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103oclock · 5 years ago

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[FULL ENG TRANS] 2020.04.20 W Korea’s May edition : Stay happy, cool and strong (Baekhyun)

EXO Baekhyun’s strong identity is driven by his happiness in enjoying music.

We’ve met before through an interview with EXO, many years ago. I clearly remember something you said then, which was, ‘Before entering SM, I thought I was the best singer in Bucheon.’ Baekhyun at that time did say that (laughs). He had so much ‘confidence.’

Thanks to what you said then, when I see you slowly improving ever since you said that, I think about those stories where a kid who is good at studying enters a science or foreign language high school* and becomes crestfallen after realising where he ranks in the whole school, so he studies with all his heart and becomes the top in school. Ah, my trainee days was when my confidence took a big blow. It just felt like my song would never get picked since there were so many other people who could sing so well. When you enter as a professional, you can’t be sloppy for even a second, and they will demand for you to be perfect, even down to every detail. I stopped thinking that singing is my specialty, and I had to reevaluate my thoughts on music. *=Science or foreign language high schools are prestigious schools in South Korea.

Even when you were discouraged, at some point your confidence would come back again, right? That’s right, to some extent. Also, I’m not the kind to let someone else dampen my spirit just because they said so (laughs).

I’m aware that you are planning to release your solo album soon. Because of the current situation, changes were made to the initial plans which could make things a little vague now. There are several activities I was scheduled to do but now can’t, but this situation now is not easy for everyone, and there are many people who are working very hard. There are still more to be done in several aspects, album-wise, but you can look forward to it as it will be different from the previous solo.

Did you have any desire or goal when you were working on your first solo album <City Lights>, which was released in summer? Since a long time ago, I’ve been wanting to do songs with city pop vibes. Also, it is meaningful to have the album comprised of just my voice. I hoped for people to hear the album and at least think, ‘So this is the kind of voice Baekhyun has.’ I’m glad it received such a good outcome.

What do you mean by ‘good outcome’? I got a lot of positive feedback. There were people who recognised the effort I put into the voice and vibe I wanted to express. The album sales were also good thanks to my fans.

What kind of voice did you want to express? Something that’s a little dreamy (laughs), and I guess I wanted there to be sexy vibes even with just my voice?

I was a little dubious when I first heard that the title track was called ‘UN Village,’ because it’s the more luxurious version of ‘Samsung Raemian’ (laughs). However, after listening to it, it seems like ‘luxurious’ was the keyword that was the main theme of the entire album. Even on stage, your performance is relaxed and doesn’t require much of an angle (as in a certain kind of look/style/theme), it looks like you wanted to portray that sort of laidback appeal. Oh, that’s very accurate. Because EXO has themes and we do powerful performances, I wanted my solo to be different. I wanted to pull out something I think of as my weapon, something that is relaxed rather than strong, and more focused on my voice itself.

It’s rather difficult to be relaxed if you don’t do a lot of preparation. Between what you do best and what you like best, which of the two do you think is closer to the composition of your first album? At first I matched the make up of the album to what I like, but I think it slowly became what I do best as I practised and did my studies. I’m always like that. I always do what I like instead of what I do best. There is almost nothing you are good at from the start. It starts of as ‘This is so hard, but I like it’ and at some point when I get familiar with it and master it, it feels really exhilarating.

This is sudden but it’s always fascinating to me when I see singers like you that start off with the position as a vocal, and become a dancer that does dynamic performances on stage. Could it be because SM is originally known for it's unrivalled training system, or is it because that person actually has dance DNA but simply never had the opportunity to draw it out? From the aspect of whether one knows how to use their body and muscles, it looks like I have the influence of the DNA. From moving your chest to doing several other movements. For example, there are people who find it hard to do detailed movements like ‘lift your right shoulder, and then pop your chest, bring down your right shoulder and lift your left shoulder.’ On top of that, SM’s environment, which has many people that started off as choreographers and have a command of high quality dancing in nature, also contributed to my progress. Looking around at my surroundings, I followed suit so my abilities got better, and there were many things I could learn and many things I was motivated by.

Soon it will be the 8th anniversary since EXO debuted so shall we talk about the time that started history? How did you feel at the start when you had to digest and do difficult dance moves even though you were a vocalist? I just had this desire. ‘I don’t want to remembered as the person who can’t dance.’ Thankfully, the members taught me and Chen, who entered the group late, until the wee hours of the morning. Kai took care of Chen, and Sehun took care of me. All the while competing who taught better, and who mastered the dance better. I improved a lot during the time we practised together.

Looking back, after debuting, was there a critical period where you felt like you were growing too fast? Around summer 2016 ‘Monster,’ my performance skills definitely improved. Choreographer Shim Jaewon hyung actually included a solo performance for me at the start of the song. There wasn’t supposed to have a solo performance but he said, ‘Baekhyun, you have a talent in dance too, you just have to work a little bit harder, let’s start building up your confidence now,’ and he choreographed a solo performance and encouraged me. From then on, I thought, ‘So I’m not someone who can’t dance,’ and I gained confidence in expressing myself through my body while doing my best for that solo performance. What I never knew, or what I suppressed, up to that point, I then started to express naturally.

Oh, that was around the time the special cover edition ‘EXOclusive’ you did with <W Korea> was produced! Was there a period where you were in a slump, music-wise? At the start of EXO’s activities, when we’re going from ‘MAMA’ to ‘Wolf.’ I achieved the reality of debuting and suddenly received a lot of attention, so the kid that was full of confidence became scared of singing. I doubted myself, that my singing might be weird. It was around then that my interest in vocalisation peaked, and I studied a lot. As I did that, my fears disappeared little by little and I started to anticipate how my voice would sound like when I sing live. I put in a lot of effort in ways like thinking if I should do it a certain way this time so it could sound different, and if I like the sound of my tone in a certain song, I could apply a part of it to another song.

Then before EXO, when did you first vaguely feel that you had something similar to a talent? The first time I ever went to a karaoke. Might have been grade 6 of elementary school.

What song did you sing? It was Yarn’s song. What was the song called... Can I quickly search it up?

Yarn’s songs are one of the tests for high-pitched power, and have made many guys fail miserably in karaokes. Exactly. Yarn’s ‘Run.’ Weirdly, I sang the song comfortably as how I heard it, and my friends’ reactions were huge. Ever since then, I thought ‘Oh? I didn’t even learn how to sing yet everyone says I’m good? This must be my greatest strength!’ and I started to like singing.

Your audience then reacted to your mic and your acoustics, which made that the moment you became a celebrity. So that’s how the history of ‘Bucheon Prince’ came about (laughs). My friends wouldn’t sing songs that are high in pitch. So I thought, ‘Huh? Why?’ I was still young then so I didn’t even know what a vibrato was, I just thought that the note was “vibrating.” When I hear that the end of the note doesn’t vibrate, I would think, ‘Why don’t they do the vibration thing? Isn’t it kind of flat?’ It was a time when I was young and ‘snobby’ (laughs).

If you were to introduce a distinct characteristic of your vocals, how would you say it? Um. Smooth yet at the same time robust.

You possess everything good... Hehe, I don’t have an entirely beautiful voice but I have a kind of baritone voice that is saturated with tenderness. So it is an advantage that I don’t have to limit myself to one genre and can challenge myself extensively.

Still, is there anyone’s vocals that you wish to have? Kim Bumsoo sunbae. Recently I am realigning my vocals. From my breathing to my vocalisation, I am remodelling everything. So I think about vocals a lot, but when I hear Kim Bumsoo sunbae’s songs, I feel that he has quite the stability. I think of stability as a power that allows the audience to listen comfortably and enjoy the song, and to people who sing, as players of the game themselves, would either want to show off or have the freedom to express a bar of the song any way they want. He has amazing stability, and he has a great voice, and he possesses several different tones. There are many things to look up to him to.

Instead of changing just one vocal aspect, you’re changing your style from the basics. It’s going to be a tough process. It’s not easy. I’ve been learning from my current vocal teacher for about a year now, but luckily, he’s like a saviour to me. Singer Im Hanbyul hyung introduced him to me. He not only teaches me vocal skills, but also helps me to find peace mentally. He’s like a doctor that does a full check-up on whatever I am uneasy about. He’s really grown up. [A/N: there’s no pronoun for Baekhyun’s vocal teacher but I used a standard pronoun for ease of reading]

Do you have any aspirations as a member of SuperM? We began our activities last fall and we were the first of Asia Artistes to debut at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart with our debut album. I’ve said ‘We will show you another kind of K-Pop’ in an interview in The States before, but there is another meaning behind the face value of what I said. No matter how I look at it, isn’t now the era to turn the impossible possible? It’s the same for SuperM. The fact that members of different groups have come together to form another group is entirely a whole new system. We were the pioneers to give it a shot, and that in itself is a step that creates synergy. With this in mind, I have the desire to make K-Pop widely known.

In the 2000′s, K-Pop started to gain popularity when SMTOWN was having their world tour, and in the recent years, K-Pop has once again taken another leap. Have you ever felt that it’s true while you were on tour? Of course. When we do interviews overseas, journalists would say things like, ‘If we were to define K-Pop, we can’t forget about the perfectly synced dance choreography, right?’ The style of group dance choreography, which has been around since long ago, is what shaped K-pop and I think of it as K-Pop’s important trait. When they know and point out that aspect, I feel proud and grateful.

SuperM brings EXO’s Baekhyun and Kai, SHINEE’s Taemin, NCT’s Taeyong and Mark, WayV’s Lucas and Ten together in a team. How is it like when you’re all together? They’re all really, honestly, very nice and innocent kids. They transform on stage but when I see how they’re like together off stage, I wonder how they could be that innocent. I want you guys to know that side of the boys before showing you our music and performance.

Are they like innocent boys behind the cool and handsome men that glare when they sing ‘We will burn on this stage’ during the performance? These guys also possess everything good... Superheroes normally conceal their own identity and show a mild appearance but when nighttime comes, they apprehend bad guys. Ever since I was young, I’ve always thought that somehow that was what true justice was (laughs). I feel like if the duality of how the boys are like daily and how they are like when they concentrate on stage was known, all the members are able to shine more brightly.

In today’s photoshoot, you went from bright and impeccable Baekhyun to Baekhyun with a dark charisma. And Cartier’s jewelry shone just like EXO Baekhyun, who symbolises ‘light’ (laughs). If you were to have dual personalities, what would it be? Though I am mostly nice and well-mannered, I am the type to be straightforward and be firm when I think ‘This isn’t right.’ Even when people who think ‘this person belongs to me,’ when they treat them badly, my firmness will appear. When that happens, I will step in and say something.

Listening to your stories, you seem like a person who is motivated by yourself. That’s right. I always find faults in myself. Whether it is on stage or my treatment towards other people, I frequently think about whether I had any drawbacks. I always think about questions like ‘Why do I keep doing the wrong move these days,’ or ‘Am I not focusing, or am I lacking practice for that part?’

What is something you need in order to continue and live a long life as an artist that has debuted in an idol group? First of all, I think the answer to that is finding out what you really want to do. Because if you don’t go through that process and simply follow the trend or what other people want, it’ll be easy for you to be left behind as an artist. If you look at idols who have been in the industry for a long time, their own colour is very clear no matter what. I could also soon become Baekhyun version 2. A life where I find out whether I can succeed with just my voice.

Would you have a (however) big ambition inside of you? Ambition, I definitely have it. There’s a saying, ‘In for a penny, in for a pound’ (laughs). However, I’m not the kind that is full of fighting spirit and think I have to achieve a certain goal. I do not want my huge desire for success to eat me up. To me, doing things happily while laughing is most important to me. That level of ambition would be more like ‘I hope they recognise my hard work’ I guess? When you work hard on something, it will still shine no matter what, and no matter how bright. And I want to show off what I am good at anyway so, hehe.

Translation by 103oclock (Source)

#trans #baekhyun #wkorea #w korea #exo #superm

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angel-tries-to-write · 5 years ago

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Tease

Rating: Teen and and up, mild sexual content Pairing: Mac x gender neutral reader (at least I tried) Word count: 3692

You've been dancing around each other for years, time to shine now. I suck at summaries, if you hadn't noticed yet.

You two have been teasing each other forever. Okay, maybe not forever, but definitely since you've met for the first time. You've been recruited to CIA by Matty Webber straight from college and a couple of years later you were offered a job in Phoenix Foundation, where she had transferred earlier. Director Webber wanted to have you in her team, so it was obvious that sooner or later you were going to meet the other agents. Especially this particular agent, whose blue eyes and smug grin made your heart jump a little in a way you didn't like, and you didn't know whether you wanted to punch him or kiss him. Both were really tempting. None of you seemed to be aware of the fact, that you couldn't even talk like normal people. Every one of your conversations just had to become the aggressive flirting that you were oblivious of. Not even constant 'get a room!'s managed to give you a hint of what you were exactly doing. Well, there just had to come the time when things started to get out of the hand.

You loved missions which required wearing a formal dress, heavy make-up and attending a fancy party. You liked blending in, pretending to be someone else and having way more fun than you were supposed to. Currently you were sitting by the bar, sipping slowly some probably expensive drink, which you almost spat out when a man sat nearby. The characteristic smell of his cologne gave you goosebumps, made your knees weak and sent a strike of heat into your lower abdomen. You knew that scent very well, it was sandalwood. One of your big turn-ons. No one said it was going to be an easy mission. You tried to breathe, but it wasn't helping at all, luckily, the man hadn't stayed nearby for long. He ordered his drink and went away right after getting it, only then you could let out a sigh of relief. It'd be better to keep that secret. The universe, on the other hand, had different plans.

A few minutes later Mac and Jack identified the target of your mission. They've been chasing it currently and you'd gladly help if you wore some comfortable shoes. Or at least you could run more carelessly, without having to mind your steps. You joined them only when they lost the track of the target. You walked into the almost empty room and you felt the same feeling you had at the bar. That familiar scent again.

“Don't waste your time, (y/n), we already checked there” said Dalton, trying to hide how disappointed he was.

“Who do we even chase?” you asked. That couldn't be a coincidence that you smelled this cologne here.

“This man” Mac showed you a photo of the man you've seen earlier at the bar. Bingo! That's why you smelled his cologne.

“Well, then he has to be here” you entered the room and looked around. The faint scent seemed to be stronger by one of the walls. You looked closely and saw a narrow chink in the wall, hidden under the decorative wallpaper. Clever, Mr. Bad Guy, but not clever enough. “There. Something is here.”

The two agents exchanged a surprised look and approached to see what did you find. None of them could understand how did you do that.

“Not bad for you” Mac teased and started to work his magic to open whatever was in this wall.

A few hours later the mission was completed and you were on your way home.

“Hey, (y/n)” Jack spoke suddenly. “How did you find that dude?”

“My secret” you answered, not even opening your eyes you closed a few moments ago.

“Tell me” he pleaded like a kid.

“Fine. I smelled his cologne. It contained sandalwood and it's my favorite scent” you admitted, too tired to resist.

“Isn't it an aphrodisiac?” Riley asked, rising an eyebrow.

“What's that?” asked Jack.

“Basically you smell it and you get horny” explained Bozer, not bothering to be subtle.

“Well, it doesn't work on me this way. I just think it smells nice” you lied, trying to avoid comments. You started to worry that Mac wasn't saying anything, you hoped he was asleep or lost in thoughts, but it wasn't really possible. You bet he was up to something and you were sure you would find out what soon.

A couple of days later Matty called in the team. You were first in the war room, sitting on the armchair and checking something on your phone. You barely noticed the others coming in, except for one person. You first smelled, then felt his presence, finally seeing him. On the armrest of your chair was sitting your favorite blonde boy and he smelled like never before. You could easily identify sandalwood in his new cologne and it smelled so good on him, that you couldn't focus on anything else, feeling your arousal rising.

“(Y/n), are you alright?” you heard Matty's voice. “You seem distracted” she said and you could only imagine how big shit-eating grin Mac had to suppress.

“Sorry. I got a slight concussion on the last mission” you lied easily. “It must've impacted on me a little.”

“So that's how we call Mac from now on? A concussion?” Bozer muttered to Riley and they both chuckled quietly.

“I heard that” you said, sending them your best death glare.

“Girl, I'm just saying you look weird since he entered the room, it's not my fault I'm this observant” typical Boz tried to save his butt as usual.

“Can we focus on the debriefing, please?” you snapped angrily. “Having fun, Macgyver, aren't you?” you growled quietly, making sure he's the only one who heard it.

“You have no idea” he replied, very amused indeed.

After a few days you managed to get used to his new scent, especially after one situation. You were in the field, under the fire, waiting for a bomb to explode and therefore Mac's trap to work. When it went off, you two acted by a pure instinct, he pulled you into his chest and you clung to him, burying your face in his shirt. You regretted it immediately, he smelled like your favorite cologne and sweat with a faint tone of metal and chemicals, which was a surprisingly good mix. Of course you remembered enough biology to know it was no magic or silly love, but a chemical reaction. His pheromones just happened to be very compatible with your nose and brain, which was of course problematic, but not weird or something. And it was easier to tell yourself that, instead of admitting you were in love. Anyway, when you got used to this new scent, it was easier to stay focused. Although you were about to find out, that things were about to get worse. Or maybe better? Depends on the point of view.

It was just a regular celebration of Mac's birthday. Gifts, cake, party in his home. The usual. One thing that was different, was Jack, who made you all participate in a karaoke session. He obviously didn't take 'no' for an answer. The good part of it was that he let everyone pick their song, so you could sorta punish him.

“Come on, (y/n), your turn!” Dalton commanded. You typed the title in the searching bar and everyone groaned?

“Really, dude? Despacito? The most popular and annoying song no one knows lyrics of?” Bozer was clearly unamused.

“I know the lyrics and I think it's beautiful” you protested.

“Do you know it to the point to not watch the screen?” asked Jack and you knew he was up to something.

“I do. But I'm not going to dance, if that's what you're thinking about” you said, crossing your arms on your chest.

“How did you-”

“I just knew” you shrugged. “But I think I might have a little problem, since I don't know the original version, just a cover I adore. And it'll be hard to get an instrumental version for this cover.”

“Then pick a different one, come on, we don't have all night for this” Riley rushed you.

“But I want this one. To make sure Jack will never come up with such a terrible idea again.”

“I can always play for you” offered Mac and you all but Bozer looked at him surprised. “What? I'm not a pro, but I'm also not bad. Besides I think I know which song you have in mind” he said getting up and he took the guitar that was always in his house and everyone simply ignored it. You found the right chords for him and after a few moments Mac was ready.

He started very similarly to the original version, even playing a bit Latino way, pulling the strings separately, not in a classic way.

Comin' over in my direction So thankful for that, it's such a blessin', yeah Turn every situation into heaven, yeah Oh, you are My sunrise on the darkest day Got me feelin' some kind of way Make me wanna savor every moment slowly, slowly

You started with a shyness and hesitation, your cheeks blushed while singing, especially in English. When the Spanish lyrics started, you felt more confident. No one could understand you anyway.

¡Oh! Tú, tú eres el imán y yo soy el metal (You, you’re the magnet and I’m the metal) Me voy acercando y voy armando el plan (I’m getting closer and coming up with a plan) Solo con pensarlo se acelera el pulso (oh yeah) (Just thinking about it accelerates my pulse) Ya, ya me está gustando más de lo normal (I’m already enjoying it more than normal) Todos mis sentidos van pidiendo más (All of my senses are asking for more) Esto hay que tomarlo sin ningún apuro (This has to be done without a hurry)

Despacito (Slowly) Quiero respirar tu cuello despacito (I want to breathe your neck slowly) Deja que te diga cosas al oído (Let me whisper things in your ear) Para que te acuerdes si no estás conmigo (That you’ll remember when you’re not with me) Despacito (Slowly) Quiero desnudarte a besos despacito (I want to undress you with kisses slowly) Firmo en las paredes de tu laberinto (Sign the walls of your labyrinth) Y hacer de tu cuerpo todo un manuscrito (And turn your body into a manuscript)

As the song continued, you couldn't tear your eyes off Mac. You knew you were singing for him, that your feelings were flowing through you. The second part of the song was different, however.

The club isn't the best place to find a lover So the bar is where I go Me and my friends at the table doing shots Drinking fast and then we talk slow (despacito) Over and start up a conversation with just me And trust me I'll give it a chance now Take my hand, stop, put Van the Man on the jukebox And then we start to dance, and now I'm singing like

Girl you know I want your love Your love was handmade for somebody like me Come on now follow my lead I may be queasy, don't let me see

Oh boy Ya no hablemos más (Let's not talk anymore) Toma mi cuerpo y frótalo contra ti (Take my body and rub it against you) Ven y sígueme hasta el fin (Come and follow me to the end) Ven, ven y sígueme hasta el fin (Come, come and follow me to the end)

I'm in love with the shape of you We push and pull like a magnet do Although my heart is falling too I'm in love with your body Last night you were in my room And now my bed sheets smell like you Every day discovering something brand new I'm in love with your body

Oh I, oh I, oh I, oh I I'm in love with your body Oh I, oh I, oh I, oh I

Oh, despacito This is how we do it down in Puerto Rico I just wanna hear you screaming, "¡Ay, Bendito!" I can move forever cuando esté contigo (when you are with me) ¡Bailalo! (Dance!) Pasito a pasito, suave suavecito (Step by step, gentle gently) Nos vamos pegando, poquito a poquito (We’ll get closer, little by little) Cuando tú me besas con esa destreza (When you kiss me with that skill) Veo que eres malicia con delicadeza (I see that you are malice with delicacy)

This part was definitely about Mac, he was just the real life definition of "malicia con delicadeza". Well, you were ready to admit that maybe you would like to do all what the song was about and a lot of more. After this part, the end was just a formality, you didn't actually need it.

