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airadam · 5 months

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Episode 174 : Twin Flames

"Ain't a damn thing changed boy, protect ya neck!"

- RZA

This month marks a full thirty years since the landmark date of November 9th 1993, when two of the greatest albums of all time - in any genre - were released. I've played many of the tracks from those LPs on the podcast over the years, but both do get a nod of respect in the selection here, alongside some absolute fire new releases and old classics. This month's selection tends towards veterans of the culture, while for the most part staying in the relatively recent past. Like Nas says, keep on putting out records...we want to see and hear the art!

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Playlist/Notes

Champion Sound ft. Smif-N-Wessun : One Luv

This is a really grand-sounding track which deserves to be heard from the very first note. The piano chords and overall instrumentation bring to mind less a Hip-Hop single and more the kind of thing you might hear on the soundtrack of a Spike Lee film. I looked up the band Champion Sound and was amazed to find that they hail from Prague - a serious cross-continental collaboration for them to link up with Brooklyn's finest! Tek and Steele drop grown man street raps over the brooding, cinematic soundscape for a standout from the "Stash Box" LP that just dropped last month.

[DJ Eclipse] O.C. : Time's Up (Remix Instrumental)

Buckwild's beat for the original version of this classic single is one of the best-known and loved pieces of production in Hip-Hop history, and it would take a brave man to remix the track - enter DJ Eclipse. The former Fat Beats retail supremo and DJ for Non Phixion isn't one to shy away from a challenge, and he does an excellent job bringing a different flavour right here. While this might have once been tough to find (I'm only just hearing it for the first time myself), it's now easily available on the deluxe version of "Word...Life", which has been released digitally.

Wu-Tang Clan : 7th Chamber

In the month where we celebrate the 30th anniversary of the release of the debut Wu album "Enter The Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)", I've gone for one of the deeper cuts that isn't something you'd hear at a typical gig or club night. Quintessential Wu, with RZA nailing the production (personally, I love the loop with the stabs before the main groove comes in), and seven of the Clan MCs murdering the track. Wu forever, indeed.

Kev Brown & J Scienide : Legendary Rugged

Simply a slice of raw Hip-Hop, no fancy studio gloss, just rough drums, deep bass, and a warbling main sample over which J Scienide spits that goodness. Kev Brown drops some bars himself on the second verse, showing why he clearly has to be thought of as one of the best producers on the mic of the current era. 2021s "Stray From The Pack" LP is inspired by the great duos both inside and outside of Hip-Hop, and Kev and J pay tribute in fine style.

MC Eiht ft. Xzibit : Medicate

The various battles over the years aside, I love to see how much true respect the veterans of the culture have for each other, especially when it leads to pairings you might not immediately think of! In this case, Texas-born but longtime Brooklyn resident DJ Premier, possibly the exemplar of the East Coast sound links up with one of the OGs of the scene in Compton, California, the legendary MC Eiht to executive produce his "Which Way Iz West" album, from which this is drawn. Connecting with Xzibit takes the union to an even higher level, and Austrian producer Brenk Sinatra captures just the right vibe for both MCs to get busy on.

Krumb Snatcha : Rich Man Poor Man

A heavy album track from "Respect All, Fear None" that I'd imagine passed most people by, Da Beatminerz come with some boom-bap accented by a dramatic horn sample for one of Boston's ruggest to spit over. As a man whose trials and tribulations are a matter of record (including his classic single "Closer To God"), when he gives you lyrics like this they come with the weight of someone who has experienced the realities of the world first-hand.

[Hit-Boy] Nas : 40-16 Building (instrumental)

I just picked up the instrumentals of Nas' "Magic" LP on vinyl, and this was one of my favourite beats on that album. As great as Nas is on it, I always love a chance to hear the production brought to the forefront!

Pusha T : Just So You Remember

"Livin' a lie, but die for your images." This dark and subdued Kanye-produced track from "It's Almost Dry" absolutely drips with menace and contempt from the pen and vocal performance of Pusha T. You might recognise the sample, which was on "Six Days" by DJ Shadow, and it bubbles along with the periodic vocal interjections from the original source, in between Pusha's verses - notably, the first being longer than the other two put together. Packed with quotables, this is headphone music at its best.

Queen Omega & Little Lion Sound : No Love

You might have heard the raw, 100% from-the-soul vocals of Trinidad's Queen Omega on an IG video that was going round recently, where she recorded an absolutely fire dubplate over the beat for Dr. Dre's "The Next Episode". This is the original track it's based on, a roots reggae cut with a lyrical message that seems especially accurate right now.

Shortie No Mass : Here Goes Nothing

I only heard this recently and assumed I was just way behind the curve, only to realise it's a 2021 release! This MC famously guested with De La Soul on "Buhloone Mindstate" as well as The Roots on "Organix" before releasing a couple of singles and then falling all the way back for an extended period. After many requests from fans over the years, she's out with an LP, from which this is the appropriately-named title cut, and is talking about more after getting very positive feedback! I don't have credits for the digital release, so I can't say who produced this, but it's got the vibe of the opening track passed through a happier filter, and of course you know the lyrics are tight.

Six Figga Digga & Camp Lo : The Jig

Six Figga Digga might be known to you as Lord Digga (when he was with the INC Crew), or just Digga (certainly around the time of his work for Biggie), and he's been in the industry for years, not always in the forefront but always keeping the quality high when you do hear him. He lines up two of my favourite MCs, Camp Lo, the slang grandmasters of the Bronx very nicely here. You usually put textures together in a beat that sound like they could have come from the same place, but to blend electronic drums like these with those seventies sounds and make it work takes real skills. Catch this one on the recently-released "Person Of Interest" LP.

Agallah : Gotta Love Me (instrumental)

I've always got time for an Agallah instrumental, and this soulful groove from 2015s "PCP Instrumentals" is, despite an undeniable bump, actually a chilled beat you could add to your studying playlists :)

Temu : Temu's Talkbox Groove

I can't remember how I happened across this track this month, but I'm very glad I did! It seems that Temu is a modern day funk maestro, a devotee of all that that makes you pull the stank face, and a true "Relic Of The Mothership", as his debut LP is titled. Flying the flag for that vintage heavy electronic funk, this track references quite a few tunes you might know as he takes you on a journey, rocking the talkbox through the whole track like the great Roger Troutman would have done. If this man comes to Manchester on tour...that's a guaranteed ticket purchase from me!

Essa & Pitch 92 : Heavyweight

A brand new single from two quality artists in combination - Pitch 92 on production (alongside co-producer Viva Cee), and the young veteran Essa (formerly Yungun) on the mic. Thumping, rolling beat with Essa's assured vocals running over the top make for a heck of a preview for the forthcoming album from this duo.

Erick Sermon : Stay Real

Taking it back to the early 90s, this was the second (and final) single from Erick Sermon's solo debut, the wryly-titled "No Pressure". Everyone knew the pressure was on after the EPMD breakup, but he came out strong as a solo artist with this LP and shut down all the questions. His trademark lisp accents his bars over a tough self-produced beat highlighted by that synth-funk bassline, plus a little Roger Troutman in the hook.

Clear Soul Forces : Get Wit It

No shame if you missed this one the first time round, as it was a bonus track only on the deluxe edition of CSF's excellent "Gold PP7s" album, ten years old this year. It's what you expect from this Detroit crew - bouncy production from Ilajide (with some nice short bass stabs and an epic clap) and styles upon styles from the whole crew on the mic. It's certainly not intended to pander to the club, but if you have a pulse it probably wants to make you move nonetheless!

J Dilla : Say My Name (Instrumental)

Weirdly, when I played the vocal version of this track all the way back on episode 96, it was also following an Ilajide production! Anyway, since then I've got hold of the instrumentals that were used for the controversial "Rebirth Of Detroit" project and even if this beat was an offcut, it's better than a lot of people's best work!

Natural Elements : #TribeVibes

I almost played this last episode, until I realised the milestone we were reaching this month! One of the fiercest crews of MCs ever to form, Natural Elements and their producer Charlemagne pay homage to the great A Tribe Called Quest on this track. Beginning with and interspersed by an announcer inspired by the performance of the sadly departed Laurel Dann on "Midnight Marauders", the crew kill it over beats inspired by "Lyrics To Go", "Midnight", and "Bonita Applebum". "Midnight Marauders" is my favourite Tribe LP to this day, and this is an appropriately high-quality homage to it.

Please remember to support the artists you like! The purpose of putting the podcast out and providing the full tracklist is to try and give some light, so do use the songs on each episode as a starting point to search out more material. If you have Spotify in your country it's a great way to explore, but otherwise there's always Youtube and the like. Seeing your favourite artists live is the best way to put money in their pockets, and buy the vinyl/CDs/downloads of the stuff you like the most!

Check out this episode!

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recentanimenews · 2 years

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FEATURE: We Can't Help But Root For These 7 Anime Pig Characters

The first day of March is National Pig Day, a day in which we humans give thanks to the humble domesticated pig. To show our appreciation for this clever animal that makes up 1/12th of the Chinese Zodiac, we've compiled a list of pig and pig-adjacent characters so we can celebrate by pigging out on anime. In no particular order, we present to you, gentle readers, a passel of porcine profiles as we look at seven anime pig characters that live high on the hog:

Hawk (The Seven Deadly Sins)

(Image courtesy of Netflix)

We're leading off this list with a proper porker indeed: Hawk from The Seven Deadly Sins. Life is tough when you're both a talking pig and the “straight man” for a band of supremely super-powered misfits. While Hawk doesn't initially have any incredible abilities (aside from a penchant for running away with great haste and occasionally ramming an enemy with his stout body), his sarcastic wit and down-to-earth attitude is a welcome contrast to Meliodas' wandering hands and the rest of the Sins' simmering angst. Hawk gets bonus points for having a cool mom: his mother transports the Boar Hat Inn on her head whenever Meliodas and company need to haul up stakes and trot out of town.

Ryoga Hibiki (Ranma ½)

(Image courtesy of Funimation)

A young man with literally no direction in life, Ryoga is a martial artist with a grudge against his childhood friend/rival, Ranma Saotome, whom he blames for his current accursed condition. Having fallen into a magical spring that transforms him into a juvenile pot-bellied piglet whenever he's splashed with cold water, Ryoga has a rough life. He's often the brunt of jokes where people intend to eat him — and that's not even addressing the fraught sexual politics of him posing as a pet named “P-chan” in order to be physically affectionate with Akane Tendo, on whom he has a crush. But despite his scheming and his boorish temper, Ryoga is a good boy at heart.

Porco (Porco Rosso)

“Better a pig than a fascist.” Porco is a former soldier turned mercenary-for-hire whose love of flying is matched only by his love of freedom. Despite his gruff and bristly exterior, he's secretly a big softie with a heart of gold. His current porcine appearance is the result of the sorrow he carries for all the friends and fellow flying aces who never made it home from the Great War. The sadness within him, combined with a sense of machismo, makes it difficult for Porco to express his true feelings. Will Porco ever work up the courage to confess his love to Gina, his best friend's widow? Maybe when pigs fly ...

Emma (TSUKIMICHI -Moonlit Fantasy-)

The daughter of the chieftain of a tribe of Highland Orcs, Emma is also a skilled magic-user and a gifted administrator who proves to be an invaluable aid to Makoto after he is banished to the Wasteland by a temperamental Goddess. She's also cute as a button (voiced by Saori Hayami in Japanese) with a firm but nurturing personality. So if you find yourself muttering “must protect swine princess,” you might just be a prospective member of the Emma fan club.

Oolong (Dragon Ball)

(Image courtesy of Funimation)

Although his manners are quite boorish and he's a bit of a male chauvinist pig, there's a reason Oolong behaves the way he does. Akira Toriyama's Dragon Ball began life as a martial arts gag manga loosely based on Wu Cheng'en's classic Chinese folktale, Journey to the West, so Oolong's laziness and lecherousness are a reference to the reformed pig-demon that accompanies the Tang Priest on his journey to fetch the Buddhist scriptures. Also, any porker that's willing to waste an entire wish from a legendary dragon on acquiring a pair of lady's undergarments — or, in the German dub, a “hat with two holes for my ears” — deserves a grudging degree of respect.

Kensuke Shibagaki (ODDTAXI)

Savvy viewers may consider this entry a bit of a cheat, but despite appearing as an anthropomorphic boar, Kensuke is anything but boring. A struggling stand-up comedian and one half of the duo Homo Sapiens, Kensuke is much older than his partner, Atsuya Baba. As time passes and Baba begins to surpass him in success and popularity, Kensuke grows bitter and envious. The funnyman in the duo, Kensuke is actually pretty hidebound when it comes to comedy — although at one point he's willing to take a bullet from a deranged gunman just because he thinks it'd make for a great gag. So you've got to admire Kensuke's commitment to the bit.

Mr. Galigali (sweetness & lightning)

Our final popular porker is a bit of a twist: Mr. Galigali is a fictional character within sweetness & lightning, appearing as a wooly pig mascot from the Magi-Girl TV anime, which is Tsumugi's favorite television show. Although we only glimpse bits and pieces of Mr. Galigali's personality through Tsumugi's viewing habits, we know that he's a helpful little fellow who supports his magical girl charges by hiding their transformation wands in his thick and fluffy fur. He also makes for some adorable character goods and inspires Tsumugi's costume for the school play, so Mr. Galigali is a winner in our book.

Let's face it, there are a plethora of pig characters in Japanese animation to pick from, and we certainly couldn't hope to chronicle them all. What do you think? Can we tell a silk purse from a sow's ear, or are we just casting pearls before swine? Did your favorite pig character make the cut? Let us know in the comments section below, and be sure to wallow in happiness for National Pig Day!

Paul Chapman is the host of The Greatest Movie EVER! Podcast and GME! Anime Fun Time.

Do you love writing? Do you love anime? If you have an idea for a features story, pitch it to Crunchyroll Features!

By: Paul Chapman

#Anime #News #Latest in Anime News by Crunchyroll!

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sxvethelastdance · 3 years

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LiuLao, for the relationship meme!

