#but seriously it just. breaks my heart to see passion projects being left behind

[littlejuicebox]

An Early Highharvestide Feast

(Soft Dom Astarion x Female Reader)

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Setting: 4 years after BG3, "good" ending, Unascended Astarion x F Reader Notes: Took a break from my WrenxAstarion fic to write this Thanksgiving-themed (kind of but not really... lol it just worked for the plot), one shot. This idea was playing in my head, and I had to get it out. Hope you all enjoy and have a happy Thanksgiving! This might end up being a Part 1 of a mini story. I'd like to do the fluff scene with all their friends around and imagine the lives they've lived. I love to see comments about what you liked in the story, it inspires me for other fics. Rating: Mature 18+ / smut Word Count: 2.5K

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You’re in the kitchen, flowers strewn about the marble countertop as you arrange the bouquets for tomorrow’s banquet. It’s been four years since you’ve seen everyone at the same time, and finally, finally, the old gang will be back together in one room in less than 24 hours. Your heart practically soared in anticipation... a Highharvestide banquet in your very own home, with your favorite people in the world. You wanted everything to be just perfect.

The planning had taken weeks. Astarion had left the menu to you, of course, apart from the wine and alcohol selection. He had taken that from you quite early on and it had been more than a tenday before he solidified his choices between his frequent business meetings and your political events. He’d focused heavily on guiding you both in politics and expanding your wealth the past few years, while you focused on gardening and improving Baldur's Gate... plus navigating the lack of anonymity in your life.

Admittedly, you’d stumbled clumsily through your change in status, from unknown woman to Lady Ancunin, while Astarion glided into the position like he’d simply left his post for a long vacation. You’d been happy to take the lead in the wilds while a tadpole was lodged in everyone's brains, but you were even happier to hand the reins to him once the city was safe. And you were always proud to tell your friends that he’d navigated the two of you through the changes quite well.

In fact, he'd just purchased a second property outside of Baldur’s Gate with aims to start your very own winery; his pet project that he loved quite dearly. It was beautiful to watch Astarion approach something with such passion and vigor. After becoming the heroes of Baldur’s Gate, it had pained you that he could no longer stand in the sun. Not as much as it so obviously pained him. His mask was carefully crafted, and yet you often saw right through it. You hoped that perhaps one of your friends would bring news of a cure for his condition to the feast.

He had always been adamant that he’d make the same choice over and over again, but guilt still stabbed you like a dagger to the gut when you saw him watch the sun rise from the deepest depths of your manor or caught him studying your tan lines from your many hours spent out in the garden, your own personal pet project, specializing primarily in night blooming plants.

Astarion’s voice pulls you from your reverie as he enters the kitchen with Scratch trailing behind him. His vermillion eyes are focused on a scroll in his hands as he grasps a bone from a jar and tosses it into the dog’s bed. Scratch obediently settles himself into the plush mattress, content to gnaw away at the treat.

“Darling, your dog went after the chickens again. One of the staff had to run him down and then give him a bath. We may want to seriously consider a trainer. Command beast works all well and good when you’re around, but not everyone has that skill set in their repertoire, dear.” His tone carries just the slightest tinge of annoyance; you two have had this conversation before. But you know in his heart of hearts that Astarion loves the blasted dog perhaps more than you do.

You glance at Scratch, currently focused on giving you his best look of feigned innocence. The look reminds you quite a bit of another white-haired miscreant standing in that very same kitchen and you chuckle. Distracted, you feel the miscalculated slip of your hand as you reach for a particularly thorned flower stem. The punishing sting causes you to wince and pull in a sharp intake of breath. Blood blooms in buds of red on your fingers and the scent catches Astarion’s attention immediately.

His eyes are alight as he chides you. “You really must stop bleeding everywhere, my heart. It’s distracting.” He places the scroll down and comes to your side, grasping your hand in his to examine the damage.

“Perhaps if you helped me with these arrangements like I’d asked, I wouldn’t be in this situation, my love.” You respond with a soft huff, but you extend your hand towards the vampire, already quite aware what his next move will be. He bends to lick the red droplets from your skin before he kisses the knuckle of your hand. Astarion will never waste such a precious thing, that much is certain.

“Perhaps if you more frequently used the staff -- that we pay quite well, might I add -- to do things like tend your garden, put all these flowers in vases, and perform any number of menial tasks, then you wouldn’t be in this situation.” The vampire retorts with a raised eyebrow. “All of this is below your station now. It truly pains me to see your beautiful hands doing such things, my dear.”

You smile as you close your eyes and whisper a healing incantation, sealing the superficial wounds with minimal effort. You swivel in your seat and turn to face your husband, eyebrow arched to mirror his own, voice slipping into a coy register. “And what, Lord Ancunin, would you rather see my hands doing?”

You won. You could see it in the darkening of his eyes as he placed his hands on either side of the counter and pressed forward to look at you, red eyes flitting between yours.

Astarion had ebbed and flowed in his sexual appetites, especially in the first few years of your union. He had been plagued by panic attacks and night terrors something awful; they still occurred but not with the same horrid frequency. Your many nights of herbal teas and "flower child" magic, as he so lovingly called it, eased the suffering. You’d been content to ride the waves of desire with him, and it seemed more recently, as the two of you adjusted to domestic life, his appetites had returned with force.

His face hovered just inches in front of yours, eyes alight with a combination of adoration and lust as he pressed a soft kiss to your lips before pulling back and running his eyes greedily down your body, cocking his head as he fantasized about any number of dirty things. “I have several delicious ideas for those hands, darling.”

The flowers were scattered on the ground, along with a broken vase in an instant. The vampire hoisted you up with relative ease before placing you onto the cool, marbled counter. His hands grazed up the side of your silken gown and then delved under the hem to explore your bare skin. He quickly found his way to the junction between your thighs and a pleased, rakish smile crossed his face.

“No underclothes, Lady Ancunin? You truly do desire to test my patience today.” His eyes locked with yours as he knelt in front of you, draping your legs over his shoulders and pushing your dress up to reveal you to him fully.

You would have to enlist the help of the staff tomorrow afternoon. The tradeoff was well worth it, you thought, as your silver-haired husband bowed his head before you to run his tongue against your slit, a little hum escaping him as he tasted your warmth. He ran his tongue up to your clit, his lazy, languid strokes pressing into you. Always such a tease.

“Astarion…” You murmur, bucking your hips toward the vampire as your hands found silver curls of hair and took hold.

A smile snaked its way across his lips as he continued his torment. You were wriggling, desperate for more, which the elf adamantly denied you, his hands gripping into your thighs as he brushed his feather light tongue against you once more. Just enough stimulation to keep your attention, but not enough to provide any relief.

“My love..” Your tone is practically begging for him to give you more.

“Mm, darling. I do believe I need to show you what else your hands could do, don’t I?” He grabs your hand and yanks it towards your sex, where he guides you to play with yourself. Hungry red eyes watch the show as arousal begins to drip from you onto the countertop. He slips two long fingers deep inside your cunt and curls them slightly, pumping the digits in and out, which earns him a delightful moan. Still on his knees, the vampire removes his fingers from inside your walls and licks your juices off his hand before sliding your legs off his shoulders and standing. He makes quick work of ripping your gown over your head, pressing gentle kisses against the newly freed flesh of your chest. You are now completely barren and exposed to your lover, his lustful eyes stoking the fire between your legs.

His own arousal is now clearly straining against his clothes. Astarion quickly undoes the buttons of his collar and lacings of his trousers, freeing his cock before your hungry gaze. You’re still playing with yourself as you watch the man completely undress before you.

“Now darling…” He murmurs in that sensual tone reserved only for you. He guides your unoccupied hand to the twitching length of his cock and wraps it around the shaft, giving a few experimental pumps into your hand. “What else can your beautiful hands do?”

You take the queue and begin moving your hand around his length. Astarion hisses in pleasure, rolling his hips as he fucks your hand. The vision is quite lewd; you're playing with your own pussy as you pump your lover’s cock in time, your respective arousals just inches from one another but not touching. It's enough to cause the heat in your cheeks and your sex to rise and illicit several excited keens from you. He teasingly moves his length closer to your entrance, pulling away just as the head of his member brushes against you. You want to scream every time he pulls away, the bastard lives to tease you to the edge of desire.

Astarion was watching the scene with rapt interest, absolutely transfixed. His breath was quickening as he pressed himself into your hand, watching the head of his penis sheath and unsheathe itself under your ministrations as your pussy prayed to be plunged into, leaking arousal all over the cold countertop. He was always more in control in these situations, able to keep a firm hold on his desire in a way you never could.

“Look at my little treat, making such a mess on these expensive counters.” He murmured in mock disappointment and mock condescension, eyes burning with excitement. “Play with yourself and show me the mess you make when you cum for me, my sweet.”

You moan, desperate to have him fill you. “Astarion, please. Fuck me already. Please.” You’re keening, fingers rubbing against your clit with vigor. Desperate for something to fill the ache inside you, you remove your hand from your lover’s cock and shove two fingers into your wetness. The stimulation is fantastic and rips a moan from your vocal cords as your head tilts back.

Astarion chuckles darkly at the scene before him. It was no secret that he loved the way you inflated his ego when you begged for him, a writhing mess of wanton desire for his eyes only. The do-good, stoic hero of Baldur’s Gate turned into a desperate, needy little minx under his touch. He never tired of it. “Cum for me, darling. And then you will get your reward.”

You aim to do as he says, using one hand to plunge in and out of yourself while the other rubs frantically at your clit. Your legs are spread wide, displaying everything to the vampire as you push yourself towards release. Finally, the bubble bursts and an orgasm crashes around you, sending waves of pleasure throughout your body and into your thobbing sex. The pulsing seems nearly endless, and you feel the ooze of your juices sliding between your legs as you ride the wave of pleasure. When you come to your senses and flutter your lids open, Astarion's eyes are boring into you with such desire that it causes a tremor of excitement to run down your spine.

In one swift move he has you in a new position. Your feet are on the floor, albeit legs a bit shaky, and your ass is turned toward your lover, body bent at the waist. Your face is pressed into the counter, into the stickiness of your own juices. Everything smells of sex.

A delicious groan escapes from the vampire as he presses the head of his cock into your entrance, ready to take you from behind. “Beautiful... now, let’s see if I am able to make you come undone once more.”

Astarion slams into you with vigor, the force of the movement knocking the wind out of you as he groans in appreciation. Your soaking wet sex offers no resistance and you gasp at the pleasure of the rapid intrusion. He repeatedly drags himself back at a tortuous, languid pace just to thrust himself balls-deep once more, snapping his hips into the flesh of your ass, moaning every time he takes you to the hilt.

“Oh gods!” You exclaim as he picks up the pace, pumping into you with increasing speed, his cock curving gratifyingly along your insides. You feel yourself clenching around him as his efforts push you toward another peak.

Astarion growls and grabs your hand, guiding it once again to your clit. You’re climbing up to a second release as he rolls his hips behind you in an unceasing onslaught.

“There you go, little love. Won’t you cum for me again?” He coaxes in a graveled whisper as his lips and tongue trail down your spine, never once ceasing his thrusts. The vampire’s teeth find a beautiful little spot at the meeting point of your shoulder and neck, and he bites down, just enough to draw blood. The sensation pushes you over the edge and you spasm around your lover, your cunt eagerly gripping at his length.

“Oh! Oh... oh, my love.” The vampire groans as your throbbing sex pushes him over the edge, his final pumps turning sloppy as he spills into you. The two of you are a mess of panting chests and tired limbs for a few moments before Astarion straightens himself up and gently pulls you from the counter, dotting kisses along your shoulder where he left the bite.

"That was wonderful." You whisper, turning to face the vampire as you plant a gentle kiss on his lips.

“Mmh.” Astarion agrees in a little hum as he looks down at you with soft and loving eyes, pushing strands of hair away from your face before holding your chin in his hand and planting another kiss on your lips. The slightest of smiles flits across his lips as he runs his hands down to the curve of your waist. You move to begin cleaning up the mess you two made when your lover grabs your hand and begins to tug you away from the kitchen.

"Now, now, darling. Leave that be. I haven't finished showing you what else your hands can do… and we only have a bit longer before our friends show and ruin all the fun. Seems my Highharvestide feast came a day early." He muses, before eagerly leading you to the bedroom you both share. The flowers would have to wait.

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Part 2: Happy Highharvestide Day (all fluff)

#astarion fanfic #astarion fic #astarion x original female character #astarion x tav #baulders gate 3 #baulders gate astarion #baulders gate tav #bg3 fanfic idea #bg3 fanfiction #astarion x reader #astarion x you #baldurs gate 3 #astarion fanfiction #astarion smut #astarion romance #astarion #astarion fluff #bg3 fanfic #bg3 smut #bg3 fluff #smut

[collisiondiscourse]

ok so. this is a different type of post than usual. im sorry if yall didnt wanna see some angry/upset posts but it genuinely breaks my heart to see shit like this

that makes it so goddamn hard for fandom content creators to make things for you.

we dont get paid for this. not one single cent is given to us when we make things for yall (unless we get commissioned or get kofi donations which are p rare), bc the payment we get is your love and support for the stuff we make.

but sometimes... it seems like we cant even have that?

it may not look like it, but lots of people who make really good content get discouraged every. single. day. because of how much spam-like culture prevents us from getting exposure.

i'm lucky. very much so because i have amazing mutuals and followers who regularly reblog my content and the algorithms nice to me. but the point is that those screenshots above? are all for MY ART. that means that theres at LEAST 10 more people out there who are just as deserving of this attention but get ratio'd like this 10x harder.

why?

because some of you still the online art community apparently. because some of you dont realize how good youve got it when its not you whos hardwork passion projects are met with indifference and apathy. because you refuse to reblog art when its the one thing that artists say time and time again actually HELPS THEM OUT

its just that little green button. help content creators out.

#tw negativity #tw rant #tw vent #im sorry i just. am rlly upset by what my notes have come to. #ill wake up with over a hundred notifs and be excited #n i open that shit up and its like. what? 1 reblog? #a few follows if im lucky ig #but seriously it just. breaks my heart to see passion projects being left behind #if you dont like the content ? fine scroll on by #but if you do #consider liking AND reblogging #im not totally free from this either #i dont always comment on everything i reblog. i dont always write out nice responses #but i do try to reblog things as much as possible. EVEN if i dont necessarily 'like it that much' #fix. the artist. ratio. there a hundreds of posts like mine #so why havent yall still gotten the fuckin memo? #idk sometimes we think that maybe our art just sucks #so if u dont want ur artist idols to think that. consider REBLOGGING SHIT #5his has been in my drafts for so long but i feel confident enough to post this rn #but just in case #delete later

[latte-fairytaekwoon]

𝑫𝒂𝒓𝒌 𝑲𝒊𝒔𝒔 (𝑲𝒊𝒎 𝑯𝒐𝒏𝒈𝒋𝒐𝒐𝒏𝒈) 𝑹𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒅

Part Two

𝐏𝐚𝐢𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠: 𝐆𝐨𝐭𝐡/𝐄𝐦𝐨! 𝐊𝐢𝐦 𝐇𝐨𝐧𝐠𝐣𝐨𝐨𝐧𝐠 (𝐀𝐭𝐞𝐞𝐳)/ 𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫 (𝐅𝐞𝐦𝐚𝐥𝐞)

𝐆𝐞𝐧𝐫𝐞: 𝐒𝐦𝐮𝐭, 𝐀𝐧𝐠𝐬𝐭, 𝐅𝐥𝐮𝐟𝐟, 𝐂𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐠𝐞 𝐀𝐔

𝐖𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬: 𝐀𝐥𝐜𝐨𝐡𝐨𝐥/𝐍𝐢𝐜𝐨𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐤𝐞, 𝐬𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐩𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐫 𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐲, 𝐧𝐢𝐩𝐩𝐥𝐞/𝐭𝐨𝐧𝐠𝐮𝐞/𝐝*𝐜𝐤 𝐩𝐢𝐞𝐫𝐜𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬, 𝐧𝐢𝐩𝐩𝐥𝐞 𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐲 (𝐦𝐚𝐥𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐞𝐢𝐯𝐢𝐧𝐠), 𝐨𝐫𝐚𝐥 (𝐟𝐞𝐦𝐚𝐥𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐞𝐢𝐯𝐢𝐧𝐠), 𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐣𝐨𝐛 (𝐦𝐚𝐥𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐞𝐢𝐯𝐢𝐧𝐠), 𝐩*𝐬𝐬𝐲 𝐬𝐥𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐢𝐧𝐠, 𝐛𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐡 𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐲, 𝐮𝐧𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐭𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐩𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐬𝐞𝐱 (𝐚𝐥𝐰𝐚𝐲𝐬 𝐮𝐬𝐞 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐭𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧).

𝐒𝐮𝐦𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐲: 𝐅𝐚𝐬𝐜𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐛𝐲 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐝𝐚𝐫𝐤 𝐦𝐲𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐲 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐢𝐬 𝐊𝐢𝐦 𝐇𝐨𝐧𝐠𝐣𝐨𝐨𝐧𝐠, 𝐘/𝐍 𝐠𝐞𝐭𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐨𝐩𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐧𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐤𝐧𝐨𝐰 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐡𝐢𝐦 𝐢𝐧 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐰𝐚𝐲𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐧 𝐨𝐧𝐞.

𝐖𝐨𝐫𝐝 𝐂𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭: 𝟓𝐊+

𝐓𝐚𝐠 𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐭: @hanatiny @vocalyunho @galaxteez (payback you little bitch)

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Awoken from her daydream, Y/N grumbled when her best friend shoved his notebook in her face.

"Earth to Y/N!" He shouted as he ruffled her hair with the object in his hand.

"Mingi! What the hell?" She complained as she pushed the notebook away.

"I've been trying to get your attention for the past 3 minutes. Are you even listening to me?" He questioned her.

"I am!" She interjected.

Giving her a quizzical look, he crossed his arms.

"Really? Then can you tell me what the answer is?"

Ripping the notebook from his hands, she looked over the equation that filling half the page, squinting at it every now and then before ultimately admitting defeat as she slowly handed it back to the genius sitting next to her on the bench.

Rolling his eyes, Mingi let out a small sigh as he began packing up his belongings, deeming it useless to continue his semi-tutoring session.

"Don't give me that look Min, not everyone is a cute nerd like you that can solve an advanced calculus problem in mere seconds."

"Ok! Although that may be true.." He held up a finger as he paused to fully zip up his bag.

"You're pretty smart too Y/N."

She gave him a small thankful smile at his comment.

"You're problem isn't that you're dumb. Your problem is currently standing right over there."

She hesitantly tilted her head to where his head gestured at, knowing fully well what she'd see. But as soon as she caught a glimpse of the black combat boots, her eyes stayed fixated on the figure reclining against the lamppost. Her eyes trailed up his ripped black skinny jeans, up his torso which was covered by a striped black and dark red turtleneck, its sleeves peeking out of the black studded leather jacket layered on top, until they landed on his nonchalant gaze. His eyes were looking down at his phone, the input connected to the headphones that were currently resting on top of his dark ash grey head. That was how one would mostly find Kim Hongjoong: lost in his own little world, blocking out the rest of his environment with a click of his music playlist, no doubt filled with bands like Linkin Park, Breaking Benjamin and MCR. Y/N wasn't going to lie, more than once she often thought about playing a G note near him just to see if he'd react or not. Thinking about him actually reacting to anything made her giggle on the inside.

"And there you go again!" Mingi's voice yelled in her ear.

She was so startled by his piercing scream, she actually fell over and hit the pavement kinda hard. She winced as she felt a pain on her derriere.

"Ow. Ow. Ow." She groaned as she began lifting herself up.

Out of nowhere, a pair of arms scooped her up and helped her stand upright.

"You all right?" The person asked.

"I think so. Thank you for-"

Her words got caught on her throat as a pair of dark brown eyes looked at her, black eyeliner smoked out to accentuate the shape of his eyes and make them look more intense than they already were.

He smirked at her before looking over at Mingi and nodding at him.

"Yunho sent you the invite right?"

Although he was quite familiar and somewhat friendly with Hongjoong, Mingi still had a hard time talking to him, so he merely tilted his head down in a half nod.

"So you're coming or are you going to stay home again and study for any surprise quiz Professor Nam might try to give us?"

Mingi poked his bottom lip out, somewhat offended at being called out like that. The dark male let out a soft snort.

"Seriously Mingi, going out once in a while won't hurt you. You don't even have to get fucked up if you don't want. Just come hang out."

Turning his attention back at the girl silently admiring him, he flashed her a wink.

"Bring a friend if you want too."

Bringing the headphones up to cover his overly pierced ears, he shoved his hands into his pockets and walked away in that usual way of his that made several people think he was on his way to commit a felony or crime.

Y/N watched him leave until he was completely out of sight, and even then, she still stayed staring at the corner he turned. Leaning in, Mingi stared at her with widened eyes.

"Your middle school phase of liking Andy Biersack copycats is really showing Y/N."

She scoffed and pushed his face away from hers.

"Shut up, you act like you didn't have your own infatuation with Hayley Williams."

Mingi stiffened, his ears turning slightly red at the memories.

"I got over it didn't I?"

"I don't know? Did you?" She wiggled her eyebrows at him teasingly.

"Some friend you are. And here I was actually thinking of taking you with me to the weekend bash Yunho and his friends invited me to."

Y/N looked at him in disbelief.

"First off, why would they even invite you? You're not even a part of their clique. Second, even if they had invited you, you wouldn't go. You're too uptight." She accused him.

Squinting his eyes at her, Mingi cleared his throat.

"For your information, I got paired up with Yunho, Hongjoong and Jongho once for a group project and we actually keep in touch since then."

Y/N dropped her hands to the side, a loud slapping noise made against her thighs.

"When was this?"

"Around the time you went to that trip with your parents back home." He answered.

Her mouth dropped open.

"And you never told me this because.....?"

Mingi rolled his eyes.

"Because you would have teased me or would have said something about a nerd, a jock, a teacher's pet and an emo goth, whatever hell spawn demon he is, in a room together and actually getting along."

"I mean, I get them getting along, not so sure about a boring old prick like you though." She stuck her tongue out at him.

Mingi held his fingers up, threatening to flick her forehead if she continued, but Y/N flinched away.

"You ass. And here I was actually thinking of going and taking you so you can hit on your dream boy." He expressed as he began his walk back home, already deeming it late to stay behind on campus grounds.

Following suit and placing herself on his left, Y/N uttered out.

"He's not my dream boy..."

"Really? Then why do you keep drooling over him and looking at him with googly eyes about to pop out of their sockets?" He inquired.

"He's just.....he's just a complex character. Full of mystery and shrouded in this dark aura that I want to get past and see what's behind it...."

She hesitated even though she was supposed to be answering a question. She felt kinda stupid for thinking like that, making Hongjoong seem like some type of enigma when in reality, he could just be a normal person like all the other people that walked past her on the streets. Her friend didn't judge her though, owing some of her curiosity to her psychology major and passion. Slumping an arm around her, he playfully nuzzled his nose against her cheek, making her emit a half-whine half snort hybrid sound at his antics, trying to release herself from his grasp.

"You're so cute. Now come on. I have to take you shopping."

Not even bothering to ask if she had plans or needed to be somewhere else, Mingi linked hands with her and pulled her with him as he speedily walked in the direction of the nearest mall available.

"Explain to me why that is necessary Einstein? You always hated going shopping with me." She nearly tripped trying to keep up with his long strides.

"Because if you want to win emo boy's heart, you at least gotta start looking like his type." He called back at her.

"And what exactly would his type be?"

"Just trust me and leave it all to me."

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Y/N wasn't sure about trusting Mingi anymore as they made their way through a dense, misty and dark forest, the only illumination available being the moonlight that casted a blue tinted beam at their surroundings. Her head whipped with every strange noise that came from bushes or behind a tree. It was kinda chilly and the light breeze that whooshed past them had her legs shivering, making her regret wearing the distressed black shorts and fishnet tights under an oversized Scorpions tshirt that covered most of the shorts, making it look like a no pants look.

"Mingi? Are you sure about this?" She was only thankful of her purchase of some Dr. Martens 1460 black boots which helped her not fall or trip easily on the dirt road.

Mingi, who was an even more scared baby than she was, was fumbled with the sleeves of his pullover hoodie.

"Yeah, Yunho sent me directions and it should be around here somewhere..." He tussled his hair back, trying to hear or distinguish any sound.

"Are you sure he didn't send you to his murder site?" She asked, looking around for any suspicious thing.

Right at that moment, a figure jumped out in front of them, causing both of them to start screaming in terror. Mingi in particular, pushed Y/N to the side and began running in the opposite direction.

"Well dang, he didn't even let me yell boo or something."

Y/N recognized the buff male in front of her as Choi Jongho, the running back of the football team. Giving her an apologetic look, he helped her up after Mingi accidentally pushed her onto the dirt. As she dusted the dirt off, Jongho looked at her band tee.

"Scorpions?" He pointed at it.

He uttered a small 'cool' before signaling her to follow him. Turns out, they were actually not far off from the location, which was actually an old abandoned 2 story summer house that resembled more a barn to her than an actual living space. Cars were all parked out around the area and music was blasting from speakers connected to who knows where. People who hung outside were either vaping their Juuls and chugging back bottles of Smirnoff or Mike's Hard beers, some already halfway to being wasted while others simply held it in their hands, hardly taking a sip as they scanned around trying to find someone to go back home with.

"Don't worry about Mingi. I'll go get him......eventually."

Hearing him snicker, Y/N was actually more worried about herself than Mingi. She only agreed to come because, as surprising as it was, he encouraged her to and knowing he'd be there by her side, being the only person she could stick to cause she did not know anyone else, gave her a little bit of courage. But not anymore after he just totally ditched her and left her alone in God knows where.

Seeing her shift around uncomfortably as they passed through a crowd of wild jumping people, Jongho laced his fingers in hers and brought her over to a more quiet side of the place, where 3 other people were standing around, chatting amongst themselves. Once the two huddled up close to each other saw Jongho and a mystery girl they'd never seen before, they began nudging and whispering among themselves, one of them chuckling under his breath. Hongjoong could already guess what his friend's conversations was about, but he simply rolled his eyes at their behavior and lustful gazes.

Until he turned his head and saw who it was next to Jongho. Then took out the red vape in from his lips and made it a point to exhale the fumes onto the younger member's faces.

"Yah! Hyung! What the hell?" His friend with cat like eyes remarked as he coughed and fanned away the cancerous smoke.

"Just cause you don't care about contracting lung's disease at an early age, doesn't mean San or I want any part of it." The other said.

"Wow. I'm impressed you actually know what contracting means Wooyoung." He smiled amusingly at his younger friend, who was not very pleased with his little joke.

"Hey guys! While trying to retrieve Mingi, I made a new friend." Jongho greeted them like a happy bunny as he held up his hand which was still holding Y/N's.

Hongjoong's eyes narrowed down at where they connected, an eyebrow raised at their physical contact as the hand that held his vape pen began fidgeting it rapidly between his fingers. Jongho of course was oblivious to the anger burning through Hongjoong's stare while Wooyoung and San caught on pretty quick and began debating whether to laugh or step in before bottles were thrown.

"Ok, so where is Mingi now?" San asked him.

"He ran off." Jongho shrugged.

Not wanting to miss the opportunity, Wooyoung pushed himself in between them both, effectively separating them as he pulled Jongho away.

"Great! Now we gotta go find him before he gets lost."

Looking back at Y/N, he waved.

"Hi! I'm Wooyoung, I'm bi and goodbye! You seem nice. Hopefully there's a next time."

Y/N blinked at the flamboyant boy's introduction and exit, wondering if it was planned or-

"No he didn't actually mean to rhyme. He's cute but too dumb to make up a poem on the spot." San answered the question on her mind.

Looking back at Hongjoong, he smiled mischievously.

"Hongjoong definitely can. He's into dark poetry and that Edward Pie guy. Have him recite something to you."

Hongjoong fumed at San who merely patted his shoulder and placed his cup in Hongjoong's hand before sauntering off with the other two.

"Edgar Allen Poe you fucking moron!" Hongjoong yelled as he lifted the cup up, tempted to throw it at him.

Y/N held her hand to her lips for a brief instant, trying to suppress the smile threatening to form across her lips. Hongjoong sighed as he stared down at the contents in the cup, swirling it around casually before holding it out to Y/N.

"Want some?" He offered.

"Umm....sure?"

She didn't even know why she accepted it. She'd never drank before in her life and for all she knew, it could have been laced with something. But not wanting to look like a little priss, she took a deep breath before trying to gulp down whatever alcohol was inside. It burned down her throat and she spat some of it back in the cup, unable to hide the cringing expression at the strong liquor.

"What. Is. That?" She questioned as she wiped the liquid that was on her chin and lips.

Hongjoong snorted as he responded that it was straight vodka, making Y/N feel embarrassed to have let him see such a spectacle from her.

"You're not much of a drinker are you? Or hardly one right?"

Her sheepish look was a dead giveaway which had Hongjoong laughing slightly, his lips parting slightly. Y/N was not only surprised to hear him laugh for the first time, but was intrigued when she saw something metallic on his tongue, making her wonder if he was chewing on something. Noticing her curious gaze, Hongjoong's lip curled up at one corner.

"Oh. That's just a piercing."

He had no qualms and simply stuck his tongue out to let her see the silver bar that was plunged through his tongue, each end having a round ball.

"Wow.....that's impressive." She couldn't deny it was extremely attractive.

Hongjoong himself was just attractive in general. Standing there wearing his usual leather jacket, a black tshirt with red letters, and a red turtleneck peeking out from the top, covering his neck. His usual preference for ripped black jeans was not missing, only this time, he added a little flare by having a piece of red plaid fabric chained around his waist, making it look like a half-skirt look. It seriously made him more hotter than he already was.

"Yeah I know. It's even more impressive when I put it to work."

Pushing himself off the wall he was leaning against, he stepped closer to Y/N, one arm propping against the wall in front of her as he looked at her with hunger and desire in his eyes, those eyes that were once again covered with smoked out eyeliner, only this time he added a hint of red that really made them stand out more and seemed to lure you in and see deep in his soul.

"Wanna experience it first hand?"

She was so lost in his eyes, she almost didn't hear him, until she realized what he meant.

"Here?" She mouthed and gestured around them.

Hongjoong threw his head back and laughed.

"Obviously not here. I'm not like those people outside who are probably already getting to 2nd base in front of everyone."

"Oh....." Now she really felt her cheeks flush red.

Hongjoong patiently tapped his black colored fingernails on the concrete wall, waiting for her answer. She seemed to be debating withing herself so much, until her eyes fell on the patch of skin that was showing when his jacket sleeve rose up, letting her catch a glimpse of black ink that probably went up his arm.

"Listen, if you don't want to that's fine. I know when no means no-" He began to assure her.

"Ok." She quickly responded, interrupting his speech.

"Wait- you're serious?" He slumped his arm off the wall, quite shocked she'd agree.

She nodded. "Yeah."

When it was now Hongjoong who was standing quiet, Y/N giggled and leaned in.

"I mean...if you don't want to-"

She had no time to finish the sentence and his hands gripped her waist and pressed her against him, his breath fanning over hers, the strawberry scent of the vape pen still lingering in his mouth.

"Trust me, I've wanted to for a long time."

