I just yelled about him about how I liked labels? 

And yet, 

This entire divorce  felt so wrong. So unnecessary.

And in a moment of clarity, as I watched Ms Lee read he whole thing over again for our benefit, I realized why it felt wrong. 

It felt wrong because Taehyung was the one who wanted it. 

Why did Taehyung want it? What had made him want to end it, officially?

Was he seeing someone else? Was he considering seeing someone else? Did he want to start enjoying the single lifestyle again? 

Did he finally take a good long look at our marriage and found nothing worth salvaging anymore? 

My head ached. 

 I couldn’t wait for the whole thing to be over. And yet my heart broke at the thought of it. 

Ms Lee finally gathered up all the documents and gave us a wide smile.

“I wish every client I had was this reasonable. You two are a delight .” she shook her head. “ Should we get a drink to celebrate a day well spent?” 

I opened my mouth to accept when Taehyung said, “  Sure, but it would have to be a juice for me. I don’t drink.” 

I felt my heart take a swoop, nosediving to my knees. 

I stared at him, stunned speechless. 

“Haven’t had a drink in two years Mia. I’m done with that shit.” He said softly.

I swallowed. 

“I didn’t know that.” I felt miserable all of a sudden, the weight of what we had just done pressing down on my heart like a 200 pound stone, 

His gaze held mine.

“There’s a lot you don’t know.” 

We stood staring at each other in silence and Ms. Lee cleared her throat. 

“Uh... I just got a text from my next client. Maybe raincheck on the drinks? “

I nodded , watching her leave. Thank you i wanted to say, but for what?

 For ending my marriage of eight fucking years? 

And how ridiculous that very thought was. ..... She hadn’t ended our marriage,   I had. 

“I have the next two days off.” He said casually. 

“You can pick Hoshi up from my mom’s place. I need to head back to the office.” I muttered, choking a little on tears that had sprung out of nowhere. . 

“Hey.” his fingers closed over my wrists tugging me gently and I let myself get pulled into his arms. I hugged him, feeling my tears soak through the fabric of his shirt. 

“I’m sorry it has to be this way.” I choked out. 

He stroked the back of my head gently.

“Me too. “ He pressed a kiss to my hair and it only made me feel worse.  

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Author’s Note : Tae is 35, OC is 32 

[iamdeku]

Strictly Business: ProHero!Deku x Reader

Pro hero!Izuku meeting his new personal assistant who is nervous and had previous terrible experiences with Proheros who treated her like a tool. (Reader is female) 

This was a really fun request to do! I loved the idea for this and definitely got a little carried away with the word count, haha. Anyway, I hope you enjoy!

Warnings: Mentions of sexual assault. Bad bosses. I did not proofread.

You had been nervous when you had started working for the #1 hero. You had worked hard to get here, but it had been a long road, and it hadn’t always been fun. In fact, up until now it had been terrible. When you walked into Deku’s office, you were seriously thinking about undoing years of work and changing your career path entirely.

Your dream had been to work with heroes. Not be harassed by them.

You first job had also been your first mistake. You should have known better than to work with the Fresh-Picked hero, Grape Juice, but you were new to the industry and no one had warned you off. So you became a personal assistant to your sleaziest boss to date.

Mineta had done his best to ruin your life. He sexually harassed you at ever turn, abused his power, kept you after hours and made you do ridiculous things. When you finally gathered the courage to quit, you never looked back.

When you were looking for your next job, you decided it was better to go with an established hero, one who had been in the game a long time. Endeavor, as the former #1 hero, seemed like a solid, safe choice. You were so wrong.

You worked for Endeavor for years, unwilling to quit the paycheck, but the experience was awful. Endeavor was arrogant, with a terrible temper and a hefty helping of sexism. By the time you were in a financially stable enough place to quit that job, you had lost all faith in the heroes around you.

So now, starting your first day working for Deku, you were prepared for the worst. You were sure you were about to be introduced to some fresh torture, but you were ready for whatever he would level at you. Heroes could sink no lower in your eyes.

So naturally, you were surprised on your first day when he seemed…nice. Sweet even.

You knocked on his office door, a combination of dread and resignation swirling in your stomach. You expected a wait, but he answered it almost immediately.

“Hi! You’re my new personal assistant, right? It’s so nice to meet you. I’m sorry I wasn’t at your interview. I meant to be there but there was a crisis downtown I got called in for. I hope you got the gift basket I sent to your house to apologize. I really am so sorry, it’s terrible policy not to have met you before now.”

You had gotten that gift basket, actually, but you hadn’t thought he was aware of it. You definitely hadn’t thought it was his idea, but from the sounds of his speech it definitely had been. You blinked at him a couple of times, trying to gather your wits after that rapid speech.

“Yes,” you said. “I’m your new personal assistant. It’s very nice to meet you. What can I do for you today sir?”

He seemed confused, as though he hadn’t expected a personal assistant to be ready to work. That couldn’t be right though. He was an experienced pro.

“Didn’t they tell you when you got here? I thought we could start with lunch together, so I can get to know you since I missed your interview. I’m sorry, I should have sent you an email.”

Your heart sank at his words, all of your hopes for his kindness to be genuine crashing with it. So, it was to be the hopelessly flirtatious boss who thought you existed to fulfill his fantasies again. You had seen that before.

“I’m really not sure that would be wise, sir. I like to maintain a strict level of professionalism,” you said, making your refusal as polite as you could.

He blinked, as though it hadn’t even occurred to him that might not be professional.

“Oh. I suppose you have a point. Well, why don’t we eat here while we work then? I can ask you a few of the questions I didn’t get to for your interview while you settle in.”

You sighed internally. There was really no way you could politely turn that down, so you forced your face into a smile.

“That sounds like it could work well.”

You were pleasantly surprised when your lunch actually went well. Deku never made a move on you, other than his request for you to call him Izuku, which seemed to apply to all the employees. It could have just been a ploy to get you to let your guard down, but all the same, you wanted to believe he really was this kind.

You two worked together in his office the whole day, and you became familiar with his schedule. He never did anything to make you uncomfortable, and as the day wore on you decided cautious optimism was the way to go. Maybe this job wouldn’t be so bad after all.

 You smiled fondly at the memory, chopping carrots on the counter. Across the room from you, the man you had come to know well was pacing, mumbling frantically as he analyzed some old battle playing on his TV.

“Izuku, you’re going to throw off my cooking with all that racket, and then we’ll have nothing to eat.” You laughed lightly.

He nearly jumped 10 feet in the air. “Sorry, sorry! I guess I just got a little lost in thought. Although I guess I wasn’t the only one lost. I asked you about my schedule earlier and you didn’t seem to hear me at all.”

You blushed in shame. “Sorry.”

Izuku shrugged. “Don’t worry about it. Happens to me all the time. Obviously. What were you thinking about?”

“I was just remembering my first day working for you and how terrified I was.”

It seemed silly to you now, but back then you never could have predicted you would be best friends with your boss, let alone cooking dinner for him while working unofficial overtime as a passion project. You never thought that working for Izuku would be what you always wanted.

“Why were you terrified? Just because I’m #1? You’d worked with famous heroes before. I’m no one special.”

Oh, how wrong he was.

“You are special. You were the first hero I’d worked with who didn’t make me miserable. Every boss I had before you either sexually harassed me, overworked me or was just plain unpleasant. Usually all of those. I had given up on heroes before I met you,” you confessed casually.

Izuku blanched at you.

“What?” The word was breathless, barely audible.

“Yeah. I thought you knew my work history. I don’t know if you’ve heard, but anyone with any experience working with heroes will tell you Endeavor is not a super cuddly guy.”

“I…had no idea.” You looked up and found, to your surprise, that Izuku’s eyes were swimming with tears. “I never knew you were treated like that. I’m so sorry. You didn’t deserve that.”

“It’s okay. I have you now.” You froze at your misstep.

He would probably never notice it, but you had. It really hadn’t been your intention to fall in love with your boss, but he had been so sweet and kind to you that it had happened naturally. The way his eyes lit up when he smiled, the energy he had for the things he loved, his strength and dedication had all lead you here.

“I’m not going to let anything like that happen to you again. Or anyone. I’ll make sure your past employers get investigated.”

“Thank you,” you said quietly.

There was silence in Izuku’s house as you stared down at the carrot you had been cutting. In an effort to lighten the mood, you tried to make another joke.

“You know, that first day when you invited me to lunch, I thought you were hitting on me.” You laughed a little bit at the absurdity of it. “I know now that you would never do that, obviously.”

You heard the crash when Izuku dropped the mug of tea he had been holding. Before you could move, he was scrambling to pick it up, cheeks bright red and flaming.

“I-Oh, this is terribly awkward.” Izuku mumbled, no doubt thinking you couldn’t hear him.

“Wait. Were you flirting with me?” You asked, breathless.

“No! I mean…not…not then,” he stammered.

“Are you-” You stopped, taking a moment to gather your courage as Izuku stood, effectively giving up on the shards of pottery at his feet. “Are you flirting with me now?”

He stiffened, looking deeply uncomfortable as he met your gaze.

“Yes. I mean, not intentionally! It’s just that I have feelings with you, but I would never act on them. I would never want to make you uncomfortable and if you feel like you need to resign now because of that, I understand. I would be happy to recommend you to any of the other pro-heroes I know, and I can assure you they would make excellent bosses.”

You crossed the room to stand in front of him, taking one of his awkwardly flailing hands in your own.

“I think I am going to have to resign, unfortunately.” You watched his face fall before quickly correcting yourself. “It seems like it would be inappropriate to date my boss. I have feelings for you too, Izuku.”

Rising up on your tiptoes, you dared to kiss his cheek, hot from his blush and scattered with freckles.

“You do?”

The question is quiet, but you hear it clearly with his breath in your ear, faces still close from where you haven’t dared to move. You pull back now, surveying his awestruck face.

“Yes. You’re one of the kindest people I’ve ever met. I guess it was sort of inevitable that I would fall for you.”

You smiled, biting your lip and staring down at your feet. Izuku’s warm, calloused hand reached up to your cheek, pulling your gaze up to his.

“So does this mean you want to be with me?”

The words seemed too good to be true, striking somewhere deep in your chest and knocking you breathless. Yes. Please, yes, let it be true.

“I would like that very much. If you would, I mean.”

Izuku nodded enthusiastically. “Yes! That was never my intention with this, but after getting to know you, I really do like you. I’m not sure exactly when it happened, but I think you’re beautiful and clever and funny and I would love to take you out on a date, if that’s something you would want.”

You smiled, leaning gently into the palm of his hand that cupped your face, bringing your own hand up to twine your fingers together.

“I think that sounds perfect.”

Izuku laughed softly, and you could hear the emotion in the sound.

“You know, I was so lonely before you. I was really just hoping for a friend when I hired you. I thought maybe we would get along okay and I could have someone to keep me company. I was crushed when you said you liked to keep it professional, but I vowed to myself I would honor your wishes.”

“Yeah. We both did a great job of keeping it professional.” You gestured to your surroundings, snickering to yourself.

“I seem to recall you inviting me into your home first,” he teased.

“Hey! I was having a home decorating crisis! I could not build that shelf myself.”

“Or, as it turns out, with my help.”

You snorted at the memory of your backwards shelf, which you had eventually decided to just make do with. As it turned out, Izuku was terrible at building furniture. He was great at making you happy though.

“Well, it all turned out for the best.”

“It sure did. But I think we can both agree that you’re the one who’s not professional here.”

You rolled your eyes, rising up on your tiptoes.

“How’s this for professional?” You breathed.

Izuku seemed like he might ask questions, but before he could, you kissed him gently. When you pulled away, you were both smiling. Your hands had moved to wrap around his neck, and his hand had fallen to your waist.

“I think I’m really starting to like professionalism.”

[joonapeach]

skylines (nj)

college!au, where namjoon openly chases you and you love running from those advances. that is, until everyone in your architecture department finds out you’re the daughter of the man behind the biggest architecture firm in the country. 

alternatively... namjoon is a simp for you until he’s suddenly not 

author’s note: sometimes i just wanna write for the fun of it and not take life so seriously so this is what i churned out. 8.8k words of some minor pining and mini character development for our oc because tbh, being a student sucks and you get so caught up in your insecurity sometimes

also reposted on ao3

[this is fluff and light-hearted, with a bit of a rivalry trope, 8.8k words]

You love skylines.

From when you were six years old with short legs, you remember craning your neck up high to see each building that surrounded you. At that age, the world seemed big and you seemed small but you loved it. You loved seeing the world build and function around you. 

From then on outwards began your decades-long relationship with your first love - buildings. 

Well, you called it buildings and your father called it architecture. You were the daughter of his dreams, his proclaimed legacy. What luck I have, he would say, that I have a daughter who will grow up to work beside me.

Growing up, those comments were your food for the day. You would eat up his encouragements and cheers throughout high school, serving him back your high grades on a gold platter.

This is the way you’ve worked through your past nineteen years. It’s a little basic, maybe, but you’ve operated on your father’s ambition for you. 

But like all good things, even that seemed to come to an end. Since entering university and embarking on your path as an architecture major, the once comforting encouragement has slowly changed to a choking chain around you.

You’ve learnt a lot in two semesters at university. You’ve learnt how to finish assignments the night before, how to memorize historical names and dates minutes before an exam, you’ve learnt how fun it can be to be with your friends.

But most of all, you’ve learnt that… you’re not special. 

You’re surrounded by overachievers, all like you, all perhaps better than you in some way. You’re the daughter of the man behind HN Architects, but some of your classmates look like they’re on their way to the top of the chain.

You always thought you deserved your seat, your privilege, because you’d worked for it. These days, it doesn’t seem much like that. And you worry that your father is thinking the very same thing.

Let’s finish this assignment, you sigh, there’s not much left. Let’s do it, you give yourself a pep talk, fighting back a yawn at the practically empty library before dawn.

Books crash down on your table, right beside you. You shake, being pulled so abruptly out of your reverie. Although maybe you should be thankful, for the sleep that was threatening your productivity seems to have run away from the sound. 

“Excuse me,” you scoff loudly, making your presence known to the disturbance.

From above the tower of books on the desk, peeks out a familiar dimpled smile. His eyes glint with mischief and despite the early hours of the day, his face reads no exhaustion.

“You’re excused.” 

You groan. “There’s an entire empty library, you can only sit here?”

“Studying is more fun with company,” he retorts with a grin.

“It’s studying. It’s not meant to be fun,” you reply, hostile. “Didn’t I tell you to stop showing up in front of me with no purpose?’

He smiles again, confidently with his eyes unmoving from you. It’s almost unnerving, how much you see Namjoon smile in front of you. Architecture students are not meant to be this happy. They aren’t meant to carry a warm smile everywhere they go, looking at people with such attentive intensity.

“I haven’t shown up without a purpose though,” he says. “I came to ask for help with the assignment.” 

This time, you smile. But your smile is one of disbelief and amusement.

“Yes, that’s very believable, Namjoon,” you cock a brow. “You’re the one finishing assignments a week early and screwing up the curve for everyone but I’m sure I could help you with whatever you need.”

He grins, taking a seat next to you. “Hey, sometimes even I need help,” he replies but then pauses. “Ah, you’re right. I should’ve gone with coming to offer you help. That’s a lot more believable.”

“I don’t need your help,” you argue. “Stop showing up in front of me. And stop subtly flexing in front of me. It’s nauseating.”

He throws his head back and laughs. He looks so happy that it almost stirs a scary, fluttering feeling in your stomach. “You should be the last person to feel jealous of me, _____.”

You glare at him. “Yeah, because I’m the one who threatens your ranking?”

He shakes his head. “No, because I would help you with everything if you just asked.”

You still, for a moment. His words lull over in your head and they feel a bit weird. Your major is competitive and cut-throat, even if it doesn’t appear it. To you, Namjoon is your biggest rival, your biggest worry because you can never match up to him.

“Well, I’m not asking you for a thing. Is there really nothing you stress over?”

“No, there is. I just don’t cry over my textbook the nights before exams.”

“That was one time,” you mumble, infuriated. “And I had every right to be crying that night. It was the hardest exam that term and I have big shoes to fill. I can’t afford to be bothering people, like you,” you say with an intentional offense.

He takes none. “Big shoes? Who’s putting expectations on you?”

“Just some family. Stop being nosy,” you say swiftly. “And you didn’t even tell me. What do you stress over?”

He pauses, not giving a response for a moment. You wonder if it’s because there’s really nothing he stresses over. You wouldn’t be surprised if that was the case. While you and your friends have all cracked under the pressure of your degree, you especially with the added burden of your father… Namjoon has not once shown signs of struggle. He walks through life with that smile every day.

“Finding work,” he says after a while.

“Huh?”

He meets your eyes. “You asked me what I worry about. I worry about finding work when I graduate,” he says sincerely.

You bite back a rude laugh. “Please, Namjoon. Get real,” you roll your eyes. “You really think you can worry about that? You were the top of our class all last year.”

You don’t do a good job of hiding your envy, but it’s beyond you to care at this point. You’ve become this person now. The one who seeks everything out of their number on the paper.

“But I don’t have any connections. I come from a village, practically, as you like to call it,” he says with a chuckle. It stings you a little, he’s referring to the time you and your friends had put him down out of jealousy with those words. But he doesn’t say it like it bothers him. He says it like it’s true. 

“So?” you say, looking away from him and back on your sheet. “You don’t always need connections.”

“Not always, but a lot of the time,” he shrugs.

“Any company who takes a look at your record and speaks to you for five minutes would want you, Namjoon,” you exhale, knowing your words are 100% true. You think about your father, about HN Architects. Namjoon’s the kind of guy who your father wouldn’t think twice about hiring. He’s the epitome of someone who could fill any shoes you gave him.

You scoff bitterly. “Wait a second. Why am I comforting you right now? You’re a success story in the making,” you snap and he laughs, even though you didn’t intend it to be a joke. “You should be comforting me, you idiot. I don’t even know if I’ll have Mr. Labadee’s assignment done in time for submission!”

He puts his hands up. “Okay, okay, don’t worry. Why do you think I’m here?” he looks away, still smiling as he takes the pencil from your hand and moves closer to the sheet.

“What?” you say, watching the way his eyebrows furrow and his eyes scan the paper. He’s losing himself in the sheet now, and it feels like watching a prodigy at work. You picture this is what it would feel like to watch Bill Gates code on a computer before he formally started his career or watching The Beatles pen a song before they made it big. 

“Hm?”

“Did you come here for me?” you ask and for a split second, you see his eyes shift. “Did Chae tell you I was here?”

He doesn’t respond, instead focusing on the assignment. “Your calculation is wrong here. Look,” he says, pointing at a section. As he explains your mistake, you smile satisfied. 

He doesn’t need to admit it. You two have gone through this very situation so many times now, that you both know it’s true. Namjoon always comes for you.

/

You have kept your background, your family, extremely private since joining university.

In high school, you made the mistake of letting people know that you were the daughter of HN Architects. It resulted in years of people smooching up to you, gossiping behind your back, mean assumptions, and just a general nightmare.

That nightmare would only multiply if your friends here found out about it. They were all architect majors, all in the same cut-throat degree, and you came from privilege. 

It scared you, knowing what could happen if they ever found out. You begged your family to make sure that nothing would tie you to them here, keeping your name different on the registrar, not publishing photos of you in the paper. You couldn’t risk all the friends and relationships you made. Even if they said things won’t change, you know they would. They always do.

“I need to sleep for 10 years,” you mumble, falling on your bed. 

“Fuck this, I wish I was you right now,” Chae cries from her side of the room. “I’ve got one more submission.”

“I woke up at 4 to finish it so you should be fine,” you laugh, looking at her. “And did you send Namjoon to me?”

Chae fights a smile on her face. You sigh, knowing you’ve opened Pandora's box.

“He came to me asking about you last night. I told him you were sleeping, but you’d be at the library at 5 working on the assignment,” she smirks cheekily. “Why, did he come?” she asks, not hiding the overly inquisitive edge to her question.

You say nothing, deciding to turn on your laptop.

“He did!” she screams and your eyes widen, telling her to be quiet. “Sorry! I just can’t help it. That’s so sweet,” she squeals.

“Stop sending him after me. You’re encouraging him.”

“You’re encouraging him!” she counters. “You let him help you with your assignment, didn’t you?”

“Yes, but-”

“And you showed up at his dorm last week for notes, didn’t you?”

“Okay, but-”

“And you told him off for helping Eun like four days ago, remember?”

“Chae,” you stop her, sternly. “Have you lost your mind? Don’t you realize what all those things have in common?”

“They all are evidence of the fact that you reciprocate his year-long courtship?”

You roll your eyes. “No, idiot. All these things are work-related. I can’t afford to be falling behind, and I need his help.”

“Okay, but you were jealous of Eun-”

“I was annoyed that he was helping other people score higher! The last thing I need right now is the lazy kids of the class becoming my competition too,” you complain, grumbling.

Chae stares you down. “_____, not everything is about your degree,” she says light-heartedly, but you know your statement bothers her. 

Exhaling, you shut your eyes. You hate it when conversations come to this. Sometimes, you wish you could just tell people which family you came from. Maybe it would do them good, to make them realize that yes, for you, everything is about your degree. Everything in your life revolves around being successful in this path. 

You were cynical but at least you were real. You admitted things the way they were, when competition was competition, you said it, and when you needed something, you asked for it. That made it okay, you told yourself.

And when it comes to Namjoon… it’s especially okay. He’s both the only reason you’re hanging on okay in your degree, and the reason you feel insecure. You wonder how it can be that someone like him exists.

“Anyways, are you really gonna leave talking about Joon there?” Chae scoffs. “He’s liked you since we started. You really won’t do anything about it?”

“Namjoon is nothing but another classmate that stresses me out, Chae. I don’t see him that way. I just like his work ethic.”

Chae laughs. “You’re so skewed, honestly. Are you busy tomorrow?”

“Why, are you planning on ratting me out to him again?”

“No, silly,” she laughs, although you both know it’s likely she’d do it again. “Let’s go to the Autumn fair tomorrow. After I submit.”

“The fair? You mean those three stalls they set up and call it an event?”

She frowns. “Don’t be mean. Hobi and the others have really been working hard on it this year. It’ll be nicer than the last, I promise.”

“As long as there are at least 10 booths this year.”

“You’re too mean for your own good, _____,” she says, tsk-ing. “One day, you’ll see what it’s like to be on the other end.”

/

Your overactive imagination always paints a skyline for you, where there’s an empty space. You can always picture different styles of buildings, standing together, making a city. 

It’s at times like those you realize that even if you wanted to give up, even if you tried to pursue something else, your heart will always come back to this. There is nothing more that belonged to you than this.

Even if it’d become difficult now, it didn’t matter. It became a source of worry more than an outlet of passion, but it’s still your calling. You can’t give up on something you love this much.

“Your toffee apple is dripping,” you hear his voice before you see him.

You want to turn and snap at him but the sticky toffee syrup that falls onto your fingers stops you.

“Ugh,” you groan, trying to fix it. Namjoon’s hand comes out with a tissue, quickly wiping your fingers without a word. Even after he’s done, the sticky feeling remains. “I should just throw this away.”

He laughs. “Let’s get candy corn.”

“No, thanks, I have to go find Chae and Yuna.”

Even though you step away, you hear his footsteps almost immediately behind you. 

“What’s the rush?” he says, catching up beside you. When you two walk together like this, his tall figure towers over in a way that makes you feel small. “Shouldn’t you offer to buy me candy corn? Did you forget how I helped you at 5 in the morning two days ago for Professor Labadee’s class?”

“You chose to wake up at that time, not me,” you say, keeping your eyes trained ahead. You weren’t expecting much from this fair, but the students had done well. Bright fairy lights decorate the lamp posts around you and along the long path, dozens of stalls are set up. It all feels a little bit like a movie.

“As long as you got it done,” he says under his breath. You dare to take a glimpse of him and inhale sharply. He’s wearing his smile, he always is, but the fairy lights reflect on his face, illuminating him like an angel. Everything about him feels good.

You look away almost immediately. “Stop following me Namjoon,” you say, stopping at a trinkets stall and smiling at the girl behind the table.

“But I like seeing you outside of architecture things,” he grins confidently.

You opt to ignore him, asking the price of something that catches your eye.

He cranes his neck to see what it is. “Want me to get it for you?”

You quickly counter. “Absolutely not,” you say, handing over your money notes. 

“You’re really buying an ornament of buildings?” he cocks a brow. “Don’t you want something like this instead?” he picks up a small snow globe, shaking it so the snow moves. The globe is miniscule to begin with, but you notice how in his hands, it looks almost tiny.

“What can I say? I like buildings.”

He smiles. “More than people, maybe.”

You sigh, ignoring his statement. Once you get the paper bag with your purchase inside, you keep walking ahead. You count to three before you hear his footsteps mimic yours.

“I’ll buy you candy corn, then you leave me alone,” you turn to say to him. “It’s not good that you’re always showing up where I am.”

He nods like an obedient puppy. Then he frowns and asks, “why is it not good?”

When you don’t respond, focusing on walking to the candy booth, he adds, “is it not good for you? Getting attached to me now?”

You don’t have to see his face to know he’s doing his goofy smile again. “It’s not good for you to keep going through these many rejections in a lifetime.”

He laughs, your words not bothering him the slightest. Standing in front of the candy booth, Jungkook and Jae, two of your architect classmates greet you.

“Hey Joon! Aw, you two hanging out again?” Jae smiles widely as if he’s in some big secret. You roll your eyes, not saying a word but pointing to the candy corn.

“_____ is treating me to candy corn. Isn’t she sweet?”

“I’m not treating you out of kindness, I’m doing it so you feel compensated for your efforts with my assignment.” 

Jungkook and Jae share an amused look that you almost miss. Shuffling through your pocket, you start counting the money to give. As you hand over the money to Jae, Jungkook places a brown paper bag in Namjoon’s hands.

“You two enjoy yourselves,” Jungkook beams brightly.

You scoff. “Is there really such a thing as enjoyment when I have him on my tail?” 

Without bidding them a proper goodbye, you walk away from the stall, leaving the three standing. Like clockwork, Namjoon is beside you again.

“Here,” he says, and suddenly the bag of candy corn is in your hands.

You raise a brow. “What are you giving this to me for? You were the one who wanted it.”

“You were eating a sad, overpriced toffee apple. This should be for you too.”

“Namjoon.” You give him a look, but he pays no mind. 

Without saying anything more, you two walk together in silence. It didn’t intend to be this way, but it feels nice now. You feel good that you were dragged out of a cycle of the bedroom to the classroom to the library for once.

Of course, it’s weird that amidst all this, Namjoon is the one beside you. Usually, when you see him, your mind wanders to the place that curses him for being everything you wish you were. But tonight, you’re laying off those thoughts.

Staring at the crowd around the speakers, you two pause for a bit. You see Chae and Yuna, along with your other coursemates all together.

Still beside you, Namjoon speaks out of the blue. “Why don’t you call me Joon?”

“What do you mean? I didn’t realize I was required to,” you shrug at the random question. “I don’t know you like that.”

“Everyone in our class calls me Joon. Even your group member who I met that one time is calling me Joon,” he argues. “You know me better than all those people. If anything, you should be the only one.”

“What are you on about? I don’t know you at all,” you throw a blank look his way. “And don’t argue that we spend a lot of time together. You follow me around and show up where I am. That’s not spending time together.”

“We’re spending time together right now, aren’t we?” 

“It’s a first. Don’t get used to it.”

He laughs as if your cold remarks are something affectionate. “I don’t think I really could get used to seeing you outside the library, _____. You’re there more than me and I’m always studying too.”  

You scoff cynically. “Are you flexing your rank again on me?”

“_____, if I cared so much about my rank, I wouldn’t be helping you with work all the time,” he laughs, amused.

“I don’t know. Maybe helping me is all part of your plan to keep beating me,” you say. “Isn’t this just a power move? You always showing up to help me.”

He laughs again before his stare stills on you. His eyes are bright and sparkling… or is it just the effect of the stupid fairy lights? You can hardly tell.

Despite yourself, it all makes your stomach drop. You hate it when Namjoon shows up unannounced in your life, but more than that, you hate it when he gives you this kind of look. Like he can’t look anywhere else but at you.

“More than a power move, it’s just a gesture for you.”

The fluttering feeling worsens and you blink. You choose to say nothing, instead staring ahead at the view. “That is the ugliest building I’ve ever seen.”

For a second, he smiles but it doesn’t reach his eyes. Eventually, he humors you. “It’s not all that bad.”

“In my professional opinion as a future architect, that is the exact type of building I would want to bulldoze.”

“Well, in my professional opinion as another future architect, I’d say your standards are far too high.”

“I’m allowed to keep my standards high. It’s me,” you smile with a glint in your eye.

He laughs, staring at you softly. “That I can agree with.”

You taunt him playfully. “You’re so predictable. Does it not get tiring hanging off my every word?”

He shakes his head loyally. “Absolutely not. I think everything you say is valuable and worth hanging off.”

“How lame,” you joke although you two share a smile. It’s true, he is a little predictable. But it’s Namjoon’s predictability that at times, catches you off guard. It’s fun, knowing that he’s two steps behind you wherever you are.

A warm feeling stirs in your body and you wonder if it’s the autumn air. Glancing up at Namjoon, the same air ruffles his hair endearingly and you tear yourself away from staring at it.

“I’m only gonna say it once so if there’s any word of mine you wanna hang off, it’s this,” you say before shoving the bag of candy corn back into his hands. “Power move or not, thanks for helping me. I really need it sometimes and I appreciate it.”

The grin on his face widens. “One more time, I didn’t hang off it enough!”

“I told you, only one time.”

“But the music was so loud, I couldn’t hear you well.”

“Too bad.”

“Come on, _____, take pity on me.”

“Shut up and eat your candy corn.”

/

You find yourself quickly back in your routine after the Autumn fair, working on new assignments and projects till your worst nightmare comes to life unexpectedly.

“Please be on time, _____!” Chae repeats to you for the fifth time that morning.

“Chae, I’ll be there. I’ll literally run from the design building to the auditorium, okay?”

She clicks her tongue at you. “Stop acting like you’re doing me a favor by showing up. You should be excited.”

“I am. But… I mean, do we really need this kind of random assembly for our architecture department?” you groan, slipping your laptop into its case. “Can’t they just give us the extra time to work on our homework?”

“But there’ll be companies there!” she retorts, wide-eyed and excited. “Just imagine. This is like those movies, where they come and scout students and then bam, life is sorted.”

You nod, forcing a smile. You remember your privilege, knowing your worry has never once been finding work but living up to the work that was set out for you. But you could never explain that here. How could you cry about the burden that kept you so troubled when it was a burden any one of your friends would happily want?

“Okay. I’ll see you there,” you settle for a wave, walking out to leave. You rush with your bag on your back to your classroom, immersed in your lesson till the hour finishes up.

For the moments after class finishes, your mind is blank. You’re going over your homework in your head, packing your things and your eyes widen. The meeting. You almost forgot.

True to your words, you actually do end up running from the design building to the auditorium. Sprinting from your class to the auditorium proves to be a harder workout than you anticipated and your heart can’t stop racing.

Stepping inside the auditorium, you jump into the first empty seat you see at the entrance.

“Where is she?” you mumble under your breath. Your eyes shift around the room, looking for a familiar head of short black hair. Catching sight of Chae, you wave to her but she doesn’t notice you at all. Instead, she’s busy talking to a group of students all from your year.

Everyone’s sat together, cozy and comfortable in a conversation together. You can even see Namjoon in the row above Chae, chatting energetically. Your heart strangely pangs.

Sometimes, seeing everyone like this, everyone from your major and year together, made you feel more like an outsider than anything. At first, you’d chalked it up to be because of your obsession with studying and academics… but students better than you, students like Namjoon and Mina, all seemed to be doing fine. 

In the end, you realized it isn’t anything to do with that. You feel like an outsider because you are one. You’ve tried your hardest to blend in, but the fact remains that you feel alone in the problems you have. You’ve kept your identity as the daughter of HN Architects a secret, you’ve kept your family pressures a secret… Now you’re alone in the burden of your struggles.

Sometimes, you’ve thought about opening up. But the thought terrifies you even more.

If you felt so alone while keeping the truth of your ambitions a secret… there’d be no telling what kind of way your friends would treat you after finding out.

“We’re lucky enough to have… here’s a representative from Canvas Corp… looking for fresh talent… Yongchan Architecture…” you’re hardly paying attention to the speakers on stage till you finally hear, “and most fortunately, the chairman of HN Architects!”

