#this was mostly for funsies and messing around with colors instead of trying to do something that Looks Good | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

popculturebuffet · 4 years ago

Text

Amphibia Reviews: The First Temple or Bessie and Joe: The New OTP

Hello all you happy people! Amphibia season 2 moves right a long and it’s time for some video game shenanigans as we enter The First Temple! Family drama, snail on bird action, and outhouses await you under the cut with a recap/review with full spoilers.

So we open with the Plantars having chocopillbug pancakes. Ironically my mom offered me chocolate chip pancakes after this and thank god for that. This is a rare treat to the point Anne didn’t even know they had choclate, and is suprisingly not strangling Hop Pop over this. Unsuprisingly he broke out the good stuff to try and make up for hiding the box and things are still VERY awkward between the two, with Hop Pop walking on Egghshells around Anne and Anne doing the same when he brings it up with both desperatley trying to avoid the subject and Sprig not helping by bringing it up a bunch.

I like this a lot and didn’t really think about the series continuting any tension over his decision.. but should have. Partly because this is a modern animated show and most of this wonderful new wave of shows have a LOT of emotional nuance. ANd partly because this show dosen’t forget things even most nuanced shows forget: the fact the characters cause chaos and learn life lesons is outright RECOGNZIED by the show as a pattern and brought up quite often, as are the patterns that lead to it, like mostly being sprig and anne, anne’s impulsivness that sort of thing. It’s the kind of thing you just gloss over in most shows but this one lampshades to hell and back for funsies so when something THIS important happens, you’d better belivie it’s not just going to disappear.

The tensions thankfully broken by a new arrival, as a massive sparrow shows up in the yard. “It’s a giant bird with.. books on it’s back.. what. “ Great delivery from bill there. Naturally it’s Marcy!

I missed this little goober. Such a joy to be around, and she of course marvels over the Plantar’s house before getting back on track: She’s found the first temple.. even though she sent a letter saying that and it’s not commented on that she did. It set off the whole previous episode Marcy... you okay Mar-Mar?

That aside though it’s time for the first temple and Marcy asks for the Box, with Sprig trying to make a joke about how good thing she didn’t ask for it a week ago.

Polly rightly punches him in the ribs... do frogs have ribs? Hold on.. okay here we go

Huh.. so they do not You learn something new every day. Well lack of ribs or no our heroes are ready.. while Marcy’s sparrow Joe is also ready TO GET IT ON. Yes really, he does a mating dance for Bessie, complete with an intersumental version of “Sylvia” from last season. God damn that bird’s got game. The only time i’ve seen more game is THIS.

Marcy tells him to knock it off. Look marcy your a pet owner now and as a pet owner, it’s your responsiblity.. to let your giant bird do horrifying things with a slightly smaller but still giant snail. it’s what nature intended. Nature was doing a lot of cocaine that day but we still honor her wishes.

But anyways Marcy’s figure out something intresting about the box.. by winding it just right the gems pop out, which allows her to take one, we later find out it’s the green one, to use in the temple. So off we go with Marcy and the rest of the kids up top and Hop Pop.. screaming in Joe Sparrows claws. He’s fine.

So while they get ready, Anne worries about the amount of puzzles and hazzards Marcy’s hyping for this but Marcy shurgs it off and gives her own big boast about how may RTS she’s beaten.. suspciously like Yuaan as one post on here pointed out. Not a huge suprise though, to Marcy she’d just be the grand hero out of one of her rpg’s and not think of how many people she probably killed or who she’s working for.. though you’d THNK given all the RPG’s both tapetop and on her switch she’s played, that Marcy would see that “the benevolent king turns out to be the big bad” trope coming.

But Anne’s worry is not on the big bad of the show but on Marcy who has a tendency to get so in the zone she ignores the world around her, which goes from focusing on her game while helping anne get softserve leading to a mess, not letting Anne down in a play and.. Anne catching Marcy on tv as all the snakes escape from the zoo.

Regardless our heroes arrive and while the awkwardness between anne and hop pop continues, they find a majestic temple.. and what appears to be an outhouse. Hey we all gotta poop sometimes, even people making a majestic temple. If you don’t it comes out like this.

So they head in and we get our first puzzle, a mysterious cube that lifts you into the air and allows you to tilt the thing around.

Those of you wondering why I have such a strong reaction have ever never played breath of the wild or played it with a pro controller, i.e. NOT having to tilt the very thing your screen is on because Nintendo has failed to grasp that MAYBE people don’t like that, that it takes you out of the experince and that it’s really hard to focus on your screen while having to move the fucking system about. And the plantar’s getting horribly jostled around as she moves it is EXACTLY how it feels to play a puzzle requring that shit.

Next is a color based tile dungeon leftover from Link’s Awakening DX. As marcy figures out the reds do fire and the blues do crushing... but she reads the language (And as she put earlier “Guess who learned an entire dead language?” God she’s precious. ) and finds a green with envy pun (Which Hop Pop takes offense to.. several of his friends are green.). Which is curious as given several citzens of amphibia are green.. why would they make a green pun? So she gets on one tile and Hop Pop plans to take the risk of getting on the other green tile, but Anne does it instead.. and things get heated between the two as Anne reveals she no longe feels like family since he did what he did for polly and sprig and hop pop takes offense as she IS. Even if he screwed up with her. But Anne’s near death experince activates the tile.

