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#I have a bunch up on my wall- hence where the idea came from
yourlocalabomination · 4 months
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So please pay attention, attention!
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riddle-me-ri · 2 years
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k hear me out we NEED the directors cut for taking care of Jervis through his depression
It has already been a huuuge experiment with his character but maybe theres still smth left to say u know👀👉🏻👈🏻
HNNGGG *vibrating with elated joy* IM SO GLAD YOU ASKED ANON when I saw this ask game I was HOPING someone would ask about Love and Suds! Because I HAVE A LOT TO DISCUSS HNNGGG
Because of that there's a read more tab lmao
I'm so sorry I know its a lot but just please bear with me because I HAVE THOUGHTS AND FEELINGS I need to express lol.
So Jervis is incredibly interesting to me lmao.
I've been in and out of the Batman/Rogue fandom going on about six years. I've always wanted to like Jervis (I loved Alice in Wonderland as a child shush I still do plus mind control?? Hell yeah) but given his controversy and everyone just sweeping him under the rug, aside from BTAS and Arkhamverse, I felt like I was slowly getting a grasp on him but never quite got there.
Now fast forward after a year and a half out of the fandom and thwarting myself back in I am here and I've met a couple genuine Jervis fans for like years, fans, shout out to @march-harrigan and @jervis-tetch-my-beloved and when I read their work and thoughts I was like...Okay so it's not just me that thinks this...it was very affirming to see others got the same read on him.
Because I say this with 0 hesitation, Jervis can be a tricky mad lad to write for. I mean extremely (Jon moreso for me lately, stoicism isn't my strong suit but I'm working on it) difficult.
A lot of people have a bad habit of infantilizing him or making him out to be weaker than he is. Yes he's a wee mad lad with a penchant for rhymes, hats, and tea.
But he's also a murderer, kidnapper, manipulator, and a neuroscientist...he's one of the smartest bastards in the room but because he acts playful, and whimsical people misjudge and underestimate him
Also, Jervis has shown the capability of remorse (again varying iterations but he does seem the usual suspect to feel any sort of guilt whenever he's finally lucid) because of that, I felt a compulsion to do something DC writers are fucking terrified to do....actually give a rogue hope. They tried to reform Eddie but that didn't last (mostly cause of his own compulsions that were never properly addressed...poor baby..)
Now I know for many, a lot of these characters are BEYOND redeemable, Jervis included (y'know kidnapping, murder, mind control...yeah) and they're not inherently good people, but some rogues were once before...
And I truly do think if Jervis had a positive consistent in his life that was able to make reality a Wonderland, he wouldn't need the fantasy, he wouldn't need the delusion.
That's where the idea for Love and Suds came from.
I've written for Jervis a couple times before Love and Suds and when I tell you I had to stop myself from literally doing a character deep dive for a smut prompted request...I had to reel back A BUNCH. I would be almost 1k words in and remember oohhh they're supposed to be fucking goddamnit and have to edit the shit out of it.
So I knew I had to do something just to prevent it from happening again. Slowly but surely the plot came to me, but I was hesitant. Again, I didn't want to infantilize him, but I did want the reader to take care of him. Hence why a lot of the time in the story Jervis is scoffing at himself because he's in reality and he's ultra aware of what's going on but like he's also selfish and isn't going to pass up a chance to finally be clean.
Which is something else I hope I made clear was that Jervis was very much in reality during the entirety of the story whilst in his depression...hence why he wasn't rhyming, he wasn't absolutely appalled by the state of his home (scattered saucers, dirty tea cups everyone some broken after being thrown at the wall, hats with broken seams and holes in them, things I didn't really get a chance to describe). I'm sure you've figured that out but just wanted to confirm it.
It's one of those fics I hold near and dear to my heart.
Because one it was one of those fics I had going around in my head that I finally put onto paper and it was exactly how I envisioned it (its only happened with two other stories)
And two... I didn't realize how much it was wanted/needed? I knew since it wasn't a request from anyone it wasn't going to be everyone's fancy...but like the amount of feedback I got exclaiming that this is exactly what they want to see for Jervis? This is how they see him? Like I didn't realize that was something that people were looking for!
As far as if there's anything more to the story...when I tell you I have thought of sequel ideas for Love and Suds I have thought about it immensely...
I have a couple scenarios were Jervis returns the favor to Reader, one where Jervis comes to properly court the reader but overhears a heated argument with Reader defending Jervis to Batman, like the possibilities are ENDLESS but I also don't want to like...ruin it either you know? Too many may spoil it or make it bad?
But yeah...so sorry this is so long lmao if you guys do want more content regarding the set up of Love and Suds let me know! I may still write a couple connected drabbles here and there for a comfort project for myself but it's also good to know if you guys would be into it too! If tumblr could let us all have polls I'd put it in a poll but nooooo
Thanks for reading all of this lmao and thank you for asking anon I am so glad to get this all off my chest lmao
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studiojeon · 3 years
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troubled outsiders | intro - jjk
| summary | -  how you two end up pining for each other.
warnings: none :) 
content: idol!jungkook x student!oc, friends to lovers (because it’s THE superior trope okurrrt), jungkook is quiet and shy but a social butterfly when needed (and when it comes to oc but you’re not supposed to know that yet), oc is both a badass and a socially akward queen, she has TWO friends and only because one is dating the other (like... same), the Lee Charyeong is her bestie, oc works at bighit and feels like everyone either fears her or hates her, author nim is a crackhead and has no plot planned for this series whatsoever (doesn’t know if she’ll keep this up, we’ll see).
words: 1.93 k
His presence was overwhelming, to say the least. Even if he were surrounded by six hundred other equally handsome men, somehow, to you (and the majority of the female population, at that point) he was as captivating and magnetic as they come. Jeon Jungkook didn't pay no mind to no one, but sure as hell everyone became hyper aware of his existence and essence in time. And that didn’t exclude you.
Yet, as nonchalant and indifferent as the man could be perceived, in reality he was more considerate and friendly than the aura he exuded. You knew this because working in the same company had to teach a thing or two about the people who literally carried said company and the whole industry at some point, still you barely knew four or three people, including your assistant and Jungkook, whom you had met once.
The opportunity of working at the company had come to you out of the blue, quite literally, you were attempting to send one of your assignments in when an email appeared in your notifications during your sailor moon study break. 
HYBE Entertainment
We’re glad to inform you that you’re being recruited for the position of Logistics Manager in one of our sub companies, BIGHIT Entertainment. We’ve thoroughly looked through the CV you’ve submitted and are very interested in your capabilities and what you can contribute to our organization. One of our other managers will gladly meet you on a day you can both agree on. Make sure to answer this email to get more details about your interview.
“Nani!? THE FUCK?” sure as hell that your eyes and cognitive functions were deceiving you (ADHD) you went over the text a little over three times in a row before the message settled in your mind. This was sus. 
Before even considering a reply you made a quick call. “Fucking Lee Chaeryeong” you spat on your end of the line. “You did this, didn’t you?”.
Her silence was more than enough to have you cursing her under your breath. “I don’t know what exactly you’re talking about but it most likely was me. Does it have to do with a sex toy in particular?”
“No” you denied almost monotonously, guessing the pile of boxes in the corner of your room with her names on them was what she referred to. “Does anything come to mind if i mention BIGHIT FUCKING ENTERTAINMENT?”
It was her. All those conversations during the summer about how badly you wanted to work in the entertainment business as marketing staff of some sort had their effect on your friend, who, despite all your excuses and denials, knew you better than you and your mom combined did, and because of this, was sure as hell you were not making a move towards that goal whatsoever. So, being the boss bitch she was, she took matters into her own hands, was what she explained.
You concluded that was the reason you had reached a point in your life where you had more experience than most recently graduated kids in your field, because Chaeryeong had you moving every summer break. You had been the manager of a coffee franchise and convenience store during you junior and senior years, and also figured a way to improve the marketing management strategy of a fucking restaurant while at it. Not to toot your own horn, but you were kind of cool.
Or not. “I hope this job satisfies your workaholic ass for once, I’m running out of ideas”. Chaeryeong spat before hanging up.
Sure as hell it would. 
On friday afternoon, you made your way to the HYBE INSIGHT building and introduced yourself to your recruiters who promised to give you a call at some point. “It went fine” you told Chaeryeong once you were in your car. And it was the truth, however you weren’t so sure if they would actually hire you at some point since well, you were a girl in a male dominated industry and, in your opinion, there were always better people than you. “Wanna go grab coffee?”
“I want to. But, I have practice today. I’m actually on my way there. Please avoid driving through Hongdae today, this shit’s packed.” You sighed and thanked her for the heads up. You missed your friend, badly. You hadn’t seen each other in three weeks, and you didn’t even live so far away from each other (you did, but it had been worse before). You two had very agitated lives to say the least. Chaeryeong was a kpop group member, and well, you were jumping from job to job and getting your phD in Business Management at the same time. It was hard to find moments to spare together during some periods of the year, but you guess the anticipation made your encounters better.
“Talk about anticipation” you slammed your forehead against your desk, taking a breather after such an anxiety packed situation. Short story: you got the job (for some fucking reason). And you had gone through a whole week of expectancy and anguish. Not getting that job would have broken your heart, and ego at the same time. 
You guessed the law of attraction tactics Chaeryeong had taught you had sorted their effect and were what led you to your current position in life.
“Miss _____, your presentation’s ready” your work assistant gave you a comforting pat in the back as she took a seat somewhere next to you. You were nervous, shitless. It was your fifth week at the job, and being the proactive woman you were, you had collected lots of data in order to come up with a resources management plan.
It was a Thursday afternoon, and more than a hundred people sat in front of you, waiting for your speech. Including him, who you’d once bumped into accidentally during one of your data recollections runs inside the building. 
You hated having the need to impress others yet, hence your anxious behaviour. But this was a decisive moment in regards to your validation in your new job and how you’d continue to be perceived during your work stance (no reason to panic at all)… you needed to get it together.
“I think I just pissed off a bunch of old men right now,” you told your assistant right after you got off stage. “I need a bathroom break”. Linh gave you a reassuring smile, one she always had plastered on her face.
“Take as long as you need to. I’ll give you a call once the rest are done”.
The commute to the bathroom was unnecessarily complicated in your opinion. You had spent a little over a month rushing through the hallways of the building and you swore every single day your spatial orientation got a bit more fucked up. There was no way there wasn’t a single bathroom on the floor you were in, that would just be atrocious. “It’s not completed yet” someone said beside you as you stared at the half empty map the company had projected on a wall next to the elevators. “Where do you need to go?” 
Kim Taehyung of all people in the world was talking to your ugly and unworthy ass. Your breath caught in your throat and after staring for at least five seconds your body finally reacted to your orders. “Oh, um… the bathroom. I’ve been looking for it for a good ten minutes” you explained with a nervous laugh.
“Trust me, I get it. I still get lost over here” he smiled gently. “It’s in the hallway in the middle of the next hallway” 
You laughed at his very ambiguous explanation. “Thank you” you bowed your head and made your way to said destination.
It was in the hallway to your left, not your right, and it took you a while to figure out that new piece of information. Once you were staring at yourself in the mirror, you realized that you looked considerably tired and exhausted from all the social interaction you had undergone throughout the day. You were used to the side stares and whispering you’d get whenever you entered a room at that point, but some days you just wished you could get a break from them. After all, it wasn’t your fault you didn’t look Korean at all, and that you also didn’t fit the stereotype of a foreigner.
You got that from your mom, both the non Korean features and social fatigue. But that wasn’t even the problem most of the time, it was your friendly and smart nature which she had also passed onto you. Some would consider it a blessing, but to you it was a burden, like a clear glass that shielded you from introducing yourself into other people’s realities. You had few friends and people to trust, but in your everyday life you had to deal with the pressure of standing out too much and that came with a lot of negative energy from others. You sigh as you spray your favorite fragrance on yourself. You could be feeling like shit, but no one will ever catch you slipping.
But that excluded him apparently. You hadn’t noticed that on the other side of the hallway was the men’s bathroom and the realization hit you as you were calmly getting some tea from the vending machine. “Good afternoon” the man greeted you as he made his way out the hallway, but stopped in his tracks right after he noticed you. “_____! Hi” he smiled at you and you wanted to die, suddenly forgetting what you were ordering in the first place.
“H-hi Jungkook” You smiled back, poorly attempting to put your wallet back into your backpack. 
“Need help there?” he noticed your agitated state and held your bag for you. He smelled just as heavenly as you had expected, somewhat between big dick energy and flowers. Oh, and he also remained as kind and polite as you remembered him.
Seeming as if he wasn’t planning on continuing his path to wherever he was heading to in the first place, he stood quietly by your side, waiting for you to be done with your deal. “How have you been?” you break the ice for him.
Quickly, you grab your tea and start walking back to the auditorium together, unaware of your surroundings or the suspicions that could arise. “Busy, but very good. How have you been? I saw your presentation earlier… I wish I understood half of what you said but you still sounded amazing”.
And you would never admit it out loud, but you were positive you were blushing (and falling in love too - platonically, of course). “Oh god, you think so? I basically told them they’ve been doing things wrong all along so maybe you’re the only one who’s appreciative of my work” you handed him the second can of iced tea you bought without him noticing. You swear his eyes lit up like stars in the night sky. “Payback for the other day” you smile at him.
The first time you two had crossed paths you didn’t look nearly as glamorous as you did now. In fact, you looked incredibly disturbed and in pain, carrying a huge pile of paperwork in your hands. But as soon as sweet Jungkook noticed your state, he offered you a hand and somehow ended up helping through your multiple data collecting trips that afternoon. It was a nice day.
“Anytime” he took the can in his hands with a shy look on his face. “Unless I’m practicing, you know…” you look down at his feet, with huge black boots engulfing them, and you smile due to their contrast with his personality. “Here, i’ll give you my number so you can call me whenever you need to put all those papers back. Hopefully I’ll be around” he added as he pulled his phone from his back pocket.
Way to get a girl’s number, my god.
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styx1an · 3 years
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A Chat about Chat
A short fic about how Chat came to be a singular being, written by yours truly. By all means, this isn’t canon, it’s just my interpretation of things.
Word count: 1,863
Fandom: RTGame, Miitopia (NGL I’m a little displeased with how I wrote the ending, but oh well!)
You know, there is this odd sense of irony in knowing how terrified Chat was of Magical John when they aren’t even human nor a singular being in the first place. Wait, so you didn’t know? Of how they became such a being in the first place? (They chuckle.) Then I suppose that means I’ll have to tell you their story. Well then, shall we begin the tale of Chat? (You see the twinkle in their eyes. They must’ve been waiting a while to be able to do this.)
> You nod. You’ve been waiting a while to understand Chat’s origins. Tonight, like many others, belongs to the storyteller.
> You shake your head. No thanks, you think you’re too tired. Dawn shall rise anew soon, and you will not waste your time with tall tales.
(They nod, pleased with your decision.) Then I shall begin to relay their tale.
Our tale begins in the vast lands known as Twitch, a domain that belongs to another, a far crueler being whose tale is for another time. It is a place where one is free to express their opinions and whatnot (as long as it suits the many whims of its Amazonian overlords, of course), and many are versed in the easy to learn, but difficult to master art of gaming. Many such masters have gained a large following, and even if they do not possess such skill, more often than not their humor and charisma paves the way to fame.
One example of the latter would be RTGame, a man of sizable repute. Aside from the frankly ridiculous story of the origin of his moniker, he is also known for doing some… questionable things for the sake of entertainment. There are still tales of his quest in the bathtub along with Gilbert (yes, the very same Gilbert on the quest to defeat The Darker Lord Khadgar!), the night of the Painted Wall’s Communion, the birth of Mr. Compost- But my dear, we are here for one of his lesser-known exploits, one that would change the world as we know it.
> You lean closer to the campfire, watching the storyteller with a renewed interest. Where does the tale lead? Where does it end? You need to know.
> It’s getting even later. You think some rest will be needed before tomorrow’s travels begin. Perhaps the rest of the story can wait another time?
It was a dark and stormy night. The then-Dark Lord Von Karma had just been unleashed upon the land, and I Want Die set along the path of salvation with his fellow party members, Mr. Bean the Warrior, Goofy the Thief, and Mint the Horse. He was pleased with the ease with which they vanquished monsters and saved (literal) faces, but the lack of actual conversation within the party had begun to get to him. Mr. Bean had nothing to offer other than a simple “Bean!” every now and then, and Goofy terrified him with all the “hyuck!” and talks of absolving the world’s many sins. Mint is a horse and therefore cannot participate in a verbal conversation unless you happen to understand what her neighs meant. She also happens to be the most normal member of the party, strangely enough.
Either way, I Want Die longed for a proper conversation.
And God took notice.
It was inevitable. The fourth party member was always going to join, whether he wanted one or not. It shouldn’t be notable in any way whatsoever, yet here I am regaling this tale to you.
It is not how Chat had come to join the party that I wanted to explain, but rather how they came to be.
Do you remember the man I had called RTGame? I hope you had not thought of him as irrelevant to our tale, as he is the patron saint of I Want Die’s adventures. Surely you know of the vast armory that belongs to the party? The various delicacies fed to the team? All his work. Along with his followers’ contributions, of course.
Chat was what he called his followers, the ones who watched his various endeavors as he traveled across the land of Twitch. Oftentimes the crowd would conversate with him (hence their name), offering jokes and sardonic commentary whenever he did anything remotely comedic. Other times, RT would have to tell them off for being such a rowdy bunch- the usual group of thousands could never keep quiet for long.
It happened that Chat witnessed I Want Die’s pilgrimage along with RTGame. They all looked upon him with a jolly sense of humor (after all, their master is well-versed in the art of comedy), some wondering where his travels will bring him. The others who knew how it would all end kept silent at the behest of RTGame. Either way, every single one of them was enjoying the show he had put on for them. 
And came the time to summon the fourth member.
As per usual, RTGame withdrew into his workshop, closing the curtains around him so no curious onlooker could see inside. But that did not stop Chat from yelling their predictions and demands.
“EDGEWORTH” one cried.
Another begged for a certain “End Mii!”
“CHAT CALM DOWN!”
“!uptime”
“69420toesucker just subscribed for 5 months!”
“TURG”
RTGame smiled at them. He wasn’t surprised at all at their reactions, rather it was something he had hoped would happen.
“Alright then Chat,” he said, “here they are!”
His pale, thin hands reached out to open the curtains-
And unveiled a faceless, empty husk of a being. 
Under any other circumstances, Chat would’ve rioted, demanded justice against the irony of sending a faceless doll to retrieve the faces of others. But they had no time.
Almost in an instant, the skies darkened. Clouds swirled up above with vibrant shades of violet, cobalt, magenta. Bright blue lightning strikes a tree and dissolves it into dust. Somewhere distant, something roars. The air feels thick- something magical, something electric is positively buzzing. Magic truly is in the air.
And thunder strikes once again. 
The crowd is gone.
Silence fell. All that is left is the master and the doll, no longer an empty husk.
> You look up to the storyteller, their eyes reflecting the blazing flames. You have a feeling that you know how this ends, but you’d rather have them confirm it first.
> You’re sleepy. As tempting as it is to continue listening to their story, you must admit that the very idea of slumber is even more tantalizing.
RTGame had managed to do exactly what he wanted. Chat’s consciousness, placed inside of a single, physical being. A puppet controlled by a hivemind would not be very easy to control, yes. But the idea intrigued him. And wouldn’t it be better than having a large gaggle of people constantly behind him, watching his every move? It could help I Want Die on his journey too.
So it is settled. It happened that one of the members of his temple had just crafted a rather nice puppet, in case RT needed one. And he did come to use it. It does look a little plain, as both body and head are painted in the same shade of bright white. However, the face was not white like how it was in the beginning, but a disturbingly pitch-black space. No, that’s not the right word.
Rather, it was like a void had formed. That’s also not the right phrase to describe it either, as there were drops of ichor dripping down onto the ground, dissolving the once green grass. But I digress. 
Chat broke the silence that had fallen between them, wailing as a cacophony of noises and emotions spilled out. Despite what RT had done to them, they were still determined to voice their opinions. Quite in character, really. 
“RT WHAT”
“NO NO NO”
“!uptime”
“I'M ON TV!!!”
“bazingabanana just gifted 5 subs!”
“that’s kinda meta”
As their voices grew louder, ichor kept pouring out of the void. As expected, RT thought to himself. He still needs to act fast. So with a quick snap, he fastened a wooden mask the temple-goer made; the same shade of white, a pair of beady black eyes almost as dark and soulless as the void, bright purple ears. 
The yelling and complaining didn’t stop of course. Still, as their voices were muffled by the mask, it was an arguably better experience than the previous ear-splitting wails. And it was less deadly too. Ichor had stopped dripping down onto the grass, which meant that the constant sizzling would finally stop.
Now, one last thing.
RT stared into Chat’s eyes.
This in itself wouldn’t have been quite a remarkable action had it been anyone else, but it’s Chat that we are talking about. The very sensation of doing something as simple as gazing into a hivemind’s many souls wasn’t anything ordinary, either.
It felt like you had just plunged one of your hands into ice-cold water in the middle of winter and not only are you freezing, you’re scared and you don’t know whether you’d come out in one piece.
They all stared back. Thousands and thousands looked upon RT, all different yet whispering the same things, each claiming to be an individual yet virtually nothing distinctive belongs to them. A true hivemind. It’s exactly what he wanted, but he wondered if perhaps other troubles would arise.
He let himself go from their gazes. It asks too much of him.
“Alright then, Chat. Ready?”
A gaggle of voices reply, sounding their agreements.
