#I SAID that they used to have a slightly bigger younger audience in the early 2010s

[wiki-howell]

guess who managed to mention dnp in his a level media exam 🔥🔥

[hellfiremunsonn]

It takes two Eddie Munson x Reader

I do not allow my writing to be republished anywhere other than my own blog without my consent

Summary: "Can you write some Dad! Eddie fanfics because my boy would be such a cute father, especially to a little girl. His daughter would definitely be such a daddy’s little girl.

Also, I imagine his children being named after iconic people or songs in heavy metal. Like Ozzy Munson (after Ozzy Osborne of Black Sabbath) for his cool son or Scarlett Munson (after the heavy metal song) for his precious daughter.

I love your work and you’re doing great!"

(Requested)

(Suitable for younger audiences) 18 + IF YOU ARE NOT 18 OR OLDER DO NOT READ OR INTERACT WITH MY WRITING. IT IS NOT INTENDED FOR MINORS. I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR THE MEDIA YOU CONSUME.

Warnings: None? Dad! Eddie, very cute, fluffy, I honestly don't know.

Word count: 1271

AN: NOT PROOF READ SO IF THERE ARE ANY MISTAKES LET ME KNOW

Eddie and I had finally saved up enough money for a shitty one bedroom apartment above one of the little shops on Main Street. We figured it would be good enough for now until we could afford somewhere bigger. After a while we couldn't expect Eddies uncle to let us live there basically rent free with a toddler, it just wasn't fair. So we both got shitty part time jobs and some help from the gang and we were now situated in an actual home. I had never expected to live on my own so early in life, but I also didn't expect to have a baby, or even meet Eddie. I'm so thankful my life turned out this way... Maybe despite that time there was an actual duplicate version of Hawkins with a creepy red veiny man trying to kill all of us. I think we could all live without that part.

Eddie was such a hands on father, and I always knew he would be, but it was always so amazing to see him in action. Always on the floor with her, making sure he was eye level, trying to get her to understand her own emotions and why she was feeling the way she was feeling. And don't get my started on nap time. If he's home, she's asleep on his chest and he will not move for hours if she is there and it's one of the most heart warming things to see. We named her Scarlett from that one heavy metal band Eddie liked so much. I could never remember the band but it never bothered Eddie.

Unlocking the front door of our tiny apartment I could hear the two of them giggling on the other side of the door. Stepping inside the pitter patter of tiny feet became louder as my little curly haired baby came 'running' over to me. "Mama!" She squealed. I picked her up and wrapped her into a tight hug and she giggled loudly. "Hi baby girl!" I said tickling her. Eddie came up shortly after, watching us from his seated position on the floor a pink baby blanket hung loosely over his shoulder. "What you looking at Munson" I said with a very obnoxious fake tough tone of voice.

"Just admiring my two favourite girls" he stated with a heartfelt sigh. My heart squeezed as the man I loved made his way over to me, pressing his lips lightly and briefly to mine. "I missed you" I said quietly.

"I missed you more probably" He said taking the baby from me. Her grabby hands reaching towards him.

"No I definitely missed you more, you get to spend all day with Scarlett!" I moaned finally kicking off my shoes towards the closet.

"Okay I did get to spend so much time with her today, and we had such a good time didn't we?" he asked bouncing her a few times on his hip. She babbled mostly nonsense and grabbed onto a few of his curls tightly into her fist. He winced slightly but didn't stop her from holding onto his hair. "With the two of you combined you could make a hell of a wig" I said while tucking a piece of his hair behind his ear. "You think? Should daddy cut his hair?" He said turning his attention back to Scarlett.

"No!" I said a little too quickly. "I mean you can do whatever you want, it's your hair, but I really like your hair the way it is" I blushed turning away from him and walking into the kitchen to start making something for dinner.

"You like the long hair huh?" Eddie teased. He placed Scarlett down into her high chair and buckled her in, mumbling nonsense to her while he did so. Grabbing already cleaned blueberries and placing them onto the little tray in front of her. He came over to me and wrapped his arms around my was it, laying his chin on my shoulder. The scruff on his chin poking me through my t-shirt. He twisted me so I was no facing him, hands still on my waist and my cheeks very much still pink. "I believe I asked you a question missy" He said tilting my chin up with his finger so I was looking at him. "I do.. I do like the hair" I leaned up on my tippy toes and ran my hands through his hair. "It's nice to have something to hold onto" I said with a small smirk. "I could say the same thing about you" He whispered as his one hands slid up from my waist to the back of my neck, his fingers locking tightly in my hair.

"Can I make dinner for our child first before you try to get into my pants" I teased as he loosened his grip on my hair and sitting down next to Scarlett.

"Where's the fun in that?" He scoffed leaning back into his chair.

"Well for started you could start cutting up some vegetables while I change out of my work clothes?" I said smiling while placing both my hands under my chin.

"You're lucky you're cute" he said getting up and headed towards the counter where I had set everything up already.

"You know, I think I've heard you say that before?"

"Oh yeah?"

"Mhmm"

Heading into our room Scarlett fussed and started to whine, reaching her small hands towards me. "Wanna come with mama?" I asked unbuckling her from her highchair and bringing her into our bedroom with me. I set her in the middle of our bed, handing her the remote to our small tv which she happily played with. Changing out of my tight work clothes I slipped into one of Eddies t-shirts and pair of comfy shorts. I brushed my hair and fluffed my fingers through it, trying to get it to come back to life after been stiff all day. I watched as Scarlett babble to herself for a moment. Completely content with the remote in her hands.

It was still so hard for me to believe that this was my life that I got to share with the love of my life. Eddie even seemed to enjoy it more than I did maybe. Picking up our daughter, bringing her to my hip, tv remote still locked in her hands. I leaned on the doorframe of our bedroom and watched as Eddie moved around the kitchen, washing and cutting vegetables. The pink baby blanket that was once thrown over his shoulder was now replaced with a tea towel. His long hair tied back in a low pony to keep it out of his face while he worked. When turning around to grab something from the fridge he stopped and looked at me raising an eyebrow.

"What are you looking at (Y/L/N)?" He teased, repeating my words from earlier.

"Just admiring the love of my life" I said smiling.

He walked over to me, grabbing my face with both hands and planted a long kiss onto my lips. Resulting in Scarlett smooshing her wet mouth against our cheeks in the process. "Awe did you feel left out?" Eddie cooed. She giggled as he peppered her in tiny kisses all over her head. "Dada!" She squealed. He scooped her up from my arms and began flinging her around and bouncing her on every surface he could, instantly forgetting the dinner to be made, and I let him. Deciding that maybe ordering a pizza would be better for a night like this. I really just wanted to spend time with my family.

[lesbianlotties]

Andy and Quynh One Shots - #101

Chapters: 101/101 Fandom: The Old Guard (Movie 2020), The Old Guard (Comics) Rating: General Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Andy | Andromache the Scythian/Quynh | Noriko Characters: Andy | Andromache of Scythia, Quynh | Noriko, Nile Freeman, Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani, Nicky | Nicolò di Genova, Booker | Sebastien le Livre Additional Tags: Immortal Wives Andy | Andromache of Scythia/Quynh | Noriko, Immortality, One Shot Collection, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Domestic Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, Romantic Fluff, Fluff without Plot, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon Compliant, Post-Canon, Pre-Canon, Tumblr Prompt, Originally Posted on Tumblr, just... A LOT of Andy and Quynh, it's what they deserve, it's what we deserve Words: 63518

"Just you and me." "Until the end."

Three thousand years of love, and more. All the little moments of joy, pain, adoration, and yearning. Andy and Quynh, all through history, all over the world, always in love.

Chapter 101: I'm here, at the beginning of the end, the end of infinity with you (teasing Andy for being old)

At first, Andy didn’t even think twice about it. She could be in the middle of a training session with Quynh and after landing a particularly good punch, Quynh smirked and said, “You’re getting too old, my heart” or “Age has made you slow, Andromache.” It was fine. In fact, it was good, and meant to be affectionate. She had been saying things like that in every language known to man for almost as long as the two of them had known each other. Which, really, was an eternity in itself. It was a little detail that Andy was glad to experience again after such a long separation. Their love was something capable of always growing and never changing at its core. However, little changes were unavoidable. And now that their family was bigger, it was just a matter of time before some harmless, affectionate teasing would get out of hand.

The three of them were sitting on the couch watching a movie and almost as soon as it ended Andy was out of her seat and stretching.

“Where are you going?” Quynh wondered with a slight pout.

Nile added, “We can still watch another!”

Andy scoffed, “I’m exhausted, I’m going to bed.” Without waiting for further approval she started walking toward the room she shared with Quynh.

Quynh, who wasn’t exactly happy to lose the shoulder she was comfortably leaning against during the movies. “I get it, you’re too old for this,” she called after her lover’s retreating figure. Andy shook her head fondly, and smiled because the others couldn’t see her. But there was just something about how loudly Nile laughed at that joke that just sparked a hint of worry in the older woman’s mind. She tried to ignore it, as long as she could.

--

A few days later, after a couple of minutes of lying awake in bed, Andy turned to her side and happily devoted herself to trailing feather-light kisses on Quynh’s bare shoulders to get her to wake up. Her fingertips were starting to dance in secret patterns on the soft skin of the other woman’s back, when Andy’s ministrations were interrupted by Quynh, who quickly moved so she could capture Andy’s lips with her own and give her a real good morning kiss. Though, after pulling back, she went back to lying on her stomach and said, “I know you’re old, my heart, but do you have to wake up this early?”

“Excuse me?” Andy laughed, not at the joke, precisely. But there was just something too sweet about the sight of Quynh, unable to hold back a smile, even if trying to hide her face in the pillow, but stubbornly keeping her eyes closed.

“Let me sleep!” Quynh mumbled against her pillow, and she had to bravely accept a kiss on the cheek, but she was finally granted extra time to sleep.

Still wearing a content smile on her face, Andy walked to the kitchen. She was half-way through her first cup of coffee, which she almost dropped, when Nile walked into the kitchen and without even looking Andy in the eyes said, “My grandma used to wake up before everyone else too.”

--

Soon enough, their teasing became a constant in their lives.

“I don’t get it,” Nile complained, dropping her head in a book written in Russian and groaning loudly. 

“It’s not that difficult!” Andy insisted, in perfect Russian.

Nile, assuming what she’d just said, protested, “You only say that because you’re older than the entire language.”

“That’s complicated,” Andy grumbled, still in Russian.

“No, she’s right, darling, you’re that old,” Quynh blurted out in matching Russian, with a few struggles, from her place reading a different book a few feet away on the couch.

After Nile burst out laughing, Andy looked at her with a frown, “Oh so that you understand?!”

--

Even during moments that could have been emotionally difficult, Andy was caught off guard by the ruthlessness of the women around her.

“We can’t do it, it’s too risky,” Andy insisted, about a new sketchy mission offered to them that the youngest member of the family was determined to take, “Listen, Nile…”

“What? I’ll get it when I’m older… than civilization?” Nile crossed her arms defensively, as if that could hide the hint of a smile showing in her lips.

Quynh absolutely failed to stifle a laugh. And when she received a pointed look from her wife, she returned the expression in kind and said, “Was that not the point of whatever you were about to say?”

“We are not taking this job,” Andy stated through clenched teeth, right before learning a valuable piece of information about the mission that they would, in the end, take and successfully complete.

--

“Nile!” Andy yelled, kicking open the door of their latest safe house and storming into the living room. “Nile!”

“What did she do now, and why didn’t she include me?” Quynh walked out of the kitchen with a proud grin already in place.

“Our fake identities just arrived,” Andy grumbled. “Take a look.”

Quynh hummed as she took in her hands the handful of passports Andy passed her. She glanced at them, but found nothing out of the ordinary. “What's the problem, my love? You look frighteninly pretty, as always.”

Although she was still frowning profusely, during a second, a smile broke out on Andy’s face. But then, “She did it on purpose! Look at my age!”

This time, Quynh bit her lip to hold back her smile. After taking a closer look at the passport, she looked up with a small smirk and a playfully raised eyebrow, “Fifty?”

“Fifty!” Andy exclaimed, outraged. “I’ve never been fifty! Fucking fifty! How does she dare-”

“Andromache!” Quynh was openly laughing then. “You are thousands of years old!” When her lover attempted to turn away from her in a rage, Quynh dropped the passports and quickly wrapped her arms around Andy’s waist and hugged her close. “Come on, it’s not a big deal! You don’t look a day over forty eight.”

“Oh, fuck you,” Andy scoffed, but when she turned around to kiss Quynh, there was a small smile on her face.

--

“Quynh! Please tell this crazy old woman to give me back my phone!” Nile stormed into the safe house.

She was quickly followed by Andy saying “We have rules about social media, Nile! To keep us safe.”

Quynh strolled into the living room with a smile on her face that everyone else might have assumed was patient or gentle, but Andy knew it was the kind of smile that brought trouble for her specifically. “Nile, you have to understand,” Quynh said slowly, “She’s too old for this kind of thing.”

As she finished talking, Quynh reached out to take Nile’s phone, Andy quickly blocked her attempt and laughed, “Are you serious?” It started an impressive duel where they fought for the cellphone, with Quynh coming out as the winner for being just slightly quicker, something she would probably remind Andy of for years.

“It’s just a different generation,” Quynh continued to laugh, tossing the phone over to the younger woman a second before Andy threw her arms around her.

“You’re literally older than everyone else in our family combined!” Andy protested as the two of them playfully wrestled in the middle of the living room.

“And you are twice as old as me!” Quynh replied, followed by a yelp of surprise as the love of her life lifted her up from the floor.

The two of them only stopped fighting when they noticed a flash coming from the camera of Nile’s phone. “Hm, you’re both right,” Nile smirked, quickly sending the hilarious picture to their family’s groupchat, “The two of you are ancient.”

Nile walked away from them, leaving behind two women wearing shocked expressions, though Andy was delighted, and Quynh appeared deeply betrayed. “Hey!” Quynh tried to protest, but she was happily interrupted by a kiss from Andy, who a moment later started tickling her, just to start their loving battle all over again.

[seokiloquy]

Word Gets Around - Inarizaki

AU: Gang / Organized Crime 

Requested (Hopefully you’ll like it, dear requester)

Tags/Warning: GN! Reader, a little cliche...I’m running out of ideas for gang aus sjdfk, not much plot...just random times with some of the inarizaki boys, I hope you get a kick from it though (it’s a bit different than how I usually write...at least in my opinion)

Word Count: 5.2k +

The most unexpected thing to happen to you was something that you should have expected, which was kind of sad, to be honest. 

You tended to stay away from your family’s business: running one of the most powerful gangs in Miyagi prefecture, Shiratorizawa. You made that decision very early on in your life, knowing where the money for your food, house, and clothes came from made you want to vomit. 

Your father hadn’t liked your decision but didn’t actively protest it either. However, whenever he tried to talk you into it, you would walk away and then hear him mumble, “They’ll change their mind eventually.” 

You always resisted the urge to say, “I doubt it.” But even you wouldn’t provoke him like that. Not directly at least. 

Since the pressure to take over the business had started at a young age, younger you thought the only way to combat your predestined fate was to be inherently bad at all of the skills that your father had deemed “worthy”. 

He would give you a gun and you would accidentally shoot him in the foot. If he gave you reports and paperwork, you would spill your coffee or tea on them or accidentally place them in the shredder. If he gave you a group of people to manage a job—which you knew would be illegal—you would give them the day off or not show up at all. 

Your father would lecture you and yell at you, but you learned to find joy from the look on his face when it turned blue and red from all the yelling. He tried to con you into it further, only bringing you into meetings and making you sit in his office for hours on end to convince you otherwise. It didn’t work. Hearing your father’s plans and account numbers was the most boring and dull thing on the planet. 

You were great at being terrible and your father thought that you were terrible. After a while, he stopped trying.

You would spend most of your spare time doing schoolwork or helping your mom with whatever she needed to do that day. 

As you helped your mom prepare dinner for that night, one of your father’s lackeys pulled you aside. You frowned. You didn’t recognize him, which was strange because you knew almost everyone who was a part of Shiratorizawa. 

“Your father requested to see you,” he said. His face was pinched into an annoyed look. You doubted that he joined Shirtorizawa to be a messenger between parent and child.

“Okay,” you said. “Do you know what it's about?” 

He glanced at you for a brief moment and then looked away quickly. He shook his head and then walked away. 

Well, he definitely knows something, you thought. You called back to your mom and told her where you were going. 

Though you’ve lived here your entire life, your house still amazed you. It was bigger than any house on the block, the floors were white and grey marble, all of the doors were taller and wider than they need to be, and there were more pieces of art littered around than a museum. You didn’t know how they were all acquired, but something in you never asked. 

You knocked once on the door to your father’s office and let yourself in. 

Your father sat behind his desk like he always would, back straight and arms folded and balanced on the edge of the desk, but there was something different. 

A group of people sat around him. An older-looking man sat back in the chair that was across your father’s desk. You could see the edges of his glasses poke out, but he otherwise didn’t look at you. You had, however, caught the attention of the two boys that were standing on either side of the man. 

They couldn’t have been much older than you. The taller of the two had dark brown hair, parted directly down the middle with little strings at the front that stood up. He looked at you rather indifferently, giving you a glance over, narrowing his eyes slightly, and then turning back to your father as if he took a mental picture of you for him to dissect later. 

The other one had a head of grey hair with black tips on the ends. He looked at you softly, but, still, after a moment turned his attention back to your father. 

Dread filled your stomach. You mentally ticked off all of the things your father could have called you up here for. He wasn’t the type of person to yell at you for being a disappointment in front of an audience. Unless he decided to switch things up a bit.

“Am I interrupting? I can come back,” you said, steeling yourself. You clenched your jaw tightly. 

“No,” your father said. “Take a seat, (Y/N).” 

You walked through the silence and sat in the chair that was opposite to your father and beside the unknown man and boys. 

You looked between the two sets of people. “No.” 

Your father raised his brow. “Excuse me.” 

You shrugged. “Whatever is going here, I disagree, so no to what you’re going to ask me.” 

The boy with the brown hair snorted, earning him a jab in the side from the older man sitting in the chair beside you. 

Your father sighed. “You don’t really have a choice.” 

“I don’t?” you said, questioning the words as they left your mouth. 

“You don’t,” he repeated sternly. His voice was low and rough. You recognized his tone as your queue to stop talking. You learned the hard way that if you pushed past that point, it would end badly. 

You looked away. “Then why am I here?” 

“I can answer that,” the man said. He adjusted his glasses and turned to you. “Your father made a deal with us and lost. So, you will be working for us until his debt is paid off.” 

You blinked. “Excuse me?” You looked pointedly towards your father. “Is that true? You traded your own child? So you could what? Avoid whatever they threaten you with? You’re pathetic.” 

Your father glared at you, his fists tightening into balls on his desk. “Do not speak to me that way. And you will go with them.” 

“No, I won’t,” you said, “and I’m pretty sure that this is illegal.” 

“All that we do is illegal, (Y/N).” 

“All that you do is illegal,” you spat back. 

Your father bolted up from behind his desk and walked over to your side of the table. He excused himself, curtly, to his guests, then grabbed your arm roughly and pulled you outside of his office.

He closed the door and turned to you. “Go along with it.” 

“What is your problem,” you said, ignoring the pain in your arm from where his grip held on. “Even though you do shady things all of the time, I thought you’d at least draw the line at giving your kid to someone, which is definitely illegal and out of some wacky-ass fanfiction.” 

“Calm down,” your father said. “This is all a part of the plan.” 

The plan? You thought. He has officially lost it. “You’ve got to be kidding me.” 

“You’re going to go with them,” he said again, “and you’re going to gather intel about them and report back. You’ll be at the heart of Inarizaki. You’ll know everything that they do, plan, and you can come back and tell me everything that they do and plan. You’ll redeem yourself and then be ready to take over.” 

You scoffed. “The only thing that I will be doing is getting axe-murdered or worse.” 

He ignored you. “You’ll come back after a year and it’ll be like nothing happened. They aren’t going to harm you either. It’s a part of the deal that we made, they just wanted to have someone do grunt work for them and they wanted you because you’re my child.” 

