#every time i see a nintendo direct i get my hopes up like a fool on the fucking dream of a twewy annoucnmcenet

[twinsky]

getting real tired of living in a world without a twewy sequel

#every time i see a nintendo direct i get my hopes up like a fool on the fucking dream of a twewy annoucnmcenet #and now that fucking #THAT FUCKINGB ANIME EXPO ART PLEASE PLEASE IM LITERALLY ON MY KNEES BRO DONTDO ITHS TO ME #txtbloggin #twewy #gamebloggin

[kuryoomi]

sex before lysol (kuroo x reader)

➸  genre: smut + fluff

➸  pairing: kuroo x reader

➸  word count: 2.5k

a/n: anon requested a secret manager relationship au, but i decided to take it a step further !! also, consider this smut fic my apology for not publishing in monthsㅡ aha. okay, bye and enjoy !!

➸  summary: the team couldn’t care less whether or not you dated their volleyball captain. the only problem is, the storage room that smells like it’s been fucked in.

one year.

it had been approximately one year since you became nekoma’s volleyball team manager.

and five months since you’ve started dating kuroo tetsurou.

when word got out that you were in a secret relationship with nekoma’s volleyball captain, nobody was surprised. in fact, everyone had expected it to happen eventually.

“it was kind of obvious.” kenma had bluntly stated while focusing on his nintendo switch.

“we could see the way you two stared at each other during practice.” yaku added, playful disgust showing up on his face, “all lovey dovey.”

“not to mention how kuroo-san acted when i hugged (y/n).” lev stated, shaking his head with arms crossed, “i thought i was dead afterwards for sure.”

you nervously laughed at their comments, fingers fidgeting together, “so, you guys don’t mind?” even though you knew they wouldn’t judge, you couldn’t help but be anxious of their reply.

“of course they don’t mind!” kuroo scoffed before pulling you closer to him by the waist, “who i date is none of their concern.” he leaned his head down to place a kiss against your forehead, easing your nerves.

kai laughed before nodding his head, “don’t be so apologetic, (y/n). we wouldn’t want kuroo to date anyone else! you’re the only one who can keep him under control, after all. well, besides kenma.”

kenma glanced up from his game screen, fingers still moving on the controls (god knows how), “that is true.”

yaku gave you a thumbs up, “just don’t get all lovey dovey during practice. i don’t know how much my stomach can handle it.” he shuddered.

“of course!” you giggled at yaku’s comment and beamed brightly, thankful for the support from your friends, “i definitely won’t mix in relationship with my job!”

ㅡ

well.

that’s what you had said before.

“tetsu..” was the first thing you muttered as his large hands found their way around your waist, enclosing your body with a back hug.

“yes, baby?” his reply whispered into your ear, automatically sending butterflies through your stomach in a rushed manner.

baby was such a simple, yet powerful nickname.

with the volleyball still tightly grasped in your hands, you inhaled deeply before continuing your sentence, “could you please go out there and help the others clean up? we have a chemistry test tomorrow, and i would like to go home to study as soon as possible.”

ignoring your pleas, your boyfriend hummed quietly while his slender fingers crept up under your chin, grabbing your face gently towards his direction. your eyes met with each other’s and you could see a hint of endearing lust resonating in his dark orbs. warmth gradually crept up on your face before you shook your head.

kuroo chuckled and you internally cursed at yourself for almost being distracted by his laugh.

it was safe to say that he knew you weren’t particularly fond of displaying physical affection, but that didn’t stop him. he didn’t care.

teasing you was all part of the fun in this relationship.

“why?” his warm breath tickled against your skin as small kisses trailed down your cheek, past your neck, and onto your collarbone, “i’d rather spend time in here with you.” 

you shook her head, “because tetsu, you’re the captain. you have responsibilities. andㅡ ah!”

while you were talking, his hands had slipped themselves past your shirt and onto your skin, his fingers gently caressing your stomach before sliding up to tease your breasts through your bra. 

“responsibilities?” an eyebrow quirked up while his voice muttered against your collarbone, “i don’t feel like taking responsibility of anything except you right now.” 

his finger were cold against your bare skin and your body was close enough for him to breathe on your collarbone. needless to say, you were pressed up against him and your heart was pounding like crazy.

“mm, your heart’s beating pretty fast,” another chuckle escaped his lips and you shook your head before playfully jabbing his stomach with your elbow. no matter how much he made your knees wobble, you weren’t giving in right now.

no way.

“tetsu.. the faster we clean up, the faster we’ll be able to go back home..” swiftly, you turned around so that your chest pressed up against his. your eyes were round at this point, an almost pleading look taking over your face, “please?”

kuroo inhaled sharply. 

why did you have to be so cute?

“you’re adorable, aren’t you?” he mumbled in ear one last time before clashing his lips onto yours, hungrily. startled by the sudden kiss, your hands dropped the volleyball that you were once holding and a small moan escaped your lips. you could feel his body press harder against yours, backing you up against the wall behind you.

you knew exactly where this was heading. 

“b-babe. everyone’s still outside!” you panted in between the kiss, hopeful that’d he’d cease his movements.

but it didn’t stop him.

“they’re too busy fooling around, (y/n).” he breathed into your ear, leaving shivers down your spine while his hot breath left you longing for more, “just be a good girl for me, will you?”

his lips crashed into you hungrily once more. you could feel his hand snaking around your body, feeling your every curve. one hand entangled around your hair and you gasped for breath. kuroo took advantage of this and snaked his tongue inside your mouth, claiming your lips to be his. he explored every inch of your mouth, not leaving a centimeter go by unnoticed.

you felt saliva drip down your lips and down your chin as he pulled away. a strand of saliva connected both of your lips together. no matter how many times the two of you had made-out, it always left you by surprise on how skilled he was with his tongue.

before you had time to process anything, his fingers trailed down your body gently. you gasped as a hand groped your left breast, massaging it roughly as if claiming what was his. your shirt was pulled up swiftly, making you bite only the fabric so he could clearly see your body. he unhooked your bra, leaving your upper body completely exposed and your face in heat. he groped you with his fingers- his tongue. he sucked on both your stiff buds, savoring your taste. you trembled beneath him. 

this made him chuckle.

moving on from your breasts, you felt his hand lifting one of your legs upwards to wrap around his waist, exposing the area between your legs even more.

“stay like this, babe.” kuroo smirked, fingers trailing downwards to your lower regions. one hand was placed on your chin, pulling your face up to distract you with a heated kiss as the other slowly undid your zipper-- pulling off your pants to only expose your panties. 

you gasped, only making entrance for his tongue once more. he moved his fingers up and down your clothed nether region, slipping his hand into your panties. you squirmed with each caressing touch he gave you. kuroo outlined your soaking entrance with his index finger, teasing your most sensitive area in your most vulnerable state. 

“you’re already this wet, (y/n)..” he whispered in an amused tone and looked down before licking his lips. slowly, he inserted two fingers inside you, stirring up your insides. widening your eyes, you tightly gripped onto his shoulder to keep your balance from failing. 

with both fingers moving rapidly inside you, he began to skillfully massage your clitoris with his thumb and it took everything inside you to not scream out in pleasure. feeling his fingers pump inside you, you moaned while digging your fingers deeper into his shoulder, your head spinning in pleasure.

you could feel his smirk widen at the way you reacted for him. after a few more thrusts, he ceased his movements completely, yet still keeping his digits inside you.

“t-tetsu!” you panted eagerly, “keep moving your fingers!”

he hummed softly, “are my fingers all you want?” his thumb pressed harder onto your clit, making you flinch.

“demanding as always, aren’t you?”

“ah!” looking up, your eyes met his and you gave him a desperate look, “you know i want more.."

"so?"

"give me more, testu."

in less than a second, kuroo forcefully turned you around so that your chest pressed against the storage wall. yelping softly, you quivered as he yanked both your pants and undergarment down to your ankles, exposing your bare skin to him. he cupped your ass with a hand, watching you struggle to accommodate the position.

both your hands were placed against the wall and your legs were parted just the slightest bit to display your drenched hole. kuroo inhaled sharply at this scene as his hand worked quickly to pull down his volleyball shorts and boxers, uncovering the bulge that had been bothering him for minutes. spitting into his left hand, he grasped his length and gave it a few pumps in preparation. his eyes never left your body, his eyes tracing every curve you had.

you glanced behind, confused by the silence and lack of movement, “babe?”

instantly, a hand wrapped itself around your eyes, depriving your sense of vision in a heartbeat, “h-huh?”

“don’t worry ‘bout it.” you could feel something jab harshly against your hole. 

you felt his hand caressing your inner thighs, making you sigh in content before violently pushing further apart. you were completely vulnerable to his touch, and he liked that.

no, he loved that.

your eyelashes fluttered in anticipation as he teased you for the last time by rubbing his tip against your swollen area. his precum oozed around his tip, the transparent liquid dripping down from the head. you squealed as he pressed the end of his shaft over your wet, sensitive folds. it wasn’t long before your cunt eagerly swallowed something thick and big.

“ah!” your back arched automatically in response to his erection as he rammed the rest of his length inside you. balls deep, he stays still to feel your walls pulse around him as you struggled to get used to his size. a loud moan escaped your lips as you felt his warm body hover closer to your body, his thrusts gradually increasing in tempo.

“fuck, (y/n).” he groaned while thrusting into your body deeper and deeper each second, “you’re tighter than usual.” you could hear his cheeky smile in the tone of his voice.

“s-shut up!” your head tilted upwards when he hit a certain spot, making you choke back the scream building up inside your throat. kuroo noticed this and continue to jam ruthlessly into the same spot repeatedly.

“oh?” he panted in amusement before chuckling between his thrusts, “it’s getting easier to find your pleasure spot, (y/n).” he leaned his head down and sank his teeth inside the nape of your neck before sucking the area of skin. the hand that covered your eyes slowly fell down, granting you with sight once more.

your sweaty bodies clashed against each other, the sound of skin echoing throughout the storage room. kuroo shoved in and out, biting your neck harder and harder each thrust. 

“so good..” you moaned loudly before slapping a hand over your mouth to cover your erotic sounds. 

speeding up his thrusts, kuroo grinned at the comments made by you. he could feel her dripping down his cock and balls, making a mess as he longed for his release. his thrusts were fast, yet calculated and it made you go absolutely insane.

“shit.” your boyfriend muttered under his breath between his groans, hair falling into his eyes and break a sweat. his breathing quickened and his thrusts became more and more intense with each passing second. his length buried deeper inside your cunt, touching your pleasurable spot with ease. pulling apart from your skin, he bit down onto his lower lip as a crease formed between his eyebrows. 

“you feel so fuckin’ good, (y/n).” his compliments made your knees wobble, edging you closer and closer to your release. in mere seconds, a familiar knot formed inside your stomach as your eyes widened.

“tetsu!” back arching further, your mouth was muffled by your hand as you screamed out his name, your muscles clenching together in the force of a powerful orgasm.

in the mist of your release, the faintest sounds of curses mixed in with your name escaped kuroo’s throat as he pulled out from your cunt, rapidly stroking his cock to chase after his own high. panting under his breath, he let out one last groan to signal his release before squirting all over your ass.

heavy panting filled the void of silence as the two of you slowly came down from your euphoric high. you felt small, light kisses trail up and down your back as if worshipping your body. knees weak from sex, you hesitantly turned around to face your boyfriend.

his hair was messy, and his eyes were gleaming with exhaustion and lust. his body was simmering with sweat, which just made his muscles more visible from underneath his volleyball uniform. his face had gone completely red, with bits of saliva on his lips. 

you stared as he ran his fingers through his hair, removing strands from his eyes so he could see better.

“kuroo tetsurou..” awed at the sight of your boyfriend, you mentally cursed yourself for being speechless like an idiot. kuroo took notice of this and chuckled, wrapping both arms around your waist, pulling you closer to him.

“sorry. couldn’t help myself.” he buried his face in the crook of your collarbone, “forgive me?”

internally giggling at his cute actions, you playfully pushed his sweaty body away from you, “okay, fine. you’re forgiven! let’s just be quieter next t-”

a loud knock interrupted your sentence, causing you to jump up in surprise.

“are you guys done yet?”

hand slapped over your mouth at the voice, you looked up at kuroo and he stared back with wide eyes.

shit, kenma!

ㅡ

“i thought you two died.” kenma sauntered into the storage room with equipment in his hands and his volleyball bag over his shoulders, “the others left since you two were taking forever to organize.” 

“ahaha, sorry about that.” you replied nervously, helping him dump all the volleyballs inside the ball cart, “all the equipment's were out of place.”

giving kuroo a side eye, your boyfriend caught your gaze and winked in response before clearing his throat loudly.

“yeah, i think i need to scold lev for shoving everything in here.” kuroo mumbled, as crouched down to swap his volleyball shoes to his regular ones.

“mm, i’ll talk to lev about it tomorrow.” kenma replied unenthusiastically before placing his bag on the floor. unzipping the bigger pocket, he reached in to pull out a can of lysol before shaking it.

much to your bewilderment, he started to calmly spray the entire storage room with his single can of lysol. the scent of lemon resonated throughout the area, catching kuroo’s attention from his shoes. 

“um, kenma.” kuroo’s eyebrow quirked up in confusion as he stood up, the same look on your face as well, “what are you spraying?”

“lysol.” kenma replied bluntly, his arm waving around to spray each and every corner of the storage room, “wouldn’t want it to smell like sex for tomorrow.”

#haikyuu!! #haikyu #hq #haikyuu imagine #haikyuu smut #hq smut #hq+thirst #haikyu x reader #hq kuroo #kuroo tetsurou #tetsurou kuroo #haikyuu kuroo #kuroo tetsuro x reader #tetsurou kuroo x reader #kuroo tetsuro oneshot #kuroo smut #kuroo #kenma kozume #kenma #nekoma #haikyuu headcanons #haikyuu thirsts

[crystaljins]

River lead me home | 01

Characters: Seokjin x Reader

Word count: 9.2k

Synopsis:  Ever since coming to the human realm when you were child, nothing seems to fit, and this was just supposed to be a simple roadtrip to help you find yourself.

Is that too much to ask for?

Spin-off to A long journey home

Rating: Teens

Notes: You guys are gonna laugh... I tried to upload this yesterday but it screwed up and only the title got posted! Naturally I deleted the post and didn’t get a chance to fix everything up, but it’s finally here! My monster of a fic !!!! Updates will be weekly. Honestly this fic took a lot to write, and it’s been 8 whole months of working on it!!! So I hope you guys enjoy it T.T If not I won’t be made though LOL (edit: @blue1928​ forgot to tag u soz)

p.s. I AM working on the HP prompts I’m just really busy this next couple of weeks LOL

Masterlist

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 FINAL

You’ve never really been particularly fearful of getting in trouble with your mother. She has always been a sweet and timid lady, the kind who would let her daughter get away with murder. And you are an adult, even if you don’t act like it, and so it’s not like your mother can do anything other than express her disappointment with your actions. 

Kim Seokjin, on the other hand, can have you quaking in your shoes with just a look. He was your nextdoor neighbour growing up, even before you all fled your home realm. He has since moved out of his parents’ home into his own apartment to pursue his dream as a doctor (and to take home as many lady friends as he likes without his parents’ knowledge), but he is still very much a stern presence in your life, even as one of your closest friends. He likely feels responsible for you, since though the two of you were young when you were driven into the human world, he is three years older. He did once refer to you as something like an untrained puppy, which you guess is very reflective of how he views you. The result of such feelings of responsibility is him trying his best to fulfill all the duties of being your legal guardian despite having no obligation to do so. The effect is him being terrifyingly stern with you, despite him being a calm, good-humoured guy with everyone else he meets.

Which is why, when you wake up in a hospital bed with your leg wrapped in a cast, you know that today is the day Kim Seokjin kills you. If the job interview that you completely messed up isn’t enough motive for him to seek you out, then the fact that you tried to stop a purse snatcher and ended up breaking your leg in the ensuing scuffle after said thief’s motorcycle fell on you most certainly is. 

In your defence, it wasn’t like you could just leave them be! Yes, you had not been back to your home realm once in the thirteen years since you and every other guardian were driven out, but at your core, you like to think you are still a Guardian. And so, as is custom, you cannot turn down a plea for help. And the young woman screaming in distress as a man on a motorcycle drove past and snatched her purse straight off her shoulder had certainly sounded like a plea for help! Really, Jin should be impressed, because the ensuing chase was something straight out of a movie, what with you in hot pursuit on your own bike (the one both your mother and Jin do not know you own). And you totally would have gotten the purse back if it wasn’t for the slight motorcycle crash. You’re not exactly sure what you hit since the events are a little blurry, but whatever it was, it ended up knocking you out and breaking your leg. 