Oh I, oh I, oh I, oh I Despacito Oh I, oh I, oh I, oh I Come on, be my baby, oh yeah

You finished the song and finally looked at the others. They were genuinely impressed by either you, Mac or both. Jack was speechless and you thought it was the best thing that could ever happen, at least you could appreciate a few moments of silence before they started to talk. Bozer spoke first, complimenting both of you, the others joined him quickly.

After a few hours of having a good time it was time to say goodnight. Matty left first, then Bozer with Leanna, Riley, and Jack was the last one. You were supposed to leave either, but you wanted to stay and help with the cleaning. No one could convince you to not do that, because you were this type of a friend who would always clean up, even if you were a guest. Besides you felt in the house comfortable enough to not care and just casually start to wash the dishes.

“Are you doing that to spend more time with me?” Mac asked, when he finished his part of the cleaning. You were almost done either.

“Of course not. I really don't like to leave a mess, even if I'm a guest. Besides, I know it's easier to clean up together than on your own” you answered honestly, giving him a smile. You hadn't drunk much, but enough to feel his presence more intensively than usually.

“I appreciate that a lot” he said and started to do something around the kitchen while you finished your job. It was almost like he wanted to spend more time with you.

“You know, I've been thinking... maybe we should go out from time to time? Like... just the two of us” he said after a while.

“Are you asking me for a date?” you looked at him slightly surprised. Was that possible he felt about you the same way you felt about him?

“I guess I am” he looked at you with his adorable puppy expression and you couldn't help but giggle.

“Then I guess I say yes” you answered and before you thought, you quietly added in Spanish: “Besides, you're so cute it's hard to say no.”

“I bet not as cute as you singing that song and thinking no one understands you” he replied also in Spanish and you were grateful you finished washing the dishes, because you would certainly drop whatever was in your hands if they weren't empty. Your face paled, then reddened furiously.

“I... No... It's...” you tried to say something, but words didn't want to form in your head. How could you be naive enough to think he doesn't know Spanish? This golden boy obviously could do everything.

“Hey” he put his hand on yours, but you took it away.

“Stop before I'll do something I'm going to regret” you whispered, looking into his blue eyes.

“Let me do something first.”

“Okay.”

As soon as he heard your permission, Mac leaned down and pressed his lips to yours. That was certainly not something you expected, but you didn't waste your chance and kissed him back. You wanted to both stay and run away, torn between listening to your mind and heart.

“I should be going” you whispered finally between kisses, but clearly not wanting to let him go.

“Stay” Mac pleaded and his fingers ghosted over the skin under the hem of your t-shirt.

“I want to, but I really shouldn't.”

“Baby, it's cold outside” he purred, kissing your neck. You smiled widely but your breath hitched.

“Alright. So where would I sleep?” you asked teasingly, unbuttoning his shirt slowly.

“In my bed?” he followed the game, sliding his hands under your clothes.

“But I have no pj's” you smirked, exposing his chest which you traced gently with your fingertips.

“You won't need them” he kissed you hungrily and lifted you up, then carried you to the bedroom. Not that you minded.

When you woke up in the morning, you didn't actually know whether you were supposed to be happy or scared. Or maybe both. Last night was either making your dreams come true, or a total disaster and the end of your friendship. Everything depended on what Mac thought about it. But the blond agent was still asleep, so you got up silently, took his shirt and left the bedroom. You didn't take any of your things, in case Macgyver woke up. You didn't want him to think you vanished and left him all alone. And you were right, by the time you came back with breakfast, he was awake.

“You scared me” he said and yawned.

“Why?” you asked, putting the tray on the nightstand and sitting comfortably in bed before you put in on your lap.

“I woke up and you weren't there. I thought you left, but then I saw your clothes.”

“It would be difficult to go anywhere outside without them” you chuckled, cutting a bit of the pile of pancakes with a fork and then offering it to Mac. “Besides, I didn't even want to go. I was just hungry. And I wanted to think what to do next” you explained, taking another bit yourself.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean that we should talk about us. Without teasing and jokes, just seriously talk about our feelings and-”

“I love you.”

These three words silenced you for good. Jack told you once that you and Mac have too big brains for your own's sake and you tend to overanalyze simple stuff. While relationships, according to Dalton, were no quantum physics, these stuff were simple. Well, you could swear physics was more simple than dating. But apparently Mac listened to his friend and decided to think less, act more.

“I... totally didn't expect that” you admitted, still shocked.

“I thought it was obvious. All that flirting, teasing, your favorite cologne... Everyone knew. They told me last night” he said sheepishly.

“You know what they say, "love is blind"? I was so in love that I didn't see anything at all. I seriously want to laugh at my own stupidity” you giggled, trying your best to not spill the coffee. “I was sure that if you ever found out how I feel about you, it would ruin our friendship. I was too focused on hiding my own feelings that I didn't notice yours.”

“We would make a perfect couple” Mac chuckled and kissed you.

“We will make a perfect couple” you corrected him, breaking the kiss. “You don't really think I could give up now? I love you too, Macgyver, whether you like it or not.”

“Oh, I do” he smirked. “Let's eat and I'll show you how much I like it.”

“Sounds fair. Unless you tease me again.”

“I can start to. As soon as we finish” he took the fork you held and fed you with pancakes just like you did before. Once you finished, he unbuttoned his shirt you were wearing and kissed you.

Of course it was the perfect moment for Matty to call. You wanted to suggest he shouldn't answer, but you knew a little too well that she would kill you both.

“Hey, Matty, what's up” Mac answered the phone with a speaker, so you could hear the boss too. He used a very convincing sleepy voice.

“I'm sorry to wake you up, but there's an emergency. Get ready and better be in war room in an hour. Also, do you know anything about (Y/n)? Her phone is dead and she didn't reach her home last night.”

“I'm sure she's fine” he said as you literally held your breath.

“Mac, this is serious, if something happened to her, I will search the whole world until I find her.”

“I mean it, Matty. I assure you she's fine.”

“Do you happen to know something I don't?”

“Maybe...” he tried and you sighed. There was no point in trying to fool her.

“Just don't tell Jack, okay?” you spoke. “And Bozer or Riley.”

“I'll just say it's about time. In this case I guess I can give you two hours” Matty's voice sounded way more amused than you wanted her to be.

“It's fine, we were about to get up anyway” you said embarrassed.

“No, you weren't, don't try to fool me. I know you better than you think and Ican tell you counted on a lazy day in bed.”

“Okay, enough. See you in Phoenix” you said and Mac ended the call, agreeing with you.

“So, we have two hours. I suggest we should use them well” he smirked and for the first time you didn't have the dilemma whether you want to punch him or kiss him. You just leaned in and kissed him hard. These two hours were going to be the best used time in your life. You were sure of it.

A/N: Used song is obviously “Despacito x Shape of You” by my favorite Pentatonix

#macgyver #macgyver 2016 #macgyver cbs #mac x reader #macgyver x reader #my fic

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xradinoxinterloperx · 5 years ago

Text

Vs Series Summary. Hazbin Hotel fanfic

CoverCredit: https://www.instagram.com/ignacio.coso/

English

Well, I have decided to Try to leave an Organized Publication with a Summary of the Chapters of the fan fic that I have been writing. It is the first one that I write and I am a novice writer, but it is something that I have been enjoying a lot.

As you will probably notice and more in the english translation, there is probably a lot of grammatical errors and some expression may sound weird, this is my first time trying to seriously translate tale to english, so im still learning and correcting the documents.

The stories like the original series are aimed for adults.

Initially it is a story centered on an OC and Vaggie, to explore her personality a bit, but little by little it comes to include more of the main cast and others from the universe of Hazbin Hotel. Each title of the chapter will lead to a link in the document.

Ocs Character Sheets:

Vic

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Chapter 1 - Day Off: Vaggie takes a day off from the hotel to clear herself. Looking for old friends she ends up in a dangerous situation and maybe meeting some new ones. Characters: Main: Vaggie, Vic (OC). Secondary: Alastor, Charlie, other OCs.

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Chapter 2 - Trip off: The organization of a new event for the hotel is underway. But in the process of advertising it, Angel is kidnapped in the street in front of Vaggie and Niffty. Angel receives an unusual acting offer. (Chapter contains NSFW) Characters: Main; Angel Dust, Madelaine (*Jlaiyon Oc) , Vaggie, Velvet, Vic (OC), other OCs. Secondary: Alastor, Charlie, Valentino, Niffty.

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From Here i named the previous known Ocs indistinctly

Chapter 3 - Surprise Visit: The preparations for the event at the hotel are almost ready. Vic decides to visit the hotel and meet all the staff. Characters: Alastor, Angel Dust, Charlie, Francis (Oc), Husk, Niffty, Vaggie, Vic, Zaza.

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Chapter 4 - Hangover: Vaggie wakes up at night after the event, the hotel is still standing but something wrong seems to have happened between some of the hotel members. Characters: Alastor, Angel Dust, Charlie, Husk, Niffty, Vaggie, Vic, Zaza. Secondary / Cameos: Madelaine (*Jlaiyon Oc) Velvet, Lucifer, Stolas, Von Eldricht Family.

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Chapter 5 - Lovelorn: Immediate aftermath of Hangover. dates, romance, feelings! & more. Happy Valentines! ...

Ocs Mentioned: Polaris(Godess-of-Waifus), CP, Deux, Madelaine (Jlaiyon), Larry (i guess it’s cameo?- Kronosaurus) *

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Chapter 6 - The Dinner: Preamble and meeting of the Dinner Organized by Charlie, Vaggie and Zaza. A fun night for all participants. Good food, Games, Karaoke. What can go wrong? (pretty long 43 pages, Epilogue contains NSFW)

Characters: Alastor, Angel Dust, Charlie, Husk, Niffty, Vaggie, Razzle & Dazzle,Lucifer, Lilith (cameo).

Ocs Mentioned: Adrem (cameo) , Havok, Maria, Vic, Zaza. Madelaine (Jlaiyon), Polaris(Godess-of-Waifus), Larry ( Art and character by Kronosaurus), Sally/Salem ( cameo - FreakyTrash)*

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Chapter 7 - Between Hell’s Royalty: On a scorching hot day, Charlie and Vaggie visit Lucifer spending a day of luxury at the palace spa. But even with a relationship to compose, Father and daughter will not be on the Margin of Royal Affairs. More so when the king's secretary witch, Salem, finds impossible for her to control the king's two new young intern assistants alone in the palace, no less than two young nobles of different ranks in the nobility of hell.

Characters: Alastor, Charlie, Damian (Zoophobia), Lucifer, Lilith, Satan (Zoophobia interpretation) Vaggie, Velvet.

Ocs Mentioned: Adrem, Candor, Vic, Sally/Salem ( FreakyTrash)

Cameo: Boogie, Dax, Draco (FreakyTrash)*

*Personal interpretation of the Original Character. Visit the original creators for their wonderful art!. Thanks for letting me use them!

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Español

Bueno, me he decido a Tratar de dejar una Publicación Organizado con un Sumario de los Capitulos del fan fic que vengo escribiendo. Es el primero que escribo y soy un escritor novato, pero es algo que vengo disfrutando mucho

Los relatos al igual que la serie original están apuntados para adultos.

Inicialmente es una historia centrada en un OC y Vaggie, para explorar un poco su personalidad, pero poco a poco viene incluyendo a mas de los personajes principales y otros del universo de Hazbin Hotel. Cada titulo del capitulo conducirá a un link del documento.

Planilla de personaje de OCs:

Vic

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VERSION EN WATTPAD DEL FIC (ULTIMA MAS ACTUALIZADA EN ESPAÑOL)

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Capitulo 1 - Dia Libre: Vaggie se toma un día libre del hotel para despejarse. Buscando viejos amigos termina en un situación peligrosa y tal vez conociendo algunos nuevos. Personajes: Principales: Vaggie, Vic (OC). Secundarios: Alastor, Charlie, otros OCs.

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Capitulo 2 - Tropezón: La organización de un nuevo evento para el hotel esta en marcha. Pero en el proceso de publicitarlo, Angel es secuestrado en plena calle en frente de Vaggie y Niffty. Angel recibe una oferta de actuacion inusual. (Capitulo contiene NSFW) Personajes: Principales; Angel Dust, Madelaine (*Jlaiyon Oc) ,Vaggie, Velvet, Vic (OC), otros OCs. Secundarios: Alastor, Charlie, Valentino, Niffty.

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Desde este punto especificare los nombres de los Ocs indistintamente.

Capitulo 3 - Visita Sorpresa: Las preparaciones para el evento en el hotel están casi listas. Vic se decide a visitar el hotel y conocer a todo el staff. Personajes: Alastor, Angel Dust, Charlie, Francis (Oc), Husk, Niffty, Vaggie, Vic, Zaza.

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Capitulo 4 - Resaca: Vaggie despierta de la noche luego del evento, el hotel sigue en pie pero parece haber conflictos entre alguno de los miembros del hotel. Personajes: Alastor, Angel Dust, Charlie, Husk, Niffty, Vaggie, Vic, Zaza. Secundarios/Cameos: Madelaine (*Jlaiyon Oc) Velvet, Lucifer, Stolas, Familia Von Eldricht.

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Capitulo 5 - Mal de Amores: Continuación inmediata del Final de Resaca. Citas, romance, sentimientos! Feliz día de San Valentin! ...Personajes Ocs Mencionados: Polaris(Godess-of-Waifus), CP, Deux, Madelaine (Jlaiyon), Larry (i guess it’s cameo?- Kronosaurus) *

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Capitulo 6 - La Cena: Preámbulo y reunion de la Cena Organizada por Charlie, Vaggie y Zaza. Una noche de diversion para todos sus comensales. Buena comida, Juegos, Karaoke. ¿Que puede salir mal?. (Capitulo Largo, 43 paginas, Epilogo contiene NSFW)

Personajes: Alastor, Angel Dust, Charlie, Husk, Niffty, Vaggie, Razzle & Dazzle , Lucifer, Lilith (cameo).

Personajes OCs: Adrem (cameo) , Havok, Maria, Vic, Zaza. Madelaine (Jlaiyon), Polaris(Godess-of-Waifus), Larry ( Art and character by Kronosaurus), Sally/Salem ( cameo - FreakyTrash)*

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Capitulo 7 - Entre la Realeza Infernal: En un día de calor abrasador, Charlie y Vaggie visitan a Lucifer pasando un día de lujos en el spa del palacio. Pero aun con una relación que componer, Padre e hija no podrán estar al Margen de los Asuntos Reales. Más cuando la bruja secretaria del rey ,Salem, le es imposible controlar sola a los dos nuevos jóvenes asistentes del rey en el palacio, nada menos que dos jóvenes nobles de distintos escalafones de la nobleza del infierno.

Personajes: Alastor, Charlie, Damian (Zoophobia), Lucifer, Lilith, Satan (Zoophobia interpretation) Vaggie, Velvet.

Personajes OCs: Adrem, Candor, Vic, Sally/Salem ( FreakyTrash)

Cameo: Boogie, Dax, Draco (FreakyTrash)*

*Interpretación Personal del Personaje Original. Por favor visitarlos para arte de los personajes. Gracias por permitirme usarlos!.

#hazbin hotel #Hazbin Hotel OCs #hazbin hotel oc #hazbin hotel fanfic #hazbin fanfic #charlie x vaggie #alastor #angel dust fanfic #vaggie #vaggie fanfic #fanfic #my fanfiction #hazbin hotel español #hazbin fanfic español #Angel x Madelaine

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forasecondtherewedwon · 5 years ago

Text

Alright on Paper Pairing: Peter Parker x Michelle Jones (Spideychelle) Rating: T (for now) Word count: 1699 Chapter: 1/?

Spideychelle Week Day 4: Fake Dating

Summary: Reading the newspaper has taught MJ a lot about the Avengers' relationships. Doesn't mean she wants to be in one.

Or, MJ fake-dates Spider-Man, but won't commit because she has a crush on Peter Parker.

MJ reads the paper.

Oh, what, she’s supposed to be above reading the paper because print is dead and the internet offers both more news (stories and outlets) and faster access to it? Tough. She still reads it because her dad still gets it. He’s had a subscription since he graduated college and thought reading the Times―tucking it under his arm and flipping through the pages while he rode the subway―was a more accurate measure of adulthood than owning a car. (They still don’t have a car, by the way. MJ is never going to learn to drive. Ugh.)

The appeal that drew her to it, at the age of four, was the occasional editorial cartoon, utterly beyond her comprehension. These days, she’s a little more interested in the articles on domestic politics, but hey, people are allowed to evolve.

So if you’re her, you’re MJ, you’re living in New York and you’re paying attention, you’re going to notice the Avengers. Notice shit like violent attacks and streets covered in rubble―although, that’s basically the city at rush hour during construction season. She’s noticing other things though, Avengers voicing opinions, reviving a feeling of civic interest, pride, and responsibility. She’s noticing the tide turning; citizens less interested in blaming superheroes for unscheduled demolition in Manhattan and more interested in who does Hawkeye’s tattooing or which karaoke bar Thor can most likely be found at on a Friday night.

And the Avengers’ relationships. New Yorkers are feeding on (super-)human interest stories with their faces so close to the pages they just about rub all the ink off with their noses.

It’s a terrible thing to know this, to be as observant as MJ is, tracking these changing attitudes and becoming an accidental expert on the path to good PR for the biologically, magically, genetically, or otherwise enhanced. Reading the paper is what gets her in trouble―sooner, rather than later―when Spider-Man starts hanging around.

Technically, he’s always hanging (that web shit is strong stuff, by the looks of it), and he’s always around. MJ figured out ages ago that Queens is his home base. Still, their borough’s just big enough and just crowded enough that she’d never encountered him in person until a few months ago. Now she sees him all. The. Time. He says coincidence, she says to-mah-to, and it really is him saying that because they’re officially on speaking terms. It’s an improvement to their interactions, mutually decided upon after Spider-Man scared the bejesus out of her when she was standing on her apartment’s balcony one day, glanced over the edge, and saw him crawling up the wall.

The deal became that if he was going to drop by, he better be obvious about it. This led to a routine MJ is loath to describe with the word ‘charming,’ but which may or may not involve her going out to the balcony or chilling by the open window of her bedroom on Saturday mornings, after her parents have left to run errands, and offering Spider-Man a glass of orange juice while they chat and she shares her paper with him. He likes the arts section. She likes watching him read it, sticking to the wall outside her window, the posters for whatever’s in theatres appearing upside down.

He joked one time about them catching a Saturday matinee together. She’s pretty sure he was joking.

The deal evolves as the weeks go by. MJ’s apartment is less of a rest stop between crime-fighting gigs and more of a superhero counselling centre with only one client. Not that Spider-Man is looking to her, a high school student, to mend whatever trauma led to him donning a formfitting red costume and babysitting an entire city, but she’s sure giving him a lot of advice lately.

It’s just… life stuff, really, and MJ doesn’t know where he sees authority when he looks at her, yawning in her jammies as she passes his juice through the open window, but he seems to listen. Maybe her dad was right about the paper; it’s possible that reading it makes her appear wise.

But it makes her act like a damn idiot in a crisis.

She’s heading to a guidance appointment one Wednesday (it’s junior year and MJ is getting some assistance with scouting out colleges) and the halls are empty; she was given permission to leave class five minutes early. When she turns the corner towards the guidance room, there’s Spider-Man. Just standing there. Middle of the hallway. MJ drops a textbook and it strikes the ground with a deafening slap.

This is her comfortable weekend companion, the hero of Queens. She adjusted to understanding that Spider-Man can be both, but there doesn’t seem to be any room in her mind for him to also exist midmorning at Midtown Tech.

He’s staring back at her (she can tell―the aperture of the white eyes on his mask has expanded in shock), arms held away from his body sort of comically, and MJ’s trying to recall if she’s ever seen him upright before when the jarring old-school bell rings and students flood from the door of every classroom.

Spider-Man bounds towards her, grabs her book from the floor, pushes it to her chest until she grips it, and says, “I know what to do.”

Everyone’s starting to make sounds of surprise, recognizing the Avenger in their midst, but even though MJ knows Spider-Man is kind of a hero of the people, he’s not acknowledging them at all. In fact, he’s wrapping his arms around her, and her eyes―boy oh boy―are wide. There’s just one thing on her mind besides what his suit feels like against the backs of her hands…

She’s praying that Peter isn’t seeing this.

“I’ll swing by your apartment later,” Spider-Man promises, speaking quietly near her ear.

He puts another little squeeze into the hug before stepping back. Reeling, MJ watches him give their audience a polite wave as he walks backwards in the direction of the nearest exit.

“Sorry, guys,” he tells the gathered crowd. “Uh, duty calls. I just wanted to stop by and see my girlfriend.”

Heads are swivelling to stare at MJ even before she drops the book for the second time.

\\\

“How?” she demands of him that evening, pacing tightly on the balcony while her parents laugh along to a sitcom in the living room. “How could that be you ‘knowing what to do’?!”

“I was doing what you said,” Spider-Man says defensively. He’s pacing too, along the balcony’s two-inch-wide railing. (She’s too mad to be worried.)

“Excuse me? We’re putting this on me? When was I an active part of that plan, while I was holding that stupid textbook or while my arms were pinned because you were hugging me? I’d really like to know.”

“W-well, it’s what you said about public perception of the Avengers.”

“Specifics!”

“Like Iron Man,” he argues, lowering his voice after how she snapped. “People like hearing about him and Pepper Potts.”

“And have you always modeled yourself after Tony Stark, or is this sudden, public relationship announcement your first foray?”

They stare at each other for a minute, Spider-Man balancing and MJ looking up at him―which is kind of weird after they hugged today and she realized he’s shorter than she is. She sighs, regretting her harsh words.

