#and someone just reminded me about the indiana jones situation

[bgmoth]

I hate the entire AI craze. I’m not a luddite; I realise it’s here to stay in one form or another, and will probably be very useful in science, but the attempts to shoehorn it everyfuckingwhere are driving me up the wall. many people have already commented on how stupid it is that the first major niche they’re trying to mass apply AI to is art (digital art, music, films, animation). for me the totally insane suggestion that people would enjoy an uncanny valley fest that will be the AI-likeness of a beloved actor instead of the actor tops everything so far. 

but even the more technical stuff that could potentially be handled by an AI one day - AI support bots (entirely useless for now), AI writing (incredibly boring, instantly recognisable, heartless drivel)... it’s not there yet, so why is every corp & business out there pretending that it is? 

[marvel-starwarsfangirl]

Ep. 12 "Juggernaut" Review

This episode was certainly fast paced. I wished it was a teensy bit longer because I want more of my boys. That being said, the juggernaut sequences were absolutely fantastic. Everything from Hunter's crazy maneuvers to the TK troopers actually being competent were phenomenal. I loved seeing the crazy ride that our boys took as they raced against the Empire's forces and the lack of road. It reminded me of the tank chase in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Thankfully, both Indy and the Batch make it out (thank you Phee).

Also, shoutout to that one Steve Blum voice cameo for random imperial. He's awesome.

As usual, spoilers below

My discord friend and I both theorized that Rampart would return as a prisoner with information and boy, were we right. I'm just gonna say it, Rampart is hot with the scruffy look. Yes, I still hate his guts and he's still an ahole. But I have a thing for the scruffy look. This is because James Norrington was one of my crushes in Pirates of the Caribbean. I don't make the rules, ok?

Ngl, it was cool to see him return. Prison hasn't been kind to him, but it's clear he hasn't changed one bit. He might give up info out of spite, but his views on others he perceives as lesser haven't changed. I wasn't surprised when he had no clue what an Ugnaught was nor when he referred to Crosshair by his number. Unlike Kallus or Cross, who both learned from their mistakes (and obviously had honor), Rampart remains greedy. Although he offers information, he could sell the Batch out in exchange for freedom. We'll see how well that goes. Crosshair was right to be wary.

Side note: seeing Rampart being thrown around like luggage when he was stunned was hilarious. He deserved it though.

Speaking of Cross, his snark was golden. You tell them Cross. Snark aside, Crosshair is not ok. Even mentioning Tantiss is a trigger for him. He doesn't want to go back nor think about anything related to the place. But we all know he will because Omega needs him. She saved his life and he loves her dearly. But I'm glad Hunter and Wrecker didn't hold it against him. Although, I wished we got more dialogue on that whole situation. At least both of his brothers know that Cross didn't hand her over willingly or what not. And Cross trusts that Omega's choice wasn't without reason. Also, Cross' theme kicks in after his hand starts trembling and he needs a hug. He's been through so much.

The interaction with Phee was also really sweet. Crosshair finally got to hear the iconic "Brown Eyes." And the fact that Tech clearly talked about Crosshair in a positive light to Phee makes my heart melt. Tech doesn't know how much Crosshair has changed, but that love he had for him never went away. I am in tears. I also have no doubt that Tech would be impressed with Phee's stealthy drop off of the boys.

Something else I enjoyed was seeing the brothers work together like to good ol' days. It really reminded me of the earlier seasons and CW and just how much I missed it. Season 3 has been so heavy and dark that moments like these make me happy. Cross and Wrecker using battle plans while Hunter drives was so much fun to watch.

And then there's Hemlock. I can't wait for him to fall off Tantiss and die. He's so creepy and gross. I cringe whenever I see his stupid face. The way he showed Omega the children and was like "this is your new home" just made me want to hate him more.

And Emerie! She feels so trapped between her duties and affection for Omega. But she will choose a side in the end and I have a feeling it'll be Omega. My theory is that Omega will encourage her to help her and the children escape. Emerie will provide assistance and probably be killed by Hemlock.

someone please tell me how Echo is doing off screen. I love you sweet Echo; just stay off screen and you'll be safe. but also come back bc i miss your presence

Anyways, that's all for now. We're in the endgame now fellas. 3 more episodes. I will post some theories. Until next time, take care!

[broodpeas]

random thoughts on RHOBH

I'm watching Real Housewives of Beverly Hills again, in between watching other tv shows I didn't wanna watch until I knew I had the time to do so (watched Moon Knight, the best of two worlds: indiana jones and the mummy!). It has been, as usual, an experience to watch a pseudo-reality tv show about wealthy yt women who seem to enjoy tackling each other in the harshest way.

Because I jumped late on this ship, I'm sure later seasons the show tries to mend some of the things they have done so far that they consider to be bad (for example, highlighting in the worst possible way, how an addiction affects not only a personbut that person's family and make everyone a judge of the situation). With each season I wonder...well, basically, I wonder why. And, are people really like this in real life? Because, even if this is a heavily scripted tv show, we still are talking about people and I can't help but wonder if people are really doing things like doubting someone's disease (season 6), domestic abuse (season 1 and season 2), divorce (season 2 and season 3), and the privacy of minor and their right to exist without having a camera shoved in their faces. I wonder why presenting this on television? why making of this entertainment? and how this specific entertainment differentiates from the other ways we consume in pop culture? Ultimately, tv and movies -but especially tv- exploits this and we take it all, even when we think and believe it's done carefully, gracefully, or whatever (always good to ask ourselves what this implies). I think in the past I had writenn about this, but it's still nice to know that I enjoy watching it. I really do. I don't know what witchery this tv show has but it is good, it's so good. And with every season, aware of the "degradation", I still think they can't go far -and then, they do! So far, season 6 started with a man peeping a woman's underskirt and his wife saying it's her fault because she wasn't wearing any underwear! Ah, makes perfect sense!

At the same time, I think too this show is very telling of the upper class of entitled gringas that sometimes do come to this part of the continent and are amazed we have wifi. Which by the way, reminds me to tell to whomever reads this, please let's not find this shocking anymore. It's the year 2023 of our lord Beyoncé who's on tour currently -and giving you so many fashion references I don't think an academic paper will ever be enough-, and we know the condescending ways the gringos exist in the world. RHOBH simply let's you go a little deeper into this, to wonder how in hell did we let things go this far and how great it is because we find amusement. I have always wondered, when the cameras are gone, and they're just them, people living on earth, do they look at themselves and think "this is just a job"? Instead of a version of squid game that violently murders people, maybe this is the real squid game. A very nice one, because I will not stop watching it- must be said, it really doesn't make you a better person to put yourself in the position of judge here.

In any case, it will always be interesting to disssect the Real Housewives franchise from the ethics point of view, and especially from a feminist point of view. Because one could say that yes, tv shows like this makes us abandon all feminist flagpoles and shit, I honestly think this is a too hurried on position. There's a reason why this specific part of television and pop culture is viewed and appreciated by us. For so long gossip and cattiness has been understood as negative and even here, I understand them as negative values. RH has given permission to turn around this, to pose the question why are they bad? if you think carefully, ethics wasn't really built by so-called marginal groups, it was built by men. I mean, what's the first book of ethics I read on my philosophy BA? Aristotle! and Socrates was well, he was difficult, I don't think he'll ever admit how catty and dramatic he was (girl, you died drinking poison instead of escaping, do you think LVP would've done that hell no, she would've made dorit drink the poison!!!). And we all know this, and this isn't the exact place to discuss the implications or consequences this has, but it really does let you think with more attention and detail why these tv shows are considered "trash tv" instead of....culture. I don't think RH is bad tv, I think it's an specific form of entertainment that is so specific to our contemporary times we really have no way to compare it with anything else. This also lets us come close to what it means when a scripted television show starts to meddle with serious stuff, such as addiction, domestic abuse, harassment, and so on and on, and does so with not much care or tact. They just do it, they give it you raw.

But anyway, this was very random, like almost everything I write. Time to get back to work.

[tomhardysurinal]

Platinum #118 - Star Wars Jedi: Survivor.

... Sigh.

What's funny is before I even got the game I read the IGN review - which is glowing - where they said "if Fallen Order is Arkham Asylum, Survivor is Arkham City". I read that and scratched my chin because I think City was the worst of the Arkham games and Asylum was the best 😂 the comparison holds, I guess.

As always the big thing that lets it down is the writing. It feels like an afterthought again. Cal is such a boring blank canvas of a character his motivations are barely filled in. At the beginning it's established he's trying to undermine the Empire wherever possible. He gets frustrated at how they keep expanding no matter how many wins he gets. He then stumbles across the possibility of a world beyond an area of space that's impossible to navigate without the right map. "This could be a safe sanctuary from the Empire!" Indiana Jones-style treasure hunt for map ensues.

Like even aside from just how cliché that whole task is, it's a very weak motivation for your character to just run away from something he's meant to be invested in but because he lacks any strong characteristics he just rather fecklessly bobs along in whatever direction Disney wants him to go in. It's reminded me a lot of The Mandalorian more than once actually. He doesn't make any decisions, he has no agency in his situation and it's boring.

We have a boring protagonist, boring antagonists who are on the same quest but for mwahaha nefarious Disney reasons, half-baked romance, predictable betrayal, a painfully saccharine ending... it's all the ingredients of a Disney property unfortunately. If you've ever found yourself agreeing with someone who at any point has said "what does Martin Scorcese know about making movies anyway", you'll adore it. If you support the writer's strike, you'll have fun in the most disengaged way possible.

There is one moment in this game that fucking shines, it's absolutely flawless, and it's agonisingly brief and Cal isn't in it at all. Crazy how much he drags it down.

I'm gonna finally crack and go get God of War Ragnarok now 👍🏼

[oflowtides]

⸻  RAMI MALEK. HE/HIM / have you ever heard of HOW TO DO NOTHING by lido, well, it describes SETHOS ‘SETH’ TAREK to a tee! the forty one year old, and PROFESSOR OF EGYPTIAN HISTORY was spotted browsing through the stalls at portobello road market last sunday, do you know them? would you say HE is more demanding or more HARDWORKING instead? anyway, they remind me of exclusively using lamps to light a room, soft sweaters with sleepy eyes, the first slats of sun in the morning, and muted, intimate conversations at a party, maybe you’ll bump into them soon!

time in notting hill: forty years

Notting Hill has been all Seth has known his entire life.  Born in Egypt, his parents moved to the UK shortly after he turned one, and made the life they always wanted.  An only child, Seth grew up somewhere between spoiled and neglected; his mother was an academic who was often too busy to give him her full attention - she was brilliant, but clearly put her job above her family.  His father was kind, soft spoken and could be described as doting.  He was a house husband, bending to his wife’s every wish.

From a young age, Seth was inspired by his mother, as well as old Indiana Jones movies.  He wanted to be both an adventurer and a professor, and after his first trip back to Egypt when he was eight, there was no changing his mind.  Immensely curious about his own culture, he devoured book after book, and every year for his birthday, his request was a trip to Egypt.

After Seth graduated high school, he took a few years off, moving to Egypt to really immerse himself in the culture, to learn as much as he could from the source, and when he finally moved back to start college, he was a changed man, for the better.  He had a renewed passion and drive for life, and he dove headfirst into his studies.

Getting a job at the university of london was like a dream come true for Seth; something he had worked incredibly hard for, and for a while, he kept to himself, focusing on course outlines and continuing to read as much as he possibly could.  That was, until one day, he noticed someone else in the same areas of the library as he was.  She was cute, and seemed interested in a lot of the same things Seth was, so finally he managed to pull his nose out of a book long enough to ask her name, and after far longer than Seth realized, they started dating.

Adiya was everything Seth could have asked for - while he didn’t want to admit she was his first girlfriend, he feel for her exceptionally hard, and while he wasn’t in any kind of rush, after a few years of dating, he proposed, wanting to make it clear to her that while neither of them were itching to tie the knot, there was no one else he even wanted to entertain the idea of riding out life together with other than her.

Seth is a notoriously difficult professor; he knows what his students are capable of, and tends to push them just as hard.  Outside of the classroom, however, he’s very outgoing and sociable, easy to converse with despite the fact that he tends to give off awkward academic energy - and he is that also, but he love learning about other people and taking in information from new situations too much to be completely isolated from others.

[simonsnowichooseyou]

This excellent essay was posted by @goodbyedandelion and reposted on Instagram—however their account sadly seems gone now. But it is in rememberence of their Tumblr spirit that I post a continuation to their essay!

EVEN MORE Reasons Why Carry On is so groundbreaking as a YA Fantasy/Romance

Misconceptions/Character Complexity

A large topic in YA Contemporary is gossip, but I feel like fantasy doesn’t touch on this as much. Think of how others perceive one another in Carry On. Early on we learn that Simon, for example, saw Penny as different because of her race. But of course, we quickly know this isn’t true.

But what about Agatha? In Harry Potter, for example, Lavender Brown and other feminine characters are often looked down upon because of their femininity. We often as a culture perceive beauty as overcompensation for what’s inside. Sometimes Agatha is looked at in the same light in Carry On, but when we see things from her POV, we realize that Agatha is perhaps the smartest one there. Maybe she’s not Penny Bunce-smart, but she has the survival instincts that Penny lacks.

Agatha isn’t the only one. Baz looks cold and unfeeling from others’ POVs, but we quickly learn that he is a boy with a soft heart that’s been hardened by his past. Everyone thinks he cares about nothing but we know he cares about his mother and how she’d feel about him; his father and step-mother and siblings; Simon, of course; Bunce, in his own way; he even cares about flowered suits and dramatic entrances! We think Bunce is nerdy and perhaps annoying, but we learn she’s very sweet and like a mother to Simon. And the mage. Ugh, the mage. We think he cares about Simon but we learn that for every bit he cares about Simon, he cares about the war more.

Rowell doesn’t allow any character to be simple, stereotypical, or as they appear. My sister, for example, was saying that Baz sounded like a stereotypical gay man in the media. But he’s not, is he? He might love fashion but Rowell does not make him simple or stereotypical. Everyone is so complex, and she uses the multi-POV to not just show us their complexity but also the complexity of how they are viewed by others.

Woman on Woman Drama/Anger

For years and years, only one woman was allowed to have a true seat at the table in films. Take Indiana Jones, the original Avengers, and Star Wars for example. This woman was often made to be the sex appeal or romantic interest, but I’ll save that for another day. Because of there only being one spot, it set a precedent that women in media needed to fight with each other to take that spot, thus depriving us of women getting along!

At first, I was worried Rowell had fallen into this trap. Bunce thinks Agatha is simple and too feminine, Agatha thinks Bunce is a major pain in the ass. Their dislike for one another is complicated in that they’re essentially two different types of feminism battling it out, and half of their fight was about Simon and their roles in his life.

But in the end, Penny and Agatha create a relationship that exists outside of their relationship with Simon. Penny sees Agatha’s strength and resilience; Agatha recognizes Penny’s harsh exterior for what is is. When Agatha moves away, they text without his even knowing. Penny is the one that decides they need to check on and save her. In the end, penny and Agatha fight alongside one another.

Rowell didn’t just give us a feminine friendship—she showed us what we’ve been doing, and how to get from Point A to point B. I think it’s the most underrated part of the series.

True Friendship

It might sound bad, but I truly believe a lot of today’s media ruins the idea of friendship. I just feel like none of the portrayals are realistic. Friends are either joined at the hip and have never fought (toxic) or never get along (also toxic). The fact that Baz and Penny and Simon and Penny and Agatha and Penny can get into fights but still continue to love one another platonically is really heartwarming to me.

Trauma/Mental Illness

I remember getting to the end of Harry Potter and thinking “he went through all of that and we’re just supposed to leave him now?” We see some remnants in the most cursed play ever: The Cursed Child. But more than trauma we see someone who looks back on the days they risked their life everyday with *longing.* While that’s about the most Harry Potter thing Harry Potter has ever done (and the most canonical part of that play) it’s so unrealistic. You’re telling me Harry grew up with nothing and was an amazing father—minus a few spats with his son. You’re telling me Harry was able to hold it together emotionally after fighting for his life from ages 11-18 without a therapists help? You’re telling me Harry lost two father figures in the ministry of magic AND spent 7 years going through what amounted to a lesson titled “the government is corrupt” just to be a part of that government!?

Wayward son isn’t like that. Wayward Son shows us what happened to Simon afterwards, and it’s not peaches and cream. He had therapy, he quit therapy. A lot of us have been Simon on that couch, and we all needed the Baz in our life to drag us across a metaphorical America. Wayward Son is hands-down my favorite book. Realistic depictions of mental illness, check. Subverting our expectations of after the end, check. Reading it feels like taking a road trip, check.

As OP mentioned, Simon is a beloved chosen one because he’s just so wrong for the role. He’s not levelheaded where he should be, he’s bold in all the wrong places, he couldn’t possibly maintain a professional relationship with the coven. Meanwhile his super-hot enemy Baz was the absolute perfect choice to be chosen, but he was completely passed over. And part of this chalks up to how Simon became so powerful—fate isn’t twisting its whims this way and that. Simon is only chosen because he was a Petri dish experiment-gone-wrong baby. When Simon asks the fates why, really he should be asking the mage. There’s something delightful about the fact that Simon was made. The chosen one was made, and in the same process, so was the greatest threat.

De-escalation

I think it’s clear by now that Carry On is a great book, Simon Snow is an amazing series, and Rainbow Rowell sure can write. But I feel the need to point out that the end of Carry On wasn’t well-received by everyone. I recommend the series to everyone I know and some people are really disappointed you don’t get a big magical battle at the end. Some people think Simon filling in the humdrum was a cop out. But I disagree. I felt it was thrilling to witness a book where war was as stupid in fantasy land as it can be in real life. This is the first fantasy I’ve ever read where they find a better way to handle conflict than senseless fighting. It’s emotionally rewarding, to me, to see de-escalation. To see conflicts fixed before they start to be huge problems. It was a risky choice for an end, you have to admit. But Rowell pulls it off amazingly.

Nothing is Wrapped in a Bow

A day will never go by without me thinking about the fact that Simon Snow Salisbury doesn’t know who his parents are. Or how Baz will never know what exactly happened with his mother—whether she really ended herself to avoid vampirism and whether she would’ve done it to her too. We’ll never even quite understand the mage’s plan behind fix the humdrum and get an all powerful boy wizard on his side. Rowell doesn’t wrap everything up. She gives you closure as often as she gives you something to ponder. The ending of Harry Potter was so controversial, I think, because it spelled out so clearly much of what was happening. And what you didn’t learn in that epilogue, Rowling released later through Pottermore and interviews. That’s fine and dandy—but there’s something to be said for ending Simon Snow’s books with questions. Not infuriating questions but rather things that I’ll always ponder—that will shed new light on different situations depending on how I look at them. Rowell sets a precedent that you can fill in Simon’s world with your imagination while also reminding us that life doesn’t have endings. Not really, the way books to. Rowell is one of the few writers of today’s fantasy, I’d argue, who’s okay letting things go unanswered. There’s always a thread of fantasy and magic going. It’s something that will keep Simon alive in my heart for many, many years to come.

So yeah, that’s what I think about when I think about Simon Snow. It’s not nearly as coherent as the original post but I hope you enjoy it.

[courtlyharlequin]

Dreamscape

Summary: [ Modern AU ] Cater, Vil, Epel, and Silver, Sebek take you on a date to Disneyland! It’s the happiest place in the world, right?

A/N: Happy birthday @poisonepel​ !!! Marzi, I love you so much. Thank you for all that you do for me and the twst fandom in general. You’re such a hard worker and I don’t think people say that enough. You’re one of my closest friends. I’m glad I’ve found someone who loves twst as much as I do. I’m so grateful to know you, to be able to rot with you, to be able to over share with you. You’re sweet and very down to earth. You’re so funny too! Your react pics always send me over the moon. I always have a blast when I talk to you and Taku. I hope you have an amazing day— one that’s on par with your own amazingness ehe~ (((o(*ﾟ▽ﾟ*)o)))♡

Cater Diamond:

He thought it would be a cute and Magicam-able date idea

There wouldn’t be a single moment where he isn’t snapping a picture of you two

Or perhaps he might vlog the entire experience

Cater would wait for a good hour to get a picture with Mickey Mouse

He would also buy those Mickey Mouse shaped ice cream bars, take a bite for the Magicam post and then hand it off to you because, well, it’s a bit too sweet for him

Matching ears and outfits are a must for this date

Cater opts for the classical ears. You know, the black ones that are clean and simple

Once he’s done with the pictures, he’ll let his online persona drop

He’s still peppy and flirty, but he’s not faking a smile

He’s genuinely enjoying himself after all the staging. Quite frankly, the slower rides bore him but they’re much more viable for pictures

He prefers the faster paced rides. He likes the thrill, the rush of adrenaline albeit he can’t always snap a picture because of the fast pace

His favorite rides are the ones with long lines like Splash Mountain, Space Mountain, or Indiana Jones.

Not to worry though, Cater will hold your hand while you wait. He’s surprisingly very good at small talk~

Vil Schoenheit:

He is fond of the idea of going on a date to Disneyland. Read: the idea of

To be honest, amusement parks are not his ideal date. It leaves room for paparazzi and unwanted attention. Moreover, he’s never been to an amusement park before

Constantly being in the sun irks him, but he does eventually loosen up

Complaining all day would ruin the mood and that’s simply uncouth of him so it’s best to make the most out of the situation

Vil’s makeup is light for the day. He’s going for a more natural look today.  He doesn’t want to constantly touch it up every few hours. He sports shoes similar to the ones in his PE card. They’re light, easy for walking yet still stylish

His whole ensemble is a functional yet fashionable piece. He puts his hair up into a ponytail too~

He’ll make sure your ensemble is just as comfortable as his too. He’ll even do your makeup if you wake up early enough

He carries a mini backpack with all of his essentials too. Maybe yours too if you don’t like carrying bags with you. He’s not going to carry everything as he’s not your servant, but an extra makeup pouch wouldn’t hurt

Vil is a total mom at Disneyland. He brings his own food as he won’t tolerate putting junk into his body. He’ll also do hydration checks while you wait in line

He unironically likes Fantasyland. It reminds him of the stories he read as a child. There’s a certain wonder and awe in his eyes when he rides the carousel or the Peter Pan ride. We can’t forget the Snow White ride either. They’re very “chill rides”. They won’t cause neck strain or get anyone wet. He honestly needs them after all the stress from work

You can bet that he finds himself in the gift shop for a good hour, browsing for the perfect ears for you both

Going on a date to Disneyland with Vil, seems like a handful, and it really is, but seeing him loosen up on a day off brings you both much joy. Albeit, his pride is a little wounded because he actually enjoyed himself after telling you he wouldn’t

Epel Felmier:

UWAHHH!!!

He’s also never been to an amusement park before, but not because he didn’t want to. No, the idea just never crossed his mind

His eyes light up. They sparkle. This place is huge and there’s horses too?

He’s honestly underpacked, but that’s fine with him! You don’t need a whole lot to have fun

Epel is a fast walker. If you aren’t then, he’ll make sure to hold your hand so as to not lose you in a crowd

He rushes to the first ride he sees

The attraction that caught his attention the most would be Autopia. Racing? Bring it on!

He also volunteers for the Jedi Training Academy, wielding his lightsaber with such prowess. Sure, he might be the oldest of the bunch, but he didn’t mind– especially with you cheering him on in the crowd

While those two attractions are in Tomorrowland, his favorite place is New Orleans Square and Critter Country

Epel is really fond of Splash Mountain and Pirates of the Caribbean. He’s not afraid to get wet. Hell, he wants to

Although, he prefers the attractions where you explore more than sit down for a ride. He climbs up Tarzan’s Treehouse without a sweat and walks across those unstable  wooden bridges like it’s nothing

If you’re scared, he’ll grab your wrist and run straight across ♡

He likes the Winnie the Pooh ride, but don’t mention it to him. Seeing him buy matching Winne the Pooh and Piglet Mickey ears for you in the gift shop next to the ride was enough to know

And yes, he likes Dole Whip

Silver:

This sleeping beauty is a little dazed, having to wake up early and all, but he’ll make do. He gathered all of his things the night before, laying out his clothes the night before on the hotel’s couch and setting his bags by the door

He’s dressed very comfortably. He’s most likely in sweats

He also prefers a cap instead of the standard Mickey Mouse ears. The headband makes the back of his own ears hurt if he wears them for so long so he’d rather not wear them altogether

Silver falls asleep on your shoulder during the bus ride to the park itself. His snores are barely audible. You can’t help but admire his long lashes

He’ll give you this perplexed look as he catches you staring. Your eyes meet his brilliant aurora orbs and he smiles at you

As for the date itself, you two find yourselves wandering around the park. Silver has no preference so he’s willing to go on any rides if it as you wish

But from how he dozes off in Small World’s, you could assume that’s his favorite ride

Honestly, Silver likes to hang around the pond near Sleep Beauty’s castle and feed the ducks. He has an affinity for the park’s animals and they adore him as well

While you two do linger around the castle and Fantasyland for most of your day, one of Silver’s favorite places is Main Street because there’s horse drawn carriages

He likes to nuzzle his head on your shoulder and watch others hustle about. There’s a certain tranquility that comes with watching others enjoy themselves. He may or may not doze off here

The day ends with you two settling down by the lake in New Orleans Square the fireworks from afar. There was already a crowd at the area but Silver made do. If you’re short, might offer to carry you on his back

He blushes when you mentioned that some of the fireworks remind you of his multicolored eyes

Sebek Zigvolt:

He did a lot of research when you suggested that you two should go on a date here. So when you reached the front gate, he rambled on about the history of the park

This continues for almost very ride which leads you to question how much he looked into Disneyland. When you compliment him, he beams with pride. Of course, he knows about the architecture of Sleeping Beauty’s castle!

