#i really gotta start actually rambling in my posts rather than just in the tags

[fairuzfan]

Your post about how many people are unknowingly falling for & spreading propaganda... yeah. I typed up a whole spiel of a comment on one of your posts the other day that I ended up deciding not to not actually post because it felt like detailing, but seriously. The amount of well meaning, genuinely anti-zionist people ignorantly sharing zionists' posts because they just don't pick up on the leading undertones is honestly more terrifying than than the amount of actual zionists in some ways.

I'm someone who was born into a doomsday cult, and seeing all these people falling for the exact same blatant (or so i thought lol) recruitment/manipulation tactics I've seen used by them my entire life has absolutely fucking terrifying. These are people who are actively trying to combat zionism, but I guess the general public is so uneducated about propaganda/cult tactics that what immediately reads as blatantly manipulative, misleading bullshit to me just doesn't even register as strange to most people. Not to be repetitive, but seriously: fucking terrifying.

There's so much focus on the way people/groups who want to manipulate you will use language of fear, but in this case especially, people need to realize they will almost always appeal to your compassion before they appeal to your fear.

It's all peace and love and happiness because that's what gets people in the door. You preach (or post) the mushy, happy, fun stuff that makes people feel good to draw them in, and you slowly start peppering in the ideas you actually want to lead them to believe later on once you've got them wanting to believe you.

This also has this added effect of helping the group or person's image. Even the people who you don't manage to draw in will have the impression of you as someone who runs their mouth 24/7 about how you're full of love and want the best for everyone, which is especially useful for when you inevitably want to frame yourself as the victim to demonize the people who will inevitably oppose you. If your first and only exposure to a person is seeing them calling for world peace and universal love, you are much more likely to be inclined to believe they (and by extension their cause) are the sympathetic, loving, peaceful good guys being unjustly targeted.

Sorry for rambling, but like... really. It won't always be something nefarious, of course--the vast majority of the the time, it won't be--but I think we would all be in a much better situation if people took it as a general rule of thumb that you should always be a little suspicious of overly vague talk about peace and love.

You're EXACTLY right. I really appreciate this message, because you put to words a lot of my inherent analysis of arguments and ideas. I like grew up with this rhetoric so it's easy to spot for me, but the way that people speak about "peace" as the overall goal when they're zionist is so blatant to me because there is no material change in the scenario they propose but rather a calmness where Palestinians are ignored.

And picking up on subtext of a lot of messages is something you have to have a muscle for kinda because of how subtle it is. The frightening part is, you're right, that the indoctrination part of zionism is the most harmful part because you appeal to their pathos — their fear, their sense of safety, etc — and you go on down the rabbit hole and slowly start being radicalized and pro-zionism or you might not even be pro-zionism 100% but enjoy... soft zionism as a mutual of mine put it once (if you read this and want to be tagged, lmk). Which soft zionism is the MAIN opinion in many liberal circles btw, its not an uncommon opinion.

I even remember once sharing a post by a zionist because i saw them talk about esims but when i went on their blog a few days later because something rubbed me the wrong way, I noticed their pinned and I was like "oh dam I gotta delete that other post" like that's how often this happens.

Idk, I try to combat this by putting sources or approaching from a standpoint of logical arguments rather than identity-based politics (although, sometimes i think there are some things that people who are a certain identity can be the only true experts on) so that I try to encourage actual engagement with ideas and walking them through thought processes rather than "I'm palestinian so just trust me."

Like even with my one fact checking list, idk if I succeeded but I wanted to emphasize that there are multiple factors you should consider when confronting ANY sort of information and should not blindly trust things. News sources have regularly burned or ignored Palestinians so I know a lot of us are really sensitive to these things, but I don't know! I hope people can engage with ideas more than just surface level thinking in general because it helps everyone when you actually interact with the point of view the other person is providing rather than just blindly trusting/distrusting people.

#thanks for this ask btw i really appreciate it

[rebouks]

Okay! Time to spill the tea, except it's not really tea, it's more like lukewarm juice aka my future plans and some more ramblings.. ahem ⚆_⚆

First of all, I wanna say just how much I enjoyed creating Somnium. It all started during lockdown... I found myself working from home full-time, I had the perfect excuse to be the homebody I was born to be, I had a lot of time on my hands, and once I found simblr I couldn't resist joining in. It didn't take too long before I decided to hop on the storytelling train and before I knew it, I had a new hobby! Except.. that hobby kinda consumed me. I didn't even know where it was going to begin with, but the more involved I got, the more obsessed I became. Hyperfixations amirite?

The point being.. I think I spent a little too much time on Somnium, which left me little time for much else and I don't want to fall down that hole again. In the future I'd like to challenge my perfectionism! What does that mean? Well, it means not making poses for every scene, it means not being restricted by a complicated overarching plot that requires forced filler scenes and timelines and needs to make sense, it means less dialogue, or gasp! no dialogue at all, it means not getting hung up on continuity with editing and g-shade and font style and blah blah etc etc. I'd even like to incorporate some gameplay too, since I miss just.. playing now n' then.

I want the freedom to think of something silly, or weird, or completely off topic and to be able to run with it instead of being bound by a plot that needs to progress. Am I making sense? I hope I'm making sense. Basically, I'm calling this next venture a "story not story" because rather than it having one large plot, it's going to be more like clusters of subplots with some gameplay, weirdness or silliness in between...

Forever In Between will kick off around about two years after the events of Somnium. Mostly focused on Oscar and his family, we'll join them on the journey of life as Robin and his siblings grow up in the Bay.

We'll also spend some time with other favourites too like Noah n' co. Salton, Ivan & Bruno, Suzie, Miya & [redacted] and Matilda, among others! Maybe we'll even see what Wyatt's up to at some point 👀 As we all know, life isn't always sunshine and rainbows, but Forever In Between (or fib for short) will be a lot less heavy, though hopefully no less interesting!

Obviously, I don't have any set plans but I have a few specific scenes and ideas in mind already, as well as some vague subplots planned for most, if not all of the main characters from Somnium.

Also! Although Oscar is very much still a main character, he'll be sharing the spotlight with Robin too, as I have a lot in mind for that special lil' guy.. tehe!

So, what's next?! I want to make a lil promo before I start and then I've gotta.. y'know, actually start working on it. I have the first few scenes in mind but then we're wingin' it baby! The best plan is no plan and all that... I'm being kind to myself though, so idk when we'll start, real soon though!

I've already given everyone makeovers and gotten a few of the main builds out of the way, enough for me to get started at least, and I'd like to make a new navigation/pinned post too.

I wanna be more organised as well, so story posts will be tagged as "forever in between" & "fib" and bloopers, extras, builds, cas pics etc etc. will be tagged as "fib" & "fib extras"!

Okay.. I think that's it. See you soon! 👋

#ramblings #ts4 #fib extras #?? #KINDA #i'm so looking forward to my new unrestricted venture into everyone's life ahhhhkdjskdj #oh.. i also wrote a poem for my lil promo and it's the first poem i think i've ever written and i rlly like it ;-; #and it has so many meanings for what we'll see in the future! #omg #i'm excited #i hope you are too!! #<333333333 #ily

[gendervapor14]

8. What song would make a great fic (to either write or read)?

9. How do you find new fic to read?

10. How do you decide what to write?

(if not answered already), and 37 & 38! Fanfic ask meme❤️

ooh hello!! thank you for these!! i did answer #38, but i'll answer #37 for sure!

8. What song would make a great fic (to either write or read)?

ooooo as a music nerd i love this question and i apologize for how longwinded my answer is XD i don't do many songfics or much song-related writing [*shoves the title of two fights for freedom under the rug*] but i do have a ton of playlists and songs that make me think of specific characters or fics. to answer this question, i'll just pick one called "Fever Dream" by Dirt Poor Robins. specifically the part starting just after the 4:00 minute mark. the lyrics make me go INSANE with this idea for a dark/horror dq bros fic where doflamingo realizes that corazon is just a false identity and he can't do anything to get his brother back and it drives him even more insane. these lyrics make me crazy Now here comes the liar (lion) Clawing at your door Drunk on the blood of your brother And he's back for more (apparently the lyric is actually "lion" rather than "liar", but i hear "liar" so therefore i declare it is "liar" for the sake of my own brainrot) imagine a fic where rosinante is the one psychologically tormenting doflamingo!! unsure if i'll ever get around to writing it, but it'd probably have a similar vibe to blood gone sour.

9. How do you find new fic to read?

i usually do a nightly prowl under the one piece fandom on ao3 and either filter by most recent fics with rosinante or bell-mere. otherwise i read recs that are bumped on discord servers, or stories friends write! i'm actually terrible at reading tho i don't read nearly enough. when i have free time, i usually use it to create.

10. How do you decide what to write?

excellent question. i make a list of priorities. sometimes it's disorganized lists on my phone, sometimes i use calendars. first and foremost are things with due dates, so zine work, or gifts for exchanges, birthdays or holidays. next i prioritize stories that are works in progress, but already posted on ao3. i hate having incomplete works posted on ao3, so i strive to get them wrapped up asap. then it's a rabid thunderdome of all my other wips and ideas all wrestling for victory for who gets to be created XD i'm constantly bursting with ideas i never get to work on, unfortunately.

37. Promote one of your own “deep cut” fics (an underrated one, or one that never got as much traction as you think it deserves!). What do you like about it?

i'm gonna go ahead and promote spitfire and ice because i busted my ass on this for the crackpair event and i was actually really happy with the result? i was assigned makino x kuzan, so i threw bell-mere in there too just to shake things up, and then i fell madly in love with bell-mere x makino and their flirty banter. it captured my heart in a way i was NOT expecting. i guess the tags aren't particularly interesting to most, so it's relatively unknown with only 4 kudos and 31 hits. but look at this!! “Hey, I’ve gotta ask you something.” She leaned over the counter once Makino settled herself and refilled the pitcher for the next round. “Would I still be wanted here…after hours?” With a tight smile, Makino rested her hands over the tabletop. “We’re closed for customers after hours. I need some time to tidy up the place.” “Right, right…” Pretty gray eyes wandered. “But in this situation, I wouldn’t be a customer.” With an amused chuckle, Makino folded her arms over her stomach. “What do you want me to say, Miss Bell-mère? Do you want me to welcome you to my private quarters upstairs?” That exposed chest filled with air. “I wouldn’t be against an invitation.” smh. well, at least i'm proud of it!

ahhh sorry i got so rambly XD i had fun answering these! thank you so much for the questions!! here's the list if anyone else has a question, or wants to reblog it for themselves!

#fanfiction ask game #genwrites #music #donquixote brothers #belle mere #bell mère #bellemere #makino

[candycryptids]

List 5 things that make you happy, then put this in the askbox for the last 10 people who reblogged something from you! get to know your mutuals and followers ╰(´︶`)╯♡

;0;! Oh jeez ok ☀️ 😌

Frogs- this one might be kinda obvious I guess based on my blog title and all but I really like frogs and toads and tadpoles I think they’re really fascinating little critters and every time I learn something new about frogs it makes me feel all sparkly. Like they swallow when they blink- because their eyes go down into the body and it squishes food down their throat. Isn’t that WILD? Nature is so cool. (-unfortunately there’s one Toad I can’t stand because the way she carries her babies makes me freak out. Sorry Suriname Toad! If trypophobia is a problem for you don’t look her up 🥰)

Scented Plushies- I love… being able to smush my face into a soft plush animal and smell a pleasant smell. (I like sweet/fruity/pastry kinda smells) It’s like… IDK I have a bunch of them in my bed with me so I can pick one to cozy up with and it helps me sleep? (I have to sleep with a plush animal anyways, the way I sleep I’ll fuck up my shoulders if I don’t have Little Guy Support lol.) but also uh. Yeah Build A Bear has insertable smells and they last for like ever and they’re really pleasant ;; my favorite I think is their seasonal Pumpkin Spice, but I also really loved their other seasonal, Sunken Treasure, it was like, mango-y …

Pork Katsu- whenever we make it at home it’s kind of a special occasion cos it takes some doin, tryin stuff yk, but it’s always SO GOOD… we never have enough leftovers for Katsudon the next day lmfao. Oh there’s also a little restaurant inside the Hmart we go to, they do Katsu Sandwiches? And they come with a Fruit Sando too (it’s filled with seasonal fresh fruit and whip cream and it’s SO PRETTY and tastes SOOOO good.) gotta be one of my top tens of food (both kinda of sandwich LOL, but also just Pork Katsu. I group them together mentally as one thing in my brain 🤔)

Dark Chocolate Terry’s Orange - already drooling thinkin about that Winter only treat auuuuu…. It’s just so good, and it’s easy to snack off of for like, weeks. Cos you slap it on the table a bunch and it has a bunch of fake orange wedges made of dark chocolate to Nomf on. If you like chocolate and Orange you should try one once, I think they’re pretty great! I think some off-brands also makes like, ones with fillings like mint and raspberry? They’re pretty decent too from what I remember… (oops.. double food Happies. Well.! Food makes me happy!!!)

Leaving my Rambling Gushing Tags on peoples art also makes me really happy tbh it’s just not something I can condense into one-two words for the bold and color format I started - lol. But I for real get so excited seeing the stuff people create (I count gpose as art actually, it’s a creative outlet!!! Art!!) and I don’t have a LOT of art technical terms- it’s been a while since high school so I don’t even fully remember the terms they taught me back then- but I’m still like. Idk I see a cool shot, or a piece of art, and my heart becomes like, thunderstorm on the ocean, crash boom!!!!! So I write a bunch of tags pointing out what I like and what I think (with restraint, sometimes, I try not to thirst tag too heavily since I don’t want to make people uncomfortable and like. Block me LMFAO then I wouldn’t get to see their cool characters/art anymore yk) and I just. I hope it makes them happy too? But thinking that it might/does make them happy to get ramble excited tags (cos I do Lmfao) makes me really happy too? Idk. I just wanna put out good energy on people’s stuff. Encourage them to keep pursuing their hobbies? They cared enough to post it so others could see it which meant they wanted to show others, rather than not posting it all and keeping it to themselves, and, idk. This got really long LOL. I just have a lot of feelings about this i guess. Ty for sending this ask btw it’s been fun to answer ;w;

#Tag Game #technically not a tag game but I’m calling a chicken a horse don’t mind #also I like using color and bold for emphasis because I’m a video game character it seems #I just don’t do it that often because I worry it’ll be obnoxious #I spend an awful lot of time worrying about other people 🤔 #bonus if you’re reading the tags my favorite emoji is 😲✨ #happy thoughts #long post #post got kinda long lol

[csmeanerr]

(General/Unspecified CS and it's a long one I'm sorry. If anon somehow fails, can you please post this without my name attached?)

I’m feeling a bit sad. I’m a member of two CS which I won't name, but both were started by one person. I joined the first one over a year ago after obtaining a design that I really liked, and things seemed to be going well at first? After some time, the creator transferred ownership of the CS to another person so that they could focus on their second species instead, which regretfully lead to the death of the first species as the new owner has done nothing since taking over. There hasn’t been a new design sale, event, prompt, or even any community activity in the discord since the ownership transfer, it's just been super dead and quiet. :(

The second species really fits a lot of my likes for design elements and aspects so I'm a big fan of it. Most of us who were in the first CS migrated to the second and the community felt really wholesome at the start. We were close-knit, we joked about the species and the NPCs, made memes, all the fun stuff. At the start, the designs were getting bought within seconds of being posted for sale, too. But now, whether it’s a change in financial situation for everyone or something else, the species is starting to feel like it’s dying as well and I know it’s because things aren’t selling as well anymore, if at all sometimes. It’s a shame because there’s a lot of nice lore for the species and the world they’re a part of is really interesting to myself and others in the community, but you can tell that the owner has lost their motivation and it’s definitely due to the lack of profitability. I’m worried that this species is going to meet the same fate as the previous one.

Like everything else, CS had their prime time where they were big and profitable but nothing lasts forever. I feel like aiming for profitability over community engagement is the wrong way to approach things, because it isolates a huge part of the community which can lead to stagnation and reduce the growth of the userbase.vAm I the weird one? Hear me out.

There was a time when I too wanted to make my own CS, and I admit that I was inspired by the species that were making $500 or more per design in very quick sales. Let’s face it, how many people wouldn’t love to make that kind of money after spending some time on a drawing? Even considering this though, my approach was always going to be towards the community and the species world itself over the money. I had it in mind that, if a community was fun, engaging, and accessible to people, that would actually be more profitable in the long run. More accessibility means more users participating, and that means more people potentially willing to spend small amounts of money which would add up over time.

Not that it matters anymore. That desire has long passed now and if I did go through with making a species, it would likely be an open species rather than a closed one with little to no monetary involvement at all.  I don’t know, I guess I just don’t like how most big name CS have such high price tags and prey on FOMO, exclusivity, and impulsive buying habits. It's turned me off of closed species as a whole concept but I don't want to leave just yet because I like the characters I have and the friends I talk to daily about the CS and other hobbies or interests.

Sorry for the long ramble, I'm just salty. Maybe I am the weird one for feeling the way I do, and maybe I just need to cope harder about it.

no problem this is a place to let it all out after all. sometimes you gotta look back and see all the time you wasted on cs

#general

[justalilpearlie]

hi guys dont mind me being insane again

im not tagging this too much cus its more of a personal ramble cus idk im feelin silly today and the BPD hits too hard. i wont be explainin what BPD is either so if u dont know either look it up or ignore this post,,

man i. have you ever loved someone so much you cry? /pos

like man i. its not romantic, may i clarify. most of my fps, except for my main one, are platonic. one of them is familial even

but i just. i feel like such a parasocial freako but i genuinly feel so intensely. its so positive too. if you ignore the crippling paranoia i always have abt my fps hating me or me being so intense they get uncomfortable...

but i just??? im not. normal about them.

i dont wanna sound creepy but they make my world so much better. id take a bullet from them. if give anything for them to be alright. i genuinly just REALLY enjoy their company and knowing theyre having fun with me aswell. knowing they enjoy me as a person. that im not a nuisance for the people i love the most.

and gosh i really hope they dont see this. i would feel so ashamed and embarassed if they did.

luckly i have better ways of copying with distress, attachment issues, jealousy, possesiveness, and all that other FUN (not) stuff that comes with BPD or rather specifically having an fp. A nice trustworthy psychologist (if u can afford it) does wonders to you, let me tell you.

its still hard sometimes but ive learnt to deal with it in ways that arent destructive to my relationships with those around me. i can cool down and such instead of lashing out or splitting for the most minimal things.

but now. for whatever reason. i went on a huge "positive" ramble instead. it was meant to be appreciation at the time, and still is, but i feel like its something that couldve scared them off. i showed some stuff to irl friends and online family, and everyone said theyd feel very appreciated if someone told them that stuff, but i cant help but feel is because they're my loved ones also and stuff. i really. really feel like i was too intense. i suck at showing affection in a normal way, a calm way, subtle way, like a normal person.

at this point i think. sigh i think its better if i just say nice things anonymously. i think if people, in general, not only my fps. but if people dont know affection comes from me they'll take it so much better than if they know its *me* in particular. and idk why! its just my brain being stupid again.

brains love doing that, dont they? being stupid. telling you everyone hates you oh so much no matter what you do. that theyre lying behind your back, and hate you in secret, theyre just being polite and allat.

well let me tell you, dear reader, whoever the fuck might read this, specially if its from the bpd tags: thats not true. sure, there might be assholes out there, but those people you think hate you despite how close you are, most likely dont. and i cant even get this through my own head but my sister repeats it to me all the time. "[name] talks so nicely about you and seems so happy seeing you". even then its hard to believe, i gotta stare at nice screenshots ive saved where i believe ive done something good, something worthy of appreciation, something that has not only meaning but an impact, a possitive one. and i know the chances of them actually hating me are low, but i still believe more in those chances than the proof.

i feel a bit delusional in a way. and i mean, i am, often times. but this is one of those thoughts- those god dammed thoughts where you're self aware yet- yet it doesnt shake the feeling away, you know? like no there is no proof, no logical proof at least, only what your mind twists into proof. but you still just "know it", yknow? even if you dont actually know shit and are very wrong. you feel like you do and it- it fucking sucks.

dont even get me started on splits and mood swings, highs and lows. Cause well. THATS NOT THE TOPIC OF THIS POST !! Lmao. i could go on for hours complaining tho. ough.

but yeah!! i just !! sorry, this took a turn. i just. needed to express myself idfk. i'll go back to posting abt minecraft men kissing soon or whatever, sorry normie followers /hj

i love them so much its overwhelming, yet i wouldnt change it for everything in the world, you know? not them. its hard but id rather endure it for them than have them not be THIS level of special to me anymore.

i really REALLY hope theyre not. uncomfortable by it tho. and wont dump me for it. i really wish i had a guide to how to and how to not mess up. so i could avoid doing dumb shit on accident.

and its funny cause theyre ppl that would absolutely tell me if im doing shit that bothers them, yet i believe theres smth else, stupid thoughts man. LEAVE ME ALONE FREDDY MERCURY!! UR SUPPOSED TO BE DEAD !! /ref

sighhhh anyhow yeah im dropping it here. bpd is a bitch. and to anyone out there dealing w it? godspeed. you can do this, i know life already sucks and this shitty dissorder doesnt help, but i know you can push through, mi gente bella.

Pearlo out. BPD hours rlly seem to be hitting at around 11-12 am, huh? /ij

#bpd rambles #bpd fp #bpd thoughts #bpd shit #bpd feels #bpd problems #bpd vent

[bookpersonmaryj]

Fanfic Writer Interview

Thank you @you-have-to-use-your-imagination for tagging me!

I have to tag people now, but since I only have very few followers (for a reason, that reason is I get overwhelmed easily and need a bit of distance) I hope no one gets mad if I skip that part...

How many works do you have on ao3?

40 works on ao3, one other on a German fanfic site but it's uhh on a several-year hiatus so... not important!

What's your total ao3 word count?

it's 79.578 words holy shit... that's almost 80.000??? how???

How many fandoms have you written for and what are they?

I've posted works for four fandoms, three on ao3. Doctor Who (27 fics), The Umbrella Academy (2 fics) and Rusty Quill Gaming Podcast (10 fics).

I've technically got 2 Harry Potter fics, written before JK turned out to be a terf, but I removed them for the moment because I don't want to support her in any way until she gets over her bigotry, and if she never does that then I'll just leave them unpublished forever.

The other one not on ao3 is a Once Upon A Time fanfic that's really just a self-indulgent self-insert for my best friends and myself.

I've also written for far more fandoms, just most of those are only WIPs on my laptop that I'm not sure I'll ever finish and/or post.

What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Cheating (236 kudos, The Umbrella Academy fic)

Stormcage Wives (232 kudos, Doctor Who fic)

drunk on your love (and a whole lot of ginger) (119 kudos, Doctor Who fic)

tired of the lies (but afraid of what the truth will bring) (107 kudos, Doctor Who fic)

you're burning up and I'm burning out (or is it the other way around?) (101 kudos, Doctor Who fic)

Do you respond to comments, why or why not?

Yes, always. People tell me they like my writing, of course I'm gonna thank them for it! And if I get to ramble on about my fic for a bit, even better!

