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lgcseojin · 3 months

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✱ SEOJIN'S JOURNAL ( 2006 - current )

This journal is property of Park Seojin. It contains sensitive topics and precious thoughts. If you find this, don't open it or else he'll come find you and take you to Suplex City! Go away.

Septembur September, 2006 The therapy lady said if I pretend I'm talking to God then I can write eeeasier. I dunno. Don't wanna talk to you right now buddy. Cuz somtymes sometimes I kinda wish you didn't make me so I'm upset at you. And I hate cake and I don't wanna blow out anymore stupid candelsles. It just makes me feel real mad. Speshully Especially when Miss Heejung tries to give me hugs. I don't want none of that I just wanna go back to my friends somtimes.

November 30th, 2006 Mr Dongwoo Dad said that the baby is gonna come any day now. I'm gonna be mad if the kid is born on my birthday no way am I gonna share. It's my day!! I want somethin that's mine.

December 25th, 2006 Didn't write in this thing cuz I forgot. Anyway. Christmas is real fun. I got an RC racer thing!!!!! It goes so fast hahahah!!

January 15th, 2007 The baby was really late. They called her Dahye. She looked at me kinda funny but she didn't cry when I hugged her.

September 3rd, 2007 I got moved to a different class and stuff. I wanna throw books cuz now I'm not with my friends. But the teach said we were dissruptin class or whatever. I get to sit next to a girl now and she stuck her tongue out at me so I stuck out my middle finger. Her name is Boram.

March 14th, 2008 Girls are weird. I gave Boram my chocolates cuz she gave me some and then she said she was gonna throw em in the toilet. Whatever. I didn't like her anyways.

May 21st, 2009 Hahahah!!! Jaehyuk hyung came to school today and brought a real lizard. Yep it was real I checked and everything. Haesung said we should dissect it but we were like no way. I wanna make it my pet. It looks so sick! Not sick sick but cool

June 17th, 2009 I bought a guitar!!!

November 27th, 2009 A weird lady said hi to me when I was walking home. She had really long hair and a funny smile. She looked real sick (the real kind) and said my name. Maybe she's one of them no homes people or a ghost or somethin

November 29th, 2009 The weird lady tried to give me a bag of chips and grab my hand. Did she think I was 5 years old or somethin. That shit don't work on 11 year olds. So I ran away real fast. Skinned my knee. It fuckin hurt.

December 1st, 2009 Stuff sucks real bad right now. I'm real sorry God. I don't wanna go back no more. I just wanna stay here now. I'm sorry.

December 1st, 2010 She called again. I can't have one day.

December 1st, 2011 Sorry I keep ignoring you. Lotsa shit is happening lately. That lady hasn't even read this since like 2 years ago. Why do I even bother? How did I do it again? Hi, God? Haha. I'm good, I guess. Bored right now. Eating some kinda bread dad bought in Japan. Way too sweet but whatever. Birthday went okay. They gave me a party and it wasn't anything special I guess.

January 20th, 2013 Got nothing else to do so I'm gonna write in this again. Fuck this city. Fuck everything. I don't wanna move and leave everyone behind. This sucks so fucking much. Seoul seems like it sucks anyway. But at least Jaehyuk is there... Ugh nevermind. It makes feel sick to write while the car's moving all over the place, and Dahye won't stop pinching me. I'm gonna give this kid a headlock.

April 30th, 2013 Some kid almost ran me over with his bike so I grabbed it and he fell on me. Buncha stolen shit fell outta his jacket and everything. Hahaha. He begged me not to tell anyone. I think he's a grade below me even though he said he's like 13 I think. Seems real smart. Name is Cheol... something. I guess he's ok when we started to talk but if he runs me over again I'm gonna pummel him for sure.

August 2nd, 2013 Mom had the baby today. The kid is real cute and she grabbed my finger super tight. I'm gonna be honest. I kinda felt like crying and stuff. She's real cute, Dasom. I wanna protect her.

October 12th, 2013 Jaehyuk wants to start a band or whatever. Know I never mentioned it before but I kinda like to sing and I know how to play guitar. I'll give it a shot. He introduced me to some guy named Taewoo from another school and I asked Cheol if he wanted to join, too. Here goes nothing I guess.

February 23rd, 2015 I asked Minkyung out. I know you don't know who that is yet, God. Sorry about that. I was being an idiot just being in my head instead. She's in the same class as me. She's got short hair like to her neck kinda length. It's really funny. The class was playing soccer and she kicked the ball at my head. She seemed real scared about it and she came over to check on me and grabbed my face. That's what it's like to fall in love right??

July 9th, 2016 Long time no see, huh? Lots of good news happened so far. Well, kinda. First, I'm still going out with Minkyung. :) Second, I entered a singing contest and I got 3rd place, so a guy with a card came up to us and all. He was from a company... entertainment company. Legacy or something. Well, I auditioned and made it. Cool, right? Weird, though... Didn't think this could be a thing for me. Well, I'm gonna mooch these vocal lessons and see what happens I guess. Taewoo won't stop calling me a fucking sell-out though. Bastard. Anyway... the next news is awkward kinda. Mom and dad decided to foster this kid. He's like 12 or 13 or something and he's already getting on my nerves... Feel bad for him though. I know what it's like.

June 14th, 2017 Shit sucks. What a joke. See if those fuckers mess with Hyunseung again. I'd kick their asses all over again until they leave him alone.

December 2nd, 2017 She called me again. I don't get why she just won't leave me the hell alone. I can't do this shit. I don't care if I'm her "real son". Why did she have to find me? You left me there for like almost 7 years and now you wanna keep trying.

March 1st, 2018 I decided to start over. It's for the best, probably. Dim is over. I left the company. Me and Minkyung decided it would be better if we broke up. I couldn't even look at her anymore after I went off the deep end and didn't wanna be around anybody for a while. It was like shit was falling apart and I didn't wanna be like that and hurt her. Then have to leave her. And the guys. I feel like shit. I don't even know if this is the right choice. I'm taking you with me. There's still a lot of space to fill.

March 28th, 2018 It's the fifth day of basics. A week in and I've got some smart idea to start a journal. Apparently it's supposed to be "good" for me as an outlet but like... For all I know, some guy will take it, read it, and make fun of me. Whatever. This is stupid. The food sucks.

March 30th, 2018 Guy named Jung Woobin joined today. Kind of a nerd, but he's in my temporary unit and the bed next to mine. Might as well make friends. He keeps talking about random shit. Maybe I can see if he likes Slam Dunk. Well, I'm not here to make friends anyways, am I? Nothing else interesting happened. Entries are gonna be short till something interesting happens.

April 5th, 2018 Week two. Not hype. Hate waking up fucking early. This sucks ass. Some guy lost his shit and ran off in some random direction. They labeled him as a deserter. Feel kinda bad for him. Just glad he wasn't in my unit.

April 8th, 2018 New recruits came. There was overflow in bunking so they stuck a guy with us. I get a chaebol smell off of him but he seems alright so far. Let's see how he does during the first week.

April 21st, 2018 I'm tired of this Kang dude. Nearly kicked his ass before we got stopped. What a prick. He snores when he sleeps, too. I'm gonna plug his nostrils.

May 1st, 2018 Transfer to marines unit today. Off to Pohang. Wish me luck.

July 30th, 2018 Finally got time to sit down and write. Shit's been intense. The C.O. is no fucking stickler. He makes our squad wake up up to an hour earlier than the others. Set our alarms as the wake up song that blasts outside. Today, I swear we got to bed at midnight and got up at 3:30am. Wanted us to get our rounds done early so we can get a head start into the MMA training so we're in top shape. Tomorrow, our platoon is supposed to meet with the American marines that are stationed here, too.

October 10th, 2018 My English isn't that great but I kinda talked to this guy and we became friends. Tall, wavy hair, super ripped. Said his name is Andreas like the fault line but I dunno what that means, really. I can just call him Andy, he calls me Jin. His Korean is pretty good, actually. Hahaha.

October 11th, 2018 We sat by the river when everything is done and he and his friend taught me how to skin a rabbit. Then, the guy said he was gonna go rock fishing ( I think, I couldn't get his accent but I think he was from Australia or something ) and pulled a catfish with his bare hands. I'm serious! Wish I coulda taken a picture...

October 14th, 2018 It's the last day of the collab camp thing. Andy gave me a book. D'Aulaires' Book of Greek Myths. I guess I should get better at English... But he said he's staying in Seoul after this. And his dad's got a boxing gym or something. Once I'm out, I'll check it out.

December 1st, 2018 They remembered my birthday. Never thought I'd get a Chocopie with a candle sticking out of it. Whatever works. I don't like sweets anyway and it's cold as balls.

February 13th, 2019 I'm on break for seollal! Came back home for a bit to see everyone. I know I saw them in between but still... This is nice. Chan must've gotten real tall over the summer. Dasom ran up to me and hugged me real tight. As for Dahye, she shook my hand. What a weird kid. I missed them so much. Gonna go spend time with them now. I won't forget you at home. Promise.

March 26th, 2019 A new guy joined us today. Real jumpy, that one. Said he got transferred to our unit for some reason he won't say. Rumor is that he tried to kill some guy and he's in a gang back in Daejeon. I don't believe it for a second. What a stupid story.

April 3rd, 2019 Caught Lcpl. Shin creeping around the place after dark not in his bunk. I got up to take a piss and he almost scared it right outta me. This is like the 2nd time this happened. Since our ranks are the same there's not much I can do. Should I tell the C.O.? Shit, why am I asking you? I don't think you would know what to do either.

April 17th, 2019 Fuck it, we finally ratted on the guy. The hell is he doing lurking around the latrines all the time... Must be some kinda weirdo. I guess that's why he was transferred. Shoulda kicked him out instead. Woobin said he saw him with a knife when he got out so I dunno what to think anymore. Lt said it isn't a big deal. That the guy's gotta be touched in the head, whatever that means.

April 22nd, 2019 Something or some dipshit keeps knocking on the barracks again. Can't fucking sleep. Shit sucks.

May 24th, 2019 Things were quiet for a while. There was a weird smell coming from the latrines and it wasn't cause of the crap they serves us. Found a dead bird strung up with shoelaces. Can't eat tonight.

May 28th, 2019 Can't sleep. Knocking again. The alarms went off. Glitch, I guess.

May 31st, 2019 Some shit went down. Two of the guys started wailing on each other outta nowhere. Screaming real loud about something. I didn't really bother trying to figure it out when we got them off each other. They were reprimanded. Only 9 of us, so this shit really stirred things up. Must have been some kinda disagreement. But everyone's fucking tired. Climbing drills are tomorrow.

June 1st, 2019 The ropes were cut. Or frayed. Or old, or something. It's my fault, isn't it? If I didn't pull so hard then Hwang wouldn't have fallen. Everything's okay. He said it wasn't cause of me. They took him out for a short medical leave. Hope he's okay. But I'm still shaking. I'd only tell you this kinda stuff, God.

June 5th, 2019 There's only 6 of us right now in the unit right now until the others get back. Feels real quiet right about now. No one really wanted to talk. Least, not to me. I still got Woobin but he seems like something's real wrong. Shin's got the world under his feet, though, the way he's strutting everywhere. Kept trying to show me his rabbit pelt. Freak.

July 7th, 2019 That fucking knocking again. A slam. Piss off so I can sleep already.

July 19th, 2019 It's raining. Real hard. Had to go fix something and found Shin out there doing... something. Whatever it is, he didn't like that I caught him and fuck I don't know what to do. It can't have been something bad, right? I didn't really see. It was dark.

July 23rd, 2019 I'm gonna kill that piece of shit. What kinda asshole takes a picture of my mom and just. He's dead. Next week. Mark my words, God. I'm confessing ahead of time if something happens. I'm kicking his ass when he comes around.

July 29th, 2019 The fucker still lives. Unfortunately. Opened my eyes and saw him hovering over my bunk. I swear. I saw it. How long was he standing there? How many days? Shouldn't think too much of it...

August 2nd, 2019 I looked over and he was just sitting up in bed like that. Awake. I don't think he ever sleeps, come to think of it. Woobin said the same thing. I started to keep my knife with my under my pillow.

September 6th, 2019 We woke up and Shin was gone from his bed. Nothing from the usual. C.O. came in and told us the military officers came and got him. Said what happened stays with us. They're making Woobin testify but he won't tell me what happened. Guess I'll never really find out. Gotta keep an eye on the news maybe later. Feel like I need to take 8 showers though. Maybe 10. Hopefully there won't be too much to write about now.

September 30th, 2019 Holy shit. Just a little bit longer and I'll be outta here. Sgt. Park speaking. Cool, right? I should have something positive here after all that. Everything seems like it's okay again. I think. I guess I thought about it a little more... All sorta guys come through here and you never know who's gonna end up being totally insane. I left out some details but, God, I'm sure you saw what happened anyways.

October 15th, 2019 One more month! I get to lead new recruits today. I asked Woobin to help and he still almost passed out running with us. Guess some guys really don't get that fit here, haha. Here's hoping we can still be friends when we leave. He's outta here next week... Gonna miss him something awful.

November 10th, 2019 I'm free!!! Gonna stay with the family again for a bit until we get my place figured out. Don't really plan on going to school or anything, but dad helped me find a job at some restaurant. I gotta go to Gangnam for it since it's all ritzy but it pays well. I'm kinda excited. Really feels like I started over again... Also, went to the bar still in my fatigues ( yeah, I know, I was lazy ). Craziest thing, the people you meet again. Some guy in uniform, another in a sparkly jacket. Funny where we end up.

December 2nd, 2019 Saw the guys yesterday. We got super smashed and they said I climbed a tree. Wait. Why am I still writing? Nothing interesting is going on. Let's not make this a habit.

January 8th, 2020 Nevermind. Something kinda crazy happened. Went to Vampire Den for the open mic night again. Just to sing. I got that card again. This shiny one. I guess I must have been outta my mind and had it in me to go for an audition. It was worth a shot. I'm almost at the limit they accept trainees. Fuck what am I doing? Shit.

January 9th, 2020 The call came. I made it. They said I gotta move into the dorms now. At least I got a couple months to myself.

January 20th, 2020 Shit man. So many kids around... This kid ( had a real unique name ) I'm roommates with said that he's graduating high school soon. Crazy... I think I'm in way over my head if this is how things are gonna be, but fuck it, right? At least I can still keep my job. Guess I'll just start making some friends around here. There's plenty of guys my age. Yushin's even here, too. Well, anyway. I don't gotta keep writing in this right now so see you later.

July 24th, 2020 Hey guess who's gonna be in a band again? Well kinda. It's still a bunch of practicing. We'll see what happens but I'm feeling optimistic, I think.

April 21st, 2021 This just in for another episode of Shit Sucks... They pulled the band stuff. I guess there weren't gonna be enough resources for it. Dunno what to do now. Feels like everything's crumbling apart around me. I can just hide away in my room for the rest of the year, right? Just not sure what they're gonna do with me now. Gotta get better at dancing. I'll do it later.

May 23rd, 2021 Shit just keeps happening. I saw her with someone else. I don't want an explanation. I'm tired of this push and pull shit. Going here and there without saying much. She lit my heart on fire and put it out with her fucking shoe. I loved her. At least, I think I did. I guess that doesn't matter now. Nothing should have come from that day and why did I even bother going through with it. Over and over again. Wasted my own heart. Nothing matters anymore, does it? Fuck it all. I should go somewhere. Don't look now, God.

August 17th, 2021 I guess some okay things can happen. But these blind dates the guys keep trying to set me up on are a waste of time. Better to not put in effort like that. Anyway, dad's heart thing has gotten better, too. He wanted me to start picking up his new medicine after practice every day.

September 19th, 2021 It's hard to want to sing again. Or want to do much of anything again. Maybe I'll get better by next year.

September 25th, 2021 Met this girl. Well, already did. Sometimes, she'd be at the pharmacy when I picked things up. There's dimples in her cheeks when she smiles at me. I mentioned I was interested in producing music and she asked me for some pointers. We're meeting next week so I can help her, I guess. Worth a shot. Come to think of it, I think we went to the same high school.

October 18th, 2021 She's cute. Fuck, I'm so screwed. I remember now. I sneezed on her in the hallway once. She said it was two times, but I don't remember the first one. We already talked a lot. It's weird. Something dangerous about her. I'll watch my step...

October 31st, 2021 I feel drunk even though I'm not. She said she liked me and I wanted to run. I think I already like her, too. I just can't be what she needs right now. I shouldn't be writing this stuff down. I'll save it for songs. My own head. See you.

December 5th, 2021 She said there's a beauty in being impulsive. She is coy and bold. She wants to kiss my cheek because something compels her to. She yearns to see me. I can't forget anything she says. She speaks in poetry and laughs in music. I don't flinch when she reaches out to touch me. So.. What now...? I kissed her on the shores of some snowy Sokcho beach. When she says now that there's nothing innocent about the way I kiss her with that smirk of hers. When she said she's looking for someone to break her heart because she's just being realistic. Not to feel burdened because I make her happy. She'll be patient for me. I think I might be going a little crazy. Emotionally, spiritually. She makes me want to sing again.

December 1st, 2022 Aside from one good thing, this year was kind of a bust. Hoping for a better one next year. Fuck, I'm getting old. Did they forget about me?

March 20th, 2023 Finally got a project! With actual songs. Not sure what it's gonna entail but ... here goes nothing, as usual. :)

March 30th, 2023 And when it comes to spring, I learned that it's made of heartbreak and not love.

August 12th, 2023 Fuck, what am I doing with my life? It's so close I can taste it but I can't help but feel like there's so much missing.

October 30th, 2023 What am I doing? Part two. Everything is all jumbled up. There's nowhere to put that anger brewing in my head. I almost messed up my hand because of it and ruined everything for myself. Might start writing some songs again...

December 1st, 2023 The first birthday I really felt like I deserved. I guess I made it this far, huh? And there are people who care about me, love me. It's still really overwhelming to think about, but looking back, this is what I always needed. And I should have been more grateful for what I have around me in the form of other people.

January 1st, 2024 I think it's gonna be a great year. Love is real.

January 14th, 2024 Oh. Fuck.

#✱ ㅡ alone with my thoughts. ( solo )

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nii-chans-rabiddogs · 1 year

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Kennels

TWs: Dehumanization, muzzles, collars, restraints. Sorry it took so long, but have fun <3

@cupcakes-and-pain @maracujatangerine

It’s been a bit since I was left here, and I spent the first long while just trying not to cry. I’m scared and insulted and really wanna leave, but I dunno how to undo the latch, and I can’t try right now anyways. A buncha people keep walking through the door to the hall, but none of them say anything or even glance over when they pass by. They’d put me right back in if I got out, which is rude. They all have the same type of outfit though, which actually looks okay-ish. There are so many pockets, and they all have earpieces and some of them have special gloves, but those ones are also carrying some stuff in boxes. Whatever it was, there’s a lot of it, cuz they keep bringing in more and more, while another couple of people watch and type stuff on tablets, before talking into their earpieces. They said something about shipments and gear, but I can’t hear much of it.

Another person walks by, and she’s wearing a really cool purple cape. One of the carrier people called her Royal, which was a cool name, but I’m not sure how you get Royal from the color purple. Actually, her entire costume was purple, but the main part of it looked black at first cuz of how dark it was. Her boots are dark purple, but not as dark as the body part. Her gloves are really bright though, and they shimmer like they’re almost reflective. Royal looked straight forward as she walked through the kennels, talking to one of the tablet guys about finding a new dealer for PowerSurge gear. Apparently, the old one went to meet his husband, but I don’t know why they haveta get a new dealer if he’s just visiting his husband. Maybe they just got married and went on their honeymoon? Wait, why do so many people try to put honey on the moon? And only after they get married? There’s no reason, and I don’t think normal people can afford a trip to the moon, that sounds really super expensive. Maybe- oh,what?

A group of carriers just called Seren out. She leans out to them from the backroom, barely glancing at them before nodding and grabbing her keychain from somewhere. Royal steps back to let her through, and she walks out to the kennel on my right, unlatching it and stepping back while the carriers grab the animal from under the little dog house thingie it was in. It looked like a mix of a very tiny tiger and lion, but wrong, like someone had stitched together two different stuffed animals badly. The carriers pick it up, placing it in a large cage and padlocking it shut. They slap a sticker on it, before a tablet guy types something and nods. The carriers lift up the kennel and bring it back out. It was all really quiet, barely anyone saying anything, and Seren looked bored.

“We’re locating a new dealer, so expect a minor delay in mass shipments. Customs aren’t affected. You’ll be notified when a new dealer has been selected and approved.” Royal said, voice sounding as emotionless as a rock. She stared at Seren the entire time, making eye contact until Seren nodded. How can someone make eye contact that long, doesn’t it hurt? Royal snapped her fingers and all the carriers and tablet guys that are left started grabbing their stuff and leaving. No one said anything else, and I really wish I could ask questions, or at least mess with something. It feels like my blood is electrified, but I can’t move or talk or do anything and it's the worst. I shook my arms a little bit, but it didn’t help and just irritated my wrists. I really wish I was with detective or Skyrise or Monsoon right now, they wouldn’t do anything to me or make me sit still. They’d let me run and wiggle and shake my hands around as much as I wanted, and they yelled at the one mean guy who told me I needed to have quiet hands, but I dunno what he meant but that. Monsoon got really angry when I mentioned it, so maybe it was an insult? But why? And how would you quiet your hands, they already don’t make much noise unless you’re slamming them on stuff or clapping, and I wasn’t. It was very confusing, so I just walked away from him.

Oh yeah, I remembered a bit of before I woke up, when everything was spinny. Doctor Everly said it was a quiet hospital, but he lied to me which is rude and mean and he should be the one wearing this stupid muzzle if he’s gonna lie like that. But I don’t know what those rooms were, and I don’t ever wanna go back in them, cuz they were super cold and scary. I shivered, and tucked my arms closer to my body again, wishing the supercuffs were just normal handcuffs. If they were I’d be able to make the lights go out with a real big shock. It wouldn’t help I don’t think, but it would be fun to watch people scramble around in the dark. I also woulda shocked the Doctor and Seren, too, cuz they’re mean and scary and I don’t like them at all.

“Alright pup, here’s the deal. Hunter is determined to keep you no matter what happens in your little interrogation, so we are goin’ to try out some gear for the few hours you have until he gets done with business. Behave yourself and you might get some treats, puppy.” Seren called out suddenly, walking out with a lead rope meant for strays.

She unlatched the kennel door, and I shrunk back again. I glared at her, but it didn’t do anything except make her chuckle. I tried to stay as far away as I could, but she shot her hand out to grab my ankle and yank me towards her. I panicked and whined as my head hit the floor, while she looped the lead over my head and tugged until it was snug against my neck. I tried to wriggle and push her away, but she just grabbed my hands and yanked me into the air like I was a piece of paper. I don’t like this, and now my head hurts and she’s scary and she’s gonna hurt me and-

“Aw, puppy, no need to look so scared. We’re just trying out some training gear, okay? No need for the teary eyes or breath holdin’, pup. This is happening no matter what, and it would be easier if you just listened to me.”

I immediately shook my head, cuz Doctor lied and she might be lying too and I don’t wanna go with her cuz she’ll hurt me or yell at me or- Ack! I choked as Seren suddenly yanked the lead forward, and stumbled forward a couple of steps. I looked at her with wide eyes, shaking a little bit, and she raised her eyebrow. She pulled on the lead so I took another step cuz I didn’t wanna choke again cuz that was really scary and I’d end up back in the warehouse with Detective yelling at me and, and he’d be really mad and- no, don’t think about that, just- Just follow Seren, and then there’s no choking or yanking and you won't go back, right?

