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bad268 · 1 year

Text

Plot Twist

Breaking News (Part 5/Final)

(Max Verstappen X Reader)

Fandom: RPF/Formula 1

Requested: Nope (I had an idea, Mr. Krabs)

Warnings: cheating mentioned, toxic parents, overall hella fluffy (HERE is a link to the full playlist if you want to hear them all in a row otherwise each individual song is linked later in the story.)

Pronouns: They/them

W.C. 1655

Chapter Summary: The much-anticipated album drop of 'Plot Twist' by Y/n L/n leads to an unexpected plot twist in the end.

As always, my requests are OPEN

MASTERLIST // HITLIST

(^Came from 2 pics on Pinterest)

<- Previous Part

July 24, 2024

It is release day, October 16. Plot Twist dropped at midnight, and so far, it’s been received very well! Neither of my previous albums had this much attention, so it was honestly shocking seeing my name and album trending on Twitter.

I was busy in the kitchen, eating some lunch, and avoiding looking at the feedback. I knew that I would waste the entire day reading every little critique the fans had. My publicist knew that I would try that, so they were holding my phone hostage as they worked on planning a live stream. It was a tradition at this point; day of release, I would livestream listening to every song and telling the story or answering questions between them.

I was just finishing up my food when I felt one arm around my waist as another stole one of my crisps. “Hey! That’s mine.”

“It’s one, you’ll live,” Max whispered, leaning onto my back to place a kiss on my cheek after he at the chip. “It’s not like you’ll starve.”

“I’ll tell your nutritionist that you ate a pack of crisps,” I joked.

“It was one!” He complained, turning my head to connect our lips in a few small kisses. When we separated, he whispered, “I’ll buy you more if you’re that concerned.”

“Alright lovebirds, I need to steal the singer,” my manager interrupted the moment.

“I’ll be right over,” Max joked.

“Ha ha, Max,” my manager replied sarcastically. “Are you going to be beside them or behind the camera?”

“I’ll stay back,�� he answered, already pulling a chair to sit behind the camera that was pointed at the couch. “It’s your moment.”

“Thanks, liefde (love),” I said, taking my spot on the couch. “Let me know when you start it.”

“If you’re ready, I can start it now?” My manager asked, receiving a thumbs up from me as I fixed my appearance one last time. They pointed to me, signaling that I was live, so I smiled and switched on my stage persona.

“Hello everybody!” I greeted, scanning through the messages flying on the screen. “It’s everyone’s favorite day; release day! I’m going to play my new album, Plot Twist, which is available now on all platforms, and answer your questions about each song. Let’s get started with the first single.”

Track 1-Ava

“Everyone knows this backstory, but something you might not know is that Max helped me with the melody on this one too,” I laughed as Max groaned in the background.

“I helped on basically every song. I should get royalties.”

“I think you’ll live, Mr. Third-Most-Paid-Sportsman-Under-25,” I mocked.

“Oh fuck off,” He laughed, moving to play the next song.

Track 2-Seven

“Again, another very popular single, “I chuckled, “Not gonna lie, was almost titled ‘Fling’ or ‘Freak Out’, but Max thought 'Seven' was more ominous.”

“I did not! Stop putting words in my mouth!”

“Denial doesn't look good on you, schat (darling).”

“I’m not in denial,” He opposed. “I just said ‘Seven’ sounded better than ‘Fling’ or ‘Freak Out’.”

Track 3-Bigger Person

“Think we all know who this is directed at,” I sighed with a look directly at the camera, “But actually, it was a combination of the breakup and my personal problems with my family, and this is one of my most vulnerable songs. I’ve been working on it for a long time, and it is one of my favorites on the album. I think I did the idea justice, and I hope some of my fans find comfort in this song.”

Track 4-Flowers

“Flowers is another very close-to-home song. I used to have a huge fear of commitment, and with my ex, the very first thing he did was introduce me to his family by saying he would marry me,” I admitted, remembering the details of the night I met the Leclercs. Now, I have no contact with Charles, but his brothers and Maman still text me every so often. Arthur actually called me to tell me how much he loved the album earlier today. I smiled at the memories before continuing. “That actually didn’t drive me away as it normally would have, so I felt safe and comfortable with him right away. Maybe that’s why I put up with everything for so long. And anytime there was a big fight between us, instead of talking it out and resolving it, he would get me red roses. It was always an apology, and I can’t look at red roses the same anymore.”

“For everyone always asks why I get them carnations, daisies, or dahlias, this is why,” Max spoke up. “I’m the man that treats you right.”

“Yes, yes you do, Maxie,” I laughed, looking over at him. “I love you. Now, next song!”

Track 5-Somebody to You (Acoustic)

“When I realized that I loved Max, I couldn’t get him off my mind at all. I knew I wanted to be someone important to him, but I didn’t want to be overbearing and make him think it was a rebound,” I explained quickly. “However, even as a kid, I knew I would be with him because we were just always close like that.”

“They came to me whenever they needed support, and same for me with them,” Max elaborated, “We were just always close like that.”

Track 6-18

“It started when I told Max that I loved him for the first time at the Austin Grand Prix last year. He responded immediately saying he loved me since we were 18 before either of us actually understood love. It all just flowed from that moment. Max was actually able to help me on some of the lyrics for this song, but I promised I wouldn’t say what verses he wrote apart from the obvious.”

“Apart from the obvious? Really?” He laughed.

“Y’know, if you’re going to be so vocal during the stream, why don’t you just come on camera?” I challenged, knowing he didn’t want to be on the stream, but he was acting too involved for someone who didn’t want to be here.

“I’m fine here, thank you. Onto the next one.”

Track 7-That Part

“This is our story in a song,” I sighed as I made eye contact with Max, him winking at me, causing me to smile and drop my head. “ I jokingly told my friends and family that I would date Max at some point when we were like 8, so the end was kind of a ‘haha told you so’ to everyone who said I was lying. It was actually a surprise to Max, and he didn’t know I was writing this. When I played this for him the first time, he cried, but he loved it. I hear him singing it every so often, sometimes it’s in English and sometimes in Dutch, but either way, it makes me happy that he loves it. It means I did our love story justice.”

Track 8-Eternally Yours

“Max and I wrote this together. We wanted a song for our wedding, so we poured everything we had into this song. I also pulled in my friends, Chris and Ricky, to write with us. Chris and Ricky are masterminds when it comes to writing beautiful melodies with strong meanings, so I knew they would be the perfect people to collaborate with. If you know their band, you’d know that their more heartfelt songs like Fatal and Sinematic were written by these two,” I said, going onto a short tangent about my friends and co-writers. Then I remembered that many of my listeners don’t listen to them so I said, “Shameless plug here, check out their band, Motionless in White if Eternally Yours is your favorite from the album! They’ve got new music coming soon, but you didn’t hear that from me. They’re actually covering this on that album but with a metal twist.”

As soon as I saw the chat explode, I knew I messed up somewhere. I looked at the messages and found one that said, “WEDDING?!” I knew I just outed that we were engaged by accident. “Well, cat’s out of the bag everyone. Max proposed when he heard ‘That Part’ for the first time.”

My manager let out a loud laugh as they read one of the comments. I looked at them skeptically, so they said, “Chat wants Max to reenact his proposal.”

“Say less,” Max joked to himself as he walked from the other side of the camera to kneel in front of me.

“What are you doing? I thought you didn’t want to be on camera,” I laughed, moving my hands to mess with his hair. He started shaking his head to get my hands away from the strands as he pulled out a box.

“I planned this to be a little more romantic than you jokingly messing up my hair,” He chuckled, using his other hand to fix it. “Can’t really back out now with hundreds of thousands of fans watching, now can I?” He reached out to grab my left hand as my free hand to hide my red face. “I think there’s only one thing left to say, wil je mij voor eeuwig de jouwe laten zijn (Well you let me be eternally yours)?”

“Altijd schat (Always darling),” I whispered as I pulled him in for a kiss as he pulled the ring out to place it onto my left ring finger. “That was pretty close to the first time.”

“Minus you messing with my hair, and you cried a lot more the first time,” He chuckled, sitting next to me for the end of the stream.

“At least now I can wear my ring in public,” I said before leaning in to kiss him one last time. I pulled away as my manager announced their presence again, causing us both to laugh. “Ok guys, that’s the stream. We will see you at the next album stream! Bye!”

October 16, 2024

~~~

Fin <3 (unless y’all got ideas for more. I’m open)

~~~~~

#max verstappen x reader #charles leclerc x reader #max verstappen #charles leclerc #max x reader #charles x reader #formula 1 x reader #formula 1 #f1 #f1 x reader #bad268 breaking news #part 5 #bad268 #ship268 #thing268

157 notes · View notes

flanaganfilm · 1 year

Note

Hey Mike! First off, it makes me so happy to see you out there fighting with your writer friends to ensure they receive a decent living wage for the amazing work that they do.

As for my question, I would love to hear about some of the inspiration for making Before I Wake. It and Absentia were the last two of your films that I watched, and BIW just absolutely destroyed me. No other movie, including and especially a horror flick, has ever made me bawl like a baby like that. The entire tone of the film is so spot-on, and the climax of the nightmare monster “dissolving” from its evil form after being embraced…. To me that scene just perfectly encapsulates what it’s like to be a parent, and human; sometimes we just need someone to hold us and let us know things will be all right. We spend so much of our time making sure that our children feel loved and cared for, that sometimes we forget about ourselves. And you just fucking nailed it, my dude.

Like I said, I would LOVE to read any backstory or inspiration that you have for this film! It’s so beautiful and underrated.

On the WGA front, don't be too impressed with me - I mean, I'm a professional writer, I've been a member of the WGA since Absentia, so I'm out there fighting for myself as much as everyone else.

But on the Before I Wake front, you know I very rarely get asked to talk about this one, so I'm happy to... fair warning for another long post!

Before I Wake was originally titled Somnia, which is latin for "dreams." It was part of an unofficial trilogy of sorts, comprised of Absentia, Oculus and Somnia. All three of those movies were meant to work together as a thematic triptych.

Ultimately, Before I Wake was brutally sabotaged by its own studio, who drastically undermined it creatively and then destroyed any hope of a meaningful release. It remains a particularly heartbreaking chapter of my career... but a film I have and will always have tremendous affection for.

A lot of people think that Somnia was made after Hush and Ouija: Origin of Evil, just before Gerald's Game, but this is entirely incorrect. It was actually the second "real" movie I ever made, and was actually shot before Oculus was even released.

The basic premise of Somnia focused around a little boy whose dreams manifested physically in the world around him, and was an original concept I carried around for a few years before Oculus got picked up by Intrepid Pictures. In fact, I've talked about my first meeting at Intrepid, where I pitched a few ideas that were rejected... Somnia was the first one I pitched. Trevor Macy opted to pursue Oculus that day, but he ended up producing Somnia right after.

This unofficial "latin trilogy" seemed to fit together well. Absentia was a somber and bleak look at the loss of hope, Oculus was more thrilling dive into the labyrinth of past trauma, and Somnia was meant to take that loss and trauma and end the triptych on a note of hope and healing.

In fact, the script for Somnia was written before Oculus was greenlit. On the page, it was my favorite of the three. I was very taken with the story of little Cody and his personal boogeyman, and of the revelation at the end of the story... that with understanding, even the most monstrous of our fears can lose their destructive power.

Cody's birth mother had died of cancer, and he had seen her just before her death. That final image of her, as well as a misunderstanding about the pronunciation of the word "cancer" had led to the creation of a monster in his mind, who he called the "Canker Man"... a gaunt figure who took away people that he loved. When he finally learns the truth about his monster, and about his mother, he begins to understand it all... and the monster loses its awful powers as empathy and understanding take root.

While Absentia finished its festival rounds and Oculus inched its way toward production, Somnia was my first script taken out to market by my new agency. I had signed with APA just as Intrepid engaged me on Oculus, which was my first studio writing and directing job. Jeff Howard and I finished our first draft of Oculus and turned it in to Intrepid, and immediately turned around and started writing Somnia.

The script got some interesting attention. While some of the more mainstream horror companies balked at the emotional ending and preferred a story that was "more about a boy and his monster" than the emotional wrap-up we insisted on, others understood it right away.

Elijah Wood and his producing partner Daniel Noah sought me out when they read the script. We met for drinks in Venice and I was absolutely starstruck, and we've remained friends ever since.

Jada Pinkett Smith was another big fan of the script, which led to a surreal afternoon at her stunning home where we talked about the story at length and watched an early cut of Oculus in her home theater. Will Smith joined us toward the end of the meeting, and I had a difficult time speaking.

I've written before about the drama surrounding Oculus' premiere and eventual sale to Relativity Media, so I won't rehash that now, but as Oculus raced toward release, Trevor Macy at Intrepid made an offer to produce Somnia for Relativity and I eagerly accepted. My first "real" movie was going to be released wide in theaters, and the same studio was going to double-down on me - Somnia was greenlit by Relativity for a big domestic theatrical release. We'd pre-sell our foreign territories on this promise, and they eagerly snatched the movie up. This was my own Hollywood dream, coming to life.

It wouldn't work out that way. In fact, Somnia would turn out to be the first nightmare of my career.

It started well enough. We had filmed Oculus in Daphne, Alabama, taking advantage of an aggressive tax rebate. We would do the same with Somnia, bringing back a lot of my Oculus crew and shooting in and around Fairhope. We began shooting in the fall of 2013, less than a year after we'd wrapped Oculus.

We hit the ground running. Very little time had passed since we wrapped Oculus, and the movie hadn't come out yet, so at first it felt a lot like we were just picking up where we left off.

Bruce Larsen, who also carved the Oculus mirror, working on a prototype of the Canker Man.

We had casting challenges. I was still a relatively unproven director, my first studio film hadn't been released, and this was an ambitious script. After a lengthy search (driven by foreign pre-sales, a process I knew nothing about and now quite detest), Kate Bosworth signed on to play Jessie, and Thomas Jane - who I admired greatly from his recent work in The Mist - joined the production as Mark. (Funny story - Tom arrived with hair down his shoulders, and vehemently didn't want to cut it. That disagreement put us off on an awkward foot, and I ultimately conceded the point to him... though I do regret that now.)

The major discovery was 7 year-old Jacob Tremblay as Cody. Jake had only made one movie before this, he had a small role in The Smurfs 2. His self-tape audition came out of nowhere and we knew was a a phenomenal talent. Right after we wrapped, I got a call that he was being considered for a movie called Room, and we shared some footage to help him get the part (that movie would establish him as one of the biggest and most sought after child actors in the world... but we had him first.)

We were committed to practical effects wherever possible, and creating a striking suit for our monster. It all felt like it was going to work. But the shoot would prove to be much more challenging than we anticipated.

The shoot itself was challenging for the typical reasons. There was a little creative tension on set with particular actors, we didn't have enough money to pull off our more ambitious visual moments, and we were forced to remove several production days at the last minute, throwing our schedule into a bit of chaos.

But none of these issues were particularly unusual for a lower budget film, and while it was more challenging and frustrating than Oculus had been, overall the shoot was just fine. I felt that our third act was pretty drastically under budgeted, and what was scripted to be a deep dive into a child's imagination was stripped down to a few vines on the walls and some moths... but other than that, I don't really have much to complain about.

(Fun fact: it was also the first time I would work with Annabeth Gish. We were fast friends, and though she was only with us for a few days, I knew we'd end up working together again.)

We wrapped the movie, I got to editing, and all seemed fine. It was a unique story, much less horror-centric and much more of a fairy-tale. This was, of course, by design. There was a delicate vibe to the whole thing, anchored on Jacob's arresting performance, and a shadowy magic. It felt innocent, wondrous, and ultimately cathartic.

Then, Relativity got their first look at the cut, and the problems started in earnest.

We had been clear (and aligned, I'd thought) about what kind of movie this was. But almost immediately, despite these conversations, the studio began to push the film more and more toward being a traditional horror movie.

We had designed a practical monster in the Canker Man. Our creature was tactile, practical, and - we believed - appropriately simple. After all, it was meant to have come from the mind of a child.

The studio kicked hard, and the directive came down to try to make the monster "much scarier."

There wasn't a lot we could do; we'd shot what we'd shot, after all. The decision was made to take our footage of our practical monster and drastically alter it using visual effects.

The Canker Man would be digitally warped and molded into a skeletal, grinning creature. The visual effects artists would be using footage that wasn't captured with the intention of being altered that way, so a lot of the artifice would be obvious. He'd become a little rough around the edges. We told ourselves that this would be okay... it was a dream, after all.

Early camera tests of our practical Canker Man suit

The final VFX-enhanced monster This began to nudge our monster away from our core concept. While our practical suit would always need some help from VFX, this was now tilting into an area that strayed from the true identity of the creature.

Another major sticking point was the plot itself.

In the movie, Cody's adopted mother Jessie is shocked to find a physical manifestation of her deceased son, Sean, after Cody sees his picture. She then goes about trying to "rebuild" her dead son in the imagination of her new foster child, hoping to see and interact with him more... "I just want to hear his voice."

This morally questionable exploitation of Cody was, to put it mildly, the entire point of the story. Jessie goes too far, and when she finally resorts to drugging Cody to force him to sleep in the hopes of seeing her lost son, he is unable to wake up from a nightmare and her husband is killed.

Jessie spends the rest of the film clawing her way back to redemption, and having to atone for what she's done, all while finally focusing on Cody's past and healing instead of her own.

As a character, Jessie does things we do not agree with, and they have serious, permanent consequences. And the moral murkiness of this was, frankly, the point.

The studio was flinching hard. "It makes her unlikeable," they argued. There was a push to try to back off of this, and to pull the punch... sure, she could exploit him somewhat, but they wanted to pull it back. Kate Bosworth's performance began to be altered in the cutting room, flinching away from some of the more decisive choices in favor of a more watered-down, morally generic heroine.

This middle ground would prove to be ill-advised.

As we were battling over the edit, something else happened. Oculus was released in theaters in April 2014.

If the movie was a huge hit, it would mean I would likely win more of these arguments, and Somnia would be restored to something closer to my vision. If the movie bombed, the studio could (and likely would) run ramshot over Somnia, twisting it into a more generic studio horror story and jettisoning things they didn't quite understand.

Ultimately, the movie performed... moderately. It was kind of right in the middle. It wasn't a failure, but it wasn't a hit either. Both sides dug in. And suddenly, Somnia was being twisted into something between two tones.

Citing the "disappointing" performance of Oculus (which, frankly, did just fine), the studio insisted that we write and shoot some additional "scares". Among them was one of the worst studio notes I'd ever receive (well, at least until I started working for Netflix.)

The entire premise of the film was that, when Cody slept, his dreams would manifest physically. When he woke up, they would vanish. This was, to put it bluntly, our only rule.

The note came in: "We need a scare set piece to occur when he is awake."

Now, I can't understate how nonsensical this is. It defied the entire premise of the movie. Their rationale (such as it was) was that the audience wouldn't ever be frightened when Cody was awake, because they knew the monsters only came when he was asleep.

"Well yeah," I said. "That's why it's important that the movie isn't just about scares."

But they were insistent. If a monster showed up while Cody was awake, that would be "truly thrilling" and "catch the audience off-guard."

It was the equivalent of saying "the shark in Jaws only attacks people if they're in the water. We need an attack to occur on land." I mean, that would really catch the audience off-guard.

I had no idea how to address this note.

It was early in my career, I didn't have a theatrical hit under my belt, and I didn't have the ammunition to fight it. So I had to address it somehow, and it had to satisfy the studio, or else we may not get our theatrical release after all.

So I ended up writing a scene where Cody is wide awake, only to be attacked in his bed by the specter of a deceased bully (a previous victim of one of his dreams).

How the fuck were we going to make this make any sense? Well, we had to write a whole other scene - much earlier in the film - where a therapist explains the concept of "waking dreams." Jay Karnes (who was a lovely person and one hell of a good sport) had to randomly say "you know, some people can dream while they're awake" to Bosworth, desperately trying to set up this moment.

It doesn't quite work, to say the least. Cody looks under his bed, sits up, and is attacked by this eye-less specter. Then, he's dragged screaming under his bed, until the attack just... stops, for some reason.

We filmed it, and I thought it was the stupidest thing I'd ever shot (it wasn't, though - the stupidest thing I've ever shot remains the on-screen stalking and murder of a cat in the pilot of Midnight Mass, a truly braindead scene that Netflix insisted on adding.)

Along with this scene, which would become the crux of Relativity's trailer, we shot several other random scares that were peppered throughout the movie. Now, this wasn't enough to tip the film entirely into being a horror film... just enough to make it exist awkwardly in between two genres.

It got worse. The addition of all this new "horror" material made the film longer (go figure), so the directive came down to begin removing other elements to make room. Those elements were character development and context.

