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burnedbyshoto · 4 years

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Power

pairing: shigaraki tomura x fem!reader

warnings: smut, cursing, pegging, subby brat shigaraki

word count: 2,120

a/n: happy happy 20th bday to the nastiest queen I know!!! this is for skylar ( @katsukisprincess ) you big fat white nasty smellin fat bitch why you took me off the mothafuckin schedule wit cho triflin dirty white racist ass big fat bitch oompa loompa body ass bitch I’m comin up there and I’m gon beat the fuck outta you bitch!!!! this smut kinda really shoved me out of my comfort zone in terms of comfort so BAHAHA, LETS PRAY YOU LIKE THIS!!!

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Few in the world could say they bring powerful men to their knees.

When you bring powerful men to their knees for you, you gain their power, their respect, their allies.

Powerful men on their knees were no longer dominant but instead weak, powerless, feeble to that who stood before them. In some cases, this exchange of power was intense, blood-curling even as you stand before them. Powerful men always had this glint to their eyes, the big bad alpha in them just begging to be tamed despite their typical nature. But powerful men who were tameable were boring. The submissive glint, the passive actions that overpowered their old alpha ways, was not climatic.

It upset you to see powerful men grovel for you, pleading that you stay.

You’ve brought down twenty-seven powerful men in your life, and each time you left the now submissive alpha with nothing but their lives— if at that.

But there was something different about Shigaraki Tomura that made your spine crawl with excitement.

His eyes were cold and lustingly powerful the first time you interacted with him. His red eyes demanded respect, submission, yet they barely looked at you as he recruited you.

The cold leather of the seat beneath cooled your growing heat as he dropped what would be the file of intel he had gathered about you on the smooth wood table that separated the two of you for many meters. The large leather throne he sat on made your lips quirk into a smile as the disheveled and rugged state of the world’s greatest villain. The man himself was short and fragile-looking— nothing in comparison to the men you’ve tamed with biceps larger than your head. Such a large throne for someone so small.

Your tongue dragged across your lower lip as his red eyes finally met yours, his aura was as cold as ever, as if he was playing you as the pawn here. A King that would not fall— at least not yet.

“So, tell me why I should take you in?”

His words take you by surprise as your eyebrows quirk.

“Excuse me?”

Despite the shaggy nature of his hair and the dismembered hand that covered the majority of his face, you did not miss the eye roll and the glare that was returned immediately.

“Why do I need you?”

Cocky son of a bitch.

Straightening out, you let your brow relax as you tilted your head. An aura of confidence seeped out of you as you stared down the powerful man before you. He had one of the cruelest gazes you’ve ever experienced, but it did not worry you, not even the slightest of bits as you leaned forward.

“Typically, when I am sought out, I get demands of what I’m needed for—” you fold your hands on the table as a sickly sweet smile overcomes your face— “and frankly, Shigaraki Tomura, you don’t strike me as a threat.”

His eyes are calculating as he leans backward in his throne, just the opposite of what an alpha man would do.

“Y/l/n y/n,” he but sneers your name, “age twenty, in command of over four thousand men ranging from underground criminals to some of the heaviest hitters in the game. Records show you come from a good household, yet here you are, a queen of the underworld. You’ve managed to defeat twenty-seven powerful opponents of mine in this world, yet you’re quirkless.”

“I find that being quirkless is an advantage,” you smirk as fire ignites within you. “There’s something intoxicating about stealing from men and women with terrifying quirks. But I’m sure you already knew that about me, given your intel. So instead of beating around the bush, tell me why I’m here, Tomura? Scared I’ll come in and steal your army too?”

Despite his mostly hidden face, you could feel the cold sharklike grin that pulled across his face as his eyes flashed dangerously.

“The day I become scared of some quirkless little shit is the same day you walk out with my army,” he said, his tone reminding of nails against a chalkboard. “I’d love to see you try walking out with my followers, they’re not as easily persuaded as to the others. But I know that despite your numbers and your strength, you’re aimless, ambitionless. So I’ll ask one last time: why do I need you?”

Pleasurable waves rolled down your body as an eager emotion shoots through your veins.

This was an alpha man like no other, a powerful man who sat undeservingly in that leather throne. As you opened your mouth to respond, your anticipation skyrocketed in the thought of having this powerful man on his knees for you.

Tamed.

Broken.

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“Did I fucking tell you that you could speak?”

The hand that rested on Shigaraki’s face was a symbol of who he was.

The decayed and butchered hand was a sinister reminder to him of his past, and an apprehensive warning to everyone else just what he was capable of doing. Only a handful of people could claim that they’ve seen him without Father residing on his face like a leech, a weight he was unable to run from, a comfort he needed.

Despite only joining his ranks three months ago, you could proudly say you not only have seen him without Father but have also removed him.

But this was not the situation at hand.

No, not even close.

For instead of a withered grey hand on his face, it was instead your foot.

Your back settled against the headboard as you smirked at the red eyes that attempted to decay you on sight. The rough and scar filled skin of his face was a weird sensation under your feet as you pushed him back as a low growl escaped his mouth.

“Like hell, I’ll take fucking commands from you,” he snarls against your foot, his head snapping to the side so that your leg falls heavy back onto the mattress.

A grin grows on your face as you compare your clothed state to the naked mess that was Shigaraki Tomura.

He was bare naked, his hands adorned with artist gloves rendering him powerless, a bright pink collar sat snug on his throat as he growled lowly, and of course, the chains that left him on his hands and knees like a common bitch.

Ignoring his spitfire of insults to you and your ways of fucking him, you sighed, “Aren’t you just fucking adorable like this?”

“Shut the fuck up.”

“No, really, on your hands and knees for little ol’ me!”

Adjusting the way you sat, you found yourself on your knees, nose to nose with the growling alpha in front of you. Anger, humiliation, weakness, and nearly palatable lust waved off him.

“Just wait until I—”

“Shh shh shh,” you whisper as your hand reaches out and firmly grasps his hard and throbbing cock within your fingers.

A sharp whimper confirms your effect on him, and you remain nearly innocuous as your grip tightens against his length. Your fisting is cruelly hard; you’re pulling at his dick more than gliding across it, and your nails tease the bulging vein on the side of his cock. He whimpers as your eyes shift down to see the angry purple head throbbing against your rough touches.

“Sorry, does this hurt?” You ask with a mischievous glint to your eyes as your lips brush against his.

Shigaraki doesn’t respond, choosing to instead seal his lips against yours. His lips are fierce against yours, demanding you to be obedient despite the apparent power difference the two of you were in. Your eyes remain open as you study his face as his tongue pressed against your sealed mouth.

“Unless you want your tongue chopped off, don’t try sticking it in my mouth,” you giggle as Shigaraki’s cheek throbs red with your handprint, and a gasping groan drawls deliciously from his throat as you pinched the head of his cock. “Understand?”

“Fucking asshole,” he spat as his eyes lock on yours. Despite the throbbing pain in his face and cock, the disrespect, the brattiness, the desire, the pure lust radiated off of him, and your eyes sparkling dangerously. “Just fucking wait until I get this shitty ass—”

“Fuck your asshole?” You ponder as you suddenly roll off the bed, and Shigaraki desperately tries to follow you with his head, but the collar prohibits him as he cries out in frustration.

“You smart-ass, you know exactly what I mean—!”

“You want me to fuck your fugly little asshole,” you coo as you open your box of toys.

Your shorts and panties are quickly abandoned as you pull on the pink harness with a thick black dildo on it. Making sure to tighten everything as loudly as you could; you smile as you return to the bed.

His red eyes are wild, his chest heaving with every breath of air as he glares you down again.

“Suck this quirkless girl cock,” you whisper as you drag the head of the dildo across his lips that refused to open.

The dildo was both bigger and thicker than the powerful man before you, something he loathed utterly, and the reason why you bought this size specifically.

“I’m sure you’re used to having people do what you want when you want,” you sigh as he still refuses to open up for the dildo, “you might be the leader out there. But here, you’re my bitch.”

Knowing enough to realize that he would defiantly remain mute to keep from sucking the dildo, your fingers pinched the pressure point in his neck, and his mouth flew open for a split second. That’s all you needed as your hips snapped forward at a higher speed than his closing jaw.

Shigaraki bagged against the length of the dildo as you rammed it further down his throat. Your eyes fluttered at the way his face flushed red as you sunk further into him.

“Shit, such a pretty fucking cock slut,” you coo as your hand grasp his jaw, moving his face against your thrusting hips. You were uncaring of the drool that flowed disgustingly from his mouth, the choking that occurred at every throat, the struggling arms against the restraints. “I thought you were the leader here, Tomura-chan! Why can’t you take my cock better than this?” you ask as you push him fully against the length so that his nose buries into the harness.

Loud choking and spluttering from him doesn’t concern you as you stare at him, “Hold it for ten seconds: ten, nine, eight… seven… six… five… four… threeeeee… two… what comes after two?! Oh yeah, one!”

Your hands yanked him away from your dildo by his hair. His head snapped up, and his red eyes were a near maroon as he glared at you with the intensity of killing you. Slobber and saliva coat his face as he pants to catch his breath.

“One day, you’ll suck my dick like a lollipop,” you promise as you place a kiss between his eyes. A weak snarl emits from his throat, and a slow throb pulses from your pussy as you stare at the undying alpha look to his eye. So soft and frail, yet he’s outlasted the worst of alphas. “But, I do believe I have an asshole to fuck!”

“I’m going — fuck — going to kill you,” Shigaraki spits, but you’re already behind him, your hands cupping his ass cheeks as the wet and saliva lubed dildo press between his cheeks, teasing his puckered hole. “Have all the little fun you want because I’m not going to let you fucking live after—”

“Shut the fuck up,” you snap as your leg swings around, your foot landing heavy between his shoulder blades, causing the alpha man to fall chest first into the mattress, his back arching beautifully, the tip of the dildo now pressing into his asshole. His back muscles contracted quickly under your foot but you pressed your weight further into him as your tone brightened again. “Threats from little boys with tiny cocks trying to fill in too large shoes don’t bother me.”

“Little boy? Tiny cock?! Large shoes?! Are you that fucking stupid?! I’m — SHIT!”

Your hips slammed into his ass, the dildo bottoming out in him without so much as prepping or using actual lube. Leaning against him due to the stretched angle you were in, you relished in his painful heaves for air as his body trembled under you, and his hands gripped the sheets ever so tightly. Your hand held his hips as you shifted against him.

“Just fucking watch what I do t-to you for fucking my a-asshole,” Shigaraki growled as you hummed in mock interest.

“Sorry?” You ask as your hips move back and thrust back in at a moderate pace. The slight movement makes all of his words die on his tongue as pleasurable moans fill the air as you rut your hips against his pink-tinged ass. “What? No more death threats? No more promises to destroy me? Who would’ve guessed fucking your asshole was the way to get you to submit.”

“F-fuck you,” Shigaraki just about snarled, “I’m going to fucking kill you, and you’re going to watch as I kill you slowly and painfully. I’m going to disintegrate your fucking tongue first, and then your—”

A pained yelp slams from his mouth as Shigaraki’s ass forms an angry, nearly welting, red handprint. It’s identical to the one on his face, but with much more power behind it. But as you suspect, a strangled moan escapes his mouth, and you hiss an amused chuckle as your arousal is quickly building. Your hand comes down again; only this time, it leaves behind a welting red mark as your foot slips from his back to his head.

Your foot shoved his face into the mattress, and you slam your hips into his again and again. Your pace is rough, hard, merciless. Shouts and growls only aid you in your conquest. Your dildo slams against his prostate again and again. Your eyes narrow as you move forward, leaving little room to snap your hips as you’re buried almost entirely within him, but it’s for balance.

His dick twitches uncontrollably the moment you hold it in your hands. You move your hand against his painfully hard length, and a muffled guttural moan lets you knew that he’s enjoying this. So as in sync with your thrusting hips and gliding hand as he can be, Shigaraki begins to move his hips with you, meeting your dildo and fist with each thrust.

“Does your cock need to cum?” You ask as the flat of your thumb rolls against his swollen head.

A muffled groan is heard from the mattress, and you feel his words vibrate from your foot.

Smirking, your speed and power increase by a tenfold, your movements animalistic as you drive in over and over. The submissive groans stirring you on more and more until he stills and hot sticky substances cover the hand you were using to jerk him off. Laughing loudly, your hips don’t stop until the hot cum stops unloading from his discolored cock.

A low moan seems endless from him as you kick him to his side, a sheen layer of sweat covers your body as Shigaraki lays on the bed. You discard the harness and moan at the warm essence that now soaks your inner thighs and your clit throbs at the thought of mounting his softening cock.

“I’m still… going to— kill you!”

“Oh sweetie,” you sigh dreamily as you shift him over so that he lays twisted on his back, your aching core grinding into his swollen head. “You don’t have a single thread of power over me!”

#shigaraki x reader #shigaraki tenko #shigaraki tomura x reader #shigaraki tomura #shigaraki smut #bnha writing blog #bnha #bnha x reader #bnha shigaraki #mha #mha x reader #mha imagines #mha shigaraki #happy birthday sky I love you so much #katsukisprincess

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guigz1-coldwar · 3 years

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'Mysterious person' : New chapter for "Redemption in a Spirit in a Cold War" is out !

"Mysterious person"

Chapter Summary : Yirina is coming back with the team to the safehouse with Sonya...ready to be interrogated....

To read it on AO3, click here !

Words : +4000

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Sonya Kuzmin was an relative to Stitch himself and targeting them was maybe going to bring us some big troubles & attention.....that would have prefer to keep away from us but the occasion to put our hands on them was something we couldn't let get away. Thanks to Zasha's last intels they managed to intercept before we met again in three years, we were able to formate an plan to kidnap Sonya right into the center of West-Berlin in the Tiergarten neighborhood since they were always spotted into that sector and it was all perfect....our plan was too perfect to succeed correctly....

And then, out of nowhere and with us who couldn't understand what just happened, another group decided to step forwards from us and do their own moves to kidnap Sonya for themselves. It could have been some local thugs, an Perseus task force because maybe Sonya did fucked up somewhere, maybe it was Stone's mens that wanted to force them to track us down, maybe it could have been the KGB itself or worse, it could have been someone who was working with the West like the BND or big worse, the CIA itself....if so, we're kinda fucked.

However, it was bad for them as we managed to crash their van....well, Garrett & Garrett managed to do that and thanks to that, we were able to put our hands on Sonya, not forgetting that Zasha killed one of the others kidnapers to save me and then, we quickly got away from the scene, hearing the first police cars sirens arriving next to the place. 10 minutes later, we all get back to the safehouse in one car since Garrett or Greta trashed the car they used. Once we were there, I got out first.

"Okay, Zasha, you help me with Greta & Garrett. Park, you take Sonya to the basement." I ordered as I stepped out of the car with Zasha at the same time, I was more like acting like an superior as only me, Zasha & Park were fully operational while the two other....were more dazed by the crash, can still walk normally but it's better to get them well.

"Sounds good." Park exclaimed as she got out of the car, leaving Zasha with free will to act to help Garrett go out of the car, before she got next to the car trunk, hidden from the street sight as Zasha parked the car backwards. "Let's get you somewhere quiet." She added as she was taking Sonya with her, to enter the house from behind as for me, I walked to open the door from Greta's side.

"You're okay, Greta ?" I asked, rhetorically to her as I help her to get out of the car, she was an bit dazed more than Garrett but still awake.

"Mmhm...." She groaned like an yes to me and I know that she was lying an little, seeing her numerous cuts on her face. I helped her by putting her right arm behind me to hold her up and we started to walk to get to the front door, with Zasha helping Garrett in front of me.

"Everything good, Garrett ?" I asked to him and I could see him nodding to me from behind as the two, him & Zasha, arrived in the front porch of the house "We put them in the living room, Zed." I said as we start to enter the house with me closing the door behind before we entered the living room, Zasha already starting to get Garrett on an couch as I moved to get Greta on the other one. "Okay, you two stay here." I pointed at the two their respectives couchs before I looked at Zasha. "Come with me, gonna take everything to heal them."

"Good, lead the way." Zasha told me as I was leaving the living room with them to get to the bathroom upstairs, followed by them. It was there that everything medical has been put for us in case of an mission that goes wrong. We arrived in the bathroom with Zasha staying near the door frame as I was getting everything out. "Like in the good old days, Yirina." They said, crossing their arms.

"Yeah." I grinned as I was getting some dressings out of the drawer. "Well, did we have to patch up someone because they decide to ram their car into a van ?" I asked them, focused and I could see them shook their head.

"No, you were the one who had to patch me in October 1980." They fully replied, getting my attention on them for an second as it was something I didn't know.

"Tell me what happened that day." I demanded with them knowning that all my memories didn't come back and it could help me in case.

"Let's just say I have an knife fight with an Perseus member who left me the few littles scar I have still now." They showed me the scar they had on their right cheek at their jaw level. "I didn't remember what happened next, however."

"Shit...well, can say that you're still alive to tell me that." I scoffed making them laugh and me too as I was getting the wound disinfectant from the drawer before I decided to show them something that they didn't see : my scars at my heart. I removed the concerned part of the shirt, showing them the cross I have now. "You know the Ku Klux Klan ?" They nodded to me slowly, seeing my scars. "Fucker named Remi Duvall...did this to me before receiving an bullet right into his head."

"Damnit." They whispered, stunned to see that in fact before I put my shirt back in place myself, finishing to have everything out.

"What an life !" I breathed, putting my hands on the dresser and looking myself on the mirror above the sink. "Anyway, let's get this downstairs before two people passed out." I suggested, starting to take some meds in my hands as Zasha was helping me to get some too on their hands before we left the bathroom.

We returned back downstairs quickly, not wanting to deal with two peoples passing out on their couchs as me & Zasha were almost busy to talk and we got back into the living room, Garrett & Greta still operational and needed to be heal. As Zasha took care of Garrett, I decided to take care of Greta by myself. It was a bit hard at the beginning as she was almost complicating my work on her face before I managed to not make her move her head again.

5 minutes I have started, Park came back from the basement, learning to us that Sonya was still knocked out but still alive and now, we just needed to wait that they woke up from the accident by watching an little monitor that I wasn't aware of that was just in the living room, hidden behind the dashboard. Park also gave me an hand to finish to heal Greta well and 10 minutes after that, we were finished to heal the two, now finding themselves laid down on their couchs.

"So...." I started as I leaned myself against the wall next to Garrett couch. I was wondering of something about the event. "Who got the idea to ram the van ?" I asked to Garrett & Greta who pointed at each other. "Oh my god." I whispered to myself, making myself an facepalm.

"What ? It was your idea !" Garrett exclaimed, looking at Greta, his voice sounding low as he was still recovering.

"I just suggested to you to do this, not to make you fully do this." Greta defended, using the same voice as him....it was like two children having an argument and I could see Zasha smiling from it as me & Park were like watching an whole scene of two childrens.

"Maybe but it was your idea." Garrett repeated, sounding relieved that Greta maybe unwillingly said it was her idea.

"Maybe but you're the one who did this." Greta told him before she moved to look away from him. "How I'm going to explain to the BND that my MI6 friend trashed an car from them ?" She questioned to herself.

"Okay, kids, time's up !" Park stepped in, having an bit enough to see the two like fighting, even if she was liking it, putting herself between the two couch. "Anyway, we got Sonya....so mission accomplished, right ?" We all nodded to her.

"Hello ?" We could hear an voice coming through the hidden monitor, meaning that Sonya was finally awake from the accident. "Is there anyone here ?" They asked, sounding pleading.

"They're awake !" I exclaimed as I see Park getting to the dashboard, moving it away to reveal the monitor on, seeing Sonya tied up to an chair with in front of them an table and another chair in the basement. "Time for us to interrogate them."

"You might want to do it, Yirina ?" Park proposed to me as she was finished to move the dashboard away.

"Of course." I replied with an smile before she started to walk towards me.

"Zasha, keep the two under control until I come back....don't want them to have another argument." She ordered to them, mentioning Garrett & Greta as she was taking Sonya's records file on the table before she got next to me. "Follow me." She then start to walk away from the living room, with me behind to get to the basement entrance that was just below the stairs. "Okay, so you try to find anything about Perseus or Stone." She handed me their file.

"Yeah...anything." I looked at their file before I put my free hand on Park's arm that was going to return to the living room. "Uhm....if they're maybe recognizing me....should I play 'Bell' ?" I asked as I didn't know if I really met Sonya before and for that, it was better to take some precautions.

"Okay." She whispered before she gave me a quick kiss on the cheek. "Be aware, okay ?" I nodded to her as she left me to get to the living room, leaving me alone to talk to Sonya.

I took a deep breath as I put my hand on the door handle before I decided myself to open the door, leading to stairs going down. It was going to be my first time that I got into that room, the only room I didn't stepped in since we got here as it was either Garrett or Greta who was doing this part of the job but since the two are trying to recover, it was mine to do. I go down the stairs, each step getting louder in my ears, wondering to myself what could happen in that room.

Was Sonya going to be able to recognize me ? Did we actually met before what happened in Trabzon ? All of these questions inside my head as I was getting closer to get on the basement but all I know now is that I needed to prepare 'Bell' to intervene in case that they're able to have an hint on me. I shook my head rapidly as I arrived down, another door separating me from Sonya. No deep breath and I entered the room, seeing them, looking in front of them, having heard me coming.

"Who are you ?" They asked me sounding curious and angry at the same time as I closed the door behind before I put my eyes on them.

"Is this important to you to know that ?" I said as I approached the table, sitting myself on the free chair and putting the opened file between me & them before I looked around to check the camera that was just behind me at my left. "It's you that needs to talk, not me." I affirmed to them, poking the file.

"Fuck off." They told to me...very rude as I can say....no need to be angry, that's serving to nothing. "Ain't going to tell you shit."

"We will see." I snorted before I looked back at their file, fainting to discovering it for the first time. "Sonya Kuzmin, born in Russia, exact place of birth is classified, relative to Vikhor Kuzmin also said 'Stitch', worked for Perseus....."

"Okay, that's nice from you to read up my records." They smirked at me, stopping at reading their file again that I put back on the table. "I'm flattered but...uhm....where does that bring you exactly ?" They questioned me.

"In fact, we need you to talk about an lot of things because we have plenty of time for you." I replied, affirming my position as I crossed my arms on the table. "It will be very long until Stitch tries to save you."

"Pfff....my brother ?" They sniffed at hearing me saying that. "He's more going to act like an little girl.....I remember an story that said that someone broke his arm in half." They added, making me an very small grin as in the inside, I was quite surprised to hear the story of having break Stitch arm did make an lot of noises inside Perseus....my name never mentioned, that's better. "And to say, he's kinda dumb."

"Anyway." I whispered harshly, taking back my seriousness. "You might want to talk about Harry Stone to me."

"That british cunt used to be an fucking SAS soldier ?" They started, biting an part of their lips and looking away with their eyes. "You want me to tell you that he's only stupid as hell and more dumber than my brother." They continued, smiling about that as for me, I was keeping an straight face to them...staying serious. "Guy can't even act normally with those who worked for him....can say that the MI6 really want to get his ass down." My eyes went wide at this. "By that, your accent....betrayed you."

"At least, you know about that but it isn't the subject here." I admitted as I streched my fingers inside my arms. "What is he preparing exactly ?" I asked as they breathed away. "What is he doing with 2 nuclears bombs that he stoled ?"

"Aaah....might be the only thing I will say clearly about him..." They said, surprising me as they stated that they wouldn't talk to me. "Stone has given one of the nukes to Stitch as he kept one for his personal use." They responded, giving an chill in me : bringing down Stone will only save an city or an big place as Stitch has been given another bomb. "But now, Stitch is busy torturing the man who got his left eye out instead of playing with the bomb." They added, referring to Adler.

"Where's Stone and where's Adler ?" I asked, saying his name directly and they laughed

"Like I'm going to tell you, redhead bitch !" They told me with an sarcastic voice, wanting me to punch them but in fact, I wasn't going to play their games....but they were going to play one, thinking of something.

"If you don't want to say an thing about that...." I started, slowly rolling my eyes to the ceilling before leaning myself on the chair. "Maybe, we can talk about.....Freya Helvig said....'Wraith'." I smiled at them as their eyes goes wide, I would have like to see the reactions from the other upstairs but better to stay focused. "Tell me, when you two have started dating ?"

"What ? I don't even know....."

"Don't bullshitting me, Sonya." I cut them straight gently, sounding calm. "We heard your calls to Stone & Freya today." I added, looking sure as they were stressed to be here. "So, answer my question."