Maybe you should axe murder him. When have people in his line of work ever kept promises they made? You’ve seen him make and break more promises than you could keep track of. 

“What deal did you make?” You already knew you were fighting a losing battle. “What about mom? You’re insane if you think she’ll forgive you for this.” 

“It’s nothing bad,” he said. Lie, you thought. “I made a bad bet—” 

“And I’m paying the price.” 

“You’re just going to live with them for a bit and your mother is going to think that you’re going abroad. Listen—” 

You stopped listening. You couldn’t believe it. You shook in rage and hatred for the person standing in front of you. You always knew that he did awful things to a lot of people, but you never expected that you would make it onto that list. 

At least if you were murdered in the middle of the night wherever these Inarizaki people were taking you, you’d be far away from him. 

“Fine,” you said. “Let’s lead me to my death.” 

“We aren’t going to kill you,” the man in the glasses—Kurosu, you reminded yourself, the leader of Inarizaki—said as he pulled out of your house’s driveway. 

You got some time to pack up your things and got to hug and say goodbye to your mom before leaving. Your father had offered you a smile and a knowing look, but you barely cast him a second glance. It probably never occurred to him that you could spill all of Shiratorizawa’s secrets without blinking.

Yes, you did your best to stay away from all of the technical and logistics of Shirstorizawa’s operations, but that was the sole reason that your father had been flimsy and unaware of all of the stuff he said to the members of his gang while you were in the room. 

You looked at the rearview mirror, catching the eyes of Kurosu. “And I totally believe you.” 

The boy sitting beside you, the one with the dark hair, the one who snorted at your previous comment, laughed. 

“Suna,” said Kurosu. 

“Yes?” he said. 

“Would you like to add something?” 

Suna turned to you. “We don’t axe murder people.” 

You glared at him. “And I totally believe you too.” 

Suna fixed his gaze out the window again. “Kita? Much longer until we’re back home?” 

The grey-haired boy shrugged. “10 minutes. Maybe 20 if there’s any more traffic.” 

Kita, who was sitting in the passenger seat, turned around and looked at you. His eyes drifted to your arm and then back up to your eyes. “Do you even know what you’ll be doing?” 

“Planning my funeral?” 

Kurosu sighed and made a left turn. “You will be doing what you did for your father.” 

Your eyebrows drew together. “What do you think I did for my father?” 

“You were trained to take over Shiratorizawa were you not? Paperwork, running jobs, fieldwork. Sound familiar?” 

You caught eyes with the grey hair boy again. You almost felt bad for them. Has your father really made this deal? He told you that you’d be doing grunt work, so it looks like they weren’t the only ones being lied to. 

“Unless paperwork includes shredding files; running jobs means getting groceries; and fieldwork means taking the bus to school, then my father really oversold my skills.” 

“What do you mean?” Kita asked.

Something rude to say sat at the tip of your tongue. You paused. It wasn’t their fault. They didn’t know that they made a deal with a lair. But how intelligent could their organization be if they wanted the child of someone else’s gang to help them? How intelligent was your father for sending you over with them?

“I never wanted any part in Shiratorizawa,” you said. “So, I refused to learn everything that came with the job. I never did any of the things you listed and never wanted any part in it.” 

As Kurosu pulled up to a red light, he turned to look at you. You felt all three pairs of eyes on you. You tugged at the sleeves of your sweater and looked out the window. 

“Congrats,” you said dully, “you’ve hired the most skilless person for the job.” 

It wasn’t as if you were expecting a grand entrance with a red and gold carpet, but it did shock you when absolutely no one was standing at the entrance of the Inarizaki house. You could tell that the house was full of people too. There were shoes scattered along the entrance and you could hear quick footsteps and backtracks from the floor above you. At your house, there were always people patrolling and walking through the halls. 

They were completely unguarded. 

You made a note of that. Even though you were going to tell your father that they were heavily guarded and armed, you never knew when the information you took in would be of use. The unguarded doors meant that they were trying to keep people out, but they weren’t trying to keep you in. 

“Excuse me,” Kurosu muttered. He made the first left and disappeared around it. You hoped that he was going to yell at your father. Maybe he would send you back in the process. 

Suna had left quietly. You hadn’t noticed he was gone until you turned around and only saw Kita. His expression was unreadable.

So far, you had only met two of the members of Inarizaki and their leader, and you couldn’t tell if they liked you or even accepted your presence in their home. 

“Do I get a room?” you asked. 

He didn’t answer, only tipping his head to the side slightly. 

“Or am I sleeping in a barn or something?”

You took a step further into the building. From the outside, you couldn’t make out the size of the building. One thing that you could discern was that it was definitely bigger than your house. This was a place that was meant to hold a lot of people. 

A grand staircase stood at the centre of the main floor—the floor that you were on—and led to a second landing which branched off into opposite directions. 

“The second floor is where all of the rooms are,” Kita said. He walked up beside you and pointed to the left, the hallway that Kurosu had disappeared down. “That is where Kurosu’s quarters and office are. It’s not off-limits, but no one really goes there unless they need something or it’s an emergency”—he gestured to the right— “the kitchen and training room are over there. There are smaller hallways that lead elsewhere, but I’m not sure that you’ll be staying here for that long.” 

“What makes you say that?” 

Kita took a step forward and then turned to face you. “I’m not sure what the deal was exactly. I overheard that picking you, specifically, was just to tick off your father. Kurosu thought that you’d be helpful in something, but since you said that you don’t have any skills for what we could use you for, he might send you back.” 

You ignored the fact that you were being spoken of as if you were talked up to be a prized cattle, only for the person who brought you to realize that you couldn’t make milk. Now, you were being sent to the slaughterhouse. 

“What do you think?” you asked. 

“About what?” 

“About this situation,” you said. “Would you have taken someone away from their family as a power move? Made them do something to settle a score?” 

Kita paused. And you waited. You didn’t know how long he was going to think for his answer, but you wanted to know and it’s not like you had anything else to do. 

“I would like to think that I wouldn’t. I’m sorry that this happened to you, but it’s not something that anyone else but Kurosu and your father had control over. I’m sure you’ll find a way to settle the score.” 

You swallowed. Oh, he had no idea what was coming to your father. 

“Does your arm hurt?” he asked calmly. 

You blinked. “My arm?” 

He pointed at your arm that your father had grabbed. Without a word, he carefully held your wrist and pushed up your sleeve. You winced when the bunched up cloth rolled over the spot where your father’s grip was the strongest. The faintest marks of a bruise were starting to form. 

Kita dropped your arm and started walking to the right of the staircase. “Stay there.” 

What was that? you thought. After a moment, you were sure that he had abandoned you. You only took a couple of steps forwards when he rounded the corner. In his hand was a blue gel pack. 

He handed it to you. “Put it on your arm,” he said. 

“Thank you.” 

Kita nodded and then started up the stairs. “I’ll show you to your room.” 

You kept your eyes busy. There was still no security of any kind, no bars on the windows, or cameras everywhere. 

He stopped in front of a door. “Can I ask you something?” 

The coolness of the gel pack made you shiver. “If I say no, are you still going to ask?” 

“Probably.” 

You sighed. “Go ahead then.” 

“What did your father tell you when he pulled you aside?” 

You squeezed the pack between your fingers. Kita’s eyes were marked on you, unwavering. You knew he wasn’t going to leave it alone until you answered. 

There was no point in lying, is there? These were the people who you’d be staying with for who knows how long—they said a year, but that could always change and it wasn’t something that you were in control of. 

“He told me to spy for him,” you told him. 

“Are you going to?” 

“I haven’t decided.” 

Kita clicked his tongue and then opened the door. “I think you have.” 

He took a step back. As you passed him, he leaned down to whisper, “I pity your father.” 

Sleep did not find you. At all. Maybe it was because the room Kita showed you was so unfamiliar—and surprisingly well-furnished—that it just made you miss your own room. But your unrested mind brought you back to the fear of being axed murdered. 

Your stomach growled. You frowned. Right, you were in the middle of preparing dinner before you were suddenly ripped away from your home, and now that it was in the middle of the night, you were nervous, anxious, and hungry. 

You opened the door to your room. The hallway was brightly lit and empty. All of the footsteps you heard on your way up to the room had gone quiet. You turned back into your room and grabbed a candle holding that was placed on one of the mantels. 

Their father’s words echoed in their brain. In an unknown place, never go without a weapon. 

At least he was good for something, you thought.

Closing the door behind you, you made your way down the hallway. You recognized the familiar landmarks in the hallway that had led to the staircase—a picture frame a few doors down, a vase that stood on the podium at the corner where you had to turn.

Soon enough, you found your way back to the grand staircase. The tall door loomed over you as you placed your hand on the doorknob. 

I could leave. 

You began to twist it. 

You jumped in alarm as a small crash sounded to the left of the hall. You glanced back at the door. It was probably locked and you didn’t have any of your stuff. How far would you have gotten? And even if you got far, where would you go? 

Despite your better judgment, you followed the sound. This is how people in horror movies get killed, you thought. This hallway was darker than the one upstairs, but a strong crack of light shone through a door. You raised the candle holder. 

Toe-ing the door opened, you straightened your spine and held the holder tighter. As your line of sight got wider, you saw a boy standing behind a long metal table. A backdrop of fridges and cabinets came into view. He had his head down, his rough grey hair fell in front of his forehead and eyes. He focused on something that was in hind hands.

The creaking of the door gave you away. The boy’s head jerked up, dropping what he was working on. His hand cautiously slid over the knife on the table. 

His eyes locked onto yours and then travelled to the candle holder in your raised hand. He frowned. “Are you (Y/N)?”

You swallowed. “Maybe.” 

The corners of his lips tugged up. “Are you going to hit me with that thing?” 

“Maybe,” you repeated.

“Okay,” he said. His eyes lingered on you for another moment before he shrugged and picked up the thing he had dropped. 

Were all of the Inarizaki members so...carefree? If you were back at your house, the slightest creak in the floorboards was enough cause to have security roaming around the halls. 

You took a step closer. The item that he dropped was rice. You glanced at the table. A bowl of rice was beside him as well as various fillings and dishes. A cutting board that was covered in pieces of cut seaweed was in front of him. His head was back down and his hands were shaping rice into triangles.

“Are you making Onigiri?” 

He met your gaze again, his eyes gleaming in a way they hadn’t before as if the topic cheered him up. “I am,” he said. He cocked his head to the side. “The finished ones are over there if you want some.” 

He watched you. “Unless you want to beat me to death with a candle holder.” 

You glared and tentatively put the holder down. “It would be a waste of a candle holder. It’s probably expensive too.” 

“It is,” he said, “it’s also stolen.” 

You scrunch your nose. “Pleasant.” 

You picked up the Onigiri closest to you. It was still warm. “It’s not...poisoned is it?” 

He scoffed and looked at you offendedly. “You can threaten me with a candle holder, but do not insult my food.” 

You raised your eyebrows, a small smile finding its way to your mouth. “I’ll take that as a no then.” 

The rice melted in your mouth. It tasted so much like your mother’s; if you closed your eyes, you could picture yourself standing back in your kitchen. Your mother would smile at you and then scold you for moulding the rice too harshly. 

“A lighter touch, (Y/N),” she would say. “Take your time. No need to rush.” 

“Are you okay?” the grey-haired boy asked.

You wiped your tears away hastily and turned to him. “These are really good,” you said, a light tone in your voice. You finished off the Onigiri in silence and then picked up another one. He didn’t pressure any more information out of you. “Do you need any help?” 

He glanced at the bowl of rice beside him. Despite the full try of onigiri, there was still quite a bit of rice left. “Do you know how to make them?” 

“My mom taught me.” 

He regarded you thoughtfully. “There are gloves under the sink,” he said, “or you can just wash your hands. It doesn’t matter.” 

Shortly after you washed your hands, you joined him at the table. The first few were done in silence. You focused on the repeated motion. 

“I am (Y/N), by the way,” you muttered. “In case you didn’t notice.” 

He chuckled. “I’ve noticed.” He paused. “Miya Osamu.” 

You nodded. You slowed your pace, not wanting to go back upstairs yet. 

“I heard you think that we’re going to axe murder you,” he said. When he saw you look at him, he shrugged. “Word gets around. My brother got a kick out of it.” 

You jutted out your chin. “Maybe I should kick your brother.”

Osamu laughed, a sharp, cheerful sound that made you smile. “I would love to see that.” He looked at you from the corner of his eye. “We’re not that bad, you know.” 

“I don’t think that you’re all spawns of demons,” you said. “I just think that it would be easier if I could...hate all of you,” you admitted. “It’s obvious that I don’t want to be here, which you probably know. I have zero skills that are helpful to Inarizaki as a whole and if I hate it here then it’ll be easier to go back.” 

“To the father who gave you to us like nothing?” 

You shrugged. “My mother’s there. The little details don’t matter.” 

Osamu smiled. “Okay, but don’t say that you’re skill-less. You know how to make Onigiri and probably a lot more, if you ask me, that’s a solid skill in my book.” 

Word gets around. 

You thought about it when you parted ways with Osamu and until your eyes closed for the night. The words still lingered in your mind when you woke up. 

You washed up and changed clothes. 

When you had arrived at Inarizaki house, it couldn’t have been more than a couple of hours for word to get around. The members either had a way to get a message around or they were all super chatty among each other. 

You frowned. Texts messages you dumbass. 

“Why. Am. I. So. Stupid,” you muttered, banging your head against the door for each word. But if it was something else, you wanted to know how they did it. 

Your door opened and you jumped back. 

A golden-yellow head of hair popped out from the crack in the door. The boy widened the door and stood up straight. He had a lazy smirk on his face and looked like Osamu. My brother got a kick out of it.

“Did you knock?” he asked. 

You narrowed your eyes. “Were you waiting for my knock?” 

His lazy smirk grew. “I wait for a lot of things, lunch for one. I’ll walk you?” 

You hesitated. All of the people you’ve met have been kind to you, or at least didn’t harm you, but you couldn’t be sure when that would end. 

“Unless you’d rather kick me first? Word—” 

“—gets around,” you finished. “I know.” You cleared your throat. “I said that your brother could watch when I did.”

He laughed. “I bet he did. Let’s go.” 

He—Atsumu, he introduced—walked ahead of you, only glancing back every now and then to make sure you were following. “Were you just lying about not being able to do anything?” 

“I know how to make Onigiri and I’m surprisingly good at cutting out paper hearts.” 

He rolled his eyes. 

You continued, “I can also hold my breath underwater for—”

“You know what I mean,” he cut off. 

You grinned. “I know what I’m supposed to do, I’ve just never done any of it.” 

Atsumu furrowed his eyes together. “But you know what to do.” 

You matched his pace as he descended the stairs. “Is there something that you want in particular or are you just full of fun questions?

Atsumu turned around. You pulled yourself back from nearly crashing into him. He eyed you weirdly. It was reminiscent of his brother’s gaze, but it had a level of confidence and menace that made you feel like you were on the losing side. 

If I’m getting axe-murdered by anyone here, it’ll definitely be by this guy, you thought. You pulled your shoulders back. 

“Are you usually this straightforward?” he asked. 

“Are you usually this vague?”

“I want to know what you know.” 

You blinked. “Yeah, I’m not following.” 

Atsumu looked around the room. There were loud sounds coming from the kitchen, but otherwise, the main room was empty. He leaned in, smirk gone. You forced yourself not to move away. 

“Kurosu doesn’t tell us much in terms of how Inarizaki runs, like he just assumes that he’s going to live forever and won’t pass on any information to any of us. You, out of all odds, probably know more about how to run a gang than any of us.” 

“So you want me to tell you what I know?” You shook your head. “That requires the assumption that I actually know what you want.” 

“But you do,” a voice said. 

You and Atsumu whipped your heads over the banister of the stairs. Kita, Osamu, Suna, and a few other people you didn’t recognize gathered to the side of the stairs. 

Kita’s eye’s flashed as he took a step forward. “You can’t tell me that your father didn’t make you sit through meetings and forced information on you. I saw the way you looked around when I was showing you to your room, you were taking in information the way that Kurosu did when we went to your house, the way that we’re all trained to do. Even if you claim that you’re skilless, it doesn’t mean that you are.” 

“It could be a partnership,” Atsumu suggested, his eyes back on you. “Kurosu told us this morning that you’re staying until the deal is over. Your father said it was his own fault that Kurosu didn’t verify if you had the skills or not.” 

“Sounds like him,” you said. “What an ass.” 

Atsumu snickered.  

You went around Atsumu to level yourself with the rest of the Inarizaki members. They all had the same gleam in their eye of determination...and something else. You couldn’t put your finger on it. Atsumu footsteps followed behind you and then joined the side of the other members. 

You stood away from them. “Are you going to tell Kurosu?” 

“No,” Kita said.

“A partnership,” you repeated. “Doesn’t that mean we both benefit from this? Not that I really need or want anything, but there’s got to be something right? Are you going to get me a lifetime supply of ice cream?”

“We can get you that, or at least try, if that’s what you want,” Suna said, his quiet voice took over the room. “A lot can happen in a year. For instance, your father could have an unfortunate accident.” 

“You want to kill him?” 

Suna shrugged. “It can be arranged is what I’m saying.” 

You sighed. “No killing, please.” 

“Then what do you want?” Osamu asked. 

You could picture yourself clearly. A year from now you would walk into your father’s house and recite all of the things that you’ve learned from Inarizaki. You would stretch the truth until it became paper-thin. You would watch your father fall so slowly, it would be as if he willingly pushed himself off the cliff

You smiled. “I’ve got a thing or two in mind.” 

A lot could happen in a year and you would make the most of it. 

Tackling these requests slowly because my tiny peanut brain can’t come up with any ideas of how I want stories to go. 

Anyways, I hope you enjoyed - Kiwi

Posted: 16/05/2021

[forever-animated]

TDP Season 4 Preliminary Predictions, Part One (1-12)

So with S4 in production, no trailer in sight, and a TBA release date, it looks like there’s still a wait before we get any news on the upcoming season.

That being said, we do have some information to go on regarding what might be in store for our favorite characters. (Previous SDCC interviews, the recent Instagram Live and Reddit AMA with the creators, Callum’s Spellbook, and of course, Through the Moon.)

So I decided to put together some preliminary predictions based on the info we have so far. My desire is to create a TDP S4 bingo board just before the season airs, so that gives me 24 guesses/predictions to come up with (not including the free space). I’ll probably tweak most of these once we get our trailer, since I’m sure it’ll provide more insight as to the direction of the show.

So without further ado, here are my first 12 TDP S4 preliminary predictions...

1. Spring 2021 Release

During the Reddit AMA at the beginning of October, the creators gave the following update:

Since it’s been over a month, we can safely assume they’re in production now.

From what I understand, pre-production is mostly writing and storyboarding, possibly voice recording as well. If they’re in the production phase, that means animation has begun.

Let’s consider the turnaround time for past seasons. S1′s airdate was September 14, 2018; S2′s was February 15, 2019; and S3′s was November 22, 2019. This means that there was only a five month gap between S1 and S2, and a nine month gap between S2 & S3. 

The gap between S3 & S4 has been longer than both of those. But considering that we’ve had a global pandemic and that we’ve been waiting on Netflix to greenlight more seasons, this is to be expected. We only heard about the renewal back in July. Assuming the team started work around that time, they’ve already been working for about four months. 

If we estimate that it’ll be another five months before we see S4, (nine months in total, same as the wait between S2 and S3), that means it will air around April 2021. Of course, it could air before or after - depending on how long production takes. But I believe it’s safe to say that we could be seeing TDP S4 air in spring 2021. 

2. Timeskip < 6 Months

We know from interviews that there will be a timeskip between S3 & S4. If you’ve read Through the Moon, you know that there’s a few weeks in between the end of S3 and the beginning of the graphic novel, and that the events of the story happen in the span of about two weeks. So we can estimate that it’s been about a month between the end of S3 and the end of TTM.

We also know there will be a bit of a timeskip between TTM and the start of S4, per the Reddit AMA, but we’re not sure how long that will be.

My guess? The timeskip between S3 & S4 will be six months or less. 

I was initially going to play it safe and say “less than three years,” because anything more than that would require a recast to account for teenage Ezran. (And given how much the creators and fans LOVE Sasha, I doubt a recast will ever happen in the show.) 