The cut began to get bumpy. The fairy-tale tone of most of our original footage was at odds with the overt horror tone the studio was insisting upon. Every time we tested one of these cuts, the audience was understandably confused... they really loved the concept, they really loved Jacob, and they all loved the ending revelation - but along the way, what was this movie? Was it a horror film? Was it a drama? A fantasy?

Even with this, our test screenings were actually pretty good. We were testing in the high sixties and seventies - which is, infuriatingly, right in that middle zone: not good enough to kill the studio interference, but not bad enough to let them take over.

So we kept fighting. And we kept cutting. And we kept testing. And with each screening, the studio forced it further and further into this no-man's land.

There were a few victories, though. Danny Elfman came on board to collaborate with the Newton Brothers on our score. Some of our non-horror sequences, like a scene involving Christmas-light butterflies, were being called out by our test audiences in the best ways. But the tug-of-war over the basic identity of the film was tipping decidedly toward the more horror-centric approach.

Finally, the studio came after the title. Somnia was too confusing, they said. Nobody knew what it meant. So, we added a scene where Jay Karnes - once again having to naturally sell force-fed exposition - literally defines the world "somnia" during a therapy scene (these therapy scenes were basically being used to spoon-feed material to the audience.)

That wasn't enough, though. The studio began workshopping other titles, and they landed on perhaps my most hated of all of the options: the ultra-generic Before I Wake, a title already used by a handful of low-budget thrillers over decades. We conceded after it was made clear that it wasn't really up to me in this case, and we limped into what I consider to be the worst title of my career.

With our new uneven tone, a new and "improved" monster, and a groan inducing title, they finally agreed to stop messing with the movie and honor their commitment to releasing it wide.

You tell yourself a lot of things in this business, and I told myself that the heart of the story - the revelation about where the concept of the Canker Man came from - was still intact, so all would be well. Viewers would be able to look past some of the bumps because the payoff was worth it.

But we didn't know what else was happening at Relativity.

They announced the release date for the film, posters started showing up in theaters, and we were anxiously awaiting our big wide theatrical release... when suddenly everything stopped.

We didn't know it yet, but Relativity Media was having huge financial problems. They were on the verge of bankruptcy, as a matter of fact, and though they weren't admitting it yet, internally they were in a state of absolute chaos.

Without warning or explanation, the studio moved us off our date. The movie wouldn't be released after all. We immediately knew something was very wrong, despite Ryan Kavanaugh's insistence that our date was "just a bad date," and that he'd moved the movie in order to make it "an even bigger success." No, this whole thing stunk. It stunk bad.

They set another date, and we watched and waited. But no trailers. No marketing. And then... that date was pushed as well. Again, they insisted everything was fine. But we knew. Something was deeply wrong with the company, and they were lying to us.

Some of this played out publicly. Kavanaugh and I got into a spat on Twitter when I suggested that the studio wasn't able to release the movie theatrically after all (I still don't regret saying this, and man oh man, was I proven right).

Meanwhile, our international distributors were scrambling. We'd sold a lot of international territories off the promise of our big theatrical release in North America, and they weren't going to wait forever. By the third time Relativity pushed our release date, the whole house of cards fell down, and various international territories started releasing the film haphazardly on whatever platforms they could.

There was no coordinated release strategy. Suddenly, the film was just available in Argentina, for example. Or it was On Demand in Russia. I remember being shocked when a German Blu-ray appeared on eBay without warning.

There was no rollout to critics, no coordination at all. Within a few weeks, it was pirated and available on torrent sites everywhere. And without a proper press rollout, the only reviews available were trickling in from these international markets, or random blogs in other countries. A slew of reviews - many of which were from obscure blogs in Russia and Turkey, not even written in English - hit Rotten Tomatoes. With no counterpoint from any credible critics, we debuted with a 30% rotten rating.

It would stay this way for years.

Relativity finally admitted the truth, declared bankruptcy, and went to court. Our movie was dragged down into the vortex with it. Our abysmal tomatometer score suggested that the movie wasn't released because it was bad, not because the studio had gone bankrupt. This assumption stuck to us like glue as the film languished in bankruptcy court.

Heartbroken, we turned our attention elsewhere. I would write and direct both Hush and Ouija: Origin of Evil before the whole distribution saga of Before I Wake was finally resolved.

In the years that followed, very little would be said about Before I Wake, and whatever was said was absolutely not positive... how bad must this movie be, after all, to be so unceremoniously pulled from the release? Some theaters just left the poster up, still saying "Coming Soon." I know of one theater in LA that had it up for over a year.

By the time Relativity finally settled their mess, and the film was unceremoniously given back to us with the most lackluster apology imaginable, and our chances of a domestic theatrical distribution were entirely obliterated. The film was already available online through piracy and a tiny handful of foreign blogs had defined our critical reception. No other studio would touch it.

We were able to arrange one screening of the film once it was unencumbered... we had a single showing at Fantastia in Montreal, a festival I adore. Instead of a huge worldwide theatrical release, the movie would play exactly one time, to one audience.

It was sold out, it played wonderfully, and it remains one of my favorite screenings of my career.

With Mitch Davis, Fantasia's artistic director, Kate Bosworth, and my wife Kate Siegel.

In the years that had passed since we shot Before I Wake, Kate Siegel and I had gotten married. At the premiere, and in the picture above, Kate was pregnant with our son.

We named him Cody, after the little boy in Somnia... the little boy whose dreams came true.

In 2016, Netflix acquired the North American rights to Before I Wake, and quietly dumped it on the service. There was no premiere, no rollout, no screeners sent to critics. One day it just appeared on the service without fanfare, as Netflix does to so many titles.

It didn't even appear on the New Releases tab.

A few critics found the movie on their own, and slowly some new reviews started to trickle out. Bloody Disgusting led the charge, discussing how the film had been wrongfully maligned over the years, and correcting identified it as a "haunted fairy tale" that was being handicapped by the expectations that it was a horror film.

Our tomatometer began to slowly rise. After some time, it tipped out of "rotten" into "fresh"... and today stands comfortably at 66%. Those early, malicious reviews are still there, the movie is still scarred by them... but despite Relativity (and eventually Netflix's) efforts to rebrand the movie as a straight horror film, most critics were able to see it for what it truly was.

Our audience was as well, for the most part. Some viewers yawning their way through the Netflix original horror feature section would find it, and get something maybe just a little more thoughtful than they were expecting. A few people reached out to me to talk about losing their own loved ones to cancer, or about how the sweeter elements of the story impacted them. I've always been grateful for that.

But ultimately, the movie was just brutalized by its studio. I've never again had so much damage inflicted on a project by a creative partner and supposed collaborator. And while Netflix did the bare minimum when it came to releasing the movie, I am still very grateful that that they even did that much... if it wasn't for Netflix picking it up, I think there's every chance Before I Wake would have never been made available at all.

I'm proud of the movie. It's not perfect, by any means - it was an ambitious sophomore effort and I had a lot to learn about a lot of things - but it has some beautiful ideas and some moments that really work. I see its flaws clearly, too, and while I tell myself some were out of my control (like the awkward scares forced on us by Relativity), others were most certainly entirely on me. Not everything works, and that's okay.

But man, Jacob Tremblay is phenomenal in this movie. And I absolutely adore the final ten minutes.

My son Cody is almost 7 now, exactly as old as Jacob was when he was cast to play his namesake. I hope Cody's dreams come true; that's why we named him what we named him.

Sometimes, our dreams don't come true quite how we might expect.

Hollywood is just kinda like that, I guess.

#before i wake #behind the scenes

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the-gordianknot117 · 6 months

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About Acquaintances and Human Bonds.

In this post I want to take a look at the “I’m just an acquaintance” moment and examine what significance this line holds in the context of the Esper Sisters arc, its themes and all the characters involved.

This post only takes into account the webcomic version of the arc.

Disclaimer: this is my interpretation of the scene, the characters and the series in general given the current released material. Future updates can always change the meaning behind this moment and add further context to it, thus proving me completely wrong. By the way, I do not ship anyone in the series (more power to those who do, however) and none of what follows implies romance in any way.

First of all, before examining the scene, we have to take into account the arc it takes place in and what was revealed prior to Sataima’s line.

The “Esper Sisters” is an arc entirely centered on the characters of Fubuki and Tatsumaki, whose relationship, already soured by a lifetime of trauma, estrangement and abuse, reaches its dramatic nadir in the confrontation that follows the events of the MA arc. For these reasons, the arc explores the backstories of both characters by featuring flashbacks set in the years of their childhood. In Fubuki’s case, this section of the story contains a crucial and essential episode from Fubuki’s troubled childhood days (Chapter 99: 1, 2, 3 and 4), where it’s explained why Fubuki grew up the way she did, what relationships (or lack thereof) Fubuki had during her growth, and what role her sister and the outside world played in her life (e.g., ”If they bully you, you need to bully them back”, mirrored by Blast’s advice to Tatsumaki). It's not an exaggeration to say that without this fundamental flashback, Fubuki’s character would utterly fall apart and cease to make sense - even the reason why Saitama’s line cuts deep would also fall flat without all the information provided beforehand by the story, as we will see: this memory from Fubuki’s past and everything surrounding it is the keystone holding together the entire narrative of the character and one of the two pillars of the Esper Sisters arc (the other being the Tatsumaki one).

If the flashback alone wasn’t clear enough, in the page that immediately follows, Fubuki explicitly states, with a smug Tatsumaki complementing her words, how she grew up with the only, terrifying company of an oppressive older sibling because no one else dared to approach her with Tatsumaki looming around. This image of Fubuki’s childhood, coupled with the high school flashback from the MA arc (I covered this topic in much more detail here, among other things), paints a rather lonely and gloomy picture of Fubuki’s backstory, a past characterized by a complete lack of significant relationships or personal bonds, aside from her sister Tatsumaki, who controlled Fubuki for most of her life (as stated by the S-Class psychic herself; Chapter 100) and whose shackles are still in place in the present, only slightly loosened but ready to tighten at any given moment (the Esper Sisters arc is a demonstration of this, I wrote a post about it). This isolated and sheltered background made Fubuki long for what was totally absent in her life, human contact, but, given the lack of social experiences and the isolation she suffered from the outside world, she grew up ignoring how to form relationships and with no idea of what a normal relationship looks like, something worsened tenfold by the fact that her only parental figure, the one responsible for her isolation, was also a traumatized and unstable person who rejected human connections and actively encouraged Fubuki to embrace her powers and use strength against others; additionally, in the few interactions Fubuki had with the outside world, reality was presented to her as nothing more than a hyper-competitive landscape dominated by violence and discrimination, where people used force as a way to interact with others and idolatred power as the only indicator of individual worth. Therefore, having been raised by someone who values power above anything else and having experienced firsthand how the outside world only understands strength and preys on the weak (i.e., the bullies who emarginated and harassed her, and Tatsumaki always resorting to violence and resolving any conflict with brutal displays of her telekinesis) warped Fubuki’s perception of reality and taught her that she had to embrace her powers and resort to violence at the first sign of a threat if she wanted to survive. A lesson that Fubuki learned and took to heart. And Fubuki was rewarded by doing so, seeing how people in high school started respecting her specifically and solely for her superior telekinesis, but not for Fubuki herself as a person. This conditioned her to view relationships only through a hierarchical lens and as an expression of the difference in powers between individuals, and that, in order to effectively interact with people, aside from employing force, she had to don a façade of haughty superiority, instead of being simply herself; at the same time, her psychological need for friendship never vanished and remained unfulfilled. This background shaped a damaged human being who, in an attempt to adhere to her “education” while, at the same time, trying to fill the void left by the lack of human bonds, resorted to establishing hierarchical dynamics that act as a replacement for real human bonds, where the role the members play in the organization codifies in terms of hierarchy the disparity in power between them, a template that is very reminiscent of Fubuki’s own relationship with Tatsumaki in a way. For most of her life, in fact, Fubuki was either powerlessly submitted to her sister, who dictated the terms of their relationship and held the power in it, or, later in her life and as a reaction to this, a leader with subordinates; beyond these templates, where it was either being subservient or superior to someone, Fubuki never met an “equal”, someone who, by existing outside of a hierarchically organized relationship/dynamic, didn’t fall under either of the aforementioned labels but stood on the same ground as her. As her experiences show, Fubuki only met an oppressive and tyrannic sister, bullies, followers, rivals and subordinates and for her, that was all there was in the world. People never formed connections outside of hierarchical structures, “power” was what attracted people and closer human connections, like even friendship, were totally out of the picture.

That’s where Saitama’s “group” comes into play. Its existence proves how Fubuki’s past experiences are only a partial representation of the world, that people can coexist on equal ground (so beyond the follower/subordinate templates Fubuki was aware of) and that there are alternatives to the toxic and unhealthy way of living Fubuki was following. The people at Saitama’s apartment do not obtain any immediate or foreseeable benefits from their gatherings; there are no rules or “hierarchies” and there is no grand goal that the group is carrying on following a particular agenda: they hang out simply because they want to spend time together. And Saitama himself is far different from any person Fubuki has ever encountered before: he doesn’t use others for his own gain, he doesn’t judge/value other people on the basis of their strength and he doesn’t take advantage of his incomprehensible power to impose his will or to submit and exploit others. As pointed out by Genos at the end of Fubuki’s introduction arc (Chapter 50), Saitama doesn’t antagonize or oppose anyone, but leaves them be, minding his own business without bothering anyone (unless they pick up a fight or represent a danger). Surprisingly enough, even with this particular attitude and his complete disregard for factions/rank/status, Saitama seems to naturally attract people. And yet he isn’t a “leader”, a “boss” or the “president” of a club. Instead of the usual boss/subordinate roles so ingrained in Fubuki’s mind to the point she can’t conceive of any other way to interact with others, Saitama is simply on friendly and equal terms with those who hang out with him, world-renown S-Class Heroes at that, despite him being only a B-Class rank-wise. Among those connections, what surprises Fubuki in particular are Saitama’s peculiar dynamic with Genos, which completely turns upside down anything Fubuki learned about status/ranking and the way these supposedly affect relationships (“D-disciple? An S-Class under a B-Class...”; Chapter 48), insomuch that later Fubuki asks about this “bizarre” dynamic directly to Genos himself in order to learn more about it (“Demon Cyborg, Genos... are you truly satisfied under that man?” Chapter 57), and Saitama’s friendship with the Strongest Man in the World, King (“How... is someone from S-Class so friendly with a B-Class...”; Chapter 50), that similarly ignores status as a factor that determines human interactions, much to Fubuki disbelief - there is also this little reaction upon learning about Saitama’s connection to Fang (“Bang? As in the S-Class Silver Fang?”; Chapter 51). But what’s more is that the unique rules of this group are applied to Fubuki as well: in this place, Fubuki spends her time and interacts with people outside of any social construct and logic previously known to the character and no one looks down on her with contempt nor up to her with reverence due to rank, status and/or telekinesis because these factors do not matter here, where she is neither a leader nor a subordinate, but “simply” a person; and despite the façade the character still resorts to, it’s always in this place that later we will see an extremely rare, if not unique, example of a relaxed and carefree Fubuki spending time in a casual and normal scenario like having a hot pot with other people to whom, beside working for the same organization, she has no actual affiliation (Chapter 57). All of this is completely unheard of and unprecedented for the esper. What the “group” ultimately represents for Fubuki is the importance of positive and healthy human bonds, of people being people, hanging out with no other goal than to stay together - all things that were completely missing in her life. Undescoring the utmost importance of this and establishing the core theme of Fubuki’s character arc (the importance of human bonds), Fubuki’s introduction arc ends precisely with Fubuki wondering if Saitama will allow her to join them (”Would he also let me...”; Chapter 50; in the official manga translation: “Maybe I could join them?”) - definitely not a casual or random choice from a writing standpoint.

So when Saitama says that he “is just an acquaintance” (Chapter 102: 1 and 2), in Fubuki’s mind, he is basically answering the question she was asking herself back in Chapter 50 (“would he also let me/maybe I could [join his group?]”) and she interprets it as “no”, that the only “group” of “normal” people she bumped into has the doors closed to her and won’t allow her to join this haven of “ordinarity”, even though that is not what Saitama meant there. After growing up in a toxic and sheltered environment, for the first time in her entire life Fubuki finally found a group that represents a healthy and positive alternative to all the deleterious experiences she had - an environment where power and hierarchies mean nothing at all, where people are simply themselves - and this made her desire to join this gathering, only to be reminded by the person who exposed Fubuki to this uncharted and fabled reality that she didn’t belong to the place nor, in the end, was she accepted in it - again, this is how Fubuki is perceiving Saitama’s words - due to being only an “acquaintance”. If Chapter 50 sparked in Fubuki the desire to join a group that represents everything that was always denied to her, Chapter 101 seems to put a roadblock in front of Fubuki that prevents the character from fulfilling (yet) what she has always deeply yearned for.

There is no better way to put Fubuki in front of the fact that her façade - the only way she believes it is possible to interact with others - and her mindset are actually keeping her distant from other people and affecting her life for the worse, sabotaging her chances at bonding with others and forming personal relationships. If we look back at her interactions with Saitama and co., in fact, Fubuki’s behavior there never actually manifested nor made apparent her genuine desire to spend time with the group and befriend them, despite the importance the place holds for the psychic and her actual intentions; if anything, whenever she (comically) opted for the defensive mechanism of the façade, which she used in order to fit in as the “new kid on the block” (more on this later), instead of being more genuine, it was something the members of the group didn’t find particularly endearing (Chapter 57; Chapter 98). It all goes to show how lacking Fubuki’s social skills are and how ineffective and inadeguate her way to interact with people also is (besides work, maybe), especially when it comes to ordinary and informal social settings such as this one; it also highlights to what degree Fubuki’s upbringing warped her ability to socialize with other human beings. While the Esper Sisters arc seemingly resolved the outside issue that threatened Fubuki’s freedom, Tatsumaki, Fubuki’s inner demons, spawned by that nefarious influence, are, by the end of the arc, something Fubuki will still have to face in the future. And if it’s true that, ultimately, the connection Fubuki forged as a leader will prove to be a strong and resilient bond once put to the test, Fubuki’s need for friendships, as in a non-hierarchical, not work/duty-related but informal and equal personal relationship, is still left completely unfulfilled, with a journey far from being completed yet. And, honestly, given how we are still in the middle of the story (?), it would be weird if such an important matter for the character was already solved.

For what specifically matters Fubuki’s reaction, in the past I have seen many write what essentially boils down to “what did she expect? Did she think they were friends or something?”. It’s frankly surprising how this confuses so many people because, once we look at the bigger picture and remember Fubuki’s characterization, the reasons behind her reaction become quite obvious since they are all ingrained into the very identity of the character. Again, Fubuki’s expression is symptomatic of the “fear” of having lost her chance at becoming part of something she always longed for - this also fits Fubuki’s insecurity and self-loathing issues, by the way. Sure, it could come off as an overreaction, especially as it is directed toward someone Fubuki met very recently and doesn’t have a strong connection with, but that is precisely the direct result of a sheltered backstory polluted only by unpleasant memories and isolation, to whom Saitama and his group represent an inedited and positive counterpoint; if Fubuki didn’t lack meaningful relationships (both in the past and her present) and her backstory wasn’t one of abuse and alienation, I very much doubt she would have reacted this way to Saitama’s comment or cared at all about about their relationship in general, but if that were the case, we would be discussing a very different character, and this moment would have no place in that story. Therefore, hearing from Saitama words that seem to lock away this dreamed oasis of normality and friendship is a major source of dejection for a person with her specific history, issues and hopes. Having no idea or knowledge of what a friend actually is and what a friendship/close relationship resembles made Fubuki think (or, better, hope) that the time spent at Saitama’s apartment was enough to forge a bond of that kind, a “mistake” that is quite reflective of how inexperienced Fubuki is in regard to people and how utterly ignorant she is about relationships and the way they actually flourish between human beings.