That being said, Sebek is actually a good partner to take to an amusement park. He’s so prepared. He knows the best routes and got fast passes

He personally has no preferences for rides, but from how his eyes light up when he races you in Autopia and how much he laughs in Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters, those are probably his favorites. Sebek likes the rides that are more hands-on and require some skill. Sure, rides where you just sit still and enjoy the scenery is nice, but he’d rather show off his talents to you

He’s a tad ashamed that he asked to go on another round of Autopia since that threw off his schedule, but he couldn’t help it. It’s so fun!

He has a certain plan for the day as he asked you what you liked a few weeks before so he also gets a little annoyed when you take detours to buy churros and ice cream. He didn’t really take snacks into account, just main meals. He sincerely apologizes for being underprepared, but is taken back when you giggle and wave it off as nothing

If he had puppy ears, then you could imagine them perking right up after you affirm that you aren’t disappointed in him, taking his hand and all

It all works out for the better because it turns out that Sebek likes the turkey legs! He would probably get into a fight for the last one. It wasn’t intentional; he just came off as vociferous to the other person which in turn led to some bickering. Needless to say, he got the last turkey leg

[turtle-steverogers]

Team Bonding

fr when was the last time i posted like,,, a fic on here. like a tumblr fic. damn. anyway. ummmmmmmm this is just your.... typical steve freaks out and the avengers are awesome um yah ok ok 

warnings: panic attack, vomiting (basically steve watches the titanic and doesnt have a very fun time)

word count: 2575

-

If Steve was being brutally honest with himself, he was fucking tired of hearing about “the classics”. Irrelevant people butting their noses into his business, tipping him off to what movies were, “the best of the best!” and “absolute must sees!” He appreciated what they were trying to do, but after a while, it felt like people were more or less just trying to garner a slice of his 21st century experience, and quite frankly, he liked doing things better by himself. It was much more appealing to park himself in front of his laptop, nothing but his own quietude to keep him company as he combed through different wikipedia rabbit holes and caught up on movies and TV shows that were apparently crucial to his very existence.

Most were subpar and honestly, he preferred the copious amounts of popcorn he treated himself to on these solo date nights, but some things surprised him. Like Indiana Jones. He liked Indiana Jones. He was neat, and Marion reminded him vaguely of Peggy. 

Still, he supposed he should have seen it coming when Clint came to collect him from his floor one evening, that sort of eager-puppy energy he carried around with him vaguely prickling the back of Steve’s neck.

“C’mon, man,” he was saying. Steve leaned against the door jamb, tired. He was going to concede, but Clint was rambling and Steve knew better than to interrupt him. “It’s, like, certifiably the best love story ever. You need to watch it--”

And there it was again. That fucking claim. You need to watch this! You haven’t seen that? 

No. He hadn’t. He’d been a little busy, you know, being dead.

“--And the acting is all so raw and it’s just-- Leo DiCaprio-- you know who that--”

“--Yes. I saw Blood Diamond--”

“--Oh, you did? Well, anyway, he rocks in this and--”

“Clint,” Steve cut him off smoothly. “I’ll come, don’t sweat it too hard.”

Clint looked positively elated. “You will?” he exclaimed. “Awesome, yeah, it’s gonna be the whole team. I mean, that’s good right? You’re cool with that? You gotta be, you’re the one who mentioned team bonding that one time--”

“Yes,” Steve cut in again. “I’m alright with that. Give me a minute to change, and I’ll be right down?” He was still in his gym clothes from two hours ago. He meant to take a shower, but he’d sort of… ran out of energy. The sweat had cooled by now anyway. He smelled fine.

“Oh! Yeah, no problem.”

Which was how Steve found himself in a pair of sweatpants and an old SHIELD t-shirt, squashed in between Natasha and Bruce on the communal couch. Someone had handed him a huge bowl of popcorn and Steve was pleasantly surprised to find that it was flavored with some sort of cheese powder.

“White cheddar,” Bruce said, holding up a little blue shaker bottle when he heard Steve’s appreciative hum. “They’re, uh, sort of like seasoning, but for popcorn specifically. They come in all different kinds of flavors.”

“Oh, neat,” Steve said, around another handful of popcorn. He liked Bruce. He seemed to get Steve in that quiet, brutally raw sort of way. A quiet kinship. They didn’t talk about it, but he never made him feel condescended, so Steve decided that was okay.

“I think I fixed it!” Tony said, stepping out from behind the ginormous movie screen where, presumably, he’d been fixing a volume problem. The screen had been frozen on the first frame of the movie for nearly ten minutes. “Okay, okay, let’s see…” he pressed play. Music poured through the speakers on either side of the TV, loud enough so that everyone cringed and Steve nearly dropped the popcorn bowl in his haste to cover his ears. He always managed to forget how damn loud the world could be when he let himself get comfortable.

“Sorry, sorry!” Tony hissed, turning the volume down to a much more tolerable level. “Okay, there. Okay, shh everyone. Gotta let Capsicle--”

“--Just Steve, Tony--”

“--Gotta let Just Steve get the full experience.”

Steve rolled his eyes, but settled in to watch.

The film was honestly better than Steve had been expecting, if not a little… itchy in that way period films tended to be for him. The themes of poverty and love were pretty well-rounded, but they hit just close enough that he almost cringed at the far-fetch’d beauty of it. 

Still, his fingers itched for a pencil as Jack guided a pencil over the worn sheaf of paper. The dim light, the faint scratch of the pencil, the forbidden love. It was familiar. Steve could almost smell the salty City air, afternoons spent under the dim lights of candles so they could see even with the curtains drawn-- a semblance of privacy amongst the compact vulnerability of his and Bucky’s shitty little tenement. 

Draw me like one of your french girls, Rose had said, and Steve’s eyes drifted towards the wall, Bucky’s voice echoing through his head.

“‘Course I want you to draw me. I ain’t denying my vanity, Stevie,” he teased, but his eyes were soft. “Pal, you could draw a stick of butter and I’d still wanna watch. It ain’t about me here.”

There was a soft touch to his arm and Steve blinked out of his reverie. Natasha was watching him, a neutral look on her face that Steve had finally learned to recognize as concern. He shook his head minutely, offering her a smile. She nodded and looked back at the TV.

The rest of the movie passed without much excitement. The acting was pretty good and Steve had even gotten to a point where he could recognize the filmmaking as something like revolutionary for the time it came out. He was quicker on the cultural uptake than people gave him credit for, but that was neither here nor there. He laughed with everyone else, let himself grow somber when the atmosphere lent that mood, and generally, it was a nice time. He hadn’t gone to any movie nights before this, but he thought maybe he’d start going to more.

And then the ship hit the iceberg.

Steve wasn’t sure what he’d been expecting. Obviously, he knew of the Titanic-- he knew, historically, what happened to it. But for some reason, it hadn’t quite hit him while watching the movie that he was going to have to see the catastrophe go down.

There was a loud creaking of ice on metal as the collision occurred on screen and Steve felt himself go still-- body rigid and tense as the deafening noise played through the speakers. His heart slammed in his chest and he felt his palms start to sweat. He knew that sound-- he knew that--

--He blinked, shaking his head. Movie. Watch the movie. There was a panicked scramble on screen. Characters rushing to amend the situation, more metal creaking and groaning and breaking as dark, foamy water broke through the sides of the ship and Steve could taste it, he could taste the water flooding into the cabin, hitting him from the left as it took the plane down in a harsh--

--He twitched, shaking his head. He was being silly. There were moments of reconciliation as the scenes rapidly flashed between water flooding the ships cabins and peaceful moments of civility. A calm before the storm. A final dance before death.

I’m gonna need a raincheck on that dance…

There was a sudden crash as water blasted through into the work quarters and Steve jumped, watching transfixed as unforgiving torrents pushed workers over, flooding them, drowning them, and they were falling, slipping, sliding, panicking as certain death met them at the halfway point, and Steve knew it must be cold. So cold. Suffocating and unforgiving as it flooded their lungs, saltier than they probably imagined, heavy and awful and--

“Stark, turn the movie off.”

The room went abruptly silent. Steve realized his eyes were closed, chest heaving as he sat, hunched over his lap, hands fisted in his hair.

The popcorn wasn’t on his lap anymore. When had he moved? He couldn’t breathe and he was so cold and someone needed to save those guys, someone needed to--

“Steve,” a gentle voice cut into the roaring waves crashing in his head. Bruce. That was Bruce speaking. “Can you hear me, Steve?” 

Steve nodded, pulling his hair harder. He couldn’t breathe. Was he drowning again? Surely that was impossible. If Bruce was talking to him, he couldn’t be drowning again, but-- but the water-- and-- and the cold--

“Good, that’s good, Steve,” Bruce. Bruce again. It was Bruce. “Can I touch you?”

Touch. Touch. No touch. He was so cold. He wanted to stop being cold, but he was certain if someone touched him right now, he would lose his goddamn mind. More so than he already had.

“That’s alright,” Bruce sounded steady. Calm. So calm. Why couldn’t Steve calm down? “That’s okay. You think you can do something for me?”

Something… for Bruce? Could he? Could he do anything right then? If he couldn’t breathe, how could he do anything-- and he-- he felt sick--

He opened his mouth to answer and vomited between his feet, straight onto the carpet. Someone in the room hissed sympathetically. Steve wanted to crawl somewhere and die.

“Oh, Steve,” Bruce seemed to be talking mostly to himself, but Steve felt his shoulders climb higher towards his ears. “Okay, Steve, I need you to listen to my voice. Just listen. I’m going to count and you’re going to breathe in time with my instruction, okay? Can you do that for me?”

Steve shook his head, choking on a sob. His chest hurt. Like someone had taken all of his ribs and replaced them with weights, flooding his lungs with-- with water-- and fuck, now he was thinking about the plane again. He felt his breathing tick up higher.

“I want you to try,” Bruce said. “With me. In,” he sucked in a breath. “One… two… three… four…”

Steve tried to suck in a breath, but all he managed to do was send himself into a coughing fit. Bruce kept counting. Steve wanted to tell him to wait-- slow down-- shut up--

He braced a hand over his chest. 

Bruce was still counting.

He wasn’t sure how much time passed, but eventually he found himself matching Bruce’s counts, eyes closed and the heels of his palms braced on his temples as he sucked in greedy, measured breaths. His heart was still slamming hard enough to make him tremble and he could smell his own sick wafting up from the ground, but at least he was breathing on his own.

Bruce trailed off. Silence hung thick in the air, the only noise Steve’s slow, shaking breaths. Shame burned around his ears. He didn’t dare look up.

Tony, predictably, was the one to break the silence. “I’m sorry, Steve,” he said, and Steve was surprised to hear honest regret in his voice. “I was the one who suggested we watch Titanic. I should have thought for more than two seconds about that…”

Steve shrugged. Embarrassment climbed from his stomach to his throat, threatening to choke him. 

Natasha spoke next. “Why don’t you go wash up?” It was an escape-- a way out-- and Steve took it graciously, keeping his head ducked down as he stood on shaking legs and rushed to the communal bathroom.

Inside, he locked the door and braced himself over the sink, splashing warm water on his face. He drank greedily from the tap. His reflection looked like shit-- he’d burst some blood vessels in his eyes, probably while vomiting, and his skin looked sallow and pale. He was trembling, sweat matting his hair to his forehead. He looked how he looked after a nightmare. This, he supposed, had kind of been like a nightmare. Though, he hadn’t been asleep.

Nightmares, he was finding, weren’t strictly exclusive to the nighttime. 

He supposed he’d always known that, though. 

He closed his eyes, bowing his head again. 

His emotions had been fucked to high hell since waking up from the ice. This hadn’t been the first of those awful… fits, and he was certain it wouldn’t be the last, but to have something like that happen in front of the team was a whole new level of mortifying. Fuck. He’d gotten sick. And he’d left it.

He felt the ceramic counter straining under his grip. Scowling, he let go.

He could slip off to his room, lock himself away until he could find some way to sneak out of the Tower and never talk to any of the others ever again. Even in this state, Steve knew that wasn’t viable in any sense. He sighed. Besides, he couldn’t just damn the others to clean up his mess. 

Stowing his pride, he dug some spare mouthwash out from behind the mirror and chugged some straight down, keeping a mouthful and swishing it around before spitting it in the sink. He still felt and looked like shit, but at least his breath would smell like wintergreen. 

The others were still gathered in the communal living room, watching what looked like a kid’s cartoon on TV. There was a distinct smell of cleaner in the air and Steve’s eyes landed on the ground where he’d gotten sick. It was clean. He let his eyes drop to the ground, ashamed.

“I’m sorry,” he said. The cartoon paused. He didn’t look at any of them. “I was going to clean up.”

“Nah, man, the only thing worse than freaking out is having to clean up after yourself while you still feel shitty,” Clint said, and Steve looked up. There was no pity in his gaze, only understanding. 

“Yeah, we’ve all been there,” Tony said. “Sucks, but hey, least we know now that Titanic is a no-no for you.”

Steve flushed, swallowing a few times. “Um, I guess,” he looked at Bruce. “Thank you.”

Bruce smiled. “No problem,” he said gently. “We’re watching Phineas and Ferb if you’d like to join us, but we understand if you’d like to go rest.”

“Phineas and Ferb?” Steve asked, guilt replaced with genuine confusion.

“Yeah,” Clint said, shoving a handful of popcorn in his mouth. “It’s my go-to when I have a bad day. Nothing like some good old platypus drama to cure life’s woes.”

Steve blinked. “I genuinely don’t know what to say to that.”

Clint barked out a laugh. “Join us, man! Don’t gotta talk if you’re not feeling it, but being alone after shit like that sucks.”

And Steve hadn’t had someone there for him after a breakdown-- not since the war. Not since Bucky. Every ounce of him wanted to run. Hide. Smooth out his face and slip on that mask of stoicism. But maybe… maybe he didn’t have to. Maybe he could let himself have this, if only this once.

“Sure,” he said, voice a little hoarse. He awkwardly sat back in between Natasha and Bruce.

Tony pressed play again and Steve smoothed his hands over his thighs, feeling out of place and a little cramped and--

Natasha settled, casually letting her feet rest on his lap. On his other side, Bruce leaned into his shoulder, a subtle, grounding pressure. Clint caught his eye and offered him some more popcorn.

Steve relaxed.

Yeah. He could let himself have this.

-

thanks for reading, chiefs

yeah this was chatted about in one of the awesome discord groups im in so thanks guyysss lol

[harringtonheartache]

Daybreak | Part Fifteen

Part Sixteen 

Pairing: Steve Harrington x Lab Escapee! Reader?

Summary: Part fifteen of this fic. Slow it down, what is going on here? Hopper needs to know.

Word Count: 2,300 +

Warning(s): Mild cussing

A/N: I’m not entirely fond of how I ended this chapter but I need to decide what direction I want the story to go in... Anyway, I hope you can forgive me and enjoy reading! 

Stacked neatly, Mike’s VHS tapes sat on Steve’s coffee table centered in front of the living room couch. Next to them were Steve’s socked feet, also stacked on top of one another as his legs stretched out before him. The credits for Indiana Jones rolled down the TV screen, and Nine’s eyes trailed across the words. Steve stood from his spot next to her on the couch, and gave her a puzzled look when she shot him one first. “You’re not-” she started, but her eyes traveled back to the screen. “Are you actually reading the credits?” Steve said, amusement in his voice. She looked back to him, giving up on the fast-scrolling text. “I didn’t know what they were,” she told him.

A smile dragged slowly across Steve’s face as he progressed into light laughter. “You don’t have to read those, they aren’t part of the story,” he explained. Nine cracked a smile as well, a breath of air leaving her mouth between her curled lips as if she were relieved. “Oh”. 

Steve crouched by the TV now, removing the tape from the player and finding its respective cover to put it away in. “So, what did you think?” he asked, turning his head to Nine as the tape snapped into place in the plastic case. 

“I liked it, it was nice to focus on other people’s problems for a while,” she said, and he laughed again. “Agreed”. 

About to engage in further discussion of the plot, Nine sat up and parted her lips to speak. Beating her to action, a chime rang through the house as someone outside pressed the doorbell. A recurring situation that had grown less scary and more irritating. Steve sighed as he stood up and looked to Nine with an apologetic expression, as if it were him outside ringing to be let in. 

It was Hopper. Chief of police returned to the Harrington residence as he said he would. The site of an authority at his door was inherently startling to Steve, but he let him inside as he thought over how long ago it was Hopper had been in his home, eyeing the empty space and scolding him to put an ice pack on his face. He realized now that he never did. 

-

Nine sat in the same seat she had occupied before, but this time her posture was stiff. She had first crossed her legs, one on top of the other, but moved to undo this after a minute. Her fingertips squeezed at folds in the fabric of her borrowed sweatpants, and she wished her injured arm hadn’t left her unable to borrow a shirt with long sleeves as well. So she substituted one jittery act for another. Beside Nine to her right, Steve was close; turned towards her slightly and hunched over just a little as if he were going to whisper to her a secret. Maybe he’d give her all the answers to the questions she would be asked. 

Hopper sat across from the two like a marriage counselor for a young couple. He leaned forward, forearms on his knees as if to get down to Nine’s level, to seem less dominating. She still wanted to back up, despite the intention.

“I don’t want to unsettle you, I just have to understand”. He started off with a half-apology after reading her body language, but continued on even when his sentence didn’t seem to make a dent in her demeanor. “I need to know more about where you came from — the lab”. He said the last two words as if he were reading them from a list, although looked straight ahead, trying to steal a moment of eye contact, even if it were accidental on Nine’s part. She only looked down, counting how long she could stand to hold her fingernail sharply against the pad of her thumb before ceasing the pain and taking the pressure away to watch the indent she had made in her skin fade. 

“Do we really have to do this?” Steve interrupted an interview that had hardly begun, opposing it with one question. 

“Yes, Steve, we do”. Hopper’s tone was more harsh when speaking to the boy. “Be grateful that I didn’t make her come into the station. I am going beyond off-road in terms of formalities,” he scolded. “I have a lot on my plate here, I just need to ask a few questions for now and the rest can be sorted out later”. 

Nine looked up, but only to catch a look at Steve’s face. He was sighing through his nose, biting into his lower lip and looking off to his right as he halfway rolled his eyes. His head swiveled back to face forward, then he peaked at Nine with large eyes. 

“How did you first end up there?” Hopper asked. Nine squinted, almost offended he hadn’t caught up on the basics of the story. She looked up to study the sheriff’s face for a moment, seeing only genuine curiosity on his features. She looked him straight in the eye as she responded. “I was born there”. Her tone was blunt, angry words leaving her mouth like weaponry. 

Hopper’s brows twitched, unexpectant of her harsh delivery or the answer itself. He sat back against his chair and opened his mouth to retaliate with another question. “Are there others, then?” he said simply, prettying his tone as if to ask nicely. 

“Other what? Kids?” Nine returned with another question, although she had understood his without the need for specification. He only nodded. “Yeah, there are others. I’m only number nine,” she said. 

Steve’s eyes were stuck on her as she spoke, a look of unease on his face. He appeared more concerned than Nine did at this point, but her twitching fingers reminded her of her anxiety. Another crescent-shaped impression faded slowly from her skin. 

Hopper’s next question was thick. “What did they do to you?”

Now Nine sighed, eyes traveling back to her lap for a moment as if recharging. “A lot. Ran tests — different things that evaluate and challenge our abilities.” She knew her response would set her up for a plethora of further questions, trying to keep it short in an attempt to fend off this inevitability. The look of confusion wasn’t wavering from Hopper’s expression, and she watched him gear up to ask another question. 

“Abilities? What does that mean?” 

Next to Nine, Steve shifted, his own two hands wringing together as if he had been asked the question himself. She glanced at him, then continued. “Specifically? Telekinesis, mostly.” She left out details of her other capabilities, leaving Hopper with a summary she’d hope would satisfy him. 

“Okay, come on… what?” He wasn’t satisfied. 

Nine’s voice was smaller this time, as if to make up for the increased tension in Hopper’s delivery. “I’d show you-” Steve cut her off, finally getting another word in. “No! You passed out at the lab because you over-exerted yourself. You’re still recovering, you can’t use your powers”. He didn’t even look at Hopper, acting as if he weren’t there at all. He searched Nine’s eyes, his own wavering back and forth in his attempt to read her expression. Hopper spoke again and the two broke their intense eye-contact. “Let’s just - calm down”. He sensed that he was losing both of those in front of him to the swelling unease of the room. Sitting up straight in his chair, he exhaled in demonstration. 

He dropped the subject, mentally scribbling the words telekinetic abilities with a question mark after them in his mind. “How did you escape? It’s a pretty secure building from my personal experience,” Hopper huffed, leaning back as cigarette-scented air left his mouth. 

Nine looked up this time, searching for an answer on the ceiling between cracks in the plaster. The sound of the Hawkins' Lab security alarm played in her head, uninvited and accompanied by vibrant visuals of running underneath it’s red light. “Something went wrong that night,” she started. “I-” she altered her speech, abandoning words that painted her responsible. “They reached the upside-down. Something from inside escaped, and I took advantage of the distraction.” 

She watched Hopper’s face as he processed her summary of events, then stole a glance at Steve like a child who was desperate for their parents to believe a poor excuse. Hopper moved along — the specifics of her getaway weren’t important to him right now anyway. What stood taller than Nine’s breakout was the something that escaped from somewhere he didn’t know of. “The upside down? What is that? That a place?” His tone was becoming more ragged, the unconventionality of this interview getting to him. He was used to routine, if anything boring work: a group of teenagers caught stealing candy from Mrs. Alexander’s corner store, a stale argument turned violent between two men at a local bar - things expected from a small town. This past week had introduced Hop to first-ever’s. First ever missing child case. First ever superhuman lab experiment escapee. 

Steve opened his mouth, shut it immediately. This felt invasive. This had been a secret between three, and this fourth member of the club brought doubtful glares and true consequence. He hadn’t known what he had expected, (Nine to spend the rest of her life hiding in his bedroom as his personal little secret?) but with the town’s sheriff sitting across from him in his own home, his reality felt menacing. Something about it seemed punishable. 

“There is a gate, like a passageway. It leads to the upside down, this place that- that’s like another dimension beyond our own,” Nine spoke. “A flip-side.” Hopper looked defeated, and felt his pants pocket to make sure his pack of cigarettes still laid underneath the fabric. It did, but he didn’t take them out. 

“There isn’t much else. We filled you in. Can we be done?” Steve phrased his question as if he were a kid wishing to be excused from dinner with his parents. A bit of expectancy in his voice; confidence he hoped would end the ‘check-in’ turned interview sooner. 

“No, no, no,” Hopper spoke aggressively again as he shifted back to conversation with Steve. “You did not fill me in on anything, she did.” Credit where credit was due. “There is still a lot I don’t know about Hawkins’ lab, and if I have more questions,” he spoke with passive-aggressive simplicity, like letters typed out in bold, “I will ask them”. 

Nine didn’t like his deserving attitude; it was flashy and ugly, although fitting of the uniform. “I’m done,” she spoke with Steve’s confidence. 

Hopper looked back to her, unhidden shock on his face as he had not considered his head-butting with Steve a true threat until now. He looked over the bruised girl in front of him, and sighed into his hands as he reevaluated the situation. Bringing his head back up, he spoke with a more controlled tone. “Okay, look. I am sorry.” His mustache twitched as he tried to find the words. “I shouldn’t have raised my voice, I'm just… confused.”