I whined and shook my head, following behind Seren as she slowly took us to the backroom. There’s a lot of weird vests, and all sorts of collars and leashes and muzzles on hooks on one wall. The wall on the right had some gray cabinets, and underneath them there’s a table with some remotes and bags of snacks and treats. Set in the floor are some loops, but they’re cut weird and kinda look like a heavy metal carabiner. Seren hooked me to the one closest to the hooks on the walls, and I had to sit down so I wouldn’t choke. She grabbed a collar that was all metal and looked really heavy, that had a loop in the front, and I ducked my head down a little cuz it looked scary. She pressed something and it beeped once, then lit up two lines on the inside of the collar. Seren nodded, grabbing a remote and messing with the two until they both beeped a couple of times, then pocketing the remote and turning back to me. I shook my head again, trying to shrink into myself but she just sighed and stopped right in front of me. I stayed curled as small as I could, but I couldn’t stop shaking. She didn’t do anything for a couple of seconds, and sighed before saying:

“You’re a real anxious pup, ain’t ya? If it makes you feel any better, Hunter said I’m not allowed to hurt you at all. Not even a papercut. I wouldn’t anyways, but now it’s enforced by an order. Now, he also wants you to be wearing all the… corrective gear, and this is one of them. I know the collar looks a little scary, but it’s just like those power-suppressing cuffs. That’s all it does, puppy. If you sit up for me, I’ll even swap out the muzzle for something a little nicer, yeah?”

I wanna shake my head again, but the muzzle is also really tight and makes my jaw ache a bit… But the collar is also really scary and it might hurt. Maybe, maybe she isn’t lying? She- if Hunter said she couldn’t hurt me then she’d be alotta trouble if she did, so she can’t, right? I huffed, before very very slowly sitting up. I stayed curled down, but only a little and I haven’t stopped shaking. She lifted my head up, and I flinched back but she just tightened her grip to keep me in place. I whimpered and tried to pull my head away a little, but she was already undoing the first weird collar, so I just froze. She pulled it off, and slid the heavy one around before adjusting it to rest a little bit above my shoulders. She pulled it tight, and finally let go of my head to walk around and click it closed. She fiddled with it for a second and there was another click, and she stepped back.

“See? That wasn’t so bad. Let’s get a harness and leash on you, then I’ll swap the muzzles and give you a treat, puppy. Give me your hands, I need to take off the cuffs for this part.” She commanded, walking back around and crouching in front of me. I hesitated, then reluctantly held my wrists out to her. She twisted them weirdly for a second, then they clicked and fell into her hand.

I stared at my wrists, trying to figure out how she unlocked them, cuz she didn't pull out a key or anything, just twisted it. I rubbed my wrists a little bit, and looked back up at her. She grabbed a weird vest, apparently a harness, and a leash that was bright yellow and said “NERVOUS” in big letters. I folded my arms into my stomach as she came back, trying not to curl into a ball again. She pulled the stray-lead towards herself, and loosened until she could pull it off and set it to the side. She grabbed the harness, and undid a bunch of buckles and a zipper on the harness, then made me lift my arms up a little bit. She placed it on my chest and slid four of the buckles over my shoulders, and the ones on the sides around to the back. Two of the four she buckled just under the heavy collar from the front, then moved to the back and zipped the harness closed. She tugged it up a little to clip to the other two buckles over my shoulders to hold the harness up. I heard three clicks as she closed the rest of the buckles on the back, and I moved my shoulders around as I got used to the almost too-tight harness. It was kinda like a vest, with fabric all around, but there was a strap over my chest with a D-ring, and it wasn’t that hot.

She took the leash and clipped it onto the ring on the front of the collar, which was already feeling too heavy, and slipped the handle end around her wrist. She hummed and tugged here and there on everything, before asking if anything hurt or rubbed anywhere. I slowly shook my head.

“That’s good, I don’t need to order too many customs. If anything gets too small, starts to hurt, or rubs wrong then tell me ASAP, understood? Good. Now, let’s swap those muzzles, and get you a little treat, yeah, puppy? You want a treat?” She teased as she reached behind and undid the muzzle.

It slipped off, and I immediately yawned, trying to stretch my jaw. She slipped the handle to the leash into the spot where the lead used to be, then stepped over to grab a muzzle that was all wires, with a bit of padding here and there. I rubbed my jaw, watching as she adjusted the straps. She grabbed a small bag of chocolates that I didn’t see before, and walked back over. I perked up and stared at the chocolates while trying to make my throat less dry, and she laughed.

“Aw, you like chocolate? I thought that was bad for puppies? You must be a very odd puppy if you can eat these.” She taunted, shaking the bag. I tried to respond but just ended up coughing.

She set the bag down, and waited for me to stop coughing before listing my head and putting the muzzle on. It settled on my face, the padding being the only thing between my face and the metal. It was a lot looser than the one before, and I could still talk without gaining bruises.

“Ca-an… Can I have some- some water?” I rasped, barely audible.

“Sorry, pup, but you have to wait. Only treats for now. You’ll get some when Hunter is ready to see you.” She responded, pulling open the bag of chocolates.

I frowned, and opened my mouth to say something else when she held a chocolate in the air and interrupted me.

“Open up, puppy! A treat just for you!” She jeered, waving the chocolate in front of me. I blushed in humiliation, but opened my mouth as she told me to, and she dropped it between the wires of the muzzle into my mouth.

“Good boy! You’re such a pretty puppy, so well behaved. Very good boy” She praised, and I ducked my head down. She was treating me like I was just a dumb little puppy and it was humiliating but I haven’t eaten since the day before Hunter grabbed me from the warehouse, and I was too hungry to refuse. She gave me a few more, before putting them away and setting them back on the table. She reached under the table and tugged out a box, pulling out a bunch of weird gear I can’t identify.

“Alright, puppy, this is some of the training gear we’ll be trying out. We’ll be here for the next hour just about, so just work with me. We have three more boxes after this one, so let’s get this down as quickly as possible.” She explained, and I sighed and curled back into a ball. This is going to be an absolutely embarrassing hour, I just know it.

#tw dehumanization #tw muzzle #tw collar #tw restraints #whump writing #whump #Ghost #Seren #Royal #royal probably wont show up again ngl #Ghostie boy is always anxious or excited very little inbetween #Seren is being incredibly nice tho cuz her main job is training particularly useful heroes into being guard dogs for hunter #or just manual labor down in the cells underneath the medbay #But ghostie doesnt know that #He'll know about soon enough im sure <3 #also if you have any ideas for the interrogation feel free to share bc ive never been in an interrogation before #and also bc im always willing to hear ideas no matter what lmao #<3 #<33333

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hyenahunt · 3 years

Text

Secret Service: GLOBALISM - 3

Writer: Akira

Season: Winter

Characters: Kohaku, Niki

Proofreading: bakemonoremy (JP) & Skyress (ENG)

Translation: haranami

Kohaku: SOS, SOS… Now that I’ve deciphered the distress signals you were sendin’ out, I can’t turn a blind eye.

Location: Osaka

Kohaku: (I bet that dumbass is the same. Even though he’s been sayin’ that he’s not gonna participate in SS, an’ he doesn’t give a hoot about it...)

(He’s clearly tryin’ t’get involved with all his might.)

(Last night, when I was chattin’ with him and Jun-han, Hiyori-han told me that Madara-han used a secret code durin’ one of his guerilla lives.)

(They couldn’t make heads or tails of it, but I asked my older sister who’s good at that sorta thing fer help, an’ she was able t’decipher it.)

(The results were worse than I could’ve imagined. Madara-han wove two different kinds of ciphers into his song, an’ it looks like Vice Prez-han was only able t’understand what it was sayin’ on the surface.)

(Madara-han made it so that I’d be the only one who could crack the message that was hidden underneath, though maybe even he wasn’t sure if I’d succeed or not.)

(It was pure luck that I was able t’decipher it, after all. I was so ticked off by his selfishness, I couldn’t even think straight.)

(But he snuck that code in hopin’ that I’d be able to notice it.)

(I dunno what you were thinkin’ in that moment, or what your aims are...)

(But I heard your message loud an’ clear, Madara-han.)

Madara: “♪~♪~♪”

Kohaku: (Hmph. Look at you, merrymakin’ an’ livenin’ up the festival. It looks like you’re havin’ the time of your life.)

(This is probably what ya wanna do more than anythin’ else…)

(But you’ve gotta sell off even these precious, happy moments like a commodity.)

(You’ve got it rough, Madara-han.)

(That’s exactly why I can’t leave ya alone.)

(You’re my partner in Double Face. Even though you’re a real bastard — arrogant, stubborn, distant, an’ too goddamn noisy…)

(Once I rip off all those masks you’re wearin’, I know I’ll be able t’see the real you.)

(SOS, SOS… Now that I’ve deciphered the distress signals you were sendin’ out, I can’t turn a blind eye.)

(Double Face is a unit of villains that kills other villains, a tool that others can use t’crush whatever evil they want.)

(But we, Crazy:B, sing fer people like you, who can’t do anythin’ but tremble an’ cry — fer the lonely people that no one else cares about.)

(That’s why I—)

Niki: Kohaku-chan.

If you don’t hurry up and eat, your takoyaki’s gonna get cold, and that’d be such a waste!

Kohaku: Oh, you’re right. People who waste food are itchin’ for divine punishment.

Niki: I think it’s fine, as long as you don’t throw the food away without even eating a bite of it~ But, as a chef, I want people to enjoy food when it's at its yummiest.

I always do my best to calculate how I can get my customers to savor it the most.

Kohaku: Ya don’t really inspire much faith as an idol, Niki-han, but the things ya say as a chef hit real hard...

It’s a bit too late for this, but are ya sure ya didn’t choose the wrong profession?

Niki: I’ve been telling you guys that this whooole time!

That being said, though… I only noticed this recently, but I can be both an idol and a chef. Juggling two careers makes me hungrier, and it takes up more time and effort.

But the more I work, the more money I get. And that means more yummy food!

Taking up something new doesn’t mean that you have to throw away everything else you’ve been holding onto.

Kohaku: That’s obvious, ain’t it? What’re you actin’ all high and mighty for?

Niki: Yup, it’s totally obvious! Which is why I can understand that, even though I’m a big dummy.

Kohaku-chan. You’ve been staring at that video of your partner in, uh, Double Face for a while now. What’s he doing? Is he at the Awa Odori Festival?

Kohaku: Beats me. I heard that Madara-han’s been doin’ a buncha different stuff in Shikoku, though.

Niki: Hm… I dunno the specifics, but he’s your friend now, isn’t he? So you just can’t help but worry about him, huh?

Kohaku: ...Well, I’d be lyin’ if I said I didn’t care.

Niki: Yup. You always treasure your bonds with people, Kohaku-chan.

Even though the creation of our unit was a total coincidence, you really do love us like we’re your family. That makes me pretty happy.

Until Rinne-kun came barging into my life, I was on my own most of the time. So I really longed to experience that kinda love that I was starved of.

But now, my life’s so rowdy I’m almost sick of it! Every day is such a blast, and I think I’ve been feeling fuller lately. Nahaha ♪

Kohaku: What’re ya tryin’ t’say?

Niki: If you’re hungry, you should just say so. And you should eat the things you want to. There’s nothing to be ashamed of at all.

Kohaku: ……

Niki: So if you’re worried about your partner, you should go and check on him. If you wanna ask something, just ask. If you wanna say something, just say it.

I’ll figure out a way to cover up for you. So don’t worry; go ahead and do whatever you’d like. It isn’t like us at all to hold ourselves back.

Would we really be Crazy:B if we followed the rules and obediently stayed put in our region?

It’s not like we’re salarymen who have to put on suits that don’t even look good on us, chipping away at work day after day.

There are people who can’t and don’t wanna live that way…

Which is why we, as Crazy:B, are gonna reassure ‘em that that’s totally okay!

Let’s stay true to ourselves and enjoy life — there’s no need to deny ourselves of anything. C’mon, you need to have fun and be happy!

Kohaku: ……

Niki: That’s exactly what I’m gonna do.

They can’t hold me back with these stupid rules! I’m gonna eat takoyaki…!

Kohaku: I was startin’ t’feel a lil’ moved, but it turns out you were talkin’ bout food the whole time!

Niki: Well, yeah! I can’t take it anymore! I can smell yummy things in every single corner of this cityyy!

They’re just gonna fine us a little if we go against our orders! So, basically, it’s like I’m paying a little extra for my food! That’s all! There’s no way that’d be enough to stop me from eating the things I want to~!

Kohaku: No, hold it right there! The management gets t’decide how much we get fined, and they aren’t exactly fond of us. So we might be forced t’retire straight away—

(But still… Even though it turns out he was jus’ waxin’ poetic about food, Niki-han’s right.)

(It ain’t like me t’hold myself back from doin’ the things I wanna. I’m not gonna live my life with dull, dead-lookin’ eyes.)

✦✦✦✦✦

← prev ✦ all ✦ next →

#enstars #enstars translation #ensemble stars #s: secret service #hyenahunttl #era: !!#type: event #kohaku oukawa #niki shiina

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feralrunaway · 3 years

Text

A New Day

CHAPTER 5

Summary: Captain Syverson finishes his latest tour and returns to his hometown only to find that things have changed since he’s been gone.

Pairing: Captain Syverson x OFC Olivia Harper

Warnings: Cursing, Slight mentions of alcohol, more mystery shenanigans

Word count: 1,092

Chapters: 1 , 2, 3, 4

**I’m sorry this took me so long to update! I hope you’re all still enjoying this. I don’t own anything related to the SandCastle movie or its characters. However, this is my original writing and I do not give permission for use of the idea or reposting without credit.**

Sy woke up with his body absolutely screaming of thirst. His throat was dry, his muscles ached, his heart was pounding. He peeled himself from the bed, went to his bathroom and stuck his head under the faucet and gulped.

Jesus, He thought, wiping his forearm across his dripping beard. He felt like he’d gone on an absolute bender the night before, but he hadn’t had a single drink. Squeezing his blue eyes shut, he tried to remember the events of the previous evening. Everything was blurry and fuzzy in his mind.

He made his way downstairs to the kitchen and downed two more glasses of water before making himself a plate of eggs and toast. He pulled out his phone, flipping through some social media, but immediately got bored. He very much appreciated in-person interaction. He liked to be able to see faces, hear voices. He didn’t want to see pictures on someone’s page about their escapades, rather hear about them over beers and poker. He sighed, remembering Jim telling him the only bar in town had closed down. It could be a good day for a road trip to the next town north of here to get some supplies anyway. He would pick up a couple six packs while he was there. Fleetingly, he wondered if there was something that he was supposed to remember, but it passed. He shrugged. No matter, it would come to him.

Feeling much better after some food and water, his previous physical distress forgotten, he went upstairs for a shower.

__________

“Jonah, my office please.”

“Of course, Sir.”

Blake’s stare bored through Jonah’s own as he sat across from his desk.

“I’m aware your brother has not sought work yet, I was hoping to bring him on board.”

“I believe he is still receiving leave pay from the military, Sir. It may be a few months yet before he’s looking for anything.”

“I see. And he’s no longer staying at your house?”

“No, Sir. He was quick to find a place of his own.”

“This won’t do. Invite him to dinner at your house. Make sure he has plenty to drink. Get him to come with you to church on Sunday. Ensure he makes it. We encourage community togetherness here, and surely you would like your brother to be a part of this community, no?”

“Of course, Sir. I will invite him right away.”

“Good. Dismissed.”

Blake pushed a button on his phone.

“Sir,” Michael’s voice came over the speaker.

“Monitor and ensure the levels at the Syverson house are appropriate. This is our only closed system so far, and I want to make sure it is beneficial for our newcomer. If this is successful, we will move on to phase 2.”

“Yes, Sir.”

_______________

“SYYYYY!” Manuel intoned, holding his arms out wide. “I can’t believe they let our stupid asses out on leave at the same time!”

“I wonder what the hell they were thinkin’,” Sy grinned at his buddy and clasped his shoulders in a hug.

Halfway through his drive, he’d received a text from his friend, letting him know he’d been placed on a similar leave and had just gotten settled in the last few days. They’d known each other since a tour in Jordan, parting ways only once they had both received a promotion. Manny was from Dallas, so Sy had ventured the extra hour in his direction for his errands instead.

“Heard tell Dante was back too. Between the three of us, they’re gonna be sore for leadership out there, huh?” Manny asked with a laugh.

“Probably be damned pleased they’re rid of us,” Sy grinned, “Got tired of their boys goin’ broke on poker bets. Musta decided to make us the state of Texas’ problem for a while.”

“Well shit. Let’s call him up and start doing our new duty, yeah?”

Within a couple hours the three of them ended up around Manny’s kitchen table, already a few bets and a couple beers in.

Dante folded his cards down with a sigh. “I keep gettin’ shit hands like this, you boys are gonna take me for all I’m worth before sundown,” he said, standing up and headed to the fridge for another beer. “Yo Sy, you want one?”

Sy shook his head. “Not for me, thanks. I still gotta drive back. I stocked up on the good stuff, so I’ll have another once I get back. Damn church dried out the county so I had to make a trip up y’all’s way to get some.”

“Bet you’re pissed you did now,” grinned Manny, laying down a flush.

Sy laughed, pushing his chips toward his friend. “Just cause I’ve had to stare at your ugly mug this whole time.”

Dante returned to the table. “So by what you’ve been telling us, you’ve got a shit town, with no beer, no water, and a bunch of zealots that you don’t wanna be around. Why the hell’d you go back?”

“Fuck if I know man. Really wasn’t sure where else to go at first. Probably woulda ended up here instead if I’d known you two were comin’ back too. Now that I’m back though…”

“HA! There’s a girl isn’t there?! Found you a hometown cutie that missed your fuzzy face, huh?” Dante cawed, mimicking kissy faces at Sy.

Sy laughed with him, but memories of the previous night were starting to become less blurry the more he remembered Liv’s face.

“Nah, it’s not like that man. A girl, yeah, an old friend, but she’s in a bad way.” The memories were still vague, but he started feeling uneasy the more he recalled. “Somethin’ ain’t right with the whole damn town, man. Buncha suits running a business no one seems to wanna talk about. Everyone’s too fuckin’ cheery or too quiet, like a town full of little worker bees. Shit gives me the creeps.”

“Spooky,” Dante said.

“I’m serious man. Somethin’ ain’t right.”

As he spoke, a realization dawned on him.

“Listen, boys, I gotta go. It was nice catchin’ up with you,” he said as he tossed his cards on the table.

“Don’t be a stranger, Sy. Hit us up again soon.”

“Will do, Manny.”

Sy quickly made his way out of Manny’s apartment, pulling out his phone as he walked.

He dialed the one person he could think of that could help, glancing at the two unopened bottles of water in his passenger seat as the phone rang.

“Tilson.”

“General Tilson, ma’am, it’s Captain Syverson. We need to talk.”

“About damn time, Syverson.”

Tags: @dancingwendigo @pterodactylterrace @indigosaurus @purplelove75 @omgkatinka @sugarpenchant @its--fandom--darling

*I didn’t tag everyone since this story was out before most people requested to be on my tags. If you’re on my general tag list and want to be added just let me know!*

#captain syverson #a new day #captain syverson x ofc

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lo-55 · 3 years

Text

Playing With Fire Ch. 2

What Do You Know?

@emrysaf

When dawn breaks through the window and assaults your eyes you take a few long minutes to relish the feeling of obliviousness.

If you lay here for long enough and pretend hard enough that yesterday never happened maybe you can open your eyes to your own living room, or even a hospital room where they’ll tell you you took too many Benadryl and hallucinated everything.

Eventually you have to open your eyes and look to the ceiling.

You really don’t wanna do this, but here you are. Doing this.

You really, really wanna open your eyes and find yourself home, with the storm blown over and your life back to normal. You wanna call your parents, who you never knew you could miss quite this bad.

You can’t do any of these things.

All you can do is open your eyes and look at the unfamiliar ceiling.

There’s a few cracks in it that you count while you remind yourself how to breathe. Eventually you have to get up and change into the school uniform instead of the blinding orange jumpsuit. If you remember right you were all supposed to meet in a classroom to get your final assignments, and then jump on a train and go to your new company with a resume in hand.

You ended up following a pair of girls to the classroom, where you plopped yourself next to Shinra. You didn’t see Arthur or Ogun anywhere, which was weird. If you recalled right Ogun stayed in the fourth after graduation, and he and Arthur were close friends of Shinra, even if Arthus disagreed with that fact for the most part.

You shoot Shinra a quick grin, and turn to face the front again.

If you remember right, this was where your were assigned the fourth in the game, along with Ogun. You (or the MAIN character) got in trouble snooping around and Ogun, after hearing your reasoning, turned himself into your own personal body guard.

Now that you were thinking about it, it might be a good idea to start writing everything you know down.

God knows you’re gonna forget something important when you need to remember it.

Er, Sol knows?

This is stupid.

You look up at some nameless teacher who paces the front, holding a stack of assignments for you and copies of the applications that had been sent to each of the companies.

This is it.

You sit a bit straighter.

The teacher hands out each person a form. When you look to the side you see Shinra grinning that huge, nervous smile of his and it’s all you can do not to pinch his cheeks and tell him how cute he is.

The teacher finally hands you your assignment.

Company 8.

You do a fist pump.

“Hell yeah! First choice!”

A few of your classmates shoot you startled looks. Was your character really so quiet before?

“Hey, I got the same one,” Shinra poked his head over to see. The list was pretty simple. All it said was the company number, their captain, leuitenant, and address. A glance around revealed that everyone else had a whole packet of information on their new companies. But 8 was so small, and so new, apparently they didn’t warrant it.

That was fine. You already knew enough it hardly mattered.

“We’ll be together then,” you say cheerfully. “Wanna take the train together?”

Please say yes. I don’t know where the train station is. Or how to ride one.

Shinra nodded, “Yeah. Sounds like fun.”

“Wanna meet at my room and we’ll go? It says we’re supposed to meet them at their station this afternoon.”

“Are you sure?” Shinra looked startled. You poked his cheek.

“I wouldn’t have said it if I wasn’t, babe.”

Shinra suddenly looked unsettled. “You’re not just doing this to mess with me, right?”

“Mess with you?” You cocked your head. “What would I do that for?”

He didn’t have an answer for that, but it made you sad. You knew he got teased a lot, but was it really so bad he thought you being friendly was a trick?

You were so gonna get in a fight here someday.

You flipped your company eight paper around so you could take a look at the copy of your resume that they’d be getting there. It was pretty bare bones. It had your name, age, weight, height, blood type, and listed you as a Second Class Fire Soldier, as well as your grades. They were all pretty average, but apparently you were good at math.

You didn’t have a home address, but it did say you were Ueno, but that part you knew already. In the game you’d gone to Asakusa on an errand, done a bunch of side quests, and found out that Ueno was your home town and it was nearby. It was mostly made of museums and old buildings.

Still nothing about your pyrokinesis. Damn it.

This was starting to get annoying.

“So I’ll see you in a few hours, right?” You clarify quickly, looking up at Shinra.

Shinra still looks surprised, but he nods quickly, with another small smile. “Yeah. I’ll see you then.”

You bump fists with him again before you retreat to your room.

You take to your desk and grab a pencil and paper to try to write down everything you remember, in english for good measure. You don’t know how you know japanese now, but then again you don’t know a lot of things lately.

What I know for sure:

MAIN CHARACTER’s family is from Ueno. They died in an infernal fire. They had a sister they’re looking for. They have their sisters ring, a scar on their wrist, and lighter that’s connected to the Tragic Back Story. After the fire SISTER enrolled in the Fire Force Special Academy, leaving MAIN on their own for a few years. She disappeared not long after graduating, and MAIN joined to try to find her in turn.

In the original game MAIN joins fourth company, which their sister was a part of before her disappearance. In their first night there they dream of a man in a red suit who smiles and pats their head. He’s probably important. Maybe dad??? Likely dead. They snoop around and get in trouble a couple of times, but the captain is on their side and let’s it slide with a slap on the wrist? And no mention of wanting to be lit on fire. He’s a cool, if weird old dude.