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As soon as the door to Hongjoong's room in the dorm clicked shut, the tension in the room seemed to thicken. Y/N gulped slightly as she realized this is really happening. Not that she didn't want it to, but to actually have Hongjoong standing in front of her, his eyes already undressing and fucking her, while his bottom lip was caught in his front teeth, was definitely not a reality her brain was fully convincing. It wasn't until Hongjoong's thumb grazed her bottom lip, making her exhale a tiny gasp, that it fully dawned on her what was going to happen.

"Don't worry babydoll. I promise you'll get breathless after I'm done with you."

Wrapping his hand on the back of her neck to tilt it slightly upwards, his lips came down and covered her own, pressing against them before slightly parting and covering them once more. He started out slow before turning it more intense, nipping down roughly at her top lip in an effort to get her to open her mouth for him. When she did, his hands cupped the sides of her jaw, thumbs pressed against her cheeks to keep her face from moving as his tongue poked out and slipped inside her mouth. A muffled moan protruded from her throat when Hongjoong rolled his tongue over hers, his tongue piercing grazing the roof of her mouth. He then began swirling his wet muscle around her own, letting her feel the cold metallic jewelry that was sending shocks down her body. When his hands released their hold on her face, they only did so to glide down her torso before snaking down underneath her shirt to cup the back of her shorts, his fingers digging into her ass cheeks, nails lightly raking across the exposed skin under the ripped hem.

Feeling like things weren't going fast enough for how needy she was growing, Y/N ran her hands across Hongjoong's chest, going up to his shoulders and sliding his leather jacket off them. Getting the hint, Hongjoong let it fall to the floor and soon his graphic tshirt followed suit, leaving him in his tight fitted red turtleneck that practically clung to his skin, his pectoral muscles that were well above average for someone his size perfectly outlined. As eye catching as it was, that wasn't what caught her attention. What kept her eyes trained on his chest was some weird thing poking out suspiciously.

He chuckled as he knew what she was curious about.

"Oh. That my dear doll, are another pair of piercings I got."

Y/N nearly drooled as he lifted his shirt off, not only revealing the hidden 11 abs he owned, but the arm sleeve tattoo that went from his wrist to a little bit above his right upper arm. On his left side, there was no tattoo on his arm, but instead on his ribcage. But the thing that made her squeeze her thighs together were the black colored metal pieces that were lined across his nipples. Unable to help herself, her hands reached out to touch them, but Hongjoong quickly stopped her.

"Ok doll, before you get ahead of yourself, at least one article of clothing has to come off your body." He smiled cheekily at her.

No hesitation, Y/N soon discarded her own shirt, tossing it somewhere on the room, leaving her torso covered with only her black lace bra that didn't exactly cover much.

"Fuck babygirl, where you hiding that all this- Oh, oh my!"

Hongjoong nearly fell back on his bed when Y/N pressed her face against his chest, her tongue darting out to lick around his pierced nipples. He swallowed as he collected himself, trying not to get too turned on as her tongue played around with the piercings, sometimes nipping at them. Hongjoong arched his back slightly, letting her take as much of him in her mouth as she pleased. The nipple that wasn't being made out with her mouth, was being pleasured by her hand, pinching and gently tugging at it.

"You can go as hard as you want."

Giggling darkly, he took her free hand and placed it on the erection poking out in his pants.

"I'll have you know I enjoy a little pain."

Making her squeeze down on it, Y/N could feel something odd, which prompted her to poke and grope him more fiercely. Wanting to satisfy her curiosity, Hongjoong unzipped his pants and pulled them down mid thigh to let her admire the last set of piercings he owned:

A Jacob's ladder running up the base of his dick and an ampallang pierced through the head.

"Holy shit...." Whether she said it out loud or not, Y/N didn't care. It was the most erotic image she had ever seen and she could not believe that in mere minutes, it would be inside her, no doubt destroying and tearing her walls apart.

Leaning in, Hongjoong sloppily kissed and sucked her jaw and down her upper neck.

"You're free to play with it as you wish doll. I got them for more than one reason. And that's one of them."

Not needing to be told twice, her hand wrapped around the base of his erect cock, her thumb running across his slit. Hongjoong hissed slightly when her hand began pumping him slowly, purposefully applying pressure to the silver metal adorning his length. Taking advantage of the his hazy state, Y/N returned to her previous task of playing with his nipple piercings. Hongjoong threw his head back at immense pleasure he was feeling, loving when Y/N would squeeze him a little to harsh or bite roughly at his nipples. He felt more intoxicated and high being painfully pleasured by her hand and mouth than with any THC chemical he'd ever introduce inside his system.

Without realizing it, he instinctively began bucking his hips up, wanting to chase the release that was building up inside him. Knowing what he wanted, Y/N lifted her head up and sucked on his neck, speeding up her hand movements.

"You gonna cum for me Joongie? Gonna cum all over my hand? Make a mess and soak my fingers with your dirty cum?" She taunted at him.

Unable to hold back especially after her dirty teasing, with a mutter of curses, he spilled himself all over her hand, some of it splattering onto her fishnets. Once he regained his senses, he looked down to find her looking at him with a shit eating grin.

"Heh......don't think you're in charge here doll. This is still my territory."

Swooping her up, she let out a little yelp when he tossed her onto his bed, immediately crawling in between her legs. After getting rid of his pants and briefs, his hands gripped on her belt loops to pull her shorts down. His eyes scanned her body, trying to decide on something. He hummed softly as his hand pressed down onto her clothed heat.

"I'm not going deny it, those fishnets do look remarkably sexy on you....."

With mock pity, he sighed. "Oh well."

Y/N gasped in horror as he tore a hole right in the crotch area, leaving the rest untouched. Opening his desk drawer, she widened her eyes when he took out a pocket knife and flashed it across her face.

"Relax doll. I like pain, but knife play isn't really my thing. On me or my partner."

After ordering her to stay still, she watched as he carefully cut on the sides of her lace panties, just enough to carefully slip them off her body without having to take off her tights. Although in any other situation she would have instantly closed her legs, she didn't feel like doing it this time. It turned her on and made her feel sexier to instead pry her legs open, letting Hongjoong peer down at her glistening folds that he caused, her hands running themselves down her chest as she bit down at her lip.

"Fuck! You're practically drenched already Y/N." Hongjoong cocked an eyebrow at her.

She only giggled before reaching behind her to unclasp her bra, slowly pulling the straps down before flinging it behind Hongjoong, letting it join the other pile of clothes scattered about. Hongjoong instantly became hard again, but as much as he wanted to bury his pierced cock inside her and fuck her senseless, there was still one thing he really wanted to do.

Positioning herself in between her legs, his hands gripped the back of her thighs. Looking back at her, he sent a wink her way before attaching his mouth to her soaking heat, causing her to jolt up at the sudden sensation. Knowing exactly how to get her head spinning, Hongjoong slid his tongue up her slit, making sure to drag the metal piece across her folds. It was unlike anything she felt before. Hongjoong already was demonstrating his powerful tongue skills, but the piercing just added a whole new sensation that had her shivering. She couldn't contain the moans spilling out her mouth when his tongue slipped inside her hole, her noises only turning louder when he flicked his tongue in a particular way that made the round metal tip thump against her clit. Hongjoong especially loved doing that little maneuver of hitting her clit with it.

When she felt herself about to burst, Y/N's hands clutched the sheets underneath her.

"Hong-Hongjoong I'm gonna- Aaah!"

The fire pooling in her lower abdomen broke free and rushed down, sending burning sparks up her body as her body trembled at the sensation. Pressing a hand down to hold her still, Hongjoong lapped up her her juices, moaning on her clit, the vibrations only serving to make her more sensitive to any move he made on her body.

When he felt she was ready, he swiftly sat up and positioned his pierced member at her entrance. Making sure to prep her, he got out a bottle of lube out of his drawer and poured some onto the tip of his fingers, spreading it around before inserting two fingers inside her. It had a slight cooling effect that made Y/N hum in pleasure, her mouth going slightly agape when he inserted a third finger, scissoring her out and overall making sure she was stretched out enough.

"Patience doll. I don't want to cause any unnecessary pain....."

She let out a whimper when he withdrew his hand and slapped her clit.

"That much." He finished.

Propping herself on her elbows, she kept her gaze in between their legs. She let out a cry when Hongjoong's head slipped inside her, the round tips of the ampallang piercing stretching her hole in a delicious burn. Next came the metal ridges that scraped against her lower walls, it was an absolutely exhilarating experience. Hongjoong himself let out a groan when he fit himself inside her tight and warm cavern.

"Jesus babydoll. When was the last time you had a good fuck?" He gripped her hips, trying to keep himself from moving just yet.

"Too f-fucking long." She disclosed, her head falling back against the pillow in a disappointed look.

"Well don't worry babe. I'll make sure to fuck any name out of that brain of yours, you won't even remember your own."

Snapping his hips up, he began a rather hard and fast pace, making sure to angle himself so he hit her g-spot. Y/N's hands held onto his arms, choked breaths and screams coming out of her mouth as she began drowning in the immense pleasure he was giving her. The way the metallic piercings raked against her walls every time Hongjoong thrusted in and out of her was indescribable. At first it felt strange and slightly painful, but soon it became addicting, almost to the point of being overwhelming.

Hongjoong took notice of the way her lips parted whenever the ladder piercing grazed at a particular spot.

"You're enjoying this my angel? Like being fucked by my pierced dick?"

Licking his hand, he dropped it down to spank her throbbing and swollen clit, grinning almost sadistically when she shrieked out at his pleasurable torture.

"Do you just enjoy being used like a dirty little hole? Isn't that what you are in the end? Just a filthy hole for me to fuck as I like?"

The corners of her eyes began spilling out tiny droplets of tears as his hand continued his assault on her clit, slapping it until it turned a bright shade of pink. Feeling the intensity build up yet again in the pit of her stomach.

"Hongjoong! I'm gonna cum!" She warned him.

Snaking his hand to grip her neck, Hongjoong sped up his thrusts, fucking her in a frenzy, sending her into a mental state of pure euphoria as he cut off part of her breathing. Y/N shut her eyes as a violent orgasm ripped through her body, her body thrashing and quivering under Hongjoong's. With clenched teeth and furrowed eyes, Hongjoong completely shattered on top of her, spilling himself inside her clenched walls that were milking him past his breaking point. Releasing his grip on her neck, he collapsed on top of her body, his hands spread out to keep himself from dropping all his weight on her.

"Oh my god!" He panted harshly as he tried to collect his breath and thoughts.

She was in no better state than he was, hair all disheveled, pussy still throbbing and her chest heaving up and down as her mind went blank. She only came to her senses when she felt Hongjoong get up and go out of his room, leaving her confused.

Did he regret it? Did he not enjoy it? Was he going to ask her to leave?

It turns out it was none of the above since he came back with a packet of wet tissues.

"You ok?" He asked, looking at her with concern.

After being reassured that she was fine, he plucked out some of the tissues and began wiping between her legs and thighs.

"Ok, these gotta go."

Hongjoong ripped more of the already destroyed fishnet tights and got them off her body, letting it hit the floor.

"Not like I would have used them again." Y/N agreed.

After cleaning both her and himself up, they both stayed quiet. Clearing her throat, Y/N made way to get up.

"Guess it's my cue to leave.."

"Wait don't go!"

Grasping her wrist, he pulled her back onto the bed, making her slightly straddle his lap. Looking up at her with such tender eyes, he offered:

"Stay the night. I don't want you to go just yet."

He said it with such a pleading tone that Y/N didn't have the heart to refuse his request. She just allowed him to place her beside him on the bed, his chest pressed against her back as one of his arms wrapped around her. She closed her eyes and slowly began drifting off to sleep. She was halfway gone when she felt Hongjoong wrapped something cold around her neck. Opening her eyes, she reached up and felt leather on her skin.

"What's this?" She questioned as her finger toyed with whatever was dangling from the device.

Hongjoong smiled fondly at the black choker strapped around her neck.

"Don't worry about it. Just wear it for me..."

His hand traced the red heart pendant dangling from the choker, the letters 'KHJ' engraved on the center of it.

"So everyone can see that you're all mine now."

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[jazy3]

Free Guy Review

!!!SPOILERS AHEAD!!!

If you haven’t seen the movie Free Guy (2021) stop reading right now! Drop what you’re doing and go get yourself a ticket! You’ll thank me later!

I loved this movie! I saw it this weekend for the second time because it’s that good! I first saw the trailer on YouTube a while back and then when theatres reopened a few weeks ago I saw the trailer again and my interest was piqued. I had high hopes for this movie based on the fun looking trailer, the premise, the cast, and the sense of fun and escapism that the movie seemed to embody and it did not disappoint. It’s always nice when you have high hopes for something and it meets or exceeds your expectations.

Free Guy is just such a fun and joyous movie. Never taking itself too seriously, packed with lots of heart, cool cameos, full of gaming and pop culture references, and it’s fueled by a unique concept that is well executed. There are just so many things I loved about this movie! It was a ton of fun to watch and the actors clearly had a blast making it. During the movie I kept trying to figure out where I knew most of the actors from but couldn’t place them. When I got home, I googled it and I instantly realized why. The roles are just so different and the actors embody their characters so completely you lose yourself in the film and get completely sucked in. I was honestly so surprised when I figured out what I knew most of the actors from because the roles that they’re known for are so different from their characters in the movie. Their appearances, established ages, and even the accents are so different that I literally did a double take, but that’s what makes the movie so good! Because the main actors obviously didn’t need the paycheque they were just there to have fun and it shows. I think if the situation had been different and the actors involved had been desperate for money or took the role for some other reason it wouldn’t have worked. The film would have come off as cheesy, forced, cringeworthy, or just plain bad. Free Guy is none of those things. The film stars Ryan Reynolds as ‘Guy’ a bank teller in a video game called Free City, Jodie Comer whose best known for playing Villanelle in Killing Eve as programmer Millie Rusk and her avatar Molotov Girl, Joe Keery whose best known for playing Steve Harrington in Stranger Things as programmer Walter ‘Keys’ McKey, and Taika Waititi whose best known for playing Viago in What We Do in the Shadows as the Head of Soonami Studios and the film’s main antagonist and villain Antwan. Rounding out the cast are Utkarsh Ambudka as programmer Mouser and Lil Rel Howery as Guy’s best friend and bank security guard Buddy. In a nutshell, Free Guy is about a bank teller named Guy who finds out he’s a non-playable background character (NPC) in an open-world Grand Theft Auto style video game called Free City. Guy becomes the hero of his own story after meeting Millie, the girl of his dreams, and winning fans all over the world by racking up points by being the good guy and helping others. After leveling up and helping Millie escape a dangerous situation in the game, Guy wins her over and she falls for him thinking that he’s another player. But when the world that Guy knows and all of the people in it are threatened, he teams up with Millie to save his friends before it’s too late. In the real world, Millie enlists the help of her former programming partner and best friend Keys in a race against time to stop their code and all of the sentient characters from Free City from being deleted by Antwan the developer who stole their code when the game’s sequel launches. I love that the movie had a unique premise and didn’t overcomplicate things. There are so many movies that I’ve gone to see over the last few years with such excitement only to be disappointed. For example, I loved Wreck It Ralph, but was so disappointed by its sequel Ralph Breaks the Internet. The trailers made it seem like it would take the premise of the first movie and move things into the online gaming world, and I was excited for that. Instead, the sequel left the premise of the first movie behind entirely and way over complicated the plot and the end result was extremely cheesy and disappointing. Free Guy’s strength is that it’s a self-aware movie made by self-aware people who are excellent at what they do. The movie doesn't take itself too seriously, nor should it, and that allows the story to flow and the characters to feel real and genuine. The movie achieves that perfect balance between being entertaining and telling a cohesive and important story because while the movie never takes itself too seriously the people behind it are serious about what they do. This was very clearly a passion project for all involved, especially Ryan Reynolds, and it shows! As he’s spoken about in interviews and on Twitter, Reynolds called on a lot of his friends to be in Free Guy and help him out and the end result was fantastic! I loved all of the cameos! The Chris Evans cameo was by far the funniest and the Alex Trebek cameo got me right in the feels. When I saw the movie in theatres me and everyone else in the theatre gave a collective “awww” when he appeared on screen. Enlisting real YouTubers to show up as fictional versions of themselves to talk about Blue Shirt Guy’s popularity was a nice touch and you’ve also got blink and you miss it voice cameos by John Krasinski, Dwyane The Rock Johnson, Hugh Jackman, and Tina Fey. Channing Tatum appears as the avatar of player Revenjamin Buttons which for the most part was hilarious. One of my few criticisms of the film is that they went a bit overboard the avatar’s antics as Guy and Buddy are attempting to leave and it got bit a cringeworthy. But I know other people found it hilarious so to each their own. I love all of the little details and references in the movie. Just listing them all would be a post in itself. If you’re someone that loves pop culture references and Easter Eggs this is the movie for you. The characters are fun and believable, and you get attached to them quickly. The actors commit completely to their roles which is makes the humour, romance, and heartfelt emotion of the film work. You buy it. 100%. Something that I absolutely loved was that the characters felt realistic and that the dialogue, attire, and settings for each character really felt authentic. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve watched a movie or TV show and walked away thinking, “The person who wrote that clearly never meet a kid, teenager, or twenty something in their life! That was so unrealistic.” The slang’s all wrong. The dialogue is so eloquent everyone sounds like they did Shakespeare in the Park last summer. You walk away thinking, “What the hell was that? No one talks that way!” What I loved about the characters in Free Guy is that they felt like real people you could actually run into or walk past on the street. I’ve read in interviews that in addition to the written dialogue the cast did a lot of ad-libbing and improvisation and the end result is both hilarious and relatable. The dialogue feels real because it is. The big exception to this of course is Antwan who is altogether off the wall and ridiculous. Antwan is such an outrageous, absurd, vulgar, and cartoonish character. He’s so fun to watch and the actors clearly had a lot of fun with his scenes! I’ve read that a lot of his lines with Keys and Mouser were improvised and I believe it. When he goes all Jack Nicholson on the servers? Lord. He’s such a great villain to watch. The characters that are established to be in their twenties like Millie, Keys, Mouser, and the other employees at Soonami Studios talk, act, and dress like they’re in their twenties. The actors that are in their forties are styled to look like they’re in their thirties and honestly, they’re in such great shape it works! I mean I was honestly shocked to find out Taika Waititi’s real age. I love how the costuming really fits each character and allows you to learn more about them. Keys’ clothing is your typical gamer chic which makes because as we learn from his interview with Millie coding is his life and what gets him up in the morning. From Mouser’s clothing we learn that he’s a sports fan, but also isn’t afraid to take risks like with that blazer ensemble he wears in his final scene at Millie’s apartment.

Millie’s clothing shows the contrast between her and her avatar Molotov Girl, and Antwan’s ridiculous coat enhances the overall wackiness of his character. Guy’s clothing tells us something too. He wears the same thing every day until he meets Millie in the game at which point, he starts deviated from his Free City programming and chooses a different blue shirt. I also really love that they put thought into why Keys needs to wear glasses. Something I noticed on rewatch is that Keys is far sighted which is why he has his glasses on when he’s looking at his laptop or computer and sometimes when’s talking to other people, but not when he goes to see Millie at her apartment or when he goes to get them coffee at the end of the movie. Another interesting aspect of Keys’ character that I noticed on rewatch is self-confidence is really something he struggles with in contrast to Millie and Mouser who are very confident. Millie is a genius programmer and Mouser is excellent at what he does, and they are both very confident in their coding abilities, but Keys isn’t despite being every bit the genius that Millie is. At the beginning of the movie when they first notice the issue with Guy Mouser jokes that Keys needs to be better at his job. In response Keys meekly says he thinks he’s pretty good at his job and trails off at the end. Mouser is just joking around, but because Keys lacks self-confidence comments like that hit him hard. Mouser is moving towards his own desk as he talks so he doesn’t notice how self-deprecating and uneasy Keys’ response is. In the interview from the indie games conference that Millie plays for Keys at his apartment, he brushes off the interviewers comment that he’s a genius and says Millie is the real genius because she created the AI engine and he just wrote the code to make it work. Later on, when Keys helps Millie get into the stash house, she calls him a genius and he tells her that as he’s currently sitting on a toilet stealing user code he doesn’t exactly feel like one. Millie responds offhandedly that he never does, but luckily, she knows better. When Keys realizes that Millie was right, and that Antwan did steal their code and their game worked he tells Millie they need to celebrate because once everyone sees their build she’ll be celebrated and she could win a noble prize. Both Millie and Keys are geniuses in their own right. The game wouldn’t have worked without both of their skills and Guy wouldn’t have come to life without both of them working together. Millie’s AI engine made his sentience possible, but Keys is the one who gave him hopes and dreams so that when he met Millie in the game, he came alive. When done right the settings we see tell the story just as much as the characters do and I love how realistic the settings in Free Guy look. The floor at Soonami Studios where Keys and Mouser work looks like a real office and I love that the desks have clutter and personal effects on them like real cubicles do and that they show Keys taking a box of his stuff with him as he leaves. The lobby with the moving water videos and Antwan’s massive but largely empty office fits perfectly with the obnoxious, zany, and over the top character that he is. I also love the contrast between Keys and Millie’s apartments and how those settings tell us a lot about each character and where they are in their lives when the film starts. When Keys comes home from work to find that Millie has broken in, we see that he lives in a stylish one bedroom apartment with an open concept kitchen full of stainless steel appliances, a large living room centred around an expensive wall mounted TV and entertainment system, with his computer and gaming station set up in the corner. On the walls we see artful clusters of black picture frames, through a partially open door we see a bedroom off to the side, the apartment is full of black and white furniture including a plush couch and nice lamps, and features a textured silver accent wall. All of which makes the fact that Millie managed to break in even more impressive because it is clearly an expensive apartment in a nice building. Keys’ style is minimalist and upper scale and based on what we learn about the events that took place before the start of the movie this indicates that Keys got the apartment and all of the nice stuff in it using the money he received when Antwan bought his and Millie’s game. In contrast, Millie lives in a bachelor apartment and spends her time in coffee shops ordering one single black coffee over four hours. This tells us that she kept her original apartment that she had from before the game was sold and is living off the money she got from the sale while she spends all of her time trying to find the proof she needs to win her lawsuit. When we see Millie’s place, we find that it’s cozy, full of plants, throw rugs, quilts, and comfy furniture. She’s got a bike in the corner, you can see her bed from the centre of the room where she’s got her computer and gaming station set up adjacent to the coffee table and the rest of the living room furniture. Her kitchen is smaller and full of wooden cabinets and her bathroom door has DIY multicoloured square panels on it. Keys and Millie’s apartments are very different and through these settings we see the contrast between where these characters are in their lives, their wealth, and their personal style. The song ‘Fantasy’ by Mariah Carey is featured heavily in the film and is guaranteed to get stuck in your head in the best way! Jodie Comer’s cover of it is amazing! It fits the moment where Guy makes it to the island that is Millie and Keys’ original build and shows it to the world perfectly. This movie made me appreciate Mariah Carey’s music in a whole new way and I can’t be the only way. After watching the movie, I went looking for the song on Apple Music, wound up listening to the Mariah Carey Essentials Playlist, and I’ve become obsessed. I knew some of her hits, but after listening to her music more I get why people love her so much. Her five octave vocal range is amazing, and her music is just so fun to listen to. The film has a really great soundtrack overall and I’ve had many of its song on repeat since I saw it. Something I really loved about this movie and the reveal at the end that Keys is in love with Millie and is desperate for her to notice, but she’s been oblivious the whole time is that they don’t do the supposedly nice nerdy guy whose really a jerk trope. So many movies do this where you have a nerdy male character whose unluckily love, looked over, or his love is unrequited, and we’re supposed to root for him because he’s a quote “nice guy”. But really, he’s not. He’s a jerk who feels slighted because a woman in his life doesn’t love him back or notice him and he feels as if she owes him something. The scene at Millie’s place where Millie tells Keys he looks cute when he brags, and Mouser encourages him to tell Millie how he feels is super frustrating to watch but it’s so important to Keys’ character. He asks Millie out for coffee and when she turns him down to jump back into the game, he doesn’t make a big deal about it even though Mouser wants him to. Instead he gets up and goes and gets her a coffee anyway. She goes to tell him her order, oblivious to the fact that he’s memorized it, he tells her he remembers, and goes to get the coffee anyway much to Mouser’s and the audience’s dismay. This is big because Keys clearly doesn’t want to be walking down the street by himself to get coffee. He wants to be getting coffee with Millie so that he can tell her how he feels to see if she might feel the same way, but when she turns him down he goes and gets the coffee anyway because he truly loves and cares about her and he values their friendship enough to put his own feelings aside and suffer in silence rather than lose her and what they’ve built. So, he takes the opportunity to get some air rather than continue to sit there in disappointment. Which is why he’s so confused when Millie runs after him and calls out to him from across the street. He doesn’t understand what she’s doing there. She turned down his offer to get a coffee and he already knows her order so why is she there? I love that they chose to make that scene non-verbal. I think if Millie had come out and made some big declaration of love it would have felt cheesy and overdone. But her running after him and silently communicating through her smile and body language that she understood and that she felt the same way was perfect. It was subtle and beautiful and perfectly acted. It also felt realistic to the characters because in real life when you’ve known someone a really long time and you’ve spent a lot of time with them you don’t always need words to convey what you mean. What Millie wanted to express in that scene was so big and so all-encompassing she couldn’t find the words to say everything that she wanted to say so she didn’t. She just stood there and smiled knowing that being the genius that he is he would understand. It’s like Keys says in their interview, words will fail you, but code never does. His coding worked and now she understands so rather than try and say it all and fail she just looks at him and smiles to show him that she finally gets it. She finally understands what he’s been trying to say to her all this time. And you can see the exact moment Keys realizes why she’s there. The moment where he goes from being confused as to what she wants to realizing that she saw the video and she knows how he feels and that she wouldn’t be standing there smiling at him like that if she didn’t feel the same way. When I watched the scene the first time around, I was anxiously clutching my nachos the entire time because when Keys ran towards her my immediate thought was, “Oh my god he’s gonna get hit by a car and they’re never gonna get to be together! Oh my god!” But then he didn’t get hit by a car and Millie ran out to meet him and for the first time in their relationship she met him halfway and they kissed and it was beautiful! I think because Free City had so much violence in it that’s where my mind went and I’m very glad they didn’t go that route. One of my only criticisms about the movie is that I wish they had stayed on Millie and Keys just a little bit longer. They kiss and embrace and then very quickly they cut to black. I wish they’d linger on that moment just a little bit longer because I love those characters so much and in the scene that follows where Guy and Buddy are reunited we see them hug and then walk away together to start their new lives and I wish we’d gotten just a bit more time with Millie and Keys. I also really loved the parallel between the different kinds of relationships within the movie and how platonic relationships are just as important as romantic ones. The reveal at the end about Guy being Keys’ creation and a love letter to Millie and her realizing she’s been loving Keys vicariously through Guy and them finally coming together and being on the same page is beautiful because from the very beginning the movie is full of clues, hints, and foreshadowing that all comes together at the end. Meanwhile, we see the friendship between Guy and Buddy and how important that friendship is to him because it’s something that he created on his own. His love for Millie is born out of the programming that Keys gave him, but his friendship with Buddy is something that Guy created all on his own of his own volition. Which is part of what makes Buddy’s death on the bridge so tragic. I cried when Buddy disappeared. Reynolds and Howery play their characters with such sincerity that his death pacts an emotional punch you don’t expect. I love that the security guards at Soonami are so moved by Buddy’s heroism and are so captivated by what’s happening with the live stream that Millie is able to sneak past them into the server room and stop Antwan from destroying what’s left of the game. Something else I noticed on rewatch is that during the final battle after Millie gets booted from the game and Guy has to fight Dude on his own the glasses he’s wearing are very similar to the ones Keys wears in the movie which I thought was a cool nod to Guy being Keys’ creation. This really is a movie in which you find something new every time you watch it. For instance, the second time around I noticed that the foreshadowing that Keys is in love with Millie, but she’s oblivious to it because she’s so focused on the game was really well done. In the video from the indie game conference that Millie plays for Keys at his apartment when asked by the interviewer about their chemistry Millie responds first and says that their friends, their relationship is completely platonic, and laughs off the idea that they have chemistry. In contrast Keys falters and is silent and then eventually says meekly that they’re just friends. Millie is looking ahead at the interviewer and to the side away from Keys as she’s laughing and so she doesn’t see Keys’ reaction. At the end of the apartment scene after Millie breaks in to ask Keys for his help, he tells Millie he cares about her and he almost says something else. It feels like he’s about to say, ‘I love you’ but then he catches himself and instead tells her that she needs to leave. When Keys visits Millie’s apartment to tell her that she was right and they’re sitting on the couch he reaches out and puts his hand on her knee and then snatches it back when he realizes he’s gotten too close. He wants so desperately to be closer to her and in his excitement, he gets closer than he normally would before realizing that putting his hand on her knee in that close proximity is not a platonic gesture. Millie is so caught up in the realization that Guy, the person she’s fallen in love with, is an AI and not a real person that she doesn’t notice. My heart broke for Keys in that scene as he realized that Millie had fallen for Guy and kissed him and was so upset about it and meanwhile, he was right in front of her desperate for her to see how much he cares. It must have just wrecked him to go home that night and realize that Guy was based on the lovelorn character he created and that Millie had fallen in love with his creation while at the same time being so oblivious to his real world affection for her. In the scene at Millie’s apartment after they’ve gotten the server from Antwan and Mouser encourages Keys to say something, I noticed on rewatch just how weak and meager Keys’ attempt to ask Millie out is. He stumbles his way through asking her to get a coffee and trails off at the end so it’s no wonder Millie doesn’t clue in that he’s trying to ask her out. And in Keys’ defence he sent her a whole video confessing his feelings for her and all of the little things he loves about her and then told her to watch it and he has no idea if she did or not. We the audience know that Millie only saw half of it, but Keys has no idea if she saw none of it, part of it, or all of it. He knows she got Guy to remember, but she’s also sending him mixed messages. One minute she’s saying he’s cute when he brags and the next, she’s turning him down for coffee to talk to Guy. From the outside it’s so obvious that Keys is in love with Millie, but she doesn’t see it because she’s always looking the other way, not paying attention, so caught up in the game, and too focused on their work to see what’s right in front of her. On rewatch one of the big things I noticed is that Keys is always on the edge of telling Millie how he really feels but he always stops himself because she brushes him or the idea off and because he’s scared of what will become of their work and their friendship if she doesn’t feel the same way. It’s a huge leap. If Millie doesn’t feel the same way it’s going to make their relationship incredibly awkward and could potentially destroy their partnership so Keys decides it’s better not to say anything or only hint at how he feels rather than run the risk of ruining everything. Something else I noticed on rewatch is that in the interview they give Keys says he thinks of himself as an author and that code is what gets him up in the morning and that he loves the ones and zeros of binary because words can fail you and let you down but code never does. At the end of the movie when Millie goes to talk to Guy in Free Life he tells her that he loves her and while he knows that’s his programming he’s realized that he’s a love letter to her and that somewhere out there in the real world is the author. Such a great callback. All in all, I can definitely say that Free Guy has been my favourite movie so far this year! Definitely my favourite movie of the summer. I went to see it twice in theatres and I’ve never done that for any other movie before. I’ll rewatch them at home sure, but I’ve never actually paid money to see something twice on my own. I’m very excited to see the sequel and my hope is that it will be just as good as the first.  Until next time.

