#and then gave us a scene that lasted what three minutes and with no plot important

[luckybyler]

It’s PAINFULLY OBVIOUS that Stranger Things was meant to be three seasons long: season 1, 2, and a previous version of what we will now know as season 5.

I’m not saying that seasons 3 and 4 are bad, they’re great. But they very much feel like a detour from the original plan.

We know the show was meant to last more than 1 season because Noah auditioned for Will by reading the “crazy together” scene from season 2. We know it was meant to last more than two seasons because in the original script of the snowball dance they had Will looking longingly at Mike, which implies there was still stuff to be explored (we may be able to find clues in other, monster-related plots). However, they removed Will’s look towards Mike and added an unscripted Mileven kiss. This was a deliberate choice to stretch these storylines further instead of being resolved in the third, originally final season. They also came up with that horrid hidden spin-off pilot that was episode 7.

Seasons 3 and 4 feel like a forced detour from the original plan: the whole dealing with a lot of summer tween/early teenager angst, “killing” Hopper then immediately showing us that he’s not dead, retrofitting Vecna into the story, which meant giving El the soap opera-esque “stroke” as a justification for why she could barely talk when there were other kids there; “killing” Brenner then bringing him back *again* just to kill him *again*, making El lose her powers for a minute yet get them back *again*. Making the Byers move to California just to bring them back *again*, having El learning about fashion just to regress *again*, breaking up Mileven twice just to get them back together *again*. And made Byler fall out then reconnect *again*, then Will look at Mike longingly while he gave his speech to El, a heightened version of what was supposed to happen at the Snowball dance. They even rehashed Steve’s feelings for Nancy *again*.

Trim the fat from Seasons 3 and 4, and all the main characters are in a place where they would have been a couple of episodes or maybe halfway into a hypothetical 3rd and final season: Jopper are together; Jancy are together but have the college thing to talk about, Mileven are together but there’s doubt that Mike loves her, Byler are full of romantic tension but getting interrupted, Max has just been attacked and is the one in a coma this time while Lucas suffers, Dustin just experienced the loss of a big brother figure (clearly a placeholder for Steve), Hawkins is destroyed by the Upside Down, etc.

My theory is that the Duffers were working on Season 2 when Netflix addressed Stranger Things’ sudden massive popularity, sat them down, asked them to make it five season instead at least, and they said “fine”, so they tweaked the middle in order to get back to (more of less) their original idea for the ending.

#byler #will byers #mike wheeler #stranger things #this was a reply to another post #but I made it its own post because I want people to read this

[fuckthemforthis]

Maribor recap or long rambling, some pics and trying to make sense in my head:

1. Thank you @chibi-chellist again for reaching out, it meant a lot not to be alone! Rambling about the boys is so much better in person and when it's not one-sided. I enjoyed meeting you and sharing experiences! 💕

2. Kaj pa Ester? is one of the cringiest things I've recently seen, especially dialog wise haha BUT it is also funny and kinda cute. Very teenage-y I guess, with too much lots of kissing and parties for which scenes they used some terrible modern cajke music (like use the good old soul ripping ones that don't mention Elon Musk... teenagers today smh). Anyway, I wouldn't mind it being longer and better developed in the emotional areas which you see they scratched but need deepening to give an actual sense of plot and sense to the movie. Could be due to the fact it was supposed to be a show first tho. However, I couldn't see Bojan's personality, mannerisms or gestures so in that sense I feel he did a great job acting 👏

And THE SCENE. Oh boy. Less sad and more frustrated bojerking. Putting shame aside to admit I would love to have it available on demand, especially for some ragged breathing appreciation...

3. Bought and tried Jan's fav cookies, yaay! They're really soft and don't crumble so I approve and will enjoy. I'm sure sentimental reasons are definitely a big part of why he named them as favorite and when I think about it they really suit him but there are better Slovenian cookies like almost any from Težak bakery in Zreče.

4. Half the venue were teenagers or parents with anything between 4 to 12 year olds. I was surrounded. And since I sat a few rows above the backstage entrance, kids all tried reaching for them as they were going off stage and among all the girls there was an 8 (?) year old boy who reached out and Bojan gave him a high-five... and lemme tell you I very much dislike kids but the way that boy turned and excitedly smiled melted my icy heart.

5. Third concert of theirs, third time on Jan's side. And I think Kris somehow knows & takes revenge by not singing NGVOT whenever I'm in the audience 😔

Well Krisko, princess dear, no photos of you 😝

6. Found it adorable how as ASTP was starting, Nace went to drink some water, took his bottle and clinked it against Jure's 🥂

7. Love that Maks was there again, I like the guy. At some point during the concert he was leaning on the fence above me taking pics and I missed half a song watching him work 🙈

8. As I was behind the loudspeakers, I heard Bojan's singing fine, but talking barely because it was often too distorted. What I did hear was him saying we came there for a workout to burn all the cookie calories from the last few days... and boy are you on the wrong track because I came back home with four different packs of cookies 🍪

9. Band dad Niko's daughter was with him watching the concert from next to the stage and he danced with her and it was adorable. The existence of good dads baffles my poor unloved ass...

10. We all know how in the setlist there's a connection between Padam and Demoni because Bojan even sometimes said "and when we fall they come", but I realised the chain starts with Dopamin. First you get a dopamine rush and feel like flying but soon you experience a crash because your body used up all the good stuff and then comes the falling and the demons (and then you go back to someone so the demons would go away but that someone just plays you again - if I wanna extend it to Katrina). Yes it's kind of a concert - post concert sadness - concert rinse&repeat metaphor

11. Janči had problems with his pedalboard for the first two or three songs, he and Kiki spent minutes fiddling with it trying to get it to work. Poor guy can't catch a break.

12. So yeah, the last point is based on Jan being sick, but it's actually about the main reason I like them so much - the connection, love and care they share.

I realised Jan wasn't okay during the concert so Bojan just confirmed it for me. He obviously still slayed, and he went to play at the front a lot, but there were telling moments.

A) When Bojan came to Jan at one point and rubbed his back in a very non performative way, squeezing at his shoulder and whispering something.

B) When Jan plopped down during Padam I thought "not when he usually goes down, is he okay?" and then Bojan leaned down to stroke his hair.

C) The most telling of all, when he sat down during Umazane misli. I kept looking at him, ignoring the left-front-right karaoke. He looked so tired and off, put his head in his hands and then Kiki gave him a bottle of water. When Nace turned around and noticed him like that, he smiled encouragingly and told him it's okay three times (yep they were close enough to read lips) and that's when I was 100% sure something was wrong and he was either feeling off emotionally or sick. He then got up, went to the front, played his ass off and only when he was walking back was it visable again for a moment how empty his expression was.

D) Jure coming to comfort him and cheer him up as soon as he could lift his ass away from those drums, leading him to the front where in the end Jan turned out to be the one stroking Nace's back in a "yeah it's okay" kinda way

E) As they were leaving for the final time, someone gave Jan a wrapped present he looked actually happy about and he threw back a pick but it fell where the person couldn't reach so Nace took over making sure the person gets it.

That's it. They are all utterly beautiful. And anyone who knows me, knows I use that word to describe people first and foremost on the inside. Beautiful.

#joker out #my emotions are still all over the place

[chaosisunderratedd]

Theory based on today's episode (6/4/2024):

SMG3 wasn't in today's video probably because of his 'slip up' in the Once upon an SMG4 episode. In the first episode (Mario's Mysteries) he was shown to be trapped somewhere along with Tari and Meggy. The footage of them being trapped was shown to us by Mr. Puzzles himself, before quickly switching to another channel proving that we weren't supposed to see them at all. In the second episode he says "I wish we could all escape from here" to which Mr. Puzzles (later abbreviated as PV for Puzzlevision) responds with “Whoops must’ve been a programming malfunction.” This could point in the direction of all the characters that are making appearances on the big screen are not the real characters, rather robot versions of them. That would also explain why SMG3 doesn’t appear in the episode, if he malfunctioned he would need to be fixed to ensure a ‘slip up’ like this never happens again. This point is further proved when PV says “We can’t have that” and waves what I assume to be the magic wand of the fairy godmother, aka a stick with a remote stuck to it. The wave of the wand causes all of the character’s eyes to turn to static, like TV static. As far as I know, humans, meme guardians nor any other human/humanoid character in the SMG4 universe can do that. It isn’t a human trait at all, it’s a robot trait. 

Maybe SMG3 is out of commission because PV fears that SMG3 could be the only one to stop him. And that would make sense. So far all main characters have had their own arc of sorts. SMG4 with ‘It’s Gotta Be Perfect’, Meggy (and Tari?) with Western Spaghetti and Mario with WOTFI 2023. The only one left is SMG3. And since SMG3 had similar wishes in the youtube arc, wanting to take over SMG4’s channel and all, PV fears that SMG3 would know of a way to stop him. Not even all of the characters in the SMG4 universe have to be trapped in an undisclosed location, that we saw only once (in Mario’s Mysteries) they could have been led to believe that SMG4 is directing all of this, and nothing big is happening. It could be just the main cast. Mario, Meggy, Tari, SMG4 and SMG3. They would have the most chance and plot armour to stop PV. 

During today’s episode (Scooby Mario, Where’d You Go!) Luigi and Mario break into a room that’s not supposed to have been shown (timestamp 8:03). In that room they see multiple TVs showing multiple scenes from the episodes that have already been aired and scenes that are happening in the current episode, like security camera footage. Scenes shown in particular are (in order): The gang running away from Luigi.exe, the scene where SMG4 shows Luigi how to get colours from Mario’s Mysteries (specifically the colour red), the scene of SMG3 and Luigi dancing from Once Upon an SMG4… and a giant spinning wheel, similar to the ones seen on game shows, with members of the main cast stuck to it. Basically, all the episodes that have been aired and what we could assume to be a shot/scene from the next episode. We’re three episodes in so far and we potentially know what is going to be in the next episode. That leaves the last episode. Will it be a movie like IGBP, WS or WOTFI? I doubt it. It could be the episode where SMG3 re-appears, if he won’t already be in the fourth episode. The three episodes we’ve gotten so far have been between 10 and 15 minutes long, so the last episode might leave us with a cliffhanger. A cliffhanger which could lead us into the next SMG4 movie. 

It is clear that PV wants to control the show and use the characters as puppets. He was the one that offered the cursed keyboard to SMG4, causing the IGBP incident, he’s the one who led them to the showgrounds, he gave One shot Wren the power to control the simulation from WS, he caused WOTFI ‘23. Intricately leading them to the moment he would be able to take over their minds, bodies, possibly create robot versions of them? It would be a shame for PV to let it all go to waste right? 

I could also draw a few parallels to other arcs. The Anime arc for example, Francis was bullied as a kid for his interest in anime, maybe PV was bullied in his childhood and something caused him to want his own show. Maybe he didn’t get enough attention as a child, hence why he’d seek out validation by saying “What did you think of today’s episode?” at the end of every video and asking us to rate him/the shows at puzzlevision.tv. It also seems he doesn’t like getting bad reviews, he strives for perfection. We could call him a perfectionist because of him being unhappy after our ratings of the episodes. Both episodes 1 and 2 have been rated a 3.5 which apparently doesn’t meet his expectations. We can also see that he is obviously copying already successful shows such as educational shows for kids, fairy tales, Scooby-Doo and the clip of what seems to be a gameshow. I could say something about Genesis and Revelations too, where Niles brainwashed/manipulated Axol, SMG0 and Melony and where he brainwashed multiple Mario recolours into being brainless zombies. Niles wanted to create a world for himself and SMG0, PV wants to create a successful show. And maybe he brainwashed the SMG4 crew into submission. After seeing what happened to SMG4 and Mario in Mario’s Mysteries, this explanation makes sense. When TV time begins, Mario and SMG4 sit down to watch TV and upon seeing the channel switch to the footage of Tari, Meggy and SMG3 being in a dark room their smiles start to fade. PV then hits the TV and the channel switches to footage of the three dancing, PV apologises for showing ‘a show for adults’ and plays the bee movie with bonus features, to which SMG4 and Mario respond with excitement, completely forgetting about seeing their friends trapped in some dark room. I’ll mention the YouTube arc once again and say, SMG3 also wanted to take over SMG4’s channel and completely kick out the original crew. PV obviously doesn’t want to do that, since he’s keeping the entire crew in the show and using them to create what he sees fit.

After a whole bunch of brainrot, 1.1K words and horrifying wrist pain, I hope you enjoy reading and I'm sorry if it doesn't make any sense (english isn't my first language-)

happy reading ig

#smg4 #smg4 puzzlevision #smg3 #smg4 smg3 #smg3 smg4 #smg4 meggy #meggy spletzer #smg4 tari #tv adware #mr. puzzles #smg4 mario #smg4 mr puzzles #smg4 brainrot

[trutrustories]

Heart of the TVA (my beloved)

(spoilers!)

HOLY SHIT!

Ok. Well this episode was something else. Absolutely brilliant.

I have to say that, so far, I´m realy loving season 2.  

First two episodes of first season were my favourite, but first two episodes of this season are amazing as well and have even more of that beautiful chemistry between Loki and Mobius. But on top of that there is just much more softness and care in their bickering.

After that I was scared of episode three, expecting something similar to Lamentis. And yeah. It´s kind of similar in the sense we are most of the time out of TVA. But instead of being on exploding moon with Loki and Sylvie we are on a cute time travel  adventure in a past and maybe it´s just me, but it had that Doctor Who vibe, cozy atmosfere and lot of Lokius content so hell yeah, I say! I´ll take it over Lamentis every fucking time.

And today? I was (once again) afraid we get something similar to episode 4 of s1. I was NOT expecting to be sitting in a chair and forgetting to breathe of uneasiness what will happen next.

And that creepy moment where Dox and all those other people died and Brad having PTSD from that exact form of tortue not being able to even MOVE, Miss Minutes smirk… that scene had me completly stunned.

And then pure terror in B-15 face? Seriously I was not expecting to be THAT invested in this plot line. I was terrified, I felt bad for them all.

Actually I was scared for ALL the characters (except Ravonna and Miss Minutes) the whole fucking time to the point I forget to drink my morning coffee! xD

The horror vibe, and all that fucking suspense?!!

The philosophical conflict beetween Loki and Sylvie and whole moral dilema?!!

The music?!

The funny and cute moments that were effortlessly woven in ?

And like a cherry on top: the relationship drama of it all?!!

Holly shit, what and epic journey! It went by so fast!

Also THIS SHOT?????

Heart of the TVA infdeed 💖🥹

With such a great start I am litteraly PRAYING right now for last two episodes to keep this level of awesome. There was evidently lot of work and love poured into it. (more then anything Marvel gave us in a long time) and I don´t want this season to end up being bad.  I hope writers know what they are doing.

Anyway, no idea how I´ll survive whole week till ep 5.

Two hours latter and I still haven't recovered.

10/10.

My new favourite Loki episode.

(I´m sorry for messy text and bad english, but I really needed to talk about it.)

#loki spoilers #loki #lokius #marvel #mcu #loki and mobius #mobius m mobius #loki season 2

[black-moon-bunny]

The first signals.

Sister y/n tries to compose herself after her "experience" with the ghouls, but her mind doesn't let her at ease, a strange dream haunts her. Cirrus gets worried after picking some signs from the sister and goes to talk with Papa Secondo. Swiss decided to take care of Sister y/n and took matters on his own hands.

Chapter one. Chapter two. Chapter three. Chapter Four.

Pairing: Swiss x F!Reader, Dewdrop x F!Reader. Mentions of Aether x Dewdrop, Mountain x Rain.

Warnings: A lot of plot. Mentions of death and rebirth. Mentions and a slight scene with Lucifer himself (yeah the big boss is involved in this ) Smut. Knotting , some Dom and Sub dynamics. Reader is knoted by Swiss. Omegaverse terminology (rut , knot, scent, marking etc ) +18, NSFW , Minors DNI.

All the pictures were taken from the internet/Pinterest so credits to their respective creators, I just edited them.

A.N: Hey! Sorry for being away again, I'm struggling a bit with some things but nothing serious. Here's the fourth chapter of this story. I wanted to give special thanks to @hauntedboobees who helped me getting out of the writers block and had been an amazing company this last week. This is for you sweetheart! 💕 And for all the people that supports this fanfic ✨ Thank you so much for reading ✨

She woke up somewhere close to the Church headquarters, Swiss still dozed on her shoulder and she could hear Dew’s voice from the front of the bus. She didn't even remember getting fully dressed but she was with her dress and stockings. She let out a small whimper trying to move. Her body felt sore and a bit sticky.

— Sister? Are you up? — The soft voice of the ghoulette was soothing in her ears as she felt the last waves of sleep get off of her body — ...We have like ten minutes left to arrive...— Cirrus handed her a bottle of water — Sorry if I step a bit further but I dressed you up while you were sleeping... The shirt that Swiss gave you stinks...