Since I already got an ask about this ship, here's the NRS/Games version of LiuLao for the meme!

General:

How long will they last?: If given the chance, a long, long time.

How quickly did/will they fall in love?: They've had their whole lives to love each other.

How was their first kiss?: Frenzied, fervent, a little scared. But full of love.

Wedding:

Who proposed?: Liu Kang

Who is the best man/men?: Hmm... Johnny and Jax would be good best men. Raiden's the dad of the grooms.

Who is the braid’s maid(s)?: Sonya, Kitana and Jade would make a KILLER bridesmaid party (literally)

Who did the most planning?: Kung Lao

Who stressed the most?: Liu Kang

How fancy was the ceremony?: Back of a pickup truck | 2 | 3 | 4 | Normal Church Wedding | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | Kate and William wish they were this big. (It was a simple affair, but guys. Dudes. They're friends with Johnny Cage, it can't be THAT simple.)

Who was specifically not invited to the wedding?: Shao Kahn, uhhh fuck. Skarlet ("She threatened to suck me dry, Liu Kang!"), Reptile

Sex:

Who is on top?: Liu Kang

Who is the one to instigate things?: The nice thing about being in the young, reckless prime of their lives is that they can go tit for tat.

How healthy is their sex life?: Barely touch themselves let alone each other | 2 | 3 | 4 | Once a couple weeks, nothing overboard | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | They are humping each other on the couch right now (That poor, poor broom closet.)

How kinky are they?: Straight missionary with the lights off | 2 | 3 | 4 | Might try some butt stuff and toys | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | Don’t go into the sex dungeon without a horse’s head ( They've both got a penchant for hair pulling and all around healthy appreciation for pain. It's simple, Liu's got a rack, Lao wants to ah. Make use of the space between pecs. Also, broom closets are great places to experiment with making your buddypalswornbrother's toes curl and his muscles sore with how thoroughly and lovingly you just drilled 'im)

How long do they normally last?: As long as the other can keep up.

Do they make sure each person gets an equal amount of orgasms?: If their legs can still hold them up after, then the other has F A I L E D

How rough are they in bed?: Softer than a butterfly on the back of a bunny | 2 | 3 | 4 | The bed’s shaking and squeaking every time | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | Their dirty talk is so vulgar it’d make Dwayne Johnson blush. Also, the wall’s so weak it could collapse the next time they do it. (These two can take a lot of punishment, I tells ya.)

How much cuddling/snuggling do they do?: No touching after sex | 2 | 3 | 4 | A little spooning at night, or on the couch, but not in public | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | They snuggle and kiss more often than a teen couple on their fifth date to a pillow factory.

Children:

How many children will they have naturally?: It feels irresponsible to have a child when their duty is first and foremost to the realm.

How many children will they adopt?: None, unless you count the students

Who gets stuck with the most diapers?: When they're babysitting, they swap off for duties each time

Who is the stricter parent?: Liu Kang

Who stops the kid(s) from doing dangerous stunts after school?: Both of them

Who remembers to pack the lunch(es)?: Lunch is communal at the Wu-Shi, everybody helps

Who is the more loved parent?: They're not parents but... Kung Lao

Who is more likely to attend the PTA meetings?: Sonya probably sends them for Cassie (because otherwise she'll knock the lights out of everybody there), just to see the moms get in a tizzy. It's hilariious.

Who cried the most at graduation?: The two of them are big babies, they're crying at EVERY graduation and holding each other

Who is more likely to bail the child(ren) out of trouble with the law?: Kung Lao

Cooking:

Who does the most cooking?: The duties are equal! But Liu Kang will usually handle the side dishes while Kung Lao prepares the main dish

Who is the most picky in their food choice?: Hmm... Liu Kang. He's not a big eater.

Who does the grocery shopping?: They grow their own food.

How often do they bake desserts?: Not as often as Kung Lao wants, he has an AWFUL sweet tooth a la @bastardsunlight

Are they more of a meat lover or a salad eater?: The boys are vegetarians! Chomping on greens like there's no tomorrow.

Who is more likely to surprise the other(s) with an anniversary dinner?: They both surprise each other, just cause.

Who is more likely to suggest going out?: Johnny Cage, those two don't even know what going out IS

Who is more likely to burn the house down accidently while cooking?: Kung Lao, because he decided to do some fancy trick to show off and didn't pay attention to his pot. Liu Kang too, because he didn't stop it before it started.

Chores:

Who cleans the room?: They each clean their rooms, some better than others

Who is really against chores?: Kung Lao

Who cleans up after the pets?: No pets allowed! (Liu Kang, who smuggled yet another little baby bird into his room)

Who is more likely to sweep everything under the rug?: Kung Lao

Who stresses the most when guests are coming over?: They're both pretty chill about it, the temple's a much easier place to clean than a mcmansion.

Who found a dollar between the couch cushions while cleaning?: Shaolin vows of poverty (and also the fact that they do not have couches) prevent this from ever being a possibility

Misc:

Who takes the longer showers/baths?: Liu Kang, he is VERY meticulous about his hair. It's his pride and joy (Please do not tell the elders-)

Who takes the dog out for a walk?: They both tend to the animals.

How often do they decorate the room/house for the holidays?: Iiiii do not know anything about the Shaolin and holidays.

What are their goals for the relationship?: To stay alive, fight their way back to each other in the swirling storm of an inevitability that threatens to martyr one, and lose the other to legacy.

Who is most likely to sleep till noon?: Kung Lao, if Liu doesn't hunt him down and wake him up.

Who plays the most pranks?: Liu Kang, he is terrorizing Kung Lao right now. I guarantee you.

#Halcyonandon #liulao #shaolin rowdy boys

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okimnerdy · 3 years

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i just think they’re neat…

a big thx to netflix for reigniting my love for this show because i needed the happiness. [as of 5/1/21, NEVERMIND! IT’S NOT LIKE I NEEDED MY HEART!]

⦁ kai was 15 at the start of the series, is now in his early twenties - he is the second eldest ⦁ nya was 13 at the start of the series, is now in her late teens - she is tied with jay as the second youngest, only two years older than lloyd ⦁ the two were raised by everyone in the village, but still hated their nanny/babysitter ⦁ the two used to share a room back home - after moving in to the monastery and separating, kai could sometimes be found in nya's room after a rough mission or a bad dream ⦁ while kai worked at the shop, nya handled most of the office work on top of her schooling ⦁ the two still went to school while training/operating as, taking multiple years to finish. both had graduated by the time the events of prime empire ⦁ before officially joining as a ninja, nya kept up the act of lighting a candle in the window until the boys returned home. wu continued this once she joined the team ⦁ wu saw potential in nya after she moved to the monastery, he's the one who encouraged her to create the firs samurai x mech ⦁ nya was the first to bond with lloyd when he arrived, but kept up the act in front of the boys. she loves playing the big sister card. / when lloyd became permanent, the siblings called dibs on playing the sibling card first. ⦁ when nya and jay became official, kai gave him the "i'd tell you that i'd hurt you if you hurt her, but my sister can do that herself" speech. safe to say that jay got the message very quick. ⦁ kai may have been "iffy" on jay and nya's relationship, but he couldn't think of anyone better for nya ⦁ nya has a habit of wearing a jumpsuit halfway (a la chell from portal 2) with a tank top when working on her mech or the bounty - this comes from kai doing the same back at the shop on the super hot days. ⦁ kai wants to help whenever nya works on the bounty but she teases him by reminding him of their time at the shop ⦁ when the boys' (minus zane) hair started to get too long, they went to nya for advice. she recommended a ponytail, but somehow, cole rocks the man bun ⦁ having practically rasied nya, kai is very steadfast on what he thinks is best for his sister. even after rescuing their parents, he would fight with them on what advice should be given ⦁ nya is the glue that holds the group together - this is due to her element either amplifying or complimenting the others' elements. ⦁ the siblings are scarily flexible, but nya is the contortionist among the two. she jokes that this is because of her element making her "as fluid as water"

Appearance headcanons ⦁ they are of southeast asian descent with some europeon on their dad's side ⦁ from pilot to s6, nya was the tallest. from s6 to present, kai is the tallest ⦁ kai is 5'8" while nya is 5'6" at the time of seabound ⦁ both siblings have brown eyes, but rings of their respective colors with line their irises when using their powers ⦁ nya has black hair while kai has dark brown ⦁ nya has a gymnast build - long legs and a short torso ⦁ kai has an athletic build - long legs and a long torso ⦁ prior to the start of the series, nya had long hair but had to cut it after kai set it on fire ⦁ kai ended up giving himself an undercut, stating that it made him look "cool" and "badass" when in reality he set his hair on fire one too many times with the sword of fire but liked the look

#ninjago #lego ninjago #ninjago: masters of spinjitzu #ninjago nya #ninjago kai #ninjago headcanons #category : art / item : ninjago #category : original / item : art

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foxghost · 3 years

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Joyful Reunion, Chapter 69

Translator: foxghost @foxghost tumblr/ko-fi1 Beta: meet-me-in-oblivion @meet-me-in-oblivion tumblr Original by 非天夜翔 Fei Tian Ye Xiang Masterpost | Characters, Maps & Other Reference Index

Book 2, Chapter 16 (Part 3)

“Wait for me, Wu Du!” Duan Ling chases after Wu Du through the corridor, keeping close behind him.

“Wu—” Before Duan Ling can finish his sentence, Wu Du turns and draws his sword without any warning.

Duan Ling’s heart instantly stops beating.

He’s never seen that deliberate, calm expression on Wu Du’s face before. Wu Du’s eyes are as still as a placid lake, the tip of his sword is heading right for his throat.

Duan Ling’s words die on his tongue, fear surfacing in his eyes as a sharp pain hits his stomach — it’s an entirely subconscious response, as though his body had already built up this reflex mechanism a long, long time ago.

He wants to kill me.

No, he won’t kill me!

He …

Three successive thoughts flash across his mind in mere moments, then Wu Du’s sword flicks towards the side of Duan Ling’s neck and brushes past him by the hair. A bright metal on metal sound rings out behind his ear and Duan Ling stops breathing.

A sharp, black iron hook that has been aiming for his collar is flicked aside by Wu Du’s sword.

Wu Du wraps his left arm around Duan Ling and strikes his sword outwards again, but he doesn’t even bother to see where it’s pointing at this time. The force with which Wu Du has pulled Duan Ling towards him has Duan Ling tipping over, falling backwards.

But with a cold and detached look in his eyes, Wu Du has turned to face Duan Ling long enough to check over him, making sure that he hasn’t been injured.

With a rumble that sounds like thunder going off in his head, Duan Ling feels his heart may have stopped.

Wu Du wraps one hand around Duan Ling to make sure he’s steady on his feet, then the sword move he’s thrust towards Helan Jie’s throat earlier finally lands — Helan Jie backs away quickly, twisting the iron hook, bending Wu Du’s Lieguangjian into an arc and the two of them pull back at the same time with the inertia of their weight.

Clang — the resonant ring of weaponry striking each other sets Duan Ling’s eardrums stinging.

Helan Jie doesn’t say anything else as he scrambles forward. In two hits of his sword, Wu Du seals off the iron hook’s advance. Only now does Duan Ling realise that Helan Jie had nearly grabbed him by the collar and dragged him off. All he sees is Wu Du standing in front of him, exchanging blows with Helan Jie; with the length of the Lieguangjian giving it an overwhelming edge over the iron hook, Helan Jie is forced to back down again and again.

“Scram!” Wu Du says coldly.

With malice in his eyes, Helan Jie retreats without a word.

The fight is over in seconds, but Duan Ling is already covered in cold sweat, bloodlessly pale and hyperventilating, leaning back against a pillar in the corridor. He raises his head to look at Wu Du, his stomach hurting so much his insides feel like they’re being twisted.

Still angry, Wu Du returns his sword to the sheath hanging by his waist, the slide of metal lasting for ages, then he turns away to keep walking towards the end of the corridor. With his eyes closed, Duan Ling’s stomach hurts more with every moment, so much so that he can’t get a word out.

“Move it already!” Wu Du snaps from the other end of the corridor. " Are you waiting for me to carry you back?"

Duan Ling doesn’t even have the strength left to speak anymore, and he has no idea why he’s suddenly reacted in this way either; that very instant earlier of seeing Wu Du pull his sword on him seems to have awakened a sense of dread buried deep inside his memories.

“Lang Junxia, my stomach hurts …” He murmurs.

From where he stands Wu Du gives him a baffled glance, and realising that Duan Ling looks like he may have been poisoned, quickly comes back to put a thumb on his pulse, pushing up his eyelids to check his eyes.

“But you’re not poisoned,” Wu Du says. He gives Duan Ling a couple of pats on the cheek. “Hey, what’s the matter with you?”

Duan Ling stares sorrowfully at Wu Du.

Wu Du says, “Hey! Stop playing!”

“Wu Du, my stomach hurts …” Duan Ling says weakly.

It suddenly occurs to Wu Du that Duan Ling is probably acting like this because he’s had a fright from the way he drew his sword without warning earlier. Some people go into spasms under shock, and in this way extreme nervousness can also lead to stomach pains. Wu Du quickly picks Duan Ling up and puts him on his own back so they can get back to the room, then he picks out a bunch of medicinal herbs to decoct a bowl of strong medicine, making Duan Ling drink it all down. Once Duan Ling is back inside, his stomach starts to feel better, and as the medicine spreads to his limbs, he finally recovers.

“Feeling better?” Wu Du asks.

Duan Ling nods then, watching Wu Du, his eyes stinging with tears.

“I thought you were going to kill me.”

“Alright alright.” Wu Du doesn’t know what to say to him at all. “Helan Jie was right behind you. What else was I supposed to do?”

Duan Ling is lying on the bed on his side, and once Wu Du makes sure he’s fine, he busies himself with cleaning up. Duan Ling watches Wu Du, feeling quite complicated about everything.

“I’m sorry,” Duan Ling says.

Wu Du doesn’t speak; he quietly picks up the medicine bowl for cleaning, and suddenly gives Duan Ling a glance.