#free guy #free guy movie #free guy spoilers #review #Thoughts #critique #millie rusk #Walter keys Mckey #walter mckey #guy #free guy keys #buddy #antwan #mouser #ryan reynolds #Jodie comer #joe keery #taika waititi #lil rel howery #Utkarsh Ambudka #alex trebek #jeopardy #mariah carey #fantasy #it's so good #go see it

[eisukevint]

Always You

Eisuke Ichinomiya

This one’s for you @leoamber66 - i should be ashamed of myself for taking this long but here we are! your graduation and your birthday gift. and a massive thank you to @cupidocherie for major help bec idek where i would be without her😭😭 anyways enjoyyy, i love you <3

»»»»

“Do you remember the first time we met?”

“You mean when you tripped and almost fell in front of everyone on your first day in elementary school?”

“No! oh my god, I told you to forget that!”

“Pftt, how can anyone ever forget that? I’m sure soryu and luke remember too”

“I hope they don’t haha, but really, we’ve come so far” Yuki commented, reminiscing about one certain day.

Eisuke’s POV

“So children, today a new student will be joining us. This is Yuki Freya. I hope all of you will be nice to her and welcome her warmly!” The teacher, Miss Hale as she introduced herself, addressed the class.

“Yuki, you’re going to sit with Eisuke. Please raise your hand so she can know where you are, Eisuke!” Miss Hale announced.

The clumsy girl, Yuki, made her way over to me earning several stares from both girls and boys present in the classroom.

“Hi, i’m Yuki!” She enthusiastically said extending her hand towards me.

I shook her hand, “Eisuke”

“Nice to meet you!” She said and then turned towards the teacher as she started her lesson, not giving me a chance to reply.

At least her smile is cute.

»»»»

Yuki didn’t follow me around like the other girls in my class did. Instead, she became friends with Luke and Soryu who happened to be my best friends. They seemed to like her a lot. Now that was rare.

It was P.E. and the teacher partnered me with Yuki despite the other girls begging him to partner them up with me. I didn’t complain considering she wasn’t annoying like the others.

“Are you ready?” She asked me tying up her left leg with my right one, preparing for the three legged race. Why is this even a thing? Couldn’t we just race like normal people?

“Of course I am” Eisuke Ichinomiya is always ready.

It didn’t take long for me to come off my high horse when Yuki couldn’t keep up with my fast pace and fell down, twisting her ankle.

Yuki groaned in pain and tried to get up but failed. The P.E. teacher came forth and asked me to carry her on my back to the infirmary as a punishment which was just across the field.

“But it’s not my fault that she fell!” I retorted back despite knowing it was partly my fault she fell since I was moving too fast for her.

“She was your partner Ichinomiya, it’s your responsibility.”

“Fine” I said when I realised there was no getting out if it. With that, i asked her to get on my back and carried her to the infirmary.

As the nurse tended to her injury, she turned towards me with that same cute smile “Thank you, Eisuke”

I instantly felt a stab of guilt.

“Hmph, I didn’t do it for you” I didn’t notice the blush that crept on my cheeks but I did notice the way my heart flipped. Just as she was about to say something, Soryu and Luke came looking for her.

“Are you alright?” Luke asked to which she replied with a grin and swinging her leg back and forth.

“Never better!”

Seriously how can someone be so cute.

»»»»

high school

The murderous intent was evident in my eyes as I gazed at Yuki laughing at something the principal’s cockroach son said.

In the beginning, Frank tried to befriend me but I felt something was off and eventually it became very clear to me that he only wanted me to be a handy tool in his pocket ready for emergencies, so I shook him off pretty quickly. Somehow, Frank’s always lingering around me. He’s always loved to single me out whenever I express disinterest in something, in hopes that others would join in. Instead, the girls that fawn over me often tell him to shut up and then they’re confronted by his fangirls and in the end, it’s just a massive cat fight.

He’s nothing but trouble. As the principal’s son, he’s quite popular, almost as popular as me, and he can pretty much get away with anything. Luckily for him, he’s very sly. Hiding behind his minions, he’s never once flat out done anything. Good with underhanded remarks, letting other people take all of the blame, coercing them into doing what he wants. His little groupies pay no heed to any of this, all because he’s handsome. But there’s a large group of people who don’t like him, but nobody has ever said anything straight to his face, thanks to his feared status.

There were rumours earlier this year that on Valentine’s Day, Frank asked Yuki out but she told him that she wanted to focus on school. I’m surprised Frank didn’t get angry at her and punch a wall or something. That sounds like something he would usually do. While I’m proud of Yuki for turning him down, part of me hopes that what she said was just a lie she made up so she could just get away from him. But now, Frank and Yuki are partners on this project, I’m convinced this teacher is trying to set those two up. Soryu, who was partnered with this over-zealous girl looked as if he would smash either his own head or the girl’s if she didn’t stop with her chattering. I’ve been paired up with Luke, unfortunately I’ve been neglecting our work because keeping an eye on Yuki has become too much of a priority. I hate how he gets too close to her, the way he continues to flirt with her and the smug look that’s plastered on his face when he realises that I’m watching. All Luke can do is sigh and shake his head at me.

“I’d gladly switch with Yuki if I didn’t have to put up with him, Eisuke...”

“Hey watch out, you’ll hurt yourself!” Yuki yells, pushing him away before she yelps in pain, drawing her hand back.

For a split second, it’s like I can only see red. I march right up to their desk, in close proximity to the two only to see a red mark across Yuki’s hand. It looks painful. If Frank hadn’t been so careless then Yuki wouldn’t have gotten hurt. What were you thinking!? Why do you need to care so much about everyone else!?

“Oops, I’ll take you to the infirmary.”

“No, I’ll take her.”, I sternly tell Frank. Yuki insists it’s not too big of a deal and that she’s fine.

“Hmph, alright. I’ll make it up to you another way then, Yuki.”

“You don’t need to. Stay away from my girl.” I felt Yuki tense up beside me the moment those words left my mouth. Thinking nothing of it, I took her dainty uninjured hand in my right one and pulled her along with me towards the infirmary. Yuki, being the obedient and polite girl she was followed without a hint of refusal.

Upon our arrival to the medical department of the school, the nurse immediately treated Yuki’s injury. As I gazed at the familiar scene before my eyes, a certain memory played in my head.

“What’s with you and infirmaries?” Were the words that came out of my mouth the very second the school nurse disappeared, probably went back to her office.

She whipped her head towards me, a tiny smile adorning her graceful features. Adorable giggles escaped from her mouth indicating that Yuki too was reminiscing about that particular day.

“You’re too amiable for your own good.” I chuckled, moving to sit into the chair where the nurse was not long ago and grabbing her hand with the nasty burn on it.

“How dare he ruin your precious soft skin like this” Placing a gentle kiss on the back of her hand, I held onto it as I stared deep into her gorgeous blue eyes.

“Is it true you rejected him?” She stared back, cocking her head a little bit to her left at the question, confusion etched on her face.

“On Valentine’s Day, I heard he confessed to you but you turned him down, saying you wanted to focus on your studies. Is that true?” Her face lit up upon remembrance but an almost gloomy expression took over right after.

“Ah...yes, now that you mention it” I squeezed her hand a little tighter but not tight to enough to hurt her as I waited for her to continue.

“That’s only half true though..”

What?

“I also told him I like someone else.”

Oh.

I immediately loosened my grip on her hand.

So that’s why. Heh, what were you even thinking Ichinomiya?

Yuki glanced over to me, fidgeting in her seat with nervousness.

“Won’t you ask who it is?” This time, she grabbed my hand and lightly tug on it preventing me from standing up, causing her to hiss in pain.

“Does it even matter?” I sighed, patting her hand lightly with that flicker of hope in my heart slowly diminishing. As I was about to get on my feet a second time, she said those words which haltered my every movement, completely catching me off guard. Words i’ve wanted to hear for the longest time now from a certain girl I adored more than anything.

“It’s you, Eisuke.”

Good Lord.

“It’s always been you.”

Will I survive if my heart continues to beat this fast every time i’m around her? I’ll have to ask Luke later.

“Eisuke?” Yuki peered at my astounded face snapping me out of my daze. When I look back at her, I thought I could resist just pulling her into my arms and claiming her as mine but boy, was I wrong. I immediately grabbed her chin and captured her silky lips in a somewhat soft and gentle kiss. Laying every emotion bare into our first kiss, Yuki loosely wrapped her arms around my shoulders as she kissed me back with equal passion. We parted and just sat there basking in the pleasure of being in each other’s arms until I decided to break the comfortable silence since a significant amount of time had passed and we needed to go back to the lab.

“You’re mine and I won’t allow you to leave me.” She hummed in response and with a little peck on her lips, I pulled her up with me and exited the infirmary.

Our fingers intertwined perfectly as we walked back to the class feeling oddly at peace - mind, body and soul.

»»»»

“And Soryu teased us so much when we went back to class! But no one was surprised, I mean we were kind of inseparable...” Yuki said bashfully, tucking a strand of her hair behind her ear. The diamond of her engagement ring caught the light of the setting sun.

“It’s because they knew you were mine.” Professing my undying love for her, I place a fierce kiss on her lips imagining a bright future with my one and only,

“Always have been and always will be.”

•••

#eisuke ichinomiya #kbtbb eisuke #leo amber #eisuke x oc #eisuke x mc #soryu oh #luke foster #mamoru kishi #mitsunari baba #ota kisaki #kissed by the baddest bidder #kbtbb #voltage inc #love 365 #otome romance #otome #fic #gift

[jacks-jester]

Dead Poet [Intro]

[Charlie Dalton x Reader]

Requested: No

Words: 1,830

A/N This is a new series I may potentially make. This is one of my favorite movies of all time, and I absolutely adore the character of Charlie. I’m trying to do passion projects to keep me motivated so I can get back into writing. I hate this is as short as it is, but to be fair its an intro. I’d like to continue this and make it a short series with a few installments, but who knows, maybe it will happen maybe it won’t. Anyways, this is unedited so apologies for any grammar mistakes.

You could feel the cool evening breeze sink into your bones, your arms instinctively wrapping the large overcoat you wore tighter over your shoulders. You were weaving your way in between numerous trees in the woods near Welton Academy, your friend Neil leading the way. You weren’t entirely sure where you were going, only getting vague descriptions from Neil- who insisted the night was going to be the “most fun you’ve ever had”. 

You had met Neil at the local auditions for Midsummer Nights Dream, the two of you immediately hitting it off and rehearsing with together in the audition waiting room. You had been overjoyed when you found out he was cast as Puck, and you were cast as Titania. The two of you had quickly become close friends throughout rehearsals, Neil becoming your best friend in no time as the two of you bonded over your mutual passion for acting. It was a few weeks into Midsummer rehearsals when Neil had casually brought up the Dead Poets Society, you had heard about the boys before but he had never brought up this secret ‘society’ before. It wasn’t long after he had invited you to attend the meetings, insisting that you would love it and would get along great with his friends from Welton.

You were in no reason to turn him down, so you agreed. That is how you ended up where you were now- in the middle of the pitch black mangrove of trees, rushing behind Neil, with only a single flashlight to lead the way to your secret destination. You could feel the nerves rise within you, boiling upwards from your stomach into your throat as you saw the opening of a cave in the distant glow of Neil’s  flashlight. You could hear the faint chatter and laughter of boys reverberating out of the cave and into the crisp winter air, smoke rising into the sky out of what appeared to be a crevice in the caves roof. Soon enough you and Neil were both climbing down into the cave opening, greeted by the laughter and smiles from three teenage boys. They all welcomed Neil warmly, clearly seeing him as a leader of sort, though they froze up the moment you came into their line of view.

Neil let out a small laugh as he noticed the way Cameron's mouth seemed to drop open once he caught sight of you. You could feel yourself growing self conscious as all the attention now seemed focused on you, you hadn’t dressed up, seeing as Neil told you it was an easy going and relaxed meeting. You had worn a simple pair of black cigarette pants, a brown belts, black Maryjane's, a Ridgeway High School sweater, and had your hair down the way you usually did. Neil let out a small cough getting the boys attention before speaking up, “This is y/n l/n, a friend of mine from the theater, she’s playing the fairy queen." 

“Nice to meet you all, I’ve heard a lot about you from Neil. So this is the famous Dead Poets Society?”

Neil opened his arms wide as if to show off the small cave with a wide grin on his boyish features, “The one and only. Now take a seat, that’s Cameron, Meeks, Pitts, and Todd. Lets get this meeting under way gentlemen.” All the boys visibly relaxed, going about their usual routine as they all got comfortable, Meeks sitting to your right and Todd to your left. You watched as Neil pulled an old book out, opening instinctively to the title page to read whatever was written aloud, the other boys chanting it with him.

“ I went to the woods because I wanted to live deliberately... I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life! To put to rout all that was not life...”

They were all cut off as rustling and giggles began sounding from the entrance of the cave, everyone glancing over as three figure entered one by one. You figured it must be one of the missing members, though you were shocked to see two other girls entering the cave alongside him. You couldn’t help the breathy laugh that escaped you lips as you heard Cameron who was sitting across from you, “Oh my god.”

The girls stood awkwardly next to the boy who had entered alongside them, a black beret sitting atop his head as a large grin was plastered to his face. After some readjusting everyone began getting settled in once more, the girls sitting down delicately, though their posture was slightly uncomfortable. You figured maybe sitting in a damp cave while it was freezing outside wasn’t the way they had hoped to spend their evening.

You watched closely as Charlies voice rang throughout the small cave, “Guys, I have an announcement to make. In keeping with the spirit of passionate experimentation of the Dead Poets, I’m giving up the name Charlie Dalton. From now on, call me Nuwanda.” You had to hold back a laugh as several of the poet society members let their own chuckles escape at the name, Neil's face even morphing into one of confusion and amusement. 

“We gonna have a meeting or what?”

Your eyes flicked over to Gloria as she spoke up, “Yeah. If you guys don’t have a meeting, how do we know if we wanna join?”

“Join?” Neil's eyes flicked to you for a moment before returning to the book, flipping through the book to find a poem, only to be cut off by Charlie- or rather Nuwanda. “Shall I compare thee to a summers day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate.”

“That's so sweet.”

“I made it up just for you.”

“You did?”

I let out a small chuckle of disbelief at the cluelessness of the blonde bimbo sitting near me. It was clear she had no idea who Shakespeare was, and definitely didn’t know his works- despite that recitation being from one of his most famous works. You watched amused as Gloria turned expectantly to Charlie, who was more than happy to woo her as well.

“I’ll write one for you too, Gloria. She walks in beauty like the night...” He paused for a moment, feigning though as though he truly was making it up on the spot. “She walks in beauty like the night. Of cloudless slimes and starry skies. All that’s best, dark and bright, meet in her aspect and her eyes.” Her eyes widened as she let out a breath of flattery, “That’s beautiful.” You watched as Nuwanda’s grin grew wider, looking to the boys in a knowing manner before glancing back at Gloria. His eyes flitted across the cave for a moment, his eyes meeting your for what felt like forever but you knew was most likely only a fleeting second. His honey eyes were penetrating and passionate, holding your attention effortlessly, and more a moment you understood what caused the girls to believe every word he said without doubt.

You were only snapped out of your thought when he spoke up, “How about beautiful? Would you allow me the pleasure of coming up with a poem for you, a lot of things are coming to mind.” I was caught off guard for a moment before letting a coy smile play across my lips. “That depends, are they going to be original works? Because I’ve already read Lord Byron and Shakespeare, beautiful but not your words.” You watched as the two girls eyes flicked to you, annoyance coming across their faces, Tina speaking up. “I would recognize Shakespeare if I heard it, those words were meant for me. Nuwanda’s a poet, why else would he be in a poet society?” You watched a amused grin flicked across Charlies lips as his eyes remained on your figure. You let out a sigh and shrugged, “Suppose I was mistaken, I’m sure Nuwanda spoke from his heart.” That seemed to relieve the girls annoyances, though you sent a playful wink towards Charlie afterwards which he quickly reciprocated.

You couldn’t explain quite what it was about Charlie that caused him to be so devastatingly attractive, but whatever it was, it was drawing you in more than you cared to admit. Your eyes left Charlie and instead glanced at Neil who only chuckled and sent you a knowing smile. Neil had told you in the past about Charlie, always saying that he felt out of all of his friends, you and him would get along the best. Which you weren’t going to deny- Neil was spot on. Even with the other girls there, it seemed you and Charlie got on the most, sharing laughs as the meeting went on- the two of you having instant chemistry.

The night when on as you supposed their normal meetings would, smoking a few cigarettes, snacking on the pile of food the boys brought from the mess hall, drinking some alcohol, and reciting new and old poetry. Overall it was a fun and relaxed evening- a nice break from the seriousness of school and the long rehearsals for Midsummer. The night ended however with a bit of drama- Charlie revealing that he had published a article in the Welton Academy school paper in the name of the Dead Poets in order to protest that girls should be allowed to attend. 

This didn’t go over well with the other members- most notably Cameron who seemed exceedingly paranoid about getting found out as being involved. The issue was resolved as Nuwanda stated they would take the full blame if things got too heated and administration was looking for the Society. After the meeting concluded, the girls left together, Charlie and the other boys putting out the fire and cleaning up the mess within the cave. 

You watched in confusion as Neil stood up atop one of the rocks in the cave, his head nearly touching the highest part of the ceiling. “I want to nominate a new member of the Dead Poets Society, y/n l/n.” All the boys eyes flicked from Neil, to you, then back to Neil. “All members in agreement say aye, anyone in disagreement raise your hand.” Unanimously all the boys said aye, Charlies eyes catching yours, Neil flashing you a grin as you stood in shock. Neil cleared his throat to regain your attention, “Well y/n, everyone's in agreement except you. Wanna be a Dead Poet?”

Your eyes scanned the boys faces, all of which were grinning brightly at you, your eyes landing on Charlies. He nodded softly at you, a smirk on his lips as he urged you to accept the offer. You could feel a small smile appear on your lips as your eyes returned to Neil who was grinning hopefully at you.

“I accept.”

Charlies voice piped up, “Welcome to the DPS.”

You let out a small laugh at this and reconnected you e/c eyes with his deep brown ones, “Thanks Nuwanda.”

#dead poets society #charlie dalton #charlie dalton x reader #charlie x reader #dead poets honor #dead poems #charlie dalton imagine #neil perry

[jess-rewatches-prodigalson]

It’s All In The Execution (S2, E1)

It happened. We got a second season. I’m living my best life...unfortunately Malcolm isn’t...

*** Content warning: brief mentions/allusions to depression, suicidal ideation, and Malcolm’s general poor mental health ****

SPOILERS AHEAD.

0:00 -  OH HELL YES. I can’t believe we actually got a second season! <3 My heart is so full. 

0:18 – “This ledge is taken.” …..ok so I have lots of feelings about this scene. 1) Malcolm’s lines are iconic in this scene and I love it. 2) WHY THE ACTUAL HELL WOULD JT, DANI, AND EDRISA AGREE TO LET A (LET’S BE HONEST) MAN IN A VERY BAD MENTAL STATE WITH A HISTORY OF DEPRESSION STAND ON A LEDGE FOR A CASE?!? Like seriously, Gil wouldn’t have gone with this shit. 3) As soon as I saw Malcolm on the ledge I believed he was seriously considering jumping. He showed passive suicidality most of last season and after Endicott – well I don’t blame him for being a little depressed. 

0:26 – Damn. Malcolm is really manic in this scene. It’s reminiscent of the pilot episode in the sense that Malcolm really has no filter. 

0:40 – Ok so Tom Payne deserves a freaking Emmy. This performance is gorgeous. Look at his facial expression when he says “It got real dark for me though. Family issues.” The look on his face completely convinces me that Malcolm is riding the struggle bus more than usual right now…..also am I the only one who thinks this ‘penthouse slasher’ is kind of unbelievable? He strikes me as too anxious and jumpy to be a serial killer. 

1:18 – Is Malcolm even trying to hide the fact that he knows what happened to Endicott?!? I mean “I tried to fight it” can’t JT and Dani hear his usual ‘projecting his personal issues on the suspect shtick?’ 

1:30 – Did he really just scream “I am the Surgeon’s son” from a ledge?!? Dude – someone please give this boy a hug and get him to Gabrielle – like last month.

1:40 – Soooo… now Chester isn’t scared of the ledge? He looked like he was going to wet himself from fear a literal minute ago. 

1:49 – OH OF COURSE CHESTER SLIT THEIR THROATS. JUST LIKE AINSLEY SLIT ENDICOTT’S. Chris Fedak really loves to inject Malcolm’s personal issues into the ‘serial killer of the week’.

2:23 – I’m sorry – the team let Malcolm on the ledge without tethering him first?!? No. No. No. I refuse to believe it. Dani, JT, and Edrisa care too much about Malcolm to let him do that.  

2:28 – Why is Edrisa even on this stakeout?!? Did she fill in as the 4th team member while Gil was in the hospital?!? I love Edrisa – she’s hilarious but the fact that she’s in the field like this is absolute nonsense. Hahaha 

2:32 – hahaha OMG. JT is like the big brother forced to hang out with his younger sibling and their weird friends. He’s think’s they’re all crazy but he’d also die for them.  

2:42 – Yikes. Malcolm is questioning his moral code. This boy is headed for a real nasty downward mental spiral if someone doesn’t intervene quickly.  

2:46 – Am I really supposed to believe that a rope tied to a radiator can hold the weight of two grown men dangling off a building?!? I mean – I’ll suspend my disbelief because I know it’s fictional entertainment but I found it really distracting.  

2:48 – JT. Would. Not. Let. Go. Of. That. Rope. I REFUSE TO BELIEVE IT. If for no other reason than because he loves GIL too much to let Gil’s surrogate son fall to his death. I understand why this happened – tension and excitement for television in the first scene of a new season but honestly – this whole first scene is wildly unrealistic given what we know about JT, Dani, Edrisa and their respective roles on the team.

2:50 – Can we talk about JT’s facial hair for a sec? I like him with it (and without it). Part of me thinks he grew it because he’s trying to channel Gil while he’s temporarily in charge of the team.  

3:08 – Honestly, the second Malcolm picked up his phone all I could think was “You moron. What if you drop that thing off the side of the building!?!?!”…then I remembered that he’s rich.

3:20 – “Please say it’s cancer.” Hahahahahaha OMG. I have a love/hate relationship for Malcolm with no filter. That’s freaking comedic gold. 

3:57 – “I’m hanging in there.” Tom Payne is freaking incredible. Look at his facial expression here. Malcolm’s emotional pain is etched on that face. Ugh. I’m love. 

4:02 – soooo no updated title screen. Interesting. 

4:08 – Istg the writers only put Ainsley in this scene so she would be in the episode. I mean honestly – what kind of precinct lets reporters with a camera crew INSIDE?!?! 

 4:15 – hahaha I love JT in this scene. I love how he initially looks at Ainsley with a mixture of confusion, resignation, and fear. This is a man who does not like the camera.  

4:16 – Side note: is it just me or is Ainsley acting very manic in this scene? Something about her energy reminds me of Malcolm circa 1x05 when he’s not sleeping and trying to convince everyone that he’s fine.

4:38 – hahahaha OMG. That wink.  

4:48 – Even Malcolm looks surprised that Ainsley and a camera dude were let into the precinct.  

5:00 – Ahhh the hand tremor. <3 Love that they’re still using that. 

5:05 – also Malcolm is heartbreaking in this scene. Someone give him a hug. Look at how hard he’s trying to hide his pain, fear, and trauma. UGH.  

5:33 -  So we finally get to see it. The moments immediately after 1x20. Or do we? I have this crackpot theory (I posted it on my main blog, so you might’ve already seen it – “AllTimeBouvier”) that these flashbacks are only a fraction of the truth. I think Sophie walked followed Malcolm from the vet’s office to the hospital, then home. I think she hid when she heard Endicott’s voice due to fear but came out after Ainsley started screaming and stabbing.  Besides – anyone else notice how the portion of these flashbacks where Malcolm is saying “Ainsley, focus on me. You didn’t do this. I did.” Only his right hand is ever in the frame. So it’s impossible to tell if he’s holding his cell (on the phone with Martin) with his left hand or if he just hung up and put the phone back in his pocket? I think that Martin either phoned Malcolm back or Martin heard Sophie’s voice and demanded to talk to her. I think Sophie disposed of the body while Malcolm took care of Ainsley like a good big brother. I think Sophie went into hiding and Martin is gaslighting Malcolm into believing that he disposed of Endicott’s body.  

5:37 – Anyone else want to know what happened to the murder weapon? And Ainsley’s bloody clothes? Just me? 

6:00 – hahahahaha Jessica is so extra. I love it. 

6:29 – Wait. What? Why was Ainsley quarantined with Jessica? Ainsley has her own apartment. If Jessica forced Ainsley to come and live with her during quarantine – why didn’t she also force Malcolm? This doesn’t track for me. 

6:40 – I love that Jessica brought Malcolm food (you can see the grocery bag behind Malcolm in one of the shots) and went so far as to actually lay out the breakfast ingredients for him. <3 I mean. It’s extra but it’s also sweet.  

6:45 – Why is Jessica looking at Malcolm’s pill bottles? Is it just to avoid eye contact with Malcolm while she talks about Gil? Is she noticing that his dosage has changed (she’s extra so I’m assuming she knows exactly what meds he takes and how much of each). Is that part of the reason why she’s suspicious of Malcolm? His dosage has gone up and he’s clearly trying to hide his pain?

 6:52 – I love how Malcolm interacts with Jessica in this scene. It’s so cute. They’re adorable. AND seeing Malcolm in casual clothing is always nice.  

7:44 – “Oh about that.” Damn. Malcolm really can’t catch a break. Poor baby. : ( 

7:50 – hahaha Martin looks like a mountain man here. Completely deranged and un-groomed.  

7:51 – Glad Mr.David isn’t dead or evil. I had fears.  

8:35 – The tension between Dani and Malcolm seems to have lessened since 1x20. The trust seems to have been partially rebuilt. Partially. Dani is still suspicious.  

8:38 – Well at least Malcolm’s still going to therapy.  

8:41 – GREEN SUIT. HELL YES.

9:06 – “The ‘Drise knows.” OMG hahahaha I love this show. Look at how Malcolm looks at her hahaha. 

9:17 – “I can fire these people right?” OMG. 10/10. JT REALLY SHINES IN THIS EPISODE. AND FRANK HARTS IS KILLING IT and the writers gave him so much well deserved screen time and great lines.  

9:53 – Malcolm and Edrisa getting excited about murder is honestly so freaking cute.  

10:34 – OMG. The way Malcolm perks up at the mention of rumours is hilarious. A learned behaviour from Jessica during his childhood? 

10:45 – I’ll say it again. Chris Fedak was wasting Frank Harts in season 1. This dude is shining in this episode. I hope they keep giving him more lines and screen time than they did last season. 

12:00 – I love seeing Malcolm this excited/happy but it’s pretty concerning that his passion is murder weapons.  

12:04 – This scene is really interesting to me for four reasons 1) Where the eff did Dani go? I guess she’s probably on her way to see Gil? 2) Even though Malcolm is getting excited about murder he’s way less manic than he was earlier this episode. 3) I love watching JT deal with Edrisa and Malcolm’s nerdy excitement. I could watch it all day. So fun. 4) I love watching JT and Malcolm in scenes together. Period. I can honestly say that watching their friendship evolve is one of the highlights of this show for me.  

12:30 – Heartbreaking. Malcolm had a few minutes where he forgot about Ainsley, Endicott, Martin, and the various traumas currently haunting him. Then he not only remembered but he saw Martin in himself. The crazy person collecting murder weapons. You can tell he feels embarrassed, ashamed, and sad. I genuinely believe that’s why JT says, “soooo weird.” with a look of sympathy and concern. JT doesn’t suspect that Malcolm has anything to do with Endicott’s murder at this point in time. Mark my words. 

12:55 – Edrisa gets Bright. I will never ship them together but I really hope they get more scenes together this season. Their friendship is beautiful. 

13:00 – Malcolm, baby, no. You don’t have to do this. Ugh. Poor baby. This is just going to make the night terrors worse. 

13:10 – They trimmed Martin’s beard but not his hair between the first scene in this episode and now. I think they just combed his hair? Why?!? Was this a Michael Sheen request? I must know!!! 

13:40 – hahaha OMG. Can we all just take a moment to appreciate how incredible Michael Sheen is?!? This man can go from downright terrifying to hilarious in a split second. Incredible actor.  

13:55 – Sooooo Mr. David doesn’t know about Endicott? Because he’s definitely heard Malcolm and Martin discuss some pretty sketchy stuff over the years. I’m pretty sure he heard about the Sophie stuff last season didn’t he? Why is Martin finally trying to hide something from Mr. David?  

14:03 – Look at Malcolm’s face. Ugh. He looks nauseous and scared. Someone hug him. Or better yet – get him away from Martin.  

14:18 – Sooooo is Jerry going to be a problem later? Martin ‘cures him’ later in this episode so will he be able to tell someone he heard Martin and Malcolm talking about Endicott’s murder? Would anyone believe him?  

14:40 – GO. TO. HELL. MARTIN. You’re not feeling it?!? Haven’t you caused enough emotional damage to your son. Stop. Trying. To. Manipulate. Malcolm.  

14:50 – Question 1000 about how Endicott’s body was disposed of: Where the hell did Malcolm get that yellow jumpsuit on such short notice? And….those gloves – anyone else notice that they’re practically the same as the gloves he puts on in Izzy’s sex dungeon in a few minutes? ALSO – THEY FOUND ENDICOTT’S BODY IN ESTONIA?!? LIKE ALL OF IT OR JUST PARTS OF IT? WOULDN’T IT BE SMARTER TO SCATTER HIS BODY IN MULTIPLE COUNTRIES IF IT’S ALREADY IN PIECES?!? Unless maybe Endicott’s body isn’t in pieces because we all know that Malcolm’s memory of traumatic events is fuzzy at best. 

15:07 – “Don’t. Say. That. Never, say that.” - I’m really proud of Malcolm here. He’s clearly in serious emotional distress throughout this whole conversation. He’s grappling with what he believes he did, what that means about him, his moral code, and his relationship with Martin. But yet – he found the strength to basically tell Martin to eff off.  

15:20 – AMAZING. Right after Martin says “Estonia?” there are a few seconds where it genuinely looks like Malcolm is going to cry. It’s moving as hell, heartbreaking, and some downright kickass acting. 

15:56 – Well, that’s not going to help Malcolm’s night terrors. But we definitely have confirmation that Jerry wasn’t as engrossed in the cartoons as Martin suggested.  

16:20 – I love this scene. Gil is the whole team’s surrogate father – not just Malcolm’s. Sometimes I forget that. Also – the fact that Chris Fedak waited 16 minutes to show us Gil Arroyo alive and well is a crime.  