"Well..." They looked away for an second before looking back at me, taking a deep breath. "Since you heard me, we started dating four years ago. Why do you want to know ?"

"To say, we were quite surprised to hear that you were with Wraith." I responded as I wanted to know more....but it could have exposed me to them....better to take things slow. "I heard rumors that explained that Wraith was with someone else before you, it's right ?" I asked, holding my head with my right hand, looking curious.....even if I already know the response in me.

"It's just rumors..." They breathed and in me, I was like trying to not get myself angry.....why I should be even if Sonya at that time stole Freya from me ?...all of this were the past now for me.....They then start to laugh slowly. "To say that one day, I could say to her that I was rescued by the MI6 from the CIA." My eyes went wide again at hearing this.....are the people in the van CIA ?

"What do you mean ?" I questioned her, finding myself like frozen in place.

"What ? You didn't know ?" They smiled at me, happy about that. "You didn't even realize that you foiled an CIA kidnapping on me and instead, it's the MI6 who are doing this." After I heard this from them, I started to hear someone getting downstairs and the door behind me quickly opened, revealing Zash, a bit panicked.

"Got an problem upstairs !" They exclaimed, holding the door with one hand. "Let's just say that the CIA tracked us down." I closed my eyes, meaning that we're in deep shit....Zasha killed an CIA agent and we didn't know that. I got up from my chairs, opening back my eyes as I see Sonya getting stressed to learn that the CIA was here.

"Keep yourselves down." I ordered them, pointing at them before I walked away from the table, taking their file with me as I joined Zasha to get back upstairs, leaving Sonya alone.

During the way back on top, I could see Zasha stressed as hell, having just learned that the person they killed was in fact an CIA agent and with now, the CIA knowning that we're here, we could all say that we were in an big trouble....just wondering about how the CIA was able to track us down here but they were either able to follow us or...well, I couldn't think right as we got back on the ground level, leaving the basement stairs and going to the living room. There were at least 4 CIA agents in here : two staying near the front door and two in the living room.

"Do you realize that you foiled an important CIA operation ?" An CIA agent with sunglasses...not Adler....adressed himself to Park, standing up and facing her upfront. "Sonya Kuzmin is an important asset for-...."

"It's not our fault if you are not capable of showing us that you were working on them." Park defended us from him, angry. "Your agents tried to kill us."

"Oh, yeah ?" The man shouted to her face. "So, explain why one of my agents is dead with 3 bullets in him ?" I could see him clenching his fists before I stepped in, putting myself between her and him.

"Maybe because they were stubborn to tell us they were CIA." I exclaimed, now with me facing the guy, angry. I could see the angriness on his face too. "You were the one who foiled an MI6 operation and the one to blame."

"Oh, you must be the brainwashed russian bitch that Adler...." He didn't have time to finish that he received an punch....by Park herself right into the guts, making him fall back until the other CIA agent tried to reach for his gun but Garrett acted first, jumping from its couch as he was laid down on it, getting right into the other agent path, having draw his gun to him.

"Deep breath, son." Garrett whispered to the guy who stopped himself in his path, getting holded at gunpoint right between the eyes.

"Why are they here ?" I asked to Park as I looked to the CIA agent that she just punched in the chest.

"They want Sonya to go with them." She replied, sounding in an low voice.

"It's impossible, we worked our asses since last day and...and they're in the MI6 custody now." Zasha protested against that as they have intels about Sonya since days.

"Oh, you think so ?" The CIA chief returned back to his feets, looking at Zasha with an smirk. "Who are you by the way ?" He asked them.

"That's not your interest, dipshit." I proclaimed to his face with him knowning that we can all punch him now.....but an bloodbath here is not an good idea. "Why do you want Sonya ?"

"That mission was prepared for days...orders from Jason Hudson !" He responded and to be honest, I knew that Hudson was going to fuck us one day....must have been following our mission. "Sonya Kuzmin can tell us where's Russell Adler and we leave this place with them, end of the story !" He confirmed his point of view to us, finding ourselves blocked : we got Sonya by ourselves but the CIA is pressuring us to have them back. In me, I was laughing as these guys hoped to make Sonya talk. "So, you gave them to us before we stormed this place with our guns and blame your deaths on Perseus."

"That's blackmailling ?"Park seems offusqued by that and faced the man again, me moving asie for her "I almost got my friends killed for nothing ?"

"Yes so you have 5 minutes to let us have Sonya before we put our plan in motion." He repeated to her face, smirking as Park looked away, sniffing and troubled....I could see that she got no other choices.

"Fine !" She whispered to him, looking at her feets. "They're in the basement, you got 2 minutes to take them with you before I change my mind." She added, snorting as she decided to get sit on an free seat next to Garrett couch as both CIA agents start to leave the living room to get to the basement and us....staying in the living room as we could see Sonya get taken away, a bag on their head before the CIA douchebags left this place....and us alive and kinda angry. "I'm sorry." Park breathed to us, blaming herself to have let the CIA win the argument.

"Those fuckers never change, it's not your fault, Park !" Garrett intervened, getting back on his couch, not even angry about Park's decision. "Always thinking that they're rulling everywhere."

"He's right." Greta added to his statement. "Because of them, all of our work today was for nothing...and it's not our fault." She continued, reassuring a bit Park.

"Yeah but....we are now almost without an perfect lead against Stone & Perseus." Park expressed before I moved next to her.

"No, we still have Portnova in Moscow...and now, we know that Stitch has an nuke, given by Stone." I affirmed to her, tapping her shoulder in an lovely way, giving her an smile before I moved to get to the dashboard. "She can tell us about what Stone is planning." I looked at Zasha, a bit stressed at talking about Portnova. "You're okay to come back to Moscow ?"

"Well, since I'm with you, I'm more than just okay. I'm in." They replied, sure of themselves as I smiled about it. We both couldn't come back to the USSR without having Perseus eyes on us and since we got Park and her friends with us, those eyes will have an hard time to find us."If I can find my Yiri again...."

"Then, we can prepare ourselves to go to Moscow." Park proposed as she got up from her own seat and we all nodded to her as Garrett & Greta start to slowly move from their couchs to get up as I moved away from the dashboard to get next to Park, taking a deep breath of the day we just had....an long and unexpected one to be honest. We just needed now to focus no more on what happened with the CIA in this place.....

"Well....it's time for us to go back to the east side of the Iron Curtain !"

#cod bocw #cod cold war #cod black ops cold war #call of duty cold war #black ops cold war #cod bell #fem!bell #yirina grigoriev #helen park

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cheonsascenarios · 4 years

Note

Can i request a LE smut a male reader in the studio ?

➜ Interference

Pairing: LE x Male reader

Request: Yes

Genre: Smut

——————————————❖———————————————

Finally, after months and months of applying to jobs, you landed one. Well, technically. Shinsadong Tiger was producing a new album and wanted some young blood assisting him. It was your chance to prove your worth.

Choosing your outfit was difficult. You wanted to dress properly, it was an important day. But on the other hand, you didn’t want to seem too uptight. You decided to go for a casual look: Jean, hoodie, jacket. Decent enough for an intern who was supposed to bring fresh ideas to the table. You got there early. You bought coffee for everyone coming. First impressions are always important. You scrolled through twitter to kill some time. An article caught your attention:

-LE ALBUM IS AROUND THE CORNER! -

“After being out of the public eye for almost a year, LE is coming back with a new album. Shinsadong Tiger will be producing it and he assures it will be something that the fans have not seen before”

You kept scrolling but you didn’t read anything.

“Ah, I see. Yes, that must be it. They hired me because they want me to work on-”. A very sharp sound made you look away from your phone. It was coming your way. One after another they became louder, feeling like knives stabbing your heart. Suddenly, the sounds stopped. Now with its source revealed, so did your heart for a moment.

“...LE…”

Your guess was correct. Standing in front of you were Shinsadong Tiger, his assistant, and LE. The sound you heard before, came from her black heels. She looked intimidating. A black leather skirt, a black shirt, and a black leather jacket. Anyone else in that outfit would’ve looked just normal to you, but there was something imposing about her.

“Ah, y/n, you shouldn’t have bothered! I appreciate it anyways!”. Still dumbfounded you tried to respond asking what did he meant, but then you realized. The coffee. You didn’t know LE was going to be there, so you just bought 3 cups. The panic caused by that comment must’ve been showing in your face because while going into the studio LE said: “I don’t want coffee”.

Great. It was obvious she noticed what actually happened and felt insulted. You had to come up with something to either fix the situation or make it seem like you actually bought coffee for her. Lost in your thoughts you didn’t see Shinsadong and his assistant following LE. After getting back to your senses, you also followed them.

“Um, I didn’t get to present myself earlier, I’m-”

“Okay, listen. I just got back from a shoot, I’m really tired and some new producer rubbed me the wrong way. Let’s just do what we came here for and go home”

“I’m really sorry. Look, it’s my first day and I wanted to make a good impression. No one told me you were coming. Had I known beforehand, I wouldn’t have come across as such a rude person”

“I guess you have a point. I was supposed to go home but I wanted to finish this song. Whatever. Let’s move on”.

She offered you a handshake which you gladly took. She looked you in the eyes. She seemed curious about something. Before letting go your hand she smiled while slightly nodding. She turned around and went into the booth. You were confused as to why she did that but decided not to worry about it after having dodged such a bullet.

“So, this is what we are going to do. LE is going to go through some verses and I want you to do whatever you feel fits those bars better. Got it?” Shinsadong Tiger calmly explained to you how the process should be.

“Yes! No problem!”. After receiving the task, you sat down in front of the booth glass. On the other side, LE sat down in front of the mic. It wasn’t a big studio so it seemed like you were sat across the sides of a table. Through the glass, you could only see LE upper body. You put on your headphones and started listening to LE going through her lines. Shinsadong was sitting at the back on the couch with his assistant, talking about something you couldn’t quite figure out. While going through some files in your notebook, LE voice sounded in your ears:

“You know, we may be cool now but I’m still a little upset. I don’t like being upset. So, we are playing a game. This is your first day, right? I know you really want this and for it to work you need to make a good job. It’ll be a pity if the recording seems unpolished”. This whole time, she seemed just to be reading her lyrics. Her eyes didn’t move from her notebook page. Needless to say you didn’t know what she meant.

“Um guys, something came up. I gotta go. Send me the track, I’ll check it tonight”. Shinsadong left the studio.

“Okay, let’s go from the top”. You said to LE. When looking up you saw her staring directly at you. A devilish smile was printed on her face. Confused and a little scared, you played the instrumental.

“Uh, nights got colder after you lef-”. Something was off. You asked LE to stop and so she did. There was some noise going around and you couldn’t find out what was it. After checking everything you found nothing. Still wondering what was that sound, you asked LE to continue.

“Uh, nights got colder after you left, why is it th-” There it was again. But this time it kept going. It sounded like some sort of interference but louder than it usually is. Looking around to see what could possibly be the cause of it, you found it in the last place you thought you would.

You looked up and LE was biting her lip. You followed her arm and noticed that it disappeared under her skirt. She was touching herself. What you thought was “interference”, was actually LE clothes’s sound.

“Oh my God. What are you doing!?

“I told you we were playing a game”

“Are you for real!?

“Hey, it’s not me who needs the job. If you want to have a song by tonight, you better take out all the sounds I’m making”

“You know this is crazy, right?”

“I do. That’s the fun part” She giggled at the end.

“Fine. Wanna play? Let’s play”

You started the recording once again and while she rapped, you tweaked filters in order to take out the sound LE’s hand and her clothes were making. After 15 seconds you stopped her and smiled: “See? I’m that good.” That was your mistake.

Taking it as a challenge, LE stood up and unzipped her skirt. She threw it somewhere on the floor. Sat down, resting her feet on the lower chair support and spread her legs. She put her hand under her red underwear and pulled it aside. You couldn’t believe what you were seeing. A glass was the only thing that separated you from such a spectacle. Wearing headphones made it all worse because it felt as if she was in your head.

“Let’s see what you can do with this” LE challenged you. Her fingers went up and down her slit. You could tell how wet she was by the sounds she made when moving. Just to see such a view was enough to make you hard. Listening to the sound her indecent act was making, turned it into torture.

“What is it? You can’t handle this?” LE's voice got breathier.

“No. It isn’t that. I just thought how funny it would be to let those beautiful sounds in. To let everyone know how much of a slut you are”

“Too bad you’ll have no job by then”

Even if you hate to admit it, she was right. You needed this to work. Fixed on making a track that you could send your boss, you sat down once again but responded with an equally powerful attack.

“WHAT ARE Y-” LE yelled.

You took your cock out. You were already rock hard. You stroked it releasing a suffocated growl. “If I’m doing this, I might as well make it fun for myself”.

LE was shocked. But not in a bad way. Her facial expressions told you she just got more aroused. Also, her hand movements became less sporadic and now focused on a single spot. Her panting started to mist the booth’s glass. It made you move your hand faster, matching her pace.

“From the top”. You pressed play, and the red light turned on. LE started rapping and her voice was troubled by her moaning and heavy breathing. You stood up and went into the booth. Once inside you positioned yourself in front of her and without stopping your movements you told her:

“Faster. I need you to go faster”. LE did so. Not only in her now lousy rap but in her motions as well. The little circles her hands were doing were now really small, applying all the pressure on her clit. Her eyes now only looking at yours expressed how far gone she was. You ripped her shirt open, buttons flying all over the floor.

“Yes, that’s it. Give me your all” You groaned while you commanded her hand and yours to squeeze her breast. Close to your limit, agitated, you told her:

“Now, for the climax… I need you to go in, go in on it”.

Clenching her jaw, alternating her sentence with strong exhalations, LE responded: ”You are the producer... take care of it”.

As soon as she spoke those words, in a single action you went into her. Her walls were so hot you seemed to melt inside her. You’d never fucked a pussy so sloppy. Things got messier with every thrust. The sounds you heard earlier were nothing against the sound of you ramming her over and over.

“Fuck” LE shouted. She tightened around you as her whole body clenched. Her head tilted backward, making her chest look even bigger than before. As you felt this, you also let yourself go and released your hot load inside her. You only stopped moving once you got it all out. When backing out, your cum leaked out of LE’s glistened entrance.

Slowly recovering and reincorporating herself onto the chair, LE said while sighing:

“Guess you can’t work on that one. Am I right Producer?”

“Maybe next take will be better… unless you feel like not cooperating again”

“Who knows… I may still need instructions”

#kpop #scenario #scenarios #kpop scenarios #kpop scenario #LE #EXID #LE smut #EXID smut #LE x male reader #male reader #smut #kpop smut

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dinoyoongi · 5 years

Text

I’ll Play For You

SYNOPSIS: You’re a new artist who is given the opportunity to perform at the American Music Awards. When your piano player doesn’t show up, Min Yoongi steps up to save your performance.

PAIRING: Yoongi X You

GENRE: Romance, Fluff

WARNINGS: Language, Anti-Justin Bieber (I would stay away from this if you’re a big fan ...)

WORD COUNT: 4500

AUTHORS NOTE: There may or may not be a part two to this - it will depend on how much of a plot I can think of for these two going forward. But I did scrap some scenes from Yoongi’s perpsective that I might publish as an outtake so look out for that!

____________________________________

“Wait, where is my piano player right now?” you disbelievingly ask into your phone, heart twitching uncomfortably at the unspoken answer. Please be joking. Please be joking.

“I'm sorry, Y/N, he was arrested a few hours ago for driving under the influence. Apparently it's not his first offense.”

You're suddenly dizzy, your body swaying until you find the stiff comfort of a wall to hold you steady. Your grip on the device is so tight that it feels as if the screen will shatter under the strength of your fingers. “Can't you go bail him out? You can take the money out of my album earnings.”

Your manager sighs loudly. “He's trashed, Y/N. I talked to him on the phone and he's mumbling all kinds of nonsense. He's not fit to play piano for a practice performance let alone an AMA stage. I've already exhausted all of my resources and I'm afraid there's nothing else we can do at this point.”

“So that's it? Everything that I've worked so hard for these past few weeks … all for nothing? You said yourself that it's insanely rare and humbling for somebody as new as me to be asked to perform at the American Music Awards and now I have to give it up?”

You know it's not your manager's fault. If not for him, you wouldn't have been given this incredible opportunity to begin with. Rising to stardom from YouTube covers was something that was admired towards the end of the 2000's, when performers like Justin Bieber and Charlie Puth were plucked straight from the internet and onto the music charts. Rising to stardom from YouTube in 2020 when a vast majority of YouTube's content was contributed by people just like you attempting to make something of themselves? Almost impossible. But you somehow managed to defy the odds. You nabbed the attention of an agent who thought your voice was indistinguishable, one that the music industry hasn't heard before. A voice that can't be compared to anyone else, one that will easily make you a household name. You signed the contracts almost immediately.

“Ask around backstage. Maybe the staff have musicians that can fill in. I'll email you the sheet music just in case.”

With trembling limbs, you push yourself off of the wall and elbow through a crowd of excited, noisy bodies to the offstage entrance. You fumble through your clutch for your artist pass, flashing it at the intimidating security guard who studies it like an exam; probably trying to find any flaw on the laminated plastic that can deny you admittance. You don't blame him. You probably don't look so much like a performer right about now. Your eyes begin scouring the packed area for any sign of show staff the moment you take a step in. If the situation were different and you weren't terrified that your entire career was about to go up in flames, you would have marveled at the amount of celebrities that casually milled about. Taylor Swift is in the corner taking selfies with the Jonas Brothers' wives. Bruno Mars stands in a different corner while somebody attaches microphones to his clothing. BTS are squeezed onto a large sofa, a line of media outlets waiting for their turn to interview them. You should be starstruck. You should be nervous with excitement. You should be anxiously conjuring different ways to coolly ask for autographs and pictures in your head. But all you are is desperate.

Catching a glimpse of a man wearing a headset bustling past you, you touch his arm to grab his attention. “My name is Y/N. I'm scheduled to perform in the 9 o'clock hour. There's been … a mishap, with my piano player and he won't be able to attend. Is there anybody here that can play for me?”

You pray that the look of despair on your face is enough for him to at least ask around but he's shaking his head before you can even finish asking your question. “All artists are responsible for bringing their own band or backing track.”

You're knocked forward into the man when a body rams into your back. Sparing a quick glance over your shoulder, you see that the members of BTS have disbanded from the sofa and are now huddled in a group behind you. The tallest one bows in apology and opens his mouth to speak but you cut him off with a quick nod before turning back to the staff member in front of you.

“Can you please ask around for me? This performance is really important to me and I don't want there to be a gap in the schedule if I can't perform.”

His sigh of annoyance is loud and dramatic. “It's like I said, all artists must bring their own band or backing track. What about a backing track? Do you have anyone that can send it over?”

“No,” you mumble hopelessly, blinking away the moisture in your eyes. “I'm doing a tweaked cover of Sailing by Christopher Cross. It wasn't recorded so there isn't any backing track. It's just supposed to be me and the piano. All I have is sheet music.”

He clicks his tongue disapprovingly and you feel your heart drop to the ground. “That doesn't help anyone right now. I just have to say – this is seriously unprofessional. What label are you signed under? Why would they allow you to come here so unprepared?”

You open your mouth but find that the words do not come. You've never had a panic attack in your life but you feel as if you're on the brink. Inhale, exhale. Inhale, exhale.

“Justin!” the man exclaims happily as you feel a body approach you from behind. Whirling around, your eyes widen in surprise when Justin Bieber reaches out and connects hands with the staff, participating in a childish handshake that goes on for far too long. “How are you doing? Ready for the show?”

Justin smirks, raising a glass of amber liquid. “Just keep these coming, alright?”

The staff member nods frantically. The desperation to please this singer drips off of him like sweat on a Texas summer day. It's a drastic jump from the unaccommodating, discouraging way he's been speaking to you. Feeling your eyes, he glances at you for only a second before whipping his attention back to Bieber. You can almost see the light bulb click on above his head. “I know you're here to enjoy the show but this girl,” he nods in your direction and you pale at the sudden attention, “is singing tonight and she's in desperate need of a piano player for her performance. Would you be interested in helping her out?”

The “Baby” singer looks closely at you. You're aware that he most likely has no idea who you are or where you've come from but you clap your hands in front of your chin, dropping any ounce of dignity you have left to silently beg. Justin Bieber doesn't even take a full ten seconds to consider before he begins laughing loudly. “Yeah, no.”

You stare at his exiting back in disbelief. Every step he takes away from you is like a sucker punch to the gut. The staff member claps a hand around your shoulder, at least managing a semblance of decency when he gives you a pitying grimace. “Sorry, kid. That's show business. Let the scheduling staff know in at least twenty minutes what you plan on doing.”

That's it.

You really weren't performing. You've been practicing for weeks. Months. You've daydreamed about this night daily. You've pinned so much of your hopes and goals on this night. And just like this … poof. Gone.

You don't realize you're crying until the salty liquid drops onto your lips, breaking you out of your misery-filled trance. Looking around, you're startled to see many sets of eyes watching you sympathetically. But nobody approaches you, nobody cares to ask if you're okay. That's show business, he had said.

Show business fucking hurts.

“Excuse me?” a deep voice asks from beside you. Through blurred vision, you can make out colorful clothes and dark hair. Assuming that you're in the way of the BTS members, you hurriedly move from their area, mumbling a quick apology. “No, no. I will do it.”

You sniffle quietly, dabbing at your wet eyes with the pad of your thumb. “Do what?”

“Play the piano. You have sheet music?”

Wait. What? What is going on right now? Is one of the members of BTS offering to completely save your life right now? Okay, maybe you're being a bit dramatic but it feels comparable.

“We overheard,” the tall one with tan skin interrupts. “Your … dilemma. Yoongi can play the piano well and would like to help you out.”

“Yoongi?” you ask, locking eyes with your savior. He smiles softly and you control the urge to shiver. It's a universally acknowledged fact that the boys of BTS – and most k-pop idols, if you're being honest with yourself – are ridiculously gorgeous. Now is not the time to be ogling them though. “I … I can't thank you enough but are you sure? You guys are kind of the guests of honor and well … I'm not much of anybody. I don't want to put you in a rough spot.”

The tan one, who has introduced himself as Namjoon, takes a few seconds to translate your words. Yoongi scoffs and your head whips to Namjoon, suddenly nervous that he has changed his mind.

“I want to help, Y/N,” Yoongi tells you seriously. Don't swoon. Don't swoon. While you're busy trying not to swoon, you wonder how he knows who you are. “Where is the music? I need to get familiar with the composition.”

“Oh!” you blurt, scrambling for your phone. Pulling up the sheet music file from the text that your manager has sent, you awkwardly angle your phone toward him. “I'm not sure how you want to do this. Do you want to borrow my phone?”

“I will send to myself,” he says, stealing the device. He taps a few a buttons before handing it back. You notice a new conversation thread in your texts. Holy meatballs – do you actually have a member of BTS' number saved in your phone?

“I will delete it! Your number, I mean. When the performance is over … I'll delete your number so nobody accidentally, you know -” you cut yourself off, feeling your composure about to crash and burn. Behind him, some of the other members snicker but Yoongi gets right down to business, eyes scanning the file intently. You watch him with a quiet fascination. Whenever he gets to the end of the page, he nods curtly to himself – a gesture you don't think he's aware of – before scrolling to the next. He's clearly confident in what he's doing and it fills you with a warm, comfortable sense of assurance. Although the anxiety that something might still blow up in your face is present as ever, Yoongi has pushed the heaviest weight off of your chest and you don't know how you're ever going to thank him.

_________________________________________

You tried to enjoy the show and performances with the same enthusiasm as the audience but anxiety pokes at you at the slightest hint of your guard slipping. Has Yoongi learned the song well? Does he even like the song? What if he decides that this entire thing isn't a good idea and changes his mind? You're not completely clueless; you've purchased quite a few k-pop songs and you're familiar with the fan culture. Fans seeing Yoongi on stage with you could stir up a mess of rumors. You've asked the stage production staff to push the piano out of the spotlight so that only his silhouette will be visible but you wonder if it's enough. What if he gets in trouble with his company? What if you get in trouble with his company?

Shaking away the bad thoughts, you smooth out any wrinkles in your dress and round the corner to meet Yoongi. You've changed out of your evening gown and into your performance outfit – a long, yellow sundress with chunky, wooden buttons on the chest underneath an oversized, distressed black denim jacket. On your feet, instead of the typical heels, you sport a pair of black Converse high tops. Your manager tried talking you into a different outfit.