By the way, thinking that Fubuki is only interested in Saitama's strength or that she is still trying to recruit him past her introduction arc would completely disregard Fubuki’s entire characterization and ignore several fundamental moments starring the character, like, for example, the one I linked from Chapter 50, one of the most important and character-defining pages featuring Fubuki in the entire series. Sure, given Fubuki’s background and the values the world projected into her, power is a main factor in what originally caught her attention in regard to this new, mysterious B-Class hero and surely affected how Fubuki’s perception of Saitama has changed over the course of the story. But Saitama as his own person and the precedent he sets is actually way more important to Fubuki than the physical strength he possesses, as he is the first source of positive influence Fubuki was ever exposed to: he is unlike any “strong” being Fubuki has ever met before (for the reasons stated above), and his mindset couldn’t be more different from her only parental figure/role model, Tatsumaki. During their fight (Chapter 48), Saitama didn’t fight back and retaliate, but was more concerned about reprehending Fubuki and reminding her what a hero is and what they stand for: he criticized her obsession with ranking and factions in a world where monsters run amok and few individuals stand against them, warning the esper against her egoistical mindset and predicting a scenario that Fubuki will later experience firsthand (the encounter with Garou; Chapter 78) - all things that will be proven correct and true as Fubuki can attest; even though Fubuki tried to recruit him into her group and then “lost” to him, Saitama never considered her someone he had “to bully back” or a rival/enemy who “must be destroyed”; in the interections following the fight, Saitama never demanded anything from her, he didn’t force her to join his “group”, he didn’t coerce her into following his goals nor did he try to dispose of this “rival”, but treated Fubuki as a human being and even admitted her into his apartment - where Fubuki stayed, or kept coming back behind the scenes, from Chapter 50 to Chapter 64, meaning that Saitama allowed her stay as much as she wanted. From this we can observe how Saitama is the one who finally snaps Fubuki out of her harmful way of living and warns her about the dangers of her conduct, leading the esper into a journey of maturation and improvement, whereas anyone else that Fubuki met before him directed Fubuki onto this very nefarious path, enabled her worst traits and encouraged the psychic to embrace the dangerous mindset that Saitama is criticizing and rebuking. More importantly, there is also the aforementioned existence of the Saitama’s group, which represents a gathering of people completely different from the ones Fubuki has ever experienced. As a testament to the peculiar role Saitama plays in her character arc and what sets him apart from those Fubuki met before, the dialogue in the elevator (Chapter 98) highlights (to me) how much of a high opinion Fubuki has of Saitama as a person, to the point that she lowers her façade and talks frankly, without resorting to the act she aways employs while dealing with others: in this scene, Fubuki is overtly praising Saitama while openly recognizing her own limits/shortcomings, right after he surpassed her in rank and Fubuki’s encounter with Garou proved Saitama right about her issues. None of this is something Fubuki would have ever done with someone she considers a “subordinate” or a “follower” (once again, I’m not implying anything romantic) - for a more in-depth look into the scene, the last section of my post about Fubuki in the MA arc contains an analysis of this conversation and what it means in the context of Fubuki’s character arc. This important dialogue makes all the more clear how much respect and admiration Fubuki holds for Saitama, hence why his comment has such a profound impact on her. Furthermore, when Tatsumaki seemingly killed Saitama, this was Fubuki’s reaction (Chapter 105) - ONE truly has a talent at portraying characters' expressions.

So, personally, I don’t think the subordinate angle matters at all in her reaction about being called an “acquaintance”: after all, Fubuki’s recruitment attempt failed and Saitama made abundantly clear to her that he wasn’t interested in her group (for example, this exchange, Chapter 50: 1 and 2; Saitama even remarked it at the start of the Esper Sisters arc), so, unless we want to believe that Fubuki is a dumbass with short-term memory, something not supported by the story in any way, I think there are other factors at play here and the character has other reasons to care for this person by the point the statement is made. It is important to note that, leading to Fubuki’s reacting to Saitama’s acquaintance comment, ONE specifically decided to depict Fubuki’s reactions growing more and more dejected at being called “not a friend” (“友達” [tomodachi]) and “not a companion” (“仲間” [nakama]) - both indicating a close and/or equal relationships between two persons that share a bond - which, for Fubuki, sounds like he was denying her the “right” (for the lack of a better word) to join; meanwhile, ONE didn’t include any reaction panel to Saitama stating he doesn’t work for her/isn’t part of her group because, since she is not delusional or stupid, Fubuki already knew that and recruiting Saitama is a non-thing by this point in the story. By the way, the recruitment stuff doesn’t even qualify as a recurring gag in the webcomic (at least so far) and the “Fubuki’s group” shtick is barely a thing in the webcomic, consisting of a couple of lines at most, which prevents the character from coming off as a stale and obnoxious parody of herself (unless in the future she gets turned into a rather sad and disappointing comic relief background entity). As mentioned before, the only time in the webcomic Fubuki has tried to recruit Saitama for real (up until now, at least) happened back in her introduction arc; past that point, the leader’s antics are a psychological denfensive mechanism she employs in order to hide her doubts and insecurities, to navigate unknown new dynamics and fit in a “foreign” environment, to compensate for her inability to deal with people in “normal” social settings (the hot pot and the Saitama group in general) or her way to ask for help while putting up appearances (the start of the Esper Sisters arc), instead of actual attempts to get him or others into her group. What draws Fubuki to Saitama and his group is not the egoistical aim to have these powerful beings under her tumb, but a desire that stems from personal reasons deeply rooted in her past. Once again, the fundamental page I linked above (Chapter 50) couldn’t be more explicit and unambiguous in its meaning: on it, Fubuki is expressing her true, sincere desire to join this group of people, wondering if Saitama and co. will permit her to do so; she is not, instead, secretly plotting to make them join her group and use them for her own ends. Surprisingly enough, Fang trying to have Saitama join his dojo is just as much a recurring joke as Fubuki's leader stuff (and way more one-note too, lacking all the subtext present in Fubuki’s case), let alone Flashy Flash’s attempts at becoming Saitama’s teacher in the post MA chapters. Once again, believing that Fubuki is only after recruiting others would completely ignore a core aspect of Fubuki’s character - her subconscious desire to form real human connections with people, compromised by the education that was imparted to her, by her traumas, and by the psychological defense mechanisms she employs in order to not appear “weak” - for the sake of boring flanderization that erases what makes the esper interesting and complex.

Therefore, considering how character-related the topics tackled in this story-beat are for Fubuki, for the reasons stated above, it’s quite reductive, I believe, to label Saitama’s statement as a throwaway gag. Again, ONE made sure to reveal Fubuki’s entire backstory - a backstory specifically centered on a dramatic lack of positive and meaningful relationships and also isolation - before this scene, where, from Fubuki’s point of view, she is denied the right to join a social circle that she is drawn to. This statement ties perfectly into themes that have been linked to Fubuki from the very start (Chapter 50), but also plays into what constitutes the Esper Sisters arc narrative: the “acquaintance” line serves in fact as a lead-up to what Saitama states to Tatsumaki soon afterward, which is emblematic of the core message of this arc and its thematic backbone (again, all things I will elaborate on soon enough). If this was a simple comedic moment unrelated to Fubuki’s personal history, like, for example, how the door gag (Chapter 111) is a joke independent from Flashy Flash’s character and the story of the Ninja arc, then I wouldn’t stress over the importance of this page, but that clearly isn’t the case. Moreover, comedy serving a greater purpose and contributing to the narrative is a trademark of OPM and ONE’s style in general, and while not every single gag in the series accomplishes that, like the aforementioned Flashy Flash joke for example (and nonetheless, it serves to kickstart the Ninja arc and fits the characters), the scene in question between Fubuki and Saitama arc is clearly representative of that principle since it respects everyone’s characterization, takes into consideration their background, has a greater narrative purpose and develops the story accordingly. Beside, I don’t think this statement represents an end point but, rather, a source for future developments for the character(s). Now, I obviously don’t know if there will be a follow-up to it or not, but considering how this scene leaves things open and unresolved, it’s fair to expect progressions regarding this matter. In fact, I don’t see how leaving this relationship in its current state without ever bothering to advance it would make any sense narrative-wise, especially in the context of Fubuki’s character arc.

Before getting to Saitama’s side of things, there is another thing I want to point out in regard to Fubuki because I think it is paramount in order to understand the character and the scene in question.

I don’t keep up with the fan discourse anymore, so I don’t know if this is still a common interpretation of the character or not, but in the past I often saw a few readers describing Fubuki as a sociable and extroverted character. I find it very strange, because every single thing shown about her in the webcomic, from her general demeanor to her backstory, remarks how profound Fubuki’s psychological issues are and how distant and estranged from others she is as a result of her past: Fubuki is shown to have no close connections and to be unaware of how to be socially competent, hence her reliance on a removed and cold façade and the default template of hierarchies as substitutes for real human connections. In the sole instance where Fubuki interacts with people outside of work and under “normal” circumstances (already significant by and in itself), the hot pot with the Saitama’s group (probably the closest thing she ever got to spending time at a friend’s house or a sleepover), she comes off as incredibly ankward and naive, almost socially inept, due to her lack of experiences/social knowledge. I believe that the aforementioned confusion stems from the manga adaptation and, in particular, from its bonus/side art material, but this isn’t the right post to elaborate on the matter. In any case, even the presence of a group of subordinates doesn’t take away from what I stated above; if anything, it somehow accentuates it. Nowhere in the webcomic is it ever implied that Fubuki and the group spend time together outside of missions or work-related matters; their bond is strictly and consistently portrayed only as a boss-subordinate kind of relationship, albeit a positive and ultimately healthy one, in the light of the Esper Sisters arc. The only moment where their relationship progresses past the boundary of a boss-subordinates/work dynamic into a more “personal” territory occurs only at the very end of the Esper Sisters arc, when the Fubuki’s group members show their unwavering loyalty and profound gratitude toward Fubuki, going as far as to be ready to die against Tatsumaki for their leader’s sake (Chapter 105): from what we can see from Fubuki’s reaction, it’s evident how deeply touched she is from hearing their words of resolve and affection, to the point of shedding tears, because nothing of the sort - like someone genuinely complimenting her as a person - has ever happened to her before. If that moment sticks out, it’s because this exchange constitutes the poignant resolution of the Esper Sisters arc, driving home its message while at the same time refuting Tatsumaki’s distrust for others and her nihilistic outlook on humanity. But even then, that lasts only for a brief moment and Fubuki immediately speaks to her subordinates only as a leader, not as a “friend”; furthermore, she turns around and gives them her shoulders, thus hiding her tears and concealing her genuine emotional response to their words, because, as much as deeply she cares about them, she can’t afford to expose her true self and what she perceives is her most vulnerable side. As for the rest, thanks to Tatsumaki, Fubuki was socially isolated, and her only exposure to others as a child were the bullies who tormented her because of her psychic powers (a gift that Fubuki refused to use offensively at the time, before embracing the lesson the world taught her). Meanwhile, in regard to her high school years, ONE outright stated that Fubuki was a dark and unpopular girl (from “Other ONE-Bukuro 3″) - on the same page, Murata then comments that it was very important for him to depict Fubuki with lingering traces of her past emerging from the leader façade, since, after all, the manga was still following quite closely, at the time of the chapters covered by this behind-the-scenes self-published book, the general footsteps of the webcomic, where Fubuki retains the overall vibe she had in high school, and so he had to be very careful at making sure this element of her characterization was preserved in the remake and matched the source material, despite the differences between the two versions of the character (the leader façade being a detail much more prounounced in the manga version, well, in the early manga at this point); and speaking of that time period, the MA arc flashback underlines, through clever visual and narrative choices, how detached Fubuki was from the other members of the “Society of the Study for Supernatural” school club and, by extension, from anybody else: for the entirety of the flashback, which takes place exclusively in a school setting and in its immediate surroundings, Fubuki is consistently shown to be alone and on her own (more on this topic always here), she is never seen befriending anyone or even talking to people at all (obviously, she must have talked to them off-screen, nonetheless, this narrative omission is very deliberate, I believe), but, instead, she is constantly immersed in her solitude, an element the panels perfectly convey by having Fubuki always out of frame, far from others and/or visually separated from anyone else (a few examples) - I think it is worthy to compare how disinterested and annoyed Fubuki is toward the members of the club, an environment she was founder of and frequented for at least some time, compared to Saitama and his connections, people she is drawn to already by the end of her arc despite knowing them for a very limited timeframe. As for the reason people followed her, it wasn’t due to popularity (as a matter of fact, she wasn’t popular, as per ONE’s statement), “looks” or anything like that, but due to her superior telekinesis (as one of the panel I linked above showcases), which further convinced Fubuki that the sole value the world sees in a person is their power and that human connections are born and hierarchically organized only under this aegis (again, I talked about these fundamental topics in the post linked above). And while it is certanly a much more healthy relationship, this applies also to the Fubuki group: they follow Fubuki because she is their vastly more powerful superior who takes care of them and leads them. Power is still a major factor in their dynamic, whereas in regard to Saitama and his group it doesn’t matter at all. [EDIT 23/03/2024] I might as well include Fubuki’s relationship with Tatsumaki on top of what has already been mentioned. The Esper Sisters arc as a whole is centered around the lifelong issues and traumas of two estranged sisters. Dialogue between them is made impossible due to Tatsumaki’s total reliance on force as a way to resolve any dispute or personal problem. Any reasoning with Tatsumaki is therefore impossible, since, after all, the only language she seems to understand is force and Fubuki never dared to defy Tatsumaki before the Esper Sisters arc precisely due to this (Chapter 99). Furthermore, Tatsumaki has no consideration for Fubuki’s personal feelings or understanding of her sister in general; it becomes apparent when we remember how the two sisters have polar opposite recollections of their past. The detachment from reality is so severe that Tatsumaki has no idea how compromised their relationship actually is, which reveals how Tatsumaki lives in a world of her own, unable to even perceive the fear she evokes in Fubuki, whom she considers a little helpless kid she can forcefully impose her will on. This demeaning attitude toward Fubuki exposes another detail. The utter disbelief in Fubuki’s repeatition of her sister words upon being (apparently) acknowledged by Tatsumaki (Chapter 101; soon afterward, the true meaning of Tatsumaki’s statements will dispel any sense of relief this moment gave to the B-Class) proves that Fubuki was never praised or complimented by the most important person in her life and how starved of recognition she is; the esper is flabbergasted of simply hearing a positive comment coming from the older sibling. But approval from Tatsumaki isn’t simply a matter of self-esteem for Fubuki, it also means that Tatsumaki will stop interfering and looming over Fubuki’s life and freedom, finally liberating Fubuki from that nefarious presence and influence. Regarding their life together, the webcomic depicts a very depressing family dynamic: besides what has already been discussed, in the flashback Tatsumaki’s presence frightened and concerned Fubuki more than the bullies themselves and, in the present, even the mere prospect of Tatsumaki taking once again complete control over her life leaves Fubuki utterly terrified (Chapter 100) - this reaction implies so much in such a coincise way, like why would Fubuki be this traumatized and afraid of Tatsumaki if she was actually a lovely sister and the time spent together pleasing? So, overall, not a very edificating picture of a sibling dynamic, and this in addition to Tatsumaki being an unstable, violent person whose common rage outburst and psychotic temper make her a nightmare to have around (as Fubuki can attest in Chapter 102), especially for a person like Fubuki, who, growing up under her threat and being the object of her obsession, had no means to defend herself against Tatsumaki. But, more importantly, Tatsumaki is the most important person in Fubuki's life, the one who raised the B-Class, isolating her from the outside world, and the source of several lessons Fubuki learned long the course of her life, like how to always rely on violence instead of dialogue, disregard human bonds, retaliate to any opposition, and never show any weakness, among other stuff [End of the EDIT].

So, considering what has been shown so far, the story depicts Fubuki as a socially stunted adult incapable (at the moment) of living a normal life, and pretty much anything about the esper evokes her friendless, isolated background and communicates Fubuki’s unfulfilled longing for human bonds.

This facet of the character directly ties to the topics of the Esper Sisters arc, where isolation and a lack of human relationships are explored through all the main characters’s experiences and how they deal with them:

for Fubuki, the point has been made abundantly clear already, and it comes down, essentially, to a sheltered and friendless background, paired with a harmful upbringing that cemented and reinforced warped worldviews, and being exposed solely to extremely negative experiences and power-obsessed-people perpetuating a distorted imagine of reality, all of which resulted in the development of what is a very damaged individual, whose traumas hinder her ability to open up to others and form bonds, among other things;

Tatsumaki, who, scarred from her past at the lab and misguided by a poor-timed advice, keeps anyone at a distance and disregards the value of human relationships by following an insane way of life that damages others (her sister in particular) and even herself, to the point that this has created a desert around the esper;

and finally Saitama himself, who, even prior to acquiring infinite strength, lived an unfulfilling and detached existence as a young salaryman in search of employment, completely alone and estranged from anyone else. The result of his training, after the fight against Crablante, only further heightened his alienation and led him to an almost jaded state, incapable of finding any fulfillment or satisfaction in life. Meeting Genos and all the other people who gather around him started to mitigate his condition, but Saitama has yet to understand the value these relationships have and find meaning in other aspects of his life.

Isolation and estrangement from other human beings are recurring elements in all three characters’ backstories and lives (with differences due to their individual histories and personalities). Similarly, everyone of them gets called out or receives a wake-up call by the end of the arc, which highlights how this situation is hindering their lives and puts them in front of their inability/unwillingness to open up to others: for Fubuki, it is the acquaintance moment; for Saitama and Tatsumaki, it occurs in their final conversation, Chapter 106.

End of the digression.

As for Saitama, he is simply stating the truth. He first met Fubuki at her worst, and, in the interactions they had following it, Fubuki employed her façade the majority of the time - with that being said, while he doesn’t enjoy her company, Saitama in the webcomic actually pays attention to what Fubuki has to say (despite seemingly busy reading a manga, Saitama actually listens to Fubuki’s talk in his apartment and responds to her remaining on topic, unlike, for example, in Flashy Flash’s case, where Saitama only caught on to a single word out of the ninja’s entire monologue, which wasn’t even relevant to Flashy’s recount of his past; Chapter 115), admits her into his apartment and is even willing to follow Fubuki instead of outright avoiding her, which is not exactly negligible stuff if we compare it to how he treats several other characters (he remembers her name and who she is, for starters). Anyway. Only in the Esper Sisters arc did Saitama see a more admirable side of the esper, learning a bit more about her past and her situation with Tatsumaki (Chapter 99 and the followings); besides that, the first time Fubuki was actually genuine and direct with him only happened right at the start of this arc, in the elevator. Therefore, it’s obvious why Fubuki doesn’t represent anything more than an acquaintance to him, and, to be fair, it would be strange if this wasn’t the case. At the same time, I don’t think Saitama is saying this line with the ulterior motive of hurting or insulting Fubuki; if anything, it’s yet another case of Saitama’s trademark blunt honesty and his statement represents a fatual observation more than anything else. As I previously mentioned, in Chapter 99, Saitama is repeatedly shown listening to the sisters’s conversation, and he later acknowledges Fubuki’s efforts after all she went through during the fight (Chapter 102). So, I believe that the real narrative meaning of the “acquaintance” comment and its relation to the core message of the arc become apparent only in the light of the follow-up lines. Soon afterward, in fact, Saitama tells the older esper, who arbitrarily decided that Fubuki didn’t need any human connection in her life and thus was forcefully imposing her own decision against her sister will (Chapter 102), how nobody should dictate the life choices of someone else, that the value of human relationships shouldn’t be underestimated, and then he adds: “This is the power of Fubuki’s acquaintance! You better remember that, you shitfaced brat”. After hearing the reason behind the sisters’ conflict and having witnessed it unfold, Saitama decided to step in and take Fubuki’s side, assisting the B-Class esper fight an overwhelming and unfair battle against a toxic person who looms menacingly over her life and freedom, right when the S-Class psychic was about to re-take control over Fubuki’s life and cut any ties she has with the rest of the world (Chapter 101). Instead of a motivation unrelated to the core message of the arc and its characters, what actually brings Saitama to “fight” against the S-Class is his willingness to help Fubuki against her abuser (Chapter 103; Chapter 104), after the B-Class hero proved her growth as a person. Saitama’s actions, in fact, follow Fubuki’s bravest moment in the entire series (so far) and grant her the deserved assistence she is worthy of after giving her all for the sake of others, the human connections she feels responsible for as a leader. Now, make no mistake: Saitama would have helped anyone else in Fubuki’s place, but I think it is very important that Saitama witnessed Fubuki’s heroic side, understood what she was going through and personally ensured that she could confront her sister without an unfair gap of power on the side of the older sibling, making his involvement in the arc totally earned and organic.