“I’m sorry,” she offers. “I know what you did was thoughtless―”

“Well―”

“―ill-advised―”

“Literally your advice.”

“―and, frankly, moronic―”

“Hey.”

“―but I get it, you panicked―”

“I had it under control.”

“―so I forgive you.”

“Oh. Well, thanks.”

“Now, come down here so I don’t have to keep resisting the urge to shove you off that railing.”

Once Spider-Man flips down (she’s already forgiven him―what, does he think he’s getting bonus points for landing the dismount?), MJ crosses her arms and gives that red mask of his a stern look.

“Still not thrilled, huh?”

“Good guess,” she says dryly.

“I might be missing something here, but… why? I mean, I didn’t think I did anything to embarrass you. Did I hurt you somehow?”

MJ shrugs and stares at her slippers.

“People saw.”

There’s a pause.

“…We already knew that.” His tone is almost clueless enough to make her apprehensive that this is the guy she and the rest of Queens have protecting them.

“I don’t know if… if a certain person saw.”

She’s blushing hard to admit even this much of a crush and she’d be mortified if she wasn’t making her confession to this socially illiterate superhero.

“Boyfriend?” Spider-Man asks. MJ glances up to see him leaning extremely un-casually against the wall, arms folded a little less tensely than hers.

“You sound skeptical,” she accuses.

“You’ve never mentioned him.”

MJ glares for a few seconds before backing down.

“No, he’s not my boyfriend. And you didn’t know that either because we only ever talk about you.”

“I don’t have a girlfriend,” Spider-Man immediately offers, like he’s trying to even things up.

Groaning, she lets her shoulders slump.

“You do now.”

“Yeah, I guess it’s pretty unlikely that nobody took a picture.”

“Safe to assume the students of a school called Midtown Tech are tech-savvy enough to work a cellphone camera. By the way,” MJ adds, narrowing her eyes at him, “why were you there?”

“Oh, um, gas leak in one of the Chemistry labs. They dispatch the fire department for that kind of thing and I hate for emergency services to get tied up if I can fix it myself.”

“Huh. I had no idea gas leaks were in your repertoire. Thought muggers and bicycle thieves were more your beat.”

She’s teasing him pretty lightly considering he definitely just lied to her. It’s fine, she’ll wait to crack him until he’s forgotten all about visiting her school.

Spider-Man swings his arms nervously.

“If it’s a community problem, I’m on it. I’m just a friendly―”

“―neighbourhood Spider-Man,” MJ finishes. “Yeah, I’ve heard the tagline. And you’re also my fake boyfriend until we figure out a way for you to tactfully dump me.”

He takes an excited step towards her.

“I know wha―”

She cuts him off with a swiftly raised hand.

“Don’t even say it.”

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wistfulcynic · 5 years ago

Text

Osaka-shi Serenade 2 / 4

IN WHICH there is Christmas dinner and intense bonding, drunken shenanigans, and smut!

SUMMARY: When Emma Swan’s high school sweetheart betrays her she runs away, as far as she can get… all the way to Japan. She tells herself it’s not running, it’s an adventure, but when she meets a handsome Englishman as broken as she is, will she be brave enough to embark on a new adventure with him?

A//N: THANK YOU ALL for the lovely response to this story! As I said it’s a very personal one, and slower and sweeter than the kinds of things I usually write. I loved living in Japan and writing this has been a trip down memory lane that I’ve very much enjoyed. I’m so pleased you’re enjoying it too!

RATING: M (for this chapter!!)

On AO3

TAGGING: @captainsjedi @teamhook @kmomof4 @winterbaby89 @searchingwardrobes @shireness-says @thejollyroger-writer @darkcolinodonorgasm @resident-of-storybrooke and of course @katie-dub and THANKING @distant-rose and @thisonesatellite for being brilliant betas.

(please let me know if you would like a tag!!)

PART2:

Christmas was, of course, not a holiday celebrated in Japan.

Of course it wasn’t, thought Emma, as she got ready for work on the 25th of December, five weeks after she’d moved to Osaka. Japan was a primarily Buddhist and Shinto country, and also, as Belle had explained to them in their last team meeting, the New Year was huge, and they would have a full week off for that. Emma understood.

But still, going to work on Christmas felt weird.

She’d already Skyped with Ingrid and Ruby and wished them Merry Christmas. There was snow in Storybrooke and her adoptive mom had carried the laptop outside to show her the snowman she and Leo had built, and all the presents under the tree, and even though Emma knew it was really just another day on the calendar, although she’d already lived through missing Thanksgiving, although Christmas carols played everywhere in Osaka all. the. time. since she’d arrived, she still couldn’t help feeling sad.

Adventure, she reminded herself as she grabbed her bag and headed for the door. Trying new things. There would be other Christmases.

The expat pubs in Osaka, of which there were very, very many, seemed to understand her melancholy, or at least found a way to profit off it. Every one of them offered “Christmas dinner:” a choice of roast turkey or beef with potatoes and vegetables, smothered in gravy and accompanied by a pint of Guinness.

“I like a good roast dinner as much as anyone,” remarked Killian as they stood in a hugely crowded pub, looking for a seat and observing as those already seated ate their food, “But that is not a good roast dinner.”

“It suits me, mate,” said Will. “I intend to get pissed tonight, all I need is somethin’ to cushion the alcohol.”

“Well, I’m going to find a less… popular place to celebrate the Yuletide,” said Killian. “If anyone would care to join me?”

“I will.” Emma didn’t like the look of the roast meats or the thin gravy, plus it was too loud in the pub and far too hot. She felt claustrophobic and very un-Christmassy.

“And me.” Anna had been subdued all day, for the past few days actually, and the prospect of a Christmas dinner had cheered her almost back to her usual self. But now she looked down again. “Let’s get out of here.”

The three of them headed out into the streets, still busy and bustling though it was nearly midnight, and decided to walk towards Shinsaibashi.

“There must be someplace there that’s nicer than that bloody pub,” said Killian. “I don’t know why we go to that place so often, if I wanted a piss-up in a run-down local I’d’ve fucking stayed at home.”

Everyone was grumpy tonight, thought Emma. They could all use some Christmas spirit.

“We could always go to KFC,” she attempted to joke. “A student told me today that’s a Japanese Christmas tradition. A bucket of KFC and a strawberry cake.”

“No,” said Killian firmly. “I want a decent meal. I’ve been looking forward to it all day.”

“So have I,” Anna agreed.

They pushed forward through the thickening crowds, but when they reached the entrance to the covered part of Shinsaibashi-suji, where the lights were so bright it almost rivalled daytime and where shops, restaurants, pachinko parlours, and karaoke bars were all jumbled together in a bright mess of noise and energy, Anna held back.

“I don’t know if I’m really feeling this,” she said.

“What’s wrong?” Emma asked her. “You seem down.”

“Yeah, I just— I don’t want a lot of noise. Can we maybe try someplace else? What about down here?”

They turned down a quieter side street, still bright and bustling but far less crowded. After a few minutes Anna stopped.

“How about this place?” she asked, indicating a red-fronted building with a dark-painted wooden door and a sign outside proclaiming it Osaka’s best steakhouse in almost correct English.

“Charley Brown’s?” said Emma, reading the sign. “Yeah, okay. Fine with me.”

Killian opened the door and they went in, indicated with hand gestures to the smiling and bowing hostess that they wanted a table for three, then followed her up the stairs to a small candlelit table in a quiet corner of the spacious room.

“This is nice,” said Emma, determinedly cheerful.

“Aye, it really is,” agreed Killian. His earlier mood seemed to have lifted, but Anna was still frowning.

She hovered next to the table as Emma and Killian sat down. “I don’t think I can do this,” she said.

“Do what?” said Emma, trying not to be annoyed. “I wish you’d tell us what’s wrong.”

“It’s— it’s Kristoff,” she said, looking sideways at Killian. “My ex. I— he— I talked to him last night and I’m just— I’m not feeling great.”

“Do you want to talk about it?” offered Emma.

“No. Thanks. I think I just want to be alone.” She tried to smile, though the strain in her face was evident. “You guys stay though, please. Have fun. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Okay. See you.” Emma watched her go, then turned to Killian. “What was that about?”

He scratched behind his ear. “I think she’s just having some troubles with people from home,” he said. “She and her ex ended in a weird place.”

Emma could tell that wasn’t the whole story but she wasn’t going to try to pry someone else’s secrets from Killian. He and Anna were close and had been friends before she’d met either of them, and it really wasn’t her business.

Yet Anna’s departure left her and Killian alone together in an atmosphere that was undeniably and inescapably romantic. Their table was small and felt secluded in its little corner, lit with tea lights in decorative holders and by the soft glow of the shaded wall sconces above them. It was intimate and elegant, and the nicest restaurant Emma had ever been in.

“Well,” said Killian brightly. “What looks good?”

The menu was extensive and a bit confusing, but Emma’s attention was caught by a small card tucked between the salt and pepper shakers on the table, advertising a Christmas meal that looked delicious, far better than what the pub had been offering. Five courses plus wine for 4,000 yen. It was expensive, but it was also Christmas, and Emma felt like she’d earned it.

“I think I might just try this,” she said.

Killian picked up the card and nodded. “Sounds great,” he agreed. “I’ll do the same.”

The waiter appeared and they gave their order, and once he had taken it and bowed himself away, silence fell between Killian and Emma, alone with each other for the first time and for the first time feeling awkward.

Emma was determined not to be.

“So are you ever going to tell me the story of your notebook?” she asked him, a hint of challenge in her tone.

“Do I look like Nicholas Sparks?” quipped Killian, and she chuckled politely but she knew deflection when she saw it, and she was not about to let it slide.

“I have no idea,” she retorted, “But I suspect your notebook would be a heck of a lot more interesting than his.”

“Not a Sparks fan then Swan?”

“Stop trying to change the subject.”

Killian sighed, and rubbed behind his ear again. Emma made a mental note to play poker with him someday; with a tell that obvious he’d be an easy mark.

“Well if you must know I was taking notes because… because I’m thinking I might write a book. Someday. And when I have ideas I think could possibly go in it, I write them down.” His ears had gone pink, and the tops of his cheeks. Emma could not have been more charmed.

“Why would you feel like you needed to hide that?” she asked. “I think it’s amazing.”

He shrugged. “It’s just theoretical at this point, I haven’t actually written anything. But I used to write short stories when I was younger and my brother always said—” he broke off.

“What did he say?” she prompted.

“He said I had a gift.” Killian replied in a low voice.

“Sounds like a good brother.”

“He was.”

“Was? What happened?” The words were out before she could think better of them, and she tensed, hoping she hadn’t pushed too far.

“He died.”

She remembered what he’d said during their first meeting, on the subway. “Was that the funeral you wore the tie to?” she asked. “The tie you threw away?”

He nodded, looking down at his hands where they rested on the table. “Yes.”

“I’m so sorry, Killian.”

“It was a long time ago.” He looked away again.

“That doesn’t mean it doesn’t still hurt.” She knew this, of course. Firsthand.

“No.”

She also knew how important it was to talk about things that hurt. “Will you tell me about him?”

Killian looked up at her and she sensed apprehension but also relief, that he actually badly wanted to talk about this with someone who would understand. That he was hoping she would understand.

He had no idea just how much she did understand.

“Liam was my hero. That might sound foolish—”

“It doesn’t.”

“—but he was. He was eight years older than me but he always used to let me tag along with him and his friends. I didn’t realise what a big deal that was until I got older myself. In the summer he would take me to the library and help me find books to read and then sometimes we would get the train to Weymouth and go to the beach. He made me play rugby even though I do not have the build for it because he thought it would make me tougher than football would, and when our father went into drunken rages he would take the brunt of it to protect me.”

These last words came out all in a rush and his expression was almost defiant, expecting pity or judgement.

She offered neither, just took his hand and squeezed it hard.

“How did he die?” she asked. “If you don’t mind telling me.”

“I don’t like to talk about it, but… I think I’d like for you to know.” He took a deep breath and his fingers tightened on hers. “It was a car accident. Just a stupid, pointless accident, only I was driving. I was seventeen and practicing for my driving test, and I turned onto a busy road and some arsehole wasn’t watching where he was going and plowed into the passenger side, and killed my brother. Instantly. Just like that and he was gone. The police said there was nothing I did wrong, but I can’t help feeling like—”

“Like you should have been able to do something to prevent it.”

Relief flashed in his eyes, and gratitude. “Yeah.”

“I get it. My parents died in a car accident too.”

Relief turned to empathy. “Oh, love.”

“Yeah. I was twelve, and my brother Leo was two. So we have that in common too, that big gap between siblings. My dad was killed instantly, like your brother, but my mom died pulling me and Leo out of the wreckage.” She paused, blinking tears back, breathing deeply, pushing down the panic this memory still incited, even after more than a decade. “She pulled me out first, I was easier to reach, then told me to wait while she went back for Leo. She got him free but she had internal bleeding and strained herself too much.”

Her voice broke, and Killian held her hand even tighter. “Fucking hell,” he whispered.

“Yeah.” She swallowed hard, focused on her breathing. “It was pretty awful. My mom— she put Leo in my arms and then she collapsed and never got up again, and I— I have spent the past eleven years thinking if only I had stayed with her maybe I could have saved them both.” Her confession came in a rush, as his had done.

“Or maybe you’d have been killed too.” Killian’s voice was hoarse. “You were a child, Emma, there is nothing you could have done.

“Maybe. As it was all I had was a few bruises and Leo barely a scratch.”

“But that’s good, love. You had your brother, and he had you. I’m sure knowing that would have made your parents happy.”

It was the kindest thing anyone had ever said to her about the accident, much less someone who had lost his own brother so cruelly. Emma felt the tears she’d been fighting back spill over, and wiped her eyes with an embarrassed laugh.

“So that’s why you don’t like wearing ties,” she tried to joke. “At least that mystery is solved.”

“Aye. My father made me wear one to the funeral and cuffed me on the side of the head when I protested, said I was being disrespectful to Liam’s memory.” Fury flashed in his eyes, barely leashed, offering a glimpse of how terrifying he would be if he ever let it loose. Showing that his memories were as fresh as hers were. “Like he hadn’t spent Liam’s entire fucking life being disrespectful, like it’s so respectful to take out your drunken bitterness on your own bloody child.”

“So what did you do?”

“I put on the tie and I went to the funeral. Then when my brother was in the ground I burned the tie, and the suit, punched my father in his fucking face and left. I haven’t seen him since.”

Emma could imagine him, young and lost and drowning in pain and fury. She wanted to hug him, but instead she gently rubbed her thumb across his fingers. “Where did you go?”

“I’ve always loved the sea so I went down to Weymouth, where I used to go to the beach with Liam. I went to the harbour there and found myself a job as a labourer on a fishing boat, backbreaking work but I was lucky to get it. I worked there for just over a year, until I had enough money saved to pay for university. What about you? What happened after your parents passed?”

“It was pretty confusing for a while. We stayed with my friend Ruby and her grandmother since my parents didn’t have any close family to take us in, but then the state wanted to put us into the foster system. They said they’d keep us together, but I didn’t trust them, so when the social worker came to talk to us I wouldn’t let her in. I held the door shut and then I kicked and scratched and bit her, and eventually she gave up and left. She was furious. She shouted at me that Leo could be adopted into a nice family and if I was good they’d take me too. She said I was going to ruin his life, but I knew my parents would have wanted him to grow up with his own family. Even if that was only me.” She gave a self-deprecating shrug.

“Eventually my mother’s distant cousin, Ingrid, heard about what happened. She came and found us and took custody of us. Three years later she adopted us. She even moved to the little town where we lived so that we wouldn’t have to be separated from our friends and familiar surroundings.” She sniffed as tears prickled behind her eyes again. “I don’t know what we’d have done without her.”

Killian smiled, though he looked teary himself. “So a happy ending, then, of a sort.”

“As happy as it could be I suppose. Leo’s thirteen now and he’s a normal, happy kid. He loves Ingrid and doesn’t remember our parents, which—” she paused and took a deep breath before speaking, words she had never uttered to another person, words she had barely even managed to think. But she’d already told him so much, what was one more painful revelation? She could analyse her seemingly irresistible urge to spill all her secrets to him sometime later. “—I almost envy him for that,” she whispered. “I miss them so much. Even after all this time. I cry every day on the anniversary of their deaths.”

Killian’s hand shifted in hers, and she felt the soft brush of his thumb across her knuckles. “I cry on the anniversary of Liam’s,” he said, in a voice that held sadness and pain and profound empathy. He understood, of course. She’d known he would.

The waiter arrived with their first courses, shattering the intimate mood, and abruptly they were self-conscious, pulling their hands apart and smiling with forced cheerfulness as plates were set before them. Emma could still feel the imprint of Killian’s fingers in hers as she picked up her fork.

“This looks good!” she said brightly.

“Aye. Far better than that slop from the pub.”

They ate in silence for a minute and Emma, desperate for the ease of understanding between them not to grow strained searched for some topic of conversation less heavy than dead families.

“So why did you—” she began.

“What brings you to—” started Killian, and they laughed.

“I was just going to ask why you came to Japan,” said Emma.

“Funny, that’s what I was going to ask you.”

She grinned at him. “You first.”

“Well it’s not that interesting a story, really. After uni I took an awful boring job, in public relations. I’ve no idea why I even took it, my degree is in Modern Languages, but they needed someone who spoke French so they offered it to me. The salary was better than any other offers I’d had and they said they were a ‘cool young’ firm and I wouldn’t have to wear a suit, so I thought why the fuck not for a year or two. But then before I knew it, it was five years later and I was bloody miserable. I hated every morning I had to wake up and go to work, but I stayed in the job because I didn’t really have any idea what else I even wanted to do. Then one day out of nowhere I ran into Graham in London. We’d been at uni together and hadn’t seen each other since, so we went for a drink to catch up and he told me he was there for an interview to teach in Japan. He made it sound like an amazing opportunity, said I should come too since they were still recruiting, and I had always wanted to go to Asia so I said I’d give it some thought. And then the next day my boss told me they were cutting the staff and offered me voluntary redundancy and I said hell yes, took the money, and before I was even out the door was on the phone with Graham for the details of that job.”

“Wow, it’s lucky you ran into him.”

“Indeed. We weren’t ever that close and I hadn’t spoken to him in years. It was just a weird coincidence that we happened to be in the same place at the same time. What?” he asked, seeing her face.

“Nothing, really, it’s just I’m kinda here by weird coincidence too.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah. I— I wanted to get away. From my life, and from my ex.” She glanced up at him, hoping he wouldn’t ask for details. She really didn’t want to talk about Neal, not with Killian. But he just nodded for her to continue. “So I just randomly googled ‘jobs in other countries’ and this came up. I’d never even considered going to Japan or even leaving the US, but it was like once the idea got into my head I couldn’t get rid of it. I felt like I had to go. Ruby thought I was nuts.” She laughed. “Maybe I was. But also, like, the interviews were being held in Boston, which is a three hour drive and a longer train ride and I wouldn’t normally have ben able to manage it, but the day they wanted to interview me I happened to have plans to be in Boston anyway, with Ruby actually. It was just all so easy, like it just fell into place. I don’t normally believe in signs, but that sure as hell felt like one.”

Killian shook his head, an odd, small smile on his face.

“What?” she asked him.

“I was just thinking of all the little things that had to come together in order for us to meet,” he said. “The odds against it were staggering.”

“And yet here we are,” she said softly, matching his smile with her own.

“Here we are,” he agreed.

—

They left the restaurant feeling content, full of wine and good food and the excitement humming softly beneath their skin at this hazy, undefined, unspoken-but-still-very-real thing that was blossoming between them, the attraction and the understanding and the sense of kinship that was unlike anything either had experienced before. Killian held the door for her and then when they fell into step his hand brushed against hers and Emma thought the spark might actually set her on fire. She edged closer and let her knuckles brush his in a way that was unmistakably deliberate, then his fingertips were tracing across her palm and—

“Oi, Jones! Emma!”

Will’s voice rang out from across the street and Killian and Emma all but leapt apart.

She didn’t know why, Emma thought crossly. They hadn’t been doing anything, yet the nothing they’d been doing was new and fragile and intensely personal, and she imagined Killian didn’t want their friends interfering in it any more than she did.

She glanced at him and he shot her a wry grin, and they crossed the street to join the group. Will was with Graham and Smee and all three were very much the worse for alcohol.

“We are goin’,” said Will, with the painstaking enunciation of the very intoxicated, “to sing karaoke. An’ you two,” he poked Killian’s chest with his finger. “Are comin’ along.”

“Mate—” began Killian, glancing again at Emma.

“Come on!” Will grabbed Killian’s arm and took a step forward, stumbling over the curb into the street and almost sending both himself and Killian flying headfirst into the gutter.

Killian steadied them both. “I’m not sure you’re in any state for karaoke, mate,” he said. “Maybe we should all just go home.”

“The night is young!” declared Will.

“It’s almost four a.m.”

“And we don’t ‘ave to be at work until three p.m.!”

Killian looked imploringly at Smee and Graham.

“Killian’s right, Scarlet,” said Graham. “You’re plastered and the rest of us are knackered, let’s get a taxi and go home. We’ll do karaoke another time.”

“Fine if you lot don’t wanna sing. But I am not goin’ home yet,” retorted Will, pulling his arm away from Killian and stalking off, as best he could stalk when he could barely keep his own feet under him. They watched him stagger for a minute, and finally Graham sighed.

“I’ll go after him,” he said. “Get him home safe. You guys don’t have to wait.”

“You sure?” said Smee. “I can go with—”

“No, you get a taxi with Emma and Killian, you all live in the same direction so it makes sense.”

