#the horrors: Hello. You are never doing an assignment again

[ranvwoop]

i try to avoid my acc being Just vntposting . in this world. but man is it going

[capricorn-writes2]

Hello author, it's me Lilith again. Can I request Dust, Horror, and Killer (Part 1)? Ganz, Reaper, Error, and Toxic (Part 2) Helping Readers with Their Homework?

Dust Sans, Horror Sans and Killer Sans Helping S/O with Their Homework

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Hey Lil's! Long time no chatting, and I'm happy that I finally can talk to you again after everything, and thank you so much for being a great friend and a great reader! I'm so happy that you read my book ^.^

Gender: Neutral

Warning: Profanities

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Dust Sans

He appears silently when you struggle, like a shadow with a heart. You don’t even hear him approach, but suddenly he's there, sitting beside you. "Need help?” he asks.

He may not talk much, but he’s incredibly observant. He notices the way your pen shakes when you’re overwhelmed. Slowly, he slides your drink closer and nudges a snack your way.

He reads over the instructions aloud in a calm, hollow tone. “Define the main theme of the passage,” he says, resting his chin on his hand. He helps you break it down into pieces, never rushing.

He protects your focus like it’s sacred. If someone tries to bother you, he appears beside you like a warning. One look at his dull red eye is usually enough to make the person that was bothering you leave.

He’ll read things for you when your eyes are tired. His voice is low and gravelly, but surprisingly gentle as he reads the textbook.

He always knows when to stop and give you space. His hand gently closes your notebook and pushes it aside. And he’ll stay close until your head clears.

If you cry from stress, he doesn’t panic; he just holds you. No lectures, no rushed comfort. Just silence and his arms around you. His thumb strokes your back as you sob into his hoodie.

He tracks your progress like it’s his mission. He remembers your exam dates better than you do. Sometimes he even leaves sticky notes with reminders. “Good luck. I believe in you,” one says in tiny handwriting.

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The room was quiet, save for the scratching of your pen and the occasional frustrated sigh that slipped past your lips. You sat hunched over your desk, elbows digging into the wood, eyes blurring as the words in your textbook began to lose all meaning.

It felt like your brain was made of static; each line you read melted into the next, nothing sticking. Your chest tightened, and for a second, you considered giving up. But then the shadows shifted—and you weren’t alone anymore. You didn’t hear him come in. Dust never made a sound unless he wanted to

Nevertheless, you felt him like the ghost of a chill brushing against your spine. His tall figure leaned against the doorframe, one eye glowing dim red in the low light of your desk lamp. He didn’t speak right away. He just watched, like he was trying to decide if now was a good time.

Eventually, his raspy voice broke through the silence. “Homework again?” He asked, like it wasn’t obvious, like he didn’t already know. You nodded, not trusting yourself to say much without snapping. Your fingers curled around your pen tighter. “It’s not working,” you mumbled. “I’ve been trying for hours, and none of it’s sticking," your voice grew tense.

That glow in his eye flickered just slightly. Without a word, he crossed the room and pulled out the chair beside you, the wood creaking under his weight. The scent of dust and worn fabric clung to him, along with something faintly metallic. Still, his presence steadied you. “Let me see.” He said it so quietly, almost like he was afraid to be too close.

His hand brushed over your paper, claws careful not to tear it, as he scanned the assignment. He didn’t frown; he never did, but you could feel him thinking, his mind sharp despite everything it had been through. “Alright,” he said eventually. “This part’s trickin’ you. You’re tryin’ to memorize it like a script. Don’t. It’s a puzzle, not a punishment.” You blinked at him, surprised, but felt at least it helped.

The next hour passed in small breaths and softly spoken guidance. He never raised his voice. Never got impatient. He sat close enough for you to feel the warmth that lingered in his magic, guiding you with rough fingers that hovered but never rushed.

When you got something right, his eye would flicker with something close to pride. Not loud. Not bright. Just real. "Knew you had it in you,” he muttered once, under his breath, like it scared him to say more. When your hands finally dropped, limp and sore from writing, you realized how tired you were. Dust noticed before you could speak.

His scarf brushed your shoulder as he leaned forward, closing your notebook with quiet finality. “You’ve done enough,” he murmured, then added, “C’mere.” He pulled you gently to his side, your head resting against the soft, worn hoodie he always wore. His hand lingered on your arm like a silent promise that he got you.

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Horror Sans

He grumbles at first but always sits beside you anyway. Despite the groaning, he pulls a chair beside you and plops down with a thud. His massive claw rests on your back.

Horror never finished school because we know he literally lives in a place where everyone is so starving that murder is normal, but he’ll furrow his brow and do his best. “I dunno what a mitochondria is, but if it messes with ya, I’ll bite it.”

He always brings food, even if it looks… suspicious. Like that day he made sandwiches that looked like they had blood as a jam, but he would jokingly say, "Relax. Just strawberry...probably.”

He treats every correct answer like a major victory. He would cackle, slapping the table hard enough to rattle your pen. You flinch and laugh, blushing as he throws an arm around you.

He forces you to rest when you overwork yourself. The moment your eyes droop, he yanks your chair back. Scooping you into his lap like you weigh nothing and then cuddling you, forcing you to take a rest.

He stays up with you through all-nighters without complaint. He’s seen darker nights than this. What’s one more beside you? He would brush his claws against your hand and hum a low and soft tune while you work.

He tries to learn with you, even if it’s awkward. He’ll read over your shoulder and whisper, “What’s a… parallelogram?” When you explain, he nods solemnly like he’s just learned a sacred secret.

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You stared at your homework like it had personally offended you. Equations danced across the page, blurry and mean-spirited, mocking you for trying to understand them. The overhead light buzzed faintly, and your pencil lay still in your hand, threatening to snap under the weight of your frustration.

Just as you were about to throw the whole notebook across the room, the door creaked open with a low groan and he stepped in. “Homework again, huh?” Horror’s gravelly voice echoed in the quiet room. His tall frame filled the doorway, eyes glowing faintly red in the dim light.

He scratched at the back of his skull, already grumbling as he lumbered in. “You really like punishin’ yourself, don’tcha?” he muttered. But before you could respond, he dragged a chair beside you with an awful screech and sat down, his clawed hand landing gently between your shoulder blades. “A’ight. Let’s see what’s killin’ your mood tonight.”

You hesitated, watching him lean in, his face inches from the page. Despite his monstrous appearance—bloodstained teeth, shredded hoodie, and that ever-present aura of death—he squinted at the math problems with a furrowed brow like a concerned dad trying to help with fractions. “Okay,” he muttered. “So we’re dealin’ with demon numbers. Got it.” His finger tapping against the table. “Let’s hunt ‘em down.” He softly nods to himself.

The next half-hour passed in a strange blend of horror and hilarity. Horror Sans made up terrifying metaphors to help you remember concepts, calling exponents “tiny monsters that multiply behind your back” and telling you to imagine mitochondria as gremlins powering up haunted castles.

You couldn’t stop laughing, even when your stomach hurt and your cheeks ached. He’d flash a crooked grin whenever you answered something right, eyes gleaming with a pride that made your chest warm. “Knew you had it in ya,” he’d whisper, ruffling your hair.

But when your brain finally hit a wall, your hand falling limp over your notebook, he didn’t get annoyed, he got worried. “Hey, hey,” he rumbled, pushing the chair back and standing with a creak of bones. “Break time. C’mere.” Before you could argue, he scooped you into his arms and sat back down, pulling you into his lap like you were a pillow he refused to part with.

His arms, massive and warm despite the stains on his hoodie, wrapped securely around your waist. “You ain’t gotta do it all in one go,” he muttered, his voice low and scratchy against your ear. His thumb brushed your wrist, careful not to graze with his claws. The silence was soft between you safe. Somehow, even with the monsters hiding in his voice.

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Killer Sans

He doesn’t do it by the book because “the book’s boring, babe.” Killer leans over your desk upside-down, red eye glinting in mischief. “Lemme help, but Killer style,” he smirks, scribbling over your worksheet with doodles of knives and hearts.

He turns everything into a game to keep your brain awake. “Every time you get a question right, I owe you a kiss. Deal?” You roll your eyes, but he’s already grinning like an idiot.

He gets way too into helping with presentations. He insists on adding sound effects and creepy fonts to your PowerPoint. It’s chaotic, but somehow still works despite your presentation looking like a living horror show.

He snacks obnoxiously loud while you study but always shares. Killer crunches chips next to you like it’s a performance art. He always saves your favorite bits for last, sliding them to you.

He trash-talks your homework like it’s a living enemy. He roasts every subject like it personally insulted him, just to make you laugh. “Biology? More like bye-ology. Get rekt.”

When you get overwhelmed, he instantly drops the act. One look at your tired eyes, and the teasing fades from his tone. “Hey, hey, breathe. You’re not gonna explode. That’s my job,” he says, gently tugs you into his side and letting you rest against his hoodie.

He starts humming when you focus, just to stay close. His tune is strange, off-key, but somehow soothing. It fills the room without needing words, matching your scribbling pace.

He forces you to celebrate small wins. Killer would throws imaginary confetti and tries to get you to dance, acting as if he was your personal chaotic cheerleader.

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It started with you throwing your pencil across the room. The poor thing bounced pathetically off the wall before hitting the floor, joining the graveyard of erasers, crumpled papers, and your will to survive pre-calculus. You slumped forward on your desk, face buried in the notebook that still mocked you with unbalanced equations. If numbers had a face, you’d punch them.

Then came the sound in a light, fast footsteps that always seemed to flicker into existence. “Whoa, okay, who died?” Killer Sans leaned in through your open door, hoodie falling slightly off one shoulder, signature grin stretched across his face like a weapon.

His left eye glitched with a low red pulse. “Tell me I get to punch your homework. Please. I’m so bored.” “You can’t punch math,” you groaned without looking up. “Believe me, I tried.” “In your heart,” he said dramatically, sliding into the room, “you just need to believe harder.”

He landed in your desk chair like a falling ragdoll, legs sprawled out, skull tilted back lazily. “Now. Let’s make a deal. You do three problems. I get to doodle on your notes. Fair trade.” You rolled your eyes but sat up, scooting the chair over to share space with him.

He leaned in immediately, chin almost resting on your shoulder, humming some off-key tune while you scribbled through the next question. After a second of silence, he interrupted with, “Pfft. You’re holding the pencil like it owes you money.” “Because it does. It owes me my life back," You muttered. "Okay, drama queen,” Killer Sans snorted. “But hey, look at you. You actually solved it," he poked your cheeks. You blinked, and sure enough, the answer was right.

He continued to sit beside you, half helping, half distracting, his red-tinted eye light flickering whenever you smiled or cursed under your breath. Every time you got an answer right, he’d offer a dramatic gasp, a made-up trophy speech, or on particularly good ones a kiss to your temple. It made you want to laugh and cry at the same time.

Homework still sucked, but somehow, it sucked less when he was here. By the end of the night, your desk and the homework from the workbook was covered in doodles of bloody hearts, little knives, your initials mashed with his along with the workbook you once hated was filled out, problem after problem.

Killer leaned back in the chair, arms behind his head, watching you with a lazy kind of pride. “Told ya,” he said, his voice quieter now. “You’re smarter than you think.” And in the low light of your room, with his lopsided smile and glitching eye reflecting soft red on your cheek, you realized something: he may not have understood your math… but he always understood you.

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[chenlezip]

jaemin, scream ♡

��� summary : when y/n receives a mysterious phone call and finds that her friends are being killed, she suspects that a serial killer may be on the prowl, who is also linked to her mother's murder.

warnings : death, swearing, if you've watched scream you'll know :) idk what other warnings to put im so sorry!! not proof read either eek

annas note : sooo.. i wanted to write a lil something about jaemin and scream.. and this is the better idea i had in mind — one thing you guys NEED to know about me is that i am a horror fanatic.. and so pairing this with jaemin was super fun (maybe i’ll make a horror fic series with nct one day..)

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you're in your bedroom, sat at your desk on your computer as you worked on an assignment. you heard glass breaking outside your window and you stood up, walking closer to check it out. maybe it was one of the cats that roamed around your street?

as you peek out your window, you feel a hand grab your shoulder and you scream, pulling back. "hey- it's just me," your boyfriend jaemin says gently.

"jaem, what the- what the hell are you doing here?" you scold him as he makes his way inside of your room from the window, "you sleep in that?" he gestures to your night dress.

you sigh, "yes i sleep in this. what are you doing here though? my dads in the other room, you can't be here!" as soon as those words left your lips, your dad opened the door but it was jammed with your wardrobe door being open.

you walk over, talking to him as jaemin hid down the side of your bed. as your dad left, he got up, holding one of your plushes as you asked again why he was here.

"well, it occured to me that.. i've never snuck through your bedroom window. i was home.. watching television.. the uh.. the exorcist was on." he continues, "it got me thinking of you."

you're a little confused, "it did?" you ask. "all the good stuff was cut out, it was edited for tv and it got me thinking of us.. how two years ago we started off hot and heavy and now things have changed.." you shake your head at his words, knowing what he's getting at.

"oh, so you thought you could climb through my window and we'd have a little raw footage?" you ask and he laughs, "no.. no, i wouldn't dare think of breaking your underwear rule."

it was the next day at school, you were sat on the edge of the fountain with your boyfriend, jeno, yeri and haechan. they were rambling on about the recent murder of someone you all knew - winter.

"hey, jen, didn't you used to date winter?" you ask as jeno looked away from his girlfriend to you, smirking, "yeah for like.. two seconds." haechan butts in, "before she left you for anton~" he teased. yeri moved away from jeno to look at him, "i thought you dumped her for me?"

"i did. he's full of shit," he glared over at haechan again. "and are the police aware you dated the victim?" haechan pushed up his glasses, pretending to act nerdy. "hey- what are you saying? that i killed her?" jeno and yeri both have an argument with him, and you groan to yourself, not again.

you end up leaving them, kissing jaemin goodbye as you left for the bus home. after doing chores, watching the news but immediately turning it off after they showed your mother who got killed, you just decided to take a nap to take your mind off of things.

you soon awoke to your phone ringing, the loud dial tone ringing through your ears. you whined, "who the hell is calling me?" you ask yourself out loud as you lean over from where you were on the couch, grabbing the phone and putting it to your ear. "hello?" you ask with a sigh as you hear your friend, yeri coming through the other line, "practice ran late. i'm on my way, okay?"

you check the time, "it's past seven.." "don't worry~ winter and her boyfriend didn't cut it until after 10, you're fine." yeri says as she continued, "i'm gonna swing by the video store for us, okay?"

"whatever. just hurry, okay?" "see ya, n/n~" yeri hung up the phone. you smile and let out another soft sigh, placing the phone back on the stand but after a couple seconds, it starts ringing again. "yeri, just get in the car-"

it's not yeri. a creepy voice rings through your ears as he says your name in a greeting. you run a hand through your hair, "uh.. hi, who is this?" you ask softly as you sit up on the couch. "you tell me," he says as you scrunch your brows in confusion, "i-i have no idea.."

"scary night, isn't it? with the murders and all it's like something out of a horror movie." you chuckle, "haechan! you gave yourself away.. are you calling from work? because yeri's on her way over." you get up from the couch.

"do you like scary movies, y/n?"

"i like that thing you're doing with your voice, hae, it's sexy," you giggle to yourself as you turn on your lamp. "what's your favourite scary movie?" 'haechan' asked you. you rub your chin, "oh come on, you know i don't like that shit."

