#also on a weird artistic note I love that you can see the reflection of carlos in the tv in the last gif

[guardian-angle22]

TK/Carlos + Looks

↳ 2.12 The Big Heat

[knightyoomyoui]

Dahyun x M/F Reader - "Die With A Smile"

NOTE: This story is inspired from the recently released song a week ago featuring a collab between two of tgreatest artists ever, Bruno Mars and Lady Gaga titled "Die With A Smile", just like the name of this story. Everything also that you're about to read are loosely based from one of the horror films I've watched and I thought about it as another fitting music video for this song if it features a storyline. So yeah, try to listen along while you imagine the story inside your head.

WARNING: Contains violence, expect gore and blood. 

(Ooh, ooh)

I, I just woke up from a dream Where you and I had to say goodbye And I don't know what it all means But since I survived, I realized

At the beginning of the song, a vivid image of hands separating from each other's grasp amidst the white foggy surrounding can be seen. The girl, revealed to be Dahyun, looks at you regretfully and heartbrokenly. She slowly lowers her hand just as her distance shrank.

You abruptly woke up from your bed, catching your breath. You rubbed your hair and face, groaning in reaction after having your precious sleep disrupted by that nightmare. The acoustic guitar from the intro is accompanied with soft "oohs" from Bruno Mars' sweet adlibs.

The next scene was you being alone in the dressing room, checking yourself out on the mirror with the exquisite tuxedo suit you got after what the tailor had made for the special occasion of your life. While straightening the fabric and the necktie wrapped around you, your face showed discomfort and fear after recalling those bothersome glimpses of the nightmare you had last night.

It was weird. Why did you have this a vision of seeing your woman, Dahyun, letting go and bidding goodbye to you? It's one of the worst things you wouldn't want to happen to you ever, especially since you and her are just about to embark into the next chapter of your love story together today.

You just shook your head to get rid of that ridiculous and unpleasant thought. It is better to remain focused on what's about to come today and only hope for the best, as you and her truly deserve it, just like every other wedding couple should. Calming yourself with a broad grin, you looked at the reflection of yourself in the mirror one more time before walking away.

Wherever you go, that's where I'll follow Nobody's promised tomorrow So I'ma love you every night like it's the last night Like it's the last night

On the pre-chorus, the scene shifts to the wedding currently being processed. The chapel was packed with lots of visitors. The priest was standing in front of the altar along with you, the bridesmaid, and your best man. Everyone present was looking at the door opening, revealing the bright lights from outside behind the figure of your lovely bride, Dahyun, in her breathtaking wedding dress and face covered in a white veil.

The next was you and her standing face-to-face in front of the altar. You kept on watching and listening to Dahyun give her oath for you, made from the words in heaven. Remembering what you just experienced a while ago before the wedding started may have gotten you curious about what it might mean, but you are certain that you'll do whatever it takes to prevent that from happening.

Adding another promise within your heart, mind, and soul, along with the oath you've taken before her, you swore that you'd be there by her side always.

The scene then cuts to the reception, where the visitors are now celebrating you and Dahyun being newlyweds. The married couple talked happily with your parents when suddenly the party was interrupted by a scream from one of the guests.

Your heads are directed to where it came from, and to your shock, one of your family's close-friend who is a veterinarian and an elderly guest of yours has his body now hanging dangerously on the terrace before he completely slips down, sending him down and crashing on the ground, which made everybody yell in surprise.

As the wife of the man who fell from the second floor came in a hurry to check on his condition, the man suddenly rose from the ground and pulled his wife closer. Everybody shouted in horror when the man started to bite his wife on the neck, which caused all of the guests to get back away from the strange couple. The beats of the drum at the end of the pre-chorus coincides with the shot of the man biting the bloody, torn skin and creepily staring at everyone who is looking back at him.

If the world was ending I'd wanna be next to you If the party was over And our time on Earth was through I'd wanna hold you just for a while And die with a smile If the world was ending I'd wanna be next to you

As the chorus began to play, everyone started running for their lives, which caused a stampede, which panickedly made you and Dahyun separate from each other. Both of you scream for each other's names in the middle of the chaos ensuing in the room. You ended up in the kitchen along with your cousin, Dahyun's sister, and the photographer for your wedding. Some of the guests who turned out to be looking infected with rabid behavior were located at the door.

The square glass in the middle of it got shattered, and Mr. and Mrs.'s hands started to sprawl out. You found a vent to hide in and intended to make everybody get in there before the door opened. After successfully entering the vent, you wondered why the photographer hadn't joined yet. Despite your panic, the photographer instead commanded the three of you to keep moving forward, as he confirmed that he couldn't fit inside the vent due to his size and that he'd be the one to block the infected off.

Appreciating his sacrifice, all three heads went on to escape. The three ended up outside and found a police car parked. Your cousin led the inspection, and it turns out there was a deceased policeman inside the driver's seat. While he did a closer look, the policeman suddenly sprung up and bit your cousin on the cheek, leaving you no choice but to cry in pity for your cousin and leave him there as Dahyun's sister forces you to continue escaping.

Through the final lines of the chorus, you and Dahyun's sister came to a halt when you heard Dahyun's voice speak over the speakers. The utmost joy and relief he felt after she ensured that she's currently fine was replaced quickly by surprise when Dahyun additionally announced that she's pregnant and she needs him right now as soon as possible. You proceeded to search for her afterwards.

(Ooh, ooh) Ooh, lost, lost in the words that we scream I don't even wanna do this anymore 'Cause you already know what you mean to me And our love's the only war worth fighting for

In the second verse, the scene then presents Dahyun on the other side of the story, being joined by the priest, her bridesmaid, and one of her closest friends. They hide in a surveillance room. As they discuss their plans, some of the infected guests arrive and see them through the glass panel on the wall.

They hurriedly left the room and were successful, unlike the priest, who had his coat caught by the hands of the infected. He hastily took it off from his body, but the force of the infected pulling the cloth made him slip while attempting to run, resulting in him facing the ground and looking at them frighteningly before he embraced getting eaten out by the infected.

Meanwhile, you arrived at the surveillance room 10 minutes later and discovered the mess that happened in here, and Dahyun is nowhere to be found. Viewing through the monitors, you and Dahyun's sister had a look at what seemed to be a festive and lively celebration transformed into a hellish, gruesome environment. You watched some of the lifeless guests get consumed by the now aggressive infected, and you have no idea how all of this became possible.

Realizing that this must be the dream he had now coming true in real life, you desperately wanted to come and save Dahyun immediately. Back at your wife's situation, Dahyun, her bridesmaid, and her friend stopped through their tracks when they unexpectedly met someone along the way.

Dahyun was distraught, recognizing her mother now being a completely transformed brain-eating cannibal. She stood there frozen, in disbelief at the horrid sight of her mother. It was about to charge at her, but the bridesmaid stepped up to snap Dahyun's senses back, killing the mother with a large branch of a tree.

Dahyun cried and begged for it to stop, but her friend came to comfort her. As the bridesmaid was about to be done, several infected people came towards her, and her distraction caused her to get bitten by them. They ran away, but the infected had their attention stolen when the speakers activated and played a familiar tune. Dahyun's expressed a tearful chuckle hearing their wedding song being played by you back in the room.

Wherever you go, that's where I'll follow Nobody's promised tomorrow So I'ma love you every night like it's the last night Like it's the last night

The second pre-chorus focuses on the scene where Dahyun and her friend locate a storage room in the middle of the woods, where they luckily find a chainsaw and a working TV. They switched it to a channel showing a news report about an ongoing contagious virus spreading through the main cities of South Korea.

Dahyun then learned that the virus was believed to originate from the combined effects of a hazardous chemical and strong signs of leptospirosis in a rat and rabies, which particularly were detected in a cat based on the statements of one of the survivors. Health authorities subsequently received a complaint about a certain veterinary clinic going wild, and the owner is currently being searched.

They found a huge metal lid beside the exterior of the room and opened it just as the infected spotted them on sight. They quickly opened it but had no other time to close it as they became closer. As they reached underground, Dahyun prepared herself by tearing off some of the cloth on the lower portion of her dress to help her move faster.

The drums from the instrumental hit hard and fast, matching the growing intensity as Dahyun and her friends stand on their places while they wait for the infected to descend one by one and launch at them.

If the world was ending I'd wanna be next to you If the party was over And our time on Earth was through I'd wanna hold you just for a while And die with a smile If the world was ending I'd wanna be next to you

The 2nd chorus plays right during Dahyun and her friend's killing spree through the infected, chainsaw slashing every limb, blood splashing everywhere, and an axe buried deep down through the bones.

Unfortunately, her friend got bitten on the shoulder while struggling to finish another one. As they managed to empty the sewer, Dahyun understood his request and was forced to kill him by slicing his head off with a chainsaw.

Meanwhile, you and her sister grabbed some armors and makeshift swords from of the displays inside the manor before sprinting as both explored across the hallways, avoiding the infected chasing you both along the way. Trying to fight them off with whatever foreign object could be seen, Dahyun's sister attempted to lure away some of the infected chasing behind but was overpowered as she got pulled and bitten.

Devastated, you complied with her subtle request to go after your wife. Dahyun saw a ladder through another lid, dropped her chainsaw due to its weight, and climbed it, but noticed that it was locked. She tries to bump it with all the strength she has, but is unsuccessful. Almost losing hope, you suddenly appeared in front of the lid, unknowingly ending up in the same area as her, much to her surprise.

Both of you said each other's names in delight but were cut short when an infected appeared below Dahyun. You quickly found a way to open the padlock just in time for Dahyun to exit and shut the lid to block the infected. 

Right next to you Next to you Right next to you Oh-oh

You and Dahyun exchanged stares and nodded in agreement. You took a few long breaths before removing your body weight to unblock the lid and gripping Dahyun's arm.

The instrumentals played loudly while you and Dahyun made a run for survival out of the estate against the horde of infected chasing your innards. Losing and decreasing some number of them with your defenses, you reached the garden together and continued your moment of rekindling with her, hugging Dahyun tightly.

A time like this will never allow anybody to have their sweetest moment to rest, not until this is all over. Dahyun got alerted at the approaching infected from your back that appeared on the corner of the bushes. She pushed you off and blocked herself with her arm as the infected lunged off for an attack.

She reaches off for your sword and slowly cuts her head off using it. She raises her arm and observed the bite wound she received and instantly demanded you to cut it off right away.

Despite your hesitation and concern, you grabbed your sword and smashed it through her laid arm, causing her to shriek and growl in immense pain.

If the world was ending I'd wanna be next to you If the party was over And our time on Earth was through I'd wanna hold you just for a while And die with a smile If the world was ending I'd wanna be next to you If the world was ending I'd wanna be next to you

At the final chorus, you and Dahyun have reached the front gate and noticed that all the metal bars are barricaded with plastic barriers. Both were fascinated to see that the authorities had quarantined the area.

As you stopped rotating after finding out where you had been led, what you discovered left you frozen in distress.

Dahyun glances at you with her crinkly lips, bleeding nose, pupils and eyes reddening, and teeth becoming grizzly. Based on the obvious signs of her infection, it means that your attempt to prevent the spreading of the virus across her brain has failed.

You lost any care anymore; she remains important to you just as much as the promise you made for her. Carrying Dahyun's weak and collapsing body in your arms, you walk ahead through the exit as personnel in hazmat suits watch the both of you make your way out.

The soldiers began aiming all their heavy guns at your emergence with your dying wife in your arms. Looking at her with pure affection and no disgust or terror, you shed a teardrop for her and kissed her on the lips.

It lasted for seconds until you felt a stinging pain in your mouth. Your eyes widen as Dahyun rips off your tongue. She stands in front of you, now posing in full infected form with amputated arm, yelling uncontrollably at the soldiers while you voicelessly suffer with your damaged mouth.

The soldiers immediately fire their bullets straight at both you and Dahyun. After they all emptied a half of their mags at your helpless carcasses, you and Dahyun crashed on the ground, front and back first, respectively.

Extending their arms one final time to crawl their fingers through the top of their hands and grab them with the last bit of strength left in their body. You and Dahyun held each other for a while until both finally died with a smile from their multiple wounds.

The song is already finished, and an extra clip features your eyes opening and rising from the bed again, cupping your chest and thumping fast. You stared at your hands, letting out a breath of relief, seeing the engagement ring on your finger.

Looking below to your left, Dahyun is still sleeping heavily beside you. You gratefully smiled at the sight of your fiancée being completely fine.

(Ooh, ooh) I'd wanna be next to you

Laying back down on the bed, you positioned yourself sideways to cuddle your soon to be wife in your arms whilst wrapping her delicate hands onto yours and kiss her crown.

You wished and prayed mentally for God's guidance that you can manage to keep her along with your future child safe and secured like this under your protection after the wedding tomorrow and so on.

Whatever scenario it may occur in the future, not even a virus that can cause an outbreak cannot oppose to the unbreakable love between them.

ADDITIONAL NOTE: Yes, it's a sequel to another one-shot featuring Momo from Set 4 titled "The Fight Of Our Lives", it shares the same universe and occurring at the same time as the predecessor. I know you are sharing the same name as your character with Momo, but let's just pretend that you're playing a different one with a same name as you.

[staceymcgillicuddy]

#12. "Just do it."

Thank you for letting me indulge yet another one of my "fifty different ways they could have met that didn't involve anyone dying" daydreams. Mwah!

“Just do it,” Eddie says to his reflection in the cracked bathroom mirror. “Today. Today’s the fucking day, yeah? Just do it.” 

How can he do it, though, with a zit on his nose? Eddie doesn’t spend an inordinate amount of time thinking about his face or anything, but like… that dude’s a whopper. Red with a white center, and he should probably squeeze it, but if he does that, it might bleed, and he can’t decide if it’s better or worse to ask Chrissy Cunningham out with a zit or the bloody scab of where a zit used to be. 

Probably he should just pop it at home and wait until tomorrow. That’s the solid course of action. Besides, he has Hellfire after school, and if he asks her out today, he’ll be distracted, and the sheepies deserve his full and undivided attention.

Plus—plus!—he and Chrissy have been partnered up for a month on this stupid English project, and it’s due on Friday and today’s Wednesday, so if he asks her out and she says no, that’ll throw off the whole vibe of their presentation. Which, if he says so himself, is a pretty badass show. Funny what happens when you actually make an effort in school, even if it’s just to impress the pretty blonde who initially didn’t seem thrilled to be partnered with you but now laughs every time you make a dumb joke.

It’s a lot easier for Eddie to concentrate on a task when he knows Chrissy’s gonna smile and say something like, “Eddie, that’s so good!” or “I never would have thought of that!” when he’s done. 

“Friday,” he says to his reflection just as the door to the bathroom opens and some bespectacled freshman stumbles in, sees Eddie, and beats a hasty retreat. 

Yeah, that feels about right.

It’s his free period, and he was originally gonna meet Chrissy in the library to work on their poster, but she put a note in his locker this morning saying it was a lovely day and could they please work in the quad instead? 

She’s got the girliest handwriting, and he definitely sniffed the paper to see if it smelled like her perfume. 

(One time, she left her scrunchie on the table, and Eddie stole it while she was in the bathroom. It’s uh… seen some things. He’s a dick. But, whatever. She has eighty of them.) 

When he arrives, Chrissy’s already sitting at one of the four painted-green picnic tables that decorate the quad. Her hair’s in a ponytail, which he pulls to announce his arrival because he’s five and she’s cute, and he wants to shove her down a slide on the playground to tell her he likes her, or whatever.

Jesus Christ, life would be easier if she hadn’t dumped Jason Carver two weeks ago, thus opening herself up as an actual option rather than a fantasy. And, sure, Eddie gets that he’s not even remotely close to her league, but whatever. Even a first date would be more than he deserves.

Chrissy twists at the tug on her hair, and her mouth’s painted with his favorite shade of peachy-pink, lips twisting into a smile. “Hi, Eddie.” 

“Hey, sunshine. I finished those drawings.” 

“Oh, let me see!”