Silence draped over the room as Nine contemplated forgiveness. “I just have a few more questions, please.” Hopper added. As much as he wanted to butt in, Steve stayed quiet and let Nine decide if she would hear the sheriff’s finalizing questions. She looked at the man with an unchanging look on her face, one close to anger. She only nodded though, signaling him to continue despite her facial expression that had already convinced him the answer was ‘no’. He raised his eyebrows, almost in awe at her permission, then mentally stumbled over what it was he had intended to ask next. “Something escaped. What the hell was it?” 

Now it was Steve with violent visuals flashing in his mind. His ankle stung in remembrance. 

“I don’t know, some kind of creature. It’s big. It stands on two legs and towers over any human it encounters. It has no face, just a huge mouth with sharp teeth. Claws, too,” Nine said. Next to her, Steve wondered how she had such a clean mental picture of the ‘creature’. His own was scribbled and dark, an outcome of that night in the woods. 

“Okay…” Hopper was at a loss, flipping through an index of his personal experiences in his mind to try and find something to compare this to. “A creature with no face...” Hopper breathed out. Nine only nodded in response, and he looked to Steve as if he could verify the information. The teenager nodded his head slowly, his lips pressed together. An ‘I know, but it’s true,’ look. 

Hopper turned a page over in his mental notebook. “Uhm,” he started, his question lodging in his throat. He looked at the floor as he tried to loosen it. “One more thing,” he started. “I was told that you may have information on Will Byers. Is this true?” He regained his confidence, finding the natural groove of his speaking voice. Steve felt a surge of dread, air filling space deep in his chest as he inhaled. He wished that information hadn’t been used to barter for Hopper’s help. The visual of Nine sitting in a room painted a stark white — a setting his mind borrowed from Hawkins’ Lab, he realized — being pricked at and questioned, tested and retested under the idea that she would be useful to the investigation. Authorities from Hawkins’ own police station standing over her as she was returned to a place similar to the one she had escaped; a room filled with people who wanted to use her for her powers. 

Nine answered truthfully, and Steve chewed at his tongue. Hopper stayed silent for a moment, as if he weren’t expecting something he was already told to be true when he repeated it himself. “What do you know?” 

Her voice was softest when answering this question above all asked previously, words spoken slowly like they’d run off it delivered too eagerly. “I know where he is”.

---

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[melyaliz]

Past loves and future babies pt. 5

Masterlist

Fandom: Marvel 

Summary: Trying to Dance over their issues 

Pairing: Steve Rogers x OC

Notes: This took a bit of a turn I wasn’t planning but I actually like it this way. Let me know what you guys think 

All Masterlists @melyalizarchive​

Connect with me! AO3 / Instagram / Pinterest

DONATE or REQUEST

---------

Giggles, they bubbled up and floated around the room filling it with fizzy magic. Steve tried to remember a time he had come home to such a sound. And if so, it had been a long time. There had been so much silence after Thanos. And before that the noise was anything but laughter. When you are on the run laughter wasn’t really a daily occurrence.   

Dixie stood in the middle of the living room in a sports bra and legging stretching. Her phone propped up on a chair where she was watching something. Her hair pulled back in a messy ponytail as the light back lit her in a way that made her almost look like she was glowing. 

She looked so different from the girl yesterday. So much more relaxed, in her own element. 

Bucky was right. He didn’t know this woman at all. But she didn’t know him either. And at least he was in his own home. She had left everything and everyone for this. 

Part of him debated just leaving. Letting her enjoy herself without him around to ruin it. 

“Hello Mr. America.” 

Too late. 

She smiled up at him from her warrior on3. A big cheesy grin that seemed to light up the already bright room. It was infectious and he couldn’t help but smile back. Standing up she pulled at her ponytail.

“Don’t stop on my account” 

“Ohh enjoying the view of my sweaty body?” she giggled swaying her hips as her hands moved over her body in an exaggeratedly sexy motion. She was silly, something Steve was slowly learning more and more. 

“So what are your plans today?” 

“Wasn’t really sure, what do you guys do for fun around here?”

“Well Sam enjoys the large media room, Bucky and I like to hike around the property, Wanda and Vision normally cook, It really just depends.” 

Dixie nods thinking it over about to respond when her stomach spoke for her. Letting out a loud growl. Chuckling Steve nodded toward the kitchen.

“Have you eaten?” 

“Lunch sounds amazing, I was going to shower and then figure out how to work that fancy kitchen.” 

“I can start something if you would like to take a shower.” 

“I won’t say no to a hot guy making me food” Dixie giggled spinning around heading for the bedroom, “Be back in a bit” 

“Take your time” Steve called after her fighting back a smile. Maybe this wouldn’t be so bad. It seemed like she was startling to settle into the place. Plus making food would hel[. Something to do. Something he can control. 

Dixie sighed letting the warm water wash over her. Trying to clean away any anxiety she was feeling about being alone with Steve again. It was weird because at this point they had (quite literally) slept together. But she still felt like she was with a complete stranger. 

A beautiful stranger 

But a stranger none the less. 

Although as she walked back into the main room watching Steve walk around the kitchen he didn’t feel that much of a stranger. His blue eyes met her as she came closer. A platter of meats and cheeses.

“I figured you could make your own sandwich if you want or just eat whatever.” 

“Ohhh so fancy” Dixie giggled, “Is that wine?”  

He smiled pouring her a glass, “It is” 

“You know how to make a girl feel special.” 

“So what did you do for fun?” Steve asked, helping himself to some meat and cheese.

“Oh I’m just a simple girl, some binging Netflix is always fun. I am very partial to cheesy 80’s action movies.” Memories of her and Mac sitting on a beat up old couch they had gotten from craigslists with a pack of cheap beer between them. Laughing like nothing else mattered. Calling out lines and guessing what would happen next.  

It felt like a lifetime ago. 

“Oh and what made the 80’s so cheezy?” Steve perked up, many people had recommended things to him but cheesy 80’s action hadn’t been one of them. He was honestly not even sure what that was. 

“Oh man I forgot you missed stuff.” Dixie said taking a sip of her drink mulling it over. Would it even make sense to a man who spent most of his life in the 30’s and 40’s. 

“Yeah, I have been keeping a list of things I need to catch up on.” Steve said, pulling it out. Dixie instantly lighting up.

“Wait you have a real honest to goodness list, lemme see!” 

Taking it she flipped over the pages, “Man Star Wars? It’s insane to me that you missed all this stuff. I mean it makes sense but… golly gosh jeez whiz” 

Steve raised an eyebrow fighting back a smile, “Jeez whiz?” 

“Yeah old man, we are going to have to start working on this.” The idea of experiencing movies like Indiana Jones and the Matrix with someone who didn’t know anything making her excited. 

“Actually I had a better idea.” picking up a remote he clicked play. Soft music started to play. Moving around the large island that broke up the kitchen and the living room he held out his hand to Dixie who watched him. Her playful smile slowly melting from her face. Eyes studying him intently. Unsure.

“What?” she asked, looking from his hand to his bright blue eyes. Her stomaching flopping slightly. Shuttering as if she was standing on the edge of something. Something high up. That vertigo, gravity pulling you down. 

“Can I have this Dance?”

She felt sick, slightly off balance, “Are you serious?”

“Don’t like dancing?”

“I’m not very good” 

Steve wasn’t stupiud, he saw the shift in her. Bucky’s words coming back to him. You’re a stranger to her as well. “It’s ok, I… I want to try ok” 

Dixie wasn’t really sure what try meant. Try dancing? Try to get to know each other? Try romance? Try, the small voice in the back of her head sang. Try something. 

Slowly she slipped her hand into his, those unbalancing nerves swaying even harder as his hand gripped hers. She was fighting her better judgement. All the warning bells that told her to step away from the ledge. But he was right. They had to try. The world was counting on them. And if this would help him commit to their destiny then she would have to give a little. 

As she followed him into the center of the living room she hoped it was worth it. Hoped that no matter what happened it didn’t crash and burn around them. That she could navigate herself between that fine line of caring for someone and not falling in love.  

He smiled down at her as the music played slowly moving. She giggled again and his smile grew. 

“You have a great laugh.” 

“Uh, thank you. I like your smile. The real one anyway.” 

“Real one?” 

“Yeah not that uptight, I’m trying to make you feel at least one. This one.” she pointed toward his face and nodded her approval. 

“I guess I should apologize for being so… uptight.” 

“It’s ok” she nodded, “This whole situation is kind of…”

“Awkward?” 

“Eminently.” 

“Well at least we are on the same page.” 

“If there is one thing I have learned growing up as an awkward kid was” Dixie paused for a moment, “Lean it to the awkward.” she leaned forward as she spoke her bright eyes looking up at him. He smiled down unable to picture the beautiful woman in his arms as an awkward kid. However, some could say the same about him.  

“Ok then,” he said leaning forward, his forehead brushing against her’s. Their faces only a breath apart. Barely touching, eyes locked on one another. Caught up in the moment. “I’m going to kiss you.” Steve whispered his words drifting through her gently stirring something deep inside that made her shiver as he broke that abyss between them meeting her lips with his own. 

Steve’s kiss felt like a question. Asking her what she wanted, asking himself if this was right. His kisses were always slightly hesitant, holding back slightly. Searching as if looking for something that wasn’t there. 

Or maybe someone. 

As he slowly pulled away Dixie licked her lips. Trying to hold back the words that raced through her mind. Suspicions that seemed to be slowly confirmed with each passing second. 

“What is it?” 

“What?” Steve looked down at her confused, “What is what?” 

“There is something wrong, what is it.”

“It’s not you” it was quick, defensive. Dixie couldn’t help but take a slight offence to it. 

“I never said it was” her voice soft, eyebrow raised slightly. Hard eyes studying him, peeling down the layers of the man in front of her. Trying to understand who he was. What had happened to him. 

Steve sighed looking away for a moment. Heart heavy. Memories of wounds that hadn’t healed yet. Were still fresh. Still bleed deeper than any of the scars on his body. 

Peggy. 

“What?” Dixie asked again, her hand gently rubbing his arm. He met her gaze, deep blue and so broken. It hurt her. All those fears she had about her own walls. They were nothing to whatever was pushing away from. 

Because he was already broken. He was suffering from what she had feared for herself.

“Try me.” 

“I… it’s not you” his words empty, hollow. Like a plea trying to protect her. Trying to fall on the sword for a woman he didn’t even know. Trying to be strong. 

“I’m a good listener.” she let out a soft chuckle, “When I want to be.” 

“I just,” he sighed, running his fingers through his blonde hair. Unsure. Knowing it was wrong but… he needed to let it out. Needed to try and push this pain away. And then he looked down at her. Wide eyes looking back at him. Waiting. This wasn’t her fault. This wasn’t for her. She was just some girl. “Forget it”

Turning he walked toward the stereo turning off the music “This was a bad idea.”

“What?” Dixie felt herself flush with anger. Heat building up burning inside her bright and hot. “Don't you walk away from me Steve Rogers!” She snapped grabbing his arm. He froze turning shocked. 

“W….”

“I gave up everything to be here the LEAST you could do is be honest with me!” frustration building up. Bubbling from where deep inside her. The injustice of it all. Reminding Her again and again. She was the only one trying.  

“Don’t push it.” his words flat, a warning. Tired but a warning. 

“Try me,” she said again, crossing her arms over her chest. Holding on tight to herself. Trying to hold back all the things she really wanted to say to this man in front of her, “what are you scared of?” 

“I’m not scared” he said, “I’m FINE” 

“Clearly, you can’t even get it up” 

“Excuse me?” 

“You can’t even do what I’m here for, something is blocking you WHAT. IS. IT?” with each word she thrust her finger into his hard chest. Pushing him. Forcing him to take a step back. It didn't hurt but… it made him mad. Who did she think she was? 

“Stop that,” he said, grabbing her hand.

“Stop what? Trying to get to know you? One of us has to try!” 

“I’m trying” 

“Yes because running away the moment you could is trying SO hard” 

“Are you mad I left this morning?” 

“I’m mad you won’t talk to me!” 

“I’m talking to you right now!”

“No you’re not, you are trying to pour sugar over shit. Asking me to dance. Letting me decorate my room. Kissing me” she pulled her hand out of his pushing him with both of hers with enough force that he took a step back word, slightly off balance. Was it just him or were her hands hot? A heat that spread across his body.

“DAMN IT Dixie STOP!” 

“Stop what!?!” she snapped pushing him again. “At least one of us is trying!”

“I wasn’t even supposed to be here!” he snapped, the straw that broke the camel’s back. Shattering his strong glass box that increased his emotions. Shards scattering around them tearing at them. Ripping through their insecurities and doubts. 

“What?” 

“You want to know the truth, woman? I’m not even supposed to be here.” 

“What do you mean you weren’t even supposed to be here…” her voice was hoarse, laced with shock “were you going to die?” Memories of her own childhood rushing back. Darknesses that creeped in when no one was around. When it felt like she could never be free. 

Her question was like ice water on his fire. Cooling him off so that he was standing there gasping for air. 

“No I… I was going to leave everything for someone.” 

“I…” she stammered unsure how or what to say. All her suspicions confirmed yet so many more questions filling her up. 

“Like I said it’s not you,” he said, turning. His words ripped into her. A million cuts pouring out polling around her. His large back to her unable to face her and what his truth would do to her. 

It only took a few steps and he was gone. Out the door. Running from her. From the reality that not only had he ruined his own life with his delusions but someone else’s too 

Like she said. She gave everything to come here. 

To a broken man  

 ------------------------------------

Master list

-GET TAGGED!- 

Forever tag:  @the-shadow-of-atlantis​​​ @coffee-randomness​​​ @0hmydeku @xx3fsxx @daisyboobear​​  @jason-redhood​ @hello-i-lovespiderman-blr  @pinkwitch21 @tomhncharliep  @cdwmtjb8

Story tag: @itsmeeluciie

[avengershumanresources]

amor somnus Part 2 of 2

A/N: Completed for @softhairbarnes‘ “I love you 3000″ challenge! Warnings: This is some ridiculous fluffy stuff, no smut or egregious violence. Pairing: Dr. Stephen Strange x Reader Rating: T-ish (Maybe PG?) Word Count: 3,144 Summary: Reader is under a curse. Stephen freaks out. Feelings are felt.

“What did I say?” Stephen grumbled, pacing through his study while Wong settled your still form on a nearby table. “I said there was something off, and everyone decided to brush it off like it was nothing. I should have been more thorough…”

He stood over you, checking your vitals and letting out a low sigh of defeat. Everything was normal. No abnormal temperatures, markings, or physical signs of distress. It was as if you’d fallen into deep sleep and refused to wake up.

“She was fine, and then passed out in the hall…?” he recited back to Wong after hearing the explanation over and over. You hadn’t been out of Stephen’s sight for very long and even then, you’d been with Wong in the kitchen.

There wasn’t anything you could have gotten into in that time frame, and you’d collapsed just outside of his study, suggesting it’d been maybe a minute or two you’d been out of Wong’s sight.

His gut kept telling him it was something to do with the demon, but he didn’t have evidence to support it. In response, his head throbbed when his skin graced yours.

“How are you not feeling that?” Stephen looked toward Wong, taking a few steps away from you and heaving a long sigh. “It’s so… bothersome.”

“More so than a constant string of terrible movie quotes?” his friend joked, and Stephen made a face.

“Those aren’t even that bad,” he commented, his fingers going to his chin while he considered your condition. “Perhaps the curse was meant for me? That’s why it isn’t causing her harm, but I can still sense it?”

“That’s reasonable enough,” Wong agreed. “I’ve heard of this happening with certain spells that link the users. Blood pacts and the such.”

“But with a demon?” Stephen questioned softly, his gaze falling back to where you slept soundly, blissfully unaware of the tension that thickened over the room.

“It’s not my place to comment on your weird relationship, but strong emotions are as natural to the mystic arts as an exploding sun,” he stood up, muttering something about going to Kamar-Taj to speak with the demon and left the room.

Stephen stood in place, emotionally drained of all reason as he lifted one of your hands, clutching it between shaking fingers and running through anything he could have missed.

You were absolutely infuriating, but not in the ways you probably thought.

You were needlessly self sacrificing, this being a prime example, and often it landed you in dangerous situations. This was stressful for Stephen, as while he respected your abilities as a hero and a Master of the Mystic Arts, there was nothing more terrifying to him than the prospect of not seeing your smile at the end of the fight.

“You’re an idiot,” he muttered, giving your hand a frustrated squeeze. If you had allowed him to take the brunt of the spell, as intended, instead of jumping in the way...

He wondered if you would have reacted the same way. He mused over the thought, recalling the time he’d broken his leg during a fight with Mordo. Even after Wong had repaired the break, you refused to leave him alone for days.

By Vishnu were you stubborn…

Yet, he couldn’t imagine his life any other way. He couldn’t imagine the Sanctum without your presence. Already, it was unsettling to him. Stephen hadn’t realized how important the chime of your laugh was... until it was gone.

His stomach dropped when he tried another spell to awaken you, but to no avail.

Nothing. Not even a flinch.

How long could the curse last? Days? Months? Years?

He recalled a fairy tale he read where the princess remained frozen in time the entirety of the spells duration. Would he age and watch you remain unmoving in front of him? A reminder of his failure to protect someone he loved-?

The word caught him by surprise. His heart gave a leap but he swallowed the sensation down and released your hand, summoning the cloak and opening a portal to the Kamar-Taj library.

He needed to get out of his head, he needed to find answers.  

(—)

It’s been two weeks since Stephen found you outside of the study.

Two weeks of nothingness.

The demon provided no direction, even when Stephen threatened its life, the creature simply laughed at the sorcerers desperation.

They consulted other masters who knew nothing of curses that bond the victims to eternal slumber. They tried spells and amulets, potions and blood magic, with no results.

You remained as unchanged as the day you’d collapsed.

Stephen wasn’t sleeping. At least, not willingly. He would stay up for days at a time and then drop into a brief nap before continuing the cycle again.

He even purchased a coffee maker and placed it in the study to fuel his late night research.

A little part of him had hoped the smell would have been enough to rouse you. Normally you would sense a Americano a block away.

Wong travelled out of the Sanctum most days to consult with anyone who might have an idea of what was occurring, leaving Stephen to his thoughts and silence.

That was the worst part in all of this. The loss of your floating laughter, the creaks on the hardwood as you moved around the building.

He hadn’t realized the little things he missed. He would have given anything to argue whether Indiana Jones or Jurassic Park was better.

You let out a heavy breath, catching his attention. No movement. Nothing.

He threw fist down on a nearby desk, fumbling through a nearby notebook and shaking his head, at a total loss. He’d probably dug through the entire sanctum library by now. Everything was a mess.

You were definitely going to kill him when you woke up for messing up your hard work.

What would you have suggested? He needed to look at this problem in a different manner. Logic wasn’t working, but he was too sleep deprived to think of alternative actions.

“My ally is the force, and a powerful ally it is...” he muttered, dropping to the chair he’d set up next to your head and sinking his face into his palms. “You wouldn’t be scared, would you? Fear leads to the dark side and all of that. At least that’s probably what you would have told me…”

Though you’d deny it, he’d seen you afraid before. You always fought it down for the task at hand. He respected your tenacity in the face of adversity. There wasn’t anything you wouldn’t do for the ones you cared for, even if you were scared to the core.

How many times had you made the sacrifice play to ensure he could complete a mission?

You hadn’t even hesitated with the demon to step in front of him. No fear. No thought. just pure instinct to protect him. Was it because he was the Sorcerer Supreme?

No, he knew better. The playful grins over the rims of tea mugs and your excitement when he would figure out a complex ritual.

Gods, he missed the hell out of you.

He pulled his head up, watching each slow breath in the rise and fall of your chest.

Were you dreaming? There really was no telling. Your eyes never moved, so perhaps you hadn’t gone into REM, but with magic there wasn’t a way to be completely sure.

He stood dumbly at your side longer than he would have liked to admit. He’d almost forgotten the color of your eyes. Almost. The only reason he hadn’t was that they stared back at him every time he allowed himself a moment of sleep.

Stephen huffed under his breath, reminding himself to get back to work and read over a text Wong had brought back a few hours previously. In his haste, a stray hair fluttered over your features. He froze.

With a shaky hand, he gently tucked it behind your ear, his fingers tracing the edge of your jaw line. You were surprisingly warm to the touch, even if your cheeks were flushed from the curse.

A small jolt shot up his hands with the passive touches and he found himself moving closer, a magnetic pull moving him outside of his control.

It happened without a conscious thought.

One moment he was gazing down at your face.

The next? He brushed a soft kiss across your lips.

Stunned by the action, he took a step back. He was frozen in place, unable to explain the phenomenon that had overcome him. Stephen Strange was not the type act on impulse.

He was just tired.

Turning to resume his research, only a few heartbeats passed before he heard a rustling over his shoulder. Assuming it was Wong returning from his travels, he paid no mind to it and continued to focus on the book in front of him.

“Stephen?” Your tone was meek and confused. He dropped his book and spun around, finding you sitting up on the table. Blankets he’d set over you, were gathered in your lap while you took in the scene. “What on Earth happened?”

The doctor had no words. He lifted your chin and pressed another kiss to you. Despite the dazed expression on your face, you reciprocated in turn, pulling him closer until you both pulled away breathing heavily.

Your eyes searched his face for explanation. It wasn’t like you hadn’t thought about the possibility of… this. You were just happy with a platonic relationship.

“I… I love you,” he finally spoke, his hands still cupped around your cheeks. Slowly a small smile spread across your face at the declaration. You couldn’t help yourself.

“I know.”

Instead of a sigh, he kissed you again, silencing your giggles with more pressing matters.

Part 1

[rosy-night-sky]

Of Treasure and Adventure

Genre: Treasure Hunter/Indiana Jones AU

Pairing: Ot7 x reader

Summary: Your grandmother gave you a gift that she won in a game, so naturally you are curious as to the origins of it. A decision was then made that you should seek the answers to your questions. However, you never expected your decision to lead you on a treasure hunting quest.

Tag List: @sevenincubistolemyheart @xxqueenwxtchxx @technicolor-blues @taevkimchi @youcantbesiriusremus @vannilacake

Chapter 5

As you walked along the forested path for what seemed to be ages, you noticed out of the corner of your eye how cheerful Namjoon was acting. He had a slight skip in his walk, a small smile graced his lips, and you were fairly sure that he was quietly humming to himself. Seeing the archeologist so happy made you feel warm inside. You also felt a lighthearted smile tug at the corner of your lips. 

“Someone’s happy,” you commented, feeling the words fall from your lips unconsciously. 

Namjoon snapped from his thoughts and turned to you, bewilderment flooding his features as if he was unsure if you were speaking to him. Once he realized that you, in fact, were, he cleared his throat and replied, “Well, who wouldn’t be? I’ve spent years researching the possible locations. And now to be actually so close to actually touching it?” He shook his head in disbelief. “It’s a dream come true.” 

Your eyebrows shot up in shock. “Wait, you spent years racking your brain over this artifact?” you repeated aghast. Wow, if that wasn’t determination, then you didn’t know what was. 

Namjoon nodded in confirmation, smiling at your surprised state. “Yep, Jin and I spent two years gathering as much information as we could. We were actually almost ready to give up, since we hit so many dead ends.” He then looked at you with a soft smile, as if you were a long lost friend who appeared to him after years. “And then you came along with the answers. Jin and I were ecstatic when you came into contact with me explaining about your tapestry.” His smile widened, looking off as if recalling a fond memory. “You were like an angel coming to answer our prayers.”

Your lips stretched out into a broad smile hearing Namjoon, but it soon fell apart when he called you an angel. Did he just say what you thought he just said? Your eyes widened in astonishment. His last sentence repeated over and over again in your mind, but you couldn’t seem to wrap your head around it. That was certainly a massive compliment from him. An angel? If you couldn’t remember the last time anyone called you ‘cute’, then you certainly couldn’t remember the last time anyone called you an angel. 

You knew such a compliment would result in you getting flustered. Sure enough, butterflies fluttered around in your stomach, giving you the queasy feeling of anxiety. However, you decided to remain strong in this situation. No, you weren’t going to get muddled up. You already dealt with that far too many times already on this trip; you absolutely refused to allow it again. 

“Awww! Namjoon just called y/n an angel!” Taehyung announced to the rest of the team, causing you to get even more embarrassed. He wrapped his arms around your shoulders playfully, making it extremely hard for you to continue hiking what with dragging him behind. 

Your stoic willpower to remain strong began to slightly crumble when you saw all the eyes of the other members land on you. “Taehyung!” you cried out, already hearing the snickering from the others. “Don’t tell them that!” Oh no, this certainly wasn’t going to end well for you...