The final challnge switches us from Zelda.. to Harry Freaking Potter.

Now I used to love Harry Potter, with all of my heart. Then JK Rowling turned out to be a transphobic piece of shit who thinks she’s an ally, but is really a bigot who wants to “accept” trans people without giving them any rights. So yeah while I still love the starkid musicals, ore more accuratley the music from them, and own a copy of lego harry potter I got as a gift recently as both parties had no idea she was a monster when this stuff was made. Still a sore subject though, but if I didn’t bring up the similiarties I wouldn’t be doing my job as a critic and this was likely thought up long before JK outed herself as well...

No no the great mighty poo respects all peoples.. and wants to take their heads and ram it up his butt. He’s an equal opportunity butt rammer.

Anyways this is the frog equivlent of chess flipfrog, and just like with Wizard chess, our heroes end up as the pieces minus marcy.. and in a nice twist on that scene, Anne ends up on the other side. Marcy is a grandmaster at it though so after an hour or so of play she almost wins.. only for the king equilvent to refuse to be taken and the automatic board she’s up against to send Anne against hop pop, and with our heroes magically restrained and given stone weapons, this can’t end well. Eventually though Anne’s forced to hit HOp Pop multiple times and while he says “well isn’t this what you wanted”, she says no.. she didn’t want to phsyically hurt him it’s just complicated. So we get one heck of an emotioinal scene as Hop Pop just wants to help and wants this to stop and dosen’t knoow how to fix this which as someone who desperatlyt ries to fix most emotional situations right away this hit very hard.. and her response of needing time hit harder. The two while not reconciled, ar ecloser to it and Marcy realizes what she’s done getting so obessed with winning and forfits for thier benifit. Our heroes leave, seemingly having lost.. only to find glowing arrows to the crap hole, which turns out to be the pedistal. The temple wasn’t just an intellegence test but empathy.. and the temples are clearly built to specifically test each of the chosen three, our heroines, specifically. Marcy’s tested her intellegence.. but also her willingness to let go of cold clyincal thought to do the right thing. That earns her her gem recharged and a flash in her eyes and her gem starts pointing to the next. She needs time to triangulate and hop pop and anne are back on workable footing... though our heroes offer to take a break instead of going to the next temple.

Back in Newtopia, Yuaan reports on the toads gathering.. but dosen’t get to mentioning sasha before Marcy’s letter interrupts and Andridas oddly and aburbly dimisses her.. and goes to talk to a watcher with a thousand eyes, his “master” who has plans to undo the prophcey and get their revenge.

Final Thoughts: This was a damn fine episode that gave Marcy some much needed character development, and gave the reveals of last episode some more emotiional fallout. It also had some really great jokes as always. Top notch stuf.

Next Time: Marcy tries to win everyone over through science and we FINALLY get an episode with the Frog Robot apparently. Horay

Next on this Blog: We go into final space yo! It’s unexpected births, ho yay, and horrifying zombie gary’s galore!

Until then if you liked this review, follow me for more, join my patreon, comission a review if you please and i’ll see you at the next rainbow. Play us out jeff... and I haven’t done THAT bit in a while but eh. This song was too perfect.

youtube

#amphibia #anne boonchuy #marcy wu #the first temple #hopidah plantar #sprig plantar #polly planntar #king andrias #the watcher with a thousand eyes

14 notes · View notes

silasblvthe · 4 years ago

Text

Silas Blythe is known as the Coin (tails). In Summerset they work as a bar owner but this is only one side of their life. They are also a 127 years old, demon. They identify as cis male and use he/him. Some people even say they resemble Chris Wood, but they wouldn’t be caught dead on the isle.

heeey everyone, i’m gray !! this disaster child of mine is silas and i’d like to apologize in advance for any havoc he may cause ... i am so excited to start writing with all of u !! this will probably be a bit of a mess bc i am still figuring him out just a bit but here we go

name: silas blythe age: 127 (appears to be a little over 30) species: demon occupation: bar owner label: the coin (tails) song: the guardian by shawn james

backstory

the sun gazes fondly down on you in the clear blue sky. flowers of every color grow as far as the eye can see. there’s a waterfall just ahead, flowing rapidly from great heights ; the sound brings you peace. the calm breeze blows gently through your lover’s hair as she smiles back at you. the warmth makes you feel safe, loved --- like nothing sinister could ever reach you. not here. not when you’re with her. this is your favorite place in the world--no--- in the infinite expanse of the universe. you close your eyes, drink it all in. you’ve stopped walking and she stops with you, turning to kiss each of your eyelids so tenderly that you wonder if you’ve imagined it. when you open your eyes to look, she’s there, still only inches away from your face and you can’t help the smile that forms on your lips. if you could live in this moment forever, you would -- but nothing lasts. nothing this good. not for you.

if you had known that your life would come crumbling down around you in the next few moments, you would have never ventured to this beautiful place. one second you’re basking in the bliss of being with the one who has your heart in her palm, the next she’s lying cold in your arms as she takes her last breath ( or so you think ). it all happens so fast --- your memory is muddled, you can’t quite put the pieces together anymore. you never imagined that this place would be dangerous, but someone must have followed you. a storm forms above you in all your grief as you hold her close to you, vowing that you’ll see her again. ‘don’t worry,’ you say. ‘ i’ll find a way, i’ll find a way, i promise. this is temporary. i’ll do anything to get you back.’

