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akeshuu · 4 years

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The World Rests, The Heart Doesn’t

Read in on AO3

Fandom: Mystic Messenger Words: 2604 Pairing: 707/MC, but they’re not together really Spoilers for Seven’s route and After Endings ~It is a weird AU where MC resets consciously, Seven was her first love and remembers and the other “routes” were always only platonic~ Now please enjoy this as my first entry to the fandom and the first fic I’ve written in months!!!

Love is a nightmare.

Love is waking up at night in a cold bed. Realizing you’re alone once more.

Love is pain. It’s longing. It is looking at your phone and seeing her name. It is the wish to simply chat with her, joke around, be free… And then the realization that she doesn’t know, doesn’t remember, doesn’t care.

Love is trying to catch her gaze, but seeing her smile for one of your friends instead.

Love is losing your heart, because you can’t control it. It belongs to you.

Love is death, because she unknowingly smashes your heart over and over again.

“I beg thee, God Seven-Oh-Seven, help me escape the fires of this hell!” MC sang overly dramatic and draped her arm over his shoulders, the movement so casual and familiar. His golden eyes searched for hers, but they were closed as she gave him a big smile. Seven’s heart skipped a beat, but it wasn’t out of happiness.

Her smile seemed so fake. All of them did in this timeline.

What was going on inside of her head?

“I somehow find it heart to believe you really need my help. But don’t worry, my Six-Oh-Six! I, the Defender of Justice, will do anything you need!”

“Heh, thanks, but I don’t really need justice right now. I need an escape from Jumin nyan-nyan and Zen’s tears.”

Fair enough. Their second party together had ended half an hour ago, but the RFA had to stay afterwards and clean up. Needless to say, they had yet to even start doing so. Inviting a cat-girl fan club turned out to be a huge mistake (In Seven’s defense, he had offered it as a joke and never expected her to approve… he should have known better), for Jumin had somehow gotten his hands on fake cat ears, tail and paw-gloves and was currently teasing Zen. This Jumin was a rare sight to behold and usually Seven would be enjoying herself, secretly documenting the whole night on his phone and joining in on the fun. But now, he felt too out of place.

“Okay, my beautiful princess, what do you want to do then?” He asked.

“How do you feel about a night walk?”

“And ditch them all here before we’ve even started cleaning?” This didn’t really sound like her.

“I do feel bad about Jaehee,” MC admitted “but they’ll manage without us. Come!”

She took his hands without waiting for a response and pretty much dragged him towards the exit.

The night breeze was cool against his skin. It was a beautiful clear night and he cursed the city for its lights. The stars were probably fascinating view from the mountain. He wanted to see them.

Despite for MC’s previous excitement, they walked side by side in silence. She had put one of her hands in her pocket of her jacket, but the other somehow refused to let go of his.

Seven wanted to ask her a question or break a joke. He longed to hear her voice, but couldn’t bring himself to break the silence.

It felt warm and welcoming. Her soft breathing eased his nerves. It was familiar.

And he hated it.

For things were different this time. She wasn’t his. He wondered if she ever had been. That time seemed as nothing more than a faraway memory at this point. He still treasured those little quiet moments, had gotten used to being with her.

He had no right to feel this way. Being by her side, holding her hand, and letting their hearts beat to the same rhythm, as if trying to become one… He didn’t deserve any of it.

“Luciel” she rarely called him by that name. He hated the sound of it on her lips. “If you had the choice to save your friends but hurt the one you care about the most or make that one happy and let the others on their own… Which would you choose?”

Her voice sounded so weak and quiet. Why?

“I’m a god, remember? Of course I can save everyone and still be charming as hell while doing it!” He lifted his arm, striking an unconvincing superhero pose.

“Please, just answer.”

What? No retorts? No joke? Not their usual goofing around?

Seven sighed.

“I probably would chose protecting that one person I love the most.” Saeran’s face popped into his head. Every time they had gone back to that day, the first thing he would do was figure out how to get ahold of his brother. He would always find him and just as he was about to find a way to get him out of that hell, they would go back in time again. But every time when he did it, he was prepared to leave the RFA behind to safe Saeran. It was no question that he would chose Saeran over any other person. Perhaps even over MC.

And that was exactly one of the reasons he was so worried this time. Because… it was different. Not only had it passed three whole months and MC hadn’t fallen in love with anyone, but Seven couldn’t find Saeran no matter how hard he tried. He had already gone to Mint Eye, found his way into the building, spied for a total of four days without being noticed… And nothing. He saw Rika, she was there and out of her mind. But the hacker’s room was empty the whole time and everyone kept gossiping that Rika’s favorite puppet Ray had suddenly ran away. That must’ve been Saeran, he realized. But where had he gone?

MC breathed slowly in, then out. The sound brought him back to reality.

“Do you-“ she nervously switched her weigh from one leg to the other- “Do you think I made the right choice then?”

“What do you mean?” He asked, although he already had a suspicion. However, it was too good to be true.

“I sometimes feel as if what I did was wrong, although I doubt that I would’ve changed anything if I had the chance. Still, I need to tell you that I’m sorry, Saeyoung,” her shoulders trembled as a sob escaped her lips. Seven could do nothing but stare in disbelief. “I’m sorry for leaving you all that time ago.”

She remembered. She remembered all of it!

But then…

“Why did you leave me then? And-“ whether it was sadness, anger or jealousy that creeped its way into his voice at that moment, he couldn’t say- “how could you fall in love with everyone if you remembered all the times before?”

“I didn’t fall in love with them. I don’t know what it was like from your eyes, but nothing really happened between me and any of the RFA members. I just wanted to help them heal after all the pain that… Rika left behind.” Seven had a suspicion that “Rika” wasn’t what MC wanted to call her at first. “And besides that, they weren’t the reason I decided to go back in time again the first time. I never expected you to remember, though.”

It took a second for Seven to realize what she was telling him. So MC somehow had the power to go back in time? And she had never actually been together with anyone but him. That didn’t sound right, because she had looked so happy with everyone else… And yet, no matter how hard he tried, Seven couldn’t recall one time when she had kissed anyone else or stolen loving glances while she thought the others weren’t looking. She had wanted to help them heal and had succeeded. Now, even though none of them showed any indication of remembering the other timelines, they all seemed peaceful somehow. As if they subconsciously knew of their time together and had faced their fears and insecurities.

“Why are you telling me this now?” Seven asked.

“Because,” MC offered a sad smile, “I have no intention of ever going back again.”

“You said your reason at first wasn’t to help our friends. And there were two times different than the others… Two times were you never joined us. Are those things related?”

She seemed to shudder at whatever memory that question recalled. Then she nodded and breathed in. She was reading herself to respond, Seven realized.

“I loved you more than I had ever loved anyone, you know. But once I met your brother, I knew that there would always be someone more important to you than me. And honestly, I was okay with that.” Her eyes glittered with the memories of other times. “But months went by and he never got better. He only got worse, actually. I knew he loved you, but too much things had happened too fast. Losing Rika and then finding out that everything he believed in was a total lie, knowing that he was used, drugged and abused… And on top of that, the guilt of murdering V… It was too much for Saeran to bear he wasn’t able to heal from that. I knew that you would never be really happy this way, either. So I decided to give him another shot in life. The first time I “reset”, I declined joining the RFA and instead let him take me to Mint Eye. I had in mind to slowly reveal the truth to him. I wanted to make him trust me enough to agree meeting you and help him find his way. I wanted him to find out who he was on his own and finally come to terms with his past… But turns out he remembered, just like you did.” She gulped and stopped. It took a minute or two before she could speak again. “He wasn’t happy at all that “Saeyoung’s dog had come to ruin his life once more” and-and that was it.”

Seven knew there was more to it, but he also knew he shouldn’t pry more. It was obvious by the way her body tensed or how her gaze seemed unable to focus.

“But last time, I finally managed to talk to him! It was mainly pure luck that I bumped into Ray instead of Saeran,” she mumbled the last few words. Seven wasn’t exactly sure what he meant by that, so he made a mental note to ask later what exactly the deal with Ray and Saeran was.

“But I somehow managed to talk to him and get him to trust me. He turned out to be such an incredible person beneath all of that and he was actually the one who made me reset again. Wait, I want to show you something.”

She then took her phone out of her pocket and unlocked it with a few movements. Only when she let go of his hand to do so, did he realize that their arms had been linked during the whole conversation.

He was confused. The conversation had brought a new weight with it, one that was threating to beat him to the ground and make him fall, fall, fall. He felt angry and betrayed. When she had left him for the first time, it felt as if he was being left all alone. He felt unworthy of love and utterly useless, but at least he thought that she didn’t remember. Knowing she hadn’t left him on purpose gave him at least a drop of hope that he was still worthy of living and perhaps even worthy of her, if she went to all the trouble of really getting to know him again.

Now he knew better. Knowing she had indeed left him by choice broke him. But at the same time, she had done this for him and their friends, and for his brother. She had suffered as well, but for his sake. And realizing that she hadn’t let go of his hand during her confession brought a warm feeling to his heart that he had deemed long lost.

“Here,” she said and handed him her phone.

It was a private message in the RFA messenger, but with Unknown. His heart clenched at that.

“Please, read it,” MC said.

And so he did.

Unknown: I hacked the messenger, so here you go. Welcome to the RFA… again.

Now go get your man

And now that that’s done…

I’m leaving Mint Eye

Just as I promised.

MC…

Please don’t tell him yet. I’m still not ready to see him. But someday I will.

Thank you.

“But I still don’t understand. Why didn’t you tell me about all that when you joined us this time, three months ago? Or why are you telling me about Saeran, when he asked you not to?”

MC kicked a stone with the point of her shoe and watched it as it rolled down the pavement and on the street. She waiter for it to stop before speaking up.

“Perhaps it was selfish of me,” she explained, “but I was scared that you would get mad and never forgive me for consciously leaving you and prying into your and your brother’s lives when I had no right to. I avoided the truth in fear of you leaving me, which is kind of hypocritical considering the way I disappeared, but… I hoped that you wouldn’t be that disappointed in me if I reconnected you with Saeran right after that.”

Seven blinked in confusion. Before he could gather his thoughts to ask any of the questions he wanted, she put a finger to his lips and shook her head.

“Don’t ask any questions yet,” she almost begged, “Just wait with me in silence for a few minutes.”

At first he thought of ignoring her plea and ask her what was on his mind anyway. He wanted to know how she really felt towards him. He wondered why she was so scared when she had done all of this to help his brother and let them rebuild their family again. He longed to know what was going on with Saeran and what she had meant with that last bit.

But in the end he nodded and kept slowly walking at her side, their shoulders accidentally brushing against each other’s.

There was a motorcycle on the street, coming from in front of them. Seven paid it little to no attention. It was nothing out of the ordinary, after all. But MC’s eyes were glued to it and the moment it stopped right beside them (How the hell didn’t the driver fly out of his seat after stopping so suddenly from that speed?) did Seven realize why exactly that was.

“Hello, brother,” Saeran took off his helmet and offered a smile.

Saeyoung had a lot to figure out. He had to get to know Saeran and learn how to be a brother again. He had to figure out some things on his own, before offering himself to MC once more. There were many things left to learn, but at least he had already found out how to be Saeyoung again.

He was slowly learning one thing: the meaning of love.

For love is no pain and suffering. No nightmare.

Love is a dream. Love is a promise. Love is the goal of making someone happy, even if it means losing yourself.

Love is the gift of a warm smile, reserved only for you.

Love is the affection of your brother, even when hid behind salty remarks and grumpy sighs.

It is waking up and realizing that you’re not alone in the world.

Love is family.

If there is something Saeyoung knows that Seven never would, it is the meaning love.

#rosi writes #mystic messenger #mm #mysme #mysmes #fic #fanfic #fanfiction #seven #luciel choi #saeyoung choi #saeyoung x mc #saeran choi #rfa #au #reset theory #mint eye

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chittapornswife · 5 years

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DNYL Club | 8.

