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nocturne-overtures · 3 years

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Kinktober Day 5-Bad Influences

Pairing: Lee Minhyuk (BTOB)/Lee Felix

Prompt: Daddy Kink, Spanking, Cumming From Punishment

WC: 2k+

Genre(s)/AU(s): Smut, Idolverse, Fluff

TWs: Swearing

SWs: Daddy Kink, Pet Names, Spanking (Hand and Paddle), Marking (Imprints), Bratty Sub, Teasing, Semi-Public, Sexual Punishment, Stoplight System, Dominant Idol, Submissive Idol, BDSM Overtones, Praise Kink, Pain Kink, Crying, Aftercare

Everything here is Safe, Sane, and Consensual as always, folks

A/N: I also have the tagged folks according to your preferences so if you’re someone who asked to be tagged in btob works, skz works, or both and included member x member works, then beep boop you’re gettin tagged. Also this is set during Kingdom filming

AO3

New! taglist moved to the bottom of the work. if you’d like to be added to the taglist for this or my other works, feel free to fill out the form here after reading the full post. ©Nocturne-Overtures. do not repost, translate, or use my works.

Kinktober 2021 Masterlist

Day 4 Day 6

Network Pings: @kdiarynet @kwritersworld @kpopscape

Minhyuk was many things.

Easily riled up, was not one of them.

No, he was a very meticulous man. Took his time analyzing situations with a deceptive smile on his face, feigning aloofness while he sorted his thoughts.

Think, before you act. Always.

It was a lesson Felix hadn’t quite grasped yet, deciding he was going to follow after his friends’ footsteps and try provoking Minhyuk into action.

Had he been learning bad behaviours from Wooyoung, Sanghyuk, and Sunwoo? Definitely.

Unfortunately for Felix, Minhyuk had the benefit of age and experience on his side. He loved his boyfriend, no doubt, but he wasn’t so swooned and whipped that he’d crack like San. He wasn’t a switch in any capacity, so the tables didn’t get turned on him like with Youngbin. And he surely didn’t get flustered or caught out by misbehaviour like Sangyeon.

So when Felix took to subtly brushing against him as they passed backstage for filming, when he sent him suggestive photos while changing costumes, the times he’d appear at Cube, an innocent smile on his freckled face as he sat directly in Minhyuk’s lap, pouting and chattering about how much he wished he could have fun with Minhyuk whenever he wanted like the others-

Minhyuk only hummed, kissing the top of Felix’s head. Today they were in the older man’s home, resting before the upcoming field day event.

“We only have a few more weeks of filming. I’ll be sure to stop by more often.”

“I mean...we have time now so-”

Felix pouted and looked up, shifting beside him on the couch, his freckled cheeks slightly puffed out.

“Are you going to keep doing that?”

Minhyuk cocked a brow.

“Doing what?”

“Not…” Felix trailed off, making a small frustrated noise. Minhyuk cocked a brow, an amused noise leaving his lips.

“Not what, baby? Fucking you?”

Felix nodded and Minhyuk set the pen he had in his hand down, closing the notebook to the raps he was writing and humming.

“Why do you think I haven’t fucked you, Felix?”

“I don’t know! I’ve been trying and-” he cut himself off, lips pursing.

Minhyuk couldn’t help the chuckle that left his lips, a deep rumble resonating from his chest as he looked at Felix in amusement.

“C’mon to my room. I’ll tell you why it didn’t work.”

Felix perked and nodded eagerly, hustling after him, practically on Minhyuk’s heels.

How he ended up here, sprawled out across Minhyuk’s lap with the older man humming and rubbing his ass was another story. Felix blushed, looking up, expecting Minhyuk to finger him and prep him. Instead, he had his head lightly tilted up, looking into Felix’s eyes.

Instantly, the younger man realized-finally-that he may have been in trouble, eyes widening.

“Um-”

“Would you like to explain now? Or would you prefer to take your punishment as I explain to you what you did wrong?"

Felix shrunk a bit, cheeks flared.

“I can let you go and let you explain yourself. Or I can spank you and I tell you why you’re in trouble.”

Felix looked into his eyes. Minhyuk never moved his gaze from his. He was giving him a choice. He always did. Felix looked back, finding a small leather paddle sitting beside Minhyuk’s thigh while his large hand lie rested on Felix’s ass, unmoving for now.

He shied and nodded.

“I’m staying here.”

“Do you remember our system?”

“Yes, Daddy.”

Minhyuk nodded, a pleased sound leaving his lips.

“Good.”

He grabbed the paddle, rubbing Felix’s ass in circles before he brought the paddle down hard on his ass. Felix jolted and yelped, though Minhyuk kept him in his lap with his free hand wrapped securely around Felix’s waist.

“You don’t have to count this time. But Daddy wants you to know that following after the other Brats is why that pretty ass is in trouble.”

Felix yipped at the second, then third hit, cheeks flushing as he felt the leather rub over his sore cheek between Minhyuk’s talking.

“I j-just wanted you t-to….to…” He flushed and lowered his head. Minhyuk tapped his ass with the paddle.

“Lift your head. You wanted me to what?”

“F-fuck me. They...they said being bratty and teasing works all the time for them and-fuck!” He cursed and jolted when his untouched cheek was struck, Minhyuk’s grip still strong around his waist.

“There’s a difference between their Doms and Daddy, kitten.” he lightly scolded, his voice never going above the volume of his normal speaking tone. Felix bowed his head down.

“S-sorry, Daddy.” Minhyuk hummed and rubbed his ass.

“Are you?”

Felix nodded before whimpering and dropping his head once more when another hard spank fell to his ass. He could feel something on the paddle, like...an outline? Though the paddle was never pressed to his sore ass long enough for him to distinguish what it is. Minhyuk took care to rub him between spanks with the smooth end of the paddle.

“Pick your head up, baby.” Minhyuk reminded him. Felix shuddered and muttered a quick apology before Minhyuk paused.

“Are you alright?”

Felix nodded.

“What’s your color, baby?”

“Green.”

Minhyuk kissed his head before he continued.

“I’m not San, or Youngbin, I’m not Sangyeon either. Who am I?”

“Minhyuk-hyung.”

A light tap to his ass from the paddle had Felix’s hips jolt, anticipating a full hit before he blushed. He realized he was hard, his cock pressed fully against Minhyuk’s leg.

When had he gotten hard?

“Who am I, Felix?” He asked again.

“M-My Daddy.”

“Good. So Daddy is going to tell you, the best way to get him to fuck you, is to ask.” the paddle was discarded without a word, Minhyuk’s calloused hand squeezing and kneading both of Felix’s cheeks.

“I won’t reward you with my cock for being a brat, Felix.” he scolded him, his hand coming down on Felix’s left cheek. A scream of surprise left his mouth and he nearly scrambled out of Minhyuk’s lap, his cock jumping against the fabric of the older man’s gym shorts. Minhyuk loosened his grip, giving him the chance to get out of it if he wanted to.

Felix shook his head and settled back down, slightly panting as tears gathered in the corner of his eyes.

“Color?”

“G-Green.”

Minhyuk hummed, sitting in silence for a few minutes, just groping and kneading the heated skin under his hand. Felix kept his head up like asked, though his thighs shook from his position across Minhyuk’s lap. The older man took notice, pulling him forward a bit more, spreading his long legs so he could support Felix a bit better.

Once Felix had stopped shaking as much, Minhyuk continued.

“Do you want to be a brat, Felix?”

Felix shook his head, groaning at the next spank, the tears rolling down his cheek as he clenched and unclenched his fists.

“N-No, Daddy!”

“No? Not gonna try and be like Sunwoo and grind on me backstage like he does with Sangyeon?”

Felix shook his head quickly, his hair stuck to his face and neck from the sweat that began to build up on his body.

“What about sitting in my lap during meetings with the others? Mmm? Is it fair to tease Daddy like the others do? Do you think you should have my cock after being such a tease like that?” he inquired. Felix shook his head once more, biting his lip and all but thrusting against Minhyuk’s leg with the next jolt from his spank, his entire body flushed.

He’d gotten hard, painfully so. Part of him feared he’d cum just from this.

“D-Daddy-”

Minhyuk’s hand froze midair, attentive brown eyes looking down immediately.

“What is it, baby? Do you want to stop?”

“N-No I…M...maybe? I feel like I’m going to cum and I don’t wanna be bad.”

Minhyuk’s eyes twinkled with mirth.

“You’re gonna cum from your punishment?”

Felix shook his head quickly, embarrassed.

“Felix. Be honest baby.”

He flushed before nodding a moment later.

“Do you want to cum?”

He lifted his head, looking back at him with big eyes still teary from the pleasured pain thrumming through his cheeks.

“I was bad.”

“I think you learned your lesson, personally. So I’ll ask you again. Do you want to cum?”

Felix nodded.

“Yes, Daddy, please?”

“See? Those are the manners Daddy is looking for.” Minhyuk grabbed a few pillows, letting Felix rest his head on them before he resumed his spanking, growling between each strike.

“Your ass looks pretty like this, baby. The red makes your freckles stand out. Go ahead, you can cum for me.”

Felix could barely decipher his words between the sound of skin hitting skin and his own moaning and pleasured cries, his cock painfully hard between his legs. Minhyuk had growled something in particular, along the lines of Felix being his ‘cute pain slut’ before the younger man saw stars, cumming messily all over Minhyuk’s lap, his legs and thighs shaking as he nearly slipped to the floor from the force of it.

Minhyuk held him tighter, keeping him steady as he picked him up, laying with Felix settled in his arms.

He was careful, brushing Felix’s hair back and cooing sweet nothings to him as he sobbed against his chest.

“You’re alright, baby boy. You did well for me.”

“B-But I was a brat-”

“Mmm. You were. And you took your punishment well. So, you’re a good boy. Hey, look at me,” Minhyuk waited until Felix’s sniffles subsided into little hiccups, the pained pleasure an overwhelming first time feeling for him. Minhyuk wiped his cheeks and kissed him gently.

“You did so well. Let Daddy take care of you, okay?”

Felix nodded and held onto his arms as he stood, carrying him off to shower off. Minhyuk laughed and waved off the hasty apologies as Felix noticed him putting his shorts in the wash.

“Don’t apologize to me, baby boy.”

One magnolia scented, aloe-infused bath later, and Felix was on his stomach, eyes closed as Minhyuk gently massaged lotion over his cheeks.

He was careful of his strength and there was no skin broken, but Felix had noted-in sheer delight-that Minhyuk’s paddle actually did have indentations, and they actually were hearts. Now his freckled bottom sported not only Minhyuk’s handprint to the left and a row of hearts to the right.

“So...I think I have a spanking kink.” Felix mused tiredly as Minhyuk got him settled on his chest, putting on Deadpool for them to enjoy, since it had been one of Felix’s favorites. Minhyuk laughed and kissed him, holding his waist once he was sure Felix was warm and covered by the blanket.

“I noticed.”

-xoxo-

So the field day was a completely different experience.

Minhyuk felt a sense of pride as Felix waddled forward amongst the cheers that he had been voted as one of their top three visuals. The man looked around, pointing at himself through his slightly overgrown sweater and the older couldn’t hold back the happy exclamation of Felix’s name as he shuffled forward.

He genuinely was surprised when they announced him for the number one of their visual kings, but he took it nonetheless, catching Felix mimicking his showboating from the corner of his eye.

How cute.

“They ended up voting for each other!”

Minhyuk turned, pointing at Felix as the younger man bowed deeply, flustered at having been chosen.

He should have known Minhyuk would’ve chosen his baby boy above all else, but that’s beside the point.

“Hey Felix, good boy.”

Felix flushed and bowed again, and Minhyuk was approached later as they began to help staff clean up, the sun having gone down and the festivities over.

“Hyung?”

Minhyuk looked up at him, tilting his head.

“Yes, Felix-ah?” he inquired, glancing around. The others were busy hustling to help staff so they could all rest up, leaving the two relatively alone. Felix adjusted his pink sleeves and looked up at him.

“Uh...can I come over this weekend? For...um…’practice?’”

Minhyuk took it for what it was, a proud and knowing smirk tugging at his lips.

“Yeah, of course.”

Taglist----

@not-majestic-bluenicorn @kimnamshiks @atiny-dazzlinglight @queenofhimbos @daisyhwa @gettin-a-lil-hanse @yunhofingers @stormiestories @billboard-singer @sweetutopia @lovely-devil6 @babiebumm @jacksons-goddess-gaia @storytimedragon @netcookie @seomisaho

#fie writes #kinktober 2021 #kpopscape #kdiarynet #kwritersworldnet #minhyuk smut #minhyuk btob smut #felix smut #member x member #btob smut #stray kids smut #kpop smut

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meinkampfortzone · 3 years

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Who Was Hans-Joachim Marseille’s Fiancee?: An Opinion-Based Commentary, Part 2

(cont. from Part 1):

HJM’s Family’s Attitude Toward Hanne-Lies

So one of the things I noticed when I first started getting curious about finding out who HJM’s fiancee was was the fact that she seemed so comfortable around his mom. That was, in fact, one of the first indicators to me that she was a bit older than him, other than her face. Had she been around his age, most of their interactions would have taken place outside of the house, away from his parents, so that they could make the most of their time alone together. That was, in fact, the norm among young people in the 40s, especially with the growing availability of cars which made getting around a lot easier and faster. When in the presence of each others’ parents, both parties had to act very reserved toward each other, and refrain from things such as holding hands or kissing, etc. (their parents would have been from the generation born in the 1800s, where doing things like that in public was inappropriate and prospective couples were meant to act with restraint when together). Therefore, the fact that 85% of the interactions between Hanne-Lies and HJM (except for the outing in Bad Saarow and their trip to Rome) took place at his parents’ apartment in Berlin was something that stood out to me. I took this to mean that Hanne-Lies was either a friend of the family or mature enough to want to spend time with and build a relationship with her future mother-in-law. As my research later proved, the latter ended up being true.

After Hans-Joachim Marseille’s death, Hanne-Lies was allowed to live in Bad Saarow in Charlotte Marseille’s summer house that she owned there. I found this strange because Hanne-Lies had only known HJM and subsequently his family for approximately 7 months (they met in March 1942; he died in September 1942), which was hardly a long enough time for Charlotte Marseille to get to trust her enough to give her her house and allow her to live in it. Hanne-Lies remained in that house, keeping it as her main residence, until she got married in 1944 to former LSSAH member Martin Stephani. This led me to think that perhaps, like her son, Charlotte Marseille saw something in Hanne-Lies that reminded her of her dead daughter Inge, and due to the fact that she had lost her daughter so recently, she built a good relationship with Hanne-Lies. After HJM died, I believe that Charlotte Marseille sort of saw Hanne-Lies as the last thing she had left of her deceased son, and decided to let her have the house and stay there for as long as she needed as a sort of gesture of goodwill.

This is a picture of HJM at a bar in Berlin called the Regina Bar (between the two girls) and Hanne-Lies (at the other end of the table). This was taken during his leave in 1942, during which he met Hanne-Lies and became engaged to her. Notice that even in the presence of his fiancee HJM has no issue cozying up to other women. Judging by the look on her face, she doesn’t seem too pleased about it either.

HJM’s Comrades/Contemporaries’ Attitudes/Opinions Concerning His Engagement

Another thing that I find sort of striking is the complete lack of commentary on the part of HJM’s comrades and friends concerning his engagement, or rather, his lack of commitment to his fiancee. According to Colin Heaton, the news of HJM’s engagement “shocked” those who knew him, only because of his playboy nature. However, once that shock subsided, and everyone saw HJM going back to his old ways and sleeping with various women, not one of his comrades thought to mention how they found it strange that he was engaged and yet having all of these publicized affairs. Although sex outside of marriage, etc. was common in the 1940s, it wasn’t until the 1980s that it became the norm. Up until then, infidelity and sexual promiscuity was kept carefully under wraps, more so for women than men. However, back in those days engagement was essentially a binding contract--the couple was considered married for all intents and purposes until they actually went and legally tied the knot. I found it strange that Marseille’s comrades and those who knew him, when interviewed about him, had no problem talking about his various sexual escapades but didn’t mention how he still did these things while he was engaged. I would have expected at least one of them to mention how it was strange that he continued to do this even after he was committed to one woman. It was almost as if the existence of Hanne-Lies in HJM’s life was unknown to them. This led me to believe that maybe HJM never bothered to tell anyone he was engaged or probably only mentioned it in passing and never really made a big deal about it, or perhaps his comrades knew that this was just part of his nature and that it was foolish to think that he could ever be faithful to one person.

When asked to describe the nature of HJM and Hanne-Lies’ relationship, Hans-Rudolf Marseille (HJM’s half-brother) proceeded to talk about how he convinced her to go to Rome.

Of all the things he could have said that would demonstrate that they really loved each other and that there was something between them, he chose this anecdote, which really doesn’t demonstrate anything between them.

Even the members of the Nazi high command who had interacted with Marseille, when interviewed by Colin Heaton, had no issue talking about how, when receiving a complaint from an Italian officer who stated that Marseille had “violated the family honor”, they all had a good laugh about it, and one of them even said, “Damn it, Marseille, have some shame, man.” However, none of them bothered to point out that this was going on while he was engaged, which was something he had even mentioned to Hermann Goering. Overall, none of the members of the high-ranking Nazi hierarchy seemed surprised at his behavior in the slightest.

Some Miscellaneous Points

1- All of the people who were close to HJM gave interviews about him or attended events commemorating him and gave speeches/contributed to the event in some way, shape, or form. Many of the primary sources used in Colin Heaton’s book come from interviews conducted with many of Marseille’s comrades, such as Eduard Neumann, Ludwig Franzisket, and Emil Clade. Marseille’s mother, Charlotte, attended the premier of the 1957 film “Stern von Afrika”, and an article appeared in Der Spiegel featuring her and the actor who played her son, Joachim Hansen. In the article, she thanks Hansen for his stellar portrayal of her son.

Hans-Rudolf Marseille assisted authors and historians writing and researching about HJM, such as Franz Kurowski and Walter Wubbe, and also gave interviews, snippets of which were included in a 1999 documentary about HJM’s life. It was because of the efforts of Eduard Neumann and other airmen who had flown with Marseille that a set of Luftwaffe barracks in Appen were renamed the “Marseille Barracks” (Marseille-Kaserne in German). Even Marseille’s batman, Mathew “Matthias” Letulu, gave an eulogy for Marseille in Germany during a ceremony held at the monument for Marseille in the Egyptian desert.

The only person who had been closer to him than most of the people mentioned above, his ex-fiancee, was strangely absent from all of these efforts. Other than making an appearance at the 1967 Fighter Pilots’ Reunion event at Furstenfeldbruck, where she attended as a guest of honor with Charlotte Marseille (and this appearance isn’t even documented, as there are no photos of her at the event), she never gave any interviews about her ex-fiance, nor did she contribute to the efforts being made by those who knew him to keep his memory alive.

2- During his interview, Hans-Rudolf Marseille showed a plethora of letters he had collected that had been sent by HJM to various members of his family--his mother, his sister, even his father. Some of these letters were reproduced and included in Walter Wubbe’s book “Hauptmann Marseille”. But with regards to any written correspondence between Hanne-Lies and HJM, there are absolutely no letters or anything whatsoever between them. Given the fact that they got engaged during one of HJM’s leaves, and they only saw each other once more after that when he was on vacation, it would make sense that they would be constantly writing to each other. Yet there doesn’t seem to be any sort of correspondence between them, at least as far as Hans-Rudolf Marseille’s cache of letters is concerned. The only testament to their relationship is the scarf that Hanne-Lies gave to HJM, and the photo she gave him of herself with “Ich habe dich sehr liebe!!” written on the back.

3- When I read that Hanne-Lies had given HJM a picture of herself with “Ich habe dich sehr liebe” written on the back, I was curious because “Ich liebe dich” is “I love you” in German. Thus, I set out to find the difference in meaning between “Ich habe dich liebe” and “Ich liebe dich.” I found an answer to this on a German language learning forum that I’ll include below.

In Closing...

When I think of what Hans-Joachim Marseille’s love life should have looked like, I immediately think of the relationship between Alain Delon and Romy Schneider (not how it ended, Alain cheated on her with another woman and she refused to get back together with him, but just how aesthetically pleasing they were and how big of a power couple they were in the years they were together.)

I believe that he only got engaged to Hanne-Lies because of the emotional turmoil he was going through at the time. I think that even if they had gotten married, their marriage would have never lasted long. After all, grief isn’t forever, and eventually he would have realized that with that therapist aspect gone, there isn’t actually anything that binds him to Hanne-Lies at all. Hanne-Lies, too, would have had a hard time putting up with his infidelity and flighty personality, especially since she would have been reaching that age when she wants to have children and start a family and settle down (she was almost 30 when she got engaged to HJM). I honestly just wish that Inge Marseille wouldn’t have died so that HJM could have actually gone and found someone who had the personality and temperament to be his other half. I feel like, had he met someone like that, they would literally have been the power couple of the Third Reich.

I’d love to hear your guys’ comments/opinions regarding this in the comments. Thanks for reading!

#hans-joachim-marseille #hans joachim marseille #jochenmarseille

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selfilluminatingkyu · 3 years

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Dancing with the Devil(s): Chapter III

Previous|Current|Next

You don’t go searching for bones in a Lion’s Den. You just hope you don’t become a part of the pile.

F!Reader x Adult Trio; this takes place during the same timeline as Season 3 of HxH but the events with Kuropika and the crew are just shifted a little. Things will align back up within the next couple of chapters.

Warnings: Swearing; mentions of conditioning of a child (reader);

Word Count: 4.8K

After…whatever it was that had taken place with the members of the Troupe, Chrollo had placed you back into his study as he gave further instructions to the rest of the team, who you had been introduced to formally. You would have liked to say that the introduction had cooled your nerves a bit but that would have been a lie. If anything, it made you more anxious. The more you knew, the more susceptible you were to be considered a “loose end” and the likelihood of your impending death became that much more stark to you. Should you prove to be of no use to Chrollo or the rest of the Spiders, as you learned they were frequently called, your time would be clicking down on a timer.

You still weren’t entirely sure what had happened and what you had done that had proven to be so amazing that had the lot in such a tizzy. You’d spent at least an hour playing a continuous game of “hide and seek” as Nobunaga had dubbed it. Although, you weren’t entirely sure who was exactly supposed to be hiding, seeing you felt their presences the entire time. The only time you had been a little unsure was towards the end. Hisoka’s presence had wavered momentarily, as if he’d suddenly disappeared, but you’d taken in a deep breath and focused yourself only for him to pop back up again, like an object on a radar. Chrollo’s had also been faint at one moment towards the end but his aura had never truly gone away, not that you thought it was possible anyway. Not with how dark and menacing his was.