But realistically, I don’t think the timeskip will be more than a half a year. The events of TTM imply that the story is very much moving forward, and anything too far in the future would give the audience too much to be caught up on. So it’ll likely be only a few months of a gap between seasons, and definitely less than six.

3. New Clothing & Hair for Characters

Many of the characters in ATLA received either new hairstyles or clothing between the seasons. So following that logic, and given that Ehasz is behind both shows, it stand to reason the same will hold true for TDP.

The creators have confirmed that Callum will be going “sun’s out, gun’s out” for S4. (Their words, not mine.) This makes sense since he now knows how to cast mage wings, and he wants them to be readily accessible at a moment’s notice.

We also see that Rayla’s sporting a new cloak when she leaves at the end of TTM, so she’ll likely have this for S4 as well. 

Ezran may get new garb as well, as he settles into his new role as king.

I also think it’s possible that their hair could change as well. Rayla’s on her own now, so her hair will probably just get longer. Maybe she’ll braid it or wrap it up in a ponytail to keep it out of her face. If Callum returns to Katolis, he might get a haircut in-between seasons. But if he goes straight out to search for Rayla, his hair might be even longer.

Either way, new hair and clothes seems like a given.

4. Older Zym

The creators have assured us in prior interviews that Zym is still very much a part of this story. It is called The Dragon Prince after all.

That being said, I think it’s possible we’ll see a slightly older Zym next season, especially due to the timeskip. I doubt he’ll get much bigger. He’ll probably go from being the size of a puppy to the size of a full-grown dog. And I don’t think he’ll talk yet. That seems like it won’t be for many years in the future.

Still, I think we can reasonably look forward to seeing an older Zym.

5. Mid Season Rayllum Reunion

I already have a post highlighting the reasons why I think Callum and Rayla will definitely reunite in S4, as I know many fans are wondering if they’ll spend the whole season apart. 

But I think this reunion may happen sooner rather than later. By that, I’m guessing it’ll happen at the midway point - either episodes 4 or 5.

This gives us the chance to have three or four whole episodes with them apart, which seems like a reasonable amount. Then we get their reunion, which’ll likely be it’s own episode. Then we get four or five whole episodes with them together again, dealing with the fallout of Rayla’s decision, working together, and hopefully reconciling by the season’s end. This seems like it could be a nice, tidy arc for them to have for the season, so that’s what I’m going to guess will happen.

Plus, it’ll have us feeling all the feels.

6. Janai’s Brother Wants the Throne

It’s been confirmed that Janai and Khessa have a younger, unnamed brother. We know nothing about him, and the creators decided not to comment when asked about him during the AMA. This means that he’ll likely be an important player for S4.

One of the writers (I believe it was Devon) also confirmed via Twitter that Janai is next in line for the throne after her sister’s death, calling her Queen Janai. 

This raises a very interesting potential plotline for S4. What if Janai decides to ally with the humans that helped during the battle at the Storm Spire? What if her brother is not happy about this? Letting a human into Lux Area was the reason Khessa died, after all.

What if Janai’s brother decided to make a play for the throne - either by contesting Janai’s rule, threatening civil war, or by trying to usurp the thone?

The creator’s have mentioned that despite the Zym being returned to Xadia, there is still a long road to peace between the elves and humans. They alluded to an “event” that makes Ezran aware of this.

Unrest / war between the Sunfire elves could very easily be what they’re talking about. And Janai’s brother wanting the throne could very easily be the catalyst for that.

7. Aaravos in the Shadows

Many fans are speculating that our main characters may now finally become aware of Aaravos’s existence in the series. As for me? I’m not so sure.

Keep in mind, outside of Viren, Claudia, and perhaps a handful of Sunfire elves, no one else in the show knows of Aaravos’s existence. He’s been keeping to the shadows, pretty clearly using Viren as his puppet. 

With the end of S3, he’s in the cocoon, leaving Viren and Claudia on their own. We don’t know how long it’ll take for him to emerge, or even what form he’ll take when that happens. But we do know that he’ll be back for S4, per Erik Todd Dellums. (And apparently, he’ll have an even sexier voice.)

I imagine he and the dark mage fam will have their own arc in S4, which may eventually intersect with whatever the main cast is up to, but not for awhile yet. As for Aaravos himself, I think he’s playing the long game. And I think part of that means staying in the shadows as much as he possible can, while he consolidates power. The goal it seems is to make his form stronger and stronger, and eventually finding a way to leave the mirror realm entirely. Why would he want to play his cards too early?

So with Viren and Aaravos out of the way for much of S4, who does this leave as the main antagonist?

8. Sol Regem, Main Antagonist

Enter Sol Regem. It’s been confirmed that we’ll see him again, after all. And we know just how much hatred he has for humans. He was hellbent on frying Callum to a crisp, even after he had agreed to return the human kingdoms.

It was revealed that Sol Regem was once revered by the Sunfire elves, before he became a symbol of rage and bitterness. Still, this reverence is an important part of Sunfire history.

This is something Janai’s brother could leverage if he’s looking to usurp the throne and pit the human-hating Sunfire elves against those that are loyal to Janai. With the literal Sun King on his side, he becomes a formidable foe.

This could be the event that leads Ezran to act. Will the humans who fought at the Storm Spire come to the aid of Janai and her people? Will the Dragon Queen weigh in on this matter? Will they need to gather the other elemental dragons together in hopes of defeating Sol Regem? (If so, this is a way we could bring Rex Igneous into the story.)

This might be a bit of a stretch, of course. But it does lead for an interesting direction for S4, and S5 as well, and would be a way to introduce more dragons and keep Zym and his mother in the story. 

And, as I stated in my Rayllum S4 reunion post, this gives Rayla incentive to stop hunting Viren and shift gears to focus on the more emergent threat. Which in turn could reunite Team Zym once again.

9. Rex Igneous Eats a Jelly Tart

It’s pretty much a given that we will meet Rex Igneous (the Earth dragon) in this season. You can see a sneak peak of him in Callum’s Sketchbook, which has the following caption:

It was also revealed by the creators that some “very important figures” would be eating jelly tarts in upcoming seasons.

Given this information, it doesn’t seem farfetched to imagine that Rex Igneous will be one of those figures.

10. Soren & Ezran Adventure / Bonding

Soren used to share his screen time with Claudia, but now that she’s out on her own with her dad, he’ll need a new buddy to share screen time with.

I nominate Ezran, mostly because S3 dealt a lot with their relationship, and it just makes sense to continue to develop this in S4. Plus, Ezran’s the king and Soren’s the guard. Where he goes, Soren follows.

So it makes sense that they’ll have an adventure together in S4.

11. Dramatic Claudia Reveal / Confrontation

I had this on my list for awhile, but Ehasz tweeted this and nearly confirmed it:

I think we’re going to get either a really dramatic reveal or confrontation between Claudia and another character. Either Viren, Soren, or possibly Callum. (I don’t think it’ll be Rayla, since she has no real connection to Claudia.) Or perhaps it’ll simply be a dramatic reveal for us, the audience.

Either way, stuff’s going down.

12. Callum Learns Moon Arcanum

The creators have mentioned that Callum will be learning more of the primal sources in future seasons. I think it stands to reason that moon will be next for him.

S3 already showed him starting to grasp a lot of the fundamentals of the source - both in their evasion of Sol Regem and in casting the spell to see Rayla’s parents. Through the Moon builds on this even more, with him using moon opals to cast more moon magic, and learning even more from Lujanne regarding the nature of the primal.

Being separated from Rayla might be the push he needs to finally unlock the arcanum once in for all. Perhaps it’ll be key to tracking her down, if he goes after her.

If not, perhaps understanding Rayla’s past and the decision that she made, and their reconciliation is what will trigger it.

Hard to say for sure, but I feel like this will relate to Rayla in some way. And it will definitely happen in S4.

Okay, that’s it for now. I’ll do a part 2 eventually and go through my last 12 predictions.

[purge-that-urge-rhackathon]

Rebound

This is the first part of a commission :D

Rhys gets dumped, Jack goes on a 'treat Rhys nice' spree out of pure spite, and eventually catches some serious feels himself.

Subsequent parts on my ao3 here. My masterlist archive of bullshit i write can be found linked at the top of the blog or here.

--

Jack had stopped reading the report on his desk some time ago, his attention focused on his personal assistant as the younger man somberly frowned to himself.

Rhys made a little noise Jack wasn’t entirely sure was voluntary, the sound a little too close to a sob instead of a sigh. It had been several days of this, now, slowly escalating to the point that Jack was actively invested in the unhappy looks on his PA’s face. He couldn’t leave it alone any longer.

“Hey. Rhysie. What gives?”

Rhys looked up sharply, a slightly-caught look on his face. “Huh?”

“Don’t ‘huh’ me. You’ve been mopey all day. Don’t think I didn’t notice, buttercup.” Technically not a lie. But Jack didn’t volunteer that he’d noticed days prior. “What’s the matter? You get dumped or something?” he teased with a smirk.

The expression on Rhys’ face went stricken, and Jack frowned. No, that couldn’t actually be it. Rhys was, like, in love with that guy. Never shut up about him or whatever hot dates he had lined up or outings planned. The way the PA doted and bragged to Jack about how well things were going sometimes even made the older man jealous.

No one put that much effort into dating him, after all. It was usually the other way around, in Jack’s opinion.

Rhys had an anniversary coming up in two days that he’d asked him the day off for, too. Maybe his dinner reservation was cancelled or something. A total bummer, but nothing Jack couldn’t help with if it took that look off the younger man’s face. Being Handsome Jack’s personal assistant had to come with some perks.

“Rhysie, baby, it can’t be that bad. Come on, tell ol’ Jack what’s wrong.”

“That’s exactly it, actually,” Rhys didn’t deny. He knew he’d been feeling pathetic but if Jack noticed then it really said something. “I got dumped. Go ahead and laugh.”

Jack was going to do anything but. “What?? Who’s laughing? That guy dumped you?” Who the hell would dump his PA? Jack was offended on his behalf. “After all those cute little lunches and shit you showed me you made for that loser?"

He’d believe the other way around; Rhys was gorgeous after all. But as far as Jack knew, the younger man had seemed pretty happy with the nameless jerkwad that kicked him to the curb. That Rhys had been moping for days bothered Jack significantly.

“What a butthead,” Jack stated simply.

Rhys slightly snorted a little at that description of-- well, was he even an ex-boyfriend now? The way he’d been dumped, Rhys got the impression that he was the only one who had thought they were a committed item. “I don’t… I don’t super wanna talk about it…”

“No? You sure, buttercup? I can always put out a hit on him.”

Rhys snorted again, but the smile he gave as he shook his head was watery. “Please don’t do that, Jack. It’s not-- It’s not his fault or anything. I just… misunderstood what we had.”

Jack wrinkled his nose at that, but didn’t comment as it was clear that the younger man was taking it particularly hard. Sounded like the guy was a grade-A jerkwad in Jack’s opinion. He certainly didn’t deserve Rhys. If the younger man was half as good a boyfriend as he was a personal assistant, then the guy was an idiot and a jerkwad.

Rhys busied himself in tidying up his desk a little self-consciously as Jack watched him with a considering frown. “...You sure I can’t have the guy whacked for you, pumpkin? Volunteer him for R&D’s bio-division? Target-practice?”

Rhys snorted and ignored Jack, though a wan smile took his face.

It was better than tears, at least.

--

Two days later, Jack sat at his desk in the early-morning hours with glasses on and a screwdriver in hand. His coffeemaker lay in pieces strewn across the desk before him. And Jack was super wishing for a cup of something strong right now indeed.

He held a curly, spring-looking thing in his hand, squinting at it in scrutiny. He wasn’t sure the machine needed it, and wasn’t entirely certain it belonged to it, anyways.

Maybe he should’ve cleared his desk from the odds and ends he’d been tinkering with early that morning, but then he’d desperately needed a cup of coffee, and the damn light kept blinking but no caffeine was forthcoming. Which left him with only one option.

His favorite place in the hub wasn’t even open yet, and even under threat from Handsome Jack himself, it would take so long to get the employees to the store and the roaster going, let alone bring it up to him. Jack could be patient, but he wasn’t that patient.

So… he was fixing the machine.

He lost himself to testing connecting wires to the heating element, pleased that everything seemed to be conducting correctly, and he set it aside into the ‘okay’ pile of stuff he’d checked. The curly-spring sat next to it in the ‘maybe’ pile, and everything else strewn across his desk was being categorized under ‘guess we’ll find out’.

Jack was looking into the dispenser-module when the doors to the office whooshed open. He looked up with startled puzzlement as Rhys strode through, cups of coffee in both hands and bag slung over his shoulder.

The CEO checked the time, and then the date to make sure he wasn’t mistaken, brows knit together in confusion as his PA raised a brow of his own at the mess on Jack’s desk.

“Is that… the coffee maker?” he asked, setting Jack’s own overly-sweetened usual on the desk next to what used to be the start-mechanism. “How long have you been here? Did you even go home last night, Jack?”

“Yes I went home,” Jack said honestly, though it had only been for a few hours before some emergency at one of their Eridium mines had called him back. Some time before he seriously needed a caffeine fix.

The CEO took the cup from the desk with serious gratitude, immediately sipping with a sigh of appreciation. He could feel his headache from annoyance already going away. He turned his attention back to Rhys, the younger man picking up the water-spout from the ‘okay’ pile with a frown.

Jack met the look the younger man was giving him, shrugging as he put his attention on the piece in Rhys’ hand. “Yeah, I’m fixing it. It wasn’t working, the light was blinking…”

Rhys looked at him with disbelief. “The ‘add-water’ light? Seriously? For the reservoir in the back?” His expression was half-amusement and half pity, but definitely condescending in a way that only made Jack smirk. Rhys knew he knew better. And it was also a judgment on the almost-correct assumption that Jack had slept in the office again.

It was one of the things Jack liked about Rhys-- he wasn’t so scared of him not to poke fun. He cared if Jack was getting proper sleep or not. And the longer Jack looked at him-- with the knowledge that he’d taken the entire coffee maker apart over an empty reservoir- the bigger that shit-eating grin on the younger man’s face grew.

Jack knew he should’ve just gone back home to sleep for a few hours instead of remaining in the office after the mine was dealt with. He was an engineer, dammit. He’d way over thought the problem. Wasn’t thinking straight at all.

Maybe he got the date wrong, too.

He took another appreciative sip of his coffee, giving Rhys a once-over. “Didn’t I approve your day off, kiddo?”

Rhys’ smile somewhat wilted, turning a bit awkward. “Uh, yeah…”

“Then what’re ya doing here, cupcake? Don’t get me wrong, I really needed this crap,” he said, gesturing with his cup, “like, really-really. If the mess doesn’t tell ya. So what gives?”

“Um… I only asked for the day off because me and-- and--” Rhys looked away in minor humiliation, though he didn’t bother keeping it to himself. Jack already knew, anyways. “I’d thought I was going to be having a romantic anniversary date today,” Rhys laughed as if it didn’t bother him half as much as it clearly did. “Since that’s clearly not happening, I decided to just come in.”

He looked embarrassed, as if it was anything Rhys himself should take responsibility for. Jack really would like to punch the asshole that had dumped Rhys. Right in the nose.

“Hey, his loss, my gain, right?” Jack tried for nonchalance; to bring Rhys’ mood up with usual familiarity. Rhys rolled his eyes, though he’d succeeded in making one side of the younger man’s mouth quirk in a smile.

Rhys went to his desk as routine, setting down his coffee and bag as Jack sat at his own. The CEO frowned at the unnecessary mess. He’d taken it apart pretty quickly, but putting it back together…

“What’s on the roster for today, pumpkin?”

Rhys looked up from where he sat, lowering his coffee cup from his mouth and swallowing the sip he’d taken. “Well,” he began after swallowing, pulling up the older man’s schedule. “Not much. There’s an echo-call with the Wildlife Exploitation Preserve down on Pandora… And a few department walk-throughs, weapons testing if you wanted, but that’s really about it.”

“That’s it?” Jack echoed with surprise. “Rhysie, kitten, if the day was gonna be this uneventful, you should’ve just taken it off. Have a spa-day or something.”

Rhys pouted in his direction for the older man’s lack of tact. “It’s uneventful because I thought I wouldn’t be here to assist you,” he said petulantly. “I cleared your schedule so you could just test prototypes, or something else you’d have fun on your own with that needed to be done.”

Jack’s brows were raised in clear surprise at the thoughtfulness of the younger man, even as Rhys sent him an impressive scowl. Here Rhys had planned to be away celebrating some romantic anniversary, and the PA had still tried to confirm a fun work day for Jack.

He didn’t have to do that. Hell, he could’ve forced the CEO to finally do all those budget-meetings he knew he hated. Or set up various interviews by those requesting an audience with him. He hated those things. After that little creep in genetics or whatever wanted some grant to clone him…

Well, the enthusiasm was nice at least.

“Count on you to be the perfect little PA,” Jack praised with a smirk, “but if I were you, I still would’ve chosen to sleep in. And before you say anything, I did go home last night,” Jack reiterated with an arched brow as he took a big, unapologetic slurp of his coffee.

Rhys snorted and shook his head. He appreciated Jack’s exaggerated mannerisms. It was normal. Jack being Jack. Distracting from the actual humiliation he felt over thinking his ‘boyfriend’ had been…. Well, his boyfriend.

At least he’d been dumped before wishing the other man a happy anniversary. That would’ve been a hundred times worse in Rhys’ opinion. “It’s not like I’m going to any of those reservations I made by myself, Jack. That’s just sad. And I’m pretty sure it would be pathetic to ‘be mopey’ at home all day.” Rhys was paraphrasing Jack’s own words from days previous, but the sentiment was the same.

He didn’t want to be alone with the humiliation he still felt.

Jack’s gaze stayed locked on Rhys’ own until the younger man looked away a bit somberly. He’d maybe thought the conversation was over for the most part, but the gears in Jack’s brain began turning as he considered his jilted PA.

He wanted to do something nice for Rhys. To make him feel better about the asshole that dumped him. It was such a disappointment to have had a day of fun lined up only to try to forget it ever existed. Jack wasn’t exactly familiar with the feeling himself, but he thought he could probably relate. He wanted to try to, anyways. To show Rhys that he was still a hot little leggy commodity; that Jack appreciated him and the things he did for him.

He had a couple ideas about how he could go about that.

And hell, maybe Rhys would enjoy spending some time with him, too, outside the sometimes interesting parameters of the job of being Jack’s right hand man.

“Hey kitten,” Jack spoke before he could stop himself, a smile on his face as his gaze met Rhys’ own. “How about you still have that romantic little day you planned out, hm?”

Rhys’ brows raised into his hair with bewilderment before furrowing with a pout. “I didn't want to spend the day alone,” he repeated previous words. His voice took on a bit of a sour note, not bothering to hide his mood at the perceived slight. “Am I bugging you or something, Jack?”

Jack’s smile turned to a smirk. Whether he was actually mopey or not, Rhys’ sass was still intact. “Damn baby, that asshole did a number on you, huh?” Rhys’ pout deepened into a full-blown frown, but Jack’s smirk turned toothy. “I meant, if there’s nothing important to do today otherwise, let’s just screw around.” The look Rhys leveled at him now made the older man roll his eyes. “Not like that. Geez you’re sensitive today.”

“You’re not funny.”

This was already blowing up in his face before he even got started.

Luckily, Jack knew Rhys’ weakness well-enough: “I have one echo call, and crap that frankly I’d rather save for the next time you try to make me go to a budget meeting,” Jack began quickly, “so why don’t we go get ice cream at that place you’re always telling me about or something instead? Eat out somewhere fancy for lunch, huh?” he proposed. “What other neat shit did you have planned today, pumpkin? You don’t wanna go it alone, I get it-” Jack said pointedly, “-but there’s no reason to miss out on fun because of some dick-bag, right?”

Rhys looked at him with open disbelief. “Really? Are you serious?”