"why not? too scared?" the voice asked as you sigh, "no. it's just.. what's the point? they're all the same. some stupid killer stalking some big-chested girl who can't act, who's always running up the stairs when she should be going out the front door. it's insulting." you explain, ranting about the movies that you've seen.

you shouldn't of said that because a tall figure wearing a cloak and a ghost face mask appears and attacks you. you try running out the front door but you're fumbling with the locks so you just run upstairs, screaming. you make it into your room and close the door, locking it and backing away from it. your heart is pumping, your thoughts are clouded and you feel petrified. what the hell just happened?

you hear someone once again at your window and it's your boyfriend, jaemin. "jaemin!" you shout for him as you run toward him, helping him in. "the doors locked. i heard screaming - is everything alright?" jaemin looks at you with a worried and concerned expression. "the killers here.. he's in the house!" you bring him closer to you as you ease into the comfort he gives you, you needed this.

"he's in the house. he's got a knife, he's gonna kill us.." you mumble as you try and cling onto his sweatshirt. "he's gone." he whispers to you, holding you tightly against him. you sob into his shoulder before feeling and hearing a phone drop beside him on the floor. you look down and gasp, pulling away from him.

"what?" jaemin asked as you glared at him, removing his arms from your waist, "n/n, what?"

you shake your head and whimper, creating enough space between the two of you before you unlock your room door and run out of it. "wait! wait wait wait wait! what's going on?" you hear jaemin chasing behind you as you continue to try and escape him. "y/n, come back!" he shouts from the stop of the staircase.

you open your front door and scream, seeing the ghost face mask being held up. jisung, who was at the door holding it up, screams too. "sorry! i found this, come on!" he shouts at the other officers, ushering them inside.

jisung finds jaemin and detains him, shoving him roughly against the hood of his car. "alright come on, keep your hands together."

after a rough couple of days and staying close with yeri ignoring your boyfriend, she takes you to a party that jeno is hosting. you thought about not going but you really needed something to take your mind off of everything that happened so you end up going. you enter the kitchen as yeri places bags down on the kitchen counter, smiling at her boyfriend.

you both end up laying on the couch in the living room, jeno following as he brings yeri to his chest and smiles. you look through the movies that haechan has, "how come jamie lee curtis is in all of these movies?" you ask. haechan smiled, leaning near you, pressing his hands together in a prayer, "she's the scream queen."

"with that set of lungs, she should be.." jeno butts in, someone adding a "yeah.." to agree with him. yeri rolled her eyes, looking at you, "tits, you see?"

after spending a couple hours at the party, the curfew ends and everyone starts leaving. "yeri, come on!" you shout upstairs. you haven't seen her since she left to get drinks for jeno. you're a little worried. you turn to jeno who is seeing the party goers out the front door, smiling.

"do you know where she is?" you ask as jeno shakes his head, "i haven't seen her." and then you hear 'agh!'. you gasp, turning around to the front door and seeing jaemin smiling sheepishly. "oh.. jaemin, hey," you give him a small greeting as he looks at you. jeno seems to act suspicious, rubbing his chin, "jaem, hmm.. i wonder what you're doing here."

"was hoping i could talk to n/n, alone."

and he.. did have the chance to and a little more than that, you both got dressed after having an intimate moment in the bedroom upstairs. "you still don't think it was me, do ya?" jaemin asked you as he glared at you from behind, sitting on the floor tying his laces. you chuckle, turning around and sitting to face him, "no. no. i was just thinking, if it were you, it'd be a very clever way to throw me off track."

as you were talking about things, jaemin leans into you and before you know it, ghostface was behind him. "oh my god- jaemin, watch out!" you scream as he gets 'stabbed' multiple times, "oh.. my god.. jaemin.." you whimper.

after an extreme chase with ghostface and escaping the house, you find yourself back there because you saw a cop car outside. you're searching jisung's knocked out body and find a gun, haechan shouts for you, "i found yeri! i think she's dead i think jeno did it-" he panics as you aim it toward him, "stop right there!" jeno runs and stops beside haechan, "don't listen to him y/n!"

you decide to run inside the house and you see jaemin, he fell down the stairs and groaned, "y/n.." you help him up and lead him to the front door, "we need help.." he shakes his head as he opens the front door and haechan pushes his way inside. "look- i think jenos gone mad!"

"we all go a little mad sometimes," jaemin smirked as he turned toward haechan, a sinister look on his face. "fuck!" haechan whispers loudly to himself before getting shout in the shoulder, shouting out in pain and falling to the floor. "hae!" you shout.

jaemin chuckled, "anthony perkins, psycho.." you run over to haechan, kneeling over him as you stare at your so called boyfriend. "no.." you whisper as you try and run but you bump into jenos chest, staring up at him as you beg for him to help you. he holds a voice changer to his mouth, smirking, "surprise y/n."

tags : @injvns @polarisjisung @mejaemin @ayukas @hyckvr @yizhrt @blondemrk @astrasng

[banamine-bananime]

meets an encouraging, patient, fatherly commanding officer that chooses tucker specifically for an assignment and takes him under his wing. he’s actually a secret operative for a sinister military project recruiting tucker as a target practice guinea pig orchestrating the next couple years of his life to be a lie.

meets an alien that tells tucker he’ll help him fulfill the quest he’s the legendary hero of. he chestbursts him and steals a getaway vehicle given upon the “end” of the quest.

meets some weird computer program programmed by the culture the prophecy came from, pretty much the only remaining source of information about this “quest” that’s upended his life. it’s actually the ai of the freelancer trying to kill him and kidnap and use his kid to end the great war… uh, with slavery of the alien species

meets one of his best friends, an acquired taste and kind of an ass, but they give each other as good as they get and they’re a team. she leaves them to make the plan to capture junior and use him to enslave his species succeed. and tucker feels like can’t even be mad about it without feeling guilty because in her mind she was sacrificing herself and junior to save humankind from a losing war for survival, and immediately after he thinks she fucking dies and takes his kid with her!! they were friends and then for a few minutes they were almost enemies because she did the worst thing for the best reasons and then that’s it!!! how do you even grieve and process that. apparently tucker opted for watching reservoir dogs instead of therapy and i can’t blame him. that’s not the sort of grief you can find a self-help book for. HELLO I’VE BEEN SCREAMING FOR YEARS. never over it they make me insane.

meet some humans on the desert dig-team, charismatic down-to-earth soldier guys. breath of fresh air after he’s been stuck for months in complicated political situations with a species that has just recently decided to perhaps not kill all humans, as a reluctant religious figurehead in diplomatic corps that i’m sure just loved his way with words and women. bet he made a lot of friends there. the dig team kills them all except him and he proceeds to spend the next months in a psychological thriller slash survival horror.

meet church again. church leaves again (and then again) and tucker’s left furiously picking up the pieces of blue team with caboose and some blond guy they rescued from the pound. we needn’t talk about that blond guy and whether tucker knows he both set up and hit the Original Church Killswitch lest tucker doesn’t know and hears us because i think he doesn’t need that extra complication in his life tbqh.

meets a charismatic mercenary with a rough exterior, but a heart of gold, right when tucker and caboose have lost all of blue team’s charismatic mercenaries and/or assholes with a rough exterior but a heart of gold. he. well. he stabs him in the back, guys. you know. i can’t get more on-the-nose than that.

meets church again. he seems like maybe he kind of gets that he was an ass and won’t go off killing himself this time. immediately after reconciling he sees the siren call of martyrdom and kills himself instantly after simulating several ways it could go very, very extremely badly for tucker, not even counting the previous evidence from how this went for some blond guy (sorry i’m committed to just calling him some blond guy in this post now for no reason except that i think it’s a mildly funny bit).

meets church someone else who’s been fucked over by project freelancer. he’s been manipulating them to get close enough to freezermurder their friends and implicate them in terrorism charges.

meets yet another young stray asshole with Issues and a heart of gold who needs some guidance, maybe someone he can be the kind of a leader he wishes he could have been to green team. she also stabs him again.

at some point we have to let tucker just start stabbing people. like a lot of people. i don’t think he’d enjoy a villain arc once he realizes that’s what’s happening but he deserves the sheer free joy and clarity of just solving problems with pure simple stabbing before he comes to that realization.

[pillowhoep]

Unstable Elements .𖥔 ݁ ˖ S. Mingi pt. 1

Summary: You're just trying your best to get through college and stay on track; all of that gets ruined when you meet your new lab partner, Mingi, who has more than a couple skeletons in his closet.

Pairing: fwb!mingi x female!reader

Genre: angst | non-idol au | college au l e2l (ish)

Rating: 18+

Word Count: 7.2k

Content Warnings: cursing and nicknames (Mingi says princess)

Notes: Hi, this is my first fic. I wrote most of this, but it's so long that I'm gonna to split it up into parts. Yay, I hope someone likes this. I'll survive if you don't.

Update: I changed some things because I'm never satisfied with my work ;) um double update: i forgot to post the final version of this part bc i changed it. :l sorry

The nerves of your first day in lab are reaching their peak as you drive. This class was notoriously difficult despite only being a few credits but you were ready for the challenge. With your minimal lab experience, you knew you’d struggle but it was a stepping stone. After parking your car in the lot of the Life Sciences Building, you notice there are still 20 minutes left before lab so you take the extra time to read over the protocol once more. After you finish reading the steps for today’s experiment, you do just one last check of your hair and face to make sure you still look cute. You head inside the maze that is the Life Sciences Building, hopelessly looking around for room 296B. All of the hallways looked straight out of a horror movie, flickering lights and all. You notice a couple of students lined up outside one room in particular, to your luck it is your lab. 

You take this as a chance to do some flashcards for another class. Putting in your headphones, you begin to zone everything out. Flipping through card after card, the material was beginning to get easier for you. A special soft-study playlist blares in your ears so you don’t notice the stranger who is attempting to make conversation with you. That is until you feel two light pokes on your shoulder. You turn around to a tall blonde guy waiting for an answer from you. Wow, lucky you. He’s hot. His hair was a little messy, but it fit his face well. The smile on your face stretches practically ear-to-ear as you grin up at him, taking one headphone out of your ear. 

“Sorry?”

“Didn’t we meet last week? At Stacy’s party?” Your smile immediately drops when you recognize him and his fuck ass deep voice. Song Mingi. You don’t know him personally, well everyone kinda just knows of him. You’ve caught a few glimpses of him at parties, he’s cute but messy. There’s always some rumor going around about him too. “No, I don’t think we’ve met.” You give him a smile, turn back to your phone and start doing flashcards again. “Oh I swear we’ve met before–” the door of the lab swings open with your TA hanging out of the door frame with one hand and a perfect smile on his face. He was pretty eccentric-looking for a STEM major with his dyed hair and colorful clothes. “Hello everyone! Sorry for the wait. Please follow me.” The hoard of students shuffles into the lab behind the man who has a lot of pep in his step. “I am Hongjoong, your TA for the semester, I will be leading this lab. Please gather around the white board please. You guys have been assigned partners and stations, they are on the board behind me. Before we begin, I have to go over…” He drones on about lab safety, chemical hazards, and the like. You scan the board for your name and as soon as you spot your name your eyes nearly fall out of your skull because Song Mingi is your partner. Again, lucky you. The TA finally sends you guys away after about 20 minutes of safety. You get to your station, situating yourself by putting your backpack away in the cabinet below the station. Mingi approaches you from the corner of your eye and quietly makes his way around you to place his bag in the cabinet on the other side of your bench. Luck is never on your side. You roll your eyes and turn your body away from him. The period begins and everyone settles into their places with their partners. As the TA is doing his rounds he spots a student not practicing lab safety, “uh, Mingi? No phones in the lab.” Mingi shoots him an annoyed look and sighs audibly before shoving his phone into his back pocket. “I don’t have the protocol–“

“That’s fine. I’m sure your lab partner–“ he turns around to find your name on the board. “Y/n. I don’t think she’d mind sharing, right?” He was giving you such a sweet smile, how could you say no? You give Hongjoong your most innocent smile and slid the protocol towards Mingi. Hongjoong does a little clap and walks away. “Thanks” Mingi utters barely audible. “Yeah”. You guys work in silence, he can feel that you’re refusing to talk to him so he returns the favor. The lab bench is relatively small so Mingi has to hover over your shoulder to get a better view. Every now and then he grazes your back but since his frame is so large you're basically suffocating. 

“Can you move over?” Mingi slowly turns his eyes to you and quietly moves over. A couple more silent minutes go by, you hear him huff and struggle to light his bunsen burner. He takes a deep sigh with his eyes closed, and turns to you, reluctant to speak. “You mind helping?” Motioning him away from the bench, you attach a rubber tube to the gas nozzle in the wall and attach the other end of the tube to the burner. After turning the gas on you grab the sparker and a single steady flame erupts from the burner. You see him already frowning at you. You hand him his sparker, “Try reading the lab manual next time and you won’t be so lost.” He snatches the sparker from your hands, visibly taken aback by your rudeness, and continues the lab. Mingi quietly thanks you for the help but he’s still trying to understand why you dislike him so much. The two of you just met and will have to interact for the next three months. Even though he's trying to be cordial, you’re only making the situation more awkward than it has to be. 

It takes you 30 minutes to set up and finish the entire lab. The test tube in your hand looks perfect, exactly like the protocol, and if you were nice enough maybe Mingi could leave early too. You have to throw away your results anyway so what’ll it matter if he uses your work, all the other groups are doing it. Before Mingi can muster up the courage to ask you, you begin to walk towards your TA. As soon as he gives you a thumbs up, you race to pack your things. This late night lab was a horrible idea, it’s already 9:30 and you have an assignment due at midnight. “Hey y/n, before you leave—I know you’re gonna throw your results away, so would it be cool if I—” 

“No” Bitch, he thinks. His pretty face and deep voice could have convinced you to help him but you don’t care, it's not like you’re gonna need him. So you leave without saying another word to him.

For the second lab you are very set on finishing the lab early but Mingi is all over the place. He forgot to print his lab procedures, again, so you guys ended up shoulder to shoulder, again, just to read the paper. He hasn’t spoken to you at all. It’s probably because of the last lab, but if you let him cheat off you once he’ll want to do it every time so you set a boundary like the emotionally mature girl you are. Mingi wasn’t good at lab work and he did need help but he’d rather ask anyone but you. The girls at the bench next door have been eyeing him since last lab. First, he went up to them asking about the procedure and eventually spent the entire lab period at their bench, talking them up. You weren’t really listening to his conversation but you knew he was trying to take their data. This made no sense because his lab report had to match up yours, so he’s only creating more work for himself. It honestly doesn’t matter because at least he isn’t asking for your work anymore. Plus, you did not have the patience those girls did. Accepting that you’ve officially lost your partner, you decide to continue your lab with a relieved sigh.

The first to finish today, you confidently stride to your TA with your yield in put. “Wow, this is a great result! Y/n, right?” You nodded. “You finished really fast last time too, I should’ve guessed you’d kill it today too. It looks great, you can actually leave that up here so I can use it as an example. You're good to go.” You head back to your bench, still high from the praise, and prepare to leave as Hongjoong makes a class announcement “Guys, this is what your result should look like!” Your happiness is cut short when you come back to Mingi, also ready to leave. Even though you watched the lecture last night and read through the protocol in your car, Mingi got the same grade. Amazing. All he did was ask for their results and they immediately folded? Of course they did, pretty privilege is ruining society. After cleaning up the mess you made, you slip your headphones into your ear and finally relax… until you hear fucking Mingi call you. Deciding to ignore him, you keep walking. He calls your name one more time, so you turn around to face him with your arms crossed in front of you.

