#and to ignore the stage performance and public interaction side of it is stupid

[sanstropfremir]

what do you think makes a well balanced group. your kepler ask mentions how skills and personality is important but is there a secret formula that you think is most potent. there are groups where each member is good at a specific thing, and groups where every member is equally skilled in dancing and singing. on one hand, if a group has the dynamic where everyone is equally skilled in all aspects it may make them lackluster. but would it be appropriate if say, 1 member is a weak dancer and the strongest vocalist and vice versa the same group has a strong dancer and weak vocal. maybe this dynamic would work in a small group, but not a large one? the trouble with large groups being, if all members have the same skills no one pays attention to them, or there will always be a standout member of a large group because realistically a group with 6 members and up cant be equally skilled with z e r o quirks or differences

well. this is kind of a multi-faceted answer, because although i don't think there's a specific 'secret formula' for a perfect group, kpop already has a structure that members get slotted into that actually does work. so yes, but also no? it's complicated.

so the whole system of assigned positions is essentially the formula that makes a well balanced group. that's literally the point of each of the positions; they're there in order to organize the roles so the group is balanced. now, do companies get it right all the time? no. do fans agree with it? absolutely not. but that IS what it's there for, and, in my opinion, it does work. most of the time. i think it's stupid and naive for fans to argue for equal line distribution yadda yadda because being a vocal is not going to be everyone's strong point. a main vocal SHOULD have the majority of the singing, that's their job. a main dancer SHOULD be leading dance breaks etc, that's their job. and an assigned centre SHOULD be in centre position, because they're there to be the hook. i've talked about how centre position is important before so i won't hash over that again, but my point is that those assigned positions aren't random, they're there in order to establish a balance within a group, so that people know what your place is. it's a job description.

however, those are just general positions, and obviously not every person and group has the same distribution of skills. what actually makes a balanced group is the people in that group understanding that they need to be balanced. no group is ever going to have the same interpersonal or skill related dynamics, but if all the members understand the parts they play and work together to fill in gaps and create a unified image, that's what makes the whole thing work.

of course this also feeds into my own personal beliefs about group composition, which i think are probably uncommon: i don't think there should be any large groups at all. five is the perfect size, seven is fine, nine is the MAXIMUM. groups larger than that have difficulty maintaining focal points and also have a higher likelihood of having filler members who may be able to keep up technically, but don't do much other than bolster numbers. everyone jokes about nct being too big, but the reality is that nct almost never promotes with more than nine members in a subunit, because sm intimately knows that if a group gets too big, it gets messy. you keep the member numbers down, and all those members have more of an equal reason to be there, even if it's not 'equal' in the songs or performances. there's a lot of other things that idols do that require different skills that aren't used in performance, and those are distributed differently depending on the group.

obvs none of these are hard and fast rules, and often a lot of groups settle into shapes that go beyond their 'job descriptions' and that's fine, because they're usually working through that together. it's all about negotiation

[classic80sand90smovieloves2]

Meeting and Dating Ian Malcolm

(Not my gif)(Requested by anonymous)

(When I tell you I love this man.)

- You and Ian meet when you attend the same STEM related conference; though it would be more accurate to say that you met while you attended a conference that he was lecturing at. 

- Nevertheless, you were both in the same room and wound up interfacing before the meeting was over; an interaction that would lead to a very interesting and at times exasperating relationship. 

- You found him fascinating; just like pretty much everyone else in the crowd, someone who had a big, entertaining personality in a field that so often lacked personality. You liked him the minute he opened his mouth. 

- He, in turn, thought that you were gorgeous and found himself falling for you the minute he locked eyes on you. He was looking forward to the moment he could slink off stage and find a way to talk to you. He did so right after he finished his speech and the applause settled down.

- He artfully found his way through the crowd and managed to convince the person beside you to switch their seat, taking it for himself after the starry eyed boy got up. 

- The two of you sat in silence for a little while before he leaned over and introduced himself, shaking your hand for a lingering moment before you both turned your attention back to the stage. 

- Another beat of silence passed between you before he leaned over and murmured a funny comment to you, reveling in the way you tried to hold back your smile. You spent the rest of the meeting trying to stifle your laughter as your new ironic commentator continued his jokes and flirtation. It certainly made the conference more enjoyable. 

- Once the shows over and everyone begins to clear out, he asks if you’re doing anything before asking if you’d like to go out and grab a couple of drinks or talk someplace. 

- That's how you find yourself seated next to him at the bar of a nice little restaurant, listening to him explain the chaos theory in detail and trying your best to digest everything that he’s saying; along with your drinks. 

- Along with his mathematical explanations, he also provides a lot of compliments and flirtation. You spend the evening feeling like the most important and sought after woman in the world

- Since you could easily; and very accurately, consider that little get together to be your first date, let’s move on to your first kiss. 

- It’s a date or two later that the two of you share it. You don’t want to give in too easily; even if you want to kiss him a lot sooner, so you play coy until you cant take it any more and the moment feels perfectly right. 

- Perfectly right seems to mean the middle of your kitchen after you invited him in for some coffee but hey, to each their own. 

- Nevertheless, you’d invited him into your home after one of your dates and gone to your kitchen to get the two of you your drinks. He’d followed you in and when you handed him his cup of coffee, he’d leaned in, pressed his lips to yours and given you a soft kiss.

- When he pulled away, he smiled at you, raised his mug, and gave you a somewhat teasing thank you before he lead the way into your living room. 

- One mug lead to another and you've been staying up late with each other ever since. 

- Ian suffers from a deplorable need to constantly be touching you. On top of that, he really isn’t too preoccupied with how other people feel so Pda is very common and performed very shamelessly.

- His arm is usually wrapped around you in some way, whether it be draped across the back of your chair, wrapped around your shoulders, or haphazardly thrown in front of you while a T. Rex is charging towards you.

- Tight hugs; which usually means that you’re being somewhat picked up since he’s so goddamn tall.

- Having your hair played with; oftentimes while he uses his flirtation on you.

- Knee squeezes. His hand belongs to your knee whenever he can’t wrap his arm around you.

- He loves cheek kisses. He loves the sort of showing off feel of them whenever you’re in front of someone else; and he just loves how soft and sweet they are.

- Slow, passionate kisses.

- Oftentimes, you wind up sleeping in the crook of his arm; usually with your head resting against his chest. That being said, the two of you also just cuddle haphazardly, snuggling in any which way you can, your limbs entangled and your bodies relaxed.

- He tends to call you honey or baby but, considering the fact that he calls his daughter Queen, my goddess and my inspiration, there’s room for a few more over dramatic pet names in your relationship.

- Waking up together. Ian's a math professor so, depending on both your schedules, you’re usually getting up around the same time. Although, if you get up earlier than he has to, he’d definitely; somewhat begrudgingly, adapt to your schedule.

- The two of you are attached at the hip a lot of the time. If you choose to go somewhere, he’s bound to follow; whether that be to keep you safe or just because he enjoys spending time with you is anyone’s guess.

- Working on separate things while you’re together. Sometimes couples just want to be in the same room while they do their own thing and I think that’s beautiful.

- Going shopping together. He’s a fan of clothes shopping, groceries, not so much.

- He likes trying out new things and going to all those different places that pop up in town so the two of you visit a lot of new restaurants and shops.

- Going out to dinner at nice restaurants. He’s the Rockstar of the math community so of course he’d want to take you to a few high end places; whenever he could afford it that is.

- Traveling around the world together. Whenever he has to go somewhere, he likes taking you with him.

- Being in the crowds of his conferences and public appearances. You like cheering him on and he appreciates the fact that you’re always there for him; even if he doesn’t necessarily need the support.

- Ian isn’t the greatest at keeping his word and he can get really caught up in his work to the point where he forgets important things, but he does always try his best to make things up to you whenever he can.

- Becoming close with Kelly. She enjoys living with you when her mother can’t be bothered and Ian’s bogged down by work. He loves both his girls dearly so the fact that you get along with each other is very important to him.

- You get to use the fact that you’re with Kelly as an excuse to go do stupid and somewhat childish things like visiting arcades and county fairs. Not that you couldn’t do that without her but I think you know what I mean.

- Movie nights; usually with him and Kelly.

- Museum dates.

- He genuinely thinks that your weird interests and quirks are endearing and fascinating. Other people would consider them strange, Ian considers them to be a compelling part of your personality.

- Seeing you talk about things that you’re passionate about is one of his favorite things in the world. He thinks that drive to learn and do and the intelligence that you possess is extremely sexy.

- Sometimes he’ll just look at you like he wants to eat you alive and it’s extremely problematic. Sir, we are in public.

- Lots of flirting. It doesn’t matter how long you’ve been together, he still enjoys making you flustered and treating you like the prettiest girl he’s ever seen.

- Unnecessary and frankly disrespectful noises. If he doesn’t stop making salacious growls at you, you’re gonna have to act up.

- Letting him explain all his different theories and findings to you. He loves showing off and having your undivided attention.

- Breaking rules together. If you aren’t keen on doing so, he’d definitely tease you for being a goody goody.

- He carries around a flask most of the time so the two of you can always just park somewhere and drink together whenever you feel like. Some of your best memories take place in his car, passing around a little metal container and talking about nothing in particular.

- Sarcasm drips from this mans every pore so you should try to get used to it. As annoying as it can be, it does make for some funny comments here and there.

- Snarky comments; whether they’re directed at you or someone else. Ian can be a bit of a bastard so don’t be surprised when his mouth opens and something mocking comes out. Just be prepared to occasionally slap his arm and stop him from being a total ass to people; even if it’s justified.

- Corny little jokes.

- Trying to keep him from verbally destroying people. He’s very verbal about his opinions so chances are, he’s going to speak his mind at one point or another and you might not want to be there when he does.

- He’s a voice of reason for just about everyone on Earth so if you need someone to tell you when you’re being stupid, he’s perfect for you.

- Sticking with him and being there for him after everything happens. He changes very drastically in the following years after meeting Mr. Hammond but you love him no less.

- No matter what people may think of him, you still defend him and proudly stand by his side. You’ve learned to ignore the opinion of others and not entertain their gossip.

- Helping him deal with the trauma that comes with almost getting fucking eaten.

- Ian doesn’t get jealous very often. He’s secure enough in himself and knows that you wouldn’t cheat on him, but every now and again, if you’re particularly close to like a colleague or something, he’ll show some signs of jealousy. Mainly, he’ll just ask a bunch of questions about them and your relationship; all the while trying to play it off as normal curiosity.

- Ian is incredibly protective of you; particularly after the events of Jurassic park. He’s willing to do whatever he can to keep you safe; even if it means endangering himself or doing something that scares the hell out of him.

- The two of you don’t fight extremely often; and you rarely have very serious fights, but you do have an argument from time to time. He may say something sarcastic or hurtful in the heat of the moment on occasion but he never means it and he always immediately apologizes.

- Very few fights last overnight. He’s usually so quick to apologize and try to sort things out that you’re back on track in no time. Under his egotistical shell, he’s really just a big softie who wants things to be alright between the two of you.

- He tells you that he loves you a perfectly average amount of times; not too much and not too little. And he loves hearing you say it back or just tell him that you love him for no real reason.

- Ian legitimately loves kids. Like he’s fully prepared to get married and start a family with you at any given moment. Believe me, you just say the words and he’ll pop the question.

[atinymonster]

mine

ateez 9th member.

when sunwoo’s jealousy gets the better of him during kingdom.

this is literally a combination of requests tehe but enjoy!

➴ taglist: @banhmi07, @jiyeons-closet, @jaeminpeachy, @mochibabycakes

➴ masterlist

"Let me go, right now! I am a second degree black belt—!

“Lovebug! Calm down, it’s just me!”

She didn’t think a trip to the bathroom would result in her arm practically getting ripped off by someone dragging her into an empty waiting room.

Opening her eyes, she realized she was face to face with someone’s chest. Eyes traveling up, she breathed a sigh of relief when it was just Sunwoo. Her eyes wandered his body, appreciating the stylists’ decision to put him in a black and red suit that made him look even more handsome—

“Liking the view?” his cheeky and teasing voice broke her from her reverie. 

Hold that thought. 

“I was until you opened your mouth,” she joked, punching his chest. “Why did you even drag me in here? Where are we even?”

“Just one of the empty waiting rooms. And is it a crime if I just wanted to see you?”

“Love, you literally opened the door and dragged me like a rag doll. While that was indeed hot, be careful, I don’t want the chain to hurt you.”

A sullen look passed over Sunwoo’s face. He really didn’t mean to be so rough, but there was a sense of urgency in him that he couldn’t explain. Or rather, he knew what got him all hot and bothered, but he felt stupid for voicing it out loud to her. Unconsciously, his arms around her tightened.