Ogun takes it upon himself to look after MAIN after they nearly get arrested looking into 5th company.

Note, avoid the Princess until after Shinra works his magic.

A choice is made: agree to let Ogun help or ditch him.

MAIN chose help and together THEY snuck into the Holy Sol Temple. While Ogun looks above, MAIN manages to find a door leading down to old training grounds.

Note. MAIN didn’t know they were for the shadow sun whatever they were called training.

MAIN gets lost and pops out at the end of a tunnel, where Joker happens to be setting some cards up.

Note . Why????

A choice is made ; Tell Joker the truth or lie.

MAIN admits to Joker that they’re looking into a disappearance, and suspect the church of having something to do with it. They admit that they think the entire situation is a little hazy, and the history is a fragile thing. After that Joker is considered a Friend.

MAIN returns to Ogun, but only hints at what they found underground. That night they dream of the Man in Red, who tries to speak to them and pats them again. They notice he has a ring with the same design as their own.

MAIN also spent time in Asakusa with Benimaru Shinmon and Konro. MAIN was little more than an over glorified messenger at the time, but took advantage of the opportunity to see their old home. (UENO)

Note. Benimaru is hot

A choice is maid ; leave at once or help out.

Did a buncha side quests in Asakusa when MAIN stumbled on an old subway entrance in the basement of a restaurant they were working in. The owner says it’s dangerous to go down, but there are a few other holes around the city. Most have been boarded up long ago.

MAIN, not knowing what they are, leaves them be.

Note. Were the subways part of the underground church forbidden place??? Asakusa doesn’t follow the church? So they don’t think they’d curses just dark and flooded?

MAIN goes home. Rumors of the White Clad begin to circulate, and MAIN goes to company eight to ask Shinra about them directly, thinking that their sister might have been taken by them.

. . .

You look at your paper and realize something vital.

You’ve misspelled maid.

Fuck it.

You also write the three powers you could have picked down in blue ink, taking the last pen in your drawer out.

The fire wings, Phoenix in the game. They were support type, with heavy defense properties and minor healing powers, but you couldn't fly which was lame.

The fire spear, the Sun Lance, was a damage type power. It took fire from around you and made a blade at the end of a long stick. Technically it was a spear, but if you flipped it upside down you could ride it like a witches broom. That one you could fly with, but not the wings.

The magnet sand, Dark Desert, was a tank type. They made a lot of long range weapons and smashed through fire pretty easily and made strong walls, but it couldn't get too close to you or you yourself will take damage, and you can’t move while you use it.

They’re all really cool, but you still don’t know which you have and you have no idea how to find out. And you can’t ask anyone or you’ll look crazy!

...Maybe you should arrange an ‘accidental’ fall down the stairs and claim anmesia.

Just when you’re seriously considering that option a harsh knock sounds on the door.

You jump and smash your arm so hard into the drawer you actually break the bottom out of it.

“Shit! Just a second!” You yell at the door. You scramble to try to hide the evidence when you realize ; the drawer isn’t broken. The bottom is fake.

You carefully extract, from within, a thin, red, leatherbound book. A look at the inside cover shows you a note.

To keep your thoughts in order, you scatter brain.

<3 Fuyuki

Another knock sounds.

“Hey! Are you ready to go?” Calls Shinra from the other side.

“Y-yeah! Just a second!” You stuff the book into the front pocket of your bag and throw yourself to the door. You swing it open and throw Shinra back with your blinding grin.

“Let’s go!”

When the two of you board the train, each clutching your bag close, you’re forced to stand shoulder to shoulder with Shinra, who ends up keeping up his grin the whole time even though you can see him visibly straining to stop it.

It probably doesn’t help that you keep looking at him, but oh well.

The second you step out on the platform the screaming starts. A burning train is on its way. An infernal. You and Shinra scramble towards the sound, with Shinra in the lead, and come to a halt just in time to see the train stop. Fire streams out the windows and a creature from a nightmare crawls out of door.

You swallow thickly. You can smell burning flesh. You can feel heat on your skin.

This is real.

You tear your eyes away from the walking corpse in time to see Company 8’s bad ass entrance. They’re all so cool! Maki is such a badass, and Obi is way too strong, and Iris is sweet faced and determined-

You’re barely able to focus on the infernal itself, and you actually forget that the big metal sign is going to fall up until it happens.

Shinra shoots off like a bullet.

You’re left behind, your hair whipping behind you and your arm raised to protect your face while Shinra saves Iris for not-the-last-time.

You watch him introduce himself, for a moment feeling like you’re just an observer. Its not really intruding, but the familiarity of it all doesn’t help anything.

It’s not until Shinra points at you and says your name that you snap to attention. Your body knows to salute even if you don’t.

“Sir!” You echo. “It’s a pleasure to meet you. That was totally awesome, sir.”

Obi gives you a brief once over before he nods, seriously.

“Yes. Yes it was. It’s good to have the two of you. Come on. We should get going, back to the cathedral.”

You and Shinra hurry to grab your things and follow after the four of them.

When they’re not looking you elbow Shinra.

“That was so cool!” You hiss. “I didn’t even have time to react and you totally saved the sister!”

“A-ah, you really think so?” Shinra looked away, his cheeks pink and his grin huge. He scratched his cheek in embarrassment. “ I just did what any hero would!”

You laugh and swing your arm around his shoulder. “True! Still, it was really awesome. I know I can count on you to help me in the future, right?”

Shinra nods quickly, however embarrassed he might be.

“Yeah! Or I’m not-”

You don’t get to hear his new, weird nickname. You’re cut off by the fact that instead of loading into a matchbox the captain has called you a cab.

That’s weird.

You know that’s weird.

“...I don’t get it, but I’m not fighting it,” you say after a minute, and crawl inside. Shinra follows suit and the two of you finally make your way to the run down cathedral.

Home suite home.

~ ~

A/N So which power do you guys wanna see?

Dark Desert, Phoenix, or Sun Lance? Please let me know!

#shinra kusakabe #shinra kusakabe x reader #fire force x reader #fire force #en en no shōbōtai #reader insert #enen no shouboutai x reader

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raywritesthings · 3 years

Text

I Want

My Writing Fandom: Arrow Characters: Oliver Queen, Laurel Lance, Sara Lance, Tommy Merlyn, Raisa, Quentin Lance Pairing: Laurel Lance/Oliver Queen (pre-relationship/childhood crush) Summary: Young Ollie gets a change in perspective when he overhears a girl named Laurel's wish list to Santa Claus. *Can also be read on AO3, link is in bio*

Oliver bounced on the balls of his feet, trying not to look too impatient. Good kids probably weren’t impatient, after all. But he was so close to getting to tell Santa what he wanted!

Every year, either Raisa or Mrs. Merlyn took him and Tommy to the mall to read Santa Claus their Christmas lists. This year, it was Raisa accompanying them. She stood to the side by all the other parents, smiling when Oliver caught her eye. He gave a little wave, then refocused his attention on the line. There was one girl ahead of him and another in Santa’s lap who was reciting her list off the top of her head. And it was a long one.

“I want a new dolly, too. The arm came off my last one. And I wanna pet. Like a shark or something cool. We went to the aquarium this year, and I got a stuffed toy, but it’s not the same as a real one.”

Santa laughed but Oliver wanted to groan. Could she hurry up already!

“And,” the girl added, “I want my own room. My sister, Laurel, she stays up reading and it keeps me up. That’s naughty, right Santa?”

“Sara!” The girl ahead of him in line shouted. She had blond hair like her sister, but there were some darker shades mixed in that were almost brown. It was a pretty blend of colors, Oliver thought to himself, watching the back of her head.

“Honey,” a man with bedraggled hair cautioned the girl in line, who tucked her head in and fell silent.

“Well, I’ll see what I can do, young lady,” Santa said. “Now then, how about a nice big smile?” They took the picture, and the girl named Sara hopped off Santa’s lap and ran immediately for the little train ride set up not too far away.

The second girl went up to Santa. Oliver thought she was probably about his and Tommy’s age, but he’d never met her. Laurel was lifted onto Santa’s lap and got an actual list out of her coat pocket.

“Now, you must be Laurel,” Santa said. “And I’m sure you and your sister have both been good girls this year. What would you like to ask me for Christmas?”

Laurel drew in a big breath and began. “For Christmas this year, I want Daddy to have the whole day off and for nobody to call in a one-eighty-seven or a two-oh-seven or a two-forty-six on the radio so he doesn’t have to leave while we open presents and eat dinner. I want all of his cases to be solved so he can keep being the best detective in the whole wide world. And I want all of Mommy’s students to turn in their work on time so she doesn’t worry about grading them. And I want her to get the—” she squinted at her list. “—Estée Lauder perfume she keeps reminding dad she’s running out of.”

Back where the parents stood, Oliver noticed the man that had brought his two daughters give a start, which he snickered into his scarf about.

The girl named Laurel wasn’t done. She and her sister had that in common. “I don’t know if Sara’s been good at all, but I trust your judgment, Santa. And it’s her birthday, too, so I want her to get the stuff she told you because you have to get presents on your birthday.”

Santa chuckled. “Well, I’m sure I can make that happen. But what would you like for Christmas, my dear?”

Laurel blinked and looked up with wide, green eyes. “I thought about it a lot, but I already have a lot of toys. And I can get all the books I want at the library. Mom’s allergic to fur, so we can’t have pets. Our house isn’t big enough for a shark, and they aren’t pets anyway.”

“Perhaps not. But—”

“The teacher at school had us take home a card with another kid’s name and what they wanted for Christmas. I got Tim, and he wanted a new basketball, and we’re gonna buy it today. But I hope he gets other presents from you, too, Santa.”

Oliver looked down at his list with all the things he had written that he wanted. His parents could probably buy it all for him and then some. What was he asking Santa for it for if there were other kids who didn’t get presents at Christmas unless other people were buying them?

Maybe Santa’s business wasn’t doing very well, and that was why Laurel had been asked to buy another kid’s basketball. Maybe that was why all those other Santas at the stores had that pail to drop money in.

“That’s very kind of you, Laurel. I’ll make sure to check my list for Tim,” Santa promised. “But was there anything at all you’d want for yourself? Big or small.”

“Well, maybe my own room would be nice,” Laurel said, a smile causing a little dimple to appear at the corner of her mouth. Oliver felt sort of warm all over seeing it.

Santa gave another big, booming laugh. “A new room might fit a little snug in my sack of presents, but I’ll see what I can do, young lady. Now then, you just keep smiling for our picture, hm?”

They took it, and Laurel hopped off Santa’s lap while chirping a, “Thank you!” She ran out of the little enclosure, and Oliver watched her go.

“Come forward, young man!”

Tommy nudged him in the back. “Ollie, it’s your turn.”

“Oh.” He hurried forward towards Santa, who smiled down at him. Oliver was placed in his lap.

“And what would you like for Christmas this year?”

“Uh…” Oliver looked down at his list again. A lot of what he wanted on it was stuff Tommy was asking for, too. All the movies and games, anyway. He wanted his own, but they could share, couldn’t they?

“I wanted a buncha stuff,” he told Santa, “but I don’t need it if other kids aren’t gonna get presents this year.”

Santa blinked. “Oh. Well, I don’t know that you need to worry too much about that—”

“I got money. If you need to buy more stuff for the elves to make the presents, or if you gotta pay them more for working more.” He knew it was called something, but he couldn’t remember what his dad had said. He tuned out most of what his dad said whenever they were at the office, content to sip his soda and watch the city out the big windows. Oliver unzipped the pocket of his jacket that held the paper bill that meant one-hundred and tried to pass it to Santa, but the old man closed Oliver’s hand around.

“That’s very kind of you, young man, but I assure you that I have everything I need at the North Pole. Now then, let’s see what’s on your list.”

Oliver didn’t see how Santa could be right if other kids had to ask strangers to buy their gifts for them, and he read off his list with much less enthusiasm than he had felt while waiting in line. Santa directed him to look at the camera that he mustered up a smile for, then he jumped off his lap and rushed out of the gated area.

He ran right up to Raisa, who patted his cheek and said, “Mr. Oliver, do you still have your allowance?”

He patted the pocket to check and nodded. “How come Santa didn’t want my money?”

“Because Santa doesn’t deliver toys for money.”

“Then how’s he pay for anything?” Something didn’t make sense with this whole setup, but Oliver didn’t know what.

Raisa shook her head, smiling indulgently after him. “Why don’t you save yourself and Mr. Tommy a spot in the line for the train?”

“Okay.” He turned and walked over there, still stewing over it, and nearly walked right into the back of a girl. “Sorry,” he blurted, backing up a step.

She turned around, and Oliver realized it was Laurel, the girl who had been in line ahead of him, the girl who had said other kids weren’t getting presents unless someone else bought them.

“That was really nice what you did,” Laurel told him.

“You saw that?” For some reason, his cheeks started to burn and he rubbed at the back of his neck.

Laurel nodded. “There’s lots of toy drives in the city. They ask people for money if they can give it. My daddy calls it charity.”

He’d heard that word before. His mom and dad went out at night all the time for charity. Oliver was supposed to do that, too, when he grew up.

“Okay. I’ll ask my dad about it.” If Santa didn’t want money, he’d find someone else to give the other kids presents. Oliver didn’t think the other kids could all be on the naughty list; he’d made the nice list, and he knew he hadn’t been as good as he could have been this year.

The train stopped, and all the kids currently on it got off, Laurel’s sister among them. One of the workers opened the little gate he, Laurel and a few other kids stood by. “All aboard!”

They both walked in, Laurel picking a seat near the middle. Oliver hovered by her, looking back to see Tommy was only just getting his picture with Santa.

A soft thumping sound caused him to look back at Laurel, who patted the bench beside her. “You can sit with me if you want.”

“Okay!” He sat down quickly, trying not to feel too guilty that Tommy was probably running over right now to get on the train. There were still open seats behind them. “I’m Ollie,” he added, realizing he hadn’t actually introduced himself.

“I’m Laurel,” she said.

The train whistle blew, and together they were off.

#lauriver #lauriverholidays2020 #oliver queen #laurel lance #arrow #green arrow #black canary #my writing

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sid471 · 3 years

Text

I’m doing these out of order 😊

Oopsie. Hello friends I watched episode 3 and I’m gonna talk about it :3 TL;DR: ... Fuck >_> Spoilers in bound. Don’t want, go away thnk yoooou 😗

So the whole squad got into the academy ^_^ That’s good :3 I think one of Blake’s shadows hit the button 🤔 But yeah they made it and the reactions were funny XD Started off with a bit of comic relief. That’s good ^__^

Buuuuuuuuuuuuut then we see Watts. And..... Of course Ironwood is working with him <_< We all knew he was going to but that doesn’t make it any less annoying >_> He’s not getting off my “Please die soon >_>” list with this kinda behavior <_> Watts is hacking shit around the academy and the final goal is to hack Penny 🙄 We all knew >_< But I hope it doesn’t work. Penny is still robot, but she’s more human than anyone in Atlas. Maybe her humanity will make it impossible to hack her? Or at least impossible to take complete control of her. Or maybe this is just wishful thinking. Aaaaand as a cherry on top of the cake, Watts finds out that they’re in the academy and Ironwood sends a whole buncha reinforcements after them

Anyway next we see more of RNBW(P) and we get an official breakdown of how Ruby’s Semblance works ^_^ complete with a cute graphic :3

So they use Ruby’s Semblance to get to the room they’re looking for and Penny gives Pietro control of her body, which is very interesting that she can do, and Pietro gets to work doing his thing.

While that happens, Nora, Blake, and Weiss actually have a very sweet and needed conversation. Blake says that she hopes the others are okay and expresses concern over Yang and Ruby’s relationship, me too girl, and Weiss says “Of course they’ll be okay. Sometimes sisters just have different ideas of what’s right. And that’s okay. They’ll work it out.” not verbatim, but that’s the message. And Nora says “Yeah don’t worry! Oscar’s improved a ton, Yang’s strong enough to protect everyone, and Jaune’s new upgrades are awesome! ^_^” Again not verbatim, god I just watched it I already forgot I have the memory of a dead goldfish >_> And then Blake and Weiss look at her like ‘Forgetting someone? 🤨’ and then she adds on “Oh! And Ren is... Ren is... *sigh* I don’t know what he is anymore. Every time it seems like we’re making progress something always just... pushes us back 😔” We get some Nora vulnerability I was surprised and pleased. And Blake says “When you spend so much time with someone... They can become a part of you. But that’s just it. They’re one part of you. You can’t forget about the whole.” Very good advice from our favorite cat girl. And Nora says something, again that needed to be said, “I don’t know who I am... without Ren. How sad is that...?” And Weiss says “Well... You can use this as your chance to find out. Do something only Nora can do! 😄” And Nora says, sarcastically, and sadly “Like what? Be strong and hit stuff?” I LOVED that whole talk. It was very needed for us and the characters.

But that part with RNBW isn’t done yet Pietro finishes what he’s doing, I forgot because fish brain >_>, and relinquishes control back to Penny. He also reveals that he wants Penny to stay in Amity with Pietro and Maria. Which... makes a bad bad thought come to me that I’ll talk about at the end <_<. Penny says “No but they need me here... Right?” and Ruby says “Well... If you’re up there Salem can’t reach you. She’ll never get the Relic.” Which only amplifies my bad bad thought >_<. But that comes later <_<

The quintet go the leave the room only to find the Ace Ops there. Wonderful >_>. But Weiss, sassy queen she is, says “Losing to us once wasn’t enough?” And Marrow says “We were just holding back on you guys! >_>” Which... Why would they if they were serious about arresting them? More proof to my “Ace Ops didn’t WANT to fight RWBY” Theory :3 anyways they all gang up on Penny and try to guilt trip her into coming back with them, Marrow, again <_>, saying “You have the power to stop this. Just take the Relic and give it to Salem and everything will be over.” which I find interesting that that’s what Ironwood wants to do because that just gets Salem that much closer to winning <_< God Ironwood is delusional >_>. But Ruby, Queen, says “Until Ironwood changes his mind about Mantle nothing is going to change!” and she’s right, why is a 17 year old girl smarter than 4 people in their late 20s, maybe early 20s for Marrow, who are higher ups in the military, and the leader of said military <_<

Congratulations it’s not just Ironwood I hate now. It’s everyone in Atlas, except Winter who we haven’t seen since last episode, but I know wouldn’t blame Penny for her condition. She’d blame Cinder. You know... The person’s who’s fault it is? Something the FNDM and Ironwood have in common: Blaming the heroes for something Cinder caused 😊 I know not everyone but still

So Harriet mocks Ruby and the others and Penny steps in front of her friends, and outside of the room they’re in, and says “Leave her alone” and before Ruby can warn her, the door closes behind her. Which ALSO adds to my they don’t wanna fight RWBY theory .-. I mean I get that they wanted to isolate Penny and take her by force. But I mean hey... If you’re “The best huntsman in Atlas” you should able to take all 5 of’em probably right? 😊. ANYWAY, Then....... WE SEE PENNY USE THE MAIDEN POWERS! 😱😁 Penny fights the Ace Ops, by herself, QUEEN, and actually holds her own rather well considering it was 1v4. Vine gets close to the door but Penny says “You’re not hurting my friends!”, showing her loyalty to her new team ^_^. She holds her own, but y’can’t expect her to completely destroy them because, it seems like, the rest of the Ace Ops, Team HAZE as I’ve seen it called, has worked on their coordination since ‘holding back’ against RWBY.

While Penny fights the camera switches to the other side of the door with the rest of the team to see them trying to open the door, Weiss using her Arma Gigus to try and destroy the lock but it doesn’t work and Weiss calls the Ace Ops cowards, which they are, and the door won’t budge because of the electricity field around it. Electricity. Hmm... Who there likes lightning 🤔. Total mystery.

Anyway while they’re trying to figure out how to open the door it goes back to the fight, with Penny more than holding her own with the Floating Array in conjunction with Maiden powers, but she’s still taking a lot of hits. Back in the room, Nora has a moment, repeating what she said before but with more confidence, “Be strong, and hit stuff.” before she sticks Magnhild into the lighting and takes ALL of it into her body, causing her body to actually get scars from the sheer amount of electricity she’s absorbing, and blows the door off, hitting the Ace Ops and getting them trapped under it. She says “That was pretty awesome.” before her Aura immediately depletes and she passes out. Penny rushes to her side worried as the Ace Ops push the door off of them. And then they all fight together, but something weird happens. Ironwood says something to HAZE that we don’t hear, and they say understood. And the fight continues, but it abruptly ends once Harriet grabs one of Penny’s swords. The Ace Ops leave afterward and Ruby and Weiss are like “That was suspicious 🤨”. Their attention immediately goes back to Nora though as May shows up with a plane to get them out of there.

Penny and Ruby talk on the plane and we finally see the famous hug that was in all the trailers :3 Penny says “It’s time for me to go isn’t it...” And is clearly upset about it. Ruby hugs her and tells her not to worry and they’ll see each other again. After another moment, Penny gets out of the plane and flies up to amity.

The episode ends with the Ace Ops giving Watts Penny’s sword that they took and Watts saying “If you can’t beat them... Make them join you.” and then credits.

Remember that bad bad thought I mentioned a few paragraphs ago? Well..... What if Watts makes Penny kill Pietro >_< Pietro and Maria are alone in Amity so they don’t have protection it’d be Penny with her Maiden powers vs 1 old man with a very damaged aura and one old woman who’s very out of practice >_> I don’t want it to happen >_< But it’s a possibility....... And Iiiiiiiii hate it <_<

Phew even if you have seen the episode I wouldn’t blame you if you stopped at the Tl;DR .-.

#RWBY #RWBY 8 #RWBY Volume 8 Episode 3 #RWBY Spoilers #RWBY Volume 8 Spoilers #RWBY8 Spoilers #Ruby Rose #Weiss Schnee #Blake Belladonna #Nora Valkyrie #Penny Polendina #James Ironwood #Ace Ops #Arthur Watts

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five-wow · 4 years

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I WATCHED 10.22. HERE ARE SOME THOUGHTS UNDER THE CUT. i promise they won’t all be in full caps, but i feel i should also warn you that this was not proofread.

the episode is starting! it has started. the start has started.

lots of flashbacks from 10.21 with VERY dramatic music in the background and it’s very much working on me. EMOTIONS.

oh my gosh we’re now getting a flashback (a new one, not “previously on”) to wo fat and victor hesse planning some evil shit with daiyu mei serving them tea and it is EVEN MORE DRAMATIC than the previously on was. i am IMPRESSED. also maybe laughing a little bit, but in a way where i’m genuinely enjoying the extreme “LOOK, THIS IS BAD” of it, gosh.

fun way to remind us of how it all started, with these two planning anton’s extraction! they get to show us bits and pieces from the pilot while we still get something new.

wo fat: “blood. is blood.” hmmm, the show seems to want us to think he has a point but i’m mostly amused this is coming from the ultimate bad guy because yes, that seems about right. (hashtag you don’t owe people anything just because you’re related to them, shuddup.)

daiyu mei looks all shy and awkward when wo fat asks for her input but i’ve decided that’s an act to keep victor underestimating her.

steve and cole are in a car and fjdkfdjk wait catherine is a super code breaker now? idk, she may have displayed some skills that leaned that way in the past, but now she’s suddenly well-known as one of the best in that field even though that’s not even her field as far as we know? i. i don’t mind catherine getting brought up in conversation but this is such an odd way to do it.

“we were together for a buncha years” hahaha, fandom never really knows how to define the start and end of their relationship and it seems steve doesn’t, either.