Therefore, Saitama stepping in only as a mere acquaintance emphasizes the central theme of the arc - one of the most recurring themes in ONE’s works in general - which is the importance of human bonds and the unhealthiness of cutting ties with the rest of humanity. In this arc, Saitama is intervening not as a friend, not as her “nakama” nor as any other kind of more personal relationship, but simply as an acquaintance of Fubuki, and nonetheless, he is trying to help her against a toxic person who had (and keeps having) an extremely negative role in Fubuki’s life. As an acquaintance, Saitama is showing Tatsumaki that no matter the degree of intimacy in a relationship, even a not-so-close connection between two human beings can make the difference in a time of need. Sometimes (like in this case), people who have no personal interest or involvement in a conflict might decide to help others without expecting anything in return or without having anything to gain. This nice subversion of the “power of friendship” is a major slap in the face of Tatsumaki’s toxic ideology and her twisted interpretation of Blast’s original advice, because it proves that not all people are egoistical and that not always human contact ends in exploitation, betrayal and mistreatment. The finale, when, in deliberate contrast to how people used to avoid Fubuki out of fear of Tatsumaki (I mentioned this already), the members of the Fubuki group courageously choose to stay at Fubuki’s side despite being up against a psychotic and immensely powerful S-Class esper (this and the following pages, Chapter 105), and then, when the latter wounds from the MA arc opened again, refused to fight Tatsumaki even though they had the perfect opportunity to finish off the person who wanted to maim them (or worse) up until that point, voicing instead their resolve to get stronger for the sake of their leader, further demolishes Tatsumaki’s biases, her idea of relationships as merely parassitic in nature and her complete distrust for people. The fact this showcase of humanity comes from an extension of Fubuki’s character, her group, makes it all the more poignant in the context of this arc and the sisters’ conflict, where the driving force that leads Fubuki, the heart and soul of the arc, to confront and fight Tatsumaki are, specifically, her human connections: in order to protect them, Fubuki finds the resolve and the courage necessary to face her own fears and traumas, in what represents the culmination of her character arc up until that point. It all goes to illustrate the healthy and positive role human bonds can play in our lives, and the profound impact they might have on our process of growth and maturation. And while the arc does acknowledge that relationships can be harmful and damaging as well (as Fubuki and Tatsumaki’s backstories and conflict demonstrate), it also proves how that is far from being the only case, that human connections are a fundamental part of what makes us humans and that no one, not even all mighty heroes, can live, or should live, on their own, isolated from anyone else.

Concluding the post, I believe the “acquaintance” moment has way more meaning to it than what it might appear at a first glance, because it’s actually deeply tied to the core message of the arc and the storylines of these characters. Removed from its context and without that specific lead-up, it can make for a boring and shallow “meme”, but its significance changes drastically when considered within the narrative framework provided by the arc.

#fubuki #wc fubuki #webcomic fubuki #jigoku no fubuki #content: character analysis #it tooka while but it's finished at last

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prismaticgray · 10 months

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chapter 1 is finally released! it's less of a chapter 1 and more of a prelude but who's counting. also i released it a few days ago. but still. longform authors note under the cut!

dear lord this one's been brewing for a while. so to first elaborate on the choices i made in the writing process i have to first explain the basis of the au so bear with me here

no one can ever know is based on the 2021 kamen rider season kamen rider revice, and is a partial retelling while also being a slight rewrite? because i think if i had to write adhering to revice canon i'd actually cry. with that being said, here are the main character roles that each sekai character is fitting

ena shinonome -> sakura igarashi

akito shinonome -> ikki igarashi

toya aoyagi -> vice

kohane azusawa -> daiji igarashi

an shiraishi -> kagerou

mizuki akiyama -> aguilera

mafuyu asahina -> olteca

kanade yoisaki -> julio

tsukasa tenma -> hiromi kadota

this isn't like a hard rule it's just like severely basic. for example ena is seriously the protagonist in this story despite being in sakura's place! there are also smaller changes to the story (no legend rider forms because i don't need to sell toys, stamps are based on flowers rather than animals, name changes of the organizations, etc) but i'll be going over those as they appear if i have something to say about them.

ok the actual chapter 1 content starts here.

so i rewrote this chapter 3 times lmao. the first time because i, delusional, thought i'd be covering most of the setup with one chapter. however it turns out its a lot easier to jump into a kamen rider episode when you have a press conference explaining the premise of your series and also the help of being a visual medium. so this was a little difficult. the second was because i had a really hard time striking the right balance of what was happening in real time and kanade's inner monologue, especially when it came to how much backstory should be shown. anyway that doesn't really matter but if it still seems clunky that's why!

kanade is really not the most reliable narrator here. that's pretty clear from the fact she is absolutely definitely in a cult don't even worry about it. yet she's still actually the most recent member of the group! the timelines for the other two aren't quite nailed down yet but they're definitely both before kanade.

the name "nightcodes" comes from the period of time when niigo was mistranslated at "25-ji, nightcode de" rather than "nightcord".

i didn't actually have a select song in mind when describing the songs kanade composed but i did listen to samsa like nonstop while writing, so it's probably that lol

on the other hand i DID have outfits in mind for kanade and mafuyu. they're their "someday from the depths of despair" outfits!

kanade's hair is also specifically her wedding lim braid hairstyle.

mizuki does not have an exact match for their outfit but the idea was for it to pretty much be the same as aguilera's outfit in the show because that dress rules.

the idol's identity is purposefully left vague due to the fact that the corresponding main villain in revice, giff, was kind of a rock coffin and also dead i think. but if you were wondering yes i basically made hatsune miku the villain of my kamen rider story. don't worry about it.

in revice, the intro scene of the deadmans was some sort of party at their base? it was only on screen for a few minutes so it wasn't exactly elaborated on. i combined both this scene and the first main fight of the show by having sekai raid it. it's also explicitly a recruiting event / initiation here. also it can't be a proper fight in kamen rider without it being in a warehouse so that's where it is.

it'll be made clear in the next chapter but the three members of sekai i described are ena (the leader), tsukasa, and kohane.

ok i think that's it!! thank you for reading and stay tuned for the next one!!

#no one can ever know #authors note #a/n 1 #project sekai #kamen rider

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the-stray-storyteller · 1 year

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19 and 20!

*frantic waving

19.Is this where you thought the story was going when you started it?

Going for Rebel with this one.

Definitely not. Rebel is my second original WIP. I was pretty new to writing back then. The og plot was crazy simple.

They need to escape.

That's all it was. That singular sentence. I wrote like 8 chapters in a spur of inspiration and didn't touch the WIP for like another few months releasing I had absolutely no idea what would happen next.

I had not expected this WIP to get where it is today. It is definitely more twisted and darker than I had originally planned. There is a bunch of subplots that I need to fix.

I had expected the story to be finished by now when I had started it. BUT NO I HAVE ATLEAST 20 MORE CHAPTERS TO WRITE.

20.What has changed since when you started this story? What has stayed the same?

Choosing Havenpoint because there is a lot to say.

Havenpoint is a remake of my very first WIP that I never finished.

The first thing I changed is the name of the WIP. It wasn't called Havenpoint 4 years ago. It had a very stupid name.

Next thing I changed was the themes and genres in the WIP. It wasn't supernatural but now it is.

I have changed the antagonist to an entity.

The characters now have different backstories and their minds work differently now to. I have however kept one basic and recognizing characteristic of theirs. Like Aidene's carefree and open nature, Anne's hatred for socializing, Penelope's business women side.

Event eh location of the story has changed.

In short a bunch of shit has changed and I can't list them all over here.

The things that haven't changed are the names of the characters.

The basic idea of the first 15 chapters has also stayed the same because they set the base of both the stories. However the thoughts behind the characters and the reasons they had for their actions in those 15 chapters has changed.

Very few and mostly unimportant things which don't really play a big part in the plot has remained the same.

#asks #ask game #Rebel #Havenpoint

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iturbide · 1 year

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Sorry you don't mind me asking a few 5, 9, 11, 18, and 23 from the video game ask.

Thank you.

I don't mind at all! 💖

Game(s) coming out that you’re looking forward to

You know at one point in time I would have said Final Fantasy XVI, but everything I've heard for months about it has been a never-ending trash fire so now I'm mostly looking forward to it to see how bad it is.

I'm kind of interested in the new Prince of Persia game that they just announced, though? That could be interesting -- it's the first Prince of Persia they've put out in more than a decade at this point, since the Sands of Time Remake has been mired in development hell, and while I'm forever bitter they didn't continue the story from 2008, this one looks very stylish and could be worth looking into.

Also: Hades II.

A game you played completely blind with no prior knowledge of and enjoyed/loved

For recent games, I might actually have to go with God of War 2018 and God of War: Ragnarok again for this one, because it's very hard to go into games blind anymore. It used to be the norm, but spoilers are everywhere at this point: I knew the time travel twist of Awakening years before I played it, and the same is true of Breath of the Wild since I was so late to the party there. But God of War isn't a franchise I followed, so I knew nothing about the 2018 installment before I picked it up, and was blown away by what they did with it -- then I started Ragnarok on Release Day and blazed through it as fast as I could. I had no idea what was coming, and it was a glorious experience.

For older games, though...I'm going to say Assassin's Creed III, in part because of the tutorial chapters and how that reveal five hours in that you've been playing as a Templar sets up the core ethos of the game so well: that the Assassins and the Templars aren't as different as they claim to be. No heroes, only flawed and complicated human beings doing what they feel is right to try and make a better world, and how they don't always succeed despite their best intentions.

Do you prefer ‘blank slate’ main characters you make yourself or otherwise project onto, or characters with a set personality and backstory?

I think it really depends on the game. Some stories really benefit from having a character with a set personality and backstory because it informs how they interact within the setting: Kratos with his history in Greece and his war against the pantheon is ideally suited for the story of God of War 2018, because those experiences guide how he interacts with his son -- and growing out of that mold, learning to be more open with Atreus and be better than the man he used to be is part of the game's emotional core. That wouldn't work with a blank slate character, because they won't necessarily have that baggage to work through that makes the story so impactful.

By contrast, there are games where a blank slate protagonist is a great choice. Games with dialogue options are a great place to explore this because they let the player project themselves or their vision of the character into the world better than set scenes would otherwise allow. My understanding is that Dragon Age does this well, but I haven't played that one, so I have to fall back on Elder Scrolls and my boy The Worst Dragonborn who keeps forgetting about the main questline because he'd rather read every book in the Whiterun Library and get suckered into helping every little old lady that needs to cross the street rather than. Y'know. Figure out what the deal is with the dragons. Very fun having so many options for what to do and who to join, lots of great character-building potential.

A game location you really like

There are so many places in games that I really love. Honestly one of my oldest favorites is probably the first Assassin's Creed, specifically Jerusalem: the golden glow of that city, especially compared to the cold and dreary grey of Acre, was just glorious, and I loved the view of the Dome of the Rock.

Honorable mention to basically all of Wind Waker, though. I love the sailing in that game, the water has so much character in that game (the stormy seas, the way you'll rise and fall with the waves, the texture changes between little white wave caps and still dappled waters). I've never had as much fun sailing in another game, and I was hooked on the Assassin's Creed: Black Flag sea shanties -- sailing in that game was just a chore that the shanties made more bearable.

A “Wow” moment of awe

All of Journey? So much of journey. That sand slide passage, silhouetted against the setting sun against a sea of shining gold...and the ascendance at the end, too, from the top of the mountain up above the clouds (something that's even more glorious with a companion).

Also: end of Okami, with Issun spreading his paintings and restoring mankind's belief in the gods to give Ammy the power to defeat Yami. I have my issues with the ending of Okami and the sudden tonal shift from Japanese folklore to high-tech aliens, but that particular scene hits perfectly even now. I inevitably tear up at that part.

🎮 Video Game Asks 🎮

#answered #alerawolf #video game asks #cut for length because it got so long #i have a lot to say about video games #i've played a lot and there's even more i own and need to start

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alinalioness · 1 month

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Background of the FNAF FINAL:The Beginning of Chapter 4.

(Note:This meant chapter 4 of the very first fanfiction. This also applies to other backstories that will appear later when I want to)

It's been 2 months.

The characters were in the lobby and talking to each other. Since 2 months have passed, animatronics have already learned a lot from new friends from wonderworld.

Freddy: And you start to come out into reality a little more often.

Balan: Yes. But when it comes to performance, I always don't get tired.

Foxy: (He looked at the calendar) Listen, it's been 2 months, and no one is interested in what's out there (Everyone paid attention).

Balan: Hmm, it's true.

Lance: We even forgot what was going on there. But I'm afraid that people will see us again.

Helpy: Let me go. If I'm smaller, I might not be noticed.

Balan: It's possible. But only... (Put Helpy in a hood) Do you still remember how to use the phone?

Helpy: Sure.

Balan: If you see something new, call me. But speak softly when there are a lot of people.

Helpy: Good.

Helpy immediately left the theater and headed towards Freddy Fazber's pizzeria. Surprisingly, when he walked, people were calm already. When he got there, it seemed to him that everything was in order, but he did not expect when he went inside. The inside of the pizzeria was full of dust and cobwebs. The light hasn't been working for a long time. He immediately took out his phone and called the others.

In the theater.

The heroes were sitting around the table and saw that the phone on the table rang, and Balan turned on the handset.

Balan: Hello?

Helpy: In short, everything inside the pizzeria became dusty and dirty. Even the lights don't work. People also became more calm, as if they had forgotten about our existence.

Balan: Yeah, things were different without us.

Freddy: I think you should go back to the theater.

Helpy: Good.

He immediately turned off the phone and went back. And that moment began. As he walked calmly, he heard the voices of people. Those creatures that he did not see ran past him. There were round animals, marine life, a squirrel in a spacesuit, a wolf with wings, a fox with horns, a white axolotl, a large slime in the form of a cat with an ordinary red cat, a panda, a griffin and a fox.

He accidentally dropped his phone and a crimson lioness with purple hair almost walked past him.

Lioness: I'm sorry, it's just that people are chasing me and my friends (She heard people screaming) I have to go (She runs away).

He immediately realized that these new creatures needed help when people ran past him.

In the theater.

The phone rang and Balan turned on the receiver.

Balan: Allo?

Helpy: Guys, these people need help. People are chasing him. And these are the ones we haven't seen before. I only remember the lioness girl with purple hair who helped me give me a phone.

Balan: It's not good. Go back to the theater, and we'll figure out how to save them.

Helpy: Good.

Balan: (He picked up the phone) So guys, who has any ideas how to save them?

Freddy: I think it's necessary, a few people should go. Although we don't know how many there are.

Balan: Good. Whoever goes should find them and give them the tims unnoticed and they will point to the theater. Who will go?

Freddy: I think I'll go with Bonnie, Chica and Foxy.

Leo: Let me do this with Emma, please.

Cal: I think we 12 inhabitants will go too.

Balan: Good. (Snaps his fingers and four tims appear on the hands of the selected characters) When they come, we will arrange a surprise in one of the chapters.

Haoyu: I suggest in my chapter on cetacean island.

Balan: This is good idea. I wish you good luck.

Freddy, Bonnie, Chica, Foxy, Leo, Emma and the inhabitants left the theater and split up. Animatronics on the right, people on the left. Animatronics walked through several streets, they saw a pink lioness who was sitting on the basketball court, where they met Leo and Emma.

Chica:I think it's her.

Freddy:Then we release it.

They immediately released yellow tim and went back to the theater.

(I decided to end at this point because I'm getting a little tired.)

The End.

#фанфик #background #fnaf #balan wonderworld

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sammy8d257 · 2 years

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NPC!Purple (aka Sammy8D’s headcanon Purple backstory)

You know, with the release of AvM ep. 29 on the horizon,

I realized I don’t think I’ve ever publicly shared one of my most precious and long running au/headcanons

I mean, I’ve definitely share it on the AvA Enthusiasts server but never here on Tumblr, and let me tell you, I have a LOT of created for this

Including a 9 chapter long origin fanfic (3 chapters already written out!), a whole character arc for Purple, and even a future arc for them that expands out their world

Unfortunately, I never felt like this idea was ready to be made public but with the fabled Purple and Green episode so close, you know what? Why not just get it out there!

Now is the best time before this episode absolutely destroys any sense of “canon” to my story asldkgjls

Without further ado, here is a rough summary of

Sammy8D’s NPC!Purple AU/Headcanon Backstory!

So to preface this, the premise of Purple’s backstory was created back in 2020 after I officially got into the AvA fandom, so at that point, we didn’t know about King and what his involvement with Purple could entail

So just keep that in mind when I start talking about things

Alright to start off,

This is my interpretation of Purple’s potential backstory that quickly grew into AU territory the more I started developing it. (Listen, Alan gave us a stick figure with little to no backstory and then didn’t mention them at all for the next 2 years. You expect me, guy known to love lore, to just let that stand? /lh alskdlgjs)

The premise is this.

Purple was originally from a Medieval themed RPG game on the StickPage website. They lived in the main village and worked as a Shopkeeper, buying and selling item from the Hero (aka the playable character). Aside from being a shopkeep, they were also friends with the town’s blacksmith (Pink) and the members of the Hero’s Party, Gray (the tank) and White (the mage/healer). They also had a friendly rivalry with a travelling merchant known as Navy.

All of this is to say, they were living a happy life.

Until the Dark Lord and the Chosen One arrived and destroyed their game.

(Alan jokingly said Purple had a rough childhood once, and I took that seriously)

In the panic, Purple was accidently ejected from their game and crash landed on the MAC desktop we find them on in AvM ep. 9. Unfortunately for them, due to Dark and Chosen’s attacks, the StickPage website went down for maintenance and Purple couldn’t return back to their game.

So they wait, and when the website finally returns?

Their game is no longer there. As it turns out after the attack, the game files were partly corrupted and the game’s creator decided to not risk further corruption and removed the game from the site.

Now Purple is stranded and homeless, having lost everything they’ve ever known in a matter of minutes.

Of course, things don’t stay bad. Eventually Minecraft is introduced to them and the rest is history, but this is pretty much the jist of how I imagined Purple coming to live on the MAC.

The main problem I’m facing rn is that I don’t know how King would fit into this picture. I currently have 2 working ideas to add King in but it all kinda depends on if Purple meets King before or after the events of AvM ep 10.

The first idea is if Purple and King meet AFTER the events of AvM ep 10. In this route, Purple would have fled from their desktop into the Nether and met King. Purple decides to join and follow him under the promise that King can help Purple regain everything they’ve lost.

Alternatively, the second idea is that Purple and King meet BEFORE the events of AvM ep 10. In this scenario, King is actually the one who introduces Purple to Minecraft. This would be shortly (like a few months) after Purple loses their game so when King comes along, they kinda latch on to him.

Either way, I think I have enough ideas for both scenarios to work. I just need to figure out with one I want to do more.

Also, I heard through the grapevine that we might be getting ACTUAL purple backstory soon so you know what? I’ve been working and thinking about this particular headcanon backstory since Showdown, so whatever happens happens. I’m happy to say this is an AU when the time comes. It won’t make a difference to me! ^^

#Sammy8D says #Sammy8D art #alan becker #purple stick figure #ava purple #avm purple #NPC!Purple #npc purple #animator vs animation #Animation vs minecraft #ava #avm #purple origin story #ava au #avm au #NPC!Purple AU #Sammy8D Stick Stuff

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bluewhale52 · 3 years

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Little Black Book: Your Kindred Spirit

Summary: There are a few names in your Little Black Book, and these seven hold a special place in your heart. Now that you are closing that chapter in your life, you reminisce the time and experience you have had with your seven favourite men, especially with Jeon Jungkook, your kindred spirit.

Pairing: Jeon Jungkook x Reader

Rating: Explicit. NO MINORS ALLOWED.

Genre: nonidol!au, strangers to lovers, friends with benefits, a bit of angst

WC: 6.1k (my largest so far! 😱)

Warning: talk about loneliness, oral sex by the pool, fingering, penetrative sex, protected sex, multiple orgasm, edging, sex on a chair, Herman Miller chair kink because Hybe got them chairs for their employees while I’m sitting on one from Ikea

A/N : trying some character development this time round, especially since I’m running out of ideas of ways OC can have hot sexy times with her men (3 more to go!). I like being able to explore OC’s backstory and personality more here, and I hope you as readers feel a bit more intimate too with the characters in this LBB universe. As always, likes, reblogs and comments are much appreciated. Enjoy 💜

Series Masterlist: Little Black Book

You got off the plane, still annoyed. Five hours earlier, you had arrived in your office in Seoul, only to be ceremoniously sent off to Jeju with the order of getting Jeon Jungkook to sign a bunch of papers as well as not returning to Seoul until Monday. You protested, only to have Seokjin, your new unbearable boss, told you that you had not taken any days off in two years and he’d be damned if those days were going to be borne by the firm again.

“It’s all paid for. Flights and hotel. Now go, I don’t want to see your face for the rest of the week.” Seokjin ordered as he pushed you into the elevator. ” But call me on Saturday, hmm?” He added in a whisper. You rolled your eyes as the doors closed.

Five hours later, you arrived in Jeju, and at the first intake of fresh air, you inwardly thanked Seokjin for forcing you to go on a vacation. Maybe, after you were all done with the Jeon Jungkook business, you’d go shopping and get yourself a new lingerie set for your Saturday night fun with Seokjin, as a thank you. MAYBE.

As you entered the arrival hall, you were surprised to find a man in full chauffeur uniform holding up your name. You bowed to him, and he swiftly took your luggage.

“Mr Jeon sent me to pick you up.” He simply stated. “He’s waiting for you at his suite.” You nodded and followed him.

The suite turned out to be a mega luxurious penthouse by the beach. Spacious, modern, floor to ceiling windows with that breathtaking view, and…. an infinity pool on the balcony? You had to stop yourself from gawking too much.

