#apparently this friend says it to another friend about mystic messenger boys

[loosesodamarble]

Congrats on your anime boy!

—my friend

[realityhelixcreates]

The Mystic Garden: Sowing

Chapters: 1/5

Fandom:  Marvel Cinematic Universe

Rating: PG

Warnings: death

Characters: Loki(Marvel) 

Additional Tags:  Infinity War Doesn’t Exist, Everybody Lives, Mutants Exist In The MCU, The Reparations Of Loki Of Asgard

Summary:   Despite S.H.I.E.L.D. becoming a smaller and more selective organization, Loki still finds himself assigned to them upon Asgard's arrival on Earth. Required to perform a kind of specialized community service, Loki is paired up with another outcast, of a kind he is not familiar with: A mutant named Iris.

Loki of Asgard was a very beautiful man.

Loki of Asgard was a very powerful man.

Loki of Asgard was a very dangerous man.

And that was about all that anyone at S.H.I.E.L.D. could agree on about Loki of Asgard.

To some, he was an asshole. To others, perfectly charming. To yet more, he was polite, but distant. Funny. Serious. Sarcastic. Aloof. Morbid. Morose. Intimidating. Shy. Threatening. Angry. Flirty. Each person Iris asked described him in a different way.

To Iris, he was a looming presence, staring her down with searing intensity. Her shiny, brand new partner. Joy.

“So you're the unfortunate one.” He grumbled. “Winner of the worst lottery this organization has ever thrown.”

“I'm Iris Devereaux.” She said, holding out her hand. “Pleased to finally meet you.”

He glanced at her hand with a sneer. “No you aren't.”

“Beg pardon?”

“No one is pleased to meet me.”

“Oh. Well. Here's the thing: you don't decide that for me.”

He raised one perfect eyebrow, tilting his head back.

“I don't tolerate men telling me what I do and don't think or feel. Only I can know that. Now, you gonna shake my hand or not, Mister 'of Asgard'?”

Loki harrumphed. “As you demand, Miss 'of the Riverbank'.”

“What?” Iris took his hand and gave it a firm shake. He allowed it, but drew his hand back the instant she released it.

“Your surname. It means 'riverbank'. Didn't you know? Named after a goddess, and yet you seem to have lived humbly.”

“I'm named after a flower.” Iris corrected.

“The flower was named after the goddess.” He re-corrected. “The personification of the rainbow, a messenger of the gods. She who waters the clouds with her ocean-filled pitcher, flying on glowing, golden wings to carry the pleas of mankind to the gods they prayed to. As she connected the sea and the sky, her rainbows connected mankind to the gods. Just as our Bifrost connected Asgard to Midgard with the beauty and magnificence of the rainbow.”

“Oh, please.” Another agent groaned from their nearby work station. Loki glared.

“Well, that's...informative.” Iris said. Was this what Loki was like? Standoffish, unless given something to talk about? He was certainly well-spoken. “I'm pretty sure my parents just had the flower in mind though.”

“A delicate goddess, an ephemeral rainbow, or a nodding blossom on the riverbank: it all paints a pretty picture, does it not?” He asked.

Iris narrowed her eyes. “What are you trying to say?”

“I wonder.” Loki said.

“Will you two just go get some coffee or something?” the other agent snapped. “I've got to finish this by ten hundred.”

“Fine, jeez, keep your vest on.” Iris said. Loki glared once again. “C'mon, there's a thousand break rooms on this old boat. We can take one over for ourselves.”

   *****

“Who was that cur?” Loki demanded as Iris programmed the coffee machine for two cups. “Who does he think he is talking to? I am still a prince of Asgard, and a god! No pencil-pushing desk monkey speaks to me that way!”

“Hey, cool your chops.” Iris said, getting the mugs. “The pencil-pushing desk monkeys keep this whole show running. Who do you think runs this boat? Where does our intel come from? Who finds out if it's any good or not? Who does the budgets, communication, tech, cleanup, triage, programming, and supplies? The heroes get the fame, sure, but we're ultimately expendable. These guys own this shindig. Do you like caramel?”

“I...might?” He said, and Iris added a squirt of syrup to each steaming mug, then handed him his. “And you might be expendable, but I most certainly am not.”

“Cheers, bro. I'll drink to that.” Iris raised her mug in his direction and took a long gulp of fresh, caramel coffee. Oh boy, this was gonna be fun.

Loki seemed perplexed, either by the flavor of the coffee, or her casual acceptance of his declaration.

“Not that it will come to that.” He backtracked. “As my partner, you will have the advantage of my protection.”

“Joy. So, your highness, what's landed you here? You aren't exactly known as a friend to mankind. Why join S.H.I.E.L.D.?”

He harrumphed as Iris took another long pull from her mug. “You say 'join' as if I was given a choice. This is penance, nothing more. It was decided when Asgard had to relocate here, that I would work for a 'humanitarian' organization. Save lives equal to those whose deaths I was responsible for. Work towards paying off the cost it took to rebuild. And so I perform the Reparations of Loki of Asgard, defending this realm from itself. Once I have accomplished this, I will leave.”

“Mhm. And how far have you gotten?”

“It's only been a few months.” He huffed. “So not nearly as far as I'd like. How did they lure you in?”

Iris shrugged. “Job's a job. This one is steady, has good benefits, and it certainly keeps me engaged. It's no daily grind, that's for sure.”

“But with your power, could you not be a leader of some sort, rather than in a subservient 'expendable' position?”

“Ah. You've read my file.”

“Of course I did. As I assume you've read mine. Prying things. Why do they need so many personal details? But yes. It mentioned that you have an unusual power, beyond others of your type? Why are you not in charge?”

“Hoo boy.” Iris took a seat across from him. “You don't know much about human social structure, do you?”

Loki frowned. “It was never supposed to matter.”

“Well, it matters now. And it's mattered to me my whole life, because I can't just run off home to fairy tale land, so it looks like we both have no choice but to deal with it. You know what a mutant is?”

“I know what the word means, but I don't know how it applies to you.” Loki said, perplexed. “You look like any other human to me, so I assume it is something internal?”

Now it was Iris' turn to harrumph. “Well, you look like any other Asgardian to me, so I guess we've both got something going on under our skin, don't we? Tell you what: you explain to me what a 'frost giant' is, and I'll explain what a 'mutant' is in this context.”

“And if I refuse?” Loki sneered.

“Then I do too.” Iris said simply.

Loki stared at her across the table, the intensity of his gaze as hot as the coffee, and Iris tried her best to pretend to be unaffected by it. It wasn't that he wasn't intimidating, but an unfortunate lifetime of bigotry and constant background danger had given her a skin as thick as wood. Well, her mutation had done that as well.

“I can do this all day.” He warned.

“Alright.” Iris shrugged.

A few very awkward minutes passed, a silence spent sipping coffee, until her supervisor, Chris Timmitz, interrupted.

“Iris! Loki. There you are! I've been looking for you two. Lucky to find you in the same place, you've got a job coming up.”

“Oh yeah? Lay it on me boss.” Iris said. Loki grimaced.

“We think we've got another possible HYDRA shelter, kinda out in the open this time. We need more intel. That's where you come in.”

“It's located next to a forest, isn't it?”

“A meadow, actually.” He said a bit sheepishly. “We need you to, uh, plant some bugs on the property.”

“Ha ha.” Iris said flat-voiced.

“Aw c'mon, I didn't come up with the terminology.”

“Was that some kind of insult?” Loki asked darkly. “Do you degrade your employees?”

“Well, it wasn't meant to be.” Chris explained. “It's not my fault the language is what it is. And what about you? Iris may act tough, but she's really sweet and sensitive, so you'd better act right-”

“Or what?” Loki challenged.

“Chris. Cut it out. We don't have to be chummy, we just have to get the job done.” Iris said. “So give us the details.”

“Right, right. We're starting Tuesday. It seems to be when the fewest people are there...”

                ****

Iris crawled through the tall grass of the meadow, the plants moving naturally around her, so as to not alert her enemies that she was there. The shelter was an old schoolhouse apparently, that HYDRA agents had taken over, ostensibly to restore the historical building and turn it into a museum...all the while sheltering their agents from the law, and pushing revisionist history in an effort to spread their doctrine through yet another small town. They had done this so many times before, changing the narrative, changing the perceptions of the people.

HYDRA had many heads. It was the symbolism of the thing. Some of those heads infiltrated governments, and worked to influence world policy. Other heads overran small towns, influencing the vote, which served to make the jobs of the others easier.

Some people in S.H.I.E.L.D. likened them to a virus to be quarantined, cut out, and destroyed. Iris saw them as a sickness to be cured. Anyone could change their minds, given reason. The trick was to find the reason. That wasn't her job, and she didn't think she'd be good at it, but she knew that there were anti-radicalization support groups popping up here and there now, and no wonder, with the state of the current administration. Iris knew HYDRA must have gotten their voice very well entrenched into the government.

But Iris was more directly concerned with these little heads, with blocking their progress, slowing them down, and just generally inconveniencing them.

She'd gotten the usual stares and glares, upon entering the little town, but it was hard to tell if it was HYDRAs influence, or just typical American small town prejudice when faced with a dark-skinned stranger. Either way, she wouldn't want to live here.

She settled down in the grass, stretched out on her belly, and the sod began to part beneath her. Loki, who had simply made himself invisible with his alien magics, and crept along beside her, was clearly capable of sneaking with the best of them. He barely displaced a blade of grass. He crouched down beside her.

“We are stopping here?” He whispered. “How shall you place your devices? Will you throw them?”

“No, My aim isn't that good.” Iris said, ignoring his smug “Mine is.”, and beginning to sink into the newly exposed soil.

“Uh...Miss Devereaux...are you aware that the earth appears to be swallowing you?”

“Don't worry about it, it's fine.” She wriggled her feet out of her flimsy sandals and into the dirt. She was positioned to just be able to see the old schoolhouse over the edge of the trough that had been excavated beneath her. That was all she needed.

“Certainly. Nothing out of the ordinary here.”

“You're one to talk. Hand me the bugs.”

There were only three of them: tiny things, no larger than the creatures they were named after. Iris took them, then tore a packet of seeds open with her teeth, pouring the contents into her hands.

“This is going to take me a pretty long time. Couple of days, probably. What I'm going to need the most from you is tending. Every hour, give me something to drink. Every four hours, give me something to eat. Make sure no one sweeps through here with a lawn mower or a fire. I'm not going to be able to move, and will likely be in something of a trance. Sorry I won't be better company.”

“That's a lot of orders coming from one little human.” Loki grumbled.

“My life is in your hands.”

“That's...a bit better.”

She pressed her hand against the earth in front of her, and concentrated.

For some minutes it didn't appear to Loki that anything was happening at all. Then the first of the thin, white roots began squirming out from between her fingers, roping around her hand.

Loki stretched out in the tall grass next to her as the roots slowly formed a ragged, grasping ball of pale worms against her chestnut skin. He remained silent for hours alongside her, dutifully holding a small bottle of water to her lips every hour or so. As she had said earlier, Iris lay very still, and very trance-like, drinking without acknowledging that she even knew he was there.

“Hmmm.” He whispered. “I hate being ignored, you know. I wonder if you can even hear me? Could you explain what it is that you are doing, or are you so far away that you cannot even answer? What would happen if I touched you right now, Goddess-Flower of the Riverbank? Would I break your concentration? Would you even notice?”

He opened one of the little ration packs, half of which were specifically labeled with Iris' name. Within were little brown cubes that smelled deeply unappetizing to Loki, formed from a slurry of many mysterious ingredients.

“A special recipe, just for you? S.H.I.E.L.D. must value you more highly than you have previously stated. Here you go, Bright Blossom.” He held the little cube to Iris' lips, which parted automatically to accept the cube. “And so I have become no more than a nutrient dispensary. How far I have fallen.”

He fed her the cubes, one by one. Every brush of her petal-velvet lips against his fingers tempted him to push them into her mouth, a temptation that brought a chuckle to his own lips. There were only so many games he would be allowed to play, before S.H.I.E.L.D. kicked him out entirely. He wasn't attached to S.H.I.E.L.D., or anyone within the organization, but working for them kept him active, kept him relevant, kept him engaged, and most importantly, kept him out of prison. Community service was infuriating, but he had experienced the soul-crushing torment of solitary confinement, and this was much preferable.

A cold, uncomfortable cell? Or laying in the grass on a warm, sunny day, hand-feeding a pretty girl?

He was very tempted to lay his hand on the small of her back, where her uniform had ridden up just enough to show a strip of glistening skin, but it wouldn't have the proper punch with Iris in this deep trance. Without reaction, there was no fun.

The roots winding their way up her arms were somewhat unsettling. Was this what her file had meant when it noted that she was a 'mutant'? That she could cause plants to sprout? Could other humans do that?

Hours later, when the sun had set, and the roots had wriggled into the soil all around her, and crawled their way up to her shoulders, Iris stirred.

“Mph. Man, I'm sore.” She complained.

“Ah, welcome back. There is a powerful desire I need you to fulfill.”

“Not on company time. There's trees over there, go behind them and, uh, work it out? Also, for next time, I really don't need to know.”

“You flatter yourself, or you underestimate me. What I want, is for you to explain what you are doing. Are you making those plants grow?”