Something about the tone of the younger man’s voice made the CEO feel warm under the biosynthetic skin that was his mask. Jack just grinned what he knew was a charming smile, ignoring the heat in his cheeks at the plaintive look on Rhys’ face. “I sure am, buttercup. Consider it a celebration of dodging a bullet, huh? At least you didn’t waste anymore time with that jerk.” Rhys’ lips twitched at the beginning of what might be a smile. “What’s the first thing you wanna do, huh? ...I can still set it up to have this guy dodge actual bullets, ya know.”

Rhys snorted but shook his head at the suggestion, trying to hold back the smile that wanted to break on his reddening face.

Jack wanted to dedicate a day to him, huh? That would be nice. The older man liked getting his way and always being in charge, but Rhys got the sense he genuinely wanted to do something nice for him.

He might’ve rejected the offer if he thought Jack was doing it out of pity alone, but then he was pretty sure the older man didn’t know what pity was. Jack probably just wanted a reason to further screw around all day and not work, but he sure didn’t need to include Rhys if that was his real goal… even if Rhys had thought he was trying to make him go home at first.

That was pretty damn thoughtful where his boss was considered. Jack generally only knew big gestures, but the offer to do his day with him, like he’d planned before being dumped...

Well hell, Rhys had had a nice couple of things set up before all his feelings were crushed. He’d felt too humiliated over the situation to have even cancelled his reservations and appointments, but he was also slightly depressed over missing out on them. He’d been looking forward to it. The restaurant reservation alone had taken him a month to secure, even with dropping Jack’s name.

It didn’t matter now, though, since Jack himself would be with him. The level of service was certainly going to be better than if he’d been with his not-boyfriend, that was for damn sure.

“Well… the ice cream shop was actually one of the stops in my plans,” Rhys admitted through the smiling blush on his face. He wasn’t sure yet if he wanted to let his hopes get too high, but it might be fun doing most of the same planned activities with Jack. It was better than going alone, at least. They’d probably get better service throughout the day, too.

Jack hopped up from his desk, abandoning the mess that had once been his coffee maker to come and stand before Rhys with a grin. “Cool! Great! Let’s do that then!”

Rhys gave him a look with a sort of lopsided smile. He angled his view around Jack, leaning to pointedly look at the older man’s desk. “What about the coffee maker?”

“Order another one, kiddo. Something fancy and real obvious about where the water is supposed to go. Hell, get an automated one and have the plumbers hook it while we’re gone. Never run out of water again! Ha!”

Rhys snorted at the idea, but he already knew the one he wanted to replace it with. Out with the old, in with the new. The old one had worked fine, but it was outdated and more than ready for a replacement. He counted it lucky that Jack had happened to the coffee maker. Jack could fix it if he put the time in, but it was easier (and more fun) to just buy another.

Little did Rhys know that his life was about to get the coffee maker experience in sum-total.

Both the good, and the bad.

--

kofi | ao3

[schmergo]

Henry IV part 1 at the Folger Shakespeare Library: Informal Review

Shakespeare’s history plays often get an unfair reputation for being dry and dull. Something about the Roman numerals in the titles scares audiences off, I guess. But the Folger Shakespeare Theatre’s new production of Henry IV Part 1 is sleek, energetic, and action-packed. The 2 hours and 45 minutes (with intermission) flew by and I often found myself on the edge of my seat.

Director Rosa Joshi’s production creates a distinctive world for the rebels, royals, and ruffians who populate this play: half-futuristic, half-medieval inspired. King Henry and his court bear some resemblance to Captain Picard and his crew with simple monochromatic suits decorated with a stylized “IV” insignia, matching the giant neon symbol that looms over the set. The commoners of Eastcheap look one part ‘Burning Man’ festival, one part Renaissance festival, and knights wear camouflage pants while carrying real swords. It sounds like it shouldn’t work, but it does, and it all comes together to show how timeless this play is.

The wonderfully effective set, designed by Sara Ryung Clement, is an industrial looking network of scaffolding, ppes, ladders, and a catwalk. At the center of it all sits a looming throne that easily converts to a table for the tavern scenes (complete with a hiding space)! Actors use every inch of this jungle gym set to its full potential, most effectively in the battle scenes of the final act. Even set transitions serve as character moments (for example, Worcester aggressively shoves the throne offstage with almost clawlike hands).

The play’s aesthetic was strongest in its simplicity, though the sound design, filled with loud club music and air horn sounds, could get a little excessive. Joshi’s character-driven approach to the play, along with the Folger’s intimate space, served the text better than other bombastic productions of history plays that I’ve seen recently.

As the careworn king, Peter Crook had me hanging on his every word. Crook’s commanding performance was the most masterful portrayal of Henry I’ve seen yet. It’s rare to see such a confident, sophisticated delivery of Shakespeare’s verse, especially since the title role of this play is often overshadowed by other characters. A much younger and less-experienced actor, Tyler Fauntleroy nonetheless held his own as hot-tempered soldier Hotspur. Despite being easily angered and impulsive, Fauntleroy’s Hotspur comes across as quite likeable, with passionate energy and strong stage presence. He and his wife (Maribel Martinez) share a playful, intense union of two equally stubborn and strong-willed people—not veering into violent misogyny as I sometimes see.

I was less impressed by Avery Whitted’s portrayal of Prince Hal. On paper, he does everything right. He’s clearly a talented and well-trained actor with strong physical acting skills, an expressive face, and a good sense of timing. But when he opens his mouth to speak Shakespeare’s text, it just falls flat. He seems to be holding back a little, perhaps intimidated by the responsibility. (Looking at his bio in the program, I saw that this was his first professional Shakespeare play.) I kept waiting for him to ‘imitate the sun’ and show a true virtuosity of performance late in the show, but it never happened.

In a scene in which Hal faces his father for the first time, usually an electrifying scene, I found myself watching Crook instead of listening to a single thing Hal said, and the scene never built to an emotional climax. Whitted did build a great rapport with Edward Gero’s Falstaff, and his best work occurred in the very awesome and prolonged final sword fight between Hotspur and Hal. My heart was in my throat, and I KNOW what happens there.

Gero’s Falstaff has been front and center in all of the ads and promotional materials for the show. After all, he’s a world-class Shakespearean actor and a DC area treasure, and Falstaff is one of Shakespeare’s greatest roles. I found his Falstaff a wonderfully nuanced performance by a master Shakespearean… but is it a sin if I say I wished he let Falstaff be just a little sillier?

He is totally believable as the corpulent old con artist, clearly embodying every shade of his character, and the entire theatre went dead quiet in the outstanding scene in which Falstaff, in the middle of play-acting with Hal, begs his young friend not to banish him from his company. His reactions are well-timed, his expressions are arch, his earthy delivery is enjoyable, but I just didn’t laugh as much as I often do with this character. I wonder if this will still be true further into the run, since at this early performance, I noticed him slightly misspeaking a few lines. (I doubt most people in the audience would notice, but after directing this show last year, I know most of Falstaff’s lines pretty well.)

Another local favorite, Naomi Jacobson, is a standout as the scheming Worcester, here represented as a female character. With sharp red shoes and severe silver hair, she reminds me of the ‘strutting Teresa May’ meme come to life. Although she’s obviously manipulative and self-serving, I’ve never felt so sympathetically inclined toward Worcester before. She often seemed to vibrate with the injustice of the King’s treatment of her.

In general, I thought the play was most powerful in its dramatic moments and could have leaned just a little more into the comedy. It seemed slightly afraid to get too silly (except for one or two uproarious moments—my personal favorite bit being when one of Falstaff’s minions stuck his arm inside his shirt and pretended it had been cut off after the ‘robbery scene’). But for all that, it gave a warmth and urgency to the play that I’ve seen missing from bigger productions. It also incorporated choreographed stomping, clapping, and hip-hop/step movement into battle scenes in a way that actually worked to convey the noise of battle without becoming distracting, unlike some plays I’ve seen. And the ending? Well, let's just say Bri and I both went 'Oooooooh' just before the final blackout.

Henry IV is truly a play with something for everyone, and this production was directed with a clear love for the material. I recommend catching this show before it closes on October 13! Discounted tickets are available on TodayTix.com, and you can call the Folger box office for discounted tickets for young theatregoers!

[bigtiddycommity]

Clé: Miroh (1)

Pairing: Bang Chan x reader ft. Stray kids

Warnings: Slight profanity

Summary: An up and coming singer is introduced to the rough and unfair world of the music industry when she is tricked into a fake relationship with a popular idol. Her entire world has been turned upside down and now not only is she hated by millions of fans around the world but she is now despised by her...boyfriend?

Word count: 2k

Welcome to Clé- Admin peach

Enjoy!

___________________

Rule number one in business: Always read and review your contract. Why? Because you could end up on a plane to Korea and leaving your entire life behind.

Aurelia had made possibly the most naive and idiotic decision she could make and now it had completely changed her life; maybe even her career. Blinded by the excitement of her and her group releasing their new album, she foolishly signed her new contract without reading the fine print. If she had, she would have seen that it was a trap.

“It’s crazy how far we've come. A couple years ago we were praying for a big label like Lush to even consider giving us a second glance, God!” Ivy said with a faraway look in her eye.

The popular girl group, Lunar ,sat in their shared dorm talking about how far they had come in their career. The group consisted of four girls between the ages of 19 to 22 years of age. They had gone from struggle of being noticed, to charting #1 albums in dozens of countries.

“I know. My parents swore I was going to be a useless college drop out. Thanks for the vote of confidence, mom.” Oldest member, Mina said shaking her head with a laugh.

“I remember your mom storming into practice that one time screaming about life goals. That was fucking hilarious!” Nicole, the trouble maker, said cackling at her bandmates embarrassment.

“Yeah, yeah, laugh all you want. That woman is a psycho.” Mina grumbled.

The group soon got quiet as the three older members turned to look at their baby of the group, Auriella, who seemed to be in a world of her own.

“You okay, princess?” Ivy asked softly.

“I’m just...happy. For the longest time, I thought I would never make it and I would be stuck in the system forever.” The small girl said looking at her hands, blushing slightly.

“Hey,” the older girl scooted closer and put her arm around her friend. “You made it. You're here, with us and we are killing it! Things couldn't be better and it's all thanks to you. If you hadn't fought for us so hard all these years, we never would have made it.” She said seriously.

“Yeah, babe. You damn near killed yourself for this group. Give yourself a little credit.” Nicole added with a smirk.

Instead of replying, Auriella just smiled with tear filled eyes and held her arms open.

“Aww!”

“Our baby, Ella!”

“We did it, guys.”

Little did they know, their world was about to be crushed. Things were about to change in ways they never expected.

Their music label, Lush Management, had unfortunately run into a few money issues and it couldn't have happened at the worst possible time. Their biggest artist group was preparing to release another possibly billboard charting album but they had no money to promote it. To make matters worse, the company was in works with another foreign agency, JYP Entertainment.

There was talk of a possible merging of the two companies to expand their already large audiences. Due to the sudden financial issues, fear set in that JYP would no longer want to work with them but much to the labels surprise, a deal was offered. A PR Contract. One of their female artists would move to Korea and sign a dating contract tying her to one of their artists. Apparently one of their artists, though popular, needed more exposure to bring attention to their upcoming album series and world tour.

Knowing that none of their artists would willingly put their career on an unplanned hiatus so suddenly in a plan that did not benefit them, the label knew they had to act quickly and discreetly. They could deal with the anger of their artist after the contract was signed. After many meetings and weeks of deliberation, Aurelia Duran was chosen. She was one of the company's most loyal artists and knew that she was slightly naive, meaning that she wouldn't suspect a thing. They were right.

Two weeks later

Aurelia was told to come down to the company to talk to the CEO. Though confused, she did as she was told. Figuring that they probably wanted to talk to her about the songs she wrote for her group's new album. When she walked into the large room, the young girl automatically felt a shift in atmosphere. The air in the room seemed tense and strict. Auriella had been signed with this label for 3 years and trained with them for 6, so she was close with the executives and producers. They never had such an aura with each other, so she began to feel uncertain of what she was about to be told.

“Auriella, please, have a seat.” Said her manager, Rabecca. She had watched this girl grow and work herself to the bone to achieve her dreams. Rebecca felt terrible knowing she was about to take all of that away from the sweet girl, but sacrifices needed to be made and bills needed to be paid.

“Aurelia…” She started.

_______________________________________________

Meanwhile, in Korea

“What are you gonna do, Chan-hyung?” Felix asked. All of the stray kids had just gotten home from a meeting at JYP and were informed of their leaders new - and forced- relationship status.

“There's nothing I can do. You heard them, it's in my contract so I literally can't do anything, whether I like it or not.” Chan replied, sounding frustrated. “This is a mess.”

“Do you know what she looks like? Or how old she is?” Jeongin asked curiously, only to be pushed slightly by Hyunjin who sat next to him. This was not the time for that.

“I know just as much as the rest of you.” Was Chan’s gruff reply.

“Well, it's late and there's nothing we can do about this now, so I think we should call it a day. Plus we have to pack, too, apparently.” Woojin reminded the group. During the meeting, they were informed that they would be moving into a different house along with the girl Chan was now ‘dating’. Tomorrow was also the day they were all supposed to meet this mystery girl they would soon be living with.

Chan signed heavily before getting up and walking towards his shared room without a word. To say the leader was dreading the next day was an understatement. His life was being controlled in ways he never saw coming. He couldn't even love who he wanted. Was this the life he fought so hard for? The life he and his members fought to have? He was beginning to wonder if it was worth it.

The next morning, Chan was up before everyone but stayed lying in bed. If he got up, he would have to face the day and all the changes that were about to happen. Chan wasn't quite ready to face reality just yet so he laid there. Thinking about who this girl was. Who was she and what was she like? Did she agree with this plan done by the two merging companies? Or was she just as contractually obligated as he was and unhappy the sudden ‘relationship’?

Part of the idol wanted to give this girl a chance. More likely than not, she didn't have a say in this either and was forced into the entire situation. She probably didn't even know who he was, for all he knew. On the other hand, Chan couldn't bring himself to actually think of being nice to her even if she was apart of the scheme. He was livid yet suspicious. What if she was a creep? Or a spy sent by the company? She could be an undercover scam artist who just wanted to get close to his group so she could sell their private life to the tabloids. Whoever she was, Chan didn't want her around. Fake girlfriend or not, she would be a distraction.

This is going to be fun.

Soon, the remaining members in the dorm awoke and began packing for their sudden move day. Though none of them would say it out loud, there was a small amount of excitement in all of them about moving into a new and much bigger house. Usually idol groups were forced to stay in small apartment dorms for the first few years after they debuted and to share almost everything they had. Being moved into a bigger house free of charge so early in their careers was an undeniably lucky experience. The circumstances were not so great but the fact was that moving into a bigger home would make producing much easier, as well as having privacy.

"Hyung, is it bad i’m excited to meet her?” Jeongin asked Jisung with slight hesitation in his voice. He didn't want to hate someone he hasn't met yet. Chan seemed to already have his mind set on not giving her a chance but I.N. didn't want to do that, it wasn't fair.

“Honestly? I wanna meet her too. I mean how often do we get to meet foreigners or aren't our fans, y’know? Maybe she's really cool.” Jisung replied to the younger boy as he looked up from his suitcase. He suddenly paused where he was crouched on the floor in front of his suitcase and tilted his head in wonder. “Then again, she is a girl, and she's going to be living with 9 guys she's never met before. She's probably more anxious than we are. I feel bad she-” Minho suddenly walked into the room and jisung stopped talking.

“Feel bad for her why? She's probably in on this entire arrangement. Do yourselves a favor and don't grow too attached. For all we know she could be crazy.” He grumbled as he walked into the room and flopped onto the makes bed on the bottom bunk.  

“Are you done packing, Hyung?” Jisung asked, quickly changing the subject.

“I finished last night. Is the girl going to meet us there or what?”

“I think that’s what the manager said yesterday at the meeting. Do you know where the new house is?”

“I don't know but it must be close by because JYP would want us in the area so we could attend meetings and practices. Plus, our baby.” Minho jumped on Jeongin teasingly, “still has school to finish.”

As the boys wrestled on the ground, Jisung zipped up his suitcase and stood up grabbing his backpack before walking out of the room in search of the other members.

“Yah, Han-ah!” A voice yelled. Jisung turned in the direction of his name to see Hyunjin and Chan in their room packing things into their backpacks.

“Oh, Hyung. I finished packing.”

“Well, everyone else is ready, so let's go.” Said the leader as he swung his backpack onto his shoulder.

"Are you ready for this, Hyung?” Hyunjin asked, concerned for his older member.

“I don't really have a choice to be ready or not. This is all going to happen regardless of how I feel about it, so we might as well get it all over with.” At that, he left the room together the remaining members.

 The two boys left in the room watched as he walked away. They loved their leader and wanted nothing but happiness for him. Chan always did all he could to make sure everyone was taken care of but in this moment, they felt helpless. As much as they wanted to help their leader and make him feel better, they couldn't do anything to change what was soon to come. He signed a contract. Legally, he was stuck. Period.

Welcome to the music industry.

“Lets go.”

The two balck vans carrying both the members of Stray Kids as well as their belongings drove up a small hill and onto a long driveway with a guard positioned in front of a black gate. It was clear that whatever building was behind that gate was large and very protected.

“Wow.”

“Chan-hyung?”

“What is this place?”

Without a word, the guard left his station once the van came close and flashed a light into the interior, as if searching for something. After looking at each member individually, the guard then nodded his head and went back into his station. Seconds later, the large black gate began to open. Behind, was a mansion-like home with large see-through windows. Even from the outside, it was clear that the interior of the home was just as extravagant as the exterior. The home was black and modern but large and breathtaking.There was a clear glass surrounding the upper outside of the house which was meant for a balcony. This house was amazing.

“This is our new house? This is huge!” Changbin exclaimed with an excited smile.

“This is...insane.” Felixs’ deep baritone added in disbelief.

“Took the words right out of my mouth, mate.” Chan said, a bit dazed himself

The group grabbed their things and began walking towards the front door. Some lights were on inside and a slight aroma of food wafted from inside of the home, making it clear that someone was home. Chan took a deep breath and shook his head slightly before raising a hand to ring the doorbell. Moments after the ding sounded, light footsteps were heard coming closer and closer to the door. A slight click sound and the large door began sliding open.

[beingallelite]

There's a swarm of people in the building with him, and everyone seems to be working on four things at once. The most pressing project is a scramble to get the latest edition of Road to AEW on TNT up on the fledgling promotion's YouTube channel. Editors jump from computer to computer. All Elite Wrestling's Oct. 2 debut on TNT is weeks away, but the rush is on.

And Cody is in his element.

He, too, is doing four things at once. Gossiping about Chris Jericho's recent lost-and-found escapades with the AEW championship belt. Keeping track of announcer Tony Schiavone as he fights his way here through traffic. Strategizing with members of his team as they plot out story arcs for a wrestling character called "The Substitute" that they invented on the spot when Cody found out that Charlie "Clothesline" Ramone, one of the jack-of-all-trades trainees in his entourage, used to be a substitute teacher.

Oh, and being interviewed. Constantly in motion.

The desk is not his, nor is the building on the outskirts of Atlanta, nor even most of the video team. It's all largesse provided by wrestling legend "Diamond" Dallas Page, who has let the AEW team all but take over his DDP Yoga studio as it launches what could end up being the first true competitor to WWE that wrestling has seen in decades.

When Page walks in, Cody quickly replaces his nameplate with Page's, a bit they would later modify and steal for YouTube.

The mood is light, and Cody's eyes are bright, despite a schedule that would break most mortal men.

It's an energy level that is both exhausting and exhilarating to be around—and those in his wake say this is how Cody operates nearly 24 hours a day. He isn't merely a vice president for the purpose of YouTube sketches. He's working hard, seemingly nonstop, on getting the promotion off the ground. If he's not in a conference call to discuss business operations and budget, he's in one for marketing or for creative concerns.

Or, as he will later this day, he's sneaking in a workout, a reminder that in addition to his many duties in the office, Cody still has to step into the ring and deliver a world-class match, whether against Sammy Guevara in the opening night on TNT or in a title match against Jericho at AEW Full Gear, the company's next pay-per-view, scheduled for Nov. 9.

It's a delicate balance—the same one his late father, "The American Dream" Dusty Rhodes, pulled off for years as both one of wrestling's most potent in-ring attractions and one of its most powerful behind-the-scenes forces.