Your head shoots up so fast that it almost flies off. No fucking way.

Your father is smiling on the stage, wearing a crisp suit and greeting the architecture department heads. Without realizing it, your body cowers back into your seat as you see his eyes scan the auditorium. He must be looking for you - his daughter.

His daughter that not a single soul in this room knew was you.

Your heart goes into panic mode before you try to calm yourself down. Relax, you mutter repeatedly to yourself although it’s less effective than you thought it’d be.

Your eyes dance between your father on stage and your group of friends with Chae sitting seats away from you. Neither of them have noticed you.

Instead, your classmates are all watching your father with starstruck eyes. They’re staring at your father like he’s their idol.

Well, objectively, maybe he could be. After all, you admire your father for the very same reason every architecture student does - your father is a legend. His company has one of the best reputations in the country, which feeds your pride, and he’s nothing short of a hard-working, inspiring man.

Namjoon, in particular, is staring at your father like he can’t believe his eyes. It’s a look you’ve never seen from him before. Like he’s both nervous and thinks he’s in a dream. It’s almost endearing.

“To celebrate having the chairman of HN Architects with us today, we’ll have him say a few words!” Mr. Lim, the head of the architecture department, announces enthusiastically into the mic. He turns to your father, “do you mind?”

“Not at all!” your father grins, taking the mic before starting. “It’s my pleasure to be here today! In fact, seeing all of you reminds me of my own days as an architecture student…”

He trails off into a long speech, excitedly. You’ve been witness to every single one of your father’s inspirational speeches since the day you were born so you fight back a yawn. On the contrary, your classmates look like they’re hanging onto every single word.

As your father paces across the stage, he inches towards your side. You blink in panic, bending down but before you know it, it’s too late. His eyes sparkle with joy.

You almost worry he’s gonna wave at you mid-speech. But he doesn’t, simply shooting an overly friendly smile your way. You sneak a glance at your classmates and they’re all giving you a strange look - one that most definitely reads what the heck is he smiling at you for?

Meeting Chae’s eyes in particular, you give an awkward smile and shrug. Soon enough, your father turns to the side and you finally think you can breathe.

“That’s why I’d like to encourage you all to live up to your potential! The world is changing around you as you know it and as future architects, you can be a part of that,” your father enthusiastically continues. His eyes are on you again. “And this is what I tell my beautiful daughter everyday! She loves skylines, my dear _____, and she’s going to be a wonderful architect too!”

My life is officially over.

A little dramatic but that exact thought crosses your mind as you duck into your seat. You think you hear the collective gasp around the auditorium or maybe your ears are playing tricks on you.

No, it’s probably as bad you think it is. Your father’s called you out by name and exposed your identity that you worked so hard to conceal. Your life is quite literally over.

Oblivious to your misery, your father grins happily on stage. He returns the mic to Mr. Lim before stepping to the side. The rest of the assembly goes by without you realizing. You’re still numb to the fact of what just happened.

You risk a glance at your classmates, and in cliche movie fashion, they’re all staring at you with mouths gaping wide open. Every single one of them.

Your neck heats up and you quickly turn around. But curiosity gets the best of you a few minutes later, and you risk looking again.

They’re still staring at you in shock. Like they can’t believe their eyes.

Chae especially is looking at you with hurt flashing across her face. It squeezes at your heart and you feel overcome with guilt for lying to your friend for a year. You don’t dare to imagine what she’s thinking now.

Without realizing, your eyes travel over to Namjoon. Much to your surprise, he’s not looking at you. He’s the only one with his eyes looking ahead blankly, deep in thought.

You frown, evading everyone’s stares to focus on him. An unrecognizable emotion is written all over his face… is it realization? Regret? Embarrassment?

You can hardly tell. But for the first time, an uncomfortable feeling plunges in your stomach at the fact that Namjoon’s not looking at you.

/

“Dad!” you cry. “How could you do that?”

Your father smiles happily at the sight of you, the two of you standing outside the auditorium in a secluded, private spot. The torture, that was the assembly, has finally come to an end.

“What do you mean?” he answers in confusion. “Do you mean showing up here? Because I was invited by that Mr. Lim fellow, he-”

“Not that!” you whine, groaning into your palms. “I’m talking about saying I’m your daughter in front of the whole architecture department!”

His eyebrows shoot up. “Oh, that? What did I do wrong?”

Your jaw drops. “Dad, are you being serious?”

He nods, clear puzzlement on his face.

“Don’t you remember? I specifically asked for you and Mom to make sure that it never gets out!” you say. “Now, you’ve told everyone I go to college with that I’m the daughter of the man behind HN Architects!”

He blinks for a few seconds. “Is that so wrong?” he almost pouts like a child. “I didn’t know it was such a problem.”

“Of course, it is! Why do you think I asked you not to tell anyone?”

“...I thought you were being modest.”

“Modest?!” you exclaim, before sighing. There’s no use berating your father. It’s no one’s fault but your own for not preparing better for this situation.

“Did you really not want anyone to find out?”

You nod weakly.

“Why not?”

“I… I can’t explain it. They’ll freak out,” you look down. You can’t imagine how much worse your stress is gonna get from now on - it isn’t enough that your own title of the daughter of HN Architects is choking you to death… now you’ll have to deal with every single one of your classmates doing the same thing.

Things will never be the same again. For every grade you get, it’ll be discussed as the grade of the HN Architects’ daughter. For every drawing or idea you’ll submit, it’ll be scrutinized as the work of a girl from privilege. The pressure would multiply infinitely. 

“Oh dear, don’t be silly,” your father suddenly says, resting his hand on your head. “I’m sorry for that. I didn’t realize it was so serious to you. But even if they know, it’s not an issue. You’re an excellent student and it’s only right they pay you the respect as the future CEO of HN Architects.”

You shoot your father a smile but your stomach drops. “I guess so, thanks,” you mumble, unable to explain to him that it’s exactly what he said that terrifies you. 

For the rest of the day, you hide out off-campus in hopes to avoid facing reality.

/

“_____, I think you need to pay for the emotional shock you gave us,” Hobi laughs at the lunch table as soon as you arrive.

Hesitantly, you sit beside Chae who doesn’t share a word with you. Since yesterday, you haven’t even made eye contact with her, despite being her roommate. 

“I think I almost spat out my water when I heard my daughter,” Mina jokes and the table echoes in laughter. You smile awkwardly.

“Yeah… it’s not really a big deal,” you shrug.

“Not a big deal?! Hello! We’re talking to the next HN Architects CEO right now!” another student pipes up.

“_____, forgive me for all I did wrong last semester,” Yuri playfully adds.

“I think we need to be cleaning the floor for her to walk on!”

These statements all fly around the table, exchanged with laughs and smiles. Part of you cowers in the attention, uncomfortable by such blatant recognition of your upbringing.

Another part of you wonders… will things be okay?

You take a careful look around the table of your classmates. Not a single one seems to wear a glare, all sharing in jokes and smiles. For the strangest reason… you feel at ease.

Chae suddenly stands up, with her tray. “I’m done eating. I’ll see you guys later.”

Instantly, you mimic her and chase behind her retreating figure. “Wait Chae-”

“I have class right now-”

Like a child, you jump in front of her to block her path. “Okay, please just hear me out,” you say, pouting. “I’m sorry.”

She sighs. “What are you sorry for? It’s not a big deal.”

“You must feel… annoyed, right?”

Chae blinks at you. “I’ll admit, I was irritated at first. You come from such privilege and I’ve unloaded so much crap on you sometimes about being scared about post-college life while you never had that… but, I’m not really mad about that. You can’t help who you are, right?”

You nod. “You’re still mad at me though, aren’t you? For hiding it?”

She takes a second before replying, “I just… you’re so unreachable sometimes, _____. After I found out, I kind of realized why you’re so stressed all the time and what you meant whenever you alluded to things about your pressures and all… I’m just annoyed you never shared that part of you.”

“I’m sorry.”

For the first time since yesterday, Chae cracks a smile. “Don’t be sorry. I just want you to be more open with me. You don’t need to feel like you need to hide your background… I would’ve tried to understand either way.”

Her words soothe you more than you can explain. Since entering your major, you haven’t once relied on the people around you for support that wasn’t academic. Now, you’re realizing your fatal flaw.

“I’ll try to be better,” you say with a nod. “Thank you for not being mad at me.”

She laughs. “Anyway, you don’t need to worry about me,” she says with a glance elsewhere. “You should check up on him. He’s been spooked since yesterday.”

You turn on your heel to see Namjoon, walking around with the same strange expression on his face from the assembly. For a brief second, your eyes meet but the second flashes, and he quickly looks away.

“Did you see that?!” you scoff. “He just ignored me!”

Chae smiles. “Wow, there really is a first for everything.”

“What’s with him?” you say, watching his awkward walk in your opposite direction. He keeps glancing in your direction, but once he sees you staring at him, he swiftly looks away. It’s a completely new side to him. 

“I don’t know,” Chae shrugs. “He’s being weird. I thought he’d be running after you like always, but he’s resorted to this.”

You scoff again, unfamiliar with this Namjoon who runs away from you, rather than to you. You wonder what’s running through his mind, before pushing the thought away. He’s bound to come after you again after a few days.

/

The confidence with which you assumed Namjoon would be all over you again is faltering.

It’s been a full week since the assembly, and while life has seemingly gone back to normal for you (as normal as things can be)... Namjoon certainly has not.

In classes, he picks the furthest seat away on purpose. You even started to tease him by trying to sit in his front row with him, but instead, you found him in the back row - where he can’t even see. 

His lunches seem to be perfectly timed to not clash with yours. All of a sudden, he’s no longer in the library either. All the places you’d easily find Namjoon hovering over you, he’s disappeared from.

“Does he think this is effective?!” you rant to Chae in your dorm room. “That by suddenly ignoring me, I’ll become obsessed with him?!”

Chae smiles at you knowingly. “I don’t know… if that was his plan to begin with, I’d say it’s pretty effective-”

“Shut up, Chae! I’m just saying this is all so stupid!” you scoff. “Once or twice is fine but he’s actively avoiding me! He saw me in the library yesterday and acted like he forgot a book to leave! We were in the library for god’s sake! What book did he forget that he couldn’t find there?!”

Chae giggles like the situation is laugh-worthy. “Maybe he’s just busy.”

“He made time during final exams last year to bother me. How much busier could he be than he was then?”

“Or maybe he doesn’t want to distract you.”

“It’s not that for sure. Whenever I’d tell him that he’s distracting me before, he wouldn’t care,” you mumble under your breath annoyedly. Chae continues to grin at your behavior, as if your reaction were amusing.

You don’t say it to her but you know very well why you’re annoyed beyond relief. It’s because you know it’s to do with finding out about HN Architects.

You groan. You expected your classmates to be weird around you, maybe even your professors… but Namjoon was the last person you thought would suddenly make a 180 after learning about your family.

That’s why it’s aggravating. Because it’s the one thing you didn’t think he’d care about.

A part of you fears he’s realized just how pathetic you are. After all, Namjoon probably knows how much more promising he is compared to you and now… he had to sit with the fact that you were the daughter of HN Architects.

“Why don’t you just approach him yourself?”

You’re momentarily stunned by Chae’s suggestion. You shoot her a dirty glare.

“What?!”

“I’m not gonna chase after Namjoon! He should approach me himself!”

Chae looks at you like you’re crazy. “You’re the one who wants him to talk to you!”

“Exactly! He should come to me like he always does.”

A laugh escapes Chae’s lips. “Oh, _____… you don’t even realize it, do you?”

You cock a brow before shaking your head. “I don’t have time for your indirect dialogue. I’m just saying that if Namjoon doesn’t come to me and talk this out soon, I’m gonna have to do something very crazy.”

Chae’s eyes flicker with amusement. “Oh? And what’s that?”

You grimace, as if even saying it brings you humiliation. “I’m gonna go talk to him first.”

Chae bursts out laughing, despite your solemn expression. You brush her off, spending the rest of the night on your design homework but secretly planning on wringing Namjoon’s throat if he doesn’t go back to normal soon.

/

By now, you’re sure Namjoon can feel the daggers you’re shooting into his back.

He’s even risked turning back a few times, to see who’s glaring at him. But as soon as your eyes meet, his head spins around as if it were all in your head. He focuses on the professor teaching ahead of him, taking notes diligently.

Beside you, Chae says with a nudge, “so are you gonna do that very crazy thing you were planning?”

You ignore her for the sake of gritting your teeth. Usually, you have no trouble focusing in classes. It’s all because of this wretched situation that you’re so off-game.

As soon as the professor wraps up his powerpoint, you’re faster than anyone else in the class at packing up your things and zooming out the door. You don’t even bid Chae goodbye.

You tap your foot impatiently, staring directly at your target. 

Namjoon… try and ignore me now.

Hooking his bag over his shoulder, Namjoon comes to the door of the classroom before stopping his tracks. Aha, you smile pleased.

“Ah, I just forgot… to talk about my assignment with Mr. Choi,” he mutters out loud to no one in particular. The acting is so terrible that you don’t even have to think about it to know he’s intending it for you to hear.

You march up to him. “No, you don’t,” you scoff and when he looks up at the ceiling, you jump like an infant calling for attention. “Namjoon, if you value your life, you’re gonna drop this act right now,” you say in a menacing voice. 

Immediately, he gulps and looks down at you. His height towers over yours but you smile, knowing you’ve gained the upper hand here. He’s looking at you just as he did before - completely enamoured.

You say nothing but give a deadly gesture to follow you. He obeys without complaint.

When you two are finally in a spot you deem private enough, you raise your chin and look at him happily. Under your gaze, he looks down uncomfortably.

“So you want me to say it or will you explain what the hell is going on?”

He blinks. “I’m not sure what you’re talking about, _____.”

Your blood boils. Now, he wants to feign ignorance. “You’re joking,” you deadpan.

He looks at you innocently and shakes his head. You sigh, blinking in confusion.

This whole situation is a first. True to your words, you’ve never actually… had to do anything more than bat an eye to know Namjoon would come to you. You don’t know the words to even ask what’s wrong.

“_____,” he says in a low voice. You glance up at him, completely losing your train of thought. The sight of him has never registered you disorientated before. But now, you can’t help but trace your eyes over his dimples and sparkling eyes.

You scoff at yourself. You must’ve lost your mind temporarily. “You know what I’m talking about!”

He shakes his head so you continue, “you used to always come to the library at my timings and sit on my lunch table.”

“Oh,” he nods. “That’s because I wanted to sleep in more so I changed my schedule around a bit.”

You blink at his explanation. “You sat at the back of the class when I came to the front row-”

“I just wanted to see what it’s like to sit there. Turns out, it sucks,” he pauses when you don’t reply. “_____?”

You frown, part confused and part innocently. “I just mean… why aren’t you following me anymore?”

The words are out of your mouth before you can help it and your eyes widen in humiliation. That isn’t the way you wanted to ask the question.

Namjoon, instead, is amused. He smirks ever so slightly, before cocking his brow and asking, “Are you asking me why I don’t chase you around anymore?”

His newfound confidence almost makes you lose your footing. This is Namjoon - the nerdy guy who’d come to you. He can’t have this effect on you.

You scoff, faking an assured smile. “Are you denying that you chased me around?”

He blinks. “I mean-”

“Surely, you accept the fact that you did chase me around for a whole year,” you say with a smile playing on your lips. Of course, between the two of you, you both know very well of Namjoon’s infatuation with you. He’s danced around those feelings for both of your comedy’s sake… but this time, you won’t let that slide.

He looks at you, tongue poking in his cheek. “Fine. I do chase you around.”

You almost smile with victory but you stop yourself. Before you can speak, he continues.

“But I won’t anymore. I’m sorry. It was wrong of me,” he says sincerely, seemingly ready on his toes to walk away. Your fingers wrap around his wrist without realizing.

“Wait!” you frown displeased. He’s glancing down at where your touch meets his hand and you instantly let go. “This makes no sense.”

He blinks, confused. “What do you… isn’t this what you’ve wanted?”

“You can’t just change your mind like that!” you argue, a strange desperation cutting into your voice. “You can’t make people get used to you and do that!”

Much to your surprise, he wears a small smile. “I didn’t think it’d bother you so much.”

“I can’t stand you,” you groan. “You chase me around, then you find out one tiny fact about my family and now, you think you’re so much better than me to come after me!” you yell, your heart hammering against your chest. You sound like a child, you know as much but… suddenly around him, all logic’s been thrown out your brain.

“_____,” he says in a breath, a glint in his eye that reads surprise and amusement. His dimples are poking out and you wonder what it’d be like to affectionately poke into one. “Do you… did you like when I would come to you?”

There’s no self-preserving answer to this, one that can save both your dignity and pride. You know what you should say to his question, but nerves are prickling under your skin.

It isn’t the nerves you feel before submitting a drawing or entering an exam, but a whole new uncharted territory of nerves. Everything about this conversation is uncharted territory.

“_____, do you…” he starts a question, before nervously brushing the nape of his neck. He looks shy to even ask but after a moment, he looks at you like a child with candy and says, “do you like me?”

Your heart’s in your stomach. Immediately, you laugh, “no! No! Why would I?! Are you crazy?! Why would I ever like-”

“I don’t know,” he blinks innocently, but the stare he holds on you seems suddenly intimate. “That’s what I’m thinking. Why would you ever care about why I stopped chasing after you, if you don’t like me?”

His cocky grin annoys you. You shoot him a deathly look. “Don’t get too confident with me, Joon,” you say although you’re fumbling with words. “I still remember when you couldn’t even look me in the eye.”

He takes a step closer, holding your stare with no qualms. Your heart speeds up again, like you’ve been running.

“_____,” he says softly with a victorious smile. “You like me, don’t you?”

“I’m not answering your stupid question. First, you explain to me why the hell you think you can treat me the way you have the last week-”

“Because I thought you didn’t like me back,” he answers smoothly. “You’re the daughter of HN Architects and I’ve been wasting your time all year long. I’ve always felt intimidated by you… but now, I realized I really wasn’t worth your time.”

You blink with a frown. “Namjoon-”

“I feel really embarrassed, _____… If I ever wanted to work at HN Architects, I wouldn’t even be able to show my face knowing the way I’ve bothered you-”

“You’ve never bothered me.”

“Huh?”

Your cheeks flush and you suddenly become very aware of the words that escaped your lips. You cast a hesitant glance at Namjoon and you can’t help it. Suddenly, everything feels a lot clearer.

“You know, you’re the kind of architect my father dreams about,” you find yourself saying. “You’re the kind of student someone like me should be. It all comes natural to you. I love buildings but everything I do, it’s just part of who you are… that’s why I acted like you bothered me.”

He’s at a loss for words before muttering, “_____…”

“All I ever think about is trying to fit the ideal I know I have to be and it all comes easy for you. You feel embarrassed in front of me…” you laugh with a scoff. “How do you think I feel, needing your help?”

“I never wanted to compete with you,” he says. “I just wanted to be by your side. I really wasn’t helping you for anything apart from looking for an excuse to be near you.”

There it is… the fluttering feeling.

The truth is, you’ve known all this time too. You’ve known that there was never any ulterior motive, just your cynical mind trying to conjure excuses.

You almost hate yourself at this moment. Your insecurity over your work has warped your thoughts so much that you convinced yourself that… that you feel nothing but annoyance for Namjoon.

“_____,” he starts. His hand hesitantly reaches up, stopping multiple times on its way before finally brushing your hair away from your forehead.

“I think it goes without saying but in my eyes, you’re the smartest person in our major and every time I’m with you, I don’t even care if you reject me or look for an excuse to go away,” he says. “You don’t even realize the way I see you.”

Your eyes sting and you’re not sure if it’s because his words move you or you’ve just forgotten to blink for a long while. “You’re so corny.”

He laughs. “Well, someone needs to tell you you’re doing a good job because I can tell you’re not telling yourself,” he says before sheepishly adding, “and I thought we were exchanging what we like about each other.”

“Who said I like you?”

He grins, ruffling your hair despite the scowl you give him. You say nothing but then give a smile. You didn’t expect today to feel so good… but somehow, that insecurity that plagues your mind at all hours of the day disappears for a while. 

All you can think about is wanting this feeling to last with him. Without warning, you reach to grab Namjoon’s wrist to walk out into the open garden of the campus. In front of your sight, there’s a skyline of buildings decorating the city.

“Do you still stand by your statement that that building is the ugliest?”

You grin. “It’s literally hideous, Joon. I can’t believe you’re the top of our class but think those colors look nice together.”

He gives a warm laugh, unable to disguise his happiness at the way you call him endearingly. Your eyes go back and forth between the skyline and Namjoon beside you before deciding that while buildings are your first true love… there’s something even more beautiful about the boy next to you.

hehe so excited to write on this blog if u read till the end jus know u have all my love

[padawanlost]

I still, up until this day, have no idea why the council held such a personal dislike towards anakin. Aside from the “he’s too young” or “he feels too deeply.” Didn’t anakin try to follow the rules? Unpopular opinion, but the fandom tends to drag how Anakin was the embodiment of rebellious and recklessness at every turn but... he’s really not?

The Council’s behavior around Anakin had NOTHING to do with who he was as a person. Just like Obi-wan’s ‘pathetic life-form’ dismiss, the Council’s rejection of Anakin happened before they even knew what he was. People use Yoda’s ‘fear is the path to dark side’ speech to validate de Council’s decision but the truth is that they had already dismissed Anakin before that. and even if they hadn’t, it baffles me how some people have no trouble with how a 9 years old child was treated. Anyone who looks at 9 years old and gives up on them because ‘they don’t like a good person’ or that they are ‘beyond helping’ is an asshole. The audience may know, but at that point not a single character knew what would become of Anakin. 

Like Anakin, I was well past infancy when I began my training at the Jedi Temple. There was much concern about whether I was too old to learn the ways of the Force, that my Cerean childhood might cloud my judgments, but … I am not certain of how to express myself. My mind tells me I should feel empathy for Anakin, but my instinct tells me something else. [Ki-Adi-Mundi in Ryder’s Windham’s Jedi vs. Sith: The Essential Guide to the Force]

What disturbs me most of all is Anakin Skywalker himself. It is not in my nature to make assumptions about anyone based on appearance, and yet I find it almost alarming that the boy looks so entirely unremarkable. If I didn’t know better, I would have dismissed him as a harmless raga-muffin. [Ki-Adi-Mundi in Ryder’s Windham’s Jedi vs. Sith: The Essential Guide to the Force]

This is cruel. A raga-muffin is defined as ‘a poorly clothed often dirty child’. They recognize Anakin’s extreme situation, they know he was a former slavery who had just been separated from his mother but their reaction is: ‘I don’t trust him’. a bunch of grown men treat a poor, traumatized child coldly because they don’t trust HIM. Is that the wisdom I am supposed to blindly admire and defend? The one that dismiss everyone who doesn’t fit in? No, thanks.

There was no sympathy for Anakin.

Inside, Anakin Skywalker faced the Jedi Council, standing in the same place Qui-Gon Jinn had stood some hours earlier. He was nervous at first, brought into the chamber by Qui-Gon, then left alone with the twelve members of the Council. Standing in the mosaic circle and ringed by the silent assemblage, awestruck and uncertain of what was expected of him, he felt vulnerable and exposed. The eyes of the Jedi were distant as they viewed him, but he sensed they were looking not past him, but inside. They began to question him then, without preliminary introductions or explanations, without expending any effort at all to make him feel comfortable or welcome. He knew some of them by name, for Qui-Gon had described a few, and he was quick to put faces to names. They questioned him at great length, testing memory and knowledge, seeking insights at which he could only guess. They knew of his existence as a slave. They knew of his background on Tatooine, of his mother and his friends, of his Podracing, of Watto, of everything factual and past, of the order of his life.  [Terry Brooks. The Phantom Menace]

And yet, Anakin tried so hard to fit in. This super rebellious, ‘fuck you, council’ Anakin the fandom uses to justify the Council’s behavior only exists in the clones wars (2008). Yes, Anakin have always broken rules and had difficulties acting as the perfect Jedi but he never openly defied the Council. If you watch the movies it becomes obvious that Anakin always submitted to them (even when he didn’t like). His greatest defiance (his marriage to Padmé) shouldn’t count as justification for the Council’s behavior because they found out the truth. 

Anakin was submissive. The only time openly challenged the Council to the their face was when they denied the rank of Master and we we all know how that short-lived:

Most of the time, Anakin was really insecure. When he was growing up he desperately needed Obi-wan’s approval. Later he needed Padmé’s support to go after Shmi and later Obi-wan. 

[Padmé] put the cup down on the small table beside her. “Even though you’re concerned for Anakin—and I know you are, so don’t bother with the stoic-Jedi act—I imagine you’re not very pleased with him right now. But you should know, Obi-Wan, he did not disobey his orders lightly.” Startled, he stared at her. Then he pulled a wry face. “Which time do you mean? When he left Naboo for Tatooine, or Tatooine for Geonosis?” “Both times. Obi-Wan, no matter what you might think, he takes being a Jedi very seriously. It’s all he talks about. Being a Jedi, and not disappointing you. He—” [Karen Miller. Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Wild Space]

He was the Chosen One, they told him. He was supposed to bring balance to the Force. Anakin thought that some little extra support might go with being the Chosen One, a helping hand or at least some understanding from the Jedi Council, but instead he was passed around like an unwelcome burden, ending up with Qui-Gon Jinn and then Kenobi because nobody else would have him. His chosen status meant less than nothing; it felt more like a stigma. And they wondered why he was difficult at times. Maybe they didn’t want balance, whatever that was. Maybe nobody liked a Jedi who was that different. He felt like an embarrassment to them. I do everything you ask of me. I try so hard. When is it going to be enough? When are you going to say, “Okay, Anakin Skywalker, you’re good enough”? Karen Traviss’s The Clone Wars

And even if he hadn’t been, NOTHING justifies the treatment he got as a little child because you cannot use something that didn’t happen as a reason. In real life, if someone mistreats a kid because they fear the kid might grow up to be a criminal it would be considered abuse. But because it’s Anakin – the butt of every joke – the cold treatment Anakin receives as child is somehow a beautiful example of the Council’s compassion and forethought. 

It’s kind of funny. I mean, if the Council was right to treat a 9 years with disdain because the kid was going to grow up to be evil I wonder how fans justify Yoda admiring Papatine – an actual Sith Lord – for years?

The Jedi were sworn to uphold the Republic and protect its ideals, not entangle themselves in the fortunes of any one Chancellor. Political careers were not their affair. Personalities were supposed to be irrelevant. But somehow Palpatine was changing that. Not by being a bully or imposing his will. Quite the opposite: he was constantly resisting the Senate’s eagerness for him to assume more and more executive powers. He resisted, the Senate insisted, so reluctantly Palpatine agreed. And every time he acquiesced to its requests, he turned once more to the Jedi for advice. It was hardly an ideal situation. The Jedi Council was not just another branch of the executive office. But how, in good conscience, could it refuse to aid a man who so humbly petitioned for their assistance? A man who championed them in the Senate at every opportunity? Who had worked tirelessly for peace since assuming the highest political office in the galaxy and was now faced with the daunting, terrifying task of keeping their vast Republic intact? How could the Jedi Council turn its back on such a man? Clearly, it couldn’t. Clearly, in the face of these extraordinary times, the Jedi must set aside their traditions and come to the aid of the man a galaxy looked to as its savior. [Karen Miller. Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Wild Space]

Somehow, I guess it’s okay to treat 9 years old Anakin poorly because he *might* be evil at the same it’s also okay to treat a sith lord with the uttermost respect and bending the rules to accommodate him because he *is* evil but they don’t know it yet ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

So, this is not just about Anakin and how the fandom has a lot of trouble sympathizing with him. This is also about how the fandom fails to recognize the Council’s shortcomings.

Not to quote Filoni again but...”I’ve always felt that one of Anakin’s downfalls, like it’s never that Anakin was innately going to be evil, but the people around him, the Jedi, in their lack of compassion, in being so selfless that they almost forgot to care.” 

[popculturebuffet]

Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck Restrospective: The Raider of the Copper Hill! “You Got Rich Son”

Hello all you happy people! And welcome back to my retrospective of the Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck! It’s been far too long, almost three months since we last checked in with Scrooge and frankly I feel i’ve been spacing these entries out too much for this one and for the retrospectives that aren’t paid for in general. So expect at least one McDuck adventure a month till I finish, possibly two when I can swing it like this month. 

Now i’m done beating myself up, when we last left off a younger more naive, more optimistic and less experienced Scooge took up a career as a cowboy for  Cattle Baron, gained his first sidekick in the form of his Horse Hortense, and took out some cattle thieves with the help of Teddy Fucking Roosevelt. 

This chapter marks the end of the story’s first act. The first act is about a younger and far nicer Scrooge: still onrey and still a cheapskate, but still a good kid and far more outwardly friendly and welcoming, a far cry from the bitter untrusting man we come to know. This chapter is one of the reasons why, as Scrooge learns a hard lesson about wealth and success, the sacrifices one needs to make for family and about sticking your hand in a lightbulb while it’s plugged in. So join me under the cut as Scrooge meets another valuable mentor, one of his greatest enemies, and about 50 feet of barbed wire. 

We begin with the end of Scrooge’s time as a ranch hand and cowpunch. With homesteaders moving in and dividing up the land, Murdo simply dosen’t have the space for cattle baroning anymore and has to let Scrooge go and head back to texas. We do get a great bit of Scrooge wrapped in barbed wire, having gone to cut some down so Murdo could move the herd out. 

So with his Job done and parting on good terms with his old boss, Scrooge sets up his own homestead on some land near the Anaconda Silver Mine, trying to make it as a prospector, starting on the path that would eventually lead him to riches.. in about a decade and a half.

 So Scrooge bemoans his rotten luck over Dinner with a stranger, Marcus Daly owner of said mine... who just.. randomly sat down to have dinner with a 17 year old. 

Marcus belays his own woes: While Scrooge has failed at what he tried to do, having gotten into both steamboating and cattle punching too late to go anywhere with either, Daly has a silver mine that’s full of copper: decent amoutns of it but still not what his investors wanted. 

Both however find their fortunes reverse in an instant in the weirdest way possible. The light goes out at their table and Scrooge tries to adjust it only to electcute himself. To his shock...

He finds out it’s running on electricty, which is starting to become widespread.. and requires vast amounts of copper wiring. Scrooge is back in the game but finds trouble getting equipment as the local seller naturally is a jackass who jacks up the price. Scrooge instead sells the gold teeth his dad gave him to the nearest gentleman after talking him into it. . And i’ts not even the weirdest transaction i’ve seen this week. 

For the record those weird things are the guy on the left’s skinflakes, his power is to make naked golems of himself out of his dandruff and skin flakes and what have you, while the guy on the right is paying for a mutant with a star for a head. So yeah a scottish cowboy selling his ancestor’s dentures to pay for mining gear is refelshingly tame after all of this. 

So we get the comic equivleant of a montage as Scrooge starts his work at prospecting, making a portable homesteader shack as a miner owns any land he lives on, and moving around to try and find it, but he runs into a problem: with his last two careers he had mentors to help him learn what to do: Pothole taught him riverboating and Murdo helped him learn to ride the trails. Here he has no one and while you can self teach a lot of things prospecting isn’t one of them. 

He end sup finding one though as a rich gentleman asking about the mine happens to wander by: Howard D. Rockerduck. If that names sounds familiar it should as he’s indeed the father of exactly who your thinking of and we meet a young 10 or so year old john who asks him to stop dealing with a grubby workman. We also find out whose responsible for him turning out ot be such a piece of work as his mother’s response to his father telling him “I used to be a grubby workman is well... word’s cant’ do this amount of classist bulslhit justice. 

Seriously his unnamed wife is so odious it hurts. And how the fuck did an honest, kind man like Howard end up with this bitch? It’ sbaffled me every time i’ve read this: did he marry for money? is he a gold digger? go down gold dig get down? Is she just THAT good in bed? Did he just make a horrible mistake one night? Did she lie to him about who she was? Was she replaced by a skrull? I have questions no duck comic has properly explained.. and if they have please tell me.  Also it does tickle me we’re getting a bit with a duck named howard though sadly he wears a top hat instead of a nice little bowler. And if you don’t know who howard the duck is.. shame on you. And if you’ve seen the movie.. my deepest sympathies. 