What's the fic you've written with the angstiest ending?

Oof, let me think...

I'm torn between three, I think.

Wait for me - TUA fic that is really just angst the whole time and especially the ending

Achilles Come Down - DW fic that I would call angsty, but it's kinda ambiguous? it's based on the song by Gang of Youth with the same name, and that song is definitely angsty, so it stands to reason the fic is also at least a bit angsty

I had a dream, which was not all a dream - DW fic that's also very angsty throughout and the last thoughts aren't very cheery, I'd say it's pretty darn angsty.

Do you write crossovers? If so, what's the craziest one you've written?

Yes, but only unpublished unfinished stuff so far.

The craziest of them would probably be the 'Hunger Games but fandoms for districts' one which I only started because of a tumblr post I shared with my friends and we hyped each other up so much that I wrote three chapters in a haze of euphoria before reality kicked me in the teeth and I stopped.

Have you ever received hate on a fic?

No, and I really hope I won't receive any in the future...

Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

Every time I try it either turns into cuddles or the screen fades to black without my doing. I just can't write smut for my life.

(I might be greyace actually??? that might be a contributing factor...)

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not as far as I know, and again, I really hope it never happens.

Have you ever had a fic translated?

Does it count if I started translating my own fanfic?

If not, no, but I wouldn't be opposed to it if someone were to ask!

What's your all time favorite ship?

Thoschei, I'd say.

Maaybe Zoscar, but tbh I've shipped Thoschei the longest so I gotta go with that one.

No, wait, I've been shipping SwanQueen far longer than Thoschei!

So either one of those...

What's a WIP that you want to finish but don't think you ever will?

Oof, that's a hard question... I've got so many WIPs I wanna finish but don't think I ever will.

There's a soulmate AU I've started, Doctor Who, Thoschei, rather angsty, and I've written myself into a corner and can't get out of it again.

I also started something that I call Override Paradox, which is really what it sounds like, in that it's 13 trying to create a paradox big enough to override the memory block in the matrix. I really wanna finish it, but it's really hard to write paradox fics, tbh...

Err, I've got several timetravel fix-it stories for various fandoms that I'd really like to finish, but not any one specifically, really.

I also really want to finish that Once Upon A Time fic, mostly just so I can have it finished, and because I did start it for my best friends and I'd really like to give them a nice thing, basically.

I also recently got back into The Umbrella Academy and really wanna finish a couple of those stories, just because they're rattling around in my brain and I would love to make something out of the ideas.

What are your writing strengths?

I'm... pretty good at angst? And fluff? Does that count as strength?

I'm good at imagining what a character is thinking, that's probably a neat thing. There are a lot of fics where I get fully immersed in the inner monologue of someone, and I'd say I'm pretty good at it?

I've also been told I'm good at plot twists, so. those?

(gosh I'm so bad at complimenting myself... definitely need to work on that.)

(also what the hell is a writing strength??? I don't really know what this means...)

What are your writing weaknesses?

I ramble a lot. Describe too much.

I also cannot for the life of me just write a story on the fly without having at least five paragraphs of backstory... It's really annoying, honestly.

What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

If it makes sense story-wise and if it's done well, then I'm all for it!

What was the first fandom you wrote for?

Once Upon A Time. I started it like, five years ago? It feels like an eternity tbh... hang on...

2017??? holy shit that's. yeah, that's six years... wow.

What's your favorite fic that you've written?

Gosh.

I'm gonna choose from the ones I've finished, because I will not be able to choose from the unfinished no matter how hard I'll try.

'Achilles Come Down' is really one of my favorites. I had a lot of fun writing it.

'confessions uttered in the (un)safety of your embrace' was incredibly nice to write. The level of double and triple thinking? Brilliant. The fact that I didn't even realize I was doing it in a triple way until it was pointed out to me (thank you @rearranging-deck-chairs)?! Effervescent.

So yeah.

That's it. You can stop reading now. Also, thank you ^_^

Bye!

#tag #me rambling about my fics because I like doing that #also just noticed I tagged you differently dimitri hope that's okay

[thebibliosphere]

So I'm currently unemployed because I got fired for taking too much sick leave (it was legally sketchy blah blah blah but in the end I just can't work and take care of myself and investigate my mystery health problems at the same time). So I've been spending more time writing!

I really admire your writing and loved Hunger Pangs. I'm looking forward to the poly elements developing and I'm wondering if you have any advice for writing about poly. I've made one of my projects a snarky take on "write what you know" ... Apparently what I know is southern gothic meets Pacific northwest gothic, chronic illness pandemic surrealism, and falling back-asswards into threesomes.

I know this is a very open-ended question and I don't expect an answer, I'm just curious about it if you have the energy. As a writer, trying to write honestly / realistically about polyamory/enm, I'm curious if you have any thoughts on what's different about portraying monogamy or nonmonogamy in books, romance or erotica or otherwise.

I'm trying to read examples but it's hard to find examples that fit the niche I'm looking at. Excuse me if this question is nonsense, it's the cluster headaches.

I'm sorry to hear you've been dealing with all that and solidarity on the cluster headaches. But I'm glad you're finding an outlet through writing! And I hope you're happy with an open-ended ramble in response because oh boy, there's a lot I could talk about and I could probably do a better job of answering this sort of thing with more specific questions, but let's see where we end up.

There's definitely a big difference between writing polyamory/ENM (ethical non-monogamy) and what people often expect from monogamous love stories.

Just even from a purely sales and marketing standpoint, the moment you write anything polyamorous (or even just straight up LGBTQIA+ without the ENM) you're going to get considered closer to being erotica/obscene than hetero romances. It's an unfair bias, but it's one that exists in our society. But also the Amazon algorithm and their shitty, shitty human censors. Especially the ones that work the weekends. (Talking to you, Carlos 🖕.)

So not only do you start out hyper-aware that you're writing something that is highly stigmatized or fetishized (at least I'm hyper-aware) but that you are also writing for a niche market that is starving for positive content because the content that exists is either limited, not what they want, or is problematic in some fashion i.e. highly stigmatized or fetishy. And even then, the wants, desires, and expectations of the community you're writing for are complex and wildly varied and hard to fit into an easy formula.

When writing monogamous love stories, there is a set expectation that’s really hard to fuck up once you know it. X person meets Y. Attraction happens, followed by some sort of minor conflict/resolution. Other plot may happen. A greater catalyst involving personal growth for both parties (hopefully) happens. Follow the equation to its ultimate resolution and achieve Happily Ever After. 

But writing ENM is... a lot more difficult, if only because of the pure scope of possibilities. You could try to follow the same equation and shove three (or more) people into it, but it rarely works well. Usually because if you’re doing it right, you won’t have enough room in a single character arc to allow for enough growth, and if ENM requires anything in abundance, it’s room to grow.

And this post is huge so I’m going to put the rest under a cut :)

There's also a common refrain in certain online polyam/ENM circles that triads and throuples are overrepresented in media and they may be right to some extent. Personally, I believe the issue isn't that triads and throuples are overrepresented, but that there is such minuscule positive rep of ethical non-monogamy in general, that the few tiny instances we have of triads in media make it seem like it's "everywhere" when in actuality, it's still quite rare and the media we do have often veers into Unicorn Hunter fetish porn. Which is its own problematic thing. And just to be clear, I’m not including this part to dissuade you from writing "falling back-asswards into threesomes." If anything, I need more of it and would hook it directly into my brain if I could. I'm just throwing it out there into the void in the hope that someone will take the thought and run with it, lol.

I’d love to see more polyfidelitous rep in fiction, just as much as I’d like to see more relationship anarchy too. More diversity in fiction is always good.

Another thing that differs in writing ENM romance vs conventional monogamy is the feeling like you need to justify yourself. There's a lot of pressure to be as healthy and non-problematic as possible because you are being held to a higher standard of criticism. Both from people from without the ENM communities, and from the people within. Granted, some people don't give a shit and just want to read some fantastic porn (valid) but there are those who will cheerfully read Fifty Shades of Bullshit and call it "spicy" and "romantic," then turn around and call the most tooth-rottingly-sweet-fluff about a queer platonic polycule heresy. That's just the way the world works.

(Pro-tip for author life in general: never read your own reviews; that way madness lies. I glimpsed one the other day that tagged Hunger Pangs as “ethical cheating” and just about had an aneurism.)

And while that feeling of needing to justify yourself comes from a valid place of being excluded from the table of socially accepted norms, it can also be to the detriment of both the story and the subject matter at hand. I've seen some authors bend so far over backward to avoid being problematic in their portrayal of ENM, they end up being problematic for entirely different reasons. Usually because they give such a skewed, rose-tinted perspective of how things work, it ends up coming off as well... a bit culty and obnoxious tbh.

“Look how enlightened we are, freed from the trappings of monogamy and jealousy! We’re all so honest and perfect and happy!”

Yeah, uhu, sure Jan. Except here’s the thing, not all jealousy is bad. How you act on it can be, but jealousy itself is an important tool in the junk drawer that is the range of human emotion. It can clue us in to when we’re feeling sad or neglected, which in turn means we should figure out why we’re feeling those things. Sometimes it’s because brains are just like that and anxiety is a thing. Other times it’s because our needs are actually being neglected and we are in an unhealthy situation we need to remedy. You gotta put the work in to figure it out. Which is the same as any style of relationship, whether it’s mono, polyam or whatever flavor of ENM you subscribe to* And sometimes you just gotta be messy, because that’s how humans are. Being afraid to show that mess makes it a dishonest portrayal, and it also robs you of some great cannon fodder for character development.

Which brings me in a roundabout way to my current pet peeve in how certain writers take monogamous ideals and apply them to ENM, sometimes without even realizing it. The “Find the Right Person and Settle Down” trope.

Often, in this case, ENM or polyamory is treated as a phase. Something you mature out of with age or until you meet “The One(tm).” This is, of course, an attempt to follow the mono style formula expected in most romances. And while it might appeal to many readers, it’s uh, actually quite insulting. 

To give an example, I am currently seeing this a lot in the Witcher fandom. 

Fanon Netflix!Jaskier is everyone's favorite ethical slut until he meets Geralt then woops, wouldn’t you know, he just needed to find The One(tm). Suddenly, all his other sexual and romantic exploits or attractions mean nothing to him. Let's watch as he throws away a core aspect of his personality in favor of a man. 

Yeah... that sure showed those societal norms... 

If I were being generous, I’d say it’s a poor attempt at showing New Relationship Euphoria and how wrapped up people can become in new relationships. But honestly, it’s monogamous bias eking its way in to validate how special and unique the relationship is. Because sometimes people really can’t think of any other way to show how important and valid a relationship is without defining it in terms of exclusivity. Which is a fundamental misunderstanding of how ENM works for a lot of people and invalidates a lot of loving, serious and long-term relationships.

This is not to say that some polyam/poly-leaning people can't be happy in monogamous relationships! I am! (I consider myself ambiamorous. I'm happy with either monogamy or polyamory, it really just depends on the relationship(s) I’m in.) But I also don't regard my relationship with a mono partner as "settling down" or "growing up." It's just a choice I made to be with a person I love, and it's a valid one. Just like choosing to never close yourself off to multiple relationships is valid. And I wish more people realized that, or rather, I wish the people writing these things knew that :P

Anyway, I think I’ve rambled enough. I hope this collection of incoherent thoughts actually makes some sense and might be useful. 

----

*A good resource book that doesn't pull any punches in this regard is Polysecure by Jessica Fern. It's a wonderfully insightful read that explores the messier side of consensual non-monogamy, especially with how it can be affected by trauma or inter-relationship conflicts. But it also shows how to take better steps toward healthy, ethical non-monogamy (a far better job than More Than Two**) and conflict resolution, making it a valuable resource both for someone who is a part of this relationship style***, but also for writers on the outside looking in who might have a very simple or misguided idea of what conflict within polyam/ENM relationships might look like, vs traditional monogamous ones.

** The author of More Than Two has been accused of multiple accounts of abuse within the polyamorous community, with many of his coauthors having spoken out about the gaslighting and emotional and psychological damage they experienced while in a relationship with him. A lot of their stories are documented here: https://www.itrippedonthepolystair.com/ (warning: it is not light material and deals with issues of abuse, gaslighting, and a whole other plethora of Yikes.) While some people still find More Than Two helpful reading, there are now, thankfully, much, much better resources out there.

*** Some people consider polyam/ENM to be part of their identity or orientation, while others view it as a relationship style.It largely depends on the individual. 

#long post #writing #ethical non-monogamy #relationship styles #relationship models in fiction #also that kindle link is an affiliate link #because fuck giving amazon free recs

[granolabird]

Hope for Better Days

Post 2x09. I figured we didn’t get much Hournite content this EP so I made my own :) This follows Beth going to visit Rick at the jail just before the storm starts after she gets off the phone with Courtney. Just some good ol Angst/Fluff content. Sure Rick is in jail but I can still make him kinda-sorta happy. Ish.

Warnings: N/A

Taglist: @hournites @bethchapelsbonnet 

If you’d like to be added to my weekly Hournite fic tag list feel free to ask :) .

“Has Rick called?” Beth finds herself asking as soon as she gets the chance.

Courtney called her to help devise a plan on what to do about Eclipso. It’s a valid mindset, one that Beth is trying very hard to reciprocate but she just can’t. She can’t stop thinking about Rick, alone and cold in his jail cell. The storm that’s hitting today is supposed to be really bad, there might even be a tornado. And sure Beth’s safe at home. So is Courtney, and Yolanda too, but Rick? He’s in a jail cell, which is probably one of the least safe places he could be. 

“No, he hasn’t called. Yolanda still hasn’t answered my calls either.” Courtney snaps Beth from her train of thought.

“Oh. Okay.”

Beth isn’t sure what else to say. Courtney seems to ignore her disappointment and continues to prattle on about how to use the staff and the goggles together to beat Eclipso. Beth tries to listen, she really does. What Courtney is saying is important, but Rick keeps flitting across her mind. She can’t help but worry about him. She looks out her window at the storm, wondering how long until it unleashed itself. Would there be enough time to go visit Rick? The police station wasn’t that far, and he should still have his twenty minutes of visitation time, nobody had gone to see him today. Beth could go see him.

“Beth?” Courtney seems to have asked a question that Beth has absolutely not heard.

“Sorry, can you say that again?”

Courtney sighs, but repeats her question; “You said Eclipso presented himself as a child?” “A child version of Bruce Gordon, yeah.” 

“Well then it’ll be…”

Courtney’s voice fades into obscurity as Beth spots her Dad’s car pulling into the driveway. He’s home early, this is too perfect. If she can convince him to drive her to go see Rick, then she’ll be good to go. It’s a foolproof plan, probably.

“Sorry Courtney, my dad just got home. I have to go.” Beth manages to get her words in between Courtney’s seemingly endless rambling.

“Oh, yeah of course. I’ll call you later, okay?” There’s a hint of disappointment to Courtney’s voice that makes Beth feel a little bad about the whole situation, but she really has to go see Rick.

“Yeah! For sure!” And with that she hangs up, sliding her phone into her bag. 

She’s still wearing her goggles, and spends a moment debating whether it’s safe to take them off or not. She resolves to put them in her bag just in case, not wanting to endure another questioning from her father regarding her wearing her ‘swimming goggles’ everywhere. Then she grabs her bag, pulls on a sweater and races down the stairs to see her Father.

“Dad! You’re home early!” Beth tries to put as much enthusiasm into her voice as possible, and judging on the smile her dad flashes her way her tactics are working.

“Yeah, work was worried about the weather so they sent everyone home early.” He’s already taking off his jacket and hanging it up. 

Once he gets his shoes off and sits down on the couch Beth knows he won't be moving. She has to act quickly. She steadies herself, shaking off any worries before she asks to go visit Rick. The worst he can say is no is all she keeps telling herself in a (failing) attempt to keep herself calm.

“So, dad.”

“What is it sweetie?” He’s halfway through unlacing one of his dress shoes.

“I was wondering if we could go visit Rick? You know, before the storm starts. I just want to make sure he’s okay.” She’s rushing her words, but her Dad seems to understand what she says perfectly well as he gets up and looks at her with some concern.

“Beth, it’s about to start raining any minute now. Don’t you think he can wait?”

“His hearing got cancelled today. I just think he could use someone to talk to, you know? The station isn’t that far away, I could walk there if you don’t feel like driving me-”

“Absolutely not. You’ll get soaked. I’ll drive you, but we have to be quick.”

Beth mentally jumps for joy, but she doesn’t vocalize her excitement, just offers her Father a smile.

“Thanks Dad!” 

Beth leans against the window as the car rolls down the street, her eyes scanning the dark clouds in the sky as they go. The drive to the police station seems to stretch on forever, especially with her Dad asking questions near-constantly. They’re just around the corner when her Dad asks,

“What is it with you and Rick anyway?”

“What?”

“Sorry, I mean, you two just seem close… You’d tell me if you had a boyfriend right? Your Mother and I would be so happy to hear that you-”

“Dad! No, it’s not like that! We… We're best friends, that’s it. He doesn’t really have anyone else, so I have to be there for him.”

“Oh, yeah. That makes sense.”

The rest of the ride is silent.

Beth doesn’t tell her dad that she wishes her and Rick were more than best friends. It doesn’t feel like the right time to admit it. She doubts there ever will be a right time to admit it, but this would definitely be one of the absolute worst times. Her dad would never shut up about it. Not that that was a bad thing, Beth could talk about Rick and how much she cared about him for hours. But with her Dad? It doesn’t feel right. She continues scanning the clouds and fiddling with one of the straps on her bag while dwelling on thoughts of her relationship to Rick all the way to the police station parking lot.

Rick is slumped in his cell, leaning against the wall as he sits on his cot. This place is hell, but at least he doesn’t have to deal with Matt. That’s an upside. The downside is the fact that he rarely gets to see his friends, especially Beth. Beth. His mind lingers on her name a moment too long, and he has to shake his head in an attempt to dispel any thoughts of her. He’s found it best not to think about her unless she’s visiting him. Every time he does it feels like his soul is ripping in two, a deep ache in his chest that he can’t dispel, so he finds it better to not think about her altogether. As he sits now, staring at the blank ceiling of his cell, Rick hears footsteps approaching down the hall. Probably just a guard going for an hourly checkup. The steps however, stop in front of his cell, and Rick turns his head to see an Officer waiting at the door.

“There’s a visitor here for you Mr. Harris”

Rick cringes at the name, but forces himself not to say anything about it. He’d rather not start any kerfuffle. 

“Isn’t there supposed to be a bad storm out there? Why the hell is someone visiting me?” Rick wonders aloud and the Officer shrugs.

“Not my business. I just gotta get you to the phones, the faster the better. I have a break in ten.” The Officer sounds exhausted, and Rick can’t help but feel himself sympathizing.

He really just wishes he could fall asleep, and wake up to find all of this was a dream. It won’t happen of course, but that doesn’t stop him from thinking about it. Sometimes he wonders if all this is one giant illusion done by Eclipso, if he’s still stuck in that hellish landscape. But nobody would visit him if he were still in Eclipso’s hellscape. He’s not sure if it’s reassuring to know he’s not still there, or awful to know he’s actually trapped in jail. It’s a lose-lose situation, really.

When Rick sees Beth waiting on the other side of the glass to see him, his heart does a flip. He spots her Dad standing awkwardly in the corner, and makes a mental note not to say anything too personal, and not to mention the JSA. All inhibitions leave his mind as soon as he sits across from Beth and picks up the phone, however. 

“Beth, what are you doing here?” He tries to keep his voice steady but he can't help the relief that he feels encompassing his entire body.

“Visiting you, obviously!” Beth smiles, and Rick swears he’s going to melt on the spot. Nothing but a puddle of love-struck Rick Tyler left on the chair. The Officer would have to mop him up to get him back to his cell. 

“I thought there was a storm out there? Shouldn’t you be at home preparing?”

Beth shrugs as if that’s the least of her worries, which it really shouldn’t be, but she doesn’t seem to share that sentiment.

“It hasn’t started yet. I figured I’d come check on you before it got too bad.” As if on cue the police station is shaken by a peel of thunder that makes Rick wince and the lights flicker. 

“You don’t need to check on me Beth, I’m doing fine.”

“I don’t care if I don’t need to check on you Rick. I want to. I want to make sure you’re okay, and not freezing, and well fed, and as happy as you can be given the conditions. I just… I just want you to be okay.”

Rick can’t help but smile at this, wishing more than anything to reach through the barrier separating him and Beth so that he could hug her. She’s too kind. Too good for Rick. He doesn’t know what he’s done to deserve her. Frankly, he probably doesn’t deserve her. And yet here she is. Making sure he’s okay. 

“Thanks, Beth. I’m doing okay. I’ll be okay. You don’t need to worry about me, I’ll be alright.” This doesn’t seem to reassure Beth at all, but it’s all he can offer.

“You’re in jail, Rick. Of course I’m going to worry about you. There’s not really much else I can do.” Beth looks so serious, so distraught, and Rick hates himself for causing her so much stress. 

“I guess you’re right. But try not to worry too much, okay? I don’t want to stress you out. The thought of me stressing you out stresses me out.” He half-laughs, and butterflies fill his stomach as he sees Beth laugh with him. 

It’s a small laugh but it’s enough.

“Alright, I’ll try, I promise.” Beth agrees.

The conversation lulls into small talk about Courtney and how she’s doing, and how Yolanda still hasn’t called back. Nothing too consequential, but Rick likes it that way. Makes his life seem more normal if only for a moment. It reminds him of all the days spent with Beth in her living room or in the Pit Stop just rambling about nothing and everything. Enjoying each other’s company, because they had nobody else to talk to. Because they were made to talk to one another. Those are the days Rick misses the most. He just wants to go back in time to tell himself to enjoy those moments more, to take in everything Beth is saying, to tell Beth everything he’s feeling. Because right now it’s looking like he may never get the chance again. He wants more than anything to have that chance again.

The lights flicker once more, and that seems to spook the Officer enough that he puts a hand on Rick’s shoulder, gesturing for him to get up.

“It’s only been ten minutes.” Rick growls, and the Officer taps his watch idly in response.

“Twelve minutes actually. I’m sorry, really, I just want to get you back to your cell before things get worse. It’d be best your friend here goes home too, I don’t think anyone should be driving in this weather. Car accidents kill so many people every year, you wouldn’t believe it!”

Both Rick and Beth wince at that statement, and Beth shoots him a sympathetic look. Rick swallows down any malicious retort, knowing the Officer only has good intentions, deciding to respond with a nod. 

“I’ll talk to you as soon as I can.” Beth reassures him as Rick starts preparing to leave, and he smiles at her softly. “Yeah, of course. Get home safely, okay?” “Of course I will. Sit in your cell safely, okay?”

Rick can’t help but laugh at that as he nods, blinking tears from his eyes.

“I always do.”

And then he’s hanging up the phone and being escorted down the hallway. He throws one last glance back at Beth as he goes, but she’s already talking to her Dad, so she doesn’t notice his longing stare as he’s carted away.

The walk back to Rick’s cell is relatively silent. Most of the other cells are empty, save for a few sleeping drunks in some of the holding cells. Blue Valley isn’t particularly known for it’s non-supervillain related crime. It is a small town after all, so Rick’s incident was quite the exception. As they reach his cell, and Rick steps inside, the Officer finally speaks up.