“Oh. Yeah, basically. You read my file; you know I'm a mutant.”

“Yes, but I do not know the significance of the term.” Loki admitted. “Is it this? This magic you wield?”

“It's not magic, it's just...it's genetic. I was born this way. At first it was just little things. Gardens grew better wherever I went, I didn't get hungry as much when there was sunlight, I didn't need to drink as much as long as there was water on the ground. I grew up in a way rural community tucked away in the Everglades. We were real poor, so being outside and having wet and muddy feet was just normal for all the kids.

As I got older, the signs got more obvious. I can do things that plants can do. I can direct their growth, and I sorta...change with the seasons, depending on where I am.”

“What do you mean?”

“Eh, stick around long enough and you'll see. Anyway, people aren't too fond of mutants, and it got...tough. To live at home, I mean. So I went out into the wild, and I did pretty well there, but S.H.I.E.L.D. found me and offered me something else. Not every mutant is like me. There's a lot of different ways to be a mutant, it's unpredictable. Some folks can fly, others can turn their bodies into metal, and some can heal wounds to their body in seconds. I manipulate plants, and am, in some ways, like them.”

“I see. And you are causing these plants to grow for what purpose?”

“Spying purposes. It's gonna take a few days, but these vines will tunnel through the ground, all the way up to the school house. When they break ground, I'll send one of them up that tree there, another one around the frame of that window there, and the third down the chimney. You saw those little devices? They're holding those in packets of leaves, and will position them so that they remain hidden, but they consist of audio, video, and heat signature recorders. Once I've gotten them in place, we'll leave. That's all this mission is; bugs on plants.”

“Then why am I here?” He wondered. “You seem to have this well in hand.”

“Someone's gotta feed me. And make sure I don't get found out. There's rumors you can make magic illusions. That's probably why. You can hide us both from any eyes or cameras.”

“And I have.” Loki said proudly. “And fed and...watered you, Little Blossom. What else do you need from me?”

“To do it all again tomorrow.” Iris said. Then she dropped her head into the nest of roots, and settled down to sleep.

                                                                         *****

Iris was awake and in her trance just as the first light of dawn kissed the horizon. Loki had been awake even before that, every swish of grass or crackle of leaves grabbing his attention.

“Rest.” He commanded her. “I have not the need of it that you do. Never forget: I am no weak mortal. You require a large amount of sleep, but I am all the greater.”

Iris had snorted at the bravado, but accepted the cubes he fed her, and fell into her trance, the roots curling further and further around her body.

Loki idly wondered how far the roots would go. Would they cocoon Iris entirely, prompting her to 'hatch' into a new form? Would they drag her down into the earth, entombing her away from Loki forever? Or would they just die back?

He watched people come and go to the old schoolhouse, working on its restoration. They looked for all the world like normal workers; he didn't even believe any of them to be armed. Not all HYDRA agents were combatants, after all. Just as many of them were spies, thieves, politicians, PR specialists and spin doctors.

Ever since what the other S.H.I.E.L.D. agents called 'The Big Reveal', both organizations had been frantically rebuilding. S.H.I.E.L.D. more slowly, taking only the best, only the most trustworthy. Loki supposed he should be proud, even though he knew he was only there as a glorified prisoner.

HYDRA's recruits seemed to be skyrocketing, as they took to the internet in search of easily radicalized young men-mostly men, and boys-to bolster their numbers. They found plenty of them, and quickly, but they were sloppy and unpredictable. All too often, one let their ego overcome their loyalty to the cause, an event that almost always led to public confrontation and violence. But the news media-already infiltrated, most likely-was always quick to exonerate or sympathize with a young white man.

HYDRA disgusted Loki, even back when he had 'convinced' a small cell to work with him. No one group knew what the others were doing. There was a severe lack of communication between cells. Yes, Loki supposed it kept them safe from discovery, but he found it inefficient. A waste of potential by people more invested in the pageantry of a secret society, than by the end goal they hoped to achieve.

S.H.I.E.L.D. was little better, in his opinion, but at least its people were more serious about their work. Communication was more open, their goals more achievable. It felt like they made a difference, whether they really did or not. And they didn't waste potential. HYDRA would simply kill someone like Iris, S.H.I.E.L.D. found her valuable enough to spend resources on her. Under Loki's regime, had he succeeded, Iris, and all people like her, would have been of personal interest to him. All of these so-called 'mutants' would have been given places of high honor. Loki did not waste potential.

But that wasn't worth spending more time dwelling on. It was never meant to happen in the first place. When and where he would rule was yet to be discovered, but it would not happen until he was finished with his penance.

He provided Iris with her water, barely able to see her under all the roots. It was no wonder that she could not go into the field without a partner; she could not be ready for combat, couldn't even eat on her own! If they had to run, was he just supposed to tear her from the root wrapping and toss her over his shoulder? Would disconnecting her like that cause her harm?

He would have to ask next time she woke.

A young man approached, wielding an unfamiliar device. Loki was immediately on high alert. Was that some kind of weapon? He wandered all the way up to the verge of the grasses, gazing placidly out over the meadow. This was a HYDRA agent? He was barely out of adolescence! But from what Loki remembered of his brothers youthful declarations of hatred towards the Jotunn, radicalization did indeed start young.

“Naw, I think it must have been a glitch.” He said into his lapel. “There's nothing out here, not even trails in the grass.” He paused, listening. “Naw. Maybe it was a coyote? There's plenty of wild animals that wander around out here. My bro swears he saw a puma last year. Anyway, I'm gonna trim the grass, since I'm here anyway. If you're really worried, come out and check your cameras. I ain't gonna do it for you.”

With that, the young man yanked a long string, attached to a pod on the device, causing the thing to roar to life. Its loud snarl effectively covered Loki's startled gasp, his invisible eyes wide at the noise and the fact that everything within a six inch radius of the device's head was shredded and flung in all directions.

He had to maintain the illusion. But Iris was right in the horrible things' path. It would rip right into her face.

Unacceptable.

Loki rolled over on top of her, covering her body, roots and all, with his own. He ducked his head just as the device passed by. The force was like a high speed whip, tearing at his hair. It would have lacerated his scalp, possibly to the bone, had he been human. It would have certainly injured Iris, whom he kept safely tucked under his body, protected by his armor and tough, godly flesh.

The young man made a few more passes, working his way down the edge of the meadow, leaving Loki with a stinging scalp from his impromptu haircut, eventually leaving after finishing a rough, sub-par job.

Loki kept still, concentrating on maintaining the illusion, now including fresh cut grass. He feared it had wavered under the assault he had suffered, but the young man hadn't seemed to notice. Hours passed with no movement from Loki, just watching as various people came and went, doing their jobs. Eventually they all trickled away.

The sun had grown low in the sky before Loki felt Iris stir.

“Um. Loki? What are you doing? Did something happen?” Iris asked, her voice muffled by his body.

“Pardon me.” He rolled back into the grass as Iris shook her face free of the grasping roots. “Some boy came through here with a horrible device that tore up the grasses. It was necessary to cover you.”

Iris sniffed the air. “Someone cut the grass. Geez, did he hit you? Your hair!”

“Is it bad?” He asked, then covered his vanity. “It doesn't matter. I made good on my word. Here, eat.” He held food to her mouth. It would be almost too bad when this was over. Feeding her was so easy, so satisfying, and his hair would grow back anyway. If only all missions could be this easy.

Iris ate, watching the sunset, Loki laying on his side in the grass next to her, just watching her. Roots and shredded grass decorated her body, cube after cube passing her lips.

“Miss Devereaux, how will you remove yourself from those roots? If I must tear them, will it hurt you?”

Iris shook her head. “No, the roots aren't attached to me. If we pull this off without a hitch, I'll direct them into the soil. But if we have to get out in a hurry, you can tear them; it won't hurt me.”

“That's good to know.” Loki rolled onto his back, hands behind his head. “There is much still to learn about this realm. What is this that you are eating?”

“You sure you wanna know?” She asked.

“I am suddenly less curious, now that you have said that.” He admitted. “They do smell incredibly unappealing.”

“It's fertilizer, essentially. Fish emulsion and seaweed, blood and bone meal, fermented vegetables, all mashed together. Sounds super gross, I know,” She said at his disgusted expression. “But it's really good for me. My body absorbs it so efficiently that there isn't even any waste. Like roots inside me that absorb everything.”

“Are there? Roots inside you, I mean.”

“Sometimes.” Iris said quietly. “Maybe.”

“It bothers you? I see. It removes you from humanity. Sets you apart. And yet, you think that makes you inferior, rather than the other way around?”

“I'm not better than anybody else.” Iris said.

“You think not? Is there anyone else in this world who can do what you can do? How many people have your S.H.I.E.L.D. actively recruited? They came to find you specifically, why would they do that?  Because you were completely average? You are a valued agent of a semi-clandestine organization bent on world improvement. You have been partnered to a god. You are above-average, Iris. Why is that difficult to accept?”

“Are you 'above average' in Asgard, Loki? Have you always been celebrated for it?”

“Mostly.”

“I haven't. I've been despised. I've been misunderstood. I've been coddled and hidden away by my parents in an attempt to protect me. I've been discriminated against by strangers, and teachers, and employers, and neighbors whose kids I grew up with. By those same kids.

I walked out into the wild one day, and didn't come back. I never planned on coming back, never planned on seeing another person ever again. But S.H.I.E.L.D. weren't the first to find me. There were two others. There was a man, a strange old man who could fly. He floated down from the sky, and told me that as a mutant, I was naturally superior to all other humans. He wanted me to come with him, said he was building some grand future for mutantkind, as if we were a different species.”

“Who was this man?” Loki asked, intrigued.

“No idea. I told him to leave. It wasn't long after I had left home, and I really didn't want to go back to any kind of civilization. I was kinda fantasizing about becoming some kind of cryptid, you know? The Everglades Swamp Witch, or something like that.

Then the botanists came. A whole group of them, trying to catalog Ghost Orchids. They're endangered, and people keep stealing them, and wrecking up their habitat. But I knew where they were. All two thousand of them. And I convinced them that I was in contact with all the remaining plants, so if any went missing after their expedition, I'd know, and come hunting for them.”

She grinned. “Like I said, Swamp Witch vibes. They even believed me!”

“So you cannot actually do that?” Loki asked. The stars had come out, forming unfamiliar shapes in the night sky. His eyes could pick out fainter lights than a humans could, and he admired the active beauty of this part of the universe while eating from one of the non-specialty ration packs.

“Well, I can, but not automatically. And not that far away. I have to be closer to a plant to really sense it, and I have to be trying really hard. Like, if I wanted to figure out where the nearest maple tree was, I would have to concentrate on that, and block out all the grass. But a maple has a different...I guess you could call it a signature? A different signature than grass does. A Ghost Orchid grows on trees, and is basically just a ball of roots when it's not blooming. Kinda like this-” Iris nodded at the roots tangled around her. “But way smaller. It looks like nothing, almost. They're very hard to spot. But they have that different signature than the tree they grow on, and I can follow that to where they are.”

“So you found all their plants, as if by magic.”

“Yeah, and they paid me pretty well for it, and I sent the money home to my parents, and then the botanists went home and blabbed. Next thing I know. S.H.I.E.L.D. is on my tail.”

“Because you were friendly to botanists?”

“Well...I might have also...sabotaged a development project.” Iris said sheepishly. “But it was right on the edge of the National Park, and I didn't let anybody get hurt! And I'm pretty sure it was dubiously legal anyway.”

The edges of Loki's mouth curled, even as his eyebrows lifted.

“What's this? You're 'shy and sensitive' I was told. Was I sold a bill of goods? Are you, in fact, a naughty little mutant?”

Iris rolled her eyes. “Ugh, don't joke. Naughty little mutants end up dead.”

The amusement drained from his face.

“You would be celebrated in Asgard.” He said.

“We aren't in Asgard.” She answered. “The only thing that matters is where we are now. Those guys in there? They'd kill us both just for being born. They'd make it so that no one like us could ever be born again. When S.H.I.E.L.D showed up, in their black uniforms and started introducing themselves as 'agents', I thought that's what they had come for. The government was there to kill me.

At that point, I'd been off the grid for over a year, and I didn't know anything about the S.H.I.E.L.D./HYDRA internet explosion. But when they started talking about rebuilding as a humanitarian organization, dedicated to the protection of people-marginalized people-from, like, terrorist groups and hostile aliens, I realized they weren't there to kill me or arrest me, they were just there for me.

So I didn't make them disappear, and went with them instead. I still send money home to my parents. They don't know where I am, or what I do. They don't know the true extent of my capabilities. I'm not sure I do either. The thing about being a mutant is that a lot of these powers don't get replicated exactly, so we each have to figure ourselves out. There's no training regimen or curriculum for this.”

“So all of this is self taught?” Loki asked, impressed. “I'm not even entirely self taught.”

“You were taught? This all didn't just come from being a god or whatever?”

“No, of course not. The power is there naturally, but it needs directing. Like you, I suppose. You're born with it, but need teaching to use it. I had the best teachers the universe could offer, and was exalted and encouraged. You had only yourself, and adversity. I've seen but little of you, but this seems a great feat so far.”

“A compliment?”

“An acknowledgment. It's good to know S.H.I.E.L.D. has become more discerning in its recruitment. I hear it was more than a little disastrous for them last time.”