Peering up at his face with concern, she waved a hand in front of his face. “Hey, Woo, everything okay?” She figured something was wrong from the beginning since he wasn’t one to be this rough. 

“...You’re mine, right?” he softly asked, eyes trained on the familiar white bracelet that decorated her wrist. 

She furrowed her eyebrows in confusion at his question. Looping her arms around his neck, she played with hair, something she knew he loved when she did. “Of course, what made you think otherwise?” 

Sunwoo felt his face burn before he leaned down to rest his head on her shoulder. “Just...earlier...during the ranking announcement...”

She tilted her head in confusion. “What happened—oh.”

It wasn’t a secret to anyone that Jiyu’s popularity had skyrocketed after the first and second round. Her charisma and duality, not to mention her visuals, had been a hot topic amongst other groups for the last two weeks. And with the garnered attention, came admirers. 

“Hey guys,” Jiyu quietly called out to her members once a break started in the middle of the ranking announcement. “I don’t mean to be cocky or anything but do you guys feel the pairs of eyes on us?”

Yeosang turned to face her. “I’m surprised you only noticed now. They’re all on you.”

She pointed to herself out of disbelief. “M-Me?”

From afar, there was someone who couldn’t help but have his gaze wander over to where Jiyu was. He, much like everyone else, admired her stage presence and performance.

But it’d be a lie if he denied her being extremely attractive as well. 

“Hwiyoung keeps looking over there, what are you—” Before Inseong could finish his question, he followed the younger boy’s gaze and instantly started laughing. “Are you looking at Jiyu?”

Having been caught and called out, Hwiyoung instantly tore his gaze away from her before throwing a half-hearted glare towards his hyung. “N-No...”

“Don’t lie, you even said she was pretty multiple times back in the waiting room when ATEEZ were performing.” Jaeyoon commented—just a little too loudly to go unnoticed.

Jiyu awkwardly pressed her lips together at the outburst that she was pretty sure she wasn’t supposed to hear. Looking at her members, she was pretty sure they heard it, too. Laughing off her embarrassment, she shifted back in her seat.

Yeosang raised an eyebrow in confusion. “I hate to break his bubble...but he does know that she and Sunwoo are dating, right?”

“Our Baby Monster sure is popular today,” Wooyoung teasingly commented, throwing an arm over her shoulder. “But then again, we should know firsthand at how scary your duality is.”

Seonghwa couldn’t help the mother instincts in him as he noticed all the eyes on her. She was still a child in his eyes, so to see her bombarded with stares from others made him a little want to just cover her with a blanket. 

“I know he’s our sunbae, but he needs to get through us first!” San quietly declared, pretending to roll up his sleeves. Wooyoung nodded in complete agreement.

“San, no, like you said, he’s a sunbae!” Jiyu frantically whispered. “Besides, we’re not even allowed to interact with other groups, so I’ll be fine.”

San playfully huffed. “Yet that didn’t stop you from sneaking around backstage a few weeks ago. Maybe he’ll do the same.”

Jiyu snorted at their reactions towards the SF9 member. ‘At least they’re advocating for my and Sunwoo’s relationship...?’

Hongjoong peeked back over towards SF9 and caught a glimpse of a comedic scene. Quietly tapping Yunho’s and San’s shoulder, he discreetly pointed to what he saw. 

Following their leader’s finger, they saw a brooding Sunwoo, looking as if he was trying to hold his act together. His members, mainly Eric and Hyunjae, were laughing and teasing him. Seeing him bothered by jealousy wasn’t a sight they saw everyday—and boy were they soaking that up. 

Jongho followed their gaze and snorted. “You know what, I think she’ll be fine without our intervention if anything happened. 

Jiyu chuckled at the giant baby in her arms. “So you were jealous of Hwiyoung sunbaenim?”

He didn’t even bother to deny, nodding at her question. He pulled her closer to him and snuggled his face deeper into the crook of her neck. He knew being oggled at by others comes with the job, but he couldn’t help it when he has to witness it first hand. 

Not to mention, she was the only girl on the show. The only girl amongst five boy groups. 

Suddenly overcome with an urge, he picked her up and gently tossed her over his shoulder. Ignoring her questions as to what had gotten into him, he silently walked over to one of the couches and set her down so that her head was resting against the armrest. 

Jiyu stared up with wide eyes at the body towering over her own. They were in a pretty compromising position with his body hovering over her’s and her head caged between his arms. Literally anyone could walk in on them at any given moment and would assume they were up to something that wasn’t meant for the public to witness. 

But all words died in her throat when she stared into his eyes. Unlike the usual bright, bambi eyes that she absolutely adored, she swore she saw his eyes darken as they fixed on her lips. 

Smirking, she leaned up closer to him to the point that she could feel his breath fanning across her lips and tilted her head. Two could play at this game, and she certainly didn’t want to lose.

Taking that as a green light, he closed the small gap between them and melded their lips together. 

Jiyu let out a surprised, yet satisfied sigh at the foreign feeling of his lips against her’s. The feeling was just like had imagined, soft and gentle, but also an underlying roughness that she knew he was holding back. 

She wrapped her arms around his neck as their lips continued to part before immediately gravitating together again like two magnets. As cheesy as it may sound, it felt like their lips were made for each other. His lips against her’s felt like the missing puzzle piece. 

Unfortunately, they both had to pull away to catch their breath. Slightly panting, they both shyly smiled at each other as if they weren’t kissing each other with a newfound fervor a few seconds before. 

“I swear this wasn’t how I planned our first kiss to be like,” he smiled, gently stroking her face with one of his hands as the other stayed pressed to the armrest to keep himself up. Seeing her face flushed while trying to catch her breath stirred something inside of him, but that was another story.

“Hm...some things go better unplanned, don’t you think?” she mused, gently ruffling and tugging at his hair.

He smirked, picking up on her underlying teasing tone. Sitting up, his hands wandered to her side and gave it a small squeeze before assaulting her with tickles.

“You may be the only girl here, but just remember you’re mine,” he playfully commented, but there was a weight of seriousness to it, as well.

But hearing her laughter and watching her squirm broke his facade, and his adoring smile was back. Stopping his hands, he leaned back down and rubbed his nose against her’s like a kitten. The childish giggle that emitted from her was the most melodious sound he’s ever heard. 

“It’s kind of quiet in there, are you sure they’re okay?” 

Hushed whispers from outside brought them back to reality and they both craned their neck to look towards the door. 

“I say we barge in.”

“No! That’s just rude and I don’t want to see anything indecent.”

“Same, I could live without seeing two of my best friends at it.”

“Why would you say that?! Now Seonghwa-hyung looks like he’s going to pass out!”

Jiyu quietly chuckled at their running imaginations while Sunwoo looked like he just wanted to open the door and wreak havoc on the peeping toms outside. One last time, she cupped his face to make him face her before planting a soft peck on his cheek. 

“Love you, sunshine,” she innocently smiled.

Now how could he continue to be irritated after seeing that?

He kissed her forehead. “Love you more, lovebug.”

[closer-stars]

Fall of the Kingdom

Member: Hongjoong Word Count: 4.4k (mmmm) Genre: it’s just... Dark... and drama. Content: Demon Hongjoong’s got a war but he needs to feed on humans first. Mentions of explosions, violence, blood, suicide ideation (only brushed upon, nothing in detail i promise). Note: This idea came to me after seeing rocker hongjoong and that Iconic dark smile he does. Also this was technically done in one go cause I was Feeling the Inspiration so forgive me if it’s messy. Also this was just an Excuse for me to indulge in an interest of mine. Taglist: @barsformars @miniyeo @hwaberrykiwi @jwyfldr @fvae @yeotlny @inkigayeo

“I’ve become so numb, can’t feel you there. 

I’ve become so tired, so much more aware.”

There was something about this new song that made you feel breathless, as if all the frustration and pent up anger has been sucked out of you. Just like the song, you feel a little numb. It was a good thing you were sitting down too, you could barely feel your own legs after that song. If there was a song to describe what your life has made you feel, it would be this song. There were days where you didn’t feel real, if you were still capable of feeling emotions, if you can still reach the expectations of people put onto you. 

Silence passes over your earphones and that’s when you realize that the song had ended, loading the next video. You quickly stopped autoplay and had the video play again. This time you had to get yourself to watch the music video. The vocals alone had put you through an array of emotions you didn’t think you could still feel. You weren’t ready for what the video was about to give you. His smile was alluring as if promising you that you are something. His gaze reminding the viewers of strength innate in them even after years of mistreatment from life. To have an artist properly encapsulate all the emotions in you just had you hooked. You wanted more.

No.

You need more. 

‘By. Hongjoong.’

You’ve never heard of this artist before. Is he new to the music scene?  There’s next to nothing about this Hongjoong online. Just this song on what you assume is his YouTube channel. Just a few thousand views for now. There are a few comments, praising him for his music and his looks (you had to admit, he does look quite attractive.) but not much for you to go about. For now, you drop a like and subscribed to the guy’s channel. 

Within the next few days, the views rose to the millions. Comments in various languages were pouring in, all of which seemed to be praise. The comment section has become a forum, people asking others about him. Even you were reading comments hoping for more information. The only sign that he was a real entity behind the screen was the description on his video.

It wasn’t there when you first viewed the music video.

“Hello there. I am Kim Hongjoong. This is my first single, Numb. Please look forward to my future releases!”

He stayed true to his word. Over the past few months, his following has grown. He doesn’t have any other social media account except his Youtube and Instagram (that was only opened recently). While there was a distance between him and his fans in terms of interactions, his music made up for it. His music much like his first single, stayed consistent for being for an audience who have been ignored by life, who struggle for a break. Say My Name, his second single reached a million views within two days. Much like the title, more and more people are talking about him. His music is played in shops and restaurants. It’s hitting the top of the charts and staying there for weeks. He never leaves the Top 10 at least. 

People assumed he was going to be a one hit wonder, a lot of independent artists are. But he’s proven them wrong, not through posts on Instagram but through consistently dropping song after song. Songs that remain stuck in your head for weeks to come until he drops another one. The new one being better than the former. He was only getting started. The media and general public have called him a digital monster. Yet, despite all the songs he’s released, no one knows who he really is. Any interview he’s done with the media only scratches the surface of his musical process and his personality. There’s more to him, you’re sure but you just couldn’t place what that ‘more’ is. 

People were already commenting on his social media and making posts begging for him to do a concert, or any sort of live performance. Surely his music would sound much better in real life?

On the other hand, there were those who weren’t into his style. They assume and point fingers at him for being someone who associated themselves with the Anti-Christ due to his heavy imagery and music. It’s an age old argument with no solid proof to back it up. Any tongue that speaks against Hongjoong’s music was quickly dealt with by his fans. Though you didn’t like the way they dealt with the opposing views, they had it coming. 

After Horizon’s release, he dropped another video. Not a music video, but it seems like him talking to the camera. 

“Hello everyone. This is Kim Hongjoong.” 

You didn’t think he would speak in such a soft tone. He was dressed head to toe in black, very reminiscent and consistent with his music style, not that you expected anything different. It just seems to fall in line with who he is from what you’ve seen. 

“To everyone’s delight, I will be doing a countrywide tour within the next few months. The dates, venues and where to buy are in the description down below. I hope to see you there.” He doesn’t say anything else, but the corners of his lips curve, a charming smile, very much unlike the dark heavy gazes and grins he dons in his music videos. 

The video announcement quickly gains views and comments. Foreign fans weeping for an opportunity they can’t experience, begging him to visit them too. Local fans were celebrating in the comments, excited to hear his other hits, especially his debut song, Numb. 

To your delight, he’s doing a show near your area. You had to see this guy in the flesh. What better way to deal with your frustrations than with live music? There’s something about his music and him that gives you such an emotional high and that was from just the screen, what more if it were live? You immediately got yourself a ticket, before it got sold out. 

Two months before D-day.

--------

Hongjoong has been monitoring the numbers and interactions done on his posts. It’s easy to see how delighted he is. Even with next to no information about him, he managed to garner a loyal following not only here but internationally as well. 

Here’s the thing with this Kim Hongjoong. He’s not human. Not in the fandom praise for his superb skills in music making, no, he’s not from the human realm. Instead, he’s a demon. A demon that feeds on the frustrations of humans. Those wronged by life and society were the most susceptible to his charms. Every night, he walks through the streets, unrecognized by the public. ‘How stupid.’ He thinks as they pass by him without batting an eyelash. He can smell the catharsis of those who listen to his creations. It’s only then that he can point out those who carry bitterness in their hearts, otherwise he waits. 