As Cirrus seated close to her, she tried to look to the front of the bus: Mountain and Rain were having an UNO match with Cumulus and Sunshine, Aether was snoring in the middle.

— Don't worry... I'm pretty sure that everyone knew and listened to what happened...— She blushed, taking a sip from the bottle — I'm so sorry for... all of this...

— Oh, don't be. Nothing to be ashamed of, really... Especially with that marvelous body of yours, sister. I'm a bit jealous of Swiss and Dewdrop...— She smiled looking up and down her body with a smirk — If you ever get bored of them, Sunshine and I would be more than happy to welcome you in our bed...

— Oh Cirrus... Stop... I'm red again! —She laughed, Swiss tugged her closer to him.

— Fuck off Cloudy, she is mine... and maybe Dew’s ...— He opened his eyes slowly and kissed her cheek — Did you rest some, y/n?...

— I'm not yours, Swiss...— She laughed and gave him a peck on the lips— And don't be mean with Cirrus.

— Thank you for defending me, y/n. Did you hear that? She is free... Maybe you could be from all of us!

— You guys are nuts...— She laughed again and saw Dewdrop looking from the front of the bus at her, he had a worried expression that she couldn't understand. — But maybe I could think about it....

—Mnn... mine ...— Swiss hugged her tighter to his chest — But maybe... you could think about it...

Dew walked towards her and kissed her forehead, he indeed was worried. How could it be? How she could become a Ghoul like them... She was so young and full of life... He worried about how she was going to adapt to the changes...

— Are you okay, Dew? You look worried...

— Oh... No, Sweets, I'm just tired...— He brushed a strand of hair between her ear and smiled at her as if nothing was bothering him. — So... you are going to stay with us tonight?— He sat next to Cirrus and laid on her legs as she brushed his hair with her fingers.

— Yes... If that's okay with you all...

— It is, you can come everytime you want to our den...— Cirrus kept brushing Dew's hair— And if you want, you can sleep with us...— She winked and laughed a bit at her reaction.

— Oh no, today she is going to sleep with me and Swiss... Right, Sweets…?

— Yes Dew...— The bus stopped suddenly with a loud sound. The driver came out fuming. — What's going on?

— We got a flat tire...— Mountain replied looking through the window. They were close to the abbey but not enough to walk their way to the church. Especially the ghouls; they could easily walk their way to the church, but this late at night their human glare fades a lot easier, her nocturnal primal instincts are stronger. The earth ghoul turned around to look at them, to look at her.— Did you sleep well, Sister? If you need something more comfortable, Rain is super soft to sleep on... and we can cuddle you without suffocating you like those two...— He smiled at Dew’s annoyed expression.

— Yeah but you like when I suffocate you so don't be so cocky, Mounty ...— Dew replied and the ghoul turned red. Rain just laughed his ass off. Aether woke up grumpy and went down the bus to help change the tire, but came back even more grumpy.

— We don't have the spare... Someone took it off last ritual to go down a hill...— He looked at Rain and Dewdrop— You two really forgot to put it back!? Ah... I'm going to call Papa and sort this out... Oh, sorry Sister y/n, we are going to take a bit longer...

— Don't worry, big guy... Do you want me to help with anything?

— I could think about a couple of things but...— He licked his fangs in an almost seductive manner — Swiss will kill me if I take you away tonight...

— Oh, come on... You are all going to hit on me?

— Yes...— All of them replied at the same time. She got red, bursting out laughing. It was nonsense. Two days ago she didn't even knew them and now they were all trying to get in her panties? Unbelievable...

— You pervs...— She got up slowly and walked towards Aether grabbing his tie — Let's go big boy, call our Papa and I will help you to change the tire...

— At your orders, Sister...— He smiled, letting himself be dragged outside the bus. Cirrus looked at Swiss and Dewdrop. It was her chance to talk with them now that she was outside. She moved Dew from her lap and looked at them with a serious and concerned expression but keeping her strong character, the softness and elegance of the air bloodline.

— I need to talk with you about something important... It's about y/n actually...— She saw the confused expression of Swiss, but couldn't point out the feeling that Dewdrop eyes expressed.

—What is it? That she is going to become a ghoul like us? No... like Rain, a reborn...— Dew replied a bit harshly.

— Who told you…? You were listening…?

— Wait, what!? She…!?— Swiss looked in disbelief. It couldn't be... but that could explain a lot actually.

— Yes Swiss... It's a long story, can you two hear me out…?—She explained all to them and looked right at Dew — You cannot tell her, that's our boss job... Promise me that, Dew...

—Why? She has the right to know, it's her life that we are talking about! What about that? What about the fact that she is going to die to be reborn?! —The tip of his horns turned a bit red and a soft red glow creeped in his eyes.

— Lower your fucking voice, Dewdrop...— Her eyes turned completely icy blue. She took a deep breath and returned to her relaxed expression.— ... It is but you know what the shock could do to her? She will probably leave the church, she could hurt herself; she could do a lot of messed up things or never speak to us again. We are going to scare her with the truth if we just go and say that to her... Papa is going to talk with her about it. They have been friends for a long time, he is the best to do this for now... And after all... He is Papa now.

— ...She will hate us if... if she doesn't want to be one of us and her destiny obliges her...— Swiss mumbled a bit worried. He had just found her, he didn't want to lose her so soon.

— We are going to do anything that we can to ensure that she has a decent and safe transition... I promise, but please, none of you can say the truth to her for now...

— So when she burned her hand....—Dew replied — The door was...

— Marking her. The changes are supposed to start in a few months... Copia intends to talk with her about it soon. We have a week starting from next week and he wants to reveal it to her by that time... Can you wait for the week, Dew, please...

— I will do my best... But if she doesn't know by the end of this month, I'm going to tell her. You are all warned.

The door opened again and she went up with Aether, a bit blushed and breathy. She helped him to move the big tire away as he lifted the bus, and she got tired quickly; her body was still wasted from the encounter with Swiss and Dew.

—Well, Copia should be here in a couple of minutes. And you two should take care of her, she almost faints helping me...— He laughed and walked her to the seat near Swiss and Dewdrop.

— I'm... tired...—She laughed a bit, feeling her legs tingle a bit for exhaustion.

After some time, they heard the motor of Copia's vehicle. They all went down to help change the tire. She walked towards him to greet him again.

— Ah Sister, you are awake. How do you feel…?

— How did you know…?—She blushed a bit.

—I came to talk with the ghouls before leaving and I saw you sleeping with Swiss and Dewdrop...— He smiled looking at her glowing face — You seemed so relaxed and at ease that I couldn't wake you up...

— Oh, Papa...— She laughed looking at his hands, she never had seen him without the gloves. His hands were roughed up and dirty. — You went looking for the tire yourself?

— Oh yeah... It was at the little house in the garden... And I didn't want to bother the sisters who are up at this hour...

— Our always handy and sweet Cardinal... Pardón, Papa, our Papa....

— I'm still the same bella, Copia for you. It doesn't matter... not when we are alone or with the ghouls. But thank you for the respect...

— You are going to be a great Papa... I'm glad that we can still be friends… Copia.— She looked at the ghouls playing with the pinch tire and they both laughed. She felt so at ease... Besides the copious amounts of dopamine rushing through her bloodstream, the whole situation felt dreamy.

— You believe that?... I'm still having some doubts, Cara… It's… How is the word... Huh... I have to fill great shoes...

—It’s big shoes...— They both laughed a bit of the tension off.— Why? You are a great man, you have passion in your blood, your speeches are amazing and moving; your presence on the stage for Devil's sake... Why fill some other shoes…? Why not create your own...?

—... I'm glad that you believe in me with such fervor but I'm still worried about some aspects of the role... Being in charge is complicated, you have to be there for the congregation, si? You need to step up in conversations and give your opinion... And the old man still behaves somewhat... hostile?... I don't want to let anyone down...

— You will not... You could never let me down at least.

He felt how his muscles tensed listening to that. If she only knew all of the things that were said and thought about her in the last year... He felt guilty. She trusted him and still, he could not tell her the truth... At least not for now, but how could he find the perfect moment? How to say in a smooth way that she was going to die and be reborn in a ghoul during a stupid clergy ceremony? How could he say to her that she has been chosen to be a new ghoul under his papacy...?

— Hey, are you okay... Copia?— She watched as the expression in his face became more somber.

— Y/n, I... I want you to know that no matter what happens in the future, you can always reach for me and I will be there for you...

—... Why the sudden statement? Are you okay? I mean, I know that this is a special moment but you seem sad... It's not time to be sad, Papa. You need to celebrate your new "job" — She looked him right in the eyes with a subtle caring expression—... And I know, you are pretty much my best friend, I will always reach for you… Now cheer up!

— Hey! Papa! Sister, we are ready! Papa, are you coming to the den later? We want to celebrate...—Aether walked towards them. He saw how Copia was a bit tense, he also wanted to help.

— Oh no, I'm an old man and eh... I have to make sure that… the little guys are in bed and fed... Have fun but I want you tomorrow at eight for morning mass.

— Yes papa...

— And you, Sister... Take care and have a good night...— He kissed her forehead and felt a strong scent, she smelled like a pomegranate... That was new.— And rest, please... Don't let them keep you up all night.

After saying the proper goodnights, everyone went back to the bus and back on the road. As soon as they were on the church grounds, she felt a strange feeling of being watched from above. She looked to the left tower and saw the bright white eyes. She could feel shivers. That was not Terzo, not Primo... Secondo was watching her, a part of her felt that she was already in problems for this but she never expected that the problems were going to come from Papa Secondo. She tried to look down and keep walking, her body still felt a bit sore from the rough treatment, but she couldn't complain about anything, she wanted all of it. As she approached the hide entrance to the ghouls den, something inside her stirred; there was this pressure in the back of her head that was becoming a little bit annoying and she felt a bit lightheaded, dizzy even.

She could hear the ghouls making jokes about how Copia seemed so confident on stage but then he couldn't even ask for a coffee without stuttering some words while walking to the den. Swiss approached her from behind and hugged her tightly against his chest.

— Mnn... I'm hungry, Sweets... Is it okay if I eat you as soon as we get to the den…? — He buried his face in the crock of her neck but her scent was off, she smelled a bit more acidic but not sweet. — Are you okay…?

— Swiss... —She felt the red crippling to her cheeks — I'm okay but I'm hungry in the "I want to eat food" way... Can we eat something first?— She felt a low pitch in her ears, her vision was somewhat blurry. She just blamed it on her hunger and exhaustion.

— Don't worry about it. Mountain left dinner ready for us before we left... Are you really okay…? Y/n?

— I'm... a bit dizzy. Maybe it's because I'm hungry or something like that...— As they made their way closer to the main gate to the den, the dizziness got stronger. Swiss looked at her worried; she was turning pale as they got near the entrance, even her lips seemed purple. When they were almost inside the den, he saw how her body collapsed. He took her in his arms and alerted the rest of the ghouls who came worried to help her. They let her rest on the couch. Her skin seemed almost transparent.

— This... Could this be related to the ritual? ...I mean, the ghoul turning thing...

— Could be. Secondo told us that we still had some time but... her body is already failing— Mountain replied. His always calm demeanor seemed off, he was worried. If they didn't have that much time... How were they going to deal with it? How will she deal with it…?

— ...It's not our fault, isn't it?— Dewdrop sat next to her and got closer to his chest. Her heart was still beating, she was breathing slowly. But her skin didn't have any color...

—...Maybe we just speed the process...— Cirrus intervened. She looked at Mountain and told him to heat the food and prepare some hot beverage for her. — I will talk to Copia. Maybe we could find something in the books about the process and how much time she has...

—I’m going to take her to my room... Dewdrop, can you stay with her? She needs something warm.

—I’m on it— They left her slowly on Swiss’ bed and Dewdrop laid down next to her, hugging her carefully, heating her body with his own heat. Swiss looked at them with mixed feelings. He was excited to have a new member in the den but he never saw the process of a reborn. When they met Rain, he had already been converted years ago so they never saw directly to the process. And he was worried that she would hate them after knowing the truth and their involvement in the process.

As the body heat that radiated from Dewdrop slowly brought back her color, her consciousness was still gone. She felt trapped inside of a dream.

In her dream she was standing in front of a mirror, but the reflection seemed off. She was dressed completely in black and even had a black veil over her face. She tried to lift the veil but something stopped her. Then a deep voice began to talk to her.

— Are you sure that you want to see under the veil? Are you afraid of the truth?

— Who are you? ...Why am I here?

— I'm the one you worship... The one that put you in this path, Sister.

—...You are our Dark Lord? Show yourself! I... I want to see you...

— I don't think you want to, sweet Sister... I don't think that you could even phantom my sight in your brain, you could pass away just by looking at me... Do you know why I'm here?

—…I don't know what I'm doing here. I don't know about you either...

— You are here because your soul is looking for the truth... If you are brave enough, lift your veil...

— Why did you bring me here, Dark one…

— Because soon enough you will be mine. Under my wing you will become even more than what you already are... Go on, Sister, lift that veil... Discover your truth...

She was nervous. The whole room was pitch dark besides the mirror in front of her. She saw the pair of glowing red and orange eyes turning blue and then red again like they were flicking as they watched her getting closer to the mirror. She didn't dare to look too close to the creature that was watching her, but she wanted to know what was under her veil and why she couldn't see herself clearly in the reflection of the mirror.

As she was about to lift the veil she saw her hands; they were slimmer and the tip of her fingers were black with burgundy nails that looked a lot like claws. She stopped for a moment as she took a deep breath. She lifted the veil and saw her face, the grayish tone that faded into burgundy right on her temples. Beneath the burgundy curved horns, her lips were black and she had fangs... She knew it was her reflection but she couldn't match the look in the mirror with her own body. That was the body of a ghoul. She let out a scream when she realized that it was her in a ghoul form...

— What does this mean?...Why do I look like that?!

— You will soon know your truth... Now go, they are waiting for you...

She wanted to ask more questions but she felt like a fire blaze pushing her away from the mirror and the eyes that scorched her soul.

She woke up feeling suffocated; she was gasping for air and felt a scream trapped in her throat. She was agitated and disoriented, her eyes were looking for something in the dark to hold on and felt warm tears fell down her face and she didn't even understand why she was crying. Dewdrop woke up from his nap beside her and tried to calm her down.

— Sister... Sister, calm down, it's me. It's me, Dewdrop… Hey...

—...Dewdrop, I... I just had a nightmare... I'm... I'm so sorry...

— It's okay, don't worry. You are here in Swiss’ room. You blacked out from exhaustion and uh… I dozed off, maybe you had a nightmare because I was too hot near you... Did I burn you?

—No, no...— She looked at her hands, she still felt the claws at the tip of her fingers.—... Dew, do you think that... nightmares can bring visions?

— Huh? Why? What did you dream of?

— It's nothing serious, just... I heard the voice of Satan in my dreams and I can swear that I saw his eyes...

— ...You dreamed with our boss? I mean, the boss of bosses... Damn, that's cool... I don't even remember how he looked like...

— He is like... your dad? I mean, the father of the ghouls or something?

— Eh... well, no, that would make us all related and... Iugh...—They both laughed as she relaxed with the conversation. Dew’s hands were comforting her sore muscles with soft strokes. They felt warm and cozy up and down her back and shoulders as she let herself rest with her back against the chest of the ghoul. — We are not directly related to him... Well, to them. There's more than one boss for us, he just stands higher... To not make this so long, basically we are born from demons, we have a "family" but most of the time we are on our own, and then you have the reborn ghouls, humans that... well, become ghouls after a special ritual but… it’s not that common.

— So you are not related to each other… And how did you ended up here?

— Well, we were summoned here a long time ago except Swiss, Rain and Sunshine. Swiss just came here because his brother gave his position to him… And no, Sweets, we are not related. We are ghouls, not monsters. We do not fuck with our family.

— Swiss has a brother? —She turned around to look at him, she was a bit surprised —

— Yeah but they don't get along too well... Omega is much of an asshole and he is always around Terzo so we never see him that much. Rain was brought by Mist, one of the ghoulettes from Terzo's era and Sunshine was brought here because Ifrit, her older brother, recommended her... Do you feel better?

— I do... Woah, there's a lot that I need to know about you guys...—She joked pinching Dew's cheek — I'm hungry...

Dew was trying his hardest. He wanted to tell her the truth. He wanted to tell her that everything was going to be ok and that they were going to help her, but Cirrus’ words hammered in his head. The last thing he wanted was to scare her away from them and he knew that Swiss would never forgive him if he did anything that could hurt her. He could understand why; she was magnetic to them, she was full of energy, she was caring and weird like them. She was going to fit so well with them as a ghoul... But he was scared that she would hate her life, losing everything that she already knew to change into an eternal life as a ghoul.

— Oh yeah, let me tell Swiss you are up, ok?

—Thanks....—She still felt a bit nervous, her dream felt too real. She could feel in her head where the horns were supposed to be.

She still felt the scorching stare in her soul. Was it a premonition? Was it a foreshadowing of something that was going to come?