“I’m sorry for the delay, but it seems that there’s a new bounty on our heads and we didn’t collect all of the items for auction. There’s also some other matters to attend to.” You looked over your shoulder to Chrollo as he stepped back into the room. The information made you pause…you were certain that everything had been accounted for, for the first round.

His hair was messy in comparison to the slicked back style it had been earlier, and you mused that it made him look even younger and it suited him more. Looking at him you wondered how many people he’d disarmed and made comfortable with his looks and charm. In another life, he had to have been the eldest son to a very, very wealthy and powerful man.

Making a noise of agreement, you turned to look back outside. It was getting dark now. The brightest stars starting to pop up in the purple and pink hazed sky. It reminded you of all of the times you and your family went to the country side, away from the city and the light pollution, where you could look at the stars till your heart was content. More than once, you’d fallen asleep outside, wondering what other worlds were out there, what sort of people there were…if any of them ever felt like you did or were raised like you. In your head, there were other girls like you, who’d been raised the same and by some chance, you all ended up together, united and made sure it could never happen to another soul.

You were people, not property.

But that was a fantasy and this was reality and in this reality, you didn’t know when your time was up and so you’d decided that you would do whatever was necessary to be reunited with those you’d lost. You’d see your siblings again. You’d save them for your parents. You’d give them a better life, and all the unconditional love they deserved. No fear of being sold to the highest bidder in an effort for your parents to obtain something that was unlikely to act quench their thirst for more power, more money, just more.

“I don’t believe I ever actually asked you name…or how exactly it was you came to be among the items set for auction.” You jumped, so lost in thought that you hadn’t even register Chrollo. It wasn’t his voice that startled you, but the proximity of his mouth to your ear. He stood behind you, towering over you and making you feel smaller than you already did in his shadow.

“No, you didn’t. Not that anyone else did, to be frank. But it’s y/n. And I believe I briefly told you earlier how I came to be there. I’m the eldest of four and since a young age, my parents have always been complimented on how beautiful I was. I’m pretty sure from the moment I was born, they were told that they’d been blessed with a precious gem. They took it a little too seriously and decided that what other purpose was there for a gem than to buy them a bigger one? So…my parents figured to obtain more wealth, more power, more notoriety, they’d marry me off to the man or family that checked all of those boxes the most. So, they groomed me to be the perfect wife for a man of that caliber. I got all of the etiquette classes a lady of that birth ranking would get, along with ones that would place me outside of the pack. I had tutors for all of my studies and learned several languages. I was put under pressure and polished to perfection.

“At one point they were in discussions with a family, I was going to be married to their eldest son. I never met him, but I snuck into my father’s office one night and saw a photo of him and his family. While he seemed handsome enough, there was something peculiar about him that had me anxious before I’d even met him. But, while they had the money and power and notoriety…it wasn’t in the form my parents wanted. They wanted to be among those in high society, in the light where people on the street would whisper about them…not among the shadows like that family apparently was. So, my parents started again, except…no one was meeting their standards and the original family seemed to be the best offer they had…till there was someone else. I don’t know how the Don who bought me had heard of me, or how one of the others had, but he did and he was certain that he could tick all of the boxes my parents were trying to fill. So, they made a deal and suddenly I was being brought here to the auction.

“I was in a different room originally, by myself, in a suite. But the Don’s right hand man who’d been watching me prior to the auction came in flustered, talking about something going on and they moved me…which is where I was when…whatever sucked me and the rest of the items into a void happened and then I was backstage where the rest of the Troupe found me. And that’s it.” You turn to look at him and find that the look on his face has you turning around completely.

The man looks a mixture of furious rage and melancholy heartbreak…and it has you absolutely stumped as to why a man who has killed for sheer joy and amusement—as you’d realized after hearing their names and remembering the scarlet eyes—would look so pained over the story of a young woman being sold as a wife. It didn’t align with the character chart you had started creating in your head for him. No, it was just as peculiar as Hisoka looking concerned when Chrollo had ushered you away from the rest of the group, away from him.

Regardless, you stood and waited, waited for him to do or say anything so that you could gage how you were meant to react to him when suddenly he was looking at you and cupping your cheeks in his hands.

“You do not have to worry about being sold to anyone. I’m not in the business of human trafficking.” The sincerity in his words should have calmed you, but it didn’t. You’d heard promises from other men before. Promises to run away with you; promises to marry you and give your parents what they so desired and to save you and your siblings.

But promises were made to be broken and you weren’t going to hold your breath that this man, lawless as he was, was any different than the rest.

“I’ll believe it when I see it.” You said stepping out of his grasp and moving out of arms reach. The moment felt far too intimate for someone you had just met, for someone who was essentially holding you captive as he’d made no mention of letting you go.

Chrollo dropped his arms and looked at you carefully, you could feel his eyes rove over you, and you wondered if he was appraising you as a woman or as a ward, either way it made your skin crawl and feel like a filly up for auction all over again.

“I don’t blame you for not trusting me. I’m sure there were people in your past who promised you things and never saw them through. Left you feeling more vulnerable and alone than you had prior to. I understand that, I have been there and been in the same place. The only family, the only true family I had was one I created by bringing together a bunch of misfits who sought to burn the world to the ground for the atrocities that we shared. We are bound by a common goal of watching the world, and the people who prosper from the neglect and despair of others, burn. While I have not been in your exact position, I can still understand where you are coming from.” You turn to look at him, eying him carefully as he continues on with his little speech. “I’ll give you two options. You can leave, right here, right now. I’ll take you wherever it is you want to go and that’ll be the end of it. If we see each other, or if you see any of the other members, we’ll act as if we have no idea who you are. However, I think there are things you want to accomplish, people you want to keep with you and as you are now, you won’t be able to accomplish those things.”

“So…what exactly are you suggesting?”

“Stay with us. Let me and the other members train you, tap into the clear raw ability you have. Earlier, the members were using a technique called zestsu. When highly capable Nen users are using this technique, their presence is nearly untraceable. However, when myself or other members of the Troupe do it, along with other high skilled hunters, we should completely disappear.” He says and the way his eyes light up as he describes this has you both intrigued but also unnerved. “You, who has no nen abilities or true knowledge, should not have been able to detect Feitain, Machi, Phink, Shalnark, or Nobunaga when you walked into the room. However, there wasn’t a single presence hidden from you. That’s not something even elite nen users can do, let alone you. And yet…you did and with seemingly no effort at all.”

You looked him over, knowing this offer was too good to be true, and what was it that he got in return out of this deal? The warning bells in your head were going off, telling you that while this deal seems to benefit you the most…you just knew that there was no way, shape, or form in which a man like him would allow any deal to benefit anyone other than himself.

So, you did the only thing you could do, ask.

“How do you benefit from this? It seems burdensome to take on a complete stranger who may have a disposition for high potential. But there’s no guarantee that my nen ability is anything other than this.”

Clearly, the man wasn’t used to his authority being question—although it wasn’t in your intention to do as such, you could see how it could be construed that way—and seemed to regard you in a new way. He was obviously amused by your honesty and total lack of trust in him and his intention. You didn’t see how he could blame you though. No honor among thieves was a saying for a reason and you very much doubted that him and his ragtag group of thieves, professionals and highly regarded in the underworld be damned, were just going to pull a 180 and do something out of the kindness of their hearts. At the end of the day, a thief was a thief and their word usually meant little. That was something you father had taught you early on. You had been too trusting as a child, wanting to see the good in everything, regardless of the bad.

“But papa, that doesn’t mean they’re all bad.” A much younger you had said innocently enough as you father had dragged you away from the group of older girls who had been trying to exploit your generosity.

“No, it doesn’t but you also need to realize that the majority of people do not have good intentions.” Crouching down in front of you, he’d grabbed on your shoulders and made you look directly into his eyes. “And those who never do, never will. Do you understand? You need to understand that you are very valuable, and to the wrong people could be a great bartering chip to be used against others. Make sure you can’t be.”

You honestly hadn’t understood exactly what he meant, but the message had stuck and several years later, you had known what he meant by it. People who proved themselves worthy of your trust could have it…but you always needed to keep it in your head that there were those who, despite proving themselves as friends, could be masked foes and you needed to have a plan in place should that occur. More often than not, you wondered if you were actually the wolf in sheep’s clothing simply masquerading as docile and inept, when really…you were probably the most calculating and tactile in the room.

“And what’s to say that you won’t use what I teach you against me, against us?” He asks, and you know he means it rhetorically, but you can’t help your biting response.

“You wouldn’t ever give me the opportunity.” Your response is lightening fast, coming out before he truly has even finished his question and you know you have truly piqued his interest now, again making you wonder how people truly viewed you. “I told you, I was raised for the sole purpose of being a formidable opponent to anyone who tried to harm by future husband…my mother was not lenient in her pursuits.”

“Indeed…that certainly is becoming clearer now.”

You’d come to an agreement with Chrollo. He, and the rest of the Troupe who wished to partake in your training, would do as such. He had already told you that his methods did not truly align with the “generally approved instruction” of other masters, but then again…when did anything he did?

But as of now, he told you to relax. Take a shower, get some food, sleep, he or one of the other members would come and find you once they’d returned back from the mission he’d sent them on. As for him, he had other things to attend to. His offer still stood, he’d said before he’d walked out the door, that should you choose that you did not want his help or that of the Troupe, he would respect it, but advised you to be gone before anyone got back or the training began. Because after that point, leaving was going to require you going through the front door and would more than likely be a battle with whomever was blocking it. Whether that be him or a different member, he didn’t specify, and you didn’t ask.

You were currently sitting in the tub; in the room he’d showed you as your own. It reminded you a lot of the room you had at the home your parents owned in the country. It overlooked a beautiful garden in the back and had windows that faced the east, so when the sun rose, you would too. There was an en-suite attached that was larger than you had ever seen before. Shower, tub, separate toil area, two sink vanity, and walk in closet to boot. You knew they had money, despite his comment that “money, power, and fame were not” what drove them to do what they did, it was clear that their endeavors were clearly not fruitless…no, not at all.

The moment you realized you were alone, you’d crawled into the tub, clothing and all and cranked the water to as warm as it would go and just sat there as the water rose. While you had a thousand thoughts zipping through your head…you couldn’t seem to latch onto one in particular, just staring at the water blankly.

You thought back to the comment he’d made when you’d walked back into the study after his little experiment. Apparently we didn’t get all of the auction items. While yes, that was true, they hadn’t gotten all of them as there were different rounds and the items showed up in waves so they wouldn’t be vulnerable to a heist—or so Yuuto had explained when you’d asked—the items for the first round had all be within the lot of goods the others had brought back. And you didn’t take Chrollo for wanting silly things like rare videos games…although it was a high ticket item.

So, all you could deduce from that was that this was a trap. A poorly set one, and one you were certain he’d already figured out but still, the members he’d sent, unless aware were walking into a trap and the Ten Dons had an artillery of their own, with weapons you were led to believe could even take on the Phantom Troupe.

Regardless of all of this information though…you couldn’t say you cared, nor did you care if you were questioned later as to whether or not there had been more items because while you didn’t think there were any, you couldn’t be certain, and it wouldn’t surprise you if there had been more. Someone didn’t become that powerful by being lax in their paranoia.

Maybe you could learn and thing or two from that mentality.

You don’t know how long you sat in the tub for. At some point the water became cold and your clothes began to rub you the wrong way. Thus, you took them off, throwing them away from your body, drained the water and stared the process over again.

Your skin was not only a pretty shade of pink and red, just about all over, but the pruning of it was beginning to feel uncomfortable not that it bothered you. It was a distraction, one you desperately needed. But it also made you think.

Made you evaluate your circumstances and try to figure out what exactly your plan of attack was going to be; what you could anticipate being Chrollo’s and the rest of the troupes’ motives and actions from here on out…and how you could use all of those pieces to your advantage. You need to uncover their weaknesses and find a way to exploit them. Maybe there was someone who knew them and you could mutually benefit each other?

“Think too hard and you might hurt yourself little dove.” Were you not as exhausted as you were, you might have jumped out of the tub when you heard Hisoka. No, instead you turned to look at him, leaning against the doorjamb leading into your room, idly shuffling through his deck of cards.

He looked at you through his lashes, coy smirk growing on his lips as he sauntered forward and again, it struck you that had you not been so exhausted, mentally, emotionally…physically, you probably would’ve jumped up or screamed at him to leave. But you simply did not have any reserved energy left to consider your modesty a priority.

You also doubted it would do you any good anyway. Hisoka didn’t strike you as the type to listen to a request like that anyway. He seemed to enjoy toying with people’s discomforts.

“I wouldn’t call what I’m doing thinking.” You mutter, turning away from him and sinking further into the water, nearly causing it splash out of the sides.

“Oh? Then what would you call it? Planning? Devising?”

“I’d call it a jumbled ball of messy thoughts that benefit me in no way.”

He hums at this, coming to sit on the floor beside the tub and you suddenly realize just how tall he is. The tub has to be at least two feet off the ground if not more, yet when he sits down, and slouches even, he’s still considerably taller than you. You would, under normal circumstances, have curled in on yourself in order to preserve your modesty. It was one thing for him to be standing in the doorway, your back to him and the hazy from the steam distorting your image in the mirror.

However, with him right here, next to you, there is nothing distorting your nakedness from his peering eyes. A nakedness that no man, outside a physician for the Dons’, has seen. But for the fact that you are too exhausted to care, you do not move to cover yourself more than your arms already had. You hadn’t realized that at some point, you’d curled back in on yourself again…maybe your subconscious was more conscious than you realized.

Despite all of this though, Hisoka turn himself so his back was towards you and in that moment you were struck by something. Most probably would’ve viewed this as trust, but you knew better. You hadn’t known this man for more than a moment. It wasn’t trust at all.

It was a silent assertion of just how weak he viewed you. How weak they all probably viewed you. For some reason this pissed you off. Rage flared low in your stomach and raced through you veins and clawed at your throat, questing to lash out at the closest target. However, your mind was quick to act and quell those feelings almost as quickly as they appeared. He was right, you were weak and lashing out at someone that much more powerful than you was not only reckless, but just plain stupid. You’d accomplish nothing on your best day as it was, not even including the fact that you were currently exhausted.

No, getting pissed off was misplaced in this situation…but it was a tangible force that could push you do work hard, to become a formidable opponent.

One in which Hisoka would never turn his back on.

As you both continued to sit there in silence, you couldn’t help but wonder if Chrollo had called him back to watch you. You thought it odd but not outlandish. You hadn’t taken Chrollo as a liar though and the offer to leave, while not something you were going to take him up on, seemed to vanish the moment Hisoka walked into the house or within a vicinity to spot you in your endeavors to vacate the premises before anyone got back.

But then you thought about what Chrollo had said. Leaving before anyone got back and scoffed, shaking your head, wondering how you could be so thoughtless.

“Something amusing little dove?” Hisoka poses, throwing another playing card towards the vanity. What he’s trying to hit, you’re not sure.

“Just realizing how inept my critical thinking skills have been lately.” His hesitation in throwing the next card relays to you his peaked curiosity, although he says nothing. “Chrollo told me I could leave should I chose to, but I had to do as such before anyone got back or prove that I was worthy of walking through the front door. At the time I thought nothing of it, assuming when he suggested I shower and sleep, that I’d have time to do those things. When you walked in, I wondered if he’d been lying but thought that odd because…I didn’t sense him lying.”

You pause and chuckle again. “No, he wasn’t lying…he just also wasn’t being entirely truthful either. He just left out the fact that you and whomever else returned with you wouldn’t be long after he left. Had I been paying attention, been thinking I would’ve caught that. I’m not entirely sure at what point I either reached such a level of exhaustion…or decided you lot were trustworthy enough to not care.”

The revelation had you looking up from your hands and the man sitting beside you. It also had you wondering what his purpose was for coming into the bathroom. You knew, now, that Chrollo hadn’t ordered him back; hadn’t given him instruction to watch you. No, Hisoka had come here of his own volition and you the question as to why was picking at your brain…and paranoia. Why would he come here? There was a piece to this puzzle that you were missing, and you couldn’t decide if it was because you just didn’t have the information or if it was again to your own obtuseness.

The thought niggled at the back of your head, running through scenario after scenario. Did he have a connection to someone you knew? Someone you had known? Was he a double agent working for the Dons and was keeping your close so that he could return you to them? No, that didn’t seem likely…but not the double agent part. You didn’t take him to follow orders from anyone; he didn’t seem like the type to play to play well with others for long.

“I’m starting to wonder if the steam is coming from the hot water or from in between your eyes little dove.”

“I don’t understand.”

“What is it you don’t understand?” He questioned, throwing another card and this time putting some force behind it as it cut into the vanity and stuck.

You were certain it was an intimidation tactic to indicate to you to tread lightly.

“Why you’re in here. I know Chrollo didn’t order you to be here, there’s no reason to place a guard on me. I’m sure he texted everyone telling them I wasn’t going anywhere, regardless of whether I’d come to that conclusion myself prior to or after he’d sent it. And I don’t take it anyone would just…wander in unwelcome. I’m sure there’s something, some presence around meant to keep those who don’t know better away…and those who do, a warning of fleeting life. And I’m not interesting enough to truly pique your interest. Maybe after I’ve spent some time learning nen and training. But as it stands, right not I’m of no consequence to you and so I don’t understand why you’re here.”

Taking in a deep breath, you realize that he’s completely stopped throwing the cards, and not because he’s out. No, he’s caused four more cards to stick to the vanity. The King of Spades, the King of Aces, the King of Diamonds, and then the Queen of Hearts are all standing up and a feeling goes through you that you can’t place. It warms you, and yet makes your blood run cold all at the same time and leaves you feeling a little lightheaded and dizzy. Maybe you’ve been in the bath for too long.

“You’re very perceptive little dove, more perceptive than anyone has realized…certainly far more intelligent than you’ve been given credit.” He stands and plucks the random card from the vanity, along with all those he scattered haphazardly on the floor but leaves the Kings and Queen. “I look forward to seeing how you ripen little dove. I’m certain that you will become…especially sweet when this is all said and done.” He chuckles lowly and in the back of his throat, the effect making you shudder, and not in a pleasant way, as he begins to leave before pausing and turning to look at you over his shoulder.

“I do have a question for you little dove.” He says and you hum, indicating that you’re listening. “What do you know of Illumi Zoldyck?”

#Dancing with the Devil(s)#fic #hunter x hunter #chrollo #chrollo fic #hisoka #hisoka fic #illumi zoldyck #illumi fic #reader insert fic

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onf-headcanons · 3 years

Text

Another OFFICE AU aka CEO AU

A/n : Alas its not draft clearing but a brand new work for 2021 (but i still have some drafts as well)XD Hello, did any of you remember an idea dump I dropped for last year Christmas? you could easily guess which was it by tallying the mood board with the idea lists (*winks)

Setting :

1. OFFICE AU 2 , it is a brand new one where ONF member is a young CEO while you are his secretary. So I will name this one as CEO AU

Of course it does not hurt should you wanna imagine it as the already exist office au, using the idea dump posted for 2020 Christmas.

2. ONF MEMBER that I will integrate would be Hyojin and Seungjun as mentioned during the Christmas post, but I wont stop you for imagining other members, thats why in headcanons I will use ONF MEMBER instead their names. (For member X reader scenario)

3. In this headcanon, reader is slightly older than ONF member, maybe 2 or 3 years older. Same age is plausible, then it would be ONF member continued their studies further so they started working late.

ok lets go, beware its long and sorry if it is messy I tried my best to control 2 way storyline, I had fun writing but I know I am lacking much much more than I could notice. total 6k word count (dies)

1-1

• You work as assistant/secretary for the head of department/CEO in company before the young successor joins and his predecessor retires. • Because you tend to separate work life and private life, you established personality to look like ice queen on the outside (reality) but actually passionate carer on the inside (virtually). None of your colleagues knew, only your close friends • You have been using a chat app (not tinder type) for since you started intern, • 1. That app's specialty was anonymous. • 2. Its like a hideout spot where you can share and post whatever you love. (Because there are some co-workers added your FB or Insta and you felt it is a hassle to create another fake account exclusively to add people) • 3. Even though you tried and failed at 1 or 2 virtual relationships with other users, you never despise the thought of online dating. But you do know it’s not realistic so you never take it too seriously (it is also self-protection) • You would post some photos but mostly are just lunch pics, occasionally an outdoor view from your office floor, also some cute stationaries or accessories found on the way back home. (Just adding this trivia for fun linking the universe, maybe you pass by Minkyun’s flower shop as well?) • (It will be funny if your contents was more on sharing random idol pics that you follow, passionately promoting it hence creating a more impact contrast later when revealing) • One day you came across a post asking about what kind of cologne to buy for a predecessor who will be retiring. Being a good Samaritan, you leave a few suggestions under the post and did not really take it to heart, you forgot about it once you see the original author replied "Thanks" • Not knowing that 1 interaction would change your life forever.

1-2 • The next day, your superior announced his retirement and mentioned a young successor will join the company next month. And ONF member being the young successor does make rumors flying around the company, making people questioning his ability as he is related to company board of directors. The department you are in is under top 5 sales/profit bringing, so with a young successor would be inexperienced which might lead to drop of department reputation of course people are going to worry and gossip. • First impression with ONF member is actually ok. Well dressed, good looking and nice manners. The moment he followed his predecessor walks into the office floor, girls starts to make all sorts of gasping noises (lol) • Your superior mentioned that he bought a retirement gift for your superior deep down you approved at the selection of the cologne brand. • You might goes, this guy got sense, not bad. • One night after several days ONF member joined the department/company, you received a PM from a user, thanking you for the cologne recommendation. It took you a while to remember who it was. You politely replied him “You are welcome.” • The user also nonchalantly asked about how you can make such suggestion that pinpoints because by the glance at your profile, first impression could be very much misleading. • You just replied that you happened to know someone at that age who likes that type of scent hence the list of suggestions, what you did was just you taking the liberty to do a lucky guess. • Out of curiosity, you tap at the stranger’s avatar to get a glimpse of his profile, but out of your disappointment, there were no picture of his to know what he looks like. But there are pictures of scenery from places he travelled. • You also noticed that their “joined the app” days are way lesser than you are, quite a new user. • You found a few pictures of places you went before/ places that you want to go. Delighted, you started the conversation asking if he likes travelling and his next travel plans. • The other party replied briefly his plans and his experience during travels, from his words you know that he won’t be travelling overseas for the next 2 years as he had a new job and responsibility to learn. Instead he will be focusing on doing domestic travels. • His words made you reminisce your rookie days and you responded him that you understand him with empathy. You did not pry further but you do give him some encouragement, telling him that things will get better and once he got the hang of it, he will have more time on his own. (Yup at the moment you are thinking he is a freshman or newbie joining new company) • You timidly ask your new chat friend why they decided to join and use the app. He replied, “I don’t really play social media apps and I don’t want anyone to find me online, the anonymous system this app provides mental security for me.” • The reply was so different from those who are playing the app just for flirting and finding a quick date, you replied him, “Same as you.” • The conversation ends by the other party mentions he will need to be early for work and politely wishes you good night. The next morning you found the stranger has added you as friend, without any thoughts you tap on your screen and now you have a new mutual.