“OK then!”
--
I Want Die finally opened the inn door, after convincing himself that he’d like this new friend. That this one would be neither an anime villain, a comedy star or a horse. Someone with actual rational thoughts and words to speak.
In front of the door stood a short figure, clad in a purple mage’s robes. Their pitch-black eyes looked at I Want Die, and a chorus of voices came from their permanent smile:
“Hi, I’m Chat!”
And I Want Die wondered if he had forgotten to cross off ‘hivemind’ off his list of potential party members.
Chat’s introduction ends here, of course. But not their tale. The journey was far from over in fact. The party had yet to meet the Royal Court, witnessed the court’s love affair, or get kidnapped by the Dark Lord Von Karma. Even the party wasn’t complete, as it was only the first party I Want Die would encounter in his tale of redemption.
And it’s not the only story either. You haven’t heard of Magical John’s past life, or how Cupcake isn’t as pure as she seems. Gilbert’s fear of the kitchen. How Jefferson came to be, and Obama’s past life with Mr. Bean.
But I’m afraid I must stop here, for it is late already, is it not? Our journey must continue tomorrow. Let us rest. Goodnight, may the stars shine for you. (They head off into their tent, leaving you alone with the flickering embers of a dying fire.)
> You bid the storyteller goodnight. Perhaps they’ll tell you another one of their stories, underneath the moonlight once more.
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bokugaos · 4 years
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Perfection
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pairing: Bokuto x f!reader
length: 4.3k
summary: You are taken away and kept as the yakuza head’s trophy toy in exchange for clearing your father’s debt.
tags — traditional yakuza AU, dubcon, breeding, spanking, overstimulation, cum bulge.
a/n: (´。• ᵕ •。`) ♡ this is a secret santa gift for @kuroos-babygirl​! it’s also my first fic of 2021 and we’re starting the year right!!~ HAPPY NEW YEAR <33
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You look so petulant and angry in your defeat and sink down on your knees as soon as you are dropped off to your own feet inside the walls of the estate. Still you press your clamped hands against your lips, and murmur encouragement for yourself.
“It’s okay. Everything is going to be okay.”
Your mouth is trembling in frustration—it makes Bokuto’s victory all the sweeter. He can tell that you haven’t heard him approach because you flinch back when his shadow suddenly falls across you.
Your pupils become little pinpricks of fear, then dilate again when the first confusion settles as you stare up at the yakuza boss, remembering why he is standing there now, tapping his foot impatiently.
He is slightly hunched over, yet still towering so high above you. A menacing grin slowly stretches his mouth. He looks a lot less tired when he smiles—and a lot less creepy. It doesn’t keep your heart from throbbing. You stare up at him quietly, your thoughts running across your face clear as day—so when you try to flee, he already knows about it long before you even move the first muscle. His arm shoots out to grab your hair and keep you right where you are.
“A deal’s a deal.” he murmurs into your grimacing face. You reach up and curl your hands around his wrist, but… it appears that he doesn’t even feel your fingers around him.
Bokuto doesn’t do deals with just any commoners, but your father is in too much debt, one that he wouldn’t even be able to pay back in an entire lifetime. Your father knows that, and the yakuza lord does too. Hence why he very kindly offered to clear the debt in exchange for, well, you. And of course, your parents agreed in a heartbeat. If there was even a slight hesitation or remorse of the fact that you were practically being sold to the city’s lord, your parents didn’t show any of it. You clench your thighs together, belly tight and prickly, tears ready to spill from your eyes.
Bokuto’s smile widens. The fist he has in your hair tightens and as you wince and whine, he pulls you closer to push your face against the growing bulge beneath his hakama.
He moves his hips, fucking against your face while you make choked little sounds and half-heartedly try to turn yourself away despite you becoming stupidly excited at the heat and smell of his dick through the fabric. You could use your hands to push him off of you, but you don’t.
“Take all your clothes off. The maids will take care of them.”
You pause at that. You’ve forgotten that you’re not alone.
You start to glance around as much as possible while he distractingly keeps smearing his bulge against your face. There are shadows slinking around the edges of the buildings.
You know that none of them would be able to help you.
It is rather embarrassing to admit this, but Bokuto takes care of you better than your parents ever did. He makes sure the servants make you good food, drapes you in lavish clothes, have you bathed in the finest of flowers; practically everything you’ve ever dreamed of about being in the higher class in the society.
And yet, you still spend your time as if you’re counting down the days to your release from a place so godforsaken. At this rate, and with the way you are behaving, you are quickly becoming more of an embarrassment to him than something he can show off.
Hurriedly spreading out the futon and sitting on the edge of it, he pulls you into his lap, only slightly sated by hearing your small yelp of surprise. He quickly locates the hem of your kimono and pushes it up to bunch at your waist, not even bothering to untie your obi. You try to get a word out at the same time his open palm comes down hard against the flesh of your exposed ass, and any would-be protests die in your throat.
Silently fuming, Bokuto holds you in place with a firm hand on the small of your back. Holding you close like this while also getting to take out his disappointment on you satisfied several needs at once, save for a particular need he only becomes aware of when the feeling of your belly against his crotch becomes too good to ignore.
However, his conscience sternly urges him to hold back. You are not perfect yet. This is not the right time.
If you are not responding to his graciousness, maybe you are the type who learns from being punished.
Once that thought crosses his mind, Bokuto feels like a man possessed as he hoists you off of his lap and onto the futon. You fall on your front with little more than a muted sound of surprise, and he pins you down with his own body before you can even attempt to find your bearings. In his haste to fulfill the desire that has finally been fully recognized, he begins tearing away your intricately wrapped kimono. You are in no position to refuse his grabbing hands, though you do become bolder in your soft cries of protest. You are becoming confident enough to use your words.
So Bokuto holds you in such a way to force you further against the sheets, quite literally taking your breath away. He is much, much bigger and stronger than you, holding all of your struggling limbs at once with ease.
He pins your arms behind your back and moves on to your legs and seizes you specifically by your ankles to spread them open in a humiliating pose. The position left your pussy open and vulnerable to him, and he can’t rid himself of his hakama fast enough. He catches sight of you glancing over your shoulder just in time to see his hard, leaking cock, and the look of fear on your face practically has him throbbing. When he grabs your thighs and aligns the tip with your distinctly unaroused entrance, he shoves in as deep as your body will allow.
You can no longer keep your pain silent, the pathetic cries bubbling out over your quivering lips as he holds you tight and prepares to spear in further. Your walls are beginning to grow slick from what he suspects is not desire but necessity, as the experience would have been much more painful than it needs to be if you were not at least a little wet. Every thrust slowly becomes easier, but the delicious resistance of your tight body remains dominant.
Bokuto buries himself within you and only moves his hips slightly at first, before starting a pace that wrings out the volume you are still holding back. You are crying out like a bitch in heat and it only encourages him to fuck you harder.
Bokuto hoists you back up just enough to arch your back towards him. This way he is able to look into your eyes, brimming with emotion and the primal fear of prey that felt its flesh being torn apart by a predator. He groans as his hand moves to your throat, holding you tight so he can feel you tremble and gasp for breath.
“I’ve been very patient. I gave everything you needed to adjust to living here with me. Yet you still refuse to fulfill your purpose,” he murmurs harshly, his lips brushing against the shell of your ear with every word. “If you continue to refuse me, you’ll be sorry.”
With little more than a grunt of exertion, he spills himself directly into your abused womb. His hand slowly lets up its grip on your throat and you are able to breathe, though each breath comes out ragged and pitiful. Your body falls slack against the futon as soon as he lets you go, and he moves in to catch your legs and lift them up. Then he shifts to move closer to you, pulling you close and slipping a hand downwards to scoop up his release and push it back inside of you.
He feels you shiver against him when he presses his lips to the back of your shoulder. The hand that is not between your thighs is idly rubbing your belly, and his voice came out smooth as silk. “Don’t disappoint me again, you hear me?”
You are quiet, but Bokuto knows better than to read this as hesitation. It is more like you are tired and trying to catch your breath, or to find the proper words to say.
You are not yet in love with the idea, but rather, it’s as if you are at peace. Like you are finally coming to terms with what your life is now. The thought brings a bright grim to Bokuto’s face. Acceptance constitutes progress too, and it brings you one step closer to perfection.
There are many days where he is rough with you. Bokuto has taken over leadership at a very young age, and oftentimes, he takes his aggravation with him and takes it out on you. Part of him is dimly aware of this, but not aware enough to make him stop. Today is one of those days, and he is in a sour mood, desperately in need of both an outlet to pour his anger out and consolation.
You are shivering when Bokuto returns to the room, his steps heavy even on the carpeted floor. It is not exactly cold but you are naked, without even a single strand of hair out of place and your slender neck is on display just as the rest of you, and so nothing gets caught within any straps and hinges.
It is more the trepidation—and anticipation—that has you nervously dancing in place despite the thing he has carefully strapped you into a few minutes earlier. The wood is polished within an inch of its life, cinched around your neck and wrists, keeping you forced to bend over, ass to the door—just another little twist to his games that will keep you nervous and whiny because the thought of someone else stumbling in and getting an eyeful of your cunt is getting you tingly all over.
His little slut.
For the first time, Bokuto stays quiet. He is known as loud and boisterous young yakuza boss across the land, so to experience this silence is extremely unnerving for you. He does not even address you as he makes his way over with slow, heavy steps, but the thick air in the room makes his labored breathing all the louder.
It’s as if your cunt is glowing like a stop sign between your thighs, beckoning him closer. He wants to drag his fingers through the soft gape of your lips and pay some attention to your plump clit; torture it with some mean pinching like he knows you’ll go crazy for, but first, he slowly rounds to the front to have a look at your expression.
Your eyebrows are furrowed, anticipating his every move. You try to look up at him but his height and your position makes it impossible. He reaches for your chin, and you try to turn away from it but he grabs you anyway and slowly leans down, bringing his face very close to yours. You jerk away and abruptly avert your gaze elsewhere when you remember that you’re not supposed to look at him—not yet, not until he gives you the permission to—but he can see your face: bright and every bit scared as is excited.
He breathes slowly and measured, staring at you a bit longer just to unsettle you—then he lets go of your face and carefully tucks a lock of your hair back behind your ear. Some of the nervous fear seems to vanish from your expression after that.
Satisfied that everything is back in order, Bokuto stands back up and rounds you, watching the sway of your tits hanging down, and how your nipples are already swollen and needy. He pinches one—hard—and you cry out in surprise, your hips jerk as you automatically try to get away from the pain and realize you can’t go anywhere.
“No!” You whine, but it sounds weak. Your voice is trembling. He ignores you and pinches again, slower this time; increasing the pressure bit by bit until you start whining louder and louder, your knees bending then stretching again as you try to somehow mitigate the pain radiating off the tip of your breast.
He pulls down slowly, stretching the tissue until your whining becomes a short, rough cry of real pain, then he lets abruptly go.
When he leans over, he can see your cunt clench and relax desperately, slick already starting to glisten at the opening. You’ve always been a slut for pain.
He rounds you slowly, making a show out of letting his belt jingle loudly so you know he’s getting his cock out. You start whining again but a sharp two-fingered slap to your cunt has you shut up quickly.
Bokuto presses down with one big hand on the small of your back until you bend for him to have a comfortable grip on your hips as he drags the wide head of his cock through the valley of your ass.
Finally, it catches at the pouty rim of your pussy, pressing against it and forcing it to start spreading for the massive intrusion. He can hear you gasp for breath and he smirks in triumph.
“Squeal for me,” he murmurs, deep and ominous, then presses forward in earnest.
You do, because there’s no way you can keep quiet when Bokuto is fucking you open on his dick. You spread your toes against the carpet and curl them, trying to twitch out of the way but being held in place by his huge hands and his heavy weight on your back.
You are pinned in place, made to take his cock—basically letting him use you anyway he wants—and you couldn’t be more happy that he’s not hurting you too much, even though it is so very scary. You trust him, deep down. Of course you do.
But when you are like this, deep in your head space and reduced to a breeding sow gagging for dick, it is difficult to remember that you are nothing else but a trophy for him.
Bokuto tells you to squeal—and you obey. Simple as that.
His cock digs into your hole, spreading you so wide you are sure you are going to tear right through the middle. You don’t know when he stops existing as Bokuto in your mind and becomes your owner; domineering, possessive and belittling.
“Gonna put some little babies in you, yeah? Get your belly so swollen you can only waddle around.”
The words settle like hot coals in your belly, burning through you and sparking electric and delicious at the tips of your nipples. Bokuto can be really mean to you when he is angry. And while you are scared of his wrath, his words only serve as the fuel for your slippery slide down the slope. “Have to piss standing up because you’d not be able to get back up by yourself.”
You groan low—more a gurgle, really—and helplessly clench down on the big fat dick fucking into you. With everything compounded, you feel hot and suffocated. He’s fucking destroying you from the inside out, starting at your poor womb that will get massively dilated by the time he is done with what he is going to put into you.
Because that’s what you’re meant to be. He wants you to be waddling around with your holes sloppy and gaping from that massive dick of his you regularly get. Think about the others seeing you like that and knowing exactly that you’re nothing more than a disgusting breeding sow, made to be pumped full of his cum.
He fucks you like a beast and you grunt with every filling of his dick you receive. You can feel his balls swinging between your thighs; full and ripe, ready to fill you up until your belly is distending and your guts are gurgling with the cum he’s filling you with.
He increases his pace and you’ve never felt more animalistic; he groans deep and drawn-out, his hands cupping your belly to feel it starting to bulge with the sheer amount of cum he’s flooding your with while your eyes roll up into your head and your tongue is lolling out, drooling onto your chin, undignified and animalistic.
When he pulls out, it is not smooth. Even the head of his cock is big, and despite the massive spread of your pussy lips, it gets caught behind it anyway and needs to be dragged out with a humiliating wet pop like a plug getting pulled.
His cum immediately starts flowing as you can’t help but bear down, knees bending and clit pulsating needy and ripe between your thighs when the warm mess slides down your thighs as if you had pissed yourself in your excitement.
You don’t notice much of what is going on around you, not when he unclasps the thing from your neck and wrists, until big hands carefully touch you and turn you around into his big arms.
He carefully pats your cheek with a wide fingertip until you blearily blink open your eyes that feel glued-shut from the tears.
His anger should have dissipated by now, because there is a spark of affection in his bright, gold eyes and he nods before cradling you closer to his wide chest with one arm as the hand of the other descends between your thighs.
He’s gentle as his massive fingers slide into your cunt, fucking you slow and gentle while his thumb presses just this side of pleasurable against your swollen clit, dragging painfully tight circles into it until your body is strung tight as a bow string again, your teeth clenched together, sharp little nails digging into his huge forearm.
He keeps at it until you come, messy and loud, crying out as you jerk in his secure hold and gets everything wet as you squirt and he fucks you through it all.
Afterwards he holds you close, warming you with his massive body as he gently rocks you and leans his cheek against your forehead.
Bokuto can be awfully affectionate like that.
And that’s the only sign you need to see that he adores you just as much as you trust him… so far. But trust and security is different from love, and you’re not sure if you will ever be able to. He’s your owner and nothing more, and you’d be naive to think otherwise.
Even though you’ve grown accustomed to his presence as well as your new life in the estate, you still tense at the sound of his footsteps as they draw closer and closer over the floor.
You are still not sure about just how much you are allowed to see—your every question in that regard is easily ignored.
By now, you are more eager—as much as that makes you loathe yourself to admit it. You begin to anticipate his visits, lying on your back on the lush mattress he equips your room with and fucking your hole with your fingers as fast as you can without getting a cramp in his arm.
Your loud whimpers suffuse the air and bring an indulgent, broad grin onto Bokuto’s face as soon as he finally emerges in the doorjamb.
“So eager, my feather,” he purrs, slowly collapsing the stick in itself. He strolls casually to where you are wriggling on the sheets, and you turn your face away from him, subsequently baring your throat. Predictably, a large hand finds it without problem as if that’s the only thing his eyes are focused on.
“Are you ready this time?” he rumbles, the deep voice making you shiver and your nipples tighten into sensitive, little nubs. You wet your lips with a quick tongue, legs spreading wide for the hand stroking down his throat, between the valley of your breasts and down your abdomen, in order to vanish between your legs. A soft whine escapes you as he circles your hole, sensitive from getting fucked so often, before one of his fingers dips inside alongside your own fingers, making you strain and gasp.
“Is this… is this going to be the last time?” It is your standard question—almost like a ritual by now. It’s familiar to you like the broad length of Bokuto’s cock was, spreading you open and fucking you breathless. “Are you going to let me go after this?”
His lips stretch into another smile, his free hand stroking over your hair like a parent consoling their child.
“I told you I will breed you full,” he coos—just like always, seems like he’s in a good mood today. “Can’t let anyone see my little toy if she’s not well-bred now, can I?” He seems to take amusement in your predicament, setting you on edge, the humiliation driving ever deeper because you know you could do nothing against it.
You huff, ready to turn around and present your ass on all fours, but…
“Not this time. Stay just like that, beautiful.” Bokuto leans down, his voice—impossibly—dropping even lower as he slides onto the bed and between your thighs; still clothed.
He huffs a laugh, his tactile fingers sliding along your inner thighs, gently rubbing on the lips of your puffy, stretched hole, then curling two fingers inside you.
Your body is moving on its own—hips curling up into his stroking hand. You hate it. You love it.
“Have you been waiting long?” Bokuto asks in amusement, opening his own pants and drawing out that length that makes your mouth water and your hole clench in anticipation. Endorphins rush through your body, making you tingly and needy to be filled with nothing but his cock and cum.
You’ve already been trained so well by now… and from Bokuto’s triumphant grin, he is obnoxiously proud about it. Can’t wait to show you off and brag to his friends about his sweet little plaything; his trophy toy.
He leans down, his deep breaths ghosting along your collarbone. The fact that Bokuto likes your scent the most—he told you himself—and he likes to breathe you in while sucing on your neck, the artery there, feeling the pump of your blood there—is just as arousing as it is intimidating.
“You are... exquisite,” he whispers against your bare neck, dripping the words onto you like they were poetry even as the head of his cock slowly breaches you. You gasp—every time surprised at the fact that you could prepare yourself as much as you liked… Bokuto’s cock will still split you open and make you feel so fucking vulnerable.
“I will groom you to perfection.”
You whimper, eyes squeezing shut as his hips snap forward, driving himself in deep with the first thrust. He could feel tears prickling in the corners of your eyes, but whether from how much it burns (it still does, and you love it) or from the fact that he so casually tells you about his plans to corrupt you… you cannot tell. You don’t even want to tell.
You whimper, arms and legs curling around him, drawing him closer as he leisurely fucks you, his tongue and teeth scraping over your throat and collarbone.
“You are going to be the best there is.” Bokuto raises his head, mouthing along the line of your jaw. “Everyone else is going to wish that you’re theirs,” he sounded entirely too smug for that sentence, “but you’re mine. I own you. ”
You can feel Bokuto’s muscles flexing where your calves lay on his sides. He is so broad, so huge that you can barely wrap your whole body on him and yet… and yet…
Fuck, your whole body is primed to him. To this man brimming with strength and vitality and intellect.
Bokuto is the perfect owner to breed anyone… and your body welcomes him greedily—needy hole opening up despite the burn of the entry; just swallowing that cock again and again, clinging sweetly as if it loathes to let him out on every second stroke.
He laughs—low and painfully happy as if he has read your thoughts. The sound rumbles through his chest and directly into you, your toes curling and feet scrabbling at the backs of his thighs, fingernails scratching along his back as your lust spirals higher, soft sounds of satisfaction spilling out of your throat, no matter how hard you try to hold them back.
“Open up for me,” Bokuto whispers right into your ear—his voice sweet and deadly like poison. “Open up, sweet thing. Take it… take me.”
The last word is rasped in a low rumble—more carnal than human as he thrusts more harshly, grinding deep into you and making you cry with your head thrown back. You hear the breathy, rasping chuckle of him filling you up good and proper.
You love how satisfied you feel at being a good bitch for him.
Afterwards, when Bokuto is gone, you realize your face is wet. You think you must have been sweating more than you thought.
Yes. That’s it.
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teawaffles · 3 years
Text
The Fugitives from the Fire: Chapter 5, Part 2
“Hey, madam innkeeper: where would you normally have been in the building?”
“……Since when did you get in charge of the investigation?”
As Sherlock took the lead, it seemed Gregson was displeased, but also no longer in the mood to put up a fight.
Hillary sniffed.
“I was always at the reception desk. I’m the only one managing the inn; I don’t have a single employee.”
“In that case, do you remember when these three men came to book their rooms? Or rather, at the time, had there been anyone with burns on their face?”
Sherlock was now diverting the conversation away from the case, instead attempting to verify if there were eyewitness accounts of the other fugitive. However, Gregson responded in a low voice.
“Holmes: it’s not going to work. We also tried asking her when we arrived at the scene back then, but it seems she has a strange policy of protecting her guests’ privacy, so she doesn’t check her guests’ appearances and such too closely.”
It seemed Hillary had heard him whispering, for she spoke up in defiance.
“You know, these parts are full of people with something to hide. I always make sure they pay up, but I don’t do such tactless things as staring people in the face.”
“Tactful, eh……”
Even Sherlock couldn’t stop himself; he cracked a wry grin. He didn’t know if it was an unwritten rule of the slums, but the innkeeper’s response was certainly a little too risky.
Nevertheless, at this point, there was nothing to be gained from laying blame on her. Sherlock continued.
“In that case, when the fire started, were you also at the reception?”