16:28 – “He wouldn’t dare.” “I know.” How cute is this? Look at Dani’s smile. Ugh. I can’t decide if they know that JT doesn’t want Gil’s job because he loves working with Gil too much or he doesn’t like how much responsibility comes with Gil’s title. Probably a combination of both.  

16:35 – Sooo has Malcolm not been visiting Gil? I guess because of COVID he couldn’t but now he’s just not? I mean – Gil would be able to tell how Malcolm’s doing just by looking at him.  

17:05 – I’m sorry ‘multiple surgeries’?!? I want elaboration on this.  

17:09 – So I googled “British musician Izzy” and the top hit was the guitar player for Guns’n’Roses (who looks kinda like this guy). I have no idea what that means but I found it interesting. 

17:30 – Holy shit. Izzy is a nutcase. I love him. hahaha 

17:55 – Soooo Malcolm keeps a spray bottle of some sort of magic “show me the blood” water? Nah – the writers wrote it into the show for this scene’s convenience.  

18:05 – I love this. Malcolm’s nonchalant approach to his mother and Gil’s budding relationship. He’s like a little kid who doesn’t want to get his hopes up. He’s using the mentality of “If I don’t acknowledge it, it’s not happening. Therefore, if it goes wrong – I won’t get hurt by it.” It’s really sad and I wish he didn’t run away from something that will potentially be good but I also get it. 

18:06 – I also respect Malcolm a lot in this scene and am irritated by Dani. Look – they both adore Gil. They’re both protective of Gil (and in Malcolm’s case Jessica). Here’s where they’re different: Malcolm recognizes and respects that Gil and Jessica are adults who can make their own decisions. Dani doesn’t. Dani is acting like a preteen trying to break up Dad and the new step-mom she isn’t sure of. Dani and Malcolm both have their hearts in the right place but I disagree with Dani’s response to the relationship. I also understand where she’s coming from given what we know about Dani’s bio Dad.  

18:39 – It’s not supposed to be funny but holy hell. Malcolm putting his head on the floor to listen is hilarious.  

19:00 – I’m getting major John Watkins flashbacks. Malcolm breaks down a lot of walls where serial killers once hung out. Is that supposed to be some sort of subtle comment on Malcolm’s character? 

20:33 – Damn. Malcolm’s hair is long this season.  

20:55 – aannnnnd here are the murder gloves from the Endicott flashbacks. 

21:30 – Something about Malcolm dancing to this music in this supremely manic state is really upsetting to me. It just makes me uncomfortable.  

22:13 – I’m so worried about Malcolm right now. Holy hell. Get him to Gabrielle. NOW. 

23:00 – A skil saw. Pretty much a small version of what Malcolm thinks he dismembered Endicott with. Yikes. Fedak really loves making Malcolm project his issues on murder suspects.  

23:27 – Yep. Dani totally thinks Malcolm killed Endicott. She thinks he’s gone dark side and followed Martin’s footsteps. This is not going to be good for their friendship or the trust that they’re rebuilding.

23:50 – One of my favourite things about this show is that it can go from dark and creepy to family sitcom-esque drama in a second. It helps lighten the show’s tone a little. I mean honestly – most of the fans are here for the family drama as opposed to the ‘killer of the week’ storyline anyways. 

24:10 – I love this. Jessica admitting to Malcolm that she and Gil have been discussing him for almost 25 years. You can see that Malcolm is 1) a little freaked out and 2) a little touched. For a moment you can see how badly he wants Gil and his Mom to have a long-lasting romantic relationship.  

24:32 – OMG. Why did Jessica call Ainsley about Malcolm’s mental state before calling Malcolm? Is that standard Whitly family practice? I have questions. 

24:40 – Yep. Dani is Concerned and Scared.  

26:46 – Sooo we all agree that Martin was trying to electrocute Jerry to death right? I mean “You really shouldn’t have done that Jer-bear.”?!?!  And he’s literally a serial killer?! 

27:25 – Mr. David is having none of Martin’s bullshit – so how did Martin get away with it? What does Martin have on Mr. David? 

27:50 – “A miracle.” Omg. Hahahaha. I love this show. So. Much. 

28:09 – “clearing her brother’s name. Not murder.” Seriously, the parallels between this case and Malcolm’s personal issues are more obvious than usual this episode. Almost to the point where I’m annoyed that the other characters aren’t really catching on.  

28:35 – “What happened, his brain break?” I love the way JT can simultaneously tease and be concerned about Malcolm. Ugh. It’s beautiful (and hysterical). 

29:07 – Not again. Please stop putting JT in front of the camera. I’m getting second-hand embarrassment and anxiety on his behalf. It hurts to watch (funny too, but mostly painful). 

29:19 – Look at Gil. Hahaha he’s so amused by JT’s awkwardness in front of the camera – but you can also see how proud he is. <3 I love papa!Gil.  

29:33 – “Police work is patience.” Cute 1x05 callback. And can we all just take a minute to appreciate how much Gil loves Dani. Just look at his proud Dad face!! <3 Warms my cold, dead heart. 

30:00 – Oh yeah, Dani is suspicious.  

30:04 – I love how Gil seems to be the only person who truly understands Malcolm and all his quirks. <3 I love how much Gil loves Malcolm. <3 I just…ugh. <3 <3 <3 • 30:11 – “I’m a good big brother.” That line cut through my heart. He shouldn’t have been put in this position – choosing between his moral code and his brotherly instincts. It’s not fair and the stress of it is literally killing him.  

30:17 – “Messed them up.” Them!?!? I’m sorry Dani, when did you and Gil start talking about Malcolm AND Ainsley?!? Last I checked this was a 100% Malcolm conversation. …she’s not wrong though. 

30:33 – “There’s nothing we haven’t talked about.” I love what that suggests. To me – that means they when Dani has a bad break up, they talk about stupid stuff like what they’re cooking for dinner and songs that make them happy. I love that it suggests that Dani and Gil have talked about Jackie. Malcolm might be Gil’s fake-son but Dani is sooo Gil’s fake-daughter. <3 I can just see him getting all overprotective when she gets a new boyfriend even though he knows damn well that Dani is more than capable of taking care of herself – he can’t help it, Dani is his little girl. <3 <3 <3 

31:00 – Ugh….ok. So this scene. I’ve seen a lot of mixed reactions about it. I have a bit of a mixed reaction myself tbh. On one hand, I love that they have the type of relationship where they can openly discuss this. On the other hand – it feels forced and it really rubs me the wrong way. Dani is just way out of line here. She’s totally attacking Jessica and Gil is kind of letting her? I mean I think it upsets me so much because Gil isn’t even really defending Jessica.  Also, that line about Jackie thinking the Whitly’s are cursed?!? Wtf is that?!? No. No. We know that Jackie loved Malcolm like a son. Jessica has said that Jackie was kind. What is this cursed nonsense?!?!? I refuse to believe it. And the fact that Jessica heard it all breaks my heart. Like – it physically hurts me to watch this scene for all of the above reasons. But I also kind of understand why we got the scene – to further explore the Gil+Dani dynamic and to add some angst to the Jessica/Gil romance.  

33:00 – Oh hell yes. I love this danger. 

34:10 – Amazing how calm Malcolm is while the killer is literally going through his murder weapon collection. Like he hasn’t been this calm all episode? 

35:10 – Ahhhh here’s manic!Malcolm. 

35:25 – “Is it my hair?” Okay so totally hilarious, but Dani is listening to this. Can she tell that Malcolm is clearly (and weakly) deflecting the comment about him being a killer like Martin? 

35:40 – Malcolm is scared. :( Someone please hug him. This is the most honest he’s been all episode. My heart is broken.  

36:20 – Soooo did Malcolm just abstractly tell Dani that he’s a justice killer? Nahhhh I’m totally typing out of my ass.  

37:00 – He was on the Harvard fencing team?!? Why is that adorable? 

37:34 – Malcolm just cut a dude 3x. No remorse. No more fear. He’s calm. I’m terrified. Does he like hurting the killer?  

37:50 – I think Dani suspects that Malcolm killed Endicott. Yep. Definitely. 

38:00 – Gorgeous. Absolutely gorgeous. This scene with JT and the cops is heart-wrenching. The fact that Dani and Malcolm come to his rescue is beautiful. The fact that JT is clearly terrified but not angry is perfect. I hate that this scene had to be made but I love how it was executed.  

38:31 – Look at Malcolm’s confused, white, rich face here. He genuinely can’t believe that cops just racial profiled one of the only good people who ever accepted a serial’s killer’s son as a friend.  

38:40 – I’m crying. JT’s fear (and Frank Harts’ acting) is so believable and completely haunting. I hear the subtext in this scene, “What if those cops killed JT? What would happen to his pregnant wife and unborn child?”, “How is JT going to financially support his family if he loses his job unfairly?”, “How messed up is it that a literal military veteran is terrified of fellow police officers?”. 

38:44 – “You didn’t do anything wrong.” This line gives me hope. Malcolm isn’t too far gone. Malcolm still knows right from wrong and he still has a heart of gold. 

38:55 – Ok. I LOVE that Gil magically shows up in this scene. BUT HOW DID HE KNOW TO COME TO THE PRECINCT?!?! LIKE WTF? Because Malcolm and JT look surprised to see Gil. Dani just looks relieved – did she call Gil?  

39:10 – Gil is an absolute A+ human being. I love him. I will die for him.

39:33 – OMG. JT’s big watery puppy dog eyes have ripped my heart to shreds. <3 :( 

39:45 – When I first saw this I thought Malcolm was hurt by Gil’s “and whatever Bright is”. But upon re-watching it – Malcolm looks surprised and so so touched. I’ll be honest – I don’t think Malcolm’s mental state would be so bad right now if he had had regular contact with Gil throughout COVID. Gil is Malcolm’s rock. His literal example of what a good man looks like – without him during a traumatic time Martin creeps back into Malcolm’s psyche.  

40:15 – Sooo Martin is still definitely lying to Malcolm.  

40:20 – Stupid little thing – there never used to be a toilet on Jerry’s side of the room. And what happened to all of Martin’s books and stuff? Did Claremont put it in storage? I mean he’s a serial killer? Jessica certainly didn’t store it for him. 

40:37 – Amazing. As soon as Malcolm physically sees Gil he comes to Martin with a renewed faith in his moral code. (“I stop killers. I don’t help them.”) 

41:30 – “Please don’t torture yourself for that.” Martin is right BUT that’s also why I hate him. Martin is manipulating Malcolm right now. He’s trying to convince Malcolm that he genuinely cares and loves his children. Thus destabilizing further Malcolm’s mental state.  

41:36 – Also – both Tom Payne and Michael Sheen are acting their asses off here. *chef’s kiss* 10/10. I love to see it.  

41:45 – Aaaannnnd there’s Martin the asshole. Completely screwing with Malcolm’s mind. Again. What a dick. I hate him. I hate him. I hate him.  

42:00 – Look at how scared Malcolm is. I genuinely think Malcolm (whether or not he actually dismembered Endicott, I suspect he didn’t) feels good when he remembers doing it. This is BAD for Malcolm’s mental health. Yikes. : ( Poor baby.  

Ok. So that’s the first episode of season 2. I really liked it. It wasn’t perfect but I’m excited for what this season might bring. Be back next week.  

#jess-rewatches-prodigal #malcolm bright #prodigal son #gil arroyo #dani powell #JT Tarmel #ainsley whitly #martin whitly #edrisa tanaka #jessica whitly #I LOVE this show #whump #rewatch #spoliers #malcolm needs a hug #ps #so good #2x01 #2x1 #it's all in the execution #s2

[dalekofchaos]

My critique of the Sequel Trilogy Lightsaber duels

My biggest problems with the Sequel Trilogy are the blatant rip off and unoriginality, no clear plan at all, lore breaking bullshit, lack of worldbuilding and poor executions of great character concepts. In this post, one of my My biggest gripes with the Sequels is the terrible Lightsaber fights.

The only good duel in my opinion is Finn vs Kylo Ren. This feels raw and powerful. A hardened soldier who has just became familiar to Lightsaber combat vs a trained dark side warrior. Despite Ren's years on training, though, Finn puts up a good fight and is able to hold his own before having his back sliced up. But.....that's what kills the fight for me. Finn's injuries. If this were in the first 6 movies or anywhere in the EU, Finn would be in a wheelchair or in a bacta tank for life. And guess what? A movie later and Finn’s injuries are never brought up again or treated with any severity.

Like Finn’s injuries, Finn’s rivalry with Kylo Ren is dropped for no reason whatsoever and never mentioned again. Finn and Kylo Ren are narrative foils, yet after TFA it’s dropped??? From the start they have been prominent foils to each other: dark from light and light from dark, both in the First Order but in drastically different positions. And Kylo too obviously has strong feelings about his defection. I also believe that Finn is the awakening in the force that Kylo and Snoke felt. Perhaps that is why Kylo focused on Finn and is so angry about him. Finn is also the first person to use the legacy lightsaber and is the first to actually fight Kylo. TLJ could've focused on Finn and Kylo being  narrative foils having a force connection and Kylo wondering why Finn would switch to the Resistance while Finn wonders why Kylo joined The First Order and  Rey standing in the middle of it all wondering with the new realization that her family has a mixed past of good and evil and her questioning where exactly does she belong? The way at the height of tfa when Kylo Ren rejected Han Solo’s offer for redemption and killed him he looked over and noticed Finn. Like they both locked eyes and in that moment was a surge of emotions between them— shock (and some fear) on Finn’s end, and anger on Kylo’s as he shouts at Finn that he’s a traitor— and those circumstances set Finn and Kylo up to be the dynamic for the sequel trilogy. They were foils, and the trilogy had the potential to truly expand on that and see their development in a final standoff/rematch at the very end. But it was wasted, because why have good movies.

Rey vs Kylo Ren. This duel was bullshit from start to finish. Okay, I don't care how force sensitive she is. I don't care that she downloaded Kylo's abilities in the interrogation. ANd I don't give a fuck WHO she turned out to be related to. If you are thrown into a tree, you are gonna be out for at least an hour. I will hand it to them that it feels like a genuine fight, but it just feels cheap when Rey won. It also doesn't make it any better that Kylo's injuries doesn't force him to wear the helmet at all times, his facial wounds are non-consequential. Rey has no prior training. Never held a lightsaber. Rey fighting off thieves with her quarterstaff is not the same thing, it is understandable that Kylo was struggling because of his injuries, but Rey didn’t struggle against Kylo. Even Luke struggled with Vader and Anakin struggled with Dooku. What should have happened is as it looks like Kylo is about to win, Chewie from the Falcon fires his bowcaster to keep Ren at bay and both Rey and Finn make it to the Falcon. This way we can keep Kylo Ren strong and show Rey struggling to overcome Kylo. It will also show This is how powerful he is when injured, so imagine him at his peak. Instead we get a pointless fight instead of Rey and Finn just escaping Starkiller base while Ren collapses due to injuries and Rey beating Kylo served no purpose(the end goal to destroy Starkiller Base was already accomplished) and helped derail their villain of the trilogy.

The Throne Room Duel. Everyone knew that Rey and Kylo would kill the Praetorian Guards. This is a fight with absolutely zero stakes. It's one thing if Rey and Kylo dueled Snoke himself, that might be a good fight. But come on, did anyone REALLY think they would lose? There is no tension in the scene and it is pointless. Kylo Ren and Rey are fighting a faceless a group of guards that we know absolutely nothing about and have literally no purpose in the entire story except for this one fight. We know neither of the characters are going to die because these are just faceless red shirts and there is still like 30 to 40 minutes left of the movie. Terrible editing takes away any enjoyment one might have with the fight choreography, if you've got to literally photoshop out the bad guys weapons in post production to not look stupid you might need to recoreograph the shot. There are multiple times where Rey, Kylo and the guards are just doing motions and actions because they look cool but serve no purpose but to look cool. Kylo stabbing the ground? Pointless. Rey twirling her rave stick around while someone falls behind her, pointless. Not even once do we see them displaying their powers is what cheapens the fight. Kylo Ren is powerful enough to freeze a blaster and a person in place and Rey herself unlocked Kylo’s powers, so the two of them could have easily ended the fight sooner than it was dragged out. Kylo is powerful in the force but he SERIOUSLY could not stop a Praetorian Guard choke holding him and Rey struggled with a guard? Rey and Kylo were stronger in TFA and are just made weaker in the duel with the Praetorian Guards. Kylo could have frozen half of the guards and Rey could have mind tricked the other half into killing the frozen guards and Kylo and Rey could have finished them. They are masters of light and darkness, but they are made weaker. The throne room scene is a symbolization of everything wrong with the movie. It’s all flash, but no substance and the more you think about it, the worse it gets.

All this duel makes me believe is that Rey and Ben should’ve both switched sides in TLJ. Rey gives in to the dark side and Ben returns home. Rey is the most Sith like character if you obey the rules of George Lucas for Light and Dark sides of the force. Ben Solo is more Jedi like throughout the movie until the end. Let me explain. Rey throughout the sequel trilogy has given in to her passion and anger. In the end of TFA Rey gave in to anger and hate to defeat Kylo. and in TLJ she is shown to use anger and hate throughout the movie. She is shown to as Yoda put it “take the quick and easy path to the dark side” gives in to anger and hate in almost every scene before she boards the Supremacy and gave in to the temptations of the dark side water cave. Her dark side actions in TROS speak for itself. Ben is calm and clear minded like a Jedi, he even wants to cut all ties to attachments like a Jedi. Everything we were told of the Jedi and how disciplined they are, Ben displays that in TLJ until after the Throne room fight. Hell, EVEN THE THRONE ROOM FIGHT SUGGESTS THIS. Think about the fact that Ben really does not move or even engage. He just stands there and dodges and swings once when the guard rushes him. Contrast that to Rey, who is clearly being more aggressive with her lightsaber and attacking rather than just being passive. How again is Rey the Jedi and Kylo is the dark side force user in this movie? They’re fighting in the exact opposite way they should be. Rey fights for the kill while Kylo gets a glancing blow in the armor in the opening fight. Their style of fighting in the Throne Room with the Praetorian Guards really suggests that they should’ve switched sides. What they should have done is have Ben realize that Snoke was evil and shows regret for his actions and turn to the light. While Rey feeling betrayed by Luke and the revelation of her family turns to the dark. This would not only be unexpected but would even rival Vader’s “I am your father” twist. And it would logically follow what we’ve seen of these two characters leading up to this point. Rather than just out of the blue Kylo turns angry and irrational and Rey is calm when Ben was calm and rational throughout the movie and Rey was full of anger and hate throughout this movie. You have them follow an arc that makes sense for their individual personalities. Ben is always calm, but he felt betrayed by those on the light, but he comes to realize that betrayal was an incorrect perception and he desperately wants to make amends to Luke and Leia and therefore he should rejoin what he knows in his heart is good. While Rey is full of passion and anger and as that builds up and she realizes that even the great Jedi Luke Skywalker is a disappointment and her family abandoned her, she knows the only person who can live up to her own expectations is herself and that self-centered attitude leads her to the dark side. That would make sense and we would have something to fight for, save Rey from herself or stop her.

Luke Skywalker and Kylo Ren. Originally, I thought they were gonna have Luke first send the Walkers’ turboblasts right back at them and use the force to bring down the transports, TIEs and the shuttle and then toy with his nephew like Vader did to him and leave Kylo Ren in defeat and his ruined fleet. In a way he did(minus the ruined fleet), but it took away any tension away by having Luke just be a force projection. He wasn't there. His moment with Leia and 3-PO doesn't feel genuine anymore. And the "duel" if you can call it that is just bad. Luke doesn't have his Green Lightsaber and their blades do not clash. A Jedi is all about defense. But a Jedi will also fight in self-defense to defend others. The argument that Luke did the "most Jedi thing ever" is bullshit. A Jedi will stand up for what's right and face the threat. Instead Luke pulled a practical joke and died pointlessly. I mean if he instead pulled the X-Wing out afterwords and told R2 "Come on R2, we've got work to do." I would forgive that and then we could've gotten a genuine master and apprentice relationship between Luke and Rey and a proper reunion between Luke and Leia. But no, he has to die of force exhaustion. If Palpatine, who uses the force like crack didn't die of force exhaustion, then why did Luke?

The duels in TROS are all equally terrible. Not once did I felt any excitement between Rey and Kylo's duels as I did with Finn and Kylo from TFA. Every Lightsaber duel is forgettable. The fight in Ren's Quarters is just bad. The fight on the Death Star Ruins is just terrible. It's like they both got high on deathsticks and could barley remember that they are both trained with a Lightsaber. Fighting in ruins surrounded by water SHOULD BE EXCITING! But they did everything in their power to make this duel boring, mediocre and lackluster. They act as if they are swinging bats, not Lightsabers. Lightsabers aren’t baseball bats, stop treating them like they are!  

The worst part is that THIS was the final Lightsaber duel of the Star Wars saga. A huge step down if compared to Obi Wan vs Anakin in Mustafar and Darth Vader vs Luke Skywalker in the Emperor’s Throne Room, which unlike the previous prequel, had awesome shooting and use of the soundtrack, also being very lengthy.

Then we get the Luke and Leia flashback. The ONLY well choreographed fight scene is a fucking flashback.

Then Ben Solo and the Knights Of Ren. Again, we know the Knights are gonna die. If JJ Abrams bothered to characterize the Knights, then yes they might've had a chance, but like the Praetorian Guards, they exist for background and die pointlessly.

Of Course we don't get to see Palpatine duel wielding his twin Sith Lightsabers and fighting Rey and Ben, cause JJ mr I hate the Prequels can't give the fans any decent Lightsaber fights. Instead of Palpatine facing Rey and Ben in an epic climatic final battle, we get Palpatine killed by his own lightning.

The fights in TFA is adequate at best. TLJ is meaningless. TROS is absolutely terrible and forgettable.

John, Daisy and Adam deserved better choreography than they were given. There's no excuse for the lackluster duels we see in the ST, whether from Rey, Finn or Kylo.

One of the biggest complaints for the Prequels is Lightsaber fights is "they are too choreographed" and anyone who believes this is an idiot. What? You wanted Jedi in their prime to slap sticks like old people? You wanted them to fight like drunken hobos? One of the best things in the prequels was finally getting to see the Jedi finally go all out in some awesome lightsaber duels. The Jedi should be masters at Lightsaber combat. Fight choreography is a good thing. Look at the duels in the prequels. You can like or hate them but the duel between Obi-Wan/Qui-Gon and Maul was great. As was Obi-Wan vs Jango, Yoda vs Dooku and every duel in ROTS. Even The Clone Wars had great fight choreography. There was more planning and choreography in The Clone Wars S7E10 than in the whole sequel trilogy.

Seriously, why wasn't Nick Gillard contacted? He is the main reason why the Lightsaber duels in the prequels were so good. I don't care if too many Lightsabers were a big complaint amongst the Prequel haters, the duels were good. So instead of great fight scenes, you traded great fight choreography for mediocre baseball bat fights?

The choreography is not the issue alone. There is no emotion. In TFA. Starkiller Base was already set to blow, so the fight was pointless. In TLJ there is no emotion at stake for the Throne Room fight and the Resistance already got away prior to Luke's pointless death. Rey vs Kylo doesn’t even matter because the characters HAVE THE SAME GOAL. Both want to get to Exegol via a wayfinder before the duel and both get to Exegol with a wayfinder (or memory of it) at the end of the duel. While Kylo gets redeemed, the duel wasn’t necessary for this part as Leia just needed to talk to him and then give him the force induced memory. The only thing this proves is that Rey is not a Jedi because she gives into anger and blind rage to start the duel.

The duels in the prequels and originals had themes, emotion and meaning. Not just that but they looked damn impressive and was the spectacle that helped made Star Wars, Star Wars.

There isn't any good musical scores for any of the Lightsaber fights either or at the very least, nothing memorable. Nothing as iconic as Duel Of Fates, Battle Of Heroes and the Throne Room fight in ROTJ. I don't remember any themes in the Sequels and that's a problem.

And it doesn’t help that these duels have no meaningful deaths either. A bunch of faceless guards and Luke (through indirect means) are the only deaths via a duel. But this is what happens when you hide the mentor archetype on an island and have the hero and villain go at it for three films.

The Lightsaber duel is no longer an emotional spectacle and a grand duel to the death. It's a bunch of idiots high on deathsticks fighting pointlessly and fighting for absolutely nothing. Rey fights like a Sith but she's a Jedi. Ben fights like a Jedi but is leading the First Order? They don't matter anymore and the duels in the sequels are the most forgettable thing about them.

#Anti Sequel Trilogy #Anti TFA #Anti TROS #Anti TLJ #Rey #Finn #Kylo Ren #Ben Solo

[emilycollins00]

A3 actors! Art in bloom

Type: One shot

Pairing: Miyoshi Kazunari x Reader

Theme: Passion / Art / Clash

Contrary to what many people and even classmates of yours thought, being an art student was not something you should chose to do lightly.

Sure, it seemed enjoyable, cute even. But no one ever talked about how many hours you would spend with a single portrait, drafting about abstract concepts or trying to discern at two in the morning whether a sculpture should turn more sideways or look at the ground to create a deeper perspective. 

Art was wild.

But you loved it and, why not admit it, you took it pretty seriously. Maybe a tiny bit more than most people.

That’s why you had always liked how Kazunari Miyoshi, although being the loud person he was, frequently went on and on with you discussing ideas when there was some debate in class. That brain of his was something else. His works and usual approach when mixing modern and traditional Japanese culture fascinated you. It really did.

But that had been changing lately, and it angered you.

Up until this year you hadn't really cared about it. Everyone had their right to live however they wanted after all.

However, without being able to tell when it began, you started casually observing him. You watched him talk to your other classmates as soon as the lecture, frowned as he concentrated on the draft they had one hour and a half to finish or taking selfies and live videos of the works you all were demanded to do. You even discovered yourself staring and how the sun caressed his profile first hour in the morning.

He had a nice profile.

By that point, something inside you was getting frustrated. He participated in class and attended to the lectures, but at the same time…? you felt he was starting prioritising social media over art, or looking for people for one of his popular mixers, like so many of your other classmates, who had most likely entered this major without much thought, did.

You would understand if he would have a part-time job, but the thought of him being able to do so much more and deciding to stop midway left you speechless.

You wished for him to take more things seriously. 

“Miyoshi, were you able to clean all the supplies from last class?" you called him out between the break. Everyone in class traded places to carry the main boxes with brushes, paints and whatever main source they had to work with each week "Our teacher told me to take some clay from there. I'm planning to use them for my final project, but I can't seem to find the key in the secretary office”

The university student lifted his head from his mobile and tipped on his chin, trying to remember "Supplies from...? Oh man, THAT is why I had them in my working space!” He palped his jeans looking for it “My bad, I was totes in a hurry and just closed as soon as we were done!” 

You contained an exasperated groan “Why would you get the key unless it was to clean the practice room?” 

Kazunari laughed nervously under your intimidating glare “True, true! It's just that I was talking with some friends over the phone and they were in a hurry so…” he showed you the key taking it out of his pocket, maybe to show that at least he hadn’t lost it “Do you need them now? I could go clean for you” 

The vein you had tried so hard to maintain calm popped altogether. Not wanting to keep talking, you rapidly grabbed the key from his hand and headed to take the supplies. God grief how you hated that carefree attitude. 

                                         ……………………..…….

“No prob, dude! Next time just hit me up with a DM and I’ll come running to your uni here! In exchange, I’ll need your help to finish the flyers so…” 

Recognizing the flashy voice, you slowly looked behind, witnessing the blond with another person. Was he meeting with people to play around here too? 

You couldn’t believe it. You all had your final projects deadlines almost spitting in your faces! That’s why you had to come to this other university to ask for permission to use a kiln for your final, as you didn’t have lectures prepared today and your university didn’t have any. Didn’t look like it was Kazunari’s case. 

“Uh? No way, Y/N-pyon!” he waved at you with both hands, confirming it was you indeed, as he got closer “Looking fleek today too! What are you doing here in Yosei?” the person walking next to him whispered something “They’re a friend from my major Tsuzuroon, I told you about them, dude!” 

You mentally scoffed. Without returning his greet and turning on your heels, you headed for the teacher’s office.

 “You said friend but…” Tsuzuru squinted his eyes, watching you leave “…It doesn't look like they like you very much” 

“No worries! Nowadays they are always like that. But their works are so lit! Y/N-pyon is the ultimate remix of you, Ten-ten and Yukki!” 

“That’s… not a good thing, Miyoshi-san”

                            …………………………………………

“Y/N-pyon, about-”

“Miyoshi, sorry. I am on my way to Yosei University to finish my work and unlike your usual approach of work to play, I actually don’t have time to waste”

“Uh? My works are…”

“Are what? I’ve been seeing you doing half-assed things all over the semester. This last week you didn’t even come at the afternoon lectures” you were pretty sure this was just you venting at this point “You’re amazing Miyoshi, I honestly think that, so why? If… If you only put more of yourself into it, your art would be even more unbelievable!”

He went quiet, a rare sight.

“Art it’s not something you just do for laughs; I thought you were one of the few people here that felt the same and-” the phone in your bag started ringing. Head  teacher. Inhaling deeply, you answered it “Yes?”

“Y/N-san? I am so sorry. Could you come to Josey university?” 

Losing the eye contact you had been maintaining with the blond boy, your heart sank as you heard the words ‘kiln’ and ‘malfunction’. “…Please tell me my final project is ok” 

                                       ……………………………….

You stood in silence, looking at the mess when you heard a knock at the door.

“I know I shouldn’t have followed and am expecting you throw me out the door but…” you didn’t move an inch so Kazunari took that as a free pass.

Just as the teacher told you, the electricity in the small building had had an issue and there had been a combustion, meaning, the sculpture you had kept here while working for weeks was now cracked and in shreds. You sniffed, brushing away the tears that were trying to come out from your eyes. All your hard work. All the time spent, had been for nothing.

“The Kiln is burnt. I don’t have anything good to save” you felt emotionally exhausted “Damn, I should have used air dry clay since the beginning… or not tried to sculpt anything” your vision became blurry again “I don’t know why do I make everything more difficult that it is”

Kazunari contemplated the situation, studying the seemingly full cracked sculpture from afar.

“Teach probably told you she would wait for you to turn on the work, right?” He saw you vaguely nodding you head “You got this!” he put his hand on your shoulder, you barely glancing at him “Look, If you still wanna use this base I’ll go ask for some moisturize and clean water to mix. Then I will maintain the upper part as you work down there, not bad idea right?”

You stared at him, finally grasping that he had come all the way here and was now trying to help “Why are you here? I… was being a busybody telling you how to work in our major” you had realized you had crossed the line back then.

Kazunari laughed, shaking his head “You were not saying anything that was a lie though, I don't want to admit it, but it’s true I've been a mess for a while”

“I guess parties require a lot of work” you bite your tongue hard. He was being a decent person trying to help and you couldn’t stop for two seconds to pick on him? You wanted to punch yourself.

“Mmm? Ah, our theatre troupe is almost opening for performance and the next troupe is on practices so flyers and scripts are running at full gas”

You stopped looking at your sculpture. What did he just say about a theatre?

“…What?”

“You’ve never come, Y/N-pyon? Mankai company is the best theatre in Veludo way! You totes should come, I’ll even send you the tickets for our new performance!” before you knew it, he had already DM you what you imagined was all the background information.