“It's your first performance on national television. Don't you want to be a bit more … dolled up?” he had asked, frowning when he saw the mock-up outfit concept you had thrown together. Being signed to a relatively new, smaller company, you knew there wasn't a big budget for stage outfits yet. But you also knew that your manager would convince the label to splurge for a glitzier look if you had agreed. However, you were literally known for singing in front of your camera with Spongebob and Pokemon tee shirts on. It didn't feel authentic to be dolled up.

You had agreed to meet at a quiet area near the stage twenty minutes before your performance. BTS' nominations and performance would be toward the end of the show – to keep those ratings steady, of course – so you weren't interrupting his schedule. He's sitting alone on a sofa in the emptied lounge, air pods in, head nodding as his eyes studies the screen of his phone. He glances up when he senses you approaching and you gulp when you notice his eyes sweep across your figure appreciatively.

“You look pretty,” he says, his smile small but killer. Heat blooms in your cheeks and you're suddenly thankful for the layers of foundation, concealer and powder you have stacked onto your skin that hides what is surely a very, very telling blush. “Are you ready?”

“Am I ready?” you ask incredulously as you take a seat next to him on the couch. “Heck no. I'm terrified. This is my first TV performance.”

“You will do great,” he assures you, eyes moving back to the phone.

“Yoongi?” His head lifts in your direction. “Do you think we can pull this off?”

“I play piano, you sing. What else is there to do?” he asks sarcastically. The first thing you notice is that he's a lot better at English than you were first led to believe. The second is that this man is incredibly sassy. The third is that you find said sass highly attractive.

“What if we're not … you know … in sync? And you haven't even heard me sing before,” you argue. His confidence and optimism is admirable but you want to make sure that his feet are at least a little bit on the ground.

He cocks an eyebrow. “Of course I've heard you sing. Why do you think I'm helping? I'm your fan.”

“My fan?” you ask with wide eyes, jabbing yourself in the chest with your thumb. He laughs, reaching over to grab your wrist away from your chest with a playful, gummy grin. “You're my fan? Do you know who I am?”

“Yes. I watch your YouTube videos. You're very good,” he compliments. The sass has suddenly disappeared and you watch as his cheeks tinge pink. “I like the Eminem songs.”

“Not those ones!” you wail dramatically, lowering your head to your knees. “I was so young and thought I was being so inventive slowing down an Eminem song. That's so embarrassing.”

He's laughing with you when a staff member approaches, headset on and clipboard in hand. “You're on in ten minutes. The crew will come grab you a few moments before to get you set up on stage.”

Any bit of laughter or mirth stuck in your throat is swallowed down immediately. Dread washes over you in goosebumps, a rattling heart and clammy skin. You're startled when Yoongi reaches over to grab your hand. “Stop worrying. You are going to kill it.”

“I am going to kill it,” you repeat, nodding in self-assurance. “Okay, yes, I can do this.”

He taps your hand gently before turning his attention back to the screen of his phone. Your skin tingles at the missing contact.

“Yoongi,” you interrupt him again. He exhales a tiny sigh but his lips are upturned in amusement. “I'm so thankful to you right now. I just … I don't have any way to repay you for this. I could give you the money that my original piano player was going to receive but it's probably just pocket change to you. I want – I want to just confirm one last time that you're sure about this?”

Your words were stuttered and fast and you're not sure how much of it he understood, but he sets his phone down on his knee and turns his body to face you. This time, you can't suppress the shiver when he fixes his intense gaze on yours.

“I don't know how much you know BTS,” he begins, taking quick pauses to think about his words. “But we are from a small company. We were … overlooked and not taken seriously too.”

“Fucking Justin Bieber,” you mutter angrily under your breath. Yoongi pauses to laugh heartily before continuing.

“We did rise to the top by our own hard work. But I remember all the times that we asked for help. Producers, fellow idols, music video directors … so many people shot us down because we came from nothing. And … I see that in you. You are going to be so big thanks to your own talent but I want to tell stories and brag that I played piano for Y/N at her first award show performance.”

His accent is thick and he uses the wrong words in some places but you understand everything as if he's speaking perfect English.

“Wow,” you mumble, your awestruck eyes not leaving his for even a moment. “I think I just fell in love with you.”

Wait.

Did you just …

Slapping a hand over your mouth in horror, you watch the pink in Yoongi's cheeks flush darker before he throws his head back in laughter again. Slinking down into the cushion of the couch, you groan at your word vomit.

“I should have gotten drunk too,” you mutter, absolutely humiliated.

“I think you just became my fan,” he says smugly, crossing his arms over his chest and kicking his leg up over his knee like the cocky, attractive little shit that he is.

“Oh, really? I guess I'll have to cover a BTS song on my channel next then,” you attempt to flirt. It's awful, you know, but he grins anyway.

“I will look forward to it.”

“Y/N?” your head shoots up at a neck-break speed. A woman with the same headset stands near the wall. “You're up. You can follow me and we'll get you settled on the stage.”

Like a robot, you shuffle quietly behind her, heart feeling like it's going to rip right through your ribcage. Yoongi notices, taking in the sight of your fingers trembling at your sides. He's not sure what compels him to do it, but he reaches down and snatches your hand in his, entwining your fingers together. Meeting his eyes, you feel the nerves begin to melt away.

“Just pretend you're singing to me, okay? Pretend that you're recording a video that only I will see. You are going to be amazing.”

His words envelope you like a warm hug and you nod, gathering as much confidence as you can before walking onto the stage. Yoongi stays away from the light, quietly sitting down at the piano unnoticed. There's a hushed murmur amongst the crowd when you step up to the microphone and sit down at your stool, various moons and stars dangling from the ceiling above your head like a galactic halo. Scanning the audience, the brightly colored hair and clothing of the remainder of BTS sticks out like a sore thumb, one chair in the middle of their row unoccupied. Upon realizing that they have your attention, their arms raise enthusiastically, clapping and flashing you the silliest thumbs up. You grin down into your microphone before glancing over your shoulder to pass the thumbs up along to Yoongi.

“Our next performer has amassed millions of views with her imaginative and beautiful covers on YouTube. Tonight she makes her TV debut with a cover of one of her favorite songs on it's 40th anniversary. Ladies and gentlemen – Y/N!”

The lights in the arena fade out, your spotlight the only source of brightness. You tense, feeling the weight of a thousand set of eyes trained directly on you. And that's only counting everybody in this room, not the millions of eyes that are watching you from their living rooms across the country. Pressure pushes onto your chest and you inhale sharply.

But then the piano starts playing behind you.

You don't understand. It's the same notes. It's the same melody. It's the same exact song that your original musician had been playing this entire time. So why does it feel different? Why does it sound better? Why is your heart doing somersaults in your chest at the sound of the keys?

Maybe it's because of him.

Yoongi is given a small piano solo in the beginning of the song. It lasts roughly thirty seconds before it's your turn.

You sing.

__________________________________________

The song lasts just barely over four minutes but on the stage it feels like hours. You're in a bleary kind of daze when you stand from the stool, soaking in the loudness of cheering from the audience and the amount of people currently on their feet for a standing ovation. A quick look over at the piano confirms that Yoongi has already left the stage so you do the same, walking as if you're on autopilot.

Since you've come to the event alone, nobody but the staff greets you when you return backstage. They congratulate you and shower you in praises as they remove your wires and microphones but you can't hear them, desperately looking around for Yoongi. Did he already go back to his seat? Was that it – the favor was done so he was done with you? Your chest throbs with two conflicting emotions; complete elation at the successful performance and reception that you've just received and complete devastation at the thought that your time with Yoongi was over. You stand in the middle of the lounge, eyes focusing on the couch where the two of you had sat so closely earlier.

“Y/N.”

You freeze at the sound of his voice. Spinning around, he stands in his original, colored clothing with a smug, proud grin on his face. The other six members bounce on their toes behind him, their hands clapping together as they felicitate you.

“That was incredible!” Namjoon exclaims. “Yoongi-hyung said you were good but -”

You lunge at Yoongi, wrapping your arms around his neck and pulling him as close to you as you possibly can, burying your face in the crook of his neck. You can feel your tears glide down your cheek and you know he can feel them dropping onto his skin. A man in plain clothes begins sputtering angrily in Korean to Namjoon. This must be their manager and he doesn't seem too pleased that you're manhandling his talent but you can't find it in you to care about manners right now.

If Yoongi had a problem with it, you knew that he would gently push you away. Instead, he cradles your head with the back of one hand, using the other to rub your shoulder soothingly.

“Is she … okay?” one of the members asks hesitantly when you don't come up for air.

You take this as a sign to knock off the waterworks, extracting your body from his and wiping away any traces of mascara from your cheeks before they can see. “I'm fine. Sorry for being so dramatic. I'm just really thankful to Yoongi right now.”

Yoongi's hand doesn't leave your shoulder. You can almost feel the heat of his fingertips through the thick denim of your jacket. “I told you that you would kill it. You were amazing.”

“I don't know how we're supposed to perform after that! You stole the show!” Namjoon exclaims. The rolling of your eyes is contradicted by your abashed smile.

“BTS!” a staff member calls loudly from across the room. “You're needed for a quick rehearsal!”

Yoongi holds a finger up to you, speaking Korean to his members and managers for a few moments. They all turn to leave except Jungkook, who is simultaneously the youngest but largest. He leans in to show you something on his phone. “Noona, I did what Yoongi-hyung said and deleted all of my Justin Bieber albums. See?”

Yoongi shoves him away quickly, muttering in Korean, and you can tell that it's not something you were meant to be told. Yoongi is clearly embarrassed and it's so fucking cute that you can't restrain the hideous, lovesick giggles that force themselves from your belly.

“Don't you have to join them for rehearsal?” you ask curiously, scuffing the toe of your shoes against the shiny, linoleum floors.

“It's rehearsal for announcing best male artist. Namjoon is doing the talking on stage so I'll just catch up with them in a minute.”

You wonder why Namjoon is in charge of doing the speaking when Yoongi is clearly skilled at English but for right now, you don't mind it. It's giving the two of you a few more precious moments.

“So … thank you, Yoongi. A million times – thank you. I won't ever forget what you've done for me tonight,” you tell him sincerely, choking your emotion back down. “I know there's not much I can do for you but I'm in your back pocket if you ever need me, okay?”

“I'll remember that,” he quips, gummy smile making an appearance before he turns solemn. “I'm glad I could help you out. I can't wait to see where you go from here. Starting with that BTS cover, of course.”

You giggle. “Oh, of course.”

“Well, I guess I'll let you go now. I'll be cheering BTS on from my seat later, not that you need any encouragement,” you tease. You gulp down your coyness when he takes a step toward you.

“I don't know,” he drawls in that thick accent of his that is beginning to sound awfully sexy to you. “I'm feeling kind of … terrified.”

Somehow, you know exactly what he's doing. Your grin is stupidly huge as you reach for his fingers to interlace them with yours.

_________________________________

Later that night, when you've come down off of your high and you're tucked into the comfortable sheets of your hotel bed, you get a text message.

By the way … don't delete my number.

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chemicalmagecraft · 4 years

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Foresight is 20/20 Chapter 7

I groaned and yawned as I woke up with a fuzzy head. I started rubbing my eyes as I sat up a bit.

Then I went back down and almost fell asleep. I didn't actually fall asleep, however, because of a knock on my door. "In a minute," I managed to get out, then rolled off the bed. I eventually managed to get up and open the door to the sight of a woman of the main branch family, if I remembered right. "Sleepy," I blearily muttered as an excuse. I probably had bedhead, which added to the image.

She chuckled. "So this is why you don't let anyone in your room in the morning hours," she said jokingly.

I grunted, licked my lips, then said, "I must look like a little death, huh?" I snapped my fingers at my vanity and my brush and comb flew over thanks to the wind attribute in Kurama's chakra, then started un-messing my hair. She just stared at me incredulously. "So what do yo- ah!" I was interrupted by the brush trying to force through a particularly bad knot. They stopped long enough for me to sort out the knot, then continued. "I told you two to stop if that happens," I chided. I gave the woman whose name I couldn't remember at the moment a small, polite smile and explained, "A jutsu that I made that animates things. I unfortunately don't have enough enough chakra to use anything practical in a fight yet, but I can use it for laziness." I shrugged. "Sure, I have to charge them up every so often or they'll die, but they're pretty nice. So what do you need from me?"

"...Hiashi-sama asked me to give you this, and not to look inside it," she said as she handed me a messenger bag. I grunted a "thanks" and opened it to see a couple of scrolls, a large book, and a file. "If I might ask, what exactly is in that?"

"Top-secret fuinjutsu stuff," I muttered as I opened the file to see medical records and a picture of a small boy with red hair and shadows around his eyes. "If anyone asks, you never saw this. Talk to Father if you want to know why, but just know it comes from Hokage-sama." I put the file back and took the book out. I raised my eyebrows when I realized that it looked like a primer on the theory of poison. "Thanks... uh..." I thought for a moment. "Sorry, I should know this, I'm still a little asleep... Yuri-san?"

"It's actually Yuriko, Kouki-kun," she politely corrected. "I'm going to go now. Good luck with your project."

I sat down at my desk after she left and pulled out all of the scrolls and the file. I sorted through the scrolls, putting the jutsu scrolls back in the bag. When I was done I looked through the final scroll, which was about Gaara's seal. I frowned and ran my fingers through my hair when I was done. "This doesn't make any sense..." I muttered. "Either I'm missing something or Gaara really shouldn't be having as many problems as he has... Maybe it's something to do with Shukaku in particular? Maybe Kurama knows something." I opened the file on Gaara back up to see what I could gleam from that. "Nothing too useful, it turns out..." I sighed. I might have been able to do something with the stuff about his chakra and the symptoms that they knew for sure were from Shukaku, but I'd probably need to consult Kurama first, and he was... actually it was really surprising, but he was playing with Hinata, so I couldn't talk to him. Then I noticed a small sealing tag included with the papers. I picked it up and immediately recognized it as a used Inner Demon Calming Seal. A sticky note on it said that the Kazekage had Gaara use one for practice so I'd have a baseline, which was really good on his part. Would have to tell him he done good.

I took it, pulled out a blank scroll, put the tag on the scroll, and made a half ram seal. Words flowed out of the seal and onto the scroll, forming the statistics on Gaara. I nodded. It looked like the scan function was working perfectly, and the data I got from it was pretty good. I already had the beginnings of an idea just from that, though I decided I should probably consult Kurama before actually trying to work on it as a precaution. When I was done, I made a half dragon seal and pulled the tag from the scroll. The words peeled off with the scroll, and as I flipped the tag around and put it down, the words reconstituted into a sort of spherical barrier that allowed a ball of red chakra to emerge from the seal without dispersing into the air. I frowned as I saw the size of it. "The regulator's off..." The idea was that the seal would take only a little bit extra of Shukaku's chakra from what it was using to suppress Shukaku for me to play with, but there was a lot more than what I was expecting. "Orrrrr maybe it's just that Shukaku wasn't trying to break free or fighting at all?" I realized, then shrugged. "Meh." I made another half ram seal with my left hand and an empty sealing circle formed on it. I shoved my hand into the containment barrier and the red chakra flowed into the seal, forming a slash in the middle, the kanji for one.

kukukuku~

I knocked on the door. Thankfully, the seal on my hand had disappeared after it settled down just like Naruto's. That would've been hard to hide if it hadn't... Because I could feel that nobody was around, I revealed the seal for a bit to inspect it while I waited for someone to open the door. When I felt Tenko about to open the door, I let it fade again and shoved my hands into my pockets. "Hey, Uzumaki-san," I said with a small smile.

"Kouki-kun," she greeted back. "Are you here to see Naruto-kun?" I nodded and she let me inside. The house was nice. It wasn't nearly as big as the Hyuuga compound, for obvious reasons, but it was pretty big for a family of four. Probably because of the prestige of the Uzumaki clan, even if said clan was only the four members.

"How's he settling in?" I asked.

"Kouki!" Naruto shouted as he waved enthusiastically at me, then went back to climbing on Ai.

"Hey, kid," Ai greeted as Naruto managed to get to and start pushing on her face. "A little help, honey? Please?" Tenko giggled and picked Naruto up off of Ai, earning a peck on the cheek as thanks. "Thanks, sweetie."

I chuckled. "So he's settling in nice, then?" I inferred, then beckoned for Naruto. "C'mere, Naruto. I wanna tell you something."

Tenko put him down, but he frowned and didn't come to me. "Why do you have that weird feeling that all the mean people have, Kouki-kun?" he asked me.

I internally sighed and, not for the first time, was glad that my general lack of major emoting most of the time kept my annoyance from really showing. Naruto had noted feeling the malice of others recently, which was from my giving Kurama his yin power back. Still, though, it shouldn't have been strong enough to passively sense what little malice I could generate towards him... I extended my (unfortunately still weak passively) malice sense towards him, or rather his seal, and felt a sort of... "smug" malice coming from Kurama, which made more sense. I sent him a little message of "you suck" and told Naruto, "I dunno, but are you gonna ignore my advice?" He shrugged and walked over to me, allowing me to give him a light chop to the head. On the plus side, I was conditioning him to equate malice directed at him with pain, hopefully.

"Hey!" he complained.

"Don't throw away Gudo Dama, stupid," I chided.

"I don't even know what that is!"

"Powerful but finicky jutsu that you might get in the future if events line up, and in my visions you stupidly hamstrung your ability to use two fifths of it like an hour after getting it by throwing two of them into a Chibaku Tensei in another space-time. Don't do that for real."

"What happened to not punishing people for things they haven't done yet?"

I shrugged. "That was for having the potential stupid to throw away Gudo Dama. You don't even want to know what I'll do if I learn you do it without a good enough reason." Then, I heard the frantic footsteps of a young girl and turned around to see Tenten staring at me with an elated expression. "'Sup," I said.

"Naruto-kun said that you have healing powers!" Tenten said.

I shrugged. "Yeah, but not the kind just anyone can use, if that's what you're asking." Her face fell. "But if it's healing jutsu you want to learn, then you should know that you should have a bit of an advantage with yang release due to being an Uzumaki, which you need for medical release."

"Yes!" she shouted and threw her hands in the air. "I wanna be like Tsunade, she's this really cool kunoichi who's a really good healer!"

Ai pouted. "I'm a cool kunoichi too... And I have weapons... It's because I'm only a special jonin, isn't it?"

I nodded. "Tsunade's got some bad habits that I'm pretty sure your moms would like very much if you never pick up," they both agreed emphatically, "and you don't need to be a medic to be cool, but if you really, really wanna know how to heal people, then..." I took my hand out of my pocket, and a leaf appeared on it. "The other half of the equation is chakra control, so get cracking." I used a chakra thread to put it in her hands. "Well, there's knowledge needed too, but the biggest parts are yang release and plenty of chakra control."

"How did you do that?" Ai asked me, amazed.

I pulled down my sleeve, revealing a wristband with a storage seal on it that I'd made with Kurama's help. Really, why don't more people do that? It's awesome and useful. "I made a waterproof storage seal wristband with variable output, which is a lot more practical than you'd think if you do it right, by the way," I explained.

Ai gave me an eager look that made me feel like stars should have appeared in her eyes, and said, "Teach me your ways, master."

"Hey, I don't actually know how this leaf helps me with chakra control," Tenten complained.

"Naruto," I ordered. He took my meaning immediately and went over to help his new sister with her leaf. I turned back to Ai and said, "Right, so the first thing you need to know is that you can put waterproof seals on fabric surprisingly easily..."

kukukuku~

Thankfully, the fact that I wasn't using toad oil to feel the natural energy meant that I didn't immediately start drawing on it, because at my chakra level, that would've probably been really bad. Without even opening my eyes, which I wasn't even sure I could do without breaking my tenuous natural energy sensing, I focused on the blue chakra in my hand. My idea was to combine the natural energy outside of my body until I felt I could do proper sage mode so as to circumvent the danger of using sage chakra.

Kurama had laughed that idea off at first when I'd told him, saying that there was no way I'd be able to add the natural energy to already-completed chakra until I'd actually managed to get the feel of sage chakra. I then told him that one of my failed attempts at yin-yang release involved me somehow managing to split my chakra back into its constituent parts and then recombining them outside of my body, which made him shut up. I thought back to when I managed to do it, then tried to recreate the feat. As is my curse, actually trying to do it somehow made it exponentially more difficult, though I just barely managed to puzzle it out. After that, I started working on recombining it, but with some extra natural energy. I almost got it... almost... almost...

"Hey, you!" Aaaand I lost it. I sighed, looked over the two chakra signatures that approached me, one of which had a suspiciously familiar signature to it that I honestly shouldn't have been too shocked about given who was writing the story, and opened my eyes to see a blonde girl about my age in front of me with a shy-looking pink-haired girl behind her.

"I-Ino-chan, you don't have to..." Oh, right. Sakura was really shy when she was a little kid. Seriously, though, how did she go from that to where she was at the start of the anime?

Actually it was probably the dumb fangirl thing. Would have to do something about that...

I licked my lips. "Nah, it's okay. I was almost done anyway... Whaddya want?"

"Why were you talking to that one kid earlier," Ino asked. She was referring to how Naruto was talking to me while I was meditating a bit earlier before going to play ninja with Tenten, Hinata, and Neji. "Our parents keep telling us not to talk to him."

I gave her my "I'm silently judging you" glare and said, "If anyone ever spent so much as two seconds getting to know Naruto they'd know he isn't a demon that has become quite jaded with most of humanity on account of their exploitative ways," eliciting a "What?" from both of them. "If either of your parents have problems not judging an innocent boy for events that happened literally on the day of his birth, then they can take it up with the Hokage." An idea came to me and I smirked. "Naruto's actually really friendly, you might like him. If you two want, I can probably get you in their game." I looked at Sakura and gave her a small, wry smile. "Plus, I think the two of you might be distantly related."

Ino sighed. "Why does everyone think that everyone with blonde hair is a Yamanaka?" she asked. "Not everyone with the same hair color are clan members!"

"I already knew that, Yamanaka Ino, heiress of the Yamanaka clan." I internally laughed at her face. "I think there are some redhead Yamanaka too, so explain that. Plus zero members of the current Uzumaki clan, despite three of them having chakra that suggests they inherited at least part of the bloodline, have the traditional Uzumaki red hair. No, I meant your pink-haired friend, who for some reason has a chakra signature that reminds me of members of the Senju and Uzumaki, plus with something else vaguely bloodliney that I haven't seen before. Probably foreshadowing for something."

Sakura blinked. "I'm part of the Uzumaki and Senju clans?" she asked.

I shrugged. "Could be close, could be distant. Uzumaki's an offshoot of Senju and I've only ever felt three confirmed Uzumaki, plus I've got nothing to compare that third, totally-something-that'll-come-up-later bloodline to, so that could also be something. Heck, it's so much of a jumble I wouldn't be surprised if you're from a third line descended from Otsutsuki Ashura that I somehow don't know about."

"A what?" Sakura asked.

I hummed. "The only thing about that that you really need to worry about is that you more likely than not have a longer lifespan and life energy than your average person. And if you wanna be a ninja, I suggest looking at medical ninjutsu. Tsunade the medical genius got to be so good from a combination of her advantage in yang release granted by having a Senju and an Uzumaki as grandparents and her skill with chakra control." I pointed at Tenten. "That's Tenten. Speak to her if you're curious. She really likes Tsunade."

Sakura blinked. "Thank you."

"It's cool," I said. "I'm gonna play now. You in?"

kukukuku~

"Hey, you!" a voice that I'm pretty sure was Sakura's mom said. I confirmed with a bit of chakra-sensing.

I turned around to see her. "Hello, Haruno-san."

She flinched. "How did you know my name?"

"I may not look it, but I'm skilled with chakra-sensing," I explained. "You share a... peculiarity in your chakra with your daughter." So my theory about that third thing in Sakura's chakra having to do with Ashura was probably shot, considering the fact that her mom had it and not the Uzumaki and Senju stuff.

"Right, well I don't like you telling my daughter to talk to talk to that Naruto boy."

I gave her a faux-confused stare. "What's wrong with him?"

As I expected, she blanched. "Well... he's..."

I decided to push a bit further. "Give me one good reason for all the abuse he's had at the hands of the village. One thing he's done that would change my mind. Burden of proof." After some more of her grasping for a good reason, I continued with a glare. "I know about the Kyuubi, by the way, and that's not a good reason." I made sure nobody was around before elaborating. "He's not the fuzzball, and if it weren't for him neither of us would be alive. Nor would your daughter, your husband, or just about anyone you've ever known and loved. Why then?"

