#i can enjoy something as an art form without expecting it to teach me a fucking lesson

[neo-my-geo]

Hey gang, it’s your old pal Neo here. If you know me, it’s probably from one of the several very stupid TF2 comics I’ve posted to Tumblr.

However! I am also an English major (unfortunately). One who has read millions of words worth of fanfiction in their life. I have been part of the Sherlock, BNHA, Disco Elysium, and, of course, TF2 fandoms; I’ve been around the block.

The further I’ve progressed into my English education, the more I’ve noticed which mistakes are the most common in fanfiction. Many of them are easily fixable; writers just need to be pointed in the right direction. 

“Neo! Does this mean you think people shouldn’t be allowed to post their works online without a background in formal English education?”

Of course not! I can explain why if you’d care to venture below the cut with me!

Yes, I will explain how to use commas.

It’s important to note that this is NOT a post about formal writing. You aren’t writing an essay. Please, for the love of god, do not write fiction like you’re writing an essay.

There are no stakes to writing fanfic. No one is going to get hurt if an author doesn’t know what a dangling participle is. One of my favourite things about fanfiction is that it’s one of the only art forms left that’s done exclusively for fun! You should write what you enjoy, and share what you make with like-minded people. 

What I want to do is provide assistance as best I can to writers who want to improve their fundamentals without having to take the same university courses I did. Nobody is going to be getting a formal education to write fanfiction unless they’re ridiculously dedicated, and I’m not expecting that of anyone. 

The point I need to stress is that knowing these grammar fundamentals can instantly improve the flow of your writing. Punctuation is a ridiculously important tool for writers, ESPECIALLY in fiction. Commas, semicolons, and full stops (including periods, exclamation points, and question marks) steer the pacing in the reader’s mind; did you notice how your brain stopped for a second after that semicolon? I can show you how to do that.

You may be wondering why I’m going through so much effort to teach all of this to strangers on the internet. The answer is that I enjoy sharing this knowledge with others and helping them grow. By seeing this, my goal is to help you become more proficient at self-editing. Showing this to people who actually want to learn will, hopefully, benefit the community as a whole, and I think that’s very worth it. 

Also, while this post is obviously themed around TF2, the points I’m making can be applied to any fiction. Grammar is for everyone, and the church of the semicolon always has room for more initiates. 

Also also, as an edit, I should clarify that this is meant to cover the more objective facets of self-editing, which is why I'm mostly covering punctuation. Maybe I'll do another post about using adjectives someday.

With that out of the way, let’s get going!

I’ve teamed up with several English teachers (real ones! One of which may or may not be my mom!) and an editor to gather a list of the most common problems we see in amateur fiction. This post is going to be split into three broad sections: apostrophes, commas/semicolons, and other common problems. 

The apostrophe

This section is short, but it holds weight. Other than commas, apostrophes are the most typoed grammatical tool in any fanfiction I’ve edited. This is because, much like the rest of English, the rules surrounding them can be annoying and inconsistent. 

Apostrophes have two main uses: possessives and conjunctions.

A possessive is a word that denotes the ownership of one thing over another. The vast majority of the time, this is done using an apostrophe and an S.

There is, however, one glaring exception to this rule, and it’s the bane of my existence. 

When denoting possession of an object over something else while using the pronoun ‘it,’ you do NOT add an apostrophe before the S.

A conjunction, on the other hand, is when a writer uses an apostrophe to combine two words. The following are examples of common conjunctions:

What’s (what is)

They’re (they are)

It’s (it is)

Conjunctions are not often used in formal writing. Thankfully, we aren’t dealing in formal writing. Go crazy.

Time for a lightning round of the most commonly mistaken for each other possessives and conjunctions!

Your is possessive. You’re is a conjunction of ‘you’ and ‘are.’ When you can’t decide which one to use, imagine replacing it with ‘you are’ and seeing if it makes sense. If it doesn’t, use your.

Their is possessive. There indicates a location. They’re is a conjunction of ‘they’ and ‘are.’ 

The comma and the semicolon

You knew it was coming. I knew it was coming. It’s time to talk about commas.

Commas and semicolons are far and away the biggest grammatical hole in the toolset of fanfiction writers everywhere. They’re often treated like the rules surrounding them are complicated and difficult to understand, but the exact opposite is true! 

The big issue I’ve heard time and time again is that the rules of commas are often explained through metaphor instead of example; this means that writers everywhere have slightly different ideas of how you’re supposed to use them. The fact of the matter is that, yes, there are correct and incorrect ways to use commas. Knowing when they’re appropriate and when they aren’t is easily the fastest way to bring your writing from looking amateurish to sounding professional and experienced. 

In order to know how to use a comma, you must first understand the difference between a dependent and an independent clause. 

An independent clause is a section of writing that functions perfectly well as its own sentence. It MUST have both a subject and an action/verb.

A sentence without an independent clause is known as a fragment, and they’re the bane of English teachers with highlighters everywhere. 

A dependent clause is a section of writing that does not have both a subject and an action; it does not function as its own sentence.

Now, let’s say you want to combine the two. When joining a dependent clause to an independent clause, the order in which they are placed is crucial to whether you use a comma or not. 

When joining a dependent to an independent with the independent clause first, you do not need to use a comma.

When joining a dependent to an independent with the dependent clause first, you MUST use a comma. 

Keep in mind that, if one strives for total grammatical perfection, all narrative sentences MUST have an independent clause. This, however, does not apply to dialogue. Human beings do not think about whether what they’re saying is a dependent clause, and neither would the vast majority of fictional characters. Don’t be afraid to break the rules of grammar as long as it’s contained within quotation marks. 

Alright, that’s the easy part. Time to learn about joining two independent clauses. It’s semicolon time, baby!

If you join two independent clauses without properly using a comma or a semicolon, it is a run-on sentence. You do not want these in your writing. They’re awkward to read and mess up the flow.

When joining two independent clauses, you can use EITHER a comma or a semicolon. You just need to follow these rules:

If you’re joining two independent clauses with a comma, you MUST use a joining word (and, but, so, etc.) AFTER the comma. 

If you’re joining two independent clauses with a semicolon, you do NOT need to use a joining word.

Did you know that a sentence with a comma counts as its own independent clause? This means that you can make a sentence that includes a mix of both without it being a run-on! Just make sure that, no matter what, the semicolon is between two independent clauses. 

Still, try not to write more than two clauses in a sentence too often. Sentences with a lot of punctuation are very attention-grabbing, but shouldn’t be overused. Full stops aren’t your enemy and variety is the spice of life. 

It’s also important to remember that you should avoid using more than one comma in a clause (with the exception of the rule below). That part loops back to the 'avoiding run-ons' bit.

It’s really that easy! 

Commas are also used in informal writing to inject a separate thought or descriptor mid-sentence without breaking the flow by adding a period. This is often used when describing the perspective of a character experiencing something in a story, but not (usually) when using omniscient perspectives. 

The final issue I frequently see with commas in fanfiction is in regards to dialogue. Sometimes you end it with them, and sometimes you don’t. What gives? 

Well, my friend, the answer is, thankfully, much simpler than the previous section.

When following dialogue with a dialogue tag, use a comma instead of a full stop. If you’re continuing the previous sentence after the tag, use a comma after it as well. 

Note that a dialogue tag is a short phrase that identifies the speaker. It isn’t a complete sentence on its own.

When following dialogue with an action that does not serve as a dialogue tag, use a full stop instead of a comma. 

Other common problems

This section is dedicated to putting specific grammatical errors into words, along with how to solve them. 

Not sticking to the chosen point of view

Always choose your point of view before you start. Is it in the first, second, or third person? Is it omniscient or limited? Does the point of view switch during the story?

First person perspective is told as if the POV character is directly describing their experience to the reader. The character uses I and we to describe their own actions.

Second person perspective is told as if the reader is a character in the story and their actions are being described to them. This is the rarest, and the most difficult to write.

Third person perspective is the most common and the simplest to write. The events of the story are a separate entity from the reader altogether and the narrator uses they/he/she/it pronouns for characters. 

Omniscient perspective means the narrator of the story knows all, including the thoughts and feelings of each character. 

Limited perspective means the narrator of the story only knows what the POV character knows. 

Past and present tense

When you decide between writing a story in past or present tense, it is crucial that you do not switch between them unless it is narratively intentional. Reading a past tense story that mistakenly switches to the present tense is like being pulled out of the room someone is telling a story in and suddenly taking part in it yourself. It’s disorienting and gives the reader unwanted pause.

Overly-long paragraphs

A common adage spread by English teachers is that most paragraphs should be at least eight sentences long. This is great advice for beginner essays. You’re writing fiction. 

If you have a new thought, start a new paragraph! A concise and well-read single-sentence paragraph is infinitely better than one that drags a thought for too long. Aim to have a blend of paragraph lengths when you write, alternating between the descriptive and the punctual. 

Dangling participles

A dangling participle is when a word is used to describe a noun that isn’t actually present in the sentence. Much like how a sentence without an action isn’t grammatically correct, neither is a sentence without a subject. 

Malapropisms

A malapropism is when an author mistakenly uses one word or phrase instead of another similar-sounding one. I’m not about to list every single malapropism ever made, but these are the ones I notice most often:

To comprehend is to understand something, to apprehend is to arrest someone, and to be apprehensive is to be anxious or fearful of something bad happening.

Could care less means you do care. Couldn’t care less means you don’t.

A lot means a large amount of something. Alot isn’t a word and you shouldn’t use it.

The only real solution to using malapropisms is to make sure you fully understand any words you use in your writing. Never guess, and make sure you always google it. Having beta readers also helps.

If you made it this far, congratulations! You now know the most common errors in amateur fiction and how to solve them! Thank you for listening to me complain for two thousand words. 

The most important thing to remember is that it’s okay to make mistakes. First drafts are always gonna be a little bad. The real key to success is knowing what your end goal is, and how you plan on achieving it. Here’s hoping this was a helpful tool for that!

Shoutout to @salmonandsoup for helping me think of the list of issues to address! You're a real one. Also shoutout to my mom, who doesn't have Tumblr. Also the third person. You know who you are.

#grammarposting #tf2 #grammar #educational shitpost #writing #fanfic #fanfiction #writing advice #fanfiction writing advice #team fortress 2 #tf2 fanfiction #bro your participle is dangling

[emillyverse]

Some warnings + Chapter 1 Progress!!!!!

HELLO MY LOVELY STARS!!!

You didn't expect to see me updating KoW so soon, did you???

I usually post updates on Saturday or Sunday, but I'll be traveling so I decided to leave the previews today.

In fact, this trip is the warning I have to give. I will be away from my work desk and my materials for a few days (I don't know exactly how many but between one and two weeks), therefore I will not be able to make progress on the Comic during this period.

This is sad I know. But look on the bright side, I'm going to get a lot of rest and return to work with renewed energy!!!

✨YAYYYYYY !!!✨

Anyway, without further ado, let's get to what everyone wants to see:

THE CONTINUATION OF THE OUTLINES OF CHAPTER 1 OF "THE KINGDOM OF WISHES"

( Written by @annymation , design by @uva124 )

Check out part 1 here.

"The two brothers grew up and, with their father's teachings, became powerful sorcerers."

"But when the big day arrived, Florian was crowned king, as Magnus still didn't feel confident and claimed that something was missing in his life; something that gave him strength and courage!"

"It was then that Magnus met Amaya."

"The most beautiful maiden he had ever seen had been found adrift in a boat and taken shelter in the castle by order of King Florian."

"As a form of gratitude for the hospitality, Amaya began to serve the court as a royal alchemist and, as the days went by, she ended up winning Magnus' heart, finally making him feel like he could do...anything".

"Encouraged by his new love, Magnus decided to travel in search of adventure, leaving the kingdom to prosper in Florian's hands."

"But then, a tragedy happened. When Magnus returned to Rosas he discovered that his brother had passed away due to illness. A painful loss for the entire kingdom, which was made worse by Florian not having legitimate heirs"

"Magnus was moved. He could not let the magnificent legacy of his beloved brother and predecessors end like this."

"Feeling confident with Amaya by your side, Magnus took over the throne and changed the way wishes were granted monthly, doing dozens of them a week, making them float back to your Wish Makers, during the night"

The Kingdom was so happy and grateful that they began to name their new rulers with nicknames that reflected their magnificence and passion, thus making them known as King Magnífico and Queen Amable.

"The end".

Sabino: "I admire your taste in complex stories, Asha, but... Hmm...Don't you think this is too complicated for you?"

Asha: "I thought it was a fantasy book, but it's just romance. Yuck!”

Sabino: "Never judge a book by its cover, darling! What you have here is a history book."

Asha: "But he doesn't explain things very well.Where does Queen Amaya come from? And the king's staff?What disease did Florian die from?"

Sabino: "Well, Asha, let's see..."

"First, the queen is very private about her past, we have to respect that."

"Second. That staff is just a souvenir the king got on his travels."

Sabino: "And third. Sometimes bad things just... happen... without explanation."

"And there's nothing we can do about it."

"Unless you move on..."

To be continued...

FORGIVE FOR ENDING WITH AN ANGUISH DRAWING 🥺🥺

BUT DESPITE THAT, I HOPE YOU ENJOYED IT!

And understood. Remembering that, like Anny, I'm Brazilian, but unlike her, I don't understand English and I'm always using Google translate, so maybe there are some mistakes. But Anny and you are always welcome to point out mistakes and correct me!

That's it for today and until after my little vacation Lmao 😅 I'll still be online to answer any questions or curiosities you may have, or simply to see posts and rewrites in which they mark me. I love interacting with this fun and tight-knit community of Wish Concept Art fans!

Anyway, goodbye!!

Kisses full of light and stars!

~Emy

#the kingdom of wishes au comic #the kingdom of wishes au #disney wish #wish disney #wish 2023 #wish #starboy #disney star boy #asha wish #disney asha #starboy wish #wish rewrite #rewrites #comic artist #comic strip #comic books #comic process #comic art #comics #wish reimagined #artists on tumblr #starsha #king magnifico #queen amaya #disney comics #disney concept art #disney artwork #behind the scenes #behind the papers?

[jucyfruit]

‘Media Is the Third Parent’: A Conversation With Lucy Dacus

by Justin Joffe | 2/22/17

The music that we love is an accumulation of narratives. The stories those songs tell, the memories they create for us and the truths that their writers have lived all become an important rubber band ball of context and experience, informing our connection to them in ways we don’t always immediately get.

So when a young artist emerges from the formless depths of adolescence near-fully formed, the narrative starts taking shape even before we understand it. Cries of nepotism, entitlement, and business collusion often drown out the true origin story of someone who takes to a big stage so all of a sudden, whether or not those cries have any merit. And in the case of Lucy Dacus, a 21-year old singer/songwriter from Richmond Virginia with a remarkably deep and powerful voice, no such assumptions about her recent ascension ring the least bit true.

Adopted at a young age and creatively nurtured by her piano-playing mother, Dacus’ musicality was embedded in her home life from the get go. Her debut, No Burden, was recorded by her guitarist Jacob Blizard as part of his winter project at music school Oberlin and released by hometown label EggHunt Records last February. Almost immediately, Dacus’ husky alto caught the attention of larger labels—over 20 of them—requiring her to take some time sifting through the muck and the mud, fielding offers and inquiries guided largely by her convictions and her gut.

Six months later she signed with venerable independent label Matador Records, and their reissue of Dacus’ No Burden last fall gave hope to this whole generation of self-starters. Dacus’ reverb-drenched, alt-country-dusted songs cut to the question of how an artist in the public eye can still live away from what Sartre called “the gaze of the other”, free from expectations of beauty or lapses in trust, living and working only by the standards they set for themselves.

We caught up over the phone to discuss what it means to take personal agency over your work in a time when art and politics seem pretty much inseparable.

How ya doin’?

Good, I’m in Canada! Hopefully my connection will be good, but if it starts to break up I’ll blame it on that.

So, were you looking at a hearse or a limousine? That lyric of yours reminds me of one of my favorite Leonard Cohen lyrics, “Thought I saw an eagle, but it might have been a vulture, never could decide.”

Yeah, that one’s really good.

Much of your album speaks to trust and navigating uncharted waters, but can you unpack that rhetorical question for me?

I guess the point of that song, “Troublemaker, Doppelganger” is trying to navigate the worth of beauty, and if it’s hurtful or helpful to value beauty. If it’s a curse or a blessing. Is that something really negative and morbid, like the hearse, or is it the limousine—a glamorous symbol of enjoying life?

I’m trying to connect how your interest in the aesthetic side of media, between your time in film school and your time as a photo editor, has informed your perspective on our habits of consumption and decision making. Is that something that weighs on your mind often?

Yeah! The media, and how we’re taught to read it, has a huge impact on who we become as people. When you’re a kid you learn whatever your parents think, until you start taking in media. Because all your friends are your age as well, media is the third parent that you ever have. So I think about that a lot, what visual imagery is teaching us, and media in general having a huge impact. But it’s ambiguous—if you haven’t learned the cultural symbolism where media is coming from, it can be really confusing.

You said that you felt this record was possible because you went into it without any expectations, during the writing and recording process. But the minute any work is released to the public, media expectations become imposed upon us. I guess it’s what Sartre called “the gaze of the other”. How do you keep that purity of intention during your process while operating inside someone else’s media infrastructure, an infrastructure that you didn’t build? It’s something I feel that you’re in a particularly great place to help us with.

[Laughs] A lot of the songs for the next record were actually written well before we spoke to a label or had any kind of coverage, so at least for the next record, I haven’t had to deal with that. But of course I’m still writing, and I think the biggest aspect of it that keeps me from catering to our current infrastructure is not trying to write. I don’t ever sit down and say, “OK, I need to write a song” or “I need to crank something out” or “I have to make something that will satisfy the people around me.” That’s never been a concern, I don’t think that should be a concern, and it means I maybe don’t write at a quick pace anymore, but everything that I do write is stuff that just comes to me the way any other thought does. So far it doesn’t feel like anything that I’ve written is compromised by the fact that we have a label now.

You’ve spoken about how you had to develop a bit more business acumen after this album was finished and you were shopping your project around a bit. Do you almost learn those things so that you can know when you don’t have to use them, in a way? When you don’t have to have your guard up with them?

Yeah, I really enjoy navigating the business aspect of having a band, and there is a great amount of instinct. You don’t wanna work with people who make you feel weird, even if they’re super qualified. You don’t want to feel like you’re being used by anybody, even though you are submitting to that in some way, in some mutual using of whoever you end up working with. But there’s a fine line that’s hard to describe between being taken advantage of and having a partnership. I feel like that might be different for everybody, but I would just suggest that anyone getting into this take their time and compare a lot of different companies or whatever you’re choosing. Be comparative about decision making , because you don’t have to rush into things.

That ties into the themes of trust on this record, too, which is funny because you wrote these songs before having to navigate those waters. You wrote, “I wanna live in a world where I can keep my doors open, but who knows what’d get in and what’d get out.” Would it be a stretch to connect that lyric toward your path of ascension in the music sphere, toward your approach to how you present yourself? Are you talking about trust in the abstract here?

Absolutely. The more you learn the more wise you’re supposed to be, but I still reflect upon myself as a child, or even just myself pre-audience, kind of contemplating on where my creativity came from at that point and always trying to stay connected to why I originally started writing. I did write that song a while ago, but luckily it still rings true.

I talked to Joe Steinhardt of Don Giovanni a few weeks ago, and he’s of the mind that the big three media companies are turning into the big three tech companies, insofar as Apple, Google and Amazon are eating whole industries of art, commerce and media. It got me wondering what we can do. Now obviously you’re on Matador, and they have a great reputation around doing right for their artists’ sustainability. What are you, and they, doing right when it comes to giving artists some agency over their own work?

I guess there’s two ways to approach this question. There’s technically retaining the rights to your own music, being structurally independent and not feeding into major labels or major companies, but then there’s also this idea of retaining agency in a more metaphysical sense.

I think both are important. Matador’s an independent label, which was part of the reason that we chose them. Myself, I feel like I still have ownership over my own work. Like I said, you just have to retain your writing process and not force anything. That’s what helps me feel like I still have a handle on what I make—it’s coming from me because of me, not because of anything else.