As she tried to compose herself and stand up from bed, Swiss went into the room. Before she could even talk to him, he was lifting her in his arms.

— Don’t you dare, you need to rest. I think that we, eh... Well, maybe we overdid it… I sometimes forget that you are human, you know?

— Swiss, I can walk, you are exaggerating! And tomorrow I have to work so you can not baby me around...

—Who said so?—He nuzzled her hair as he carried to the living room. Aether was sleeping on the couch while Rain and Mountain were cuddling on the floor watching a movie. Dew was heating her some food. Cirrus was nowhere to be found and Sunshine and Cumulus were already sleeping.

— I say so! Come on, let me sit at least...— She felt more at ease with everyone there. She felt protected around them. As Swiss let her down in the seat, Dew puts her a plate of mashed potatoes with herbs and a steak.— Oh Mountain, this looks delicious... Thank you.

— You are welcome, Sister… If you excuse me, Rain it's already falling asleep. Have a good night, and you two, let her rest.— He took the water ghoul in his arms and left for their room.

— Do you feel better? — Dew turned off the TV and moved Aether to wake him up; the quintessence ghoul just grabbed him and hugged him against his chest. — Aeth, come on you big asshole, let go, you are crushing me...

— Mnhg... Firework, be quiet, I'm sleepy... and cold, let me… just...— He snored again. Dew just gave up and turned around letting the big ghoul spoon him.

— I feel better, don't worry...—She and Swiss laughed at Dew and Aether. As they mingled in the living room, Cirrus was in Secondo's chamber talking with him.

She was concerned about the future changes that the sister could face and if their interaction with her could speed the process or affect it in some way.

—I’m so sorry Papa for bothering you this late, but I think that you have the answers to my questions.

— Is it regarding the new ghoulette? Sister y/n?... I saw you together. I have to guess that one of the ghouls managed to get under her skin? Who was it? Dewdrop?... No, Swiss. Primo told me something about finding them alone in the library. At least we kept her a whole year away from the den... If you are here, I'm going to guess that something happened to her. Cirrus please, tell me, what happened…?—He pointed to a small coffee table with a bottle of wine. She took a seat and served him a glass.

— She burned her hand with one of the gates of the den and two marks appeared on her fingertips: a moon and a triangle and then, she blacked out and her skin turned almost translucent.

— Well, she has been already marked by Our Lord, he already picked her element... Her name will come to her in her dreams...

— So we had something to do with it? …Us being closer?

— I would like to say that you don't, just to keep you calm. But I'm not going to sugarcoat this, you are infecting your energy and essence on her and by this, you are accelerating the process. We thought about a year…? Well, six months at best.

— But... If we cut the communication...

— I knew that you would say something like that, tell me... She had sex with one of you?

— ... Swiss and Dewdrop.

— Try to stop them from reaching her, she already burned her scent in their brains. Their bodies once in rut are going to crave for her. And the process once started, little cloud, it cannot be changed or stopped. Tomorrow morning I will call Copia, we are going to have a meeting to talk about her.

—… I'm worried, if she doesn't want this life...

— Don't worry about that... She will be fine. This is a big thing for the church too, Cirrus. It's our first reborn, the sign of a new era for this church... It's no coincidence that we are presented with a new Papa at this time. Trust in Our Lord, Cirrus... Now, let's make a toast for our new ghoulette and the beginning of a new era.

After the toast, she said her goodbyes and returned to the den. She felt a weight in her shoulders; she didn't want to hurt her in any way and she knew that the ritual could be a lot for her to process. She only hoped for Copia and Secondo to help her and lead her way, and to tell her the truth as soon as possible.

In the den, Swiss guided her again to his room. With soft movements he began to undress her, he kneeled in front of her, who was seated on the bed, to take her stockings but as he removed the fabric he got lost in her legs. Caressing the exposed skin and giving soft kisses, she felt how he was restraining himself from getting too excited, how he was fighting the need to spread her legs open and feast on her. The truth was that she was hoping for a little more of the ghoul. She wanted to feel him over her, pressing her body against the mattress, making her moan and crumble underneath his weight. Only thinking about that made her legs press together to soothe some of the ache. He noticed it and her scent began to flow freely around his room. He felt relief at the sweet smell, back to normal, but at the same time he doubted. He didn't want to hurt her or make her collapse like before.

— Are you sure? You almost died before...— He traced a line from her ankles to her inner thigh with one of his claws, slowly, seductively. — I don't want to hurt you, Sweets...

—... Swiss, just...one more time... Don't you want to eat me…? Am I not tasty…?—She felt a bit ashamed but after their spectacle in the bus and hallway, she couldn't deny her true filthy nature in front of him anymore. And she knew it was a dirty trick, but the way in which the face of the ghoul transformed into pure lust and hunger solved all her doubts about her attitude.

— Oh y/n... If you are able to walk tomorrow, you should be thankful... I’m going to destroy you, little minx... Open your legs for me Sister, let me see my sweet treat...

She spread her legs and removed the underwear that she was wearing, the one that they stole from Cumulus after having sex on the bus. Swiss took it and put it in her mouth. She tried to protest but the stare of the ghoul made her quiet.

— You will need this, we can be too loud. The rest is sleeping…— He took a look at her wet sex, her labia was completely coated in her slick. She shimmered under the soft orange light of his room. He opened her labia with his fingers. — Look at that, so wet for me already... You are leaking, sister...— His eyes were glowing like ambers, his mouth watered at the sight. — You are a complete slut, huh? Already so wet... and look at that, you still have my cum inside you...—He slided one of his fingers inside of her with ease, she felt boiling inside. He licked his fangs before eating her out. His tongue pressed flat on top of her clit, licking softly, enjoying her flavor. He sucked the bud, pressing from time to time with his tongue while his fingers moved inside of her. She felt in a cloud, completely lightheaded. Her moans were muffled by the panties in her mouth, her hips moved back and forth looking for more contact with the ghoul. She looked at his horns, the texture seemed inviting for his hands; the black fading to gold in the tip, the armored texture, the shape that slightly curved upwards at the end. She couldn't help it. She grabbed the horns and pulled softly towards her, holding them to press him further into her, riding his face.

The ghoul moaned at the touch, his horns were sensitive. Her hands were so soft and, at the same time, handled him with a bit of strength. His already hard dick leaking huge amounts of precum. He used her help holding him in place to use his hands to relieve some tension, taking his pants and underwear off. He began to pump his hard erection, thrusting his hips into his hand. His tail moved around her legs, giving soft strokes to them. Her muffled moans were becoming louder, she was about to climax just by riding his face. The skilled ghoul's tongue was making wonders between her legs. How it entered his hole and moved inside her while his nose was pressed against her clit, how he devoured her trying to get more and more of her taste in his mouth. He wanted to make her cum over and over, mark her as his even if it lasted only a couple of days. Scent her so strong that no one would even dare to look at her without feeling his presence.

She kept holding his horns or pulling his hair between her fingers. The sounds that they both made were obscene, were pure lust and filth. He was sure that all of the den could hear them, but he didn't care that much. Even with the panties in her mouth she could be heard in the hallway.

— Mngh... Swiss pl-please, just... Ah... right there…

— Mnhpf...— His groans were muffled as she rode his face looking for her climax. Before she could even prepare herself for the feeling, it exploded -the coil bursted inside of her- and she let it out. Swiss kept his face pressed against her as he felt the squirt on his mouth. He pulled out slowly as her hands fell to her sides and left his horns.

— Ah, that... Swiss...

— Look at the mess you made...— He climbed on top of her, pinning her hands above her head with one of his hands. Looking at her body with that glow and fire in his eyes. Licking his fangs and the droplets that fell from his upper lip.— ... Look at that face... Do you want more? I'm sure you do...— He took his shirt off and the panties out of her mouth. She drooled at the sight, she never saw him fully naked. His chest was sweaty, almost shining with a coat of sweat, his arms were toned and with the veins that were marked down to his hands, where the gray of his body fade to black. She wanted to bite his pectorals, his neck, his collarbones, every piece of skin she could reach. She noticed that he had a couple of tattoos but in the dim light of the room she couldn't distinguish them clearly.

— Swiss...— She tried to let her hands free to touch him but he just gave her a sly smirk.

— Oh no... no touching until I told you so...— He rubbed the tip of his dick over her clit a couple of times, earning sweet needy moans from her. She moved her hips looking for more friction. — So eager... Who would have thought that you were so dirty, Sister y/n... I want to hear you say it...

— S-Swiss... no... Don't... tease...

— Oh, come on... Say it, say what you want Sister...

— Mngh... please, just fuck me please…!

—See? It was not that hard... Say it again— He lined the tip of his dick with her entrance, pushing slightly. — Come on...

— Mngh... Swiss, please!... Fuck me already, you... Ah! Fucking tease...

— As you wish, little brat. —He pushed into her with ease: in one push he was already all the way into her. She left out a breathy moan at the intrusion. The air that left her lungs felt hot, like exhaling fire. The air in the whole room felt thick with the primal sounds, the wet slapping, the moans. Her hands were trying to escape from his grip, she desperately wanted to touch him; to feel his hot body with her hands, pulling him closer to her. But his grip was strong. He smirked again while he thrusted into her. The cadenced movement was making her lose every grip that she had in reality, her mind was fogged with pleasure. She felt how his dick reached every spot inside her, how her walls were squeezing the living hell out of him, who was a grunting and gasping mess.

— Mngh… Swiss, I want to... Mgnh... I need to touch...

— Ah! You want to touch me? Huh?— he leaned closer to her ear, biting her earlobe and kissing his neck while he talked — And what if I don't let you?

— Mnhg... Don't be... Ah! Fucking hell... Swiss... Mnhg... don’t be an asshole...— She returned the smirk to him-. If he wanted her to be bratty, she was going to… Or at least she was going to try her best while the pleasure made her brain a mush.

— Mngh... You fucking brat...— His thrust became deeper, a steady pace but deeper than before. He felt her cervix stopping him and everytime he thrusted, he felt how her insides twitched, sucking him into her again.— No touching until you beg for it... How about that? You, slut...— Her tits bouncing seemed so inviting. He leaned as he thrusted closer to her chest and began to bite and pull her nipples in his mouth, flickering the sensitive buds with his tongue and sucking the skin that was exposed to him; his fangs traced the skin slowly, he didn't want to hurt her or be too rough to draw blood.

— Mgnh! Ah... Swiss, I'm… Imma... Ah!... Fucking ghoul, please! I want to touch you!

—Mmgh... Not enough... Beg for me...—He used his free hand to grab her face, making her look directly at him as he thrusted over and over.— I want to hear you... Beg for me, you lascivious whore...

—Mngh... Fuck you...— She moaned at the slap of the ghoul’s tail at her clit — Mngh... Ah!... Mngh... Swiss! I'm... I'm... Fuck, I need to touch you! I need you!

The multi ghoul moaned at the sound of her begging. He let her hands go and lifted her. He was standing, grabbing her by her hips as she caged him between her legs. Her arms went over his shoulders hugging him closer to her as she thrusted; gravity was making wonders to the position in which they were, pulling her down with strength everytime the ghoul pushed up with his thrusts. He could feel her tight insides squeezing him so well, the velvety walls inside her gushing and sucking him in every time he pulled out. The room was filled by moans from both of them, the way the slapping wet sound made a small echo in the room, the heavy breathing of the ghoul and the whimpers of the already dumbfucked sister.

Her nails digging in the ghoul’s skin, tracing his perfect back as she tried to get a slight grip into reality, her whole word was being blown away at this moment. She felt so full of pleasure, so full by the thick cock of the multi ghoul. In her mind there was nothing more than Swiss and his scent, she wanted to stay there forever. Swiss moaned at the feel of her nails, he looked at her to find no thought in that face beside a fucked out expression, she had a string of saliva running down her lips to her chin, her hair was a mess, her eyes seemed lost and full of lust and desire. He felt that proudness of being the one making her look like that, the nice sister that only a couple of days ago got red by only looking at him, the nice sister that looked so nice and composed behind that desk now was being fucked until dumb by him. His claws digged in her hips as he felt his own climax closer to him.

—Kiss me...— She looks at him with that fucked out expression and then he took his time kissing from his neck to her chin and then kissed her lips. She really tasted like tangerines or pomegranates. The kiss was sloppy, intense and full of passion. They both devoured each other over and over again, his tongue licking her lips after they finished the kiss. She kissed him again and again and again. Her hands pressed on his back digging her nails with strength, she bit his lip and pulled a bit looking at him and his lustful expression. He loved making a mess of her, bringing out her lustful self.

—Such a naughty girl... Mngh, fuck, I'm close... You want me to fill you, huh?... Mngh, ah! Keep squeezing me like that... fuck, you feel so good, my pretty girl...

She knew that the thing that she was going to ask for was risky, but she felt the urge to be knotted by him. She wanted him to go feral in her, even if tomorrow she could barely walk to her room.

— Knot me... I want to be filled to the brim by you...

He never thought that she knew about that special "ability" that they had. He never, in a million years, could have phantom the dirty request made by the "shy" sister. His body reacted immediately, the knot at the base of his full erected cock appeared. It had the same fade from black to gold that his horns. His horns grew a bit, his skin was not only gray anymore, it had some gold accents, almost like reptile scales. His pupils were dilated to a full, his fangs grew to stick out a bit from his mouth and his claws grew as well. Fully primal, almost animal. His voice even sounded like a growl.

— You fucking slut... Once I knot you, my filthy whore... you are going to be only mine, maybe I will... Mngh... share you with the rest of the ghouls, but… Ah, fucking hell... if one of those filthy human brothers of the congregation dares to even look at you... I'm going to fucking kill him...— He sat on the bed with her on top— So tell me... Are you sure you want me to knot you?

Something in her, maybe the last bit of common sense, tried to refuse the offer that she already had begged for... But the part of her that wanted to be fucked like this everyday of her life didn't care one bit. She moved her hips looking for more of him.

— Mngh, fucking knot me already Swiss‼ I want you! I need to be filled by you!

That was all the ghoul needed to hear, he went full animalistic. His claws digging in her skin hard enough to draw some blood, his thrusts were becoming harder as he was so close. The spade of his tail pressing her clit as she bounced, his fangs marking her shoulders, neck and collarbone; she was going to be bruised as hell tomorrow, but neither of them seemed to care.

As they both approached their climax the heat inside of the room was almost unbearable: the bed was slamming into the floor and wall, he probably would never hear the end of it tomorrow, he was sure they had the whole den up and listening to their spectacle. But he couldn't care less. She was tightening so nice around his dick, he was almost there. With one deep thrust he felt the base of his knot pressing against her. He thursted again feeling how he stretched her around his knot. After a couple more thrusts the knot fully entered.

—Oh, my fucking devil... Swiss! This... Ah! I'm... I'm... Fuck, Swiss, like that! Oh, fucking hell! I'm coming!

The coil snapped, she came with a loud moan digging her nails as hard as she could in his flesh. He bled a little but the subtle pain was even more pleasure for him. She squirmed and moaned as her orgasm bursted, her squirting wetting the bed and the ghoul’s belly. He grabbed her hips giving her a last thrust and releasing his thick cum inside her, the knot throbbed a bit. She felt how her insides were being coated and filled with his sperm. They stayed in the same position for a while, his hands caressing her back with soft strokes, helping her to ride her last waves of pleasure and relaxing her over him.

— You were great... Such a good girl, aren't you? It's okay, breathe...— He kissed his forehead before taking a look to where their bodies were connected. His knot was still there, her pussy was a bit red and stretched around him. He was a bit worried that he may have hurt her. — It's going to take some time for it to come down... Are you okay?

— That... That was... Mngh...—Everytime she moved she could feel the knot inside her, it felt amazing.— That was incredible... I feel so full...—She looked at the tip of her fingers, the deep burgundy color on her nails seemed to be the blood of the ghoul.— Oh Lucifer... Did I hurt you?

— No no, don't worry... I like it... You should do it more, I will be glad.— He got up with her in his arms, trying to not make abrupt movements. He went for a towel and then laid on the bed with her on top, the knot was slowly going back to normal. He used the wet towel to clean her face, some of her blood that fell from the indents of his claws and fangs. — I'm sorry I got carried away… Does it hurt?

— Mnn, no... Don't be sorry... I liked it.— She gave him a reassuring smile while caressing his chest. — Tomorrow I'm going to be sore as hell, am I?

— For sure...— They both laughed and, as they did, they heard a small "pop" sound, the knot went back to normal and his dick slided out from her. She felt the hot cum of the ghoul going down her legs.

— Mngh... I want to take a shower but it's late...— She let herself rest in the chest of the ghoul, while this caressed her back and waist with his big hands.

— Don't worry... I can't take you to the tub, so you can take a bath while I change the bedsheets.

— Mnn... I can walk...—She tried to move her legs but they felt like jello.

— No, you can't...— He laughed and took her to the bathroom, letting her rest on the tub while he filled it with warm water. After a while he went to change the bedsheets and then returned to get in the tub with her. She rests her back in the ghoul’s chest while caressing his arms that were around her.