“Yes?”

“Can I see your data sheet? Just for the report, I have everything else though—“

“No. Do your own work.” You turn around and keep going but he follows you. “It’s not that big of a deal–” 

“Okay then don’t ask me.”

“I’m not copying off you, I just want to compare—“

“No.” He turns his head away with tsk in a bout of frustration. “What the fuck is your problem?”

“What?”

“Don’t ‘what’ me. What’s your problem with me? I just met you.”

“My problem is that you’re lazy and my partner. I’m not gonna do everything for you.”

“When did I ask you to do anything? Yeah, I asked for help once but I don’t think that’s a crime.” Both of you are seething with anger but Mingi knows there’s no point in fighting. Especially when you seem to be his one-way ticket to an A. He turns his eyes to the floor with a small, tired sigh, “Listen, you’re right. I shouldn’t be cheating but I just need an estimate. I don’t wanna fail this class, please.” Yeah you don’t like him but you’re not a monster. You kneel down angrily and pull the sheet out of your bag and shove it towards him. He smiles down at you, “Thank you.” For a while, he was flipping through the sheets trying to absorb whatever information he could before handing it back to you. “You know, you’re actually kinda cute when you’re nice.” Your mouth falls open as you snatch your sheet back caught off guard. He chuckles at your face as he makes his way around you towards the staircase. “Don’t talk to me like that!” You yell at his back. He turns around, walking backwards and mouths, “so my type,” before leaving your line of sight. You stood there for a second, your face growing hot. You really need to get out more, maybe touch some grass, or a man. 

Tired of scrolling social media, you check the time again. 4:13. Ugh. You knew you should've just done the work alone but Mingi insisted on helping you with the post-lab today. Usually, the lab reports require both participants to input their data and reflect but you’ve just been making up Mingi’s numbers in efforts to keep out of touch with him. It was all going fine until the TA caught on and asked why Mingi’s numbers always differed from those presented in the data sheet. So now, you’re stuck at the library at 4pm on a Saturday waiting for Mingi to show up. He said today was the only day he was free and he was supposed to be here at 3:30. Look at you, respecting his time and showing up in a timely manner like the dumbass you are. Another three minutes go by until you decide to write him a very hate-filled and disappointed email (because you refused to give him your number). Right as you type, “I’m going to tell Hongjoong that you haven’t done a single report” you see Mingi walk in with a coffee. He looks nicer than usual, opting for jeans as opposed to his regular sweatpants attire. His hair was actually styled today too, you start to feel self-conscious about your borderline pajamas and greasy pony-tail. He sees you immediately and begins walking over with a relaxed expression.  

“Seriously?”

“What? I just got here.”

“Exactly! Where the hell were you? On a date?” Obviously you’re making fun of his oddly put-together outfit but Mingi smirks at you and you begin to regret saying anything. Ever since you blushed when he called you cute, the flirting has become incessant. He never crosses the line but he doesn’t stop. “No, why? You like what you–“

“No, shut up.” You hold your hand in his face as a protest. “What time were we supposed to meet?

 “I don’t know–”

“3:30.”

“Okay, well, I’m here now.”

“Yeah, great. Thanks, so helpful.”

“Right? You get it–”

“Oh my god, please, stop talking. Give me your data sheet.” 

“Don’t patronize me, y/n. I know what to do… and Hongjoong told me he’d recognize your writing.” He takes a seat across from you, opens his laptop and begins typing. You always put the report off till Saturday but in those 40 minutes you waited, you managed to finish the majority of it. After about ten minutes of silent working, Mingi looks up to see you scrolling on instagram again. “Hey, princess. Don’t you think we should focus–”

Without even looking up from your phone you answer, “I’m done.”

“Already? We’ve been here for like five minutes.”

“Yeah well, I’ve been here for a bit so I had time to work.”

“I said I was sorry–”

“You actually didn’t.” You look up from your phone and Mingi gives you an expressionless look. “Go on. Say you’re sorry.”

“For?”

“For wasting my time.”

“...Just because you helped me out last week, I’m sorry I was late…but, to be fair, no one told you to come early.”

“I got here at 3:40! I was late!”

“So why is it such a problem that I was late? You were late too.”

“Are you stupid?” You shake your head and get back to your doom-scrolling. 

Another ten minutes go by and you can seriously feel your brain cells dying, “Mingi, what is taking so long? Did you finish your part?”

“No, can you let me figure this out?”

“Figure? Figure what out, you’re just entering and reflecting, that’s it.”

“Yeah, I know that but my data is a little off.”

“What? Let me see.” You panic and make your way around the table to sit down next to him, he slides his computer over. These reports are graded as a team if he makes a mistake, it comes out of your grade. After taking a look, you realize that he’s right. He’s off by a lot actually, but if that’s the case your data should be off too because there was only one setup. “Hm, I remember us doing the math together and nothing seemed wrong then.”

“That’s what I’m saying. I’m gonna do the calculation again. Can you just check it?”

“Yeah.” He pulls out his iPad and starts doing the equation, “here.” You squint your eyes, trying to decipher whatever he’s writing. God, his handwriting is so bad. You lean forward to get a better look because closing the distance is helping. Just as you’re about to ask for clarification, Mingi grabs the leg of your chair and begins sliding you towards him in one gesture. Okay, pause. Why is that attractive? He’s just pulling a chair, there's no reason to overreact. “Just come closer if you can’t see.”

“I can see! Your handwriting is so bad.” So flustered, you're still trying to read what he wrote. You squint and turn your head, pointing at his writing. “Is this a two or a seven?”

“It's a seven.” He says fatigued.

“Oh okay. Alright, you started off right but here, you forgot to subtract the weight of the tray.” He picks up his IPad and scans his work completely clueless. “Ugh, here, give me the pencil for a second.” The iPad is nudged towards you, his hand brushes yours in the pencil handoff. You pause. Not the time or place. With your head down you begin redoing the equation and quietly mumbling your steps. Mingi can’t hear so he comes closer. “See? It’s not that hard, like I said you were technically right you just–” Upon lifting your head you find yourself face-to-face with Mingi. God, it feels like your heart skipped a beat. His eyes leave the screen to meet yours. “I just what?” His eyes dart between you and the writing. When did it get so warm in the library? You clear your throat and pull back. “You just needed to double-check your work.” Getting flustered by Mingi three times in two minutes? Crazy. There is no reason for your whole physical being to be reacting like this. You sit back in your seat and send him a glare, Mingi returns a confused stare. “What did I do?” Shaking your head in disbelief, “Why are you getting so close to me?”

“I can’t hear a thing you’re saying–”

“Then tell me to speak up, don’t get so close like that.” He shrugs at you, “Okay, my bad. But it’s not like I’m putting the moves on you, I was just trying to listen.” You scoff. “You know, y/n, this doesn’t have to be so boring. If you just relaxed a bit–” 

“Mingi, shut up.” 

“Okay, okay. But if you weren’t so… uptight? We’d get along, a lot more than you think.” He looks up from his computer to see you barely listening. Smiling, slightly biting his lip, he takes a second to check you out. 

“That’s great, Mingi. Now, finish, I wanna go home.” Mingi smiles at you and gets back to work. “So, what are you doing after this?” 

“No.” He starts laughing. “Oh, come on.” 

“I’m really not in the mood.”

“To have a conversation?” 

“Mingi, please.” He cracks a smile and gets back to typing. “You’ll come around to it eventually.” You've been doing your best to stay away from Mingi, you haven't given him your phone number, you haven't responded to any of his advances, you're doing good. Yeah, Mingi’s cute, really cute and kinda super attractive, but you don't want to risk your mental well-being over a man you know is terrible. 

It’s starting to get dark outside. How is he still not done? It’s 6 and the library closes early on Saturdays. “Hey, are you finished?” He’s been aggressively typing away on his computer, he should have something to show for it by now. “Yeah, I finished like 15 minutes ago.” You look at him in disbelief, mouth slightly agape. “Why didn’t you say anything?” You stand up and pull your jacket on. “I was enjoying spending some time together.” You make a sound of disapproval. “This is getting old.” 

“Not for me.” Both of you take some time to gather yourselves. He holds his hand out and you raise a brow in response. “What?” In a swift motion he reaches across your body and grabs his pencil which you left laying on the other end of the table. He flashes you the pencil and stuffs it in his pocket while you’re standing there with his scent lingering in the air around you. Smells like a liar and a manipulator, the smell is giving you PTSD so you start to leave. “Okay well, I’ll see you Thursday. Bye.”

“Bye princess.” Fuck. “Stop calling me that.” You manage to keep a poker face as you leave. This is so weird, he’s so weird. It’s hard to decipher what you feel towards Mingi. The simultaneous disgust and attraction leaves your head a mess. Even acknowledging the physical attraction is hard but you just can’t ignore the facts. 

The meeting you scheduled with your advisor ran long and you were speeding to make it to lab on time but you were already 20 minutes late. It didn’t help that the Life Sciences Building was in the very corner of campus. After parking your car, you rush inside. You didn’t even have time to read the protocol so you were practically winging this lab. Hoping that Mingi remembered to print his protocol today, you walk in and immediately explain your situation to Hongjoong who smiles and gives you an “it’s okay” nod (god bless him). As you head to your bench, you see another girl working with Mingi. The both of them giggle as they work. Great, someone stole your spot. You stand there for a second, kind of annoyed, until Mingi sees you and gestures you over. You choose to ignore him and opt to find an empty station in the back of the room. After sending Mingi one final glare, you find yourself all alone in a secluded corner of the room. With no time to be petty and you start your experiment with haste. Seeing that you’ve changed seats Hongjoong comes over to you looking between Mingi and his new lab partner and you, “he replaced you?” He said laughing.

“It’s fine y/n, let me know if you need any help.” He winks at you and walks away. Oh my god, he’s so cute but we must stay focused.

Deep in concentration, bent over with your hands on your knees, you’re trying to get the best angle to see the bottom of your flask. For the experiment to work, you had to stop the heat right as the solution began to evaporate. It’s so difficult for you to find the right angle so you keep alternating between bending over and standing straight with your head turned.  All of the sudden the water in the sink behind you turns on, scaring you. When you turn around you see Mingi standing at the sink washing a flask that isn’t even dirty. He turns around to make eye contact with you, but your only focus is the flask. After failing to get your attention, Mingi walks over to you with his arms crossed. “Why didn’t you come to the bench?” You flinch hearing Mingi’s voice. “I called you over when you came in.” Your eyes are still fixed on your flask, you do not care for this conversation right now, “I figured you were working with someone else and I didn’t want to interrupt.”

“I wasn’t, I was waiting for you.” 

“It’s not that serious Mingi.” 

“I mean, you’re one who’s working in a dark corner. So I came over here to tell you that I didn’t give your place up.”

“Mingi, it’s fine. I genuinely don’t care.”

“Then why’d you walk away when I told you to come over.”

“Because I didn’t feel like telling some random person to move, I don't care about the bench that much—”

“Were you jealous?” Silence… You take a moment away from your setup and just stare at him, hoping he’s embarrassed. He laughs at your deadpan expression. “Jealous of what Mingi?”

“I don’t know, me working with someone else.”

“Yeah–”

“See!” 

“I'm being sarcastic Mingi and don’t you have your own experiment to do?”

“I’m done but I wanna see how you did it, so I’ll stay. You know, for the lab report.” He stands next to you, against the bench. You decide to keep going with your experiment, keeping a watchful eye on the flask. Mingi hesitates to say something, his voice is so quiet when he says, “Anyway, it’s not as fun if you’re not there.” You almost don’t hear what he says, almost. “What?”

“Nothing, now come back. I don’t know what I’m doing.” You’re about to tell him to go away for like the fifth time but you stop when you notice your solution beginning to change. “Hold on, it’s starting to react. Go ask someone else.” He sucks his teeth making a tsk noise, “So someone is jealous? Hm? Y/N?” His persistence is also a bit much for you. You’ve never met a man as adamant as him. “Oh my god! Mingi, please, shut up–,” when you look at him, he takes a step closer to you, the air gets thick. Suddenly you have nothing more to say. “I told you y/n, I just wanna watch.” 

“You’re really distracting me.” 

“Well, come back then. I need you.” You turn around and step away from him, waving your hand in front of his face, “Mingi, you’re already done. You can figure–” he grabs your hand pulling you back under his gaze. “But I do need you, y/n.” His grip still holding you in place as he smiles down at you, you are taken aback by this attack. The words refuse to leave your mouth and for a moment, that felt like an hour, there’s just silence as your eyes meet his. Suddenly, your solution vigorously bubbles out of the flask, pulling your attention away from Mingi. You rush to grab the flask but it’s scalding hot and burns you. Immediately you grab your hand causing you to drop the flask on the counter. The liquid inside spills out as the pain courses through every nerve in your hand. You whine some curses under your breath clutching your hand to your chest. Mingi grabs your hand, pulling you to the sink and sticks your bright red hand under cold water. All of that happening in a matter of one minute is insane. You sniffle and look up at Mingi, his face twists into a worried frown, unable to look at your teary-eyed face. Blinking away your tears, you turn around to see all of your work gone and sigh at the thought of having to start over. “It’s okay, just use my results. He already gave me my grade,” you were going to decline but he’s used your answers before so you quietly accept with a nod. He was still holding your hand under the water. You attempt to pull out of his grasp but his hand tightens around wrist, insisting that he hold it for you. “Y/n, I’m sorry. I was just messing around but seriously, I’m sorry,” about to laugh, you see that Mingi is actually upset. He was being sincere and it actually warmed your heart a bit. “It’s not your fault, at all. Just an accident. But maybe flirt with someone else next time.” You’re trying to lighten the mood and it works because he finally laughs, “Didn’t I say you were my type?”

“Yeah? What’s your type? Smarter than you?” His eyes forming crescent moons as he smiles down at you. You never noticed that his front tooth is crooked. Aw. “Yeah, basically. Smarter than me, rude, burned hand, the whole package.” You send a “hmph” his way and pull away from him. This time he lets you go.

 After you put away your setup, you call your TA over to show him Mingi’s results. “These aren’t your results are they?” You didn’t think your lie would get caught so easily but you knew you looked guilty. “No, I burned myself and lost all of my solution,” holding your red hand up. “Oh no!” He thought for a second, took another glance at your hand and sighed. “You know I shouldn’t do this but I know you worked hard on this lab all alone so I’ll give you the grade. Keep this between us, though, okay?” Hongjoong was so sweet it’s bringing a tear to your eye, you nod at him. “I hope your hand gets better, but next time call me over if anything happens.” You agree to his request and thank your gracious TA with admiration in your eyes. Looking around, you see that everyone has left lab except for you, and apparently Mingi who is waiting at the door. After waving goodbye to your TA, you head out of the lab and Mingi starts walking with you. 

“You said bye to your boyfriend? You sure he doesn’t want a kiss too?”

“Oh my god, I was just telling him about my hand.” You hold up your hand to show him and he visibly gets upset.“Seriously Mingi, it's not your fault. I’m fine, nothing even happened.” 

“I know. It is my fault. Guess I have to make it up to you somehow.” 

“Hmmm, I wonder what you mean by that.” He rolls his eyes and laughs. 