“she was the one that got away. what’re you gonna do?” well, look sad and frowny while this guy you barely know throws you a somewhat awkward look because you’re suddenly baring your heart to him, apparently! (for real though, i get that people will be upset at this phrasing and i’m sort of thinking this is a lead in to things i won’t like at the end of the episode and that’s bad but for what it’s worth, i don’t mind this at all! she did slip away from him at a time where he thought they were going somewhere else and he’s talking in past tense now.)

cole is worried he ruined steve’s day by bringing up catherine and that’s sweet, actually! seals emotionally supporting seals.

OOF it is TIME for danny to get ABDUCTED. also: i love that steve immediately drops everything, including the very important super secret difficult to arrange meeting to maybe finally get some insight into this cipher that doris left him, to race to wherever danny is in his car. i feel like alerting hpd (or anyone else in five-0 who might be closer) would be a good idea, but it makes a lot of sense for steve to need to Be There himself.

ohhhhh steve continually nearly crashing his truck while yelling for danny but only hearing gunshots over the line is 👌👌👌. THE ANGST. THE TENSION. very good, very good.

the camaro is BURNING. well that’s one way to smack us in the face with the end of an era, damn.

steve is ALSO BURNING because he obviously tried to get inside the car ahhhh.

fjdkf steve calls tani with instruction about cameras and tani asks if everything is okay because he sounds upset and all he says is “danny’s been taken” and that’s how tani an junior find out, poor dears.

steve, instructing hpd: “we’re looking for detective danny williams. you know who he is, my partner, right? we’re looking for him.” YOU KNOW WHO HE IS. MY PARTNER.

steve is already out of breath from sheer stress and he’s just standing around the tech table with the team, my gosh. (I LOVE THIS.)

danny, bloody and chained up and facing his captor, a woman he already knows is very, very dangerous: [makes a joke about exchanging insurance information because they burned his car] (LOVE HIM TOO.)

OOF though, daiyu mei lets danny know she knows he has two kids and the jokes are over because that’s definitely the line with danny, god.

here’s the scene from the one preview clip i watched! i’m really enjoying daiyu mei, by the way. she’s still a totally bonkers way to bring the threat of wo fat back even after he’s dead, but she is genuinely threatening.

“i have the person you care about most in the world” hello yes i’m still yelling about that one and might not stop soon

daiyu mei telling steve not to make the same mistake he did with his father and “allow a loved one to die” is so mean but so good and narratively pretty darn cool.

we’re not even eleven minutes in and we’re already at “come alone, commander, or your friend dies”. [insert that escalated quickly meme]

steve thinks he has zero options except give in to exactly what daiyu mei wants and it’s very unsteve of him but also fits perfectly with the mindset they’ve maneouvred him into over the past few episodes and with DANNY BEING GONE so i like it. i like that steve is very obviously freaking the fuck out.

never though i would say this, but... steve, you should listen to adam. it’s shocking, especially this season, but he is making an actual good judgment.

steve alone in the elevator on the verge of either a panic attack or breaking down crying and curling up into a ball is A LOT.

steve goes to the meeting alone, gets a location and confirmation that danny is alive and then hands over the cipher, and that’s good but also... i mean, for real, if he had just printed some random symbols on a similar piece of paper (maybe even the same symbols but in a different order!) how on earth would daiyu mei have known?

OH. OHHHH. danny does the badass steve-ish thing where he pulls himself up by his shackles to somehow get himself free, holy fuck, yes man.

IT WORKS. knocked out the guard, got the keys, got a gun - damn son. not only do we get worried out of his mind steve, we ALSO get bamf danny, ahhhh.

AND THEN HE GETS SHOT IN THE SHOULDER, which is where all those promo pictures came from obviously, and also means we’re about to tick off the hurt part of h/c in an even bolder font than we already had.

fdjkfdjkfd steve’s litany of comforting little nonsense lines while he’s dragging danny to the car and getting him into it and NOT GETTING BEHIND THE WHEEL BUT STAYING WITH DANNY IN THE BACK is killing me slowly.

fdjkfd steve hugging danny’s bloody face in his lap oh my god

apparently that wasn’t GOOD ENOUGH YET because then they’re at the hospital and steve tells the doctor’s what’s up and they’re about to roll danny away and danny, half dead and according to steve in and out of consciousness, somehow finds the time to try to grAB AT STEVE’S ARM BLINDLY. steve: “hey, i’m with you buddy, it’s okay.” DEAD. NOT DANNY, ME. I AM VERY DEAD.

the entire team is stressed and worried and just dead quiet, watching danny and steve. ohhhh boy.

oh fuck oh fuck steve is praying and red-eyed and furious and telling god “you wanna take somebody? take me. not him, you take me.” and i have a very big massive weak spot for exactly this.

cole comes to find steve to offer to figure out the cipher thing and steve has a very hard time giving a single flying shit and then HANDS COLE HIS GUN. welllll. just letting go of stuff they never would have normally left and right, here. i was kind of expecting steve’s badge to follow.

tani has a lot of good worried moments and i love that.

danny is out of surgery!!! steve gets to see him!!!

oh GOD we get a sad version of all for one while steve is in danny’s hospital room and grabs danny’s hand and i am. oh. oh. not okay.

STILL ONLY JUST PAST THE HALFWAY POINT OF THE EPISODE.

it’s honestly kind of weird that cole has this much screentime (i know he was supposed to be back for the season 11 that will never happen, but with the way things turned out that’s not very relevant anymore in story), but i mind it less than i thought i would have. i like him, and i’m glad he has quinn with him now, because i always want more of her.

danny wakes up and his slightly loopy conversation with steve has me fjdkfdjkfd. d: [says you’re supposed to be happy when a patient wakes up] s, like he might still be about to cry: “i’m happy.” d: “yeah? yeah, me too.”

steve is hurting and blaming himself for everything (very in character) and danny tells him he’s already annoying and that if he had a dollar for every time steve saved his life he’d have like twenty bucks (also very in character) and i’m glad for that bit of comic relief and they need it, too, but somebody also needs to give steve a good shake until the thought that this is on him leaves his head. if anyone except daiyu mei is responsible here, it’s doris. blame doris, jfc.

danny, after nearly dying and only just waking up in the hospital, while he still has trouble speaking: “put [the call steve is getting] on speaker, would you, i’m bored.” more jokes! but it also makes me go fjdkfdjk because you will not convince me that this is not danny, extremely injured, still trying to take care of steve by distracting him from all the misery they’re in.

fjdkfd OKAY SO. plot stuff: the cipher translates to coordinates that apparently lead to the place where the mcgarretts thought doris was buried. steve says he knows the place because his dad used to take him there and ? because i always thought john sent his kids away pretty soon after doris died so he can’t have had much time to visit her grave a lot with them, but also just, the drama of it, wow, doris. send your son an encrypted message that sends him to your fake grave, why don’t you.

jfkdsjlfksljfds the mcgarretts have a family mausoleum now, apparently, omfg. and there was still a space with doris’s name on it? even though they’ve known for how many years by now that she was still alive oh my gosh

cole is along for the ride to doris’s fake grave and steve keeps dropping these little nuggets from his family history and cole keeps (rightfully!) looking a little confused and/or alarmed, poor guy, hahaha.

daiyu mei is running full tilt and doing some mad parcour shit in a suit and what looks like high heels and there is a whole action scene here with lots of players and constant shooting and some one-on-one fighting, but i am fully distracted by the shoewear.

oh, false alarm, probably! not quite high heels, just something ballarina like with a very tiny heel. that’s better.

fjdkfjdkfd OOF daiyu mei nearly kills steve, steve gets the upper hand, daiyu mei says some things and we’re given another flashback to wo fat and victor hesse and this time also john when he was held hostage, and suddenly we’re told he’s not surprised that doris had a secret son (wo fat) and that he suspected her death was staged.

OH MY GU==fdj

okay so those were typos but i’m LEAVING THEM because “whatever happens next, don’t tell my son. it would be too hard on him.” HELLO JOHN, FUCK YOU JOHN. he wanted??? to keep this secret??? from steve??? and also he doesn’t even acknowledge that he maybe has more than just a son. maybe there is a person called mary out there somewhere? might ring a bell, if you think about it long and hard.

wo fat: “you’re a good man, john mcgarrett.” i really don’t know if we’re supposed to agree with things wo fat says but he’s mostly voicing the opposite of what i feel this episode.

daiyu mei to steve: “you are your father.” oh gosh. oh no.

ahh, here’s a point where cole’s presence really starts to take away from other characters. he shows up to steve and daiyu mei’s confrontation to back steve up, and that obviously should have been any other character that we’ve known for way longer and have way more attachment to (junior! that would have been so good, or maybe lou, who’s also been here for seven years, or tani, who keeps worrying), especially, very very much especially when steve goes “book her, cole”. that’s just confusing, too. so far the cole and steve parallels have been thrown at us and now he’s suddenly in danny’s place.

32 minutes out of 42 and we’re at “one week later” and steve hopping through his garden to get to the beach chairs where danny is sitting. this is good but worrying for how early it comes.

danny says he misses the very nice nurse who brought him jello and steve tells him not to confuse a caregiver for someone who cares and danny goes “yeah? you know jealousy is not uh, pretty on you.” and then they’re both awkwardly quiet for a moment. dear lord.

AND THEN THINGS WENT PEARSHAPED. danny: “you all packed?” my heart is sinking fast. maybe i should just quit here and leave it at danny telling steve jealousy is not pretty on him (which implies other things are pretty on steve - let’s get back to that).

steve to danny, who is talking up hawaii (which is of course very good): “who are you?” i am having FLASHBACKS to junior asking tani that exact same thing just a few episodes ago.

danny seriously questions steve’s decision to just up and leave hawaii a bunch of times and yes, danny, good, grill him. this is a stupid plan.

danny: “you know, it don’t feel like it’s gonna be okay. it feels like- my main dude is leaving me.” HI STEVE. MAYBE DON’T. MAYBE DON’T GO. MAYBE DON’T HURT DANNY.

“you got a phone, right?” we’re seriously at that point. we are. seriously at that point. wow.

steve forces danny to get up to give him the frigging tenderest, dopily smiliest hug and it is so very sweet yet so very wrong.

“I LOVE YOU, MAN.” / “I LOVE YOU TOO.” THEY DID NOT YELL THAT BUT I AM BECAUSE THIS IS ALL I’VE WANTED FOR TWO YEARS and now it’s under these circumstances which ugh BUT I AM STILL HYPED. THEY GOT TO SAY IT AGAIN. GOOD. FUCKING GOOD.

“don’t make me come looking for you” danny says after he sits back down and without another word steve starts walking away and then he stops and looks back and catches danny looking over his shoulder but quickly looking away again and holy fucking damn if this isn’t how stories go when they try to tell us that two characters shouldn’t be parting because they don’t want to. turn around, steve. it’s so easy.

EDDIE. my gosh, ANOTHER blond guy who loves steve to pieces and who steve Should Not Just Leave, wtf.

eddie gets an i love you too and then a kiss and my heart! is having a hard time today!

oh LORD there’s a knock at the door and it’s the whole entire team and lou!!! is making me cry!!! and everyone whispers how much steve means to them at him while they’re hugging him and fjdkfd what. why is he leaving! it’s starting to sound like a worse decision by the second.

i could cry at all of these goodbyes seperately but right now i am also crying at tani immediately hugging noelani when she joins the pile of people who have said goodbye. ohhhh.

EVERYONE IS CRYING. not cool. VERY UNCOOL. also, honestly, i love that danny got to say goodbye seperately and it’s fitting that he just can’t watch steve actually walk out the door but also... he should have been here, gdi. now there’s this huge emotional team moment and he’s absent and it’s weird.

steve boards a plane and sits down and his phone beeps and it’s danny texting him “miss you already” and i cannot believe this is actual canon and had to pause to kind of laugh/gasp for air for a little bit.

and catherine shows up! i’ve been braced for this so i’m not surprised and it’s less bad than i thought in many ways but also. they talk about cath driving danny’s car and steve says they can’t have danny williams driving his own car and if that’s true, then why the hell are you leaving, steve. what are you doing to danny? (also. uh. danny’s car kind of went up in flames? he has a new one already? i. what.)

cath asks if steve is ready and they hold hands and steve turns to look out the plane window and smiles and that’s very suddenly it.

you know what? you know what, for the most part, i absolutely loved this. i was prepared for VERY BAD THINGS and i don’t enjoy steve leaving at the end at all and i have MANY NOTES on how things could have maybe ended even better but i. i am okay with this. i am okay with this! that is honestly more than i thought i would be able to say and i’m just VERY RELIEVED right now.

as for the show ending with steve and cath... that was weird, but... he also held danny’s hand this episode and that was supposedly platonic, and steve and cath did not suddenly have a big romantic kiss or get engaged, so i am choosing to take this as a platonic reunion with a person from steve’s past he still cares about, someone who travels a lot and was in hawaii to break that code and therefore this makes sense. he leaves with cath, and then, in a few weeks’ time, he comes back to danny (the person he cares about most in the world), and canon just, y’know, forgot to mention that little tidbit. it happens.

anyway, i had EMOTIONS and i still need to let all of this sink in and i hope you’re all doing okay after this whirlwind of a thing and ahhhh, it is so very weird that it’s over now. 💖

#h50 #h50 spoilers #10.22 #*#finale #[LOUD SCREAMING]

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feverinfeveroutfic · 3 years

Text

chapter three: fire and lemons

“i'm goin' back, of course i am! as if i ever had a choice. back to what i always knew i was on the inside. back to what I really am.” -”burning bright (field on fire)”, nine inch nails

It would be another couple of days before Sam heard a peep from Joey again. In the meantime, she had picked up Metallica's phone numbers given she knew she would have more encounters with them in and around their shows, and she made a promise to a tipsy Lars to share some of her drawings when she found the chance.

Cliff offered to take Sam home but she had already been promised a ride from Marla, Frank, and Charlie back up to the Bronx; Joey hitched a ride with them given he was in no shape to drive back upstate. The last thing she saw before she left the restaurant was Cliff's thoughtful facial expression, there right behind James and Kirk; Legacy, meanwhile, were headed on back to their hotel somewhere down in Manhattan. Sam peered out the car window in time to see that boy with the little white tuft in his hair at the curb: darkness shrouded his face but she could make out the shape of the small piece of white through it all.

The warm spring night greeted her and Frank once the two of them had returned to the apartment complex for the night: Sam's knee still ached a bit as she took the steps up to her place, but it wasn't anywhere near as bad as it used to be before. She made a mental note to head on back to Frank's apartment to fetch that journal and make some more drawings, that time to show to Lars.

In the meantime, she used a small journal she had delved out from the bottom of her bag for doodles. She kept her mind fixated on Cliff, especially since she knew it was him at that point. Indeed, when she fell asleep on the couch that night, he appeared in the wake of her dream. The white stripe bled away into darkness and into a pair of snakes atop his head. His handsome face gazed back at her like the old stone face of a statue.

It wasn't him, but it also was. The man of her dreams, same as he ever was and always will be to her. He was in between something, somewhere, someone who graced the earth. It was Cliff. It wasn't Cliff. Somewhere in between there.

She reached out to touch him, to feel him, to get to know him, and yet he drifted away from her, much like that of a ghost in the shadows. He wondered around her as if he was about to circle his prey, but he never said anything. His deep set eyes watched her, even as he walked behind her and underneath her.

She awoke with her arms outstretched before her, such that they dangled over the edge of the couch cushions. She let her fingers curl back towards the base of her palm. So close and yet so far away from her.

Sam also recalled the promise she made to Joey, to go and hang out with him at some point that week. She had made a couple of calls to him over the course of two days but he never picked up once. She did, however, pick up his answering machine and the sound of his soft voice coupled with his distinct upstate accent. Every single time she did, she closed her eyes to relish in it.

“Hey, this is Joey Belladonna—I'm either out jammin' or playin' hockey, but you can leave a message if you'd like, please and thank you.”

It was only for a few seconds, but it was something.

He finally made the call back to her early one morning, but she was quick to pick it up there in the kitchen as she began to brew a small pot of coffee for herself.

“Hey, my li'l Sam I am,” he greeted her in a soft, broken voice.

“Hey, Joey! I've been wondering what's been going on with you.”

“I had a feelin' that was the case.” A gentle crackling noise on his end caught her attention.

“Is everything okay?” she asked him. “You don't sound good.”

“I just woke up,” he answered, “I haven't been able to get back to ya 'cause I was nursin' the hangover.”

“Oh, I see.”

“It was also one of those things where it was like—I kept forgetting to get back to you. That's kinda my fault, though. I kept forgetting and by that point, it was always like almost midnight and I figured you had already gone to sweet. So—but here I am now! How is everything?”

“Oh, you know,” she replied with a shrug of her shoulders, “—just waiting to hear back from the admissions desk at my school and doodling and whatnot. I can foresee hope of paying my rent soon.”

“That's so good,” he remarked and the crackling noise emerged from the background again. “So, uh—what you wanna do when we see each other again?”

“What do you have in mind?” Sam leaned back against the edge of the counter and folded her arms across her chest.

“Well, Metallica's coming back out this way—not this week but next Friday, I think? They haveta finish up on some important stuff for their new record. Apparently they recorded it over in Denmark so they left for there just last night and then they're comin' back here.”

“Wow. Why Denmark?”

“I dunno—sump'n 'bout the studio being cold so everything stands out better. Scott, Frankie, and Charlie know about it way more than I do. Legacy are comin' back over this way around then, too. I guess they'll be playing at L'Amour again.”

“Oh, how fun! I'd like to see them again—I wanna get to know them more.”

“Right? They're kind of at the tail end of this whole wave going around here and back out West, too. This wave of... 'speed metal' as it's known. Everyone is calling Metallica, Anthrax, and two other bands outta California, Megadeth and Slayer, as like the ones who're leading the way. Like the big ones.”

“The big four?” she followed along.

“Yeah, they're like the big four! The big four of the whole thing. And Legacy are kinda at the tail end of it 'cause they started a little later and they're still shuffling around.”

“A 'transition stage' as Zelda described it,” she recalled. “And you're part of it!”

“And I'm part of the big four! It almost feels like a movement of sorts. Although Anthrax to me feels like the oddball of the bunch 'cause y'know, we're from New York and those guys are all from your neck of the woods in California.”

“But they all frequent out this way, though,” she pointed out. “At least Metallica and Legacy do anyway.”

“They all do, yeah—we should meet up with Megadeth and Slayer at some point. The couple of times I got to meet Slayer, they were—for lack of a better word—fucking badasses. These seemingly scary looking dudes but they were real cool, though. Real friendly and genuine buncha guys. I haven't met Megadeth yet, though. We all should have a big party together some day.”

“All the parties and all the rage,” she remarked.

“All the parties and all the rage, all the world's a stage,” he waxed.

“That's good, you should write that down.”

“I ain't no song writer, though. Some people are good at that sorta thing—I don't really see myself as that.”

“But that was good, though! I liked that, Joey. You should do something of your own some day, like Stormtroopers of Death.”

“Do my own shtick and release under the label down there in the City,” he joked.

“Yeah, exactly!”

“But anyways, that's next week when Metallica are coming back from Denmark, though,” he continued, that time in a serious tone. “What about this week and before you hear back from the school people is what you wanted to know, though.”

“Exactly.”

“Well, let's see—I'm not doin' anything together. And I haven't been able to do anything, either, 'cause—you know.”

“Hungover.”

“Hungover—that lasted a little more than a day, too. But I'm back and invigorated, though.” He fell silent for a second, and the rustling noise caught her attention once again.

“What's that sound?” she asked him.

“What sound?”

“I keep hearing like this crackling sound on your end.”

“Oh, I'm layin' on my couch and there's a bunch of newspapers down on the floor and I keep brushing my foot up against it. Sometimes I don't even pay attention to what I'm doin' when I'm on the phone and—ah, shit—” More crackling on his end.

“What happened?”

“I kicked it over—hang on a sec.” Silence fell on his end: she could hear him shuffling around and doing something off of the phone. But within time, he returned to the phone and let out a long low whistle. “Here's an idea—how 'bout I drive on down there to the Bronx and come on over to your place and we play by ear there?”

“Sounds good. I'll be waiting for you.”

“It's gonna be a while—like—well, you've been up here before. It takes a while to get on down there. So—take a shower if ya wish. I know I'm gonna do that.”

“You wanna look good for me?” she teased him.

“Well...”

“Well?” She raised her eyebrows even though he couldn't see her.

“I won't deny it, but I also need a shower,” he finished in a single breath. “I smell like an empty liquor bottle.”

“Oh, yeah—get in that shower, big fella.”

He laughed at that and within time, they hung up, and Sam made her way to the bathroom for a warm shower and a fresh change of clothes. She knew she would have to return home from her day with Joey soon enough given the thought about her attending school hung over her. An excuse to get away from there and a reason for him to get away from that awful feeling.

Indeed, as the warm water cascaded over her head and shoulders, she figured she could help him out of that. That night in the alleyway told her that he was a boy in need of help. There was no way she could fix him but she could at the very least be a friend to him and dig him out of the alleyway once again.

Within time, she had dried off and ran a brush through her hair. A knock on the door caught her attention and she flung it open to find Joey standing there in a little white shirt and fitted black jeans. His jet black flyaway curls glistened under the ambient sunlight of the hallway and his sun kissed skin looked so soft and smooth. His black Chuck Taylors fitted his feet like a new pair of gloves. Meanwhile, the marker ink had stayed intact on his dark skin even after a couple of days and after he had cleaned up for her.

She noticed a flat silvery metallic band on his right wrist: something she hadn't seen before with him.

“What, no flowers?” She was taken aback.

“Was I supposed to get ya flowers?” he asked her, slightly hurt.

She hesitated for a second, and then she realized what she had done.

“Can I ask you a question?” she started.

“Yeah, sure,” Joey raised his dark eyebrows at her.

“Is this your first date?”

He stopped with his eyebrows still raised up into his bangs. She gazed into those dark irises.

“You really wanna know?”

“Please.”

He nibbled on his bottom lip.

“Is this a date?” he asked her.

“It's a date if you want it to be one,” she pointed out. “It can be a play date.”

“Nah, it's a play date if you and I are jammin' together.” He hesitated. “Do you—”

“Do I what?” She turned her head a bit to make sure her purse was within her arm's length on the hook.

“Play an instrument at all?” he finished with a bit of reluctance.

“I don't. I probably should, though.”

“Yes, you totally should.” His face lit up at that. She showed him a smile and then she reached to her right for her purse.

“Shall we?” she started.

“Yeah, let's,” he said as he lifted his elbow up for her to link up. She slung the purse over her shoulder and she closed the door in one fell swoop. The two of them made their way outside to the bright sunlight and the fresh aroma of springtime. Joey reached into his jeans pocket for his mirrored sunglasses: with one hand, he put it on over his dark eyes and his straight Roman nose. The lenses shone in the bright yellow light; Sam squinted her eyes once they reached the sidewalk.

“There's a little park over here,” Joey told her with a point up the block. “Like, around the corner. We can hang out and take a walk around the place.”

“Is there a lake or something there?” she asked him as she shielded her eyes from the midday sun with her free hand.

“I don't think so,” he confessed. “I didn't see one. I also saw a hockey rink not too far from here.”

“You wanna show me a little round of hockey, don't ya?” she teased him.

“If ya don't mind,” he replied with a little shrug of his shoulders and a lopsided little smile.

“Can we walk?”

“We can,” he said, and he ran his fingers through the fine, minute ringlets on the side of his head.

Joey linked up his right elbow with her left and they strolled together down the sidewalk to the corner. Sam peered past him to the narrow side street and she spotted the narrow strip of grass which he called the park.

“That's more like a dog park,” she declared.

“Yeah, now that I look at it—I imagine a bunch'a little dogs running around there now that I really look at it.” He lifted the sunglasses from his face for a moment; once they crossed the pavement, he brought them back down. She spotted the hockey rink in question, a long low dark building set back from the blacktop.