A slight commotion breaks out at the entrance to the room and by the way onlookers swoon, you know that your time on earth is up. For the only person that can stir such a reaction upon entering a room is Kim Seokjin himself. Guardians naturally fit most of the qualifiers of what humans consider attractive, but even by Guardian standards, Jin is ridiculously handsome. Even though you find him boring and the biggest nag to walk the planet, not even you are immune to his disarming good looks. You could probably sense his aura blindfolded and your eyes are always drawn to him in a crowd and so you easily pinpoint him amongst the crowd of onlookers before he spots you. Today is his day off and so he does not wear his usual doctor’s gown. Instead a well fitted button up shirt and trousers highlights the broadness of his shoulders and the elegance of his figure as he strolls through the room as if he owns it. You recognise the style- that particular combination of button up and trousers are his date clothes. Your heart plummets when you recognise the outfit. Jin will be extra irritated about having to check on you in the hospital on his day off. Why did the paramedics have to take you here of all places? You’ve really signed your life away this time.

He pauses to smile at a nurse who passes by and she is immediately dazzled. Though he is no doubt furious with you, and is frequently irritated by your shenanigans, to the rest of the world he is charming and funny and good-tempered. You watch the exchange with curiosity- the nurse laughs at something Jin says and there’s a faint flush to her cheeks. You will probably never have such an exchange with Jin- even if he relaxed enough to make a joke in your presence, it would probably be at your expense. Jin’s taste in women is very obvious- he likes women that match him in beauty, ones that are fantastic at making you feel like a potato in comparison despite your guardian heritage, however unintentionally. Something in you twinges at the thought- you wouldn’t mind having a normal relationship with Jin. One where he smiles at you and makes jokes and actually enjoys your presence. But he’ll probably never view you like that- he’s made it very clear throughout your friendship what you are to him.

The nurse points in your direction and takes Jin’s distraction as an opportunity to trail her gaze appreciatively over his figure, settling on his profile. She must be new to the hospital if this is the first time that she is experiencing what Jin’s coworkers at the hospital describe as the “Jin effect”. Any humans (and most guardians for that matter) who meet him instantly succumb to his charisma and absurdly handsome face and find themselves desperately in love. This nurse is no exception and you decide to utilise the momentary distraction she has provided Jin when she attempts to get his number by attempting to slide off your bed and scurry away.

A tug at the back of your collar has you stiffening. If this were a movie, there would be an uneasy swell of high-tension violin as you turn your head to find Jin has grabbed the back of your shirt to stop your slow escape. He must have utilised a spot of enhanced guardian speed to be able to cross the room so quickly. The violins in your head begin to screech in terror. Jin merely smiles and it is eerily charming. His cheeks puff out and his lips curl in a way that would dazzle the average onlooker but you see the lethal intent in his eyes. You barely manage to hold back a fearful shudder.

“Nurse Jo!” He calls, and his tone is playful and sweet which contrasts directly with the venom in his dark pupils. In their depths you can foresee your death. “It seems one of our patients is trying to escape.” His tone darkens and drops on the last word and you flinch, preparing for the end.

Only it never comes, and you find Jin hoisting you up by the back of your shirt and with the help of security rushing forward they wrangle you back into bed. They do well- the average human doesn’t stand much chance against the superior strength of a guardian, and you are currently fighting for your life. But with Jin in the mix, they have you strapped to your bed in no time, forced to listen to whatever longwinded and painful lecture Jin has prepared for you

He stands at your bedside, arms folded across his chest. You mentally write your will in your mind- Taehyung can have your Nintendo switch and his girlfriend can go through your clothes and take any that she likes. Your mother gets anything worth more than $20 in your bedroom (though she might be searching for a while to find such an item, if it even exists) and Seokjin can get custody of your evil cat. Maybe it’ll scratch his stupidly handsome face up and you can get revenge from beyond the grave. 

“Are you going to tell me what happened?” Jin asks, and his voice is surprisingly calm. You look away, scratching at where the cast on your leg rubs at the skin of your shin. It’s stupid to wear the cast since with your enhanced healing abilities the break will be better by tomorrow, but the doctors of this world do not know that. 

You are not fooled by the almost friendly, interested tone to his voice- there is anger bubbling behind the mask of polite curiosity. Likely he is holding back to full force of his fury because this is his workplace.

“Well, I’d like to preface by saying I had no choice. Was I supposed to just let the robber go?” You say. You were attempting to placate him before elaborating on the full story, but it appears to have the opposite effect. Jin’s eyes bulge out of his head and his face goes that interesting shade of red that only appears when he’s very, very angry. 

“Robber? You took on a robber?” He says slowly, and you can tell it takes a few moments for the words to process. But gradually, the veins in his neck bulge and his eyes gradually widen and you wince as Jin erupts into what you like to call his “jants- Jin Rants.”. “Ya! Are you crazy? What were you thinking? What if you had been killed? I would have had to tell Auntie and then I would have had to organise your funeral because she would be inconsolable! If I even survived my parents trying to kill me for letting you die at the hands of a ROBBER of all people!” The impressive thing about a jant is the speed at which it is spat out. You are sure that professional rappers have nothing on the way Jin can spill out verses in a rage. He shoves a hand through his hair in distress and the ensuing messy look it generates is unfairly attractive- you think you see a middle-aged woman swoon in the hospital bed across from yours. Or faint. It’s hard to tell in a hospital. He continues screeching. “And then they’d PROBABLY make me MOVE BACK HOME as PUNISHMENT and there goes my social life! You could have ruined MY WHOLE LIFE, (Y/N)! What is wrong with you? Why do you always go making trouble like this?” It is those words, out of his whole rant, oddly enough, that causes you to stiffen. The implication that all you do is cause trouble. Which in a way you suppose you do. You cause your mother unnecessary worry- Jin is constantly sacrificing things to take care of you. Even your friends are constantly having to shout you meals due to your perpetual state of unemployment.

“I... couldn’t just leave it- they needed help, Jin.” You admit softly. Jin somehow hears your quiet admission over his furious jant and falls silent. He stares at you in confusion for a long moment, like he was expecting more of a fight, or some sort of annoying comeback. But the confusion is enough to subside his rage. The jant is over, with minimal damage. He drags over a chair and slumps by your bedside, once more running a hand through his hair. 

“You’re so reckless. Robber’s rarely pull stunts like that unarmed! You may have enhanced healing compared to a human, but you still die if someone stabs you! And this is your third ER trip this month!” He scolds and his tone is far gentler than before- not unlike how one might speak to a child, rather than someone a mere three years younger than him. You meekly bow your head, chastised. “How do you think auntie would feel if anything happened to you, (Y/N)? You may be a Guardian, but Guardians aren’t invincible. You, of all people, should know that.”

You flinch, feeling as though he’s slapped you. He’s clearly furious with you if he’s willing to choose such a sore spot to shame you. For the thirteen years you have been in the human realm, it has just been you and your mother. You have not been able to forget that fact for a single day. Every day you awaken afresh with the reminder that there is a third member to your family who should be there but is not. Your father’s life was lost as you all fled, and your mother had found herself widowed with a headstrong young child in a foreign and unfamiliar realm. Jin’s family have always been around to help because you haven’t exactly been an easy child to raise, but there are some burdens that no one can lift from a single parent.

 And you love your mother, and you really would do anything for your her. It’s just... you don’t want to pretend that you’re a human. For your entire time here, your guise as a human has felt like an itchy, poorly fitted jacket that you want to peel off and throw away. Humans are selfish and lazy and would leave a child on the side of the road and they’d been very quick to notice that you were different and target you for it- these are all things your father hated. To be human is to spit on the sacrifice he made for you... and yet to continue to fight it is also disregarding that he gave up his life to let you live in comfort. 

Jin, with his handsome face and ability to charm anyone he meets instantly, has never had an issue settling into the human realm, and so he’s never really understood why you cling so much to your former home realm. He knows that you’ve never truly stopped grieving the life of your father, but he cannot understand why you do not see the human world the way that he does. He had very much taken to being a human and enjoys all the perks that come with it- the technology, the fawning women, the interesting and unique cuisines... Jin adores human culture. And so, it irks him that you constantly seem to be sticking out like a sore thumb. 

“I’m sorry.” You say in a small voice and you’re so downcast that you miss the way that Jin’s face crumples with guilt. 

“Just... try to be safer in the future. This realm has its own law enforcement. We don’t need to be guardians here.” He tells you softly. Then he clears his throat awkwardly. “How was the job interview?”

It’s an act of mercy- he’s trying to save you any further misery by changing the subject. Unfortunately, you have yet to break the news to Jin; you bombed the interview. Massively. It’s not like it was even a job you were that invested in. Just a fulltime job that involved doing some admin in an office. The exact, safe, boring job your mother has dreamed of for you since coming here and the exact job Jin has been pushing you to apply for because he’s sick of his parents nagging him to lend you money or take you out for dinner or give you lifts because your car broke down and you can’t afford to fix it. But you messed it up and you hate yourself for it. Hate yourself for disappointing your mother, and, if you’re really honest with yourself, for disappointing Jin. You’re already so aware of how lowly he views you and this just makes it sting that little bit more.

But it is the exact kind of job that will slowly kill you inside. You are trying to kill the part of you deep down that longs for something more. You don’t even know what it is you want. But killing that part and settling into this world and its ways and its customs mean giving in. It means forgetting. And for thirteen entire years, you have not been able to forget. How can you, when you left a piece of yourself back there, on the battlefield where your father had lost his life for your sake? He was not even given the luxury of a grave and yet you are supposed to be comfortable and post pictures on Instagram about how happy you are and go to brunch and just enjoy life? You... you can’t do it.

“I... don’t know.” You finally say. You shrug and glance away. “It felt like it went well. We’ll see if they call me back.”

Jin visibly brightens, unaware of your lie. 

“I knew I had a good feeling about today!” He says warmly. “You’re totally going to get that job, I can feel it in my bones. Finally, my parents will get off my back!” He cheers. He probably means the last part as a joke but it’s just another sting; another reminder that Jin just sees you as a burden.

His celebration session is interrupted by an alert on his apple watch. He glances at whatever notification appear and winces. He glances at you like he’s done something wrong.

“I’ve got to go. I uh… I have a date.” He confesses. Jin is always tentative when he talks about the women he sees, like he’s anticipating some sort of reaction from you. You don’t know what reaction that would be, though, and you don’t think you’d ever feed his ego with any reaction other than a mild disgust and indifference. When you just continue to stare, he nods, more to himself than you. “I still have to sort all your paperwork to make sure you can get discharged so I probably can’t stay with you for your discharge. You don’t need a lift home, do you? I’ll probably have to drive straight there.”

Normally you would accept- though your broken bone heals faster than a human’s, it is still highly painful and inconvenient. But the thought of being in the car with Jin right now is highly unappealing. For some reason, lately when you spend time with Jin, you just feel more and more aware of how inadequate you are. You can’t help but notice the way people gravitate towards Jin. The way their eyes are constantly seeking him out or how a room brightens when he steps into it. And it’s not just his looks- it’s his everything. His demeanour, his smile, his success. He has taken to the human world like a fish to water and you just can’t. It’s not like you don’t want to. But his presence, his nagging, his constant disappointment with you… it’s a persistent, painful reminder of everything you can’t bring yourself to be. Not even for him, as much as you sincerely hate constantly disappointing him like this.

He adjusts his watch as you shake your head.

“I’ll just get the bus. I can still walk.” You say, plastering a smile on your face that hopefully seems sincere. Jin glares at you and reaches out to tap a finger against the firm plaster of your cast.

“Fine, but this stays on until tomorrow. I don’t care how fast you heal- I don’t want that leg healing crooked. Your mother will definitely notice if you suddenly have an extra bend in your shin. And no more chasing robbers- not even if it’s an old grandma with a cane being robbed. We stopped being Guardians for a reason.” He warns you. He adjusts his shirt cuffs and pulls out his phone to adjust his hair in the selfie camera before glaring at you. “I won’t tell Auntie about today because I don’t want her to worry. You can stay at mine tonight, so she doesn’t ask any questions when you hobble home in a cast.”

“Thanks.” You say and he’s oblivious to the bleak tone in your voice and the way your expression is downcast. If there’s one thing that has Jin oblivious to the rest of the world, it’s the prospect of a date. “Is the code to get in still the same?”

“I changed it to your birthday because that stupid pixie that always hangs around you worked out the code and keeps leaving my sugar open on the counter. I’m getting so many ants. I’m pretty sure he’s leaving it open for them.” Jin tells you already halfway turned around. You wisely choose not to tell Jin that you had told Jungkook the code to Jin’s apartment. Jin pauses before he can stride off. “Oh yeah. Auntie texted me- she wanted me to make sure you remember to come to dinner tomorrow and that you dress nicely. She has something important to say.”

“She could have just texted me herself.” You mumble, but Jin has already walked off, probably to sort the last of your paperwork before his date. A trail of sighing onlookers watch his departure. It just makes you scoff as you return to glaring at your cast. It itches.

You make a promise to yourself to use Jin’s kitchen scissors to remove it tomorrow so that he has at least some kind of inconvenience in his life. Nothing is more irritating than a blunt pair of kitchen scissors.

++++

Despite seeing Jin’s mother every other day, and renting the apartment directly across from her, your mother always acts like the president is coming over whenever Jin’s family comes for dinner. She pulls out the fancy glass bowls and the plates she bought with her first paycheck from the diner she was employed at when you were small. She vacuums the whole apartment and checks your room to make sure you’ve cleaned it in case Jin needs a bed to nap on after a long day at the hospital. 

She’s never quite managed to get the hang of human cuisine and since the human realm doesn’t hold the magic stores available to cook Guardian food the way that she learned, you are always the one to make dinner. You’ve never once complained because you know that on some level, this is your mother’s attempt to compensate. This is the closest you will ever get to having a community with other Guardians, and Jin’s dad is the closest thing you will ever have to a father. 

But even despite her usual frantic state whenever there’s a joint family dinner, she definitely seems more frazzled than usual. 

“Is it meant to smell like that?” She asks with a grimace, leaning in to look at the salad you’ve thrown some vinaigrette over. You glance over your shoulder from where you are checking on the food in the oven. 

“Yes, mum.” You say, standing and gently nudging her from the kitchen with a smile. “It’s vinaigrette- you liked it last time when I made it, remember? It’s why I made it tonight.” 

Your mother digs her heels into the ground before you can drive her from the kitchen and send her back to wiping the already sparkling cabinets in the living room. She turns to scrutinise you carefully. 

“Are you going to do your hair? It looks a little messy.” She frets. You raise an eyebrow. This is new. Your sweet, doting mother has never once criticised your appearance, not even when you went through that phase where you had an eyebrow piercing and dyed your hair neon green. Something is up. 

“It’s just Auntie and Uncle, right?” You say suspiciously. “They used to bathe me when we lived in magregnum, mum.” You say. Using the original term for your home realm feels foreign on your tongue and your mother’s expression shutters at the sound of her original home. 

“Well, a lot has changed since then.” She says softly. You’re about to question the strange, unfamiliar expression on your mother’s face. Something looks different about her... you squint when you recognise the shimmer of your favourite eye shadow on her lids. 

“Are you wearing makeup?” You question. Her eyes go wide, and you can’t help but notice that her lashes are curled. But her answer is interrupted by the sound of the doorbell. Your mother pales and instantly she switches back into her jittery, pre-dinner self. 

“Quickly, quickly!” She urges. “Dinner’s not ready yet!” 

You shake your head with a smile at your mother’s familiar antics. 

“It’s probably just Jin- Auntie and Uncle always make him come over earlier to help.” You call over your shoulder. You’re in a far better mood than you were yesterday, particularly after bending Jin’s kitchen scissors beyond repair during your attempts to remove the cast this morning before heading out and pretending you hadn’t been fired from your part-time job the week before. You had punched one of the senior managers for bullying the new hire. Your leg was mostly healed at that stage and Jin had told you that you could take the cast off before he left for work that morning. When you arrived back home in the afternoon, your mother had either chosen not to comment on your slight limp or had been too distracted by the stress of having dinner to notice. You are glad to have evaded her sad, disappointed eyes and the unwarranted comparisons to Jin for the day.  

After a long few moments of peace in the kitchen, you can’t help but notice the lack of an annoying presence hovering over your shoulder. Usually when Jin arrives, he makes a beeline straight for the kitchen so that he can sample whatever it is you’re making and proclaim it decent (and then try and sneak some extra portions later in the evening when he thinks you aren’t looking). The complete lack of Jin’s presence to do whatever the kitchen equivalent of back seat driving is has you pausing with a sense of unease. It is the first clue that something is up- the door opens and yet the older guardian doesn’t make an appearance. Confused, you pause midway through pouring out melted chocolate from a glass measuring cup and glance over your shoulder. 