“Are you …” Wu Du is frowning slightly, but after asking the question halfway, he stops himself.

Am I what? Duan Ling’s heart begins to beat faster as he can feel that Wu Du seems to be aware of something.

Neither of them speak for a while. Wu Du stops what he’s doing and starts looking Duan Ling up and down, but Duan Ling has just had some medicine and he can barely keep his eyes open. Before Wu Du has a chance to ask, he’s already asleep. Seeing that he’s fallen asleep, Wu Du doesn’t say anything else, and soon after making sure everything’s tidied up, he climbs onto the bed and lies down next to Duan Ling.

The warm sunlight of the afternoon spills into the room. Once he’s slept for a while, Duan Ling abruptly shouts for his dad, surprising Wu Du.

“Hey.” Wu Du gives him a small shove. Duan Ling is still asleep though, and at the motion he turns over and wraps his arms tightly around Wu Du’s waist, burying his head in Wu Du’s shoulder, and holds on with surprising strength. Wu Du is used to this by now; he lies there unmoving with a rather helpless look on his face, but when he looks down at Duan Ling he gets to thinking that this young man doesn’t have it easy either. None of this has anything to do with him in the first place, and he’s only come all the way to Tongguan so he can keep Wu Du company. After their rough afternoon, all of his anger has faded away.

Wu Du reaches out to pat Duan Ling then, the way one would put a child to sleep. As though he can feel it in his dreams, his hold on Wu Du grows even tighter.

“Where did that young man in your estate who knew Yao Jing come from? He Mo wanted me to ask you,” Shang Leguan questions Bian Lingbai as he sips his milk tea.

Bian Lingbai is frankly half hassled to death by these Tangut already — they’re hands down the most troublesome guests Tongguan has ever had. One moment they want to see a bride-to-be who’s still a maiden confined to her quarters, the next they’re off to harass the young man who’s come to rely on him for shelter. He’s heard often enough that people from Xiliang are uncivilised and warlike, without any sense of shame, and now that he’s actually met some, everything he’s heard turns out to be true. They’re marrying a daughter of the Yaos but thinking about taking the boy away with them as well — honestly he can’t even imagine where these customs of theirs are coming from.

“That’s my nephew.” Bian Lingbai pauses to think for a moment. “But I wasn’t the one who assigned him that bodyguard of his. That guy has a bad temper, so please do forgive us if he’s offended you.”

Shang Leguan hums something in assent.

Bian Lingbai continues, “This kid has had a rough childhood, and he’s never enjoyed anything like luxury, and uh … if Mister He would like to show him his regard and become close to him, for him that would be a blessing, yet …”

“Money?” Helian Bo cuts to the chase with a single word.

Bian Lingbai was just pondering how he’s supposed to put a price on the kid as well; the Marquess of Huaiyin has no need of money, so when Yao Jing’s bride price arrives he just has to send some off as a token gesture to Jiangzuo. Now if they happen to take a fancy to the pretty young man Zhao Rong, that’s perfectly fine! They just have to add a bit more to the bride price, and this way he can also curry favour with the Shangs who are in power at the moment. Presumably this He Mo is someone quite important as well …

As this conversation carries on, Helian Bo and Shang Leguan exchange a look. Shang Leguan gives Helian Bo a slight nod — do as you see fit.

“His … name is?” Helian Bo is holding Duan Ling’s half a sleeve, subconsciously turning it over and over in his hands. Strips of cloth have been stuffed into his nostrils in an attempt to stop the nosebleed Wu Du gave him.

“Bian Rong,” Bian Lingbai says, “he hasn’t been given a courtesy name yet.”

Helian Bo frowns. That doesn’t seem to match what Duan Ling said to him. But since he’s already gone from a Duan to another surname, it’s not a big deal if it’s been changed one more time.

“Money.” Helian Bo re-emphasises this word to Shang Leguan.

Shang Leguan signals to Helian Bo not to say anymore, as he already understands. All at once, Bian Lingbai is over the moon — are these two Tangut about to head back to get the money ready? First it’s three hundred yi of gold, then it’s talk of “money, money”. All Bian Lingbai can hear for a while between his ears is the metallic, ringing sound of silvers being tossed to and fro.

“Um … Mister Shang.” Bian Lingbai says, “The portrait?”

Helian Bo waves a hand, and Shang Leguan repeats the gesture. Bian Lingbai understands this to mean that perhaps the Tangut hasn’t finished the portrait yet, so he doesn’t press for more details. He could never have known that Helian Bo had only said “money” because he thinks Duan Ling lacks money, and the hand waving means there won’t be any more use for that three hundred yi of gold either.

When evening comes, someone outside whispers, “Mister Bian?”

Wu Du carefully lifts Duan Ling’s paw away and comes down from the bed to get the door. He finds a Tangut man standing outside with the estate’s steward, who’s led him here.

“Mister Shang extends his invitation to you and Mister Bian for a visit.”

“No time.” Wu Du says, disinterested, having already lost the motivation for the lesson he wanted to teach these barbarians. “Mister Bian is ill.”

The man outside questions the steward in Tangut, and once the steward answers, the man hurries away. With a deep furrow between his brows Wu Du leaves the steward instructions to bring dinner to their room before sending him off.

But by the time he gets back inside, Duan Ling has already awakened. The afternoon’s incident has sapped him of all his energy, and he sits there like a wilted plant, sneaking glances at Wu Du to see if he’s still angry. Wu Du though, looks the same as always. He’s grabbed a long stick in the courtyard to practice his staff fighting with.

“Hey, Wu Du.”

“What?”

Duan Ling wants to make conversation, but he’s not sure how to begin. He racks his brain before saying out of the blue, “I miss home.”

Wu Du pauses for a beat.

It’s true Duan Ling does somewhat want to go back to Xichuan; living here is simply uncomfortable, as though nothing feels right. Even if there’s a Lang Junxia in Xichuan who wants to kill him, Wu Du’s courtyard house in the chancellor’s estate compound just feels more familiar.

“Then let’s finish up here as soon as possible so we can leave,” Wu Du replies.

Duan Ling scrutinises the look on Wu Du’s face but can’t tell what he’s thinking. “When?”

Wu Du finishes practising, bringing the staff to his side. “I’ll go tonight.”

“Then …” Duan Ling is about to say something, but holds his tongue.

Wu Du puts the stick away and something occurs to him — should he take advantage of the night to steal Bian Lingbai’s secrets? But then what about Duan Ling?

“Should I go with you?” Duan Ling asks.

If Wu Du leaves Duan Ling in the house, what’s he supposed to do if Helan Jie shows up later?

“What does Helan Jie have against me?” Duan Ling asks, baffled. “I never did anything to provoke him.”

“The sight of you offends him.” Wu Du says impatiently, “He wants to get revenge on me, therefore he wants to hurt you.”

“Oh …” Duan Ling nods.

In the midst of their conversation a bunch of Tangut shows up at the door again. Alarms go off in Duan Ling’s heart, oh no, what is Helian Bo trying to do now?! He’d better not come in here yelling “Duan Ling Duan Ling” because then everything is over for him. When Duan Ling woke up earlier he came up with another flaw-ridden story to give Wu Du in case he notices anything — wasn’t he and his father under Tongguan purchasing medicinal ingredients? He’ll just say Xiliang’s Tangut prince had been captured by bandits as well, and somehow in a twist of fate he saved the prince.

Worst comes to worst, he’ll just stop Helian Bo from talking by speaking Tangut to him as soon as he shows up. At any rate, Helian Bo stammers, so no matter what Duan Ling says he’s just going to nod. Even if Wu Du gets suspicious he won’t be able to get anything out of him.

And yet Helian Bo hasn’t shown up, but the Tangut are here to bring two lunch boxes full of food, then there’s two big hunks of lapis lazuli, a platter of gold bars, ten sheets of deerskin, two sticks of young deer antlers, and lastly the messenger presents him a goose feathered hat.

Wu Du is speechless.

Duan Ling is even more speechless.

Duan Ling tells the Tangut messenger, “Bring it all back! I don’t need any of it!”

The Tangut man says to Duan Ling, “His Highness prepared this for you. Please accept it — it represents his friendship with you.”

“You can speak Tangut?!” Wu Du asks incredulously.

Duan Ling stares at him blankly for a moment.

“I’ve been … to Xiliang.” Duan Ling can only lie to Wu Du with the set of lies he came up with earlier. “Since we had to buy things in the market, I learned a bit. ‘Sure’ is ‘qiji’, ‘thank you’ is ‘tuji’. Wasn’t I singing in the afternoon earlier as well?”

Wu Du is skeptical, but he’s already completely befuddled.

The Tangut messenger says to Duan Ling, “His Highness says he’ll wait for you outside his courtyard house at midnight.”

He leaves as soon as he finishes saying this. Duan Ling picks up the goose feather hat and finds a dyed-blue tail feather of a bar-headed goose sticking out of its top.

“What was that last thing he said?” Wu Du asks.

“I didn’t understand him.” Duan Ling quickly plays dumb.

Wu Du walks outside and beckons at the Tangut messenger. “Come on, come on, come back over here, don’t just say something and leave. What did you mean by that?”

The man must have been given prior instructions by Helian Bo, and immediately runs off without a trace.

I do not monetise my hobby translations, but if you’d like to support my work generally or support my light novel habit, you can either buy me a coffee or commission me. This is also to note that if you see this message anywhere else than on tumblr, do come to my tumblr. It’s ad-free. ↩︎

#相見歡 #fei tian ye xiang #joyful reunion #xiang jian huan #fox translates things

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rexlapi · 3 years

Text

i know no one who follows me is into genshin bUT im so proud of this au so i’ll post it anyways

moongod!zhonglixmotal!childe, chang’e/hou’yi au (no previous knowledge of the mid autumn festival is needed, hopefully i explained it well enough in the fic)

am i yours?

rating: teen for inexplicit self harm wc: 2k

ao3

- -

It had only been a century since the god of the moon, known to the people as Morax, had first come to the barren rock he would soon have to call home. He had no emotional attachment to the place, however he had no other place to call home. Too many years since the man who had once been Zhongli had last seen his love, too long since he had known happiness.

The earth was rising into view from his palace on the moon, the blue waters always reminding him of his lover’s bright eyes. Zhongli stood on the cold stone floor, staring out into the distance. It was the anniversary of the day when Zhongli had first ascended to yue, a day many mortals celebrated, offering him yuebing, or mooncakes, in hopes that he would bless their families. Every year, he found it in himself to smile upon those who still remembered his story, hoping that one day, his good would come back to him in the form of the one he loved. But of course, the world was a cruel place, leaving the immortal nothing but a barren rock to live his sad eternity on.

Despite the people’s celebratory gifts, this day was always one of sorrow for Morax. He had only experienced a few decades of imprisonment on this rock, yet somehow Zhongli felt so, so very old. This day only ever reminded him of what he’s lost, of what he will never have again. To be fair, almost everything reminded him of his Tartaglia, from the waters of earth to the orange of the sun. More than anything, these things reminded him of his biggest mistake.

There was nothing in this that the moon god regretted more than his reckless action that got him stuck on this barren rock, never to see the face of the one he loved again.

The day that ruined Zhongli’s life had been a beautiful day, one of the most beautiful days he had ever seen. The skies were a vibrant blue, streaks of puffy white clouds dotted throughout the sea of blue, the sunlight warm and bright. He had planned on proposing to Tartaglia that day He had everything prepared, an elaborate basket of luxurious gifts for the other man’s family, as well as a lovingly self-crafted pair of matching dangly earrings, for each of them. Zhongli unconsciously brushed his hand over his ear, toying with the rare orange jade bead at the end of his.

He had been waiting for Tartaglia to return home from an assignment when one of his own students had broken into his house, looking for the small potion of immortality Tartaglia had received for shooting the excess suns out of the sky. His Tartaglia had always been an adept warrior, being proficient in nearly every weapon. Zhongli smiled to himself, wishing he could see the way Tartaglia bounced on his toes before every right, his face stretched into a broad grin, ready for the rush of adrenaline that every fight gave him.

Zhongli had always loved teaching, wanting to impart his knowledge and wisdom on the next generation of bright minds. He would never forget the look of horror his student wore when Zhongli angrily shoved a spear through their stomach, snatching the elixir out of weakening hands and downing it in one gulp. It wasn’t until Tartaglia returned home shortly after the incident when Zhongli realized what he had done. He remembered how Tartaglia’s eyes had widened, his voice calling out for him, but Zhongli could already feel himself floating away, becoming weightless, as if he had become a spirit. The distraught cries from his love that morphed into sobs, calling his name, begging him to stay, telling him he loved him These cries would forever ingrain themselves into his memory. The elixir would have let them be happy and together forever. Instead, it separated the two of them for the rest of time.

Every year on this day, he would talk into the sky, hoping that maybe, one day, Tartaglia would hear him. Hoping that maybe one day he could see him smile, hear him laugh again. This year was no different. Zhongli busied himself in the kitchen, preparing some of Tartaglia’s favorite foods. He would eat a bite of each dish before leaving the rest as offerings to whatever greater powers lay above him, asking them for mercy, for freedom for this barren rock. Though, behind all of these, he would always ask to see his love, one last time.

Please, Celestia. This is all I can offer for you. Please, I’d like a way off this rock, freedom from my past mistakes. He looked off into the distance, at the painting he had done of Tartaglia. Please, I’d like to see Tartaglia again. Please.

Years like this one passed. Years became decades, and decades became centuries. Time passed quickly for the immortal, and though it may pass fast, it had no end. Every year, Morax asked the same things of Celestia. Every year, he received no response. He had grown so very tired.

On his 8880th mid-autumn festival, he awoke to see a sharp periwinkle dagger wrapped in silver silks sitting on the edge of his bed. He carefully unwrapped the fabric to reveal a beautifully carved glaze lily embedded on the handle. A small piece of paper fell out of the wraps, peaking Zhongli’s interest. He carefully set the dagger down onto his bed, picking up the small slip.