Emma and Killian exchanged looks. It did make sense, but Smee lived at the same subway stop as Killian, which meant…

“Okay.” Smee grinned at Emma. “I’ll be h— happy to escort you home, my lady.” She felt Killian tense up beside her, and when she glanced at him his jaw was clenched tight. He caught her eye and shrugged. What could they do? Ditch Smee because they wanted to be alone in the taxi, maybe go back to one or the other’s apartment together?

Was that what they wanted?

It was definitely what Emma wanted, and she thought Killian did too, but they could hardly discuss that here.

Graham said goodbye and hurried after Will, chasing him deeper into the noise and crowds of Shinsaibashi, while Emma, Killian, and Smee turned in the other direction and headed for the taxi ranks on the quieter street of Midosuji.

“Imazato chikatetsu eki, kudasai,” said Emma to the driver as she got into the taxi between Smee and Killian. Her stop was closest.

“Imazato, hai!” he replied, and swerved the taxi in a sharp u-turn out into the street, tilting Emma almost into Killian’s lap. She braced herself against him and his hand came to rest on her knee, and when the taxi evened out along the wide avenue he didn’t move it.

Emma shifted, as subtly as she could, leaning into Killian’s side and pressing her leg against his. She could tell he was looking at her but she didn’t turn her head, didn’t dare risk seeing his face. He moved his fingers against her knee, almost imperceptibly, and when she merely pressed her leg harder against his he slid his hand slowly up her thigh, just to the middle of it. Casually, she let her hand come to rest next to his, looping their little fingers together. She heard him exhale slowly, as if trying to control his breathing, and he shifted himself, pressing his body all along the length of hers and twining their fingers more tightly together. Emma glanced over at Smee, but he was leaning his head against the window, oblivious.

All too soon they arrived at Imazato. Killian got out of the taxi to let Emma out. As she brushed past him he caught her waist and gave it a light squeeze. She looked up at his eyes, so blue in the bright lights from the subway station, brimming with emotions that made her heart race. Another time, his eyes said, and she nodded.

Emma ran across the street to her building and up the stairs two at a time, all five flights of them. She was feeling exhilarated and jumpy and humming with energy. She flung open the apartment door and kicked off her shoes, almost dancing into the living room.

“Do you mind,” said Aurora’s voice from the sofa. “We are watching a movie.”

“Oh.” Emma turned to see Aurora and Mulan sprawled out with a laptop on the table in front of them, sharing a set of headphones. “Sorry. I thought you guys would be at work.”

“We did a half day today,” said Mulan.

“We finished about an hour ago,” added Aurora. “You’re back really late.”

“Oh, I just went out to dinner with a friend. For Christmas. Um, Merry Christmas, by the way.”

“About that,” said Aurora. “Just so you know, next week we’re having a party. For the New Year. With some friends from our shift. Just so you can make your own plans.”

Mulan shot her an apologetic look, but Emma just shrugged. She was used to Aurora’s passive aggression by now. “That’s fine,” she said. “I’m, um, gonna go to bed now. See you guys later.” She could hear Aurora whispering as she slid her bedroom’s thin doors shut but she tuned it out.

Her mind and heart were still racing as she got into her pajamas and flopped down on her futon. Just one more week, she thought, four more days of work and then they had nine days off for the New Year. Nine days of vacation, surely, surely she and Killian could find some time to be alone with each other again.

She closed her eyes with a smile and fell asleep thinking about him.

— 🇯🇵 — 🇯🇵 — 🇯🇵 — 🇯🇵 — 🇯🇵 — 🇯🇵 — 🇯🇵 — 🇯🇵 — 🇯🇵 — 🇯🇵 — 🇯🇵 — 🇯🇵

The following week passed much as the ones before it had. She saw Killian at work and he still flirted and shared his lunch with her and outwardly everything was almost the same. And yet… whenever the group was together they made sure to stand next to each other, closer than they would have stood before. They sat closer too, at lunch, and shared little private smiles, and now and then when she was laughing or talking animatedly she looked up to catch him watching her with an intensity that made her heart pound.

After their shift on December 29th the group headed out, back to Shinsaibashi to a new bar Will wanted to try.

“I hear they make some fuckin’ killer drinks, mates,” he said. “There’s this blue shite, right, that has five different shots of liquor.”

“Five, really?” said Graham. “You’d be dead.”

“Nah, mate, not after one. It’d take at least three to end me,” chortled Will.

He held the door open for them with a flourish, and rubbed his hands together as it closed behind him. The room was brightly lit, done in shades of electric blue and glaring white and the bar was made of glass and decorated to look like a fish tank. Emma frowned at it, watching carefully until she was certain that the realistic-looking fish were not actually swimming.

“I think they’re just… part of the glass?” said Anna.

“Yeah, I think you’re right. Weird.”

The bar’s glass top was scattered with laminated menus, featuring pictures of vibrantly hued drinks.

“That’s it!” crowed Will, pointing at a drink the same blue shade as the neon sign above the bar. “That’s the one. I’ll ‘ave one a those, kudasai.” He pointed at the menu and the bartender nodded.

“Make it six,” said Will, holding up his left hand with the five fingers splayed wide and his right index finger held vertically across its palm. “My treat, mates.”

“Roku, hai,” acknowledged the bartender.

The bar was staffed by three terrifyingly efficient men, and their drinks arrived quickly. Emma took a sip of hers and grimaced. It was good, but it was strong.

“What the hell is in this?” she demanded.

“Not sure,” said Will. “I think one is absinthe.”

“Isn’t that illegal?” queried Anna.

“Maybe not in Japan,” suggested Graham.

“Absinthe is green,” Killian informed them, holding his drink up to the light. “Famously so. I don’t think there’s anything green in here, this is likely the bluest substance known to man.”

They all laughed and kept sipping, and the more they sipped the louder their laughter grew until the blue beverages were all consumed and Will was asking the bartender for more.

“I don’ think I could drink more,” said Emma, leaning heavily against Killian as the room spun gently around her, not even caring about the sharp look Anna shot her as she clutched the sleeve of his suit jacket. She liked Anna, very much, and whenever they were alone the other woman was friendliness itself but as far as very-pleasantly-buzzed Emma was concerned, she needed either to say she wanted Killian or not say it, but all these little wordless glares whenever Emma was close to him were starting to get tiresome.

Especially as Emma had every intention of getting much closer to him before the night was done.

Will was arguing with the bartender who refused to make them more blue drinks, offering them every other colour on the menu, and Graham was trying to intervene. Smee was watching them with his habitual slightly vague expression and Anna was pretending to watch while actually keeping her eyes on Emma as she laid her head on Killian’s shoulder and his arm snuck around her waist.

“All right, Swan?” he murmured.

“Yeah.” She nodded. “I feel good.”

It was one of the nicest buzzes she’d ever had, in fact. She felt light and loose and carefree, but not confused or out of control. Like she was floating on a marshmallow or rolling on a cloud of cotton candy.

She giggled, which was not like her, nor was the whimsy. But maybe both were what she needed tonight, she thought.

Will clapped his hands triumphantly as he won his argument with the bartender, who agreed to make them one more blue drink.

“Have at it, lads,” Will said, offering the drink around the group. Emma took a large swig then passed it to Killian, who did the same. She swayed as the added alcohol hit her, and now the cotton candy was in her brain, clouding her thoughts and sweetening them. She tugged on the lapels of Killian’s jacket.

“Let’s go somewhere,” she said, hoping the words didn’t sound as slurred as they did in her head.

He looked down at her, his eyes glassy but intensely focused.

“Where?” he asked.

“Somewhere. Anywhere. Just— take me somewhere.”

His eyes widened as he caught her meaning, then dropped to her lips and he swallowed hard. She swayed towards him but the room was far too bright and too full of their friends for what they both wanted.

He cleared his throat. “Are you sure, love?” he asked. “We’ve had a lot to drink—”

“I’m sure.”

He nodded, eyes still on her lips. “Yours?”

Emma struggled to think. Did Mulan and Aurora still work tonight, or— but it really didn’t matter because she wasn’t about to bring Killian to her place if there was any chance of Aurora being present. “No, my roommates are home,” she said.

“Is that a problem?”

“We have shoji doors, they are literally made of paper.”

“Ah. Well mine has normal doors but my flatmate is having a party.”

Emma wanted to snarl in frustration. How did other people do this when there was no privacy in this country?

Then she remembered how, from the whispers of other teachers and the blasé tales of her students.

“What about a love hotel?”

Killian’s eyes finally left her lips and he stared at her. “Really?”

“Oh, come on, like you haven’t wondered what they were like,” she teased.

“I have definitely wondered, but—”

“There’s one just down the street isn’t there?”

“Emma, let’s think about this.”

“I don’t want to think.” She clutched his lapels again, pressing her body as close to his as it could get, close enough that their breaths mingled, that she could feel the catch in his against her cheek. So close that half an inch was all that stood between them and the kiss they had both been craving for a week. For longer.

Well, that half inch and four very rowdy drunken English teachers and a glaringly bright Japanese bar.

“I just want to be alone with you,” whispered Emma. “Just you and me somewhere with a door that locks and where no one cares what we do.” She released him abruptly and stepped back, towards the door, grabbing his hand from around her waist and giving it a tug. “I don’t care if it’s tacky, that’ll be part of the fun. C’mon. I’ll pay.”

“You absolutely will not,” said Killian, and she knew she had him. He glanced around them and seeing no one was looking wrapped his arm around her waist again and steered her to the door. “Let’s go.”

They stumbled out into the bustling night, just drunk enough to make the flashing neon seem softly romantic. Killian held her close against his side, his arm firm around her waist, and she slid her hand into the back pocket of his trousers. A wild giggle rose in her throat as she realised they must look like the sort of couple people shouted at to get a room.

And that was exactly what they were going to do.

The lobby of the love hotel was surprisingly elegant, with soft lighting and dark-wood panelling along the clean lines and sharp angles of the room. A smiling woman stood behind a large wooden desk in the far corner. She said something in rapid Japanese and Emma struggled to pick out any of the words she knew.

Killian replied, also in Japanese.

What the fuck, thought Emma, gaping at him, wondering if she were drunker than she’d thought.

He shot her a slightly sheepish look as the woman began to tap on her computer. “I’ve been taking lessons,” he said.

So had Emma, but she wasn’t anywhere near that good.

Though her body was still thrumming with excitement she began to feel a bit awkward as Killian and the still-smiling woman arranged their room. There was only one reason people went to love hotels, the clue was quite literally in the name, and despite the fact that this was the woman’s job it felt weird to think that she knew what Emma and Killian were there to do.

Killian caught the look on her face and squeezed her hand. “You can back out any time, love,” he said. “No hard feelings.”

She shook her head, and returned his squeeze. “No. I want to do this.”

He smiled and the look in his eyes made her belly quiver.

The smiling woman handed Killian a key and a pamphlet and pointed them in the direction of the elevator with an elegant hand wave and a series of bows.

“Come on, then, Swan,” he said, flipping through the pamphlet. “We’re on the twelfth floor.”

“There are twelve floors to this place?”

“More, even, I think.”

They got in the elevator, which was as dimly lit as the lobby. The darkness made it easier to slide close to him again and press her cheek against his chest as he kissed her hair.

She supposed that was the point.

After the tasteful elegance of the hotel’s entrance and elevator, the sight of their room had them stopping dead in the doorway, gaping in shock. This, thought Emma. This is what I was expecting. The commitment to the theme was impressive.

The room was large, with gently curving walls and tall, blacked-out windows, but what really drew the eye were the hearts. Heart shaped pillows of varying sizes and hues of pink and red cluttered the heart-shaped bed with its heart shaped headboard, over which hung a heart-shaped mirror framed in sparkly red hearts. The walls were striped with lines of fuchsia hearts and in the corner sat a small table, square but lacquered in black with bright red hearts and accompanied by two matching chairs, with heart-shaped backs.

Emma tried to swallow her hysterical giggles but then she caught Killian’s eye. He was biting the inside of his cheek and when she widened her eyes at him they both burst into laughter.

“This is brilliant,” said Killian, after they had caught their breath again. “It’s everything I hoped it would be.”

“Exactly what I was thinking,” she agreed, and they both knew they weren’t just talking about the room.

Their laughter had dissipated the awkwardness leaving only the insistent pull of sexual tension, and when Emma hooked her fingers under the waistband of his trousers and pulled him closer she could feel the pounding of his heart and the heat of his gaze burning into her as she slid her hand into his hair.

“I’m feeling more sober now,” she whispered.

“Is that bad?”

“Exactly the opposite. I want to remember this.”

“So do I.”

She pulled his mouth down to hers and stood on her toes to meet it halfway as his arms wrapped tightly around her. Their lips met softly at first and then harder, and Emma’s head began to spin again as she opened her mouth and his tongue stroked hers, soft and wet and warm and tasting faintly of alcohol. He kissed her firmly and with obvious skill but let her take the lead, responding to her cues and adapting to her pace, and for the first time ever she felt like kissing was something being done with her rather than to her, and for Emma this was a revelation.

Soon she was breathless and barely able to stay standing on her shaky legs. She leaned against Killian, wrapping her arms around his neck as he lifted her just off her feet and walked them over to the bed, lowering her gently onto the pile of heart pillows and following her down without breaking their kiss. He unbuttoned her shirt slowly, letting his fingertips trail along each newly revealed inch of skin until every last button was undone and she practically ripped the shirt away, desperate for more of his hands on her.

They pulled apart just long enough for her to yank off her bra and toss it away and for him to remove his own shirt, heedless of its buttons, and when they came back together she moaned at the rough sensation of his chest hair against her nipples. It felt amazing, his skin against hers felt amazing, and the hard press of his cock between her legs made her heart race and her fingers tremble in anticipation. She bucked her hips against him and he groaned into her mouth.

He tugged at the waistband of her trousers. “Get these off,” he growled, as with his other hand he began to undo his belt. Emma shimmied out of her pants and underwear, too eager to feel all of him against her to be anything like self-conscious. When they were both naked he paused, taking her in, then reached out a trembling hand to trace the contours of her breast and waist and hip with the tips of his fingers.

“God, you’re beautiful,” he said, almost in a whisper. “I can’t believe—”

“What?” she whispered back.

“I can’t believe I’m here with you. This is like a dream.”

She knew exactly how he felt.

“You’re beautiful too,” she said, trailing her own fingertips over his chest and down his abs, stopping just shy of his cock. He caught his breath, the blue of his eyes almost lost to black, but managed a smirk.

“Devilishly handsome, I think you’ll find, Swan.”

She laughed. “That too.”

He pulled her back into his arms, running his hand down her back to press her as close as he could, curving it around her ass to pull her hips into his. She gasped, rocking against the hard swell of cock, desperate to feel it inside her, when she was struck by a terrible thought. “Wait,” she panted, pushing against his shoulders. “Do you have a condom?”

Killian pulled back, panting himself. “No. But the love hotel provides.” He leaned across her and pressed a button on the side of the headboard. A small drawer popped open, from which he withdrew a strip of six condoms, smirking at her as he brandished them.

“Ambitious,” remarked Emma.

“Aye, perhaps, but I do love a challenge.”

He waggled his eyebrows at her and she laughed. “How did you know those were there?”

“It’s in the brochure.”

“When did you—” she began, but he cut her off with his mouth on hers and his hand sliding up the inside of her thigh, making her gasp against his lips.

“Hush, now, love, remember we have six condoms to use before two o’clock this afternoon, we need to stay focused.”

Her chuckle became a strangled moan as his fingers stroked through her slick flesh, finding her clit with impressive speed and accuracy. He pressed it lightly with his thumb and then began to rub gentle circles around it.

“Oh my God,” she gasped, half expecting him to reply with some quip about how just Killian would do, but he was too intent on watching her reactions to his touch. She could almost see him cataloguing what she liked, thinking vaguely that she should feel uncomfortable being the centre of such focused attention, but then he increased the pressure of his thumb and slipped a finger inside her and she forgot to think at all.

She arched her back, pressing her core against his hand and her head back against the pillows as her hands clutched at them. She wanted to watch him as he watched her; the intensity of his focus and determination to please her turned her on as much as anything about him did, but her eyes refused to stay open, fluttering closed as the heady sensations built and intensified and then her orgasm burst over her and she actually screamed.

Killian continued to stroke her until she opened her eyes then withdrew his hand, resting it on her hip as he propped his head on the other one, watching her with an expression that managed to be both soft and smug.

“You,” she panted, “are looking awfully pleased with yourself.”

His smirk deepened. “Well, darling, I did just make you scream.”

She gave his shoulder a sharp shove, toppling him onto his back and quickly swinging her leg over to straddle him. “Let’s see who screams next,” she said.

He cupped her breast, thumbnail flicking across her nipple and she tried to stifle her gasp, without success. He licked his lower lip, slowly. “You’re on, love,” he growled.

Damn it, thought Emma, she was fully turned on again, ready to go.

“Where’s the damn condoms?” she snarled, snatching them from his hand when he held them up. Ripping the first one from its packet she quickly rolled it down his length, following it with her body as he pulled her close to take her nipple in his mouth.

“Fuck,” she moaned as twin bolts of pleasure shot through her from her breast and her core. “Fuck.”

“That’s the idea,” murmured Killian against her skin. He gave her ass a light slap. “Get on with it, then. I thought you were going to make me scream.”

Emma resisted the urge to smack him, instead lifting her hips and slamming them down, taking him deep, triumphant when he groaned and the hand on her ass gripped her hard. She braced her hands on either side of his head and concentrated on finding a rhythm, taking him as deep as she could and watching him as closely as he had her, trying to memorise what he liked best.

There seemed to be nothing he didn’t like, and soon he was thrusting up to meet her, fingers digging bruises into her flesh as she leaned on one hand and dragged her fingernails down his chest. When she flicked his nipple as he had done hers, he made a noise she’d never heard before and flipped them over, lifting her knee up to to her chest and plunging back into her deeper than before.

Emma no longer cared about the noises she herself was making; she was lost to everything but him, to the delicious friction of his cock inside her and his chest hair against her nipples, the softness of his lips on her neck. She’d had no idea sex could feel like this, like she was coming apart but also more whole than she’d ever been, her body incandescent with sensations that were almost more than she could bear. When she came it caught her by surprise, bursting from her core and flooding her with pleasure to the very tips of her fingers and toes. She gripped Killian’s forearm, nails digging into his skin as she clenched around him and he moaned her name as he came.

He collapsed and tried to roll away but she held on, wanting his weight on her for a few moments longer. He let his head fall against her neck and she could feel his breath ruffling the fine hairs on her nape as she sank her fingers into his own hair, damp with sweat, and as her senses slowly returned she tried not to worry about how not awkward this whole thing felt.

Even with Neal she’d always been awkward after sex, and she’d known him for years before sleeping with him. The whole business of being naked with someone once the urge to fuck had gone made her feel far too vulnerable, to say nothing of the messy cleanup and the general damp stickiness of it all. She generally escaped as quickly as she could and went to take a shower.

But with Killian not only didn’t she want to run she actually wanted to cuddle. His hand was moving up and down her hip in a touch more soothing than sensual, in time with her fingers sifting through his silky hair and it was… nice. Comfortable and sweet and lovely and she had no idea why this didn’t scare her.

Eventually he turned his head and nuzzled her cheek, kissing it lightly before pulling out of her, careful not to lose the condom. He went to dispose of it and she stretched luxuriantly, ogling his ass as he went.

“I could really use a shower,” she remarked.

“There’s a tub in here,” Killian called from the bathroom. “A big one.”

He poked his head out of the doorway, his expression at once challenging and shyly hopeful. “We could both fit,” he said.

What the hell, thought Emma. She’d already blown up all her old rules and boundaries with him, and she wasn’t about to run off until they’d had at least one more round, so why not take a bath together? She pictured him flushed and damp and looking at her in that way he had that made her feel cherished.

“Is it heart shaped?” she joked.

He laughed. “No. A missed opportunity there, really.”

“Oh well. Let’s use it anyway.”

His face lit up before disappearing back around the doorframe, and a moment later she heard the sound of water running.

“There are some bubbles though,” he called out. “In a heart shaped bottle.”

“Good enough,” laughed Emma. “Put ‘em in!”

She rolled off the bed and sauntered into the bathroom. Maybe it was the residual effect of the blue drink, maybe the fact that she was still buzzing from the best sex of her life, or maybe it was just the way Killian looked at her, but Emma was feeling bold and sexy, and when she appeared in the bathroom doorway and his eyes darkened as they travelled slowly down her naked form that feeling only intensified.

“You’re stunning,” he said.

She grinned. “So are you. Are we gonna do this again?”

“I know by ‘this’ you mean ‘trade compliments,’ but I’m going to ignore that and say hell yes we are but let’s have a bath first.”

“Good call,” she said, and stepped into the warm water. The bubbles smelled like roses and she sighed in bliss, and when Killian got in behind her and pulled her against him she snuggled into him with a sigh of a different sort, feeling happier than she could remember being since that dark, tragic night when she was twelve years old.

NOTES: For anyone unfamiliar with love hotels, they are basically just hotels that are designed to be places for people to go to have sex. They are not specifically for prostitution, though they can be used that way, but more for couples who just need some privacy in a very densely populated country with thin walls. In many traditional Japanese homes the sleeping space and the living space is the same space, and people just roll up their futons and put them in closets during the day, plus extended families often live together, so you can imagine it's hard even for married couples to find any space to be alone. They're not all heart-themed, but many have other themes like anime or S&M, and increasingly they are getting rid of the themes entirely.

You can read more here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Love_hotel

#cs fic #cs ff #cs ff au #captain swan #japan #english teachers #non magic au #friends to lovers #smut #fluff #smuff for days #there will be angst #but first the fluff #and japanese expat life #profdanglaisstuff #Osaka-shi Serenade

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popwasabi · 5 years ago

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Top 5: Jazz, Taiko Drums, and Hurdy Gurdies. My Favorite TV Intros.