"I... I-"

I snorted. "Save it. You're not gonna rationalize your way out of that moral quandary." I pulled out the used Inner Demon Calming Seal tag, then replaced the used-up sealing formula with a fresh one with my chakra alone. "If it really bothers you that your kid's friends with the jinchuriki, this thing can be used to suppress Fluffy's chakra, at least as long as... it... is still at least partially in Naruto." Calling Kurama it felt dirty. That's probably a good thing. "It's practically the best thing you can have when dealing with an out-of-control jin...chu..." I trailed off as it finally hit me just what I made.

"Fffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu-" I internally screamed.

She blinked. "It's okay. I don't need this. You're right."

"-uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu-" I put the seal back away and said, "Yeah that's probably for the best... Hang on, I need to make a call real quick." I closed my eyes and reached out with my telepathy to Sarutobi's office.

"I already took care of it," Hiruzen told me immediately upon picking up. He was getting real nonchalant about having someone randomly use telepathy on him...

"-uuuuuuuu... huh?"

"Do you think I didn't realize how Akatsuki could use your seal?" he asked. "Rest assured, I informed the Kazekage of the gravity of it and why he should be careful with who he gives that information to. I also managed to put a genjutsu on it that should hopefully use Sasori's jutsu to induce memory loss. Theoretically, anyway. I'm not the best at genjutsu and I haven't seen Sasori's jutsu."

"Thanks," I mentally sighed. "I really dropped the ball there, huh?"

He mentally chuckled. "To be fair, you are still a child. You might still want to check in on Sasori."

"Will do. Bye." I opened my eyes back up. "Right, where were we?" I asked before realizing she was gone. "Meh, I'm sure everything's fine now."

kukukuku~

Though I suppose it was better than my first time of about an hour for blue.

"I guess it still works for what I need it for," I sighed, then shrugged as I considered the blue chakra. With Kurama's and my calculations, it was doubtful that I'd need any more than a small amount of blue sage chakra, so I just traded a bit of chakra between my hands and reabsorbed the mostly blue chakra. It wasn't much of a boost and therefore carried none of the actual risks of sage mode, but I definitely felt a buzz from it that felt pretty nice. After that, I pulled out the little bug cage thing I got for the other component I needed for the jutsu I'd thought of.

That other thing being the bugs that I had. Well, any animal would do, but I wanted to start small and with something that I would hopefully not feel guilt over killing. Of course, that meant that I barely had any material to work with, just a couple of flies that I'd managed to convince Hinata to catch while I was meditating. I looked at them for a few minutes, took a few deep breaths, and said, "Sorry, little guys." I channeled the demonic sage chakra into the bugs, pouring all of the chakra evenly into them. The flies took on a look similar to a stage two chakra cloak but without the tail before beginning to compress and converge on each other.

The idea was to use the mutative properties of natural energy overload to change them into something I could use. Theoretically, I could have used less demon sage chakra than complete saturation, but I decided that with how easy it was to saturate the flies, I would just do that and observe as best I could to see if I could glean the proper form for that and not have to go through trial and error. After about a minute, they had fully compressed and fused together into a small red crystal with a light glow. I sighed when I saw that it was pebble-sized, about a centimeter in diameter. Sure, I wasn't expecting to pull an adequately-sized crystal out of a few flies, but I was hoping for a little more... I ran my fingers through my hair and picked up the pebble. "I guess it's fine for now..." I muttered, then reached down my shirt to stick it on my sternum, hidden away. A seal blossomed on my skin, collecting the very minute amount of demon sage chakra that the stone was generating. Until I had a bigger one, that was the best use for it I could think of.

kukukuku~

Imagine that one French narrator voice from Spongebob saying "One month later."

"So that's probably a good structure for the seal, right?" I asked, swinging my legs in the air. I was honestly surprised that the blood hadn't rushed to my head yet; I was sitting upside-down on the couch. Something something tree-walking, probably.

Ai shrugged. "Probably."

"Yeah, Shukaku's a slippery bastard, but that should about do it," Kurama agreed, curled up on another seat.

"Seal team meeting adjourned?" I asked, then got nods from the both of them. "Adjourned. Now that we're done, I remembered something I wanted to ask you, Ai."

"Shoot, kid."

I smirked and picked up a cookie from the plate on the table (using chakra threads, obviously). I took a bite from it, then after I swallowed said, "Your wife makes amazing cookies."

She blushed lightly. "Okay first, you skipped over the question. Second, she's only my girlfriend. We're not even engaged yet." I gave her a flat look and raised an eyebrow, causing her blush to deepen to the proper Uzumaki shade of red. "I'm still looking for a ring..." she muttered.

I nodded. "Good, you two feel like an old married couple already. Now, what do you know about the Adamantine Sealing Chains?"

Ai sighed deeply. "I still can't figure it out, even after I asked Kushina for advice a few years ago," she grumbled. "I'm still not entirely sure it's a Kekkei Genkai and not a Hijutsu..."

"Technically it's both," Kurama said. "If I recall correctly, it's technically a Hijutsu that uses the special chakra of the Uzumaki. You should be able to figure it out eventually if you know enough of how to use it, though."

Ai frowned. "How did you... Right... Hey, if you know so much about it from Kushina, do you have any tips to using it?"

Kurama shrugged. "I didn't really pay too much attention to it because I couldn't think of any way I could possibly use it to break out of the seal, and that was really all I was thinking of at the time... I know that you should be able to do it more easily if you manage it at least once, but I can't help you with that."

"I have an idea," I offered.

Kurama sighed, got up, and said, "Why do I feel like I'm not going to like this?"

"If it's part Kekkei Genkai, then you might find it easier to do it if you have more power behind you instead of harder."

"The math checks out, but I still don't like where this is going," Kurama complained. The red gem I'd made, now completed, dropped from under my shirt and into my hand. It had that one gem shape, sort of like a kunai but without the handle, though it was about half the scale of a kunai. "FUCK. NO." Kurama looked at me with with what probably should have been abject terror if he had the ability to make expressions. "Kouki, no!"

"Kouki yes," I countered flatly.

"Fuck this," Kurama said, then ran for the opened door. He stopped at the doorway, said "Kurama is out. Peace," and noped off as fast as his little legs could carry him.

"Should I be concerned by Kurama's reaction to that?" Ai asked.

I shrugged. "Unless you have objections to temporarily gaining phenomenal cosmic power, not particularly. I'll use my eyes to make sure I give you about as much as you can take without adverse effects, maybe a bit less. Kurama's just a wuss."

She nodded. "Cool. So what is that?"

"Demon gem." I originally called it a demon sage core, but that's a mouthful so I shortened it to demon gem. "A special stone of my own invention that generates red chakra and fuses it with natural energy on its own."

She gave me a huge grin. "Sounds fun."

I activated my eyes long enough to check how it would go down. Turns out it was a good idea, worked well enough, but unless we had more, then Ai'd really have to try to finesse it to get the chains out, and that's boring. "Unfortunately, though, it's probably gonna take like a month to do that, even with a head start. You've got a lot of chakra capacity."

"Dammit."

#fanfiction #naruto fanfiction #naruto #Foresight is 20/20 #F20 CH7

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dkronpa · 5 years

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Chapter 3: Journey to Despair, Grave Secrets, Grave Lies ~Investigation~

//HOOO BOY, this was a looooong chapter to write. I don’t even wanna say too much because this trial...I feel is gonna be...interesting to write, so I’ll let you guys read and decide what you think for yourself.

//Hope you guys enjoy!

-Chapter 3 Deadly Life, Torture Exhibit-

We all stared silently at the iron maiden. Ishikawa-san was respectful enough to close over the slide that let us see Shinko-san’s face. Frankly, I don’t think I could stomach seeing his final expression. I think we were all trying to figure out how someone was able to do this to him. Not physically but morally. Killing was already bad enough but to use something in the torture exhibit room…

“Man you guys are so mopey whenever you find a body!” Monokuma chided, “give me a little variety! Someone celebrate, this guy was kind of a douchebag, don’t you think?”

“Oi, if you start saying shit like that-“

“You’ll hit me? Go on, big guy! Hit me and see what happens you do!” Monokuma taunted. Okanaya-san let out a shaky breath and stayed put. He was holding back, “Yeah, that’s what I thought you’d do. Anyway, as per usual, I present to you…the Monokuma file! Make sure you read up on what I’ve prepared and have fun…so…I’ll see ya later!” And once again, Monokuma was gone.

“How shall we go about this?” Ishikawa-san asked, “I doubt many people want to see the state of Shinko-sama’s body, however, if I do not perform my autopsy then I fear we may lose vital evidence.”

“Then only people who can stomach the sight should investigate this room. Simple as that.” Sly-san said.

“I suppose…” Ishikawa-san seemed reluctant. I wonder if this is even too much for her to handle, “very well…I will deal with the autopsy once everybody who does not wish to see the state of Shinko-sama has left. There is a tarp in the back of the room I can use to cover him should they wish to come and investigate this room later.”

“That sounds like a good plan.” Kurohiko-san said woozily, “I…I think I’ll just stick to investigating elsewhere though. It’s just…s-so much blood.”

“Mademoiselle Graves, Herr Knives and I are probably the only people who will be able to stomach seeing Herr Shinko’s body. So, one of us should stay behind to watch over the crime scene with Mademoiselle Ishikawa.” Kurosaki-san said.

“I’ll do it. I don’t feel up to walking about this time around.” Sly-san murmured. Kurosaki-san’s gaze lingered on him for a moment before nodding.

“Very well…everyone, let’s do our best for Herr Shinko’s sake. Oui?” There was a silent agreement in the room. Or almost a full agreement. Someone in this room killed Shinko-san…they were going to be working against us.

Investigation Start!

I opened up the Monokuma file and looked at the information I was provided with this time around. The pink splotches were shown all across Shinko-san’s torso area and legs, though that was to be expected. I scrolled to the next page.

The victim was Toson Shinko, his body was found in the torture exhibit of the history building at 9:24am. The cause of death was multiple stab wounds across the body resulting in blood loss.

No time of death again, so I’m going to have to figure out a timeframe for that…

Truth Bullet Added: Monokuma File 3

The victim is Toson Shinko, the cause of death was several stabs wounds across the whole body.

“Hmmm…Hmmmmmmm!” Graves-san was nodding to herself as she looked at the iron maiden.

“Wh…what are you doing?” I asked.

“I was just thinking; this thing is probably super heavy right? Then it totally narrows down who the killer could’ve been, right?! This thing is solid metal, so only someone strong could’ve thrown Toson’s body in there and closed the door.” She said. I suppose the thing did look pretty heavy, “also, did you know that even though iron maidens are considered a medieval torture device, there’s no evidence of the iron maidens we know today before the 19th century. Bonkers, right?”

“Y-yeah. Bonkers.”

New Truth Bullet: Graves-san’s Account

Graves-san believes the killer must have been strong to be able to get someone of Shinko-san's build into the iron maiden.

New Truth Bullet: Iron Maiden

An iron case filled with iron spikes. Shinko-san's body was found inside of it.

“Ah, Nagata-kun, could I ask you a favour?” Kurosaki-san approached me all of a sudden.

“A…favour? I’m not sure I like the sound of that coming from you.” I said. That was the moment Kurosaki-san would hit back with a line, but his face remained neutral. I suppose he still feels off with the group’s situation.

“I want you to investigate with me this time around.” He said.

“Oi, what are you up to? If it’s anything suspicious, I’ll kill you.”

“Sly-sama, please.” Ishikawa-san chastised. No, I had to agree. It was strange that, out of everyone, Kurosaki-san would want to investigate with me. Even Ishikawa-san must know that.

“The important thing right now is the truth, non? You’re the only reason we’re still alive right now, so if anybody is going to be able to find out the truth this time around, it’ll be you. I just want to make sure you have all the necessary evidence to piece it all together.” Kurosaki-san explained.

“…you say that, but I’d have probably gotten a lot of things wrong or gotten stuck if it wasn’t for you being there to guide the trial…Kurosaki-san, you’re the reason we’re alive. So, why are you relying on someone like me?”

“I don’t have a lot of people I can trust.” He said coldly.

…I can’t understand what this guy must be going through or have already gone through to be able to speak like that…but, if I can find the truth then I guess I have no choice. “Okay then. I’ll help you out.” I said.

“Then let’s go to the library.”

“Huh? The library? What does that place have to do with Shinko-san’s murder?”

“You’ll understand eventually. Let’s just go.”

-Chapter 3 Deadly Life, Library-

We stepped into the library- or rather, Kurosaki-san made me follow him there. “Alright, we’re here. What is it you’re wanting to check?” I asked.

“Isn’t it obvious? Take a look.” Kurosaki-san simply gestured to the whole room. Ugh, why can’t he just tell me directly? We’re on a time limit right now…

My eyes scan the room and I notice it. A book laying on the ground underneath one of the tables, blood covering its cover and spine. A white strip of paper was sticking out from the pages. “Is this what you were talking about? What is this book?”

Kurosaki-san walked over and picked up the book. “It’s a book containing past records for Hope’s Peak Academy. The past classes and such, y’know?” The blood left the cover illegible, so Kurosaki-san has probably read it before and recognised it from its design?

“That bookmark…somebody was reading it then.” I said. Kurosaki-san slid the bookmark from the pages and handed it to me. In actuality, it was a card with a bloodstain on the front of it. I opened it up to see what it said, but was greeted with nothing, aside from lines that would be used to write along. “Huh…? What’s with this?”

Kurosaki-san loomed over me, staring at the card. “My best guess…is that it’s a motive card. The blood is covering up the name of whoever this belongs to, but it’s got the exact same layout of my motive card, and it has a Monokuma symbol in each corner.” That was true…

“It’s blank though. There’s no names.”

“Indeed…how ominous.” Kurosaki-san said.

New Truth Bullet: Bloody Book

A bloody book found in the library. The blood covered the cover and spine and has sealed a number of pages together.

New Truth Bullet: Blank Motive Card

A motive card found as a bookmark in the bloody book. The name is covered up by a bloodstain.

I continued my scan of the room and noticed that by the bookshelves that the wooden frame of the shelves was decorated with splotches of blood as well. “Seriously? What happened in here?” Could it be related to Shinko-san’s murder? Either way, I should remember this.

New Truth Bullet: Blood in the library

The frames of the bookshelves in the library seem to have spots of blood on them.

“I think that’s all we’ll find in here. For now, we should go to the front entrance. There’s something important to look at there, non?” Kurosaki-san said. Again, he’s leading around the place…

-Chapter 3 Deadly Life, Ground floor-

“Nagata-kun…a-and Kurosaki-kun…?” Ram-…Kirishima-san appeared when we reached the ground floor. “I guess you two are investigating together then. I’m doing my best as well, don’t worry! I’ll definitely find some good evidence.”

“Yeah, I’m sure.” I nodded.

“Have you found anything so far…?” Kurosaki-san said.

“Actually…i-it’s a little embarrassing but I found something on accident just a minute ago. I dunno if it was me or if it was already like that…b-but one of the windows at the end of the hallway had a loose bar. I almost knocked it completely out of place…” She said. Kirishima-san isn’t heavy either, so it must be really loose.

“Hmm…the windows here aren’t blocked with glass, so the iron bars are a replacement. If you didn’t break it, I wonder why it’s loose…?”

“Not only that! There were some strange scratch marks on the windowsill! Like…if something metal was dragged on the stone.”

“You noticed a few things then. Impressive, Ram-san.” Kurosaki-san said.

“U-um…actually, it’s Kirishima now…l-long story.” Kirishima-san smiled half-heartedly. Of course, Kurosaki-san wasn’t there when Kirishima-san said that to everybody…

New Truth Bullet: Window Frame

There are scuff marks on the window frame as if something scraped against it

New Truth Bullet: Loose Iron Bar

One of the windows on the ground floor was slightly loose and could be removed easily.

“I’m gonna check elsewhere! I wanna make sure I leave no stone unturned in a building like this! If I find anything, I’ll let you know.” Kirishima-san promised before jogging up the stairs.

“She’s become rather determined over time, has she not?” Kurosaki-san said.

“I’m glad. I remember how frail she came across when I met her the first time, so I’m glad she’s been able to get to this point. I think we can really rely on Kirishima-san.”

“Oh~hohoho~? Nagata-kyun, are you perhaps falling for Fraulein?” Kurosaki-san teased.

“E-eh?! N-no way! That’s definitely not it!” I protested. Even if I didn’t like being teased like that, I have to say that I was happy to see the normal Kurosaki-san, even for a second.

Kurosaki-san and I walked to the entrance and I used my ElectroID to exit the building. He stopped when the doors slid shut and turned back to the card reader. “Monokuma! I need you!” He called out.

Within a second, Monokuma appeared from nowhere, “What what what? You wanna start the trial early? I dunno if the others’ll be happy with that!”

“No, it’s not that. This card reader, is there any records on it? If possible, could you provide us with a copy of the records? We’d only really need the records of the last 24 hours.” Kurosaki-san said.

“Ah~ I knew someone like you would ask about it, so I had a copy prepared already…although, the budget is tight for this killing game. This is the only copy I got…so, be nice and share it around! Or don’t!” Monokuma shrugged and vanished, leaving a piece of paper where he was standing.

Kurosaki-san picked up the paper and read through the names. “Oh? No timestamps…” He murmured before handing it to me. “For now, let’s keep the information on this between us. I have my reasons, so please trust in me.”

New Truth Bullet: Card Reader Records

The entrance to the history building requires an electroID to open. The log was as follows, from most recent to least recent in the last 24 hours:

"Nagata - Exit"

“Asano – Exit”

"Graves - Enter"

"Yokozawa - Enter"

"Sly - Enter"

"Kurosaki - Enter"

"Okanaya - Enter"

"Kurohiko - Enter"

"Nagata - Enter"

"Kurosaki - Exit"

"Sly - Exit"

"Shinko - Enter"

"Sly - Enter"

"Kurosaki - Enter"

"Graves - Exit"

"Ishikawa - Exit"

"Yokozawa - Exit"

"Kirishima - Exit"

Huh? “K…Kurosaki-san, you were in the history building last night?!” I exclaimed.

“Indeed. Though, that shouldn’t be surprise. I told you I was going to be investigating the library as much as I could, and that’s exactly what I was doing during the night.” Kurosaki-san explained.

“But…between the time you entered and left…Shinko-san came to the building as well and it says here that he never left either.” I pointed out. Kurosaki-san folded his arms and hummed under his breath, almost in thought.

“…I’ll probably get accused at the trial. For Herr Shinko’s murder, I mean. However, I did not kill him, okay? I have too much to lose by killing someone. I’ll be counting on you when that time comes.”

Even if he says that, why would he leave his defence to me…? “…if it’s what you want, then I’ll do it…but I’m putting a lot of trust in you. If there’s any doubt in my mind, I’ll accuse you myself. You know that, right?��

Kurosaki-san’s eyes widened. “Oh…you would’ve never been so direct with someone like me if this was the first trial. You’re becoming quite the protégé detective, Nagata-kyun.” Kurosaki-san chuckled. “Well, I knew that already. I’ll be putting my faith in you when the time comes…like I said, let’s keep this information between us for now. Don’t even ask other people their reason for being in the building the last 24 hours.”

“…alright then.”

“Good. I think this will be where our co-investigation ends. I’ll look elsewhere, so good luck with your end of the investigation, Nagata-kyun.” Kurosaki-san tipped his hat at me and walked off. I need to find more places to investigate…where should I go…?

-Chapter 3 Deadly Life, Dormitory-

“Asano-san, you decided to come and investigate here too…?” I walked over to her, snapping her out of whatever thought she was in.

“Indeed. I wanted to investigate Shinko-kun’s room seeing as that was why I called upon his search this morning in the first place. Would you like me to show you what I found? I left the door open.” I took her up on the offer and followed her to Shinko-san’s room. A doorstopper was wedged underneath the door.

I took in the sight of Shinko-san’s room. The walls were decorated with numerous movie memorabilia and awards I assume belonged to Shinko-san. A director’s chair was in the corner with Shinko-san’s name on it. I recognised a lot of the items as props used in his short film from the talent show.

“He was a wonder to work with.” Asano-san said, as if reading my mind. “I believe he simply became too scared of dying that he thought shutting himself away was the only way.”

“Were you two close?”

Asano-san shook her head, “Regrettably, no. I feel as though as I could have done more though…Ishikawa-san and I talked to him that day to try and get him to come back to the group, but…”

-A Conversation with Toson-

“You’re here to beg me to come back to the group? I’d actually prefer to not be fodder for the rest of you. No, I’ll keep to myself.” Shinko-san said.

“We work best as a group. Staying away from us is not only a hindrance for yourself, it’s a hinderance for everybody. I would actually prefer it if you could stop being selfish and realise this game is more than just you.”

“Ishikawa-san-“

“Hah?! You wanna start preaching about morals in a killing game?! Morals became irrelevant a long time ago, dumbass! We’re in a kill or be killed situation, and like fuck am I being killed off like some stupid side-character!” Shinko-san barked.

“So that’s what we all mean to you? You were almost sentenced to death in both trials thus far and yet you wish to argue that you cannot trust anybody? The efforts of Nagata-sama, Kurosaki-sama and everybody else means nothing?!” Ishikawa-san argued.

“They did it for themselves, not for me. They would’ve had no qualms about voting me as it the killer. And how I can trust someone like Nagata? He’s the reason we’re still in this shitty situation! And you-“ He pointed accusingly at Asano-san, “-you were on Nagata’s side in that debate, so how can I trust you?!”

Asano-san attempted a response though she could only manage stammers.

“I tried to put my trust in this group, but I’m sick of feeling like that trust is just gonna get thrown right back at me. Have fun acting like you’re all friends but leave me out of it.”

-Present Time-

“And then he slammed the door in our faces…”

Shinko-san was probably scared, by the sound of it. And it’s my fault he separated from the group in the first place…if I hadn’t spoken up like that during the last trial, Shinko-san wouldn’t be dead…

“We all should have done more to make everybody feel safe enough to stick together.” I said.

“Indeed…” Asano-san said. I allowed myself a few moments to be angry at myself before trying to refocus on the investigation at hand.

“A-anyway…I’ve been wondering for a while, but why did you think to check Shinko-san’s room this morning? You just came into the cafeteria and said he was missing without much explanation.” I asked.

“Oh, of course. My apologies for forgetting to explain. When I was making my way to the cafeteria this morning, I noticed Shinko-kun’s door was ajar because of a doorstopper. I found it strange due to our previous encounter and decided I should investigate further. That is when I found out he was not in his room and began my search for him.” Asano-san explained.

“And when you couldn’t find him in this building, you came to the cafeteria and we all split into our groups. So, that doorstopper holding his door open right now is the same one that was holding it open this morning?”

“Correct.” Asano-san nodded. Shinko-san’s room is at the very back of the dorm hallway and Asano-san’s is right across. I suppose she was the only one who would’ve seen it.

New Truth Bullet: Asano-san’s Account

She noticed a doorstopper holding Shinko-san's room door opened, when she checked the room she found he wasn't there which is what prompted the search for him.

I turned my attention to the bedside table where there was a plate of untouched food sitting. “This is pretty strange as well.” I commented.

“Indeed, I was trying to make heads-or-tails with it. Perhaps the killer ambushed Shinko-kun while he was in his room and he didn’t get a chance to eat this. It’s prepared perfectly, so it must have been for eating right away.” Asano-san concluded. Ambush Shinko-san? Shinko-san seemed like a pretty in-shape guy, so I doubt there were many people who were strong enough to overpower him without leaving any signs of a struggle…

New Truth Bullet: Plate of Food

Plate of untouched food found in Shinko-san's room. Clearly prepared to eat right away.

“I think that’s everything in here…that food plate is making me a little suspicious…he wouldn’t come out of his room during the daytime, and the cafeteria shuts at night-time…so he probably got that food from the storage room.” I decided on my next destination.

“I see…I’ll wish you good luck in your search there. I shall continue to look elsewhere, just in case.” Asano-san said.

-Chapter 3 Deadly Life, Storage room-

The storage room was deathly quiet. This was the second time I had to come here for an investigation, and that fact really put my teeth on edge. I began looking around the room to see if anything was out of place and made my way to one of the far-right shelves.

I noticed a rag on the floor in front of the shelf. I picked it up and felt that something had dried onto it. I couldn’t tell what it was as there was no stain, but the material of the rag definitely was soaked in something. I brought it a little closer to my face but-

“Ugh!” I recoiled when I started to feel a little dizzy and ended up dropping the rag…suspicious.