On top of that, I really like and respect bands that do more than just the typical structuring of recording, releasing and touring an album. Bands that are socially active, bands that are not afraid to talk about their belief systems explicitly. I’ve been inspired by that, and that feels like not just taking agency over your own work, but taking agency over the responsibility that you’ve been granted by a fanbase. Really contemplating your fanbase and being present with the people who listen to your music.

That begs the very timely and topical question, too—if all art comes from culture, and cultures are being stigmatized right now, then isn’t all art political? The question’s kind of irrelevant when the creative class is kind of a marginalized community in its own right, but I guess I’m just wondering how your value system responds to right now, as you come into the creative class professionally at a time when a lot of people are freaking out about the abolishment of the National Endowment of the Arts and similar public-funded avenues for creative programs or dialogues. What’s your role in pushing back against that?

The solution we came up with as a band for this tour was raising money for local charities at each of the shows that we’ve been playing. That feels like a pretty effective form of activism so far, but beyond that, I would hope that the music we make and tour causes people to consider not necessarily the specific current events happening around the world, but what’s behind them—power struggles, contemptment and these other things behind the negativity that we see, a lack of fulfillment in people.

It’s nobody’s actual job, but I personally admire people who see it as their responsibility. Whether its actual resources going to real life projects, charities or charities, that’s one piece of it. But like I said, the content of the music can really change people’s mindset, and I know that I’ve definitely been changed by some musicians and lyrics that I’ve heard. Like I said, media is the third parent to anybody. I would just hope that people write things that call for more thought instead of less thought. That could make a huge difference.

(x)

#lucy dacus #interview #2017 #february 2017 #the new york observer #archival

[separatedleoau]

I know that Draxum is an asshole here, BUT please tell me a couple of cute moments between him and Leo?

The thing about Draxum in this AU is that he IS an asshole, he is very strict and when it comes to raising One he had spent 13 years dancing over the line of abusive parent

He will deny being One's parent (One would deny being his child too), so he might not be his dad legally or emotionally but he is his dad like... spiritually, I guess.

You don't get to raise a child, being his caretaker and his boss without accidentally filling the spot of "father figure"

I want to do a little doodle sheet of just Draxum raising One, but I haven't got the time so here are some of the scenarios I want to draw plus other things I have thought about but are not gonna be able to fit in the story in an organic way:

One learned to call Draxum "boss" bc he heard Huggin and Munnin calling him boss

At first he could just say "bo"

One has been a very talkative child since the beginning, and a very curious one, he would keep pointing at things and making noises until Draxum told him what that thing was.

He had a very long "why" phase that drove Draxum mad

Since he could walk he turned into a menace, it was easy to confine him into one place when he couldn't, but then he would just walk around and start climbing whatever he saw. Draxum lost him many times around the lab

Sometimes Draxum would be working or just chilling and he would hear a thud on the distance and sigh deeply, knowing One was climbing something and fell

One always had at least one bandaid on him because of this

He was going to tell him his human DNA came from Lou Jitsu but decided to first show him an old recording of Lou fighting on the Nexus arena so One could know what Draxum expected from him

One quickly became obssesed with Lou and Draxum decided against telling him the whole truth, thinking he would just become more annoyingly obsessed with the human if he did

Some days latter Draxum found One was still watching the video on loop, turns out the kid was memorizing the moves, he shows Draxum and fails to nail a very simple kick, Draxum doesn't give him any pointers of how to fix his form, just curious to see how far he can go without help

A week latter One surprises Draxum with the fact that he alreay learnt how to do it on his own. He is very impressed with the boy and agrees to his pleas of leting him learn martial arts

Draxum signs him in to a dojo on the hidden city. He doesn't last too long and gets kicked out for "being too agressive"

Draxum doesn't show it but thinks that's hilarious

After being kicked out of other two dojos he decides to train him himself while he grows a little older and he can sign him into a dojo for grown ups.

As a kid One insisted in being though how to manipulate vines like Draxum, he doesn't think the kid can learn to do it but teaches him just so One stops insisting.

It takes him a long while but he learns to do it. Draxum seems genuinly happy while teaching him.

He also enjoys his weekly sparing matches with One.

Draxum gave him his scarf as a gift

One's old uniform was almost completely black, just with some golden details to match him, One kept insisting he should be wearing blue since it is his favorite color. when he outgrown it and Draxum send to make a new one he gave in and let him had his blue accents.

#If you ignore the shit he pulled with the vines Draxum is actually an ok dad #tho not a dad #separated leo au #SLAU one #SLAU draxum #SLAU childhood

[andiwriteordie]

TELL ME ABOUT WILL'S AIRBENDING

ok taking a break from mike and firebending to talk about will's airbending a little bit. (also as an aside rori your tag "3. gayass" just made me fucking die YOU'RE SO RIGHT THOUGH AND YOU SHOULD SAY IT LOUDER)

i suppose i should talk to you about will and his airbending tattoos, huh?

@messrsbyler came up with a LOT of this as well so i am tagging them, because we've been throwing around ideas back and forth to make will's spirit world experience/trauma! so! freaking! awful! :D sorry will.

i think i've already established in some other asks or rambles about how will, of all the party members, loves his bending the most. whereas dustin is a nonbender, lucas hates that he doesn't do well in combat bending, and mike just can't seem to get his firebending down, will loves airbending. he's not a natural at it, per se, but he's good at it. and jonathan is a good teacher. he doesn't just teach will the techniques of airbending, but he also teaches them their heritage as airbenders. he talks about the air nomad genocide, about the culture that was lost and that avatar aang fought to rebuild after the 100 year war. the two of them try to adopt as many ancient air nomad traditions as they can as will learns from his brother. (side note. i am emotional thinking about jonathan not enjoying bending but knowing his brother does, so he goes to the library and researches as much as he can so he can do this well and can teach will all the beauty of their element that jonathan never got to experience)

so right before the story picks up (which, by the way, i'm placing them at about 14 years old at book 1 because ST S3 is getting deleted and the time skip probably is too, so this lands the kids are around 17 years old if each book is a year apart), will can be considered an airbending master and get his tattoos. and god, he's so excited about it. this is what connects him to this community other airbenders, to this rich history he's part of, to a heritage and a culture and an art form that he's proud of. and he'll get to have tattoos just like his brother too, and the party is so excited for him too.

will gets his tattoos right before his kidnapping—literally right before, as in his skin is still tender and still healing from the tattoos and barely a few days later, he's getting dragged into the spirit world and running for his life. and his bending is the lifeline that saves him because he wouldn't survive there without it.

that's when he runs into henry for the first time.

this right here is mostly nic, genius that they are! again, the whole spirit-y connection henry (and will actually) has is still being fleshed out, but for now, we're establishing a couple things: 1) will is dragged into the spirit world by spirits because of an already existing predisposition/deeper connection to spirits and 2) henry does some advanced, rare form of airbending on will in the spirit world that nearly kills him. as henry almost kills will in that, at the last minute, will instinctively taps into whatever deeper connection he has to the spirit world (helllooooo will byers power arc), pushing himself into a sort of avatar-like state (in that he's connected to the spirit world on a deeper level than most people are able to), complete with glowy spirity nonsense on his tattoos, like you would expect with the avatars.

except it's too much. will is doing this on pure instinct, and he's tapping into spiritual powers beyond his control, and his body can't handle it. so it's the result of that avatar-like state/those spiritual energy in will's body that ends up scarring him because he can't handle/control it.

and to make all of this worse?

henry's an airbender right? and he's got a strong spiritual connection too and has been there in the spirit world this whole time. and so the same type of tapping into the spirit world and its energy is something henry has done before. and the same thing happened to henry's airbender tattoos—so now will literally looks more like his abuser than he does other airbenders. his tattoos are scarred, and he can't look at them without thinking about that ordeal.

#andi's asks #stranger things/avatar au #i am like 75% the tattoos thing was nic's idea #so if you want to yell at us for how mean this is #75% yell at nic and 25% yell at me!

[truly-morgan]

[College AU, HC's muse]

HuaLian | Heaven Official’s Blessing Modern AU 26-03-2021

[#hualian modern]

What if they were in college when they "first" met? hc is an art student, people even starting to wonder if he's even /trying/ to graduate or if he's going to stay in the program forever.

xl is doing some general courses, not sure where he'll go in life, his seemingly bad luck makes it that he fails classes because of bad things happening when he just trying his best.

throughout the months he sees hc statues and paintings since they are being exposed by the course, somehow they are really eye-catching with how realistic the man can get sometimes. hc seems to often include one man in his project and xl can't shrug off the feeling that the person depicted seems /familiar/.

Then one day, in his unluckiness, he bumps into someone as he's trying to get to class without being more late than he already is. The stranger spills his coffee on him, yet rather than the angry reaction he expected xl only hears a "Are you okay?".

hc is looking at him, trying to see if any coffee has gotten onto him, ignoring the fact that the coffee got all over his clothes. xl is then the one worried, asking if hc is alright, hoping he didn't burn himself with the coffee, asking if he can do something to help him.

"Why not buy me another coffee?" tease the stranger with a grin.

xl accept, finding it only fair despite not having much money. it's okay, he knows a cheap but good coffee shop he could take him to. hc is obviously taken aback that it works but takes the opportunity anyway. It won't show itself again.

So when classes are done, he joins a hc who has changed clothes, making him worry he might have ruined the other. He's quickly being reassured that it was not the case, they were clothes he usually wears when working with clay, as to not dirty his everyday clothes.

This leads to xl asking curiously what he's studying, not believing him when he says he's the one doing these pieces of art he has been enjoying in the past months.

"If gege wants I can show him what I am currently working on" he is being suggested and xl accept immediately.

And like this, it becomes a thing to go get coffee, hc often lets xl hang around when he's working on a project, not bothered by the man who usually either sits in silence, works on some homework or talks with him when he's not working on really detailed parts.

others from hc classes wonder who is the young man always by his side, not daring to disturb them because of the weirdly intimate aura around them, as if they were all alone in the room or something. fx and mq, xl roommates and childhood acquaintance slash friends are starting to wonder who is hc, since he's often over to help xl around or come pick him up to take him on what are clearly dates, despite xl being seemingly oblivious about how the man is looking at him.

Then, one day, hc finally suggests bringing xl to his place, where his art studio also is. Of course, xl accepts, only to be surprised by how big it is. hx place is basically only the studio, two rooms connected and much smaller, one being his room. even the kitchen is in a corner of the room.

xl jokingly asked if he's secretly the heir to a rich family, only to be told that it is mostly paid by hc job plus the many commission he takes on, making cl wonder how come hc finds so much time to hang out with him.

"That and the square is more industrial, so it's less demanded and cheaper". xl isn't sure of the validity of this, but seeing how hc looks like most of the time, he clearly doesn't have problem with money, so maybe he don't need to worry.

hc shows him around a bit, even trying to teach him how to sculpt clay, which xl does enjoy doing despite barely making a cat-shaped form. hc promise him he could get better with more practice. They end up eating, having order while playing around with clay.

Then hc gets a phone call from his boss, leaving xl alone for a bit. xl decide to look more into what hc did, having already been told he could look at whatever he wanted to. He goes through what he assumes to be school sketchbook, filled with drawings of models While reaching for something higher he ends up knocking down an art portfolio folder, many pieces of paper spilling on the ground. he quickly tries to pick them up, only for his eyes to catch up on one of the drawings.

Was it... him?

It leads him to pick up the paper, finding out it is indeed a drawing of him. Then after looking more closely, he realised they are /all/drawings and sketches of him. He isn't sure what is the most troubling: some clearly being of him at school while he was working on something or the one clearly drawn without him as a model.

He then looks around more, only to find other portfolios filled with him. He even found a good amount of statues made of him, most rather small.

he realises that his schoolwork works most likely are him too, now that he sees some without any alteration made to his appearance to hide it /just enough/ for it to not look evident.

hc comes back to the studio to find an xl standing among many versions of himself, clearly looking a bit unsure as to what he should be thinking of this.

On look from xl and he knows what his question is "Yes, it's you" replies hc straightforwardly.

xl simply nodded, as he looked around a bit more, before hc decided to join him to help pick up his work. "I didn't mean to make gege uncomfortable, I will stop or get rid of these if this is what you want," he said, although something in his eye didn't seem like he wanted to do the latter option.

"Did I know you... before?" finally asked xl, not believing he was interesting enough for a stranger to suddenly start doing /this many/pieces of art with him.

he then learns that actually, xl had saved him once and had somehow also stumbled onto him later on a couple of times.

He finally remembered the young boy he had saved from drowning after falling into a river, surprised hc had recognised him now that they were both older.

This had was a bit much for xl to take in, going back home, and letting hc accompany him to the bus station "just to be safe" he was told.

When he get back to his apartment, fx seems to catch up on his troubled mind despite trying to hide it, finally admitting to what he had just learned after some (a lot) of insisting on fx and mq sides. They are both much more worried than he is, finally finding something to pin on hc for being /this/ obsessed with him, now understanding where the weird impression was coming from.

at first, they don't want for xl to hang out with him anymore, because what if he's not just an obsessed artist, but also dangerous?

So they both follow him around, making sure xl isn't alone with hc. for a time it does work, even clearly getting under hc skin despite him trying not to show it around xl. Then it fails when one of xl classes finishes earlier than the usual, hc already waiting for him, asking if they could talk. xl can't find it in him to refuse, following him back into an empty classroom.

"I am truly sorry for having troubled gege to the point he feels the need to have two guard dog with him all the time" he apologises, xl unsure if it wasn't also joking.

xl tries explaining to him it was only fx and mq doing, that after some time he didn't really mind it, having finally digested the news.

It was weird thinking that it wasn't enough and that he still wanted hc in his life because he had gotten this important in the span of nearly a year.

This is also when hc decided to confess his love, wanting to be fully transparent now, not to definitely scare the man away later on if he ever finds out by accident. One time was enough, he didn't want to make his love worry and feel trouble like this another time.

xl wasn't sure if he should be surprised or not, yet he finds himself rather enjoying the confession, happy that it is actually the case.

yet he doesn't know how to answer, still unable to put full word to his feeling. He sees hc approach him, one of his hands hovering near his cheek, not touching him quite yet. he was then asked permission for a kiss, making him feel warm that he was asking like this. he really didn't understand where fx and mq distrust was coming from when he was asking his permission even for a kiss. He accepted and upon being touched this gently, then a bit more passionately, he finds out he wouldn't mind having this all the time.

Only a couple of days later does xl decide to confess his love, having had the time to think about it and finds out that he had fallen in love with hc. delighted and happy would be too weak of words to describe how hc feels about it, now even more affectionate and teasing towards xl. Everything works out really well for them at the end of the day and even fx and mq have to accept xl won't change his mind.

Original

#tweet archive #tgcf #heaven official's blessing #hualian #hua cheng #xie lian #modern au #college au #xie lian is hua cheng's muse #artist and muse

[ocean-blueeyes]

Day 2: What's the earliest thing you can remember about your TC?

When I was in year 7, I remember him often walking in and out of my English class to talk to my English teacher. But my first proper interaction with him was when our teacher wasn't in so he watched our class from the hallway until a teacher came. I was at the back of the class, by the door, and he saw me reading and asked what I was reading. I was reading The Hate U Give and this was back when the movie had just come out so he asked if I had watched the film. I said no but he told me it was a really good film and recommended I should watch it. This happened years ago, we didn't even know each other's names and I didn't have a crush on him.

Day 3: Do you like your TC's subject? Do you think you're good at it?

He teaches English and English has always been my favourite subject. I do believe I am quite good at his subject. I've always gotten As (and one B) since he's taught me and two times he used my work as an example.

Day 4: How do you feel about your age gap?

There's a 15/16 year age gap between us and I know it's not good. If there was a chance between us, which I highly doubt, I think eventually I wouldn't enjoy being with a guy so much older than me a couple of years down the line.

Day 5: Have you ever said anything to your TC that showed you favoured them? Have they said anything like that to you?

My school does these termly things were students are allowed to send notes of appreciation to their teachers. I sent him note twice, but left them anonymous. However, I have a very distinct handwriting so he probably knew it was me. Before that, he sent me a letter home. He had chosen me as the English's department "Star of the term".

Day 6: Have you ever noticed any small habits they have?

Yes, he always bends his knees when talking to most students. Probably because he's quite tall so he's trying to get on our level, but I think it's quite cute.

Another habit he has is whenever he has a spare moment at the start of the lesson, he likes to put these little drawings on the whiteboard that relate to the lesson, even though he's no good.

Day 7: What gift would you like to give them?

I would love to find out some books he loves and maybe get him some special editions of them. He always does his marking in a green fountain pen so maybe I'd get him a set of fountain pens in all colours.

Day 8: Does your TC ever talk about what it was like when they were a student?

Occasionally. Everyone knows that he went to this really famous private school in the UK. He tells us about some of the strict rules and what his classmates were like.

Day 9: Does your TC have a significant other? If so what do you know about them and how do you feel about them?

He has a fiancée and literally no-one was expecting this so when he casually announced this, the whole class was shocked. My friends and I were doing some stalking and we thought we found his fiancée, but findings from other students say we're wrong. I don't know the woman so I can't form an opinion. All I know is that she's super lucky 😭

Day 10: What is the longest time you've gone without seeing them?

The Summer holidays - 6 weeks. I coped surprisingly well.

Day 11: What do other people usually think of them?

It's an objective truth in our school that he's one of the most attractive teachers in our school. However, a lot of people don't like his teaching methods and he doesn't get a long with a lot of the students in the younger years, so they can find him quite "jarring".

Day 12: Do you often make excuses to speak to them? What kind of excuses do you use?

No, I'm too shy. Maybe once in a while, I'll aks for something I could easily have handled myself or I'll get to class a little early to make general small talk. I do however make plenty of excuses to see him. Maybe taking a longer route to a certain class or hanging out in a specific place during break. My art classroom is close to his classroom, so I always leave my sketchbook in my art class and collect it at the end of the day in hopes of seeing him again.

Day 13: Other than the subject they teach, what are they really passionate about?

From what I can tell, he speaks French. He goes to France for holiday often. He follows a lot of French accounts on his socials, studied it at A-level and will often greet us in French. Whenever trying to teach us the etymology of words, he'll often draw from French words with similar meanings. That's ironic however because everyone in our class studies spanish, but I do speak a little bit of Frnech so I'm often the only one to understand what he's on about.

Day 14: What is a skill you really wished your TC had?

GOOD HANDWRITING.

The onky good thing about his terrible handwriting is that he's very self-aware so he'll come to you to read out his comments and explain.

Day 15: Which MBTI personality type do you think they have? (If you don't know MBTI, which Howarts house do you think they'd be placed in?)

I don't know the ins and outs of MBTI, but I think he'd be an introvert as appose to an extrovert. I think he would be a hufflepuff.

Day 16:

#april tc challenge

[liftwellnes]

Nurture and Grow Your Heart This Valentines Day

At dinner this week, our son shared the noodle necklace he created in preschool as a Valentines’ project. “What a beautiful necklace!” our daughter exclaimed, “thank you for making it for me!” “Actually,” our son responded, “it’s for myself!” Daughter looked incredulous. “But if you don’t get ME anything for Valentine’s Day, that means you don’t love me!”

My husband and I nearly spat out our soup.

We have a terrific marriage, but we do not ‘celebrate’ Valentine’s Day in our house, other than remembering to order heart-shaped pizza. Where had our daughter received the notion that the fate of love depended on gift-giving - with jewelry no less!?

This is not a notion we embody. In fact, most ‘special occasion’ days in our house are virtually gift-free between the parental units; my idea of romance is being able to go and pick out something special for myself something if I want to, special occasion or not!

In fact, maybe this is where our boy got the concept that his beautiful noodle necklace should be enjoyed by- who better- himself!

I have always thought of Valentine’s Day as a reminder to, excuse for, and celebration of LOVE – not just in a romantic sense, but also from daughter to mother, sister to sister, friend to friend, parent to child. Author George Sand wrote, “There is only one happiness in life: to love, and be loved.” How true! When we fill our cup with love, and let it pour out, it creates room for more.