“I can get you lunch.”

“I’m good, just do your portion of the lab report.”

“Then we go to lunch?” 

“Mm, we’ll see.” 

“I’ll take it.” You both laugh and continue to talk while walking to your cars together. Once you arrive at the parking lot, you notice that you parked very close to his car. 

“It’s like you’re following me, y/n. Just admit that you’re into me.” Ignoring him, you unlock your car and sit inside. You take a quick breath and flip open the mirror because your face is so hot. You’re smiling so hard, wow you didn’t even notice. Maybe Mingi isn’t that terrible, I mean he is the reason you had so much fun today. It’s crazy how comfortable you are with him despite this being your fourth or fifth time meeting. Mingi is so outgoing that it scares you. He speaks to everyone so easily, even you. For fuck’s sake, he has you arguing with him like a child. You’ve been trying your best to resist him but god he’s so fine. At home, you keep finding yourself wanting to see him outside of class or even ask for his number. Lately, your mind has been screaming at you to throw caution to the wind and just take a chance. From the rumors, it didn’t seem like he was the type to date but it’s not like you wanted a boyfriend right now. You’re too busy with school and work. While your experience with men was limited to your one ex-boyfriend, you think that Mingi is also interested… or he’s probably interested in many other girls. You didn’t want to be one of the “many other girls” who were involved with him. Despite that, you still find yourself wondering if you even like him. You know that you enjoy his company. Even with all your uncertainty about your feelings, it’s for certain that lab is readily  becoming the highlight of your week. 

The professor who ran your lab offers students extra credit if they attend his research seminars and you were free and would love the extra points. You arrive right as the lecture begins and find an empty seat in the back. Since midterms are starting to pick up, you have some work to do. You finish two assignments by the time the second speaker is called up. Clapping, you look around the room to see more faculty than students but the room is starting to fill up. There were only a few seats left but luckily no one sat next to you. This lecture is actually the most interesting, you’re going to write a great mini report on this.

After finishing a decent amount of work, you decide to start mapping out the extra credit report. Your ears perk up when you hear a hushed “excuse me”. Someone is walking down your row and you move your feet back to let them pass, yet no one passes. You see a pair of chunky sneakers stopped beside you when the seat to your right is abruptly taken. “Funny seeing you here, princess.” Mingi was sitting next to you with messy hair and big glasses resting in his nose bridge. Impressed to see your lazy lab partner at an optional lecture on a Saturday afternoon, you smile at him. “Princess? Again?” He’s too busy shuffling around to notice that you’re now enjoying the nickname. He takes out a notebook and shifts his body into yours and that’s when your internal panic begins. Leaning closer to you, pressing his shoulder to yours, he whispers, “What are you doing?” He was so close. Everytime Mingi touches you, whether intentional or not, you immediately lose your train of thought. He’s so unpredictable, you just couldn’t get a gauge on his behavior. You mouth homework to him and he fake gags. Continuing your work, you feel Mingi’s knee touching yours. Unsure of what to do you just leave your leg as is. Mingi takes your indifference to his touch as an invitation and puts his arm around the back of your chair, his arm just barely touching your back. He leans into you again to take a closer look at your screen. Your breath hitches, you can feel the warmth emanating from his body. You sit away from Mingi a bit to cool yourself down but you still feel like you’re on fire. He keeps leaning into you to see so you just turn your computer towards him to give him a better view. “You’re taking notes too? You’re so good y/n.” His praises sound a little too good with his deep voice and piercing eyes. If there is one thing Mingi loves, it’s eye contact. He stares right into your eyes, you try to hold his gaze but it’s just too much so you laugh awkwardly and continue your work. With his arm brushing against your back, he brings his mouth to your ear, “you wanna hang out after this?” His deep voice is like honey to your ears. You could smell his cologne, god he always smells so good. He knows the exact effect he has on women, you especially. 

“It’s 12pm on a Saturday, what could we possibly do?” Mingi holds your gaze, looking right into your soul again, his smile slowly widening. “You wanna come over? We can watch a movie,” disgusted you look away with an “ugh”. How could he ask you that so casually? You decline his offer after shaking your head, disappointed. He moves his arm from the chair to your shoulder and pulls you toward him. “You can’t always say no.” Completely caught off guard with the little distance he’s put between your faces, your eyes immediately fall to his lips. If you move just a bit forward your lips would touch. You could hear your heartbeat pounding in your ears. You were struggling to keep yourself together but he was completely fine. He was waiting for you to answer but you were so overwhelmed by him that your mouth just hung open waiting for words to come out. You snap out of your daze when the people seated around you begin clapping, the third speaker is up. You push him away, embarrassed, remembering you’re at an academic seminar, and he’s unapologetically flirting. He lets go of your face, laughing, but keeps his arm around your shoulder. “Mingi we’re at a seminar!” Angrily whispering at him, you remove his arm from your shoulder. Your heart is still pounding, Mingi really gets a kick from seeing you so flustered by him. He brings you close again by pulling your arm. 

“So what? If it was just me and you, then what? Hm?” Like a deer in headlights, you can’t speak, move, or do anything.

“Come on princess, say something.”

“We’re not alone though–” Attempting to push him away, you grab his hand to remove it from your hand but he’s so strong. Squeezing your arm but making sure he didn’t hurt you. “Okay, then let’s go be alone.” He nudges his head toward the door. There was a long pause, you staring at him, eyes wide, and him back at you, a smile plastered across his face. His smile turned into a laugh seeing your shocked reaction. 

“I’m just kidding y/n. Relax.” You can’t help but sigh when he admits he’s joking because mindless flirting is one thing but acting on that flirting? Very dangerous. 

“Good. Don’t be weird. Anyway, I hope you know–” Trying to change the topic but Mingi insists on teasing you a bit.

“Yeah yeah, you wouldn’t survive two minutes alone with me.”

“Are you threatening me?”

“Come find out.” Your gaze towards Mingi develops into a smile matching his. You’re so sick of him messing with your emotions, you decide to match his energy.

“Maybe if you beg, I will.” He widens his eyes at your response but he was more interested than shocked. Now you’re the one laughing at his flustered expression. This is fun. He licks his lips, and pulls you close by your arm. “Wow, freaky. I’ll beg–” Before he can finish his sentence the room erupts with applause. You’re guessing the lecture has ended, everyone around you was clapping so you two followed. Your brain finally started to work again. God, what was that? What came over you to say those things to him? What is he thinking? Mingi was just aimlessly flirting, but since when did you do that? Mingi is making you discover parts of yourself that you didn’t even know existed. Beg? Since when did you like men to beg? I mean, he did beg. Does that mean you have to go over? There is some downtime in your schedule so technically you can hang out with him. People are walking down your row to leave, you stand up to make way for everyone. Mingi starts packing his stuff and you begin to prepare yourself to tell Mingi that you’re ready to hang out. He pulls his hoodie and backpack on, you grab his arm hurriedly. His head turns so fast that you swear he could’ve broken his neck, smiling down at you with a big smile like he knew what you were going to say. 

“Should we–”

“Mingi!” Your suggestion suddenly dies in your throat when you see a pretty girl in a mini skirt run up to Mingi and hug him from behind. His arm falls out of your grasp. He, almost as if it’s second nature, turns around and hugs her back, lifting her up a bit. As he puts her down, his hands slide down her body with so much ease like he’s done that millions of times before. His touch lingers on her hips and he pulls her closer to him as he’s talking to her. Seeing him touching her after he touched you has your heart sinking. Your heart was actually aching seeing how quickly Mingi disregarded you. Your ears are refusing to register any word of their conversation, you wanted to go home and leave this embarrassing moment but you couldn’t bring yourself to move or look away. Unsure of whether you were angry, sad, or disappointed, everything gets worse when you tune into their conversation. “Are you doing anything tonight?” She asks him, biting her lip, his gaze following the way her teeth engulfed her bottom lip. He took her in the same way he just looked at you. That was enough for you to pack up and leave because how long can you stand behind him, waiting for him to acknowledge you? You feel like throwing up as you walk out of the hall. Your face is so hot, this isn’t even due to jealousy, you’re just angry. He forgot that you were even there after he did all that during the lecture. What? This is so stupid, you’re so stupid. You sit in your car for a few more minutes ruminating on the fact that you wanted to kiss Mingi a few minutes ago. You even considered going to his place to “watch a movie” with him, you mull over your whole interaction with him with your head in your hands. This whole scenario was so embarrassing and couldn’t have gone any worse for you. You held your hands over your eyes trying to forget every feeling you ever had for Mingi. This was gross and icky but you can't blame yourself for him being a terrible person. He just wasn’t for you. The signs very obviously presented themselves and you just chose to avoid them. You’re glad that you’re going home to study and not hanging with Mingi. Fucking whore.

As he left, Mingi felt really bad for not saying anything to you before you left. All he could do was think about you during the car ride to his place, even with another girl in his arms all he did was think about you. The entire time, he kept wishing she was you. But even with his best efforts, it was so difficult to get through to you. Every time it seems like you like him, he does something to fuck it up. But, god. He wants you so badly, so he’ll keep trying until his interest subsides. His little “fascination” with you has been particularly concerning because it’s never taken him this long to get with a girl. You in lab yelling at him, calling him stupid, getting shy every time he flirted with you, even getting bold lately. No one was like you in any way to Mingi. No one was as fun as you were to him, even the way you insulted him was amazing. It turned him on. He loves when you lecture him in lab. No matter how hard Mingi tried to deny it, it was just different with you. He himself was still trying to figure out what he felt towards you. All he knew was that he loved everything about you: your face, your body, your voice, the way you’re always so on top of everything, he just wants to see you on top of him. So he’s been secretly trying to spend more time with you. He even showed up to a fucking extra credit lecture because he thought you’d be there. Lo and behold, you were there, eyes trained on the slideshow, taking notes or doing homework, whatever you did. He loved how you were so smart, it was so attractive to him. Always so focused on school or an assignment, he loved it. But you don’t make it easy for him, you’re so difficult. You always fight him which is why he really disliked you at the beginning of lab. But, as time went on you’re all he thinks about and he loves fighting with you. He was making progress with you but his little distraction definitely has him starting at square one again because you were not a forgiving woman. He can’t wait for the day he has you under him whining his name but for now he’ll settle for your “shut up Mingi”. He loves a challenge and that’s exactly what you were.

[clownakai]

Have you assigned any more Dr. Who episodes to DetCo characters PLEASE I need an update. I'll explode

Fjsjgjd I haven't had as much time to do it as I would have liked (exams season </3) but I do have a couple ideas pinned down I think... Here we go :3

- Sonoko would appreciate Midnight methinks :) she does like dragging Ran to supposedly haunted locations for fun(?????) and if that's not a horror junkie idk what is. The inherent horror of a creature you cannot see + banger soundtracks and an angsty ending with a small reprise of the episode's scary gimmick and how the Doctor can't bear to hear it again??? Hello??? She'd love it tbh

- Conan watches The God Complex one (1) time and gets massively fucked up about it for a while because hello. He's just like the Doctor, isn't he? "Trust me/believe in my skills/I'll find a way to win/wait for me", over and over and over, and the same faith others put in him is what puts them in danger. The promises he makes always have a chance of ringing empty and he does fail to save people. He's no hero, you know

- Haibara would be taken a lot by Turn Left I think. Something about what could have been had a single choice been different, and how that's never a guarantee things would be better anyway. Yes the point of the episode is to highlight how fundamental Donna and the Doctor meeting is for the sake of the universe, but I think Shiho is exactly the kind of person who would add her own spin to it nonetheless

- Shuuichi, as I mentioned, would resonate a lot with the Doctor in Heaven Sent. Something about grief and a new goal intertwining, and the fact that the mystery that needs solving takes over everything else while still remaining entrenched in the Doctor's inability to give up on Clara. The confession dial— something used to pass on peacefully, to lay your regrets to eternal rest— becoming a prison to escape from because that's what the Doctor has been doing their entire life. They run from their mistakes and their regrets and their grief. Four and a half billion years. I'm insane

[final-girl96]

Killer Geek Chapter Forty-Six

Randy had left about an hour ago. He offered to stay, but I told him I’d be fine. I wasn’t. But I couldn’t keep clinging to him every second. He needed a break from all this, and honestly—I needed to prove to myself that I wasn’t going to completely fall apart.

I hadn’t moved from my bed much since he left. I’d been pretending to do homework, highlighting the same sentence in my textbook over and over until the neon yellow was practically glowing off the page.

The room was too quiet.

It always was now.

Everyone who had been assigned to live with me had requested transfers. No one wanted to room with the “killer’s sister.” So I had the whole dorm to myself—lucky me.

Eventually, I stood and walked over to the window. I wasn’t sure what I expected to see. Maybe campus security doing rounds, students cutting across the courtyard. Normal stuff.

Instead, my breath caught in my throat.

There, standing across the street under the halo of a flickering lamppost, was a figure.

Not just any figure.

Ghostface.

He was just standing there—perfectly still, the long black robe barely swaying with the breeze, the white mask tilted slightly up toward my window like he knew exactly where to look.

I froze. My heart stopped. I couldn’t breathe.

I blinked, hard, thinking maybe my exhausted brain was playing tricks on me. But when I looked again, he was still there.

Still staring.

Still waiting.

I stumbled back from the window, hands shaking.

He wasn’t moving.

He didn’t have to.

Because the message was clear.

I see you.

I backed away from the window, my chest rising and falling too fast. I wasn’t imagining things. He was there. Watching. Waiting.

Then the phone rang.

I jumped so hard I nearly screamed.

It rang again. And again.

I turned toward it slowly, staring at the old landline on my nightstand like it was a loaded gun. The screen read: Unknown Caller.

My blood ran cold.

I didn’t want to pick it up.

But I couldn’t not pick it up.

With a trembling hand, I lifted the receiver and held it to my ear. “Hello?”

A long pause. I could hear breathing. That same, slow, deliberate kind I remembered from the woods.

Then the voice came.

That voice.

Mocking. Sharp. Cold as ice.

“You’ve broken the number one rule, YN.”

I didn’t speak. Couldn’t.

“Don’t you remember the rules?” the voice drawled.

My mouth was dry. “What the hell do you want from me?”

A low chuckle.

“To remind you,” he hissed…

A pause. Then he started to list them off, each word slow and deliberate, like he was savoring the fear bleeding from my skin.

“Never have sex…”

My breath hitched. My chest burned.

“Never drink or do drugs…”

I gripped the phone tighter, my knuckles whitening.

“And never, ever, under any circumstances… say, ‘I’ll be right back.’”

He let out a dark, amused chuckle. “You remember now, don’t you? The rules. The ones your little boyfriend Randy knows so well.”

I felt like I couldn’t breathe.

“But guess what?” he continued, voice sharpening, “this isn’t the original anymore. We’re in the sequel now, sweetheart.”

My stomach dropped.

“And in sequels… there are new rules.”

I stood, moving toward the window, but part of me didn’t want to see if he was still out there.

“Rule number one,” he hissed. “The body count is always bigger.”

I swallowed hard.

“Rule number two… the death scenes? Always more elaborate. More blood. More gore. I want to hear you scream, YN.”

Tears welled in my eyes, but I refused to let them fall.

“And rule number three,” he whispered, voice like poison. “If you want your little horror story to become a franchise… never, ever, assume the killer is dead.”

Click.

The dial tone buzzed in my ear, a cold hum of finality.