“Like I said, I didn't find out about that until after. Though, I guess it's not all that surprising that it happened. There's a lot that can go wrong inside an organization that big, and with that much reach. There's just too much going on; there can never be enough oversight.”

“I know.” Loki said. “I used that against them when I attempted to bring down the planet. Somehow, they still didn't notice the traitors among them.”

“You worked with HYDRA?” Iris asked defensively.

“No.” Loki said. “I used them. I didn't...make many distinctions then, in my interactions with mortals.”

“Kinda seems like you still don't.” Iris pointed out. Loki took a breath and hesitated.

“Moreso than I did then.” He said slowly. “Then, you were just tools. A means to an end. Disposable. Interchangeable. There are so many of you, so it wasn't like any of your could actually be important.”

“Right up until barely six of us beat the tar out of you and blew up your entire army?”

Loki scowled. “That is a misstatement. The plan was always to lose.”

“Bull. Shit.”

“No, I'm serious. Earth was the weakest link in the Nine Realms, and it needed to be awakened. And you were. Spectacularly. Look what it's lead to. S.H.I.E.L.D. was purged, HYDRA exposed, and your world made ready for the arrival of Asgard. You've been opened to higher interactions, as a progressing member of the Realms.”

“Uh huh. That was totally the end goal, right? Inter-species altruism? That was what filled your heart while you blew people up?”

“Norns, no!” Loki snorted. “I hated every last one of you. I took a special delight in destroying that which was weaker than myself, never think I didn't. It's just...It wasn't entirely up to me.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean...I mean that losing was an act of defiance that sparked off the strengthening defense of Midgard, which I continue to participate in. Doing small jobs for S.H.I.E.L.D., rubbing out the likes of HYDRA and A.I.M., all of this contributes to this strengthening.”

Iris regarded him suspiciously through her framework of roots.

“You sound like you're running some sinister, behind-the-scenes shadow plan.” She accused. “You wanna explain?”

Loki smiled, a wan, false thing.

“Do you want some water?” He offered instead.

Iris rolled her eyes. “You're not gonna distract me.”

“And I am not going to elaborate further. Your curiosity will have to remain unsatisfied, or supplemented by your own imagination.”

“Hmph. Why'd you even bring it up then?”

“I? I think you'll find our conversation naturally meandered in this direction. That does not mean it must come to the conclusion you desire.”

“So this is what Abby meant when she said you were a pain in the ass to talk to.” Iris grumbled.

“I was not put here to satisfy Abby.” Loki said airily. “Who is Abby?”

“She asked you on a date.” Iris said. “You don't even remember her? Harsh.”

Loki shrugged. “She sounds frightfully dull. I may have to play nice for now, but I needn't entertain every persons sordid fantasies. Do you leap through every hoop set before you? Or do you also tell unimportant people that you aren't interested in entertaining them?”

“All right, that's fair.” Iris craned her head back to look up at the stars. “Which one is Asgard? Can you see it from here?”

“You can't.” Loki said. “The star is too far away, too small. And it doesn't matter now anyway. Home is gone, and we must rebuild from scratch. But that one, right there-do you see? Another realm orbits that one, the Frozen Realm of Jotunheim. They were our enemies once, and yours, but no more. Partly because they are under 'house arrest' as it were, trapped on their own planet. My father drove them off your planet over a thousand years ago. Your world actually warmed up without their influence, at least for a little while.”

“There were aliens here a thousand years ago?” Iris asked, incredulous.

“There have been 'aliens' here for ages.” Loki said. “Visitations and experiments, and failed colonies, and raids. Your ancestors were still getting the hang of fire, and there were 'aliens' visiting your lush and beautiful world. Making plans. Then your lot discovered agriculture and metal, and ruined a lot of those plans.”

“Seems like we're good at that.”

“Yes, yes, I was defeated by mortals. I am aware. I was the first to know.” Loki grumbled.

“Wait, does that mean the aliens really did build the pyramids?” Iris wondered.

Loki snickered. “The hubris of humanity is not universally shared. You are known for several things, and your inexplicable drive for monument building is one of them. Visitors did not build your great buildings; you did. They did come to see them though, like tourists. Some of them even took artifacts back home with them. Hopefully they weren't too historically important.”

“That's so rude.” Iris said.

“And you would never have known to take offense if I hadn't told you.”

God of Mischief indeed.

“What other realms are there? Just the nine?”

“Eight now, I suppose. But no. There are many peoples out there. The Nine Realms were just those places that were somehow related to Asgard. Allies, protectorates and...penal colonies, you might call them. But all interconnected, and all at least a little dependent on the others, at least some of the time. That has come to an end. There is a very powerful spot now empty. I fear there will be a great deal of turmoil before things even themselves back out. It would be interesting to see how that all plays out, but alas, I am trapped here for now.”

“Where would you go?” Iris asked.

“Alfheim first, I think.” Loki said. “They like me there. They are much less dour than the Dverguar, less serious than the Vanir, not so boastful and bombastic as Asgardins, not vicious as Jotunn, and nowhere near as hectic and anxious as Midgardians...humans, I mean. They like jokes and pranks, and value magic...perhaps I should have been Alfar? If only I could have chosen.”

“Yeah, I think we all feel that way sometimes. But I guess even gods don't get that choice. Hey, how do gods work, anyway? I mean, I stopped believing in any all-powerful force a long time ago. About when the only answer anyone could really give me as to why God would make someone like me was that I was put here to test faith. My own, or other people's maybe. It made me sick. What kind of 'father' puts a burden like that on a little kid?”

Loki scoffed. “The first mistake that humans make is in thinking that anything can be all-powerful, all-knowing, or infallible. It is a ridiculous fantasy notion, immature and irresponsible. That kind of thinking can only lead to two things: complete disillusionment, or harm to the self or others. I am a god, because I have a singular connection to a certain aspect of the universe, as does my brother, but neither of us are any of those things. How boring, to be all-knowing! How banal, to be all-powerful. And I have known people who seemed to think they were infallible, and the amount of misery and suffering they caused is unspeakable.

No, gods were never supposed to be all that. Greater than others, yes, but omnipotent...no, that's only for people who are overcompensating I think.”

“What's that about a special connection to the universe?” Iris asked.

“The universe is ridiculously unstable. Did you know that? I believe it was a human that posited that reality destroys and remakes itself fairly often in the scheme of things, but by the nature of it, it's impossible to ever know if that's true. Because if reality is destroyed, so are you, and so, you would never know. And if reality rebuilds itself, then that is the only reality that exists, so you would never know.”

“Oh hell, I don't like that.”

“Well just don't think about it. In any case, this instability seems to be occasionally expressed through individuals of particularly resilient and long-lived species, by connecting them to certain random forces. For my brother, it is the natural occurrence of thunder and lightning, those two things being directly connected. For me, it is an expression of sophisticated behaviors. Those forces are ours to deploy and manipulate to our will, and we affect them in the world around us, even as they effect us.”

“So you're just born with it too, huh?”

“So it seems.”

Iris settled back down into her swaddling roots to sleep, leaving Loki to stare up at the stars. The grass-cutting human had mentioned cameras. Loki had shielded them from that kind of surveillance on the way in, just in case. They must be hidden somewhere out in the trees. Could Iris detect such things? Would it be worthwhile to disable any, if suspicion was already on them? Or would that merely draw even more suspicion?

Perhaps while Iris remained incapacitated, actions that might bring more enemies out should be avoided. She did not have his durable skin, after all, nor his speed or strength. But with her unusual and largely unexplained powers, he hesitated in thinking of her as weak. More like...a specialist.

He felt her stir, just as the sun was lifted into the sky, and he fed her her morning cubes. She settled into her work trance almost immediately. Perhaps she was put off by the previous nights conversation, and didn't want more of the same. Perhaps she simply wanted to finish this mission quickly. Surely she too found it boring to lay in the same spot for days.

He watched the people come and go about their work restoring the schoolhouse. How many of them were just regular workers, and how many were enemy agents? Impossible to tell by looking, especially if even the youth were involved.

The sun had not risen particularly high when he noticed a difference. The roots that wrapped Iris' body were thinning; as he watched, more and more broke away from the tangle to bury themselves in the dirt at her sides. It was like watching worms escaping danger.

Finally, Iris pulled her hands from the soil, and pushed free of the roots.

“Alright.” She said. “Bugs are in. Now it's time for us to bug out.”

In retrospect, Loki could admit that he had been too eager to leave. He simply didn't do well with long periods of inactivity. So when he walked into the trees surrounding the meadow, and found himself face to face with a shotgun-wielding hunter, he wasn't too embarrassed. No, what really made him kick himself was when the one behind them held Iris at gunpoint. How could he have let one of these yokels get behind him?

“Who the hell are you freaks?” The one in front demanded. Loki recognized him as the youth with the loud grass cutting device who had ruined his hair.

“Gaw, this one stinks!” The other one exclaimed. “Well what do ya expect? She looks like mud, of course she smells like it.”

“We were just out looking for a...private place, if you catch my drift.” Loki said smoothly, getting ready. “Nothing to get worried about. It's just such a nice day, and we couldn't help ourselves.”

“Gross.” The one behind Iris said.

“We don't want you degenerate types around here.” The one in front of Loki said. “Now hands up, freak. You're way too close.”

“To what, pray tell?” Loki said. Almost ready.

“Don't talk about it, dumbass!” The other one hissed.

“Look, let's just kill them, to be sure.” The one in front of Loki said. “World ain't gonna miss a few freaks. And then nobody knows, and we don't get in trouble.”

Loki lifted his hand in a gesture he knew humans considered to be rude. Both men fired their guns.

Neither of them saw the illusions of Loki and Iris fade away, sprawled as they were one the forest floor, bleeding from the bullet wounds they'd inflicted upon one another.

Several yards away, Loki took his hands from over Iris' ears, and approached the HYDRA recruits. One of them was still alive. Loki carefully wrapped his hand in a cloth he manifested from seemingly nowhere, and casually suffocated him.

He then led the horrified Iris back to their rented car, and got back onto the highway as quickly as he could.

The silence stretched on for several hours, Loki watching the road, Iris gazing out the window at the scenery.

“Why didn't we sneak off as soon as you put up those illusions?” She finally asked. “We were invisible. We could have just left.”

“They had seen us.” Loki said. “They could not be allowed to go and inform their superiors. If there was suspicion that we had been snooping around the school, the entire point of the mission would be moot. Besides, they were extremely rude.”

“Don't joke.” Iris said sharply. “You killed that man in cold blood.”

“I killed him on cold practicality.” Loki corrected. “He could not be allowed to live, and let others know that he and the other one hadn't actually accidentally shot one another. Once anyone had seen us, that had to be the end for them. It is understandable that you might not like that, which is why I would not ask you to participate. But if I am sent on a mission as a protector, then that is what I will do. These were men who wanted to kill you just for being born, remember?”

“They were radicalized. They could have been deradicalized.”

“And how do you propose we were to do that?”

Iris huffed. “Damnit.”

“Sometimes we aren't afforded the choices we would prefer. But don't fret. I will take full responsibility in the report. I know the Director isn't keen on too many work-related killings.” It was part of why Loki took such delight in reporting work-related killings. Just to remind them of who he was, and what he was capable of.

Once they had reached their destination and returned the rental car, Iris called their contact agent for extraction. She wasn't exactly distant, but with other things to focus on, and other people demanding their times, the closeness of the last two days was fading fast.

Oh well, Loki thought. It had been nice while it lasted. But nothing was forever, and all affection was fleeting; he knew that well enough.

But it was a little odd to see her so preoccupied with her phone.

“Have you a Tweety account, or some such?” He asked, trying to strike up a conversation once again.

“Since that doesn't exist: no.” She answered, distracted. “No, there's just...I'm seeing someone, and he wants to meet up as soon as I get back.”

Loki frowned. For some reason, he didn't like that sound of that. “You need rest, don't you?” He suggested.

“Yeah, and it's a little last minute, I admit. But he's an agent too, and our schedules don't match up very often, so we've got to meet when we can, or not at all.”

“That sounds like a difficult arrangement.”

Iris shrugged. “I'll take what I can get. At least he doesn't seem to mind the whole mutant thing. That's kinda important when you're in my shoes.”

“You do not sound entirely enamored of this man.” Loki probed.

“Well...I'd like to get to know him better, but he's very private. Mostly, I just don't want to be alone. It's hard for people like me, you know? I can't just throw a relationship away because it's not some perfect storybook romance. Gotta be more realistic than that. But I sure hope I get a few days rest before I get sent out again.”

It sounded...practical. She had to take her opportunities where she found them. It wasn't as if Loki had never been there. It was perhaps a little sad, since it sounded like she really did want that storybook romance.

Perhaps it was none of his business. It was absolutely none of his business. He followed her anyway, curious about what kind of man made this little flower bloom.

The man in question was not impressive, in Loki's opinion. Not much more than average. Maybe that didn't matter to Iris.

“Bet you're glad to be done with all that, huh?” He asked. “Dealing with that creep couldn't be easy.”

“It wasn't really all that bad, honestly. He-”

“I don't really want to hear about him. C'mon, we have the whole evening! Let's not waste it!”

Loki decided then and there that he did not like this man. Not in small part because he wanted to know what Iris had to say about him.