“You know, that girl really must care a lot about you to come all the way out here to see you in this weather. You’ve caught yourself a good one there Mr. Harris.” 

Rick gives a breathy laugh as he walks into the cell, sitting down on his cot. “Yeah. Yeah, I know.” And he does. Beth is like no other girl he’s ever met, and for that he will forever be grateful. She’ll always be there for him, and he knows that as long as he’s alive he will always be there for her. 

He hopes it will stay that way forever. 

And a few blocks away, driving home in the pouring rain, she hopes for the same thing.

#I'm pretty happy with this one #Cute with just a dash of angst #Hournite #Stargirl #cw stargirl #stargirl spoilers #beth chapel #Rick tyler #beth x rick #Hourman #dr. mid nite

[chris-evanslover]

SNL

OFC Aria Samsen is a writer for Saturday Night Live in New York City. She works with all the hosts on their sketches, including this weeks guest, Timothée Chalamet. What will happen when she accidentally mixes business with pleasure?

Shit! I’m gonna be late if I stop for coffee, but, if I don’t stop for coffee I won’t be productive. Talk about a slippery slope. I quickly duck into the coffee shop by the subway station I need to take to get to work and order a large iced coffee, Monday’s are usually rough. I thank the barista and rush to catch the A train to work. 

Speaking of work, my job is definitely an interesting one. I am a writer for SNL and it’s been such a dream these past couple of years. I’m 25 and starting to really take off in terms of my writing, I’ve been offered the position to become a part-time cast member multiple times on the show but I don’t think my anxiety would agree with that. I arrive to work a little late with my iced coffee (even though it’s the middle of December) and I make a beeline for my office, which I share with Pete Davidson, who happens to be one of my closest friends. Pete and I are complete opposites if that gives you any context on me.

 “You’re late” Pete laughed as I walked in. 

“Yeah yeah I’m aware, what are you working on?”

 “I’ve had this jets fan club idea for a while and I’ve been waiting for the right host”

 “I didn’t get a chance to check the schedule before leaving Saturday night, who’s the host this week?” 

“Seriously Aria? It’s Timothée Chalamet, he’s actually a friend of mine” 

“Oh sweet, I like his movies”

 “Thank you!” I heard an unfamiliar voice from behind me coming from the doorway. I glare at Pete who’s trying not to laugh, and turn around to face the owner of this voice. Timothée stands there with a smile on his face and reaches his hand out to me, “Timothée, nice to meet you-?”

“Aria” I fumble around placing my coffee, phone and keys down and shake his hand.“Nice to meet you too” Timothée let’s go of my hand and I feel Pete slip past me to dab up (or whatever guys do idfk) Tim. 

“It’s been a minute man how are you?” Pete asked him. “I’ve been great dude, I’m excited to host although I am pretty nervous” “Don’t be, you’ll do great” I smiled at him. Why did I say that, he clearly isn’t having a conversation with me. Great he’s going to think I’m weird now and not want to talk to me or work with me and this whole week is going to be horri-“Thank you Aria” he smiled and locked eyes with me, I felt my cheeks getting hot and averted my gaze to my stuff on Pete’s desk, picking up my drink before taking a sip, stepping back towards my desk.

“I gotta go talk to Colin Jost and Michael Che..can you guys point me in the right direction?” Tim asked. Pete looked at me and smirked saying “Yeah Aria can show you I’m in the middle of a pitch” Tim looked at me and said “Sounds great, lead the way”. I put all my stuff down before sneaking a glare Pete’s way, he knew how nervous I got around guys I didn’t know and he was using me as a pawn in his own enjoyment game. I’m gonna kill him for this.

“Follow me” I said, Timothée started walking next to me. “So, you’re a writer a presume?” I laughed a little bit. “Yeah I write some of the stuff for weekend update and some other sketches as well” “That’s so cool, I’ve been watching the show since I can remember, you should be really proud” “I am, thank you, that’s sweet” he nodded and shoved his hands in his pockets. 

“So you and Pete? Are you guys close friends or dating or-?” If I was drinking something at the moment, I’m positive I would’ve choked on it. Did he just ask if I’m dating Pete? Why would he want to know that?

“No, no! Just close friends is all, Pete’s like an older brother to me” Tim smiled at this and let out a laugh. “That’s nice, Pete’s a great guy” I stopped in front of Colin and Michael’s office and turned to him. “Yeah he’s alright I guess, anyway here’s there office, I’m sure you’re gonna be busy all day but you’re probably slotted to sit with Pete and I at some point during the week so I’ll see you around”. How I managed to get all of that out without stuttering terribly over my words is well beyond me.

I went to walk away when I felt Timothée grab my upper left arm, I turned towards him with what I presume looked like a look of confusion on my face, “Thank you for walking me, I hope I see you around sooner rather than later” he smiled and walked into the office, leaving me to contemplate what he just said. 

As I walked back to my office, I couldn’t help but think about him. Sure, I’ve met celebrities but there was something completely disarming about his charisma. He was down to earth, I could just tell. I opened the door to find Pete sitting at his desk, smiling bright at me when he saw I walked in. 

“You spent 5 minutes with Timmy and you already have a crush on him”

I rolled my eyes “I do not have a crush on him, shut up Pete”

“If you don’t yet, I bet you will by the end of the week” What the hell does that mean? I’ll have a crush on him by the end of the week? Well it looks like that trains boarding as we speak, not long till it leaves the station. I couldn’t help myself but go sit at my desk and Google him. 

Timothée Chalamet

Born: December 27, 1995 (25 Years Old) New York City, NY

Height: 5’11

Parents: Nicole Flender, Marc Chalamet

Siblings: Pauline Chalamet

Education: LaGuardia Arts High School, Columbia University, MORE…

Upcoming Films: DUNE (2021), The French Dispatch (2021), MORE…

“I dO nOt HaVe A cRuSh On HiM” Pete imitated me (horrible imitation, by the way). I jumped out my seat, not even noticing he was behind me, looking over my shoulder at my computer. My head fell into my hands as I let out a loud groan of frustration as Pete made his way back to his desk laughing.

“You’ll thank me when I make this happen.”

“Shut up Pete.”

A/N: I decided to go ahead with this multi-part series, not sure how many parts I'm gonna make it but I definitely want to try for 3 or 4, maybe 5, depending on how many ideas I can come up with. Sorry this was a little short but I’m happy to be back to writing, I took a break for a while and It feels great to be back! Ill be adding a Timmy section to my taglist on the google docs at the top of my master list if anyones interested. Im gonna stop rambling, I appreciate feedback or ideas for the rest of the series :) 

Tagging these who responded to my original post about doing this series but I won’t tag you next time if you don’t want me to! @elarasstardust​

#timothee chamalet #timothee chalamet imagine #timothée hal chalamet

[bodytoflame-ao3]

Pls ramble in a director’s cut for any of your favorite scenes in Sunnydale Anonymous

no screaming crying bc half of what i want to talk about is either not posted yet or spoilers for what is not posted yet. remind me later to talk about the livejournal entries and uh... way later... the scythe scene (you bet your ass im keepin that)

but ok chapter 7 dream sequence. ok #1... this was so fucking fun to write. like. no joke. ive never done anything this purposefully prose-y and full of hidden meaning. it was actually cool to go into depth describing things like i notice them in my dreams -- cause it's always like the weird specific little shit you remember, yknow?

number TWO i'm OBSESSED with this one analysis on a gifset of faith in that pink dress, and im so mad i cant find it bc its hidden in someones tags!!! but basically the reblogger talks about like faith and the idea of 'being pretty' -- like, she wants to be pretty, but it comes down to the whole idea of nature vs nurture -- does she feel like she can only be "hot" because that's what she's "meant" to be, what she *is*? and i think it mirrors the debate of being a slayer solely in power vs taking on that reponsibility that their arguments often take the form of in s3. but yeah just that idea of wanting to be desired, and how she expresses her femininity and sexuality in direct contrast to it...? yeah, i'm obsessed.

next obviously, we have the ants -- creepy-crawlies, check! gotta hit the nail on the head with the tiny weird/unsettling part of these dreams, but also, what buffy mentions about worker ants being female -- direct representation of the slayers; they start out as one or two, and then it's *all* of them. also thought it was cute and fitting to mirror a nursery rhyme with well,,,, ants marching,,, considering how the show's dream sequences often have a child-like nature and most specifically the mention of "little miss muffet" to represent dawn -- clearly premonitions of Very Important Things happen in the dreams of these two, and i didn't want to not follow through on that.

purple hyacinths are a symbol of forgiveness and i think a lot about their scene with the scythe in that sense a lot -- buffy coming to terms with sharing her power with faith as she realizes she'll be accepting the potentials as slayers too. so i knew i 100% had to mimic that conversation both in a prophetic sense and to really hammer home the metaphor -- i think the faith i'm writing, the one who is really still a work in progress in terms of how she expresses herself emotionally (very much inbetween her canon iterations of s3-s7). forgiveness is the one emotion she hasn't quite pinned down -- both giving and getting; most notably, forgiving herself. what she did to buffy looms over her in practically everything she does and it isn't something she's going to let herself forget -- and she can't forgive herself yet either. buffy offering her the scythe is i think as much a passing of the torch as it is extending an olive branch, so seeing the same thing in this representation of forgiveness in something as beautiful as a flower rather than a symbol of violence (again, it's about the duality...) felt like something that would be really cool to touch on in a prophetic dream.

#sunnydale anonymous #btvs #ask #displayheartcode

[phantom-curve]

find the strength, find the melody pt. 4 (working title)

I think I like this title but I can’t decide so don’t kill me if it changes!

also, you guys are amazing. your love for this lil fic makes me feel so happy. I’ve never written this much this fast for a side project. it’s actually starting to take over all of my writing so I might have to slow this roll a bit and catch up on my actual novel before I can post most. 

or maybe I’ll just lean into the insomnia writing even more! stay tuned to see!!

as always, lemme know if you wanna be added to the tag list! @blue-hat-girl, @lwhoscribbles (hey lookie there, a title! also sorry not sorry you cried, but at least you were in good company with me and Julie), @bluefyoto94, @5sosmukefan, @moonlightxnder, @leahthewonder​,  @kat-maybe-not​

Later that night, long after her father and Carlos had gone to bed, Julie crept out to her mom’s studio. She knew she was going to have to tell her dad about the music program eventually. She was shocked her Tía hadn’t beat her to it already. She needed something positive to offset the disappointment he would feel. Her dad had been gently prodding her to go out to the studio and at least maybe clean it up a bit for weeks now. He would love this improvement, that is, if she could work up the nerve to actually play. Sheet music clutched in her numb hands, she wrenched the studio door open. It was exactly as she remembered it.

Her eyes slipped shut as she stepped inside. She didn’t need to look to know where the couch, coffee table, and chairs would be gathered. She knew exactly how to avoid bumping into the ladder leading up to the loft. Her hand reached out just in time to catch on the fabric covering the piano, Julie allowing her fingers to lead her down the side of it until her pinky brushed a key. One soft note rang out, and her eyes opened, staring down at where she pressed lightly on the white key.

Her feet moved on their own, skirting around the bench, her knees bending automatically as she lowered herself to sit. A tight sensation built in her chest, her breaths picking up speed. The sheet music shook as she forced herself to lift the pages and spread them out on the music rack. She arranged the piece in the correct order, wasting time as she avoided touching the keys for now. Her eyes traced over the song again, her mind showing her exactly how her hands would dance along the instrument, exactly how her voice would reverberate in the silent space. Her gaze snagged on her mom’s final message once more.

You can do it.

Warmth blossomed in her chest, replacing the cold, lifeless feeling that had lingered there for the last year. Julie felt it all at once. Her mother’s love shining off of the pages in front of her, filling up all of the empty spaces inside of her. She could hear her voice, whispering those words in her ear. Tears sprang to her eyes again, but they were different this time.

Julie had thought that she would never be able to play without her mother because she never had. Every defining moment of Julie’s life was underscored by a soundtrack mastered by the one and only Rose Molina. She had thought that without her mother, the music would fall flat. She had thought it would be meaningless without the significance her mother, specifically, attached to it. Julie never realized until this moment that she had been the soundtrack to her mother’s life as well. The two of them, the soundtrack to her brother’s and father’s lives. It hadn’t only been Julie suffering for the last year.

A new type of determination surging through her veins, Julie placed her hands on the cool keys, lining her fingers up with the opening notes. Her mother deserved to be remembered like this, her music recognized and loved by more than just Julie. She would have hated the fact that Julie hadn’t played in so long, would have given her that sad smile, that soft, disappointed mija sigh. Her family deserved to come out of the silence she had forced upon them. They deserved to enjoy music the way they always had before Rose died. It was cruel the way she had taken it away from them. And Julie herself deserved this moment too. She had been punished long enough. Her mother’s love overwhelming everything else, Julie took a deep breath and began to play.

Here’s the one thing I want you to know

You got someplace to go

Life’s a test, yes

But you go toe-to-toe

You don’t give up, no

You grow

The opening was shaky, her fingers clumsy as they stumbled over the unfamiliar notes. Her voice cracked a bit, rusty from disuse. But then muscle memory took over, and Julie felt the tension drain from her body. Her fingers began to move with a mind of their own as she read the notes on the pages in front of her, voice smoothing out as she worked out the frogs. She made it through the pre-chorus easily enough, but the chorus hit her harder than expected. Like her mother was giving her permission to forgive herself for all of the hurt of the last year, reminding her that it’s who you are at your core that matters most. Telling her she still had the time to pull herself out of this spiral. That old message about how the music was always bigger than just the two of them coaxing her out of the shell she had hidden herself away in for the last year.

Better wake those demons

Just look them in the eye

No reason not to try

Life can be a mess

I won’t let it cloud my mind

I’ll let my fingers fly

Her fingers really were flying. She couldn’t even really feel the keys anymore, so sure as she pressed down against the ivory that she didn’t even have to look at the sheet music. Her eyes closed, head lifted as she belted the pre-chorus into the sky. The chorus hit again, but she was ready for it this time, emotion powering every line as she poured her heart and soul into each note. Visions of her mother filled her mind and Julie could practically feel the warmth of her love radiating throughout the studio. She glanced down to read the lines for the bridge and the words hit her like a sledgehammer. Like a secret letter from her mother written exactly for this specific moment.

So wake that spirit, spirit

I wanna hear it, hear it

No need to fear it, you’re not alone

You’re gonna find your way home

Her voice rang out pure and clear as she held the word as long as she could. Home. She really was home now. Here, in her mom’s familiar studio, playing the last song her mother’s hands touched, Julie was finally home again. The sense of rightness filled her completely as she finished the last round of the chorus. Her hands dropped from the keys, reaching out to gather the papers to her chest once more, the most precious treasure she had ever touched. 

Eyes closed, basking in the afterglow of playing, she imagined her mother’s spirit behind her, ghostly arms wrapping her in the sweetest hug. Julie shivered against the electricity coursing through her system. She felt alive again. An unexpected clatter sounded from the doorway. Julie’s eyes popped open, anticipating Carlos or her father walking through the doors. Nobody appeared, but she caught the tail end of a muffled curse. It was just loud enough to send a ripple of awareness through her.

“I can hear you, you know.”

She already knew who it was. She expected him to beat a hasty retreat, maybe yell something out in a horribly disguised voice before he melted into the shadows. Without warning, he appeared in the doorway, shoulders raised and a sheepish smile on his face. His eyes darted around the studio, refusing to meet hers. Her mouth fell open. Where does he keep appearing from?

“Sorry. I didn’t mean to bother you, I just...I heard you playing?”

He said it like a question, an unsure tone she’d never heard him use before coloring his tone. She watched the way his bicep flexed as his hand rose to scratch at the back of his neck. That seemed to be his nervous tick. His body language told her he wished he was anywhere else right now. Then she glanced at the clock.

“What the hell are you doing creeping around my house at 1:00 in the morning?”

Luke’s cheeks turned bright red. The tips of his ears, peeking out of that same orange beanie, colored too.

“I’m not creeping!” Julie met his gaze steadily, raising a brow at his defensive declaration. “I uhhh, I just...I don’t really sleep? Or...well I guess...I don’t really have a place to sleep...sometimes...?” 

His voice trailed off, uncomfortable in every sense of the word as he stammered his way through his explanation. 

“My parents and I don’t always get along. Sometimes it’s easier to tell them I’ll crash somewhere else, only there isn’t always a somewhere else available.” 

He shrugged, careless and cocky, but it was off. Everything about him was off right now. 

“I make do. It’s no biggie, just gives me more time to soak in the club scene. Gotta stay one step ahead of the competition, ya know? It’s like a blessing really, gives us that edge.”

His rambling words painted a picture she was sure he would rather keep private. It didn’t take a genius to read between the lines. She didn’t buy his cavalier attitude for a minute. He was lying through his teeth. She knew. She had been lying for a year straight to practically everyone in her life, had nearly rotted her teeth through with all the saccharine sweetness she had faked. Her lips twisted in a sour smirk.

“You’re full of shit, but whatever. That couch pulls out into a mattress. You’ve gotta be gone by 6:30, that’s when my dad wakes up for work.”

“What?”

The squeakiest note yet. Julie looked Luke square in the eyes. That same intense energy from the other day sparked between them. The moment stretched on a beat too long. Julie gulped and forced herself to soften her tone. It was easier than expected.

“Stay here for the night, Luke. I’m not gonna ask about your parents, and no one is going to bother you in my mom’s studio. Sleep on the pull-out couch. There’s a bathroom in the back. It even has a shower and I think there’s still some soap in there though I can’t promise it isn’t floral scented. You can disappear in the morning and we won’t ever speak of this again.”

He stared at her, blue-green sea glass eyes cutting through to her very soul. She didn’t respond, letting the silence stretch and morph into something entirely too intimate. The tension between them pulled taut, Luke’s gentle smile breaking the moment as he took a few shy steps into the studio.  Julie ducked her head, tucking a few loose curls behind her ear, before she moved to meet him in the middle of the room, gracefully spinning around his body so her back was pressed against the doors. Their eyes caught again. One of those strong hands reached up to scratch at his neck once more.

“Thank you.”

The words were a quiet whisper, almost as sweet as when he returned the song to her earlier. She could hear everything he left unsaid with those two words. Thank you for not asking. Thank you for giving me a safe space. Thank you for caring. Unable to help herself, she bit her lip, gave him a small nod, and ducked out of the doors in a near perfect recreation of his response outside of the school that afternoon.

Heart a little lighter, she sneaked back into the house silently. It wasn’t until she was safely tucked away in the darkness of her bedroom that she dared peek out the window at the studio. The lights were off, but Julie swore she could make out a shadowy figure peering through the windows up at her room. She dropped her curtain like it was on fire, diving into bed and burying her head under the pillows. Heart racing, she laid with her eyes closed and tried to convince herself that Lucas freaking Patterson wasn’t slowly making himself a home in her heart.

#did i cry again while writing this? yes #sorry not sorry for all the angst but at least it hurts so good right? #soft boy luke is my absolute KRYPTONITE #julie and the phantoms #jatp #juke #jukebox #julie x luke #luke x julie #luke patterson #julie molina #palina #Mads speaks #Mads writes #jatp ficlet #jatp fanfic #juke fanfic #find the strength find the melody

[snowdice]

Finding the Time to Study Fic 2 [Day 10]

Here is my starting post for today’s study break stories session. See this post for more details and feel free to send me asks to keep me going! It’s been a lot of fun so far! I will reblog this post with the story as I write them today. I’ll be constantly looking for ideas of times and places for Janus to have missions, so feel free to send in any you can think of at any point!

If you are a new follower or just don’t want all of these posts clogging your dash, please feel free to block the tag “study break stories” as all posts and voting about it will go there. You can still see the finished product of the story even if you are blocking that tag as I will not tag the edited chapters with “study break stories” but with the tag “folds in paper.” See edited chapters below. Chapters 2, 3, 4, and what I have of Chapter 5 are under the cut.

My Masterpost Part 1

I also have a playlist on youtube (because Spotify didn’t have one of the songs I wanted). It’s short, and not really for serious listening, but I had fun with it.

It’s going to be stop and go for most of the night because a lot of things will interrupt me, but I hope to do a good amount of this today.

Chapter 2

The morning was just as torturous as Janus had expected it would be. He chewed through another pop-tart, this time bothering to actually check and see that it was a cinnamon-sugar one and drank three cups of caffeinated orange juice. Then, he waved his hand through the air and selected the 1st saved location on his device. He popped up directly behind his desk where he’d been standing the night morning before.

Someone, probably Remus, had shut his integrator down. He swiped a finger across the power button, and it flickered back on, scrolling through its morning start up routine.

 The machine scanned through all of the data in the three main system it was connected to and sorted all information into things that concerned him, could concern him, and did not before then sorting the first two categories into order of importance. As it did, he set up his screen reader so he would hopefully not start the day with more of a migraine than he already had. It took about 3 seconds for everything to turn on and settle.

Sitting down in his desk, he dismissed the notification that Remus had finished and submitted the report from their mission the day before.

 A mission had been scheduled for him today, and the details were in his inbox. A piece time travel technology had been accidently dropped by an archology student in the 1890s during a trip. It was an earlier model of emergency time travel given to time travels that would dump them back into the Registration Office in the year they originated. It wasn’t extremely dangerous, but could pose some problems, especially if someone who didn’t know what it was activated it.

Surveillance agents had tracked it down and found that it had been picked up by a local and sold. Though no one from that time had known what it was, they had identified that it was made out of a precious metal and it had been crafted into an expensive necklace. Janus and Remus were supposed to retrieve it today. It had been pinpointed that the most opportune time for the extraction was 1923 during a masquerade ball held by those who had bought the necklace.

 It was a fairly low stakes mission. He wasn’t set to leave for another couple of hours, so he clicked through the rest of the important notifications and then set off to meet his missions coordinator, Rhi, in her office.

Rhi and Janus got along fairly well. She was a well put together woman who took her job incredibly seriously. It was fair as her job was to organize all information and materials from every other department and make sure the agents she was assigned to got and understood all of it. A mistake from her could lead to an agent’s death or something far worse.

 This, of course, made her relationship with Remus… interesting to say the least. Janus could never place whether they were nemesis, frenemies, or mortal enemies, and he doubted he would ever know.

“Okay, but it’s the 1920s America,” Remus was already in her office arguing when Janus arrived. “There were so many gangsters! I could be a gangster. I would make a fantastic gangster! Just give me a gun, a snazzy suit with a white hat, and a buttload of alcohol. I will be running Chicago with Al Capone in five minutes.”

“Al Capone didn’t become a crime boss until 1925 and you are going to 1923,” Rhi said, sounding bored, “you aren’t going to Chicago, and as I have already stated, your cover is already decided.”

 “But-”

“It is nonnegotiable, Agent Clockson,” she said firmly. Remus pouted, but seemingly accepted his fate.

“May I come in?” Janus asked.

“Please do,” Rhi said. “You have been to the 1920s before, correct?” she asked Janus.

“Yes ma’am.”