A note, written in elegant, looping, traditional Liyuen. It read: Morax, your prayers have been heard. Celestia sends its regards as well as apologies for taking so long to process your request. Take this dagger as the key to the next journey in your life, where the one you love is waiting. It has been enchanted so there will be no pain. However, if you decide to take this chance, do know that it is irreversible. Do as you wish with it, take the chance or do not.

I hope you find your peace, Zhongli.

The note was not signed, but somehow Zhongli felt as though he knew the person who had written the note. “Thank you.” he croaked out, his voice rough from lack of use. His hands shaking, he picked up the dagger once more. It was the perfect weight, a perfect balance of light yet solid. It had been, well, ever since he had come onto this rock since he had held a weapon. Not a weapon, a key. A chance. Hope.

He took a walk around the empty palace where he had lived in solitude for thousands of years, as if saying goodbye. It was a goodbye he was happy to say. He retrieved the hand carved wooden box containing his most prized possession from it’s secret location, securing it in his pocket. He carefully rolled up the scroll containing the image of a smiling Tartaglia and slipping that into another pocket, scared that if he did see Tartaglia again, that Zhongli wouldn’t be able to recognize him.

He stared down at the dagger in his hands, his fingers curling around the elegant glaze lily. He felt his grip grow tighter, then he felt his hands start to shake. Taking a deep breath, he closed his eyes. He was ready to leave this barren place behind. I will see you again, Tartaglia.

As promised, the blade brought him no pain.

...

Zhongli opened his eyes to see an ethereal forest, the trees not quite opaque, as if they weren’t quite there. He looked down to see the beautiful blade that had been gifted to him stained with golden blood. He wasn’t bothered by the golden blood, for it was the blood of immortals after all. He was however, awed by the trees he saw. He hadn’t seen vegetation in what felt like years, not having to eat food in order to sustain himself after ascending to godhood, saving human food for very special occasions.

He looked around, though he didn’t see anyone. Where the one you love is waiting, the note had said. Zhongli wandered around the forest for what felt like days, looking for a head of bright orange hair or a pair of deep ocean eyes. He saw neither. Had the sender lied? He couldn’t help but lose a little bit of hope, though wherever he was now was still certainly better than the hellhole of a rock he had resided on for millennia. He took a deep breath of the fresh air, feeling more and more energetic by the moment.

Say something. His brain told him. He was running out of options, so he did as his inner monologue asked. Clearing his throat, he recalled the song he would sing to his Tartaglia. Humming the first few lines to get warmed up, his hope growing with every beat.

“Xu ni sheng shi shi, wu jue qu de ai,” His voice shook as he switched from his native Liyuen to lover’s Snezhnayan. “Always and forever, in this heart of mine…” The forest was silent. Zhongli felt his heart shatter, not wanting to accept that he really would never see his Tartaglia again. He knelt on the ground, his hand clutching the blade of the dagger, a cascade of golden blood dripping onto his spotless black-gold hanfu. He wished he could feel the sharp pain of the cold blade biting into his skin.

“Xu ni sheng sheng shi shi, wu jue qu de ai,”

Zhongli had never stood faster in his entire life, the dagger falling to the ground, forgotten. His eyes widened as the familiar face of his beloved appeared from behind a tree. He stood stunned. The sender didn’t lie.

The sun seemed to illuminate the younger boy, his orange hair glowing golden, his typical gray ensemble billowing in the breeze. Zhongli had never seen such a beautiful sight in his thousands of years of existence. “Always and forever, in this heart of mine… longer than the heavens, and the stars that shine…”

Zhongli and Tartaglia both rushed forward at the same time, the orange haired boy taking the other’s bleeding hand in his, while Zhongli gently placed his uninjured hand on his lover’s face. “Xiang si qing nan nai, yuan yu ni tong zai,”

They both broke out into smiles filled with grief and disbelief, their voices shaking as they finished the verse together. “I am yours, I am yours, forever”

Collapsing into the other man, Zhongli let himself cry. “Tartaglia I-”

He felt strong arms hug him tighter, only making Zhongli sob harder. “Shh it’s okay, I’m here now. You’re here now.” Tartaglia had begun to cry too, having fallen to the ground with Zhongli, the two a tangle of limbs and tears.

“I love you so much.” Zhongli choked out, letting more and more of his years and years of pain and loneliness fade away with every moment in the other boy’s arms.

Tartaglia kissed Zhongli through teary eyes, trying to convey the words he couldn’t say in the action. “I’ve never stopped loving you, even after all these years. I love you, Zhongli. So much. Please, don’t be an idiot again and cause us another eight-thousand years of separation. I don’t think I can go through that again.”

Zhongli laughed through a sob, placing a kiss on Tartaglia’s cheek. “I’m not going anywhere, I promise.” He pulled out the box he had carried around with him since he had been banished to the moon. Carefully, he pulled out the other earring he had crafted all those years ago, the same shape and pattern as the singular one Zhongli himself wore. “Tartaglia, would you be mine forever?”

“Only if you’re mine forever" He responded, the biggest shit-eatting grin on his face.

Zhongli nodded solemnly, completely serious in his consideration of the agreement. “That is a fair contract.”

Tartaglia laughed before kissing Zhongli again. “It was a joke, of course I’ll be yours.”

He dipped his head down, allowing Zhongli to attach the earring to his ear. Perfect. Zhongli couldn’t help but think. The blue jade matched his eyes perfectly, just as Zhongli’s earring matched his own amber eyes. “Forever?”

