#I wanna know about the political drama and the journey to space

[teehee-vibes]

I’d give up my left foot for a Horsea arc

[cloudmancy]

i know im fanning the flames but PLEASE go off about acoc i wanna hear your thoughts

crown of candy was an incredibly flawed season but I loved it SO much 😭 like. is the unsleeping city an objectively better season than crown of candy? maybe. do I like crown of candy better? also true. the thing about mediocre media for me is that there's more to ENGAGE with and think about than an objectively superior (artistically, narratively) piece of media, because there isn't a whole lot you can do with excellent media other than go 'I liked that :)' and maybe write one or two critical thinkpieces about it. crown of candy suffers from the limitations of dnd as the format of the show, the dimension 20 formula, and the length of time it was allowed to run for.

I was SO hyped about a crown of candy before it even began, and the excitement ramped up for about half the season before it abruptly plateaued and wore off. I mean... what's not to love? the trailer showed us jaw-dropping sets, promised BEAUTIFUL worldbuilding, and snippets of heartbreaking dialogue. I still consider that trailer dimension 20's best 😭 but the reality of it is that crown of candy simply... did not compare! it was a fantastic season and it takes up more space in my brain than the other 4 seasons combined but there is a reason I fell out of love with it and started playing around with my own ocs instead.

the first reason why I was excited about a crown of candy was the sense of scale. in the first 6 episodes there was a very real sense of wonder and excitement because we were promised NATIONS. LEAGUES of npcs and realms and political and personal alliances to explore. part of what made acoc so successful in my part of d20 twitter is also, maybe, part of its downfall. for a season that promised so much political intrigue, there was startlingly little of it. the only pc that had genuine political connections baked into their character and plotline was lapin; the rest were all the rocks family. the season stayed as low-fantasy political intrigue all the way up until episode 11, where it became some sort of... half-assed magic narrative? 

episode 11 and beyond was the rocks specialty show. I would’ve watched some british show if I wanted to see monarchy 💀 it was a mistake, I think, to make every starting npc, and half of the backup pcs closely associated to the rocks in some way. it is not emily's fault, but part of the reason that the season transitioned into the rocks family drama (and the rest of calorum is there too I guess) is because jet died and was replaced by saccharina, which was (rightfully) a very big deal for the pcs, who had all become related to the rocks at this point. it’s just not my cup of tea and I know that there’s people who enjoy acoc for the very reasons I didn’t - because it focused on the emotional journey of one family, instead of dealing with the repercussions of their actions across nations.

[drev-the-procrastinator]

1, 8, 12 and 52 for the writing thingy!!!

Look at me finally answering these after like a whole month lol

Thanks for the ask!

1. Tell us about your WIP!

Which one lol, I’ve got many of them. Too many. Really. That, coupled with the fact that I am a slow writer because I keep getting distracted and procrastinating (like with answering these asks,,,,) means that pretty much everyone on this site will die of old age before I finish like any of them :’D

Anyway, I guess I’ll give brief summaries of all of the… main ones. This is gonna be a long one, fellas! I guess in the order I came up with them? Or the order I’m pretty sure I came up with them in.

TT: My original story I’ve been low-key working on and reworking since… 2012…? It’s a fantasy story, and it is… way too long probably. Also needs a lot of work. Worldbuilding and character building and plot building… At the moment, I guess I could summarise it as, our world gets wrecked for some reason, and the main characters, these two girls, who got saved into another, fantasy world with like… a bunch of other survivors, leave the Earth-refugee camp and get tangled with like, politics? Of that world? Well, politics and then eventually like, a war type thing… I didn’t say it was good, and I did also say it needs a whole lotta work. I’m pretty happy with some names younger me came up with though! Also it has dragons, so. Yup.

Fantasy fanfic: I am very good with names, as you’ll come to notice. Anyway this is a.. Hetalia fantasy fic..? I came up with in, like, 2014. I’m not actively working on this one at the moment, but I would like to maybe write it one day, and my most beloved OC originated in this story, you may have seen me mention her in my tags? I haven’t managed to come up with a name for her, but I call her the Asshole Goddess, because she’s a goddess, and also an ass. So.

Anyway this one’s pretty cliche, and it’s like, an absurdly large cast of Hetalia characters ending up in a fantasy world, where a bunch of other characters, who’d gone missing earlier, have apparently been taken to? Then it’s a journey to find and get them back, friendships are formed and magical things are encountered, but uh oh! They’re mortal here and can die! And many do. You may note I was 14 when I came up with it, so. Well. It is quite edgy. Had some good concepts though!

Kingdom AU: Great with names, as I said. This one is also a Hetalia fic, because that is the fandom I’ve been stuck in forever, though mostly just because I’ve so many fics for it. This is the odd one out in my fics though! This is like, a royalty AU of an rp AU me and my friend made by accident one time? The RP, not this AU, this is all my invention. It’s really just for me and my friend, since it’s based on that strange RP and the main thing in it is like and OC x canon character ship? That’s also why it’s the weird one, I don’t usually have much romance in my fics because I’m not big on ships and just prefer gen stuff, but this one is like primarily romance? Lots of pining. And it’s very soft. And I love this AU with all my heart. It’s also got a whole lotta angst!