But - what happens when we are not filling our own cup? A client told me this week that she wishes to gift our practice with an African Violet. I was thrilled, because I know that African Violets can be easily cloned by removing a single leaf. I pictured giving our precious clients’ leaves, and then hearing of them blooming into their own plants. This was before realizing that if I gave away all of the plant’s leaves, it would eventually weaken and injure the plant.

Love we must - but we can begin by filling our own cups. My daughter’s crushing disappointment stemmed from her expectations! When our son confessed how he wanted to keep his necklace, I thought, “how lovely.” Young children feel so free to do what feels right. What if every one of us, single or coupled, bought ourselves a piece of jewelry this Valentine’s Day, rather than awaiting a special someone’s arrival to fulfill anticipated desires? In fact, how can we teach someone to love us, when we haven’t practiced well on ourselves?

Often, I see couples who did a perfectly good job of loving themselves- until they got into a relationship. Then, they put the whole job up to their partner. What a set up! Never do this.

Albert Ellis famously said, “the art of love… is largely the act of persistence.” Practice persistence, then, first, in loving yourself. Persistence in loving yourself in all phases and stages of your body… loving yourself when you eat too much or too little… loving yourself when your partner is irritating you and you need to take space… loving yourself when you don’t have a partner… loving yourself when you have messed up your New Year’s resolutions for the thousandth time…loving yourself when you get laid off... loving yourself when you’re aging... loving yourself when you’ve made a mistake... loving yourself unconditionally, first. Remember all that YOU have been through, to get to who you are now. As James Thurber quipped, “love is what you’ve been through with somebody.”

And then, outward. Just HOW you will be able to throw your arms around the world, with leaps and bounds more empathy, understanding, acceptance, and only the expectation that they honor themselves and behave with integrity.

Oscar Wilde penned: “to love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance.” If you’re without a romantic partner, do not bemoan your singlehood this Valentines. Gather together with those you love and who love you, for something sweet, and love on each other. The world needs more of all of the many forms love takes, and love is all YOU need. Happy Valentine’s Day to each of our beloved clients! To us, you are perfect.

To visit more blogs please, click here.

#valentines day

[craftyandy]

Art Review Part 23

The years are becoming a blur, even before the covid pandemic the days have overall felt like they come and go with little to remember them by. Really it’s because the current state of things in occurrence with my life is pretty good. In comparison at our lowest financially and emotionally, the year would be a lengthy series of unfortunate events. Something breaking or needing repair would be an upset. We could never enjoy ourselves without the upcoming work day casting a dreading shadow over us. If my current state of things is the peak then already I can go forward satisfied that I accomplished more then what was expected of me by the culture of the US society, religious teachings, and peers. Currently I have one rather large Ratchet and Clank commission to finish and then it’s a mostly strict focus on the kids book. I’ll be documenting the progress as much as I can. Through out the year I managed to put together a series of videos to try and advertise my CraftyArts channel more. I want to do more focused scripted commentary for my WeirdZoRs channel, in fact I recently wrote up a script for furry puritains that is getting re-worked in order to be more humorous then lecturing. I’d rather attempt something more challenging and be seen as a failure then to play things safe and easy. Having a full time job remains the main barrier to getting projects done. Gotta balance the work life, family and interests accordingly. It is painful, but it does mean some aspirations get st on the back burner permanently, or remain unfinished and never see the light of day. I have scripts that could fit on a shelf to gather dust and some videos unfinished taking up hard-drive space. I itch and scratch with anxiety over wanting to see ideas made and done. However I am in no position to have someone do work for me with merely a promise of future payment. I suppose the idea would be then to sell myself and my current skill. How? I don’t know, we’ll start by seeing how this self promotional pus goes once it is complete. This is all just a mere venting, by all accounts things are going better then I could ever hope for thanks to my two husbands and their efforts to keep me social and grounded in reality and have a grasp on the bigger picture. They understand none of this was ever for simply money, or fame but creation for creation sake and giving meaning to my life. maybe I’m the living example of why you should have a backup plan in place if doing entertainment in any form doesn’t work out, so be it. How many potential creators have we all seen drop off, give up, or cost themselves a career over poor judgment. All lack of recognition aside I feel pretty damn accomplished right now because fame and fortune was never the goal I was aiming for. Thank you to my supporters, family, and friends, without those attachments I wouldn’t find much passion in what I do either. Good luck in the new year everybody. CraftyArts www.youtube.com/c/craftyarts WeirdZoRs www.youtube.com/c/WeirdZoRs PAWS OFF www.youtube.com/channel/UCXzhzDaEUET1DFwLfyWlqSw Patreon https://www.patreon.com/craftyandy

Posted using PostyBirb

#art review #art collection #art skill comparison #how to draw #how to paint #crafty andy #rotten egg creations

[streaming-yn]

(☁️)

HIIII it's 3 am and i'm trying to sleep but brain went brr with ideas n shit and oh well- thing is ; i was wondering if i could make my first request? (smth simple if u want to, no need to be very long or anything + pls don't rush nd take ur time AND don't feel pressured to actually do my request :] ! ) maybe smth ab faceless art streamer! y/n [they/them]?? (if u could add that the reader is like an indie game dev or works for smth like that u'd be sosososososo cool omg) with maybe quackity, tommy, dream, ranboo, niki and/or jack?? idk brain did the storming and its all messy hsdnshhfjsjz (btw! i know it's a lot of CCs so feel free to remove some or do the ones ur only comfy with !!! take care nd stay safe !!! luv ya <3 (/p))

AS SOMEONE WHO LIKES TO GAME DESIGN, CHARACTER, AND PLOT DESIGN YOU BET I CAN MAKE THE READER AND INDIE GAME DEV (and aaaa ty for adding jack!!! I think he's really neat and not enough people acknowledge him :))!!)

Multiple x indie game dev!artist!y/n

pairings: quackity, tommy, dream, ranboo, niki, jack manifold (separate) x indie game dev!artist!y/n

pronouns: they/them

other information on the reader:

. faceless

. knows how to code

. artist

. streams them drawing video game characters

. minor

. makes indie / horror games

form: headcanons

genre: platonic, fluff(??)

warnings: horror games / horror mods, ranboo enderwalk lore in his section

abbreviations: y/n -> your name

quackity

okay let's get the obvious out of the way; definitely going to be the type of person that's like "I'm going to play this game first after you're finished" yk? playfully ofc, n playfully fight with anyone who says the same thing (*cough* Wilbur, tommy, dream *cough*)

he probably wouldn't be on your art streams often – he doesn't really enjoy watching people draw, but he would want to see the finished pics

he would happily be on voice chat with you while you're drawing though!! :D

would be proud to answer any questions you have about character / scene / etc designs!!

"quackity!! so for this character – check your dms for a current picture – would red or purple antenna be better? also, two or four antenna?"

"*gasp* you're asking me?? 🥺" /j

"y'know what, nevermind, chat wh-"

"NO WAIT WAIT"

"so what do you think?"

also, if you do end up sending him the finished pics of the art he will hype you tf up !!!!

would try to get you make joke games – not like actually, it's just an ongoing bit between you two!

if you make a game for him – or give him a sneak peek of a game before anyone else he's going to freak out!! and he won't really know what to say bc putting feelings into words is hard

if y'all ever meet up and you're fine w hugs he's gonna give you a huge hug, hoping that makes up for the lack of words to describe how just,, proud of you he is bc he really really is!!

you're not even in your 20s yet and you can make video games, or help with them?? not to mention how creative you are with the characters and story line??? he's amazed by you

might actually cry /pos if you base a character off of him

like let's say a part of a puzzle is to get a rubber duck and place it into a pond to get the next hint or thing you need – only when he plays it on stream, he doesn't know anything about the game, so you're watching and waiting for him to get there

when he does get there – he finds out the duck has a beanie and has a white ring appear around it that flashes to life before fading out after picking it up, signifying it was the right thing to get

at first he doesn't really notice the ring, "oh! that animation is different than normal" he notes, but mainly focuses on the beanie, comparing it to himself before he glances at chat to see them freaking out over the planet duck reference

then he's just talking about it, shocked of course but flattered, and then you type in chat "you helped me a ton with things I couldn't decide during this game, I couldn't not add you! :)" everyone's just :(((( !!! /pos

overall supportive n proud, maybe a bit loud about games in progress, but just a really nice guy in general :)

tommy

he is ABSOLUTELY loud about your games in progress!! if you don't want something said you have to tell that to him before telling him or else he's going to brag about how cool it is the next time he streams

"chat!! chat, y/n is making this new game and they told me that one of the outfits you can collect for the player is going to be based off me!- right!! that sounds pog!!"

if he ever accidentally let's anything slip on stream that he was supposed to say, everyone who's a fan of you is just like "wow! suddenly! I cannot hear anymore!", sometimes they're like that even if it was okay to say

the just like being surprised :)

as for art streams, he'll try his best to tune in but obviously won't be there all the time! he's usually very active in chat too! likes being on call with you while you do art streams if you let him!

he once convinced you to make a texture pack and a shader (meant for both to be active at the same time), the fans loved it and a lot of them use it more often than the original!!

tommy however, not to much, proud of you bc that must've been a ton of work!! but at some time it slipped his mind that you make indie and horror games; I think we all know he doesn't do well with horror games

so you liking horror and such made the textures look more ominous and just make it look like and area you don't want to be in, and the spook goes up even more with the shader!! it's darker than usual, there's unusual fog, the portals look too dangerous now, so on and so forth yk

so,, tommy didn't use the texture pack for long;;

if you ever raid him after you're done streaming and he has a question, he's literally just gonna ask you on stream

"y/n raid? oh! are they still here?" when you confirm you're in chat, he continues "great! okay I had a question about your new game that's going to be available soon and how to download it-"

fans love how casual you guys are about game information, like you had to teach him how to export a game character he made on the website you usually make yours on (it was for a fun stream) and it was just a simple back and forth but everyone's like omg :((( omg them :((

also if you're the type of person to go insane over tiny details in other games, he will absolutely tease you for it

like you can just be going on and on about how this game had a sentence at the start that had a backhanded meaning by the end and he's just gonna call you a nerd (genuinely thinks is cool how much of the small things you notice in games though)

dream

COMPLAINING ABOUT CODING AND HOW HARD IT IS 🤝🤝

and if you took other coding classes hoping that I'd help with video game coding he'd just listen to you talk about it

"I actually took robotics for a while before because the school didn't have any video game coding classes and I was hoping it'd help either way" "oh?" "it,, it didn't help, it's so hard to code robots and considering how fast I caught onto video game code you think it'd be easier to understand the robot code" "yeah, that sounds reasonable" "NOPE,, WHY R THEY SO DIFFERENT I ALMOST FAILED" "D:"

fanartists like those moments, if one of those talks happen expect a bit of fanart of just dream and you chilling while you talk and he listens, the art always gives off comfy vibes n it's just cute :)

offering him to play a semi-rough draft of the demo so that he could see if it's good or what you needed to do to make it more enticing for the player

power duo fr fr o/

people like comparing y'all to hackers sometimes bc y'all know how to code???

you play into the bit with the fans though and honestly it's so fun !!!

fans: omg,, hackers (affectionate),,,

you next time you stream: hacker voice; I'm in

AND THEY GOT SHOCKED??? LIKE THEY FORGOT YOU CAN SEE THE STUFF THEY POST????

wouldn't be able to watch your art streams for long because he would get side tracked, the streams are just too under stimulating for his brain to focus on, but he'd hang around as long as he could though :)

would be glad to be on call with you while you're doing an art stream – though if he has is game sounds on you may occasionally have to repeat a question that was aimed at him

you're also in his streams when you can :)

also, you like sending donations to communicate rather than chat

one stream dream turned off his donos because you wouldn't stop giving him money 💀

being friends with such a popular creator and being a game creator yourself has it's downs as well

nothing thats too hard to deal with – the most common one is actually kinda funny – some people will slide in your dms acting like they're dream and just got locked out of his account, trying to get you to make them a game

like ??? do they think that dream would mssg you over Twitter or insta?? he has your phone number bro ,😭

also!!! when dream plays through new games you made he complements the small things and complements how hard something must've been to code :)

and I'm ngl, he kinda sucks with every game he plays at first but he's a quick learner so dw :)

would be glad to help if you're having a difficult time choosing between things too! except he'll answer right away without any teasing

"dreammm" "y/nnnn" "for this area should I do like shattered stone walls or mossy stone walls like with vines n stuff?" "depends on the vibe you want, shattered stone would give it a dangerous and uneasy undertone and mossy stone would be more of ominous, if that makes sense?" "oh! okay, thank youuu!!"

ofc if you didn't have a specific vibe or couldn't choose which was better he would just give a straight up answer so you didn't stress out trying to choose one \o/

would absolutely like being a guest in a drawing stream, he isn't the best at art or character design but it's fun to see him try

maybe you both plus some friends do a "drawing Minecraft mobs from memory" stream? ,, with that the thing is; his would mostly be relatively accurate if you could understand wtf he was drawing 😭

dream may or may or have some of your art as his phone homescreen, he loves your style so much :(( /pos

ranboo

first off; he's incredibly impressed!! like!!! you made this game?? this playable game, completely from scratch??? how??

also you may or may not have made a small Minecraft mod for him to tryout on stream,, little gift from you to both chat n ranboo 🤲

its literally all based off his lore,, if you get close to obsidian and crying obsidian fallen down from Undertale starts playing, if you splash water on yourself 1) you get hurt 2) your screen blacks out and when it comes back, your in a different place than before, some things art taken, maybe a few extra things are added

and there's a 50% chance that when you go into your "enderwalk" state (the blackout) you blow something up, so there may or may not be an explosion somewhere nearby, you also have a 20% chance of building something small in you enderwalk state :)

he found it so incredibly cool!!! chat was crying while complementing you while ranboo thanked you and complemented you over n over again

he won't shut up about how cool the mod is for several weeks, maybe even a few months, it's just so cool!!

will absolutely use it as a comeback if you let him; "oh? you got first place? well y/n made me a really really cool mod, so who's the actual winner here?"

will absolutely play every single game you come out with – it doesn't matter if it's his style or not – and he thoroughly enjoys all of the games as well

as for art streams, he will absolutely try to tune in every time he can!! active in chat and donos!!

doesn't really like being in art streams – like in call is fine but actually drawing? not really, he just doesn't love drawing in front of a ton of people

but will join an art stream if you ask

will listen to you rant about whatever, even if he doesn't understand it! like will listen to you go on and on about how well a game set up the atmosphere or maybe talking about how difficult coding is, and he'll converse back with you but won't really understand yk?

"ranboo I just played a really cool game do you wanna hear about it?" "yeah yeah- of course!!" "ok so like, the atmosphere was so well put together- like it was a horror game and I didn't even see the monster but the vibe was so well put together that it was still unnerving!!" "that's awesome! how did the atmosphere get set up the best and when you saw the monster, was it scarier?"

yk what I mean? like engages in convo so you don't feel bad about talking so much, plus shows his interest without the constant "hm?" "cool" etc a lot of people do and even though he does talk more than the acknowledgment sounds many people make he also manages to almost never sidetrack you and when he does it's on accident :)

if your way of learning is teaching then he'll gladly be the person you teach it to if you want! most likely won't use the information therefore his brain won't retain it but that's not on you, and the whole reason is so you can learn, not him, so! ^^

will make sure to take care of yourself, and he has a through way of telling if you have or not bc he's known you for long enough to know that even if you try to hide it a little bit of your tired voice shows so he knows if you've been sleeping like you should

also friends with you on discord, where you have your Spotify attached,, you like listening to music while you work on things that aren't sound related and if it's active later than it should be he's going to confront you

overall wholesome mixed in with a little pain bc both of you are like "ah yes, lore <3" and like to see fans cry /lh

niki

I feel like this is expected but if you need to get extra motivation she would probably be your go-to

she hypes you up but like, in a sweet and quiet kinda way, where as everyone else here would probably be relatively loud ;;

honored to be on an art stream if you invite her :')

and would absolutely watch your art streams when she can :D hypes you up in chat

also compliments, tons of compliments!

might call you a prodigy? bc you're so young but can already make games?? and make income off of them?? and do really good art??? and so much more??? like tell me that's not prodigy energy,

if you make a video game character based off her she might cry,, like in a positive way obviously but like at the same time :(( no don't cry!!

I say might bc it's dependant on how she feels that day yk? like she might just have the almost-cry wobble to her voice or she might actually, if that makes sense?

she genuinely loves your art style!! even if it's pointy and kinda creepy she really likes it!!

yk the "awww (name) :(" /pos she does sometimes? 100% does that with you

there are a few compilations of just "aww y/nnn" on YouTube and all the comments on those videos are just crying over y'all /pos

would be happy to help if you're stuck between some options in a game, but would feel kinda bad bc it's your game, you're supposed to be the one choosing the stuff

assure her that it's okay n stuff n she'll be ok tho !

I can't decide if she would play your games or not

bc on one hand she's a huge supporter of you and your work and would like to experience it first hand

but on the other hand she isn't the best with scry games,,

so maybe she'd do both? maybe she'd react on stream to a playthrough, maybe your playthrough? or maybe she would only play some of your games? I haven't decided so up to you I suppose!

jack manifold

genuinely amazed by your talent and will make it quite clear!!

can and will go on tangents about you on stream if someone brings it up

everyone is so :(( <333 /pos bc of it

will play the games you've made as soon as he can

if there are different games that line up in a story he'll make sure to play them in order :)

people also sometimes compare you two to hackers bc you code a ton and he kinda looks like a hacker

difference here is that both of you play into the bit, it's tons of fun!!

listen, I know he doesn't draw much but I am a firm believer that he will doodle his favorite character(s) from your games after he's done playing them

like after he plays a game of yours then expect a small doodle in your texts :)

you compiled a bunch of these doodles into one picture and made it you phone background and he only found out after y'all met irl and it caught the corner of his eye and he registered "oh hey wait that looks familiar"

he found out while recording the vlog n when editing, the editor was like "hey let's leave this in, it'd be funny if the fans knew right?" ,, the fans were crying for two weeks,, /pos

and speaking of drawings; he would like to be on a drawing stream with you, thinks it's be tons of fun!! :D

and he's usually free to call while your streaming and doesn't mind so if you wanna talk to him while drawing just call :)

and he will watch the streams he can make it to!! he may leave a bit early but he stays for the majority of it

if you make a character based off of him he's going to constantly thank you and brag about how cool you are anywhere he can

"hello manifolders, if you haven't done it already go download (game name)! I'm there!" with a ss of his character from the game and he'll reply to the tweet on his alt to talk more about the game and how much he really liked it :)

another that'll help you were you need it! he'll make it into a joke before anything else, but he'll get to the point

taglist (sorry i forgot to do it on the past two): @cvsmixplant // @l0ver0fj0y // @youngstarfishdinosaur

#asked and answered #request #headcanons #platonic!reader #platonic fanfic #platonic x reader #jack manifold x reader #niki x reader #dream x reader #tommy x reader #quackity x reader #ranboo x reader #streamer!au #mcyt x reader #streamer!reader #streamer!y/n #fanfic #headcanon #☁️ anon #game dev!reader #game dev! reader #artist!reader #artist! reader #platonic ranboo x reader #platonic dream x reader #platonic tommy x reader #platonic quackity x reader #platonic niki x reader #platonic jack manifold x reader #jack x reader

[jkstompers]

just to study | jjk

pairing: jeon jungkook x female reader

summary: your seat partner asks if you’re free after class, just to study.

genre: fluff, college!au, established friendship, flirtationship, mutual pining, they go to a ‘frat’ party together, also yugyeom! a sweetheart<3 we love him.

warnings: mature!!, mentions of alcohol + alcohol consumption, mentions of sex, strong language, SEXUAL TENSION, mentions of dick sucking??, hints of a wet dream on oc’s end, very strong urges to kiss each other but no kisses today </3, that’s pretty much it!

word count: 7.4k (i...kinda went overboard)

authors’ note: hello!! this is a pt. 2 to sleepyhead! it’s based a few weeks after so yeah <3 also the pacing is kind of weird but… i don’t really know how being drunk is so............(＞人＜) i’m sorry about that! one scene was inspired by this post haha it was just so cute to think about i had to do it. ALSO i literally haven’t taken anatomy since high school so i just used random terms from quizlet T_T pls excuse that as well! but otherwise, enjoy!!!!!!!!! (っ^_^)っ

(if u see any typos...ignore them pls T_T)

side note: imagine jk looking like this when he goes to the party lmao classic fboy look with the camo bomber and his piercings ugh <3

banner pic creds here ! <3

you made it to class on time today, woke to your alarm and even had enough time to eat breakfast before you came. in a particularly good mood, you made your way up the stairs to the row jungkook was sitting in, hoping that the seat next to him was empty (you didn’t have to hope, jungkook always saved the seat next to him for you, no matter what.)