While Howard laments wanting to horsewhip his son, this was a century ago with change mind you standards were different and also John sucks. Howard crticizes Scrooge’s techqniue after introducing himself, and Scrooge and him get into a bit of a tizzy, with Howard offering to teach him for two cents.. but the hostility quickly desolves hours later as Scrooge realizes Howard was right and he’d been doing things completely wrong and the thrill of hard honest work again has washed away any ego driven competiviness. 

I”ll get more into Howard in a second but he does eventually strike copper, and while the vein is full it’s also thin. But Howard has one final trick and takes Scroogey for an ore test. I tried to find more on this but just found a lot of ways to do it yourself and what not. I”m now really intrigued how they did this and found the content of minerals. I know it’s a dull subject but i’m curious how they did it with the technology of the time. Did they just use acids like I found? If so how’d they get them? I do say this is one of the great qualities of Rosa’s works: he makes you want to learn more about history. I looked up more about TR after the last chapter and now I want to know how the hell metallurgy worked in the late 1800′s. 

We then get an intresting interacton as Scrooge.. warmly greets the townsfolk and vice versa.. yes the same Scrooge who as an adult would be introduced proclaming...

Is warm, optimistic and wholeheartedly belieives...

As you can probably tell by Howard’s reaction and what Scrooge becomes.. this story’s all about shattering that notion and is the first of two to shatter the poor kid’s trust in people and make him into the bitter old sod we know. 

The sample comes back 55% positive... which leaves Howard rushing to get Scrooge to a court house. As it turns out there’s an old, very real for the time, mining law called the Law of Apex: whoever owns the land closest to where an ore vein is on the surface owns the whole thing... so legally Scrogoe owns the ENTIRE ANACONDA COPPER MINE, which at this point as detailed in the time skip has gone from struggling to utterly thriving and sucessful. Whoever owns the land at the time the Judge rules it gets the mine.. and Scrooge’s friends, who seconds ago were concerned about him being dragged into court.. are now all scrambling to take his fortune, something Howard dosen’t seem at all suprised about. 

But while this may be a kinder, more naive Scrooge McDuck, it’s still SCROOGE MCDUCK. His response is to cut a nearbye power wire and swing it tarzan style over to hortense and ride her back ahead of the mob... with the electric wire slapping her rear and causing her to go extra fast.. and also quit. So Scrooge stands alone but manages to take out some of the ruffians with his shack while John and the Judge rush to the site. As for Scrooge well... you want to see what a McDuck family beserker rage against an ENTIRE angry mob of opportunistic assholes look like? 

And this isn’t even the most badass thing Scrooge will do this series. Or even in the next few issues. That’s how awesome this series is: fighting an angry mob SOLO with simply his pure rage and whatever he can grab and throw. And he WINS. He’s exausted and passes out, falling out of the sky on his final opponent.. but he took out what was at the LEAST 50 men, and ONLY passed out because one of them threw dynamite in his out house.. and even THAT didn’t kill him or put him out, simply casuing him to land on said dynamite throwing idiot and wins. 

We find out Rockerduck actually was one of the mine’s owners but helped Scrooge anyway: he has more than enough money and all it’s going to do in the end is go to a greedy brat. Marcus Daly shows up and while he’ll get the law overturned eventually, he still has to shut down while that happens and finds the right officials to bribe. And this is the 1800s... you gotta go by train to do your bribes. You can’t just do that shit over email and hidden bank accounts. Daly offers him 10,000.. but given what Scrooge could earn even before he got his mine back, Scrooge turns it down. 

However this victory is bittersweet as Scrooge warmly greets his friends.. only for one to cuss him out and the other to tell him to get loss. We then get one of my faviorite exchanges in this story.

This whole Panel is a masterwork. The sheer INNOCENCE on Scrooge’s face, almost looking like Donald, desperately wondering what he did, when as Howard points out.. he did nothing wrong. He simply got successful and they resent him for it. 

This has been a hard paragraph for me to write as I want to tread carefully. People do have good reasons to scorn the rich or celebrtiies sometimes. Some rich people or those in the media are genuinely terrible. Jeff Bezos, Tucker Carlson, Mel Gibson, Louie CK, Joss Whedon and even someone as low on the totem pole as Doug Walker is odious. And of course we all can think of one odious example of rich bastard i’d rather not think of, especially when thinking of John D Rockerduck and what he’l lbecome as an adult that i’m not giving a pleasure of the name drop but came to mind. 

But even for good people becoming succesful puts up a barrier between you and other people: Fans of yours will admire you or write fanfic or what have about you without even knowing you, i’ve been on that side, and some people will hate you just because without valid reason, especially in this day and age. Success breeds resentment and even people you trusted and loved can sometimes turn on you. It’s the double eged sword of achieving your dreams: You get what you wanted but you often loose what you had. 

And it was no diffrent two centuries ago, with Scrooge’s friends only being friendly as long as it suited them, turning on him first to steal his chance at glory and then to scorn him for daring to achieve it. Some people.. are only there for you as long as your not above them. And sometimes you can be happy. Look at Tom Hanks, who has a lovely family and a long and storied career. Or Linkara, a youtuber who has been at this for over a decade, has tons of fans, a loving wife with her own succesful channel, and just recently got contacted by his childhood heroes. You CAN be happy and successful.. it’s just very hard to make it that far. 

One of the central points of life and times is that’s often not the case: You can get what you want but it comes at a cost. And it’s how you pay that price that will determine how happy you are. Another central point intertwined with it is it’s not the journey but the destination, and i’ts how Scrooge takes that journey that ultimately leads him where he ends up good and bad. And we get an all to telling all too foreboding hint in how he takes everyone he knew for at least a year turning on him overnight. 

When faced with his first real loss on this Journey that wasn’t material.. he dosen’t care. He has his money and riches and that’s enough. And as we’ll see that attitude will cost him greatly. Howard is irate for a moment, hoping he wasn’t wrong in trusting Scrooge.. and indeed, for now, turns out to have placed his faith in the right person as Scrooge gets a telegram: his family needs him. And while he could stay, turn his back on them, and earn MILLIONS.. he tells Howard  to tell the owner he’s taking the deal. For now when given the choice between his family and his fortune, SCrooge will choose them. Sadly.. that won’t hold true forever. 

With this being the end of his time in the story, as he has a still insufferable John buy him a horsewhip for horrific but darkly funny reasons, as John brags about how rich his father is not realizing he’s buying his own whupping tool, i’d like to touch on Howard D Rockerduck and how amazing he is. Rosa managed to pack a throughly interesting, throughly engaging character into only 8 pages. While Rockerduck DID show up earlier in of ducks dimes and destinys, he wasn’t really fleshed out or named and only showed up for one page so still 9 pages total. 

But in those we see a kind and noble man whose easily what Scrooge COULD have been, kind, noble, generous, hardworking and willing to give up money to help people. He’s a good man.. but even he’s seen the sacrifice Money brings. He’s clearly lost friends, lost a sense of peace, and married the wrong Woman, whose poisoned his children into a spoiled brat who will only grown into an even more spoield adult in both continuities.. if raised quite a bit earlier in the 2017 cartoon as he was made scrooge’s contemporary there rather than a child, but semeantics. Point is Howard hismelf isn’t wholly satisfied with his success.. and that’s what he and Scrooge will forever have in common, with Scrooge, likely as a result of meeting the Rockerducks, fearing an indadiquate inheritor and someone squandering what he worked hard for. Though his reasons for not taking up a wife as we’ll see eventually, if outside the main 12 part story but I intend to cover the subchapters in their own time, aren’t entirely motivated by avoiding goldigging but a broken hard and his own stubborness. 

For now though we bid Howard and america adue. Scrooge however for once ends an occupation with less bitterness. Unlike his last two ventures where he made it out with only enough to get to the next one here he made it out ahead: he now has a decent suit, likely bought for him by Howard given he hasn’t cashed the check yet, I know this as it’s a major plot point for next time, 10,000 dollars.. and experince. He may of not gotten all the money he was due on this venture, but he learned more valuable skills and he feels with a land like america, the next opportunity to earn some dough is just waiting for him to get back. And as the chapter ends he muses that maybe the country could use a symbol of this countries boundless opportunity...

Final Thoughts for the Raider of the Copper Hill:

This chapter is one of my favorites. It’s nicely paced, something Rosa himself admits was often a struggle as he had to cover years at a time, has a wonderful new mentor for Scrooge, and sets up a lot of the tragedy to come in the last act beautifully. It’s a nice closer for our first act, showing Scrooge has come out of his first trip to america wiser, more experinced and more hopeful, but at heart still the same kind and noble kid he left Glasgow as. The next act is about the change of that boy into a man, how he will finally find his fortune after some more adventures.. and how the last viestges of his kindess and optimisim towards others die at the hands of a certain fake scotish gentleman. 

Next Life And Times: As is tradition for this series act openers, Scrooge returns home.. and just in time to get his castle back, fight a duel and go to heaven and back. So an average McDuck tuesday then. 

If you liked this review follow for more. And if you liked it a lot join my patreon so I can keep making these and hit my stretch goals. Even at just the 2 dollar level you get access to my discord and your pick of shorts whenever I do a series of them and with Goofy and Donald’s birthdays being the next ones to be celebrated you can’t pick a better time. patreon.com/popculturebuffet See you at the next rainbow. 

[joonietonin]

Ethan Ramsey- Sugar & Ice (Analysis #2)

Hi! I’m back with another in-depth analysis about Chapter 5 and well, I am very very late! Sorry, it took me so long to write this up, I had been sick these past few days. Anyway, something that I am always in awe of, is how well-written a character, Ethan Ramsey is? I do not think there is another character/LI who has even come close to the amount of depth and progression that Ethan has had over the last few chapters and of course, throughout Book 1. So here I am analyzing Ethan all over again because, damn, this man has had the best character development in the Choices universe. Hold on tight because this is gonna be a longgggggg ride. (Literally, it's the longest post I have ever written so far!)

Note: This is an analysis based on my thoughts and interpretation of a character owned by Pixelberry Studios. My MC is female, pronouns: she/her. I will be writing this post from her perspective. If your MC is male or non-binary, I request you to change the pronouns accordingly. I will be working towards bettering my writing skills using they/them pronouns. English is not my primary language, kindly pardon my mistakes.

Taglist: @choicesyouplayandmore @freeasafishinthesea @openheart12 @junehiratas @lion-ess24 @junggoku @silverlitskies @paulfwesley @mrsdr-ethan-ramsey @reaverisabitch @binny1985 @binny1985 @desmaranj @lilyvalentine @soft-for-drake @mangoruby @mrsmatsuo

Let's start off how interesting it is that the first time I wrote about this man, it took me 13 chapters to really assess his depth and development and now in Book 2, it barely took 2 Chapters to provide a in-depth analysis. Yes, character development is key but the time span within which one grows is equally important.

• Ethan, then and now: Ethan, with his hardass, no bullshit and stoic persona is a man with strong opinions. And rightfully so, a person who is around 8-9 years your senior is bound to have more experience- be it in their professional field or their general life experiences. Ethan has always had this strong set of beliefs that were impossible to change, unless you were MC of course. Before Ethan even knew what was happening, MC had already started to infiltrate his steel walls going right towards his heart. MC may be a dumbass but she’s not illogical. I believe that her straightforwardness has always been the reason for Ethan to be drawn towards her. Throughout his whole career, he has only seen these insipid, incompetent people sucking up to him expecting that they would step up in their career. Then came MC, who was never afraid to go against the rules if it meant the well-being of her patients. She proved to him that she was indeed the “someone who could be great, truly” as Ethan had told her in Chapter 5 of Book 1. Ethan supported her at all instances because he had so much of faith in her, even if he did not show it outright.

• MC, a silver lining: For MC, Edenbrook was never entirely about money. So when Ethan tells her about the government deciding to cut down costs of Edenbrook, depending upon your interaction, the last thing MC is worried about is money. Since then she has done everything in her power to prevent that from happening. When that didn’t work, she discovered another path that could potentially save the hospital.

• To be or not to be, morality edition: And even though she anticipated what Ethan would think about the idea, she still took her chances to let Ethan know about this opportunity that could probably put Edenbrook back in the top ranks. And obviously, the hardass Ethan refused. But what’s interesting here is how calmly Ethan reacted. He did not shout, he did not jeer at her. He responded calmly with a simple no. Even when a furious MC charged him for the reason to refute her idea, he simply said that it would ruin the actual purpose of the diagnostics team- which was never meant to cater the rich, rather help those who were truly in need. And even though his intentions were morally correct and heartfelt, MC knew that this wasn’t the time to play with a moral compass.

• Ethan, the "professional": So MC did what she always does: go beyond the rules. She did what Ethan had once told her- “to stand up for what’s right”. So she went behind Ethan’s back and contacted the Instagram celeb Gwyneth Paltrow Monroe and Ethan was obviously furious when he found the whole camera set up in the hospital. And what seems like forever, Ethan regards her as 'Rookie' but this time it is not endearing. MC tries to justify her actions but Ethan, in his classic Dr. Ramsey style, shuts her out and tells her that they had more pressing matters in their hands aka the patient. But, but.. he does not shut her out completely, he says “We’ll talk about this later.” Now if this were the old Ethan Ramsey he wouldn’t have bothered even once to hear anybody’s justification for a matter of fact. But now, Ethan wants to listen to her. He wants to work out their differences. He does not want to leave this matter hanging. He does not want to cut her off due to professional disagreements. Even though Ethan claims that there is nothing but professionalism between them but his actions contradict his words. His actions show that he is truly trying to make things work between them. Ethan might say it's purely professional but I do not believe him one bit (lol).

• Ethan Ramsey is really a softie huh: Even though Ethan is super annoyed at the entire situation, somewhere down the line, he does believe that MC can handle this. He tells her to lead the case. And of course, his snarky remarks are back but this time it's for poor Gwyneth. In an earlier analysis I had stated how Ethan's snarky remarks towards MC had lessened significantly and it still holds true. Instead of berating MC for going behind his back, he handles it with a certain amount of softness. Well, at least when we compare it to how he deals with others in the same situation. So what I really want to say is: Ethan Ramsey is a softie, but only for MC.

• Diligence- 1 Annoyance-0: He is very annoyed and is willing to solve this case as immediately as possible but that does not make him indifferent towards the case. His annoyance does not make him lack diligence. He still gives his 100% towards this case. This shows how diligent Ethan is. No wonder, he's the best diagnostician in the country. He treats all his patients with the same reverence even if some (read: most) get on his nerves. Ethan seems like a cold person with no emotions but the truth is that he cares so much about certain people. The biggest reason Ethan was so annoyed by this high profile case was because the diagnostics team lost a chance to cure a underprivileged patient who needed the help much more than Gwyneth. Despite being a filthy rich person himself, he is not a snob. He has so much concern for the people who cannot afford good healthcare. He cares deeply about the regular people of his community. Yet, that does not make his shy away from his duties towards his current patient.

• Just millennial things: Going back to my previous point, Ethan is really diligent towards his work even if it means doing things he absolutely loathes... like social media. I mean, yes he hasn't seen IT. Yes, he hates texting. Yes, he is technologically impaired. Yes, he does not know how to sign up for Instagram despite being one of the best doctors in the entire world who could cure almost anything. So who does he turn to? MC, obviously. Do we really think he'd ask anybody else in this entire world to help him out with social media. Oh hell no. (Yes, I'm trying to say that MC is special) And cue: the playful banter is back. Something I always relish about Ethan × MC scenes is that their playful banter never stops no matter how tense things are between them. It's some married couple shit right there. From "I'll have you know, I'm only 37. I'm technically a millennial" to "To be clear, we're doing this under one condition. You never speak of it to anyone", let's just say Ethan Ramsey does not share that comfort level with anybody else in this entire world than MC. MC is truly 'the one' for him.

• Ethan and the internet: So here's a two part horror story, the Ethan Ramsey edition- Ethan is terrified of the internet. He does not understand how there are shirtless pictures of him on the internet. Yet, it is really wholesome how we get to know the backstory of most of those pictures. Be it wearing a suit to the A.M.A where he was awarded or when he went shirtless for his first triathlon. It's very very cute that he willingly share these little details about his life. He wants MC to know little things about him. He wants her to be a part of his life even if he claims that there is nothing but professionalism between them (yeah, right) He opened up about how much he loved living in Providence and how he would never have liked any other place for growing up. He revealed his vulnerabilities to MC about how people did not take him seriously and how adults and teachers who undermine him. He trusts MC enough to confide in her and letting her know all these small details which, perhaps, nobody knows except her. Not even Naveen, I presume. Also, please note how a major part of all the information we know about Ethan is because of his Dad. But Ethan willingly sharing details about him to MC? chef's kiss

• Music, Motorcycles and Marriage: Initially Ethan does not understand the point of social media and why so many people would use this "junk". But when MC explains to him how social media helps people connect or how fun it could be for so many people, Ethan does not retort her. He takes and minute to think about her perspective and then accepts with her view. While choosing his interests, we get to know very fond and personal details about Ethan no matter which option we chose.

While talking about Music, Ethan mentions his childhood memories of playing the cello and how his neighbour hated it and broke his cello and also gives a hint towards his mischievous side and the incredible revenge he got on his neighbour.

The Motorcycle was absolutely beautiful. Ethan let's MC know that the first time he took a bike ride was in Brazil (Amazon Rainforest) where he had gone to... well, in layman's terms- get over MC. As eloquent as he is, he describes all the emotions he felt as he rode across his bike along the Amazon River. It's a rare occurrence to see Ethan talk about his feelings therefore it is really wholesome that he would share those intricate details with MC. But the best part of this option had to be when MC demands Ethan to take her on a bike ride in the Amazons some day. Now, for a man who claims that him and MC are "reset" and are "nothing but professionals", it's quite hilarious but very cute that he replied with, "I look forward to it" This statement of his is almost like a foreshadowing of his and MC's future. Even though they're in a tough spot right now, they could always look forward to the future where things might (read: will) change for them.

The option Marriage led to a low-key romantic moment between him and MC. Ethan "love is just neurochemical responses to heightened stress and frequent exposure to each other" Ramsey obviously tells her that he understands marriage as a partnership rather than a meaningful institution. He also states that he does not believe in the concept of soulmates because there is no biological basis to support that. MC simply explains to him that, "It's love, Ethan. It doesn't have to make sense." And Ethan, in his classic 'everything has a scientific explanation' way grins and states, "I'm sorry, no, everything has to make sense." He straight up asks MC the age old question: "How are you supposed to know that you've met the right person?" And almost immediately his smug mouth is shut when MC simply replies with a "I guess, you just feel it. Isn't that biology?" He gazes deeply into her eyes and forgets himself for a moment thinking about how relevant her words are to whatever he feels for her.Deep inside, Ethan knows that he has met the right person, rather THE person.What I'm trying to say is- Yes, Ethan knows that they are soulmates and even though he won’t accept it now but man, he is whipped.

• Ethan's first, last and only: It's adorable that Ethan let's MC make his first post on behalf of him. MC might be the only person in this entire world who has so much hold over Ethan. It is funny because Ethan is MC's boss in the streets but MC in Ethan's boss in the sheets when it comes to personal moments. I think the highlight of the scene was definitely when Ethan follows MC on Instagram. She jokes about it claiming,"Wow, what an honour, I'm humbled." but Ethan deadass let's her know,"You should be. My first, last and only Instagram friend." Again, I think it's a subtle foreshadowing of their future. In real life, technically MC truly one of Ethan's best friends besides being a LI. But I think this statement will hold much more meaning in the future, given the fact that somewhere deep inside Ethan does know that him and MC are soulmates, no matter how much he denies it.

• True feelings and acceptance: We all know Ethan is not the one to back down on his opinions. But often more than not, he really does give a thought about MC's actions and always tries to understand her perspective of it. Yes, it does take him some time to come around but he always comes back to her. When MC tries to justify her actions this second time, Ethan cuts her off- not because he does not want to hear it, but because he has finally understood her point of view.

Another very important detail in this scene, personally my favourite detail, is how this time around he addresses MC by her name. At the start of the chapter he addressed MC as 'Rookie' which symbolised his disappointment over what he feels is a mistake on MC's part. He establishes his seniority over her letting her know that him and MC are not equals. This second time around, he addresses her by name because he has finally come around to understand that MC is really not a 'rookie' anymore. She isn't a resident either. Ethan now saw her as a colleague, someone who was his equal.. his peer.

Ethan rarely accepts his mistakes, because let's be real, this man was practically emotionally inept before MC came around. The whole concept of apology and acceptance is complicated for him. But he is not worried to own up to his mistakes in front of MC. Ethan let's her know that they are bound to disagree over things because they were peers. Knowing her thoughts, even if they contradicted his, helped Ethan see MC in a truer light. When MC worries whether that light is a bad one, he is quick to reassure her that it is a 'complicated' one. This mirrors his feelings about their relationship too, how he can never be entirely professional with her neither could he ever give her the love and warmth he wants to. He tells MC that her perspective does help him to see situations as they really are instead of what he perceives them to be. He ends this declaration of his feelings with, "I want to know you, as you are." My heart goes warm thinking about how much he cares for her and how he'd rather have disagreements with her than force her to be something that she is not. He wants her be just the way she is. He wants to know the real MC, the one who does not shy away from doing what's right rather than doing what's moral and ethical.

• MC x Ethan, the unstoppable force: Lastly, can we all agree that MC and Ethan make a hell of a great team? Even if we put their love life aside, they just absolutely smash it out of the park when it comes to them solving cases together. As they sit together researching about their patient, we see how well coordinated they are. It's almost like, each one knows exactly what the other person is thinking. They are like medical Jedis. Ethan always worries about how if they were to pursue a real relationship, it would be hard for him to push her to do her best.. but the truth is right in front of us. Despite their playful banters, stolen glances, innocent touches and plans about their future, Ethan always pushes MC to evaluate the information and reveal the diagnosis. It would take Ethan 2 minutes to do it himself but as her mentor he constantly helps her get better at providing fast diagnosis. Also, Ethan never ever shies away from giving MC her due credit and appreciation. Getting praise from Ethan Ramsey is very very rare but for MC it's like a usual occurrence, not because they have feelings for each other rather because Ethan truly sees the amount of potential MC has and it reassures him that he was right when he chose MC for Edenbrook knowing that she had the potential to be someone great. While revealing the diagnosis with June and Baz, he proudly let's them know,"MC pieced it together last night. Excellent work." He is honestly like a proud husband showing off how amazing his wife is (lol)

____________________________________________

FINAL THOUGHTS: Sooooo.. let's re-evaluate:

✓ Ethan and MC are very very close on a personal level no matter how much Ethan tries to deny it.

✓ MC is literally Ethan's closest friend. He shares little details about him to her, only her.

✓ Ethan does not shut MC out like he did in Book 1. He tries to understand her and thinks about her point of view.

✓ Ethan and MC have continuous playful banter which makes them look like a whole ass married couple but whatever.

✓ Ethan considers MC to be his equal rather than a subordinate. That is HUGE coming from Mr. Broody Ramsey. He has a lot of respect for MC.

✓ Ethan pushes MC to do her very best despite of them being personal and contradicting their original deal of being professional.

✓ Ethan proudly let's others know about how amazing MC is at what she does.

So, what I am trying to say is: If they are equals, and they work together like two peas in a pod, and the have the cutest most playful relationship, and they respect each other so much, and they are fulfilling every aspect of their mentor/mentee relationship— SO WHEN THE FUCK ARE THEY GONNA REALIZE THAT THEY CAN STILL DO ALL OF THIS WHILE PURSUING A RELATIONSHIP. @ Ethan sweetie, you're one of the smartest men on the planet but you're really so dense when love is involved. I live for the angst but I just want to see my babies being officially domestic and have passionate sex like they did in Chapter 15 (no shit that was THE BEST, read x) yeah that's all, maybe even save the hospital and punch Declan again while they're at it. Ethan and MC are really have the most realistic depiction when it comes to work relationships. Whether Ethan believes it or not— I, for one, am certain that Ethan and MC are truly soulmates and are meant to be. Professionally AND Personally.

Why did I title this as Sugar and Ice?

Because just like ice Ethan is cold,harsh and stoic when it comes to dealing with regular people. But when it comes to people he really cares about and loves (read: MC) he is like sugar- warm, gentle and open.

____________________________________________

Not to be a cheesy romantic, I'm still a cynic but Ethan is an exception. Andddddd we're done. If you have reached up till here then wow, I cannot believe that you would actually take the time to read my thoughts about a character. You don't know how much that means to me. It makes me feel like I am creating some worthwhile. Thank you for all the constant love and support y'all have given me. I am truly so grateful to each one of you.❤️

Also, yes I know Chapter 6 is out and this is an analysis of Chapter 5 but believe me, I you've read this you'll figure out that nothing that happened in today's chapter contradicts my thoughts about Ethan in the previous chapter. I will start working on an analysis for Chapter 6 tonight itself. Just need some time to process all of it. Thank you for always being so patient. I appreciate it so much.❤️

This was a very long post and believe me I tried to cut it short as much as possible. Let's just say I really cannot write short pieces lmao. So yes, thank you for taking out your valuable time to read this. Sending my gratitude and love.❤️

[If you want to be added to my taglist, just let me know as I will be writing some more stuff in the days to come. All my works are sorted in my MASTERLIST. The link is in my bio.]

[raywritesthings]

Bird in a Storm 6/17

My Writing Fandom: Arrow Characters: Laurel Lance, Oliver Queen, Tommy Merlyn, John Diggle, Malcolm Merlyn, Thea Queen, Roy Harper, Anastasia, Hank, Female OC Pairing: Laurel Lance/Oliver Queen Summary: The confrontation between the Hood and SWAT on the roof of the Winick Building goes differently, altering the course of Laurel’s career, relationships and efforts to save her city forever, the shockwaves of such an altered path making themselves felt throughout her family and friends. *Can be read on my AO3, link is in bio*

Malcolm had never been interested in idle gossip, and even less so now that the Undertaking was nearly within sight. Only a few more months before Unidac was set to complete the earthquake machines. Then it would simply be a matter of setting them up beneath the Glades, to be triggered at his whim.

Even with his mind preoccupied, he’d hardly missed the hostage crisis involving his son’s girlfriend and the Hood last month. It had all been resolved before he had decided whether or not to involve himself, which was just as well. Miss Lance was a good person, driven by all the same ideals and passions Rebecca had had when she’d been alive. It would have been a shame to lose her so senselessly just as Rebecca had been lost.

It took far longer for the other rumors surrounding Laurel Lance to reach his ears. That she had been forced out of CNRI, that she and Tommy had separated. Considering her previous apartment had been Tommy’s last known address until recently, he thought it was high time he checked in on his son again.

Malcolm therefore found himself in the position of visiting the Verdant in the Glades. He never came out to this neighborhood if he could avoid it. Too many bad memories.

Tommy was standing behind the bar, his head buried in a binder with what looked like the finances. Malcolm felt the odd stirring of pride in his gut to see his son at work on something for once, and he hesitated to interrupt. But eventually, Tommy sensed the presence of another person — far too slow, really, he would have easily been dead if Malcolm had had those intentions — and looked up.

“Dad?”

“Hello, Tommy. I was wondering if you had some time tomorrow. I’d like to try catching up again, just the two of us. I know our last dinner didn’t exactly end well.”

Without the buffer of Laurel Lance between them, things could go that way just as easily. Then again, perhaps it was time they had a talk man to man.

Tommy hesitated. “What’s the catch?”

Malcolm held up both hands. “I promise, there’s no ulterior motive. I just heard you were going through a rough time. I thought maybe I could listen.”

His son considered him for a long moment. “Okay. I can get tomorrow evening.”

Malcolm smiled, and it was at least close to reaching his eyes. “Wonderful.”

The next night found the two of them sitting down to dinner. He’d picked somewhere with what would be considered American-style cuisine, if gourmet. Tommy had never had much tolerance for spices. He ordered a bottle of red for the table and thanks to a lack of small talk to begin with, they each had decided on their food fairly quickly as well.

“How’s, uh, the company?” His son asked eventually.

“Doing well as ever. I’m sorry your relationship ended.”

“Okay, cutting to the chase. Should’ve expected that.” Tommy set his wine glass down and shrugged. “We wanted different things, I guess. Or saw things differently. I don’t know.”

“And Laurel has left CNRI?”

“She had to. Said it was better for her clients, but I don’t see how. If a hooded killer is so important to them, I’m not sure why I’d bother.”

Malcolm paused, in thought and to allow the waitress to set their respective meals down. 

Tommy was bitter, of course, that he had been deemed less important to the lawyer than her work. It didn’t necessarily speak of any deep-rooted conviction. But there was the seed of an idea in there, a thought that had occurred to Malcolm himself in the years after Rebecca’s death.

“Sometimes,” he began carefully, “people look to outlandish solutions rather than solving their own problems. They believe the Hood is here to save them, but in reality, they’re no better off than they were before he started.”

Tommy was watching him, his head bobbing in an unconscious nod.

“In fact, they might even be worse off. There’s nearly been a gang war over the business with his temporary partner the Huntress.”

“Yeah. Yeah, Laurel mentioned that guy Vanch she had to shoot only got out of prison because of all that,” Tommy was eager to agree.

“I’m not surprised. The truth is, Tommy, one of the reasons I chose to close your mother’s clinic was because I was worried for the safety of the employees.”

This was a half-truth. He was reasonably sure the clinic would have been perfectly safe up until the Undertaking, but he wasn’t about to sacrifice hard-working doctors and nurses to it needlessly.

Tommy’s entire posture changed, less closed off. His expression was far more considering as well. “I hadn’t thought of that. You know, I’m hiring at the club now, and do you think — wow, look at me asking you for advice.”

Malcolm felt something in him warm. Perhaps it was his heart. “I’d be happy to give it.”

Tommy pushed a bite of steak around on his plate. “Well, do you think I should hire additional security?”

“It never hurts. Moira certainly did the right thing hiring that bodyguard for Oliver.”

“Well, she really cares about her kids,” Tommy said, only a little less pointed than usual.

Malcolm set down his knife and fork. This was the real test, and one he had brought on himself. “She does. I’ve always admired that in her, the same as I admired it in Robert. In fact, I’m forever in their debt for everything they did in raising you.”

Tommy was staring at him now, his food forgotten, hanging onto his every word. Malcolm suspected he’d been waiting to hear this for years. Perhaps decades.

“I haven’t been the best father to you, Tommy. Part of that, when you were older, was frustration on my part. I wanted you to take things more seriously. To see the mature young man in front of me now makes me happier than I have been in a long time.”

“Yeah.” Tommy didn’t quite manage a smile. “I guess you cutting me off really was for the best, huh?”

Malcolm glanced down. “You’ve succeeded in spite of my lack of support, Tommy, not because of it. And I couldn’t be prouder.”

He could tell Tommy didn’t know what to say. Neither of them were good at expressing themselves this way; where he covered it with either cordial restraint or coldness, Tommy deflected with humor. But his son didn’t do so now.

“Well, thank you. I’m still trying to be better than I was, in spite of everything.”

“Of course.” Heartbreak was doing Tommy good, if anything. It always did; it forced a person to decide what was truly worth fighting for.

Malcolm requested the check and was soon standing and buttoning his coat. “My office door is always open to you, Tommy.”

“Okay. Hey, and this was… good. I wouldn’t mind doing it again sometime.”

Malcolm smiled. “I feel the same.”

He left the restaurant in good spirits. Tommy had exceeded the expectations he’d settled on for him this past year. In time, he could well be a worthy successor. And after all, that was the goal.

Malcolm was not Ra’s al Ghul. He did not have a steady supply of the waters of Lazarus to keep his life going indefinitely. The world he was attempting to build would one day be inherited. Tommy, Oliver, Thea, Amanda — those children and more were the driving force behind everything he, Moira, Frank, and the other members of Tempest did. This plan twenty years in the making was for their benefit as well as the city’s, not that they knew it yet.

For that reason alone, it was time to bring Tommy back into the fold. He wanted to be close to his son upon the launch of the Undertaking. He wanted Tommy to know the loss of his mother would never be in vain. Her ideas of improvement in the Glades would soon be brought to fruition the only way Malcolm knew how: liquidation.

---

Thea hadn’t thought community service could get any worse. Sure, she’d complained and dragged her feet the whole way there the first couple of days, but she’d gotten used to the routine easily enough. And she’d honestly liked having the time to spend with Laurel, sort of woman-to-woman in a way she’d never really been with her mom.