Basic plot is the more or less classic, kinda cliche, peasant girl goes to get a job in the royal palace to help her poor family and meets the crown prince, and they become friends, and slowly fall in love.. Except, well, this is weird also in that the end point isn’t them getting married or confessing their love or anything, that’s like...Maybe the midpoint? There’s also politics, kinda worldbuilding? It’s set in like a 1700s type setting, I think, And while it’s not really a fantasy world since no magic, it’s not like, a real world setting. Anyway, yeah, this is near and dear to my heart.

The Home Front Fic: This! This is the one I’ve been trying to work on lately! It’s about life on the Finnish home front during WWII, and yes this is uh, also a Hetalia fic. Sorry. Though to be fair with this one and the previous one everyone’s probably gonna be so OOC and the setting is so different they might as well just be original works lol. Anyway, it’s a human AU, and also had a lot of OCs for that reason because it’d be tough to make a story of this scope with like. Three characters.

Basically! Tino is a 8, soon to be 9-year-old boy living in the Finnish countryside in 1942. His dad’s gone off to war, as well as the farmhand they had at the farm, and his mom and grandma can’t take care of the whole farm by themselves. So when they hear a nearby factory and some other farms in the area are getting extra work force in the form of Soviet prisoners of war, they decide to ask for one, too. They get a worker, his name’s Ivan. It takes some time, since they’re technically enemies, right, but eventually Tino befriends him and slowly he kind of becomes a part of the family… But you know what happened when the Continuation War between Finland and the Soviet Union ended in September 1944? :) Well, I’ll just say that Stalin did say “There are no Soviet prisoners of war, only traitors.”

This one also has angst. But it also has found family! I like it a whole lot, I wish I’d written it already, but I have been having such a hard time starting it. :(

That BNHA Fic: I can call it that because I’ve only got one so far! So this is a My Hero Academia fic, and hmm. I haven’t talked about it too much, but I do like it, even though my focus has been pulled back to the Home Front Fic again. I do wanna write this one!

So this is like a future fic? It’s canon divergent because some stuff happening in the manga rn is not gonna work with the plot, I guess it’ll diverge at least from like… all the New Year’s chapters? I don’t remember what the number is.

Anyway, the main character is Eri, who’s been going to like this boarding school meant for kids with volatile quirks. She wanted to go there herself when some years ago her quirk had gone bonkers, she thinks? Something like that, she doesn’t remember that well anymore, but anyway, she’s going to apply to UA! Just the Gen-Ed, her quirk isn’t any good against robots. She’d love to be a hero, though, she knows so many heroes and she just wants to help people, but her quirk is no good. :( Anyway she’s back in Musutafu for the summer break in her last year of middle school, and she meets Mirio and Aizawa at the train station, and they go around the town meeting everyone! In the entrance exams she meets Kouta, who for some reason doesn’t want to be a hero though he’s got a really good quirk for it, and he’s proud of his parents who were famous heroes! They both get into UA, and she manages to convince him to try to get into the hero course through the Sports Festival, and he does! She doesn’t get that far in the festival though, because even though she’s practiced using her quirk, she’s scared to use it on people when in battle and stuff. Anyway, she’s very upset about it, and when she tells Mirio about how she wants to help people, but can’t, because her quirk sucks, he gets this look on his face and later tells her that he knows someone who could help. They go to meet this scarecrow lookin’ dude, and oh wait, is that All Might?? Why’s he refusing to help her out from Mirio’s request?? And later, what’s this One For All Mirio’s talking about?? And whose kind arms does she keep dreaming of in her sleep??? 

So yeah. That’s the BNHA fic. One more WIP to go!

Space Fic: Back to Hetalia, and this is technically an older fic but I decided to someday actually write it just recently. So it’s my Historical Human AU No. 3. It’s based on a space facts video fact, where it said that in 1963 Kennedy had proposed the USSR and US go to the Moon together, and Khrushchev had been meaning to agree, but then Kennedy died and the plan was abandoned. This story idea was like, but what if they’d gone through with it? And then, because why not, what if they’d included other countries as well? And this WIP was born. It’d be like, the main characters would be representatives of their home countries, sent to take part in the program and they’d all be candidates for going to the Moon, but there’d be only 3 spots on the rocket so like, they’d kind of have to compete for the spots? And the ones that wouldn’t pass would take part in the mission on Earth. So then there'd compete, there’d be personal drama, their personal relationships would be affected by the relationships between their home countries, but overtime friendships would be forged, and they’d all just become… one big ole found family. A space family. A big ole found space family. And the Overview Effect would also play a part. This is kind of on the back burner, this’ll need lots of research and the Home front fic also needs a lot of it, so I’ll try to.. write that first, I guess? We’ll see.

So that’s all my WIPs. There are other fic ideas that I haven’t put much thought into yet so they’re not on the list, but yeah!

8. Do you have any writing buddies or critique partners?

I don’t have any one person who I’ve talked to about all of my stories, but I have discussed my stories with a few people! Both online and irl. I’m also on a couple discord servers that are for writing or where people talk about writing, even though for the most part I’m too shy to talk much on any of them ;u; But the people who’ve been awesome enough to listen to me ramble about my stories have helped me a lot!