A/N: This one was a bit more exciting for me to write just cause I’ve written for so many interactions between the reader and the other members but I haven’t had enough one on one time for the reader & jeno :((( but this idea came to me legit at work when I was super bored & thought to myself “hey why don’t I think abt what to write for the next chapter?” LOL. And lo and behold, we have chapter 8😎✌🏼 Anyways, hope you enjoy & once again, thank you for the feedback!!! I rlly love hearing & replying to what everyone thinks :’D ♥️💗♥️💗 P.S. - also thank you for 900 followers! I can not believe over the course of a couple of months I’ve gained almost 300 new followers..... what...the...heck...

Genre: high-school!au, non-idol!au, fluff, angst Word Count: 4.4K Type: NCT Dream X Reader

“I’m sorry, you want me to what?!?!” You coughed out, choking on your drink.

Jeno rolled his eyes at your action, probably thinking that you were over exaggerating as he calmly took a sip of his chocolate milk.

The both of you were at the same breakfast place you had gone to the other day with Chenle, Café La Forêt. As Jeno had left you extremely curious on what he wanted to ask of you so you’d decided the easiest place to meet up would be to go out to eat brunch. Thankfully, you had gotten used to these random messages because of Jaemin, Renjun and Chenle but you’d still tossed and turned a bit at night wondering what Jeno wanted to ask. So to put your mind at ease, you’d replied to him in the middle of the night saying,

“Sure, we can meet up at ( location link ) then.”

It was only then, that you’d been able to fall asleep in peace. But there was still a bit of nervousness. With the others you could predict what they would ask or what they would say since you’d spent so much time talking to them. You’d only talked very briefly with Jeno in the library twice and even if it had been longer, you still couldn’t fathom on what he was going to ask you. He wasn’t quite a chatty or open guy.

For all you knew, it could be about joining the basketball team or to help him out with something related to school. But when you’d arrived and ordered food, you certainly hadn’t expected for this to come out of his mouth as he reiterated it again for you now,

“Can you act as my fake boyfriend/girlfriend for a day?”

note: (gender neutral tings😎👌🏽)

And now he was waiting for your response which quite frankly, you didn’t know what to say besides:

“Why me?”

He took in a deep breath, looking annoyed at your question. But you deserved the right to be curious and to ask. After all, he was dragging you into becoming his significant other or well, fake significant other for a day. But why?

“A couple days ago my gir- ex.” He pursed his lips, “My ex messaged me asking to get back together. I don’t know if you remember my story but basically she was a close family friend that cheated on me with someone just about two weeks ago. I ended things with her and now she’s constantly been messaging me to get back together.”

Well she seemed quite persistent and possibly bratty.

Jeno took another sip of his milk as a waitress brought out your food, placing it on the table,

“Of course I’ve ignored and even blocked her on some social media. But two nights ago she used a dirty trick by calling my parents on our home phone while I was out for bball practice and asked if I was free for dinner. And without even asking my availability, they agreed on my behalf.”

Huh. Your mind was going a mile a minute at all of this new and detailed information. Thank god the waitress had left before hearing the last half of his words.

“Basically they never knew about our relationship so they agreed to her invitation, thinking that we’re still best-friends and I’d never say no to her. So now I’m being forced to see her tomorrow night for dinner.”

“Woah woah, hold up. I’m sorry, tomorrow night?!?”

Jeno nodded calmly, a bit agitated at your loud reaction as it was drawing some attention from a couple people around you. But had he expected you to be all fine and dandy after hearing all of this? Would he have been alright if someone he’d only talked to a couple of times suddenly asked him to act as their fake boyfriend and accompany them out to dinner with that person’s ex???

If so, there had to be something wrong with him.

“Yes, tomorrow night. I don’t get why you’re being so dramatic, it’s only one night and I can repay you in anyways. I just want her to hopefully stop pestering me.”

You closed your eyes, taking in a deep breath and reminding yourself not to blow up because as absurd as this whole situation was, Jeno was still intimidating and would most likely not put up with your reactions for long.

So when you opened them, feeling a bit more cool and collected, you asked again,

“But you still didn’t answer my question. Why me?”

He scowled, sticking his hands in his pockets replying, “Well I couldn’t really ask Jaemin could I? The smaller art boy’s too moody and would ruin it. She definitely wouldn’t believe me if I was going out with the sophomore and that would only leave me with the freshman who jumps at the sound of a feather falling to the ground. Besides, I don’t know nor talk to many other people and I don’t trust easily either.”

Was Jeno trying to tell you he trusted you?

“It’s not that I trust you.” He rushed out, probably thinking the same thing as you, “But I’ve noticed you don’t share secrets and wouldn’t talk about this matter again. Sure, you may get intimidated by me for some reason but you get along with everyone equally and I believe you’d be able to help.”

He started to eat, waiting for your response as you stared at your food in thought.

There was already so much happening in your life with Mark, Julie, exams, end of the school year, Chenle and Jisung and some other things you couldn’t even remember at the moment. Did you really want to add another problem?

Then again, it was only for one night and Jeno was pretty serious with his words. Added onto that, it was going to be a dinner on a Monday night so you could always leave early with him because of school and you just really had to act.

But why was there a bad feeling bubbling in your stomach?

“Can I think about it for a while longer?”

His fork stopped mid-way from bringing the tater tot into his mouth as he looked at you with his brows furrowed.

“I-I’ll message you by tonight for sure but I just need to think about it.” You wanted to get an anonymous second opinion about it and didn’t want to involve yourself in something that could go terribly wrong.

Jeno bit the inside of his cheek in thought before letting out a sigh and saying, “Sure. But you have to message by tonight.”

He then continued to eat and you started your somewhat cooler temperature food, wondering about your luck.

“Wait so why did Hyuck ask you out?” Hendery’s voice boomed as you facetimed him.

You hushed him loudly whispering, “Don’t be so loud dumb-dumb! You’re on speaker!!!”

He snorted, rolling his eyes, “Your family’s downstairs I don’t know why you’re freaking out. It’s not like they’re right up against your door eavesdropping.”

“Still!” You folded your clothes and put them back in your closet.

“Anyways, you didn’t answer me.” He put down his pen that he was using to take notes.

“Dude I already told you. There’s this girl he met at a party and she wouldn’t stop messaging him to go out with her so he told her he’s already in a relationship and now tomorrow night he’s showing me off as his partner to that girl to prove it.”

You really needed to keep a journal of all the lies that had come out of your mouth.

Hendery’s face scrunched up, “Why couldn’t he ask someone else then? I mean is this girl really gonna believe someone like you is dating him?”

You made a face and threw a shirt at your phone, knocking it over on your bed as you heard Hendery’s loud laughing resonating through out your room. It may have seemed like a funny situation in this context but the real situation was much worse.

Since you had come home from that somewhat awkward yet stressful brunch with Jeno, you’d thought to yourself about the consequences if you agreed to his question. He’d never mentioned his ex’s name plus she was his family friend to which you knew no one in our outside of school mentioning they were close with Jeno so most likely you didn’t know her. But did you really want to involve yourself with someone’s ex whose personality you didn’t know about and set yourself up for a not so great night?

And so you’d decided to call Hendery later in the afternoon to get his opinion. He was always your go-to person to get advice from plus he didn’t know about anything happening with the DNYL Club and the whole Mark fiasco so he would never get to know about this matter either. He only knew about your friends through you and had only met them a couple of times.

And the more you talked to your best-friend, the more it dawned upon you that this was what being a good friend or just a good peer was about. This was really the whole message behind the DNYL Club as well. Helping someone out by offering advice, being beside them and just aiding them with their issues about love.

As you went back to your bed to pick up your phone, you sighed asking, “Is this even a good idea? Involving myself with something like this?”

“Well I mean, if you asked Hyuck to ever help you with something like this, do you think he’d agree?”

You thought about Jeno. Would he have agreed if you’d asked him the same thing?

That was the thing, you didn’t know.

But that just made it even clearer for you what your answer was going to be. Even if Jeno would’ve said no and denied to help, you still would’ve helped him whenever he’d asked. Because you knew that he didn’t meddle with other people’s problems and wasn't super keen on getting close with others. But that only made you want to become his friend and for him to get to trust you.

So you smiled to yourself and nodded your head saying, “Yes. And even if he didn’t I’d still help him afterwards regardless.”

“Well, you have your answer then.” Hendery gestured his hands to you, his big brown eyes offering some comfort.

“But be careful,” He warned chewing at his lip, “If this girl’s that obsessive she might even try to go farther in proving yours and Hyuck’s relationship.”

“Whatever you say Dumbdery.” You drawled, picking up a pair of jeans from the ground.

“Anyways, I gotta study so keep me updated about how it all goes tomorrow and call me too.” You frowned, “You have an exam on Tuesday, I’m not going to call you so late!”

Hendery rolled his eyes and scratched his arm, “The exam’s in the afternoon but fineeeeeeeee.”

And with that he yelled out a bye before ending the FaceTime and leaving you to contemplate on what to message Jeno.

The next day was pretty good. Classes went by faster than you’d thought, most likely because you found yourself excited for the day’s club meeting. It was a bit exciting and fun to meet up with all the others since you all had such different lives and came together on a mutual understanding.

You had been nervous for the rest of Sunday and it only seemed to heighten even more now since in a couple of hours or so, you’d be meeting Jeno’s ex-girlfriend and introducing yourself to her as his new love.

But you were pretty curious on what she looked like, who was this girl that had gotten Lee Jeno, king of passive faces and intimidation to like her enough to be her boyfriend? He barely batted an eye when the cheerleading squad walked past him during a basketball game in their short pleated skirts. But that could also be because he had enough decency to not stare and be respectful.

So as you packed up your items and checked your phone to see that everyone had said a yes to meeting up, you wondered on what to wear.

The other night when you’d told Jeno that you could accompany him to dinner he’d said a thank you which surprised you and then shortly after had messaged you the name of the place you were going to as well as saying that if his ex asked any questions about your relationship that he would answer.

You’d agreed and once searching up the place’s name had found out it was quite a fancy place. It was next to a country club which should’ve explained more than enough about the fanciness and was actually a place you’d dreamed of going to with a future romantic partner.

But now you were going with Jeno, your fake “boyfriend” for the night.

Well beggars couldn’t be choosers.

But now you were left with deciding on what to wear because you didn’t own many fancy, rich clothes. You’d have to discuss with maybe Hendery later about it. For now, you needed to focus on the happy less stressful things like DNYL Club.

You waited in the library for a couple of minutes for people to clear out so they wouldn’t see you make your way down the old wing. And as you scoured the place for a book on dating tips to help you get more accustomed for your acting, your phone dinged.

Mark: Hey u free today? :)

Your heart skipped a beat. It wasn’t anything new for him to message you first since he always contacted first to ask for advice but he hadn’t done it in a while just separately, usually he messaged in the groupchat.

And you were most definitely not free. But you couldn’t really tell him the reason why. So you made up another lie.

You: Hey sorry I gotta study for a test this week, but I can chat thru msgs, what’s up? :)

You saw the little three dots pop up right away, indicating he was typing up a message and were a little surprised at how fast he was replying. But you tried to not let it get to you and make you happy, he was just being friendly. Friends could message right away too.

Mark: Oh :( I was wondering if we could go out for like snacks or somethin,,,,, plus I needed some help in finding an outfit cause.......... guess who just landed a study date with Julie?

No. Your mouth dropped open and you slumped to the ground.

How???

After weeks, days of him trying to get her to like him or even just talk to him, how had he managed to get her to go on a study date with him? You didn’t know what to say as you blinked, rereading his message over and over.

But you knew if you stayed silent for long he’d suspect something so you mustered up your fake best-friend nature replying,

You: Srsly!??!?!?!?!!??! Wth I’m so happy for u!!!!!!!! How is our small boy Markly actually doing good with love??????? I'm legit yelling.