you and your broken pieces return to avalon, and instead of giving yourself time process what had happened, you immediately begin your search. a way to bring her back home to you. you read every spell book you can get your hands on. your friends and family see your grief and they’re supportive at first, simply because they don’t want to lose you. he’ll stop eventually, right? you overhear them saying to each other. but you don’t stop. you try anything and everything. you ask around in high places, and when that leads to nothing but dead ends, you resort to the lowest of low places. surely someone has to know how to bring someone back to life without using dark magic. you promised yourself a long time ago that you would never go down that path. you’ve lost too many people to darkness already. loss after loss, you start to lose sight of yourself. your family worries about you, and you don’t blame them, but you can’t possibly understand when they tell you to quit. how could you just give up on the one thing that is holding you together?

you get desperate --- so desperate, you find yourself sneaking around, combing through forbidden spell books filled with nothing but the darkest of magic. the kind that requires pieces of your soul just to cast them. you put the consequences at the back of your mind, unable to think about anything else except the possibility of getting the love of your life back. you also looked into ways to protect her once she was back in your arms, a way to make her invulnerable. you wouldn’t lose her again. never again.

bit by bit, spell by spell, your soul is chipped away, but nothing is working. the darkness starts to consume you, and cannot stop. you won’t. your fraternal twin sees you struggling, hurting, and the only solution that they see to save you from yourself is to tell the fae queen. you see this as the worst kind of betrayal imaginable. you’ve damned yourself beyond the point of redemption, so you’re not surprised when they banish you to earth. back to where it all started. perhaps if you were not so far gone, this would have made you realize that it was time to stop, but you were lost in the pursuit for power now. although you give away the last piece of your soul, you feel no remorse. you feel more in control than you ever have in your life, and as time passes, your past feels farther and farther away. you never grieved the loss of your lover, instead you locked the pain away in the darkest corner of your mind. you don’t think about her much now, but every once and a while, you swear you see her likeness in passersby and a twinge of guilt rises inside of you.

currently

it’s been a little over 50 years since his descent into darkness ... he is thriving as a demon tbh

he’s the owner of the most poppin bar in summerset. the employees range from demons to vampires and even some humans ... if anyone acts up he takes care of them immediately , u could say he fires them ... but make it ~ literal ~

he has most of the authorities in his back pocket, so if anything goes awry with a human, he gets someone to cover it up < 3

the bar itself has kind of a modern speakeasy theme to it, with a cool hidden entrance n everything. there’s also private rooms that only some people know about, mostly supernaturals but some humans are aware of them too ... a room to make deals w/ demons when u need a spell cast, a room for vampires to bring humans to drink freely (as long as they don’t drain them), a room with a witch that you can ask favors from -- all for a price, of course, whether it be money or favors. although, silas prefers to be paid in the latter.

he thrives on chaos, so you won’t catch him breaking up a bar fight unless there’s a human involved and it looks like they might actually end up dead

yes, he is absolutely still bitter about his twin snitching on him to the queen even tho he thinks he’s better off as a demon ...

he does not often let himself care about others bc of the fear of losing them, but he is loyal to those who are loyal to him

anyone who gets on his bad side is dealth with ... without mercy

wanted connections

his main bartender ... preferable a witch or a demon, someone who can enchant drinks upon request !!

other employees at the bar ; bouncer, cocktail waitresses, cook(s), managers, etc.

i’ll probably make this an actual WC but i’ll put it here for now... hear me out... in a horrific twist his lover is actually indeed still alive but faked her death (for reasons that can be discussed!!) like maybe she was human and got turned into a vampire so thats how shes still alive after all these years or something ... so this becoming a demon has all been for nothing how fun !!! but just imagine all the angst and pain <33

someone who will stir up trouble with him for funsies ... mess with people just for the hell of it

alrighty that’s it for now !! please let me know if any of these interest you OR if you want to plot out something else, i am down for pretty much anything tbh ??

#summersetintro #summerset intro #shows up late w starbs #im sorry here's my boi

2 notes · View notes

paragonrobits · 5 years ago

Text

for a while i’ve been musing on the idea of ‘what if Brian Banner, Hulk’s abusive father, was actually an early super villain’ so here are some thoughts for that!

the first point is that my take on him is a mix of his interpretation from the 2003 Hulk movie and the way he’s been depicted in the current run of Immortal Hulk. On the one hand, you have a very manipulative personality who is extremely prone towards flat out constantly lying to everyone when he doesn’t have a self-serving memory; he may well even believe his own lies, in a very mundane way. The flipside of this is that, by combining his original depiction as someone who felt threatened by his infant son’s intelligence and his mother’s love for him instead of him, is an attention hog who desperately craves people constantly paying attention to him, lashing out and going to extremes to force people to pay attention to him, particularly Bruce.

Essentially, he’s a self-centered egomaniac who refuses to ever admit anything is his own fault: a standard abuser with a massive inferiority complex.