12. Which story of yours do you like best? Why?

Aaaa, don’t make me choose between my children! ;__; I love them all,,,

Well, I am very fond of TT, since it’s my own original story and I’ve worked on it the longest… Then again, the Kingdom AU has a lovely aesthetic and those two pining idiots in it… But also, that BNHA fic has some really nice plot and character moments? But also I’ve spent so long researching for the Home front fic and it’s got my boys in it! And the atmosphere in it is so nice, and it has found family,,, But then also… Space??? And even the fantasy fanfic has the Asshole Goddess in it?? And a nice storyline with Liech?? See I can’t choose ;_;

To be fair, the story my dumb brain takes interest in changes every now and then, for example lately I’ve been mostly thinking about TT, the Kingdom AU and the Home front fic, so I guess those would be my favorites at the moment? But a couple weeks ago I was really into the Space Fic, and at the start of the year it was the BNHA fic. So it depends! But I do love them all.

52. Who do you write for?

Well, primarily probably for myself. I do often find myself in a situation where I’m looking for fics or books to read but none of them really click, and then I realize I’m looking for my own story. Which I haven’t written. So that’s definitely a big one! Then, to some extent, I also write for the people I’ve rambled about my fics to, so they might maybe someday get to experience the whole thing through something other than just my ramblings :’D But mostly for myself, I think.

Thanks for the ask again and sorry for taking so long!

[alicescripts]

Part 3, Chapter 7: “Speakers”

Keisha: In St Louis, across the street from a lunar-themed hotel with a rotating artificial moon on its roof, there is the remains of a fast food drive-through. I dunno how long it’s abandoned, but long enough that someone – the owner or the city or some street artist or who knows – covered all the windows in a stained glass patterned wrap. So you have this little church of an old fast food joint. It’s beautiful and odd. Alice and I happened by it, and for fun we hopped the fence an walked the drive-through.

Alice: The whole system is still there, though it’s missing a menu and a lot of its parts. The speaker still stands crooked, leaning into where cars full of the hungry and stoned once passed.

We stand there a moment and I dare to kiss her, and she dares to let me. It’s been better between us. We went through the drama of defeat and now we have the drive of a mission, and both have started to patch over the wounds of our past.

And just as we kiss, the speaker of this long dead drive-through crackles to life and we hear muffled voices and joyful laughter through layers and layers of static. It sounds like a message from the dead or from another world.

“This place is empty, right?” I say as the speaker burbles away at us. “I’m starting to think nowhere is actually empty,” she says.

Alice Isn’t Dead by Joseph Fink. Performed by Jasika Nicole and Erica Livingston. Produced by Disparition. Part 3, Chapter 7: “Speakers”.

Keisha: We had decided to organize. It is an overwhelming goal to organize a country, but it starts with the people around you. And so we reached out where we could. To the network of safe houses and anarchist groups that Sylvia had connected us to, if we needed to reach out to her.

We let it be known that if anyone had experiences which left them with the feeling there was something seriously wrong with this place, had encountered monsters or strange phenomena on the highways or on the quiet streets of their towns. They were to meet us. We set a date, a month from then, in a park in upstate New York. Near where I had last seen Sylvia.

Maybe I hoped it would make it more likely than Sylvia would join. But I didn’t let myself consciously think that. Instead, we tried to show up with no expectations at all. Just whatever came of it was what we had to work with, and we would start there.

There were bout 30 people. Most were fairly local, but some had driven across the country to be there. Among the crowd, I noticed the woman from the front desk of the Duchess County sheriff’s office in Poughkeepsie, the one who had slipped Sylvia and I a tape showing what really happened the night Sylvia’s mother had died. I smiled at her and she smiled too and then looked away.

There was a general sense that we were all embarrassed to be there. That nothing we were doing here could lead to any higher process. This wasn’t an army gathering, but children dressing in their parents’ clothes.

The last person to arrive was a short man in a baseball cap with a confident walk. He gave us both firm handshakes. “Hi, I’m Tanya,” he said. “We spoke once. I passed on a message from Sylvia. I have to tell you, it’s about fucking time someone did this. I’m real excited. I am real excited.” And for the first time, I allowed myself to be excited too.

Sylvia never showed.

Alice: At a fried fish place near Baton Rouge, we get to talking to a table of folks. Dyed hair, weird clothes, they stood out as much on the road as we did. It was a touring theater group. They told us that they liked to tour to the south, because in the little towns, the people that need their performances really need them. They told us that it’s good, as an artist, to be useful to people in some practical concrete way. Otherwise, what’s the point of art?