— You were serious about what you said? The whole "I'm going to kill if they look at you" shit?

— Dead serious... I can share tho, with the rest of the ghouls... and maybe even Papa... and Terzo…but you are mine.

— Well... I can live with it...— She laughed and rested her head on his shoulder. — But you cannot kill someone just because they looked at me, and you cannot interfere with my work...

— Mnnnn... Ok, I’m not going to kill anyone but I will scare them if they try to flirt with you.

— No one flirts with me, Swiss. You, the ghouls, are the only ones that seem interested in me... Hey, that means that I can scare the sisters that flirt with you…?

— Oh babe, you can scare away every single one of them, I'm not interested… I only want to make you mine over and over, but seeing you jealous is something that interests me...

— If I get jealous I'm going to make Dew and Aether pay for it. And you are going to watch.

— Mnnn... that sounds tempting...— They both laughed at the ghoul’s comment. After a couple of minutes they left the tub and went to Swiss’ room. They felt some moans coming from Aether's door as they walked to Swiss’ room. They recognized the fire ghoul’s voice and just laughed a bit before going to sleep. She fell asleep first, Swiss was still a bit worried. If she was going to become a ghoul like them, would she change her heart? She would leave him? He was sure that he could never let her go from this moment forward, she was already marked by him... and he could not even begin to imagine his life without her scent near him now that he had her. He gave her a soft kiss on the forehead and went to sleep. Tomorrow was going to be a complete nightmare or a really amazing day. It was now in the hands of fate... or Lucifer.

A.N : Hiiii! I finished this chapter at last! I want to clarify some things before ending the chapter.

First, I decided that swiss was going to be the main pair of the reader because they had more chemistry between them for now, and more interactions. But as Swiss said he can and will share with the rest of the ghouls, it's a polyamorous situation.

Second, the ghouls have stablish couples like Rain and Mountain or Cirrus and Sunshine, but they all are involved in an open relationship. As long as is with consent love and care , they are okay with it.

And third, In the next chapter I will dive deeper in the whole reborn thing and how it will affect the reader. But, for now I can say a couple of things, the reader is going to die, yes she has to die in order to be reborn and also, the papas are going to be heavily involved in the process.

I hope you enjoyed the chapter 💕 I will try to post more often now that I'm trying to get rid of the writers block. But sadly I enter university in a month so, after entering I will try my best to upload often. 💕 Have a nice day, drink water, eat something and rest well 💕

Tag list : @hauntedboobees @yuk-for-president @tuttifuckinfruttifriday @jbcalway @onedaughterofman @serene-sun

#ghost fanfiction #ghost bc fanfic #the band ghost fanfiction #swiss ghost #swiss ghoul x reader #swiss x reader #swiss ghoul #papa emeritus fanfiction #copia x reader #reader x swiss #swiss x dewdrop #swiss smut #ghoul smut #dom!swiss #ghost the band #multi ghoul #multighoul

[edengarden]

Word has it

Synopsis: Caesar’s odd behaviour around you has led you to believe he’s plotting something behind your back. And you want to know what it is.

Pairing: Caesar x gn!reader

Warnings: profanity, reader threatens caesar via holding a project hostage, Caesar still doesn’t have a concept of personal space.

Word count: 3425

Notes: LO AND BEHOLD!! A collab between me and @lairu ! I wrote this, she was kind enough to provide me with two pieces to post along with this :’) You can find the two images underneath their respective scenes in this fic!

This fic can also be read as a standalone or as a continuation of Personal space? Never heard of her.

You wish you could say that Caesar was a constant. You wish you could tell people that once you stick around for a certain amount of time, Caesar’s behavior becomes the new normal. There was even a point in your time spent on Punk Hazard that you yourself believed that. However, recently, it was proven that your wishful thinking was very far from the truth.

Granted, even at this point, you suppose that there was some sort of pattern in his new behavior. He’d gravitate towards you whenever he felt bored or underwhelmed, bother you until you gave in and entertained him, only to then flee halfway through a conversation. You couldn’t even tell what it was that set him off; there was no pattern to it. And you tried finding one, you really did. It was truly confusing, considering how he’d bend in half for your attention only to dismiss it a few minutes later. It reminded you a bit of a cat that would lose all interest in something seconds after receiving it. You started wondering when he’d start biting you out of nowhere as well.

Considering that you now had to put up with Caesar for only half the time you used to, you weren’t exactly going to complain. In fact, you even mentioned it to Monet in the log, wondering if perhaps she had the same luck as you did. That’s where things got… interesting, if you could put it that way.

When you came back from your three weeks off to Monet telling you that she doesn’t know what you were talking about, all kinds of alarms started ringing in your mind. You must have read Monet’s entire log three times in a row, trying your best to grasp a full understanding of it before you jumped to conclusions. But after each time, one thing seemed clear to you; Caesar wasn’t acting normally. Or, well, as ‘normal’ as someone like him can be. A part of you wanted to hit yourself for not labeling his hot-and-cold attitude towards you as a red flag from the get-go. However, now, you knew better. And you believed that now, you were a lot more attentive to details.

Caesar let out the most dramatic sigh you’ve ever heard as the door to the laboratory’s makeshift ‘living room’ slid close. You barely gave him a glance as he made his way through the room, but with the way he carried himself, one could believe that he was the most overworked man on earth. Which you knew was very far from the truth.

He let out another sigh, just as loud as the last one and slightly forced. You knew damn well that he was fishing for attention here and had you been as tired as you usually are, you would’ve ignored him, but you felt like you were in a particularly good mood today. It wouldn’t hurt to actually willingly participate in his antics if you were energized enough to do so, no? “Tough day in the lab?” You asked as you kept your eyes fixed on your own task, completely missing the way he lit up a bit. It wasn’t every day that you actually initiated the conversation.

“Oh, horrid.” Caesar replied as he crashed on the couch, seeing nothing wrong with taking its entirety and practically shoving his feet in your lap so that he could spread out a bit more. One of his arms draped itself over his eyes as he laid on his back. So much for your task. It was a bit hard to work when your notebook got practically shoved out of your lap. “But luckily enough, I worked it out. Thermodynamics is nothing to a genius like me!” Considering that Caesar’s devil fruit works on gas but not temperature fluctuations, you doubt that it went as smoothly as he claims. But you decided not to comment on that and trigger one of his World Famous Bitchfits, instead opting for a quiet hum.

“Now what have you been up to?” He questioned as soon as the silence stretched on for longer than he liked. Again with the personal questions. Ever since Monet’s message caught you off-guard, you’ve been noticing that Caesar asks a lot of questions regarding yourself nowadays. Which is weird, considering that it used to be all about him and even if you would have wanted to put some retroaction in, he would’ve cut you right off with another anecdote of his.

Which is why you’re suspecting that he might be planning something against you in particular. At first, you thought his odd behavior was a sign that he was going to go against Doflamingo himself, but that idea was quickly scratched because you understood that while Caesar isn’t exactly the most obedient of subordinates, he’s fully aware that Doflamingo is his shield against the World Government at the moment. And he’s smarter than fucking around and finding out what happens when you mess with Doflamingo.

“Not much,” you replied, casting him a side-glance. Though you were a little mistrustful of what he’d actually do, you were in a good enough mood to entertain him today. Without the usual insults that came with it. “Though I’m sure that with you around, it can be more bearable.” Caesar finally let his arm drop from his face and he tilted his chin at an odd angle towards you, squinting his eyes and pinching his lips together as if he was trying to figure out what your game plan is. You couldn’t blame him; if someone who was usually cold and distant suddenly engaged in a pleasant-sounding conversation with you, you’d do the same. You held his stare, confident that you had nothing to hide in the first place.

“Am I witnessing you finally coming out of your shell right now? I always thought you were genetically predisposed to being antisocial and rude!” He finally cried out with a slight twinge of sarcasm in his voice. All of a sudden, that good mood you were in was starting to dwindle… You wonder why.

Sucking your teeth in annoyance, you tear your eyes away from his gaze and bend over his bothersome legs to pick up your notebook. “If you’d asked Monet how I am with others, you would’ve found out that the problem doesn’t stem from me.” You shot back, earning a dramatic gasp from the man. You didn’t need to cast him a look to know that he was probably holding a hand to his chest as if he were an innocent person being accused of a moral transgression.

“As far as I’m concerned, I’ve never been anything but nice to you.” Caesar turned his head away and lifted his chin a little, crossing his arms over his chest. You’d never seen a fully grown man pout like a child like this before, and yet here you are. You could swear that the hissing of gas that usually accompanied him got a little louder and sharper. Did it fluctuate with his mood? You never noticed.

You patted his ankle, which still lay in your lap despite Caesar’s half-baked fit. “Now, now. I was saying things the objective way. I didn’t intend to hurt.” You said in a tone that dripped with half-hearted sarcasm. “Did I hurt your pride? Do you want me to kiss it better?” You added with a mean smile sent his way.

His feet whipped out of your lap so quickly that you almost yelped at the sudden movement. The self-proclaimed mad scientist shot a disdainful look at you before rising up to his feet. You frowned at his less than necessary actions. “Did I really upset you?” You asked. It would be crazy if you had. You’d said worse things in the past that didn’t get this sort of violent reaction from him. And, maybe for that very reason, you felt a bit bad about it. “Come on, I really wasn’t serious.” You added and you could not believe that you were trying to accommodate him so that he’d stay. Usually you’d rejoice in his storming off like he was doing at the moment.

Yet, nothing you could say seemed to change his mind. Caesar stomped through the room and somehow managed to slam the sliding door shut behind him, causing you to flinch at the loud metallic noise. His sudden foul mood soured yours as well as you stared at the door in shock. Seriously, what was his deal? You couldn’t figure him out at all. And, considering that it seemed to be a personal thing, it didn’t sit well with you. Caesar’s short fuse could be a potential problem for you in the future and you’d rather be aware of how to deal with it efficiently before it blows up in your face.

It was now your turn to jump up from your spot on the couch. If this bastard was planning a coup against you, you were going to find out and you were going to find out now.

It wasn’t that hard to find him. You did it rather quickly, thus not giving enough time for yourself to cool down and think of a possible alternative to this situation that you were about to impose on him. But then again, Caesar has gotten on your nerves so often these past few weeks that you feel it’s only fair that you give him some emotional distress yourself. And it’s not like you were going to psychologically torture him; you simply needed to get him in a panicked state of mind. It was very easy to get him there, if you knew which buttons to push (which you had ample time to learn about since you were deployed here). The result was exactly what you felt was needed for him to confess about any undermining plots he may have.

You stepped into the laboratory without bothering to knock. And your patience for Caesar thinned even more when the man shot you a nasty glare for interrupting him. Though he didn’t seem to be doing much at the moment. So much so that you feared you weren’t going to be able to get what you needed from him. “Have you never learned how to knock?!” He screeched as he turned towards you, already shooing you with his hands. With the slight side step he took to do so, you finally spotted exactly what you were looking for. “Leave!”

Without awarding him with so much as a word in exchange, you crossed the laboratory with a neutral expression and stopped right on the other side of the table he was currently at. Seeing your impassive face, Caesar ended up more perplexed than anything. Some of his anger faded as he finally dropped his hand to his side and stared at you with slightly furrowed brows, yet again trying to figure out what may possibly be going through your head. Good. That gave you enough time to quickly snatch the oversized erlenmeyer sitting between the two of you filled with some heavy gaseous substance that he was most likely using at the moment. You held the glass container in one hand and took various steps back to create some space between the two of you before he could get it back from you. You were cautious enough to stay out of his range of power, as well.

“What are you– give that back!” Caesar shrieked. You shook your head, unable to hold back the vicious smile forming on your face as you held out the erlenmeyer to taunt him. He let out a scream. “Stop! Stop! Don’t move it! It’s not stable yet!” He cried out and you immediately stopped your shaking, though you were still ready to start it again and ruin whatever it was he was doing with this compound.

“Why have you been so weird lately?” You asked. Caesar’s eyes remained focused on the delicate substance in your hands, practically ignoring you. Possibly unintentionally so. “Caesar! I said, “ why have you been so weird lately?”!” You repeated a bit louder, finally getting his attention. He looked at you like a deer in headlights.

“I don’t know what you mean,” you call bullshit. So, instead, you gave the erlenmeyer a good shake and squinted your eyes at him, conveying that you weren’t buying it. He screeched and took a few steps forward to catch up with you but you held out a hand in warning.

“Ah! Come closer and I drop it.” You warned him.

“You wouldn’t dare.” He hissed back. You simply shrugged.

“Tell me why you’ve been acting so weirdly lately and nothing gets destroyed.” You repeated and the scientist let out an exasperated cry, throwing his arms up in the air.

“I don’t fucking know what you mean! I’ve been doing nothing!” He yelled.

“You have been doing something! Something’s going on in your head and I want to know what it is!” You screamed to match his volume. “And if you don’t..!” You started shaking the substance in circles and, though it technically looked like a gas in there, it seemed to sway with your movement.

“Stop it!” Caesar shrieked. You insisted that he tell you once more, still shaking the glassware. “There’s fucking nothing!” You still weren’t sold.

“No? Then you won’t mind if I…” And your grip on the neck of the erlenmeyer started slipping. You weren’t here to fuck around, after all.

As it dipped down a few inches, Caesar cried out with a gasp and he stretched out a hand, as if hoping he could catch it from all the way over there without taking a single step forward. Though he soon noticed that the bottle was still hanging from your hand and instead of slouching in relief, he remained tense as he stared at you with wide eyes and a still outstretched hand. “Don’t!”

“Tell me why you’ve been so weird lately!” You replied in the same, obnoxiously loud volume as him. You gave the substance an even harsher stir. You think you heard Caesar sob a little. “Tell me why–”

“Because you make me feel weird!” He roared louder than the two of you had been yelling for the past few moments. You abruptly stopped your tormenting and frowned at him while he seemed to cower on himself a little, appalled by what he had just said.

“I make you feel weird?” You replied calmly, grimacing in confusion. That could mean anything. Caesar remained obstinately silent, his hands clenched into fists at his sides and avoiding eye contact. “So you weren’t… planning to kill me or anything?” You added, just to be sure.

A part of you knew fully well that he wasn’t half bad at putting up an act. He could still be playing you right now, but the way that he seemed more uncomfortable than ever at the moment felt too genuine, even by Caesar’s usual standards.

“Kill you?” He repeated, staring at you equally as confused as you were, staring at him. “Why would I want to kill you?”

“You’re a complicated person, I wouldn’t fuckin’ know.” You said with a shrug that was cut halfway through when Caesar almost whimpered and you were reminded that you still held his oh, so important compound. You stilled for the sake of his impending heart attack. “The hell does ‘make me feel weird’ mean?” The man clicked his tongue in annoyance and looked away once more, pursing his lips in a frown. You tapped on the glass of the erlenmeyer to remind him of the hostage you’d taken and he was brought back into the present in no time.

“It means…” You’d never seen someone struggle with saying something so much in your life. It almost seemed like he was having physical pain from just trying to force out whatever it was he was trying to force out. You remained dead silent and careful not to agitate the compound, hoping that it would make Caesar finally spit out what he had to say. He groaned and pressed his fists to his forehead. A bit dramatic, if you were allowed to say it. Surely it wouldn’t cause his death, so why the hell is he so pressed over this?

With your patience wearing thin, you let the erlenmeyer slip from your grasp a bit more. Maybe if you put him under some stress again, he’ll open up. However, upon noticing it, Caesar grumbled something under his breath akin to ‘fuck it’ and walked around the table at a brisk pace.

“Ah! Keep your distance or I'll drop it!” You exclaimed, holding out a hand in front of you as he approached you faster than you’d like.

“It’s already ruined.” He muttered as he slapped your wrist away. You barely had time to react as he leaned down, grasped your cheeks in his gloved hands rather harshly and practically yanked your face towards his to kiss you.

You found it was within your right to have quite the reaction to this by flinching and dropping the flask dangling in your hand. The noise seemed to have taken Caesar by surprise because he pulled away and once there was more space separating the two of you, you finally felt able to breathe again.

Whatever was in the erlenmeyer turned out to be a volatile substance but before it could do more than slightly daze you (though that could have also been the result of being kissed when you were absolutely not expecting it), Caesar managed to take care of it with his Devil Fruit. You took that opportunity to grasp his wrists and lightly tug his hands away from your cheeks. “So, uh…” You started, hesitating when your lips still tingled a bit and your heart threatened to beat loudly enough to bruise you from the inside. “Message received. Loud and clear.” What else could you say right now?

Seeing as the momentary frustration Caesar felt had finally dissipated along with his ruined experiment, he fully pulled away from your grasp, looking down at the floor with slightly flushed cheeks as he kicked away the sharp shards of glass littered around the two of you. “Look at what you did. Made such a mess.” He muttered, though the mess should be the least of his worries at the moment. It surely was the least of yours. “Couldn’t you have just kept your nose out of my business?!”