“I should've brought my skates with me,” he confessed over the noise of the street. “But then again, I don't think either of us can go onto the ice without one of us asking.”

“You could always say you're a hockey player,” she suggested as they looked both ways before they crossed the street.

“Yeah, but I'd need to do a little more than just say it, though,” he pointed out. Stray, damp black curls flew out from the back of his head as he led her across the first two lanes of the street. He paused at the center divider to let her catch up to him.

“You sure can run fast,” she remarked with a bit of a pant.

“That's part of the trade,” he replied with that lopsided grin back on his face. “Here—” He extended his hand for her and he guided her across the other two lanes to the sidewalk and ultimately, the hockey rink. Joey's black curls sprawled over his shoulders once they were in repose so as to catch their breath.

“For a skinny little guy, you sure are strong and full of stamina,” she said as she adjusted the strap of her purse.

“As I said, it's part of the trade. The strength of the whole thing will make you help the others find it for themselves. C'mon...” He led her to the hockey rink, which had been closed for the springtime, but he was willing to look in through the front window at the dark front room. She joined in next to him: through the cold shadows, she could make out the sight of a low bench and a series of lockers on the side of the wall.

“God, this takes me back,” he said in a low voice. “It seems like a lifetime ago since I would sit on a bench like that and lace up and put on my knee pads and my jersey.”

He turned to her with a serious expression on his face.

“Do ya think maybe you'd be up for a game of hockey at some point in the future?” he suggested. “I can show you how to do it if you don't know anything.”

“It'll be a while, though, Joey,” she pointed out.

“Oh, yeah, for sure,” he nodded at her with haste. “But I wanna show you the world that came before I turned into Joe the singing drummer—or Joe the drumming singer, whichever suits best. And I'll see if I can find a pair of skates for ya. And now that we bring it up, I kinda wanna show you something...” His voice trailed off and he turned his head. Without hesitating, he ducked over to a white plastic pipe laying on the grass. She stood there before the window and watched him.

“I was a goalie for a long time,” he called out; he held the end of the pipe with two hands, and he held it down by his slim waist. He spread his legs so it looked as though he was about to brandish a sword. “I did act as offense and defense a few times in the past, but I was mostly a goalie.”

“Did you have those big pads on your knees?” she asked him with a gesture down to her own knees.

“Oh, yeah—they stuck onto my knees and went all the way down to my ankles. I had these big oven mitts for gloves to protect my hands. You don't really think of the goalies taking a lotta shit, but we do. Well, I did, anyway. I got hit in the head and in the stomach a lot. Anyways, I'm holdin' this pipe like this 'cause you never wanna raise the hockey stick any higher than this. Any higher and you hit the guy next to you right in the face and you get sent to the box, too. You don't wanna be in the box.”

“Do I have to spread my feet like that, too?” she asked him.

“Nah. I'm only doin' it out of habit. When I'm on the ice, I wanna steady myself so I have a good shot for my teammates. C'mere—” Sam sauntered over to him and he handed her the pipe. She held it by the opposite end with both hands herself.

“And when you're swingin' it, like you're hittin' the puck with it, you wanna put the hand you write with closer to the head. Which hand do you write with?”

“My right.”

“Okay, so, here—” She moved her right hand down the pipe right as Joey stood right behind her. “Just like that, yeah! Well, not that far—” She moved her hand up towards her. “—yeah, that's better. And now put that end down to the ground—” She did just that and her purse slid off of her back, but she didn't mind. “It's a lot easier if we're movin' around and we're on the ice, like it just becomes natural to you.”

Sam stood back upright and held the pipe as if it was a baton.

“I was going to say, I can see this being real hard on your back.”

Joey shook his head a bit.

“It is kinda, like at first it was for me. But you get stronger with each time and on top of that, like I said, we're usually moving around at a real pace so you don't really think about it too much when you're playing a round with your team or you're hanging out with a bunch of friends.” He ran his fingers through the ringlets on the side of his head yet again.

“Wanna take a walk?” he suggested.

“Yeah. I haven't really seen much of this neighborhood since I moved here. I've either been hanging out with all of you guys or concerned with school and my own things.”

“Or it's been snowin',” he added.

“Or it's been snowing, right!”

“I'd put that pipe back on the ground, too—I saw something crawl out of it.”

Without even thinking for a split second, Sam tossed the pipe off to the side and they made their way down the sun bathed block. That time, they didn't link arms, but Joey walked side by side with her. All of the buildings were made of faded pale brick, but the whole neighborhood of the Bronx was in stark contrast to the rest of the city with all the little shops and the apartment complexes that lined the street.

“Maybe at some point, I can take ya a little bit upstate,” he said at one point.

“We can go now if you'd like,” she suggested, “you know, if you're not doing anything else today.”

“You wanna?” He showed her a grin.

“Yeah, let's do it! I only saw the one part of it when we went to go get you.”

“Alright—let's get on back and I'll drive you up to Poughkeepsie. It's one of my favorite places to play a gig at. It's a little bit of a drive, but I think we do it, though.”

It took them a little bit to return to Sam's block and to climb inside of Joey's beat up car. The same car that broke down in the months before out in the middle of the harsh New York winter. The same car he almost froze inside of.

“You still haven't gotten a new car?” she asked, stunned, as she rested her purse upon her lap and rolled down the window.

“There hasn't been any money,” he admitted with a solemn look on his face. He slipped the key into the ignition. “Trust me when I say this, though—the second there is a bit o' money, the first thing I'm getting is a new car.” It fired up without any roughness, but once they made their onto the parkway outside of the Bronx, Sam could feel the car was nearing its final miles: the way in which it seemed to struggle with staying in a straight line on the hard black pavement and also with staying up to speed with the rest of the traffic.

“I don't know if we'll be able to even get there,” he confessed at one point. She peered out the window at the sight of one of those green road signs, and its decreeing that Poughkeepsie was eighty miles away.

“You were able to drive down this way with no problems, though, didn't you?”

“Not at all. So this—this kinda worries me a li'l bit, if I'm honest.”

“What do you think we should do?” she asked him.

“Well—let's see. Keep an eye on those payphones out there. If we break down either out this way or on the way back, we're gonna haveta hit up either Frankie or Aurora or somebody to come and get us on one of those. I'll do the same if it breaks down and you're not with me.”

They drove up the wide four lane parkway for a few miles when the whole car began to gyrate and shake while in motion. Sam caught the smell of something burning.

“Shit,” he blurted out. “Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit—shit!”

“What the hell is that? What's wrong with it?”

“It's overheating.” Joey shuffled his feet underneath his seat. Sam clutched at her purse. He drove towards the far right lane and the guard rail. He hit the brake pedal and the car screeched to a stop. The second they were at a halt, hot steam emerged from underneath the hood. The steam was then followed by a short flame out the front grill.

“Oh, my god, this car is dying, Sam!” He hit the edge of the steering wheel with both hands and bowed his head in frustration. “This fucking piece of shit!”

Sam climbed out of the front seat with her purse in hand and she made her way towards a tree on the side of the road to be away from the burning car. Joey followed suit right behind her. They stood together several feet away and watched the whole front of the car catch on fire.

“I'm sorry, Sam—I didn't mean for you to see that part of me,” he sputtered; Sam looked into his face to see tears in his eyes.

“Joey, you did what you could. That car was going to die anyway.”

“It was, yeah.” His upper lip trembled and she moved in closer to him. Sirens down the parkway caught her ear.

“Joey—I don't want to fix you. I want to be a friend to you. You're a sweet boy. You are. You are!”

“But I'm fucked up, though.”

“You're not! You're not fucked up, Joey. You like to party and have fun, and sometimes things like a burning car happen. But it's not your fault, Joey. I promise you. None of it is your fault.” She threw her arms around his slender body and she held him close. She leaned the side of her head against his chest so she could watch the back end of the car ignite into big hot yellow flames. They stood a ways away from it to keep away from the smoke, and the black column rose in the other direction from them, but she could feel the heat from the inferno.

“Thankfully I took my blanket out of the back,” he tearfully said. “That thing belonged to my grandma.”

“And thankfully, we're out of there,” she pointed out; she peered up at him and she brushed a tear away from his face.

“What the hell am I gonna say to my dad now?” he asked, and his brown eyes grew wide with concern.

“Tell him the truth,” she advised. “That's all I can tell you. Just tell him what happened.”

“I don't wanna lie to him after all,” he said with a sniffle and a shrug of his slender shoulders.

Within time, a fire truck and an ambulance showed up. But at that point, the car had burned down to the axles and Sam had already hunted down the payphone to give Aurora a call.

“They're taking us down to the station to check on us,” she told her. “Okay—call Marla and Charlie and tell them what happened. I'll give you a ring when we get there.”

Neither of them had inhaled any of the smoke given they stood so far from it and the column billowed in the opposite direction, but Sam could hardly shake the image of those bright flames from her mind as she and Joey rode in the back of the ambulance back to the Bronx.

“Why do I always get into deep shit when we're together?” he pointed out to her as they neared the familiar neighborhood. “Like it almost feels like karma is working against me whenever you and I hang out.”

“Why would karma work against you?” she asked him.

“I puked my guts out twice, the hockey rink was closed, and now my car caught on fire. It's almost like the universe is telling me we shouldn't hang out together.”

“I drew your face, though,” she pointed out. “It's in my journal—the same journal I handed in to get myself into school.”

“Oh, shit. I don't wanna jinx it then.”

“You won't jinx it,” she insisted.

“But that's my fear, though.”

They reached the driveway of the hospital, where a pair of nurses checked on them to ensure they didn't inhale that acrid smoke or received a bad burn of some sort. Sam recognized Marla's orange hair in the afternoon sun at the far end of the driveway.

Charlie reached them first with his arms wide open and he was quick to embrace them both.

“God, I'm so glad you guys are okay,” he murmured into Sam's ear.

“It was so scary,” she told him as Marla pushed him out of the way to embrace her.

“What were you guys even doing?” Charlie asked them.

“I was gonna take her up to Poughkeepsie for the day,” Joey explained, “we got a few miles out of town and the damn thing started overheating. It started shaking like a boiler, and then I pulled over and that was when the radiator went out and it caught fire. She got out of there so fast. Like she saw the steam rising and she just bolted. Right, and I'm the fast runner.” That coaxed that lopsided grin out of him, and a slight chuckle out of her.

“So what happens now?” Marla asked him.

“Bunk with me?” Sam suggested. “My couch is so comfy.”

“You're gonna make him sleep on the couch?” Charlie cracked.

“Where else is he gonna sleep at? On a hook?”

The two men burst out laughing at that.

“Yeah, I don't see why not,” Joey replied with a shrug. “I need to call my parents and tell them what happened, too.”

* * * * *

Given he had no means of returning home and fetching a fresh change of clothes for himself, Joey stayed in the same shirt and jeans for the next couple of days before Frank offered to take him home on Saturday night. But he lay on her couch with his sock feet and he greeted her every morning with that crooked smile plastered on his face. He always asked her how she slept the night before, and he always offered to help her out whenever he could.

On Thursday night, right before they turned in for the night, she realized that she was correct about him. Joey just needed someone to talk to in the whole grand scheme of things, being the boy from upstate New York and the guy thrust into the music scene from the hockey world. He only drank as much as he did because he needed a means of escape. He took it out on himself because of that old stone face that stared back at her through the darkness as she switched off the light.

The next morning, Sam was jarred awake to the sound of the phone ringing in the kitchen. He caught it first given he lay there on the couch partially awake.

“Yeah,” he was saying in a broken voice; she stepped into the room right as he turned to face her. He showed her a smile. “Yeah, yeah, she's right here.”

And without changing his expression for a second, he handed her the phone. “I won't jump to conclusions but I think you're in business,” he told her with a twinkle in his eye.

Sam gasped and she brought the receiver to her right ear.

“Hello?”

“Is this Sam Shelley?” a man asked her.

“It is.”

“I'm Bill Gaunt—the man from admissions you gave the journal to about a week ago.”

“Oh, yeah, yeah. I remember you well.” She couldn't resist the excited smile on her face.

“Well, all I have to say is we love your art so much that we need to meet you and we need you here with us.”

“Seriously?” She brought a hand to her chest. Joey leaned in closer to her with his eyebrows raised high up into his bangs.

“Seriously, seriously. If you can come down some time today or Monday—the sooner the better—we'll figure out a grant for you. Welcome aboard!”

“Oh, thank you so much! I'll be there soon.” She hung up and she turned to an excited Joey.

“I'm in!” she declared. “I'm an art student!”

“Oh fuck yeah!” He threw his arms around her and she leaned her head against his chest. “Oh, my god, Frankie and Charlie are gonna freak when they hear about this.”

“Make a pot of coffee,” she told him as she stepped towards the kitchen doorway. “I'm gonna tell Frankie about it.”

“Is he even up?”

“I don't care if he isn't,” she quipped, “this is a time of celebration!” That brought a laugh out of him, and she ran out of the apartment in her pajama bottoms and her camisole; down past Emile's place and down the hall. She pounded on the door panel with both hands, and Frank greeted her with bleary eyes.

“Sam? The hell's going on?”

“I got into art school!” And his face lit up.

“Holy shit! See? I told you you'd get in!” He threw his arms around her. “Oh, god, that just made my life!” His chest shuddered a bit from the feeling. She pulled back to look into his face and he wiped away some happy tears.

“Oh, fuck—fuck, man.” He then rubbed his hands together. “I've gotta call Charlie and Marla and tell them—they're gonna be thrilled.”

“I'm gonna call my parents,” she told him. “I owe them absolutely everything.”

Frank returned to his apartment still with tears in his eyes and she ducked past Emile's apartment right as he poked his head out to the hallway. “What's all the commotion, Miss Shelley?” he asked her.

“I got into school, Emile! I'm gonna have some money coming in!”

“Excellent!” He showed her a thumbs up.

Sam hurried up the stairs to call up her parents and to have a cup of coffee with Joey. Every step up felt lighter and swifter. It was like a dead weight had been lifted from her shoulders. She was finally a part of New York City, and she was going to let everyone know it.

Indeed, when she and Joey made her way down to Manhattan together so she could do it that day, and he didn't want her to go alone, she had a desire to tell everyone on the subway about it. She had to stop herself given she knew what Charlie had told her about living in the city. Joey huddled close to her on the other side of the support pole but he never touched her. He only showed her a big, excited smile and the twinkle in his eye.

“How exciting!” she decreed as she clutched the strap of her purse.

“Got a hand in Anthrax's world and now you're about to embark into art school,” he said with a nod of his head; the smile never left his face as they arrived in Manhattan and they surfaced from the subway to the bright sunshine outside.

“I'm just dyin' of thirst right now,” he confessed to her over the noise of the street. “I'm gonna grab a glass of lemonade. Would you like one?”

“Yes, please!”

Joey made his way down the block to one of the cafes on the side of the street. Right across the street, she spotted a tall man with a big floppy hat atop his head. She recognized him even from a distance. She hurried towards him right as he reached the street and turned in the opposite direction.

“Cliff!” she shouted over the noise of the street.

He never moved, even as she reached the corner of the side street.

“Cliff!” she called out again, and that time, he wheeled around to look at her: that black brim cast a soft shadow over his handsome face, and thus she could see into his eyes as they crinkled up at the corners with his big greeting grin.

“Hey!” he answered in a big bold voice; he set his hand on top of his hat. She peered both ways on the street, and then she darted across the pavement to meet up with him. He never dropped the grin from his handsome face as she came within earshot. She put her arms around his long torso and he returned the favor.

“What the hell, I thought you guys were in Denmark all this week?” she asked him as part of her greeting.

“Yeah, we were but we came back early, though,” he explained.

“How is it there?”

“Beautiful. It's springtime so the darkness and the daylight is perfect at the moment before it falls out of wack again.”

“Joey told me that you guys went there for the perfect sound of your new record,” she said as he led her away from the crowded street.

“Yeah, we were told—it was like a warehouse, this big empty space in the heart of Denmark—it was cold enough for Lars' drums and for the three of us to work harder. So what'cha doin'? I was just gonna go into his little book shop here.” She turned her head for a look at the cozy shop nestled in between a restaurant and a tattoo parlor.

“I got into art school!” she declared with spirit.

“Oh, that's so cool! I'm sure Lars'll like the sound of that.”

“Joey's across the street getting lemonade, but—I don't really wanna stand there on the street, though.” Without hesitating, Cliff held the creaky wooden door for her and she stepped inside of the cozy shop first. Right before her stood a low wooden table covered in books and faded papers: beyond that was a series of bookshelves, and to the right stood a short staircase. Cliff stepped around her and took off his hat to reveal the crown of fine brown hair atop his head. The black stripe was missing that time, to which she frowned at the sight of it.

He gazed on at her with a puzzled look on his face.

“What's the matter?” he asked her.

“For a second, I swore you had a black stripe in your hair,” she confessed.

“I don't,” he promised her, and he showed her a lopsided little grin. “But I can see how it'd confuse ya, though. My hair likes to change color depending on the lighting. One time, I went out with a girl who thought I had some white hairs on the side of my head.” Indeed, he gave his hair a toss back with a flick of his head and it looked as though his hair was comprised of a myriad of different colors. But she spotted a black stripe and a white stripe on the side of his head. It might have been part of the lighting after all, because the colors disappeared and returned to plain brown.

“You are a man of many colors,” she remarked with a grin upon her face. He set his hat down on the edge of the table and he picked up a book from the table in front of him: a blue paperback about the size of his hand from the base of his palm to the tip of his middle finger.

“What book is that?” she asked him.

“Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse—guess it's about Buddha? It's got a picture of Buddha on the cover.”

“Oh, yeah!” she squeaked with a wave of her finger. “I remember reading that when I was in high school.”

Cliff opened up to a random page near the back.

“'I have always believed,'” he read aloud, “'and I still believe, that whatever good or bad fortune may come our way we can always give it meaning and transform it into something of value.'” He glanced up at her with his eyebrows raised and his eyes big.

“I remember it well,” she said in a low voice.

“Sam?” Joey's voice floated in through the door behind her.

“Oh, there he is!” She opened the door for him, but he stood there on the sidewalk with glasses of lemonade in either hand. “How'd you know I was here?”

“Saw you walk in,” he explained, and he lifted his gaze into the shop. “Hey, Cliff!”

And Cliff nodded at him and showed him a smile. Sam took the cup in Joey's right hand.

“I gotta go,” she confessed to him, and he nodded at her, still with his eyes big and his face warm and soft. Before she followed Joey out to the street, and with the glass in hand, she stepped closer to Cliff.

“Call me when you get home,” she told him in a low voice.

“That is if you call me first,” he vowed to her with a wink.

#chapter 3 #fanfic #fanfiction #anthrax fanfic #metallica fanfic #anthrax #metallica #joey belladonna #frank bello #cliff burton #fever in fever out #fever in fever out fanfic #long reads #also on ao3 #text #deadly nightshade

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f4liveblogarchives · 3 years

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Fantastic Four Vol 1 #240

Thur Dec 17 2020 [11:47 PM] Wack'd: We open on Pietro! He took off running from the Himalayas and has been running for like a week straight, all the way to the Baxter Building. [11:47 PM] Bocaj: He has really good shoes [11:48 PM] Wack'd: Pietro has not stopped for the creepy robot secretary. He has instead approached Ben in the dead of night while he's hiding Franklin's Christmas presents. [11:48 PM] Wack'd: Three guesses what happens next and the first two don't count. [11:49 PM] maxwellelvis: BANG! ZOOM! [11:49 PM] Wack'd: Yeeeeep. [11:49 PM] maxwellelvis: Straight to the Moon! [11:49 PM] Umbramatic: oh no [11:49 PM] Wack'd: No, I don't think the Inhumans are on the moon yet 😛 [11:50 PM] Wack'd: Oh no! Frankie's becoming a gritty antihero to appeal to today's cynical youth!

[11:51 PM] maxwellelvis: DO IT! [11:52 PM] Wack'd: Reed breaks up the fight. Turns out Quicksilver didn't recognize Ben's new face and assumed he was also an intruder. [11:52 PM] Wack'd: Reed is concerned that Ben does not angst when explaining the situation. [11:52 PM] Bocaj: ...... [11:53 PM] Wack'd: I...guess it makes sense? Ben is actually historically very bad at being stoic and closed-off. He mopes! It's what he does [11:54 PM] Umbramatic: Ben Angst™️ [11:54 PM] Wack'd: Anyway, Pietro fills in the backstory, and we're...actually circling back to Medusa having been abducted by a shadowy organization? [11:55 PM] Wack'd: I assumed we'd probably quietly forget about that one. [11:55 PM] Wack'd: So this organization is called The Enclave and they start bombing Attilan, declaring war with the help of their man on the inside. [11:56 PM] Wack'd: Again, three guesses. [11:56 PM] Bocaj: Oh, they're relevant to the avengers annual I'm currently reading for liveblog [11:56 PM] Bocaj: Neat [11:57 PM] maxwellelvis: Ooh! Ooh! I know! I know how their man on the inside is! [11:57 PM] Wack'd: Yes, max? [11:57 PM] maxwellelvis: Correct! [11:57 PM] maxwellelvis: Maximus the Mad, smart guy [11:57 PM] Umbramatic: ITS PIKACHU [11:58 PM] Wack'd: Yeah it's Maximus. [11:58 PM] Umbramatic: FUCK [11:58 PM] maxwellelvis: It's ALWAYS Maximus [11:58 PM] Wack'd: So not only are they at war but now there's also a mysterious illness. [11:58 PM] Bocaj: Hu hu hu [11:58 PM] Wack'd: And Inhumans are dying by the dozens. [11:58 PM] Bocaj: Suuuure [11:59 PM] Bocaj: Do any of them have names is my question [11:59 PM] maxwellelvis: He's like Loki without the Puckish charm [11:59 PM] Bocaj: Yeah Maximus is basically a worse Loki [11:59 PM] Wack'd: @Bocaj Probably not. [11:59 PM] Bocaj: I don't mean more monstrous I just mean. Just less in all regards [12:00 AM] Wack'd: Johnny pokes a hole in this: why the fuck didn't Pietro just take Lockjaw? And apparently Lockjaw is refusing to leave Crystal's side until it's confirmed the Four will turn up. [12:00 AM] Umbramatic: pupper [12:00 AM] Wack'd: (Personally I think Bryne just really liked the image of Pietro running for a week but what do I know) [12:01 AM] Wack'd: And so with the confirmation given Lockjaw arrives and whisks everyone back to Attilan! Everyone except Frankie who still needs to train apparently before she can handle Inhuman stuff. [12:01 AM] Bocaj: Inhuman Quest not unlocked until Lvl 10 [12:01 AM] Wack'd: And Franklin, who's asleep. [12:02 AM] Wack'd: Johnny: Jeez, this place hasn't looked this bad since I--uh--y'know what never mind

[12:03 AM] maxwellelvis: "Rince ROU ried ro rurn rit rown!" [12:04 AM] Bocaj: Thanks Scoob [12:04 AM] Wack'd: You know, normally I'd complain that we've completely skipped the actual story and all the interesting stuff happened off panel, but. This is an Inhumans story. I don't think we missed much.