My hand dropped the phone before I even realized it, my body moving like it wasn’t mine. I turned back toward the window, dread twisting in my gut.

And there he was.

Standing across the street, shrouded in darkness.

Ghostface.

Not moving.

Not waving.

Just watching.

I blinked and—he was gone.

My heart was thudding so hard it hurt. The kind of fear that doesn’t just sit in your chest—it spreads, like venom in your bloodstream. I stared at the spot where he had just been, willing him to reappear so I could convince myself it was just my imagination.

But nothing moved.

Not the trees.

Not the shadows.

Not even the wind.

The silence outside was louder than anything.

I backed away from the window slowly, barely breathing, afraid even the sound of my footsteps might bring him back. My heel bumped the edge of my bed, and I sank down onto it like my legs had finally given up pretending they could hold me.

Ghostface was back.

And he knew where I was.

I glanced toward the phone still lying on the carpet. I should call someone—Randy, the police, anyone—but my fingers refused to move. What was I even supposed to say? “Hi, yeah, the man who stalked and tried to kill me before is outside my window dressed like death itself. Again.”

They’d think I was being paranoid. Dramatic.

“It’s just a movie costume.”

“You’ve been through a lot, YN.”

“Maybe it’s time to talk to someone.”

No. I knew what I saw. I felt him. That same twisted presence I felt when he chased me through the woods. The same one I swore I’d never forget, no matter how many years passed.

And now he was here.

I curled in on myself, dragging the blanket off the bed and around my shoulders. It felt childish, but it was the only thing keeping me from shaking apart.

I sat like that for what felt like forever—eyes on the window, body tense, breath shallow.

And somewhere in the quiet, I whispered to myself:

“He’s back.”

And this time, I didn’t think I was getting out untouched.

“You broke the number one rule.”

That's what he said.

Rule number One, never have sex.

I broke that rule. I broke it with Randy.

But do I really believe in those rules?

This isn't a movie. It's real life. Those rules aren't real…right? I mean, if Randy really believed they were…he wouldn't have…No, stop that.

Randy would hurt me.

He could never… but there have been a lot of weird things he's said… done.

I shake my head. No, I'm just being paranoid. My brain is conjuring up anything it can. Randy wouldn't even hurt a fly.

[tonks-ted]

Starter for: Malcolm Parkinson @themalcolmparkinson Where: one of his buildings When: afternoon

Malcolm Parkinson was on Ted's radar. Truthfully, he'd never left it, not since Parkinson Sr had been imprisoned. Ted had been a Junior Auror at that point, only marginally involved in the case against him. But it had been his first case, and he had a morbid fondness for the whole thing, recalling every detail with the sated attention of a Ravenclaw who'd just consumed a bowl full of delicious knowledge. So when the name crossed his desk again, he took the assignment for himself. Months had passed. His case file had grown. He was convinced that Malcolm was involved in something shady - for once, a mere basic criminality rather than the usual wartime horrors. In a strange way, it was almost refreshing to be dealing with something that only involved gold, not blood, gore and torture.

Nonetheless, he wasn't sure what exactly was going on. He had his suspicions, but they were not yet proven. It was very difficult to track financial wrongdoings when people were stinking rich and gold was physical coins. Still, he deemed it time to visit Parkinson for a friendly little chat. So after trailing him for a week or so, here he was, after having gained an idea of his movements. It was an odd building. Not much in it, bare and with a distinct odour that betrayed the fact that there were not many windows.

Pausing on the threshold, he knocked, waited a moment, then spoke. "Hello, Mister Parkinson." A brief smile, without friendliness. This was professional and nothing more. "Do you have a few moments for Ministry business?"

[good-vs-evo]

fenglian coded songs!

because i'm actually so ill about them </3 plus this gives flashbacks to those english assignments in high school where you'd choose songs based on a piece of literature and explain ur choices... wait u didnt. u didnt do that. uh. moving along.

time to expose my mildly terrible music taste HSDGFH

boy by isaac dunbar!

"if only we were right, seasoned with time" god. they were right person, wrong time vibes genuinely it makes me so insane to think about. i love hualian dearly, ofc, but fenglian has such a special place in my heart because just think about everything they shared and everything they did and everything feng xin sacrificed for xie lian that xl was too young and too hurt to see

"if i were homesick, you're remedy-wired / picking up herbs in the morning time / i'd wait for something more" hello? already heavy on the pining vibes, plus i love the fenglian "you are my home" vibes... sobs... fx would take care of xl to the end

tell her by bruno major!

just like. listen to it as a love letter from xl to fx...

"still she will come back around / nothing could shake her / repeat or replace her / i've finally figured that out", xl realizing how much he always needed fx, xl realizing that he was perfectly loyal but xl was too scared

"tell her she's more than i dreamed i would find / she's always there in the back of my mind / if you should see her, ask her if we'll work it out" fx was literally so perfect you don't understand dies loudly... and he definitely left a lasting impact on xl forever

leaving the last two lines for of the song as a surprise if you haven't heard it yet and you decided to give it a listen, i promise it'll be great :]

lover's rock by tv girl!

"because love can burn like a cigarette / and leave you with nothing" i have. no more to say. just. that's everything i have to say about this i could talk sm more but that's what i want to leave it at

dear my all by mingginyu!

this one's in korean, so allow me to be your terrible translator (genuinely my korean skills are so bad nobody ever taught me so let's see if i can cook) (alternatively, use google translate)

"you can tell me everything, all your secrets / i'll never hurt you again" xl to fx, telling him that he can lean on him and promising o be better this time <3

"you're allowed to rest, you've been running for so long / it's okay to blame the things that have hurt you" fx to xl, telling him that's entitled to peace and happiness after everything he's been through

i tried google translating some of this because i didn't know if mine made sense but aughhh i can't explain it but the translations on google are all... awkward? i can't tell if it's just the context of the way my family speaks korean and the way i've come to understand the use of certain words but either way i'll leave it at that SDHFGJSD

late again by peter manos!

"yesterday came and went / you are my closest friend / i'll never understand / don't want you to see me cry / even though i've seen you cry" they truly were. pretty good friends despite the way their relationship formed. they would've had a much better relationship if they weren't prince and servant but whatever that's still a trope HSDGF so we take that W. they both seem like they'd struggle a bit to be vulnerable with each other but slowly grow more comfortable and that makes me so soft

"i wanna tell you everything is alright / begging you to tell me everything is alright" this one makes me lose it. the first one gives xl vibes (wanting to tell fx that he's okay and he's sorry and things worked out okay) and the second is fx vibes (wanting to know that xl is okay, regretting leaving even though xl told him to leave, wanting to know he's safe)

untitled v.2 by cavetown!

i'm literally never gonna be free from cavetown getting associated with media i'm into am i

"i know my hands aren't warm enough to hold your cold, cold heart" fx feeling like a failure when it came to being able to save xl from The Horrors

"and i know my bones aren't strong enough to keep me from falling apart" both of them fr, they were going through it like crazy. they were constantly on the brink of collapse. someone send some help

"and did you know that every night i play your favourite songs on repeat? it helps me sleep" i think. when they were separated for so many years, they kept reminders of the other around with them. for a little bit of bittersweet comfort

back to you by flower face!

"don't fight back / don't look at me like that / don't forget I'll never quite forgive you / but i'll pretend to" okay but xl realistically thinks nobody will ever forgive him. he would eternally believe that fx holds things against him aughguhaguuhguh angst has me in a chokeholdd

"how will I release you now? / how can I forgive myself when I'm still in love with you?" yeah. pining and separted fenglian keeps me up at night can u tell lmao

"and it's always back to you again / always back to you, my friend" because it really is always back to them! time and time again it's back to them, the two of them together again in differently painful situations and it makes me die inside

i am a world class yapper, please forgive me </3 i also went hard on the angst i just i love my ships a lil angsty (<- writes fluff 80% of the time)

also i didn't forget abt the role jian lan played in fx's life during the time when xl was banished and struggling! this is just focused on only xl and fx's relationship during those times. besides, a lot of signs indicate that fx loved them both dearly, and it hurt a lot to lose them both.

[pseudowho]

Hello again Haitch!

Weirdly enough, with my classes and assignments and other work, I completely forgot to tell you about the hilarious tragedy that my last weekend’s movie outing was.

So I was out and about with my brother. We had went shopping at the mall (he had been saving up for something, so I was mainly accompanying him) by the time we were done, I was hangry and moody (I do not like shopping😭) so while we had dinner, I had this idea of watching a movie, which I had wanted to for quite sometime.

Now my brother wasn’t very keen, because he was tired and it was already getting late (10:30pm). But like the stubborn woman I am (and I pulled the “I accompanied you on your shopping, now you gotta watch the movie with me” card on him) I managed to convince him.

We went in, bought the tickets, settled in our seats, and just when they began the previews, I started searching for my glasses in my purse. And to my utter horror, I realized I had forgotten them at home🤡

After all that bickering with my brother, I was kinda feeling prideful to admit that I should’ve checked prior to buying the tickets if I was carrying my glasses or not.

He was so done, when he noticed me subtly squinting at the screen, because I couldn’t see it clearly (do you know the feeling of removing your glasses in a 3d movie and the way the screen appears? All blurry? That’s my default vision without my glasses🥲)

Exasperatedly we sacrificed our good seats (which were somewhere at the top) and went so many rows down just so I can see something when I watch the movie.

Even so it was a struggle, but I was laugh crying on the inside all the time, because on top of that the movie turned out to be a mega bore fest. And it was three hours long. I was fighting off sleep by the middle of it. And we were both amused by the fact that the entire audi was empty, and we were the only ones watching it.

Us being the completionists we are, we watched the entire thing til the end and went home around 2:30 am. Bickering all the way home 😂

Now he will never let me live it down. Just today he cheekily reminded me to carry my glasses lest I’ll squint like a grandma(his words)

(He’s six years younger than me but likes to behave like he is the older one)

If your vision is that bad, madam, why are you not wearing glasses all the time?

Or have you, like, seen enough?

I'm on your brothers' side here. If anyone suggested I go and see a three hour long movie at 22:30, I'd block them on everything.

Mug (affectionately).

Love,

-- Haitch xxx

[e-larkspur]

; intro :) !

Hi hello! My name is Larkspur, and I write. I have this goal of being a published author before I'm twenty. So, getting back into the swing of school, living on my own for the first time, and consistently writing, I've decided to uproot a little digital diary for myself. Wish me luck. ~ Larkspur -- Wanna read the hook for Disomus? Lucky you! It's right here! This is that horrible little book I'm sinking half my time into writing nowadays. I'd love any and all feedback on how this actually sounds as a media, so any interaction is appreciated ! Tysm <33 --

In a world where the supernatural has long since been proven real, strange dreams are not uncommon. But they’re fixed easy; Figure out who is contacting you and why, do their bidding, and sleep peacefully until something else comes along. Simple.

But not for Dr. Cain Angevin. He was being stalked–he was sure of it.

There was a difference between insanity and indignation. Dr. Angevin was sure he had felt both. Plagued by dreams of a being he swore he was never meant to perceive, followed by omens he knows It sent, and believed by absolutely no-one.

The top scientist in an organization dedicated to studying the strange can’t find help within his own ranks. So, like any good man of his faith, he was going to have to find another way.

40°11'39.9"N 105°42'07.6"W

The exact coordinates of Dr. Cain Angevin’s newest assignment. Track, study, and capture Anomaly 491915132119. And do it before his would-be admirer catches up with him.

Easy. He’d been through worse. ~ DISOMUS is an amalgam of horror, poetry, and the occasional eldritch romance. Inspired heavily by media like Jeffery Cranor and Joseph Fink’s Welcome to Night Vale, Alex Hisch’s Gravity Falls, and Harlan Ellison’s I HAVE NO MOUTH AND I MUST SCREAM, I seek to convey something truly and utterly terrifying. 

She’s sitting pretty with 135ish poems at the moment, 6,500ish words, and plenty of real-world locations, documents, and ciphers to uncover. I have a soft spot for anything that blurs the line between real life and fiction, and my ultimate goal is to push those boundaries as much as I can, while still creating a plot that sinks its filthy claws into readers. ~ Thank you again if you've read this far, and I'm so excited to finally start publicizing this batshit story <33

[mercwiththem0uth]

Agh, hi, i love your drabbles! i've read every single one so i know you've already covered it a bit, but i would love to read something about caring for an emotionally distraught Ross, on account of all the being called worthless scum who'll never amount to anything everyday. What do you think? 💜

hi!! thank you for your kind words about my work and for your request - i would love to do this for you! i wasn't entirely sure how you'd like this to be written, so i've gone for ross x gender neutral reader. i hope this is okay! let me know what you think and i hope you enjoy :)

p.s, i do have other inboxes/requests which i will reply to as soon as possible! i'm not ignoring anyone! <3

---

Ross Gaines - "Worthless Scum"

Summary: [Ross x GNreader] Ross gradually becomes worn down by Pauline's relentless bullying, and seeks comfort in the arms of his favourite person.

The look on his face as he entered through the front door to our shared apartment almost ripped my heart in two. His eyes, once bright and full of wisdom, now dull and sad. His mouth, soft lips normally smirking or twitching with intense interest, now down-turned in a melancholy frown. His face, usually so clean and smooth to the touch, now tainted with smears of dried blood, and roughened due to weeks of tiring work and pain.

This had seemed to get progressively worse over the past week or so. When he was first assigned the job of investigating a restart officer at the local job centre, neither of us imagined what horrors he would return home with every night. It started with simple, belittling comments and rude remarks from the woman he called 'Pauline', but with each passing day he'd start showing up with random bruises and telling me heinous stories of being beaten and physically attacked.

Of course I was horrified, I had begged him to report her, or at least refuse to continue working until she was fired. But Ross was stubborn, he always had been. Especially when it came to his job.

It was only a few evenings ago that he had come glumly walking into the apartment, his expression laced with unusual sadness. I was stood cooking for the two of us and expected him to give me a usual 'hello' kiss, but instead he glanced at me with a weak smile and walked straight to the shower, sighing heavily as he went. When he reappeared to eat dinner, I had tried asking him if he was okay, but he just nodded his head and changed the subject. Our evening meal was usually one of the favourite parts of our day, getting to finally spend time together and catch eachother up about our day. But this particular evening, it was quiet. He usually doused in my home-cooked meals, but he barely ate anything this night, pushing it around with his cutlery. As we cleaned up, I tried again to see what was wrong, but he dismissed me and said he just needed an early night, before taking himself to bed.

It was very strange behaviour for Ross. And this carried on up until today. I gasped aloud at the sight of him, immediately rushing towards him and placing my hands on his arms. "My god, Ross! Please... tell me what's going on" I could barely whisper as my eyes examined him, riddled with anxiety and dread as I couldn't wait any longer to find out what had been bothering my significant other.

I watched as he opened his mouth to speak, but stopped as no words came out, only a broken squeak. Hot tears immediately filled his eyes as he shook his head, falling limp as I pulled him into a bone-crushing hug. We stayed still for a while, allowing him to cry into my neck as my hands rubbed soothingly against his back and across his hair. I had never really seen Ross cry before. He had always been very selfless with his feelings and didn't communicate them much with me - apart from the things he deemed important. He was a very headstrong man, extremely patient too, so seeing him so distraught almost made me break down along with him.