“Minyo Dolkara,” is your mother’s tentative call and your eyes widen at the term of endearment. It is a common one back in your home realm, but your mother only uses it to comfort you when she feels you are truly upset. She is knotting her fingers anxiously together and beside her stands an unfamiliar middle-aged man. He smiles warmly at you, and your gaze lands on the arm he holds carefully around your mother’s shoulder. Your grip tightens around the handle of the measuring cup. 

“Mum?” You ask, your tone laced with confusion. “Who’s this?”

Your mother swallows nervously and glances at the man in question. 

“This is... my love.” She confesses. “Nigel. We met at my night classes and I... He...”

“I’m her fiancé.” The man, Nigel corrects. He is a friendly, round sort of man. The kind of man often seen on tv playing father to a rebellious teenage daughter in a sitcom. And his smile is warm and excited, like he’s happy to meet you. He directs that smile to your mother, and rather than look disgusted or uncomfortable, she merely beams back at him.

That’s probably what this night was for, in hindsight. And why your mother was so nervous. She planned this to introduce her new boyfriend... no, her new fiancé to you, and to Jin’s family. Dimly, in the back of your mind, you register all the unusual signs about tonight. The way she’d messaged Jin to make sure you were at the dinner despite the fact that she’s never been able to bring herself to make you do anything you don’t want to.... the way she’s been commenting on your appearance despite it never having bothered her before... how long has she kept this from you? How... how could she be seeing another man?

No words form in your mouth- instead, the face of your father hovers in your mind. After thirteen years, you can’t fully recall what he looks like and you weren’t able to bring any pictures over to the human realm with you. It has been long enough that you cannot recall his face or his voice. So, in theory, why can’t your mother meet someone new? Did you expect her to live as a widow until she died, alone and far from the home realm she grew up in? Of course, you didn’t. But for some reason, this man’s presence right now leaves a bitter sting like she’s plunged a knife into your chest.

The smile drops from Nigel’s face after a few moments of you staring blankly and his smile is replaced with concern. It takes you a while to understand it is because you have crushed the hand of the measuring cup in your tight grip. It falls to the ground and shatters, followed by a few drops of blood as red rapidly spreads over your clenched fist and lands on the ground. You haven’t used your enhanced strength in so long you almost forgot you had it. 

“Fiancé?” You echo at last and though it is your own voice, it sounds distant. Like your ears are suddenly submerged under water. You don’t know what hurts you more in that moment- the painful reminder that the world is moving on without your father... or the fact that your mum has kept such a huge secret from you for who knows how long, probably because she was scared of how you’d react. “You’re engaged?”

“(Y/N),” your mother says, taking a step forward, perhaps to comfort you. She does it tentatively, like you are a beast she needs to placate. The people in your life- at least the ones who know your true identity- often approach you like that. Slowly and hesitantly, as if they don’t know how you will react. Like you are a ticking time bomb, ready to go off and cause trouble. Which in a way, you suppose you are. Things have always been difficult with you, after all. You never settled into human schooling well and you didn’t get into a good university like Jin, and you’re always getting yourself into trouble trying to help random people off the street. And your mother, your poor placating mother, is prepared to do the same thing she always does. Apologise that you had to leave your home, that the new human world isn’t to your liking, but gently remind you that it is, in fact, your real home now.  

But you do not give her the chance to feed you the same tired lines. You’re so sick of hearing this lecture. Every time you wind up in hospital because you’ve interfered with a fight or been hit by a car trying to save a random puppy, Jin gives you the same, frustrated lecture. When you fail another interview or get fired from a new job, your mother is there to try and fail to hide her disappointment that you aren’t leading the life she’d planned for you. But not this time- this is too far. You’ve been trying to squash the part of you that is a guardian for their sake for so long now, but you cannot do it for him. For this man, this stranger, who has waltzed into your home like he owns it and announced that he’s marrying your mother. As if he has a right to just join your family. You are out the door before she or Nigel can offer a word of explanation. 

You don’t see Jin until you crash into him. He steadies you with a hand planted on either shoulder. You glance up at his face, barely registering what he looks like through the blur of tears spilling forward. For a brief moment, the sight of Jin’s face (even blurred) and the familiar set of his broad shoulders fills you with relief. Even if Jin’s always viewed you as a bit of pain, he’s always been an important person to you, always ready to provide support. But then you see the look on his face.

Jin actually winces when he sees your expression. Perhaps he is realising it’s going to be one of those nights, where he sits up on the roof with you for hours and comforts you as you spill your guts. That’s how it’s always been, after all, ever since you were a small child and would run to him when you scraped your knee instead of your own parents. You would cry and he would offer some wise words mixed in with a stern reprimand and then his parents would congratulate him for being such a good influence on you. Even when you hit high school and started to realise for the first time that Jin didn’t view you with the same adoration you viewed him, he never stopped being that person for you. The shoulder to cry on, the rock to lean on. But now, he stiffens, as if steeling himself for the explanation behind your tears and he probably already has a speech half prepared in his mind. That’s the job he delegated himself, after all. To look after you, for as long as you are alive and giving him headaches. So, if it’s always been his job to do just that, why does he look like he’s just been asked to help clean a public bathroom at the sight of you in distress? 

He... he doesn’t want to deal with you. That’s why he looks so uncomfortable. 

You feel something inside you crumple. You can’t identify what feeling it is but, in that moment, you realise something. Everyone in your life... they all view you as a burden. Your mum had delayed telling you about her boyfriend until the last possible moment because your response would be difficult to handle. Jin’s parents see you as a hopeless child that their perfect son must look after. And Jin.... well you can see from the look on his face how he views you. It reminds you of a dark day, all those years ago in high school, a memory you thought you’d pushed down, and it surfaces now, before you can push it back down like you normally do. But then you set your shoulders- you were over the things Jin had said that day, and you aren’t going to allow the way that he looks right now to be the thing that resurfaces those feelings.

You shove past him. Over the past few months, you’ve been avoiding Jin more and more as your self-esteem plummeted lower and lower but today something tips over the edge for you. You don’t know how or why it happened but at some point, Jin has stopped being the person you can turn to when things get rough. And you have just realised that he no longer wants to be that person either, which hurts far more than you ever thought it could. 

“(Y/N)!” You hear him call out to you, probably shocked that you aren’t caving immediately and telling him what’s wrong- after all, there’s probably only been one time in your life before this that you’ve done so. You ignore his call though, making a beeline for the staircase, and he does not follow you. 

The place you usually go to when misery strikes is the rooftop of your crappy apartment building. You’ve spent countless hours up on the rooftop, watching the sky. It’s oddly therapeutic- the thing you used to miss most when first moving to this realm was the stars. Back home, they sparkle different colours like precious stones scattered across black velvet. Here, the smog of humans blocks their stars from the sky. But the brightest stars are somewhat visible on clear nights and they are the closest reminder you have of home. That’s probably why you have chosen the roof as your refuge. Since beginning to take refuge here when things go bad, you’ve accumulated a small collection of old furniture from whenever your mum goes on a redecorating spree. 

What has resulted is a comfy little corner of the world you can call your own, away from everyone else. No one else seems to use this place, even if the rooftop is accessible to everyone in the complex, but that suits you just fine. It’s perfect for curling up and wallowing, much like you are desperate to do right now. There are a lot of confusing, painful emotions swirling around inside you, ones that you aren’t really sure how to deal with or process. 

You slump down against the old picnic blanket you have stretched across the floor and let your head collapse against an old cushion your mum threw out years ago and peer up at the sky. Wincing, you idly pick out pieces of glass from your hand and watch the skin seal over almost immediately as you wonder if the sky really as beautiful back home as your memory tells you it was. Or, do you just want to believe things were better in the other realm? You’re not really sure but it really would be nice to go back. Not forever- as much as you hate to admit it, your family is here now, which makes this realm your home. But you want to see the place you came from. You want to see the stars and the valleys and the rivers. The night before you and your mother fled, your father had told you that everything about Magregnum would change by the time you were old enough to go back, except the landscape. Mountains cannot move, after all. A part of you longs desperately for that- to see the things that will not change and the landscapes that could not leave your father behind. The only reminders that you aren’t just a random human washed up in the bleakness of life, but a guardian. Something special and precious. Something better than what you feel like you are.

An annoying buzzing in your ear breaks the bubble of your pondering. You blink a few times and then sigh, turning your head to the side. A small figure, no taller that the height of your handspan, stands beside you with his arms folded. Small, insect like wings flap so rapidly they are little more than flashes, catching the light of the fairy lights you’d strung across the fencing of the rooftop a few weeks ago. The figure tilts his small head to the side and at this proximity you can see the way he frowns. He always has the oddest tendency to pop up whenever you are alone and miserable and likely he is displeased to find you in such a state yet again.

“Do you ever do anything other than sulk?” The creature asks. He is a pixie, as you know from your first interaction where he had very indignantly informed you that no, he is not a cross between a mosquito and a human in-between your attempts to squash him with a fly swatter. You grimace. 

“No.” You snap, rolling onto your side to face away. Alas, the small pixie merely lifts easily into the air and sails over your face like he’s an Olympian performing high jump. He lands neatly in front of you once more and grins. 

“What happened this time?” He asks, settling down into the picnic blanket cross legged. He plants an elbow on either knee and rests his chin in his hands. The buzzing of his wings slows to a gentle flap, which allows you to discern the thin, silvery veins that lace across the delicate membranes of his wings. You’ve always secretly thought it a shame that Jungkook is just a pixie, given his handsome face and charming nature, but being a human would mean the loss of his gorgeous wings. “Did Jin ground you again?”

“He’s never grounded me before.” You snap defensively. “And even if he did, it’s not like I would listen to him. He’s not my parent.”

Jungkook shrugs, leaning back to press his weight into his hands and stretching his legs out in front of him. 

“Yes, you would.” He points out. “You always complain about Jin, but I know you always do what he says.” 

You purse your lips and sit up. Jin is one of the last people you want to talk about right now. Jungkook stands up too, launching himself into the air so that he can settle on your knee. 

“So what did Jin do this time? Change the code to his apartment again? Find out about your motorbike? Treat you to dinner?” Jungkook questions eagerly. You’ve never seen the pixie interact with another living being other than you, Jin or Taehyung (and on occasion your mother) and he had sadly informed you that he was the only one of his kind in this realm when you first met thirteen years ago. So, you have a theory that he lives out his need for drama and gossip and social interaction vicariously through you. It’s the only way to explain his constant interest in your life and the things that are making you sad. 

“It wasn’t Jin.” You finally admit, lifting your gaze once more to the sky above. “Why are you even here anyway? Did you run out of YouTube dance covers to copy?”

Jungkook nods and settles down beside you. “It’s all pointless after a while.” He says forlornly. “It’s not like humans can see me. Only guardians will ever see me dance and they don’t care. I figured I might as well talk to one sentient being before I go crazy. The moths just aren’t great conversation partners these days.” He pauses. “So, are you going to tell me what’s bothering you?”

Jungkook’s confession has your resolve crumbling. Sometimes it is easy to forget that you, Jin and Taehyung are the only people Jungkook can mix with, as a pixie in a human world. Even if humans could see him, the government would probably deport him back to the other realm the second it found out he was threatening exposure of magical beings to humans. A strange sadness on his behalf overcomes you and that is the thing that makes you willing to confess what’s bothering you. “It was... my mother.”

Jungkook is silent and when you glance down at where he is seated upon your knee, he is also gazing in wonder at the sky above. He doesn’t press further but you still somehow feel compelled to share. 

“She’s engaged.” You admit and the words feel oddly piercing amongst the soft hum of city traffic. They hang in the cool night air and suddenly the warmth of the night seems stifling rather than comfortable. 

“I thought the Q’uvar were happy when that sort of thing happened? Don’t you all have those huge festivities in your village whenever a marriage ceremony happens?” Jungkook questions. The natural way the original term for your people rolls off his tongue testifies to his origin- despite him living in the human realm, there is no doubt he comes from Magregnum, just as you do. Even when you were living in the other realm, your people would refer to themselves as guardians. Only the really old-fashioned members of your race would use the language that had slowly died out over the years as the common tongue became the norm. Not for the first time, you are curious about Jungkook and where he popped up from. Jungkook turns to look at you and tilts his tiny head. His inky black hair flops to one side with the motion. “Shouldn’t you be happy that your mother is engaged?”

The unintentional reprimand slaps you across the face and you wince. In theory, you should be thrilled that after so much difficulty and hardship settling into this realm, your mother has found a source of happiness. She has worked so hard on your behalf to make sure you grow up safe and secure in this foreign realm and so the least you can do to repay her is to be happy when she is happy. But the niggling fear that always chases you holds you back. It’s a fear of change- of the way life seems to move too fast for you to catch up. Here you are, stuck in the past when even your own mother has managed to move on and build a life for herself. 

“I should be.” You answer softly. You lift your knees and hug them close to your chest- Jungkook falls off with an indignant squawk. Moments later he rises in the air until he is eye level with you- even the buzz of his wings seems irritated. 

“Well then, why aren’t you?” He asks, but the tone of his voice implies that his patience has been lost with you. Since the moment of meeting you all those years ago, Jungkook had assigned himself as a sort of pseudo-counsellor and confidante, but it does not mean he enjoys the position. No, more often than not, he is annoyed and puzzled by your seemingly trivial problems. You kind of enjoy such an attitude though- it makes the things that feel insurmountable to you become small and insignificant. Jungkook makes you feel like problems can be overcome. This time, however, his dismissive attitude has you feeling worse. 

“Because I’m homesick.” You admit miserably. “Why does everyone seem to settle in here so well? Why am I the only one struggling? Why could everyone leave things behind so easily? How can they just pretend that they’re humans, and completely ignore the fact that they are Guardians?”

You press the palms of your hands against your eyes and release a long exhale. No one has followed you up here, after you rushed out like that. Who even knows what state your mother’s dinner is in? Hopefully she remembered to get everything out of the oven. Are they having fun without you? Is Nigel charming them, winning them over, getting them excited about the possibility of a wedding? Are they… are they really happy, in this realm? “Do you ever think about going back?” You question, after a long moment of silence. You drop your hands from your eyes.

“Sometimes.” Jungkook admits. “I wonder what it looks like now. Taehyung says it’s largely the same, it’s just the cultures and people that change.” 

You stare out across the ugly concrete buildings that the rooftop view provides you. In this realm, everything moves fast and changes quickly. In the blink of an eye, a new building can pop up down the road or an entire family can move away from their twenty-year-old restaurant and close it without any warning. Back home, you remember things being steady and unchanging. Every morning, you would rise to the same mountain ranges, to the same fringe of forest, to the same river song. The only guardian you know who has gone back is Taehyung, and he validates that impression- forests and mountains do not change. 

“I wish I had half Taehyung’s courage. I want to go back.” You confess.

Jungkook hugs his knees into his chest and mirrors your position beside you. 

“What would it achieve?” Jungkook asks curiously. You shrug, picking idly at a stray thread on your jeans. 

“Hopefully something.” You say. “I feel like I’ll never know what could happen if I don’t take the risk. I just… I feel like it’s calling me. It doesn’t want me to forget what I am. This realm doesn’t suit me because this isn’t my realm. Maybe I’ll find a place that fits over there.”

Jungkook nods sagely. A moth flaps past him and he smiles at it as it goes past.

“And what would you do once you’re there?” He questions. It does not take you long to give an answer. You’ve had this adventure mapped out in your mind since you were a miserable, homesick eleven-year-old.

“My dad used to have this phrase. “The river loves those who take the plunge.”. He’d always say it in the old tongue, and apparently it was an old guardian phrase that meant sometimes taking the risk was worth it. But apparently the phrase comes from a river to the east of our home. Dad said that the river is home to a special migrating plant, and it lights up and looks like shooting stars. They call it ‘the dancing river’. He promised to take me there, one day when the war was over.” You explain. “If rivers and mountains don’t change… then that’s that last piece of him I can find in that realm.”

“And that’s what you want to see, if you go back?” Jungkook asks. You nod and shift your position to the side of some old drawers you had rescued from your mother’s bedroom. Inside are a bunch of wrinkled old papers that you pull out and show him. 

“Taehyung always brings me back a map whenever he gets back from over there to show me how things have changed. Look.” You point at a small blue line that trickles across the painted landscape of the map. The label is written in the common tongue. “River of stars” it says in sleek cursive. You know from matching it up with an older map that the name has changed but it’s the same river your father told you about. “It’s only a five-day hike from the portal.” You point at a small mark on the map- this has Taehyung’s writing scribbled on it, marking the join between the human realm and the magical one. “I could go and just... get it out of my system. See the river. Like a road trip but in another realm.” 

Jungkook flutters over to peer at the small distance between the river in question and the portal on the map. 