Keisha: We told them about the drive-through in StLouis and they got real quiet. “So you came across one of the speakers.” The person who spoke was tall, had said their name was (Lian) and then hadn’t said much else. “The speakers?” I said. “Some of those old fast food drive-throughs that have been out of business for a while,” said another one. “If they leave the speaker system there,” said (Lian), “the word is that it sometimes connects with other worlds.” “Aliens,” said Alice, with a degree of skepticism that frankly, I didn’t think our personal experience over the last few years gave us license to hold. “No, not that kind of other word,” said (Lian), “more like Stephen King. You know, The Dark Tower? There are other worlds than these. Those speakers transmit from other versions of our world.” “Or that’s what they say,” said one of the others, trying to laugh through the long hair over her face, but not making it convincing. “We heard it once,” said “(Lian). “We were parked by an abandoned Burger King eating some sandwiches and the speakers switched on. I got close, I listened.” “What did you hear?” I said. (Lian) bit their lip, shook their head. Soon after, the group politely said goodbye. “Well,” said Alice. “Man, this isn’t even close to the weirdest thing,” I said back.

Alice: As Keisha drove, I asked her a question that maybe had been living in both of our heads during this time. Were the Oracles even really on our side? What were their intentions? And if they were helping us, why? Keisha gave the only answer she could, which was that she didn’t know. We couldn’t know. We could only believe. And belief is an uncomfortable function, no matter how natural it may be to the human mind.

And yet I do. I believe in the Oracles. I believe that they are good. I could always be wrong.

Keisha: We were west to Lubbock when I saw the Taco Bell with the missing letters from its sign. Clearly not having served as an actual purveyor of food for quite some time. I glanced over at Alice and she nodded, and I was already turning toward the exist.

We pulled into the lot. There were no fences, just a sign in the vacant windows letting us know we could rent 1,500 square feet of restaurant space, and to call a number that had been completely scribbled over with sharpie. We walked over to the drive-through system and sat on the curb. I don’t know what we were waiting for exactly, but we waited.

Alice: And a few minutes later, we heard the soft purr of static, a signal springing to life. As one, we rose and leaned into the old mesh of the speaker, set into its little kiosk under a 90’s era bell design. For a moment, there was a scramble of voices amid the static. And then, as we moved closer, it seemed to react to our bodies and became sharper, until I heard a definable voice and I threw my hands to my mouth. Because it was my own voice.

“You wanna do pizza night tonight?” I asked from the speaker. “Sure, let’s make a shopping list.” Now it was Keisha’s voice. We met eyes, didn’t know what to do with ourselves.

Keisha: It was a conversation. A domestic conversation, like we had had so many times. But there were certain references. Mentions of what was happening on the news, it was all more or less what was currently happening right then.

And I realized, we were hearing an us in which Alice never left. In which I never had go to looking for her, in which Thistle never entered our lives.

We were hearing an us that had never gone through any of what we had gone through, and we could listen in, from this grass-studded curb off a North Texas highway.

Alice: On our third meeting, the crowd had more than doubled. We had never advertised openly past our first meeting, instead asking people to reach out to people they knew. In this way, we had grown quickly. This meeting was in the parking lot of a mostly out of business mall in the upper Midwest. Straggles tricked in over the course of an hour and we let them. Because people were mostly coming in from long distances now.

Keisha: Still no Sylvia, but occasionally I would recognize a face. One really had me wondering for a while until I put my finger on it. The cashier at the Easy Stop in Swansea, South Carolina, when Sylvia and I had come through looking for the police officer who said he would help her.

The cashier had clearly seen some aspect of Thistle, and it had affected him deeply. I greeted him and he murmured: “You asked me if I wanted to live in a world where what I saw was possible, and I thought a long time about that. And I don’t. I don’t.” He nodded, more amen than agreement, and faded back into the crowd.

Another face I knew: Laurel, a coast guard officer from the mouth of the Columbia River. A woman whose brother and nephew had both disappeared onto a black barge that swallowed the people who had gone investigating it. Laurel drew me into a hug as soon as she saw me. “I’m really glad you came,” I said. She glanced over at Alice. “Oh well,” Laurel said. “Maybe in a different life. Maybe in a kinder world.” She squeezed my arm. “I’m so glad you’re doing this.”

Alice: OK, who was that?

Keisha: Any time on our journeys that we saw an empty fast food place, which was fairly often in an economy still staggering under what was done to it ten years ago. We would stop and we would listen.

It was us. It was Alice and I, to use Laurel’s phrase, in a kinder world. A world where none of this had happened.

It would make me cry every time. Alice would just go quiet. In rain and in dry hot air, and during the day and at night, we got sucked into listening. The work we were doing, the organizing of this group, it felt less and less real to me. This was real. Our voices floating barely above the texture of the static, echoing out from speakers plugged into nothing, under menus with prices years out of date.

Alice: It scared me. It felt like a ghost story, but we – the us on the road - were the ghosts. And then there was this other us in the speakers. Those two in there were the ones who had lived. And we hadn’t somehow.

We had left our lives behind and now we haunted ourselves. We sat under a speakers in southern Utah, in a town that was hardly a town anymore, and I looked up at the full moon and heard us discuss who had lost in a TV cooking competition that night and I thought, none of this is real.

And I meant us. I meant us sitting there.

Keisha: Alice driving now, and I asked her another one of the central questions of our new lives. “What even are the Oracles? Where did they come from?” Time traveling beings with no faces, who turned strange the mundane roadside stops they lurk at. Who did they serve? Alice laughs and gives me the only answer any of us have. “How the fuck would I know?”