As for what he IS, again, I’m drawing from the Ang Lee movie, where he was presented as a combination of Absorbing Man (taking on the properties of matter, able to drain the Hulk’s power) and the minor antagonist Zzzax (an emphasis on energy draining and transformation from that); specifically, I’m suggesting making him be an AU version of Zzzax, with some elements of Absorbing Man. A key point here is that he is literally a leech, sucking away power and influence from others, a toxic presence that has little power on his own. What makes him dangerous is how ruthless he is, and his manipulative abilities. He CAN drain power from others and become as strong as them, but on his own, he’s not much more than a unpleasant person even the worst of the supervillain community doesn’t like much.

His powers simply leech things around him. Materials corrode visibly in his presence, though not enough to cause true structural damage, and he takes on their attributes as he does so. Energy and life force are sucked dry, causing things to flicker or weaken over time. Even grass and plants die around him, so that he’s a walking wasteland. It’s also a very notable inversion of Hulk; where Hulk bleeds, new life sprouts from his blood where it touches the ground. But wherever Brian Banner walks, things get worse.

I see two possibilities here, centering on the crucial point: when Bruce confronted him on his mother’s grave prior to his first true Hulk out, did he kill him, or not?

Option one: Bruce did not, though perhaps not for lack of trying. During one of the earlier times of the rise of superbeings, Brian was transformed by the same kind of gamma events that produced the Hulk’s other antagonists, into his present form; he sort of drifts from place to place, being an unbearable little wretch. He’s something of a precursor to the Leader, in that he’s a mastermind, or at least he wants to be, but lacks his charisma and genuine competence.

Option two: he’s dead, he’s dead as hell. Bruce DID smash his skull against his mother’s gravestone. But gamma is weird, and when the events began, it made a hole through reality, and Brian came through it; he attained a new form in the same way as Zzzax (an energy draining form, perhaps after repossessing his old corpse and rejuvenating it by draining the life force from others), and back from the dead, he’s out to torment his son and everyone he views as responsible for his problems (which is everyone but himself). One interesting possibility is that he’s a Ghost Rider antagonist as well; he’s not just a dead man, he’s one that came back to life through the wrong channels (perhaps related to the mysterious Green Door that the various Hulks have seen) and Ghost Rider is compelled to pursue him for that reason alone, let alone that his sins demand vengeance. The screaming wrath of the Hulk was born from this man’s cruelty, and wherever he goes he spreads more suffering and loss.

For this latter idea, it also makes for an interesting visual: he is a walking corpse. Yes, he’s regenerated his body and healed it, so he’s technically alive from a biological stand point. But he looks... wrong. His skin is this ashen, translucent color. His muscles have grown in erratic ways and are mismatched sizes, and he stares REALLY uncomfortably at everything, like they’re nothing to him. It’s a visual contrast with Hulk, who is VISIBLY a monster, but is quite peaceful when left alone. Brian Banner looks more or less human, but the closer you look (and the longer he goes without leeching something), the more wrongness stares at you.

As far as his place in the villain community goes, I see him as being an outcast that not even the worst of them like to be around; sure, there are some real monsters in the Marvel universe. Bitter robots with misanthropic streaks; actual bonafide Nazis (some made of bees, some just super messed up looking); mutants who are eager to screw their own people over to make a quick buck; superpowered brutes who dont care to do anything but hurt people for the funsies. But none of them like Brian Banner. The man’s a chidlish, self-centered abuser who refuses to ever admit blame for his own misdeeds, and to even hardened villains, that’s just... petty.

(Depending on how hard you want to lean into his scientific background, you can also make the argument that other science guys in the Marvel universe are at least vaguely familiar with him. It’s mostly in a ‘oh, that guy, fuck that guy’ sort of way.)

#marvel #brian banner #ideas #AU ideas #the main idea with him is taking the idea of abusers as a toxic leeches to a logical extreme #it should pervade every aspect of him and his abilities

11 notes · View notes

perfeggso · 5 years ago

Text

Noir (yutae)

Week II pt. 1

Tokyo – fall of 1983: Nakamoto Yuta is quickly rising in the ranks of one of Japan’s most notorious yakuza families, and he’s poised to climb even further if he can stop himself from being ruined by the pretty Korean boy who’s shown up out of nowhere.

Glossary of Japanese words

Characters: Yuta x Taeyong + NCT ensemble, Twice J-line (for funsies)

Genres: Gang!AU, angst, smut, fluff, 1980s!AU

Warnings: graphic violence, swearing, minor character death, alcohol use, mentions of drugs, period-typical homophobia, xenophobia, BDSM

Rating: 18+

Length: 4.5k (will progressively get way longer)

A “foot soldier,” as it turned out, was the smallest of small fry in the syndicate. They were mostly responsible for manning the many front businesses that Inagawa used for small change, low-level intimidation, and charity work. Taeyong found that he did get to carry a revolver around with him but was forbidden from using it in non-life-threatening situations because he had only been a yakuza for about a week and had only gotten the opportunity to practice firing the thing twice. This was both for his own protection and for the protection of the gang; almost nothing could have been more damaging than the misfiring of an illegal gun by a rookie.

All Taeyong had needed to do to leave his mechanic job was to submit a letter of resignation, which in honesty was the most obvious solution. People were allowed to resign without a specific reason – his boss didn’t own his soul. And Taeyong wasn’t too sad to leave since he hadn’t been close to anyone working there.