Their presentation is on A Tale of Two Cities, which Eddie actually read (because he really is determined to fucking graduate this time), and also sort of dug because there was a lot of war and intrigue. It’s not Asimov, but he can see the appeal. For the presentation, he and Chrissy are doing a poster depicting the major plot points, and when she found out he wasn’t the world’s worst artist, she asked him to draw and…

Yeah, he’s been making an effort. Not just because he wants to get in her pants, either, but because he likes her as, you know. A person. She’s kind of weird, and he likes how her brain works.

Sitting across from her, he tugs out some loose printer paper from the ream Wayne stole from the plant a year ago. Management would be furious, Eddie’s sure.

Fuck management. Every time he rips the edging off a fresh piece of paper, it makes him smile.

“Oh, wow, Eddie,” Chrissy says when she sees the final piece, which is Carton approaching the platform with the guillotine. “This is amazing.” 

“Ah, thanks,” he says. “It’s no big deal.”

“No, it’s perfect. And I lettered the quote.” That had been Chrissy’s job—picking out the appropriate sentences and hand-lettering them on paper she soaked in tea to make it look old. “Once we have them pasted on, we’re done.” 

“So… cool, yeah. Done.” 

Chrissy carefully places his final drawings in her folder and shrugs. “We don’t have to meet tomorrow, I guess.” 

Shit. Eddie leans forward, fingers digging into the edge of the table. “Uh. Oh. I guess not?” 

“Maybe just Friday, before we present?” 

“Totally.” 

“Cool. We'll kick butt, and then hang out Friday night.”

Eddie's brain stutters to a halt. "We're hanging out Friday night?"  

"Yes. You're taking me out to the movies."

[obae-me]

Tainted Reflections- CH 14

Start This Story From The Beginning!

Previous Chapter Next Chapter

Hidden Hope

Warning: This chapter contains Blood, Violence, Spiders, Claustrophobia, Mentions of Weaponry, Disturbing Imagery.

Special Note: Thank you all with your patience with this chapter. This one is EXTRA special, because I have two very fun things to share with you all! I got two commissions done by some very talented artists! I'm so happy with them, I look at them all the time! One is of Ikito and the other is a nearly perfect rendition of my horrid sin-eater creation. I'll put the photos at the very end of this post, so those who don't wish to see can skip that part altogether. However, if you don't mind a little bit of disturbing monster imagery, please check out the art! The artists put their love into it, I can tell! Thank you all again, for enjoying and supporting this little story of mine. Now, without further ado...

As Always, Read Safely.

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“I found one.” 

There was a strange mix of sensations as your stomach lurched at the sudden voice but also stopped churning with relief. Beel stepped back inside the house, shutting the door behind him to stave off the assault of the cold. Snow fell off of his shoes and created small piles in the doorway. He took one look at you and frowned at your pacing, but you couldn’t help yourself. He’d gone outside. Alone. No amount of arguing or begging convinced him to let you go with him. Even after you explained that the creature– the sin eater– was still out there. Blinded, injuries or not, you had the nagging suspicion you all weren’t safe from the thing. 

You halted your worried walking and approached him. “You did? Did you go inside? Was there food?” 

At the mention of food, Beel looked off to the side, almost as if he was thinking about what it would be like to be having a wonderful meal at Hell’s Kitchen right now. God, wouldn’t that be wonderful? The pains in your stomach were nearly enough now to drive you to your knees, and it seemed to almost be getting worse every minute that passed. You were starving to death. The demon of gluttony could almost sense this, glancing away from you with a pained look in his eye. “It’s…locked.” 

A little bit of hope sank. “But, you could just tear off the doors, couldn’t you?” Magic or not, there weren’t very many things that could keep a determined Beel away. You’d seen him punch his way through rock before. 

The demon turned his head back at you and shook it. “I tried… There’s…some weird magic keeping me from even touching it. None of my magic will work either, no matter how hard I try…” Poor thing looked defeated. 

“Demonic magic doesn’t work here.” You touched his arm gently, trying to reassure him that he was doing his best, that it wasn’t his fault. “Which means…” You stood up straighter and reached a hand out for the door only to have a hand wrap around your wrist. There were many words that Beel wanted to say, but he kept silent. Although, you knew from just the look on his face that he was almost pleading with you not to go outside. The worry for your safety shuddered throughout his body, his fingers trembling, tightening around you before loosening, worried about squeezing you too tightly. “This place doesn’t seem to have a problem with humans. I…have a feeling I can get inside.” 

Judging by the expression on his face, he knew you were right. He believed in you with his whole soul. However… “The sin eater is still out there. I can’t let…” It seemed he didn’t even want to utter the possibilities, as if mentioning them would manifest them into existence. He couldn’t take any risks. Both he and Belphie had skirted around talking about the sin eater, and you couldn’t help but wonder why. Sure, it was monstrous and essentially a living nightmare, but you were sure the twins had seen worse in the Devildom. Hadn’t they? Together, there was little they were afraid of. Although with this thing…there was more than just fear in their faces. It’s as if…between the creases in their skin, you could catch a glimpse of guilt. 

“Tell me…” You spoke softly, breaking the silence after a moment, turning your head to glance towards the door as if you could look past the wood. “What…is it? What’s a sin eater?” Even after the question left your lips, you found yourself wondering if you truly wanted to know the answer. On one hand, you never wanted to think about the thing again, much less learn more about it. But…you hated being left in the dark, knowing that everyone around you knew more than you did. You didn’t want to be soft. Coddled. Protected like you were some fragile little human that couldn’t take a bit of terrifying information. Yes. You wanted to know. 

Beel’s hand lifted your wrist, feeling the pulse of your heartbeat. Then his touch dropped. He lifted his head a little, looking generally in Belphie’s direction, the guilt tearing a new shred into his heart. His feet shifted over the ground, the last bit of snow melting off his shoes, little puddles on the floor. After a moment of anxious silence, his head nodded, as if he was accepting the truth himself. “It’s a weapon.” The curve of his back pressed against the wall of the small entryway. He rubbed his hands together, touching his wrists and feeling the lines in his palms in the way he usually did when he was lost in thought and stressed. “For the war…back when we were angels.” That’s where the guilt came from. “Demons have a natural ability to destroy. Angels counter that with the talent to create. It keeps things in balance. So…the Celestial Realm found itself overwhelmed quite a few times by the Devildom’s sheer power. So, weapons were created to assist us in the war.” 

Your teeth gently bit down on the inside of your cheek as you thought about it. “So, that’s why it targets demons specifically.” Like Belphie…and that demon who served as inspiration– plagiarization– for Ikito’s likeness. 

“It’s their only purpose…” Beel shook his head a little, clearly disturbed at this creature and the mere fact that it existed. “They’re only alive in the sense that they can be killed, but in every other sense, they’re only a tool to hunt. They don’t have emotions. They don’t procreate. They don’t sleep. They don’t even need to eat to live, they just consume demons to…ensure that they’re thoroughly dead…Soul, body, and all.” Beel’s body twitched and lurched slightly, as if he was about to be sick, but he kept himself from doing so. “Lucifer said there were many things that led him to questioning Father, but the first time I ever saw him speak back to Father to His face was when the Sin Eaters were made. Lucifer hated them. Said they were abominations. That we would all be weak if we were to hide behind them to win the war. His pride was ever so strong even back then.” The thought of Lucifer brought a little bit of color back to his face. Beel looked up to him so much. “After the war between realms ended, it was agreed between both worlds that to better keep the peace, the sin eaters should be destroyed. And so they were…or they were supposed to be…but…” 

Clearly one still existed. At least, you hoped there was only one. “Belphie and I injured it. Took off its…face…mask…thing.” The memory made you queasy, but a bit proud in a twisted sort of way. “They don’t…regenerate, do they?” 

Beel’s eyes flickered in his head as he thought. “I don’t think so. They don’t have any magic of their own. All the magic they have is contained in the sigils they are given by the angels.” A little bit of hope and relief sparked in you, but for some reason, Beel didn’t seem to react the same way. “It’s how they ‘see’. They scan for demonic energy and don’t stop until it’s gone.” 

“So it is blind then? Isn’t that a good thing?” Surely it had to be…

“I…I don’t really know about them too much. I never…liked the idea of being eaten.” That had always been known to you. There had been many nights where Beel awoke from nightmares, haunted by the idea of being devoured by the very meals he consumed without a second thought. Although, now it seemed that this fear originated far before he was even known as Gluttony. “Even though I was an angel when they were used, they…terrified me. Belphie would know more…” Beel’s voice went a little softer before he straightened his shoulders. “But I’m worried…that since it can’t tell what’s demonic or not…” 

The realization came to you, another coil winding into your stomach. “It’ll destroy anything…indiscriminately.” Which meant you no longer had your immunity. One step forward and one step back at the same time like it always was in this infuriating place. It could be rampaging and tearing down anything in its wake. Which Beel knew. Hence why he was now so worried about you leaving the house, even if you were only taking a few steps away from its walls. Not to mention, you both had no idea what was lying underneath the house. For all you knew, it could be a trap. Then again, traps were hardly ever sealed. Risks had to be taken. Especially when survival was involved. You took a deep breath in, almost as if you could eat the air, trying to fill your stomach with anything it could get. “I don’t think the creature is around the house, Beel. And…I think I’m the only one that can open the cellar door.” 

His jaw clenched. He knew this was coming. He knew you would be stubborn enough to not change your mind. “Then I’ll come out with you.” 

“Stay with Belphie,” you suggested, a little smile coming to your face, one surprisingly confident. “I don’t think he should be left alone.” On top of that, this place didn’t seem very forgiving of demons. Beel could be in danger down there. 

Another choice. Torn again between two people he cared about. You could see the torment behind his eyes. You had to shake your head and quickly wrap your arms around his waist. “I’ll be careful. If I’m not back in ten minutes, you can come out to get me.” The warmth of his body washed over you and soaked into your skin. You pulled away from him and shrugged the disheveled but now-dry coat tighter over your shoulders. “Ten minutes.” 

“Ten minutes…Or if anything feels wrong,” he whispered, as if finally agreeing. “It’s around to the right.” 

Another step back was taken before your hand wrapped around the chill metal of the door handle. You glanced at the worried Beel before opening the door. The air outside was just as cold and unforgiving as you remembered it being. Although, the silence was a surprisingly welcoming fact. The absence of noise meant the absence of any unwanted monsters. You turned your head to nod at Beel. “I’ll be back,” you said with as much comfort and assurance as you could muster. Hopefully, you’d be back with food. Anything you could get your hands on would seem like a heaping feast. The gentle smile on your face faded as the door shut between you two. 

Beel’s footsteps were clear in the snow around the house, showing you the pathing he had taken. Turning to the right, you stuck close to the walls of the house as you searched for the cellar doors. Luckily for you, Beel had done most of the work. The two doors sticking up slanted above the ground were exposed, two piles of disturbed snow by them. The doors had more than likely been hidden, buried under the frozen white until Beel dug them free. You approached the doors hesitantly, trying to be cautious but not allowing the fear to cripple your movement. As you got closer, you outstretched a hand, slowly motioning to grab the handles to the entrance. A barrier was there, you could feel it. An invisible ripple of magic meant to keep demons at bay. But for you…You could feel your body pass through it. It was an odd sensation, like breaching a thick film settled on the surface of liquid. Your fingers wrapped around the little u-handles before you pried the doors open. They creaked, the screams from the aged hinges nearly making you sweat despite the cold. Too loud. Once it seemed like the sound settled, you glanced down into the darkness. A single wooden handrail trailed downwards on your left side. The first five steps were illuminated…the rest were cast in shadow. The first step you took was made subconsciously. The rest were forced, your willpower overcoming your body’s natural aversion to the unknown. Your palm wrapped around the handrail, your other pressing against the rocky uncut stone wall for extra support. A single breath. A moment of calm. Down you went. 

Crack, creak, groan. Snap, slam, moan. It felt as if everything and nothing was happening all at once. The boredom brought him to tears. Or perhaps it was simply all this dust. Mountains of dust. Endless layers of grime. Time had suggested that these things were stored here to be forgotten, and yet here they were, kicking up things that should've been left to settle still. Box after box after box. Each one left Asmo more frustrated than the last. There was nothing here. This was a waste of time. He should be…with MC! Or with his other brothers! Doing something productive! He knows he's here to help keep Satan's head on his shoulders, to use his keen eyes to sift through the details and find the imperfections, but he can't take this anymore! It’s all off! It doesn't help him any that Satan keeps fluttering off somewhere, muttering to himself, no longer focused on the task at hand. Ever since his brother found that small blood trail, the demon of wrath seemed distant, distracted, lost in his own mind trying to solve a question that no one asked. It seems more like they’re following some wild goose chase now, Satan walking around in circles, chasing dead ends. 

There was some sort of haze in the warehouse, and Asmo wasn’t entirely sure if it was the mind-numbing repetitiveness of cracking open a crate to find nothing inside or if it was something else. It seeped into his skin, a creeping feeling crawling up his back. Perhaps Satan was feeling it as well, which is why his brother kept returning to that one aisle to stare at the same drops of blood over and over and over again. Obsessed. As if observing it for a twentieth time at a different angle in a different light would reward him with a different answer. 

The demon of lust sighed heavily, reaching into his pocket to pull out his D.D.D. to check the time. Just exactly how long had they been at this now? How long before they could go home and reconvene with the others? It felt…lonely out here. His brothers were a rowdy, exhausting bunch, but he wanted to be home, listening to people shout each others names down the hall, hearing the frantic footsteps of people chasing each other through the House. As soon as the screen to the device lit up, a large black and red spider skittered across his phone and onto the back of his hand. Asmo shrieked, jumping back and dropping his phone at the same time. With a flick of his wrist, Asmo sent the spider across the room with a shudder. It seemed unfazed, crawling across the floor and up the wall, slipping through a gap near the ceiling.

“That’s it!” The fifth-born felt the air around him grow warm as he had half a mind to blow the rest of this warehouse to bits. His palms ran over the entire length of his body, brushing off every inch of his clothes. It was as if he could almost feel more of those things moving across his body, but it was simply paranoia. His chest felt tight, and despite the roof of the warehouse looming overhead, the building felt like it was shrinking, getting smaller, threatening to trap him in one of these little empty crates. Every breath, every moment his heart pounded in his chest, it seemed to make the environment more crowded. 

At this, a few rapid steps were heard before the bright blonde head of Satan cropped up at the end of the aisle. “What’s wrong? What happened? Did you find something?” 

“No!” Asmo spat a bit, his voice nearly cracking. “We’ve found absolutely nothing here but blood and dust and bugs and dead ends! Stuck in this cruddy cramped building with no way out and–” Before he could continue, Satan seemed to be over at his side, gripping the sides of Asmo’s arms, snapping him out of it. 

“You’re not trapped, Asmo. Do the walls feel like they’re closing in?” Satan wondered, a knowing look in his eye, to which Asmo nodded. Satan hummed. “Then go outside and wait for me. I’ll finish up here and then we can leave. I think we have enough information for Diavolo.” Satan let him go after a moment, taking a step back and giving his brother a simple nod and a slightly awkward pat on the shoulder. 

The fifth-born lowered his head a bit, a deep frown crossing over his lips. Asmo had been the one not too long ago to keep Satan from freaking out, and now here he was, doing the same. Maybe that’s why Diavolo insisted they all move in groups. There was something in the air, something planting itself in all of them that would drive most demons mad. They needed the support of each other to make it through this. That’s how it’s always been… Even when his brothers can’t stand each other…they needed to be together. Asmo took in a deep breath, rubbing his hand where the accursed arachnid crawled over his skin. He nodded, paused to think and then nodded again. “Okay…if you’re sure. Don’t take too long,” he encouraged, taking a little step back away from Satan as he felt his wings flutter. 