Jin, who was hiking in front of you, suddenly turned around to face you and Namjoon while walking backwards to keep up with everyone’s pace. “Wow, way to sound cheesy, Namjoon,” he commented, grinning cheekily.

Namjoon huffed in reply. “Cheesy? That’s rich coming from you. You would’ve said some lousy pun,” he snarked, arching an eyebrow. 

Jin’s audacious grin slowly slipped from his lips, and a pouty frown replaced it. He folded his arms grumpily, reminding you of a sulking child. “Excuse you, don’t be rude. My jokes are hilarious...” he muttered, deep in thought. Suddenly, as if revelation dawned upon him, he turned his gaze back to you and Namjoon. “Here, I’ll prove it.” He brought back his brazen grin, ready to amaze you with the best joke he had in his utility. However, uneasiness fluttered around in your stomach, not prepared for what was to come. “Two men were talking about their wives. The first man says ‘My wife is an angel.’ The second man says “You’re lucky, mine’s still alive.’” He then burst into his famous seal-like laughter, wheezing and crying with a broad smile on his face. You laughed along, of course, if only to appease him. The others burst into laughter, each of each slapping each other on the shoulders while they cackled, but it was not because of Jin’s joke. 

No, they laughed uncontrollably because of your expression. Your face held an expression of what any sane person would put on when someone told a rather horrendous joke. You laughed, but it was a nervous laugh that escaped your lips. Your eyebrows deeply creased with worry while you glanced around, wondering if anyone actually thought this was funny. 

Luckily for you, Jin took everyone’s wheezing as a sign that his joke was indeed hilarious and beamed proudly for proving Namjoon wrong. It was definitely for the best that no one said anything about the truth, not unless you all wanted your ears to be ranted off by the mother hen himself.

However, you didn’t realize that one person didn’t join in the merrymaking. “Jin... that was a shitty joke,” Yoongi declared seething. You could’ve sworn you saw steam puffing out of Yoongi’s ears. Praying to the Lord that this wouldn’t result in Jin getting his ears boxed by the mechanic, you watched Jin cautiously, ready to alert Hoseok if it came to the worst.

“Yoongi... you wound me... how could you say that to me?”

“I just did.”

“Yeah, well, you didn’t have to be so blunt about it!”

“Hey, guys,” Jungkook announced to get everyone’s attention, “what’s that?” He lifted his finger and pointed straight ahead, eyes widened slightly with an expression washed over his faces as if he had seen a ghost. 

You all turned ahead to see what had Jungkook so spooked. A few meters ahead of the group to see a rather wide river surrounded by a thick barrier of low hanging trees with vines wrapped firmly around its branches. The water was a murky brown, most likely due to the mud and dirt being mixed together. The waves moved rapidly downstream, taking anything swept in its currents down the river, forever trapped in the ever churning waves. 

You glanced back at Jungkook, eyebrows arched in confusion. “Jungkook, sweetie,” you began almost exasperatedly, “I don’t know if you have these back in your homeland, but they’re called rivers.”

The young man sighed annoyedly, rolling his eyes so hard they almost rolled to the back of his skull. He threw his hands at his side irritatedly before throwing them out in a gesture toward the fast moving river. “Yeah, no shit, y/n!” he exclaimed. “Look harder!” 

You rolled your eyes and turned your gaze back. Your eyes scanned over the raging waters over and over again, finding nothing out of the ordinary except for a few pieces of trash floating by every now and then. You quirked up your eyebrow at this realization. You squinted harder to heighten your vision. Those... those didn’t look like pieces of trash now that you’ve taken a closer look at it. 

You took a few steps further, trying to get a better look at what exactly you were looking at. The pieces of trash would bob up and down the water and even move back up stream. That’s... odd... The trash swam around way in a lively manner, and it had... leathery skin...?

Your heart dropped to your stomach and all the air in your lungs instantly disappeared. Your eyes widened so large that they looked like they were bulging out of your sockets. Your jaw dropped like a sudden anchor was attached to it. You couldn’t believe what laid in front of you.

The waters weren’t raging because of the rapid current like you so thought. It was because of the extensive amount of wild crocodiles that were thrashing about. In fact, now that you put two and two together, you noticed how they were stacked on top of each other, each trying to get a comfortable spot in the river. Just how many were there?

“What the...” you mumbled, feeling your soul slowly slip from your mortal shell. 

“Oh... my God...” Hoseok gasped with wide eyes, clinging to his medical bag as if his life depended on it. 

“Crocodiles!” Jimin exclaimed ecstatically, bouncing in his spot like a little child on Christmas. You all jerked your heads toward the survivalist with shocked expressions, each of you silently wondering if Jimin finally lost it. 

“Why the hell are you so excited?” Yoongi demanded, ready to just call it quits and abandon everyone. “Maybe we should throw you in first and see if you’re still excited then?” 

Jimin sighed in an irked manner, eyes rolling as if he was so close to almost smacking the mechanic. He turned to Yoongi with crossed arms and a hip jutted out almost comically. “I know this isn’t good for us, but do you know how low the crocodile population has gotten ever since the British took over India? A lot! So I’m just glad to see so many of them here, because that means they’re making a comeback.” 

“Wow, Jimin,” Jungkook began, edging away from the river slowly. “I didn’t know you were such an environmentalist.” 

Jimin shrugged his shoulders indifferently. “It comes with the job. Learning survival techniques makes you appreciate the wildlife.” He then turned on his heel back toward the river, fingers tapping against his chin. He hummed to himself in deep thought. “Now then, I wonder if those branches are strong enough to support us...” 

“You know...” Taehyung popped into the conversation with an innocent smile gracing his face. “I know of a way that can easily get rid of the crocodiles.” He then innocuously lifted up a grenade slowly into everyone’s view, wiggling his eyebrows to insinuate the plan he had in mind. 

When Jimin’s eyes landed on the grenade, his jaw dropped offendedly as if Taehyung suggested something very inappropriate. “No! We’re not going to kill them!” He jerked his hand as if he was going to smack the explosive out of Taehyung’s hand but then remembered what exactly it was and quickly retracted his action. He then pointed up to the trees that hung over the river. “I bet we can just cross over by using the branches. They look strong enough to hold us.”

“Or maybe...” Namjoon suggested, his tone light as if he were a teacher ready to explain something to a child. “We could just swim over if we head upstream.” 

Jimin looked upstream, taking in the rapid moving waves, and shook his head. “No, the current is too strong. If we somehow manage to avoid bashing our heads into the rocks, then we���ll just end up becoming crocodile food for them.” He readjusted his pack on his back. “Come on! It’ll be easy! I promise you.”

All the color drained from Jin’s face as he slowly backed away, his legs shaking as if they had suddenly become jelly. “Uh, I-I don’t know if I can do t-this,” he stammered nervously, hands pressed against his own chest in a frightened manner.

Hoseok looked as if he was ready to book it in the other direction, his face morphed into that of absolute terror. “Is there really no other way to cross?” He figetted his hands around his medical bag. “Couldn’t we just... go around?” 

Jimin beamed as he began to move closer toward the river. He really looked giddy even though he was meters away from becoming someone’s lunch. “Nope! This river keeps going down this direction for another two kilometers, according to the map.”

Yoongi shook his head in disbelief, looking at Jimin as if the survivalist lost his mind. “You probably get off from being in dangerous situations, don’t you?” he asked, moving around as if he was unsure if he should follow Jimin or just leave. “You’re like one of those... what do you call them?”

“Daredevils? Thrill-seekers? Adrenaline junkies?” Namjoon suggested, following after Jimin. 

Yoongi shrugged. “One of those.” 

Jimin threw his large pack off his shoulders onto the ground, the containments inside rattling against one another. He opened his pack and began to rummage around in it, looking intensely for what the situation needed. “Okay, before we start crossing, we should probably make an order of who’s crossing over. Of course, I have to go last to make sure everyone crosses safely.” With a happy smile, he pulled out a thick corded, grappling rope. He then stood up with a bounce. “So, who wants to go first?” 

Not a single noise came from the rest of the team. Each of the members, you included, awkwardly gave each other shared looks, hoping that someone would gladly volunteer to go first. You thought that it was for the best that Namjoon went first, seeing how he weighed the most out of the whole team. If he went first and the branches managed to hold him, then the rest of the group had nothing to fear.

You hoped. 

After a few seconds of silence, Taehyung suggested that a game of rock, paper, scissors would be a fair way to decide what the order should be. You all agreed and stood around in a circle, sweat dripping down your foreheads and bodies shaking with fear of having to go first. This felt like you were choosing someone to die, which was kinda the case. You squeezed your eyes shut, not ready to face your possible end.

“One... two... three!”  

Your slowly opened your eyes after a moment, looking down at your hand. You compared your hand to everyone else’s and sighed a big breath of relief. You were safe, you don’t have to go first. You could go down on your knees and thank the Lord for saving you from such a life-threatening situation. However, you realized that since you were safe, someone else was doomed. 

Your eyes landed on the poor, unfortunate soul who lost the game, and your gaze connected with two, brown, round, innocent-looking eyes. Jungkook.

Your heart clenched seeing the poor boy having to accept his fate. He looked like someone who was forced to watch someone put down his puppy. His gaze jerked around frantically, seeking for anyone else’s hand to see if they had even worse luck than he but to no avail. “Oh... fuck...” he breathed out, his eyes widening. 

The rest of the life deciding game went on, although some tears were shed. Jin had to go second, Hoseok third, Namjoon fourth, Yoongi fifth, Taehyung sixth, and you seventh, leaving Jimin, of course, last. You knew deep down that this wasn’t going to go well. 

You all climbed up the tree after Jimin climbed up during the death game, Yoongi needing a boost from Taehyung in order to reach the first branch. This whole experience reminded you of climbing the trees in your grandmother’s backyard whenever you visited her in the countryside. You mentally thanked your childhood self for becoming so proficient at climbing trees, otherwise you’d be in Yoongi’s position. 

Once you and the rest of the tree climbed onto the wide tree branch that Jimin stood on, scanning the area in front of him, you and the boys were lined up in the order you all agreed on. You saw that the branch you were on had a gap in between the next branch. Jimin was at the front, swinging the rope at his side in circles, searching for a higher tree branch to grapple to. Once he found an acceptable branch, he swung the rope high up, fastening it tightly to a strong looking branch. He pulled down the rope a few times, making sure the hooked end was securely embedded into the wood. 

Seeing how secure it was, he smiled brightly to Jungkook, who looked like he was about to vomit, and handed him the rope. “Alright, Kookie, you first!”

Jungkook slowly took ahold of the rope, his knuckles tightening around it so hard they turned white. He inhaled deeply through his nose and exhaled through his mouth, trying to quell his nerves. He quickly readjusted his pack so that it was fastened more firmly to his body. Then he grabbed ahold of the rope again and took a deep breath. 

Closing his eyes, he gracefully leapt off the branch.

You and the other boys shrieked seeing the youngest jump off to his possible doom. The rope strained under the immense weight as you watched with a hand hovering over your mouth. You feared that the rope would snap, causing Jungkook to be mercilessly eaten by a horde of crocodiles. Time slowed around you as your eyes followed Jungkook’s form swing precariously above death. 

And then, it was over. Jungkook landed perfectly on the next branch as if nothing happened. He took a few seconds to recompose himself and boldly flashed you and the other boys a wide grin. “That wasn’t so bad!” he commented, chuckling at how nervous he was minutes earlier. 

You and the team, excluding Jimin, released a sigh of relief that was trapped inside each of you. You knew that could’ve ended a whole lot worse than it did. Your nerves slightly ebbed away seeing that you weren’t going to jump to your end in the near future. However, that small voice in the back of your mind whispered the possibility of you dying in the most painful manner. You shuddered visibly, trying your very best to cram that thought to the darkest recesses of your mind. 

Everything seemed fine at the very moment, until you remembered who was next in the order the team established. Jin. Uncertainty fogged your mind as you tried to recall if Jin had ever experienced a journey quite like this before. If he hadn’t, well, there’s a first for everything, you supposed. 

Jungkook confidently tossed the corded rope over the gap to Jimin, who handed it to a terror stricken Jin. Pity flooded over you as you noticed how hard he was shaking and how ragged his breathing was. He gripped the rope tightly into his fists, staring at it with anxious eyes. “Do I have to...?” he quietly murmured.

Jimin nodded. “How else are you going to get across?”

The millionaire shrugged, visibly looking sick. “I... don’t need to.”

“It’s not that bad, hyung!” Jungkook called from the other side, hands cupping around his mouth to direct his shouting. “It’ll be over before you know it!” 

Jin released a shaky breath and nodded his head slowly. He raised his head up, trying to avoid looking downward, and took a step off the branch, letting the rope swing him over. You heard the rope strain precariously as it took Jin’s weight. You worried your lip, hoping that he would make it over. He let out a loud scream as the wind ruffled through his dark locks, clinging to the rope as if his life depended on it, eyes slammed shut in terror.

Jungkook leaned out and grabbed the rope and Jin, laughing at Jin’s frightened demeanor. “I got you, hyung.” 

Once Jungkook helped Jin, who clung to his limbs like a monkey, he tossed the rope back to Jimin. You then realized, Hoseok was next. If anything looked more pale and sick than Jin, it was the doctor, ironically. Jimin tapped him on the shoulder to snap him from his daze, causing him to flinch in a frightened manner. 

“Come on, doc,” Yoongi encouraged softly. “You got this.”

Hoseok slowly turned to the mechanic, a flash of panic in his eyes. “Do I?”

Yoongi nodded confidently, digging his hands in his pockets. “I have total and utter faith that you’ll make it over. Now hurry up before I push you off this branch.”

Hoseok nodded in reply before turning back to the gap, releasing a shaky sigh as he grabbed the rope. He mumbled a few reassuring words to himself as he secured his medical bag in his hand as he gripped the rope. Taking one final inhale, he lept off. 

That had to be the loudest scream you have ever heard in your entire life. 

Hoseok’s screech echoed throughout the Indian forest, and you saw a flock of birds take flight from their resting place in a tree a few meters away. If anyone, and you wouldn’t be surprised if they could, heard the scream that emitted from Hoseok’s throat, they would think he was in the process of being murdered. 

He swung across the gap slowly, and Jungkook leaned out once more to grab ahold of the rope to secure the doctor...

  ...but he missed...

You watched in terror as Hoseok paused his screaming kid swing only to see Jungkook miss and dreadfully swing back toward the rest of the team. You noticed the look in the doctor’s eyes as if he had been betrayed when he saw that Jungkook couldn’t reach him. He resumed his loud screeching, now hanging onto the rope for dead life. 

“Jump off! Just jump off when you swing back!” you and the other boys yelled, hoping that your shouts could be heard over his shrieking. 

“I CAN’T!!!”

For a few more seconds, you watched with wide eyes as Hoseok continued to swing back and forth. Yoongi groaned and pinched the bridge of his nose in ultimate agony as he looked at the disaster before him. 

Jungkook in a panic told Jin to hold his arm in order to ground him as he leaned very dangerously over the edge of the branch to reach out to Hoseok. Jin protested loudly over the doctor’s screaming as he dug his heels into the bark, struggling to keep both him and Jungkook from tipping over and into the river. 

Once Hoseok swung back to Jungkook, he grabbed onto the corded rope, causing Jin to slide forward a few centimeters. You gasped in horror, believing for a moment that you were about to see them tumble down to the crocodiles below. However, you and the others sighed in relief upon seeing Jungkook pull Hoseok to safety. You were going to get a cardiac arrest from this trip, you were certain about that. 

Namjoon’s trip over went far more smoothly than Hoseok’s did, probably because he knew exactly what to avoid after watching the disaster previous to his. The only thing that happened that made your blood run cold was the fact that Namjoon slipped on the branch right before he jumped, causing him to spiral over in circles, twisting the rope a few times. Namjoon released a few sharp curses from his lips as he spun over, but Jungkook luckily grabbed him before anything worse could happen. 

Besides Jungkook’s trip, you deemed Yoongi’s jump as the most easy going. You noticed the tired expression that wore down his soft features, probably from watching the catastrophes before him. You couldn’t blame him, exhaustion flooded your body from constantly worrying over the other boys. 

Yoongi simply grabbed the rope and jumped off the branch, as if he couldn’t seem to give a single care about his possible death. Maybe he wanted to die? Maybe he just wanted to end his suffering? Again, you couldn’t blame him. 

Although, your heart clenched tightly as you saw how Yoongi held onto the the rope in a fetal position, his legs wrapped around the rope tightly. It was rather adorable to see his face scrunch up as he slowly swung over. 

“Y/n,” Taehyung suddenly spoke up, fear slightly enlaced in his tone. “Could you give me a hug?” He turned his head around and gave you the most adorable puppy eyes. Your breathing stifled as your heart clenched again. Damnit, why was he so cute?

“Why?” you asked, hoping your feelings wouldn’t affect your tone.

He paused for a few moments, as if contemplating his answer in his head. “I’m...” He paused, biting down on his lip nervously. “I’m scared of heights...” 

You widened your eyes, not out of fear but rather surprise. Your eyebrows shot up. You certainly weren’t expecting that from him. “Really?”

  He nodded slowly. “Y-yeah, can I please have a hug? It’ll calm me down a little bit,” he begged, ignoring the quiet urging of Jimin. 

Of course, you knew you couldn’t possibly decline his wishes. You weren’t a heartless, cold bastard. You wrapped your arms around Taehyung’s shoulders as he tightly hugged your form, as if this was the last hug he was ever going to receive. You quickly noted how safe and warm you felt in his arms. You had to admit, he was an excellent hugger. “It’ll be fine,” you whispered gently. “Just... don’t look down.” 

“Okay,” he breathed, finally releasing, although reluctantly you noticed, you from his arms. 

“Hey!” Yoongi called out with an offended expression. “Why do you get a hug?” He folded his arms across his chest. You would say he was slightly pissed off, but you couldn’t get over the fact that he looked absolutely endearing despite the fact that he was annoyed. 

“Because I’m scared, that’s why!” Taehyung yelled back in his defense, grabbing onto the rope with a determined force. 

“Oh, and you thought I wasn’t!” Jin shouted back, swinging his head from side to side as he yelled. 

Taehyung ignored his reply and jumped off with such a confidence you couldn’t believe that he was trembling just seconds prior. Was it everyone’s biting comments that gave him that sudden bravery, or did your soothing words and comforting hug actually calm him down? Either way, you watched in shock as he swung over without a hitch. He reminded you of those heroes in the books you’ve been reading lately with his strong-willed grandeur. Bloody hell, he didn’t even need Jungkook to reel him in! 

You would have clapped and cheered for the demolition expert, but then you realized you were next. Dread washed over you as your heart sunk to your stomach. Oh dear Lord, why did that gaggy feeling suddenly appear in your throat? The tree branch slightly swayed from side to side, but you were uncertain if it was because of a breeze or that unexpected feeling of heaviness that invaded your head. You silently prayed that you weren’t about to keel over and vomit into the river. That would be embarrassing after everything that occurred. 

Jimin noticed your nauseous expression and curled the corners of his lips into a smile. He held the rope out to you expectedly, and you hesitantly wrapped your fingers around the braided cord. You swallowed a rather large lump in your throat as sweat dropped down your neck and back, unsure if it was because of the humid weather or your nerves getting the better of you. 

“Don’t worry, it’ll be over before you know it,” Jimin softly soothed, his murmurs only loud enough for you to hear. 

“I know, I know,” you sighed, your eyes never wavering from the rope clutched in your hands. Your forehead slowly pressed against the corded material as another bout of nausea washed over you. “Bollocks, I just got really dizzy.”

You sensed that Jimin grew more concerned over your wellbeing. He reached out and placed a comforting hand on your shoulder, squeezing it reassuringly. “Do you need me to carry you over?” he questioned, moving his head so his eyes could meet yours. 

You shook your head. You could do this. You just needed to follow your own advice you gave Taehyung and avoid looking down. “No, I got this.” You swallowed another lump that stung your throat. 

You didn’t give yourself time to prepare yourself from the jump. You knew that if you tried to hype yourself up, you would stall yourself even longer. You knew you just had to do it. Your feet left the solid tree branch and leapt off into the air. The wind ran through you hair as you released a small, soft gasp. Your hands tightened their grip around the rope, hearing the tension in it grow under your weight. You breezed through the air with ease, and you almost thought for a moment that you were flying. 

You saw yourself coming closer to the boys on the other side of the gap, each of them waiting on edge for you to arrive safely to them. Jungkook reached out to you and managed to grab ahold of you. Your nerves instantly quelled when you realized you made it over safely. Never again did you ever want to do something like that. You didn’t think that your poor heart and stomach could handle something as nerve-wracking as that. 

The other members of the team instantly embraced you in their arms, extremely thankful that you managed to get through unscathed. The warmth that emitted from them comforted you after going through such a horrible experience. You cherished the feeling of being in their arms for a moment before you laughed, “For a moment, I thought I was going to puke.” 

Hoseok’s eyebrows shot up in deep concern. “Oh, do you need some medicine?” He then brought his medical bag securely wrapped on one shoulder and resting at his hip, rummaging through it with the sounds of glass clicking against each other. “I’ve got ginger, peppermint-“

“I’m fine, Hobi,” you reassured him, pulling away from the others to pat him on the shoulder comfortingly. “Did you already take some? I thought you were going to pass out after your trip over.”  

Hoseok shuffled awkwardly in his spot on the branch, his hands sheepishly closing his bag. “I already popped a piece of peppermint in my mouth to suck on,” he admitted, his cheeks slightly flushed in embarrassment. “That was the worst thing I ever had to do.” 

Jungkook scoffed as he tossed the rope back to Jimin. “It wasn’t that bad. If you just jumped like we all told you to do, then you wouldn’t have swung there for God knows how long,” he teased, a bold grin spreading on his lips. 

Hoseok huffed, slightly annoyed. He tightened the strap on his medical bag unconsciously, as if it was a habit of his. “If you just grabbed the rope when I got over, then I wouldn’t need to jump!” he argued, folding his arms. 

Jungkook merely shrugged his shoulders indifferently. His cheeky grin remained plastered on his smug face. “Don’t blame me. You didn’t swing far enough for me to grab you the first time. I risk my life big time just trying to grab you at the end!” he mentioned. 

“You risked my life, too!” Jin shouted, wobbling around Namjoon on the narrow branch just to jab his finger against the younger man’s chest. “I almost slipped off the branch, for God’s sake! We both could’ve been crocodile food!” 

Jungkook lifted a finger in front of Jin’s face. “But we didn’t. I have total and utmost faith that you would keep us alive, hyung, because that’s just how good you are.”

 in bristled, anger emitting from him in waves. “Oh, don’t you try to smooth talk your way out of this! You barely gave me any time to get ready! Do you have any idea how close I was to the edge of the branch?! Any closer and-“

“Guys!” Jimin called over, interrupting Jin’s furious ranting. He leaned against the rope irritatedly, impatient with the argument that occurring in front of him. “I would like it if Jungkook wasn’t distracted so he can catch me when I swing over!” 

Wanting everyone to get across as soon as possible, you agreed with Jimin’s statement. The most crucial member of the team currently needed to get across safely. The team couldn’t get snappy with each other at the moment. “Yeah, let’s talk about how horrible Hobi’s trip over was for all of us after we all get over the river of death.” You now scooted over so that you were sandwiched in between the oldest and youngest, giving some space between them.

Jungkook and Jin gave each other a final shared glance before  the younger man turned back to Jimin, positioning himself so that he was ready to receive the survivalist. He held his arms out in a catching stance, waving his hands toward himself in a gesture meaning he was ready for Jimin to cross over. 

Jimin wasted no time and lept from the branch with such a confident smile that it took you off guard for a mere moment. You supposed that since Jimin underwent immense training to earn the title “survivalist” he must be very confident in his skills in ordeals such as these. 

He smiled the entire time he swung over and landed perfectly on the branch you stood on with the help of Jungkook grabbing his rope to secure him. His eyes locked with yours first and his smile curled up almost wickedly. He smirked and tap the underside of your chin upwards, surprising you in the meanwhile.

“Close your mouth, y/n. You might catch a fly. After all, India is most notorious for having some of the most poisonous insects in the world,” he informed, giving you a look as if he knew how starstruck you were because of him before moving around you.

You instantly clamped your mouth shut. You weren’t even aware that your mouth hung open. Were you that impressed with Jimin that you were left dumbfounded? As he brushed past, you noticed how close he pressed against you, so close, in fact, that his chest flushed against your own. You were fairly certain that he had enough room to move around without getting so close, but the words seemed to fail you as you stood frozen in your spot. During your flabbergasted state, you failed to spot the teasing glance Jimin gave you as he slid by. 