The moment you unlocked it, you almost dropped the phone. The photos and drawings of the posters were amazing, and you just knew who it had done “You… never said you had a job”

Kazunari considered what you pointed out. Mankai had managed to recover from what they needed to pay but they still didn't have enough founds “I’ve never thought about our acts as a job thought”

Your mind was a mess. Being an actor and doing publicity didn’t count for him as he studied? No wonder he usually left early! Now you felt even worst. You had behaved like a… “Uh, are these original templates?” you browsed over the performances’ posters, each one more astonishing than the other “This is… wow and this one?” 

He blinked, noticing how the tone of your voice was now more soothing. You had somewhat calm down. He would high-key enjoy hearing you talk to him like that more often “Hey, enough about me. We have work to do”

You agreed, putting away your phone “You’re right but again I… I am sorry, Miyoshi. And thanks, for staying” 

“No prob, Y/N-pyon!” 

“Would you tell me what I could do so you stopped calling me that?” 

“Eeeeeeh why? I think it fits! It's super-duper cute, like you!” 

Thump!

No. You told yourself.

Coming back to your senses you told yourself the warm you felt in your cheeks was due to summer starting earlier. It definitely wasn’t because of Kazunari smile directed at you, helped you or how the sun reflected on his perfect profile as you both started working on your work. 

Art was wild… but it was also an evocative of feelings.

_________________________________________________________

This one has been a difficult one! I wanted Reader to kind of clash with his mindset

Hope you guys enjoy it. Have a wonderful day! 💕

#a3 #a3! act! addict! actors! #A3! Actor Training Game #a3! #a3! game #kazunari miyoshi #a3 kazunari #reader insert #reader #kazunari x reader #a3! kazunari #miyoshi kazunari x reader #kazunari miyoshi x reader #one shot #a3 tsuzuru

[draconivn]

011 | surrender to love

ANONYMOUS ASKED: omg i love your writing so much! Im so happy that you opened requests hehehe 💖💖, may i request ikesen masamune soft smut?? Like the reader had a long and tiring day and just needed some comofrt and one thing led to another 🥺 👉🏼👈🏼 Warnings: NSFW Smut. Fluffy bits. Seriously, that’s all you need to know. Pairings: Date Masamune (Ikemen Sengoku) x Reader Note: I tried to make this as soft as possible, but... it’s Masamune. 

“Weren’t you supposed to have a day off?”

Just as quick as he was when he rode his warhorse through the field that one sunset, my One-Eyed Dragon’s hand moved across the page with his brush staining its ink in quick strokes. “I'm almost done,” his voice calls from his desk with reassurance, not letting his answer deter his writing. “I’ll be in bed right behind you.”

It didn’t seem like Masamune ever had such a thing as a day off when he’s the Lord of Oshu, though it was something that was more common when we were living in Azuchi. Around here, he had a lot more responsibilities, but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t just come barging into my sewing class with the castle seamstresses and scoop me up to take me away. It was practically normal for everyone to see this kind of behaviour, and it left me feeling giddy in love with him even more.

“Mm, hurry up, tiger. I miss cuddling you already,” I teased him, my feet shuffling towards the futon. It was probably the most comfortable futon I’d ever slept in, and the moment I sat down, the cushioning of the material eased the aches I forgot I had, closing my eyes briefly.

“Rough day?” came his voice. His voice sounded closer, and I looked over to see he was coming over to sit down behind me, hands moving up to my shoulders. The room was visibly darker, so he probably had blown out the lantern before joining me in bed. 

“Mm... I’ve just been trying to get some pieces done, but it’s a lot more tedious than I thought it would be.” His fingers curled over my shoulders, and I swore that the moment his thumbs pressed into the back of my shoulders, I couldn’t help the groan that escaped my lips. “That felt good...”

He chuckles, his voice low by my ear. “Did you get even one done?”

“I got two done...”

“Out of....?”

“Five...?”

“That sounds like progress.” His fingers brush my hair to one side, planting a kiss to my nape as he continued to massage those tender spots. “You're doing such a great job, kitten.”

“Mm...” God, that kiss to my neck had me shivering that I wasn’t sure if he noticed. His kisses did something to me, and they never stayed just as a kiss. “I’m not sure if I should procrastinate one of them until next month, but I’ve been putting a personal project ahead of the others.”

His hands start to wander lower, and I can tell he has that questioning face the moment he echoes my statement. “A personal project? What’s that?”

“Mm, I can’t tell you.”

“Keeping secrets from me, eh?”

A squeal leaves my lips before I have a moment to register what’s going on, his fingers wriggling at my sides. With only our sleeping robes on, there were less layers to get to my skin and I was squirming in his grasp, fits of giggles sounding out as he laughed and continued his tickle attack until I was on my back on the futon, shouting, “M-Masamune-!” 

“Say you surrender, kitten, and maybe I’ll stop!” he laughs. His grin is so wide, his cerulean blue eye glimmering in the darkness of our room as he hovered over me.

“N-Never!” I screamed between my laughter. 

Then, he took my breath away.

His fingers ceased their attacks, his lips coming down upon my own to take my laughter in the form of a deep kiss that left me gasping and looking up at him in surprise. “I love it when you smile,” he murmurs with that silly grin of his.

I swore my heart just skipped a beat, looking up at him. I thought I saw my reflection in his eye that looked down at me so lovingly, with my cheeks flushed from laughing and our sweet kiss, my hair splayed across the futon. “M-Masamune...” Oh god, he knew how to make me blush without even trying.

“I love you, kitten,” he murmured, the distance between us closing bit by bit until his words were repeated a breath away from my own.

Yet the breath he took from me found its way back into my lungs with my emotions coursing through me. “I love you, Masamune,” I whispered back to him with a smile growing on my lips once more, my hands moving up his clothed biceps up to lace my fingers together at the back of his neck.

The whispers of our words faded when he sealed the gap with a tender kiss. His body was relaxed against mine, my legs shifting to let him settle in between them more comfortably. 

I didn't get to feel that weight against me, his lips seeking my skin to shower with kisses until I was like putty under him. My head began to tip back as he went lower to my neck, my fingers rising and unhooking to card through his messy locks. "Masa-... m-mune…" I breathed out. I could feel the curve of his lips faintly against my skin.

"My kitten's had such a long day. I'm going to pamper you lots tonight." There's a delightful purr that sends shivers through me, the promise in his tone making me bite my lower lip before the roll of his hips into my own makes my jaw drop slack.

"O-Oh…" The moan dropped from my mouth with ease, my fingers gripping his collar then sliding down his front so I could search for the sash that held his robes together. Instead, my advances were denied as he gently took my hands away to rest back into his hair and his lips trailed lower on my skin. My robes loosened until I could feel nothing but the cool air, and then the beat of Masamune's body against me, kisses peppered between my breasts. My chest was heaving when he stopped and I hadn't realized my eyes were closed until I looked up at him.

"You're so beautiful…" He looked at me with love and adoration, leaning down to graze my lips. When his hands drew my robes off my shoulders, I leaned up to help him remove it, and suddenly I was caught off-guard by the warmth that sealed around my breast.

I cried out, gripping his hair as I arched into his mouth.

His teeth grazed my flesh, but he sucked on my nipples with a hunger that had me trembling in pleasure, his tongue lapping to soothe my skin. 

I was caught in my tiger's fangs, melting at the way his mouth worked wonders on my body just as much as it worked my mouth when we kissed. "M-Masamune-" My shoulders were trembling, and the ache that grew between my thighs, hidden by the rest of my robes, was becoming slightly uncomfortable. But the warm wetness of his mouth was gone, leaving me to shiver momentarily before he replaced it with his hands to keep me warm, my hardened nipples sensitive and grazing his palm as he kissed me softly.

He was taking his time with me, a sweet passion that had me nodding and bending to his every action. His words were soft but only enough for me to hear as he spoke against my lips, "Lay on your stomach for me, kitten."

Obediently, I nodded and turned to lay on my stomach, arms moving to help remove the last bit of my robes and lay bare with my back to him.

He gently brushed my hair to one side once more, making sure I was comfortable as his hands ran down my back, searching for the knots in my back. His lips trailed along my shoulder to the middle of my back, pausing to whisper sweet nothings in my ear that had me smiling and giggling despite the moans that emerged once he found a tight spot on my back.

"You should let me do this to you sometime…" I breathed out.

He chuckles against my skin. "I wouldn't be able to let you past this point," he pointed out.

It was asking for restraint on his part whenever I was the one to try and initiate things, but when he was the one to take the lead, he took care of me. When I asked why, his only reasoning was that I looked incredibly sexy and that I needed to be ravished as soon as possible.

My thoughts were broken as he made his way lower, fingers caressing the curve of my back and down the expanse of my ass cheeks. The anticipation had me squirm slightly against him, only to stop with a groan at the warning bite he sunk into the middle of my back. "B-But…" My hips wanted to move, searching to have that sweet friction as his hands groped and squeezed.

"Patience, kitten."

I groaned. "Masamune, I had to teach you patience." The little moments of flirting that led to us being together had been fleeting moments, mostly me having to stop him from sinking right into my bed with me underneath him and teach him the concept of dating, but here I was, the more impatient one.

His laughter was teasing like tone, his hands working my muscles until I was putty. 

Then with a single stroke, all tension seemed to break loose from my body as I bowed my head into the sheets with an airy moan. The sensation repeated in a slow and torturous pace, the familiar feeling of his two fingers along my folds, gathering the wetness that I had building there. My hips started to lift from the futon, his bare arm snaking around my waist to keep me steady and hug me to his body as he started to include little presses and circles of my clit with his thumb. "A-Ah-!" 

My whimpers and moans were stifled against the sheets, pulled from my lips without restraint until the noises weren't sufficient enough to equate to my pleasure when those two fingers dipped lower and into my waiting pussy. My walls formed around the two digits as he pushed them knuckle-deep, curling inside me while his other hand had managed to grope a handful of my breast as I arched off the futon onto all fours. 

He played with my nipple with his thumb while the other thrummed against my clit like an acoustic guitar, his fingers stretching and stroking my wet walls.

My noises fell out with less restraint, barely able to capture the groan he made when he released my breast and moved to kneel behind me. My eyes weakly opened and peered over my shoulder just in time to see him staring down at my folds as he played with me, before he withdrew to grip both of my ass cheeks and leaned forward to devour me whole. 

His mouth tasted me like a starved man, his tongue lapping at my folds and sucking to take every drop of me that he could. He made sure not a single spot of me was left untouched, teeth grazing my clit until he no longer held himself back from what he wanted.

My hand flew behind me to grab onto his hair as best as I could, my legs inching apart to give him better access as my hips started to push towards his mouth. A pleasurable shudder ran up my spine right then and there, the feeling of his tongue firmed and pushed deep into my walls just as his fingers had done moments ago. 

Bit by bit, he took me apart before he put me back together, sending pleasure coursing through every vein and nerve of my body. He feasted on me hungrily, my legs shaking to remain up in this position like I was strung high in this pleasure until he pulled away, letting me lay on the futon.

I was panting, my cheeks flushed and my eyes opened slightly to look at him as best as I could.

He came up over me, a gentle kiss to my shoulder then to my lips. His fingers traced over my own before lacing together, his bare skin pressing to my back as he whispered, "I love you." The heat, the shape and thickness of his cock nestled between my ass cheeks, his robes having been tossed haphazardly across the room to join my own somewhere. His legs positioned between mine to nudge them apart for him and my hips raised to welcome him.

I propped myself up on my forearms to kiss him as best as I could, his lips drinking in my moans as I felt the prodding of his cock to my entrance, hard and throbbing that he didn't need to reach a hand down between us. 

We broke the kiss to look at each other in the eyes, just as with a perfect roll of his hips, his cock pushed into me.

My jaw dropped slack as I choked out a moan, my hands squeezing his with his forehead pressed to mine.

Not once did he stop, making sure that he took his time in filling me until there was no more to give me. A groan fell from his lips, lowering his head to kiss my shoulder and he was still.

Like this, his chest was pressed to my back in exact positioning of where our hearts were, thudding loudly in our ribcages from the sensation. No matter which position we made love in, we fit to each other perfectly, his tall frame covering all of mine like I was his to protect and have.

The first move had to have been him, the way he rolled his hips to make sure he stroked me where I was sensitive the most.

My head dropped to the sheets, my wetness lubricating the movements as I could feel his cock gliding in and out slowly, tenderly. My toes curl in pleasure, strains of moans and whimpers sounding out before I bite at the sheets. I can't kiss him in this position, knowing that he doesn't want me to do anything to interfere with his pampering, but the thought seems short-lived. I'm left empty and whining, my hips chasing after his cock when he pulls out from me but his lips silence my protests as he turns me over onto my back.

His hands caress me so tenderly, his gaze full of love and passion, and the colour of our passion sits high on his cheeks. 

My fingers reach out to him, seeking the ends of the tie of his eyepatch that he doesn't stop me from removing. My legs move to hug his hips at the strokes of his hands along the underside of my thighs, our eyes locked on one another and he rolls his hips once more, no warning as his length pushing from tip to base deep inside me that it has my head tipping back onto the sheets and my lashes fluttering shut with a loud, unrestrained moan. Nails drag down his back until they could find a spot to grip, my ankles locking together at the base of his back.

"I love you," he breathed out against my jaw, groaning. Then he gave a languid roll of his hips, pressing his body to fit against my own.

My words are gone before I have the chance to tell him I love him. 

His pace is slow but filling, taking all that I am for himself and giving me all that he is. His forehead pressed against mine, making sure that he could see every expression I make as we made love in the darkness of our room. The moonlight spilled in through the window, giving us a view of each other as we breathed as one, sinking our fingers and nails into each other's skin as he moved. 

I felt so full, my walls hugging his cock in all the right places. How he strokes that spot that has me seeing stars and going a pitch higher when he pulls back. Every ridge, every vein, every curve that stood proudly in his desire for me was mine to have, my walls clenching greedily to pull him back into me. 

His hips stuttered as he pushed in and his breath fanned against my cheek, brows knitting together in frustration. "That's not fair, kitten," he groans out.

"I can't help it…" I replied back in bated breaths.

We're a mess of limbs, of love and desire. But despite our little predicament, we're smiling at each other before we steal each other's lips and allow our love to guide us. Our pace is more quicker, but not enough to break the momentum that we've built even though I've started to move my own hips to help him. 

Soon, it felt like the cries and moans I made wasn't enough to tell him how he made me feel. My nails scratched at his back in an attempt to cling to him for dear life as that pleasure mounted in the pit of my belly, before I started to beg, "Please! Please!" My chest arched off the bed, trying to give everything I had to feel this euphoria of ours.

An arm wrapped under the arch of my back to pull me flush against him, his other hand gripping my thigh tightly as his hips started to snap against mine, slamming deep inside my weeping walls.

I was helpless, gasping, crying out, and trembling as my love took me until a feeling crashed over us, washing over us. My nails no longer dug into his skin like the claws he called them, instead gripping his shoulders for dear life then wrapping my arms around his neck as I shuddered from head to toe. My walls hugged him tightly, the warmth of his cum filling me as he painted my walls, the faint sound of the sheets shuffling as he kicked at the sheets as leverage to ensure he was nestled deeply inside of me. My eyes shut, my lower lip trembling as I tried to grasp this feeling. It was a high that always had me lost yet found in his arms. 

Our heartbeats thudded loudly against each other's chests as he rested against me.

I could feel his breath on my neck, just as shaky as mine yet he cooed and soothed me with the touches of his hands running along my skin until I was calm and no longer trembling. "I love you, Masamune…" My voice was hoarse, but what mattered was that I was able to say the words I'd been meaning to say the whole time. 

He raised his head to look at me, a loving smile on his lips and he caressed my cheek with a gentle kiss to my lips. "How do you feel?"

"Mm…" I smiled warmly. "Amazing. Loved. Full of joy."

"Relaxed?" he suggested.

I giggled. "Mm, yes, I do feel relaxed."

He nuzzled my cheek, planting soft kisses along my skin. "I only meant to massage you."

"Mm, massages are never just massages, Masamune." My fingers card through his hair, my legs falling limp to the futon. "Are you going to do this every time I have a rough day?"

"Do you not want me to?"

"No complaints here, my lord," I replied with a playful tone.

He raised his head to look at me with mischief in his eye. "Speaking of complaints, are you ever going to tell me what that personal project of yours is?"

My lips formed into an innocent smile. "You'll never get it out of me." 

My words instigated his playfulness, fingers finding their way down to my waist and I let out a squeal of giggles. "M-Masamune, s-stop!" The movement was enough to make a noise escape my lips and remind us that he was still inside me, looking up at him with flushed cheeks.

He chuckled, his tickles having stopped as he leaned down. "I'll just have to make you scream out your secret for me then." 

The roll he gave had me gripping his shoulders and wandering down to his abs in an attempt to stop him. I felt sensitive but that was a dirty move.

"Do you surrender?" he murmured against my lips. On those lips held a promise of what would come if I didn't. 

It was a secret I needed to keep a bit longer, and so I breathed out, "Never."

#minju fanfics ; #fanfics ; #fanfic: ikesen #ikesen masamune #ikesen masamune fanfic #date masamune #ikesen #ikemen sengoku #fanfics: by request #fanfic: surrender to love

[365days365movies]

April 2, 2021: The General (1926)

From one legendary early filmmaker onto another!

Joseph Frank Keaton was born in Piqua, Kansas, on October 4, 1895. His parents were vaudeville performers, which might be sounding familiar to you, based on Chaplin’s life history. But Keaton’s childhood was VERY different, I promise. When he was an infant, he fell down the stairs in front of a family friend, and stood up afterwards, seemingly fine. The actor said, “He’s a regular buster!” And the name stuck, as did Buster’s tendency to shake off what could be massive injury. And that proved useful, as he would soon lose the tip of his finger, hit his own eye with a rock, and was also SUCKED OUT OF A WINDOW BY A TORNADO AND DROPPED TWO CITY BLOCKS AWAY. FUCKING SERIOUSLY. And according to some accounts, al of that happened in the same fucking day. Allegedly, because that shit would be CRAZY if true.

Regardless, he was brought on to work with his parents on stage when he was three, and they became “The Three Keatons”. During the act, Buster would be thrown against the scenery, into the orchestra pit, or into the audience itself! He earned to take trick falls quickly, and was billed as “the little boy who can’t be damaged”. And kid was INDESTRUCTIBLE. Sure, he never got hurt because of surprisingly well-thought out stage trickery, but he also was VERY good at landing on his feet, describing himself once as “landing like a cat” on regular occasions. But eventually, the law banned child performers in vaudeville, putting an end to the act.

But that wouldn’t stop Buster Keaton, NO SIR. It did stop his father, though, who eventually succumbed to alcoholism and wrecked the family business. But Buster and his mother left for New York City, and Buster moved on to his lifelong passion: acting. While acting on stage, Keaton met a young man named Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle, who would become one of the most prominent early film stars. But then, World War I happened, and Buster served in France, where he would become permanently deaf in one ear.

When he came back, he was a writer for Arbuckle’s films before breaking out on his own projects, being able to write, direct, and act in his own films. In the process, he developed his unique style of acting and filmmaking, which was extremely visual and full of slapstick. In acting, he became famous for his emotionless stony face, known as the “deadpan”. He also ALWAYS did his own stunts, which sometimes resulted in some major consequences.

Yeah. YEAH. Dude did a stunt that caused him to BREAK HIS NECK, and he DID NOT REALIZE THIS for YEARS AFTER THE INCIDENT! This man is the GREATEST BADASS THAT FILM HAS EVER KNOWN. That was on Sherlock, Jr. in 1924, and by this point, Keaton was a millionaire, and one of the biggest names in Hollywood, alongside Charlie Chaplin, of course. He was married to actress Natalie Talmadge (who was the SAME AGE as him, go figure), and they had three children together by 1924. And their marriage...also began to suffer. Just like Chaplin, except that Keaton wasn’t abusive to Natalie or the kids, thankfully. It was her spending habits, and the two of them growing apart. 

And then, in 1925, inspired by history like Chaplin was with The Gold Rush, Keaton was inspired by a true story from the Civil War, known as the Great Locomotive Chase. See, Buster LOVED trains, and with the money and resources at his disposal, he had the ability to make his magnum opus, his favorite film, and one of the most expensive films ever made. Working with Chaplin’s United Artists, he made today’s film of focus: The General. And, uh...this would have mixed results, I’ll just say that much for now.

I’ll tell you what happens to Buster after this in the review, but for now, let’s jump into the movie! It’s a short one, but that’s OK! SPOILERS AHEAD!!!

Recap

Y’know, I considered saving this one for Historical July or War November, but I think it’s better here for a few reasons. Plus, I’d rather those films not be comedic, if I can help it. Anyway: Marietta, Georgia, 1861!

The Western & Atlantic Railroad train known as The General is bring driven by its chief engineer Johnnie Gray (Buster Keaton). As a title screen tells us, Johnny loves two things: the majestic The General, and his equally majestic fiancée, Annabelle Lee (Marion Mack). Living in the decadent pre-Civil War South, the two are happy with each other, although Johnnie is somewhat awkward in his way. He provides Annabelle with a photo of him and The General.

Just then, though, Annabelle’s brother (Frank Barnes) comes in and tells her and their father (Charles Smith) that Fort Sumter’s been fired on. UH OH. It’s war. As Annabelle’s brother immediately goes to enlist alongside many other men, Johnnie follows suit. However, when he gets to the enlisting station, he’s refused the opportunity, as he will be needed to act as a railroad engineer. Which, to be fair, does make sense. Railroad engineers would be vital for the effort. However, they never tell him why he isn’t fit for the job, so he just goes back and tries to enlist under a false name. They catch him, though, and he’s again refused. Dejected, he goes back to the train.

However, as he leaves, Annabelle’s father and brother see him in line, and try to get him in to join them. He shakes his head, but instead of assuming that he’s been rejected, they assume that he’s too cowardly to join. They relay this message to Annabelle, who goes to him directly He tells him the truth, that he’s been rejected, but she IMMEDIATELY assumes he’s lying, and tells him not to speak to her again unless he’s in uniform. Dammit, Annabelle! And poor Johnnie doesn’t even know how important he is! Geez, guys, get your shit together.

A year passes, and the war continues in earnest. We go to a Union camp, where Captain Anderson (Glen Cavender) plots with General Thatcher (Jim Farley) to ambush a train and steal it, in an effort to debilitate the train and the South’s efforts as a whole. Meanwhile, Annabelle’s father is wounded, causing her to go and see him. This requires a trip on The General, and a brief and awkward reunion with Johnnie.

However, we now have a much bigger problem than lost love. Because the train is stopped for Johnnie and the passengers to get some food at a nearby stop. And this is when Captain Anderson takes the opportunity to steal The General right from under Johnnie’s nose. And Annabelle, who catches them in the act, is kidnapped in order to hide their scheme.

The men take off with The General and Annabelle, and now BOTH of Johnnie’s loves are taken away from him. He chases after the train, first running, then using a handcar, and THEN taking a man’s penny-farthing bicycle. By the way, fun fact about me: it is my life’s goal to be able to afford a penny-farthing bicycle and ride it around town while wearing a top hat and coat, like it’s completely fucking normal. I need this - I FUCKING NEED THIS, UNDERSTAND???

He rides that penny-farthing to another stop, where he encounters Confederate soldiers, who he tries to recruit to aid him in retrieving his train. However, he accidentally leaves them all behind, using a small engine, Texas to chase after his train and the robbers. Johnnie’s soon leading them in a hot pursuit, also managing to procure a cannon on the way.

However, the robbers have taken notice now, and the Captain is under the mistaken impression that the Texas carries reinforcements. Instead, they keep going. Meanwhile, Johnnie’s hooked the cannon up to the back of the Texas, and is trying (and failing) to fire it at the robbers. Instead, he accidentally unhooks it as it’s about to fire, and it’s aimed at the Texas instead. To avoid the shot, Johnnie...Johnnie does THIS.

...Damn, Buster Keaton, that’s awesome. That’s him doing this, FOR REAL, in this film. Holy shit. Tom Cruise, eat your heart out. Anyway, the cannon misses the Texas, but ends up firing pretty close to The General, spooking the men onboard. To stave him off, they first detach their last car, which falls off the tracks when Johnnie’s looking away, confusing him greatly. Then, they through railroad ties on the tracks, which Johnnie has to clear by getting off the train, riding it’s grill (again), and removing by hand! God, I love this dude.

The Union soldiers divert the tracks, driving Johnnie into a dead end, but he manages to reverse the Texas and switch back onto the right track. Meanwhile, the Union men are building fires in The General’s train cars, and leaving those cars on covered bridges in order to burn them down. They do this on one, and the Texas follows, driving into it, and pushing it OUT of the bridge. And goddamn, this movie is cool as shit.

As Johnnie deals with this latest situation, the train drives through Chattanooga, where the Confederate Army is in full retreat, chased away by the Union. And it’s at this point that I should point something out: I really, really should be rooting aginst Johnnie here, for obvious reasons. But, the movie is putting him in position as the protagonist, and it works, because I do like this guy, even if he’s inevitably on the wrong side of history.

It’s also at this point where Johnnie COMPLETELY loses any advantage, as the men on The General have now realized that he’s the only one on the train, and start fighting back, throwing things at him and the Texas from above. Now in danger, Johnnie takes off and runs into the forest, where he hides. This, mind you, is also as Annabelle is watching from The General.

That night, he happens upon a house in enemy territory, and goes there to hide. As he does, however, a group of officers come in, and discuss their plans to ambush the Confederate soldiers, and to secure one of their bridges for their own trains. Johnnie, all the while, is hidden under a table.

Annabelle is brought in, and the men decide to hold her for now, until the deed is done and they can make other plans. However, Johnnie also hears this, and waits until the officers clear out of the house, leaving him, Annabelle, and a couple of guards. Johnnie, being a badass, knocks out the guards, put on one of their uniforms, and rescues Annabelle. The pair of them escape back into the forest, as a thunderstorm rages. They also encounter a bear in the woods, because that’s basically par for the course with these movies, it would seem.

So is a beartrap, which Annabelle briefly gets caught in (yikes), until she’s freed by Johnnie...who also gets caught in it right afterwards. Nice. With all this trouble in the dark, the two decide to hunker down in the woods. Annabelle thanks Johnnie for coming after her, even in the country of their enemy. And they reconcile as they sleep for the night. Thatnext morning, Johnnie gets his bearings, and sees The General at an encampment down below. Wearing a Union uniform, he devises a plan to get to the train, and warn the South of the Union’s plan.

He convinces Annabelle to hide in a burlap sac, which he carries with him into the encampment. Dude’s a strong guy for being as scrawny as he appears to be. He carries her over his shoulder to the train, then puts her on one of the cabins. The makes his way to the front, and surprises the few men there, pushing them off of it, and stealing back The General! Badass!!!

He gets Annabelle out of the bag and the two attempt to outrun the Union together. They block the way with telephone poles, then grab some wood from recently constructed fences in order to fuel the engine (with some humorous difficulty). The Union catches up quickly, however, and the two are forced to flee again. They dump barrels and other items on board the train onto the tracks, then attempt to replenish the water reserves for the steam locomotive (again with some humorous difficulty) before moving on.

But precious little seems to impede the train’s pursuers. Meanwhile, Annabelle makes herself busy by sweeping the train? Oh ho ho, silly women, with their cleaning and uselessness in vital combat situations! Tee hee hee, why isn’t she pregnant in the kitchen right now? Silly baby receptacles, I mean, women! 

OK, that mildly chauvinistic moment aside, the two continue speeding ahead, but then, at a moment when Johnnie gets off the train for manipulate the tracks, Annabelle winds up on The General by herself!. She reverses the train at almost EXACTLY the wrong moment, nearly causing an accident, but Johnnie’s trick with the track works, diverting the Union trains to another unfinished track. And the two gain a wider lead once again. And then...we reach the Rock River Bridge.

This is where the Union troops are meant to be meeting the trains for supplies, and a vital part of the Union’s plans in the area. Turning the tables on the Union, Johnnie sets a massive fire on the bridge, but gets trapped behind it, and is forced to jump into the river as The General moves off of it. However, he gets back up just in time, and they head out to the southern territories.

As they do, Johnnie changes uniform to a Confederate Grey, so as not to get shot at once they arrive. He warns the Confederate troops or the coming Northern invasion, and they quickly mobilize. He and Annabelle figuratively and literally dress down the commanding officer (nice), and they head out to engage the Northern Invaders! I’m sure it’ll go well for everybody involved. It’s also here that Annabelle reunites with her father, alive and healing. Johnnie, meanwhile, tries to go and help the army face the North.

Speaking of the Union, they’re STILL trying to repair the train track that Johnnie messed up. They finally succeed, and head off to the Rock River Bridge, with the Texas ahead of them. The other troops meet with them after all, and the commander insists that the bridge is in tact enough to cross the bridge. And that leads to...the most expensive scene ever shot, at least at the time.

That’s real. Are you listening to me, THAT IS 100% FUCKING REAL! BUSTER KEATON COLLAPSED A BRIDGE WITH A TRAIN ON IT FOR THIS MOVIE!!! That shit? That’s some next level shit. The Union forces, now basically fucked, try to ford the river, only for the Confederate forces to fend them off, with Johnnie’s help. The Captain, hidden on the bank, starts to pick off soldiers that Johnny’s talking to, only for Johnnie to accidentally kill him with a sword, which flies through the air to get him. Which, yeah, is funny in a macabre way. He also accidentally takes out a dam, flooding the river and fishing the Union soldiers out, forcing them into retreat! Their other supply train is disabled, and the South has won this battle! I mean, booo, but I’m happy for Johnnie, at least.

Hailed as a hero with the rest, they all return to the town, where Johnnie reunites with The General in peace. However, he’s nearly done for, as one of the soldiers, an officer that he knocked out a WHILE ago, has actually been on the train the entire time, and has only now regained consciousness. Johnnie takes him prisoner, and the general in charge of this unit is so impressed by his actions that he brings Johnnie into the army, and promotes him to lieutenant, giving him the Union officer’s sword in the process! Good for you, Johnnie! Proud of you, bud.

Now officially enlisted at last, he and Annabelle happily reunite in love, and makeout right next to The General. And then, Johnnie marches off to war for an army on the losing side of history that’s defending slavery, and in all likelihood dies in the deadliest war in American history. Probably. The movie actually ends on the kiss, but it’s the Civil War, we all know what the fuck went down.

And that’s The General! Wow. I get why Keaton was so excited about this movie; it’s a massive accomplishment in film history, and engaging and entertaining movie, and a cinematic masterpiece...that was directly responsible for eventually ending Keaton’s career.

...See you in the Review! I’ll explain the last part, I promise.

#the general #the general 1926 #clyde bruckman #buster keaton #marion mack #glen cavender #jim farley #comedy april #user365 #365 movie challenge #365 movies 365 days #365 Days 365 Movies #365 movies a year #365days365movies

[carriedawayfromhome]

Ruefulness - A.I

Count: 3.6K

Summary: You don’t know how you ended up outside your boyfriends best friends apartment, but theres no going back now. 

Rating: Mature.