After a week, Taeyong found himself leaning over a yellow plastic desk at the entrance to a miscellaneous electronics shop in Akihabara, bored to death and resigned to people-watching. Taeyong usually avoided Akihabara because he wasn’t particularly interested in electronics nor in otaku culture. More than that, he hated how the few times he had come to the neighborhood in the evening he’d been approached by creepy middle-ages men trying to entice him to go “chat” with some “lovely young ladies.”

But now he was here among the neon lights with nothing more to do with himself but try to look inviting to customers. If he was being honest, part of him wanted to sabotage the whole racket by looking purposefully glum and driving people away. Despite his sweet face, Taeyong did have an aggressive streak in him but he always considered himself principled about those who got hit by it. For instance, swindling major corporations out of millions of yen, as he was vaguely aware that Inagawa did, seemed perfectly ethical to him. Selling faulty electronics to innocent working-class people on the other hand…

“Taeyong!” Mark yelled from behind him, forcing him out of his contemplative rabbit hole of Robin Hood ethics.

Taeyong turned around to see Mark walking up to him, a stack of colorful business cards in one hand and a badminton racket and shuttlecock in the other. What a fuckin’ weirdo , thought Taeyong, although he couldn’t help but like the guy.

Mark had been the first person Taeyong had spoken to as an unofficial member, he supposed, of the Inagawa-kai, as he was the one responsible for escorting Taeyong back to his apartment and spending the night there to ensure that he did not try to run away or go to the authorities. Taeyong didn’t sleep that night because his head was full of too many questions, and Mark wasn’t allowed to, so the two instead got to talking – as much as they could given the supreme awkwardness of the situation, anyway.

“What do you need?” Taeyong asked and in response, Mark passed him the stack of cards as if that were an explanation. Before he got around to illustrating his intentions with words, he began bouncing the shuttlecock against his racket, twisting the string bed 180 degrees between each contact.

“I need you to stand on the sidewalk and hand these out to people,” he finally said, still focused on his game. “They say we’re having a promotional sale. It’s supposed to drum up more business which we can handle with the three of us here instead of two. But for this to work, you need to stop scowling. Show off that charming smile of yours.”

Mark was sure a cheeky bugger. If Taeyong did stick around in this gang, he’d eventually use his age advantage to mess with the kid once their gap in experience wasn’t so large.

“Was this your idea?” Taeyong asked.

Mark shook his head no, pausing his game of hand-eye coordination. “It was our Shategashira ’s.”

“Nakamoto?”

“Hasn’t he told you to use his title? Or just Yuta if you want to use his name.”

Taeyong huffed a sigh. This ‘ Shategashira ’ of his had really become an exasperating figure in his life over the past week. They’d barely interacted, but the coolness and ease with which Yuta always addressed him made him feel funny; as if he truly had no control over the trajectory of his life anymore simply because he was dumb enough to follow some sounds in an alley. But who was he kidding? His life might as well lead him to being in a gang. Wasn’t that what he’d always wanted? And anyway, there was a reason the Inagawa-kai had an entire Korean division and some Korean leadership. Taeyong had just imagined more bombastic motorcycle rides and fewer junk computers.

“Yeah I remember now,” Taeyong said, shuffling the business cards in his hands and making his way out from behind his desk. “So how do I get people to take these?”

Mark walked with him to the front of the shop, his hand on the older man’s shoulder. “Just smile and say ‘promotional sale: premium consumer electronics. This week only,' or some shit and try to get these into the hands of everyone who walks near you. I think you can handle it.”

“I will try,” said Taeyong.

He found it was easier to get people to take the cards than he had expected, although his success didn’t seem to go further than that, as most people who took a card only regarded Taeyong with a confused scowl once they had it in their hands. After about an hour, a woman came walking towards Taeyong on his side of the street, and she was truly the first person Taeyong fully noticed his whole shift. He noticed her because no one could have not: she was slightly taller than average, especially in heels, with long black hair blown out, a green bodycon dress, black heels, and a gold chain necklace. Taeyong thought she might have the prettiest face he’d ever seen on a woman. He also noticed her because she was staring right at him as she approached. Taeyong wasn’t fazed because he was used to nice looking girls coming onto him. They would inevitably be put off either by his ethnicity or by his lack of interest in them – whichever they perceived first – and then bad things would happen. However, the intensity in this woman’s gaze felt different as she came to stand just a few feet away.

“Momo-hime??” Taeyong heard Mark yell from somewhere within the store. Huh? Soon enough both he and Jungwoo had emerged and were greeting the gorgeous young woman. Taeyong stayed frozen to his post because he didn’t know what to make of the situation nor of his role in it. She was a ‘princess’ anyway. What business did a street rat have introducing himself to her?

Soon, though, Taeyong found he didn’t have to. She exchanged a few words with his coworkers, and they nodded, pointing her his way.

“Lee Taeyong,” said the woman, bowing once she had finally gotten close enough to greet him. “I’m Hirai Momo. It’s good to meet you. Yuta told me you had been brought on.”

Taeyong was so confused he felt like he was floating, but he bowed back despite himself. “Nice to meet you too.” The name Hirai sounded familiar but Taeyong took a moment to place it. Then, like being slapped in the face, his brain found the missing puzzle piece that allowed him to make an association. The Hirai family ran the entire operation, didn’t they? Shit .