“Unfortunately, your business concerns me.” You replied, pressing your lips together to try and at least diminish the sensation lingering on them. You’re sort of glad that you dropped the glassware when you did, because you’re afraid that you might have kissed him back if you hadn’t.

“Like hell it does,” he replied with a self-deprecating huff before crouching on the floor to pick up the bigger pieces of glass. Even at a little over a quarter of his height, he wasn’t that much smaller than you. You could tell that the way he felt about his… feelings wasn’t positive. And, now that you think about it, his behavior makes a lot of sense. Considering that you’re only here for a job, it could be completely uncalled for if he were to develop feelings for you. Borderline unprofessional, if you will. It totally makes sense now why he’d flee from you at the drop of a hat. Caesar has horrible emotional coping techniques.

You couldn’t help but ponder over it all. Sure, you think he’s a bit of a pain, and you find him utterly annoying, but it puzzles you that you actually enjoyed that kiss. Was this the result of being married to your job? “It’s your business until you tell Joker and get transferred and I’ll–” In any case, you decided that you could worry about the details later. You couldn’t stand Caesar finishing that whingeing sentence, so instead you decided to promptly shut him up by kissing him, seeing as how it was the only thing on your mind at the moment.

Thank goodness that you felt him sway a bit before he fell ass first into shards of glass and were able to stabilize him by holding onto his shoulder with your free hand. He let out a muffled grunt of surprise against your mouth before you parted. “Not a word to Joker about this.”

Caesar nodded, as dazed as you had been when he was the one who took you by surprise earlier. “Agreed.”

#one piece #one piece fanfiction #one piece fanart #one piece x reader #x reader #caesar clown #caesar clown x reader #one piece caesar clown

[magnumdays]

Magnum PI 5.12 - Three Bridges review

Little bit late this week because I had trouble finding the ep and well this new mid-week airing time, it's at a pretty inconvenient time of the week for me.

Anyways...

The promo for this episode was misleading as (when is it not) but in this case it was a really good misleading. We did get funny sting-ray case but that was just a side plot for laughs.

And for me it worked so well because it gave us more Miggy scenes and man, do I love how they're doing Magnum and Higgins as a couple now. It's established, comfortable but still sweet with that hint of sexy they always had and IDK, why can't we just have 10 seasons more of this?

The Case

Seems like a semi-straightforward "trusted the wrong person and got my money stolen" case. But this being Magnum PI, there is of course a huge trafficking ring behind it and the bad guy is actually a good guy and everyone (except for the Triad) gets a happy ending. (Brushing over the trauma of trafficking and being used as a human sheild at and also sort of betrayal of trust and stealing lots of money from people, and all that jazz. Because goodness will win out and happiness reign supreme -that's just how we roll in Magnum PI land.)

I liked it, even if finding the hotel (which granted took the combined power of Kumu and Higgy) and then just getting walked straight into the heart of the Evil Overlords organization was a bit convenient. Like if I was a boss bad-guy I would have just told my underlings to walk potential spies and cops and other interested parties off the property. And then just moved my operation.

Just saying, a bit sloppy for a 97-million-dollar operation...

The end bit with findning Haun (Han?) after he'd been sold off again, maybe that should have ended sadder or more dramatic. Like Haun could at least have gotten shot in the arm or something... just a little suggestion.

Or Higgy should have gotten shot because she was just walking straight into the path of this guy's bullets...

The Miggy

What took you so long?

I was about to ask you the same thing.

They are so adorable and just maybe the ultimate modern battle couple of all time.

Seriously was there one Miggy moment when the banter was not on point?

"Get where it's going and intercept it!"

Side note: does someone on this show have like a drowning kink? I feel like waterboarding is the to-go torture method of choice for all bad guys. I mean Nuzo was water-boarded before he died, Higgy was, then she almost drowned and now we got TM getting all drown-y.

And love the look Magnum gives the guy when the bad guy is all "This ain't gonna work - go get his friend". Like from mildly smug (above) because hey, Mr. Navy Seal "I can hold my breath for five minutes" isn't worried about anything to 'not amused' in like a second.

(I mean of course Higgy being all kick-ass going to get her Hubby, also lovely.)

TC - Sometimes you just need your mom

So TC pushing everyone away after last week when he seemed to be opening up and doing a bit better with Shammy and Kumu felt like a step back, but also very real. Because rehab and progress is not linear nor does it "make sense" for most people in a logical way.

Mommy-TC showing up and both showing him that she not leaving because she loves him and wants to be there for him and talking to him about weakness and stubbornness, was the right play. Because when life sucks sometimes you just need your mom right?

It's also a nice call back to last "season" which they've been so good at during season 5. Like with Higgy and the Mandarin and just little references to stuff (still waiting on the tattoo though...)

Rick and Love

So I guess Piper was only in the picture to push Rick and Suzy together then? Maybe? I kind of hope she sticks around and has some other nefarious purpose. But if she's not in the next episode or 14, I guess she was just there to get the Suzy/Rick ship to sail.

Which, I mean, we did all want that and it is sooo very cute and I'd want to see happy-family feels! Let Suzy or Rick have a birthday and we can end with a surprise party or something this season (and bring a real baby this time).

Overall + I'm on a break next week

I enjoyed this episode so much, possibly a bit more than last week's ep even, and I'm a bit annoyed with myself it took me like 4 days until I could watch it. I guess, part of why I postponing watching is because each week means one episode closer to the last one. Urg, why did they end our show!!! It's such a freaking shame because it absolutely feels like they've found their groove with the Miggy relationship and just the whole vibe of 5a and so far 5b!

Next week I'll be traveling so I might not be able to get access to the episode at all before I return home, which sucks because it's my favorite plot-device: my faves going undercover.

But yeah, 13+14 might end up being a double episode for me (+ double review!) in two weeks but we shall see!

#magnum pi #miggy #Thomas Magnum #Juliet Higgins #Magnum PI season 5 #Magnum Pi my review #Magnum PI review

[sleekervae]

So Good [0.1]

Masterlist

A/N: Hello, this is another new project I've had lurking in the scenes for a while. It's meant to serve as a sequel to Yoü & I, though it works as a definite stand alone. I have this vice where I love putting a lot of angst in my stories -- mostly the "will they won't they" plot line tangled with challenging personal comforts or societal expectations and this story will have a lot of that. I hope you all like it, and any new readers I can bring to my platform are more than welcome to hang out, come chat, pop open a soda if you like :)

Summary: When BTS made their American debut, Namjoon was expecting throngs of screaming fans swarming the stadiums; he was expecting intense media coverage, three or four hours of sleep per night, and his boys’ endless shenanigans. He wasn't expecting to become captivated by Kimberly Rothstein on stage, the bassist for the then up-and-coming girl band taking the world by storm.

Purple text is Korean

Warnings: none yet, future spoilers for Yoü & I

November 19th, 2017

Namjoon was seriously beginning to regret wearing his leather jacket.

It was still light outside as they posed for pictures on the carpet and the sun was burning more intensely than he had prepared for. He was left feeling stifled and uncomfortable, a sharp contrast to the cool dressing room he was getting ready in an hour ago. Namjoon was grateful at least he'd remembered to wear a pair of comfortable shoes for the carpet photos, the band had already been standing out there for well over thirty minutes, shuffling between flashing cameras to three-minute interviews.

Stepping inside was an instant cooling relief. He puffed his hair off his forehead by the time they were in the venue, annoyed as his hair product wasn't holding like it should've. He wondered what he'd look like if he buzzed all of his hair off or changed his style completely. As they were ushered over to their seats, Namjoon was considering their upcoming performance, mentally making notes off all his own weak points to ensure everything ran smoothly. This was their American debut after all, everything had to be just perfect.

"Do they serve snacks?" Jungkook asked, gazing around the room at the throngs of people filing in. Namjoon wasn't sure if he was looking for a particular celebrity or a concession stand.

Taehyung bumped him, "What, you think we're at the movies?" he scolded.

Jimin piped in, "They serve 'em at sports arenas!"

"This isn't a sports arena, guys!" Namjoon scolded them, "Besides, we already ate at the hotel, and we can eat after the show,"

"But --!" Jungkook began, though he relented when Namjoon gave him the look. The look that reminded him that he, all of them, had to be professional. Jungkook sat back in his seat.

Hobi nudged the younger boy, pulling a bag of trail mix out of his pocket, "Don't worry, I got us covered," he smiled as Jungkook's face lit up.

Namjoon couldn't help but snigger at them, lifting his gaze back to the stage, his knee was bouncing as he was eager to see the show proceed on. More people were filing in in front of them, some more famous faces he recognized, some he didn't.

In the row before them a group of four girls shuffled their way in, their chatter lost in the buzz around them. The first was a striking Latina, Namjoon could assume she was the leader of the group from the way she carried herself, slipped past people to make a trail for her girls. Behind her was a mousy brunette, slender and unassuming, she appeared quite shy as she held herself whilst following the first girl. Her friend in behind had brightly dyed hair, half neon green half fiery pink, holding hands with the last girl behind her. Namjoon swallowed hard when he got a look at her.

He knew it could have only lasted for a few seconds, that there was no way in which the consistency of time could have altered for him and his own sudden and ridiculous infatuation, he could have sworn then, just for a moment, as he laid eyes on her for the first time, that all the chaos fell deadly still around him and begged him to notice her.

And notice her he did.

Her captivating smile and the tiny creases around her eyes as she laughed at her friend's joke drew him in instantly. Her thick burnt chestnut curls bounced loosely around her shoulders, the strobing purple lights were complimented against her dark complexion.

The girls came to a stop right in front of them and took their seats. As if she could feel the way in which he took her in, she slowly turned to face him, catching Namjoon off guard. He blinked once or twice, just to have something to do besides marvel at her and bit the inside of his cheek to confirm he wasn't dreaming, but now certain that she was looking at him, that her smile was for him -- he just about melted.

He studied the details of her heart-shaped face. Her brown eyes held a particular glimmer to them, her lips full, naturally deep pink in color and her delicate nose piercing twinkled under the light. She had a button nose and thin but smart eyebrows which framed her face perfectly. She wore a little black dress, the material of the skirt hugged her shape perfectly, the top half of her covered by a cropped leather jacket with big, clunky pinned adorning the right sleeve.

There was an abundant softness about her that made him inhale sharply, a gentility that made him feel as if he'd damage her from the intensity of his stare though she still gave off an ember of effervescent vibrance when she turned the corners of her lips up in a soft smile, his heart thudding against his ribcage just from the bravery in the way she held his gaze.

"Woah!" the girl in front of her suddenly gaped, breaking Namjoon out of his spell, "You guys are BTS, right?" the two girls in front of her turned around as well.

She was speaking in front of Suga, the shyer blonde looked both ways before nodding sheepishly, "Uh... yes! Yes," he then looked to Namjoon.

Clearing his throat, Namjoon spoke, "Sorry, they don't speak much English. Yeah, that's us," he nodded to the four of them.

The neon girl shook her other friend's shoulder, "Girl, remember I told you about these guys? They're the big boyband from Korea!"

The mousy brunette lit up, "Oh, right! Nice to meet you guys!"

Jimin looked up at her, leaning forward in his seat, " -- You too," he nodded, beaming with his big, toothy grin at her, "... You are... very... beautiful,"

The brunette giggled, flattered and taken aback, clinging to the back of her seat so she could face him properly, "Thank you. So are you," she awed. Jimin exclaimed happily, thanking her bashfully.

Neon girl turned back to Namjoon, "Is this your first time in America?" she asked.

"No, but this'll be our first performance on a big --" he waved his hands at the stage, "TV show like this,"

"I bet you guys will do great," the last girl finally spoke, her voice crisp and honeyed as she continued to smile at him.

"Thank you," he smiled back, forcing as much confidence into his voice as he could, holding out his hand, "Namjoon,"

"Kimberly," she reached forward to shake his hand, then looked to her friends, "And this is Chloe, Charlotte, and Maria," she listed her girls off by order. Maria was at the end, already piecing together some conversation with Jungkook and Taehyung.

He introduced his bandmates as well, he was hit with the sudden awareness that he was experiencing one of those grand moments which you were supposed to fully absorb and remember every detail of, pay attention to every sense so that you could recall or retell it when you were nostalgic, when you missed it, longed for the time and place of that situation instead, but he couldn't focus properly.

"You guys are a band?" he asked.

Hobi awed at him as the words barely left his mouth, "Of course they're a band! They're Catch the Caper you dummy!" he scolded.

Namjoon glowered at him, "Well, I don't know that, I'm just making conversation," he replied, "You wanna' try?"

Hobi looked at Kimberly and Chloe, but he shook his head, laughing bashfully, "No. My English not good,"

"I think you're doing just swell," Chloe replied, turning to Namjoon, "How do you say 'good job' in Korean?"

Namjoon simpered, "Jalhaess-eoyo,"

Chloe opened her mouth but closed it swiftly, shaking her head, "Mm, nope. I'm gonna' insult somebody," she chuckled as she pulled out her phone and swiped for the translate app, "Here, we'll do this instead,"

Kimberly turned back to Namjoon, smiling bashfully, "You're lucky. You missed out on her Rosetta Stone phase when we were in Japan," she said, leaning forward against her chair back, "And to answer your previous question: we are Catch the Caper. Perhaps you've heard of us?"

"I'm ashamed to say I have not. But I guess we'll fix that, right?" he didn't mean to come off so cocky, it had just sort of slipped out as a defence mechanism against the nervous knotting in his stomach, but he admired a firm nod to show that he was happy in his choice, ignored Suga's snigger from the left and tried to keep up the act of being unfazed by her.

Kimberly raised her eyebrows and suppressed a giggle that was fighting to make it easy out at the way he drawled his words, every syllable touched by confidence and a slight hint of his accent. His lips pulled into a challenging smirk; his bravado was undeniable, but she couldn't help but think he was contrastingly soft at the same time, each consuming feature of him seemingly met with a delicate counterpart.

"I hope so,"

She knew who he was as Chloe had gone on and on about him and the rest of BTS, she knew what to expect, though he still managed to take her completely by surprise, his voice and presence she found exciting all at once. His hair was perfectly messy, buzzed shorter in the back and dyed honey blonde given his dark roots, the longer strands falling over his sharp brown eyes that were inquisitive and clearly studying her back. He wore a black t-shirt that was cut just below his collar bones, black jeans and a leather jacket, and a simple silver ring on his finger. She had felt it, the cool of the metal pressing against her palm when she shook his hand.

"Anybody you hoping to meet tonight?" he asked her.

Kimberly tilted her head as she thought about it, "If I can muster the courage... Diana Ross. But if I can't, I'll settle for Selena Gomez,"

Namjoon's eyes went wide, "Wait, Diana Ross is here?" he glanced around at the front of the stage.

She glanced behind her momentarily, "They're honouring her tonight. I wanna' go say 'hi' later but I'm not sure..." she shrugged sheepishly, turning her attention back to Namjoon with a flick of her head and tried not to get caught up in his eyes.

"I'll go with you later, if you like," he offered, the words left him before he could even reason with himself.

Kimberly chuckled, "Maybe, sure," she couldn't tell whether he was kidding with her or he was serious, nevertheless decided that it was simply wishful thinking.

"So, I know this one's a fan," he nodded to Chloe, who was wrapped up in a google translate conversation with Hobi, "Do you know our music?" Kimberly titled her head into her palm to respond.

"Well, Chlo's been playing your record almost every second of every day," she replied, "And she showed me a few videos. Do you really dance that fast?"

"You don't think we can?" he raised a brow, his tone coming off teasing.

"I never said that," she chuckled back, "But she showed me some of the moves for... oh gosh, what was it? There was a lot of like --" she started bouncing her shoulders and moving her arms up and down, not quite as stiffly as a robot.

Namjoon knew he could never perform Not Today the same way after seeing the enthusiasm in her eyes, could picture her in the crowd or at the side of the stage, her hips moving to the beat. He wondered then if he'd be able to see her from the stage tonight, if she'd keep that fearless eye contact that was slowly driving him crazy.

"I think that's the dance for Not Today," he nodded.

"Yeah, that was it!" she replied, her lips twitching with playfulness, "And I think I did not too bad of a job,"

"Not bad at all," he chuckled, "Maybe you could come do back up for us one of these days?"

Kimberly's cheeks were still burning but she gave him a tentative smile. She could tell from the corner of her eye that Maria and Charlotte were watching her, likely smirking to themselves.

"Well, I'll be here if you ever need to call out, Namjoon," she replied.

He was convinced his heart was going to crack his ribs just from the way it pounded in his chest when she said his name, the way it rolled off of her tongue and sounded more interesting that he'd ever considered it to be.

"I like that you don't know everything, though," he marvelled softly, clearing his throat again, "Means the show will be a bit of a surprise,"

She nodded back like she understood him, about to tell him she was excited to watch him perform when the lights began to dim and the ushers called out for everyone to take their seats. The show was about to start. Nevertheless, Kimberly leaned further over the chair backing to mutter quickly to him;

"I can't wait to see it," she turned around properly in her seat, as did the rest of the girls, and sat back as the opener was about to hit the stage. Namjoon tried to relax in his chair, flinching as he felt Hobi elbow him.