He messaged back some laughing emojis before explaining how he’d asked her to help him with creating chemistry study notes since Julie had completed Chem 11 and was now in the senior Chemistry class for the second half of the year. She’d apparently agreed and you knew it was because she never turned down to help others plus studying with someone else was always a great thing.

You locked your phone and turned off your ringer, putting it into your pocket as you got up and finally made your way to the old music room.

Sure, you’d been helping Mark to get with Julie, but never had you ever thought that it would’ve happened. She was too busy with school work and wouldn’t have an interest in a guy who had a crush on her.

This was all going horribly wrong and you had played a part in it.

And as you entered the music room, now tired and still in disbelief you were met with the cheery sounds of Chenle’s high pitched laughing.

You looked up to see him goofing off with Harvey and Jisung also laughing at how they had accidentally broken a chair. It brought a small smile to your face as you noticed Jeno and Renjun judging them from afar and Jaemin had headphones in, tapping his legs to the music he was listening to and seemingly bored.

All eyes turned to you as you got closer and you noticed how Jaemin stopped tapping, taking off his headphones as a flirtatious smile spread across his face after seeing you. Renjun’s eyes lit up but he stayed with his arms crossed as to not show the others he was a bit happy to see you. Jeno nodded your way as Chenle ran to you enveloping you in a big hug and squeezing the life out of you as he screeched your name.

Jisung shyly waved your way apparently gone back to his shy state in person even though he was quite the chatterbox on phone call and Harvey welcomed you back.

A warm feeling ran through you seeing how you were surrounded by people that maybe cared and all worries about Mark lifted.

This was what the club aimed for and with each meeting, you felt it lift that heavy weight on your heart.

“Alright guys! Why don’t we share about our weekends?”

You all gathered around and sat down on the chairs as Harvey asked you the question. It seemed like today you weren’t going to go outside and hang out.

“Mine was good! I met up with some fun friends and we had brunch together!” Chenle piped up first eagerly, casting a knowing glance your way.

“That sounds fun!” Harvey beamed to the bright sophomore before turning to Jisung.

“I-I just stayed at home a-and studied for exams.” He nervously wiped his hands on his denim shorts.

“I met a cutie at the park.” Jaemin lazily said as he winked at you.

“Well good direction but remember, it isn't always about falling in love.” Harvey put up his finger like a mother teaching her children some life lessons.

“What about you Jeno?” The blond senior smiled at the dark-haired, bored looking junior.

“I went out.” He shortly answered, hands in his pockets again.

The room was silent as Harvey bright smile didn’t falter hearing the boy’s uninterested tone and he moved onto Renjun.

The smaller boy shrugged saying, “Had the weekend to myself so I did art with a- with someone.”

You didn’t miss out on how he almost called you his friend, knowing that the art he had done was graffiti and you were the “someone”. But you still took it as a good thing and that you were becoming closer with him.

Renjun was also back to his colourful style with a dark blue and paint splattered shirt with white jeans. It also seemed like no one had commented on his new hair colour or maybe they had before you’d walked into the room but it looked even better in the daylight than it had that night.

And as Harvey looked your way you panicked a bit. Since you’d been with almost all of them during the weekend except for Jisung so when Harvey asked you, you replied with,

“Just studied and talked to friends, not much.”

He gave a thumbs up before sharing about his stomach flu and how he’d been so sad that you all couldn't meet up last Friday.

The rest of the time you all discussed about whether you preferred meetings like this or the outside of school hangouts. As well as brainstorming, what you could all do for outside hangouts. It involved more thinking but it was still fun and relaxing for you. So the time passed by at a good pace.

And when you’d all had left, you finally checked your phone to see any new messages or calls. But Mark had only messaged you that he hoped you’d studied well and had a great rest of your day and the other notifications were memes that had been sent in some Instagram group chats you were a part of.

But a new message popped up from Jeno as he said that he’d come by at 7 to pick you up. So only a couple of hours for you to get ready. Great.

“This one?” You put up an outfit up to your body looking at your phone.

“Or this one?” You switched and put another outfit up to your body.

“Hmmmm..... I like the second one!” Olivia said from your phone as you facetimed her.

You had needed a female’s advice on dressing so you’d asked her if you could FaceTime to ask about what to wear to a nice place. Explaining that your family was going out to eat somewhere really nice and you wanted to look good for it.

The best thing about Olivia was that she didn’t question too much, just talked and talked forever about her thoughts and what was happening with her. Which of course she was doing by talking about this rude guy who she’d bumped into accidentally on the bus.

“But yeah like, if I said i’m sorry, then I'm sorry, no need to huff and roll your eyes at me. Like who does he even think he is???” She chewed on her pasta while speaking to you.

You had around half an hour until Jeno came to pick you up so you quickly changed into the outfit she’d approved of before coming out to ask on how to style your hair.

“I think it looks cute the way it is. No need to change it.” She scooped some more pasta as she spoke.

“Are you sure?”

“Yep.” She shovelled the pasta into her mouth and smile at you with stuffed cheeks. You laughed and thanked her before telling her you had to rush and go and ending the Facetime.

Your phone dinged and you looked at it to see Jeno had messaged.

LeeJen00: I’m 10 minutes away.

Huh. It was only half past six, why was he coming so early?????

But you quickly looked in the mirror before putting on some tinted (chapstick/lip gloss) and running out your room to go wear your fancy shoes you’d borrowed from Olivia.

You’d explained to your family that you were going out with your friends to a fun and fancy place just for fun and wanted to dress up a bit. They hadn’t seen through your bluff and had let you go, as long as you came back at a reasonable time since it was a school night.

So you shoved on the shoes and grabbed a coat before going outside, the cool summer air attempting to calm your nerves.

And it was then that you saw this sleek and shiny sports car pull up onto your road before smoothly gliding onto your driveway. He drove?

Your mind was swarming with so many thoughts as you looked at the clean and expensive looking shiny car. Was Jeno really that rich or was this maybe his parent’s car? Even so, this car looked like it cost quite a bit of money meaning he had to above middle class.

You were expecting him to get out of the driver’s seat as the windows were too tinted for you to make out who was driving but surprisingly the door from the back opened and out came Jeno.

Was this guy even Jeno?

Because this guy was wearing a crisp dark blue button up with dark slacks and not the regular sportsy casual clothes. And as he walked towards you, it became more apparent that he looked even better up close with his hair styled upwards, similar to how Renjun’s had been over the weekend.

But while Renjun had looked different in a more urban and teenaged way, Jeno looked much older. He sure cleaned up well.

His thin lips were in a straight line as he looked at you which did make you feel a bit shy as you wondered if your outfit was fine or not. But he didn’t comment as he extended his hands out and mumbled,

“My driver’s watching and will most likely report this all to my parents so just play along.”

Driver?

Oh, so he was rich rich huh.

But after practicing your lines and your fake in love smiles, you beamed at him, leaning in for a hug. Your heart was beating a mile a minute because you’d never hugged a guy like this before. As if you were in love.

Hell, even with Mark the best you’d done was a side-hug or a handshake. But hugging Jeno felt nice. A little too nice. You could feel how hard he worked out with his stiff chest and taut muscles that enclosed you in a hug back. But he was also warm too and because of that, the cologne he was wearing smelled even better.

You pulled away as to not linger for too long so that he would question and he put his hand out, plastering a fake smile on his face. You were so blinded by seeing him smile and not display his usual devilish smirk that once he realized you were in shock, he reached for your hand, holding it in his warm and smooth one.

He pulled you along, almost dragging you in a way as you held hands and walked towards his car. For someone who played basketball, his hands sure were soft and nice to hold.

You both got in and the driver nodded at you stiffly in the rearview mirror before pulling out of your driveway. Jeno had let go of your hand now and you were mentally going over in your head about what to do.

“Hey,” He whispered to get your attention. You turned to look at him, still taken aback at how good he looked.

“Don’t be nervous, I got everything under control.”

And oh how you wished he had.

For when his driver dropped you two off outside the restaurant and the both of you entered with your fake lovey dovey hand holding show as the hostess at the front door taking you to the reserved table in the back. You were more than shocked at the person seated and smiling so widely at the boy beside you. And it seemed she was too as millions of emotions crossed her face when her eyes landed on you.

Well shit.

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prorevenge · 5 years

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Sergeant DGAF 'Bout Your Emergency

So this started more than a decade ago, but I remember (most of) it like yesterday. It is my own story, and I tell this from my perspective. This is a long story, but I promise you will be staring at the screen, thinking “dafuq?” by midway through.

Background

Early 2000s. I was in the military, mid 20s, stationed somewhere in Europe. Rank E-4. It’s a bit different when you’re stationed overseas, and your squadron basically becomes your extended family. The Mission is always priority #1, but everyone tries to go the extra mile to make sure their people are taken care of. This was my second assignment, and my second overseas assignment.

I had just gotten married when I was on an extended leave back in the States, during my PCS (Permanent Change of Station; officially changing your assigned base) to this new location. I became an instant father overnight, now having a wife and a 3-year-old (step) daughter when I had none before. My wife became pregnant with our son about 5 months later.

My new supervisor was a Master Sergeant, who I will call Bastar(d) Sergeant [sic], or BS, for the rest of this. Bastar-Sergeant the Master Sergeant.

BS was a family man, married for a while (about ~15 years or so) and had two kids with his wife, as well as two kids of his own from a previous marriage, with his wife ALSO having two kids from a previous marriage. This is relevant because BS, being a family man with six kids ages 4 to 17, often would have stuff going on with his family and need to cut out early, miss morning briefings, and so on.

It was no big deal if we weren’t working on mission critical stuff. It’s rough when the nearest military hospital is 30-45 mins away at another military facility and you can only depend on your own immediate family and fellow military members. Just about everyone, BS especially with his larger family, had to cut in and out of work fairly frequently when we didn’t have big things going on. But hey, take care of your people, they’ll take care of the mission.

Now, BS and I got along really well at first. He and his wife were both quite the “socialites” and would constantly – damn near every weekend – have parties at their house and invite people over. It was fun at first, but it really grew tiresome. Being a new family man myself, and really just starting to figuring it all out (translated: how to keep your wife happy and not both be miserable, while still trying to be a functional adult in the military), and I just could NOT keep up with the party-every-weekend lifestyle.

BS and Mrs. BS drank a lot at those parties, too. You could tell it took a toll on their health. I guess that might be tempting with that many kids, and a 17-turning-18 daughter that had just gotten pregnant with her foreign boyfriend, but I digress…

Like I said, I just couldn’t keep up, not every weekend. I slowly fell out of favor with BS and his “Good ol’ Boys Club.” He wasn’t hostile per-se, but there were times he would just get mean, and with increasing frequency. He would call me into his office for tiny things, like thinking I had shown up to work late, when I could prove that I had been logged in on my terminal 10 minutes before start time – meaning I was at least 15-20 mins early due to walking times, putting my coat and stuff in lockers, etc. But my terminal’s clock, synched with the atomic clock, didn’t matter compared to his clock on the wall.

I was also called out for attending big medical appointments for my wife’s pregnancy, like being there when they determined my son was a boy – I was called out specifically when everyone else was doing the same thing.

The assignment was slowly turning into hell. Meanwhile, the members of the Good ol’ Boys Club would often be very late (without phoning), constantly going to appointments, and so on. There was definitely some favoritism going on. But in such a small unit, overseas, what can you do? The guy was even buddy-buddy with the First Sergeant, and they had been friends since bootcamp.

Anyway, enough background. Onward!

The Main Event

This is where things got crazy. My son had just been born, healthy and at a good weight, not even two weeks earlier. I came home from work after a very long day, about 13 hours on a normal 8 hour shift, due to some stuff breaking.

My wife was exhausted because she was still healing from the birth, and our son had gotten really, really cranky and irritable through the day. He was non-stop fussing and feeling slightly warmer, but not quite running a fever.