“Why are you here, Neechan ?” asked Jungwoo.

Momo smiled. “Yuta sent me to retrieve you, Taeyong,” she answered, causing Mark and Jungwoo to raise their eyebrows in unison.

Taeyong could feel the blood rush through his veins, and it felt cold. “I – did I do something?”

“Don’t worry,” Momo assured. “Everything’s alright. Yuta-san just wants to make sure you’re adjusting alright and to have you get some more target practice in with your new piece. How does that sound?”

Yuta was turning out to be the most involved boss Taeyong had ever had. He still had no idea what was going on, but at least he wasn’t in trouble and if he was being honest, he liked firing the gun and looked forward to another sanctioned opportunity. Taeyong chided himself as he noticed a piece of his mind wondering churlishly what this girl was to Yuta. That doesn’t pertain to you , he told himself.

“That’s fine,” he said.

“Great,” said Momo, winking like a girl from an animated television show or something. “So, you’ll go to headquarters and meet him right after your shift, got it?”

Got it.

***

The Inagawa-kai Tokyo headquarters was located in a simple, box-shaped black building on the edge of Aoyama. It wasn’t a short structure – it had about seven stories – but compared to much of Tokyo’s architecture it remained strategically unassuming. Once inside the building, a tall man with dark hair and a patchwork of tattoos and scars across his exposed skin approached Taeyong and told him he would escort him to the meeting. At first Taeyong didn’t recognize him because he hadn’t gotten a good look the first time, but he soon realized that his companion was one of the men who had essentially arrested him a week ago, a fact which made his throat tighten. Taeyong also cautiously noted that the man had a fresh stump of a pinky finger on his right hand covered in bandages. Must have gotten in a bad fight.

The man led Taeyong down a series of identical concrete hallways until they reached a sliding door made of oak, at which point he left Taeyong to enter the room by himself. Taeyong hesitated for a moment but was stunned into action when he heard Yuta’s expressive voice anticipate his presence from inside with the simple utterance of two syllables.

“ Douzo .”

Within, Yuta sat at the same desk where Taeyong had first met him, surrounded by expensive Scandinavian furnishings, walls of glass and concrete, and a pristine bonsai tree on a ledge behind him. Yuta himself wore black pants, a silk shirt, and a yellow velvet smoking jacket of all things. Taeyong felt something twist in his gut at the sight of him and his intent gaze but decided to file the feeling away somewhere very deep for the purposes of later contemplation.

“ Shategashira !” Taeyong greeted with a salute, as he was now pretty sure he was expected to. “Would you like me to sit, sir?”

“At ease,” said Yuta, waving him off and letting Taeyong relax a bit. “No need. I’ll accompany you to the range right now, if that’s alright.”

“Of course, Shategashira .”

And with that, Taeyong let himself be led back under the florescent lights of the complex’s maze-like hallways.

“How are you adjusting, Taeyong?” asked Yuta.

Taeyong was constantly surprised that the couple times he had seen Yuta since their initial meeting, he always made sure to check up on him. He didn’t know what to make of this. He guessed it was just standard practice – a measure to make him feel protected and ensure his devotion, or something of the sort.

“It’s alright, I guess,” Taeyong responded. “I like Mark and Jungwoo. Johnny seems like a good guy too. In all honesty, I don’t have a lot to do right now. But I do appreciate having the position at all!” Taeyong’s tone was absolutely all over the place, not knowing where to stand between familiar and deferent. Taeyong thought he saw his little speech provoke a smile in Yuta, and suddenly that knot in his stomach was back. Well, fuck.

Yuta spoke. “I acknowledge that you don’t have the most exciting posting. But that’s partially why I wished to speak with you today. After you.”

Yuta left that tease there. They had come to the end of a hallway to an orange door with chipping paint and a black symbol indicating that protective equipment for eyes and ears was recommended inside. Yuta held it open and Taeyong passed through.

Once in the vestibule of the shooting range, Taeyong set himself up where he was supposed to stand and aimed his revolver at the target on the other end of the room as Yuta leaned against an acid-white wall with his arms crossed and his chin raised slightly.

“Relax your shoulders,” Yuta said, and Taeyong cleared his throat, shimmying his shoulders lower on his back in response. He took a deep breath and focused on the red bull’s eye placed on the heart of a human-shaped target, both hands on the gun. He had to refrain from grinding his teeth.

“Wait until you’re ready,” Yuta coached, voice low and commanding, “then focus your energy and count down from three before you pull the trigger. Simple as that.”

“Yes, Shategashira .” Taeyong did as he was told, steadying himself, focusing his eyes on his target, and counting 3…2…1… BANG!

Taeyong felt himself sway backwards for a moment after firing but regained his balance quickly – something he had not done the first time he had shot the thing. That time, he ended up on his butt, confused and embarrassed as Mark thrashed around on the wall in a fit of performative laughter. The practice he’d had since then had helped, but so did the pressure of Yuta’s gaze.

After a moment, Taeyong heard clapping coming from next to him and he realized he had been closing his eyes. When he opened them, he saw that a chunk of the wooden target was missing on its inner thigh.