Alice: Finally we stopped moving around the country. Other than where we needed to go to the meetings we had set up. We would find a drive-through and then we would stay there. Because what else could we be doing but to listen to this? We ate and we slept and we listened. We hardly talked. Those other versions of ourselves talked for us.

Keisha: But then, one night. Alice had nodded off and I was still up listening to us walking back to our car after a date. Tired, easy flirtation with no stakes to it. The kind that happens after years together, where the tension can be switched on and off in any given moment.

Then I heard us get in the car and I heard the car leave. But the signal did not follow. I continued to hear the parking lot. People coming and going. Most sounded drunk. It was evening, I would guess. The signal had never left us before. It had always focused in on us. But I kept listening with a pit in my stomach, because I felt that I was being shown something, and it wasn’t something that I wanted to be shown.

I shook Alice awake.

Alice: I didn’t know what I was hearing. Keisha filled me in. it sounded like nothing, like everyday life, but we sat in dead silence, listening. And then we heard a man screaming. We heard him pleading. “Look at all those people in there,” a different voice cut through the static, as though the owner of the voice was standing next to us, and we jumped. Because it was the voice of the Thistle Man, the first that Keisha had met. “I want you to look at them in there, right through those windows in that lit building, and not one of them knows that you’re about to die.” A whimper. “No one’s going to help you,” he said. And he was right. We listened to him being right for several horrible minutes, and then the signal cut out with a squeal.

Keisha: I hadn’t thought about it, or if I did I assumed the world we were hearing was a world without troubles. That we had been able to float carefree through our lives because it was a better place. But in that moment, I knew. The world we were listening to had the same Thistle, the same monstrous problem at the heart of it. The actual difference was that in that other world, the two of us weren’t doing anything about it. We were letting it happen, so that we could live our quiet lives. In that world, we too were part of the monster.

We never listened to the abandoned drive-throughs again. This is the world we live in, so this is the world we’ll change.

Alice: Now in our tenth meeting, the size of the crowd was getting a little out of hand. People were hungry for it. they wanted someone to tell them they weren’t alone in what they had seen, and they wanted some way forward on what to do about it. We didn’t know if we had that exactly, but we thought that if we worked together, we could find it. We needed to rent sound systems to hold the meetings. The energy was amazing.

Keisha: As always, we started by calling on the crowd to share stories or what they had seen. Of strange men with sagging faces. Of powerful beings disguised as humans wearing hoodies. A thing seen on the roads that didn’t fit into the narrative this country had made for itself. There is a power in telling your own stories. The ones we knew were true, the ones we hadn’t realized anyone else would believe.

I didn’t know what we had here, not yet. But I knew it was real. I felt the crackle of it. I thought it could be what took is through to the end, whatever that end may be.

Today’s quote: “Will not a tiny speck very close to our vision blot out the glory of the world and leave only a margin by which we see the blot? I know no specifically so troublesome as self.” From Middlemarch by George Eliot. Thanks for listening.

[captainvictoryboat]

Behind The Scenes 3 (7/???)

Author’s note: So this post is a bit different that I’m including all the scenes for Taipei because each of them are too short to be put out on there own. A slight head up: this post and the next post have alot of important details so just keep an eye out for all that. Sorry for any errors and sorry for any cultural/environmental inaccuracies.

Genre: Fluff-ish/Angst/ Fake fluff/ Drama over all i guess

Word Count: 2906

City: Taipei, Taiwan (All the days)

Summary: It is time for Jhope’s girl, Meihui, to come into the picture and maybe you were closer to the maknaes than you thought. 

 Other parts: HERE

This is my GIF. I made it based off of this scenario series.

TAIPEI

The plane ride from Hong Kong to Taipei wasn’t very long. It was only two hours, but the process of it all was still tiring. Upon arrival, the same plan went down in Taiwan as it did when you first got to China. You, the boys, and the manager went in one vehicle while Minho and Chuntao found their own rides.

This van was as large as the other ones in a China and you were all cramped in the van. Rap monster being Rap monster was the only member that had his own space as he sat in the passenger seat. “Ok so the plan.” Rap monster began. “Chuntao is going to show up to the hotel and she’s gonna “go” to the stadium in a different car as she thinks she’s gonna be brought back stage to wait with y/n.  And Hoseok, get Mei-whatever her name is-“

“Her name is Mei-hui.” Jhope corrected.

“Whatever, just get her to meet you backstage tonight after the concert. The earlier you meet her the better. Tell her that a backstage pass is waiting for her at the ticket booth. The room that’s “meant” for Jin and Chuntao is going to you and Mei-whatever after the concert.”

Of course, things went as ordered and you all weren’t at the hotel long before having to go to the stadium.

-

Backstage was as boring as usual. What made it worse was that you weren’t able to nap because you had fallen asleep on the plane. You just lay on the couch, practically forced to watch the guys performing from the TV in the room.

After what felt like eternity, you heard someone open the door. Suga staggered in drenched in sweat and obviously exhausted. He made his way to you and dropped himself in the middle of the couch. He laid back, not caring about practically sitting on top of you.

“Eww! Yoongi-“

“I’m- fucking- tired.” He huffed between breathes

“Yoongi! You’re all sweaty! Get off!”

He settled himself more on the couch. “Sssshhhh… I’m busy- sweating.”