“I just have to go once. Just once. And see it- see the places he loved. And then I’ll settle into this realm and get the boring job Jin and my mother want me to have and marry an equally boring human. I’ll go to her wedding and watch her pretend like my dad never existed and like I’m not a Guardian.” You tell him. “I... we didn’t even get to say good-bye, Jungkook.” 

Your voice cracks and Jungkook glances up at you in surprise. You rarely open up about your father to the pixie but he’s always curious when you do, like you’re sharing the story of an ancient war hero. Which in a way, he is. Though the war is fresh and recent in your mind, over a thousand years have passed back home, since your people roamed freely there.

“We just got word that he was dead, and we had to go, or we would be too.” You tell him, recalling the way Jin’s father had woken you two up in the middle of the night, pale as a ghost and drenched in your father’s blood. You remember running a lot that night and clinging to your mother’s hand. You had tripped and scraped your knee and you hadn’t been able to cry. And when you reached the human realm, your mother had shed a single tear and then shouldered on into your new life. No time or space to grieve. Not when there was so much uncertainty ahead. “No funeral or anything. I just... I want proof, that he was alive. I want to see the places he saw and just... I want to get a chance to say goodbye. I never even got to tell him that I love him one last time.”

Jungkook holds a hand to his chin as he ponders your words and then he looks at you. Though he is small, you can make out the dark colour of his eyes. His expression is soft and gentle. It reminds you of the look Jin used to give you when you’d come up here because the kids had made a mean comment about you not understanding their weird meme jokes or you were sad because you’d seen a kid hanging out with his father. Back before Jin had lost his patience with you, when he just got that the reason you couldn’t settle in was because of the cost it took to get to this realm safely. 

“You know it wouldn’t bring him back, right?” Jungkook asks softly. “Everything you knew about that realm faded thousands of years ago. You won’t find home there anymore than it is here. And it won’t stop your mother from getting married.”

“I know.” You answer forlornly. “But maybe things will be better if I just get to… acknowledge what I am. Even if it’s only for five days.” Jungkook stares for a long moment and then nods, his shoulders set with sudden determination. 

“Then let’s go.” He announces. You blink in surprise at his proposition. 

“Go?” You echo. He nods and straightens, planting on hand on his hip and pointing the other directly at you. 

“I am the first person to point out that you’re spoiled and selfish.” Jungkook reminds you, which has you wincing. “You don’t even know how lucky you are, to have so many people who love you. Do you know what I would give to be human? To have a friends and family like you do? And every day you spit on it. If this is what it takes for you to finally be content, then do it.” 

You frown and look away from him. 

“I don’t want to go when you put it like that.” You say, resenting the slight way your voice wobbles with hurt. You feel the slight tickle to your cheek and find Jungkook has pressed his tiny hand comfortingly to the side of your face. 

“Don’t be hurt.” He says softly. “I do know why you’re struggling.” He offers you as comfort. “And I do understand why it’s so hard. To live amongst humans every day and pretend like none of the terrible things that went down over there really happened. But in focusing on the things you’re missing, you’re missing out on the things you have.” He explains. “So, let’s go, (Y/N). Let’s go see the Dancing River and find the peace you’re looking for.”

You stare at Jungkook for a long time, before offering the slightest nod. He’s right. What’s the use of waiting and hoping and holding out for something? Why not just go and find out if seeing this river will solve any of your problems? The river loves those who take the plunge, after all.

“Let’s go, Jungkook.” You agree, with the faint hint of a smile on your face.

What you don’t see, as you converse with Jungkook, is Jin slowly closing the door to the rooftop, first aid kit in hand. He gives one last glance at the doorway, wondering if he should join you and Jungkook before shaking his head with a sigh. He turns around and makes the slow trek back downstairs with a troubled expression on his face.

#kim seokjin x reader #jin x reader #seokjin x reader #castlebangtan #seokjin scenario #writing

[sibyl-of-space]

I’m on an adventure learning the basics of Nintendo DS ROM hacking/modding because there is a very stupid, very self-indulgent, very spoilery ROM hack/mod I want to implement for Ghost Trick. It has been a journey and I’m going to be recapping my adventures on here with the tag #leo-tries-modding-ghost-trick so it can be blocked as desired. Anything pertaining to the actual in-game spoilers down the line will be posted under a readmore.

Now.... for “progress” I’ve made so far, if you can call it that. The first thing I need to figure out is whether I can implement a talk sprite-swap. So I set out to try and isolate the talk sprites.

I started by checking out the Ultimate Nintendo DS ROM Hacking Guide, which seemed as good a starting place as any. I also downloaded the big zipped file with all the referenced programs, but as I found out later, some of the programs didn’t zip properly so I had to procure them elsewhere.

At any rate, I tried to open up the Ghost Trick .nds file in CrystalTile2, and that much was a success.... and just about that much only. Ghost Trick doesn’t use the file types referenced in the guide. There are .xml.lz files and .bin files. I didn’t know what to do with these yet, so I decided to just mess around in the tile viewer and see if I could find anything. After some aimless scrolling, I did find something that gave me hope that I was in fact looking at meaningful data:

(don’t mind the windows 7 and pesterchum and malwarebytes this is my old 2011 laptop from undergrad, it just so happens that a lot of tools for NDS hacking work great on windows 7 because shit’s old)

That right there is very unambiguously the Ghost Trick logo. It gave me a glimmer of hope. And CrystalTile lets you highlight a selection of tiles and export them as an image:

rearranged in mspaint to:

My rudimentary knowledge of How This Works tells me that it obviously needs to reference the right palette for the colors to be right, but whatever, this is CLEARLY IMAGE DATA so ALL IS NOT LOST.

...but, for a while, that was about as far as I got. Some googling brought me to this thread, where OP states that allegedly the “cpac_2d.bin” contains all of the sprite data in the game [this is Capcom standard, it seems?], but having trouble actually accessing said data. Viewed as-is it’s a jumbled mess, haven’t been able to make heads or tails of it in CrystalTile although this could certainly be because they’re out of order in a way that’s not obvious. It is really, really difficult to just parse like this.... it’s a massive portion of the ROM, too, so even figuring out what general area of this I should poke around in is quite an undertaking. [looking w/ tile form GBA 4bpp as that is the only tile form that gave me a visible image for the logo above]... although I found some things which look promisingly like visual patterns, and might help me figure out how to re-order these tiles so i can maybe see something approaching an image. I uh... haven’t figured out how to customize the tile ordering in CrystalTile (like column widths) very well, that’s next on my to-do list. This one in particular I may come back to later:

(^Viewed at offset 4AD9E0)

There are plenty of others but this is among the more promising as far as likely actually being uncompressed visual data. There’s so much besides just this one though that I would be here all day posting screenshots; At any rate, there are patterns that may be worth looking into, but the sheer volume of data corresponding to this “.bin” file is going to make that REALLY tedious to try and comb through with any sort of reasonable efficiency. This could also be a fool’s errand, as it could be the data is compressed or out of order somehow and it is necessary to extract the true files hidden within that “.bin” to actually make proper sense of them. I don’t know. If I haven't made it clear, I'm a newbie at this and don't really understand what I'm working with yet.

So I briefly tried another approach. I thought, heck, I have the dev version of DeSmuME on here, let’s boot that baby up.

(oh boy did it chug.)

I learned some neat stuff.

First, I learned that for most of the game, the “main screen” is the bottom screen as opposed to the top screen, which makes complete sense if you’ve played it. Just goes against convention which is interesting. Except for during the title screen, where it is the expected order, for... reasons?

Anyway, I first tried isolating what layer the talk sprites were on on the “main” screen, which was unsuccessful but interesting. This is with every other layer turned off on the bottom screen (tools -> view layers, toggled off all except for “Main BG 0″)...:

It looks like a lot of things are on that same layer. Now we know.

(Worth noting that if you isolate just the “Main BG 3″ layer you get a nice view of the backgrounds!)

My next task was fiddling around in the tile viewer in the *emulator* to see if that got me anywhere. And, well, it did... I think! I don’t know what it means just yet but launching the tile viewer (tools -> view tiles) and selecting “LCD - 0x6850000″, at the 0x140 tile there is a very clear image of the current talk sprite. And this image DOES update when the sprite changes, so whatever this tile is pulling from is where I want to be.

...Unfortunately, I’ve more or less hit a roadblock here and am calling it a night. I have absolutely no idea how to figure out where that tile is getting its information from, and I don’t understand enough about NDS files to know how to parse the information in CrystalTile any better at the moment. I tried using this tool by Luigi Auriemma to dive into the .bin file after exporting it but it spewed out a billion .dat files that are no easier to make heads or tails of than the original.

That's all I got for the time being. If anyone reading this happens to know any directions they can point me toward I am all ears, otherwise I will continue to just poke at this from various angles until it decides to succumb.

#leo tries modding ghost trick #long post

[karasuno-writings]

hello! could i get kenma, kuroo and iwaizumi with reader who plays video games and gets super competitive? and sometimes when theyre really focused and the boys maybe disturb them they get a bit snappy? tysm!!!

Hello nonie! I was actually looking forward for this request!! I love playing video games so much so this was fun, and I also love these boys!! I based the games I chose entirely on my personal love for Nintendo! I hope that is fine!! I hope you like them!! (Also I have to post these on mobile bc we are locked out for the moment, if there are any errors I’ll fix them ASAP)

____________________________

Iwaizumi

The silence was unnerving, were it not for the happy racing music the tension would be unbearable.

Iwaizumi sat on the rug at the foot of his bed, brows furrowed and gaze intense, fixed on the television that stood on a desk before them. Y/N bit their lip as the race started, sitting on the bed as their legs lay at the sides of their boyfriend. This was the one and only all or nothing, if they won they would get a fairly deserved box of chocolates, and the sweetest treat of them all, victory .

It was a normal afternoon as every other, Y/N was out and about on their boyfriend Iwaizumi’s house, it was bound to be a lazy day, loose shirts and pants were worn comfortably by the two of them.

The sun was setting when a wonderful idea occurred to Y/N, mario kart; three races, two players and one winner.

“Hajime…” They smiled as they leaned on his shoulder.

His attention was immediately directed to them, as he lay his head on theirs, humming in acknowledgement.

“How about we play Mario Kart? Three races and a box of chocolates for the winner, what do you say?”. Iwaizumi furrowed his brows,thinking about it, and with a smile he stood up.

“Deal.”

Y/N yelped as he wrapped his arms around them to lift them up, carrying them to his room. The game was officially on.

They sat down next to each other on the bed, playfully elbowing each other, the first race was just about to start. Y/N took the lead on the first lap and Iwaizumi, as hard as he tried, couldn’t keep up.

Feeling the need to concentrate in order to win, Iwaizumi slid to the floor closer to the television, Y/N shuffled to the position they currently held, he could feel their breath on his neck, intense.

The next round seemed to be his, which Y/N took with little grace, sticking their tongue out to their boyfriend, which turned to them with a very smug-looking smile.

However that meant this was the round that mattered most. The first lap was down and Y/N was once more in the lead, with their boyfriend close behind.

If they kept it up like this he would have to admit defeat; he stopped furrowing his brows as an idea came to mind and an evil smirk slid onto his face. Eyes still fixed on the game, as the second round carried on he shuffled to the side, now both of Y/N’s legs were hanging at his right side, they did not pay this too much attention considering how all-out for the win they were.

Last lap, Iwaizumi was just behind, Y/N was now smirking, glare in occasionally screaming at the tv as they doged green shells and banana peels.

In the spur of a moment however, a strong hand pulled them down in one swift movement, making them slide right into Hajime’s lap, whose hand returned to the controller just in time, as Y/N let go of theirs, taken aback by the sudden change of position and the sensation of falling. Their car stopped just as Iwaizumi’s crossed the finish line.

“Seems like I won Y/N”, he said contempt, eyes closed as he innocently smiled at them.

However, when he looked at Y/N who was laying on his lap his smile faltered, he usually was the intimidating one but good lord did they look mad.

“Iwaizumi! How dare you!?” They snapped at them, clearly angry at the boy, shuffled out of his lap and onto the floor next to him. They were about to say something else when strong hands held their arms, eyes meeting their boyfriends slightly panicked expression.

“Don’t worry Y/N, the victory was yours truly, and I promise I will get you your chocolates”. However, he knew it would take more than that to get them to forgive him, still he would say their current adorable pouty expression was worth it.

Kuroo

This was all too familiar to Kuroo, Y/N was laying with their head on his lap, however they were far from focused from him, instead they were intently fixated on the game in their hands. He did not mind, considering he was used to this antics from Kenma, so he absentmindedly played with their hair as he read a book he intended to catch up on.

They were thoroughly focused, tongue slightly sticking their tongue out and once in a while yelping or jumping, clearly struggling to pass a level.They squealed, Kuroo stopped reading and looked at them, adorable as the light lit up their face, squinting at the difficulty of the boss they were facing.

Kuroo ran his hand through their hair, “Hard level, kitten?”

Y/N eyes drifted to him momentarily as they paused the game, a small pout forming on their lips as they nodded. “I can’t seem to pass it, I can’t figure it out”

They showed him the game, Legend of zelda, stuck in a boss fight with only half a heart left. Kuroo hadn’t exactly played that one game yet, but he had played enough Legend of Zelda with Kenma to know what this was all about. Y/N returned their focus to the game, completely drifting away from Kuroo. He was not interested in the book anymore, he needed their attention but knew he wouldn’t get it until they were satisfied.

“Y/N, I have an idea” He spoke up, making them momentarily flash him a glance to acknowledge that he had got their attention.

“Let’s see who is able to pass the level first, if I win you have to come with me to get some coffee”.

They paused the game and looked at their boyfriend who was smiling down at them, squinting their eyes they sat down, “And if I win?”.

“Then I’ll go and fetch you coffee while you play, sounds good kitten?”. A small smile spread on their face.

“You got yourself a deal Tetsu”. Kuroo smirked and planted a kiss on their cheek, gabbing the console.

Five times, five times each of them had tried to pass the level and failed, however they had gotten the hang of it, it was now just up to the execution.

While Kuroo was good playing video games, there were two people he could never win to; Kenma and Y/N. It was Y/N’s turn now, they had already gotten the hang of it, it was just a matter of time before they passed the level.

Kuroo had to do something if he wanted to get you outside with him for a while, and he had to do it fast. He had also gotten the hang of the game, he just needed one more round but this one seemed to be the one for you.

He turned to look at Y/N, their lips pouted as their eyes moved avidly from side to side of the screen, that's when the idea came to his head.

Kuroo smirked, he scooted closer over to them, pretending to look at the screen as they were almost about to win. He looked at their sides, vulnerable as their hands were holding the console. Playing innocent, he ran a hand down their back, stopping right on the middle.

Y/N squirmed out of Kuroo’s grasp, gasping for air and trying their best not to drop the console. His hands however did not move from their ticklish spot.

“Let...go...of..me Tersurou!” They begged in between laughs. The game long forgotten, they managed to scurry away.

“Your laugh is adorable you know?”

Y/N looked at the screen, the legend game over plastered across it. Glaring, they turned to their boyfriend, who was still smiling innocently.

“You know how pissed I am right?” They huffed as they crossed their hands over their chest. Grabbing the console they started to leave to the other room.

“Just so you know, we are not getting any coffee”

Kuroo pouted, rushing to hug them from behind. “Even if it comes with your favorite cake?”

Y/N raised and eyebrow and smiled, “Fine ...I just have to actually pass this level”

“You got it kitten”

Kenma

It was a normal day at your house, Y/N and their boyfriend naturally playing video games. Taking turns to choose exactly which game to play. Leaning softly against each other, ocasionally turning to kiss Kenma’s cheek as he watched them play Detroit. He loved the story and the game, however the two of them had been playing for a while now and he wanted something a little more challenging.

“Let’s play smash” he suggested, a small smile on his face.

He knew Y/N well and playing competitive with them was one of his favorite things, they were a worthy match to his wit and it amused him. It was always a close call, however he knew they could only play for so much ,considering their competitive nature.

“You know me well Kozume” smiling they stood up and changed the game, mind set on the challenge, their boyfriend could easily out best them, but not today.

Kenma is not a known as a prodigy strategiest for nothing, he knew exactly how to read their every move, specially since he had grown accustomed to them after dating for so long.

Y/N knowing this all too well, had developed a dynamic strategy, and while fooling Kozume was surely a hard job, they had mastered the element of surprise.

Kenma was pleasantly surprised by this, they were putting a challenge harder than the usual. They were both down to one life each was down to one life and he was taking too mucho damage for his liking.

Drastic measures were to be taken, if their game was surprise he would resort with a little trick up the sleeve of his own.

Cupping their cheek he placed a soft kiss on their lips, knowing exactly how things would go down.