“Forever."

~~~~~~~~~~

Xu ni sheng shi shi, wu jue qu de ai -> Let your love live forever,

Xiang si qing nan nai, yuan yu ni tong zai -> Love-sickness is unbearable, I wish I were with you

#mine*#IVE NEVER BEEN PROUDER OF MY WORD VOMIT BRAIN #NE VER #im actually in love with my own writing? who could've known #anyways if you enjoyed mayahps a comment or reblog?#genshin impact #chili #zhongzi #childe x zhongli #zhongli x childe #zhongchi

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seven-oomen · 3 years

Note

I've been thinking about Grimm/Supernatural/Teen Wolf crossover AUs pretty much nonstop since last night, and now I want ALL the Hank/Wu/Stilinski buddy cop fic. Also, Sheriff Donna from Spn needs to be in it, too. Can you IMAGINE the snark and general grumpiness? 'Cause *I* can... and it's GLORIOUS.

Also Jody Mills. Because hell yes!

Oh my god, I need to write a fic for that. Just all the sheriff’s/officers come together and bitch about what the hell their hunters/kids/supernaturals have done now and they’re so sick of it. It would be GLORIOUS indeed!

“So what has your hellhound been up to, Stilinski? Has he been a good boy?” Donna asks as she sips her coffee.

Wu snorts into his and smirks as he looks up. “Well I will never look at deputy Parrish the same, thank you for that.”

“You’re welcome, sweet cheeks.” Donna laughs.

Noah sighs, long-suffering, and rubs his forehead with a groan. “It’s not his fault but-”

The others around the table lean in, the cafe around them keeps bustling, the other patrons not paying attention to what’s being said at the table filled with police sheriffs, a detective, and an officer.

“But?” Jody presses on. Hank has a look on his face that clearly reads; well out with it!

“But deputy Parrish did manage to set his desk on fire after my son and his friends startled him with their shenanigans.”

“That doesn’t sound so bad.” Hank tries to comfort him, he gives him an unamused look in return.

“It wouldn’t have been if that fire hadn’t reached the armory. How do I even begin to explain the explosion that occurred? The mayor wants to start an investigation.”

“Ooof...” Wu grimaces in sympathy and gently pats him on the shoulder. “Sounds like a rough day, buddy.”

Hank shrugs but gives him a sympathetic smile. “At least you didn’t have to deal with Nick trying his usual bullshit. Do you know how many times me and Monroe had to talk that man out of doing something stupid in the last three days? Jesus...”

Jody and Donna simply share a look and take another sip of their coffee. “Least you don’t have to deal with angels and demons.” Jody pipes up.

“Or the vampires.”

He looks around the table and shakes his head. “Werewolves, hellhounds, banshees, and Wendigos I can handle. Please keep the angels and demons to yourselves. I do not want my son to find out about those. I will never hear the end of it.”

Donna pats him on the shoulder and offers him one of the cookies they ordered, he takes it gratefully and gives her a friendly smile.

“Don’t worry handsome, we’ll make sure our two idiot hunters keep those bad boys away from your jurisdictions.”

Jody nods along with her companion. “Believe me, we also don’t want Stiles to find out about those.”

Her eyes widen a little as she remembers the one time she met Stiles Stilinski. He was a sweet kid but lord she could not handle that boy. And she’s raising Claire and Alex. But the Stilinski boy has more energy than her entire police department combined and she does not have the patience for it. Noah Stilinski, for all of his faults, is a saint for staying so patient with the boy.

“Nobody wants that...” Wu softly agrees and even Hank lets out a breath.

He realizes with a sigh that Stiles is just someone they need to get to know a bit better. He raises his coffee mug and his cookie. “To our respective dumbasses like my son, our kids, our hunters, and everything else. May we survive all their shenanigans...”

There’s a rumble going around the table in agreement and mugs are raised in harmony.

It’s just another Wednesday afternoon for all them.

So that was super quick and out the top of my head. But I would write something like that I guess.

#ben says stuff #superwolf #supergrimmwolf #grimm #teen wolf #spn #noah stilinski #donna hanscum #jody mills #drew wu #hank griffin #exlibrisfangirl #creativity he wrote

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horanghaechan · 4 years

Text

Freedom (Johnny) - final

pairing: Demon!Johnny x Dancer!You (female character)

word count: around 6k

synopsis: After dancing at NCT’s party and having a private session with Johnny, you find yourself in a different situation.

Inspired by Freedom - Kris Wu ft Jhené Aiko.

(Part 1 here)

[a/n]: i actually had a side-blog once and posted it there but i got author’s block and deleted everything. anyway, i’m rather proud of this scenario so i decided to post it again lol

You say you want some freedom You ain't got a leash on, you ain't coming home But where you wanna go You already know We can blow a creeper on the low I’ll be on my throne Tryna take it slow Guess you can control, let's play

On rainy days, Y/N would rant about having to go to college in such a weather, then she would eat a schwarma and watch a good “Vines Compilation” until her mood was slightly better. Chances were that, if the “Bewitched boy vine” or the Mexican kid screaming "Alguien se comió mi torta” were in them, she’d smile.

However, since Johnny Seo happened, Y/N didn’t do any of that.

And that was three months ago.

“You’re really refusing a ride for college in this shitty weather?!” Yuta rolled his eyes.

“I’m refusing dying for a second time, Yuta.” Y/N chuckled.

“I won’t pick you up if the storm gets stronger, you know that, right?”

“Yeah, I know.” She opened the door of her apartment. “Before you leave, turn the lights off.”

“Why don’t you move back to our house?”

“Because I can’t stand Youngho.” Y/N quipped. “Don’t forget the lights, dear!”

“I’ll pick you up at 9PM, college’s main door. One minute late and you’ll go back home all alone and in the rain.” Yuta yelled while she was leaving.

“Thank you.” She grinned, knowing he would always play hard to get.

Later that night…

When Johnny heard a loud – excited – scream coming from Lucas, he knew she was there. It took her almost two months to come back... But who was counting, huh?

He pushed the girl out of his lap and barely looked at her while he dressed back.

“You gotta leave.”

“What?” The blonde beauty glared at him, shocked.

“You gotta leave. I need to address to an important matter right now.”

“B-but you said you didn’t have any business today!”

“Turns out I do.” He sighed. “Hurry up, I’ll escort you to the door.”

The girl pouted, but it didn’t make him change his mind. His attention drifted to the new female demon that had entered his property, the one that made his blood boil. He checked himself in the big mirror, feeling extremely hypnotising and sensual. Obviously, Y/N would pretend not to feel a thing, but he wanted her to be a bit shaken by his appearance. They didn’t part in good terms, so Johnny decided to give her a sample of the life she lost by gently telling him “to fuck off” and storming out of the room like a crazy ex-girlfriend. While closing his door, he made sure the sound was loud. When he walked to the stairs, he could hear Taeyong and Yuta saying something about ‘kitchen’ and there was a small silence. Perfect for his dramatic entrance.

Y/N looked up to the foyer at the sound of steps, her insides tightening at the sight of Seo Youngho. Then, right behind him, there was a tall, golden-haired lady that looked like a model.

“Cassiopeia is leaving.” Johnny announced in that hypnotic voice of his.

“I thought she had just arrived?!” Lucas frowned.

“Turns out she has some stuff to do.”

The girl looked so offended by his remark but didn’t object to any of it.

“Oh, ok then.” Lucas shrugged. “Y/N, Doyoung and I are going up to play some games, she’ll sleep over. Yuta and Tae are cooking dinner. Wanna join us?”

“Yes.” He shook his head. “Bye, Cassiopeia.”

And without a word, he left her alone in the staircase. She made an ‘I’m offended’ sound and came to the main floor, looking at Y/N and Lucas in pure annoyance.

“Johnny said he didn’t have anything to do, but then he kicks me out… What is happening, Lucas?” She inquired, trying to pout cutely.

“How would I know that, dear?” Lucas ventured, dismissing her with a soft grin. “C’mon Y/N, I’ve bought the French deck so you can teach me that truco game.”

Truco is a card game for two, four or six players, who shout a lot and make signs to tell their partner what cards they had. It’s a popular game in Latin American countries, with some regional differences, but funny either way. She was used to play that with her friends, Inez being the one that taught them how to. Since she couldn’t see the girls ever so often, Y/N decided that she would teach the boys, so whenever she felt like playing, she’d have company.

When Lucas opened his bedroom door, Johnny was there – his silky black hair parted in the middle and the white button-up shirt with the three first ones unbuttoned. Y/N felt as if she was punched in the stomach, his beauty too much for her own good.

“What are we playing?” Johnny asked.

“Nothing.” She replied. “Actually, I’ll go to the kitchen to help Yuta and Taeyong.”

“Are you really going to run away every time we meet?” Johnny pouted. “I didn’t take you as a coward, mei fortuna.”

“And I didn’t take you as a joke, Youngho, but look at where we are now?!” She spat.

“Ok, I’m gonna get Doyoung and when I come back, I want everyone behaving politely and pretending to be friends, huh?!” Lucas spoke slowly, as if he was talking to small, naughty children.

He left the room, closing the door with a dry sound. Y/N sighed, throwing herself on his bed and facing the ceiling in a stupid attempt to ignore the male demon.

“So, how’s life?” Johnny tried going for a small talk.

“Pretty good.” Y/N muttered. She intended to sound rude.

“Did Yuta tell you about the party this weekend?”

“He did, yes.”

“You coming?”

“I’m not sure. Maybe.” She looked at her nails, pretending to be uninterested.

“You can’t possible think about living only with your friends’ sins, Y/N. What if they notice you’re always the reason they start gossiping?”

“I don’t live off of only gossips. People commit sins every hour, duh.”

“You manipulate them to commit small sins, then?” Johnny laughed. “That isn’t enough.”

“Well, you should’ve thought better before ruining my life and turning me into a demon. I prefer doing things this way, it’s easier and doesn’t make my conscience ashamed.”

“Are you kidding me? You make your friends sin! What type of conscience is that?”

“And what about you? Do you even have one? You, I quote again, ruined my fucking life!”

“Aw, don’t be petty. At least I did it for myself and never pretended to have done with for something or someone else.” The corner of his mouth quirked up and she rolled her eyes.

What was she expecting, to begin with? That he killed her to save his friends?! To save the world?! Ha, ha.

“See? And I’m doing this for myself too.”

“You won’t be powerful enough if you keep doing it.”

“I don’t intend to be powerful enough.”

“Are you sure?” Youngho tilted his head to the side, only the tiniest bit, but it drove her crazy. That horrible man was so sarcastic and so arrogant… Ugh! She wanted to choke him!

Doyoung walked in with Lucas, automatically putting an end to their discussion.

“Let the games begin!” He shouted happily.

Y/N really tried not to get affected by Johnny’s presence, but it was impossible. She couldn’t stop remembering everything. Every fucking thing.

The tension when they met, how she was so hypnotised by him at first glance. Her dance and his eyes on her all the time. When they flirted. When she rejected him. The lap dance. When they kissed. When they fucked and how amazing, ethereal, unique that was… Then she died because of him. Fuck, it was so hard to accept the truth! Only being able to live because she took advantage of others and made them sin… She even brought her loved ones into the mess! What kind of disgusting creature would even do that?

But demons were like that and the faster she learned to deal with it, the better.

Also, there was one more thing bothering her: if she hadn’t arrived, Johnny would’ve slept with that Cassiopeia girl… Right? She said he kicked her out when they arrived.

Y/N felt the need to vomit.

“You seem a bit off, dear.” She was surprised by Doyoung’s soothing voice and the petname. Normally, Lucas was the one to be affectionate (and caring).

“I’m tired from college, so I can’t get into my competitive mode and make the game funnier.”

“How many months until it ends?”

“Two, thank God.” She chuckled, earning three smirks in response.

“You’re really a believer now.” Johnny teased her, knowing she would get annoyed.

“I actually had no other option.” Y/N’s tone was dry and she refused to look at him.

“Well, I’m sure the supper is almost ready, so what about we stop the game for now and go to the kitchen? If you eat you’ll get a boost of energy.” Doyoung held her hand, shocking her even more.

Did the boys actually feel sorry for her having to put up with Johnny?!

“Agreed.” Lucas shook his head. “Let’s go, princess.”

Youngho was frowning due to Doyoung’s odd behaviour, but it got unbearable thanks to Lucas’ boldness. What the fuck was wrong with his friends? Did Y/N need to be pampered and treated as the most delicate flower now?

If he was going to be honest with himself – which he was not –, he'd admit that he was a bit jealous. Y/N didn’t need sugar-coated treatment; she liked things rough, she was tough and cold when she needed to be, and knew how to put people in their place. A woman like her should be treated as a goddess, not as a fragile lady. And, well, Johnny knew how to treat her right. He knew exactly what to do to make her squirm, to capture all of her attention, to crawl under her skin. Unfortunately, since they were connected by her transformation, he was sure Y/N knew what to do to him as well…

Even though she never seemed interested in using it to her favour.

That was the saddest thing about turning people into demons: you created a bond with them; so you could feel when they are struggling, when they’re excited, when they’re mad or happy... That’s why less and less demons offered or agreed to do so; it was too much trouble. When Y/N woke after “dying” and they talked, Johnny went out to find more experienced demons who could help him figure out what really had happened, but there wasn’t much information about what happened when someone becomes demon without selling their soul and requesting to come back as one of them. Then, he wasn’t able to answer all of her questions and Y/N freaked out, deciding she had enough and was wasting her time... So she left him.

Him.

She didn’t leave Yuta, Taeyong, Lucas or Doyoung.

She left just him.

Moreover, it was a hard punch on his ego. No one ever left him, he left them.

When they sat down for dinner, Y/N was between Yuta and Lucas, looking more relaxed than before. She loved Taeyong’s food because it was always homemade and he usually cooked dishes she could use as “comfort food”; besides, that’s what eating meant to her: comfort. He had prepared dough soup (sujibae), mushrooms, courgettes and garlic bread as sides, and for dessert chocolate lava cake.

Yuta poured her some soup while she devoured in one bite the bread.

“Do you live in hunger?” He joked.

“Only when the weather is shitty.” Y/N stated. “Oh God, Tae, I love your food!”

“I’m glad I can help.” The leader smiled lovingly. “Did you have fun playing cards?”

“No, dear, not at all.” She shook her head. “Would you ever be so kind to pass me the mushrooms, Dodo?” The adorable smile she gave Doyoung (and that hideous petname) made Johnny scow.

What the fuck was happening there?

“Should we start with the British accent as well?! Maybe some Regency outfits and a full decoration?” Doyoung joked, handling her the mushroom bowl.

“Capital! That would be precious.” Y/N leaned forward, a hand on her heart and eyes twinkling. “I’d like to be called ‘Your Grace’ or ‘milady’.”

“Holy fuck!” Lucas tried to muffled a laugh. “Suits you perfectly, tho. However, since I’ve always been calling you ‘princess’ I might have to stick with ‘Your Highness’, huh?”

“The higher the better.” She winked.

“Damn, you’re still here but I’m already missing you so much!” Yuta bawled. “Please, come back home! You’ll be safer and happier here, I swear.”

“Agreed.” Lucas and Doyoung said at the same time.

She felt her heart warm up with that. It was awesome living together with them – unfortunately, she didn’t want to put up with all the trouble Johnny brought her, and he sure would. Also, what would she do if he showed up with girls night after night? She couldn’t spend the whole day in the bedroom and the boys would think she was sick or going officially crazy… Yes, of course she could talk about Johnny with any of them, but she didn’t want to. Talking about him would make things more real… And she preferred to ignore it.

“You know I can’t, Yuta.” She was about to change subjects when she earned the puppiest ‘puppy eyes’ look of all them: Taeyong. “Stop, Tae! Don’t look at me like that! It’s not good for the baby.”

“Which baby?” He paled.

“Me.” Her mouth twitched.

Lucas chuckle soon turned into a laugh and soon everyone started laughing too… Everyone but Johnny. His eyes were bored into her, trying to tore her skin and uncover all truth she had hidden – sincerely, with the intensity of that gaze, she wouldn’t be surprised if she was naked.

Johnny left her mouth, his strong body hovering over her and his hand kept its work. Y/N felt her heart beating loudly thanks to the pleasure.

It had to be the pleasure.

‘We’re not doing things your way.’ She moaned.

‘Are you sure?’ There he was again, being the stupidly arrogant man he was.

‘We’re not.’ Y/N tried to assure her own head.

‘Aw, I think we will.’ His long digit eased its way inside her, making Y/N’s eyes shut automatically. The hideous man! ‘What do you say?’

‘Stop, Youngho, that’s what I say. Stop.’

He paused as instructed but his finger was still in her.