When the sobbing had quietened, I held him at an arms length and gently wiped the stray tears away, trying to read his face for answers. "Talk to me, baby." We didn't use pet names very often, but this felt necessary. He sighed and lowered his head, looking at the floor for a moment. "Let's sit down" I said gently, leading him to the sofa and perching next to him. He took a shaky breath as I held one of his hands in mine.

"It's Pauline..."

He went on about how awful the past week had been. He didn't think that she could get any worse than she already had been, but he was wrong. The beatings, the insults...

"It must be true," he wailed, fresh tears falling as he continued to talk, "I'm obviously not good enough. I'll never amount to anything." I couldn't believe the words I was hearing. I was baffled, to put it simply. I shuffled closer to him, wrapping my arm around his back.

"Ross... You are the smartest man I've ever met. You don't seriously believe any of that?"

I felt his shoulders raise and fall again with a dismissive shrug. "Being an internal investigator isn't much, is it?" His voice was angry, but he spoke so gently, almost as if he was questioning the very words out of his own mouth and was asking if I agreed or not.

"That's not true. I know you don't even believe that." I squeezed his shoulders as I spoke. "It's a really interesting job, you're so good at it. And you love it, which is all that matters anyway."

He shook his head with a whisper. "Not anymore." My heart broke hearing him admit that. Ross has always been a workaholic, he has stated to me many times that before our relationship, all he knew was working, work, and even more work. And now he's falling out of love with his job? Pauline should be grateful that I don't know what she looks like, otherwise she'd be getting a hard slap.

"Oh, Ross" I sighed, pulling him into me for another hug, tears still pouring from his eyes, wetting my shirt. "No matter what you do from here, whatever you decide is best for you, I will always be so proud of you. I love you so much." I felt his head raise as he tilted to look up at me, eyes glistening. I stroked against his hair and pushed his glasses back up the bridge of his nose where they had slipped, "You have always done me so proud. And you should be proud of yourself too. For everything. Don't you dare listen to whatever Pauline has said, you're a very successful man with the biggest heart, and I'm so lucky to love you."

I reached to grab a tissue from the coffee table and dabbed it under his eyes.

"I'm so lucky to be loved by you" he choked out in a whisper.

I smiled before laying down onto the sofa and extending my arms up towards him, welcoming him in for a cuddle. He curled into me, his head on my chest, letting me pepper small kisses all over his forehead. Some time had passed, and I was sure he had fallen asleep. My own eyes were getting heavy, and it was only until he mumbled my name that I realised he was still awake.

"Hmm?" I hummed, tilting my head down to look at him.

"Thank you." He murmured, reaching for my hand to press a small kiss to my knuckle.

When I didn't say anything, he turned his head to make eye contact with me. "What?"

I stayed quiet for a moment, allowing myself to think. "Please don't feel like you have to hide anything from me ever again. I'll always want to help you." I spoke sweetly but firmly, making sure he knew I was being serious.

With a small nod of his head, I smiled at him and leaned down towards him for a kiss. He puckered his lips and closed his eyes in anticipation, but opened them again when nothing happened. His brows furrowed in confusion as he stared at me inches away from his face, "What's wrong?"

"You've still got blood all over your nose" I chuckled, grabbing him by the hand and leading him towards the bathroom to clean him up.

[straybaddog06]

Hello! I saw your izuleo as shinaya posts and I got curious on why you think they are similar? I always thought Leo was the most similar to shintaro and wasnt very similar to ayano so I wanted to know about your view!

Hi!!

First of all I’m very sorry it took me a while to get back to you, I love these characters and wanted to make sure I could cite and explain my reasoning well since I have put a lot of thought into this which included rereading so much content. I’ve also been fairly busy this month which got in the way of things lmao

Secondly, I am so interested in how you view them, I can kind of see/understand your Shintaro assignment. They do have some similarities but I’m curious to see you explain it!

I am assuming you’ve seen the entire project but I am going to reference everything I can just in case. I know you mainly asked about Ayano/Leo but I do need to touch up on Shintaro/Sena due to their narrative ties.

P.S: The TL’s used and cited are

Maluridae: Lionheart

Royalquintet: Blue Filament, Requiem

Kageyama8: Duel

Kagepro wiki: Additional memory, Toumei Answer, Old Day’s

The official english kagepro TLs (there are issues with these however they’re easier to cite)

Their narrative role’s

Within the Narrative Ayano and Leo(at first) are introduced to us as characters who haunt the narrative.

Leo

Within Enstars ! Era Leo is gone for the most part, he doesn’t get return until around the end of summer. While he’s not dead per say the way he’s spoken about in game and in lionheart before his return is like a sore thumb. He’s not here, he may never come back as far as they’re aware but they go on waiting for his return. Leo is the heart of Knights in its writing, they never feel whole without him, they manage to get on their feet again when Tsukasa joins them but Tsukasa isn’t Leo, he can’t fill the gap he left.

While Anzu acts as an audience stand in as she’s supposed to be us and represent us, Tsukasa acts as a great voice of the audience. Like Tsukasa we do not know who Leo is, we’ve never met him or knew him before we know even less than what Tsukasa has heard as well. In a way it could be easy for a reader be swept up into their beliefs. Tsukasa idolises Leo in his head and has an impression of what kind of person he is.

Within duel Naru say’s “Since our leader isn’t here, we’ve become carefree and self indulgent” this implies he was the kind of person who would wrangle the other three into order regardless of their individualism. Not to mention if you look up to a group of people and they talk about someone who’s their leader in what looks like a good light you tend to respect them. Add being called a king for a traditional medieval themed unit and you can just imagine what kind of person they are.

And even when Leo does return, he still haunts the narrative, more specifically Sena’s narrative. A lot of Sena’s writing when it involves him does revolve around Sena’s guilt and his perception of Leo as a person. During the start of Leo’s return Rebellion/Horror night Sena reflects how he doesn’t know what kind of person Leo is now and in the latter how he’s afraid to get close to him in case he hurts him again. This comes to ahead in Requiem and Gambit, for example in Requiem during Leo’s outburst he says “Weren’t you always a nice guy who’d never hurt anyone? Wait, no… I was the one who made you like this, so do you want me to apologize?”

Here we see part of how sena views him, a lot of the way he views Leo is shaped by their first two years together. Which is fair it makes sense, but with how there’s a clear divide between them that doesn’t start to close till towards the end of Halloween and more so Requiem, it does feel like idolisation. Especially with how Sena uses “weren’t you” instead of “aren’t you” because it’s weird, weren’t you is past tense it would have made more sense except Sena as stated in rebellion feels like he doesn’t know him very well anymore (understandably) and accepts that Leo telling their groupmates to go die is normal for the Leo that exists in present day.

Lionheart goes on before this with quotes like:

“Our youth became riddled with cracks. It's broken now, and its purity has been lost. That precious radiancy only exists in the past now, and he chose to be buried with it.” And “He was pure like a child, and played those melodies of love with goodwill and passion; I didn't really hate those songs of his. In fact, I actually liked them quite a bit.”

Using terms like “purity” and “radiancy” displays how highly he views that time. How to him he was happiest and it was something he may feel like he’d taken for granted. He calls Leo “pure like a child” someone who has no ill will, who holds no malice, naive to the dangers and pains of the world. Again he uses past tense because after the war he no longer is that pure vision of him.

“Because there was one person who existed who told me that he liked me — who called me beautiful. Because, even if it was only a moment, a part of my youth existed in my life... where I was affirmed and loved to the point where I was able to think that I was glad to be born.” It’s no wonder he feels the way he does when Sena expresses to no one but himself how much he felt cherished that he was happy to be alive. There was once someone so pure and innocent who showered him love and affection, someone who made him feel good about himself. Yet now as far as Sena is aware those days are dead, that person who loved him unconditionally once died by his own hand.

Ayano

As for Ayano she’s dead before all the media’s begin and haunts every route, even manga2 due to how it’s set up.

Ayano’s death has personally affected every dan related character except for like Hibiya, this is because most characters knew her personally. Mary doesn’t move in until post Ayano’s death, Hiyori is her aunt and Momo had met her before plus she’s shintaros sister. Hiyori is more impacted by Ayaka’s death than Ayano’s but Hiyori is a whole can of missed potential.

Shintaro is a neet because of her death, and yes Takane/Haruka disappearances have some impact he’s more impacted by Ayano’s death. Partially, Shintaro wallows in his grief and can’t get himself to do anything if it’s not for Ene pulling him out and distracting him. Part of this could be taken from how he believes it is his fault she died however with manga2 we know this kind of thing would have probably happened regardless due to Haruka’s death. However I have reason to believe manga2 shintaro would never have gotten as bad as he did in Route XX since Haruka died of natural causes due to his condition while Ayano as far as Shintaro is aware was struggling mentally and then actively said it was his fault. Shintaro saw her crying as evidenced in Toumei answer mv and did nothing.

Her lack of presence has affected most of the cast but more than that there’s how she’s introduced to people. Ignoring the manga, the novels introduce her in novel 2, this is the standard Takane backstory that’s in the three main story formats we learn who Ene is and Who this random guy at the end of novel 1 is and how Haruka is Konoha. We know the full quartet at this point but we haven’t met Ayano in the present. We have no idea what happened to her but she is out of the picture. Ayano is seen as a cute ditzy girl. She’s not the most bold or confident but she’s sweet.

Shintaro gets haunted by Yaki in novel 3 as she tries to get Shintaro to remember the past timelines before he wakes up to Kano in the room. While Kano is trying to get out of the situation he turns into Ayano and says “Then, why didn’t you save me?” “Hey, answer me shintaro. Could it be that you’ve forgotten about me?” “Fine. Goodbye Shintaro. Be happy.”

With shintaros monologue saying things like:

“The thoughts I’ve been thinking for years were trying to spill out, but I couldn’t form them into words. In the end I couldn’t say anything. Ayano didn’t wait for me. And just like that day, I couldn’t tell her anything.”

And

“Was this punishment? Was this punishment for me, who didn’t listen to that person and couldn’t lend her a hand?”

This shows to us something has obviously happened to her, how it’s had a huge effect on both Shintaro and Kano even if we haven’t seen all the details yet. Shintaro is grieving, he has things he wishes he could have told her after years of mourning, he reflects how he may have been able to do something to save her had he just done something instead of just standing by. We also get a sense that Kano hates Shintaro with the whole turning into a dead person and clearly holding a grudge against him.

Personalities and relationships

Ayano

Ayano is shown in a fairly positive light in the novels and the manga. She has her flaws but no one really has any bad opinions on her, everyone loves her. She’s cheerful and optimistic, sure she’s awful academically but it’s fine, most people suck. She was excited to become an older sister, showing her siblings the unconditional love and support they’d been robbed of prior.

There’s also something you could say about how quickly Ayano was to decide to effectively kill herself for her siblings and friends. Is it death if you don’t truly die but enter an alternative dimension? There’s no way to truly guarantee it would have worked and she was still jumping off her school roof. She was only a 16 year old girl. A child finding out that after her mother died, her father is only alive because he was possessed by an evil snake and because he was possessed by an evil snake her best friends and siblings are all going to die. As far as she’s aware too there’s no way for her to get out of this with no one dying. Desperate, she goes to kano for help because like god can you blame her? She’s a child dealing with this, and there’s no one she can even go to due to it being supernatural. She doesn’t tell him everything either because how can she? She’s not telling her brother she’s going to jump off the school roof for everyone.

I love Additional Memory and Manga2, they deconstruct her character so beautifully. To start with Additional Memory is more aligned with the typical timeline we’re aware of that happens in the other routes, through the lyrics but also partially the music video, we see her more ugly emotions. It makes her feel so much more real than plastic.

For Additional memory, the song details Ayano’s feelings after she jumps into the daze.

The lyrics at first mention how she sees her life flashing before her eyes, how everything has come to end. She’ll never get to grow up and have a normal life with the people she loves.

She’s staring at a tv replaying past memories. Her feelings towards Shintaro become apparent but instead of saying anything, she does not. She loves him but is a coward and keeps it to herself. As she dies her feelings are stripped away, melting and rotting because Ayano is dead. While the feelings may remain, to society she is dead and that’s what everyone will believe forever more.

Ayano never wanted to die, she wanted to grow up with her friends and family. All of her feelings go with her to her grave, she’ll never get to give them to Shintaro. Instead all of her feelings will be swallowed by the daze as she dies, never to be heard by anyone.

One of the key lyrics within the song is “My true feelings melted in a story where proof I lived is forbidden” and its sister lyric “My remaining feelings are a story where ‘happiness’ is forbidden” Breadbox/ David has a decent analysis video on the song, where he suggests the idea that: Ayano is lying to herself in the first half and honest in the latter.

Saying her feelings melted is like saying: The feelings I had for shintaro do not exist in a living world where I failed to reach out to him. When it comes to the sister lyric it reads as though if we take away her romantic feelings towards Shintaro, everything she wanted to do and everything she felt & went through all exists in a life/story where she’ll throw herself off the roof for those she cares about. She’ll never live past being 16 in her first year of high school.

In jin’s 15/8th livestream in 2018 just before additional memory’s release, Jin said that “Ayano has a so-called gentle girl image, but she also bears these kinds of feelings” which is so true! Compare additional memory to Ayano’s theory of happiness and it really is like night and day.

When it comes to Manga2 it gets a bit different, as this is a timeline set before every other single piece of media. It’s the earliest one we’ve seen if it’s not the first. Even if it’s set up after manga1, manga1 has it orchestrated so it’s Shintaro remembering.

I love how they introduce us to her by her ominously standing there looking at Hibiya like: “I’m a monster c:<“ in fact she calls everyone with an eye power a monster. First of all it gives us all a go ahead that something is not right with Ayano even if the manga is your introduction the earlier volumes in manga1 has Ayano during the yuukei yesterday portion who is a lot more normal in comparison. I think it’s interesting if you’re familiar with the music route before this point than you’ll be aware of how in Ayano’s theory of happiness in the lyrics and mv Seto cries that he’s a monster and Ayano tries to assure him/Kano/Kido that those red eyes are heroic.

One thing to note is from a young age she was worried sick about her siblings, something could easily happen to them! Who knows what but they or someone could get hurt because of them. And then she, Mary and their parents get caught in that landslide trying to research Mary’s eye powers. Ayano is forced to watch the shit show of Azami’s life on repeat, through favouring eyes which conveys all the emotions and generally it is believed Azami had a wider handle on the powers than the dan. Not to mention Ayano was like 15 at the time, no child should ever have to go through that, it’s no wonder she had completely lost it blaming Mary and saying she needed to die to save her siblings. Three years later she still is contemplating it because to her there is no other exit to save the people she loves.

She’s also forever stuck in a however long series of time loops watching how everyone around her dies and being unable to communicate or get any sort of closure.

While in the other routes she’s very sweet, manga2 is a little more snarky. She’s willing to tease Shintaro about showing him Azami’s memories and make him lose his appetite like Hibiya. She also didn’t want anything to do with him since to her he wasn’t involved with the power’s situation. She generally comes off as more competent and smart in contrast as well. She really does feel like a different person than other Ayano’s post Mary moving in.

Now within the Old Days voice drama from the Daze/Days single it features a version of how Ayano and Shintaro meet as at the end of the manga there’s a different version of this. Ayano had fell asleep while doing make up work and Shintaro had forgotten his wallet. During this Ayano kinda just begs him to tutor her where he agrees. This is the start of their friendship, Ayano is really pushy and seems to like him quite a bit while Shintaro was monologuing about how everyone around him is fake and stupid and actually he’s not bothered to make relationships. It’s like extremely evident middle school shintaro had a lot of issues.