"I've never seen him not in this mode," Page said of Cody. "His old man was always positive, too. It didn't matter how gloomy s--t was, he never sold it. I would be like, 'Dream, how do you stay so positive?' He's like, 'That's the only way to be. You can't sell it, D. You can't let them feel it.' He was saying, 'Don't let them ever see sweat' before it was a commercial.

"Cody has that same confidence."

Schiavone sees the same quality. "He draws people to him. I think he's a natural leader like his dad was. His dad used to say, 'You've got to be able to walk a room like Richard Nixon.' Dusty always said that Richard Nixon could walk a room better than anybody. Dusty was like that, and I think Cody's like that too. I think you're immediately drawn to his confidence and the way he presents himself."

This, Page adds, is exactly what gave Cody the guts to walk away from WWE in the first place, despite being pretty much guaranteed a seven-figure paycheck and an all-but-guaranteed lifetime position with the leading company in his field.

He couldn't imagine life as just another corporate cog, a life where he never gave it his best shot.

"He wasn't afraid to walk away from the table because he knew he had something. Really had it," Page said. "And it don't matter who else sees it. He did."

And AEW will need every bit of that bravado.

Yes, it has the backing of the billionaire Khan family, which also owns the NFL's Jacksonville Jaguars among its many assets. Yes, it has a time slot on TNT, one of cable television's premium outlets (and, full disclosure, a corporate partner of Bleacher Report). Those are solid underpinnings to build on.

But entering what wrestling fans are calling the "Wednesday Night Wars," a head-to-head showdown with WWE—which is airing its own popular NXT show in the same time slot as AEW on TNT—this is still very much a startup trying to disrupt a corporate beast.

To succeed, it will need to summon every bit of bravado and energy and leadership Cody has in him.

If it does, it will be remembered as the culmination of a rivalry between two families as alike as they are opposites—families with the drive, creativity, energy and force of will to take a wild and woolly business in their hands and mold it into something remarkable.

While the leading roles in front of the camera have been played by Hulk Hogan and The Rock and Ric Flair, the Rhodeses and the McMahons have spent decade after decade battling for wrestling's very soul. Theirs is the story of two proud families, two distinct visions and just one business—one that the younger Rhodes is betting is big enough for both of them.

A Dream and a Rivalry

Dusty first became a force on the regional wrestling scene in the late 1970s and continued right through the fearsome battles of the '80s. Even in a world filled with big men and even bigger personalities, he was larger than life—275 pounds of blue-eyed soul who became one of the sport's true national acts thanks to the power of Ted Turner's SuperStation WTBS, one of the first cable stations widely available around the country.

His connection with the audience was legendary. In his most famous interview, he literally reached out to the camera, inviting viewers to do the same at home, to touch his hand so they might fight the good fight together. It's enough to give you shivers: emotional, powerful and poignant.

"When he talked, people f--king bought it," said Page, a family confidante. "Because he believed it. Invested 100 percent."

Dusty was savvy enough to make his greatest weakness a strength. Even in his younger days, tight perm shimmering with either sweat or blood, depending on how the match was going, he had a jiggle. By his 30s, there is no polite euphemism for what he was—a fat guy in a muscle man's sport.

Rather than work against him, his appearance was a differentiator. Dusty sashayed around the ring as the avatar of every guy in the audience who had gone slightly to pot but still fancied himself a tough guy despite outward appearances. He was the common man who hid heart, guts and sinew beneath a healthy protective layer of flesh.

But as big as he was in the ring, it was outside the squared circle where he truly made his mark on the industry. He had a vision for wrestling that was bigger than studio television, too big to be limited to National Guard Armories and the like in Florida.

His dream for America was an American Dream: big, grandiose, sometimes crazy and foolish—blood-and-guts action paired with powerful interviews—fueled by borrowed money and hope.

What it wasn't was boring, even for a second.

He created the modern wrestling supershow with Starrcade in 1983 and then powered Jim Crockett Promotions through the early stages of the wrestling wars with idea after idea—a series of stadium shows called the Great American Bash, an ultraviolent spectacle called WarGames and the cable television special Clash of the Champions, to name just a few.

"I don't think people realize the importance of what Dad did in the early 1980s," Cody said. "Boxing comes along later, but before all that, Vince and Dusty put pay-per-view on a map. And it's cool: Every year at the Hall of Fame, when my dad was still alive, he would kind of count the number of people who thanked him. Jokingly, he'd nudge you. Like eight people every year would say, 'Man, thanks Dusty for giving me my start. Without you, none of this would have happened.'"

The other version of wrestling was glitzier, a human cartoon. But while most critics preferred the Rhodes brand, Vince McMahon and his WWE won the wrestling war. Dusty had to swallow his pride, and in 1989 he went to work for his rival.

Put in polka dots as the "Common Man," he made the best of it, turning those yellow circles to gold in memorable, money-making programs with the "Million Dollar Man" Ted DiBiase and "Macho Man" Randy Savage. It was the Dream without the raw edges, and like most of what McMahon did in that era, it seemed to work.

"Him and Vince butted heads over many things," Dusty's wife, Michelle Runnels, said. "They had different ideas, and they both had really strong personalities. But he had nothing but respect for Vince and what he accomplished. Vince did a lot for this business. He took it from a world of regional promotions to a huge conglomerate. Dusty had nothing but respect for that.

"It was making money for the boys, and for Dusty that meant everything was great."

After a few years working with McMahon, Dusty went back to the WWF's competition until it finally closed up shop. He tried and failed with his own wrestling promotion in the southeast, spent time on the independent circuit, working well into his 50s doing the only thing he'd ever known, putting food on the table the only way he knew how.

Dusty spent his final decade working for the man who had bested him. When the McMahons offered him a lifeline and an opportunity to work with developing talent with their NXT brand, Dusty didn't hesitate. At NXT, he continued to fight for his vision of wrestling. Working this time mostly with Vince's daughter, Stephanie, and her husband, Triple H, he turned his attention to the future of the business.

McMahon may call the shots backstage at WWE Raw, but the passion and spirit that fuels the dreams of many WWE performers was nurtured by NXT's old oak, who often invited them to sit under his learning tree. There is a generation of budding stars who came through the WWE Performance Center in Orlando who call themselves "Dusty's Kids."

His legacy lives through them—and through Cody and Dustin, the original Dusty kids.

"Dad would be really proud of everything his boys are doing, especially Cody," Dustin Rhodes said. "He not only left the other company to go out and do his own thing, but he's actually attacked it and is in a position right now to do some amazing things. And I know Dad would be really proud. I wish he was here to enjoy it with us, because it's a fun time.

"We miss him terribly. We don't like to harp on it a lot, but we do. But we work and we keep going and we keep doing what he taught us to do. That's 'Do the work' as Cody says and 'Keep stepping' like I say. That comes from Pops. That's what we do. That's what our family was raised to do and what we've been doing for so, so long. I think our name, our legacy, is in a good place right now and we are continuing his legacy. And we will keep the name relevant and alive for years to come."

The Scion

Cody has been many things in his 34 years—athlete, actor, husband and executive, to name a few. But before he was any of those, he was a son.

"We were like the Addams Family," Cody said with a laugh. "We lived in a neighborhood full of lawyers and business people, and we were this weird family. [Dad would] come to the pool in his trunks, like his actual 'DR' wrestling trunks and his 300 something pounds...on the diving board. A lot of my friends from the neighborhood, that was their first exposure to me. Like, That's your dad? That guy?"

There is power in names. In some ways they define us, defying us to live up to the expectations that come with them or giving us something to run away from. For Cody and Dustin, their last name opened doors but also came with a price. Dusty spent a lifetime at the top of a very competitive industry, cultivating a few close allies and a much longer list of enemies and fair-weather friends.

So when Cody told Dad one day on the way home from Waffle House that he wanted to give up on an acting career and join him in the wrestling business, his father sat in his enormous F-250 pickup truck and cried.

"He did not want either of the boys to go into the business because there's a hardship," Michelle said. "There are expectations of them. People think they have it easy because of their father when in reality their paths were not easy at all. Dusty had been on both sides of the business, and he'd had a lot to do with people's careers. He made a lot of decisions, and most made one person happy and another upset. There was resentment against him from some people for a long time. And he was afraid those resentments would get transferred to his sons."

Dusty's fears, perhaps, were prescient.

It's easy to dismiss the big gold belts, to scoff at an athletic accomplishment that's gifted before either wrestler hits the ring for a match, but the truth is championships matter in wrestling. There is power in being positioned as the top performer in your industry.

And Cody, despite checking all the boxes one would normally expect a contender to check in his decade in WWE, never won a world championship.

Not that he'll give away responsibility for that.

"There's this long-standing kind of rumor that Vince has it out for the Rhodes family," Cody said. "If he does, it's deep in there. It's not...it was never on the surface. It's deep in there.

"What happened to me at the end of my career in WWE is not WWE's fault at all. Totally mine. It really is. I wasn't ready for the role I thought I was ready for. If you want to be John Cena, you got to do the exact same amount of work he does. And that's a lot of work. I wasn't doing the work that I should have been doing."

The promotion, right or wrong, never saw Cody as a wrestler at that level. And as uncouth as it is to admit, he craved it. He wanted to trade in the goofy gimmick he was wrestling under, Stardust, and ascend the few remaining rungs to the top of the card. The recognition could validate everything—from his decision to walk away from Hollywood to donning the face paint as Stardust to being a team player and making the best of every embarrassing thing he was asked to do.

Maybe it was parental and not professional judgment. Either way, Dusty saw things differently. He saw Cody as a champion, a talent with endless potential to achieve greatness. But by June 11, 2015, it still hadn't happened. Dusty Rhodes died that day of septic shock after a long battle with his own body.

The dream he inspired, however, was too big to ever fully pass into the great beyond.

"I got a boost of bravery when my dad passed away because all I ever wanted to do was be world champion while he was still alive," Cody said. "That was my biggest fear in life: I wouldn't win it. And I didn't win it. It was such a silly fear, but it came true. He didn't get to see it. He never asked for it. He never was pressuring me on it. It was my own pressure.

"But after that, I thought, 'I have zero to be afraid of.'"

Death crystallizes things. Powerful doubts and desires that might otherwise linger in the subconscious rise to the surface and demand action. Cody knew he was unhappy. He knew why. He even knew exactly what his dad would say about it.

"The one thing Dusty really wanted for all four children is for them to be happy and to live up to what he thought their potential was in whatever their chosen path ended up being," Michelle said. "Cody wasn't happy in WWE. Dusty would have said, 'Son, you need to do what you need to do. You do what is right for you.'

"Dusty made a terribly hard choice when he left Florida. Eddie Graham had been his mentor and had been like a father and was very upset, but he had to leave because he wanted the opportunity to be involved in wrestling on a larger scale. He would have understood and seen what was going on with Cody. I don't think he would have been surprised at all."

First Cody went to agents like Arn Anderson, telling them that he needed a change, that he wanted to put the Stardust gimmick away forever. Eventually, he found his way to Vince's office. At every step, he received pushback. And so, he and his wife Brandi decided to walk away. She gave her notice first, and that's when the company realized he might actually be serious about leaving.

"Hunter [Triple H, Vince McMahon's son-in-law and heir apparent at WWE] took it very personally because he had done so much for my dad at NXT," Cody said. "There was one conversation where he said, 'I'm shocked that you feel this way after everything I've done for your family.' But I told him, 'I'm not my dad. I can't stay here out of loyalty to you for giving my dad a job in 2005.' I get it, and the little boy in me really appreciates what you did for my dad. But I'm not him. He's not here anymore. I've got to be me. ...

"I think Hunter, he's been in wrestling long enough that he knew, 'Oh, this is a real one. He's not asking for more money. He's not asking for a title shot. Nothing would matter at this point.' I let the burn get too bad before I said anything, if that makes any sense."

WWE made an effort to keep both Cody and Brandi. They floated the pair contracts large enough to give pause. But understanding what the future held in WWE, Cody and Brandi ventured into the unknown, preferring the uncertainty of precarious potential over a comfortable stagnation.

"They made an offer," Brandi said. "I said, 'Thank you so much. I really appreciate you wanting to keep me here. But it's just not in my heart. I'm not going to be able to do what I want to do here.' And he said, 'Well, this is what we're going to do. We're going to go ahead and pay you through the end of your contract. You'll see real quick that money is going to go fast.' They were trying to scare us. Thank God we didn't listen."

Less than a year after Dusty's death, his younger son had cut all ties with the only real wrestling promotion he'd ever know—the place where he'd grown into an adult, met his wife and made lifelong friendships. When Cody posted the news, along with a list of all the dream opponents he could now face on the independent scene, the wrestling internet exploded. He was ready.

"I'm a big organizer and planner," he said. "So I had been in [WWE wrestler] Kevin Owens' ear, like, 'Hey, what does the world look like? I've saved a chunk of my money and I bought a home and stuff, but I want to make sure I can keep it. What does it look like out there?'

"And Kevin was the one who said, 'I'll introduce you to The Young Bucks. They're the masters of having marketed themselves outside of the company.' Me and Brandi were totally fearless in that moment. It was crazy."

Becoming the Elite

Cody took Owens' advice and connected with The Young Bucks, Matt and Nick Jackson, and through them Kenny Omega, who was building a reputation as the best wrestler in the world.

The Jackson brothers come from opposite circumstances as Cody—self-trained in their backyard on a trampoline and built, not with a famous name, but with a decade of grinding away at it until the audience couldn't help but embrace their passion and enthusiasm for wrestling.

"Cody likes to call us the extra-credit guys," Nick said. "It's really true that we had to do all the extra work to get popular and to get known."

The Jacksons convinced Cody to come to the promotion Ring of Honor for an extended run, scuttling his plans to be a nomad wandering the wrestling landscape like a character in the westerns his dad loved.

"It wasn't until after a few ROH shows that Matt asked me, 'Hey, do you want to ride with all the West Coast guys?' Which was him, Christopher Daniels, Frankie [Kazarian] and [Scorpio] Sky (the tag team trio SCU)," Cody said. "And in that minivan that they still ride in to this day was where all the fun wrestling stuff was happening."

The conversations were the cutting edge of wrestling, from "serious ROH stuff" to Being the Elite, the Young Bucks' viral YouTube show, which through hijinks like extended in-jokes and stunts like invading a WWE event has galvanized a fanbase looking for an alternative.

In the "Elite" stable of wrestlers, fans saw a reflection of themselves—like minds looking for an alternative to what WWE offered. And Cody saw a future.

"That's where I think they found my purpose in the group," he said. "My purpose in that group is as a promoter.

"We combine forces well. Kenny's a great bell-to-bell wrestler, Matt and Nick are tag team specialists, and they have this eye for the absurd and ludicrous. I bring my family's name value—not even my own: my family's name value—and my eye for the bigger picture."

Soon, events were getting so big and raucous that they had to hire security for simple meet-and-greets with the stable.

By September 2018, when Cody and the rest of what would become the AEW leadership team promoted the event All In, they didn't just sell out the Sears Centre Arena in suburban Chicago; they sold out the arena that holds more than 10,000 immediately. It was the proof of concept that solidified things, proved to Tony Khan that his instincts were correct, that wrestling fans were ready for something new.

"We had for two years straight a field test to see what worked with the audience and what didn't," Cody said. "And when we saw Buffalo, New York, was just as popular as San Jose, we were like, 'It's real. You know? It's not just Chicago. It's everywhere.' And we started to think about what might be possible."

At AEW's last big event, All Out in late August, Cody stood in the middle of the crowd and basked in their love, a sea of people who believed in him, who were on this journey with him and his partners, going wherever it led.

"We are in it together with our audience," Cody said. "And anyone who's like, 'Oh, let's see how they maintain their enthusiasm when you get to weekly TV.'  Well, guys, how many times are we going to move the goalposts?

"The argument that, 'Oh, that's not a real audience; it's just a small group of hardcore fans.' That's a dead argument at this point. It's a very real audience. And there's a lack of crossover between our fans and WWE's, which is my favorite part. We had a lady say to us at the Houston Airport, 'I'm one of the returners. I was watching in the late '90s, and now I'm watching again.' And I thought, what a great way to describe some of these folks coming into this. Returners."

It was, as Cody dubbed it, a revolution. Others called it a cult. Either way, the idea Cody is anything but a superstar is downright foolish with the power of hindsight.

At WWE, at some point talent is slotted into a position. Changing that perspective, altering your destiny, becomes almost impossible. And Cody had been trapped in a maze with no exit. Perhaps that's why at AEW's first live event, Double or Nothing, Cody smashed a throne, symbolizing his freedom from tyranny.

"It's very romantic, very like Game of Thrones-style with these warring houses," Cody said. "When I left WWE in 2015, I didn't think, like, 'I'm picking up that sword, we're going to war.' It's a wild, wild series of events. There were so many combustible pieces that led to all of this. You throw them together, and suddenly we are in a situation where I'm standing in front of the Turner Mansion with Brandi, in exactly the same spot Dusty took the team picture with WCW. And we're taking another team picture with a billionaire NFL owner who's a mega wrestling fan, ready to launch another national wrestling promotion. ...

"Had Vince listened to me when I really wanted to make the transition back to being Cody Rhodes, we wouldn't be sitting here. It's that fragile."

Page sees it as the inevitability of a force that can't be restrained.

"I remember Cody telling me when he was in high school, 'Next year I'm going to win. I'm going to win the state championship,'" Page said. "And I said, 'Really? That's a bold statement, boy.' I said, 'You know what that's going to take?' He said, 'Absolutely. You got to put the work in.' He went undefeated.

"Look at his weight belt today. It says, 'Do the work.' You never know what's going to happen because this is a startup company. But this is f--king unprecedented. But I know that if it fails, it won't be because there's not a work ethic put behind it. Why do these people care so much? Because he does. When they say 'All In,' they're not talking about money, bro. That's them telling the fans, 'F--king A, we're going for it."

The Future

Back in Atlanta, when Schiavone finally makes it through traffic and arrives, he's wearing a brand-new blazer Cody just overnighted so he won't look the same in every video and is ready to film a segment for Road to AEW on TNT in front of a giant green screen.

The same harried team, led by Steve Yu, that makes these gorgeous promotional pieces has been tasked with creating a video opener for TNT. Deadlines for everything loom, and amid the excitement, there is also a very real sense that one major misstep could be the domino that topples a carefully balanced workload.

It's unique chaos in a way, but it's familiar in a startup.

Cody's consiglieri, Michael "QT" Cuellari Marshall, is there to offer support in all areas, with students from his wrestling school filling in wherever needed. One day, they might be building the throne that Cody smashed at Double or Nothing. The next, they're feeding his dogs during a busy day. There are opportunities here, to find hidden talents you didn't know you had and to step into the breach and be a hero. Marshall himself is a prime example of how quickly you can become indispensable in a company with more tasks than hands.

"We get to All In, and the guy we had hired to be one of our main producers in the 'go' position got drunk the night before, or he used something, and he got arrested in front of the hotel," Cody said. "He literally started up his car and passed out with it in reverse. He hit another car in the parking lot and got arrested."

Marshall, sitting nearby with a laptop, creating a mock advertisement someone will later clean up and present to a potential partner, continues the story.

"My student sang the national anthem at All In, and I drove her there. I was there to hang out and watch an amazing show. But when they needed someone, I stepped up."

Marshall had previously done commentary for Ring of Honor, which prepared him for the opportunity. "I used it as an internship to see how you did wrestling on TV," he said.

The team is filled with people with similar stories, people who breathe wrestling like it's oxygen.

"Now QT is an associate producer, and he's Tony [Khan]'s favorite," Cody said. "He sits in the go position for every match and tells the director and producer what shots to look for.

"We have a lot of will it into existence at AEW. Some of these guys don't have any specific reason for being here, but the only way you really learn about wrestling is to be around it a bunch."

The result is beauty in diversity.

You can see it in the promotion's YouTube channel, the Bucks' wild 'do-it-yourself' brand existing side-by-side with Cody's polished "Road to..." series that often features serious interviews like you might see ahead of a big boxing match.