It was not long ago when most streaming sites began offering a “skip intro” option for TV show content. Hell, it seemed some intros to the Netflix, Hulu and Prime content began intentionally making their original openers short and sweet so that viewers could get all the info they needed as quickly as possible.

These were welcome changes for most binge watchers who sometimes watch entire seasons of their favorite shows within a day’s time not wanting to waste time on seeing the same names on the opening credits over and over again.

(Yes, God damn it! I’m a slave to the stream!!)

Though this has been convenient for myself more than a few times I for one enjoy the artistic quality of a good TV show opener. It’s part music video, part amalgamation of everything stylistically and tonally you need to know about a series and a truly great opener can hook a fan to a show for life.

There are many shows, no matter how many times I watch them, I’ll never skip the intro too because they sum up everything I love about the series in a single 30 second to minute and a half long video and hey some of those songs really do “slap” as the kids say.

So, let’s talk a little bit about some of my favorite intros and why I love them so much in this week’s top 5.

Note: This isn’t just a discussion of the music used but the opening credits and imagery used to accompany it.

5. Cowboy Bebop

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There’s a long list of truly great anime openers out there from the Karaoke-friendly J-pop tunes of “Neon Genesis Evangelion’s” “Cruel Angel’s Thesis” to the classic 80s vibes of Akira Toriyama’s “Dragon Ball” and “Dragon Ball Z.” But only one anime is going to make the cut for this list and that’s “Tank!” from the 90s classic “Cowboy Bebop.” It’s truly unique in the anime landscape as its one of the few that features Jazz and an opening that doesn’t overly rely on the tropes of more traditional anime drawing its influence instead from 60s and 70s spy movies and aesthetics. Fans of “Archer” will likely notice similar motifs in that shows own opening and Bebop’s “Tank!” is all about exuding this “cool” vibe of its show’s primary characters the fun and often dangerous missions they get involved in. It’s a hip, unique take that stands out distinctly in its genre and a truly un-skippable tune during a binge watch.

4. Star Trek: The Next Generation

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I think the first time I truly fell in love with a TV opener was watching the show I gained my namesake from.

Yes, I’m named after Wesley Crusher.

I know, I know.

Anyways, there’s something special about this intro and it’s not just its nostalgia or classic Star Trek vibes but the hopeful adventurousness of the music’s tone. “Star Trek” has always been about an optimist’s view of the future, a world where people of multiple creeds, backgrounds, races, species in this case come together not to fight but to explore the furthest reaches of the cosmos.

The music always got me in the mood to watch Captain Picard, Data, and Riker to go do there thing whether it was as banal as negotiating a dispute in the neutral zone, fun and often weird times on the holodeck, or taking on the dreaded borg. The music accompanied by the venerable Patrick Stewart’s brilliant voiceover and the sprawling, albeit dated, graphics of space helped make TNG iconic and I’ll never consider skipping it on a binge watch.

3. Penny Dreadful

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Though it’s later seasons never held up nearly as well as its first I became instantly hooked on Showtime’s “Penny Dreadful” largely because of Abel Korseniowski’s brilliant score, particularly the intro he wrote for the show.

Korseniowski’s use of classical and gothic tunes helped bring viewers back to horror’s more Victorian roots in the best of ways with an opener that felt touching, somber, emotional and chilling all at once. The images splashing across the screen of various classic monsters, arachnids, and ghouls as the haunting soundtrack played immediately drew me into the story in the same way the young Dr. Frankenstein in the show could not look away from the horrors uncovered in the narrative. It perfectly captures the ghoulish, dramatic charm of the show and though its later storylines don’t hold up as well it’s another intro that is undeniably un-skippable.

2. Battlestar Galactica (2004-2009)

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Bear McCreary is probably my favorite composer of all-time and his work on the Battlestar Galactica reboot is a big reason why.

Though he wasn’t the initial composer on the two-episode mini-series in 2003, the themes, motifs and tones he took from Richard Gibbs work he quickly made his own and created a unique outlier in the science fiction music landscape that has defined his style ever since. The opener is a big reason why his work resonates so much with me because it captures much of the these unique tones and styles not just of the music but of the series’ story itself.

It begins slow like the opening crawl to a great mythical odydessy and tale of survival as we see the last days of civilization play out across the screen. As spaceships begin to caravan across the screen we get a sense of the desperation of the story’s heroes and the stakes they are up against and as it begins to close that’s when the percussion goes into full gear. The use of taiko drums in the soundtrack is brilliant and none more so than this opener as its speeds through frenetically the events of the episode giving us only passing glimpses of the action that is about to take place. It might feel like a spoiler for the narrative but it gave each episode that extra jolt before stepping back into the story and I enjoyed it every single time.

1. Black Sails

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I knew I was going to love “Black Sails” the minute the opening credits began.

The scratchy, aggravating yet hypnotic tunes of the hurdy gurdy playing over the creepy, blackness of the ocean gave the series an immediate dark and unique tone I wasn’t immediately expecting when I began watching the series. I had heard bits and pieces about the show’s plot; a sort of prequel to “Treasure Island” and an edgier take on the prototypical Pirate story is all I knew about it going in but the opener lets you know pretty much immediately this isn’t your typical tale of swashbuckling buccaneers. Like a twisted sea shanty mixed together with a pirate themed rock bank, “Black Sails” intro is dare I say a banger that has you howling along to the righteous vocals of music in the most epic of ways.

But the music truly captures the tone and theme of the story in more subtle ways as well. Like an itch you can’t scratch the music tell it’s viewer and listener of a rage lingering deep beneath the surface of the waves of its main characters, one that’s barely being contained as the music hits these powerful offbeat notes between the electric guitar play and the offkey piano drops. As the series progresses you begin to understand more who and what it’s describing it makes the series that much more memorable.

It didn’t surprise me in the least that Bear McCreary was the man behind the brilliance of this piece and it makes each episodes’ opening a must watch.

So, what are your favorite intros? What music paired with a unique and captivating opening title crawl captured your imagination and emotions the most? Let’s hear it!

Me in my car to any of these songs. All the time...

#Black Sails #Star Trek #Star Trek TNG #battlestar galactica #cowboy bebop #Anime #TV #netflix #hulu #Amazon Prime #Disney #Penny Dreadful #bear mccreary

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lenaisanerd · 6 years ago

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i know it’s expected that i be serene

When Clary texts Simon requesting Fullmetal Alchemist, he knows something's up. But Clary seems to be in denial, and so Simon dispenses the ultimate cure-all: Hanging out with her best friend. (ca. 3500 words)

tunes.

Read on AO3.

This story was co-written with my darling @raisehades. Please enjoy the hard-earned fruits of many late-night Google Docs comment battles.

Clary: can i come ober

Simon: Ofc

Are u okay?

Clary: yes i just want so talk and cuddle or something

Simon: Okay. Want me to set up anything?

Clary: fma? 2009?

Simon: I gotchu

Simon was slightly worried.

First of all, Clary wasn’t usually this reserved in her texting. Her lack of exclamation points coupled with the request for her favourite show could only mean one thing: his friend was way more down than she was letting on.

But he would deal with that when she brought it up because, well, he was also happy; Clary and him used to do this a lot – go over to each other’s (parent’s) place to hang out and watch something they both more or less enjoyed and maybe even talk about their lives and their feelings and- stuff.

But ever since the whole… half-angel manic pixie dream girl mom reveal (the HAMPDGMR) and everything that went down in consequence of the HAMPDGMR, they simply hadn’t done this sort of thing anymore. Sure, they hung out with all their other friends, at parties at Magnus’ loft or karaoke night at the Hunter’s Moon. And while that was fun, it was different when it was just the two of them.

Even during their brief dating stint, there wasn’t much they did that they’d done as friends. Simon had enjoyed what they’d done together, of course, but looking back it had been obvious that this wasn’t ideal for them.

Ideal was this: Lugging the connector cable for the TV into the vicinity of his laptop, powering both up and then loading a site with English subtitles of Hiromu Arakawa’s masterpiece Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood.

Also ideal: Clary bringing weird snacks with unpronounceable names from the Polish bodega down the street from their old high school. That store had become their first stop after class when they were younger and would sneak candy into movie theatres or curl up on the couch in Clary’s living room and watch Audrey Hepburn flicks with Dot. Simon was almost certain he would be able to eat some and keep them down by now.

Well, actually, in a perfect world, Simon would have loved to cook something for Clary (the food at the Institute was a far cry from what any sane person would call comfort food. Or edible). But one of the results of moving out of his mom’s place just after he’d become a bloodsucking creature of the night was that he owned basically no dishes, or pots, or kitchen utensils.

Even compiling his stuff with Maia’s (who had lived next to a Chinese restaurant for her entire adult life) yielded five plates, one bowl, two chipped mugs, and somehow a ridiculously large amount of cutlery. So cooking anything more than a bowl of cereal was out of the question until they got around to buying some usable stuff. Simon could already see himself and Maia filling their birthday and Christmas/Hanukkah wishlists with basic household items for years into the future. Ah, the joys of adulthood.

Still, this was almost the Saturday morning of his dreams. In the past year, Simon had come to understand that while moments of normalcy were few and far between, when one came along they had to hold on tight for as long as they could. Which was exactly what he was planning to do.

“I’m telling you, Polish Bodega lady has to be a Downworlder. We just have to find out what flavor she is.” Clary started on her new favourite topic as soon as Simon opened the door. She draped her damp jacket over the back of a kitchen chair to dry, dropped a plastic bag on the table, and re-tied her wet ponytail.

Simon started rummaging through the contents of the bag. “Okay, one: I don’t like “flavors”, at all, two: how do you know she’s not just a normal human being who just happens to own a windowless shop where she basically lives 24/7? Oooh, you brought those weird milk drops!”

Clary had her back turned to him while she stretched as far as she could to reach the plates and mugs on one of the high shelves above the sink, not quite managing it. “She never sleeps. Sometimes I come by that store when I’m on patrol, and she must be there all night. Every night. And every day, too. Either she never sleeps, or she has at least two clones.”

“Maybe she has an identical twin sister.” Simon took pity on her and handed her the dishes. Clary took them and ducked out under his arm from between the sink and his body in one fluid movement. Then she set to digging through the fridge for some soda for herself, and a bag of A+ for him, hugging the plates and mugs to her body with her free arm.

“I think I caught her staring at my runes. She definitely at least has the Sight.”

“Oh, so your angel-ninja sense is tingling? Tell me, is there a type of demon that loves to disguise itself as an old lady and watch reruns of Polish soap operas?”

“There’s only so many demons that can be terrorizing Manhattan bankers at a time, you know.”

Simon let out an undignified snort of laughter, of the kind that, had he been drinking at the time, would certainly have made him exhale his drink through his nose. Clary stuck her head over the fridge door grinning triumphantly. Then she emerged fully from its depths with a bottle of coke wedged horizontally under her chin, the plates under her arm, right hand holding the mugs, and left hand holding the blood bag. Standing up was a precarious balancing act, and Simon rushed over to take the bottle from between her chin and collarbone. After he snatched up the bags of sweets from the table they continued their procession into Simon’s bedroom.

Maia and him had moved in together just after New Year’s, into a tiny two-bedroom apartment in Fort Greene. They had decided against sharing a bedroom, though, mostly because of their sleep schedules. As Maia had put it, one partner strangling the other because a certain vampire keeps making noise all through the night while a certain werewolf is trying to sleep is not very conducive to a healthy relationship. Of course, they often spend the night together anyway, although those weren’t the nights when they did much sleeping.

“Come lie down, thought you wanted to cuddle,” Simon said, sitting down on the bed and patting the spot next to him. Clary flopped down and threw her legs over his. Balancing the snack plate carefully on her lap she fluffed the pillows behind her and finally settled down.

It was several skipped episodes, an entire bag o’ blood, and a good two thirds of the coke later when Simon got to find out why exactly Clary was in such urgent need for Comfort TV Time.

“Did you know jat Ling’s name doejn’t need the ng sound at all? It’sh Lin in Japanese and”, Simon swallowed the milk drops, “the Chinese translation both, so they just changed it for us for some reason.”

“You’re going to regret eating those,” Clary said with such a comical expression of distaste on her face that Simon couldn’t help but laugh out loud. She rolled her eyes. “Suit yourself. I won’t mop it up, though.”

Simon was still grinning when Clary reached forward to pause the episode on a rather unfortunate still of Major Louis Armstrong in motion.

“Do you think Izzy would like this,” she said, suddenly serious.

“Who wouldn’t like Fullmetal Alch- ”

“You’re right. Of course she would. Continue.”

Simon took her vague gesture towards the screen as a command to unpause. About half a minute later she piped up again, this time not even bothering with the pause button. “Her favourite character would have to be Mei-Chang.”

“Really?,” Simon indulged, reminding himself that he had in fact watched this episode several times in his life(un-life?) already and could live (hah) with not catching every subtitle, “I would have thought Olivier, Lan Fan… or maybe Riza? One of the really cool badass ladies.”

“Izzy may be a really cool badass but trust me, she loves little girls with a passion for science. Did I tell you about that dinner party at Magnus’ place? She was off in a corner with Madzie all evening, talking about chemistry or something. It was adorable.”

“Yes, I – I don’t know how I managed to forget. You’ve told me about it... several times now.” Simon was quite proud of his wallowing pause here.

Clary said, “Well.” and when Simon looked over to her she was visibly re-invested in subtitles. He suppressed a fond headshake and decided to let her have this one.

The next time they got through a good fifteen minutes during which Clary only noticeably stopped herself from interrupting twice and Simon started quietly wondering if eating those drops was a bad idea after all.

“Could we invite her to something like this?”

“Izzy, you mean?”

“Ah, yes. I just mean, like, we’ve hung out at the Hunter’s Moon and the Institute and stuff but I don’t know, would she like just… watching anime? Snacking?”

Simon really did put up with a lot, huh. “I don’t know, what do you think?”, he said in his least exasperated voice and leaned forward once again to press pause. He looked over to Clary, who was searching through one of the bags of candy for the last red one with the utmost concentration.

“I think she’s probably never been able to do something like this but that… she’d probably like to try. And I guess it depends on the show if she’d enjoy it. Her attention span is better than ours’ for sure, though. Maybe I’ll ask her.”

“Instead of me?! I’m hurt, Fray.” Simon placed a hand over his unbeating heart and pulled what he hoped to be the most devastating pout since Shrek’s puss in boots. He probably didn’t succeed in that.

Clary repaid his efforts by hitting his shoulder. He whined out an ooow and curled up to smoosh his head into Clary’s side. Her shirt muffled his sigh, and she recoiled from his breath, pushing him away with a giggle.

“Simon, stop that! You know I’m ticklish!”

Instead of letting up, Simon wrapped his arms around Clary’s waist.

“Zis vasn’t my decision.” Simon was using his best Bela Lugosi accent. Clary’s eyes widened in mock horror and the corner of her mouth twitched upward. “You brought zis on yourself. If Izzy is going to be your new best friend now, you must face...ze octopus!” His legs wrapped around Clary’s knees while she wriggled and squirmed and laughed.

“Hang on, what do you mean ‘my new best friend’? Simon Lewis, you’re not suddenly getting jealous, are you?” Clary asked when she had successfully freed herself from Simon’s grasp and they were both lying on their backs, looking at the ceiling.

“Pssh. No,” Simon lied. Clary had the decency to look slightly guilty. “Maybe you just have a crush on Izzy, ever thought about that?”

He had expected a pillow to the face for that tease, or another assault on his shoulder, or a bit of banter. What Simon had not expected was Clary suddenly looking all serious.

“Huh. You know, I’ve never considered that. Thanks, Simon,” she said, and Simon was quite proud of himself for being as good at identifying sarcasm as he was, but he really and truly couldn’t tell what Clary was thinking then. As his friend leant forward to unpause their series he decided she must just be a bit tired of antics for today. Understandable, really.

Yesterday’s summer storm had turned into persistent rain. It pitter-pattered against the fire escape and the windowsill, occasionally cutting through the sound coming from the TV’s speakers. During the peak of the heat wave, Maia and Simon had opened all the windows in the apartment to let in a breeze and had jammed whatever was handy at the time underneath to keep them from closing. There was a guitar foot rest wedged in the crack of Simon’s bedroom window.

“Simon?”

“Yeah?”

“I definitely have a crush on Izzy.”

The pause button had never been pressed so quickly. It would have been a world record, if world record judges liked to hang out on rickety fire escapes peering through windows to see if random teenagers performed laws-of-physics-defying feats from the comfort of their beds.

Simon lay back down, face to face with Clary. She seemed way more casual than what Simon thought was appropriate for the situation.

“So…Izzy. Isabelle. Really tall, beautiful, kinda scary. Terrible cook. We’re still talking about our Izzy here?”

“Yep.”

“Huh.” Simon let that sink in for a minute.

“And, uh. How long have you known?”

Clary let out a hollow chuckle. “Consciously? About 30 seconds.”

Simon sat up. He took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. “Clary. I know you won’t like hearing it, but I’ve been your friend for over ten years, so I feel it is my duty to tell you this: You are such a dumbass.”

With a big sigh, Clary rolled over and buried her face in a pillow. Simon could barely make out her voice, but what she said sounded distinctly like a whine.

“What was that?”

Clary came up for air. ”I know.” Definitely whiny. With a very long vowel sound.

“I mean, you’re in so deep that I’m surprised you don’t need scuba gear yet.”

A groan.

Simon bumped her shoulder gently with his elbow. “Did I make you skip to the ‘wallowing in your own misery’ phase of having a crush?”

“No, it’s just...I can’t believe I never noticed.” Clary sat up, her legs crossed, facing Simon. “I only spent, oh, the last year with Izzy, every day. And– and looking back on some… things, it’s becoming really clear that I’ve had a crush on her for a while. And now I just feel like the biggest idiot in the world, and also what the fuck do I do now, Simon?” While she spoke Clary had let her head sink into her hands. Simon was of the opinion that they had just passed ‘wallowing’ and were well on their way to “breakdown”.

Simon leaned forward and, as gently as he could, pried Clary’s hands away from her face and held onto them for safekeeping.

“Hey, slow down, ‘cause this is bringing back really bad memories of pre-finals all-nighters.” This at least got a little smile out of Clary. “Now, can we back up just a bit to the ‘things’ you’re currently re-examining?”

Clary thought for a moment and then answered slowly, as though she was choosing her words with care. “Like, for example, why I love when she does my makeup. She’s really focused and just gets so close to my face and then she does that thing were she bites her lip and narrows her eyes, and sometimes I just want to lean forward and… kiss her?”

Immediately and seemingly instinctually, a grin tugged its way up the corner of Simon’s mouth. “Should I go get that scuba gear?” Clary rolled her eyes in response, but continued her recounting of Isabelle’s many virtues.

“And, uh, I always pick Izzy as a training partner, even though she does not go easy on me, because I kind of like when she kicks my ass.”

Simon only held in a dirty joke by viciously biting his own tongue. Clary was in distress. In distress.

His friend looked up at him from behind a strand of hair as if sensing his struggle but, judging by the nearly imperceptible untrackable movement of her eyebrows, refusing to acknowledge it. She headed on.

“Like, Izzy isn't really like anyone I've ever met before? And it's so - uh, exciting? Just to see her, like, do things her way. From the start she's made me feel like I belong, when, like, no one else really bothered to try?” Clary exhaled and shook her head. “I don't know. Maybe that's a bit much. I mean, what if we start dating and it immediately goes sideways? It’s just - we have too much history together. Maybe that doesn’t make any sense?”

Simon frowned. “No, I get it. She's really important to you.” He tilted his head to catch Clary’s gaze again. “And I know you’re really important to her. I don’t think one bad date could end your friendship. Also, you’ve known her for a year. If you want to call that ‘too much history’, I guess it might be, but when has that ever stopped you?”

Clary barked out a laugh. “Yeah, our relationship wasn’t exactly a success, though.”

“Okay, that’s fair, but Izzy isn’t me. And you aren’t the same you you were a year ago. Things are different.”

Clary looked ready to argue again, but kept quiet. Her body language was singularly vulnerable but her expression was more thoughtful than anything, brow furrowed tightly. She picked absently at her fingers which were still stained with oil paints, green and purple and gold. The rain continued its assault on the fire escape.

Eventually, after a long moment of silence, Clary stretched out on the bed next to Simon and, tugging at his shoulder, gently nudged him to lie down too. Clary tilted her head so it was lying against his shoulder and they lay there listening to the city they had been hearing their entire lives. But it was different now, wasn’t it? Simon had super vampire hearing and Clary had her angel ears and this wasn’t the city they had known anymore, because they knew what hid under the surface. But then, well, New York had never been the city they thought they knew. Simon had meant what he’d said: Clary had changed, and he had changed, and their old world felt lifetimes away. A year ago he would have said this was a bad thing. Today, he... wasn’t so sure.

“Should I tell her, do you think?”

“Hmm? What?”

“Izzy.”

“Oh.” Simon tried to get his train of thought off the existentialist detour track. “Uhh,” he said, intelligently, “I don’t know. Give me a sec.”

“Yeah, of course. Can you think while we watch?”

Simon nodded and Clary unpaused the episode. She propped her head up on her hand to get a more comfortable angle at the screen, and Simon’s eyes caught on the rune on her neck, right against the edge of her jawline. That was the first one, the healing rune that had seemed so out of place the night he’d found her by the church. By the Institute. Now, he couldn’t really imagine Clary without the runes, each a different part of her new life. There were the quick, simple ones Jace had drawn in the beginning, joined by the strong, decisive strokes of Isabelle and the slender script that indicated Alec, and of course Clary’s own hand, elegant and curving. Some for protection and some for strength, for courage and speed, fresh ones and older, darker marks. There was a story for every single one. A bit of experience. A battle won or lost.