1-3 • Back to office, as ONF member is still new towards his scope of work, you would sometimes giving him advise and guides by sharing “What would his predecessor does.” or “What he can do by not violating company policy”. He takes advises well and would always inquire for your suggestion before making any critical decision. • Once he started to get the hang of it, you passed the torch of freedom to him because you are only a secretary/assistant. But he will still come to you, which you felt he was being dependent. (I feel if it is Minkyun, he will be more dependent should the scope of work is totally unfamiliar to him. Tendency of dependent to independent would be Seungjun, Hyojin, Yuto same par as Jaeyoung, Changyoon then Minkyun.) • (Of course sometimes there are some doubt raised regarding to policies and because he sees things in another perspective, you know he meant no harm but sometimes you wish he would just shut up and just follow the policy just for convenience sake+lessen damage. That’s because should any dissatisfaction of decision happens, colleagues will firstly come to interrogate you, hoping you to twist his decision or questioning your ability to lessen the damage done towards merit they/the department holds. AND YOU HATE PLAYING THOSE POWER MIND GAMES, even though the image you impose looked like you are skilled player.) • So there is some sense that being strict is you are trying hard to protect him and protecting yourself. • BTW ONF member, your new superior has a bright personality unlike his predecessor (huge reason is due to the age factor), even though inexperienced in work, he has good be friending skills. So people in the department felt it was less stressful working under him because he would do small talk with his underlings. (This hc is not suitable for Changyoon and Yuto during the beginning, due to their personality they would try but not suddenly initiating small talks on the first week joining.) • IT WILL BE FUNNY IF SOME FEMALE COLLEAGUE TOOK PITY ON HIM BY MENTIONING/GOSSIPING THAT YOU ARE TOO STRICT AGAINST HIM • Its not that you hate him or he does not have the ability to do his work, it’s just when he is standing on the opposing side against company policy it troubles you. • Every time when things like this happens, you would low-key complains by posting status on the chat app, mentioning you don’t hope for an understanding but you would hope those who are not in your shoes would shut up. Your mutuals mostly are office workers as well so resonates with your words. • Your new friend leaves a comment underneath the post you asking if you are doing alright, and hope you do not stress yourself too much. You thanked him for the mental support. • He will even PM you asking if you are doing alright, most of the time you don’t want to lose your cool plus you don’t think it is wise to abruptly rant towards a stranger as if they are emotional sandbag, so you will politely thank him and say that you are alright now. • Since you and your new friend work on the day, you two chat during the night and weekend, getting to know each other in a very casual pace. A bit of child hood and you both also shared your majors in studies. He told you that he used to study at overseas and he picked up hobby of travelling around a bit during those days. • You never turn on the app during lunch (to avoid people finding out) but your new friend does send you some messages during lunchtime. • As you and the new friend get to know each other, there has a few things in common, you two like talking about travels and you two read works by the same author • By the way the new friend is a he. You two are using ID names the whole time during chatting, because you have told him that you are not comfortable giving and knowing each other’s real name. He understands and respects that. • And you confirmed that he is slightly younger than you. Which you replied to him, “Oh my superior is same age as you.” • This new friend gives you a calm and mature vibe even though he is same age as your new superior. You could not help yourself but comparing. • The other party goes: “Wow, he must be a very successfully accomplished youngster.” • You go: “Nah, other than his outgoing personality that brings freshness to the department, he still got lots to learn.” • Your new friend then continues, “Your new superior is a lucky one, I can confidently say that because I have an excellent senior who would always look out for me.” • You respond, “Then you better treat them well.” • And he goes “Of course.”

1-4

• Work is as usual, possible you unintentionally eavesdropping and caught ONF member saying towards you (even better backing you up when some junior colleagues are reverse gossiping about you) : You know, Y/N might look cold and stern sometimes but actually a kind and gentle person. Y/N would always give out advice for the sake of the department/ company. • Cues you would fluster a bit by those words. • A few days later you are done briefing your superior their schedule. And ONF member suddenly ask if you are free for dinner. It’s already his 4th month in the company and wanted to properly thank you for guiding him with patience and prudence. • At first you wanted to decline him because you don’t want to deal with work related stuff after office hours, ALSO you don’t want anyone to start weird gossips. • Another reason is you don’t want to talk about yourself too much in front of your superior. Heck you even avoid your colleague’s invitations for dinner because you value your “me time” very much. • But looking at his anticipating face, you got soft and agreed that a coffee would suffice. ONF member smiles at you suggest both of you to have coffee right now at Starbucks next to your company building. You are free to choose whatever drink you like. • Before both of you leave the room. And then you heard a familiar notification sound, you thought your heart is going to stop, that is the notification sound from the chat app you are using. You did not have your phone with you so it was obvious the sound comes from ONF member’s phone. • And that was a notification alert of the system has found someone nearby and presented to the user. It got you curious and worried at the same time. • At Starbucks, ONF member had to answer a call, so you ordered his drink as well. • Later you see him start replying messages while waiting for orders to be done. You wanted to have a peek at his user name but you are a few steps away and your instinct told you better don’t do that. What if it is already someone you already know? • “Curiosity killed the cat, remember?” You tell yourself. • Once you are at your desk, you took some deep breath to calm yourself and try to remember if you recalled wrongly but truth is you are accurate. You hurriedly checked you phone, there were no new messages and you are sure you have turned off location visibility. Lucky for you it was never turned on to begin with. • You also kind of worried if your superior actually has a “fun” lifestyle after office hours. But, it’s hard to relate him to a playboy image when he looked like a friendly good boy. You shake your head and deny yourself. • “If (ONF member name) uses that app then I will need to be more careful.” you thought while sipping the frappe. So back at home, you started to alter all posts’ visibility to “Visible for mutuals only”. Took you nearly a whole night but better safe than sorry.

1-5 • More weeks pass by peacefully but one day a conflict happened between you and ONF member and some colleagues/minor members of the board. He went ahead to announce that he decides (had a thought) to run a campaign/new rule (maybe a budget cut). The moment he finished his sentences, you know the seniors will not be happy with it. • Later after meeting, you politely confront with ONF member that he should discuss with you before announcing it on meeting. Plus, announcing without any advance preparation will put him and you in an awkward position as verbal announcement are not persuasive enough. Of course you are also worried that people might use this issue to tackle and exploit the cons of both of you being inexperience and young. • “With all due my respect, Mr.(ONF member name), it will be nice if you could discuss with me before dropping that bomb at the meeting.” you try not to sound fierce but your tone clearly does not sound you are cool with his actions at all. • “And later having you lecture me and stop me? You do know it was for the good of the company too right?” He retorts like usual • “Yes but no.” you try to fight back. “ It’s not that easy, there are people need to be dealt with and I don’t think you--” • Before you could finish, ONF member says with an eyebrow raised, “You don’t think I can handle it, because I am still unexperienced.” • You unconsciously frown and thinking, why is he suddenly trying to pick a fight deliberately today? Why is he suddenly trying to piss off seniors in the department/company? • ONF member then with firm tone, gives you suggestion, “Should you have anyone come to you and complain, tell them that you knew nothing at all and request them to talk to me directly instead.” • “I am the CEO, not you.” He adds. • You could not help but sigh, knowing there is not point arguing because he is not going to back down. And deep down you do know the new rule/budget cut will do more merit than harm. (Your focus is more on how deal with seniors employees not him for now because seniors are more pain in the ass compared to him) • But still there are people come to you and bug you while you are working and you can’t tell them to leave you alone hence it stresses you out. • You escape to the bathroom taking your phone with you and vents out at the app by posting a status mentioning you are just trying to do your job and wants a peaceful work days. • You also come across seeing your new friend posting a status prior your meeting time, it’s a photo of frappe you recommended him to try it out. He is thanking you for recommending it. • You could not help but feeling a bit jealous, should your title and work scopes are different/ should you are just normal employee rather than a CEO’s secretary, you might not need to face these kind of stress. • “Guess you have to bear what you signed up for huh?” you thought to yourself after 15 minutes cooling yourself down. • You switched your mind set and step out from bathroom. Returning to your place with your usual ice cold face. You are trying hard not to show that you are weak against stress. You are too immersed at people coming at you asking you questions, without knowing ONF member actually observing you with concerned gaze from his room. • That night, you receive a PM from your new friend asking if you are doing ok, as you never sound that upset before. He said he can lent an ear so you can tell him what happened. You spare him all the intricate details and tell him briefly that your superior made a mess and you need to clean it up also back his plan no matter you like it or not. • The whole progress he did not interrupt you nor tried to tell you what you should do, he let you type all the way until you finished. Once you are done, you asked, “I don’t know what might be up in his sleeves that it’s inconvenient for me to know beforehand but... Isn’t he a jerk, putting me into an awkward situation?” • Your friend backs you up and agrees with you that matters should be discussed, and critiques your superior actually could trust you more. • You thanked your friend for letting you to rant and mentioned you have accepted the fate because of the title and responsibility you hold in the company. That’s being professional and mature in office. • The other party replied that even if that is the case, he hope you don’t stresses yourself too much as it seems your new superior still needs your guidance and support. • You playfully replies, “Well I am not his babysitter XD, he will need to face a lot of issues by his own someday.” • “Why is that?” • “Well I can’t always be by his side though? I might get married and resign.” you reveal your future plans to your new friend, “Moreover, even I don’t resign, I might take pregnancy leave though?” • The other party comments, “I never thought you had that planned out.” • And he continues, “Your profile gives out the ‘I love my job so much.’ vibe” • You then back up your point by saying you do want that plan to work but too bad you are single now, so of course you are going to focus on your job more. Plus, you do not plan to find a partner in work place anyways. • The new friend leaves more supportive words and hoping it will cheer you up. By the end of the conversation, he also offers that you can come to him and rant should you need an ear. • You grin at his words and felt warm towards his actions. Rarely any of your mutual actually PM to check up on you. “Maybe he was just being nice.” you thought before you wish him good night.

1-6 • The next day, you are being summoned by your superior the first thing in the morning. He passes you a pile of documents and requests you to go through it. It a proposal regarding to the budget cut/new rule and he hope you can be his ally. His gaze is not as firm as yesterday, but it’s more of seeking approval and acknowledgement from you. • You let out a sigh and mutters, “You know, should you have hand this to me beforehand the situation won’t be that ugly.” And then you start to flip the pages. • “Sorry.” He apologizes. “But I really want to make it work. It’s also a handover work by my predecessor.” • “You look up upon him too much, ONF member, he is a sly fox just like the other seniors.” You do not mean to back stab but you are telling the truth. “Has it never come to your mind why he did not initiate the plan when he is here and requested you to initiate it when he is gone?” • “I know. But this move is going to benefit the company; I am willing to bear responsibility.” ONF member adds • You stop reading and look at your superior in the eye, “You better hope this work though, I don’t want my 5 months effort of guiding you goes to waste. And I hate the idea that I need to re- adjust my pace with a new superior.” • ONF member gets your intentions behind your words; he swiftly stands up from his chair and thanked you. “I owe you big one, Y/N. Another cup of coffee to thank you for reals?” • “No thanks, I will be busy. Next time.” You feel uncomfortable because the social distance between you two seems shortened, so you politely decline. • Luckily the whole budget cut/new rule policy worked out fine and by year end, benefits shows. You and ONF member can finally relax a bit knowing that you both have won the fight.

1-7 • Meanwhile, you did not stop interacting with your recent favourite friend. As you two got to know each other even more, both of you chat almost every day during the night. He never bores you and he can understand most of the topic you bring up. You are amazed that how can someone has so many things in common? • It spikes your curiosity and you ask him if a wonderful person like him has a partner in real life. He answers you that he is single, just like you are. • (You thought he is lying because he is such a nice guy, but of course you do tell yourself not to 100 percent trust everyone online) • Then he asks your opinion about online virtual dating. You honestly told him about your experience. But you added that even though you failed twice/thrice, you are not against it. • And that moment, you don’t know what has gotten into you, you playfully type, “You are asking my opinion on that as if you are preparing yourself” • “Prepare for what?” he asks • “To get yourself an online girlfriend.” You reply. • His respond reads, “Yes I am.” • “That’s wonderful. That girl you will be confessing is a lucky one.” • “Yea, indeed you are.” • You pause for a moment when you saw the message. • “Wait, you serious? ME??” you quickly send him the message because you thought should you hesitate longer, the mood will turn awkward. • He replies you by sending you a heart emoji. • You give a quick thought, well it is interesting chatting with him and he does seem nice. Plus, it’s online anyway, you could call it off should he becomes toxic and annoying like your previous experiences. • “I wasn’t sure if you are ok with someone like me. “He continues. “I am fine if you want to call it off should you found someone in real life later on.” • “Don’t be silly, that should be my line.” You retort him. • And then you have it, another secret. You have an online boyfriend now. You both even declared each other as a pair of soulmate publicly on the app. But you two did not exchange selfies, keeping the relationship virtual and anonymous. • However you two always share interesting stuffs happen on daily. New book, new cd, a random shot of a puppy or cat you met on the street. • Also before year end, you overheard girl colleagues gossiping about your superior has a girlfriend now; you are not interested at his private life so you just let it slide. • But you did briefly mention it to your boyfriend. Not in a gossip tone, more of a life update share. • Of course there are some girl colleagues that are ok with you comes to you, hoping you leak some information about ONF member’s rumoured girlfriend. But of course you know nothing at all, leaving them with disappointed answer. • Fast forward to the week before Valentine’s Day. It is also 10th month since ONF member joins the company. • Out of the sudden, your online boyfriend suggests you two to meet up. You are not against it, and it’s not like you never met anyone you know from the app. Thinking why not knowing a new friend in real life, you agreed his offer. (Also because you are curious what he looks like so that you can understand why he was single before dating you) • You even inquired his preference in chocolate and promise bringing him some on official first date. • Your boyfriend thanks you and suggests a place for dinner. You knew that place, it’s expensive and you could not help but wondering if he is trying hard to match you. (You still thinks he is just a normal employee in a company) • But, your boyfriend only replies: “Don’t worry, it is the perfect spot, I could not think of others that are suitable to our taste.” • You can only acknowledge it because you don’t want to have an argument to blow up but deep down you could not help yourself to start doubting again. • “It’s going to be Ok, right?” you question your decision, but it’s too late.

1-8 • On Valentine’s Day, younger female colleagues in your office give out chocolate treats to younger male colleagues as friendship presents, some of course using the occasion to confess. • You don’t have the habit of presenting chocolate treats as a token of friendship appreciation at the office. But you are giving your date chocolate treat later; you hid yours in your bag carefully scared of being teased should anyone saw it. • ONF member gets some too. One female colleague even teases him if he is going to get chocolate from his girlfriend. And ONF member replies that he might get it later that night. • Of course ONF member will asks you for chocolate treat with an innocent face, you just bluntly tell him that you don’t have the habit to give out chocolate treats, he only pouts after listening to your respond. • By the way today you unintentionally changed your makeup (lipstick or eyeshadow). No one dared to make any comments but not your superior, ONF member. • He goes: “Y/N ah? Did something good happen on you? Are you going to a date tonight?” • You are typing quick report and his words caught you off guard. You flinched at his words. Hoping ONF member did not notice, you quickly lied by telling him simply ran out of your usual makeup colour. • But your superior teases you a bit, “Aww, I was hoping I could attend your wedding in near future. “ • You have gotten used to his socializing pattern, so you counter him by asking if he is going to bring his girlfriend to have a nice dinner at a grand restaurant. • And to your surprise, he revealed the place he will be having dinner with his partner. It’s the same place where you are heading to later. He had a special room booked exclusively for tonight’s date. • “Oh, Oh… Have fun and enjoy your dinner.” You force yourself to break a smile. • ONF member only smirks at you and gives you a few pats on your shoulders and says he will have an unforgettable night before returning to his room. Leaving you questioning the meaning of his actions that are unpredictable but also definitely intentional. • Of course you had a quick thought asking your boyfriend if it is possible to change location, you could not bring yourself to ask as you are worried you might sound rude/arrogant trying to change plans on the last minute. You deduced that since ONF member will be having dinner in a room, you might not going to bump into him. You and your boyfriend can just finish dinner quickly. • You could not have that bother you too much time because you need to finish your report so that you can leave on time. Once it reaches the end of office hours, the others started to leave. You made up a plan to leave after ONF member leaves the office. You keep raising your gaze to have a slight peek towards your superior’s room. • Seeing him finally standing up from his chair and adjusting his suit. You can tell he is finally leaving. He passes through your desk and asks, “Y/N ah, please don’t tell me you are planning to work overtime during this special day?” • You only smiles and tell him you are going to finish soon, “Don’t you have a dinner to attend?” you remind him without looking at him, acting as if you are typing the remaining contents of your report. • “Yea I do. See ya.” ONF member waves you goodbye. • You leave the office after 10 minutes. (As for method of transport to the restaurant, I will leave it to your choice.)

1-9 • You reach the building of the restaurant. You let out a sigh, hesitating to step in nonchalantly knowing ONF member is inside there as well. The least thing you definitely do not want to happen is ONF member finding you having a dinner date tonight. It’s embarrassing and it will break the balance of your work and private life. • While you are pacing in front of the building with hesitation, you receive a chat notification from the app. You open it and it was your boyfriend, notifying you that he has arrived, and he reminds you the restaurant located at 38th floor. • You nervously bite your lower lip knowing it’s too late and it is rude of you to cancel the date on last minute. He was a decent person to chat with and you don’t want to lose a good friend. You are blaming yourself for agreeing to attend this date too casually. And you also find yourself way too wary of your virtual boyfriend’s thoughts towards you should you now called him to cancel the date. • Then you heard a familiar voice called out your name and you turn your head towards the voice unconsciously. It’s ONF member, walking out from the building. You flustered and panicked by just imagining scenarios of him asking why you are here and other many more questions. • “OMG…. Shit shit shit….!” You cursed in your head, regretting your life decisions. Recalling the entire chat context between you two, this might be the worst thing ever to happen in your life. • He is grinning while reaching out to grasp your hand. You unintentionally try to back away from him but he was faster. You tried to pull your hand away but he pulls you toward him instead. You nearly bumped towards his chest. • “Y/N ah, I told you its 38th floor; you did not get my message?” ONF member asks as his smirks widens. • As he finished his words, you only look at the young guy in front of you with disbelief, processing his words. Seeing you froze due to the big plot twist, ONF member taps you on your forehead hoping to unfreeze you. • “It can’t be…You are (ONF member’s ID in the app)?! “You exclaim. • “Yeap.” He responds. • “Impossible…How?” you ask. “How did you know it was me?” • “At first I had my doubt when I first saw an old post of yours. You shot a sunset pic from our office floor by the window near the lift right?” he returns with another question. And man he is good at remembering details. • “Then I confirmed that it was you by the time I announced budget cut/new rules for the company/department. ” he explains • “I…” You could not bring yourself to say anything, but you are not an idiot, “(ONF member name), did you risked your reputation in the company just to find out a stranger’s real identity?” • “No, I did not, I swear. I initiated the plan to suddenly announce the budget cut because I want to find out which board seniors will make a move to cover up themselves, as requested from my predecessor.” He knows you well to sense that you are angry, and he quickly denied. “I only know it was you when I checked up on you. Since then I have been dropping so many hints for you to realize, but it seems like you are the dense one here.” • You can tell he is telling the truth. • “This is absurd…” you mutter while placing your hand on your forehead. • ONF member let out a sigh and he shifts behind you, places his hands on your shoulders then pushes you forward. “Come on, I am starving we can talk about it later, you did not had a decent meal during lunch as well right?” • He is right, you only had a mini croissant during lunchtime.

• You follow him without a word to the entrance of the building and enter the lift to 38th floor. ONF member has booked a nice room that both of you can enjoy the city’s night view.

1-10 • It was a luxurious dinner but you are not in the mood enjoying it. In fact you are so stressed that you could not even taste your food. You did not touch your dessert at all. • You only quietly trace the shape of wine glass in front of you while looking at the night view, hoping the night to pass quickly. • “You are not happy with me being your date, Y/N?” he suddenly asks. • You jolted and you finally look at him in the eye for the first time tonight. • “You startled me, I am still trying to grasp the situation here.” You reply him with a low voice, trying to act calm by casually bring your drink closer to you and hydrates your throat. • “Hey Y/N-ah, I know you mentioned before that you don’t like the idea of dating someone from the office, but…” his eyes are fixed on you. “I like you. Not just the virtual you, but also the real you.” • “I called you a jerk.” You know you should not bring it up, but you still did. • “Which I did act like one so, no hard feelings.” He accepted. “I am truly sorry about that, I was trying to prove myself way too hard.” • Now it got awkward since he apologized without any complaints. You don’t know what to say and avert your gaze again. • “You know, Y/N ah, when you are stressed, you tend to avoid other people’s eye contact. “he breaks the silence. “And you are doing that ever since you reached here.” • Upon hearing his words, you flinched and exchange eye contact with the young man sitting in front of you. • “And oh, and you flinch as well.” He adds, “Which is very adorable in my opinion.” • “(ONF member’s name), I …” you try to explain yourself but he cuts you off. • “It alright, you don’t have to push yourself, I have made you stressed out way too much today.” ONF member smiles at you while saying based on what he observed. • He finally stands up and offers to send you home. You could not decline him because you felt terribly sorry for ruining such as nice date. • “I am sorry, should it is another girl, it will be a terrific night for you.” You apologized before leaving his car. • “Don’t worry; it is an unforgettable night for me.” He responds with his usual smile. • Back at your place, you are frustrated that the night ended up in an awkward and weird way. You only noticed that you did not get to hand him the chocolate treats as promised. • You cannot sleep that night, gazing at the chocolate treats as you holding the package in your hands. You cannot tell if you messed up or you are lucky that he happened to like you. • You wanted to consult a random mutual of yours but you hesitated. Because at this point you are not sure if you actually have the full grasp on the situation. And you don’t want a biased reply. • “It’s just this boyfriend of yours happened to be him, I guess?” you murmur to yourself. But that did not clear up your mind enough for you to make any decision towards the situation. • Several days passed, ONF member did not send any message to you in the chat app. He acted like usual back in office, but it does not look like he has any intention to talk about what happen between you two either. • (The problem is you cannot look at him in the eye) • You are troubled if you should initiate the first move. It’s not like you hate him, you never did in the first place, it’s just he annoys you sometimes. • Then you overheard ONF member having small talk with colleagues, and they ask about his Valentine’s Day. He only replies it was an unforgettable night and he is glad that he is able to meet his girlfriend, it was better than never meeting her at all.