New Truth Bullet: Rag

A rag found on the floor of the storage room. There's an odd substance on it that made me dizzy when I got too close to it

I turned my attention to the food shelf it was in front of. None of the boxes seemed too out of place, though, ”A dent?” I murmured, tracing my hand along the dent made in one of the shelves. I don’t remember any of the shelves ever being damaged before.

“It’s pretty high up, yeah?”

“Uwah!” I jumped, spinning to face whoever the voice belonged to.

“Ack! D-don’t just yell like that, idiot! You nearly gave me a heart attack!” Yokozawa-san growled.

“S-sorry, you surprised me…”

“I’ve been talking with you this whole time. You sniffed that weird rag even though I said not to.” H-huh?! I didn’t even realise he was there…has he been in the room this whole time, “God, even after all this time, you still don’t notice me when I’m the room with you. Sad.” Even though he says that, he seemed to just shrug it off.

“S-sorry.”

“Stop saying that.” He chided before turning back to the shelf. He let out a low hum, glancing to me then back to the shelf, “No…probably not.”

“Huh?”

“Just thinking out loud…this dent was probably because somebody hit it with their elbow. I was thinking it could’ve been someone short and they hit their head on it, but the shape of the dent is probably more like an elbow did it going down onto the shelf. And with the height of the shelf…both of us are too short to have done it. Person must’ve been…6 foot at least? Yeah, that sounds about right. Though I suppose a short person could have been dropped from above that shelf and hit their elbow on the way down.” Yokozawa-san concluded.

“E-eh?! You were able to tell all that just from a dent?!”

“Being on the internet all the time, you ended up spending your time learning how to do this and that. There was a time I wanted to be an investigator, so something like this is just simple deduction. And it’s definitely new as well. I was here yesterday and there was no dent…”

“Impressive…” I said.

New Truth Bullet: Dented Shelf

A food shelf that seemed to have been damaged at some point in the last 24 hours. Judging by the dent itself, it was cause by somebody at least 6 foot hitting their elbow on it.

“I, uh…I appreciate you telling me all that. J-just because you didn’t have to. You could have kept that information to yourself…”

“Huh? Why are you being weird? It’s pissing me off. If you’re acting like that because of the last trial or because I kept myself in my room, then knock it off! It’s not your fault about the last trial, I get where you were coming from. Even if Hachi-san said they were gonna end the killing game, we couldn’t know for sure…”

“B-but Shinko-san-“

“Did you kill him?”

“Huh…?”

“Did you make someone kill him?”

“Of course not!”

“Then shut the fuck up and get on with the investigation! I don’t have time for self-pitying bastards like you! We should be focusing on finding Shinko-kun’s killer above all else.” Yokozawa-san said. I twiddled my thumbs like a child getting scolded. Yokozawa-san didn’t make much of an impact when I met him, but his words are pretty sharp and to the point.

“You…actually kind of remind of Shinko-san. He was pretty brutal with his words too.”

“Is that so?” Yokozawa-san fiddled with the sleeves of his hoodie. “I suppose if I’m gonna help you, I should probably say…I actually say Shinko-kun in here the day before yesterday. I have a supply of food in my room, but I ran out after night-time that day, so I came here to get more and then he came in afterwards. It didn’t look like he noticed me…but I just thought I should mention it.”

“I see…thank you, Yokozawa-san. I appreciate the help.”

“Yeah, whatever.”

New Truth Bullet: Yokozawa-san’s Account

He met Shinko-san a few days before the murder, going into the storage room. Though Shinko-san didn't notice Yokozawa-san was there.

“Good luck on your investigation.” Yokozawa-san murmured as we parted ways.

-Chapter 3 Deadly Life, Fountain-

“Yo, Nagata!” Okanaya-san called out as I was passing by the fountain. He was walking on the path that led to the leisure building. “How goes the investigation?”

“I’m not sure. I’ve collected a lot of information, but I haven’t taken any time to piece anything together yet. There’s evidence I’ve found, not just in the history building, but also the dormitory.”

“Ah, the drag marks, yeah…?”

“Huh?”

“You never noticed?” He gestured me to follow and we headed back towards the dormitory building. We stopped before entering the building and Okanaya-san pointed to the dirt patch between the entrance and the stone path that led to the fountain. “See? There’s marks in the dirt as if something’s been dragged.”

“Ah yeah. I didn’t even notice.” I said.

“…I wish I was more alert last night when we came out here. We might have noticed these and maybe stopped the murder.”

“Stopped it? How so?”

“You remember that crashing noise last night, and the broken window? I was thinking that it might have actually had something to do with the murder. I’m not sure how, I’m not so good with that stuff, but…it was just a thought. I went to recheck that…and I found this.” Okanaya-san pulled out a scrap of black fabric. “It was hidden in with the rocks. Not sure what it’s from, but…thought it could’a been useful to hold onto.”

“Yeah…good work, Okanaya-kun! This is a lot of good information, I think!” The rocks in the weapons exhibit had been disturbed when I checked on it. I wonder if the rocks came from there…? “That crash as well…do you remember when it happened…?”

“Uh…thinking about the time I got you and Kirishima at…must’ve been somewhere between 1am and 1:30am?”

New Truth Bullet: Drag marks in the dirt

Drag marks on the dirt outside of the dorm building

New Truth Bullet: Rock Pile

A number of rocks next to the leisure building. A piece of black fabric was found in the pile.

New Truth Bullet: Broken Window

A window at the side of leisure building that was broken the night of the murder

New Truth Bullet: Crashing Noise

The approximate time of the crashing sound from last night was 1am - 1:30am

“…it’s weird that Shinko got killed.” Okanaya-kun said.

“Huh?”

“Ah, thinking out loud. Probably something I should be saving for the trial…I’ll let you get on with your investigation. I’ve been keeping you too long.” Okanaya-kun nodded before heading off. There’s probably not much time left until the investigation is over, Ishikawa-san should be finished her autopsy by now.

-Chapter 3 Deadly Life, Torture Exhibit (2)-

“Nagata-sama! Have you finished your investigation?” Ishikawa-san asked when I entered the room. A tarp was over the ground, I’m guessing that Shinko-san’s body was underneath it. The iron maiden was luckily closed over again, I don’t think I could stomach seeing the inside of it.

“Just about, I think. I just came to get your autopsy report and see if you guys had anymore information. I’ve collected a lot, but I don’t know how anything fits. It feels all…contradictory.”

“Save it for the trial.” Sly-san said.

“I agree. You wish for my autopsy, correct? Well, it was actually hard to learn anything because of the state of the body. I couldn’t discern the time of the death. The iron maiden is cold so I wasn’t able to make an estimate on the time of death because it would have made Shinko-sama’s body cool faster.”

“I see. What about the injuries themselves?”

“As you’d expect, he had stab wounds across his entire body. However, I believe he was ambushed in some way because there was no sign of a struggle. So…I suppose I could at least tell that much.”

“Even that might prove useful, thanks for your help, Ishikawa-san.”

New Truth Bullet: Ishikawa-san’s Autopsy

The time of death was hard to discern. Though there were no signs of struggle across the body.

“Sly-san, have you been able to tell anything?”

“Not really. I left the autopsy to Ishikawa and just made sure nobody messed with the crime scene. Though while I was here, I was making a list of the different exhibits in the building. I figured that with how extensive this building is, the killer probably used something in one of the other rooms.”

“I know about the torture exhibit and the weapons exhibit, which show different torture devices and weapons throughout the ages respectively…what about the other ones?”

“Monokuma has a room that’s basically a Darwin Award hall of fame called ‘Worlds Wackiest Deaths’. Not much to it, but the killer might have gotten ideas from there…another is a place that has information all about serious calamities from throughout history, like major wars and such. Calls it his ‘History of Death and Destruction’. Finally ‘Non-Murdery Murder tools’ which is just what it sounds like; a bunch of things that aren’t what usually come to mind when you think about killing someone. Needles, syringes, pillows, a sink was in there, a few chemical stuffs as well. The history exhibits are on the second floor along with the library, whilst that non-murder tools thing is here on the top floor.”

“Huh? But don’t the stairs go up higher?”

“Yeah, to the four towers. Nothing much up there except a catapult, though I doubt the killer launched themselves or Shinko’s body.”

“A-ah, yeah. That makes sense.”

New Truth Bullet: Exhibit List

A list of exhibits that exist inside the history building:

Torture Exhibit

Weapons Exhibit

Worlds Wackiest Deaths!

Non-Murdery Murder Tools!

Monokuma's History of death and destruction!

~Ding Dong, Bing Bong~

“Alright, I think I’ve given you all way more than enough time to get this all together, so hurry up and head down to the trial grounds! It’s time we get this trial underway!” Monokuma announced.

“Ah, it’s time…” Ishikawa-san frowned, glancing at Shinko-san’s body. “Let us discover the truth.” Ishikawa-san said before leaving the room.

-Chapter 3 Deadly Life, Trial Grounds-

When we all arrived the door for the elevator was already open, awaiting us to step onto it. “He’s raring to go this time around, huh? Stupid bastard, taking so much satisfaction in this.” Okanaya-kun growled.

“We…we should not worry, everyone! We have survived two class trials already, as long as we work together, we can overcome this trial as well!” Asano-san said, though I don’t know if she was trying to convince everyone else, or just herself.

“…Okanaya-kun, Kirishima-san. I’ll be counting on you two.” I said.

“Of course! We’ll all work together and get through this!” Kirishima-san nodded. I was with them last night, so I feel confident in saying that neither of them is the killer. It’s just figuring who else it could be…

“…’-kun’…?” Kurohiko-san tilted his head. “Odd of you to refer to anyone with something other than ‘-san’, Nagata-san.”

“O-oh?” I hadn’t even noticed that I was doing that.

“…ah. I get it.” Kurohiko-san, for some reason, had a knowing smile. “Don’t worry, Nagata-san. I’m sure it’ll work out.” He winked and walked onto the elevator.

“H-huh? K-Kurohiko-san?!”

“Nagata, c’mon!” Okanaya-kun dragged me onto the elevator and the doors closed behind us. Ugh, why was Kurohiko-san saying weird things at a time where I need to be focused?! We all waited silently as the screeching elevator moved down to the trial ground, opening slowly.

The décor has changed once again, matching the interior of the history building with torches that were barely lighting the room, shackles dangling from the grey stone walls. Monokuma said some usual speech about how we looked despairful and should take our places, but we were already moving whilst he spoke. “Hmm…? Have you already gotten used to this then?” He chuckled under his breath.

I glanced at the two new portraits. Hachi-san’s…instead of a regular X, their face was crossed out with two bloody magic wands, whilst Shinko-san’s face was crossed out with a regular X. We stood ready for another trial…

Toson Shinko, the Ultimate Horror Movie Director. He was rude, abrasive, and narcissistic. It was hard to understand him or even get close to him…but even so, his sharp words kept me on my toes and there’s no doubt in my mind that was just as scared about this situation as the rest of us, he just wanted to appear strong before us all.

Rina Kirishima

Yuuki Kurosaki

Doi Kurohiko

Saori Kibe

Amaterasu Hokama

Despite all that, somebody here is responsible for his death…

Sly

Karma Graves

Junpei Yokozawa

Maemi Watanabe

Kobo Okanaya

Tomoe Hachi

We need to find out who…otherwise we’ll never survive this killing game!

Mami Asano

Toson Shinko

Sadao Irunami

Tsukiko Ishikawa

Ryuu Nagata

And so, the trial of hope and despair…the battle…the third trial begins!

#DKronpa #chapters #danganronpa #fanganronpa #fangan ronpa #danganronpa fangan

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fidelsutter092-blog · 5 years

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glerupengel5-blog · 5 years

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Fair Review On Latest Sony Vaio Vpcsb11fx

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fordarkisthesuede · 6 years

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At the Brink of Midnight - Prologue & Chapter 1

Category: M/M

Rating: M (subject to change)

Fandoms: Batman: the Telltale Series, Batman - All Media Types

Summary:

When Bruce receives a distressing call from the institutionalized John Doe, the billionaire-philanthropist is thrust back into the darker side of Arkham Asylum, where his strive for the facility's improvements are null when faced with a new threat from the inside. Bruce swore off Batman after seeing what it did to those he loved - will he have to put the cowl back on to save the day? Or can he do it as Bruce Wayne?

(read on Ao3 or continue below cut:)

Prologue

[You have: (ONE) new message. First message: ]

Bruce! Buddy! Uh, it's me, John. I-I know you're busy - it's why you haven't come to see me in the past two weeks, probably.

Look, it's-it's okay, Bruce. I get it. It’s water under the bridge…okay? It has to be, because I... I need your help, Bruce.

Please... I need you to trust me on this.

BAM.

I don't have to time to explain-

"Damn it, ram the door!"

Dang it - Crane, Bruce, Jonathan Crane! I thought it was just the meds they put me on at first, but -

CRASH .

Gotta go.

[End of message. There are no more messages.]

Chapter 1: The Sign Forward

Important Spoiler Warning: use of slur - f*g (mentioned)

Bruce pulled the phone away from his ear, barely feeling the weight in his palm. The people walking down the hall - past him, towards him, down the corner - seemed to be moving at a snail's pace. There should be sound, from the footsteps on the tile and voices and doors swinging open somewhere, but it was like there was nothing at all in the world but Bruce's breathing and the whispering echo of John's voice in his ear, so close and yet so far away.

The transformation of John's voice from nervous to hurt to rushed and desperate chilled him in the same manner Bruce might discover a body floating in the Gotham River.

His phone buzzed, a reminder for the meeting he had in ten minutes sitting above the display for his voicemail, and sound came rushing back all at once.

The message had lasted thirty seconds, from an unsaved number that Bruce had a feeling registered to the old landline in the hallway of John's floor at Arkham. The echo of the bangs and crashes were probably from the orderlies trying to open the hallway door, which miraculously had gotten stuck - John probably locked it, probably caused a distraction in another room to get their attention for the precious seconds he had to dial and pass the message along, tell him to come help...

Bruce felt heat burn his stomach. He should have picked up when it rang, damn the fact that he'd been in the lavatory and damn the way it looked so like the auto-dialing spam he'd been getting for the past few months. He could have picked it up on the second ring, saved Joker some time -

No. Not Joker. John.

Joker was the vigilante, the persona hung up for good like the bat-cowl of the person he was modeled after.

Bruce felt a light pang in his side where the latest scar sat, a twinge that seemed to come and go at odd intervals. There he was, thinking about John like they were still working together in the cover of that warm night several months ago, where things had gone from good to bad to absolutely terrible, where Bruce had decided that the crusade had to stop. Their partnership had been like a dream, too fast and too short, a taste of something that, with time, could've been wondrous.

It was nothing more than a dream of a dream, now. Batman was retired, Joker with him, and now the both of them were trying desperately to get back to a normal life. John's would just take longer. A lot longer.

The air in the hall seemed stifling all of the sudden. Bruce walked as quickly as he could to his office, tempted to break into a run.

The office was cool and bright, but even as he shut the door behind him and let the air conditioning wash over him, the guilt and anger and worry that bubbled under his skin didn't fade. His eyes automatically went to the chessboard - one moved piece and he could just fire up Lucius' old computer, slip right back into the old ways and try and get one of Tiffany's drones over the asylum as he dug into Arkham's files...

Bruce shook his head.

John needed his help. It just couldn't be Batman that helped him. Bruce was an ordinary civilian now - well, a civilian with more money than was sensible and an unusual drive to fix the city's problems in any way he could, but a civilian nonetheless. He could still look into Arkham, into this Johnathan Crane, before things escalated out of hand.

Bruce tried to concentrate on his breathing. John was intelligent and surprisingly strong; even if he was put into isolation as punishment, John would be alright. He hadn't been hurting himself or causing trouble for a couple of months, anyhow...

Bruce paused, staring at the vent on the ceiling. He had tried to see John every Wednesday at the very least, but two weeks ago he was told that John didn't want any visitors, and Bruce had regretfully let it slide, thinking that their argument a few days prior still weighed on his mind. (It wasn’t improbable, what with his tendency to hold grudges, but it had seemed strange.) Last week John had twice been put under observation for some kind of medical testing, and thus was not allowed to be seen under any circumstances, despite the drastically different times Bruce had shown up.

Each time, though, Bruce was under the impression that John would at least be told about his attempted visits. The young doctor-in-training from last time had given him a sympathetic smile and said as much herself, along with a clumsy attempt at flirtation Bruce had played along with for his image's sake.

The thought that John had been left hurt worse than before because of a misunderstanding like that didn't sit well with Bruce. It made him feel like he’d been hit with a burning punch.

His phone buzzed at him, and Bruce glanced down at the calendar notification with annoyance. It was tempting to blow the meeting off, just make up some excuse and head home so he could start digging as much as his civilian identity would allow, maybe make a phone call to Arkham and see if he could get a word out to John under the guise of looking into the progress on the asylum's improvements he was sponsoring.

He breathed deeply, going back into the hall and telling himself that John would be alright for a little while longer - Wayne Enterprises came first in the day, regardless of whether or not a cowl was involved.

Bruce apologized for his tardiness and sat at the too-long table with the rest of the board, his phone practically burning a hole in his pocket as he tried desperately not to think about flipping the table and running out the door like he was giving chase in amongst the humid smog of Gotham's nights.

As per John's voicemail (which Bruce thought he must have listened to half a dozen times), any spare moment Bruce had at Wayne Tower was spent looking up Jonathan Crane. There was no telling who was trying to keep tabs on his phone, so he resorted to double-hopping on his VPN in a private window.

There were a few Jonathan Cranes in the state, spelling considerations included, but only two stood out - one was several cities away, working as the head of a generic-replacement pharmaceutical company, and the other was working right in Gotham, a former professor of psychology at Gotham University who was added on to the Arkham payroll not long after the incident with Lady Arkham.

While the pharmacist had several photos on the company website and a seemingly normal (if seldom used) Friendbook page and several mentions on the company's Chirper, Professor Crane had no social media accounts whatsoever and only two photos, one of which was a tiny faculty photo obviously used on his university I.D. However, he did have several published articles in psychology journals, the last three dealing with the subjects of treating fear and anxiety and how it manifested, the last two of which had rebuttal articles from other doctors listed.

At least some of his courses were listed on RateTheProf, and while many of the higher-rating students listed him as incredibly knowledgeable, they and the lower-rating students warned about his seemingly abrasive personality from over the years:

(*) queenofdiamonds

creepy know-it-all fag kept giving me ds and didn't allow me to do the extra credit!! he likes ds so much??? he can eat my DICK!!!!

(***) vintage-or-die

I swear his office hours are ridiculously tight. Make sure to arrive to class on time and take REALLY good notes - I missed a day I regretted it ever since, he gets the point across so well that the only way you can really copy it down for yourself is to hear it firsthand... Seriously, record the lectures if you suck at writing, it'll save your life.

(*) BigD@ddyy

Fucker put down my final paper so hard i think it broke my ribs. He thinks he knows everything, he doesn't take two words against anything he talks about. I don't know why GU keeps his emotionless scrawny ass.

(****) itty bitty pumpkin pie

Great teacher, but not very personable; he doesn't talk much out of lectures. Make sure to ask before using your phone to record lectures, he'll kick you out if you don't. Also I SWEAR he uses a cell blocker, I can't get any tower or wifi signal in his classes even if we change rooms...

(****) dank memes only

He kicked me out for taking a picture of him once. He's lucky he's such a smart silver fox or I might have quit right there. Learned loads tho.

(*****) dr. psychosubb

Amazing. He gave me a C on my final but his comments on it were so good I can't be mad, I learned so much!! Also if you like hot stern daddys that's a big plus. Hard to hate a face like that!!

(*****) the-night-falls-hard

Seriously the best teacher I ever had. Pay attention and you'll feel like you could take on anything.

Bruce breathed through his nostrils. Professor Crane was critical, solitary, and stubborn, but he clearly left an impression on those who he came into contact with.

While there wasn't many mentions of the professor in news, he managed to find a letter to the editor in the last psychology journal that Professor Crane contributed an article to, aimed at the rebuttal to his last paper - and Bruce figured by the language that it was Crane lashing back:

My Dear Editors,

I'm surprised that such an acclaimed journal of psychology would sink so low as to publish the distasteful words of the so-called Dr. Strange. His work - if you can even call it that - is pure fantastical speculation when it is organized enough to be decipherable. Not only does he genuinely believe in the concept of telepathy, but he is under the childish delusion that he can devise a way to see thoughts put into visual form as if it were something to be filmed. Tell me: do you think someone with such an obvious deficiency of realistic thought could provide any kind of counter-argument to any sane research? I don't believe he's sound enough to comment correctly on the weather.

If you continue on with publishing the work of people who earned their doctorates by shelling out thousands of dollars to a fly-by-night online institution, you will lose more than just subscribers with half a brain more than you.

Regards,

A Competent Doctor

Bruce read over the last paragraph twice: it could be read as either a warning or a legitimate threat, and it was impossible to tell which one it was without even knowing what it was that John suspected Crane of doing. But considering the rebuttal in question was published over a year ago and the editor at the time was still in alive and in charge, at least Bruce could say that Crane didn't have that murder in mind. Dr. Strange, however, had no other work published since, either in Psychology Now or any other reputable magazine.

Naturally, he could find nothing on the current work of the former-Professor Crane in Arkham. That would require a hack of the asylum's systems, and even though Bruce knew Tiffany would be up to the task, he decided against it. He knew it would tempt him to go back to his old habits, and that was strictly a no-go.

He'd have to pay Arkham a visit, see what he could figure out from the inside - and hopefully, talk to John.

A/N: Here we are, just as I promised! I got super into TellTale’s Batman universe last year, and like many fans, S2E05 hurt so bad and so so good that I immediately wanted more. Before I knew it I was already crafting a potential season 3 storyline! I’ll try to update this weekly, since I already have a lot done and I can’t stop thinking about it! (ღ✪ｖ✪)｡o○

Also I seriously try to put any trigger/squick warnings in the front of chapters. If you need something tagged, please say so!

If you’d like to give kudos or comment (or just read all the story’s tags), my ao3 is here, but I really appreciate feedback in any form!

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jacobthespaceguy · 3 years

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New life, new computer & new perspective.

I wrote this half a year ago and forgot to post this. Enjoy.

Dear Cosmonauts,

Greetings! It’s me, your boy! Did you miss me? No? Yeah, not too surprised. To be honest, I would be genuinely surprised if anyone actually read these. It’ll never stop me though. I love using this as some kind of escape. I think I’m trying to say that I’m officially back to blogging! Well actually, I never was in a state of, “blogging.” I just simply make a blog post every once in a while. So instead of being back, I guess I will simply start blogging more often. At the very least, try to. In an ideal world, I would create entries at least once a month, that’s not too much to ask for... just a few paragraphs every month. Sounds easy enough... On that note, it probably isn’t. But maybe it is. It depends on your personality.

Laziness. Saying laziness defines me is an understatement. I don’t want to be lazy nor do I wish I was. I’m honestly not too sure why I'm so lazy. I think this pandemic just made it really bad. Working from home 3/5 days of the week changes you. Early on, I figured I would be able to use this extra time to work on more music and I even started being a mixing/mastering engineer for a friend of mines. However, I ended up using this extra time to stay in bed and be useless. Some would say I'm being hard on myself but I'm not. I stay in bed and I waste my time, my friend's time, and overall, I'm just a useless human being. I feel like a failure sometimes. However, I do hold on to the hope that I can change. I want to change. Some days, I tell myself, "I'll be productive this time," but then stay in bed half the day. By the time I'm up and eaten breakfast and done my whole morning routine... it'll be 2 o'clock and the day is practically over. It's not really over, but it'll feel like it. It sucks. Now the pandemic is ending and I'll probably have to go back to work full time soon. I have no idea how I'm going to cope with that. I'm already depresso mode from things changing so much around me that I feel like a hermit and want to hide under my desk for the rest of my life. I hate change. I hate it, hate it, HATE IT. I know change is good and if my music career takes off, then they'll be a lot of change. Although, I would rather endure that kind of pressure than have to go back to work. Every day to get to my work is a 40-minute drive there, and an hour drive back since traffic is so bad. I know other people have it worse, but with how tired I am after a shift, I have days where I lay on my bedroom floor doing nothing and or nap until I finally get up to shower, eat dinner and finally get to the home activities I wanted to. However, at this point, it'll be 7 PM and I'm too tired to do anything other than watch YouTube videos until 1 AM, and then it's finally time to go to bed. It's a struggle and I can't seem to escape it.