She took him to what must have been her apartment, and there Loki left. There were a few things he didn't want to know after all.

[court-queen]

Otome characters you might like according to your OM! favourite (Lucifer, Asmo and Belphie)

I'm going to include both paid and free otome games. I'm also going to mention some games that aren’t otomes but have dating sim stuff (i.e Fire Emblem). This post is only my opinion and based on the games I've played. I hope these work as recommendations for you!

Lucifer

Hijikata Toshizo (Hakuouki): Hijikata is the first commander of the Shinsengumi, a short-tempred, but intelligent man. He is the most mature character from the main cast. Hijikata is very strict with the other commanders, who are very chaotic just like the demon brothers, and the protagonist, whom he distrusts at first. He also has a close relationship (though without any implications) with the Shinsengumi leader, similar to Diavolo. He lacks some of the kinky stuff Luci has, but leaving that aside, Hijikata might be a good route to play.

Jumin Han (Mystic Messenger): Jumin is a CEO who likes cats a bit too much. He is cold and centered on his work. The only close relationship he has is with the leader of the charity organization he belongs to, who is his best friend, and lacks any romantic experience. I would say Jumin is much less developed than Lucifer regarding to social interactions. Also, one of the characters has a strong distaste (which seems to be one-sided) for him. When you enter into his route, he is possesive, but in a slightly different way than Lucifer, more...over-protective. However, in some instances, he can have the same style of possesiveness as Lucifer. If you don’t mind he is less assertive, Jumin could be a very decent alternative.

Xander (Fire Emblem Fates: Conquest): Xander isn’t from an otome, so he  doesn’t have as much romantic stuff, but he is the most similar character to Lucifer, story and character-wise imo. Xander is the crown prince of the country of Nohr, a stoic and wise man. He is the older brother of the royal family, so he has to assume all the responsabilities, taking questionable decisions and pushing away his own feelings in order to maintain peace and protect his family. The relationship with one of his siblings, Leo, is similar to the one Lucifer has with Satan (post Satan arc). Xander has also a very complicated relationship with his father: to keep it spoiler-free, let’s just say he is what would have happened if Lucifer hadn’t rebelled against God. 

Nobunaga Oda (Ikemen Sengoku): A charismatic and intelligent warlord who is trying to unify Japan.  Very bold with the MC. He basically wants to own her, winning Go matches and claiming a part of her body with each victory. It sounds somewhat fucked up at first, but tbf it wasn’t as bad as it could have been. Nobunaga isn’t as strict as Lucifer, but when the moment comes he can be very serious. 

I haven’t played it, but...I’ve been told that Victor from My Love’s Queen Choice, Jumin and Lucifer form the holy trinity of sugar daddies in mobile otomes. Chikage Kazama from Hakuouki isn't that similar to Luci, but he has some points his fans could enjoy a lot (he is one of my favourite LIs)

Asmodeus

None of these recommendations are as kinky as Asmo, sorry I don't play many +18 otomes. I still hope you like them Dx

Karma and Rumpel (Cinderella Phenomenon): I think both might work for someone who likes Asmo. First, Rumpel is quite a flirt. He has a curse that provokes him amnesia, but that doesn't stop him from trying to charm beautiful women. Then we have Karma, who has a curse that makes women fall in love with him, so he usually dresses as one to not attract them. He isn't that much of a flirt, but he is quite narcissistic. Put both in the same room, what could go wrong? Both characters end up having a decent depth and growth, so if you are one of those people who wants Asmo to be more than his quirks, you are probably going to enjoy them a lot.

Zen (Mystic Messenger): At first a narcissistic actor, then the most supportive and sweet character from all Mystic Messenger (and also the most stable). I would say he subverts the archetype of the flirt/narcissist in otomes. He has a past and context explaining why is he like that, and his route makes a twist with the rival in love with him. If you want a different focus of the archetype Zen is a really good option for you.

Ikki (Amnesia):  Ikki has a special charm that attracts women. This charm will cause the protagonist in Amnesia to get into lots of problems with people who are totally in love with him. He isn’t narcissistic nor a flirt, but if you are interested in a story about how might be dating Asmo with the consequences of his powers in other people, Ikki's route could interest you.

Yuri (Nameless): Yuri has also a charm that makes people being attracted to him. However, it isn't as exaggerated as Ikki or Asmo especially because all the main characters in Nameless attract a lot of people. He is a flirt and narcissist, practically at the same level as Asmo (I had a lot of fun with his moments). Imo, he is the most intelligent person in the game, and reads quite well the other characters. In his route we will learn more about his behavior, and he will be forced to grow and leave behind his attitude.

Sylvain from Fire Emblem Three Houses and Jiyeon from Dandelion  might also be good recommendations, it’s just that they are a bit more...controversial.

Belphie

These characters are very spoilery, I'll try my best to explain why you might like them.

Unknown (Mystic Messenger): A twin, just like Belphie. Both have violent episodes, even trying to hurt the protagonist. They direct their hate to certain characters, whom they consider responsibles of their miserable situation. At heart, they are really kind and sensitive, but have changed because of their circunstances. I would say Unknown's route doesn't portray him as well as the rest of the game, but regardless you might enjoy it if you like Belphie.

“Nameless” (Nameless): Okay, this one quite spoilery, I'll try to explain it without saying much. Belphie's situation? Imagine it but worse, with nobody knowing where you are and not being able to try anything to escape. Then combine his hate for humans and his love for Lilith, and you'll have the complicated feelings this character has towards the protagonist of Nameless. For me, he is literally Belphie, just much more dramatic and dark...

Monshiro (Psychedelica of the Black Butterfly): if the character before is a darker Belphie, this is a lighter Belphie. All the characters in Psychedelica are trapped in a mansion with monsters inside. This mysterious man appears to help the protagonist to fight them at certain times. Even if the rest of characters are very suspicious of him, he seems to be kind and calm, to the point he doesn't appear to know much about the situation the main characrers are involved in. When we continue advancing through the story, we will learn his real identity, and the sad truth about him. There is also another important similarity with Belph, but, spoilers.

Yeonho (Nameless): Like you can guess from the other character, Nameless is darker than other otomes. Yeonho is a sweet boy, very dependant on the protagonist. He is shy, and doesn't like to socialize with people, even if he is quite popular in his class. When you enter into his route, he becomes a little bit obssesive, and some of his endings are terrifying. If you are a masochist like me enjoy being alert with a sweet character that could break in any moment, Yeonho's route is for you.

I would want to recommend another character from Nameless, who I think has some points that could remind of Belphie, but given that this is not apparent at first, I'll let you discover by yourselves if you play the game.

I wouldn't consider them that similar, but Ukyo from Amnesia is quite the Belphie experience. If I had to pick an only route among otome games I would pick this one. Totally recommended. Kei Okazaki from Collar x Malice has also some quirks Belphie fans might enjoy.

[raat-jaaga-paakhi]

(D)Evolution of Rukmini-Harana

This I wrote while brainstorming in the beginning of this month to centre my brain on what we know of Rukmini, so I could write her with (dis)regard to the texts. And what I found out in my Ruk-foray, was simultaneously intriguing and repelling. Tagging my Mahabharata people, if you want to go on Rukmini’s journey through the scriptures and the later kavyas (ancient fanfiction, guys) and don’t mind my snarky commentary in between as I try to be as analytical as possible (Warning: Strong Opinions and Wtf Moments!) – @avani008 @parlegee @incurablescribbler @shaonharryandpannisim @ambitiousandcunning​ @glyphenthusiast​ @mayavanavihariniharini @allegoriesinmediasres @walburgablack​ @jigyask​ @heyifinallyhaveablog @1nsaankahanhai-bkr from the top of my head. Under the cut, for this is detailed. 

Mahabharata

Rukmini-Haran legend is outlined in several places: that Sabha scene we all seem to love unanimously, Krishna-Draupadi in exile, Arjuna describing Krishna’s feats, and in Udyoga parva when Rukmi comes to help in the war. Other times, she is mentioned as mother of Pradyumna (in fact, Pradyumna’s name is mostly replaced by “son of Rukmini”). Only details being: Rukmini was meant to be Shishupala’s, Krishna came, abducted her, fought off Rukmi who had taken an oath to not return without killing him, Rukmi builds Bhojakata due to his defeat. Rukmi is mentioned a few times to have learned battlecraft from a kimpurusha Druma (whose name is often written as Drona, eliciting confusion between Dronacharya of Hastinapur), from whom he gets Indra’s bow which is said to be equal to Gandiva and Sharnga.

- BORI CE Mbh, Translated by B. Debroy.

He comes with an akshauini to Pandavas’ camp where he is welcomed warmly enough, until he opens his big mouth and says, “Dudes, if you all are afraid of the Kauravas, I can help!” Insert big, smug smile. Krishna is present, but silent. Arjuna speaks, reminding Rukmi that he sought no help from anyone at multiple times (he goes harcore here *grins*), and wouldn’t need the same now, esp. from one like him. Disappointed Rukmi goes to Duryodhana’s camp where he’s rejected for, er, being the Pandavas’ reject and for his big mouth. Yeah. He, like Balarama, remains neutral. (Interesting that it’s Balarama who kills him, later.)

- BORI CE Mbh, Trans. By B. Debroy

There is no letter, no mention of a swayamvara, no love, nothing, sticking to Mahabharata’s rather dry style, which if stripped of its mystical elements would be a cold, clean historical narrative.

Apology: I am not giving any more screenshots (except for Bhaagavat, because it has some rather nice parts), for this would become…far too long to handle for even me. I promise you can take my word for it. 

Harivamsa

Considered an “appendix” (khila) to Mahabharata, it contains the legend of Rukmini in the greatest of details. @parlegee​ would love to hear that her fic kalyanakirti, where Rukmini and Krishna have an early meeting before the letter and all, does have some solid basis. The legend in narrated in two separate parts: swayamvara and harana. Sadly, the first part doesn’t get into the BORI CE Harivamsa, but that is made understandable by Dr. Bibek Debroy, who comments the Harivamsa editing is indiscriminate and lacking in quality w.r.t. cutting down events, as compared to the precise and thoughtful editing of Mahabharata proper, at the very beginning of his translation. Thus, the omission, I guess. I am giving a rundown for this is what we will refer back to as we compare the later versions. (For reference, go to Mahabharata Resources online.) 

Swayamvara part – 

Rukmi arranges for Rukmini’s swayamvara, calling his boys and excluding Krishna (ofc), of which Krishna gets wind and arrives in class with Garuda. He is welcomed—notedly not by the king, as opposed to rules of hospitality—by his relative/father Kaisika, outside of the capital of Vidarbh in Kaisika’s own city.

Quite strangely, Kaisika and his brother Kratha offer Krishna their city; there is even some messenger fanfare with Indra.

Comment: This seems like something of an interpolation to me (it’s politically and intellectually stupid okay – why would krishna need to abduct rukmini with such pains if a part of vidarbha was already his. he could have been more politically subtle and all. it’s just horrible statesmanship­), and part of the avatar-vaad or “make Krishna a god so that we can cloak his philosophies and ideas with the veil of god’s incomprehensible lilas so that no one can hope to emulate him and his decidedly non-brahmanical approach, and so they wait for his next appearance while the world burns” propaganda. Shut up, Medha, you’re going to be killed for this. Nah, brain, I will speak my truth.

Meanwhile, Jarasandha and his cronies come to know of Krishna’s arrival, get “afraid” and there is this huge-ass, strange, contradictory conversation. Jarasandha and Sunitha (read: shishupala. yeah, boi had this other, nicer name) are primarily of the view that Krishna is gonna fight them, while Dantavakra (hm, isn’t he another of krishna’s cousins?) opposes that. Shalva and the others also expressed their ideas. The exact point of this conversation is highly inscrutable because, (not) strangely, the conversation is shrouded by them praising and glorifying their arch-enemy as the “lord of the universe” and what-not. (wut? why do you all constantly fight him if you know “who he truly is” and so on? are you masochists, guys – i am seriously concerned. your opponent is apparently vishnu yet you go on fighting him knowing you’re gonna be defeated. what’s the point? medha, stfu) I mean, a professional, grudging admiration for a fellow warrior is fine, good even, but what’s this BS?

The next part is even more laughable, which I didn’t think was possible. They hear of Krishna’s “coronation” and except Rukmi, everyone attends it, even Jarasandha. Huh? Jarasandha who laughed in Krishna’s face in Mbh, called him a coward cowherd (love alliteration) outright so many times in both Mbh and HV . . . I don’t understand any of this. Is it fear for the one person you cannot seem to properly defeat? Are you trying to keep peace, because that’s ridiculous when you have gone on offence so many times. Is it that you are “honoured” to be part of such an important moment in your arch-enemy, who also happens to be “Vishnu’s poorna avatar”?

Then comes a truly interesting part – Bhishmaka and Krishna have a talk. Bhishmaka thinks it’s better to offer Rukmini to Krishna outright and that swayamvara is a stupid thing – whether it is this particular one Rukmi has arranged, or swayamvaras in general, is kinda unclear. For the sake of Bhishmaka, I will go with the first. He apologises to Krishna for not inviting him to the swaymvara for he is helpless against his ignorant son (I guess the ignorance relates to “the true form of Lord Krishna” here) and…hm, this is both exciting and…controversial? Krishna rebukes Bhishmaka quite strongly about letting Rukmi treat him as a doormat and what-not and I would be heart-eyes for he’s technically defending Rukmini in some weird, chauvinistic manner, but . . . is he? His tone is rather peculiar, if you read it. He ends his little tirade with saying that Rukmini is Lakshmi reborn and as such, meant only for him, and technically demands to dismiss the swayamvara. And then, he just…leaves with Garuda. Form your headcanons, guys. This is just too weird.