She tapped the screen on her desk in response. “In the last two years?”

“About two months ago,” he responded. She tapped something else.

“Any blacks, reds, or yellows?” she asked.

“All green.”

“Great. Do you need a refresher course on basic cultural or linguistic procedures?”

“No.”

She pushed one more thing and then swiped the check-in document over to him. He glanced at the report stating he’d had no incidents of any level the last time he visited the 1920s and had opted out of the optional refresher course, and then pressed his finger against the screen to sign it with his fingerprint.

 The document returned to her side of the desk automatically. “Okay,” she said swiping another document from her left over to be in front of her. She twisted her wrist to copy it and slide copies to Janus and Remus. “Here are exact details on the time, place, and event you are going to, as well as details about your cover.” Janus scrolled through his quickly. It wasn’t as detailed as some he’d had considering this was a brief in-and-out missing, but he still took care to memorize everything on the page.

As he and Remus read through their things, Rhi got to her feet and turned to the storage compartments behind her desk.

 She grabbed out two packages and when they’d both signed that they’d read and understood the paperwork, she slid them across the desk to them. “These have everything you need,” she said. “Clothes, money, and an invitation to the party you’re off to attend. You are to get changed now, have a last check in with costuming to make sure everything is in order, and then report to decontamination in 23 minutes. Your set to leave in 38 minutes. Any questions?”

“How much-?” Remus started.

“None, agent,” Rhi said.

“But-”

“No alcohol,” Rhi said. “It is the prohibition era in the United States anyway.”

“Like there’s not going to be alcohol at the rich people party,” Remus said sullenly.

She pressed her lips together. “It is an in-and-out mission,” she said to both of them, and then turned to glare at Remus. “Do not get arrested.”

 “I don’t know,” Remus said joyfully. “I think I still have room for a 1920s mug shot on my wall.”

“Behave,” she said, “or I’ll report you for the cat you smuggled in from the 1800s.”

“You’d never,” Remus said. “You enjoy the cute pictures of Diesel Fuel I send you every day too much, and you know it!”

“Just… don’t get arrested.” She turned to Janus. “Don’t let him get arrested.”

“I’ll do my best,” Janus promised, standing. “Now come on, Remus, we need to get changed.”

“You just want to see me naked,” Remus replied with a wink, but he did stand.

 “If I see you naked one more time in my life Remus, my eyeballs will fall out of their sockets,” Janus said, waving to Rhi as he pulled Remus out of the door.

“Kinky.”

Janus’s eyeballs almost did fall out right then and there with how hard he rolled them.

They got changed quickly, Remus complaining and saying if he couldn’t dress like a gangster, he should at least be allowed to wear a flapper dress. Janus had long ago learned to ignore his ramblings. He did seem enthused about the included mask for the masquerade. It was a silver fox shaped mask with green accents that reminded Janus of the Egyptian God Anubis.

 Janus’s own mask on the other hand, was only designed to take up the left half of his face. It was mostly golden with a black swirled design. Attached to the side there was a plume of golden tipped white feathers. He had to give it to the costuming department, they did have good taste.

Once they were both dressed, they were poked and prodded by one of the costumers to make sure everything was accurate, fit right, and had been put on correctly.

After that, they went to the decontamination area to have themselves and everything they were taking with them sterilized so they didn’t accidently take any pathogens to the 1920s. They also received an oral vaccination to be sure they didn’t pick up anything from the 1920s and bring it back.

Then they were ready to go. The correct time-space coordinates had already been sent to their timepieces. With a push of a button, they were off.

  Inciting Incident

Chapter 3

Janus and Remus both appeared at the same moment a couple of feet apart in what looked like the inside of a garden shed. There was already a man waiting for them a few feet away. “Sup babes,” Remy said, just like he always did. The T-Agent looked their costumes up and down and whistled. “Now that,” he said, “almost makes me want to be one of you time jockeys.”

“They wouldn’t let me have a gun or a canister of moonshine,” Remus pouted.

Remy snorted. “Sorry, babes, but that makes my job a lot easier. If I’ve gotta fish you outta the 1920s criminal justice system, I’d rather it not be because you shot someone on accident ‘cause you don’t know how to use the safety.”

 Remus groaned dramatically. “Everyone is lame.”

Remy just shook his head. “Meet back here when you’ve got the necklace,” he said. “Don’t make a move until after 11:05pm and before 11:17. That’s your window.”

“We know,” Janus said. “See you then.”

“Have fun at the party boys,” Remy said and then lowered his shades to look at Remus, “but not too much fun.”

“Yeah, yeah,” said Remus, already towing Janus out of the garden shed. The way had been specifically cleared for them, so they met no other people before they’d rounded the house the party was taking place and had gotten onto the driveway in front of the house.

 Without missing a beat, they strolled up to the front of the house, just as a car pulled into the end of the driveway. Janus rang the doorbell, and a few moments later, a man who was clearly the butler answered the door. They handed over their invitation, and the man immediately let them in.

The party had already started when they slipped into the medium sized ballroom that had been decked out in streamers and other decorations. Janus’s nose immediately wanted to scrunch as the smell of sweat from all the dancing already going on as well as the too strong perfume meant to cover that stench wafted over him. It was by far not the worst smelling time period, but he was pretty sure some people still weren’t aware deodorant had been recently invented.

 He checked his time piece which had been disguised as a fancy wristwatch for this trip. “Okay,” he said. “We have about two hours before we need to make our move. We should…”

Remus’s attention was already being dragged away by a young man who seemed to be providing guests with food. “I’m going to go ‘mingle’,” he said, winking.

“No!” Janus hissed. “Re- Richard! No!”

Yet, he was already disappearing into the horde of stinky bodies, likely to go scandalize a bunch of rich folks, and leaving Janus alone. Janus mumbled a curse under his breath that he was sure no one around him would understand even if they could make it out.

 Unsure what to do with himself, he wandered over towards where the live musicians were playing jazz music, being sure to keep out of the way of the dancers. He was edging around the makeshift dancefloor, when one of said dancers must have misstepped and knocked into another one. The second man stumbled right towards Janus, arms pinwheeling. Janus reached out on instinct to catch the man as he fell.

There was a moment where the two of them just stared at each other, surprise evident on the other man’s face. He was wearing a mask that just covered the area around his eyes and the top of his nose, revealing a smattering of freckles across his cheeks that Janus imagined extended to his nose.

 The mask was a light blue velvet with a flower stuck on the side near his right ear, and a trail of curled golden ribbon bobbed down around his chin. The party continued on around them, a blur of movement and sound.

“Are you alright?” Janus asked.

The man blinked up at him and then tilted his head slightly to the side as though confused, before a smile slowly grew on his face. “Oh, I’m fine Dove.”

“Dove?” Janus asked.

He giggled. “You have dove feathers on your mask,” he explained, reaching up a hand to touch one. His finger brushed the tip of Janus’s ear, “and I don’t know what else I am supposed to call you.”

 “My name is Lee,” he automatically lied.

“Is it?” he asked, sounding amused. “Doesn’t seem to fit you well. I like Dove better.”

“Oh?” asked Janus. “And what’s your name so I can not call you that?”

The man chuckled. “Call me Pat.”

“Hello Pat,” Janus said.

“I thought you didn’t want to call me by my name.”

“I changed my mind.”

“Hmmm,” Pat said, finger tracing idly across Janus’s forearm which was when Janus realized with a start that he was still holding the man in his arms. He quickly went to release him, which Pat allowed with clear amusement.

 Yet, instead of completely stepping away, Pat grabbed Janus’s arm. “What are you doing all the way over here by the way?” he asked. “Don’t you want to dance.”

“Oh,” Janus hesitated. “I don’t really dance.” Or at least not in the way the people around him were. He’d had basic training for this style, but it had been a while and he was a bit rusty.

“Everyone dances Dove,” Pat claimed. “At least if they know the steps and have the right partner.”

“But I don’t know the steps,” Janus said with an eyebrow raise.

He hummed. “Well, I know the dance pretty well by this point,” Pat said. “Why don’t I teach you how it goes.”

 He was agreeing with the soft beseeching tone before he even realized it. Pat pulled him into the middle of the throng of people. He seemed to think, bopping his head to the music playing for a moment, before looking back at Janus. “Heard of James Johnson?”

Janus inclined his head.

“Well, have you heard his new song? Because there’s a dance that goes with it.”

He took a few steps away from Janus and started to dance. Despite his claim to know the steps, he wasn’t particularly good, but he made up for any loss of rhythm with pure enthusiasm.

 Janus found himself smiling at the man, and after a few moments, joined in with the dance. Despite his lack of practice, he ended up having a better natural rhythm than Pat. Pat didn’t seem to mind that he was being outperformed, however. On the contrary, he giggled at himself the couple of times he stumbled.

When he fell into Janus’s arms for the second time that night, Janus decided he’d probably had enough dancing for the moment and pulled him off to the side to get something to drink and cool down a bit.

He watched the man take a snack and some punch from one of servers and thank him happily before turning back to Janus. Pat was easily able to keep Janus’s attention as they chatted. He was bubbly and soft, and Janus found himself enchanted as they talked.

 He was explaining the steps of a different dance, a couples one. “Knowing how to perform the tango will entrance any girl you want,” Pat said, something mischievous sparkling in his eyes. “Assuming you’re that type of fella.”

“As opposed to what?” Janus asked.

Pat leaned in a bit closer. Not too much, but enough that he was definitely in Janus’s space. “A different type of fella,” he said simply, before smiling and leaning back.

Janus let out a shaky exhale and took a sip of punch. He glanced over at Pat. “Tell me about yourself, Pat,” he said.

Pat hummed in contemplation. “Well, I went to France recently.”

 “You did?”

“Oui, c'était amusant, mais j'ai eu des ennuis”

“What kind of trouble?” Janus asked curiously.

“Oh, the kind with a pretty boy and crepes that were way too sweet. Anyway,” he continued. “Other than that, I mostly help out my friend. He’s an inventor.”

“And how do you help him.”

He shrugged, “Running errands mostly, and making sure he gets enough sleep, because otherwise he gets distracted and forgets. And you?”

“I’m a banker,” he said, remembering his cover, but felt compelled to add, “but I like to travel as well.”

“You do look the type?”

“And how is that?”

   Pat shrugged. “I can always tell a wandering spirt from the masses, and you are easy to spot.” Pat looked at him then with a secret smile on his face, and Janus felt suddenly known, like the man in front of him had known him for years even though they’d only just met. Looking at him then, he wanted suddenly for that to be fact and not a flight of fancy.

He was brought firmly back to reality in the next moment. “Lee,” a pointed and familiar voice said. Janus’s head snapped up to see Remus, staring at him. He tapped his wrist. Janus glanced at his own wrist: 10:58pm. He just barely managed not to curse.

 “I,” he said looking up at Pat. “I’m sorry, but I have to go.”

“That’s okay,” Pat said easily. “It is getting rather late.”

“Yes,” Janus agreed. “Well… goodbye.”

Pat, titled his head, a half smile on his face. “I’ll be seeing you around.”

Janus nodded, and turned away from him towards Remus. He didn’t look back as they excited the ballroom. They snuck into a small side closet for coats that wasn’t being used as it was summer.

“So,” Remus said when the door closed behind them.

“Don’t,” warned Janus.

“I’m not one to judge,” Remus said.

“Shut up.” He glanced at his watch. It was 11:02. “We’ll go in 5.”

 “I have to give it to you. He was very cute.”

“We’re not talking about it.”

Remus just laughed joyfully, and Janus did his best to halt the blood rushing to his cheeks.

At 11:07, well into their window, they slipped back out of the closet, and towards the stairs as the party raged on.

Despite how Remus usually never shut up, he was able to be quiet when it counted. They snuck to the master bedroom of the home’s owners in silence. The door was already wide open by the time they got there, and Janus didn’t think anything of it. At least, he didn’t until they entered the bedroom, and there was someone already there.

 He turned from the dresser he’d been standing in front of to face them, sending Janus the same smile he had down in the ballroom. Janus and Remus both froze. “Sorry, sweetie,” Pat said. “Were you here for this too?” he held up the necklace they’d been sent for. He closed his fist around the charm made out of time travel tech.

“What?” Janus said.

Pat giggled and winked. “Unfortunately, I need it a bit more than you at the moment. So, I’m gonna have to go.” Janus stepped forward, not really sure what he was intending to do, but Pat just smiled. “See you some other time, my Turtle Dove.” With a snap of his fingers and loud crack, he disappeared. The mask he’d been wearing fluttered to the ground.

  Arc I: Finding Cinderella

Chapter 4

Janus was frozen in surprise for a few long moments after Pat disappeared. Which had been, admittedly, his mistake, because, while their window had technically been until 11:17pm and it was only 11:10, the loud crack that whatever Pat had been using for time travel made, garnered the attention of someone else.

“Uh oh,” Remus said, likely hearing footsteps. “Hide.”

That snapped Janus into action, but instead of hiding immediately like a sensible human being, he chose to go for the only link to the man who’d just stolen time travel tech and waltzed away, the mask.

Which was why he ended up getting arrested.

 Remy tsked the moment they were all alone in the police car having come to ‘transfer Lee to another facility.’ Remus was already waiting in the front seat, and flashed Janus a smug smile. If Janus wasn’t still handcuffed, he’d slap him.

“Well,” Remy said. “At least you didn’t shoot anybody like I asked. I was joking by the way. I didn’t really want to pick you up from a 1920s police station period.”

“It wasn’t my fault.”

“Mmm, nah, ‘cause Remus managed to not get arrested this time, so you defiantly screwed something up.”

“Oh, he defiantly wanted to screw something all right,” Remus said joyfully.

 “Remus,” Janus hissed.

“What?” he asked. “I’m not the horny one for once. Well, no, that’s a lie, but it didn’t affect the job this time.”

Janus groaned and leaned his head back against the seat.

Remy pulled into a seemingly random garage around 20 minutes later. “Alright,” he said. “Here we are.” He got out of the car and then helped Janus out before uncuffing him. “Here’s your ‘watch,’” Remy handed him the timepiece that had been confiscated when he’d been arrested.

Janus put it on and activated it. “Shit,” he said.

“What?” Remus asked.

“An appointment with cultural outreach has already been downloaded to my calendar for once we get out of decon.”

 “Oof. Going to baby jail,” Remy laughed. Remus was cackling.

“This,” Janus said, “was not a cultural faux pas. I did nothing that indicated that I was not from this time. I am not some rookie.”

“Don’t forget cell phones don’t exist in the 1920s,” Remus sang.

“The real question is whether or not my foot exists in your…” Remus disappeared before he could finish, a smirk on his face. Janus growled. “By Remy,” he gritted out. He selected the decontamination chamber from his queue, ignoring the appointment that came after it for now.

He knew exactly where Remus would be standing when he landed, which was why he stepped forward on reentry to ram into him.

 He yelped in surprise. “Sorry,” Janus said pleasantly. “I must have also forgotten landing procedures.

Remus laughed good naturally. “Aw, come on Jay,” he said, bumping Janus back, albeit much gentler than Janus had been. “It’s not a big deal. You just go talk with some crusty old college professor who is far too interested in spoons and then everything’s fine.”

“It’s the principle of the thing,” he growled. “They’re treating me like I’m an idiot who accidently invented disco in the 1920s when I was conned by some free agent time traveler.”

“‘Conned,’ Remus said. Is that what they’re calling it now?”

 “I know where and when you live Remus,” Janus said.

Remus gave him a dopey smile as the decontamination cycle finished and the door unlocked. Janus’s wrist buzzed telling him that the coordinates to the cultural outreach office were now unlocked. Instead of pulling them up, Janus walked to the door.

“Um,” Remus said, following him. “Aren’t you supposed to be going to your appointment?” Janus just kept walking towards their office. “Uh… Jan?”

“It’s absolutely ridiculous that I have to go to cultural outreach,” Janus said. “In fact, no one can make me. If they want me to go have a discussion about the definition of ‘bushwa,’ they’re going to have to have me dragged there.”

 “Mmm, I feel like The Boss won’t be too happy about that, and I have a feeling she’d be 100% down to dragging you there herself.”

“Well, then, let her,” Janus said, stalking through the door to his office. “I’m not going to…”

“Ah, Agent Picani,” the woman standing next to his desk, clearly waiting for him, said when he came through the door. “Dr. Picani was informed that there were complications with your last mission and wishes to have a conversation with you and asks that you meet him in his office at the AMO.”

“Oh, um,” Janus said, stumbling a bit before plastering on a regretful half smile. “Unfortunately, I actually have an appointment right now at Cultural Outreach. It’s mandatory and very important, and I have to go now. So, I’ll have to take a raincheck on that.”

 “But-” she started, frowning.

“Remus, work on the report!” Janus said quickly as he waved his hand to bring up his timepiece display and jammed his finger at the glowing appointment card in his queue. A few moments later, Janus was at Cultural Outreach.

Cultural Outreach was not part of the TPI, though it often worked very closely with them. It was a collaboration between the government and multiple universities to help government workers, politicians, and other citizens understand and bridge cultural gaps. It had existed before time travel was invented but had expanded to also teach people who needed to time travel how to behave in unfamiliar times and cultures.

 After it had to be expanded to provide for the TPI, it had been moved to Silver Mountains University. The building had once just been a museum, but it had been thoroughly renovated and there had been add-ons for office space and some classrooms. It was still a museum, however, its purpose had expanded greatly and there were many areas that were off limits to the general public.

One of these areas was the fourth floor, where Janus’s timepiece had dumped him. This was the floor that was almost exclusively for TPI agents and staff of Cultural Outreach who worked with them.

 He immediately turned away from the reception area, hoping that he could escape and go sit on the university’s quad or something of the like for the next hour or so in hopes the woman his brother sent to fetch him would give up and go back to the AMO. Yet, the receptionist apparently saw him.

“Janus Picani?” he asked.

Janus grimaced and turned back towards him. “Yes,” he said.

“Is something wrong?” he asked. “You’re 5 minutes late for your appointment and seem disoriented.

“Nothing’s wrong.”

“Is your timepiece malfunctioning?”

“No.”

“Uh… okay. Well, if you sign in here, I can take you to your appointment.”

“…Fine.”

 He begrudgingly stepped forward and touched the screen he’d gestured to sign with his fingerprint, and then let the man lead him down the hall.

The door they stopped at was propped open slightly, but he still paused and knocked. “Professor Eran? Your 2:30 is here.”

Janus had just a moment upon hearing the name to think that maybe there was actually some sort of intelligent design of the universe and whatever being of ultimate power had crafted it was a dick.

The door opened and Virgil Eran’s eyes immediately narrowed on him. “Janus.”

“Virgil.”

“I see you’re still late for everything.”

“I see you’re still a bastard.”

 Janus saw the receptionist slowly back away in the direction they’d come.

“Why don’t you come in?” Virgil said faux pleasantly.

Janus did, because he really didn’t have much of a choice at this point unless he wanted to jump out of a window… or push someone out of a window.

Virgil turned back into his office and took a seat behind his desk. Janus unhappily followed him in and sat across from him.

He took his time pulling up whatever the TPI sent him and reading it over. “So, I see you failed your recovery mission and were arrested in 1923.”

 “It wasn’t like that,” Janus said. “I shouldn’t be here.”

Virgil gave him that same suspicious look he used to give Janus whenever Janus claimed to have not eaten his hot pockets out of the freezer in the middle of the night. He’d only been lying 80% of the time. Virgil had a tendency to forget what he’d eaten in a half-conscious state at 3 o’clock in the morning.

“I shouldn’t,” Janus snapped defensively. “Nothing went wrong with anyone from the time period. An illegal time traveler screwed up the mission details.”

“Well, it is still protocol to make sure nothing slipped when agents go off script. You weren’t prepared to be in a jail cell, and it is possible that you screwed something up.”

 “I didn’t screw anything up,” Janus growled.

“Alright,” Virgil said pulling up a document on his desk. “The mission started on July 27th, 1923 at 9:58pm, correct?”

“Oh, god, we’re not really going to fill out a time sheet. I don’t have time for that today.”

“It is protocol and best that the information is documented when it is still fresh in your mind. Besides, your schedule has been cleared for the rest of the workday.” The bastard was enjoying this. He knew how much Janus hated this stuff.

“I didn’t do anything wrong,” Janus said, “it was the damned illicit time traveler.”

“And I will be the judge of that,” Virgil said. Janus should have just bit the bullet and had coffee with his brother. “If you truly did nothing wrong, your supervisor will see that when I send this to her.”

 Yet, despite the fact that Virgil clearly relished in his suffering, he was charitable enough to do most of the actual filling out of the forms. He’d read out the questions and write down what Janus said instead of making him do it himself. Janus really only had to do a quick quality check and sign it at the end.

He still was an asshole about the details, but really he’d been like that about stupid thing like the settings for the dish washer and how the pantry was organized during their college days before they’d had their falling out, so Janus wasn’t particularly surprised. When they were finally done, Virgil sent it off to get filed by the TPI.

 Then, they were left staring at each other with nothing between them but almost a decade of radio silence and a whole lot of awkwardness.

“I should go,” Janus finally said, standing up.

Virgil tilted his head slightly to the side and gave him a half smile. “Don’t lock the door behind you,” he said. “Not that I’d expect you too.”

Janus took it for the clear attempt at a joke it was intended to be and puffed out a breath of amusement with a head shake. “No risk of that,” he said. Then, he turned and walked out of the office.

 Chapter 5

Janus stepped back into the reception area and booted up his time piece. Instinct said to go back to the office despite the fact that it was late enough that most people had gone home, but he hesitated. Surely Emile had given up by now, but considering he’d sent someone to ambush him in his office, Janus wasn’t sure if he should trust that. He could just go home, but he already knew his mind was racing too much to sleep tonight so he’d probably just end up staring at the lake for the next 6 hours. So, he decided on the only other legitimate option he had. He pulled up Remus’s home coordinates and selected.

 The home that Remus had chosen (after his long line of rejected requests) managed to somehow make no and absolute sense simultaneously to anyone who knew him. It was a small farm in the United States just west of the Mississippi in 1842 in what would be ratified as the state of Iowa in a few years. When asked why he would choose that time and place, Remus always responded with “I thought it was funny,” whatever that meant.

Unlike most time agents who simply used the identities assigned to them by the AMO as a cover, Remus actually lived his part time.

 Janus was… fairly certain he was cheating a bit to get everything done, but he maintained his small farm all on his own, growing most of his own food. The neighbors he had lived very far away, but he still spoke with them far more than Janus did his own.

Janus appeared inside the small home, his eyes already shut. “Are you hear and dressed?” Janus called. Something bumped lightly into his legs.

“I’m in the kitchen!”

Janus peaked his eyes open and squatted to pet the cat at his feet. “That doesn’t answer my question!” he called back to Remus.

 “It’s a surprise!” Remus said.

“Remus.” Diesel Fuel the cat flopped to her side on the ground as Janus continued to pet her ears. He heard Remus’s footsteps, and saw cloth covering his legs, so risked looking up. He was currently not only dressed, but wearing an apron that Janus was fairly sure was not time appropriate judging by the fabric and cat pawprint design. He had a bit of flour on his hands, and it may have been a bit too white for the time and place, but Janus couldn’t be completely sure.