“Yoongi!” you tried to get up, but he lazily pinned you down. “You’re so gross!”

“Me? Gross? I’m not- gross.” He used one hand to wipe his sweat off. “Now this- this is- gross.” He smiled, flicking a few drops of sweat on you.

All the disgust gave you the strength to squirm away from under his thin frame. “Where is everyone else?” you asked in annoyance.

“Should- be here- any second.” He said with his eyes closed, still trying to catch his breath.

You got up and grabbed a bottle of water and a hand towel for him.

“You’re- too good- to me! I don’t- deserve you!” he said grabbing the stuff from you. He chugged the bottle and threw the towel over his face

“Tell me about it.” You said as you plopped down next to him.

Soon, the rest of the guys bust in, just as exhausted as Suga. They all went around, doing the usual routine of resting and getting ready to go back to the hotel.

Just as the guys were don’t changing and Rap monster was about to interrogated Jhope over Mei-hui, there was a knock at the door and the manager poked his head in. “Hoseok, Meihui is here.”

“Really?” Jhope asked excitedly. He quickly made his way up to the door.

When Jungkook heard “Meihui”, he quickly went over to you and you jumped into character, wrapping your arm around his. The rest of the guys lined up in preparation to greet Meihui.

You could see Jhope’s smile grow as his eyes fell upon Meihui. She was a very adorable looking girl. She was dressed in a cute pink blouse and a white skirt. Her hair was up in two pig tails, tied with pink bows. Her cheeks blushed as he hid her face behind her tiny hands also beyond excited to meet Jhope.

The second she was in the room, he screeched. “Meihui~!” and ran over to her, picked her up and spun her around. “You’re so much cuter in person!”

She had the biggest smile on her face. She looked like she wanted to say something, but was too excited for anything to come out.

“Guys! This is Meihui!” He beamed. Jhope held her out proudly for all of you to see her.

It was hard to think she could get anymore shy, but she proved you wrong by silently staring at the other six members with a smile glued to her face and no words being able out come out of her mouth.

From behind her, Jhope grabbed her hand and waved for her. He even said, “Hi! My name is Meihui!” for her, trying and failing to mimic a girl’s voice. The whole act of it all only made Meihui blush.

“Hi Meihui.” You all smiled.

She politely bowed and you all bowed back at her.

-

Meihui didn’t get to stay backstage for very long. Jhope told her to go back home, get her things and meet him back at the hotel.

At the hotel, Chuntao was already gone. According to Jin, her stuff was gone too, giving Jhope the green light to use the room.

-

That night you weren’t able to sleep. Jhope kept popping into your head. Obviously for months you knew that almost each of the guys had to find a girl to use for Rap monster’s plan, but the fact that Jhope was actually getting it done had just hit you. The realization slapped you in the face when you saw Meihui. Of all the girls so far, she looked the most innocent and that’s probably why it hit you harder. It was so weird, so scary, that Jhope, your friend, was going through with everything. The more you thought about it the more hurt you felt. Jhope has been nothing but angel to you and the fact that he would be so selfish as to do this to Meihui disgusted you. “Maybe I didn’t really know him after all…”

TAIPEI DAY 2

You were locked back stage with Meihui for the second concert in Taipei. She was a very quiet person. Her quietness reminded you of Chuntao, except you could tell that she was just genuinely shy. In the beginning of your four hours together, when you asked a question, she would always blush and speak softly.

It took a while, but eventually, she opened up to you and was actually really funny. You saw how she and Jhope could have been able to get along, they both had the same sense of humor. For the last few hours, you told her some embarrassing stories about the guys and about how the tour had gone so far, making sure to keep the bad details out. It did come across your mind to tell her the truth about everything or to ask her for her phone, but you knew that wouldn’t be right. You would get into deep trouble if you did either of those things. Even if you told her what was going to happen to her, it would only make the inevitable happen sooner.

You had gotten good at coming off as “normal” despite the thoughts that were running through your head. You were too good and it scared you. As you spoke to her, you were keen on coming up with believable lies for the questions she threw at you. “Am I becoming like the guys?” you constantly asked yourself.

TAIPEI DAY 3

With V gone at a deal with Rap monster, you all were a bit bored without him. The entire day was basically a usual last day. You and Jimin were on his bed watching yet another Netflix movie on Jungkook’s laptop. There was nothing good to watch, so you both made a game of watching foreign movies without subtitles or even reading the summary of the movie and trying to figure out what was going on. At the moment, you were watching some French film and neither of you could figure out what the genre of it was.

“Do you know what is going on yet?” you asked

“Nah, you?”

“Nope!”

Jungkook came in from the other side of the room and looked at himself in the standing mirror by the door. “Ah! I need to workout!”

“You look fine me!” Jimin commented. “Fine as fuck.” He whispered, making you laugh.

“That’s it! I’m going to the gym!” Jungkook declared.

“I’ll go too!” Jimin said, jumping off the bed. “C’mon y/n, let’s go.”

“I don’t wanna go though.” You whined

“You have to. You can’t be alone. We’d leave you here, but we don’t want to risk Namjoon finding out.”