And you can see it in the ring. While a WWE show can sometimes feel like a group of performers walking in lockstep for three long hours, AEW provides fans with multiple visions of what wrestling might be on a single show. Joey Janela is there for those who love hardcore stunts, the Bucks and Omega for high-flying precision. Cody represents a modern version of wrestling's yesterdays, the blood-and-guts style of his father presented in a package built for a 2019 audience.

"I think people want us to choose," Cody said. "They encourage us to choose. It's like, 'Well, what's it going to be?' It's all of it. Luchasaurus is on the same show with Arn Anderson. I mean, that's wrestling. I'd rather people have a lot of options."

And he has them.

"It's not just Cody. He's got Nick, he's got friggin' Matt, he's got Kenny, who is a force in that world," Page said. "And now having Jericho and [Jon] Moxley, that's a f--king strong six. And you don't need a strong 28. You just need a handful of people the crowd really cares about."

Cody will be the one headlining the next pay-per-view, against Jericho.

It's a decision that has opened him up to online criticism that he's already using his authority to treat AEW as a vanity promotion, the same kind of vitriol his dad faced in some circles when he made himself the top star in WCW.

"I tell Tony, I tell Matt, Nick and Kenny every day almost, I'm like, 'Man, we need a home run every segment.' Because there's a microscope on top of a microscope on what we're doing," Cody said. "When people are like, 'He's doing the same thing Dusty did.' I always want to say, 'Yeah, well Dusty was one of the most over guys on the show.'

"I could only hope to do what Dusty did."

AEW has four wrestlers in executive roles, both for their expertise and to keep each other honest. Khan, ultimately, will have the final say and settle any disputes. The key, Rhodes says, will be self-awareness and a keen understanding of the audience.

"All of us want to be in the main event. But if you're not, you're not. It's a nice checks and balances we have with Matt, Nick, Kenny and myself. There's three guys who are going to tell you, 'Hey, I don't think it's as big as you think.' Or, 'Let's move on this. MJF is becoming a megastar, let's go this direction.'

"An old-timer wrestler will tell you, 'Hey, we lead them,' and that is not entirely incorrect. We do lead them because we present the product to them. But if they drastically want something different, it is OK to let them lead us as well. And I don't think we're afraid to let them lead a little bit. If the other company had been more aware, even 25 percent more aware, we would not be in the position or even have this opportunity."

It all comes back, as it eventually always does in wrestling, to WWE. The question, a simple one, has remained the same since McMahon expanded nationally decades ago. Can big-time wrestling exist beyond WWE's ever-expanding universe?

For the first time since WCW folded, an organization will truly try to answer it—all because one man refused to be just a gear in the machine.

"They're going to make mistakes, and they'll learn from them. They already have, you know. It's a process," Page said. "They got the hardcore fans. Now it's how does that work to pull over to the casual viewer or the WWE fan who doesn't really know they exist. But there's a lot of wrestling fans who never flipped over after WCW died. They just stopped watching. That's the fan they need.

"This is a David vs. Goliath story. And if that can get brought across to the people well—David versus Goliath always works."

Jonathan Snowden covers combat sports for Bleacher Report.

[boredbusstories]

Butler Academy Part 3-2

There were just two other customers paying for their purchases at the cashier, in the small shop tucked away in a corner of the street. Ming felt slightly embarassed as he trailed behind Raj, walking down the rows of brightly coloured underwear. 'I don't think these underwear will impress the judges. And what do these even cover anyway?' Ming complained, poking at a shiny purple thong. 'Hmm, I guess I should have done abit more research.' Raj agreed, staring at the pricetags. These underwear were definitely not the 3 for $19.90 variety and way beyond his budget. 'Hello gentlemen. We are closing soon. How may I assist you?' A deep voice greeted them cheerfully. Ming and Raj turned to see the cashier standing behind them He was taller than Raj, well-built and seemed in his late forties/early fifties. He was wearing a tight white tshirt and grey slacks, with closely cropped salt-and-paper hair and a matching handlebar mustache. Ming thought he looked dashing for an older guy. 'Oh uh, we're just looking to get some nice underwear.' Raj replied lamely. 'Well, I think I can help with that.' The cashier smiled and gestured at the rows 'Perhaps something matching for the sweet couple?' 'Oh no, we're not together!' Ming and Raj spluttered at the same time. The cashier threw his head back and laughed. 'I'm just teasing. But we do have undies for every need and occasion. I could help better if I had more reference to start with.' 'Well honestly, we're going for an interview at NPBA and we thought having some nice undies might help.' Ming replied. The cashier raised his eyebrow and gave them a 'Ah I should have known' look. He paused and thought for a moment. 'Well, it's been a slow day today. I suppose I could let you use the VIP room. I'm Mark by the way, I own this shop. Come this way.' Mark gestured. 'Nice to meet you. I'm Raj, and this is Ming.' Raj called out as they followed Mark towards a small dark door at the back of the shop. Pushing the door open, Mark ushered Raj and Ming into a surprising large room. 'I'll just go and close the shop. My assistant, Leslie, will be here shortly to take your measurements. Be right back.' Mark stepped away. Ming and Raj sat on the stools, looking around the room. It was fancy, with royal purple wallpaper, pictures and decorations, a few stools and several full length standing mirrors scattered about. A soft knock followed by a gentle male voice sounded. 'Hello, I'm Leslie. Sir told me to take your measurements.' Ming's eyes widened as Leslie entered the room. Leslie was lean and slightly shorter than Ming, with dark floppy hair and eyebrows, fair skin and sultry lips. The next immediate detail that drew Ming's attention was that Leslie was only dressed in short teal-coloured shorts, and a navy apron with a bear cartoon on the pouch. Ming glanced at Raj, who had a similar surprised expression. Leslie walked towards Ming and knelt down in front of him. 'Hold your hands out, please.' Leslie instructed politely, stretching out his lightly muscled arms and holding up a measuring tape. Ming complied as Leslie measured his waist and thighs. Ming looked down at Leslie's face, which was dangerously close to Ming's groin. Ming had to admit that Leslie was pretty, with a flawless complexion. He felt his cock stirring and tried his hardest to stop any reaction. 'Done, thank you,' Leslie said as he moved over to Raj and took his measurements. Mark returned and took a seat at the side, watching them. Once he was finished, Leslie stood and asked with a straight-face 'And how big are your cocks when fully hard?' Ming gaped at the sudden personal question, as Mark laughed. 'Don't worry, we just want to make sure that the upper band of the underwear is sufficient to cover any accidental hard-ons. You could use these models for reference.' Mark walked over to the wall and removed a black cloth draped over a shelf, revealing a row of phallic shapes. Ming and Raj moved towards it hesitantly. They turned out to be flesh-coloured dildos in ascending size.

'Oh uh... I think I'm about this?' Ming pointed. 'Nah bro, you're about here. Raj pointed at a slightly bigger piece. 'And I guess I'm about here then.' he pointed to another. Ming looked over. 'Hmm, yours is thicker perhaps?' They both realised with burning embarassment what they had said at the same time. Mark gave a deep laugh. 'Leslie, could you go get some samples, please? ' 'Yes, Sir' Leslie bowed and went off. 'We'll be letting you try a few pieces. Meanwhile, take a seat with me.' Mark sat down. 'So what made you decide to take up butlering?'' Ming and Raj sat down opposite Mark. Raj replied first. 'I know its not conventional, but I think it will open many doors for me in future. I want to be a leader on an international stage.' Ming was impressed. He knew that Raj had always been ambitious. He was also slightly annoyed, because he hadn't prepared an answer for himself yet. 'Uh honestly, I wasn't sure what vocation I wanted, so I went with Raj to the open house. I guess I was lucky to be selected.' Ming said, frowning as he thought about it. Mark gave another of his pleasant deep laughs. 'I like both of your honesty. Ah, but are you prepared for your interviews then. What about your Show?' Ming's face was a complete blank. Raj, prepared as always, replied. 'Actually, that's what we are here for. Our attire for our Show.' Raj turned to Ming 'Ah sorry, I was going to tell you tonight.' 'What show are you talking about?' Ming asked, bewildered. 'I'm not fully sure but I read that all butlers have been trained to Show. Apparently, there was a hotel attendent who briefly saw a famous butler performing for some visiting dignitaries. However, there weren't many details. I'm just guessing what the Show could be about.' Raj explained. Ming's face remained confused. Mark laughed. 'You're a sharp one. You just might be right. Ah, here comes Leslie now.' he said as Leslie walked in with a box in his hands. 'I may happen to know a thing or two about butlers and their underwear. Those for general use are usually in pristine white, to show cleanliness and class. Nowadays though, younger butlers do prefer to add some embellishments as their personal styles. All butlers are given their own customised underwear with the butler crest and their names or initials. It is a rite of passage to recieve one. Of course, their masters or mistresses may request them to wear more other kinds of underwear for special occasions, but they mostly stick with the whities.' Mark sorted though the box and pulled out two coloured undies. 'However, let's be abit more adventurous for your interviews. Here, try these on.' 'Thanks. Uh, where can we change?' Ming asked. 'Are you training to be butlers or not?' Mark raised an eyebrow. Raj caught it quick. He unbuckled his belt and pulled off his pants and underwear in one go, his soft cock flopping as he walked over to put his pants on a stool. Ming followed, just a beat behind, taking off his pants and putting on the underwear that Mark had given him. It was a light blue briefs with white lining, in a material that was extremely smooth and soft on his skin. The size was right, close against his skin without feeling tight or stretched. He looked over at a mirror and admired how the cloth hugged his butt, accentuating the curve. When he turned over, he quickly covered his groin with his hands. The material clearly made the shape of his cock visible. He looked over to Raj, who was wearing light grey briefs with yellow lining. His cock was similarly exposed, leaving nothing to the imagination. 'Perfect fits' Mark commented in a satisfied tone, walking around the two men standing in just their tshirts and undies. 'The colour fits your tone well. It should impress the judges.' 'And now, perhaps you would like Leslie to help show you a few moves that you could use for your own Show.' 'Yes, please.' Raj quickly accepted. Mark laughed and he nodded at Leslie. Leslie bowed, and reached out to remove his apron, revealing a swimmers chest and abs with two small

pink nipples. He sauntered to the middle of the room, shirtless and in his short shorts that exposed his toned thighs. Soft sensual music suddenly came on, as Leslie spread his legs and gyrated to the music. He moved his hands slowly across his chest, his flat stomach, down to his thigh as he dipped down and stood up. He turned and pushed his ass out, dipping against the music, making and moving in an s-shape with his body. Leslie turn his face and looked over his shoulder, his hair falling over his face, flashing a kittenish smile at his audience. Ming stared, mesmerized as Leslie's toned arm and back muscles moved against his movements. He had a sudden flash of memory across his mind of Troy, back during the open house, standing with his cock in his hands and smiling at his audience. 'Shit!' Ming thought, as he felt his cock stiffening. Leslie pulled his shorts down slowly to his ankles and then took them off, exposing his milky-white, smooth ass. He dipped down again, exposing his dangling balls and hairless pink asshole, wagging it towards his observers. He then turned around, revealing his semi-hard 6.5in cut cock. Leslie walked over to Ming, trailing his fingers over his chest. He dipped down again, his face close to Ming's fully erect cock. Leslie looked up, breathing warm air against Ming's bulge. Ming gave an involuntary moan and resisted the urge to grab Leslie's head and pump his groin against his soft pink lips. As the music hit a crescendo, Leslie flicked his pink tongue into the air, almost touching Ming's dickhead, then stood up and looked over at Mark. 'A perfect Show, as always. I'm fucking turned on!' Mark laughed. 'Confidence. Courage. Captivating. A butler's creed. Well boys, that was just a little tip for you ahead of your interviews. You can keep the underwear, and I'll give you another one too. A small gift from me for good luck.' A few moments later, Ming and Raj were standing outside the shop holding paper bags with their new underwear. Mark had left the room and disappeared, as Leslie quickly dressed, packed their items and ushered them out of the shop. 'What just happened?' Ming asked out loud, to no one in particular. 'I suspect that Leslie is a butler, or have had butler training. I'm not sure who Mark is though.' Raj looked down at his paper bag, and burst into a wide grin. 'Hey, we saved a lot of money on these! Ming looked down at his paper bag and then back at Raj. 'My balls are feeling so achy.' he complained. Raj laughed and grabbed his own balls. 'That pretty boy bloody knew what he was doing. C'mon, let's get back to camp. We can practice our blowjob skills.'

[sweetzombigirl-blog]

Through A Glass Darkly

Through A Glass Darkly (Såsom i en spegel) 1961- Ingrid Bergman

For now, we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known. - Apostle Paul

It wouldn’t be a Bergman film without a powerful challenge to religion, and it is no different from Bergman’s 1961 film Through A Glass Darkly. The title in English comes from the Bible itself while the Swedish translation is In A Mirror which echoes the film’s resounding themes as well, but in this case, I prefer the English translation.

The story takes place on a family island in Sweden. Karin (Harriet Andersson) returns home after a stay in a mental hospital where she hopes to recover from her Schizophrenia. On the island she is joined by her younger sexually frustrated brother, Minus who is played by Lars Passgård, her husband the ever talented Max von Sydow (one of my top 10 favorite male actors) who plays Martin, a loyal but cautious doctor whose perceptions of reality fall the closest to earth, and Karin’s estranged father David (Gunnar Björnstrand) who returns home after completing a novel and a near death experience. 

I am very opposed to romanticizing mental illness and dismissing it as a connection to spirituality or on the other hand, witchcraft. Women have often been portrayed as conduits for something other than our reality and this can either be angelic or demonic depending almost entirely on our perspective or the perspective of the narrative. However, I wanted to suspend my opinions in order to engage with what Bergman is trying to tell me. 

One could argue that the main storyline is Karin’s since she has the most on-screen time but I actually find the main drama to be focused on the father figure, Martin. We are told in the film that he has abandoned his children after the death of his wife who also shares the same schizophrenic condition as Karin. After the wife’s death, Martin quickly became successful with his novel which may or may not have been written from his experience with his wife. When he returns home he makes it clear that he will be leaving after a month despite a forgotten promise to his children who are dismayed. 

If schizophrenia is genetic then the family talent for storytelling is as well. When Martin enters the house at dinner to have a very well acted cathartic cry which I immediately could resonate with as reality. Minus has created a play in order to show his father his own standing as a creative individual. The play within a play has been done by Bergman before and is most well known for its symbolic representation in Hamlet. David is clearly aware of this and takes the short play as a personal affront. 

Minus tells the story of an artist who feels that his own life is his work of art and creating representations of his life cheapens the meaning. The Artist is taken by the feminine beauty of a princess who died early in childbirth and is forced to witness her husband she left behind slowly forget her and move on to other pleasures. She acknowledges the artist who can penetrate a mystic veil in order to talk to her despite her being dead and unseen to those who are not sensitive enough. The ghost invites him to join her in death and share eternity with her, the Artist agrees to do as she wishes and thus solidifying his life as a work of art. At the time of importance the Artist second guesses himself. A series of questions he asks seem realistic to those who consider suicide as an option. What awaits me apart from the cold embrace of eternity? What is there to do but exist, surely it is better to have something to do than nothing, and what if there is nothing? The princess waits and then closes the door, oblivion and whatever promises it has is closed to him forever.  The Artist feels no remorse and instead decides to make a tribute to the princess but decides to give himself a more heroic ending, thus displaying himself as the ultimate hypocrite.

Minus knows this either instinctively or consciously and it perfectly sums up the internal dilemma of David. He laments that he has sacrificed his family for his own success and admits to Martin that he did want to document the descent into madness of Karin for his own profit. He asks Martin if he ever wishes that Karin was dead and explains that Martin’s suffering is pointless. Martin is repulsed by David’s honesty and directness and argues that his principles as a husband and father are missing. If Martin regrets marrying Karin he does not admit it to anyone other than himself but admits that he knows that his job as Karin’s only anchor to the world and the seriousness of how his actions will affect his wife. A crushing weight to bear, and we are curious to hear how he will respond to David’s question. We do not feel that he is being as emotionally open as he could be, but his company is perhaps not the place to be so open. We see that things are not easy for David, along with his wife’s sudden and dramatic shifts in the mood she has also lost her sexual drive and David is severely frustrated. We see the love that is there for Karin in these moments and the rejection from Karin is painful to the audience to see. 

Martin has recently experienced a near-death event on his way to commit suicide. He said he felt empty with no expectations on his way to meet his own end but a chance meeting with death through a car accident left him with a new found love for his family. I like this story and I like that it comes after Minus’ play. It hints that Martin has already met with the woman in the castle and decided to live because what his experience imparted was not a chance to profit but instead a chance to love those who love him. I like that it wraps up that story and validates Martin who later laments in a real connecting moment with Karin that he is forced to live in reality, but it is the most alive and human we have seen him through the whole film.

Karin’s story is separate from her fathers. With Karen and her illness, she is drawn between two realities. Karin knows she cannot live in both and feels compelled to choose between the two. From the beginning, we see that she is leaning toward the unknown because of its perceived connection to God. I wondered originally how Bergman would portray her madness and was relieved to see that he makes it painfully clear that Karin is mad and not to romanticize the illness as a storytelling device which was my biggest problem with Dryer’s Ordet. 

However, I want to believe that Bergman is capable of telling a bigger story here without sacrificing the illness and its negative effects on the members of the family. I am a supporter of the divine in every day and like Agent Mulder, I always want to believe that there is something greater than us at play, but for most of the movie I had a hard time convincing myself that there was a legitimate spiritual connection. Karin’s character is playful but gentle and has no vices except for her illness which begins showing a more menacing turn when voices which lead to the eventual seduction of her younger brother.

After she submits to her illness and decides to return to the hospital but the illness is not done with her yet. She hears voices telling her that the moment she has been waiting for is almost at hand. God is approaching and she must be ready to join him through the wallpaper. I wondered how much influence Bergman had taken from The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman because Through a Glass Darkly has visual similarities that I thought would be great to be captured while I was reading Gilman’s short story. A shot of light dancing on the repeated motif wallpaper was a powerful artistic portrayal of Karin’s own mind. 

At the pinnacle of Karin’s story, we have two separate things happening. In the attic, we hear an overpowering noise of the ambulance helicopter approaching. The wind knocks the windows and the blinds open and a small hidden door that is covered in wallpaper to make it undetectable. The camera stays on Karin’s face and we watch her make her decision to which reality she wants to live in. She approaches the door but then is frozen in horror. After catching herself she begins to scream in terror and becomes like a wild animal. It takes both her father and her husband to restrain her until she is given a sedative. Harriet Andersson displays powerful acting during this scene where she had to drop her social inhibitions. 

When she is calm she tells us why she did what she did. She says that when the door opened she looked for God to come through but instead of what she imagined to be God, a black spider emerged toward her. The spider came towards her and tried to enter inside of her. She recoiled in terror and the spider god turned away from her and left. I was a little disappointed that Bergman chose to use the Spider to represent something awful and horrifying since in many other cultures, including the Native Americans, have a much healthier approach to the mythos of the Spider from one of fear to another of building dreams and wisdom, but that’s just me. 

In either case, it seems to prove the point of the title. We see through a glass darkly every day of our lives. What we see of each other is distorted by our own lives, ideas, thoughts, and beliefs. We can only see part of the vision, and we elaborate on our own to what that might mean. David distorted his love of his family for love of writing about his family, a slightly different reality than the one around him. Karin’s test was if she could love the divine if it did not conform to her own understanding of what God was, and she could not. I think this answered for me the problem that I was having earlier with her divinity versus madness. In a way, Karin’s inability to transcend herself was the reason why her character was caught in her own madness and why other feminine characters with the same controversial situation have had different outcomes. I was grateful again for Bergman’s “reality” of the character’s dilemma and making Karin have an ending that was understandable even if it was not the happy ending that he was toying with. 

[btswishes]

Back in time

BTS AU

Part1 / Part2 / Part3 / Part4 / Part5 /...

A/N: I was in the mood for writing this kind of historical Au. I think it’s going ok, but in the end you guys decide. I hope you like this and sorry for any mistakes made.

Word count:  2,756

Warnings: None.