Materlist

You don’t remember exactly how you came to be standing in front of Ashton’s front door but you don’t question it too much before you lift a hand to knock a few times, arms crossing over your chest to stop the bite of the wind getting through your clothes. The tear tracks are cold against your cheeks and you go to wipe them away before the door swings open with a sleepy looking Ashton standing at the doorway, eyes wide.

“Hey,” He whispers, eyes looking you up and down with concern, “Whats going on?”

You tremble slightly, “Can I come in?”

He nods slowly and moves to let you into the apartment, the smell of birchwood and cedar filling your senses, one of Ashton’s favourite smells. You walk past him and make your way steadily to his couch, plonking yourself down, arms still crossed over your chest. 

Ashton watches you from where he stands near the kitchen, eyes laced with concern as you shake slightly on his beige couch. He doesn’t say anything as he walks into the kitchen, milling around and opening and closing cupboards, as you assume he’s making you a cup of tea. You relax slightly now that you’re out of that chill and let your arms fall to your sides. You didn’t really know where else to go, you’ve known Ashton for awhile now, being your boyfriends best friend and all and over the years you two have gotten closer and closer and you now consider him one of your closest friends. 

With two cups in hand you watch the newly black haired man walk over and sit by you, the only sound resonating through the apartment is the clinking of the mugs against the glass top coffee table. 

You both sit in silence for a moment, comfortably that is and you let the peppermint tea do its work, warming you from the inside out. Ashton makes no move to ask you why you’re there and you’re thankful, wanting nothing more than in this moment to relax and be in someones presence. 

After approximately fifteen minutes or so you find your voice and pipe up, “I think he’s drifting away.” The last word gets caught in your throat and you feel your voice tighten in your lips, your fingers curling around the warm mug in your palms. 

He nods though stays silent, knowing that if he does you’ll feel the need to fix the silence and tell him more, it always works like that. 

“He’s pushing me away, knowing that if he does, he won’t get hurt.” You just manage the last few words before the tears spill over and you fall forward, your hand covering your face as you rest on your thighs. The tears fall rapidly as you feel a hand rest on your back, trailing large circles from top to bottom. After a minute or so you come back up, wiping your eyes hastily on your grey long sleeve.

“How long has this been going on?” Ashton looks at you intently, the first words he’s spoken to you since you arrived on his doorstep. 

You shrug, “More than a month.”

He sighs, his hand where it had been on your back now resting heavily on your shoulder, his thumb grazing calming circles on the tiny bit of exposed skin there. You let him comfort you, his eyes gazing a warmth over you that makes you want to melt into his skin. You swallow down the thoughts in your head and take a few deep breaths, looking down into your lap. 

“He’s insecure,” Ashton pipes up, you still don’t look up as he speaks, “He thinks you’ll leave, so he’s setting himself up so that his heart doesn’t get crushed. He’s done something like this before.”

You feel a spike of anger at his words, “How can he think I’ll leave? I was the one to make the first move, the first kiss, the first mention of moving in together, this relationship was my idea!” You raise your voice exasperatedly, hands clenching at the couch by your sides. 

Ashton shrugs, eyebrows furrowing, “I don’t know love, he’s always been like this, I’ve tried to get him to realise not everyone wants to leave, but he doesn’t seem to get it through his mind.”

You huff, your bloodshot eyes feeling suddenly tired and without meaning you yawn, your head slightly resting down against your chest. Ashton’s arms comes up and encircles you into his embrace, pulling you towards his chest, you let yourself be held, having been the first time in a while that you’ve been embraced like this you let yourself be free in this moment. 

“Let’s lie down,” He whispers into your hair, hands squeezing as he says that, “Lets just take a breather and calm yourself.” 

You nod, not having the energy to recommend any different and with that Ashton pulls you down to rest against the arm rest of the couch. He lays flat on his back, head propped up with a pillow and you lay on your side next to him, your head coming to rest almost naturally against the left side of his chest. Your left arm rests against him and with one last deep breath you let your mind settle and your eyes close, thankful being the word that comes to mind as Ashton’s arm also comes to rest on your side. 

Your eyes softly open and the first thing you notice is how dark the apartment is. You can’t remember exactly what time you arrived but it was mid afternoon and now it seems the sun is just setting past the blinds on the other side of the room. You swallow to combat your dry throat and you try to look around to see a clock to confirm your suspicions of the time.  You also feel both of Ashton’s hands are now on you, one having snuck up the back of your shirt at some point and the other rests just below your shoulder.

Your stomach flips a little as you manoeuvre yourself slightly, his hands feeling so lovingly warm against your skin. You shake your head at the thoughts inside you and blink rapidly to regain some composure. You look up at his sleeping face and laugh a little on the inside, his hair is covering most of his eyes and he looks a little unruly, he looks just so utterly comfortable. 

Just as you're trying to sit up a little to see the clock that is hopefully hiding behind Ashton’s mop of dark hair, you accidentally lean too far forward on his lower half and you freeze, you can feel him, all of him, hard against your upper thigh and you suddenly feel your dry throat come back again. 

You stay as still as you can, your heart rate rising as you realise what you’re feeling. A nervous laugh unknowingly escapes and you quickly dart down to his eyes, expecting him to be awake and looking back up at you but thankfully he’s still asleep, though his arm still rests against your bare upper back. Your mind starts to race and you don’t like the trail it’s taking, you feel a slight throb in your lower body and you mentally chastise it for feeling the way it is.

You try slowly to untangle yourself and not to wake the sleeping man below you but being the clumsy person you are you accidentally slip and land in a heap on his chest, your thigh resting heavily against his lower half.

You feel Ashton startle awake, his hand where it lays against your skin squeezing softly, “Huh? What?” He says croakily, his eyes blinking rapidly to find clarity, “My god, how long were we asleep for?” 

You look up at him and bite your lip, waiting for his reaction. He looks at you and watches you in confusion before he lifts himself up onto his elbows to look down at you. At the same time realising what your thigh is resting against and where his hands are and with that his eyes widen.

“Oh shit,” He quickly pulls his hand away and you scurry off of him, resting to sit up straight. Ashton covers himself with his hand, sitting down beside you though facing away, “I’m so fucking sorry.” 

“Seriously don’t worry Ash, it’s fine.” You reply quickly, trying to ease the situation.

“No it’s not fine,” He grits out, sighing out loud, “Christ, what the hell is wrong with me?”

You rest a hand on his back, “Ash, seriously it’s fine, it was my fault anyway, I must’ve moved in my sleep to sort of, um, be on top of you, it’s completely understandable.”

An awkward moment passes with all you can hear is your heart beat in your ears, your hand still rests on his back. He has been muttering to himself for a minute or so now, “Do you want me to go?” You whisper.

He shoots a look at you over his shoulder, “No! No, please stay, I’m sorry love.” He swivels around slowly, one hand still covering his lower half, a light blush also covering his dimpled cheeks, “Fuck, this is so weird.”

You laugh at his comment, “It is isn’t it?” He smiles back at you and for a moment you unwillingly take in every feature of his face. Ashton you’ve found has always had such an expression filled face, his features always matched every word he said and it was always a pleasure to listen to him ramble on about whatever was his passion project of the moment, his eyes would always crinkle and his lips would always stretch to each word. 

You look away quickly when you realise he’s also taking in your face for too long and you try to break the silence, “So, dinner then?” You laugh out, trying to break the strange tension in the room. 

“Hey,” He suddenly whispers and your heart where it had suddenly calmed is now racing again, “Look at me.”

You abide and look up at his face again, his eyebrows now drawn together and lips tight against his teeth. You don’t speak as his hand leans up to ever so softly graze your cheek, your skin pricking against his hand. His thumb follows your cheekbone down until it rests under your lower lip, his thumb pulling so incredibly lightly against your skin, but strong enough that it makes your breath jump. 

“Ashton.” You whisper as his thumb pushes so slowly past your lips and your eyes involuntarily close, your lips following suit around his skin. You can hear his breath getting quicker and still encased with darkness you feel his other hand come up to rest against the side of your neck, his fingernails scratching against the sensitive skin there. 

You feel drunk all of a sudden and the room feels claustrophobic as Ashton continues at an excruciatingly slow pace with his hands on your skin and in your mouth. White noise fills your head and your thoughts don’t go any further than the vicinity of this room. 

With all the strength you can muster you open your eyes and you come face to face with Ashton’s, now only inches from yours, his eyes glistening as he stares straight into yours. 

“Tell me no.” He whispers.

You don’t reply, you can’t reply, all words in the english language are gone. 

“Tell me no.” He repeats, louder this time, more insistent. 

You feel your whole body start to shake, the drunk feeling not letting up as you let Ashton watch you like a hawk watching it’s prey. Your own heavy hands come to rest on either side of his face, fingernails digging every so slightly. 

“No.” You whisper, hoping to god you’re a good enough of an actress to convince him. 

You aren’t.

Ashton pounces forward, kissing you with all the force you can imagine. His hands now resting exactly where yours are on his face and you let him take over you, hold you, overcome you. You kiss him back, your brain can’t focus so you just follow suit, trying to give him back everything he is giving you. 

You have no idea how long you both kiss for, but suddenly Ashton pulls back with a breath and lets his head rest to the side, breathing heavily. When he finally looks up it was definitely not what you were expecting with his burnt lips and dark eyes. 

He stands swiftly and you don’t hesitate to copy his movements, he then ducks down to kiss you and his already wandering hands without warning travel down your back and lifts you too easily into his arms, your cry of surprise gets lost in his mouth. 

You know he’s taking you to his bedroom and you don’t argue, you don’t fight, you let him carry you into the room and drop you onto the bed, his silhouette beaming over you from the light streaming in from the lounge room. He looks heavenly. 

His shirt is abandoned as quickly as he pants and boxers are. There’s so much lust in his eyes it seems as though it’s all he is and as he stares you down, him naked and you still clothed all you can feel is the heat billowing from his naked chest. 

With Ashton’s eyes boring into your own, you sit up to strip as well, taking off your shirt, bra and jeans. You reach for your underwear but he grabs your arm, stopping you, “Keep those on. I want to to be the one to take them off.” You almost fall forward at his words.

He crawls along the bed and you follow suit laying down underneath him, the heat becoming so intense on your naked chest that it makes you grip harshly onto Ashton’s exposed skin. 

“Tell me,” You look up at him, his curls falling down pointing straight at you, “Tell me how you want this.”

“Hard.” You don’t hesitate in your response, “Fast.”

The heat between your legs grows as he groans from your response. With a quick kiss to your lips he starts to travel his mouth down your body, leaving behind a scorching feeling. 

Just as his lips hits your lower stomach he looks up at you, “I just want a quick taste.” 

You throw your head back, this boy knows how to sweet talk a woman that’s for sure. He kisses every square inch around your underwear before breathing out hot air into the middle. You grip the comforter underneath your body in both hands, eyes staring at the ceiling, anticipation drumming in your veins. 

With one quick motion your underwear are off and on the floor, his mouth square on you, sucking your clit into his mouth. 

“Oh.” Thats all you can muster up as he continues sucking, both his hands holding onto your thighs. Your pent up arousal is making your head swim and even though you could have his mouth on you all day you know this isn’t what you need right now. You tug at his now sweaty curls, signalling for his attention, “Now.”

In one swift motion he wipes his mouth with the back of his hand and crawls back up to your eye level, leaning down again to kiss you passionately. You gasp when he suddenly pulls back and pins both your arms above your head, grinding down onto your body at the same time. 

You feel you could burst at any moment if he doesn’t do what you desperately need but the words aren’t coming to you quick enough, so all you can manage is a lift of your own hips, hopefully letting him know you need him now. 

“I’m clean.” You manage to breath out, “I’m on the pill.” 

It clicks in his head what you want and you can almost physically see the breath being sucked out of his lungs, he nods feverishly and leans down to kiss you some more. One of his hands lets go of your restrained arm and you immediately grab at his curls, trying to pull him as close as humanly possible to your body.

You shut your eyes as you feel him manoeuvre himself close to you and in between your wetness. You bite your lip as you feel him line up and with one swift stroke he’s inside of you. Fast and hard. Your eyes shoot open, the room almost as dark as behind your eyelids. Ashton watches you for a moment, his left side the only part being illuminated from the lights outside the room.  

“Love,” He whispers, the words getting lost between you as he follows your earlier orders and starts slamming his hips against you hard and fast. You don’t have time to talk or question or make a sound as the feeling of being full, being here, with Ashton is making your breath halter in your lungs and your legs feel like jelly. 

The weight on your arms starts to ache as Ashton uses all his strength to pin you down and slam as hard as he can into you. You’re lost, you have no coherent thoughts going through you as every inch of your skin feels like it is on fire. You feel a bite on your shoulder and you arch your back, your mind is fuzzy as Ashton continues hard, his own breath coming out very laboured from above. 

Tears prick your eyes as the emotion finally makes itself known and you can’t help but let it overtake you, the salty tears fall down each side of your face as Ashton buries his head in your neck, his movements becoming sloppy and unrhythmic. With a bite to your neck he releases one of his arms to grip your neck suddenly, the feeling making your already overwrought senses become even more sensitive. 

A few more thrusts and he halts harshly against you, a groan echoing throughout the room, his hand lets go of your neck to grip painfully again onto your reddening wrists. He drops down onto your body, the sweat slick between you two, his breath hot against your newly assaulted neck. 

You both lay like this for a moment, your breath finally coming back to you though your mind still feels fuzzy. 

“Ash,” You quietly cry out. Your arms are starting to ache and the tears are now flowing freely down your temples onto the pillow below. Ashton leans up, breathing heavily until he looks down at your tear stained face and panics, hands letting go of your arms to wipe away the tears. 

“Hey,” He whispers, “I didn’t mean to hurt you.” His panic stricken face scares you and you lean up to place one finger against his lips to silence him.

“No.” You croak out, “You didn’t.”

He nods at your response, “I’m going to pull out okay?” He whispers, leaning forward to peck your sweaty forehead before pulling out. You wince at the feeling, having not realised how rough he was being. With him now not on top, the cold air bites at your glistening body and you suddenly ache for his weight on top of you again. The tears still flow silently down your face and you try to stop them but you just can’t help it, are they good tears? Bad tears? You can’t differentiate between the two feelings so you just let them fall. 

You hadn’t noticed Ashton rise and stand at the edge of the bed until he extends his arm and calls for you quietly to grab it and you do just that. 

“Come on sweet thing,” His voice still at a hush, seemingly not to disturb the strange feeling in the room. You let him help you stand, holding you steady as you flinch from the dull pain that shoots through your body. He so tenderly walks you two towards the bathroom, where he gets the water ready, your hand still resting in his warm palm. 

“Ash,” You go to say something, anything about this situation but nothing comes out. He gives you a look, a sweet caring look that makes your heart swell and you let him lead you into the almost too hot spray of water. 

He holds you close, letting the warmth ease your muscles and with a few light kisses on your shoulder he cleans you, all your energy is gone, dissipated like the soap being washed down the shower drain. 

With the shower turned off and you being wrapped oh so carefully in a towel he’s leading you back to the bedroom. You feel as though your eyes could close at any second and when he walks in font go you to turn down the covers, inviting you in to the warmth and comfort of his bed you don’t argue. You let the towel drop to the floor and you crawl eagerly into the space, almost seemingly made just for you. 

With half lidded eyes you watch him walk around the bed to the opposite side, having quickly turned the lights off outside before making his way back to you, sliding in effortlessly next to your ever sleepy body. 

He stares at you with an expression you can’t make out, his hair is still a little wet from the shower and a few beads of water drip down onto his face, but his eyes never leave yours. Theres so much you want and need to say but for now, in this moment you only want one thing. 

With a small smile you lean up to wipe one of the beads of water off his face and roll over so your back is now facing him. You feel him shuffle and you sigh when his body presses up against your own, him slotting in perfectly next to your own. His arms encircle you, to protect you from everything that will happen tomorrow. So for now you let him hold you, his head coming to rest behind your own and with one last kiss upon your shoulder you close your eyes, letting sleep overtake you. 

#ashton irwin writing #ashton irwin #5sos fluff #5sos smut #Ashton irwin fluff #ashton irwin smut #5 seconds of summer writing #5sos writing #my writing #calum hood #have no idea where this came from but hey i wrote it in a few hours and im happy with it enjoy

[shinjukuspiritcommittee]

Sunrise with You (+minor update)