Of course, then Laurel had gotten fired. That’s when things really took a turn for the worse.

Thea drafted yet another email declining Anastasia’s services on a civil suit against Dagget Industries, the phrases and language used in these sorts of things nearly second nature to her now. The couple who wished to bring the suit was claiming that Dagget’s products had damaged their daughter’s skin and wanted money to cover her medical bills. It seemed open and shut to her, yet Anastasia had forwarded it along to her with the instruction to notify the family that CNRI would not be representing them.

In fact, Thea had three more of these kind of emails to draft before the end of the day. One against Stagg Industries and two against Nickels, a landlord in the Glades.

Seriously, they couldn’t even win a lawsuit against a guy who worked out of the Glades? Enough was enough.

Thea stood and made her way over to her new sponsor’s desk, clearing her throat to get the other woman’s attention since she was busy scrolling through her phone.

“Hey, you finish those emails?” Anastasia asked her in a bored tone.

“Not quite. I was wondering if you wanted me to write any approval emails today or if we’re just going to continue doing nothing like the rest of this week.”

“Laurel really got to you before she was sent packing, huh?”

Thea bristled at her sponsor’s amused tone. “So what if she did?”

The other woman set aside her phone and leaned forward. “Let me offer you some free legal advice, kid. Pick your battles.”

“Okay,” Thea said slowly.

Anastasia sighed. “Here’s an example. Take the case against Dagget Industries. Dagget has the firm I usually work at on retainer, meaning we represent them in court on occasion. Meaning it would be very bad for the firm I usually work for if they are brought to court and lose, even over something as small as a little girl’s acne problems.”

“I’m pretty sure it was scarring,” Thea felt the need to point out.

“Whatever. The point is, my firm could lose Dagget as a client, which would mean a lot of money walking out the door and probably leading to layoffs. Considering I’m on sabbatical already and would be the one responsible in this hypothetical situation, you can see what kind of position that might leave me in.”

Thea was silent.

Anastasia seemed to take that as permission to continue anyway. “Now I still want to have some friends at my firm once I leave this sabbatical behind me, not to mention a job, so I’m going to be very careful which battles I pick. You understand me?”

“Yeah, think so.” Thea backed away and went to her desk. It had taken everything in her to keep the sarcasm from leaking into her tone.

This sucked. Sure, she hadn’t wanted to be an office gopher when she’d first started out here, but at least when Laurel had been her sponsor she had felt like the little things she was being asked to do would eventually add up to something. What was going to happen to all the people they were turning down? Wasn’t this like their last resort?

She still didn’t fully understand why Laurel had chosen to step down, or what good the Hood was for in these cases. Maybe if Thea could show her friend that the slack was not being picked up in her absence, she’d reconsider her decision and come back. Things could go back to normal.

With that in mind, while she waited just inside CNRI’s doors for Ollie and Mr. Diggle, Thea put in a call.

“Hello?”

“Hey, Laurel, it’s me.”

“Thea? How’ve you been?”

She could hear some cars rushing by in the background on Laurel’s end of the line. The other woman was out somewhere then.

“I’m good. Well, mostly. Is this a good time to talk?”

“You caught me on the way to the gym,” her friend told her. “So I can give you about fifteen minutes.”

That probably wasn’t going to be enough to deliver her argument. And she thought she could see the car arriving anyway.

“Then could we meet up sometime, say tomorrow? I get a lunch.”

“Uh, I think — yeah, I’ve got that day off. Did you know where you wanted to meet? There’s a food cart that does good wraps about a block and a half from CNRI.”

“That sounds good.”

“Yeah. I’ve missed Hank’s food,” the older woman admitted. That sounded even better. Maybe Thea could lure her back to the office with the promise of more wraps. She’d be totally fine buying.

The horn beeped outside. Mr. Diggle must have thought she couldn’t see them.

“Okay, great, I’ll see you at 12:30!” Thea hung up and rushed out to the car.

Oliver was waiting in the backseat for her. “You busy today?”

Thea couldn’t hold in a snort. “Hardly. But I’m hoping that’s gonna change soon.”

If he heard her confident tone, he didn’t choose to comment. That was just fine. Thea wanted to keep her plans to herself for now. Once everything was okay again, then Ollie could know.

And he would owe her big time for sure

---

To say Laurel had been surprised when Thea had reached out was an understatement. She’d assumed her younger friend would want nothing to do with her after the Hood’s visit to Mrs. Queen. But she’d missed her a lot and wasn’t about to turn down the opportunity to catch up.

She left her house early the next day. CNRI would be a bit of a walk, and she didn’t exactly have it timed down to the minute. 

“Laurel, hey!” She turned at the call to find Anita standing by the back of her and Jerome’s place. She was pinning up a white cord. “You headed to work?”

“No, just meeting a friend.”

“Great. Think you could help me hang this line up for a minute?”

Laurel walked along the path and met her neighbor. “Sure. What’s it for?”

“Laundry. Just tie it around that loop Jerome nailed to the fence post. You see it?”

Laurel nodded and took the other end across the yard, tying it as Anita asked so that the line was taut. “I didn’t know they let you air dry in our neighborhood.”

Anita pulled a face. “It’s not a hundred percent legal, but it saves on the bills. Just make sure your lines are down every first of the month when the landlord inspects.”

“Ah, gotcha.” She headed back over to her neighbor so they weren’t discussing criminal activity so loudly. “Ordinances can be a pain sometimes.”

“Yeah, it’s not just the cost,” Anita said. She began taking things out of a basket she had sitting by her feet and hanging them. “The dryer messes with my embroidery, you know?”

“You do your own embroidery?”

“Mm-hm,” Anita nodded. “Avó taught me. That’s granny,” she added for Laurel’s benefit. Her neighbor held up a shirt that had a flower pattern all along the v-neck collar.

“That’s really nice.”

“I could show you sometime. Sewing and stuff, too. I know it sounds like girl stuff, but you’d be amazed how much it saves.”

“Yeah, I’d like that.” Laurel smiled as she kept studying the flowers. Pam would probably love something like that. Maybe on an apron.

“Well, I won’t keep you longer from your friend. Thanks for the help!”

“It was no problem.” Laurel went back down to the sidewalk and began her walk, at a faster pace to make up some of the time. Fortunately, Thea was only just getting out of the building as she drew up alongside it. Laurel hung back by the side rather than go up to the door. She wasn’t sure she wanted anyone catching sight of her in the sneakers and old jeans she’d thrifted.

Thea spotted her and hurried over in a cute little pea coat and purse. Laurel felt herself smiling already.

“Hey!” Thea stopped short of a hug, something they hadn’t really done since after the Gambit. “Thanks for coming out here.”

“It was no problem.” She shoved her hands in the pockets of her jacket. “So, wraps?”

Laurel led the way over to the food cart, Thea walking in step with her.

“Laurel, hey!” Hank greeted with a surprise smile. “Your usual?”

“Make it two, Hank. And I’m paying,” she added to Thea. Her friend started to protest, but Laurel was already handing the money over. Hank didn’t take cards, and she doubted Thea carried much in small bills anyway.

They took the wraps and started walking.

“How’s your community service going?”

“One hour at a time,” Thea answered. She sounded almost as unenthused as when she’d first started, and Laurel frowned.

“Is something wrong?”

“Yeah. It’s Anastasia. She’s not doing anything.”

Laurel had had some worries about that. The woman had made it very clear she wasn’t at CNRI by much choice and would be counting down the days when she went back to her corporate firm. “You mean she’s not taking cases?”

“All she’s agreed to take on are some civil suits involving individuals and not corporations, and a few name change petitions.”

“Well, those are important,” Laurel pointed out. “For a lot of people, it means all the difference to have the name they truly want recognized.”

“Yeah, okay,” Thea admitted. “But we could be doing way more. Maybe if you were there?”

Laurel sighed. She should have expected something like this. “Thea, I was fired. I can’t exactly walk back through the door whenever I want.”

“Well, could you still say the thing they wanted to hear about the Hood?”

Laurel shook her head. “I was serious about that, Thea. I’m not going to denounce him to make a few corporate executives more comfortable. You know, if it weren’t for the Hood people like Sommers who hired the Triad to attack me would still be out there. That dealer who made Vertigo would be, too.”

Thea’s face scrunched up in thought. “I mean, okay, the Hood stops some bad people. But he also attacked mom and took you hostage. If you want to say he’s doing some good, fine, but he seems to be going about it in the wrong way.”

Laurel sighed. “I don’t agree with every action he’s taken, but it’s hard to know what kind of choices you have to make in the heat of the moment.”

Thea shrugged. “Agree to disagree. So—”

Whatever Thea had been about to say was cut off when a boy in a red hoodie knocked into her friend and grabbed the expensive purse hanging from her arm. Laurel could curse herself; she should have never let Thea come meet her out here looking this rich.

“Hey!”

The boy kept running, and without even thinking Laurel took off after him. Enough was enough.

A package wrapped in foil whizzed past her head and missed the boy — Thea had thrown one of the sandwiches. They were closing in fast on a fence blocking off the end of the street. But the thief jumped off some boards against the wall and started to climb. Laurel grabbed a handhold around the iron pole and leveraged herself up to snag his ankle before he could get over the top.

He struggled, leg swinging wildly. “Let go!”

“Give it back first!”

He kicked out with his other foot unexpectedly and caught her nose. Laurel felt and heard something crack, but there wasn’t immediate pain. Instead the shock caused her to yank sharply on his leg, sending first him and then herself toppling off the fence to the ground.

The bite of concrete was harsh on her hands and the side of her face, and the landing left her winded. Not as much as the would-be thief who was sprawled on his back while the purse sat a few feet away.

Thea’s heeled boots clopping against the pavement announced her arrival, and Laurel watched her bend down to scoop up her stolen property. “I’ll take that.”

“Have it. Jesus,” the boy groaned.

Laurel sat up and started to push herself off the ground, wincing at her skinned hands.

“Laurel, oh my God!” Thea gasped. “You’re bleeding!”

She reached up to touch her nose — or tried to, but winced at the slightest brush of her fingertips. “It probably looks worse than it is.” She looked down at the boy, who had tucked one of his arms in towards his chest. “What about you?”

He glared up at her. “I’m fine.”

“Is it your wrist?”

“It’s nothing.”

“Laurel, we have to get you to a hospital,” Thea insisted.

She pulled a face and then winced when that hurt. “I don’t have health insurance anymore, Thea. I’ll just try and make a splint at home.” Or maybe call John and ask for his help.

But Thea shook her head. “No way. I can cover it. We’ll go to one of those clinics — don’t the Merlyns have one in the Glades?”

“Uh, no. At least, I think it’s closing soon. Glades Memorial would be better.” Laurel said. It’d be just her life for Tommy to find out she’d wound up a patient in his mother’s clinic because of a scuffle in the street. And she wasn’t sure if Mr. Merlyn had gotten his way about those closing papers.

She looked down at the boy again and sighed, reaching down to haul him up by his good arm.

“I don’t need help,” he spat.

“You need that wrist looked at. Come on. I’ll cover you.”

“Thought you didn’t have the money.”

She didn’t even flinch at his biting tone, much less rise to it. “I broke the wrist, I buy the cast. Let’s go.”

Thea eyed the boy uncertainly for a moment, but walked along on her other side.

“What’s your name?”

“Roy,” he answered after a pause.

“Well Roy, I’m Laurel.”

---

Roy didn’t really know what to make of the situation he’d found himself in. But that was always the risk when committing a crime, he guessed.

At least there weren’t any cops. Yet.

The two women brought him along with them to Glades Memorial and sure enough he got his wrist looked at.

“It’s a sprain, fortunately,” the doctor told him. “You’re going to want to rest it.”

Sure, like she thought he had the money to sit around doing nothing for a while. At least she gave him some pain meds to go with her advice. Those would be more useful; he could get a pretty good price for them.

Roy sat out in a hallway. The younger girl, Thea Queen as it turned out, stood a few feet away, arms crossed and glancing at him occasionally. He kept his expression sullen. Who was she to judge him when she’d never had to work an honest day of her life either?

A door down the hall opened, admitting the third member of their group. Laurel, he thought she was called.

“Good news, my nose isn’t broken.”

When he looked up, the woman was wearing a sort of splint over it.

“Lucky you.”

“How about your wrist?”

“Sprained.”

“Well, that’s manageable at least. So, Roy, let’s talk.” She pulled the other chair over closer and sat in it. “Why’d you try to steal my friend’s purse?”

He rolled his eyes. “Why do you think? I need money.”

“Your paycheck not enough?”

Roy looked away.

“You don’t have a paycheck,” Laurel guessed. “What’s stopping you from getting a job, Roy? You’re young, fairly strong by the looks of it.”

“What, so I should be out there breaking my back on hard labor?”

“Better than breaking it stealing,” Thea Queen snarked. He scowled at her.

“Look, Roy, I don’t think you’re someone who steals for the thrill of it, or to get rich,” said Laurel. “I think you’re just trying to make ends meet.” Under her tougher getup, she sounded just as well-meaning and patronizing as the social workers that had visited him every so often growing up.

“Yeah, well I’ve found a way to make them meet. Lot easier than trying to get hired with a rap sheet, unless you know somewhere.”

Laurel turned to her friend, a meaningful look on her face. Thea Queen stared back. “Seriously?” She gave a huff. “Fine. My brother’s club is hiring. I could put in a word for you.”

“Because I want to go to work for the rich and powerful in this city? Clean up their vomit and piss for them? No thanks.” Roy stood and made to walk out.

Laurel’s chair scraped back and hit the wall with a sharp bang, and the next thing he knew she was hauling him back around by his good arm.

“You think you’re proving it to someone just because you have an attitude and know how to take whatever you want? You think you’re better than the rich who steal from people in this neighborhood just because you’re from here?” Her look was piercing, and he found himself taking a step back. “No one is going to fix the system for you, Roy. You can either be part of the solution or part of the problem, and if you’re going to take the easy route then I think you can drop the sanctimonious crap.”

“She’s probably got twenty other purses just like that at home!”

“Then keep it.”

They both froze as the bag landed at their feet.

“You’re right. I don’t need it,” Thea Queen stated. “So if you want my money instead of someone else’s in the Glades, I’d rather you take it.”

Something churned unpleasantly in his gut. “I don’t need your charity.”

“No, you’d rather just steal from me instead.” She scoffed and started walking away. Laurel backed up a couple of steps as well, face impassive. Roy looked down at the purse and his beat up sneakers.

He scooped it up and jogged down the hall, pushing it into the younger girl’s arms. “Here,” he said gruffly.

She looked at him with wide eyes, and he swallowed once. Then Roy turned and shoved his good hand in his pocket, shouldering his way out of Glades Memorial.

He’d be damned if he owed them anything. Already bad enough he was feeling guilty. Why should he care about making things better in the Glades? Nobody else did.

Did they?

[taeguboi]

BTS as... ‘ordinary’ employees

Okay so when I say ‘ordinary’ I mean as in not famous basically. This is more what I just have personally imagined them doing and I think I’ve lost that somewhat ‘realistic’ touch I used to have a few years back when I was more of an avid writer for this blog and could have an idea of their actual personalities, current likes, etc. This is also in no way a reflection of what I think they are and aren’t capable of so please don’t scream at me if your bias has a ‘lower’ role than you might have expected.

Sorry I do like to blabber on before these things, don’t I? 

I hope everybody is staying safe anyways and happy imagining!

BTS as... Masterlist here

RM

Pawn Shop Sales Assistant

learning everything about every thing

if you have an object to sell for cash

he probably knows everything about it

or at least like a lot about it

his career is in early days right now

because it’s a family trade

but he learns from the best

but asks not to be favourited over other staff just because he’s the manager’s son

like you know he wants someone to tell him if they think he didn’t get a good deal for that ring

no special treatment please

sometimes uses a bit of the old charm to get a good deal

many girls like that

some of the guys not so much

especially the boyfriends

whoops

meets his wife there

she’s a fairly regular customer

buying good finds from charity shops

or finding stuff in the house

and taking them to the pawn shop to get by and save up a little

they really click

after like the 11th visit he finally plucks up the courage to ask her out

“so, uh... I clock off soon and I was wondering if....

uh....”

and he gets quite flustered because he really likes her

“... would you like to maybe grab a coffee with me?”

and she sort of teases him to fluster him

“I don’t like coffee”

“Oh erm....”

“Just kidding”

and inside he’s like “don’t DO that to me!”

fast forward a few years and he’s got a kid with her

but anyway back to joon as an employee

has many many friends in and around the industry

just people over the years who he’s needed to contact to double check some stuff about an item

sometimes there’s the odd nutter who comes into the shop

like any shop really let’s be honest

but oddly enough, Namjoon has a calming effect on them

maybe he’s just really patient

maybe he has great negotiating skills

but if someone kicks off at one of his colleagues

it’s resolved in under ten - fifteen minutes

he reasons with people who are shocked to find out that their gold isn’t actually real gold

or negotiates with those who thought they had something worth more

or sometimes just has to outright sass back at the aggressive ones

but most people find him to be an agreeable guy

banter with his dad / manage

rand although he gets on with everyone there

there’s that one colleague that just becomes his best mate

and this mate is also in on the banter

but again, there’s no staff feeling left out or not getting the same treatment

it’s a family business

and anyone that helps them along the way is family too

Jin

Sales Assistant

in a big supermarket

stacking shelves

helps customers that can’t reach the higher shelves

such a gentleman

lovely customer service

some wish they could give him a tip

but he wouldn’t take it most of the time even if it was allowed

he doesn’t need to be paid to show basic kindness

it’s just manners really

but he doesn’t fully realise how much he goes above and beyond

very patient at explaining stuff to people

he’ll repeat directions 10 times if he has to

and he helps the elderly make smarter shopping choices

not that his manager knows that though

because he’s supposed to focus on building up bigger transactions

but what can he say

he’s just a people person

empathy and understanding levels are like 1000/10

a good bean

wish you could be served by him all the time

people purposely queue up at his lane when he’s on tills

because he just provides a friendly smile 

and pleasant conversation

“how was your day?”

and he’s not saying it because he has to

he’s genuinely interested in what everybody has to say

takes forever but becomes a supervisor

some of his workers often mistake his kindness for dumbness

is that a word, ‘dumb...ness’?

but actually he more than knows what he’s doing

cashes up faster than anyone else ever

has solid ideas to help both business and customer

and whilst it’s a bit difficult getting them out there to higher people

they go for it

from ideas about what customers have previously asked for that the store doesn’t - didn’t - have

to community projects courtesy of tokens from shoppers

even a park that gets set up nearby is named after him

he may seem like just a sales guy to an outsider

but really he’s the heart of the local community

Suga

Tech Support

the funniest you could come across

you know, if you were listening in to the way he deals with some

just pay attention and there won’t be any problems

sometimes he’ll have those days where he’s like

*sigh*

“Have you tried turning it off and on again?”

totally not an IT Crowd reference oops

but seriously that can work like half the time

used to work in some dull office

but took his work to his house

he can basically work wherever and whenever he wants now

as long as he’s got a laptop and a connection

that is the one change he made in his life that made him a lot happier

because although some might turn their noses up to a job like this

it suits him down to the bone

and he doesn’t really care to change career paths any time soon

is up to date with all the tech trends

owns one of everything

well most things

he even has like a drawer of many phones

it’s like a museum of the company he works for lmao

has this spare room that he turned into an office

which definitely could be mistaken for a man cave

the ultimate problem solver

in work and in life

like he can get a phone call about a super complex problem 

and he knows what to do just like that

or a mate has a problem with some relationship

and the reply he gives them is just wow

and he’ll have just made their problem sound a lot less stressful or problematic

loves to help people in and out of work

he understands that the people he is helping might be at their worst moment in their work

or it’s an older person desperately wanting to contact family

he doesn’t just solve the technological problems

he calms you at the beginning of the call

he motivates you at the end and wishes you luck

he talks you through the technology in layman’s terms so you can understand what it is you’re doing

and that attitude continues in his social life

he’s the sober friend when you’re crying in the club toilet drunk

he’s the friend that comes knocking on your door because he hasn’t heard from you in a while and he wants to check everything is okay

he will drop you a phone call the day after to see how you’re hanging

or just because

just because he’s an absolute sweetheart

J-Hope

College Tutor

the type that is fairly laid back

but won’t take any shit 

so go through your assignment at your own pace

just don’t take the mickey

like he will understand that you might have some personal shit going on

and he’ll extend a deadline under special circumstances

but don’t push your luck by lying to him

happy to have banter with the students

makes lessons fun

but also productive

actually the most productive class(es) of anyone’s day

he’s just one of those tutors you’d love 

because he’s engaging

and there’s that one other tutor that no one really likes

because this other guy is boring, dull, basically almost jealous of the students and their ambitions

and although Hoseok won’t say a bad word about his colleague

he can teach you more in half an hour than the other guy does in the entire year

and when you pass the unit he won’t even take credit for the significant part he played

really fucking modest

but he really is one of those teachers that builds lives

keeps quite to himself generally though

has just a small group of friends outside of the college

it’s important to him to keep professional and personal life different

just an overall cool guy

very fair

some say a bit boring

but he’s just sensible really

no one from colleges knows he has a wife

some girls swoon over him and speculate he could be single

and usually he’s oblivious to / ignores any flirting

he’s just here to do his job

he’s here to educate

and he’s here to help you

and he’s happy to help you

Jimin

Dance Instructor

yes, it’s a bit of a typical idea, sorry

but come on

dishy dance teacher whilst you try to learn a style of dance

some students may or may not purposely so bits wrong

because they know Jimin can sometimes be quite physical in his teaching

“Okay, no worries, let’s go back to that bit... It goes like...”

and he’s just behind you to guide you

nice

has his own dance school

holds sessions in the local community centre every weekday night

Monday: contemporary

Tuesday: Street Dance

Wednesday: Musical Theatre

Thursday: Tap

Friday: Ballet

the little un’s are in from 4pm - 5pm

preteens 5pm -6pm

teens / young adults 6pm - 7pm

and finally the adults at 8pm

it sounds like hard work

but dance is all Jimin knows

he’s more than used to is

his stamina is so good

and once his business as a teacher gets up and running

he can afford to put on shows 

to showcase all the hard work his students have done

every year, some time in spring

the nearest theatre in town

it’s not as successful as, say, the pantomimes at xmas

but there are plenty of family and friends of the students interested

parents come to watch their kids

adults come to watch their friends

and so on

He has so much faith in everyone

and is proud of every little achievement 

at kid’s tap class he’ll be like “wow Sally! that’s amazing! you did a pick up!”

or “keep it going Amanda, you can do it!” at adult ballet

but it’s not just dance achievements he’s interested about

the things you do in your life matter too

sometimes he can be like a therapist

pulls you aside after class if he doesn’t think you were quite as on it as usual today

“are you okay today? you seemed distracted”

yes by your beautiful presence

just kidding

kinda

and you can just tell him

he’s always there to listen if you need to talk about something that you don’t want to tell friends or family

he’s there for anything really

like maybe a teen is struggling with exams 

and his encouragement really contributes to them pulling through

“you passed maths! I’m so proud! I knew you could do it!”

and there’s always the big squeezy hug that follows

he loves everyone

everyone loves him

no one can say a bad word about him

like seriously, no one can

V

Vintage store owner

Tae always wanted to own a shop

ever since he was a kid

he didn’t quite know what it was that appealed to him

but just the idea of running a store that’s your own

that’s the dream he worked towards

ever since school

weekend jobs

errands for neighbours

he saved every penny

and invested it on the cute little building 

on the block before the high street

Not like a charity shop

well some of the stock is second hand

but that’s because it’s real vintage

actually not just vintage, further back than that

like some of his stock can be referred to as ‘antique’

anything that has history

everything in his little shop has a story

the decorative chandelier that belonged to a middle class family in the early 1900′s

a vase made in Japan that someone brought back from touring the country years ago

velvet upholstery that could have been part of a noble household in Europe

glassware from the 70′s with intricate design

just cool stuff

you could spend hours in his shop

knows a lot about antiques, collectables, etc

blink and you’ll miss if you want something there

if you see it and you love it the first time you go in

you better buy it

because it’ll be gone even by this evening

his knowledge makes him a brilliant sales person

because the way he delivers the information about an object

just makes you want to buy it

so as you can imagine, sales are always good

everyone within a couple miles radius probably has something in their home bought from Tae’s store

Jungkook

Firefighter

because phwoar

lmao sorry

wait, no I’m not

can’t you just imagine it though

the uniform

the muscles

okay sorry not sorry

a true hero 

like sure, all of his colleagues are too, of course

but he goes that little bit extra

takes more risks

he doesn’t let much scare him

passionate about what he does

can mean he gets a bit extra in other aspects of his life

because he knows the dangers of literally anything

like you leave the hairdryer plugged in a few minutes after using it and he’s like

“NOOO!”

*dramatically, almost full takes a leaping dive to get there, unplugs it*

adrenaline rushes

he lives for those

a very can do attitude

feels amazing after rescuing anyone from anything

it could be a cat in a tree, evacuating people in a flood, or a person from a house fire

if he has helped them, it’s all rewarding

just good at everything

the job of course prepared him for lots 

but he’s just like REALLY good at everything

first aid pro

ultimate calming skills

navigation and driving - smooth

excellent judgement

even the science behind it all, he knows more than enough

all that jazz

he often gives lessons to younger people

because it’s important that incidents can be prevented

he’s very popular when he makes appearances in schools

because all the girls fancy him

obvs

some guys too hahaha

and I don’t just mean the ones that are quite sure they might be gay

anyways

pretty close to being a real life super hero

like he has to work at unsociable hours

but everyone in the area knows him

there’s hardly a street he walks down without someone saying hello

and even when they’re experiencing some of the worst possible situations

he just brings smiles to people’s faces 

[pockpop]

to fall in love 03│ kim taehyung

↬ synopsis: to marry or not to marry. taehyung is ready to propose but he’s wondering if you two are even ready. includes some headcannon of their relationship 

↬ genre: fluff, angst, husband!taehyung

↬ requested? yess

part one│ two│ three

taehyung sat against the headboard of your bed, the early morning light peaking onto the sheets. you were sound asleep by his side, face mushed against the silk pillow cases you begged him to buy.

rubbing the sleep from his eyes, he leaned over to his bedside table and opened the middle drawer, digging around for a moment, his long fingers finally felt the velvety box they were searching for.

you stirred by his side from the noise but didn’t wake up fully. he returned back to his previous spot, now with the box clutched in his grasp.

he was surprised there wasn’t dents in the box from how long he had been carrying it around and how he basically took it everywhere before it found a home in the nightstand. opening it, your engagement ring sat snug and safe inside, the diamonds gleaming magnificently.

he hadn’t had much sleep the entire night, surprisingly so. the band was finally on a official break and he was so excited to sleep next to you again, but sleep didn’t come easily at all.

his mind was clouded with all these thoughts. regrets and annoyance really. annoyed at the fact he couldn’t figure out how he wanted to propose to you, how no matter his ideas, none were enough or seemed the right choice.

closing the box, he sighed deeply and it was that that made you stir again, waking you this time.

“what time is it?” you ask, voice thick with sleep. taehyung tucked the box into his fist and leaned down to kiss the top of your head.

“early, 5 something.” you squinted up at him, eyes slightly burning from fatigue.

“you are never up this early babe, what is it?” you were already sitting up, cuddling up to his side, tucking yourself close to his warmth. “you’ve been acting weird since you got home.”

“I-“ he bit his lip, feeling his heart pounding in his ears because how can he tell you that he’s second guessing everything?

taehyung slid out of bed, alarming you and you started to say him name when he suddenly got down on one knee.

“y/n, i’m really not good at this.. telling my feelings, being upfront and opening up easily... I’ve known for so long, since that day your precious drink all over my Saint Laurent coat that you were it.”

you giggled at that, your eyes tearing up a little and seeing your smile put him at ease to continue.

“that that moment was supposed to happen, that one day you were either gonna break my heart or save it. I was honestly ready for both the moment we met eyes for the first time. what - what I’m trying to say here is I want to spend everyday cleaning up your mess and waking up to you, even if you drool all over the pillows. I want to play video games with you all night and eat bad food at odd hours, I want forever to kiss away your every fear and worry, to vacation with your family and let them expose you, to have hundreds of animals and mini us’ running around and bugging the shit out of us.”

taehyung took a deep breath and opened his palm, the velvet box held out to you. he opened it slowly and looked you right in the eye, the nerves creeping up his neck and his heart beating so loud he didn’t even hear himself ask,”y/n y/l/n, will you marry me?”

“yes, yes!” taehyung grinned and jumped up catching you in his arms, twirling you around in the small space of the bedroom. he laughed as you attacked his face with kisses before finally pressing your lips together in a passionate kiss. as you pulled away, he smirked,”see that’s real love if you can tongue kiss each other with morning breath.”

laughing, you playfully his his chest,”shut up and put the ring on my finger now.”

taehyung laughed with you and delicately, he slipped the ring on your ring finger. ultimately, it was a perfect fit.

the engagement of course had its ups and downs. if you should have a traditional Korean wedding or a modern one, who to invite, who not to invite, the venue. what kinds of foods, the garments, the date.

you found yourself one night honestly wondering if you were really ready as you said you were. to be tied by law forever to someone and for the rest of your lives, you will share everything and become one.

were you ready for that? the sacrifices? the compromises and struggles? taehyung was famous, hugely and had already the weight of his team and his fans on his shoulders, but this marriage was seriously going to change everything.

did you really want to be known as the black yuko ono ? as the one who broke up bts?

the comments online were already hinting at it after your engagement was announced and you were freaking out to say the least.

freaking out so much that taehyung was surprised to come home to you twisted your ring between your fingers, a empty glass of wine near and teary eyes.

setting down his things, settled beside you on the couch and grabbed the hand twirling your ring. you watched at he took the ring and slid it back onto your ring finger, snug and safe.

“I hope you’re not having second thoughts.” he whispered and momentarily you hesitated to shake your head no, but you did. his visible sigh of relief made you look over to him.

“what? you aren’t afraid of this at all?”

“the only thing that scares me is you not saying I do at the alter.”

“but your fans and the band, I bet the company is having a field day about this. and my family keeps asking me if I’m sure and if I believe you’re the one and-“

“and?”

“and you are the one! but it’s like everyone is making me feel as if I should be thinking twice, if we are even ready for this! I mean you’re going to the military soon and what if-“

“stop. we are getting married and we are going to struggle and have the same ups and downs as any other couple, married couple, whatever. but you and I can get through anything! why? because I love you and you love me, yeah?”

you sniffles leaning your head on his shoulder,”yeah,” you mumbled out, snuggling closer to him. he wrapped an arm around you and kissed your head,”it would destroy me to not have you here, you know?”

you didn’t say anything and you didn’t need to, because you too would be destroyed without him.

—

headcannon of marrying taehyung & the married life

↬ your wedding would be a mix of a traditional korean wedding and a modern one

↬ like on a beach and right at sunset. a private ceremony because nobody was about all the news coverage and wildness

↬ you just wanted it to be personal and also so nothing could go wrong

↬ both of your families were finally meeting and even with the language barrier, it worked out better than you expected

↬ jimin was the best man and had to support taehyung who was trying not to cry when you finally walked down the aisle

↬ your honeymoon was on a remote island that he didn’t want anyone to know about but you two so it would be just yall, no social media, no cameras

↬ best time of your life no doubt and ofc lots of sexy time ya know

↬ always coming with the married goals photos

↬ has tons of paintings of you in his art room because you are his best model

↬ like you both talked about, you ended up getting a house to accommodate the animals and children

↬ even though you two only had yeontan, taehyung assured you children very soon

↬every time he toured, he brought you back a souvenir from each place.

“tae? it’s a titty mug.”

“what? i was in a rush, but don’t they look just like yours?”( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

“i worry about you sometimes.”

↬ your number one supporter for whatever career path you choose, even when he doesn’t want you working - he’s kind of traditional in that way

↬ when you both got time off, you two took various trips around the world to random countries picked out on the globe.

taehyung stood beside his favorite globe you had bought him in Australia and stood straight.

“alright my love, it is your turn to pick the next destination.”

“do I have to be blindfolded though?”

“shh yes or it ruins the whole randomness.” taehyung happily spun the globe and you reached out a hand to stop it. pointing your finger, you heard taehyung snicker.

“Amsterdam here we come, I heard the red light district is phenomenal.”

you ripped your blindfold off just in time to see him erupt into laughter at your reaction.