“good morning, ___!” jungkook’s voice greets you the same as always as soon as you appear next to him. he moves his bag out of the way for you to sit down.

he looks especially cute today. his long floppy hair framing his face, his sweet smile beaming up to you. you wonder how dumb you looked drooling over him for a minute before you replied, “hi jungkook, how are you?” with the same smile on your face that you show him every time he sees you. it never changes, but it never fails to make jungkook’s heart skip a beat.

“i’m doing okay, you?” he answers while you pull out your laptop.

you didn’t have a chance to reply before your professor starts talking. informing the class about the test that’s planned at the end of the month, finals in two months, and then dropping the bomb that there’s a quiz tomorrow about the things you’ve learned in the past week. a slight panic takes over you, although you didn’t know why, you understood what he was teaching and you were retaining all of the information well. but when the professor pulls up all the information on the screen to review it all, all of the words and pictures overwhelm you.

to make things worse, jungkook is to your left, not paying attention to a word your professor is saying. instead, playing some game where he has to click his touchpad an obnoxious amount of times. your attention is split between jungkook’s erratic tapping and the notes that the professor projects onto the screen, even though his computer barely made any noise, his incessant movement was distracting you.

“jungkook, you’re taking notes and playing a game?” your voice comes out as a rushed whisper. there’s a snort that comes from him before he nods. you couldn’t be mad at him. “there’s a quiz on all of this tomorrow, you know?”

“i know,” he continues to tap and click, the motion growing incredibly annoying. you didn’t know why you couldn’t have just tried to block it out, but he was just so close to you and admittedly, you looked at his hands, a lot. the way that his fingers tapped against his keyboard and his veins that accentuate his already beautiful hands, it was free art you could look at, how could you not? at this point, you’re contemplating holding his hand to make him stop tapping.

you were in the middle of typing when he finally stops, leaning back and stretching his arms up into the air. you let out a sigh of relief, until he starts again. apparently he reached the next level on his game, tapping even faster, if that was even fucking possible.

quietly, you groan. turning your attention solely on him. you place your hand on top of his, the tapping ceasing almost immediately. “please, jungkook, you’re distracting me.”

he looks at your hand before he looks at you, his chocolate doe eyes wide to the action. he gulps, “sorry.”

you remove your hand, focusing back to the presentation. jungkook feels the heat from his cheeks travel to his hand. the feeling of your hand on his wasn’t something he was expecting to experience today, but he wants nothing more than for you to do it again. he exits the game tab and changes his focus to the lecture.

or moreso, you focusing on the lecture.

you look so cute. your cheek pressed up against your fist. he stares at the way that your forehead creases in concentration. he taps on your arm that’s resting on the table, “hey, you look like you’re stressed out.”

you turn your head slightly to look over to him. “that’s because i am,” you send him a quick smile before you go back to looking at the projection.

he furrows his eyebrows, “why? you’re smart, there’s no need to worry about what you get on this.” you were an a+ student, never anything less than that. jungkook knows that you ace every test that you take, so he doesn’t quite understand why you’re so stressed.

“because jungkook,” you groan. you expected a lot from yourself, sure b’s were okay, but a’s and a+’s were what you wanted and what you thought would make you feel satisfied. there was no way you could explain this without sounding like an overachiever. so you just sigh, “i’m just not really prepared.”

jungkook thinks of the perfect way to spend more time with you, snapping his fingers before suggesting, “we should study together after class, studies show that studying with someone else will give you an a+, guaranteed.” the confidence in his voice makes you smile, and helps you ease up a little bit.

you raise an eyebrow, a laugh creeping up from your lungs. “source for that statistic, sir?”

he taps his right temple, the gesture making you snort. “no but seriously, i’ll help you out,” he assures. his laptop turns towards you to show you all the notes he took, different words highlighted and colored differently.

you act like you think about it, staying quiet for a minute or so. but you know the answer was yes no matter what. “just to study?” you tease. jungkook raises his eyebrows in surprise, an amused smile on his face, “just kidding, we can go to mine? i owe you for the ride you gave me like two weeks ago.” you tap your fingers against your laptop nervously, your teeth taking in your bottom lip as you ask. you haven’t had a guy over to your apartment, not since you’ve moved in. there’s a certain anxiousness that comes with the suggestion.

jungkook nods, “sounds good.”

“okay, again.” you brush your hair behind your ears, preparing yourself once more for another pass of the flashcards. the two of you have been at it with these cards for the past hour or so, you were determined to get these right no matter how long it took. jungkook knew you were gonna get it down, you only had three more cards, these ones specifically stumping you.

“aponeuroses,” he looks at the card and then to you.

“connective tissue that forms a broad sheet which attach muscle to bone or muscle to other muscles,” you speak confidently. jungkook nods, moving onto the next card of the set of three.

“endomysium,” he reads the card. you hesitate on this one for a second, he plays with the corner of the card until you snap your fingers.

“that’s the connective tissue surrounding the… the— uh, oh! muscle fiber?” your brain works extra hard. jungkook rewards you with another nod, flipping to the last card.

“fascia.”

“dense connective tissue,” you begin, pausing to think of the rest of the answer. you start biting your thumb nail, knowing there’s more to it but it’s not coming to your brain quick enough.

jungkook just stares, watching your facial expressions as you search for the answer in your brain. this could be the worst crush he’s ever had, he thinks you’re cute when you’re just sitting there, thinking. he doesn’t remember ever liking someone this much, most of the time his crushes went away after a few weeks or so. but it’s almost been an entire year since he’s started crushing on you, and it still hasn’t stopped. you still manage to find a way to make his thoughts surround you.

“separates and holds individual tissues? it’s the one that extends into the tendons, right?” you perk up after a minute or so. your brain finally coming up with the answer. you blame jungkook’s presence for slowing you down. maybe you shouldn’t have accepted this offer to study together, because how could you focus when jeon jungkook is sitting right in front of you?

“you’re amazing,” he praises, setting the flashcards down onto the table. you blush at the compliment, jungkook takes notice, but he doesn’t mind, he thinks pink is pretty on you. he’s never wanted to kiss your cheeks as much as he did now, and trust, he’s thought about it many, many times. “all done?” he asks after staring at you for the longest time.

you nod, “just gonna highlight these terms to review them later so i can get it down 100%.”

jungkook watches as you diligently reread your notes and highlight them. an apple on the table taking his attention away for a second when he realizes he hasn’t eaten at all today. he takes a bite, the loud crunch noise seemingly startling the both of you. it makes you turn your head and raise an eyebrow towards him.

“sorry,” he chews, “hungry.”

your stare lingers a little longer than you wanted it to. his cheeks are full of apple, you can’t help but laugh a little. “there’s still the sticker on it,” you point out.

he turns the apple around to see the blue sticker. peeling it off, he holds it on his fingertip, an idea sprouting in his mind to see that sweet smile of yours again. so he places the sticker on your cheek, your gaze moving from your screen to him and then to the fruit sticker now stuck onto your cheek. “get it? ‘cause you’re sweet like this apple is,” he smiles.

oh my god. you blush embarrassingly, your entire face flushed pink as you hide your cheeks behind your hands. he laughs at your reaction. jungkook was feeling bold today, so he moves forward, gently taking your hands away from your face to see the cute pink tint he caused. he sits back, admiring your pretty face.

you feel yourself burning hotter and hotter the longer he stares, looking everywhere but his face, too scared to make eye contact. you look back to your computer screen, “um— there’s pasta in the fridge— if you’re hungry, i made it last night.” you offer, but he declines politely, telling you that he has to leave pretty soon because his friends are expecting him to join them today.

begrudgingly, you watch as jungkook packs his things up. he thinks about how content he felt hanging out with you today, and how he wanted to do it again, as soon as possible. a thought pops into his head before he opens the door to leave. he turns on his heel.

you weren’t expecting the sudden turn, accidentally bumping into his chest. “oof! sorry.”

“it’s alright,” he laughs, helping you steady yourself by holding your shoulders. “i just wanted to ask— uh, my friends are throwing a party tomorrow night, do you— do you wanna come?” his words come out jumbled, jungkook never fails to trip on his words whenever he’s near you.

tomorrow night...it’s a friday tomorrow, the quiz is tomorrow, why the fuck not? a stress reliever from all the studying you’ve done. “sure,” you answer after a minute or so of deliberation. you look up at him with a smile, suddenly realizing how close the two of you are.

your eyes flicker between his eyes and his lips, the close proximity makes you hold your breath. “great! i can pick you up? be your DD?” he quirks his head, a smile that matches yours on his face.

you nod, “yeah, i’d like that.” with that, jungkook takes a step back, widening the space between you both as his right hand goes to hold the strap of his bag.

“okay, i’ll text you the details.” before he turns around, turning the knob of your front door and letting himself out. before the door closes, he sends you a wave, one which you reflect as he pulls the door closed. you move up and lock the door, your forehead resting against the cold metal slab.

you wonder if this crush will ever advance into something more. neither of you really push the agenda, most of the time just cutely flirting with each other and only talking to each other during class. maybe this party will be a chance to further the bond the two of you have. you could only wish that you could drop this nervous shield that pops up everytime you’re around him, but jungkook is just so cool. the campus heartthrob, everyone wants to be him or be with him.

for the rest of the day, jungkook seems to occupy your mind, as he always does. when you get to sleep, the fantasies of jungkook’s lips on yours drift you into a deep sleep, one that eventually leads to a dream that has you rubbing your thighs together. his hands were all over your body, his cologne that you were so familiar with tormenting your nose, it all felt too real. so when you woke up to the sound of your alarm, sweat beaded at your hairline. you took deep breaths, cementing the fact that he isn’t here, and he certainly isn’t doing those things with you right now.

it was not helping that you dreamt of him sexually on the day of your quiz, the one that you were immensely stressing over. now, you’re gonna have to walk into class, act normal around jungkook even though your brain produced pornographic images of him, (it’s not the first time, but it’s the first time you’ve had to face him right after it happened) and ace this quiz.

you tried almost everything you could to have cleared your brain of your dream sequence. taking a shower, eating breakfast, studying once more, etc. but when you’re walking into the lecture hall, flashes of the dream and the sound of his imagined moan echo in your mind.

you walk up the stairs with your eyes down, not sure if you could make eye contact with jungkook without turning red. “hey, ___, good morning!” the familiar voice greets you.

“morning,” you reply, dryly. taking the seat next to him and silently taking your laptop out, waiting for the professor to start the quiz. jungkook seemed a bit taken aback by your cold answer, but he took into account that you’re probably just super nervous and stressed out because of the quiz, so he doesn’t take it too personally. instead, just sitting back in his chair and waiting patiently to take the quiz as well.

at this point, you were psyching yourself out, swearing that you already forgot all of the terms. if you were quizzed on the parts of male anatomy, specifically jungkook’s, then maybe you could ace it, but the terms that you were working oh so hard to memorize yesterday slip from your mind. when the professor tells you to separate and start the quiz, you start to bite your thumb nail again.

jungkook takes a look over at you, noticing the bad habit of yours. he gently takes a hold of your arm, pulling your thumb away from your teeth. the action causing you to make eye contact with him and his big doe eyes that hold so much love and light. you find yourself a bit speechless then, too many thoughts running around in your mind.

he whispers, “you’ll do great, okay?” the statement soothing your nerves. his voice somehow makes your body relax, even though you thought you would freak out if you made any sort of contact with him.

“you— you too, good luck,” you mutter. a half smile on your face. you were grateful that jungkook broke you out of your trance, his words of encouragement suddenly placing you in the testing state of mind. the images from last night's dream seem to put themselves away for now.

the next twenty minutes are complete silence. everyone focused on the questions before them. of course, you zoomed through the quiz, prepared for the trick questions and the harder ones that come up. jungkook finishes after you. it wasn’t a surprise, jungkook didn’t even have to try, you swear you’ve never seen him stress out before. nobody was perfect, you believed that, but jeon jungkook was the closest to it.

“okay, class! the quiz will be graded by tonight hopefully, you’re free to leave,” your professor alerts the class. jungkook waits patiently until you’re standing, following you down the stairs and out the door.

you decide to speak first, since you greeted him with such a dry response this morning. it wasn’t his fault that you dreamed of him on top of you, so why were you punishing him for it? “how’d you think you did?” you asked, turning to look at him.

he shrugs, “good i guess, i think i fucked up on one or two questions.”

“was it the striation part? i think i messed up on that one too.”

he shakes his head, “you know you aced that, don’t lie.”

you stay silent, the two of you walking to the campus parking lot. neither of you engage in conversation as you usually do. the images of last night’s dream slipping into your consciousness once again. you try to shake your head, to rid yourself of the thoughts. nothing else to distract you from them because jungkook was oddly silent the entire walk. you fear that he can actually read your mind and see all of your thoughts. if he could, he doesn’t mention it. not saying one word to you until he walks you to your car, greeting you with a ‘see you next class!’ before leaving to go to his car. not even mentioning the party to you, you start to wonder if he regrets inviting you. up until you heard your phone ring when you parked in the lot of your apartment complex.

[10:24 am] jungkook: hey! forgot to remind u about the party 😫

[10:24 am] jungkook: ur still down to come, right?

[10:28 am] you: hi! yeah :)

[10:28 am] you: is there a dress code or smth? haha

[10:29 am] jungkook: not that i know of 😂

[10:30 am] jungkook: u can wear anything u want

[10:30 am] jungkook: ur cute whatever u wear

[10:31 am] you: oh stop it jeon ur making me blush

[10:32 am] you: but tell me :( should i wear something casual? pants? a dress?

[10:34 am] jungkook: 😂

[10:34 am] jungkook: it’s kind of like a frat party…

[10:35 am] jungkook: so anything is okay

[10:37 am] you: ah okay

[10:37 am] you: i’ll surprise u then ;)

[10:40 am] jungkook: alright :)

[10:41 am] jungkook: i’ll come by around 9 to pick u up? sound good?

[10:42 am] you: yeah! gives me enough time to nap and get ready lol

[10:44 am] jungkook: great :) see u then cutie

you wake up from your nap around one, you had more than enough time for you to get ready for a party. so you decide to clean your apartment first, little chores to waste time before you get yourself dolled up. when you finished, it was around seven thirty. you washed your face, brushed your teeth, all that good stuff before sliding on a simple black bodycon that you got last summer. styling your hair and spraying on your favorite perfume before looking at yourself in the mirror. this wasn’t too much, right? lots of people wear stuff like this to frat parties, so you didn’t find it too fancy. the notification sound from your phone goes off, you move to check and see if it was who you were expecting.

[8:54 pm] jungkook: i’m here :)

[8:54 pm] you: ahh gimme a sec i need to pee haha

[8:55 pm] jungkook: take ur time cutie

[8:56 pm] jungkook: i’m right in front

jungkook only really had to wait about five minutes. the visual of you walking out of your apartment doors, looking the way you did, was breathtaking. his jaw drops, mouth slightly agape as he watches you walk up to his car through the passenger window. you are so gorgeous. it’s probably the first time jungkook’s seen you in clothes that really compliment your figure, most of the time you show up to class in hoodies and sweaters. so greedily, he takes in the way the dress hugs your curves deliciously. he shakes the thoughts from his head to get out of the car and open the door for you.

“what a gentleman,” you tease, getting into the car.

he joins you soon after, “you look...gorgeous.” jungkook doesn’t seem so shy now, his eyes taking in your beautiful self.

“thank you,” you blush under his stare. “is it too much?”

“no! no— not at all, all eyes will be on you tonight.” he smiles, turning the car on. now you were able to gawk over him. a simple outfit, all black with a black and white camo bomber. his side profile is perfect, his long hair draping over his face so gracefully and his piercings somehow sparkling in the dark of the car.

he doesn’t drive too far, somewhere in the suburbs where the big houses are. a huge iron gate in the front, seemingly too fancy for a frat party setting. jungkook rolls his window down to greet someone waiting in front of the gate with a couple of other guys.

“jeon! you’re late dude,” one of the guys gives him a handshake through the window.

“sorry man, i’m here now though,” jungkook laughs. the guy giving him the greenlight and opening the gate for him, jungkook parks inside on their stone driveway, decorated with a fountain and a beautiful garden.

“your friend lives here?” you inquire, impressed by the look of the place.

he nods, “fancy right? his parents are ceo’s.” makes sense, and it would also make sense as to why they were throwing a frat party here, rich sons always seem to stir up trouble whenever they’re bored.

he steps out of the car to open the door for you, always a gentleman. he takes your hand and helps you out, the two of you walking to the huge open double doors. as soon as you walk in, the smell of alcohol hits your nose, you try your best not to cringe. the blare of the speakers is the second thing you notice, along with the shouting of jungkook’s friends greeting him. “who’s this?” one of them asks, referring to you.

jungkook seems to hesitate at first, not really knowing how to introduce you. he settles by saying, “this is ___!” not attaching any ‘friend’, ‘classmate’, or anything to the introduction. his friend holds his hand out to shake yours.

you take it with a smile on your face, “i’m yugyeom, it’s nice to meet you!” a smile that reflects yours is on his face, it made you feel welcome. you were never really the type to go to parties, your time is spent working and/or going to school, but this interaction helps you ease up a little more.

“hello, yugyeom!” you reply, shouting over the music.

“do you wanna take a shot?” he asks. pointing to the enormous kitchen where they’re housing all the alcohol, you look to jungkook first who’s paying more attention to his phone rather than the conversation you were just having.

you shrug, “why not?”

yugyeom leads the two of you to the kitchen, jungkook following behind you blindly. he looks up from his phone, done with whatever business he was dealing with to ask, “where are we going?”

“taking a shot,” you answer, pointing to yugyeom who’s already pouring three shots.

“dude, i’m not drinking, don’t pour three.” jungkook tries to stop him before he fills up the third shot glass but his arm knocks yugyeom’s in the process, the bottle spilling the clear liquid into the third shot glass.

“i’ll take two,” you suggest, feeling a bit wild and down to venture out of your comfort zone.

yugyeom smiles at this, “i like her, jeon.” he hands you the two shot glasses full of vodka, jungkook stands next to you and watches as you down the first shot. your face cringing as soon as the alcohol touches your tongue.