Y/N abruptly shifted on the bed, the wet dream still painfully alive on her memory. She looked to the side – Lucas, as the heavy sleeper he was, didn’t even flinch at her agony. Leaving the mattress, she grabbed her night-robe and decided that the kitchen was the best place to deal with frustrations… Or whatever “wet dreams” should be classified.

She was in the middle of preparing hot chocolate when she heard steps.

“Oh, you’re here.” Johnny’s voice sent shivers down her spine.

“Youngho.” Y/N breathed in.

“Y/N.”

“Why are you here?”

“Am I not allowed to enter my own kitchen?”

“That’s not what I meant.”

“I’m here because I was hungry and smelled chocolate, so I thought Tae was having a midnight-crisis and wanted to bake something to chill out.” He shrugged. “Anyway, mei fortuna, what about you? What made you wake up so early? A wet dream?” He smiled innocently at her, doing his best to look uninterested.

“How the fuck did you know?”

“I’m connected to you, I told you already.”

“Yeah, in a really dumb and weak way.” She sneered. “Stop reading my mind, then.”

“I’m not reading it; what the fuck do you take us for?! We’re not in Twilight!” Johnny crinkled his nose. “You died in lust and greed, that’s why these are more intense in your life now. And, not to be nosy, you need to fuck often.”

“Oh my fucking God.” She rolled her eyes, turning off the stove.

“You’ve been calling Him a lot.”

“Yeah, I found out He’s the only one listening to my complaints, currently.”

“Aren’t your soldiers working hard to grant each one of your wishes?”

“My soldiers?”

“Lucas, Yuta, Taeyong and Doyoung. I’ve never seen them this devoted.”

“They aren’t my soldiers, but I won’t apologize for the way they treat me.” She smiled coyly. “If it bothers you, I suggest you mind your own business, then.”

“It is quite hard to mind my own business when they’ve been all petnames and sugar-coated actions on you.” Johnny stated matter-of-factly. “You don’t need this.”

“What are you trying to suggest? That I don’t deserve to be pampered?!”

“Precisely.” He agreed. “You don’t like that.”

“Do you even listen to yourself sometimes?” She scoffed, offended.

“Mei fortuna, you like roughness and choking, you like playing the femme fatale and you like the idea of being in control even when you know that it ain’t true.” Johnny raised a brow. “Or am I wrong? Do you really enjoy those ‘princesses’ and ‘dears’ and ‘sweethearts’?”

“Judging by this I suppose you call me a whore when you go on with your ‘Mei fortuna’ thing, right?!”

Johnny’s eyes lighted up in surprise. He thought she would know by now, but that wasn’t the case.

“Actually it’s a Latin expression that means ‘My luck’… Since you’re my lucky charm.”

She didn’t mean to be touched by it. She didn’t even like what it represented… But she, somehow, felt her heart getting warm and small.

Oh, for fuck sakes, the man was hideous!

“Hmpf. Well.” She stuck her nose in the air, dismissing him. “I’m going to sleep.”

“Without your hot chocolate?”

“You can have it.”

“Are you coming to the party this Saturday?”

“Perhaps I will.” Y/N disappeared into the hall, leaving Johnny with a smug smile.

It was flattering that she had a wet dream with him and felt bothered by it. He couldn’t wait to put his hands on her again… And he would make sure to do it on Saturday.

●●●

Yuta had showed Y/N all the possible souls she could buy or feed off. He knew how to handle her and how to make it all seem less horrible – which she preferred.

“You have to feed yourself, love. Properly.” He had told her, compassion shining on his dark eyes.

Yuta was right, as expected. After corrupting two souls, her body felt stronger, alive. And the feeling was addictive; she wanted to keep doing that for ages.

Congrats Y/N, you’re a hideous being. – her conscience screamed.

A tall man walked past the group she was talking to, the dark blue suit so beautiful and shiny that it caught her attention. Her eyes went straight up to the man’s face… Just to find out he wasn’t a stranger at all. Of course Seo Youngho would be walking around as if he was God himself. They exchanged glances and Y/N felt another type of hunger.

Damn, she would give everything to get dicked down by him (again).

With a handshake, she dismissed her targets and approached Devil.

“Youngho.”

“Y/N. You came.”

“Not really.” She couldn’t help but rejoice in his grin.

“That can be arranged.”

“Oh, I’m afraid it can.” She shook her head positively. “These guys are really easy to convince. In fact, Yuta showed me some of them, and the rest happened almost automatically.”

“So no more gossips? Are you eating properly?”

“Wanna check out?”

“No, no. I might get jealous.” He gave her a half smile. “But I’m glad you’re finally doing it right.” His eyes turned slowly into the devilish cognac colour, shining with wickedness and proudness, and Y/N felt her throat burn with desire.

That man was impossible.

“Isn’t Cassandra around?” Right after asking, Y/N felt stupid and childish.

“Cassiopeia?” Johnny looked at her with humour. “I don’t think she will come. She’s mad at me and I’m not in the mood to deal with humans.”

“But are you in the mood for demons?”

“It depends. Are they female?”

“Maybe…”

“Interesting. What else?”

“It’s just a possibility, though.” Y/N started cautiously. “I mean, you’re really arrogant and I’m still fed up with all that happened months ago – but maybe, and I stress it, maybe, I want us to fuck.” She blushed. “The wet dream and all…”

Johnny smirked.

“Wanna discuss it somewhere private?”

“Please.” She agreed.

They got inside Johnny’s chamber and Y/N remembered the day she went there for the first time. Apparently, even though she didn’t sleep with him that night, it was bound to happen. And now, luckily, she would lay on that wicked bed and do wicked things with Mr. Wicked.

“Why are you still mad?”

“I’m having a hard time concealing my demon shit with my previous life. Now that I’m eating properly, it downed on me it’s real, you know?!”

“Yeah, it is tricky in the beginning.” He chuckled. “But I don’t see why you should stay mad at that, nor at me.”

“Oh, of course you only turned me into this, but where’s the problem, huh?!”

“Are we having this conversation again?”

“Well, I apologize for not fully adapting into a life I didn’t ask for!” Her tone was sarcastic, but the way her brows knotted together made her just cute.

He could feel her anger and her lust… Oh, she was so adorable! He couldn’t help himself.

“Y/N, look, I know you didn’t ask for it and I know you’re annoyed by what happened but there’s no way to reverse it. So, instead of being bitter and petty forever, why don’t you enjoy what was given to you? You have powers, you can manipulate lives and destinies… And you have me.”

“What?” Her jaw dropped.

“Well, I’m here to fuck you senseless, aren’t I?”

“I-I kinda hope so… I guess.”

“Then let’s close the topic. After I'll fuck your brains out, I think you’ll be able to see things clearer, alright?” Johnny locked the door. “Now be a good girl and strip for me. This skirt is driving me nuts.” He gestured to her leather skirt.

Her hands went to the clothing piece, but she stopped mid-way.

“What?” Johnny inquired.

“I was thinking… I’ve stripped for you once and did a lap dance.” She tilted her head to the side. “Would it be too greedy of me if I ask you to take them off yourself?”

He hesitated for a brief second, then smirked.

“It would be a pleasure.”

Y/N felt her heart beating fast while he approached her – those long fingers going straight to her cropped top. Her boobs fell down, free from the fabric, and Johnny’s mouth watered at the sight. He played with one nipple, feather touches, just to tease. Y/N was too focused on his alcoholic yellow eyes to try to make him stop with the teasing.

“You make me so thirsty, Youngho.”

Something in the way she said his name – as if it was a prayer – ignited him inside.

“For what?” One of his hands travelled up to her chin, cupping it.

“For cognac.” She closed her eyes and breathed in. “For kisses.” And then when she looked at him again, her irises were also yellow. “For you.”

He kissed her urgently, passionately, violently. It had been months since he felt something like that… Something so right. It couldn’t be just because he transformed her; he had that feeling long before. However, Johnny didn’t want to analyse anything but her body… Well, not yet. He tugged on her skirt, pulling it down slowly. Stopping the kiss to look at her in her burgundy lace set, he sighed contently. Oh, he would devour her.

“What?” Y/N questioned.

“Nothing. It’s just that you are too pretty for your own good.”

“And you’re too dressed for my own good.” She giggled.

“Well, do you want me to strip?” His voice was pure mockery, but his eyes were predatory.

“If you’d ever be so kind, sir.”

“Oh.” He smiled, his body beginning to withdraw from hers. “Then if you allow me to be greedy too, I have a request.”

“I thought you were the boss here.”

“Normally, yes. But once in a lifetime I can let someone else play the role… That being said, can you call me ‘Youngho’ or ‘Johnny’ as for tonight? Nothing about ‘sir’ or ‘Devil’.”

“That’s an odd request coming from you, sir, but I can comply.”

“Alright. Now that we’re settled, maybe you should sit down… I won’t be able to catch you if you faint while I strip.” He blinked in fake innocence, which made Y/N grin.

She didn’t want to argue with him right now. They were teasing each other and it felt good, not resentful like it has been for the past months. Even though calling him by his name would make things way more intimate, she couldn’t bring herself to care. Also, she needed a proper fuck. She needed someone like Johnny; and she didn’t want to ruin everything before she had an orgasm.

When Y/N sat down on his bed and it was as if she was embraced by pure lust. She touched the black satin sheets and smiled to herself… She had a set that looked like that, and it was her favourite one. Then she looked up and forgot how to breathe. Handsome boys undressing from their suits should be elected as the first of the Seven Wonders of the World. After taking out his jacket, Johnny started unbuttoning his shirt, loving the way Y/N followed his fingers as if she was under hypnosis. He threw it aside, hands now on his belt, and Y/N licked her lips.

“Holy fuck, let me do it.” She reached out for him, but he slapped her hand.

“No, no. This is my time to shine, mei fortuna. You asked for a strip and you’ll get one.”

“You’re taking too long!”

“You took two months and a whole ass song! I’m not even gonna take four minutes.”

“My tongue is impatient.” She nagged. “Please, Youngho.”

“What does your tongue have to do with it?”

“I want to lick every inch of you, that’s the problem!”

He chuckled, finding her eagerness so adorable that he gave up. “Oh, ok then. Guess you can control now.”

Y/N wanted to take her time with his body, so she started from his neck. Getting up, she let her hands touch his shoulders while her mouth went to his chin and collarbones. Oh, he was delicious and addictive! What a horrible, hideous man! Johnny’s chest rose, breathing in, closing his eyes to enjoy the caress properly. Her tongue left small licks all over his torso, getting lazier with every step further down, next to his belt. One warm hand got rid of his trousers in a quick move, leaving him with his underwear. Y/N smiled to herself, undressing him from his last piece of clothes. Without warning, she swirled her tongue over his shaft, receiving a raspy grunt in response. She looked up, repeating the movement, slower. Youngho sighed, feeling shivers run through his body. He watched, mesmerised, Y/N start to suck him off, swallowing him as far as she could handle. He tightened the grip on her head, but not moving at all, because it was her time to dictate the rhythm. Her large nails clawed at his thighs and the shivers intensified. He let out a loud groan as Y/N squeezed her testicles lightly, testing them. Johnny leaned against the wall, succumbing to the pleasure, but his attention remained on her, unable to take his eyes off the wonderful scene that Y/N was sucking his dick.

She guided his wrist to her hair, not really needing to “be in control” to make him cum. Johnny accepted it as if he needed to be tugging on her hair tightly for his life. He kept her head still and started to fuck her mouth. Y/N looked up again, and her eyes were so lustful that it was more than he could bear; Youngho was never prepared to see her as beautiful and disposed as she was in sex. He really wanted her to be in Louvre, the most precious paint to ever be shown.

“Can I cum in your mouth, mei fortuna?” He asked, wiping a small tear from her eye, his thumb caressing her cheekbone while he kept thrusting inside.

She shook her head positively the best she could, due to their position. It didn’t take much to make Johnny cum – he got out slightly, so he could see his seed filling her mouth. It was all too erotic, too lustful, so right. He watched Y/N eagerly lick her mouth, giggling. Without giving him more time to take enjoy of the scene, Y/N stood up.

“I think you should lay down, Youngho.”

“Anything you want, love.” Johnny mocked her, doing as she suggested. “What are you going to ride tonight?”

Y/N tried to pretend she wasn’t surprised he guessed what was going to happen. “Your face, and then your cock... If you behave.”

Johnny chuckled. “The only noise you’re going to listen from me is my mouth devouring you, I promise.”

It took her a deep breath to start moving. Her heart was beating so fast and she was so anxious to have his mouth on hers that she, for a moment, thought she wouldn’t handle it. Y/N passed one leg on either side of his face, slowly going down before sitting on that pretty mouth. His tongue began to move, the friction and speed so wonderful that it made her moan loudly. That was so much better than what she had imagined. Holding on the headboard, Y/N tried to focus entirely on the sensations. Youngho licked her like a lazy cat, sucking ever so often on her clit and letting one hand rest on her thigh. When she felt fully enchanted, her hips started moving slightly, riding his face as she had warned before. Johnny growled, his tongue speeding up.

“If you suffocate, please just throw me aside.”

He pushed his face further on her pussy, as a response. Y/N’s eyes flew shut, the orgasm building quickly. Oh, the hideous man he was! Her body just couldn’t get enough of him! She gasped, tipping her head back, enjoying the tight grip on her stomach. Somehow, he smacked her butt and it was everything she needed to fall into the pool of pleasure.

Johnny didn’t wait for Y/N to calm down. He gently pushed her to the side and sat down, bringing her to his lap, kissing her hungrily. In a matter of second, she was already aligning herself in his member. His eyes brightened in anticipation. It was incredible how anything made by her became an intense erotic act. Her breasts arched forward while she sunk on his dick, and he took them in his hands, squeezed them, sucking her nipples and leaving little bites that made Y/N moan loudly. He stared at the spot where they met, feeling pure bliss. The first thrust was so precise that she ran out of air. Only Johnny could touch her in the right way, make her feel right. At that moment, while the two were together, Y/N did not think about her problems or their complicated relationship; she concentrated only on Youngho and all the wonderful things that made her feel. How desperate she had been for him, and it seemed to get worse over time. Staring into his alcoholic eyes, Y/N began rock against him, increasing their pleasure. She was still sensitive from the past orgasm and that was enough to make her hungry for another. Johnny grabbed her hip, the noise of thrusts being louder than the grunts and gasps they let loose. She ran her hands down his tanned backs then wrapped them around his neck, still grinding, but she lost some speed as he lowered his face and sucked one of her nipples. It was hard to focus on only one place in her burning body. She began to quiver, her nails digging into his shoulder and indicating her orgasm.

“Here.” Youngho took her hands on his, intertwining their fingers. “To keep you steady, love.”

The petname was too much.

He should come back with ‘Mei fortuna’ or anything that remembered her of who they truly was… But ‘Love’ was too much. ‘Love’ made her heart feel warm and melt. ‘Love’ made her think she could never stay a day without looking at those yellow eyes.

Y/N gave in to the spasms and searched for air as she reached her high – she was far away, plunged into absolute delight. No more than a minute later, she felt Johnny's arms hold her down, laying her on her back while he climbed up and shoved into her again. Y/N let out a little shriek from the surprise thrust. The strength in which he held her would leave marks, but Youngho was too eager for release to care. When he came, he moaned loud his hips slowing down only a bit. He grinned, sticking his forehead to hers and opened his eyes.

“One time I heard Lucifer is the prettiest being alive.” She murmured, hypnotised. “Are you sure your name is Youngho?”

“I am, Y/N.”

“Damn, if he is prettier than you than I hope to never meet him.”

Johnny couldn’t help but chuckle. “It’s good when you don’t die after we fuck.”

“It only happened once.” She groaned. “Are you really going to ruin the mood?”

“It keeps me from doing something crazy.”

“Such as?”

“Asking you to move back home… Asking you to stay.” He shrugged, getting out of her.

Y/N sat down, shocked. “What to do you mean?”

“I thought fucking you would make you come to your senses, but turns out it backfired.”

“Youngho, I don’t have time for metaphors.”

“Maybe demons do fall in love, Y/N, and maybe I’ve fallen for you.”

She choked, too surprised to answer or pretend to be fine with what he said.

“And maybe that’s why you didn’t officially die when I corrupted you.” Youngho ruffled his hair, wiping a bit of the sweat off. “I don’t know, honestly. Nothing like this happened to my friends that corrupted beings of light, but none of them felt this drawn into their victims.” He approached her, holding her chin up and looking into her now yellow eyes. “When we met… When you left two months ago… It was you from the beginning, Just Y/N, not your light.”