Their eyes opened wide, taken aback by the unusual boldness of the usually collected boy. They wouldn’t go as far as to say that affection from him was unusual, as Kenma liked the attention between closed doors. He liked to be next to them, specially when they wrapped their arms around him or just made small contact, but to kiss them out of nowhere? That was new.

They found this pleasant, sinking into his sweet lips, oblivious to his true intentions. As soon as they closed their eyes he took the chance he was looking for, attacking them as much as he could until he was the ultimate winner.

A small smirk on his face as he pulled back. Now he jus had to live up to the consequences of his actions.

Y/N blinked as they looked the screen, then at Kenma, and back at their screen.

Oh

“You smug little...” they looked at him, squinting their eyes. “I can’t believe I fell for that, you cheater! That is not fair!” All composure lost, they were more annoyed at themselves for not even suspecting anything out of the odd gesture.

Kenma shrugged, not trying to hide the triumphant smirk on his face; “I did nothing wrong...maybe you should one up your game Y/N”, he placed a kiss on their cheek “however, you were an interesting challenge”

“Oh it’s on Kozume”

#haikyuu imagines #haikyuu x reader #haikyuu!! #haikyuu headcanons #haikyuu scenarios #haikyuu matchups #haikyuu prompts #kozume kenma #kuroo x reader #kuroo tetsurō #iwaizumi hajime

[wewillwriteyou]

Crazy Little Thing Called Love || Chapter 11

A few elements from the main plot: A fine line falls between fiction and reality: what starts as a musical slowly becomes a game-changer. Tables will turn and it will get clear as the sun that the only unstoppable power in life … is love.

Summary Chapter 10: Elizabeth and Joe finally have the chance to spend some time alone. Will it be the right time for them to admit their feelings? 

Word count: 4.8K+

Warnings:  SMUT! (protected sex and graphic descriptions) towards the end of the chapter - Please read it only if you’re 18+; cuteness and FLUFF are all over the place & some language here and there as usual

A/N: Believe us, folks, you are not ready for this chapter! Sit down and enjoy the ride, a pretty wild ride if you ask us 🌶😏💗

Tuesday, 24 December 2019 

“Because you are the only one for me.” “How can you be certain? We were all fooled by the spell cast by the love filter…” “I never needed a spell to look into your eyes and see love”

“Do you think he’ll keep his mouth shut?” Joe asked, without averting his eyes from the book he was holding. He was laying on Elizabeth’s bed, his head on the pillow and the book in one hand, while the other flipped the pages.

“Who?” Elizabeth asked, briefly looking in his direction without stopping her pen on the notebook. She was practising drawing buildings in perspective and she had chosen the 9th dormitory as her first try: she knew that building like she knew the insides of her pockets.

“Ben,” Joe answered and Elizabeth stopped drawing to look at him. She was sitting crossed legs beside him, her back leaning on the bed’s headboard.

“Why wouldn’t he?” she asked, furrowing her eyebrows.

“Dunno, - Joe licked the tip of his finger to flip another page – no reason, I guess… Just wondering if we should be more careful…”

Elizabeth hesitated a moment: did he meant he regretted moving in with her? Was that his way of telling her?

“Joe, - she took a deep breath – if you’re having seconds thoughts about this I understand, I-”

Joe shut his book and sat up to look at her, “What? No that’s not what I meant.” He gently threw the book at the end of the bed and turned to cross his legs as well, “I’m just worried something could jeopardise my year… or yours, for that matter… or even the play, I don’t know what I’d do if they expelled me or worse… - he took a pause – if they cancelled the play.”

Elizabeth chuckled while going back to her drawing, “You need to sort out your priorities…”

Joe laughed, “Ron Wesley? Seriously? You’re throwing Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone to my face?”

Elizabeth slowly nodded, biting her lip to keep from laughing as well and drew another windowpane to the building.

“It’s your fault, Hermione… – she giggled – Your life spins around that play a bit too much if you ask me…”

Joe opened his mouth and brought a hand to his chest, exaggerating his shock, “Excuse me?!”

Elizabeth couldn’t stop giggling and she knew her lack of concentration was messing up her drawing, “Stop making me laugh! I can’t work like this!”

She uncrossed her legs to get up and go sit at her desk, but a hand trapped her arm and made her fall on her back on the mattress. She squealed and left the grip on the notebook, that fell on the floor with a thud.

The girl giggled and realised she still had the pen in her hand. It took less than a second to Joe to understand what she was going to do and he reacted immediately, but he wasn’t fast enough. Before he could trap both her hands by her sides, Elizabeth had managed to draw a small line on his cheek.

For a fraction of a second, they stared into each other’s eyes.

Joe raised an eyebrow, “Really? How old are you? Five?”

Elizabeth giggled shrugging her shoulders, “It was self-defence”

“Oh really? – Joe grabbed both her wrists with a hand – And how do you defend from… the tickle monster?”

“What! – Elizabeth widened her eyes and tried to wriggle herself free from his grip - Let me go, Joe”

She got out of it before it was too late and she swiftly turned around to trap him against the headboard, the pen in her hand and a wily smirk on her face.

“Don’t mess with me” she theatrically threatened him.

Joe couldn’t stop smiling and giggling like a dork, he was well aware of that. But he didn’t care. Because in that moment, in that room, there were only the two of them. And it felt like a jump in the past when they were in middle school and they were always at each other’s houses.

He didn’t want to interrupt that moment of silliness but he couldn’t resist. He began chuckling to himself, “You know? This will sound weird but… this reminds me of when we were thirteen – he looked at Elizabeth and she had sat back in front of him, deposing her fearful weapon - I’d sleepover at your house and you at mine and we’d play Nintendo till past bedtime… I still remember your mom yelling at us to turn off the light and us laughing and turning it off just to turn it back on once we’d hear her climb under the covers.”

Elizabeth giggled, “Yeah, I remember that too… And my mom does too, for that matter…- Joe chuckled as well – She still asks me about you sometimes.”

Joe was surprised, “Really? Martha asks about me?”

Elizabeth lightly slapped his arm, “Of course she does… she wants you to stop keeping me up playing Nintendo games all night”

Joe chuckled, “So I’m the bad influence on you?”

Elizabeth forcefully nodded, “Sure, she says I should really stop seeing you… - Joe acted shocked and she couldn’t keep a straight face – But don’t worry. I’ll never get rid of you, babe”

And in saying so she theatrically and gently caressed his cheek.

It would have been completely normal for them to act that way, but in that moment, as she caressed his cheek, even if she was play-pretending, she suddenly felt embarrassed and the warmth spreading on her cheeks betrayed her. She blushed evidently, partly because of what she realised she’d sad and partly because of how close they were in that very instant.

From Joe’s point of view, the situation had become awkward as soon as Elizabeth had trapped him against the headboard and he couldn’t help but think about what else could have happened there besides threatening each other with a pen.

When her soft hand had caressed his face and redness had spread on her cheeks, he’d understood she had probably perceived the awkwardness as well.

He cleared his voice, “Well we should tell Martha, that her daughter’s not very good either… she draws on people”, he decided to say instead, trying breaking the tension.

Elizabeth lightly chuckled and without thinking about it twice, she licked her thumb and rubbed the black line she’d drawn on him. It was a reflex, something that had looked innocent in her head. Something she had already done in the past and it had been fine.

But that night, it was everything besides fine.

It was like everything they did they could only make the situation more awkward.

Did we lose our chemistry?, she asked herself. Are we not friends like we used to?

She feared those three weeks of reacquainting with one another had been a waste of time. What if their friendship had been damaged permanently?

Joe gulped, the tension was back to make his spine stiff again and his ability of reasoning weaker.

Elizabeth let out a burst of constraint laughter, “I’m sorry, I don’t know what’s gotten into me tonight…”

She shifted on the bed and instead of sitting in front of him, she sat by his side, her back leaning on the headboard and her head abandoned to fall backwards.

Joe glanced at her and cleared his throat again, his voice serious, “It’s okay, Liz.”

He saw her closing her eyes, biting her lip and lightly shaking her head. She probably thought it was imperceptible but he’d seen her.

He took a deep breath. He had to say something. He had a feeling all that was happening for one reason. And he didn’t know whether to be happy, confused or scared that the reason might actually have been what he was hoping for.

“Liz, - he started quietly, slowly turning to look at her as she did the same, the head still resting on the headboard – you remember how we used to play true confessions in high school?”

Elizabeth sluggishly chuckled and nodded.

“Well, - Joe continued – I have a confession to make.”

He paused for a few seconds, knowing he was going down a one-way road, with no chance of turning back.

She frowned, “What, Joey?”

Joey, he thought to himself. If on the outside he looked nervous, the mention of that stupid nickname was causing a storm of emotions inside his head. Joey and Lizzie were how they called each other anytime the other needed to talk about something serious: those nicknames had always made them laugh so they seemed perfect to mention when all the other person needed was a smile.

It worked like it had every time before.

Joe smiled before continuing and Elizabeth smiled at him back.

“Lizzie, - he started again with a half-smile – I know I’ll be talking nonsense from now on, so please stop me if you decide you don’t want to hear it. Because once I say it I won’t be able to get it back…”

The girl furrowed her eyebrows again. Her instinct was telling her she already knew what he was about to say. At least, she thought she knew. She hoped, she knew.

She shifted again and turned her body towards him, leaning on her side on the headboard, a silent gesture to say ‘I’m listening’.

Joe exhaled for the hundredth time in those last five minutes.

“I’ve been meaning to tell you for a while now - he began slowly - Well actually I didn’t know I wanted to tell you at first… I thought I was misreading things and I tried to forget about it all, but then Gwilym happened and I didn’t know how to talk to you… you had disappeared from my life and I couldn’t stand –”

Elizabeth’s smile widened. She still didn’t know how to feel about what was happening. She was feeling too many emotions to choose only one.

“Joe-Joe–” she tried interrupting him, but he kept on talking, his sentences speeding up as they followed one another.

“But when I saw you that day at the park and I told you I was fine, I knew you knew I wasn’t and when I found you alone there, I couldn’t help but feel relieved, even it that makes me a terrible friend to Gwilym. I was happy I could try again and-”

“Joe could you just-” she chuckled: it was like trying to have a conversation during a rapping contest.

“And then, – he continued undaunted, his lips curving into a smile because he knew she had caught on where he was leading to - I came here to tell you because I wanted to know what you wanted to say to me that same day at the park but I saw-”

Elizabeth rolled her eyes, the biggest smile lighting her face.

And without thinking of it twice, she shut him up properly.

She swiftly turned and, placing a hand on his cheek, she guided her lips onto his.

Joe hadn’t registered immediately what was happening and the kiss remained barely a long-lasting smack for a couple of seconds.

When he realised words weren’t strictly necessary to let her know what he wanted to say, he smiled against her lips and, bringing a hand behind her neck, he inclined his head to deepen the kiss.

Elizabeth felt like someone had lighted a hot air balloon inside her chest. She couldn’t stop smiling between one kiss and the other and Joe curving his lips in a smile as well could only make her smile more.

They pulled away at the same time, both breathless and with a spark in their eyes. They stared into each other’s eyes for a few instants, before bursting out laughing in unison.

Elizabeth rubbed her eyes, trying recomposing herself. Joe placed a hand on his belly to stop himself from laughing more.

“Why are we laughing?” he asked, still chuckling.

Elizabeth brought a hand to her forehead and shook her head with a small giggle, “I really have no idea…”

They both sat back, their gazes fixed on Elizabeth’s desk at the end of her bed.

“So…” Joe started again.

“So,” Elizabeth echoed him, turning her head to look at him, a small shy smile on her face.

“So, you liked my confession?…” Joe asked and Elizabeth pushed her shoulder against his chuckling.

She looked at her hands fidgeting in her lap, “I don’t know why I did that”

The smile slowly vanished from her face as she thought about it. She had been impulsive. Again. Just like she had done with Gwilym. And look where it has brought you…, she thought to herself.

She hated jumping back and forth from happy to worried all the time. Doing something and then overthinking about it. She was sick of it. Why couldn’t she be more decisive? Why did she have to always question everything her own mind thought?

Joe slowly stopped chuckling and stared at the weaved blanket at the end of the bed, confused. What did that mean? Why had she kissed him if she was already regretting it? Had it not meant the same to her as it had to him?

“Did you… - he tried to find the right words – …want that?”

Elizabeth forced herself to think about the answer. YES. More than anything I’ve ever wanted, her heart shouted. And please tell me you wanted it as much as I did.

“Yes, - she said instead calmly – but I wish it hadn’t happened… I think I might have made things weird”

“Oh, - Joe replied, more disappointment in his voice than he’d wanted to let transpire – then… why did you do that?”

Elizabeth knew he wouldn’t have stopped asking questions until she’d told him the truth and sometimes she hated how well she knew him.

She huffed, “I don’t know, Joe…”. She got up from the mattress and picked up the notebook.

Yeah, I do, she thought to herself.

“I think you do,” he replied, a little bit of anger mixing to the set of emotions he was feeling in that moment.

“No, I don’t”, she walked to her desk to put down notebook and pen.

Stop lying!

“Yes you do, Liz, stop lying!” Joe got up as well to follow her.

“Stop reading my mind!” she shouted back, not realising that was supposed to be just a thought.

Joe raised an eyebrow. Anger and confusion were having the better of him, “Why can’t you be honest? I exposed myself over there! – he pointed at the bed where they’d been sitting – Why can’t you do the same?”

“I’m trying to protect you!” she shouted back staring at him, her eyes slightly watered by the emotions she was trying to push down.

When he frowned again, she averted her eyes and looked outside the window, where darkness had already taken over the sky.

“I don’t want it to happen again, - she confessed under her voice – not with you”

Joe’s expression softened, “Can you please articulate your thoughts?”

Elizabeth forced her hands down her sides so that she could stop fidgeting.

“I don’t want what happened with Gwilym to happen with you as well” she repeated.

She huffed and brushed her hair away from her forehead, “Nothing good comes from when I get impulsive. I only get myself into trouble and end up hurting myself and others - she paused for a second – I already lost a friend. I don’t want to lose you…”

Joe furrowed his eyebrows shaking his head, “Who says you’re going to lose me? – he took a step closer and fixed a loose strand of red hair behind her ear – Just because it didn’t work with Gwilym doesn’t mean it won’t for us…”

Us. At the bare thought, she could feel butterflies flying in every direction inside her stomach. She had never felt that way. With anyone in her whole life. Maybe it’s a sign, her hopeful heart commented.

“How can you already talk about ‘us’? - she half-smiled – And even if what you say is true, do you really want to risk everything? Knowing it might not work out and it might end like it has for me and Gwilym? Do you want to sacrifice everything we’ve built for an impetuous decision on a casual Christmas night?”

Joe registered everything she had listed and he really wished he could think everything through. Twice. But he had already made up his mind at the first half-smile she had given him.

“Liz, - his lips curved into a smile, unable to contain the excitement of the anticipation – you are worth the risk.”

He watched the redness spreading on her cheeks and the smile gleaming on her face but he didn’t give her the chance to reply. Before she knew, his lips were on hers and his hands were already holding her.

Joe had longed for that moment for such a long time he couldn’t believe it was happening. He thought at any time his alarm would have rung and he would have woken up like he had done several times in those last few months.

And somehow even if he had imagined it, kissing Elizabeth was nothing like he’d thought. He figured there would have been hesitation and shyness from both sides, but it couldn’t be further from reality.

There was an unspeakable hunger for the other person from both sides. They looked for each other in every kiss, every touch, every breath, and faster than they could realise, they let passion drive their bodies.

Without breaking the kiss, Joe stepped forward to the desk, making her walk backwards and hit the wooden surface with her lower back.

She effortlessly jumped on it and opened her legs to let Joe stand closer to her. He smiled on her lips when she did that and adrenaline shot up to her brain. She wrapped an arm behind his back and pulled him closer, while his hand found the way behind her neck beneath her loose hair.

Joe felt like soaring a hundred feet above the ground. The scent coming from her hair was inebriating and he felt like he was losing the last brims of lucidity he had left. He felt incredibly happy and the excitement of finally being with her was almost overwhelming.

He was well aware of her doubts and he felt like he could not blame her after everything he had watched her go through. But somehow his gut was telling him that anything could have happened to them and they still would have made past it. Together.

Elizabeth could feel the excitement running through her veins, a sensation she’d never experienced before. Not at that extent at least. It was like someone had poured fire inside her veins and in the few fractions of a second she was lucid, she thought that with Gwilym it had been nothing like this.

Her ability to think straight was being obfuscated by Joe’s hands holding her tight and roaming around her back, but she was well aware of what she was feeling. And she knew, deep inside her self, that Joe could have been endgame.

She suddenly pulled away to stare into his eyes, looking for something even she wasn’t quite sure of. Something to tell her this time her instinct may have been the right path to follow.

Joe simply smiled, asking with his breath short, “Is everything okay?”