“We can work with that,” Yuta remarked, finishing his short round of applause. “Certainly enough to cripple, and that’s important. However, I get the sense you weren’t aiming there, hm?”

Taeyong’s breathing fumbled when Yuta began to stalk towards him. “What we need is to teach you some precision and confidence,” he explained. “We’ve got to work on your kill shot. Do you mind?”

Yuta was asking for the gun, so Taeyong handed it over with an “of course, Shategashira .”

Yuta took a sideways stance, holding the revolver out with one arm, and proceeded to shoot five times in fast succession, obliterating the plywood head of the target cutout until it was nothing more than splinters. Taeyong did not care to imagine it as belonging to a real human. When he had finished, Yuta turned to regard Taeyong, and to Taeyong’s surprise and horror, he broke out into a wide grin. God , thought Taeyong, I’m alone with a psychopath and a gun . Although, once that thought had passed, Taeyong couldn’t help admiring the princely charm of the way the smile had spread like a sunrise over Yuta’s face. What the fuck was going on?

“You see?” said Yuta, ebullient, “you’ll be doing that soon enough.”

Soon enough . Right, Taeyong would need to sort out his future, and soon.

“Let’s try again. Go back to your stance. We’re going to stay with two hands for now.”

Taeyong took the gun back and repositioned himself in his starting position, holding the weapon with his outstretched arms and lining it up with his sternum. Yuta came up beside him and held his hands over Taeyong’s shoulders.

“May I?” he asked, and Taeyong nodded, allowing Yuta to press down onto his shoulders and straighten his spine. Taeyong could feel the other man’s breath and it was sending his nerves into a state he did not need them to be in, heat crawling up his neck.

“Do the countdown again,” Yuta instructed, “deep breath, and then fire. Don’t let your eyes close, alright? And try to stay still as much as possible. You can if you really engage your core.”

Taeyong nodded at all the advice and tried to follow it – attempting also to avoid noticing the watchful smile blooming on Yuta’s face in his peripheral vision. He took in a deep breath of the room’s stale air and counted down again, eyes trained on the cutout’s heart and intent not to shut.

A BANG rang out once more throughout the vestibule.

Taeyong did narrowly refrain from closing his eyes, but they seemed to have gone out of focus. Once he blinked the fuzziness from them, as if erasing an etch-a-sketch, he could see that he’d succeeded in blowing a hole through his target’s crotch.

Yuta giggled and slapped Taeyong over his right shoulder. Taeyong’s head spun. Was he supposed to be scared of this literal mob boss or not?

“I have a hunch you weren’t aiming there either, huh?” Yuta asked, and Taeyong shook his head no. “That’d definitely be an effective shot though, wouldn’t it? Might actually be better than aiming for the heart in some situations because you can make them talk while they bleed out.”

Holy shit. In an instant, Taeyong became painfully aware of his reality. He was practicing shooting because he might be in a situation where he’d need to �� where others would be aiming at him the same way he was aiming at this outline of a man. What if it was him who got shot in the heart, or worse, shot in the dick and forced to bleed out horrifically? Taeyong felt lightheaded but managed to squeeze enough air from his lungs to speak.

“Do you mind me asking you a question, if it’s not too forward?”

Yuta raised an eyebrow. “Shoot,” he said, obviously amused by his own word play.

“Why am I here?” asked Taeyong. “What am I doing here now? What am I training for?” That was three questions, but oh well. Taeyong didn’t feel like being measured.

Yuta sighed and cocked his head, eyes fluttering to regard the floor.

“I had a feeling this would come up,” he said, smiling wryly this time. “Keep practicing and I’ll fill you in.”

Taeyong nodded and prepared to shoot again, hitting the target’s left shoulder this time when he pulled the trigger.

“Getting closer to the heart,” Yuta observed, appreciative. “You see, Taeyong, there are only two favorable outcomes for you now that this ball has gotten rolling.” Taeyong relaxed his arms and watched Yuta begin to pace, his face steeled by caution.

“The first, which would be preferable to the family, is that you stay on with the Inagawa-kai and devote yourself to our line of work. However, I understand that what has happened was not your choosing, and you may want to return to your normal life as soon as possible. Whichever path you choose eventually matters little to what I need you to do for now, so don’t worry about it yet.” Yuta paused, giving Taeyong a moment to recover from the way his emotions had just gone topsy-turvy like his image in a funhouse mirror. Then Yuta gestured towards the gun Taeyong was now pointing at the rubber floor. “Please continue,” he said. Taeyong hit the target in its stomach and caught a hum of approval from Yuta.

“Either way,” Yuta went on, “you will need to establish trust here. Even if you want to leave, you will have to stay on long enough and perform well enough to prove that we can trust you to be an ally even in the civilian world. Does that make sense, Taeyong?”

Bang! Left hip.

“It does,” Taeyong replied, resigned. This was all his own fault anyway. He couldn’t help his curiosity though. “Is this something that happens often?”

Yuta chuckled slightly. Bang! Sternum. Taeyong was quickly gaining enough balance and confidence to keep himself still while firing.

“Similar situations have occurred although we obviously try to avoid them. For instance, the two men who brought you in to me have been duly reprimanded for their carelessness.”