Jungkook detached the rope from where Jimin fastened it and tossed it back to its owner. Jimin moved to the front of the group, calling out, “Alright everyone, let’s get moving!” 

You all followed Jimin by climbing down the tree and, although you tried your very hardest, you failed to keep in your laughter when you saw Hoseok carefully and timidly climb down. He made various frightened noises whenever he accidentally misplaced his footing and almost slipped or if he looked down and noticed how large a distance it was to the ground. 

“Geez, why did we even bring you along if you can’t even climb down a tree without screaming?” Yoongi commented at the bottom, watching the doctor take his final steps before reaching the ground. He then strode over to Hoseok and readjusted some of his clothing that had become disheveled during the climb, brushing off bark pieces and dirt that clung to him. 

“Because you wanted me to come along,” Hoseok answered confidently, laughing when he noticed the mild frustrated look on Yoongi’s face when he realized he couldn’t refute that. 

You helped Taehyung reach the bottom before you joined the others, who were gaining as much distance from the crocodile infested river as they possible could. After a few minutes of light jogging, you didn’t notice just how far away the team had gotten from the river until you looked back and couldn’t see it through the thick trees. 

Once you Jimin assured the team that it was safe to resume walking, you all calmed down a bit and tramped through the long grass and plants. The path began to incline suddenly and soon you trudged up a rocky slope, your feet knocking various stones and pebbles down the hill. 

You fanned yourself when sweat began to build on your brow. The temperature surely raised quite a few degrees since the team first embarked on the journey. The sticky air clung to your skin like tape would, and you felt suffocated by it. The wind died long ago, so that added to your sweltering agony. 

What also didn’t help the situation was the amount of bugs that swarmed the team. Flies endlessly flew around your head and buzzed in your ear. No matter how hard you swatted and threw you hands around, the flies never left you. Poor Jin screamed a few times when a few insects dove at his head. 

“Jin!” you cried out, feeling the heavy weight of exhaustion build upon your shoulders. “How long have we been bloody hiking?” 

Jin, quite a ways ahead of you, turned his head to face you as he continued walking. “Since we’ve started? About...” His tired voice trailed off as he brought up his wrist to look at his wristwatch. “... Five and a half hours.” 

You sputtered at this knowledge. Five and a half hours?! When was the last time you ate? You were so tired your body couldn’t even transcribe that you needed sustenance. Your heavy feet dragged along as you stumbled up the path. 

You didn’t sign up for this, you repeated in your head. You didn’t sign up for this. 

“Alright, everyone!” Jimin exclaimed, gathering everyone’s attention. “The path is getting narrower the farther we head up and the ground is more unstable! We need to tie our ropes to each other’s belts so we don’t accidentally lose a member!” 

As you fumbled to get your rope unfastened from your belt, you looked around to see who you were going to have to attach yourself to. Your eyes quickly landed upon Jungkook and Yoongi, who were at your side and both as equally sweaty as you were. 

“I hate this. I hate this so much,” Yoongi muttered to himself as he tied his rope into one of your belt loops, pausing for a few moments to wipe the sweat from his brow. 

Your shoulders sagged in exhaustion. “You and me both, mate,” you breathed out, finally getting your rope unattached from your belt so you could connect it between Jungkook and you. 

He double-knotted then triple-knotted his rope before he was satisfied. “I just want to go to bed and sleep to my heart’s content and then maybe eat a few lobsters before I go back into hibernation,” he complained, staggering back a few paces.

“Lobster...” Jin whined, closing his eyes as if he could imagine the delicious taste. “Don’t say that. You’re making me hungry.” 

You nodded in agreement. “Yeah, I think I just drooled for a second,” you chuckled weakly as you tied your rope to your own belt loop then went over and tied yourself to Jungkook. “You’re probably loving all of this exercise, aren’t you?” 

Jungkook panted for a few seconds, lifting his sweaty shirt so you had better access to his belt. Your eyes landed on the toned abs that peeked out from underneath his shirt. You quickly looked away, trying to stop yourself from staring and getting flustered. 

“I enjoy a morning jog, of course, but this is a little ridiculous,” he admitted, looking up at the sky as sweat ran down his face. His eyes fluttered shut for a few moments. “It’s so hot...” 

You quickly finished tying and stood at full height when he said that. The tone he used shot something through your veins, making you feel something you never felt before. “A cold bath sounds amazing right now,” you added, trying to cover up your awkward state. 

Jungkook pulled down his shirt and smiled. “Yeah, maybe we could find a pool around here and take a quick swim,” he suggested.

You chuckled at his proposal. You wished there was a pond, but after seeing that river full of crocodiles, your mind started having second thoughts. “I didn’t pack a swimsuit,” you confessed jokingly, already resuming your trek along the thin trail.

Jungkook shrugged his shoulders indifferently. “Neither did I. We could always go naked,” he prompted, following after you. 

You sputtered again, your eyes slightly widening. Naked? With him? He wasn’t serious, was he? As you stared at him for a few seconds, you soon understood that he was, indeed, one hundred percent serious. Your thoughts in a panic fumbled together with thousands of different ways to reply to what he said. However, your words unfortunately seemed to fail you as you continued to stammer and sputter before giving up altogether and turning your head back forward, biting the inside of your cheek in embarrassment. 

Your eyes connected with Yoongi’s, who was grinning at you boldly. He didn’t hear the conversation you and Jungkook shared, did he? As his head turned back forward and you heard him inhale deeply as if he were about to say something to everyone, dread coursed throughout every fiber of your being.

He heard you...

“Guys! Jungkook got y/n embarrassed!” he announced cheekily. Everyone’s heads snapped to face you, each of them with a teasing grin painted on their lips. Oh no... not again.

You needed to defend yourself you soon realized where this was all going. “I am not!” you shrieked, willing yourself to be rid of your flustered state. “He just... caught me off guard is what.” 

Yoongi tipped his head to the side in fake confusion, mischief twinkling in his eyes. “Really? So Jungkook suggesting that you two go swimming in the nude doesn’t get you all shy?” Oh how you wanted to strangle him at that moment. 

A chorus of chuckles rang among the crowd as your cheeks flared with heat. You wanted to calm down and prove them wrong, but the mental image of seeing Jungkook swimming with nothing on only succeeded in making you cast your gaze down to the forest floor sheepishly. “No, it doesn’t!” you protested still, despite everything proving otherwise. 

“Ah, maybe we should all going swimming together in the nude, y/n,” Taehyung encouraged provokingly. “Wouldn’t you like that?” His voice dropped a few octaves, making you shiver slightly. 

You bit your lip, wondering to yourself how you could possibly dig out of this hole you seemed trapped in. “Or...” you brought up, cursing yourself internally for sounding so bothered. “We could just forget the whole idea of swimming in the nude and focus on the mission at hand?” 

“That doesn’t sound nearly as fun,” Namjoon remarked, rolling back his shoulders in a way so you would obviously note the way his muscles tighten. “Besides, the Dragon of the Stars can wait for us while we... indulge ourselves.”

You ground your teeth in irritation. Your flared cheeks still remained as hot as ever from embarrassment. Namjoon was really starting to test you, wasn’t he? “Namjoon, I’m going to strangle you,” you declared, glaring daggers at his prideful smirk. 

“My, y/n, I never knew you liked it rough,” Jin commented, wetting his bottom lip with a playful grin. 

Your breath hitched in your throat at that remark. What the bloody hell was that? You jerked your wide eyes to meet his, eyes clouded with an emotion you couldn’t quite describe. After a few seconds of stunned silence, he gave you a flirtatious wink, sending electricity shooting down your spine. 

“O-okay, stop it,” you stammered, fidgeting with your sleeve sheepishly as you tore your gaze from his. “You guys are acting like a bunch of immature schoolboys around a playboy magazine.” 

Hoseok burst into laughter at your description. “You have to admit you set yourself up for that one. It was too perfect. Your face was too cute!” he cooed, jabbing a finger at your face. 

You huffed and crossed your arms across your chest, hoping that way you could hide how perturbed you felt. “I’m glad my embarrassment is a good source of entertainment for you...” Your voice trailed off as you noticed Yoongi ahead of you take a step too close to the edge. The soft dirt began to crumble under his weight slightly and roll down the steep hill that hung off to the side. Your throat hitched realizing that the dirt would give way and Yoongi would slip. You lunged forward with a hand stretching out to the mechanic in a blind panic. “Yoongi, wait-!”

Your warning came too late as the dirt collapsed underneath him. Yoongi’s legs gave out from the unstable foundation he stood upon and tumbled down. His hands grabbed onto your shoulders hoping that you would provide a stable support, but your feet slipped on the soft dirt and you fell down with him. Yoongi let out a loud curse while a scream escaped your lungs. 

Your tumble was interrupted due to the rope that connected you to Jungkook and the rope that connected Yoongi to Namjoon. Yoongi and you hung precariously on the steep hill as Jungkook and Namjoon were lurched in your direction. A string of cries and gasps rang throughout the team when they all realized the dangerous situation you both were in. Jungkook and Namjoon luckily dug their heels into the ground to prevent themselves from following you both down the hill. 

However, that relief didn’t last long when the rope tying you to Jungkook unknotted from his belt loop. You mentally cursed yourself for your flimsy knotting skills before you shrieked as you slipped down the hill even further, taking Yoongi with you. 

The wind was knocked out of you when the rope once more stopped your fall. You looked down the steep hill that went on for a few good meters, surely such a fall would be lethal. You swallowed a lump in your throat. “Oooooh, that’s high!” you cried, grabbing the rope between you and Yoongi and pulling yourself up. 

Namjoon released a strain groan as he held the rope connecting him to Yoongi, holding the weight of you two all by himself. He silently prayed that he could pull you both to safety. Jimin rushed to his side and leaned over the edge, looking at you and Yoongi with panicked eyes. “You two okay?!” he demanded.

“Do I look fucking alright?!” Yoongi spat back, clinging to his rope with an iron fist. 

“We’re fine!” you answered, ignoring Yoongi’s vulgar reply. “Just get us out of here, please!” 

Jimin nodded frantically before turning back to the others, Namjoon most importantly. “Okay, everyone here needs to start walking backwards slowly and hold onto their ropes! Make sure they don’t loosen on your belts!” He then jerked his head back to Yoongi and you. “I’m gonna need you two to put your feet against the ground and start walking up as we pull you up!” He then flew to the back of the line and got himself into position once you and Yoongi did as he told you. “Okay, everyone start walking!”

You dug your heels against the steep hill and pushed yourself upward after Yoongi. Very slowly you both began to trudge up the hill with your hands clamped firmly on the rope that supported your combined weight. Sometimes the dirt gave out underneath your footing, and you slipped causing Yoongi to stumble back, but you luckily managed to resettle yourself before continuing on upward. 

“I think we’re going to make it,” Yoongi muttered to you reassuringly.

You pulled yourself up a few more paces, hope filling your core. You could almost sigh to yourself in relief at how much progress you already made. However, your hope was soon short-lived. Yoongi was at the final stretch when a snapping sound caught his attention. His eyes wildly flashed to the source, where the rope between him and Namjoon began to snap and unravel under his weight. He jerked his gaze to Namjoon, who realized the same thing and met his eyes, flaming with shock and panic. 

“Of course it starts to break because of you,” Yoongi sneered venomously as his eyes narrowed into a glare. “If I die, fuck you.”

Namjoon frantically pulled on the rope upward repeatedly, hoping he could drag you and Yoongi to safety before the rope snapped. Jimin noticed this quickly and anxiety shot in his core. “Namjoon! Don’t! You’re putting too much tension on the rope-!”

Snap!

The last strings of the rope that also kept your hopes up broke.  A gasp left your throat as you felt your body slowly fall backwards, then your body collided against the hillside and everything went by in a flash. Your body tumbled and rolled down the slope, but your mind couldn’t seem to register what what was happening. Your eyes caught images of dirt and the sky repeatedly, but other than that you couldn’t tell where you were as you continue to plummet down the ridge. 

Where was Yoongi? Was he by you? Your ears failed to pick up any noises that would reveal his presence over the sound of your body time after time slamming against the ground. Your hands blindly reached around to grab ahold of something, but everything seemed to slip out of your fingers. Cries and shouts escaped your lips every now and then. It seemed that your fall would never end. 

Until it eventually did. Your body flopped around a few more times before it gradually stopped. You laid on the ground on your side, your eyes taking in your surroundings shakily. Your vision was blurry for a few moments before it returned to normal, revealing the dirt ground and hill that you rolled down just seconds ago. 

You groaned tiredly and lifted your head, which felt like an anchor was attached to it. Rolling over so your back pressed against the earth, you stared at the blue sky for a few seconds, too dazed to even manifest a thought. The only thing your ears picked up was the sound of your ragged breathing escaping your mouth. 

Suddenly you heard some disoriented footsteps and groaning before your eyes met the sight the Yoongi looming over you. Yoongi. A sigh of relief slipped from your bruised lips. He was alive along with you. 

“Y/n...” he panted, snapping you from your frazzled thoughts. “Are you alright?” You noticed a trickle of blood drip down the side of his face from a cut located in the temporal area. Your hand reached out of its own accord and cupped his cheek.

“Yoongi...” you murmured softly, your action catching the mechanic by surprise. “You’re hurt...”

His face radiated heat and you noted the pink flush that tinged his soft cheeks. He looked away for a few seconds in a flustered panic before returning his gaze back to you. “I’m hurt?” he gently scoffed as he took your hand in his own and pulled it from us face, your fingertips dirtied with the blood that stained his beautiful face. “You’re the one with a nasty cut.” 

Your eyes flickered over to your wrist that was held in Yoongi’s hand to see a long cut that stretched down the underside of your forearm. Blood seeped out of the wound in dribbles, a steady river dripping down your cut. You didn’t even know when you obtained the wound, since you never felt any immense amount of pain. Your body only cried out at the soreness that settled in your being. You knew that you would get some nasty bruises soon. 

“Shit...” you mumbled, sitting upright once the dizziness that plagued your mind faded. “That looks bad.” Your other hand gently grazed against the tender skin along the cut, currently puffing up around the broken skin. 

Yoongi nodded in agreement. “It’s better than bashing your head against a rock and dying,” he pointed out, letting go of your hand. “Damn... this isn’t what I agreed to. All I thought I’d be doing was fixing whatever Namjoon broke, not nearly falling to my death.” 

“At least you did it of your own free will,” you mentioned, your eyes still focused on your wound. “I was practically forced into this.” 

“Well, not entirely,” Yoongi admitted, rubbing the back of his neck to massage the sore spots. “I didn’t really want to do this. If it were totally up to me, I’d be back at home fixing cars and whatnot.” 

You finally tore your gaze away from your arm to meet his own, eyebrows furrowing in weak confusion. “So why did you agree to this?” you prodded further.

He let out an extended sigh full of exhaustion, thinking over what he should say for a few moments. “Because my parents need the money,” he confessed, his eyes lowering to the ground. “The Japanese aren’t exactly kind to people who can’t work. They would have my parents starve in the streets because they barely have any money in their pockets.” His fists tightened at the many memories that ran through his mind. “When Jin offered me the job for this expedition, all I could think about was the money that could my parents. It was like he was hanging a bait hook in front of me. I didn’t want to go on this fool’s journey... but my mother and father...” His voice trailed off for a few seconds in deep thought before continuing, “I gave them all the money I’d been saving up so they could last a few months on their own. Then once this is all done with and I get paid, I’m going straight back home.” 

You hung onto every word that he said, your heart clenching at how much he cared for his parents, so much so that he left his home to go into an unfamiliar country with no knowledge of what may happen. He just risked his life a few minutes ago just so his parents could have a roof over their heads. “So you don’t care about your country’s history?” you asked curiously. 

He paused for a moment, eyebrows furrowed slightly. “Well, no, I do care. I mean, I love my country, and I don’t want its history to forever destroyed,” he answered, stretching out his cramped legs, “but you have to admit this is a fool’s journey. This Dragon of the Stars hasn’t been found in over two thousand years. What makes you think it’ll suddenly appear now?” 

“Because everyone thought it was just a legend until Namjoon found my tapestry,” you responded. “No one has even tried to go looking for it.” 

Yoongi sighed once more, shoulders weakly sagging at his sides. “Yeah, maybe, but I’m not getting my hopes up, and neither should you.”

Before you could even reply, a string of shouts and cries caught your attention. Yoongi and you jerked your heads to the source of the yells and saw Jimin arranging a safe path to come down with everyone close behind him. You waved them over with your uninjured hand while Yoongi shouted at them to gather their attention. All their heads snapped to where you and Yoongi sat at the bottom of the hill. They then quickly, although still safely, rushed down the hill and to your sides, all worried for your well-being.

“Oh my God! Are you two okay?!” Hoseok exclaimed as he fell to his knees right in between you two, grabbing his medical bag and rummaging through it. 

Yoongi lightly brushed his fingers against the gash on his temple. “Well, we’re not dead. So I guess that’s good,” he mumbled, now looking at his reddened fingers. “You should start with y/n first though. She’s got a pretty bad cut on her arm.” 

You held out your wounded arm for him to see your skin now completely smeared with blood. His eyes widened, and he immediately went to work. He took out a bottle and a clean rag and dabbled the rag with what assumed was alcohol. He applied the liquid to your cut, and you hissed at the stinging pain that ran up your arm. He wiped the wound clean of blood and leaned in slightly to get a better view of the cut.

“Good news is...” He paused to clean your arm a bit more. “... the cut isn’t deep enough for stitches. Neither is it over any joints. So the best I can do is clean it, then apply some yarrow salve to stop the bleeding, and then bandage it up.” He gave you a relieved smile as he searched through his bag for the salve. “You’re damn lucky you both didn’t break any bones or impale yourselves on any sticks.”

Yoongi scoffed humorlessly and rolled his eyes. “Oh, yes, so lucky,” he snarked sarcastically. “We just fell down a few hundred meters. Just a stroll in the park, if I do say so myself.” 

“Don’t forget the part where we almost died,” you added as Hoseok spread the yarrow salve across the length of your wound. The cooling sensation over your hot, tender flesh sent a calming effect over you. 

Yoongi pointed at you in agreement to even further his point. “Oh, yes, how could I possibly forget? Thank you so much, y/n. You’re such a doll,” he said in a sweet yet sour tone. His angelic smile turned bitter as his eyes narrowed into a glare. “We almost fucking died!” 

Hoseok raised his hands in surrender. “Hey! I’m just saying it could’ve been a whole lot worse. A fall like that should’ve killed at least one of you,” he defended himself, returning to aiding you. His took out clean bandages from his bag and began to wrap your arm in a neat and professional manner. Then he tore the bandages once your arm was covered and clipped the end so it could hold everything in place. 

  You huffed, blowing up a few strands of your hair out of your face. “Thanks, Hobi. I love talking about my hypothetical death.” 

“What you should be saying is ‘Thank you, Hobi, for treating my arm! If it weren’t for you, an infection would’ve settled in the wound and given me a painful, fatal disease! You’re the best!’” He then moved over to attend Yoongi’s injury. “Besides, if you should be angry with anyone, it should be Namjoon. He broke the rope.” 

“Oh, don’t worry,” Yoongi gritted his teeth in irritation. “I’ve got a bone to pick with him.” 

“Where is he?” you inquired, craning your neck to search for the historian. “I’ve a right to box his ears.” 

Hoseok dabbled a cotton ball soaked with alcohol to Yoongi’s temple, causing the latter to flinch and scrunch his face in pain. “Last time I saw him, he was wandering over in that direction.” He pointed off toward a rock mount a few meters from where you all sat. 

You pulled yourself to your feet, the soreness stretching throughout your body. You groaned noisily at the dull pain, tautening your aching muscles and joints for a few moments. A heavy haze settled on your mind, sending your stumbling in your spot. Hoseok looked at you concernedly, pausing his treatment on Yoongi. “If you’re gonna head over, you should get someone to help you,” he suggested, brows furrowed in worry. 

You shook your head. “No, it’s fine, Hobi. I-“

Hoseok interrupted you to call over to a person standing a few meters away from you, admiring the view in the distance. “Tae! Can you help y/n? She needs help getting over to Namjoon!” 

You groaned exasperatedly as you lightly slapped your forehead with your good hand. “Hobi...” you whined. “I told you it’s-“

Before you could finish your sentence, Taehyung instantly ran to your side, giddy like a puppy wanting some attention. “Of course I’ll help! Do you need me to carry you over?” he asked, searching your well-being over. 

You were at a loss for words at first. Taehyung’s readiness to come to your aid caught you off guard. In any other situation, you would find his intentions endearing, but currently you found it just surprising. “Um, no, I’m okay,” you babbled, still flabbergasted. “If I could just use you to steady myself, that’d be jolly good.” 

He gave you a wide smile and offered you an arm for you to take. “No worries!” 

Taking his arm in your own, the both of you slowly strode over to where Hoseok pointed to. Once in awhile you stumbled a few paces due to dizziness, but Taehyung luckily always caught you before you could fall flat on your face. He chuckled quietly to himself before saying, “You know, you and Yoongi really scared me at first. I thought for sure both of you were dead at the bottom.” 

You brought your gaze to meet his, seeing his gleeful smile ebbed away to a worried frown. His eyes were clouded over with slight regret and concern. You attempted to smile to lift his mood. “It’s fine, really. Hobi said I’m really lucky to have at least just a cut,” you replied, looking for at least a hint of a smile on his face, but sadly you found none. 

He sighed softly, full of regret. “I’m so stupid. I should’ve done something. I was at the end of the line. I should’ve grabbed you before you fell, but I couldn’t. All I could do was stand there,” he confessed, looking up at the pale blue sky with a soft mournful gleam in his eyes. 

You chuckled quietly, tearing your gaze away to look ahead. “You don’t need to act like I’m actually dead or paralyzed. I feel light as rain. Besides, what could you have done? You could’ve put yourself in more danger than Yoongi and I were in.” 

His lips curled up in a light smile. “Still, it would’ve been sad if the last thing I said to you was about all of us swimming in the nude together,” he commented, snickering to himself. 

“Yeah, can’t argue with you there. That would’ve been sad.” 

He then connected his eyes with yours, his cheerful attitude slowly returning. “I’m really glad you’re okay, y/n. We all are. You know we all have a soft spot for you,” he admitted. 

Your lips curled into a slight pouty frown. “Really? I wouldn’t know what with all the teasing you guys give me,” you muttered, rolling your eyes at the familiar memory. 

“Only because you’re too easy to get riled up,” Taehyung responded, reaching over to pinch your cheek and give it a playful tug. “You have the cutest faces sometimes~” 

You shrugged his hand away, still pouting. “My embarrassment isn’t something for you to get off on,” you argued. 

He grinned broadly. “Too late.” 

Finally the two of you reached the rocky mount to find the rest of the team gathered around it. You cocked your head to the side in curiosity and confusion, wondering why this rock hill captured everyone’s attention. Jungkook and Jimin quickly saw you coming in arm with Taehyung and rushed to you. 

“Oh, thank God, you’re fine,” Jungkook breathed, taking you from Taehyung’s arm and wrapping you in his own. He buried his face into the crook of your neck. “I don’t think I could ever forgive myself if you and Yoongi died.”

“Yoongi is fine,” you informed him. “I actually took the brunt of the fall.” You pulled away to show them your wrapped up arm. Both of the boys’ eyes flickered with worry before they softened, reminding themselves that you were well alive.

“I’ll admit, if we found you two dead down here, I was going to kill Namjoon,” Jimin confessed, then lifted a finger to his round lips. “Don’t tell him though. That would put a strain on our teamwork.” 

“Speaking of Namjoon,” you began, craning your head around them to see the rock hill behind him, “what’s he doing?” 

Jimin gestured to the rock structure behind him. “Joonie said that this caught his eye, and he wanted to check it out quick,” he explained concisely. “Don’t know why though. It’s just a hunk of rock.” 

The historian in question came into view with Jin, both looking at the structure and exchanging soft murmurs to each other. You quirked an eyebrow at their peculiar behavior, a voice in the back of your mind wondering if they finally lost it due to the heat. 

Finally Namjoon took a few steps forward toward a thick display of plants and brushed a few large leaves to the side. He poked his head past them and instantly retracted himself in shock, the soft murmurings became shouts of surprise and excitement. You watched in amusement with the others as Jin and Namjoon jumped around excitedly before hugging each other tightly. Taehyung and Jungkook decided to clown them and copy their actions, both jumping and exclaiming high-pitched shouts. You snorted in laughter while Jimin wheezed, bending over to regain his breath. 