[12:05 AM] Bocaj: Wow everything really did happen off panel [12:05 AM] Bocaj: Hahah wow [12:05 AM] Wack'd: Not quite! [12:06 AM] Wack'd: Black Bolt is very sick and is using his lifeforce to keep all the Inhumans alive. Uh. Somehow. [12:06 AM] Bocaj: Probably tuning fork magic [12:06 AM] Wack'd: Fortunately it's the same pollution disease Crystal had forever ago which Reed couldn't cure, but now he can, and everything's fine. [12:06 AM] Wack'd: This all happens inside of two pages. [12:06 AM] Umbramatic: s'fine [12:07 AM] Wack'd: OH [12:07 AM] Wack'd: OKAY [12:07 AM] Wack'd: Did not know what happens next was a John Bryne plot point but I guess it is?? [12:07 AM] Wack'd: So Reed says the anecdote is only temporary, and Inhumans will continue to have problems because there is no place left on Earth that truly has clean air. [12:08 AM] Bocaj: Time to go to the MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOON? [12:08 AM] Wack'd: No place left on Earth. [12:08 AM] Wack'd: Yep! We're doin this [12:10 AM] Wack'd: The same book that gave us the Clone Saga also gave us the idea that you can just move Attilan around, apparently! Wild

[12:10 AM] Wack'd: Thanks, What If #30 [12:11 AM] Bocaj: Cool of you to pose next to the moon, reed [12:12 AM] Bocaj: -google what if 30- Ah, a non what if story where the Eternals help the Inhumans move Attilan. No wonder they had to put it in with a spider story, otherwise nobody would have bought it [12:12 AM] Wack'd: You know, I wouldn't have called this issue good before this point, but it was one where the flaws were entirely technical.

[12:13 AM] Wack'd: A little too much to ask for, I guess [12:13 AM] Bocaj: God [12:13 AM] Wack'd: Don't free your slaves! They're stupid and will die without your noble guidance! [12:13 AM] Wack'd: Jesus. [12:14 AM] Bocaj: So, hey, Byrne. 'Buddy'? This pretty closely echoes actual real world racist rhetoric so maybe don't? [12:15 AM] Wack'd: So, uh, Attilan takes off. Black Bolt takes the time to carve a gravestone for Maximus in the Himalayas. [12:16 AM] Wack'd: SHIELD takes notice. This might be important later. Or it might not. Who knows. [12:19 AM] Bocaj: I don't think its too important to this story but the plot, such as it is, in the Avengers Annual 12 I'm currently on further fills in the holes for this enclave plot and also reveals that when the UN discovers the Inhumans on the Moon they're furious that the FF just. Did that. And didn't tell anyone. [12:19 AM] Wack'd: "I am sworn not to interfere! So, y'know, thanks for dropping a buncha slavers on my doorstep. I'm on a diet, you wanna leave behind a quart of ice cream while you're at it?"

[12:19 AM] Bocaj: Hah [12:19 AM] maxwellelvis: And Byrne takes Uatu back to the weird toddler proportions. [12:20 AM] maxwellelvis: That was a thing when he was on X-Men, too. [12:20 AM] Bocaj: I think I prefer the weird toddler proportions to when he has a man body and a baby head [12:20 AM] Bocaj: its. unpleasant [12:22 AM] Bocaj: Fun pointless trivia: Uatu already has neighbors [12:22 AM] Bocaj: Its going to later be retconned that the Kree and Skrull assholes that killed each other on the moon during the dark phoenix saga [12:22 AM] Bocaj: Didn't die [12:22 AM] Bocaj: And just kept fighting to the death for a year [12:22 AM] Bocaj: In the blue area [12:23 AM] Bocaj: I wonder which neighbors he prefers [12:23 AM] maxwellelvis: Uatu with more realistic proportions looks like Zontar [12:23 AM] Wack'd: And so, the story comes to a heartwarming end with Reed being a racist

[12:23 AM] Bocaj: Panel 1 quicksilver sure is a thing [12:23 AM] Bocaj: The fuck is wrong with his face [12:24 AM] maxwellelvis: John Byrne just really hates him, I think. [12:24 AM] Bocaj: (That applies to panel 1 quicksilver and also zontar uatu) [12:24 AM] Wack'd: And so in Inhumanville they say the Quicksilver's heart grew three sizes that day [12:25 AM] Bocaj: Until later when he took a level up in dickery and tried to expose his Normal Daughter to terrigenesis because he was upset she didn't have powers [12:25 AM] Bocaj: Writers just don't like Pietro [12:25 AM] Wack'd: I feel like I'm gonna have to pace myself on Bryne [12:26 AM] Bocaj: Would you say [12:26 AM] Bocaj: That you feel [12:26 AM] Bocaj: you might get [12:26 AM] Bocaj: Byrned out? [12:38 AM] Wack'd: Very possibly, yes!

#1982 #John Bryne #The Main Book

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choccos-aaart · 3 years

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Antag interview!

>>BASE<<

Feat. the five major antagonists of the story of April and friends: Mr Skatra, Dr Sarlife Aufel, Wyra, Eyn, and Farqua

*NOTE: Definitely got spoilers for the story I’m writing, if you’re interested :P*

**NOTE: I better’ve not written anything wrong here...**

Greetings, and welcome to the "Villians Interview Meme". Whether you like it or not, you've been brought here to answer some questions about yourself. This is a recording, pausing and starting controlled by your author, so you cannot attack me. If you begin to fight with one another, you WILL be sedated/strait-jacketed. Alright now, let's start.

Would you show the viewers a shred of kindness by allowing us to know your name(s)?

Skatra: Oh…? I’m first? Alright, then… Hello, my name is Abarran. ...Known by most as Mr Skatra.

Doc: Evening! I’m Sarlife. Others call me Doc. And, I am not sharing my surname. Who’s next?

Wyra: It’s me. Hi, hello, my name’s Wyra. I’m Sarlife’s action partner. I keep a look out for her, too.

Eyn: I’m Eyn, and I’m Abarran’s kid.

Farqua: Suppose they left the best for last, huh! Hi! The name’s Farqua Pells!

Are you male or female?

Skatra: I’m male.

Doc: I don’t conform. Next,

Wyra: I am female!

Eyn: Usually people get me all wrong, but I’m a girl. Don’t blame ‘em though…

Farqua: And I’m a man, haha!

How old are you in human years?

Skatra: Forty-nine. Almost fifty... *sigh*

Doc: I’ve existed for 77 years, but my AI depicts me as, I dunno, somewhere in my 30s? 40s? Either way, I’m a working adult.

Farqua: So ya let us know your age but y’ain’t givin’ off your last name? For real?

Doc: It’s embarrassing. Wyra, it’s your turn.

Wyra: My AI depicts me as about the same as Doc! But I could be younger. I was built in year X701 which was about 65 years ago.

Eyn: I’m 16. Well, at least I’m programmed to be 16. I was actually built six years ago. What about you, Farqua? Gonna bet you’re like programmed to be 10, haha.

Farqua: Shut up. Uhh, I’m in my 30s... In my programmin’, of course. Almost reachin’ my 50 years milestone in real time, though!

What exactly are you?

Skatra: Excuse me… what? If you’re asking whether I’m human or not, I’m human.

Doc; Yeah, a pathetic one.

Skatra: Would you shut up?! …By the way, the rest of them are androids.

Doc: You really had to answer for us, didn’t you?

Skatra: It saves time.

Do you have any powers?

Skatra: No… Doctor?

Doc: Well, a lot of medical tools can be transformed out of my arm. And I’ve built myself a little machine that can automatically mix different medicines and whatnot.

Wyra: Well, I’ve learned to use my power source abilities for things that aren’t just powering things. Something I can do is produce power from both my star-panels and my natural gas source, which I think is cool.

Eyn: Alright. Uh… My arm’s literally a toolbox. No, literally, it can like, shoot a bunch of tools out of it. Well, those tools really are just these cool things that unfold from these tiny boxes. Weird science stuff I don’t wanna explain. Also, my arm used to be for weapons n’ stuff. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention I was originally built to commit some revenge robbery or something, so I’m packed with a whole bunch of stealth n’ robbery stuff like, y’know. Too lazy to list it all down, though…

Farqua: Damnit Eyn, now you’re makin’ me feel pathetic!

Eyn: Well, boo-hoo.

Farqua: So, uhh… ‘s just my arm can transform into just a whole buncha garden n’ landscapin’ tools. That’s it, really.

Skatra: If it makes you happy, that’s every slasher film writer’s dream.

Farqua: Well, ain’t that nice!

Who is your archrival, and what do you hate about them? Do they have powers?

Skatra: It’s you, Doctor, Wyra, and all your affiliates!

Wyra: Yeah, whatever.

Doc: Ah yes, I greatly apologise for ruining your life to KEEP THE PEOPLE I CARE ABOUT SAFE!

Farqua: Well Doc, y’ain’t gonna deny that almost everyone hates your way of doin’ it, are ya? And April fights for ‘em, too.

Doc: YOU DON’T NEED TO BE INVOLVED, FARQUA!

Farqua: Shiieeeet… Calm ya farm. ...Wait, that doesn’t work in my accent.

Skatra: And also, that blasted April! I hate that child! She has and is still playing a big part of tearing my life to pieces, as if it wasn’t unbearable enough!

Farqua: Goddamn! Now everyone’s bein’ real overdramatic!

Eyn: So, uh, April’s pretty much my rival, too. And we always keep running into each other. It’s almost like some stupid rival logic you see in comics and TV and stuff.

Farqua: Ha! Imagine havin’ that happen to ya? Haha!

Eyn: … And who’s your rival, Farqua? Aren’t you just the henchman-turned-hostage?

Farqua: Shut up.

Eyn: Thought so.

Farqua: But as hostage I kept bickerin’ with Matro. Does that count?

Eyn: That’s fair. …Wait. I forgot to mention, April doesn’t really have powers. When we thought we were gonna be friends when we met the first time, I sorta turned her old stick into a weapon. Yeah. Things really backfired on me.

Do you rule over any sort of land, country, county?

Skatra: I could never rule something like that…

Doc: Oh no; I’ve got no knowledge or interest in being a ruler. I’m just a doctor.

Wyra: I can’t either, since I once accidentally caused a power outage in my old city!

Doc: And though the answer’s pretty obvious already, what about you, Eyn? Do you rule a population of some sort?

Eyn: Nah. It doesn’t even seem cool.

Farqua: Me neither. Huh! Weird that none of us are that typa antagonist?

Skatra: Now that you say it… I agree.

Why are you considered "the bad guy"?

Skatra: Well… I’ll admit, my goal is to take probably the most important thing that the building’s got, and yes, many robots were taken advantage of in the process.

Doc: And people were hurt. And you’ve committed murder before – oho, blood’s on your hands.

Skatra: DOCTOR! I thought our therapy session was meant to be confidential!

Doc: Oops, my bad.

Skatra: And it looks like we’ve got a reason why Doctor’s a part of this interview. Any more you want to say about yourself?

Doc: Ah… Uh… I forced a lot of innocents into getting involved and even fight in this mess of a situation. And yes, without their consent. Or their families’ consent. And by doing that, their lives were all at stake. Yeah, I regret it. Fly me to skuelk.

Wyra: I’m Doc’s action partner and out of the two of us, I think I’ve actively hurt April the most. And April’s still a little kid! That’s definitely given me a bad look!

Eyn: Eh, I just help Dad with stuff. And it really looks like I don’t care much about hurting people. That’s it, really. And I guess I also run into April the most, and a lot of the story’s from her perspective, so I guess I’m really put under a bad light.

Farqua: Same story! I’m one of Skatra’s guys! Except I’M THE ONLY ONE THAT GOT CAPTURED BY APRIL N’ FRIENDS AND IT’S SO FUCKIN’ EMBARRASSIN’.

Do you consider yourself purely evil?

Skatra: No! Who would?!

Wyra: Not me! I’ve just been called sadistic!

Doc: Let’s be completely real. Nobody really considers themselves evil. All of us just want to do what we feel like is right.

Eyn: Yeah, I don’t think I’m doing anything evil. I guess it’s sometimes I’m not knowing the difference between not giving a shit what everyone thinks about me versus doing what everyone agrees is morally wrong.

Farqua: Whoa! Ya got a lot of wisdom for a kid!

Skatra: And where do you think she got that from, hm?

Farqua: Stop lyin’ to yourself, she ain’t your biological daughter.

Skatra: Shut up.

What do you think of the others in the quiz room?

Skatra: Well first off, Eyn’s my daughter, the only family member I’m happy talking to, and I love her a lot. Doctor’s a bit… I don’t know. From my experience, they’ve been a very caring and genuine person at first. Wyra’s a bit of an oddball. I still think she’s a bit scary to approach. Those two are definitely people you wouldn’t want as an enemy, but then again, here I am. And that leaves Farqua, who’s probably just as competent as he is annoying. What about you, Doctor?

Farqua: WHA-

Doc: Ehrm, thanks for acknowledging that about me. Anyways, as much as I hate what you’re doing, Abarran, and mind me, I’m being as honest as I can, you’re just someone who needs help. It honestly hurts to watch you and what you’re doing. Wyra is a close friend of mine! We’re completely different, but it’s as if she completely understands me. And Farqua, you’re… You’re alright, I guess. Also, I’ve been hoping for you to just stop trying to be my “rival” ever since you read that aphorism, “an apple a day keeps the doctor away.” And Eyn, I can tell you’re hiding behind a façade; just reveal that you dress and act the way you do because you’re a fan of the Axel Duiti series. To me, you’re as easy to read as a children’s book.

Eyn: Hey! I mean… Never mind. Uh… My dad’s like the only guy that’s got my back. He’s cool. Dr Sarlife’s like, I dunno, a bit scary to talk to. Also, what’s up with the bunny ears?

Doc: That’s none of your… Alright, to tell you the truth, I worked at a children’s hospital. Let’s not get off topic, now. What are your thoughts on Wyra and Farqua?

Eyn: Oh. Uh… Wyra’s so hyper, it’s exhausting. But, I think we can get along? I dunno… I hope we do. And Farqua’s pretty cool. We get along pretty well. But cut off the “howdy” unless you’re gonna say that to everyone. That’s all.

Wyra: From what I know so far, I know I get along with Sarlife the best! Skatra’s, I dunno. All I know about him is through what Sarlife told me, and I think he’s a bit of a prick that could do with some fixing up. Maybe. I think Eyn’s cool! I think I’ve seen the Axel Duiti series on telly before, and I think that’s a good way to start talking! And now, Farqua. Um… Definitely a bit weird. But I find that endearing!

Farqua: That’s… That’s it? ‘Right, guess it’s my turn, then! First off, Doc, Wyra n’ Skatra, you’re all assholes for doin’ all the stuff you’re doin’ and for all the stuff ya said ‘bout me. And Eyn, you can still look like a badass and be open ‘bout all your apparently “less cool” self. Look at me? I look all cute n’ cuddly n’ sweet, but I’m pretty open ‘bout my reckless n’ aggressive nature n’ stuff, ya get?

Eyn: Wow… Didn’t expect a pep-talk but okay, I’ll take that.

Farqua: No prob, kiddo!

On a rate of one to ten, how powerful do you think the villain next to you is?

Skatra: Oh God, I hate rating like this. Uh… Doctor’s probably a 7.

Doc: …That’s fair; I’ll take it. I was going to say 7 for you. Wyra’s close to an 8.

Wyra: No offence Sarlife, but I reckon you’re a 6, for me.

Doc: None taken.

Wyra: Eyn’s a 9 for me. I’ve seen her with April and it’s not pretty.

Eyn: Wyra’s probably a, I dunno, 7…? Farqua’s 1.

Farqua: WHAT?!

Eyn: But with your limbs, you’re, I dunno, 8. You’re pretty strong and got a bunch of tools and stuff.

Farqua: Well, Eyn, I’m givin’ you an 8! Remember, this’s all ‘bout perspective.

Now, how powerful do you consider yourself to be?

Skatra: 4… 5…? I can’t get over it.

Doc: 6 or a 7. I don’t think I can give myself anything else after that last question.

Wyra: Tough. Probably 7? Or 8.

Eyn: 8.

Farqua: God, some of y’all don’t think that high of yourselves, huh! I’m givin’ myself a 9!

Do you have an evil laugh?

Skatra: No, that’s stupid.

Doc: Can we all agree on this and move on?

Eyn: Yeah.

Wyra: Done and done!

Farqua: You guys are borin’ as hell y’know. I sorta do have one actually! But I guess tha’s ‘cause Matro keeps tellin’ me I’m just mean-spirited. And sadistic too, but it ain’t like that!

Do ya fear death?

Skatra: Er… I’ll pass on this one…

Doc: Alright. No, I don’t, honestly.

Wyra: I agree! I don’t really care. I’ve kind of experienced it, before.

Eyn: Well, I do. I’ve still got things I wanna get outta the way and I don’t wanna miss ‘em.

Farqua: Do I fear death? Well, I guess I do! I’ve seen it countless times ‘cause I’ve been to every burial held at the buildin’ and I see everybody all heartbroken n’ stuff. Makes me worry, y’know, ‘bout all the people who care ‘bout me n’ all.

Docc: Well, to be fair, we do all have the choice to live for as long as we want, as long as we’re not seriously damaged to the point beyond repair. Well, except for Abarran, here. He’s human and we’re all bound to outlive him.

Skatra: That’s not very nice.

What's your goal, exactly? Or are you just evil for the heck of it?

Skatra: It’s quite basic, really. So, to put it simply, nearly fifty years of hard work’s gone down the drain. And to make up for all of it, I felt the need to do something big. So, my goal is to take the proclo machine and reveal it to the world as something of mine. Yes, I know I’ll be living a lie, but I just want to make an impact of some sort that’ll change the world, whether it be for the better or for the worse, and once the whole world hates me, I’ll just end it all there.

Doc: Alright… Well, I just want to keep this building, you know, ALIVE. I care about everyone and everything that has to do with this building, and I’ll do anything if it means this building lives on. And that’s it! I mean it literally!

Wyra: Everything I know about this situation is through Sarlife, really. She told me everything, and when I say “anything,” I mean it. I care about this building, a lot, too! ...Eyn? What about you? Let me guess: you just want to make your dad proud of you, right?

Eyn: That’s one of them. But also, there was this one guy that commissioned me, he gave me a mission, and I failed it. Big time. Then I got left on the shelf for years, he commissioned another robot n’ stuff, and once that was done, I was sold somewhere to do some more stuff that I didn’t do so well at either, and then I was sold again. I didn’t really feel like I had anything good to do in this world, so that sucked. And then Dad picked me up from the markets and now I’m making sure I don’t fail at anything, anymore.

Farqua: … This is awkward… I ain’t got much of a motive… I just, I dunno, work for the guy- I mean Skatra…

Doc: THAT’S BECAUSE HE MANAGED TO TAKE CONTROL OF YOUR GOAL SYSTEM, YOU ABSOLUTE BUFFOON!!

Farqua: Goddamn! Ya gotta calm down! And I thought I was aggressive!

Do you have henchmen/a henchman?

Skatra: A lot of robots, yes, I do.

Doc: ROBOTS WHO WERE MY FRIENDS THAT YOU TOOK ADVANTAGE OF, THAT’S WHO!

Wyra: They were my friends, too, you know!

Skatra: You know, you’ll both eventually end up working for me, sooner or later.

Doc: I’ll make sure that doesn’t happen.

Wyra: We’ve gathered a lot of the non-robotic inhabitants of the building, anyway, to help get rid of you! And Eyn, too!

Skatra: Ooh, I’m soo scared.

Eyn: … Okay so, I work with my dad, so all those robots- I mean Dr Sarlife and Wyra’s friends are sorta my henchmen, too. Wow, that makes me sound really villainous, haha…

Farqua: So! It’s my turn, now, ain’t it? WELL, JOKES ON Y’ALL, I AM A HENCHMAN!

What do you drive?

Skatra: My little car, with a trailer attached. How do you think I got to the building?

Doc: I drive a scooter. It’s very easy to get around which is great!

Wyra: I’m not very good at driving. But, I have had a go on the hover bikes which are fun!

Eyn: I sorta know how to drive Dad’s car, but I know the anatomy n’ whatnot better than I can drive.

Farqua: Goddamnit, EYN can drive, too?! Well…! Matro said he’d teach me to drive the train later on.

Doc: What?

Wyra: You and Matro are all buddy-buddy, now?

Farqua: Sorta!

Doc: Well…. That’s surprising…

Wyra: Since when?

Farqua: Huh. You’re getting’ a little jealous now I’m spedin’ a lot of my time with your ol’ pal, ain’t ya?

What do you do when you aren't trying to do whatever you're trying to achieve?

Skatra: What do I do… Well, aside from moping in my apartment all day, I like to build machines and do some arthropod photography.

Doc: For me, you’d find me obviously doing my work. During my breaks, I take walks all around the building, and occasionally, I’d draw over my papers. I’m not a very skilled artist, though…

Wyra: I like to watch some telly! And just travel around the building while I’m not doing my work, of course!

Eyn: So, as Dr Sarlife said, you probably already know I’m a huge fan of the Axel Duiti series, so I re-watch the show, re-read the comics, and all that stuff. I also like playing bass guitar and helping Dad with building and stuff. That’s it, really.

Farqua: First off, I’m a gardener and a landscaper, so catch me up on the rooftop gardens doin’ my thing. When I ain’t doin’ all that, you’ll find me in the library reading some books about, I dunno, random stuff.

Were you ever a double-crosser (pretended to be on the opposite team, then stabbed them in the back)?

Skatra: Well, I—

Doc: THAT’S EXACTLY WHAT YOU DID TO ME!

Skatra: Doctor, there is no need to yell! Good God!

Doc: You can’t deny that it’s true, though. For me, I would never do that.

Wyra: Never done it! If anything, I like being honest.

Eyn: Well, I’ve tried doing that. It didn’t go very well… Farqua, your turn.

Farqua: Oh yeah. Mine’s damn interestin’, alright. ‘Cause if April and friends DIDN’T get to me first, I woulda done exactly that!

Skatra: I’m pretty sure I heard them say they thought you were up to something beforehand, so…

Farqua: Wh… How do you even hear this stuff?

Skatra: Your point of view was connected to my computers, why?

Farqua: …OKAY. I FORGOT. SORRY.

On a scale of 1 to 10, how often do you lie? *gives them truth serum*

Skatra: Oh God… 8

Doc: 3. Lying isn’t that big a thing for both robots and doctors, and then there’s me.

Wyra: 4. Like I said, I like to be truthful. Just saying.

Eyn: 5. I’m pretty honest.

Farqua: 6-ish.

Skatra: … You’re joking! I lie the most out of all of us?

Farqua: Well, y’gotta face it. You’re the only human here.

What color is your: hair?

Skatra: Dark green. ...For some reason.

Doc: It’s some sort of brown.

Wyra: A bit reddish-brown. Think of Sarlife’s favourite pants.

Doc: ...

Eyn: I wish I had hair…

Farqua: Ain’t that also why you wear a hat?

Eyn: I guess…

Farqua: Anyways, I ain’t got no hair too, ‘cause my design’s just like that, y’know! Gotta admit, I still pull off a cute look, huh!

Eyes?

Skatra: Dark, dark brown.

Doc: My irises are generally jet black and my sclerae are white. When I’m under the influence of an energy chip, my sclerae turn a blueish colour.

Farqua: “SCELRAE, SCELRAE,” look, ya don’t gotta go all textbook talk mode on us.

Doc: ...You could’ve at least been a little bit nicer...

Eyn: Uh… My eyes are black. Dad says I’m not allowed to have effect chips yet, so my whites are always white.

Farqua: For most of the story, I’m not on anything so you’d see my eyes are just like Eyn’s. But a lot of the time, when I’m not working, you’d catch the white bits of my eyes turned bright yellow! Forgot which chip it was but I set up a whole stash months ago!

Wyra: Um… I’ve got no irises!

Skin?

Skatra: Some sort of darkish beige.

Doc: I don’t really have skin, but I’m painted grey.

Wyra: Also painted grey.

Eyn: My paints are a bit weird. A lot of my body’s green, some areas are painted cream, my forearms and below the knees are painted brown, and my face is grey. Sorry if it’s a lot.

Farqua: I’m painted mostly red with some super light yellow in some places. I’ve got some small bits that’re this dark purply brown, too. And my upper arms, whatcha call it, are—

Doc: Your brac-

Farqua: WOULD YA— Doc, don’t do that. …Anyways, my whatchamacallits ain’t really painted at all.