I let her go to sleep, and to give her peace, I tried to sleep in the chair downstairs with the kiddo bundled up on me. He got worse and worse through the night, and at about 0300 hrs, I noticed that his diaper smelt really strange (sorry to gross you out), with just pee. It was a sickly smell, not at all what anything from a human body should ever smell like. He seemed hot, so I went to take his temperature. He had risen to 103.5 F – VERY dangerous for an infant.

Fuck.

I immediately wake up my wife and rush him to the hospital. She stays behind at home with our daughter, since the ER is no place to keep a young kid and we didn’t know anyone that could watch her at that late of an hour.

Since it would have taken longer to wait on an ambulance out in the countryside, I sped to get him to the military hospital’s ER in about 20 mins. They immediately put him on fluids and call in the on-call pediatrician. They move him to the ICU, and after a few long hours, I get told that they believe he has a urinary tract and kidney infection, and while they had gotten his temperature down to a safer spot, we weren’t out of the woods yet.

While waiting, knowing that my regular work day was coming up, I tried calling everyone’s phone number I had, but nobody answered. At the gym probably. After leaving some voicemails, I gave up and decided to wait until people roll in at 0700 hrs. I kept trying to call the unit phone number, but no one answered until 0720. I get asked by one of the guys where I was, I let him know I’m at the hospital due to an emergency with my newborn, and he gets BS over to the phone.

BS: OP, where you at?

Me: I’m at the hospital. My son is in the ICU, had a fever of 104 and a serious infection. I’ve been up all night and haven’t slept.

BS: Well you should be at work. You missed PT, and you’re late.

Me: *pausing, because, WTF?* … I need to come into work? My son had to go to the ER, he’s in the ICU…

BS: I don’t want to hear it. You’ve already been late multiple times. [but not really, as I mention above] *angrily* Get your ass down here!

Me: … Uh, well I’m not in uniform. I will have to stop by my house. One parent is required to be here, so I need to see if one of my neighbors can give my wife a ride to the hospital, and our daughter has to be dropped off at school because children can’t be in the ICU.

BS: Just get here. *hangs up*

I was completely floored. What. The. Actual. Fuck.

At no point in my entire military career, before and since then, have I EVER heard of anyone being forced to come in to work when an immediate family member was in the hospital for an emergency. I was half confused, half outraged, and wholly beside myself.

My wife shows up, I take the car home after updating her and making plans to take care of our daughter while we rotate shifts at the hospital. I did a very quick SSS – shit, shower, shave – and drive over to the shop.

BS ignored me when I arrive, other than a sidelong disapproving look. I start my usual routine, but I am exhausted, worried sick, and pretty fucking angry all at once. Some of my coworkers heard what happen and are concerned, but BS the tyrant seems to be angry himself and no one wants to approach him.

Revenge, Part 1

A few hours went by, with me keeping in touch with my wife on the status of our son. I tried approaching BS a few times, but he was having none of it.

One of the other Master Sergeants in the squadron, part of a different unit, but whom I had worked with before, came by and noticed me probably looking distraught. We’ll call her Hero Sergeant, or HS. She pulls me aside to one of the quiet corners of the shop.

HS: OP, are you okay? You look terrible?! Is something wrong?

Me: [I tell her about my son being sick and in the ICU – I was barely able to hold my composure in at this point, I was so angry yet so worried and downtrodden about my son, and I’m fighting to keep it together through the exhaustion and lack of sleep.]

HS: WHAT?! Why the hell are you here?!

Me: I’m not sure. BS ordered me to come in when I tried to explain. He won’t talk to me.

HS: Fuck that. Hang tight.

HS then quickly walks off. Now, our unit is on the other side of the base from the main squadron: about 15 minutes later, just enough time to drive to the squadron and back, HS appears – along with our unit Captain, and the squadron’s Major (XO to our Lt. Colonel CO).

The Major storms toward the unit office section, pauses and looks right at me, and says in an obviously angry but soft voice…

Major: OP, get out of here. Your place of duty is the hospital until your son is discharged. Don’t step foot in one of these buildings until then, I don’t care how long it takes. Take care of your family. Are we clear?

Me: *as I start to scramble* Yes, sir.

Major: *yelling* BS, GET YOUR ASS IN THIS OFFICE RIGHT NOW!

I proceed to quickly gather my shit together, all while seeing BS head toward that same office door and he gives me a glowering look on his way in.

As I leave, there is no possible way to doubt that everyone in the area, probably the whole building, could hear BS get absolutely reamed and raked over the coals by the Major as I departed. The Major was always a quiet and fair man, I had never seen him anywhere even approaching angry, so it was absolutely terrifying to behold.

I have to admit, it felt good to know that he was getting some of what he deserved.

My son did clear up eventually and was discharged from the hospital 5 days later, healthy and no harm done, thank God!

I know this first part’s “revenge” isn’t quite revenge, but it was sweet, sweet karma to see that asshole put in his place. Still, as good as it was, it made things worse between BS and I much, much worse.

Fallout

Well after all that, BS hated my guts. Obviously, it would be career suicide to openly retaliate against me, so he found little ways to do so at every opportunity. That wasn’t to say I didn’t have my faults, I certainly did, and I made mistakes no doubt, but what he did was particularly underhanded.

You see, it wasn’t until he PCS’ed to his new assignment that I learned what he had done. My new Sergeant (NS) was awesome, highly relatable, and knew BS from previous deployments together - he indicated on more than a few occasions that he wasn’t exactly fond of BS.

In the meantime, I had gone to training to become a Sergeant myself and graduated at the top of my class with honors. I then went on to another deployment to the “sandbox” and came back with some major kudos from leadership there, working my butt off every day wanting to prove I was more than what BS tried to paint me as. It was after my return to home station that I learned what BS had been up to - completely behind the scenes.

Remember how even the First Sergeant was buddy-buddy with BS? Well the FS had also PCS’ed while I was deployed. Our new FS went through everyone’s Personnel Information Files (PIFs) and discovered that I had a massive - and I mean massive - stack of Letters of Counseling (basically, you got a “talking to,” and the LOC is documentation proving it) and even a Letter of Admonishment (LOA), a more serious version just under a Reprimand.

I found out from NS that when he and his boss were talking with FS, he was wondering how the hell I hadn’t been kicked out of the service with such a track record. But then he also noted how suspicious it was that every single one of the LOCs and the LOA lacked my signature - something that is required by regulations, acknowledging your reception of it (though not admitting guilt).

I had never been shown these, nor had any idea they existed. The majority of them were very minor infractions, almost none of which I had committed in any fashion. Even more strange, NS caught onto details that there were four of them dated for the same time I was in training (at a different base / different country), and one during a short deployment I had gone on earlier. It didn’t add up, and all three sergeants found it rather confusing and shady.

Thankfully, my performance once I was out of the shadow of BS was more than enough to convince all three sergeants that I was not the dirtbag that BS was trying to paint me as. I don’t know the details, but I do know that his pseudo-forgeries (he could just claim they were “incomplete” and not meant to be filed) caught up to him and he caught some flak for it. He retired not long later, and I hope that it was a black mark on his record.

Revenge, Part Two

So this is where it gets interesting again. Fast forward about four more years. I had gotten out of the service by then, finishing my second enlistment, and I moved back to the States to take advantage of the GI Bill.

It’s also worth mentioning that I’m an IT guy, and I’ve always got at least a dozen boxes of parts, tools, and hard drives. It’s also what I was in college for at the time.

I’m going through a stack of old ATA hard drives to see what I could salvage for a lab projects (we basically needed a bunch of “victim” machines to test against, and a few of us had old ATA motherboards hanging around). I’m checking them before I scramble/wipe the drives to make sure they’re working fine, and to make sure I’m not deleting wanted files/archives.

I’m flipping through this drive’s old files, nothing much beyond typical Windows folders, until I hit a buried directory with a bunch of images in it. I can tell they’re of the X-rated kind from thumbnails - not surprising, I’m a guy, and who didn’t have a sizeable porn stash in their single days, right?

But then I realized… these weren’t porn shots. These were homemade. It definitely wasn’t anything I had ever done. But I recognized something almost immediately - a unique lower back “tramp stamp” on the woman in the photos (faces were never shown). A tattoo I remember clearly: one of the wives of a guy in my old unit was showing it off after she had gotten it.

And the guy she’s on top of? Far, far too pasty of a skin tone to be her husband. It was then that I realized that this was one of the drives I had salvaged from a broken old PC that BS had given me for parts, back when we were still on good terms.

BS had been cheating on his wife with one of his subordinate's wife. Looking at the background of the photos, it was obvious that this was in the home of BS, too - if you remember, we had all been there many times.

Time to extract some revenge. I would like to tell you that I did some cool scene out of Mr. Computer or some crap like that, but really, simple efficiency won out here.

I knew BS, Mrs. BS, and the other couple were all on Facebook (they’d often come up as recommended friends-of-friends). I created an account that vaguely sounded like someone we could all know, and had military work history to match the assignment, in order to protect my own privacy/identity. I sent a few messages each to Mrs. BS and the husband of the tattooed wife. Once I got responses asking, basically, “Who is this?” I just pasted a number of select photos from the private photo shoot.

Mrs. BS, obviously recognizing her husband’s body and their old home in Europe, kept saying “WHAT THE FUCK?” - I said I was just the messenger, and to do with the photos what she pleased.

The husband of the tattooed wife first thought my new identity was the man in the photos and started to threaten me, until I told him to pay special attention to the background. He realized who the man in the photos was, having also been in that house countless times, and thanked me for telling him the truth. While we weren’t close, I do feel really bad for him. :(

(I didn’t feel too bad for Mrs. BS because she turned into a snob when BS got mean.)

I heard through my buddies from the unit that both couples were divorced, roughly a year later. All the old crew knew exactly who had cheated with who. I also heard that the divorce of BS and Mrs. BS was particularly bad. Nobody knows who leaked the photos, though.

Closing

This is the first time I have admitted to what I did, just for the sake of revenge and getting back at the bastard who did so much to personally attack me, even in a time of need, and who very nearly ruined my military career. Part of the reason I decided to get out of the service was because of him - I never wanted one person to have that much control over my life again.

I hope you enjoyed my story, sorry it was so long, but there was just so much that happened. I could add even more crap that he did, too.

And to Bastar-Sergeant, if you ever read this someday, I’m sure you will have realized who I am. I only have one thing to say to you: Fuck you - you deserved it.

(source) story by (/u/Celesae)

#prorevenge #by /u/Celesae #pro revenge #revenge stories #pro revenge stories #pro #revenge #last10

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recentanimenews · 5 years

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Ranking Luffy's 20 Best Knockouts For The One Piece Anime's 20th Anniversary

We love One Piece because of its themes - the idea that, because the ocean is so vast, you'll one day find a place where you belong. That even though others may tear you down or forget about you, your dreams will never die. That it's your duty to stand up for your friends, because you know they'd stand up for you. Those are all beautiful and well developed motifs in the One Piece world. But you know what else is beautiful and well developed in the One Piece world? Luffy's ability to knock someone out.

Thanks to Luffy's grit and Gum Gum powers, we've been treated to some of the best KO's in anime history in One Piece. And I think, since the 20th anniversary of the anime is October 20th, 2019, we should celebrate twenty of them here. And I think, in the first spot, we should have...

20. Don Krieg

I'm gonna start with this one because it always felt like Luffy, using Gum Gum Gatling, and then Gum Gum Pistol, and then 2 Gum Gum Bazookas, and finally finishing off Krieg with Gum Gum Giant Gavel, was executing a combo move. Like if he'd accidentally pressed X instead of B at the end there, he would've gone for another Gum Gum Pistol and lost the quick time event.