You were asked to wait by the living room as the driver went to the pool and patiently waited for Jungkook to finish his lap before informing him of your arrival. The driver then made his way back to you, to inform you that he would check you in at the hotel. He then bowed and quietly left. You tilted your head and wondered how he could even know which hotel your firm had booked for you, but you let it go- the rich definitely had their own ways.

You turned to find Jungkook getting out of the water, and you swallowed, hard. The many times you had met him, he had always worn something baggy. Never in a hundred years you would have thought that THAT body was hidden underneath all those loose clothing. Thick shoulders, even thicker pecs, and washboard abs. Then those thighs- dear God- sculpted and oh so visible with his wet boardshorts splattered tightly on his skin.

You cleared your throat, then bowed to him. Get a grip, he’s your client, you reminded yourself. “Good afternoon, Jungkook-ssi.”

He bowed back in return. “Hi __________ -ssi.” He sounded shy. “Hope your flight was good?”

“Smooth flight.” As smooth as that skin across your chest. “I’m here for you to sign the papers?”

You sat yourself down by the coffee table and took out a folder. “I’m sure Seokjin-ssi has told you about the settlement? We just need you to sign here, here and here and I’ll send them back to the office to get everything going.”

You went into your work-mode immediately. It was safe, and you knew what you were doing. You in work-mode would not be thirsting over your own client. Jungkook lingered by the door however, water still dripping from his gorgeous body.

“Um, do you need me to get you a towel?” You asked gingerly. Jungkook broke into a small smile and shook his head.

“Sorry, I was distracted.” He went off to grab a towel himself, and you breathed a sigh of relief when he came back, his upper body covered by the terry cloth. “Where do I sign?”

You directed Jungkook, explaining along the way the process of the settlement, what he should expect and what your firm would continue doing on his behalf.

“As agreed, we will not disclose the settlement amount to the media or the public, but this large sum should set off some gossip in the industry, so you’d be rest assured anyone would think twice before mooching off your AI software again.” You grabbed the corner of Jungkook’s towel and dabbed at some dollops of water on the coffee table, worried they could stain the legal documents.

“Ah, sorry, I guess my hair is still wet.” Jungkook said sheepishly. You plastered a professional smile, and resisted tucking his curly hair behind his ear.

“OK, all done, just give me a minute to scan and email these back to the office.”

You moved to scan the documents with your phone and promptly sent them to Seokjin. Jungkook left your side and you heard a splash. Jungkook was back in the pool, but he stayed by the side, head resting on his folded hands, watching you.

You gave him another forced smile. “I’m just waiting for Seokjin-ssi to confirm everything is good. Then I’ll be going.”

“Eager to start your vacation?” He pushed his hair back off his forehead, and laughed at your reaction. “Seokjin told me you would stay here for a few days before going back to Seoul.”

“Ah yes, I was forced to go on holiday.”

“Good thing I asked for you to come here then.” You saw the corner of his mouth lifted into what you thought was a very sexy smirk.

“You asked for me?” Your phone vibrated indicating an incoming email, tearing your gaze from Jungkook and denying him the chance to answer. The email was from Seokjin, who simply replied with a thumbs up emoji. “Ah, I’ve got confirmation all is good. So I’ll get going now then.”

“Stay.”

You froze. “Excuse me?”

Jungkook still had his eyes firmly on you. The shyness you saw earlier was all gone. “Your holiday has officially started. Have a swim with me.”

You laughed out loud at his request. “I don’t have my swimsuit with me, and your driver has taken my suitcase to the hotel.”

“So?” Jungkook smirked.

“Jungkook-ssi, I’m not going to swim with you in my underwear.” You know you needed to leave, but the temptation was getting too large to ignore.

“Just Jungkook, please.” He licked his lips. “And, you don’t need any attire to swim here. It’s very private.”

“Jungkook-ssi, are you trying to see me naked?”

“And if I am?”

You looked at your phone again. No follow up emails, no calls, no messages. Work had stopped for you. However, Jungkook was your client, a very valuable one at that. This couldn’t be good. But as he said, your vacation had started. Well, you only live once, you told yourself.

“If I’m swimming naked, so are you. It’s only fair.”

Jungkook shuffled in the water. Then his board shorts landed with a loud splat at the poolside. “It’s only fair.”

An hour or so later, you sighed as you spotted tints of orange streaking across the sky. You had to give it to Jungkook for this place- from where you were sitting at the pool, you got a mesmerising view of the sun setting, blood orange angry against the cool blue of the horizon. What a sight.

You sighed again, as Jungkook’s tongue glided against your folds. HIs tongue felt so smooth against your throbbing sex, and a flick of his tongue released a deep moan from you. You threw your head back, your body leaning back supported by your elbows, and you spread your legs even wider for him.

The flicking of his tongue went faster, no doubt encouraged by your moans and the start of your thighs shaking. You gasped for air as your climax was nearing. One of your hands shot out and grabbed Jungkook by his hair, pressing his head firmer against your sex as you rode his mouth. His big doe eyes opened up and met yours immediately, and you cursed- how could anyone who looked so innocent could be so sinful?

You ground your core harder against his mouth, and his tongue went to overdrive, determined to have you come before the sun set. He opened his mouth and stuck his tongue out, the pink tip flicking your nub determinedly, his eyes never leaving yours. Your tightened core finally snapped, and screaming his name, you came, just as the sun set at Jeju Island. What a sight.

~~~

You raised an eyebrow when Jungkook ordered another bowl of ramen. It had been a couple of months since your Jeju fling, and you were surprised when Jungkook suddenly turned up at your office, inviting you out to dinner. Your first instinct was to reject him- you did not like fraternising with clients- but his big doe eyes did you in.

“So,” you cleared your throat, “how long have you been back in Seoul?”

Jungkook slurped his noodles. “A couple of days.”

“Oh, are you here for work?”

He shook his head. “I was bored in Jeju.”

“Well, I hope you’ll get to have some fun here.”

He nodded again, eyes still downcast, focused on his bowl. You let silence sit between you; he seemed to still be very hungry, and you did not want to interrupt him eating. He stole glances at you timidly, as if he had something to say but did not have the bravery to say it out loud.

It amazed you how Jungkook could have such a duality. The person in front of you was painfully shy, nothing like the flirtatious sex god that left you trembling throughout your vacation in Jeju. You watched him eat, and his demeanour suddenly threw you back to your university days, when you isolated and buried yourself in books, sacrificing social life for those top graduating spots in law school. You recognised loneliness, having gone through it yourself. Your heart softened even further for Jungkook. When he finally finished his meal, he wiped his mouth and smiled apologetically at you.

“You must be busy,” he said, mistaking your quietness for impatience, “I’m sorry I disturbed you and forced you to accompany me here.”

You shook your head. “I should be thanking you for getting me out of the office. I need to stop being such a workaholic. Probably because I don’t have much of a social life, I just bury myself in work.” You offered an opening to Jungkook to open up.

“I guess we’re in the same boat.” He admitted sheepishly. “It’s not that I don’t have friends, I just… have some trust issue.”

“I would be too if I were in your shoes.” You knew enough of his history from handling his settlement case. He made it big at such a young age and the media elevated him to be the next big tech superstar, which only sent sharks sniffing around him. The case you had helped Seokjin handle, the one that sent you to Jeju to conclude it, involved names of people Jungkook thought he could trust.

“What do you do for fun?” He asked.

“Uh well… I don’t have many hobbies, really.” You were a bit thrown aback by his question, “Some weekends I just pick a random line on the subway and ride it to the end and back. If I see something interesting, I stop and check it out. It’s a habit from law school, it helps me de-stress.”

“That sounds really interesting. Do you do that by yourself? Or with friends?”

“Most of the time I go by myself. I like being alone. I mean, five days out of a week I have to continually talk to and interact with people. My subway time is my time for myself, I guess.”

He nodded at your answer. “I understand what you mean. I like being alone too, especially after big meetings and promotional stuff.”

You smiled at him. “Sounds like we’re pretty similar.”

“Yeah,” he nodded, “do you play games?”

“Computer games? Not really, no.” You laughed as Jungkook scrunched his nose lightly. “Just Maple Story, I guess.”

“Do you want to go to the arcade with me? There’s one just around the block.” He blurted it out quickly, as if he had been waiting for the perfect time to ask. You cleared your throat. You were happy enough to accompany him for dinner, sometimes clients expected that, but going to the arcade? It felt very personal.

“Jungkook-ssi,” you started.

“Just Jungkook, please.” He reminded you.

You took a deep breath. “Jungkook, please don’t take this the wrong way, but I don’t think I can hang out with you, like that.”

“I’m sorry,” he said softly, “I just thought, you know, we had fun and got along well in Jeju, so…” He shrugged his shoulder and looked down at his hands under the table.

“Well, we agreed what happened in Jeju stays there. And if you want to do it again, I’m for it, but we’ll have to lay down some ground rules.”

His brows furrowed. “I don’t want sex.” He sounded insulted. “I just want… your company. Not in that way. Just, you know, spend time together. With you. Because, I just think we’ll get along well. That’s all.”

You blinked at his confession, and you raked your brain to come up with a response that would not insult him any further. However before you could think of anything, he asked, “Are you not allowed to date your client?”

“Um, is the arcade supposed to be a date?”

“It could be if you want it.”

You rubbed your neck. This was going worse than you had thought. “I’m allowed to date whoever I want. I just… don’t do dating or relationships.”

“Because you’re a workaholic?”

That went straight to your heart. “Maybe,” you answered slowly, “though I think it’s more because I’m selfish. I like my free time for myself. I like not having to compromise on anything. I like making decisions by myself without having to worry about the other person’s feelings.”

“Don’t you get lonely?”

“I do sometimes, but I like being alone so loneliness is sometimes welcome.”

“And when it’s not?” He leaned forward.

“I call some…. friends.” You blushed a little. “And we spend time together, and that’s good enough for me.”

You inhaled deeply. It was odd saying it out loud, and you felt a little twang in your chest. You were reminded of the times when you returned to your empty, dark apartment after your rendezvous with one of your ‘friends’ from your little black book. Most times you were just happy to go to sleep or do whatever else it was you did at home, but there were the rare times when you wish your living room was not so sparse or your bed so cold. You had to admit it to yourself, you did feel lonely.

“Can… can I be your friend?” Jungkook asked, his voice so soft you struggled to hear it. “I do like spending time with you, and I trust you. And we had fun. And I’m not expecting Jeju all over again, it’s just… I don’t know, I just trust you.”

Your heart ached for him. He sounded so lost and so small. Perhaps two lonely people could find some comfort in each other.

“I’d love to be your friend, Jungkook.” You answered, and he gave you a relief smile in return. “Now, I need to clarify my definition of friends, just so we’re clear from the start.”

~~~

You realised Jungkook had liked too much your definition of ‘friends’, and although you had warned him repeatedly that there would be no feelings involved and no sleep overs, you suspected he had developed a crush on you. When he was teaching you to play League of Legends, he liked you sitting on his lap. When you were cooking ramen for him, he liked to stand behind you,rubbing the hem of your top. When you were getting dressed after your session with him, he would, without fail, tell you how much he liked the particular office wear you had on, which made you think that the man very likely had a business suit kink. You regularly reminded him- and yourself- that this arrangement was strictly of no strings attached, but you had to admit, it was nice to have him do all those things to you.

You also realised that Mondays were good to spend with Jungkook. The time spent with him not only chased away your Monday rage and put you in a good mood for the rest of the week. Especially when his chiseled chest was pressed tightly against your back, and his hips snapping wildly behind you, so determined to have your moans and wails travel through your apartment walls to your neighbours’. You threw your head back against his shoulder, and his hand snaked down to rub your clit as his mouth descended on your neck.

“Come on, cum for me again, pretty girl.”

You gasped for air at his hoarse voice, and you closed your eyes tightly as he pulled your second orgasm out of you, keeping his pace fast and steady as you rode it out. You panted heavily as you came down, your back felt slick with sweat against his chest. He pulled out and let you collapse onto your bed, the pure linen sheet felt so good and cool against your heated skin.

Jungkook gingerly flipped you over so you lay on your back. Caging you with his thick thighs, he leaned down and suckled on your tits, moaning against them as your fingers weaved themselves between his silky locks. His mouth left your breasts, and he straightened himself up while grabbing your ankles up and resting your legs on his chest. You shook your head.

“Kook, give me a minute.”

He chuckled. “Did I tire you out already? I remember you having better stamina than this in Jeju.”

“I was on vacation.” You hissed between your teeth.

He grabbed his cock and pushed it in you again. You arched your back when his swollen head penetrated you. “Just enjoy it, then. I’ll do all the work.” He winked. “Two more, pretty girl.”

Damned him and his competitive streak. He had sheepishly asked you if perhaps he could make you cum four times, to break his record in Jeju of three in one night. You were too excited to agree, but you were paying the price now- your whole body felt too sensitive. You wondered if you could wake up for work the next day.

He soon bottomed out in you, and he started to slowly pump himself in your hole, allowing you to recover before he sent you falling over the cliff again. He kissed your ankle, trailing his sinful mouth down towards your calf. You moaned at the sensation, and he, sensing you were more relaxed, picked up his rhythm .

You hands shot up above you to grab the edge of your bed, holding on for dear life when he began to fuck you faster. All you could hear now was the smacking of his skin against yours, and his low guttural groans when you clenched yourself around his cock. He held onto your ankles tightly, and his eyes watched your breasts bouncing in time with the movement of his hips.

“So good, feel so good, Kook.” You breathed out.

“Yeah?” He licked his lips. He pulled out until only his head was nestled in you, and he smirked as your hips writhed, wanting his length back in you. He slammed himself back in you, making you shout in pleasure.

“You like that, pretty girl?” He repeated the movement, and you screamed his name. He went a bit faster, encouraged by the slick that continued to lubricate his cock, and the tightening of your pussy walls every time he slammed into you. He suddenly leaned down towards you, bringing your legs with him, and you moaned loudly at the new depth his cock was reaching in you.

“You OK?” He asked, when he saw your face scrunching up.

“Yeah, yeah,” you hissed, “it’s just so deep. Ah, Kook, fuck me hard, I’m close.”

Jungkook was only too happy to oblige. Pounding his cock into you almost animalistically, he sucked on your ear, knowing it was your extremely sensitive spot. Your legs were soon flailing around his shoulders, and your body jerked and shuddered as your third orgasm hit you like a truck. He continued fucking you through it, but you felt his hips stuttering and he immediately pulled himself out of you.

“Fuck, I almost came.” He panted, but his finger immediately zeroed in on your clit, rubbing little circles on it, prolonging your orgasm. You squirmed under his hand, whimpering as your sex pulsated against nothing. When over-sensitivity came, you weakly pushed his hand away.

“Water.” You requested weakly.

Jungkook kissed your tummy before getting up. “Don’t fall asleep, we still have one more.”

You grabbed a pillow and half heartedly threw it at him. He caught it easily and giggled as he made his way to your kitchen. You lay back on your bed, trying to still your trembling body. It was good to be friends with Jungkook.

~~~

Jungkook’s place in Seoul was a far cry from his opulent penthouse in Jeju. The postal code was prestigious, but the apartment was modest, and in your opinion, more representative of Jungkook. He had entrusted you with the entry code to his door, so you made your way in straight from work after a particularly hellish Monday. You found him in his office slash gaming room, and you squealed when you saw him by his desk.

“You got a Herman Miller office chair?” You slid your hands over the chair, resisting the urge to hug it. “Do you know how much I want a Herman Miller chair? I sit on my ass eight hours a day, Jungkook! This baby would cure my sore back.”

Jungkook looked at you amusingly while you oohed and aahed over the chair he was sitting on. “Do you want to sit here?”

“No, no, no!” You stopped him from getting up. “I can’t. I told myself I would only sit on a Herman Miller office hair if it was mine and only mine.” You smacked his shoulder when he started laughing. “It’s my fantasy, OK! Yeah, my fantasy is to have this in my office.” You rubbed the back of the chair lovingly.

“Why don’t you just get one?”

“Jungkook, it’s $1,000 at least. I’m not spending that kind of money.”

“Well, get your boss to get it for you.”

You guffawed. “He complained about how much we spent on coffee pods, I’m sure he’d buy me a Herman Miller chair.”

“Well,” he rubbed his chin, “I can buy it for you.”

“Jungkook, as much as I want to say yes, I’m going to say no, because one, I wouldn’t even know how to report it to HR, and two, I can’t make you spend that much money for me!”

“Well we’re friends, aren’t we? Can’t I buy a gift for my friend?” Jungkook was spinning in his chair, wiggling his eyebrows. “Let me buy it for you. Just say it’s a gift from an anonymous client?”

“You’re ridiculous.” You grabbed the arms of the chairs to stop him spinning.

“And you’re hot.” He blurted out, and immediately blushed. You felt heat rising to your cheeks too. Shy guy was slowly making way to flirty sex god.

“It’s just a basic blouse and a skirt.”

He cupped your ass. “Yeah, but this skirt really makes your ass look amazing.” He moved his hands to your chest. “And your breasts look so tempting.”

You bit your lower lip as he massaged your tits and let out a shriek when you heard fabric tearing. Sex god Jungkook arrived, and he had just ripped your blouse.

“Jungkook! That blouse cost-”

You lost your voice as Jungkook pushed the cups of your bra down roughly to gain access to your nipples. You mewled when his lips closed in on one of your perky nubs, while his fingers tugged the other. Losing your footing, you fell forward, and his free hand wrapped around your waist, pulling you on top of him.

“I’ll buy you another one.” He released your nipples and helped you hike your skirt so you could straddle him.

“Damn it.” You said breathlessly. You felt your juices soaking your panties, and more leaked out when your sex rested atop his hardening member. “How many times are you going to make me cum tonight?”

He hummed against your breasts as his hands roamed over your stocking-covered legs. He kissed and licked your breasts, before enveloping your nipple back in his mouth. You arched your back, pressing your chest closer to him.

“Maybe just once,” he said between sucks, big doe eyes looking up to you, “but I promise it’s going to be a good one.”

Your body went rigid when his large hand cupped you, his finger sliding along the slit over your pantyhose and underwear. His mouth went back to attacking your breasts, and you could do nothing but surrender to his ministrations. Very quickly, he made you a breathless mess on his lap. He chuckled at your expression, and his hands sneaked up underneath your skirt, looking for the waistband of your pantyhose. He tugged at it harshly, and before you knew it, he had torn yet another piece of your clothing.

“Jeon Jungkook!” you chastised him. “For fu-”

“I’ll take you shopping. Just relax now.” He cut you off by pulling your panties aside so he could insert a finger in. You gasped at the intrusion, and your inner walls immediately clenched around his digit. His mouth left your breasts and he was watching you. You returned his stare, your eyes focused on his face while you enjoyed the way his finger was gliding in and out. Your eyes fluttered when he inserted a second one. You grabbed onto his shoulders, and his free hand guided you to move up a little, simply so he could pump his fingers faster and harder.

“Fuck, you’re dripping.” He pushed a third finger in and you squealed. “Look at me, pretty girl.”

You forced yourself to keep your eyes open, to look at his face. How could someone looking so sweet and innocent could be pulling out moans and screams so easily. Your pussy felt deliciously stretched and he was drawing your orgasm out quickly. Your walls were pulsating erratically around his fingers, and suddenly it felt empty, the orgasm you were chasing disappeared instantly.

“Jungkook, what the-”

He smirked as he looked at his soaked fingers. You tilted your head as your heart beats returned to normal. “Are you trying to edge me?”

He laughed when you smacked his shoulder. “Hold on.” He rolled you both to a set of drawers by his desk. He pulled out a condom, placed the packet between his teeth, then shuffled to pull his sweats down. You swallowed when his cock- hard, angry and red- sprung free. He ripped the foil to get the condom out and rolled it down his dick. Your pussy was clenching hungrily, eager to take in his member.

Jungkook’s hands returned to your skirt, bunching it up around your waist. He smiled at your ripped pantyhose, then with one hand, he tugged your panties aside while his other hand held his cock. You lowered yourself onto him, you kept sinking down on him, letting out a satisfied moan as he filled you in so fully. Your torn blouse was agape, your bra pushed down to reveal your nipples, and that was where his eyes were focused on as you started to ride him, swirling your hips as you went up and down on his cock. You rode him with all your might, eager to chase and get your orgasm before he could stop you. Your clit was rubbing against his lower abdomen, and your body was heated once again. Your pace quickened, your breaths became more shallow, and you were getting close, so close.

However, Jungkook’s hands grabbed your hips and held you above his lap, snapping you out of your near-delirium. He blew at the sweat that had broken out in the valley of your breasts.

“Not yet, pretty girl.” He cooed, and you whined in protest as he pulled out.

He directed you to turn your body around, so that your back was to his chest now, and he pushed his cock into you again. He held your body down, not allowing you to move, making your pussy cockwarming him. He rolled the chair, positioning it just in front of the set of computer monitors. All the screens were black, and you could clearly see your reflections on them. He helped you shift your legs to make you more comfortable while also keeping them spread as wide as possible.

He kissed your shoulder and your neck, while his hips started to move, slowly pumping his cock in and out of you. His strong hands were still holding you motionless, and you gripped the arms of the chair, content to surrender your body to him. His cock moved faster, and your body soon tensed again. Sensing your orgasm nearing, he slammed his cock up to bury it in you. You writhed, silently begging him to move, but he kept you still, away from your climax.

“Fuck, Jungkook, please.” You felt like you wanted to cry.

“No, not yet. I don’t want this to be over so soon.” He sounded like he wanted to cry too. “If I let you cum, will you stay the night?”

You elbowed him weakly. “You shouldn’t blackmail an attorney, Jungkook-ah.”

His chest rumbled against your back as he laughed. “You always cum and leave.”

You wriggled your hips and he moaned. “Let me cum now and I’ll stay for a bit.”

That seemed to be good enough for him. He kissed your shoulder before wrapping his hands around your body tight, pressing you against his chest, as he pistoned his cock fast and hard. The movements took your breath away, your head lolled against his as you both watched yourselves on the dark computer screens. Needing to feel more of him, your hand released the arm of the chair and to reach the back of his neck. He kissed the inside of your upper arm, which made you squeal and clench around him further. He cursed at the discovery of a new erogenous zone on you, and he nipped and licked at your skin as his cock continued to pound you.

You felt your orgasm nearing, and your free hand moved down to rub your clit. One of his hands moved downwards too, pulling the hood back to give you full access to your sensitive spot.

“Rub it good, pretty girl, while my cock ruins your pussy.” He whispered gruffly in your ear. You mewled at his dirty talk, and your finger started to move eratically, certain he would not deny your climax this time. You pressed on your clit and rubbed it hard, causing your pussy walls to tighten around his shaft. You closed your eyes when the edge was finally within reach, your body shook and your hand faltered. Jungkook pushed it away to rub your clit himself while you were finally coming, screaming his name. You felt as if you were drowning in pleasure, you gasped for air and you felt a drop of tear escape down your cheek.

Jungkook’s grip on your body became tighter, you were sure he was going to leave marks, which you normally chastised your lovers for, but this time you could barely even care. He slammed his cock into you one last time when your orgasm was ending, emptying himself into the rubber.

You both sat on the chair, recovering from the one mind blowing orgasm. Your pants made way to soft breathing. Your ripped blouse felt sticky from the sweat, and you winced as you tried to straighten your legs while he was still inside you. Content of not moving any further, you leaned back against his hard chest, and you let him hug you and nuzzle your hair. You would stay a little while, you decided, as promised. He was worth spending a bit more time with.

“This chair is worth every cent,” Jungkook broke the silence, “it didn’t even creak once.”

You burst out laughing, and you ended up laughing so much that your stomach hurt.