“That’s right. I wanted to stay there until the fire was contained, but a bunch of bobbies dragged me out at the very last moment.”
It seemed the lady possessed a truly dauntless spirit, so much so she had been willing to go down with her inn. That elicited something close to admiration within Sherlock, and he looked over the suspects.
“You mentioned ‘the very last moment’… That means you stayed at the reception until everyone had escaped?”
“Indeed: as the landlady, I have to ensure my guests are safe. Besides these guys, I definitely saw the ones from rooms 102 and 201 escape out the front door.”
“You’re indeed the epitome of a host.”
In his mind, Sherlock added this new piece of information on the guests’ rooms.
Excluding the murder victim, there had been five guests in total.
On the ground floor, rooms 101 (Jerry Dorff) and 102 had been occupied.
On the first floor, rooms 201 and 203 (Mike Myers).
Then on the second floor, room 301 (Bruno Campbell).
As he gathered the respective locations of the guests, the proprietress spoke up.
“Oh yes — earlier, everyone was talking about who had the chance to go up to the second floor, right? You’ll have to rule out Mr Jerry over there: for some reason, he immediately ran outside when the fire began. He seemed the very picture of alarm.”
“Hmm; this man, panicked?”
As far as he was concerned, people were free to run away in any manner they liked. But the gap between that and the taciturn, mysterious man before them made even Sherlock’s expression soften. It seemed Jerry had been strangely embarrassed by that reaction, deliberately clearing his throat.
Then, the detective turned to Gregson.
“Come to think of it, when you were going back upstairs, did you go past anyone? There must’ve been people rushing to escape.”
“I remember that: I passed by Bruno, Mike, and one other guest on the stairs. But is that important somehow?”
“If the killer had been among them, then he must’ve murdered the victim in the short period between the time you went downstairs to check the situation, and the time you returned to the second floor.”
Gregson groaned. “……Of course, that interval feels way too short. It didn’t even take me 30 seconds to go downstairs and back up again. So, that means……”
The locations of the suspects’ rooms. The escape route. The span of time until the victim had been murdered. Putting together all the clues they’d gathered by questioning the people involved, a single answer surfaced of its own accord.
“——It’s impossible for the killer to have gone upstairs and murdered him.”
Sherlock sounded as if he were pronouncing a judgement. Then, Gregson finally got his head around it — just like what a detective’s assistant would’ve done.
——“In that case, how did he murder the man in the room?”
“T-Then, the man in the room — how was he murdered……?”
Once again, the John in his imagination overlapped with Gregson. In theory, this ‘riddle’ had turned into something impossible to solve, and the assistant inspector was wracked with an anguish akin to agony.
However, that was a tale that only applied to ordinary people.
With his singularly transcendent powers of deduction, the consulting detective had already narrowed down two answers to this case.
Truthfully, right now, he could proceed to the solution right away. But for some reason, he didn’t want to do that. Surely, the reason why he was investigating the truth like this, was because he saw the figure of the man before him strenuously racking his brains.
As Gregson continued to despair, Sherlock Holmes placed a hand on his back.
“Gregson, do you have a moment?”
“……What do you want?”
He looked exhausted — but that was a weariness born from his own sense of responsibility, and even Sherlock refused to take a jibe at him now.
Gregson was shouldering a duty as a police inspector, so the detective resolved to use a little discretion.
“I want to talk to you outside for a bit.”
“…………”
Sherlock had said so in a serious tone, and Gregson didn’t put up a fight.
✦ ✦ ✦ ✦
Once they left the inn, an unnerving oppressiveness made their skin prickle: clearly, the locals’ anger had only intensified. Lestrade was trying his best to negotiate with and conciliate them, but it wouldn’t be long before their frustration boiled over.
Yet, even as they were caught in this race against time, Sherlock remained unhurried. On the streets to which filth clung here and there, he began to speak as if they were simply having a chat.
“First off, from the conversation earlier, we’ve eliminated the possibility that the culprit went to room 303 and killed him. As such, we have to consider a different tack.”
“A different tack?”
“What I mean is, the idea that he didn’t attack from the door — rather, the window.”
Sherlock proposed the theory he’d thought up at the start: that the man had been shot from the window. With this idea, they could break free of the ‘riddle’ created by the locked room — the murderer could kill the victim even without going all the way to the second floor.
However, Gregson shrugged in amazement, and explained in an indifferent tone.
“This might dispute the deduction you’re so proud of, but we did look into that as well. Firstly, for this method to work, there must’ve been two men in total: one to start the fire at the inn, and the other to shoot the victim from outside. But hiring another collaborator to silence an accomplice, or settle a falling-out, brings its own share of danger. In addition, in order to shoot his victim, a gunman would minimally have to be at the same height as him. There’s a brothel across the street from the inn, facing its north wall, and with three floors to boot, it fits the bill. But at the time of the murder, there’d been people on its second floor, and no one testified that they heard a gunshot. Hence, that explanation has to be rejected.”
Unusually, the inspector had discussed his view without a hint of his usual thorny attitude.
But Sherlock was adamant. “If that’s the case, then——”
——“If that’s the case, then how about something like this? Sherlock.”
His partner’s voice resounded through his mind. Now, the detective persisted in playing the role of an assistant, raising another idea to the inspector.
“From the street beside the inn, he could’ve aimed at room 303’s window and shot the victim. With that, he wouldn’t have raised suspicions among the people in the brothel.”
“……That’s rather cliché. There were officers outside the inn, so if there’d been someone with a gun outside, they would’ve arrested him long ago. Moreover, the victim collapsed a step away from the room door. If he’d been shot from the window, he would’ve lain there still. Even if he had then used the last of his strength to crawl all the way to the door, with that level of blood loss, it’d be strange that there hadn’t been a trail of blood leading from the window. As I said earlier, as far as I could tell through the keyhole, I didn’t see any marks like that.”
The inspector calmly refuted his theory, and Sherlock made the same troubled face as John always did.
——Then and there, he eliminated one of his two suppositions, and completely saw through the ‘riddle’ of this case.
“Is that so? Then I’m completely at a loss here.”
“Hmm, what’s gotten into you since earlier? ……You kept making deductions that were quite unlike you.”
Gregson had casually said something that, deep down, revealed a glimpse of his recognition of the detective’s ability. Unwittingly, Sherlock broke into a gentle smile.
But just as quickly, he replaced it with the troubled expression required of the fool he was playing. Sherlock put both hands behind his head, and looked up at the sky.
“Hey, Gregson. Somehow, we’ve been talking over and over and getting nowhere; so for a change of pace, how about a quiz?”
“Huh? You purposely brought me all the way outside, for a quiz?!”
Gregson frowned, but Sherlock continued without a care.
“Let’s say there are two children, A and B, and they’re friends. One day, the two of them play catch at a distance of about 20 steps away from one another. But although A can throw the ball to B, B can’t throw it back to A. Why is that so? In case you were wondering, the two of them have the same strength.”
“……Hmm.”
Gregson forgot about his complaints for a moment, and pondered.
“Did B sprain his shoulder?”
“In a quiz like this, that kind of reasoning’s rubbish, isn’t it?”
“There’s a wall between them.”
“Then A couldn’t have thrown the ball over.”
“……Another kid suddenly appeared and stole the ball.”
“You’re being a little careless, aren’t ya?”
It was unclear what the intention behind this quiz was, and to top it off, Sherlock had rejected every one of his answers. At last, Gregson raised his voice.
“Dammit, just tell me the answer already! Also, what’s the point of a quiz like this?!”
“Come on, now,” Sherlock parried. “I’ll give you a hint: for example, try looking at this building here.”
“Hmm……”
The detective pointed to the inn they had just stepped out of. Coincidentally, just like the one that had burnt down, this building also had three floors.
“What about it?”
“Man, you’re still as slow as ever. Look……”
Sherlock pointed to a window on the upper floors, and moved his finger between that and the window below it a few times.
Watching that action, Gregson seemed to have arrived at the answer himself.
“I see. So the children were standing on the upper and lower floors respectively, and leaning out the windows to throw the ball? Although it could be thrown from the floor above to the one below, it would be difficult to throw the ball back up in the other direction. That’s to say, the distance of 20 steps was not lengthwise, but vertical——”
Right then, as if a bolt of electricity had coursed through him, Gregson twitched. His hand shot to his chin; sinking deep into thought, he remained absolutely motionless, with only his lips piecing fragments together into clues.
“There’s only one way…… To be able to kill without going upstairs…… In that case, the position of the body…… And it ending up as a locked room…… But, such an extraordinary method –– is it even possible?”
At his final question, Sherlock grinned.
“I don’t have the foggiest idea what you just thought of…… But when you’ve eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.” [1]
“………!”
Gregson looked at the detective, standing boldly where he was.
Whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.
That was what he’d always maintained.
A suicide, or an accident. Pretending to be dead. Entering the room and murdering him. A sniper shot from the window. After carefully pursuing all lines of thought, in the end, only this solution remained.
In that case, it had to be the truth.
Could it be, that he’d started this entire conversation in order to guide him here……?
“……Hmph.”
At that thought, Assistant Inspector Gregson reassumed his usual, haughty attitude: the manner of a police inspector who saw the detective as his enemy.
“Let’s go, Holmes. I’ll tell you what I’ve deduced.”
——This is my case.
As Gregson strode away triumphantly, Sherlock chuckled.
T/N: Sherlock has grown so much..! (my /heart/)
Footnotes:
[1] A quote from Chapter 6 of the Sherlock Holmes novel The Sign of the Four, by Arthur Conan Doyle. (Wikipedia)
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evolmaze · 3 years
Text
not like this
summary - you go to a party ready to hang out with your friends, but your best friend has other ideas that involve you, a closet, seven minutes, and a close friend you swore you’d never tell
pairing - jin x reader ft. other members of bts and other o.c.s!
genre - fluff, angst | ftl!au, nonidol!au
word count - 5.0k words
warnings - mentions of drinking, otherwise nothing else!
a/n: this is totally inspired by that one episode of New Girl where Nick and Jess are stuck behind the door and Nick tells Jess that he doesn’t want kiss her, “not like this” hence the title lol. Not quite the same plotline, but was definitely my inspiration for it!
masterlist
You had always loved Saturday nights, the one day a week where you could literally do nothing all day and not feel guilty about it. The one night a week where you got to see most of your friends, hang out, and of course, get tipsy and play a bunch of stupid games; tonight was no different.
You had arrived at your friend Alexa’s house, a little late, and by the looks of it, you were the last to arrive. Your friend group wasn’t enormously big, just around six or so depending on the night, any more and things usually got out of hand. There was you, Alexa, your mutual friend Lia, and then the boys: Yoongi, Jin, and Namjoon. You all had become friends while in university, and you’re happy to say you were able to remain friends afterward. Sometimes the boys would bring their other friends, ones they had met through work, and tonight you were happy to see Jimin, Tae, Jungkook, and Hoseok here as well. You didn’t know them as well, but every time you hung with them, they had been nothing but kind. If you’re honest, the people you knew best here were Jin and Alexa, the three of you had lived in the same dorm freshman year, and since then, you had been inseparable.
“y/n!” Alexa called excitedly, crossing the room to greet you. “I was afraid you weren’t gonna make it!”
“Sorry,” you exclaimed, “Literally got halfway here and realized I had forgotten the chips!” she laughed, taking them from you, and setting them on the counter next to the taco dip; a classic staple in your university days. “I see everyone else is already here.” you mused, scanning the room.
“Yeah, don’t worry though, Jimin and Tae literally got here five minutes before you,” she laughed, and set a hand on your shoulder, slightly turning you towards the back of the room. “But he’s been here all night, asking me every couple minutes if I’ve heard from you,” she whispered, you were sure she was wiggling her eyebrows at you.
You looked across the room, and saw Jin, laughing with Hoseok and Jungkook. He hadn’t seen you yet, and selfishly you loved that you were able to stare at him carefree, taking in all the things you loved about him. You hadn’t seen him in a while, school kept you both busy, and with both of you working part time jobs, a couple weeks had gone by since your last hang out. God how you had missed him. 
“You’re staring..” Alexa chuckled, as your best friend, and friend who had also known Jin the longest, she knew all about your crush on him. She was actually the one who called you out on it first, and from then on, she loved to tease you about it, but in all honesty, if she didn’t know, and wasn’t there for you to give advice or listen to you rant, you’re sure you would have gone insane by now.
“Ahhh, yeah,” you laughed nervously, tearing your view from him, and facing her. “God, it’s getting worse isn’t it?”
“Noooo,” she said, obviously lying, but you appreciated the false confidence. “Okay, maybe, but you’re in love, how else are you supposed to cope with that?”
“Oooh, I’d say drinking my sorrows away so I don’t have to think about how he’ll never like me back.” you laughed, grabbing a drink from the cooler. Alexa looked at you, concerned. “Lex I’m fine, seriously. I’ve come to terms with it, and at this point, he’s just a placeholder till I find someone new.”
“I’ve always said this, and I stand by it: Jin is so fucking stupid. Thick as a brick.”
“Yah!” he suddenly called from across the room. “Alexa are you talking shit?” you laughed, trying to figure out how much he heard.
“Absolutely not,” she said, looking towards you. “But y/n totally was!”
“Lex!” you yelled, embarrassed. You looked up, making eye contact with Jin, and his face lit up. 
“y/n! Why didn’t you tell me you were here?” he said, coming over to you. Alexa winked and left to go talk to Lia. He came up to you, immediately crushing you in a hug. Your face was right up against his chest, you could smell his cologne, and god was it intoxicating. 
“Sorry, I literally just got here!” you said, pulling your head back to look at him, he smiled down at you, his arms around your waist. You could stay like this forever.
“Hmmm, I suppose I can forgive you then.” he joked, slowly letting go of you, his fingers lingering a little too long. You tried your best to remain calm, and not think about the way it felt to be held by him. He cleared his throat, taking a slight step back, you looked at him expectantly. “Whatcha drinking?” he asked, and you held up your drink you had grabbed earlier. “Oh,” he laughed, ears turning red in embarrassment, and you grinned, god you loved this man.
----
The night had progressed rather smoothly, you were impressed. Usually, nights like this took a turn for the worst during a game of Pictionary, but so far, things had been fine! Everyone seemed to be having a great time, and you couldn’t have been happier. Currently, you all sat in a circle playing a childish game of never have I ever. You knew these were childish, but secretly you loved them, all the games you never got to play in high school cause you didn’t go to parties. Except instead of fingers down, everyone also took a shot. Currently, Jimin and Lia were tied for first place with each having nine out of ten fingers down. You only had four down, but it didn’t really matter.
“Never have I ever recreated the scene from titanic in front of the whole school only to realize Rose was played by my professor,” Tae snickered, looking directly at Jimin.
“Not fair,” he laughed, putting a finger down, and taking a shot. “That’s targeting!” everyone laughed, and Jimin grinned, taking a seat back down.
“Okay okay okay,” Alexa said suddenly, gathering everyone’s attention. “Let’s switch up the game, we’ve been playing this for an hour, and if Jimin has to take one more shot, I don’t want to be the one responsible for taking him to the hospital tonight.”
“I’m fine!” he laughed, and it was mildly true, everyone here seemed to have a pretty high tolerance, and being out of university, it seems the activities had mildly mellowed out. No excessive drinking tonight. 
“Okay, what game are you thinking of Lex?” Lia asked, and Alexa paused before getting a thoughtful look on her face. 
You watched as she looked towards you, a knowing glint in her eyes. “Since we’re on a roll with high school parties games, why not a fun couple rounds of seven minutes in heaven?” The group was split, some laughed in encouragement, while others, like yourself, seemed confused, you all were friends wouldn’t that be weird? “Okay wait, let me finish. We’ll switch up the rules so it’s not weird. The two people can go in there and decide what to do, kiss or take two shots each.”
You laughed, it seemed stupid still, but why the hell not? You were probably a little tipsy at this point, so why not indulge in this juvenile game. “How do we decide who goes in?” you asked.
“We’ll start with a random person to go in the closet, and then the group decides who goes in after them. But the catch is, the person alone in the closet has to face the wall so they cant see who comes in with them. So since they can’t see each other, in order to drink or kiss, they have to correctly guess who it is. Make sense?” Everyone nodded, and you eagerly awaited to see who was first.
“Who wants to go first?” Jimin asked, and the group went silent. “What about y/n?” you looked up, confused.
“Why me?” you questioned.
“Why not?” he questioned back, and you laughed. 
“Okay fine,” you agreed, looking down at everyone as you stood up. “Alright, whichever one of you comes in, be ready to take shots!” everyone laughed, and you grinned, making eye contact with Alexa, that same stupid glint in her eye.
“Don’t sound so sure,” she laughed, and you blushed, quickly turning towards the closet. You opened the door, and entered, shutting it behind you. You wondered who they would send it, though with Alexa's knowing look you had a feeling it wasn't going to be good. It was a mystery how much time had passed by the time you heard the door open behind you.
“Hello mystery stranger,” you called, waiting for the door to shut again before turning around. 
“You have seven minutes, y/n!” Alexa called, followed by a chorus of cheers. “Guess correctly and you can thank me later!”
You furrowed your eyebrows at that, that must have been a clue, right? “Hmm, how should I go about this, because I’m assuming you’re not allowed to speak, right? That’d make it too easy,” you pondered, and with no response from the person in front of you, you presumed you were right.
“Okay, I have an idea.” you declared, holding your hands out in front of you. “My hands are in front of you right now, grab one of them.” You waited patiently for them to do so, and soon enough you felt something hit the side of your hand. “That’s my hand, grab it.”
They grabbed your hand, and you immediately registered that they had large hands, long fingers, there was no way this was Lia or Lexa, they both had comically small hands. On second thought, so did Jimin, so that left the rest of the boys. “Here’s what I’m thinking, I’ll ask you a series of questions, and if the answer is yes then squeeze my hand once, if it’s no, then squeeze my hand twice. Make sense?”
One squeeze. “Okay, cool cool. Let’s see,” you pondered, trying to think of a question that would get the most people out at once. “Oh! Okay, do you have roommates?”
Two squeezes, “Okay, well that rules out Jungkook and Tae since they live together.  Do you have a pet?”
Two squeezes again, “Well alright, then you’re not Namjoon or Yoongi either. So you’re either Hoseok or Jin.” you stalled for a second, wondering what the odds were that this was Jin in front of you. Alexa wouldn’t do that to you would she? Who are you kidding, she’s tipsy, of course, she would. Your heartbeat increased mildly at the possibility that this was Jin and the possibility that you two would kiss, but you knew deep down that if it was him, you’d rather just take shots because kissing him in this closet was not at all how you wanted to do it.
“Final question,” you said aloud, figuring out what you would ask. “Do you feel strongly about the financial crisis in Ecuador?” A laugh from the person in front of you confirmed your suspicions, it was Jin. Whenever the two of you were together and ran out of things to talk about, he would always ask you the most random of questions, that one is one of his favorites. 
“I feel very strongly about it, almost as strongly as I feel about the American peanut butter famine of 1834,” he joked, and you laughed, it was such a dumb joke, but it got you every single time. It absolutely had nothing to do with him, and you thinking he was the funniest person alive, not at all.
The two of you quieted down, and you heard Jimin call for four minutes left. Suddenly, you remembered why you were here, and what you had to decide. “So,” you said, trying to decide how you were gonna get out of this. “How’s it going?”
“Oh you know, just grand,” he said, and you heard him shifting his weight from one foot to another. It was then that you also realized he was still holding your hand, cute. “You have a decision to make, don’t you?” he asked, and you blushed, thank god for the darkness of this closet.
“I think it’s a group consensus, no?” you asked.
Jin chuckled, and you felt his thumb run over your knuckles, your mind raced at the feeling. “I mean sure, but I’m cool with either.” You were pretty sure that you died of cardiac failure after he said that, there was no way he had just said that.  “Plus the idea of taking two shots right now makes me wanna die,”
“Hmm, you did kinda suck at taking shots,” you joked, trying to ease your nerves, and he playfully swatted your shoulder. Your hand hung loosely at your side, and you took the moment to wipe the sweat off on your jeans. “So you’re cool with either? You’re sure?” you asked, your voice slightly panicky.
You sensed his arm moved as it wrapped around your waist, pulling you closer to him. You held your breath, what the fuck was going on. “I’m sure, are you?”
You felt your head get fuzzy and you weren’t sure if it was from the alcohol or the way you could feel each of his fingers as they rested on the small of your back, but you definitely weren’t sober anymore. “I don’t want to kiss you in the closet,” you said quickly, your hand instinctively balling into a fist. “Not like this.”
“What do you mean?” he asked quietly, a touch of hurt in his voice, your heart ached at the sound. “Would you rather take the shots?”
“No, no, no,” you said frantically, releasing his hand and taking a step back. Even though you knew this was low risk, you’d have to absolutely be blind to not understand the elephant in this closet with you two, you still felt terrified of rejection. “I-I can’t see you, I want to be able to see you.”
At that moment, the door flung open, the light from the outside streaming in, and all you saw was Jin’s face as he looked at you as if he had never seen you before. You wanted to cry, but instead, you pushed past him, and grabbed a bottle of peppermint schnapps off the counter, quickly downing two shots, before going out onto the porch. You absolutely needed some air. 
The commotion from inside followed you faintly as you shut the door, everyone was confused, but drunk enough to move on rather quickly, sending Jungkook into the closet, before sending someone else in after him. You paid them no mind, too busy feeling sorry for yourself that even when the moment was perfect, you still found a way to ruin it for yourself. He had literally told you he wanted to kiss you, and you had ruined it with your stupid insecurities, go figure.