“remind me why I married you.”

↬you two have a wild marriage though

↬him always pushing your limits and you keeping him grounded

↬ lowkey talks about kids a lot and when you tell him you're finally pregnant, he’s the happiest man alive

↬ such a great dad, making sure each of your children feel loved by him and always hates leaving for tours that he considers taking a break from music during the first year or two of your first child’s life

↬ seriously whoever marries tae is super lucky because i see him being a great husband and so loving, whatever mishaps or troubles that come your way, he’s willing to deal with them together and always put you first

[anharmlessguest]

My C.A.R

The differences between culture as it spans across generations are clearly highlighted by the films, The Farewell and The Debut. Times change, but people are often resistant to change. People naturally gravitate towards the familiar, and as a result they do not adapt to culture as it shifts. Once the new generation comes with their unfamiliar beliefs and practices, the gap is created. However, despite these differences, there can still be similarities. Both The Farewell and The Debut have these similarities as major plot points.

In The Farewell, Nai Nai clearly does not have a very good opinion of Aiko, Hao Hao's fiancee who only speaks Japanese. She complains about the flaws she perceives in her directly in front of Aiko, knowing that she does not speak Chinese. This conflicts with Billi, who does not think her perceived flaws are important. The entire interaction shows a distinction between the older generation and the newer one - The newer generation is far more tolerant than the older generation.

Billi's disagreement over the fact that everyone is hiding the fact that Nai Nai is terminally ill from her leads to a clash between her and the rest of her family. She believes that her grandmother has the right to know, but everyone else insists that it must be kept a secret. She discusses this with her uncle, who directly tells her of the difference between the American style individualism that Billi was raised with, versus the Chinese collectivism that everyone else in the family is used to. The older generation was raised to always consider the group first, contrasting the younger generation that was raised to always consider individuals first.

Another example of individualism versus collectivism in the film is the older generation's obsession with breeding new spawn. As soon as a handsome young doctor showed up to give Nai Nai her (false) diagnosis of health, I immediately knew what was up. Without skipping a beat, his marital status was immediately asked and when he stated he was not married, Nai Nai suggested he get together with Billi. Of course, both of them were rather uncomfortable with such a sudden suggestion, as they were of the younger generation that did not consider such matchmaking to be appropriate.

On the other hand, the similarity between the two generations is their tendency to tell lies to each other in order to alleviate worries. At the beginning of the film, both Billi and Nai Nai lie about where they are so they do not worry about each other. Later, Nai Nai lies about her state of health, even as she takes a visit to the hospital, in order to prevent her family from being worried about her. Billi falsifies a health report, so that the illusion that Nai Nai is healthy can be kept up. It is even revealed that Nai Nai once lied to her own deceased husband about his terminal illness, ironically mirroring her current situation. As a result of keeping up with the lie, Billi is never able to say her final farewells to her grandmother (though in the end it is revealed that Nai Nai survived her terminal illness).

The Debut much more clearly emphasizes the conflict between the older and the younger generation. Ben clashes with his father Roland over what he wants. He is harshly criticized by his father for his desires, which is likely what distances him from the rest of his family as he does not want to associate with them when they do not support him. In the end, however, he is able to reconcile his differences with his father.

Ben wants to go to CalArts, while Roland intends for him to accept a scholarship to UCLA so he can become a doctor. In fact, Ben's parents even try to force him into the role by falsely telling others that he intends to become a doctor. Ben seems to regularly get into fights with his father over this, as the time he spends practicing his drawings infuriates Roland. In addition, Ben wants to go to a house party with his friends, but the party is occurring at the same time as his sister's traditional debutante. He attends his sister's birthday party, but after another argument with his father he decides to abandon the debutante so he can join his friends for the other party.

Eventually, after Ben returns to his sister's birthday party, he gets into trouble with his former childhood friend Augusto. The two fight, but the fight is broken up and Augusto is discovered to have been carrying a gun. Ben's grandfather, the family patriarch, witnesses this. After the party is over, Roland is himself harshly castigated by his own father for the mistake of inviting Augusto and his parents to the party, showing a similarity across generations. It is revealed that Roland was once a budding singer, who gave up his dreams and become a postman so that he could start a family in America, and that Roland's father had wished for him to take a different path as well. Roland is labelled an embarrassment to the family by his father, which seems to be a catalyst for a change in his stance on Ben's wish to become an artist.

Lastly, there is a theme of racism in the Debut, which is portrayed in a negative light. Augusto's stepfather is a white American man, and it is shown that Augusto shows no respect towards him. Others at the party gossip about Augusto's mother for being with a white man. Furthermore, Augusto taunts Ben for being a "sellout" that only hangs out with white people, which is what starts their fight in the first place. Even at the end of the film, two of Augusto's friends get into a fight with each other, with one complaining that Filipinos who were raised in the Philippines and came to America with their customs are only making the Filipinos who were born in America look bad.

Ben and Roland's disagreement over Ben's choice of career most likely stems from the poverty that the older generation faced when they first came to America. As a postman, Roland did not have a very impressive income. He had to slowly crawl his way out of poverty, and even now that he is a successful adult with a family, he is still notably poorer than the kids of the new generation. He laments that he cannot afford the fancy cars that they have, and that he cannot afford a proper debutante ball for his daughter (which his father later berates him over). Meanwhile, Ben never had to worry about starvation, and his father is frustrated that he does not take the threat of poverty as seriously as he does. Roland simply wants Ben to have a stable and lucrative job so that he can enjoy life, while Ben would prefer to have a job that he can enjoy life with. A similar discussion is had in The Farewell, where Billi's aunt Yuping has a discussion with Billi's mother Lu Jian over whether life in America or China are superior. Yuping, a member of the older generation in the sense that she was raised to live in China, emphasizes the economic opportunities of China. Lu Jian, on the other hand, has spent a significant amount of time in America, and emphasizes that America offers the opportunity for one to follow their dreams.

Nai Nai's disapproval of Aiko and the racism in the Debut are examples of the older generation's views on interracial relationships, which themselves are caused by xenophobia and colonialism. Two older women believe Augusto's mother thinks too highly of herself for being married to a white man, and this is likely a belief that stems from Spanish colonization of the Philippines. Spanish settlers were no doubt wealthier than the native Filipinos, and as such it would be considered fortunate to marry into a white family since that would grant one access to their wealth. Obviously, this belief would survive across the centuries. Meanwhile, the Chinese are famously xenophobic. This stems from their own Imperialism during China's history, as China had always dominated Asia. The Chinese believe that they are the best in the world, and that other cultures are inferior. During the Imperial age of China, their neighbor countries were always forced to pay tribute to the Emperor, and everyone outside of China was considered a barbarian. While these days family members will not stop you from marrying a non-Chinese person, they will likely consider that person an outsider.

The war between individualism and collectivism is an endless one, and mirrors the cultural clash between the West and the East. The East is very old, and the Confucian teaching of filial piety has heavily reinforced the idea of collectivism - That one should always sacrifice themself for the sake of others. Meanwhile, the West is new. The ideas of individualism were founded in the Enlightenment, specifically the ideal of Liberty - That one should be free to do as they please. The East never truly embraced that ideal, and since the two ideas are nigh incompatible, a conflict exists.

I myself empathize with the protagonists of both films. In terms of The Farewell, I would most certainly like to know if my death was coming, because it would give me time to come to terms with it so I can enjoy the rest of my days in peace. But more than that, I've personally experienced or personally witnessed just about every single issue I've brought up in this blog.

The first is the lying. When I was young, whenever I received hongbao my mother would confiscate them and take the money, saying that she was saving it for my college fund. I trusted her better judgement, and since I wasn't allowed to spend my money anyways I let her keep them. In reality, she was just giving the hongbao to other kids so that she wouldn't have to make them herself. Meanwhile, I was constantly lying about my grades to my parents because if I told them I had bad grades, I'd get in trouble. And I had mediocre grades pretty often. I wouldn't get anything for telling the truth either, so there was no incentive to do so.

Multiple members of the younger generation in my family have experienced the disapproval over interracial relationships. One of my cousins has a homosexual relationship with a white woman, and my family barely even acknowledges her existence. Another one of my cousins is engaged to a white man, and at family gatherings none of the older generation really interact with him besides my cousin's parents. Meanwhile, obviously Asian outsiders who are in relationships with family members are asked all sorts of questions, as if they are being probed before they join the family.

I have also additionally experienced the older generation's obsession with the younger generation being in relationships. Of course, the older generation tended to get married sooner - The people of the older generation tended to get married at a younger age, so it's understandable for them to question us on the status of our relationships when we're at the age that they married at. When I was a teenager I was considered to be very handsome by all the middle-aged ladies of my family (I don't know why they don't think I'm handsome anymore, but I'm not particularly interested in being considered attractive to a bunch of older women anyways) and they were always asking me whether I had a girlfriend or not. It literally got so bad that they started asking me if I was gay (I am not). When I visited Japan, my father needed to get some medicine, so he visited a Japanese pharmacy. He does not speak Japanese, but he does speak English, and a worker at the pharmacy was very helpful to him because she also spoke some English. He was so impressed with her that he asked if she was single and if she wanted to be introduced to my unmarried older brother. My father is also constantly otherwise trying to introduce other unmarried women to my older brother through his network of friends. It is very embarrassing, but it did give me a sense of what's about to immediately happen if you're moderately attractive and a person of the older generation even so much as compliments you.

Lastly, the conflict that Ben had with his father Roland really hit close to home. Ben wants to become an artist, while Roland gave up his dreams of being a singer so he could come to America and give his son the opportunity to become a Doctor. I too, would just like to pursue my hobbies and possibly even make money off of them, while my father gave up his dreams of being a singer, a scientist, a politician, and a general so that he could come to America and give his children the opportunity to get PhDs. He complains to us that he's the only one in his circle of friends who only has a Master's degree and not a PhD. Fortunately, my father has come to terms with the fact that it's way too late for any of us to get a PhD, and that he will have to settle for computer scientists, accountants, and pharmacists.

[sailor-cresselia]

Zi-O Ep 46: (silent shock)

Okay, so… last week was… oh, right!

Everything is painful and nothing is okay!

This week?

THINGS CONTINUE TO HAPPEN AND NOT BE OKAY!

Liveblog under the cut, because there was no good early spot to break it off!

––––

So yeah, Swartz summoned Hat Woz, because of course he did. Just, you know, the ultimate insult to injury. I always wonder if Watanabe likes playing this version of Woz, because Hat Woz is just such a smug little bastard in a completely different way from Scarf Woz.

And oh look, surprising none of us, Swartz is going to try and kill Tsukuyomi, because there’s no room for her in the future he’s going to write.

Hat Woz has his Future Note again – which is odd.

See, Tsukasa had theorized that the Dark Riders were being summoned from timelines where they won, but that didn’t sit right with me. Eternal was surprised to be alive again. He wouldn’t have said anything like that if he’d won, because he’d definitely have survived his fight. You know, for the certain value of surviving he can have. Not being any more dead than he already was.

And this Hat Woz knows Tsukuyomi, says that it’s been a long time… but Daiki stole the Future Note the first time we saw him, when he may or may not have been ‘helping’ Oma Zi-O, so he shouldn’t be able to have it now.

So when is this Woz from?

Anyway, Eternal gets some good hits in on Aqua while Swartz is being distracting by way of how much of a tool he is. Swartz advances on Tsukuyomi…

And is blocked by a shoulder check from Scarf Woz Ginga.

…Ah, man, the Woz V Woz fight is gonna be hard to write, isn’t it?

Scarf Woz summons a minature star to blind the opponents, because of COURSE his Sun form can do that, why NOT! Then… okay, hang on, this one has to be in script form.

Woz: (summons a mini sun)

Woz: (turns to the camera) According to this book-

Woz: (focuses back on the scene and increases the intensity of the light)

Then when the light fades, he, Tsukuyomi, and Aqua are all gone – and we head into the recap vault, where he’s got a model of Another Decade.

Woz. Woz what are you?! What is the purpose of the recaps?! Where is this vault?! Please explain!

Anyway, the recap is basically him saying that Swartz is Another Decade, that he’s trapped Geiz in one of his Another Worlds, a brief clip of Heure being stabbed and dying in Sougo’s arms, and apparently, we’re going to finally find out what Swartz’s plan is!

––––

The current team at 9 to 5 consists of Sougo (still pretty beaten up), Woz (sulking against the wall, as usual), Tsukuyomi (depressed and blaming herself), and Miharu (less depressed but also kinda dumb). Sougo summarizes one of the current issues: Geiz is stuck in an Another World. Woz mentions that Decade or Diend might be able to get them there, not that they’d be much assistance.

Yeah, I still don’t think they’re actually de-powered the way you think they are, but sure, let’s run with it.

Sougo lets everyone know that one fo the other things Tsukasa had said was that the only way to get people out of an Another World is to destroy it… which is a problem, since that’s not a thing anyone here can do. I’m not entirely sure Tsukasa actually can, either, since I’m pretty sure they fixed that little ‘problem’ of his back in his portion of the W & Decade movie. …But only pretty sure, because the season never bothered to explain what was going on with that in the first place, or what was actually causing it, because literally the only person with answers was Narutaki. And Narutaki’s not exactly known for giving details. Though, if he shows up in the last episode of Zi-O to give exposition on this season, and still blames Tsukasa for everying… I don’t know if it’d be frustrating or hilarious.

…I kind of want that to happen, now.

OKAY, RIGHT, THE SHOW IS STILL A THING.

Tsukuyomi blames herself for falling into Swartz’s trap – which. Uh. Sweetie. You didn’t. Technically, you set a trap for him. It didn’t work, but that’s because he’s incredibly overpowered.

Same goes for you, Miharu. Don’t you go blaming yourself, either! Especailly by saying it’s because you weren’t ‘brave enough’! You’re plenty brave, you did great, buddy! Again, Swartz and Eternal are both super-overpowered. None of this is either of your faults.

Enter Junichiro for the distraction! This time, he’s got salads with white truffle oil, to bring out the flavor.

Something about the ‘white truffles’ makes Woz realize something. I don’t know if he’s got an idea, if he’s fanboying over how good of a cook Junichiro is, or both – I kind of think it’s both.

(At this point, if either of them wanted to change career paths, I wouldn’t be surprised in the slightest if they became chefs.)

There’s also a nice little aside where Woz comments that Junichiro is such a hot hand with cooking, taking Junichiro’s hand sin his own – to which Uncle mentions that Woz has really hot hands. Meaning at least one of them is probably still hot from that little stunt he pulled with a miniature sun earlier.

––––

Aw, this is actually kind of sad – Hat Woz went to the overlook where he was un-realitied during Another Blade.

Sougo & Co. show up – and they’re asking for his help. Which is a: really kind of depressing, because last time he was around they hated each other, and b: really kind of sweet, because Sougo and Woz, at least, are willing to work with him.

Of course, Hat Woz has zero reason to listen, and asks what they’re going to do if he says no.

Woz, Sougo, and a hesitant Miharu hold up their belts.

Hat Woz, probably scoffing internally, says that’s not a threat that’s going to work on him… and holds up his belt. Of course he has it back, Scarf Woz. Another Worlds are made of lost opportunities, aren’t they?

I love how he’s just… everyone else is holding their belts, ready to put them on at a moments notice, and he’s just dangling his by the watch holder. Not even with all fingers, just with one finger and a thumb. Let it never be said that Hat Woz will miss out on a chance to be incredibly Extra.

He doesn’t really want to help them, in particular, but… well, he does want to rescue His Savior.

Riiiight, Geiz Revive was, in his timeline, supposed to be the one who stopped Oma Zi-O on Oma’s Day – which I’ve doubted for some time, since Hat Woz is made of smugness and deceit, but I’ll allow it.

We cut to… oh, noooo, it’s the guy who was Victim of the Day #2 from the Den-O Arc, the one who made a contract – Takuya – reminiscing at Sayuri’s grave. Then here comes Swartz, saying that he’ll make him his own world.

Takuya is pulled into an Another World, one where ‘Sayuri’ never died.

Hat Woz starts to narrate.

Basically, Swartz is using his powers as Another Decade to place people in Another Worlds, where they relive one moment, over and over again, for eternity. We see the runner from the last episode, winning his race, before time resets, and he wins again. We see Owada winning the match, before time resets, and he wins again.

By sending people into the Another Worlds, Swartz is able to summon Dark Riders – in Takuya’s case, Kamen Rider Yuuki, from the Saraba Den-O film.

Looks like Hat Woz counts himself among the Dark Riders… which. Uh. Is a good point. Most Dark Riders are movie exclusives, usually being mirrors of the lead. Hat Woz doesn’t mirror Sougo, but he is a reflection of Scarf Woz. So… yeah, he would count.

He tells the group that in order to save his Savior from the Another World, they’re going ot have to ‘cross a dangerous bridge’ – and everyone is willing to do so.

So then. Shall they begin?

––––

Cut to a beach, with Miharu watching the ocean. Hat Woz ‘narrates’ via his book, giving an ‘instruction’ for Kamen Riders Aqua and Eternal to fight.

And so, they do – Eternal shows up, Miharu transforms, and they start exchanging blows. Sougo runs up, and joins in the fight as Zi-O.

(Sougo, please don’t use your base form for this! At least use Zi-O II! I get that the appearance of the fight is way better this way, but still. Katsumi Daido is not a Movie Rider to be trifled with!)

––––

Somehow, Swartz knows that Zi-O and Eternal are fighting. He doesn’t much seem to care about Aqua, though.

He also knows that Hora’s here, and that she’s alone.

He asks where Heure is.

She holds up his feather decoration, saying that he’s ‘right here.’ Now, give her her powers back.

Swartz smirks.

I don’t know if he believed she’d actually go so far as to kill Heure, but either way, I think he’s impressed.

Probably not in the way she wants him to be, but…

––––

On the beach, Aqua and Zi-O are fighting Eternal, up until Yuuki draws Zi-O out into a fight of their own.

Hat Woz watches, flouncy and smug as always, when Scarf Woz comes up.

Hat Woz makes a comment about how he wishes that they’d take he and his fellow Dark Riders seriously – and Scarf Woz says that he’ll be his opponent in the long-awaited Woz-on-Woz fight.

(PIC OF WOZ HENSHIN HERE)

This is a really cool transformation! I don’t think we’ve gotten a good veiw of Ginga’s transformation, so this is as good as any!

They exchange a few punches, and then go into their Rider Kicks…

And holy shit I can’t believe Hat Woz is fucking dead. He got demolished by the Ginga finisher, like, he didn’t stand a chance.

––––

…

Ah. We briefly flash back to the canyon… and he told Scarf Woz to kill him. Mercilessly.

They can’t let on that it’s an act, after all.

They’ll get their real fight later.

––––

Back on the beach, Swartz appears, clapping. That sure was a fancy display. Why not do it again? He opens a wall, and Hat Woz steps out, flouncy as ever, saying it’s time for round two.

Tsukuyomi steps out, trying to pause him, saying that won’t happen – but she’s only got some of her power back, not enough to actually stop Hat Woz.

In retaliation, he takes the wall that he’d come through, and. Uh. Whips it over to Scarf Woz and Tsukuyomi, spinning it around them until it – and they – disappear, and tells Swartz that he’s sent them off to an Another World for him.

Sougo shouts, breaking off from his engagement with Yuuki, and tries to attack Swartz, but is blocked by Eternal.

Swartz tells him to give up, he’s not going to see them again. They’re going to be there for the rest of eternity.

Kamen Rider Eternal says that he likes the sound of that word – ‘Eien’. Eternity.

He pulls out his Gaia Memory, and inserts it into his knife’s finisher slot.

Eternal! Maximum Drive!

To which I, a Double fan, have a general reaction of NOPE NO NUH-UH I AM NOT OKAY WITH THIS!!

For those who didn’t watch Double, or didn’t watch it’s summer movie, “Kamen Rider W Forever: A to Z/The Gaia Memories of Fate”, That is a very bad thing to hear. In the movie, using just that one Memory for a finisher disabled all the Gaia Memories in the city, except for the type he was using.

I mean, it’s not like it would effect the watches, but it still brings up SOME BAD TIMES.

Case in point; here he uses it to ‘conjure’ what is basically a blade of blue fire, and proceeds to slash said blade towards Sougo – AND A WALL OF FIRE EXPLODES AROUND HIM.

Zi-O’s left on the ground, in pain, but still transformed, so good for him for absolutely tanking that hit.

Aqua rushes to his defense, and is intercepted by Yuuki, as Eternal re-engages Zi-O.

Hat Woz, sighing dramatically, starts up his transformation.

––––

Tsukuyomi and Woz are in the Another World that Geiz is in.

So, before I continue actually watching the scene, I want to say what I’ve been thinking Geiz’s World might be. It’s supposed to be a moment of ‘lost possibilities’, a moment the captive regrets, and wants to take back.

So… what could Geiz’s be?

I figure… I’ve been figuring it might be related to his defeating or not defeating Sougo – or rather, Zi-O. Either way… I don’t think it could be some triumphant moment. Geiz is pretty much never in a good place emotionally, because he has seen some shit, and he doesn’t really know what his goal is anymore.

Starting back up, and…

Oh.

It’s the confrontation by the river the other day.

Where he pointed out that Sougo became Oma Zi-O, and ruined the future.

In the original moment, he and Sougo fought, yelling at each other, and Geiz took off.

Here?

He stops himself after saying Oma Zi-O created the terrible timeline he’s from. He catches himself, backing off, getting quieter.

Saying that he… he fled from there, coming back to the current time. He looks so sad. He knows he has to go back, but he doesn’t want to. He wants to stay here, to keep living in 2019, to create a new future with Sougo.

Tsukuyomi and Woz watch, stunned, as time rewinds, and Geiz starts over.

This is the moment Geiz wanted to retry.

Not a battle, not the fight against Oma Zi-O in the first episode, not any of the times he could have finished Sougo off.

It’s his not saying that he trusts Sougo.

Oh, Geiz…

––––

Zi-O and Eternal have managed to change locations, and Sougo thinks of something. It was Double who defeated Eternal before, right? So that’s who he’s going to use.

Armor Time! DOUBLE!

It’s not just the reused sound effects from Double’s transformation this time. It’s actual music during the fight. One of the more hard-boiled fight tracks, the one usually used during the final confrontation against an opponent. And I love it. We won’t get a proper Double arc, or a Kuuga one – I know that by now. There’s not enough time left in the season. And that’s killing me.

But using the fight music? That’s… that’ll have to do.

Of course, in keeping with his whole thing, Daido says that he didn’t lose, it was just that the wind changed! He activates his other Gaia Memory, Zone.

This is the one that was super destructive. The one that summons 26 Gaia Memories to him, to let him use a supercharged version of the Eternal Maximum Drive. The finisher we saw him starting to use in the preview.

A nice note: Of the memories we hear the system announce, there are Accel, Cyclone, Fang, Heat, Joker, Metal, Luna, Trigger, and Xtreme.

There are a few others mixed in that seem mostly random, except perhaps Weather, who was one of the main enemies for a time, but these nine?

These are the ones that Shotaro, Philip, and Ryu used.

…Thank you.

Sougo stands firm against the Maximum Drive, and inserts a different Ridewatch into his belt.

Zi-O! Geiz!

A beam of yellow light shoots down onto the looping, trapped Geiz, transforming him into his armor, and then into a watch.

Woz!

A beam of blue light shoots down onto Woz, transforming him into his armor, and then into a watch.

We flash to Hat Woz’s plan. The Eternal Maximum Drive can destroy a world, forever. But to use it to clear out the Another Worlds, they have to get him into one.

And we’ve already seen, during the Kabuto arc, that it doesn’t matter how far away they are – Trinity can pull Geiz and Woz from anywhere, even from Earth into space.

So, it may be a gamble, but it just might be able to cross between worlds.

It’s a solid idea, and it makes sense that Hat Woz is the one to think of it. They got the Trinity watch from him, after all.

In the present, a veil of red light surrounds Zi-O and Eternal, who is still powering through his kick. They disappear-

-and reappear in ‘Geiz’s World’.

Trinity probably either takes the path of least resistance, or follows Sougo’s will. The only other time we’ve seen it used at a great distance was the incident in Kabuto, where Sougo and Woz were both in orbit, and Geiz was drawn from Earth to them.

Here, Geiz and Woz are both in the Another World, so Sougo’s pulled to them… and so is the guy he’s in contact with.

As the Trinity transformation finishes, Zi-O steps aside, letting Eternal’s kick collide with… what might be a sort of barrier point in the world. Regardless of how, it starts cracking the fabric of reality, starting right at the illusory Sougo.

Owada’s world starts to crack, and then shatters.

The runner’s world cracks, and then shatters.

Takuya’s world cracks, and then shatters.

In reality, a dimensional wall appears, cracks, and shatters, to reveal Tsukuyomi and all of the people who had been trapped – or, well, six people. Hard to say how many more there could have been… except that we can count, can’t we?

Four Dark Riders were summoned in episode 44, so that’s four of the victims accounted for. There’s Owada, who was used for Eternal, and Takuya, who was used for Yuuki. Geiz was used for Hat Woz, so that’s technically seven people rescued.

The Trinity transformation ends, Geiz seeming surprised, like he’s just waking up. Sougo tells Tsukuyomi to get everyone out of there, and she herds the civilians away.

Katsumi ends his transformation, going back to his normal form, saying that an interesting wind sure blew through here.

Casual note from the Double Fan to those who may not have watched: He’s a native of Fuuto, just like Shotaro, so the wind metaphors and comments are incredibly appropriate. Fuuto is the ‘windy city,’ so it basically goes without saying that it’s important to them.

Sougo steps forward. He tells Katsumi he took advantage of his powers, and that he’s sorry about that.

(Sougo never wanted to erase anyone.)

But… it’s okay. Thanks to Sougo, a world where only Katsumi was revived was destroyed. Now, he can go to where his comrades are.

His team from the film. Hanehara Reika, the Heat Dopant. Izumi Kyosui, the Luna Dopant. Domoto Gozo, the Metal Dopant. Ashihara Ken, the Trigger Dopant. Maria S. Cranberry, the Cyclone Dopant, and his mother.

They all died in the movie, as did he. And he was callous then, because he had lost control, but before the events of his V-Cinema… he truly did care about them. He was slowly losing touch with his humanity, but before then… they were a team; a family, almost.

And in the Another World that Swartz created, he was the only one brought back. Now? He’ll get to be with them again.

He holds out his hand, his thumb to the side. One of his standard pre- and post-battle tics is a harsh thumbs down, signalling his opponents defeat.

This time? It’s a thumbs up.

Katsumi Daido fades back out of existence, going out with a smile.

Behind them, Hat Woz laughs. He thought they’d be able to do it, he was counting on it.

Scarf Woz… wants to know why hat Woz would make a plan that would cause himself to disappear.

It’s simple, really. He wanted to save his Savior. That was his lost possibility. His old timeline.

Sauntering up, glitching, he approaches Geiz, telling him to listen carefully. From the start, Swartz has been after-

A bolt of purple energy strikes him, cutting him off mid-sentence.

Hat Woz glitches out of existence, stuck in pain as he disappears.

As Swartz lowers his hand, Kamen Rider Yuuki shudders, fading back out of existence.

Swartz is impressed, really. They all had him fooled. But it’s foolish of them to think there weren’t any more of his Another Worlds.

To prove his point, the four Dark Riders from the end of episode 44 show back up; Fuuma, Dark Ghost, Rey, and G4.

…So… Who were the runner and the other three nameless victims for?

Woz and Geiz go to fight them. Now, Sougo and Swartz are alone. Shall they settle this?

Sougo doesn’t flinch. He’s not alone, after all.

Aqua appears behind Swartz, jumping to punch him – and time freezes for Aqua and Sougo.

Swartz isn’t alone, either. Hora is behind Sougo, lowering her hand from her customary flip of her feather.

––––

Swartz circles the frozen Sougo, giving a very… ‘familiar’ speech. Sougo really was born to be a king. He will become a king, and have the duty to save the world from annihilation.

Sougo finally realizes what we’ve known for some time now – that Swartz was the one in his dream… his memory.

Swartz continues circling, until he stopps behind Sougo’s back. He’s always been watching Sougo, and now… Now Sougo’s completed the development fitting of a king. He’s collected the powers of so many Kamen Riders, and now Swartz will be taking them off his hands.

So that Swartz can become king.

The Time Jackers have always said that they were looking for a candidate for king, and it’s been clear that he’s had his candidate all along.

At first, it was implied to be Hiryuu. Then Sougo. But no.

He’s been his own choice the entire time.

He freezes.

Hora’s not impressed. That’s what he’s been trying to do, all this time? As her hand glows red, forming a blade around it, she says that she’s going to do what Heure couldn’t, and kill him.

She stabs forward, into his chest.

He starts to move again, and looks… smug. Did she really think he wouldn’t know what she was doing?

She didn’t stab him. Her hand-blade is caught in a tiny little dimensional wall – which spreads, holding her in place as Swartz becomes Another Decade, and round-house kicks her in the face, sending her flying.

He makes a quip about how he hopes she and Heure enjoy their ‘lives’ together, as she struggles to get up for a few moments…

And then stops moving.

Time resumes for the others.

Sougo turns, and sees Hora a distance away. Coldly, he tells Swartz that he’s not fit to be king.

Swartz’s reply? Why not? He’s certainly powerful enough.

Sougo’s mad. A king is supposed to make the world better. That is what power is supposed to be for!

An enraged Grand Zi-O begins to fight Another Decade.

––––

In a dark warehouse, Geiz Revive Fury and Woz Ginga Sun fight the four Dark Riders, quickly finishing them off with a pair of final attacks.

Also, Woz’s burned through some of the columns. Maybe don’t use that one indoors again?! We’ve already seen that Sun Form can, given the right amount of time, destroy asteroids, so I’m just saying that it might be a little too powerful for inside use!

Ginga being incredibly dangerous aside, Tsukuyomi runs up.

Geiz goes to her first, with an admission. Turns out he wants to stay here, in this time period. It’s where they belong. Not just him, but the three of them. He’s saying this to Tsukuyomi, and using ‘ore-tachi.’ ‘We.’ The group. And he thanks Woz, because he really does owe him that.

Woz comments that the other him would have loved to hear that.

Of course, as Geiz says, there’s still the question of what Hat Woz was trying to say at the end. What is Swartz really after?

The orchestral version of Toki no Ouja starts playing.

The discussion they have points out that all of his timing is strange. Why wait until now to take Tsukuyomi’s power? Why not when she first found out about it, confirming that she was his sister? Why attack his Time Jackers now, of all times, when he could have dropped them at any point? Why create the Another Worlds?

Woz mentions that it all seems random, but Geiz realizes – what if it’s not? What if there’s something connecting all of this?

Woz picks up the train of thought. The targets… Heure was starting to bond with Sougo. Owada and the runner were his classmates. Tsukuyomi had long since gotten close to him.

Geiz continues. He was targeted, too.

Tsukuyomi brings up a point – that Swartz only started finally putting his plans in motion once Sougo obtained Grand Zi-O.

Geiz turns, realizing. Swartz has only had one actual target.

Zi-O.

––––

(deep inhale)

(sharp exhale)

HOLY SHIT.

Grand Zi-O and Another Decade are at that power plant location.

Swartz… oh.

He flat out tells Sougo that if he wants to stop his plans, then go ahead and defeat him. But there’s a catch to it. If Swartz is stopped, then his time axis will disappear. Swartz will disappear… and so will Tsukuyomi.

The two of them – Swartz and Kamen Rider Zi-O – can’t both continue to exist, and as such, neither can Tsukuyomi and Tokiwa Sougo.

There is one other path, though…

Aqua interuppts, running up, shouting for Sougo not to listen, Swartz is just trying to trick him! He tries to use a Rider Kick, dropping down towards Another Decade…

Who simply opens a wall that moves Aqua from in front of him to behind, before using another to move himself to face Aqua.

Swartz says that it’s a shame… as his ‘belt’ glows, jagged red rectangles of light circling the center. He swings a roundhouse kick right at Aqua, in a corrupted version of Decade’s Rider Kick, complete with scattered images of cards mixed in among the explosion, some of which hit Aqua, and some which go outward along the ground to strike Sougo, knocking the both of them out of their transformations.

A thunderstorm starts, as Aqua rolls along the ground, sparking painfully, before his transformation breaks, and he’s laying on the ground, gasping in pain, with a large burn mark on his shirt.