1-11 • From his words, you gain a bit of courage and decided to make your first move. • The next day you arrived at the office earlier than usual, you take out something from you bag and places small gift box on ONF member’s desk. The small box has a memo attached to it. • You hurried back to your desk, acted as if nothing happened while the office starts have more and more colleagues coming in. ONF member arrives later on and he greets you before heading in his room. • You take some quick glances, making sure ONF member notices your belated Valentine’s day gift. • He did noticed and read the memo you attached, then he made a confused look but he adjusts his facial expression immediately as he sees you stood up from your place. • You head to his office room to brief his morning schedule. Like usual, you step into his room, closes the door and starts the briefing. ONF member stares at you with a puzzled expression while sitting on his chair. • Once you done your part and you ask him if he has any schedules to add into the list, he places the gift box into your view and pushes it towards you. • “What do you mean by this?” he inquires. • “I promised you chocolate for Valentine’s day, sorry I was late.” You purposely answer him the wrong information. “ Don’t worry I made a brand new ones.” • “You know I meant this.” He pulls out the memo has his eyes fixed on you. • The memo wrote, “(ONF member’s ID), Let’s call it off --- (Your ID)” • “That’s how it is.” You tried not to break into a smile, you are getting your revenge and this is fun. “You are the one who said you are fine to call it off if either one of us found someone in real life right?” • ONF member pauses for a moment, his eyes wandering then he admits he did say that. • “Well you found someone in real life, so there is not point for us to continue virtual dating on the app anymore right?” you slightly let out a victorious smirk as you ask him. • ONF member finally gets what you mean and he let out a smile. He puts down the memo and pushes himself up from his chair and walks towards you. • Thankfully the design of his room is made up of walls, once the wooden door is closed; no one knows what happens inside. • “So, you are fine with us dating in real life then?” You can feel his breath as he is only one step away from you. This time you are not going to back away and you look at him straight in the eyes. • “I will need to adjust a bit. You have a problem with me being your girlfriend?” you reply with him with another question. • ONF member unconsciously let out another smile, he quickly hides it with his hand, “No, not at all…” and those were the words you can hear coming out from him • “That settles it then.” You widen your grin towards him before turning around ready to leave his office. • But you are being pulled back by a pair of arms. Your back come contact to his chest area. He is hugging you from behind you. • “Seriously, I don’t get you.” He low key complains. “I thought you are going to hate me for real this time.” • “I was going to, you did not texted me and you acting like nothing happened after that night.” You pout as you explain to him. “I thought I have ended my career the moment you told me who you are. And who would have thought a decent CEO would date someone randomly they met in a online chatting app?” • “I am sorry; I thought leaving you unbothered for some time so that you don’t get stressed out.” You could tell from his tone he does feel apologetic. He never sounds like that before during work.

• "But I am dead serious on trying to start a proper relationship with you that’s why I suggested for us to meet up.” he continues. “Glad you felt the same.”

• You freed yourself from his hug and turn to him. • “Now listen, (ONF member’s name), as we are professionals, I do hope you understand that there is a clear line between work and private life.” You remind him. “Just because we are dating now, does not mean that I am going to let you off easily if you messed up during work, ok?.” • “Man, I don’t think I will ever win you huh?” ONF member only look at you affectionately and continues, “As you wish, my beloved assistant/secretary.”

A/N : the concludes for this oneshot headcanon fic should there are more ideas I might write a continuation about this pair for a part 2. Also thinking of linking the universe with MInkyun Florist AU, just a maybe.

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papergirllife · 4 years

Text

有缘再见

（If Fate Allows We'll Meet Again)

Liu Yang Yang

" What was the most impulsive thing you did before coming to SM ? "

It was another session of soju and wine among the wayv members on a typical Friday night.

All of them exchanged stories of their lives before wayv during these times, and now the question is directed at Yang Yang.

" I had a girlfriend for 4 hours and she's the only girl I dated. "

The mall was crowded as usual, both tourists and locals shop here in Germany.

All of Yang Yang's friends left him to hang out with their girlfriends.

' So much for the bro code ' , he thought.

He walked towards the entrance of the indoor amusement park in the mall.

' Nah it's ridiculous coming here on my own. ' , so he halted his tracks and prepared to leave.

That is until someone tapped him on the shoulder.

He turned his head to see a girl who's significantly shorter than himself, what surprised him was that she was Asian.

" Hi, I'm Y/N, and I'm here alone because my parents are in the concert hall next door. Their concert is going to end at 12, so I have nothing to do and I'm unfamiliar with this country. So I was just wondering if you wanted to be my boyfriend for the next 4 hours ? Show me around, stuff like that. This seems like a huge mall with lots of nice dating spots. "

" Sure. "

Next thing Yang Yang knew was that Y/N bolted towards the ticketing counter and bought back two entry tickets to the indoor amusement park.

" Come on ! We only have 4 hours. "

She took his hand and dragged him to the nearest ride.

" Don't worry, this is really safe. " Yang Yang said as they got into the roller coaster.

" Who says I'm scared ? "

And true to her words, she wasn't.

Yang Yang was surprised to see that she enjoyed every moment of the thrill of the exhilarating ride.

She even laughed aloud after they finished the ride. She truly was a girl Yang Yang had never encountered.

Yang Yang and Y/N got on all the rides that girls usually never go for, the ones that make your hair all messed up, the ones that get you a little wet, even the scary ones that his homies' girlfriends avoided like the plague.

When Yang Yang asked her why she said, " because the more scary they are, the more complicated the mechanism is, the more complicated the mechanism is, the more expensive the cost of the ride is. In conclusion, I'm making my money's worth instead of wasting it on the plastic ponies. "

She pointed at the carrousel which was filled with girls their age with full fledged make up, taking selfies in front of the magical lights.

That was when Yang Yang noticed that she wasn't wearing any make up, unlike all the German girls he's seen. The only thing she's wearing is probably coloured lip balm, a bright shade of orange red adorned on her lips.

Even her clothes were different, more eastern style he suspects.

Instead of the gym tights girls like to wear, she's wearing black skinny jeans and a silk button up. A tiny jade replica of a dragon dangles from a yarn necklace, similar to the one his mom has. Y/N's Chinese, just like him.

' That would explain her opinion on rides that are worth her money. ' Yang Yang lets out a smile at that thought.

" What are you laughing about ? Is it about my hair being messed up ? "

She reached her hand up to tame her messy hair.

" No I was just thinking about your theory on rides that are worth your money. "

" I should be eligible for Harvard for that. "

Yang Yang realised how much he truly enjoyed Y/N's presence, the way she jokes and the way she sees things differently.

Yang Yang shook his head of these thoughts.

' You only get to be her for a few hours, don't overthink this, just enjoy it while it lasts. '

" How about we grab something to eat ? My treat. "

" I'd love to. "

They arrived at a classic German cuisine restaurant.

" Are you sure about this, Yang Yang ? This place looks kinda pricey. "

" Don't worry, I bought extra money thinking my friends wouldn't bail me out on this. "

" You were with friends? "

" Yeah, they ditched me for their girlfriends. "

" My girls do that to me too, I'm always jealous of them, running off like that. They always say I'm too shy to date anyone. Y/N, the one who's never impulsive when it comes to dating. "

" How about we take a photo together ? You can brag about our little rendezvous here. "

" Your ideas are always appealing, Yang Yang. "

She scooted over her chair to Yang Yang whilst he asks for a waiter's aid in taking the photo.

After they finished their meal, they went to the clawing machines.

" You didn't seem like the type to like these. "

" I used to get them for my mom when I was young. I want you to have one too, something to remember me by or this moment. "

Yang Yang got it on his 5th try, which probably costs the same as if you bought one at a store.

' But it's the sentimental meaning that counts. ' Y/N thought to herself.

Yang Yang placed the plushie in her hands. It was a Stitch.

" Why the Stitch ? "

" You don't like it ? "

" I do. But I want to know the reason behind your choice of plushie for me. "

" In Hawaiian, Lilo and Stitch means lost and found. You were sort of lost tonight, but you found me. Now that I've given you a Stitch, I'll always be beside you wherever you are. Whenever you feel lost in life, give it a hug, think of it as me being there for you. "

Y/N enveloped Yang Yang into her tiny, but warm embrace.

" Thank you so much Yang Yang, I'll remember you forever and this moment we're having. "

Both Yang Yang and Y/N are tearing up now, both of them have never encountered such a special person in their lives, and the thought of separating after tonight seems to hollow out their hearts.

Yang Yang checked his watch, 11.30 p.m. .

" We only have thirty minutes left before your parents come back to fetch you and the mall closes. How about we break your rule about rides that are complicated only and take a ride on the ferris wheel ? "

" Sure. "

Yang Yang took Y/N's hand into his and led her to the queue of the ferris wheel, they didn't let go all the way throughout the waiting, even as they boarded the compartment.

The ride was silent, the both of them leaned into each other's embrace. Y/N's head on Yang Yang shoulder. Yang Yang's hand around her waist.

As they reached the top of the ride, Yang Yang broke the silence.

" This is going to be the most cliché thing you ever heard. But can I kiss you? "

Y/N had the biggest smile on her face as she put her hands behind his nape to lean in and connect their lips.

The happy couple was inseparable as they wandered through the flee market in the mall, Yang Yang's arm slung over Y/N's shoulder, keeping her by his side.

Y/N stopped her tracks at a jewelry stall. She picked up a pair of earrings that were placed on the table.

" How much is this ? "

" 8. "

She paid for the earrings and took off one of her own, and slipped it into her wallet

It was a star, the other was a crescent moon.

She handed the moon to Yang Yang.

" Wear this as long as you still like me, and take it off when you no longer like me. So when the next time if we ever meet again I'll know if we still share the same feelings. Deal ? "

" Deal. "

Yang Yang removed his earring to put on the one you have him.

" Dear shoppers, closing time is in two minutes. Please finish your shopping and proceed to the exits. We're opening at 10 a.m. tomorrow morning, we welcome you again then. And remember to drive home safely. "

" My parents should be waiting for me at the main exit about now. "

" I'll walk you there. "

Yang Yang wished this mall was when bigger than it is now, just so that he could spend more time with Y/N.

Y/N stopped her tracks at the side of the escalators at the first floor.

" Those are my parents. It's best that they don't see me with someone they don't know, they're rather protective. "

" So this is goodbye ? We could keep in touch, Instagram or Twitter or Snapchat ? "

" I live on the other side of the world, Yang Yang. But there's still a chance we'll meet again, let fate decide for us. "

She gave him one last kiss on the lips.

“ 有缘再见。”

“ 有缘再见。 ”

Yang Yang was starting to let her hand go, but he suddenly thought of something he hasn't asked.

" Wait. I still have one more thing I need to know. Why the moon and the star? Out of all the other ones. "

" Because in the vast night sky, the moon and the stars will always belong together, no matter where they are. "

She squeeze his hand for the last time, and let go.

Yang Yang watched her until she reached her family, he could see her smile from here.

Y/N turned back to look at Yang Yang one last time.

' I'll never forget you and I'll probably never move on. ' She thought to herself.

After Yang Yang finished the story, he grabbed the nearest soju bottle and downed the remaining of its contents.

" Thank goodness we don't have any schedules tomorrow. " Kun muttered to himself.

" So that's why you never take off this earring unless the stylists tell you to. " Ten said to the others.

" You never found this girl? Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat ? " Xiao Jun asked.

" No, she's like a ghost. "

" Get some sleep soon, Yang Yang. " Kun told him.

Yang Yang only nodded, too far down the memory lane to heed Kun's words.

One by one all of them retired back into their own rooms to rest for the day.

' Will I ever meet her again ? " Yang Yang asked himself.

A week has passed since Yang Yang retold his story. All the members avoided triggering his mood. He was still smiley Yang Yang in front of the fans, but he shut himself in his room more often than usual.

Yang Yang and Hendery were messing around in the dance studio while the rest of the members were doing their own things, Kun and Xiao Jun practicing a song, Ten and Winwin choreographing.

Suddenly, their manager popped his head in.

" Guys, I'd like you all to meet the members of SM's girl group that are going to promote in China along side wayv. Lee Soo Man said that you guys have to get to know each other in order to work alongside each other. "

He ushered in a group of girls and shut the door behind him.

Kun, being the dutiful leader he is started introducing the wayv members to the girls as they stood in a line.

Yang Yang was typing away on his phone to tell Jaemin when Kun told him to turn it off.

He slipped his phone into his pocket and looked up.

It's her, Y/N.

The both of them had shocked expressions on their face. Y/N's leader was telling her to introduce herself, but she couldn't hear or see anything else other than Yang Yang.

Yang Yang shifted his gaze to her ears, there it was, his star. Y/N did the same to him, seeing the moon made her breath a sigh of relief.

" Hi Stitch. Lilo's back. "

Yang Yang pulled her into himself, holding her close.

" Don't ever leave me again. "

" Never again. "

The rests of the people in the room carried on with their intros, letting the couple have some time to themselves.

Y/N pulled away slightly and looked into Yang Yang's eyes.

" I still have the Stitch you gave me. "

" I'd like to see it again. "

" Deal. "

#nct fluff #nct smut #nct angst #wayv scenarios #nct wayv #wayv imagines #wayv yangyang #liu yangyang #yangyang #wayv #nct127 #nct u #nct drabbles #nct daily #nct dream

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gingersimasnaps · 4 years

Text

True Colors (Vera Stone/Hamish Duke)

Title: True colors Word count: 4601 Summary: Vera Stone needs to paint her living room. Hamish Duke is ready to help. fluff&smut; OOC Vera; AU - law office

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„Mr. Duke, don’t you really have better things to do than watching me?“ CEO of Blue Rose Law Office Vera Stone was standing with her back turned to him, reading through some documents she pulled out of a shelf.

Hamish blinked. Was he really that obvious, or did she just… know? Because that was exactly what she was doing. She knew things. She knew that Angus, complete idiot from analytic department, smoked a cigarette on the toilets at the opposite end of the building, even though no smoking was rule number one in the office. She knew who hacked his colleague Nicole’s phone and sent photos of her and her girlfriend to almost everyone, though the evidence didn’t exist, and police IT specialists came empty handed. She knew when some employee wanted to call in sick, hours before the employee even thought about this idea.

„Hmmm… Actually no, I don’t think so,“ answered Hamish. Vera turned to him with rigid expression on her face, but when he smirked, she just rolled her eyes. If it was someone else, she would probably just wipe them out of the face of the Earth. It was more than obvious she had a soft spot for Hamish.

Blue Rose Law Office was well known across the whole city of Belgrave. For its quality too, of course, but mainly for the fact it was almost hermetically closed for ordinary people. Unless you were a spoiled descendant of some high-ranking snob, you didn't have a chance to get into the Blue Rose. But about a year and a half ago, it was discovered that CEO Edward Coventry, who was also high seated in the city council, was tunneling Blue Rose for his own enrichment. He had been doing so systematically and successfully for several years, with the help of influential clients who owed him for saving them from justice. After the truth came out, he was removed from management. No one was too surprised when he ran away. It has been speculated that he‘s been hiding on his private island Vade Maecum in the southern Caribbean.

Vera was selected to be the new head of the office. It was a logical step. Surprisingly, as the newest member of the Gnostic council (seriously, this company was so snobbish, that their managing board was named Gnostic, and even people had their rankings – Hamish was currently a Magistratus, which was pretty high for a newcomer), she exposed Coventry's unfair practices and helped to break his entire plan. Her promotion was the reward. And simply because she was Vera Stone, she drastically changed established practices. She hired a whole bunch of young, relatively ordinary people to join the company. Some left after a shorter or longer time, but otherwise it turned out that Vera really knew where to reach - most of the new staff had proven to be very capable and useful to the office. Everyone got an assigned person, something like a tutor. Hamish had no idea how he ended up under the leadership of Vera Stone herself, but although his friends from the office either teased him mercilessly about that or pitied him, he was happy with the outcome. He had always been able to appreciate a strong person in leadership. And Vera was definitely such a person.

They’d been working together for a little over a year, during which time they built a working relationship based on trust in each other's decisions, on the fact that they both excelled in something different and complemented each other perfectly, on the long nights they spent over documents and contracts… And also on the tension that was between them. Not hostile, definitely not. He had once thought it came from Vera's reluctance, or perhaps outright inability to trust anyone, but now, for some time now, he had been sure that what was literally sparkling the air between them was a mutual attraction that the two were trying to fiercely suppress. But it was precisely these moments - when Hamish made some cheeky remark and she didn‘t kill him for it - that proved that they may not be as strong as they seem at first glance.

"Okay," Vera sighed, snapping the file closed and putting it back in its place. "I think we should call it a night. It's late, and I have work tomorrow. "

"Here?" Hamish asked, and dug his heels on the ground to pull his body into a slightly more upright position. He sat in a comfortable office chair, and during the evening he had made himself even more comfortable by sliding down.

"No," the blackhaired woman replied, walking back in her awfully high heels to the table where she sat on her own chair. "I need to paint the living room. I have a day off tomorrow for the first time in ages, so it‘s the right time. "

"Paint? Will you paint — like by yourself? ”Hamish said this before he could stop himself, and this time Vera really gave him a hard look.

"There's something surprising about that, Mr. Duke? ”

"Of course not," Hamish replied. "I was just wondering if you wouldn‘t want to… help."

And here it was again. He really meant it as just an offer of help, but for some reason it sounded like he was offering her help with something completely different. Vera looked at him.

"Hm," she said, resting her chin on her index finger, "it's true that I could probably appreciate a… man's hand." He didn‘t believe she wasn't flirting with him now. He leaned in a little.

"So what time?" God, it really sounded like they were arranging some secret rendezvous at a hotel.

"Eight o‘clock," Vera replied. "Sharp." She got up, picked up her purse, and headed for the door.

"Are you going to spend the night in my office?" She asked him as she had her coat draped over her arm, and Hamish still showed no signs of getting up.

"Not today," he told her, as if he intended to any other night. She rolled her eyes at him again and let him pass so she could lock her office. Together they went to the underground garages. There was silence on the elevator ride, and Hamish wondered what she was thinking about.

"Good night, Grand Magus," he told her as she unlocked her car and was about to get in it. The Grand Magus was a nickname given to her by one of the newcomers. Hamish would bet anything it was his friend Randall. Of course, the nickname reached her, but probably no one had dared to use it right in front of her yet.

Vera narrowed her eyes and gave him a slightly ironic smile. "I hope you haven't forgotten what I said. Sharp. ”She got into her luxury SUV and started the car. Hamish smiled and opened the door to his car. Vera was already leaving when he took off. He noticed that she was watching him in the rearview mirror. The prospect of painting had never been more interesting, he thought, and he also drove home to get a good night's sleep before tomorrow's work.

The next morning, at exactly eight o'clock, he rang the bell at Vera's house. When she opened the door for him, he was quite surprised. He only knew her as the leading person of the office in her ‚CEO's uniform‘, which included a dress or nice costume, and high heels. But now she stood before him barefoot, in leggings and a plain white T-shirt, her hair tied in a messy knot.

"Did you swallow your tongue along with your breakfast?" Vera asked, pulling him out of his contemplation of her outfit.

"No," he replied. "But when someone needs to start painting at eight in the morning, even if they have the whole day off, they have to count with the fact that not everyone is a morning bird." Vera rolled her eyes at him again – that was slowly becoming their sign - and let him go inside. Hamish took off his shoes and coat and handed her a box. She looked at him questioningly.

"Those are doughnuts. No tarantula is going out of it, ”he grinned, watching in astonishment as Vera shuddered with disgust.

"Don't talk about spiders in front of me. Never."

“Arachnophobia? I wouldn't tip you on that. ”He followed her into the living room, which was connected to the kitchen. "I wouldn't tip you on orange, either," he added when he saw the kitchen walls.

"It's apricot," she corrected him immediately. "Did you come to solve my phobias or paint?"

"Depends on the situation," Hamish replied nonchalantly. He went to the living area. Vera had already managed to cover the floor with plastic and move all the things that weren’t too heavy for her to be picked up by herself. Together with Hamish, they set out to push the heavy, massive furniture away from the walls to access them.

"Really, is such furniture necessary at all?" Hamish snorted. "If you don't want it to fall apart after five days of use, it is," Vera snapped, almost out of breath. Fortunately, they had the last chest of drawers left. Hamish went to her to take down the photos of her. There were two. In one was Vera with some young, redhead girl. They seemed to be related. He had probably never seen his boss laughing so cheerfully as in the picture.

"That's my niece," Vera said, suddenly appearing beside him. "Laura."

"I didn't know you have a niece."

"That’s pretty logical," she told him. "Theoretically, you shouldn’t be bothered with my personal life, especially considering that most employees think I don't even have any, but if you're already holding the photo…" she shrugged.

"Are you close?" Hamish asked. "And I don't think you don‘t have a personal life."

"Um, I suppose yes, we are. She lived here with me for a few years, but then she decided to attend Yale and moved there." Hamish decided not to ask why Laura didn't live with her parents.

"What is she studying?"

"Law." It was Vera who grinned now for a change, and Hamish chuckled.

"Runs in the family, apparently."

"Yeah, sort of."

He set the frame behind him in the prepared box, and took another, a little smaller, in his hand. "Is this Laura, too?" He asked another question, showing the photo to Vera. He saw her features stiffen.

"No. Katharine. My daughter, " she replied in a tone that made it clear she would not answer the next question about the baby in the picture, and snatched it from his hand. Hamish understood, of course, but that didn't mean it didn't ignite his curiosity. He didn't need to extract evidently painful memories from her. But he wanted to get to know Vera. Not CEO Stone, but Vera. The woman who painted the walls herself, had a niece studying law at Yale and who had just played a music CD from ABBA.

"Can we get started?" She threw a paint roller at him.