Whats your uniform/favorite outfit?

Skatra: Since it’s winter, I’ve been wearing my favourite turtleneck at lot, recently. I like to pair it with my long coat.

Doc: My only outfit is my doctors’ uniform. It’d be kind of strange to see me wear anything else.

Wyra: I’ve got my work uniform. That’s it, really.

Eyn: Right now, I’m wearing an outfit based off Axel Duiti. He’s an outlaw in the old Earthian west.

Farqua: I AIN’T WEARIN’ NO CLOTHES, HAHA! And that’s ‘cause my designers made sure I was too good for ‘em.

Have you ever gone mad?

Skatra: Mad…? As in angry or…

Doc: I think they mean gone totally mental. As in you’ve lost your mind.

Skatra: Oh. Yes, I did. When, I’m not going to mention any names here, an ex-friend of mine put my years-worth of effort down the drain back in… X761, I think? What about you, Doctor?

Doc: Ah, I remember that one time… That one time Eyn nearly got me to fall under your control... And then, after that, you took all the little nurses and doctors that worked with me as prisoners... Hm, and it was a threat, too! All so I wouldn’t publicise your dastardly plan!

Skatra: Good God, you didn’t need to go into that much detail!

Doc: Anywho, what about you, Wyra? Anything similar?

Wyra: I don’t recall, really. Eyn?

Eyn: Nope.

Doc: Really? Even after everything that’s happened to you?

Eyn: Nope. And I hope it doesn’t happen to me. That’d be embarrassing.

Farqua: I ain’t had that happen to me, either! Guess that’s just a side effect of being old, huh!

Wyra: Haha!

Skatra: Excuse me?!

Doc: Farqua, you, Wyra and I were ALL programmed to behave the same age– WHAT MAKES YOU THINK YOU CAN SAY THAT TO ME?!

Farqua: Well, just like I said to Matro, “Stress. It ages ya.”

Doc: It doesn’t. …Alright, it does! But that doesn’t mean you can say what you just said!

Wyra: Wait... I’m stressed...?

If so, did you enjoy it?

Skatra: No! Of course, not!

Doc: If anyone had half a brain, even they’d know not to enjoy something like that!

Skatra: You don’t even have an organic brain and you, too, know not to enjoy something like that.

Doc: … Your daughter is right here.

Skatra: OH MY GOD, I’m so sorry!

Eyn: It’s okay, Dad.

Have any family?

Skatra: I do, back at the city. I haven’t spoken with them in almost thirty years. Eyn is the only closest family I’ve got.

Eyn: Yeah, I’ve just got him, too.

Doc: Uh, me? I can’t say. I guess if you count my model’s predecessors and successors. It makes sense.

Farqua: Same story as Doc, I guess.

Wyra: Same’s too!

Have you ever been in love? If you have, do they love you back?

Skatra: A few times I thought I did, actually. Once in high school, twice in university, and after, I realised love wasn’t anything of my interest. I’m not complaining, though.

Wyra: Definitely! I been in love before!

Skatra: Robots can… Do that...?

Wyra: Um, yeah?

Doc: I haven’t, really. Also, this might be related, but I’ve done so a few times ever since I created the lust chip, and experimented with myself.

Eyn: Lust chip…? The heck?

Farqua: Woo-hoo, Doc, who were they?

Doc: In my first trial, it was my human anatomy model, and eventually my human skeleton model.

Farqua: … What – ya didn’t go head-over-heels with anyone alive?

Doc: Of course not! Why would I experiment with those chips around people?!

Farqua: Oh. Well, I ain’t fallen in love yet. Maybe ‘cause I’ve yet to get the hots for anyone ‘round here. Even with the lust chip! Surprisin, huh! …Y’know, since I gotta admit, I do like to look a lil cuter, don’t I?

Eyn: Uh… Well, there’s this uvra girl...

Farqua: …

Doc: …

Wyra: ...

Skatra: Eyn, you’ve fallen in love?!

Can you cook?

Skatra: Well, yes! I have to eat to survive. It’s a human thing.

Doc: I’ve tried teaching myself to. It’s not that difficult, actually.

Wyra: I can, a bit! I’m not very skilled though, and people have just told me to just stick to working the gas, rather than actually working with the gas.

Eyn: Dad’s been teaching me some. He says I’m a natural, haha.

Farqua: Well, I sorta do. I ain’t that great at it, though. Shucks, I gotta up my cookin’ game!

Do you despise the Earth?

Skatra: Not really. Earth is history after all, so why should I care so much?

Farqua: Some people hate stuff from the past, y’know,

Skatra: That’s fair.

Doc: Well, despite everything, I’m pretty indifferent.

Wyra: Earth’s pretty cool if you ask me. Shame I can’t actually see it for myself, though.

Eyn: I don’t know much about Earth. But Axel lives in that place, so that’s cool.

Farqua: I’m all about Earth! There ain’t nothin else I’ve been readin’ about lately!

What's your pet peeve?

Skatra: When anyone leaves anything personal unlocked. Imagine seeing a bag or a house’s door left open. How do people even do that? I remember back in high school nobody would lock their lockers unless they actually had to. It bothered me so much to the point where I locked one of my classmates’. That was also the time I made my first enemy. Well, not really; the person barely knew me! But they swore they’d kill me.

Doc: The fact that engineers aren’t being as creative with android antennae anymore! Are they not accepting creatives into the industry anymore or something? ...No offence, Farqua.

Farqua: Yeah, fine. Whatever.

Wyra: I think my pet peeve is when people are super nitpicky and pick out really small and meaningless details, as if they’re gonna do something big. Like, what’s the point?

Eyn: When people talk over TV shows and movies and stuff. Why would you even do that?

Farqua: Hm… I think I hate when people run over plants. Y’know, like the ones that ain’t grass n’ all that. They’re alive, too, y’know! And they especially don’t get stepped on like that!

What kind of music to you like?

Skatra: I’ve enjoyed all forms of jazz. I think big band’s my favourite.

Doc: This might be surprising, but I actually prefer genres like breakbeat. Or, if I want to relax, I’ll listen to space ambiance.

Wyra: Happy hardcore, hardstyle, handsup - anything that’s energising, really!

Eyn: Rock n’ roll and blues are my favourites. Maybe some ska-punk, too. I feel like a total badass when listening to them.

Farqua: I love some good punk rock, or maybe even add somethin’ like some folkier flavour to songs like those!

What's your favorite food?

Skatra: Tiramisu. I don’t have it often, but I guess that’s why it’s my favourite.

Doc: ...I’m a robot. But I’ve always wanted to try dark chocolate.

Wyra: Me too! I don’t know what they taste like, but maybe cheese and nachos will do it for me!

Eyn: Dad’s always told me about different foods, but I think he’s described ramen noodles the best.

Farqua: I been told that honey-lemon chicken tastes great! I really wanna taste that!

Are you bored, want to kill me, satisfied with this quiz, etc.?

Skatra: I’ve been enjoying it a bit, actually.

Doc: Me too. I was afraid I’d get bored. ...Sorry.

Wyra: I enjoyed it! It was a lot of questions to get through though, but I’m still here!

Eyn: Eh, it was cool, I guess…

Farqua: I ain’t gonna kill ya, I promise! ...I mean, it was good!

Who's your favorite villain other than yourself?

Skatra: I don’t know. Why would I have a favourite villain? Or if you’re talking about the people in this group, I guess, it’s Eyn. She’s my daughter, after all.

Doc: Wyra’s one of my closest friends. Of course, I’d pick her.

Wyra: Right back at you, Sarlife!

Eyn: I guess, I’ve just got my dad. Or, if you meant it that way, I really like one named Taft Grater. He’s one of the villains of the Axel Duiti series. He’s really well written.

Farqua: Huh! This is a tough one! I dunno, maybe Wyra.

Do you think you're gonna die in your story?

Skatra: I don’t know. Like everyone else, I hope not, but I’ll just take what’s thrown at me.

Doc: Let’s hope I don’t!

Wyra: I don’t think I’ll die!

Eyn: I hope not, too.

Farqua: WELL, I BETTER NOT!!!

Well, I have to go, and I'm sure you have a lot of evil scheming to do. Peace out! (Or should I say "destruction out!" in your cases?) For your creators, go tag someone! Please, it won't take long!

Me lol: (Sorry! :’D)

Anything to add now that I'm done rambling?

Me lol: Not really, actually! but it was fun :D

Look! Please do it if you have villains, and credit me!

Please spread the word!

(I don't have much time, I have a timed session, as I'm using some random wifi server, so I'll add more later!)

#Chocco's OCs #Mr Skatra #Dr Aufel #Wyra Kappel #Eyn Duiti #Farqua Pells #Project: Proclo #Chocco does memes #Chocco's writing #Chocco's scripts #Chocco's info dumps #Dr Sarlife Aufel #Doc / Sarlife #Eyn Duiti Skatra

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its-sixxers · 4 years

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carmen & glory! 10, 11, 21, & 29!

ah yes, these ladies, breakin’ my heart... under a read more cuz long and i wanna spare ur dashes

10. Do they have pet names for each other?

Glory’s the real pet name type. She’ll call Carmen delivery girl, mail lady, a bunch of stuff riffing on the whole Courier thing. Carmen’s pretty traditional and a little stiff - pet names are rare but on occasion she’ll say ‘love’ or ‘dear’.

11. Do they have any inside jokes? Most of them revolve around talking shit about Deacon (in a sibling sort of way). I like to headcanon that Glory enjoys sticking sunglasses they find on random shit just to say it’s him. Glory also likes to tease Carmen about how ‘western’ she is and tries to do a country kind of accent, and Carmen puts on a really bad accent to mock how bad Glory is at it. They’re shitheads in the best way.

21. Personally, do you think they are a good couple? I like to write them as being a pretty human relationship. Not 100% perfect but not all terrible, either. Solid 85% great 15% bumpy mix. Definitely healthier for Carmen than her thing with Boone before she leaves the Mojave.

They get together in the midst of what’s basically a war in very heated circumstances - but both of them are also very used to combat and it’s almost normal for them, so it’s not really a thing that happens out of desperation.

Glory is a much needed thing in Carmen’s life at that point - a relationship that doesn’t have great weight or expectations, something fun and light and a place where she can just see where the wind blows them. Even with the fact that they have to be at least a little sneaky given that fraternization makes for bad vibes in a secret organization the amount of open affection she recieves resets her idea of a healthy relationship. She has a partner who adores her and isn’t afraid to let her know about it and it’s a godsend.

For Glory - she gets to brush with humanity properly. She starts seeing herself in a light that isn’t just the Railroad’s resident killing machine (even though she enjoys that role), and learns a lot of patience from Carmen.

However: they’re both firebrands. They’re both very passionate and very opinionated, and in the short time they’re together they don’t have conflict pop up between them. I think they’d have a lot of difficult when it comes to resolving arguments as they both take it to 100 immediately and don’t back down. I think they’d be able to apologize after the fact and be cool for most things, but I also think that if a big enough difference of opinion happened things would fall apart.

I also think Carmen’s a lot more damaged regarding relationships and is way more anxious than Glory is. If things got bad I could see Glory feeling smothered.

If Glory survived the Brotherhood attack, I think they’d be a good couple for each other if they learned how to deal with conflict when it comes to each other, and if Carmen chilled out a little bit.

Just a very, very loud couple.

29. What are your favorite moments that happen between them?

So: I didn’t write too much coupley stuff with them in l’Appel du Vide due to needing to keep the story flow going but I got a buncha headcanon moments between them anyways lol.

I always love imagining the two of them in combat just because I think they’d synchronize amazingly. Glory’d be the center of attention with her minigun either eviscerating dummies or pinning people down in cover while Carmen snipes em down from another angle and watches her back.

I figure Carmen tells Glory about Boone at some point and Glory says Boone’s a fuckn’ idiot then they have the best sex ever lololololo

For a moment that I actually wrote down: both of them talking down Danse. I wanted to include Blind Betrayal and was a little grumpy about how if you don’t work with the Brotherhood and have a Railroad SS you miss it because I feel like his whole deal works AMAZINGLY with the Railroad’s whole thing. Glory and Carmen manage to bust into the bunker Danse is hiding out in and the two of them use their shared experiences regarding their fuzzy identities to talk him into getting help and guide him out of the Brotherhood’s firing line. It just is kind of the crux of why I love them so much: Glory was ‘created’ and doesn’t have much of a past, Carmen can’t remember hers, they’re both people despite it and grow with each other. Makes me misty eyed. :c

Romance Asks

#tagged stuff #oc: carmen/courier six #courier x glory

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angelic-holland · 5 years

Text

Seeing The Thing 1

Playlist

Masterlist

Summary: You and Harrison make your way to a small get together the night before your auditions and you end up having to bring a drunk Tom back to the dorms.

Word Count: 3.2k

Warnings: depictions of anxiety and panic attacks

A/N: sorry I suck at summaries! Leave feedback here and let me know what you think!

“Come on Y/N, you never go to parties with me, you should just have a little fun before all the rehearsals start, come on,” Harrison says, eyes wide and lips pouting, knowing you’ll cave.

“You know why I don’t go to parties asshole,” you grumble.

“Sorry, sorry, I know, just, this isn’t really a party, just a buncha theatre kids hanging out. Not even a bunch of theatre kids, pretty sure it’s just like a few of us nerds drinking and relaxing before auditions tomorrow.”

“And my idea of relaxing doesn’t involve drinking with a group of people. What if I don’t know anyone there?” You sigh, picking at your fingernails.

“Katie, Ben, Jack, Wendy, those people will be there. Maybe a few other people who are auditioning will be there. You don’t have to drink if you don’t want to.”

“Fine, fuck, let’s go,” you say, turning him around to face the wall of your dorm room while you change. He’s one of your best friends, you’ve changed in front of him, with him in the same room plenty of times, he’s done the same with you.

You pull off your T-shirt and tug down your pants, changing into a cute black dress, you may have been nervous, well you definitely were nervous, your anxiety about to throw you into a panic attack.

Your breathing must’ve audibly changed because you felt Harrison’s arms wrap around you, pulling you tight into him. You both knew when you had an attack that the best way to calm you down was to ground you in reality. That usually meant either talking to you or holding you or hugging you until you felt safe and secure in the world again.

“You know we can just hang out here and watch movies, talk about our favorite Almost, Maine scenes. Don’t haveta go.”

“No I wanna, it’s okay I’m good,” you say.

“You’re good.”

“And we can leave whenever I want?”

“Course.”

“Alright bub, let’s go,” you say, pulling away from him.

He takes your hand, bringing you out of the dorm room. You lock the door behind you and Harrison slips an arm around your shoulder as you walk to the off campus apartment of your mutual friend, Katie, who was having this little get together.

You talked about the show, his vision, how excited you were to finally get to work with him. How excited he was to work with you in all the show’s capacity.

“Y/N?”

“Yeah Haz?”

“Don’t kill me but I invited Tom.”

You groan, your head on his shoulder.

“I know you think he’s an ass but he’s my best mate, my roommate too, so try to be civil today.”

“I will, promise, as long as he doesn’t interact with me, I won’t make a fuss.”

He laughs, “he’s not as obnoxious he seems, just very cocky.”

“Sure, we’ll use that term,” you laugh as you knock on Katie’s door.

“Y/N!!” Katie greets you, pulling you into a hug, you smile and hug her back, she lets go of you and hugs Harrison.

“How’s my favorite Brit doing?” She asks as she lets him go.

“And I’m not your favorite Brit?” You hear Tom’s voice and turn your head to see Tom leaning against the wall of the hallway.

“Hey mate,” Harrison says, doing his handshake with Tom.

“What’s up?” He asks Harrison, his eyes flitting to you, moving up to meet your eyes. You ignore him and make small talk with Katie as she brings you into the kitchen.

“How much do you know this other kid? Tom?” She whispers as you grab a water.

“Not well? He’s Haz’s roommate, and best friend. They both came here from England for god knows why.”

“Okay, okay, just he looked like he wanted to devour you so.”

Your eyes widen and you smack Katie’s arm, “no fucking way he just looks at all girls like that cause he’s an asshole.”

“Ah so you don’t like him.”

“Eh, my opinion on him doesn’t really matter I hardly know him.”

“Seems like your opinion is pretty well formed,” she says, eyebrows raised.

“Whatcha talking about ladies?” Tom says coming up from behind you, making you jump.

“Fuck off, for real?” You say, turning and rolling your eyes before pushing past him into Katie’s living room. You hear him talk to Katie a little and you think you hear him ask about the show this season. You find Haz sitting on the ground with a few friends so you sit by his side. You felt yourself get anxious, you never talked to anyone the way you talked to Tom. Your therapist said it was a way of deflecting your anxiety so you didn’t do something you would regret.

“Hey love,” he says, arm slipping around your shoulder as you sip your water.

“Hey,” you say, nodding at Ben and Maggie chilling in front of you.

“You excited for auditions tomorrow?” Ben asks.

“Sort of? Worried we won’t have enough boys because Professor Schultz won’t let us double cast anyone.”

“He won’t let you double cast people? That’s bullshit,” Maggie says.

“Yeah said that he wants more people to have the chance to be in shows so there’s 10 male roles we need to fill,” Harrison says, you could see his eyes rolling in his head from the corner of yours.

“We’ll figure it out,” you say, resting your head on his shoulder.

“What are you figuring out?” Tom says, seemingly appearing out of nowhere to sit right next to you.

“Nothing,” you say at the same time Maggie tells Tom what the problem was.

“So you don’t have enough guys to audition?” He asks.

“Don’t know yet,” you say, taking a very long drink of your water.

“That sucks,” he says and you close your eyes, pinching the ridge of your nose. Can he just, go away? Why the fuck is he here other than Harrison inviting him?

“Yeah mate, it does,” Harrison says, hand rubbing your arm, fingers making random designs on your skin. You could feel Tom’s eyes burning a hole into the spot on your arm where Harrison’s fingers rest.

“We’ll figure it out, always do,” you mumble before finishing off your water.

“Refill?” Harrison asks and you both stand up. You make your way to the kitchen, taking a deep breath before filling your water again. He grabs another beer and takes a long swig.

“Hey, you didn’t rip his head off, proud of you,” he laughs.

You roll your eyes, drinking almost half of the new bottle in one go.

He sits back down and you follow suit, glaring at Tom as you cuddle into Harrison’s side.

“Who wants to play truth or truth?” Maggie asks and you hear Tom groan.

“Who plays truth or truth? Is this just a chance for you all to get way too personal while drunk?” Tom asks and Maggie nods.

“Plus daring drunk people to do stuff is pretty messed up,” you say quietly.

“What was that love?”

“Drunk people daring other drunk people doesn’t end well, so we stick to truth or truth.”

“That’s lame.”

“Are you afraid any of us might actually get to know you?” Maggie laughs, she’s joking but that doesn’t reach Tom’s brain past his thick skull.

“Fine, truth or truth bring it on.”

“Okay, I’ll go first, Harrison, truth or truth?” Maggie asks and Harrison pretends to think for a moment.

“Truth.”

“Okay, what’s your dream role in a musical?”

“Hmm, cheesy but I really want to play King George in Hamilton.”

“No no I totally love that, hey you’ve even got the accent,” Maggie giggles.

She would talk about Harrison’s accent all night if someone let her.

“Alright Tom, truth or truth?”

“This game is fucking dumb, truth.”

“What’s something you’ve always wanted to do but are too scared to do it?”

“Shit Harrison, I don’t know, skydiving? It always looks cool in videos but I don’t know if I’d want to do it. Anyways, Y/N, truth or truth?”

You raise an eyebrow, surprised he asked you, “truth.”

“Is it true that you slept with every guy in the math club on the same weekend last year?”

Your eyebrows furrowed and you looked at Tom, feeling Harrison tense beside you.

“No, what’s got into your fucking head?” You ask, crossing your arms.

Where he heard that, you wouldn’t have the slightest clue, did he have friends on the math club? And if he was friends with any of them, why the fuck were they sharing anything? Harrison knows. He’s the only one who knows besides the three boys on your school’s stupidly small math club you started your freshman year. Harrison, your normally calm, cool and collected best friend freaked out thinking you were alone and having a panic attack, scared that he couldn’t be there to help you. He went to your dorm and you weren’t there, then he stayed there on your bed, calling you over and over and over again until you finally showed up, 3 in the morning doing the walk of shame back to your very dorm.

“Harrison, what, what are you doing here?” You ask, hair patted down but still disheveled, hickies all over your neck, “why’re you, are you crying? Haz, what’s wrong?” You ask sitting next to him.

“Was worried about you, I’m fine, just thought you got stuck somewhere panicking,” he says, wiping a tear from his face.

“I think there’s something wrong with me,” you say, staring at your hands.

“What?” He asks, turning to you.

“So you know how I’m on Xanax on an as needed basis?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, sorry totally tmi but it makes me super horny and I don’t know like how to live without taking it every once and a while when my anxiety is really bad but I also don’t want to be a slut and-,”

“Hey you’re not a slut,” he says, collecting your hands in his own.

“You wouldn’t say that if you knew what I just did.”

“It doesn’t matter, nothing you do would make you a slut, you kidding? Boys here laying every single girl they look at, why does you sleeping with one guy make you a slut?”

“Because I didn’t sleep with one guy.”

“Okay two guys.”

“Fucking hell, I slept with three guys, the guys on the math club? For their calculus exam?”

“You slept with them for their calculus exam? That’s a little odd,” he laughs and the tension in the room dissipates.

“No silly, just because I wanted to.”

“Okay then you do that, but if you don’t want to, maybe you see about weaning off of Xanax. Is this the first time you’ve done something like that?”

“I mean, I’ve hooked up with guys when I’m taking it, but it’s not like Xanax gets me high or anything, I just feel calm.”

“You do what’s best for you okay? I’m not going to tell you what to do but I’ll support you okay? Just don’t scare me like that again.”

“I would never. If I knew you were worried I would’ve never done that, would’ve come back here and watched that movie with you. I just totally spaced.”

“You’re fine, promise, come here let’s just cuddle,” Harrison says, before holding you in his arms as you lie down.

“Well because a little birdy told me,” he starts.

“And another little birdy is telling you to shut the fuck up,” Harrison says sharply. Toms quiet.

“Are- did you- what?” You say, turning to face Harrison.

His face tells you he never said anything to Tom, he wouldn’t. They were best friends too but you knew he would never share anything about you, anything you’ve told him in private.

“Alright well that was sort of fun while it lasted,” Maggie sighs and you snap your head up, the rest of your friends are all awkwardly fiddling in their spots.

The game was clearly over, Tom was smirking like the little asshole he was, Harrison was grimacing and Maggie and Ben stood up, walking away.

“I think I’d like to leave now,” you say, feeling panic start to overwhelm you. You did your best to push it down, hide it away because you didn’t want to embarrass yourself in front of people you’d be working with, people you essentially called friends.

Your parents made it very clear that when you first started having panic attacks, it was embarrassing if it happened in public so you very quickly learned how to control yourself until you were alone or in private.

“Let’s get outta here,” Harrison says, helping you up. Tom leaps up and runs outside and you raise an eyebrow at Harrison.

“He’s a lightweight no matter what he says, I’ll be right back.”

You say goodbye to Katie who smiles at you, almost a pity smile, which makes your stomach sink and you follow Harrison outside.

You smile as you watch Tom hurl into the bushes outside Katie’s apartment. You knew the hangover the next morning would suck and he deserved it.

“Hey, just wanna make sure Tom’s okay,” Harrison says and you nod.

“Fine with me,” you shrug.

“Could you maybe not smile like the best thing in the world is me puking my guts out?” Tom says, wiping his mouth and scowling at you.

“Nah,” you say, crossing your arms over your chest.

“Let’s be civil,” Harrison says, arm resting on your waist.

“Alright drunky, you feeling good enough to walk home or should we call campus police to drive you home?”