Sougo runs over to him, the storm already approaching full swing. Miharu struggles to breath, one hand holding tight to the pair of underwear that Eiji gave him years ago.

In accordance with the OOO rule of three.

He manages to say just a little.

“For Tsukuyomi… for Alpina… and tomorrow…”

Minato Miharu, Kamen Rider Aqua, the young man from the future who was so, so afraid of his own power, but managed to over come it and become a hero… lays on the ground, in a storm… and stops moving.

Sougo kneels beside him.

Swartz, in his normal appearance once again, starts talking as Sougo glares. He’s got three paths available to him…

One for Tsukuyomi, one for himself… and the one where he becomes Oma Zi-O.

Sougo looks down, soaked, disbeleiving. “The path of Oma Zi-O…?”

The sound of the rain trails off, leaving nothing but the sound of Sougo breathing heavily, before he yells Swartz’s name in rage.

The endscreen is silent.

––––

The preview opens with Woz and Geiz fighting Dustards and a Smash. It cuts to the quartet in the lobby of 9 to 5, with Swartz saying that ‘the destruction of worlds has begun’ - transitioning into a shot of the Gaim and Double watches, in their place on the tower, lighting up and then going dark, their color gone, but the images still there.

There’s a shot of the Orion Zodiarts and the Shika Inves (Deer Inves), accompanied by a group of Masquerade Mooks, Yummies, Dustards, and Elementary Inves.

A shot of Another Zi-O II, with someone saying they will take the last treasure – but it sure doesn’t sound like Daiki, who was the last person seen with the Another Zi-O watch. That audio clip overlaps with a shot I definitely do not like, of Tsukuyomi bent over Tsukasa, who does not look to be getting up any time soon! (Please just be passed out, PLEASE just be passed out!)

Sougo says something about ‘other worlds meeting their end’, which is played over… that is Mondo! That’s Quiz, in his civilian form! There’s also a serious-expression Sougo.

Then, a shot of… Uh.

That. Is Another Zi-O II… being fought by. Uh. Grand Zi-O… and Zi-O. Regular, base-form Zi-O.

Sougo are you going to summon yourself, somehow?!

The voice clip playing over that is a deep voice. “I am the Grim Reaper – I will surpass the Kamen Riders!”

oh no.

The next fight has Geiz Revive fighting a figure in black, silver, and purple, with a distinct engine motif.

Oh no.

Then a shot of Chase.

Then Machin Chaser, with blank versions of the three basic types of Roidmude.

OH NO.

––––

Zi-O. Toei. This is NOT what we meant when we said we wanted a Drive Arc. This is definitely not what we meant when we asked for Chase to return.

TOEI NO.

[migleefulmoments]

I don't think anything of what the cc fandom posts anymore is "continued optimism". It looks like sheer terror that they're losing their game. Abby is in pure desperation mode, trying to rally the troops because she can see Darren's life is turning out to be nothing like she predicted. She can no longer validate that Darren NEEDS her, he keeps going against her. They're losing their grip. This isn't optimism, it's because everything Darren is doing equals Abby losing control of the narrative.

I agree with that they were in panic mode since the wedding but the 72 hours or so after Hollywood was announced they were euphoric that this was proof that Darren would be coming out soon.  That has worn off already and they are back to their normal crap but for a few days, they were giddy. They were even speaking about a divorce in very near future.

I am going on record, I like AW and I like her a lot.  She is team D, I really have no doubt and everything she is showing is that she is on his side and around to protect him often and frequently. 

Yes she is giving us the illusion that she and PBB are besties that love to take intimate photos together but in reality she is showcasing exactly who M is, how much she lacks chemistry with D, some really not so pretty moments behind the scenes btwn D&M (there was some golden footage from European trip number 1 includng that video from the fireworks where E is all snuggled into her man and D&M look like virtual strangers), she flew to that island to babysit, and she announced the business family honeymoon.

Keep your friends close, your enemies closer. 

AW is team d. She is a hard working, extremely successful men’s stylist with a pretty impressive client list at this point.  And while she would absolutely have loyalty toward D, as she built her career styling him, she should not be this involved. A friend just reminded me that her other client, FW is currently promoting the J/udy Ga/rland movie.  That is something AW usually would accompany her clients to, she follows D everywhere.  yet no one questions why instead of being with FW she spent 2 days in a row with PBB.

I think she and d are working together and i believe she provides d with comfort. She babysits M, she works as a buffer, and unlike so many other enablers, she has D’s back.  She is smart, she knows how to play M and her stans.  On the surface she looks like she might almost be in love with M (seriously she has way more chemistry with her than D), but it is all a mirage, done for show. And if you look behind a lot of what she posts, it is harmful to m/iarren.  

I know I have repeated the same think a lot over the past 48 hours, but I am so scared to allow myself to believe that change is ahead. And i got burned with ACS because I BELIEVED with my entire being this was the beginning of change and then everything escalated to full on disaster.  But I still think no one got burned more than D&C because I am fairly certain they thought change was ahead as well.(Again the narcissism just has to rear it’s ugly head). 

But I cannot stop myself from being optimistic and it is not just the RM partnership.  It is the totality of the circumstances. It is watching the past 7 months since the sham mockery.  It is seeing how they past 7 months were designed solely to promote her, not D, and done mainly using people only seen by fandom (her employees/friends, SK, PBB’s team).  She got the massive exposure and the press from the “wedding” and some RCs as the “wife” but not much more and has now been relegated to mainly being promoted by the aforementioned. And that is only seen by fandom. Add, for the past several months, D himself has hardly tried.  A random good pic here and there, but otherwise he orchestrated group honeymoons, barely touched her even when kissing, the jerk, bitch glare, the back turn.  D has gained nothing until now. He certainly did not do this for a show he sold 3 years ago that is being written by, like them or not, Hwood novices.   I hardly think he needed a wife to score the TB commercial. And SA doesn’t seem like the kind of guy who cares who d’s partner is, it was just a great collaboration.

And here we are, September, D is filming R/oyalties and we get the announcement that he is collaborating with RM again, not just as the star, but exec producer of a show that largely involves, based on early press, LGBT+ themes.  And I have to HOPE.

The stage is set.  D “married” her.  He has been set up to take the blame as well as his team, thereby absolving RM.  And it would make a lot of sense for RM to now step in and play the “hero.”  We know the truth. D and C know the truth.  But RM has the power to smooth what is going to be a difficult narrative to navigate. And it is a win for D&C and a win for RM.  The m/iarrens are going to be devastated, as they are so invested in being right and D being straight (No we aren’t)(again the narcissism and her soul-crushing need to be right-is this about Darren or Abby?).  And even if we just get a separation it will all be questioned. Because M is the only thing that makes him straight (not true, Darren identifying as straight is what makes him straight).  Everything else points at the opposite.  Add the press has not helped him at all on his path to come out, so it is going to be difficult to navigate.  Having the “king of television” in his corner speaks volumes.

And then there is his horrific, abusive, incompetent team. And they haven’t just fucked with him, it seems with their no queer article they fucked with RM.(Huh? What?) I really hope they live to regret it.

Karma is a bitch.. May she rear her ugly head and finally give these people what they deserve. If i am sitting here a year from now and nothing has changed, I will be heartbroken for him.  And wonder if maybe he did choose career.  I just can’t believe that is who he is. I think he is a fighter and everything he has ever shown confirms that (DELUSION-ville) thought even if there was some confusion when the fraud in NOLA first occurred.  

Here is hoping nonnie.  Here is hoping.

I think a major decision like this was made together.

Read the book when it comes out in Oct 1. I thought c references RM. now I’m near positive.

And Hwood itself was initially announced in February.  I immediately thought this was the project RM was cooking up (curious if FW and CF join the cast).  But then there was silence for months,

And the first 8 months of 2019 were a complete shitshow that included that absolute fiasco in NOLA, excessive PBB promo, ads, ads, ads, TB, and SK.  Not a single one of which were worthy of D’s time and attention.  And to all onlookers, we were dazed and confused.  utterly and completely and not sure what to think or believe.

But putting the pieces together prior to last nights announcement, logically and rationally looking at everything, it seems to me that finally D was tying up loose ends.  While I do think D himself was dazed and confused in the first few weeks after that fraud occurred, it has been clear to me that starting with the work family group honeymoon (I think of all the arrows to m/iarren that have been shot, this might be my favorite) something shifted.  How anyone can not see that that woman was being way over promoted is beyond me (Because “promotion isn’t a thing, Abby”). But clearly the 1st 8 months of 2019 were devoted to giving her everything and anything she ever wanted.  Add in SK, the biggest enablers, that are being rewarded, first by raising an obnoxious amount of cash, and now with R/oyalties with D’s writers being his partners in the business. All of these things are massive pay out.

And last night we get this announcement from D.

notes-from-nowhere

do you want to know what I find very intriguing in all of this? The fact that all of that has been said in this topic pretty much sums up what we have said in the last 15 months if not more.

The latest news only uncovers the thread that keep all of “out theories” together. Of course something might be wrong, misplaced or misunderstood but the big picture is there for all to see (No, you don’t say?).

I do think it is too soon for me to fully embrace the idea that finally things are on the right path but well, please, excuse me for my optimism after a year and a half of struggle.

I’m going to root for D to have back his life and to finally be free to make his own choices. I hope this career advancement (or for better wording: this career extension) will give him what he wants and the power to just be his fully self and spread his wings.

I will watch what’s unfold in front of my eyes with interest from now on and a reneview wave of hope. 

I do trust D is going to take the best decision ever among those available to him. My only fear is that those options may not be the one I hope for him but all I can do right now is wait and see. Hope for the best and expect the worst. Is the wiser thing I can do

ajw720

@notes-from-nowhere it’s impossible to not be skeptical. I didn’t see that “wedding” a 1000 miles away. (SMH) I care way too much (a me problem). I felt like my heart broke that day and I need to take care of me and be cautious. But I’m leaning this is good and I do think the public evidence to date supports this.

This is what euphoria looks like in cc fandom.  

It’s interesting that she convinced herself this is Darren coming out when she thought he would come out during Hedwig based on this:

He and C were very relaxed, joking at interviews when G/lee was ending, both in France at the same time, the C/ol-Fur joke, the repeated telling of mandate.  Everything seemed to point to a positive resolution.  C even scheduled his book tour to be finished the day prior to d’s last performance. and then D was nominated for an emmy and everything seemed to shift and spun out of control and here we are, 4 years later.

She “rationally analyzes” the data and comes to the conclusion he’s coming out rather than understanding he’s just living his life. 

[thiswreckageivebecome]

My Next Great Read - Chapter One.

Word Count: 3428

Pairing: Writer! Sebastian Stan/Fem!Reader

Warnings: Chapter One means exposition city; this one is gonna be a slow burn!

                                         __________________________

When it comes to life change and upheaval, I felt like I can officially call myself a professional. In the past five years, I have lived in six towns in four different states, eight apartments, and worked in three insanely variant career fields. For the past two years, however, I have been in a field I’m finally excited about and working for a great company. The previous two years have been one of slowly stepping into fulfilling some of my dreams. I moved to New York City after dreaming of it since I was in high school. I began taking steps towards a career in publishing by working for an indie publishing house as a paid intern and then stepping into an assistant editing position. I want to have my own work published one day as well, but I love to be able to work with current and upcoming writers as they traveled their own path on the shared journey. The best way to improve my own writing is to read more and more, and the more creative minds I can delve into, the more inspiration it brings me.

Life in New York hasn’t always been easy, in fact, even two years later it still isn’t and there are still quite a few rough days. All of my family is still in the same hometown I was born in. Many of my friends are spread out across the country and therefore, only FaceTime and texting is used to keep up with many of them. I hadn't had much time to visit any of them because work has kept me busy from day one. I get a day, two if I’m lucky, off a week but even then many days I’m reading submitted work, making edits and suggestions, and notes for my boss. My work ethic was what had gotten me the promotion. Therefore, when the promotion came around, the workload didn't increase much, a fact I know was a miracle in itself. However, traveling was involved, so many times I’m out of town two weekends and ten additional weekdays out of each month, recruiting, meeting with prospective clients, while checking out different writing conventions all over the country.

Thanks to my schedule, I don’t have the chance to sit around in my loneliness that often, but it doesn’t mean I don’t ever experience it. Amid my travels, I often see couples, families, or a group of friends waiting for their flights, off on another adventure and I envy them to my very core. Yet every time the green monster hits my bloodstream, the part of me that I wish was bigger, whispers to me:

You're living your dreams, girl! You're getting paid to travel! You're getting paid to read and write stuff that actually interests you!

After that gentle reminder, no matter how many times it occurred, a smile immediately forms on my face and I sit in glee for a few moments, surely looking like an insane person to any strangers who are attentive enough to notice. Regardless, I keep my head up. I enjoy most of my coworkers, while they are few in number, and make it a point to hang out with them when invited, which are a few nights here and there throughout the month.

All of this gave a reason as to why I was hesitant to apply for the opening that appeared unexpectedly with Macmillan Publishers. I love my job, where I work, and the people I get to work with, but Macmillan was big-time and if I’m going to really step into this field for the long-haul, I know that I want, and need, to take another step forward. I love Macmillan for a few reasons and often think of them when I pass their building, my favorite building in all the city, the Flatiron. St. Martin's Press, the NY locale for Macmillan, is well-known and well-sought after by writers and their agents, just another factor that frightens me. Unlike the house I currently work for, authors can’t send in their work, Macmillan does all of its own solicitings. Sure, writers can send in their work but most of the time, from what I’ve heard, it gets dumped in recycling. The search for talent, instead of having it fall into my lap, is something I already do on a weekly basis so that isn’t that scary, but I love getting submissions that I don’t see coming. I feel it opens the door for more creativity.

Despite these, what I consider to be, snags in the job I know that the pay would be better and that is something I desperately need. Living in New York, something I can’t afford to do yet, is no joke expense-wise. I have an hour and a half commute in and out of the city every single day and it makes the days excruciatingly long. With this job, I could more easily afford a place in the city, albeit a minuscule and probably crappy apartment, but it'd save time, something I could always seem to use more of. All of this is what brought me to this exact moment, 8:51 a.m., on this late summer morning to the Flatiron.

I sat on the bench, nerves running rampant. I have always hated job interviews, granted, most people do, but I loathe them with every fiber of my being. Luckily, my interview skills have improved throughout the years and especially in the past couple of weeks as my boss volunteered her time to help me prepare for the interview.

Man, do I really want to leave that place, I thought. They're so good to me. Almost as if in response, I yawned and thought immediately of that commute. I sat up a little straighter, pulled my resumé closer to chest, and put on my bravest smile. While lost in thought, a man had sat two seats down without my noticing.

"Where did you get that confidence?" He asked. I looked over at him after a second too long, finally being pulled from my thoughts.

"Excuse me?"

"Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to bother you. I noticed you all of sudden seemed to have a burst of confidence. I saw your entire posture and look change. I could use some confidence myself," he finished quietly with a small smile.

"Oh, you didn't bother me. I was just lost in my thoughts and didn't even notice you sit down. You caught me off guard is all." He nodded in thought, seeming to search for his next words.

"What brings you here?"

"I have an interview at nine with Mrs. Fischer. What about you?"

"Oh, me too, but my appointment is at 9:30. What's your work about?" I looked at him, confusion apparent on my face so he continued. "Mine is a book of poems. Poems about all types of things and people. There's little organization to it, really," he trailed off, concern crossing his features.

"Oh, I'm here for a job interview. Sorry; I wasn't clear about that."

"Oh, that's awesome! I thought you meant you were presenting your work to her. I thought I was nervous. You're probably even more nervous than me."

"Yes, that whole 'confidence' you spoke of earlier is definitely not real. Fake it 'til you make it, right?"

"That's right!" He grinned, his eyes softening. "It's my life motto," he added.

"Mine too."

"Ms. (y/l/n), Mrs. Fischer will see you now," the floor receptionist alerted me, as she stood and began to lead me to the editor's office.

"Good luck, Ms. (y/l/n)," the stranger called after. I turned, smiled, and waved, mouthing a thank you to him and then turned back to enter the office.

____________________

The interview seemed to go wonderfully. Mrs. Fischer seemed to be a tough cookie and a hard-nosed boss but I could tell it was because she took her job seriously and wanted to be as productive as possible and that was a fact I can appreciate. She got straight to the point, leaving very little room for formalities until she read some work from my portfolio. Some of her stiff exterior seemed to melt away as she read over a few pieces and I hoped it was a good thing.

"Well, Ms. (y/l/n), I've always said that you can't truly do a great job in the editing and publishing profession if you can't create your own solid work. You fit that bill, thankfully. I've yet to meet one candidate who has fit that yet. I've still got quite a few interviews lined up." She stood. "You'll be hearing from my office soon one way or another. Have a great day." I shook her hand and thanked her quickly upon her dismissal.

As I exited the office, I saw the stranger was still sitting there, waiting on his appointment. He looked up and a wide grin spread across his face. "How'd it-"

"Mr. Stan, Mrs. Fischer will see you now," the receptionist cut him off. They didn't play around here, that was for sure.

"Good luck, Mr. Stan," I said his name almost teasingly. "You've got this," I added more seriously. He passed with a smile and a small word of gratitude then got ready to step into the office. I left, a little on a high, hopped on the subway and headed for Brooklyn.

____________________

I arrived in about 30 minutes as Johanna, my boss, had expected and she met me at the door.

"How'd it go? Tell me all about it!" She practically squealed pulling me into her office. We had become close over my time here, both as coworkers and as friends, despite the age difference.

"I actually think it went really well. She liked my work, which still blows my mind."

"I don't know why," she said, sitting down in one of the chairs in the reading corner of her office, motioning me to sit beside her on the other, "I've been trying to tell you how impressive your work is for how long now?"

"I know, I know," I conceded. "I appreciate it; I really do."

"Did she say what she liked?"

"Not really. She wasn't very chatty, straight to the point, really. Granted, there was a guy there to discuss his work that had an appointment at 9:30 so she was working on a tight schedule as it was. I think that's a part of her work persona, though. It reminded me of you when we first met. I quickly learned different, though,” I smiled slyly at her before she cackled.

"Well, you know as well as I do, how hard we women have to work to be taken seriously in this industry."

"Yeah, I do, which is why it didn't really bother me as it normally would elsewhere in another field."

We continued talking as she demanded to hear every little aspect of the interview down to the inflection of our voices. By the end, she was sure the job was as good as mine. I wouldn’t let my hopes jump up from the ground just yet, however. After the chat, I rose and headed to my small office and began working, drowning my mind and thoughts with work that wasn't my own in order to detach until I heard more.

____________________

For the next two weeks, I dove into work like never before. Nerves seemed to grow exponentially after that first week of silence. I figured as quickly as they had moved the day of the interview, I would have heard something before a week had passed. However, that didn't happen, and when it didn't I was sure I hadn't gotten it, despite Johanna's persistent encouragements and pep talks.

On Tuesday, two weeks later, one of two days off that week, I awoke to my phone serenading me with Marissa Jaret Winokur's version of "Good Morning Baltimore." I attempted to keep myself on a decent sleep schedule on my days off so I awoke only an hour later than normal. I headed to a local coffee shop I loved after I got ready for some me time. Me time these days meant I worked on my writing or binged Netflix, but mostly consisted of working on my writing. After a few hours, my music halted and my screen flashed an incoming call from the city.

"Hello, this is (y/n)."

"Good morning, Ms. (y/l/n), this is Mrs. Fischer from St. Martin's Press calling about the assistant editor position you interviewed for a few weeks ago."

My blood seemed to speed up and come to a complete stop simultaneously. My stomach dropped and my whole body seemed to shake as if it was one enormous nerve. Surely if Mrs. Fischer was calling, it was good news, right? Luckily I didn't have to wait long as she continued.

"We'd like to offer you the position. I see you're still working for Akashic, correct?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"Well, we'll work with whatever schedule we can get if you still want the job. It'd be helpful if you can start three weeks from now, the Tuesday after the holiday."

"Yes, I'd love the job. I should be able to make that work, but I will check with my supervisor to make sure and I will let you know for sure."

"That's wonderful news, Ms. (y/l/n), I'll let Sarah know to be looking for your call. She will set you up with all orientation information when you call back so please do so as quickly as possible. I'm already beginning a stack of work for you after we end this call."

"Thank you very much, Mrs. Fischer, I will make contact with Sarah later this afternoon. I look forward to working with you."

"You too, have a good day."

"Thank you, you too."

The line went dead and it took everything within me not to jump on top of the table in a full-blown RENT "La Vie Bohéme" moment. I just got one step closer to my dream job and I couldn't quite believe it. I packed up my things quickly and headed home so that I could squeal, jump around, and dance throughout my apartment without the public eye thinking I had gone clinically insane.

After I had calmed down, I called Johanna and let her know. We decided to go out for drinks after she got off of work in celebration and she insisted I stay with her and her family to avoid the commute to work in the morning. It was an extravagant night, most of my coworkers came to celebrate and once we arrived at her condo, her husband congratulated me, and helped get Johanna to bed as I crashed on the couch. The following morning, I awoke to the kids jumping on me in excitement and I thought for a moment I may puke but it passed quickly.

____________________

The next two weeks were bittersweet and man, did they fly by. I had to finish a few projects more quickly than I would have liked but Johanna assured me, after my insistence upon it, that an intern would review it again just to be safe. I was glad, however, to have about a week in between jobs. Typically, I would have insisted to stay for the money, but Ibrahim, knowing how hard I worked for the two years I had been there, insisted to issue my Christmas bonus early so that would hold me over for the two weeks without pay and it would also help me put down something on a new apartment.

I used the week to search the city for a place to live. You looked all over and what was funny was that the best-priced apartments I found ended up only being blocks away from Akashic. I was glad to find this because it meant I could stop in and see my second family anytime I wanted. I put down all the cash requested, dipping into savings just a touch on that Tuesday and I began moving my stuff over, with the help of your coworkers on Friday evening. Luckily, when I moved to NY, I decided to move with very little and had purchased very little since moving, intending to move into the city one day. By Sunday brunch, everything had been moved and we all went out to Colonie to enjoy all the breakfast foods.

____________________

After the holiday, I headed, as requested, to work on that Tuesday morning, glad to have gotten all paperwork and orientation out of the way amid packing the previous week. I received a text to grab coffee on the way into work from Sarah because the intern was out sick. I gladly did since my 30-minute commute via subway was profusely better than the hour and a half I was used to. I stepped off the subway, headed above ground and into the Flatiron and towards Argo Tea, by request of Mrs. Fischer. I still arrived upstairs 10 minutes prior to my reporting time and walked around figuring out who received what beverage and snack before handing the receipt to Sarah for reimbursement on payday. She led the way to my new office, across from Mrs. Fischer and I about fell over, taking in the size of it. I immediately put on my poker face.

"Your work is sitting in this bin. If you have any questions, see me. Mrs. Fischer is in meetings all day today and is not to be bothered for any reason." She paused long enough to see if I had any questions.

"Sounds great. Thank you, Sarah." She nodded.

"I'll let you get to it."

____________________

The following days slipped into weeks and melted into a month. I was busy every single day with no downtime from the moment I entered the building to the moment I left, mostly hours after the assigned time, and it had left me with little to no time to get together with any friends or even take time to work on my own things. However, after a month, my first weekend off came across the schedule and I couldn't have been more thrilled. I worked even later that week to ensure I didn't have to work on a single thing that weekend. I made plans to go out with Johanna and a couple of friends from my previous job. We spent most of Saturday going around the city, taking in the local artists and musicians and stopping for a little beverage, some alcohol-based and some not, throughout the entirety of the day. By nightfall, we settled on attending the Midsummer Night Swing. Entering the venue just in time for the lessons, we laughed and danced, and attempted to follow along with the instructor and those around us. As the evening progressed we sat back and enjoyed people-watching in between conversations about what life had been like and what was coming up on the horizon for each of us. At one point, the group on stage announced there would be an extra dance set because it was the last night of the event for the year. They encouraged everyone to head to the dance floor for the remainder of the night and the final set. We decided to comply. As we danced and laughed, I got into the music more than I should have and accidentally barged into a stranger and grabbed at them to steady myself.

"Oh my goodness, I'm so sorry," I exclaimed loudly towards the figure in an attempt to be heard over the music.

"It's no problem," the figure began, "I have two left feet." He paused. "Hey, don't I know you?" I looked up at him now. It took a moment but it began coming back to me. "You're Ms. (y/l/n), right?" He seemed embarrassed, "I'm sorry, I never got your first name. I feel like I'm interviewing you for something." I laughed at his blushed cheeks.

"No, it's fine, Mr..." I paused, taking a moment to recall his name, "Stan. Right?"

"You've got it..." he trailed off and while I was unsure of why initially, soon enough I realized he was waiting for my first name.

"(Y/n). My name is (y/n)."

"It's great to finally put a first name with a face, (y/n). I'm Sebastian." He grinned down at me. During this exchange, the music had slowed without my noticing. "Can I have this dance?"

[rwbyremnants]

WARNINGS: Rough sex, wall sex, analingus, anal prodding, sixty-nine, anal plug, double-ended dildo sex, facial, anal fingering, coitus interruptus.

NOTES: This is a flash-foward, but as far as “epilogues” go it’s going to be two chapters instead of just one. And don’t worry – there will be other stories in this universe! But this (and chapter 43) is the last of the fully Freezerburn-focused main story, even if Weiss and Yang will pop up in the spinoffs. Hope some of you enjoy what else emerges in the near future!

=Chapter 42

EPILOGUE, PART 1

Five years of bliss followed that magical first moment in the Iron Man-styled Schnee-Xiao Long home.

In that time, while their love for one another hadn't changed, there was so much more that had. The popstar/bodyguard couple that shocked that eventful Beach Fest were now an established act together. The occasional top ten hit aside, however, not as quite as earth-shattering as Weiss's original solo career. But they didn't mind. It was a manageable and less stressful target, one that was flexible to their new lifestyles.

Ruby and Penny had graduated, so they needed advice on finances and where to apply for jobs, which led to them buying an apartment of their own. Blake's career path also eventually brought her to Nashville, where she and Sun had settled into a home twenty minutes’ drive from Yang, and that involved helping them transport all their things. All sorts of new chaos required a lot of attention…

But for the latter two of those five years, their career had mostly been on hiatus, and for very good reasons. During that period, thankfully Weiss's father wasn't without an act he could earn from. Since the untimely end of Neon's last contract, she and three friends had formed a group act of their own, one now signed on by Papa Schnee himself at Weiss's emphatic insistence. And while the lax, unhurried schedule was healthily manageable for his daughter and her girlfriend, Neon’s “FNKI” was becoming a huge money maker, taking the world by storm. It meant the couple could worry more about their lives than career paths or job securities, while also assuring Weiss's good friend still had a thriving following.

Despite the hiatus, the couple had still been in the news on occasion. Some, as predicted, were trying to pick fault over their outing, but the rest seemed to have no problem whatsoever. Yang remembered the ridiculous grin Weiss had when she noticed in one of her trashier magazines that they had been placed in a “Top 50 cutest couples” list.

Some time after the official release of “Changes Come”, their first single as “Freezerburn”, Yang had made the much-debated decision to come out as trans to the public. And unlike she feared, the majority were accepting, and even proud of her. It was a weight off her chest, especially with the knowledge that people had facts rather than unreliable rumours.

Given the changing laws, there was even less barring them from getting their marriage license before they enjoyed a lovely tropical ceremony in Hawaii, open only to their closest friends. Glowing lanterns swung from the roof of the small gazebo set up on the beach, though both Yang and Weiss were wearing lovely white dresses more suited to an indoor event. Giddy smiles and blushes never left their faces for more than an instant throughout the entire ceremony. Both of their fathers had walked them down the aisle at the same time, completely casting aside that old convention that only "the girl" got to be "given away". Neither of them looked entirely comfortable, but both looked happy.

Neon, Blake, and Winter, in an even less traditional fashion, were wearing matching blue one-piece bathing suits with seafoam-patterned sarongs to befit the locale, and the groomsmen — Sun, and oddly enough, Ruby and Penny, who had assured everyone that they didn't mind balancing out the wedding party on that side — were decked out in tuxedos with quite tropical cummerbunds and bowties. The rest of Neon's band was in attendance, clapping and cheering boisterously.

By the end of the proceedings, a couple of paparazzi had figured out what they had stumbled across and snapped a few blurry, zoomed-out photos, but for the most part their special day was kept private. There were more pictures of their reception, which was a luau during which the two were wearing original top-of-the-line designer swimsuits, Yang's with jean shorts on over the top of them for understandable reasons. In fact, the picture that popped up on the news most often was of Weiss losing her shot at the limbo contest when she fell straight down on her butt, laughing up a storm.

And a lot more had taken place between that marriage and the present day. Many stories for another time.

Their lakeside house was in a state that was very rare these days: quiet as a mouse. Ruby had offered them a day of peace while she took care of other matters, well aware that they would need as much space as they could get. After all, Freezerburn was arranging its return in style — back on another two-month tour alongside FNKI around the country. Weiss was currently making all the arrangements, writing notes and chatting to Neon herself, who'd thought of the idea.

"So we're agreed the last performance should be the Big Apple? That time of year, at least it shouldn't be snowing too hard."

"Even if it is, who cares?" Weiss chuckled, fingers flying over the keys of her laptop while glancing over at the phone now and then. "Nobody will want to miss this. But you're right, it never hurts to give the fans some consideration."

"Yeah, exactly. I mean, they'll be warm anyways with the crowd but who wants to wade in slush when they wanna see a show?" Clearly biting the top of her pencil for a moment, her eyes then lit up again when she thought of something else. "Oh! Did you and Yang wanna do a few of the signings? They're totally optional, and I know you got things to think about but I figured I should ask."

"You did need to ask, but… yeah, I think we should. I mean, if we're going to do this thing, we should really go all the way. And we've set it up with a little more time between shows, so it won't be like the hectic tours I did as a solo act." Then she smiled again. "But I'm really glad we're doing this. It's gonna be like old times!"

"Except with considerably less drinking… you were a pretty hilarious drunk but you'd be a bad influence to you-know-who now." Finally taking off the ridiculous reading glasses, Neon folded her arms and leaned in toward the camera. "So how’s life, girl?"

"Life… is perfect," Weiss sighed easily, pushing aside her laptop. "Not every second of it is, I mean, there's always little bumps in every relationship. Just, ours are honestly so tiny… I think one day we had a fight over whether or not to buy a new mattress. I wanted to get one shipped in from one of those online companies; Yang said we didn’t need it. But I mean, it was a fight that ended with us banging on top of the old one, so how does that really count as 'marital strife', right?"

"Angry seeeex," Neon teased for a moment, ending it with a small giggle, as per usual. "But that's really great to hear! I mean, we all know you and Yang are forever. Little arguments and shit are nothing. Healthy even, sometimes."

Nodding, Weiss arranged the few papers she had in addition to all the online delegating and scheduling, laying them further away and bringing her now-cold cup of cappuccino toward herself. "True. I believe that any relationship without any strife is more or less a lie – and a ticking time bomb. Better to get the worries out in the open."

Then she hesitated. There was something she wanted to bring up, but wasn't sure it would be the best idea. After all, some ancient history should stay that way. But she and Yang had been talking about it off and on for a year or so, at first only as a joke, but then more seriously as time wore on.

"Um…"

"What?" She asked, tilting her head. But when Weiss wouldn't answer, she seemed to give a friendly glare at the camera. "Come on, Weiss, I know that look. What's on your mind?"

"Okay, this will sound stupid," she laughed, even if the discomfort shone through. "But we were kind of talking about… ancient history, and some stuff that almost happened with Blake and Sun one time, and… well, you don't have a steady girlfriend. So we were wondering if during the tour, you'd want to… crash with us on the bus? It's a pretty big bed…"

"Oh." Clearly in the phone screen, even with the slightly jumpy picture at times, Neon was blushing, having to look away from the screen a moment. It seemed as though she was considering that proposal at first, but then when she looked back: "I… didn't tell you about me and Inu, did I?"

"Sure you did. And that groupie from your show in Ireland," Weiss teased, but very lightly. Then she cleared her throat. "That was part of why we considered this, actually. Plus how much you liked Yang's little video way back when. But of course, if you're not comfortable, or interested…"

"While the idea is extremely tempting, and I do still think that's a very pretty dick from what I remember…" She couldn't even hide the blush now, and the ridiculous attempts to try as she rested her head on her hand only made it more obvious. Eventually, however, she cleared her throat. "People don't know yet, and we wanna keep it that way, for now… but yeah, Inu and I are… more than just a fling. When you spend so much time on a tour bus and the other two sleep all the time… things kinda happen, heh."