He feels himself get stronger with each passing day. Soon, he’ll be able to show why he’s one of the Greater Princes of Hell. Lesser demons and humans as his soldiers? How delightful would it be to have the damned souls work for him. Surely it would make Wooyoung jealous but he delights in his jealousy. 

Was he worried that he won’t get as strong as he wants to? Not at all. Nothing to be worried about when the numbers show just how much people have become an avid follower of his regardless of distance. 

Now one might wonder why he does this. What else other than to prove to the beings above him that the ones that call the shots with humans are beings like him? The fearful physique and near perfect mentality of the angels are what pushes people away from believing in redemption. Meanwhile him? He and his fellow demons look like anyone else, save for the striking eye colors and sharper than usual teeth. It’s easy to creep on humans when they deem you as one of them. 

He’s careful though, making sure no one recognizes him by his voice when he’s out with the humans. The glamour of being “mysterious” does more than what his peers expected. With the concerts coming up, it makes it easier for him and his fellow demons to find potential hosts to continue their work. 

He’s not foolish.

--------

It’s D-Day and you made sure you looked decent for a long night. In the months that led to this fateful day, you’ve made friends with those who were also fans of Hongjoong. A lot of them were chaotic, but it was something you’ve come to accept. There were always going to be fans that would start a fight for the sake of their favorite artist. While you weren’t one of them, you weren’t one to stop them either should they start fighting someone. Who are you to tell them what to do when you blind yourself at the face of violence. 

The lights dim, thick smoke pour from the sides and Hongjoong enters the stage much to the roaring of the fans. They chant his name over and over. It almost feels like a prayer with how fervent they are. 

His cocky grin graces his features, with a wave of his hand, the cheering grows louder. It’s loud enough to make the venue feel hot and sticky from the energy. 

This is what he wanted. 

“Hello everyone! I hope all of you are prepared for the best night of your lives.” He coos into the mic. You could already hear a few women shrieking for his attention to which he gives. 

The show stars and entire venue feels like it’s shaking from the constant jumping from the crowd. For a split second, you were a little scared of how the ceiling might cave in from the collective jumping. The chants from the fans are reaching a feverish high. The volume and emotion behind the voices of people who seem to have suffered the same life as you: mistreated, ignored, kicked to the side. All of them want to be heard, to feel as if someone understands. 

Hongjoong does. Just not in the way they expected. 

Somewhere through the show, you lose sight of your friends. All of them have managed to reach near the barricade, hoping to get a fleeting touch of his hand. As if his touch would be the solution to all their problems. Hongjoong stays near the edge of the stage but never does he go near the crowd, much to their desire to be closer to him. 

‘Fools.’ The thought is hidden behind a dark smirk. Some on the side have decided to argue, saying that his smirk was for them and not the other. 

Everything feels suffocating; the smoke from the smoke machine, along with the pulsating bodies as if moving as one around you. You feel lightheaded, overwhelmed but heavens be damned because at the same time, you feel so alive. It feels like the crowd is moving as one to Hongjoong’s voice. Despite the suffocation, everything feels so right. 

The safety is short lived. To the side, you see a fight breaking out between two guys. You couldn’t clearly see what’s going on but you could tell that punches were being thrown from either side. It’s gotten to the point where the bouncers had to kick them out of the venue, the crowd filling in on the gaps of where the two once were. The show carries on, but you opt to stick to the back to stay out of the still brimming chaos within the crowd. 

He’s not fazed by the violence the erupts in the crowd. He lives for it actually. It’s what he wanted to happen. All the emotions concentrated in one room, nothing could beat this feeling. Not even a seat in Heaven could replace the feeling of pleasure he receives from his followers. 

The show ends with his debut song Numb. You never left your spot near the exit, you can only imagine the chaos if you left with the crowd of people once the show ends. He blows a few kisses to the crowd, bidding them goodbye and that he’ll see them soon. Whenever that might be. 

You leave the premises when he leaves the stage. Time to avoid the crowds. 

He stays inside the venue, taking in all the emotions and catharsis as much as possible. It’s the aftermath that always tastes the best. The dazed feeling of his followers as their emotions crash from such a high cathartic moment. The surplus of violent catharsis momentarily has his eyes turn white. It’s rather difficult to keep the human facade when you feel the power surge through your body. Unfortunately, keeping the facade of a human while taking what you need in order to become stronger makes it much more difficult. Such a prison can only take so much. 

After all, should the people hold onto their bitterness, it can only give way to violence. 

A fellow Greater Demon, a being who named himself Jongho for the sake of normalcy,  somehow eyes the still lingering crowd with interest. “You’ve outdone yourself once more. The last you did this was centuries ago wasn’t it?” He can still taste the left over frustrations, such shall be left with the people. Give them some time and that small seed becomes something bigger especially with what Hongjoong still has up his sleeve. The last time Hongjoong had tried to look for a host, disaster struck the nation and forced him into hiding until recently. “What are you going to do with the left overs?” 

“That’s right. I failed to find a potential host back then. The potential hosts I wanted just disintegrated into ashes.” He mutters. It’s thanks to him the phenomenon of spontaneous human combustion came to light. He straightens himself up, his eyes flashing white as he tries to contain the energy he has absorbed. “As for the leftovers, let the people keep it. Chaos shall ensue with what I have next.” 

“Did you find someone now?” The plan Hongjoong has doesn’t matter to Jongho. What matters is that Hongjoong finds a potential host. That won’t suffer the same fate as those in the past. 

He remembers you, clearly staying towards the back, always turning a blind eye to the violence that was around you and he grins. 

--------

The cool air outside the venue was a needed break from everything. It’s only then that you realize how hungry and exhausted you are. Truth be told, after that concert, you could probably sleep for a week with how physically and emotionally exhausted you are. 

But first things first. You need to eat. 

You find yourself in a fast food restaurant. It was the only thing you could stomach after such a long day of running around with friends and an emotionally charged concert. 

There weren’t much people in the establishment. Only two tables were occupied and they were clearly people who didn’t attend the concert. You sit by the corner, busying yourself with your burger and nuggets. The iced fruit juice could tide over your thirst until you head home. 

You look up when you see someone enter the premises. If it weren’t for your quick reflexes, you would’ve dropped your food. 

It’s Kim Hongjoong. Only he’s already out of his stage clothes but his makeup still gives him away.

There’s nowhere to hide from his view. Instead, you look down and focus on your meal. You try to eat as fast as you can even at the risk of choking.  It’s too much for your poor heart. You who went through adrenaline, frustration, anger, then relief in one day. To be in the same establishment as The Kim Hongjoong was too much for you to keep up with. 

“Is this seat taken?” 

You look at the feet then look up. You try to hide the fact you could recognize him but from the sound of his chuckle, you failed. You gesture to the seat across you as you try to chew slowly. Kim Hongjoong is in front of you. Surely this is just a dream? 

He chuckles softly at how you’re staring at him still. “Yes I’m real.” He says as if reading your mind. He finds your shy nature a little endearing, just what he needs for his plans. 

“I thought you would still be in the venue…” You admit softly as you try to eat slowly this time. Surely it would be rude to finish before him now that he had just started eating? 

“I never agreed to any meet and greet so I managed to leave the premises early.” He explains. It’s whiplash how soft his mannerisms were compared to his music. “What’s your name? You were in my concert weren’t you?” He asks, gesturing to the neon band wrapped around your wrist.

Before you could deny anything, he catches you red handed. You relent to his wishes and tell him your name. “How could you even see me? I was at the back.” Surely he couldn’t see you through all the blinding lights.

He just shoots you a mischievous wink. “I have my ways, dear.” He leads the conversation for the rest of the time, asking you how you found him, your thoughts about his music, and so on. It felt like you were just talking to an old friend who just made it big. You felt at ease with him. 

You look at the time and nearly jump out of your seat. “Crap, it’s late. I have to go..” You admit, dejected at having to cut the conversation short. Hongjoong had other plans though, he stood up, grabbing what’s left of his fries and his iced coffee. 

“I can give you a ride home. Where do you live?” 

This is too good to be true. 

--------

On the ride home, he asks you about yourself, your life, how you find yourself holding up despite everything. You admit that you have a hard time holding yourself up, even having daydreams of the unspeakable. That mere idea puts a frown on his face. The stoplight turns red and his fingers immediately tip your chin up to make you look at him in the eye. The tip of his thumb brushes against the bottom of your lip and in your shock of how fast he moves, your mouth is left slightly open. 

“Don’t.” 

There’s something in his tone that tells you to not go against his words. It’s perhaps better to not divulge your daydreams, so you promise that you won’t. 

He flashes a warm smile at you just in time for the stoplight to turn green. 

You don’t know that he’s already imparted a bit of his essence into you. ‘Humans, how gullible.’ 

---------

By the time he drops you outside your apartment complex, you’ve exchanged contact details. Both sides hope to stay in touch as much as possible. “Thank you for the ride! Stay safe on the road!” You say as you jog inside. 

The male watches you enter the premises of your complex before driving off. Jongho materializes on the seat you left. “How was it?” 

The grin on Hongjoong’s lips tells him everything he needed. 

---------

Time has passed and the two of you have been talking consistently day in and day out. The genuinity of the bond was something that made you feel like life was a little bearable now. Shitty but still bearable thanks to Hongjoong and his music. You’ve admitted to him how your life hasn’t been the best and how his music has been something helping you through. 

It’s radio silence by next week. No matter how many messages you send him, you receive no sign of him reading it or a response. You genuinely feared losing someone you considered a friend (and a crush but let’s not talk about that). Did he just ghost you? 

The silence stretches into months, and the happiness you felt in the previous weeks have disappeared, morphing into the familiar dread you’re too familiar with by now. You’ve accepted the fact that he may have just ghosted you but the radio silence on his youtube channel tells you there’s more to just the regular ghosting. 

“BREAKING: Rock icon, Kim Hongjoong has been deemed missing. More info to come at 5PM.” 

Something in your stomach drops and you look around you. Hongjoong had already amassed a large following over the past year. In this room alone, you could assume there were ten fans. All eyes were glued to the tv screen. In the distance you hear a loud explosion and sirens, you get out of your seat immediately, leaving the premises. What the fuck is going on? 

By the time you stepped foot outside the restaurant, someone comes barreling towards you. Isn’t this the same guy that caused a fight in his concert? You could recognize steely eyes anywhere, but what was his name? The more important question is, why does he look so bloodied and dirty? Also, what was he running from? The two of you stare at each other for a moment before the police have come chasing after him. You’re left with no option but to give way to his chasers. 

It’s better to head home than to stay out any longer at this rate. 

“BREAKING: Suspect of the explosion earlier today has been caught along with his accomplices.” 

Finally back at home, the news outlets have been trying to keep up with the sudden influx of events. Kim Hongjoong has been missing for five days. The explosion from earlier was made by a Kang Yeosang who is, coincidentally, also a fan of Hongjoong. It’s already known everywhere that a fan of Hongjoong is good enough of a cult member. Now Hongjoong might not have mentioned anything about a better land or the second coming like most cult leaders but with the amassed following he has despite his disappearance, they might as well be a cult. 

There’s speculation on social media as to what exactly had happened to Hongjoong but nothing is for certain. Fanbases are trying to find Hongjoong’s whereabouts only to come up empty. Fake accounts are popping up, proclaiming themselves to be Hongjoong, giving false leads to anyone who believes. 

Some fans have resorted to violence, hoping to get back the artist that they think genuinely understands them. It’s a warzone online and in real life. You’re seeing posts, unsure if they’re real or not, of fans wishing they were the ones that disappeared instead of Hongjoong. Overwhelmed with everything, you shut off your phone and bury yourself in your bed. His music plays faintly and it’s the only thing that’s holding you to the real world. 

Everything else doesn’t feel real. 

As each day passes, there’s another case of violence and death. It’s got the city by its neck with how rampant the chaos has been. The only way you’re staying sane through it all is through your detachment to all the violence that runs amok around you. 

“BREAKING: a 22 year old man caught dead after pretending to be the missing artist Kim Hongjoong online. More information on the found mass burial site to follow at 6PM”

You’ve busied yourself by searching the internet for other artists, hoping to find someone to fill in the hole Hongjoong has left. None of them do the job the way Hongjoong does it. You try to call his number, hoping for something.

“The number you have dialed is out of use. Please check the number you have dialed and try again.” 

Please let this just be a dream. 

You had a restless sleep that night, tossing and turning. Your dreams were wrought with Hongjoong’s voice, screaming for your help. His voice surrounds your helpless figure until you stop in your tracks and scream out in pain. You’re jolted awake and you feel your body drenched in sweat and fear.  “Hongjoong, where are you?” You plead softly, utterly helpless. 