The sliding door opened and you looked up as he stepped out onto the porch, blanket in one hand, and two water bottles in the other. “Mind if I join you?” you said nothing, but nodded in response, and he offered you water, and you took it before he sat next to you. You watched out of the corner of your eye as he wrapped the blanket around him, and it was in that moment that you remembered it was November. Unconsciously, you pulled your knees up, wrapping your arms around them, wishing you had grabbed your jacket. “Here,” he said suddenly, opening up one side of his blanket cocoon. “We can share.”
You peered at him hesitantly, before opting in because even your pride was willing to leave for warmth. He wrapped the blanket around you both, and you moved closer to him in an attempt to get the blanket around the both of you completely. Aside from your shoes peeking out, the both of you were completely submerged, he must have found the biggest blanket in the apartment. You peered up at him and watched as he stared at the street before you, not thinking twice of it, you rested your head on his shoulder. “Jin, I’m sorry for freaking out earlier.”
“Don’t be sorry,” he said, looking down at you. “You were uncomfortable, I should have been more aware.”
“I wasn’t that uncomfortable,” you muttered, and he chuckled.
“y/n you were actually shaking at one point,” you laughed at that, he was right.
“Okay, fine, but I was only uncomfortable with the circumstances, not the idea behind them,” you paled when you realized what you said, but when Jin wrapped his arm around you, pulling you even closer to him, you relaxed a little. 
“Oh so what you’re saying is that I didn’t need to take two shots?”
“Hmmm, maybe not,” you mused, and he laughed. “And neither did I.”
“So why did you?” he asked, the smile dropping from your face as you thought about how you were gonna explain this.
“Jin, I-” you said, your heart rate picking up with each passing moment; it was now or never. “I really like you, I have feelings for you so strong I feel like going crazy sometimes. I’m sure you already knew because Alexa has a big mouth, and I’m the least subtle person on the planet, but that’s why I took the shots.”
“You took the shots instead of kissing me because you like me?”
“Ah no,” you grumbled, getting stressed that he wasn’t getting it. “I took the shots because I didn’t want my first kiss to be in the dark, especially with you.”
“Ahhh, I see what you mean,” he said, a faint smile on his face. He looked down at you, and you felt all the air leave your body as you registered the look in his eyes. It was the exact same as yours had been earlier when you saw him. He had never looked at you like that, at least to your memory. He had, you had just never noticed. 
“I just, I just want to be able to see you,” you said quietly, unable to move, stuck in the way he looked at you. “I’ve never kissed anyone before, and I don’t want to mess up.”
Jin grinned, “You can’t mess up, y/n.” he assured you, and you blushed. 
“I don’t know, I’m pretty clumsy sometimes,” you pondered, you honestly had no idea how to do it, so chances were that you would mess it up. Jin was older than you, a year or so, and you’ve seen him with a number of girls, so you were pretty positive you were the inexperienced one in this pair. 
“It’s pretty simple,” he mused, reaching up to tuck a strand of your hair behind your ear. “I could teach you.” Your heart skipped a beat at his sultry tone, he was absolutely gonna be the death of you. “I’m sure you’d be a quick learner.”
“I’m sure you’d be a good teacher,” you said, and his ears turned a nice shade of pink. You mentally grinned at your ability to fluster him, even in this frenzied state. 
“So what do you say?” he asked, running his hand down your arm to grab your hand again. Goosebumps appeared in succession, as you realized where this was going. “Is it bright enough out here for you?”
“It’s perfect,” you whispered, grinning as he smiled at you. “You’re perfect, you know that right?”
“Says you,” he cooed, “You know how long I’ve waited for a moment like this? I like you so much, y/n, it actually drives me crazy how amazing and perfect you are.” You blushed deeply at that, unsure of how in the world you had ended up here, but hearing him say the things you had always wanted him to say made your heart race so fast you were sure you were dreaming. 
“So what’s the first step?” you asked, trying to keep your voice calm as you wrapped your arm around his neck. He moved, so you were facing each other now, the blanket falling slightly. You unconsciously tangled his hair in your fingers. He closed his eyes, obviously enjoying whatever you were doing.
“Well you’re doing great so far,” he sighed, his tone breathless. “I was right, quick learner for sure.” you smirked, your fears long forgotten as you felt him lean into your touch. You had no idea that would have such an affect on him, you’d definitely remember that for later.
“What next?” you asked, and he opened his eyes. They were darker than before, and you were sure you were hallucinating. He wrapped both his arms around you, pulling you even closer. His face was inches from yours, if leaned forward you would bump noses. 
“Well I’ll pull you close, close enough to kiss you of course,” he whispered, and you chuckled. “Then I’ll probably compliment you some more, telling you how much I like being around you, how beautiful you are, how long I’ve wanted to do this.” he paused, smiling at you. “Then I’ll lean in closer, and ask if you’re sure you want this.”
“And I’ll say that I do,” you said, “That I’ve wanted this for a long time, I was just too scared to say anything, how dumb was that, huh?”
You both chuckled at that, agreeing that you both had been so scared for no reason. “That’s good to hear,” he grinned, playing with the hem of your shirt. “Cause that’d be really awkward if you didn’t feel the same.”
“Oh I feel the same,” you said quickly. “Don’t even worry about that.”
He smiled at you for the millionth time that night, and even though you should have been used to it by now, you still felt like you were floating. “Well now I’m gonna lean forward, probably a little too slowly just to tease you, and maybe I’ll pause just in front of you,” he whispered, pausing with almost no room between your lips.
“And then?” you asked quietly, afraid to break the moment. “What should I do?”
“Whatever you feel like.”
You leaned forward, closing the gap between the two of you. His lips were as soft as you had imagined they would have been. You weren’t sure what to do once you two had touched, but you felt him move away before kissing you again, this time with more pressure. You hesitantly did the same, and you felt his grip on your tighten, so you must have been doing something right. He pulled away again, and you opened your eyes to see him grinning at you. He leaned forward so his mouth was by your ear.
“You're doing great,” he said, chills running down your spine. “You’re a natural.”
He kissed your cheek, before reconnecting your lips, you moved slowly, testing the waters on what you thought might work, gauging the success rate by how Jin reacted. You weren’t sure how much time had passed before you pulled away again, but you could see that his lips were red, and you imagined yours looked the same. 
“You’re amazing,” you said, heart seizing at the way he looked at you, and it was in that moment that you knew things were going to be okay. “Definitely the best teacher I’ve ever had. I might need a few more lessons though.”
He smirked, “Oh don’t worry, we’ll have plenty of time for more lessons. It’ll cost you though,”
“What’s the price?” you mused, fingers dancing around his face, tracing the outline of his jaw, his ear, his collarbone. 
“A date, with me, this weekend, at a restaurant of your choosing.”
You hummed, pretending to contemplate the idea, “I guess I can do that, but I charge too, ya know.”
“Oh yeah?” he taunted, curious what you were gonna say. “For what?”
You wanted to do something equally as romantic and sensual as him, but in that moment you were overcome with an urge to just hold onto him, to hug him. So you tightly wrapped yourself around him, stuffing your head into the crook of his neck. He returned your embrace immediately, slightly caught off guard by your change in tone, but welcomed it nevertheless. He ran his hands up and down you back as you took a deep breath. You turned your head towards him, tentatively placing a kiss on his neck. You felt him shiver slightly, the goosebumps rising on his skin. “For that,” you whispered, kissing his neck once more, before returning to your original embrace. 
He wasn’t sure what had just happened, but somehow you had managed to be adorable and extremely hot within the span of seconds, and it was in that moment he realized you would be the death of him. He held you for a while, enjoying your embrace, enjoying the way you fiddle with the hair on the nape of his neck every so often, enjoying the way he was finally holding you the way he had always wanted to.
You couldn’t have asked for anything better than this, you were so happy, you couldn’t believe your luck. Time passed, and with each minute, intoxicated by his scent, you felt yourself growing tired, wordlessly, you dozed off, the alcohol tiredness finally taking effect, and it wasn’t until Alexa knocked on the door, did Jin realize what had happened, and how much time had passed.
She quietly opened the door, “Glad to see my efforts didn’t go to waste,” Jin grinned at her, pulling the blanket over your sleeping form.
“Thank you,” he said sincerely. “Sorry I was so blind before, I owe you for what you did. If you hadn’t messaged me last week, I don’t think this ever would have happened.”
“No kidding, you both are scaredy cats, and we both know y/n never would have said anything, she liked you too much to risk it,” she said, and they chuckled. “Are you okay out here? It’s cold out here, things have calmed down inside, we’re watching a movie if you want to come back inside.”
“I’ll be in in a second,” he said. “Thank you again, Alexa, I owe you one.”
“Just put in a good word for me next time you and Jimin hang out, yeah?” she said shyly and Jin gasped. 
“Really?” he asked, an excited look on his face.
“I don’t know, maybe, he’s cool, he’s handsome, those aren’t bad things.” she explained, a blush on her face, Jin wiggled his eyebrows at her, and she sighed. “Okay I’m going, don’t make me regret asking for that. See you in a bit.”
She shut the sliding door, and Jin looked down at you again, still in awe of what had happened. You shifted in your sleep, in an attempt to get more comfortable, you snuggled closer, if that was even possible. “So Jimin and Alexa, huh?” you whispered, causing Jin to jump at the sound of your voice.
“You’re awake?” he asked.
“Kinda,” you mused, “I heard the door open. I’m glad she said something, cause you’re both right, I never would have said anything, liked you too much.”
He smiled, a deep blush on his face. He wondered how long it would take for your words to have a lesser effect, he secretly hoped it would never come. “Do you want to go watch the movie? Or do you want to sleep?”
You contemplated your choices, “Let’s go say goodbye, and you can come over?” you lifted your head to gauge his expression. “Unless you don’t want to, that’s fine too.”
“No, no, no,” he assured you. “I’d love to come over.”
You smiled, and kissed him again before standing up. Jin followed you inside, grabbing your hand the first chance he got. Your friends all watched as you came in, and Namjoon was the first to congratulate you both.
“It’s about time you did something, Jin!” Yoongi nagged, and Jin let out a shout of protest. You laughed, making eye contact with Alexa. Thank you you mouthed to her, and she smiled, so genuine and full of love. You’re welcome she mouthed back, a knowing look on her face. Next to her, Jimin sat, and you wiggled your eyebrows at her as Jin grabbed your jackets. She blushed, and you grew excited at the new prospect of their relationship. Jimin grabbed her attention as he asked her a question, and you watched as he rested a hand on her thigh, you had never seen her so bubbly and excited, you made a mental note to ask her about it later. Jin returned to your side, handing you your coat. You bid farewell to everyone, and made your way to your car. The drive home was filled with compliments, loud singing to the radio, and plenty of kisses from Jin as you drove. 
By the time you got to your apartment, you felt tired again, and you could tell Jin was finally falling victim to sleep as well. You grabbed some of his old sweats that you had stolen from your dresser, and handed them to him. You shamelessly watched as he undressed, slipping on the sweatpants, but opting out of the sweatshirt. This wasn’t the first time you had seen him shirtless, but it was certainly the first time you hadn’t looked away when he looked at you. Wordlessly, you smiled at him and stripped yourself of your shirt and bottoms. He felt his stare and you turned to take off your bra and put on an old t-shirt. You pulled on some shorts, and turned back to face him, he was laying on your bed, arms behind his head, his muscles on full display. You blushed at the sight, climbing into bed next to him, immediately leaning into his touch as he pulled you onto his chest. You felt it rise and fall with each breath he took, it was incredibly calming. 
“You’re beautiful,” he said, tilting your jaw up to kiss you. Your legs went weak at the feeling, and you laid your hand on his chest. “So so beautiful, I’m so lucky.”
“Says you, world wide handsome,” you joked, and he laughed. Things were gonna be just fine, you could feel it.
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ateezgf · 3 years
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Hi I’m a new atiny and I’m excited about my first comeback with them but I had a question? Maybe it’s dumb but is there like a storyline to their MVs? I still haven’t watched all of them but I was wondering what the hourglass meant that’s all over this comeback. Anyway thank you very much, I’m sorry if this is weird
hi !! first off, welcome :D how are you liking ateez so far? any favorite boys yet? i hope all the pre-comeback activities are hyping you up!! ALSO, that isn't a dumb question i promise !! yes, they do have a storyline! it comes with a lot of theories since they won’t explicitly tell us & it also spans across A LOT of their content. like mvs, albums, lyrics, vcrs, shows, etc. i’ll put my own thoughts under the read more because it’s a lot. i also can’t explain the hourglass without telling you about their story too. 
to me, the ateez storyline has pretty general themes in regards to good vs evil.. rebellion vs control.. multiverses/timelines/time travel. i’ll be going through this per era (treasure & fever) !! i’ll try to focus primarily on their mvs, but i’ll mention some things from their albums and some vcrs for their comebacks.
TREASURE ERA (EP.1-5): 
pirate king/treasure mv doesn’t have too much story to it. these two mvs are mainly just introductions to them and their story. esp with the very iconic lines “will you be my friend?” and in the intro track on the album right before pirate king, “will you join us?” they sing a lot about their ambitions and the future. it’s safe to believe that this is the good ateez. 
say my name is our first glance at the bad ateez (or who everyone calls halateez). in this mv, we can see that ateez are in distress. in a lot of their solo shots, they’re typically in not likable settings. yeosang is trapped in a glass box with a member of halateez staring him down. hongjoong is sat in a blue hallway with a lot of smoke. yunho is at a desk surrounded by papers & this is also where we first see the hourglass (or cromer). however, it’s just a prop for now. san is in a room surrounded by broken glass.. BUT only after he is seen staring at one of the members of halateez through it. in the big table scene, you can see them all working to find the answer to something.. which is very interesting to note that wooyoung is the only one to be seen in that room alone after an alarm seemingly makes all the other evacuate. WE ALSO get the first face-off between halateez and ateez. but they’re not directly face to face. they’re only seeing them through glass panels & we can see that ateez is very clearly defiant when it comes to them. we also see that when seonghwa is facing the halateez member alone, that it’s him. which could also showcase the time traveling aspect. as if halateez is jumping through the timelines to get to them. another interesting thing to note that in the last verse of the song, it switches off between ateez and halateez. this mv ends with the treasure instrumental & yeosang missing from the glass casing. 
in hala hala, it is primarily halateez. the members in this mv are seen in darker attire & makeup and more clean cut. i believe halateez is from a universe where they are the ones in charge & calling the shots. if not that, then a very organized and powerful rebellion group. hence the same outfits almost like a uniform. this mv isn’t much but halateez dancing.. HOWEVER, the ending is VERY interesting. all members snap their necks at the same time (hence the lyric ‘suicide squad’).. all members BUT wooyoung. he ultimately pretends to do it, but is the last one standing and wiping blood from his mouth while surrounded by all of the bodies.. and remember, wooyoung was the only one alone in the room all of ateez were in while they were working on documents. 
jumping to wave & illusion.. we can see that this is a pretty sudden change. however, it all still matches with their storyline very well. 
in illusion, the members are seen in bright and colorful clothing on a flying boat asleep. in this, they’re back to that adventuring pirate crew from the beginning. however, the lyrics show that they have... no idea who they are and where they are. it’s believed too that the lyrics are talking to someone. in the middle of all of their singing about how they found paradise and how they can just party it up now, there’s a repeated “let me free” which kind of seems.. out of place. if we’re having fun, why do we need to be let free? as the title entails, this is all an illusion. the hourglass is seen again along with a glass cube and a butterfly on a table. we also see a quick glance of a halateez mask on the globe. we can see mingi listening to a headset/tape player. they make it to an island that is very.. fake. a large compass.. a floating hourglass and just very desaturated colors. even the members lose saturation when they reach the ground. they eventually find.. a cave? it has a lot of drapes and tinfoil looking walls. for a split second, we see a member of halateez standing there. ateez then reaches a very smokey room with lights and flowers. they don’t look so happy anymore. it’s like the illusion is very much wearing off. also remember, they initially were looking for their paradise so for the illusion of one to be broken... hmm. this mv ends with the members running away towards a light & shots of them sleeping in wave play where it ends with a whispered “open your eyes”. 
in wave, the members are together once again on an island. just them this time. it’s very fun. but.. it’s almost like they were dropped there. i mean, sure it makes sense that san/yeosang/jongho wake up in a bed... but why is mingi waking up under a tree in the middle of nowhere? looking at the headset/tape player confused like it isnt his? why is seonghwa waking up in a pool and why is hongjoong waking up on the road? for the most part, they all wake up alone but they eventually find each other again. once they’re all together, we can see that ateez are suddenly the same carefree souls they were before. constantly talking about how there should be no worries. 
in wonderland, it’s kind of.. hard to distinguish if this is halateez or ateez. we can see a lot of power dynamics here. hongjoong raps about how he shouldn’t be doubted if they wanted to reach neverland/their utopia. i say this because he mentions being a child forever like peter; but also because of the illusion mv. it’s also pretty obvious that mingi holds a type of power here. he’s seen as the center of attention with the marching band like he’s the leader of a grand army. aside from that, i think there’s a bit of a rescue mission occurring? in all honesty, i do not know where san & jongho are within the storyline for this mv. however, we can see that yeosang & seonghwa are in the same tunnel.. but not together. the elevator shot in the beginning is believed to show them going through time and same with the tunnel. which makes sense when you look at the updated ateez logo and the way it looks like it has a lot of lines that meet into the middle. aside from that, we have yunho staring at a bunch of tvs albeit they’re playing nothing we can see. then we have wooyoung.. all chained up and alone. it looks like nobody’s coming to save him the way hwa came to save yeosang and san. perhaps because he had betrayed them in hala hala? the staircase is also pretty important. i dont know the exact piece but i know it’s similar to an art piece that shows an endless staircase and continuous loop.. perhaps a hint at a continuous cycle in the storylines? seeing as this wonderland mv has gone up in flames, it looks like the next plan of action has to be to cross that bridge seen earlier. believed to have been the bridge between dystopia & utopia. 
in the utopia mv, there isn’t a lot of crazy storyline? it’s believed that once ateez walk across that bridge and through the door, they’re in utopia... or so they think. it’s mainly a lot of dancing and pretty shots, but the reoccurrence of smoke-filled rooms leading to rooms of oversaturation is back. the answer vcr before this comeback also show a lot of story. we see halateez and ateez facing off together once again with essentially.. the same question. we’ve spent this whole time believing that ateez are the good guys and halateez are the bad guys... but what if that wasn’t the case? sure, we see them as such but is that who they really are? each respective party holds up a mirror to the other asking “are you evil?” / “are you good?”. cut to the iconic intro of san on his knees.. almost like he’s the one having this war? almost like he’s trying to figure out the answer himself about if he is good or evil. 
the answer mv starts with a man in a white suit looking at the destruction of what was left behind of ateez/halateez. the move of san tipping over an overflowing wine glass.. it’s also thought like he’s turning the hourglass as well as if to start their timer once again. mingi is talking about how he sees that the end is near, but hongjoong brings up how we should finish as strong as we started until we get what we desired. it looks like wooyoung is walking in snow.. or is it the sand of time? i mean.. the hourglass was just tipped over wasn’t it? yeosang is seen alone in a red desert surrounded by broken glass. almost like he’s alone with no way out? speaking of mirrors, it’s also possible that ateez uses mirrors to travel through dimensions. like how san was staring at a member of halateez instead of himself in say my name? well.. yunho is surrounded by mirrors but cant seem to see anything but himself. he’s pretty frustrated about that. wooyoung is also seen in a room of butterflies. butterflies typical have a positive meaning of change, hope, transformation. we then get the icONIC AS HELL SHOT of halateez and ateez face to face at last at the table. as a repeated line entails, they’re making a toast to something. perhaps they have finally come to terms with each other and what to do so that they could exist peacefully as one? but maybe ateez has already done so much to one timeline that another had to be ruined? either way, an agreement was made between both hongjoong’s. at the end of the mv, we are greeted by the man in the white suit again... perhaps it’s another time traveler who knows about what ateez & halateez had done and was trying to stop them. no one knows who that is in all honesty. it’s believed that it might be one of the members. 
FEVER ERA (EP 6-8): 
PHEW OKAY UHHH.. honestly.. i say it’s crucial to watch this diary film at the very least. it explains this timeline of events now. halateez makes a brief appearance to hongjoong and the hourglass is back. poor hongjoong is tasked with finding everyone to bring them together once again. seemingly.. a fallout between friends.. another broken timeline. i feel as though it’s pretty explanatory on each individual backstory, but there is a lot more in depth things. like seonghwa crossing the line and breaking the rules. the endless loop of staircases being represented with san on the escalators as he recounts having to leave his friends again.  they all have their individual things that grounds them whenever theyre feeling lost, but they also had each other. i’m assuming that ateez from the treasure era managed to mess up this timeline of ateez causing them to drive everyone away from each other.. which is why halateez tasked hongjoong with the control of time. i mean, an hourglass holds a specific amount of time but you can manipulate it by turning it before it’s done or choosing to turn it way after it has finished. ultimately, the diary film shows 8 friends who broke off into 8 different paths when they weren’t suppose to and now they’re trying to find each other once again. 
we can see this in the inception mv. a lot of their dreams were broken and so they’re lost without it. ultimately.. they are lost again without each other and their dreams. 
hm.. im not too sure about thanxx. we see a parallel shot of ateez holding the flag like in wonderland. we see the theme of defiance once again. this song talks a lot about how they’re choosing to move on their own path despite what anyone says because who knows themselves better than .. themself. in this mv, they tease their song the real, which they performed on kingdom. 