He didn’t often dwell on this, but it sometimes occurred to Simon just how strong his best friend was. She had been through so, so much and come out on the other side a victor, maybe through luck, but also through sheer stubbornness. It was one of the things he loved (and sometimes loathed) about Clary. Simon was extraordinarily grateful that, even though both of them had lost a life, they had gained a new one, and one that had the other in it.

“Clary.”

She turned her head so she could look at him. One side of her face reflected the flickering lights of the TV. “Yes?”

“I think you should do what you think is best. Trust your gut. You’re gonna be fine.”

Clary looked disappointed. “That wasn’t much of an answer, oh great oracle,” she said.

“Well, that’s the only one you’re gonna get. This oracle is closed for the day,” Simon replied. He crossed his arms over his chest to emphasize his statement. Then, very quickly and stumbling over his words a little, he added: “I just really respect you and I think you’re really smart and have good judgement, and you can sort this out for yourself. Also if anything goes wrong this means you can’t blame me, so–” The rest of the sentence was cut off by Clary rushing to hug him. Her shoulder banged into his chin rather painfully. He would, of course, not have it any other way.

“Thank you, Simon. I love you.”

Simon smiled into Clary’s shoulder. “Love you too, Fray.”

#shadowhunters #shadowhunters fanfiction #clizzy #simon lewis #clary fray #brotp #shadowhunters writing #fanfuckery #finally got this posted on the tunglr as well

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borisbubbles · 6 years ago

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01. LITHUANIA

Ieva Zasimauskaite - “When we’re old” 12th place

youtube

After six, long arduous months, this ranking somehow outlived the entire Almaia relationship, and that alone should be reason enough to finish the ranking immediately, but the the upcoming ban of all nfsw stuff (/porn) from this website will also cause a homosexual exodus (homosexodus? 🤔), sooooo, definitely time to finish this ranking before I lose 85% of my current audience.

Look, listen OKAY, just like how I naturally gravitate towards Lea Sirk’s sass and Elina’s pristineness and DoReDoS’s hilarious whateverthatwas, I was simply never *not* going to like a Lithuanian frumpy space princess and annointed HINDU with a voice more brittle than Theresa May’s position in the House of Commons, whose meditation rites include drinking a cup of boiling water (without the tea! just water) on a daily basis to *purify* her mind and soul. Okay the last MAY be an exaggeration on the behalf of the Flemish commentator (Peter Van de Veire is a known jokester), but then again, I can totally see Ieva telling this to random bystanders in her hotel lobby? Such oblivious, but well-meaning wackiness is just so Ieva SassyMouseKyte.

Naturally, one MASSIVE part of my Ieva stanning is JUST her personality, which is both intensely kooky and disarmingly innocent, see above. Another example: Ieva serenly sliding off the stage during the semifinal, only to find the nearest camera and exclaim ”I FELT THE PRESENCE OF *GODS* ON THE STAGE WHILE I WAS SINGING ^__^ I FEEL *ENLIGHTENED* 🤗🤗” llke she was Siddharta Gautama under the Bodhi tree <3 I am no a religious man but if Ieva said the stage was brightened with a non-descript Eastern Deity’s presence during the performance, who am I to refute it? 😁

Gods or no gods, I will say that it took a *serious* amount of dharma to give us *the most unexpected gift* we’ve ever could’ve been granted, which is a COMPETENT EUROVISION ENTRY FOR LITHUANIA. In terms of Eurovision, Lithuania are amongst of the objective *worst* on a terrifyingly consistent basis and here you have a fairly pleasant Ellie Goulding-inspired, frumpolicious Hindu cleric bringing a ballad about the inevitability of high medieval alliance pacts. Let’s Sing The Song That She Wrote:

Actually that’s selling the act a bit short, because for a brief moment, Ieva managed to transform her moment during the sheer INSANITY that was this year’s finale (well the sheer insanity streaked with horrifying, terrible, machinal dullness, not naming any names but *cough*austriaandaustralia*cough), into an oasis of *pure show-stopping sentiment* and that’s a powerful feat to accomplish for a Eurovision entry. Normally, you think such an entry would Blackbird itself into oblivion but as Ieva had prophetically declared, GOD WAS ON HER SIDE, AMEN, so nope, think again Christerifer Morningstar 😈

Speaking of, praise Hallellujah, Oh Glory and Mazzel-Motherfucking-Tov that Ieva qualified under the hilarity that is the current combined voting system (to those who still hate it, AISEL would’ve qualified under the old system despite being 12th in both jury and televote 🙃 Granted this would be funny if this had happened to Sennek or Ari or Eye Cue or basically anyone other than Aisel, but it didn’t so The Old System remains CANCELLED, s/n/s) because not only is Ieva an Elyon Goddess Moste High, and has the unique quality of being a Good Entry from Lithuania, “When We’re Old” is also... fucking awesome in itself?

“When we’re old” is *not* your typical BorisBubbles fave on the surface (lol as if I can expect you to know what a typical Boris fave is after only two full rankings on tumblr 😬), but it totally is? Ieva hits that personal sweet spot for me that I require from my faves: Quirky, but not overbearingly weird. Well-liked, but not liked *enough* to top every post-show list. Sentimental, but because her emotions are *real*, not because of some forced commercialized acting gig. (such as, um, fucking Rona Nishliu and her fake-as-fuck dry sobbing ugh die bitch! (k not literally, just musically, 5ever)). Also, this song makes me want to sing along like the soft ass fag that I am. “When Weeeeeeeeee’re OWLED Hooooooooooooooo!!!” All of this cements Ieva as a dark horse, an underdog and an eternal outsider and these are the *specific* type of entries that I started this blog for.

I guess I should write a bit more, with more *sass and pizzazz*, but that’s basically my Ieva love in a nutshell! I think she’s an utter gem, both as a human and a Eurovision participant, “When We’re Old” *still* remains the only entry this year to give me *emotional attachment* in the form of shivers and near-tears and bad impromptu karaoke. If you don’t think she’s all that, well that’s your loss, not sorry! She made the final through the good graces of Hare Krishna and did better than Jessi*can’t* and *No*lexander ! If I get a relationship, I want it be precisely like Ieva and her Hubbo’s. GET A LIFE!!

ALL HAIL THE QUEEN OF EUROVISION 2018

Thank you for reading this ranking, it’s been a blast! See you on the 1st of April 2019 for the #TelAviv2019 preshow ranking. God bless you and shalom!

EUROVISION 2018 - POST SHOW

01. Lithuania (Ieva Zasimauskaite - “When we’re old”) 02. Moldova (DoReDoS - “My Lucky Day”)

03. Estonia (Elina Nechayeva - “La Forza”)

04. Slovenia (Lea Sirk - “Hvala, ne!”)

05. Switzerland (ZiBBZ - “Stones”)

06. Germany (Michael Schulte - “You let me walk alone”)

07. Albania (Eugent Bushpepa - “Mall”)

08. France (Madame Monsieur - “Mercy”)

09. Hungary (AWS - “Viszlát nyár”)

10. Finland (Saara Aalto - “Monsters”)

11. Bulgaria (EQUINOX - “Bones”)

12. Denmark (Rasmussen - “Higher ground”)

13. Malta (Christabelle - “Taboo”)

14. Cyprus (Eleni Foureira - “Fuego”)

15. United Kingdom (SuRie - “Storm”)

16. Serbia (Balkanika - “Nova Deca”)

17. Portugal (Cláudia Pascoal - “O jardim”)

18. The Netherlands (Waylon - “Outlaw in ‘em”)

19. Ukraine (MÉLOVIN - “Under the ladder”)

20. Macedonia (Eye Cue - “Lost and Found”)

21. San Marino (Jessika ft. Jenifer Brening - “Who We Are”)

22. Sweden (Benjamin Ingrosso - “Dance You Off”)

23. Austria (Cesár Sampson - “Nobody but you”)

24. Latvia (Laura Rizzotto - “Funny girl”)

25. Azerbaijan (AISEL - “X my heart”)

26. Israel (Netta - “Toy”)

27. Norway (Alexander Rybak - “That’s how you write a song”)

28. Montenegro (Vanja Radovanovic - “Inje”)

29. Armenia (Sevak Khanagyan - “Qami”)

30. Poland (Gromee ft. Lukas Meijer - “Light me up”)

31. Greece (Yianna Terzi - “Oniro mou”)

32. Georgia (Iriao - “For you”)

33. Belgium (Sennek - “A matter of time”)

34. Italy (Ermal Meta & Fabrizio Moro - “Non mi avete fatto niente”)

35. Romania (The Humans - “Goodbye”)

36. Ireland (Ryan O'Shaughnessy - “Together”)

37. Croatia (Franka - “Crazy”)

38. Belarus (ALEKSEEV - “Forever”)

39. Russia (Julia Samoylova - “I Won’t Break”)

40. Spain (Amaia & Alfred - “Tu canción”)

41. Iceland (Ari Ólafsson - “Our choice”)

42. Australia (Jessica Mauboy - “We got love”)

43. Czech Republic (Mikolas Jozef - “Lie to me”)

HALL OF BORIS BUBBLES EUROVISION FAVES (1972-2018) 1972: the Netherlands (Sandra & Andres - “Als het om de liefde gaat”) 1973: United Kingdom (Cliff Richard - “Power to all our friends”) 1974: Sweden (ABBA - “Waterloo”) (ed: totally by default btw. Shit year.) 1975: Germany (Joy Fleming - “Ein Lied kann Eine Brücke Sein” ) 1976: Luxembourg (Jürgen Marcus - “Chansons pour ceux qui s’aiment”) (😂) 1977: Belgium (Dream Express - “A million in 1-2-3″) (ed.: top five ESC year) 1978: Israel (Izhar Cohen & Alfabeta - “A Ba Ni Bi”) 1979: Germany (Dschinghis Khan - “Dschinghis Khan”) 1980: Luxembourg (Sofie & Magaly - “Papa Pingouïn”) 1981: Belgium - (Emly Starr - “Samson”) 1982: Germany - (Nicole - “Ein Bißchen Frieden”) 1983: Israel (Ofra Haza - “Hi”) 1984: Ireland (Linda Martin - “Terminal 3″) 1985: Turkey (MFÖ - “Didai, Didai, Dai”) 1986: Belgium (Sandra Kim - ”J’aime la vie”) (même si c’est une folie!) 1987: Belgium (Liliane St. Pierre - “Soldiers of Love”) (ed.: top Five esc entry) 1988: Switzerland (Céline Dion - “Ne Partez Pas Sans Moi”) 1989: Denmark ( Birthe Kjær - "Vi maler byen rød") 1990: Yugoslavia/Croatia (Tajci - “Hajde, da ludujemo) 1991: Sweden (Carola - “ Fångad av en stormvind”) (ed.: top five ESC entry) 1992: Denmark (Lotte Nilsson & Kenny Lübcke - “Allting som ingen ser”) 1993: the Netherlands (Ruth Jacott - “Vrede”) 1994: Germany (MeKaDo - “Wir geben ‘ne Party”) 1995: Cyprus (Alexandros Panayi - “Sti fotia”) 1996: Croatia (Maja Blagdan - “Sveta ljubav”) 1997: Poland (Anne-Marie Jopek - “Ale jestem”) (ed.: Top five ESC year) 1998: the Netherlands (Edsilia Rombley - “Hemel en aarde”) (I think???? lol 😬) 1999: Croatia (Doris Dragovic - “MARIJA MAGDALENAAAAAAA”) 2000: Latvia (Brainstorm - “My Star”) (ed.: top five ESC entry) 2001: France (Natasha St. Pier - “Je n’ai que mon âme”) (but also, nobody) 2002: Spain (Rosa - “Yooropz leebin a selebrayshun”) (ed.: this trashfest <3) 2003: Germany (Lou - “Let’s get happy”) (and let’s be GAY!) 2004: Albania (Anjeza Shahini - “Image of you”) 2005: Romania (Luminita Anghel and Sistem - “Let me try”) (Ed.: top five year) 2006: Iceland (Silvia Night - “Congratulations”) (ed.: 2006 SF > 2006 GF 😬) 2007: Georgia (Sopho - “Visionary Dream”) (ed.: i have about 9 absofaves from this year though lol) 2008: Iceland (Euroband - “This is my life) 2009: Iceland (Yohanna - “Is it true?”) (ed.: top five ESC entry) 2010: Albania (Juliana Pasha - “It’s all about you”) 2011: Germany (Lena - “Taken by a stranger) (ed.: top 5 entry, bottom 5 year >_<) 2012: Sweden (Loreen - “Euphoria”) (ed.: as with ABBA Loreen wins my ranking by default because this year is mostly rubbish.) 2013: Greece (Koza Mostra - “Alcohol is free”) (ed.: personal fave ESC year :)) 2014: Slovenia (Tinkara Kovac ft. Lea Sirk - “Round and round) (ed.: top five ESC year) 2015: Latvia (Aminata - “Love Injected”) 2016: Armenia (Iveta Mukuchyan - “LoveWave) 2017: Belgium (Blanche - “City Lights”) 2018: Lithuania (Ieva Zasimauskaite - “When we’re old”) (ooooohhhhhhhh)

#Eurovision #Eurovision 2018 #Eurovision Song Contest #Ieva Zasimauskaitė #When We're Old #Lithuania

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fucknfurter · 6 years ago

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......i think i’m watching the rocky cast fall apart before my eyes.

there was this thing about the prop bags, and how we have to switch from ziplock to paper, and sam wanted to print labels and make it cute and cha cha said we couldn’t-- because we run on donations-- but he’d ignored where she’d offered to do all of this herself. she suddenly said she was out, and then went on this rant about this being her thing and her enjoying it, and her ideas being ignored and then being parroted by someone else later on, and how she felt left out, and that she quit. everyone else is like, “....what?”

and me, i’m like, but this has been the ongoing problem for three years. you guys have become.... a clique within a fucking clique. do you know what happens when that happens? this, basically.

now cha cha’s going on about how he feels underappreciated, and i’m just shaking my damn head, because how can i be the only one who’s seen this? (aside from errick, bc we’ve sat down and talked about it, plus texted one another about it.) and i can even tell you how it all started, and that there’s several factors that play into why we are where we are now... it has to do with a certain groupie and when she started bringing her friends in, and making this more about the main cast than the cast as a whole....

it also has to do with how unprofessional y’all are. you have a new brad to let rehearse -- and he should be rehearsing /with the cast/ -- and we’re having our second meeting this week? what the fuck? we have until october 19th, we should have already started by now. i get people having lives, but-- there are people who would put more effort into this out there than y’all are who deserve the chance to take it over if you’re just going to turn it into this /thing./ y’all can barely decide to make plans anymore. we used to go for dinner and karaoke after practices and now we can barely make time for /rehearsals./

maybe i’ll even say it started when fish moved to north carolina and cha cha became director-- but only to myself, and never aloud.

you guys don’t care until the last two weeks, and then you make everyone cram to make up for the lost time we could have been rehearsing, you know, /now./ i have newbs to train up before showtime. i have newbs that are going to show up the night of and expect to be in it. like, this is un-fucking-acceptable, and i can’t believe y’all are like, “how did this just start now? i thought we were good” -- how fucking blind are YOU. WHY DO YOU THINK THIS IS MY LAST FUCKING YEAR, BLESS Y’ALL’S SILLY ASS HEARTS FOR THINKING EVERYONE FELT INCLUDED. if y’all would listen to people like errick and matt and others more often, you /would have known this./ but y’all don’t want to listen. because the crew and the rest of the cast is irrelevant, right? that’s how you make them feel. i only feel included because y’all THROW this shit onto me to fret over in the end, every year.

on another note, i was shocked last night to realize this is not my fourth year of this, but my fifth, because my picture folders date back to 2014.

was it worth it? do i feel like i achieved my childhood dream of being in a rocky horror shadowcast? .....yes, and no, in parts. yes, overall. i got to be apart of something i’ve been wanting to do since i was ten years old, and first discovered what shadowcasts were on cosmosfactory dot org and actually saw a commercial for the shadowcast i’m now apart of on my television.

no for the little things, and also no because my childhood dream included rocky horror at least being a thing once every month, and instead, i’m stuck in a place where its once a year.

but overall, yes. i can actively say i have taken part in something only those of us who have been in a shadowcast can understand. how much you get get along with a group of people who share the same love of something you do, while also being able to go at each other’s throats so cattily like we are this year, and have been since the new brad was cast. i’d say that’s a joke, but no, that’s just-- shadowcast family.

but this is still my last year, because i cannot do this anymore. i cannot sink a ton of money into something everyone else is only half-assing and is using as some weird platform to show off to their friends. i may do nothing next october -- i think i’ve earned it -- and then go back to working for sloss fright furnace the year after that, because hey, they pay and they pay /well/, and after dealing with the rocky cast for the last five years, matt, and other issues i’ve had in the years its been since i was last an actor on the trail at sloss? i feel like i /need/ a place that’ll pay me to scare and scream at people for six or seven hours a night.

#april does shadowcast shit #the final year. i'm tired. i'm out.

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aleatoryalarmalligator · 7 years ago

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answering all the music asks i posted cause why not?

1. a song from the year you were born

Pictures of You by The Cure (probably one of the more decent ones that was popular at the time)

2. a song that reminds you of school

1979 by Smashing Pumpkins or maybe Heart Shaped Box by Nirvana and a bunch of bad alternative post grunge stuff that i used to absentmindedly listen to on the radio

3. a song tied to a specific moment in your life

Coin Operated Boy by The Dresden Dolls

4. a song that is not sung in your native language

Me voir un amie plurer by Jacques Brel, or maybe Cler Echel by Tinariwen

5. a song over 5 minutes long

O’Malley’s Bar by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds was the first thing that came to my mind, or maybe Bella Lugosi’s Dead by Bauhaus

6. a song under 2 minutes long

OOO by Karen O. It’s really beautiful and people should listen to it now.

7. an instrumental

For Belgian Friends by Durutti Column

8. a classical piece

The Wedding Organ song

9. a song with no percussion

Waste of Paint by Bright Eyes

10. something you’ve heard performed live

I mean, it’s not my favoritest thing in the world, but Blue Oyster Cult’s ‘Don’t Fear the Reaper’ is pretty well known by pretty much everyone

11. something you’d give ANYTHING to hear performed live

I think actually seeing The Doors play some of their songs at their peak would have been spectacular

12. a song by an artist who’s from where you’re from (town/city/state/country)

Well, Idaho pretty well sucks when it comes to arts. But Built To Spill came from Idaho and I’ve always been pretty fond of their song Canned Oxygen

13. a song made suddenly precious because of a special someone

Oh my god this is corny, but Never Gonna Give You Up by Rick Astley was something Josh and I used to have fun listening to - it was partially sarcastic and partly because we genuinely liked cheesy 80′s hits more than we wanted to tell anyone

14. a song made suddenly awful because of a special someone

Zack pretty much ruined anything by Alice in Chains for me. I was never a big fan or anything, and i have respect for what they were doing at the time, but when people try to sound like Alice in Chains it grosses me out. Only Alice in Chains can be Alice in Chains.

15. something to BELT SHAMELESSLY/do DIVA HANDS to

Don’t Stop Me Now by Queen of fucking course

Maybe Careful Who You Dance With by Parenthetical Girls

16. something to SCREAM ALONG to

For Real by Okkervil River, or I Luv the Valley OH! by Xiu Xiu

17. a song for raging

Bite the Hand that Feeds, or Everyday is Exactly the same, both by Nine Inch Nails

18. a song that demands lipsyncing into a makeshift microphone

this isn’t something i think about too often so the only things that come to mind at the top of my head are all cliche and i don’t want to mention it

19. the last song you had stuck in your head

Elegant Chaos by Julian Cope

20. a song you’re dying to master all the words to

secretly i wish i knew all the lyrics perfectly well to the entire Hamilton musical and i pretty much do, but not quite yet. I don’t understand all the lyrics of Death Grips songs. I am not dying for any of this though because if i wanted to I could know most of it in a matter of a few weeks.

21. a song that you could SLAY at karaoke

eh. I could slay nothing. But i’ve practiced this absurd Morrissey routine from his early Smiths days and i pretend to dance like him just to make my sister laugh

22. a song you can’t help but dance to

Dancing With Myself by Billy Idol

Maybe Fell in Love with a Girl or The Hardest Button to Button by The White Stripes

23. a song that makes you want to dance on a table

Life of an Office Worker by Momus. Maybe Raised Right Man by Tom Waits or American Garbage by AJJ

24. a song that makes you wanna STRIP

I don’t want to strip. But if i did strip i would pick old 20′s, 30′s and 40′s tunes just to be weird.

25. a song with a great music video

There There by Radiohead

26. a song that makes you act out the music video when you hear it

pshaw, i don’t ever do this

27. a song with counting

Roadrunner by Jonathan Richman

28. a song with spelling

Loverman by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds

29. a song with lots of clapping

Black Balloon by The Kills

30. a song 40 years older than you

I looked it up and it appears that Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer is from that year

31. a song you wish your parents didn’t know the words to

a lot of the Beatles songs. My father does a miserable impression of John Lennon

32. a song whose lyrics shocked you once you were old enough to understand them

it didn’t exactly shock me, nor is it my favoritest song in the world, but Bruce Springsteen's song Born in the USA isn’t some validating anthem that is all republicany and pro America in the way people have always used it. I grew up with the notion that it was understandably, as i am sure many did.

33. a song you have ZERO patience for

certain kinds of really lame pop rock that’s on the radio. There is this song (and i just had to look it up because i didn’t know who did it) by James Arthur called Say You Won’t Let Go, and it played over and over and fucking over on the factory floor and when i hear it i want to die because it’s extremely bland to me

34. a song you’d like your favorite artist to cover

I mean, i don’t feel like anyone should cover something they don’t want to. I have no specific ideas on this

35. a great song you discovered thanks to a movie

there are some cliche songs i have found because of movies and i really want to avoid mentioning those ones. I do have to admit to everyone though that School Of Rock with Jack Black in it was probably where i first heard Moonage Daydream by David Bowie. And Substitute by The Who.