Bhishmaka is sweet-and-obedient little devotee now and does as he is told. Interestingly, this is before the formation of Dwaraka, for it is here, after the Rukmini’s swayamvara is postponed that Jarasandh and his cronies hatch the plot to use the foreigner Kalyavana to kill Krishna. (just now you attended the boy’s coronation ceremony, usually attended by allies and friends, and praised him as lord of all…make up your minds, guys)

Also, it is here that Rukmini makes up her mind to marry Krishna. Hm, a little meeting, particularly the one you wrote, Maya Di, is extremely likely!

Harana part –

After Kalyavana’s death, Jarasandha’s failure and Dwaraka’s formation, Jarasandha decides to have Rukmini married to Shishupala, just like that. Here is also said that Rukmi had gained celestial weaponry and the Brahmastra (woah!) from Druma and Parasurama respectively. Hm, looks like he was quite the excellent warrior. It isn’t specified if Parashurama only gave him the celestial weapons or taught him as well like he did with Karna – both are different things. But hey, why do people keep going to Parasurama specifically for Brahmastra? I feel bad for the big guy. [Also, here comes this strange issue, Parasurama is, by Karna’s words as well as popular perception, supposed to not hold any sort of guru-ness towards Kshatriyas, which is why the latter had to lie in order to learn from him, considering Suta is an inferior division of the main Kshatriya varna. But that’s topic for another day, Medha.]

Okay, so it is mentioned that Rukmini and Krishna both longed for Krishna, and though there’s no dialogue, it appears that Rukmi knew of this, for the text goes on to say why Rukmi won’t accept this marriage – his enmity with Krishna due to the latter killing his friend Kamsa who also happened to be son-in-law of beloved Jarasandha etc. The text says that with Jarasandha and Shishupala, also came the allied kings Dantavakra, Paundraka, and the kings of Anga and Vanga. [This…is markedly curious. Surely by this time in the epic, Karna was crowned Angaraja? For it not to be so, Krishna would have to be much, much older than the Pandavas, chronologically speaking, which is the headcanon of a popular modern writer Ashok K. Banker. But Yudhisthir and Bhima are considered Krishna’s elders many times in Mbh. There is also this strange friend/frenemy-ship between Karna and Jarasandha as they have a kind of stalemate in a fight and Jarasandha, pleased, offers Karna a city in Anga, Malinipuri, if I remember right. Does it mean that not all of Anga was under Hastinapur’s influence? Again, Medha, to dissect another day.]

Now, “to please their aunt” (Shishupala’s mother Shrutashrava), Krishna comes with Balarama and other Vrishni heroes, all welcomed by Kaisika and Kratha. Upon seeing Rukmini in her journey to pay obeisances to Goddess Indrani, Krishna, er, cannot control himself and decides to abduct her, in consultation with Balarama and others. To note that (i) even though the text expresses both their desires to be with each other, it seems like an impromptu decision to abduct Rukmini, almost as if in lust (at least, that’s what the text makes it sound like); (ii) there’s none of that “coming alone in a hurry after getting her letter” event, as per Harivamsa. He comes quite prepared, and even consults with the other Kshatriyas before going for it.

You know the drill now: Krishna abducts Rukmini as she finishes her prayers and Balarama defeats all the guards. Krishna then puts the responsibility of the war on Yadava heroes like Balarama, Satyaki, Kritavarma, Gada, Prasena (is this that same Prasena of Syamantaka incident?) etc. and sets out for Dwaraka with Rukmini. At all this, Jarasandha and his cronies Shishupala, Dantavaktra, Paundraka, kings of Anga (again!), Vanga, Kalinga and others decide to kill Krishna in a joint attack. There are small descriptions of these following duels – Satyaki vs Jarasandha, Akrura vs Dantavakra, Viprthu vs Shishupala. Shishupala, after being attacked by Atidanta, Gavesana and Brhaddurga (who are these people, gosh) kills Virpthu’s horses and beheads Brhaddurga. Balarama kills the king of Vanga and then attacks Jarasandha. All this results in the defeat of Jarasandha and his cronies.

Hearing this, Rukmi vows before Bhishmaka and if he can’t kill Krishna and bring Rukmini back, he won’t return to the capital Kundina. Note that the next part of his vow, bringing Rukmini back, isn’t mentioned in Mbh proper. He leaves, accompanied by Kratha (that devoted guy?), Amsuman, Srutarva, Venudari and Bhishmaka’s other unnamed sons.

Rukmi sees Krishna-Rukmini standing on the banks of Narmada (aw, what are these two love-birds doing on a riverbank, that’s so romantic… Medha, stop). [Also, as I argued with someone on Quora, had it been a forcible abduction, without Rukmini’s consent in any way whatsoever, considering the letter is not in HV, they wouldn’t be standing there on a riverbank, resting and doing hell-knows-what. It’s a logical fallacy, sorry.]  

Seeing them together, he gets even more pissed and wants to kill Krishna in a dwairatha (dual chariot) fight. Cool stuff. Both archers fight. Krishna kills his charioteer and cuts off his chariot-banner. [What’s the thing with this? Why even bother? If you are making a statement then stop, we know who’s gonna win. Even if you didn’t win the fight, the texts would still claim you the winner. Medha, stop, you are supposed to love the man. Yes, the man, not the god men have created as a horrible substitute for the real thing. Why am I saying this now? This is a very normal archery feat if we see Mahabharata’s war parvas.] He defeats all the Vidarbhan warriors and kills many. Rukmi is not a doormat. He retaliates, cutting off Krishna’s banner as well (the garuda one! wow, boi), hurts both Krishna and his charioteer with his arrows. [Aw, and people say Arjuna only won his duels because of Krishna being his charioteer. Dude, look at this. I mean, these people straight out claim him to be God Incarnate and yet, they can’t completely smoothly modify a fight scene to suit their purposes – how sweet. Stfu, Medha.] Krishna then cuts Rukmi’s bow. [The Vijaya one? Surely Rukmi is not fighting such a serious fight without it. If so, wow. You just cut Indra’s prized bow – you really have a strong issue with the guy, don’t ya? Yeah, I feel you.]

Rukmi picks up another (here’s to perseverance), which Krishna again cuts off and crushes Rukmi’s chariot. Now Rukmi rushes at Krishna with a sword (gotta give, guy’s relentless) which Krishna cuts off and uses a sharp weapon called naracha on him which hurts him enough to render him senseless. The remaining soldiers run away. Rukmini’s pity aroused, she pleads for Krishna to spare her brother. Krishna lifts her up and reasures her (awww *waves shipping flag, completely ignoring the falling at his feet part*), then assures poor Rukmi of his safety (who seems to have woken up from his swoon by now, poor boy must have been so tired…why am I feeling so bad for Rukmi? I hate the guy! Btw, I can so imagine Krishna being cheeky here). He returns to Dwaraka with Rukmini, accompanied by Balarama and other Yadavas and his wedding his celebrated there.

There are no later versions of the legend in other texts that tally with the first part (swayamvara) seen in Harivamsa. There’s no love letter, no shaving hair-and-moustache. Let me tell you guys here only, for I don’t want to repeat this, there is no Madhavpur Ghed in the texts I have encountered (and they’re quite a bunch, as you’ll see).

Note: The evolution or composition of Mahabharata and Harivamsa are considered by old and modern scholars alike to have gone parallely, so the insertions of Rukmi’s details, his guru Druma, his bow Vijaya, etc. which seem to exactly match Harivamsa, may have been addded after that part of Harivamsa was written.

Vishnu Purana (about 300 BC-450 CE)

Rukmini-harana is narrated very shortly here, whereas in Harivamsa, it takes up a few chapters, being one of the most prominent parts of the text, as compared to Krishna’s marriage to his other wives. The entire swayamvara part, from Krishna’s “coronation” to the postponement of the swayamvara is missing here. From the harana part as well, Rukmi and his celestial weaponry, worship of Indrani, consultation with Balarama and other Yadavas before abduction, seeing Rukmini-Krishna along Narmada, details of the fights, aren’t present. Again, no love letter (though, even this extremely short version of a few mere verses speaks of Krishna and Rukmini’s mutual love), no shaving. However, it doesn’t deviate from the “original” in Harivamsa as well; it only clips away the details as if deeming them unnecesary in the larger context.

Matsya Purana (about 200-500 CE) mentions her among the Ashtabharya, here listed as – Rukmini, Satyabhama, Satya, Nagnajiti, Gandhari, Subhima, Shaivya, Lakshmana. [argh, we’ll talk about this later. just know for one that this is clearly not a very…right list, and not only in popular perception. jambavati isn’t mentioned; satya, nagnajiti, gandhari and lakshmana are having an identity crisis amongst themselves. basically, the text(s) is (are) only sure about rukmini and satyabhama. pardonable, for they happen to be krishna’s most famous wives. i feel so bad.]

Bhaagavat Purana (about 500-1000 CE)

Oh, yeah, this one is interesting. Unlike Vishnu Purana, Bhaagavat is all about the details. (reminds me of amitabh sir in badla every time i say this word.) There are omissions as well, for Rukmi and his celestial weaponry, Bhishmaka’s lineage, etc. are not mentioned. Let me go by points of difference only, since the main story has been explained in Harivamsa.

We get to hear the names of Rukmi’s younger brothers, only mentioned in HV – Rukmaratha, Rukmavahu, Rukmakesa, Rukmamali. We come to know Rukmini heard of Krishna from bards and decided he would be her perfect match. (Despite Bhaagavat’s devotional fervour that distracts from the main events, I love its version so much better in so many places.) Similarly, hearing of Rukmini’s knowledge and beauty, our boy pines for her. The relatives shipped Rukmini/Krishna as well, but only Rukmi seems to be against it, who arranges her marriage to Shishu. Learning of this, Rukmini sends a faithful old brahmin to Dwaraka with her message, who is received respectfully by Krishna. In her message, she…well, makes me fangirl. Interspersed between what seems to be fanatically devotional love for her “lord”, Rukmini calmly devises a straight and firm plan for him to follow, from the going to the temple of Girija (not Indrani, here) and the Rakshasa vivaha, telling him “not to worry” and all, and also adds a little…threat, in the end, that if he doesn’t do so, she will give up her life by fasting. Neat.

- Srimad Bhaagavat Purana

Krishna, “in love and excitement”, says that he too has been spending sleepless nights pining for Rukmini. Aw.

- Srimad Bhaagavat Purana

Added this to say, here’s the implicit metaphor of Jarasandha and his cronies being the kindling and Rukmini the diew generated by churning them. (Why am I thinking of Samudra-manthan?)

Here, Krishna doesn’t bring Balarama or any other Yadava hero with him, straight going to Kundina on his chariot with his charioteer Daruka and the brahmin, and apparently reaches within one night (which is realistically impossible, except if he had something like Pushpaka, which is not so here). There’s lot of description of pre-wedding things, where the only thing striking me is the phrase “Rukmini with fine teeth”. (I can just imagine her baring her teeth at Rukmi’s back, uff.) As Shishu sets out from Chedi with Jarasandha and his cronies who have developed a “stratagem” to kill Krishna, Balarama comes to know of the plot and sets out after Krishna with the Yadava heroes, moved by his affection for his bro. Exasperated elder brother, here he is.

A despairing Rukmini is informed by the brahmin of Krishna’s arrival in Kundina, she thanks him. Bhishmaka comes to know of Krishna and Balarama’s arrival, whereas in Harivamsa, it was Kaisika who welcomed them. There’s also this huge gathering of Vidarbhans to see Krishna and they decide that only he is fit for their princess. That’s so sweet. After worshipping Goddes Ambika/Girija, asking for Krishna to be her husband, Rukmini returns very slowly from the temple, her beauty so bewitching that a few kings “fall down from their horses, elephants, chariots”. Omfg! Lol. Krishna abducts her in presence of all those kings, who rebuke themselves and shower arrows upon Krishna, seeing which Rukmini laments in fear. Krishna consoles her, the Yadavas march against the kings; Jarasandha, Shishu and their friends have to flee to save their lives. No details are given, as compared to HV. Here, is a very interesting segment, where Shishu laments about having “lost” Rukmini and Jarasandha consoles him in a strangely fatalistic manner:

- Srimad Bhaagavat Purana

Comment: Jara actually doesn’t sound insane or just fatalistic here, imo. He sounds...manipulative af. Don’t think that was the intent of the writers (more likely it was just to forwards the idea of fate and futility as opposed to true action), but that’s what it sounds like to me. Worthy opponent for Krishna, if you ask me.

Now, there’s that drill with Rukmi and his vow, except here, he’s said to have taken an akshauhini of men. When he sees Krishna-Rukmini (no Narmada river here), he verbally insults Krishna unlike prev. versions and then attacks him.

- Srimad Bhaagavat Purana

(Even the abuse here is mild, compared to Mahabharata. I mean, think of the dice game, the Shishupala-vadha parva and so on! But still, Bhaagavat retains class, even as it propounds avatar-vaad, fatalism and fervent devotion.)