The leads regarding Hongjoong decrease as each day passes and fans and the general public have resigned themselves to the fate that he had died. Some of his fans have gone their own ways, though their chaotic ways have never faltered. You on the other hand, still tried to find traces of him despite not knowing a lot about him. 

---------

On the other side of the city, Hongjoong watches the news from Jongho’s living quarters. He’s delighted to see the stress and fear from regular humans. A little variety from the stress of his followers. It’s a good thing he left some violence behind with his followers, those who have nothing to lose do cause the best havoc. Maybe he should keep that Yeosang guy alive to learn a few more tricks. He doesn’t need to tell his followers what to do. Just disappear at the height of his fame and let them do the work. 

He takes a shot of vodka as he continues to watch on. Jongho splayed on the couch, watches as well. “What do you think?” 

“Perfect. I think Lucifer would be delighted in this. I can already tell my legions are growing with the amount of deaths.” 

“How soon will the war be then?” Jongho’s legions are already waiting for his word. His human body appears to be a lot tankier than expected. 

“Give my host three months, their nature is perfect in amassing followers around the globe.” 

--------

You have another dream that night, a familiar voice with that addicting smile. “Hongjoong?” You call out, running wherever his voice is coming from.  “Hongjoong where are you?!” You call out again but he doesn’t reply, he only giggles at how strained you are to look for him. While it’s perfect to strike when they least expect it, it’s also just as good to strike when they’re at their weakest. 

You somehow manage to find him. He looks a little different now, stronger, and something about him doesn’t feel human. He sits on a throne, painted white with obsidian sprinkled upon the back. He doesn’t seem affected by how distraught and confused you look. In fact, he actually laughs at your face at how pitiful you look. He gives you a set of instructions. All of which point to a war that only heaven and hell can conceive. 

“Only then can you find me, my dear. Don’t let me down.”

Your eyes glow white when you wake up. Who are you to deny his wishes?

[masterhandss]

Hamefura Idol AU! (part 2)

Here’s a completely unrelated Katarina idol art by @Sangotofura on twitter!

This is a continuation of my first post, the one that is more of an overview of the original FL game and the original descriptions of the characters. I don’t know if I want to write a story for this, since again this is just an excuse to draw, but I’m really having fun with expanding the alternate version of the world of hamefura.

It’s a lot of fun to rewrite hamefura’s story to fit in an idol setting, so I hope you guys don’t mind if I write a bit more for my dumb au dhjgfjs

More tidbits about the ‘Game’:

The game’s name, Fortune Lover: Cinderella Idol! or “Fortune Lover”, is read as “for-tune lover” by the fans (get it? tune?? pls laugh). The ‘F’ of the name is written as a fortissimo.

In the setting for Fortune Lover, the entertainment industry is the biggest industry of all time, with music being the most popular form. It has been like this for decades, and as time progressed, people’s tastes and expectations of music evolved, leading to the creation and popularity of idols.

Idol-Producers are a new project that is testing the capabilities of a idol teen, observing how their involvement in their own success can impact how they manage their time and how they can bring the absolute best out of themselves, on their own. Maria is the first idol who will be testing this new style. She is still a producer to herself, the boys, and even Sophia and Mary if you choose to have them join you. Despite being an idol, they still call Maria their “producer” and treats her like one. 

The characters in the game are in 3D CG, as the game includes the dance choreography or “MV Mode” if you perfect the score of the rhythm game. 

While Katarina’s bullying isn’t really death threatening, it’s more in line with the petty kind like verbal threats, sabotaging Maria’s idol clothes and stage equipment, paying someone to mess up her tracks during performances, badmouthing her infront of tv show producers and hosts, and stuff like that.

Katarina’s bullying isn’t as bad as it is in the original otome game, but she gets shunned by the public because behavior like that is only supposed to be done behind the curtains. The public has such a pure and honest perception of idols that they never think of the idea that the girls who smile and sing on stage actually try to stab each other in the back when the stage lights are off. Some people think that Katarina’s character is just a persona, so knowing that she is actually an ignorant and arrogant rich girl idol-wannabe, her fans lose respect for her. Katarina’s harassment of Maria is one of the few cases that are brought to light by the end of the game, and because of how much the public loves Maria by that point, they are enraged by Katarina’s behavior, making her lose support on all sides

Katarina had been in love with Gerald ever since they were children, and while Gerald has always been a popular boy among both his peers, when she found out Gerald was going to be an idol, she disliked the idea of sharing her beloved Gerald to a huge audience of people, so she became an idol to stand alongside him and to make herself worth of him by charming him as as an idol and gaining a large following herself. Despite this, Katarina didn’t strive too hard to be a talented idol, as she was too confident on herself due to the pampering of her parents.

Even if the player doesn’t desire to romance any of the four boys, given how the game is written and how it is programmed, the boy with the highest relationship points with Maria will confess to her by the end of the game. It would be impossible to not interact and gain points with the boys, as you gain relationship points in most areas of the games (when you “practice” your characters, when you “play” their songs, when you “give” them new clothes, when you “converse” with them in story mode, etc.). In the event that there are two characters with the exact same amount of points, the game will choose a boy for you.

Sorcier Pro.’s current president is Geoffrey Stuart (for reasons that will make sense someday) 

Katarina-Gerald and Mary-Alan aren’t engaged in this au, but are constantly in each other’s presence due to most powerful bussinessmen and celebrities being good friends with each other. 

Each girl has a specialty in a certain area: Katarina with dancing, Sophia with singing, Mary with acting/drama, and Maria (according to the official description of her in the box) with fashion coordination. Maria can be seen as more of a jack of all trades though, as she does represent the player. 

While any of the boys can trigger the condemnation event that will lead to Katarina’s social suicide, the event is specifically associated with Keith and Gerald due to the severity of her presence and bullying if you have high relationship points with the two. With Alan and Nicole, Katarina’s event only happens for a few lines, but for Keith and Gerald, it takes place in complete detail, with it’s own animated cutscene. 

Gerald’s route is also the most popular among the fans, with community surveys reporting that 53% of the game’s player base had Gerald as their final chosen love interest ( 25% with Keith, 12% with Nicol and 10% with Alan)

Monkey Girl/Past-Life Katarina

Since Maria’s name can’t be change in the game, but you can give her a “nickname” that represents the username of the player, Past-life Katarina’s name in the game is “SaruP” (or “Monkey producer” lol)

Saruchan (Monkey Girl) dies before she could finish her playthrough of the game, and all of her knowledge is based on her idol-expert best friend Acchan. She’s a bit tomboyish, and she loves to climb trees and move freely without a hint of poise or shyness, and is friendly to all genders. Her love for climbing, running, gardening with her grandma, and never ending amounts of energy gave her a pretty strong, flexible, agile and energetic body.

In Saruchan’s world, idols do exist, but aren’t portrayed in the cutesy and exaggerated manner that fiction does. Though it’s no surprise to know that in her world, almost every girl had dreamed to become an idol at one point, even herself. Acchan doesn’t find the idea interesting though, as she only lives for the idealized version of idols that exist in fiction. Acchan explains that girls their age are being brainwashed by the idealized version of idols that are presented in the media that they consume, and that they should wake up and learn to enjoy the fictional idols as they are. Despite Acchan’s realistic disapproval of idol fantasies, she does love playing idol rhythm games and gacha games, and spends her allowance on getting DLC costumes for Maria in FL. Acchan even pre-ordered tickets for herself and Saruchan for an idol concert featuring the VA of the characters, that they were supposed to attend to on the day that Saruchan dies. 

She dies the game way: on her way to school and being killed by a truck that runs her over. 

The last thing Saruchan sees before she loses consciousness forever is the wallpaper of the game’s boxart from her phone screen as it flies out of her hands. 

My Next Life as an ‘Idol’?? All Routes Lead to Doom!!!

As usual, Katarina ends up remembering her future as an 8 year old kid, and plans to prepare for her future “banishment” and humiliation. She learns to farm in order to provide for herself once she gets shunned and retreats to the countryside, and (unknowingly) meets all the characters in the game and gains their good favor before the events of the game begins. 

Her head bump still happens with Gerald, but their encounter happened in a party rather than an engagement meeting, with her tripping over a rock as she decides to run to the young man in order to introduce herself. Such introductions never got past beyond their names and few exchanges of dialogue, as the bump occurred and Katarina was immediately brought to the hospital after he called for help. 

Being a girl who wanted to be an idol at one point, Katarina wanted to use this chance to fulfill her dream of becoming one! But knowing the fate that will await her, (public humiliation, isolation, and banishment to some degree) she tries to figure out ways to avoid ruining her future.

While not as bad as death, Katarina is aware that the ending of the game implies that the blemished opinion that everyone will gain of her will lead to her leading a miserable life; one that will prevent her from gaining new allies and even studying in peace without being made fun of or called out for. It might even ruin her marriage prospects, for all she knows (it doesn’t but she’s too stupid to know that). The stakes of the bad ending aren’t life threatening, but it is personal, as Katarina always dreamed of becoming an idol as a teen and doesn’t like the idea of being able to enjoy it for a few months only to be dragged down to hell right afterwards.

The Claes is a wealthy family known for her father’s knowledge and skills when it comes to trades and business, and for her mother’s beautiful opera singing voice and celebrity presence. As usual, Katarina’s father adopts Keith for the purpose of gaining a direct heir for the business, in fear that Katarina’s future significant other might just to interested in her to gain it. 

Katarina’s plan is to learn how to farm in order to be able to support herself after her banishment, give Keith lots of love so he doesn’t end up becoming a playboy like in the game, and to train herself in dancing and singing in order to not embarrass herself like the original Katarina did. After meeting Gerald again and realizes his weakness, she eventually prepares (or buys, since the setting is modern) toy snakes that she can use to surprise him whenever the condemnation event occurs, using his shocked and panicked reaction as a way to distract the media from the claims that will surely fall upon her (since no one would have expected the calm and collected Gerald Stuart to scream like a girl at the sight of a toy snake, right? That would stay in the headlines for weeks! maybe).

As a kid, she has private singing tutors, and takes more general singing classes when she gets older. She doesn’t have dance training as a kid, but she does like to exercise and move her body around, so it slowly turned into the stamina-filled flexible body that she is used to. 

Katarina and Keith - Their meeting and impressions are mostly the same, which the difference being that Katarina used a display axe above a fireplace to break down the door, and Keith got her injured by accidentally pushing her off a pretty high cliff in the Claes grounds while they were both running and playing chase (rather than being isolated for dangerous Earth Magic, Keith as a child was a clutz who attracted danger to everyone around him, making his older brothers make fun of him for being “cursed”).

Katarina showers him with love, making him affectionate towards his step sister, in the same as he was in the original material.

When Keith finds out about Katarina’s desire to train to become an idol, he is very supportive of her, and decides to train with her in order to be able to stand by his sister on stage (as well as to generally gain the same interests as her in order to guarantee that they will stay close as they age). The contrast being that instead of becoming an idol to gain the adoration of millions of nameless faces, he now wants to become an idol to gain the love and attention of a single person, which is Katarina uwu. 

Katarina and Gerald - Gerald eventually attempts to visit Katarina to apologize for the incident, expecting her to blame him for what happened, given the personality she showed him. He was shocked to find a scar on her forehead, farming while wearing a farmer’s attire despite coming from a wealthy and esteemed family, singing and dancing to a song as she waters her vegetables. He watches for only a minute, unable to look away from the girl who danced like deflating balloon and sang off key while almost drowning her small vegetable in water. She looked weird, but she was having the time of her life, and he could see and hear it from where he stood.

 In a daze, thinking he might have entered the wrong house by accident or walked on the daughter of a maid doing chores. He walks out and leave the Claes estate without a word, and visits again after only a few days, as he couldn’t get his mind off of the oddity that he had witnessed. 

He eventually realizes that it was Katarina on his second visit, as he finds the scar of the odd farmer girl on the same girl who boasted about her family’s wealth in the party. After giving formal introductions, Gerald offers to walk around the garden to get to know each other better, in order to continue the conversation that she had originally forced on him back in the party (it was done to be polite and respectful, rather than any interest to continue). In the garden, they pass by the area that Katarina had planned to turn into her farm, and Gerald was in awe at how unorganized and messy everything looked (there was dirt everywhere, the tools were left on the floor because she had to prepare to meet him, there was more bags of manure than what was even needed etc! Katarina internally cursed at her 8 year old delicate rich girl body for not having the same arm strength as her 17 year old self). It was then that it sunk in that the adorable singing and dancing farming girl that he accidentally saw really was Katarina Claes. She wasn’t the very definition of abnormal, but she was nothing like the daughters of his father’s friends that cried when not attended to or complained when not given the best dresses and shoes. There was no shred of worry about her family’s expectations in her eyes, nor expectations of him to act like his perfect and matured self whenever they met in parties, movie premiers or social events, which made him yearn for her company. 