"She likes you," he whispered hoarsely.

Namjoon refrained from rolling his eyes, "Shut up,"

In between performances and acceptance speeches, Kimberly would turn and strike up another conversation with Namjoon, trying to keep her enthusiasm subtle. And he prayed he could keep his own elation at bay, tried to keep his composure calm but every new little thing he learned about her his fascination for her only grew.

Noticing things about Kimberly became an activity of immense enjoyment and fulfilment. There were freckles peaking out under her makeup, and tiny, almost unnoticeable indents around her nose and her lip where piercings used to be. Her fingers were slender, decorated with a series of thin gold rings which matched those in her ears and her nails were painted in a periwinkle silver that reminded him of the clouds he'd complained about before, and decided he would never complain about again.

And then there were tattoos, placed sporadically in places he could just make out. Once she took her jacket off they became much more visible, and while she didn't have as many as Charlotte clearly had, Namjoon couldn't help but take interest in them.

"I like your tattoos," he said.

"Thanks," she nodded, "You got any?"

"Just one," he lifted his knee and rested his foot on the edge of his seat, lifting his pant leg to reveal the crisp 7 on his ankle.

"Cool. You want another one?"

"Not right now. What about you?"

"Maybe. I got too many ideas and that's dangerous," she laughed. One of the most curious she had was a collection of very detailed flowers wrapped around her forearm.

"This flower one is cool," he said, leaning forward and suddenly touching her arm.

He hadn't intended to get that close, or strike over the tattoo with his fingertip even but he was now, following the trail of ink of the petals. He licked his lips as he suddenly realized what he was doing, driven crazy by the realization that he was touching her, could feel the tension of the moment lining his gut and he blinked and swallowed a couple of times. Being so close to her, he could inhale her scent finally, there were notes of sandalwood, jasmine, and vanilla and he couldn't help but lose his mind in the bliss of it.

Kimberly couldn't breathe, didn't understand what he was doing or if he even know what he was doing, but her heart was pounding faster than what should've been possible. His fingertip was slightly calloused and she curious to know why, wondering about whether he was good with his hands and she suddenly had the craving for a strong drink.

"They're asters," she mumbled suddenly, her breath caught in her throat.

"What?" he asked, lifting his eyes slowly back to hers after staring at the tattoo for so long.

His eyes were incredible.

Namjoon's eyes were darker now but the light was still there, shining and indicative. She sat back on her knees so that his hand dropped and smoothed her hair behind her ears to cover up her fluster.

As the moment slipped away, Namjoon could feel his ears turning red with embarrassment, heard the small snigger from Jin, felt Maria's eyes on him. He sat back in his seat.

"Aster flowers. They're are representative of wisdom and royalty," Kimberly nodded, "It's the birth flower for September,"

"No way," he marvelled, "My birthday's in September!" he was both excited by the prospect of changing the subject and at the coincidence she had a tattoo that was linked to him.

Out of the corner of his eye he could see Jin, who was clearly having fun watching his friend struggle, could read from the way he was acting just how enamoured he was with Kimberly and could see she'd been affected by him too. But Jin kept his mouth shut, nodding enthusiastically to Namjoon to help him out a little.

"Yeah, well, so's my mom's..." Kimberly responded, the corners of her lips turned up at his excitement.

"Well, what would be the odds?" he chuckled back, the light shining in Kimberly's eyes reflecting at him and making him feel flustered. Across the row Taehyung had called for his attention, wanting him to translate something for him and Maria.

With Namjoon distracted, Kimberly found the courage to meet Charlotte's stare at last, look her best friend in the eyes and have one of their telepathic conversations.

She gazed knowingly at the bassist, he likes you.

She rolled her eyes, stop it.

The judgement and intrigue in Charlotte's expression wasn't hard to read and Kimberly knew that she had been watching her the entire time, had seen her flinch when he came close, had seen the bright flush of her face, watched her turn giddy and giggly like a school-girl, but she shook her head back at her to brush off anything more she could suggest.

Namjoon came back a moment later, smiling politely, his eyes crinkled and narrowed and his hand narrowly missed the arm rest as he sat down. Kimberly giggled at his clumsy. His eyes traced the outline of the tattoo again as he made his way back to her eyes.

"So..." he mumbled.

"So..." she smiled back.

"What's your birth flower, Kimberly?" he drawled, wrinkling his sharp nose at her, "Maybe I get yours tattooed on me and we'll match,"

The laugh.

He watched her shoulders shake, her hair bounce as creases appeared around her eyes, the giggle that turned into exuberant laughter, her tiny snort of amusement at the end flushing her cheeks all over again and he was consumed. He knew he wasn't in love exactly, but he loved the feeling of seeing happiness coursing through her, couldn't shake the way it him illogically happy.

"Red geranium," she chuckled at last.

"What month's that?"

"November 4th, 1996," she replied with a grin. She knew he'd want every detail eventually and found herself simultaneously wanting him to know.

"Happy birthday," he nodded, making a mental note, "What's the word again, when you wish someone a late birthday?"

"Belated,"

"Right. Thank you,"

Kimberly's face ached from smiling. When she looked back into those brown eyes, the word dreamy was the first that came to mind and he was charming, handsome too, so ridiculously handsome it made her stomach knot. Every word he spoke she found herself paying attention to each syllable, a sense of warmth and comfort in the natural timbre of his drawl, a hint of intelligence in the way he spoke. She wonder if it was obvious that she was hooked on knowing him, on the suspense of what if.

"So... your tour's been good?" she asked. There was something about him that provided a deeper level of interest and intrigue than she was used to, his Tony movements and the way his eyes lit up when he spoke exciting. She crossed her heels behind her.

"So far. I mean, I'm tired..." he mumbled, laughing at himself, "But I enjoy it a lot,"

"Me too," she tutted, "We must be insane,"

"But the travelling is the biggest perk for me," he noted.

"Oh, for sure. But... I also value my sleep," she chuckled.

"Not a morning person?" he asked.

"Not at all," she shook her head, "You?"

"I've kind of had to become one with these guys. But I prefer to get naps in," he told her, flicking his eyebrows up, "... a lot,"

She laughed, picturing his lumbering figure curled up in a tour bus or small couch while everyone else was wide awake, or him with his head lolling onto someone's shoulder. She wondering if he snored, if he was a peaceful sleeper, if he tossed and turned in the night.

"But I love putting on a good show for everybody -- how tired I get doesn't matter when I'm up there, you know?"

She nodded, but he internally scolded himself. Of course she had to know, but then he couldn't wrap his head around how this tiny, humble girl could transform into a rockstar and give stunning performances when she had a bass guitar and people were screaming for her. Of course she had to appreciate the energy and the passion they both had for music.

"Oh, absolutely. Some of our fanbase is still pretty young, but seeing them get so passionate and inspired at our shows... it's all worth it," she mired, "Where are you off to after this?"

"To my hotel, probably,"

She simpered, "I mean where are you traveling next?"

Namjoon scratched at his nose in thought.

"Uhh... we got some more shows across Europe and then we head back home for the holidays for a couple weeks. After that we tour back through Asia..."

"What part's your favourite?" she asked.

"Singapore for sure. So friggin' beautiful," he smiled.

"Oh, yeah! Darius went last year!" Kimberly chirped, glancing peripherally at Charlotte, "He wouldn't stop going on about it,"

Darius?

"Wait, I might've missed something," he chuckled awkwardly, glancing at the other faces in the aisle than raising his brows in confusion, "Who's Darius?"

"Right -- sorry. My boyfriend,"

He flinched.

No.

No way.

Namjoon felt his heart sink, his jaw drop a little and he tensed to stop himself from overreacting.

"Oh, you got a boyfriend?" he nearly sputtered in shock.

He could feel all the eyes in the room seemingly burning into him. Jin, not really able to keep up with their conversation, could nevertheless recognize the defeat in Namjoon's face, and he seemed just as surprised and almost as heartbroken as he was. Charlotte was suddenly attentive to their conversation, Chloe and Maria were still attempting to keep the rest of the guys' attention occupied. But worst of all was Kimberly's expression, blinking brightly like her words hand't just cursed him entirely.

"... Do I not look like I have a boyfriend?" she laughed. There was a hint of feigned insult in her voice but he could tell she was only joking.

"I didn't mean it like that," he clamoured hastily, holding his hands up in defence, "It's just... you took me off guard, is all..."

"Right..." she continued slowly, trying to read his reaction. HIs head dipped a little now, that fearless eye contact broken and she felt bad for a split second that she hadn't clarified the detail the had obviously upset him, panicked at the thought she'd accidentally given him the wrong idea somewhere amongst their conversation, "I'm sorry, I should've said something..."

"No, it's okay," he muttered, fiddling with his ring anxiously before he found the courage to meet her gaze again, "You said he had a good time? In Singapore?"

"Yeah," Kimberly nodded back, forcing a smile through the lull in conversation.

A silence filled the air and she tried to think of something, anything to say that would ease the tension she was sure she'd unintentionally created. The tension was clear to both bands, awkward and still. Chloe and Hobi just looked blankly at each other, Suga and Taehyung were confused as they tried to figure out what was happening, Charlotte had averted her gaze from Jimin to the ground and Maria and Jungkook were still trying to have some sort of conversation to keep the spirit up. Right on cue, one of the venue ushers approached the girl band, letting them know it was time for them to hit the stage.

"Okay, let's go girls," Maria called, patting Charlotte on the back.

Jungkook cleared his throat, "Good luck," he said, scratching at his neck awkwardly as he looked to Namjoon. Charlotte, Chloe and Kimberly stood up and began to file after Maria. Kimberly gave Namjoon one last fleeting glance, guilt clouding her gaze. Nevertheless he smiled at her, wishing her well.

"Break a leg," he said, trying to keep his shaky composure together.

He couldn't decide what he wanted now, thought that her watching his set and vice versa would be too agonizing now that the prospect of having her fully to himself was off the table. However, she was still full of vivacity and warmth, she still smiled at him like she'd known him her entire life, he still needed to be close to her, to know her.

"Thanks. You too," she nodded back confidently.

As they filed out of the row, Maria took Kimberly's arm and leant in close to her, dropping her voice so nobody else would hear.

"Babe, I think you just broke his heart,"

"Ladies and gentlemen, without further ado, this is Catch the Caper,"

Only a few of the boys had heard of Catch the Caper, thanks to Hobi of course. They were all fascinated as the staging lights flickered white, illuminating the girls' silhouettes as the dimming lifted. A peaking guitar melody was the set up for Charlotte's heavy and heavenly voice as she opened the verse for their newest hit, 'Airhead'. Maria's guitar played heavily against the reverberation of Kimberly's bass. It was a different song that stood out from the performance line up, extremely reminiscent of the 2000s pop punk scene though nevertheless, it was clear that the self-depricaing banger had everyone by their necks.

There was no doubt in Namjoon's mind why the girls were garnering so much love and hype, their new rock sound pulled from influences like Bush and Amy Winehouse. Charlotte was a powerful singer, she could give whiplash from how quickly she switched from being soft and moody to bombastically powerful and direct in her lyrics. Maria was a passionate guitarist, hyping up the crowd before her while hitting zinging chords, all the while Chloe's pink and green hair flew wild as she drummed away, ardent but precise in every beat. And then there was Kimberly, off to stage right but involved nonetheless as she played, moving on the stage almost as much as Charlotte was.

He was transfixed by her yet again, her curls bounced fervently, her slim fingers picking away in her detailed harmonic rhythm. The lights began to flash from black to white, nearly blinding him, and he knew there was no way she could find him from up there. Nevertheless from the way she looked out into the crowd, her eyes darted across the audience as though she was doing just that. Namjoon diverted his gaze as much as he could, focusing on Charlotte hammering a high note in the chorus.

The electricity in the air was contagious. Jimin was the first in the band to jump out of his seat and start cheering them on. He and the rest of the venue had been infected with the darker pop rock energy the girls brought to a show, traditionally having been made up of performances of EDM pop hits or hip hop bangers. Not that the mashup with Khalid and Imagine Dragons wasn't great, because it was, but Catch the Caper had this spark of an element that had been missing from the music charts for a while.

The set closed out with Maria's electric guitar solo, paired with an enthusiastic drum solo from Chloe; the girl nearly knocked over her drum kit from how hard she was rocking out. Charlotte's outro was peppy and sizzling, a brutal admission of self destructive behaviour and bad habits that had to be kicked for her own good.

The adrenaline pumping through Namjoon for his own show, paired with his rapid-beating heart after their performance sat unwell with the nervousness he felt watching Kimberly. He marvelled at her talent, he never would've figured such a rock icon would be hiding within her sweet girl persona.

He wondered if it was wrong to still appreciate her even though he was broken over not being able to have her, if her boyfriend was the jealous and possessive type, if she even knew how deeply affected by her he was.

The girls took their bow and ran off stage, and no sooner did BTS have time to recover from that shock to their adrenaline when another usher approached, letting them know it was their time to get ready.

There was a brief lull whilst equipment was being swapped around and the stage was being reset for the next artist. The boys were in the green room, swapping out their black and white ensembles for something more colourful and eye catching. The energy was paralleling excitement and anxiety, the pressure of having to put on a good show for the Americans was weighing heavy on all of them.

Jin however was curious. As he loosely knotted his neck tie he strolled over to Namjoon while he sprayed some holding product in his hair.

"You look like you're about to be sick," he said.

Namjoon shook his head, "Nah, I'm good," to make his point, he set the can of hair product down and jumped up and down a few times, "I'm hyped. I'm ready,"

Jin chuckled under his breath, "Are you sure? I saw your face with Kimberly earlier,"

Namjoon scoffed, "Yeah, I think everybody did,"

Jin huffed, bringing a hand down on the younger boy's shoulder, giving him a small, rough squeeze.

"Joon, do you like her?"

"I don't know..." he shrugged off Jin's hand, "Not like I can do anything about it,"

"Because of her boyfriend?" he asked.

"And our contracts," he huffed back, checking his appearance in the mirror, popping his jacket collar, "No public dating,"

It was a sad, but in some cases, necessary truth. Dating in the idol world was considered a big no-no, for branding and investment reasons. While it sounded a little barbaric to some, the numbers for the record labels held true that BTS' public image of being 'single and available' was great for income. Namjoon had had a few relationships in his life nonetheless, some serious, some not so serious, but all of that came to a halt when the band really took off at the beginning of the year.

Jin tutted, muttering quietly to him, "Namjoon, do you like Kimberly?" he asked again.

"... I guess I do," he replied.

"Well, there's no harm in getting to know her... on a basic level," he nodded, winking at Namjoon encouragingly, "Not that you heard it from me," his glance switched to their tour manager who was thick in conversation with Suga, not paying either of the other boys any mind.

Namjoon raised his eyebrows, tugging nervously at the collar of his shirt. He too took a glance at their manager, knowing the scolding they'd get if he got wind of what they were talking about. A grin pulled into his lips as he looked back to Jin, smacking him in the arm.

The production manager for the show popped his head in, letting the band know they had ten minutes until show time. The boys made their final touches to their appearances, had one quick pep round together, and filed out accordingly.

In the chaos of production engineers, crackling radios, and an overall dark backstage, Namjoon spotted another band, The Chainsmokers, rehearsing their intro for BTS. Beside them was Catch the Caper, hurriedly packing up their instruments. Kimberly looked up in time to catch his eye, taking a tentative glance at her girls before jogging over.

"Hey,"

"Hey,"

Jin stopped mid stride, glancing curiously at the pair while the other boys went on ahead.

"You feeling good?" she asked him, sounding solid and calm as though she hadn't just rocked out to well over a thousand people.

"I am. I'm excited," he nodded, "Your set was incredible,"

"Thanks," she smiled back, "I'm excited to see yours,"

Something in him wanted to reach out to her again, see if she flinched or relented into his touch, but he knew he couldn't and he shoved his fists into his coat pockets, fighting with his own self-control. Kimberly watched as his eyebrows knotted together, a deep crease between them which she'd never noticed before.

He chuckled nervously, "It's been really cool getting you to know you, tonight,"

"Yeah," she agreed, smiling, "You're not so bad, either,"

He glanced at the ground, licking his lips and nodding to himself as if reassuring himself of something.

"Would it be alright if I messaged you sometime?" he asked, bordering on a nervous mumble.

Her smile grew and she threw her hands over her chest.

"Shut up. You mean the great RM of BTS wants to text me? Somebody pinch me!" she gaped teasingly.

"The honour is more mine," he replied.

Namjoon simpered; he'd reasoned with himself and had come to terms with the fact that anything more than a friendship was off limits, but he wanted that at least, wanted to see her again.