19. Charlotte Cadenza

This one earns a spot on the list because of the desperation of it. We don't usually see Luffy go all MMA on someone, but in trying to make his way back to meet Sanji, he chokes out one of the big quintuplets. That's raw, and I hope that, when Luffy finally faces down Blackbeard again, he busts out a Rear Naked Choke on him or at least a Kimura Armlock.

18. Holdem

This obviously isn't the first Red Hawk that Luffy's ever used (Other notable uses include his fight against Byrnndi World in the 3D2Y special, against Hody Jones, and in that awesome tag team attack with Law against Doflamingo.) But with work by key animator Takashi Kojima, his Red Hawk against Holdem is especially beautiful. I could watch it all day. And I have.

17. Oars

Luffy gets the chance to knock out not one, but two giants in Thriller Bark, with the first being Oars and the second being a Gecko Moria that's gone all Shadow's Asgard on everybody. However, I'm gonna give this spot to Oars. Not only does this Gigant Bazooka come after a battle with the entire Straw Hat crew, but we also get an X-Ray of Oars' spine as it happens. It's pretty rad.

16. Kuro

I can't imagine that, even after evaluating every possible outcome or option, that "Man of a Thousand Plans" Captain Kuro would've thought that he'd be defeated by a goofy rubber head screaming in his face and then caving his skull in. It's not the most humiliating way to go out, but considering Kuro spent years trying to enact the perfect scheme and talking trash about being a pirate, it's on up there.

15. Foxy

I'm a Foxy stan, a Long Ring Long Land Big Fan, and a Davy Back apologist. I LOVE this arc, and I love Foxy. But that doesn't mean that I didn't rejoice when Luffy finally got the win here. However, I have to give most of the credit to Bin Shimada, who is the best at voicing truly obnoxious One Piece villains (He also voice Wapol.) Heck, he's one of the best at voicing villains in general, as his versatility has also led him to being behind the roar behind Dragon Ball's Broly.

14. Usopp

Oh, I picked a sad one. The battle between Luffy and Usopp is the most depressing in One Piece's history, with Usopp pouring everything he has into a fight where defeat is almost 100% inevitable, and Luffy being forced to beat up the crew member that he often relates to the most. As a fight, it's equal parts thrilling and depressing, and as the start of the perfect Water 7/Enies Lobby arcs, it's....also equal parts thrilling and depressing.

13. Buggy

This is the battle that would set the standard for inventive conclusions to One Piece fights and even though it's less dramatic than some of the finishing blows to come, it deserves a spot on this list due to how iconic it feels now. It's a final fight that teaches you that One Piece just might be somethng special when it comes to handing defeat to its villains.

12. Cracker

I like this fight because it establishes two things: 1) It makes Luffy a genuine threat to the stability and heirarchy of Whole Cake Island (even if he's not ready to take on Big Mom directly yet), and 2) It shows us that the Sanji Retrieval Team can get the job done. Also, I like pairing this fight with the last one with Buggy, because in both cases, it's Luffy getting a crucial assist from Nami and they make a great team.

11. Lucci

Luffy's fight against Rob Lucci is one of the most well-constructed fights in anime, a contest that flip flops between a battle of nearly equal strengths, a desperate underdog journey, and an immensely satisfying and almost terrifying conclusion. Luffy closing his eyes and screaming while pummeling Lucci through the wall is such a visceral, violent way to end this fight and shows that while clever inventiveness can be handy in a battle on the Grand Line, sometimes you just need sheer will.

10. Sea King

Not only is this a "Yeah! One Piece is the best!" punch, but it's also an integral part of the "We Are" opening. If I was a DJ, I'd play that song at every club I worked at. People would be like "DJ MERRY, PLAY THE LATEST POST MALONE!" and I'd be like "Right on it!" and then I'd just play "We Are" again.

9. Wapol

As I mentioned, Wapol is one of the most obnoxious anime villains out there. So if he didn't get something that would deserve a spot on this list, I would've rioted, or at least been very disappointed on Twitter. Luckily, Wapol, pleading with Luffy, gets rocketed into the Drum Island stratosphere. It's literally the nicest option for him.

8. Doflamingo

Doflamingo's defeat is a long time coming. Shown as a particularly malicious guy back during the Skypiea arc, then shown to be an agent of the underworld with a hand in weapons and trafficking, then revealed to be the false king of Dressrosa, he's needed a punch to the everywhere for almost 15 years of One Piece's run. And Luffy gives it to him, knocking him down through the streets of the city that he terrorized for so long.

7. Blueno

Power-ups are fairly expected in shows like One Piece. But that's not a diss on them at all. I LOVE when a protagonist gets notably stronger and can pull off cool new moves and maybe gets a new haircut. But Luffy going Second Gear and then absolutely making a mockery of Blueno is something to behold. Blueno's look of stunned disbelief makes it even better, and it's just a warm-up for the war against the rest of CP9 to come.

6. Crocodile

For most of the Alabasta arc, Luffy is 0-2 in battles against Crocodile. But, while Dvorak's New World Symphony: 4th Movement plays, Luffy uses the blood that he's shed to counter Crocodile's sand to knock him up through Alubarna. It's rare to hear someone call "rubber bro uses his magical fists to shatter the internal organs of an evil desert-themed gentleman" a truly majestic scene, but this is beautiful work. If there was a Church of Eiichiro Oda, this would be painted on the ceiling. Get lost, Michelangelo.

5. Arlong

The trend of "Luffy beats the main villain of the arc by knocking him through something large" that we've seen with foes like Crocodile, Enel, Lucci, and Doflamingo was established here with Arlong. Horrified at the way that he's treated Nami, Luffy uses a Gum Gum Battle-Axe to turn Arlong's vertebrate into chowder.

4. Enel

Luffy using the body of a psychopathic tyrant to ring the Shandorian Bell, thus proving to Mont Blanc Noland's descendent that the City of Gold did exist and freeing the citizens of Skypiea from Enel's reign is both poetic and just a cool looking set piece. It's a reminder of just how fulfilling reading/watching One Piece is, and how the details of the story often culminate in these big, lovely bouquets of fisticuffs and never lose any of their meaning or importance along the way.

3. Katakuri

No, this isn't a typical knockout, as Luffy falls down first and Katakuri dropping feels like more of a spiritual defeat than a physical one. But with the knockout of Katakuri comes the changing of an ideology, and the allowance of failure, something that Katakuri had never given himself before. So it not only signals the end of the fantastic main duel of the arc, but legitimate character growth for the antagonist. Also, it comes after the Fourth Gear Snake Man fight, which is one of the best animated episodes in the entire show.

2. Charlos

The most gif'd moment of One Piece ever, Luffy punching Charlos so hard that it seems to break the anime needs no explanation. It's perfect.

1. Bellamy

"Do I know how to throw a punch, you ask?" Luffy rearranging Bellamy's skull after Bellamy mocks his belief in dreams and myth is a perfect distillation of one of the themes of One Piece: Those who believe in something VS Those who simply want to tear down those beliefs. And though the fight to follow your dreams and live a free life on the sea would continue, Luffy scored a victory for it here. Dreams: 1, Bellamy's Ability To Go Without A Neck Brace: 0.

What is your favorite One Piece knockout? Do you agree with the placements on this list? Let us know in the comments!

----------------------

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By: [email protected]

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frickfrackjimin · 6 years

Text

Whiskey on Ice

⇻ Meeting Jungkook at an award show after party leaves a bigger impression on you than you wish to admit.

Pairing: Idol!Jungkook x Idol!reader Genre: Slight smut (Like, if you really, really squint. Basically just my first attempt at trying to write a make out session in detail bc I suck at writing smut :/ lol) Words: 4.8k Inspired by: “Gorgeous” by Taylor Swift; “Delicate” by Taylor Swift; “Sex” by the 1975 Warnings: Mild language, mentioning of alcohol, mentioning of drugs

You were drunk. So, so drunk.

The drink in your hand was your fifth of the night, something that your cousin, Aura, ordered for you originally. You had no idea what the contents of the drink were, only that it was bright blue and sweet and that you couldn’t get enough of it.

You were enjoying yourself on the dance floor of the club you were at. The bass was pulsing throughout the building as strobe lights lit up during the build up to the bass drop of the EDM songs playing. You could feel yourself letting loose and enjoying yourself for the first time since your ex-boyfriend,Youngjin, pulled that whole stunt last month. You pushed off every guy that tried to dance on you; Youngjin may have been an asshole, but you were positive you did not want to hook up with a stranger in an attempt to get over him. You didn’t understand how people could go home with someone they just met, and probably don’t even know the name of.

Aura approaches you on the dance floor, saying that she was leaving with someone. You look behind her shoulder at the man standing behind her. Did you know the guy? No. Did she know the guy? Probably not, which worried you. You tried following after her to tell her not to, especially since you did not know your way around that well and your phone was nearing 10%.

By the time you reached the front of the club, Aura and her mystery man were nowhere in sight. You yelled out for her, hoping that by chance she was within ears distance and would return to you. When she did not appear, you could feel the tears pricking at your eyes. Your phone is nearly dead; you have no idea where you are or how you are going to get home. What are you supposed to do?

In your drunken stupor, you felt someone grab your hand and start to pull you down the street.

“You know it’s not safe to be walking around the city this late at night by yourself,” a male voice speaks out. You could not see who he was since he was concealed by a dark hoodie. You felt a scream get caught in your throat but in your shock from the situation, could not seem to let it out.

A few seconds later, you both ended up in a run-down restaurant in the middle of the city.

After slumping down into a booth seat, you looked at your captor sitting across from you. Low and behold, it was Jeon Jungkook, in all his gorgeous glory.

A smug smirk sits on his face, fingers intertwined on the table. A grey beanie adorns his dark head of hair that stops at the nape of his neck. You can vaguely see the loop of his grey earrings peeking out from under his beanie. His hair is longer than you remember it being. Granted, it has been two months since you have last seen him. He has a black facemask pulled below his chin, revealing his face. A risky move, considering the fact that he is out in public in a city where someone could recognize him by his pinky finger.

You feel yourself staring at him. Shaking your head slightly, you break your eye contact and begin to look around the restaurant.

“Where are we?” is all you manage to sputter out.

“Not too far from where I found you,” he responds. A waitress appears at your table, putting down two glasses of water.

“You were at Club Zero?” you ask back. He did not look like he was dressed to go to a club. You took a sip out of the water glass in front of you.

“No, I was on my way home when I saw you. Who is Aura?”

“A stupid girl,” you mutter.

“A friend of yours?” he asks, lifting an eyebrow.

“My cousin. She wanted to take me out, something about drinking away the breakup, or the bad publicity, or whatever the hell people are supposed to do when they get their ass chewed out by their famous ex-boyfriend on social media for the world to see,” you reply sarcastically.

It hits you that this is the first time you have spoken to him face to face. At the after party a few months ago, your interactions were brief, but left a mark on you nonetheless.

➵

You walked into the after party hand in hand with your boyfriend, Youngjin, his hand on the small of your back. The environment screamed an industry after party; a hell of a lot of alcohol, the strong smell of weed and whatever other drugs were being passed around, and a heavy beat playing. You saw a few familiar faces of various singers, producers, and even actors that were given access to the after party.

Youngjin and you approached the bar, him ordering a scotch on the rocks and yourself ordering a cosmopolitan. Even though you had just turned 19, the bartenders around here will start serving you at 16 if you are lucky enough to pass off as older. You never got into the drinking scene until you were around 18 like most people in the normal world; in this industry, however, it was practically unheard of.

“Hey _____! Congrats on your awards!” you hear from behind you. You turned around and greeted the face that met yours; Choonhee, a new breakout artist from this year and one of your closest friends.

“Thanks! You too girlie!” you congratulated back.

“Did you come here with Youngjin?” Choonhee asked.