After finding out about Katarina’s desire to become an idol one day, Gerald secretly planned to do the same (and even have her recruited in his brother’s agency) in order to become closer to her through her love of entertainment and to have a chance to be constantly in her presence. When he found out about the charms that male idols have on their female fans, he also plans on using this as an opportunity to gain both her attention and romantic affection, by perfecting his (already maxed out) charms as male idol. 

Katarina and Mary - The two met during a part hosted by Mary’s mother in the Hunt Estate, inviting all of her mother’s old opera acquaintances, sponsors and co-workers for a formal reunion. Katarina and Keith accompanied their parents to the party, leading them to be introduced to the Hunt Family’s daughters. As usual, Katarina had the urge to “release the chocolate shark” during the party and takes an elegant leave. She eventually gets lost in the estate and finds herself in the garden. Katarina was in awe of the garden’s beauty, and stood still as she watched what seemed like beautiful siren sing by herself near a majestic fountain, with a single rose in hand. 

Mary was surprised to hear an aggressive applause after singing to herself. Katarina aggressively complimented Mary for her adorable yet elegant voice, and asked who she was seeing as a singing trainer. When Mary replied that she was not having any singing or vocal training, Katarina rains even more compliments down, claiming that “her voice was that of an angel!”. Mary denied it, so Katarina proceeded to sing the same song that she had sang, as a point of comparison to make her feel more confident in herself. Mary shyly and unexpectedly joins her, and they ended up having a small and quiet duet in the garden. Katarina’s voice sounded a bit rough and squeak-ish, but alongside Mary’s elegant and controlled singing, they didn’t sound bad at all. 

When Katarina finds out that Mary is also the one who tends to the flower garden, she proceeds to shower Mary with even more compliments, and asks her to visit and help with her own farm garden. Being complimented for having a beautiful voice and a green thumb made her feel validated and appreciated, so she often visits the Claes household in order to be in constant presence of her first and dearest friend. The rest is the same.

When Mary found out about Katarina’s dream of becoming an idol, she started taking intense vocal training as well as various exercises in order to be able to join her in her endeavor. She slowly built a more brazen and tough personality in order to be able to join and protect her friend from the rumored cold and intense reality of the idol world, as well as due to the antics of her friends. 

Katarina and Alan - From Mary, she eventually finds out that the event where Mary duets and falls in love with Alan occurred. Katarina realizes that duet must not have been that effective because she has done the same with Mary, but is confident that Mary is in love with him because Alan is a very talented and handsome individual. A few days later, the fourth Stuart son bursts into the doors of the Claes household, and demands to meet with Katarina. She learns that Alan had developed a small crush on Mary, and that he wants to challenge Katarina for her hand. Same shenanigans ensues, leading up to the piano duel where his talents in the piano was in full display to everyone in the manor. 

Katarina knew how to play the piano (just the basics though), so she was in awe listening to someone who almost sounded like a pro! Alan runs off after Gerald compliments him, Katarina chases after him, and they got to talk behind a bush. Alan wouldn’t take her compliments, but Katarina aggressively insisted that his talents are nothing to scoff at. 

When Alan says that he’s sure that his brother can play just as good, if not better than him, Katarina speculates that it wasn’t the case, because everyone had things that they are good and bad at. Not everyone is the same, no one learns at the same pace, and that she’s sure even if Gerald can play the piano better than him (and she doubts he can in the first place), no one can play the piano like Alan can. The scores in his heart are his alone, and that nothing is more beautiful than the melody that the heart enacts. Katarina knew that the score he played wasn’t an existing one, and knowing Alan’s character from the game, it’s probably either an impromptu score or one he had composed by himself. Her guess was correct, leading Alan to be caught off guard by her compliment, almost feeling emotional as no one had ever guessed and believed that the music he played was his own, until Katarina did. 

She shows off the power of the toy snake to Alan, making him laugh and see his brother in a different light. He still constantly visited Katarina for their duels, but as time progressed, he lost the affection for Mary (as he saw her as a little sister now after interacting with her in the Claes Household) that made him want to challenge Katarina. They still followed up on those challenges, for fun rather than for sport. 

When he finds out about Katarina’s dream to become an idol, he is determined to join her in order to be able to compose songs and melodies that she can sing, intending to bring out the absolute best of his muse’s voice with his own music. Someone his age might not be fit to compose songs for an idol, so he intends to become one as well in order to gain a reputation as a competent composer. 

Katarina and Sophia - The two meets at an afternoon party hosted by the Stuarts, as a celebration for the birthday of the twins. Katarina had to “powder her noes” after a few trips to the buffet table, and leaves Keith and Mary. She’s chased down by a dog, climbs up a tree, and accidentally watches a group of kids and older bully a small girl who sounded like she was about to cry. The same events occur, up to their second encounter in the party. Katarina accidentally quotes a line from a novel that she was reading, and after realizing that Sophia understood her reference, she asked for them to meet again in order to discuss their similar interests. 

Everything is pretty much the same, the difference being that somehow idols were brought as a topic of conversation, with Sophia revealing that she is actually a huge fan of idols. Katarina, feeling reminiscent of her idol-expert best friend Acchan, tells her that she actually wants to be an idol herself and insists that Sophia tell her about everything she loves about idols. Sophia, who is surprised to also find another idol fan who is as young as her, becomes even more excited and tells her all about her love for idols: how they are able to wear such adorable outfits onstage, how they sing songs that carry so much meaning, how they carry their fan’s dreams with them when they dance and sing, how amazing it is to be able to juggle so many occupations at once, and much more. 

With both love of novels and idols, Sophia constantly finds herself in the Claes Household in order to talk to Katarina about books, idols, song recommendations etc. 

When Sophia was first told that Katarina wanted to be an idol, she was very supportive of her and announced herself as Katarina’s number one fan. As time passed, she realized she wasn’t just satisfied with just watching Katarina from afar, she wanted to sing and dance alongside her! She wants to use her knowledge of romance novels and idols to help make herself and Katarina the best idols to ever exist! She wants to sing on stage about her feelings: about how much she loves Katarina, idols and their beloved novels!

Katarina and Nicol - When he found out that someone had invited his little sister to a small book club, he was very wary, thinking that she was one of the many other girls who tried to use Sophia in order to become closer with him. He was shocked to realize that that was not the case, and that Katarina had barely seen him at all, and had opened his timid little sister’s heart. When Sophia asked Katarina if she found her appearance creepy, Nicol proceeds to explain further, expecting to see a hint of guilt or displeasure from Katarina Claes, only for both of them to be met with unyielding determination to have Sophia as a close friend. Sophia went home that day in tears, thankful to have found a friend who truly wanted to stick by her side. 

The Claes siblings often visits their home so the girls can have their book club, even bringing Mary Hunt with them occasionally. Katarina, while looking a bit flustered, is capable of having a conversation with him without averting her eyes, which was a breath of fresh air to the countless camera crew, staff, visitors and even strangers who couldn’t look him in the eyes because how of how much of a beautiful child model he was. It all leads up to the moment where Katarina compliments him with how blessed he is to have such a beautiful and wonderful family, which contrasted against the ignorant adults who pitied him for having parents who refused to abuse the potential of his beautiful face and for not being as beautiful as their son, as well as for having a freakish looking sister. 

Nicol, just like his sister, desired to constantly be in Katarina’s positive presence, and visited her often, leading them to be acquainted and friends with the entire group that Katarina enraptured. 

When he found about his sister’s and Katarina’s desire to become idols, Nicol thought of doing the same, in order to be able to continue to watch over and protect both Sophia and Katarina, as well to be able to continue being close with Katarina (as their lack of similar interests and age gap might lead her away from him, but tbh that is never gonna be a problem with Katarina). He also plans to use his influence as a child model to propel Sophia and Katarina’s careers, as a way of supporting his two favorite girls. 

Notes

I’m not sure how I feel about Gerald’s backstory, I might rewrite that if anyone kindly wants to critique it.

Instead of Mary’s green thumb, it’s her voice that leads her to Katarina and Alan, but I still think Sophia would still have a better singing voice than her, so both her voice and green thumbs both play a part in her character. Mary’s high pitched voice gets a bit deeper as she ages, while Sophia’s voice stays very high.

I really like the idea that rather than the original ambitions and goals that leads the harem to become idols in Fortune Lover, now it’s the effect of Katarina’s constant insistence and declarations of becoming an idol that leads to everyone doing the same. In this timeline, the harem probably wouldn’t have thought of (or planned early) becoming an idol if Katarina never brought it up. 

I’m writing this at midnight again, lol, but yeah I’m not planning on writing a fanfiction for this, I guess, but I do want to have an established plot so rather than chapters, I’m just writing a full overview for fun haha

When I mentioned that Sophia loved idols, I didn’t realize that I might have accidentally implied that she was just as an idol fan as Acchan was, but with actual idols this time, so I went with :DD

I’ll touch up on Idol Katarina, Anne, Maria, Sirius/Raphael and Fortune Lover 2 in the next one.

I’m really happy that there are people who actually read my previous post and said that they liked it! Feedback and suggestions are appreciated! I still need a final name for the units so help me pls hahaha.

I’ll rewrite this post when I feel like adding/changing stuff.

[prorevenge]

Don't screw with the crew!

Back in the early 90s, I got a gig working as a front-of-house sound engineer on a major 10-day music and arts festival in London’s Docklands with some fifteen stages dotted all around the waterfront. All of the crew working the stages were either experienced theatre techs, and/or had loads of experience working major outside events, which is the reason we were hired. As an aside, this festival was to celebrate the culmination of a massive investment in the redevelopment of this area of East London, itself the former site of one of the largest dock complexes in the world.

I was tasked with running FOH sound on one of the largest stages. Normally, events like this are loads of fun to work but within two days it became apparent that the organisers had 1), no idea of how to run major outside events and 2), had not the faintest idea of how to book acts and schedule same. In particular, we also had to contend with some woman from Docklands' middle management team who had been given the job of "overseeing" our particular stage, a person who not only had rapidly proved to be totally ignorant of any aspect of managing outside events, but also someone for whom the word "entitled" had been invented.

Our stage was licensed to run events from midday until 10:00pm but we rarely had a full day’s-worth of events for punters to enjoy, due to the aforementioned incompetence with booking. Still, not our problem—we'll just work with what’s given us.

On the Thursday, we had scheduled an evening of old-time Victorian music hall which featured, as a special guest, a very famous film and TV actress. Her performance rider required a grand piano. For some unfathomable reason (and again due to the incompetence of the organisers), the piano—a full-size Yamaha concert grand—arrived from the hire company on the Tuesday. This was a remarkably stupid idea for any number of reasons: due to operational considerations, we had to store the piano in the backstage area where it spent two days suffering in the heat of the day despite our best efforts to shield it.

As any piano technician/tuner will tell you, this is An Extremely Bad Idea, especially with an instrument worth close to £100,000. Almost as bad was the fact that our area was little more than a roughly-graded building site: the ground was covered in hard-core rubble fragments around the size of hen’s eggs (very uncomfortable to walk around on, even with proper work boots), which also kicked up loads of dust and other detritus—not the sort of crap you want floating about gumming up the works of a very expensive concert grand!

Now let me properly set the scene: it’s mid-summer, very hot, and our venue is a large circus-style tent with around 800-seat capacity. The cast of the show, along with our august star, were due to turn up at around 1:00pm to conduct a production rehearsal so we could sort out sound and lighting cues for the show.

The main cast duly turn up on time, and we start sorting out their technical requirements (pretty simple and nothing that we’re not used to). At about 1:30pm, our star turns up sporting dark glasses and an immaculate couture. As anyone who’s worked in this industry knows, the initial interaction with a major A-list star vis-à-vis their technical requirements can go one of two ways: full-monty diva, or let’s go with what we have.

Her first demand was that the piano be dropped off the front of the stage so that she could maintain an eye-line whilst standing right downstage, both with her pianist and with the audience. The stage was about 4.5 feet above ground level and would have required at least eight burly lads to safely shift a full-size concert grand off the deck. Also not a good idea since it had been tuned that morning and moving it would have almost certainly caused the tuning to go out of whack.

I delicately pointed out that doing so would be in direct violation of both health and safety, and fire regulations—as per our written policy—as it would have put the piano in both the fire lane and close to one of the primary emergency exits from the venue. Thinking rapidly, I then suggested that we place the piano as far downstage as physically possible, and that she page herself three or four feet upstage so that she could still glance over and take cues from her MD whilst still “taking in” the audience.