“you didn’t even give her a chaser,” jungkook notices, scolding yugyeom who's already downed his shot and is sucking on a lime. “here, suck,” holding a slice of lime up to your lips. his choice of words disorienting you, especially since he was holding the lime up to your mouth instead of just handing it to you. your eyes flicker between the lime and his face, but nevertheless, you suck. sinking your teeth into the sour fruit. jungkook’s eyes zeroed in on how your lips wrap around the slice, slightly grazing his fingers. it’s not long before you’re making a cute scrunched up face from the sourness. “good,” he praises. you don’t deny the slight burn your lower belly felt when he said that to you. you swear he was making sex eyes to you, but you couldn’t tell. he broke eye contact with you soon after, throwing the fruit into the trash below the table that the alcohol was perched on.

yugyeom hands you another lime for your second shot, this time no jungkook to hold the fruit for you. the second shot burning down your throat with the lime chasing after, both yugyeom and jungkook cheer, congratulating you for being a trooper (even though two shots were their warmups).

the next hour or so, jungkook brings you around. he introduces you to his friends and making conversation with them. one certain group, you didn’t really enjoy. a group of five girls, clearly swarming jungkook as soon as he turned around from talking to another one of his friends. the girls ask how he’s been doing, all of the basic conversation starters. when jungkook tries to introduce you, they all turn to you and give you a little head nod before turning their attention back to jungkook. he stands there, conversing with them longer than he had with any of his other friends, and you found yourself getting, hm, jealous.

so you search around the room crowded room, looking for some way out. your eyes spot yugyeom in the backyard through the huge sliding doors, sitting on one of those lawn chairs with the one next to him empty. you decide to leave the group you were currently getting pushed out of and join yugyeom. he notices you when you step onto the grass, trying your best not to sink into the dirt with your heels. “you doing alright? where’s jungkookie?” he asks, sitting up.

you plop down onto the lawn chair next to him. “he’s in there,” you point to the house, “with five girls.”

the last bit of the sentence makes him laugh, a cackle where he holds his stomach because he was laughing so hard. “do you want a shot?” he offers after he recovers from his fit, pulling a tequila bottle out from nowhere.

but you agree, “two, please.” he fills the two shot glasses, but not completely like he did with the vodka earlier. there were no limes, or any type of chaser for you to take around, so you take the two shots like ripping off a band-aid, quick.

“you’re a funny girl,” yugyeom compliments when you’ve downed the shots.

“thanks?” you cough, the feeling of the alcohol still burning your nose and throat, “what did i say that was funny?”

“i think it’s because i’m tipsy, but that joke you made about jungkook being with five girls was hilarious.” he slaps his knee, almost making himself laugh up a storm again, but you weren’t laughing.

you raised an eyebrow, speaking with a serious tone. “it wasn’t a joke, he’s in there with five girls.”

yugyeom tries to collect himself, sitting properly on the lawn chair when he asks you to clarify, “you mean he’s fucking them? or he’s talking to them?”

you’re silent for a second before replying, why did you say it like he was in there fucking them? maybe it’s because he might as well be, so engrossed in whatever the hell they were saying to even notice that you were gone. “just talking to them,” you reply.

“that’s what i thought, jungkook isn’t like that anymore,” yugyeom nods his head, pouring another shot out for you.

“anymore?” you ask. he hands you the shot, you hesitate this time, starting to feel the effects of the first four shots you took. he doesn’t push you to take it. he just leans back onto the lawn chair as he sighs.

“you could say he’s retired,” he shrugs.

the term makes you laugh, “...a retired fuckboy?” you sit back into the lawn chair as well, looking up to the night sky. the shot glass forgotten on the table next to you. your body feels like it’s floating.

“yeah, he hasn’t really been doing stuff like that recently,” yugyeom spills. you stay quiet after he feeds you this information. yugyeom offhandedly telling you that you shouldn’t be jealous makes you feel guilty. why were you even jealous? jungkook was technically still just a friend to you. just because the two of you flirt every now and then doesn’t mean you’re together. of course he would be surrounded by girls, just look at him!

“there you are! i was looking all over for you,” jungkook interrupts your inner monologue. his voice comes from across the lawn, you look up to see him walking over to you and yugyeom.

“hi, jungkookie,” you smile up at him. the alcohol having more of an effect on you the longer you let it sit in your stomach.

he almost freezes up at the nickname, looking over to yugyeom and asking, “did you tell her to call me that?”

yugyeom holds his hands up in innocence, “i didn’t tell her to do anything, she’s like five or six shots deep though.”

you take the shot that was forgotten on the table and down it. “six,” you clarify.

“alright, slow down, iron liver,” jungkook jokes. yugyeom stands from the lawn chair, receiving jungkook’s telepathic signals to get the fuck up to he could talk and hang out with you.

“play beer pong with me later, ___! i’m gonna go look for eunwoo,” yugyeom points to you, giving you a thumbs up before leaving the backyard and moving into the house.

“feeling okay? think you might throw up soon?” jungkook asks, replacing yugyeom in the chair next to you.

“feel like i’m surfing, you know? like wavy,” you answer. the feeling was hard to explain, you weren’t dizzy but at the same time your brain was telling you to stop moving, even though you were completely still.

“ah, you’re getting there,” jungkook snorts. you didn’t have much willpower to answer, so the two of you sit there in a comfortable silence before a group of people coming towards, all greeting jungkook and you. they offer you a red cup, despite your current predicament. leaning against the chair and your droopy eyes, telling them that you’ve taken too many shots. a lightweight at her peak.

jungkook tries to deny it for you, but with a smile, you accept the cup. it was filled with the fancy mixed alcohol juice they had. “thank you,” you place the cup onto the table, “i’ll drink it.... later..” your words begin to draw themselves out. jungkook somehow finding a way to make the entire group leave, making it just the two of you again.

“give it to me, you’re starting to slur your words.” his hand is open, laying on the table and waiting for you to surrender the cup.

your eyes flicker from the red cup, to his face, then to his hand. a smirk on your face when you hold the cup up to your lips, tilting it back and drinking the cursed juice. you weren’t able to down it all, it was too much, you drank maybe ⅔ of it. you cough, taking in a deep breath as you try to steady yourself.

you weren’t sure if it was because you were drunk, but the way that his face looks in the moonlight was so pretty. so you just had to tell him. leaning forward, you speak, almost a whisper, “you’re so handsome.” you drag your finger across the expanse of jungkook’s hand. “did you know i have no gag reflex?” you smile, not your typical sweet smile that he’s used to, but a devilish grin.

jungkook’s eyes widen, his cheeks flushing immediately at your remark. “alright, you drank way too much.” he takes the red cup from your hands, dumping it out onto the grass in front of you both.

“hey, i wasn’t done,” you pout, but jungkook didn’t give you much time to mourn your spilled drink before he was holding your arm, lifting you from the lawn chair you were sitting on. “where are we going?” you ask, trailing behind him with your hand in his.

“gonna get you some water and something to eat,” he answers. the two of you move through the house, jungkook pushes through groups of people and makes sure you’re safe behind him.

“i have to pee.” you tip toe to tell him your emergency in his ear. he stops at the stairs, knowing a bathroom where no one else goes. his friend specifically telling him to use that bathroom when they have parties because the other ones get way too gross.

he brings you up the stairs to the guest bedroom, opening the door to reveal one of the biggest rooms you’ve seen. “the bathroom is there,” jungkook points to the door on the left. you nod, your wobbly legs making their way to the toilet.

jungkook sits on the bed patiently, waiting for you to finish. he hears the flush and the sound of the sink running, the door opens and you’re coming out of the bathroom, pulling your dress down. “are we gonna have sex?” you utter, slurring the end of your sentence. your alcohol poisoned mind taking over your ability to speak.

his eyes widen at the question. “no! no— oh my god, this is just the room with the cleanest bathroom, we’re not—“

you’re next to him now, “you don’t want to?” you pout. glassy eyes looking into his.

“no! i mean, yes, i want to but— fuck, just— just not now, yeah?” jungkook stumbles over his words, his face blushing a blood red. your pretty face peering up at him makes him even more flustered, his hands start to sweat.

“okay,” you nodded. your drunken brain deciding to stop the interrogation of jungkook’s desire for you. to which jungkook lets out a sigh of relief, taking your hand and bringing you out of the room, down the stairs, and out into the driveway. he brings you to his car, opening the passenger door for you. “wait, are we leaving already? yugyeomie wants me to play beer pong with him,” you complain, wiggling your hand from his grasp.

goosebumps appear on your arm when you make it outside of the house. jungkook notices when he turns around to look at you. without a second thought, he takes his jacket off and places it over your shoulders. the newfound warmth shielding you from the cold night. he didn’t mind the breeze, especially since he was still recovering from the stunt you pulled in the guest room.

“we can come back later if you want, let’s just go grab something to eat first so you won’t regret this tomorrow morning.” his explanation is pretty solid according to your drunken brain, so you oblige, moving to sit in his passenger seat.

he joins you in the driver’s seat not long after. “can we get mcdonald’s?” you ask as soon as he sits down.

a smile appears on his face as he starts the car, “sure.”

the drive made you feel a little dizzy, it makes you laugh. “you okay?” jungkook asks, but you nod your head. he’s so sweet, always asking if you’re okay, making sure you weren’t feeling too awful, etc. it only makes sense that you were falling head over heels for him.

“totally fine,” you look over to him with a smile on your face. he’s so fucking pretty, his side profile is something you could rave about for days. as he’s pulling into the mcdonald’s drive through, he’s talking into the intercom, ordering the two of you something to eat when you’re suddenly mumbling, “mcflurry, kookie, oreo mcflurry.”

he looks back to you, an amused smile on his face, “oreo mcflurry?” he repeats. you nod, “okay, anything for you.”

he reiterates the request into the intercom and the server gives him the greenlight. he drives forward and waits until the next car moves up, in the time being, he looks to you. your head laying up against the door and your eyes slowly blinking, warning him that you might fall asleep. so he reaches into his backseat, his arm looking for the water bottles that he usually keeps in his car.

“hey,” he taps your arm gently, “drink some of this first.” he hands you the water bottle, you blink slowly, trying to figure out what he was handing you. once you realize it was a water bottle, you take it, opening it and gulping some of the water down. jungkook is grabbing the food when you’re screwing the cap back on. he parks somewhere in the parking lot and tells you to start eating.

you grab your mcflurry first, the feeling of the cold ice cream on your tongue soothing your dizzy brain. “yum,” you think out loud.

jungkook laughs, taking out his hamburger while he takes out your chicken nuggets. “make sure to eat some of this, yeah? don’t want you throwing up and hating me.”

the thought makes you smile. jungkook was taking such great care of you. sure, he let you down the alcohol like it was nothing, but you never opposed to it, always taking the shot because you wanted to. now jungkook is here, taking care of you, because he wanted to. you knew that if it were anybody else, they probably would have left you at the party, letting you fend for yourself. the sudden warmth in your chest makes you want to tell jungkook everything.

with his jacket wrapped around you instead of him, you can see the bulge of his arm muscles peek out from the short sleeved shirt he was wearing. even drunk, your brain seems to travel back to the images from your dream. “you know, i had a dream about you, a reeaaaallllllyyyyy dirty dream, jeon jungkook.” you blurt out the confession before your thoughts catch up with you, the alcohol still very much blocking off the common sense part of your brain.

he tries his best not to overreact, but you had a dream about him? a dirty dream at that? it awakens something in jungkook, but he pushes it down, ignoring the feeling as he asks, “you did? what was it about?” he curious as to what you meant and what your dream entailed, but he didn’t want to push too far. especially since you were drunk and most likely just spilling everything because your brain doesn’t have the willpower to hold it back.

you stick your hand into the bag to steal some fries, stuffing them in your mouth. “oh, you don’t wanna know,” you chew.

jungkook quirks a brow, “well, was i good at least?” he jokes.

you scrunch your nose, nodding nevertheless. “too good, couldn’t even focus during the quiz because of it.”

jungkook is silent for a second. the conversation making him hot even though he wasn’t wearing his jacket anymore. so he clears his throat, trying to change the subject in a subtle manner. “is that why you were so mean to me this morning?” he pouts, connecting the dots.

you laugh at the question, “sorry, i didn’t mean to, i swear.”

with that, the rest of the time is spent eating. jungkook makes sure that you ate enough and drank enough water, the empty water bottle in his cupholder as proof. “do you want me to take you home now?” he asks, the two of you finished eating and now a silence takes over the car.

“are you going back?” you ask, fiddling with your fingers. he thinks you’ve started to sober up, or maybe have gotten to the point where you just want to sleep.

he shakes his head to your question, “honestly, i’m kind of tired, but if you want to go back, we can go.”

“no, i’m okay,” you decline the offer. jungkook laughs, starting the car again and driving back to your apartment complex.

you take this time to try to get yourself together. you know you’ll regret confessing to jungkook that you had a wet dream about him in the morning. but in the moment, it felt right to confess, (to your drunken brain of course). you tilt your head back, pushing your head against the headrest, and suddenly, you’re reminded of the stars jungkook has on his ceiling. you were silent as you admired the lights, jungkook takes a look at you when he’s stopped at a red light.

so cute, he thinks, staring up at his ceiling like it’s the real night sky. when he pulls up to your apartment complex, he wishes the night could be longer, that he could spend more time with you. he parks the car in the front, exactly where he picked you up. you’re looking to him now, your hands in your lap and your heart seemingly beating three times as fast as it usually does. it wasn’t the alcohol.

“did you have fun tonight?” he asks. his voice never fails to make you melt.

you nod, “i did.”

“i’m glad,” he smiles. there’s a small silence before he speaks once more, “also, y’know, you don’t have to stress yourself out so much, i know you might have expectations for yourself and stuff, but you should give yourself a break from time to time.”

the alcohol’s effects fading slowly from your brain when you start to realize that the entire reason jungkook invited you out was to help you destress. it makes you fall even harder, he was so thoughtful. even though a party wasn’t your scene, he invited you to give you a glimpse into how he has fun and hoped that it would help you loosen up a bit. you were grateful for the mental break he provided you.

you didn’t reply, purely because you were thinking about how much you want to kiss him right now, but it wouldn’t be right. when he speaks up again, there’s a nervous lilt in his voice, scared that he’s overstepped. “if you need anyone to help you— i don’t know, let loose? you can— you can always call me.” he scratches the back of his neck.

but you try your best to reassure him, smiling at the offer. “i will, thank you for tonight, jungkook, i really enjoyed it, despite being a lightweight.”

he laughs, staring at the way your face cutely scrunches when you giggle. he too, is fighting the urge to kiss you, because right now isn’t a good time. he wants to do it right. he doesn’t want to fuck it up with you. so instead, he hops out of the car and moves to open the door for you. helping you out of the car and walking you to your door, your hand in his.

“i’ll see you in class?” you turn to face him, squeezing his hand.

he nods, “yeah.” his signature bunny smile coming out to greet you a goodnight. “text me before you sleep?” he requests. you give him a thumbs up before he’s letting go of your hand and you’re sticking the key into your door, it’s then that you realize that you’re still wearing his jacket.

“oh!” you exclaim, taking the jacket off and handing it to him. but he holds his hand out to stop you.

“keep it, you can give it to me the next time we hang out, or something,” he suggests. you try to hide the growing smile behind a nod.

you hold onto his jacket, “goodnight, jungkook.”

he sticks his hands in his pockets, sending you another grin, “goodnight, ___.”

jungkook drives home, his empty apartment welcoming him. he plops down onto his bed, not even bothering to change out of the clothes he was in because he was that tired. the events of today running through his mind.

he hopes you don’t think he was doing anything with those five girls. he saw you walk away when you did, he tried his best to escape the conversation, but they kept pulling him back. he gave up after ten tries of trying to get away, standing there for a good fifteen minutes listening to them babble about how much they missed him. jungkook had never rolled his eyes so many times in a conversation.

the talk the two of you had after was another thing taking over his mind. your dirty flirting and your dream you mentioned in the car had his imagination running all over the place. he didn’t want to push you when you explained, but he was very curious as to what he did in your dream, and how good it was for you to have it run through your mind all day.

his phone rings next to him. he turns and opens it, a smile on his face when he reads your message.

[12:32 am] you: hi jungkookieeeeeeeee

[12:33 am] you: im sleeping noww

[12:33 am] jungkook: alright cutie

[12:33 am] jungkook: goodnight! again 😂

[12:34 am] you: goodnight <3

he turns his phone off after that. looking up to his ceiling with a dumb smile on his face. his mind thinking of you and only you.

#jungkook #jeon jungkook #jungkook fic #jeon jungkook fic #jungkook fanfic #jungkook fan fiction #jeon jungkook fanfic #writing #bts #bts fic #bts fanfic #jjk #jjk fic #jjk fanfic #jjk writing #jungkook writing #fluff #smut #jungkook smut #jungkook fluff #mine #jeongguk fic #jeongguk fanfic #jeon jeongguk #jeongguk #jeon jeongguk fic #bangtan #bangtan soyeondan #bangtan fic

[actualbird]

can the nxx boys dance?

wc: 1.4k

notes: pls open the links, i will die for u, dance is so beautiful

vyn richter

yes, REALLY FRIGGING WELL, the stuff of FAIRYTALES.

his first birthday ssr told us that hes classically trained in MANY forms of ballroom dance. "many"???? i'd like to think this means ALL actually.

hes most adept with waltzes but he really enjoys a fast paced swing, he can do one HELL of a saucy tango. hes got a wonderful ear for music, just a few seconds of listening and hes clocked in the type of dance and the beat and just what kind of performance people are expecting from it, and he'll lead the way, the picture perfect image of elegance and beauty

perhaps it's not that vyn is good at dancing, it's that hes good at PERFORMING. and at roping you into the performance as well. he's a DAMN GOOD lead, he can do it perfectly, telegraphing the exact movements you need to do to complete the dance alongside with him

but thats the thing, vyn can only ever dance with a partner

(which, sidenote, of all the boys i would put into an ice dance figure skating AU in, itd be vyn richter. and he'd dance like this. REALLY FUCKIN GOOD.)

he doesnt dance without a partner. never has. hes been taught forms of dance ONLY as a part of a pair, ONLY as the one in control. so hes out of his element when hes alone (dont expect him to dance with just himself, theres nobody to direct, what does he do????) or when the other person is leading.

this would make for some cute scenarios. vyn richter may be the ballroom dance genius, but perhaps you know how to dance at a club. he'd gasp in surprise as you move his body for him. when you (or anybody else he trusts) teach him, hes in your care.

all in all, dancing for vyn has a history of being a performance for other people Only. not for him or his happiness. when dance becomes something a bit more "selfish" so to speak, hes surprised and is willing to see where this surprise will take him

artem wing

yes but he is SO SO SO STIFF (note: i know nothing about the artem dance card where mc is in red dress, these are ALL just hcs, pls dont flame me)

guys, this is artem wing we're talking about here. he's stiff at work, he's stiff when hes supposed to be relaxing, im sure on his first date he needs to be TOLD to like, fuckin exhale. this is the most clenched man ive seen in his life, and it's to his detriment.

so much of what makes art FUN is letting a bit of yourself go and artem is like "BUT WHAT IF THAT MEANS I'LL FAIL." before he tries any dance (and maybe it's for the company uhhh...party or some shit? ur not getting this dude to dance because he initiated it, u'll have to finagle a situation where he HAS TO), he watches all the videos and reads up on the history and he has a perfect theoretical understanding of all the moving parts----

and then when he sees u (or insert whatever ship u like, mc, nxx boy, maybe forgo the nxx polycule tho bc 5 people dancing is hard to coordinate so artem will just lie on the floor and die) all that information goes OUT THE WINDOW. he is clenched once more, reblog if u cry every time

see, the REASON he gets so stiff is because of the pressure from the situation (must be perfect), the pressure from you/other (must not let you down), and the pressure from himself (obviously if he fails at dancing he is a horrible terrible no good man who deserves nothing in life [artem wing depression spiral])

he'll only calm down after he makes a mistake, actually. he stumbles and steps on your foot and hes SO SO SO SORRY but you laugh it off, pull him closer, and tell him it's alright. youre both learning together, yeah? mistakes and successes, you'd like to share them both with him

marius von hagen

yes and you WANT HIM TO STOP (...u dont actually, it's HOT)

ive written several past posts where i am CONVINCED marius has no personal grasp of musical elements whatsoever, so hes got no beat, he cant dance in time to any song, not even ba ba black sheep.

tho his lack of beat doesnt bother or stop him though from dancing like a SLUT (affectionate)

i think marius learned how to dance at smarmy rich kids parties he was invited to as a kid and he hated those because everybody sucked but the alcohol was good and the inhibitions were loosened. desperate to have SOME KIND OF FUN at this hellish gathering, he starts dancing

marius is a shameless person, he doesnt do dance moves so much as just let his body move in whatever way it wants to. the result is a dance thats electric. full of energy yet flowing at the same time, completely spur of the moment, and really, really...alluring. like, it's not slut from the get-go, marius only MAKES IT slut when he wants to. but his dancing is wholly something you cant take your eyes off of, despite the fact hes dancing to a song that only he can hear in his head.

because marius doesnt dance to music. he dances to the tune of himself.