7000 words and counting... this little passion post definitely set me back more than I’d like to admit. But then again, I’ve never really felt this passionate about writing in a while. I have a number of people to thank obviously. Like the devs at LifeWonders for making such a world where these kinds of fanfics are possible. And you, dear readers for giving me a platform to share these cheesy stories and for indulging me so much. Seriously, you guys are the best! And I think it’s about time we let that one guy out of his cell... 

~~~

Sunrise with You (Peace)

~With the endless game finally at an end, and the past behind you everything felt… fresh. Everyone in your life was no longer bound by the rules of any game and could live as they wanted. Even the wall that closed you all in no longer stood in your way. Weirdly enough you couldn’t sleep so you had stayed awake staying off at the night horizon. The Tokyo skyline seemed to go on forever with no boundaries to hold you. Just what did lie out there in the world? It was all so exciting. But then, the door to the roof opened and you turned to find…

Zabaniyya

~“Oh, Summoner. It’s unusual to see you out this late.” You explained you had trouble sleeping. Tomorrow was a big day after all. “It will be indeed. Even now the heaven’s give me a sense of peace…” He murmured. The two of you remained stargazing for an immeasurable amount of time, but you knew sunrise was only a little while away now. You then started to ramble a bit. You didn’t know why but you wanted to clear the air as much as possible. You also expressed how much of a relief it was knowing you finally have a place to call home… “I understand the sentiment. To be quite honest, the world beyond those walls always felt… alien in a sense. Just how far does it stretch? Where does it end? If anything, these horizons only seem to grow with each passing moment…” You muttered his name, unsure of how to comfort him. “Lately, I’ve been considering something… Lord Arsalan would always desire me to make a decision of my own but for a long time it felt impossible. Could one such as myself really yearn for a life beyond penance? A torture specialist really living a life of his own?”

~You finally told him that regardless of his past he was still Zabaniyya and every decision was for himself. Even divinity allowed those with their own wills determine their own fate, after all. “Yes, you may be right. And I believe I finally did something about it.” You asked what he was going to do. “That’s… well, remember that day we vowed to one another? Even though it was fake the idea never quite left my mind. What if we were to one day pledge ourselves to one another and just… run away? Be reborn in our own way. Would a life like that be truly acceptable?” For what it was worth you told him it was his decision to decide that. “I see… I feel I’m understanding his teachings after all.” But since he brought it up, now might be a good time to finally ask… you asked him to hold out his hand as you placed an important keepsake in his hand.

~“This is…!” He held Sal’s ring, the same ring he entrusted to you when everything was over. Since it was powerless he teased you to give it to someone special. Those words couldn’t ring more true now. “I’m… I’m speechless.” Was all the fallen angel could say. “Or rather… I’m still afraid to accept this.” You finally just came out and said that you wanted to be by his side and to make a future together for a change. But only if Zabaniyya desired it. He was silent in contemplation for a moment. As the sun rose Zabaniyya pulled you closer to his side and held your hand in his. “Perhaps this is too good to be true, and perhaps I am indulging myself like I did all that time ago. But this once, it no longer matters to me. I feel… genuine happiness knowing you are right here with me. And just as you pledge to me, I swear my oath and gratitude to you. This body, this heart and soul of mine- loves you with every ounce of my being.”

Gunzo

~“You’re still up?” You confirmed it for him and he joined you on the roof. “I couldn’t really sleep either. I tried jogging a bit but that barely did anything.” Gunzo sighed. “I thought maybe I might get tired looking up at the sky instead.” You told him you had a similar idea. “Well, I guess two great minds do think alike.” You sat with Gunzo staring up at the stars and the horizon. You were up for quite a bit, unsure of how much time passed but you enjoyed it. You made sure to tell him that. “Oh, same here. I like doing these sorts of things when it’s just us. Um… what do you think it’s like? Out there I mean.” You told him you weren’t quite sure, and that all you could say for certain was that it was big. “That’s a relief… I can’t quite wrap my head beyond the idea that there’s a whole world yet to be seen. It’s… scary… I’ve grown up here after all, it’s where I met all my friends too. I can’t just leave so easily.” You agreed it was scary to step out into somewhere unknown.

~Gunzo laughed. “The others would probably just laugh at us for being scared, right? It’s over something so simple too…” You did remind him the world could expand an eternity. “Don’t remind me. But, weirdly enough… I wonder what they do in other places? Do others play rugby? Do they take it as seriously as me? Where do I even start?” Gunzo shook his head. “No, I… I have to finish school here at least. Then I can worry about studying abroad like my seniors. Or maybe I’ll get a job… ugh, this is so hard…” You reminded him to take everything at his own pace and that rushing himself would get him nowhere. “You’re right… I’m glad I’ve got you here. I think I’d be pulling my own hair out right now if… n-no forget I said anything.” You took a moment to think and finally decided to give him that.

~“A-A ring!? Hold on, what are you-!?” You told him to hold onto it as a promise ring, and you confessed then and there. You might have broken Gunzo then and there as he simply couldn’t comprehend the magnitude of your statements. “Is… Is this a joke…” He asked before you confirmed it’s the real deal. It was then that all of his emotions came up at once and he pulled you into a tight hug. The embrace was very tight, but loving and genuine. “Please… Please tell me you aren’t joking…!” You reconfirmed it for him and used the L word to seal the deal. As the sun began to rose he started crying a bit in your arms. “Having you… knowing you… heck, LOVING you was the one thing I always felt sure about in a long time! I… I need you to keep me balanced otherwise I’d always forget certain things, be rather clumsy still and get ready to be apologized to a lot! I’m… I’m sorry for needing you!”

Takemaru

~“Hey.” The oni greeted you with a warm smile. You asked what he was doing up so late. “Well, I just finally finished a project I was doing with the rest of my guildmates. I let the others go on ahead to bed, just couldn’t sleep, ya know?” Takemaru walked to your side. “Mind if I stargaze with you a while? I just need some air…” You nodded and proceeded to look up at the sky. Each star seemed to immaculately twinkle tonight but somehow it felt familiar. “Heh, it’s crazy. It’s like no matter where we go, the sky is always the same. It just expands forever. No matter how far from home I am, I always feel like I can get back somehow just by starin’ at the stars.” Takemaru chuckled a bit to himself and crossed his arms. “Still, the past few years have been great. But I’ll be leavin’ again soon, I want to study abroad and learn about all different types a’ architecture. Maybe I’ll get some inspiration for the home I want to make for myself.” You told him that sounded hard but not impossible. “Heh, maybe. But I do know one thing. I want to build my home right here.”

~You were a bit surprised at that. “C’mon it’s not that surprisin’. My friends are all here, along with all the people who were nice enough to a guy like me, even you…” He trailed off. He seemed to be lost in his own thoughts so you asked him what was on his mind. “Hmm… I was just thinkin’ about the future. This place really is like a new home to me. I couldn’t just leave it behind so easily. You especially made sure a’ that. Thanks.” His face reddened a bit but he kept a comforting smile on his face. You thanked him for giving you the chance in the first place. It was a nice change to be on the giving end for once. “…Uh, t-there’s one last thing…” He fumbled with his words a bit. Without saying much else he held out his hand to you and in it was a wooden ring. “I-I want you to have this. J-Just as a keepsake of sorts, i-it’s not anything official but… it would mean a lot if you kept it.” You were shocked to say the least as you took the ring from him. It was even your size. “Just promise me you’ll wear it as often as possible, even if it breaks I’ll come back and fix it right up!” You smiled and told him to take it easy. In fact you were a bit embarrassed since he beat you to it as you handed him a ring of your own.

~All Takemaru could do was stare at it with utter shock. He trembled as he stared at it, the Oni’s face turning a whole new shade of red. “Y-You serious…?” You nodded and told him he was someone who mattered to you a whole lot. You couldn’t just let him leave without telling him how you felt. Takemaru winced with that statement and before you knew it you were pulled into a tight embrace where he stroked the back of your head gently as the sun began to rise. “I love ya too. No, I love ya so much. I promise to come back to ya as often as possible. I can’t wait to start our lives together. Do you like kids? How many kids should we have? Oh, and our home is gonna need lots and lots of pets and- well, let’s take it slow for now, ‘kay?”

Moritaka

~“Hey there.” Moritaka greeted you. “Another night under the stars together…” He said as he joined you. “Sorry if this sounds sudden, but do you have any plans for the future now that we’re free?” You told him you had a few ideas and said you wouldn’t mind hearing any of his. “Well, first I intend to finish my studies in Tokyo. I see no need to rush out like the others do to be quite honest. But after that’s all done I wish to broaden my skills around the world. I want to see new things and places. Tokyo has given me so much, I can’t wait to see how much stronger I can become beyond the walls.” He explained with genuine excitement. “If I meet more people and test my skills against new foes, then I can definitely grow out of being filial…” You told him that it was an admirable goal. “Thank you.”

~“But first, I have to make sure I have all I can from here first. After all, there’s still so much in Tokyo I have yet to see and experience. But thanks to you and all our friends I’m not worried. At least, not anymore.” You told him that he helped you feel bolder after spending so much time together, and how dependable he is. “S-Stop, you’re making me flustered again… a-actually, I don’t mind this time. In fact, it’s rather nice to get a compliment such as that from you. Thank you.” Moritaka’s face went from embarrassment to a more somber one. “There is one worry I have though… I’m afraid that in my pursuit for a future, I may leave those I care about behind. I don’t want to do that… I wish you- … you all could stay by my side.” You may not be able to speak for the others, but there was one thing you knew for sure as you handed Moritaka a precious keepsake, the ring Salomon entrusted to you to give to someone you cherished.

~Moritaka was stunned. “W-Wait, me!?” He was shocked, furiously flustered and downright confused. “Surely you of all people could give this to someone else!” You told him it was your decision to make and that this was what you wanted. “I don’t understand you sometimes…” He sighed while smiling. “Thank you my fr-” Moritaka shook his head. “Thank you, my beloved. Yes, that’s right. My beloved. I never realized before but, this was probably what I wanted… I was just to afraid to say it…” You gave Moritaka a pat on the head and brushed your hand against his cheek fur. While you rubbed his cheek he brought his hand to yours as the sun began to rise. “This joy I have… did you know it all along? Or perhaps someone is watching over us… let’s see the world together, side by side. My feelings for you ever grow deeper, my beloved.”

Shino

~“You should be resting, it’s quite late.” He told you. You tried explaining you couldn’t really sleep and wanted to get some air. “Fair enough. If you’ll excuse me I’ll get back on my patrol.” Patrol, this late? “Yes, even with our victory, peace is still relatively young. Not to mention any remnants out for your head.” While he had a point, you don’t think they’d be a problem anytime soon. “Better safe than sorry.” Well since he was going to be up now might be a good a time as any to stargaze. “What part of patrol do you not understand? Oh, never mind. Fine, I’ll indulge you a little.” He blushed as he conceited to your request. “Perhaps there won’t be any issues if I stay for a few minutes.” And you both did just that, watching the sky and feeling that night breeze brush right by.

~“When was the last time I saw the sky like this? It must’ve been… that night before…” He pondered aloud. You asked him if he’s still thinking of “her”. “Yeah… ah! Forgive me, that was rather insensitive of me… you seem all prepared for tomorrow and I’ve still got my head in the past. I know she would disapprove of such talk as well.” You didn’t mind the talk since it was something important to Shino, it wasn’t something that could be forgotten so easily. “Maybe not, but… there is one way I think it’s been made possible.” Just what would that be? “Being close to you, of course.” It must have been because of him seeing her inside of you somewhere. “No, not that. At least, not anymore. For a while she was the one I’ve been longing to see ever since that day I failed. I desired to apologize and repent for my failure. She was the one I longed to see most. If I had been reborn then surely she must’ve… But I quickly realized how fruitless of an endeavor that was to even begin with, especially now that I know who it was I’ve been searching for all this time.” Oh? “Don’t make me say it…” His ears drooped as he blushed visibly under his fur and turned away. You told him you wanted him to say it, while presenting him with a ring

~Shino stared in shock at Sal’s ring. “T-This isn’t right… I’m just a lowly beast! Why would you want to make their mistake…?” You asked him if he thought this whole thing was a mistake. “N-No I didn’t… ugh…” He smiled and finally turned to face you as the sun rose. “I did say I’d indulge you a bit. B-But please don’t make this a regular occurrence.” He took your hand with the ring in both of his and looked straight at you with a serious expression. “I promise to never fail you, no matter what may come. I wish to keep this dream going just a bit longer, maybe even the rest of our lives. I know with you… the pain in my chest truly leaves. That’s why I am swearing to you, here and now. Not as a beast or as an image of someone else, but as the one you see before you. Please accept me, my beloved.”

Jambavan

~“W-What are you doing out so late? Shouldn’t you be getting your rest?” What about him, shouldn’t he be resting too? “A-About that… It seems Leib somehow talked me into finishing all of the previous work again…” You made a snide comment about Leib’s work ethic and bad practices as Jambavan’s expense. “I-It’s really not like that. Leib has definitely been putting a lot more effort into work as of late, but I think it’s so he can spend his days of freedom slacking. Then again he constantly worries about me nowadays. I’m not quite sure how to handle that on top of the work I was already doing.” Comments aside, you asked Jambavan to rest with you a while. “Sure, I was taking a break anyway I would appreciate the company.”

~You and Jambavan admired the vast sky together and just let the moment take you away. “Even after everything, it’s hard to imagine it’s all coming to an end… It feels like only yesterday I was running around tirelessly helping my guildmates and Alice, that now that I have the freedom to truly choose what I want to do for a change that… I’m downright scared.” You asked him if he truly had no plans for the future. “N-No it’s not that… the truth is, I wish to help as many as I can. And the only way I feel I can do that is if I become a well-versed doctor. To do that, I’d need to seek study outside of Tokyo. Which means I’d have to leave everyone who’d be staying here for a while. Alice, my guildmates, you…” You told him you understood, but it was clear the decision broke your heart a little. It was all for the sake of pursuing his dreams. “There’s… something else too… since I’m leaving I’ve got no use in hiding it anymore. I… I’ve absolutely fallen for you.” Jambavan told you boldly. “Sometimes I lie awake wondering if I’m going mad thinking about you. You’ve become someone… irreplaceable to me. One that can’t just fit as a friend in my eyes, but something more. I just felt you needed to know that before I left. That’s all…” Jambavan’s words surprised you, but made you incredibly happy all the same as you now had no reservations about giving it to him.

~“A-A ring!?” Jambavan gasped with shock. “I-I hope you’re not just throwing that thing around… wait, it’s… for me?” You nodded. “You’re serious…” His eyes began to water as the sun began to rise. He couldn’t contain his emotions anymore and Jambavan reached for you and pulled you into a tight embrace. “It’s… it’s such a wonderful gift! I love you so much! I just… I hope you’ll be alright if I leave…” You told him you’ll be supporting him every step of the way. “I-In that case I… I hope you don’t mind me being a bit more bull headed from now on! Of course I’ll be supporting you too in whatever you want to do. Thank you for showing me I can stand on my own two feet for a change…”

Hati

~Hati walked onto the roof and practically ignored you as he came to stargaze. You commented on the gentle breeze and clear sky. He didn’t seem particularly interested in speaking. So you tried shifting the topic to how late he was. Even then he still remained silent, staring up at the sky. You were starting to get a little frustrated with his silence. Still nothing. Fine then, if he was going to act that way you may as well up and leave. “Wait.” He said, while now looking down at his feet. “I don’t want you to go.” Then why won’t he speak to you. He hesitated. “Because I can’t…” What did he mean by that?

~“Every night the thought of the moon drives me mad until I see it and puts me at ease. For a while, it’s all I could think to do. I thought it would work this time but… it seems as though I can’t…” Was something driving him mad. “Yes. At first I thought it was my beloved Gabriel. While he still has my heart hostage with her music and compassion, I don’t think that’s what’s driving me mad anymore.” He seemed sad. “I… I think you’re the one driving me insane…” W-What? “The way you smile, the way you’re always putting others first, the way your skin is so soft, the way you smell- the way you… well, just the way you are hasn’t been able to escape my mind! Is this a new kind of love!? I thought the moon would calm me down but you… you just have to keep being you and never letting me have a moment of sanity! Just what’s wrong with you!?” He snapped. “Why did you have to go and make me love you!?” He now turned to you. “I don’t want to hurt you… I… I’m scared…” His feelings weren’t something you could control, but maybe there was a way you could put his fears at ease… with this…

~“What are you saying!?” Hati asked with confusion. “Weren’t you listening, why do you-” You told him you had fallen for him too. In fact hearing that those thoughts drove you mad filled you with joy rather than messed you up. It was weird but… you wanted him to have you for a while but were always afraid you’d play second fiddle to his moon. “Ah… I’m… I’m sorry…” He said with a deep breath. “I love you too much to ever want anything bad to happen to you. Which is why we can’t… if Gabriel is my moon, then you are undoubtedly the sun that gives me light to my life… will you…” The sun began to rise. “Will you still have me even if I were to hurt you?” You told him that would never happen, but your feelings are the same. Instead of words, Hati pulled you into a gentle embrace and closed his eyes, finally seeming to calm down. “Thank you, I… I don’t know what I’d do if you weren’t… you.”

Kurogane

~“Oh Junior, you’re still up?” Kurogane addressed you as he joined you on the roof. “I’m guessing you couldn’t get to sleep either. It’s alright, I won’t tell anyone you’re up here.” You asked what brought him up here. “Me? Well…” He turned to the sky. “I do this sometimes. Reach for the stars and space is the final frontier after all, right? To me, it feels like the end goal that gets closer each day. Plus I just like the way the stars twinkle on nights like this. With a view like this, do you blame me?” You guessed not and you both began to ponder what space was like, from zero gravity to the constantly shifting temperature. You were a little scared of it but that only seemed to spur Kurogane further into going to space and conquer your fears.

~It made you wonder what he intended to do after everything the Crafters were repairing was all done. “What I’d do? Huh… I never slowed down to think about that. I guess I’d need to enroll into a college somewhere. I could just apply somewhere here in Tokyo and leave later. Actually, as much as I want to I don’t think I can ever reach space…” But why not? “You remember how I lost my arm in an incident a long time ago? Well, what if they don’t want me heading up there because I’m technically missing an arm. It probably wouldn’t be the safest plan.” You told him that defeatist nature wasn’t his style, and his prosthetic looked just like the real deal. “Oh, I’m not giving up. Even if I can’t make it to space, I want to be a part of a team that can get people there. With that at least I think I can say my dreams have been accomplished.” Well you told him you had faith he’d make it to space no matter what. No one could stand in his way, especially if he keeps training his mind and body. “Right! Thank you, I feel even more fired up now! Is your optimism something that comes this easy? I wonder if we could find a way to channel that…” You were a bit nervous at that suggestion. “D-Don’t take it literally!” Kurogane laughed nervously. “I’m just… glad I have you is all.” You were glad too, and you wanted your senior to know that, especially with how reliable he was.

~You handed Sal’s ring to Kurogane. “This… Why?” Well, you rely on your senior. Especially now more than ever now that you both have a future to craft. “I see…” He smiled. Kurogane wrapped an arm around you as the sun began to rise. “In the end that’s what I want. I don’t ever want you to feel like there’s nothing we can’t overcome, Junior! With my ingenuity and your drive there’s nothing beyond our reach! Not even the stars!”

Daisuke

~“Oh, Bro- erm…” Daisuke stopped what he was saying as he came up to you. “I…” he cleared his throat. “I couldn’t help but notice your restless nature earlier, so I decided it might be a good idea to check on you. Then you went and disappeared…” You apologized for disappearing suddenly but you really wanted to see the stars in the sky. “Ah, yeah…” He said, realizing that the stars were out in full view tonight. “Tonight really is pretty…” You two didn’t speak for some time as you grew lost in the sight. “Staring up at these make me really worried sometimes…” Worried, how? “That one day the real stars are gonna get forgotten and left behind. Not just the ones up there, but the whole reason I became a wrestler in the first place. Will his actions be forgotten? And would I ever be able to inspire others the way he inspired me?” It sounds like he’s been wrestling with these thoughts for a while. “Yeah, I- hey wait a minute! Are you making fun of me!?” Not particularly but you couldn’t resist the joke. He just made it too easy sometimes.

~“Ugh, you’re the worst sometimes…” He laughed. “Then again, I guess that’s why we make such a great team. You help me when I’m being too dramatic and I thank you for it. Really, Brother- uh…” You asked him what was wrong since he seemed to be holding back. “Lately, I’ve been wondering if calling you my soul brother is the right thing or not. It’s not because I think you and I aren’t still like that… we are, it’s just… we’ve seen so much together and “Brother” feels out of place now… but, what is this feeling…?” You pondered it yourself and asked him to explain a bit more. “W-Well, whenever we’re close m-my chest pounds like it’s about to burst. Standing next to you gives me more confidence as myself rather than as Taurus Mask… and… I just don’t want to lose you… I can’t… I don’t understand… No, I do understand. It… It scares me…” You smiled and told him that was entirely natural as you handed him your keepsake.

~“Wait, what is this?” He asked with genuine surprise. You told him you wanted nothing more than to be his partner both on and off the ring. That standing by his side has given you new feelings too, and most of all… he was your star that gave you hope again. He was absolutely speechless. You were worried you broke him in some way until he shook it off. “No, I won’t…” He grunted. “I won’t freak out again! I need to keep on being your star after all! You need to keep looking up to me and I don’t want to lose that trust you’ve put in me. Daisuke got as close as he could to you and held your hand all the while the sun began to rise. “From now on, we’re a tag team duo! I’ll keep the solo flying to a minimum, just for you. Not just because I’m your star, but well… you’re MY star too.”

Tsathoggua

~Having his minions open the door for him, Tsathoggua stepped out. He stretched and yawned as though he had just woken up from a trademark nap. “Eh? What are you doing up so early?” You quickly spun this around and told him he was just up too late. “Not really. When you play MMO’s sometimes you just have to be ready for the long haul, so I’ve trained myself to be up as late or early as possible. But, I guess I can’t do that anymore…” He seemed downtrodden by this fact and you asked him why he looked so upset. “Hakumen says that with the walls around town gone, we’re gonna start getting more and more guests at the Casino. And with such a large number of guests coming she said she might make me start working. Can you believe it!?” Well, it wasn’t that far fetched necessarily… “Seriously, me!? Do I look like the host type to you!?” You did tell him he was still courteous to whoever visited him and that no matter what he always went out of his way for you. “W-Well… I tend to make exceptions… Guess I got no choice now, sadly. I might as well try getting in a slightly better shape… you think they make any good fitness games?” The two of you pondered video game ideas while under the gentle gaze of the stars.

~Which reminded you to ask how Tsath felt about the walls. “There’s tons of games I can get express delivered now.” He put plainly. “I’ve always wanted to try the games they have overseas, cuz while we have plenty of good ones over here there have been rumors saying the games in the west are so different. I want to play em all.” An… admirable goal if nothing else. “…Thanks…” He murmured while looking away bashfully. You noticed his distress and asked him what was wrong. He remained silent about it for a moment before finally answering with another question. “…How many co-op games do you think have been made?” The question confused you, but with so many people in Tokyo alone there had to have been a good number. “That’s… good. Maybe… we could play some of them together sometime? If you have the time for it that is…” You said his name, completely taken off guard  with the question. “Aaaaaaah…” He groaned out. “No amount of Visual Novels have prepared me for this…! Not even the hardest difficulty quests made me this nervous! Are there seriously no guides for this kind of stuff!?” He cursed to himself. You were starting to get an idea and realized what he was trying to say. So as a response you handed him a precious treasure.

~“A-A ring already!?” He gasped in shock. “H-Hold on, I don’t think I’m quite the guy for that stuff so fast! And- oh? A… A promise ring?” Tsathoggua seemed to relax at your explanation. “That makes more sense, ehe… um. C-Can I… hold your hand? I… I don’t think I know how to right now…” You took Tsath’s hand in yours as the sun came up and you both finally looked up at it together. “Is this… what you call a good ending? Or maybe it’s the start of the sequel? Either way, I’m glad it’s with you.”

Someone who deserves more credit

~“W-Why are you so surprised!? Don’t give me that look!” Li Cho barked at you. “Gimme a bit a credit, will ya!?” You apologized and asked why he came up to the roof. “I-It helps me think. I didn’t think you’d be the type to be so suspicious.” He huffed and you sighed. You told him to give you some credit and offered a spot with you to stargaze. “Sure. I’ll scare that loneliness away for ya!” You played along and pretended to be afraid of the man-eating tiger scaring away people. “H-Hey!” He snapped, face blushing furiously. “I can be super scary for real! Don’t joke about those things…” He seemed more embarrassed than angry so you agreed to keep the teasing to a minimum. “Thanks. Actually, now that I have an audience what say I serenade you with some of my lovely words, hmm~?” You responded dryly by saying just reading them would be enough. “Heh, is my musical talent too much for you to handle then?” What musical talent? “That’s just cold!” After getting all the snarky remarks out of each others system, he did read you poetry that he wrote himself and with the atmosphere you couldn’t help but be swept away by the imagery.

~Once he had finished indulging himself by showing off his poetry, he took a deep breath. “S-So, it was awesome… right?” You told him it was very good. “Just good, eh?” He chuckled. “Y’know, I did write all these before the walls around us came crumblin’ down. So maybe that’s why they don’t sound as good? But, that’s just me making up excuses and not fixing the damn things…” You told him there was no rush now that you all weren’t operating on a time crunch anymore. “S-Sure, but I still gotta take care of student council work alongside my studies. So it’s definitely gonna be hard to find the time right now.” You reassured him that you’d both be able to make it work. “Heh, I guess.” It then hit him. “Wait, us?” That’s when you dropped the facade and handed him the ring.

~“Y-You’re just messin’ with me right? P-Please say you’re just playin’ around!” He seemed panicked. “There’s no way I can do this!” You asked if this wasn’t what he wanted. “O-Of course I want it!” Li Cho replied. “There’s just… no way you’d ever want a beast like me…” His tough guy act seemed to crack just a bit. “There’s no telling when I’m prone to snap or lose myself completely. I… I don’t want to hurt you if that happens…” Then what was stopping him from not doing it? “Eh?” He was still him under all that fur. No amount of appearances could change what was inside. “Inside, huh?” He pondered this for a moment. “I get it… Fine then.” Li Cho pulled you close to him and nuzzled your neck as the morning light came to view. You told him that Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks, but bears it out even to the edge of doom. “Heh… since when did ya become such a poetry buff…? Did you really memorize that just for me? Maybe… Maybe I won’t lose myself if I have you there… I want to rewrite our lives.”

HorkeuKamui

~“My Hero, you’ve done it.” Kamui praised you as he quickly joined you on the roof. “Not only have you completed your own goals of saving all your friends, you’ve also torn down all the walls between the people and have found a way for so many to connect.” You said while that was true there was still a lot you wouldn’t know. Would the rest of the world be so accepting of everyone from Tokyo? Besides, it was only thanks to everyone working together that you accomplished these things. “Very true, indeed. However, you are the individual responsible for bringing such individuals together. That alone is worthy of some praise. I’m proud to have you as my Hero.” You asked him to dial back the praise since you were starting to get flustered. “My apologies. It’s just… you’ve done what many others considered to be impossible. That alone has my admiration and joy.” You thanked him again but still couldn’t shake your flustered emotions. As a way to relax Kamui agreed to watch the stars with you, which was certainly relaxing.

~After a while, Kamui seemed lost in thoughts. His look went from glad to pensive. You took notice and asked him what was wrong. “While I am glad that we have reached such a point in time, I can’t help but feel a little… lost.” He admitted. “With so many content, is there even a reason to call you my Hero now? Is there a purpose for a Hero’s sheath if there is no longer any Hero? If not, then where does one such as myself go? I’ve dedicated my whole existence to raising a Hero properly that I have not realized if I had succeeded… what’s left? Can I even continue, knowing that my own selfish pursuit ended so many lives?” You were afraid that you didn’t have all those answers for him. Those were things he’d need to solve on his own. “I’m well aware. But still, I feel fulfilled all the same. I have you to thank for finally satiating my insatiable drive…” While you didn’t have many answers for Kamui, you did have one important question to ask. You handed him something that helped you through the darker times and asked if he’d be willing to stay by your side. As more than a sheath… as HorkeuKamui, the wolf that snatched your heart.

~“Your heart…” Kamui paused for a moment. He smiled realizing what the situation meant. “I see… yes, your heart. With you… I am willing to make such an important oath. Not only will I treasure your heart…” The wolf pulled you into a gentle embrace and gently stroked your hair as the sun began to rise, signifying the start of something wonderful. “I will safeguard it with my life. Not only that, but I also wish to entrust you with my own. After all, I have nothing but boundless love for you… My Dear.”

Wakan Tanka

~“There you are, my friend.” Wakan Tanka greeted you with relief. You returned his greeting and asked if he had been searching for you. “Yes, actually. I couldn’t help but notice how restless you’ve been as of late so I wanted to make sure you were alright. I’m glad that you’re okay, guess my worry was just overreacting.” You thanked him for his concern. “Yes, but… it’s weird. Why was I so upset in the first place? Maybe I just wanted to look at the sky again…” You asked him if the stars at night helped him relax. “At first, they made me sad… but now, I don’t have a reason to be sad anymore. Would you mind if I saw them with you again?” You told him you’d love that and both watched the stars, reminiscent of that time on the beach…

~“So… this is the end of the road for the game in Tokyo… or rather, it’s the start of a new path for everyone to take…” He pondered aloud. “Seeing everyone talking about the future with such hope makes me happy. Really happy, even. Is it even allowed to be this happy for your friends?” You told him you saw nothing wrong with such joy. “I would agree, but… I can’t help but feel sad… knowing that everyone’s ready to move on and leave behind the place that brought us together in the first place. Would they remember all of the good times we had, or just the bad ones?” There wasn’t a guarantee that all the memories would be happy, but you can give him comfort by offering the idea that the happy ones would win out. “I think you’re right.” He seemed a bit sullen still. “For a long while, I would remember the sky in my world. I always thought it was beautiful and made everyone glad they saw it. All but them. They would stare at the sky with such sadness in their eyes, and I couldn’t help but feel sad too… but, looking at the sky now. Maybe it wasn’t sadness… maybe it was their own happiness that made them cry?” There was no way to know for sure now. “Yeah. That person is no longer with us. Instead I have someone who brings me both immense joy and sorrow.” Really, who? “You, of course.” He put bluntly. You were shocked by Wakan’s bold claim. “You make me feel more things I would never have hoped to dream. I don’t understand all these feelings you give me… One moment I’m sad about you, but then you go and make me extremely happy. Then all I can think about is being next to you and… I just turn into a mess of feelings!” You just told him that’s how love works as you handed him a sign of your love.

~“Love…” Wakan asked. “Is that really all there is? A word so simple could have such a chaotic feeling?” You nodded. “…Hey, can I see your hand for a moment?” You gave him your hand as he clasped it with both of his, with him now wearing the ring you gave him and his warm smile making the rising sun shine that much brighter. “I promise from now on that neither road we walk will be lonely. I promise to share this burden and blessing of life that we live. And I also promise… to show you just what my love is capable of doing. I promise to you that it can open a path where we can both be equals, side by side in the same direction. Only… if you’ll let me walk beside you til we pass on to the next…”

If not, then who?

~Weirdly, no one came through the door. You could have sworn you heard something. “Geez Master, do none of your friends really care about us!?” You jumped in surprise as Salomon now stood beside you. You quickly asked what he was doing here. “Master, how come you’re always so mean to me!?” You didn’t mean it like that! You thought that he might’ve… “I told you I’d always be with you! I don’t wanna leave you, Master!” Salomon cried. “I was scared… but, it was almost like taking a nap… I think? I dunno any more than you do! I just… I’m happy to be able to see you again.” You shared in that sentiment and wondered when the last time you two had spent a night together like this. “Too long!”

~“But seriously, does no one care about you this late?” You told him that wasn’t it. “Oh? Ooh, Master. You sly fox. Perhaps you’ve strung together one too many hearts instead of no one at all?” You couldn’t deny the number of people captivated by you, but you were positive there was more to it. “Sure, sure. Though you try to keep cool, deep down I know how passionate you truly are. I always knew one wouldn’t be enough. You’re just too wild.” You asked him to stop or someone might hear. “Heh, I know…” He gave you a cheeky grin. “You just make the cutest expressions sometimes, Master. I couldn’t help but tease you a little~.” Despite all the teasing, you did miss him. You felt it was an appropriate time to give that back…

~“Oh, this?” He pondered. “It… It’s worthless to either of us honestly. I let you keep it as a way to remember me. But now that I’m here it almost seems wasted…” Not entirely. You could use it to make an everlasting vow to trust in Sal more from now on. And… and to promise to keep him close. You don’t want him going anywhere without you from now on. “Oh Master…” The sun began to rise as Sal brought his head to rest on his arm and smiled at you mid air. “Sometimes you take even me by surprise. Still, that’s what I like so much about you. All that there is to do is ask: Where to next?”

~~~

So yes, as of this moment onward I can finally feel confident releasing projects involving Li Cho. I know not everyone will like it and it hasn’t felt that long since i made that post saying i wouldn’t. But I feel I’d be doing a disservice to Housamo’s main message if I kept that sort of content ban up for any longer. Thank you all for being so patient with my while I made this and worked up the courage to finally post Li Cho content.

#zabaniyya #gunzo #takemaru #moritaka #shino #Jambavan #hati #Kurogane #taurus mask #Tsathoggua #he who shall not be named #Horkeukamui #Wakan Tanka #Salomon #tokyo afterschool summoners #housamo #fan written endings #Headcanon #HC #sfw #fluffy #romantic

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Worthy

Prompt: #65 & #142 for anon – “I don’t deserve to be loved.” + “My favourite person in the world is standing right in front of me.”

Anonymous said:

Drabble request: 65 & 142 with Kihyun from MX?

Pairing: Yoo Kihyun x reader (ft. Lee Minhyuk)

Genre: friends to lovers au / angst / romance / self-growth

Warnings: complex relationship and personal feelings make this a little more mature than I usually write.

Word count: 3506

Stirring, you glanced at the time on your phone and inwardly cursed, you had fallen asleep after all. Glancing at the man behind you, following his outstretched arm all the way to where his hand rested over your waist loosely, you gingerly lifted it, attempting to slide out of his grip.

He groaned and pulled you closer, nestling into your bare back. “Don’t go.”

“I have to get home, I have work in the morning,” you explained quietly, but your words were enough to interrupt the remnants of his slumber, his eyes opening with the heavy sigh that fanned across your cheek.

“You know we could solve this issue of ours.”

“It wouldn’t be an issue if I hadn’t have fallen asleep,” you replied, but he held you still, not accepting your premature departure. Kissing your shoulder softly, he then kissed his way back up to your ear.

“Why don’t you just store some things here?”

“As in..?”

“You could move in with me,” he offered demurely, and a cold panic consumed you. Pulling his arm off with less care as before, you immediately reached over the side of the bed to collect your strewn garments.

He watched you from behind. “Why don’t you want to move in with me, baby?”

“I like having my space.”

“I’m not home all the time.”

That had been something you liked about this connection. Jake travelled a lot and so you didn’t feel as if you were weighed down by any expectations.

Until now.

“I’m happy living where I am.”

Jake attempted to capture your gaze but you avoided him, ducking for your socks and placing them over your feet roughly. He sighed again. “Are you scared to move in with me?”

“No, because I don’t want to.” Your defensive tone stunned him into silence and despite how much your heart was thudding in your chest, you tried to ease your approach. “We’re not really in that kind of relationship, right?”

“What kind of relationship is this meant to be, Y/N?” Jake wondered you stared back at him, chewing your bottom lip in thought.

It was meant to be one where you wouldn’t feel entrapped. You were no good at relationships and so you had been picky about who you spent your time with. It wasn’t that you didn’t like Jake, he was a great guy. He helped fill the void of loneliness but left you with enough independence that you could do your own thing. It had been working this well for eight months now, without any established role to what this exactly was. Clearly, he had been on a different wavelength than you had been.

Smiling weakly, you leaned in to kiss him on the cheek before departing his bedroom and apartment soon after. You could already feel the end of your connection before you left the apartment complex.

You chose to remain alone after everything fell apart with Jake. He had tried one more time to convince you around, and you had fled altogether, messaging him that it was no longer working for you.

It never did.

You didn’t want to admit that you were afraid of commitment, but that was exactly your problem. You had experienced the feeling of being in love. True, vulnerable, and soul-completing love. And instead of meeting your happily ever after, you came home to find a friend in your place in the bedroom, horrified that the people you had trusted with every part of you could shatter you into a thousand pieces so easily. You vowed to never allow a man your heart again. The only person you could trust to care for its fragility was yourself and so you had adopted a belief that being single suited you just fine.

And then you would get swept up in the throes of passion with someone, enjoying the feeling of in that moment being the only person they craved. You had tried to accept that someone else might not break you again, yet every time someone tried to define what they had with you, or progress further into living together like Jake had, you ran as fast as you could. The panic wouldn’t settle until you were safely away and alone again.

You didn’t like that you couldn’t commit but you weren’t prepared to drop your standards either. You had long lost the respect for your childhood dreams of meeting the man of your dreams and experiencing a fairytale love.

Because that didn’t exist in this lifetime.

“Are you seriously going to be alone forever?” your friend Minhyuk exclaimed, shaking his head disapprovingly at you. “Y/N, you’re a great catch!”

“I don’t want the mess that comes with relationships,” you told him pointedly and smiled up at the person who placed your drink in front of you.

Kihyun shunted Minhyuk before sitting down. “Y/N isn’t a fish.”

“You know what I was meaning, both of you do,” he chided with a roll of his eyes and you smirked at Kihyun before taking a sip of your drink. Minhyuk groaned. “Why do I have two friends who are useless in the love department?!”

“Hey! I’m not useless!” Kihyun cried and you laughed.

“And I don’t care for love unless it’s self-love. Then you can load me all up!”

Minhyuk scoffed loudly. “You’ll regret that when you find yourself as a miserable maid when all your friends are married around you. Even Kihyun will eventually find someone and-”

“WOULD YOU CUT IT OUT?!” Kihyun smacked Minhyuk around the back of his head and you erupted with laughter again.

You didn’t need to find someone to cure the loneliness now that you had these two in your life. Moving cities had been daunting, as had your first day in the office of your job. Being seated between Minhyuk and Kihyun had eased all your concerns. Minhyuk was the energy maker, keeping you laughing throughout every shift. And Kihyun was the best to work on projects with. You had established an easy working ethic that had stemmed into a reliable friendship. You hadn’t felt this validated as a human in years.

But you weren’t ready to risk all the work you had done so far getting to this point with your old habits either.

With a few more drinks in your system, and Minhyuk’s incessant whining about your lack of dating skills, you let out a heavy breath, pointing vaguely in his direction. “Enough! I don’t deserve to be loved. Focus on your own love life!”

“What rubbish is that?!” he wailed back, slinging his arm around Kihyun’s neck and shaking the silent man roughly. “Did you hear that?”

“Mm, Y/N doesn’t deserve love.”

“But she does!” Minhyuk flailed his free hand around dangerously and you watched it, moving your head along with the vigorous action. “You do!”

“If I did, he wouldn’t have cheated on me,” you admitted, the liquid courage lending you the words you had craved to speak up to someone over all these years. It felt liberating to finally utter it to someone without any judgement. “I was a good girlfriend!”

“And you can be again, I know it!” Minhyuk agreed, looking at Kihyun for back up. The other male simply stared at you, expression unreadable.

You hiccupped and shook your head. “I won’t ever take the risk of trusting another man with this heart of mine. They don’t deserve it!”

“Even if they will look after it well?” Kihyun finally spoke and you glanced back at him, realising he wasn’t nearly as drunk as you and Minhyuk were. His gaze bore deep inside of you, searching for the answers your brain couldn’t quite bring forth in your current state. You blinked slowly, feeling panicked by the way he watched you.

And just as quick as he had turned his attention to you, Kihyun smiled and pulled Minhyuk up to his feet. “We’re drunk. Let’s go home, hm?”

Nothing was said about your confession when you were all lucid. Yet over the weeks since uttering it, you felt things between you and Kihyun change. It wasn’t obvious, the subtle nuances cropping up when you least expected it. He had always been courteous towards you, and had you not been treated poorly in the past, you would have recognised his charms as a man. Minhyuk was forever teasing his friend because he wasn’t actively seeking out a girlfriend whenever he had free time to like he was. But you believed Kihyun was definitely interested in finding someone.

She just had to be the right match.

“Minhyuk’s ditching us again,” you told Kihyun in the elevator on the way down to get coffees for the department and Kihyun glanced at you, smirking.

“Why does it still surprise you? He’s got it into his head that he’ll meet the love of his life and be married with kids by thirty-five. He needs to find her soon if he wants to keep to his structured timeline.”

“I actually admire his life plan.”

“Did you ever have one?”

Glancing at Kihyun, you thought back to how that had gone for you. Smiling sadly, you nodded. “Once.”

“The one you talked about that night?” With another look in his direction, he gave you a wry smile. “I remember. Did you want me to forget it?”

“It was the first time I told someone why I avoid relationships,” you stated softly and stepped out onto the ground floor. When you were both out of the building, you sighed. “I’m glad you remember.”

Silence walked between you both, neither saying the words needed to continue the topic. Just as you saw the coffee store come into sight, Kihyun stepped in front of you, giving you one of his eye-reaching smiles. “Do you want to do something tonight? We could go see a movie or get food.”

“That awfully sounds like a date,” you teased and Kihyun gauged your reaction, no humour evident in his face. Your smile waned. “Is… is it?”

“It doesn’t have to be anything other than what I said it as, a movie to watch and food to eat.”

You hesitated, looking up into his warm eyes. Kihyun always made you feel comfortable in his company. Smiling, you nodded. “I’ll buy the popcorn.”

It had been a bad idea.

Once seated in the darkened theatre with Kihyun, you felt your heart begin to pound in your chest, anticipating a move made by him. You were used to this, meeting up with men at a movie normally ended up with more caresses of hands in places than eyes on the screen watching the show. It was a stone throw away from ending up back at his house or yours, with mouths entangled as clothing fell to the floor. You swallowed; it had been all too long since you had done such a thing.

And yet, Kihyun did nothing to entice you to his side. He smiled at you when his hand reached into the popcorn at the same time as yours and then back to the movie, more interested in that than you. You weren’t offended, nor were you relieved. It was hard to judge what reaction you should have in such a foreign atmosphere.

You realised you hadn’t done anything with a friend in forever. Then again, when your ex had cheated on you, it had been with one of your closest friends. You had shut the door on them just as much as you had on love.

You sighed; this wasn’t how you had wanted to spend your life.

“The movie was good, huh?” Kihyun suggested afterwards and you smiled weakly up at him, nodding once. He wasn’t convinced. “What was your favourite part?”

“I uh….”

“You can’t tell me because you weren’t present in that theatre room, you know,” he mentioned, stepping off ahead of you a little. You jogged to catch up, now stepping outside into the darkened night air.

“I’m sorry, it’s just, I’m not very good at being a friend sometimes.”

“I think you are,” Kihyun corrected, turning to face you. He placed his hands on your shoulders and gave them a squeeze. “I think you’re capable of being so much more than you allow yourself to be too.”

Was this his way of hitting on you? Your mind was confused and you didn’t know what to expect anymore. Things would be much easier to decipher if Minhyuk was here.

“Do you wanna skip the food? I’ll take you home,” he announced, unlocking his car.

The ride was silent as you sat there overthinking everything. What was Kihyun’s motive? Friendship? Something more? Had he really just wanted to spend time with you since Minhyuk was busy? Or would he have suggested this even if your mutual friend was available too?

You decided you had no idea of how to control anything in this world you now lived. It was different in your last home. You had intentions and you fulfilled them. When you came here, you assumed you would continue on that solo path through life. You hadn’t expected to make friends with Minhyuk or Kihyun so effortlessly.

And that’s why you were misconstruing everything about tonight.

The car came to a halt outside your apartment complex and you unbuckled your seat, however, you remained unmoving. “Kihyun… what did tonight mean to you?”

“It meant a movie and maybe some food, why?”

“So as friends?” He let out a shaky breath which garnered your attention, and you turned to look at him. Those were eyes you had seen before in other men. You couldn’t tell if you liked the expression that resided there or not. “Something more?”

“I like you, Y/N,” he confessed simply, nodding to himself as he smiled sadly. “But you don’t like yourself enough to let me in.”

“I like myself,” you responded, a little surprised by his conclusion. “I just don’t trust others.”

“Because someone who didn’t deserve your love hurt you, I get it. But I’m not him, I’m not going to hurt you,” he assured and as you stared into his eyes, you knew he believed in his statement. You smiled; Kihyun would definitely make someone giddily happy to have as their boyfriend. You then let your smile fall away.

You couldn’t let him be your boyfriend.

“I had a nice time.”

“You were waiting to see if I would make a move, is that how you used to do things with men? Expect the horse to rush out of the gate from the get-go?”

You gaped at him, unsure where the confidence came from within him to address you like that. He smiled sadly once again. “As I said, you don’t like yourself.”

“You have no right to pass judgement on my life, Yoo Kihyun.”

“You’re right, I don’t. Nor do you have to categorise me like the men before me either. I’m not going to do anything you don’t want,” he told you simply, shrugging before placing his hands in his lap.

It infuriated you, even more so that his words were making you feel weak. You hadn’t been aware of how much you longed for someone to take care of you like this. To speak to you as he was. It was charming and before you recognised the desire to, you were kissing him passionately. Kihyun caught your movement well enough, stabilising you against him as he kissed you back.

You tasted the longing he had endured over the past eight months of knowing you. Perhaps, some of that stemmed from your own desires. You had painted Kihyun as the nice guy one too many times in your mind, the type you would date in a heartbeat if you weren’t so messed up.

You honestly believed you hadn’t been his type.

Yet as his lips continued to press into yours, begging for more, you wondered why you had been so blind all along. He had been always there for you. Ready to help you solve any issues, to wipe away your tears even if you couldn’t tell him why. He made you smile more than you could count, and he was incredibly comforting to be around.