"Sure, Magus. What color? ”

"White first, to make the color brighter. Then red. "

"I didn't expect anything else." After half an hour of painting, he realized that Vera was humming in a low voice along with the CD. He stopped and listened. His parents insisted on a music education, so as a child he was attending piano classes. He had never felt any great love for it, but right now he wished he could play the piano along with her singing, which sounded very good. Voulez-vous song ended, and – of course - Does Your Mother Know came next. Hamish began to hum, too. As soon as Vera heard that, she raised her voice a little. You're not gonna win this one, the blonde thought, and also added to the volume. Before long, they both sang as if they were at a concert, while the original tape of ABBA was barely audible. When the song ended, the two laughed. More, Hamish thought again. More of this sweet laughter.

After the white paint dried, they dug their rollers into the red color, but halfway through the walls, Vera let out a huff.

"That looks awful," she said, expressing the thought Hamish had had in his head from the beginning.

"I agree," he nodded. "We need to repaint it white again."

"Are you sure?"

"It can't get any worse."

"Cheeky," she told him with a smirk. As it was almost 4PM, they decided to take a break, and eat the dougnuts-not-tarantulas he brought. Then they went to work again.

Taking advantage of Vera's good mood, Hamish decided to tease her. He grabbed a brush, dipped it in paint, crept up behind her, and ran it over her nose during her unguarded moment.

"HEY!" Vera shouted, turning sharply to see Hamish's perfectly satisfied expression. "You’re so gonna pay for this,“ she growled with a sly smile, turning her back on him.

"I want to see that," he replied, turning back to his part of wall. He was alert, but probably not enough. At one point he bent down to dip the roller in the paint - and at that moment Vera's hand, soaked in white paint they were using, landed on his black T-shirt.

He looked at her, and suddenly an immense desire to kiss the triumphant grin on her face seized him. But then something better occurred to him. He grabbed her in his arms, making her yelp in surprise, and in one smooth motion he pressed her against the freshly painted wall. „So who won?“ he said, face centimeters from hers. It looked like she would want to fight and get out of his grip, so he pushed his knee inbetween her legs, to hold her in place. Vera gasped.

„This is not a… game, Mr. Duke,“ she said under her breath.

„Oh yeah? I had a feeling we could be a little playful since it’s our free day.“ Hamish let go one of her hips, only to pull the rubber band out of her vantablack hair, to let them fall freely all over the white, wet wall. His palm brushed a few strands out of her face, and when he shifted a little, his knee rubbed against Vera’s leggins, close to her center. Vera almost closed her eyes and arched against him a little, and that was all he needed.

He kissed her so heatedly and passionately, that he earned another whimper from her. Vera wounded her arms around his neck and when he pulled his leg from between her legs and gripped her butt instead, she wrapped her legs around him. Hamish finally detached her from the wall and backed off to where he suspected the couch was. Vera took his bottom lip between her teeth. His strong hands on her ass were driving her mad. She was coming home aroused almost regularly since they started working together, and first thing she would do when she got back to her house was to touch herself. Hamish and his damned smile, kind eyes, and the oh so intoxicating smell… She always ended up imagining it was his hand carresing her down there. And now, it was going to be finally, finally, finally true.

The blonde guy eventually opted to lay her on the fluffy white rug, not the couch, not letting go of her lips for one second. Vera closed her eyes when those lips touched that sensitive spot on her neck for the first time, and a soft moan escaped her. She tangled her hand in his hair and arched her back again a little. When she opened her eyes again, Hamish’s t-shirt was gone, and she had no idea how he did it. She forgot about it though, as soon as his hands gripped the hem of her own t-shirt, and took it off, along with her sport bra.

"So beautiful," whispered Hamish, his breath hot against her skin, and it sent a wave of arousal all the way down to her already wet slit.

„Gosh,“ she panted, when Hamish took one of her nipples into his mouth, and began sucking on it. Hamish smiled at her cunningly, and gently bit the nipple. Vera felt small pain, immediately soothed out by his tongue, and if she ever experienced heaven, it was right now. She heard some sounds of pleasure, and realized it was her own voice. God, what was this man doing to her… He could be literally just casually standing somewhere, wearing his smile, and she would consider it a turn on. But the only thing standing now was his cock, which was visible through his pants. Vera wanted to reach down and palm his bulge, but right just as she was raising her hand, Hamish decided to lick her stomach all the way down, right to the waist of her leggins.

"Oh God!" Vera dug her nails into his shoulders, feeling everything inside her twist with desire. Hamish bit the skin on her belly, and then, very impatiently, just ripped her pants and panties away.

"I should probably require a compensation for this," Vera panted. Hamish’s face appeared abover hers.

"Shut up, Magus," he growled, and kissed her so deeply that her brain just stopped for a while. Her hands were working on their own, clawing his back and leaving long red marks on it, soothing it right after with tender palm caresses. His kiss didn’t last long, though, and before she even tried to make her brain work, she felt Hamish’s tongue circling her pussy, but not touching her where she wanted him the most.

When the almost painful pleasure became too much for her to bear and Vera was literally trembilng with desire, she was torn between loving him and wanting to kill him.

"Hamish, please, please, stop teasing me," she almost sobbed, and in the way his lips moved upward against her sensitive flesh, she understood this was what he wanted her to do the whole time. The tip of his tongue touched her clit and she jerked her hips to him. He was unbelievable. Unbelievably goo-

"Jesus fuck!" Vera cried out loud, when Hamish put his whole mouth on her pussy and his tongue began attacking her swollen clit. She was dripping wet, good God, he was making her wetter than she ever been in her whole life - and she had had some good sex before.

She held his head close to her center with her thighs, almost as if afraid he will pull back, and leave her alone with this unbearable desire. But Hamish had no intentions to do so. Her mound had the most intoxicating smell, and it felt like silk, hot silk, and tasting her was already his favorite thing to do.

Vera bucked her hips to him, being so painfully, breathtakingly close… And then Hamish slid two of his fingers into her, curled them slightly, and started fucking her, excrutiatingly slowly. When he sucked her whole clit into his mouth and thrusted his fingers‘ full length into her, it sent her over the edge. She cried out with pure exctasy, eyes closed, back arched, ankles crossed behind his back, wishing for this feeling to never end.

Hamish was kissing his way back up, and when he captured Vera’s mouth once again, she could taste herself in his honey-like kisses, and it felt better than any other thing she had ever tasted. He slipped one arm under her back and then spun them around abruptly. Vera let out a surprised yelp, because she was suddenly sitting on him, and Hamish had to steady her by holding her hips.

"Easy, lady," he smiled. Vera felt like she could fly, but he was still so hard against her right thigh, and she thought it would be fair to give him release too. Who cares about painting, after all.

She kneeled beside him and took his pants down. At first, she only caressed him through his boxers - Calvin Klein, apparently he had some style - but he tried to prey her hand off.

"You don't have to-"

She cut him off with a finger on his lips. "I want to. And you definitely don't want to open a dispute with your boss.” With that, she pulled his underwear down, and took him in her soft, warm hand. Hamish supressed a moan. This woman is really one of a kind, he thought, when her hand moved up and down on his cock. When she bent her head down and took him in her deliciously hot mouth, teasing the tip of him with her tongue, another moan worked its way out of him. Even the plain sight of her head between his legs was almost too much, and her mouth felt so good and right… It didn’t took her more than a few minutes to make him come. The last thing he did before his seed spurted was to pull her back. For some reason he didn’t feel comfortable by the image of Vera swallowing his sperm - she was too precious for such thing.

They both needed a while to steady their breaths. Two piles of their clothes laid around them and half red, half white walls were waiting for them, but the two couldn’t care less. Hamish was first to stand up, and he pulled Vera with him, only to take her into his arms again. Vera wrapped her legs around his waist again, but this time, she took his face in her hands, and kissed him. Her long hair blocked him the view, so after a few steps, he stubbed his toe and fell forward. Fortunately, it was her couch. Vera squeaked, when her back hit the pillows, and he fell face first on her chest. She started laughing.

"Oh my God, this is like D grade category movie," she said between giggles. Hamish couldn’t help himself, and joined her in the laughter. He kissed the vale between her breasts.

"I think we need a shower."

“Definitely. We don't want to be sticky, “ Vera nodded. "Come." She got up from the couch, took his hand, and led him upstairs, to her big bathroom with an enormous bathtub.

„Of course,“ Hamish muttered with amusement. "Wouldn't expect anything less."

"Well, I like my comfort," she shrugged, and bent over the rim of the tub to turn the water on. Hamish felt himself twitch again at the sight of her beautifully shaped ass. Again, he couldn't help himself. He let his fingers travel lightly along her spine and over her butt. Then he lifted her and put her into the tub.

"Impatient, are we?" Said Vera with the tiniest of smiles.

"You are the one who will be profitting from it," Hamish answered, and pushed her to the corner of the tub, where she could sit. She watched him, intrigued. The man kneeled in the water, and pulled her legs apart. Vera felt her breath quickening already, and when he attacked her mound with his tongue and fingers again, she literally saw stars. If she expected something from their… painting job today, it was quick sex, at most. But of course, this was Hamish Duke, the most extraordinary man she ever met in her whole life. She should've known it won’t be just fucking. Not now, not ever.

Soon, her moans and grunts and "there, yes, like that, yes," filled the bathroom. After a while, when she was already close, Hamish's mouth left her pussy, and she felt a flash of anger, but then he brought their foreheads together and instead of his tongue, he pressed his thumb against her clit - and it gifted her with another orgasm, way more bigger than the first one. He didn't stop, though, and another huge wave soon ripped through her.

Hamish was watching her as she was slowly coming from heights back to him, and wondered if he would ever get enough of this sight. His boss‘ cheeks were tinted from the arousal, blue eyes were staring nowhere, and her legs were slightly shaking. God, he wanted to be inside her so badly… He quickly pulled her down to him, as she was still supple, leaned her against hir chest, and soaped her body.

Vera let him to do to whatever he wanted to her. She felt like she was under some spell. Maybe he was some kind of a magic practitioner, because she never felt like this around any man. But again, Hamish was different than all the men she met. So when he rinsed the soap from her, pulled her out of the tub and wrapped her in a bathrobe, she found his face with her hands.

"I want you," she whispered, lips pressed against his ear. And Hamish, being Hamish, bowed a little. For some reason, it turned her on even more than she already was, because who wouldn’t be after three amazing orgasms? They went to her bedroom together.

This time, both of them wanted it to be slow. Hamish was covering her whole body with kisses, Vera was caressing his torso. "Now," she whispered after a few minutes, or maybe hours?, but he already knew. Slowly, tenderly, his slid his member into her wet, silky, hot entrance, stayed still for a while, and then they moved simultaneously. Like they were made for each other, no matter how much it sounded like a cliché.

Even though Vera had never believed in such staged movie bullshit, they found their release together. When her walls started clenching around him a little, Hamish took one of her insanely long legs, and put it on his shoulder, so he could go deeper. Vera threw her head back, and in the very moment when her fourth orgasm of the day hit her and she came with his name on her lips, she felt Hamish spill himself deep into her, whispering "Vera“ several times over.

Hamish slid out from her, fell on his back, and Vera laid her head on his shoulder. She was completely worn out and her core and thighs ached, but it was the most beautiful kind of pain.

“Am I good? Painter? ”Hamish asked, still little out of breath, and Vera couldn’t supress a giggle.

"The best," she answered, and placed a tiny kiss on his chin. "We both are. We should quit being advocates and start a painting company. "

"Speaking of being advocates, how am I supposed to work with you now? Not happening. "

"Well, I can always shift you to someone else."

Hamish dragged his nails down her arm. "Also not happening."

"Thought so," Vera smirked. "I have to clean up the mess downstairs," she sighed after a while.

“Let it be for now. I will come tomorrow to help, “offered Hamish. Vera propped herself on one elbow and stared at his face.

"What?" He asked, clearly confused. "Did I say something wrong?"

Vera slowly shook her head. "No. I just… Stay the night." She didn’t exactly believe herself, because she never let anyone stay with her, no matter if it was after fucking or not. But when Hamish’s smile grew wider, she knew she made the right choice.

"As you wish, Grand Magus,“ he said, laughed when she again rolled eyes on him, and sat up, but just to pull the blanket over them. Vera hesitated for a heartbeat, but then just decided to give up and snuggled against him. Hamish dropped a kiss on her hair and protectively put his arm around her stomach.

It was the first night in ages without a single nightmare for her.

#fanfiction #vera stone #hamish duke #vera/hamish #vermish #theorder #alternateuniverse #smut #fluff #OOC #I really don't know how to write a proper fanfic in English

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chronicbatfictioner · 4 years

Text

Exchanges and Compromises - Chapter 7

Gotham City, Today

He is the Gray Son of Gotham, and he did not like having all these intruders coming into his city and steal from his people. The Court had made it clear that it would be his duty to clean up Gotham from those outsiders.

Over the years, Dick Grayson realized that the rogues coming to Gotham were getting progressively worse. If five years ago, it was the mafia trying to control Gotham; small, petty thugs trying to appear bigger than they are at the advent of machine guns and diminishing morale of the general Gothamites; today, there were costumed people. People wearing costumes and gimmicks, ready to hurt random people just to make a name for themselves. They'd feared nothing because there was nothing in Gotham that could hurt them back. Not like the Super-powered metahuman guy in Metropolis.

It all started with the shooting of Barbara Gordon, the daughter of a Police Captain. He had met her in person at the Circus and thought she was the most beautiful person ever. The only way he could keep his mind sane through the year was the hope that one day, he would be able to meet Barbara again. Cheesy, he knew. But it worked. Remembering Barbara meant remembering himself as Dick Grayson - the last of the Flying Graysons.

Dick was yet to get the taste of death at the time. But he was so furious, oh-so-furious that he had kicked the red-helmeted guy out of his fast-running motorbike after he saw what the guy had done to Barbara Gordon. To her body and soul as he desecrated her and took photos. Dick caught him and the camera - thankfully it was an old camera with films and not a digital one that could send its photos to the cloud - and has kept the film since.

Evidently, someone had beheaded the Red-Helmet guy after Dick left him dangled - suspended in the air on a lamppost with the gun he'd used to shoot Barbara Gordon for the cops to arrest him or whatever. Dick couldn't say he was sorry to hear that, though. It was much like that first time when he hung Tony Zucco upside down, and some enterprising soul had loosened the tie and sent Zucco flying to the pavement, some seven-storeys below.

He thought it odd that his masters have not allowed him to take a life - his other compatriots have taken lives after lives as ordered. But he, the one they actually named The Talon, had not. Sure, there might have been a number of targets whom he had taken to the edge of life at one point or the other. But they lived. The masters would promptly send out the cleaners - paramedics and other rescue people - to make sure his battered targets would survive.

Terror tactics, he was told. He had learned so much and so far to get the full understanding of how to work someone up to within an inch of their lives, leaving scars that would make them remember him always, but not take the life itself.

Nowadays, though, the policy might just need to change, if it hasn't already. His compatriots have eliminated a lot of people already, most were a costume- and gimmick-toting newcomers. They claimed to be 'inspired' by the legend of the Talon, yet they came in with the sole purpose of benefiting themselves on the blood of the common, insignificant people. They were not to be scared off, the masters decided. They were to be eliminated thoroughly.

He was getting antsy. There has been practically radio silence from the masters in the past week. He has tried to make himself useful - logging in the locations of the rogues the best that he could, so that... so that he was doing something, anything, during the radio silence. But it was getting... lonely.

He idly dropped by the Gordon lady's place again. She lived there, but she had made a plethora of security devices that he would have to carefully avoid to get to see her.

Her red hair looked like the sunrise in his eyes; warm, inviting, long. She had cut them short a few times, but they were always wavy and red and Dick wished he could run his fingers through them. He was happy that not only she had survived the shooting, she had also built something - a small business empire - for herself. She has friends coming and going, of all ages and genders. She would go out, sometimes with those friends, for a night out in the town, and Dick would follow them surreptitiously - keeping her safe if anything else.

Tonight, she seemed to be working intently. He couldn't see what she was working on, on the monitors before her. But she seemed preoccupied and rather angry; her face flushed a little, strands of hair escaping from her messy bun, her arms waving every now and then from whatever remarks she was making against whoever was on the other side of her headset.

Dick sat there quietly, literally enjoying the view. He deliberately trained himself to just watch her at work, not overstep the boundaries, no matter how his body wanted him to. Just a peek, it would say, into her bedroom, watch her change, sleep, get out of the showers...

He shook his head, snapping his thoughts. No matter what, Barbara has been violated before. He was not going to do that again, whether or not she knew it.

He touched one of his belt's pockets. The film was still there. No one shall take it from him, and maybe one day he could give it to Barbara herself and watch her burn it. Destroy the nightmare once and for all.

For now, though, Dick turned as a spark somewhere midtown caught his interest. With the costumed newcomers, there has been an increase of explodey-thingy each night. Scratch that, there has been an increase of explodey-thingy every night.

He went to the nest, where his band of talons should be standing-by, awaiting orders. There should be the masters, too, sitting around a roundtable, assessing the severity of the situation before they decide on the course of action.

He barely made it past the last of the buildings when he smelled it. The scent of blood - fresh blood - and burnt flesh. He stopped, settling down the shudder that overtook his body. He was not scared, not by a long shot. There have been numerous times where Dick witnessed bloody and/or burnt people - even before he was let out of his training pod. But this one... this one seemed... more foreboding. All of his survival instinct has kicked in all at once and told him to not meddle.

So he peeked around the corner of the building a few blocks away from the nest.

It was luck that he'd peeked instead of barging in, too. There was a very big man standing on the ledge of the next building - the one right in front of the nest. He was laughing - Dick could hear his laughter from where he was standing.

"That is all? That is all of the Court of Owls??" the man crowed. "I am Bane! And from this day onward, Gotham is mine!"

Dick sank back to his hiding place, after realizing that the round object in each of the man's hands were heads. One head of a Talon, the other the head of the Grand Master. He knew that the other Talons would have headed underground, which explained the complete radio silence.

Through the night, he went through the residences of the other members of the Court, only to find them dead. The ones he didn't find in their respective homes, he located at Dock 9C, the drop zone. They were all still sitting around the roundtable - lacking their heads. And Dick was pretty sure that the Court's revival pods would not be able to resurrect a person lacking a head.

He sighed dejectedly, realizing that - once again - he was alone. He would need to figure out how to take down the big man, 'Bane', and restore order. There were several issues with the intention: one - He didn't even know what this guy 'Bane' really wanted; two - his weakness; and three - how to exploit it.

And four- what is this shadow that has been following him from the Nest and is it dangerous.

He instinctively threw a knife toward the sound, a little confused when the shadow yelped indignantly and exclaimed, "dude! Settle down! I'm here to help!"

The moon took that moment to came out from behind the clouds, and Dick could see the small, black-leather-clad boy. With cat's ears.

"Oh, great... Catwoman's apprentice. There's nothing to steal here, boy; unless you're up to collect headless corpses." Dick snarled.

The boy tilted his head, looked behind Dick to the corpses, and looked like he was going to throw up. "Oh, god... would you... ew... would you mind if we go outside? Like, that -- ick. No-- Just..." he right out scowled. "Ugh, okay. Stray, where're your manners." the boy continued. "I'm... sorry for your losses, I guess? But can we please go outside? The cops are coming in a bit. I'm sure you don't want to be caught with like, twelve dead bodies around you."

Indeed, Dick could hear vehicles coming closer. The cops must have been alerted and kept their sirens quiet to catch the perpetrator. It would have worked, too, given the alcove location of the warehouse that would have trapped him - at the very least, he would have been seen.

He contemplated the boy's offer for a few seconds and then nodded. "This way," he said, leading the way to the least-used exits, the one that went to the sewers. "I hope you don't mind a little stink."

The boy whined, "man... the sewers? Don't you know there's a big-bad crocodile that eats humans in there? Not to mention how my dry cleaners' bills when they need to wash off the stink..."

"Really," Dick deadpanned dryly, glaring at the boy.

"No, I'm just trying to break the ice." he shrugged. "I'm Stray, by the way."

"They called me Talon," Dick replied, leading the way to the sewers, keeping a good fighting distance with the boy. He might be small and young, but Dick was certain that he would have some sort of weaponry on him that could hurt Dick.

The boy was quiet for a good six-second and then said. "That's alright, Dick Grayson, you're not a Talon, anymore."

For the first time in his life, Dick slipped and splashed to the floor of the sewer.

#Dick Grayson #Tim Drake #Talon #Stray!Tim #Talon!Dick #Barbara Gordon #Batless!AU

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drennalynspast · 4 years

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[ Online Relationships ]

Monday, Oct. 07, 2013

I’m going to recap several gaps in my life in which I haven’t focused a particular topic on. Online relationships have transformed me in a way in which I couldn’t have imagined. There are a lot of positive aspects as well as negative aspects to it. I used online relationships as a form of escapism from reality. It granted me immediate feedback, gratification and attention if I was lonely, stressed, and needed someone there. The art of communicating with written words is something that helped me express myself more in depth and allow myself to be more open to the other online people.

t’s has been noted that my online friendships with people have lasted for several weeks, some several months, and others that lasted a year. That feeling of greeting someone in the morning with an msn text and then closing an msn text before going to bed was a warm, cozy, reassuring feeling. When I feel more open to someone, I feel comfortable around them and have some sort of emotional connection with that person. A lot of my online friends were males. I could easily talk to them. I will admit, a lot of it had to do with some sort of personal validation and being flattered from the praise and attention I received.

Some of these friendships at first seemed like platonic friendships. Eventually it got to that point where I felt like I appreciated them more and wished to see them in person. I became jealous when I found out that they eventually got a girlfriend or wife. At some points, I became confused if they just saw me as a friend or something more than a friend.

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Thunder was my first online friend. We randomly became friends through a social networking site that my Indian friends introduced me to [the site]. He added me thinking I was 18+, but I lied about my age, and I was like 16-17 lolol. He does some sort of computer graphic design or drawing tutorial work. He was kinda disappointed I was young, but we were just friends. Eventually I got older and was shocked he eventually found a wife from his workplace. I had no idea he was seeing anyone. We met each other in person once before he and his wife left to move to California. He and his wife were pleasant to be around. It was a positive meeting experience. After he moved, we gradually communicated less and less. He divorced his wife. We remain FB friends.

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I met “J” through my sister. He was an admin on an anime forum. He basically helped give me emotional support through my struggles in freshman year in college while I battled loneliness and adjustment. He eventually found better employment somewhere and married a woman. Our communication dissipated quite a bit. Those phases of friendships come and go.

Being a part of that anime forum lead me to connect with a lot of other online people out there. Everyone was fairly around the same age, young and clueless about life with no obligations. I easily rose to awareness and attention by being sisters with a former moderator. I posted my picture, and a lot of the male users complimented me and wanted to get to know me more. One of those people stood out to me as far as being an amusing friend goes. And here I embarked on some sort of journey with Tom.