The description of battle here is more intense and long-drawn (compared to the main Yadava battle fought against Jarasandha and his cronies), with Krishna cutting down Rukmi’s banner, and then breaking three of his bows. Rukmi uses various kinds of weapons on Krishna – Parigha, Pattisa, Tomara, Camra, Shula, Asi, Shakti, etc. but Krishna remains steadfast in his defence. Rukmi then picks up a sword and rushes at Krishna; there’s no mention of Krishna having killed his charioteer and crushed his chariot. Krishna descends to thebsword-fight and brandishing his own, breaks Rukmi’s sword too. Now you know the drill, falling at his feet and all, our Rukmini. (Don’t roll your eyes, Medha.) Now...it’s in Bhaagavat we see the disfiguring first, Krishna deciding to give him some sort of light punishment, shaving off his moustache, beard and hair unevenly.

There’s another alteration here, that Balarama comes to see this and rebukes Krishna for humiliating a relative. Rukmini is apparently inconsolable and he offers Rukmini a patronising (if sensible philosophically in many places) discourse, starting with a more political note of “the conduct of Kshatriyas is hard and merciless where brother kills brother” and continuing with a lengthy philosophical lecture of the body and the soul, as in in tune with Mahabharata’s Gita, to a marginal extent. Rukmini attempts to calm down, and they return to Dwaraka. The marriage is well-described, with the addition of kings with intimate relations invited – from Kuru, Srinjaya, Kekeya, Kunti races and Vidarbh as well! Hm. Interesting. As is the inconsolable Rukmini, described earlier, which finds no mention in earlier (or a few later versions). Is it so hard to imagine a “difficult woman”, in Nikita Gill’s terms? Does she have to be a wilting flower, even though it breaks off from her prev. characterisation? I mean, she can sure be miffed at it, but for her to be so disconsolate that Balarama out of all people has to offer a huge-ass philosophical advice. Sigh. Basically, Bhaagavat more or less presents it attractively by way of supplying more materials to the story (the greatest and most landmark being Rukmini’s letter), even while it ignores some other details (like Narmada).

Brahmanda Purana (about 400-600 CE) doesn’t delineate the main legend, but Rukmini, the princess of Vidarbha, is mentioned as Krishna’s principal wife, along with the names of their sons and daughter.

Padma Purana (about 400-1600 CE)

Points of difference:

Brothers’ names apart from Rukmi not mentioned.

To fulfil her desire to marry her “lord”, Rukmini worships the gods from childhood itself and keeps sacred vows. Hm, yeah, go ahead.

Here, her brahmin is called the son of a purohita who is received by both Krishna and Balarama. Rukmini’s words in her message are not there anymore (a format which will be followed by every later version except the kavyas) as opposed to the beautiful plan in Bhaagavat and, they both set out for Kundina. No army of Yadava heroes accompany them.

Rukmini goes to the temple by her chariot rather than by foot, at evening, none of which is mentioned in prev. versions. After the abduction, it is Balarama who singlehandedly routs all the kings headed by Jarasandha, using his plough (Langala) and Musala (…the same weapon they use in the fratricidal war of Mausala parva, incidently; so it has some other source than that “curse” where Samva delivers this “new weapon” called musala).

There’s no mention of Rukmi’s vow.

When Rukmi attacks Krishna, he laughs and defends himself with his bow Saranga, a bow presented by Indra. Keeping with both HV and Bhaagavat, dear Krishna obligingly cuts of Rukmi’s bow, his banner, his charioteer’s head and crushes the chariot. There’s Rukmi with his sword, and Krishna with a sharp knife.

Interestingly, there’s no objection or plea or falling at his feet from Rukmini, but Krishna still doesn’t kill him, letting him go by his own free will. That doesn’t stop him from laughing and shaving the hair on his head, though. The beard and moustache are forgiven.

Despite not having taken the vow, apparently the humiliation is enough for Rukmi to built Bhojkata in Vidarbh outside of Kundina, keeping with all prev. versions.

No Madhavpur again. What’s interesting here, is that Nanda and Yashoda and other cowherds are present in the wedding in Dwaraka, unlike popular perception which says Krishna never met his adoptive parents after having left Vrindavana.

Skanda Purana (about 600-1200 CE)

It is narrated to Yudhisthir by Markandeya about the significance of some Rukmini teertha. Points of difference:

Rukmini’s mother is mentioned to be “Mahadevi”. This could also be a title, since queens were also addressed thus. Rukmini is said to be her second child, younger to Rukmi and elder to the other brothers, whose names aren’t mentioned.

At her birth, there is this prophecy about her marriage to this four-armed divine person by a bodiless voice, kinda like Kamsa’s akashvani. Sure, go on. Marry her to Krishna right as she’s born, why don’t you? It’s destiny after all. Can I add that the previous love affair between Rukmini and Krishna is also not mentioned. 

Damaghosha, king of Chedi and Shishupala’s father goes to Bhishmaka with a marriage proposal, more in accordance with a marriage as we see it now as compared to the prev. versions (where Jarasandha and Rukmi are instrumental), as also the prevalent nature of marriage of those days w.r.t. Mahabharata.

These two develop attraction to each other just prior to the abduction, in the vein of Harivamsa, but Harivamsa does speak of mutual pining long before the abduction. 

The brahmin messenger, the role or even the name of Jarasandha, Rukmi’s fierce vow – nothing finds mention.

Unlike prev. versions, Krishna and Balarama are invited by Bhishmaka to Rukmini’s marriage. No other Yadava hero is mentioned to have accompanied, similar to Padma Purana.

It brings back the river Narmada, where Rukmini and Krishna were resting and Rukmi stumbled upon them, which is only found farther back in Harivamsa.

Now, the battle with Rukmi gets interesting here. There is no archery or even swordfight; rather, Krishna takes his chakra to battle. Fearful, Rukmini asks Krishna to bless her brother with the “divine eye”. Krishna obeys, “pleased” by Rukmini. Rukmi’s ignorance taken away, he offers auspicious prayers to Krishna, who, pleased at the brother this time, blesses him and speaks “blissful words”. Rukmi happily goes back to Kundina. No Bhojkata, no insult, no killing or fighting.

Even the marriage isn’t celebrated in Dwaraka, but on the very banks of Narmada, in the presence of pious sages and other brahmins.

A long explanation of the significance of Rukmini tirtha is given in details, which we don’t find in prev. versions and which I have no energy to go over, for it isn’t significant to either the topic, or even Rukmini in general.

In a nutshell, Skanda Purana takes a decided and marked departure from the martial, the political and the more realistic, to the more mystical realms that have surrounded Krishna and his actions. Do we see a pattern here?

Brahmavaivarta Purana (about 700-1500 CE)

God, I hate this one so much. In a nutshell, guys, it goes several steps ahead of Skanda Purana and goes for a classic social marriage, as is prevalent nowadays. There’s no abduction, no Shishupala, no love, no resistance from Rukmi, no agency from either the bride or the groom. Nothing.

[Instead of Rukmini-harana, or even Rukmini-swayamvara, the headings become “Rukmini Udvaah Prastaav varnan” (description of proposal of Rukmini’s marriage) and then, “Rukmini Vivaahe Yuddham” (fight in Rukmini’s marriage). Credit where credit’s due, I learnt from an online friend about the Sanskrit titles.]

No message is sent by Rukmini, but a brahmin messenger does go with a proposal of marriage. He is sent by Bhishmaka instead of Rukmini. What’s more, the letter was addressed to Ugrasena, and it’s not Krishna, or even Balarama, who receives the proposal. It is Ugrasena, stepping into the limelight where before he had no role to play except that of a figurehead and a tortured father as per the texts.

In Kundina (described in detail for the first time, with the classic mahajanapada-style ditch around it), Krishna and Rukmini have a nice social marriage, presided over by all the elders and kings, with Bhishma, Drona, Duryodhana etc. and the Pandavas in attendance. Again, no mention of Jarasandha, but there’s a fight between Balarama and Shishupala, Dantavakra, Rukmi and Shalva, ending in a sorta mysterious, inconclusive defeat.

How interesting is it, that Brahmavaivarta is a text dedicated to, er, Radha-Krishna, an idea that didn’t exist until the Bhakti movement. So they just decide that no, such a daredevil mariage between lovers won’t do. It has to be society forcing these two together (rather than apart, as we see in Mahabharata et al), because it is Radha and Krishna whose relationship is against society, the rebellion of rebellions in the name of true love nd devotion, blah-blah. Forgive my tone, please, but I am pissed off, ‘kay?

The concerted effort to make everything in Krishna’s life, except Radha (oh, because they are the Supreme in Goloka, which is even above Kailasa and Vaikuntha, and nothing can separate them and all), socially acceptable because he’s their “God” who can do no wrong except if in “true love for Radha” (when the dude clearly rebelled against society any chance he got) is ridiculous. Esp. this! Damn, don’t make my girl into this insignificant little thing. Harivamsa and Vishnu Purana were silent about Rukmini’s letter too, but at least both mentioned clear attraction and interest between Krishna-Rukmini.

Digressing: Also, why is Krishna such a sap here, suddenly? Or why does the Radha-Krishna pairing (which originally symbolises the Jeevatma-Paramatma or devotee-god relationship,) need Krishna to chase her ceaselessly and for all his actions to lead up to her, despite him advocating being a man of action in the real world? I am sorry for being so vocal; it’s probably just my pent-up frustration from that horrible Radha-Krishna serial where this Krishna (gosh, I can’t even call him that!) finds a reason to cry every single time. I would have forgiven it had they cut off the Vishnu’s avatar perspective and kept only the lover boy part, but they keep it and they still make him a crybaby. What’s worse…at the times he should actually feel bad, he’s “calm” af, looking as if he has transcended every human emotion, and just patronises people. Such hypocrisy. Look, I have nothing against men who cry; in fact, it’s heartening to have men strong enough to embrace their emotions, esp. publicly; similarly, there is nothing wrong with suppressing them (apart from the mental health issues it generates, but we are no one to judge). But people, when you are making an omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient character…keep the BS consistent at least?! (Sorry, civility.) 

Agni Purana (about 800-1100 CE) only mentions Rukmini as one of the eight principal wives.

[Devi-Bhaagavata Purana gives a brief outline sticking to what’s known. It says that in Rukmini’s swayamvara, Shishupala is specifically invited (this is the popular notion, and what I personally believed too, and still find myself going for). Krishna, with Ugrasena’s permission (not mentioned in prev. versions; as opposed to consulting with his fellow warriors in HV), takes Rukmini in Rakshasa vivaha. It also mentions that he later married Jambavati, Satya, Mitravinda, Kalindi, Nagnajiti, Bhadra, Lakshmana. (Satyabhama is not present. She seems to have been confused with Satya, whose other name is Nagnajiti, princess of Kosala.)

Kalki Purana goes for this elaborate Rukmini vrata which grants desired husband to a lady as a fruit of the vrata, where Rukmini is accorded deity status alongside Krishna, seemingly for the first time (not considering the temples dedicated to both). A woman named Sharmistha (strangely similar to Sharmistha of Yayati, Puru’s mother, who too hankered after Yayati) offers oblations to Rukmini-Krishna, saying a prayer: “O Lord, offerer of boons, accept the camphor, molasses and sandalwood with your beloved Rukmini, princess of Vidarbha. O lotus-eyed one, possesor of pitambara and four arms, supreme of gods. Please be satisfied with me and protect me with Rukmini.” It’s far longer, but this is the gist. Is this still Krishna we are speaking of? Huh, all these rituals and Krishna don’t sit well.]

I have only been able to catch hold of so many texts, and of the others, Markandeya Purana (about 250-700 CE) and Shiva Purana (about 1000-1400 CE) do not even mention Rukmini. Mudgala Purana only says Lord Krishna had 16,008 beautiful wives and washes its hands off. 

Note: Mathematician and Vedic shastra writer Baudhayana cites Rukmini/Krishna as an example of Rakshasa vivaha.

Sanskrit Literature

So after the Puranas kinda close off the (d)evolution with turning such interesting stuff to the dry social marriage w.r.t. to the parallel evolution of Radha-Krishna, where the concept of Krishna shifted completely from a socio-political persona with mild godlike touch to become a complete love god (as also the lord of the universe)… Rukmini rises again in later literature, of what, by modern standards, would be ancient fanfiction. Lol. There are loads of poetic descriptions (think Kalidasa) that embellishes the narrative – for example, the beauty of sunrise described for paragraphs onto paragraphs. (Yeah, I skimmed those. I was too interested in some Rukmini action. Will appreciate the poetry later.)

References are made to the Rukmini-haran incident in Shishupala-vadham by Magha in around 600 CE, in the 2nd canto, where Balarama, Krishna and Uddhava are in conversation, planning to kill Shishupala. (I hate this.) The entire canto is full of controversial speeches. Balarama refers to Krishna abducting Rukmini from her swayamvara and defeating Shishupala as being the latter’s prime reason for animosity, saying things like “women are the root of all enmity”.

It is referred to in Bhavabhuti’s Malati-Madhav as well, a love story between Malati and Madhav (son of a Vidarbhan minister), where in a convo between friends, a lady says something like “Purushottama Krishna accepted Rukmini, the mother of Kandarpa (Pradyumna being considered Kama’s rebirth), at her self-choice (swayamvara) ceremony”.