"Of course-" you start, turning around to show that you indeed, did show up with boyfriend. You furrowed your brows in confusion when he was not standing behind you like he was thirty seconds ago. You looked around before realizing that Youngjin was nowhere close to you. Your eyes skimmed the darkened room before seeing him standing on the second floor talking to some men you didn’t recognize. They were more than likely other artists in his genre you didn’t know or producers. Youngjin was apart of the EDM industry and was always collaborating with people you had never heard of.

“Well, I guess he’s ditched me yet again. The big boys snatched him before I could grab ahold of him,” you chuckled, slightly annoyed.

“He’s always pulling shit like this, why are you still with him again?” Choonhee asked.

“I love him, that’s why,” you retorted.

“Right…” Choonhee replied again.

“Come on, stop with the negativity! Let’s celebrate! We are AWARD WINNERS!” you screamed, grabbing ahold of Choonhee’s wrist and throwing it up in the air with yours. The two of you cheered, grabbing little attention from the people around you since the music drowned out your cheers.

➵

It had been about an hour since Youngjin had ditched you for his little work buddies and honestly, you were having an amazing time! A hella amazing time, if you will!

Maybe it’s the fact that you were on your third cosmo, but all of your shyness that came from talking to strangers had flown out the window. You were approaching nearly everyone and starting a conversation about absolutely anything. Thankfully you were still aware of your surroundings and you were only tipsy so you didn’t make too much a fool out of yourself … you think.

You and Choonhee began to make your way to the second floor, drinks in hand. The VIP sections were located up there and you saw people like EXO, Super Junior, and Twice all popping bottles of champagne in celebration. They should all definitely be celebrating, they all went home with a shit ton of well-deserved awards that night.

You were looking around for Youngjin but instead, your eyes lock on a different pair of eyes. From far away and with the terrible lighting, you couldn't tell what color they were. You don’t immediately recognize who he is, but after seeing the people standing around him, you put together that he’s a member of BTS. You can’t remember which one specifically, maybe V? You honestly can’t remember any of them besides him right now.

Holy shit though, you wish you remembered that one’s name. Point blank, he was gorgeous. Suit pants and dress shirt, no suit jacket though. Loosened tie around his neck; rings on his fingers glistening as he swishes his glass in his hand. His dark brown hair is tousled in a way that makes it look like he just had sex, but is still put together.

You downed the rest of your drink, walking to the mini bar to order another one. You looked back over and saw him still staring at you. When you catch him this time though, he slowly turns away.

“Does you know the name of that guy in BTS over there?” you ask, resting your head in your hand as you wait for your drink.

“Which one?” Choonhee asks.

“The hot one,” you reply.

“You’re going to have to be more specific.”

“Okay seriously, the one in the tie with the dark hair. That’s not V is it? He dresses too plain to be V, from what I remember.”

“I think that’s… Jin maybe? Or Jungkook? No, it’s definitely Jungkook,” Choonhee confirms, also slightly tipsy.

“Well, that boy got me jungshook, that’s for sure,” you say, grabbing your drink as it’s handed to you.

“He’s hot as hell.”

Choonhee laughs at your bluntness. “Hey honey, don’t you have a boyfriend that you supposedly love?”

“That doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate art when it’s put in front of me,” you smirk. She gives you a worried look. “Oh come on, I’m just kidding. Let’s just go say hi. The worst that could happen is that they ignore our existence completely and I have to hide my face around them for the rest of our careers.”

Choonhee gives you a scared glance before following in step behind you.

Once you were in front of the group, you felt seven pairs of eyes on you and you were suddenly intimidated.

“H-hi,” you stammered before clearing your throat. “You guys are BTS right?”

“Hey, yeah we are. _____, right?” one replied back. His presence gave him the feel of a leader. This one must be RM.

“Yeah I am, and this is my friend Choonhee,” you said, pointing to the girl standing on your left.

“You won best new artist tonight, right?” one asked, looking at Choonhee.

“Yes, I did,” she shyly smiled.

“Congratulations. I love your song, by the way. I’m Taehyung.”

“Thank you, Taehyung,” Choonhee bowed in appreciation of the compliment. “_____ should be getting credit for it as well. She wrote the song, I simply perform it.”

“You wrote that song?” another one asks you. You nod your head in response.

“Your songwriting skill is amazing. You write beautiful lyrics,” He reaches his hand out, “I’m Yoongi.”

Following that, the rest of the members introduced themselves. Of course, once you reached the last member, he simply nodded his head at you. You noticed that in both ears he had small hoop earrings in. You smiled before averting your eyes. Why did he make you so nervous?

Choonhee began conversing with RM and Taehyung about her upcoming music. Jimin, Hoseok, and Yoongi started a conversation with you. From your conversation you could tell that Yoongi was immensely passionate about music.

“So let me put a scenario out there," you started. "I have an idea for a song. Would you be down to work with me on it if I sent you some samples?” you ask him. Drunk you should be allowed out more frequently. You often struggle to find other people to work with because you’re so shy.

“Definitely, I have some beats saved in my studio computer, I could see if one of them would work with the vibe you have in the lyrics,” he replies, grabbing his phone out of his pocket. You exchanged emails and agreed to attempt to work on a song together once your schedules both cleared up.

The three boys fell into another conversation about something involving the award show as your attention fell to the two boys behind you who were avoiding conversation with you. Jin and Jungkook were goofing around with each other, pushing at each other and speaking in weird voices. Why won’t they come over and talk to you? You’re more than capable of talking to them. Maybe Jungkook wasn’t really interested at all?

‘Whatever,’ you thought.

“I’m going to get another drink, anyone care to join?” you asked, addressing the group.

“I’ll come,” Hoseok replied.

You both walked back over to the bar where you decided to switch it up and order a vodka cranberry. You felt the presence of a figure next to you as you waited. When you turned your head to see who it was, you saw it was Jungkook. Getting to see him up close in this light, you realized that he was wearing blue contact lenses.

You turned away, blushing slightly at the eye contact. As the bartender gave you and Hoseok your drinks, you heard him ask Jungkook what he wanted.

“Whiskey on ice,” Jungkook replies. You snicker to yourself. His voice sounds so different than what you expected it to. That also didn’t seem like a drink Jungkook would be drinking. He seemed like more of a sex on the beach kind of guy; you were clearly mistaken.

He places his hands on the edge of the bar, one of them covering your right one that was placed in a similar way. You looked at him, shocked that he was being so bold.

There was no way that was an accident.

He grabs the drink from the bartender before sparing you a glance. He had a look on his face that was hard to decipher. Before you could question him, his hand slid off of yours and he turned to walk away. You shook your head, taking a deep breath before following behind him with Hoseok to rejoin the group.

“Hey _____, isn’t that Youngjin?” Choonhee asked, pointing behind you. You turned around to look, and sure enough, your boyfriend finally decided to show face.

“We should probably get going,” you say.

“It was great getting to meet you guys, we’ll definitely keep in contact,” you smile.

You heard a chorus of “Bye!” and “Nice to meet you!” and “Don’t forget to email me those samples!” from the group as you and Choonhee walked away. Choonhee began to walk down the stairs, but you stopped her, saying that you wanted to grab Youngjin first.

He was standing at a small table overlooking the first floor, another scotch on the rocks still in his hand.

“Hey, where have you been this whole time?” you asked him, putting your hand on his chest.

“Talking to some producers. You know, business talk,” he responds. There was a bit of a condescending tone when he said "business talk," but you chose to ignore it.

“What have you been up to?” he asks instead.

“I met BTS. They’re really cool, actually; I got one of their emails so we can try to collaborate on a song together. How cool is that?” you ask, excited.

“Super cool," he says in a bored tone.

“They were all super nice too. Except for one, Jungkook. He didn’t talk to me the whole time. The only time he said anything near me was when we ordered drinks at the bar. He sounds so different. You’d expect him to have a deeper voice,” you laugh, the alcohol starting to really affect you now.

“Um, _____,” he says, glancing behind you.

You turned around to see Jungkook standing there, looking at you. You can’t decode the look in his eyes, you instantly feel bad though.

That guilt went away when you see him smirk at you, glancing between Youngjin and you before turning and walking away.

“What was that about?” Youngjin asks.

“I’m not sure, let’s go though, it’s getting late,” you reply back, grabbing his hand and walking down the steps and out of the club.

➵

Aside from that basic introduction, no words were actually exchanged between you two. You only snuck glances and he practically held your hand. You would think that you would be a bit more nervous talking to someone that looks as amazing as him; the alcohol must, once again, be giving you the confidence to hold a conversation.

He breathes out a laugh through his nose, rubbing his thumb against his bottom lip. You could feel your mouth go slightly dry at the sight. You took another sip of water before you continued.

“She ditched me for some guy in the club. I don’t venture into the city much aside from going to work. You would think that she would have enough common sense to assume that I don’t know where the fuck I am or how to get home.”

He cocks his head to the side a bit. “Where are you staying? I’ll give you a ride,” he offers.

“No thanks, I’ll just call a cab,” you say, rifling through your purse for your cell phone. Unfortunately, when you retrieve it from the depths of meaningless receipts and gum wrappers, it is dead. You sigh, rubbing your hand down your face, disregarding the fact that you definitely just ruined your makeup. Honestly though, it was probably already ruined from the sweaty nightclub.

You slowly meet Jungkook’s eyes, sparkling with amusement.

“Problem?” He cheekily asks, peering at you from the top of his water glass as he takes a sip.

“Can you call me a cab?” you ask.

“Now, let’s look at this logically,” he starts. You roll my eyes.

“Why would I, a gentleman, let you, a pretty young woman,” he pauses, glancing up and down my body. You can feel a blush appear on your cheeks.

“Call a cab in the middle of the night, costing you roughly 500,000 won, when I can just give you a ride for free? It will ensure the safety of you and your wallet’s well-being.”

You know he makes a good point. It is not exactly safe for someone to be catching cabs this late at night, and you really don’t feel like spending more money than you already have tonight.

You groan in annoyance. “Fine.”

➵

Twenty minutes and a plate of fries later, you are both approaching a dark van parked outside of the restaurant. Jungkook’s hand is guiding you towards the vehicle, resting on the small of your back. Dangerously close to your ass, you may add.

“This is yours?” you ask, hesitancy in your voice.

“The band uses it. I called my driver to come get us.”

“You woke up your driver in the middle of the night? I told you I could have just taken a cab.”

“He wasn’t asleep, he was dropping the hyungs at the dorms. I wanted fresh air so I decided to take a walk before going back home,” he explains, opening the back door for you.

“You know it’s not safe to be walking around the city this late at night by yourself, Jeon Jungkook,” you tease in reply. He plasters that infamous smirk on his face as you slide in, careful to not let your dress ride up. You didn’t particularly feel like flashing the passerby’s.

“You may be right, ______, but ask yourself this; if I had not taken that walk, where might you be now?” he questions as he hops in the car behind you.

Even though you scoot all the way to the other side of the van, Jungkook sits in the middle, right next to you. His jogger-covered left thigh is touching your bare right one. You are so distracted by the fact that he is sitting so close that you nearly forget to give the driver your address. After he puts it in his GPS, he puts up the divider between the front and back, for privacy, you guessed.

“You live in the suburbs?” Jungkook asks.

“My parents do. I’m staying with them for a while,” you respond, looking out the window.

“Ah, too much drama back in Seoul?” he assumes, throwing his arm around the back of the seat behind you. You are all too aware of the fact that you can practically feel the tips of his fingers on your left shoulder.

“You have no idea,” you utter out. “Everyone thinks I’m some pretentious princess that only dated him for publicity.”

➵

Last month is when shit hit the fan.

You had started to get a bit tired of always being put on the back burner by Youngjin. Even when he was not promoting, he always seemed to be filling his schedule up with other things. Whether it be interviews, rehearsals for a comeback that was still months away, or hanging out with his friends from his label that he sees all of the time anyway. He was constantly blowing you off for any small reason it seemed. When you approached him about it, he got defensive.

“You’re overreacting like a child, as per usual,” he rolled his eyes.