It was too dark for Namjoon to notice the flush in Kimberly's cheeks but she bit the inside of her cheek anxiously knowing her face was heating up. She studied his own, the timid scrunch of his nose and the way his eyes curled up like half moons and knew there was no suggestion or flotation in his voice or in the action, so she took a look around. A tech with a clipboard was walking by.

"Excuse me, can I borrow your pen?" she asked. The tech obliged her, not batting an eye at the pair. Kimblery turned to Namjoon, "Gimme' your hand,"

He anxiously looked towards the boys waiting for him, ready to go on at their cue but he obliged Kimberly anyway. She pulled up his jacket sleeve and scribbled her number on his arm, the cap was firmly clamped between her teeth. As if he needed another reason to find her adorable.

"There," she beamed once she'd finished, "I assume you have WhatsApp?"

"I do," he nodded, "You guys should come to our show next week, you know, if you like this one,"

"I'll check with the girls," she agreed.

Maria looked up when she realized Kimberly had disappeared, turning around and finding her talking to Namjoon again. She smacked Charlotte's arm to get her and Chloe's attention, the three of them watched -- curious and anxious -- as Kimberly appeared to be breaming at his attention.

Namjoon jumped when he heard his name being hollered, his manager was waving him down. The music started up again and The Chainsmokers were gone, it was their cue.

"Break a leg, Namjoon," Kimberly smiled.

"Thanks. I'll catch ya later," he gave her a sly wink.

With a twitch in his lips that put her at ease, she watched him run off, Jin patting his back and whispering something into his ear as they went to take their spots.

Despite the obvious connection she felt with Namjoon, the way they clicked, she had told herself not to get too attached to him, that they were strangers passing and that tonight was probably the only time they would ever meet. But when she watched him on stage, she observed him in his element, she forgot all about that.

He truly could dance that fast, so clean and precise, the whole group moved as though they were one conscious being. There was so much to explore in the swagger, the charisma, the effortlessness of his performance that accentuated his raw talent, his fluffy hair in his face and eyes, the look of pure dedication and a cocky smirk on his lips, how his face lit up when the audience lost their mind for them. He was incredible, a dynamite performer that Kimberly had never experienced before. Something in her, some deeper conviction to always trust her gut told her that it wasn't over, that she would see him again because she had to.

#bts #bts namjoon #kim namjoon #namjoon x reader #bts x reader #bts fanfic #bts jin #bts jimin #bts taehyung #bts jhope #bts suga #bts jungkook #original story #original female character #band blog #band imagine blog #band imagines #kimberly rothstein

[alienelvisobsession]

THIRST WATCH #3: “Jailhouse Rock”

Elvis is really good as an insolent brat. He’s kind of an asshole, an insufferable but irresistible James Dean with a guitar and a bad attitude. There’s no real reason for him being like that, other than feeling powerless early on in the movie. In other words, he’s a rock ‘n’ roll “rebel without a cause”.

Very improbable to kill a man with three single punches, don’t you think? Also, why is Elvis always starting a fight next to a jukebox? 😂

The guards flog him in jail, which was kind of a puzzling scene. Good Elvis movies seem to need one of those (spank, kidnap, rape, you name it). Probably it’s there so you feel sorry for Vince. It also provides an explanation as to why later on he’s such a cynic who only seems to care about money and women. Well, and also it gave us this mental image…ahem… I wonder if girls and women back then also saw something sexual in this.

I was almost expecting Johnny Cash to come in and sing “Folsom Prison Blues” at one point lol. 😂

I thought most of the movie was going to be set in the penitentiary. What a disappointment when Vince gets out. But I guess he wasn’t sexy enough in those prison clothes. Instead, we get Vince Everett in a lovely striped jacket. Yummy!

Lady: “I say atonality is just a passing phase in jazz music. What do you think, Mr. Everett?” Vince: “Lady, I don’t know what the hell you talkin’ about”. [storms out of the room theatrically]

“That ain’t tactics, honey. It’s just the beast in me”. ICONIC! I love Vince’s sass and his mumbling fast talk.

The “Jailhouse Rock” dance number was undoubtedly an inspiration for “Cell Block Tango”, plus the plot of “Chicago” is kinda similar. Oh, and Gene Kelly was apparently watching when they filmed that scene.

You know how Elvis’ movies often show things from his real life? It is really astonishing to me that a tooth cap he had inhaled during the dance sequence had to be surgically removed by parting his vocal chords and in the movie there is a very similar scene where Vince has a tracheotomy and they’re scared in both cases that it will impact his voice. 😱 Sorry but I can only handle Elvis’ health scares that get resolved!

“Gee Vince, when you sing it’s really gonesville.” True. I love “You’re So Square (Baby I Don’t Care)”! Why is he wearing a turtleneck sweater in the summer in the pool scene by the way? That’s gonesville (I don’t really know what that means, but it sounds funny).😅

Vince is pretty unlikable until the last few minutes, but you can’t take your eyes off of him. He is always so surly, maybe because of the way life has treated him before, or maybe just because of a rebellious attitude he cannot shake off. He’s just being kind of an asshole to be honest, but when that leads to him almost losing everything with that punch on the throat, he decides to change his attitude. For once, an Elvis movie where the screenwriters wrote an ending that makes sense and left me satisfied.

Lovely movie. EP is really hot and he has some great songs. My favorite so far. I already want to rewatch it. Maybe “King Creole” is technically a better movie, but I feel that this is more culturally relevant. When Vince rejects intellectual discussions about jazz music he’s reaffirming the instinctual quality of rock ‘n’ roll music and reminding us of that raw talent that we like so much in Elvis’ early records.

Other thirst watches:

King Creole

Blue Hawaii

#elvis #elvis presley #elvis movies #jailhouse rock #1950s cinema #rock n roll #1950s rock n roll #1950s music #1950s #1950s culture #thirst watch

[epersonae]

Ao3 wrapped multiples of 3~

3. What work are you most proud of (regardless of kudos/hits)?

for the benefit of all the broken hearts (hereafter ftboatbh, I hate this acronym but there it is) is one of the pieces of writing I'm most proud of in any genre or medium in my entire life. it was my obsession most of the year and I worked so hard on it, both in the writing and in the editing.

6. Favorite title you used

[answered (and it's BIGFOOT STOLE MY HUSBAND)]

9. Favorite pairing you wrote for this year?

I looked at this question, and I stared into space for like three minutes, because, like the whole complicated tangle of carlitaverse (goddamn I loved writing that Mary/Carlita missing scene) but also canon/regular modern AU, and Ed/Stede is such a good fun thing to write (the final installment of devil's threeway! Commit to the Bit! BIGFOOT STOLE MY HUSBAND!)

12. How many WIP’s do you have in your docs for next year?

Like, active WIPs? I have two that actually have some meat to them, three that are mostly just notes, one outline of plot ideas that I may be gifting to @frommybookbook, and a vaguely cursed idea that I threw down a couple of paragraphs of last night.

15. What WIP are you taking into next year with you?

As far as "I have posted part of it to AO3 and I'm planning to finish it", just the one, end up several worlds away, which should just have one chapter left, and that chapter is in progress, sort of. (as you know!)

18. The character that gave you the most trouble writing this year?

Another "I looked at this and stared into space for a while" question, and as soon as I said it out loud I knew it was Ed specifically in ftboatbh (which is one of the reasons that the first chapter of end up several worlds away even exists tbh)

21. How many kudos in total did you get this year?

855

24. Did you write any gifts this year?

Nope! (I wrote some "related works", but no gifts)

27. What do you listen to while writing?

THE LONELIEST TIME BY CARLY RAE JEPSEN (ok, not just that, but in that vein, any writing of any length is generally associated with a particular album or playlist, so Hungry for love, ready to drown was mostly written to the S1 playlist, and can't cross the same river twice was written to a combination of Goths by The Mountain Goats and Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can’t We? by the Cranberries, etc, etc.

30. Biggest surprise while writing this year?

That ftboabh was such an obsession, that it ended up being so goddamn long, and to some extent that I was able to make it work at all. (And also the whole chapter 17 situation in particular.

[ao3 wrapped writers edition]

#ask games #my writing #my fic #carlita coded content #(including that tag because I may want to find this later because of some of these answers) #thanks for the ask friendo

[arianaofimladris]

I tried the third season. After the initial facepalm of the first three minutes, after swallowing the fact that Yennefer-imposter character is acting exactly opposite to Yennefer character (no surprise there), I decided to look at it as a parody. Worked just fine for about the next fifteen minutes. I mean it was in a way hilarious, watching how after two seasons the scriptwriters realised they had forgotten to show in any way any kind of relation between Geralt and Yennefer, other than them being two characters who randomly fucked in two episodes of the first season. So to make it up and pretend to build some kind of background and past, the characters were made to casually reminisce all the weird places they had sex in. Yeah, while the physical aspect of their relations is a huge part in canon, in relation to what season 2 presented, and what we get to see, it was ridiculous.

I really liked Yarpen, the actor is doing great job and Yarpen seems lively and in character.

And just as I was beginning to settle in watching this as a comedy and parody, Jaskier came in, looking and behaving pathetic and sort of unable to utter a sentence. Mouthy, cheeky, cocky and impertinent Dandelion reduced to this. Nah, thanks.

And then sadly I was reminded of that bullshit subplot with the elves and Francesca, followed by some bullshit about the elves obsessing over Ciri, followed by the bullshit Ciri served about how she is going to unite everyone. What the hell. It's not Star Wars,, for God's sake. Followed by the Sherrawed fighting scene that looks more elaborated than that sneak peak they published some time ago, but still has so many idiotic sequences and illogical shots (like Geralt strolling casually in the background while a second later he's running and picking back a knife he had supposedly thrown?. Or the fact that they made a trap and Geralt left Rience alive (yeah, because the plot will demand his presence later)) .

I gave up at the "drama" of Jaskier being shot and "dying" and being ridiculous while doing so. The cringe was too hard there.

All in all, I tried only to make sure my initial idea of simpky watching some cool scenes without having to deal with shitload of the plot the scriptwriters came up with was the best I could have. I guess I will just wait for the Internet to tell me where to find in these episodes scenes I might enjoy watching. Like Geralt fighting. Or perhaps Geralt visiting Codringer and Fenn, I saw a photo and it looked nice.

Yennefer is still butchered to the point where she only shares the name and eye color with Yennefer of Vengerberg. The last word I would ever use to describe Yennefer of Vengerberg is pathetic or pleading and that's what I see - but then hardly a surprise, given how the character arc was butchered in the previous season, they had to continue that.

With Ciri the issue remains too - her character is still being written as that of a teenager, at this Belletyn festival she acts like a cheery kid and that is all nice, except it is being performed by an actress who simply looks too old. Don't get me wrong, she looks nice and pretty, but she looks her age, between 25 and 30, she does not have this kind of "endless child type of beauty" - and as a result her looks do not correspond with how her character is written. It's jarring.

Geralt is always nice to watch except when you get a close up look on the hideous lenses they still haven't changed in all this time.

#Twn #Twn spoilers #Spoilers #The witcher Netflix spoilers #I hope I tagged this enough #Personal #Thoughts on the first episode

[skrunksthatwunk]

ok so idk if this is a hot take or whatever but i rewatched the rgg movie from 2007 and that shit ROCKS i like it so much more now bc like,, the first time i watched it i was expecting a straightforward adaptation of the first game's plot and that's just fully not what it is at all nor what it was trying to be

like yeah most of the nishiki final boss stuff at the end is pretty underwhelming but it's not about him. it's about kamurocho!! it's about the reasons people turn to crime and the humanity of everyone involved except for jingu lmao and how fucking bonkers mad you feel when it's a little too hot outside and?? sadomasochism??? between the masochist info guy and majima using the same door slamming technique on kiryu that he used for said info guy and then the very very sexual connotations to the majima chestsitting knife dick shot in the bedroom at the soapland I'm just saying there are. implications. like additional ones to the inherent ones of the kazumaji dynamic like yeah!! that's all good. and once you stop waiting on game events to happen you can just like,, enjoy the stuff happening in it. it's a very character-centric movie and that scratches an itch for me.

it's also like wayy funnier than i remembered lol. some of it's not really on purpose like the cg helicopter just skating all over town shattering windows for idk reasons I guess. probably because jingu's an asshole? idk you could probably read meaning into jingu's symbol of power carelessly wrecking kamurocho but i think it's probably just for shits. but like,, the baseball stuff (the scene where majima calls their match a doubleheader and then the subtitles explain what that is for like three lines over like 30 seconds of gunshot footage is fucking top notch) and kiryu's flip phone troubles and the hostage takers requesting nice expensive food and the hostages thanking them and then the cop being like "if they'd asked for anything more expensive we would have taken them out" and all that idk I'm so endeared to it rn

i also find it kinda fascinating that majima is so present in this because like,, to my understanding, before the release of 0 (and therefore before kiwami's majima everywhere system and whatnot), majima was considered this kinda random side character, like he'd just show up whenever and fuck off again like that. he played a much smaller role. he's not even especially important in the og yakuza, and this came out around 9 months before y2 so it's just based on y1 majima's vibe. yet they gave him significantly more attention than nishiki or kazama or even yumi (though all three were sorta background figures it's like they were already ghosts. man kazama doesn't even DIE in this, he just leaves. they make up for him living by making nishiki's hair a casualty bc oh my LORD what was that jdhshsh). truly goes to show what a silly guy does to a mf

(also they actually give majima and haruka an interaction here??? and he's kind to her and kiryu trusts him to not hurt her and she's like "idc I'll beat you up don't fucking TOUCH ojisan" and he's like "well damn. go on then" gah augh love. closest thing we have in rgg to my knowledge is majima kidnapping her offscreen and him [vague rgg5 spoilers] risking his and saejima's lives to save her bc she means so much to kiryu. here he just doesn't wanna hurt a kid)

obviously it's kinda weird to ditch most of the plot/key characters of the game and i don't think it's great that they tried to tie it in at the end how they did but like. eh idk I'm happy with it. it's a good time. i won't argue it's a masterpiece (mostly bc i don't like arguing over whether media is "objectively good" or whatever) but it DOES make me happy :D. so. thanks like a dragon (2007) mwah mwah xoxo

anyway point is it's about the vibes of playing yakuza, which is (for me) about getting immersed in the city and the little side plots of the people in it and whatever and then cramming the plot in last minute :)

#rgg #ryu ga gotoku #yakuza #kiryu kazuma #like a dragon #they also know how to make a guy look good getting beat up which is ABSOLUTELY a good chunk of the rgg experience #so good on them #dick shot in the soapland bedroom by the heartshaped bed sounds like a clue murder summary #anyway I think about that scene all the time. what a choice #we'll just make it so so blatantly homoerotic to make up for the fact that majima didn't take a knife for kiryu this time #and kiryu like smirks?? at majima when he challenges him at the batting cages?? i think? idk im bad w faces but i think he does #in a very :| way bc it's kiryu but still a notable way for like.. y1 era #truly ahead of its time bc he would go on to smile at majima when theyre about to fight in other games and also #all the time in my head #like a dragon 2007 #correction: there was NOT a heart shaped bed in the soapland room my brain just fully inserted one in there lol

[4fterthought]

Yes, He Man CGI season 3 has writing problems

- The snakemen are just kinda... there? The entire second season was dedicated to trying to stop Skeletor from releasing the snakemen, He releases the snakemen anyways. Oh no! the world is in danger due to all the snakes everywhere! Except no, the are dealt with mostly offscreen. Skeletor immediately switches gears to a different plan, one that has NOTHING to do with the snakes. These guys are even more pointless of a detour as they were in 200x. At least the ones in 200x had personalities. 

- The story struggles to flow in an easy to follow manner. The only way I can really explain it is like when you are playing a video game but you’re just following the quest by fast travelling to the locations to advance the plot, missing the bits that connect in a seamless transition. It just feels like the characters are going from place to place but accomplish next to nothing at each location besides get into another fight scene. 

- Speaking of fight scenes, there’s too many of them. Not only that, but I feel they were much sloppier this season than the last. A few were actually quite hard to follow, and that only a few had the proper amount of effort put into making them pop out like the more iconic ones from previous seasons. 

- We get back to back revelations that Grayskull colonized the merfolk and that Eldress committed genocide and we get... nothing? Both of these are immediately overshadowed by Teela parentage reveal and Eldress dying so it’s just kinda left at “Well that sucks ):” and then mer man dies and the plot just kinda moves on

- Did NO ONE on the writing team think of the implications of portraying the merfolk as blindly devoted to their colonizers and portraying their genocide as “sad but probably at least somewhat justified”??? ESPECIALLY RIGHT AFTER STATING THAT WEBSTOR AND THE OTHER SPIDERS ARE IDOLIZING STRATOS IN A SIMILAR WAY????? 

- Edgy He Man feels. Not so great. It feels like they weren’t so sure if the problem was that he was possessed, or evil, or just couldn’t use the sword, or just Edgy now, and I feel like it struggles with what they’re trying to portray the entirety of episode 5 until the end. 