There is Bhagavata-Champu (don’t laugh) by Ananta Bhatta before 1500 AD and Sri-Gopala-Champu by Jiva Goswami. Both show their retellings to be derived from Bhaagavata purana (I’m so glad). In fact, in some places, like Rukmini’s letter and Balarama’s consolatory speech after Rukmi’s humiliation, the lines (as per the translated hardcopy in my home) seem to have been picked up directly from Bhaagavata. So it must be that the original Sanskrit lines were as well. The only thing that differs in Sri-Gopala-Champu is the premise of the story. Two messengers from Krishna tell the story to Nanda, Rukmini’s attributes coming up in the conversation. Radha and her fellow Gopis are mentioned as being present and eulogised. (Can no one let my girl have a moment?) But I love these few lines from the convo. The listeners speak thus (not the exact translation, but I don’t have the book rn):

“Although a girl, she is very intelligent and brave.”

“Is she a girl?” (Omfg, I laughed so much at this)

“No, never. She is a tense female elephant.” (The comparison is aimed to be praising of the confident, slow gait of an elephant in Sanskrit poetry, not in the modern way a woman might be called en elephant. Warriors and great women hav often been compared to elephants. There also seems to be an oxymoron as she is described as being tense or edgy, perhaps an allusion to being cautious…Hm, the spy headcanon, @avani008​ and @allegoriesinmediasres​? *grins excitedly* Oh, we’ll take anything, won’t we?)

“She is fearless, because she is a princess.”

Intelligent, brave, fearless, cautious…oh yeah, all my personal headcanons too.

Other Sanskrit works are as follows, to the best of my knowledge, some gathered from my grandparents and some from friends. I don’t know if their online versions are available, will have to see.

Bhaismi-Parinaya-Champu by prolific poet Ratnakheta Srinivasa Dikshita (South India) around late 16th century. also based on the Bhaagavata version. His son, renowned scholar Rajachuramani Dikshita wrote the Rukmini-Kalyana-Mahakavya (flourished in late 16th and early 17th centuries), possibly one of the most important Sanskrit works on the incident. This one, I unfortunately haven’t read, but have heard about from my late eldest grandfather. Two whole cantos take up Krishna’s mental affliction and pining in a pleasure garden of Dwaraka at the thought of his beloved Rukmini. Aw. Basically, Sanskrit poetry used to be all about elaborate descriptions and comparisons which would veer far, far away from the context, which in these times would be considered redundant and unnecessary. I agree, sort of. I would rather read about political machinations, rather than devotional poetry that distracts us from the issue at hand, thank you very much. Stfu, Medha.

We have Parvati-Rukminiya by astrologer poet Vidya Madhav in late 17th century, which narrates two marriages at a time – Shiva/Parvati and Krishna/Rukmini. Rukmini-Parinaya was written by Ram Varman of Trivancore in the middle 18th century.

Rukmini-Haranam-Mahakavyam, by Kashinatha Sharma Dvivedi, was published first in 1966 AD. (This one, my eldest grandmother straight up read to me, Bengal-ising it while she read. It was arduous, but I was old enough to bear the long hours.) Here, we find a few deviations from Bhaagavat – We find a long description of Rukmini straight up from birth to youth (yikes, that’s what I was attempting to do in my Yugantaram fic). It’s not a lot of characterisation, though – mainly dramatisation, if I remember correctly. (Unfortunately, I don’t know if we have that book any more.) The second canto has a description of Narada, who comes to Bhishmaka’s court bearing Krishna’s tales, which we don’t find in prev. versions, and who appears in the first canto of Magha’s Shishupala-vadham as well. In the third canto, Rukmini, hearing all this, falls in love and is treated by the royal physicians and offered consolation by her friends. (Here’s to one of my best-beloved lines of Hema’s Meerabai, ‘Is love an affliction, that you can cure?’) The next four cantos dramatise and stretch this love-struck Rukmini – with lovely descriptions of the moon, the seasons, the royal garden, etc. The next three cantos describe Rukmini’s marriage being fixed to Shishu by Rukmi, her sending the brahmin messenger to Krishna, a vivid description of Krishna’s beauty (as a young gal, I fell in love with that, yeah, I know, sorry) and an equally beautiful description of the dawn (which may be compared to the description of dawn in Shishupala-vadham by Magha… people are really fond of poeticising political and social issues to hide their significance behind glamour. Medha, stop). In the next canto, Krishna begins his journey to Vidarbha with obeisance to Lord Shiva, which isn’t present anywhere else. It is worth mentioning that the poet also starts his epic poem with salutations to Shiva as well, and states that he composed the entire poem with the grace of Lord Shiva. There’s a lot more descriptions, along with the deviation of Rukmini being guarded on orders of Shishupala rather than those of Rukmi, but the skeleton is all Bhaagavat. Sharma Dvivedi has been inspired heavily by Magha. It stands that his Rukmini-Haranam-Mahakavyam is the most successful rendering of the legend.

It has come to my knowledge that there are other Sanskrit literary works on these two as well but…I just don’t have the energy, sorry. There is a time and place for poetry and devotional fervour. Let me just say, with absolute relish on my side, that it is the Bhaagavat version that is preferred by our predecessors unanimously and all the Sanskrit literature is based on that. Personally, my go-to is Harivamsa and Bhaagavat as well, especially since they have the oldest layers of puranic text. I mean, just imagine, if all later retellings had been based on Brahmavaivarta rather than Bhaagavat. There would be no Rukmini-lovers at all! I mean, the first love does start from the most popular version, after all. It never fails to intrigue me, how legends undergo these modifications, and none of it is a coincidence.

Much love,

Medha

[fandom-collective-writers]

Reader x Jihyun Kim {MysMes} - Letters to Heal a Broken Heart

Title: Letters to Heal a Broken Heart Fandom: Mystic Messenger Character: Jihyun Kim Genre: bittersweet? romance Warnings: spoilers for his good ending!  Intended Gender Audience: Neutral Audience  Word Count: 2040 words POV: second person Other comments: no smut but im proud of this! please note that everything with the push back is a letter! i think its pretty clear, but i wanted to make sure it’s understood <3 Written by: @mythiica​ Req: 

Dear –

I’ll admit, it feels a bit strange writing a letter for you, but my therapist recommended it. He told me to explain my emotions with words, saying it would help me become more confident. 

See, the reasoning behind it, at least from what I remember, is that there is no pressure to think quickly. Writing allows a flow, a sense of movement between the words before you pick which one you wish to use. Talking is different because it follows a completely contrasting rhythm. To keep a conversation going, you have to speak rather quickly so the person stays engaged in the topic. 

It’s all really interesting, and my therapist has given me a book over the fundamentals of other practices like this. I read half of it on the plane to Japan. 

To clarify, I’m writing this from my hotel room in Tokyo. I landed a few hours ago and the jet lag has yet to hit me, so I decided to take advantage of this time to write. 

I think you’d like it here – the sakura are in full bloom and I have three days dedicated to photographing the sea of pinks as they ripple in the wind. Until now, I’ve only seen pictures of the famous parks, and I never thought that I would be able to witness them in person. 

I didn’t think I’d

I never conside

Ah, I should mention, I’m not allowed to erase or cross out sentences I start. Another confidence booster? It’s a bit sillier, but it’s meant to force me to say what is on my mind, rather than letting it fester. I’ll try again: 

During my years under Mint Eye, my vision was narrowed, and I had only one duty. However, I am learning to broaden my horizons and expand my mind to encompass everything. The urge to explore bubbles in my chest, waiting for the moment to come out. There are so many chances to do anything, and I’ve got all the time to do all of it. 

I’ve also realized that I went over my word limit. I have to stick to 300 words or under. Confidence booster #3! Express yourself with less words. Take a guess of how many times I’ve opened the thesaurus, looking for better synonyms for words? At least seven times in the past five minutes. It’s crazy! 

For now, I’ll sign this off and try better next time. 

                                                 よりご多幸を祈って

                                                           Jihyun Kim

PS, I’m practicing my Japanese! That says best wishes… I think. 

नमस्कार

Hello and greetings from India! I took a long nap on the plane, and forgot to write. Although I’m only passing through, I ate some delicious food (that I should really try to replicate for you). India is absolutely beautiful – from the sunrises to the bustling markets to the colorful fabrics hung at every corner. I’ll inhale the air and smell six things at once, albeit, not all of them are the best, but I embrace it nonetheless. 

More about what I’ve been doing: funnily enough, my phone died on the bus ride, but I made a new friend named Sunmi, and she was kind enough to lend me her charging cable. Instead of ending the interaction there, we spoke for a few hours at least. I learned she was traveling with her friends on a photography excursion. She gave me all the information, and I’d like to look into it when I have wifi again. 

You wouldn’t believe what they’ve seen! Last year they went to Antarctica through South America. She got to pet a penguin! Apparently the company also takes people to Greenland and New Zealand – some places I’ve been dreaming of visiting since I was a young boy. 

I’ll use my last 100 words to mention that… I’ve gotten a bit homesick. I miss the RFA – well, the people from the RFA minus… 

Don’t tell Jumin about the company though, he’ll insist on flying me around with his private jet. I want to experience for myself. Saeyoung is somehow messaging me when I don’t have service? I don’t… understand. Anyways, I also saw Zen landed a huge international role (someone had a magazine on the plane). Otherwise, I hope Jaehee and Yoosung are well. And Elizabeth the 3rd of course. Send them my wishes. 

I didn’t forget about you though! The keychain you gave me reminds me of home every day. It might have lost an eye, but I found a button and stitched it on. And I also wanted to ask you–

Ah, I’m over again. 

Next time. 

                                                           Jihyun Kim

Iyi günler! I am in Turkey now and actually writing this on a boat. The sun is setting over the horizon, making the sky change colors with every passing minute. It’s breathtaking, but I wish you were here with me. The other passengers and I take turns standing at the front of the boat, and I sometimes linger, trying to take pictures. 

Good news! My vision is getting better. I’ve been taking some Greek herbal remedies, and the seem to be helping. Either that, or they have a wonderful placebo effect. Has that ever happened to you? To think something is working, but you’re just imagining things? 

I apologize, maybe that stirred bad memories for you. 

Back to Turkey: I stepped out of my comfort zone and spent a night camping. Honestly? I was terrified of doing so, but now I want to do it every night. It is the perfect temperature for hiking, even though I am a bit sunburned. 

So many people have been commenting on my hair. Good things mostly, and I started styling it with a bit of gel to keep it out of my eyes. It feels good to look people directly rather than through a curtain. 

What are you up to? Hosting anymore parties? I imagine that you are keeping busy, as always of course. My therapist said it would be best to wait messaging you until I return home. I nearly called you a week ago, but I didn’t want to break my vow. It’s like lying to myself, and I know better than that now. 

Still, it doesn’t stop me from dreaming. 

                                                           Sending love, 

                                                                     J

I’m genuinely angry, but writing to you always calms me. Someone stole my bag – I luckily didn’t have much in it, but your keychain… can you make me a new one please? Now that I don’t have it, it’s almost like I’ve lost a part of you. It hurts a lot, but then I wonder if I am being silly. It’s just a keychain. 

Otherwise, France is nice. I didn’t want to go to Paris, so instead I traveled through the countryside to visit a few wineries. 

Yes, I did… drink a bit, but I wasn’t impaired when my bag was stolen! 

You would laugh at me if I told you what happened, so I will save the story for another time. Before coming to France, I went through Germany and visited some of the most beautiful castles I’ve ever seen. They all looked like they could be straight from a fantasy movie set, and I was convinced one – Neuschwanstein Castle – actually was. 

I’ve barely written anything despite so much happening. 

I got a haircut (finally), because it was becoming a hassle to tie it back at night. 

One evening, I fed some stray cats and they followed me home. 

And a drunk (?) tried to play cards with me. But he didn’t have cards. He was dealing an imaginary deck. 

Other stories will have to wait until I see you again, and I feel better now. It’s okay to be upset, but it won’t hinder my trip any more. 

                                                           Je t'aime, 

                                                                     Jihyun

Alaska doesn’t have a night. 

That’s not exactly true, but it’s basically true. The hotel has special curtains that block the light, and it is only dark for a few hours. 

It has been many miles since I last wrote, but I was caught up in visiting show after event after party after exhibit through America. Their art has given me a new perspective on point of view and emotions, so I hope that the ten camera chips I’ve filled with photographs will be able to convey the same sense of awe. 

I’ve also been mistaken for an idol? Like – multiple times. Interesting to say the least, maybe I’ll say yes to the next person that asks. What should my stage name be? I’ll spare you the embarrassment and not share my ideas. They are all very silly and no one would believe me if I told them my name was Cam Ra. Do you get it? It’s bad, I know. 

I’ll be returning home soon, unless I get distracted or impulsive and go down to California and Hawaii before coming back. I want to – it doesn’t feel right to return just yet. But that doesn’t mean anything about you! 

Really, I think about you and everyone else each day. 

Have you met new people? We’ll exchange so many stories… 

                                                           See you soon, 

                                                                     J K 

You pace around, waiting for the last guest on the list to appear. The party started an hour ago, but he still has not arrived. Then again, it has been three months since anyone heard a whisper from V, and you start to lose hope. Swallowing hard, you remind yourself that V is having a wonderful time exploring the world and finding himself. 