(art has always been the one avenue where he can be who he is no matter what, yeah? no roles, no expectations. just him, for once, letting go and being him.)

(he will absolutely dance on his own, especially at his studio. if anybody sees him, he'll smirk all smug and transform his dancing into whatever is going to get that person to blush and stutter the MOST. among all the boys, marius von hagen is most likely to give you a lap dance, if you wanted one.)

luke pearce

no. he cant. and when he does, hes a HUGE AWKWARD DORK

see, luke just has so much trouble moving his body in situations where hes not fighting/sports-ing. he can do mid air spins with a gun, can scale a rock climbing wall in record time (never getting over it), can show off SO MUCH how hes SO STRONG OOOHHH, but ask him to dance and he'll wiggle. it's excruciating for everybody involved

the NSB TRIED to train him in dance (it would be useful for undercover missions) but the dance instructor nearly cried because luke's body is SO BEAUTIFUL AND YET LUKE IS INCAPABLE OF MOVING IT. after a few hours luke is on the floor, panting, whining, "can i please just kill some people?" so the NSB just lets him go kill some people

but luke isnt immune to the magic of music. when he hears a banger he taps his foot along to the beat, he bops his head, and NSB CCTV camera footage has recorded many instances where hes dancing alone in the elevator. and hes ADORABLE, he mindlessly dances in a way that exudes joy and happiness. no actual "dance moves" from a certain dance style, just luke bopping and vibing like a huge dork. it's the kind of dancing that makes everybody smile and actually heres a visual peg for how i think luke dances

but he stops the moment somebody else is there. bc his issue is that he gets bashful when he knows hes being watched. thats when the shame trickles in because how DARE he let himself have fun

(the good news is that once he trusts somebody else and once that other person bonks him on the head like "I LIKE IT WHEN UR HAPPY, PLS LET URSELF BE HAPPY" he'll come out of his shell and dance in the little moments. when hes cooking, when hes feeding peanut. maybe it's okay to have fun, especially since it gives you joy)

(additional visual peg: this is just a very good luke/mc dance, case closed)

last sidenote: given everybodys HUGELY DIFFERENT styles, motivations, and overall vibes of dancing, please expect that the nxx investigation team new year's eve party---where everybody gets drunk on like 3 bottles of wine vyn made---is an absolute disaster, in terms of people drunkenly dancing.

nobody meshes with one another AT ALL.

thats not stopping them tho.

(mc's got videos of the night. the law is the only thing stopping her from using marluke_dance.mp4 as blackmail material)

#tears of themis #vyn richter #artem wing #marius von hagen #luke pearce

[writingdotcoffee]

#187: Writing for Yourself

If you knew that nobody would ever read your work, would you keep writing?

Let's be honest, most of us probably wouldn't. Regardless of what people say, I doubt that most would keep writing stories for 30, 40 or 50 years without even thinking about readers or publication. We're social animals, after all. Then there's the tree in the forest stuff. If nobody has ever seen it, does it even exist?

Most writers (and artists) hope that one day, someone will appreciate what they did. There's nothing wrong with that. I certainly wouldn't be publishing my musings here on the blog if I didn't want people to read them. It's important to stay motivated. But there's a downside to this too.

When you're thinking about your readers while writing, pretty soon you'll realise that you'll also be judged. That someone will read it and think it's the stupidest shit they've ever seen. We've all read something and thought that.

For some people, this self-doubt can be crippling. Most writers struggle with it in one way or another. Steven Pressfield called this resistance (check out the War of Art — it's a fantastic read).

The hope that people will enjoy your work helps you stay motivated in the long run, but it can slow you down when you're actually doing the work. You can't give it up! So what do you do?

Here are some things that helped me get over myself.

Free-writing

I've been journaling for many years now. The way I do it evolves constantly. At one point, I used free-writing.

Every morning, I set a timer for 30 minutes. I started writing anything that came to mind as fast as I possibly could. I never share my journal entries with anyone, so the quality didn't matter to me.

My original intention was to teach myself that words are cheap. That I can write more at any point. That I have an endless supply of them. I did this for over a year, and it helped me a ton. But I also discovered that when I was just writing for myself, I wrote more than 4x faster than usual.

The sheer quantity of words I was able to churn out in under 30 minutes was insane.

Throwaway Stories

This is another way to learn the same lesson.

Some writing teachers and courses use an exercise that asks the students to spend an hour working on a short story. The class expects to be presenting it at the end in some form. They work hard on making it the best they can.

At the end of the hour, the teacher asks the students to destroy what they wrote without showing anyone. Pretty harsh but effective.

The lesson is simple: what you write now doesn't matter. You can always write something else.

Writing for Yourself

Sometimes, the best way to write for an audience is to write for yourself. Write as if nobody will ever see it, as if you will tear it up and throw it into the fire (or hit CTRL+A and DELETE).

After all, you don't have to publish every story you finish. If you don't like it, you can delete it later. Or you can revise the hell out of it so even you won't recognise the original.

When in doubt, just write for yourself.

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Past Editions

#186: A Stimulus Check for Your Mind, March 2021

#185: Always Behind the Schedule. March 2021

#184: The Most Important Skill for Writers, February 2021

#183: The Writers’ Love-Hate Relationship With Writing, February 2021

#182: Taking a Break from Writing, February 2021

#writing #writers #write #writing tips #writing advice #amwriting #writing life #writeblr #writing update #personal udpate #me #update

[just-someone-who-likes-to-write]

Soulmate AU

(Requested by: @deathordesire​ :  Hello!! I saw your prompts are open--would you be open to doing Nuada x human female reader? I really like the idea that they are mates or mate au and hes like jajshshe omg humans but likes her and all. Lemme know what you think! )

(A/N): I am sorry for the long wait, and sorry if the story or ending wasn’t as perfect as you would have probably expected, but I still hope that you and others would enjoy it! Sorry if it’s too long!!

Warnings: Grammatical Errors, Gore, harsh words. I don’t know what else to add.

Word Count: 7,021

Now, Nuada remembers the first time he felt that pull for the first time towards you. It happened the night he broke into the human organization where they kept his sister from him, he silently was killing every guard he met on his way, and you were assigned there. Your back was to him as you chatted with your colleague, and he took the chance of your distraction to strike, he sprinted towards both of you, your friend noticed him too late and the only thing he could manage was to open his mouth to warn you, but before he could do it his throat was cut, you were pushed forcefully against the wall and just as he turned around with his sword lifted to slice your throat as well he froze when his golden eyes fill on yours. You looked at him with wide eyes with fear, but his eyes were widened by shock, The hand which held the sword stuck in the air. He could not kill you, for some bizarre reason he could not kill you, it felt wrong, a fatal mistake. He finally moved when he saw you reaching out for your communication device, turning his blade upside down Nuada used the butt of his sword to knock you out unconscious. He stood there over your body starting at down at you, a strange ache started to form inside of him for hurting. Forcing the feeling away, he continued moving to his sister's location, ignoring what had happened with you, but it was difficult for whenever he wasn't preoccupied with other thoughts, an image of you immediately popped into his mind with the question if you were alright. It frustrated him greatly and he promised himself that when he takes over that he will make sure to kill you himself or at least see your dead body, which would be dead by his golden army.

That plan failed of course because here he was locked up in the humans' jail after his defeat against the demon they call Hellboy. Aside from his sister visiting him, he tried to spend his time practicing martial arts and then meditating, which proved to be challenging because for a while you kept popping in his thoughts until finally it was over and he got his peace forgetting about your existence completely. However, those forgotten thoughts came crashing down when he got his freedom by agreeing to help the human against those who threaten the balance between the two worlds, he saw you passing them by when his sister was giving him a tour around the building, you were busy reading papers and didn't notice him, but he sure as Hell noticed you, and from the twinkle familiarity in his sister's eyes as she saw you. Just before she could lift her hand and call for you Nuada brought her hand down and forced her forward and be away from you as fast as possible. Nuala was confused by his action.

 "Why did you do that?" She asked.

 "I don't want to meet any of your human friends." He answered coolly.

 It wasn't a lie but it wasn't the true answer either, which left Nuala feelings suspicious before shrugging it off and continuing the tour. Nuada knew that meeting you was inevitable but he still hoped not to have to meet you face to face. But here you were assigned to be the one who teaches him the rules in the training room and to his surprise and dare he say relief, you didn't show fear as most humans do. You just kept a nonchalant façade.

"… And of course, when you do train use nonlethal weapons, so we  can avoid accidents." You said as you pointed to the training equipment.

 "Don't try to give me orders human." He threatened but you looked unfazed, you turned to him and looked him in the eyes as you replied.

 "Or what? You will knock me out again?" You asked calmly. "Because if you took a good look around you can see that we are being watched."

 And you told the truth, you were being watched not only by a couple of humans who were there to train but also by the security cameras. Nuada growled down at you but you only smirked in return.

 He tried so bad not to smirk bad.

 He didn't understand the sudden fascination he felt towards this single human, whom later he learned her name was (Y/n), but one thing she knew is that it was bad and he needed to stop it. Remembering how time away from her helped him forget her he did his best to avoid (Y/n) and that's by locking himself in his new room and have his food brought by his sister, and if he needed company he would seek out his sister later at night when he is sure you didn't have a night shift in it, but even that was disturbed by the presence of the creature they call Abraham. The one being who was able to steal away his sister from his side. He loved seeing his sister happy, he really does, but he hated that her sore of happiness came from someone other than himself.

 "I do not understand why him." Said Nuada, when he and Nuala were alone. "Centuries ago, suitors from different clans and even different races came forward asking for your hand in marriage, and even though I despised them all, most of them was a better choice than him."

 "You still don't know?" Asked Nuala with an amused smile.

 "Know of what?" He asked.

 "Abraham is my fated mate." She answered with a shy smile.

 Nuada was shocked and left to be alone for the rest of the evening and a few more days. Nuala tried reaching him but he didn't answer, so she left him to his thoughts, believing that he was upset with her. However, Nuada was not, it was true that he did not approve of her mate but Abraham was nonetheless. Humans would call it a myth but having a "Fated Mate" was very much true, their senses were just far weaker than the supernatural beings senses, so they can never feel it when they meet "The One". They will never know how life will suddenly feel empty without them, how they will suddenly feel they have a purpose, how they will do anything to be by them. They won't be able to live without their touch, to hear her sweet laughter echo in the air, to see the shine of her bright eyes as she succeeded in something, the sound of her soft voice in his head, how his every thought… will be… occupied… by only… Her…

 Nuada shoots up at that last thought, his eyes widened in realization.

 "No…No no no no no no " He kept muttering to himself as he based around his room.

 It cannot be possible, his mate can never be a human. For centuries he dreamed of a life with a soul that was meant to him and he for them, but now, here he was with the possibility of his other half being a human. Nuada would rather live the rest of his life alone than being mated to a low-life human. In fact, an idea of a human mate sounds so absurd that Nuada was determined to prove it wrong.

 He decided to ignore her and not by leaving the same room she enters, but by ignoring her presence as if she was never there. He went to the training room at a time he knew (Y/n) would be there, as long as he doesn't think or even glance at her as he did his own training. It was difficult at first, his neck ached with every time he almost turned around to see (Y/n) at the sound of her voice but as the string warrior he is, he resisted the temptation to even glance in her direction. It was going to be a success, he could have walked out of the room, training finished and mind free from the human, but one pull, one simple feeling of pull urged him to glance at you from over his shoulder, and that's when he saw you on the floor staring with wide eyes at your opponent who was holding what looked like a glaive over his head ready to strike her. the next few moments were a blur but when Nuada realized his surrounding he found himself point the glaive at (Y/n)'s opponent who was now on the ground eyes staring at the edge of the blade in terror, and Nuada was feeling… fury.

 "You Imbecile!" He shouted. "The rules clearly stated to not use real weapons for a reason, if any harm came to (Y/n) I would-"

 He stopped the flow of his words when felt the gentlest touch on his shoulder, he turned and saw that it was a very worried (Y/n), who tried her best to put on a brave face, whether her worry was for what almost had happened to her a few moments ago or because he was holding a weapon so close to a humans neck, he didn’t know.

 "It's alright Nuada, he was just being irresponsible, but he learned his listen now." She turned to look at the fallen human. "Didn't you?"

 The human man only nodded profusely. Nuada felt (Y/n)'s soft tug on his arm, silently pleading him to spare him, and slowly he did pull away, then threw the weapon to the ground and hurriedly left the room ignoring the calls of his name, which gave a small ache in his heart for ignoring it. That night Nuada stayed in his room with his face buried in his hands trying to comprehend that he was going to draw blood and risk his freedom for (Y/n)'s sake. He doesn't even feel regret towards his action, rather a great relief to know that she is safe thanks to him. Nuada placed his left hand over his right arm, specifically over the spot that (Y/n)'s hand was on to stop him. His brows furrowed in discomfort when he remembered the look on her face, and his ears are still ringing from her voice calling him, he wanted nothing more than to go to her room to not only make sure she was safe but to apologize for ignoring her. With a groan of anger, Nuada retired to his bed and forced himself to sleep, ignoring the little voice in the back of his head that screamed at him to find their mate immediately. But the elven prince only closed his eyes and drifted into sleep hoping to escape the (H/c) headed girl only to find her invading his dreams, with sweet smiles and laughs and she gazed at him lovingly.

 ---

 "What do you mean she left?" Asked Nuada in a low threatening tone to the frightened man.

 He had come to the training room again to try and ignoring (Y/n) presence successfully this time, but deep down it was truly to see her again. However, when she was an hour late Nuada approaches the same man that he almost killed for almost harming his mate, and asked him of her whereabouts and when will she be around, only to be told that she left later that same night. She was taking a vacation for who knows how long and to where. If Nuada didn't remember the cameras that are watching him he would have probably slide the human's throat in frustration, he simply just left the room, having no longer the motivation to train.

 "Because (Y/n) isn't there for you to impress."

 Nuada just shook his head at the small voice, which had been taunting him for a long while now. He doesn't need to impress her or prove to her anything.

 "Yes, you need to prove to her that you are a capable mate whom she deserves."

 Nuada let out a loud groan that made everyone around him flinch away in fear of his sudden foul mood, escaping being the source of his relief, which means a trip to the infirmary. That's it. He needed to escape those damned thoughts that had been plaguing his mind, and meditation cannot help him anymore, he needs to shed blood, to fight. So he quickly changed his directions to reach the human in charge and demand to be sent on a mission even if it was as simple as a patrol. He needed to escape everything and anything that reminded him of (Y/n).

 ---

 You couldn't wipe away the grin from your face as you casually walked through the hallways while keeping an eye open for one special elf prince. Your colleagues had texts you multiple times over your time away and informed you of how Nuada kept asking about your whereabouts, how long will you take away, and who were you with. Your friends thought his actions were weird, but for you, it was a sign that your attempts to befriend him are working so well. He had indeed killed your colleagues in front of you, massacred many, tried to raise an ancient army to erase humanity from existence and rule overall. However, you couldn't ignore the reasoning behind it, he lost everything and he only did what he thought was right. Besides all that Nuala had told you many stories about him, how truly good and kind he was, how the war between the two worlds of humans and supernatural had ruined his mind, you could tell that there were many other reasons for Nuada's hatred towards humans but you didn't push any further with questions and just settled with what you know now. And so, when Nuada was finally free you decided to try and befriend him or at least make him feel welcomed, which proved difficult because he would snare at any human who tried getting too close to him and avoiding you like the plague. You believed that he was avoiding for the reason that his intimidation acts didn't work on you and since he can't harm you physically he decided to escape your presence.

 Until that incident in the training room.

 Your training partner was getting annoyed with the many times you kicked his butt in hand in hand combat and he thought he could at least try and intimidate you to put you in line and what better way to do so than use a freaking glaive against you. You could easily dodge his clumsy strike, but you accidentally tripped on your back, and since you had no time to move you just closed your eyes shut and waited for the pain. However, it never came, and when you opened your eyes to see the reason you were met with the back of the Elf prince who was not only yelling at the stupid man but also pointing the weapon to his neck ready to slaughter him. That made the flashback of when he slaughtered the man in front of you start and you felt as if someone dumped cold water down your back. Despite your obvious fear, you moved forward to stop him, which thankfully worked. When he left you chased after him to at least thank him for saving you but before you could go too far another agent pulled you back and told you to follow him to Manning's office to discuss what had happened.

 You are a great agent, one of the very best, but because of your gender Manning still saw you as a vulnerable thing, and that's why he offered you a fully paid vacation to calm your nerves. The man can be great at times, but most of the time he acts in a way that makes you wanna punch him in the face. However, it is rare to get a vacation in such a long time and a paid one too, so you didn't let the chance slip away from your hands. Then a few days later you were spammed with messages of how Nuada is asking about you and being more agitated than usual after your absence. You didn't want to lift your hopes up but you couldn't help the feeling of excitement you felt as you shortened your vacation to only one week just so you can hurry back and try again to befriend Nuada. The others either thought you mad out outcasted you because of it, because not only are you trying to befriend a prisoner but also the being that killed their friends and partners. You tried to explain to them that everyone made mistakes in life even severe ones and deserve a second chance, but they didn't listen. You understood their reasoning and forgave those who gave you dirty looks.

 Turning to another hallway and stopped in your tracks when you saw in the distant Nuada conversating with his sister who seemed to be very worried, however, most of your attention was on him, you had to take deep breaths to calm your beating heart. You didn't know if it was because of your teen attraction for bad boys returning, or because you reached a level of desperation that you would look any male even the murderous Elf in a different light, but what you know is deep down inside you, you could feel something the urged you to approach Nuada, you could have easily ignored it, but you always trusted your gut and now here you were.

 You took one last deep breath before walking forward to the royal siblings.

 "Hey, Nuala!" You called with a smile, and you could swear that from the corner of your eye you saw Nuada tense at your voice.

 "(Y/n)!" Nuala greeted back. "When did you return?"

 "I came back yesterday." You answered before stealing a glance at the prince who was avoiding your gaze but when your eyes met your cheeks flushed lightly at the sight of his golden eyes, but held yourself together. "Hello there."

 You tried to greet him but he only groaned before again ignoring you, your smile flattened, you didn't feel hurt just sudden nervousness because you truly believed that he would at least return the greeting. Nuala however, mistook your small frown as sadness and she turned to him.

 "Brother, don't be rude and return the greeting." She lectured. "It is the least you could do."

 "Why should I?" He retorted. "She is just a simple human."

 "A simple human who you ask about?" You couldn't help but ask.

 You caught his eyes slightly widen, which confirmed that what you have been told was true. Nuala turned to you a look full of bewilderment on her face.

 "He asked for you?" She asked, You nodded.

 "Yes, well, at least that's what I have been told." You answered truthfully. You heard him scuff pulling both your and Nuala's attention towards him.

 "And what if I have?" He asked rhetorically. "Don't get over your head human."

 "It's alright if you did ask." You assured, hoping that maybe he was just, dare you say, shy at being caught. "I mean after what happened last time I thought-"

 "You thought wrong." He interrupted. "The reason for my action was to prevent myself from being accused of something I wasn't the cause of. I did not do it for the likes of you."

 "Oh…" That was all you managed to say.

 You could feel a sting from his words, and it must have shown because Nuala rushed in front of Nuada to stop him.

 "Brother, what you said was uncalled for." She lectured. "(Y/n) is a very nice human, she only wants to befriend you, like how she did with me and everyone else."

 "Befriend me?" He asked with a mocking grin. "She is only trying to make herself feel better by acting nice, that's how all humans act, I have seen it many times beforehand."

 He turned to you his golden eyes staring directly into your own.

 "You are a leach." He said pushing his sister away to take a few steps closer. "You slither into those who are marked outcast by everyone else, and act as if you were "Different" from everyone else, that you "Cared", but all you truly care about is to walk around with said "New friend" as you silently say how you are better and superior to everyone else only because you did something that no one else dared to do."

 You stared at him with wide eyes at his accusations, and that seemed to only confirm his words to him.