36. a great song you discovered thanks to television

I heard Nothing’s Gonna Hurt You Baby on The Handmaid’s Tale and i pretty much fell in love with it

37. a song you’re ashamed to have in your music library

I am not exactly ashamed of it, because actually she’s a fucking amazing lady, but I feel like my family and friends are a little surprised to find out how much i actually like Peaches’ Fuck the Pain Away

38. ok what’s the song you were too ashamed to even post for #37

there are a few of the Eagles hits that me and my mom used to sing together. They are really lame, but i think about good times with my mom and so i really can’t dismiss them,

39. the most played song in your music library

That doesn’t show. But i am sure it would have to be I Know It’s Over by The Smiths because I had a devastating experience in my life where i romantically lost someone and I spent three weeks in bed with it on repeat. And i still like that song. I am not tired of it yet.

40. favorite disney song

You know, i think i liked that song that the prince and snow white sang together. I always sort of laugh when the Prince belts out from nowhere ‘Now That I Found You, Here’s What I Have to SAAaaaayYYYYY!!’ It’s pretty fancy stuff.

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milkymilk101 · 7 years ago

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Wanna One as Construction Workers

* Idek I was thinking about Sungwoon and this came up. I thought about everything in my head while my mother and I were going to Rite-Aid. Idk I hope you like it?

Disclaimer: Might be horrible

Jisung

The boss

Gathering everyone in a group hug first thing in the morning

Probably plays slow chill music in the morning when everyone is starting off their daily duties (IDK OKAY)

Constantly trying to make sure everything is done before the deadline

Doesn’t understand why he was stuck with the crew he’s with

Literally has to keep an eye on everyone

Buys them food after a long and hard day of work

“Jisung this is why you are the Boss” - Daniel while stuffing kimbap in his mouth

Always the last one to leave to make sure all his crew is alright :’)

“Guanlin you can’t stand in the middle of the construction zone”

Kinda wants to do the work himself because the others play around too much

Shouldn’t but picks up the slack

When he isn’t yelling and nagging at the others he’s known to do this thing where he just sits there staring off to space

“Maybe he’s wondering where we hid his trailer keys?” -Ongniel :’)

Eats his lunch alone so he can look after the rest of the crew from afar

His mom brings his lunch and he loves it.

Home cooked meals for lunch break

Also another reason why he eats alone

Continiously saying

“Where the hell is Daehwi and Jinyoung?!”

Daniel

Does his work well

Only when Ong isn’t partnered up with him or when Ong comes around

“Daniel and Ong can you both stop trying to glue Jaehwan’s tools to the wood panel” -Jisung

The one that takes off his work attire to reveal himself in a white wife beater

“It’s too hot” -Daniel

“HOT DAMN!” -Ong in the distant

Daniel brings the girls to the construction zone~

“Please stay away from the construction zone. It is dangerous you civilians” - Minhyun with a megaphone

Packs himself sandwiches and ramen

Ends up tracking in cats

They’ve adopted Daniel as their Kitty Leader (LOL KITTY PUN)

Feeds them

After the first couple of times he ended up bringing cat food and treats with him to work

“What does this taste like?”

Looks forward to lunch break because KITTY TIME~

“Maybe if I figure a way to control these cats to do my work then-”

“DANIEL STOP PLAYING WITH THOSE DARN CATS. I DON’T PAY YOU TO DO THAT”

“IS THAT A CHALLENGE”

Ends up apologizing saying it was a joke but everyone knows it isn’t

Jihoon

Kinda does what he’s suppose to do?

No one believes he gets anything done

“Are you sure you work here” -Ong

Woojin and him has this thing that when they pass each other while working they look at each

Drop their equipment

Wrestle to see who flips the other one onto the ground first

Loser has to do a dare

“Go to Jisung and ask him if he dropped his pockets. If he says ‘where?’ throw these at him”

*Shoves a bag full of un-sewn pockets @ Woojin*

“Why the hell do you have this?”

The girls that walk by always call out to him

Shy af but tries very hard not to be (you’re doing great bby)

They probably bring him lunch tbh

“WOOJIN PICK UP THESE FUCKEN UN-SEWN POCKETS”

“IT WAS JIHOON’S IDEA”

“I’M CUTTING BOTH YOUR PAY”

Ong Seongwoo

FUCKS AROUND

But surprisingly gets the stuff he needs done

“Wow I can’t believe you got this part done”

“I know not everyone can be as amazing as me”

*Flips the long hair he doesn’t have*

Shamelessly flirts with all the girls that walks by the fence of the construction zone

Takes lunch from them

Well they offer it to him

He loves it b/c free food

They don’t mind because Ong is super handsome and sweet

“If your man ain’t treating you right, then let that Mango.” *Fruit Pun

“And come to me” ;)

“ONG, IF YOU’RE GOING TO BE SCREWING ANYTHING IT BETTER BE WITH THOSE SCREWDRIVERS AND THAT BOARD”

Dances during the lunch break with Woojin on the metal pole to entertain everyone

“If I were a stripper, my stripper name would be-”

“WE ARE NOT DISCUSSING STRIPPER NAMES” - Jisung & Minhyun

Also

“My favorite weather is rain. I wont be taking hail” (B/c Cash is rain and hailing is coins? Get it? No? Okay...)

Favorite tool is the staple gun because of Sungwoon

Wants to shoot it at Woojin but he knows the company’s insurance would probably go higher

So he throws pebbles at Woojin while he’s working

Woojin is a total clueless dork

“WHO TF KEEP THROWING SHIT AT ME”

“JIHOON YOU ASSHOLE”

Enjoys his job :)

Woojin

Like I said does that weird ass thing with Jihoon

“YOU’RE FUCKEN CHEATING”

“I don’t need to cheat when I can easily win. Now kiss my boot and do your dare”

When he doesn’t do that thing with Jihoon, he’s actually very productive

Probably the most hardworking worker Jisung has

Probably does all the work honestly

Like I said dances with Ong during their lunch break

On a metal pole

They both probably dance to something like Apple bottom jeans or Yeah! by Usher

“ApPle BoTtoM JeAnNnssSSsSs BoOTs WIth ThE fuRrRrrRRRrr” *Drops it down low*

Daniel records it because Ong & him made a bet that he would get carried away

They use it against him to do their work too :’)

Poor Woojin

Steals Ong’s desserts as pay back

“WHERE IS MY PUDDING CUPS”

“DANIEL ARE YOU FEEDING THE CATS MY PUDDING CUPS. YOU TRADER”

“WOOJIN SAID IT WAS HIS”

“FUCK FUCK FUCK”

Jaehwan

Follows around Minhyun

No one really knows what he does

Or why he’s there?

“Good morning Minhyun how was your day so far”

“He doesn’t even go here!” -Ong in the distant

A bat that hangs off of Minhyun’s shoulder

“So what are you doing now?”

“I’M LOOKING AT THE BLUE PRINTS JAEHWAN, NOW GO DO YOUR WORK YOU LEACH”

“Hey Minhyun are you going out for lunch”

“I’M GOING TO THE RESTROOM. LET ME PEE IN PEACE”

Probably sings while he works

Like the seven dwarfs

Okay like all the time

Suggests Karaoke every time after work

Likes beating everyone

“MAIn VOCaL maIN RaPEr iN yOur aReA~”

Wins all the time

No one likes going

“BUT there’s soju and beer”

*finger points snaps*

“You’re too cheap to pay all the time tho” -Minhyun

Minhyun

The pusher

Usually has that expressionless face while working

Everyone is kinda afraid of him

He just nags everyone alot

“This place is so fucken dirty.”

“You work at a construction site Minhyun” -Jisung

Like there’s Jisung and on top of that is Minhyun

“Just do you work”

“JuST dO yUoR WoRK”

Girls come for him too

But he learned to ignore it

“Minhyun! You look so handsome today!!”

“Ong I think those girls are making whale noises for you. You should go see if they need help”

He honestly just wants to get his work done

And go home

To nap? Sleep?

The “Why am I here” worker

Mentally refers to everyone as “peasant” besides Daehwi, Guanlin, Jinyoung, and Jisung

He probably writes poems during his break

Concrete is gray.

Ply woods sucks.

I would hit these annoying mother fucks :)

~ 9/4/17 Minhyun

Sungwoon

Cant do much because of his height

Works hard af to make up for it :’)

When Jisung has the music on in the morning he does a weird dance challenge with Ong

It’s different with Woojin

Sungwoon does it with a staple gun and a nail gun

Inside jokes

“Yeah Sungwoon can definitely NAIL IT together for you Jisung”

“You both are idiots”

*Body rolls with a staple gun*

Up for Karaoke with Jaehwan

The night is mostly spent with them both competing each other

They could sing all night tbh

Probably do high note battles while working

“STOP WITH YOUR MATING CALLS AND GET BACK TO BUILDING THE REST OF THAT SIDE OF THE WALL”

“WE’LL STOP IF YOU SHARE SOME OF YOUR MOTHER’S COOKING WITH US FOR LUNCH. WE KNOW WHY YOU SIT ALONE.”

Daehwi

An inter? Temp? I guess

Does the minimal

“Guanlin why does one of the workers keep staring at me?”

Doesn’t really know what’s happening through out the day

Follows along with whatever Jisung says

Just does random wild goose chase errands that the workers make him do

B/c no one wants this boy to get hurt?

“Daehwi I need you to find Jisung’s pockets”

“Jihoon isn’t his pockets on hi-”

“Look Ik this is life or death situation. The world is now in your hands alright. Now go buy a bunch of un-sewn pockets”

Became best friends with Jinyoung

Disappears with Jinyoung (according to Jisung)

“OMFG HOW I CAN LOSE 2 CHILDREN. QUICK WHAT’S THAT NOISE THAT HUMAN BABIES MAKE TO LET THEIR MOTHER KNOW WHERE THEY’RE AT.”

“Cry?”

“Yeah that”

They get distracted a lot along the way

Goes out to eat

Sight seeing

Buys un-sewn pockets

Then eats ice cream along the way

“Jihoon I got you, your drugs”

“wHAT”

“I’m kidding here’s your un-sewn pockets”

Jinyoung

Quietly does his shit

“Ong why does one of the new kid keeps looking at me?”

They became best friends :’) #JINHWI

Quickly does his work so he could run off with Daehwi

He actually doesn’t have as much work compared to the others

“WHY IS HE GOOD AT EVERYTHING” -Ong Probably

Knows his tools surprisingly

His work sometimes consist of cleaning and unjamming the tools that Daniel, Ong, Jihoon, Sungwoon, and Woojin did :’)

“How tf do you get a carrot stuck in the screw driver Ong”

“Look I was curious okay. Don’t question my validity”

A handy man

Constantly says to himself “How did I get this job?”

Always has dirt and smug on his face

“Where is it”

*Wipes more on his face with his dirty gloves*

The girls fangirl over him too

But he has ear plugs in purposely

He would get shy if he actually hears what they’re hollering

“Jinyoung! Is your voice deeper than the ocean!?”

Guanlin

Inter temp person with Daehwi

They got the job together

Their parents knows Jisung so they got hooked up for the Summer

Their parents said “It’ll be good for your resumes”

He comes into work dressed all nicely but Jisung learned to give and have a spare set of clothes

Comes into work with Starbucks frap in one hand and a chocolate croissant in the other

Makes sure to bring one to Jihoon in the morning

Asks his mom to make another lunch box for Jihoon

Gets upset that Jihoon has girls offering him lunch too

Wonders around the construction site most of the time

You’ll constantly hear “Guanlin you can’t stand in the middle of the construction zone”

Can’t find Daehwi because MISSING

Sometimes he just sits near Jihoon and watch him work and fool around

It’s more entertaining than filing paper work with Minhyun and Jisung

The one that constantly asks Jisung for money because he’s hungry and ate all what his mom packed him.

Ends up seeing Jinhwi together

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a----wilson · 7 years ago

Text

Erratic pt ໑ (C)

The auditorium was just as amazing, if not more, than the first time I was in it. Tall ceiling, bright stage lights, huge audience, or at least, space for an audience. Right now the only occupied space was the stage.

All three of the competing teams, including us, were gathered in a wide circle. It was a little odd how similar everything was from last year. Same spot, same time, same teams. Hell, on first glance, I only see two new people in all three of our teams.

“So, who’s going first?” A bored looking girl on the team from New Jersey asked. I could tell she didn’t really want to be here.

Tayla stepped forward and shot a glance toward our team. “We have two new members, but they’re not exactly new to glee,” she replied. “Elle, do you and Natalie want to go?”

This tradition of ours, letting new members show their skills, used to be for each of the teams to see what they were up against. Now it just turned into a little karaoke night before the competition the next day.

I saw Natalie smirk at the Cali team as her and Elle made their way to center stage.

“For those of you who aren’t aware of the rules, anyone can join in at anytime,” Nat explained as Elle chose a song off of her phone. Everyone that wanted to sing had to connect a device to the auditorium’s Bluetooth speakers, since we didn’t have a band at our beck and call.

Once the music started, a cheer of approval rang through the crowd. It was a pop song, which besides Broadway, was the only thing they ever sang. A few of the kids from California joined in dancing when the chorus started.

Bang, bang into the room

I let you have it

Besides Hayden, Elle and Nat were by far our best dancers. Seeing the kids from their old school dancing made me understand where it came from.

One of the newer girls from their team jumped in during the rapping part of the song. I’m pretty sure it surprised everyone how well she did. All in all, it was a great kickoff performance. I was constantly awed by the talent from the Cali team.

“Shit, you’re pretty damn good at that,” Nat commented toward the new rapper once the song ended.

“Merci,” the girl replied. I guess she was French. The guy that we met in the lobby, Daniel, came up behind her and swooped her into a hug. Elle noticeably shrunk back at how close he was. I was still confused as to what exactly happened between them. “Putain, ne pas faire!” she squealed.

“So, uh, what’s your name?” Nat asked, eyeing Daniel a bit.

“My name is Chantalle, and you are?” I felt Porter nudge me from my left side.

“Multilingual, you got a crush yet?” I glared at him, elbowing him in the ribs.

“I’m Natalie, this is Elle,” Nat replied, gesturing to Elle, who had inched backwards a few steps. Chantalle’s face lit up when she heard their names, and she turned to Daniel.

“Ce sont les filles que vous parlez toujours de?” I had to admit, the accent was pretty hot, even if I had no idea what she was saying.

“Ouais, elles ont transféré plus tôt cette année,” Daniel responded.

“Bien, pas étonnant qu’elles semblant si peur de toi tu as été un connard pour eux.”

Daniel rolled his eyes at whatever she had just said. As he did, he probably noticed the lost looks on most of our faces. “Um… sorry, she doesn’t know English that well.” He got a fist to the stomach for that.

“Je speak anglais fine, fuckface,” Chantalle replied. “Dites que vous êtes désolé.”

“Look, Elle,” Daniel began, looking over at Elle, but keeping his distance. “I’m really-”

“Okay, I’m sure this is some amazing psychological healing going on here, but some of us don’t want to be here all night.” All focus turned to the captain of the New Jersey team. I hadn’t liked her last year, even before she was captain.

“Yeah, sorry for the hold up,” Daniel replied, his voice getting angry. Chantalle whispered something in his ear, which made him smile and continue with “Tallie wants to go next, if that’s alright.”

When no one objected, she whipped out her phone and started a song almost everyone in the room had to know.

Let’s go to beach, each

Let’s go get away

“Is she addicted to Nicki Minaj?” Porter whispered to me. I chuckle.

“Maybe it’s the first American artist she heard,” I replied.

Daniel joined in for the chorus. They both looked like they were having a lot of fun. When the song ended, everyone cheered.

“You guys have anyone?” Tay asked the New Jerseyans after compliments were given to Chantalle and Daniel.

Wordlessly, the captain shoved a scrawny little girl forward. She had a guitar strapped to her back and earbuds stuck in both ears. Looking at her fingers, they were almost all bandaged. “Uh, hi, I’m Nash,” she muttered, turning to walk back into the crowd.

“No, sing something, Ash,” another girl from her team spat out.

“Like what?” She looked nervously around the stage.

“I don’t know, one of your cult songs or whatever.”

“O-okay.” Slowly unstrapping her guitar, she plugged the cord from it into her phone and strapped that to her leg. Taking a deep breath she started banging out chords viciously. It was obviously a rock song, but I’d never heard it before.

The volume of the music was excruciating and wonderful at the same time. But God! When she started singing it blew me away.

Father, did you miss me?

I’ve been locked up a while.

She seemed to gain confidence from the music. It gave her a new spirit, as she jumped around, almost flirtingly to the people closest to her. I was entranced by her.

Porter chuckled beside me and nudged me forward when she came closer. Our eyes met and she winked at me before pounding out the chorus of the song yet again.

I was almost sad when it ended, wanting nothing more at that moment than to keep listening to her mesmerizing voice. Someone yelled ‘encore’ and I seconded it. Pretty soon we were basically chanting.

Nash smiled wide as she nodded and dragged her fingers along the guitar strings yet again. I smiled too as she sang.

Do you have the time

To listen to me whine

My eyes widened as I recognized the song. It was one of the weird pop rock songs that mom used to sing all the time. Glancing over at Tayla, she seemed to notice too.

When the chorus came around, I jumped in and started singing with her. A few more people might’ve joined us, but I wouldn’t have noticed. I was too busy studying Nash’s smile, committing it to memory.

The ending of the song barely registered in my head until Nash leaned forward and whispered in my ear, “Do you know the song Holiday?” Because I didn’t trust my mouth anymore, I simply nodded like an idiot.

She began to play the opening notes of another song, this time she was staring at me just as much as I was staring at her.

Hear the sound of the falling rain

Coming down like an Armageddon flame

As we sang together, I couldn’t help but get lost in her deep blue eyes. I’d never felt as at peace as I was just singing and staring into Nash’s beautiful eyes.

#Erratic #original story #my ocs #idk #stories #excerpt from a book i hope to write

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arielsojourner · 8 years ago

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I love Luke goes back in time and saves everyone and leading a Jedi reform. I love Darth Vader going back and redoing his life. But what if they went back in time together? Now with even more self indulgent crack, filled with plot holes I never plan to fix, and now quoting "Lilo and Stitch" because it FITS, damn it, don't judge me!

“PART 4″ of LUKE AND VADER SAVING THE GALAXY DURING THE CLONE WARS:

-After every mission where Vader takes command and then takes care of Separatist Forces while Luke works with the troopers, Luke makes sure to take some time (usually at least a 10 day) before they move on to the next system, the next part of the front line, to just spend time with his father. Sometimes Vader wants to just move on as fast as he can, to the next battle, the next challenge, but Luke has learned the lesson of patience with the loss of his hand. He doesn't' suggest they mediate or spend time in silent separate contemplation like the Order would (also Luke seems to only meditate while doing handstands for some reason which is not a technique that Vader is familiar with but, to each his own). Luke insists that he and his father explore the planet they are on. They go racing. They explore local space and speeder craft. They spend nights just stargazing out in the wilds of whatever planet they are on. Luke loves to visit any source of water they can find- rivers, lakes, ponds, oceans. He cannot get enough of them. Luke insists his father help him spend some time training Chatterbox, Fives and Hardcase. Luke goes out with some troopers to enjoy the nightlife if there is any (Luke is awesome at Karaoke. Tatooine's music scene was always 20 years behind the rest of the galaxy and heavily Hutt influenced so now Luke is on the cutting edge of the music scene at last). Sometimes Vader will even share a few stories of places he has seen in the galaxy. Luke isn't sure but he thinks this may be the first time ever Vader has done anything like this.

-Slowing down, taking time, and enjoying the galaxy is a novelty for the troopers. They have had R&R before but usually it is a five day at most bookend with campaigns and massive battles. There is still danger and fire fights but now the troopers are taking care of criminals, stopping slavers and war profiteers and there have been few casualties in the last month. Kix is positively cheerful. Rex is preparing to update reports on their numbers for the month and realizes that between this ten day and the last there has not been a single death. The system has been taken, the Separatist forces routed, Grievous is dead, and not one of his brothers died. Rex isn't sure why but when he realizes that it feels like someone has punched him in the throat, he cannot breath, his eyes burn and he chokes. No one has died. In the quiet of his quarters Rex curls his body over the report and sobs.

-Vader hates being back in time. Vader hates being back on the front line of a war that was a total and complete waste of lives and resources. Vader hates the pointless waste of it and Vader hates having to knowingly be back in this time, reliving it. Vader hates that the Council and the Order making the same stupid mistakes and clinging to the same Code as before. Vader hates knowing that somewhere Anakin Skywalker is out there, living and fighting under orders from the Republic and the Council in a war that only ever benefited one person at the expensive of trillions. Anakin Skywalker who was too weak to stop any of this, too weak to see himself careening to destruction of everyone and everything he holds dear. Anakin Skywalker who is him. Vader hates so much it feels like he is still on fire, flesh cooking, nerves screaming. It fills him and still, still he doesn't know what to DO with all of it. It seems never-ending. It burns and burns and nothing helps! Not the Force, not "letting it go," not using the dark side, not destroying Separatist bases and slaughtering slavers and going after war profiteers, not the dream of killing the Emperor, not knowing Padme is alive, not having his troops at his side, not seeing Ahsoka again alive and still not yet betrayed by the Order. Nothing!

And then . . . and then his son will suddenly be there, by his side suggesting they go do something or see something or sometimes just to sit with him.