I don't even know what I'm writing anymore and lost track of where I was going with this. I guess it's to complain about hating work and or my laziness? I originally started writing this post with the intention to talk about my new computer and how writing a blog post with it is a vibe. I bought a mid-2017 MacBook Pro back in August of 2019. It was the most absolute base model and only had 128 gb of storage and 8 gb of ram. WHY DID I DO THIS TO MYSELF! I loved the flexibility of having a decent laptop for when I travel, but this was a bad purchase that left me financially ruined. I want to say that it was a terrible machine and I hated it. However, it ran decently most of the time and I must confess that Apple just knows what they're doing when designing computers. I can't argue though, since I started this blog, I became an Apple fanboy and I'm seriously buried in the Apple ecosystem. My phone, laptop, tablet at one point but sold, my credit card, my watch, earphones, and tracking devices are all connected to Apple and they basically run my life. However, my main machine will likely always be a Windows desktop.

Back to the MacBook Pro, my 2017 laptop having 128 gb made the machine unusable for me. Apple offering a 128 gb machine was a cardinal sin and I do the happy dance every morning knowing they no longer exist. After downloading Reason and Logic Pro, I had about 8 gb for any else I wanted to use. I couldn't even have all of Logic's sounds installed. Ugh. I never used the machine because I resented it so much. However, I recently started using it to record my vocals because the fans (despite going up 1000 db when I record in Reason) were quieter than having my desktop fans on when recording so I opted to use my MacBook Pro to record instead. In addition, it was really nice to have when I was on the go and needed a computer. Despite being a baseline laptop, it ran the project file for my song, "Nothing Was The Same," decently enough for me to get some mixing done at my Dad's house late last year. It still chugged pretty bad when I was traversing through Reason's sequencer. My final straw was when I wanted to try a vocal plug-in that refused to work on my PC so I pulled out my MacBook Pro and installed it on there and it worked perfectly. I was like, "Man, I wish this MacBook Pro just had a little more storage so I can actually use it efficiently." That's when the idea came to me, "Holy crap, let's just buy a new MacBook."

I would constantly go to Apple's website and look at their newest 16" MacBook Pro. It's when Apple finally let go of the butterfly switches on their keyboard and went back to a scissor-switch design and improved the heck out of the performance. It was a beautiful machine and I wanted it ever since they announced it. So I went back on Apple's website last week after testing that vocal plug-in and was reminded of the horrendous price. $3,000 for a decently specced computer was just too much. Someone on Reddit was telling me how great Apple's refurbished computers are and that they're basically brand new aside from the regular box it comes in. So I decided I wanted to get a refurbished MacBook Pro. However, the next morning, I decided to do a little more research and I thank God I did because after a little research, I saw how much better the new 13" M1 chip MacBook Pro was over the current 16" Intel MacBook Pro and that it was the best laptop to buy. Even better, it's cheaper. So after more research, I decided to buy a refurbished max specced out M1 MacBook Pro. I finally have 2 tb of storage. 2 TB!!! I have more storage on this laptop than on my Windows desktop. I also went with silver over space grey like my other MacBook simply because it looks so much cooler. I don't care for space grey anymore. Something about the classic silver is where it's at. Also, this keyboard is amazing! I'm using it right now to type this. The Touch Bar is pretty cool too. I thought it would be a weird adjustment but it was actually pretty seamless. My only complaint is that it's easier to tap it and do something while typing on the keyboard. Happened to me twice while typing this. Although, all I did was open the emoji window so it wasn't even an issue. However, I think I type a bit in an unconventional way than most of you reading this do so just ignore me. I would also like to brag about how quiet this computer is. I haven't heard the fan once and it's dead quiet. In fact, the M1 MacBook Air doesn't even have a fan, that's how good this new Apple silicon is. Lastly, I haven't had the computer heat up at all yet. I'm typing this using safari with a few tabs open, Logic Pro in the background and there's no part of the computer that's hot right now. My lap would've melted if I was using my 2017 MacBook and it's in great shape! I want to say this computer is a beast but, to be honest, I haven't had a chance to stress test it yet. I've had the computer for less than a week. I will definitely keep you all updated.

Wow, I can't believe I typed all of this simply because I imagined Adam Young in his basement late at night with his MacBook Pro writing his magnificent blog posts that inspired me to start this blog in the first place. For whatever reason, it's a real vibe for me and as I was fumbling through Logic Pro, I had the idea to write a blog and all of this entry just poured out from my brain to this text box. I sincerely apologize to anyone reading this far and to my future self who probably just spent 20 minutes proofreading and fixing errors I made. I'd imagine all the run-on sentences are probably infuriating. I think I spent 40 minutes to an hour just writing this.

In conclusion, I'm writing blog posts again and plan to release new entries at least somewhat often. I have quite a few ideas of things I want to talk about, so you guys will get to pick my brain soon enough. In addition, I may go public about this blog. It is public but I announced it a long time ago and I wasn't very big. But with my podcast and additional following over the years, I may finally get some readers. I'd be surprised if more than 3 people have seen my blog which I'm not upset about. I'm treating this as my personal time capsule and it's fun to go back and read. In addition, I'm going to die someday. I don't know when and how, but it provides a little bit of comfort knowing a potential love one may find this one day after my unfortunate death and get hours of personal content that they can read over any time. I don't mean to get morbid and I don't mean to say my blog is the second coming of Christ. I don't know what I'm saying other than I hope you enjoy it. Anywho, I plan to make blog posts more coherent and not so all over the place. I went from being lazy/hating work, MacBook Pros, and then to my death, all in the same post. I just got so excited once I started typing and couldn't stop. More posts to come. Thank you and goodnight.

-Sincerely,

Jacob McDonnell

0 notes

blogpr940 · 3 years

Text

Capture One 20 Slow

You are here

Anyone else experience C1 catalogs taking forever to load? Once the app is open, then I can load/change catalogs with ease. But the first time I open the app and the catalog size is at least 40GB, it just takes f-o-r-e-v-e-r. Reminds me of Aperture 2. Just painful and my number one complaint. I’m still using the test version… but maybe things are better once I purchase???

Not noticing that here, and my machine is not overpowered.

Behind the scenes videos with our favourite photographers, tutorials, tips and guides to Capture One. Whether you are a beginner or an expert, prepare yourself for a dose of tips, tricks. This indicates what speed the camera is connected: 12Mb/s: USB 1.1. If the camera is connecting slower than it should be, reconnect it and refresh System Profiler (via cmd+R). If it persists, try a different port on the machine, preferably on a different USB bus. For our Capture One 21 launch, we challenged Polish food and still life photographer Maciek Miloch to tell us about his experience of the pandemic – using just one color. In this blog, he shares the inspiration behind his shoot. Customizing the Interface. Capture One is a popular RAW photo editor that caters to the professional photographer looking for full control over their craft. In a land of competing products, CO stands out as being one of the few to take the GPU seriously, which is exactly why we decided to take the application for a. Length: 60:00 minutes New Heal and Clone tools in Capture One's latest update are both easier and faster to work with, while providing the high image quality that Capture One is known for. Webinars Shooting and Editing with the Fujifilm X-T4 and Capture One.

“but maybe things are better once I purchase???”

That is never a good thing to assume. It’s rarely right. :-)

Apparently, it is a known issue. Received this from their tech support (which was pretty cool that they’d reply to a non-customer using their time-bombed app):

If you are on “All images” in the catalog, then CaptureOne is strating threads to open all images. If you instead highlight a low count folder before closing, it will only start opening that folder and it will be much quicker. We are looking in to things to improve this.

Kind Regards Phase One support

Could also be linked to the size of the preview images?

I have a fast iMac, with a very fast thunderbolt drobo. My library contains 40k images. C1 opens in 2mins- 10sec. Holy Cow. I will try pre-selecting a low count folder as described above. Hope this works. So far C1 is the best alternative to Aperture. I tried LR… Really not happy with that program. It’s kindof a disorganized mess.

(Reply to #5)#6

Like I wrote in the other thread, try to relocate your masters out of the Aperture library. I think reading an Aperture managed library may slow C1 down (just an idea).

My catalog also opens quite slowly, taking about a minute with 63K images. This is with the catalog on an SSD and the referenced images on a Thunderbolt drive.

It was worse when I first created the catalog from my Aperture library (over 2 minutes, like you are seeing) but I used the command “File > Verify Catalog or Session…” and it found some problems which it was able to repair. That improved the file opening time from over two minutes to about a minute.

Also, selecting either a small folder of images to open at startup or the full “All Images” collection doesn’t make any difference in the performance.

Look at what part of your catalog you have selected in the left sidebar when closing C1. I've noticed that if I select All Images, then loading of the catalog upon next startup can be slow. Selecting an individual Album or Folder that has fewer images speeds up loading on next startup. I've given this feedback to PhaseOne. Don't know if they will find a way to improve that in a future update, but they do seem to be very interested in user feedback so tell them all of the quirks you experience using their Support Case system.

I am experiencing this very slow startup as well. When the catalog and referenced files are both on external HDD, I have extremely slow startup. I made a screen recording and provided it to PhaseOne. It is an 8 minute video. I have under 40,000 images and the catalog is about 64GB. I copied the catalog to an internal SSD and left the referenced files on external HDD. Startup was extremely fast by comparison (under 30 seconds vs 5-8 minutes).

I have a running case open with PhaseOne (case #215211 if anyone else wants to reference it in their own case).

I’m using Apple Photos to be my reference catalog because C1 was so slow. C1 is too good and I don’t waste my time editing with any other software. Then Photos is too good at cataloging. jpegs and raw files show as 1 file and the viewing modes are perfect. No need to catalog every single photo with C1.

(Reply to #10)#11

Milo, this seems like a brilliant idea. I would like to reference my growing iPhone images from C1. Are you able to comment on the following:

1) Did you create a new C1 catalog for the images in Photos?

2) By default, Photos does not download images to your computer. The pictures reside in the iCloud, unless you download them into the Photos application. Are you only referencing the downloaded images in Photos?

3) How are you organizing your images in Photos and how does that structure appear in C1?

Capture One 20 Slow Start

4) Is the metadata, favorites, tags, etc. recognized when referenced by C1?

Your idea of referencing your Photos library in C1 could be a great solution for those of us who increasingly use iPhone 7 Plus pictures from our travels, etc.

Sincerely, Alex

I haven’t seen the slow starting many have. My catalog is 82G, and opens in approx. 9.5 seconds either on the internal HD on my laptop, or the backup copy on an external raid 5 thunderbolt DAS. All files are referenced, there aren’t any stored in the catalog. Thats opening on a root folder with not thumbnails showing on start up. The time measurement is the best I can do with a stop watch.

absolutely. a pain in the butt

I had. a catalogue. at 70gb

it took 12 hours

it seems. that with Mac there is. a huge problem.

I have been. writing with them , they know there is a problem but will not. admit

and so far nothing has really changed.

I don’t think they know what the problem is

(Reply to #13)#14

What is your configuration? Memory? HDD or SSD? Catalog on internal or external disk? I get the best performance from placing the catalog itself on internal SSD and leaving images on external disk. I have a late 2013 MacBook Pro Retina, 2.6 GHz Intel Core i7, 16GB of RAM, 1TB internal SSD, 2TB external portable HDD. My catalog has 56,000 images now.

If I select “All Images”, it sends Capture One into a tailspin where it consumes all 16GB of RAM and then some (so says Activity Monitor). The app locks up for 5-10 minutes, but eventually the memory goes back down and the app becomes responsive again. I opened several cases with Capture One and provided them a lot of evidence of the issue. They agree there is an issue. I believe an update will addresses this. I can't say when that update will be released.

If I select any other folder or album with fewer images with under 1000 image, for example, Capture One is much faster.

With a few tweaks, Capture One is a fantastic Lightroom alternative.

…and shrink that enormous Capture One catalog file

» Scroll to step-by-step instructions

One of the most pleasant surprises of going 100% Adobe-free has been the switch to Phase One’s Capture One. It has long been a favorite among pros, but I have to admit that I overlooked it at first after being seduced by the slicker marketing and shinier interfaces of some other self-described Lightroom alternatives. None of those proved to be — or show any real progress towards ever being — a complete replacement for Adobe Lightroom, at least not for many professional photographers.

Capture One Pro 11, on the other hand, is an excellent Adobe Lightroom alternative. Capture One is faster, has more powerful tools (including layers), and does not require a subscription! If only Phase One’s marketing reach matched that of Adobe’s (or Luminar’s for that matter), more photographers might learn that they’ve had a wonderful Lightroom alternative just waiting for them all along.

Update November 29, 2018

Capture One 12 is here and it’s the best pro-level Lightroom alternative on the market.

I do have one issue, however, with the configuration options of Capture One. Although it is simple enough to import images into Capture One while keeping those big RAW files on my external RAID, the preview and thumbnail images that Capture One creates can only be stored in the catalog file itself, which is actually a macOS package. This is not unlike Apple’s Photos app, and it makes sense for smaller catalogs.

However, the size of the preview files is not trivial. For a large library, the catalog file can reach many gigabytes, even while the database file itself is only a few hundred megabytes. I would much rather store those preview files on the external SSD that I reserve specifically for caches. That way I don’t waste precious space on my internal SSD, and I can exclude that drive from my various backup services. There’s not much point wasting bandwidth and storage space by constantly backing up new preview files that can always be recreated if lost, and, in my particular case, the catalog file size had surpassed the single file size limit for syncing with iCloud Drive, which is a critical part of my workflow.

I was unable to find an answer in the Capture One user forum, but I eventually, and accidentally, stumbled on a solution while testing the Backup Catalog… command. For whatever reason, Capture One creates a standalone database file when exporting a backup and separates out the preview image cache into its own directory.

It occurred to me that this database file was the same type as that found within the contents of the default catalog package, which led to the following 10-step procedure to move the cache to an external drive.

Step-by-step tutorial:

1 Find the location of the Capture One catalog file in the Finder. The default path is Pictures ▸ Capture One Catalog ▸ Capture One Catalog.cocatalog.

2 Right click on the catalog file (extension .cocatalog), which is actually a package.

3 Select Show Package Contents. This will reveal a .cocatalogdb file, along with various directories, including Cache and possibly Adjustments. You may also see Originals if you have opted to store photos inside the catalog, although that would negate the space savings of storing the preview files in a separate location!

Capture One 20 Slow Cooker

4 Copy the .cocatalogdb file (along with the Adjustments and Originals folders, if they exist) to the directory where you would like to keep your new database file. An easy way to do this is to select the files/directories and press Command-C. Click the back arrow in the top left corner of the Finder window to exit the package. If you want to keep your new catalog database file in the same directory as the original catalog package, just press Command-V to paste right there, or navigate to another location and paste the files there. Personally, I choose to store my Capture One Catalog in a directory that syncs with iCloud.

Capture One 20 Sony

5 Copy just the Cache directory to the drive where you want to store all of your preview images. In my case, I keep the cache in a folder named Capture One on an external SSD.

6 Delete the Cache directory that you just copied (the one in the same folder as the .cocatalogdb file).

7 Here’s where the magic happens. Use the Terminal to create a symbolic link, also known as a symlink or soft link, in the location of the Cache folder you just deleted. This symlink will point to your external cache in a way that is transparent to Capture One. To do this, enter the following at the command line prompt, replacing the first path with the location of your external cache directory and the second path with the original location. Note the backslash escape characters before the spaces.

ln -s /Volumes/My External Drive/Capture One/Cache /Users/username/Pictures/Capture One Catalog/Cache

Hint: You can drag a directory from the Finder into the Terminal window to paste in the path.

8 Double-click your new, nice and slim .cocatalogdb file to launch Capture One. Et voila! Your catalog should load exactly as before.

9 If everything is cool (and all photos are backed up as always!), you can delete the original, bulky .cocatalog file.

10 I can’t end at step 9! So go take some pictures!

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magzoso-tech · 5 years

Photo

New Post has been published on https://magzoso.com/tech/asus-rog-phone-2-review/

Asus ROG Phone 2 Review

A ‘gaming’ smartphone might seem like a very exciting proposition for enthusiasts, but how can a manufacturer get the average smartphone buyer to feel the same way? Asus launched the first ROG Phone (Review) last year, and while it was a good product, the high price of nearly Rs. 70,000 at the time meant that you really needed to be a die-hard gaming addict to even consider it over an iPhone, Google Pixel, or Samsung Galaxy device. That’s exactly what Asus wants to change with the ROG Phone 2.

While Asus has taken its time to launch this phone in India, we have seen other companies try to break into this niche segment throughout this year. We now have the Black Shark 2 (Review) which has a pressure-sensitive display, and the Nubia Red Magic 3 (Review), which boasts of an internal cooling fan, to consider as alternatives as gaming smartphones. However, Asus hasn’t left any stone unturned for its follow-up, packing it with pretty much every feature one could think of. The icing on the cake is definitely the price. The ROG Phone 2 starts at Rs. 37,999 in India, which is great not only for gaming enthusiasts but also for anyone who’s looking for a powerful flagship on a budget.

So, should you be considering the Asus ROG Phone 2 over, say, the new OnePlus 7T (Review) at the same price? And if you aren’t a gamer, does the ROG Phone 2 still make sense? Let’s find out.

Asus ROG Phone 2 design

The Asus ROG Phone 2 continues to sport an industrial look, just like the first version, but it’s a bit more tame this time around. The exposed air vent at the back is smaller and more discreet; the orange highlights for the stereo speakers on the front look more subtle; and the darker finish makes it look even more stealthy. There’s still no mistaking this for an ordinary smartphone though, especially when that ROG logo on the back lights up.

The size ROG Phone 2 is both bigger and heavier than its predecessor, making it one of the heaviest phones we’ve held in a while. It’s very thick at 9.48mm and weighs a whopping 240g. The weight isn’t a big issue when using it in the landscape orientation with both hands, but normal one-handed usage gets fatiguing quickly.

Asus has swapped the rear capacitive fingerprint sensor for an in-display one. Authentication works well but we found that we had to rest our finger there a little longer than usual before this works. It’s not as quick as some of the other in-display sensors we’ve used, like the one on the OnePlus 7T (Review). Face recognition is a lot quicker and works at odd angles too. The power and volume buttons are placed low on the right side of the phone and have good feedback.

The in-display fingerprint sensor on the Asus ROG Phone 2 isn’t the fastest but success rate is good

The left side has an additional USB Type-C port, along with a custom port beside it for accessories. This Type-C port supports USB 3.1 (Gen2) standard, along with video output upto 4K resolution and Quick Charge 4.0, and it can be used for charging when you’re gaming in landscape mode. The Type-C port at the bottom supports USB 3.0 speed and also supports fast charging. The 3.5mm headphone socket is placed on the extreme right at the bottom, so wired headphones won’t get in the way when you’re gaming.

The 6.59-inch AMOLED display has a full-HD+ resolution but what’s impressive is that it has a 120Hz refresh rate. It also supports 10-bit HDR and is claimed to be colour accurate with a Delta E average of less than 1. The max brightness is 600nits and there’s Corning Gorilla Glass 6 for protection. The display has thick bezels on the top and bottom, but it doesn’t make the phone look ugly. The earpiece and the bottom speaker are forward-facing, for a better stereo effect. The dual Nano-SIM tray is placed on the left side, but there’s no slot for expanding storage.

The ROG Phone 2 also features the second version of Asus’s AirTrigger system, or shoulder buttons on the right side. Asus says the algorithm has been reworked, so you can now rest your fingers on them without activating them. There’s a new dual vibration system present too. The phone also uses a 3D vapour chamber system for cooling. According to Asus, a total of four Wi-Fi antennas and microphones have been placed at strategic points around the phone, which should provide optimal signal performance no matter how you hold it.

The Aero Case comes bundled in the box of both variants

The base model of the ROG Phone 2, which we have, ships with an 18W charger, Type-C cable, SIM eject tool, and the Aero Case. The latter is more of a bumper case, as only the top and bottom portions have good plastic reinforcements while the rest of the body has large cutouts for the rear vent and logo. Asus says that this case was designed so that you can use the AeroActive Cooler without taking it off. This cooler is an optional accessory but if you buy the 512GB variant, it comes bundled. The top-end version, which costs a whopping Rs. 59,999, also gets you a 30W charger in the box.

You can also get other accessories for the ROG Phone 2, with prices ranging from Rs. 1,999 all the way up to Rs. 19,999.

Asus ROG Phone 2 specifications and software

According to Asus, the ROG Phone 2 has been built using some of the best components available in the market, including a special speed-binned Snapdragon 855+ SoC, LPDDR4X RAM, and UFS 3.0 storage. The phone is available in two RAM and storage variants — one with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage (Rs. 37,999) and the other with 12GB of RAM and 512GB of storage (Rs. 59,999). There’s a big jump going to the higher-end variant, and even with the extra accessories, that price seems way too high.

You also get dual-band Wi-Fi 802.11ac, Bluetooth 5, NFC, FM radio, the usual variety of sensors, satellite navigation systems, and USB-OTG. The ROG Phone 2 supports high-resolution audio through the 3.5mm headphone jack, with the ability to decode 192kHz/24-bit files. However, this phone does miss some flagship-level features such as an IP rating for water resistance and wireless charging.

The Asus ROG Phone 2 has a vent on the back for air circulation

Just like the first ROG phone, Asus has put a lot of work into the software this time around too. You get Android 9 Pie with the August security patch and a custom skin. For the ROG Phone 2, you can choose a more vanilla Android theme during the setup process, instead of the default ROG theme. The latter does look cool and you have a choice between a dark and light version of it. Plus, when you enable X Mode, which is Asus’s performance mode, the wallpaper and highlights around the icons get aggressive red accents. If you’re not a fan of this, there’s always the classic theme to fall back upon.

The ROG UI can be swapped for a stock Android look, in case it’s not your thing

In terms of installed apps, there isn’t much bloatware. There’s an Asus Data Transfer app for moving data from your old phone to the ROG Phone 2, and the Armoury Crate app, which is where you configure lighting effects for the logo; monitor the temperatures of the CPU and GPU; set the force level for the AirTriggers, etc. Android 9’s Digital Wellbeing suite is also present.

There’s more customisation to be had in the phone’s Settings app. AudioWizard lets you choose different sound presets. There’s an ‘Outdoor’ mode which boosts volume by sacrificing a bit of sound quality. You can manually choose between 60Hz, 90Hz, and 120Hz refresh rates for the screen, but you can’t switch between these dynamically based on the activity being performed.

Display colours can be tweaked; there’s an always-on display mode; and you can choose what icons you want in the status bar. The latter feature is very handy as you can have icons for things like NFC, X Mode, the refresh rate, etc, in the status bar so you can see what’s enabled without having to check the toggles in the notification shade.

The Asus ROG Phone 2’s special features are highly customisable

The ‘Advanced’ menu in the Settings app has a tonne more options to tweak. Mobile Manager lets you clear RAM, manage data usage, and scan for viruses, and Game Genie is a very useful toolbar which can be accessed from within a game for configuring the AirTriggers, live streaming on YouTube, Twitch, etc. There are various touch and motion gestures, screen recording, and a one-handed mode. The AirTriggers menu lets you add ‘squeeze’ gestures for the bottom trigger, which can launch an action or an app with a short or a long squeeze.

Asus ROG Phone 2 performance and battery life

The ROG Phone 2’s mammoth size and weight are a little hard to get used to. As we mentioned before, it’s not a problem when you’re holding the phone with two hands for gaming, but for most other use cases, it gets fatiguing very quickly. However, if you’re someone who doesn’t mind large, heavy phones then you’ll probably like it. The glass back is a little slippery but the bundled case makes it easier to hold this phone with one hand. The addition of a notification LED near the earpiece is a nice touch.

As you’d expect, the ROG Phone 2 is also a beast of a performer. The 120Hz refresh rate makes scrolling through apps and gameplay (in supported games) incredibly fun and fluid. 90Hz offers a pleasing experience too, if you want to save a bit of power, but battery life isn’t really a concern here, which we’ll talk about in a bit. Apps load quickly and multitasking is handled very well. Of course, the main draw of this phone is gaming, and this is hands-down one of the best devices — if not the best one — for that.

The two Air Triggers have good vibration feedback and the sensitivity can be adjusted

We ran a mix of heavy games such as PUBG Mobile and Asphalt 9 Legends, along with simpler ones including Rayman Adventures and Mario Kart, all of which ran flawlessly. Even on the 8GB RAM version of this phone, we were able to switch between any of these games quite effortlessly.