The tension was palpable: after a few seconds consideration she replied, “No problem, I can work with that.” Phew!! No sooner than this crisis had been averted than the Docklands rep rocked up. I remind you, gentle reader, that this person had absolutely zero knowledge about how to run an outside event.

She had also been a major thorn in our side for the previous week, trying to micro-manage proceedings in the venue in order to big herself up in front of her bosses: we, of course, completely ignored her “suggestions” but in such a way as made her think she was in charge—trust me, she wasn’t! She had also been inexcusably rude to virtually every single member of the crew from Day One, and had over the days previous reduced several of them to tears. Production crews don’t take kindly to our own being treated in such a cavalier fashion, and while we’re generally fairly thick-skinned, there comes point where we want to get our own back. Believe me, after a week of constant abuse, we were coming up with creative ways of disposing of the body.

Although we didn’t realise I at the time, our saviour was at hand…but I digress…

Obviously star-struck, she announced in gushing tones that she would be taking personal charge of our star’s every need and that we were not to concern ourselves with that aspect: indeed, we were to “keep our place” as we were only the hired help. Our stage manager, who was at that time sweeping the stage, bridled at the suggestion and made as if to use his broom to beat the brains out of this woman. I had to step in front of him as unobtrusively as possible and stop him from burying the woman right there and then—“she ain’t worth it, mate.”

She then swanned off, leaving our star slack-jawed in amazement. She then turned to me and said, “Is that fucking woman for real?” I replied: “Darling, you have NO idea!”, at which point she laughed uproariously. I gave our star a brief summary of the previous few days' farrago and instantly, she became one of us and from then on we were all on first-name terms.

We then ran a full tech rehearsal from 3:00pm to 5:00pm, sorted out all our cues and then repaired to the beer tent with the cast for a spot of late lunch and a drink or two.

The show was scheduled to kick off at 7:30pm. At around 6:00pm, The Harridan reappeared to overlook the situation. She noticed that we had all the sides of the tent raised in order to get some air flowing through—remember it’s mid-summer and it’s currently low to mid 80s. She then demanded that all of the tent flaps be lowered because she wanted a more “theatre” atmosphere and the light spilling through the side walls would spoil the effect. Despite pointing out that dropping the tent sides would significantly raise the temperature in the venue, she demanded the sides be dropped, so despite our earnest advice to the contrary, we reluctantly complied.

At around 7:00pm, we saw eight 50-seat coaches arrive. To our amazement, out from the coaches came an entire flotilla of old-age pensioners, many on Zimmer frames, who proceeded to shuffle their way into the tent across the hard-core rubble underfoot. We discovered later that the organisers had forgotten to advertise the event anywhere (seriously??) and in desperation, had gone around to all the local Darby & Joan clubs a couple of days before handing out free tickets and laying on transport in order to have an audience.

So now we have 400-odd OAPs frantically fanning themselves with anything to hand as the temperature climbs ever higher. We start the show: everything’s going fine but the mercury in the thermometer I have strapped to the FOH rack is slowly going up and up: it’s so hot up at the sound desk that I’m down to my shorts!

By the end of Act 1, the temperature has gotten up to around 94°F and one could clearly see the old dears are in a bit of distress. Naturally, the organisers had neglected to provide water for the public, and judging by the horrified expressions of the two St John’s Ambulance first-aiders stationed either side of the stage, things were about to get a lot worse. I climbed off the tower, found the rigging crew and ordered the sides of the tent raised. No sooner had I done so than “our friend” standing nearby demanded that the sides stay down because "she was in charge" and "...her instructions were to be followed absolutely, no questions!"

It was at this juncture that diplomacy went completely out of the window. I informed her in no uncertain terms (and employing a fair amount of Anglo-Saxon vernacular) that it was in fact the crew who had the responsibility of ensuring the health and safety of all the people in the venue, not her, and that we have the legal authority to enact ANY procedure that we see fit at ANY time to ensure the safety and well-being of everyone present. I then informed her that I was now exercising my authority under The Health & Safety at Work Act 1974 to remediate the situation, and that if she made one single attempt to circumvent that authority, I would have her ejected from the venue without hesitation. She then got in my face and screamed, “I’M IN CHARGE!”. No strike one, no strike two, instant strike three!

I glanced over at two of our security crew who had been hovering in the background with huge shit-eating grins on their faces, who then stepped up either side of her. Defeated, but complaining like a banshee with a terminal case of haemorrhoids, she was escorted off the premises in short order.

By the time Act 2 kicked off, we’d gotten the temperature down to a more manageable low 70ºF, much to the appreciation of our audience, and the rest of the show went off without a hitch.

After the show, cast and crew—including our august star—repaired to the bar for a well-earned drink. Moments later, you-know-who appeared and in imperious tones informed us that our star was to be the guest of honour at a VIP reception for the various Docklands' bigwigs. With a tinge of regret for having our fun curtailed prematurely, we said our goodbyes to our star.

Now it gets interesting!

Not ten minutes later, she storms back into the beer tent with a face like absolute thunder. Taken somewhat aback by her reappearance, we enquired as to why she had returned.

“That fucking woman! She drags me off to this so-called ‘VIP party’: I get there and all that’s there are two fucking plates of curled-up ham sandwiches and two fucking boxes of cheap wine from Sainsburys! How the holy fuck did she get this job?

“I gave her a right bloody earful and came back here because I’d much rather drink with you guys!”

At which point she calls the barman over and orders a round for the entire crew. We spend the rest of the evening chatting away like old friends: she regaled us with stories of her life, and she was gracious enough to listen to some of ours. Despite us trying to buy her a drink, she refused point-blank and picked up the entire bar tab for the rest of the evening on the basis that “…you’ve had to put up with that fucking evil bitch all week: the least I can do get you folks a drink!”

All good things must come to an end and at the end of the evening, her chauffeur turns up to take her home. She embraces all of us as old friends: she hugs me, plants a big kiss on my lips and thanks me, whereupon I comment, “you have just fulfilled a boyhood dream!” Again, that uproarious laugh! She looks at me and says, “Don’t let that fucking bitch get you down! Leave it to me…”

I later discovered through the back-channels some weeks later that our bête-noir had been fired from her five-figure job for her monstrous screw-up, primarily because our star’s agent had ripped the organisers a new one in very short order; you do NOT fuck with someone of our star’s track record without there being consequences. So, although we were not directly responsible for The Harridan’s demise, we were gratified to have someone of our star’s calibre standing up for us.

Revenge is a dish best served cold!

Edit: corrected °C for °F.

(source) story by (/u/GhostOfSorabji)

[we-are-only-halfway-home93]

Come and Lay the Roses 12- If I Had A Voice- [Ivar x OC]

Summary: Aaline reveals her past traumas to Ivar. 

Characters: Ivar x OC, Bjorn x Torvi, Ubbe x Margrethe, Hvitserk x Thora, Sigurd x OC, Ragnar, Lagertha

Warnings: Arranged marriage, violence, sex, torture, language, discussion of past rape 

Word Count: 2991

Ch. 11

“I wish that you never know the pain of having a voice and not being able to use it.”

~ Sohela Chatterjee

“Left! Left! I said left!” 

Ivar lowered his gloves and glared at his wife. She huffed and rested her hands on her hips, exasperated.

They had been training regularly for the last two weeks. They had opted out of a traditional honeymoon for obvious reasons but they needed to keep up appearances. They made sure to keep themselves out of the public eye for the last two weeks to feign wedded bliss when really they’d been boxing for most of it. 

They’d built up a rapport in their training regime. It was easier for them to trust each other in the ring. They dropped away all pretenses and could just be themselves. 

With Ivar’s experience, he was able to provide Aaline with some insight that she was unfamiliar with. She had never fought professionally and kept it strictly about training. Ivar loved the performance of the sport. He lived for the broadcasting and the publicity of the whole thing. If it wasn’t for his hips he could’ve had a lucrative professional boxing career. 

Aaline had never strived for a career in boxing. It was simply a way for her to defend herself. She had learned early in life that the best way to protect yourself was both physically and psychologically. Once she picked up boxing, she’d felt a level of empowerment that she hadn’t felt before. She was able to take her life back.

“Why do you ignore me, huh? I’m trying to help you.” Ivar growled. She rolled her eyes and turned away, bending at the waist to pick up her water bottle and take a long swig. Ivar huffed and leaned back against the ropes, watching her. 

He’d been wondering, for the months that he’d known her, why she’d taken up boxing. She had mentioned that she wanted to know how to defend herself and he understood that he really did. Some of the most talented fighters that he knew were women. Lagertha herself was a force to be reckoned with. 

Deep in his gut, he knew that there was something in her past that drew her to self-defense. Her instincts to fight him when he approached her without warning. Her threats of physical violence when she felt threatened. She had alluded more than once to being touched without her permission. 

Ivar was not stupid. He worked in a crime syndicate that participated in various illegal activities on a regular basis. Women were attacked all the time for their connections to powerful men. The thought of his wife having fallen under that category brought up strong feelings of violence. He wanted to hurt someone. He wanted to cause pain.

This was not a feeling that he particularly cared for. He hadn’t ever felt this before.

His brothers didn’t need protection. They were more than capable of taking care of themselves. He was young when his mother died and it had happened so suddenly that he would’ve been unable to protect her no matter how hard he tried. His brothers were responsible for the protection of their wives. 

This overwhelming urge he had to protect his wife was foreign and he didn’t know how he felt about it. 

“What made you want to learn to box, Aaline?” He asked. He tilted his head to the side and watched her with calculating eyes. She dropped the water bottle from her lips and kept her eyes focused on the wall over his shoulder.

“Why do you want to know?” She asked. She brought her hands down by her sides and licked excess water from her lips. He shrugged and a small smile graced his face. She looked away.

“You told me you wanted to learn how to defend yourself so,” He brought his hands up in a kind of shrug and brought them back down, the ropes springing back against his weight. She trailed her eyes over his face, trying to determine his motivation. She shook her head. 

He sighed and licked his lips. “Come on, Aaline. You are my wife. We’re supposed to tell each other things. We’re supposed to trust each other.” She snorted and shook her head. His face fell and he narrowed his eyes. His shoulders tensed and he stared at her under his brow. 

“What, you don’t trust me?” She snorted again and shook her head.

“I don’t trust you as far as I can throw you. You haven’t done anything to show me that I can trust you.” She gestured her hands out towards him before dropping them down at her side with a reverberating smack. 

He rolled his eyes. “I didn’t let your father walk you down the aisle. I had Ragnar do it instead.” He shrugged and continued before she could open her mouth to speak. “I insisted that we skip father-daughter and son-mother dances for,” He gestured back and forth between the two of them. “Obvious reasons. I told you that my father thought death would be better than living life as a cripple.”

“You’re not a cripple.” She said. He hummed and ignored her. 

“The point is, I have done several things that imply you can trust me so,” He nodded towards her. “Trust me.” 

She continued to look unsure so Ivar rolled his eyes in a fashion that would make the queen bee’s jealous and sighed with a drama rarely seen off the stage. “I’m torturing Aethelwulf.” She cocked an eyebrow but otherwise remained emotionless.

“I’ve had him for,” He shrugged, mentally calculating the days that he’s had Aethelwulf. “I don’t know, weeks, at this point. I’m trying to get information but he’s being fairly tightlipped.” He took a deep breath through his nose and pointed at her. “I enjoy it, too. Did you know that?” 

She blinked slowly at him before nodding once. He hummed and trailed his eyes over her frame. “I’m sure that’s not news to you at all.” He took a deep breath and looked away, suddenly unable to bear any look of rejection that flashed across her face. 

“I know there’s something wrong with me. I’ve always known. I get a thrill out of the violence and danger of my work. I enjoy it when we have to go head to head with anyone. I prefer it when my father resorts to physical violence as opposed to psychological manipulation. It’s more fun that way.

“I never killed cats or wet the bed. I wasn’t abused or neglected. I’ve always enjoyed violence. I like to hurt people but only when they’ve slighted me.” He rolled his eyes and gestured vaguely off the side. “Or my family but mostly me.” He missed the slight smile that came to her lips. He was too busy looking away from her to see it. 

“Everyone else doesn’t matter. They’re insignificant unless they threaten my family. Then they’re expendable.” He looked at her finally and shrugged nonchalantly. It looked like he didn’t have a care in the world and couldn’t care less if she agreed with him but inside he was terrified that she would run screaming from the room.

Aaline watched his eyes swirl with a multitude of emotions. His admission wasn’t nearly as difficult as hers was about to be but she supposed she owed him. This was a partnership after all and he wasn’t wrong. They needed to trust each other and how else did you build trust? By sharing secrets.