SPEAKING OF KINGDOM.... EVERY STAGE HAS SOMETHING TO DO WITH THEIR STORYLINE. wave overtune showed the pirate route where something happened to hongjoong’s crew and he lost them all. similar to how hongjoong in inception/thanxx has lost them all. from the wonderland is showing WHAT happened to the crew, but this time they don’t lose. rhythm ta (the awakening of summer) has all of these past props (records, yeosang’s violin) being confiscated. this performance is inspired by money heist. AGAIN, we have the theme of government defiance. on the newspaper that wooyoung rips up, it shows that the govt had deemed halateez (Black Pirates) as terr0r1sts. initially, i was wondering if this is just a re-branded halateez but then i remembered.... ateez and halateez had that agreement. perhaps this is the original ateez and they’re doing their part of the deal in protecting halateez. which means stealing back all of the stuff that was stolen and removing evidence & calling for the people to turn against the govt. i see this as halateez turning ateez into a second version of them. especially because the stage ends with hongjoong punching the glass and retrieving the hourglass after putting on a halateez hat. 
in answer: ode to joy, it offers.. closure to the treasure era. kind of. we see yeosang in the glass case again looking at the man in white from answer. then it cuts to halateez seonghwa in the cage with yeosang & the two of them flipping the hourglass together. it’s like yunho tries to stop him, but is too late... which is when he starts facing off with the man in the white suit to distract him so that yeosang & halahwa can get away. we are once again greeted with halateez and ateez facing each other at the table directly mirroring each other. halasan is right behind him copying every move. i know.. yeosang’s bit has symbolism but i can’t remember.. but i know it’s suppose to be like he’s swimming? then during hongjoong’s part, we can see halateez assisting the members in each kingdom stage leading up to answer.. so it’s like showing that halateez (although not seen) has been orchestrating everything this whole time. 
this last bit is pretty major in the story. so it seen that san is praying in the middle of this entire fight.. and wooyoung tries stopping him. his efforts don’t work and san essentially sacrifices himself so that he could fight the man in the white suit alone. i feel like there are more.. perhaps.. 8? men in white suits given that san took down one, jongho was with another, and hongjoong was surrounded by them. it makes me believe that these white suits are again ateez from another timeline trying to stop them. halateez is giving ateez the crown.. as if passing off their power to them. but jongho throws it away instead of accepting it. at the end of all of this chaos.. ateez ultimately comes out on top and defeats both halateez and the white suits. 
OR SO THEY THOUGHT !! in the fireworks mv, they are seen in a dystopian society once again. if you remember, i had brought up smokey rooms often. reason being in the diary ver. of this album, there’s a part that goes into more detail about their story. i need to read into the theories for this era more but the smoke is very important. jongho recounts how he gets suffocated with a smoke that makes him see illusions and past events, but since it all feels so real it all just seems like DEJA VU.......... the dystopian society ateez are in for this mv... it’s smokey as hell. which is believed to be the smoke that causes such illusions but they’re able to break through it. i mean.. look at this teaser for the comeback.. looks way too colorful and peaceful. we don’t see this at all in the fireworks video.. SIKE. when ateez are walking around the dystopian wasteland (aka strictland), they’re in these nice suits. it’s almost like the effects of their illusion from the teaser was wearing off and they started waking up to the reality. and once they start seeing everything for what it is, they once again.. start creating havoc as they have in the past. this mv ends with the white suit man RETURNING ... and seeing the aftermaths of what ateez has done. he looks around as if he knows.. that it was them. 
in the dreamers mv.. again it has small symbolisms. jongho with the headphones (mingi’s headphones).. hongjoong with the small cube.. the spray cans like from halahala. but i dont know too much here. 
NOW.. WE HAVE DEJA VU AND ETERNAL SUNSHINE. we don’t have too much info on them right now since it hasnt been released.. bUT THE HOURGLASS IS BROKEN. the teaser they posted showed that the hourglass has been broken and essentially... all the timelines are broken. this leaves room for a lot of mixed up timelines. which is what people believe is the reason for the reoccurrence of similar hair colors from past eras on different members. we’re all getting deja vu from these repeated looks, no? eternal sunshine... it’s another super bright concept like illusion, thanxx, and celebrate. people are tying this to the movie eternal sunshine of the spotless mind (i actually like this movie). in the movie, the couple gets a medical procedure to have their memories erase from each other. perhaps like how ateez had forgotten about each other?.. but in the movie, the main guy is trying REEEEALLY hard to get her back. which causes a mess in the timelines of their memories. things start repeating with countless acts of DEJA VU and things that just do not seem real. which again.. lines up to their story. 
SIDENOTES: 
first off.. if you read all of this, i love you. i never have been so invested in a story like this before and it genuinely is such an amazing storyline. 
there’s plenty i missed. like.. i didnt even talk about fever road but they have a couple things in there that elaborate on their friendship and everything. i also remembered their mama stage?? im p sure that had plot but i never.. looked  into that one. and not EVERYTHING ateez releases is releated obv.. unless KJK is the man in the white suit but i doubt it. 
but yeah :D those were just my thoughts. if you read this far and have any other theories, plEASE SEND THEM. i think it’s so interesting and i love discussing things.
ADDED NOTES:
control — if you look at some of the choreos, mingi controls ateez with just a gesture of his hand a lot. so perhaps that's also story-related as well? like how i mentioned he had a type of power in wonderland? leader of an army? ateez also has this seoul music awards 2021 perf where they dance like puppets, but it’s not orderly.. they’re missing their puppet master & this performance was during mingi’s hiatus.. hmmm
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boxofbadaddiction · 4 years
Text
A Likely Story
Fred Weasley x Reader
Warnings: Swearing.
This story is inspired from a request of my F.R.I.E.N.D.S Themed Prompt List.
Prompts: 9, 16 & 18
"They don't know that we know they know"
"DANGER!"
"What a small world./Yet I never run into Beyoncè"
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"What'd you tell George?"
"Told him I had detention with Snape for setting off Dungbombs in his Second Years class."
"Hmm, very believable."
"That's because it's true."
"Why am I not surprised?"
"What'd you tell your mates?"
"Just said I was going for a walk."
"Guess that'll do. Remind me to give you some pointers on how to lie when we get back."
"Very funny."
Every word spoken echoed off the damp walls of the One Eyed Witch Passage as Fred and Y/n made their way through the dark tunnel. The only source of light being the soft glow emitting from the tips of their wands, allowing only enough visibility to see just infront of them as they walked.
The pair were currently sneaking from the Castle on a day which were not allocated for any Hogsmead Visitations. It were a school day. However, rather than sitting about the Castle grounds for the two free periods in their schedules, Fred had the brilliant idea of escaping the unbearable reign of Umbridge - even if only for a few hours, by taking a trip into town.
"You know they know, right?"
"Ahh, but they don't know that we know they know. Now do they?" Fred grinned as he shoved y/ns shoulder with his own playfully, before intertwining their cold fingers. "I fail to see how that matters" "makes it all the more fun." "Whatever makes you happy, Big Guy." "You mean, aside from you?"
Y/n rolled her eyes at his cheesiness, but smiled nonetheless. Stopping abruptly from a harsh tug at her hand, one that had her being pulled flush against Fred - chest to chest.
Threading his wand between his fingers, he brought his other hand to the back of y/ns neck and kissed her deeply.
The kiss left her flushed, biting her lip to suppress a giddy smile which naturally only caused a smug grin to appear on the face of her partner.
Sensing how inflated his ego was becoming y/n stepped back, shoving his chest, "Hurry up and get me out of here, loverboy, I'm freezing."
This wasn't the first time the two had been in a situation such as this. They had been in a relationship for quite a few months now but were keeping it secret - for the most part anyway, but they knew the others were suspicious.
There were several reasons why they felt their relationship needed to remain secret. One being for the fact Y/n were a Slytherin. Whom for as long as anyone could remember had despised the Weasleys, and vice versa. The second, and most crucial reason was due to y/ns family. She was a Y/l/n. A family who, like the Malfoys and LeStrange, were blood purists and for that matter hated Muggles, Muggleborns and Blood Traitors alike. A trait not inherited by that of the y/l/ns only daughter. Y/n.
After overcoming the years of conditioning by her parents; painting the Weasleys, anyone alike and Muggleborns as the enemy or lessers, she'd surrounded herself with friends of all houses and blood-status.
She even discovered there to be a remarkable amount of similarities between herself and that of the Redheaded family. Soon enough finding herself regularly in comfortable conversation with the Twins during their shared classes, after years of the ridiculous feud between them buried itself in the past. It then naturally didn't take long for her to start falling for the older, louder, Twin.
Though people acknowledged she were different to her family the pair were still hesitant about the reaction they'd receive being together in public, so they thought it best to keep to themselves. Which lead to a lot of sneaking around. Hence todays secret date in Hogsmead.
A few moments later Fred and Y/n reached the trap door of Honeydukes Cellar. Fred was the one to check the coast were clear. Smiling as he watched the owners feet retreating up the basements staircase to the store above. Piece of Cauldron Cake he thought. They silently slipped through the shop, completely unnoticed.
Glad to finally have the freedom to be with one another openly the two let out relieved breaths upon being met with the chilly fresh air of Hogsmead.
They happily strolled throughout the streets hand-in-hand going about their usual routine. A quick stop to The Three Broomsticks for a couple Butterbeers then off to what they'd deemed as "their spot", a clearing by the forest over looking the Shrieking Shack where they regularly met of a weekend for lunch and much needed time together.
Fred was spinning his girlfriend as if dancing as they walked, smiling, laughing and unashamedly flirting loudly as they did so.
The two were in a world of their own as they rough housed in the soft snow, throwing handfuls at one another. Unfortunately, blissfully unaware of the approaching complication in their secret rendezvous.
"Well, well, well." Came a cold voice from behind them, one which sent chills down y/ns spine - she would know that voice anywhere. Lucius Malfoy.
The teenagers turned with identical deadpan expressions to the man before them. "What a small world." "And yet I never run into Beyoncè" y/n countered sarcastically, her tone bitter and harsh.
"Whatever would one make of this, Hmm? A y/l/n fraternising with a Weasley..." Luicus eyed Fred with distaste, as if it were unsettling to simply be in his presence.
Fred stood tall and firm in place; a murderous glare thrown towards the arrogant man as he grit his teeth.
"One?" Y/ns brow raised in question, her voice drawing Malfoys attention back to her. He simply nodded in response, causing the girl to scoff as realisation struck. An exasperated smile tugging at her lips whilst she spoke, "Right. Going to rat me out to Daddy for having a friend, Lucius?" "But of course not." He took a step closer to the couple, "for being outside the grounds of Hogwarts, accompanied by an irresponsible and perpetually reckless boy however..." y/n swallowed harshly, a wave of fear coursing through her veins as her confidence faltered.
"Well, one might say it were my responsibility to report your little...adventure today. My, I can't begin to imagine the misfortune one might be subjected to less the High Inquisitor learn of such a blatant disregard for school protocols. Those for the offenders...or the Headmaster for that matter."
Y/n was silently panicking at these words. Dumbledore has already been on thin ice with the Ministry recently. If anyone finds out, well...that'd be the end of him.
"Of course however, y/n, you would be forgiven on account of your-" "Father." "-innocence, clearly under the manipulation of this one, whom would naturally be expelled." Lucius lazily waved his hand towards Fred. "You don't even know which Weasley 'this one' is." Y/n snapped. "Unimportant. I imagine Delores will be thrilled at the opportunity of finally ridding both from the school. And as for Dumbledore-"
"You're getting ahead of yourself, Malfoy." Fred finally spoke. Stepping forward to stand slightly infront of y/n protectively. His jaw and fists were clenched in rage, knuckles turning ghostly white under the strain in his grip. "Am I?" "Yes. To snitch on us you'd first need proof we were here in the first place." "You Weasleys truly are daft. I believe I have all the 'proof' I'll be needing. Given the fact you are stood right here before me, far from the saftey of the school grounds." "Are we?" Fred subtly reached for y/ns hand as he spoke, holding her palm tight behind his back, eyes staring directly into Malfoys challenging his dominance.
"Because I'm sure if you were to go to the Castle right now; I could be found with my brother and y/n here...undoubtedly studying in the Library." "Is that so?" Lucius had a rather done and ugly expression on his face at Freds antics, whom began smiling wickedly. Uttering a simple "yep." In response.
Their stare-off was broken as Fred glanced over Malfoys shoulder, raising his free arm to wave he greeted loudly, "Hello, Hagrid!" This causing the blonde man to turn in his direction. That was Fred's cue. Taking advantage of the moment and apparating the pair to the passage of the Shrieking Shack.
They took off running, hand-in-hand as they manoeuvred the winding tunnel to the school. Sprinting so quickly that even the Whomping Willow were too slow to react to their sudden appearance as they breached the grounds.
As they reached the, thankfully empty, courtyard they finally allowed themselves the opportunity to breathe and dropped the hold of one anothers hand. Fred swallowed thickly to ease the burning in his throat, "you have to-" "yeah. And you need to-" "yeah."
Exhausted and amused chuckles fell from their lips at the understanding shared between them. Placing one final, frantic, kiss to one anothers lips as goodbye they held each other close not wanting to let go. One of y/ns hands gripped Freds hair tightly whilst the other bunched in the fabric of his shirts collar. Both his hands placed securely on her waist. Y/n whines, knowing he won't be able to break the kiss himself, focusing all her strength she pushed from his chest, "Go" she whispered. Sighing frustratedly from the loss of his lips on hers he nods in agreement before both begin running in opposite directions.
Now thankful he had such a large family Fred was quickly successful in finding a family member to cling himself to. Barrelling down the corridor to where Ron and Harry were walking and conversing over whatever, with their backs to him. Overestimating the force of his current momentum he collided forcefully with the boys shoulders in attempt to steady himself, nearly toppling all three.
"What's your problem!?" Ron snapped angrily. "DANGER!" Fred whisper yelled, very out of breath. The scene brought a rather wide smile to Harrys face, watching as the Twin clutched his side painfully and tried to speak. "If-If anyone asks. I've been here the whole-WHOLE time. Okay!?" He was gesturing wildly between the three of them as he spoke, appearing desperate.
"Oh yeah? And what's in it for us?" Ron asked cockily. "For you, little Brother..." "anything?" He smiled smugly, earning a clap on the shoulder from his flustered older brother. "Not quite, Ronniekins."
Fred's eyes turned dark as he straightened himself, grip tightening on Rons shoulder like a vice. "Cover for me this time and you get to live another day." Ron was wincing at the pain being inflicted by the hold on his shoulder, "You-you can't do anything to me." Harry looked sceptical at this, it was Fred Weasley afterall.
"Can't I? It's a big Castle, Ronnie. Accidents happen." Fred's stare hadn't left Ron's eyes the whole time he spoke. A smirk forming on his face as if taking joy in the countless possibilities he had playing on his mind.
Noticing the poorly restrained fear spreading through his brother as Ron gulped thickly he lightened his grip knowing he's won.
"F-fine. Doesn't bother me anyway. Not like it's a huge inconvenience is it, Harry?" Ron tried to play the moment off cooly, though the panic was evident on his voice. "Not at all" Harry laughed but suddenly his expression soured. Looking forward to the entrance of the hall.
"Is that...Lucius?" The Weasleys heads turned to see the pale face of Malfoy striding towards them accompanied by Delores and...oh God. Freds blood ran cold.
"It is, and Titus Y/l/n! What are they doing here?" Ron growled.
"Danger. Danger. Danger." Fred mumbled from the side of his mouth, avoiding eye contact and looking quite nervous, though he played it off much better than his brother had. The boys looked up to him "You didn't..." they spat. Fred cleared his throat as a warning, and it worked just as well as a confession in Harry and Rons opinion, as the three adults approached.
"Potter." "Malfoy."
"Weasley." "Y/l/n."
"Eh-hem" the teens rolled their eyes. "Professor?"
"Tell me, Mr Weasley" she began, looking straight to Fred, "can you account for your whereabouts this afternoon?" "With these two."
"Where's your Twin?" Lucius rudely interrupted. "Haven't the foggiest. Since, ya know...I'm not with him." "It is strange" Umbridge began, "that you are without your Twin, seeing as how you are rarely to find one without the other." She giggled sickly. "Yeah, rarely. But not never."
At his words Lucius' expression became proud and more confident, turning to Delores now to speak. "He's the one. I'm sure of it." "The one what?"
"Enough of this. My daughter, where is she?" Titus interjects. "What...y/n? Stuffed if I know. Don't fancy myself much a snake charmer. What's with the interrogation?"
"Well it would seem, Mr Malfoy here has a rather interesting story to share on the topic of two seventh years strolling about Hogsmead not even an hour ago. A Weasley and-"
"My daughter. Where is she!?"
"I've already told you. I don't know!" Titus began advancing on Fred, rage burning clear in his eyes, "I'm warning you, Weasley. If you've in anyway involved yourself with y/n I will-"
"Dad?" A soft voice called from the end of the corridor. "Y/n." The girl looked around at the gathered group confusedly before stepping between Fred, Harry and Ron to embrace her Father in a quick greeting. "What are you doing here?" "Where have you been?" "Where-what? I've been-" "the Library perhaps?" Lucius raised a mocking brow. "What? No I-I was taking a walk by the Lake." "A likely story."
"Lucius here, tells me you were in Hogsmead with this boy." Titus gestures to Fred a venom held behind his voice.
Y/n looks over Fred with visible disgust, whilst he smiles coldly back. "Why on Earth would I ever surround myself with the likes of them?" She spits. Looking back to her Father as if highly insulted by his accusation.
Titus observes the interaction carefully as if watching for any weakness in their story. But he finds none. His expression softens as he turns back to his daughter completely. "I apologise, y/n/n. Lucius was obviously mistaken." He glares back over his shoulder to the blonde man who scoffs in response. "I would nev-" "Save it, Lucius." Titus growls. "But, Titus if I may, why would Mr Malfoy report this if it were not-" "you may not." The girls father puts an end to Umbridges interruption as she'd attempted to defend the other man. "I trust my daughter to know of the correct company to keep. Lucius was obviously mistaken and has by extension wasted my time."
Thankfully the adults were too busy bickering for anyone to notice the small smiles that threaten to break onto the faces of the gathered teenagers.
"I'm sorry, dear. I must be leaving now and I hope your studies are going well." "They are Dad, I'll write you and Mum tonight to fill you in on everything. Just as I always do." Y/n smiled. Titus pulled his daughter in for a final hug, placing a soft kiss to her forehead before turning to leave, with a last menacing glare to Delores and Lucius he walked away.
"Well. That will be all, the four of you off to your Common rooms immediately to prepare for dinner. Mr Malfoy if you'd follow me I'll escort you from the Castle." Umbridge spoke.
Harry and Ron couldn't contain their giggles at the insulted reaction shown by Malfoy as he turned to leave.
Lucius took one final look over his shoulder to the teens, who had not moved, being met with the taunting smile and small wave of y/n with Fred now standing confidently beside her.
Once finally out of sight the couple fell into hysterics, Fred wrapping an arm around y/ns shoulder as they laughed.
"What the bloody hell did you two do!?" Ron asked through a wide grin. "Just took a quick trip into town that's all..." "Safe to say our secrets out, Freddie." Y/n whispered to him as she noted all the students watching the group, paying particular attention to Freds arm around her. "Secret? You kidding! You two are the most obvious people on the planet!" Harry quipped. "George has been taking bets on how long it'll take for you two to just come out and admit it." "I know." Spoke Fred, "I had Colin Creevey place 7 Sickles on it for me." "You bet on us!?" "The odds were on my side! But thanks to Malfoy date-crashing I'm out of it now."
"About that, how did you two get back here so fast?" Ron questions.
"We apparated to The Shack then hauled ass." Y/n answered. "The pros of being 17" Fred winked, pulling y/n back into his chest, resting his chin atop her head. As his arms wrapped around her she nestled herself comfortably within his embrace with a lovestruck smile.
"Right well, as amusing as that was, this-" Ron guestured to the couple, "is gonna turn my stomach. And I'm starving so, Harry, coming to get ready for dinner?" the bluntness causing his best friend to roll his eyes with a chuckle. "Yeah alright. And I'll be sure to tell George all about this if we run into him along the way." Harry joked, waving to the couple as they walked towards the Gryffindor common room.
They stood there for a moment, contently basking in each others warmth before y/n turned in place to face her boyfriend with a cheekily grin. "So, still think I need tips on how to lie?" Fred clicks his jaw as he pretends to be deep in thought. Nodding slowly as he answers, "yeah, yep. Absolutely." "I just successfully dooped not only my Father but Delores fucking Umbridge! Okay? I deserve a frickin' gold star."
Fred can't help but laugh at her comment. "Alright, first of all. 'Dooped'? That is the least cool thing you've ever said. Secondly, you're so cute when you get all sassy. And unfortunately for you, I'm fresh out of gold stars...but I'll happily reward you for that semi-decent performance." Y/ns mouth falls open at the last words, "semi-decent!?" Fred nods innocently, "You sir, are a twat!" She states firmly as she pushes out of his arms making the redhead laugh loudly.
Taking a strong grip to her wrist as she begins to walk away he pulls her back to him, wrapping an arm around her waist as the other fists the hair at the nape of her neck pulling her lips into his.
The kiss is hard and passionate, as if he's trying to make up for their spoiled date in this one moment. And it's working, fireworks erupt within y/ns chest as goosebumps spread over her skin and she can't help the soft moans that sound from her throat. It's perfect.