Taeyong was preparing to fire as Yuta said this and was immediately thrown off when his mind returned to the image of his abductor’s freshly severed finger, putting two and two together. Is that what a mistake gets you here? Worse, did Yuta purposefully assign that guy to escort Taeyong as some kind of warning? Taeyong was already pressing down on the trigger when this thought came to him and it caused him to misfire wildly, hitting the wall on the other end of the range a few feet from the target.

“Fuck!”

“Do you need me to stop talking?” Yuta asked.

Taeyong held the gun in his left hand while shaking out the wrist of his right, as if the problem had been purely physiological. “No! Er – sorry, just give me a moment please, Shategashira .”

“That’s alright,” said Yuta. “You’re doing pretty well for a beginner. Take a break for a bit.”

Taeyong nodded, feeling defeated but somewhat relieved.

“Similar situations,” he mused “Like what? If you don’t mind telling me.”

“Take Jungwoo, for example. He worked for a circuitry and computing firm that was under our thumb. He knew nothing about it – he was simply a technician and didn’t have access to the books – but when the small company had defied our understanding with them one too many times, Jungwoo happened to be unlucky enough to witness the consequences. We gave him the option to make it up to us by working for us. It was difficult for him at first, but now his closest friends are in our ranks and he gets to do what he loves while never needing to worry about money. So, it worked out in the end.”

Jungwoo, huh? Taeyong had thought the guy seemed a bit too cheery to be a natural gangster.

“I see. I don’t really have a thing though, that I love doing, you know?”

Yuta shrugged, then smiled in a way that was meant to be reassuring.

“Well, you may not love it, but you know about vehicle mechanics, right? That will be useful to us. However, to be honest I do feel for you, Taeyong, I really do. You caught my attention immediately and have weighed on my conscience. I want to help you make the best of this, and the best thing you can do now is quickly prove your loyalty both to me and to the people I work for. That way, you will get the most flexibility in the least time. That’s why I’m scheming to fast-track you to that point.”

Taeyong was mystified as to why his superior, who had implicitly threatened him into becoming a yakuza in the first place, was being so nice to him; so reasonable.

“What does that mean?” Taeyong asked, eyes going wide in anticipation.

Yuta leaned back against the wall and watched Taeyong from under his bangs. “I’m in the middle of a project that it would be nice if someone helped me with. It’s not inherently dangerous and it’ll give you a good idea of how we operate. If you do a good job you will both understand the world you’re now living in and if you want to stay in it, and hopefully, gain enough trust to be allowed to make that decision when the time comes.”

Taeyong’s thumb skimmed nervously over the textured handle of his revolver, eyes searching the vestibule for some sense of reality. He felt almost dizzy with exhilaration at the idea of helping Yuta out and spending more time with him - studying him. “What’s the project?” he asked.

“An investigation.”

“An investigation…” Taeyong repeated. What did he know about investigations?

“Yes,” said Yuta, “I’m gathering information on a certain executive at one of the nation’s largest companies. For blackmailing purposes.”

Taeyong almost laughed at how upfront Yuta was about this.

“Okay…”

“Is that a yes?”

“Do I have a choice?” Asked Taeyong. Yuta smiled, something almost predatory in his expression. “What would I have to do?”

“Accompany me when I go out following leads, be my lookout and my sounding board for ideas when no one else is free to help. You can be more involved depending on how well you do with that. Think you can handle it?”

That didn’t sound too out of the box for things Taeyong could do. Besides, Yuta had said “lookout” not “bodyguard” or something. Taeyong was used to fighting, but his dustups were usually with hoodlums from Shin-Ōkubo, not with armed career criminals.

Taeyong nodded. “Yeah,” he said. “Yeah I can.”

Yuta pushed himself off the wall. “Perfect. Before we finish here though, I’d like to get you to hit your target.”

The way Yuta said it so flatly made it clear to Taeyong that this was a command, not a suggestion.

“Yes, Shategashira .”

“I think I know how to help,” said Yuta, “it’s something I used to do when practicing. Do you have someone you want that to be? Someone you hate so much it makes your toes curl? Makes you want to smell their blood?”

Taeyong pictured the leader of the Specters – the boy who’d beaten him black and blue until he couldn’t hear or think; the boy who had only refrained from dragging Taeyong from a chain on the back of a car when he heard sirens coming for him, and all because Taeyong had dared to be zainichi . Sure, Taeyong wouldn’t mind a little payback. He nodded at Yuta, both men’s eyes going dark and focusing on the target.

“Good,” said Yuta, placing his hands on Taeyong’s shoulders and squeezing. This time, Taeyong’s mind had gone too cold to let the contact affect him. “Now, don’t let them get away with anything less than a bullet to the heart.”

With that, Yuta pushed away and Taeyong imagined his victim, ugly smug face and rising sun headband appearing in his mind’s eye with chilling detail. Relax, breathe out, 3, 2, 1, BANG!

Taeyong was steady as the bullet passed an inch or so from the bullseye and the sight caused a great sense of relief to wash over him, like stepping into a hot tub on a snowy day.

When he turned around, Yuta was watching him with a smirk, arms crossed over his chest.

“When do I start, Shategashira ?” asked Taeyong.

Yuta’s smirk morphed into what Taeyong could only describe as a proud grin. “You start now.”

14 notes · View notes