She cupped his chin with her hands and lightly brushed her thumbs on his cheeks, returning him the smile, “I’m okay”.

Joe’s smile grew brighter as he leaned in to kiss her gently. He slid his hands down to her lower back and moved her legs to wrap around his waist, picking her up from the desk.

Elizabeth broke the kiss giggling, “What the hell are you doing?”

He did not seem to be handling it well and chuckled, trying to hide the effort he was actually putting into it.

Elizabeth could not help but laugh the whole way to the bed – which took three steps – and her laughs grew louder when he dropped her on the mattress and collapsed beside her.

Joe tried to push down his laughs as well not to interrupt the rather passionate moment, but her laughter was too damn contagious.

“I thought it’d be hot and romantic…” he said between chuckles, a tingle of disappointment in his tone.

Elizabeth got up on her elbows, laughter slowly fading away, “I’m sorry, Joe – she extended her arm to caress his cheek and guide him closer – It was really romantic”

Joe chuckled and shook his head, “You’re a terrible liar,” he said, closing once again the distance between their lips.

He rolled on top of her, holding himself up on the elbows. Her hands climbed up his back, beneath the sweater and t-shirt and it felt freezing cold against his hot skin. That contrast only helped his excitement to grow and a hushed groan disappeared into the kiss.

Elizabeth ran her hands up to help him get his head out of the sweater and for a brief moment they shared a look that meant ‘is this really happening?’.

He came down to kiss her again, hands flying at the brim of her sweater, taking it off with a few rapid motions. His lips left hers only to trace a trail down her neck and above her collarbone. Elizabeth exhaled deeply, her hands roaming on his back and through his hair to keep him close to her body.

The moment he nibbled at the skin underneath her ear, her brain was no longer in control of her actions. A hand rushed to the edge of his shirt and pulled it up so that she could throw it on the floor.

Pulling away for an instant, he got her out of her t-shirt as well. His brain was acute enough to realise it was not the first time he had seen her bra, but it sure was the first time he had seen it and felt the urge to rip it off.

Without a warning, Elizabeth got up and undressed from her pants, while Joe followed with a burning gaze. From a drawer in her desk, she pulled out a silver square and with all the nonchalance she could find, she walked back to the bed, pulled back the covers and gestured him to join her.

Joe was still startled and had trouble thinking and acting straight. The direction they were heading towards was pretty final and irreversible and he couldn’t help feeling a little nervous.

He got out of his pants as well, suddenly feeling… exposed in front of her. He kneeled back on the bed and looked for comfort into her eyes. He could see she was thinking the same. As she rested a hand on his shoulder and gently pulled him closer to crash her lips onto his, he kept thinking how crazy it was doing all that with her.

They shifted so she could lay down on her back again and without breaking the kiss, Elizabeth reached out and turned off the switch of her abatjour, leaving the room in almost complete darkness if it wasn’t for the street lamp outside the window and the decrescent moon watching over them.

He lowered himself and broke the kiss to trace a trail of kisses down her neck to the middle of her breasts. She hushed a moan and ran her hands in his hair, as his lips proceeded down her belly until the elastic of her panties.

“Joe,” she uttered, lifting her hips to help him pull down her knickers.

He smirked on her skin, planting a kiss right where the elastic had been and climbed back up to kiss her lips again. Her hands grazed his skin till the elastic band of his briefs and very slowly pulled them down.

Joe thought he could have cum just because of how slow she was rolling them down: it was torture. He shifted so that he could climb out of them with a sigh of relief.

As he came up to hover her again, he slid a hand underneath her back and unhooked her bra. She got out of it and threw it on the floor with the rest of their clothes, exposing the last piece of herself.

They looked for each other’s eyes in the darkness for one last proof it was all real and just smiled, nodding at each other.

This is it, that meant.

She opened the silver package and Joe adjusted himself and after another brief glance of reassurance, he sank into her, hushed groans leaving his pink lips.

Elizabeth arched her back and exhaled heavily, quiet moans escaping her lips as Joe found a slow pace. Her arms and legs involuntarily wrapped around his body as if to cling to him and keep him as close as she could.

At that new angle, Joe was nearly overwhelmed with pleasure, he shut his eyes and bit his lips to hush himself from groaning out loud.

“G-God… Liz, you’re killing me…” he managed to say and she let out a brief breathless chuckle but couldn’t bring herself to articulate any words.

She roamed her fingertips up and down the soft skin of his back, causing him to mutter something that sounded like fuck under his breath.

While he had slowed the pace to rest a little, she held the grip with her legs and rolled both of them over so that Joe was now laying on his back. As she sat up and started circling her hips in a slow deadly pace, Joe ran his hands through his hair, moaning and muttering swear words.

When his hips spasmed upwards, signalling he was close to his climax, Elizabeth let her head fall backwards, overcome by a rush of pleasure. It felt like electricity in her veins. She felt her core clenching and she knew she was very close as well.

She stopped her hips and lowered herself to kiss him again. Joe took the chance to roll over and thrust a few times more before letting the climax rush through him. As he kept moving for a few seconds after, waiting for Elizabeth to come undone as well, he intertwined his hand with hers and held it tight.

They collapsed next to each other. And for a few seconds, the room was dead silent. The only noises were the radiator and the freezing wind shaking the plants outside.

Elizabeth was still incredulous of what had happened, and even if she may have thought about comparing the experience with Gwilym’s before, she knew she had no reason to. She didn’t want to. They were two completely different matters.

“You literally know everything about me now,” she whispered, a dopey smile on her face.

Joe slowly chuckled, sliding his arm under her neck and intertwining their fingers together, as Elizabeth rested her head between his shoulder and chest.

He hesitated, suddenly vulnerable and insecure, “Did you… regret this?”

Elizabeth tilted her head back so they could look at each other in the eyes, “This may be the first time in my life when I am sure I have done the right thing.”

Joe’s smile widened as he let out a sigh of relief and leaned to kiss her forehead.

“Well, you have done me, - he continued in his usual playful tone – so that would make me ‘the right thing’?”

Elizabeth chuckled and shook her head, “You’re a doofus as always”.

Joe was glad she looked relaxed: he’d worried he’d forced her into something she didn’t want to be dragged into, but now that they were back to their usual shenanigans, he knew they were fine.

“Funniest thing is – Elizabeth continued – Hardy thought we had already done this… I mean from the look he gave us, he seemed to think, if we hadn’t already, then we would have done it soon…”

“Well, we proved him wrong…” Joe sarcastically said they chuckled, as their fingers kept intertwining and untangling.

Elizabeth’s phone lighting up partially ruined the quiet atmosphere. She excused herself and got up to fetch it from the desk, while Joe headed to the bathroom to dispose of the condom.

“It’s my mom… It’s past midnight,” Elizabeth said, before realising she was standing butt naked in the middle of the room.

As she picked up her knickers and Joe’s pijama t-shirt, Joe reappeared into the room with a new pair of boxers and a sweet smile on his face, “Merry Christmas, Lizzie”

He walked up to her and planted a chaste kiss on her lips.

“Merry Christmas, Joey - she replied with a smile, - We are in big trouble…” she added, rotating the screen of her phone in his direction.

Joe furrowed his eyebrows confused and tried focusing on the chain of notifications, “Holy crap,” he just commented.

2 voicemails.

5 missed calls.

3 missed video calls.

37 texts.

All from Alex, the last one saying: ‘I am gonna kill you, woman’

-

Chapters: ⬸ previous | next ⤑

Pretty spicy and damn cute, don’t you think so? Let us know your opinion, reblog and like the chpater if you enjoyed it! Stay safe during these hard times! 💖

Cheers, folks! xx 🌷

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#crazy little thing called love #CLTCL #bohemian rhapsody #bohemian rhapsody cast #borhap #borhap cast #joe mazzello smut #joe mazzello imagine #borhap boys imagine #joe mazzello #ben hardy #gwilym lee #rami malek #lucy boynton #allen leech #joe mazzello x oc #ben hardy x oc #gwilym lee x oc #lucy boynton x rami malek #smut #fluff #angst #deakyswhitequeen #sweetgcreature #wewillwriteyou #wewillwriteyou masterlist

[theonceoverthinker]

Nintendo E3 Wish List

In just a few short weeks, gaming’s most exciting event will be upon us!

I’ll be honest and own up to my bias: I love Nintendo! Apart from some of the console war BS between Microsoft and Sony that I basically treat the same way most normal people treat any given episode of The Bachelorette, Nintendo is the only one I really care about. I have a Switch and I can’t wait to load it up!

So what do I want to see from it? Well, here are a few things divided into some simple categories!

GIVENS - Stuff that we know for a fact is likely going to be showcased at E3

POSSIBILITIES - Stuff that we have evidence to suggest is coming to the Switch, but no confirmation as to when

REACHES - Stuff that we have no indication is coming, but I want to see nonetheless

This got long, so everything’s under the cut!

GIVENS

Pokemon Sword and Shield release date and new Pokemon - We ALL know this is coming. That said, we’re also getting a Direct next week, so we won’t be getting anything too extravagant, but still a little bit more news. My hopes for this are the stage two evolutions of the starters and one or two random others.

Animal Crossing’s release date and gameplay footage - Animal Crossing is on its way! I think it’ll be released sometime around mid-November and I can’t wait! What I want this time will be a deeper means of growing relationships between yourself and your neighbors. As for my big, out-there prediction for the gimmick of the next game, as stupid as it sounds, maybe something with time travel. Jumping ahead to our favorite holidays is part of what makes Animal Crossing so much fun, and Nintendo knows it. They even made ‘time traveler’ one of the rumors 

Second Smash Bros DLC Character Reveal - Yeah, this is gonna happen. My predictions? They’ll be released sometime this summer -- maybe August. As to WHO it will be, my predictions are Sans, Banjo, a Monster Hunter character (I heard a rumor and there’s a Monster Hunter-themed Smash Bros boss), Waluigi, Professor Layton, Shantae, and Sora (More on him later). Sans is my biggest hope for because I’m Undertale trash and want to go all Megalovania on Jigglypuff, the Ice Climbers, and Ridley!

More Labo VR Stuff - I haven’t been sucked into the Nintendo Labo hole yet, but I will say that the VR stuff for Odyssey seems pretty cool and VR is a growing big deal in the industry! This is Nintendo’s answer to that and if they do things for a few more upcoming and already released titles, I’ll have to check it out! My predictions are that we could see the Labo VR stuff happen for Yoshi’s Crafted World and the upcoming Animal Crossing title.

Fire Emblem: Three Houses - I feel like we’re only gonna spend a few minutes on this game. it comes out a month after this conference and the time spent here will just be to entice a straggler or two into buying it.

Link’s Awakening - Like with Fire Emblem, I think this will be very short and just touch upon the basic changes and updates, but given that it closed out the last non-specialized Nintendo Direct, I’d be SHOCKED if it went without a mention.

POSSIBILITIES

Ace Attorney - From what I understand, we’re supposedly getting an Ace Attorney game this year, and I figure if any place will show it off, it will be at E3. Do I think it’ll get a red carpet or anything? No, but I could easily see a little clip of it during a run through of upcoming third party titles and that would be more than enough for me! I can’t wait for the next game!

Ocarina of Time and Wind Waker Re-Releases - So I don’t know how many of you saw Nintendo’s April Fool’s Direct (I’ve watched it...several times because it is laugh out loud HYSTERICAL), but some things stuck out to me as possibly legit, and those were the two Zelda ports. Both had trailers, and Wind Waker on the Switch had a ZR button on the screen with the rest of Link’s supplies. Could it possibly be coming to the Switch? And as for Ocarina, it’s been nearly ten years since it was re-released on the 3DS! With release dates that were slated for this winter, I think it’s possible that both could be on the way. Maybe they’ll even co-release Ocarina with Majora’s Mask!

REACHES

Super Mario 3D World Deluxe - There have been a TON of ports on the Switch from the Wii U. I don’t think that’s a problem at all -- the Wii U was not a commercial success, and the Switch was, but the Wii U had really impressive titles. I’m glad that they’re being re-purposed for a system that’s selling so more people have the opportunity to play these games. But out of all the ports, THIS is the one I want the most. I never had a Wii U and I want to play this game bad enough that I’ve seriously considered buying the now defunct console for it...BUT even as something of a Nintendo collector, I don’t want to HAVE to. So Nintendo, want to do me a solid and bring this one over? I know I put the word “deluxe” in there, but that’s only because you’ve done that with basically every port that’s hit the Switch thus far and given that you’re...you, you’ll probably add a playable DK or Wario or Waluigi (This is why I love you, Nintendo -- you don’t just do ports, but you make new stuff for your ports too), but honestly, if we JUST get a more or less straight port, I’ll be more than happy.

THIRD Smash Bros DLC character reveal - It has been a WHILE since the first DLC fighter was revealed back in December. We’ll DEFINITELY see the second fighter revealed at E3, but maybe, just maybe, we’ll see the third as well. I have no evidence of this, but hey -- a girl can dream, am I right?

Stardew Valley Update - I heard the creator of Stardew Valley is working on an update to his hit game, and I am PUMPED to play it! Maybe E3 will be the showcase for the updates given how popular this indie title has become.

Kingdom Hearts...something - Once again, just so I don’t spread any misinformation I have NO evidence whatsoever about this (I’m just a Nintendo fan and a borderline casual one at that), but given how Nintendo has released so many Kingdom Hearts titles, maybe we’ll get something. Now that Nintendo and Square have gotten so buddy-buddy between Cloud being in Smash and the releases of the Play Station X’s Final Fantasy titles on the Switch, I don’t think this is too far out of left field to suggest. Now, this could come in the form of a side title for the Switch, Sora in Smash, or hell, maybe one of the compilation re-releases, but I just have a feeling that this could happen.

#nintendo #e3 #e3 2019 #mario #legend of zelda #ssbu #super smash bros ultimate #animal crossing #fire emblem #pokemon #stardew valley

[solastia]

Omakase

ONE SHOT

Pairing: Kim Seokjin x Kim Namjoon

Word Count: 2,686

Summary: Every time you cook you set off the smoke alarm, so you know what I’m just going to teach you how to cook.

Genre & Warnings: Fluffifty fluffy fluff. Adorable Namjoon, Sassy Jin. Cussing is pretty much the only warning. Eh, maybe implied future smut? Sexual innuendo?This is straight toothachy cute though.

Smoke. Again.

Jin was starting to wonder why he kept opening his windows when instead of the fresh air he craved, his apartment became filled with the stench of smoke and burned food instead. This was the third time this week alone, and he was beyond fed up. It took him two whole days to air out the smell from his own place last time since he was pretty sure rubber was somehow involved, and he could only imagine how bad it must be in the apartment next to him that it was coming from. It didn’t matter how gorgeous he thought his new neighbor was, this was unacceptable.

“5, 4, 3, 2, 1...” Jin counted down until he heard the shrill sound of the fire alarm being activated. It was quickly followed by the usual noise of crashing as his neighbor clearly ran into all of his furniture on the way to turn off the alarm, and the deep voice growling at the alarm like he could command the noise to stop. 

Drastic steps were going to have to be taken if Jin wanted to live in peace again.

With a heavy sigh, he walked to his kitchen and went through his cabinets and his fridge, gathering all the ingredients he thought he would need. He put everything into his shopping tote bags (The not quite as cool store brand ones. He was so not going to take his favorite Nintendo bag and have it end up smelling like smoke for 84 years). He picked them up and began to leave the kitchen before he remembered how much burned rubber he’s been breathing in for the past few weeks. God knows how many cooking tools have been murdered next door. He supposed he could spare some pans and proper stainless steel utensils. He was a chef, after all. He could always do with new equipment. With that decided, he packed a few pans that he wouldn’t mourn too much, some spatulas, a cutting board and a chef’s knife that Jin felt like he was sending on a suicide mission. 

Supplies in hand, he made his way next door and pounded so he’d be heard over the racket. The fire alarm finally stopped, and he could overhear his neighbor mumbling to himself. The sound of glass crashing and a muffled, “shit” indicated the owner's journey to the front door. 

The sassy commentary that Jin had prepared on his way over was utterly erased from his mind when the door flew open, and his eyes were assaulted by a gold tinted bare chest. The smoke cloud that was set free by the open door barely registered as Jin’s eyes traveled from the six...no, eight...pack abs up to the astonished eyes of his incredibly attractive neighbor. 

“Oh, it’s you!” The tanned adonis blurted out, his face turning a sweet crimson shade as he’d realized what he said. 

“It’s me! Is that a good thing or a bad thing?” Jin joked, hoping to ease the tension and distract himself from the deep dimples on his neighbor’s face. 

“It’s good! I mean...” he cleared his throat and chuckled nervously. “It’s...I’ve just seen you around. You live next door, right? I’m Kim Namjoon.” He looked down at Jin, a cute, shy smile deepening the dimple on his left cheek. 