Before he fully realized it, he was outside, taking the clear air into his lungs as if he’d been close to drowning. It felt better out here. Sure, he might’ve had the teensiest bit of claustrophobia, but it…seemed like there was more to it than that. The longer he was in there, the more the building itself felt like it was dangerous, and Asmo didn’t know why. He just knew he would be better off anywhere other than here. Satan didn’t have the same issue. If anything, it appeared to Asmo that the building was luring his brother deeper in. Little clues and hidden secrets that spun Satan’s curiosity on an endless loop. Actually, the more he thought about it, the stranger it seemed, especially as the crisp air seemed to clear his head. Was there…magic in the air?... 

Snap. The sound of a broken twig caused Asmo to whirl around, his heart in his throat. Suddenly, the space around him seemed too quiet. The small hairs on the back of the demon’s neck stood up on end as his eyes scanned the surroundings. Another demon? Someone they missed? A member of the council? Asmo’s heart stopped, but then he shook his head, his hair coming loose from its proper placement. No…no, he would be able to tell if it was one of them, and why would one of them come all the way out here anyway? He’d be done with this little pest and then wait more for Satan. Asmo took a step forward, fingers curved as his already sharp nails grew into knife-like claws. Off in the distance, a shadow moved from tree to tree, hiding their shape behind the trunks. There. With a steady breath, Asmo raced forward to where he saw the figure, curving around the trees and burying his nails deep inside. But…there was no one. No sound of footsteps, no warmth of a body in his grasp, just splinters digging into the pads of his fingers. 

Asmo took another step back, his eyes narrowing at the marks he had made in the tree. Confusion flooded his mind. Had he seen things? No…his eyes wouldn’t lie, would they? He saw someone, he did! They must’ve just snuck off… They were still around here somewhere… Asmo’s chest heaved silently, a thin veil of panic stretching over him. This was fine… This should be fine. Just some random lesser demon to take care of…right? Then why was his gut squeezing? Why was the air feeling thicker with each breath? The space around him wavered like the human world did when the sun was scorching down on everyone. It warped around him, flicked at his feet. 

A hand grabbed Asmo’s neck from behind. 

The demon of lust spun around, a shrill little growl leaving the back of his throat as he went to swipe at whoever dared grab him! Then he stopped in his tracks, his nails returning to their usual length, his heart stopping once more as he nearly gouged his brother’s face. Asmo looked even more confused before the sensations he was feeling flooded out of him, replaced with frustration instead. “What the hell?!” He shoved his brother so harshly, the other demon fell to the ground. “I thought…” 

“You thought…what?” There was a hint of a sneer in his face. 

With one hand on his hip, Asmo sighed, his head tilting back as far as it could. Breathe. One…Two…Three… Then his attention snapped back to his sibling. “You know ‘what’! Don’t go sneaking around, especially with what’s going on!” One of his fingers pointed accusatory down at his little brother. “You shouldn’t be here anyway… Why are you here, Belphie?” 

The demon of sloth remained on the ground, lounging, too lazy to let himself get up. The fluffy end of his tail twitched. “The angels and MC were worried. We haven’t heard reports back from anyone yet. So I decided to check on you two since you’re the easiest to get to and all.” Belphie’s eyes stared off at nothing, but Asmo was acutely aware of the fact that he was being watched. He always knew when he was being watched, and he normally loved the attention, but… 

“That makes sense, I guess…” The older of the two rubbed his own arm in a self-comforting gesture. It worried him that no one else had reported back, but considering where his other brothers were heading, it made sense. Communication between them all would be rare… “Still, you didn’t have to scare me.” 

“Boo,” Belphegor laughed, finally rocking his body back and forth before he sat up on the ground. 

Asmodeus tutted softly, holding his hand out for his brother to take to get him to his feet. His little brother took it, standing up straight just to drape himself against his body. Asmo sighed, holding his brother’s torso in his arms. He felt comforted by the warmth of his brother’s body, although a little annoyed at having to drag him. “We’re waiting for Satan to finish up in there, and then we can just all go home together.” 

Belphie remained in his arms for a little while longer before standing up on his own and yawning. “Did you guys find anything?” 

At that, the demon of lust shifted awkwardly on his feet. “No. Nothing.” A tilt of the head. “Well, Satan thinks he found something. He’s gotten pretty obsessed in there…I’m a little bit worried he’ll never come out.” 

A heavy sigh left Sloth’s lungs, although Asmo noticed that the corner of his brother's mouth twitched. To anyone else, they wouldn’t have noticed, but to him, where body language was everything, it was blindingly obvious. It was almost as if his brother was amused. “That’s Satan for ya… He’ll get so caught up in the little details, he doesn’t notice the obvious right in front of him.” It was said in an admirable sort of way, with an undertone that left a small chill in Asmo’s bones. “It’s a good thing you were there for him. I can’t imagine what would happen if he were left by himself.” 

There was something…odd with the way Belphie was speaking. Asmo couldn’t outwardly place it. “Are you angry?” He asked. “Upset that you were left at home?” He took in another breath to speak, but he was cut off.

“No, I’m not upset.” The youngest brother stretched, his arms folded behind his head. “Actually, I think it was best that I was asked to stay at home.”

“Really?” Asmodeus couldn’t help but fold his arms a bit, shifting his weight to one leg. “You actually agree with Diavolo’s orders for once?” 

At the mention of the prince, Belphie rolled his eyes, his face dropping. “Maybe I had my own reasons for wanting to stay. I’m not just doing it because I was ordered to, alright?” 

That seemed much more like him, although Asmo had a hard time shaking away this abnormal feeling clinging to his back, like the spider was strolling along his spine. He looked over his shoulder, seeing a shift out of the corner of his eye, hoping it was Satan leaving the building. A rush of chilling fear pulsed through his veins as he looked away from Belphie and spun around. “It’s gone…” The warehouse… Satan…the building was no longer there. Satan! “Where did it…” A swirling mist seemed to lift up from the ground around his feet. The more Asmo took in the sight, the more it seemed less as if Satan had disappeared and more like he had. The clearing around him was not the same as it had been. The tree he had slashed behind him was nowhere to be seen… The marks he made couldn’t have vanished. His head spun. The environment kept shifting, like they were both moving without realizing it. Disoriented, lost, Asmo brought his hands to his temples. 

A comforting hand wrapped around Asmo’s arm, trailing up to his wrist, his hand. “Quit being so dramatic,” Belphie whispered. “Everything is exactly where it should be…” His brother reached into his own pocket, something shining in his hand, but Asmo didn’t have time to see what it was. 

All in an instant, his soul felt like it was being tugged from his body. Violently, he was strung along, whirling through empty darkness. At first, it felt as if he was being ripped in two directions, the feeling of Belphie’s hold still gripping his limbs. Two beings were fighting against him desperately, but one was much stronger than the other, or at least his pull was. After a few seconds, Asmo was back in himself, ready to shout. Before he could, a firm hand was planted over his mouth. Darkness surrounded Asmo, the only light coming from a very small hole near his waist. Lust’s arms were pinned to his sides to keep him from flailing about as heat from stale air and from another body pressed into his. The demon’s back smushed up against what felt like wood, his legs slightly bent as he was cramped into something. Which didn’t help his panic at all. Out of one bad situation and into another. Had he been saved or condemned? At the moment, he wasn’t sure. All he knew is that his chest felt tight. Constricted. However, a voice filled his ears. 

“Don’t freak out. Don’t make a sound.” The hand around Asmo’s mouth squeezed cautiously before letting him go. Solomon leaned back as much as he could, but there was little room to do so.

“Where-” Asmo squeaked, a little too loud for the sorcerer’s comfort, two hands clamping over the demon’s face this time. 

Solomon somehow managed to speak just above a whisper, so quiet, footsteps or perhaps even a breeze could drown out the sound. “Soon. I’ll explain everything in a second…Just stay still. Don’t panic.” 

Asmo had to gulp down his own fear, his hands shaking as he tried to think of what happened with Belphie before being summoned here. However, he found it difficult to get his thoughts straight as a cold sweat formed over his body at being stuck in what he was assuming was a small box. Well, small for two people at least. He couldn’t even find it in him to make a joke about how close he and Solomon were at the moment. Silence. More silence. His pact-mate continued to force him to stay still, but Asmo was starting to lose it. However, soon they both heard a noise. A high pitched and sharp sort of clacking. Asmo instantly knew it was the sound of heels on a hard surface. The steps were perfectly even, sounding strikingly similar to the steady ticking of a clock. The steps got closer and closer before the crate that Asmo and Solomon were inside was shifted, slightly lifted before they both got the sensation they were being moved. Asmo held onto the fabric around Solomon’s arms, his eyes squeezing shut even though he couldn’t see anything anyway. A door opened. More walking. Another door. More walking. They were being moved from one spot to another for a long time, taking very few turns until finally the walking stopped and a voice was heard. 

“Set it over there with the others.” The tone was deep and beautiful, much like Asmo would think Lucifer’s was, but this voice was practically empty. There was no life to it at all. No rise and fall of the pitch, just one tone all the way through. Almost artificial in nature. The voice was familiar, even though the demon of lust desperately wished it wasn’t. 

The crate settled on the ground, the heels moving away from them. A latch was shut and a lock was rattled. A minute passed. Then another minute. After Solomon was beyond certain they were alone and the owner of the voice was far gone, he dropped his hands. Asmo took the time to grab the sorcerer’s shoulders, shaking him a little, tears almost dotting his eyes. “Where are we Solomon?!” We have to get back! Satan was still back there…with Belphie. Something was wrong with Belphie…

The human shushed Asmo a little, the sound of wood creaking a bit as Solomon pressed his hands up towards the top of the box. A little magic glowed, flowing through the wood and dissipating. The gentle clanking of metal hitting the ground followed shortly after, the nails prying themselves free from the other side. Light soon shone through as Solomon slowly lifted up the lid to the crate, silently setting it on the floor, standing up as the bones in his knees and back popped. Solomon groaned softly in pain. How long had he been in here for?... The sorcerer pressed a single finger to his lips again, his normally bemused expression coldly serious this time. “We’re not safe here…” He warned. “I’m sorry to summon you like this. I wouldn’t under normal circumstances, but… I need your help.” He took Asmo’s hands in his own, pulling the demon up, freeing him from his compact prison. “The angels are in serious danger… They’re with Alastor.”  

Old wood creaked. Each plank tempted to snap. Even frozen time couldn’t save them from the elements. Or, perhaps they had simply been ancient to begin with. Each step was taken with care, both hands digging into their supports, the pad of the foot finding security before the heel followed. Although, misfortune tends to strike even with extreme vigilance. One of the steps before you was coated in a thin layer of ice. As your toe cracked its surface, you slipped. A stumble. A gasp. Luckily, your firm grasp on the rail and your survival instincts kept you from falling. Snapping your neck by falling down stairs after all you had been through was not the way you wanted your story to end. Not after all this. You clung to the rail, taking in a deep breath as your blood pounded past your ears. Then you noticed a tingling itchy feeling in the palm of your hand. The sharp stone wall had sliced your skin. It seemed like a fairly shallow wound, although you could tell even in the dim nearly non-existent light that it was bleeding. Beel would scold you, surely… Perhaps you deserved it for failing to bring a source of light with you. You’d become so accustomed to simply pulling out your D.D.D. whenever you needed it… Ah well, nothing to do about it now. Your vision was slowly acclimating anyway.  The decaying steps suddenly came to an end, your foot feeling the shift in support and texture even under the sole of the boots you were wearing. Still apprehensive, you reached out with your leg, making sure there wasn’t another step down or a gap. Solid ground. You sighed a bit, taking a second to breathe after your fumble before you let go of the handrail. First part over. The easiest part, most would say, and you were already winded and wounded. 

Amidst the darkness, you could make out the outline of something directly in front of you. Another door. Feeling around for a doorknob, you found instead a sliding latch. It unlocked with a swift tug, clunking as it did so. Then the door seemed to swing ajar on its own. Loose hinges or a shift in the air… certainly that’s all it was. With a nudge of your knee, the door opened further, almost shuddering at your touch. It was as if it was surprised it was being moved at all. The scent of old wet dirt permeated your senses. It caused your nose to crinkle a bit, but did not deter you. Mindful of the potential dangers, you took very short and quiet steps inside the room. It was nearly a shuffle, your feet afraid to lift too far up the ground with your limited sight. Sensing your presence, the faint puffing sound of a flame ignited the weary wick of a candle not too far in front of you. The sound and the sudden appearance of light made you gasp so harshly you choked on your own air. While you cleared the feeling from your throat, you took in the room. 

Just from a first glance, you had a feeling that the cellar wasn’t a danger to you. You could spot shelves lined up against the walls holding jars and bottles and refurbished milk-crates. A make-shift table was on your left side, made out of three barrels and a loose wide plank of wood. Much like the house, it had a feeling of…safety. Almost. You never truly felt secure here. However, it had a certain…aura about it. The closest thing you could connect it to were the safe rooms in plenty of Levi’s games. This home was cut away from the rest of this little world. Singrid’s haven, perhaps. This cellar felt much the same. Old and run-down, sure, but in that endearing sort of way. Like how one might feel walking into an antique shop or childhood house. 

The candle attempting to illuminate the room to its best ability sat in a brassy single candle holder. Its ivory wax was only about three inches in length, the little flame almost cocooned in a semi-transparent shell. It had been used, and for quite a bit. An odd detail for sure. Everything about this world gave off the sense that things were untouched and abandoned…but the candle was clearly used, almost burnt through. Someone had used it down here and quite frequently. You approached the ramshackle table and picked up the holder’s curved handle. Raising up your injured hand, you checked the damages. Blood filled in the lines and cracks in your hand, spider-webbing out in different directions, but already your wound seemed to be preparing to scab over. The warmth from the tiny flame started to drift over your numbing fingertips. With a source of light at your disposal, you moved around the underground space with a bit more confidence. 

Making your way over to one of the cellar’s many shelves, you nearly found yourself brought to tears. Food. Woven baskets contained various vegetables such as potatoes, carrots, beets, onions, and squash. Cloves of garlic and ginger were strung up here-and -there, typically dangling next to heads of cabbage and lettuce. Glass jars held more preserved foods. Tomatoes, pickles, peaches, water-glassed eggs. A carton even contained a bunch of oranges, their peels coated in a thick layer of wax to seal in the moisture. There were a few empty bottles scattered over the ground, but the few that were left on the shelves were full. Human alcohol. The caskets down here probably contained wine. This trip was well worth the risk. Hope raised back up in your chest. You wouldn’t starve, and perhaps this could give the twins some strength. All you could wish for now is that the magic that stopped time stopped the decay of this food. 

Just as you were about to turn to head back and tell Beel the good news, something stuck out to you. Or rather, you should say, something was sticking out of the wall. Near the back of the cellar, adjacent to bags of grains and barrels of booze, was a dagger, much like the one you were holding on your hip now. Silver. Black leather tightly coiled around the hilt. About seven inches in length. The guard was a bit chunkier than you would see for most standard blades. It was about the shape of a trapezoid, an ivy pattern etched into the metal alongside a few characters from a language you could not read. The pommel at the end was oval, with two ends slightly flattened, a green stone inlaid inside, resembling an eye. Taking out the dagger from your belt loop, you compared the two. Almost a perfect match. Except, the letters on the guards were different, and the stone set in the one in your hand was blue. 

“Interesting…” you said aloud, raising the candle closer to observe. The weapon was sticking out of a small crack in the stone. Although, it seemed almost as if the blade was about to fall out…like the weapon had been inserted into a hole already made rather than being the cause. Tilting your head a bit, you slipped the dagger already in your possession back into the loop of your pants before using those same fingers to touch the other weapon. You didn’t grab it out, no. Perhaps you’d seen too many action movies where pulling at something so obvious like this would cause a door beneath your feet to drop you into a pit or send something crashing down upon your head. So, rather, you touched the pommel with your fingers and settled the blade deeper inside the wall. Metal scraped against stone, causing a discomforting feeling in your teeth. 

At first, nothing happened, but then, the green stone softly glowed. Emerald light blinded your eyes as a line of magic rushed and flowed through the wall, tracing a little line along the outside of the stone in the wall. It moved up and around and back down again before a hearty thunk echoed through the chamber, rattling some of the dust free from the ceiling. The section of the wall suddenly swung open. A hidden door…to a secret room? Raising the candle out in front of you, you poked your head through. 