“What’re you doing here?” Remus asked.

 “My day has been an endless series of frustrations,” Janus said. “So, I have come to see the only tolerable being in the history of the universe.”

Remus snorted. “Since I know that isn’t me, I’ll assume you’re talking about the cat.”

“I still don’t understand why you tolerate this creature,” Janus addressed Diesel Fuel. She blinked slowly up at him. “To be fair, he was assigned as my partner. I didn’t have much of a choice in it. You could go always run away and become feral in the woods if you’d like.”

“So could you, technically,” Remus pointed out.

“I’m thinking about it after today.”

 “Would you like some bread?” Remus asked. “That’s all I’ve been making this afternoon. Some fresh should be coming out of the oven in a few minutes.”

“Do you have anything stronger made out of wheat?”

“Ew, no, but I do have vodka.”

“Vodka works.”

“Want me to mix it with something?”

“No.”

“One of those night then,” Remus said, easily. “Let me finish up the bread, so I don’t burn the kitchen down. You can go get the alcohol from the cellar while you wait if you want, or you can just flop down on the couch.”

He was going to just flop down on the couch.

#study break stories #not writing

[my-whumpy-little-heart]

Tumblr was fighting me on the reblog, so I just made a new post. Thank you so much to @spookyboywhump for tagging me in that picrew chain; I went a little overboard and had a lot of fun!

In order, these are Percival, Floyd, Llyr, Hugh, Ray, and Mabel all from my pirate universe. I’m going to go into a bit more detail under a cut because of course I am, you guys know me, so open that up if you want some excited appearance rambles!

Oh hello, welcome to the forbidden Keep Reading land! Glad to have you here. Just gonna do this list style before I start going wild with transitions or something dumb like that.

Percival - Ah, it’s been ages since we’ve seen this man, hasn’t it? If you’ve been around for a good long while, you might remember me doing a drawing of him and Floyd a while back, and details on both of their appearances have definitely shifted since then. This picrew is more accurate, especially in the hairstyle. The color should be warmer and have streaks of blond in it, but otherwise it definitely looks like him to me.

Some more details to note is that no picrew will ever get his eyes right. They should be lighter and lean a little more towards orange with yellow highlights that are especially prominent when he’s using magic. I’m not sure if he has his nose pierced in canon, but he does have his ears pierced and oh yeah those snake earrings were definitely used because of his reputation as The Serpent. And I love snakes a completely normal amount but that’s totally irrelevant definitely not a driving force what?

(fun side note: i was gonna give him the lemon background because he is a sucker for anything acidic and strong, hence his really weird obsession with vinegar that is the only thing he wants to tell  me about himself most days, but then this one looked really pretty so I kept it)

Floyd - We just saw him again if you’ve been keeping up with the Llyr and the Pirates storyline, though this picrew is based more off of his starring role and captivity in Persistence. He doesn’t have piercings in anything we’ve seen so far, but he will canonically get them at some point :D

Other than that, everything’s pretty straightforward. He’s got his collar from Percival, which is technically a more brownish leather and just a little thicker than that, and his eye color should be a little lighter, leaning towards blue-green. Oh, and I gave him a pass on my attempts at kinda realistic clothing because I thought that Floyd would absolutely love this shirt. A shame he isn’t in our time really... I think he would love a lot of funky patterns and stuff in modern fashion. aNYWAYS-

Llyr - My sealy son! I’ve really gotta see if there’s a seal picrew I could use to design his other form lol. But here’s what he’s meant to look like! I think this hairstyle was meant to be used as braids or dreadlocks, but it was the only messy looking one I could find. Because ever since Llyr turned human, his hair has been awfully maintained, and by that I mean Not At All it’s so tangled you couldn’t even pull a brush through it without a good amount of effort. But all the colors are correct here!

If I could very quickly point you in the direction of his cloak, that’s the closest I could get to the way he wears his seal skin when it’s not being taken away from him (*glares at the Offending Individual(s)*). He isn’t wearing a shirt under it because clothes are still super weird feeling to him, and he’d rather go with the bare minimum than feel fabric moving around and clinging to him all day. And he’s being assertive and indignant, because Of Course He Is.

Hugh - Aha, a design! A design for the largely descriptionless bastard man! The hair is pretty accurate for how he wears it currently, though he definitely prefers it shorter than that so it isn’t curling into his face all the time. The color should be darker, closer to a traditional brunette tone, and this picrew is so invalid only because I couldn’t give him the beard that was the only thing I pictured for so long. Hugh has a full chin beard that he also keeps fairly short, but he isn’t able to grow too much of a mustache so that stays as stubble on his upper lip. 

As for physique, he’s definitely a lot more muscley than this picrew allowed him to be. The outfit he has on is definitely close to something he got his first night on Gawain’s ship, though a little more tight fitting than it is in reality. Otherwise, I don’t have too much to say on him! Smarmy grin and half lidded eyes is his signature expression for harassing people, but those eyes open up to look a little more friendly most other times.

Ray - Ahhh my sunshine child, always trying his best! *stares at both of my story wips with him* He’s completely fine, both physically and emotionally! But I digress. Here’s Ray on a classic, happy day! This picrew did such a good job with his hair. Wavy, ending just above his shoulders, and sometimes tied up in a ponytail or bun. This honestly looks so accurate to him and I love it.

A note on his coat that also extends to Percival, this choice isn’t super accurate to his coat? Percival’s should be dark red/magenta and Ray’s should be more of a navy blue/green, and both of them should be more tailored, but these were the closest I could get them. My captains really like their fun coats (except Gawain. He likes to stick to protocol uniforms, which in the Law Abiding Business does not include a fun coat)

Mabel - Last, but certainly not least! Mabel is fantastic and this picrew fits her very very well. That shirt is definitely made of some softer flannel-ish material and she wears it on windier or brisker days. Those stripey shirts are some of her favorite patterns aside from No Pattern. 

Oh and her hair I really had a blast making here. It wasn’t working out at first because there aren’t a whole lot of options, but I thought to have her put it up and then include that little braid bit and with some curly bangs and little loose bits on the side it really came together! Yellow looked cute with her and I didn’t want the beautiful fruit backgrounds to go to waste, so I gave her some lemons because why not. 

Ah and one last note. The only reason y’all aren’t getting a Gawain picrew as well is because 1) even numbers,,,, good,,,,, and actually because 2) he looked absolutely cursed in this picrew and it didn’t represent him quite as well as I’d like. Maybe I’ll doodle him out sometime so you guys can see what he looks like....

Sooo.... yeah.... that was certainly. A Ramble. If you’re still here, I’m so very sorry. I’m going to go get something to eat now. Ah, and everyone I would have tagged has already taken care of this since I took all day, so anyone can go ahead if they’d like.

#literally everyone: i'm gonna make one or two picrews then say a few words before passing this on #me: ahaha yeah i can do that #me just seconds later: oh wait. i'm an idiot. #buuuut anyways I decided on appearances! hugh didn't have one before this! #neither did gawain but he didn't work well at all in this picrew haha #i don't even know who's appearances i've shared with the world before now #did y'all know what mabel looked like? am i a fool? did i forget to say what she looked like? #no matter. you know now and that's all that matters ig #i need to hECKING POST THIS DAMMIT BOA THIS DOESN'T NEED MORE TAGS BUT FIRST #boa speaks #boa is very dumb #picrew #ohhhhhhhhhh do i tag characters #i'm gonna tag the fucking characters fuck this #Percival #Benedict Floyd #Llyr the Selkie #Hugh Williams #Raymond Bates #Mabel Forbes #tHERE #THAT'S IT #I'M DONE MAKING WORDS AAAAAAGH NONE OF THIS WAS SUPPOSED TO HAPPENNNNNN

[trojansblr]

#FightOn! (04) | OT7

Summary: The University of Southern California is a prestigious school - only the best or the richest can attend. That means there will be a lot of spoiled brats. Two groups start colliding and the entire college shift alongside them. What will happen when sparks starts to flow between them? Drama will certainly be there.

Pairing: BTS with -eventually- female characters

Genre: Fluff, Angst, Smut (in the future), CollegeAU!

Word Count: 16k UNEDITED 

A/N: Thank you all so much for waiting. This chapter was taking his time to take form in my head. Anyway, I hope you all enjoy and thank you so so much to all the girls that joined our family and to the ones that are with us everyday! Also, a big thanks to @bunnybubkook for being our editor of this chapter (she’s helping us improve our writing since our first language isn’t English). I made so many mistakes, it’s a shame ooofff I’ll be waiting for your feedback on the asks ❤ Love you all 

The Characters • Day 3 • Day 4 • Day 5

The air at USC was electrifying, and it affected everyone. At the Flour Tower, Hyori’s alarm had just rang. To her surprise, her roommate was already awake. Deo was sitting on her bed, hair all over her face. Honestly, if there wasn’t light peeking through the blinds, Hyori would almost swear it was Samara sitting there instead of her best friend.

“Are you ok?” Hyori’s voice came out hoarse from having just woken up a couple of seconds ago. All she got from her roommate was a grunting sound and a nod. “What is going on? Did something happen?”

She jumped out of her bed and into the other, cupping Deo’s face in her tiny hands. The girl looked pale and her lips were more of a red-ish, compared to her usual lip color. It was either because of a cold, because she had been crying, or because she was on her period.

“Did you turn into a vampire or something?” Hyori joked, making Deo laugh.

“I’m on my period.” Deo finally spoke, letting her body fall backwards and into her soft mattress. “It feels like I’m dying.” She grabbed Hyori’s wrist dramatically.

“Do you know what’s good for cramps?”

“If you say exercise, I’m going to kill you.”

“C’mon, come run with me.” Hyori said excitedly. It was rare, but the times it did happen she had the best time running with Deo. The two of them were super competitive, so they would always end up racing each other to see who would win.

As the girls were getting ready for their morning run, everyone was still very much sound asleep.Hyori was used to mornings being quiet, only seeing one or two people on her way to the track field. Today, however, with her roommate tagging along, she could barely hear the birds chipper because they were talking and laughing too loudly.

“Ok, are you ready?” Hyori said, getting into her lane and kneeling into position.

“What? Wait! We have to make a bet!” Deo said. She’s picked up this habit with Jungkook of betting on everything and anything. ‘Bet you I can finish my drink faster than you’, ‘bet you I can take a better picture than you’, ‘bet you’ll be hungover the next morning’. Because of this, she would always try to make bets with her friends, just for fun.

“Fine!” Hyori said, straightening herself. “What about... whoever loses has to make the other breakfast?”

“Good enough for me.” Deo shrugged, and both kneeled down on their respective lanes.

“Ready...”

“Set...”

“GO!” They screamed at the same time and started sprinting.

For the sake of their breakfast, Deo lost. Or, being truthful, she quit midway because her cramps were bugging her too much, so instead of running, Deo just sat down on the track and Hyori returned to her normal pace.

Once they got back to their dorms, they took a quick shower before heading to the common kitchen where they usually ate breakfast. Deo ended up making enough pancakes to feed two girls that were their floor’s neighbors.

Not too far away, in apartment 203, everyone was awake except for Yoongi. He had stayed up until sunrise adding last-minute details to one of his songs. Today was a big day for him, which also made it a big day for his friends. They were their friends' number one supporters and if there was anyone who deserved love and support, it was Yoongi.

“Hey man.” Namjoon spoke to Jungkook, making him jump in his seat. He was too focused typing on his phone.

“Oh hey, good morning!”

“You’re up early. Going somewhere?” Namjoon asked as he took a bite of his apple.

“Yeah. I gotta help my friend set up a runaway for this fashion show they’re having.”

“Oh yeah, I think I saw a flyer around campus about that. You’re going to model?”

“Nah, I’m going to help backstage.” Jungkook said nonchalantly. Namjoon only nodded. “You’re going to the library?”

“I have an essay to finish, so, yeah. I’m gonna go now since everyone is still asleep, and once they wake up I know I won’t be able to focus.” Namjoon laughed lightly, grabbing his books and standing up. “I’ll see you later.”

“See ya man.”

Jungkook continued to stay glued to his phone. Ever since the volleyball party he had been talking to this girl he met there, Aashna. Usually, he would only open his social media to check on the million things his friends would post but recently he found himself excited to see the questions Aashna would send him. Their conversations were based on games like 21 questions or would you rather and he had a good time doing it. It stopped him from being bored. Right now, he was trying to decide if he would rather fly like Superman or travel like Spiderman. To him, this one was actually pretty easy. He liked Spiderman so much, it was an obvious choice.

Namjoon, was already in the library. Luckily for him, the crazy old lady didn’t hear him heading out today, so he didn’t have to waste two hours talking to her. It would take him a while to get in the mood to do his work but there was something that always worked. Scanning the books shelves. Namjoon’s love for books was a big one and just reading the books covers would make him ease into the state of mind he needed to focus and do his work. 

He had assembled quite the pile of books. In fact, it was so big that it created a wall, such that he was barely visible behind. After 45 minutes, Namjoon realized one book was missing, so he walked quietly to the front desk where a pretty girl was sitting. Her hair caught his attention due to how bulky it was. He cleared his throat before speaking.

“Sorry to bother but I need a book on lobbying. I couldn’t find it back there.” He said quietly, to not disturb the people that were reading close by.

“Yeah, give me a second.” She said and started typing on the computer she had in front of her. “If you want you can sit down and I'll bring it to your table?” She suggested.

“Thank you!”

Namjoon headed back to his table as Silvia, the pretty girl at the front desk, was waiting for the computer to respond. Considering USC installations, the computer in the library was a dump. Specially from Silvia’s point of view. Her close friend Tessa was majoring in Graphic Design, so she was used to the best computers the school had to offer. They basically only took one second to open an adobe program. This computer however, took five whole minutes just to search for a book, but thankfully, she had the patient of a saint. Once the computer finally managed to load the book Namjoon was looking for, she headed for the correct aisle and scanned it until she identified the book Namjoon needed. As she approached, she couldn’t help but hear Namjoon mumbling to himself. Curiosity hit her, and she stopped in her tracks.

“It’s just so hard, Celi...” He sighed hard, talking into his phone. “I don’t even remember who that was at the party. I remember that she was pretty, and tiny, and had this dark brown hair that was kinda wavy. It suited her so well... I was too drunk to remember her name though. This is so unlike me! And I thought I liked Najma, but if I slept with someone else, maybe I don’t?” He continued rambling. “Anyway, I'll see you at lunch. We can talk about all of this then, yeah?”

As Namjoon placed his phone down, Silvia was afraid that he would look back and catch her red-handed. So, she clumsily moved towards his table.

“I have your book right here.” She smiled kindly to him.

“Thanks! I’m sorry I had to bother you, but I really didn’t find it.”

“Oh, it’s not a problem. To be honest, I was almost falling asleep back there.” She said cutely, making him laugh lightly.

“Well, anyway, thank you!”

“If you don’t mind me asking... what’s your work about?”

“It’s about Interest Group Perspectives. It’s for one of my Philosophy classes.” He nodded his head.

“Oh, I won’t keep you any longer then. Good luck on that, and if you need anything you know where to find me.”

Silvia started walking back to her post but she couldn’t resist on looking back. Namjoon was scanning the book, a serious expression on his face. For the first time ever since she started working at the library, she thought her role was  being a mere spectator only, of other’s lives. She was done being the reader. She was going to become the narrator of Namjoon’s story and help him find someone he deserved. How? She didn’t have her plan all figured out quite yet, but what she did have was time. She was going to come up with something.

Somewhere around campus, Jimin was already rushing to meet Deo and Hyori. They had to go help Hobi arrange the space for his sister’s fashion show but Jimin fell asleep and so, the girls had been waiting for him for the last 15 minutes. He finally laid eyes on the two tiny girls and jogged to them.

“Hey babies! Sorry I’m late!” Jimin smiled big, so big his eyes seemed to shut.

“I hope you don’t keep all your girlfriends waiting like this every time you get a date.” Deo sassily said, hugging the boy.

“It’s part of his charm.” Hyori teased back, but also gave a quick hug to the boy.

“Let’s just go!” Jimin whined. “They’re waiting for us!” The girls gagged in disbelief to the boy’s audacity but decided it was best to ignore him and just walk.

Back in Jimin’s dorm, Taehyung was tossing and turning in his bed. His roommate had gotten up in such a hurry, that it almost felt like their dorm was under attack. He usually had a quick and deep sleep, but today it wasn’t cooperating with his laziness. He rolled around one more time, this time turning to his bedside table to reach for his phone and check the time. It marked 10:47, so he decided he might as well enjoy the day. He quickly got dressed, put his usual drawing notebook in his bag, and headed out. The sun was bright outside, so he decided to stop by the campus café to get something to help his inspiration run a little. His brain was still in sleep mode.

Once he got to the café, as he was waiting in line, already knowing what to order, he decided to take a look around to see if there were any familiar faces he could greet. He did find one. She was sitting on one of the furthest booths of the café, looking at something on her tablet. Once he got his order, he walked up to her.

“Hey! I think I recognize you?” He asked, not feeling so sure now that he remembered how drunk he was at the party. “Sana, right?”

“That’s me!” She smiled kindly to him. “You wanna sit with me?”

“Yes!” As he answered, the girl scootched to the side to give him space to sit on the booth. “What are you doing here?”

“I’m actually waiting for my friends. They should be here pretty soon.”

“Oh, you’re doing something fun?” He asked, excited and curious.

“We’re gonna have breakfast here, and then we’re going to buy tickets for an exhibition. I don’t know if you know the artist. It’s Benjamin Verhoven.”

“Oh? Benjamin...” Taehyung let his thoughts slip through his lips. “His name sounds familiar, but I can’t remember any of his works.”

“Well... you can join us if you want?” She offered with a sweet smile on her lips.

“I can’t say no to an invitation like that. I’m a sucker for art.” He smiled sheepishly. “Would it be ok if I invite some of my friends to join us?”

“Of course! The more the merrier!”

“Cool!” Taehyung let out a big smile. “I’ll talk to you later then?”

“Of course! I’ll dm you the details!” Sana said in a goodbye tone.

They had begun to talk a lot ever since the party about things like art, music, books – pretty much everything. Their tastes were very similar, so they always had a good time speaking to one another. Taehyung left the café looking like a little kid on a sugar high.

“NO NO NO! SUPPORT ME!” Jin screamed into his microphone. He had been playing LOL for the past 45 minutes, and to say that the game wasn’t going his way was an understatement. “Fucking noobs!”

AlpacaTower: wtf dude!! Support!! Noob

Otakupandasworld: omw!

AlpacaTower: no! You're a jungler!!

Otakupandasworld: we can still win this!

Jin couldn’t even care about his team chatting, as soon as the surrender popped up, he clicked on ‘YES’ and immediately left his computer. He was too upset to stay and see his screen light up with the word ‘DEFEAT’. He walked into the kitchen and straight to the fridge, and before opening it, he took a quick look at the kink list. Weirdly enough, it hadn't been updated this week. As he was about to open the fridge, the power was cut out. He immediately regretted not turning off his computer earlier and putting the garlic bread in the oven. Jin took his phone from his back pocket and turned on the flashlight. He walked out of his apartment and into the hall where the electric board was. 

“Oh shit! You scared me!” Esme, the girl that lived front door said, her hands covering her chest from the scare.

“Sorry about that.” Jin scratched the back of his neck, trying not to laugh. “And sorry about the power too.”

“It just went out out of nowhere!” She laughed, still a little spooked.

“Yeah, I had too many things on!” Jin laughed and made some space so that he could reach the electric board. “You just have to flip this switch up and it should be back on right...” He stopped, flipping the big red switch on the power board “now!” As he spoke, the corridor was filled with light.

“Wow, I almost got goosebumps.” She teased, making him laugh. “I’m Esme by the way!”

“Jin!” He let out his hand for her to shake, and she did. As he was about to turn his back on her, he stopped by his door, turning over. “Quick question, if two vegetarians have a fight, is it still called beef?” He said with an amused look on his face.

“It depends on what’s at steak.” She responded back quickly, making Jin laugh.

“I carrot believe you thought of that so quickly.”

“Lettuce rejoice over our puns, neighbor.” They both laughed.

Jin went back inside to eat his garlic bread, amused with the slight pun exchange he had just had with his neighbor.

Not so far away, Namjoon was finally leaving the library. One of his close friends from his first year in college had hit him up to have lunch with her, and he missed her so much there was no way he was going to say no. Once he got to their usual café, he noticed Cecilia was already there.

“Sorry, I had to walk all the way from the library.” He apologized with a sweet smile that she couldn’t resist.

“It’s ok. I already ordered for us. I ordered a large pizza, so we can share!” She told him excitedly.

“Pizza’s here are delicious!” He complimented. They used to go to that café all the time last year. “How are you? You said you wanted to talk to me?” He changed his expression from relaxed to concerned in a matter of seconds.

“Oh...” She was a little lost for words, not knowing how to explain her feelings. “It’s Mark. He keeps asking me for a second chance but... it doesn't feel right, you know? I get this sick feeling in my stomach.”

“He made you go through so much... You should think it through before putting yourself in a sticky situation again.”

“I know... it’s just hard.” Cecilia sighed, looking lost. “But enough about me, tell me about you. And that party!”

Namjoon let out a big sigh. “I don’t even know what to tell you. I was supposed to be on Taehyung duty. I don’t know how I got that drunk.”

“But what about the girl? Tell me who she is!” She pushed, excited to hear the gossip.

“So... you see...” He scratched the back of his head, kind of embarrassed. “I don’t remember.”

“Joonpiter!” She let out his nickname, shocked and excited. “That is so not like you!”

“I know!” He sighed. “Plus there’s Najma.”

“What about her?”

“I can’t get her out of my mind, even though she doesn’t seem to care that I exist?”

“Oh of course she cares!”

“Am I just wasting my time with her?”

“Of course not! You can’t just give up like that!” Cecilia tried her best to encourage her best friend, but his head was already hanging low. “What about your poetry?”

“What about it?”

“Have you been writing?”

“A little, here and there. I’ve been trying something new actually.” He said, his morale going up a little.

“What is it?”

“I can’t say yet!”

“Pretty please?” She bat her eyelashes.

“I can read you one of my poems?”

She pout at his recommendation but realized it wouldn’t get better than that, so she agreed. “Three poems.”

“Fine!” He finally caves in, making her smile big.

As they wait for their food, he gives her his little notebook where he usually writes down his feelings and poems. Cecilia reads them intently and with care. Namjoon can’t contain himself and asks what is her favorite.

Some days, we laugh so much that we end up crying It’s like the blooming flowers. Today I crave those moments The sun rays and the calming breeze  I feel lost and insecure I don’t like it. The gentle sea can turn into an unforgiving tangle of tears I wish I could turn back to those happy moments The orange sun in the horizon Slowly setting down Gently accepting it’s errors Skies turning shades of pink and pastel blue Suddenly the realization I changed and will change Just like everything going in the wind Where cherry blossoms bloomed and I... I was happy. And I will be again.

- RM

“No, no, no!” Hoseok’s sister’s voice echoed through the room, and everyone stopped what they were doing.

“What now?” Hobi asked, everyone could feel the attitude in his tone.