 "I know what the other humans say when you befriended Hellboy, Abraham, and now my own sister." He sneered. "I will not be added to your pathetic list of small victories."

 "I…I don’t have…" You tried to say but he cut you off again.

 "Let's say you did not have a list, and you only did all that out of the Kindness of your heart. " He said the last part mockingly. "What made you believe that I would ever accept a pathetic human such as yourself a friend?... A human who can't even protect herself, I am amazed at how did you get a job here when you almost died only by my hands but also by a colleague of yours, who knows how many times you were lucky enough to escape your doom by being protected or have another human take the fall for you. You can't even protect how on earth can you protect humankind."

 You said nothing.

 "If the Red demon wasn't among you, you would have been dead by now, or a slave serving as a footstool for me." He stomped his foot at the last part making you let out a gasp of surprise and take a cautious step backward.

 Nuada stood his ground waiting for you to run away in fear of him like any other human would, But you didn't. You slowly lifted your head up to finally meet his eyes again and he could feel his heartache at the Hurtful look you had in your eyes as you gave him a weak smile. He could feel his body slightly shaking with regret, his instinct told him to fall on his feet and as for your forgiveness as he did everything to restore your beautiful smile once again.

 "I'm sorry, Prince Nuada." You said in such a polite tone, losing your friendly act, treating him like the royalty he was.

 "Please don't…" He tried to say but couldn't.

 "I did not mean to offend you in any way."

 "I was the one who let his pride take over!"

 "But please now that my actions towards you were only genuine."

 "I know!.. You are the sweetest creature on earth, who wants good for all!"

 "I will respect your wants and needs, so from now on I will stop approaching you."

 "NO!...No please don’t!"

 "I will be leaving now."

 You said before giving but him and Nuala a polite nod and turning on your heels to leave. He almost shot his hand forward to stop you from walking away, but Nuala got between the two of you with a very angry look on her face.

 "How could you say these things to her?" Asked Nuala in a hissed tone, never did Nuada see her so angry with him, disappointed yes, but not angry and he would have been concerned if he wasn’t already feel punished enough.

 Nuada was staring at you and you continued to walk away, his sister kept lecturing but he didn’t her hear, her voice a muffled background noise as he saw you turn a corner and disappear from sight making the ache greater, he was pulled out of his train of thoughts when he realized that his sister was quite…..and that his hand is being held. By instinct Nuada flinched backward away from Nuala, already realizing what had happened. His eyes were wide with horror, while his sister’s eyes were wide with realization. His shock then became anger.

 “Brother, You-“

 “I told you many times to NEVER read my thoughts!” He screamed angrily at her making her flinch.

 Nuada let out an angry growl before turning around and leaving to anywhere he can, to escape not only (Y/n) but also his own sister. He could hear Nuala trying to run after while repeatedly saying sorry and asking him to stop walking away but he didn’t and when he saw how she won’t stop chasing after him he started running from her knowing very well she won’t be able to catch up to him. After taking a few turns and knowing that his sister won't be able to catch up to him Nuada slowed down and made his way to Manning's office to request time out in the open green area to meditate because Gods know he needs it to calm his nerves and collect his thoughts. Because not only did he chase you away, for good this time, but also because now his sister knows of what is he feeling and what is happening in his head… Deep down in his head… that part which he still refuses to listen to.

 Even though he knows he is right by now.

  ---

 Nuada was in the moving vehicle with Abraham and Hellboy, heading to the next mission in some small town.

 "They said that it was only adult humans who went missing one or two at first, but then the numbers started to grow that even children were nowhere to be found." Said Abraham.

 "Anything in common with them?" Asked Hellboy.

 "The only thing is that they all disappeared near the forests." He answered, looking up from the file. "They went in but never came out."

 Hellboy cursed under his breath at the mention of children's possible death, ever since the breath of his own dear twins the topic of children's death on missions became a sensitive topic. Nuada however didn't care for all that, the only thing that plagued his mind was the human who was ahead of them in another vehicle with other human agents who were sent alongside them, this is the closest he had gotten to her since their last encounter.

 The prince believed that it would be for the best that things remain the way they are, she would continue with her life, find someone to share it with, start a family to grow old with, and then… And then he would die of old age, feeling happy and continent, while he would continue living to pay for his crimes and then devote himself to his people, he knew the next step would be marrying an elf to produce a hire to take his place in the future, but such thought made his stomach turn in disgust, that it was wrong. Then maybe he should make his future niece or nephew the hire to the throne after him because as much as he doesn't like it, his sister will have children of her own even if it was with the bluefish, and if he did decide to grow old and alone they will take his place.

 "We are here." A human called from the front pulling Nuada out of his thoughts, that when he realized that the vehicle they were in had stopped a long while ago. He followed Hlleboy and Abraham out.

 The human was already setting things up and preparing to venture into the forest. As he scanned the area he caught you rechecking your magazines and filling those who were not full with more bullets. He couldn’t help the small smile he had at the determination you showed after finishing your preparation, unknown to him Abraham had noticed it and he had a look of pity for the Elf Prince.

 “Alright, we will split into teams and because we don’t want any incidents Nuada and Red will be separated each one will be put in a human group.” Explained the human who was put in charge of this mission.

 Nuada immediately joined a human group that (Y/n) wasn’t a part of and red joined another. Abraham stayed back to give instructions in case what they are dealing with was new. As the two groups ventured into the forest Nuada stayed on high alert listening to anything or anyone. After almost an hour of just walking deep into the wood, a sudden movement made everyone tense and turn to pint their weapons in the direction of the sound. However, all the human agents let their guns down when a beautiful human woman with long black hair and pale beaten skin run towards them, she looked tired and terribly scared, when she saw them she started to cry in relief.

 "Finally some help!" she cried out. Nuada who was the only one who still had his weapon up brought his silverlance close to the woman's throat but was pushed away by the other humans who circled the woman to add her.

 "What are you doing you psycho!" Said the man. "This is a human being we should take her back to get treatment."

 "No!" Cried the woman as she slightly pulled away from the men. "My friends are still in danger, we should go and save them!"

 "Of course Ma'am, just tell us where they are." Said the man but she still shook her head.

 "I don't remember the directions, but I can walk you there."

 She pulled away completely from the group of men to go in the same direction she came from when Nuada was sure that no one would stop him this time he charged forward and used his silverlance to decapitate the woman's head. As her limp body and head fell to the ground one of the men who were in shock charged at him to grab him by his collar.

 "You killed a human woman!" He screamed. "I will make sure that you will rot in jail for a long-"

 "Uhh…Simon." One of them called.

 "What!?" Said the human named Simon angrily.

 His anger quickly melted away and he pulled away from Nuada when he saw the woman's body twitch and change form into that of a big black horse whose mouth and part of his head looked as if it was in the middle of decomposing for the skeleton was showing. That image however was gone quickly as the body melted into a disgusting black goo. The human men looked petrified by the sites, Nuada was the only one who came forward to inspect the goo.

 "W...What in the hell was that!?" Asked one of the men quietly as to not drow any more of those monsters towards them.

 "That thing was as you human call it a Kelpie." Explained Nuada. "A malicious creature who live near the water, they can shapeshift into beautiful women or horses to lure their victims so they can drown them and devour their dead corpse."

 The men looked at each other in fear before they instinctively took a fighting position and pointed their guns around them in case another Kelpie showed up. Nuada just sighed at their action and refrained from giving any harsh comments about their idiocy. He scanned the area and he could hear, see, and sense nothing, there wasn't any other Kelpie around. He brought a hand to activate the earpiece he was given to contact everyone else.

 "I know what we are up against." He informed.

 "What is it?" Asked Hellboy.

 "It's a Kelpie." He answered. "A shape-shifting being who can take the form of beautiful women or horse."

 "What!?" Exclaimed Hellboy in the speaker making Nuada want to pull the device away but he stopped when he heard the next thing.

 "(Y/n)!.. Get away from that thing!" Her scream can be heard as well as the beast who let out a victorious roar. "The bastard got (Y/n)!"

 Never did Nuada move so fast. He ran through the forest looking around frantically for any sign of you or the beast. A few gunshots were fired from the distance and Nuada ran towards it. He dodged the trees and leaped over the rocks. His mind was flashing images of your dead mutilated body floating above the waters after it had been devoured by the Kelpie, taunting him on how he could have avoided such tragedy by staying by your side and keeping you safe and sound away from all trouble.

 "You killed our mate"

 Sid the voice repeatedly torturing him further, memories of the last encounter with your came back reminding him that if (Y/n) was truly dead then his last moment with her was him hurting her feelings and being a bastard and that's would probably her last memory of him, being an Entitled Bastard. When Nuada finally reached them he saw how a group of humans were shooting two Kelpies but their bullets were in vain as they regenerated easily, however, when Hellboy shot his special bullets the Kelpies died instantly. That all did not matter to him, Nuada looked around and he saw you kneeling on the ground, you were grasping your right hand which was bleeding, and to either side of you was a human who were aiding you, but most importantly you were still alive. Nuada felt great relief when he saw no major injuries on you but it was short-lived as he saw other Kelpies coming near you, probably smelled your blood, He charged forward and swiftly decapitated one then stabbed the other straight on its forehead, both letting out one last screech before dissolving into goo. He turned to you and kneeled beside you. Looking at you closer he could see your arms, legs, and face are filled with small cuts that were bleeding, but your right hand, however, was bleeding heavily.

 "What happened?" He asked as he dropped his weapon down to examine your wound.

 "What are you doing here?" You asked in bewilderment.

 "To save you." He answered honestly ignoring his pride after the thought of losing you, His answer made your eyes wide with shock. You opened your mouth to say something but were cut off when you heard Hellboy's gunfire a couple of times.

 The Kelpies were growing in numbers determined to kill all of them and you knew that Red's special bullets will run out. You Turned to Nuada.

 "Forget me." You said pulling your injured hand away from his hold. "Go help Red."

 Nuada turned to the group of humans and demon who are struggling to keep the creatures away, being fueled by anger at the thought of one of them daring to kill his dear mate, Nuada lifted his weapon again and charged at them. He stabbed one of them in the middle causing it to screech in pain before dying. He turned to the humans who were still shooting with their guns.

 "Your weapons are useless." He said before stabbing another Kelpie. "These creatures only die from silver and Holy weapons, so if you truly want to help then take those who have been injured back and return with at least silver bullets."

 The men looked at him with astonishment before nodding and doing as he ordered, however, a few of them remained insisting on being able to help. Nuada looked over his shoulder one last time, catching you being taken away to safety made him feel great peace despite his current situation. Nuada turned around with the goal of inhalation this nest of abominations that threatened his beloved.

 ---

 When you opened your eyes from what felt like a long sleep, which for some reason you still felt a bit tired after, you winced at the brightness of the room and the pure white ceiling didn't make it any better. That when you realized you weren't at home. You blinked a couple of times and saw that you were in the infirmary surrounded by the familiar deep blue curtains that separated you from neighboring beds and gave you privacy. You tried to lift yourself up but silently grimaced at the shock of pain that came from your right hand forcing you to lay back down. You slowly lifted your right hand up to examine it and saw that it was wrapped heavily but neatly with bandages, that's when you remembered what happened and how did you get injured in the first place, which the thought of it embarrassed you, but then you remembered Nuada. The way he was concerned with your injuries made you almost think that he was the one feeling the pain ten times more.

 "You are awake." A familiar calm voice said pulling you from your train of thoughts.

 You didn't need to lift your head for he quickly seated himself at the empty chair that was to your left. His worried golden eyes searched your face and body for what you assumed is pain. Out would be lying if you didn't say that you were touched by his concern for you. You again tried to lift yourself up but his hand gently pressed your shoulder down.

 "Please don't move." Urged Nuada. "You healer said that you might need more rest."

 "No, I said that she can leave whenever she wakes up just to make sure she doesn't overdo it." Said the doctor from his desk that was nearby, If looks could kill the doctor would have been dead on her chair from the way Nuada glared at her unseen direction.

 "I'm fine, Your majesty." When those words lift your mouth Nuada gave you a pained look that you never thought he was able to make. He lowered his head

 "Please, Don't address in such a formal way." He almost begged. "call me by my name, as you used to."

 "I thought you hated it." You said and you could see his body tense at your words before he relaxed a bit.

 "I apologize for what I have said."

 You were so shocked at what he said you you shot up from your bed to at least set straight to face him properly. Of course your sudden movment made him flinch.

 "Alright, who are you?... and what did you do to prince grumpy?" You said skeptically, Nuada blinked a couple of times before he let out a small chuckle.

 "I assure you, my dear" He answered.

 The room was quiet for a while both of you not knowing what to do or say. You were happy that is true, him treating you so friendly was very good but what made it awkward for you is that it was … so suddne. What changed?

 "How did you injure your hand?" Nuada asked breaking the silence. You looked down at your bandaged hand. "You lost consiosness from bloodloss on our way back to the headqurtars."

 "It's kind of embarrassing." You said with a weary grin.

 "I would never laugh at you." He said in such a serious, which made him even odder to you.

 "Well.." You started. "We were searching around for the reason of people going missing when we saw a beautiful white horse grassing, it looked so harmless and gentle. I don't know why, but I had the sudden urge to brush its coat, and just before my hand touched it Red told me to stay away."

 "But it was too late." Sdi Nuada and you nodded.

 "my hand was stuck as if it was some kind of super glue or something.  The next thing I knew what that I was being dragged away by the beast who was running away from Hellboy. I tried to pull away but it only brought me close, and when I saw that its skin was about to cover my hand I did the one sensible thing I could think of." You shrugged as you looked down at your right hand. "And it was to shoot it off of it, and it worked but with a price. I feel stupid to have let my guard down like that."

 "You should feel that way." Said Nuada making you look to him. "The Kelpie has Hypnotic powers that draw in their prays, even if you were not human you would still fall for it."

 "Wow, you know so much about them, considering you were the only one who knew how to kill them." You said in amazement.

 "I have, unfortunately, encountered those veil creatures before." He confessed.

 "Really?" You asked and he nodded.

 "When I and Nuala were kids one of them almost took her away if not for the guard who was set to watch us she wouldn't have been here now, neither would I." He continued. "After that, I spent ages of my life to train my mind to never fall for their or any other creature hypnosis again."

 "Amazing, so you are trained body and mind." You winked at him trying to tease him. "the full package for a very lucky girl."

 Nuada stared at her for a long while rethinking his choise in telling you the truth. The moment he stepped foot back here he had prepared a thorough explanation of what mates were, followed by a speech of his love and devotion to (Y/n). How he would never let his pride take the best of him, that he would be the ever-loving mate she desires and the strong mate she deserves. But considering their first few encounters together, Nuada feared that suddenly doing so would scare his (Y/n) away, for in the end she is human so she can't feel the bound yet… But it can grow. He decided to give it time, to strengthen their bond by starting all over again, it will take time, that is true but Nuada was prepared to work hard to win (Y/n)'s love and affection the way humans do. For now, he will be the friend she deserves.

 "On the contrary my dear." He said with a smile. "I will be the one who is lucky to have her."

--- 

I hope you guys enjoyed this one, sorry that it’s very long, i enjoyed writing this version of Soulmates AU I should look into it more often in case it got requested again or I write a story about it. and just a reminder, I don’t take requests at the moment, sorry.

#prince nuada x reader #nuada x reader #hellboy 2 the golden army #hellboy the golden army

[possiblyimbiassed]

The lying liars who lie

Years and years late to the party, I’ve finally gotten my hands on all the DVDs of BBC Sherlock, and I thought it would be fun to watch the extra material carefully, one piece after another, and also listen to at least some of the show makers’ commentary of the episodes. But at this point, after S4 where DVDs seemed to be a constant lying device in general, I tend to look at them with a bit more suspicious eyes...

I still love the show of course, but now that I’ve taken this deep dive into all the special features, I find them a truly hard thing to try to wrap my head around. Even this long after the fact, I’m amazed by the amount of shameless, self-congratulatory BS in the DVDs, where the people involved can’t have enough of complimenting each other and their show, while they skillfully avoid to discuss anything actually meaningful about the plot line. ;) For example, Moffat claims in the S2 DVD that “In fact, you’ll never see a more obsessively authentic version of Sherlock Holmes than this one”. But if we follow their light-hearted commentary, which basically takes the show at face value, I’d call that not just hyperbole, but an outright lie. If you want to see the ‘authentic’ stories from ACD’s work in this show, you’ll definitely need to go much deeper into the subtext and meta levels - neither of which are mentioned on these DVDs of course. Here’s my own (rather subjective) ‘review’ of the whole thing, trying to pinpoint why I view most of the commentary of the show from its own makers as an advanced art of deception. 

(My musings under the cut)

Series 1 - a wealth of extra material

First of all - as many of you probably knew already - the whole of the Unaired Pilot is added to the DVD of S1. In the extra material about the making of the series, they (Sue Vertue, Mofftiss and others) talk about what things they changed between the Pilot and ASiP, claiming that many changes were necessary improvements once they knew that they had a whole series and a lot more time at their disposal. 

Which I can perfectly understand and agree with in general. But I think what’s missing in their discussions is more interesting than what’s actually there (”Mind the gap” ;) ). Things that I would expect from the show makers when they go to the trouble of comparing the pilot version with the aired product. There’s not a word, for example, about the fact that they added both Mycroft and Moriarty to the story in ASiP - two characters who later turn out to play major roles and appear in almost every other episode until the end of TFP. Or about the choice that one of the screenwriters would play Mycroft. 

Neither do they discuss why they chose to relocate the place where Sherlock was challenged by the cabbie from 221B to Roland Kerr’s School of Further Education. Instead they focus on the details, like for example the new design of the interior of 221B.

Not to mention the fact that almost every scene in the Pilot is mirrored in ASiP (as pointed out long ago by @kateis-cakeis X), but at Angelo’s in the Pilot Sherlock follows the events with the cabbie while looking in an actual mirror. I even noticed that in the Pilot the cabbie is offering Sherlock dark-coloured bottles with the pills in them, while in ASiP those bottles are transparent, as if the cabbie is offering Sherlock to play Black or White in the chess game that he is simulating. What’s with all these mirrors, though? Not a word on the DVD... ;)

Now, even though these rather remarkable choices are neglected together with a great bunch of minor ones, I still think that the most interesting fact about all this is that they actually included the whole pilot version within this DVD, which is sold by the franchise. Why even do this, when it raises far more questions than it answers? The only logical reason I can come up with is that they’re laying out a track of little hints that anyone with a deep enough interest in the show to actually buy the DVDs can try to follow. And it seems to me that lying by omission is one of the first steps in the long line of cryptic and misleading author comments on this show. But at the same time, they clearly want the fans to have access to it all, even the abandoned version.

Moving on to Series 2, time for bigger lies 

In the extra material of this DVD Benedict himself describes how his character "faces one of his deadliest enemies in the shape of Love, and it comes in the form of Irene Adler, who is this extraordinary dominatrix [insert here a bunch of superlatives regarding Adler]...”. And then we see how Adler whips Sherlock with a riding crop (without any kind of consent, I have to add) while he’s lying on the floor, and we have Lara Pulver telling us how it was to have a go at Benedict on set. So Holmes whips dead bodies and Adler whips living; seems like a match made in hell! :))

Gatiss claims, grinning with his whole face, that “they’re clearly, absolutely made for each other”. OK, so I think we can see Sherlock being intellectually impressed by Adler, and even trying to protect her from Mycroft, and we can see John acting jealously. We can also see her being dressed and styled as a perfect, female mirror of Sherlock. But I’m still at a loss what all this has to do with love on Sherlock’s part? Especially since he’s not even responding in any fashion to her various attempts at seducing him. 

And there’s more: Paul McGuigan, the director of ASiB, claims that the scene where Sherlock has a conversation with Adler inside his Mind Palace about the crime case with the car that backfires "is a part of a kind of love story, if you like...” No, I don’t. Maybe it’s just me, but if their aim really was to convey to their audience a love story between Sherlock and The Woman, I think they failed miserably. All I see is a guy ’mansplaining’ to a clever woman how to use her brain, while she’s trying to flirt with him by expressing her admiration (to no avail, though) and make deductions at the same time. Nothing new under the sun, really. John did the same thing repeatedly in ASiP (without making own deductions) and got far more attention from Sherlock, but I’ve never heard any of the show makers call that ”a love story”. But by ’lie-splaining’ the scene with Irene to the audience, they try to manipulate us all to see it as such...