You couldn’t lose this.

Jerking back your head, you then shook it, clambering out of the car and towards the apartment complex. Kihyun managed to get in front of you, gasping noisily from how much air you had sucked out of him and from his haste to ensure you didn’t get too far away so quickly.

“Is that it? You’re going to run away after one kiss?”

“Why, do you want to come upstairs and sleep with me and find out how much of a mess I am when I decide you’re too good for me then?” you countered and he cursed lowly, running a hand through his hair.

“I’m not too good for you.”

“Kihyun, I’m a mess, you pointed it out. Don’t get involved with me.”

“Why not? My favourite person in this world is standing in front of me right now and she just kissed me too. Am I not allowed to fight for this?”

“Do you have some kink about fixing broken girls?” you spat and he shook his head honestly. You sighed; you were so quick to break anything before it began. Tears welled in your eyes and he reached for you then, hugging you softly. You clung to him, burying in deep. “I’m scared.”

“I know you are.”

“I like you too,” you mumbled into his neck, feeling safe despite your worry. This embrace couldn’t ease your heart even though you want it to. “But I can’t be with you, not like this.”

“Come to me when you can then.”

It wasn’t as awkward as you thought it would be to go to the office on Monday. Kihyun smiled at you as he always did, and Minhyuk was non-stop chattering about some girl he met at the singles night he went to. It felt as if everything had slipped back into the way they always had been, the forbidden kiss not spoken of for the rest of the week. In fact, three weeks passed and Kihyun continued to be how he had always been with you. He worked on projects with you, laughed with you and supported you when you needed it.

It bothered you that you didn’t have the confidence to talk to him about that night the longer time slipped between you.

You decided to seek help. After all, the way your brain was conflicted over him, you needed to do something. Talking to Minhyuk about it would end with him locking the pair of you up together until something happened. And whilst that was a proactive approach, you knew you needed to make this one on your own.

Having someone to talk to about your past, about the pain you had inflicted on yourself was empowering. You had started to heal. Of course, it was early days, but you had actually started to love yourself properly. All these years you had believed you did, your protection towards your heart seeming as a sign of just that. But it was stunting your ability to grow from the experience.

“Minhyuk’s busy with his girlfriend tonight,” Kihyun mentioned in the elevator with a sigh and you glanced at his pouting face. “I guess I’ll have to spend another night alone watching Netflix. Don’t get a roommate that you’re not prepared to share with someone else, Y/N.”

You giggled, poking his arm playfully. “You have other friends, hang out with them.”

“None of them like my taste in movies.”

“I do.”

He arched an eyebrow, the ghost of a smile appearing on his lips. “The last movie we watched just you and I was a complete failure.”

“So you do remember.”

“How could I forget? Remember, you’re one of my favourite people.”

“I distinctively recall you saying I was your favourite person, Kihyun. Since when did I have to share the spot?”

Kihyun grinned, stepping outside into the sunny mid-morning. “I’m not sure if you get to keep that top spot when I’m not yours.”

“Who says you’re not?” you asked, stepping in front of him and placing your hands on your hips. “My favourite person in the world is standing right in front of me.”

“Is he just?”

You nodded dramatically. “Except, he didn’t just kiss me, so maybe he’s not worth fighting for.”

“Rude!” he quipped and you fell back into step at his side, glancing down at his hand swinging loosely at his side. You reached for it, entwining your fingers with his. Kihyun glanced down at your linked hands and then smiled. “No kiss?”

“I’m all about taking it slow these days, how do you feel about that?” you offered, feeling giddy from just holding his hand. Kihyun squeezed it gently, letting you know just how much he liked it as well.

“As long as I’m with you, we can take all the time in the world.”

_________________

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[purple-emo]

Princess Lavinia: Chapter One

Description: Roman projects his feelings onto a fictional character. Things get out of hand.

Pairings: Platonic prinxiety has a lot of focus in this chapter, but the real pairing here is Roman x depression

Warnings: Suicide, suicidal ideation, dissociation(?)

Notes: Seriously, don’t read this if you’re not in the appropriate frame of mind to read about suicide. Also, first fic on the new blog! Yay!

Roman’s adventures with Princess Lavinia started off fairly innocent. He’d made himself a small kingdom in the mind palace in which to conduct magical adventures, and, with the other sides frequently too busy to join him in his exploits, it wasn’t long before Roman saw the need to create an adventuring companion as well. She was the archetypal fairytale princess: pretty, kind, and able to fill any role that the narrative required of her. Because she was created by Roman, Lavina lacked the capacity to do anything that Roman’s own imagination could not conceive, but, as the embodiment of creativity, he didn’t feel at all restricted by this limitation. Lavinia quickly became one of Roman’s favourite hobbies: when he needed a break from his work, he would excuse himself to his kingdom. There, he would act out a variety of stories with Lavinia: saving her from dragons; exploring ancient ruins with her; defending their kingdom from armies of hostile elves. The many enemies they slayed left no corpses behind, instead exploding into red rose petals. Death was messy, and Roman thought it best to avoid dealing with it too directly.

“You’re my best friend,” he had Lavinia say after one particularly eventful quest, “and I would slay all the monsters in the world with nothing but a hand fan just to keep you safe.”

“Oh, that’s good,” he replied, writing the line down in his notebook. His adventures with Lavinia were an excellent source of dialogue. Later, he had her do exactly the thing she had described, and then did it himself just to see what it was like. It was wonderful.

♥♥♥♥♥♥

Gradually, Roman found himself spending more time with Lavinia than with the other sides or Thomas. He loved his friends, but his interactions with them didn’t quite sparkle the way his stories did. Nobody and nothing was dramatic enough, or emotional enough, or real enough, except for that one little piece of the mind palace and the make-believe Princess living in it. Everything else in Roman’s life felt unbearably boring, and although his friends made things a lot more tolerable, they could never compete with the products of his own imagination.

One afternoon, while they were enjoying a picnic after a successful battle, Lavinia turned to Roman with a frown. “Are you okay?” She asked. “Your heart didn’t really seem to be in it today.”

“Oh, it’s nothing.” He stared down at his untouched sandwich.

“It’s not nothing! You can talk to me about anything, Roman. That’s what I’m here for, I think.”

Roman sighed. “I don’t know,” he replied. “I guess the whole… fairytale adventure thing feels a bit hollow right now.” So does everything else, he nearly added. “I think right now I’d prefer something more…” he gestured vaguely, trying to find the right word.

“Mature?” Lavinia suggested.

“Maybe. I think what I want is emotional depth. Swordfights and dragons are fun, but I think I’m not really feeling it right now.”

“Hmmm…” Lavinia looked down and fidgeted with her hair, taking in this new information. After a few seconds, she met Roman’s eyes again, sorrow written clearly in her expression. “I’m cursed,” she announced. “Someone has taken my heart and locked it up in a faraway, secret place, so that I can never really be human again.”

Roman scribbled excitedly in his notebook, letting a wave of sorrow and pity wash over him. It felt beautiful. “That’s terrible. How can we break the curse?”

Lavinia stared at Roman in silence for a few seconds, and he suddenly felt as if she was looking directly into his soul. “I don’t think we can,” she said.

♥♥♥♥♥♥

For the next few weeks, Roman spent most of his time with Lavinia, fleshing out her backstory. He wrote it all down in his notebook for future reference: Lavinia’s villainous twin sister, exiled to a distant land for her crimes; her desperate desire to impress her father, the king—all of it was carefully summarized in neat, princely handwriting for incorporation in future creative projects. Roman felt genuinely passionate for the first time in a while. Meeting with Lavinia and learning more about her became the highlight of his day; the stab of sorrow he felt in his gut whenever she disclosed something particularly tragic was invigorating. It made him feel so much more alive than he had in weeks. And then—

“I shouldn’t be alive,” said Lavinia.

Roman had, on some level, seen it coming. After all, he was the one coming up with Lavinia’s lines, however passively. This did not prevent him from nearly dropping his notebook in shock. It hurt to hear her say that, and he loved it.

“Why?” He asked her.

“I’ve been thinking about the curse,” Lavinia explained, “and the more I think about it, the clearer it becomes that I was wrong. It wasn’t a curse at all; I had no heart to take because I was never real enough to have one. This body,” she ran a shaking hand along her arm, “people like to make up stories about it. They imagine that it is a princess, and that her name is Lavinia, and that she is kind and cheerful and brave,” Lavinia was crying, “but it’s a corpse, and I am a ghost who has stolen it.”

“What are you going to do now?” asked Roman. He noticed a small knife in Lavinia’s hand. How long had it been there?

“I don’t know,” Lavinia admitted, staring down at the knife. “Too many people think Lavinia is real. I don’t want to disappoint them.”

The knife quickly dissolved into rose petals, and Roman felt a strange sense of disappointment as he watched them slip through Lavinia’s fingers.

♥♥♥♥♥♥

It was three days before Lavinia went through with it. When she pressed the knife to her throat, Roman begged her not to do it. He didn’t mean it of course (the whole scenario was still his idea); he just felt like it would ruin the immersion for him to just stand around and do nothing. Inevitably, she cut her throat. Inevitably, Roman held her in his arms and watched blood flow from the wound with the detached voyeurism of an author writing a tragedy. Inevitably, she exploded into a shower of rose petals.

Roman stayed sitting on the floor for a while, blood on his clothes and rose petals in his hands. His heart was racing, and he felt like his whole body was soaked with sweat. That beautiful, overwhelming sword of pain was stabbing through his heart with an intensity he had never before felt. It was agonizing, and it was glorious.

Roman snapped his fingers, and Lavinia was back in front of him, unharmed.

She went for the knife immediately.

They went through the scenario five more times, trying out different lines, different actions on Roman’s part, different ways for Lavinia to hurt herself. Roman was preparing himself for another run-through when he felt himself being pulled out of the mind palace.

He rose up in his usual spot. “Roman—“ Thomas, who had evidently summoned him, cut himself off with a gasp. “Oh my gosh. Are you okay?”

Roman glanced around the room. Patton, Logan, and Virgil were all there in addition to Thomas, and all of them were staring at Roman with varying amounts of horror and concern. Roman abruptly remembered that he was covered in blood.

“Don’t worry,” he assured Thomas. “It’s not mine.”

Nobody looked particularly comforted by the clarification. “Do I want to know?” asked Thomas.

“Probably not. Anyway, what’s the situation?”

“Recently,” Logan explained, “Thomas has noticed that many of his ideas are much more melancholy in tone than usual. Remus swears that he isn’t the one responsible, so, logically, it must be due to your influence that Thomas is having these ideas.”

Panic filled Roman’s chest. “I’m sorry—“

Thomas cut him off. “I’m not mad. I’m totally fine with using darker concepts in my work if that’s what you think is best. I just want to make sure you’re okay.”

“You haven’t been talking as much lately,” Patton added, “and some of the concepts you’re giving Thomas are a bit… out of the ordinary for you.” He made eye contact, looking noticeably concerned. “We just want you to know that you can talk to us if there’s something wrong.”

Anguish returned to Roman’s chest, feeling more agonizing than cathartic. He’d failed. He’d let his feelings get in the way of his work, and now everyone thought there was something wrong, and they were all looking at him with those kind, worried expressions that he knew he didn’t deserve.

What would they think if they knew what he’d been doing all afternoon? Roman glanced down at the blood on his clothes and decided that everything was fine. It had to be.

Roman laughed, perhaps a bit too loudly. “Thank you all, but I’m fine, really. I just wanted to try some new ideas. On a scale of one to ten, how much do you love them?”

Virgil stared suspiciously at him from across the room. “Do your ‘new ideas’ involve you rising up covered in blood and looking like you just saw a serial killer? I saw the look on your face when Thomas summoned you. There’s something you’re not telling us.”

“I was having one of my adventures just now, and things got a little intense,” Roman said, his heart racing. “Not everything has some deep hidden meaning behind it, The Smell Jar.”

“That was childish, even for you,” said Virgil, “but I like the Sylvia Plath reference.”

“Ah, Sylvia Plath,” said Logan. “Did you know that, in addition to her writing, she also made visual art?”

Roman’s strange behaviour forgotten, the conversation moved on.

♥♥♥♥♥♥

Over the next several weeks, Roman found himself with less and less motivation to do anything but run through stories with Lavinia. He told himself that he was still being productive—he continued to write things down in case they came in handy for a future creative project, even though his “adventures” in the kingdom were all far too violent and depressing to ever be turned into something useful for Thomas. Roman hardly ever wanted to tell stories about anything other than suicide. It was, of course, only a matter of time before things escalated further.

One day, after around the eighth time Lavinia had died, Roman realized that his usual routine was starting to get boring. That dazzling anguish in his chest was diminishing in intensity. He needed something more real, something more personal. He needed—

Roman snapped his fingers, and Lavinia appeared looking much more alert than she had in weeks.

“I want to die,” he told her.

♥♥♥♥♥♥

That day, Roman attempted suicide nine times. None of it was real, of course, but he did his best to make it feel real. Lavinia pulled him close, kept him back from the windowsill, repeated over and over again every reason Roman could think of for him to stay alive. He told himself it was only acting. By the third time, he felt as if he was on the verge of tearing in half: one part of him, his body made of shaking, warm metaphysical flesh, stayed with its feet planted firmly on the ground. The rest of him drifted in and out of sync with his body, bobbing and pulling up to the sky like a balloon tied to his wrist. At the time, it seemed overwhelmingly important to Roman that he find a way to cut the string: it was strange, being only halfway outside of his body. He would have greatly preferred to drift away entirely, to break into pieces and sail through the sky to places unknown.

He told himself it was only acting.

It was fairly late in the afternoon when Roman remembered his notebook. Head still spinning from the previous several hours, he reached into his pocket and found it empty. He’d forgotten the notebook. In its place, Roman summoned a slip of paper and a pen. He’d copy his notes down later.

♥♥♥♥♥♥

Roman headed back to his room a few minutes later. He still felt somewhat disconnected from his body, but the feeling was fading fast. He made an effort to notice the colours of things. White walls. Brown rug. Black shoes. Roman was still naming colours when he opened the door to his bedroom and saw Virgil pacing nervously around the room.

At the sound of the door opening, Virgil turned to look at him. His eyeshadow was smudged, and he looked like he’d been crying. He was holding his phone in one hand and Roman’s notebook in the other.

There was a long pause. Roman internally braced himself for yelling, or crying, or deeply awkward emotional conversation.

“You weren’t answering your phone,” Virgil said finally.

Roman gestured to his dresser, where his phone sat partially obscured by a small stack of loose paper. “I didn’t have it with me.” He watched Virgil quickly type something. “What are you doing?”

“I’m texting Patton. I was worried, so I asked him to go look for you.”

“Oh.” Roman suddenly felt very nervous. “I’m sorry. Does he know about…?”

“This?” Virgil held up the notebook. “No. I found it when I was in here looking for my nail polish.”

Roman walked over to a nearby drawer and produced a bottle of black nail polish with a little Jack Skellington face on its lid. He’d ‘borrowed’ it a few weeks prior for some now-abandoned photography project, and subsequently forgotten about it. “Here.” He handed it to Virgil.

“Thanks,” said Virgil, slipping the bottle into his hoodie pocket. “I’d remind you to stay out of my room, but it looks like we have more important things to worry about right now.”

There was another pause. “You probably want to talk about that, don’t you?” said Roman, gesturing to the notebook in Virgil’s hand.

“Yeah. Can we go somewhere else—I mean, if you’re comfortable—”

Roman waved a hand, and suddenly they were in the castle he’d created for Lavinia. The light of a full moon streamed through a floor length window, illuminating the antique-looking couch that was the centerpiece of the room. An archway opposite the window led out to a pristine, wallpapered hallway. “Is this good?”

“Yeah, thanks,” Virgil said nervously. He walked to one of the couches and sat down with strained formality. Roman quietly took a seat next to him. “So, um… first question: who’s Princess Lavinia?”

“She’s a character I created. This,” he gestured to the room around them, “is where she lives. I come here when I’m craving adventure.”

“So, she’s like an imaginary friend?”

“Basically. She’s upstairs, if you want to meet her.”

“I…” Virgil glanced down at the notebook. “No thanks. I want to talk to you. Second question: what’s the deal with this notebook?”

“That’s where I document my adventures with Lavinia, in case they come in handy for scriptwriting or something similar.

Virgil nodded. “Okay.” He took a deep breath. “I guess what I have to ask is… why all the suicide? Like, at least half of this notebook is just Princess Lavinia killing herself in different ways. That’s not exactly an ‘adventure.’ It sounds more like you’re having some kind of mental breakdown that you cope with by standing in an imaginary castle and watching a fictional character die over and over, which is honestly pretty concerning.”

“I am not having ‘some kind of mental breakdown,’” Roman insisted. “I am acting. What, am I not allowed to tell stories with emotional depth?” That last question came out a lot more aggressively than Roman had intended, but before he could apologize, Virgil was already responding.

“This isn’t emotional depth! This is the same emotion repeated over and over for, like, forty pages!” Virgil paused. “Is this what you were doing that day you showed up covered in blood?”

“Yeah. That was basically when it started.”

Virgil paused, taking in this information. “That was a month and a half ago,” he said, horrified.

Roman felt sweaty. “It’s not as bad as it sounds. You don’t need to worry—”

“Have you forgotten who you’re talking to?” snapped Virgil. “Of course I’m going to worry! I’m Anxiety, and you’ve been roleplaying suicide fantasies with your weird self-insert OC for—” he stood up and flipped frantically through the pages of the notebook. “Have you been doing this every day?”

Roman nodded, very much wishing he could escape the conversation.

Virgil swore quietly. “This explains so much.”

Roman stood up and awkwardly extended a hand to comfort him. “It’s really not that big of a deal.” He was suddenly aware of an inexplicable sense of urgency.

Virgil stepped backwards, avoiding Roman’s touch. “Not that big of a deal? Are you kidding me? You barely talk to anyone at all anymore, you give Thomas either weirdly depressing ideas or nothing at all, and you literally spend all your free time thinking about suicide. If you actually think you’re in any way okay, then you’re either deeply in denial or a complete idiot.”

“I’m not…” Roman trailed off. Somehow, he couldn’t think of a rebuttal. He went over the past few months in his mind and realized that Virgil was right. “I haven’t been myself,” he admitted, sinking back onto the couch. “I don’t think I’m even real, actually.” Roman buried his face in his hands, fighting back tears. He was suddenly very conscious of how exhausted he felt.

The room was silent for several long seconds.

“What do you mean?” asked Virgil.

Roman looked up, and saw that Virgil had quietly taken a seat next to him. What did Roman mean? Of course he wasn’t real—none of them were, but Roman’s words had meant something more than that. Looking at Virgil, he got an impression of existence that he hadn’t gotten from himself in a long time. Virgil was Virgil, in a way that Roman could never hope to be Roman. It occurred to him that perhaps he’d been projecting onto Lavinia a bit more than he’d realized.

“I’m supposed to be better than this,” said Roman. “I’m supposed to be Prince Roman, source of Thomas’ hopes and dreams. I’m supposed to be Creativity. I’m supposed to be kind, and charming, and brave, but I’m just…” he trailed off. “If I can’t give him anything to look forward to, what good am I? Why should I exist?”

Roman hadn’t expected himself to say that. “This is a problem,” he said through tears, “isn’t it?”

“Yeah,” said Virgil. They sat in silence for a moment before he spoke again. “Look, um… it might not mean much, because our situations are kind of different, but I used to think that I didn’t contribute anything useful, and that everyone would be better off without me, and that it wouldn’t matter if I removed myself from the equation. Do you remember what happened when I actually left?”

Roman stared thoughtfully at the carpet. “Thomas became a complete fool with no inhibitions.”

“Right! Because I was wrong, and so are you.”

Roman considered this for a moment. The words were so simple, and yet, somehow, Virgil’s reassurance felt so much more comforting than any of the things he’d had Lavinia say to talk him down. “That… actually helps a lot. Thank you.”

“Anytime.” Virgil crossed his arms thoughtfully. “We should probably tell Thomas to see a therapist or something. If you’re… like this, he probably isn’t doing great either, whether he realizes it or not.”

Roman nodded. “That’s probably a good idea. Just…” he hesitated, “can we keep this a secret? The things I just told you about, I mean.”

“Are you sure?” asked Virgil. “It seems like something he should know about.”

“I’m sure.” Roman felt a surge of panic. He couldn’t let the others know. He wasn’t quite able to explain to himself why, but it felt crucial that everything he and Virgil had discussed should remain between the two of them. “I don’t want to have that conversation yet. Besides, maybe therapy will fix it. If Thomas feels better, I’ll feel better, and then we won’t have to bring it up at all.”

Virgil looked doubtful, but nodded anyway. “Okay,” he said. “I won’t tell anyone, but I’m holding onto the notebook. If you ever seem like you aren’t safe, I’m not keeping this a secret.”

Fair enough. “Deal,” said Roman, holding out his hand to shake. Virgil started to reach for it, but paused.

“Wait,” said Virgil. “One more thing. Actually, two more things. Number one: I want us to stay here tonight, because I really don’t feel comfortable leaving you alone.”

Roman thought back to the day’s events, neatly recorded on the slip of paper concealed in his pocket. He had a feeling that if Virgil knew the exact details of what he’d been doing, he would be requesting a lot more than permission to supervise him for a single night.

“That’s probably a good idea,” Roman admitted. “What else?”

“This is more of an offer than a request, but,” Virgil nervously ran his fingers along a seam on his sleeve, “I could join you here sometimes, if you want. Just so you won’t be spending all day alone with your thoughts.”

Roman thought for a moment. “Are you open to the possibility of magical adventures?”

“Sure,” said Virgil. “But only real adventures; no weirdly-emotionally-intense-and-bordering-on-self-harm adventures.”

Roman had a feeling that he might regret this later, but he had a much stronger feeling that Virgil’s offer was exactly what he needed. “Perfect,” he said. They shook hands.

Virgil gave a small, relieved smile, which Roman returned. He wondered how long it had been since the last time he’d genuinely smiled. A few days? A week? A month?

They fell asleep on the couch, listening to the Death Note musical on Virgil’s phone.

#sanders sides #roman #ts roman #roman sanders #angst #fanfiction #cheryl writes stuff

[mss4msu]

Call Me Doctor. Chapter 17

Summary: Fresh out of graduate school, you had somehow landed a spot in the faculty of a prestigious university. The small anthropology department has too many faculty and too few offices; sharing an office does not go as you expected.

Pairing: Professor!Steve x Professor!Reader 

Words: 2004

Warnings: Language, steamy flirtations

A/N: I’m horny so (Y/N) is horny. Big wheels keep on turnin’, slow burn keep on burnin’. 

Catch Up On The Story Here

Your stomach was fluttering with giddy anxiety as you rode the bus to campus Monday morning. Last night you had stayed up later then you should have texting with Steve, despite the fact that you both knew you would see each other just a few hours later. Things had started lighthearted as you discussed how he and James did in their race, and moved into more romantic topics as the night went on. You hadn’t pegged Steve as the kind of guy to use emojis, but it seemed every other message you had either a kiss face emoji or heart eye guy coming your way. 

Your heart was pounding as you walked up the stairs and gently turned the handle of your office door. You pushed open the door and couldn’t help the huge grin that spread over your face as you walked in and saw Steve smiling back at you over the screen of his computer. 

“Good morning!” you chimed as you went over to your desk and set your bag down, taking off your jacket. 

“It is now,” Steve replied, getting up, closing the office door, walking over to you, and pulling you in for a long kiss. 

“Should we be doing this in the office?” you asked hesitantly, but not wanting him to stop. 

“I can think of a lot worse things we could be doing in this office,” Steve replied with a devilish grin. 

Your eyes widened and the tingling of lust grew in your latter half at the idea of Steve pushing the books off of your desk and pushing you onto it. You pulled him back in for a deeper kiss. You were soon interrupted by a knock at the door. Steve hastened back to his desk so as not to raise suspicion while you said, “Come in.”

“Hope I’m not intruding on anything,” James winked at you as he saw how red both your and Steve’s faces were. 

“What could you possibly be interrupting?” Steve asked.

You rolled your eyes in response to both of them.  

James smirked as he pulled up a chair at the table, “So, mom and dad, since you two have been busy at work on the actual content of the museum thing, Tony has delegated that Nat and I have to plan the opening party for it. Do you know when we should be planning it for? Can’t be that hard to open a museum, right? You’ve been working on it for long enough now it must be about ready.”

“Fuck,” Steve muttered and looked at you with apologetic eyes.

“Yes, due to all of my hard work,” you emphasized this, as Steve had done hardly anything to help aside from make rude comments about the text you had written for the displays, “it is almost done.”

“Great, so when is the opening?” 

“Erm…” you looked at Steve with a mix of panic and confusion on your face.

“Seriously, Steve did you not fucking help (Y/N) at all with this? Y’all got time to fuck around in here but not do your damn work?” James’s serious tone was quickly replaced with a chuckle.

“First of all, we have not been ‘fucking around’.” Steve said sternly.

“And second?” James asked, putting his hands under his chin in mock anticipation. 

“And second,” Steve continued, “I recognize that I am an asshole and will be helping (Y/N) get everything in order, even if it means having to stay late.”

“Yeah, I bet you’d like to stay late with her,” James raised his eyebrows at Steve.

You couldn’t help but let out a little giggle as your stomach fluttered, “James, I’m sure we can get everything up and ready in 2 weeks. I’ve already gotten most of the text finished and found images we can use. The objects have been selected already and I’ve worked with the security company to get everything installed in time.”

“Alright, we’ll Tony says the opening is next Friday anyway, so that’s great that you can agree with him,” James became much more sheepish after this reveal. 

“Are you fucking kidding me?” Steve began to fume, “Of course Tony already had a date in mind. You could have fucking led with that Buck.”

“Woah, woah, woah, I am being used by Tony to plan an event and tell you, keep that anger to yourself buddy.”

“James, we’ll get it done. If you need any help with the opening planning, let me know. I’m sure I could help brainstorm themes or whatever you need.”

“Thanks, (Y/N)! I’ll try not to stress you out with the party planning too much, but could use the creative help I’m sure. Well, I’ll leave you two lovebirds to the museum planning,” James said as he got up, “Or whatever else it is that you do in here while the door is shut,” he winked and closed the door just in time to miss being hit by the book Steve had thrown at him.

“He is obnoxious,” Steve sighed, shaking his head in exasperation.

“It’s fine, all his teasing must just mean that you really like me. I don’t think he’d try to get on your bad side if you didn’t,” you smiled at him. 

He turned red in response and cleared his throat, “What can I help with for the museum thing? I really am sorry that I haven’t contributed as much as I should have.”

You grabbed your notebook full of the final to-do’s for the museum and walked over to Steve’s desk, “Here’s what needs to be done still. I have to run off to my class, I’ll hurry back so we can tackle what’s left on the list together.”

As you began to turn away, Steve grabbed your arm and pulled you back to him, kissing you deeply before letting you go, the way his eyes hungrily watched as you grabbed your things and left the room gave you shivers of pleasure as you left.

You weren’t even sure if you had lectured about everything you had intended to and felt like you were on autopilot when you reminded everyone that their midterm papers were due to you by the end of the week. Steve had consumed your mind before, but never like this. Students came up to you after class to ask questions, but you could hardly stay focused on what they said before your brain wandered to the thought of Steve pulling you back to him before you had left for your class. You eventually just told the students wanting to talk to you to send you an email with their questions as you “had to get going”. As you half-jogged back to your office, you mind drifted to all the immodest things you wanted Steve to spend the day doing to you. You took a deep breath outside of your office, willing yourself to keep it together as you walked in. Steve was hard at work in the corner with headphones in, eyes lost to his computer screen. You put your things down at your desk and snuck up next to him, planting a kiss on his cheek which finally broke his concentration. 

“How was class?” he asked you, taking his reading glasses off and leaning back in his chair. 

“It was alright, I had more important things on my mind though,” you couldn’t help your eyes from drifting down his body. 

“Oh?” 

Your eyes snapped up from their traveling to see Steve licking his lips. 

“Yeah,” you gulped, “like this damn museum project,” you gestured to his computer. 

“I worked on it while you were gone. I would just like to reiterate how sorry I am for not helping and for being so difficult on the parts you did reach out to me for. All of the content you have here is really great, I’m just going through and making some edits to grammar and skimming down bits so they aren’t so long. I know you’re passionate about Egypt, but that section is way too much for anyone going through a museum to want to read.”

You rolled your eyes, “Says the guy who added two paragraphs to each portion of text on World War II I wrote.”

“Hey, I fully intended to go back through that and edit some out there too.”

“Mhm, I’ll believe it when I see it.”

The rest of the week proceeded in a similar way. You and Steve would sneak kisses with each other and took work breaks to flirt heavily with each other. You had to start leaving the door open, as your breaks became longer than your periods of working and you needed some accountability to keep yourself from jumping on top of him. Thursday night, you had dinner delivered to the office, as you knew staying late was the only way you would finish the last round of cutting objects from the exhibit so you would know what to present to X-Con the next day. It started out professional, as you really did need to finish your work. But as the work got finished, it turned into a makeshift date with you and Steve sitting at the table in your office, laughing over the remnants of your dinner. When the food was gone, Steve pulled you in for a kiss, which turned into multiple kisses. Tired of being at an awkward angle due to the table between you. You got up and motioned for Steve to move his chair away from the table. He obliged and you straddled his lap, taking his head in your hands and kissing him passionately. You began to lightly grind yourself on his lap, and felt something making his pants tighter.

The sound of the door creaking open made you both stop instantly. 

“Damn, (Y/N), get it,” you heard Natasha say from behind you.

Heart racing, you quickly slid off of Steve’s lap and turned around to see Nat and James standing in the doorway, both with their arms overflowing with streamers and balloons. 

You cleared your throat, “Ahem, what are you both doing here?” 

“Going through party decorations that we already have so that we know what we have to go out and buy this weekend for the opening,” James snickered.

“And why did that search bring you in here?” Steve asked, his face growing redder by the second.

“We thought custodial was in here and we need to be let into that storage area under the staircase,” Nat was attempting to keep her face professional, but let out a small giggle at the end.

“Custodial is definitely not in here,” you replied, smoothing down your hair.

“They are not, but they probably need to be after you two are done for the night,” James wheezed. 

That broke Natasha and she also started laughing, “Alright, see you two later,” she chimed, pulling James out of the room.

“Maybe we should call it a night?” you asked tentatively. 

“I think that’s for the best,” Steve replied, adjusting his pants before standing up. 

You and Steve spent Friday much less touchy and flirty, afraid that any contact between you would raise suspicion or provide James and Natasha more fuel to make fun of you both. You and Steve were just about to leave for your meeting with X-Con when you got an email from Scott Lang:

“Hey (Y/N) and Steve,

Sorry about the super late notice, but we’ve had something else come up (huge infestation of ants into this bank vault we were working on) and so we’ll have to reschedule today’s meeting. The only other time we have available before your opening is Sunday. Does that work?

~Scott”

“Shit,” you sighed, “Steve, the security team had to cancel. They said Sunday is the only time that will work for them.”

“Well, we don’t really have a choice then, do we?”

“Not really,” you sat back down at your desk and speedily typed out a response to Scott, agreeing on Sunday. 

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

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