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

He was rather notorious on the forums, a bigshot member who posted frequently and was able to instill humor and witty jokes here and there. I was impressed by his boldness and charisma. We started out as friends. He became jealous of me when I went through that FWB phase with Dave. Eventually it lead to me being more than friends after a while. I clung to Tom when the whole Dave friendship failed. I just wanted someone to care about me and be there for me emotionally. I wanted some substance. I wanted to have a boyfriend. I felt like I could be a “good girl” and hold off on sex. I didn't want to be a slutty girl who slept around with a lot of men, so I used this online relationship as some justification for me to force me to be more pure.

I’ll also note that I was a stupid, naive, dumb girl who fucking webcammed for this guy when I didn’t have a fucking clue what he looked like. I just wanted attention and the shit. I wanted someone to revere in my body and appearance.

It’s always exciting and interesting discovering and talking to new people. You become flattered at the person they seemingly are. You see how amazing and confident they are. As you get to know them more, you discover the darker side of the person. And that is what happened.

We would have minor arguments here and there that eventually did resolve. It was an emotional struggle, but sometimes the arguments made us feel closer after the resolution. He had several red flags that I should have paid attention to. He was controlling, he was socially withdrawn from other people, he had no close real friends who he maintained a consistent communication with, he was antisocial in the real world, he also would talk about physical workout regimens but he was always reluctant showing pictures or videos of him. But somehow despite all that shit, I was somehow convinced otherwise that he is a good and caring person that was genuinely caring about me. That’s what I wanted right, someone to care about me?

I had to go through a ton of bullshit with him. I was frustrated about how I was the only one who cammed, and I couldn’t even see or hear shit from his side. He made fucking excuses where he was unable to cam or talk on phone more often. Typing this entry is also making me feel angry and disgusted as shit.

It was like a 3 and a half year pseuedo relationship. We messaged each other online everyday, getting into a routine of “hi, how are you etc”. And then we complain about random stuff to each other. It got to a point where I was all, “hi, when are we going to meet?” I finally had an apartment, but he had issues with finances, no car, still living with parents. I felt awkward if I had to drive there to meet him first. I shouldn’t be the one to go there and fucking meet him first anyway. I already did my part by camming to him the first time. What a bastard.

Anyway, I felt like I was struggling. I told him that we shouldn’t label ourselves as BF/GF anymore. We are just friends. He took it with some difficulty, but agreed. Eventually we phased out the *kiss* in our closing statements at bedtime. Even as just friends, I felt all weird and smothered by him. It was an unfulfilling friendship that didn’t seem to be going anywhere. I was also talking to an online guy (MMO) dude that I probably wrote an entry in a couple months back. That MMO guy bailed out on me and didn’t seem interested in maintaining friendship with me. MMO guy lived in Oklahoma, and I wanted to meet him too.

Whenever I saw the new pics that Tom finally decided to show me, I was pissed and disappointed. I guess I was lying to myself thinking that he would somehow miraculously drastically change his appearance from the old 2006 photo that he showed me first. He was sort of slightly overweight and his facial expression was that of apathy, boredness, blankness, no smile. It was like the way he described himself in words was that of a lie compared to his actual appearance. I was lied to in a way, or deceived, or I just tried to ignore shit in the beginning and have some sort of blind hope it wasn’t true.

I tried to give him a chance, but I suppose the physical aspect became a point to where it was starting to be more of a turn off. I also just felt bored of him. There was nothing new in his life. He didn’t seem to have any goals or passion in his life for anything.

So yeah, throughout all this, I’m so fucking sexually frustrated and deprived a 3 year dry spell. I hate this idea of being faithful or devoted to someone who would never be there for me in person. There’s always that talk of someday we will meet, just wait, it will happen. 3 years of this talk and still nothing happened. I got that emotional support and attention, but I realized that I needed both- physical and emotional needs met. It was time to say, G’bye.

And that’s when I met Andy in January.Tom was pissed I met Andy and just.. had sex with him on the first date. It was unexpected and he felt like he was betrayed. But I told him, we aren’t even BF/GF anymore, no need to be worried. Somehow he felt like he had some sort of entitlement.

I probably could have. Should have? Given him some warning as far as “hey, I’m talking to this guy and am going to go on a date with him”. kind of thing. I probably treated him like shit. But there wasn’t any obligated rule for me to be devoted or faithful. I don’t want to be held back. I want to do what I want. In some way, I may have used Andy as far as trying to make a stepping stone to get away from Tom. I needed to cut the strings off and tie off any lose ends.

Tom and I discussed things further. He eventually understood what I was going through and agreed to give me space. He wanted to still see me. He wanted to still be my friend. I still felt constricted and smothered. I kept him on FB, but I wasn’t going to go on MSN anymore. He made several comments on my FB activity and feeds. I was beginning to get annoyed and pissed off at his slight actions that weren’t trying to be harmful or intimidate me. He still tried to cling to me sometimes sending a random mail once a couple of months or weeks of self reflection. Of course I would respond back in some manner. I told him I didn’t want to be angry all the time whenever he tried to post stuff to me. I told him that I was going to remove him from my friends list and block him. We still have each other’s email if he wishes to contact me randomly.

I wonder if this is all considered running away. But I feel better about myself. I feel like I can focus on myself in the real present world. I am more away from being glued to the internet. I appreciate Tom’s friendship and care about me. I did care about him more too at some point. I learned several things about myself throughout the whole process. One lesson I learned was to never do online relationships again or even online friendships for that matter too.

There is so much to do and experience in the real world: meet and hang out with local people, go to places and engage in fun activities, eat with people and share stories with people in real time. Seeing their smile, seeing their humorous antics in person, and also feeling their touch in person is something that words on a screen simply cannot replicate.

After having my first boyfriend/real relationship, I felt like those 3 years talking to Tom I was missing out on a lot of things. Even though I feel shitty about being sucked into that 3 year confusion and mess, it was still a valuable experience. I sometimes look back and imagine the pain and sadness I have inflicted on Tom. I gave him false hope and crushed his hope and anticipation. At the same time, I need to worry about and focus on myself more. Sometimes we all need a harsh reality check about life.

#online relationship #online dating #online romance #online friends #efriends #waste of time

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niqhtlord01 · 5 years

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Humans are weird: Alternate Ending: War is the death of Honor

Humans are such curious creatures when you think of them in the grand scheme of the universe. We are beings with a dark history. A history of war, of violence. A history of acts of cruelty and insanity. A history of ignorance and betrayal of all that we preach to hold dear. Yet for all the wrongs we have done we have also done even greater good. What wonders of majesty and magnificence we can create, what acts of bravery and courage we can perform, what simple acts of kindness can comfort the lost. Sometimes an act of malice or of virtue is decided in but a moment, yet the choice can have ripples that echo outwards across time for ages to come. One can only imagine the possibilities should a person change paths at their crossroads. One can only imagine....... ---------------- Xiaon stood before massive doors depicting some sort art work. The doors parted and Xiaon saw a massive room. An entire side of the room was a reinforced window showing the Combra homeworld below. Xiaon saw a group of figures huddled around the window and he assumed they were the leadership. Some turned to face Xiaon as the doors opened, others glanced in his direction before resuming conversations they were already having, one figure Xiaon noticed had not appeared to react at all and continued looking out the window at the planet below. “Presenting General Xoon as requested.” One of the security guards spoke. “It’s General “Xiaon” actually.” Xiaon said to the guard. The guard turned to him and leaned in close and whispered “I don’t give a fuck what you call yourself. If it were up to me I would have blown your ass out the nearest airlock the moment you entered this ship-” “Thank you master of arms.” The new voice came from the seated figure who had not risen when Xiaon entered. The guard saluted the figure without hesitation and stepped back several paces. Xiaon recognized respect when he saw it and clearly this human guard held the figure in high admiration. A slender Slimpton stepped forward from the group. “Would you please come closer General, we can hardly discuss such important matters with you so far away.” Xiaon looked around the room and then back at the guards. “Do you not think I would not use my arms to strangle the lot of you were I to get close to you?” Xiaon responded. Several of the figures took a step back in fear but the seated figure merely chuckled. “I’m sure you would try, but I have faith that my security team would be over you in a matter of seconds and break your legs and arms without hesitation.” “You would not kill me?” The figure chuckled again. “Unlike your kind, we do not shoot the messenger here.” Xiaon stepped closer to the group and was now at the base of the window. He could all of the Coalition species here. One by one they introduced themselves until only the sitting figure remained. “Who are you?” Xiaon asked. The figure finally stood up and turned to face him. They appeared as a human female. Youth radiated off her dark skin like the heat of a sun yet Xiaon could see some grey strands of hair making him unable to properly judge her age. She had a strange cloth wrapped around her head revealing only her face, but this concerned Xiaon little as he had never bothered with human fashion. “You may call me Admiral Amara, leader of the retaliatory fleets.” Xiaon snorted. “Were it not for your victories I would have laughed at the idea of a female leader of war.” Without warning a guard stepped in behind Xiaon and brought the butt of their rifle hard against the back of Xiaon’s knee causing him to fall to the ground. “YOU DO NOT SPEAK TO THE ADMIRAL WITH SUCH DISRESPECT!” The guard shouted. He raised their rifle again to strike Xiaon when Amara held up a hand to stop them. “Thank you master of arms. You don’t need to worry on my account over such trifling thins as insults. They are the signs of a poor loser which only makes the general’s situation all the more laughable, wouldn’t you agree?” The guard saluted again and stepped back into position. Xiaon rose to his feet unsteadily. From the reactions of the surrounding leaders it was clear that even though it was a coalition, humanity played a larger role when it came to handling matters. None had sought to stop or censor the guard or the Admiral for their actions. Admiral Amara returned to her chair and looked at Xiaon. “I believe you came here to discuss something did you now?” She spoke with a smile. Xiaon nodded. “I have come before you as the leader of the Combra Empire to discuss a cessation of hostilities and lay the ground work for a better future for our children.” Many of the delegates nodded and smiled at the words. Xiaon could only imagine that many had longed for the day to see the Combra people defeated. Xiaon eyed Amara as she sat in silence. Were it not for humans the Combra would have won the war and these fools would be at his feet begging for mercy. “Do you have children General?” Amara’s question took him by surprise. “Excuse me?” “Do you have children General Xiaon?” Amara asked again, her head cocked to the side as she smiled at him. “I have two sons who both serve alongside me. They are still on the planet below.” Amara nodded at the answer. “With a reputation such as your I imagined so. Females of you species must be lining up to bear the great war heroes children.” she chuckled. Xiaon was unsure how to respond to that and shuffled in place. Before he could answer Amara turned to the other delegates. “Anyone else here have kids?” They all rattled off varying answers, Xiaon was suprised to hear that the Morbith member had some 500 children back on their homeworld. With each answer Amara smiled and nodded her head until she was the last one. She pulled a picture from her pocket and showed it. “This is my daughter Gabi, I carry this picture with me every day so I can see her smile.” Amara flipped the picture around and looked at it. “One of the smartest kids at the academies back on Earth. Aced all her classes, never got into any trouble, always willing to help her friends when they needed it. The size of her heart would make any parent proud.” Amara stared at it for several seconds more. Xiaon was confused by the situation, this was not what he had expected when he had decided to surrender. From the looks of the other leaders Xiaon knew they were just as confused as he was. “I wonder if she can see me even now.” Amara said softly, cradling the picture, running a finger over her daughters smiling face. “I wonder what she would think of me accepting the surrender of the man who murdered her.” The surrounding delegates gasped and took a step back from Xiaon. Behind him the clatter of the guards could be heard as they brought their weapons up but did not aim them at the general. Xiaon glanced around the room and saw only faces of surprise, fear, anger. “There must be some mistake Admiral.” Xiaon began. “I have not taken any field of battle since this conflict begun. I have led my warriors but I myself have not killed anyone.” “You are mistaken dear general. “ Amara corrected him, fixing him with an icy gaze. “Every death is on your shoulders for at the end of the day you were the one that gave the order to begin the war.” Amara stood from her chair and approached Xiaon, her daughters picture still in her hand. “Every world attacked, every ship broken and left adrift in the stars, every soldier dying on a forgotten world light years from their loved ones they’ll never see again, IT WAS ALL BECAUSE OF YOU!” She stood before the general and despite being a foot shorter than him Xiaon felt as if she was towering over him. Amara held out the photo for Xiaon to see. “LOOK AT HER!” She forced the picture out farther, tears welling up in her eyes. “LOOK AT HER DAMN YOU!” Xiaon looked at the photo. He saw Gabi and Amara together on some grassy area. Both smiling as if they didn’t have a care in the world for just that moment. Gabi’s face was difficult for Xiaon to stare at. It made him feel things he couldn’t find the words for. “Shame?” Xiaon thought. He turned to gaze at Amara again and saw her weeping. “Do you know how many lives you ruined because you wanted glory?” He stood in silence, words failing him. Amara’s hand was trembling. “Do you even care?” The room was deathly quiet with the exception of Amara’s grieving. The delegates looked on in silence, eager to see what would happen. Xiaon was speechless. His mind was now racing with ideas and thought that had never been there before. He had always limited his knowledge of his enemies, demonizing them. It made it easier to wage war when those you were fighting were less than living beings. But now, seeing such pain that had been rought by his own actions he realized the monster he had become. Without a word, Xiaon got down on his knees to the shock of everyone present. He gazed up at Amara. “I can not undo the damage that I have caused, nor can any offering that I could make repair the pain.” He lowered his head until his eyes gazed at the floor. “But if taking my life will in some small manner ease your pain, then I gladly offer it.” A guard came forward and presented the Admiral with a pistol. A bulky weapon in her hand but strong enough to rip apart Xiaon’s skull in a single shot. She grabbed the weapon and pushed it into Xiaon’s head, cocking the gun in a single motion. The delegates moved to protest but the guards stepped in and presented their guns, silencing them. Xiaon closed his eyes to the world, ready to accept his fate. The sound of Amara’s sobbing so clear to him he would take it into the next life and carry it to mark his shame. He could feel the gun trembling against his head as the sobbing grew louder. “RAGHHHH!” Amara cried as the gun went off. Xiaon’s flinched as it did and then remained still. Am I dead? Is this the afterlife? He did not feel different nor see the lands of his forefathers. Gently, he opened his eyes. Amara still stood before him, the gun smoke still trailing from the barrel no longer pressed to his head. He turned his gaze and saw she had fired at the floor behind him. The gun clattered to the ground heavily, Amara falling as if all strength had left her. A guard rushed forward and caught her and assisted her back to her chair. Her hands covered her face as she continued sobbing and crying. Xiaon was confused. Had she not wanted his life? Had she not despised his very existence? “Why?” “She......Gabi....Gabi wouldn’t have wawawanted this.” Amara spoke, her voice distorted from her sobs. “But you hate me! I’m the reason she’s dead!” Xiaon declared, rising to his feet undaunted by the guards now training their weapons on him. “Why did you spare me!?” “You...” Amara said, her sobbing dying down. “You.....you have to know when to stop. It’s over. The war......it’s over... We’re done here.” Xiaon saw the mighty woman bent over in her chair, hands still covering her face while the guards lowered their weapons and began ushering the delegates out. Xiaon was about to follow when he noticed something on the ground. He bent down and picked up the picture and strode to the Admiral. The guard behind her raised his weapon but Xiaon was unafraid. Amara stopped sobbing and raised her head to see Xiaon handing her back the photo of her daughter. With a trembling hand she took it and stared once more at it, lost in better time. “I did not know your daughter,” Xiaon said, “but I am sure if she is watching you she would be proud you were better than the monster you faced to avenge her.” Amara looked at Xiaon who nodded to her and then turned to leave. Amara watched the general leave then looked back down at her daughter. A faint smile appearing on her face as she hugged it close with what strength she had left before returning it to her pocket. ------------------ To see the original ending to this story feel free to check out the story on my page or follow this link: https://niqhtlord01.tumblr.com/post/185604083511/humans-are-weird-war-is-the-death-of-honor

#HUMANS ARE WEIRD #humans are insane #humans are space orcs #humans are space oddities #scifi #story

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paladin-pile · 6 years

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What “Pilot Personality” do each of the Voltron Characters fall into?

This has been sitting in my docs for exactly a year under the title “stupid freaking meta” cause it was a pain to write. But it’s been on my mind so I thought it was time for another post, based on my experience as a pilot and member of the aviation community.

As I was making this I realized that this might be some good fanfiction material for y’all, so enjoy. (Fyi: every pilot-related example or description I use in this post is a real life true story/situation that I have heard or experienced! Nothing made up.)

I began learning to fly at age 16, before I learned to drive. I got my pilot’s license at age 19 which was almost 6 years ago, and it’s safe to say I’m just a little obsessed. I spent years around pilots from all walks of life, and very quickly caught on to the fact that there are different types of pilots, but still a common thread that goes through everyone.

When I sat down one day in July 2016 and watched Voltron for the first time, I was immediately smitten. It was everything I loved: space, flying, technology, awesome characters, all rolled into one. Interestingly enough, I can pinpoint the EXACT SECOND I first fell in love with this show...

I literally paused the episode here and texted my friend about how I had found the new Big Thing in my life. This was it, this show knew us. As I continued watching I was thrilled to see each character be such a fabulous example of the different types of pilots and have a lot of deep threads I resonated with. I’m going to go through each main character and describe what “type” of pilot they fit and why. So buckle up folks, this post is Hella Long. First up,

Lance

It may be hard to believe, but I speak from experience when I say the vast majority of pilots are exactly like Lance. Even if your normal personality is not like his, he amplifies the traits that are inside every one of us. It doesn’t matter what your personality is like on the ground, your pilot personality can be a lot different,

Lance isn’t scared.

These are the kind of people who live for dives and stalls, pitching down the nose and laughing maniacally as the engine builds up to a whine and the ground fills the windshield. In order to get to this point, you have to be really comfortable with the aircraft, know what it can do and what it can’t. This kind of boils down to the first point about pilots in general that are illustrated nicely in the show:

Pilot thing #1: You have a healthy fear of what you should be afraid of, but you know you don’t have to be afraid of much.

Personally I have learned to fear only three things as a pilot: birds, fire, and myself (the ‘myself’ point we’ll come back to later when we talk about Shiro). Most everything else is a non-issue and might even be considered a thrill. This doesn’t mean we’re not cautious and responsible, but we’re not scared.

True, imidately following this scene, Lance crashed the simulator (which I also theorize he did on purpose), so it could be argued he’s not that great of a pilot, but the point still stands. He’s in training, we all did stupid stuff in training, I did stupid stuff in training. It’s the attitude we’re talking about here.

* Side dish for thought: I see a lot of the fandom throwing around the term ‘cargo pilot’ like it’s some sort of insult, or ‘oh that’s so boring and has no prestige whatsoever’ but let me set one thing straight: being a cargo pilot is the BOMB, and I would take that over being a fighter any day.

Flying a 180 ton aircraft filled with supplies or troops through canyons and around mountains, low enough to trim bushes and kick up sand, and the satisfaction of yelling “5 tons of toilet paper comin’ in hot!” into the comms is an end in itself. The poor grunts in the back are strapped in like sardines and trying not to hurl at your erratic maneuvers, but they don’t complain cause they know you have to stay low and move crazy to avoid enemy fire. You and your Thicc Baby are proud as anything when every load is delivered safely, whether its potatoes or tanks. (From what we see in Voltron it seems Lance didn’t want to be a cargo pilot, but I have to admit it would have fit him pretty well.)

#2 Talking to your aircraft

There is not a pilot on the face of the Earth that does not talk to their aircraft like it is a sentinent being, and treat it accordingly. No matter how big and tough we are, you can always catch us patting our ship with a dopey smile and gooey eyes, cooing “Hey Beautiful” or any other myriad of pet names. It’s a thing, everybody does it. I don’t pretend to know the psychology.

Keith

Ok story time.

A few years back, I took a nurse’s assistant course and worked in a elderly care home. It was an awful place. Elderly folks who had no family lived in small, dirty rooms, no longer able to care for themselves or sometimes even communicate. I knew everyone on the floor, and tried to show them love as much as possible in their often abusive situation.

One such person was a tall gangly man in his nineties. He was confined to a wheelchair, never made eye contact, and never spoke. Every mealtime we would take him into the cafeteria and sit with him, spoon-feeding because his hands shook too much to hold a utensil. We were encouraged to talk to him as much as we could, even though he never responded and none of us were sure just how mentally present he was.

One time I went into his room, I noticed something. On the rickety table at the end of his bed was a small, dusty photo frame. It held a picture of dashing young man in an Air Force uniform with sharp eyes and half-smirk, a curly-haired little girl in his arms. One of the nurses told me that was him and his daughter. Since we now had a little something in common, I decided to bring it up at the next mealtime.

“Sooo, I saw your picture on the end table,” I hedged, holding out a spoonful of potatoes. I didn’t expect a response, and sure enough, he remained staring at the table blankly.

“You were in the Air Force, huh? That’s pretty neat. I’m a pilot too, but I’ve haven’t flown anything very exciting.” I held the spoon to his mouth and he took it, swallowing slowly.

“P-38’s or P-51’s are my favorite,” I rambled, scraping together the creamed peas. “There’s something about the sound of that Merlin engine that can’t be beat!” I hummed and shook my head with nostalgia. The fighter planes from WW2 had always been my favorite. With the next bite ready, I turned back to him, and almost dropped the spoon in shock.

His head was lifted, back straight, staring at me with such intensity I almost thought he would leap out of the seat. My mouth hung open, spoon frozen midair, and for a moment I sat there in disbelief. I’ll never forget the look in his eyes, bright and fiery, overflowing with words he couldn’t speak. Finally, I recovered enough to smile, wishing I could hear what he wanted to say.

“I love flying,” I whispered, “There’s nothing like it, is there?” His eyes stayed locked on mine, and it was a long time before he could be coaxed into taking another mouthful.

Here’s where I’m going with this. Pilots like Keith are from an era that no longer exists. His are the type we can only find in the silent annals of history, like WW1 and 2. Pilots who were called “knights of the air,” unorthodox and brave in every sense of the word. Cutting out engines and making impossible maneuvers that pushed themselves and their aircraft to the limits and beyond. Split-second, all or nothing stunts that shouldn't have worked but did, pilots that flew by pure instinct and blood running like fire through their veins. Pilots who couldn’t let go of the controls when they landed because they had been gripping them too hard, too long. Pilots who would wait till the very last second to bail out of a burning plane so they could direct it to crash into a target, pilots who coaxed their plane to finish a mission even though half of it was missing, oil was smearing over the canopy, and hydraulic fluid was dripping down their legs. Pilots that got into a new plane that had just been designed and no one knew what it could even do, and flew it anyway. Kamikaze pilots who put their plane into a dive toward a target, knowing it would be the last thing they ever did.