~~~

Today

“Jeon Jungkook!” You hiss into the phone. “I am going to kill you.”

You groan as he laughs at the other end. You look at the $2000 dollar chair with a big red bow in your office. You have shooed everyone away from your office, including Seokjin who complained that he should get one too since he was the one who got THAT big settlement for that ‘ungrateful brat’.

“You need to get an even better chair for Seokjin, you know. Or we will never hear the end of his whining.”

“He’s treated me to a few meals. I guess it’s only fair I pay him back.”

You make sure your office door is closed before you move to the chair to sniff it. It smells new and promising- you know the moment you sit on it, you will never have a backache ever again, your days will be brighter and you will rise up to the top. Herman Miller will unlock all your potentials.

“Sit on it and take a selca,” Jungkook suggests, “and send it to your boyfriend.”

“Why do I need to show him?” You protest, but you untie the red bow and sit on the chair anyway.

“So you know,” he clears his throat, “you guys can do fun stuff on it.” He drawls as his shyness takes over. You feel your cheeks heated too at the memory.

“Hey,” his voice takes a serious turn and you straighten up, “I don’t think I ever thank you.”

You furrow your eyebrows. “I think I’m the one who should thank you? For this amazing chair?”

“I want to thank you for being my friend,” his voice is so soft, but you can hear his emotions clearly, “it means a lot to me.”

You press your fingers to your lips, holding back a threatening sob. “Jungkook, it means a lot to me too that you’re my friend. And please don’t start crying; if you cry, I will cry.”

Jungkook lets out a gentle laugh. “If you cry, I’ll cry, so you don’t start too.”

“We are truly hopeless. But Jungkook, is this what the chair is for? Because you don’t need to-“

“No, no,” he cuts in, “it’s a just-because present. You’ve been going on and on about the chair since... you know when, and I don’t know, when I saw the latest model I just wanted to get it for you.”

“You are too generous, you know that? Don’t let anyone take advantage of your generosity.”

He laughs again. “You’re generous too. You always make time for me, even now when you don’t have to anymore.”

“We’re kindred spirits, aren’t we? Of course I’ll always make time for you. Even my boyfriend makes time for you!” You glance at the clock in your office. “Isn’t it almost time for your pilates class?”

“Yes, your man is signalling me to hang up now.” Jungkook chuckles. “Thank you for letting me be his friend too. He’s been great for my state of mind. All the pilates and the bonsai classes he lets me tag along, I’m feeling much happier these days.”

You hum as you settle more comfortably in your new chair. “I’m happy to hear that, and it means a lot to me you both get along so well. Hey, let’s do dinner this weekend? Let’s crash Seokjin’s place and make him cook for us. It’s been a while since the four of us hung out together.”

“Sounds like a plan. I have to go now, don’t forget to send that selca!”

You giggle as he hangs up. You spin once in the chair, your body and spirit feels a million times better already. You raise your phone up and move it around to get the best angle. Once you have gotten a picture you are happy with, you send it off to your boyfriend.

You [19:02] : I got a present! Come over after your class and let’s take a ride on it 😉 You [19:02] : PS: Don’t change. I like you all sweaty 😋

You smile smugly at your naughty messages, then you realise something. You immediately text Jungkook.

You [19:03] : Kook- is there a warranty on the chair? Just in case we break it.

Published 11042021

#thebtswritersclub #btscreatorscorner #noonasinnetwork #thetruthuntoldnet #purplearmynet #bts smut #jungkook x you #jungkook x reader #jungkook x oc #jungkook smut #Littleblackbook

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kaizokuou-ni-naru · 4 years

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The Voyage So Far: East Blue (Part One)

east blue (1 | 2) || alabasta (1 | 2) || skypiea || water 7 || enies lobby || thriller bark || paramount war (1 | 2) || fishman island || punk hazard || dressrosa (1 | 2) || whole cake island || wano (1 | 2)

so!! hey folks. as i’ve mentioned before, to mark the upcoming chapter 1000 (holy shit!!) as well as my blog’s first anniversary this december, i decided it would be a good time to go back and put together some highlight reel posts of my favorite panels/moments/scenes from each saga and some commentary about what i think the best parts of each arc and the series as a whole are and why, as a celebration of just how far one piece has come and how many fantastic moments we've had so far!

this will be quite a series of rather long posts- they’ll all be tagged #the voyage so far, if you’d like to avoid this messy retrospective. i'll be posting one saga a day each day until chapter 1000's official release on january 3rd!

honestly, i’m opening with this panel because it has a special place in my heart: i’m pretty sure it was the first time that one piece ever made me laugh.

the entire prologue does a really good job of setting up the tone for the entire rest of the story. i think i haven’t really written much about it before, but i really love romance dawn. it hits the exact mix of humorous and serious that’s practically one piece’s trademark tone, and introduces us to some of the main themes of the series: inherited will especially, and the theme of freedom, and the idea of betting your life for what you love.

technically this isn’t the first time we see luffy as an adult- he punches out the sea king before this- but it is his formal introduction, as well as (in the chapter title) the first time he’s referred to as strawhat luffy/mugiwara no luffy.

i really like a lot of these very early panels of luffy, really. i’m a writing person, not an art person, so i can’t really explain why, but there’s something about how he’s drawn that i think is just delightful for some reason. i like the earlier one piece art a whole lot in general, even though it’s often much less intricate and more simple than the current artstyle (which is not by any means bad either!! it’s just different). i think it fits the atmosphere of the start of the story very well- a journey just starting out.

he’s going to be pirate king!!

i’ve complained before about how zoro’s backstory doesn’t really hit the way a lot of the others do, mostly because it goes so fast, and kuina’s death is unfortunately the closest the series comes to fridging, but- that said, i do really like the core of it. i really like zoro being motivated by a promise to the one friend and rival he could never beat, and i love how this moment is what he cites later on while facing mihawk: a promise to a friend.

i love all the strawhats and their dynamics, and seeing the crew grow and develop and become a family over the course of hundreds of chapters is one of the great joys of one piece, but i think i’ll always have a soft spot for luffy and zoro’s relationship. there’s never really any conflict between them after their very first meeting; there’s loyalty and dedication and understanding there that starts from this moment and never really wavers.

it makes me grin to see the two of them, here at the start of it all. they don’t have a flag or a ship or a destination, yet, but this is the start of the strawhat pirates.

this series will probably reveal that i have a great weakness for group shots, and i think oda is particularly good at them- especially in these earlier arcs, you can usually see every character’s personality and feelings coming through in how they’re placed and what they’re doing.

i had actually forgotten that usopp did this, and while i know kuro was egging him on on purpose, i feel like he doesn’t get enough credit for being a reckless idiot sometimes. there’s a reason he fits in as a strawhat, after all, even if he himself isn’t always aware of it.

this is a lovely panel just on its own, but i think it (and all the other appearances of sunrise and dawn in the story) hits different now, with all the 'coming dawn’ theming that’s been established in recent arcs.

oda often absolutely nails his use of negative space to emphasize heavy little moments like this, and i for one absolutely love it. this one in particular gets me in the heart.

i like how you can reread some of these early arcs and see nami’s affection for the crew growing in little moments like these, and it’s very sweet, but there’s also a quiet kind of sadness in knowing she’s spending the whole time knowing she’s going to have to betray and leave them eventually.

i LOVE the new crewmate toasts. they all always look so happy.

also, in my opinion, this is the first time the strawhat pirates feel like a proper crew. they have a SHIP now! and just after this, they get their jolly roger to seal the deal.

it is my opinion that sanji has one of the best character introductions i’ve ever seen. in just a few chapters we know just about everything we need to know about him: he's not to be fucked with, he has extremely high respect for food and absolutely none for morons, and the first genuine smile we see from him is when he gives a free meal to a starving man.

i think about this moment a lot, really. luffy knows almost nothing about sanji at this point. he hasn’t tasted his food- he doesn’t even know his name. but he’s seen sanji give free food to gin for no other reason than that he’s hungry and it’s right, and that’s all it takes for luffy to decide that sanji is gonna be his cook.

baratie is mostly a serious arc (and leads into the even more serious arlong park), but it has some really good funny moments towards the start and this is one of them. you know they’re friends because they all just start roasting luffy without sympathy or hesitation.

i’ve mentioned before that the zoro and mihawk fight was one of the big things that hooked me on one piece (the other being sanji’s backstory), but the way it ends, especially, is one of my favorite moments in the whole series. i love,, strawhat loyalty moments. carve “any complaints, pirate king?” on my fucking grave.

sanji has a lot of really great action panels in this arc, but this is one of my favorites mostly because his combat abilities are being revealed to the audience at the same time they’re revealed to a lot of the characters watching. i can’t remember who pointed it out but sanji’s character design (especially pre-timeskip) just really looks like he’s designed for kicking- shiny black shoes, about 70% leg- and it really shows in panels like this.

sanji and zeff’s chronic inability to communicate is kind of the emotional core of baratie, and i think sanji calling the restaurant zeff’s treasure sums up the entire conflict between them very neatly. of course zeff values sanji way more than the restaurant, but zeff will never tell that to his face and sanji has negative zero self-worth so he’s never going to figure it out on his own. so they’re basically in a stalemate.

sanji’s backstory is absolutely brutal. we spend a truly agonizing amount of time literally just watching him slowly starve to death. it’s no secret that oda is really amazing at backstories, but i think sanji’s is probably one of the most effective at driving home exactly where his very specific mindset as an adult comes from. it’s hard to even read this section and not come away with at least a little more appreciation for food.

(to be continued in east blue part two!)

#the voyage so far #one piece #opmeta #arc: romance dawn #arc: syrup village #arc: baratie #not japanese #long post

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magnhild · 4 years

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Before the Dawn didn’t ‘retcon’ Sun- an explanation from an actual writing major

Since the release of Before the Dawn, the sequel to RWBY’s After the Fall, I’ve seen a lot of different takes on it, but there’s a consistent one that it completely and utterly absurd- the idea that Sun Wukong’s persnality was ‘retconned’ for the book. The idea is, quite frankly ridiculous.

Before I get into why this take is so stupid, let me first explain what a retcon actually is, seeing as this fandom has so little understanding of the word. Retroactive continuity, often shortened as ‘retcon’ is a literary device that ignores or outright contradicts something already established in a work’s canon. For example, one actual retcon in RWBY would be the DC comics, while being canon, showing Ruby talking in full scentences shortly after Summer’s death, when Yang previously stated in the show that Ruby could barely talk when it happened.

A retcon is not something being explained differently or adittional information being given towards soemthing, even if these other details hadn’t been come up with to begin with. Salem’s backstory, for example, is not a retcon of the show’s opening narration, because not only is the opening narration very simplied so that it’s easier for the auidence to understand, but it’s also done by Salem herself, who would natutally not be telling the full story.

Now, the case with Sun is not the first time I’ve heard the claim that a character was retconned in the novels. While I don’t know if it’s at all a popular idea, one Redditor ranted at me in fury about how bad After the Fall must have been if it characterized Velvet as at all sassy because we’d never seen her that way in the books, ignoring my attempts to explain that, realistically, shy people are not going to be as shy around people they know well.

The couple of times I’ve shared these screenshots on Twitter were met with the same scorn I felt upon recieveing such responses (espeiclaly since the last comment was posted around two weeks after the rest of the conversation). So, when people failed to see that the situation with Sun was the same, it surprised me.

People claim that BTD characterized Sun completely differently as he is in the show. This is...weird, but I can slightly understand why people would jump to the conclusion that the personality he has in the book is somehow different to his personality in the show.

The first thing of note is that Sun still very much exhibits the personality traits that he’s known for; the positive ones. The very prologue of the book shows that, even in a fight, he’s still cheerful, easygoing and goofy, and we see several moments of this throughout the entire book. The second thing is that 99% of his scenes in the show are with Blake, who he has (or had) a literal crush on. Of course he would act differently around her and her friends than he would around his team, or people he didn’t care as much about. Right away, this shows that his personality was not contradicted and was, thus not retconned. But, of course, I have more to say than that.

The first big complaint regarding something that was indeed added in the book- or, at least, that we didn’t see in the show (given how Sun is not at all a character of focus) is that he’s shown to be angry and on-edge at certain points. And yes, this is not soemthing we saw of him in the show, but it’s also not out-of-character, and very easily understandable. Sun returned to his team expecting everything to be fine and dandy after a quick apology for leaving them, so when they don’t instantly forgive him and are still angry with him, he doesn’t understand, and thus becomes angry with them in return. He had an idea in his mind of how things would go, and when this didn’t go to plan and he continued to be confronted on his flaws, he can’t help but be a little salty about being treated this way by the people he’s known the longest among the main cast. For him, it’s a personal issue. The only reason we never saw him this angry in the show is because nothing ever personally affected him. He had no reason to be truly angry at anything because they were Blake’s problems, not his, and while he would natually want to help her out, he didn’t have any personal feelings towards the matter. But his team are supposed to be his friends, and here they are, not forgiving him after he apologized and everything. In his mind, he was being critizied even though he thought he’d fixed the problem with a simple apology.

The second big complaints are those of how Sun’s not-great relationship with his team throughout most of the book are contradictory to the last time we saw him in the show. People thought that his acknlowedgement of his shortcomings as a leader meant that he was going to be an instantly better one after the fact. These people fail to realize two major problems with this- the first being that there’s no rushing personal improvment. It’s very weird to me that people thought that Sun could instantly become a better leader when he was such a bad one in the first place. The second problem is that Sun, despite his name, is not the brightest bulb, and I say this in the nicest way possible. It’s made clear by both the show and the book that, while he acknowledged that he shouldn’t have ditched his team for several months without explanation, he still failed to realize the seriousness of his actions, or how the team dynamic was affected when he came back and took over again from Scarlet’s temporary leadership. As mentioned in the above paragraph, Sun thought that he could fix everything with a simple apology, and that it would absolve him of all wrongdoing. But more importantly, but the end of the book, he has realzied the weight of his negligence and that he needs to work harder to gain back respect from his team. And yet, critics ignore this and seem to this he acts badly throughout the whole book with no change in behaviour, when this couldn’t be further from the truth.

The third complaint, and the most absurd to me, is that Sun’s dismissiveness of serious situations and regular insensitivity in the book are out of character. Excuse me, but...did we watch the same show??

Perhaps it’s easy to forget because we haven’t seen him in show for a while, but these are two of his core personality traits, especially earlier on in the show. It seems that the fanon depiction of Sun as a sweet and loveable himbo who can do no wrong has caused a lot of people to forget his very prominent flaws, but Sun has always been this way, from as early as Volume 1. He treats serious situations as a joke or bit of fun, and he is constantly making insensitive comments, even to Blake, who he likes. Just to show a few, with replies from Blake for context regarding the second two:

From Black and White:

From Of Runaways and Stowaways:

From Menagerie:

Even in situations where he isn’t outright insensitive, he still frequently exhibits a struggle to read the room. He fails to understand why Team RWBY don’t want him and Neptune coming with them, he fails to fully understand why so many faunus take issue with humans despite being a faunus himself, and he fails to understand why stalking Blake across a continent was a very, very bad and creepy thing to do, even if he had good intentions. In fact, he never even apologises for any of this, at least, not that we saw, so it’s enitely plausible that it’s not soemthing he’s learned from.

So the fact that he continued to demonstrate this insensivity in BTD is very much in-character. That has always been a part of his personality, even though it’s often played off as a joke.

With all that said, it really bothers me that people list what is, in objective truth, a deeper insight into Sun as a character, as a flaw of the book. This is not a flaw. I’ve been studying writing through university for over four years, and believe me, showing that people act different depending on the situation or people they are around, as well as expanding upon any flaws they might have, is good writing. Something is not a ‘retcon’ because it contradicts your headcanon, or what you wanted to happen. That would be like if Nora were (not that I think she ever would be) confirmed cis and I called it a retcon because I headcanon her as trans. That would be stupid.

After the Fall and Before the Dawn are honestly amazing books. They do have their issues, but character writing is far from one of them, and I would, in fact, consider it one of their biggest strengths. The way they flesh out both pre-existing and new characters, the way they can get us to love them within just 20-something chapters, is wonderful. They dive so deeply into even more minor characters, and make them all unique. So the idea that characters like Sun and Velvet were written badly because they were expanded upon and further characterized than they were in the show is an absolutely ridiculous concept, and one that I’ve hopefully changed people’s minds on with this.

Sun was not retconned. You guys just need to remember that the picture you paint of a character in your head is not always going to be the way a character is in canon. We’re not Adam defenders, people (at least, I hope not).

Anyway. Read the RWBY books. I don’t care if you have already. Do it again.

#rwby #blaire rambles #sun wukong #rwby after the fall #rwby before the dawn #essay?#rant?#honestly i don't know what this is #long post

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avaritia-apotheosis · 3 years

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Phantom Children Ch. 7

Massive thanks to my awesome betas for this chapter!

In Which: A Story is Given to the Locked Room

AO3 | Prologue | 6 | [ 7 ] | 8

DICK DOESN’T REALLY KNOW WHAT TO FEEL. Surprised, maybe? Though he really isn’t all that shocked. Not that the revelation of another Wayne kid isn’t surprising, it’s just that—well…

Bruce has a tendency to attract foolhardy kids with a strong sense of justice and a willingness to harp on Batman until he gives them wings and teaches them how to fly. It’s the way of the world. The sky is blue, the sun sets in the west, and little Robin-hopefuls flock to Batman like ducklings to their big, brooding, mother duck. (That most of them are black haired and blue-eyed with some sort of traumatic backstory is a coincidence. Probably. The universe is just weird that way.)

And Bruce, bleeding heart that he is despite all the steel walls and nuclear spike fields he placed around it, always had a soft spot for children. It’s what people don’t get when they call Robins and Batgirls, former or current, child soldiers. They think that Batman picks these children up from gutter alleys and unfortunate homes, breaking and reshaping them into crusaders for his war against crime.

(What most don’t get is that the easiest way to gain ‘favorite child’ status in the Wayne household is to just stay home and live the most normal life possible. All of them—with the exception of Damian and Cass—chose this life. And even those two chose to stick with it, even when Bruce was more than happy to give them a way out.)