In all the direct commentary of this episode, where Steven, Mark, Sue, Benedict and Lara are present, I get the impression that every time they even touch on the relationship between Sherlock and John, they hurry to add the term “friendship” or “man love” or similar words in case they forgot them at first, avoiding even the tiniest possibility that there could be anything more going on between them. They even explain that when Irene calls them “a couple” she does not mean anything romantic. This whole approach feels almost paranoic in the midst of all the laid-back jokes and light-hearted talk about the filming. It’s as if a sort of restrictive, heteronormative filter or blanket is being constantly applied, to teach the audience the ‘no homo’ lesson of it all. And the more I listen to this, the more tiresome it becomes.

In the commentary Moffat does reveal an interesting detail, though: that the ‘Flight of the Dead’ in ASiB was inspired by a cut out scene in the Bond movie On Her Majesty's Secret Service. To me this is just one more reason to question the ‘authentic’ quality of this scene, as opposed to possibly taking place in Sherlock’s Mind Palace. But I digress... 

Listening to the commentary in general, it’s like it’s aimed to distract the attention from what’s going on at the screen rather than highlight it and try to explain their intentions. They do mention that Irene didn’t actually ‘beat’ Sherlock in the end of ASiB, but there’s no explanation of this obvious deviation from canon, where Adler does indeed fool Holmes, taking advantage of his prejudices.

The rest of the extra material of S2 is mostly about technical stuff, special effects and such, and also about filming techniques and Benedict’s delivery of fast deductions. But the part I really do love is the one where Andrew Scott talks about how much he enjoyed playing the scene where Moriarty dances before breaking into the Crown Jewels. That’s one of my favorite scenes of he whole show. :) Also, the takeaway message from this DVD is Moffat’s words at the end: 

“These are still the formative years of Sherlock Holmes, and the most important thing about this series is not that it’s updated; it’s the fact that those two men are still young and they’re still at the beginning of what they don’t yet know is gonna be a lifelong partnership”. 

And then comes Series 3... 

...and its extra material, with the most blatant attempts at deception so far, I believe. At this point Sherlock is called a “psychopath” by both the show’s characters, John’s blog, Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman as if it were true, which is a big deviation from ACD canon. That simply doesn’t happen there; while Holmes is sometimes described as eccentric, no one in the books is ever claiming that Sherlock Holmes has some kind of mental illness leaning towards cruelty and egotism - not even his enemies say this about him. In the show, however, they begin in ASiP with making him torture a dying man for information (something that is not included in the Pilot). And in S3, where they avoid discussing the reason why they turned Mary Morstan into a ruthless assassin, this major shift is glossed over by the fact that in the same episode (HLV) they also turn Sherlock into a murderer, who cold-bloodedly blows the brains out of a blackmailer for threatening to make said assassin’s crimes public. 

But without ever getting into the “why” of it all, the cast and crew seem overly happy and smiling describing these rather morbid choices as something positive; “fantastic”, "fresh and new” and "amazing” are their choice of words. Benedict claims that Mary, who has literally shot and almost killed Sherlock in HLV, is now "a new best friend of Sherlock’s”. Amanda claims that Mary “is protecting John” when she shoots Sherlock in the chest. Now they’re both psychopaths, and poor little John is forced to stomach them both because he’s addicted to danger. In Amanda’s words, Mary also “kind of gets in between the two of them, but she wants them to be together as well”.  Which is a load of BS considering that Mary tries to kill the protagonist of the story.

Lars Mikkelsen thinks it’s “such a good script” because “you’re mislead as an audience”. But he never gets the chance to expand on what the misleading actually contains, because then Mofftiss cut in to express how much they love playing with “what ifs”. As if this whole mega-budget project of a show were just a big experimental playground without any actual story to tell. 

Benedict repeats his line from HLV that Magnussen “preys on people who are different” and Moffat also says he “exploits people who are different”. Which is really confusing, considering what we can see Magnussen actually do in the show. Lady Smallwood and John Garvie are two well-established, powerful governmental politicians whom Magnussen blackmails by finding their respective pressure points. In Garvie’s case his pressure point seems to be alcohol problems in his past, but according to media he’s later arrested on charges of corruption. Lady Smallwood is blackmailed on the basis of her husband having sent compromising letters to a minor many years ago, in spite of later claiming that he thought she was older and stopped when he found out the truth. And then Magnussen is blackmailing an assassin who recently threatened to execute him but shot Sherlock Holmes instead, in order to try to get at Sherlock’s brother Mycroft, another powerful governmental figure. 

But what does media seeking out dirt on certain people in power and their families have to do with “people who are different”? Despicable as the method may be, isn’t this unfortunately how political power play usually works in our society? Or are TPTB somehow a repressed minority group now? Unless this whole “people who are different” accusation is actually about something entirely different, something that none of the show makers even cares to mention... ;)

In these DVDs, none of the involved persons is ever discussing the change of roles with regards to canon, though, or the (lack of) logics in this turn of events, or even a hint about the narrative motivation behind them. It’s all about the great Drama, the extraordinary visual effects and the aim to endlessly “surprise the audience”. Which is fine by me to a certain extent, but when this is all that’s being said, it feels extremely superficial, as if the audience is merely seen as a bunch of consumers that have to be triggered more and more by horror, special effects and cliff hangers to be able to appreciate the show. (“Warm paste” indeed, like Gatiss has later criticized some viewers of wanting...) While the "why”; the idea behind this surrealistic adaptation, made by self-proclaimed fanboys of ACD, is not even touched upon. Around this, the silence is total and therefore totally confusing.

Maybe I shouldn’t even go into Series 4...

...but why not, since I’ve already started? :) 

First of all, there’s a lot of extra material on this DVD and I particularly love the parts about the music and composing and Arwel Wyn Jones’ work with the design and build-up of John’s and Mary’s flat and the interior of 221B. Those bits are truly enjoyable. What I could live without, though, is the leading commentary that kind of instructs us, the audience, how we should interpret the show. 

Benedict is on it again on this DVD, telling us that in TST they picked up where they left off in S3 and “It’s a very happy unit of three people that then become four.” Why does he feel the need to make this statement, considering how S3 ended? Actually, if there’s anything I totally fail to see in S4, it’s happiness. The banter between the three  of them may seem entertaining for a while, but who could have a relaxed, warm relationship with someone who tried and almost succeeded to kill you less than a year ago? Without any sign of remorse? Now there’s a dark tone of discomfort and mean jokes that feels forced and not even a bit happy to me. 

But Martin tells us how excited John and Mary are about starting a family and Amanda mentions how much they’re looking forward to the baby. Again and again it’s repeated, as though trying to rub it in: “they’re in a good place, they’re a loving, married couple”. Yeah, right - a child that (judging by TSoT) wasn’t at all planned and now with an assassin for a mother... Twice we see the new parents complain that their daughter has the mark of Satan on her forehead and debate which horror movie she’s from. The clichéd hypocrisy of it all is sickening, and I’m willing to bet that it’s really meant to be. ;) 

But Gatiss chimes in, deciding for us all that the christening of Rosie is “a funny scene” and “they’re enjoying each other, enjoying being on adventures as a three”.

An interesting detail is that Gatiss also tells us that the working name of this episode was “The Adventure of the Melting power Ranger”. So this little blue guy was that important? :) And - even more interesting - is when he says: “Cake is now the code for violent death”. So how should we interpret Sherlock, John and Molly going out to have cake in TLD then, on Sherlock’s (supposed) birthday? 

These might be jokes, though, but when they tell us that Sue cries every time she sees Mary’s death I strongly believe they must be joking. How could anyone feel truly moved by this overly sentimental long monologue where far more efforts are put into reacting to Mary’s speech than saving her life? And John’s mooing like a cow, is that also moving? :)

One thing Martin says about TLD that actually disgusts me is regarding the morgue scene where John assaults Sherlock and Sherlock lets it happen: “From there, really, their relationship can only sort of rebuild, that’s the absolute worst it can get”. As if outright physical abuse would be something that makes you want to rebuild a relationship? Wow - just wow... How far can they go with this crap?

Anyway, when we finally arrive at the absurdity of TFP and Sherlock’s ‘secret sister’, everything is of course discussed as if she actually does exist on the given premises, and everything she does is ‘real’, no matter how impossible it would be in real life. The abandonment of any attempt to have the story line make logical sense is skillfully covered up by more distraction with fascinating technicalities of the film making process. This is where Gatiss makes his now almost classic statement that after Sherlock and John jump out of the window at 221B when a grenade explodes there, it’s just “Boop! And they’re fine.” 

Of course there’s no serious attempt at explaining this logically. Except perhaps Gatiss claiming that they both landed on Speedy’s awning - whatever good that would do to them, since the awning is leaning downwards, but never mind... But we never even saw that happen, did we? A great deal of time is then dedicated to show all the precautions to have Martin and Ben jumping safely at low level onto a madras supported by empty cardboard boxes.

Sian Brooke did say something interesting about Sherrinford, however, that got me thinking. She said that Eurus “wants revenge for the years and years that she has been held captive” there, isolated, and that in TFP the Holmes children are now “lab rats” and “it’s an experiment”. On a meta level, I think we can indeed see this episode - and maybe the whole show - as a kind of experiment, but maybe we, the audience, are also lab rats? Since Sherrinford is slightly shaped like a film camera (not commented in the extra material, of course), it leads my thought to all the adaptations through the years and years where Holmes and Watson have not been allowed to be together. A whole century when Sherlock Holmes has been held captive, restricted by the very same sort of heteronormative filter that all this extra material imposes; it’s like Sherrinford, isn’t it? Which gives all the more meaning to Moriarty’s arrival to the island, accompanied by Freddy Mercury’s “I want to break free”...

I think I’ll let the final words in this little exposé come from Mark Gatiss in The Writers’ Chat (my bolding):

“Moriarty is a fascinating thing in that in our sea of ongoing lies, one thing we’ve genuinely been completely consistent about is telling people he’s dead. But no-one believes it! And it’s a rather brilliant thing.”  Again - self-congratulatory statements. But instead of providing some actual evidence of the death of this character, who has kept popping up in almost every episode since his supposed demise, they think that the more a confirmed liar repeats something, the truer it gets? And the more we’re supposed to believe them? Well, all we can do is wait and see. :)

Tagging some people who might be interested: 

@raggedyblue​ @ebaeschnbliah​ @sarahthecoat​ @gosherlocked​ @lukessense​ @sagestreet​ @thepersianslipper​

My earlier meta on a similar topic (X)

#bbc sherlock dvds #Deception in BBC Sherlock

[princess-of-riviaa]

Dark Minx: Training the Asset

Pairing: Winter Soldier x OFC (Larisa Antonov)

Summary: Larisa Antonov, a lifelong servant to Hydra, had one purpose: to seduce. She trained Hydra agents, male and female alike, in the art of seduction. Specifically, how to use it against anyone in the field. Those above her had recently deemed her worthy of the highest honor: training The Winter Soldier.

Warning(s): winter soldier angst, dirty talk, (kind of) degradation kink, dominant!OFC, submissive!Winter Soldier, blowjob, glimpse of dominant!Winter Soldier

Word Count: 2k

The Winter Soldier’s confinement chamber was cold and bare, making it unsuitable for the job. So they did it in Larisa’s chamber instead, which consisted of nothing more than a plush bed and a desk, but was more than enough to get the job done.

Larisa Antonov, a lifelong servant to Hydra, had one purpose: to seduce. She trained Hydra agents, male and female alike, in the art of seduction. Specifically, how to use it against anyone in the field. Those above her had recently deemed her worthy of the highest honor: training The Winter Soldier.

Little did she know that it would be so hard. Or that the world-renowned assassin would be so… shy.

“You can look at me,” Larisa spoke softly as he entered her room, scanning his surroundings for any sign of threat and completely avoiding her gaze. “In fact, the simplest form of seduction comes through eye contact.”

The Winter Soldier said nothing. He obeyed her, though the wariness in his eyes as he locked gazes with her told her he wasn’t listening because he wanted to, but simply because the only thing The Winter Soldier knew how to do was comply.

She rose from the bed, her black lingerie set twisting with her movements. The only sound in the room was her feet padding across the marble floor as she closed the distance between them. She placed a hand on his cheek. He flinched at the movement, and something about that tugged at something inside of her. He stayed stiff and uncomfortable as she touched his cheek, rough with his stubble.

“Do you not want me to touch you?” she asked.

He said nothing.

“It’s important to use your words when being intimate with someone,” Larisa told him. “Pleasure finds its peak when both people get what they want. Tell me what you want. It’s okay; it’s just the two of us here.”

He opened his mouth, but no words came out.

Larisa stayed silent, giving him however long he needed.

“I want…” His voice was hoarse, and she found herself wondering how many days he had gone since speaking. How long it had been since he had been allowed to speak. He cleared his throat and tried again. “I want to leave.”

Part of her wanted to tell him that that wasn’t an option for either of them, that they would both be punished if he left. If she failed to teach him something today.

But she saw the fear in his eyes, and the vulnerability. How long had it been since he’d been honest enough to admit what he wanted? That look in his eyes… it was like looking into a mirror. Larisa recognized those feelings all too well.

So she let him leave.

…

The next day, he lasted a little longer.

She was smart enough to start their training off by asking, “Do you want me to touch you today?”

He was hesitant, but eventually gave a single shake of his head. No.

She nodded. “Okay. I’ll keep my hands to myself. But I’ll need you to touch me.”

Something flashed in his eyes, something Larisa couldn’t place. But he stepped towards her. Slowly. As if he was calculating each step. But even when the distance between them was less than a foot, he didn’t touch her. His hands opened and closed at his sides like he didn’t know what to do with them.

“Have you ever touched a woman before?” Larisa wondered.

He frowned. “I… I don’t remember.”

“It’s okay,” she assured. “I can show you how.”

She reached for his hand, then stopped. He didn’t want to be touched. So she changed tactics. She brought her hands to her neck and slowly lowered them, trailing her fingers over the skin between her breasts, around her hips, on her waist.

“When you’re seducing someone,” Larisa began, “think of their body as a canvas, and your hands, your mouth, your tongue—they’re the paintbrush. Touch her softly, slowly, teasingly. You don’t need to go anywhere near her sensitive parts to make her writhe for you.”

She finished her demonstration and lowered her hands to her sides.

“Why don’t you try?” she offered.

He swallowed. But, after a minute of hesitation, he touched her. The leather covering his metal hand felt strange against her skin. His gaze was focused on his hands as they trailed down the curves of her body, touching her the way she had showed him. All the while, Larisa found herself wondering what it would feel like to be touched by the cool metal of his bionic arm. She watched his face closely, scanning for the slightest change in expression, scanning for any sign that he was actually enjoying this.

She found nothing but fear in those blue eyes.

He dropped his hands suddenly. Took a step back, away from her. And said, “I want to leave.”

Again, she found herself wanting to protest. Not only because they would be punished if the people above them found out he wasn’t learning as fast as he should be, but because… Because suddenly her heart was racing. And everywhere he had touched her, her skin now burned.

She wanted him to stay because she wanted him.

But she knew that fear in his eyes, and so she let him leave once again.

…

“Do you want me to touch you today?” Larisa asked as she had everyday for the last week. She asked the question more out of habit now. He had never once said yes to her, and she soon stopped expecting him to.

But today, finally, she watched him nod. “Yes,” he added when she just stared at him in disbelief. “I want you to touch me.”

She moved towards him slowly, giving him enough time to change his mind. But he never did. She searched his face for any sign of uncertainty. There was none. He just held her gaze, unblinking, unafraid. Her face burned as she realized she was probably the first person he’d ever dared to look at like that since… since before he became The Winter Soldier.

He tensed when she brought her hands to his face. The look in his eyes exposed his struggle to relax. How long had it been since someone had touched him gently like this? She didn’t let herself think about it, not as she dragged her hands down his chest. He was thick with muscle, and she found herself wanting to know what he looked like without the layers of clothes. He gasped as her hands trailed down lower, just beneath his navel.

“Is this okay…?” Larisa frowned. “Um, I just realized I don’t know what to call you.”

He frowned too. “I think… I think my name is James.”

“Is this okay, James? Me touching here?”

He was silent as he genuinely thought about his answer. “I want you to touch me somewhere else.”

It was so innocent, the way he said it, but it made Larisa’s core burn all the same. God, she wanted to touch him too.

She brought her mouth to his ear to whisper seductively, “With my hands?” To give him a taste, she brought her hand down to his manhood, palming him over his pants. “Or my tongue?” She licked a stripe up his throat to let him imagine what it would feel like when she did that to his cock. “Or something else?”

He groaned—the most heavenly sound she’d ever heard. It drew the breath from her lungs. She would do whatever it took to elicit that groan from him again.

James moved his hands to her hips. He’d never touched her so willingly before and she wondered if he was even aware he was doing it, or if it was simply instinct, a reaction to his arousal.

“I want your hands,” he said finally. “And I want your tongue. Can I have both?”

“Sweet boy,” she murmured against the soft skin of his throat, “of course you can have both. Will you lie on the bed for me? I think it will maximize your pleasure if you lie down.”

They moved to the bed. Larisa was slow to lower his pants, teasing him with her words and the look in her eyes. The evidence of James’s growing arousal was found not just in his lengthening cock but in the look on his face, in the way his pupils dilated and his mouth parted with quick, shaky breaths.

“I want you to touch me,” James said, his voice shaking.

She smirked down at him. “I know, baby. The need is building, isn’t it? You just need me to touch your cock, don’t you?”

He gave her a desperate look. “Please.”

“Patience is key to seduction,” Larisa explained as she moved between his legs and began kissing along his navel, getting close to his cock but not quite touching it.

James released shaking breaths with every teasing kiss and lick she gave him. She basked in it; in the power this gave her. He was already writhing and desperate and she hadn’t even really touched him yet.

Larisa was slow to wrap a hand around the base of his thick cock. The velvety-smooth skin was warm, the thin vein pulsing. She wanted to put him in her mouth as badly as he did, but she still had to teach him a lesson. One of the rules of seduction was that pleasure needed to be withheld until the last possible moment to extract whatever information one needed from their target. So she kept her hand wrapped around his shaft without moving it, teasing him with the promise of jerking him off but not yet delivering.

“Touch me.” The voice he spoke in now was different. It was dominant, demanding. It was fucking hot. The voice of The Winter Soldier. As arousing as it was terrifying.

Larisa smirked down at him. “And if I don’t?”

He hesitated, not knowing how to answer.

“When you’re in the bedroom, you take the reins,” Larisa told him, holding his gaze so he would know how important this was. “You’re the one in control, not your lover. If you want me to touch you with my mouth, you tell me to do that. Most people love to be dominated, and the more verbal you are with what you want, the better.”

“I want your mouth on me,” he replied, the desperation darkening his eyes.

Larisa smiled and lowered her mouth to his cock, licking a stripe up the side of his shaft. He let out another pornographic moan that made her thighs clench together. She wanted him to make that sound when he fucked her. She bobbed her head up and down his shaft a few times before pulling away.

“You can guide me, move my head how you want,” she offered before going back to sucking his cock.

A second later his fingers were grasping her hair. He pushed her down his length until his cock brushed the back of her throat. She gagged around him, and he finally released her with a pleasurable sigh. They continued like that for several moments—her bobbing her head along his shaft a few times before he would force her to take all of him, only letting go when she signaled that she could no longer breathe. Drool and tears fell down her face by the time his hips began to buck up with his rising climax.

He muttered something in a language Larisa didn’t recognize, and then he was spilling his warm, salty seed down her throat. She eagerly licked up every drop. His body shook even after she finished lapping up his cum.

“How was that?” she asked him.

He just smiled.

“What are you thinking right now?” She wanted to know the thoughts running through his head.

He said, “I’m pissed that I didn’t ask you to do that sooner.”

...

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