Oh, the hideous, horrible man!

And just like that, he had her heart wrapped around his finger.

#johnny smut #johnny scenarios #nct smut #nct scenarios #johnny seo 😔#youngho smut #youngho scenarios

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themadauthorshatter · 3 years

Text

I should probably back-track to Ninjago Season 1.

I've been excited for the rewrite of Episode 7😈

For context, in Episode 4, we'd see Zane's "green ninja" dream, which Wu would ask he share. He does fully; he half truths it to the others, exceot Cole, who gets pushy. Like I said in Episode 5's rewrite, he collapsed and heard the falcons shouting his name.

This is also the episode, hopefully, where Zane talks the most. And there's a lot of glaciershipping in this one.

We start in the dead of night, as a pan over the ninja shows they are all sleeping peacefully. All except for Zane, who we see close up tossing and turning as he writhes and groans in a cold sweat, possibly having a seizure and a nightmare.

In this nightmare, Zane sprints through a wooded area as hands and snake tails reach out to grab him. He's tired, sweaty, and really doesn't want to be grabbed because he doesn't want to know what could be waiting to pull him to his doom.

Thankfully, he breaks through the foliage and lands infront of a pair of a certain black clad six year old.

"Lloyd?" He asks as he stands. "Lloyd, thank goodness. Sensei has been worried sick. Quickly, we must-"

"Why, Zane?"

It rattles Zane to his core that a girl's voice comes oit of Lloyd's mouth, but not enough to pull him close as dark figures approach and surround them.

Zane pulls Lloyd close and unsheathes his shurikens to defend the two of them.

It gets worse when Zane can't move because the figures are armed men, not serpentine.

Lloyd asks him, 'Why?' again, and this time Zane backs away because half of Lloyd's face looks sunken in while the other looks fine enough considering how he's crying and coughing up blood, as in his tears are also blood.

He loses his shurikens and, in his panic to gind them in black colored snow, gets a muzzle to the cranium and a boot to the stomach.

"The hell's your problem!?" He gets another kick, this time to the face. "First you ask for a fight, and now you can't even make it a good one!?" Zane groans as the soldier stomps on his ear. "You little coward! You worthless, spineless bastard!"

As he tries blicking all the hits as more soldiers join in, Zane hears numerous people screaming his name, begging the soldiers to stop. He sees the messed version of Lloyd try to reach him, even though he's being held back by a smirking Pythor.

He cries for it all to stop, the screaming, the kicks and punches, and the pain he's in, quiet at first, but soon shouting as loudly as he can.

"STOP IT!" Zane screams as he shoots off his back and readies a kunai under his pillow; all you need to know is that Kai and Jay tried pulling a prank, and it went TERRIBLY wrong, and he feels safer, despite being among friends.

Regardless, Zane pants as he looks around and sees that the others are sleeping soundly, even though there's some movement from Cole's bed, like he just got back into it. (Hmmmmm?)

He calms down and holds a hand against his very sweaty forehead, very much shaken and stirred by his nightmare as he groans and rest his head against his knees. "Damn. Why?"

Hope you noticed that detail of Cole moving because we cut to his perspective as he lies on his side and pretends to be asleep. He's really just keeping his eyes on the wall as he listens for any more distress from Zane, who cautiously leaves his own bed and the bunk rooms entirely.

After a minute, Cole quickly gets up and follows him. He doesn't bother trying to be quiet because Kai and Jay can sleep through anything.

It's night and the moon is out, which gives the perfect lighting for Cole to look for Zane on the deck, where he is not.

He looks up and finds him on the mast, more specifically the part that actually holds the sails.

With Zane, he's sitting and switching between staring at the sky and staring at the kunai knife from his pillow, turning it in his hand and sort of inspecting it, not noticing Cole climb up to meet him.

"You know, you're pretty hard to wake up, especially when you're having those seizures."

Zane bites back a retort as Cole joins his side, egging him on to express himself.

"For the leader of the tean, you are terribly disciplined."

Cole takes the jab, and asks what he dreamed of, seeing as how shaken up Zane is.

Zane shrugs it off and simply half-lies that he's worried about Lloyd, hoping that he's okay. Cole agrees and asks for Zane to try and go back to bed, because it's late.

As Cole goes back to bed, Zane stares back up at the sky, seeing a very vague shape of the falcon fly above.

Cut to the serpentine, who walk to an underground cavern with Lloyd, who's in a cage and really doesn't want to be here.

Like before, Pythor needs the general's staffs to reaveal the silver fang blades on a map.

They set it down on a "table" with the staffs just strewn around it like before, and they all sit and play the waiting game.

Yeah, short jump cut, but the serpentine play a minor role here.

Back with the ninja, Zane is under water because he dropped a training shuriken and just stayed under because he's still stressed about the nightmare.

He stays under for almost an hour and a half before resurfacing.

They ask if he's okay, and Cole covers for him that they might be reaching their full potential.

We get the 'full potential' talk with Wu and the origin of how Garmadon became evil, though the only thing I'm changing in the origin story is that we'd get a flashback of Wu and Garmadon talking, where Garmadon attacks Wu and screams in his face that it's his fault Garmadon's on pain and sick from the snake venom. Their father pulls them apart and Wu runs, terrified as Garmadon shouts that he's weak, a coward, and should be the one who got bit.

Wu leaves and, TV perspective, we get a pan shot of the ninja seeing him off, though we focus on Zane, who's still contemplating the whole "break through your inner limits to reach your full potential" and wonders what's holding him back, considering all he knows about himself. We fade to the ninja enacting their greatest plan yet: using fliers to get info or locations on the fang blades; they already searched a library and archives and found nothing.

Zane's zoning out until Jay shakes him out of it. "Hey! Keep up, man! We need to put up as many of these as possible."

Now it's Kai's turn to ask what's wrong, citing how Zane woke up screaming, was distant all morning and is a lot quieter than usual, even refusing to be carried on Cole's back.

Before he can respond, Zane spots a little girl being picked on by two other kids, a boy and another girl. Good thing her older brother saves her and scares them off.

Rather than a seizure, it gives him a very bad headache, one that makes him fall to the ground and drop the fliers, much to the annoyance of some passersby.

Cole holds him as Kai and Jay pick up, though they aren't focused on their task for long as the spot the falcon.

Nya, who's totally been hear the whole time, takes up putting up the fliers as the ninja go after it, first by foot, with Zane on Cole's back where he belings, before switching to their vehicles, where Zane must ride with Kai as he has another headache, though the death metal grunge trash Kai listens to does absolutely nothing except piss him off.

When they're back on their feet, the sky's getting darker as dusk approaches and Jay falls behind because he may be fast, but he can't run forever.

Kai, Cole, and Zane continue, until Kai falls behind, then followed by Cole, who we stay with as Zane races onward. He calls for Zane to stop as he catches his breath, finds the 'Beware of treehorns' sign, and wonders to himself how Zane can run forever like that.

Speaking of Zane, he sprints after the falcon, demanding where it's taking him.

It continues to fly until it falls, panting as it instead hops onward.

Zane stops running and, getting uncomfortable, goes for and turns on a small flashlight in his pocket.

Turns out that stupid bird led him to a graveyard, which he learns by seeing numerous tombstones in the light.

"I apologize for breathing on all of you."

The falcon chirps, and Zane follows, finding it on top of a tombstone that is next to many other tombstones, all the first names different, but the last names the same. A family. The falcon pecks on the one it's perched on and Zane reads it.

'Zane Silver. Beloved son, and a brave fighter. May he rest in peace.'

The falcon walks away from the grave and leads Zane to a large tree...

Where a cougar-robot hybrid thing leaps out in front of him, growling and hissing at him

Zane fights it, even though it beats him senseless, and prevails.

Good thing, too, because the falcon pecks at the tree, which Zane opens to find the 'lab' from before, except it's bigger and the lights turn on when he steps inside.

The falcon makes a rough landing on a desk, amd Zane follows in half-wonder, asking why it brought him to here and the graveyard.

He gets his answer when he examines the papers and journal on the desk. TV perspective, we don't see what he's reading, but he removes his hood and shows confusion before that melts away into utter fear and despair, shaking his head and muttering, "No," over and over again as he searches them all over again in a crazy jump cut montage that shows his face, controted with pain and even more Danganronpa style despair, his hands practically tearing through the papers and journal pages, and flashes of his dreams and images of people he doesn't remember meeting(yet).

Unable to take the pain, Zane throws the journal, shouts, "NO!" and collapses as he hears the screaming from his nightmare, and even the sound of people just saying things to him.

We don't see the images, but we hear the voices, which stop as Zane, clutching his head as he screams at the very top of his lunges.

CUT TO THE SERPENTINE!!! That piece of paper has done nothing and they're all sitting and being bored. Maybe we can have a gag of a Constricti and a Hypnobri playing poker as Lloyd watches, just for shits and giggles.

Pythor, however, isn't in the mood for that, and growls that something MUST be missing.

Hope you remembered that drawing of either Garmadon or a shaded figure drawing blood on a map, because Skales wonders if blood mixed with the Great Devourer's venom will help, seeing as how Garmadon was bitten by the thing.

He and Pythor turn to Lloyd, who panics as they approach him. The Hypnobri, however, grabs him arm and holds his hand out to the two of them, and Pythor shushes Lloyd as he rubs his head.

We see the serpentine all brace themselves for what's going to happen next, but breathe a sigh of relief when Pythor simply pricks Lloyd's finger and takes a small amount of it and returns to the table.

He drips it on the paper and, through the power of some magic BS I can't explain, it makes a map of ninjago, but no location of the fang blades.

So they're back to watching and waiting, except Lloyd, who's seriously planning on how he can escape.

BACK WITH THE NINJA!

They find the tree lab and see Zane lying on the ground on his side with the falcon trying to get under his hand, so it can get pets.

Cole rushes to his side and shoos the bird away before pulling Zane into a sitting position to see if he's hurt.

He's fine, but his eyes are red and puffy, his hair is messier than Kai's, and his cheeks are heavily tear stained.

Kai and Jay catch up and they ask if he's okay, what happened, how did he end up like this, etc.

He just shoves past all of them and sprints out of the tree lab, journal in hand, which prompts them to follow, the falcon on Cole's shoulder and pretending to fly because it's exhausted from flying for real.

"Can't the guy just WALK for once!?" Kai shouts, "We've already done enough running!"

Fade to them walking through the trees, with Kai lighting the way with his sword, as they reach the cemetery and Zane.

He's kneeling and holding on to his tombstone as he shakily weeps. They're all at a loss of words for seeing him like this.

Cole approaches and puts a hand on his shoulder, asking him what's going on with him.

Zane sighs and takes a breath before standing and moving away from the tombstone, so the others can see it.

Without looking at them, he takes a scalpel that was in the journal, which he tosses to them, and unties his gi so his torso is showing.

GORE TW, even though it's not that explicitly shown in TV perspective, Zane carves lines into his body, a straight line that goes between his pelvic bones, a straight line going up from that line, his stomach, and stopping at his heart, and to diagonal lines that meet at the vertical line, making a Y shape.

The ninja are horrified, especially at the fact he didn't even react.

Zane meets their eyes, sad and very emotionally drained, and pulls his skin back to reveal a bunch of mechanisms and gizmos inside his body, especially the core I talked about in his character touch-up post.

They all scream, and this is what follows:

"Y-You...," Kai stammers. "Zane, you're-"

"You're a ROBOT!?" Jay shouts.

Zane sighs and shakes his head. "No, Jay. I... I am not a robot."

Kai babbles on about nonsense in the background with his hands in his hair as Jay pales and Cole only slowly shakes his head.

"You're... No. You can't be. How!?"

"I do not know," Zane admits as he holds his head in his hands. "I just learned myself, and... I don't know."

Kai calms down and states, "Hey, we just learned this, too, so maybe we can figure it out together. I mean, you have all the time in the world now, so..."

"A-and it probably explains why you didn't get jokes before, right?" Jay offers.

Cole glares at them both, but Zane continues.

"Didn't get jokes before. How could I when I did not even remember?"

Zane turns to the other graves and drops back onto his hands and knees.

"Wait," Kai murmurs. "'Remember?'"

"Yes. I believe I am starting to remember, but I do not yet know everything. Someone killed me and I had been brought back to life. That lab was where I... resided for many years."

"Why'd you leave?" Cole asks as he kneels next to Zane.

Zane only clenches his fist on the ground. "I... don't remember."

"Didn't you just say-"

"Kai, didn't I just say I do not yet know everything?" Zane snaps, effectively shutting him up before continuing. "I remember asking someone to make me forget, but... what was so awful that I had to force myself and my mind into hiding?"

He breaks down again, but this time, Cole puts an arm on his shoulder.

The ninja comfort him and tell him he's still Zane, even with the elephant in the room of him being not exactly alive.

They try motivating him to fighting again, but he tells them he'll catch up, because he needs a serious minute to think about what he just learned; he has been dead for a WHILE now.

The ninja leave him, but are then swarmed by treehorns, though it's a harder fight because it's night out. Yeah, that cougar-ribot thing was meant to keep them away.

Zane hears rhem and races to help, but he too get his ass handed to him as his powers are stunted from learning the truth. He ebds uo getting thrown into the tree lab, where he tumbles down the steps and breaks his fall on the desk before hitting the ground. (As Cinemawins would say: Brutal).

We cut back to the fight, and see the ninja do well enough until they don't. Cole, especially, who frantically shouts for Zane, having not seen him step in earlier.

Good thing I bring up Zane, because he comes to and finds the falcon in front of him. He sits up and asks what it's teying to tell him and why, seeing as how he knows the truth.

Silly Zane. Knowing is not understanding.

The falcon gives him the journal and flips to the very first page, which Zane begrudgingly reads.

We get a voice over from the writer as he talks about how, as a 'taboo' scientist, he's had to choose serving the army over being executed, how the village he's stationed in really maked him want to continue his research, and how he met a boy that's really caught his attention, one with quite a large family, a mother, father, grandfather, uncle, 3 cousins, and 5 siblings, where the boy was the second oldest-having learned from having dinner with them after a mishap in the street.

Zane has another headache and sees flashes of this family, and the man who wrote the journal, who, as a slight gag, sits very uncomfortably between two arguing twins before they ask this secind eldest to take a side.

He reads on and remembers more, seeing more of his family, that he did indeed die, get resurrected, and lived until the doctor-soldier died of old age and left Zane alone.

The mechanisms and circuits meant to keep these memories away give, and Zane weeps at all of this new found knowledge, even the fact that HE HIMSELF asked to forget his family.

That word catches him: Family.

He may have had his adopted family, who are all dead, but then there's his new family. Sensei Wu, Cole, Jay, Nya, Kai, and Lloyd. People he's laughed with, semi-cried with, trained with, fought with, people he genuinely doesn't like, but people he really loves with every ounce and fiber of his being.

The falcon watches Zane collect himself and examine the core and mechanisms in his body, remembering the doctor, his father, tell him it will keep him alive, and that it, ironically, makes him more human because his heart is literally bigger than his brain, amd humans are usually more emotional than logical.

With a rush of vigor, Zane seals up his torso with some skin glue, ties his gi back up, and races back outside.

Thank goodness because Cole is being thrown like a rag doll, Kai's exhausted, and Jay's about to become fast food, which Zane prevents by dive-tackling him and tossing him a few yards away, making some snow for him to land in, which surprises them both.

Zane ignores it for now and saves Kai and Cole, the latter almost hugging him before Zane shouts that they need to focus.