Even though it was dim, you could easily notice that this little room was vastly different. More well kept. The material under your feet was smoothed out with wooden flooring rather than dusty stone. Displays adorned the walls, some with their own protective glass covering. The middle of the small room had an actual table in it, professionally made with a dark finish. Papers and letters were scattered over the table, most if not all with the same magic imbued into it like the one you read to Belphie earlier. Wooden mannequins held outfits and armor of different kinds. Most impressively, and what you couldn’t stop staring at, was the vast collection of weapons littered…everywhere. On walls, the table, some on the floor, as if the room was starting to run out of space for the amount of armaments. Swords, morning-stars, clubs, axes, hatchets, halberds, bows, crossbows, knives, mauls, maces, shields. You name it, it was there. There was a strange mix of awe and unease within you. This was…a trove of promise. A miracle. Something you had been hoping for. You could protect yourself now. With this…perhaps there was a chance of getting out of here. Of fighting your way to freedom. And although you had a deep fondness for demons, and you agreed with Diavolo’s plan to break the barriers between realms… you couldn’t help but smile a bit at the contents in the room. 

It had everything you needed- everything you wanted- to kill a demon. 

Images Below!

Don't go further if you do not like creature horror!

Ikito art done by obeymybrainrot

Sin Eater art done by kayas-kosmos

[chronotsr]

No. 6 - D3, Vault of the Drow (August 1978)

Author(s): Gary Gygax Artist(s): David C. Sutherland III (Cover), David A. Trampier Level range: Average of 10, preferably party size 7+ players Theme: Underground exploration Major re-releases: GDQ1-7 Queen of the Spiders; Dragon #298 and #300 (kind of), Drow of the Underdark (even less so)

Fuck I love old module covers. Again the later revision (the blue one) changes the art to be less gloriously trash, which is a shame. The cartoony sketch era is not long for this world, C1 (Tamoachan) represents a pretty noticeable change in art style towards the kind of THIN YOUR PAINTS looking characters in color. We have another year of modules before they make the art less silly.

In re-release news, again we get a very lightly altered treatment in GDQ Queen of the Spiders. Less well known though is a section in Dragon #298 (immediately after Paizo took over) on the Vault of the Drow, although it is…almost entirely setting material, which makes it actually somewhat faithful to D3. What makes it unfaithful to D3 is that it takes place after the events of 1e/2e DND and doesn't contain any of the pre-Vault materials of D3 or the Egg of Lolth section.

Drow of the Underdark is a similar situation, but curiously uses totally distinct materials (like yet another map of the city), but contains even less information about the non-city parts of the Vault. Still, it's interesting seeing 3e-style treatments of D3, and if nothing else it gives you some damn visuals of what Erelhei-Cinlu actually looks like.

The module starts with a recap, and also a brief note as to how to get to the titular Vault of the Drow. Apparently you are now avowed nemeses to Drow, despite plenty of routes to the contrary. We'll also find out later that we're actually enemies to only one bloc of Erehlei-Cinlu Drow. We get the same list of warnings as the previous 2 modules, which themselves contained a lot of warnings from the G series, so this is our 6th time reading some of these bulletpoints. Strangely, apparently "because of the chaotic nature of the dark elves", active raiding parts of the town won't rouse organized resistance to the party, Light spells don't work right here (they go dark and brownish), and Drow resent even the slightest natural-ish light. The upshot is that you can get away with a lot of bullshit.

Our random encounter tables have been updated to reflect being past the main Depths foes of kuo-toa and the like, it's mostly Drows and monsters from this point on. Well, and undead. And bugbears. And trogs. And trolls. And slaves, of course. So mostly just that Kuo-Toa are gone? Svirfneblin are listed with the random encounters despite not actually being on the random encounter list? Anyway.

We have a few canned encounters.

The first one is, suspiciously similar to the Drow checkpoint in D1. It's basically the same. I'm not going to cover it again, it's just the D1 checkpoint but with the weird Battle of the Sexes angle removed.

The second one is a bizarre encounter -- a succubus is pretending to be a statue, a Drow vampire is glamored to look like a songbird, and the whole cavern is glamored to look like a beautiful grove. The vampire is, obviously, named Belugos, because fuck it why not name the vampire Bela Lugosi? They're gonna do their level best to make the players turn around without fighting, but the odds of the whole party failing the charm person AND not finding this suspicious is 0%. Their mesmerized gnome servant completes the Dracula reference.

It's passingly mentioned in their treasure notes that, Bela Lugosi lead-lined a box to hide magic items from magic detection. So that's our newest data point in the "we have to have rational explanations for magic" series.

I guess she always goes nude. She's also nude on the revised edition back cover, which I'm sure got someone in trouble with their parents in 1985. This is one of your two possible routes into the Vault, by the way.

The other way is through a giant spider trap. The only thing of note is the idol of Lolth you can find that gives you a variety of neat powers (but slowly turns you into a giant spider).

In the vault proper, we have some fun special qualities. Everything is simply a different color here, for starters -- modified by your vision type. The ceiling is literally a kind of radioactive parody of the heavens, complete with "stars" and "moons" being played by particular types of rocks and lichens. Everything's got a vague red hue, except the roads which are enchanted to be lightly blue to drowish eyes -- that's what those magical glasses from a few modules ago do, they help you see drow-enchanted markers.

The place is lit with growing shrooms, for all the light that'll give you. A lot of the random encounters give us little glimpses into drowish life, from the lumberjacks clearing fungi for food, leather, et c., to drow nobles on a hunting party, to merchants feuding, to kuo-toan spies lurking in the river.. A good amount of love went into these tables, which I really wish was the norm. "There are bugbears, they have these items and this leader" is a pretty lame encounter good only for punishing slow moving. That being said, this adventure loosely implies Bugbears are Polish? What?

D3 is actually super sparse on artwork, and this is the best one we're going to get all module. This is the Black Tower, which overwatches a chokepoint to everywhere in and out of the Vault. If you have a drowish medallion, you can just saunter on in, enjoy your Evil Elf TSA checkpoint experience, then go about your business in the Vault. The medallions are coded by noble/merchant house, which means that your party just automatically became affiliated in a highly partisan city! Woe betide you, sucker that approached the tower openly hostile, cus they're guarding it with the GDQ series' perennial favorite: hand ballistae, and if you linger around the tower when the alarm goes off Gary straight up tells you to declare Rocks Fall, Everyone Dies because 300 drow troopss show up. Very cool, Gary!

So this is when D3 gets Complicated.

The best part of the Drow are is how much they plot. The worst part of the Drow is how much work that plotting is to run. 24 different families are all circling around each other, looking for weaknesses, allying and warring with one another. I think you would literally need multiple relationship maps to keep them all straight. The above list is actually only about two-thirds of the total relationships between houses, the rest come later with the noble house keys.

So, this tiny picture is the only visual we get of Erelhei-Cinlu. Well, that sucks. OK, well, let's presume you don't go in through the front gate, because that's obviously suicide, what then?

I'm sorry, what? The doors automatically sense your race and summon a demon with no ability to disarm? Fuck off, Gary. You have to go through the Black Tower. You have to get a medallion. You have to go through the Front Gate. You have to fight Lolth instead of the Elder Elemental God. Fine, I go through the front door.

E-C's description is exhausting to read because it's one of those times Gary just vents his orientalist, misogynist biases. Women are in charge? The men aren't buff?? There's sex workers??? Get me my fainting couch!

A lot of ink is spilled on the treatment of slaves, half-drow, non-drow, et c. Tragically the actual appearance of the city is not commented on very much beyond "it's very mazey" and "it's dark". E-C is perpetually 5 seconds from collapse at all times, but also hilariously stable. RIP to anyone dumb enough to rebel here.

Understandable.

E-C's section is a fairly rote "city that sucks" so let's move on.

Ah, the Noble Houses section. There is no way to put this gently, so let's rip the bandaid off. This is so much information that it's overwhelming (8 noble house houses with equipped npcs, special magic items, motivations, room counts, et c.) but also so little information about each individual house that you're going to have to heavily homebrew huge chunks of content.

For example, the first listed House is Tormtor. We know they're:

Rank 7 in the Nobility Hierarchy

They've bought off the head of the Male Fighters' Society.

Allied with Eliservs House, the unnamed Prism and Chain Clans, & indirectly to the unnamed Coiled Whip, Bars, Star, and Bone clans

They on the up and therefore unpopular with the other nobles

Have 6 unnamed nobles ruling the house

Have 6 named and 7 unnamed magic items.

But…what is special about this house? Why are they so ahead? What does their palace look like? Why would you go to it? How could you possibly interact with the alliance and enemy system, as a non-drow?

These descriptions are just not useful, and by the time you have written out enough information on all 24 families you have made the actual module into a footnote. Those later write-ups of E-C can't save you either, because the timeline advanced.

By reading the whole thing and taking notes you reveal that there are two blocs (the Tormtor-Eilservs bloc and the Despana-Kilsek-Noquarto bloc) and a handful of neutrals waiting for a clear winner to back.

The Eliservs are the first rank house, headed by Eclavdra, and their big plot was pivoting from Lolth worship to Elder Elemental God worship because the Lolth priestesshood didn't back Eclavdra's claim for Queenship. Remember Eclavdra? The text explicitly says that if she died in G3 she was cloned (eyeroll) by her consort. Why organize the events of the G series? To get more EEG converts and attain Queenship. An extremely risky plan that we will discover in T1-2 and A1-4 is more plotholes than plot.

Like,

Eclavdra's house is about to fall before you showed up.

She's in charge of the Giants

Eclavdra's fall would signal an end to the Giant incursions

There is no longer a reason to deal with the Giants

There is no longer a reason to deal with the Drow

There was no reason to do any of this

The EEG temple is actually the one from G3, so you've even already punished the Drow before D1 even started! And also, how exactly is that possible? The route to the G3 temple and the route to D1 are 51 miles apart?

I have read quite a few suggestions on how to un-fuck GDQ, and my personal preference is this:

Flip every House's religions, EEG to Lolth and vice-veras

The Giant plot is Lolth's, and Eclavdra's sister is acting for her

Regardless of G1-3, Eclavdra is about to win the secret war for Queenship via the Lolth cult.

A unified Erelhei-Cinlu is a threat and must be stopped

Anyway, having now shredded the politics in here, we move onto the dungeon-dungeon.

First, the Egg of Lolth, which is the broader Lolth zone in Erelhei-Cinlu. Yada yada yada spider sacrifices, orgies, et c. It's all very rote. The head priestess of the lesser temple (not the greater temple!) has a lot of money but not so much magical items -- a weird quirk of D1-3 is that there are basically no magical weapons, so your fighter is probably livid by now. Then, we enter the Great Fane of Lolth, which is to say the greater temple. And we will go into keyed mode:

The temple itself is pagoda-themed, in case you haven't guessed that the Drow are supposed to be vaguely China-themed yet. Naturally trying to climb around and not dungeoncrawl properly promptly punishes you by being suddenly attacked by a giant pile of gargoyles and shadows.

Every depiction of Lolth, even from this second-release copy I'm using, is just….truly sad. Why was "monster but animal head" so common for so long? It's not scary or weird or funny, it's just lame?

The walls are decorated with fake halloween spiderwebs, so this whole place feels like Spirit Halloween. The actual Fane itself is weirdly empty?

Like an evil confessional, all the council chambers have secret spying rooms.

You run into a fake Lolth illusion who pranks the party, which is really not helping the Spirit Halloween vibes

If you walk into a painting of the Demonweb Pits, you just instantly die (or skip directly to Q1 if your GM hates you -- general consensus is that Q1 is bad and that you should just use the pre-planned D3 version of the Lolth fight)

Finally, as you enter the dungeon part of the dungeon (which is actually pretty small by late-game dungeon standards), there is a passive fear aura and all the spiderwebs are now made of onyx and silver, which means your party is going to have a field day with the chisel.

To my great shock and happiness, there is a drow dissident here! And he's good! And won't backstab you! He is neutrally aligned and wants to reform drow society. Good for him! There's a messed up enchanted silver cage which essentially magically webs a victim in a sort of metaphorical representation of a true spider enwebbing their prey. It's a cool visual!

Lolth just kind of, hangs out in room D5. She isn't doing anything. If you kill her, she drops an egg with plot items for Q1, and geases you to walk through that one painting. No save, of course. Lolth herself is a "hard to hit, high resistances, low HP" affair, but also she can heal herself for 50% three times a day, so she is triple dipping on difficulty (in this biz we call this "deeply unsportsmanlike" but I'll give a pass for a demon queen being bullshit)

There's no real reason to go up. Lolth is down and you have no reason to believe good shit should be up, but if you do anyway you will find a variety of random people wandering around with magical goodies, like the high priestess and the commander. It's implied the priestess has been fucking a demon?

Your taste is a lot different than mine, ma'am.

Naturally the treasure room for the fane is hilariously trapped in like three different ways, including with permanent dust of disappearance. Inexplicably, there is a talisman of lawfulness that, if combined with some diamonds, tells you how to reach Lolth. Why was there a talisman of lawfulness in the treasury? Why does it tell you how to get to the demonweb pits? Why does it write in drowish runes?

Finally, you find a wharf with a boat in it. It's trapped with the previously mentioned sentient statue, but hey -- you now have a galley that you can only use on the Pitchy Flow, Svartjet, and Sunless Sea (in an unexplained way). Good luck with the 66 ghouls, 6 ghosts, and type 2 demon!

That's, that's it? Again, D3 reads like a tiny setting book larping with an obligatory dungeon at the end. The Fane is the blandest dungeon thusfar, and G2 was already pretty lame. Still, it is not lost on me that you could form an entire campaign in the Vault's materials, and it might even be good if you relax the "Drow are ontologically evil" quite a bit and allow your party into the factional fighting.

Next time, Tomb of Horrors! Possibly the most over-discussed module is actually a quite early one. See you then!

[lomappreciationblog]

Got a chance to get my art book yesterday, so here's the concepts for Sproutlings!...I hope the text can be read, but I'm not good at taking photos of art books and the light reflecting on pages can be a real pain. So I will also type out the notes myself - originally I was gonna include the Flowerlings too, but the notes make a post so much longer, so they will be on a separate post.

To repeat, these concept arts and illustrations were done by Nao Ikeda, who made many of the NPC designs we see in LoM (she is credited as Character Graphic Design, and she later went on to be the main artist for both Dawn of Mana and Children of Mana!)

So, for closeup:

The note here, which seems to be the concept for the character, is from "Yagi-san". I'm not 100% completely sure, but I think it might be Masato Yagi, who is credited as "Story and Monster Motion Data." Here's the text for clarity:

"Green fairies that live by breathing in morning dew. With frail bodies as light as bird feathers, they blow poison flowers as their modest form of self-defense."

The note from Nao Ikeda in the first photo that wasn't included here is:

"As the name implies, their bodies are made completely of plants. The concept was for fragile creatures who have an instinct for self-preservation, so I gave them poisonous flowers for their delicate bodies that look like they could blow away. They aren't poisonous in the final design, but I still left the flowers around the collar." (Ikeda)

I'm not sure if the "(Green Bockle)" next to the Sproutling's name is an alternate name for them given in development, but it sounds very fairy-like, doesn't it?

But yeah, Sproutlings in development seem to have been very different creatures to what ended up in the game. They ended up having no connections to the Faeries we know in-game, and seemed to have been like regular living creatures with "instinct for self-preservation" as Ikeda-san puts it.

In game, while they do have some mystery to them, they aren't necessarily treated with a lot of importance. I think the only time a Sproutling has major bearing on a quest is "Flame of Hope," but that was purely accidental and a tangent to the actual drama of the story. There is, of course, "Cage of Dreams," which is really the only hint you get that the Sproutlings are connected to the Mana Tree.