“The banner is all wrong!” She whined. “Who did that?”

“Jazzy you need to relax. You’re freaking everyone out.”

Hoseok sat down on the floor, tired from all the moving they had been doing in the store. They had been working for 3 hours straight. Jazmine had asked his brother to come and help with the store. At this moment, with all the damage of having hired a company to help finish all her clothes in time for the big opening, Jazmine couldn’t afford to hire a cleaning team to help put everything together. Instead, her loyal brother found a couple of kind souls that were more than ready to help. The only problem was that in those 3 hours, all that the stylist did was complain and order them around, instead of helping.

“She totally doesn’t know how to handle the pressure.” Jungkook whispered to Jimin.

“Right? I hope she doesn’t go this hard later because I won’t model for Hitler.” Jimin whispered back, cleaning the sweat off his forehead as he placed a chair down.

“What time is it anyway? I’m starving.” Jungkook said, and as if his belly had ears, it growled.

“It’s almost 12:30.” Hyori appeared out of nowhere. “Where are we eating?”

“I’m gonna eat with Tae. You can come if you want?” Jimin offered.

“Hard pass.” Jungkook said. He turned to Hyori. “Where are we eating?” 

“Hmm... I was thinking about burgers?” Hyori suggested.

“I'm gonna grab my stuff and we can go. I still have to run by my apartment to grab my cameras to take photos later.”

“Bring me my jacket please!” Hyori shouted to Jungkook who was already midway. “You’re taking her with you?” Hyori said to Jimin. nudging her head towards Deo who was trying her best to tie her hair with a hair band that was too tight for the amount of hair she had.

“I want to, but you know how she acts around Taehyung.” Jimin sighed. His only wish was to see his two best friends become friends as well.

“You should make her go anyway. She’s the youngest of our group, so she has little to no say in things.”

“Then why is it always the other way around?” Jimin couldn’t help but laugh.

“Because~~ she has good ideas!” Hyori articulated more with her hands.

“Ok let’s go!” Jungkook finally appeared, Hyori's jacket on his shoulder.

“Hey where are you guys going?” Deo shouted after the two.

“For lunch!” They screamed at the same time.

“Wha- wait for me!” The girl started running around to grab everything. “Where’s my phone?”

“Why are you running?” Jimin asked with an arched eyebrow.

“Because I’m hungry and- and they already left!”

“Then we can eat together yeah?” Jimin side hugged the tiny girl. “What do you wanna eat?”

“Grilled cheese?” The girl suggested after a long pause.

“Grilled cheese it is.” Jimin smiled sweetly to her. “Let’s go!” He made a weird cheering sound that made the girl laugh, and they both left.

Taehyung couldn't help his excitement, and that's probably why he ran as fast as he could to Carolina's cinematic department. Their buildings were pretty close, he could've just walked there, no need to hurry, but that was Taehyung, the happiness preacher... always planning new gatherings and being excited about it!

He barged through the doors and thanked mentally no one was around there on that Saturday morning, only the girl since she offered to help Yoongi with his art presentation for his mini show that same night.

"CAROLINA~~" Taehyung called while walking his way around the artsy corridors and looking frantically for her "Carolina where are you???"

"HERE!" he heard her voice once a door opened in the end of the corridor, loud music playing, and her head peeking through it, displaying a tired smile.

"For a second I thought you weren't here!" he chuckled while running towards her.

He entered the 'lab room' that was basically just a bunch of computers and mixing tables displayed all over the place. Carolina had returned to her chair and was now glancing at him doing an excited little dance while closing the door.

"May I ask why you're dancing like a weird penguin?"

"Hey- this is the pingu dance, I'm offended!" he said with a fake hurt look.

"Sorry Mr. pingu" she chuckled, always amused by his carefree nature "But why are you so excited on a Saturday morning?"

"I got tickets!!!!"

"Please say Oasis got back together, and you got tickets" she prayed with closed eyes and hands pressed together, mocking him "Please God!"

"I'm going to throw this weird hairy hobbit on you if you don't stop," he said, taking in his hand a little troll doll with purple hair.

"Hey! Not Mr. Junky!"

"He looks so ugly that it's cute" Taehyung laughed while he marveled the doll.

"And it's a troll by the way... Hobbit-" Carolina snorted, making fun of Taehyung, and turning around to focus on what she was making again.

"It doesn't matter! I'm sure Mr. Junky isn't offended- Now can you please pay attention!!!"

"I am" she said, not taking her eyes off the screen in front of her.

"I'm serious-" he went towards her chair and pulled it backwards, the little wheels of it making it easier for him to drag her back "I got us tickets for this new exhibition- I'm sure you'll like it, and I really want to go, so... What do you say? Isn't it 'yay'??"

"I'm in for sure!! What exhibition?" she asked, turning around much more interested.

"That Benjamin Verhoven one!"

"Let me google him, wait." she turned around again to open the web. Taehyung went right after her, leaning on the back of her chair.

"Woah~" he said, once a bunch of photos of the exhibition appeared "That looks so cool"

"Wow! Look at this installation!"

"It seems really cool right?" he said, poking her cheek "You can thank me now"

"Thank you, sir~" she mocked "The tickets are already with you? Or do we have to print them?" she looked up to meet his glance, and at that moment he smiled embarrassed.

"So... about that" he started "We... hum.. we have to buy them first" he quickly looked at Carolina, and she was blinking slowly, her mouth in a line.

"Do you wanna run now, or do you wanna meet Mr. Junky from a close point of view?" she asked with a poker face.

"WAIT! NO!" he said protecting himself with his hands "I was the one finding the exhibition!!!! CAROLINA"

"You clown!!!" she said loudly while tickling him all over.

"Wait- Wait I beg you!" He was kneeling on the floor, laughing with teary eyes "I BEG YOU!!!"

"This is the shock treatment for liars." She got up, sitting on her chair once again.

"I... I'm exhausted," he said while taking a deep breath and sitting on the floor.

"I'm buying the tickets on my credit card then - is Nam going too? Or just the two of us?" Carolina asked, ignoring the almost passed out boy on the floor by her legs.

"Buy for him too! I'm sure he will like to go!"

"Nice! Three it is..."

"Actually, we are going with a friend of mine too, so we're four - maybe more since she will probably be with her friends too," he explained.

"Wait - What? Who's she? Who are the friends?" Carolina looked down with intrigued eyes.

"No need to worry, she's nice, you'll like her! Her friends, I don't know... But she is nice!! Trust me"

"Still, do I know anyone?"

"I don't think so...? She helped me out at the volley party... When I disappeared" he remembered.

"Ugh, that party" Carolina rolled her eyes "Fine. Do I have to buy her tickets as well? Like - I don't even know the people and I'm already buying stuff for them, I'm such a nice person, wow."

"Of course not!" Taehyung laughed "Just buy for the three of us, she already bought hers"

"I like her already" she said and then looked at him "I'm kidding, I need to talk to her first to know that" and they both laughed at her honesty.

"Print them already! We always forget to do that-"

"True! I'm printing" she said looking at the screen focused and then pointing towards her left "Go get them there for me please"

"Yes, captain!" he got up and went towards the printer "Also, do we give it to Namjoon now?"

"No way, he always loses his tickets! I'm keeping his."

"Keep mine too?" he asked while returning to her side.

"You're supposed to be the older one!!!"

"I am! But you're better at keeping stuff," he admitted.

"Not really though... I always lose stuff."

"You're better at keeping things you like," Taehyung reformulated, putting emphasis on the 'like', making the girl point at him.

"On that you're right!" she said, making him laugh.

"I'll go have lunch with Jimin now, wanna come?"

"Ugh..." she rolled her eyes once he mentioned Jimin's name "I'd rather die here from work exhaustion"

"You know, you have to get over that hate you have towards him someday," he said, giving her a forehead kiss.

"Never is a nice day to do that," she answered making him chuckle.

"Where are you eating then?"

"At Ben's" she said simply, making him choke on air "Oh get over it!"

"See you later then! Don't forget to tell Namjoon about the exhibit!" he said, already hurriedly walking towards the door, wanting to hear nothing about that subject.

"I will! See you! Don't be late! You know it's important for Yoongs!"

"I won't! Now say 'I love you' so I can say it back and go!" He already had the door open, ready to leave.

"You're unbearable..."

"Say it"

"I love you, Teetee"

"Love you too! Stop fucking my teacher~ Thanks~ Bye~" and he left Carolina behind, laughing lightly about his awkwardness to accept she was a grown up now.

Yoongi was a nervous wreck. He already checked on his songs at least 5 times, and he had nothing to do but wait. It was a big night for him. It would be the first time he would be performing live, and, as far as he knew, it was going to be a full house.

He got the gig thanks to a friend. He wouldn’t be the only one performing, but he was supposed to be the big star of the night. He felt a little better knowing all his friends were going to be there, and this was an opportunity of a lifetime. However, this sickening feeling in his stomach wouldn’t leave him alone, so he thought it would be best to try distracting his mind with something else.

He opened his laptop one more time and entered his social media. He scrolled through the feed and saw some posts, but, still, his mind wouldn’t let him be. So he decided to dm someone he’d been getting to know for a couple of weeks now.

As Deo and Jimin walked their way to the café they were supposed to eat at, they kept on chatting about everything that came to their minds. Jimin had been telling her about this new friend he made online. He had no idea who she was, but she signed her messages as Cara, and he was intrigued by the strange connection he felt with her.

“What about Sarah?” Deo asked, wiggling her eyebrows at him.

“She’s like a ghost,” Jimin sighed. “I saw her maybe twice or three times, and then never again. How am I supposed to even start talking to her if I can’t even find her on social media?”

“Wish I knew baby. I'm sure she’ll appear when you least expect it.”

“Does that mean I have to be ready at all time?”

“What?” Deo chuckled. “You always look good, so you’re always ready.”

“Ah~ I don’t know what I would do without you.” Jimin’s arm wrapped Deo into a tight hug. 

“Wait- is that? Jimin!”

“Sorry?” He smiled apologetically.

“Dude! Did Hyori know about this?” Deo frowned. “I swear to god, this stupid plan of yours is impossible to handle.”

“What plan?” Jimin quickly blushed. He was a horrible liar.

“Don’t you dare lying to me Jimin!”

“Just come eat with us.” Jimin did his best puppy eyes. “He’s a lot of fun.”

“I’m not upset about him, I'm upset you didn’t tell me.” She rolled her eyes at him.

“Sorry.” He gave a side smile, but it was too late for his charms to work.

“Let’s just go.” She started walking in front of Jimin, but he grabbed her wrist.

“Don’t be mad at me.” He pouted. 

“I could punch you right now. You know that, right?” She tried to contain a smile from appearing on her lips.

“You never can.” He teased, launching his arm around her shoulders and squeezing her tightly against him.

The two got to the table, still bickering, but shut up once Taehyung lifted his head up from his phone and smiled brightly. Deo immediately tensed up. She was never very fond of the dude, and with her friends’ crazy scheme, it made it worse. She wanted to be as far away from him as she could, and in some weird way, Taehyung knew that. That made it fun.

“Hey guys! Oh you brought a friend Jiminie~” Taehyung said happily as he noticed Deo giving him a smile and a small wave.

“Yeah, you don’t mind, do you?” Jimin said nonchalantly while sitting down.

“Of course not!”

“You’ve been here for long?” Jimin asked.

“Not really. How’s it going?” He was referring to the fashion show.

“Good. Everything’s done, so all we gotta do is makeup and parade.” Jimin said excitedly.

“You’re participating too?” Taehyung asked Deo.

“Me? Oh, no. I’m staying backstage to help.” She said simply.

“Oh that’s nice of you!”

Before they would say anything else, the waitress appeared at their table, menus in hand. They discussed their orders for a couple of seconds, and then were ready to order. They all agreed on going for the same thing.

“Three grilled cheese and three cokes,” Jimin said nicely to the waitress once she got to the table.

“Is Pepsi ok?” The lady smiled politely.

“Can I have a Fanta instead? Orange please.” Taehyung asked.

“Sure thing Hun, and for the two of you?��

“Pepsi.” Jimin and Deo said at the same time, fist bumping right after with grins on their faces.

“So...” Jimin trailed off once the table got silent. “Did you finish your video?” He asked to Deo.

“No, I still have the last theory to see,” she said nonchalant.

“What is it about?” Taehyung asked, curious.

“Van Gogh!” Jimin said excitedly, knowing it was one of his friend's favorite artists.

“It's a conspiracy theory that says he was murdered and didn't commit suicide.” She completed.

“What? Really? By whom?” Taehyung asked, confused.

“His brother, or some kid that used to bully him? I’m not very sure, I didn’t watch the entire video yet.” Deo said.

“Theo?? No way! That’s like impossible!” Taehyung said, upset at such an accusation.

“I didn’t buy it either, but I also don’t think it was suicide. They explained that the place where he was shot was too low for a typical suicide attempt, and that it was most likely that he was shot from afar. The wound would’ve been much bigger if it was self-inflicted.” Deo made her point.

“Still... I don’t know... Where’s that video again?”

“Buzzfeed unsolved. You ever heard of it?”

“Yes! Namjoon watches it all the time.” Taehyung smiled. “I’ll check it out... Can’t believe he was murdered.” He said the last part more like a whisper.

“They also said that he used to say that suicide was a coward’s way to go. I guess it wouldn’t make much sense?” Deo continued, intrigued with the situation.

“I believe he had some mental problems... To be incoherent is normal in that case, so I don’t know.”

“Hmm maybe? I just think it is so weird that they never found the gun and his painting stuff out in that field,” Deo countered. She just couldn’t make up her mind about it. To be honest, she had been watching too many conspiracy theories lately.

“For the time period, it was normal to steal things, so that was probably the case,” Taehyung assured her.

“Maybe.” She wasn’t too convinced though.

“It’s probably that, trust me,” Taehyung insisted, feeling very sure of his answer.

Deo made a face, not wanting to start a whole debate with the boy. “Imagine a Gogh painting no one got to see because it was stolen. That sucks.”

“Right?! I bet it was a masterpiece!” Taehyung said, overly excited. “It’s a little sad,” he concluded and received a nod in agreement from the girl.

“So Taetae, what are your plans?” Jimin asked.

“For today?”

“Yes!”

“It’s Yoongi’s show tonight! Wanna come?” He looked happily between the two. “The more the better! He’ll be happy if he sees the place crowded.”

“I’m going to a fair later tonight, but I think we can go! Right?” Jimin looked excitedly at Deo

“Hmm, I think so! We’ll have to talk to the others though, but worst case scenario, we go just the two of us.” Deo smiled to Jimin.

“Please go! It’s going to be fun. Yoongi is really talented,” Taehyung spoke with pride in his eyes.

“What kind of music does he do?” Deo asked, intrigued. Yoongi was a mystery to basically the entire school. He was very reserved, and the only thing she knew about him was that he was the radio guy. That and some gossip Hyori would hear while tutoring, but some things sounded too crazy for her to believe.

“Rap mostly.”

“Oh~~ we’ll try,” Deo said excitedly. Rap was one of her favorite forms of music, and she was excited to see a new side of the mysterious boy. She was sure her friends would be excited as well.

“Sure, invite your boyfriend too,” Taehyung said with a wink, catching her off guard.

“Oh yes, Jack is going with us to the fair!” Jimin intervened as he noticed Deo’s expression, but he was entirely ignored.

“Oh yeah, we’ll be there.” Deo smiled sarcastically to Taehyung.

“So...” Jimin started, trying to lighten the mood. “Look! The food is coming!”

As those three started eating, Carolina was far from her meal. She didn’t mind it though. She was working her ass off to help her friend, and if there was someone who deserved all her effort it was Yoongi. To outsiders, their relationship would seem a little bit odd. They loved each other and would do anything for the other. They were family.

“Maybe we could add some holograms on the colab song?” Carolina suggested, not taking her eyes from the screen.

“I guess. All we have for that one is the background, so that would make it better.” Tessa, one girl Carolina could consider a friend, commented. They would spend most of their time together at the movies. What better way to bond than over that? Movie tastes say a lot about a person.

“A full moon would be nice...” Carolina adds. “And we can shine them with that white and blue-ish light from the stage. What do you think?”

“We can’t put too much white, but I like it.” Tessa smiled, satisfied with the results they were showing. “You never get bad ideas huh?” She teased, making Carolina smile.

“I can say the same about you, you know- and I agree, just a little bit of white.”

“And about time – We need to wrap this up so you can take it to Yoongi. What time is the event?”

“Eleven sharp! He’s probably dying with anxiety right now, my phone just beeped for the fourth time in a row, and trust me - that's a lot of texts for Yoongi, a record even.” The girl laughed dryly.

“Oh~ poor guy. You should tell him we’re almost done here!”

“I’ll send him an audio messing with him first.” Carolina let out her best impression of a villain's laugh.

“Don’t!” Tessa whined, but, also, laughed. “He’s gonna have a heart attack.”

“Poor Yoongs...” Carolina laughs as well. “I’m not doing that to him... at least not today! He’s too nervous already, and I want everything to go perfect.”

“It will, don’t worry!”

“Thanks for helping by the way, really.” Carolina turned serious. One thing she really appreciated was when friends supported one another.

“It was my pleasure, but if you ever wanna pay me back there’s this movie I really wanna see as soon as it comes out.” Tessa grinned.

“Say no more!” A week without going to the movies was a week badly spent. “What’s the title?”

“Send in the clown~~” Tessa sang the song. “Joker!”

“Bro!” Carolina chuckled. “Call me crazy but that’s like my childhood hero- villain- whatever!”

“I’d go with hero honestly. So you’re in?”

“Of course I’m in! I would be crazy if I wasn’t!”

“Alright!” Tessa said, excited. “I saw in the theater that it’s realizing a little after Halloween.”

“It is! I saw it too! It’s a deal.” Carolina pointed her finger at the girl with that ‘this is serious’ look.

“But... if you had to choose, who would be the best Joker so far?” Tessa asked, intrigued. This was something the two had never discussed before.

"Heath Ledger is forever my soulmate, and forever my favorite joker, but I have big expectations for Joaquin Phoenix! And Jared Leto is a fabulous actor, but the Joker he was attributed, the Gang Joker, is like the worst of them all, my least favorite so..."

"Oh thank god you exist. I'm so sick of hearing people say that Jared Leto's joker is the best one just because he's super-hot. I had such huge expectations for Suicide Squad, and it was a big flop."

“Same! I was so excited and well... Bleh.” Carolina did her best poker face. “Oh, and Jack Nicholson was pretty awesome as well! I used to watch him as a kid.”

“Yes!” Tessa said, overly excited with the conversation. “I don’t know if you saw Gotham, but they cast Cameron Monaghan to play young/teen joker and he was pretty good too.”

“I did, he’s pretty good as well.” Carolina nodded.

The two continued discussing their movie tastes and working hard to finish Yoongi’s concert effects as soon as they could. The boy was a pile of nerves, and everyone knew it. 

Someone who was also on the verge of having a nervous attack was Hoseok. His sister was driving him crazy, and he was trying his best not to lose it too.

Everyone was back at Jazmine’s store, and the last details were being made. Some people were getting their makeup done, some were curling or straightening their hair, and all were listening to the lecture of what clothes they had to change into.

“You look so so good! You’re making me regret not signing up too,” Deo sighed as Tori did a little spin to show her the outfit she was wearing.

“I told you!” The girl grinned. “You’re always like that. You need to stop that shy act of yours.”

“It’s not an act. I’m more of a potato than a supermodel,” Deo said, making the other sigh.

“You are not! Stop!” Tori said. She knew her friend was kidding, but still.

“You’re staying for the after party, right?”

“Of course! I wouldn’t miss it.”

“Good, you know I need my drinking buddy with me.”

“It’s just you and me, against the buzz,” The girl sassily said, making the other laugh.

Not very far away, Hoseok noticed his new friend, a girl that had recently joined USC.

“Hey Amber, I’m so glad you came! How are you?”

“Hey Hobi! I’m good. I’m excited, but also nervous. I'm sure I'll be ok though! How are you?” The girl asked, turning a little in the makeup chair to give him her full attention.

“I’m a nervous pill, there’s so much to do! But don’t be nervous, you look really pretty!” Hobi smiled gently. He was proud of his sister’s clothes and happy so many people came to help show them off.

“You’ve got this! The show will go super well.” The blonde cheered. “But, I’m clumsy so I’ll need to really concentrate, and thank you! I don’t usually wear this much makeup. I've never been good enough.”

A frown quickly appeared on Hoseok’s face. He hated to see people sad. “What?! Don’t say that! You shouldn’t think so poorly about yourself!” His mind raced for the right thing to say. “My sister is really picky, so if she chose you it was because she saw something in you! Believe in yourself!” He gave her a gentle smile, and squeezed her shoulder lightly.

“I just get nervous around certain people, and then I get clumsy.” Amber hinted. “But I know it’ll be ok. I’m glad she picked me, all the things from her shop are so nice! You look so good today. You know... In the makeup and stuff.”

“You think so?” Hoseok was used in being the one giving compliments, but he couldn’t deny that receiving them felt good. “This isn't really my vibe, but I can’t deny these clothes look sick. Do you have plans after this?”

“I do! You should wear more clothes like that. I’m not doing anything after this. Yourself? Did you want to do something after?”

“We have some champagne and cake hidden for my sister. You wanna stay to celebrate with us?” He offered.

“Of course! I would love to. It sounds fun. She definitely deserves it after putting this show together,” Amber complimented, looking around the room to see all the beautiful outfits.

“She does. She went a little Godzilla this morning, but she’s the best.” Hoseok’s gaze turned soft as he spoke of his sister.

“She is! She’s put in so much work, and it’s been so worth it. I can already tell this show will be amazing.”

“I hope so! I’m grateful for everyone joining, and that includes you! Oh - Duty calls! You’re gonna nail that ok?!” Hoseok encouraged one more time before turning away.

“I’m grateful for being invited! Thank you so much, I'll see you later. Good luck, you got this!”

Amber continued getting her makeup fixed. Meanwhile, Hoseok ran to his sister. They peeked through the made-up curtain that led to the runway.

“Look little bro, we have a full house!” Jazmine squealed excitedly.

“Of course we do!” He hugged her tightly. “You worked so hard, everything will go as planned!”

“Thank you!”

Lights started flashing and music starting playing loudly through the speakers. Everyone was amazed with the final results. It almost looked like a professional show. As soon as the first model left backstage and stepped into the runway, flashes hit her eyes from all different directions. Jazmine felt proud. Hoseok felt proud. Everything was taking form.

“What’s up nerd?” Jungkook’s head peeked in front of Jae’s lenses.

“Jesus Christ! I almost died. That angle does not suit you,” the girl teased, and Jungkook pretended to be offended by her snarky remark.

“What do you mean? All angles suit me,” Jungkook said cockily, but he quickly let out a laugh.

“Sure.” Jae rolled her eyes. “Are you taking any good shots, or are you just joking around?”

“I bet you my shots look way better than yours,” he teased.

“Pfff, you wish virgin boy.”

“Oh please.” He rolled his eyes.

“I’m just joking.” Jae loved to see how annoyed he would get at the sound of the nickname.

“Yeah, whatever nerd.” Jungkook chuckled.