Shintaro also goes on to tell Ayano as they’re parting ways “It’s not all just good things. Even if I want to forget or don’t like it, I end up remembering everything. I always worry about insignificant things. It’s a pain in the ass.”

And she responds with: “Huh? Oh, no, I was thinking if Shintaro-kun can’t forget the bad things, it would be nice if there were lots of good things that’ll happen to you so it’ll outbalance the bad things. If that happens, then you won’t really think about all the bad things, right?”

She already likes him, which doesn’t seem hard for her but is already being considerate. While Shin is an ass and has been rude towards her she’s apologised when she didn’t need to but also asked him to tutor her and he agrees.

You know like Shintaro said that he can’t help but think about bad things and Ayano’s first thought really is: I want to be his friend and make him happy.

We see an extension of this in Toumei answer’s mv and lyrics. Toumei answer details the middle school and high school relationship Shintaro has with Ayano. It’s from Shintaro’s perspective and it gives us a good idea about him. He’s depressed, his intelligence just makes school boring, we know from old days he can’t stand his classmates and manga2 gives us more of an understanding of how closed off he is (partially as manga2 is very different but some things still carry over between routes)

During the first half of the song it’s focused on their middle school years. Within the mv we have Ayano giving shintaro a paper crane with a smile during the lyrics “If that’s the case, then hey, that’s pretty boring” Saying that, you always seemed to be enjoying yourself

and Shintaro ripping up his test scores on the school roof only for Ayano to pull him back with her scarf happily during “At this rate, even if I die Someone else will just replace me” Just whispering that is foolish

We can understand more about their relationship through this. While Shintaro is being a sourpuss, she tries to cheer him up through small acts like making paper cranes and pulling him around with the scarf. The paper cranes are especially interesting because while it’s never been directly stated there is the popular myth that if you create 1000 cranes a myth will be granted. This is fairly on brand for kgpr, the snakes do grant dying wishes after all. Toumei answer implies this started before high school, possibly just because she could and it’s fun giving things to people. When it comes to cranes specifically they’re said to have a long life. At some point Ayano was aware she wouldn't have one herself but desperately wished she could save the ones she loved and let them be able to have a long life instead.

In the second half of the song Ayano has died and there isn’t as much to talk about her since this is a more of a Shintaro song with a lot of the analysis to be focused on him. Shintaro is mostly reflecting how he won’t forget about her including the small details even if other people do.

However, one thing to note is that this is the only route to show/depict Shintaro seeing Ayano crying and running away, this scene also shows up in Ayano’s theory of happiness and Konoha’s state of the world but Shintaro is not shown in those. So Shintaro saw her crying, he did not know why and never pushed further. To Shintaro if he had pushed then maybe she would still be alive because he’s a normal guy for the most part, to him she’s a normal girl so surely it must be more down to earth than an evil snake.

Leo

In conjunction Leo is carefree and bratty. He has a one track mind, he’ll compose to his heart desires regardless if that causes an inconvenience to someone because getting the idea from his inspiration is in most cases more important to him. He can get so absorbed into it that he doesn’t pay attention to what surrounds him or that he isn’t entirely absorbed and just decides he feels like ignoring someone. He writes on whatever regardless of what it is so he can compose and composes songs about people when he’s annoyed with them. He also has an awful habit of saying things, without thinking that can or has hurt other people even if he doesn’t mean to. Think before you speak? Some of the time.

At the same time Leo is incredibly kind. Leo falls in love with people easily and praises them as such. He says he loves people like it’s breathing. He’s not the kind to pointlessly praise however as he has said Sena’s singing was shit with no sugarcoating even though he loved his voice or like how in starfes Leo tells Tsukasa to shut up because they had a long day ahead of them.

In gambit Leo states that the king slayer members are just like him. Scared and alone they attached themselves to a strong weapon to try and make it through the day. That all Leo felt was anger and pain, wanting to get revenge for the hurt that they caused but to him regardless of their actions they aren’t so different in reality. Here Leo is like before admitting that yes while Sena was using him for his own benefit to make his dreams come true, Sena isn’t all to blame because Leo still chose to do everything.

He can come off as wise with some interesting insights, he’s been mentioned to talk with Shu about art and he mentions and references a wide array of different stories/rhymes ect. Although these can be usually swept up with everything else happening within the story, checkmate and canary are standouts within their stories as they play a large narrative role.

There’s a certain transience Leo has in ! Era as well, primarily this is prominent in Blue Filament/Fleur dis lis/Horror Night and Canary hall. He’s been away for so long and everyone has changed. Yumenosaki isn’t the place it used to be nor is Knights, the school to him is far more peaceful and his unit are all close to one another all of a sudden. Leo at this point is still struggling with his stage fright which he keeps mostly to himself as well as just hasn’t been back for very long.

In Blue Filament he says to Tsukasa: “You’re… not just picking on me ‘cause you hate me, right?”

“Hmm. I guess I got the wrong impression ‘cause you keep doing stuff I hate or I’m just not good with. Sorry about that. …Sorry, Newbie, you can go now.”

“Is it that important? I don’t get it… It’s just letters, just a word… But I guess I need to learn how to deal with that too. Yumenosaki’s gotten peaceful while I wasn’t looking, so the lower the possibility of hurting someone, the better.

I was waiting so long for that time to come, and yet…

It’s ironic. In this world, this age… It feels like I have no place.”

With everything that’s happened this kind of reaction is understandable, Tsukasa had a built up image of Leo inside his head that was crushed the moment they met. He was unbelievably excited to finally meet him during Leo’s 2nd sub story to the point of dragging Ritsu by his foot, only to be so blind sided by the kind of person Leo actually his and his “useless” he came off as. Then we have Blue Filament for example where Tsukasa went and dragged Leo who was trying to apologise away to do some jobs. Not to mention Rebellion where Tsukasa airs out more of his complaints.

Moreover by the writing in ! Era we see Leo whose been away for so long trying to reaccluimate between his return and Canary. He went through a lot and once he returned so much had happened that the whole atmosphere changed and shifted, it’s a lot to get used to especially after the mess that was his second year. You’ve been away for so long that you missed some important things especially with your friends, then it’s the place that once felt so suffocating and hostile suddenly feels a lot more peaceful where it’s easier to breathe. There’s also Leo’s stage fright as well and just how annoying it was to get him to preform lives pre-Halloween.

We don’t know the full details of Leo/Sena’s school life before the war and during the war other than what we see in checkmate, horror night and Lionheart. We know how they met with Sena singing awfully and Leo stumbling across him. It’s enough to guess that they were in their own little bubble for the most part, with Leo dragging Sena around. That’s the impression I got from them. Especially with for example how Naru would comment on how she never knew him well and how she would often see those two together.

Sena also refused to acknowledge the feelings and his relationship with Leo instead deciding to ignore all the red flags and use him all for what he’s worth. Continuously disregarding his relationship with him even though he monologues to himself how Leo is charming and a carnivorous beast. Which even Leo was aware of how fucked he was during their second year yet still decided to press on regardless of what was happening around him.

During Rebellion too Kuro mentions Leo going berserk before which is an interesting descriptor for someone. There’s also Sena mentioning how he tossed out his humanity and snapped. Then later in gambit going on to say that he went on a villainous rampage and with how they generally talk about the war era gives an idea that Leo, while with the resolve to protect the things he holds dear willingly cut down whoever was in path regardless of who they may have been to him. While he loved and wanted to protect, devoting himself to Sena he tore everything around him down, disregarding anyone else’s feelings as he was also in pain and needed to vent it out.

Their relationship with death

When it comes to both of these characters they are intrinsically related to death, it is a huge part of the narratives surrounding them and how they’re written. The narratives within their respective stories could not happened without them, Ayanos death happens In every route without fail regardless of it’s an accident or sacrificing herself for her siblings meanwhile Leo would perish in that school with and without the war the only way he’d ever survive is if he didn’t go to Yumenosaki. Although even that is a questionable statement.

Leo

When it comes to Leo his downfall had been a slow burn but as soon as he broke his arm saving Little John that’s when it truly began. He truly realised that none of them cared or loved him like he did but he was still in denial. Laying there with his broken arm bleeding out whilst trying to convince himself it wasn’t a tragedy, he composes a song in his own blood, the blood keeping him alive. He in that moment was sacrificing the very thing that keeps him alive to compose a new song, a weapon, that would possibly be used by someone who doesn’t love him.

Weapons are common imagery associated with Leo’s songs as well, that is how you’d fight in a musical war after all. To everyone he has no use unless he can give all of himself to create their weapons(songs) to fight(perform). When he asked if the members of chess would have his friendship or his songs they all chose Leo’s songs over him. The only one he did not ask was Sena, however this can be read as A) Leo believed he knew Sena’s answer already Or B) he was too scared to ask. I think both are valid readings personally yet by the time October came around Leo saw that eleven Sena just like everyone else didn’t care about him anymore and only wanted him for his songs.

Even if Leo doesn’t want to compose anymore he will force himself to so that he won’t be thrown away by the ones he loves, this goes to such extremes as biting his hands raw and bloody if it means they’d have a new weapon. He’s sacrificing his body and all of himself just for the ones he loves even if it may end up killing him in the end. In Canary he doesn’t want to compose, not really but if he doesn’t compose a new song that suits his unit’s taste then he’s as good as dead. They can discard him all they want, because the only worth a canary has is it’s song and the only worth Leo has is the songs he can compose.

In Checkmate Leo walks to his death with his head held high. He’s interested in Ritsu and Naru’s abilities while pledging his life to Sena’s. He loves him. However, he’s desperate for the unbreakable sword to save him from his death. He has no one else, so he’ll sacrifice his heart, soul and body to Sena even if he ends up in bloody tatters, he will do everything for the ones he loves even if that means walking to his own grave. His death was an orchestrated affair but no one truly anticipated he’d die, Eichi tried to see himself in him but instead he was met with someone who would rather let a game of chess go on forever so they could keep playing.

Checkmate and We’ll be knights is his pledge to himself and everyone to devote himself in his entirety to protecting Knights. There are no more options left for them but to stain the chessboard with the blood of their past comrades. He made his decision to make Sena’s dreams come true, so following that he’ll abandon everything else regardless of the love he once had for them and pierce their bodies under the guise of the love he’s desperately clinging to.

Leo also does a good job of hiding his feelings, for example no one knew about his stage fright. It was alluded to but it was never actually stated or even addressed by his unit mates for example. There’s how he wanted to push himself and get better but no one saw that and we’re just like ‘well it’s fine if he doesn’t we have a back up plan.’ It’s also commonly mentioned how it’s difficult for characters to tell what he’s thinking. Which translates here as even with the outburst about how stupid he was to buy into everyone’s circumstantial love, Leo was able to smile and put on a show where everyone was none the wiser about his breaking heart.

If Leo didn’t die as an idol the whole narrative would not be the same, would Tsukasa still even be allowed in knights? I personally doubt it or at least it would be more difficult for him to join. We know the whole DDD fiasco would certainly be different and so on. Meanwhile, if Leo never returned the narrative probably wouldn’t change much, even in the events that Leo is there for the only ones with a major impact would be Rebellion and Requiem. Leo doesn’t have that much impact on a lot of the events, he’s doing his own thing. Canary’s whole conflict wouldn’t happen, Horror night wouldn’t change much at all, same with Fleur dis lis, starlight and fortune banquet. Requiem would majorly change due to it being Izuleo’s graduation and Leo’s outburst caused most of the conflict.

Leo is also generally described as sacrificial, especially from Sena’s perspective. To Sena in rebellion he talks about how he threw away everything to protect knights during the war and that while he doesn’t know what kind of person he is now due to the carnage he knows Leo must still care somewhat for knights. To Sena, Leo died as an idol to bring his dreams to fruition as well as shielding him from the hurt and pain of the deceased they killed during the war.

During Dark night passing/Next door and Gambit this comes up again. Leo chains himself to make up for his past mistakes, he releases songs with a shady guy so that people can still listen to these songs even if they’re not good as a part of his repentance. A shady guy that could easily lead to the death of Leo as an idol once again. He will gladly die once more if it means he can make up for his crimes. In Gambit too he goes off on his own again to sacrifice himself, willing to lend a hand to king slayer and let them have the name of knights. He’ll put himself in harm's way so his precious friends will be unscathed.

Ayano

Ayano is built on the perception of wanting to be a good big sister. A caring big sister. Outside of her siblings Ayano lacks an identity. Yes she loves wearing her scarf, yes she loves Tokusatsu/heroes but that’s mostly it. She’s sweet and kind, gets awful grades but that’s not much of an identity. Without her family Ayano has nothing to her name.

When Ayano is met with the circumstances of an evil snake possessing her father and killing her family she does everything she can. She gets her brother to help to pretend to be her so she can investigate, she does all the research she can and yet concludes she needs to die. She doesn’t consider killing her own father, she doesn’t consider getting anyone else involved or trying to get help under the guise it’s her father’s doing. She shoulders this alone. Ayano never even wanted Kano involved either but she was alone and scared and needed his eye power to help.

Ayano never wanted to die, she’s terrified. But if she doesn’t die, her entire family will be taken away from her. She has nothing left. She’s so quick to sacrifice herself because she loves them and Ayano can’t bear to exist in a world where they’re no longer alive. Ayano doesn’t want to die but feels she has no option left, she decides to die on the school roof probably because falling off is the easiest method of suicide. She just has to fall, slip, make one wrong move, ect. Every other method she has to harm her own body and fight her instincts to survive, this way she can make sure she doesn’t survive for her siblings sake because Ayano truly doesn’t want to die.

If Ayano never died here the entire plot would be different. Hypothetically you could have the rallying against Clearing eyes start during that summer she was supposed to die in. There are so many ways the story could have happened, but Ayano must die in a world where her siblings live.

At the end of manga2 Ayano is so willing to sacrifice herself to hold everyone’s bitter frustrations at being killed. All her siblings have died as well as some new friends. A world where they have died is not a world worth living in. She offers her body, her entire life to Mary, to effectively kill her and transcend her body of existence to a phantom of pain and suffering. It’s better that Ayano bears this doomed fate than anyone else. She’s alone in a purgatory of her own making, a hell forcing herself to watch the same few days in a week of summer over and over again with no one for company. She may have shintaro but shintaro doesn’t really count for company when he’s unaware she’s been living inside him since before he was born.

She for a long time did not feel human anymore so what’s more fitting for a monster than to be locked away and subjected to a time loop of searing the deaths of her loved ones on repeat into her eyes. This is a fate she cannot bear to give anyone else, it will be her own burden to bear.

She refuses to live in a world where her siblings are dead, so instead she’ll put herself in a time loop of suffering in hopes this transformation into a snake will someday save them. Even if it means centurises of watching them die over and over again, if they eventually escape and are allowed to grow up this punishment will be worth it.

Ayano’s death is a fundamental rule of the project. It happens in every route without fail, the narrative cannot begin unless Ayano has met her death regardless if she leaves the kagerou daze or not and regardless if it’s a suicide or intentional. The narrative cannot begin unless she dies.

Conclusion

In conclusion I pair them together a lot due to how their respective narratives portray their characterisation and their roles within the stories related to other characters. They feel fairly similar to me personally.