So I do get it when people complain the Sproutlings come out of nowhere with their role in the ending, and I wonder if that can be chalked up to the fact that Sproutlings seem to have been very different creatures in their development. From what I've seen of some game development stories, that's just to be expected though, things get shuffled around as stories and programming is rewritten.

So while the "poison flower" attribute is kinda neat and explains why Sproutlings have a flower on their collar, I do love the little guys we get in game with their weird nonsensical dialogue and being a character that shows the concept that love nurtures plants, which ties to the overall theme of spreading love that heals event the Mana Tree, and by extension, the Mana Goddess and Fa'Diel with it.

To cap off this post, here's the actual in-game Sproutlings for comparison!

Oh yeah, I didn't include in this post, but Kameoka-san does say that he tweaked the proportions of Sproutlings to be shorter so they came out cuter-looking characters than in Nao Ikeda's original illustration.

Oh, and lastly, my absolute favorite Sproutling dialogue:

[waitmyturtles]

Hi.....Do you mind if I ask you some random thing? I used to love shounen and shoujo manga equally....But ever since I found BL manga 3 years ago, my interest in shoujosei (especially het romance) decrese a lot, and what I search for is just the dynamic between mc (male) and male lead...I don't want to read mc (female) and male lead or mc (male) and female lead...And what I want to read mostly are just mlm or wlw stories....

What do you think is happening to me? Is it really weird?

Hello, anon! Thank you so much for sharing this with me.

It is not weird in the least. I'll answer this personally to start: I've been watching almost only exclusively BLs for the past almost-year, in part due to my wanting to learn more about the Thai BL genre.

But also: I'm gaining a tremendous amount of knowledge -- and, more importantly for me, an experience of relatability -- when I watch on screen the struggles of a queer relationship, or multiple queer relationships, to succeed.

BLs (at least the best and very best ones), for me, capture and define the struggles of vulnerable populations/demographics to succeed and be happy in oftentimes brutally biased worlds.

I'm a woman of color and a first-generation American: the majority-white society and pillars of power in the States are not built to accommodate my success and happiness. So, very often in my career and my personal life, I struggle against assumptions, biases, racism, sexism, bigotry, xenophobia, the whole bit.

I see that reflected in BLs. I see the struggles of queer people working against, and sometimes with, foundations of power to find their happiness. Same-sex marriage is not legal in Thailand, yet I just watched Kuea and Lian get married in Cutie Pie 2 You; I saw how Make It Right and Bed Friend ended in proposals. Those notes of hope resonate with me.

I hope this is answering your question in some way, but. I want to note that even if you're not queer, you can gain tremendous artistic satisfaction and experiences of relatability in watching art that may not exactly represent your own personal demographics. And that's not only okay, it is WONDERFUL that you're spreading your wings and exploring content out of the genres that you used to read. You're getting something out of BL/QL content -- over time, you can think about naming those satisfactions, and even celebrating them, like I do. There is nothing weird about this process: it is so fabulous that you are gaining new perspectives.

Big hugs, anon! I'm so happy for you to be discovering new art, and growing because of it.

[michaels-reality]

I just wanna make a post now cus it seems that people misunderstand my stance when I say the hl//vrai fandom is racist.

I couldn't give two shits if I never got notes or the tags didn't pick up my art or if I had 50 followers or 5000. I'm not calling the fandom racist because I didn't get the attention I wanted. I'm calling the fandom racist because of how I was treated within that fandom.

As a black artist, I've gotten racist remarks about my designs, I've gotten people woobifying or talking down to the characters cus of my designs, and I have a bunch of white people marveling at me because of my designs. It also became apparent to me as where I stood in the fandom, as someone who has been referred to as an "og" or "one of the big hl//vrai blogs". It just became too much for me too bear being in this majority white and nonblack fandom that would constantly uphold this racist atmosphere.

I don't think it's crazy for me to say that all or most of the popular artists in the fandom right now are white. And the designs they have for the science team are all white save for Gordon, who is usually ambiguously tan or drawn inaccurately to be black or a person of color, or maybe Coomer, who has the same issues of Gordon. And when people make only Gordon or Coomer tanner or a person of color, they usually accentuate their more aggressive traits, which is you guessed it! Racist! And I thought it would get better over time but people still favor those designs and I find my work and a lot of other black artist's work getting ignored and not as much attention as those white artists.

Also I've gotten people being very weird about my black designs before :(. I've gotten people wanting to pet, brush the hair, hug, play with the hair, etc my designs because I draw them as black people :|. People ask me why I draw them the way I do? And maybe these comments and questions are people with the best intentions! Maybe they don't wanna cause harm! But that doesn't change the fact that it was racist! Don't ask to pet people's characters or designs because you like their big kinky hair! Don't ask to pet people's black characters! Don't call their hair "floofy" or "fluffy" like we're sheep! Especially if you're white, and I could tell these were coming from white people.

Also I don't wanna create art for this fandom anymore because it is so white. My intention has never been to make art for you guys. My art is meant to reach black people and other people of color! It's always been that! To represent those people who don't see themselves in art often! If creating for this fandom is gonna get me a bunch of white people thinking I'm great for drawing flat black men or white people who look at my art cus "oh! I just think it's pretty!" then I definitely don't wanna be here anymore. I feel like a monkey in a cage, like you're show monkey. I was a token black artist in this fandom and people hold me up and say I'm so great, but I rarely see this greatness in action. For a big hl//vrai artist, I don't get asks about headcanons, I don't get people asking for my art to use as icons, I don't people asking to use my art in amvs or edits, I don't get people asking for my art to use for stimboards or anything like that. I know what I am to a lot of you! Your fucking show monkey! People don't think of me when they think of hl//vrai! I'm just a token! And maybe some of this is my pride talking and me wanting attention but shit! I'm done with it and I'm never making hl//vrai art ever again. I've said before I'll think about it if two comes out but I'm not sure about that even.

I love hl//vrai and I still do. The characters forever mean a lot to me. I don't regret joining this fandom, all my closest friends I met through this fandom and I love them so much! I don't hate white people or anything like that. I think white people can still follow me. But if you read this post and feel like I'm personally attacking you and your friends then maybe reflect on that. Why do you feel called out when people call out racism?

If you only want hl//vrai art from me then consider unfollowing me. I don't make art for you. Thank you.

[zixzs-ajk]

It's weird that the r/Deltarune mods freaked out over Susie in a bikini considering they made a post titled "Artists, suggestive content, and witchhunting." stating that somewhat suggestive art was allowed. It even told users not to harass artists and have respect. They should practice what they preach.

Oh wow, second ask about this. Dunno if it's from the same person as the last one, but yeah. Gotta love the turnaround and hypocrisy. Case in point:

A good art post got marked NSFW because of the artist's history which was completely unrelated nor mentioned (sound familiar?). Later, the moderator locked the comment thread and edited the comment to add on; "Half the comments on this post are about her legs, breasts, or OP's post history. If that's the only thing people can manage to note about the artwork then yes it should be marked NSFW." Wow, when you encourage an immature and childish community to fester for months on end, they act immature and childish?? Who would've guessed???

Also, gotta love the manual removal of mentions of my name when people purposefully mistype it to get around the automatic blacklisting hiding comments with that specific series of letters, plus them just removing mentions of that whole mess. Points for the consistency of doing this for months, now. Lol.

As always, I will never endorse or encourage harassment of people directly; I will not tolerate anyone just bullying or messaging the moderators with pure toxicity. I want to be clear that it has never been my intention to outright target the moderation team nor their personal lives, and that any grievances with them should only reflect their actions. At the same time, I do encourage accountability and sensibility on so significant a forum of Deltarune discourse, and the egregious censorship has gotten completely out of control. I normally wouldn't bother with making yet another post like this if I didn't see this routine mistreatment of artists with such frequency; this is not the first time this has happened and I doubt it will be the last.

[spaceorphan18]

Glee Musical Retrospective: Papa Don't Preach (Hairography)

Sung by: Quinn Fabray Original Artist(s): Madonna

This is the first Madonna song they do on the show. And, apparently, they do one every year until season six when they inevitably run out of Madonna songs. ;)

Story Analysis

It's not weird that Quinn would sing a song about teen pregnancy. It is weird that the show thinks this performance would somehow entice three eight year olds to shut up and watch. But this is the Glee universe we're in.

The song is fairly on the nose for Quinn's character -- and, for the first time, Quinn is singing a song that fits her actual persona instead of trying to emulate a persona she just doesn't really have. The use of Madonna is a relatively good choice to reflect on Quinn's less than innocent inner feelings and desires.

Papa, I know you're going to be upset Cause I was always your little girl But you should know by now I'm not a baby

It's an interesting use of lyrics as she's singing this post-Ballad. He father wanted her to stay a child, and did get upset when he found out that she wasn't his idyllic little girl.

The one you Warned me all about The one you said I could do without We're in an awful mess And I don't mean maybe

It's fitting that she's singing this song while Puck plays the guitar. Puck is one of those guys that women are told to stay away from, and fits the bill of this song perfectly. He's that bad boy type that does end up getting the girl pregnant.

The camera pans to Puck as these lyrics are sung, but to the point of the song (in lyrics that we never hear) the two of them do have feelings, and it wasn't just about having sex and having an unwanted pregnancy about it. Quinn and Puck share some meaningful looks just as the music reflects their situation - but it's interestingly complex. It's about the fact that they both know they have feelings for the other - but their circumstances make their love story not an easy situation.

But I made up my mind. I'm keeping my baby

And - continuing on to be right on the nose for the story - this is the point where Quinn is thinking that maybe she can have it all. Maybe her life won't be interrupted by a new child. Maybe she and Puck can have a loving and healthy relationship. Maybe they can have a nice little family -- after all -- they are getting Kendra's devil children to settle down.

While most of the songs on the show use a truncated version of the song, this one feels like it's abruptly stopped -- as if not to finish the complete thought. And, while yes, the scene does need to end, I think it's also worth noting that Quinn's inner thoughts are put on pause momentarily as she works out whether or not she really does want to try to pursue not only a relationship with Puck but also actually trying to raise her baby.

As I said above, though, while it fits Quinn's character perfectly, it's a bizarre choice to be singing to children. Maybe they just liked the pretty lady dancing. Who knows.

Technical Thoughts

One of the nice things about this one is that it utilizes Dianna Agron's lower register a little. It's not as low as she can go, but she doesn't sound like she's straining to get all of the notes, which is a nice change comparatively to her earlier solos. Madonna has a deeper and somewhat raspier voice that Agron can emulate nicely. I think it adds a layer of grit to Quinn that's always been there but not always shown.

They also allow Quinn to be teasingly flirty and a little bit sensual, when it comes to the choreography. Sure, she's dancing around a little, too, but there's a more adult layer added to this song. Quinn's not in her cheerleading uniform, and not constrained by it any longer either. Quinn's allowed to be free to be herself, for the first time in, who knows how long - and it's nice to see.

(The song is a perfect choice for Quinn, but Glee is so weird about its context sometimes... her flirtatious dancing is aimed at children, and the whole scene is weird within context.)

I kind of wonder if Mark Salling did the guitar part for the recording. Salling was accomplished on the guitar and probably could play this one no problem. I'm also not often fond of his acting choices - but I think he has some great chemistry with Agron, and the shared, layered thoughts actually play really well here.

vs. The Studio Recording: So, this is exactly the same as the show version, which means it's really short. I kind of wonder what made them decide to only do half the song. I will say - this is still early in the show, and they didn't cater to iTunes sales the way they'll do starting in the second half of season one.

vs. The Original Version: I love seeing these videos for the first time. Wow is this so 80s I can't even. The 'hunk' in this? Lol, omg. This definitely Madonna at her peak though.

The thing is - Glee finally goes far from the original arrangement, and it's actually nice. The original is a relic of the 80s, completely with synth sounds and, well, more synth sounds. The acoustic version they do on the show not only fits for Glee's attempt to add realism, but makes it a more contemporary sounding song.

Also, as usual, a lot of Quinn's choreography is inspired by the dancing around Madonna does in the video. Which I always find an intentional nice touch.

[no1ryomafan]

Versions of Ryoma but ranked by how well they would react to Takuma calling them dad-- none of them would react WELL but New would definitely be the worst bc he's twenty years old and this teenager just called him dad 💀 man would throw himself into the cauldron of hell immediately

OF FUCKING COURSE YOU WOULD PUT THIS IN MY INBOX AFTER THE REBLOGS 😭😭 okay I’ll take a jab at it but note for obvious reasons this is mainly the ovas (im not gonna even question how toei!ryoma would react 💀)

SvN: Definitely would be weird out but given how he generally acts probably takes it the calmest, though I can see him rather having Takuma call him Sensei-even though I doubt they’d go as far to train lol-to which Takuma would probably call him “Papa Sensei” to fuck with him.

Arma: Given how he reacts in DD he is strict about it but I see it out of insecurity and embarrassment. While we know nothing about this Ryomas dad and it’s hard to calculate what he’s like since him being a karate man is super vague-thank you audio drama for being the only FUCKING thing to confirm this Ryoma even is a martial artists-I like to assume given a lot of general things we know about this Ryoma, is he’s probably not comfortable at the idea of being a father. He can mentor younger kids fines, but refuses to see himself as a “Dad”, so out of his own comfort he’d probably push Takuma to stop calling him that even if he would willingly mentor him.

New: You answered it but I’ll put my two cents in. New Ryoma would absolutely be uncomfortable by being called a “Dad” and probably wouldn’t hesitant to throw hands with Takuma if it started to bother him that much. I feel if he also found out what happened to manga!Ryoma it would make that even worse, but will just say it’s only apparent to him that that Ryoma died and no deeper details. I feel he would take the longest to warm up to Takuma due to all this.

Bonus: Because y’all LOVE to consider him canon, I’ll add him in here.

Fate Shift: Would become a fumbled MESS if we assume this is meeting happens after the hypnosis chapter as I don’t think I was subtle about sneaking in *that* line of Ryoma considering adopting a kid while being in his trance. While he’s trying to be at peace with his past, the idea of being a Father would take a lot of self reflection, so hearing Takuma call him that and finding out why would make his head spin. I don’t know if he would become clingy to Takuma but would definitely look out for the kid, possibly feeling potential guilt.

(I know you only asked for reactions and not more detailed explanations but autism be damned Ryoma refuses to leave my brain)

[jabbage]

Return to Hurlstone - the filming location of the 1986 Granada Sherlock Holmes 'Musgrave Ritual'

Ok, hold on tight everyone, this is about to get excruciatingly nerdy. On my watch-through of the excellent 1980s Granada Sherlock Holmes series I was really intrigued by the filming location for the fourth episode of the third series, The Musgrave Ritual - an eccentric moated manor house, which forms the setting for a treasure hunt in the show.

After some googling I worked out that the episode was filmed at Baddesley Clinton, which happens to be close to where I live. I had to go on my own little adventure to see what's there today, 36 years after filming! I think it gave me some fun insights into a few of the decisions the filmmakers made.

A little bit about Baddesley Clinton

Baddesley Clinton is a National Trust property in Warwickshire. Pay the (...fairly pricy imo) entrance fee and you can walk around the house and grounds, and enjoy amenities like a cafe, second hand bookshop in the stables and plant shop.

The house is incredibly interesting in its own right and has been inhabited by a colourful cast of characters over the years, mostly members of the Ferrers family. Perhaps most important for the setting of the Musgrave Ritual is the 'Victorian Quartet', two artistically-minded couples who lived at the house together in the mid 19th century and made extensive repairs and restorations. Their mediaevalesque tastes are responsible for its unique look, full of dark Tudor panelling, intricate carvings and paintings by Rebecca, a member of the Quartet.

The house was given to the National Trust in 1980 by the last member of the Ferrers family to inherit it, just six years before filming on The Musgrave Ritual took place.

The House Exterior

Because the Musgrave Ritual is a treasure hunt complete with pacing out steps and trees as landmarks, getting a real-world location which matches the description in Arthur Conan Doyle's story would be impossible. The writer for the episode Jeremy Paul notes in the script book for the episode that Baddesly Clinton itself helped to shape the story and direction.