  Who thought that being stuck in ancient Korea would be this normal for you. In some strange way you believed that all those years of watching historical dramas had paid off in the most unexpected way.Waking up early, no internet or electricity was a new experience for you, but thanks to Su Min everything was ok. You learned so much from her, but it wasn’t only one sided help, thanks to you the basket ‘business’ her family had was blossoming. You moved into a nicer home and became quite famous. Everyone in the town knew who you were and greeted you whenever you were just walking around. Even merchants from far lands exchanged experience with you.

“Y/N.”you turned around and saw the violet and light purple colors of Su Min’s hanbok 

“Unni!”a smile appeared onto your lips and you ran over to her “What brings you here? I thought you were resting today.”

“I came to give you this.”she was holding a small box covered with a flower fabric “You forgot your lunch silly.”

“Sorry.”you giggled and sat down, opening it. Working in the hot sun all day wasn’t easy, even you needed to rest for a bit

  The town was peaceful, the birds were singing and the warm rays of the sun were enveloping the Earth in its warmth.Children were playing, their footsteps making everything even more lively. There was a certain rhythm. Who wouldn’t wish for it to last forever, if it could. The loud sound from someone running ,was like a stone ,creating a big ripple into the water of harmony.

“ KAN SU MIN! KAN SU MIN NOONA!” a boy, young and energetic stopped in front of you two.He was talking and trying to catch his breath at the same time.

“Yun, what is going on?”she asked as her hands were holding his arms “is something wrong?”

“The guards...”he was slowly replenishing the air in his lungs

“What about them?”

“The royal guards are coming!” 

“That can’t be. They already collected this month’s taxes.” 

  Yun looked behind himself as everyone stopped talking, letting only the sound of horse hoofs echo.Soon in the middle of the town stopped a few very well armed men. They looked the same because of the armor hiding their faces, but there was one very easily recognizable.His hair was tied up into a small bun and hidden under the sheer material of his gat (Korean traditional hat). His gaze was piercing and the color of his hanbok eye catching. Next to the strong horse of this man was an old merchant you had seen before.He passed by your town a few days ago. He was scanning everything around him, until he noticed you.

“That is the girl your Highness.”

 Silence and shock merged into the atmosphere. The painfully quiet world was torn to pieces by the sound of the man’s gatkkeun (bead string attached to the gat ) as he moved his head towards you. He stepped down from his stallion and started walking. The people made a path which he took to reach you. You were just staring at him ,when he stopped. Su Min pushed your head down with her left hand as she bowed as well.

“Your Highness.”she said and you eyes widened

“Lift your heads.” Su Min let go of you

“What brings you to our humble little town Your Highness.”an old man said, walking closer with a smile on his lips and a hand holding onto his painful back

“Are you in charge here?”asked the young man

“Yes Your Highness.” he answered immediately 

“I am here on orders of my brother.”

  Upon hearing these words the villagers gasped, whispers started going around from ear to ear. 

  Did you hear, the emperor send him.

    The Royal guards are here as well.

 The elite nonetheless.

      What would he want with us?

 Isn’t he the youngest?Why here?Why us?

 Questions arouse from each and everyone watching.

“I am here in search of a girl.” he said loud and clear “My people say it’s...”his head moved towards your figure “... you.” 

  Su Min jumped in front of you and bowed “Your Highness forgive my little sister. If she has done anything wrong, please forgive her. She doesn’t know much.” 

“She has done no such thing.” 

  Su Min lifted her head, confused “Then may I ask why you are in search of my dongsaeng?”

“Simple.The emperor has asked to see her.” silence swallowed the town, Su Min’s eyes widened and her lips parted. Her body started to tremble as the sudden action of the royal guards made her snap out of it. They grabbed onto her, as the young man started pulling you towards his horse. 

“Unni!”you struggled, reaching out for her

“Y/N!” she couldn’t even come close “7th prince, please! Don’t take my younger sister with you! I beg of you!”

“Silence woman!” the cold blade of a sword pressed against her skin

“Su Min unni!” you yelled out

“Enough.”said the prince ,as he made himself comfortable onto the animal, with you in front of him “We will not spill blood today.” he pulled the reins and the horse turned around “We are leaving. My brother doesn’t like to be kept waiting.If we take our time, the only blood dripping will be yours.” the guards stiffened up, before jumping on their stallions. Your sister ran after you, yelling as much as she could, until she collapsed onto the ground.She tried to get up, but couldn’t.

“UNNI!!!” 

 You screamed as she reached out as farther as her hands could. The last thing you saw were her lips moving, forming what seemed to you as a sentence, leaving you with a smile.

 Your hand fell to your body, letting yourself be taken away by these people. Being in an unknown land, having to learn a new language fast wasn’t easy, but it was ok. This situation was even worse than you would have thought, now.These men were taking you to a place you didn’t know, you weren’t sure if you were even going to survive the night. The trip was long and you had to stop when the moon rose. You were tied up to a tree ,because of your numerous escape attempts.

 They gave you food but you didn’t eat, your eyes were sharp and filled with anger. Yet the truth was that that was hiding the fear you had. You didn’t sleep for the 2 nights you camped, your body had gotten weak, but you weren’t going to give up. You were stronger than sleep.

  The third day you saw the large gates, which opened in front of you. People gathered up to see what was going on. This city was bigger than the town you were in till now.There was a big audience and you were trying your best to hide your face, good thing that it wasn’t necessary for long.A pair of big gates appeared again and this time they led into a peaceful palace. There were a few people walking around, but nothing like what it was a few minutes ago outside.

  The moment everyone relaxed and you got off the horse, you were free, no one was holding you so you ran. 

“Wait!” the 7th prince rose his hand and stopped the guards “There is nowhere for her to run, let her try all she wants.” 

  You on the other hand knew how Korean palaces worked, so in a way there really was no where for you to go. You could hide, but they will find you, you can try and get out but the guards will see you. As you were looking behind, you took a turn and hit someone. The impact was so big that you started going back. Suddenly someone grabbed your wrist and pulled you forward, falling onto his chest. Your head moved up and the hair pin from your hair dropped onto the ground, making a slight sound. His eyes were dark and alluring, his lips bright red and skin white. His hair was blonde and wavy. The wind blew gently and his earrings moved ever so slightly. His gaze was gentle and hypnotizing, holding in itself a child's curiosity. 

  You were tired and the lack of sleep finally caught up to you. Your body started loosing it’s strength.

“Am I dead?” you asked 

  His head crooked gently to the side and the corner of his lips moved a bit into a small smile.

“A-are you...”your eyes started closing “...an angel?” before you lost consciousness

  The sound of footsteps finally reached you.

“Brother!”said the young one, the blonde man lifted his left arm and pressed his index finger against his plump lips “Shhh.”the young one placed his hands onto his mouth fast.

  The angelic man lifted you up and everyone around made room as he was walked slowly with you into his arms. The doctor wasn’t into his room, so the man simple placed you onto the bed, as careful as he could.He looked at you and slowly reached out, moving your hair away from your face. His palm went down and touched your cheek, his eyes looking at you.His fingers moved slowly towards your lips, but he stopped with the sudden arrival of the doctor.

 The blonde man stepped back and the physician checked your vitals. After a few minutes, he turned towards the figure standing behind him.

“It is mere exhaustion My Lord.” 

  The man looked to the side and pushed himself off the wall. “I leave her in your capable hands Ju Min.”

“Yes My Lord.”he bowed and your hero left the room.

 Who would have thought that sleep could be so sweet, like a melody that keeps pulling you back. Once your eyes started opening up, you noticed a person standing above you, his face was filled with childish emotions and innocents. You gasped and sat up, making the boy take a few steps back.

“It’s ok.”he said and tried to come closer again, but this time you pulled back, so he stopped “You have been sleeping for 3 days now.”

 You looked around the room, but didn’t say anything.

“You must be hungry.” he turned his back on you for a second, once you saw the opportunity you grabbed it and jumped off the bed “WAIT!” the boy ran after you

  In no time you found yourself into the open space of the palace. Looking around, you noticed that 4 guards were coming towards you. This was one of the moments were you were thankful you father made you take martial arts classes.

  The men were armed and your head was spinning in all 4 directions to make sure they were all in your range of vision. A few people gathered up to see what was going on. Your scared figure, stood up strong and relaxed, closing your eyes you took a deep breath and waited for them to make the first move. 

 The first man attacked with his hands, easy to deflect, the second ran towards you with the intend of grabbing you and the last 2 left ,tried the same thing. In the end the 4 royal guards were clumped on the ground, beat and tired.Or maybe tree of them were K.Oed.

 Before you knew it you were circled by more royal guards, pointing their swords at you. At this point you didn’t think that you would ever leave this world, so death didn’t seem like such a bad thing. You pulled your hanbok back a bit and took your stance.

“Stand down!”someone yelled out, the men bowed in a matter of seconds 

  Your head turned around, but the mysterious person was gone, nowhere to be seen.

“Wait!” the young boy with child like energy ran up to you “Are you ok?”he looked up and down “What were you thinking!”he yelled out “This girl is here under the emperors demand. You were going against the royal family.Should I deem this as treason?”

“No your Highness, 6th Prince , general Kim Taehyung!”they all dropped to their knees  

“I thought so. Scram before I find you all new jobs!”

“Yes Your Highness!” 

  You never saw someone run away this fast, they really must have been scared.Wait a minute....6th prince!!!Your head snapped in his direction.

“Hey.”he made a box like smile, which you found surprisingly charming.His aura was sweet and gentle, you knew you could trust this one. Your eyes were focused on him “ Haha.”he scratched the back of his head “You already know who I am.”

  You had a confused look on your face, before gasping “Ah!My name is Y/N.”

“Strange name.”he placed his hand under his chin “I have never heard of it before.”

“I don’t think you will.” you said 

“Come, lets go back to the infirmary.The servants brought you food, it will get cold if we don’t hurry up.” 

 You were sitting on the bed and eating, while the 6th prince was looking at you.Placing the empty dish on the small wooden cabinet, you asked.

“You are the 6th?”

“What?”the boy looked at you

“If you are the 6th brother, then is the 1st emperor?”

“No.”he smiled “The 5th brother is the emperor of these lands. Strange...” he paused “People who live on these territories know all of this, thought you look a bit different to me. No offence.”

“None taken.” you sneezed 

“Bless you.” taking a quick look at your clothes he said “I think we should get you changed.”

“Why?”you lifted your hand and pulled onto the fabric 

“You don’t plan on seeing His Royal Highness the Emperor like that?”he giggled 

“Again, why?I don’t see a problem.” the boy got up and grabbed your hand, pulling you towards a big building next to the palace’s main house.

  A beautiful woman stopped to bow at the prince with 6 girls behind her.

“Your Highness.”she lifted her head up to look at him, when her eyes fell onto your figure “Is that, her?” the boy nodded “I will see what we can do about it.”she snapped her fingers and the 6 females took you inside the building. You turned to look at the 6th prince, but he just waved with a smile onto his face.

  The ladies took your clothes off in an instant and made you sit into a bath filled with flowers, oils and so many fragrant herbs. They washed and brushed your hair, applied makeup you haven’t even seen before, placed ornaments and accessories in your hair and let the woman from before dress you.

 After what seemed as an hour, you stepped in front of a mirror and eyed yourself from head to toe.Your hanbok had light blue and cream colors, mixed with a bit of white. So soothing to the eyes. The attention was being pulled by the shiny and pretty hair sticks and your face. The light cherry blossom color on the center of your lips and the blushing cheeks. Even you didn’t know what had happened. A part of you was doubting the beauty.

“Don’t worry you look beautiful, I am sure His Highness will think so too.”said the court lady with a smile. When she noticed the look on your face she pulled back a bit “What is it?You didn’t think that I would know what you are thinking?I am a woman as well.” she placed her hand onto your shoulder “Don’t worry.”

“Court lady An!”a girl walked in the room “His Highness The Lord has asked for the young lady.” 

  You were too occupied with the image in the mirror to even remember why you were here in the first place. Before you could even think of running off, you were pulled to the third pair of big doors. These were leading to the emperors room itself.

“This is a mistake!”you said, but no one listened “I am not the one, please let me go back to unni.”

“Don’t worry.” Lady An smiled “The emperor won’t eat you.” before anything more could be done, the doors opened and you were pushed inside.You turned around and started banging on them.

“Am I that scary to you?” 

  A voice caught you off guard and your body froze. You knew that this man was the emperor, but you couldn’t bring yourself to look behind. You jolted when his footsteps came closer to you....stopping inches from your back. His hand gently touched you and twirled you around. Your head moved up until you were able to see his face clearly. A gasp left your lips as your eyes kept him focused.

[aion-rsa]

Star Wars: Should Yoda Be in The High Republic?

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Jedi Master Yoda, Star Wars’ favorite puppet and the character whose performance could have made or broken The Empire Strikes Back, has a long history. In the real world, he’s a pop culture legend. In the Star Wars saga, he’s a 900-year old font of wisdom, strongly devoted to the light side of the Force but sometimes short-sighted. He’s Star Wars incarnate–but does he need to be in every Star Wars story?

Now that the Skywalker Saga has come to an end on the big screen, the next big Star Wars story will take place on the page in the form of The High Republic, a new series set 200 years before the start of the film saga we know and love. The High Republic includes books and comics that follow Jedi who are at the height of their powers during a time of peace for the Republic. The setting means that all of the characters we meet in The High Republic are going to be brand-new Jedi Knights and Masters. 

But the series won’t skip the obvious cameo, either. The High Republic will feature a “younger,” 700-year-old Yoda to tie these new books and comics to the big-screen trilogies. Concept artists Iain McCaig, Jeff R. Thomas, Grant Griffin, and others adapted Yoda, giving him a slightly less wrinkled face and slightly more colorful robes.

Take a look for yourself:

“The High Republic Yoda is a journeyman out in the galaxy,” said author Daniel José Older, whose comic The High Republic Adventures will bring Yoda to the new era in 2021. Visually, that means Yoda looks a bit younger and tougher. His Jedi robes were changed to reflect the High Republic style, including gold robes and a cloth lightsaber holster. The iconic character is going to play a “prominent” role, according to StarWars.com, but it doesn’t sound like Yoda will be on a battlefield or sitting in a Jedi Council chamber this time around.

“While he’s already a respected member of the Jedi Council at this point, we meet Yoda in IDW’s The High Republic Adventures series doing what he loves best: looking out for the young folks — in this case, a group of Padawans traveling around the galaxy to learn the ways of the Jedi with a hands-on approach,” Older said. “The Force study abroad program, basically.”

Yoda’s involvement in The High Republic does sound like it could be a lot of fun, but with the Disney era’s track record with cameos, I also have some reservations. Could Yoda’s role in The High Republic undermine this new era of Star Wars as a whole?

Star Wars’ Cameo Problems 

Two recent Star Wars stories show the pros and cons of including cameos from established characters: Star Wars Rebels and The Mandalorian. Darth Vader, Ahsoka Tano, Princess Leia, and other characters connected Rebels to other parts of the story the way Yoda could evoke the movies in The High Republic. But Vader and Ahsoka were given so much screen time that they became a distraction at times from what was initially a story about young Ezra’s self-discovery and coming-of-age. While Vader and Ahsoka’s storyline and eventual confrontation in an ancient Sith temple certainly affected Ezra in a big way, he was sort of pushed to the side during that storyline — and that’s not even mentioning the rest of the show’s original cast of characters.

The Mandalorian’s “toy box” approach results in a lot of characters who look similar to established ones but aren’t quite the same. Imagine a kid who has a Yoda figure but doesn’t know the character’s name or what he does in the movies. The toy is small, so maybe he’s a baby. But he’s wizened, so maybe he’s 50 years old. Of course, Baby Yoda a.k.a. The Child has been a wild example of this approach’s success. But it’s also different from a cameo character appearing in the flesh.

Yoda in the High Republic sounds like it could be more like the former: a well-known character appearing to take time away from new ones. The Yoda scenes will undoubtedly be spectacular and draw in fans who otherwise don’t have any connection to or interest in the pre-Prequel era or the books and comics. But it’s also possible that Yoda’s scenes will produce middling wink-and-nod references that dilute the overall story. Will Yoda be a vehicle for cutting comments about how exactly the Jedi have changed or cutesy references for the sake of the easter eggs? 

Yoda’s History 

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t hate cameos, and I definitely don’t hate Yoda. Maul’s brief cameo in Solo: A Star Wars Story? Loved it. A familiar character appeared briefly to do basically the same thing he did in the movies (ignite a lightsaber and look cool) and fill in a blank about his life. But Yoda’s role in The High Republic doesn’t sound like it will be light or brief. So I have to hope instead that it’ll be meaningful and carry significant weight. The High Republic will have to give Yoda the space to actually say something about Star Wars and the galaxy in which its set. He’s poised to be a great character with which to examine the politics of the Republic and the culture of the Jedi. With hundreds of years under his belt, Yoda has seen first-hand how the Jedi Order has changed. In the High Republic era, Jedi are focused more on effectively helping people than on following dogmatic rules. In the Prequel era, that changes. The fall of the Republic itself involves the moral degradation of the Jedi as much as it involves the Separatists’ military attacks.

Through Darth Sidious’ schemes, the Jedi slowly erode their former ethical lines, becoming enforcers instead of peacekeepers. Cloistered in their temple, they aren’t in touch with the people literally beneath their feet on the city-planet pf Coruscant, as the excellent middle arc of The Clone Wars season 7 showed. The Republic assigns them to missions that require power, and so they become less aware of the consequences of using that power. In The Clone Wars, we see how a Jedi’s attempt to catch a bounty hunter resulted in the death of civilians: deaths the Jedi knew about but took no responsibility for. 

The Prequels show how great Jedi like Yoda ultimately failed to see the bigger picture until it was too late. Will Yoda’s adventures 200 years before The Phantom Menace set the stage for his inevitable failure?

In Attack of the Clones, Yoda mourns the presence of “the shroud of the dark side” in the lives of the Jedi, but does not hesitate to turn the warrior-monks he heads into generals in the Clone Army. Could something in the High Republic explain why this didn’t bother him? Or is Darth Sidious just that…insidious? 

It isn’t all about the movies, of course. The High Republic could explore aspects of Yoda’s past from even before 232 BBY (the date in which the series is set). We know a couple other canon characters who were also alive even this early in the timeline. Professor Huyang, an ancient droid who appears in The Clone Wars voiced by Doctor Who star David Tennant, helped Yoda forge his very first lightsaber. We also know of two other Jedi Masters who taught Yoda, named K’ungfu and Chuang, who are likely too campy to appear in The High Republic, but learning more about the teachers who taught Yoda the wisdom he passes on in the movie could be interesting. 

If I had a voice in a boardroom for this project, here’s what I’d suggest: Yoda should not be just a cameo character. If he’s present in The High Republic, give him a role that illustrates how he changes in 200 years. Use the fact that the audience knows this character’s future not for dramatic irony but to actually say something new about him.

The first two parts of The High Republic, the adult novel Light of the Jedi by Charles Soule and the middle-grade novel A Test of Courage by Justina Ireland, will release on Jan. 5. The young adult novel Into the Dark by Claudia Gray will hit shelves on Feb. 2. Dates have yet to be set for the new comics series from Marvel and IDW.

The post Star Wars: Should Yoda Be in The High Republic? appeared first on Den of Geek.

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[arcadiaoblivion]

My Thoughts on Who I Think Will (and Won’t) Die in Infinity War

Let’s face it, we all know at least SOMEONE is going to be killed off in Infinity War and/or its sequel.

It’ll be the tenth anniversary of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and as epic as the movie will already be (I mean, the Avengers AND the Guardians of the Galaxy TOGETHER!), the people at Marvel need to do something to keep things fresh and give us, the audience, a shock. We also know that some of the actors’ contracts are pretty much done, so that gives us some good hints as to who may be the one(s) to kick the bucket.

A lot of people think Iron Man and Captain America will be the ones to go (or at least one of them). I agree with that, and I will discuss them. I also want to talk about some other people who I think may be killed off, as well as the characters I don’t think we have to worry about.

WARNING: this post contains spoilers for several films in the MCU. It’s also really freaking longwinded (sorry).