Despite this, Namjoon and Jin beamed over to where the rest of the team stood, their faces bright with enthusiasm and anticipation. “We found it!” Namjoon practically screamed. 

“You found the Dragon?!” you exclaimed, your eyebrows shooting up in shock and disbelief. 

Jin shook his head rapidly. “No! We found the cave where it’s hidden!” Namjoon and Jin squealed and hugged each other once more, bouncing up and down. 

“A cave?” you heard Yoongi repeat, joining them team with stitches replacing his open gash wound. Hoseok walked at his side, closing his medical bag. “Shit, I was hoping that it wouldn’t be... you know... underground.” 

You peered at the spot where Jin and Namjoon stood mere moments beforehand, confusion written across your face. You gestured to the planted area. “So behind that is a cave?” When Namjoon and Jin nodded quickly, you continued uncertainly, “So, what makes you two so sure this leads us to the Dragon?” 

Namjoon grabbed your, luckily uninjuried, hand and eagerly led you over to the place in question. You stood curiously at his side while he lifted the large leaves up so you could see past them. Your eyes fell upon the mouth of a rather fairly sized cave and were surprised at how you couldn’t possibly see the entrance beforehand. The jagged stone surrounding the opening dripped with dew and saturated air, the walls radiating a cool mist. 

Namjoon then lifted a finger pointing toward each side of the cave. Two smaller feminine statues wearing what seemed to be extravagant saris stood, as if guarding what was beyond the entrance. “They are tutelary deities,” Namjoon explained, gesturing to the statues once more. “I guess you could call them guardian deities sent to protect over villages, houses, or, in this case, a cave. Although these statues were obviously made in an Indian fashion, Korean shamanism also shares the idea of guardian deities assigned to protect places from demons.” 

“Okay...” you murmured, your voice trailing off slightly. “... But what how do you know this is the cave? It could be a completely different cave for all we know.” 

“Well, you see.” He paused to move passed you, going deeper into the opening of the cave. You noticed that the other team members had appeared around you, curiously watching Namjoon as if they also wondered how he and Jin were so certain about this. “Korean shamanism was the region’s religion before the Chinese came along and introduced Buddhism to them. So we can confirm that those who fled the Chinese two millennia ago were believers of said religion. Like I said before, Korean shamanism also has tutelary deities, which are called the sotdae. Essentially they look like birds on top of a pole, meant to scare away demons and the like.” He then wandered over to one of the statues earlier. “And we can find one of those... here.” He then with a wide grin pointed at the statue yet again, more specifically at what she was holding. Wrapped around her elegant fingers was a long pole, which you assumed earlier was a staff of sorts, and the very peak of it sat a ever-watching bird. “And there’s no other logical explanation for this since Hindus associate birds with the spiritual rather than the idea of guardianship! So it must be a sotdae!” He then turned his attention toward you, his excitement growing. “And on your tapestry, it wasn’t a mountain! It was... it was... this!” He wildly gestured to the rock structure surrounding him. 

“It’s called an out-crop,” Jimin corrected, acting like it was the most obvious thing in the world. 

Everyone seemingly ignored him, and you walked a few more paces with wide eyes, taking in your surroundings. “So... we found it?” you breathed out, disbelief still settling in your core. 

Jin bounced into your view, wrapping his long arms around your waist and lifting you into the air, spinning you around and around in circles gleefully. “We found it!” he cried out happily, his loud voice echoing off the cave walls. “You are an angel from heaven! Look where you led us! You led us here!” 

Yoongi bristled slightly, his lips pressed in a thin line. “Hey! I also led us here! We both landed by this cave,” he reminded, folding his arms tightly across his chest while Jin set you down gently.

Taehyung then wrapped his arms around the mechanic from behind, a cheerful grin plastered on his face. “Aw, is someone feeling a bit left out?” he giggled, resting his chin on top of Yoongi’s soft hair. 

Yoongi grumbled but didn’t make any action to move from where he stood. He just remained there with a sour expression while Taehyung continued to smother him with hugs. 

“This would’ve been so much easier if our ancestors just left a sign saying ‘Here lies the magnificent Dragon of the Stars! Please watch your heads as you enter’,” Jungkook remarked, glancing to where the sotdae sat. “Not ‘Oh, let’s just leave a bird here. I’m sure our descendants will know what that means’.” 

“They might’ve,” Jimin acknowledged, peering further down into the cave, “but erosion and natural forces would’ve rubbed it away a long time ago. I’m surprised these statues haven’t corroded already after two millennia.” 

“You know,” Jin began, also examining the statues curiously, “having Indian tutelary deities alongside ours suggests that the ancient Indians might’ve helped our ancestors in hiding the Dragon from the Chinese.” 

Namjoon nodded with a slight shrug of his shoulders. “That would make sense considering that the Chinese invaded ancient India on multiple occasions. They might’ve been sympathetic to our cause.” 

Remembering the heavy weight hanging from your shoulders, you hastily grabbed your camera, thankful and yet very surprised that it was still working despite the random scratch and dent here and there after your painful tumble minutes ago. You knelt down a small distance from the statue with the sotdae. Bringing your camera up to your eye so you could see through the scope, you took a picture with a bright flash illuminating the dim cave. You captured a few more pictures, all performed in a professional matter, until you were satisfied and stood back up. 

“Well, that was awfully nice of them,” you commented with a smile, cleaning your camera of any dirt or grime. “We should get moving. I’d like to get the Dragon before nightfall.” 

Jin nodded in agreement, lips still curled up into a grin. “Oh, don’t worry, my dear. I’ve waited far too long for this moment. I won’t waste another second.” 

With that, you and the rest of the team moved out and took out your torches before clicking them on, shining the bright light down your path. Jimin, of course, moved to the head of the group seeing as the cave might be considered dangerous as no one had been down there for thousands of years. 

You watched the dew slid down the various stalactites and drip off the very pointed end and fall down into the moist earth. The sound of dripping water echoed into your ears ominously as the scent of musk entered your nostrils, making you very slightly uncomfortable. You swore to God if any bat flew straight at you, you were gone. The thought of bats living in the caves made you rather paranoid. 

Jungkook walked at your side, waving his torch at any little dark spot in the cave. You noticed how uneased he appeared, moving his torch shakily. “You... you don’t think they’re any traps down here, right?” he asked quietly. 

You scoffed, trying to shove another paranoid thought of possibly dying because of traps to the farthest part of your mind. “When would your ancestors have time to make traps? They were too busy hiding from the Chinese,” you replied confidently. 

“I guess...” 

Yoongi snorted humorlessly. “Okay, even if they had time to make traps, they obviously wouldn’t be working after two millennia,” he reminded, using his expertise to help calm your worries. “That’s just plain impossible. Any wood they would’ve used would be rotten, rocks would be eroded, metals corroded, and rope would be unraveled by now.” 

Hoseok then whipped his head to meet Yoongi, anxiety written all over his face. “But what if it’s cursed? I read an article that the British claim that King Tut’s tomb was cursed after-“

“For God’s sake, there wasn’t a curse,” Yoongi interrupted as he rolled his eyes annoyedly. “It’s Egypt, for crying out loud. There’s lots of things in the wild that can easily kill you. Just like how I can easily die from anything in here.” 

Hoseok fidgeted uncomfortably, his nerves obviously not quelled by Yoongi’s explanation. “Please don’t die, Yoongi,” he begged softly. 

The mechanic sighed tiredly. “I’m not going to die. I was just exasperating.” 

You moved your torch around to shine onto the walls when you caught something out of the corner of your eye. The cave walls no longer looked jagged with rock protruding out at every angle but rather somewhat flat with intricate designs carved into it. “Hey, Namjoon,” you called out with uncertainty etched in your voice. “Do you have any idea what this is about?” 

The historian brought his attention to where your light was shone and gasped in wonder. He rushed over to the wall and ran his fingers over the symbols, completely lost in his fascination. “This is incredible. These walls were made in both Indian and Korean design. Jin, your theory was right! The Indians did help us!” 

Jin ran over to where Namjoon stood in a flash, eagerly looking over the carved symbols. “These images... do they...? They tell the story of the flight from the Chinese?” he wondered out loud. 

“It seems so.” He lifted a finger pointing down the cave. “If we continue, we can learn more about what happened.” Namjoon then eagerly ran down the length of the tunnel, leaving the rest of the team behind in the dust. 

Jimin instantly ran after Namjoon, with everyone jogging after him. He had on a panicked demeanor, not wanting the historian to get separated from the rest of the group. “Namjoon, wait!” Luckily, since Jimin excelled in athleticism from hours of working out, he caught up to Namjoon in mere seconds, grabbing him by the collar of his shirt. 

Namjoon was extremely fortunate that he did, because the moment he did, he stepped on a tiled plate that sunk into the ground with a wet ‘thunk’. As this happened, Jimin yanked Namjoon back with the intention of bringing him to where everyone but instead ended up saving his life. Spears jutted out of the walls in a flash with such a powerful force that it made Jin and Hoseok jump and cry out in fear. 

Namjoon flinched wildly away at what could’ve been his death, stumbling back a few paces into Jimin. Jimin held onto the historian with an iron grip that couldn’t be unclasped with anything short of a pry bar, a loud, shocked gasp leaving his lips. He then pressed his forehead into Namjoon’s back after a few stunned seconds of silence with a muffled groan. “You guys are really making me work,” he mumbled tiredly into Namjoon’s shirt. He lifted his head and dragged him back to the rest of the team. “You guys almost died three times in the span of an hour.” 

Jungkook spun around to where Yoongi stood in shocked silence, round eyes blown with surprise. “I told you there were traps!” he yelled, voice almost cracking. 

“They shouldn’t be working! The gears must be rusted as hell from all the moisture down here!” the mechanic argued, breaking his silence.

“Oh my God...” Hoseok breathed out softly, fear etched into every part of his face. His jaw hung open. “That means there are curses down here...” 

“There’s no such thing as a curse!” Yoongi snapped, throwing his hands in the air. “But if you keep going on about it, I just might start screaming a lot of curses!” 

“Everyone, calm down!” you shouted angrily. The boys stopped their bickering and looked at you, surprised and slightly afraid at how furious you sounded. You exhaled deeply to calm yourself down, before continuing in a more relaxed tone, “We need to figure out a way across.” 

Jimin nodded in agreement, fingers curled around his chin in deep thought. He looked at the spears that slowly began to retract themselves into their holes in the walls with sounds of mechanical clunking and grinding. He brought his torch pointed at the ground in front of him. “The whole floor here is full of pressure plates,” he informed. “Maybe if we ran fast enough...” 

“Oh, yeah, like grandpa here can run,” Jin cut in, gesturing to Yoongi.

The mechanic snorted in annoyance. “If anyone here is a grandpa, it’s you, hyung,” he retorted, placing much emphasis on the last word. 

Before Jin could snap back at Yoongi, you mentioned to Jimin, “Did you see how fast those spears reacted to Namjoon? He barely pushed down on the plate and they came out. We’ll all be impaled if we try running across.” 

Jimin hummed thoughtfully, realizing that you had a point. “How about if we try-? ...Tae, what are you doing?” 

You turned your attention from Jimin and found Taehyung scouring along the dewy walls on his knees, his concentration deeply focused on the wall. “I’m looking for a button,” he mumbled in reply. 

“A what?” you questioned, eyebrows furrowed deeply in confusion. 

Taehyung pulled away from the wall and looked at you and Jimin. “Think of it this way. What if the Chinese invasion lasted a lot shorter than the Koreans thought it would, and it was safe to return back to their homeland? They would have to come back to Korea with the Dragon, right? Well, it’d be kinda stupid if they had they go through all these traps that they put up themselves, yeah? So they would have to put a button or some mechanism to stop the traps,” he explained himself. 

Namjoon raised a finger as if ready to refute Taehyung’s theory but paused to think about it himself. “That’s... actually kinda smart.” 

Taehyung curled his lips into a bright smile showing rows of pearly white teeth, sniggering softly to himself. “I know you guys act like I’m the team idiot, but I know a little more than what makes a good boom,” he boasted, returning back to scavenging among the walls. “Besides, I can never resist pressing a big button.” With that, he found an image of the wall of the Wheel of Dharma and pressed a finger against the axis, pushing it in with a satisfying ‘click’. The pressure plates groaned for a few seconds before dropping down with a ‘thud’. “Ta-dah! It’s safe now.” 

“Good job, Tae!” you cheered, relieved that the team could move on. 

  Taehyung got up from his knelt down position and wrung his hands bashfully. “Aw, it was nothing, just a bit of common sense,” he continued to brag. 

Jimin rolled his eyes and looped his arm through Taehyung’s. “Yeah, yeah, we get it. You’re sooo smart. Now let’s get moving,” he drawled, dragging him along the path. “The faster we get moving, the faster we can get home.” 

The team set out once more further down the cave, this time more aware of various traps. You waved your torch down the path, looking for anything that may be considered suspicious. However, nothing jumped out to you that was fishy. The cave continued on and on for quite some time. Endless twists and turns came upon you. 

“Watch it!” Hoseok suddenly pulled on you. You lurched back a few few steps, seeing that a few more paces and you would’ve gone careening off a ledge and into a pit full of spikes. Your heart nearly launched itself into your throat when you saw how close you were from dying. Hoseok pulled you into his chest, arms wrapped around you protectively. Instinctively, you responded by draping your own arms around his waist. Whether or not you did this to stabilize your balance or for other reasons you were unsure. 

You rested your head on Hoseok’s shoulder, calming down your rapid beating heart from such a panicking ordeal. Your shoulders rose and fell in pattern with your heavy panting. “Thanks, Hobi,” you murmured gently in between breaths, feeling a small wave of exhaustion wash over you. You couldn’t help yourself. Hoseok’s arms felt so warm and comfortable. 

“Yeah, just be careful next time,” Hoseok warned, slowly, though reluctantly, releasing you from his arms. “We can’t lose our lovely reporter, now can we?” He then grinned cheekily. “Should I hold your hand so you don’t get lost~?” 

You rolled your eyes, all feelings of exhaustion wiped away. You pressed your lips into a thin, strained smile. “Thanks, but I’ll pass.” You moved away from the doctor, making sure to avoid the death pit from earlier. 

After what seemed to be a half an hour of walking and avoiding numerous traps such as: snake pits, swinging blades, swinging logs, arrows, and even a gunpowder triggered trap, you and the team managed to get through all of them mostly unscathed. Jin got the short end of the stick and was nicked on the arm by a swinging blade. However, Hoseok quickly came to his aid and patched up the injured skin by cleaning it and wrapping some bandages around his upper arm. 

You noticed that the cave began to lead upward rather downward like you assumed, and, for a moment, you worried that you would soon be reaching the surface. However, your fears were quelled quickly when you and the other came upon a spacious room, the walls, ceiling, and even floor covered in ornate designs. 

Finding the room to be fascinating, you took out your camera and captured a few images of the intricate walls, the flash brightening the room for merely a second. When you pulled your camera down, you realized that there wasn’t no other exit other than the path that you all entered. “This isn’t where the Dragon is supposed to be, right?” you asked hesitantly, exploring the room with your torch. 

Namjoon shook his head. “No, this isn’t it, but it’s definitely nearby. Perhaps in another room somewhere?” he wondered more to himself rather than the others. 

Jungkook looked up, taking in the symbols carved into the stone. “And where would that room be? There were no other paths other than the one leading to here,” he recalled, bringing his attention back to the historian. 

“There’s got to be a door then,” Namjoon declared, hurrying over to the nearby walls and examining them closely. “Maybe a secret passage of some sorts.” He raised his head back to the remaining group. “Hey, Tae! You’re good at finding buttons. Maybe you could find some mechanism that unlocks a secret door.”

Taehyung tilted his head in perturbed confusion, as if the historian just said something in a completely different language. “Why would I do that when I already know where the door is?” he questioned. 

Namjoon sputtered for a moment and almost tripped himself rushing back to the demolition expert. “You do? Where?” he demanded, placing a hand on his shoulder. 

Taehyung placed a long finger over the historian’s lips to silence him and raised his other one in the air, gesturing for everyone to listen for any sound. After a few seconds of silence, he asked rhetorically, “You hear that?” 

Another few seconds went by as you listened intently for anything that popped out at you, but you couldn’t hear anything out of the ordinary. You were about to voice your findings when suddenly Jimin exclaimed, “Wind!” 

The survivalist then rushed over to the source of the sound, located at the far end of the room. Jimin pressed his ear against a noticeable crack and held it there for a few seconds. His face broke out in a bright smile. “There’s air coming through here!” 

Taehyung shrugged casually. “Geez, and you guys think I’m the dumb one.”

Namjoon rolled his eyes as he joined Jimin. “Excuse you, I have a PhD,” he reminded. 

“And I have common sense,” Taehyung replied with a bold grin. 

Jin happily clapped his hands together in anticipation, gathering everyone’s attention directly to him. “Great! Now how do we open it?” he inquired, eyes searching for anyone who had an idea. 

“Well, there’s got to be a button, right? I mean, that’s the only possible solution,” you suggested, shrugging your shoulders. 

“Or,” Yoongi cut in, raising a finger in thought, “we use Taehyung’s expertise in this situation.” 

A gleam or excitement and euphoria flashed in Taehyung’s eyes at this proposal, and his face lit up in absolute elation. “Oooh, I like the way you think, Yoongi!” he exclaimed, hands already rummaging through his pack. 

What Yoongi insinuated finally clicked in Namjoon’s mind, and his face fell into despair. “No! We are not blowing up thousands of years of history! Do you have any idea how much work these people put into making this cave, and you’re suggesting we just destroy it all?!”

Taehyung pouted, his lips pursing out like a child would. “Aw, come on! This was what I was hired for! I’m here to demolish things. That’s why I’m the demolition expert,” he whined. He whipped his head to face the team leader. “Jin, please let me blow it up. We could be down here for hours looking for this button or key or whatever it is. We could save so much time just by breaking down this wall.” 

Jin pondered this dilemma for a few seconds, flickering his eyes between Namjoon’s pleading look and Taehyung’s begging. You could tell he was at conflict with himself, torn between the two sides. Finally, Jin sighed quietly. “Tae, do you even know if the rock here is stable? You could cause a possible cave-in.” 

“A cave-in? Here?” Taehyung blew raspberries as if what Jin was suggesting was absolutely ridiculous. “No way. We’re nowhere close to any trench ends, and this cave is very well stable. If it wasn’t, then there would’ve been a cave-in a long time ago. I’m fairly certain that’ll we’ll be safe. Besides, the explosives I have in mind won’t produce enough shock to rupture anything.” 

Jin rubbed the back of his neck anxiously, once more finding himself as a crossroad. “Namjoon... I’m sorry, but we need to get to the Dragon as soon as possible. Luckily, y/n took a few pictures of the walls. So they won’t be completely lost to history.” 

Namjoon’s shoulders sagged in defeat, a somber sigh escaping his mouth. His eyes drifted toward the floor before he gave a weak shrug. “Fine, I guess.” 

Jin then gave Taehyung a confirmed nod, and the demolition expert giddily went to work. He went over to the wall in question and took out a few small items that you couldn’t classify, placing them at the foot of the wall or any large crack that could fit them. Then he revealed a spool of wire and connected it to each of the small objects to it, making it look similar to a spider’s web. As Jungkook guided you to a safe area a few meters away from the wall, Taehyung unraveled the wire to where you all sat and connected it to a detonator. 

As the demolition expert got into position with his eager hands wrapped around the detonator, he looked up to you and grinned rather wickedly, like how a playboy would when approaching a girl that caught his eye. “You might want to plug your ears, doll,” he warned in a whisper. “It’s gonna get very loud soon.” 

Once you reluctantly did as he said, covering your ears uncertainly, he plunged down on the detonator, releasing a huge explosion from the room where you stood moments ago. Dust billowed out as chunks of rock floated past you, pelting you softly. Jin and Hoseok both yelped with a startle at the sudden explosion while the rest of you just flinched.

You coughed into your hand a few times when you felt the dust and dirt fill up your lungs. Your ears still slightly rang despite you covering them. Ugh, you hoped you never had to undergo something like that ever again. Too bad, you were, in fact, going to experience that many times over in the future. 

Taehyung peered into the room once the dust and sand finally settled to see if was safe enough to venture out. Once he gave you a nod of approval, everyone else from their safe and hidden spots and returned to the spacious room. Large amounts of rock scattered around the room as if a tornado ran through there. You skipped and climbed over a few just to get past them. You noticed Namjoon’s sullen expression as he scanned the room, seeing the destruction of something he loved. You carefully went over to him and placed a comforting hand on his shoulder. 

“I’m sorry about this,” you apologized, trying to lighten his spirits with a small smile. “This room was really beautiful.” 

He nodded slowly, bringing his gaze to meet yours. “It was. I’m sure it was even more beautiful two millennia ago.” He sighed dejectedly once more. “But Jin and Tae were right. It would’ve taken us another two millennia to find whatever opened that door. We can’t afford to waste even another second, not with so much at stake.” 

You furrowed your eyebrows at his last statement, wondering why he sounded so cryptic. Before you could ask him to clarify what he meant, he left your side and approached the large, gaping hole in the wall. You reluctantly followed, figuring that you could ask him after you obtain the Dragon of the Stars. 

You climbed over another pile of rocks and entered the next room, and you couldn’t help but let out a gasp of wonder at the sight. Instead of the stone room like before, this room had its own forest. Trees and vines grew and covered the very edges of the even more spacious room. Moss cushioned the floor with pools of crystal blue water scattered across. You looked up to see a hole in the ceiling where a beam of golden sunlight shone through, illuminating a pedestal that stood erect in the center of the magical forest. You approached the vine and moss covered pedestal, expecting to see the magnificent Dragon of the Stars. However, you were surprised to see what laid there.

“Hey! Jin!” Yoongi called, throwing a hand toward the empty pedestal vexedly. “I thought you said the Dragon would be fucking here!” 

All color drained from Jin’s face as bewilderment settled upon it. He stood a few paces away from the pedestal, looking down at the empty spot. All light that shone in his eyes faded away, and he appeared as lively as the statues guarding the entrance. He looked completely broken, lost, defeated, lifeless. All of his hopes and dreams shattered as easily as an antique vase. He softly mumbled to himself, too quiet for anyone to hear. 

“Hyung?” Jungkook, seeing the leader so distraught, came up to him. His round eyes softened with concern. “Are you alright?” 

Jin lumbered around to face the younger man with shining eyes. He stumbled toward Jungkook and gripped him by the shoulders of his shirt while Jungkook scrambled to steady him from collapsing. “It’s supposed to be here, Jungkook,” Jin continued to mumble, fists tightening into his shirt. “Why isn’t it here? It should be here. All my research... it should be here.” 

“Hyung! Snap out of it!” Jungkook shook him slightly in an attempt to focus him. “It’s gonna be okay!” 

“It’s not! It’s not okay!” Jin screamed, his cries echoing off of the walls. He peeled himself away from Jungkook, hands folded over his mouth as he tried to make sense of the situation. He looked at the pedestal for a few more moments before turning to Namjoon, eyes now the size of saucers. “Namjoon, you don’t think... you don’t think the Japanese got here before us?” 

Namjoon furrowed his eyebrows as he sputtered for a few moments, completely baffled by Jin’s proposal. “What? No, that’s impossible! There’s no way the Japanese government got here before us. They don’t have y/n’s tapestry to guide them here!” he reminded, hands thrown wildly into the air. 

A few moments went by before Jin added, “But we’re not the only ones who have seen the tapestry...” His eyes wandered over to you, still as empty as before. He stumbled toward you, hands now raking themselves through his hair. “Oh my God, y/n, who else did you show the tapestry to?” 

Your mind was at a complete blank at first, confused by Jin’s erratic question. “I...” Your voice trailed off as you tried to remember anyone suspicious who you’ve shown the tapestry to. “Recently only British people who work at museums.” 

“Could the Japanese hire some British spies?” Jin went off, mumbling to himself. You watched in deep concern, wondering if your friend was falling into madness. “Those spies could’ve taken a picture or something. Maybe all they needed was a glance. After all, the Japanese-British alliance was formed in 1902. The British could’ve easily-“ 

“No way,” Namjoon interrupted, shaking his head. “The alliance was discontinued in ‘23, remember?” 

“Maybe there’s still sympathizers around. The Japanese could’ve contracted those still loyal to the alliance.” His eyes wandered to you again. However, you noticed the dark glint that flashed. A rush of fear coursed through your veins being under his dark gaze. For a mere moment, you were afraid that he would lash out at you. 