They fought a war, some of them won, and they all disappeared.

The nature of air war isn't like that anymore--with the advent of supersonic jets and drones, the era of the fighter pilot is all but gone, and the gritty sword fights in the sky have become extinct. Even those who are fighter pilots today are given strict guidelines, and risks are reduced to a minimum.

Pilots like Keith don’t exist anymore because they are not born, they are only made under certain circumstances.

The closest you will get to those kind of pilots today are probably bush pilots, they’re pretty much the only ones left that push everything to the limits, fly with no rules, and rely on instinct. But for now, that spirit of Keith, that “you fight like a Galra,” drive, that extra sense and lion-heartedness...are only found in museums, in monuments, and in gravestones.

Shiro

Shiro is a classic fit to what we call a “Jet Jockey.” Responsible, hero-type, yet still a massive dork; the guy you’d see in charge of the Thunderbird demonstration team. He’s a leader, calm, charming, and fierce. It’s in the blood, in the way they walk and smile. When you hear the term ‘you got it or you don’t,” these people definitely “got it.”

They’re perfect, polished in the exterior, but what you sometimes will not notice is their vulnerability. Most all of them have lost close friends, hold some kind of loneliness or sadness in their chest, something that only the love of the air can soothe. Be nice to these guys. People like to put them on a pedestal, but they need human companionship to not let lost in the sky.

I’d like to take a moment here to share my insights from aviation relating to Shiro, namely, Pilot Error, and the Kerberos mission. I see a lot of content in the fandom of Keith and the Holts being outraged that anyone could suggest that the Kerberos crash was caused by pilot error. The typical response is along the lines of, “Shiro was the best, the brightest, most skilled and responsible student, he would NEVER make a mistake like that.”

That’s bullshit and every pilot knows it.

From our very first day in flight school, this concept was drilled into us until we could recite it in our sleep. Mistakes happen to everyone, no matter how good you are or how much experience you have. You think, “Oh I would never do that” or that just because so-and-so is legendary they can do no wrong. It happens every day and the best pilots are not immune. The vast majority of crashes are caused by errors by pilots who are not dummies. It’s the go-to answer when no one is quite sure what happened because it’s the most likely reason. It sobers the rest of us, thinking “that could easily be me,” but we don’t doubt it or get outraged cause we know it can happen to the best of us.

People are prone to make mistakes for no reason, when we know better. It just…didn’t even cross your mind at the time. You thought you were doing the right thing. It’s happened to me personally and I very nearly got killed, but it really opened my eyes to the whole issue.

Semi-related to this is a theory I’ve been toying with: that Shiro getting chosen to pilot the Kerberos mission was a controversial and even scandalous decision. Here’s the cold hard facts: There is no way Shiro was the most experienced pilot at the Garrison. Even if he was a prodigy and had insane natural talent, someone that young just does not have the experience that an older pilot that had been flying for years would have under his belt. Shiro was probably so good that some of the higher-ups at the Garrison wanted to assign him to Kerberos, but the other portion were against it, saying it wasn’t smart to be sending someone so inexperienced, no matter how good he was. When the Kerberos crew disappeared, it could easily have become a huge, maybe even public scandal, where the people who opposed the decision were crying “I told you so!” and citing what a mistake it was to assign someone so young.

The youngest astronaut NASA ever sent to space was 32 years old, and she certainly wasn’t in charge of anything at the time. The youngest person ever in space was a 25-year old Russian cosmonaut named Titov who was essentially strapped into a capsule and launched into orbit to test what happened to the human body in zero gravity for 24 hours (not pleasant, they found out). He was also the second human to go to space, when we knew pretty much nothing about anything. I can’t imagine the guts this guy had, knowing he was going up as an experiment. The whole story is worth checking out. Honestly this sounds more like something the Garrison would do, and the whole situation adds to the suspicion that something is fishy in the place.

Experience rules, I cannot emphasize this enough. It doesn’t matter how “good” you are or how fast you learn, the guy with more experience will always be better than you, no matter how old they are. For Shiro to be the most experienced at such a young age, all the other older pilots and instructors would have to be dead or medically disqualified, or something.

Short end of it is, there is no way Shiro was the best pilot at the Garrison, or the best choice for the mission. Even if he was a prodigy and at the top of his class, which I’m sure he was, that’s not what the higher-ups use to make a decision. Of course, this whole theory might be moot. The creators most likely put Shiro on the Kerberos mission for plot reasons only, but realistically is a little different story.

Hunk

Hunk’s category of pilots hold a special place in my heart: the mechanics. They probably otherwise would not be pilots, but it’s convenient to be able to fly the stuff when they’re running checks. Always covered in grease, their second home is in the hangar, tending to the planes like a kind doctor to a child with the flu. They listen to the aircraft. It’s more of a technical relationship, not quite as mystical as the other pilots tend to portray it. For the Hunk-type, it’s dissected into moving parts.

These folks are NICE. My best friend in training was a mechanic named Bob, who was a ray of sunshine and the sweetest guy absolutely ever. He was also HUMONGOUS, and it was always a kick to seem him squeezing into a tiny Cessna 150 with a squinty-eyed smile and a cheerful “Let’s see how she does!” He would never fly more than a few trips around the pattern.

“Nothing major,” he would say. “I’m not gonna do any crazy stuff like these guys,” *points thumb over shoulder at the Lance-like pilots drinking coffee* “Just little trip around the pattern so I can check out what I did without having to wait for another pilot to take ‘em up.”

They talk up a storm, they ramble. Mechanics tend to make fun of pilots for knowing nothing about how the airplane works, and have gut intuition like no one else. You LISTEN to these guys when they have a hunch or you. will. die.

Pidge

Pidge’s type of pilots are fun to be around. Curious, in the learning stage, usually teenagers, enthusiastic and eager, wanting to be a pilot for the intellectually stimulating reasons (“I read all the fighter manuals”).

I’m reminded of one of the students who was training at the same time I was. 5’4, short cropped hair, large aviator sunglasses, devouring the training books with quick wit and banter with the instructors. She also would roll up to the hanger in her sporty convertible right after getting her drivers license, blaring “Sexy Back” loud enough to shake the propellers off the nearest aircraft.

They may not have the ingrained, primal love for hardcore flying that pilots like Lance, Keith and Shiro have, but to them it’s cool and they love it for their own reasons. It’s a stepping stone to something greater, more knowledge, laid out before them like the rolling landscape far, far below.

Allura

When we’re sorting Voltron characters into pilot categories, Allura drops with a perfect little clink into the box marked Female Helicopter Pilots.

If you’re looking for folks that are Tough, who can catch grenades in their teeth while brandishing two sub-machine guns and walking through fire, you’ve come to the right place. Arnold Schwarzenegger's got nothing on these women. Don’t cross them, they can most likely bench press their own helicopter. They instantly generate mad respect, you feel like bowing whenever they walk in a room.

Fixed-wing pilots and helicopter pilots are two very different breeds, and usually are very loyal to their respective aircrafts. Most airplane pilots wouldn’t be caught dead in a helicopter and vice versa. Of course there are exceptions, but the accepted culture is for the two groups to rib each other, kinda like cat people vs dog people.

These pilots have a beaming smile and deceptively sweet twinkle eyes. These are people who have whipped the butts of every obstacle given to mankind, stared death in the face and beat it with their bare fists. I might be exaggerating here, but this is the feeling one gets when coming across these women.

Coran

Oh Coran, you are one of the most iconic pilot types, and the one folks are most likely to encounter hanging around any small airport. The middle-aged-and-older folks that fly to to other cities for lunches, dubbed “$100 hamburgers.” They are chipper, wear shorts and Hawaiian shirts, and like to reminisce about the good old days. I am not exaggerating. Most of them are hobby flyers or retirees with eccentric senses of humor and very large amounts of money, maybe more than one plane and an antique car. If you start talking to one, be prepared to spend a while. They are a bottomless well of tall stories of glory, belly laughter, and that snark and slightly odd sense of humor that can turn dark if the right subject is brought up.

All together, pilots are a colorful bunch. Most everyone fits into these basic categories, but there’s a common thread through it all. Love, almost to addiction. Once we get in and taste the crisp air aloft, feel the vibration of the aircraft beneath our fingers, hear that ethereal voice speak to us. There’s no going back. It calls and calls and calls, and the farthest star is too close to hang our dreams.

Hope this has been helpful or interesting to someone. Please feel free to come by and talk to me about anything!

#pal meta #Voltron #Lance #Keith #Shiro #Hunk #Pidge #Allura #Coran #aviation #pilots

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naniblog-aut · 5 years

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Reflective Journal

A Creative Technologies experience / studio project which was meaningful to me was the “Cards For Play” Assessment. This was the first project which we did in creative studios, also my favourite so far as it definitely sparked my interests and got me excited about the entire BCT course by showing me the variety the course had to offer with how different it is from other design courses, how exciting you can make it for yourself and especially the in depth thinking that goes into day to day choices which enhance the user experience aspect from a producer/designer standpoint. This studio project got me excited for the rest of the year by allowing me to stop and think before you create a certain product, or go ahead with a certain idea. The cards for play assessment was a project which had to be a game / experience using a card shaped product. Our team was full of entrepreneurial spirits and creative minds, we lost a few and gained some along the way, that being said it was always an exciting experience given the interest and contribution given by each team member. Our vision for this project was to enhance on three different pillars of user experience, which were the Discovery, Challenge and Fellowship pillars. Combining our mutual interests alongside these three pillars, we decided that a travel experience based game would be the most suitable and exciting. From the beginning of this project, we had several different ideas, however the concept remained the same. “Creating spontaneous and unforgettable travel experiences for like minded strangers”, this was the sentence which we turned to, in order to form most of our raw ideas when we got distracted or fell off the wagon while brainstorming. After days of brainstorming and writing down everything related to our topic on sticky notes, we finally came out with two main options for the experience. “Travel Roulette” and “Travel Tinder”. The Travel roulette experience focused more on the “Discovery” pillar. This was a spontaneous experience designed for solo travellers and backpackers who did not know where to go and what to do, or simply could not choose. It was an experience where the user spun an arrow on a card full of different activities around auckland and wherever the arrow landed would be the users new destination. This was purely to push through a spontaneous feature to the game. Travel tinder was an idea which focused more on the “fellowship” pillar. With this experience, you would have a pack of different cards which had various activities around Auckland, these cards would be placed in the reception of a backpackers hostel so they could pick the cards they wanted and hang the card on their door in the hostel. While someone else who sees the card / activity they would like to partake in, they would simply knock on the primary users door and initiate the conversation to go forth with that activity. After we got these ideas we were introduced to the concept “kill your babies”, which was hard at the time but understandable once we found our new concept combining both those ideas and building a more sustainable and better-flowing idea appropriate for this day and age.

This new idea was one that came out of the blue to one of our team members and after a very positive and energetic discussion led to a very impressive idea. The idea was a spontaneous experience with the factors of bringing discovery and fellowship into the overall experience. There would be a stack of cards, which includes four different categories; Outdoor activities, Sightseeing, Relaxation, and Nightlife. Within each of these categories, there would be an activity for each of the categories on each card. The card would show the name of the Activity and a QR code on the back of the card. When scanned, the code would link the user to a facebook post which reveals more information about the activity and allows the user to socialize and connect with different people who are interested in the same activity.

While analysing this concept, we came to a realisation that a visual representation of the activity on each card would speak to the user much more efficiently than just a name would. Therefore, we changed the cards from information about the activity simply to a photo resembling the what the user can get from this activity. This little adjustment improved user experience by massive margins as we started getting excited faces when testing our product. Alot of the adjustments such as these that we made along the way has affected our product in various ways, and looking back on it I feel that this was a case of having a set of people with different skills and a really raw hunger to develop and make headway with this idea into a working prototype. Due to the result of having so many creative minds in one space, ideas would still be bouncing around to make the product better and this would change the product with every step we took forward. For example, by the time we had finished our first prototype and was ready to test, we decided to get rid of the categories and let it all be an exciting, spontaneous experience where the user did not even know what sort of leisure he / she would be committing himself into. It would be a completely random pick from various kinds of activities. This of course branched out to another part of the game.

Reflecting back on the process of this project, we could have done things better in order to run smoothly, one of the major points of improvement we did actually pick up on was when prototyping the product. We went ahead to backpacking hostels to test out the product and we did get some positive feedback but we did not exactly go out looking for something to make our product better, we went with an intention to get a validation for the product by the market we would cater for. This was not the mentality that we should have had during the task of testing our product. There was an interesting theory that I came across after this project that we should have implemented more, the theory of MAYA (Most Advanced. Yet Acceptable). This outlines building for the future, but with a familiarity aspect to the product. In the theory of MAYA, You notice that with advertising comes a very important factor which ties in something people find their familiarity in, mixed with a level of new. The familiarity is needed because there is a sense of trust when you see something familiar, however; when you tie that with something that is new and advanced, to the right level. Your product would be of great value. This is ofcourse supported by The Pareto Principle (80/20), which means that 80% of a design would be new whereas the 20% would be a familiar face for the user. This would balance out the new and the familiar, in my opinion to achieve a very unique balance for your final product. I noticed that with our card experience, we brought in the familiar; which is a traditional deck of cards. The dimensions of the card, the same material, it all felt similar to the user. Tying into this, the new technology, QR codes have been around for a while but still is considered a new feature when introducing a card game like experience.

References

Dam, R. (2019). The Maya principle: Design for the future, but balance it with your users present.

Tracy, B. (2018). The 80 20 rule explained (a.k.a Pareto principle).

#ctec502

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sustraiii · 5 years

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TEAM ZRCN - CHAPTER 6

Here's chapter 6! A bit of a short one in comparison to the last chapter, but this sets up for things to come!

CORDOVAN

It had been just over two weeks since the confrontation at Hargrave Manufacturing. Bruised and worn down, Cordovan had reflected later that same night, just how lucky they had been to escape. There had been a number of difficult enemies the team had faced since they formed, but none had elicited quite the same response as Wisteria had. Their first meeting might have been brief, but it had been enough to leave a lasting impression.

After escaping the factory, it had not taken long for police to arrive, as well as a growing crowd of workers who had come to see what was going on. After clearing up things with the police, they had been passed into the care of what at first appeared to be a more senior officer, although as it turned out she was in fact an Atlesian Specialist, and one who just so happened to be his mother.

When Wren Honeycutt had greeted her son warmly, Cordovan noted the looks of surprise forming on the faces of his teammates. The surprise wasn’t completely unwarranted he noted, as he didn’t really look much like his mother, save for a few shared facial features. After greeting the rest of his team, she offered to let them come home with her, which they all readily accepted.

It felt good being able to recuperate within the comforts of his own home. It was smaller than his childhood home, but after his parents had divorced and his father left, his mother had seen no point in continuing to live in such a large home, so they had moved to a smaller house closer to the heart of Atlas. Zelde and Neela had taken up the small spare room, whilst Cordovan sorted out a makeshift bed for Xanthos in his room. Out of all of them, Xanthos had suffered the worst from the fight with Candy and Wisteria, so was put on bed rest for a few days to give him chance to recover. They waited until he was up and moving before they told him what had happened at the Vytal festival.

They only learnt of what happened the day after the fight at Hargrave Manufacturing, after seeing the news reports, and having Wren confirm what details she knew. None of them really reacted very well to the news of what happened, though Xanthos at least took it better than Neela, who had let out a pained wail when she heard the news, frantically trying to reach her girlfriend on her scroll. Though as his mother sadly pointed out, with the CCT down, there was little chance of that happening anytime soon.

Their recovery had become a rather sombre affair after that, with much of their thoughts dedicated to their classmates who had yet to return or make contact from Beacon, as well as for Tilia. Around a week later, the team were finally able to complete their initial Search and Rescue mission for the Princeton’s, after their remaining supplies had been found at Hargrave Manufacturing.

It had felt good being to return the supplies to the Princeton’s, or what was left at them at least, but despite that, there was still a sense that things had been left unfinished. Especially in regards to Hargrave Manufacturing and what had happened there and with Candy and Wisteria escaping.

Cordovan had relayed these doubts to his mother, who listened with a sympathetic ear, before offering a potential solution. “You should speak with James as soon as you can,” she had suggested, catching her son by surprise by the casual usage of General Ironwood’s first name. “I suspect he would have wanted to reach out to you soon anyways, regarding what happened at Verdant Storage and Hargrave Manufacturing. See if he’s willing to look into Candy and Wisteria for you.” Wren had paused momentarily to look her son straight in the eyes. “I don’t like the idea of you going up against her again, Cor. You were lucky not to have come off any worse than you did in this first fight with her, I hate to imagine how another one would play out.”

With his mother’s suggestion noted, Cordovan decided to broach the topic with his teammates the following morning, asking them to meet him in the sitting room after breakfast. His mother would not be due back till later in the day, so the hours they had to themselves would be perfect to discuss this.

As he came back downstairs from freshening up after breakfast, Cordovan spotted Zelde looking at some of the photographs on display in the hallway. He could hear Xanthos and Neela already talking in the sitting room, so took a moment to look at the photographs with Zelde.

When she sensed his presence, she turned her head and gave him a weak smile, before looking back at the photographs. She seemed particularly focused on one of a much younger Cordovan. “You look very happy here,” she said softly. “I don’t think I ever smiled this much at this age.”

“Don’t be fooled by the smile,” Cordovan said with a slight grin. The younger version of himself in the photo had a large grin on his face. “Just minutes before that was taken I was crying my eyes out because I lost a tooth. My father had to bribe me with the promise of sweets just to get me to smile.” He could still remember that day fondly. At the promise of sweets he had soon settled down, but his mother had not been impressed when she learnt of the secret deal that had gone down between her husband and son.

Zelde was looking at him as he spoke, smiling softly as he recounted the story. When he finished she looked back at the photograph. “Your father sounds like he was a nice man.”

“Hmm, yeah,” Cordovan responded, voice trailing off. He didn't really have the best relationship with his father anymore but as a young boy he had greatly admired and looked up to him.

Zelde and Cordovan continued to look at the photos on display for a little while longer. Most of them were of him or his mother, those that had his father in had been put away long ago. Zelde picked up one photograph of a group of students around their age.

“Is this your mother's team?” She asked.

“Yep,” he responded, taking time to point out each member of the team in turn and give their name. “There's my mom, Lorelei, Olive, and Stanford. They went by WLOW when they were a team.”

The four youths were all smiling in the picture, though the red-haired Lorelei's could be better described as a forced smile. It was strange to think they were around the same age as ZRCN in this picture. His mother looked especially young here, wearing a casual cream coloured blouse tucked into a brown combat skirt. Her chestnut hair was worn loose save for a single braid to the side, which differed greatly from her now preferred style of having it in a neat ponytail.

“Hate to interrupt the lovely bonding session going on out here, but I thought we were supposed to be discussing what to do next?” Xanthos's voice sounded from behind them. As Zelde put the photo back down, Cordovan turned to see Xanthos leaning against the doorframe.

“We were just coming, Ravi.” Cordovan said, following Zelde in brushing past him into the sitting room.

Neela, Xanthos, and Zelde all settled themselves on a sofa, whilst Cordovan seated himself in an armchair adjacent to it.

“So what did you want to talk about?” Zelde asked drawing up his legs so he was sat cross-legged on the sofa.

“Well, it's about what we should do next,” Cordovan started, earning some confused looks from his teammates.

“What do you mean?” Neela questioned. “We completed our mission. I thought we were taking things easy whilst things were sorted out from Beacon.”

“That's true, but I can't be the only one who feels as though we haven't finished just yet, as though we still have more to do.” Cordovan responded, eyeing his teammates in turn. “Candy and Wisteria are still out there, and we still don't really understand what role the Hargraves play into this.”

A little murmur of agreement went up from his teammates. It was Xanthos who spoke next.

“So what do you suggest we do? Do an unsanctioned mission to take them down?” Xanthos paused a moment, before adding in a more enthusiastic voice, “Cause I'd totally be down for that.”

“Ravi, please,” Zelde warned, shooting him a glance. “We can't just do that. We'd need to tell someone first.”

“Exactly!” Cordovan cut in, making Zelde jump in surprise. “I spoke to my mother about this yesterday, and suggested we speak to General Ironwood about this, see if he'd be willing to help us look into things, and maybe even sanction another mission to resolve things with Candy or Wisteria.”

“Hmm, that sounds reasonable,” Zelde admitted after a few minutes of consideration.

Cordovan nodded in approval. “Great. So are we all okay with this?”

“I don't have a problem with it,” Zelde responded quickly.

“Neither do I.” Neela and Xanthos both said at the same time.

“So it's decided then.” Cordovan said with another approving nod. “I'll send a message General Ironwood's way and hopefully we won't have to wait long to hear back from him.”

#team zrcn #team zrcn fic #zelde sewick #cordovan radcliff #xanthos ravindra #neela oxford #wren honeycutt

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sujus-girl · 6 years

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Disclaimer: This is just for fun, so please don’t take it too seriously. This is not an official profile or anything like that!

A GUIDE TO PENTAGON

I actually had a lot of fun making my guide to JBJ, so I was like?? What other group do I love that doesn’t get the attention they deserve? …. PENTAGON

Are y’all ready to cringe? To sigh? To question what is going on with these children? Then, without further ado, I present to you: Pentagon: My Shitty Guide to 10 Toddlers

Group Name: Pentagon

First appeared on a show called Pentagon Maker, which was called a survival show, but SPOILER ALERT: Cube decided to do the right thing and debuted all 10 members together

If I’m going to be 100% honest, I still dk where to find the full episodes, but there are a ton of clips on youtube, and, honestly, I was satisfied with just watching those

ALL OF THEM HAVE REALLY GOOD VISUALS? LIKE, I SAY THIS WITH EVERY GROUP, BUT SERIOUSLY, PENTAGON HAS SOME A+++ VISUALS

Beware because they’re very. Very. very. Loud

The fandom name is universe and i just think that’s so cute OKAY?