As a bonus Shintaro and Sena both get blamed to their face by Ayano(Kano)/Leo that their mental downfall is all their fault. While it was kano in truth Shintaro does not know about it until two years later long after the damage has been dealt. (That’s if he finds out at all in the route )

[georgette-mademoiselle]

Georgette and sekido part 6

pestilence

Georgette had returned home back from a battle that merihem assigned her to help another legion of demons that where struggling

Urogi was all giddy and happy to greet her back until he screamed like a High pitch girl in horror that now her face looked very sickly and decaying skin peeling of nearly seeing her flesh

"WHAT HAPPEND!!??" Said urogi in a frantic state.

" well...lets just say the fight wasnt going my way so i had to unleash the big guns.."

Georgettes demon powers where of pestilence and thus bieng able to contact any desiease to inflict her enemies with her sycthe.

Karaku unfortunately walks in and her appearance made him faceplant on the floor nocking him cold

"fucking crist karaku you act like You've never seen a demon in its full power form!"

Aizetsu walked down from all the commotion he wasnt shocked like the other two but rather curious.

" ah so thats what happens when you use your power...ive never seen it change your appearance till now"

And then sekido would come barging down upon hearing urogi and karaku.

" WHATS GOING O- Georgie!?"

*she looks away twirling her hair shyly because she feels ugly at the moment to even look at him*

"h-hello my sweet...*ahem*"

" let me guess it was a necessary moment to use your full abilities correct?"

*she slowly looked up*

"that is correct, and now my appearance must suffer the consequences for atleast a couple more hours..."

*sekido just observed her, she lacked the confidence of even looking at him. Does she think that he finds her grotesque in this state?*

"georgette" he walks foward to her before she could say anything he put his hands onto her exposed flesh caressing them with the same love hes always had for her. He takes a good look at her face her blush unable to be exposed at that moment.

" i-i know its not usually what your used to seeing b-but my face will be back in just a few more hou-" he kissed her to make her shit up, he loved her no matter what.

"s-seki..."

"dont you ever think such foolishness again woman! You think my heart would stop beating at the sight of you!? Tck! Your mind is truly pathetic for coming into that conclusion!"

Despite the harshness in that last sentence it was something she needed to hear in order to snap out of it, she finally looked back at him in her mind she smiled her exposed teeth not letting her do so.

" i suppose im just not used to somone admiring me even in my rotting appearance...thank you"

He bites the side of his lip fighting the urge to show any smile forming feeling prideful that he could always light up her world despite his coldness.

"now let me ask you something"

"hm?" His hands then move to her forehead leaning foward looking like a concerned mother now.

" do you have a high fever? Does your body hurt in some form of way?" He says with a stern concern in his voice.

"wait what!? I mean...i guess in a way b-but like i said itll go away! Theres nothing to wo-"

"you mean to tell me that your sick!? Unacceptable! Lay down this instance! Ill get you a warm blanket then ill mame you some soup dont you dare fight it!"

Georgette blinked having no words what shes witnessing right now.

"but im a demon love theres nothing to worry!"

"and yet you always tell me to relax and take it easy because demons need to take care of themselves to! Well now Georgette its your turn for me to return the gesture now lay down! *Turning on the stove while preparing the hot towel*

"ahh my love what would i do without you" *chuckles*

dividers by elryisia

[hellparkri]

The Morning After

No one could sleep that night... Everyone was still remembering that experience with the Ouija board that happened just a few hours ago: they all slept together that night, not out of fear, well... Clyde did, but the reason they slept together was to have a good time... And somehow that thought of what happened a few hours ago was still haunting them, they even took turns for two to fall asleep while two watched that nothing paranormal or out of the ordinary happened.

While none of them had a dream that they could consider "good", "none of them were even minimally close to it", the one who had it worst was Craig Tucker; All night, both on guard and "sleeping" she could not stop thinking about her beloved: Thomas... "Could I see him again? What if I could talk to him? Is he thinking about me?" were some of the doubts that Craig had in his mind. She spent all that night thinking about her late boyfriend, that maybe she can see him again, what had happened was completely real, the possibility that she could contact the soul of her beloved was quite plausible... Alone... I needed to find a way to get back in touch with him, maybe I could make a deal... "I'd do anything..." he constantly told himself that he shook his head to make his brain forget everything and just let him sleep in one go...

"Craig, I hate waking you up now, but you have to see this." Tolkien shook his friend slightly; as he did before.

.Uh? Do I have to stand guard already?-.

-Not yet. It's still about fifteen minutes away, but you have to see this." Tolkien pointed to his window: Strong red and blue lights could be made out in the distance, the sounds of those sirens echoing faintly throughout the village. They were all awake looking at those sirens in the distance. Everyone thinking exactly the same thing...

-Do you think it has to do with the Ouija board?-. Clyde asked as he wiped his tears.

-C-c-what would be the p-possibilities? S-I just don't-see it p-possible-.

Jimmy is right. Craig added. "Who knows, and all this doesn't even have anything to do with what happened this afternoon..." We should first investigate what has just happened, then see if we can provide even a single ounce of useful information."

The discussion about what they had to do continued for more than an hour. But in the end they simply decided to wait until they have more information about what happened; They took turns on their guard duty again and just let the night pass. Everyone was becoming more and more paranoid about what happened, but no one wanted to say it out loud.

Craig's dream didn't improve either: as soon as he closed his eyes he could see Thomas smiling at him, as if he were waiting for him from beyond...

It was the longest night they had in their lives, but finally, at 5:20 AM Craig and Jimmy woke up their two other friends. They discussed whether they should go to school in the conditions in which they were, but their argument had to be interrupted by a call from Jimmy's phone. It belonged to a friend of hers: Esther.

-Hello? Jimmy?-. Esther asked with some seriousness and sadness in her tone of voice. "T-I have to tell you~ K-Kevin was killed tonight~-. Esther's voice broke into tears, they began to be heard through Jimmy's cell phone, quickly the boy's expression turned into one of absolute horror; Everyone thought something like that would happen, but never that it would happen to a person they were relatively close with. Esther only had the strength to tell him that if they had any information about what happened to please contact the authorities, who had already begun the investigations, they had even assigned two policemen to visit the school where Kevin lived and would be all day gathering students who,  either they wanted to provide some information, or they simply wanted to know what the murderer's face looked like. Esther hung up and wished Jimmy and company a good day. They were all left with a lump in their throats that was difficult to describe; Craig was the first to decide to speak.

"Well, I'll take a shower and go tell the police what I know: Pretty much nothing." What's more, we didn't even think that maybe all this is a horrifying coincidence. Or suppose it wasn't and that the same "thing" that almost killed us attacked Kevin, and then? What do we tell them? Shall we tell you that a demon knocked over a bookshelf and closed a door out of nowhere when we were partying? For God's sake they'll think we were high! They wouldn't take us seriously for a million years." Craig said in an irritated and nervous tone; His whole body was too weak because of lack of sleep, his dark circles looking more like dark bruises than anything else. Without saying more, he left Tolkien's house.

Elsewhere in South Park; Far away in the woods, a young man with blond hair and blue and white clothes was rinsing his face in a large river located in a dense forest mass located on the outskirts of South Park.  His entire previously elegant suit had been completely stained with blood. And far from feeling panic or at least some concern about having been discovered, his greatest concern was now not being able to find his beloved without having to sneak away. That was the sole purpose of my being in the world of the living in the first place.

"Hell, Pip... What have you done?" I must start controlling myself-... The blond said to himself in a low voice as he brushed his teeth in the river. Pip couldn't stop thinking about his partner as he wiped wet leaves off his clothes. His beloved he thought about so much was named Damien Thorn; with hair as black as coal and as pale skin as a dead man's, dressed all in black with only a small orange Hawaiian jacket with little black decorations, Damien was the only person who showed Phillip real attention, Damien was the only person who took him in when no one else did.  Damien was not only a love interest, he was now her spouse... And he was also the king of hell, or well, on paper he was supposed to be, he spent more time by Pip's side, he even spent more time on earth doing God knows what there. Damien always disliked ruling, but he was the only person who was treating the souls of hell as human beings, under his rule, hell stopped being so cruel and ruthless, this angered quite a few, but it was what Damien wanted, and it was what would be done. That's why I didn't want to quit, it would just cause all that hard work to go to hell overnight.

But, even with all this utter chaos, Damien was always strangely gentle with Pip, in the eight years they'd been together, "two as friends, five as boyfriends, and one as husbands." Damien had never, ever said a single foul-sounding word to his boyfriend. After more than seven years together, they finally decided to marry and live together for all eternity. That day, the day of their wedding, was impregnated impregnated in Phillip's mind as if it were the ink on the page of a book, he remembered every second of that day, how could he not do it? He remembered everything from the clothes worn by all the guests, to the journey they both took through the world of the living. It was a wonderful day, it was almost a year of that... Time flies by... doesn't it?

Phillip looked at his wedding ring for a few seconds, his eyes were completely focused on that piece of metal with shiny red diamonds and purple pearls decorating the entire ring. In the center was located the largest diamond of them; It was adorned with two silhouettes of the two of them dancing in the sunset, Phillip was able to see that ring for hours, well, that was because he always did, every day of every week he took time to admire that testimony to the eternal love for his partner. It was beautiful, even when she saw it she blushed just like the first time Damien showed it to her.

Although not everything was perfect, lately Damien was starting to be absent more than necessary, their one-year wedding anniversary was approaching very quickly, and those beautiful first months in which they only talked until they fell asleep were over... They didn't talk so much anymore, Damien was less attentive; more forgetful, more rude, above all, **much** less detailed with the blonde. Pip found his beloved's behavior too strange, even when they barely knew each other he was so distant, he had tried to talk to him about it, but without success. Damien hadn't even tried to pretend he cared about ruling hell, he just went to earth, spent hours and hours there, and came back without much explanation. And Phillip? Well, now, there he was, thinking about all the catastrophe that was happening down there in hell, and pondering where his beloved was going for so long.

He finished washing his face and got up; His face showed that he now seemed to be much more tense, he was beginning to squeeze his hands against each other. Pip simply felt horrible when he didn't have Damien, he tried to distract himself, but he had simply gotten to the point that without Damien, he just didn't feel happy, his mind was filled with doubts and anguish in seconds if Damien wasn't there, he knew deep down that that was horrible and terribly wrong, but he didn't want to admit it...  He got rid of any thoughts of infidelity and simply watched the sun; He had only been out for a few hours. Phillip needed to meet the rest of his comrades, he had to explain to them the mistake he had made. They had agreed to mark a small cave to the north of the forest; They had already marked some subtle landmarks to help them get there: Scratches on trees, stones piled up around bushes, and branches pointing in the direction of the location of the new one. The sun at dawn rose to the east, so he simply went in the opposite direction from where he came out and followed the signs until he reached that dark cave, took a breath and said wearily to his three comrades while wiping the sweat from his forehead:

"I would like to apologize in advance for not being able to stand the hunger, I just came to tell you that now we have a huge little problem..."

[lixenn]

i hope you havent gotten flooded with requests and im just adding to it lol <3 id love to see your take on an interaction between Vlasta and Chief, im curious on what you think their dynamic is like.

Thanks for the wait and the prompt my friend!!!

I'm not gonna beat around the bush here have some Vlasta and Chief interaction:

TW: Mentions/descriptions of sex and blood for the first scene aka until the line break (because this is Vlasta we are talking about).

Dan likes being outside, surrounded by nature, away from civilization. He really does. But when he walks in on his employee absolutely railing some poor schmuck in the middle of the forest, he sincerely wishes never to step foot outside his office again.

Astonishingly, Vlasta actually notices him and lifts their head from their partner’s neck. The lower half of their face is covered in blood and their pupils are blown wide, shining with a slight red glow. To Dan’s horror they smile when they catch sight of him.

“Hey Chief!” They sound way too enthusiastic for someone getting caught red handed by their superior. “Wanna join the show?”

He stares at Vlasta, then turns his gaze to their partner who’s fully covered in bite marks and scratches. Vlasta’s strap on is still buried in his ass and if he listens closely, he could hear whimpers and what suspiciously sounded like moans.

I’m not paid enough to deal with this.

“No, thanks.”

With these words Dan turns on his heel and flees the premises.

He will need a lot of brain bleach to forget this encounter.

I hope Squalo still has that Tequila in his desk.

----

It doesn’t take long for Dan to get stir crazy again, so even though his last stroll ended in disaster, he still dares to leave the safety of the compound.

Since his eyes have recently been opened to all kinds of new horrors, Dan now knows to avoid the woods like the plague. With that in mind he chooses the gardens for his next walk.

But fate seems to have it out for him because immediately after Dan enters the hedge maze, he encounters the person he was trying to stay clear of.

Thankfully, Vlasta is fully clothed and hard at work this time around instead of doing their best at traumatizing their poor boss with freaky sex.

As soon as they spotted him, they lowered the garden shears they used to trim the hedges.

Dan waits for a greeting, feeling too annoyed and awkward to initiate conversation.

One second.

Five seconds.

Still complete silence.

Apparently, it’s fine to acknowledge him in the middle of sex, but when they are actually doing their job a simple “hello” is too much to ask for.

Well, if they want a staring contest, Dan can certainly indulge them. It’s not like he has anything better to do at the moment (that’s a lie, he has two meetings on his agenda and correspondence to see to, but who cares about that, he has a shameless subordinate to beat).

So, they end up wordlessly glaring each other down, neither of them showing any emotion on their face.

The silence stretches on for eons.

This is getting ridiculous.

Dan sighs, painfully aware that Vlasta will be Vlasta and not change their habits, no matter what punishment he assigns them. Knowing them, they will like it and turn it into a sex joke. Still, he needs to know: “What happened to other guy?”

They offer him a slow blink. “Ate his liver, then threw the rest to the rats.”

…

Of course you did.

Dan feels the incoming signs of a migraine. Why can’t he have normal employees? Just some asskissing sycophants that will stab him in the back one day, instead of pranksters and cannibals. (He desperately tries to shut up the tiny Dave-like voice in his head whispering that he would be bored to tears in that world.)

"What have I told you about feeding the rats your sloppy leftovers."

"Not to.”

Dan pinches the bridge of his nose. "And what did you do?"

Vlasta finally breaks eye contact, suddenly finding the hedges endlessly fascinating. "Gave them my sloppy leftovers."

Honestly, Dan has deep sympathy for anyone working with children, because sometimes it seems like he’s literally the sole minder of a homicidal kindergarten class.

“At least, tell me you went to Medical afterwards.”

Awkward silence.

Murderous toddlers, I’m telling you.

“For fucks sake, Vlasta. Stop being stubborn and let someone check you over before you contract some rare STD,” he lectures like a total hypocrite. “And while we’re at it, give me advance notice next time you indulge in primal play.”

Vlasta perks up like a dog on a hunt: "You changed your mind."

"Get your mind out of the gutter,” Dan wrinkles his nose, “it’s so that I can prevent any further… accidents."

Vlasta clicks their tongue in disappointment. "Dammit, so close."

And there’s my migraine.

“Might I remind you that I’m the one who signs your paycheck.”

“Just trying to offer my Boss some relief,” they reply with an outrageous smirk on their face. “It’s for you own good. You work too hard, Chief."

Once again Dan decides that this scenario demands for a tactical retreat.

"Goodbye, Vlasta."

He turns around, not waiting for an answer and speedwalks back to the castle.

I seriously need a raise.

…

And more alcohol.

---

Very fun to write especially with your help and support (bit too tired to add anything else, just keep being awesomely scary!!)

KHR writing prompts