"Really? With Inu?!" Weiss blinked for a moment, a little stunned. Partly at the rejection of her offer, which was a minor disappointment in the grand scheme of things, but there was another reason. "Wow… I mean, she's always so quiet, wearing those headphones all the time. I figured you'd go for a more outgoing type, like yourself."

Usually, she'd agree straight away. But this time, she didn't. She instead appeared offended. "Have you ever tried talking to her? You have her Instagram and Facebook and everything. Once you get her talking, she won't stop. It's adorable, she gets so excited."

"Well… no, I haven't; just in person at a couple of the signings, the company parties. She didn't say a word back to me." Weiss seemed most definitely startled by Neon's annoyance, because the last thing she had wanted to do was offend.

"Because she can't. You honestly haven’t noticed that as soon as fans talk to her, she either pulls out her phone or she just nods really intense?"

Shrugging her shoulders, she responded, "Hey, I just thought she was trying for that whole 'aloof celebrity' vibe! What do you mean, she 'can't'?"

"Dude, no way! She loves that people are talking to her; people usually give her the cold shoulder because she doesn't talk back. But she is listening." Soon after, she rested her hands on the table instead. No longer was she offended, simply trying to explain. "She's mute, dude. Honestly, I thought everyone knew."

"She's… wait, what?" But Neon didn't need to repeat herself. "She's a member of your band, she's a musician, so I… wow. I did not expect that." Her eyebrows shot up. "What… I mean, oh God, I've been so stupid! She probably thinks I hated her and just thought she was boring, I- I walked away from her because she wasn't talking back, I didn't know what else to do!"

"Hey hey, don't sweat it! Happens to her all the time, she knows. I'm sure if you talk to her next time you see her, she'll understand. And we'll have tons of time on tour, right?" She didn't know how else to respond. She couldn't tell Weiss she wasn't offensive; lying would do nothing. But at least she could reassure her. "Inu's pretty easy-going, she won't dwell on anything, so just apologise and she'll probably do her adorable little happy bounce she does."

Slumping down in her chair, Weiss let out a long, slow groan. "Alright… wow, I really hope she doesn't resent me too bad. And this isn't all my fault, you know; a lot of unpleasantness could have been avoided if you just somehow let me know she wouldn't be responding verbally! I mean, I felt like she was only looking and listening to be polite but she secretly wanted me to leave her alone, so I did!"

She couldn't help but chuckle to herself when seeing how flustered Weiss was getting. "Of course she didn't want that! And of course she won't resent you. She'll be fine. In fact…" Seeming to blush once again, she looked around for a moment; before leaning further in toward the camera. "If you're okay with it… I can ask if she wants to take part in that offer? Might be a little more than you were angling for, though."

"Oh, that's…" The notion made Weiss sit back and blink, several times. It was true that she hadn't thought much about Inu Shibe, not more than in passing. She'd had a few scattered conversations with Flynt, and they got along fairly well, but the other two members of FNKI were still somewhat of a mystery.

But when she thought about Inu's dyed-blonde hair, her gentle face and almond-shaped brown eyes, and especially how she was one of the few women she knew that was actually shorter than her and Neon, she felt a little guilty rush of curiosity about what it might be like, being with her in that way.

"I'll… ask Yang. This isn't the original idea, so it seems unwise to assume on her behalf, but… y-yeah, that might be okay," she began to sputter. Already, she had felt nervous about asking Neon in the first place, but had several weeks to rehearse the question, build up her confidence. This was an entirely new ballgame.

"That's fair. You want me to ask her?" But before she could even answer that question again, she began to laugh. "Wait, is this a regular thing you two do? I never expected you guys to be the swingin' type!"

"Actually…" For some reason, even though they were definitely alone on both ends of the call, Weiss's voice dropped to a whisper. "This will be the first time it's actually happened, if it does. We tossed the idea around with, um, this other couple, but we all decided in the end that the timing wasn't right. But…" Her blush was starting to rival Neon's now, despite promising herself she would be as casual about this as she could. "I've never forgotten how much fun you are. And how you drooled over Yang's video. So you're a natural choice, right?"

The blush was getting no better on Neon’s end as she was rather obviously rendering a mental image. Especially when she was squirming in her seat a little while avoiding eye contact. But rather than comment further, after the brief pause, she teased, "Think of the children."

Snorting in bemusement, Weiss finally took another sip of her coffee as she forced herself to calm down a bit. "Glowstick dipstick. But seriously, listen… I know Inu's very cute, and I’m no hag exactly, but… well, I guess what I'm saying is, if either of you aren't interested because my body's gone to Hell in a handbasket the past few years, don't even worry about it."

"Psshhh, are you kidding me? You look fine, and I'm sure even without clothes you'll look fine as well. You got a rockin' body anyone'd be jealous of."

"Well, thank you," Weiss said primly, not letting on how much that helped ease her still-fragile pride on the issue. Having Yang to reassure her all the time that she was still the "perfect ten" pop star she married went a long way toward that, and her doubts were never quite so pronounced as they had been before their relationship began. Still, it was something she would probably struggle with for a long time yet.

"Anyway, I'm looking forward to your answer. I only suggested the bus because despite the previous break-in, it's rather discreet, the new one has better locks, and no one will question why we're all in there together." Then in a still-stunned voice, she added, "All… four of us. Wow, my life turned out so much different than I expected at nineteen!"

Snorting herself, she looked straight to the screen again, smiling endearingly. "But I'm sure you wouldn't change a thing, right? Total perfect life. Got your family, your career, that sweet place on the lake… you're living the dream, I'm jealous."

"Then be part of that dream," she wheedled, mostly kidding as she displayed a moment later when she giggled. "Okay, okay, I'll drop it for now. And we seem to be all set here, so I'll have Father follow up on that date in DC and then we'll see where we are tomorrow. Sound good?"

"Can do! Right, I'll let you go, and I'll text you if Inu is a maybe or not, if you ask Yang." But just as she reached toward the phone, she paused. "Oh yeah! And, give the little one a kiss from me."

"Don't worry, I will. She's-"

At that moment, a small furry bundle leapt into her lap, and she laughed, petting her idly. "I think she heard you, Neon! Xu-Xu, say hi to your 'cousin'!"

The other side the screen, Neon was quite obviously giggling, even giving a wave with her fingers toward the small white flat-faced cat that was purring away while Weiss petted it. "Hi Xu-Xu! Us cats gotta stick together, huh?"

Picking up her little paw, Weiss helped the ball of fluff wave back. Then she laughed when she jumped down. "And hates it when I make her do human things."

"Hey, I hate it when people make me do human things too. Like getting dressed and having to be presentable when I'd rather just lay down and lick my own-"

"NEON!" But she was laughing, despite being so scandalised. "If you figure out how to accomplish that, tell me how; I think Yang would be just as interested in that lesson!"

"And I'm sure you'd be interested in watching that." Laughing again, she finally did reach for the phone this time. "You fuss over said darling wife, while I go… pick an outfit for when Inu comes over tonight. Call you soon!"

"Alright, have fuuuun!" The extra emphasis was clear in its intent, but she hung up before Neon could even so much as roll her eyes.

Then Weiss walked into the kitchen and dumped out the rest of her cappuccino. Her mood was light; the new tour was on track, their tentative plans to explore "recreational activities" with outside parties had not been met with a definite negative, and all else was as it should be. How had she got so lucky?

"Okay, the one you saw in that magazine would look great on you. That's if you wanted to go with white, I mean, have you seen some of the gorgeous purple dresses they've been doing?"

There was the faint voice of her wife from the other end of the kitchen. She too was locked in conversation with her phone screen, but unlike Weiss, was actually making sure to drink her coffee. While Weiss's call was to handle business, Yang's was to help Blake plan her own big day.

She remembered fondly how that even came to be. The rest of the Schnee-Xiao Long wedding party had plotted it without Blake's knowledge, had made sure that Blake was the one to catch Yang's bouquet when it was thrown, and have him right behind her down on one knee when she caught it. Of course she said yes; the two had been a couple for longer than Weiss and Yang had. And the several “It's about time!” comments from the other attendees confirmed it was the right decision.

Of course, now it meant all the stress of the organisation, which Yang had assisted with.

"But the purple ones will make me look like a giant plumb," Blake lamented weakly, running a hand through her bangs. "And you know I already hate how I look in dresses… can't I just borrow yours? Maybe it's not original, but it's a great dress, right?"

"If you want to you're more than welcome, but don't you want your own for your special day? Plus mine only really works if you're gonna have your wedding in Hawaii as well, with the flowers ‘n’ stuff." She took another sip of her drink while flicking through a couple more of the magazines she had to hand. Some which she'd saved just for helping Blake with this task.

"I'm just really stressing about this whole thing… and it's more about Sun's parents than him, they're all about us having a super traditional huge church wedding so they can show off the photos to everybody, and we just want you guys there at the Justice of the Peace and to get on with the reception, you know?" With a quiet laugh, she added, "But you have been awesome through all this. Thanks so much."

"Sounds like Sun's parents aren't quite ready to admit their little boy's a grown man. He told 'em to buzz off yet?" She continued to go through one of the magazines a bit longer, eventually stopping on one page. Folding the corner over so it was saved, she then looked back to her smiling friend. "And shut up. You were a godsend when it came to mine and Weiss's. And our bachelorette party was the best thing ever, told you I'd make it up to you."

"Oh that was totally my pleasure! You guys looked awesome, the party was a blast, and I've used the 'bridesmaid dress' every time we go to the beach, since I'm not much of a bikini girl. But yeah, Sun's parents are pretty traditional like that, they either want us to have an Eastern wedding or a Western one. Alternative ceremonies make them get all grumpy."

"Would ours have made them go 'Aaaaaahhhhh!' ?" she asked with a giggle. However, that did give her another idea. While she and Weiss were debating the style of their wedding, an Eastern wedding did come up. Especially when Yang knew how keen Weiss would be on it. Even if in the end they opted for something else instead, that didn't mean Blake and Sun had to.

"You know, what about a hanfu? I could hook you up with the place that did mine."

"O-oh? You… sure you won't have a problem with that?" The question was subtle, but necessary. "Not just because of that time, but I'm still a white girl. It wouldn't seem like I was trying to be something I'm not?"

Yang smiled in sympathy. "Dude, that’s ancient history. Me being mad doesn’t mean you didn’t look really good in it. And I say go for it! I know he's not really big on Chinese shit, exactly like me; but no reason why you can't ask him, right? May even keep his mom and dad off your back."

The image of Blake on the screen paused to think that over. "Well… I did always think yours was beautiful… would you go with me to have one fitted, so I don't look like some weirdo with an Asian fetish?" Then she laughed. "Even if it might be slightly true."

"Considering your dating history, yeah," Yang giggled with her. "Course I'll come with you, girl. I got another appointment on Friday, we can meet up afterward and go then?"

Alas, that was something that still hadn't quite changed. There had never been another near-miss again, but on the odd occasion, a rough patch would come. Thankfully now Yang was doing a much better job of admitting she wasn’t okay, and accepting the help. Although she probably didn't need ongoing counselling any longer, she continued to attend once a week until told otherwise “just in case” - and with Weiss and her friends’ encouragement that there was nothing wrong with mental health maintenance.

"Definitely," Blake responded immediately, nodding her understanding. "We'll have to get dinner afterward, Sun is off with his buddies doing some kind of… rock climbing thing, whatever. I mean, unless I'm taking you away from Wifey?"

"Lemme check. Oh wifey-dearest?" She turned, slightly tilting her chair so Blake could quite clearly see Weiss was in the background, making herself another cappuccino to replace the cold one she had to dispose of. Batting her eyelashes toward her, she tilted her head. "May I please, please, pretty please go for lunch with my bestie on Friday?"

"Alright," Weiss called back in an intentionally droll tone of voice as she turned the machine on. "Just don't have any sex unless you bring protection."

Of course, Blake was immediately sputtering and shouting, "H-hey, we haven't done that in forever, and we agreed that- oh, just shut the fuck up!"

But all the while Yang was laughing, even if she was surprised by the comment. They kept joking about it, even if they hadn't re-engaged in that activity since she and Weiss reunited, but it didn't stop the teasing. Even if she 'barked' right back, "Well, it's not as if we're getting any with how loud you get!"

And just as loudly, Weiss rebutted, "You ride me too hard! Especially in the ass! How do you expect me to keep it down when you're stretching out my-"

"WOW, okay, I do not need to hear this!" Blake laughed uncomfortably.

"Holy fucking shit, I did not think you'd yell about that across the room." Now it was Yang who ended up blushing uncontrollably as she went back to the camera, trying to bring her hair forward to cover her face however she could, groaning behind it.

"You really like that?" Blake called out, clearly intending it for Weiss.

"Sure!" Once her beverage was ready, she came over to stand behind Yang's chair, sipping at the mug. "Was pretty unusual at first, I'll admit, but… now it's a good alternative once in awhile. Sometimes I'm more in the mood for that, to be entirely honest with you."

Now Blake and Yang were both blushing, with Weiss the only one oddly calm. "Huh," the brunette breathed, pressing a hand into her mouth for a few seconds. "I mean, I've done it to Sun a million times, but never felt like I wanted to be on the receiving end…"

"I can't speak for those without a prostate, but it's hella fun even if you don't touch it directly…" The voice came from behind the blonde hair, still slightly muffled as Yang tried to hide away the violently red cheeks. Eventually, when the other two were done laughing at her, she did come out again, taking a sip of her drink to try and distract herself for a little while longer, before suddenly saying, "Hey, you could always save that for the wedding night."

"Good point," Blake laughed, still sounding uncertain. "My regular virginity's a distant memory by now, but the anal kind can be my wedding present to the big dope. Then again, he's just as likely to insist he's the one on bottom."

"Oh, I remember," Weiss chuckled. "He seemed to enjoy Yang's lap the few times we got him to sit on it…"

"You guys just use me as a sex toy to turn him on, I swear to god." Her wife rolled her eyes, looking off to one side. She never meant it, even if it was a very common occurrence when it came to teasing Blake's fiance.

"Don't be fooled by his 'nah, I'm not about that life' act," Blake told Yang with a slightly devilish smirk. "If you ever did want to bend him over the bed, he'd be thrilled." Then she held up a hand to forestall any comments. "Not saying we aren't satisfied with our decision to keep things, you know, separated. Just… he sure is a butt-slut."

"Yes, thank you, Miss Belladonna — soon to be Wukong." The thought was still appealing to her even now. Even if it had been many years of sleeping with Weiss and only Weiss, the occasional fantasy of sleeping with men again did cross her mind. She'd more or less accepted that no matter who her partner was, she was pansexual. It was just that sleeping with someone like Sun meant that she could still be the top.

But that would remain a fantasy. She was happy with who she was with, and happy with their current status. Even if it was only on occasion, they had other things to worry about. More important things.

"Although…"

Blake raised an eyebrow. "Although?"

"Well," Weiss began with a smirk as she calmly slid into Yang's lap, "Our decision stands. But how about… a competition? To span two nights during our honeymoon. First you and I on bottom, then Sun and Yang on bottom. And we see who's the loudest. In the event of a tie, we have one final round of the usual missionary as a tie-breaker."

Seeing that Blake was seriously considering that offer, Yang frantically looked between them back and forth, eventually raising a hand to her face again in an attempt to cover it. "Seriously?! Are you in heat right now or something? First that little ‘idea’ about Neon, and now this! Do I need to hose you down?!"

"Hey, it'd be kind of hot without getting our wires crossed," Blake admitted, though she too was still holding a hand in front of her face. "But… yeah, I'll have to talk it over with Sun. I won't tell him about the back door, since that's a surprise, but just… the other part, and see where we end up."

"Excellent!" Weiss said, cheeks only slightly pink as she wriggled more comfortably into her wife's thighs. "And honestly, it's just a random idea I had, based on… well, another conversation I had recently. No pressure."

"Okay, yeah, good to know there's no pressure," Blake snorted. "Yang, uh, you okay over there?"

"Oh, just fine. I thought we were just asking one another about dinner plans and it leads to sex contests, so I'm a little flustered, that's all." Yang instead tried to go for her coffee, even if Weiss, now present on her lap made that incredibly difficult. But realising how long they'd been on the phone, she asked, "Should I let you go? Gotta get back to work, right?"

"Oh! Good point, I only have ten minutes left on my lunch, so I should probably warm up that tuna-noodle bake. Love you guys — see you Friday, Yang!"

"Text ya later!" And with that, she reached toward the phone, giving a brief wave before she cut off the call. Then she was left with her wife on her lap, who was still smirking even with her faint blush. The smug expression Yang grew to love. "You are a nightmare."

"You have NO idea." As she shifted back and forth, intentionally winding up her wife now, she immediately transitioned into the business they had most hoped to get around to after all the other was taken care of, and using the tail end of her own call to get there. "So about our potential arrangement with Neon. There's a snag that might not be a snag."

"Arrangement with- oh." At least her cheeks were already red, so she didn't have to make any excuses. Sliding her hands around her wife's body to hold her on her lap, she asked, "And what snag is that?"

"She wants to possibly invite Inu. You know, that shy girl from her band?"

"Oh, the cute little mute girl? She wants to make it a foursome? Really?" She assumed the “bonding session” would be more than enough to ask, but now this seemed to be even better than they hoped! More to assist with, should the mood call for it – and if they paired off, no matter who with, it wouldn’t be so awkward and nobody would feel left out. Even if adding more than just Neon made her more nervous.

"YOU KNEW?!" Weiss burst out, drawing back in alarm. Then she deflated, mouth still hanging open. "Why am I always the last one to know anything?! Like honestly, I feel so stupid all the time!"

"You didn't?!" Yang couldn't help but laugh at her misfortune. She really had slipped on noticing so many things. From Yang being trans to even Neon's obvious flirting when on the talk show. Seemed it expanded even to this.

Weiss merely sat there looking grumpy and embarrassed until Yang's laughter died down. Then she continued, "Alright, listen… I just assumed she didn't like me, or wasn't very sociable. My mistake. Anyway, she is pretty cute, I just haven't ever had any reason to think about her before now since — through no fault of my own — I thought she wasn't interested in talking to me, okay?"

Finally Yang nodded, keeping her giggle suppressed as best she could so Weiss didn't have to hear her continuously making fun of her slow realisation skills. Then went back to the subject again. "Yeah… Inu is pretty fucking cute. Would be a good tale."

"Just imagine," she continued softly, settling in against her once more as she gazed up at the ceiling. "Two months of unrestricted exploration with two women as gorgeous as them… and then, when the tour is over, back to our lives like nothing ever happened. No strings."

"Yeah? Well, that does sound pretty interesting…" Even if she wasn’t totally sure about the ‘no strings’ part working. After all, Blake had still acted a little weird around her for a year or so after their ‘no strings’ romps. She pulled Weiss slightly more towards her, lightly groping the ass cheek as she looked up with a slight smirk of her own. "And after two years of worrying about volume, will be nice to just cut loose and forget about it."

Biting her bottom lip, Weiss allowed her eyes to close as she relished the gentle sensations of pleasure, thrived upon them. "Mmm… yeah, and Neon can get pretty loud. Not as loud as me, though. And…" She sighed, though she began to rub her hand up and down Yang's shoulder through her orange t-shirt. "I am sorry that it makes it so hard for us to… to do you-know-what lately. But when you really get me going-"

"Yeah, have you at least thought about the ball gag?" She smirked teasingly, continuing to stroke her backside and keep grasping on occasion, lightly shrugging the shoulder that Weiss was stroking. "So we don't have to worry about it. Last thing we want is tiny feets walking into the room to see what's up with all the racket."

At that moment, Xu-Xu meowed and came up to them, and Weiss blinked down at her. "Silly kitty. Hmm… you may have a point. Let's adjourn to our bedroom." As she stood, she added, "And we talked about all that ball gag and BDSM stuff, and I told you that I am not interested! Handcuffs are kinky enough for me!"

"I never said the rest! Literally just the gag, for noise reasons!" She laughed, taking her hand and following her straight away. As they turned the corner to head up the stairs, however, Yang spared a small wave to Xu-xu, putting on a babying voice. "And you're going to stay down here and be a good girl! Yes you are, yes you are!"

"Or we'll get out the spray bottle again, yes we will, yes we will!" Weiss said in the same cloying tone. Of course, the cat knew no difference in their words, and simply blinked up at them curiously.

Once they were in the room, Weiss kicked the door shut with her heel and whipped her white blouse off so fast that a few buttons popped free, forever ruining it unless she took the time to sew them back on. Which she likely wouldn't. And Yang quickly threw off her top in response, already reaching behind herself to unclasp her bra. It seemed like forever ago that the cast stopped her before. In fact, she could barely remember it at all.

When she threw the bra among their shirts, Yang spared a glance to the digital clock on their bed side table. Three PM. "We got one hour before Ruby gets here. Ready to race?"

"PAH!" Weiss burst out as she shucked her yoga pants and panties all in one go. "We both know that we can get so much done in an hour, it's not even funny!" Then she fluffed out her hair once she was standing there entirely nude. "Now then… what are you gonna do to your 'princess'?"

Still unbuckling her belt and shorts, she was trying to shuffle them and her underwear down as quickly as she could, quickly pushing her own hair up and out her face. Seemed Weiss's lap sitting and teasing had completely paid off, considering Yang was already semi-erect out of the gate.

"Oh I don't know… There's so many things I could do. Maybe I should pin you up against a wall; or bend you over the bed…"

"The wall?" Weiss gasped, face lighting up in excitement. "Wow, we haven't done that since… Belize, I think it was." She began to stride forward. "Do it, if you think you can."

Moving forward to meet her, Yang grasped her arms right away, using them to push her back into the nearest wall with no hope of release. "Don't think I won't," she said with a smirk, before dipping to kiss her more firmly. It'd been so long, no wonder they were each so desperate to rough one another up in the sheets. Or against the nearest flat surface, in this case.

"Nnhhh!" Weiss groaned against the lips crushing down on hers, already feeling Yang's hardness getting harder up against her curling hairs. There was a reason she did not take as much care trimming them lately, but she would reinitiate her beautification rituals from back in her solo tour days soon enough, when she and Yang were on the bus. With or without Neon and her silent companion.

Satisfied she was pinned long enough, her hands released Weiss's wrists, instead moving down her body while they kissed up a storm. Tongues battling, bodies grinding against one another firmly; just like their adrenaline filled days on tour. When they had their moments, it never really changed. Sure, they sped things up by removing their own clothes rather than each other's, and protection was no longer an issue; but in that sense, the two of them never truly grew up. They adored their time together.

"God, your rocket is already clearing the launch pad," Weiss half-laughed, half-groaned as she leaned her neck to the side to allow Yang to have her way with it. But she didn't mind; that was the goal, after all. To enjoy each other with their stolen moment.

"Always is for you." But she immediately fell to biting and suckling without a single care as to who saw the mark afterward. By now neither of them did; anyone who had a problem was simply laughed at by Yang. One hand was brushing it's way over her body, brushing to the small area above the hair. A finger seemed to stroke over something in particular; a scar that wasn't there before. It was only a slight bump of skin, but all the same, Yang fussed over it. Breaking from her kiss to whisper, "Because who can resist your gorgeous body? This included."

Weiss froze and looked away. Collected herself, suppressed strong reactions that wanted to take over the mood. It didn’t take as long as it had once upon a time, and a few seconds later, she was already looking back to Yang, smiling a small, coy smile.

"Apparently, not you," she whispered gratefully.

Noticing the slight funk in her mood, she moved the hand to her hips. Once her diva was smiling again, she brushed that hand downward, pulling Weiss's leg up against her rather firmly. "Are you kidding me?" she asked, pecking at her neck once more. "I don't stand a single chance of turning up my nose at this beautiful prize."

Another sigh, one of great need, escaped Weiss as she hitched herself up higher, wrapping her legs around Yang and locking them at the ankles to help support her weight. Between that and the wall, they were able to keep her weight upward. The thickness grinding up against her clit was delectable, but she couldn't wait to get more out of Yang than just that.

"Fuck me hard," she urged, pressing her cheek urgently against the crown of her head. "Mmhhh… more!"

"You got it, princess." Not lingering to tease further, she drew her hips back, sparing a hand to line herself up with the entrance of her lover's body. Then she surged forward, releasing a needy moan when she felt her length enter the warm, wet folds. The hand returned to her ass to support her again before she set to work. They hadn't time to waste, and were eager to enjoy their precious hour.

Screams of pleasure erupted the instant she felt herself being filled by her wife, head thrown back in ecstasy, arms coming up to wrap around Yang's back as she shifted her hips back and forth. Already, she felt ready to burst — and they had been at it mere seconds! At this rate, they would not only finish, but have time for an episode of Jessica Jones.

It was a good thing they were somewhat alone in the house with the volume of those moans. Not that Xu-Xu would bother them, thanks to the closed door. There was one occasion where the ball of fluff thought it appropriate to hop and curl up on the bedsheets above the couple, despite them quite obviously playing with each other underneath – even trying to pounce on certain bumps under the sheet. Needless to say, it was still a hilarious encounter.

Yang's own moans were simply desperate with need. Pumping herself in and out at a hard and fast pace, she bit her own lip to try and prevent them becoming too loud. For the sake of her own sense of pride more than anything. And Weiss was already fast approaching her own finish. Could she really have been this hard up for time spent alone with Yang? They should never have let themselves get this busy, this often; she would have to start setting aside more time for them to get wild and uninhibited.

"NNhhah! Yang, you're so… GOD, I needed this!"

She'd barely started, but could already feel the telltale signs her wife was about to finish. Not this soon already, she needed more time. Playing this into the game, she leaned in close and purred, "Don't you dare come. I'm not done with you yet."

A little thrill shot down into Weiss’s stomach; she loved when she was forceful. Just enough of a thrill, being commanded like that… and besides, she wanted to see how much better she could feel if she held out longer. Nodding her understanding, she tried to suppress the onslaught of pleasure that the thrusting was bringing her, licking her lips as she was bounced up and down against the wall. Yang was like an animal, unhinged and wild, desperately set on one thing and one thing only. There was a moan each time she pushed deep into her lover's body, feeling as Weiss's muscles twitched in a desperate attempt to hold off. She knew she wouldn't be able to for long, but hopefully enough time so she could find her own release. Which at this rate was building fast.

Alas, Weiss couldn't manage it any longer than that. All she had time to pant was, "K-keep going, don't stop!" before she was already riding out an orgasm unlike any she had felt in weeks. It was as sudden as it was intense.

And Yang didn’t stop. She continued to pump fast and hard, even when Weiss's muscles were trying to clamp onto her member, trying to get something out of it. The build up was quick, but getting to the finish line wasn't quite as quick at arriving.

Or arriving at all. An annoyed groan later she stopped, slipping herself out of Weiss's body. Her member was still hard, and now more or less dripping with Weiss's juices but even that wasn't enough.

"It's no good… I can't quite get there. Damnit."

"Now I… remember why we haven't done this in a while," Weiss laughed breathlessly as she was slowly let down to stand on her own. "Takes too long. Take me to the bed."

As she had become accustomed to Yang throwing her over her shoulder, it had happened so many times, she didn't even truly ask about it anymore. Which was exactly what happened; Yang lifted her up and over, quickly pacing toward the bed while she still had herself in its full glory. There was no way she wanted that to fade yet, not when they were barely fifteen minutes into their hour. While they both giggled, she tossed Weiss down into the plush mattress, about to climb on top of her when…

She paused, spying the bedside drawer. And remembered something they hadn't done in a long long time. It'd been the initial subject of her phone call with Blake, ironically enough, yet she could barely remember the last time they tried. Pausing as she was straddled over Weiss's hips, she asked, "What about… you taking me?"

"How about you taking me?" Weiss playfully teased, but she wasn't truly going to ignore her wife's request. Instead, she thumbed over her shoulder at the table. "Go on, get your best friend, but… I want you to play with me a little more first, if that's alright."

"That can easily be arranged…" She grinned, crawling over her petite wife to get to the bedside drawer. Shuffling through the various things placed in there to hide the particularly raunchy items, she pulled out the bottle of lubricant first, and then hesitated. "Hmm… double-ender, or you want me to just hit your clit this round?"

"Ooh, you're so playful today… I can't decide." Her smile was genuine; this was a lot of fun for her. "Get a few toys out and we'll figure it out later. Right now… just use your tongue. God, I miss that tongue…"

Nodding in agreement with her wife, Yang did as she was asked, pulling out the few toys they had. Their first, the icey blue friend from that video together, a double ended yellow one, a butt plug and a small vibrator. Then she went back to work. Climbing down her lover's body, she left a trail of kisses down the soft delicate skin, hands grasping her legs to prise them apart. All Weiss did was stretch out luxuriously, a contented smile on her face. Having just climaxed, she really loved having that moment to simply bask in the worship, to let Yang's lips graze over her…

Even her soft thatch of hair, which she had flinched at earlier. It did not happen a second time; she merely moaned slightly lower, loving how much her bodyguard loved her as she began to glide her toes up and down Yang's hips and thighs, trying to repay the attention in some small way. They had plenty of time to spare, plenty of time to slow down and give attention to Yang’s favourite body in the world. Even if Weiss was touchy about certain areas these days, Yang wasn’t. She would lavish the faint marks with attention, kissing continuously, all the way along the length of it.

"You've given me so much," she seemed to whisper directly to the skin, kissing one more time before she started to make her way lower. "Allow me, princess, to give back."

"Anytime," she responded, with tears of gratitude in her eyes. They wouldn't quite fall, she was past that by now, but they always welled up slightly when Yang was so considerate.

And then the eyes fell closed with a sigh of pleasure when lips hit home. "Ooh…"

This time, Yang treated her lover’s flower it with delicate care. A huge contrast between the rough treatment she'd given it not even five minutes ago. Not wanting to disappoint, she allowed her tongue to dip between the lips. Arching her back into the contact, Weiss allowed her legs to come to a rest on Yang's hips while the tongue worked its magic. Even though she had already finished, she wanted more; always more from Yang, she needed it! Licking her lips, her idle hands came up to squeeze her own chest, hoping to coax that much more pleasure from the moment.

Feeling her lips curl into a smile, she continued to savour the flavours of her lover, kissing and licking and dipping her tongue all around the softer skin. Occasionally she made sure to raise her tongue more than usual, flicking it across the surface of the delicate nub at the top. Just enough to give her a taste of what was to come. Every instant that the wet muscle met her nub, the diva bucked upward, as if chasing the sensation. And in a way, she was, though at the same time she also relished the chase, and welcomed waiting for Yang to pursue her again.

Lightly smirking this time, she waited for when Weiss seemed to be unsuspecting… and then did it again. And she continued that pattern, waiting until her guard was down before attacking. It wasn't until the fifth time it happened that she started to giggle, looking up to her from below with a cheeky grin.

"Stop teasing!" Weiss gasped breathlessly, bringing her heel down on Yang's back. "You're… so bad!"

"I know." She giggled, wincing at the brief pain from the kick. "But you already came once. That's not fair."

"And I'd want you to come five or six times if it was possible, but… we know there's only one way you can technically do it twice." Reaching over blindly, she was finally able to pick up and present Yang with the correct implement; the yellow one. "Care to… share the banana?"

She rolled her eyes, hitching herself up to take it from her. "And here I thought you were gonna treat me. Rude." But there was still a smile on her face when she crawled over again to fetch the bottle of lube, sitting it by Weiss's side for a moment so she could prepare the rest. Holding the 'giving' end toward her, she smirked. "Open wide."

Amused, she did as Yang asked — to the best of her abilities. Though Weiss may have been complaining about her aging body a few minutes ago, it wasn't as if she was taking the passage of time lying down; she was still in damn good shape. She curled her abdomen inward, reaching down and clasping her ankles to pull her feet up and position them behind her head.

"Is… this wide enough?"

Every time, Yang was amazed at the displays Weiss put on for her. She remembered how flexible Blake was, but when she told Weiss that, she was determined to beat her. And that training seemed to pay off, certainly now more than ever.

"It's good… But." She held up the dildo again, looking between it, and where it would be pushed into. "You're making this difficult to put on."

"Too bad," Weiss goaded with a grin, obviously clenching her hindmuscles. "Let's see how you pull this off; I'm curious now."