For example, while the original short story involves the shadow of an oak tree and an elm tree, the filmmakers realised they could add an additional twist in the tale...

There was also an 'oak and sun' problem, solved, as if by an act of God, by the fortuitous presence of a weather vane with an ornamental oak on its top.

I was really hopeful that the oak tree weather vane would still be there since it apparently belonged to the house, but alas, the top of the weather vane seems to have been replaced at some point.

I was able to match up various shots in the approach to the house though, and consider how the filmmakers had cleverly used zoom and lens focal length to make things seem closer or further away than they are in reality.

The Water Door

One element which is also thankfully still intact is the water door, which is responsible for one of the most enjoyably goofy shots of the episode as Holmes seems to glide across the water before we cut to a side shot to see that Watson is actually rowing him across. Again, this isn't an element which is present in the original story but which Jeremy Paul suggests was inspired by the filming location:

We had fun with the notion that Holmes' steps led him to the edge of the moat, forcing him to cross to the house by rowing boat. Such visual conceits cannot be claimed as part of the dramatist's skills, but this one in particular offered me some reflected glory.

The only real change I could see is that there is now a small wooden jetty in front of the door, and no stone platform beneath it. There was also a weird little pedalo moored there. Some googling shows that it's been there over ten years, and I'd love to know where it came from!

If you're wondering what's BEHIND that door, then... look, if anyone from the National Trust is reading this then er... I just peeked in the keyhole, ok?

Ooh. Box files. Spooky.

The Great Hall

This room appears throughout the episode. Much of the furniture is different (most notably the chairs) but the layout of the room remains pretty much the same.

Note that for the episode the electric lights have been removed and little pictures hung up in front of the holes where they came from! Sneaky ;D

(Gasp, Holmes no! Don't put your feet on the furniture!)

I was really excited by the tapestry hanging on the wall as it is the backdrop for a memorable scene where Watson is trying desperately to keep the conversation with their host together while Holmes is high as a kite.

Please feel free to use the image below as a Zoom background so that you can cackle wildly at your friends, family or work colleagues in a way which will make them think you've been at the seven percent solution.

The Kitchen

The kitchen appears briefly as the butler Brunton cleans his piccolo (...not an innuendo), and as far as I can tell all of the furniture is still the same as it was in 1986.

There is also a scene with Branston in the stables cleaning his piccolo (... that is an innuendo this time). There are stables at the house, but I couldn't pick out any distinguishing features to know if they were used for filming.

The Dining Room

The dining room makes an appearance for a breakfast scene where poor Watson gets hot coffee spilt on him by a hysterical maid. I wasn't able to wander freely through this room so I couldn't get any shots matching angles from the show, but you can clearly see the ornate cabinet that Holmes is sat in front of:

The Grounds

Tumblr only allows ten images per post so I won't post a lot of the grounds which are lovely - perhaps I'll do a follow up post sometime!

There are lakes a-plenty where someone could find the crown of England and/or a dead body. I did spend a while trying to match some of the shots where Holmes is sat on a bench wrapped on a blanket looking grumpy, but I think that the benches have all been replaced and are in different places.

So, that's about it! If you're ever in Warwickshire, I definitely recommend paying Baddesley Clinton a visit.

Just don't go down into any cellars with heavy doors over them, ok?

[willel]

Will Shaped the Upside Down

spurred on by @endiness's awesome gifset https://endiness.tumblr.com/post/689459538551816192/

Season 4 honed in a lot on the idea that El "shaped" Vecna and made him become what he is today. She shooed him off to an ultimate dimension where he grew in strength, opened a gateway and allowed him back into their world, and now look where we are.

Of course, Henry has no one to blame but himself. It's not El's fault he's a murderous weirdo. But I digress. This brings me to an interesting topic of discussion. The "shape" of the Upside Down.

As we saw, the Upside Down was a yellowish plain completely alien to our world. Floating structures, evil clouds of doom, hungry flowers shaped like men, quite a sight to see. But for some reason in the present, the Upside Down is now shaped like Hawkins and it is blue.

I'm pointing out colors here because I think it's important. In this thread, you will see that they have actually updated the graphics for the Upside Down. In part 1, it was red. In part 2, it's been updated to yellow.

Something, or someone between 1979 and 1983 reshaped the Upside Down into what we know and don't love today. For reasons I will explain, I believe Will accidentally made the Upside Down reflect Hawkins the night he was taken.

If we look back at Vecna's speech to younger El, he talked a lot about how "Together, we can reshape the world to how we see fit." This appears to still be his goal. When he's speaking to older El, he still says something like "I will be there to pick up the pieces when Hawkins falls. I will remake it into something beautiful."

He's very focused on "reshaping" the world to what he believes is beautiful. He is an artist after all. So where does Will come in?

On the one hand, I feel as though Will was taken by Vecna on purpose. That Will had some kind of latent abilities Vecna could sniff out and he moved his chess pieces around (the Demogorgon) to cross paths with him and inevitably kidnap him into the Upside Down.

On the other hand, I also feel like Will really was just in the wrong place at the wrong time and was just like ever other Demogorgon victim… but something happened when he got taken there.

The once yellow landscape suddenly got overwritten with something else. Like a snapshot or a painting, the Upside Down "under" Hawkins BECAME Hawkins. A weird cold empty duplicate of Hawkins. I'm thinking in the heat of the moment, in the absolute panic of facing a creature like the Demogorgon and getting swept away into an alternate dimension (which is no doubt extremely traumatizing), Will accidentally painted the Upside Down in his image. We mustn't forget, Will is an artist too after all.

Of course, it's hard to not take notice of such a thing happening. Maybe originally Will was meant to just be another tasty snack, but when Vecna took notice of what was happening, Will was spared his fate (and subjected to much worse things). You see, a lot of people argue, "He was just meant to be a slug incubator", but I still don't think that's the entire story.

The Demogorgon still maimed and killed ALL it's victims. Barb, Bob, the Russians, the two hunters off screen, the deer. Every single one of them. Will did not have a scratch on him. He was malnourished and probably suffering from hypothermia, but he did not have any physical injuries. That alone makes him different from every other victim of the Upside Down.

This brings us to season 2. Note, Will has not yet been possessed at the beginning of season 2. He just has some kind of strange connection to the Upside Down and/or that still persists to this day. At the beginning of season 2 when Will is speaking to Owens, he says the "evil" wanted to kill. "Not me. Everyone else," he said.

This very much lines up with the idea that Vecna is aware of Will's ability to shape the Upside Down. No, he doesn't want to kill Will. But he wants to conscript him. To "reshape the world", which he knows Will can do. He originally wanted El at his side for this purpose, but now, he's already found a new target to fulfill his desires. Another kid very similar to him just like El was. An artist even.

Kinda fits, doesn't it?

[ltleflrt]

Hey Carrie! You talked a little the other day about writers' tendency to start a fic too early in the story, and how you see a lot of first scenes that could have been scrapped to improve the story. My question is if you have some tips to recognize while writing that first scene that you are starting too early in the story?

Hello friend!

That's a really good question, and I'll see if I can give an answer that makes sense. I am not a professional, and I'm not educated or trained in this stuff, it's just something that I recognize from years and years and years of voracious reading. And as with all writing advice, I encourage you to take what I'm going to say with a grain of salt and remember that no writing rule is a hard rule, only a guideline.

Also, my advice is going to be pertaining fanfiction, and specifically to AUs. Obviously a published book has an editor with a razor blade going through a manuscript for you, and the problems that bother me in fanfiction crop up in AUs more than Canonverse.

Oh, and every instance of "you" is general, not specific 😜

So I think the main problem that I see is that people are starting with an Info Dump. An Info Dump is not always a bad thing, sometimes it's completely necessary, but it is NOT where you want to start your story. If it absolutely has to be done, it's better to be somewhere in the middle or near the end. When it's something that your characters need to know.

That's an important bit: Do your characters need to know this?

And related to that: Does your audience need to know this for the story to make sense?

And very important follow up: If the answers to the above questions are yes, does the character/audience need to know this RIGHT NOW?

There's a lot of information about your story that YOU need to know. Heck, my notes files are full of sooooooo much stuff that I know about the characters and plot that never reaches the final product.

So when you're reading your first chapter (I say reading, not writing, because sometimes info dumping for your own benefit is good, and then you fix it before you share the story lol), ask yourself those two questions.

So for example:

In an AU where Dean is a tattoo artist, and it's his POV. The story starts with Dean driving to work, and when he gets there he's going to find out that the empty shop next door has been purchased and is going to be a yoga studio. He meets Castiel out front, up on a ladder trying to hang a hand painted sign, and some teens go running buy and knock into the ladder and Dean has to catch Castiel from falling. (Anyone who wants to adopt this idea is welcome to it btw, I would love to read this lol)

The mistake I often see in a first chapter like this is that as Dean is walking to work, there's a whole Info Dump about why he's a tattoo artist instead of a hunter. He'll be ambling along, thinking about his nice little business, and there's info about how his mom died in a fire, and his dad was a jerk, and Dean didn't go to college because he saved his money for Sammy's college fund, and Dean's only passion was art, and Bobby Singer introduced him to a tattoo shop owner who took Dean under his wing, etc.

Question 1, does your character need to know this?: Why is Dean reflecting on his past? Does Castiel need to know this information in order to build a romance with Dean?

Question 2, does your audience need to know this?: Why does this information matter? If Dean's only reflecting on this because you want to make sure your audience knows where the timeline changed and this became an AU, then you're starting too early in your story. Dean doesn't need to know this, and honestly in a lot of cases the reader doesn't need to know this. This is information that should have been left in your notes file.

Question 3, does the character/audience need to know this NOW?: If this information is pertinent to the plot, like maybe there's some trauma there that Castiel might need to know about to develop their relationship, then you don't want to put it HERE, you want to put it in a conversation with Castiel LATER.

If I was writing this AU, I would just start with Dean sipping his coffee, he's kinda tired because reasons, he looks up to see an unusual commotion, and has to drop his coffee and sprint forward to catch Cas. If he's reflecting on anything in this scene, it's going to be whatever made him tired, or how good/bad the coffee is this morning. Since Cas is a new business owner, they can talk about the origins of Dean's business on their first date, because it'll be a relevant response to Castiel talking about the origins of his yoga studio.

And just in general, if Dean's origin story includes a lot of canon elements, like mom dying in a fire, dad being a deadbeat, Sammy being the adorable overachieving Stanford student.... try to hide that info for as long as you can so that the audience is actually curious about it by the time the info might pop up. It's the wild divergences that are more interesting earlier on.

Okay, and then I want to talk about my giant pet peeve for a starting chapter. It's a specific kind of info dump, that often includes the stuff from above, but then goes a step further.

My nemesis, The Daily Grind.

I haven't asked the authors, so I could be wrong about this, but I feel like most of the time when this type of chapter is included in a story it is because the author wants to show the reader that the character's life is boring and meaningless before the plot's inciting incident. I can absolutely see why that might be considered an important detail about the character, but keep in mind if it's boring and meaningless to the character, it's boring and meaningless to your audience.

You know how I said earlier that writing tips should never be hard and fast rules? Well this is in regards to that Show Don't Tell rule, and it's an example of TOO MUCH showing lol

It is possible to do a daily grind in an interesting way, but only if you include a Shake Up right away. And you have to look at the 3 questions a little bit differently.

So for example:

Castiel POV, and he works in an office. His daily routine is to always get up at the same time every day, he goes for his run, he grooms himself, he has his breakfast, he goes to work and talks to Kelly about how Jack's doing in kindergarten for a few minutes before going into his office. Adler comes in to be a prick, Castiel hates him for it, and then he does his reports, has lunch hiding in a corner of the lunch room so that his co-workers will leave him alone, he does more reporting, leaves an hour after his shift technically ends, goes home to a lonely apartment that maybe includes a pet who is the only being that shows him affection, has an unsatisfying dinner of leftover takeout while watching a mindless reality tv show, then he goes to bed.

Ugh.

BORING.

Which, yeah I get it, the point is that his life is boring. But now the story is too, and I've clicked the back button before I can see how exciting it's capable of getting.

Question 1, does your character need to know this?: No. He knows. Poor thing definitely already knows.

Question 2, does your audience need to know this?: Yes, but...

Question 3, does the character/audience need to know this NOW?: Yes, but new question for ya:

Optional Question 4, why does this need to be separate from your plot's inciting incident? The answer to this 4th question is usually that it doesn't.

Chapter 2 of this type of beginning usually shows the shake up of Castiel's day. My advice is to start with the shakeup, and sprinkle in the details of what you would have put into chapter 1 to show the contrast. It's far more interesting to learn how boring Castiel's day is by starting with the shake up.

So, same scenario:

Castiel's alarm doesn't go off for some reason, OH NO HIS ROUTINE IS SHAKEN UP! You're explaining his routine while also stressing him the fuck out because he has to rush, or skip something that he normally needs to do. Action! Interesting! He gets to work late, and has to miss his conversation with Kelly about Jack because she's telling him that Adler's already in his office being a prick because Castiel isn't there waiting for him like he always is. Oh shit, he's pissing off his asshole boss! Conflict! He's so flustered by the shakeups that he misses something on his report, and he gets a call from that new marketing guy Dean Winchester who asks if they can have a meeting about it when Castiel normally takes his lunch. BAM! MEET CUTE OPPORTUNITY! While Castiel is getting all flustered by how pretty Dean is while they talk about TPS reports, he can reflect on how this is both better and worse than hiding from his co-workers in the corner of the lunch room. The rest of the day after that meeting he's thinking about how weird this day is, he still goes home an hour late, he talks to his pet about his weird day when he gets home, and maybe he still eats leftover takeout, but he's not paying attention to the reality tv show because holy shit he wants to count Dean's freckles.

In this example, you're Telling the audience about Castiel's normal routine instead of Showing them. But since it's during a plot heavy chapter, it works!

Lemme see if I can TL:DR this...

As you're reading, ask yourself who needs to know this information, why do they need to know this information, and why is it important for this information to be included early instead of later?

If the answer to any of those questions boils down to "this is backstory" instead of "this kicks off the plot", then you've started too early.

I hope this helps? I'm always nervous about giving writing advice because so much of the time I have no idea what I'm doing, and I'm just feeling around in the dark. And I definitely do not ever want to hurt an author's feelings, because this hobby is so fucking hard, and we're all fragile. Even authors who welcome con-crit with open arms will have a weak point that they're unaware of that might get poked wrong and cause a crack, ya know?

I hope anyone who gets this far who might see their own works reflected in my examples understands that I have a lot of respect for their ability to put their work out into the world, and I want them to keep doing it. We're here to have fun, okay? Okay. I love y'all 💜

[basstheart]

so recently i’ve been thinking of headcanons for random ass undertale AU characters, so i’m just gonna note them down

US!PAPYRUS: Listens to Tori Amos when napping, has a weird obsession with her song: Cornflake Girl. He used to work at McDonalds (Underground Ver, if that makes sense). Lana Del Ray is also in his top 10 artists, Dealer being his favourite song by her.

US!SANS: He likes. He likes to listen to Lofi. No questions asked. He also is sorta into fairycore, as he enjoys the aspects of Liminal Spaces. They make him feel sort of comfortable. He secretly draws in his spare time if he’s not training, and no-one knows about it. He isn’t the best, but he is learning.

MURDER!SANS: THIS GUY LIKES EMINEM. NO FUCKING CAP. ANY SORT OF GENRE OF RAP, HE ADORES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! In my head, i usually see him wearing a cap underneath his hood, cause i just think that design of him is gorgeous. He’s sorta into that Eshay sorta aesthetic, like reflective clothes and caps and TN’s and so on.

LUST!SANS: This one likes Ayesha Erotica. Again, no questions asked. Lust in my perspective once had one of those “Emo phases”, having a full fuckin wardrobe filled with alternative clothing and such. He always hated the feeling of makeup on his face.