- They wanted to have this big scene where all of the people He Man helped come together to show his impact to... redeem him and bring him back to clarity or whatever. However, since the show had surprisingly little of He Man making an impact on characters who could be there for that scene, the line up for the pep talk ends up being Stratos (who He Man bullied the entire time), Mosquitara (who’s redemption had been solely Stratos’ doing offscreen), Webstor (who didn’t even MEET He Man before his own redemption), and Gary (who is Gary).

- Season 1 had an entire episode dedicated to the others embracing Ork-0 as part of their main circle. Season 3, though? They don’t even THINK about him until the next time they need him to accomplish a task. They just left him to take care of the clones and bailed. That’s kinda messed up. 

- They gave the OG Orko an absolutely perfect chefs kiss design and then gave him a grand total of like. Three Minutes of screen time. I am sick and tired of this happening. 

- In season 1, Eldress has a line about how the original Orko didn’t have “True Heart” or whatever. It was super interesting because it implied some sort of au where the original Orko was never humbled by his magic being scrambled, leading him to remain arrogant, which was supported by Ork-0′s initial behaviour after coming into existence. The least the show could have done was actually... acknowledge it, once they got around to revealing the original Orko? Instead, his only real flaw is running away from his problems, which is something no different than any other iteration of Orko would do. There is no hint of arrogance, and he also still screws up his magic. Wouldn’t it have worked better if we actually gotten the chance to explore this alternate version of the character to directly compare environmental influence on him? no? ok, guess he’ll just solve his character conflict offscreen, then...

- why did they reveal orko’s legs. that did not need to happen. 

- Cringer didn’t have much to do this season besides the brief bonding moment with Randor. The entire Krass subplot isolates the conflict to between Adam and Krass, and Cringer, who presumably also was involved with Krass’ life, doesn’t really get any say of opinion besides one scene where He-Man voices his own conflicted feelings about the situation and Cringer’s just kinda like. Yeah. His feelings aren’t really acknowledged until after Krass is redeemed and he’s like “Yay you’re still alive and also not evil anymore!!” and that’s really all we get. Then he goes “I’m a protector not a predator!” as if he had some sort of character arc this season or that such a statement was ever in question.

- Duncan has it even worse off. He really only spends the season being comic relief and/or commentating on various plot developments. It’s quite bizarre since season 2 clearly set up that his intended arc would be his need for a family and experiencing things he did not get the chance to before i.e. birthdays. However, this season just kinda ditches that in his arc climax in exchange for Duncan reassuring himself that he is a builder, which had not been in question since early season 1, if that. 

- they gave man-e-faces the most interesting and compelling take of any man-e to exist and then promptly ditched him in this season to do nothing but flirt with evil lyn. why

- This show does not understand the concept of following through with stakes!! The whole show is just like “Oh no, we have to stop Skeletor from bringing back the snake men!!” but then the snake men arrive and are more or less taken care of within the first few episodes of 3. “Oh no! we have to stop the Eldress from dying!!” Except she dies and Teela’s just kinda ok with it now. “Oh no we have to get He-Man unhavoc’d!!” but it’s as easy as just. some guy he bullied for a few episodes giving him a pep talk about the power of friendship.  “Oh no! We have to stop Skeletor from getting Grayskull’s bones!!” Except he gets the bones and it does nothing besides bring him back and i guess give him immunity from the whole havoc/light conflict, and by the time it becomes relevant again he just immediately upgrades into a bigger creature rendering the previous change underwhelming. “Oh no! We have to stop the Goop™ from spreading across the land and making everyone evil!!!” Except literally two minutes after the wall is built (the others there still reacting to the wall having been built) the Goop™ promptly Goes Away, which means Duncan’s bare effort of a character arc was entirely pointless because the Goop™ problem could have easily just have been fixed by running away for a little bit. 

It’s absolutely baffling the season turned out this way, because season 2 was setting up for some great things. I had my worries about some potential slip ups I caught onto early on and braced accordingly, but I was shocked about how disappointed I was with the season anyways. It really is a shame, I wish I could have enjoyed it more.

I think it’s main problem is that, like Revelation, it just didn’t have enough episodes. I remember early on wistfully wishing we had got more of this show since I would have enjoyed more content, but now I REALLY wish we had more since the show can’t really stand without supplemental content.

But what’s absolutely wild is just how different these same sentiments vary from Revelation. With Revelation, I wish there were more episodes, because everything was Very Noticably compressed and merged and skipped over to make the plot fit into ten episodes. 

But with CGI, it just feels like there ARE more episodes, and that they are simply missing. 

It’s like if your friend watched a show that they really really liked, and wanted to recommend to you. However, since you don’t have time to binge a 100+ episode show, they just gather together a list of the main plot episodes, and maybe a handful of good episodes they liked that provided some content that fuled subplots and set up foreshadowing. Then you watch this collection of 26 episodes out of a 100+ episode show, and you are so, so lost. There’s callbacks you don’t understand, relationship bonds that appear out of nowhere, obvious foreshadowing that never comes back again, so much happening offscreen that you feel should have been covered, and you feel nothing when it’s over because you couldn’t bond enough with the characters. 

That was my experience watching this show.

It feels like Netflix is lying to me when I check the episode list and see the amount of episodes that appear each season. It feels like Everyone in the fandom who likes this show somehow managed to access an extra hundered or so episodes and years of development that I somehow missed out on. It’s such a bizarre phenomenon. Are all the Revelation haters just in denial and unwilling to admit that the “competing” motu show could also have bad writing? Are people just too preoccupied by Hordak appearing that they just straight up forgot everything else that happened this season?

I am just. so confused and disappointed after watching this season. just sitting here sighing with my head in my hands. why

#cgi motu #he man cgi #motu #masters of the universe #he man #he man cgi spoilers

[starship-argo]

I watched the ending of my favorite show (Star Trek: Enterprise) and I am distraught. The ending was the single most dissatisfying thing I have every experience and i’m going to tell you why. Enterprise is set in the year 2151 during the first long space voyage of Starfleet nearly 100 years before The Original Series take place. Great concept if you ask me.

Seasons 1-2 and two are really good. The characters and dynamic and the plots are fun and interesting. They establish the universe in a new way where humans are just breaking into the space scene and you get to learn about the ins and outs of alien culture with the characters in real time.

Season three was hot garbage. Far to much time travel to make any sense, they kill Trip Tuckers sister which sends him into a blatant denial which gets him killed (for the first time we’ll come back to this) The Enterprise travels into a pocket of space called The Expanse where beloved captive Jonathan Archer starts off preaching about how his morals are what make him human and ends up beaming into another ship, stealing their warp coils effectively stranding them with impulse speed 8 million light years from their home with 7 million light years worth of food. This is all fine and i’m willing to over look it because in season 3 we get the development of Trip And T’pols relationship. They are a fantastic couple who very clearly care about each other and fit into a sort of rivals to lovers that is to die for. In one episode they even see a possible future where they get married and have a child (they did half-vulcan half-human long before Spock).

Season three ends on a terrible cliffhanger and the watcher is left disappointed because there is no real ending. Season 4 starts and you can already tell the difference in the writing. (After the bomb of season 3 the show was renewed for one final season with half the budget and 1/4 the audience so the director brought in some Star Trek Novel writers and decided to cater more towards the long time fans rather than trying to gain new ones)

Season 4 eases out of the season 3 style with some tasteful time travel and of course Trip Tucker going through it. emotionally. Then they go back to individual adventures. Season 4 doesn’t really have a big plot with a main bad guy it’s more of 40-80 minute adventures that get resolved nicely. It’s a comfort season and i’m all for it. Then they decide to marry T’pol to the wrong person who quite frankly blackmailed her into it.

All in all season 4 is good up until the very end. The adventures make it seem like it’ll never end and we even get to explore the MirrorVerse for two episodes. And then the season finale. Instead of experiencing the end with the characters they go way forward to The Next Generation time and have the last voyage of the NX-01 Enterprise play through holographic retellings. The crew decided to help out Shran the Andorian (my favorite character) rescue is daughter from some mercenaries. When it seems they’ve gotten away with it bAm the bad guys catch them and in a last ditch effort to save Shran, Trip Tucker (my second favorite charater) Sacrifices himself and blows up a section of the ship. What’s worse is you find out that him and T’pol never got married and he never achieved his dream of becoming a star fleet captain. Trip is used as the series punching bag the whole time, he’s killed at least twice, his sister dies, the love of his life gets married to someone else even though she loved trip back and then they give him the most unsatisfactory death in the history of television. This man has survived countless close calls with death and he gets killed because of some random adventure??? and because this is all playing out over a recording you don’t even really see the characters mourn him!! they just move on with their lives after like 6 hours!!

I have some problems with the show but I do still love it. I wish they gave us a better ending and a longer run but I guess i’ll have to make do with the terrible mistreatment of Charles “Trip” Tucker III

#star trek #sorry for the rant #star trek enterprise #enterprise #trip tucker #star trek tng #t'pol #star trek rant #rant

[project1939]

Day 36- Film: Clash by Night 

Release date: June 16th, 1952. 

Studio: RKO 

Genre: Drama/noir 

Director: Fritz Lang 

Producer: Jerry Wald, Norman Krasna, Harriet Parsons 

Actors: Barbara Stanwyck, Paul Douglas, Robert Ryan, Marilyn Monroe 

Plot Summary: Mae Doyle returns home after 10 years when an illicit romance breaks up. No young woman anymore, she is now bitter and reclusive. When she and childhood friend Jerry begin dating, Mae tries to break it off, saying she would never be a good wife to him. Eventually she gives in and marries him, hoping that she can feel secure and learn to love him. It doesn’t take long for her to tire of his simple pragmatic ways, however. Jerry’s best friend Earl, meanwhile, falls desperately in love/lust with her. Will the temptation be too great to resist? 

My Rating (out of five stars): ***½ 

Damn, until about the last 10 minutes, I was going to give this 4 stars- even though I hated almost all of the characters! The ending nearly completely ruined it, though. Until then it was an unusually cynical and bleak movie for Hollywood in the early 1950s. It seemed obvious that it was an adaptation of a play, which it was, and it seemed obvious that the original ending was changed, which it was. I really struggle to even understand why this was adapted for the screen if a “happy” ending had to be tagged on to it. It completely compromises the entire thing. 

The Good: 

Barbara Stanwyck was impressive. She is definitely of the old school acting style, before the more naturalistic style we’re used to today became prevalent. Even so, I thought her performance was very effective. And my god, she played bitter and jaded well here! She gave me chills sometimes. 

Paul Douglas was also wonderful. A Letter to Three Wives is one of my favorite films, and I fell in love with him in that. He plays earnest everyman characters so well, and he’s always so likeable. His character in this is a bit weak and gullible, but also a genuinely good person. 

The main love triangle in this is between people who are all in their 40s! That is exceedingly rare for a Hollywood film even today. I loved the way that added a different layer of maturity and complexity. 

A lot of dialogue was really good, again, so no surprise that it came from a play. I usually try to jot down interesting quotes while I watch a movie, and there were so many, I kept having to pause this to get things written down. 

The cynicism and darkness were pervasive and engulfing. There was a kind of claustrophobia in all three of the main characters' lives, and it really made you feel trapped in a kind of hell with them. 

I hated so many of the characters, but they were real and made the despair of the story intense. Earl repulsed me on a physical level- I could barely stand to watch him. Mae was not a good person either. Jerry had a mooching uncle that I could barely stand. Even Jerry himself, generally being a good guy, was a bit annoying in how much he tolerated being around these terrible people. 

The Bad: 

The ending! The ending! I don’t know if I could ever tire of ranting about how stupid the ending was. Spoiler ahead: When Mae suddenly decided out of nowhere that she should go back to Jerry, it was ridiculous and totally out of character. When Jerry takes her back, I even said out loud, “Well, this will probably last a week!” Nothing about the film made sense with this kind of ending. 

Hating so many characters was a plus and a minus. The minus was that it made the movie hard to sit though at times. I could care less what happened to Earl or Uncle Vince or even Mae. 

If I didn’t hate Earl enough, he had a whole repeating segment about doing his “Chinese impression,” where he pulled at his eyes and made strange noises that sounded nothing like Chinese. I am SO SICK of these scenes in movies, radio, and tv shows! I hope they get less frequent as the project goes on, because I’m barely more than 1/3 finished. 

#project1952 #1952 #project1952 day 36 #100 films of 1952 #barbara stanwyck

[innestahtinen]

it's been a while since things about a movie, probably, i don't remember, and i'm not going reading through old posts. last year I watched all three Channel Awesome anniversary movies, and despite them being bad, i have been thinking about them, mainly it's in the third one, how they continued the running thing of not seeing Todd's face by making him Robocop. and they're in my movies yt playlist, so I'm doing it again.

Kickassia (2010):

last year, i gave it a 1.5/5.

i hadn't noticed it, but i think Lindsay Ellis is doing a Sarah Palin impression, but an impression of Tina Fey doing Sarah Palin; the whole 'I can see Russia from my house' thing.

'but Mars Girl is a woman' "sure she is, and I'm the tooth fairy' what? [ok, so this bit's from after I finished, and i was going to come back and say something about not knowing who wrote it, so I can't pin it on singularly that person, but then I remembered that this movie has opening credits, and Doug Walker volunteers himself. so I correct this] Hey Doug, what?

this movie shits on Jimmy Carter as a politician, the guy who warned about how the US needed renewable energy in the 70s, then the Reagan and Bush Sr. administrations said no.

i used to watch nostalgia critic for about a year in 2019, so i don't know who most of these people are, the only one i recognise is Linkara, so they're trying to do dramatic scenes with character stuff, but it means nothing currently.

'we heard gunshots!' "did they come from a gun" - unfortunately, that is the exact kind of stupid comedy i like.

unfortunately, that single point is counteracted by a line 3 minutes later; 'I feel like a puppy that got raped by a bulldozer' not really one for rape jokes.

is this a cutaway gag, but one that's the instructions for risk?

cameos work so well, especially when you don't know the people, but i've said that already.

there was a scene that really reminded me of the classic: 'but i didn't even get her email address' from Spy Kids 3D. for better or worse, given I haven't seen that movie either.

previously it was a 1.5 because it was just dull. and it's still 1.5/5

Suburban Knights (2011):

previously, this was a 2.5/5. it was more interesting, but still not good

ha ha, referring to character in one property by the name of a character from another property played by the same person, ha

i'm going to guess that Doug wrote this one too, in which case; What's his issue with Jimmy Carter, he seems like a nice guy. the guy from inside a book, from the 80s went; 'did we ever have a president worse than Carter?' but i guess that makes more sense, Reagan administration shitting on his legacy, making him look hapless, and all.

I've got less to say, the plot's more interesting, the acting's the same, but it's intended to be a fantasy not a drama, so it can work.

it's probably satisfying for the people who left Channel Awesome to see Doug lose twice in two movies.

To Boldly Flee (2012):

this was a 2/5, there's plot, it just relies even more heavily on knowledge from their videos.

I'm watching this three days later, had work so i couldn't watch it the next day. instead i watched Fantasia 2000 and The First Avenger, both much better movies than this.

there's a joke about 'Spoony' being attracted to his sister, which is kinda distasteful to begin with, but then i thought i remembered that he was the contributer who had a mental breakdown, looked it up, and he tweeted about having sex with someone, and people took it as being that he would rape her. i haven't seen the tweet, so I'm not sure. even so, jesus christ mate.

acting, emotions, the characters are seeing one of their friends maybe die, but they're blank, masterful, the layers of their performances, etc. etc.

poo jokes and penis jokes, sick. I'm not against a good penis jokes, and good thing too, because this one is... fine.

'zombies, dressed in confederate uniforms, fighting women in bikinis' does sounds like a B-movie that I'd hear about, go 'ergh, seriously?' and then never think about again, so i guess they get a point, good job Bradikan.

if any of the idea for the aftermath of the email-writing scene came from the people on-screen, then it's still concerning, but if Lindsay Ellis wanted to dress as Seven of Nine, sure, whatever. if it came from Doug, which it most likely did, what the fuck.

I don't know who she is, but the woman who got 'mind-altered' was pretty good.

not entirely sure what the death star parody is meant to be, it looks like a curling stone to me, but for the life of me i can't remember a scene where it was referenced.

i don't think that's the guy who played Ma-Ti.

'... I'm British, our only contributions to culture is comedic cross-dressing and spotted dick' - "FilmBrain", 2012.

turns out i'm an idiot, the death star is a bomb.

'you've got to point out the things that don't make sense' you mean what they were already doing, isn't that the bread-and-butter of this MCN, finding the small issues, and making references to other media and jokes out of them, then surely it shouldnt' expand any more, because they'll have already said it, and put it out into more public consciousness.

i bet the "that was a good crossover" 'this was too' was added in later in production, when they were getting to the end of the one week of filming.

it's still a 2/5.

if Dominic Noble was in them, it probably wouldn't have made them better movies, but i like the guy so it may have helped my enjoyment of them at least.

#nostalgia critic #linkara #lindsay ellis