“Yes, I’m Kim Seokjin. Pleasure. Look, I’m going get straight to the point. You’ve been next door to me now for a month. During that month, nearly three days out of every week I am afraid for my life and the lives of everyone in this building. So, for the sake of world peace, I am going to teach you how to cook something simple. I am much too pretty to die.” Jin brushed past Namjoon without waiting for an invitation, not missing the mumbled, “I agree.” He smirked to himself as he laid out his supplies. 

Namjoon left the door open to try and air out some of the lingering smoke then wandered over to the counter where Jin was and plopped into a barstool, observing with his face propped in his large hands. 

“Good God! Look at this mess!” Jin shrieked when he finally took in the scene on the stove. There was a pot filled with some sort of goopy blob and in a pan next to it was the charred remains of an attempted fried egg. 

Jin clucked and began cleaning everything up, snickering when he noticed Namjoon’s sheepish expression. 

“What were you even making?” Jin asked as he tried to scrub at the pot in a vain attempt to save it. 

“Ramen.” 

Jin’s head shot around to stare at him in shock. “Ramen? How do you fuck up ramen?”

Namjoon rubbed the back of his neck and shrugged, embarrassment flushing his cheeks. 

“You’re lucky you’re cute. That will make up for lack of skill.” Jin stated as he finally gave up on the pan and threw it away. 

“You think I’m cute?”

The teasing tone made Jin look up, and he caught Namjoon’s little grin. Jin snorted and began setting his ingredients out. 

“Like you weren’t aware. The sky is blue, the grass is green, you’re hot. Don’t act like I haven’t seen you flirting like a fuckboy with Hoseok in 4B.” 

Namjoon laughed. “You know, the sky isn’t actually blue. Blue light is scattered in all directions by the tiny molecules of air in the Earth’s atmosphere. Blue is scattered more than the other colors because it travels in shorter waves. Hence, we end up seeing blue more.”

Jin groaned dramatically. “Oh, that explains everything.” 

“What explains what?” 

“You’re one of those nerds. The ones that are book smart but can’t do anything in real life.” 

“I feel like I should be offended,” Namjoon replied with a smile. 

“Don’t be. Not everyone can handle having beauty, brawn, and brilliance in one perfectly decorated package like me.” Jin pretended to flip hair back, earning a chuckle from Namjoon. 

“So what are we making today, chef?” Namjoon asked, eyeing the ingredients and supplies that Jin was organizing. 

“Side note, I actually am a chef. Lucky you. Today I am going to teach you how to make Jajangmyeon.” 

“Oh shit! That’s like, my favorite dish!” Namjoon was off the barstool and jumping up and down like a child. Jin found it endearing but chose not to say anything. 

“I’m aware. When the apartment is not up in flames, I see the bowls waiting for pickup outside. However, making it yourself is simple, cheaper, and it’s easier to begin learning how to cook with something that you’d want to make a lot.” Jin put the pan over the flame and grabbed his oil when he caught sight of the golden skinned chest. 

He’d nearly forgotten. 

“If you plan on cooking you might want to cover all that up.” He said, gesturing vaguely in Namjoon’s direction. 

“Oh, yeah. For my safety or because you’ll get distracted?” Namjoon joked as he threw on a tank top that Jin could barely justify calling a shirt. The armholes went down so low that he could still see the abs from the side. 

Jin rolls his eyes and goes back to his task. He shows Namjoon how to prep the black bean sauce, chop the vegetables (the man didn’t even know to take the sheath off of the knife first) and saute the pork. He also taught Namjoon to clean as he cooked so there wouldn’t be a pile of dishes at the end. An hour later, their Jajangmyeon was beautifully dished with some fresh noodles and Namjoon had only sliced his fingers once. 

Namjoon ate his portion like a man starved, only stopping once to tell Jin it was even better than the takeout version he usually got. Jin had to order him to shut up and focus on eating correctly because he looked like he was going to choke and die while he watched.   

They slouched against the back of their chairs when they were done, Namjoon rubbing his stomach with a contented air. Jin got up and washed the bowls and started putting anything he was going to take back to his place in his bag. 

“You’re leaving already?” Namjoon asked, and Jin swore he was pouting. 

“Yup. This has been fun, but I have to be at work early to prep.” 

“Well, I gotta pay you back somehow. That was like, the best food I’ve eaten in forever. Since I moved out on my own, I haven’t been able to feed myself well. Kinda makes me appreciate my Mom a hell of a lot more.” 

Jin chuckled as he walked towards the door. “Just pay me back by not burning down our home.” 

Namjoon continued pouting as he followed behind Jin. He opened the door for him and looked down at the ground before mumbling. “Wanna, like–I mean, if you’re not busy... We could get lunch? Or even just coffee if you don’t have a lot of time?”

“Is this you trying to seduce me?” Jin joked, loving the way Namjoon’s face turned such a pretty color whenever he blushed. 

“No...I mean, I wouldn’t be opposed...but, I mean...shit.” Namjoon rambled as he rubbed the back of his neck. 

Jin giggled and pecked Namjoon’s cheek before walking quickly into his own apartment. He laughed when he overheard Namjoon talking to himself through the thin walls. “Holy shit, I think he actually likes me! YES!” Perhaps he’ll let Namjoon learn about the walls on his own. He has a feeling he will hear a lot more exciting things if he keeps his mouth shut. 

Jin had the most stressful day. As if he didn’t get stressed out enough by his usual demanding customers, he swore that those last two men that came in were from Michelin. If his restaurant could get a star, his dreams would come true. He imagined he wouldn’t know how he did for awhile, but he knew he’d tried his best. 

He trudged up the steps to his apartment, already dreaming of a nice hot bath and some Japanese beer. A flash of red caught his eye and he glanced down to see a single rose on his doormat. He was confused for about five seconds before he heard a crash next door and saw the window curtain fluttering. He put two and two together. His giant fool of a neighbor was a romantic, it seemed. Jin felt his face get hot as he actually blushed. Him, Kim Seokjin, blushing! 

“Ah, why is this big dummy making my heart flutter?” He wonders as he finally enters his apartment. 

He takes his rose and puts it in a champagne flute, making a mental note to buy an actual vase tomorrow. He decides not to question why he was packing the beer he’d been looking forward to into one of his shopping totes, along with the pasta and cheesecake he’d made at work. By the time he’s knocking on Namjoon’s door, he’s convinced himself he’s only doing the right thing so the kid doesn’t fill the place with smoke again. 

“Oh, you’re back!” Namjoon’s voice is filled with wonder as he flings open the door. His hair is still wet like he’s fresh from the shower and he’s bare-chested yet again. 

Does this man ever wear shirts? 

“I brought some food home from work if you’re interested. I figured it would be better for me to share then risk you burning me alive today.” Jin tries to joke like he’s unaffected, but his voice sounds nervous even to his ears. 

“Thanks, Seokjin. I’m glad you were thinking of me.” Why did Jin think he heard a double meaning behind those hummed words? 

Jin didn’t respond, just began to set out plates and portion out the food. Namjoon gleefully hopped onto a bar stool and leaned over to sniff the pasta. With a huge smile, he brought one colossal forkful to his mouth, and Jin waited patiently to get a reaction. 

Namjoon’s eyes widened comically, and he began talking with his mouth packed full. 

“JIN! You made this? This is so good!” Or at least that’s what Jin thought he heard. 

Jin hid a smile as he dug into his own plate. He tried not to look too deeply into the feelings he was dealing with. He was getting too much satisfaction from feeding this man. Couple that with Namjoon being a romantic, gorgeous, adorable nerd, and Jin could feel himself falling. 

When they were finished, Jin got up and began dishing out the cheesecake. If Namjoon loved the pasta, Jin knew he’d be euphoric over the cheesecake. Everyone begged for it. He usually sold over a hundred of these a week. Jin set a slice in front of Namjoon and observed as he yet again hungrily shoved the biggest forkful of food into his mouth. Instead of repeating his previous reaction, Namjoon’s eyes lowered, and he gazed at Jin while he finished chewing. 

“Why are you staring at me like that?” Jin finally asked, getting a little worried. Maybe he’d finally found someone that hated his famous cheesecake. 

“Will you marry me?” Namjoon finally whispered, looking serious. 

“WHAT?!” Jin squawked, not even sure what to say to that. He knew people loved his cheesecake, but this...

“I'm serious. You’re beautiful, funny, sassy, compassionate, are like the God of cooking, and this cheesecake...I want you to make me this cheesecake every weekend for the rest of our lives. Also, I think I’ll die if you don’t keep feeding me. I need to wife you up fast before someone else does.” 

Jin stared at Namjoon as the other sat there looking content and rather amused. 

“Ok, first of all, who says I’m the wife? Secondly, you’re insane. We haven’t even been on a single date. You can’t propose before you even date, dum dum.” 

“What do you mean? This is our second date, baby. Two more dates and that ass is mine.” Namjoon smirked, and Jin could feel his entire body shiver. 

“Kim Namjoon, we’ve known each other two days. Slow the fuck down.” Jin could feel his face turning red. From anger, embarrassment or excitement, Jin didn’t know anymore. 

“You’re cute when you’re angry. Also, you’ve been noticing me a lot longer than two days, baby. Our walls are pretty thin, you know.” 

Fuck. 

“Will you go out with me on a real date tomorrow, Kim Seokjin? I’ll pick you up, take you somewhere where you don’t have to cook, maybe sing you the song I wrote for you last night.” 

“That sounds nice,” Jin whispered, trying to hide his blush, but he knew his ears gave him away. 

“Then, after a long drawn out, overly dramatic courtship, you’ll marry me. We already have the same last name and live in the same building. Honestly, we would be doing it for conservation reasons. You know, might as well save water and shower together.” Namjoon silently laughed as he grinned at Jin, pulling him closer to stand between his legs. 

“Fine. Now, shut up and kiss me.”

“Anything for my wife.”

#kkreationsnet #KWritersKollection #btswriters #kpopwritingnet #bts #bts fanfic #bts fanfiction #bts fic #Namjoon #Seokjin #Namjin #Namjin fanfic #Bts fluff #kpop #kpop fanfiction #kpop fluff #Namjoon x Seokjin #bts mxm #au

[aion-rsa]

Game & Watch Super Mario Bros Review

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40 years after it was first introduced, Nintendo’s vintage line of Game & Watch handhelds has come full circle in honor of Mario’s 35th birthday. And what better way to celebrate such a special occasion than with the game that practically started it all? It’s true that 1985’s Super Mario Bros. for the NES has been released countless times over on various platforms through the decades, but it’s been expertly rendered again here in this neat and nostalgia-fueled package. Now lovingly brought to life on a crisp 2.36-inch, LCD color screen, the aptly named Game & Watch: Super Mario Bros. is the unabashed love letter to Mario of 2020.

I was one of many this year who came away disappointed with Nintendo’s poorly put together Super Mario 3D All-Stars collection. Despite making three of the mustachioed plumber’s best platforming adventures in Super Mario 64, Super Mario Sunshine and Super Mario Galaxy playable on Switch for the first time, the remastered compilation felt incredibly slapdash due to the absence of special features, unwieldy controls, and all around lack of detail. Luckily, this anniversary edition Game & Watch excels in all three aforementioned areas, so much so that it has quickly become my preferred way to play Mario’s original NES adventure.

At its core, the Game & Watch: Super Mario Bros. is a new and improved version of the classic handheld device. It tells the time, lets you play games in mere seconds, and is small enough to fit in your pocket but with a large enough screen that you can always keep up with the action. It used to be that each Game & Watch unit came pre-packed with a single title played on a basic, two-tone LCD screen. Here, however, we have a device that makes some sweeping modernizations, packing in Super Mario Bros., Super Mario Bros. 2: The Lost Levels, and an updated Mario-themed version of Ball, the first Game & Watch title ever released.

All the games mentioned play as expected and are well presented on the Game & Watch’s beautiful full-color LCD screen, a particular highlight being Super Mario Bros. 2, which up until recently was notoriously tricky to get outside of Japan. First released in the West as The Lost Levels in 1993 as part of the original Super Mario All-Stars on the SNES (and later on Wii), this weird and whacky take on the Mushroom Kingdom has likely eluded many Nintendo fans to this day. Playing through The Lost Levels feels like someone has remixed the initial game’s levels to make them harsher, yet its inclusion is fitting as an important part of Nintendo history.

Ball also, though incredibly simple by today’s standards, remains a fun way to spend a few minutes chasing high scores. Boasting two game modes where you must see how many tosses you can manage between either two or three balls, Ball was last seen via a Club Nintendo re-release to celebrate Game & Watch’s 30th anniversary some years back, so it’s nice to see it back in a nicer package. What’s more, while Nintendo could have easily presented it with a new graphical style and called it a day, this version of Ball faithfully replicates the traditional green/black LCD look.

A lot of love has gone into making Game & Watch: Super Mario Bros. the ultimate celebration of Mario, and you needn’t look further than how the digital clock function has been integrated. Accessed via its own dedicated button in between the Pause and Game Select options, it’s here where you can enjoy a series of color vignettes that change based on the time of the day. Sometimes you might see Mario run, witness him dodge various disasters, all as the scenery changes with every additional button press. The digital clock is full of hidden secrets and easter Eggs like this. It’s clearly the area where Nintendo’s designers were given the license to experiment and have fun.

From a pure aesthetic standpoint the new unit looks incredibly slick, recreating the basic shape and design of the original Game & Watch: Ball handheld only now with a golden brushed metal face plate bordered by a red plastic chassis (reminiscent of the Japanese Famicon). The face buttons used to switch between games and access the clock feel satisfying for the most part, as do the main A and B buttons. The D-pad is the absolute standout, though, utilizing a single piece of plastic that is responsive and easily trumps the broken out directional buttons featured on the Switch. Nintendo purists will want to play Super Mario Bros. here instead of the hybrid console.

My hands aren’t the smallest so I was initially quite fearful as to how comfortable holding the Game & Watch: Super Mario Bros. would be during long play sessions. On an average 3.5-hour charge via USB-C cable, the handheld has around 8 hours of battery life, so I was prepared for my palms to ache while testing. During my time with it, however, I tested the unit’s comfort in two four-hour bursts and never once had an issue. Also, at the highest brightness level it just about manages to last as long as stated. Veteran players are likely to finish Super Mario Bros. well before the battery runs out and commuters can rest easy knowing that 8 hours on a full charge is more than enough.

All three games also sound great thanks to a booming mono speaker built into the upper left-side corner of the handheld. Admittedly, that famous chip-tune theme only coming out of one side was a little distracting at first, but it’s loud enough that I eventually got used to it. If you were a Nintendo fanatic hoping to play through Super Mario Bros. or The Lost Levels using headphones, though, you’ll be disappointed. True to tradition, the unit doesn’t feature a 3.5mm jack input.

I knew that I was in for a treat with the Game & Watch: Super Mario Bros. as soon as I slipped the packaging out of its plastic sleeve. Printed on the latter is a classic 8-bit scene pulled directly from the headlining game wrapped around the front and back. The affection continues as soon as you slide it out: you get a traditional-looking gold box primed to fool collectors into thinking that this is an item from 1980. Either option would look good sitting on your shelf. Warm touches like this were severely lacking in Super Mario 3D All-Stars, yet it’s more than made up for here.

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While it’s easy to look at the Game & Watch: Super Mario Bros. as an outsider and think it to be just another easy cash grab, for Nintendo newcomers and veterans alike it’s a celebratory package primed to warm the hearts of even the most cynical fan. All three games play brilliantly and are easily switched between, the battery life is generous, and as a collector’s item it looks appealing both in and out of the box. Sure, you can play almost everything featured here in other ways, but the retro form factor and meticulous attention to detail sees Mario finally given the birthday present he’s due.

The post Game & Watch Super Mario Bros Review appeared first on Den of Geek.

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#aion-rsa #Den of Geek

[switchindiefix-blog]

Owlboy Review

Over the last few years there hasn’t been many games that have got me to boot-up my old gaming PC. I’m predominately a console gamer (and now solely a Switch gamer) and like playing my games on the comfort of my sofa. However, when Owlboy from D-Pad studios was released back in 2016 with raving reviews, I spent my Christmas break back in England trying to play through the game. Unfortunately, I never managed to finish the game because of a corrupted save file, but I always knew one day I would go back and finish this chirpy little game. Flash forward a year and a half and Owlboy is on sale with 20% off on the Nintendo Switch. Finally, finally I get to beat Owlboy…. but is that a good thing?

The Story

You play as Otus, a mute Owl who is in the middle of his guardian training. In Otus’s floating island village of Vellie, Owls are protecters. They are highly trained to defend their village from the marauding Sky Pirates that lurk around in the open air. However, because he is a mute, Otus is seen as the but of every joke and is treated horribly by his master.