“When I was sixteen, I was attending my third boarding school in eight years. After my mother died, my father shipped me off to European boarding schools to keep me out of the way. Either that or to avoid interacting with me. Either way, I’d seen my dad a handful of times in the eight years since he’d sent me to Europe and most of those times was when I got into trouble and had to be transferred out.

“At that point, I’d built a nice little reputation for being a trouble maker and an outcast so I didn’t have any friends. People tended to stay away from me because of my reputation but that didn’t stop the richest kids from trying to get a rise out of me. 

“For the most part, it was easy to ignore them. I tended to avoid confrontation unless someone put their hands on me or purposely sabotaged me in some way. When I was a ten, a little girl had been picking on me for two years, upping the ante until she claimed my art project as hers.

“I had spent weeks on it, working all through art class to complete it, perfect it. We had the same initials, A.J., so when it was time to turn in the completed projects, she took mine and broke hers, claiming my project as her own. She got an A and I failed.

“So, for the next few weeks I started,” Aaline gave a hesitant shrug and squinted like she was trying to come up with the right word. “Scaring her, I guess. First, I sent her black roses. Then I started taking her things, keeping them for a day or two and then returning them in worse condition. I put roaches in her desk, I stole her math workbook so she failed an entire section of math class. 

“It was a boarding school so we slept in dorms. I snuck into her dorm and put gum and glue all in her hair. She had beautiful, long blonde that she was super proud of, and the headmistress had to cut it all off.” Aaline smirked, giggling as she recalled the memory. “She looked like a boy.”

She sighed and shook herself. “Anyway, she suspected it was me for a long time and her hair was the final straw. The deputy headmistress brought me in with her and she accused me of doing all those things to her. They couldn’t prove it and I said as much. They didn’t like that so they did the next best thing besides expulsion.

“They called my father, he flew out and they told him I needed to be transferred out by next semester. I could finish my exams early and start at a new school for the new semester.”

She shrugged. Her face was impassive and blank of all emotion. “So I did. That was the first time I was transferred out. I transferred again when I was twelve and then when I was sixteen.” She stopped and looked away. He could see a new shine in her eyes and braced himself. 

“When I was sixteen, I was in my third boarding school. People avoided me for the most part. I got called a few names, heckled in the halls but nothing serious. Halfway through the first semester this boy, Domonick Benjamina, started following me around. I ignored him at first, didn’t take him seriously. He was friends with a lot of the people that harassed me regularly so I didn’t give him the time of day but he was persistent.”

She shook her head and looked down at her clasped hands. Ivar kept himself still across from her, afraid any movement would scare her away like a rabbit in the brush. “He left me little notes in my locker, gave me origami roses and swans, sat next to me at lunch.” She looked up at Ivar. “He even bought me flowers once. Red roses which,” She pursed her lips and hummed. “Have never been my favorite.”

Ivar let a small smile come to his face but didn’t say anything. She pressed on. “Around Christmas time, he asked me out on a date. Naively, I agreed.” Ivar felt a cold sense of dread creep up the back of his neck. Ice settled low in his belly and he felt his fingers tighten on the ropes.

“He took me off campus to a fancy restaurant. I had never been off campus for dinner. I preferred to keep to myself so it was a welcome change. We had dinner, took a walk, and then he took me back to his car.” Her voice cracked at the end and she cleared her throat. Ivar tried to swallow but his tongue felt like sandpaper, grating the back of his throat.

“He opened the back door of his car and I was confused. He winked at me and told me to get in. I started to get nervous and tried to go around him but he wouldn’t let me. He grabbed my arm and pushed against the car. He told me to get in or he would leave me in the woods to walk the fifteen miles back to campus alone. 

“I told him to let me go or I’d scream and he said no one would hear me. He slammed me back against the car when I pushed him away and I hit my head. I was dazed and the sky was spinning but I felt him shove me into the backseat.”

She swallowed thickly and crossed her arms over her chest, hunching forward. “He raped me. When he was finished, he drove me back to campus and told me I was a great lay.” She looked up at him and Ivar could see the anger and the pain rooted deep in her eyes. He could also see the strength and power inside them. 

“The next day, I went to the headmistress and told her what had happened. She asked me if I kept the clothes I was wearing and when I said yes she asked me for them. I gave them to her and she said she would get in touch with the police.

“I should’ve known she was lying. She didn’t ask me who did it, she didn’t ask for any details, she didn’t call the police right then and there, she didn’t ask if I needed to go to the hospital, nothing. She just asked for my clothes and sent me back to my room.”

Ivar sucked in a sharp breath and looked away. His body was trembling with rage. “It wasn’t until after winter break that I asked her about it. She said the police couldn’t find anything to corroborate my story so they had no choice but to drop it. I told her she was lying and she said that there was no point in pursuing it. No one would believe me and I would just be ruining a young man’s life.” 

Ivar shook his head and stepped off the ropes. She reared back and he held up his hands in surrender. “Thank you, Aaline, for telling me what happened to you but I’m afraid I need to go hit someone.” She gave him a shaky smile before he stalked out of the ring.

~*~

Ragnar watched his youngest son rage throughout the living room. He had already broken two chairs and a china cabinet. He’d punched three holes in the drywall and left scuffs on the floor that Lagertha would throw a fit about. 

Ivar had stormed into the room where he and Björn had been exploring the deal they’d made between Aelle and Ecbert. He began screaming about Aaline being assaulted and mistreated. He’d gone on about getting vengeance and finding the man who’d raped her and making him hurt as much as she was. 

Ragnar and Björn listened with patience and let Ivar express himself. It was when he reached for the table that Ragnar had to stop him. 

“Ivar! Enough!” Ivar froze, trembling in front of the table. He was drenched in sweat and his breathing was deep and uneven. 

Björn held up placating hands and stared at Ivar like he was a wounded animal. “Son, I realize that you are upset about this but,” Ivar cut him off. 

“Did you not hear what I just said? My wife was raped and no one did anything about it. She told people and no one believed her.” Ivar pointed an accusing finger at his father. “You did not see what I saw in her eyes. You don’t know.” 

Ragnar hissed like an angry cat and Ivar stepped back. “Did you stop long enough to let her finish? Do you know what she did to him?” Ivar narrowed his eyes but didn’t speak. That was enough for Ragnar to know that he didn’t wait. He didn’t know what Aaline had done to Domonick Benjamina. 

“She ostracized him from his friends. She made him out to be a pervert. She sent pictures out to all the girls in school and made it look like he was sexually harassing them. She shared secrets that people had told him. His friends dropped him, three sexual harassment charges were brought up against him and he was asked to leave school. 

“He had to finish school in public education because no boarding school would take him and he couldn’t get into any Ivy League school. Last I heard, he was working a desk job in his father’s company because he didn’t have a degree to work higher up and no other place would take him because of his history.

“This didn’t stop with high school, son. She maintained her vengeance until she felt his life had been properly ruined. She sent him black roses every month that she ruined him. They only stopped coming when she felt he had been properly punished.” 

Ragnar sat back and looked at his son. 

Ivar glared down at the glossy surface of the table, his hands resting on his hips and his breathing noticeably calmer. Sweat still dripped from his brow but he was no longer shaking with rage. 

He looked up and Ragnar was not surprised to see the familiar steel that coursed through Ivar when he set himself up for a mission. “Well, I’m afraid that’s not good enough.” 

Ragnar couldn’t help but smile.

Tags: @bcarolinablr @funmadnessandbadassvikings @jay-bel @feyrearcheron44 @littledeadrottinghood 

[justlikeeddie]

otp meme

List your Top 5 Canon and Top 5 Non-Canon OTPs. Then, tag 10 people to spread the love, and so on and so on…

I was tagged by @rcmclachlan! It’s fun to excavate your fandom history!

This is a GOOD QUESTION in that, y’know. What is a canon OTP? (What is a pairing? What is canon? What is ‘is’?) The answer, for this post, is “whatever made it easiest for me to split these into two sets of five”.

CANON OTPs

Aziraphale/Crowley, Good Omens

This is canon. “Fight me”? No need. Fight Michael Sheen.

Do say: “And when I’m off in the stars, I won’t even think about you!”

Don’t say: Hey, have you thought recently about the fact that Crowley’s snakeskin shoes might actually just be his feet?

Look at an art: A little ancient Grecian collusion by @seraph5

Read a fic: nothing but the wild rain by @singlecrow

Have I written it? In a desperate exercise in exorcism immediately after watching the show, yes: Going Native and Riding in Cars With Demons. And I have about five WIPs in charliekellypepesilvia.jpg frantically plotted notes stages. Watch this space. (For some time. I’m a bizarrely slow writer.)

Flint/Thomas, Black Sails

Do say: “People can say what they like about you, but you're a good man. More people should say that. And someone should be willing to defend it."

Don’t say: I was enjoying the show so much that I ignored the fact they made captain flint gay but to wrap up the series on the notion he would put his sword down to pick daisies with his male lover is just too much to bear. I miss the 90’s

Look at an art: Journey into the Dark by @riisinaakka-draws

Read a fic: Unaccommodated Man by @septembriseur

Have I written it? Yes, although astonishingly, I only ever finished one fic: Some Affair.

Strange/Arabella, Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell

Do say: “The excitement of it was very much to see how you would look at me. The excitement of life was very much to see how you would look at me.”

Don’t say: HE WAS A MUCH WORSE HUSBAND IN THE BOOK AND HE LET HER DIE AS A TREE (I know. I know)

Look at an art: Padua by @cobbledstories

Have I written it? Not as a foreground pairing, although I do have a very detailed Strange/Arabella/Grant fic that lives eternally in my head in the hope it will one day fit a Yuletide request.

Morse/Joan, Endeavour

Do say: “You mean the world to them. You mean the world…” [trailing off in tears]

Don’t say: You do realise he’d make her miserable and she deserves better? (I KNOW)

Cry at a simple gifset: :′′(

Have I written it? No, happy to let the show itself continue to take anything that Morse might hold dear and crush it into the dirt, no need for me to help.

Jake/Amy, Brooklyn 99

Truly the opposite to Morse/Joan in every possible way, aside from the involvement of law enforcement personnel

Do say: “There’s a typo in this crossword puzzle.”

Don’t say: …Title of your sex tape. (Or anything about Season 6, which I haven’t seen yet.)

Look at an art: Jake & Amy by @ivy6am

Have I written it? No, because Brooklyn 99 is an example of that rare and complete joy, Show That Textually Contains Literally Everything I Want From It And Then Some.

NON-CANON OTPs

Sam/Gene, Life on Mars

My “formative” tag on Tumblr is probably overused, but, like. Extremely. Formative. Truly the ur-fandom in terms of my future trope and fic interests. God bless you, weird mid-00s genre experiment broadcast at a particularly impressionable point in my teens.

Do say: Gene Hunt constructs intricate rituals that allow him to touch the skin of other men.

Don’t say: The ending of Ashes to Ashes is canon.

Watch a vid: There Is Too Much Light In This Bar by AbsoluteDestiny

Read a fic: Tangible/Intangible by @lozenger8

Have I written it? I went back to this fandom for Bent for Yuletide a few years ago, but everything else was written when I was literally 17, so caveat lector.

Merlin/Arthur, Merlin

Genuinely wondered whether I should have included this in the canon list. Two sides of the same coin? Merlin's mum desperately trying to get them together about halfway through the first series? “I was born to serve you, Arthur”? As ever, in thinking about this, I’ve just made myself furious again that this objectively fucking stupid children’s TV show remains one of the most emotionally and erotically resonant pieces of media I’ve had the misfortune to consume.

Do say: “I could take you apart with one blow.”

Don’t say: “I could take you apart with less than that.” (It’s been nearly eleven years since this exchange aired on children’s TV and I’m still reeling)

Watch a vid: Alone by sisabet

Read a fic: Past Imperfect by @thehoyden

Have I written it? Yes, although, again, I was a teenager and didn’t really know how to words: Cross You Off My List. I also have a passionately-planned and half-written epic about the ten years of their evolving relationship from boys 2 men (not the band), and its delicate balance between private interaction and public performance, which I thought I was finally going to finish for the ten-year anniversary of the show last year, but at this rate, might be done in time for the twentieth.

Fraser/Kowalski, due South

Do say: “Partnership is like a marriage, son.”

Don’t say: Anything that will wake the Vecchio anon.

Watch a vid: Goody Two Shoes by @laurashapiro-noreally and pipsqueak

Read a fic: Kowalski is Bleeding by @cesperanza

Have I written it? Weirdly way less of it than makes sense for the amount of time that this was my primary fandom, but yes, published some time after the fact: Homecoming and Poles.