Who I Think is at Risk:

Right away, I thought of Nebula, one of the characters in the Guardians of the Galaxy series. A big part of her story arc is the fact that she was always treated like second best because her sister, Gamora, would always beat her in combat training. Their adoptive father, Thanos, replaced several parts of her body with robotic parts because she kept losing to her sister. Because of this, she resented Gamora and has a grudge against Thanos as well. As of the end of Guardians 2, she has reconciled with her sister and has set out to find and kill Thanos. With all this information in mind, I predict that Nebula will help the Guardians and the Avengers fight Thanos. I think she will either confront him about how he treated her in the past and get killed, or sacrifice herself in some way in order to protect Gamora.

Next is Vision. Vision has one of the Infinity Stones (the Mind Stone) on his freaking forehead. This immediately would make him a target for Thanos. Plus, he is pure of heart (I mean, he’s worthy enough to lift Thor’s hammer, for God’s sake,) so I think he would be willing to sacrifice himself or put himself in harm’s way if he believed it would protect the people he cares about *COUGH COUGH Wanda COUGH* or help defeat Thanos. Also, Paul Bettany has been acting in the MCU since the first Iron Man (for those who don’t know, he was the voice of JARVIS before playing Vision), so his contract is probably coming close to an end. Therefore, I think it’s likely that Vision could die in the infinity war.

Pretty much any of the core Avengers could be in danger. In Tony’s vision in Age of Ultron, he sees all of them lying on the ground, actively dying. This means it’s a possibility that any one of them could die. No one is safe. However, I really doubt all of them will be killed off, probably only a couple will be.

I think it’s pretty likely that Captain America is going to die in Infinity War. Chris Evans has said that once he’s done with Marvel, he’s thinking of stepping away from acting, and he’s stated in the past that he thinks he will be done being Captain America soon. Plus, having Steve Rogers die would have a HUGE impact. Captain America was the first Avenger. Without him, the Avengers might not even exist. His death would send shockwaves through the team, hell, through the world. Plus, his relationships with Bucky Barnes, Sam Wilson, and (despite how rocky things were in Civil War) Tony Stark would make it so much more emotional and hard-hitting. Bucky would be devastated. His best friend, the only thing he has left of his old life before everything went to hell, would be gone. He would be alone. Sam would be heartbroken, his close friend and coworker killed in action. And Tony would shut down. He and Cap have been through so much together. They have been through hell and back, and despite the shit that went down in the fight over the Sokovia Accords (and the fact that Steve knew Bucky had killed Tony’s parents and didn’t tell him), they still care about each other. Cap’s death might be the final nail in the coffin, giving the Avengers and the Guardians the strength needed to kill Thanos. I think it would be the right way for the First Avenger to go out.

Finally, we have Iron Man. The first Iron Man film was the very first instalment in the MCU. Without the success of Iron Man, we wouldn’t have the great film franchise we have today. We owe it all to this guy. However, Robert Downey Jr.’s contract is probably pretty much up, and he might not want to keep doing the same thing he’s been doing for ten years. He’s not getting any younger, either - he’s in his early fifties, so it’s not like he can keep being Iron Man forever. This would probably be the best possible time for him to go out of the MCU. Plus, much like the possible death of Captain America would, the death of Tony Stark would change EVERYTHING for the other members of the Avengers. Rhodey would lose his close friend, heck, the guy who helped him walk again. Steve would lose the friend that he cares about deeply despite differences they’ve had in the past. Bruce would lose the guy he loved talking about science and working in the lab with. Peter Parker would lose his mentor, the guy he looked up to the most. The death of Tony Stark would be both the end of an era and a new beginning for everyone, and I think that’s the direction that Marvel Studios will take.

People Who I Think Might Die, But Probably Won’t

Another theory I have is that maybe someone at SHIELD will die. Either Nick Fury or Maria Hill, I’m not sure which. (Then again, maybe Marvel wouldn’t go down this route because it would take away too much from the main plot, or it would make it so too many people were dying.) Still, it would be a heavy blow to the Avengers, like Phil Coulson’s death in the first Avengers film was, and it would help show just the gravity of what they’re dealing with.

Another Guardian who could die is Rocket. I don’t think he actually will, in fact I doubt it heavily. However, if he did, I imagine him dying trying to protect Groot. In the first Guardians film, Groot sacrificed himself to save his friends, which was a very emotional and impactful scene, especially for Rocket. Of course, Groot came back as Baby Groot  (now Teen Groot in Infinity War) and Rocket became a kind of father figure to him. Again, I don’t actually think Rocket will meet his end in Infinity War, but theoretically, if he did, I think it would be trying to save Groot from a blast or something. I think he would tell Groot something sweet or inspirational (and slightly sarcastic, knowing Rocket) before dying that would give Groot the strength to continue fighting without him. This probably won’t happen, but maybe they’ll do a fake-out similar to this. Who knows!

People I Don’t Think We Need to Worry About

 Spiderman. Peter Parker is the newest addition to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and he seems to be a fan favourite from the get-go. Tom Holland is signed on to do several more movies, so I really don’t think we have to worry about our friendly neighbourhood Spiderman getting killed.  Plus, I think Tony would be careful about protecting Peter from harm and making sure nothing happens to him. That being said, that doesn’t mean he’s safe from being injured in some way, and IF THANOS LAYS A SINGLE PURPLE SAUSAGE FINGER ON MY LIL CINNAMON ROLL I’M GONNA-

I said earlier that any of the core Avengers could be at risk. However, I don’t really know if Black Widow, Hawkeye, Thor, or the Hulk will die. I’m kind of on the fence about them. I don’t think we know these characters well enough that their deaths would hit us as hard as if, say, Captain America died, so I don’t know if Marvel is going to go in that direction. Plus, Thor is literally a god. And Clint has a wife and three kids, come on, they can’t be heartless enough to let anything happen to him!

Scarlet Witch, the Falcon, and War Machine. Aka the New Avengers. These guys are still relatively new, so I kind of doubt that anything will happen to them. Besides, if some of the - shall we say- bigger Avengers die, we’re going to need these three to help keep things going in the future. I don’t think we need to worry about them dying.

The Guardians of the Galaxy. There’s still a Guardians 3 in the works, so odds are they’re going to be fine (except for possibly Rocket, but again, I don’t personally believe that will actually happen.)

Ant-Man. Production has just begun for Ant-Man and the Wasp, set to come out in July 2018, so if Ant-Man has a new movie coming out after Infinity War, he’s obviously gonna be fine.

Doctor Strange. Like Spiderman, Stephen Strange is a relatively new addition to the MCU, and Benedict Cumberbatch is signed on to do at least one more solo film, so I don’t think we have to worry about him.

...And that’s about it! What are your opinions on the subject? Feel free to message me or send me an ask if you want to talk about it or if I made a mistake in my post or something.

[unholyhelbiglinked]

Deadly Devotion | II

The alarm clock blared in an obscure buzz that seemed to work it's way into Grace's unsettling slumber. Her body was sore, muscles groaning in protest as she began to shift her weight around on the small futon.

The man at the mattress store had promised that the price was worth the product. After all, Grace only had to stay in this tiny apartment for a year tops. She decided that a bed that doubled as a couch was better than buying them separately. But now she regretted the decision.

She grumbled, moving her hand across the slick plastic of the clock as it continued to shout at her. She couldn't find the little button, the noise growing louder by the second. She shoved it off the edge of the night stand, getting aggravated as the object clattered to the floor, stopping the hum of an alarm that she had set herself.

Grace begrudgingly pulled herself from the warm cocoon of blankets that she had attempted to use as cushioning against the rough springs of the mattress. It was already five. She had spent about an hour trying to catch up on sleep after her last class of the day.

Sleep didn't come easy, though. She tossed and turned, only getting fifteen minutes of rest before her clock blared. She had to get to work. Something that she wasn't quite fond of, but it seemed to be a necessary part of her day.

Grace had always wanted to be an actress. She attended classes for the profession, and even started looking into internships in her spare time- but the only one she had found was at the PIT. The peoples improv theater. It was every aspiring actors dream job. To be on that stage with a group of people just trying to make the audience laugh.

She longed to feel the slight burn of the stage lights, hear the roar of laughter after an on the whim joke, hell- she even wanted to attend the practices that the actors dreaded so much. She needed all of this in her life. But instead of reading from a script, she got stuck with lifting sandbags.

Well, not all the time. The position at the PIT left her with the odds and ends of the backstage crew. Most of the other people were college students doing the exact same thing she was. Wishing they were somewhere better.

Grace eventually struggled into a pair of jeans and the black crew shirt that needed so desperately to be washed. But she hadn't gotten the time to stop at the laundromat. Instead, Grace slathered on some off brand lotion and prayed that her deodorant would cover up the scent of a hard day's work.

She slid on a just as dirty jacket and stepped into the frigid New York air. It bit at the back of her throat, but finally woke her up enough to speed up her walking pace. In no time at all, she had gone the ten blocks that it took to get the the PIT.

Like always, the sun had began to set, making the yellowed sign cast a pale glow on the sidewalk, marking the way too familiar patch of black ice that she had fallen over more than once.

The door was unlocked, allowing her easy enough entry. Warmth was quick to find a way back into her rosy cheeks, her hand reaching towards the side door of the theater. It lead to the red encrusted steps that she needed to get down.

The theater was a bit small in itself. A small light control box stood to her left, a box that only she had the key to. In front of her was an aisle complete with steps that lead down to the ground floor in front of the stage. It reminded Grace on an old movie theater, something that it probably once was.

Her boss, Cooper, was on the edge of the stage, talking something over with one of the technicians. He raised his brows at Grace, knowing that she was later than she should be. Regardless, Cooper didn't say anything. He never did. Grace was good at her job, so there was no need to get upset over a few minutes of lost time.

She nodded at him before fishing in her pockets for the keys to the light booth. There was a small show in about an hour, and it would be fairly less enjoyable without the lights. She eventually felt the rough metal under her fingertips, her hand reaching for the doorknob as she turned it easily enough.

The light booth smelled a bit like lighter fluid, which didn't bother her so much anymore. At first, it was all Grace could smell. It made her stomach churn, but now it was comforting in an odd way.

She turned on the small desk lamp that lit up the office a bit before she started to run through the normal checklist.

Make sure the breakers are set. Check the hinges on the lights. Attempt to change out a few broken bulbs.

All of this took up a considerate amount of time, the tiredness seeping back into her mind as she finally flopped down into the dusty old desk chair. She had a perfect view of the stage, ready to flip a few switches here and there as the actors went through their usual routine. This time it was for a new audience, though, making Grace a bit anxious.

When she wasn't watching the actors,she was watching the patrons. They were always the same. She could place them in two categories: marveled tourist, or busy New Yorker. One was way too interested, the other not interested enough.

"Grace," the knock at the door startled her enough to make her draw a quick breath into her lungs. It burned. Cooper stood in the doorway, a lowly look on his face.

He wasn't a bad looking guy. He had to be in his late twenties, early thirties. His hair was silver, by his choice, a beard taking up most of his features. He was a pretty laid back guy, only stressing during big productions.

"Hm?" She raised a brow.

"There's a new girl," he said, shaking his head a bit "She needs some help."

"With lights?" Grace asked, a bit of skepticism in her voice. It wasn't that hard of a job. All you had to do was flick a few switches here and there.

"No," Cooper responded "With lines. She has an about a week to learn them before they put her in the show- and you know them by heart, don't you?"

Grace cocked her head to the side "I suppose I do."

She did. She knew every line thanks to hearing the whole damn act over and over again. She much preferred the improv show to the comedy plays that they put on, but she worked both a considerate amount of times.

He lifted his chin then, signaling that they couldn't just sit around talking all night. After all, it was almost show time.

Grace emerged from the small booth, he eyes scanning the empty theater until she saw a girl sitting on the edge of the stage, her back pressed up against the front of a step. Her arm was draped lazily on the one behind her.

Grace was silent enough as she walked down the stairs, but even she wasn't that quiet. The girl glanced up, her sharp eyes being the first thing that Grace noticed.She had headphones in her ears, a small line of sweat forming above her brow due to the already blaring stage lights.

The blonde stopped in her tracks, one hand on the railing that divided the steps to the ground floor.The other hung loosely by her side. This girl was absolutely stunning. Grace could tell even now, just by the one simple glance and smile she had earned. It made her cheeks hot, her heart pounding against her ribs until it was almost painful.

The girl that sat on the steps was smiling at her, making a move to take out one of her earbuds. She tucked a piece of her strawberry hair behind her ear as she glanced back down at her script. Grace just stood there. This girl, she was breathtaking. With her fair ivory skin and pink porcelain lips.

"Hi," The girl finally spoke, having situated herself with the headphones and massive booklet of paper that rested on her lap. Her voice was soft, but mysterious, one was an edge that sent shivers down Grace's spine. "I'm Mamrie."

The younger girl nodded, giving the redhead a small smile."Grace," she offered up her name, earning a bigger grin than before.

"Grace," Mamrie said her name with certain confidence "I like that name. It's pretty."

"I like yours too," Grace responded awkwardly, scratching the back of her neck "It's very..." she trailed off.

"Southern," Mamrie chuckled,a sound that made Grace's heart pound even harder, heat filling her ears. "I know, it's weird. But it's been twenty years- so you'd think I'd be used to it by now."

Grace scoffed slightly "I was going to say unique, but Weird works too."

Mamrie smirked at that, scooting over a bit on the step as if to invite Grace to take a seat; which the girl awkwardly did. Mamrie looked comfortable, which was far from what Grace was.

The blonde wasn't uncomfortable, that was for sure. She just tended to notice a lot more now that she was closer. It was one of those times where Grace was painfully aware of her existence compared to Mamrie.

Her senses were going wild. Mamrie smelled overwhelmingly of lavender and lemon, making Grace's lungs burn in a satisfying nature. The girl was close- her knee resting against Grace in a blinding heat. Grace wasn't bothered by the closeness, for once in her life, she just wanted more of it.

"You're not one for words, are you?" Mamrie suddenly said, pulling her from her own mind. Grace shook her head clear, focusing all of her attention on the girl in front of her instead of the pressing thoughts she had about her.

"No," Grace chuckled "I mean yes, I just think a lot- sorry." her cheeks were turning pink, much to the notice of Mamrie.

"Don't be," Mamrie smiled "It's good to overthink sometimes."

Grace nodded. In this case. She wasn't so sure.  

[thepermanentrainpress]

BUMBERSHOOT: DAY 2 RECAP

I stuck mostly to the main stage for Day 2 of Bumbershoot in order to secure a good spot for headliner Lorde. Praise must be given to barricade security at this fest for taking care of everyone there during the wait. They were checking in to make sure we were ok, never bothered us, and were giving away lots of swigs of and even whole bottles of water towards the end. It’s not easy being in the front of a tight crowd for that long, and security made our experience much more comfortable.

Opening up was a group called Ruler, locals from Seattle. Described as “post pop-punk revival,” their songs are very mellow and high energy at once. They’re calming and slightly depressing to listen to, but also immersive and energizing. The frontman Matt Batey had hilarious stage banter, saying that he had “nothing interesting to tell” and thanking Lorde for having them as her opener, before launching into another of his own songs (after joking “okay, now here’s Wonderwall”). Ruler is sort of what would happen if you cross Weezer with Death Cab, creating something charming and melancholy that truly brings the bittersweetness.

Next up was up-and-coming Manhattan trio Dreamers. The singer, Nick Wold, was the most genuinely excited to play Bumbershoot of any artists I saw there all weekend. He told a story of how the last time he was at that festival, he was 12 years old and crowdsurfed at this very stage. He then proceeded to crowdsurf again, while singing, and it was almost as exciting for the audience as it was for him. As for their music, it was just as rewarding; it was super high energy. All three of them were going hard, and their visuals matched the atmosphere. The projections behind them were bright, trippy, and intensively flashing.

Highly Suspect was an intensive, yet soothing band to watch. I've got to give a lot of credit to the drummer who went really hard and did an INTENSIVE drum solo, probably one of the hardest I've ever seen. I sort of zoned out during their set, hypnotized in a blend of hard and indie rock. They've played over 800 live shows in their career and it's clear that they're very seasoned at what they do. They originally started as a cover band, and I was hoping to hear one or two classic covers… but it was still a good time!

Iceland band Kaleo is a very great festival band, because their sets aren't too intensive but they still bring their all as individuals to create something bigger than the sum of their parts. Their songs feature raspy vocals in a folk-blues style with a taste of indie rock. Many of their songs are distinctive and recognizable from recent movie trailers or TV shows. They played for 45 minutes and could've easily gone longer for what this band is capable of. There's a lot of great instrumental work to be found here, and I would love to see a full length set to see the talent really shine. This is a band that could headline at a folk festival or holiday celebration, and I really hope they continue to visit North America frequently.

Weezer is a band with universal appeal. Everybody knows Weezer songs. Everyone has a favourite one of their songs. They've been going strong since the early 90s, and they're still releasing fun stuff today. They're definitely no longer at their peak musically, and they'll probably never release an album as endearing as Pinkerton or The Blue Album. Nevertheless, they are very fun live still. They played most of their hits, but sadly not any of the deep cuts for fans. I would've liked to hear “El Scorcho,” “The Greatest Man That Ever Lived,” “Across The Sea,” and especially “Only in Dreams.” On the other hand, they did do a cover of OutKast’s “Hey Ya!” Originally a heavy rap song, they did the cover in full Weezer style and it was surprisingly good. It was an odd and hilarious choice, but it worked really well, and they had the whole audience singing along.

Even so, the songs and show they did play were top notch and a wonderful compliment to the festival. The visuals were incredible. They had a cartoon beach for “Island In The Sun” and a montage of famous/inspirational women during their recent hit “Thank God for Girls.” Rivers even dawned a crown and cape for “King of the World.” Personal bonus: in the front I shouted “I LOVE YOU RIVERS!” and into the mic in front of thousands of people, he said “I love you too” after a long pause. Rivers Cuomo told me he loved me. My life is complete.

Finally came the headliner of the night: New Zealand international superstar Lorde, who has two Grammys and two platinum albums all at age 20. I am an absolutely huge Lorde fan, and it's really hard to put into words how excited I was to see her live for the first time. In short, she was perfect.

The lighting for Lorde was one of the most varied and beautiful for any live act I've ever seen. Almost every song had her shining beautifully in a different shade or colour, and that's not even including her projections. It included party scenes, a group of girls smoking and drinking, and a cigarette lighter shining brightly during her iconic performance of “Royals.” Lorde dances for pretty much every single one of her songs, and if you've ever seen her videos, you would know her dancing is a type all on its own. It was so rewarding and beautiful to see her doing those moves in person. She also had a group of backup dancers performing in great sync – Lorde herself even did choreography to “Hard Feelings.” (The transition to “Loveless” as featured on her album Melodrama was not included). In perfect sync with her dancers, she finished the song by collapsing to the ground in pure emotion. It's obvious that Lorde gives a lot of genuine feeling every time she sings her emotional lyrics – those words mean a lot to her.

She had a lot of stage banter and audience interaction, telling stories of the last time she played in Seattle three years ago and the feeling she got listening to her audience then. She said that “teenage girls are the best… even though a lot of types of people come to my shows now.” Close to the end during her performance of “Team,” she ran all around by the audience barriers, high-fiving and singing to much of us lucky fans. She even autographed the shoes she was wearing and gave them away to one extra lucky fan, performing the rest of the show barefoot!

Lorde has so many iconic anthems, opening her set with the teenage rally cry of “Team” and closing with what might be the dance song of the year, “Green Light.” While most of her songs are very upbeat, we were treated to a more intimate and emotional performance of what's probably her saddest song, “Liability.” The lyrics describe the feeling of not being good enough for someone, and she gave a moving speech about how she's always felt awkward and too much for someone. She reassured the audience that we should never feel that way and to reject anyone who thinks otherwise, “because f*** them.” Lorde is younger than I am and has had teenage years extremely different from most people, but she's still genuine and not that different from all of us in her mind. Even when she's blowing the minds of thousands of people with the heavy bass of “Supercut,” she's still the complicated, self-doubting person we all are. Lorde is truly the voice of her generation. If this show taught me anything, it's that it is really Lorde’s world, and we're all just living in it.

Written by: Cazzy Lewchuk Photographed by (with the exception of Lorde): Timothy Nguyen