On a routine task, Otus and his companion Geddy are investigating a mischievous stranger in the village. As they follow the stranger, the pair stumbles across a hidden ancient Owl Temple. Upon entering the temple, the two friends find an ancient device that lets Otus teleport Geddy to his position (which is very convienient for puzzles).

After making it to the main vault of the ruin, Otus and Geddy realise that the mischievous stranger is working for the evil Sky Pirates. The Pirates’ plan is to steal one of the Owls’ ancient relics. After an intense battle the pirates are defeat, causing one of them to join your team!

The three companions set off on an adventure to stop the pirate Captain Molstrom from finding the Owls’ remaining two relics. Nevertheless, a deeper plot unravels as the story progresses. It is not just the Pirates Otus has to worry about.

The story in Owlboy was a little confusing, as what seemingly starts off as being a typical ‘save the world from the bad guy’ story soon becomes tangled in overly complex subplots and lore. I could see that some parts of the story were there as lore to build D-Pad Studios’s universe. And I also think a lot of the random story was there to lay the foundations for the next game. However, when mixed together it made for a choppy and overly long story which by the end, I didn’t enjoy.

On the other hand, what I really liked was how D-Pad Studios developed their main characters in the game and really gave them clear and concise motivations for wanting to help save the world and stop the pirates. Otus for example, is always seen as a fool or worthless by his peers and therefore has a point to prove. Geddy is loyal and wants to be their for his friend Otus, whilst also protecting his friends and family in Vellie. Alphonse the Pirate’s sense of dignity and pride has him fight for the good side instead of the bad. The final character (who I won’t say because it’s a spoiler) is an outcast from his family and was betrayed by the pirates, forcing him to side with Otus. I thought it was great how fleshed out each of the main characters were in the story, which is not always seen in other indie games.

The Game

The game is a 2D side-scrolling platform puzzler with some very light metroidvania elements. Otus can fly, run, roll and spin but he cannot use a weapon. Therefore, each of your companions has a specific weapon which only they can use. Otus has to fly around and carry that character to use their weapon. The game is a twin-stick shooter with the left joystick controlling Otus and the right aiming his companions’ weapon.

So for example, Geddy has a basic pee-shooter type gun and Alphonse has a shotgun which is very slow to reload. It can also be used as a torch and a means to burn the environment to open up new areas. Furthermore, he is very heavy so Otus moves slower, but it also means Alphonse can be used to hold down bigger pressure plates, which help solve puzzles. The third character has a grappling hook which helps Otus platform through tough winds and warp through enemy attacks.

In addition, Owlboy also has a significant amount of boss battles that the player must overcome. I liked the visual design of every boss but the actual mechanics behind the battles were pretty standard. They reminded me of some of the ‘bullet-hell’ bosses from The Binding of Isaac but were much easier to understand and beat.

I enjoyed the twin-stick aspect of the game but the combat really took a rear-seat compared to the puzzles in the game. Each puzzle was well designed, fun and made you think. Many had that aspect where the solution was simple. Nevertheless, they made me over think so much that I was trying to do Rayman-Like equations in my head, only to realise all I needed to do was look bit harder or try something a slightly different way. I find this aspect great because it always shows how well designed a game’s puzzles are and how bad at puzzles I am!

As I said above the Metroidvania aspects of the games are very light. For players that wish to just play through the story, there is no real need to back track. The only collectables in the game are coins and a few special tokens which don’t have that much of an effect on gameplay. The coins can upgrade Otus’s health, but I would argue they are mostly there as distractions for players.

Art and Music

Anyone who knows anything about indie games can tell you Owlboy is famous because of its art style. It’s pixelated graphics are stunning, there’s no two words about it. The animation is always flawless and the art direction in the game’s world is beautiful. Each environment is varied, rich and colourful.

The music too is up there with some of the best. Orchestral sounds swoop and swoon as Otus flies around Vellie, with slower more melancholic tones at the sadder parts of the game. The sound design too it fantastic. I love Otus’s whistles of approval and the evil laugh of Captain Molstrom. Put it all together and I have no problem saying that Owlboy is the best presented indie game on the Nintendo Switch. However, because of its immaculate presentation I feel some things may get overlooked by reviewers.

Problems

Firstly the game crashed on me four or five times. Again like The Adventure Pals, it was always close to the end of the game when it happened. One boss battle in particular (the metal snake) was so framey it was almost unplayable. I was mostly guessing where the snake might be and shooting, hoping my bullets would hit and end my framey nightmare.

As I said above, the combat was lacklustre and too easy. The only challenge came when you were up against multiple enemies. However, what tended to happen was that you would get pin-balled between enemies and killed. So when you get hit once, you may as well reload your game. This made combat always feel like a chore, which was very disappointing.

Finally, my biggest issue was that the jump and glide function were both mapped to the same button. Throughout most of the game this was fine. However, close to the end there is a platforming section where you have to masterfully time your jumps and glides. This literally took me 45 minutes to beat because the controls weren’t tight enough. There was times when I’d want to glide but instead I’d jump (and vice versa). I really wish there was an option to change the control scheme in the game!

Summary

To conclude, the excitement I had for Owlboy was definitely over exaggerated. Though the game’s art and music are a masterpiece, its choppy story and somewhat boring combat make it a little bit of a drag to play. There are some definite highlights such as the puzzles and depth of the four main characters, however, for its quite expensive price of $24.99, I feel there are a selection of simply better indie games you should play first. Maybe do what I did and wait for it to go on sale before picking it up.

That’s why I give Owlboy by D-Pad studios my rating of 

What did you think of my review? Did you love Owlboy and think I don’t know what I’m talking about? Let’s have a conversation over on Twitter or join the Switch Indie Fix Discord Server.

#owlboy #review #nintendo switch #indie game #indie dev #Switch indie fix #8 #nintendo

[technewss15-blog]

The Disgruntled Life Of A GM: An Ongoing NBA 2K18 Adventure

Here’s something you haven’t heard before: I played NBA 2K14 for the story. Seriously. I’ll even double down on my ludicrous statement by saying it offered more twists and turns than Mass Effect. If memory serves me correctly, my ball hog of a player was traded four times in a season. He didn’t play defense. He refused to pass the ball. He fired his best friend as his agent. He picked fights during practice. He wore a tiger-skin suit. He talked trash in all of his post-game press conferences. Fans voiced their displeasure in his playing style on Twitter. He lost most of the games he played in because he didn’t care.

I absolutely adored watching his career unfold. If you want to witness one of video games’ craziest stories, check out my blog that chronicles his antics, or pick up NBA 2K14 for cheap, and select the evil option whenever possible. When NBA 2K15 rolled around, I was counting the days until I had the chance to create another miserable human being, but I was told that the game didn’t have the same type of good or evil choices, and the story didn’t hit as hard. The same sentiments were echoed for NBA 2K16 and 17. I figured this year’s iteration of the game would again refrain from making a player look like an absolute monster, and I was right…kind of. NBA 2K18’s MyPlayer mode may not offer a wide variety of player-driven choices, but narrative intrigue supposedly resides in the game’s new MyGM mode.

Thus begins a chronicle of money squandering and unnecessary firings. With Andrew Reiner standing in as the new general manager of the Minnesota Timberwolves, chaos will hopefully ensue. This is his journey:

Day One: After creating a strange facial hair-free version of Andrew Reiner (in the Nintendo Switch version), I learn of my first target: Eddie Chase, the owner of the Minnesota Timberwolves. His bio makes him sound like a real pushover: “Mr. Chase is known to be a patient individual who does not have any strong feelings or needs one way or the other. He doesn’t require much of a profit nor does he expect a perennial winner. It’s widely understood that the Timberwolves position is a great entry-level position for would-be GMs.”

He doesn’t need a perennial winner or profit. I will make sure he gets neither of these things.

Six Years Ago The game then flashes back to show Reiner as a player for the Dallas Mavericks. He isn’t on the floor dunking over fools, however; he’s lying down on a medical table, holding his right knee.

“My knee – I can’t bend it. Something is… not right here. I’ve never felt this… this level of pain,” Reiner says.

The team trainer says an MRI is coming back soon, and that I should try to relax. Reiner has no idea how this could happen to him – during the playoffs of all times. As he writhes in pain, he brags about scoring 30 points in the game. The trainer corrects him and says he actually scored 36 points. Reiner once again sounds like a ball hog, and I had no control over it. Wonderful!

A doctor enters the room and tells me I suffered a full tear of the anterior cruciate ligament, as well as partial tears of the posterior cruciate ligament and collateral cruciate ligament. Doc says it’s unusual to have tears to these ligaments in the same knee, simultaneously. The collateral cruciate ligament damage is usually only seen after a direct blow to the inside of the knee. Weird. I’d love to see the play that destroyed my knee to this degree.

Back to the Present After learning that my playing career ended at that moment, I now see I am a snazzily dressed guy, with an expensive suit and what appears to be an iPhone 6. I’m on the phone with Eddie Chase. I tell him I am running late for our meeting – a great start for a GM who is ultimately here to destroy the Timberwolves’ organization from the inside. This is my first day on the job. I just have to make sure I am on location for a scheduled press conference at 2 p.m. to introduce me as the new face of the team.

When I arrive at the Timberwolves’ headquarters, Karl-Anthony Towns approaches me in the parking lot. He is quick to compliment my skills as a basketball player, and is eager to work with me. He’s kissing up. He will definitely get a raise.

Another figure then emerges from the shadows. It’s coach Tom Thibodeau, and he looks like a real a-hole. I am totally going to fire him today. Just as this plan formulates in my mind, he asks me about staffing, and I am quick to say that I haven’t thought about it yet. I counter by saying we are just in the get-to-know each other phase right now. He’s totally fired. I hate him.

Towns then makes a critical error: He sucks up to coach and says that he’s here for the players. I may have to trade Towns today. They are disgusting together. I can’t have this kind of camaraderie on my team. A question jumps into my mind: Why are they in the parking lot together? I’m convinced they are into hardcore drugs. They both have to go.

Small Talk I’m called into Chase’s office to talk about my job. He tries to talk to me about world-famous chai latte spice scones, but uses this moment to brag about making an app or something dumb.

We eventually get around to talking about basketball, and he makes the mistake of bringing up the game that ended my career. He then says “You don’t lose. I don’t lose. The fans here, they are hungry for success. The media, they are hungry for success. Every Timberwolves fan wants to read one of their columns about how great the team is. When the wins stop coming, the media starts looking for cracks. Cracks that they can exploit for stories. For clicks, whatever it is they strive for.” Did he almost call media fake news? Regardless of what they hell he is saying here, he is going to lose big by making me GM, and the media will find cracks everywhere, hopefully within days.

He tells me to be honest and open to the media, encouraging me to say what is on my mind. I plan on it. I want this chai latte jerk to know he made a mistake in hiring me, as he’s introducing me to the world. That would be delicious.

The Press Conference A reporter asks me what my plans are out of the gate. My choices are “total rebuild,” “minor tweaks needed,” and “I love where we are at.” My gut says to go with total rebuild, as the Timberwolves are clearly a playoff team on the hunt this year, and this action should make Mr. Chase swallow hard. I could also lie and say that I like how things look, but I have a feeling the game won’t read this as a fib. I select “total rebuild.”

I say not everyone will see it this way, but “I’m looking at this as a situation where we have to strip down the roster, pare it down to a core number of guys, then build it back up. From scratch, basically.” They are probably thinking I keep Towns. Nope. He’s the first to go when I get the power.

I tell the press we have a nice plan in place for getting the team where it needs to go, starting with the draft. “You can’t swing and miss there if you’re trying to build from the ground up.” I plan on selecting the slowest and least-talented player possible. He will make the most money in the league too.

I also detail plans for free agency; another well of despair that I will soon inflict upon this fan base.

When asked for the coach, I try to make out a smile, but this action makes me look like a demon. Perfect. The loser is sitting right next to me.

I’m given the options of “Confident in Head Coach,” “Need time to evaluate,” and “It’s time to move on.” You know what I selected. I’m disappointed with how I let this information out there. “First of all, I just want to say that I have nothing but respect for Tom Thibodeau. He’s a good coach and a good man. But at this time I feel it’s in the best interest of the franchise to go in a different direction. You’ll be hearing more about that as the process moves along, but right now that’s all I have to say about it.” At least I dropped a bomb on him. He didn’t see it coming.

The Next Day Thibodeau is becoming unhinged. He enters my office and drops the lamest insult possible: “Get a grip!” Whatever, man.

He then says something surprising, almost reading like a threat. “One day you’ll wake up and it’ll be just like any other day. You’ll go about your business. Maybe have a nice dinner with your wife. Then out of nowhere you’re going to be broadsided just like I was. BOOM. Just like that. And it’ll be you out on the street. It’ll be you looking like an idiot.” I’m impressed with the anger he is showing, and debate keeping him on as a “Sith Lord in training” for a brief second, but his dumb face is just too dumb for me to look at any longer. I’m hoping I can call security.

I didn’t have to. He leaves, and in enters Ed Pinckney, the assistant coach. He tells me he understands my desire for fresh blood, but says he’s been with the organization for a long time. “I know the maniacs who jump around shooting t-shirts into the crowd. I know their names. I know their families’ names. I know their birthdays and what kind of peanut butter they like. I know their comfort zones, I know their fears, and I know exactly what buttons to push.” Whoa. This guy is nuts.

He says he’s paid his dues, but I couldn’t care less. See you, Ed. Don’t let the door hit you on the ass on the way out.

I insult him in saying I need someone who has done it longer. He says he was hoping to become the head coach of the Timberwolves today. My firing of him has to come as a huge blow. Excellent.

I am then called into Chase’s office. He says he trusts me, but is already concerned with my actions. “This change comes as a bit of a surprise,” he adds. “I haven’t liked surprises for a long time, Andrew. A long time.”

Dude is clearly not liking me right now. I will have to waste his money quickly, as I fear my time here won’t last long. He then drifts off into his childhood for some reason, and paints himself as a real mess of a person in the process.

I have no idea what he was just trying to communicate other than establish I would never want to have him as a friend or family member. He continues to ramble. “Nothing to be done now, of course. That’s all in the past. But let’s make sure we take full advantage of this opportunity. We call it a pivot in the business world. You start off one way, but that way doesn’t work, so you try something else. You figure out what advantage you’ve got and you pivot. Then you milk every last drop out of that advantage. You wring that bad boy out till it’s bone dry.”

Holy crap, I hate this man. I hate how he talks, thinks, and looks. I inform him I have a specific coach in mind (which I don’t). I then see a screen that looks like a mess of work. A mess I will half-ass my way through.

I have no idea what I’m doing, and that’s okay. My first order of business is to rework my team’s schedule as best I can. I remove every single practice from the season schedule and replace them with rest days. Tons of rest days for everyone. This should lead to a lack of chemistry on the floor – a crippling blow to the team.

I also find the staff page and immediately begin firing everyone…harshly!

I tell my CFO that “I’m pretty sure my cat could’ve done a better job than you! Pack up your things and get outta here!” Bwahahaha! Told him! This action lowered my team morale by one point, and my trust with Nicolas Brown (who I just fired) by 56 points.

I then fire my assistant manager saying “You have been the worst sidekick in the history of sidekicks. You make the Scarecrow look like a superhero.” Whoa. A Batman reference! Love it! This firing not only lowered my team morale by five points, it also delivered one of the worst comebacks ever.

My joy may turn to dust in my mouth. That’s your response? Really? Since I don’t have a head coach or an assistant coach, I just have the head scout and trainer to fire. I’m somewhat civil with the head scout, telling him “We’re changing things around here and you’re not a part of our plans going forward. So, if you could just go ahead and pack up your stuff and get out, that would be terrific. Okay?” He responds brilliantly.

“Excuse me, I believe you have my stapler.”

I should have kept him. The team didn’t seem to care that much for him, however, with just one point in morale dropping. I tell the trainer “You’ve been canned like spam!” I regret that one, folks. My A.I.-driven dude has been pretty cool up to this line, but I can’t back that one up. The trainer rightfully threatens me.

“Tread lightly…”

Losing him results in another huge drop of five morale with the team. I now have no staff around me. We are free-falling and the season hasn’t even started. The game alerts me of the openings with a notice of “If you choose to automatically fill all vacancies, they will be filled by minimum wage coaches. Remember that the few least skilled staff free agents will always sign with you, independent of contract length and wage.”

“Minimum wage coaches” is music to my ears. Why not, right? I could always fire them if they start putting something meaningful together.

  And that’s going to conclude the first entry of this ongoing saga. I’ll be back soon with another huge update showing what happens when the season begins…

The Disgruntled Life Of A GM: An Ongoing NBA 2K18 Adventure was originally published on Tech News Center Generation