Fred smiles as he rests his forehead against hers, feeling like he's drunk an entire Cauldron of love potion. "You were brilliant today, love." He whispers. "Fred, that kiss was...wow." he hums in response. "I still want the star though." she goads making him roll his eyes and throw his head back in exasperation. She can feel the silent laughter radiate through his body as she holds him close bringing her head to rest against his chest.
Freds arms hold y/n tighter as he lets out a comfortable sigh, placing his head atop of hers. Eyes softly closing in complete bliss. As fun as all the sneaking around was he could get used to this. Holding her when, where and for as long as he wants? To Fred, that sounds exactly like Heaven.
257 notes · View notes
tl-notes · 3 years
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Kobayashi’s Maid Dragon S2 Episode 10 Notes
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I’m extremely not an expert in birds, but I tried to look these up to see if they were a species native to New York (since they’re similar to the sparrows we usually see around Kobayashi’s place). Apparently there are few similar-looking species in New York? My totally uninformed guess is that they may be house sparrows.
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The sun sets in Japan relatively early (probably around 6:30pm when this episode takes place), which would make it entirely plausible that if she just flew east (with a slight northward angle) she’d find herself over New York in the early morning while most of the rest of the country is still dark.
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These bumpy grey pads at the pedestrian part of the intersection here are known as (among other things) tactile paving; they’re to assist people who can’t fully rely on eyesight to get around.
Interestingly (imo), they were actually invented in Japan in the 60s (by a Miyake Seiichi), where today they’re extremely ubiquitous. They even show up later this episode!
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They’re often referred to in Japan as 点字ブロック, tenji (Braille) blocks, and they tend to come in two types: the “dot” design, which indicates a place to stop (or an angle change, or more generally “caution”), and the “line” design which indicates you can safely keep going. They’re generally colored yellow in Japan, ideally making them stand out more to help people with impaired vision find them, and are mandated by law in most places public transport can be found (among others).
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Not really a translation note, but “deer cola” felt especially funny in the context of all the horse medicine stuff. 
I guess “[animal] [drink]” is a common branding device in-universe, given the crab beer Kobayashi’s always drinking.
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Also not really a translation note, but the difference between how “hard” Kanna and Chloe are running to be at the same speed was a nice animation touch.
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遊んだ遊んだ! asonda asonda!
One feature of the Japanese language is a very heavy use of repetition. This includes “reduplication,” a linguistic term for creating words by repeating a root (e.g. a “boo-boo” in English or the dara-dara example below in Japanese), but also just like… saying the same word multiple times, as Chloe does here.
Typically this is done for emphasis or to help increase clarity: if you’ve worked in a Japanese office, you’ve likely heard someone in a phone conversation say desu desu in response to someone asking for confirmation. 
This acceptance of repetition sort of extends beyond the obvious uses like this as well: for example, personal pronouns are much less common; instead (if the subject isn’t dropped) you’ll often just use the person’s name again. You’ll notice similar trends with other types of words as well.
Not to mention the ubiquity of things like otsukare.
This often ends up being a challenge for translators, because reusing words in English (when it’s not for an obvious reason) tends to stick out rather unflatteringly, even if they aren’t that close together. 
(Like when I overuse “hence” in these notes.)
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This “Christ” in the Japanese was “ったく” (short for 全く mattaku, but just used as a semi-generic exclamation). I mostly bring this up because it’s a good example of a word that doesn’t work out of its cultural context; e.g. it wouldn’t make any sense for a fantasy character to say “Christ,” but since this is an American speaker it works just fine (and helps distinguish that fact, even). 
I think I’ve mentioned this before, but English uses a lot of “explicit reference” words like this, that can break immersion if put in the mouths of characters who wouldn’t have exposure to said reference—which can be annoyingly limiting when trying to write dialogue sometimes.
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As a bit of a culture shock for a lot of Americans I’ve met, most Japanese homes tend to have wall mounted air conditioning units, like this one, that are only for heating/cooling the one room they’re in. (Many also have a “Dry” setting that makes them act kind of like a dehumidifier as well.) It’s common to not have them in every room, like bedrooms, however.
This is in contrast to the central air conditioning system used by a majority of homes in the US (though type/use of AC in the US varies a lot by region; less common in the north for example)—and places like the UK where apparently residential AC units of any kind are quite rare.
You may have noticed that the doors between rooms always seem closed in Kobayashi’s apartment. That’s not just to make the backgrounds simpler, it’s also a good habit to keep if you’re going to be running the AC!
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“Kobayashi, are you お休み today?” 
“Yeah, お休み.”
お休み o-yasumi, is a noun form of the 休む yasumu, to rest. The word has a variety of applications, as we see here. A day off work/school, i.e. a rest day? お休み. Want to say “good night” to someone before bed? Also お休み.
In this case, it’s not even necessarily clear it’s being said as a pun; as mentioned earlier, repetition is a common feature of the language, so despite the yawn there wouldn’t really be any reason for Kanna to think Kobayashi was about to go to nap or anything.
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“Laze about” here is だらだら dara-dara, another phenomime (擬態語 gitaigo in Japanese)—one of those words that mimics the “sound” of an idea/concept/state, which don’t actually make a sound per se.
These phrases aren’t necessarily childish or anything (overuse of them can be, but you can find them even in news articles and political speeches for example). They are, however, used frequently by children, and by adults talking to children, as they’re very “easy” words: they’re expressive, they capture useful daily-life concepts, and they usually roll off the tongue. You’ll notice, for example, that Kanna uses them a lot.
Kanna has a very interesting way of talking actually, which I’ll touch on a bit more later.
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Kobayashi’s “bean jam” here is あんみつ anmitsu, a traditional Japanese dessert (technically a spinoff of mitsumame). It typically is a mix of red beans (and/or red peas), agar (an algae-based gelatin equivalent), some fruit, some variety of rice flour product (shiratama in this case, similar to mochi), and a syrup (often black sugar based).
You can find it year-round, but it has a strong summer association and is even used as a summer season word. (It’s typically chilled and you can often get it with ice cream as an ingredient.)
It’s also sometimes paired with a green-tea flavored something as well (e.g. ice cream, agar, or syrup). The trinity of green tea, red beans (aka azuki), and shiratama makes what I like to think of as the “Japanese S’mores Flavor (for Adults)”. No I will not elaborate on this.
I will though point out the shaved ice flavor Kobayashi ordered later in the episode:
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え?今スイカ様子あった?
A word of note here for language learners is 様子 yousu, which has a lot of definitions, but in cases like this where it’s attached to a noun or phrase means roughly “the appearance of __” or “an indication of ___” etc. In actual use, it typically means something that makes you think of whatever ___ is—or the lack of something that would make you think ___.
For example here, it’s like “Watermelon? Where’d that come from?” (since the TV was talking about a different dessert-y food entirely). 
Or an unrelated example: “I think that guy is hiding something” → “Really? I haven’t seen any yousu of that.” In other words, it can be a lot like “sign,” as in “I’ve seen no sign of ___.”
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These color-bordered envelopes (originally colored based on the flag of the country of origin) used to be the standard for air mail, domestic or international, though they haven’t been required for several decades.
That said, they’re still popular for that “ooh, international mail!” feel (at least in Japan) and you can buy them at most places that sell stuff like envelopes. As here, they’re often used in media to immediately convey that a letter came from outside Japan.
Kanna (and Kobayashi) says エアメール, lit. “air mail” in English, which is used colloquially for international mail specifically, rather than “mail sent by plane.”
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They’re having what’s called 冷やしそうめん hiyashi soumen, chilled/cold soumen for lunch here. (Soumen being a thin wheat noodle; udon but thinner.) As Kanna says, it’s very easy to make!
Basically you just boil it, wash it in cold water, add ice, get some sort of sauce to dip it in, and you’re done! It’s a popular quick meal in summer, and much easier than the more involved nagashi soumen setups you may have seen elsewhere, where they slide the noodles down a chute for you to try to grab and eat. (It’s basically the same meal aside from that though.)
(You can of course add more to it, but as we see here, you don’t really have to.)
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The type of tea here, for the curious, is 麦茶 mugicha, barley tea. Mugi is the general name for cereals/grains including wheat (komugi), barley (oomugi), rye (kuromugi or rye mugi), and oats (enbaku or oat mugi). It’s incredibly common in Japan (and much of East Asia), where it's the household summer drink.
It has no caffeine like many other teas, and has a bunch of various nutritional benefits, so it’s considered a good way to stay hydrated as you’re sweating buckets in the muggy Japanese summer weather.
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帽子した��  boushi shita? した! shita!
I thought this was a cute way of phrasing this question/answer, and a good example of the “parent and their young child” way these two talk.
The suru (past tense shita) verb used here is the ultimate in “generic verb,” and it basically doesn’t get any simpler grammar-wise to phrase something as “noun+suru” like Kobayashi does here (even the particles are dropped). 
Kanna, for her part, doesn’t respond with a “yes” or etc, but instead just repeats back the verb itself in confirmation.
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Just to note another one of those words like dara-dara: bura-bura, used for things like wandering around, doing something (or nothing) casually/aimlessly, or (with one bura) for something dangling/swinging in a more literal sense, like a spider, slack yo-yo, or wind chime.
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These booklets are a common homework assignment for practicing kanji; you can see along the left side there it shows the stroke order, with the first block giving an example to trace over & showing where to start each stroke.
Each character is made up of radicals (e.g. “hot” above: 日 and 耂), which each have a standard way to write them. There’s 214 such radicals (though many are pretty niche; only about ~50 of them are needed to make most characters), and once you get a hang of them it makes learning new characters much easier (not too different from learning word spellings in English imo).
Kanna is repeating out loud the reading for the “hot” character as she writes it.
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In addition to the above workbooks (which usually involve both kanji and math problems at Kanna’s grade), elementary school summer homework in Japan typically involves doing an illustrated diary (not a daily one necessarily) and some sort of research project about a subject of your choice. (Think kind of like a small science fair project).
The “research” project part is pretty expansive, and you can typically even do something more arts & craftsy for it.
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Manhole covers in a lot of Japanese municipalities feature art representative of the area. For example, the city of Chofu, where the author of GeGeGe no Kitaro lived most of his life, has several with art of that series.
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(Photo from https://www.gotokyo.org/jp/spot/1734/index.html)
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I mentioned earlier that Kanna has an interesting way of speaking. Probably a better way to put it is that she has a pretty convincingly childish way of speaking (despite the monotone). That is, she uses simple grammar and “easy” words most of the time, but then throws out random big words and fancy idioms from time to time that make you go “...where did you learn that?”
In this case, the phrase she uses is 巷で人気 chimata de ninki. Chimata originally means like a fork (in the road), and since those are often places with lots of people passing through, it expanded to mean “the undefined place where people talk about ~stuff~.” So it’s used for “many people are saying~” or “word on the street is~” types of situations (or “talk of the town,” as here).  
It’s kind of an “adult” word though; for example the character for it isn’t included in the jouyou kanji (the 2000+ that are taught in elementary through high school). Hence Kobayashi’s reaction here.
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The word she uses for “protected” here is 死守 shishu. The word is the combination of the characters for “death” and “protect,” ~meaning to protect something even at risk to one’s life (to the death, as it were).
It's a word that you learn in third grade in the Japanese education system—the same grade Kanna is in!
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Both of these types of signs are common sights in residential areas like this: depending on where you live, it can feel like there’s always some sort of construction project going on, and Japan’s many family/individually-owned businesses like this tend to be closed on various extra days during the summer (and certain other times) to allow for time off.  
In this case, them being closed August 12th~16th implies they’re taking off for Obon (and probably leaving town to visit family).
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The word Kobayashi uses here is 風物詩 fuubutsu-shi. Fuubutsu refers to something that makes up part of the “scenery” of a place or season, in a pretty broad sense. This shi typically means “poem.”
So fuubutsu-shi is originally a type of poem celebrating a season or a scene of natural beauty, that sort of thing. From that, it’s also now (more popularly) used to describe things that are representative of a season; the kind of stuff you say “it’s not winter until…” about, or “you know it’s summer when…” (It can also be used for places + seasons, like the ice sculptures of Hokkaido winters, or even summer Comiket in Tokyo.)
They’re very similar to the season words I’ve mentioned previously, though they’re far less strict about what counts as one. Here, Kobayashi’s could be referring to the whole package experience of “having to take cover and wait out a sudden heavy rain, despite it being mostly clear skies a few minutes ago,” which you could call fuubutsu-shi (summed up probably as like 夏の雨宿り etc.)
In contrast the relevant season word here would probably be yuudachi (or niwaka-ame), a word referring to the short, sudden bouts of rain that tend to fall (from cumulonimbus clouds, the makings of which are noticeable in the backgrounds before this) on summer evenings.
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Feels like in season one she woulda eaten it. Three cheers for character growth!
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The parentheticals there are just the “English” in hiragana/katakana.
Kobayashi’s comment (nihongo de ok, roughly “you can just use Japanese”) is an internet-born term people originally would use to reply to someone who said something that didn’t make any sense, had terrible grammar, or was so full of katakana loanwords it was hard to read etc.
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Kanna says this line in English, and while I have no proof at all, my guess is that the specific choice of “wicked” was taken from the translation of “maji yabakune?” used in season one.
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dadsbongos · 3 years
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Insert Coin - Chapter 2.d / Series Masterlist
A/N: okay i figured something out, so uploads should deffo be a lot faster than they used to be. sorry about that, everyone!!
Knocking on the door awoke the pair, (Y/n)’s eyes drifting open with the sunlight streaming in through the cracks of the old building’s wood. She stood as quietly as possible to avoid waking Nagito, popping her back as she headed towards another rattle of knocks.
She was met with, once again, Hajime on the other side of the door. Rubbing the bleariness from her eyes, (Y/n) exited to the hall, silently shutting the door behind her as she did so.
Hajime examined the girl for any possible injuries, in total shock she’d just slept in the same room as the boy currently accountable for two deaths, “Are you hurt? Did anything happen?”
“Hajime,” she spoke sternly, but not without heart, “everything’s fine. Nagito’s doing really well, he listens. There’s no need to worry about us,” her eyes caught an error in the brunette’s attire, squinting at it before reaching up to fix his tie, “But apparently the same cannot be said for you. Did you just fight Monokuma on your way here?”
They both knew he didn’t - he’d be dead if he even tried it.
“I wanted to make sure you were safe,” he reasoned before gesturing down to his clothing, “Hence improper tie.”
“You’re sweet,” (Y/n) mockingly cooed, pulling back from her classmate and settling against the wall once she was finished, “Anything else you wanted to tell me, or did you just want to be my knight for a day?”
“Har, har, very funny,” Hajime shook his head before relenting, “but yeah, Ibuki was looking for you earlier. She needs to tell you something.”
“Oh? Okay, I’ll head over, just let me finish up with Nagito.”
After Hajime had left the building, (Y/n) turned back inside the room and approached Nagito as he slept on the floor. His eyelashes fanned over pale, rosy, cheeks and messy hair framed around his head and flushed over the makeshift pillow underneath him. She knelt beside his sleeping figure and gently shook him awake.
“Can you keep that promise you made to me last night?”
There was a beat of silence as Nagito rang around his brain to figure out what promise he’d made. Realization snuck through his expression and suddenly he was nodding tiredly.
“Okay, good,” she brushed some hair from Nagito’s forehead as he laid on his side, “I have to go, but I need you to stay here.”
“Then I will,” he affirmed, sitting up to shrug on his jacket, “Trash like me should never interfere with an Ultimate’s day.”
“You’re not trash,” (Y/n) weakly protested, already at the door, “I’ll try to be back soon.”
“Please, don’t rush,” Nagito waved off, “I can wait all day.”
Hesitance settled in her bones before washing away - Nagito was the same age as her, he could take care of himself. Besides, he didn’t come off as the type to break a promise - and as much as she hated to admit it, her status as an Ultimate probably increased his desire to keep their promise. Ibuki needed her anyway.
Before she could get too far, Ibuki herself had rushed up to the peacekeeper, slapping her hands against the girl’s shoulders and shaking her around, “There you are! Ibuki has some news for you,” the musician tossed her hands in the air, jazz-handsing it, “You’re invited to a girl’s-only beach day!”
“Aww, you’re sweet, thanks, Ibuki,” she managed to get out after stabilizing herself. (Y/n) thought it over - again, Nagito was the same age as her and seemed to have significantly calmed down from the first trial. Eventually, she nodded slowly, “Yeah, sounds fun, I’ll be there.”
Cheering to herself, Ibuki hopped in place before suddenly freezing up, “Do you know where the new diner is?”
“The second island, yes,” (Y/n) hid exactly how she knew that information.
“Great! Then come down there in an hour!” as the girl dashed off, she turned, running backward to call out, “Bring a bathing suit!”
~~
As (Y/n) arrived at the diner, she spotted Ibuki - a little early but hey, who wouldn’t want the chance to get closer to the resident rocker? “This was a great idea; lovely weather and friends.”
“Ibuki thought so,” she beamed proudly, crossing her arms under her chest, “Being on a beach with a bunch of cute girls, nothing better than that!”
“(Y/n)?!”
Turning at the sudden call, (Y/n) quirked a brow at Hajime and Kazuichi’s unannounced appearance, putting her hands on her hips, “What’re you two doing?”
Hajime avoided staring directly at the Ultimate Peacekeeper, feeling a bright crimson splatter across his cheeks at her in her swimsuit, fumbling for any words, “Kazuichi, well, he figured that- "
“Miss Sonia’s gonna be here, right?” the mechanic himself interrupted.
“Far as I know, yes,” (Y/n) shook her head once she realized what he truly meant by that, “Kazuichi, you shouldn’t intrude like this. Wanting to spend time with people is fine but- "
The princess herself came into the diner, taking focus from everyone in the room. A wetsuit covering her body from neck-to-toe, modest and fashionable - Sonia made it work well. Shortly before was Chiaki bearing only her swimsuit - also rocking her attire. Hajime and Kazuichi, for definitely unrelated reasons, were tossed into rambling, fidgeting, blushing morons as soon as the girls made themselves known. Even Akane’s bloodied form had them distracted - definitely making the girls question their peers' sense of priority between bloody and half-naked.
“You’d think they never saw a woman before.”
(Y/n) let out a small giggle, nodding along to Peko’s words - while trying to pretend the girl popping out of nowhere didn’t frighten her, “I almost feel bad for them,” upon closer inspection, she noticed something… off, “Early start on the beach?”
Peko Pekoyama was absolutely soaked.
The easy-going air around Peko faded, eyes narrowing only so much to be intense without outright convicting, just enough to warn you to not ask more questions as she reasoned, “I was on a long swim today trying to see if there was a way out via the water. However, that doesn’t appear to be true.”
“Right, sorry,” (Y/n) wasn’t sure what she was apologizing for exactly, but the swordswoman was quite intimidating when she wanted to be.
There was a soft thump against the glass, a finger pressed against the large window peeking out at the so-called parking lot outside the diner, Kazuichi responsible for it. His brows furrowed as he spoke to the rest of the group, “What’s up with her?”
Everyone was at the window now, bodies packed together to see what Kazuichi was referring to.
Hiyoko Saionji - the Ultimate Traditional Dancer - dashing towards the diner with tears and snot rippling down her face, eyes wide and chest sporadically rising and falling with her breaths as she ran.
Pushing away from the group, (Y/n) headed out to hopefully comfort the girl when her questions as to why were answered. Not with words. Not with a show. But with a sound that was telling enough.
DING DONG! BING BONG!
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mistchievous · 3 years
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Podficcing Advice for Beginners
So, a friend of mine came to me last night and told me she wanted to try out podficcing and asked for some advice. And I realized I had a lot to say to her, so I’m going to share it all here in case it helps someone else. :)
First of all, I’m not going to get into the details of how to make a podfic. I recommend reading A Newbie’s Guide to Podficcing if you’re looking for that information! It’s very detailed and goes into a lot of what you need to know. It also links to other good resources.
This advice is more just little things I’ve learned along the way and my personal experience based on what people tend to assume about podficcing as a whole.
1. Do not get into podficcing if you’re looking for clout. I mean this in the nicest way I possibly can. I’m putting this first for a reason. If you write fanfiction especially, you’re used to getting feedback. You’re used to Kudos and Comments and lots and lots of gratitude. You will not find that here. It’s not malicious. It just kind of comes with the territory. Scroll down the Podfic tag on Ao3 and compare kudos and comments to hits if you don’t understand what I’m saying right now. People will download podfics to enjoy on walks or at work or in the car or wherever and not even consider going all the way back to where they got it to say thank you. It just doesn’t occur to them. It’s not that they’re ungrateful. It’s just the way it is. Then you of course have to take into account that podfics in general aren’t as popular as written fic, etc. etc.
2. This pretty much ties into number one. Podfic for you and you alone. If you’re going to make a podfic, it should be of something you personally enjoy and want to listen to. Because unlike with writing, a lot of the creative process for podfics is technical and therefore tedious. You will burn yourself out if you podfic things for other people that you aren’t personally interested in consuming. I might record something short for close friends, but I’m well-aware that people who do not podfic have no idea how much time and energy goes into creating one. I personally do not take requests. And I highly recommend you don’t either. Maybe it will work for you, but honestly I get fed up even doing paid narration jobs when it’s something I’m not interested in. This may be more of a personal quirk, but especially for beginners, I recommend sticking to what you’re passionate about and enjoy. Because like I said in number one, you’re not going to get much outside validation. You have to really enjoy the process, the source material, and the finished product on a personal level to really want to continue podficcing.