“It’s two against one. All you gotta do is sit and enjoy the show!” Jungkook grunted as he began doing outrageous body builder poses.

You all changed into workout clothes and made the short journey to the elevator. However, you all stopped when Suga’s voice called out to you all. “Hey guys! Where are you all going?”

“The gym.” Jimin answered. “Where are you going?”

“Um, well, I was going to you guys’ room…”

“Just come with us then!... You looked dressed to go anyway.”

“Eeehhh…” Suga shrugged.

Jungkook was rather impatient and grabbed your hand. “Well, you stay behind then. We are heading to the gym before more people get there.” He said as he began to lead you down the hall.

“I guess I’ll tag along then!” Suga said soon catching up to you.

At the gym, there was more than a few people doing their thing. They all definitely took notice of the four of you as you all walked in. From the corner of your eye you could see them stopping their workout to try and sneak pictures of you guys as you made your way over to the other side of the gym.

Jungkook pulled you closer to him. “There are a few people around, do you wanna give them a little show or something?”

“It’d be smart if we did.” you whispered back to him.

Jimin went straight to the weights and Suga took a seat at the empty chairs along the wall. You and Jungkook went over to an open area.

Jungkook lay on the floor on his back. “Ok baby, I need you to count for me.” He said cutely, but loud enough that the other guest could hear him.

‘No problem!” you said, keeping ahold of his legs.

After having practically no personal space from him since the tour started and having pretended for so long, his face coming so close to yours didn’t bother you anymore. In fact, you could consider him as an acquaintance, occasionally having decent small talk here and there and having an inside joke from time to time. This moment was the perfect opportunity to playfully mess with him a bit.

Jungkook noticed the sudden smile in your face. “What’s- so-funny?” He asked between each sit up.

You didn’t answer him. Instead, you broke out into the ugliest face you could get yourself to make and proceeded to make different stupid faces each time he sat back up.

Jungkook fell back down in a fit of laughter. “You were supposed to keep count!” He laughed. “How many did I have?”

“… I wasn’t paying attention!” you smiled innocently. “Start again!”

“Aish! What am I going to do with you?”

“Love me! Don’t be so grumpy, all that laughing I made you do probably gave you a better six pack!”

“And not all those sit ups I just did?”

“Of course not!” you smiled.

“Am I going to win this little dispute?” there was still a remanence of a smile on his face.

“Of course not!” you repeated in the same cheerful tone.

Jungkook repositioned himself and did a complete sit up again, this time placing a kiss on your forehead.

“One.” You smiled.

He proceeded with his set of sit ups until deciding to stop at 100. Then he moved to work on his arms along side Jimin. They both had their music in their ears and were in the zone. You still didn’t feel like being active in any way so you got up from the floor and took a seat next to Suga.

“You’re not gonna workout?” He asked

“I have no intention of doing such a thing. I’m only here cuz they dragged me along. But why did you come?”

“That horse of yours is with Meihui and I was stuck in the room with Jin who has been video chatting Jinjin for hours. I was going to your room to go annoy you.”

“You really like doing that, don’t you?”

He smiled that cute gummy smile of his. “It’s a good way to pass the time…” Sadly, his smile quickly disappeared. “Hey… Hiro hasn’t given you any trouble, right?” He asked in a whisper.

“Nope, not at all. Thanks.”

“Good… Listen… I just wanna warn you about something… I don’t know what day I’ll meet her, but when I’m with Aiko, uh, I’ll probably be acting a bit different.”

You swallowed a lump that formed in your throat at just the sound of her name. “Different how?”

“Just, um, maybe not being able to talk to you as much…”

You looked away from him and moved your gaze to Jimin and Jungkook. “Well, then things won’t be too different then.” You said with surprising amount of attitude.

“What do you mean?”

You didn’t answer him right away. Instead you noticed that Jimin and Jungkook were now doing different exercises. Jimin was doing different style of pull ups on the arm bar and Jungkook was over on the weight bench. “…Why don’t you go spot Jungkook?” you suggested as a way to change the subject

“What? That’s not what I was asking.”

“Just go spot him noodleman.” You said jokingly. “It’s not smart for anyone to bench by themselves. Go help him.”

Suga did as you told him, but not without looking back at you in utter confusion.

As Suga left, Jimin came up to you and asked you to help him with sit ups too. You played with him the same way you did Jungkook. He was a bunch of laughs, constantly getting after you for throwing him off. After he finished his set, he went back to doing other exercises.

You sat back down and Suga was still spotting Jungkook, but he had left his phone behind. The phone buzzed and the screen turned on to show a new message from none other than Aiko. Just seeing her name on his phone twisted your insides. You only felt worse when you saw what she had sent him. You didn’t know Japanese, but you understood heart emojis.

You looked up and saw Suga making his way back to his seat. You quickly turned away from his phone and acted like you didn’t see anything. When he sat back down, he looked at his phone and quickly pulled out his head phones that Jackson gave him, cutting himself off from the rest of the world.

Thirty minutes of silence went by before Jimin finished his workout and came and sat next to you.

“Why’d you finish so quickly?” you asked.

“I just couldn’t get into the workout.” He shrugged.

You noticed that he wasn’t looking at you though. He was staring longingly at Jungkook who was yet again working out with the dumbbells.