Vader has not told Luke all the details, all the monstrous things he has done and said and thought but Luke must know, must sense it through the Force, but for some reason Luke is still there. Luke frequently doesn't agree with him, won't obey him, doesn't excuse or justify, doesn't ignore who and what Vader is or has done, what he may do but Luke just won't leave him. Vader asked, (well screamed really) at him once when they were arguing. "Why?!" Why stay, why bother? Doesn't Luke know? Vader is not going to change, he is not going to suddenly un-Fall, or be nice, or be good. Anakin or Vader, this is who and what he is! Can't Luke see Vader burning with hate until there is nothing else? Why stay?

"Because you are my father, my family" Luke explains. "Family means no one gets left behind or forgotten."

It is an old Tatooine proverb. Half hope, half prayer because it was nothing more than a fantasy, a rage inducing lie people told themselves in the face of ugly reality. Families got left behind and lost all the time, but the poor people of that wretched dust ball still said it.

His mother used to say it.

Luke was impossibly trying to prove it was true.

-The 501st likes to speculate and gossip about just how this all came about, Luke and Vader. Rex will sometimes try and shut down rumors because he prides himself on a professional battalion (Don't gossip around Luke and Vader! What if they heard you?) but even he has wondered with his brothers just who and how and why? Lots of theories are bandied about, each more absurd than the last. Bets are laid. Ventress runs a book (and isn't that just as weird, working with Ventress! When Luke had brought her back with him after haring off on some solo mission that had Vader reacting with large explosions and massive Separatist destruction Rex had thought everything was going to blow up in his face but instead she has hung around and helped!) The best odds are on Luke and Vader being royalty from a warrior empire on opposite sides of a civil war, somewhere beyond the reaches of Wild Space and finding out they are father and son, they have fled to their galaxy to make a life together. Fives suggested it and has even put together a spreadsheet showing all the evidence in support of his position and will spend a good hour explaining why it makes sense. Force or no, Fives is still Fives. Chatterbox disagrees. When Ventress pressed him for his bet he laid his credits on the table and said "Time travel from the future."

-Ahsoka wants to argue. She wants to point out that it is a trap, a trick, a Separatist ploy, a Sith plot but the more she learns the less she feels she knows. Umbara was a nightmare when she had been there and now there is peace, reconstruction. Vader keeps his distance which is a good thing. She has never felt anything like him in the Force, being near an open reactor would be easier to tolerate. She also wants to contact someone, her master, hells even the Council but Luke has asked her not to and suggested she send a written report through a slicer channel, censored and secured for the safety of all.

Not ordered, or told. He asked her. He showed her what they were doing. He gave her the data files to review, he showed her what they had accomplished and how reconstruction was going. He showed her where and how the communication system was vulnerable. He told her peace was happening and this was the only way to defeat the real Sith Master behind all of this, not Dooku, Dooku was only ever the apprentice.

"You know who he is? Who? Where is he?" Ashoka had demanded.

"Where he has done and can do the most damage to every being in this galaxy," Luke had said sadly. "You can see it if you stop and be still. That is why he started this war. That's why he wants it to keep going on no matter what. You will only know when you are calm and at peace. All the pieces are in front of you. Stop and think."

"You won't tell me? What kind of Jedi are you? Are you working with him? Is that what this is?" Ahsoka stood, furious.

"No, never," Luke denied. "But you cannot play his game. None of us can, Jedi, Sith, Clone, Separatist, Republican, civilian or soldier. You lose a battle and he wins. You win a battle and he wins. Until you stop playing, you cannot defeat him. The war is his game so we are stopping the war and then we will go for him. We are not playing anymore."

To: Skywalker, Anakin (Knight, General) CC: Jedi High Council Date: XXXX XX XXXXXX Status Report of Jedi Padawan Ahsoka Tano

Honorable Councilors and Master Skywalker,

I have located the Jedi and Sith that were the subject of Master Fisto's and Senator Amidala's recent report and the subject of Master Kenobi and Master Skywalker's investigation. To ensure peace and reconstruction efforts continue without interruption and to avoid intelligence leaks I am sending this report among the regular data packets subject to standard censors but then transmitted the same via a backdoor slicer hack. Only you should receive this message or be able to trace it.

I am following my last instructions from the Council and I am staying with the 501st Legion until Master Skywalker can join us. Be assured that I and my two squads am in good health as are Captain Rex and the troops.

I met with the 501st on XXXXXXX at XXXX hours on the X day of XXXXX. Reports of a Separatist blockade in the system are no longer accurate. I found substantial debris found in orbit upon arrival. Smaller Separatist transports were in the possession of the planetary government. Republic ships were planet side. Upon my arrival Prefect XXXXXXXXXX informed me that further GAR troops were not expected nor necessary.

I found the 501st Legion under the command of a human male known as Luke matching the description and name provided by Senator Amidala's report to the Senate. I do not recognize Luke from any of the Order records but he has all appropriate access and Jedi and Republic security codes to take command of the 501st. He also has all current battle and wartime codes for a Jedi General. He identified himself as a Jedi but refuses all titles of Knight or Master. He has been in command of the 501st and the other troops working in tangent with the 501st. Luke has been in command since XXXX, taking over during the Umbara campaign from Jedi Master Pong Krell. Luke has been working with a Sith since at least Umbara identified by the name of Vader.

Luke confirmed that Vader has killed Master Krell and provided the attached data files (XXXX-XX-XXXXXX) as proof that Master Krell had Fallen prior to his death and was deliberately causing the deaths of his clone troops. The 501st confirm these events. They were made to fire on troopers from the 212th on Krell's knowing command. The casualty reports before Master Krell died are extreme. We lost a lot of good troops.

I still have no idea why or how a Jedi came to be working with a Sith except Luke refers to Vader as "father." I told him this is violation of Order doctrine and the Code and he told me that he doesn't care about doctrine or Code. Vader refers to Luke as "son." I don't know what the Sith Code is or if it is being violated by such a claim. The Sith Asajj Ventress claims it is against the Sith Code.

Ventress is here too working with Vader and Luke. I don't know if they really are father and son or if it is some sort of Sith trick. I tried to talk to the troops about it but they just laughed.

Vader and Ventress claim they have destroyed or surrendered most of the Separatist fleet on planet to the local government and Luke and Captain Rex on behalf of the Jedi and the Republic have accepted the surrender and declared the system at peace. The 501st and Ventress arranged the remaining reprogrammed battle droids and Separatist supplies to aid in reconstruction under Vader and Luke's supervision.

The Force tells me that Luke is rooted in the Light. Further evidence of his use of the Light side of the Force I saw first hand as I watched him kill General Grievous in a lightsaber duel.

General Grievous is visually confirmed as dead and in many pieces. Luke has taken three (3) Force sensitive adult clone troopers as apprentices in violation of Order doctrine and the Code (apprentices identified as XX-XXXX/XXXXX, XX-XXXX/XXXXXXXX, and XX-XXXX/XXXXXXXXXX) and all have been confirmed as Force sensitive and are now armed with re purposed lightsabers. I told him it was not the Jedi way and he just laughed at me and asked me if I wanted to train with them.

Luke and Vader further confirm all troopers have been implanted with behavior modification chips with encrypted coded orders requiring oral triggers which cannot be overridden, including kill orders against Senators, Republic and Separatist governmental officials, and the Jedi. See attached data files (XX-XXXX-XX-XXXXXXXXXX.). Confirmation also given that all clones were deliberately left in a genetically modified state of hyper growth and aging. Luke with the assistance of clone medics and Vader removed the chips and have through use of unknown Force manipulation corrected the genetic error. I don't quite know how he uses the Force to do it. All he says when I ask is "Size matters not" which is what Master Yoda says but how would he know Master Yoda?

Luke, Vader and Captain Rex insisted both XXXX Squad and XXXXXXX Squad traveling with me be treated and those clone troopers that wish to stay on the planet to become citizens and leave the GAR have permission to muster out for civilian positions so long as citizenship and full sentient rights are granted on them by the local government and recognized with the Republic. When I tried to argue, the Sith got very very angry. Luke asked me if I intended to treat the troopers as slaves and property of the Republic or as living breathing citizens. Masters, I know slavery is wrong but I didn't know what to say. We need the clones to win the war but then again there doesn't appear to be a need anymore, at least not on XXXXXX where there is peace.

Luke insists this and the entire war, both sides, start to finish, is the work of the Sith Master and that he and Vader intend to stop the war (not win it, Luke says that it is not possible to fight and win this war because of the Sith Master, only stop it) and then defeat him. Luke has refused to tell me who the Sith Master is, saying if I slow down, if I stop fighting I will see it. Vader won't talk to me at all and frankly I am not sure I want to talk to him. It is difficult to be around him. I don't want to believe it but I can feel it through the Force. I have searched my feelings. They know who he is and they are right about the war and the clones and Master Krell, all of it.

Master, I have tried to report as best I can what I have seen. I do not have any explanation for what is going on or why. I do not know how much longer I will be here before the Legion moves to the next system out on the front lines or into Separatist space or wherever we are going next. I am not sure when I will be able to message again. It seems unreal but it is true. We need to stop the war. Luke and Vader and Ventress and the clones, they are stopping the war. Master Anakin after everything you have taught me I feel that it is the right thing to do to help them do this, that my purpose, that every Jedi's purpose should be the same.

May the Force be with you. Ahsoka Tano, Jedi Padawan

-Master Plo Koon receives the message first and immediately calls his clone medic and Commander Wolffe and tells them to start scanning everyone for where their chips are and removing and/or shutting them down. He then asks if one of the clones will volunteer for him to try and figure out how to fix the aging process via the Force. Commander Wolffe immediately volunteers. Plo meditates but cannot find or figure out quite how to do it. Even though the message is censored he knows he must find this Jedi Luke and find out what is going on and see the truth for himself. His troops lives are at risk. Plo is supposed to be patrolling previously liberated Separatist planets to keep the Separatists from returning but things have been quite for days. He orders his medics to keep working and takes his squad to trace the message and find Ahsoka and find Luke and Vader.

-Master Yoda cannot catch his breath. His whole chest aches. He fumbles for his cane. He needs to meditate. He needs to call his fellow councilors. He needs to-- He needs to-- he can't breath-- "General? General? Are you all right? Fry, call the medic, get the medic now!"

-When Anakin reads the message he, to put it mildly, freaks. Obi-Wan and Anakin were supposed to find this mysterious Sith and Jedi pairing with Padme's help, not Ahsoka. Anakin vacillates between terror/anger and glee. He is very nearly manic and out of control. His whole world has been turned upside down. Grievous is dead! Krell was killing troopers. A Jedi let a Sith kill Master Krell. This Vader and now Ventress are working with a Jedi! The Jedi is a heretic! A Sith as a father? The 501st are safe! The 501st had slave chips in them! There are Force sensitive clones! Peace is happening! The war is just a Sith ploy? All of it? All those lives, all the work and energy, and blood and sweat and tears was for nothing? Nothing? They know who the Sith Master is. This could finally be ending, the war could end.

Anakin turns to Obi-Wan. "What do we do? Can we figure out where the message is from? We need to get to Ashoka!" She is surrounded by Sith and heretical Jedi but Grievous is dead but they know who the Sith Master is and he needs to check on his men and, and, and--!

Obi-Wan needs to sit down. He also needs some tea spiked liberally with Correlian brandy. Hells, he just needs some brandy. Grievous is dead. Someone is teaching Force sensitive clones, Krell Fell to the dark side, a Sith has a Jedi son, the war really really is a Sith plot, the Sith Master is known, it is too much. He can hear the notifications from his comm from various Council members wanting to talk to him. He is not going to answer. The channel is probably not secure anyway. Anakin is leaking emotion all over the place. Obi-Wan is not very far behind him. He needs brandy and then he needs to apparently sit on Anakin until he calms down. Maybe he should wake up Padme in her cabin and have her help? No, no, first, brandy.

#sw au #star wars alternate universe #luke and vader #luke skywalker sweet cinnamon roll #father and son save the galaxy #captain rex #obi-wan kenobi #clone wars #ahsoka tano

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maxibigtravels-blog · 7 years ago

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Insights from my “vacation” to Jim Kong’s “Democratic Republic”

First up, why did I go:

I’ve always loved traveling. Not in the way girls on Tinder say “I love to travel!” but in the way that I actually get out of England and go places. North Korea was the 53rd country I’ve been to. I’d love to go to all 198 but some of them are even harder to get to than North Korea (which was surprisingly easy for an Englishman at least).

I had a few weeks free time between finishing my old job and starting the next one and I had always thought North Korea sounded like an interesting place – like nowhere else you could ever see. I had also been listening to the Pat McAfee Show a lot, so the constant mentions of North Korea had it at the front of my mind (even if the constant warnings against it didn’t put me off).

I knew of a tour company, so I booked a place, sorted out my Chinese visa whilst the tour company sorted out the paper North Korean one (you don’t get a stamp in the passport, total bummer…), booked a plane ride out to Beijing. My preparation was: watching The Interview and Team America, reading Vice Articles. I flew out to Beijing, spent the weekend singing karaoke, eating dumplings and checking out Chairman Mao pics, then met my tour group to head over to Pyongyang.

I chose to get the train rather than fly because I’d heard you can meet some cool locals on the train and they’ll chat to you. This wasn’t entirely true. Most people either just ignored us or stared at us. The train also takes 24 hours and isn’t built for comfort. At 6’5” and a former Nose Tackle, I’m not exactly the right size for North Korean train beds. I also woke up around 4 a.m. to a Korean woman stroking my foot. Pretty odd sensation, but alas this was not the first step towards a forbidden Anglo-North Korean romance.

Once you arrive in Pyongyang, none of the locals really pay you any attention at all. In China, India, other places in Asia, people love to stare at the big white guy and often ask for pictures. In Korea, it’s like you’re not even there.

Most people seemed pleasant enough though, they looked happy, hard working and well meaning. It’s impossible to know how much is put on to impress tourists, but it does seem like it’d be a lot of effort to get an entire city into shape just for a few tourists.

We had a little walk before dinner the first night, down by the river where they’re meant to be having their beer festival. Apparently, last year’s was a great success, all the men are given beer rations, so they get free beer! I would later find out that all their beer is one of three flavours of beer: light, dark, or disgusting. I saw some children playing cards and a few men fishing. It was a lovely Summer’s day by the river… the kids were then shouted at for playing cards.

We headed to the Koryo Hotel. Built in 1985, under Kim Il-Sung, it was meant to “showcase the glory and strength of the DPRK.” It has not one, but two revolving restaurants, so that’s pretty glorious, even if one of them is permanently closed. Apparently, it also has a casino, we never saw this. It feels like the rooms haven’t changed since 1985. All the bedrooms also have a swing-open knee-high to ceiling window. They could definitely make it look like an accident if you fell out.

We had dinner in the restaurant next to the hotel, the food was pretty awful, I still have no idea what meat we were served (although I know it wasn’t dog because that’s a delicacy you have to pay extra for). No offer of a post dinner sample of crystal meth. The whole evening the TVs in the restaurant showed either videos of military parades or war movies. We had a few “craft local beers”, they cost $1 each so obviously you’re gonna drink a few (you pay in U.S. Dollars, Euros or Chinese Yuan, but not in British Pounds…)

Afterward, we were allowed to head back to the hotel in our own time. My first taste of North Korean freedom, walking outside without a guide! It’s weird walking outside at night. There are a lot of tower blocks but it looks like none have their lights on, or the lights are very dim. We did experience a couple of power cuts whilst we were there, people carried on like nothing happened.

Next morning on the way to the bus stop, I saw a woman with an AK47 on her back walking to work. She was foxy. The bus then drove by a little square where a few dozen women were out performing a cheerleading-style routine to encourage the men on their way to work. I feel like my morning commute to work would be better with more cheerleaders.

It’s about a 120-mile drive to the Demilitarized Zone from Pyongyang. That should take like 2 hours driving, but our coach took way longer. Absolutely zero traffic on the route, I could have counted the cars that passed us on two hands, but the roads suck.

We went to the town where the Armistice Agreement effectively ending the Korean War was signed. We were shown around by an official army officer. He showed us a replica of the Armistice Agreement. I asked where the original copy was. He told me: “You are handsome, like a movie star. You do not need to know where the original is, this copy is the same! Let’s go.” He was a nice guy.

Next stop, the DMZ itself. I popped over to South Korea for a few seconds, then it was time to go back to Pyongyang. We got back late afternoon, stopping off at the Arch of Reunification, which joins the Reunification Highway with Reunification Avenue. They’re pretty big on the idea of Reunification.

Next morning, a trip to the monuments to Jim Kong Ill and Jim Kong Sung (Jim Kong Un’s Dad and Granddad). They sure know how to make a really good statue in North Korea, so much so that it’s one of their best exports to other countries that love a good supreme leader/dictator statue. We had to wear a shirt for this, no looking sloppy when you’re visiting the big dogs.

Following those monuments, were a few more monuments and statues, including:

- The Chollima Statue: Chollima is a winged horse, like Hercules’ Pegasus. It symbolises the Chollima speed which inspires the North Korean people to work hard. We were told that when they build skyscrapers, the workers inspired by Chollima can build one story of a building every 14 minutes. I believe when they say “inspired by Chollima speed”, they mean “taking a ton of crystal meth” (tour guide could not confirm this)

- The Monument to Party Founding: a 50-metre statue of a Hammer, Sickle, and Paintbrush (symbolising 50 years of the Workers Party). The picture of me by this has since become perhaps my best Tinder picture yet.

- Their Arch of Triumph: looks the same as the one in Paris, but theirs is 33 feet taller. Suck it Paris.

- The Juche Tower: which is roughly 3ft taller than the Washington Monument. They love buildings that are slightly taller than other famous buildings. It has 25,550 bricks, one for each day of Kim Il-Sung’s life.

- Grand People’s Study House: a massive library, with over 10,000 books Kim Il-Sung wrote (one of which I bought a copy of, will have to send it to you guys). People are allowed to use the “internet” here (essentially an intranet, with approved websites, including a North Korean dating website, and Facebook equivalent)

The other three highlights of the trip for me were:

The Military Museum: I have never seen a military museum as big, as well stocked, as well cared for and as well loved by the people of North Korea. They genuinely believe the Americans started the Korean War which is just nuts. We were told not to take pictures inside the museum, but I couldn’t believe some of the things I was reading, so tried to sneak in a picture. Two seconds later I caught a security woman tattling on me. What a snitch. Their military museum has a ton of captured American military equipment, including the USS Pueblo, the only American “warship” (communications ship) in captivity.

(Pictured above: me and my new girlfriend)

Snake Soju and Tortoise Blood: Snake soju will fuck you up, tortoise blood apparently will fix you. They’re pretty big on snakes, so one night we got a bottle of soju (rice liquor) with a whole snake in. It’s meant to be good for virility and is drunk as an aphrodisiac, this is perhaps the greatest lie they have ever told, and for a country big on lies, that’s another bold claim. Tortoise blood is another strange ‘drink’. When a boy turns seven years old, it is tradition to take a tortoise, string it up by its back legs, let the blood run to its head, then feed the head to the 7-year-old and let him drink the rest of the blood. Again, good for strength and virility. Again, a huge lie.

THE HIGHLIGHT OF ALL HIGHLIGHTS: The Children’s Palace. AKA WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS FUCKING PLACE: A public after-school club that apparently all children age 9-15 can come to. Built because the North Koreans believe the children are the future, and so they deserve a palace. It’s 120+ rooms of child prodigies playing every musical instrument there is, dancing, singing, painting, playing sports, all to an elite level. There is absolutely no way that these kids are coming here for an hour or two after school, they’ve got to be there all-day every-day to even possibly be that good, that well choreographed and scripted. They are incredible. We capped off our visit with a trip to the 2,000 seat theatre where they put on quite the show for us. The finale included 10 young boys singing in Korean, whilst a video of nuclear bombs, tanks and rockets rolls in the background.

Tl;dr version:

I had time off work, I have always thought it sounded like the craziest place in the world. I wanted to see it with my own eyes and feel what it was like.

They’ve got a ton of interesting museums, cool buildings, statues and some very nice people.

You can get beers for $1, all over the place. But as you guys noted on a recent episode, it basically sucks. We went to the “best craft beer bar in Pyongyang” one night, they had 7 beers. I had to try all of them. 4 tasted awful, 3 of them were drinkable, but still pretty rough.

The city of Pyongyang doesn’t look too bad… it’s super modern in places (where the rich people live), the buildings are painted pastel colours like Miami Vice suits, it’s all pretty clean.

When they’re constructing buildings, they have what they call “Chollima speed”. They can construct one floor of a building in 14 minutes. I asked my tour guide how much meth this involved. They pretended no one did meth. Later that evening I asked my other tour guide about the meth situation, she said it’s definitely available. I asked if I could get some meth. Apparently, the meth is not for tourists.

My tour guide had never heard of a redneck, as apparently, they don’t have rednecks…

They call American football “gridiron”

They do not know who Pat McAfee is, and don’t listen to the Pat McAfee Show, or at least they didn’t…

Basically, everything was fine if you followed the rules, listened to the guides, were generally respectful of the country when anyone might have been listening, didn’t laugh when the tour guides said ridiculous shit (America started the Korean War, there is no hunger here, )

I feel like I’ve got a ton of other anecdotes, stories and things to share. Every time you guys do a Jim Kong update, I get excited about what’s coming and feel like there’s something I learned from the trip that I could chip in with.

Final thoughts:

Would I go back? No.

P.S. To anyone reading this who doesn’t know who Pat McAfee is:

https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-pat-mcafee-show-presented-by-barstool-sports/id1134713453?mt=2

https://twitter.com/PatMcAfeeShow

Now is the time to learn!

#northkorea #north korea #dprk #dprk news #patmcafee #thepatmcafeeshow jimkong

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