3. Podficcing is a very time consuming process. Be prepared for that. A lot of people seem to think podficcing is just recording yourself reading something and then posting the file, and it is not. There’s a lot more that goes into it (see the guide linked above). Following my personal process, I can expect to spend around 3.5-4x the length of a finished podfic working on creating and editing it. For example, a 20 minute podfic would probably take me about 1.5 hours of work. A ten hour podfic I posted recently took me somewhere between 35-40 hours. When I first started making podfics, it took me longer even because I didn’t really know what I was doing. Some people are probably faster than me. Some are probably slower. Idk where my process falls on the scale exactly, but please understand that you will be spending a lot of time on these. Hence why #1 and #2 are so important. Especially if you do longer fics. Most people who record podfics stick to one-shots under around 10k for a reason.
4. There’s an entire section in the guide on permissions, but on a personal note, if an author has a blanket statement that they “do not allow translations/etc. of their work so don’t ask”, I just assume they probably won’t allow podfics either (even if that’s not true) and don’t bother approaching. I don’t want to step on a possible landmine by asking about something they feel they’ve already addressed and asked people not to come to them about. As the guide will tell you, most people are super on board with having podfics done of their work. Please do not read this and think you can’t approach authors. This is just a personal thing I do when it comes to authors with blanket anti-translations statements.
5. If you have pets, please shut them out of whatever room you’re recording in. I can’t do that anymore. My cats have figured me out, and you have no idea how often I pause recording and stare at the ceiling and wish for death because there are cats wrestling three feet away from me.
6. Always test your equipment. You don’t want to waste an hour and realize your mic was never picking up any audio. Also, use a desktop computer if you have one. If you have to use a laptop, there’s a good chance that (like me) you will only be able to record when it is not plugged in. I can’t record when my laptop is plugged into the wall because even my cheapest of mics pick up audio interference because of the battery charging and it’s a mess.
7. Don’t spend a bunch of money on equipment. Seriously. I have professional equipment for audiobooks, and I use absolutely none of it for podfics. I use a $20 Logitech USB Headset. Because I don’t want podficcing to feel like work. I want it to be fun. Less formal. Not like a job. I want to be able to recline under a blanket while I read. Not lock myself up in a soundproof area with super technical equipment that picks up every breath in a 20-mile radius.
ANYWAY! These are just bits of personal advice that may help you decide if this is something you really want to do.
I hope I didn’t scare you off! We need more podficcers in the world. Hahaha! I just would much rather people know what to expect and not end up discouraged and disappointed when they decide to try this out and it turns out differently than they imagined. 
All my love, y’all. <3
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Hey! Feel free to ignore this long question but it was just something I was thinking about. I’m interacting with this fandom for the first time since about mid season 12-ish, I was an avowed deancas meta reader and I’m trying to catch up on some goings on. Something that’s really been bothering me since it went canon was something I was trying to figure out since I left: what happened during the carver era? Was he setting it up to be canon, because I can’t not see that when I watch s8 and 9, but post-Charlie dying it all seemed so disorganized, and bad. He set it up perfectly then lost the thread totally. Do you have any insight on what happened there? And 2, if I couldn’t stand the first half of season 12 but really liked 15x18, do you think I’d like the rest of the dabb era? How does it compare to peak carver era? Thanks for reading and no pressure! Forgot how much I love this meta stuff and now it’s all I think about again lol
Hi there! 
I think Carver era behind the scenes might end up being something we have to wait for tell-all interviews to understand... At least Dabb was there for all of it so maybe after the show is over, someone might grab him for a sit down to explain some shit and go over the old territory :P I’d guess that Carver was not committed to canon in the same way but he was open to exploring and expanding the relationships and Cas’s character just because he liked Cas and these dynamics, and definitely wasn’t adverse to at least ironically thinking of Dean n Cas in a certain way, hence the “jilted lover” thing. 
I think also there was generally less of a cohesive overall voice to the show from season 8 onwards, which is not a bad thing in that it meant we began to really see each individual writer putting their talents out there (or not-talents) but does mean the interpretation of Dean n Cas or gay subtext in general was an absolute rollercoaster, depending on who was writing, because combining looser control on the creative direction per episode along with a deeper focus on character overall... Bobo could roll right up in season 9 and immediately start serving Destiel but Dabb had been writing since season 4 and it was still season 8 where he first starts flexing any what would become shipper muscles :P 
Considering how Carver era fizzled out and Dabb took over with a stronger sense of what to DO with the dang show and what radical burn-it-all-down steps that involved to take it to a conclusion, including absolutely freewheeling the plot for a little while, throwing spaghetti at the wall and even letting Buckleming serve total curveballs and all, for the sake of really digging into character stuff instead, I do think the change is obvious again. I don’t even know if Dabb took over MEANING to make Destiel canon, but that he was absolutely of the mind that Cas was important and a TFW ending would be necessary. And then once he spent some time on that, the obvious answer that Destiel was integral hit at last through some sort of self-reflection on what the fuck they’d been writing all this time as it came to tying up loose ends. 
Honestly the writers he picked kinda do obviously compliment Destiel but maybe it was even just having so many fresh young voices at the table all at once that LATER shifted the conversation into “why the heck wouldn’t we do this?” after they settled in. 
Anyway, I’m not caught up on the current season, but I would say that Dabb era was as far as I watched, loosely written on the plot front and managing Buckleming nonsense about as deftly as a bunch of excellent writers who are trying to have a consistent vision but need to constantly work around someone lobbing bricks at the story can do. But it got better and better as it went on, because it was focussing more on the emotional stuff and the character dynamics, and taking them all seriously. Season 13 was an important shift in really taking Destiel seriously, and from the sounds of things Dabb was maybe considering Destiel by season 14 and ready to hit the ground running with 15? 
I personally think that Dabb era really started to be very very good as soon as Jack was properly introduced, especially as I spent a whole hiatus dreading him and convinced this was a terrible idea (he’s buckleming spawn, from one of their worst episodes overall behind their true classics like the racist truck) but Dabb wrote the first episode with Jack and it made him instantly endearing, and his whole story was well-handled from then on, making even some of the more garbage characters at least temporarily interesting or at least relevant or to make the scenes they were in easier to endure. 
So I’d say try again and power through until you’ve given Jack the 4 episodes at the beginning of season 13 they use to introduce and explore what he means to the show, and see how you’re feeling about those dynamics and storylines, as they really are where the show goes from then onwards. 
I also have to admit that season 9 is my favourite Carver era season, and overall I don’t like the seasons so much as loving certain episodes, and having a whole lot I don’t like in between. Dabb’s crack team of writers demonstrated what it was like to enjoy every single writer except Buckleming, and have a much more reliable run of episodes in a row consistently so if I was comparing them, especially with hindsight, Carver era is really left in the dust for me. My only regret is that Buckleming never retired early and left the show in the hands of competent adults for a full season.
To really emphasise how much I trust the writers these days, I’m pretty much assuming without watching them that the dozen episodes I haven’t watched will be good and I’ll have a great time watching them, and that Bobo’s last episode will be amazing quite apart from the bizarre mark it left on the historical record. 
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blorbosexterminator · 3 years
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Ah yes, I understand your point. Nairobi's death really helped giving Gandia some personality, that's pretty cool to also give the villain some depth. Also, a few minutes before I sent the last ask, I noticed that the alternative story I wrote for Raquel is probably what Alicia does when she tracks down Sergio by herself after she is fired for telling the truth about Rio's torture. We'll have to wait to see if her motivation is indeed revenge, though I have no idea why she would want to do that.
I don't think this is an unpopular opinion but I, for some reason, believe that the entire berlermo kiss scene was improvised by Pedro and Rodrigo. The kiss part was probably the only improvise they actually did, but I just can't imagine Alex Pina and the other writers sitting on a table and writing the dialogues, even though the mitochondria line seems to be their idea. I can see them like "Ok so there is one thing that doesn't make Berlin feel the same as Palermo feels for him but we don't know what it is" and then someone says the first thing that came up to their mind "what about a small mitochondria?"
Oh I don't think it's revenge for Alicia. With Raquel, it was different. But with Alicia, everything she lost was because of her own-self and the system she was willngly a part of. I think it's just pure determination, she wouldn't have done all of that just for nothing. She's super fixated on this case and she had already went beyond all limits with Río and Axel, she won't stop lmfao, that's just who she is. Like she also doesn't have anything else, she too lost her husband, her public place, and her job. Let her go after them lol.
HAHAHAHA this is so random and 100% fits how those writers apparently work. You know, I generally believe that Pedro has A LOT to do with the berlermo storyline in general. I think the writers initially were going for just a normal unrequited storyline, but Pedro (and Rodrigo) had a role similar to the role Pedro and Alvoro had with the hermanos storyline and made it this complex, not-truly unrequited story. Pedro, from what I've seen from his interviews, seems heavly interested in this aspect of his character, that he's not truly straight, that he did return feelings to Martín. Also from how he played him, it seems to me very intentional how Pedro played Andrés in the scenes with Martín. In the show, he had been with two women on screen and yet there was a huge difference between that acting and his acting with Martín in the scenes. How he touched him, how he looked at him etc etc. The writers seem pretty flexiable with the actors putting on their own marks as well (hence the hermanos storyline) so I just honestly give a lot of credit to Pedro generally. So I do think the kiss scene was a product of that work (and he did say he spent a lot of time working with Rodrigo on the dynamic between their characters, and what it means, how it's different from other dynamics etc.) and also the improvisation of that scene. I don't really have much of an idea of what was improvised and what wasn't. I think the script was probably already written (with probably Pedro's additions/remarks/talks with the writer beforehand) and maybe the Martín kissing him part. It might be that the part where Andrés pushes him against the wall and kisses him back in the improvised one, with the additional 'I love you, Martín' after. The mitchondria thing I believe is a product of a closed road they all put themselves in. Like let's say my guesses are right, and the berlermo storyline changed significantly from its initial concept, and yes, now we all agree that Andrés returns his feelings, so now we have a much more interesting story, but also a bunch of heavy questions on the first two seasons, if he did return his feelings, why did he leave? If he was completely in love with him, then why did the whole Ariadana and super straigtness of Berlín in the first part? If he did love and want him, then why was this character not there in the first part and first heist? Metatextually, we know. There was never any intention for a second part, Martín didn't exist until Netflix decided to buy the show and now they had to come up with something. We get it. But in narrative itself, looking at the story as a whole and revisting the first part with the second one in mind, those questions need to be answered. So the 'mitchondria' thing had to come up. You know this meme with that man trying to stop the overflow of water with this little plaster or something, lmfao.
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chemiste · 4 years
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a flower to the sun ~ h.s.
masterlist
tattoo design
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You were about three shots in when Vicky decided it would be a good idea to play Bet On It with you and your friends at the bar. 
The girls and you were in the rich, wealthy side of LA where all the fat lawyers and trust fund babies went to hang out. Sure, it wasn't really your scene being college students who could barely afford one drink but fortunately some of those fat lawyers thought y'all were pretty cute and would just send drinks over your way; all you had to do was smile and wave and the deed was done. 
“What's Bet On It?” Eve asked as she sipped her Blue Martini. 
“I’ll explain it, Bet On It is where we pose a challenge for you to go do and if you succeed we owe you a favor!” Christy exclaimed with excitement for the game, you giggled and nodded.
“Okay I'm ready let's go!” You shouted happily, slamming the bottom of your fourth shot back down onto the table as a declaration. 
“Lydia, I bet my favorite cherry lipstick you won't go get the bartender's number.” You said. 
Lydia blushed immensely as the girls giggled. She glanced slightly over her shoulder to see the tall blue haired bartender strut around serving drinks. Lydia's eye had been on her for a while and it was only a matter of time until one of the girls egged her on to go for it. 
Lydia sighed and took another shot from the table then walked over. The girls all cheered as they watched her approach the bar nervously and immediately start hitting it off of the bartender. 
“Okay, I think we can bet she won't be back for a while so let's continue.” Christy said with a chuckle. Vic glanced around at the four of you then finally settled her eyes on your form. 
“I pick... Y/N!” she said. 
The girls oohed as Vicky looked around the room thinking of a challenge she could use for you. She gasped as her eye caught something and looked back at you. 
“I dare you to walk up to that guy over there and ask to get a tattoo with him!”
 All three of you immediately snapped your heads to see who she was pointing at. 
Over in the corner at a secluded table with a few other people was a tall man wearing sunglasses on his head, a white T-shirt and flared blue jeans with heeled boots peeking out from under the hem. 
He looked to have a bunch of tattoos down one side of his arm and a couple on the other, hence the reason Vicki picked him. He looked pretty hot for only the side of his body... which might have been another factor. 
You turned back to her eyes wide open, “Oh my gosh I could never!” 
You laughed, swirling your finger on the top of the pink cocktail you had in front of you. Vicki blew raspberry at you. 
“Tell you what, if you can go and at least ask him for the tattoo without falling into a fit of giggles I will let you wear-- no I will let you have the purple high heels you always steal from me whenever we go to the bar downtown”. 
At that, you immediately stood from your stool, “All right I will be back ladies! Maybe with a tattoo and maybe a bruised ego, we don't know, we shall see.” 
The girls giggled as you finished one of the many drinks on the table before heading over, a little liquid courage helping your nerves. You were pleasantly drunk at the moment so this might have not been your best idea but you were halfway over, no turning back now. 
Just as you reach the man you realize that he looked a little familiar, his side profile looked out of this world, immortal, like Zeus had sculpted it for himself or something.
You push that thought aside, thinking that it was just the alcohol and tapped him on the shoulder. A look flashed through his eyes that seemed a little anxiety-ridden but it was soon gone when you started out your next sentence. 
“Hey, I know I'm a total stranger but will you go get a matching tattoo with me?”
You swayed a little in your spot and reached out to grab his forearm to put a steady hold on yourself. Instinctively, he wrapped his arm around your waist to keep you from falling over.
“Wait what?”
He responded while sizing you up, wondering if you were insane. 
You nodded eagerly, “yeah I've always wanted one but I'm kind of a pussy and so I've never been able to finally go in with a sketch I like and my friends over at that table bet for me to come ask a stranger if I would get a tattoo with them because it be the only way I could get one cause I would have someone else to decide with and they pointed you out so I'm here now.” 
The man fully turned to you and damn you were so happy that Vicki had a 6th sense because this man was gorgeous. He had so many little tattoos from your glance to his arm still wrapped around you that somehow all worked together seamlessly on his skin. 
His eyes were just so sparkly; the green in them made you mesmerized. He really did look familiar so you're asked.  
“Hey do I know you from somewhere?” 
The man in front of you seemed to straighten out a little, tensing under the scrutiny of your eyes scanning him. 
He reached up to rub the back of neck, “maybe you've seen me… I don't know I could have just one of those faces.” You were still not convinced but it didn't really matter. 
“All right, but you better not be a serial killer or something shady like that,” you clasped your hands together in front of you, “Tattoo with me; yes or no.” You asked again. 
The man looked back to his group slightly, the eyes of a couple of his friends there subtly watching the situation play out. They all looked very amused and you couldn't blame them, you probably looked like a lunatic. But, the boy in front of you turned back with a smile and cackled. 
“Why not!” 
He stated and you threw your hands up and cheered, “Great! Do you by any chance know a tattoo shop anywhere?” You questioned him as he put money on the table, and started walking with you through the crowded club. 
“Yeah we're really close to Sunset Boulevard, I think I know a place.” You reached for his hand as he pushed through the crowded dance floor, afraid you might lose the handsome stranger in front of you. 
Right as y'all got to the door, you waved back your friends who hollered out in their excitement. 
You were gobsmacked at the crazy situation. 
The handsome man in front of you was going to get a matching tattoo with you. 
A tattoo. 
Once you made it outside, you realized that trusting the man in front of you might not be the safest idea but your brain was still a little fuzzy and he looked kind so... you just went with that. 
You crossed the intersection and started walking down Sunset Boulevard, the man next to you shying away from any glazing eyes that came upon his face as you walked. Thankfully it was dark enough that no one seemed to stop and chat with either of you but you wouldn't even know why they would want to. Maybe they just thought he was hot like you did. 
“Hey, so what's your name?” You asked, realizing that calling him gorgeous in your head wasn't going to solve many problems. 
“Oh I'm Harry.” He answered. 
“Y/N, nice to meet you!” 
“You too.” 
“I swear though, are you like a Walmart clothing model of sorts, I swear I feel like I've seen your face... I don't think I could forget your face, it's pretty perfect.” You stuttered once you realized what you had said. Harry just chuckled and squeezed your hand that he was still holding. 
In no time, he was opening a door and leading you into a tattoo parlor that had a giant Shamrock on the door sign. The people in there seemed very important, all either drinking out of diamond encrusted glasses or smoking huge cigars, the farther back in the bar you went, the more like you felt you shouldn't have been there. 
He led you through a couple doors making you realize he probably knew the place better than he led you to believe. 
He knocked on a door in the back; a man opened the door a few moments later and looked up at you and Harry. His eyes lit up and he pulled Harry into a hug. 
“Hey H, been a long time! How are you?” 
“I'm doing well. We want to get a tattoo,” Harry said to the tattoo artist as you both walked into the room. 
The artist nodded his head, “sure, sure, what's your name love?” You realized he was talking to you after a moment as you had been mesmerized with all the pretty designs on the wall. 
“My name is Y/N and this will be my first tattoo so I'm very excited!” 
He chuckled slightly at your enthusiasm and introduced himself, “My name’s Freddy.”
The walk sobered you up a little bit so you decided while the boys were chatting to go through a couple of the designs. There were flowers, arrows, boats, people, eyes, names; basically anything you could ask for. 
As you flipped through the tattoo sheets, H set his phone down on the counter to help his friend grab something from a top shelf. You looked over to his phone case and something on the cover caught your eye. Glancing over your shoulder, the two men were engrossed in a quiet conversation. Your curiosity got the better of you and you reached out to slide the phone closer. 
Upon further inspection, you could see that between the phone and the clear case was a slightly wrinkled piece of paper with a small poem scribbled out on it. 
She fell so naturally into my arms
Like a flower to the sun. 
~ Atticus
“Harry?” 
“Hm?” He turned back to you, one eyebrow raised slightly when he noticed his phone in your hands. 
“What about this?” 
Harry walked over and took the phone back, looking at the small poem and then back to you. 
“Are you sure?” He asked hesitantly, you nodded while you rang your hands together, teetering back and forth on the balls of your heels. 
“Unless it’s too important to you, I totally respect that.” 
H shook his head when you said that. “No, it’s actually kind of perfect.” 
You smiled his response, both of you taking a moment to relish in the fact that you were actually doing this. Harry popped the phone case off and pulled the small note out, handing it to the tattoo artist. 
Freddy looked down at it, “Do you guys want it typed out? Or written like this?”
 “Maybe typed out would be nice, like a subtle cursive.” You nodded along with Harry’s comment. 
Freddy walked over to the computer to type it out on the poem for the pre-ink outline. 
“So how do you want this?” Harry asked you as you both sat down on the small couch in the corner of the room. 
Taking a hold of his arm, you turned it, examining all his tattoos and spaces left unmarked. You looked at his right arm and pointed to the inside of his forearm. 
“We could each get a line of the poem right here?” 
Harry and you looked at each other with grins on your faces. 
“Well you did drunkenly stumble into me at the bar so it’s only right I have the first one.” You rolled your eyes and chuckled, “Then I’ll get the second one.” 
A quiet beep! alerted both of you to Freddy who held two small sheets in his hand. 
“Who’d like to go first?” 
You raised your hand and let out a quick breath, “I’m gonna go before I second guess myself.” Both of the men chucked at your statement while you hopped up onto the tattoo chair in the center of the room. 
Freddy pulled your right arm over onto a small table he lowered to the perfect height and wiped it down with an alcohol wipe before applying the outline. 
“You like it?” He asked, checking for your approval. 
You gave him a thumbs up and he got the tattoo gun fired up. You tensed at the noise, becoming more aware that this would probably be pretty painful. Leaning your head back, you squeezed your eyes shut and tried to breathe normally. 
A gentle hand rested on your thigh, “Hey,” Harry said quietly, causing you to open your eyes and turn to him. 
“I’m a little bit scared, needles aren’t my thing.” 
You whispered, eyes flitting over to Freddy who now was testing the gun out before holding your arm down. 
Another hand turned your chin away from the tattoo artist and your eyes rested upon a much closer Harry. 
“Just look at me the whole okay? It’ll feel like a long pinch but I promise it will be over before you know it. Just squeeze my hand when it hurts okay?” 
You swallowed and nodded and heard a small ‘3,2,1’ and then a weird tingling sensation on your forearm. You gasped slightly and Harry went to wrap his arm over you so you wouldn’t move. He smiled and nodded encouragingly, maintaining eye contact with you the whole time. 
It was nice and… a lot more of an intimate gesture than you’d experience with someone in months. 
You looked at his face, seeing the stubble that hadn’t broken through the surface of the skin, the small mole by his lip, the bit of blue at the bottom of his left iris. 
He was remarkably captivating to say the least. A sweet blush appeared on his cheeks, “Thank you.” 
“Oh, did I say that out-loud? Oops.” 
You both giggled slightly, trying not to move too much for Freddy’s sake.
 “You’re pretty captivating too.” 
Now it was your turn to blush. 
After what seemed like only 10 minutes, Freddy was giving you the “all done!” You finally looked over to your arm and grinned like a maniac. 
“I love it!” You showed H and he nodded approvingly. 
“Now, up! It’s my turn.” He whined, you laughed while Freddy wrapped your forearm and re-cleaned his tools. Harry didn’t even flinch at the needle but you still held his hand for moral support. 
While his thumb rubbed your hand back and forth, you used your available hand to lightly trace his other tattoos with your finger tip. 