“You’re so lucky.” He mumbled. “Well, not lucky… but um-“

You laughed. “Don’t worry I think I get what you mean. I don’t blame you for being a bit jealous sometimes.” You in a hushed voice.

“Is it that obvious?” he whispered.

“A bit, but that’s only cuz I know.”

He covered his face with his hands out of embarrassment, but then he looked around to see if there were people around. When the coast was clear he spoke again. “But just look at him though! He’s just so… Damn!”

“What exactly do you like about him?” you whispered. You had always been curious as to why Jimin had such strong feeling for Jungkook. Even though you knew Jungkook a bit more, you still couldn’t see what Jimin saw in him.

“Need I remind you that he’s hot as fuck?” he asked, making you both laugh. “…But aside from that, he’s just amazing. Like yeah, he can a little shit at times, but underneath it all he’s super sweet and considerate… He’s perfect. I’m just- I’m like so drawn to him. No matter how much I tell myself that there is point to these feelings, I can’t stop them…”

You were surprised Jimin was telling you this, and in a gym, no less. Maybe after everything that went down between the two of you, you guys were actually friends now.

“…Jimin, do you still get jealous of me and him to the point that it hurts the way it did before?”

“Honestly?… Yeah a tiny bit… but I don’t know. It’s not that I’m mad at you anymore or anything. It’s just… I just wish it was me…”

You gave him a half smile. “Don’t worry Jimin, it’s all fake. I don’t like him like that.”  you reassured. “but I think I know how you feel now.” You said under your breath as you look a glimpse at Suga.

[deafening-roar-of-angry-students]

1) No one. I'm waiting. 2) depends. I'm mostly outgoing. 3) I'm not sure anymore... I mean, I thought I would love to see them but no. I scratched the thought. 4) if I like you or think your decent then yes. I'm stubborn. But I'm a pushover at times too. 5)Yes. But it broke my heart. Into a million pieces. 6) probably not. Honestly I don't think anyone would. I would just be another person that's drunk on the street to them. 7)Nope. Definitely not. Or ever. 8)I don't want to give names out. But I really don't want to think about them. Its hurting me. And I can't stop. 9)No. My mum is a nurse so i've been raised around a lot of weird things. Most of my friends don't care either. Its normal. 10) I don't trust anyone with my true emotions anymore. They pretend they care and then stab you in the back or end up being a**es. 11)"Hey". The person I sent it too hasn't replied for 3 days. 12)Honestly I don't care about politics. I don't feel safe saying my words rn. Too much Drama. 13) no. Too much noise. Too overwhelming. 14) I used to. I mean, I sometimes wish on fallen eyelashes or whatever but its for the fun aspect. I don't believe in it anymore. 15) well, it isn't summer yet but last summer I thought I met somebody I would care about forever, who felt the same and confessed it to me too. But they just....it doesnt matter now anyways. 16) I would kiss my mums cheek again yes, she travels a lot so kisses on the cheek goodbye are nice. 17)its been scientifically proven. 18) No. Not anymore. I gave up. 19) I forgot how to take one. 20)They don't talk to me so yes. But their kids are noisy. Very noisy. Ugh. 21) I trust people to easily. I chew my nails when I'm anxious. I care about even the bad people. 22)Back home. To Indiana. I miss it. 23) Its been well established. I've given up. People seem to wanna destroy it. So I font know why ishould care. I kept my promises even when tempted. 24) the naps. I dream that I'm okay again. 25)My face. People see to much emotion their. Its caused most of my problems. 26)I want to go back to sleep so I whine to whoever woke me up. But I stop soon after in fear of annoying them too much. 27) it doesn't matter. I'm who I am. I don't care. 28) My Mum. Shes gone rn. I miss her too. 29) No. They end up hating me. 30) I doubt anyone would like me well enough actually. 31)Yes. I like it up in a bun or a Braid though. 32)Hahahahano. 33)??? What???? 34)I do theatre. its twice as hard as any sport. 35)T.V. music is my life. It's the soul being expressed. 36)No. I almost didn't. And I should have never looked at them at all. Ever. 37) I just give up and leave. If we have nothing to talk about then I have better things to do. 38)Depends on what the law is. Not me. 39)Hot Topic, converse, the Disney store, spencers, and Journeys. 40)I'm not sure. I'm not ready yet. 41)I'm afraid I give people way to many. A second chance is nothing. 42)I'm Hurt emotionally. Upset. Or maybe I'm just thinking. I'm thinking a lot. Of impossible things or different scenarios. 43)yes. Because I may feel bad but at least one smile to someone else can make them feel better. Even if it give them a twinge of happiness or a feeling of okayness. IDC, Its Called being kind. 44)Outer space. 45)yes. We even planned it. 46)losing people. I care about them a lot. But I guess I don't mean to much to them. I still wish for them to be friends at least. Or say hey. I want to be cared about or loved by one person maybe. 47) Its a matter of How many. They all break my heart. 48) I'm not sure. Nobody's said something to me. 49)no. Simply I just sleep. Its okay if they find out secrets. I've been hurt enough. I'll take another hit if I need too. I'm fine. 50)French.