Jimin then understood what Jin was insinuating. His head snapped to you in a panic. “Wait, you’re not suggesting that y/n...” His voice trailed off, leaving the room full of tension. After he and Jin stared at each other for a few seconds, confirming Jimin’s suspicions, he shook his head. “No! There’s no way y/n is a spy!” 

Your throat began to sting painfully upon hearing those very words. Seeing Jin, the man who brought you into this expedition in the first place, glare at you with such contempt and suspicion hurt your very core. Time around you seemed to slow torturously, and, just like the man before you moments ago, you felt your whole world ending. How could he think so little of you? What if the others began to agree with him? What if they all began to distrust you as well? You don’t think your heart could handle such pain. You have grown fond of the boys around you, despite their constant teasing. Now, to imagine them abandoning you because of suspicion, your body trembled at the very thought.

Your eyes widened as you jerked your head to Jin, your breathing suddenly erratic. “What?! No! Why would you think I’m a spy?” you demanded frantically. 

His whole body shook with a silent rage. “What other possible explanation is there?!” he exploded, throwing his hands in the air. 

“Literally any other possibility!” Yoongi came to your defense, arms folded irritatedly. Your thoughts and fears of the others joining Jin’s side died with that. You never expected the aloof mechanic to be the first one to defend you. However, seeing him glance at you with soft concern before sharpening his gaze back to Jin tugged at your heartstrings. He really was something else…

“I always knew you agreed to help us a little too quickly,” Jin sneered, ignoring Yoongi’s comment as he took a few steps toward you. His gaze darkened even further. “What else did you tell them? Did you tell them who was involved, huh? Did you give them our locations from the past week?!”

Taehyung stepped in front of the leader, acting as a guard between you and Jin. His eyes turned cold as he stared down the other man. You had never seen him so serious, so scary. It made goosebumps travel up your arms and shiver down your spine. “Jin…” Taehyng began, his face not moving a muscle. “Step away from y/n and calm down. You’re angry, and you’ve a right to be so. But taking it out on y/n isn’t going to help anyone or bring the Dragon here.”

“Or what? You’ll attack me?” Jin goaded, folding his arms across his broad chest. He clicked his tongue while shaking his head in disappointment. “I knew you all really liked her, but really? Jumping to her side? She’s not even one of us!”

“Okay, Jin, calm down!” Jimin exclaimed, raising his hands in front of him. “Let’s not jump to any drastic conclusions. If the Japanese were here before us, then wouldn’t the traps already be deactivated? How would they have found what unlocked the door? This place looks like it hasn't been touched in centuries!” His face lit up with revelation as he continued, “Besides, if y/n was a spy, why would she still be here? She would’ve given the tapestry to the Japanese, wouldn’t she? Why bother sticking around with us? She nearly died, Jin! Why risk her life?” 

You noticed the dark look in Jin’s eyes slowly dissipate with each question Jimin shot at him. His ragged breathing calmed into a normal pattern, and his bristled shoulders sagged. He cast his gaze to the ground, seemingly thinking things over once more. “Okay,” he acknowledged through gritted teeth. “Does anyone else have any possible explanations then?” 

Jungkook spoke up, “Maybe this was a red herring? Something to throw the Chinese or thieves off their trail?” 

“It’s plausible,” Namjoon agreed, eyes glazed over in deep thought, “but would the Indians and Koreans have time to make this and then another hiding place?” 

You looked around the room, searching for any clues that explain what happened to the Dragon. The only things that jumped out at you were the trees and plants that were scattered around. The boys argued around you loudly, but you ignored them as you wandered around, looking at anything that could help you in your search. The moss, the trees, the plants, the hole in the ceiling, the pools of water, anything. 

You wandered over to one of the walls, which was covered mostly by a large branch adorned with thick leaves. Thinking that there might be something behind it, you brushed past the leaves to see what could possibly be hidden from you. Once you caught sight of the wall, your eyes widened into round circles. Your mouth gaped open as you released a shocked gasp. Backing away from it, you turned back to the group. “Namjoon!” you called, your voice mixed with excitement and disbelief. “Come look at this!” 

The historian pulled away from the arguing boys and joined you at you side, confused and curious as to what you found. You brushed past the leaves once more and revealed your findings to him. His expression suddenly matched yours from moments ago. He looked on with disbelief, as if he just couldn’t believe what he was seeing. 

Hanging from the wall was a large tapestry, design equal to the tapestry that you had in your possession. In fact, where the tapestry began hung loose fibers, as if it had been torn. The tapestry stretched out through the entirety of the wall, images woven into the strings. 

“Your tapestry, y/n! Take it out!” Namjoon burst out, barely managing to contain his excitement. 

You opened your bag and took out your tapestry, unfolding to reveal the image you were well acquainted with. Namjoon moved some more leaves so you could lift your tapestry next to where it was obviously torn. When you did so, you beamed excitedly. It was a perfect fit. 

“Hold it! Hold it!” You practically pushed the tapestry into Namjoon’s arms as you readied your camera, eagerly waiting to take a picture of your findings. After the historian raised it next to the rest, you snapped a few photos. 

Namjoon returned to your side, eyes scanning over the rest of the tapestry with deep interest. “This is incredible!” he gasped, moving closer. His fingers ran over the symbols and images that littered the woven fabric delicately, as if it would all unravel under the slightest touch. “This explains what happened!”

“To the Dragon?” you prompted, following where his fingers flicked. 

“To the Dragon and the Koreans who fled!” he assured, running his hands through his hair. He then stepped outside the brush of leaves where the rest of the team awaited. “Hey! We found what happened!” 

Everyone at this news bolted over, surrounding you and Namjoon. Their gazes swept over the hanging tapestry, wonder stretched along their faces. Hoseok tilted his head curiously as his gaze flickered to you. “Hey, this looks a lot like y/n’s tapestry,” he mentioned, finger lifted up to point at the tapestry in your hands. 

“That’s because this is the source from where y/n’s tapestry was cut from. Maybe one of the Koreans took it to keep the memory of this place alive,” Namjoon theorized, then wandered over at pointed at one of the images. 

Upon closer inspection you noticed the fleeing Korean people were sitting in a room surrounded by trees and with sunlight pouring in from the ceiling. Actually, now that you thought about it, the image looked very similar to the one you were currently standing in. 

“This isn’t the place where they hid the Dragon. This is where they lived when hiding from the invading Chinese forces! The traps weren’t meant to protect the treasure. It was to protect them from any enemies finding them,” the historian explained. “The Dragon was still with them.” 

“Apparently they didn’t stay long though,” Yoongi remarked, gesturing to the next image. You followed his gesture and saw a picture of Koreans being slaughtered gruesomely by Chinese forces while the rest of the group escaped, one person in particular with the Dragon in her arms. You swallowed a stinging lump in your throat that was suddenly lodged. The image depicted some Koreans getting decapitated while others were impales with swords, streaks of red painted across the fabric. 

“Yes,” Namjoon agreed, his tone more somber. “According to the text, an Indian traitor informed the Chinese of our ancestors’ whereabouts and led them past the traps. Some, but few, managed to escape with the Dragon.” 

“Does it say where they went?” Taehyung asked, bewilderment and sympathy etched on his face. 

Namjoon searched over the next image which showed Koreans running away and a text above it. He mumbled to himself in words you couldn’t understand. His pointed finger skimmed along the text as he read it. Then he let out a defeated sigh. “It doesn’t give a direct explanation of where they went. It says ‘Our brothers fled toward the falling sun away from deadly foes. To the land of three pits and flowing rivers they went. They wished they were like the baaz, flying the endless skies freely’.”

Yoongi groaned exasperatedly and rubbed his cheeks tiredly, careful to avoid pulling at his stitches. “Oh, these people can never be straightforward,” he complained. 

“It’s a clue, regardless,” Jin commented, face scrunched up in thought. “Falling sun... falling sun...” He paced the floor back and forth for a few seconds, mumbling the same phrase repeatedly. Revelation lit his face up, and he snapped his fingers. “Falling sun! The sun is setting, meaning they went West!” He then grinned proudly to himself. “I knew taking those literature classes would be useful.”

“Couldn’t they be a little more precise with the location?” you questioned, ignoring Jin and realizing that going West could mean absolutely anywhere. 

“Hopefully the rest of the text will tell us,” Namjoon replied. “To lands of flowing rivers... Jimin, got any ideas? You’re our geography expert.” 

Jimin huffed annoyedly, rolling his eyes in the process. “Learning survivalism doesn’t mean learning global geography,” he snapped, but then sighed, “but I’ll do what I can. Flowing rivers could mean anywhere from here to Egypt. The Tigris and Euphrates are famous rivers in the western regions. Perhaps they went there?” He then cupped his chin, humming to himself softly. Confusion weighed down his eyebrows. “But the part about the baaz and the three pits?” 

Namjoon kept his gaze on the ancient text, tapping his chin deep in thought. His brow scrunched together in concentration. “Baaz means falcon in their tongue, if that means anything, but the three pits... You’re right, that’s confusing,” he informed, although seemed disappointed that he couldn’t provide any further information. He paused for a few moments before his lips slightly parted and his eyes widened. He then slapped a hand against his forehead in disbelief. “Of course! How could I be so stupid?”

“It happens to the best of us,” Hoseok happily chirped in. 

“What? No, that’s not what I-” He cut himself off with an annoyed groan and turned back to face the group. Running a hand through his thick locks, he continued, “Trigarta. It’s an ancient name for a territory to the west of here. Scholars debate on whether or not the literal translation of the word means ‘three pits’ or ‘land between three rivers’, which makes sense since the text here also mentions rivers. Nowadays the term isn’t used anymore, but one of the regions that was included in Trigarta was...” His voice trailed off as he quickly rummaged through his hip bag and pulled out a map. Opening it up, he searched for the land in mind before turning the map to face the team. “Punjab.” 

You grinned broadly when your eyes landed on the territory labeled Punjab. You straightened out your posture confidently and boasted, “And since Punjab is entirely controlled by the British, I can use my reporter license to get us into nearly anywhere we wish.” 

Taehyung wrapped his long arms around your waist from behind and squeezed you affectionately, rubbing his cheek against the top of your head, “That’s our little reporter! Opening closed doors for us!” 

“Exactly,” Namjoon commented as he folded up his map and tucked it into his bag, “so we can stop accusing each other of being spies.” He gave a pointed look at Jin.

The leader crossed his arms grumpily, as if he didn’t want to be seen as a bad person for pointing the finger at you. His eyes were still narrowed into a sharp glance before he cast his gaze to the mossy floor, guilt and regret now softening his eyes. For once, he kept his mouth shut and pulled away from the team, focused entirely on leaving the room and continuing on with the expedition. 

However, you noticed the way his determined pacing toward the exit slow as confusion crawled its way into his face. Jin tilted his head to the side in bewilderment for a few seconds before the look of confusion was quickly replaced with fear. He flung himself back toward the group, but down before screaming, “Get down!” 

Before you could ask why, a gunshot rang across the room and everything was thrown into chaos. Everything happened so quickly it was like a blur to you. Everyone shouted orders to each other, teammates rushed past to take cove. It wasn’t until moments later did you realize Jungkook grabbed you roughly by the hand and pulled you toward a fallen over tree that would provide you enough cover to hopefully avoid getting shot at. 

Your head spun with confusion as you barely registered what was going on. There was a gunshot. A gunshot. That meant someone else was here, someone who wished to kill you all. Your mind swam with the disbelief at was currently happening. Who? Why? Where did they come from? How? Questions bubbles out in your thoughts from seemingly nowhere as you tried to piece together what was going on. 

However, you were snapped out of your daze when a colt suddenly appeared in front of you. Your hands instantly grabbed it, although your face was wide with horror. You looked up at Jungkook and were about to protest but couldn’t get the words to tumble out of your mouth. You merely gazed into the calm and focused expression his face slipped on. It almost scared you how serious he appeared despite the circumstances. He brought up his arms which held a pump-action shotgun, causing your eyes to nearly bulge out of your sockets. Just where the bloody hell did he pull that from?

He pumped the shotgun aggressively before turning his cool gaze to you. “Time to get work.” He took aim and fired.

[sevi007]

Alright finished watching “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” – with no previous knowledge about the Indy franchise as a whole – and gotta say, it was a fun experience!

For one, the movie was understandable without me knowing anything about the franchise. The stories are in itself, finished, which is really nice for someone who starts watching randomly at the very end of the franchise. XD

And then, it brought back this… can I say, the “old” feeling of action(y) movies? Maybe because its’ a Spielberg movie. It had these absolutely typical things I remember from movies in my childhood:

 * not taking itself too seriously (or realistic) during the action sequences (see: surviving an atom blast in a fridge or smth)

* fist fights with the extra loud “BAM”, “SMACK” sounds all the time

* wild goose chases with added fights on driving vehicles

* swinging along vines / whips

* at least one friends of the hero is a turncoat (and keeps calling the hero by a nickname)

* hero gets the ladies

 Was it unrealistic? Hell yeah. Was the humor, uh, on the nose? Yup. Were the twists visible from a mile away? Yes again.

Was it fun? A thousand times yes.

I really enjoy these kind of movies. It’s unrealistic enough to make me laugh, yet serious enough that I root for the characters.

 Talking about the characters: They were pretty typical for this kind of movie, too, but I enjoyed them a lot. Indiana was my fave, anyway – the rough, gruffy but actually smart kinda guy, who pretends not to care but really, really does, and has a dry wit… nailed it, for me. Marion was, maybe, mostly the “lady” that the hero gets, but she was also delightfully strong – raised her boy and did a fabulous job with it, and can fight and think quick on her feet – and Mutt, though reckless and typical teenager, quickly adapts to the situation and plays his strengths right.

 The story in itself wasn’t too mysterious or complicated, either. Maya treasures, El Dorado, people greeding for power and gold and our hero having the reach the treasure first before something terrible happens… that’s nothing new at all. But, again – just fun. It doesn’t have to be more than that.

(And when I remembered it said “1957”, I suddenly wasn’t that confused anymore why there’s KGB (!!!) and FBI (!!!) all over the place, ahem. XD)

The one thing I actually didn’t see coming was aliens.

Maybe I should have, since the movie started out in Area 51. And it’s Spielberg.

 Funnily enough, it reminded me a bit of “The Mummy”? Both the story, the humor and the cast. Which is a good thing, I mean I loved that movie! I was just not expecting it.

 All in all, I really liked it! It was no masterpiece, of course, but it was entertaining, not too dumb and silly, the characters were likeable, and it knew not to take itself too important. All things I like about a movie. I liked it enough that I want to check out the rest of the movies, if I get a chance. =D

EDIT: Also, freaking CATE BLANCHETT, and Harrison Ford. Both are always a plus. ^^

[gotboredwrote]

Amareangelusops // TM!JFM

Pairing: Tim Murphy x Fem!Reader Word Count: 3.2K Style: One-Shot Warnings: Fluff, sexual implications (nothing explicit) Summary: Tim has been on a dig for weeks and comes home with incredible news, but keeps it a secret. Permanent Author’s Note: To clarify, I write because I get bored. Nothing is meant to be professional in any way, nor is meant to offend, cause anxiety, cause anger, cause sadness, or promote disagreement among readers in any sort of (semi)permanent way. A/N: I SWEAR THE NAME OF THIS STORY WILL MAKE SENSE JUST GO WITH IT LMAO. Like everyone else on this site, all inspiration for character traits comes from Rowan’s ( @dr-tim-murphy / @gardnerlangway ) headcanons because she is the supreme Tim stan and no one compares honestly, so thank you, hon! (also if you read this and actually even think its 0.04% good I would cry the happiest tears)

Masterlist

~

Five weeks. That is how long it has been since your angel Tim was physically in your presence. Sure, there were things scattered around your shared apartment that were his, that reminded you of him, or just made you think of him. But the actual Tim had not been able to hold your hand, hug you, love you for five weeks. The closest you came were the phone calls. At least one a day, more if he could manage it. The time difference did not help the situation, and you missed each other a desperate amount. There would even be days that it got so bad for you that you would go to the museum just to sit in his office and take everything in, the staff understanding the slight separation anxiety since they had seen it with other paleontologists and archeologists. Other days you would lounge around at home, throwing on one of Tim’s sweatshirts or blazers just to get some feeling of him. A smell of cedar and old books. It eased your nerves. You chose one of these sweatshirts and practically raced to the airport the day Tim was due home. You had gotten there an hour early, and when you saw him walk out of his terminal, you were not waiting for him with a sign or flowers like most people in the movies do. Being your dorky, supportive self, there you were with the small tyrannosaurus-rex skull replica Tim had gifted you randomly lifted above your head. Neither you nor Tim cared about the looks people gave you because all that mattered was that your love, your angel, was back with you. The reunion hug was euphoric, feeling his arms around you, and his smell entering your body.

“Timmy… I missed you so much.”

“I missed you more, angel.”

~

Once Tim had found his suitcase, the two of you made your way to your car, talking back and forth at one another about everything. He caught you up on the details of the dig, you told him about work and everything you did while he was gone. Normal stuff, like you two had not missed a day without each other, despite it feeling like you had not seen each other in years. Tim was waiting for you to ask the one question he was afraid you were going to ask. He managed to go the entire ride home from the airport dodging the question, but the minute you two were upstairs beginning to sort through his suitcase for dirty clothes, toiletries, and other small things, you asked him.

“So! You know I need to know; did you guys find anything special on the dig?”

“Not really.” He was lying, but you were not about to know that any time soon. “A couple of small drinking vessels, or at least what we think are small drinking vessels. And I think Rory found a piece of what could have been a hieroglyphic of some sort.”

“You mean to tell me you don’t consider that stuff amazing?”

“I mean, it is! Don’t get me wrong. It’s just been a while since our museum team found something extraordinary. The rival museum finds something on practically every dig. It can just be… frustrating.”

“Well, I for one think those idiots are faking it. I mean, I only know about the things you’ve taught me, Tim, but it doesn’t seem possible to find half complete dinos on each dig, ya know? I’ll take a small cup over a fake dinosaur any day, especially if my guy found it!”

You leaned to the edge of the bed and pecked him on the cheek. You were sitting in the middle of it while he was placing all his belongings around you, not even bothering to tell you to move even though he needed the space because you were just too adorable to not be in his sight. He flushed a little bit at the contact. He normally flustered easy around you, despite how long you two had been together, but especially now. It had been five weeks since he could be physically connected to you, and it killed him. He wanted every bone, atom, and molecule in his body to absorb the feeling he got from your lips on his skin and drive him mad for you, but as you did this, he had been looking down into his suitcase at his palms. Upturned. He had gotten a lot better about not feeling a certain way about the way they looked, especially if he was with you. You never paid any mind to the scars littering his body, unless that was your intention in certain instances. However, his mind began to flood with the memory of one of the earlier days of the dig, and his body tensed.

“What is it? What’s bothering you? You were happy not three seconds ago, love.”

“It’s nothing. Really. I just remembered something from the dig.”

“Wanna talk about it? Or would you rather just unpack and sleep?”

“Remember I told you this dig was with the usual crew with one exception?”

“Yeah, vaguely. I remember you mentioning something about a grad student but I don’t really remember anything else. Why?”

“He asked about them. Wanted details.”

Tim was referring to Garrett, a grad student from Yale who had been invited to join Tim and his team on the dig. The kid wanted to be an archeologist, but to Tim, it was for all the wrong reasons. He imagined himself becoming the next Indiana Jones. He was partially interested in the history behind the artifacts, but he was more concerned with bulking up muscles because of some digs being more laborious than others, and being able to say that he is a world traveler and knows stuff to attract the attention of girls. While Garrett was a nice kid, he had a few traits Tim did not like, the obvious one being that he was a user. He did not like the way he treated the people who crossed his path, especially women. Did not respect them at all, really. It made Tim’s blood boil because he could never understand how someone could disrespect a woman for any reason. Another trait Tim was not fond of was his forwardness. You were forward, but in a way that Tim found attractive. You know where limits and boundaries are in certain situations, but otherwise you do not beat around the bush. It made you bold, and being the shyer one in the relationship, he felt it was a good balance. Garrett, meanwhile, had no filter. No understanding that there are things that need to be treaded carefully. Tim was told that Garrett would have been informed by one of his professors or at least someone on the dig leadership team that he should not ask Tim about any marks he may see on Tim’s body. Especially his hands. Either no one told him, or he was informed but still questioned anyway. Tim would place his bets on the latter.

[flashback start]

Cairo, Egypt, 11:24am

“Yo, Dr. Tim!”

“Hmm? Yes, Garrett?” Tim had been leaned over a small cutout in the ground lightly dusting away for Rory while he went to grab some water.

“What’s the deal with your hands?”

Tim froze his motions and stared emotionlessly and expressionlessly at Garrett, dumbfounded at the young adult and the way he phrased his inquiry.

“I got hurt. It was years ago, Garrett. Go work on your section.”

“No way, Dr. Murphy. You’re going to tell me what happened now or I will do no work for the rest of the dig and just follow you around and annoy you.”

How old was this kid? He had the maturity of a ten-year-old. Tim sighed, blowing a little bit of dust around his face, causing a light cough to leave his throat. Then he cleared his throat and began to tell the story of Jurassic Park all those years ago, still burning bright in his mind like the way the fence lit up on his hands. Telling the story to anyone else, he would have already been in tears. Except with Garrett, he held them back, shaking slightly in his seat but not enough for someone to notice. He was experiencing some feelings of PTSD, sure, but he was more so enraged at Garrett for being so forward. With a shuddering breath, he raised his head and eyes to look at the boy, who had a look of interest and fear plastered onto his face.

“Does that satisfy you?”

“Y-yes, sir. I’ll-I’ll go keep working.” And Garrett scurried off, hardly speaking to Tim for the remainder of the dig.

[flashback end]

Unlike the Tim in the story, present-day Tim sitting in front of his girlfriend was crying by the time he finished telling the story. Now the crying was a mix of PTSD as well as letting out the frustration he felt at Garrett that day. He had his hands gripped on the footrest of your shared bed, heaving over it with tears rolling down his face. You suppressed the feelings you had for Garrett and lunged forward to your love, gripping him tightly around the torso. You stood up on your knees so Tim had space to shove his head into your neck and cry to his heart’s content, and he did just that. You rubbed his back with one hand, mixing your motions between deep presses and light scratches with your nails, the other hand coming up to rub his neck and lightly play with the ends of his hair. Quietly shushing him, you could feel the tears start to deplete and his breath calm. It took a while this time, how long it usually takes if he has an attack because of the rain. This situation really got to him, and you could not help but feel like there was nothing you could do for him besides give him your undivided attention like always.

“Timmy, you don’t have to worry about him anymore. He was only coming on one dig, and I find it hard to believe that no one else on your dig heard or saw that conversation. Someone will speak to your supervisors about it. I can’t even begin to imagine how getting that question all the time must feel and what it must do to you, but that kid was just plain stupid. How he got into grad school will forever elude me.”

Tim chuckled lightly at this point. You knew you were getting your Tim back. A little bit more coaxing and you would be there.

“And besides, another thing he doesn’t realize is that your hands and what those marks mean don’t define you. Dr. Tim Murphy – paleontologist extraordinaire.” Tim was beaming up at you, eyes now glistening with adoration instead of tears. “I need to know that you understand that, Tim. You need to tell me that you know those scars don’t define you.”

“I know. I know that because of you.”

“Good. You’re my angel, Tim, the love of my life. I want to hit Garrett over the head with a seven-foot-long dinosaur bone, but for now I just need you here.”

Tim leaned up and kissed you sweetly on the lips, his way of saying ‘thank you.’ He was not an overly-big-gesture kind of guy, so small motions like that had become somewhat of a secret, second language for the two of you. Just like what you did afterwards. The hand that had been around his torso still came around to the front while you leaned back to sit on your calves, eyes half shut looking down at his stomach. Your hand came up right to where his heart was and, using your nails, you lightly grazed your hand down his chest to his lower abdomen, then turning around and going back up. Not making eye contact with him, you spoke quietly, not seeing that the adoration in his eyes had turned into something darker, but you heard the light whine move past his lips at your touch.

“My clever boy…”

The neat piles on your bed from his suitcase were long forgotten, and you both cursed yourselves in the morning when you woke up and there was hardly anywhere for you to walk.

~

While you two were eating breakfast the next morning, Tim casually brought up needing to run to the museum for something.

“My boss told me that at some point today, I need to make my way over to the museum to fill out some paperwork and double-check one of the displays. The stuff we found has been put up, and he just wants me to make sure it all looks okay and fix what doesn’t. Would you care to join me, love?”