Ofiicial Music Videos: Gorilla, Can You Feel It, Critical Beauty, Pretty Pretty, Run Away, Like This, Violet

Personal Favorite Non-Title Tracks: Thank You, Beautiful, You Are, Spectacular, and Lose yourself

Aight, we have ten members to go through this time, so BUCKLE UP, MY FRIENDS

Members:

Jo Jinho

The oldest member of pentagon

Vvv smol baby. Is only 5’6”

Is scared very easily lmfao

May be smol but has A HELLA SET OF LUNGS

High note king that leaves almost everyone shook

Used to be in SM the Ballad, but left and became a trainee again under cube entertainment

Had trained for EIGHT FRICKIN YEARS, DO NOT SLEEP ON MY BOI

I guess he gave vocal lessons to cube trainees like Yoo Seonho (someone pls KINDLY let me know if i’m wrong)

Drops a bunch of covers and spoils Universe with his voice, thx boo

Usually gets paired with hongseok for stuff?? Idk

Has a room by himself in the dorms, lucky boi

ALSO A MUSICAL THEATER ACTOR?? ALL SHOOK UP REALLY HAD US ALL SHOOK UP

Videos to Watch: (1) (2) (3)

Lee HwiTaek (Hui)

The leader of this mess

Got pretty popular after the song Never was released, then continue to leave people quaking after Energetic was released

Is an A+ Singer and Producer, we love a talented man

Is vvvv scared of everything and also has a lot of tears (we love a man in touch with his emotions)

A former JYP trainee

Got7’s JB said that one time, Got7’s Mark got into a fight with him, Hui, and B.A.P.’s Youngjae and Day6’s Brian had to translate the argument LOL

Also in a subunit called Triple H that consists of him, E’Dawn and Hyuna

Also has a room to himself

HONEY SOCKS

Has a fanboy named Yoo Seonho that loves him vvv much, and they even went to vietnam together

also appeared on this variety show called hyena’s on the keys and flaunted his composing SKILZ

Videos to Watch: (1) (2) (3)

Yang Hongseok

A former YG trainee

Was on the show that created iKon, and it was…. Oof

He was new at the time, so it was kinda awkward and tense, but it got better

Is obsessed with working out, and has the abs of a greek god as a result

Reads books in his free time, and enjoys studying foreign languages

He moved around when he was younger, so he can speak Mandarin and English (we love an intelligent man)

Apparently the mom?? Cooks and cleans for the babies in the dorm

Shares a room with E’Dawn

Also really likes Iron Man… and Jinho

The members say he’s the worst at dancing in the group LOL

It’s okay though, cause he’s vvv talented in other aspects

Videos to Watch: (1) (2) (3)

Kim HyoJung (E’Dawn)

“I have no fear” not even two seconds later *HIGH PITCH SCREAMING*

Can reach an octave i didn’t think human possible

A little weird, but that’s okay!

Is also in Triple H with Hui and Hyuna

Hongseok’s roommate

Is really good at dancing, wow

Kinda looks tired 24/7, but we’re pretty sure that’s just his face. Like you know how some people have resting bitch face? E’Dawn has resting tired face.

TATTOOS!

Sry, i just really like tattoos, lol

But yeah! E’Dawn has multiple tattoos! Since it’s like 1 in the morning and I’m kinda tired, I’m not gonna try and think of all of them, but they should all show up if you just google e’dawn tattoos lol sorry

Videos to Watch: (1) (2) (3)

Go Shinwon

Has trouble keeping his clothes on apparently

Like for real, just casually pulled his pants down and took his shirt off multiple times in pentagon maker

Is scared of animals because one time because… um…. let’s just say that there was an unfortunate incident with his pet hamster when he was in like middle school... yeah

Was eliminated during Pentagon maker, but four remaining members broke into cube late at night and put up posters saying they wanted pentagon to debut as ten

Gets mad real easily

Has broad shoulders… Like real broad. Edawn and yanan fell asleep on his shoulders and they were comfortable

Shares a room with Kino

Also really likes Mcdonalds?? Like, this boy put on a burger hat and ate a mcdonalds burger.

Really hates bugs LOL

Videos to Watch: (1) (2) (3)

Yeo Changgu (Yeo One)

Has a visual that a lot of foreigners seem to really like? That’s just something I noticed, I know it’s not the general consensus

Is also an actor, he appeared in a webdrama called Spark and was the main actor for a historical drama not too long ago

Shares a room with yanan

Is yanan’s biggest fan

Has a laugh that can revive wilting flowers tbh

Talks a lot too

Sucks at table tennis

He and hui put ducktape on their legs and ripped it off

GIVE HIM MORE LINES PLS

Videos to Watch: (1) (2) (3)

Yan An

“MADE IN CHINA!”

“Annyeong chingudel”

He’s from Shanghai

Hella model vibes, amirite or amirite

He injured himself when preparing for the Ceremony album, and he had to sit out and everyone was vvv sad and vvv worried

Got better and is back, and more random than ever

Sometimes says things that are real funny, even if he doesn’t intend for it to be

“What are you talking about, this is plastic”

“You… You’re in big trouble!”

“Korean name is Yanan. Chinese name is Yanan. English Name? Yanan.”

Also once called Jinho a foreigner, even tho Jinho is Korean and they were in Korea?

May be tol and handsome, but he’s really just a big toddler

Scared of roller coasters

Roommates with yeo one who loves him v much (yeo one has the right idea, y’all)

Videos to Watch: (1) (2) (3)

Adachi Yuto

“YUTODA”

A japanese prince

AN ATHLETE! Played baseball and used to do soccer

A former JYP trainee

Good friends with Yuto (U) from ONF because they both used to be JYP trainees and also NCT’s Yuta

Shares a room with Wooseok and will laugh at anything he says

Milk couple

Can’t eat spicy food for shit

Hella tall

Also appeared predebut at ISAC 2015 for futsall

A bby that is afraid of many things. Especially the dark. On pentagon maker, the crew turned off the lights and he real cutely went “pd-nim~” and i almost cried it was so cute

“What’s your favorite ice cream flavor?” “Ice cream.”

Says he can’t do aegyo, but he hella cute already, so it’s okay

Also once danced shirtless and i almost sued, you a child Boi (i say as I am younger than him)

Videos to Watch: (1) (2) (3)

Kang Hyunggu (Kino)

A whole cutie

I legit that he was my age or younger cause he was just so adorable

Only 4 days younger than yuto and 4 days older than wooseok, but he a whole baby

They did a vlive for wooseok, yuto, and kino’s birthdays and when they were getting into teams, hongseok was chosen to be in kino’s team but he said it so emotionlessly that kino got all pouty LOL

A dancing king

“I was going to go easy on you, but you called me Hyunggu”

Has a lot of friends in k-pop, he vvv popular

Shares a room with shinwon

A laugh that motivates me to be a better person

Saved the entire world by eating watermelon in front of cameras BLESS

“Get it Kino Beauty”

Proceeded to destroy yanan’s face with makeup RIP

Makes funny faces that i sometimes screenshot and send to my friends at 2 in the morning

ALSOALSOALSO, he had this little dance solo in Critical Beauty and I was LIVING for it

Videos to Watch: (1) (2) (3)

Jung Wooseok

The baby of the group

HELLA TOL??? LIKE WTF, IF YOU LOOK AT PHOTOS OF JINHO AND WOOSEOK STANDING NEXT TO EACH OTHER HE LOOKS LIKE A FREAKING GIRAFFE

He was sleeping backstage once and yuto put a chocopie in front of his mouth and he sleepily tried to eat it and i was :((((( he was so cute

Really likes yuto, they’re usually paired together for stuff. Like dorms

Really likes anime, legend has it that if you play samurai heart at exactly 1:23 AM, wooseok will appear behind you and sing along

Imitates an opera singer and achieves an octave that i would imagine isn’t humanly possible for someone with a voice as deep as his

Has a fanboy names Lai Guanlin from wanna one, and he will not let anyone forget about his precious Wooseok

Once did an eating broadcast with super spicy food and accidentally got some in his eye and the rest of pentagon thought it was the funniest thing ever RIP

Videos to Watch: (1) (2) (3)

That was a journey! We’re almost done, though!

Videos Of Pentagon to Watch! Weekly Idol with Victon and Momoland! (X) This crack (?) series that I live for (X) The VLive that was all sorts of mess (X) Triple H Weekly Idol (only Hui and E’Dawn) (X) This clip from Pentagon Maker that was all sorts of mess, even with only 4 members (X) Hui, Wooseok, and E’Dawn trying to cook (X) This other VLive that was all sorts of mess (X) Pentagon Heyo TV (Mafia Game Cut) (X)

AND THERE YOU HAVE IT! A VERY SHORT, SHITTY GUIDE TO PENTAGON! I hope this helps anyone wanting to get into Pentagon, or even just makes an Universe smile! Now go and bask in the glory that is Pentagon’s craziness! Bye!

#pentagon #jo jinho #lee hwitaek #hui #kim hyojung #e'dawn #yang hongseok #yeo changgu #yeo one #yanan #adachi yuto #kino #kang hyunggu #jung wooseok #triple h #cube #mine

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peckhampeculiar · 6 years

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Shane’s story

This is Brixton filmmaker Shane Duncan has just released a short documentary about Peckham, which looks at how the area is changing. He discusses what inspired him to make the film and his plans for the future

Words Emma Finamore

Photo Lima Charlie

Shane Duncan is reflecting on a poignant, timely documentary he has just made about Peckham, and how it is changing. “I always knew documentary films or narrative films – anything of value – is what I wanted to do,” he says.

The 25-year-old filmmaker released This is Peckham earlier this summer. It’s the second in a series of three short documentaries exploring the impact of change, regeneration and gentrification on south London communities. The first, released in early 2018, focused on Brixton; and the third, currently in planning, will look at Croydon.

Growing up in Loughborough Junction and with an auntie in Peckham, Shane found himself at a crossroads between Brixton, Camberwell and Peckham, and spent a lot of time here as a child. After making music videos for a while, he decided to shift the focus of his work and make a film about Brixton.

“I knew I wanted to make a film about the area,” he says. “I always knew I wanted to make documentary films but it needed to be something important to the area. It was a matter of finding a subject.

“Looking at articles about Brixton, the most prominent thing that came across was the subject of change, and I started to realise a lot of things I was blind to. Why places in Brixton are disappearing.

“I remember looking through ‘before and after’ photos and seeing that places I recognised from growing up, where my mum used to take me when I was small – butchers, restaurants, local shops – had been replaced by other things.”

He spoke to locals of all ages and backgrounds – friends, creatives, even Alex Wheatle MBE, an award-winning British novelist of Jamaican heritage often writing about Brixton life, who was imprisoned after the 1981 Brixton riots.

The resulting film was screened on both national and local websites, like GRM Daily and Brixton Buzz. It explored the complex issue of change in the area, and spurred Shane on to his next project: This is Peckham.

The film begins with sweeping aerial shots of the library and Peckham Square, of trains running through Peckham Rye Station and of Peckham rooftops.

Blogger and radio DJ Yinka Bokinni, who appears in the film, says of Peckham: “It’s good times and bad times, my worst and my best memories,” before discussing gang-related violence in the area (both the reality and perception from outside Peckham).

She also talks about how funding could be channelled into established local businesses (for example, the hairdressers on Rye Lane) and youth services. “We need to start thinking a lot more,” she explains, on where resources could be directed.

“When I see bits of history being demolished and just eradicated to make way for ugly new buildings that contain Sainsbury’s and Gymbox and you know, like all these massive huge companies that turn over millions of pounds, that’s when it becomes upsetting.”

Another interviewee is Clement Ogbonnaya, owner of the Prince of Peckham pub on Clayton Road. Growing up in the area, he remembers how many people used to be ashamed or embarrassed to say they were from here.

“Now, It’s literally just spun on a sixpence,” he says. “Now, when people say ‘I’m from Peckham’, they say it with such gusto, such impact.”

Clement describes himself as being pro-regeneration, but adds: “I just think gentrification isn’t done responsibly – as responsibly as it should be done.”

Speaking of the local community, he says: “I genuinely think the community are all together. I will say to anyone coming from out of town into Peckham – you will never find a more integrated, multicultural community.”

He adds: “People like myself and Nicholas [Okwulu] from PemPeople, it’s sort of our social responsibility to pass the information we gather and what we know on to other business owners. Change is happening. How do we use that inevitable force to our advantage?”

Elsewhere in the film, Nick Kidd, a young bartender who has recently moved here from Yorkshire talks about the warmth of Peckham people. “I feel at home for somewhere that isn’t my home,” he says.

Laila St Vie, a local student who is also interviewed in the film says tentatively: “It’s changing in a good way, but I feel like the more it changes, the more it might exclude communities that were there before.”

Kenny Imafidon – a prominent social entrepreneur and activist from Peckham – talks about how longstanding businesses can be pushed out by gentrification. “It must be difficult for a lot of businesses who have had a long history in terms of having their shops for example in Peckham.

“With the gentrification a lot of them I know will be forced to move somewhere else, because obviously there’s new businesses that are happy to be here and pay more to actually be in Peckham. I know that causes a friction and a tension in the community, where a lot of people who have been here a long time now kind of have to step aside.”

But he adds: “In the next five years I feel Peckham will be different, but I don’t think much will really change. There will be nicer houses, the high street might look a bit different, but at the same time I don’t think the gentrification that took place in places like Brixton is going to happen in Peckham. I don’t think it’s going to get that far.”

Kenny also talks about how vital it is that local people are involved in the process of regeneration: “For me, it’s important that they have a say.”

Nicholas Okwulu – founder of social enterprise PemPeople and TenPoint5ive gallery, a space for community art, media, and fashion – also features in the film, as does Kwabena Amponsa, community manager at Peckham Levels, who discusses the social responsibilities of taking over a large space in the area.

Ibrahim Kamara – co-founder and editor-in-chief at Guap Magazine – is there too, talking about how the car park that now houses Peckham Levels could have just been knocked down and turned into flats, and how he’s glad instead that it is supporting local people and young creative businesses.

Shane says that making the documentary was a personal experience – “I feel really invested in this one” – and that, in his mind, his three films about change fit into clear categories.

“The Brixton film is saying, ‘This is what went wrong’,” he explains. “Peckham is saying, ‘This is what can go right,’ and the Croydon film will be asking, ‘What do you want to happen?’”

Shane explains that he didn’t really have any views on gentrification and change before making the Brixton and Peckham films, but that now he tends to agree with Clement of Prince of Peckham – that it is inevitable and locals should make it work for them (and that those in positions of authority should help this).

He also thinks the atmosphere and community galvanisation in Peckham means that change has been (and will continue to be) more positive than in places like Brixton and Hackney.

“When I was putting the film together I realised that it’s a completely different area to Brixton, completely different,” he says. “The way the community are more intertwined with each other; it’s so close knit.

“What happened in Brixton could technically never happen here. Once you get to the root of it and talk to people you realise how different it is. People have seen what can go wrong elsewhere, but if you take care and nurture it, change can go the right way.

“Croydon is next – it’s such a strange place, people say you need a passport just to get there. And I have no idea where it [his film] is going to go. I have to follow the story.”

Shane is interested in how the regeneration process has sort of repeatedly stopped and started in Croydon, and that this – as well as its near and far proximity to London –makes it particularly fascinating.

He wants to speak to people like local blogger and influencer Sarah Akwisombe, Charles Holgate – an MC and Rinse FM rep – as well as political figures such as local MPs.

As well as documentaries such as Citizen Jane: Battle for the City, which looked at New York City campaigner and activist Jane Jacobs, Shane cites wildlife documentaries as his biggest creative influences when making films.

“That’s all I’ve ever known,” he says, referencing David Attenborough documentaries in particular. “It’s about finding a story in a space, and filming what’s going on, filming people in their ‘natural habitats’.”

After completing his Croydon film later this year – and with it, the trio of south London films – he plans to head to locations in the north of England to make more documentaries, focusing on stories that are important and relevant to those specific places.

Looking further ahead, Shane also plans to head back to Brixton, Peckham and Croydon to make longer, more detailed pieces with more complex narratives.

“I want to go more in-depth, maybe looking at a family or something,” he explains, “looking at how changes in each area have affected each member of the family. I want to do all of this, and I know if I don’t do it then someone else will. But there’s only so much one camera can do.”

That’s one camera that will be pretty busy over the coming months and years, helping Shane tell the important stories of places and their people.

.....................................................

Watch Shane’s film at tinyurl.com/thisispeckham

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cdevroe · 3 years

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My current photo library management solution

In this post I’m going to detail out how I manage my photo library. I have changed my workflow countless times over the years and I have the deep battle scars to prove it. I’ve switched services, storage providers, apps, folder structures, metadata schemes, you-name-it.

In 2018 I decided to set out on a sort of mission; I wanted to create a photo library that would be relatively future proof. Should I decide to use a different app or storage platform, I’d want to be able to do so easily rather than painfully.

Note: This solution is likely not for everyone. The number of hours I’ve spent to come to this solution cannot be overstated. But, I’m very happy with how it is working. Maybe if you’re reading this it can work for you too. Or, perhaps you can pull just one idea from it that will help you.

Here is what I had to accomplish:

Create a folder structure that I can control and maintain regardless of the photo application I choose to use to view my library or edit my photos

Store as much metadata about the photos within the files themselves – rather than an external database – so that the metadata would travel with the image across all platforms

Be highly searchable, glanceable, sharable

Store my personal photos, my wife’s personal photos, my photography “work” and projects, and my digital film scans.

Bonus: Be accessible from any of my devices

Tools

Bulldozer – A simple PHP script that copies all of my images into their proper folders based on date created

SetEXIFData – an app to set the date taken, GPS coordinates, keywords, and other EXIF information for my digital film scans

Adobe Photoshop – For editing photos

Adobe Bridge (Camera Raw) – For Super Resolution (on 35mm film scans)

OneDrive – For cloud storage of my library

Photos for Mac – To search, view my library locally, as well as create smart albums.

Epson V600 – To scan my film negatives, slides from family members, or old photo prints.

Silverfast – The scanning software that I use. It is a little clunky but by far the best software I’ve used to scan.

A few external hard drives

Here is what my current storage situation looks like.

My photo library weighs in at over 450GB and growing rapidly. I have no less than 4 complete copies of that library. I have the “working library”, “backup library”, “off-site backup library”, and “cloud backup library”.

Why 4 copies? Restoring from a cloud-based backup when you live in a rural area is… less than fun. I remember when Everpix was shutting down and they sent a notice to all users to download their entire libraries in a very short period of time. I’ll never make the mistake again of relying on a cloud-based storage solution for my photos.

Of course, hard drives go bad. So I have a local backup in my home office at all times should anything go wrong with the working library. The off-site backup goes with me in my bag. Sometimes I’ll leave it at work in case my house burns down. I know, this isn’t easy to think about but alas, I do. Lastly, the cloud-based backup is a failsafe. Cloud-based storage is incredibly inexpensive. In fact, my storage comes with my Microsoft 365 subscription. It also affords me the ability to search my library from any of my devices from anywhere in the world. Something I don’t do very often anymore but it is nice to have when I need it.

Workflow

My workflow for storing photos varies only slightly based on the source of my images. I have a few iPhones, my wife’s iPhone, some DSLRs, a drone, a wildlife camera, and multiple film cameras. I could be importing photos from any one of these devices (or all of them) at the same time. So I have a slightly different way of handling each of them.

Let’s start out with a simple example; imagine that all of the images I’m importing came from a digital camera like the iPhone, DSLR, or drone.

First, I throw all of the images from the devices into a single folder at ~/Pictures/import/digital

Next, I’ll take a few moments to go through those photos and delete anything I’d rather not import into my library. I’m not very strict at this stage. I am of the opinion that photos become more important with age – and again since storage is so inexpensive – so I keep the vast majority of the photos we create.

One quick note here: Since Eliza and I have the same iPhone models, I will quickly rename the photos that we took to be prepended with takenby_colin_FILENAME and takenby_eliza_FILENAME. This makes it dead easy to know who took the photo later even though the device models will be the same.

Once I’m finished culling and renaming the photos in the folder I move them into a waiting room of sorts at ~/Pictures/import/ready_to_be_copied. Let’s pretend I have 500 files in that directory now.

Next, I have a simple PHP script that I’ve called Dozer that will look at the file’s creation date and automatically sort them into their appropriate folders. So, an image taken on March 17, 2021 will be copied into a folder 2021/03/17 that exists on my main working library drive.

Dozer gives a little report in the terminal about how many files were moved, how many folders were created, and even warns me if any of the files were duplicates (it happens sometimes). This way I can be sure that all of the photos that I wanted to be copied were copied.

Once I’m satisfied that the process was done successfully, I’ll run Dozer a second time to throw the same files onto OneDrive in the same folder structure. I’d like to improve this part of my workflow wherein some sort of comparison is run against my entire OneDrive library.

Next, I open the Photos for Mac app and import the new files. When I do so, I make certain to check the “Keep Folder Organization” checkbox on the Import screen. By doing this Photos for Mac will keep the files where they are and will not move them into the main library file. Photos for Mac will, however, make a few different sized thumbnails to keep the app snappy. So your Photos for Mac library file will increase in size.

Using Photos for Mac gives me a quick glance at my entire library quickly, it also allows me to do some other organization like Albums, etc. on top of my date structure. I have Smart Albums for the cameras I own, for different areas of interest (such as Architecture), for people, etc. Though I still feel that Photos for Mac is not a good longterm storage solution I do believe it is an excellent viewing app. In addition, it is getting better and better at facial and object detection which is a nice bonus for searching my library. I can search for “cat” or “sunset” or for a specific person. Also, Photos for Mac respects the EXIF data that is on the file allowing me to sort photos based on the device that created them, any keywords I may have added, etc.

Film scans

I scan my film negatives using an Epson V600 and the Silverfast app. I generally scan at fairly high resolution and rather flatly contrasted – preferring to do my crops, edits, digital dodging and burning in Photoshop. Once I have a satisfactory file I’ll use SetEXIFdata, a rather crude Mac app, to reset the EXIF data of the file to the film camera’s details, GPS coordinates, etc. This is the controversial bit, many people would take offense to this. But I prefer to have this metadata go with the file, rather than using Photos for Mac to tag the photo or something. Because then all of the data is stored in the Photos for Mac database. And believe me, I’ve seen it, and it isn’t pretty.

My film photos come in two general categories; personal and projects. My personal film photos are usually from a vacation or day trip or something. And so I store these in very much the same way as I do photos that came from my iPhone. My projects files, though, are stored in a Photo Projects folder by some sort of name. For instance, I’ve got a multi-year photo project going where I take portraits of my friends in or near their backyard garden. Those go into a Garden Friends folder. I back up these files the same way I do all the others.

I am currently very satisfied with this workflow. There are a few sticking points that I’d like to improve, and I wish I had a UI for searching all of my files on my phone (that wasn’t OneDrive) but at least I have a system that works for me, is future proof to a degree, that I can control, and that is fast.

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