“As per usual? What is that supposed to mean?”

“It means that you are still immature. You don’t know what it takes to be in this industry and quite frankly, you don’t have it. That’s why you clung to me like glue after the one time I flirted with you all those months ago, to grow your career,” he scoffed.

“What are you talking about? I responded to your flirting because I like you as a person! How dare you think I did this for my career? I am perfectly capable of building a name for myself without you!” you nearly screamed.

“Oh yeah? Prove it,” he sneered.

“Fine. We’re done,” you said adamantly as you grabbed your coat off of the arm of his couch. Walking towards the door, you stop right in front of his face.

“Watch me.”

Turns out, ending things on negative terms with a pissed off ex-boyfriend who has a high status in the media wasn’t the best of your plans.

You may or may not have released a cover of an English song, “Sorry Not Sorry” onto your SoundCloud just days later. Rather than just letting the bit of shade slide, Youngjin decided that he needed to rebuttal.

He did a V Live, indirectly telling the world that someone close to him betrayed him for their own personal gain. It was the biggest load of horseshit you had ever heard, but the fans somehow connected the dots and practically overnight the entirety of your country had seemingly turned on you. That is why you had to move out to the suburbs to live with your parents, and why you had gone into a sort of hiding and social media cleanse.

➵

“I don’t think that’s true,” he says. You can feel his hot breath on the side of your face. You’re too nervous to turn and look at him.

“I think he’s the pretentious one, and he’s an idiot for doing that to you. He wants sympathy for a situation nobody is sure actually happened.”

“Well, at least somebody is on my side,” you whisper, glancing at him for a second before looking down at your lap. You feel his hand that’s not around your shoulders play with the end of your dress.

“By the way,” he says in a low voice, his mouth so close to your ear you can feel his lips on your earlobe. “Black lace really suits you.”

Your eyes widen and your heart rate begins to increase as you realize he must have seen your underwear when you got in the car, despite your efforts to make sure that did not happen.

Instead of feeling mortified like you should have, you felt powerful. Maybe it was the alcohol taking affect on you, but your mood went from upset to almost… lustful?

“Does it now?” you questioned back. He hummed in reply and you could not help but let a breath out of your mouth when you feel his teeth graze the cartilage of your ear.

“Sexy,” is all he murmurs. Your thighs involuntarily tightened closer together at the simple word that fell from his lips.

You gazed up at him for a split second, seeing his eyes full of lust.

Next thing you knew, your lips were on his.

His hand on your shoulder moved to behind your neck as your lips hungrily meshed together. Goddamn, his lips are softer than you thought they would be.

There was no questioning whether or not this was right or wrong, no devil on your shoulder telling you that you barely knew the man tangling his tongue with yours. The only thing your mind was telling you right now is that you needed more of Jungkook, and you needed him now.

Your hands slid up his chest, lightly gripping onto his black hoodie. You felt his free hand resting high up on your leg with his thumb rubbing slow circles into your inner thigh. You tried withholding a moan, you really did, but it slipped out anyways. His grip on your leg tightened at the sound. You lightly bit his lower lip in approval before pulling back for air.

Holy shit, he’s an amazing kisser. It has been so long since you’ve kissed someone like that.

Jungkook took that opportunity to move his lips to your neck. He brushed your hair back before letting his tongue trace up from your neck to your earlobe, gently biting down. You could feel your desire for him building by every hot breath in your ear, every movement of his tongue on your neck, every purple mark he left.

You grab the back of his head, gripping onto his brown locks before pulling them away from your neck and reattaching your lips with his. His hand that was on your leg has moved your dress up and dangerously close to the band of your underwear. One more inch and he would probably be able to feel how badly you want him right now.

Instead of letting him get that close, you swing your leg over his until you are straddling him in the backseat. Your hands go up to his chest and your forehead rests on his briefly before you go back to kissing him. You feel his hands tightly grip your hips and in that moment, you wanted your dress off.

A knock on the divider is what pulls you away from each other.

“We’re here Jungkook. Say goodnight,” his driver says from the front seat.

“Let me walk you up,” he insists. From the way he looks at you, you know he’s not giving you an option.

You swing your legs back over to your seat before you adjust your dress and open the door. You wait for Jungkook to follow you. He shuts the car door before signaling “one minute” to the driver. His hand returns to the small of your back just as it did earlier as you approach your parent’s front door.

“Thanks for the ride,” you say nonchalantly.

“Same to you,” he boldly replies. “We should do it again sometime.”

He pulls his phone out of his pocket, holding it out to you. You go to his contacts and put your information in before handing it back to him.

“Well, goodnight,” you state, putting your hand on the doorknob. You begin to turn it before you’re pulled into Jungkook’s chest, hand being ripped away from the door. His lips crash down on yours hard, kissing you for a few seconds before pulling away.

“Goodnight.”

Before you could even open your eyes from the kiss, he is walking away and back towards the van.

Standing there stunned, you take a minute to compose yourself before you reach for the doorknob again.

“Oh, and _____?” you hear him yell.

You peaked over your shoulder at him, standing by the open van door.

“Purple suits you as well,” he smirks, motioning to his neck. Your mouth drops as the reality of his words sink in, and you instinctively reach towards your own neck. A small hiss escapes your mouth when you feel the ache of the numerous marks he littered on your skin. You look back up at him with a small glare, to which he cracks a smile and gets in the back of the van. You watch the vehicle drive down the street, turn left at the intersection, and off into the night.

Walking into the house, you shut the door quietly behind you before leaning against the dark wood. A sigh escaped your lips and the only thing you could think of was how utterly screwed you were.

#jungkook #jeon jungkook #jungkook drabble #idol jungkook #jungkook bts #bts drabble #bts smut #jungkook smut #jungkook fic #bts #ffjwrites #jungkook x reader #idol!jungkook

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ricardotomasz · 6 years

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Such is life! Behold, a new Post published on Greater And Grander about 16 Things You Can Learn About Activism from AIDS Activists

See into my soul, as a new Post has been published on http://greaterandgrander.com/2018/08/16-things-you-can-learn-about-activism-from-aids-activists/

16 Things You Can Learn About Activism from AIDS Activists

In the acclaimed documentary, HOW TO SURVIVE A PLAGUE, it chronicles the story of AIDS activists in the 80's and 90's. They championed equality and justice, and took actions that compelled those in power to treat AIDS as their serious concern it was. Their actions and tactics allowed them to demand changes in corporate policies, changes in government regulation, and changes in government spending priorities. Here now are a few lessons learned from their tactics.

1. Have Something for People To Do

When people get involved in activism, they do it because they are compelled to. They have a desire to fulfill, an anger to quench, and a story to tell. Activists need to put that energy somewhere, and it's up to you to help direct that energy. There are too many Activist groups that don't do anything. They meet once a month at a Denny's, or a Dupar's, but nothing ever happens. Here is a list of things they can do, immediately: ⁃ Letter Writing Campaigns ⁃ Postcards to Voters ⁃ Social Media Posting ⁃ Record them Telling Their Story, and why This Issue matters ⁃ Recruit more volunteers ⁃ Do research

2. Have A Research Group

Evey activist group must be based on facts. If the activist group is not based on facts, but only on vague ideas and emotions, then it is very unlikely that it will get anywhere. For ACT UP, it was science and biology that became Science Club. For the Black Panthers, it was the Sickle Cell Anemia research project. They reviewed research, and sometimes conducted their own experiments. You will need to become experts, and that will take time, patience, and study. Now, I'm not saying to start doing Biology experiments. For your group, it might be statistics, anthropology, psychology, or other forms of science. You need a group, and need to recruit an expert to lead it, so that you can evaluate what real solutions are to your issues. It doesn't need to be large, just a handful of people is enough. But your arguments must be based in research and fact.

3. Share the Information You Uncover

Whatever you find in your research group must be shared with your community, and those allies you recruit. ACT UP shared a list of terms which was an AIDS Treatment Glossary. Today, sharing that information can be in the form of blog posts, and info graphics shared on social media.

4. Commit To Direct Action

Many activist groups do indirect action. They focus on the ceremonial, and the ineffective, because while it may not solve the problem, it makes them feel better. The TSA has a saying (discussed in ADAM RUINS EVERYTHING) called security theatre. Well, activism theatre also exists. For example, after the 2016 election of Donald Trump, many people joined groups of Indivisible, which was focused on flipping the house and senate, or attending town halls of their local elected officials. The problem is, these groups didn't fix the problem. It did not stop thousands of people from being kidnapped by ICE and deported. It did not stop the Muslim ban from going into affect, after being reviewed by the Supreme Court. It did not stop hate crimes against LGBTQ, or people of color. These groups focused on indirect action, based on the hope, that if they could flip elected offices, then they would change things. However, because the actions taken by the President were within the President's authority, nothing they did mattered. Most activists don't like direct action because it is too "combative" but when families are being split apart, and people are dying in the streets from the alt-right (like Heather ____), then direct action must be taken.

5. Slogans

Good slogans are necessary. ACT Up's main slogan was, "Act up! Fight back! Fight AIDS!" Here are some other slogans that you can borrow/steal: ⁃ Act up! Stay calm! Tomorrow morning at city hall! ⁃ Healthcare is a right! ⁃ Act up! Fight back! Make love! ⁃ the whole world is watching! The whole world is watching! ⁃ 300,000 dead from AIDS! Where is George?

6. Have a Support Network

In your activist efforts, you may run risks. There is the risk of being arrested, and the risk of being injured by the police. Remember that you take these risks because you can, and are fighting for people who cannot. While direct action activism is risky, you can still take steps to minimize risk. Have everyone in your group fill out a support card that identifies clear information: ⁃ Who is your support person? ⁃ What is your support person's contact info? ⁃ What group will you be part of? ⁃ Do you have any health conditions or allergies? ⁃ Do you have an attorney? ⁃ If you do not have an attorney, is their a legal advocacy group that you can contact? ⁃ What is the legal advocacy group's phone number? ⁃ Do you have a doctor? If so, what is their information? ⁃ Do you have medical insurance? If so, what is the information? Make sure there are at least 3 copies, 1 for you, 1 for your support person, and 1 for the organization leader.

7. Have Designated People to Speak to the Press

Speaking to the press can be a tricky thing. Make sure you have someone who is knowledgeable in the press, and all members engaged in the action can point to that person to talk to the press. Sometimes an official "prop" is necessary, and one PR person brought their own podium. Having someone to designate the speaker power to is important, to command the press's attention. One hilarious example of this going awry is when the Bernie-or-Buster crowd tried to overtake the DNC. Two dozen Bernie Sanders supporters rushed into the press tent, with their mouths covered in tape, symbolizing their votes and voices being silenced by the nomination of Hillary Clinton. It was a good visual. The problem was, all of their supporters just stood around with tape on their mouths, and when the press tried to ask them a question, none of them responded. This pitiful attempt lasted for half an hour, until Jill Stein stumbled into the press tent, and used the moment to get on her soapbox. Had the protesters had a designated PR person, or someone designated to speak wth the press, they could have made a much more powerful impact.

8. If You're Gonna Speak To The Press, Be Prepared for the Asshole Questions

There are a number of people out there who won't understand you because they are operating under a series of false assumptions. Part of speaking out and advocacy is addressing these false assumptions head on. You cannot address them with anger, though you will want to. You cannot address them with contempt, though they deserve it. You must confront these false assumptions with the facts, so that you can plead the case of you and your community. One of the ways to do this is to prepare 4 talking points beforehand, as pre-prepared sound bites that will be specific and understandable. Another way of doing this is to practice a game called "Who's The Asshole". This entails someone standing in front of a panel, and each member of the panel asks the speaker an asshole question. the test then becomes, who appears to be the bigger asshole? The asshole who asked the question? Or the speaker who replies with anger, contempt, or snark. Strategize meetings and talking points ahead of time. You may need to go so far that if someone cannot attend the strategy session, then they cannot attend the activist event. This may be essential, because if someone is not on board with the approach, they may prove to be more of a liability, than an asset.