“I wouldn’t mind at all. I love going to the museum, you know that.”

The rest of your morning was spent getting ready and making sure your guy’s cats had some food, treats, and toys to play with while you were out. Tim offered to drive, and you two eventually walked into his office where his paperwork would be situated. He told you that it should only take him about ten minutes to fill it out, so if you would not mind waiting for him, he would appreciate it. Normally, if he had paperwork, he did not care if you wandered around looking at the exhibits. When he was done, he would just text you and ask you where you were so he could come find you. Today was different. While it was true that his boss had told him to go fill in his paperwork, the part about him needing to check up on an exhibit was not as truthful. He really did mean that the things that were found on the dig were already up on display, but he had not told you the crowning jewel of the dig. Something that has not happened for the museum in years, and he wanted to show it to you. With his paperwork now complete, he took your hand and the two of you made your way to the Egypt section of the museum where the display was. It was an in-progress display, so some of the things that were in there you had already seen. Those were not the things you paid attention to. You looked for the couple things Tim had mentioned they found, the cups and the piece of hieroglyphic. Easily spotted toward the bottom of the display, you gave Tim a light nudge in the arm showing him just how proud you were of him and his team. Then your eye caught something else. There was another thing in the display that you did not remember seeing before. A fully intact skull with a few bones lying next to it. You looked at it with confusion, not recognizing the shape of the skull as a dinosaur Tim had ever talked about. You turned to him with your confused expression and he just looked back at you wide-eyed.

“What?”

“That skull, Tim. That wasn’t there before, was it?”

“Which one?”

You pointed to the skull and he took a look at it and then proceeded to the plaques in front of the display.

“Read… ah, this. I think this is where it is. Read it out loud, I’m going to continue looking and checking the display, love.”

You began to read.

“The skull of an Amareangelusops, alongside some bones considered to be part of the body. This omnivorous creature, based upon location found and bone structure, is considered to be a shyer species, one that would have only been about ten feet long and eight feet tall.” You continued to read the facts that the museum had established after DNA testing. Then you saw it. “This newly found species of dinosaur was discovered by Dr. Timothy Murphy—oh my god!”

Tim was now turned to face you, beaming wildly at you and trying his hardest not to laugh at your reaction. Your outburst had quieted down your section of the museum.

“Tim, did you not tell me about this? Did you find this on the dig you were just on?”

“Yeah, I wanted to surprise you. I thought you would be proud of me.”

“Proud doesn’t even begin to describe how I’m feeling, Timmy! I can’t believe it! You discovered a freaking dinosaur! A new dinosaur! Wow, I might faint.”

“It’s not that big of a deal, Y/N.”

“Except it is, Tim! You told me yourself when we first started dating; it is every paleontologist’s dream to have that moment where you find something and can name it yourself and feel proud that you contributed to world history! And you did that!” Then it dawned on you. “Wait… does that mean you picked the name? Amareangelusops?”

Tim smiled sweetly at you and nodded his head, it was clear to him you did not understand the name.

“You don’t get what it means, do you?”

“Not in the slightest, Tim.” You started laughing, making Tim laugh.

“Well, it’s actually pretty simple. But before I explain it, let me give you the context. You and I had just gotten off the phone, you were about to go to bed and I was already working, having no luck. Broke a brush right before calling you, too. Then I heard your voice, sleepy and ethereal. It made me so happy. You wished me luck before hanging up, and not an hour later, while I was still hearing your voice and seeing your face in my head, I found it. So, I chose a name that reflected what I was thinking about when I discovered it. The name can be broken down into three parts; amare, angelus, and ops. Ops is basically paleontologist talk for face, and I had your face in mind when I found it, remember? The other two parts are Latin words. Amare means love, and angelus means angel. You always call me your angel, and we call each other love all the time.”

“You… you’re saying you named a dinosaur after… me?”

“Yep.”

“I… don’t know what to say, Tim.”

“You don’t have to say anything. This is my gift to you for putting up with all my antics over the years. I love you.”

Your eyes were welling up with tears, and you felt Tim snake his arms around your waist and pull you tightly into him and kiss you on the top of your head.

“Thank you, Tim. I love you so much. You’re such an incredible scientist, and that Garrett kid is stupid and will never achieve something like this.” All of your words spilled out through choked-back sobs. You were so moved, and you could not help but wonder if his bosses asked him about the name.

“Did they ask you why you named it that?”

“Yeah…” He looked like he was getting embarrassed.

“And?”

“They called me a dork.”

You two laughed uncontrollably because while neither of you disagreed with Tim’s bosses, you were both so happy in the moment that nothing else mattered. You were happy to have your angelic dork right by your side as you made your way home.

[lemon-writings]

Hamish Update Pt. III

Genre: Literary fiction // Word count: 77,037

Here we are! Chapters VII-IX! I’ve written these chapters really recently, so I can go a little more in-depth with the process. The second half of this book (and specifically this particular trio of chapters, for some reason) is definitely the part I’m most proud of. Writing everything coming to fruition is just so satisfying. Is this what people who write books with actual plot feel like? Because it makes me consider writing books with real plot.

But in all honesty, I really enjoy writing this part of Hamish. I’m super happy with how everything’s turning out. One problem I do have with the latter half is that it is super depressing to write all the time, especially with the amount of rain we’ve been getting in Ohio right now (we love depression), so it is taking me a little longer to write than normal, since I keep sidetracking with random projects to try taking my mind off the deeper things. But when I am working on it, the words just flow. It’s beautiful.

Chapter VII

Epitaph: “I’m a strange new kind of inbetween thing aren’t I? Not at home with the dead nor with the living.”-Anne Carson, Antigone

Here is what’s been building this entire time: the funeral. That, and everything funerals entail, with the Celebration of Life and whatnot. The first time I wrote this, I read the funeral scene to my mom in full detail, and she started crying, because it reminded her of her father’s funeral. I, personally, loathe funerals, for what boils down to the fact that I am greatly horrified by being in the same room as someone who I once knew to be alive. That, and the crippling fear of death most people experience at least once in their lives.

There’s also a lot of Horacio’s... fantasies. There’s something deeply personal about the way I write him, sometimes, that makes rereading certain parts difficult. Horacio, in his darkest moments, feels he deserves bad things happening to him, nearly craves them, and he hates himself for it. The amount of self-loathing in this work is high.

Excerpts: 

Horacio, as always, is concerned about Hamish’s state of being alive, because that man always looks halfway dead, and at times, he’s more ghost than living person

The question of if you were dead or alive laid on my tongue, begging to be asked. Maybe I should’ve asked you. Maybe I should’ve checked your pulse. Maybe I should’ve laid my head on your chest and listened to your heartbeat. Maybe I should’ve left with you then and there and avoided the trap Leon kept guiding us to.

Hot take from a Farm Child: broken machinery is one of the most haunting things you can ever see. I could probably wax poetic about how terrible their beauty is, but I really don’t think anyone wants to hear about farm machines for three hours. (On a completely serious note, my uncle’s coat got tangled in a grain auger yesterday, and he could have died. Be safe around farm machinery. Please. It can be really dangerous, even if you’ve been around it for 60+ years.)

Leon’s descriptions are always some variant of men thinking being tall is intimidating. 

Leon bared his teeth once more, the animalistic beauty of it all making me wonder where Leon ended and his rage began. Primal is often used as a way to pull down others, to say you are not advanced the way I am, but Leon’s rage seemed like an advancement of humanity, a way of saying I have advanced my own humanity through my anger. He was gorgeous in the same way broken tractors on the side of the road are, monolithic kings taken over by the passage of time, their steel teeth rusty and eternal.

Did I reference “Father” by Warsan Shire? Yes. Yes, I did. Hamish is a huge Warsan Shire fan, because, like, it has his vibes. 

You recited a poem about fathers, about death, about life, speaking it as if it were scripture. When you finished, you began again. Or perhaps you never ended, speaking this poem forwards, then backwards, then repeating cyclically.

Yeet.

Chapter VIII

Epitaph: “I could be a wolf for you. I could put my teeth on your throat. I could growl. I could eat you whole. I could wait for you in the dark. I could howl against your hair.”-Catherynne M. Valente, “The Red Girl”, The Bread We Eat in Dreams

There’s a lot of plot stuff that happens in this chapter, so unfortunately, I do have to be a little shorter when it comes to this summary, but let it be said that I am not meant to be a thriller/action author. Do I enjoy watching Indiana Jones and Star Wars? Yes, I do. Should I be writing anything close to that? Absolutely not. It takes a lot of effort to do, and even with that, I would say that any sort of action scene I write is... not exactly “half-baked”, but most certainly not up to par with the rest of my writing. I’ll need to edit this chapter heavily the next time I go through Hamish.

That being said, there are moments in this chapter that I am proud of. Horacio and Ofelia’s interactions in this chapter are some of my favorites, just because they’re some of the only characters in this book who don’t violently hate/distrust each other.

Excerpts: 

When I mentioned kudzu to my mother, she mentioned it was an invasive species she’d seen a lot of during her time in the south, which just confirmed that it was a great metaphor to use. That’s always a sign, right?

I looked down at the flowers, then at her, wiser than anyone I’d ever met, the freedom ripping open her seams like something terrible and sharp, the parts of her that were so carefully cultivated spilling out of her like kudzu.

Horacio feels like he’s the only real person in a world of ghosts. The disconnect between Horacio and the people around him is heavily based upon the first time I disassociated. We watched the Blue Man Group in Chicago on a music/Spanish department trip, and the second I walked out of the building, I thought I was a freaking ghost. I had my first panic attack at 14 because I didn’t know if I was actually experiencing life. It was a wild experience.

Next to Ofelia, I looked out of place. Ofelia was hazy and magical in her presence, looking more like a dreamy memory than a real person, as if I touched her, my hand would touch only air. I was the solid type of real, unfortunately. Tall and unnaturally skinny, with a gritty, starving look to myself, the two of us next to each other were like a pastel-covered, out-of-focus impressionist painting next to a photograph of childhood labor in Industrial Revolution-era factories.

There’s also a confrontation with Leon that has some, um, spoilery moments. Leon is an asshole. I kind of love him.

Chapter IX

Epitaph: “[Grief is pain internalized, abscess of the soul. Anger is pain as energy, sudden explosion.]”-Lauren Groff, Fates and Furies

Again, there’s a lot going on in this chapter. A lot. Marcus the bodyguard makes another appearance (underappreciated character of the book) and acts as a guardian angel. Bless Marcus. Seriously.

This chapter is more introspective than the last, so I enjoyed writing it a bit more. Or... a lot more, actually. I was not created to write action scenes, and I accept my fate. Horacio’s musings on fate are long-winded and beautiful and what I’m meant to write. It’s just a chapter of him reflecting, pining, and wishing he was in a different situation. Which. Fair.

Moments like this make me realize I am a cruel god who treats her characters terribly.

Excerpts: 

Starting this chapter strong with the true weighted blanket: death.

Death cloaked me like your blanket.

As I said before, Marcus? Underutilized character. I use him as much as I can, but the plot makes it difficult to use him as much as I wish. He’s the man we deserve.

Marcus was smart, was good at playing the game we all played without making it apparent that he was playing it. He knew what he was doing. “I want the best for Hamish,” Marcus said. He looked into my eyes. “You do, too.”

Horacio takes a moment to think awful, rage-colored thoughts about the people around him, which are, of course, one of my favorite things to wax poetic about. He’s a salty man, and he has all rights to be, because this entire work is just “things to be salty about, the novel”. Poor Horace. He just wants to live in a gay daydream, but he’s stuck in a nightmare. 

(Not to sound too Midwestern, but OPE, the shade.)

These people played their sick, twisted games like gods, forcing everyone to play along for their survival while they watched and knew exactly what they were doing to the rest of us mortals around them. In that moment, I was filled with the type of righteous anger that made me understand why people were drawn to religion. I wanted a higher power to strike them down, to make an example of them all, to say don’t do this, or you’ll end up like them.

I sounded like my parents, like all the religious nuts I’d ever met, the ones who said that those who didn’t fall their doctrine were inferior, were going to die, and suffer for being different. Is that how it begins? Is anger the true root of all cruelty?

That last line, is anger the true root of all cruelty? was probably my favorite line when I first wrote Hamish. It’s sort of become a thesis statement for Horacio’s past and the way he sees the world. 

Lastly, of course, we have

The Jams

We have a fine selection of songs here, a lot from my Lucy playlist (Lucy has one of my favorite playlists I’d ever made).

Oh No!!! - grandson

Temple Priest (feat. Paul Wall & Kota the Friend) - MISSIO

Destroy Me - grandson

BTSTU - Jai Paul

Seven Devils - Florence + The Machine

Pretty Little Head - Eliza Rickman

That’s the tea, y’all. If you’re interested in this and hearing writing updates for Hamish, then ask to be added to the tags list!

[littlehollyleaf]

Name ten favourite characters from ten different things (books, tv, film, etc.) 

Then tag ten people

Tagged (ages ago, whoops!) by @castiel-saved-me-from-myself 

(I’m sorry, I got distracted!)

1.Supernatural. Castiel.

Obviously. I may be out of the fandom now, but I’ve never loved a character as much as Cas, and probably never will.

2. Good Omens. Aziraphale.

Thought I’d put both my darling angels at the top :) I suspect that without Zira there to pave the way Castiel may not even have existed, so I love him double - for himself and for Cas as well :p 

While really quite different when it comes to their personalities (just think how Zira would SHUDDER at Cas’ trenchcoat), they share a lot of character traits and tropes (mini-series!Zira anyway, maybe less so in the book, or less obviously anyway), so, no surprise that I should adore them both. I’ve also said before, and I stand by it, that Aziraphale is sort of a combination of my favourite aspects of both Cas and Dean in one, with Cas’ struggle with Heaven/god and trying to be a good angel and finding he loves humanity/earth more, plus Dean’s whole ‘performing Dean’ thing and repression of queer feelings he is scared to admit to (out loud) because he believes they are somehow ‘wrong.’ 

...just to give a little insight into my feelings about these two that was neither needed nor asked for...

4. Hellblazer. NBC Constantine. Legends of Tomorrow. John Constantine. 

Aaaand the other guy I love twice because Cas, and indeed spn in general, kinda owe their existence to him. Though in turn his fabulous live action portrayal by Matt Ryan probably owes its existence to spn and Castiel’s popularity. So... there’s a weird ouroboros situation happening with my favs here that makes my head spin whenever I think about it, but I love it - stories within stories built on stories feeding off stories, which connects to wider themes of story and storytelling being vital and intrinsic to life and stuff.

Anyway, despite his wardrobe, Johnny is NOTHING LIKE CAS. He is, in fact, a lot like Dean. But I like him more. Maybe because he’s British :p He has the whole ‘repressing his feelings’ things, a bit like Zira, but it’s not because he thinks they are wrong, it’s more of a coping mechanism to deal with the constant tragedy/trauma his life/lifestyle/fate causes him to suffer. But whatever the reason, I like my characters facing that struggle :) (actually the British element is probably way more significant to my enjoyment of him than I’ve been fully aware of... that’s probably why I loved Zira so fast as well... obviously they are both a completely different class of British, literally, but the fact they ARE British is INTRINSIC to both their characters, and I guess a little, vaguely patriotic part of me is excited by that... :p)

4. Gotham. Edward Nygma.

Since I’ve started giving explanations - I love Eddie because he’s also got the whole ‘emotionally repressed’ / out of touch with (his) emotions thing going on (as seen in Zira and Cas), but with the addition of various geeky / ‘tech guy’ character traits that I also love.

5. Doctor Who (Classic). Vislor Turlough.

I waxed poetic once about how I liked Gotham’s Edward Nygma because he reminded me a bit of Turlough. That was early on in my Gotham days though and given how Eddie developed I don’t see as many similarities now. Turlough shares some of Eddie’s ‘dark’ traits however - self-centered, often lacking in empathy for others and nonplussed (sometimes even happy) to see them get into trouble or hurt. But ultimately his attempts to be self-serving and cowardly end up thwarted by him developing feelings for specific individuals despite his best efforts, which is what I enjoy about him (and actually that’s a lot like Eddie still, huh... their endgame’s are opposing though ofc - while Eddie goes on to embrace being a villain, Turlough gives up on villainy and even becomes a bit of a hero, now and then). Plus, Turlough is the ONLY Companion (IIRC?) to have joined the Doctor specifically in order to MURDER him and... idk, I just think that’s cool :P

6. Doctor Who (New). Donna Noble.

(I’m trying not to double up on fandoms/shows so I can cover more, but New and Classic Who count as different things, kinda, right...?)

Donna doesn’t really fit any of the character traits I’ve talked about above, though I guess her low self-esteem is something that all my other favs share in various ways (though it’s not such an EXPLICIT aspect of their characters and story arcs as it was for Donna I’d say). What I first loved about her was that after YEARS of New companions (and other randoms) being literally in love with the Doctor, she had a strictly platonic relationship with him. Yeah, I think maybe the show was a bit heavy-handed about it, but even so it came as a huge breath of fresh air and frankly a RELIEF to me. Not that I’m opposed to the Doctor having romantic/sexual  relationships, it was just that... coming from a childhood love of the Classic series where that just... didn’t happen (save a fleeting kiss in the TV Movie - which I actually enjoyed fyi!), it just... idk, was starting to stretch my credulity that EVERYONE seemed to be falling for him maybe? Or at least for me it was growing tiresome. So the fact she didn’t have that element to her character/story was a plus. Then I just adore how loud and brash she is when calling anyone, including the Doctor, out on their shit (I envy her that maybe). Plus I like the way she isn’t... traditional TV pretty, you know? (ie. young and slim, like a lot of other companions).

...or maybe I just like redheads *shrug emoji* 

7. Spartacus. Naevia.

(she has two actresses okay? and they both deserve kudos!)

Truth is I love FUCKING EVERYTHING AND EVERYONE IN THIS SHOW. Spartacus is like... my PERFECT SHOW. There isn’t a single moment, a single plotline, a single character that I don’t enjoy. I have never even CONSIDERED looking up or writing fic because the finished product is completely satisfying exactly as it is. God. But I wanted it represented in this list so I had to pick someone!

Considering the time period there couldn’t really BE a ‘geeky, emotionally repressed with low self-esteem’ character :p BUT nearly ALL of the characters have the whole ‘struggle to understand/discover who they are’ thing and the ‘who I am and want to be is counter to who I’ve been told I am / should be’ arc, on account of the main cast being rebelling slaves (though the other characters are equally complex and compelling and I love them too - Lucy Lawless in particular is incredible!). Anyone who’s seen me blog about the show before might have thought I’d pick either Agron or Nasir as my favs, since I do like to squee over their romance. But whenever I think about the show it’s usually Naevia who I remember first, because her character arc/development just BLEW ME AWAY. She went from someone I’d kinda dismissed at first as a typical het love interest to a WARRIOR GODDESS and you SEE all the key moments of that growth, you FEEL it, it makes ALL THE SENSE. And her romance with Crixus, which again I was initially a bit dismissive of as a typical, sudden, weak het romance, grows into, imo, one of the deepest, most developed, most believable love stories in the show. So yeah. Naevia. Amazing.

8. Due South. Ray Vecchio. 

(he’s the guy not the dog - gifs were limited! ...also the dog is actually a wolf, it’s a whole thing... that doesn’t need exploring at this juncture)

Ray was my first TV crush :P He had a bit of a sidekick vibe to him I guess, which I like (lead characters tend not to interest me as much). He wasn’t ‘geeky’ exactly, but he def had the ‘trying to look/act cooler than I am’ thing going on... also an obsessive attachment to his vintage car... meanwhile his partner Benny was the stoic, ‘British, stiff upper lip, keep emotions in check’ one who was always trying to live up to the ideal persona dictated by his people/employers, in this case the Royal Canadian Mounted Police... HUH, so... it’s actually SUPER WEIRD that I ended up loving Cas and Zira over Dean and Crowley when it seems pretty clear suddenly that my first big fictional fav was CLEARLY the Dean-Crowley to Benny’s Cas-Zira......?? Ray was FUNNY in a way Dean and Crowley aren’t though, I think? He def filled a ‘comic relief’ slot on the regular and I liked that a lot (it also made his serious, angsty moments EXTRA serious and angsty, and extra angst is something I always love!)

9. The Librarians. Eve Baird.

Remember this little show? It was... is... sorta ridiculous. Not amazing. Based on some... very cheap, very OBVIOUS Indiana Jones rip-off films, that were also ridiculous and... not... great (the third one is the best, with an awesome performance by Stana Katic aka Kate Beckett as a vampire, but I digress). But... idek, I am EXTREMELY FOND of the series for some reason :p

There are a WHOLE BUNCH of characters that fit my ‘type’ more than Eve tbh... in fact... probably every.single.other.main.cast.member (save perhaps Jenkins?) shares the traits above that typically make a character my fav. But... EVE! I just... think she’s neat! ...maybe it’s BECAUSE all the others are main/lead characters that makes me gravitate towards her? In a cast where ‘geeky, socially awkward, struggles with emotions’ is the norm, Eve being the no-nonsense, socially competent, badass soldier type therefore becomes different and thus more interesting to me? Also, much like with Donna, I appreciate that she’s an older woman who gets to have a full character and plot of her own. There’s also something about her romance with Flynn that... makes me feel warm and fuzzy.

10. Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Jonathan Levinson.

(tumblr gif search failed me so I had to grab from elsewhere...)

Listen. Look. Okay. Buffy is pretty old school these days so, for anyone not in the know, as a character, originally, Jonathan... he wasn’t even a side character, he wasn’t even REOCCURRING, he was barely a background character. For several episodes he didn’t have a name and it wasn’t until several seasons after he became ‘Jonathan’ that he actually got a surname. Danny Strong was just an actor who happened to be occasionally on-hand when the script called for a random to have a line, until eventually that happened often enough for Joss to think ‘hey, you know what, let’s make this guy an actual part of the show...’ 

He got a couple of episodes focused on him in S03 and S04 respectively, but didn’t become a regular until S06 (and wasn’t in S05 AT ALL). Other than that he had a HANDFUL of ‘blink and you’ll miss it’ moments here and there, not even full scenes for the most part, usually lasting no longer than the above gif.

I tell you all this so that when I say childhood me (well... somewhere between 12 and 14 years anyway) was OBSESSED with this character in the show, and I mean O B S E S S E D (to the point of spending hours painstakingly making VHS recordings purely of the episodes he was in), you understand how UTTERLY BIZARRE that was. Because this obsession pre-dated S06. Was, in fact, in full swing during the airing of his S04 episode - which was, like, a fucking DREAM COME TRUE for freakily obsessed me fyi, because the whole episode was constructed with him as the LEAD CHARACTER, because he’d performed a spell to make him super awesome. They even changed the title sequence to read ‘Jonathan’ instead of Buffy! And while other fans were no doubt just lol-ing at the random I was bouncing about on my sofa all ‘MY TIME HAS COME!’ and fucking SWOONING over seeing MY CHARACTER suddenly in the spotlight and getting to do crazy fun OOC shit like this -

Then when S06 rolled around and HE WAS A LEGIT REGULAR, omg, I was in HEAVEN! First TV boxset I ever bought that - Buffy S06 :P

So... yeah. A bit of a fav. Geeky. Outcast. Slowly grows more morally grey, what with that spell I mentioned and also the fact he was teamed with the ANTAGONISTS in S06. I guess you could say he was the beginning of a lot of my fav fictional character traits/tropes (though looking back - I think his ‘villainous’ teammates in S06, Andrew and Warren, are more my ‘type’ these days, and I did end up loving Andrew especially a whole damn lot, but at the time I’d been a Jonathan fangirl for so.fucking.long. there was just no chance anyone else in the show was ever gonna come close to my heart!)

THE END.

Sorry not sorry for the tmi. I got a bit too into this one.

Actually sorry I have so few women on the list :( Internalised misogyny/sexism is a real thing and I spent a lot of my life being... somewhat unfairly dismissive of female characters or at least prioritising male ones over them. I’m working on it.

Ten people is SO.MANY. to tag. But I might as well do this right this time, since I’ve come so far. But if you’d rather not play, no worries! <3

@enchantersnight @momecat @bold-sartorial-statement @vampirebillionaire @edwardnashtons @miss-olivia-cellophane @knightinpinkunderwear @supes9 @leaper182 @hamburgergod

Honourable mentions (because I CAN):

Gotham. Lucius Fox.

Gotham. Fish Mooney.

Gotham. Tabitha Galavan.

Doctor Who. The Doctor.

Doctor Who. The Master/Missy.

Supernatural. Hannah.

Supernatural. Naomi.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Andrew Wells.