Dick was one of the first to stand at Batman’s side. The original. The ‘golden boy’ as Jason always put it. He’d been there so early in Batman’s career that, years later, it’s nearly inconceivable to imagine Batman without his Robin. He’s been there for Bruce’s soaring highs, his crushing lows, his mundane middles, just as Bruce has been there for him. Sure, they’ve had their fights, but Dick had always settled himself with the knowledge that he was one of the few people that knew everything about Bruce Wayne.

But this . This nursery—no, this memorial . This monument that spoke of a life that could have, should have, would have been, is something that predates Robin’s existence. A story, a memory that had hurt Bruce so badly that he would rather hide it away than breathe even a word of its existence.

Until now. Until Bruce had no choice but to rip the wound open once more.

“Bruce. I—what’s going on?”

“Perhaps,” Alfred interjected. “Perhaps it may be best to take this to the cave. Such a story should be told once.”

Bruce laughed, a broken, shuddering thing. “What is there to tell? I was naive with a heart too open and full of longing. I let myself hope, and I let myself get crushed . I picked myself up, moved on, end of story.”

Alfred raised an imperious brow. “As you are the one who always insisted on detailed reports, I do hope your summary to the boys downstairs would have a little more detail.” His face softened as he placed a comforting hand on Bruce’s shoulder. “What recent information that has been passed to us paints a worrisome picture, given what little you have shared, but know that this time you are not alone to deal with this matter. Regardless of what you do, the rest of the family is involved by proxy."

Bruce seemed to release some of the tension in his shoulders at that. “Yes. Of course. Dick, why don’t you see if Tim is back yet. I don’t want to explain this more than once, if possible. I’ll be down in a few minutes.”

“Yeah. Yeah, sure, I’ll get right on that.”

“And, Dick?”

“Yeah?”

Bruce’s gaze was intense. “How is Damian doing?”

He remembered the way Damian sunk deeper into the chair, hands clasping and unclasping at air. The white of his cast hanging limply as Damian’s legs could just barely brush against the cave floor. Dick swallowed a lump in his throat. “I don’t know. But I do know that he could really use his father right about now.”

Bruce gave a shaky nod and Dick left.

_______

Everyone has heard this tale before.

His boys have learned about the birth of Batman, of how a boy lost his parents in an alley at the age of eight. How at 14 he took to the study of criminology to an almost religious fervor. He took and aced every AP test, graduated high school at 16, headed off to get a college degree, then disappeared off the face of the earth.

Batman may have been born kneeling in the shadows of a dirty alley, but it was on the streets abroad where Batman grew up. Learning and studying and fighting until he knew what made the criminal underworld tick, how to escape almost every type of restraints, how to solve a murder with only the smallest of clues. He trained under a demon and met his daughter. When their ideas of justice clashed with each other, he tried to leave, they tried to stop him, and he set their base on ablaze.

He returned to Gotham the prodigal son, the favored prince, the charming socialite. Bruce Wayne took his place at the center of Gotham’s solar system, shining and bright and unbelievably foolish. Batman put on a cowl and learned the shadows of Gotham’s streets, and built himself up to be a symbol of fear and justice. Soon, he acquired a Robin to temper that darkness. To bring a light of hope, to instill a sense of peace— something more than vengeance and the night.

The rest is history.

Here is the part of the story that Bruce had omitted:

Early in his career as Batman, a man named Quayin had plans to steal a weather modifying US satellite. This, and certain other events, led to Bruce and Ra’s al Ghul crossing paths—and working on the same side. The details of that mission, in the long run. do not matter. Not anymore. What’s important is that accompanying him is his daughter, Talia al Ghul. She was as deadly as she was beautiful—and Talia was very, very beautiful.

It was a whirlwind romance. A storm of passion. Gotham’s Bruce Wayne and socialite Miranda Tate. * Batman and the Daughter of the Demon. The tempest reached its peak on that fateful day in the gardens of Wayne Manor. The hot summer sun and buzzing insects fading away as she pulled him aside and said “Beloved, I am with child. I am pregnant.” **

Bruce was caught unawares by the news. Stared dumbfounded at her until his brain caught up with his ears and he felt such unbridled joy bubbling in his chest. He laughed, clear and bright. He held her tight against him as if she held the world in her hands—because she did . Talia held his world within her and Bruce vowed to protect it with every fiber of his being. He called Alfred immediately to tell him the news and started arranging for discreet interior decorators and shipments for everything they needed for a nursery.

Thomas, for a boy. Martha for a girl. He swore that very day that it would be the happiest baby in the world. **

And then—

And then…

As Ra’s and Bruce planned their next move to stop Quayin from initiating a war between America and the USSR, Talia collapsed.

Talia collapsed and the baby was just…

Gone.

And suddenly Talia wanted nothing to do with him. Told Bruce to leave her alone, that their relationship would never be the same.

His child was gone .

By the time the rogue satellite was recovered, Quayin defeated, and all loose ends tied up, the nursery was fully furnished. Bruce took one look at it and then turned away. Locked the door and hid the key god-knows-where.

His child was gone.

Batman continued to work.

There was no use for an empty nursery.

--------

End Notes:

The story I'm using for the circumstances surrounding Danny's birth is basically a modified version of what happens in Batman: Son of the Demon. Modified so that people knew that Bruce Wayne and Miranda Tate were a couple and to give enough time for a nursery to be built along with the rest of the events of that comic.

*Miranda Tate is the name Tahlia al Ghul went by in 'The Dark Knight Rises'

**These lines are taken from Batman: Son of the Demon

#danny phantom #batman #danny phantom x batman crossover #dp fic #phantom children.txt

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tadpole-san · 4 years

Text

in the aftermath ; dabi/t. todoroki pairing: dabi x reader, touya todoroki x reader, established relationship warning: spoilers for bnha chapter 301 (mild canon divergence from that one scene of dabi in chpt 301), inferences to an unhealthy relationship a/n: horikoshi chose violence and heartbreak by releasing dabi’s backstory on valentine’s day weekend and i have a lot of feelings about it

The couch is falling apart.

It’s the first thing you notice when you finally step into the room, and then you take in the peeling wallpaper, almost rotting vanity, and finally, the man laid out on said couch. The fabric of it is peeling away in some places, revealing the plain white beneath - the sight of it makes you think of patches, and scars, and marred, magenta skin held together by madness and medical staples. Dabi’s eyes are closed, you realize, and you could almost fool yourself into believing that he’d finally decided to grant himself some peace, albeit in the form of a turbulent slumber. And then they slide open again, stark turquoise burning bright against the dullness of his stare.

“Really roasted myself there.” His voice is hoarse, even jarring and harsh to your ears. There’s a crease between your brows as you take a few steps closer, reaching into your pocket to pull out a pack of cigarettes. Silently, you hold one out to Dabi. His gaze slides over it, and then over you. Somehow, it unsettles you - like somehow, he’s not registering that you’re there, or that he can even see you at all.

You’re not sure which of those options terrifies you more.

“Yeah,” you say, moving to pull it back. There’s a lighter, heavy in your other pocket, and if the absence of a blue flame at the end of your cigarette means that you won’t have to risk the experience of seeing the body and couch in front of you go up in a garden of blue flames, you’ll gladly use it. “You look like the fucking couch,” you add. There’s two ways his response to that could go; Dabi could find the humor in that and maybe laugh at your comment, or he could dismiss it (and maybe you) in a display towards not giving a shit about anything. Most days it’s like walking a tightrope between his mania and his complete and utter apathy. Most days it’s like choosing between two poisons, and you know you wouldn't be able to make a choice that doesn’t kill you. Because there isn’t one.

This time, he doesn’t laugh. But a smile does tug at the corner of his lips - and god, it looks painful, because the miniscule action is enough for the staples to pull at his skin, nearly tearing into it even more as it flirts with the possibility of drawing blood. “C’mere,” he rasps, motioning to the stick in your hand. You pass it over. He takes it in his fingers, rolling it in between the digits. “Can’t feel anything.”

“Does it hurt?” The question slips out, but you wouldn’t be able to hold it back anyways. Dabi hums, long and contemplative, and when he offers you the cigarette, the end of it is glowing a dull shade of blue. You accept it, and take in a long drag, tilting your head back to watch the smoke rise to the ceiling.

You’d seen him smoke, a couple of times. Mostly on slow nights, when all the two of you would do was hide out in whatever shitty abandoned building served as camouflage from pro-heroes and cops. Or, later on, when he had joined up with the League and dragged you in with them, it would be nights where he could steal minutes to himself outside of the bar, and you’d pretend you didn’t notice because you were too busy nursing a drink at the bar. The part that always fascinated you the most would be when the smoke spilled out between the seams of his staples, and you could forget about the way his blood trickled out in the same way, and stained your hands when you had to help him force everything back into one piece.

“That’s not what it fucking means to not feel anything,” he bites out, and you can see his jaw tense. So it’s a yes, and he won’t say it. “Don’t be stupid.” Your lips press in a thin line, and you sink to the floor next to the couch, leaning against its side to let your arm hang over your propped up knee. He’s not the only one to walk out, more than the worse for wear; you can’t move without a brief stab of white-hot pain, even if you know that it diminishes in comparison to the man still laying on the couch. It’s enough that you want to spare yourself the experience of biting back at him with equal venom.

“And that doesn’t answer the question, either.” When he doesn’t say anything, again, you keep talking. “Those injuries.” Another exhale. “They could kill Endeavor.” A moment passes, and there’s a hand at your shoulder, squeezing it in a way that threatens to literally burn through your layers.

“I wouldn’t allow it.”

“I could’ve killed him.” There’s a calm behind your admission, the same calm of a deadly ocean masked by tranquility. Once - and sometimes, when you try, you can remember her - there was a version of yourself that wouldn’t have been able to say the words without falter, wouldn’t have been able to hold onto the idea of a murder quite like that. The grip on your shoulder goes slack.

“I know,” Something in Dabi’s voice makes you tilt your head to look up at him, and you lock eyes with a man already staring at you. This close, you can make out the still-healing wounds on what remains of his unmarred skin, and there’s a patchiness to his hair where the black dye hadn’t fully washed off. Seeing it bothers you, just a bit, and you want to do something about it.

“Get up.” The eyebrow he raises is equal parts disinterested and curious. Maybe even wary, but you’re not here to explore the nuances of what a single eyebrow can mean.

“Doll, I can’t move.”

“I’m being serious.”

“So am I.”

“Sometimes, I can’t really tell with you.” Half-lidded eyes open slightly as he comes close to grinning again, a thumb brushing over your cheek for the fraction of a second. It’s enough that you sigh, and you squash the cigarette against a white tile to extinguish it, leaving behind a spot of darkened ash. He watches you push yourself to your feet, offering a hand to him that’s pushed aside so that he can force his body to get up from the couch himself. The display is one that is already painful to an outsider - each movement is a Herculean effort, skin pulled taut and threatening to split open until he’s looming over you once more, overshadowing your presence in the room.

Until wordlessly, you take an arm in yours and pull it over your shoulder. His weight comes crashing into you like a wave, and if you weren’t so used to it - to needing to pull this body out of death - and if you were anyone lesser, you probably would’ve collapsed, too.

For a second, you wish that you weren’t able to handle him like this. Because it would mean that you’d never been forced to carry him through moments like these.

“Where you takin’ me, princess?” he drawls, the words sliding off his tongue as he sags against you. The light elbow to his ribs makes him tut in disapproval, but there aren’t any words said against the action.

“Bathroom,” you mutter, because being used to him against you like this doesn’t make it any easier, and if you waste breath or lose focus, the both of you could end up on the floor together. And Dabi would really, truly reduce you to ash for the humiliation he’d suffer from it.

“Bathroom,” he repeats, and you can hear the suggestion in the smirk he’s likely to be wearing proudly. So you choose not to humor him with an answer towards or against the insinuation behind his intonation.

Using a foot to nudge at the bathroom door is - fortunately - enough to prompt it to swing open, and you maneuver him into the too-small space. Dabi hisses as you end up jostling him against the counter, and a few more muted swears escape his clenched teeth before you’re able to get him to sit against the tub.

“Fucking shit.” You step into the tub as he lets the words out, kneeling in it and reaching for the shower head.

“It’s your hair,” And as you explain, you take the risk of having him tilt his head back slightly. “You - I don’t know what shit you used to get most of the dye out in five seconds-” and that was really one of the only parts of his plans that you didn’t understand, but it was a detail small enough that you wouldn’t push.

“Somethin’ wrong with my hair or some shit?” The tone’s abrasive, but he’s still sitting still, and he doesn’t move to lash out in a way that’ll end the conversation in its entirety. Tonight is - despite everything - shaping out to be a calm one for him, a rare in-between of the polarity and calm he lives his life with. Or maybe it’s because of everything that happened, because his scheming and plans that once felt like little more than paper towers finally burned to cripple the Japan’s now-former Number One.

Dabi isn’t smiling. Instead, he allows his head to be further tilted back as he stares up at the ceiling, a pensive expression making it feel as though the body you’re sitting with isn’t really here with you at all. And it shouldn’t reassure you, but it does.

Because that smile - that effortless, unfazed, half-thought out gesture on him - is synonymous to his lies.

You still haven’t answered his question. You reach out, like someone blinded, to card your fingers through the mostly snowy white locks. You let yourself imagine that he leans into the touch because the gesture is a sweet one. If you were to pull yourself back to your reality, you knew it would be likely that he simply lay there and let you do as you wish.

You turn the shower on, and lukewarm water replaces your fingers in his hair. His lips move and he murmurs something you can’t quite grasp, but it’s gone before you can think to ask. The moment suddenly feels just as fragile, as though a misspoken word, one wrong move, or anything that could be regarded as a mistake coming from you could shatter it.

The tips of your fingers are becoming laden with black as the remains of dye works itself out from his hair, and its stark contrast against the porcelain of the tub makes the white look ghastly. It’s as you begin to press your thumb to the darkness to try and swipe it off that Dabi speaks again, and if your head weren’t angled down towards him, you wouldn’t have heard it.

“This is what being evil is.”

It should’ve been simple enough to take a hold of the meaning behind his words, and pull them in to understand it. But your movements falter, causing your already damp jeans to receive a wayward spray of water.

This could be lying here, with him, carrying out mortal attempts to wash away traces of atrocities committed.

This could mean living with the badge of honor labelling this society’s villains. You wonder if there would ever be a world where he didn’t wear it so proudly, flaunt it in the faces of any and all who cross paths with him.

“I don’t think we’re evil,” is what you settle on finally saying, shutting the water off and placing the shower head back in its slot. You end up resting your head in your arms, turned to him as you balance precariously on the edge of the tub. When you close your eyes, you can see him at the forefront of your mind - spinning, deranged, falling into hell in a tango of death.

“Yeah?” His breath ghosts the shell of your ear in the single syllable, and you realize he shifted closer under the blanket cover of your shut eyes. “Then what the hell are we?” His forehead presses against yours, skin and piercings ice cold. As if it was the touch of death.

“I think,” you start, letting out a breath before you open your eyes again, “I think we’re just people.” Sitting like this, with him, is an intimacy rarely granted. This close, and you can make out water dripping from strands of white hair, white lashes, the bridge of his nose. It’s all drowning in a sea of turquoise. He hums, and a hand presses against the back of your neck, keeping a grip there. Blunt nails dig into your skin, and they probably leave crescent indents. “Heroes are the ones like gods, and we’re just the ones trying to challenge them.”

Dabi stares at you. You feel it under your skin, like fire ants biting at you and injecting enough poison to kill you.

And then he laughs. The laughter belongs to a maniac, to someone so deranged there might not be a way of going back, and it grates on the years you’ve spent with him. With his madness. A madness that could be infectious, but you’re too afraid to peel back the layers of yourself to see if the infection has found roots in you. The sound of his laughter suffocates the pocket of space you occupy together, and you’re no longer lost in a sea of blue fire, but you think that maybe you’re drowning in something worse.

Eventually, he stops. There’s an ache in your neck by then, but you still can’t move it. Dabi has to take a few more rasping breaths before he can think to speak again, and there’s rivulets of thick blood running down his face from his eyes and mouth.

He cries tears of blood.

You hate the sight of blood.

“Heroes are gods,” he repeats, the traces of a chuckle leaving his lips. “You really fucking got me whit that shit, you know that?” An incredulous wheeze escapes his throats. “So then this is blasphemy? So then we’re sinners? Sounds pretty evil to me.”

“Only if sinning is evil.” His lips turn in a sneer, and you’re released. It’s like a breath of fresh air from the smoke and fire clogging your lungs, so you move to stand back up. “But sinning is just doing the things gods don’t like, isn’t it?”

You smile, then, and you step back onto tile. Your hands go to your pockets, and fingers find the now-damp cigarette pack.

“Hold it.” A lazy finger beckons towards you. It might be all he can do at the moment. You shouldn’t.

You crouch down next to him anyways.

When Dabi finally kisses you, it’s hard, and painful, teeth clashing and more blood drawn. You pull back with a line of it running down your mouth, and he brusquely wipes it away with his thumb.

This will be the closest you come to a thank you from him. Somehow, you know that the day he finally says the sentiment to you out loud, it would very well be the last time he says anything to you at all.

The final day feels as though it’s come too close to you.

#🌙#🔗.bnha #🔗.mha #dabi x reader #touya todoroki x reader #dabi imagines #touya todoroki imagines #bnha 301 #bnha imagines #bnha writing #dabi angst #touya todoroki #dabi is a todoroki #reader imagines #gender neutral reader #dabi x you #touya todoroki x y/n #dabi x y/n #touya todoroki x you

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xmint-conditionx · 4 years

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《the emperor’s dagger》 ch3 | myg

❦ pairing: emperor!yoongi x concubine!reader ❦ w/c: 5.3k ❦ summary: after being caught, you and the emperor decide to let some distance come between you. after a week of being along with your thoughts, you finally meet each other again. this time, he has something special in store for you, but by the end of the night, you both find yourself doing something daring. ❦ tags/cw: 18+ please, smut, lots of angst in this one, pining, lots of backstory here, outdoor sex, penetrative sex, knife (sword?) play, very brief oral sex (f receiving). ❦ a/n: after literal MONTHS, i have finally added another chapter. this is actually me releasing it for a second time tonight because clearly the first time, tumblr hated it so much that it wouldn’t let it show up in searches. i really hope you all enjoy, and i plan to be uploading a new chapter every three weeks, my schedule permitting. anyway, enjoy the filth! luv yas! and let me know if you’d like to join the taglist; i’d be glad to add you ^_^

- minty <3

taglist: @jiminisnotavirgin @aretha170 @btstrash2013 @bbykoos @aquaalanah

“Your Majesty?” you hear a voice call from the end of the corridor.

It’s Jin.

You both freeze for a beat, and then simultaneously take a step back from each other. You avert your eyes; it feels like you might be spared a harsh reprimanding if you just look in the other direction, for some reason. You’re sure your guilt and embarrassment at being caught is displayed plainly on your face, though, despite your best efforts. You allow your eyes to rake up from the floor, over to Concubine Mother Kim, as he stands firmly in the panel of moonlight shining on the dark wooden floorboards. His hands are placed firmly on his hips and his face is stern; this isn’t a good sign. You gaze up at your emperor, whose embrace just moments ago made you feel so protected and hidden away from the problems of the real world. Who made you feel safe.

And his face is as shocked as yours.

“Concubine Mother,” the emperor says cooly, recovering more quickly than you, though you can see a tinge of pink flush his cheeks. He’s also blinking far too much. Jin regards him for a moment and then turns to speak to you.

“Please tell me that I did not make an exception for you to stay late, only for you to fool around with the king in secret.”

“Concubine Mother,” Emperor Min says, “I was just walking her back to the wing so--”

“Emperor Min, forgive me,” Jin says, not truly asking for forgiveness by the tone he’s carrying, “but you cannot truly believe I don’t see what I see.”

Emperor Min looks down and clenches his jaw.

“Off to bed,” Jin says firmly to you. The sting of forming tears tells you to avoid their gaze as you bow lightly to Jin, and then offer a slightly deeper one to the emperor. Quickly and quietly, you padd off to the bedchambers, not wanting either of them to catch the tear that spilled over. You want to look back so badly, but you stop yourself. You can’t even begin to imagine the trouble you’re both going to be in. You stop behind the archway of the shared bedroom and listen in on the hushed conversation.

“Concubine Mother,” the emperor begins, “she really did stay late at the market. She was walking back through the throne room and I stopped her so that we could speak.”

Jin scoffs, “Speak? Please. Surely you don’t take me as a fool. It has been noticed by a number of certain royal officials that you call on her often…”

The emperor sighs.

“I’ve been careful, Jin,” he assures him.

“Good. One more thing,” he says, “I told her that the guards would be briefed on her situation. There was no need for you to walk her to the dormitories.”