"Geeze, you make this difficult," she groaned, looking toward the now-tightened opening of her lover again. This position was going to make it so much more filling for her, but also so awkward for Yang to work with. Still, she was up for the challenge. Shuffling toward her target, she held up the yellow cock, slowly lining up the end of it with her entrance. Gradually, she pushed it up against her, slowly applying more pressure to push it inside.

"Ohhhh, that's what I like," the diva groaned in an almost obscene voice, eyes closing in bliss at the feeling of the length filling her. None of the toys were that small, but the thing she liked about this end of the yellow one was that it was just about the same size as Yang. Meanwhile, the other end… well, that was quite a bit larger.

Once it was fully slid inside, Yang took a long look at her while holding up the straps on either side. Which was making it increasingly difficult to determine how she would do it. She couldn't thread it around herself like normal, or move her legs much from that position. Eventually, she just blushed and let out a whine of annoyance.

"Stop ogling and start strapping," Weiss taunted. But when Yang only scratched her head, she rolled her eyes and lowered her legs with a slight grunt, pushing her hips up off the bed. "Is this easier for you?"

"Was that so hard to do instead of just showing off, Mrs Flexible?" she asked sarcastically, finally getting back to work now she could reach things properly. Strapping the ends around both her legs to keep it in place, she was finally ready to take her.

Of course, while Yang waited for a response, she was also looking at the much bigger end. The one she'd be receiving. It was slightly bigger than their icey blue friend in width, but Yang assured Weiss she could handle it. And a handful of times, she certainly did. Still, the sight was always one that made her weak in the knees.

Licking her lips as she watched Yang gaze at the opening, unbelievably turned on by the notion, Weiss couldn't resist any longer. Voice husky and needy, she whispered, "Hand me that lube and get your ass over my face. You have no idea how much I want to get you ready for my cock."

Immediately, Yang’s blush doubled. She looked in shock back at Weiss again, barely able to believe how forward she was being today. But she loved it and wasn't about to argue. Still needy herself, she did just as she was asked, handing the bottle straight over and climbing toward her, turning herself around once close enough so she'd present herself.

"Whatever you say, princess."

"Don't act like we don't both know how much you love it," Weiss breathed, taking in the glorious sight. Perhaps she didn't speak this plainly all the time, and it had been a while since they got to have a good, long session like this, but she had made no secret of how much fun she found toying with the tight little opening below her lover's organ.

Which was partly why she wasted no time in drawing it down closer, pressing her lips up against the tightly-puckered skin with a contented little mewl. And why Yang bit her lip, suppressing the shaky moan that attempted to escape. The fact she hadn't yet come was really taking its toll on her, making her grow desperate with desire and lust. She could even feel the slight chill from where it was still wet with her wife’s essence. But if only she could place such wetness to the opening Weiss required.

At least she knew her lover would handle that with the lubricant. She enjoyed doing that, and often insisted she'd do it over Yang herself.

However, the smaller woman was still engaged in prelubrication. As her thumb flicked open the bottle next to her, the other hand kept Yang's hips still as she pressed her tongue up against the ring of muscle as hard as she could, trying to worm her way inside without any forewarning or coaxing.

"NNNN!!! Jesus, is it even possible to work out with your t-tongue?!" she asked, trying to suppress the moans once more as she let Weiss do her work, feeling the attempts to push inside very easily. Grasping the bedsheets tightly for a moment to try and hold on, she slowly looked backwards at what was happening, barely able to keep herself contained. The moans into the skin were completely uninhibited, but she didn't take long to fully enjoy them before she was bringing up the bottle and drizzling the clear liquid onto where her tongue had just opened very slightly.

"Do you have any idea how much I wish we had more time than we do today?" she sighed shakily as she brought one fingertip up to rest against the slicked skin, pressing in gently. "It's been like, five seconds, and I miss the taste of your ass already… weird as that sounds, I know."

"I never said it was weird when you first admitted you liked the taste, I sure as hell ain't gonna start saying it now." Hanging onto the sheets even still as she felt the tip begin to slide inside, she let out a moan of her own, grinning in sheer delight as her finger easily penetrated it, and teasingly began to open her up. "Thaaaaat's it, right like that…"

Biting her lip — partly just because she was enjoying participating in the show, but partly to further enjoy the lingering taste of Yang on her lips — she watched as her finger slid all the way into the tight little opening, looked on in detached wonder as it drew out again. Feeling some resistance, she raised the bottle and added a little more, letting it start to drip down around the sides before she pushed again. A few more repeated attempts, and it was flying in and out of Yang freely.

She knew her weakness too well. Sure, getting her dick off was good, but this had her wife singing. Each time the finger slid inside, she couldn't hold back, letting out yet another needy moan into the air. And now it was going at a rapid pace, it was becoming very difficult not to jerk herself off whilst this was happening.

Speaking of which… Holding her hand back, she tried to stop her moans a moment, asking, "The bottle… Lemme prepare you."

That made Weiss pause entirely. "Oh, you… want to prepare me, too?" Her abdomen clenched, which Yang would have to be completely overtaken by the throes of the teasing in her hindquarters to miss. Gulping, she glanced over at the black plug; it had been so long since they used that, and with good reason. It was not at all petite. Her secondary entrance was only used to Yang being in there, and not the wider girth of said toy.

"Yeah, make things slide all the more easier," Yang explained. Although she noticed the clenching, and sudden anticipation when it came to her suggestion, she hadn't seemed to have guessed what Weiss was thinking. Only moving one of her hands to the banana for a moment. Seemed they were both on a slightly different page and didn't realise it.

Gulping at the thought of being double-penetrated for only the second or third time in her life, and the first with the hefty plug they had purchased primarily for Yang's needs, Weiss nodded and reached over to grasp it, passing both it and the bottle to her wife.

"Okay, j-just… just go slow?"

"…W-wait, what?" Suddenly appearing to have noticed what Weiss was implying, she looked at the items being handed to her. All she had expected was to be taken herself with the other end of the strap on, and then to put the rest away. Now Weiss wanted to use that as well? She really did want to cram everything into one hour. "You serious? You want this?"

"Yeah! I mean… wait, was that not what you were talking about?" Letting out a weakly nervous laugh, she licked her lips and said, "O-oh. Wow, I guess I really have ass on the brain." Then she giggled and said, "Does that make me a butthead?"

Chuckling to herself, Yang crawled forward and away from Weiss's finger at last, shuffling forward enough to prepare things down below. "Yep, it sure does. But who can blame you, it's been a while." Bringing the bottle up into her hands, she squeezed a hearty helping onto the yellow dildo first, getting right to work as she stroked it up and down, thoroughly soaking the entirety of what wasn’t inside her wife. There were times where she'd make her grip rather tight, enough to make the other side pump in and out of her.

Then she let a little more drizzle down between Weiss’s cheeks. Once the bottle was set down, she slid a finger into her – all at once. By now, they both knew her princess’s ass could take that with almost no effort. It pumped in and out of her until she felt the muscles give, ready to receive more.

"Mmhhh," Weiss sighed, allowing her eyes to close from the dull pleasure of the twin sensations. "Yeah… jack me off, you beautiful woman. Make your man proud."

Smirking to herself, she continued to coat the length as wet as she could. That in addition to how wet her own opening was, thanks to Weiss, she knew this would be an easy and smooth ride. Now it was her turn. She looked over her shoulder to deliberately check Weiss was looking, holding the large plug into her view. Then with the other hand, she squeezed a large helping of the liquid all over it. "And does my man… want his butt to be claimed?"

The fleeting relief that Weiss had felt when the attention returned to the "banana" was now draining away as she stared at the implement again. Her lips parted, and she had intended to go ahead and tell her wife that maybe they shouldn't bother tonight. That she liked the idea, but wanted to work up to it gradually; worry about the huge thing another time.

What came out was, "Yes."

However, Yang noticed the worried expression. It was true that they didn’t play with Weiss’s butt nearly as much as the other way around – well, with the exception of Yang claiming it with her cock. But she could give her the choice. Turning around to line her cheeks up with the phallus, she placed the plug down a moment to pick up the last toy she'd picked out. The vibrator. It was a lot smaller in comparison, however, if she was already penetrated in one hole, it would be plenty.

"Seriously, we can just use this baby instead if you don't want the plug. I know it's fucking huge; not the biggest on the market, but a lot to take up the ass."

"Maybe I want you to use both," she joked, not even laughing or smiling at the quip as she considered. "But… no, we have to use a plug; the other thing would fall out once I start fucking you." Then she took a deep breath. "You've opened up my ass a hundred times. I think I'm ready to… at least try this thing. See if I can take it. And if it doesn’t work, that’s fine."

"Well, alright, Princess." And here she was thinking she could get her end, but Weiss was so insatiable she needed more – and what Weiss wanted, Weiss got. Retrieving the plug again and putting the vibrator back, she climbed down once again to between Weiss's legs. Pressing the tapering end of the well-lubricated silicon between those cheeks, she lined it up with the slightly-loosened ring of muscle, starting to rotate around it to open her.

"Ohhhh God," Weiss breathed shakily, cheeks moving from side to side at the sensation. "Oh, I hope I open right up for it…" But already, she loved the sensation against her skin; she knew she would, she always had. It was only the thought of how much pressure was about to befall the tightly-puckered opening that kept her from letting go to enjoy the magic befalling her body.

When she felt Weiss relaxing more, Yang began to push pushing harder, rolling the plug around to open her up as much as possible. Easing gently, bearing in mind how much bigger it was toward the base than Yang’s cock. Pressing her cleaner hand to her face, Weiss panted with the effort of not crying out at the intensity. It was so big! Too big, possibly, but it was only about halfway inside of her. Maybe this wouldn’t work, but how would she know if she didn't try? Part of her said that she should be taking out the yellow one while trying this, but somehow, it was also making it easier to take; the whole area being stimulated made her muscles feel more alive, ready for anything. And this certainly qualified as "anything"!

"Doing okay?" she asked, pushing more of it inside even firmer. It was beginning to surpass the width of the strap on itself, the bigger end that Yang was going to take, gradually getting even wider. Still taking in the sight, she could barely believe how much her petite girlfriend could handle.

"WAIT!" Weiss finally gasped out when she felt the pleasure very slightly starting to edge closer to pain – a warning sign both women had learned to heed after a few unfortunate incidents. "Just… it needs a second to catch up!"

“Okay.” Holding it still again, her bodyguard gazed in awe at just how much she had taken already. Above halfway; and only a tiny amount to go. But still, she looked back up to try and catch her expression. "You're like, a finger's width off from the end, y'know. You gonna be okay?"

A weak nod. "Y-yeah… but if you kept going before… I think it would have been bad." Swallowing, she brushed her bangs away from her face; they were beginning to stick. "Can you… twist it a little, stimulate the skin?"

Tilting her head in response, she turned her hand slowly around, spinning the plug within her, inside the right ring of muscle it was forced into. "Like this?"

"NNhhhhhHH! More lube!" she demanded weakly, though her legs were shifting this way and that in extreme pleasure. Even if she might need more lubrication, it being rough was definitely not making her change her mind.

Drawing a very small amount of the plug back out again, Yang went to grasp the bottle, squirting a hearty helping around her skin, and the length itself. Managing to rub it against both, she attempted again, turning the plug around and around to spread the coating evenly.

"Ohhh… okay, I think… yeah, we're good now, it's good… thank you, baby." Her eyes were full of love for the bodyguard suddenly, lips turned up into an adoring smile even as she panted with the effort of weathering the bullet being ground past her defenses.

Nodding, she smiled back for a moment before getting right back to it. Slowly she pushed her hand forward again, stretching Weiss out wider and wider… back to where they were at before, and beyond, until she finally felt the skin accept the rest of it, releasing as the grip took the entire plug in for her and the base sat against her backside.

There was a little "AH!" from Weiss at the plug going all the way in, and then she relaxed completely. "Oh… ooh… oh that feels… interesting…" The two masses inside of her were pressing into one another through the membranes of her body, and it was not an altogether unpleasant sensation. Just a new one.

Simply taking a moment to stare, Yang was blushing anew yet again. Her lover, now with her bigger sized plug inside her dark opening, was ready to go. Phallus lubed up and waiting, just begging to be ridden. Not to mention, Weiss was filled in both her entrances. Not only would this be fantastic for Yang, but it would be something new altogether for her wife.

Grasping the phallus and slowly jerking it up and down again, she asked, "So… how do you want me? Facing you?"

"Ohhhh yeah," Weiss replied without hesitation, twitching all over from even that slight pressure in her cavity. Both of them, now. "That's… yeah, I want to see you… watch you enjoy me…"

Half closing her eyes seductively, she nodded, soon climbing over her yet again to get into position. Straddling her lover's hips, she leant right forward, sparing one of her hands to reach down to grasp the dick of her lover. After a brief pat around, she found it. Pulling it in toward her, she continued to make eye contact with her while she maneuvered that into position, lining it up with her moistened entrance. Until finally, she began to slide down, eyes slightly widening as she felt the pleasure swim through her.

"God, Yang, you look so good!" Weiss glowed, watching as the implement slowly sank deeper and deeper into her the lower her body went. Though Yang's beautiful example of a sex was partially obstructing her view, she still valued both highly, wanting to reach down and play with everything in sight. Again, another time.

Sliding down all the more, Yang eventually let out more needy moans into the air, leaning back to stare at the ceiling as she tried to process. It was so big! And so long… It always felt like something close to a train ramming its way in every time. But she loved every second. Sooner than usual, her cheeks landed right into Weiss’s lap as she moaned out again, "G-god… Ah…"

Weiss couldn’t resist. Even though it was very slightly mean, she moved her hips from side to side a bit earlier than she normally would. She also let out a quiet gasp of pleasure from it shifting inside herself before asking in a playful voice, “Does my wife like being filled by her husband?”

"Is that a trick question?" she asked, adjusting the position of her knees so she was straddling her again, making it much easier to shift herself upward to pull it out slightly. Biting her lip again, she struggled to keep in another moan. It was pushing against her inner walls so easily with each shift, touching all different areas. It felt fantastic! "Of course I do."

Already, Weiss felt almost as if she could finish again; the sensations paired with the sights were incredible, and that was without the mammoth thing inside her rear entrance. She really could scarcely stand it! Yet she wanted it there, was happy to be teased in two different ways at once. Always had been; this was just taking it to the next level.

Forcing herself back down onto it again, Yang looked straight back into Weiss's eyes again when she moaned out, pressing one of her hands onto one of the bare breasts before her. Meanwhile, she didn’t know if she should use her other hand to toy with Weiss more, or for leverage in case her knees didn't suffice. Yet also felt a dying need for something else, the sensation that had never been allowed to come to a close. That needed to be handled.

Once sure Weiss was watching, she reached downward, grasping her length and beginning to jerk firmly, matching the pace of her mild movements on Weiss's fake cock, moaning even more. "Mmm… Yeah."

"HEY!" Weiss yelped out, slapping weakly at Yang's hand as it stroked her erect length feverishly. "What… do you think you're doing with that? It… belongs to me! You have to ask!"

"O-oh, right." Releasing it from her grip, she instead placed it on her stomach a moment, slowing her riding down to give her enough time to ask. "Please, may I stroke myself?"

But to Yang's surprise, what Weiss said was, "No." Then she reached down and grasped it firmly herself, biting her lip at the sensation of her own essence mixing with the small amount that had already escaped from the head. This wasn’t the easiest angle to jerk her off from, but she really wanted to. "No, you may not. Just ride me."

Looking down at Weiss's hand, she nodded in agreement, placing her hand back down to better balance herself as she rode her “husband” again, doing just what she asked. Nodding to show that she understood, and eagerly waited for what was to come. The delicate hand angled up, holding the cock just right so that with every bounce up and down on the rigid length within her, Yang would also end up thrusting into her fist. Seeing as how each bounce also shoved the length inside her tortured sex right up against the filling presence in her other orifice, she somehow almost felt as if she were fucking herself in the ass.

Why was that idea so hot?!

Fucking Weiss’s hand was all the motivation Yang needed to go faster. Allowing herself to be filled over and over, she thrust harder, quicker. The moans practically poured through her mouth as she looked toward her with a grin, even starting to laugh.

"Oh, this is amusing to you, is it?" Weiss teased breathlessly, licking her lips as she felt Yang sliding in and out of her fingers, teasing everything in the back region of herself. "We'll… see how funny you find it… NOW!"

And with that, she began to raise her hips up to meet Yang's with increasing frequency, nearly doubling how hard and fast she rammed into her over and over. The screams of pleasure only got louder. Such a thick cock, and the fist was curled so tight around her own! The more she backed her hips to meet with Weiss's own, the closer she was getting. Especially when on a few particular thrusts, she felt her favourite spot being assaulted again and again, unable to help the higher pitched squeal that came from her when it did.

Meanwhile, Weiss was trying not to scream out from her own mistreatment; every thrust up into Yang slammed the other end into her fragile sex, torturing her insides so much that she could feel her toes tingling, her knees weakening. This was so good — and she had needed it so, so bad.

"HNNN! Aaah! Weiss!" One particularly hard thrust hit Yang's spot, making her entire lower half shudder. And then each thrust was hitting it over and over. Legs shuddering, muscles starting to clamp onto that thick length sailing in and out of her body… She could feel it now, she was incredibly close. "Faster!" she begged, licking her lips to try and regain a little composure for the end. "Y-your hand… I-it's g-gonna…!"

So it was time. Weiss had been preparing for this; she knew what she wanted. Maybe it wouldn't happen, but she had one chance to do what she could. Curling her abdomen inward, she leaned up as much as she could with the other elbow that wasn't busy helping Yang. Then, once she was as far forward as she could comfortably get…

Her hand moved faster up and down Yang while she squeezed tighter than usual. The added pressure might bring about a result they both wanted. By now they were rather practiced at this; it worked a few times, and Weiss was delighted with the results, but others it simply lead to embarrassment or even a laughable moment. Still to this day, Yang had no idea why her wife enjoyed that so much, when most would brand it as disgusting.

But finally, after a few firmer thrusts into her backside, Yang's mouth fell open, gasping loudly as she felt the waves of intense pleasure flow through her entire being, length throbbing in Weiss's grip as it shot out its seed fast and hard. She never got to see where it went, her eyes were closed tightly while she felt the pure ecstasy taking over. More shudders of joy went across her lower half. It had been far too long since she got to enjoy an orgasm as intense as this one.

An orgasm so intense that it led to Weiss's, as well — not purely from Yang gasping, but from the feeling of hot seed splashing across her cheek. She'd made it. She had not missed her mark!

"NNHAAAAHHH!!!!" she moaned out in pure joy as she climaxed again, feeling more droplets landing on her stomach. Only the one spurt had made it all the way up toward her face, but one was enough to send her gasping and shivering, completely overjoyed.

Letting the waves fizzle out gradually, Yang came to rest on Weiss's lap, completely content. The length was still fully inside her, something she didn't want to shift just yet. It felt good there, oddly warm and filling. She needed to simply savour the moment, especially now that her lover had climaxed as well.

The clock on the bedside table read 3:40pm. Twenty minutes: plenty of time to cool down and take care of everything.

"Want the plug out?" she asked when Weiss had finished her own screaming.

"Ahhh… not yet," Weiss sighed. "Let's take care of… other stuff first." Her hands glided up and down Yang's thighs now, and she let out a small chuckle when she felt a little of the cum being smeared on the skin from where it had dripped onto her thumb. "Oops… sorry about that."

"Nice." She laughed, still not completely moving off it when she leant forward to fetch a tissue from the box on the table, biting her lip when the yellow presence shifted back inside her when she sat down again. "Gah… That's what these tissues are for, you know. Don't wipe it on me!" But still, she took care of the mess, dabbing her own skin and the top of her member, then moving on to her wife's stomach and cheek.

"Thank you," she told her doting wife primly as she was cleansed, smiling as if she were a queen on her throne instead of a girl with two implements deep inside of her, naked on her back. "Now… I have something I want to do for you. Maybe you can guess what it is without any hints, but here's one; I'll need a glove."

"Does this mean I have to get up?" she asked, teasingly moving her hips side to side, but also biting her lip at the sensations it caused to her insides.

"Up off the banana, at the least." Once Yang started to lean up slightly, she reached forward and weakly swatted at her hip. "Come on; time is a luxury today! Let me get in there, I want my baby to have two O's like I did!"

"Alright, alright. I just find the banana appealing, okay?" She let that pun sink for a short moment, listening to her wife groan as she pulled herself upward, unable to help the small shudder that happened when she was out entirely. Once that was done she straddled Weiss's hips again. "Where do you want me?"

"In me." Then she let out a theatrical sigh and shrugged. "However, since I doubt you'll be 'up' for that…"

Apparently, Yang wasn't the only one who could make jokes. Sighing as she looked down to her member, now limp and lacklustre, she took a moment to reach for the gloves in the drawer. "Less taunting, more fingering, Wifey."

"Hey, I am capable of multitasking." But the taunting smile gave way to a more earnest one. "You want it on your back so I can really get in there? It's been a good while since your spot and I had a chance to bond."

"Now you're talkin'." She purred with delight, hopping off her lap and instead laying to one side on her back, spreading her legs to give Weiss more than enough of the room she needed. "It's been way too long."

Leaning up and sliding her arm over Yang's thigh, gazing down, she couldn't help the greedy little smirk that crept over her face as she began to pull the glove on. "Ooohhh, where shall I begin? Everything looks so good; I can't decide." Her now-gloved fingertips poked Yang's soft sack, making sure to avoid its contents for fear of hurting her.

"Hmm…" Instinctively she tensed, but nonetheless rested a leg up on her diva's shoulder, looking up with a smile. "Well, it's all yours. I think that was the agreement when I married you right?"

"True." As her fingers came to a rest up against Yang's slick entrance, feeling how it was already so wide open and ready to receive more, she leaned down to press her lips up against the fragile sack. "All mine, and all delicious."

Quickly glancing at the clock once more, just to double check, she then looked back toward her with another smirk, tensing the muscles deliberately against the fingers. "Well you better hurry then, clock's ticking."

Nodding, Weiss leaned up and took the partially-softened cock into her mouth. The muted salty tang of her essence hit her taste buds as she groaned against the flesh, swirling her tongue around the head as two of her fingers began to slide past her wife's loosened opening. Right away, Yang felt slight relief from feeling such wetness touching the member again after it'd become sore from the movements of her strokes, so feeling its coolness made her grin with delight. Just as the fingers heading into her backside did, which she bit her lip to try and suppress a louder noise. Her diva really was determined to make her go again!

The stirring didn't go unnoticed; Yang was getting slightly more aroused from her teasings. Of course, Weiss already knew that the chances of getting Yang all the way hard again weren't high, let alone a second spurting. But just feeling the warm flesh in her mouth was reason enough for her to keep going — so long as Yang didn't complain of discomfort.

And speaking of which… a pleased little chuckle sounded in her throat when she felt the little ridged mass she had been seeking out, deep within her lover. There it was.

"O-ooohh…" A quiet, but content purr sounded out from her bodyguard, unable to help when her legs twitched against Weiss's shoulders. Laying her head back and grinning from ear to ear, her wife was going to fuss over her favourite spot again and again, going to bring her to a second clima-

DING DONG!

[thelittlestcheshire]

Hello! I’m Katie, and this is my muse Ches. There’s like death/murder tws in this but honestly? I just did this in a quick fact kinda way so... nothing is really detailed.

Is that HAILEY CHESHIRE “CHES” ELSWOOD? Wow, they do look a lot like KATHERINE MCNAMARA. I hear SHE is a EIGHTEEN year old SENIOR who originally attended CARNIFEX Academy. Word is they are an ARISTOCRAT student. You should watch out because they can be IMPULSIVE and STUBBORN, but on the bright side they can also be LOYAL and CREATIVE. Ultimately, you’ll get to see it all for yourself.

♥ basics; Full Name: Hailey Cheshire “Ches” Elswood Age: 18 Birthday: July 19th Sexual Orientation: Biromantic bisexual Relationship Status: Single Occupation: Student Nationality: American [with French dual citizenship] Ches’s Car

♥ classes;

Anthropology

Shakespearean Studies

Linguistics

Latin

Music

Advanced Sociology

Advanced Psychology

Russian

World History

♥ extracurriculars;

National Honor Society

Theater Club (Actor)

Concert Band (Piano)

♥ background; Place of Birth: Paris, France Hometown: New York, New York Health Issues: Borderline Personality Disorder and PTSD Traumas: Watching her mother die (mugging gone wrong/shot to death)

♥ physical; Face Claim: Katherine McNamara Eye Color: Green Hair Color: Red Height: 5′3 ½” Weight: 115 lbs Tattoos, Birthmarks, Scars, etc: Mole above her belly button, a few moles on her thighs, freckles and face moles. (Face Ref 1, Face Ref 2,  Body Ref 1, Body Ref 2)

♥ relatives;

Father’s Full Name: Edward Valentine Elswood Father’s Status: Alive Father’s Occupation: CEO/Owner of a multi-billion dollar luxury goods conglomerate  (net worth of 50+ Billion in fact - in turn Elswood kids do NOT bat an eyelash at prices) Mother’s Full Name: Julia Andrieux Elswood Mother’s Status: Deceased [shot by a mugger on the twin’s 8th birthday] Siblings: 6 brothers and sisters (family page here) Elswood Children Oldest to Youngest:

Logan (23)

Jamie (21)

Emmett (19)

Jonah / Ches (TWINS)

Effie (13)

Ella (10)

♥ relationships; Ex-Significant Other(s): Probably a handful of people tbh, hit me up if you want this as a WC Reason for Separation: Stuff not working out, Ches getting bored before she got attached, so on - she’s a flirt tbh, it takes her wanting to get invested for her to stay Current Significant Other: N/A because she’s too busy sabotaging shit with Thomas

♥ misc;

Hobbies: playing piano, archery, singing, reading, and acting

Pinterest Board // Musings Tag // Playlist

Ches speaks English and French fluently, her mother was born and raised in Paris so she learnt them both at the same time

DO NOT CALL HER HAILEY unless you really want to end up on her shit list.

She’s the mom friend if your mom friend also goes “I HAVE THE BEST IDEA” and drags you into trouble. Literally, the one who frets over you and proceeds to get you into trouble.

This muse does what she wants, I just write it down I apologize always for her

Doesn’t really... seriously date too much because of past situations (Her older brother slept with the first person she truly loved) and she tries to avoid falling in love

That being said platonic I love yous are her shit, she loves her friends a LOT

Ches is very serious about her studying (and wanting to be among the best of the best because - this girl has Ivy league college dreams and she has no intents on fucking those up)

That being said if you get her away from her books she’s actually a lot of fun, she’s just like work first play later

She’s a bit of a closet nerd - if you look under her bed she has a chest of comic books, she’ll just lie if you ask her about them

Honestly, bios are my least favorite thing so if anyone has questions about Chessie just... toss them my way I’ll eagerly answer them.

♥ bio;

TWs: Gun Violence, Murder, Death, Blood, Abuse (Relationship), Cheating, Mental Illnesses

Growing up as an Elswood means two things, you have a lot of a sibling and a lot of money. Her parents had decided to raise their children in Manhattan, New York, where they could keep a close eye on their multi-billion dollar conglomerate. Her mother, Julia, would take them on trips constantly too - when she wanted to get the children away from the hustle and bustle of the city they’d go to their vacation home upstate, or their private island, or even to visit their family in Paris. At that point in life, Ches was happy. She had a solid group of friends, she had the best friend she could ever imagine having in the form of her twin brother, she had a loving and warm family, and she had a parent who would tell her no. 

When she thinks back to her life before the incident, it feels like a completely different story. A fairytale even, perfect and happy in every way compared to her life now. However, it wouldn’t last, after all, fairy tales didn’t exist and reality was a much crueler mistress. One could say Lin-Manuel Miranda described it best; “life doesn't discriminate between the sinners and the saints. It takes and it takes and it takes.”

Everything changed on her eighth birthday when her mother took her out shopping to get a present for twin brother Jonah at Palisades Mall. A man came up with a gun while they were in the parking lot and asked for all of their money. Julia Elswood compiled but she made one mistake, the simple utterance of “Cours, Ches” as she gave the man her purse.

Ches might have gotten out of the event alive, but not she was not unscathed. Julia Elswood was pronounced dead when medical finally arrived on the scene, her blood coating her daughter’s hands and clothing from Ches’s attempts to stop the bleeding. She might have survived the event without physical harm but she was never the same child she was before after that.

One day she had an intact family, the next day the Elswoods were in ruin. Her father completely shut himself out from the family, only coming out for birthdays and holidays. Her oldest brother stepped up as their parental figure, first starting out with homeschooling before he eventually dropped out to ensure his siblings was getting as much of his time as they possibly could. He tried his hardest to make the loss of their mother easier on the younger girls especially, given how young they were at the time. She helped him with the girls as much as she could (and over time she slowly started filling the role as their second parent). Because of how busy the younger Elswood children kept him, sometimes Logan didn’t have the time to comfort Ches when she woke up in the middle of the night, haunted by their mother.

That was when Emmett stepped in. It wasn’t uncommon for him to sleep on her floor so he’d be there when she woke up terrified out of her mind, and he was there when she just eventually stopped sleeping like people tended to. Over time she realized that Jonah and her weren’t truly two peas in a pod the way they used to be, that Emmett was the only Elswood who truly got her. He wasn’t perfectly normal either, his thoughts and feelings were flawed like hers. 

In a family that made her feel so broken at times, Emmett was a saving grace - a reminder she wasn’t alone.

He wasn’t the only reminder however, another one entered her life in the form of Asher Churchill when she was 11. He was on vacation in Paris while she was visiting her family when their paths crossed, they were fast friends and there was a point where she wished he would stay longer, a wish she felt guilty for after his family went through their own trauma. The experience only solidified her friendship with him, however - she likes to think that no matter what happens, she’ll always have Asher. He’s her ride or die, one of the few people who’s willing to put up with her all of her shit and want to keep her in their life. They even tried dating at one point, although that was fairly short-lived. She simply doesn’t love him like that.

It didn’t take her long to find someone she did love like that, however. Ches had thought she was fucked up before she met James, that she was at the worst point she ever could be. He showed her how mistaken she had been, even now she doesn’t like thinking about everything he had done to her. She doesn’t discuss everything he had put her through nor does she have any intentions on truly discussing the worst of the abuse she endured while dating him. Her past with James does have an effect on her, it made her terrified of truly falling in love with somebody again. 

James is also a massive reason why she doesn't get along with her brother Jamie, the two Elswood siblings never recovered from Jamie sleeping with Ches’s boyfriend. It causes a good deal of tension in the Elswood home but Ches can’t just forgive him, her brother never even apologized for his actions, she wasn’t going to pretend he didn’t hurt her because her father wanted them to get along for his own sake. They were on the rocks before this and afterward the tension just got a whole lot worse.

Perhaps the increasing tension was a factor in Ches deciding she wanted to attend Carnifex, the fact she knew Asher would be in attendance was another factor. (Although she plays dumb to the fact she actually knows he’s a Churchill, if he wanted to lie to everyone, she was going to play along - no matter how adorable she thinks the fact he actually believes she doesn’t know is.) It’s certainly a factor in why she stays, she gets very homesick at times - even after attending boarding school for her entire high school career. She misses her younger sisters, she missed Emmett and Camellia, and she misses her friends in the city. She also dislikes just how restricted she truly is when it comes to Instagram and trying to grow her influence while she attends Carnifex. Networking had to wait until she was home and sometimes she questions why she decided boarding school was a good idea.

And then Ches looks at her friends, at the education she’s receiving, and all the fond memories she’s developing. Carnifex, and now Luxor, was well worth the fear of missing out she feels. She’s happy in Lake George, and she has no intention of leaving the area before she graduates.

Please note, Asher is mentioned a lot. He belonged to an ex-member who is no longer here. I may write him out later but for now, keep that in mind.

TLDR / quick important notes recap for rereads:

Ches’s mother was murdered on her 8th birthday in front of her

She was raised by her oldest brother, Logan, and is NOT close to her father really. She also helped raise her younger sisters and is very protective of them.

The Elswood she is closest to is Emmett, Jonah and her grew apart after her mother’s death.

Ches’s first real love was James, they dated (entire)Freshman-(mid)Sophomore years, it was abusive (much more than Ches will ever discuss unless she gets majorly close to someone and they HAVE to know (cough still hasn’t happened though cough)) and Ches is now terrified of falling in love again. Her messy as fuck relationships & exes all start after this point.