Strange/Grant, Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell

Surprise double-entry for JSMN! Except not at all a surprise, because I am into so many aspects of this book and show that I could probably have filled most of the ten entries with JSMN rarepairs. (Please, talk to me about the criminally underexplored sexy class politics of Strange/Childermass.) But anyway, Strange/Grant was, somewhat to my surprise, my takeaway pairing from the TV adaptation.

Do say: “There are any number of magical things my friend could do to prove it,” while looking like you’re about to combust from how excited you are by the prospect.

Don’t say: HE WENT TO VENICE IN A PUDDLE WITH NO GOODBYE (I know)

Look at an art: Major Grant by erebusodora (technically only one half of the pairing, but it’s just a very nice painting)

Read a fic: Wilderness by @the-omnishambles, ie The First Strange/Grant Fic On The Internet

Have I written it? Yes, went a bit mad in 2015. A peculiarity of the Iberian Peninsula (long, slightly sad); An England that is dead (shorter, sadder); and Sound and Vision (no redeeming features).

Charles/Erik, X-Men

Again… IS THIS CANON. Explain any single thing that happens in any of the X-Men timelines if this pairing isn’t at LEAST unconsummated canon

Do say: “I couldn’t disobey you even if I wanted to.”

Don’t say: Sorry, what exactly was the plot of X-Men: Apocalypse?

Look at an art: A sketch by loobeeinthesky (the watch!!!)

Read a fic: Wisteria by by @columbinepurples

Have I written it? Yes: The Width of a Circle.

In turn, but only if you’re bored and like making a list as much as I do, tags for:

@confusinglyamusingly

@butteronmyroll

@johnnyvod

@the-omnishambles

@sixohsixoheightfourtwo

@cribins

@septembriseur

@itsmapes

@deputychairman

@drawsaurus

(You don’t… have to go into as much detail as this… I think you’re just supposed to say who the pairings are, but listen I’m staying with my parents this week and I have a LOT of tumblr downtime)

[rkxluda]

Samsung New Year Concert | Preparation

cw: fainting

It began on the 22nd of December. The vocal lessons were pretty much scratched and instead they danced, had costume fittings, hairstyle consultations, danced, public interaction lessons and did I mention they danced? Luda would much rather have sung her heart out but there was no time wasting on this. After being told she was chosen as centre for a couple seconds, her nerves decided to go on a roller coaster ride. She was much appreciative of this opportunity, however dance had never been her strongest suit. Sure she'd learned so, so much over the past 6 months, but this seemed too important a stage to give to a vocalist.

“It must be, because I did somewhat well on the mgas,” was one possible option, she thought while trying to memorise the choreography. And yet, it seemed more logical to choose a dancer, especially one who's been signed to the company for longer than her. “Maybe it's a test? Or just a nice opportunity?”, the girl continued wondering, which didn't help the memorising process much.

At least that part of the performance was a bit slower, smoother and that gave her hope. Furthermore, Hyunjin would be at her side – she'd been in the same group as him a couple times before for performances and hoped this would somehow help. Or at the very least, the viewers would pay more attention to his skilled dance than to her.

Right away, Luda spent as much time practising as she could. It threw her back to the long hours of preparation she'd done for the mgas, the endless practises and the anxiousness that came with wanting to be good enough. Especially the first two stages were present in her mind – dance heavy and neither went very well for her. But she'd gotten through that and so she was sure she would manage this as well. Somehow, with tons of practise. Moving to the beat, in perfect synchronisation, was hard to practise by herself, but every time someone else was present, she would try to match them. Try to synchronise to perfection and not be even a millisecond late.

She breathed heavily, going through the routine for what felt like the billionth time. Her brows were furrowed and her dry, bitten lips looked everything but pretty or healthy. She'd been lucky enough to get some help from Taemin – in her eyes he'd be 1000 times more fit to be centre – and felt a bit more confident in herself. She'd taken notes of all tips he'd given her and put special attention to doing just like she was taught by him and the trainers. The moves came more natural now, for which she was glad. Not having to actively remember which movement came next was a great help.

The day of the performance drew ever closer as the girl was taking a break, leaning her head back, as she took deep, slow breaths. Something felt off, but she couldn't tell what. Whatever was bothering her body, she didn't need that today. There was only so much time left for the dress rehearsal and she should be practising instead. The girl gave herself a couple more minutes. Sighing, she got up slowly and stood still for a moment. A couple sips of water later and she was shaking her arms and legs out, getting back to dancing. Time went by at an odd pace – one second it seemed to fly, then she forced herself through hours of practising, but then the next she was already getting ready for the dress rehearsal.

Of course Katie Lee was there and of course that made her even more nervous. Her hands were shaking and ice cold, her surroundings seemed a bit too fuzzy. The girl did her best to ignore the weird feeling she still couldn't shake and concentrated on the choreography she'd have to perfectly deliver now.

Her expression hopefully didn't look too stiff and she caught herself being a bit too slow here and there. Luckily the song was slowing down – and yet she had no time to steel her nerves, before she was dancing centre next to Hyunjin. At least for this bit – she told herself, wanting to impress Katie Lee. The haze didn't get any less fuzzy, but luckily she was out of the spotlight again. Did she do well? She couldn't tell, but Luda felt like she'd done better than the first 50 seconds. However she was well aware that the rest of the rehearsal didn't go too well, mirroring the beginning.

Luda walked off the stage, her hands covering her cheeks as she was still taking deep, slow breaths to calm herself down. She could feel tears pricking at the corners of her eyes as her vision went blurrier and blurrier. One hand shakily found a wall to guide herself back to the practise room. Her legs felt unusually heavy, but not for long, as her surroundings went black.

When the girl woke up, she found herself stuck to an IV. Luda sighed as she closed her eyes again. Stupid! Stupid, stupid, stupid! She thought, feeling tears raise to her eyes again.

Some time later, she was free to go and told she'd have the rest of the day off. With a sigh she dragged herself home. Figuring a good, home cooked meal would be all she needed, Luda planned to continue practising at home. Of course she didn't tell her mum that she'd collapsed, but instead lied, saying that they'd gotten the rest of the day off, so they wouldn't overwork themselves. She felt guilty, but telling the truth wouldn't make either of them feel better. Her mum magically prepared everything she could need, before getting back to work. The table full, Luda sat in front of the TV and zapped through some channels. There wasn't really anything interesting and her brain was still focused on the performance. As she cleared the last plate and placed it on the table, she leaned back onto the sofa. At some point, the girl pulled herself up on it and her eyelids grew heavy. When she woke up, she found herself in bed, with no idea how she'd gotten there. A quick glance at her phone confirmed that it was the middle of the night and figured she'd slept through half the day already so she might as well continue until practise the next day.

Morning arrived and her mum was already busy working, so she quickly got ready, routine leading her to grab her keys and head for the door, although it was still early. But instead of leaving, she turned back. “Thank you mum, love you ♥” read the note Luda left on the kitchen table until she finally moved outside. The day of rest had done wonders, though she knew she'd have to take better care of herself, or this would happen again and she couldn't have that, especially not on the day of the performance.

[chrissyrants]

However, It’s disgusting how Camila’s fans and other people/fandoms that don’t like 5H or favor Camila to them (if they are fans) just latch on to anything negative that is said about them. 

Currently, it’s Dan Wootton saying that they are divas (for avoiding personal questions and questions about Camila nearly 9 MONTHS LATER), they were shady, and how he understands why Camila (insert his compliments here) left the group. As if she hasn’t said one million times that it was because she wanted to make her own music. Why would he ask Lauren questions about a possession detainment, her sexuality, her personal life, or a specific letter where she decided to make her sexuality public? It doesn’t matter if it was asked politely or not, it’s got nothing to do with their music. If you want to ask her political opinion, fine. But you don’t need to specify one piece of it because you can transition to something very personal then cry about it online when you don't get your answers. Her sexuality isn’t news. Who she does or doesn’t sleep with or go home to at night IS NOT NEWS. Using her political views to transition back to those very personal things is NOT NEWS. And something that happened many months ago that was very insignificant, is not news.

And Camila’s fans flocked to it believing and latching on to every word he said only and specifically because it was painting 5H in a negative light. That’s the only reason that they cared. If it had said that 5H was donating 1 million dollars to charity they wouldn’t have cared about it. But since it was negative, they did. They can’t win with her fans or people that like Camila over them.  They just can’t. If they respond to a question about Camila, they’re shady and using her for press. If they avoid them or ignore them completely, they’re shady and hiding something that the rest of the world supposedly already knew. They’ll never win.

And it’s mostly on twitter. And because of that people associate 5H and pissed off Harmonizers with tons of negativity simply because they don’t want the girls to be bullied and the girls don’t want to answer questions that are irrelevant to the stage that they’re at now. And ironically, it’s former 5H fans (who clearly can not be trusted to be loyal since they just abandoned one for the other) who started talking all kinds of shit about 5H the moment they latched onto something they thought would work to discredit 5H and their success. They maintain that every ounce of success that 5H currently has is because of Camila. But it isn’t. Cause if it was, she would’ve been a solo artist from the moment she stepped on that X-Factor stage. It was a collective effort and for people to say that she was the sole reason for their success is diminishing to not only their talent but Camila’s as well.

You could tweet or post “5H ain’t shit” in one post, then follow it up with “but the nicest people on the planet” under a read more or a different follow up tweet, and people will only latch on to the first part because they believe someone actually feels that way about them and they too feel that way but are too cowardly to say it themselves. But the fact that they’re constantly latching to every rumor or comparing everything Camila does to what 5H is or isn’t doing, is sad. They bitch and moan regularly about how often Camila’s name is in the mouths and on twitter pages of people who dislike her. Yet they also go out of their way to watch 5H videos and read interviews and search pages of relatives and friends to talk shit about them and talk about how “Camila would never”. 

They obsess over the people who they believe are obsessing over Camila. They are obsessing over 5H and what they are or aren’t doing no matter how much they claim to hate them. These are the same people who still follow them and their families on twitter and instagram. The same people who have follows from them, their team, or their family members and want them to see them talking shit. They love being blocked by the girls and posting about it. It’s like an achievement from them. So rather than beat them to the punch and block them/unfollow them, so that they don’t have to see their posts, they keep them so they know what’s going on with them. So they know what events they’re going to be at or which ones they’re going to be doing.

They are watching their sales and charting so they can compare it to Camila’s. They’re watching performances to compare them to Camila’s. They’re watching and carefully calculating expressions and faces of the girls that they believe are petty. Especially when it comes to times where Camila or anyone she’s ever interacted with. They really think 5H cares that much about who Camila has ever interacted with or who she’s friends with that they’d just be assholes if they’re mentioned. They’re listening to their music so that they can compare it to Camila’s. It’s obsession at this point. And it isn’t all of her fans. But it is a lot of them. It’s become truly an obsession with the girls and their fans that some of these people have and it’s pathetic. And it’s not to say that some Harmonizers behave the same way and it’s pathetic for them too. But why would you talk and learn so much about people who you claim to hate? It makes no sense.

What makes it worse though, is these people, these fans of Camila, really believe that 5H’s families care that much about Camila and what she’s doing. They really believe that Lauren’s mom would risk her job just to be a dick to a girl who is a fan of Camila. As if when her class starts, who that girl listens to in her spare time, will matter to Clara. As if that will affect her ability to complete homework and take tests. Why would anyone just fail a girl because they aren’t a fan of their daughters music? Why would she plague her classroom with conversations of who is a fan of who? And more so, why would you, as someone who will be a student in her class, ever put yourself in a position to be removed from a classroom because you may choose to disrupt a classroom with your love and hatred of a groups current and former members music? The music you like has no place in a classroom unless it is a music class or a discussion. No teacher is going to fail you or give you detention or any form of suspension just because you don’t like their kids music. Who tf cares.

But the fact that they will latch on to any rumor and obsess that much over 5H and their families, is sad. I hope we get to a place where people like Dan Wootton will stop hiding behind the title of ‘journalist’ and statements like ‘people want to know’ (cause really nobody cares at this point), to push the rumor mill and further an agenda that will tear down someones reputation. And I hope we get to a place where Camilizers (still a God awful fandom name) will just get over it and ignore 5H’s music and existence if they don’t like them, and Harmonizers will do the same with Camila. And for Christ sake, I hope that they’ll stop trying to bring other fandoms into drama that shouldn’t be in the first place. Mixers, Directioners, 5SOS fam, Mendes Army, Swifties, Selenators,  Ariana Grande fans (idk what they're called), or any other fandom has no place in any issues having to do with Camila’s fans or Harmonizers. It’s stupid. And it’s not high school, no matter how many of each side is still there.