FELLSWAPGOLD!SANS: He was and still is a huge fan of classical music. He can play the piano quite fantastically, surprising anyone he ever played it too. He has a Grande Piano in his house somewhere, and he plays it to calm himself down. Some of his favourite songs to play are Gymnopedie No.1 and The French Library by Franz Gordon.

FELLSWAPGOLD!PAPYRUS: Dreamcore. Weirdcore. Anything core. In love immedietly. Phonk is one of his favourite music genres. The Fellswap!Gold Skelebrothers have the best taste in music out of all the others (In my opinion). Swapfell!Papyrus (Purple) likes to hang out with him sometimes as they secretly talk to each other and show each other their newest song discovery. His brother (FellSwapGold!Sans) despises his music, although only very rarely actually finding something he likes.

UF!SANS: Although he seems like the kind of guy to like metal, he was never actually into that kind of music. He always liked synthwave/darkwave music. One of my clothing headcanons i have for him is that he sometimes wears that highschool jockey jacket thats red and white. It has little stains on it here and there. He also is really into darkwear, stuff like warcore and such.

REAPER!SANS: TAYLOR SWIFT. KATY PERRY. DOJA CAT.

I might do some more of these since they are quite fun to write, let me know if you guys want more !

[bratkook]

eleven months. (m) myg. two.

masterlist.

pairing: min yoongi x reader genre: fluff, slow burn!!!, eventual smut, warnings: brief non-descriptive mention of death, otherwise none word count: 7k author’s note: here’s some more backstory on both of them as well as more interaction beyond yoongi hunting down an album by the cure lmao. like i said before, i’m really soft for yoongi in this story so lmk what you think! (also..because i hate myself and love piling up wips, theres mention of oc having a previous love interest that’s actually part of another story that takes place in this universe that’s a prequel soooo...coming soon lol) taglist (open): @min-yus​ summary: it’s been years of yoongi living his routine life, accustomed to his pace of living, going with the flow and simply existing. until you come along. yoongi absolutely can not see the logic in the way you live, but he weirdly craves it. craves the feeling of not being afraid of not knowing what’s coming, being able to just let the cards fall wherever they land. and maybe you can help with that.

In the next coming weeks it becomes obvious that Yoongi is in fact a regular. His routine visits allow you to remember the usual days and times he’d pop in, so you knew if you’d be working on his chosen days. 

Somewhere in between his casual drop ins, the two of you had formed somewhat of a friendship— or the beginning stages of one at least. Yoongi liked your sense of humor, how open and friendly you were to anyone you encountered, always having something to say about anything. Conversation came easy to you, never running out of stories. It left Yoongi thinking you’ve definitely lived about ten lifetimes compared to him.

In turn, you liked how he let you steer the conversation any way you chose. Most people would probably watch on in horror at the way you’d go from talking about a specific song or band, and then switching to a story about how you chased a pickpocketer during your travels before moving on to talking about your roommate’s cat. None of it gave him whiplash though, seamlessly flowing into the next topic with a grin on his face, never feeling like he had to think too hard to keep it going. It worked best this way. Yoongi was observant by nature, a great listener above it all, so if you were the one doing most of the talking it was fine by him. 

Everyone at Rkive360 had taken notice that Yoongi’s usual five minute visits had turned into ten, and then twenty, until it became very clear he was lingering inside the store. No one told him anything, besides the fact that he was bestfriends with the owner and had immunity, all of you were fond of him. Taehyung enjoyed the sly remarks Yoongi would make, Sana just enjoyed ogling at him, Namjoon would never mind seeing him, and you would take any chance you could to attempt to wow him with your small knowledge of music. 

It was a nice distraction whenever he stopped by, always heading straight to the back where the vinyl was kept. Sometimes he had a specific album in mind, other times he was simply browsing, but he only ever bought one at a time. It was routine, maybe even a weird ritual of sorts if he really thought about it. 

On the days you knew he’d be coming you would spend a little extra time in the beginning of your shift picking out a few records to suggest to him if he didn’t have one in mind. Because of this, he had stopped his usual path to the bins and now came directly to you, the first stray off his usual routine. 

Today you’re standing behind the counter, ringing up a customer when he walks in, a smile on your face as you chat away. He patiently waits at the far corner, leaning back against it as his eyes roamed the interior of the store, taking note of the way Sana and Taehyung were trying and failing to build a giant display. It looks like a mess of parts, scattered around with no instruction manual in sight— definitely Taehyung’s idea to toss it judging by Sana’s look of frustration. 

He tears his gaze away from them beginning to argue when he hears you wish the customer a good day as they leave, pushing away from the counter and shuffling your way with a grin on his face. You smile back at the way his doughy cheeks push out, high points of them reflecting the light from above. 

“Any shirt facts of the day?”

That had also become another common occurrence. Whenever you decided to wear a band shirt, he somehow always had random facts about whoever it was. It didn’t matter if it was some obscure french band or a 90’s rapper, Yoongi knew something about everyone, like some walking encyclopedia of musical artists. So when you take a step away and spread your arms out, he sees your shirt of choice today is The Doors, and he scoffs. Too easy.

“The Doors were the first band to ever advertise a new album on a billboard.” He nods his head slowly, almost as if he’s telling you yes I know, amazing right?

A hum leaves your lips at his fun fact, slightly impressed by it. “Interesting. Like always, I did not know that.” You peek under the counter top at the selection of records you kept stowed away for him, safe from any undeserving customers. “Now, do you want to see my daily, hand picked selection just for you.”

This was his new favorite pastime, getting to see the random albums you’d group together for him, wanting to know what you thought was worthy for him to listen to. When he nods, rubbing his hands together in excitement, you haul up the stack and carefully spread them out across the top.

The genre of the day was R&B, he can tell that much as he sorts through the albums. You’re familiar with the way he clumps together certain records, marking them down as albums he already owns, until he gets to an orange colored cover. The words The Internet fill the top right corner along with Ego Death on the bottom left. This he had never heard before. He picks it up and flips it over, scanning the song names with interest.

His eyes raise up to yours with curiosity, the same sharp gaze that somehow still makes you nervous holds the obvious question being passed between you with no need for words: are they any good? And the way you nod your head immediately convinces him enough. “Alright, I’ll give them a shot.”

A small sense of pride fills your chest, a tiny victory whenever he decides to pick something from your stack, trusting whatever music knowledge you had somehow convinced him you have. “I promise you’ll love them.”

When you hand him his change and the brown paper bag, you immediately check the time and clock out, dipping back under the counter and grabbing your bag from its hidden spot.

“Are you off?” Yoongi finds himself asking, no longer used to leaving immediately after he purchased something. The usual fifteen minute conversation you two had was missing today, and he’s not too sure how he feels about that. 

“Yes I am, you were my last customer. The store will now be run by those two heathens. Here’s to hoping they don’t bite each others heads off while they finish building whatever the fuck that is.” Taehyung is now standing up, lazily holding up a part of the display as Sana tries to screw something together, angrily giving Taehyung commands but he only mimics her with a ridiculous face. And when she socks his thigh, her fist aiming a little too close to home, you let out a laugh.

Yoongi highly doubts that’s going to be possible, Namjoon would probably have to be the one left to finish building the display while also putting them on opposite sides of the store whenever he came in for the day. It was truly a shock that they had gone this long working together without an actual fist fight breaking out. If it came down to it, Yoongi had his money on Sana being able to whoop Tae’s ass. 

“Do you know any good take out spots nearby? I’m starving and I’m still new to the area so I’ll take any recommendations.” Your voice snaps him back, his eyes looking at you briefly as the question registers within him.

“Oh, yeah. There’s a place not too far from here that has pretty good jajangmyeon.”

“Hell yeah.” Your hands pat your belly softly, coming up to readjust your bag as you walk around the counter and head for the door, shouting out a goodbye to Taehyung and Sana as you leave the store. When you exit the shop, your hand holding the door open behind you, you glance back inside in confusion when you spot Yoongi still standing by the counter with wide eyes. “Well, aren’t you coming?”

Truth be told, he had been wanting to talk to you outside of work for a while but he was scared to ask, not wanting to make you feel obligated to say yes just because he was a regular at your place of employment. Something about you seemed familiar to him, and to be quite honest he just craved social intimacy. His job consumed him and coming into this record shop was the small escape he needed, you being there was just a newly added plus.

You’re on the same page he is, wanting to hang out with him just as much as he had, something about the way he seemed like a half open book interested you. Throughout all of your adventures you had forced yourself to come out of your shell, no longer afraid or bashful when it came to initiating friendships. If you wanted to get to know someone better, then you’d bite first. And you definitely wanted to get to know Yoongi better.

It takes him a moment to react, his gaze switching from you to look back over at your coworkers, seeing Sana sending you a curious glance. Yoongi was about to attempt to muster up the courage to ask you to hang out and you beat him to the punch, but after a second he grins at you with a nod. Of course he was coming.

The weather in Seoul is forgiving today, the usual cold of autumn being prevalent in the air without the need to bundle up, the slight wind not stinging your skin as it blows around you. This was probably your favorite season, comfortable enough for you to do whatever you want without feeling restricted by heavy layers or sticky from the heat. 

A soft smile is on your lips, hands shoved into the pockets of your baggy cardigan, and a small pep in your step as your eyes take in the world around you. That feeling you get when you visit a new town on vacation, how you’re just passing through for a brief moment in a place so many call home, it makes you realize how small you actually are. 

It’s a feeling you always longed for, to experience a new place and make it home, it's the main reason you always bounced around so much. Staring at all the shops around you, taking in all the people just going about their daily life, you’re content with your new choice of scenery. 

Too lost in your own head as you take in the shops and people around you, you snap out of it when Yoongi reaches out and clasps a hand on your shoulder, steering you to turn right when you keep walking straight. “Get your head out of the clouds.” 

He hears the snort you let out, allowing him to guide you the correct way. Slowly trailing away from the main road, the amount of people lessens, only a handful of stores line up around the alley you had turned into. When you spare a glance at Yoongi you can see the excitement on his face, speeding up his pace until he’s standing in front of the restaurant. It’s a small hole in the wall shop that didn’t even look like it served food from the outside, all black exterior with a red sign hung up on top showcasing their name, Ipum.

It’s charming, and the way Yoongi spreads his arm out puts a similar smile on your face. Only then does he pull open the door, allowing you to step in first before he follows. 

Once Yoongi steps inside he’s immediately greeted by the workers calling out his name in glee, bowing in response with a bashful smile as he approaches the small counter set up for take out orders, not needing to read the menu. You don’t realize he’s waiting for you as you take in the interior of the restaurant, the red dining tables surprisingly packed despite their lack of advertising outside. This place really must be as good as Yoongi promised.

“Anything specific you want?” he asks, finger pointing to the small menu in his hand in case you needed it. When you shake your head, letting him know he can order anything he wants, he does exactly that, placing two orders of jajangmyeon, along with fried dumplings and sweet and sour pork to complete it. It was his go to choices whenever he came, so he hopes you’ll enjoy it as much as he does. 

As you step to the side, backs pressed against the wall closest to the counter in order to keep the space open for the workers and patrons to walk comfortably in the small shop, you turn your head to glance at Yoongi again. “You come here often?”

The way the workers had spoken to him had made that glaringly obvious, but you wanted to hear it from him, wanted to know if he came here for comfort food or some other weird tradition like his ‘one-vinyl-a-day’ way of life. 

It was sort of a habit he had fallen into years ago. Having grown up in this city his whole life, he had stumbled upon this place his last year of high school. It had become a staple soon after, a place he would come to directly after classes were done to come stuff his face before heading home. Then it became a place his girlfriend and him frequented when the apartment they moved into turned out to be a mere block away. 

In a way, the owners of this shop had become like a second family. The amount of times they’ve seen Yoongi at his best and worst throughout the years, never once throwing judgment his way even if he came in beyond plastered back in the years he used to drink, never turning him away even if he cried into his noodles. 

He decides that’s a little too much to unpack right now, so he just nods in confirmation. “Yeah, I’ve been coming here for years. One taste of their noodles and you’ll be hooked too, trust me.”

Oh you trusted him, the amount of plates you’ve seen so far just made your mouth water once they passed by you and the smell of the food reached your nose. “We should’ve just sat down, I’m not gonna be able to wait until I get home to eat this.”

As you say this one of the workers approaches you two with a tied up plastic bag in his hand, the inside stuffed with takeout boxes and utensils for you to take. Yoongi grasps the bag with a smile and thanks him as he walks away. “Don’t worry, I live like a block away.”

He realizes how his words could be taken immediately, how he had assumed you two would innocently go back to his place to share a meal. You had invited him to eat but the location of where you would be doing so had not been discussed and the last thing he wanted was to come across as a sleaze.

His mouth was ready to back track completely, until he sees the way you dramatically place your hand over your chest, and he knows it's too late, “Oh damn, your place? Saucy, but I’m starving so I’ll do almost anything.”

You can see the way he relaxes when he notices you aren’t being serious, taking his words lightly the way he intended them. His eyes roll behind his lids, a lazy smile gracing his lips as he shoves your shoulder lightly to get you to start walking. 

“Is jajangmyeon all it takes?”

“Slow your roll, good jajangmyeon is all it takes. I’ve yet to have a taste.”

Yoongi smiles at your words, taking the lead when you step out of the shop and turn back down towards the main street. His apartment was on the next block over, a short walk that you didn’t mind, especially since he took it upon himself to point at random stores you passed to let you know the best places to get what.

He has a lot of love for this city, the memories it possesses spread out through his entire childhood and early adult years, lingering in each crack on the sidewalk. He often sits and wonders how different his life would be if his parents had decided to move to Busan instead of Seoul, or stayed in Daegu altogether. The thought of the timeline of his life being altered so drastically to the point of possibly not being able to be living this moment sends his mind into a flurry, so he's grateful you’ve reached his front door now as his mind settles.

“Oh my god who’s this?” You coo as you step into his apartment, crouching down towards the white stone floors to pet the fluffy gray cat that greeted you, enjoying the way it purred and rubbed against your knee.

“That's Yuri, the queen of the house.” He steps away from you, setting the plastic bag on top of the kitchen counter a few feet away, his hands pulling out the containers and setting them down. “Don’t give her too much attention or she’ll never let you leave.”

Yuri glances up at you, her bright green eyes peering up innocently at Yoongi’s words, almost as if she was pleading for you to keep petting her. It doesn’t take much convincing for you to scoop your hands under her and press her against your chest as you stand up, your fingers gently scratching the top of her head. Yoongi lets out a sigh when he sees his cat has succeeded in wrapping you around her finger.

“Sorry, she’s too cute to not cuddle with.”

She nuzzles into your chest, purring in appreciation when your fingers trail down onto her spine. Yoongi watches you as he pops open the lid of the container that holds the noodles. Yuri is his baby, yet every time a new person comes into his place she acts like he doesn’t exist— well not until he pops open the container holding the sweet and sour pork. That's when her head pops up, her green eyes sharpening when she spots the food, and Yoongi glares back at the fluffy traitor.

When Yuri's fluffy body shakes slightly as you laugh Yoongi glances back at you, breaking up the staring contest he had going with his cat. “She’s gonna betray your love right now for some pork.” 

You don’t doubt him, not with the way her paws start to push at your arms, attempting to stand up in your embrace until she’s hopping off from your arms and slowly walking towards Yoongi. She’s absolutely shameless as she rubs her body against his legs, and Yoongi can only look down at her before staring back up at you, gesturing out with his hands. “You see?”

The act of betrayal doesn’t sting, not when she’s as cute as she is. Instead you just chuckle, walking towards the stools Yoongi has by the oversized kitchen island, a breakfast bar set up at the end, the food spread out on top of it. He ignores Yuri for the time being, pulling out the stool beside yours and sliding into it. The both of you pull your chopsticks apart and get to eating instantly, swirling the noodles until they’re evenly coated in the sauce.

You try to ignore the way Yoongi blatantly stares at you as you bring up the first clump of noodles, waiting to see what your initial reaction would be to the food he held so near and dear to his heart. Yoongi knows this could go south so quickly, there is nothing worse than trying something new when you’re starving and having it absolutely suck. Sensing his nerves, you slurp the noodles up, and when the salty taste hits your tongue you hum, chewing them thoughtfully to make a show for Yoongi.