Now keep in mind that the back of the phone gets quite warm when gaming, especially a few spots near the side-mounted Type-C port which get very hot. We recommend playing with the bundled case, as you don’t feel the heat as much and it offers better grip. The heat could possibly be better controlled with the AeroCooler II accessory, but that will cost extra and we didn’t have one with us to test.

We didn’t feel the need to use X Mode most of the time, other than a couple of instances in PUBG when the framerate began to get mildly choppy. X Mode prevents throttling of the CPU and also doesn’t let the speed drop below 1.3GHz. Keep in mind that this will also drain the battery faster, so we’d suggest not using it unless you absolutely need to.

Game Genie also lets you enable an overlay in games to keep an eye on the framerate, system temperature, and CPU and GPU usage in real-time. Through Armoury Crate, you can set a customised profile for each game. For instance, Rayman Adventures supports 120Hz refresh rate, so you can have the display switch to it when playing the game and go back to a lower refresh rate for regular use.

The Asus ROG Phone 2’s Armoury Crate app lets you tweak the settings for every game

Just like with the original ROG Phone, we found the AirTriggers to be immensely helpful in games such as PUBG Mobile. The vibration effect, when they are triggered, is instantaneous and you can now rest your fingers on them and simply apply pressure when you actually need to activate them. This reduces fatigue in your index fingers, since you don’t have to keep them hovering in mid-air. If you’re going to be doing this, then it’s best to increase the amount of pressure required to activate the triggers, to prevent accidental activation.

Other than gaming performance, the display and speakers are two other highlights of this phone. HDR videos look great — the brightness is automatically boosted when HDR content is detected, and it drops back to the level it was at before when you close the video. The speakers get really loud and sound quality is good. The stereo sound is evenly distributed across both channels, with decent bass and a good soundstage. When using Outdoor Mode, the sound quality is terrible as it simply cuts the bass and boosts the treble, making everything tinny and shrill.

Battery life is equally impressive, and not just because of the massive capacity. In our battery loop test, the 6000mAh battery lasted for around 11 hours and 48 minutes with the screen set to 120Hz, and 14hours and 13 minutes at 60Hz. These numbers might not look particularly impressive compared to those of other phones which have run for over 20 hours with smaller batteries, but the ROG Phone 2 exceeded our expectations in real-world usage.

Even with the screen running at 120Hz and a lot of camera, gaming, and social usage, we still managed to easily go past one full day on a single charge. When playing heavy 3D games non-stop for two hours, with X Mode on most of the time and the refresh rate set to 90Hz, the battery level dropped by around 27 percent, leaving us with plenty of juice left for another two full days of standby time.

The stereo speakers on the Asus ROG Phone 2 get really loud and quality is good

The ROG Phone 2 supports multiple fast charging standards — Qualcomm Quick Charge 4.0/3.0 and USB Power Delivery 3.0. With the bundled 18W charger, we were able to charge the battery up to 52 percent in an hour and it took about two hours to charge it completely. This might seem a little slower than the competition but keep in mind that this is also a much bigger battery than what most others offer in this price range. With the optional 30W charger (Rs. 1,999), the charging should be much quicker.

Asus ROG Phone 2 cameras

The rear sensors on the ROG Phone 2 are the same as those on the Asus 6Z (Review). This phone is missing the laser autofocus sensor, but everything else seems to be identical. The ROG Phone 2 also gets a 24-megapixel front camera with an f/2.0 aperture, since it lacks the motorised rear camera of the 6Z. The main 48-megapixel camera uses the Sony IMX586 sensor, with an f/1.79 aperture and PDAF, but no optical stabilisation. The second camera uses a wide-angle lens with a 13-megapixel sensor.

The camera app is quite feature-rich, offering plenty of shooting modes such as Motion Tracking, Pro, and Night, among the usual others. A toggle within the viewfinder lets you switch between the regular and wide-angle lens. The latter can be used to shoot video, but you can’t switch between cameras while recording.

Shot using the primary camera on the Asus ROG Phone 2 (tap to see full-sized image)

Shot using the wide-angle camera on the Asus ROG Phone 2 (tap for full-sized image)

Close-up shot captured using the Asus ROG Phone 2 (tap for full-sized image)

Shot using Portrait mode on the Asus ROG Phone 2 (tap for full-sized image)

In daylight, the ROG Phone 2’s primary camera was quite capable and manged good details and colours. HDR images looked vivid and striking, with good exposure and white balance. The wide-angle camera captured slightly weaker details but HDR was handled well and landscapes looked good, with little to no barrel distortion. Close-ups looked good too, with sufficient details and good colours. The camera app lets you adjust the level of background blur in Portrait shots, but edge detection wasn’t always too accurate.

Low-light landscape shots captured using the Asus ROG Phone 2 were a bit grainy, but using Night mode helped. Details were still a little weak and the resulting images were oversharpened to bit too much.

Close-up low light shot captured using the Asus ROG Phone 2 (tap for full-sized image)

Regular low light shot captured using the Asus ROG Phone 2 (tap for full-sized image)

Shot using ‘Night’ mode on the Asus ROG Phone 2 (tap for full-sized image)

The selfie camera captured fairly detailed selfies during the day, with good skin tones, but we noticed some minor artefacting in the background, and the edges of our face could have been sharper. The screen flash is quite effective in low light, providing good illumination. Portrait mode with the front camera is present but the final output looks a little artificial.

Asus ROG Phone 2 selfie test (tap for full-sized image)

The quality of video shot in daylight was also quite impressive. Electronic stabilisation worked very well, even at 4K resolution, and details and colours were represented well. Selfie videos were also stabilised, and the quality was equally good. The phone faltered a bit in low light, as video was a little grainy and the electronic stabilisation caused mild distortion when we moved about.

Verdict

The Asus ROG Phone 2 is a solid piece of hardware and is definitely the most polished and impressive gaming phone we’ve seen so far. It lacks some features such as waterproofing and wireless charging, but at Rs. 37,999, those things aren’t big deal breakers. The higher-end version feels too expensive at nearly Rs. 60,000 even with the massive bump in storage and the bundled accessories. A price of around Rs. 50,000 would have been more accessible.

The OnePlus 7T (Review) is one of the main competitors for the base variant of the ROG Phone 2. It’s a solid offering running Android 10, and it has a good set of cameras as well as a fast 90Hz display. If you’re not a fan of the weight of the ROG Phone 2, the OnePlus 7T would be a good alternative.

However, if you’re looking for a beast of a phone, then the Asus ROG Phone 2 is one of the best out there and is priced starting at under Rs. 40,000. Even if you aren’t a gamer, the vivid display and stereo speakers make this an excellent multimedia device, if you can put up with the bulk.

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chemicalmagecraft · 5 years

Text

I Would Totally Kick Jiraiya’s Butt Chapter 7

I groaned and yawned as I woke up with a fuzzy head. I started rubbing my eyes as I sat up a bit.

She chuckled. "So this is why you don't let anyone in your room in the morning hours," she said jokingly.

"Top-secret fuinjutsu stuff," I muttered as I opened the file to see medical records and a picture of a small boy with red hair and shadows around his eyes. "If anyone asks, you never saw this. Talk to Father if you really want to know, but just know it comes from Hokage-sama." I put the file back and took the book out. I raised my eyebrows when I realized that it looked like a primer on the theory of poison. "Thanks... uh..." I thought for a moment. "Sorry, I should know this, I'm still a little asleep... Yuri-san?"

"It's actually Yuriko, Kouki-kun," she politely corrected. "My mothers had a laugh at that one..." I thought about asking about that, then decided that that'd be prying a bit and just gave a small, flat, "Ha." She smiled and said, "I'm going to go now. Good luck with your project."

I opened the file on Gaara back up to see what I could gleam from that. "Nothing too useful, it turns out..." I sighed. I might have been able to do something with the stuff about his chakra and the symptoms that they knew for sure were from Shukaku, but I'd probably need to consult Kurama first, and he was... actually it was really surprising, but he was playing with Hinata, so I couldn't talk to him. Then I noticed a small sealing tag included with the papers. I picked it up and immediately recognized it as a used Inner Demon Calming Seal. A sticky note on it said that the Kazekage had Gaara use one for practice so I'd have a baseline, which was really good on his part. Would have to tell him he done good.

When I was done, I made a half dragon seal and pulled the tag from the scroll. The words peeled off with the scroll, and as I flipped the tag around and put it down, the words reconstituted into a sort of spherical barrier that allowed a ball of red chakra to emerge from the seal without dispersing into the air. I frowned as I saw the size of it. "The regulator's off..." The idea was that the seal would take only a little bit extra of Shukaku's chakra from what it was using to suppress Shukaku for me to play with, but there was a lot more than what I was expecting. "Or maybe it's just that Shukaku wasn't trying to break free or fighting at all," I realized with a shrug. "Meh." I made another half ram seal with my left hand and an empty sealing circle formed on it. I shoved my hand into the containment barrier and the red chakra flowed into the seal, forming a slash in the middle, the kanji for one.

kukukuku~

I knocked on the door. Thankfully, the seal on my hand had disappeared after it settled down like Naruto's. That would've been hard to hide if it hadn't... Because I could feel that nobody was around, I revealed the seal for a bit to inspect it while I waited for someone to open the door. When I felt Tenko about to open the door, I let it fade again and shoved my hands into my pockets. "Hey, Uzumaki-san," I said with a small smile.

"Kouki-kun," she greeted back. "Are you here to see Naruto-kun?" I nodded and she let me inside. The house was nice. It wasn't nearly as big as the Hyūga compound, for obvious reasons, but it was pretty big for a family of four. Probably because of the prestige of the Uzumaki clan, even if said clan was only the four members.

"How's he settling in?" I asked.

"Kouki!" Naruto shouted as he waved enthusiastically at me, then went back to climbing on Ai.

I chuckled. "So he's settling in nice, then?" I inferred, then beckoned for Naruto. "C'mere, Naruto. I wanna tell you something."

Tenko put him down, but he frowned and didn't come to me. "Why do you have that weird feeling that all the mean people have, Kouki-kun?" he asked me.

I internally sighed and, not for the first time, was glad that my general lack of major emoting most of the time kept my annoyance from really showing. Naruto had noted feeling the malice of others recently, which was from my giving Kurama his yin power back. Still, though, it shouldn't have been strong enough to passively sense what little malice I could generate towards him... I extended my (unfortunately still weak passively) malice sense towards him, or rather his seal, and felt a sort of smug malice coming from Kurama, which made more sense. I sent him a little message of "you suck" and told Naruto, "I dunno, but are you gonna ignore my advice?" He shrugged and walked over to me, allowing me to give him a light chop to the head. On the plus side, I was conditioning him to equate malice directed at him with pain, hopefully.

"Hey!" he complained.

"Don't throw away Gudō Dama, stupid," I chided.

"I don't even know what that is!"

"What happened to not punishing people for things they haven't done yet?"

I shrugged. "That was for having the potential stupid to throw away Gudō Dama. You don't even want to know what I'll do if I learn you do it without a good enough reason." Then, I heard the frantic footsteps of a young girl and turned around to see Tenten staring at me with an elated expression. "'Sup," I said.

"Naruto-kun said that you have healing powers!" Tenten said.

"Yeah, but not the kind just anyone can use, if that's what you're asking." Her face fell. "But if it's healing jutsu you want to learn, then you should know that you have a bit of an advantage with yang release, which you need for medical release."

"Yes!" she shouted and threw her hands in the air. "I wanna be like Tsunade, she's this really cool kunoichi who's a really good healer!"

Ai pouted. "I'm a cool kunoichi too... And I have weapons... It's because I'm only a special jōnin, isn't it?"

"How did you do that?" Ai asked me, amazed.

I pulled down my sleeve, revealing a wristband with a storage seal on it. Really, why don't more people do that? It's awesome and useful. "I made a waterproof storage seal wristband with variable output, which is a lot more practical than you'd think if you do it right, by the way," I explained.

Ai gave me an eager look that made me feel like stars should have appeared in her eyes, and said, "Teach me your ways, master."

"Hey, I don't actually know how this leaf helps me with chakra control," Tenten complained.

kukukuku~

My eyes closed and my body absolutely still as I sat cross-legged under the shade of the tree, I pondered what Kurama and I had talked about in regards to Gaara's seal. "If I use it like that, the side-effects would actually be beneficial," I thought to myself as I formulated the beginnings of a plan. My thoughts shifted, however, when I finally managed to begin to feel the ebb and flow of the energy of the world around me after what felt like an hour of meditation. Without my eye's secondary powers, I doubted that I would've been able to stop fidgeting for that long... Thankfully, the fact that I wasn't using toad oil to feel the natural energy meant that I didn't immediately start drawing on it, because at my chakra level, that would've probably been bad. Without even opening my eyes, which I wasn't even sure I could do without breaking my tenuous natural energy sensing, I focused on the blue chakra in my hand.

My idea was to combine the natural energy outside of my body until I felt I could do proper sage mode so as to circumvent the danger of using sage chakra. Kurama laughed that idea off at first when I'd told him, saying that there was no way I'd be able to add the natural energy to already-completed chakra until I'd actually managed to get the feel of sage chakra. I then told him that one of my failed attempts at yin-yang release involved me somehow managing to split my chakra back into its constituent parts and then recombining them outside of my body, which made him shut up. I thought back to when I managed to do it, then tried to recreate the feat. As is my curse, actually trying to do it somehow made it exponentially more difficult, though I just barely managed to puzzle it out. After that, I started working on recombining it, but with some extra natural energy. I almost got it... almost... almost...

"Hey, you!" I lost it. I sighed, looked over the two chakra signatures that approached me, one of which had a suspiciously familiar signature to it that I honestly shouldn't have been too shocked about given who was writing the story, and opened my eyes to see a blonde girl about my age in front of me with a shy-looking pink-haired girl behind her.

"I-Ino-chan, you don't have to..." Oh, right. Sakura was really shy when she was a little kid.

I licked my lips. "Nah, it's okay. I was almost done anyway... Whaddya want?"

Ino sighed. "Why does everyone think that everyone with blonde hair is a Yamanaka?" she asked. "Not everyone with the same hair color are clan members!"

"I already knew that, Yamanaka Ino, heiress of the Yamanaka clan." I internally laughed at her face. "I believe there are some redhead Yamanaka, so explain that. Plus zero members of the current Uzumaki clan, despite three of them having chakra that suggests they inherited at least part of the bloodline, have the traditional Uzumaki red hair. No, I meant your pink-haired friend, who for some reason has a chakra signature that reminds me of members of the Senju and Uzumaki, plus with something else vaguely bloodliney that I haven't seen before. Probably foreshadowing for something."

Sakura blinked. "I'm part of the Uzumaki and Senju clans?" she asked.

"A what?" Sakura asked.

Sakura blinked. "Thank you."

"It's cool," I said. "I'm gonna play now. You in?"

kukukuku~

"Hey, you!" a voice that I'm pretty sure was Sakura's mom said. I confirmed with a bit of chakra-sensing.

I turned around to see her. "Hello, Haruno-san."

She fliched. "How did you know my name?"

"Right, well I don't like you telling my daughter to talk to talk to that Naruto boy."

I gave her a faux-confused stare. "What's wrong with him?"

As I expected, she blanched. "Well... he's..."

I decided to push a bit further. "Give me one good reason for all the abuse he's had at the hands of the village. One thing he's done that would change my mind. Burden of proof." After some more of her grasping for a good reason, I continued with a glare. "I know about the Kyūbi, by the way, and that's not a good reason." I made sure nobody was around before elaborating. "He's not the fuzzball, and if it weren't for him neither of us would be alive. Nor would your daughter, your husband, or just about anyone you've ever known and loved. Why then?"

"I... I-"

I snorted. "Save it. You're not gonna rationalize your way out of that moral quandary." I pulled out the used Inner Demon Calming Seal tag, then replaced the used-up sealing formula with a fresh one. "If it really bothers you that your kid's friends with the jinchuriki, this thing can be used to suppress Fuzzy's chakra, at least as long as... it... is still at least partially in Naruto." Calling Kurama it felt dirty. That's probably a good thing. "It's practically the best thing you can have when dealing with an out-of-control jin...chu..." I trailed off as it finally hit me just what I made. "Fffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu-" I internally screamed.

She blinked. "It's okay. I don't need this. You're right."

"-uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu-" I put the seal back away and said, "Yeah that's probably for the best... Hang on, I need to make a call real quick." I closed my eyes and reached out with my telepathy to Sarutobi's office.

"I already took care of it," Hiruzen told me immediately upon picking up. He was getting real nonchalant about having someone randomly use telepathy on him...

"-uuuuuuuu... huh?"

"Thanks," I mentally sighed. "I really dropped the ball there, huh?"

He mentally chuckled. "To be fair, you are still a child. You might still want to check in on Sasori."

"Will do. Bye." I opened my eyes back up. "Right, where were we?" I asked before realizing she was gone. "Meh, I'm sure everything's fine now."

kukukuku~

I sighed and licked my lips as I looked at the two balls of "sage" chakra in my hands. One was blue and one was red, but I was a little disappointed with the conversion time of both, even after multiple full days of practice. Almost five minutes for a small amount of blue chakra and a little over twice that for an equal amount of red. I wasn't going to be able to use that in combat anytime soon... Though I suppose it was better than my first time of about an hour for blue. "I guess it still works for what I need it for," I sighed, then shrugged as I considered the blue chakra. With Kurama's and my calculations, it was doubtful that I'd need any more than a small amount of blue sage chakra, so I just traded a bit of chakra between my hands and reabsorbed the mostly blue chakra. It wasn't much of a boost, but I definitely felt a buzz from it that felt pretty nice.

After that, I pulled out the little bug cage thing I got for the other component I needed for the jutsu I'd thought of. That other thing being the bugs that I had. Well, any animal would do, but I wanted to start small and with something that I would hopefully not feel guilt over killing. Of course, that meant that I barely had any material to work with, just a couple of flies that I'd managed to convince Hinata to catch while I was meditating. I looked at them for a few minutes, took a few deep breaths, and said, "Sorry, little guys." I channeled the demonic sage chakra into the bugs, pouring all of the chakra evenly into them. The flies took on a look similar to a stage two chakra cloak but without the tail before beginning to compress and converge on each other.

The idea was to use the mutative properties of natural energy overload to change them into something I could use. Theoretically, I could have used less demon sage chakra than complete saturation, but I decided that with how easy it was to saturate the flies, I would just do that and observe closely to see if I could glean the proper form for that and not have to go through trial and error. After about a minute, they had fully compressed and fused together into a small red crystal with a light glow. I sighed when I saw that it was pebble-sized, about a centimeter in diameter. Sure, I wasn't expecting to pull an adequately-sized crystal out of a few flies, but I was hoping for a little more... I ran my fingers through my hair and picked up the pebble. "I guess it's fine for now..." I muttered, then reached down my shirt to stick it on my sternum, hidden away. A seal blossomed on my skin, collecting the very minute amount of demon sage chakra that the stone was generating. Until I had a bigger one, that was the best use for it I could think of.

kukukuku~

Imagine that one French narrator voice from Sponebob saying "One month later."

Ai shrugged. "Probably."

"Yeah, Shukaku's a slippery bastard, but that should about do it," Kurama agreed, curled up on another seat.

"Seal team meeting adjourned?" I asked, then got nods from the both of them. "Adjourned. Now that we're done, I remembered something I wanted to ask you, Ai."

"Shoot, kid."

I smirked and picked up a cookie from the plate on the table (using chakra threads, obviously). I took a bite from it, then after I swallowed said, "Your wife makes amazing cookies."

I looked up/down at her and interlaced my hands. "Good, you two feel like an old married couple already. Now, what do you know about the Adamantine Sealing Chains?"

Ai sighed deeply. "I still can't figure it out, even after I asked Kushina for advice years ago," she grumbled. "I'm still not entirely sure it's a Kekkei Genkai and not a Hijutsu..."

"Technically it's both," Kurama said. "If I recall correctly, it's technically a Hijutsu that uses the special chakra of the Uzumaki. You should be able to figure it out if you know enough of how to use it, though."

Ai frowned. "How did you... Right... Hey, if you know so much about it from Kushina, do you have any tips to using it?"

"I have an idea," I offered.

Kurama sighed, got up, and said, "Why do I feel like I'm not going to like this?"

"If it's part Kekkei Genkai, then you might find it easier to do it if you have more power behind you instead of harder."

"Kouki yes," I countered flatly.

"Fuck this," Kurama said, then ran for the opened door. He stopped at the doorway, said "Kurama is out. Peace," and noped off as fast as his little legs could carry him.

"Should I be concerned by Kurama's reaction to that?" Ai asked.

She nodded. "Cool. So what is that?"

"Demon Sage Core. A special stone of my own invention that generates red chakra and fuses it with natural energy on its own."

She gave me a huge grin. "Sounds fun."

I activated my eyes long enough to check how it would go down. Turns out it was a good idea, worked well enough, but unless we had more, then Ai'd really have to try to finesse it to get the chains out. "Unfortunately, though, it's probably gonna take like a month to do that, even with a head start. You've got a lot of chakra capacity."

"Dammit."

kukukuku~

A/N: Yeah I was actually really salty when I realized that NARUTO THREW AWAY TWO OF HIS AWESOME JUTSU BALLS WHY!?

#I Would Totally Kick Jiraiya's Butt #fanfiction #IWTKJB CH7 #Naruto #Naruto Shippuden spoilers

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ecotone99 · 5 years

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[MF]In the Shape of the Big Dipper

Celine had eyed me curiously while I paid for our lunch at the little grille we found in Charleston. I did spend a lot of money that day, but Celine acted like I was a drug lord or at the pink Caddy level of a pyramid scheme. I simply paid cash to keep better track of my spending, that’s all. Money, much like life, doesn’t last. You can’t keep either, so you must learn to spend both the way you want. I never had a red cent to theorize about until recently, much less a fortune of dirty money to move twelve hours away to avoid confronting. Here I was, though, hiding out in the boonies with nursing students, numbing myself with crab cakes and sweet grass baskets. Trusting Celine wasn’t the hard part— she was a good, Christian girl who didn’t believe in strangers, white shoes after Labor Day, or mole people. The problem was I hadn’t told anyone the truth yet— my parents are thrilled; they think I left to go to school. School is a joke, but I enjoy the curriculum and making my folks happy. I owed them that much; they left the beauty of Palermo, the Catholic Church, and the 20th century behind for me. My ex-fiancé, Rob, was just fine with it. He doesn’t know that I know he had an affair and isn’t so excited I’m moving on to bigger and better things. He screws his next-door neighbor every Saturday, the 35-year-old named Judy, with a hideous affinity for vintage bobble head Dobermans and flesh colored lipstick. His mother told me on my way in the night I left, told me I needed to kick the little bastard to the curb, so I obliged her. She was a wonderful mother.

As important as they all were, I didn’t belong to the Maple Street gang anymore. Diana was the catalyst to my new life. We got to know each other during her monthly check-ups. She

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was a patient of Dr. Hales, a sweet old man who’d traded Scarsdale balloon boobies, expressionless faces, and ski-slope noses for his beach house. Diana’s favorite thing was to make me uncomfortable, and if she could encourage my wild side, all the better. She often brought me coffee, offered me cocaine a time or two, and told Dr. H he wasn’t paying me enough every time she visited.

After Celine went home, I had some time to myself, so I began to tell myself the truth. Diana had come into the office for a checkup, after which I relented to a long-standing rain check to visit her apartment. She was a fine thief, something she had no doubt spent a long time perfecting, but I worked with the public.

“Please don’t steal the magazines,” I urged her.

“I paid for these, baby, this doctor charges me $500 just to talk,” Diana said.

“Well, they’re going to ask me what happened to them—I’ll be responsible for replacing them.”

“No, not okay, that’s arrogant and unfair. You’re just a kid and cannot possibly be expected to answer the phone, file papers, take a lunch break, then do the same thing until 5 o’clock while corralling unruly patients.”

“Are you making fun of me? I’m not stupid. I choose to be here and interact with the unruly patients, do my job, and find time to craft 200 Christmas cards by hand.”

“Big shit, I bet you never made a croquembouche while glancing up to make sure Pierre’s boogers didn’t fall into your nearly burning glaze.”

Page 3

“Is Pierre your boss?” I asked.

“Nobody has ever had that displeasure—he was my mentor and my friend. He died when AIDs had us all too scared to swap spit with anyone but WASPS.” Diana answered.