They regroup, amd we get an Avengers spin around them, because it's cool, and they leap back into it, Zane lending a huge hand as he uses his ice powers to help them, given their injuries.

As they continue fighting, Zane can't help but notice he feels extremely light on his feet, like a weight's off his shoulders.

They fight off a majority of the treehorns before the queen struts her way in, and Zane is more than happy to oblige her a challenge.

The ninja tell him they can ALL take her, but, TV perspective with Zane's back to the camera, the white ninja states, more serious than he's ever been in his life, "I lost my family once to a power hungry monster. I refuse to let it happen again."

The snow on the ground circles Zane and he glows brightly as the queen of the nest snaps at him.

He levitates and holds a hand out, shooting ice at her at freezing her into a treehorn-cicle.

The other treehorns back off as Zane floats back to the ground.

His powers cease and Zane sighs as he falls back onto his rear, panting as the ninja join him and tell him how awesome that all was, Cole especially so as he asks how Zane did all that.

Zane admits he doesn't know, but reveals he now remembers EVERYTHING, his life from before he died, that he died trying to keep them and others safe, that he'd been brought back and 'raised' by his father, who erased his memory for him before dying himself, and how Wu RE-FOUND Zane and let him join the team. He remembers playing with his siblings, and annoying his older sibling, remembers helping his father-the doctor- with his research and how they even played chess. He remembers that dying SERIOUSLY hurt and was killed for trying to save an old man who was getting hurt. He remembers having his mind physically altered so he wouldn't remember, and that the seizures were due to his mind literally fighting itself.

For those in back, HE REMEMBERS EVERYTHING.

The ninja are all silent upon hearing this and, knowing he'd been the first to ask, Kai apologizes for everything Zane's been through, especially with the seizures.

Zane shakes his head, admitting with tears in his eyes he's too glad for words he remembers. He now knows that he wants to keep others safe, even the team, and hopes he can still help in stopping Pythor.

He's still in, and the group decide to camp out at the tree lab for the night before heading back, though as they settle in, Zane is about to drift off before he feels his old bed creak and someone hold him close with their arms around his shoulders.

It's Cole, though the falcon hops its way to Zane and falls asleep next to him, glad to have him back.

Back with the serpentine, they've all had it, tired of waiting and having their time wasted before they discover the venom in the staffs and use it ro reveal the fang blades' locations.

The episode ends with Pythor holding the map up in victory and Lloyd staring at the map in fear of what's to come

#ninjago #ninjao jay #ninjao cole #ninjago zane #ninjago kai #ninjago rewrite #child endangerment tw #angst #slight bloof and gore tw

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texastheband · 3 years

Text

Texas V Wu-Tang Clan

Interview by Steven Daly Photography by Peter Robathan Taken from The Face - December 1997

It’s the pop story of ’97, the most unlikely end to a weird year: TEXAS collaborating with the WU-TANG CLAN. First, a Scottish rock band on the verge of slip-sliding away into a tasteful obscurity was reborn via a slew of hit singles and a glut of stylish imagery. Now, in New York, their Brit-cool meets hip hop in a mutually beneficial deal. For everyone concerned, it’s all they need to get on…

Sharleen Spiteri took the call in her front hall. "Yo, Peach," growled a strange voice over transatlantic wires. The gentleman caller was none other than Ol’ Dirty Bastard, court jester of New York hip hop dynasty the Wu-Tang Clan. Apparently Mr Bastard fancied working with Spiteri and her band, Texas. It all started in August, with one of Texas’ managers discussing Land Rovers with someone called Power in New York, who turned out to be the manager of the Clan. A video of Texas’ "Say What You Want" was dispatched, and prodigiously gifted Wu-Tang chieftain RZA signed on to do a re-recording of the single for a prospective single project. Original rapper OI’ Dirty Bastard was replaced by Method Man, the next Clan member with a solo album scheduled.

The hook-up with the Wu-Tang Clan is the perfect climax to a year that’s seen Texas rise from a tumbleweed-strewn grave to grab the pole position in British Pop. A year in which Glasgow’s Sharleen Spiteri has stared out, defiantly remade and remodelled, from every magazine cover and TV show. From a media point-of-view, Texas’ – Spiteri’s – reconfiguring of music and fashion has been the year’s dream ticket. Ever since Bryan Ferry took the innovative step of getting Anthony Proce in to design Roxy Music’s wardrobe in the early seventies, successive phases of pop’s history have thrown up performers who use the fashion photographers, stylists and designers du jour to present The Package. It is these performers who most often capture the youthful mood of their time: that’s why you can see the vulgar glamour of the Seventies in the cut of Ferry’s sleazy lounge-lizard jib; the naive aspiration of the early Eighties in the box-suited and pixie-booted "style" of Spandau Ballet; and the onset of the late-Eighties mixing and matching of different cultures in Neneh Cherry’s Buffalo Stance. When we look back at 1997 we will see in Texas’ sound and vision a new mix, all to do with living the high life but keeping it real. Catwalk and street, the designer and the understated, Prada and Nike; the slick and the cred. Ten years’ gone Scottish guitar outfit and this season’s bright young labels (in both senses). The setting too, has helped. Fashion, again, is big cultural business. Clever pop stars (Goldie! Liam!) want to be seen by the runway and hanging out at fashion parties; young designers yearn to be visible on the stage or the podium (viz. Antonio Berardi’s autumn London show at Brixton Academy). Factor in a paucity of self-motivating, button-pressing, songwriting, photogenic women in British music, and you have a ready-made media phenomenon.

Sharleen Spiteri is holding court at a New York restaurant with a gang of Calvin Klein employees who’ve just accompanied her to the VH-1 Fashion Awards. The annual ceremony is a mutually convenient arrangement, a TV cluster-fuck where the music and fashion industries exchange credibility and cachet. Texas are contemplating just such an exchange themselves, having recently been given the OK by CK. (Tommy Hilfiger has also made overtures.) Spiteri is to have an audience with Klein himself; she’s already been bribed with a trunkful of CK merch, including the streaked black dress – "inspired by [the artist] Brice Marden" – she’s wearing tonight.

Someone suggests that Texas would be perfect for Fashionably Loud, an MTV special where models strut on stage as the hot bands of the moment rock out. "Forget it," quips Spiteri. "there’s only room for one star up where we play." If Spiteri were to join Kate Moss and Christy Turlington on the Calvin Klein payroll it would not, as she sees it, detract from Texas’ music. "Fashion and music have always been connected, and now more than ever," says the singer. "You couldn’t have one without the other. If there’s shit music at a runway show it just doesn’t work."

Meanwhile, there’s the songs. With "White On Blonde", Texas’ fourth album, the music takes care of itself. Radio-friendly unit-shifters abound, helped on their way by producers Mike hedges (manic Street Preachers) and Manchester’s Grand Central. The singles have been, in sequence, nu-soul fresh ("Say What You Want"), springy pop ("Halo"), Motown-sunny ("Black Eyed Boy") and winter warming ("Put Your Arms Around Me"). The B-side remixers have covered all bases in these dance-savvy late Nineties, ranging from of-the-moment talents like the Ballistic Brothers and Trailerman to old stand-bys like Andy Weatherall and 808 State. Texas, patently, lost their dancefloor cherry by cherry-picking the brightest and the best.

Of course, while the singles have all enjoyed heavy airplay and gone top ten, and while "White on Blonde" has sold two million copies (more than its two predecessors put together), the remixes haven’t necessarily helped those sales. As the go-faster stripes of credibility on the solid saloon car, though, they’ve still been essential to The Package; all part of the thoroughly modern mix.

So now, the Wu-Tang Clan. To many, though, this latest development could smack of opportunism. One group are renegade roughnecks who mythologise themselves in epic hip hop anthems; the others are fastidiously tasteful Scots with an eye for perfectly modern consensus-pop. The Wu-Tang Clan are certainly among the aesthetically correct names that Texas always drop in interviews, but can there possibly be a legitimate connection between the two? "A lot of the Wu-Tang backing tracks have the feel of soundtracks, and we’ve always gone for a cinematic sound," says Johnny McElhone, Spiteri’s genial songwriting partner and bass player. "And I’ve always liked Al Green, and they use a lot of Willie Mitchell, Al Green, that whole Hi Records sound, and make it modern. And Marvin Gaye: Method Man, in that duet with Mary J. Blige, used ‘You’re All I Need To Get By."

Having dominated the charts in Europe this year, Texas are now, logically, turning their attention to America: the country that has always inspired them, whether it’s the dusty, pseudo-roots sound of their first three albums, or the iconic-soul and post-soul sounds of Memphis and Staten Island that they give props to now; the place where success has always eluded them. Yet given the commercial momentum of "White on Blonde", their approach to the Wu-Tang Clan is surely not driven by desperation. They are, then, viewing the collaboration with a combination of fan-like wonder and disbelief.

"Method Man is just a wicked, wicked rapper," enthuses Spiteri. "I can’t wait to hear the combination of my vocals and his – I‘m really excited about it. I have a kind of sweet, virginal thing going on, and he’s got this dirty sex vibe. It could be the perfect marriage."

It’s a Saturday night in Manhattan, and ten storeys above Times Square, Sharleen Spiteri sits on the floor of a recording studio, tinkering with her latest high-tech gadget, a Philips computer about the size of a TV remote. Across the street, three ten-foot high electronic ticker-tapes provide testimony to Monday’s stockmarket crash. No matter how much Spiteri plays with her new toy, there’s still that nagging worry: what if the Wu-Tang Clan won’t show? They’re supposed to be on a tour bus returning from a gig in Washington, DC today, but these, after all, are the original masters of disaster. The crew whose normal modus operandi seems to be chaos. The band that recently quit a national tour because only five of the nine members could be relied upon to turn up.

The studio has been booked since six, so Spiteri and McElhone breathe signs of relief when RZA and his posse finally roll in around ten. Among the dozen-strong throng, they’re surprised to see Wu-Tang member Reakwon, a stout fellow with a Mercedes cap and a Fort Knox of gold dental work. Several cigars are hollowed out, their contents replaced with weed; bottles of Cristal champagne and Hennessy are passed around as the air grows thick with smoke.

Half an hour later, method Man makes his entrance. Stooped over, he looks deceptively short – maybe only six-four in his Hilfiger fleece hoodie. "I’m John-John," he tells Sharleen, referring to his alias, Johnny Blaze. Pulling out the big blunt from behind his ear, Method Man considers the job at hand. "She got a nice voice," drawls the laconic giant. "This band not exactly my type of listening material, but they going in the right direction, if you ask me, by fucking with us. I’m waiting for RZA to put down a beat, hear how the vocals sound melded with the track before I come with ideas. I’m one of those guys."

As his friends get on with the serious business of partying, RZA goes to work, feeding a succession of sample-laden discs into a sampler. He has a diffident, genius-at-work charisma about him as he sits with his back to the room, keyboard at side. With a flick of his prodigiously ringed hand he reaches out and conjures up a brutal bassline. The speakers pulse violently. RZA takes a sip of Hennessy. "Record this, right here!" he tells the bewildered-looking engineer.

RZA has decided to dispense with the original master tapes, shipped over from Britain. He wants a completely new version, recorded rough-and-ready without the standard safety net of a time-code. This convention-trashing, wildstyle approach to recording elicits some consternation from the studio’s engineer, a central-casting white guy who warns RZA: "You won’t be able to synch to this, you know." RZA waves him away and turns to Johnny McElhone. "This riff is in E," McElhone tells RZA. "Maybe we should try it in the original key, D." "What are you saying? I understand no keys," says RZA. "You want me to sing the whole song straight through?" asks Spiteri, trying to divine RZA’s intentions. He orders the lights turned down, and offers Sharleen some herbal inspiration. She politely declines and walks to the vocal booth. "What’s her name? Sheree?" asks RZA as Spiteri warms up. The engineer wants to know if he should maybe start recording. "Always record everything!" exclaims RZA. "Ready, get set, go! Play and record, play and record!" Spiteri rattles of a perfect new version of ‘Say What You Want’, grooving along by herself and passionately acting out every word, even the ones borrowed from Marvin Gaye’s ‘Sexual Healing". Now it’s time for Method Man, who at this point is so herbally inspired that he can hardly open his eyes. He jumps up and lopes around the main room, running off his newly written rhymes and clutching a bottle of Crystal. Method walks up to the mic and opens his mouth, and that treacly baritone sets a typically morbid scene: "Fifteen men on a dead man’s chest…" The Texas duo just look at each other, shaking their heads in awe.

The hours and the rhymes pass. Around 6am, things are starting to get a little weird. As Method Man snoozes on the sofa, RZA bounces off the walls, dancing like a dervish. "These are the new rhythms," he yells. "These are the new dances from Africa. I learned them when I was there last week!" McElhone and Spiteri crack up. The engineer probably wishes he were in Africa right now; he further draws RZA’s ire by making a mistake as he runs off some rough cassettes. As everyone says goodbye, RZA decides that he’s taking the studio’s sampler – he already has two of the $3,500 items, but at this point it’s all about the wind-up. The engineer, though, having last seen the end of his tether a good few hours ago, has had enough. By the commencement of office hours that morning, the rest of the session will have been cancelled and the band and Clan banned from this studio.

After a few frantic phone calls later that morning, a studio is found that is prepared to let the Wu-Tang Clan through the door. With one precondition: only two of them are allowed in the studio. Now it’s midnight, and four-fifths of Texas watch a trio of RZA-hired session men go through their paces. They shift effortlessly through a handful of soul and funk styles, and the Scots mutter approval. These are the kind of players that are so good they can get away with wearing questionable knitwear.

Soon, another couple of Wus pop in. Then another couple. In the control room RZA orders up a bottle of Hennessy and talks about hearing "Say What You Want" for the first time. "I didn’t fully understand the sound of it," admits the soft-spoken maestro. "It was obviously a popular song, a radio song, and my sound is the total opposite. But I thought that the artist had something, so I thought: "Let’s take her and rock her to my beat."

"Sweet soul, that’s what her stuff sounded like to me. Smooth. It reminded me of the Seventies: in those days, they did songs that would fit anywhere. If you went to a club getting high it would fit; if you was cleaning up your house it would fit. That’s when you’ve got a real great song right there." Whether or not "Say What You Want" is a great song, it’s not quite coming together tonight. Despite the best offers of the studio management, a full complement of Wu posse members ended up in the house. As the night drags on the trio of musicians don’t get with the track, and by eight the following morning there is little in the way of usable material. But everyone stays upbeat. Texas will work on the track in Glasgow, and send it back to RZA to finish, along with a new song based around one of his samples. After vowing to stay in touch, everyone stumbles out into the Manhattan morning light together, the Scots with an American name, and the Clan without a tartan.

From a distance the collaboration will continue. But it’s only a different kind of distance. Culturally, creatively, the gap between the Wu-Tang Clan and the old twang clan is considerable. Yet so it goes, this cross-cultural exchange programme. Whether it’s The Stones copping blues movies, Bowie digging the Philadelphia Sound, Lisa Stansfield getting soulful with Barry White, Sting getting doleful with Puff Daddy… Whether it’s Todd Terry reviving Everything But The Girl or Armand Van Helden making Sneaker Pimps the unwitting jumpstarters of speed garage, naked opportunism and risk-taking innovation have always been confused. Now, with genres blurred and tricknology proceeding apace, anything is possible and everything is permitted. Perhaps it is this, the sheer unlikeliness, that makes the Texas-Wu experiment the most illuminating collaboration of the year. Whether it works or not.

"If you play her stuff in a club, everybody be dancing, but it’s a clear room and you can see everybody’s face," RZA reflects on the departing Sharleen Spiteri. "But if you play mine, the room is smoky." And perhaps it is here, among the clouds and the clarity, between the smoke and the mirrors, where a new sound and vision lies.

Text originally posted on texasindemand.com

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