“So I was thinking... we could pair up for the project for photography club.”

“Sure, the nerd and the virgin boy. Sounds like a bad superhero movie,” he said, making the girl laugh out loud.

“It sounds pretty rad.” She laughed. “What would be your superpower?”

“I would kick their asses and then hang the bad guys by their underwear. Yours?” Jungkook said after a little while of thinking.

“I’d probably throw them math books because everyone hates math,” she explained with a playful smile on her face, “and I'd have glasses, and they would shoot some deadly rays that’d turn them into dust.”

“Sounds like you’ve this all figured out,” Jungkook chuckled.

“So should you. We’re a team now.” Jae pointed her finger at his face, dead serious. “Or are you not worthy?”

The public was mesmerized by the incredible organization. The models looked stunning, and the clothes were a hit from the start. Sadly, that organization the people were seeing wasn’t happening backstage. Everyone was running around and trying to change into their outfits on time for their turn on the runway, where they give life to Jazmine’s pieces.

“Coming up I need Jimin and Alissa. Be ready because you’ll go in 2 minutes.” At the mention of his name, Jimin got up but immediately sat down.

“Oh my god! I’m so sorry!” The pretty brunette girl almost screamed in Jimin’s face when they bumped into each other.

“Are you ok?” Jimin asked, filled with concern.

“Yeah! And you?” She examined him from top to bottom.

“I am.” Jimin smiled. “I didn’t see you around ever since the party, Laura” He gave her a quick hug. They were from the same dance crew, but they weren't that close. 

“I’ve been kinda busy” she chuckled. 

“Hey can I-” Jimin’s sentence was cut off by a scream.

“Next model c’mon! C’mon!”

“I guess that’s your cue.” Laura said, tucking the hair that had fallen in front of her face behind her ears.

“It is, but I'll see you around Delgado?”

“Sure- yes, you will!”

The runway continued, and after a couple of hours, all the outfits were shown. Jazmine walked down the runway with all her models as the last song played, and she even did a little speech to everyone there. She was very grateful, and it was getting hard for her to hold her tears in.

“Everyone!” She let her fork click into her champagne glass, already backstage. “I am so thankful to all of you. I appreciate you joining me in this little crazy adventure as well as all of you that woke up super early today to come help set everything up! To my lovely brother who always stays by my side... cheers!”

“Cheers!” Everyone held their glasses up and drank.

“So... did you have fun?” Hoseok sneaked behind Amber making her jump slightly.

“I did!” She smiled big. “You should feel proud of yourself!”

“I am!” Hoseok gave her a sheepish smile. “Thank you, again.”

“Anything you need, you can count on me ok?” The girl said with a sweet look in her eyes.

“I’ll keep that in mind.” Hoseok gave her a wink.

 “BANG BANG INTO THE ROOM!” Tori and Deo sang out loud to the song that came out of the speakers, drinks in hand

“WAIT A MINUTE LET ME TAKE YOU THERE!” Jimin joined.

“Go away, this is girl’s fun only.” Tori jokingly pushed him.

“How dare you!” Jimin tried his best to sound offended, but he couldn’t help but laugh. Through Deo, he and Tori had become friends, and he liked teasing her a lot.

“Fight me Jiminie!” Tori teased back.

“I’m a gentleman. Excuse you.” Jimin laughed as he walked away from the two girls.

“Oh~~ Jiminie~~” Deo teased.

“Shut it! Dork!” Tori laughed out loud to Deo’s impression of herself. “Go see Jack!”

While everyone continued partying, the Y group had to leave the party. Jimin’s classmate and friend Jean, had invited them to some local market and they had to shower before going. They were tired from all the running around at the show.

Carolina, on the other hand, had just finished her job and was at her home, taking a shower. Jin was there too. After his pause earlier, he decided to go back to his games and when he noticed, it was almost 6 in the afternoon when his housemate peeked her head into his room.

"Is Dracula home?"

"Ha ha ha very funny" he said while stretching his arms, still sat on his gamer chair.

"Please tell me you ate something" she entered his room still wrapped in a towel, some droplets of water falling to the floor because of her wet hair.

"I ate some snacks while play-"

"Jin!!! For fucks sake, snacking isn't eating properly"

"Ya, you tell that as if I already didn't know!" he got up "I'll eat something before going"

"You better! If you drink on an empty stomach, I swear to my whole vinyl collection, I will leave you there" she threatened with a sharp look making him sigh.

"I will eat something, we both are. And stop treating me like a child"

"The fault isn't mine, you're the one that play games the whole afternoon like one" she said while turning around to leave his room making him follow closely.

"You game too you- you pillock!"

"Pillock?" she turned around and snorted with a smile "You're watching too much Sherlock Holmes for your own good"

"I'm afraid that's your british influence on me, my dear" he joked making her roll her eyes but chuckle nevertheless.

"And yes, I game too but I only like things like assassin's creed or god of war"

"You love Mortal Kombat too, don't lie"

"True, I do love it" she looked up too caught in her own head.

"We should play it sometime, there's a while since-"

"No time for that now! Go to your shower otherwise you're going to be late! I'll leave you something to eat here, go go!" she started pushing him towards the bathroom.

"It's still early!!"

"We both know you take ages in the shower Seokjin" she looked at him with that 'let's get real' eyes they always shared in moments like this, making him sigh again.

"Fine. I do." he mumbled going by himself to the bathroom now "You're being way too harsh today"

"No I'm not-"

"Yes you are~~ You're like Yoongi's manager" he said laughing.

"Yeah yeah"

"Is it because you want a song??" he wiggled his eyebrows before closing the door.

"TAKE YOUR SHOWER!!!!" she shouted making him fall in laughter inside the room.

Carolina texted her group in their usual chat after getting ready, wondering where everyone was and when she noticed that Yoongi was probably home alone, she decided it was time to go to the bottom floor and see how the boy was doing.

“So how did it go?” Yoongi sat down on his chair and as soon as he did, his nail immediately returned to his mouth. It was his coping mechanism. In his mind, he was looking cool but on the outside... that was a whole different thing.

“Oh so you’re pulling the chill vibe on me huh? That’s new.” Carolina let out a sympathetic smile.

“I tried but I guess it’s no use with you.” He let out a sigh. “But seriously, the effects... are they cool?”

“Relax! You know damn well I wouldn’t just do anything for you.” Carolina raised her eyebrow. “They turned out great, all of them in sync with the songs and matching the concept of them.”

“If there’s someone I can trust is you. But I was thinking of going in a little bit early so we could try them out and see how they look onstage?” Yoongi suggested. The more he thought, the more excited he was getting.

“Sure! I think the boys are already coming, I showered first to come here while Jin gets ready and Tae called saying he was on the way.”

“Good, that way we go together- any news on Namjoon?”

“He texted a while back saying he was waiting in the lobby- you know, because of the crazy neighbor.” Both couldn’t help but laugh. “He’s probably just waiting for her to leave so he can come up in peace.”

“Maybe we should invite her, so he can have a little fun tonight.” Yoongi teased, making Carolina laugh.

“He would be so disoriented that he most probably would ruin your show and when I say ruin I mean breaking the speakers, tripping on the cables etc.” Carolina said with a straight face but two seconds later was laughing out loud.

“Oh shit.” Yoongi couldn’t contain himself just picturing the situation. “Maybe next time.”

“Less nervous now?” Carolina said, a soft smile occupying her features.

“Yeah, I'm getting excited now.” Yoongi also smiled. He felt so lucky to have a friend like her.

“You’ll do great as always, Yoongs. And besides, we both know you’re the most talented musician in this place.”

“I know... But I just heard the place will be packed and I only ‘performed’ for you guys so that doesn’t count.”

“Once you step on that stage remember your dreams. And if you can’t, just look at us.” Carolina pulled him into a hug. “We’ll make sure you don’t forget how talented you are.”

“You’re making me all sappy. I need to channel Eminem to look bad ass.” Yoongi dorks around, showing his cute gummy smile. “But thanks.”

“Thank me one day with a song made specially for me.”

But before Yoongi could answer Carolina’s sassiness, there was a knock on the door and a head peeked into the room.

“Sorry to bother man but Taehyung is out in the living room. He said he was knocking on the door for the past 10 minutes so I let him in.” Jungkook said and right after that the door was fully open by a bored looking Taehyung.

“Jeez, I was starting to think no one was home.” Taehyung let himself fall onto Yoongi’s bed.

“It’s impossible that you’ve been there for 10 minutes. I've been here for 10 minutes.” Carolina arched her eyebrow and Taehyung showed a guilty smile.

“You know I'm dramatic.”

“Seriously.” Carolina sighed but laughed right after.

“Where is everyone?” Taehyung asked noticing they were hanging out at Yoongi’s room and no one else was there.

“They should be on their way.” Carolina shrugged simply.

“You guys want something? I have beer in the fridge. I need one.”

“I’ll join you.” Carolina answered, getting up from the bed and going to the kitchen.

Jungkook went back into his room to get ready. Meanwhile, Deo and Hyori were almost ready too. As Deo was still tieing her all stars, Jack called and Hyori took the moment to take some shots of the sky. It was almost that golden hour and she couldn’t resist to take them, even though her camera roll had maybe 300 photos of that already.

“Hey Hyori!” A girl called out from behind.

“Oh~ hey Emma! How are you?” Hyori said sweetly when she saw the girl that had called her.

“I'm good. I see we had the same idea.” Emma joked, pointing to Hyori’s phone.

“I’m a sucker for the sky, especially when it gets all pretty.” The girl confessed.

“Me too.” The two took a moment to watch the pretty sky one more time. “I was actually meaning to text you.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, I feel like the only time we get together is for school stuff. And that being said, it’s me asking for your help with bio.” Emma confessed, a little embarrassed.

“But I don’t mind helping you at all!” Hyori said kindly.

“I know! But I was thinking that we could do something fun one of these days? To relax a little for the class’s stress.”

“Oh sure!” Hyori smiled to the girl. “I’m going out with my friends now but I'll text you later so we can set something up!”

“I’ll be waiting!” Emma said, waving the girl goodbye.

“So are you ready?” Hyori asked, when Deo came to her.

“Yup, Jack will meet us there.”

“Why did you decided to invite him all of the sudden?” Hyori asked.

“What? Because he’s my boyfriend?”

“Uhu, I see.” Hyori gave her a lopsided smile.

“Don’t worry your pretty little head about it.” Deo teased.

“I don’t have to. I know you too well.”

“Whatever floats your boat.” Deo shrugghed. “Where’s JK meeting us?”

“Don’t know, I'm going to call him.”

As the phone rang, the two girls walked to the fountain where they had agreed to meet with Hoseok and Jimin. After the third try, Jungkook finally answered.

“Thank God!” Hyori’s voice sounded as soon as Jungkook answered.

“I was in the shower.” Jungkook said simply.

“How did me and Deo get ready before you did? You’re the worst I swear.”

“He’s still in the shower?” Deo’s voice could be hear through the line. “Put him on speaker.”

“I need to smell good.” He said simply and could almost feel Deo’s rolling her eyes. “Unlike some of you!”

“Shut up 5-year-old.” Deo laughed.

“Where are you?” Hyori asked.

“Still at home, I’m almost ready and I’ll be there soon.”

“Well you better hurry!”

“Yes mom!”

Jungkook hang up the phone and finished getting ready. Once he step foot out of his room, his living room was filled by the typical crowd.

“Is Namjoon coming up or what?” Yoongi asked.

“He’s probably waiting downstairs.”

“I bet he’s with that sweet lady.” Jin joked.

“Don’t tell him that.” Carolina laughed.

“Hey Jungkook.” Jin noticed the boy.

“What’s up?” Jungkook greeted. “Good luck later man!”

“Don’t you know it’s bad luck to just say it like that?” Carolina teasingly said.

“Thanks.” Yoongi intervened before the two could get into their usual arguments.

“You should drop by!” Jin said, with a grin in his face.

“Yes, I invited Jiminie later!” Taehyung added.

“Sounds like fun, I will!” Jungkook said excited.

“Hey if you see Namjoon downstairs tell him to come up?” Yoongi asked.

“Sure.” Jungkook replied, walking to the door. “See you guys later.” He said, winking to Carolina and seeing her reaction before closing the door, satisfied.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The night fell pretty quickly and both groups were having the time of their lives. The Y group was already with Jean at the 626 Market and the X group was already at Yoongi’s show. Before it was his turn, there was going to be other artists and that made him relax a little.

Once they got to the market, they didn’t expect it to be that big. The streets were filled with light and music echoed from all around the places. There was a little map at the entrance and everyone was mesmerized to see how big the space was. The food area was composed of 100 different chains and the variety of food and insane. But what really caught their eyes was how big the rides section was. It was a whole another world for them.

“So what do you guys wanna eat?” Jean asked when they made it to the food trucks.

“I think I wanna try that churro ice cream you suggested.” Jimin said, excited.

“That’s for dessert.” The girl laughed.

“Look! Corn dogs!” Jungkook pointed and rushed to the truck.

“What do you wanna eat babe?” Jack whispered behind Deo as he back hugged her.

“I don’t know. Hyo?”

“Maybe a burger? Those look good.” The girl pointed to a truck near them and took some steps towards it.

“I want a corn dog with JK.” Hoseok said excited, following the boy.

“You?” Deo asked, turning around to be facing her boyfriend.

“I’ll have what you’re having.”

“Wow, that helped so much.” She rolled her eyes playfully. “Burgers then?” The petit girl turned to Hyori.

“Burgers it is.” Deo managed to set free from Jack’s embrace and intertwined her arm with her roommate, ignoring his protests.

“What about you guys?” Jack turned to Jimin and Jean that were still looking around.

“I’m thinking of a kebab? Maybe?” Jimin asked, looking between the two.

“Why not? I’m in.” Jack said with a shrug.

“Me too.” Jean smiled widely to the both boys.

As everyone waited in line for their food, Yoongi and his friends had just arrived at his venue. It was a local club/bar that the locals and mostly college students would go to. They weren’t very strict with whom they would let in but when it came to serving alcohol, they always asked for ID’s.

“Ok, it's not empty but-” Yoongi started looking around.

“Yoongi relax, it's still early.” Namjoon pointed out.

“Yeah and we all invited some people as well, they will probably arrive a little later” Taehyung smiled sweetly.

“Thanks.”

“Nobody arrives early nowadays...” Jin commented while looking around “But I'm sure Jungkook will show with his friends, and I invited some people from my department-”

“Should we go to the front already?” Carolina asked impatient pointing towards the spot, not empty but still not crowded.

“Yeah, you guys should stay there, front sits are always the best” Yoongi chuckled.

“There's no sits...” Taehyung looked confused to the spot.

“It's just a saying, dumbass.”

“Oh...” he said only, making everyone laugh.

“Anyways guys, I think I'll head to the backstage-”

“Are you sure?” Namjoon asked.

“I'm sure you still have time...” Carolina tried.

“I'm sure. I'll prepare myself better inside.”

“We'll be waiting for you then! You'll be great, bro!” Taehyung cheered making Yoongi smile.

“I'll go check on you in a few.” Carolina assured him.

“I'll be waiting. Tell them you're a friend of mine, I'll let the guy know you're with me.” Yoongi said already leaving.

“Oh yeah, that's my friend!” Jin said to a guy who was passing by him “I'm friends with the singer!”

“Come, let's buy some beer.” Namjoon pulled him towards the bar “You two stay here guarding the spot.”

“Sure thing!” Taehyung said loudly.

“Sure thing.” Carolina mimicked Taehyung in a mocking manner.

“And may I know why are you so mad now?”

“Couldn't we just be in peace in Yoongi's thing???” she said furious.

“But we are-”

“No, you are! And everyone else! Stupid asshole- I don't even know where the friendship came from like-” she ranted.

“You won't even see Jimin, he'll probably be over the back with-” Taehyung tried.

“Who cares about Jimin, dude?” she looked at him with a confused expression.

“What...?”

Everyone had mostly finished eating and were just waiting for the slow eaters like Deo and Hyori and for the one who ate like he were three people in one, like Jungkook.

“Is it really a good idea to be eating before going on the rides?” Deo asked. She loved to go on roller coasters and crazy rides.

“I’m not bringing any sick people back into my car.” Jack laughed.

“Even if it’s me?” Deo did her best puppy eyes and the boy immediately soften.

“Don’t make my life harder baby.” Jack retorqued, making Deo make a funny face and give him a kiss right after.

“So Jean, how do you know Jimin?” Hyori asked.

“Oh you didn’t tell them?” She asked quietly to Jimin. “We have some classes together.”

“We’re friends.” Jimin smiled big.

“Yes!” Jean smiled back to him. It was hard for her to have social interactions like this and his answer made her relax a lot.

“So what do you wanna do next?” Jimin asked her.

“Oh whatever you want, is fine with me.”

“C’mon, you were the one inviting so we gotta do something you like!” Hoseok supported, making Jimin nod.

“Well, what about those churros ice cream?” She suggested.

“We better save that for after the rides.” Jungkook jumped into the convo. His eyes finally left his food and that was when he noticed the girl from the party coming towards his table. “I’ll be right back.”

“Hey Jungkook! I thought it was you!” the girl smiled as they were only a feet apart.

“Hey Aashna! How are you?” He smiled, stuffing his hands in his jean’s pockets.

“I’m good. You’re with your friends?” She asked, peeking through his shoulder.

“Yeah, you?”

“Too! We should go on a ride together!” The girl said excited.

“Yeah, what about the bumper cars? We’re lacking one person so I was just going alone.” He suggested.

“Sounds fun!” Aashna smiled excited.

“See you there Aashna?”

“Yes, and call me Ashi!”

“See you Ashi.” He chuckled, going back to his table.

Before Jungkook could even sit down, his friends were already teasing and he just shrugged them off with his hand, stuffing his last corn dog in his mouth.

The second artist of the night was up and the club was getting more and more crowded. This one had a bit of a more chilled vibe than Yoongi but he wasn’t as good. Still, he entertained the public quite well. In Carolina’s opinion, he would be a better host than a singer, although his lyrics weren’t that bad.

"This song is super good!" Namjoon said loudly "You think I can hear it online?"

"Probably? Maybe the guy has SoundCloud?" Carolina answered.

"MY FRIEND IS AFTER! SUGA!" Jin continued to look like a manager; he had a cup on his hands.

"Woah~ Look at that!" Taehyung pointed to the screen behind the musician.

"What I did for Yoongi is much better, trust me."

"You did him the art presentation?" Namjoon asked surprised.

"Yeap" her eyes were still on the stage.

"Should I record him once he performs?" Taehyung asked.

"Of course you should!" Jin answered "We have to keep some memories for him."

"I'll take some photos, you do the videos, you're taller anyways and that helps." Carolina added making Taehyung nodd "Be sure to record everything from Far Away, the holograms are amazing on that one."

"Holograms???" Namjoon exclaimed.

"I'm very proud of my kid." Jin back hugged Carolina peppering her with kisses, just to mock her.

"I swear to God, Seokjin!" she threatened but he was too hyper to let go, the other two just kept laughing.

As they had agreed, Aashna was waiting for Jungkook and his friends to ride the bumper cars. She rode with Jungkook, Jimin with Jean, Jack with Deo and Hyori with Hoseok. Useless to say the first ones of which team were the ones driving. Mostly, Deo kept screaming at Jack to hit everyone and he barely even had time to react because he was laughing too hard. On the second round, they decided to change the drivers. Jungkook had to hold himself to not get thrown out his car because Aashna was crazy for blood and wanted to hit every single person that would hit them.

“Shit, I’m all sore.” Jungkook complained. “You’re a terrible driver.” He said, making Aashna laugh.

“Hardly as bad as you are.” She teased, hitting his arm playfully.

“Pfff as if.” He said, before his arm being pulled. “Anyway, I had fun.”

“Me too, thanks for riding with me.” She smiled sweetly to him.

“I’ll see around campus yeah?” Jungkook said before waving Aashna goodbye.

“Where are we going now?” Hoseok asked, excited.

“We could go on the roller coaster?!” Deo almost pleaded excited.

“Yes!” Almost everyone said at the same time.

“I was thinking of maybe going on the ferries wheel?” Jean asked, tucking Jimin’s shirt, not wanting to be a party killer.

“I’d prefer it too. We can go together if you’d like?” He suggested.

“I’d like that!”

Once the third singer climbs up on stage, Carolina decides it’s time to check on Yoongi backstage. She wanted to go right away the moment he left but decided it was best to give him some space.

"Pssst, Agust D!" Carolina said in a whispery manner while peeking cautiously her head inside the backstage room.

"Nobody ever called me that." He chuckled.

"Well, soon enough everyone will know him." She closed the door "Still, I like Suga way better."

"Because he's not that angsty?" he joked. The girl crossed the room and sat right next to him before answering. His attentive eyes on her.

"No, Suga is angsty as well... But that's the thing... Agust D is only Agust D, Suga on the other hand is you and him. That's why I like him better." Her head now leaned on the back of the couch, waiting for his response, a small smile creeped on his face.

"I don't think I ever saw you getting this emotional." He looked down. "Is the british air doing you good?" Yoongi met her eyes now.

"Is this you thanking me for appeasing your mind?" Carolina chuckled amused. "And no, it has nothing to do with him... I'm cold but you're like- really important to me so... That's how I truly feel."

"Shit, I'll have to work on that song for you now." He smiled awkwardly. None of them were very open about feelings but they understood each other pretty well.

"Remember to look at us when you're up there!" She smiled back and got up to leave, not before he pulled her hand making her look back at him.

"Is it empty out there?" he asked, his front was confident but his eyes never lied, he was nervous, Carolina could tell.

"Yoongs... Trust yourself. We are right in the front, don't forget." She winked and he let go of her hand. Carolina crossed the room again, her hand on the door, ready to leave but not before looking at him again "It's crowded by the way." She left right before seeing his smile go wide.

Now at the top of the wheel, Jean and Jimin were sitting quietly, watching the full moon and the stars upon them.

“We got lucky it stopped here.” Jean commented after a while, referring to being on the highest point of the fair.

“We did! Everything looks so pretty down there.” He smiled big and took his phone out to capture the moment. “Wanna take a selfie?”

“Oh sure!” They posed with a smile and then a silly face before he placed his phone back in his pocket. “Make sure to send me those later.”

“I will! Are you having fun?” He asked, turning to face her.

“I am, thank you for coming with me.”

“Thank you~ for inviting me.” Jimin said sweetly.

“Oh stop it! It was my pleasure. You are a great friend.”

“So are you Jean, so are you.”

Back at the show, Carolina was back with her friends. The artist that had gotten up when she entered backstage was now saying his thanks and goodbyes.

"Is he ok??" Taehyung asked once he saw Carolina returning with a beer in hands.

"He was a little nervous, but everything will be ok."

"Who bought you that?" Jin asked coming close to her because of the loud music.

"Myself...?" she answered "I'm a strong, independent woman after all."

"The beauty of equal rights! Cheers!" Namjoon said clinking his bottle with hers overly excited.

"You forgot to add underage in that sentence." Taehyung said.

"It's fine, if anything the beer is mine." Namjoon added with an accomplice look at the girl who side hugged him.