“The Princess of Wales wasn’t afraid. Have you seen Dallas Buyer’s Club?”.

“No, I refuse to see Matthew McConaughey in such a state.”

“It was pretty graphic—what are you always seeing Dr. Hales about anyway?”.

“That’s for me to suffer through and you to look at later when I leave, and you file it away.”

“I can’t look at your medical records, they’re all online now.”

“All the juicy stuff is. Since we’re doing personal questions, how long have you been married?”.

“I’m not, well, I hope he proposes soon. We’ve been together for a year, and I do everything I can to make him happy. He just seems so disinterested in me these days; I’m not really sure what to do if he doesn’t.”

“You’re making 200 Christmas cards and have no husband? You never fail to disappoint me, Greta. Come have a drink and read this Cosmo I’m taking home. You’ve been avoiding my invitation for years.”

I took a cab with Diana back to Manhattan after her appointment while my conscious and Changes by 2Pac blared in my head. We pulled up to a gorgeous brownstone that smelled like leather and rain. The first floor was all tile hallways lined in thick, pastel rugs with shiny, mahogany stairs-- her actual house was the next story up. Once we got in there, I sat down with my pack of smokes and decided I was going to stay for an hour, have a drink, and take 1 aspirin when I got home.

Page 4

Once I was settled, I rammed the business end of my flip-top box into the leg of Diana’s white director’s chair. I inadvertently bounced my curls and breasts, the latter nearly out of my shirt. I flipped the first cigarette I touched upside down, placing it back inside to pick another one, just like Pop- pop showed me. Diana noticed my ritual and nodded in approval.

“What’s up D?” I asked, sucking out my first draw.

“Well first, nice tits. Second, your options are now a sex lesson from me instead of the daft editors at Cosmopolitan or the greatest adventure of your young life.” Diana said.

“What’s more interesting than sex?” I responded, carefully tugging up my dress.

“Stamp collectors, the price of bananas, warts.” Diana said.

She walked over to the left of her living space, squinting to see the sunset out of the bright stained-glass window.

“I’m disappointed you didn’t pick the second option, Greta.”

“I don’t need another adventure, D. I’m already uncomfortable.”

“Your coming here is part of it, so just calm down. You won’t have to actually do much more, sweets.” Diana cooed.

“That croak in a bush thing you mentioned earlier sure sounded interesting.” I said as I surveyed her true crime selection. I noticed most were stolen library books, which seemed overly fitting.

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“You need professional help. Maybe this was a mistake.” Diana said.

“I don’t mean to be rude--I joke when I’m nervous.” I was enjoying myself more than I thought, but it was getting late. I’d had enough of deciphering these interactions for one day.

“I brought you here to give you something.” Diana turned on her heels and walked over to me. “Something I would give to my kid, save only for two facts: I cannot track him down, and I don’t have enough time to track him down. Either way, it will get passed on just as I received it: from strangers.

“You have a kid?” I asked.

“Yes, and I left him just like my parents left me, no family and no explanation but lots and lots of dough. Any more questions?” she said.

“Not right now. Except maybe for what exactly you want to give me?” I asked.

“More than you bargained for.” Diana said as she walked back to her window. She was squinting harder now, to see the stars through the thick smog.

I had worried when I got there that she was either going to kill me or seduce me. Although I think she could have easily done one, and certainly managed either, Diana didn’t bother me again until 2 days later: the Sunday after my visit to her, when I picked up the Times. She was dangling from a gaping hole where that stained-glass window had been, for all the world to see. No cat eyeliner, no hair, and wearing a suit. The glass on the ground below her had shattered in the shape of the Big Dipper.

Page 6

I excused myself from my parent’s breakfast table, taking page 6 and a lox bagel with me to my room. I wondered about a lot for the rest of the day, but the most unsettling of my ponders was the way D had looked. I knew she probably hadn’t started off as a lady, but I figured her masculine days had to have been far behind enough to disregard. I guess it made sense we got along, I was a sucker for complicated men.

I arrived early to work on Monday. Dr. Hales was also surprised that she’d killed herself, although he did admit he was not a psychiatrist. He’d spent Sunday much the same way I did as he had known her for a long time. Apparently, Diana used to be a Mr. David Dawson; her transition required hormone therapy when those medicines were not yet regulated. They caused a rare and aggressive cancer that would have killed her no later than Valentine’s Day. Dr. Hales was trying to reverse her damage, begging her to do chemo, but D had insisted on more hormones: male ones. My best guess was that D had too many regrets about transitioning, perhaps because it made her so sick. When it didn’t work, she killed herself. This was what I resigned myself to believe, and it made me feel better as well as it explained her strange behavior every step of the way.

For the first few weeks after D’s death, I worried about being questioned. I was the last one there, surely someone else knew that. The papers even called it a most unusual suicide, updating the public every so often on the charismatic chef who’d met a gruesome end before they eventually began to lose interest. On St. Patrick’s Day, I got a call from a guy who told me he was a lawyer who wanted me to meet him outside of Bay Ridge about a patient of Dr. Hales. He wouldn’t give any details, but I knew who it was about. Worst case scenario it was a setup to

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interrogate me about D’s death, best case it was information about her that further explained my narrative. I decided I would make an appearance, no matter how it shook out.

Finally, after 3 hours in gridlock, I arrived at a small, but clean hotel. The concierge handed me two credit card style keys. They unlocked the door to room 340, where I found no lawyer and no cops, but a short letter accompanied by a bank card, checkbook, and briefcase. The letter is where I learned of the more-than-I’d bargained-for gift D had set me up with.

Dear Ms. Cannuciari,

We thank you for your assistance in the removal of D.D., simply some of the most extraordinary work we have seen. He was our most beloved detective, but the betrayal we experienced was far too great. The sum is broken down into 1 million USD in $100 bills, which are lining the briefcase. A secure account with our financial institution will house the remaining 76 million USD until either the day you die or the day you speak of our transaction to anyone, for any reason. Mr. Dawson chose the option that’s no longer available, which is to have your genitals cut cleanly off with a Jian--we greatly implore that you do not Google that.

Thank you again, madam. We do hope you will work with us again sometime.

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techprolonged · 5 years

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By now, you would already have the idea about the two smartphones Realme launched in Pakistan. One was the mid-ranger Realme 2 Pro and the other one was a smartphone dubbed as Realme C1.

We have covered about the two smartphones extensively as well as have done a separate unboxing session of Realme C1 with our initial impressions and quick preview. Today we have brought to you a a full review of the smartphone.

Realme C1 is company’s entry-level smartphone in Pakistan to target starters with the good and competitive looks. The phone is retailed at PKR 18,999 in the country, however at a special discount offer you can get the phone for Rs. 17,999 from Daraz. But the question remains; is it really worth the price? That’s what you will find in the review below.

During our quick preview of Realme C1, we really felt the lack of fast charging in the phone which has a massive battery of 4230 mAh. But we couldn’t blame it due to the fact that other phones, in this price range, also come with low-speed charger. So what makes the Realme C1 a bit better than others? You will soon come to know about that in this review.

You will get an option to choose from two color variants of Realme C1 – Navy Blue and Mirror Black. The one we got here for review is the Mirror Black.

Let’s have quick look at the specifications and features of the Realme 2 Pro.

Quick Features and Specifications

Realme C1 SoC Chip: Qualcomm Snapdragon 450 CPU: 8x Cortex-A53 1.8GHz GPU: Adreno 506 GPU Memory 2GB RAM + 16GB Storage microSD card dedicated slot (up to 256GB) OS / Software Android 8.1 Oreo / ColorOS 5.1 – updatable to 5.2.1 Display 6.2-inch IPS LCD 1520×720 HD+ resolution, 19:9, Pixel density: ~271 ppi Screen-to-body ratio: ~88% Gorilla Glass 3 Rear Camera 13MP, PDAF, f/2.2 lens aperture 2MP depth sensor LED flash, bokeh mode, 720p/1080p video recording at 30fps Front Camera 5MP, f/2.2 Battery 4230 mAh – 5V/2A (No Fast Charging) Charger included with retail package: 5V/1A Size/Weight 156.2 x 75.6 x 8.2 mm / 168 grams Sensors Accelerometer, Gyroscope, Proximity, Ambient light, E-Compass Connectivity WiFi: 802.11 b/g/n, 2.5GHz WiFi Tethering, WiFi Direct, Personal Hotspot Bluetooth: 4.2, GPS/AGPS, USB 2.0 micro USB Color Options Navy Blue, Mirror Black

You can check detailed unboxing session with quick preview of Realme C1, however here is a short snippet from that preview. You get a set of very basic items with the phone in the retail price.

Realme C1 Box Contents

The device – Realme C1

Travel charger – 5V+1A

USB cable for Connectivity/Charging

SIM eject tool

User guide

Add-on TPU back cover

Add-on TPU protective film (pre-applied)

Unfortunately, like the mid-ranger Realme 2 Pro, the C1 also doesn’t bring along a stereo earphones. So you have to buy them separately.

Build and Design

Realme C1 has a plastic back panel as well as the mid-frame is also plastic with another thicker plastic bezel between the frame and the screen. There is no fingerprint sensor on the back, hence being plain and too simplistic it’s not so attractive. But the front side of the phone equalizes the difference and gives a good, thinner bezels design in this price range.

The phone weighs a 168 grams and doesn’t really feel much in hands. The grip and handling is comfortable with the less-slippery back panel and curved frame.

The back panel of Realme C1 has no shading angles unlike we have seen the Realme 2 Pro, though it keeps the glass-feel. The panel has 2.5D curved edges around the frame just like on the front glass. But it seems to be a an ordinary plastic that didn’t maintain it s glassy finish on the edges.

There is only two things on the back of Realme C1, actually consider it three. The branding “realme” is down there leaving all the panel clean from anything but a dual-camera module on the top-left corner alongside an LED flash.

Components and Ports

Realme C1 gives access to everything at the bottom side. Micro USB port along with the speaker grill, 3.5mm audio jack is also down there as well as the mouthpiece (primary mic).

There isn’t even a secondary microphone on the top for noise cancellation that could help recording stereo audio.

The power button is on the right side while the the volume buttons are hosted on the left side of the phone.

The SIM slot is also present on the left side which serves for two SIM cards and a dedicated microSD card.

The SIM slot is also present on the left side which serves for two SIM cards and a separate microSD card.

Front and Display

Well; unlike the Realme 2 Pro, the C1 comes with more common design of notch. The one that I do not like that much. However if the software gives the option to hide it like the way Huawei did it first time, I may prefer to use that option. At some extent, Realme’s ColorOS does offer similar option but not enough in-control of user.

The bezels are not little thicker than the 2 Pro, however a lot thinner than others in this price range. Just like that, you will also have to bear with the little larger chin down the display.

The Realme C1 features a 6.2-inch display with aspect ratio of 19:9. The display resolution ends up at the HD+ (1520×720 pixels) which is something you will normally get in this price range. It serves with the pixel density of around 271 ppi on a screen ratio of 88%.

Realme C1 sports an IPS LCD panel which, unlike in-cell technology in 2 Pro, is less brighter. However it’s still impressive when compared to other smartphones in its class. Outdoor visibility is also good.

Like the Realme 2 Pro, the Realme C1 also offers to manage the Notch display area. The option is only available for individual apps and not for the whole system. You can go through settings and set your preference.

Settings > Display & Brightness > App Display in Full-Screen > Notch Area Display Control

Realme refers this as “switching off the notch area display”. That is, when some app’s content is blocked by the notch, you can turn off the whole Notch Area Display for that certain app. Still this feature won’t work in many apps but only a few, however you can try that with any app in the list.

Realme C1 – ColorOS 5.2 – Notch Area Display Control

Software and User Interface

Realme C1 runs Android 8.1 Oreo out-of-the-box. Like any other Realme smartphone, the C1 also comes with OPPO’s ColorOS layered on top of the operating system.

The ColorOS is versioned 5.1 out-of-the-box, however later updated to the 5.2.1 with many additional features and options which you would see in Realme 2 Pro.

The phone starts with a lock screen, unlock to go to home screens, the folders, and multitask view and so on. There is no app drawer as you would know if you had experienced the OPPO smartphones. It depends if you prefer to have an app drawer separate from the home screen. Though I have no issues with having or not having an app drawer.

Realme C1, ColorOS 5.2 – Lock screen, home screen, folder view, recent apps view

You will most probably be familiar with the first three screens above, but what’s the forth screen? It’s the recent apps screen (aka an app switcher in multitasking). No graphics, no app snapshots, but simply the app icons. That’s what ColorOS did to conserve system performance in the budget smartphone. It’s a good thing but I believe it could be done with user’s preference, because this view is too simple to attract. Let the user choose if he/she wants to keep the windowed app switcher with big snapshots instead of conserving system resources.

Like the way ColorOS offers, the split-screen can be initiated with a long-tap on recent apps button on navigation keys as well as from within the recent apps view by dragging down an app snapshot.

Realme C1, ColorOS 5.2 – Recent apps view, split screen, notification panel, shortcuts & toggles

The top bar brings the notification layer with a set of shortcuts and quick toggles that you can rearrange. The brightness slider is also present and the layer keeps the two step expansion.

ColorOS does include Google Now (or Google Assistant) in the system however it has its own Smart Assistant that it offers on the home screen. The Smart Assistant would let you stack things up like, some one-tap quick functions, current location weather, display steps, quick photos, events and favorite contacts.

Realme C1, ColorOS 5.2 – Smart Assistant on Home screen (far left).

The default navigation comes with the standard Android keys – recent apps, home, and back keys. The system also offers you to switch to gesture based navigation, dubbed as “Swipe-up Gesture Navigation”. However, like Realme 2 Pro, it also includes the same iPhone X navigation. Swipe-up on the left or right bars to go back, swipe-up on the middle bar to go to homescreen, or swipe-up and hold on the middle bar to view the recent apps.

You can also choose to “Hide Gesture Guide Bar” to further mimic iPhone X like navigation, if you like so. It includes three more ways of gestures – simple gesture, back on the right, and back on the left.

Realme C1, ColorOS 5.1 navigation (left two) – ColorOS 5.2 smart sidebar (right two)

The Smart Sidebar which is not present in the ColorOS 5.1 navigation options, becomes available in the software version 5.2.1. If turned on, a little nobe remains on the edge of the screen (either side left or right) all the times. You can swipe-in from that sidebar to reveal a floating window containing a quick apps and tools to launch, anytime.

The software includes its own Photos and Videos apps but we liked its File Manager specially for its built-in ftp based remote file manager. You can can access files via web browser or even manage them via the file explorer on your computer or any FTP client.

Realme C1 ColorOS – Albums, Photos, Videos, File Manager, Remote File Manager.

Realme C1 comes with a Phone Manager to keep the system optimized from time to time. It scans the file system and memory and offers you with a set of options to optimize by cleaning it from junk, cache and and uninstall residuals.

App locker is also available right into the system.

For better and uninterrupted gaming experience, you have a Game Space. It allows you to choose which games you want to play at what performance level and which to play uninterrupted from notifications.

If you have been an OPPO user before then it will not be any different for you. We think Realme should add its own flavours to make some distinction as we thought in 2 Pro’s review.

One thing that you will miss in this budget smartphone is the fingerprint sensor. That’s something common thing to lack in this price range. But the face-unlock is pretty good with Realme C1. It’s moderately fast and much usable.

System Performance

We talk about every this and that, but the performance of the phone should always come first when you decide to make a purchase. This is something which gives you comfort most of the time, not its outfit.

As we know already that Realme C1 has Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 450 system-on-chip. You’d hardly see a phone in this price range with this processor. Just for fun, Samsung’s Galaxy J6+ that costs double the Realme C1 has even slower and older Snapdragon 425. If you compare the phone with the similar priced Huawei Y5 Prime 2018, then you won’t get performance as better as with Realme C1’s Snapdragon 450 processor.

In addition, the phone features the Adreno 506 GPU along with mere 2GB of RAM. This system wouldn’t be able to go beyond 720p which is actually meant to be in this price range. You may expect a little bigger RAM for some better long term steady performance, but you must take the price factor in mind.

Once again you’d hardly get anything more than 16GB storage in this price range. So I can’t either object on this factor as well but to be frank, 16GB is little to no-memory these days and will end up in just a matter of days – not weeks. So you better arrange an additional memory via microSD card.

While the Realme C1 is a right option to choose for reliable overall performance in this price range, gaming is not something to fall for. If you are an addict and use your phone for gaming for most of the time, Realme C1 is not for you. But again, if you are “that gamer”, you already aren’t using a phone that cost below 20k. However, as long as it comes to Realme C1, it gives much better experience than others in its price range.

We tried the titles like Asphalt 9 and PUBG Mobile; they didn’t die on the phone. In fact, the PUBG started with a “Medium” frame rate settings by default which gave lagless experience most of the time. However the graphics will remain at the starter “Smooth” option with less sharp images. So you won’t feel bad about gaming on this phone.

AnTuTu kept the Realme C1’s Snapdragon 450 little above the Helio P22 powered Redmi 6. It stands closer to it’s older sibling Realme 2 that equipped with the same 450 processor.

Geekbench shows similar results in both single and multi-core tests on Realme C1.

Mutli-core tests are somewhat mixture of strange change of different devices.

Look at the graphics test where Realme C1 tried its best to stand besides the Huawei Y9 2019 that runs on Kirin 710 and costs double the price of C1.

Oh, I forgot to mention the “Game Space” the software feature we discussed above in software section. It’s something that you can tickle with to make more out of the phone’s performance for better gaming experience.

Realme C1 is good phone when compared to the devices in its class. As said in 2 Pro’s review, the ColorOS really seems to be optimised well with the hardware and gives commendable performance. Though sometimes we felt delayed response to touch but that’s not unexpected behaviour from an entry-level smartphone.

However, keep in mind that it’s just an entry-level smartphone with only 16GB internal storage. You will end up with low memory sooner than later.

Realme C1 Performance and Battery

Realme C1 has a massive 4230 mAh battery for long continuous run and it indeed did the job during trial. If you desire some kind of quick or fast charging, then you have forgotten that this is just an entry-level phone below 20k. So you won’t have something like that. But if you object on a low-rated charger bundled with the retail box, then it can be assumed a better question. Realme just followed other brands in this price range to ship a 5W charger, which is not so impressive.

But the good thing is that, unlike other brands or phones in this price range, Realme C1 still supports 10W charging. That means you can use any other 2-ampere charger for a bit faster charging.

Let me tell you the numbers here – Realme C1 took around 4.5 hours to charge from 0 to 100 with the bundled 5W charger. When used the 10W charger, it would take around 2.5 hours. So you are still looking at a good contender in this price range.

Camera

Realme C1 features a dual camera setup on its back with a 13-megapixel main unit paired with a secondary 2-megapixel depth sensor. Like Realme 2 Pro or any other dual-camera configuration, the second camera in Realme C1 also serves for portrait mode.

The main camera features phase-detect autofocus with an f/2.2 aperture lens and an LED flash. The camera will allow you take photos with blurred background, aka bokeh effect in close up shots. You can record up to only 1080p at 30 fps.

Camera UI

The camera user interface remains similar in all ColorOS variants for different devices. It is simple with only a few set of options on the viewfinder. In fact for a couple of camera settings, you have to go to phone’s settings app Settings > System Apps > Camera where you can change volume button function, show/hide grid, enable/disable shutter sound, location, flip selfie or add watermark.

The user interface offers a set of modes including photo and video modes. There is also some fancy features like time-lapse, panorama and the portrait mode for close shots with blurred background. A “Sticker” mode uses AI based face detection and offers you to apply stickers.

Image Quality

Realme C1 captures decent image detail in daylight for an entry level smartphone. System doesn’t seem to operate on images for colors as they are mostly what we see in the real scene. So don’t expect vivid colors at all. Noise handling was also good at some extent but could always pop out in gradient parts. The camera isn’t very good in handling dynamic range however the HDR mode could help resolve this issue in some cases.

The camera performed moderately outdoors in good light but cloudy and lowlight weather conditions may affect your images. Like Realme 2 Pro, the C1 also impressed us in handled the skin tones.

Outdoor samples

If you ignore the foggy weather and nonexistence of blue skies in the following photos, You may notice the detail in the images and other elements such as noise, chromatic aberration, focusing and clarity.

[slickr-flickr search=”sets” set=”72157702483446172″ account=”1″]

Indoor / Low light samples

Here are some low light samples which show the noise handling being good but the lack of detail ends up with the portions of the image unclear. Sharpness is also suffering at edges where you can also notice the rise of noise levels.

[slickr-flickr search=”sets” set=”72157702483446162″ account=”1″]

HDR Mode

Well you can’t the blue sky very well due to the foggy weather, you can still observe the HDR effect in the following photos.

[sciba leftsrc=”https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4914/46037461254_fe2edc2990_z_d.jpg” leftlabel=”Standard” rightsrc=”https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4816/46037463224_ee0c66fd6d_z_d.jpg” rightlabel=”HDR ON” mode=”horizontal” width=”480″] [sciba leftsrc=”https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7857/46037466284_c7fc917226_z_d.jpg” leftlabel=”Standard” rightsrc=”https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7836/46037464664_a5b6f0a4b6_z_d.jpg” rightlabel=”HDR ON” mode=”horizontal” width=”480″]

Portrait Mode

Portrait mode isn’t that great as we experienced with Realme 2 Pro, however it still does a good job in blurring out the background. It works on both, the still life object or a human subject. Quality of the edges around the subject is something which can easily be identified in some difficult cases.

[slickr-flickr search=”sets” set=”72157702483446142″ account=”1″]

Front Camera

Realme C1 offers mere a 5MP front camera for selfies with a f/2.2 aperture lens. You can record videos, time-lapse and panorama as well as take selfies. Like Realme 2 Pro, C1 also offers sticker mode that pastes facial objects on your face.

The beauty mode comes with 1 to 6 level scale with an additional “AI” that chooses the best beauty level for your face. While in Photo mode, you can turn on portrait mode.

As long as you take selfies in good light, you may get good detail in photos, nice colors and skin tones. However this is not the same case in low-light.

[slickr-flickr search=”sets” set=”72157702483446122″ account=”1″]

Video Recording

The Realme C1 can record up to 1080p resolution at 30fps. There is no electronic image stabilization (EIS) for either 1080p and 720p recordings. But the bad thing is that the image quality is not really impressive when looked at 100% view. Though it’s good for its price range.

Video Sample 720p

[iframe width=”853″ height=”480″ src=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/52rD8qNRLOI?rel=0&controls=0&showinfo=0″ frameborder=”0″ allow=”accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture” allowfullscreen=”yes”]

Video Sample 1080p

[iframe width=”853″ height=”480″ src=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/dizhhbM7cM8?rel=0&controls=0&showinfo=0″ frameborder=”0″ allow=”accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture” allowfullscreen=”yes”]

Video Sample 1080p

[iframe width=”853″ height=”480″ src=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/iIuKHOGS-0s?rel=0&controls=0&showinfo=0″ frameborder=”0″ allow=”accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture” allowfullscreen=”yes”]

Conclusion and Verdict

We think Realme rightly claimed about the Realme C1 to be an “entry-level king”. It might exactly be, at some extent. The C1 is a good performer among its price range and sure has decent cameras. You can forget about the battery and power as it’s gonna last more than a day.

Realme C1 has relatively better system-on-chip than others in this price range. 2GB of RAM is not that great for multitasking as well as 16GB of internal storage is not enough for today’s online/social life. But that’s pretty much same as others have to offer in the class.

The rear cameras are good for your regular personal and social presence, though the front camera is just ok. Build quality, not up to the par but, stands out among the lot you see around for this price tag. You can get the phone for Rs. 17,999 till January 31st during the flash sale from Daraz.pk. Afterwards the phone will be retailed at Rs. 18,999. You can read more about pricing here.

Realme C1 – Photo Gallery

Realme C1 Notch Display

Realme 2 Pro Back Panel

Realme 2 Pro Dew-drop display

Realme C1 Back Panel

Realme C1 Notch Display

Realme C1 Full Review – A good option in budget phones By now, you would already have the idea about the two smartphones Realme launched in Pakistan. One was the mid-ranger Realme 2 Pro and the other one was a smartphone dubbed as Realme C1.

#Realme C1 #Realme C1 Full Review #Realme C1 Full Review Pakistan #Realme C1 Pakistan #Realme C1 Price #Realme C1 Review #Realme C1 Review Pakistan

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