“You wouldn’t dare,” Tom says, standing up.

“I don’t know, you don’t seem well Tom.”

“Fuck off, you ruined the party.”

“Did not,” you say as Harrison forces you to turn around and start walking.

“Y/N, be civil, please,” Harrison begs, words slightly slurred.

“It’s true isn’t it?” Tom asks, you hear him dragging his feet behind you.

“None of your fucking business,” you grumble and Harrison’s hand on your waist tightens.

“You know, we could call him an Uber,” you say after you stop for the second time for Tom to dry heave onto the sidewalk.

“To take him a half mile?” Harrison laughs.

“Don’t know how much farther he’s gonna be able to walk, I don’t wanna drag him back,” you say, eyebrows furrowed at the thought.

“If Tom passes out on the way we can get him an Uber, okay?”

“Sounds like a plan,” you giggle as Harrison’s fingers tickle your side.

“You know, I can go sleep in the bushes if you two are gonna flirt all night,” Tom slurs and you roll your eyes.

“You should continue doing what you’ve been doing and keep your mouth shut,” you say, scowling. Harrison and you liked to be affectionate with each other, Harrison knew why, because that’s how you kept calm, how you were able to stay in the moment. But he was one of the only ones who knew.

Unbeknownst to you, Harrison is blushing, Tom sure does notice though.

“Someone’s gotta crush,” Tom laughs, “can’t blame you mate.”

“Tom I’ll snap your neck if you don’t shut up,” you growl as you get to your dorm building.

“Lemme drop this drunk asshole off at our dorm room and take you to yours,” he says as you swipe into the building.

“Just going up a floor, it’s fine,” you say as you all start walking up the stairs.

“It’s fine gotta, gotta talk to you about something anyways.”

You frown, does Harrison have a crush on you like Tom said? You slightly shake your head, no, he doesn’t, that’s just Tom being a prick.

“Here drunky, don’t choke on your own vomit while I’m gone okay?” Harrison says, his arm slipping from your waist to unlock the door and help Tom lay down. You smile, Harrison was such a good friend to you, to Tom, even when he himself is a little drunk, he still wanted to help his much drunker friend out.

He closed the door and smiled softly at you, arm slinging around your shoulder again as you made your way to your room.

You unlocked it and Harrison and you stepped inside. You patted the edge of your bed, sitting down and waiting for Harrison to follow your lead. He hesitates before sitting down, leaving a small space between the two of you.

Fuck.

“Haz, what’s happening here?”

He looks down at his hands, fiddling with them on his lap.

“Do you, shit, do you have a crush on me?” You ask, really hoping he says no.

“I, I’m not sure, I dunno,” he sighs, shrugging.

“This is my fault.”

“What?”

“I, I’m too needy, I hug you and ask you to hold me when I’m anxious and I’m panicking like I’m doing right now and-,”

“Hey hey hey, it’s not your fault, never was your fault, I just, maybe I needa girlfriend, maybe I like the way we cuddle or I hold you and I want that in a relationship but I don’t like you like that.”

You try to listen to what he’s saying as your head pounds and your ears start to ring. You clasp your hands over your ears, trying to stop the panic you felt rise in your chest which you knew inevitably would bubble over.

“Hey, wait, Y/N, stop, look at me, focus, breath, breath with me okay?” Harrison says, your panic scaring him.

You blink a few times, feeling his hands wrap around your wrists, bringing them away from your ears. You watch as he makes big exaggerated breaths and you follow his lead. You feel the air rush into your lungs and are comforted.

“You’re okay,” he repeats, his hands letting go of yours as they drop to your sides.

Your heart was still pounding as you tried to calm yourself.

“Look at me, focus, come on,” he urges and you blink, staring into his eyes.

They’re full of nothing but concern and you want so badly to tell him to leave, to tell him to stop worrying about you and that you’ll be fine eventually.

But all you could say was, “I’m sorry.”

“Hey, no, don’t apologize, c’mere, need me to hold you?”

You nod, eyes dropping to your lap. Need. It was a funny word, need. Your parents were always on your case as a child about using proper English, that’s what you get when both of your parents are English teachers.

There was a big difference between needing something and wanting something.

Mom I need a phone, all my friends have one.

Well sweetie, you don’t actually need a phone. You want one. You need to learn the difference.

Harrison lets you get comfy, lying on your side with your back facing him before he lays down next to you, arm wrapping around your waist and pulling you close so your back was pressed against his chest.

Did you need Harrison to hold you? Or did you just want him to? As you debated that question you felt yourself grow tired, eyes drooping shut.

You hear the telltale sound of your door opening and before you or Harrison have a chance to react the light from the hallway and a shadow hovering at the edge of your room.

“What the fuck?”

***

Taglist: @relise-thefury @danicarosaline @sighharrington @whltlock @imahoefortomholland

#tom holland #tom holland fic #tom holland fanfic #tom holland x reader #tom holland x fem!reader #tom holland x reader fic #tom holland angst #tom holland enemies to lovers #seeing the thing #seeing the thing series #seeing the thing chapter one #harrison osterfield #bestfriend!harrison

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pyotatochip · 5 years

Text

just like dancing | hyunjin x reader

what’s up losers. this one goes out to @starhhj thanks for always hurting me so good <3

just like dancing | hwang hyunjin x gender neutral reader wordcount: 4k inspired by: sidekick by walk the moon summary: meeting up with a photographer for a day of modelling turns into making a maybe forever friend.

ur a model

well. aspiring model.

ur instagram is a buncha pictures that u make ur friends take of you whenever y'all hang out

u have booked a couple photoshoots and submitted them to magazines

u even got published a couple times!!!!

not in anything big, just photography journals and portraiture mags

BUT IT'S SOMETHING!!!!

photoshoots are hella expensive tho fuckin. rip ur wallet

so u join a facebook group, which is something u never thought u would do

the idea was that aspiring photographers and aspiring models would meet up, get experience, and maybe make professional relationships

you? young and cute

all these photographers? 36 yr old dudes

they always invite you to their studios in their houses

to do artsy half nude shoots

so u were pretty unwilling to meet up with most of them

(understandable)

but then this one schmuck posts in the group, just when u so happen to be looking for weekend plans

“looking for a model this saturday, autumn themed shoot at han river. the leaves are really pretty right now, i wanna catch them before too many fall”

han river was a pretty public place, so u DEFINITELY felt safer

and like, ur school is pretty close to there, so ur familiar with the area

u comment “i'm free all day, give me a time and i'll meet you there”

after it posted, you clicked on his profile and

fuck

he was not 36

and he was CUTE

u freaked the fuck out

this kid looked like he was ur age. and he was hot.

should u delete the comment?

why would u do that?

bc ur nervous?

why are u nervous?

bc the photographer is a hottie?

is that really a good excuse?

before u could debate with urself much longer, ur comment received a like and u got a private message

hyunjin: hi! u look great! meet at the main gates of yeouido park at 9am?

“u look great!”

“U LOOK GREAT!”

(jooe sunbaenim is quaking)

screech

you: so early! okay! what kinda look are u going for?

hyunjin: haha i wanna get that fall morning light!!! i’d like it to be pretty autumnal. warm colors, maybe a sweater/scarf/jacket combo? if u have something like that. minimal makeup & hair, if you're into that stuff. hopefully that's all okay (^ム^)

you: sounds good! see you saturday!

you spend the next few days at school literally just thinking about how ur meeting up with a cutie on saturday

u rlly dont know what to do with urself

i show ur friend a pic of him and she's like “HOOYKY FUXKJGN GODJ”

which was basically your initial reaction too

but then shes like “he looks familiar??? is he a model too???”

u have literally no idea but it's completely possible

like, it's a waste to have that face exclusively behind the camera

and suddenly the two of u are like. obsessively going through his instagram bc WHAT THE FUCK he’s like….. REALLY GOOD

like, he does a lot of portraits, but the focus isn't necessarily always the person in the photo

the composition and background are just as important in every shot and it…. shakes u

there’s a few pictures of him too, all of which are v aesthetic

but how could they not be??? have u seen his face????

he also tags literally every person in his pictures whether they’re models or just his friends while they’re hanging out

and he photocreds everyone who takes pics of him!!

you are literally…. fallin’ in love

because he was cute and had a good eye and wrote cute captions and was so humble!!!

ur friend is like “wow we stan a pro”

“he looks seriously familiar tho, right?”

she's like “yeah i'm confused why have i seen his face before”

and ur shook bc like… if u had seen this boy irl there's no way you would forget how cute he is

finally,,, it's the weekend

you get on the train and head to han river early in the morning, dressed up and made up for your ~autumn photoshoot~

as soon as you get to the gates ur like.. holy fuck

it's so pretty

the leaves are a mix of orange and red and green and there's a couple dusting the ground too

no wonder hyunjin wanted to shoot here

ur kinda aimlessly wandering around the gate when u suddenly spot

him

he’s wearing a bomber jacket and has a camera bag over his shoulder

and his neck is literally at a 90° angle while he's looking at his phone

ur like…. that cant be ok

u get a notif while ur walking up to him and its a message from him asking if u were on ur way

“actually, i can't make it”

he looks up and immediately laughs. “hi! y/n?”

u wave. “hi hyunjin!! nice to meet you!!”

y'all exchange pleasantries and he's suddenly like

“your outfit is literally perfect” he steps back to look at u. “exactly what i had in mind”

u put up a peace sign. he laughs again.

uh oh

u really like his laugh

and his smile

and his everything

uh oh

he leads you further into the park where there's less people and more trees

“i brought another jacket and a couple of scarves in case u wanted something different” u say as he's helping you take off ur backpack

“oooooo a professional”

“not even”

he asks you if he can take a boomerang of u for his instagram story and u do a lil twirl

he gasps

“that was cute!!!!”

he giggles while he's posting it

what is with this kid and his giggles

u cant

if he keeps doin it at this rate, it'll probably be the death of u

which is

cool

he puts your backpack on and pulls his camera out of his bag. “let's take some pics in this outfit and then i'll peek at the other options. i like this look a lot”

and then… he just starts taking pictures

u literally laugh

“where do you want me?”

“wherever,” he goes, checking the pics real fast. “i tend to go for candid shots”

suddenly,,, his entire instagram flashes in your brain

the pictures of people laughing and mid walk and reading books

u thought all the models were just. really comfy and professionals and shit

IT WAS ALL A LIE

“so uhhh…” u literally dont know what to do

u have Never done a shoot Like This

“just walk,” he said. “look around. i'll follow”

you: no fear

hyunjin: just walk

you: one fear

u nervously laugh again and he's hitting his shutter like A MILLION TIMES A SECOND

“okay…… i guess i'll walk then”

u push his shoulder while u walk past him bc he's cheesin at u way too hard for u to handle

“ow”

“that didn't hurt”

“it hurt my heart :(“

ur walking backwards and laughing and he's just. only looking at you through his camera.

so. u wander.

u take a lovely morning walk down the pretty paths at han river

u really were so scared that u would be completely directionless, but hyunjin ends up asking you to do specific things also

“go up on those rocks”

“i'm literally wearing slippery ass boots do you want me to die”

“do it for the shot, y/n”

sIGHHHHHH

so ur up on some rocks trying not to fall into a fucking river

and when hyunjin shows u the pics he takes….

okay

yeah

he was right

the entire time he was shooting, he would just strike up conversation to make you comfy

asking how long you've been pursuing modelling

if u wanna do it as a career or if its just a hobby

about ur family

about ur pets

(he asks a lot about pets)

ur sitting on a bench and he's crouched a few feet away to get those ~angles~ when he asks

“where do u go to school?”

“kyunggi”

hyunjin gasps. “no way! me too!”

you fuckin ALMOST DIE

because u fuckin brainblast and have a recovered memory of seeing hyunjin In Your School's Uniform in the lunchroom and suddenly IT ALL MAKES SENSE

you hop up from the bench and like. YELL.

“OKAY I THOUGHT YOU LOOKED REALLY FAMILIAR ARE YOU KIDDING”

he stands and literally screams and u are. so shocked. “i thought you looked really familiar too!!!! i figured i just had seen your pics on the facebook group!!!! i highkey stalked ur instagram bc i couldn't figure out where i knew you from!!”

okay, wig

he stalked you also which is….. great

“what year are you???”

“i'm a junior!”

you push him.

“boi what the fuck! me too!”

“no way!!!” he's laughing “that's crazy!”

he literally pulls out his phone and opens instagram

u have never seen a person use instagram stories as much as this bitch

like, he intermittently pulls out his phone to get shots for his story

u almost threw hands when u were sliding around on some stupid wet rocks bc he was like “JUMP AGAIN I NEED IT FOR A BOOMERANG”

he does this cute lil hair flip and adjusts his bangs before he starts recording and u…. kinda wanna cry

“I KNEW Y/N LOOKED FAMILIAR”

he spins so ur in the shot with him and puts his arm over your shoulders

“WE'RE LITERALLY IN THE SAME YEAR AT THE SAME SCHOOL”

u laugh out loud

he laughs with you and u have to cover ur mouth so an uwu doesn't fall out

u try not to focus on his literally perfect eye smile as he hunches over his phone to post to his story

like,,,

those crescents

are so cute

and he has this lingering grin every time he laughs

and like. wow. lips. amirite. ladies and gents.

“i cant believe u go to kyunggi,” u say. bc u cant.

“what are the odds. out of all the people in that group, we end up meeting up”

u almost made a joke about it being destiny but then u were like oo no thats creepy dont say that

then hyunjins gasps

and u look at him

and he just looks at you wide eyed

and fucking

whispers

“destiny”

you scream laugh

he's laughing too

but on a real level ur like why would that have been super creepy if u said it but it was cute as hell (and a little heart fluttery) when he did?

he goes on saying it's crazy that you had never had any classes together over the years

“or any clubs,” u said

“yeah!!! what clubs do you do??”

“photography! which is why i'm shocked!!!”

hyunjin gasps again

wtf is up with this boy and his gasps

“i was gonna do photography but they meet the same days as dance!”

BITCH

WHAT THE FUCK

“I DONT DO DANCE BC THEY MEET THE SAME DAYS AS PHOTOGRAPHY”

his entire jaw drops off his damn face

“YOU DANCE TOO?”

“I’M JUST AS SHOCKED AS YOU ARE”

u literally can't believe

“we've been barely missing each other all this time when we could have been best friends :(“

oh ow

ouch hyunjin

that got u right in ur weak heart

like literally u might have a heart condition now bc he just hit u with the “we could have been best friends”

“sorry i already have a best friend”

DGDGSH WHY DID YOU SAY THAT

then he's laughing and ur like… oh fuck wheew

“well, sorry, i'm replacing them now. we have to catch up on lost time.”

and honestly………. he's right

number 1: y'all are both photography nerds

even tho you have begun to skew on the modelling side of it, u always loved taking pictures of scenery and u knew way too much about how cameras worked

and hyunjin really was like a pro

u had watched him adjust settings on his camera for white balance and exposure and everything

and judging by his instagram, he set himself up for some flawless editing too

number 2: y'all are both dance nerds

he tells u basically all his friends are in the dance club and have formed a lil dance crew bc of it

u say u used to take classes when u were younger but now u just go to the gym and hide in a practice room for a few hours every week

he does hip hop! which is so predictable but u still act all surprised

u tell him u used to do ballet but ur much more into urban dance these days

number 3: y'all both don't know how to stop laughing

like literally if either of you do anything remotely funny the other one is fucked for five minutes

ur pretty sure 90% of the pics hyunjin was taking were of you covering your face because ur literally GUFFAWING

and like, y'all ain't even that funny

but the more you laugh the less funny shit has to be for you to be crying

hyunjin told u to stop making him laugh bc his fingers were getting weak and he didnt wanna drop his camera

you, trying not to giggle: its ok u have a strap around ur neck u can drop it

hyunjin, tears flowing freely: PLEASE LET ME BREATHE

number 4: y'all both LOVE UR PETS

like idk man he tells u about kkami and u freak the fuck out because he's just SO EXCITED ABT HIS PUP

and hyunjin almost ditches u right then n there when u say ur more of a cat person BUT he forgives u because ur cat is literally named hot dog

this is highkey the most fun you've ever had on a shoot

like, you feel so comfortable with hyunjin

and every time you take breaks to peek at the pictures he's been taking

u like … literally stop breathing

he's so talented ;;

you eventually swap jackets and scarves and wander around more

and literal hours later hyunjin's like

“are u hungry”

u stare. “always”

he laughs. “do you wanna go to the convenience store and make ramen”

“i thought you'd never ask”

so y'all go to the conbini and pick out ya fave ramen packets

(and some chips and candy bc u have literally no self control)

hyunjin really tries to buy your food for you but you yell at him while ur checking out bc Boi. No.

the cashier: watched the two of you look at food and bump into each other constantly, touching each others arms and giggling the whole time

you: leave me the fuck alone hwang hyunjin or i'm calling the cops!!!

the cashier: ????????

u make ur ramen at the handy dandy hot water dispenser and carefully bring it back to a seating area in the park

“be careful it's hot!!!”

“hyunjin please, u act like i'm not a ramen pro”

“i just didnt want u to burn ur cute lil mouth, damn”

ur entire being goes WEE WOO WEE WOO

u literally almost choke on nothing and you just cough to try to play it off

hyunjin is having none of it

he's laughing his ass off

“wow that got you better than i expected”

“fuck off hwang”

he stands up to leave and u laugh and grab his sleeve

he's giggling before he even sits again

y'all eat ur ramen and chat more about school and hobbies

he tells u about this one time he almost got admitted into a cult

you: wow… pretty AND dumb

hyunjin, flustered: h-hey!

you tell him about how your cat is a rescue and his heart melts

there's a minute where you're staring at nothing in the distance eating chips

and hyunjin is just staring at you

his brain: hoe dont do it

his heart: doki doki

his brain: oh my god

“hey… are you still free all day?”

u look at him. “yeah, why?”

he opens a bag of gummies. “i'm supposed to meet up with some friends to go bowling in like an hour but i wanna keep hanging out. wanna come?”

you groan. “i'm so bad at bowling”

“we can be on a team,” he offers you a gummy bear and you take it. “i'll carry you.”

pls explain why an image of him holding you bridal style popped into ur head sgdhhf

“haha okay. as long as ur friends aren't lame.”

“they are, but i'll be there so it's fine”

“fair enough. i'm in.”

so y'all hop on a bus and head to the bowling alley that (apparently) hyunjin and his buddies frequent

(he's playing pickles with you in the back of the bus and you're giggling so hard that ur struggling to tell him to cut it the fuck out so you don't disturb the people sitting next to you)

((but also feeling his entire body press against you isn't the worst))

you've been to this bowling alley before

it's popular among younger folks because it's cheap lol

the two of you walk in and one of his friends immediately starts yelling

u freeze “dude i thought u said we were gonna be early”

he looked at his phone “we literally are”

this blonde kid is yelling hyunjin's name and ur wide eyed while u follow

“UR LATE”

“I'M NOT”

“IT'S 2:20”

“WE SAID 2:30!!!”

“TELL THAT TO LITERALLY EVERYONE WHO SHOWED UP AT TWO!!!!!”

hyunjin looks over to the group of his friends already bowling a game “oh”

u bust out laughing

hyunjin gets all flustered like “i-i thought it was 2:30!!!”

“who's ur friend, my perpetually late son”

“o-oh,,, this is y/n”

his friend sticks out his hand for you to shake. “hi, i'm chan. were you the model today?”

you grin “are you saying i look like a model?”

“OKAY!” hyunjin grabs your shoulders and you giggle when chan stutters without responding while hyunjin drags you to the counter to rent shoes and pay for a game

hyunjin is: flustered

he's all embarrassed because he was late and got yelled at by his fake dad

and then u went and,,,, u were so smooth with chan

he wondered if you had been flirting with him all morning because you actually liked him or,,, ur just a flirt

he grabbed your wallet out of your hand and shoved it in his pocket so that he could pay for your shoes and game for you.

“hyunjin!!!!!”

“you wouldn't let me buy you food and you wouldn't be here if it wasn't for me if you argue i swear i'll throw you down a lane”

you pout but you let him pay

and ur heart,,, it goes off, dude

like,,,, maybe,,,,,,, u would let him throw you sgdgshsh

y'all walk over to the lane his friends are on, bowling shoes in hand

“y/n!”

your face lights tf up. “seungmin!!”

hyunjin looks between the two of you probably six times while you hug before finally going “w-what”

you and seungmin look at each other, then at hyunjin

hyunjin: you know each other

you and seungmin, in sync: photography club

hyunjin: alright, well,

he announces to everyone your name and you were his new best friend and that if any of them had a problem with it they could talk to his fist

you, softly, but with feeling: f-fuck

y'all change your shoes and watch as his friends finish up their game

while they play, hyunjin points each person out and tells you their name, helping you learn all these new people

since u guys were twenty (20) minutes late, they were already almost done with the first game

they were all pretty good.

well. most of them were.

the guy hyunjin pointed out as jisung kept getting gutter, but he was having fun

everyone else kept getting strikes or spares and u were like oh god

you keep telling hyunjin that ur really bad at bowling

hyunjin: i'll teach you. it'll be like ghost.

you, softly, but with more feeling: f-fUck

you, realization washing over you: wait how would you even-

hyunjin: *giggles*

hyunjin's giggles.

send tweet.

the entire time you were entirely too conscious of how close he was to you

you could feel the burning on your shoulder, thigh, knee - all the contact points where his body bumped into yours

your knee bobbed involuntarily while you watched the game end, nervously anticipating your turn to hit the gutter

and suddenly, hyunjin's hand was gently placed on your knee

it stopped bobbing

you looked at his hand, then at him

he smiled, but kept looking forward

“relax. even if you're bad, i'll hype you up.”

it was barely above a whisper so you wondered for a sec if he was even talking to you

hhhhHHHHH THIS BOY

yall start bowling.

he was. not all talk.

like who the fuck is good at bowling

hyunjin, apparently

he fuckin. chucked that ball down the lane

it made a smooth curve and took out. every. pin.

you stared at the empty lane in disbelief as hyunjin got a couple high fives from his friends making his way towards you

"not bad, right?"

"bro what the fuck"

he laughed and held out a hand to help you up "we bowl a lot"

you didnt even process fully that he was pulling you out of your seat because it was your turn.

ur hands: sweaty

ur arms: spaghetti

ur vomit: on ur sweater already

not actually

u picked up the ball hyunjin had helped you pick and looked at him like a deer in headlights

"bro i havent bowled since i was six"

he giggled. "you can do this"

he walked with u and showed you his starting stance, gently adjusting the way your wrists twisted and patting your hip

u. tried to not blush. no word on how well you did.

he guided you through your walk up and when u let go of the ball..

…

……

YOU DIDNT HIT GUTTER

you SCREAMED

"BRO I HIT A PIN!!!!!!!!!!!!"

hyunjin gave you a Sick High Ten, laughing "now you gotta hit the other nine!"

you froze

fuck

the others were starting to calm down from the excitement of your first half-frame, anticipating your second hit

you watched your ball return from the lane n went over to grab it

hyunjin looked at you Once and was likr….. is that caspar the ghost

the color had DRAINED from you

u…. u hit a pin…… thats like the best u've ever done

n now you gotta TOP THAT?

"its like dancing," he said suddenly. u looked at him, desperate to hear advice in terms u understood. "even if you can go through the motions, it doesnt necessarily make you good. you have to trust your body to remember the motions, give it a little finesse, and that's when you start to get Really good."

you blinked at him

"was that supposed to be helpful"

"can you Shut the Fuck Up and Bowl"

you took a deep breath, adjusting your stance as hyunjin reminded you of the steps you needed to take

another breath

steps

swing

let go…..

roollllingngg…………

*HIGH PITCHED WAILING*

"I HIT FOUR PINS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

hyunjin scoops u up in a hug, spinning you around