"I just wanna know who's driving my car tonight because I'm a little busy with the vodka." Jin said loudly while dancing, as if he was in another world.

"I can't drive so..." Taehyung answered.

"Don't look at me, I myself don't trust me with a car." Namjoon shrugged.

"I don't have a license but I know how to drive-" Carolina was saying but got interrupted.

"NO!"

"You take the car then." Jin said not worrying too much.

"NOT-"

"Really?" she asked with a funny face.

"Oh boy...." Namjoon took a large gulp of his beer.

"What about Yoongi?!" Taehyung said loudly.

"He's fine I told you already." Carolina answered "I assured him we would be here waiting and-"

"Ya" Jin laughed "I think he was talking about driving?" Taehyung nodded agreeing.

"Oh..."

"Guys, let's decide that later... Let's enjoy first!" Namjoon pondered.

"Anyways I highly doubt anyone will get drunk, we're all here to see Yoongi." Carolina said.

"Agree!"

"I don't know about you guys, but as soon as Yoongi finishes off I'll start celebrating." Jin said still dancing "HEY! DO YOU KNOW SUGA? I'TS MY FRIEND!" he shouted to a bunch of people standing next to them.

Yoongi stepped on stage, a couple of people cheered but his friends were the loudest. They were screaming at the top of their lungs and Yoongi couldn’t help but smile. He presented himself as Suga. He started off with a song entitled “Agust D”. As the song started playing, everyone started jumping and moving their bodies to the sound of it.

Next up was “Give It To Me” and when that was already over, Jungkook and his friends arrived. After that, “The Last” started playing and then “So Far Away”, a collaboration he did with a girl he met online that used to do some covers. By that time, everyone had their phones out with their flashlights to fit the mood of the song and arms in the air swinging.

“He’s really good!” Deo shouted in Jungkook’s ear so that he could hear her.

He only nodded in response. He didn’t know this side of him. He knew he liked music and that he like to produce some things but it never crossed his mind that he’d have things this level, this good. He stayed glued to the words until the very last one and once it was over, everyone cheered.

"Ahhhhh!" Carolina exclaimed once she saw Yoongi coming in their direction, she went straight to a tight hug "I'm so proud of you!!!! You were so good, Yoongs!!!"

"Thank you!" he hugged back "Everyone's talking about the art work" he chuckled excited.

"Bro it was amazing!! Woah~" Taehyung came by excited as well "The songs were BAM! grrr" Taehyung let out a bunch of noises and expressions.

"Thanks!" Yoongi chuckled.

"And of course they're talking, I told you to trust me!" Carolina added.

"I wish I could see it as well but I was on stage so-"

"Oh we recorded it for you!!!" Taehyung said.

"YOU DID AMAZING BRO!" Jin came by with Namjoon, greeting Yoongi with his always playful manner.

"You did good, Yoongi!" Namjoon tapped on his shoulder congratulating him. "The lyrics were- Wow, really powerful!"

"Thanks guys!" He chuckled feeling proud of himself. "I see you all had a good time then."

"Of course we did! We'd be crazy not to!" Carolina added.

“Hey man, you were great! Congrats!” Jungkook appeared in the middle of the group giving Yoongi a quick hug.

“Thanks JK! Glad you showed up!” Yoongi showed a genuine smile.

“Of course! How did you feel up there?” Jungkook asked excited.

“Pretty great I must say.” Yoongi chuckled.

“JK MY MAN!” Jin screamed and immediately came in for a hug.

“JIN!” Jungkook screams back, laughing.

“Jimin came as well?” Taehyung asked.

“Yeah-” Jungkook said but before he could say anything, Jin spoke again.

“Wanna hang? Bring your friends, we’re celebrating here!”

“Yeah man, come hang!” Namjoon said, beer in hand, cheerful.

“I can go call them?” Jungkook kinda asked, he wasn’t really used to these hang outs between his group and his housemates but he couldn’t deny he was excited for it.

“He’s probably busy with his friends guys, let him be.” Carolina spoke but everyone ignored her.

“Yeah go grab them!” Jin repeated himself, probably because of the drinks he had already had.

“Oh really?? Bring Jiminie!” Taehyung spoke with a big smile.

“I’m gonna call them and I’ll try to find you!” Jungkook said before turning away to where his friends were.

“Jungkook left?” Yoongi finally looked back to the group, he had been talking to some people that were congratulating him.

“He went to get his friends.” Namjoon spoke from beside him.

“I’ll be right back.” Yoongi said. “You came.” He said in the girl’s ear.

“Yoongi! You were great! Of course I did! I wouldn’t miss it for the world!”

“Thanks Linzi.” He let out a chuckle. “You’re alone?”

“No, I’m with some friends. I was just about to leave actually, but I was trying to find you first.”

“Well, thanks for coming!” He let out a smile.

“We’ll talk later yeah? Let me know if you got home safe.”

“I will!”

“FRIENDS! WELCOME!” Jin shouted when Jungkook came back with his friends.

“Welcome where?” Carolina said, sarcastically.

“Oh! The stargazing girl!” Namjoon let out once he noticed Hyori.

“Hey guys!” Hoseok spoke to everyone in general.

“Oh~ hi!” Hyori said shyly.

“Let’s go grab some drinks!” Jungkook said, sliding his arm around Jin’s shoulders.

“I’ll go too!” Deo said. The whole situation was freaking her out. They were friends but they were hanging out and it was weird and awkward.

“Sure! Anything you guys want?” Jin asked, looking back at everyone.

“I’m good thanks!” Taehyung said, looking away from Jimin.

“Whiskey if you can.” Yoongi said.

“No thanks, I'll go there later.” Carolina said before wandering off to the dance floor.

“Bring me anything.” Jimin winked.

“Whatever you’re having ok?” Hyori said looking to Deo.

“I’m already served.” Namjoon showed his beer bottle. ”But thanks.”

“Want me to come with?” Jack asked Deo.

“No, you’re not allowed to drink today mr. Driver.” Deo snorted, pinching his cheek.

“Let’s go!” Jungkook said.

“I’ll be going with you guys! You won’t be able to bring everything back, I’ll help!” Taehyung said cheerfully.

“Nice!” Jin said before turning their backs and going.

Deo had her hands around Jungkook’s arm to not get lost and he was following Jin to the bar. Taehyung was hanging in the back. They had to walk in line because the place was so crowded. Once they managed to get to the bar, they did a little circle.

“What was it that they wanted?” Jungkook asked.

“Not a clue, everything is fine!” JIn laughed.

“Yoongi wanted whiskey and Jimin was anything...” Taehyung said right after.

“What are you having?” Deo asked, turning her attention from the shelves and to the boys.

“Maybe a shot... Can’t decide, I’ll ask the bartender for suggestions.” Jin answered.

“Nothing for me.” Taehyung said.

“For me and Hyori... hmm... can be two vodkas with coke.”

“I don’t know either. I’ll go with Jin’s.” Jungkook added.

“I like this friend very much!” Jin said to Taehyung while pointing to Jungkook.

“You have to order for us, they’ll think I’m 16.” Deo chuckled, talking to Jin.

“They do have a point.” Jin laughed, amused.

“I’ll help ordering because it’s pretty crowded.” Taehyung said, jumping to the bar. “Stay close.” He looked at Deo but she just shrugged him off.

“Swear to God!” Deo said in Jungkook’s ear making him laugh.

“Go away underaged kid.” Jungkook laugh, defendind himself from a punch she threw to his arm.

“So are you!”

“Leave it to us kids!” Jin laughed, looking back.

Once they manage to get all the drinks, they walked back to where their groups last were. Yoongi, Hoseok and Jack were chatting while leaning against the wall about music. Something in Hoseok sparked when he saw Yoongi perform and he was excited to explore that part of himself. Everyone gave them their drink and followed to the next group where Hyori was talking to Namjoon and Jimin was just flirting with some girl.

“Did you find your friend? From the party?” Hyori asked Namjoon. They were still on the topic of the party.

“I did, yes. It’s that blue haired one that went to grab drinks.” Namjoon pointed once he saw Taehyung.

“He seems quite hard to miss.” Hyori teased, letting a laugh fall out of her lips right after.

“Well you might find it surprising how many times we already did.” Namjoon laughed too, a little embarrassed.

“I get it. It was a super big house!”

“It doesn’t help that he’s a little unpredictable.” He laughed. “I never asked you thought but, what were you doing on that room?”

“Watching the stars mostly. That party was too loud for a second and I needed some air.” She said simply.

“I can relate to that.” He confessed, feeling a little shy.

“If you ever need, I know some points around campus where you can see the sky perfectly. Even some rooftops.” She suggested with a grin in her face.

“That would be nice! Thanks, star girl!”

“You having fun?” Deo creeped behind Hyori, handing her the drink she choose for her.

“I am thank you.” Hyori gave her a death glare.

“Hey do you know where Carolina is?” Deo asked, showing him the drink she had for her.

“Uh... She was just here?” Namjoon said confused. He wasn’t paying much attention.

“Jimin!” Deo tapped on his shoulder. “Did you saw Carolina?”

“Ye-” before he could say anything, Taehyung was already going off.

“We lost her???”

“She’s there.” Jimin chuckled while pointing to the dance floor.

“Oh~~ thank God!” Taehyung let out a sigh.

“Hey!” Deo tapped Carolina lightly on the shoulder. “Got you a drink.”

“Oh thanks! You didn’t nee-” Carolina finally looked at the girl, eyes widden. “-eed to...”

“It’s nothing! But you’re ok? You’re a little pale.”

“Uh... Yeah! Totally! Thanks!” She took a sip of her drink, confused with a million things running through her mind.

“Imma go back to the group but if you need to catch some air or go to the bathroom you can call me!” Deo said. She was 100% sure now that Carolina was the bathroom girl from the party, all she had to do now was figure out about which boy she was talking.

“Mhmm, sure thanks!”

The time flew by and the party wasn’t over yet. Once Yoongi ended his performance, the manager of the club announced that he was the last one but that everyone was invited to stay and have fun. With the regular radio music playing, everyone kept on drinking and dancing and laughing. The smoke from the cigars and dim light made the entire mood. It was going to be a good night. That was until...

“Take your hands off my girlfriend you piece of shit!” A guy yelled over the music and threw a punch.

“Fuck you man!” The other guy quickly stood up and threw another punch.

“What the hell is going on?” Jack called over, catching the group’s attention.

“Someone doesn’t know how to handle their drinks.” Jimin shrugged it off.

Soon the manager came in between the two guys and kicked them out. As it was usual policy, he would give a warning but if they didn’t stop, he’d have to call the cops. It was a bad image for the club to have drunks fighting right at their door. One of the man that was involved in the fight was a regular. Every once or twice, he would come to the club and would make a scene. The only reason the manager would still let him in was because he spent more in a night than most of his clients in a week. But of course, that would lead to fights.

“Knock it off!” One of the bouncers yelled but it was no use.

“Want me to step in?” The other one asked.

“No need, the police is already on their way.”

It took them a while, but once they heard the sirens, the two men stopped fighting and ran in different directions. One ran down the street to get away as fast as he could and the other managed to get inside the club.

“The cops are here! Run! RUN!”

Maybe it was the alcohol in their systems or maybe the fact that half of the people there didn’t have the legal age to drink but chaos installed quickly. Everyone was running out through the front door, some decided to use the emergency exit but it was already too late, cops were already covering both exits.

Carolina quickly exchanged looks with her group. She was underaged and there was no way she was going to get caught. She quickly grabbed Deo’s wrist and ran to the backstage area where she had been just hours ago with Yoongi. Hyori and Jungkook followed right after.

“Ok listen up, there’s no way I’m getting caught. We have to jump out of this window.” She peeked her head outside to see if there were cops there. “The coast is clear, let’s go.”

Carolina jumped first. “C’mon, hurry up!”

“There’s no way I’m jumping out of that.” Deo said.

“Would you rather get caught?” Jungkook glared his eyes to the both of them. He was a pile of nerves.

“That’s too high!” Hyori panicked.

“I’ll go first and I’ll help you get down yeah?” Jungkook sugested.

“Ok, but be careful!” Deo said.

“Ok c’mon!” Jungkook whispered.

“You wanna go first? If they get to us we’re dead Hyo, we have to jump.”

“AH FUCK!” Hyori flipped, climbing up the window.

“Ok Deo... keep your shit together, you’re a cheerleader. You’re thrown in the air higher than this fucking shit!” Deo talked mostly to herself. “Can I go?” She peeked her head out.

“Yes, I get you.” Jungkook told her.

Outside the backstage, the boys were trying to create a distraction to make the policeman that was looking for the agressor inside the club.

“We gotta do something!” Hoseok said, panicking.

“Chill Hope, let’s talk to them and keep them up.” Jack suggested.

“NO! Namjoon pretend to faint!!” Jin almost screamed.

“Me?! I can’t act for shit!” Namjoon said, panicking as well.

“Guys keep it down, you’re making it worse.” Yoongi glared at all of them.

“HERE I GO!” Taehyung embraced himself for a fall, closing his eyes as soon as he hit the floor and giving it a special touch my pulling his arm over his forehead. It was a 5-star acting.

“HELP! MY FRIEND FAINTED!” Jimin screamed, getting the attention of the policeman.

“What is going on here?!” The cop asked.

“OUR FRIEND FAINTED!” Jin said overly dramatic.

“What happened?” The cop asked, an eyebrow arched.

“The bad guy!” Namjoon started but felt flustered, not knowing what to say after.

“He pushed him and he fell!” Hoseok said, covering for Namjoon.

“That’s why he fainted!” Jimin added.

“Did you saw where he went? Which direction?” The cop said anxious.

“Into the bathroom.” Yoongi pointed in the opposite direction of the backstage.

“HEY! What about our friend!” Jin said, too excited with everything going on but thankfully the cop was long gone.

“Dude!” Everyone said at the same time.

“Oh yeah.” Jin said nonchalant.

“C’mon, we gotta get out of here to see if they need help.” Yoongi said.

“Everyone has their ID’s?” Jack asked, while him and Jimin pulled Taehyung up.

As the boys waited to leave – the line was super long because the police was checking ID’s at the front door. Deo finally managed to jump and they were hiding behind a dumpster, checking to see if they could move.

“Ok I think there’s a car there.” Carolina pointed to the side of the bar.

“Why the fuck they need so many cops for a fight?” Deo said frustrated.

“That doesn’t matter now!” Jungkook said, his palms were already sweating. He was tense and Carolina had to hold a laugh.

“Ok, be prepared to run if you have to.” The older girl told them.

“How are you so calm?!” Hyori said, freaked out.

“You don’t wanna know.” Carolina laughed dryly. “Ok, on the count of 3.”

The girl started counting. 1... 2... 3! They all started running and as soon as they hit the end of alley, it was exactly what Carolina suspected, there was a car and the two cops that were leaning against the wall noticed them immediately and started chasing after them.

“C’mon!” Jungkook grabbed Deo’s wrist so that she wouldn’t stay behind while Hyori and Carolina ran in front of them.

“HOLY FUCK!” Deo screamed, overwhelmed with the situation.

They could hear the footsteps of both cops chasing after them and they various attempts of telling them to stop were ignored. Quickly they got to a crossroad and Carolina took the left road and Hyori followed suit. Jungkook was ready to turn too but Deo pulled him to the other way.

“It’ll be easier like this! Hyori is fine with her.” She assured him.

“Keep up just a little longer ok?” He asked, seeing how tired she was already.

“We gotta find somewhere to hide.”

Once Carolina and Hyori noticed they were alone and they couldn’t see the cops, they decided to slow down their pace. They sat down on a bench. They noticed they were on a park but at this time of the night they weren’t recognizing it.

“That was close.” Hyori started, trying to normalize her breath.

“Yea-” Carolina stopped mid-sentence. “Do you hear that?”

“Wha-”

“We gotta hide.” Carolina quickly looked around, eyes scanning the place. “Are you good at holding your breath?”

“What?!”

“YES OR NO?!”

“I guess!!”

Carolina grabbed Hyori’s arm and pulled her with her to the fountain. She kept peeking a little but when she saw the light of the cop’s flashlight, she dove in, pulling Hyori along with her.

Deo and Jungkook continued running for what felt hours but really was 10 minutes since they got separated from the two girls. That was until they saw a convenience store.

“Let’s go there!” Deo pulled Jungkook.

“Wait, we need to control our breaths before we go in.”

“We don’t have time for that! Just smile to the cashier and then you can breathe normally!”

“Fuck, let’s go then.”

They immediately walk to the drinks area. Jungkook grabbed a power drink and Deo a water. They heard the doors slide and their hearts clutched a little. They tried to peek but didn’t see anything.

“Let’s grab some Doritos.” Deo suggested, telling Jungkook to calm down with her hands.

“I want pringles.” He said nonchalant.

“What? You always want Doritos.”

“And you always want Pringles.”

“Your point?” She laughed lightly.

“Hey kids.” They heard a voice from behind them and turned.

“Yes?” Deo spoke, afraid Jungkook’s voice was going to tremble.

“What are you doing here at this time?” The cop walked closer to them.

“We came to buy some snacks.” Deo said, showing the chips in her hands. “Is there a problem?”

“Where did you came from?” The cop pushed again.

“From campus.” Deo answered immediately with an eyebrow arched. “Why?”

The cop looked at them for a couple of seconds before relaxing his posture a little. “Make sure to make it there safe. Have a good night.”

As soon as he turned his back, Deo couldn’t contain the big smile on her face. “Let’s grab some gum too.”

“I swear, one of these days I die because of you.” Jungkook whispered to her.

“What did I do?!”

“You were giving him an attitude!”

“I was no- he was interrogating us for no reason!” She said teasingly.

“I- what?!”

“Relax Gguk. This will be the first of many times.” She winked to him and turned on her heels, heading to the cashier. The only thing she could hear was his sigh.

Back at the fountain, Carolina decided to be brave and peek her head out of the water. She couldn’t hold her breath anymore so between drowning and getting caught, it was a close call. Everything was quiet. She couldn’t hear the cop’s radio anymore so she decided it was now or never. They jumped out of the fountain, fully wet and trembling to the breeze of the night.

“Let’s agree to never speak of this again.” Carolina said, frustrated.

“Agree.”

DAY 5 [COMING SOON]

#fighton! #bts college au #bts social media au #bts ot7 au #jungkook au #taehyung au #jimin au #namjoon au #hoseok au #yoongi au #jin au #jungkook college au #jungkook social media au #taehyung college au #taehyung social media au #jimin college au #jimin social media au #hoseok college au #hoseok social media au #namjoon college au #namjoon social media au #yoongi social media au #yoongi college au #jin college au #jin social media au #bts reactions #bts writing #bts moodboard #bts interactive au #jungkook x reader

[paindealt]

Hmm, are you referring to his “default” skin in MKX, or his story skin? Probably the former, but I’ll ramble about both anyway because I love rambling. First all, I’ll talk about his default.

His default might be my favorite Kuai design (I can’t really count his Revenant, just because that feels... not right? To me it feels talking about your favorite Jin (Tekken) design being a Devil Jin’s design.) This or... I might get flak for this... MK9 Sub. Since I tend to illustrate that one the most in my art. Though this one def has some things I prefer over MK9′s design. I LOVE his mask, the way it glows just gives it a unique look to it. Not to mention, but my biggest issue with MK9 Sub’s design was his mask... it looked INCREDIBLY bulky and too large in my opinion (especially comparing it to the other ninjas’ masks). Which... just didn’t make it look right, or even silly. This mask isn’t nearly as large, feels right, and as I said -- has a cool glow to it. And as I’ve mentioned in the tags of my revenant post, I will ALWAYS prefer Kuai in fingerless gloves. Just because fingerless gloves make anyone look rad and bad-ass. This design is also littered with weapons. He has weapons on his arms, on his hands, and on his belt. His 11 design(s) also feature this detail too. And while yes, they do make him appear bad-ass... it also feels... redundant to me? I don’t think we’ve ever seen Sub-Zero use any weapons other than ones made of ice. And that makes sense! Because from what we’ve seen, this dude can like... instantly muster up an ice sword, hammer, or ax. Hell, he can straight up shoot ice shards from his hands. Maybe he uses them for emergencies... but mostly they just feel like useless weapons there lol. Which, his MK9 design doesn’t feature any non-ice weapons on it. (Though it might’ve went overboard with the silver faces he dons.)

I prefer this default design over his default in MK11. I just think it looks cooler imo, kinda has a grittier feeling to it. I might prefer it over MK9′s as well, but I’m not entirely sure.

I gotta admit, the first time I played MKX... I wasn’t the biggest fan of this design? I always thought he looked like a FERAL CAVEMAN in this game! I mean, that beard is getting kinda long, and with that chest out! And it might be hard to tell if you’ve only watch this game on YouTube, but if ya played it on an HD TV as I did on the PS4, well... his chest hair is quite noticeable. And like, it’s not like Kano’s either where it’s a chest full of hair. They’re like these, small pieces of chest hair and it’s Odd to me!! Because it doesn’t feel like typical man chest hair. There’s not enough to be that noticeable, nor is it a Gorilla Chest, nor is he just completely hairless/waxed. So that’s why it always came off as odd to me. Rather be looking at Kitana’s TITana’s y’know? (I’m gonna get killed for that joke -- I still love Kuai too.) Okay, I just went off about Kuai’s chest hair, but it was SOMETHING THAT SOMEWHAT BOTHERED ME. Anyways, mostly his X design was pretty much just his Deadly Alliance design... but Made Better.

Another issue I had with it -- which is a minor one, if it can even be considered an issue, just something I thought was weird -- was that his scar looks relatively new here? Like he got it recently. Even though the comics show that it was YEARS ago he got it before the events of X. Which is a detail I like in his 11 design, as it actually looks like an old scar.

But I don’t know, as I started to look at the design more often, especially icon it. I began to appreciate it more. I dunno why... I just started to like the feral look more! While I definitely prefer his trimmed beard in MK11 more, something about this design became more endearing to me. He gives off these old, kinda embarrassing at times Dad vibes to me. And to be honest? Though I do have my criticisms regarding it, it’s actually one of my favorite Kuai designs -- at least in the top five or ten.

Something I forgot to mention regarding his design(s) in X are his eyes in general. I definitely prefer them over both MK9 and 11′s, I love the INHUMAN feel that’s given to them. It tells the player/konsumer that Kuai isn’t exactly human, that he’s a hybrid. While I felt they reminded me too much of Raiden’s eyes, or a dead Scorpion’s. (Since while he does indeed have pupils, they’re so faint... you can barely see ‘em.) Which made them feel less unique, and why I often illustrate him with black sclerae and blue irises/pupils in my liberated designs/art. And while I’ll admit it does make more sense for him to have very light blues/white eyes, since it’s like ice. But the black sclerae are also opposite to Scorpion’s typical whites. Which those two characters are often have traits that are opposite to each other.

#kathexismania #{ ✨ ; * ooc ! } #{ ❄️; * kuai about ! } #{ ✨ ; * inbox ! } #// made this a text post because I didn't feel like fucking with tumblr's stupid in box #// GOD i go OFF #// anyways... just wanted to mention that I sometimes tend to add a mix of all my fav kuai designs when drawing him #// sometimes