“Do any of these have special meaning to you?” You questioned, scrunching your brow with you saw Late Late scribbled into his skin. 
He shrugged, “I mean some of them do but others I just really liked.” 
You sighed, “I think tattoos are really interesting but I never can pick something I really like… I’m always afraid I’d hate it later.” 
“What about the one you just got then?” Harry asked, a bit of concern filling his features. 
You gave him a small smile, looking down as if you’d become more bashful. 
“No uh, I’m quite happy with it. I’m glad I was able to get it with someone.” 
You cleared your throat and looked into his eyes more intently, “Harry-- Thank you for doing this, you didn’t have to at all but I appreciate it.” 
“Honestly, I’m glad you fell into my arms, I needed some more ink and this seemed like fate.” 
The buzzing suddenly stopped so you looked over to the complete tattoo. 
“There you go H, another tattoo in the bag!” Harry got up from the chair and you both went to compare tattoos under the big light in the corner. 
“You want a photo?” Freddy asked as he put the final piece of machinery back. Harry handed his phone over to him and you took the wrapping off for the picture. 
Harry set a hand on your waist to move you in front of him and stretched your arm out with his to show off the full poem on both of your right arms. 
“You ready?” He mumbled into your hair and you let out a shaky, “yea”. 
I mean, who’s gonna blame you? A fine-ass man had just pressed you into his front and spoke to you like you were a diamond. Freddy snapped a few pictures and handed the phone back, note now back in its original home. 
Your eyebrows shot up in realization, “Oh! Who do I pay for this?” You asked Freddy, but he just looked to Harry who stuck his hands up in surrender when you frowned a bit. 
“I may or may not have already taken care of it?” 
“Harry!” 
“I know, I know! Don’t worry it’s not that big of an expense for me I promise.” 
You lightly smacked him on the chest, eyes widening guess a bit from the feeling of a very toned pec. 
“Well still, I owe you big time! I made you get a tattoo with me and now you’ve paid for it, literally. Lets go get food or something!” 
You didn’t let him get a word in before you were waving by to Freddy and tugging him out of the bar and down the street to your favorite diner on the strip. 
You opened the door and gallantly gestured for him to enter, “After you.” 
He tipped a pretend hat to you and entered. It was nearly empty since it was around midnight but there were a few stragglers at the counter, probably nursing the pre-headache of a major night out. 
Harry did the thing again of tucking his head down and led you to a booth in the corner, sitting down in the seat facing the wall. You slid in onto the worn red leather seat and turned the menu to H, pointing on one of the meal choices. 
“I always get this one and a chocolate milkshake, but you can get anything.” 
“Nope that sounds good, an All American Burger is always appreciated even if I’m not a big meat eater.” 
You put the menu to the side and flagged the one waitress in the room, “Are you a vegetarian?” 
“No I’m a pescatarian but not for allergy reasons so I can easily cheat the diet.” 
You chuckled at that and turned when the waitress made it over to your table. She looked to be around your age and very tired judging by the ketchup stain on her apron and the state of her bun. 
Upon her glance to Harry, her eyes lit up with recognition but she kept a professional nature and stuttered out, “W-What can I get you?” 
“Two number 4’s please and two chocolate shakes.” 
You answered, looking back and forth between a strangely bashful Harry and amazed waitress. 
“Uh, yeah of course.” She mumbled and left, but not before taking a double look at H.
You quietly slammed your hands onto the table, “Okay, what’s up? That reaction was super bizarre.” 
You leaned back against the booth and crossed your arms (being careful to not hurt your new tattoo) and raised an eyebrow, “You definitely are more important than you led me to believe. So what are you? A Tom Ford model or something?” 
Harry met your eyes with a small smirk, dimples popping through. 
“Well, I do use Tom Ford cologne.” 
You rolled your eyes, “Oh come on, so you are a model! What do you model for?” 
“I--uh, have modeled for Gucci a bit but not a lot.” 
“No shit that's pretty cool.” You leaned forward across the table closing the space between y’all considerably. 
“Does this mean that our waitress will probably ask for your autograph before we leave?” You asked in a whisper. 
He did the neck rub tick again, “Maybe a picture, I don’t know.” 
“Wow so you are a hit! What else have you modeled for?” 
“Um well--” 
“Here’s your food,” the waitress interrupted, setting down your plates and the two shakes, you lit up like a kid at Christmas and took a big slip of your shake before giving a thumbs up to the girl in front of you who was still not-so-subtly staring at H. 
You fake-coughed and that seem to snap her out of the trance she was in. 
“Oh, I’m so sorry it’s just-- I wanted to say I was at the Greek Theatre last Wednesday and you were amazing!” 
Harry’s posture released and he smiled, “Thank you so much darling, that’s very nice of you.” 
“Would you mind signing something for me? Only if thats okay!” 
Harry nodded and she quickly fumbled her phone out and-- 
“Harry, your face is on her phone cover?!” 
You sudden exclamation of this caused the girl to go bright red but Harry just kept smiling that scribbled below himself on the pink border as if to not cover up the face. 
“Here you go.” 
“Thank you!” She swiftly skittered away and you looked at H with an explain right now look. 
“I may or may not have undersold myself?” 
“You think? What did she mean about the theatre? Are you a performer as well?” 
You picked up your burger and took a bite, still watching and waiting for the answer. Harry let out a breath and took a couple fries from the plate, popping them into his mouth and chewing, giving him a couple second to figure out how to tell you. 
“Did you ever listen to boy bands in high-school?” 
“Uh, not necessarily, I do remember a few radio songs that the band would always play at pep rallies and football games.” 
“Okay, do you think you could name those songs?” 
You took a sip of your shake and nodded, “Yeah, um, there was Roar by Katy Perry, uh-- Royals by Lorde, and Oh! Best Song Ever by--” 
“One Direction.” He answered for you. 
“I’m still not following, are you one of the boys in the band or something?” 
Harry just took a bite of his burger. 
“Oh damn, are you serious?” 
He nodded, you were pretty surprised and a little disappointed in yourself cause of course you knew 1D, Eve had been obsessed with them in high-school. Maybe you didn’t connect the two is because you were used to seeing the sweet 16 year old face on the Eve’s cover of J-14 instead of this fine-ass man in front of you. 
You laughed as a thought hit you, “Wait, so I remember a little about the band... You guys separated right? Does this mean you were performing solo on Wednesday?!” 
“Oh, uh, yeah.” 
You smiled brightly and squeezed his hand resting on the table, “That must be so cool, how are you feeling about it? Everything fun? I bet being on stage is great... All your fans singing with you!” 
He grinned, “Actually it’s been so different but still amazing, it was only my second show by myself but the same adrenaline rush from the first one. I miss the lads but honestly it’s great to be singing my writings now.” 
“Do you think I’d know any of your music?” You asked, pulling your phone out of your back pocket and typing in his name to Spotify. 
Embarrassment flooded your system when you realized you only knew his first name. Begrudging you asked, “Hey, can I get a last name for the search?” 
His eyes widened a bit but not in a judging way but more of a please way. 
“Styles.” 
“Oh wow, you really are a rock star with that name.” 
You scrolled through his page and clicked the first one in the album. 
“Meet Me In The Hallway… no way, I think I’ve got this on a chill playlist.” 
You both ate while listening to a couple of his songs play from your phone on the sticky table. It was nice, just enjoying each others presence. It could’ve been weird since you’d only met a few hours ago but getting a tattoo together had bonded y’all in more ways than you’d thought. 
“Oh shit, is it okay that you got a new tattoo? Is twitter gonna break or something now that you have half a poem with a weird girl from a club?” 
Harry let out a big laugh that had your insides feeling warm. 
“It’s alright, I don’t think they’ll freak out too badly.” 
You swirled your straw around, slurping up the leftovers, “You underestimate fangirls Mister Styles.” 
He hummed in agreement and finished his food. Right before you went to the counter to pay, your phone buzzed a couple times.
the girls!
Vic: Y/N you didn’t die did you?
Nope! No kidnapping victim here!
I got the tattoo!
Christy: WHAT
Eve: OMG YOU DID!!!
Christy: VICKI LOOK WHAT YOU’VE DONE
Vic: i’m proud
Lol y’all are too much
Eve: We’re gonna leave the club and head home, did you need a ride back with us?
Nah, I’m just hanging with my tattoo buddy so I’;; text y’all when i’m heading home.
Eve: Okay we love you!
Christy: love u
Vic: are you gonna get some?!!?
Lydia: WAIT WHAT HAVE I MISSED?
You blushed at Vicky’s crude comment and stuck your phone back in your pocket. It was easy slipping out of the dinner and onto the street. 
“Where’s your next show?” You asked. 
“I’m off to Nashville the day after tomorrow.” 
“Wow, so your tour is revving up isn’t it?” 
He nodded. 
“Where do you think your favorite place is scheduled on the tour?” 
“I’m quite excited for the O2 Arena in England.” 
“Fun, when you get back we could catch up if you wanted, I mean we are tattoo buddies now so it only seems right.” 
Harry agreed happily and you put your number in and your nickname as ‘tattoo soulmate’ with a stupid profile picture taken quickly on the street. 
“Do you think you could send me those picture of the tattoos? I won’t post them or anything cause I don’t really want your PR hunting me down but I’d like to have them for the memory.” 
“Yeah no problem, it’s not that big of a deal if you post it, but you just need to know that you might get harassed by noisy fans and as much as I hate to say it, stalked by paparazzi just for being a new friend of mine.” 
Harry’s face had shifted into something ridden with guilt so you just gave him a comforting smile and rested your hand on his shoulder, “Don’t worry, a friend of mine is studying in Public Relations and Media so I understand.” 
A few seconds later, an unknown number bing!ed your phone and the pictures came rolling in. 
“Say cheese!” You called out suddenly, catching Harry with a surprised expression for his profile picture. 
You looked at the small clock at the top and scrunched your nose at the late time displayed on the LED screen. 
You looked up at Harry, “Do you happen to know where I could get a taxi that’s not gonna murder me at this time in this section of LA?” 
“I’ll take you home.” 
Waving your arms in denial, you said, “No I couldn’t let you do that. I’d only be putting you out of your way.” 
“Nonsense, my car is back at the club and trust me, I’m your safest driver tonight.” 
Well, he did have a point. 
“Ugh, I’m gonna end up owning you my first born if this keeps up like this aren’t I?” 
You got back to his car in pretty good time, thanks to his long legs and your naturally fast pace. 
“Oh course it’s a Range Rover.” You mumbled, earning a laugh for the rockstar getting into the driver’s seat. You gave him your address and off you both went.
You lived in a house with the girls. It was close to UCLA where you all went. The house had been this horrible tan color when you all first got there but quickly painted it a light blue that always looked so pretty against the sunset skies of Los Angeles. 
Your room was the last one on the left upstairs and throughout your college years it had been re-decorated many a times. Right now there was a calm blue on the walls, queen bed in the corner by the window and various art pieces and magazine cutouts taped on the wall above your desk. 
You had a dresser against the wall by the door and then pictures. Lots of pictures on the wall to the right, many of them where some you’d taken with friends and others were landscapes and stranger shots in LA. It was a fun hobby to have and it helped that you’d been able to sell a lot of them to shutter shock for some extra cash. 
Harry pulled in next to the curb and you unblocked yourself, turning towards him fully. 
“Thank you so much for the ride, it would have been a bitch to find transportation tonight.” 
“Don’t worry darling, not a problem.” 
You grinned, “Let me know when you’re back in town and we can catch up if you want.” 
Harry let out a content sigh, “I’d like that.” 
You hopped out of the car and ran up the steps. He waited for you to unlock the door and step through the threshold before driving off. You giggled to yourself quietly and closed the door, re-locking it. 
With heels in one hand, you crept up the stairs quickly and into your room. After getting ready for bed, you heard a small bing! from your phone you had plugged in on your night stand. 
You crawled under the covers before grabbing it. 
tattoo buddy
H: you got inside alright? x
yup! thanks for the ride btw
H: of course x
good luck at your next show!!
H: :) x
night tattoo buddy 
H: night x
And with that, you turned off the light.
masterlist
a/n : i was thinking a 2nd part but i wanted to know y’all ideas if you have somewhere you’d like the story to go. lmk in the comments if you’ve got an idea
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lokislittlesigyn · 3 years
Text
A Day’s Work - Pt.1
Hi everyone!! This is an older fic I started a while ago and was pretty happy with. It seemed a good opportunity to get started with posting things. Basically, this is a random au (may simply classify silly/nonsense fics into a separate au category of their own) based around Marvel, focusing on Loki and my own interpretation/characterization of his wife Sigyn. hence... you know, my blog name and pfp and. yeah, you get the picture.
Pairing: Loki / Sigyn (basically an oc based off the marvel/myth namesake)
Warnings: The Collector being creepy (as usual), some capture but don’t fret! It’s short-lived.
Summary: The Guardians of The Galaxy have been, well, guarding the galaxy on their own time. But when a handsome reward for the safe return of an Asgardian princess is released, they may get more adventure than they bargained for.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Peter, you're an idiot." Gamora took a seat in the Milano’s cockpit, releasing a loud sigh.
"Yeah, yeah, I know..." Peter turned the ship, and within seconds the were on their way to Xandar. "It's not my fault that guy had literally the ugliest mug in the galaxy."
"He was not carrying a mug," Drax piped up from behind them, furrowing his brow at Peter.
"Face, then! Ugliest face."
"I disagree." Drax settled back into his seat. "You have the ugliest face."
"I am Groot."
Peter glared over his shoulder. "If you don't cut it out, I swear I will turn this spaceship around." Soon, the bunch of misfits reached Xandar. Landed, and took the opportunity to roam the city - partly in search for unclaimed bounties.
"Okay, since we haven't had the best luck under Quill's leadership lately, I’m electing myself as new leader of the group," Rocket smirked, holding a tiny baby Groot on his shoulder.
"Hey!" Peter huffed, "That Sakaarian was just one guy. One dude out of the whole universe. Every one of us has had a - a slight disagreement, over a keg of beer."
"I am Groot."
"Okay, except you. But you don't count."
"I am Groot!"
"All right fine, you count!"
Gamora rolled her eyes, walking over to a large, white wall, containing a screen that was shifting between advertisements. "Hey, come look at this." She put her hand up, stilling the screen.
Peter furrowed his brow, his hands on his hips. "Reward for the safe capture and return of an.. Asgardian? Asgardian princess?"
Rocket whistled. "Gorgeous."
"Yeah, I guess she's pretty-"
"I was talkin' about the money."
Peter's eyes settled on the bounty price, then widened. He grinned. "How do you guys feel about a rescue mission?" ~~~~ Sigyn awoke with a pounding headache. She blinked. Looked down at her bound hands. Great...
It was dark, but in the further reaches of the shadows she could make out the edges of rusty metal walls. In front of her stood an equally-rusted cell door.  Past it, another cell stood, identical if not for the fact it was empty. She stood, steadying herself against the wall. Voices came from down the hall.
"...won't remember anything. I gave her a double dose."
"Dunno, Asgardians are tough..."
"Not this one."
Two men stepped in front of her cell. Each wore patchy, well-worn clothes. One looked tanned and scruffy, the other had blue skin marred with scars.
"Oh look, she's awake," The blue one chuckled.
Sigyn stepped back, eyeing both of them. "Where am I?"
"That's not much'a your business, is it?" The man glared at her.
"Where are you taking me?"
"Knowhere." He smirked.
She blinked. "What... You must be taking me somewhere."
He nodded. "Knowhere. Hang tight, princess." Both men walked off, leaving her alone. She huffed, eyeing the door... Then noticed the clothing she had on. Interwoven leather and cloth, bits of metal, armored bracers on her forearms... Nothing like what those men wore.
What was going on?
She sat back down, defeated. Her headache became overwhelming, throbbing... She placed her head in her hands. ~~~~ Meanwhile, onboard the Milano, Rocket stepped over to a table in the center of the common area. "Now, behold." Rocket set a metal object that looked haphazardly thrown-together on the table. "A genuine Asgardian tracking device. Call it an A-T-D."
"You found a way to track Asgardians?" Peter raised his brows, arms crossed.
"Well yeah, why'd you think I called it an Asgardian tracking device?"
"I am Groot."
"Exactly! The nerve of some people!"
Peter rolled his eyes. Gamora spoke up. "How does it track them?"
"Now that is a good question." Rocket pressed a button on the side of the device. It started beeping slowly. "I won't reveal all my secrets, but it basically traces Asgardian DNA."
"Where did you get Asgardian DNA?"
Rocket grinned. "I have my ways."
"So we'll follow your tracker until we find the princess, grab her, maybe shoot some guys, and take her back to Asgard safe and sound?" Peter shifted his weight.
"That's the plan."
"..I love it. Good work, Rocket."
"Well, I am the resident genius." ~~~~ Soon, the Guardians reached Knowhere to the tune of Drax’s snoring, the tracker’s continuous beeping, and Suspicious Minds playing softly.
The tracking device released another loud, long bloop before returning to its rhythmic beeping - unfortunately, out of sync with the music.
"That toaster of yours better work," Peter huffed.
"I told you, Quill, it's already working. It's brought us this far, hasn't it?"
"We'll see. Asgardians are usually easy to spot anyway," Gamora stood, walking to the front of the cockpit. "They're loud and overbearing. Proud."
"Yeah but they've got a full medieval look, right? Armor and everything?"
"Yes, usually."
"So we're looking for a ren faire princess. Got it."
Rocket and Gamora exchanged a confused look. She shrugged.
The Milano landed, and the Guardians - after waking up Drax - began their search. Peter lead the way.
"All right, we should stick together. Remember what happened last time we came here."
"You ruined our chance at selling the Orb?" Rocket smirked.
"Okay, first of all, that wasn't entirely my fault." Peter huffed, glancing at Gamora. "Where should we start..?"
"I think we should follow the tracker," Gamora glanced around, "And keep an eye out for anything sapphire. Asgardians like wearing distinct colors - from her picture, it looks like sapphire is hers."
"Right."
"Hey, I got something!" Rocket held up the tracker, which had begun beeping faster. "This way!" He scampered off, the team in tow.
They reached the same bar they'd visited before,when waiting to meet the Collector.
"Geez, this thing is going crazy..."
"Rocket." Gamora said.
"I mean it's really losing its mind. Maybe I should've-"
"Rocket!" Gamora pointed to the betting table.
There, on the other side, the princess was being lead to the Collector's back room.
"...Oh."
~~~~
The two men from before lead Sigyn through a strange, crowded room, past droves of cheering spectators. What was going on? She tried bumping into people to get their attention, tried catching someone’s eye, but the blaster pressed to her back kept her lips sealed.
They reached a back room. Walked through a maze-like trail of glass cages, lead by a pink woman whose smile looked far too forced.
Sigyn looked inside the glass cages, gasping when one of the beings inside moved. What is this place? she thought, swallowing hard when they stopped walking. Sigyn stood between the rugged aliens who lead her, staring forward at the strange man before her. He lowered a contraption that looked much like a mix between binoculars and glasses, setting them and the precious stone he was examining on the table before him.
"May I present, Taneleer Tivan, The Collector." The pink woman nodded to him, then disappeared behind more glass cages.
"As promised," The blue man smirked, "An Asgardian. The princess herself. Safe and sound. Not a scratch on her."
"Oh," the Collector leaned over the table, studying Sigyn much like he had the stone. She tensed. Felt a chill go down her spine. "How you managed a feat such as this, I cannot grasp.." He walked around the table, reaching out to Sigyn. When she didn't move, the men forced her hands toward him. He took one, kissing it, gaze never leaving her face. "It is an honor, fair princess."
Sigyn was frozen in fear. She clenched her jaw, pulling away from him as soon as he'd let her. "I-I.. What do you want with me?"
The Collector only chuckled. "She looks reasonably healthy.." He grabbed her jaw, turning her face back and forth. She gritted her teeth, staring at him.
"About that..” The blue man smirked. “We want two million additional units. Seeing as she's a healthy, young princess, seems fair.."
"Yes.. Yes, that would be fair. Stellina," He called. The pink woman returned. "Transfer the units to these gentlemen."
"Wait- I'm not for sale!" Sigyn struggled against her captors. "I am not a princess! I don't know who you think I am, but-"
"Quiet," the blue man snarled. "We hit her with a big dose of Amnesiac Gas."
The Collector glanced at her with an amused expression. "How long until it wears off?"
The man shrugged.
"Well, never mind, then..." He sent Stellina to open one of the glass cages. "I trust the Asgardians have no idea you are here?"
"Not a clue," The other one snickered, "We made out in the dead of night. Didn't even know it was us takin' her."
The men started moving toward the cage. Sigyn's heart leapt from her chest.
"Wait- Wait, no, no no no, please don't! Please!" She kicked, managing to rip her arm away from one of the men, only to be firmly grabbed by the Collector himself, who kept one hand around her wrist, the other on her throat. "Now, little beauty, don't struggle so. I do not intend to hurt you." He brushed a finger across her cheek - gentle. Too gentle. Tears welled up in her eyes. "You will be a prize addition to my collection." In a swift movement, he pushed her into the cage, and before she could jump out, Stellina closed the door. It locked with a snap.
Sigyn slammed against the glass, tears flowing out steadily. "No! Let me out! Please, I beg you, I'll do ANYTHING!" She hit the glass with her fists.
"Pleasure doing business with you as always, gentlemen." The Collector shooed the two men off, then turned to Stellina. "Do something about that noise. But do not hurt her, or you will take her place."
Stellina bowed her head, then turned to Sigyn, who was still pounding on the glass.
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