“Verdict?”

He waits patiently for you to swallow, sharp eyes analyzing your expression, seeing you lick your lips and grin at him. “You weren’t lying, definitely some of the best jajangmyeon I’ve had.”

In pure dramatics, he practically sags in his seat and raises a fist into the air in success, being able to properly enjoy his food now that he knew you approved of it. The two of you begin to eat in relative silence, the sound of munching and slurping filling up his kitchen space. 

As the minutes go by, the back and forth of your chopsticks plucking out a dumpling after he did, lands with you snatching the last one. An evil cackle leaving you as you pop it into your mouth and grin at him, cheeks puffed out slightly and he can’t find it in himself to be irked at you snatching the last dumpling when you looked like that.

The compromise of that is you leaving the remaining pieces of pork for him to enjoy, and when Yuri gracefully hops onto the counter you see why he had suggested that. He grasps a tiny piece of pork on his chopsticks and feeds her like a parent would a toddler, airplane noise and all until Yuri opens wide and gently clamps down on the meat.

“She’s spoiled because of you.”

He merely shrugs, a giant smile spreading across his face as he watches her with adoration as she chews the food. “I refuse to confirm or deny that.”

As you finish up the last of your food you just watch on as Yoongi alternates between feeding himself and Yuri until no more pork remains. Seeing the soft way he acts with his cat just warms you up, Yoongi had always seemed like a blunt person from the times you’ve seen him at the store, his sense of humor is one that could easily be taken as harsh or cold if you didn’t match it, but you’d never expect to see him this way. The tops of his cheeks push out as he smiles at his cat, cupping her face between his hands and rocking it back and forth before planting a kiss on her forehead.

She seems to understand that that's her cue to hop off the counter, knowing that snack time is now over as Yoongi starts to clean up the empty containers. When you reach to clean your own mess up he’s quick to slap your hands away, smirking when you retract them with a small wince, your fingers rubbing the back of your palm that he had swatted with a pair of chopsticks.

“Shoo.” He waves his arm in the direction of his couch, not giving you another glance and missing the way you pout at how he had dismissed you like he would his cat.

With a huff you turn on your heel, properly taking in his living room. From the small tidbits of half truthful information that Taehyung had provided you with, you knew Yoongi was somebody in the music industry. You had always assumed that when people said that it meant struggling soundcloud rapper or something of the sort, but from the look of his apartment alone it was very evident that Yoongi was not a struggling soundcloud rapper. 

The wall of his living room was lined with floor to ceiling windows, letting you catch a glimpse of the cityscape down below, the darkening horizon and slowly flickering street lights blending together. A dark grey couch was on the wall adjacent to that, directly facing the entertainment center he had set up, complete with a massive mounted television and soundbar, a collection of DVDs organized in the storage unit below it.

You walk closer to it, catching sight of the picture frames he had displayed along the top of it. They were all simple black frames, all differing in size, all of them having photos of Yoongi and his friends on them. The one in particular that had you smiling was a photo booth picture with Yoongi and Namjoon, they were accompanied by three other people, a boy with slightly red tinged hair and a bright smile, another boy with dark brown hair and a slight pout on his face from Namjoon squishing his cheeks, and a girl with light brown hair smiling widely as Yoongi gave her bunny ears.

Namjoon was a very smiley person, never needing a reason to be, but seeing Yoongi sporting a massive gummy smile had you realizing how nicely a smile suited him. It was clear that he held this group of people near to his heart considering they all occupied the remaining photos as well.

A couple of steps right beside that was where he had his prized possession, his record player that he had fully customized to get him the desired sound he was looking for. It was a sleek black, accents of silver shining off of it, resting pretty on a dark stained wooden stand. A few of his records were stored beneath it, but what really caught your eye was the eight by eight makeshift gallery wall that showcased his current favorite LP’s, each individually shelved to show the album art in all its glory.

“Should I give this a listen with you here?”

His question has you turning your head towards him, cutting your admiration of the album covers short. He stood a few feet away, his hands holding up the orange cover of the album he had bought today with your suggestion, and a small sense of nerves bubbles up in your stomach for some reason. You had always suggested music, confident in your choices when you were in the safety of the record store, but having to witness his first impression made you a little uneasy. What if he hated the band entirely, or worse, what if he pretended he didn’t hate them just to soothe your ego.

Is this what he felt like watching you take your first bite of food earlier?

“Sure,” you choke out, taking a giant step back from his record player, hearing him chuckle at your odd behavior.

As he lifts the cover up and slides the giant record out of its sleeve you decide to go sit on the couch, sinking into the plush material and welcoming Yuri into your lap when she jumps on as well.

With a few clicks, the low whirring is heard of the turntable beginning to spin. And when he eases the needle onto the record a small crackle sounds before Get Away starts to play. He fiddles with the volume slightly until satisfied, only then does he turn back around and join you on the couch.

His face is settled in thought, bobbing his head gently to the beat as he rests back against the couch, sinking into it with a groan until he’s fully comfortable, legs spread out with one arm resting casually on his lap and the other on the arm rest, fingers tapping along.

You watch on in silence, your fingers raking through Yuri’s fur until her purring calms your nerves and you’re sagging back. Before you know it your eyes shut as you listen along to the music, your belly is full and your limbs are sore from the unpacking and rearranging that had to be done at work so being able to sit here and shut your brain off while mellow music filled the room was what you needed.

Before long the A side is finished playing, Yoongi having to get up to flip it over until the B side plays all the way through, the ending voicemail of Palace/Curse playing until it fizzles out entirely, the room falling into silence once more.

Yuri had gotten comfortable herself, sprawled out across your lap with her head by your hip, but when Yoongi gets up with a stretch her head pops up, eyes narrowing at her owner until she senses no threat and lays back down.

“Verdict?” You repeat his earlier question, seeing him hunched over with his elbows resting on his knees, his lips pursed in thought.

“Honest opinion?”

“Brutally honest.”

He hums with a sly grin as he turns his head to face you. “They’re good. Kinda makes me feel nostalgic too for some reason. But as a whole, it's great music that calms you down.”

With the way you’re laying practically boneless on his couch you can attest to that, they were definitely a band you listened to to unwind. He catches the wide smile spreading across your face as he stands back up to properly store the record, your smile only getting bigger when you see him replace one of the displayed albums on the wall with the new one. 

“It's going on the wall of favorites,” he announces, sliding the previous record back into the storage underneath.

“I’m honored.”

He steps back from the wall with his hands on his hips, admiring how the orange of the album pops out against the others. Yoongi very rarely switched these albums out, but he had a feeling this wall would eventually become full of the random albums you’d recommend to him.

“Quick question,” he starts as he turns back to face you, taking in the sight of you and his cat cuddling together. “It’s been sitting at the back of my mind, and Taehyung has given me like three different answers.”

A small laugh leaves you as you raise your eyebrow at him in question. “Sure, what is it?”

“Where did you move from?”

You stretch your legs out in front of you, your toes just barely reaching the coffee table he has set up a bit away from the couch, Yuri mimicking your actions and stretching out as well. You were definitely gonna grow as attached to her as you were to your roommate’s cat.

“Like where was I last before this, or where am I actually from?”

He walks towards his fridge, still being able to see and hear you due to the open layout of his place. “Both I guess.” The door pops open and he reaches for a bottle of water.“You thirsty?”

“You have some wine, or some beer?”

Yoongi grunts at that, shaking his head slightly, “Sorry, I don’t drink anymore but I’ve got water and juice.”

You’re sitting up straighter now, voicing out that the water was fine. “Where I’m from is classified information, you’ll have to level up on our friendship for me to tell you that.” You accept the water he hands you, smiling at him as he sits back on the couch. He was fine with your secrecy, taking whatever you feel comfortable telling him. “But I was in Madrid before I came here.”

“Oh? Did you leave where you’re from to go live there?”

Your fingers capture Yuri’s paw, squishing her toe beans as she gently swats at your hair. “No, I was in Amsterdam before that, and Berlin before that as well to name a few. I’ve been bouncing around since I was 20, so about 6 years now.”

He has a look of interest on his face as he sips the water, leaning onto the couch sideways to face you. “Do you ever want to go back to those places?”

“Like visiting the place more than once?”

He nods, his eyes focusing on Yuri’s fluffy body, seeing her sitting back up to hop onto the ledge of the couch, rubbing her body against the back of your head before settling on the backrest of it and getting comfy.

“Hm, not sure. I can’t see myself wanting to flip back the pages of my life to reread a story I already know the outcome to.” With a sigh you shrug at him, your fingers now tracing the material of the couch. “Maybe in the future, years from now, I’ll crave a specific memory and want to go back, but it hasn’t happened yet.”

The amount of new cities and countries you’ve been lucky enough to call home for any amount of time held a special place inside of you, the memories and stories you had because of those experiences helped shape you into the person you are. Sure not all of them were movie-like experiences, some close calls happening at a few places that made you question whether you made the right choice living your life the way you did. But then you’d have moments that just felt right, and right now, sitting on this couch with Yoongi, this was one of those moments.

“So you don’t plan on staying here forever?”

“Well what do you mean by forever?”

He smiles, not thinking he would have to explain what forever meant to him. “For the rest of your life. Is there another version of forever Y/N?”

“Shut up,” you laugh. “It’s not likely, but who's to say. I never move somewhere with a time frame of how long I plan on staying.”

“How do you decide? Sorry if I’m prying but I just can’t imagine that moving somewhere new would be easy. Picturing having to leave friends behind would probably wound me.” 

That was true, that was definitely the hardest part of doing this— emotionally at least. The people you met and befriended were a factor in deciding how long you’d stay somewhere. After the initial week of exploring a new place, it gets lonely. You’ve been to places where even the roommates you’d stay with weren’t friendly, and you’d have to take it a step further and search for friendships elsewhere. It was the main reason you had learned to not be timid when it came to making the first move.

“It’s kind of a gut feeling. The longest place I’ve lived in was Paris for two years.” A smile spreads across your face as you recall the two years you spent in that city, how you probably would’ve left after a few weeks if you hadn’t ran into that cute boy right before the club you were in shut down for the night. That experience alone was one of the main reasons you made it a conscious decision to not fall in love, not wanting to experience the inevitable heartbreak that came with it. 

Paris was the first place you moved to, jumping head first into adventure and taking everything that came with it, including romance. Leaving friends behind had been hard, but leaving Park Jimin behind had been a different version of painful.

“Before this I was in Madrid for a month. I found myself getting comfortable too fast and when I get comfortable I get bored. When it's no longer new and exciting I don’t see the point of staying anymore.”

Yoongi absolutely can not see the logic in the way you live, the carefree aura radiating off of you, but he weirdly craves it. He craves the feeling of not being afraid of not knowing what's coming, being able to just let the cards fall wherever they land. His entire life had changed in the last few years and was now built off routine, bullet point to-do lists and deadlines he had to meet. The only adventure he experiences anymore is thanks to his friends, luring him out of his apartment to fulfil any of their spur of the moment ideas, but nothing comes close to this. 

He’s not able to understand how you can be suspended in freefall for the majority of your life, and instead of panicking about your lack of parachute, you’re admiring the view.

“Do you plan on staying here forever?”

That question makes him freeze a little, he had been prying into your life no problem but now that a question was directed at him, he felt himself growing uneasy. “I guess I did.”

“Did...why past tense?”

You see the way he hesitates, his mind is already playing through all the scenarios that can come because of this but he decides to just bite the bullet. “Love makes you think of forever. I pictured forever with my fiance.”

At the mention of a fiance your mind thinks of the girl in the photos with Yoongi, the girl with the bright smile and wide eyes.

Was Yoongi a married man?

He can spot the way you process his vague information, knowing he should elaborate before you think anything else, before your eyes move to his ring finger only to find it bare. “When you’re with someone for almost 8 years its normal to think of forever you know.”

The flashes of his relationship play in his mind, meeting his fiance in his last year of high school. How they had pulled each other out of their shells, becoming rather chaotic in their adventures over the years, turning into adults and supporting each other in every aspect of life.

The memory of Yoongi proposing to her still feels fresh in his mind, taking her to Jeju island since it was a place she had always wanted to visit, not being able to due to caring for her family.

“We were actually planning our wedding, having invitations sent out with everything nearly ready but she uh–“ he stops to breathe slightly, his eyes moving to stare at the picture frames, proving your assumption of the girl being his fiance right. “She got into an accident.”

He hadn’t specified if she died or not, but that faraway look in his eyes spelled it out for you. Forever didn’t have any sympathy for his situation, but he just shrugs it off, forcing himself to not speak further on it. There was more that tied in to the tragic passing of his fiance but he felt he had overshared enough already, not wanting to make you uncomfortable by unloading this information on you. The last thing he needed was to turn this nice day into a pity party with him being the center of attention. 

He’s just waiting for the routine apologetic words that would fall from your mouth—maybe you’d reach over and rub his arm like some people did, tell him how sad it was as if he didn’t already know. Some half assed attempt to make him feel better even though you were clearly blind sided by the topic. 

Yoongi didn’t want that, always hating the way people would stare at him like he was some charity case. This was why he rarely chose to stray from his circle of comfort, from the people that knew the baggage that came with him and accepted him, keeping his group as tight knit as possible in order to not pick at scabbed over wounds. 

When you sigh, he braces for it, mentally accepting that this might be what ends your new formed friendship before you could really creep through the cracks in the wall he built. But instead you reach forward and grasp Yuri once more, scooping her up and bringing her to your chest like a baby. “So Yuri wasn’t the only queen of the house, is that it?”

Yuri purrs in confirmation and Yoongi turns to stare at you again, blinking the wetness away from his eyes before he could even call them tears. You had a smile on your face as you stared at him, not that typical sympathetic smile people always sent his way, it was a genuine one, letting him know he was free to talk more on the subject if he needed to.

And for the first time Yoongi acknowledges that maybe he did need to. He was so used to bottling his emotions in, shutting himself off after her passing, pushing all of his friends and family away and locking himself at home as he mourned, submerging himself in his work to numb himself from feeling anything. Even now, his friends never pried, let him handle his feelings any way he wanted to. But Yoongi can’t act like his chest aches from keeping it all in, the pressure slowly releasing even with the minimal information he had given you. 

“Yeah,” he sighs out in relief, reaching out to pet Yuri. “Hani was the queen before Yuri got promoted.”

As you coo at his cat he feels himself sagging back onto the couch. The small dam of emotions he had inside finally released, and before you know it he’s spilling everything out, telling you tidbit stories of him and Hani, and somehow easing you into sharing similar stories of you and Jimin. 

The sun fully sets through the windows, neither of you noticing as you talk well into the night, and Yoongi found himself laughing and smiling at the mention of Hani for the first time in two years. You urge him on, watching on with interest while he talks about the day they had picked up Yuri from the shelter. 

His eyes are crinkled up in that endearing way you had seen more of today than in the past weeks of knowing him, and it fills you with warmth to know he’s allowing you to know about this part of his life. It felt like sacred information, uncharted territory from the way he had hesitated in the beginning, almost like he wasn’t sure if he could trust you with the precious memories he held tightly. All he needed was a gentle nudge and a genuine smile to slowly let you flip the pages of his brain, knowing you wouldn’t judge the bleeding ink and scratched out words that came with each story. 

As he stares at the way you smile at him, he comes to the realization that your sneaky ass must have already managed to slip past the cracks of the walls he built, infiltrating the tight knit circle he had for himself. He has to hold in a laugh when he recalls the way Taehyung had seriously suggested that you might be a spy sent here from another country. Maybe he was onto something, because he was refusing to accept that his willingness to overshare and stray from his norm was due to anything but your highly trained interrogation skills. 

You clearly had his cat fooled as well. When Yuri leans up and nuzzles her face against yours he sighs, knowing she had claimed you as her favorite solely based on the attention you gave her. You were good. Yoongi guesses he would have to keep you around now, just for the sake of his cat, nothing more.