“I… I just wanted to,” the king muttered; you were barely able to hear it.

“I see,” Jin says, with a heavy pause, “Truly. Make no mistake, Your Highness. I see everything. And I understand more than you know.”

Silence.

“I see the way you look at her. The way she looks at you,” he continues, “It would behoove you, Your Majesty, to request some of the others more frequently. Other people… influential people may begin to notice…”

“Understood.”

You don’t know why but suddenly, the thought of the king being with his other concubines makes your stomach twist uncomfortably. This is part of your job; something that you are well used to by now. Or... you were.

“Concubine Mother?” the emperor asks, “Please don’t think she is causing trouble. This is on me.”

“Alright,” he says, “but I have to tell you that I love that girl like she’s my own family. Be careful with her.”

“As long as I am alive, no harm will come to her,” he says more firmly than anything else he’s said so far, “that is a promise.”

“Glad to hear it, Majesty.”

You walk as quickly and as silently as you can back to your bed, grabbing your night clothes from underneath and quickly changing into the loose gown. You put your daytime concubine clothing into the other basket for used clothing beneath the bed frame, and climb into your sheets. Casting a shadow in the moonlight draping on the side of the wall, you see Jin’s form pause for a moment at the open door frame before walking onward to his own private chambers. You really hope you aren’t going to be scolded badly for this.

You don’t sleep well.

The next day, the emperor keeps his distance from you, as expected. He normally keeps himself at arms length from you, but today he spares no suggestive and flirty glances. You can’t possibly be upset at that, given what happened last night, but your stomach does drop a little when you pass him and he purposely avoids your gaze. It looked like he was with officials again; he so easily wears his stress in the creases between his eyebrows.

It’s like this for several days, and you learn to swallow it. The distance is a healthy reminder of what reality is, and it makes the heartache easier.

As before when you wanted to have some distance from everything, you decide to spend your day reading out in the North Gardens. He hasn’t called for you in almost a week, and you’ve temporarily decided to halt lessons as well. It pains you, the separation, but it’s better this way. Safer, this way. The thick novel you hold is helping you escape your own circling thoughts. Although they’ve calmed dramatically over the past few days, they are stirred easily by being busy in the palace. Having to stay vigilant of where the king is at all times, lest you give too much away is exhausting. Seeing the places in the palace that remind you of him is heart-wrenching. Reading next to the soft trickle of the fountain is always a comfort, and it allows you to put your guard down and breathe. You’re deep into your book when the head of the palace guard strolls by.

“Jungkook, hi,” you say, “lovely to see you.”

“Likewise, miss,” the young man says, “I was hoping I would find you out here. I have something for you.”

“Oh?” you ask, leaning forward and marking the spot in your book before putting it down.

He discreetly hands you a scrap of parchment, folded neatly into a small triangle. You know who it’s from, so you slip it into a flap of your dress and tuck it underneath your waist sash without batting an eye. He never sends notes, you think to yourself as you look back up at Jungkook. The only other one you’d received was the first one that he himself had slipped to you.

“Thank you, Jungkook,” you say, after realizing that nobody can hear your conversation over the splash of the fountain and the chirp of the birds playing in it. He smiles back down at you, wisps of dark hair falling into his face. He is very young to be head of guard, especially for someplace as important as the royal palace, but he is exceptionally bright and extremely skilled in combat. If anyone had ever deserved a position, Jungkook deserved this one.

Jungkook has been an aide to you and the emperor for weeks now, in secret. He walked unannounced into the emperor’s bedchambers late one night, in an attempt to inform him of an urgent palace security matter, only to find the emperor instructing you with your practice sword how to properly parry to the air.

You had both been struck dumbfounded when the head of the royal palace guard had stopped in his tracks, mouth agape, digesting what was occurring in front of him. You were sure you were as good as dead.

You’ll never forget the feeling of relief when he spoke.

“She’d learn better if she were able to actually physically parry a sword, Your Majesty,” he had said with a cheeky smile.

It seems that more people than you had realized believe that a woman should have the right to defend herself, the head of the palace guard included. Jungkook was more than happy to help the two of you find a place to practice without worry of the noise escaping and exposing you both. You needed a way to practice outside of the palace walls, so that actual sword to sword contact could be made. It was Jungkook’s idea to change the guard routes to provide you both with an easy exit out of the back, but it was the emperor’s idea to meet in a small clearing in the woods, behind the palace and beyond its tall walls. He had confided to you the first night you were able to practice there that this is where he would come as a boy to practice alone. His father never liked for him to disappear, but he hated being watched all the time. This field was the only place he could be himself without the eyes of the whole kingdom on him. He had said it only felt right to teach his first student in this same place.

The first time your practice blade clashed with his under the stars had felt incredible. It was like you were truly learning to fight.

Now, in front of you, Jungkook doesn’t linger. He nods respectfully and continues strolling through the gardens as if he hadn’t come out here looking for you. You’re outside in broad daylight, after all. The man might be the head of the palace guard, but he still doesn’t take chances if he doesn’t have to. You decide to finish the chapter you’re on and then go back inside the palace to read your note, just to ensure you keep suspicion at bay. Even though you’re aching to see what Emperor Min has written to you.

He’s been under so much scrutiny lately that he’s been extremely stressed. That much is visible from his face alone, but there are whispers within the palace among the concubines about how his temper is getting shorter and shorter. You’re afraid of what that might mean for you, and the contents of the note.

What if he’s calling everything off? Could how he cares about you be a shadow to his overall responsibilities and appearance? It wouldn’t be unexpected, you’d just hoped… maybe it was different.

You’re on the end of the Northern Wing balcony when you find yourself alone enough to take the note from your waist sash and read it.

“My dove,” it says, “I hope you’re looking forward to practice this evening. I’ve got something exciting planned for you, since it has been so long since we’ve last practiced. Make sure you drink plenty of water.”

Quickly folding the paper again, you return it to your sash. You run over the possibilities in your mind, trying to imagine what he has thought of for you. A million scenarios rush through your head, each one more exciting than the last. Is he going to challenge you to keep a hand behind your back? What if he starts teaching you disarming techniques? Does he think you’re ready for ground fighting?

Really, none of that matters. You’re just glad to return to your nightly routine. You’ve missed him.

You go back into the concubine wing and conduct the rest of your day in preparation of whatever it is you’re going to have to endure tonight. You go through your tasks almost shaking with excitement. Sending a note is risky, so whatever he has planned must be intense.

You arrive at the clearing a little earlier than usual; your nerves are so on edge that if you had stayed in your bed any longer, you feel like you would have exploded.

You take the moment to enjoy the light breeze and the sound it makes as it rushes through the tall grass and the even taller trees. The sky is beautifully clear, and the moon, though not full, is bright enough to light up everything around you. In the far distance, above the top of the pines, you can just make out the very top of the royal palace. The gold ornamentation gently glimmers in the night.

It’s not long before you spot your emperor’s pale skin as he walks through the clearing. As he emerges from the treeline, you can just make out that he is carrying a large bundle. The way his long cloak sways around him as he walks is enrapturing, the grass parting and bowing to your king as he steps forward.

“I’ll admit,” you say as he gets close enough to hear you speak, “When I read your note, countless scenarios went through my head. None of them involved a package.”

“You’re a bright woman, dove, but I still have tricks up my sleeve,” he says with a wink as he tosses the wrapped bundle lightly onto the grass between you. It’s like nothing at all has changed in the past week. He takes the two sheathed practice swords off of the canvas and drops them down onto the ground at his side.

“Well,” he says, “are you going to open your present?”

“Oh, it’s a present?”

“A reward. You’ve impressed me with your hard work, and you deserve it.”

You stand there dumbfounded.

“Open it, dove,” he says quietly.

Bending down, you remove layers of the tough canvas until you feel something softer. It’s a strange array of padded cloth, in various odd shapes. You look up at your king, standing over you with his hands behind his back, chewing on his lip. Is he… nervous? You dig into the package further and pull out the largest piece. You hold it up and it finally hits you; it looks like a sort of jacket, with two pads on either top side… for arms?

“It’s…?” you start.

“Armor,” he says, almost too quickly, and then hesitates, “for you.”

You’re frozen where you crouch, blinking at the armour set in front of you. The white fabric is edged and trimmed with a fine gold thread, and the padding in the quilting is firmer than one would expect. You give it a good squeeze, and despite its lightweight feel, it’s extremely resilient. It doesn’t bend at all, no matter how much you try to warp it. It’s the best gift you’ve ever received.

In one swift motion, you drop the torso piece into the pile and throw yourself over the package and up onto him. He stumbles back, clearly not expecting the embrace, but it’s only a moment before he melts into it. His arms around your back pull you in tight, and you realize that you’ve missed the way he smells. You almost wish you would have purchased the scent you’d found at the market booth last week. You would have, had you known that he would be gone from you for so long.

“You better hurry and put it on, dove. We don’t have all night,” he says into the shell of your ear. Reluctantly, you pull away and pick up the mound of cloth. You trot to one side of the clearing where there is a particularly large bush. Behind it, you change. Even though the king has seen every last inch of you, it still seems appropriate to change out of sight for this. You don’t even have to remove your gown, but you want it to be a surprise.

Once you have the set on and tied, you walk back out into the clearing. He has his back turned to you, clearly having the same idea, so you call out to him.

“Your Majesty?”

He turns around and takes his time looking at your form. His eyes slowly rake over you, from top to bottom, and a small smile gradually spreads across his face. You wish you could know what he’s thinking, but more than anything, you want him near to you again.

“Aren’t you going to come see how it fits?” you tease. He lowers his gaze and walks slowly to where you stand in the tall grass. He lifts up one of your arms and holds it delicately as he makes a show of examining it.

“Is it too heavy?” he asks, lowering your arm and reaching around your back, barely touching it.

“I don’t think so, Your Highness,” you reply, turning fully around once so that he may see.

“And you wear it well,” he says, landing a peck on the spot where your neck and shoulder meet, “of course you do. Come, let’s begin. Let’s see if it works.”

The night is spent as the other nights in the clearing are. You goad each other into a type of dance, explosively throwing strikes and deftly dodging them. You do feel a slight encumbrance at the addition of the light armor, but it also makes you more bold. You take more chances as the night progresses, knowing that the padding will lessen the blow of the dull practice sword that he swings in your direction. The contact still hurts, though, and you quickly begin to tire. It doesn’t help that you haven’t practiced in over a week, either. Other than pure love for the art, stamina has to be another reason the emperor practices as much as he does. Without constant practice, you can expect to exhaust yourself quickly. And you’re absolutely already there. So you start making desperate moves, just so the match will end and you can rest a moment.

You take the opportunity to use your padded forearm to parry away an overhead strike, and he uses your open body posture to his advantage. He lunges forward, and you find yourself crashing onto the soft ground below, his weight fully on top of you. The practice blade falls out of your hand and topples into the grass. You’re both panting wildly, and you look up into his angry eyes.

“Have you forgotten that a sword has a blade, dove?” he asks, not even trying to hide the anger in his tone.

“No, I…” you begin, but can’t find the words. You know what he’s getting at, but you’re too tired.

“If you were to pull that move in a real fight, with a real blade, you would be missing an arm,” he says coldly. He grabs the forearm you used to block.

“This isn’t metal. It’s cloth. Do you think a real sword could not pierce it?” he asks harshly. You don’t answer.

“Do you?!” he repeats, more forcefully.

“It... could, Your Majesty…” you say, almost in a whisper. You aren’t sure why he’s so upset about this.

“Never do that again. Do you understand? You will never use your own body as a shield.” You can’t take it anymore. It’s been an entire week with not so much as a word, and now that you finally get to see him again, he’s fussing at you.

“I won’t ever have to,” you spit back at him, “I will never be in any real danger. I will never actually wield a true blade against another. Unlike you, I will never have to. This is all just for fun, and you know it. There’s no point in me pretending it’s real when it’s not. There’s no reason for me to treat this seriously when at the end of the day, it’s just a game. This is all just a game. This means nothing. Nothing real will come out of this, you know, because it can’t. It can’t matter. It can’t be real.”

He stands up and walks a few paces away from you. His fingers run through his hair, and you hear him sigh.

“What if it were real?” you barely hear him ask.

What?!

“Your Majesty?”

“Would you like to wield a real blade?”

There’s no point in lying. There’s no reason to hide what you want.

“Yes. I do,” you say. He sighs. Reaching for his own sword in the grass.

“Then do it,” he says, slowly closing the distance between you. He unsheathes his sword, holds the shining blade in his two open palms, and extends it out to you.

“But that’s your blade, My King…” you begin.

“Yes, dove, I am aware,” he replies, “I want you to use it. Tonight. Against me.”\

No. This isn’t fair.

“What will you use, then? It’s not fair if I have a blade and you do not. What if I… kill you?”

The king just chuckles.

“My dear, you have yet to land a strike to me, and you are worried that you’re going to kill me?” he says, rolling his eyes, before looking into yours again. You’re unconvinced. He just sighs.

“I promise, I’ll be fine.”

You take the blade, and tighten your right hand around the tang. Your knuckles turn white under the stress. It’s lighter than you thought it would be. You step back and give it a few swings to test the balance and weight. You look at the glint of the moon on the blade, and then look up to meet the eyes of your king. He’s got the practice sword at the ready, and puts his left foot back into a ready stance. There’s not a drop of fear in his eyes.

In fact, he looks more excited than he’s ever been. You feel a boldness rising through your belly, and you hoist up the blade. Each one of your strikes are met with the clang of his practice blade, and the shrill scrape of blade against metal rips through the night air.

He blocks each of your attacks with precision and ease, and before long, your body begins to betray you. Your dodges become much slower, and soon, you find it hard to take another step. He shows no signs of exhaustion; in fact, his blocks become even more forceful. You let the sword fall gently to the grass at your side, a clear sign to your opponent that you’re done.

He grins and slowly steps to where you stand panting and holds out both of his hands, palms up. You place his sword back into his possession, and crash onto the ground below. You catch your breath as you study the stars. You hear the metal as the emperor sheaths his blade, and you feel the grass shift as he sits next to you.

“How did it feel?” he asks.

“Like…” you begin, before settling on the right word, “I was unstoppable.”

“Oh, I assure you,” he says with a chuckle, “you were quite stoppable.”

“Yes, but that’s not how I felt!” you say, playfully hitting him on the arm.

“Yes, that is one of the blessings and curses of learning this discipline,” he says, running his fingers through your messy hair, “You gain confidence, but it can often be miscalculated.” He lets that sink in. He continues.

“I would be doing you a disservice if I were to simply teach you the technique and forgo the attitude one must have. You see, dove, having the skill to wield a weapon in practice is different than an actual survival situation. Even here, your senses heighten and you feel your body strengthen with nerves, but in a real battle, that heightening of your senses can hold you back. It can cost you a limb. It can cost you your life.”

“Even though you will never see a real opponent, I have an obligation as your teacher to share with you everything I know,” he looks up at you, “I won’t allow for your knowledge to be single sided. A sword’s strength lies in it’s two blades, does it not?” Several beats pass as you take in everything he’s said.

“Thank you,” you say, “for everything. It was exciting to wield a true blade. The danger was… exciting.”

“You know, I had a feeling that you would feel that way. Perhaps I have one additional new thing to introduce you to this evening…”

He reaches over to your arm, where the light armor is fixed in place. He starts to untie the knots at your wrist, kissing the skin once exposed. With every time his lips meet your skin, your heart threatens to come up out of you. But no matter how much you missed him, you can’t stop the brat inside of you from coming out.

“I think I can remove my own armor,” you tease, pulling your arm away from him.

“Yes, but it’s much more fun when I do it,” he replies, grabbing a hold of your other arm. You let him slowly take off each piece of armor, and then your dress, and then your undergarments. He removes his own robe and tosses it to the side, leaving only his undershorts in place.

You prop yourself up on your elbows, wondering what your king has in store for you.

He reaches over and unsheathes his sword, and everything you thought was going to happen melts away.

“The danger excited you, dove?” he asks, casually examining his blade in front of you.

“Yes, My King,” you reply cautiously, and then feel the need to explain yourself, “I... didn’t know if the blade would cut… If it would slash you, or if I would make a mistake and nick myself…”

He slowly inches his blade closer to you, and stops right before making contact with the skin on your leg.

“Do you trust me?” he asks. You nod carefully, and he grins. “Be very still.” He turns his sword so that the flat side of the blade is facing you, and he slowly presses it against the hot skin of your thigh. The cool metal shocks you, but you are able to remain perfectly still, captivated by the danger of the blade. Every inch he drags the blade unearths something deep within your belly.

He finally removes it from your thigh, and places it in the grass to the side of your body as he kneels down. Now between your legs, he takes the tip of his nose and runs it up to the apex of your thighs, warm breath ghosting over where his cool blade had just been. He arrives at your cunt, and takes the tip of his nose to your clit.

“Mmm, you’re already wet… I knew you would enjoy that,” he says into your folds, “Maybe we should do it again.” Even though it doesn’t come out as a question, his eyes look up at you from his place in between your legs as if asking for permission. Mouth agape, you nod your consent.

“Excellent,” he says, licking a stripe up your slit.

He reaches for the sword at your side, and gives your clit one more sloppy kiss. You watch as the edge of the blade glimmers as he lifts himself up. You allow yourself to fully drop to the soft earth below, your messy hair strewn about the grass. He sits above you, and lowers his blade down so that the flat side of the tip barely touches your forehead. He removes it and places it again, but lower, cold and weighty on the pillows of your parted lips.

He removes the blade and presses it lower still, at the dip in your clavicle, and begins to gently drag it down. As the blade slides down your chest, the chilling touch of the metal makes your pussy clench in anticipation. He slides the entire length between the mounds of your breasts, letting the tip trail down to your belly button, and as soon as the tip is about to reach your clit, he picks up the blade. He rotates it tip-side up, so that the hilt is to the ground. He takes the knob of the tang and presses it on your clit, moving in small circles against your bud. The king moves the shaft of the handle down until he’s teasing your entrance with it.

He adds pressure, toying with inserting it into your eager slit. You buck your hips up and throw them in circles, desperately trying to get more friction against the hilt of his sword.

“Do you want something, dove?” the king asks nonchalantly, though his eyes betray him.

“Please, Your Majesty,” you whine, “please fuck me.”

“Hmmm,” he teases, “should I?”

“Please,” you whisper, on the verge of tears. It’s been an entire week. Even though you tried your hardest to push him out of your mind, your nightly dreams betrayed you.

“Only because you asked so nicely,” he says, tossing his sword onto the grass to your left and pulling himself out of the top of his shorts. He runs his thumb over the tip, spreading the drops of precum that bead there. He rubs his length up your folds, taking the slick that’s there, before pressing into you.

He doesn't allow you time to adjust to the stretch before he’s thrusting hard into you, but he knows by now that you like your pleasure with a drop of pain.

You buck your hips up into him to meet his thrusts, and reach up to touch his chest. A thin coat of sweat forms under your hand, and you slowly trace your hand down his torso until it meets his cock. He feels better than your dreams depicted, but you want more.

You use the last bit of your strength to sit up and push him down onto his back. The change in position pushes him deeper into you, and you grind hard onto him.

“I think I like when your confidence is boosted, little one..” he says, “But don’t think you’re going to get away with that.”

He grabs your arms and pulls you down onto him, locking you in by wrapping his arms around your back. He pushes his hips up and begins snapping them up into you relentlessly. He moves his arms from securing your back to palming your ass cheeks, spreading them slightly to bring the shock of cool air.

He allows you to sit up, and you support your weight with your knees so that he can continue his pace. It’s not a difficult task, since you have grown in strength. The new angle has him hitting your most sensitive spot, and in seconds, you’re hurtling toward your climax. He reaches up and hooks one of his thumbs into your mouth, and that alone has you tumbling over the edge.

It’s not long before he finishes as well, spilling his seed inside of you. You collapse on top of him, having spent every ounce of energy you have.

You both lay there for a moment, just holding each other. Taking in every detail you can about this moment. His parted lips, how his chest is still rising and falling as he catches his breath, the soft waves of his long, golden hair, how the muscles of his arm flex as he gently rubs your back.

In the arms of your king, the only man in the world who isn’t permitted to love you, you feel at home.

Like a ton of bricks, you remember that you shouldn’t allow yourself this feeling, so you pull away from him. The last time you allowed yourself this luxury, it could have cost you your life. He slips out of you, and his seed begins to spill out as you stand. You go to retrieve your clothes, grabbing the cloth that was used to wrap your armor and using it to clean yourself.

“We should go back,” you say, glancing back at him. His brows are slightly furrowed, and his face drops as you speak.

“Yeah,” he says, focused on the ground and picking at some of the strands of long grass that poke at his arms. Distracting himself.

You turn back around so that he can’t see that your eyes are filling with tears.

“Yeah.”

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