9. Conduct Straw Polls

One of the things that both Act Up did then, Anonymous' Scientology protests did after, and black Lives Matter does today is they conduct straw polls. These straw polls are important for Activism, so that each member feels emotionally invested in the actions. In addition, these straw polls can be messy, but they can help bestow a mandate by using a bottom-up governing practice, rather than a top-down approach. The only thing to be wary of is that too many choices can paralyze a group, and often the best approach is to provide two simple choices at a time. Otherwise, the group could descend into anarchy as they debate the nuances of large decisions.

10. Make Sure There are Cameras

If it wasn't filmed, it didn't exist.

11. Don't Underestimate Sit-Ins

The power of showing up en masse can be surprisingly powerful. The most powerful form of protest of the civil rights era was nonviolent sit-ins at diner counters, because it helped galvanize the local community. Similarly, ACT UP organized nonviolent "kiss-ins" to protest abuse by the police and hospital workers. They didn't need signs or lawyers. They just showed up.

12. Document Your Struggle

Many people will never know you, but they need to. They need to know your names, your faces, your families, and your hopes & dreams. Document your life and your struggles. This could come in the form of books, but it may also come in the form of audio podcasts or video interviews. Documentarians, you must take the time to document these cultures, because they deserve to be brought out of the vulnerable shadows.

13. Go To Where The Enemies and the Beaurocracies Are, and Confront Them

ACT UP did not just do sit ins. They went to FDA headquarters, which was the #1 AIDS beaurocracy in the United States, slowing the development and approval AIDS drugs. They climbed the tower of the FDA, and hung their banner on the front of their building. They did this time and again. They protested FDA commission hearings. They went to International AIDS medical conventions to advocate for better plans and better studies. They protested the New York cardinals who falsely said AIDS would be increased by the use of condoms. They literally stormed the National Institute of Health campus, where police beat them. ACT UP even took it one step further, and went to the home of Jesse Helms, who was the biggest homophobe in the Senate. They went to Jesse Helms' home, and wrapped it up in a giant condom, to raise awareness of how condoms can benefit people, and make sex safer. Indivisible also advocated this approach, by having it's members go to town halls organized by their congress people, in the age of Trump. they did this, and it worked.

14. Create Massive Events

ACT UP didn't just do small local protests, they combined their efforts with other similar groups. They went to New Hampshire to force Bill Clinton to give a passionate answer about how he would do more for AIDS research. ACT UP helped co-organize massive events like the AIDS quilt in Washington DC, where names of hundreds of thousands of people who dies from AIDS were read aloud. The National AIDS quilt helped realize a national dream, which was to surround the WHite House with people who cared about AIDS. Some protestors even went one step further, spreading the ashes of their deceased partners on the lawn of the White House. On the eve of the election, they brought the coffins containing recently deceased AIDS activists to George W. Bush's NYC campaign headquarters. They did this with the permission of the deceased, and their families. Displaying the dead is a common sign of protest surrounding life or death issues. In the documentary, WINTER ON FIRE, protestors in Ukraine displayed the bodies of those murdered by Ukraine's secret police before a crowd of tens of thousands. The impassioned plea helped galvanize the public, and caused the pro-Russian dictator of Ukraine to flee.

15. Find Unlikely Allies

ACT UP's activism put them in the spotlight, and that attracted several groups to them. One such group was a pharmaceutical company, MERCK, which wanted to work with ACT UP on clinical trials. This alliance was unexpected, and caused political fallout amongst ACT UP's members eventually, but it was critical in finding the drug cocktail that allowed AIDS patients to live longer, healthier lives, many years later. They also forged alliances with researchers at various conferences, that allowed meetings on these trials to be public and open. These unlikely alliances can make incredible inroads towards success.

16. Ask What Would A Decent Society do?

What does a decent society do to people who are in your position. Never forget that you are a decent person, and your friends and family are decent people who are deserving of decency, and protection. And now, a final thought from the writer... I don't know who you are. You and your community will never be known to me, and yet I know you all too well. As a descendent of Jews who survived the Holocaust, I know the oppression and violence that can be unleashed upon a vulnerable population. Whether you are Palestinians fighting for your own country, undocumented immigrants seeking happiness, or transgender activists fighting for a chance at stable employment. You are deserving of that oh so fine thing we call justice, and I hope that in your journeys, what has been written and done before you will help to fulfill your own life.

#Activism, #DirectAction, #Inspiration, #Inspire, #Politics, #Protests, #Queeraf, #Sistersofperpetualindulgence, #TopTenLists

#activism #direct action #inspiration #inspire #politics #protests #queeraf #sistersofperpetualindulgence #top ten lists

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theperfectstormrp · 4 years

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“She was the kind of girl who was a chaos of contradictions from one second to the next. “

Alice Longbottom

Age: Twenty Six

Affiliation: Order Member

Blood Status: Pureblood

Career: Auror

RUMOR HAS IT… This storm of a girl is always looking for trouble. She claims that everything she does is for justice and to keep everyone safe, but don’t we all know the real truth? What she’s really fighting for is honor and glory, no matter what the cost is, even toppling over her doting husband’s career along the way. Can she prove that women deserve to be part of the Auror department? Or will she just prove all those men right?

A storm raged upon the shores of England the day Alice Fortescue was born and that storm rages inside of her now. Powerful potential lingered, chaotic energy surrounding her. Her mother used to say she screamed out a battle cry the moment she took a breath, the room stood still, and everyone wondered who she would become. She was an only child who thrived on her parents’ affection. While they rarely scolded her(mostly because they knew she wouldn’t listen), she always wanted to make them proud. An adventurous child she hardly ever sat still, like a storm she rushed about, constantly exploring her family’s estate. She was a sight to behold, unruly brown curls in bows and wearing frilly dresses she somehow always found herself in a mess. Small hands used to pick up twigs, acting as a wand until she got her own. She was curious to a fault and got herself in a few strange situations more often than not; to which her parents left her to figure her way out of it, instilling independence in her. Her mother was patient, accepting of her daughter, while most pureblood mothers were primping and preening their daughters for marriage Alice’s mother had a different agenda. She tried all the usual activities, gave Alice piano lessons, sent to her ballet training, taught her etiquette but when she realized her daughter had a voice as loud as thunder, she gave up and simply encouraged her small daughter to take the world by storm. Nights were filled with the sound of her mother’s voice reading books about great adventures, heroines who would fall down and get back up and morals of never letting anyone tell her that she had a defined role as a girl. Her father agreed with this sentiment filling his daughter’s head with tales of Aurors and their extraordinary feats, the great things they did. Though his family-owned Fortescue’s Ice Cream Parlour his younger brother was the one to actually took on the family business. Alice’s father worked in the Magical Law Enforcement Department and used to take Alice into work with him. The small girl would run off to where the Aurors trained and with large green eyes, she watches as the men trained knowing day she too would be there. It was when she was younger she decided she had to be an Auror, she’d never be anything else.

Alice knew she’d go to Hogwarts, she had been anticipating the day since she was small and listened to her father’s stories about the castle. She hopped on that train with confidence exuding from her being, a bright smile on her face, she wasn’t nervous. Hogwarts would be the place where she could hone in on her skills to be an Auror, where she would make friends, where adventure was waiting and she was ready to take it and run. She, however, was a hat stall, her small legs swung back and forth as the hat deliberated where to put her, she was plenty smart that was true, loyal to a fault, but there was an ambition about her. She was never one to give up easily, she would take what she deserved and do what she had to do to get it. And yet….While ambitious she’d never push others to get what she wanted, determined, reckless and brave the hat finally placed her in Gryffindor, in the end, it was a balancing move, a girl with as an ambitious heart as hers would only thrive in Gryffindor and push others to thrive along with her. Alice was small but fierce, she cemented that reputation on the first day. She would stand up to those twice her size, an avenger, a defender of Hogwarts.

It was then she started hearing whispers of another one, a boy as calm as the sea after a storm, Frank Longbottom, also Gryffindor but not in her year. She was determined they should never meet though, it was the rules of fat she decided. They were to be shipping passing in the night, rumors and stories would be their connection. But they crashed. He grabbed her hand pulled her away from trouble and she protested, profanities leaving her mouth. He was the opposite of herself, calm, soft, sweet. And she resisted at first, vowing to not let him in, trying to keep her distance, but he cracked down her wall. And when he did it was the start of something no one could really anticipate. A perfect balancing act. Controlled chaos.

The hat was right. Alice is calculating when she needs to be but she’s more impulsive than anything. The school could hardly contain her, she got bored too easily, but she never wanted that boredom to mess with her classes. She excelled at Hogwarts, if only because she had the one-track mind of being an Auror. Her best class was Defense Against the Dark Arts but to a lot of people’s surprise Herbology came in a close second. Plants were calming to her, she could spend hours in the Greenhouses, taking care of all the strange and whimsical plants that grew there. If there was one fear she had to name it would be flying, Alice was not one to play Quidditch, and she hated flying lessons. Despite how much trouble she would get in Alice still was a great and well-liked student. She was charming with a vocabulary like a sailor and her fights were usually with someone who was picking on someone with no defense. She was head of the Dueling Club, Member of the Slugclub and part of the Wizard’s Chess club. Her goal remained the same throughout her entire Hogwarts career though. Become an Auror. And she did it.

Becoming an Auror was the only acceptable choice for Alice. She had no doubts about it. Alice has this need to protect others, so much so she’d rather put herself in harm’s way. Her mother used to always say she had a hero’s complex and her mother was completely right. However Frank was there to balance her out. She married him, after turning him down once. She was just out of Hogwarts and she needed to start Auror training before she could think of anything else. However, she looked at him one day and out of the blue asked him to ask again. This time she accepted. In the office, she is still Auror Fortescue, which tends to make rumors swell around her marriage. Most of the time she responds by snogging Frank right in the middle of the office. Being married and working with her husband only makes her a better Auror. The two work in tandem better than any other team. It’s a perfect match. However, a little after Alice was married her parents were murdered by a rogue Death Eater. It was the most helpless Alice ever felt in her life. She couldn’t protect them, the one thing she set out to do and she failed. It was one of Alice’s biggest setbacks, lost in translation unsure of what to do, Alice felt as if she lost everything that made her who she was. At first, Alice thought she would tackle this case but when she realized her emotions would get in the way, she stepped back.

The war is brewing and Alice had to do something. The Order was where she was called. It was the right thing to do, and she had to protect those around her. Years of fighting bullies, years of standing up for others, years of just defending all led up to this. She saw darkness, and she couldn’t stand for it. Alice will let nothing stop her in this war. She refuses to be defeated.

FRANK LONGBOTTOM – Frank was another Gryffindor who fought for others and she believed that meant they should never meet, but fate had something else in store. Although she wouldn’t say it out loud to many, the day their hands met changed her life for the better. Frank is her rock and the person she can’t live without. He’s her sanity, the reason she hadn’t completely gone off the deep end.

BELLATRIX LESTRANGE – Ever met someone who was like you, but totally different at the same time? While Bellatrix is probably a little crazier than Alice, they both will do anything to protect what they believe in. Word to the wise, don’t cross either of them, and run if they are in the same room.

MOLLY WEASLEY – Molly was a friend that Alice didn’t see coming, but enjoys completely. She loves the chance to spend time with the Weasley family, and to give Molly a little break from everything.

OTHER CONNECTIONS – BIOS ALICE LONGBOTTOM IS MENTIONED IN.

Alice Longbottom is currently a TAKEN character with a FC of Felicity Jones.

#marauders rp #dark rp #lsrp #marauders roleplay #hp rp #alice longbottom #taken #takenf #o #order #alicelongbottombio #mention: frank longbottom #mention: bellatrix lestrange #mention: molly weasley

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