          Taking a handful of your dress, you turn and head through the doors to the main room. Jumin tries to pull Saeyoung away from Longcat, Yoosung explains his most recent surgeries to a group of nurses from his work place, and Jaehee receives many compliments for her majestic cake. 

         Everyone is happy and has moved on. 

         You hope V has too. 

         Maybe all the wishing and praying finally paid off, because you hear his familiar voice calling out behind you. It’s a long shot, but you turn around nonetheless, thinking it is a different guest. 

         Instead, you see Jihyun, wearing the most dazzling smile you’ve ever seen, running towards you. He’s carrying a folder filled with papers, but that doesn’t stop him from embracing you. He smells rugged, like his voyage has transformed him, but you rather like it. 

         “Jihyun!” You melt against his hug. “You’re.. Here… you’re here!” 

         Your squealing draws everyone’s attention, but he focuses on you and only you. “Of course I’m here. I missed you more than I can verbalize.” 

         His stance is open, welcoming, and confident, much different from two years ago. He is a different person now, brave and proud. Jihyun offers you the folder. It is strange to gift something in the middle of a party, but you accept it anyways, happy he has returned. 

         Jihyun’s heart races as he explains. “I wrote you letters every time I went somewhere new. These are just a few of them, really I have so many. But each shows something I’ve learned.” He takes a breath and laces his fingers with yours. “This is sudden, and I’m sure you will need time to think about it, but I’m trying something new: asking without being afraid. Over the past two years, I’ve… longed for you. Art has shown me the power of friendship, joy, perseverance, and most importantly, dedication. I want to dedicate my art to you, if you’ll stand by my side.” 

         You can’t find the words to express yourself because you are so awestruck. He truly has changed, but he has embraced himself and his life. Tears start to roll down your cheeks from the overwhelming surge of emotions. Jihyun brushes them away and presses his forehead to yours. 

         “I still have much to learn, but I want to do it all with you.” 

         “I’d like that a lot, Jihyun,” you whisper, captivated by his intense gaze. 

         “And I can finally say this without fear–” 

         You tip your head up, and Jihyun kisses you the next moment. His lips are chapped and the warmth radiating from his skin envelops you. He doesn’t need words to communicate it, because you understand perfectly what he is trying to say. 

[maddiesup]

Tag game!

I was tagged by @ohbabycupcakes thank u💖

RULES: Name 10 favorite characters from 10 different things then tag 10 people + leave comments on all of them

This is gonna be hard, where do I even start?

1) Keith (Voltron: Legendary Defender)

Okay I'm- trying not to laugh too hard because oh boy, this show was a complete mess. BUT Keith still stays as one of my favorite characters ever just because no matter how badly I was hurt by vld he'll always be precious to me 💖 He's hotheaded, cool and a lone wolf, but needs affection more than anyone else on the team. He's easy for me to relate to as I am more likely to push someone away than to keep them close just to avoid being hurt as well. His development is amazing tho and I love love him so much 😭 also it might be just that I have a soft spot for emo characters lmao

2) Todoroki Shoto (Boku no Hero Academia)

This just reinforces my statement earlier since Todoroki is pretty emo too :') But in a different way than Keith. If you are a part of bnha fandom you know he's generally a little bit overrated, but I couldn't help falling in love with him at first sight anyway lol His backstory is tragic but he keeps pursuing his dream and damn is he good at it. Also the combo of fire and ice is aesthetic goals. However, what I admire the most about Shoto is probably his loyalty to his friends, his will to fight and sometimes his goofy attitude (even if he probably isn't aware that he's being goofy lol) In conclusion: I love him, let's move on.

3) Uenoyama Ritsuka (Given)

Can I just stop to say how much I love given for a moment? Like I've never seen a bl anime/manga that would portray gay characters so respectfully 😭❤️ Ue is basically me gay panicking, I feel the boy so much :') OH also what's up with gays & guitars bc first given, then why r u and now also 2gether :') (I might be falling in love with this trope help) okay so: Ue is panicking when he starts liking Mafuyu but he handles it so well in a way? He doesn't deny his crush even if he is slow to notice it lol He's straightforward and sometimes a little bit rough around the edges, but even if he's supposed to be "the cool guy" we see him in the most hilarious settings and that just makes me love him all the more 💖 he respects Mafuyu and his boundaries and I want more of that in bl anime please

4) Eiji & Ash (Banana Fish)

Uhhhh this anime,,, I CANNOT choose between Ash and Eiji, I'm gonna forever see them as a pair and that's simply it. Ash is another emo one I would like to say that but he's actually not. He's backstory is heartbreaking and the life he has to live is dangerous and scary. He gets used to this reality where he has no one to rely on and no one to trust but then Eiji appears tearing his walls down and making him finally be able to show his soft and sensitive side to someone. Eiji is like a salve for his wounds and yes, I'm still emotional about it bc their relationship is one of the best developped I've ever seen. Their bond is so strong it's beautiful, they would literally die for each other. It's so apparent that they love each other and care for each other so much (don't mind me crying in the corner)

5) Percy Jackson (Percy Jackson & the Olympians)

PJ technically got me into fantasy/sci-fi in elementary school and it stays at the top of my favorite book series list ever (big props to Uncle Rick 👏) The whole series is funny and I would say pretty light-hearted even tho you know,,, Percy saves the world several times, lol, usual demigod things™. He's lovable. Son of Poseidon so he has seaweeds instead of a brain (or so you thought, he is brilliant at strategic planning and has a charisma to be a great leader), has a very good sense of humor, is loyal and would risk everything for his friends. Also he loves his girlfriend very much and I was crying while reading the House of Hades but no one needed to know that oh well. I'm also gonna mention Nico de Angelo here, since he fell in love with Percy (didn't we all tho) and was the first gay character I saw portrayed in the book and oh do I love him 😭💖

6) 707 (Mystic Messenger)

Was I losing sleep over this game? I was. Do I regret anything? Absolutely not. I think my choices are pretty boring tho, since Seven is literally everyone's favorite but oh boy there's a reason for that. Apart from being a talented hacker who knows too much (and I think is cautious of us the most at the start) he has a lovely happy-go-lucky personality composed of all the lame jokes, questions "have you eaten already" and anxiety (another emo one). He's that type of a character who will always try to make you laugh but you never know what's going on inside his head. He's mysterious and we don't get to know him well till his route so pretty much till the end of the game lol. Also he loves his brother, phd pepper, honey buddha chips and Elizabeth 3rd the most in this entire world and I love him for that

7) Evan Hansen (Dear Evan Hansen)

ANOTHER EMO ONE okay but hear me out Evan has social anxiety and its portrayal is almost too real for me. He makes a big oopsie which at the start seems like a little innocent lie but then snowballs to enormous sizes. He gains everything in this bargain, a best (dead) friend, a caring mother, a father, a girlfriend even - and then everything falls apart since it all is built on one fat lie. He makes a lot of mistakes and then some more but you get it and you feel for him, and you cry with him and you're happy for him. And when all of this is over you're glad that he's still there trying his best, taking it one day at a time. And sidenote: Ben Platt's voice is angelic and I love him as Evan 💖💖💖

8) Isak (SKAM)

Another gay panicking one. I'm starting to realize there's a set of traits that I particularly like in fictional characters lol But ye, when I was watching skam ofc it was the third season which gripped me the most and kept me on the edge, bc yet again Isak taking an "are you gay" test was way too real for me. He makes a lot of mistakes along the way of figuring out his sexuality and sometimes stuff with Evan becomes really messy (for both of them) but he stays with him nevertheless ❤️ Skam is literally so good in its portrayal of the characters :') Anyways: alt er love 💖

9) Viktor & Yuuri (Yuri on Ice)

Em, another one that I absolutely can't break up to just one bc how could I? Yuri on ice got me into skating ❤️ I went to an ice rink for the first time bc of this anime and I almost died but now look at me actually finishing my first three months of ice skating training and watching real life figure skating competitions :') Little did I know then. But they're not only my favourites bc of that, I genuinely love the development of their relationship from fan - idol through skater - couch to lovers and history makers in the end. I love how Yuuri is a ball of insecurities and how Viktor manages to reassure him. I love how Viktor fell in love with drunk Yuuri clinging to him. I love how at first Yuuri wasn't able to get too close to Viktor without getting flustered and it changes so drastically to them basically always holding onto each other. I love how Viktor was stuck with no inspiration but then Yuuri came and turned his world upside down. I love how they support and respect each other. I could probably go on into eternity like that and Yuri on ice isn't even the best anime I've ever seen but it's certainly my favourite one ❤️

10) Tutor (WHY R U)

I can't believe I'm so obsessed with thai dramas rn and I'm only gonna include Tor on this list smh He's mental attitude inspires me. He's able to hold so much and appears totally unfazed even if he's barely holding on inside. He's hardworking and doesn't want others to pity him since he can manage it all just fine. He has a kind heart, he's a wonderful friend (especially to Hwa, he always listens to her, gives her pieces of advise, supports her and tries to cheer her up). He never forgets to say thank you when he genuinely feels grateful. But as we've seen he also is passionate and when he loves he LOVES. Also he's the biggest tease to Fighter and I love him for that :') I am so satisfied just by seeing him happy, please do not change that whyru gods 🙏

As it appears I'm done .-. I have no idea what have just happened and if my rambling even makes sense but not that I care at this point. If you read this far, please drink some water now, that was a lot of reading to go through ❤️

Tagging: @wir-ro, @saecookie and any other 8 people who might want to ksks (im too tired to tag lmao)

Don't be like me and go to bed at reasonable hours despite this whole quarantine thing .-. thank again Doreen for tagging since it was really fun 🥺❤️

[indigosees]

Secret Pumpkin~

Had the honor of making a secret pumpkin for @v-dcc for the event we held in the server at @mm-discord. Fic is after the cut~

Fandom: Mystic Messenger Ship: Platonic JuminxV Theme: Halloween

Another day, another pile of paperwork. Jumin sighed softly as he placed a file to the “done” pile. In three minutes and twenty Assistant Kang should come knocking at the door to pick the signed files up. He placed his pen neatly down the table, exactly 38.7 centimeters from the right edge of the desk. It was the perfect placement as it allows him to get the pen at 0.18 seconds faster than it was at 38.6 centimeters and 0.12 seconds faster than at 38.5 centimeters. It must be due to how his arm is usually positioned on the desk, which is important to consider since it is the relative distance. He took out his phone to check for messages and found zero notifications—a little disheartening as he was hoping to hear from V after not having talked to him for more than a week now. V has told him that he was going to fly overseas again for a project, so it will take him a week to be back. Although he’s used to V not being around often because of his work, Jumin couldn’t help but feel a little less enthusiastic about his days. He would always appreciate wine nights with him, talking about whatever crossed their minds. No matter. V should arrive soon enough, with tales from his adventures. Then that meant he should be ready to receive him. When he gets home, he will pick out from his collection one of his best wines and then order the best snack pairing for it. Although V doesn’t really snack much, it is courtesy to at least leave some for the guests, no matter who they are.

His thoughts were interrupted by a knock on the door. ‘It must be Assistant Kang’. Checking his watch, she was… two minutes late. ‘Hm. This is unusual.‘ She better has a reason for being late. The door swung open to reveal the brunette, her eyebrows furrowed slightly. Jumin waited for her to explain, slightly wondering himself why she is wearing such an expression.

“Mr. Han,” Jaehee said. “V is in the lobby. He said he wanted to see you.”

Jumin’s features lit up. V? He’s here? Why didn’t he message him first? Suddenly remembering that he has work, he nodded at her. “I’ve finished signing these documents.  I will meet with V shortly.” He stood up from his seat, sliding his phone in his pocket.

“But you have a meeting in a couple minutes, Mr. Han,” She proceeded to take the pile of folders and paper work on Jumnin’s desk. “I can tell V to return in the evening, when you’re most free.”

“No need, I’m sure our meeting won’t take long.” Jumin walked out of his office and took the elevator ride down. It felt a little longer than usual, even if it barely stopped at any floor. He counted that it only stopped twice, which meant that the it shouldn’t have taken him so much time to get down. ‘Weird,’ He thought. ‘Then again, time is relative.’

A soft ding signaled that he has reached the ground floor. He strode out of the elevator, his steps seemingly quicker than usual. He couldn’t afford to waste time—there is a meeting in a couple minutes and it will be rude to be late for it. He wanted to see V, however. And usually, V comes up to his office if he has anything important to say. Why stay in the lobby now? He shrugged the thought off. He will find out when they see each other soon.

It didn’t take him long to reach the lobby and see V. His mint-colored hair has always stood out from the crowd. It was admittedly a unique color, one that most often than not earned him stares whenever he was out. It suited him, though. Although it remains a puzzle to him how such hair color came to be.

“V, you’re—” Jumin was about to greet V when he realized that V was wearing… a costume? He raised his eyebrow at V. He was wearing what seems to be an animal suit of sorts. Was it called a onesie? He was dumbfounded, unsure of how to react.

“Jumin,” V stood up from the sofa and turned to Jumin, his lips pulled to a smile. “You’re here. Happy Halloween!” He was beaming, and Jumin stood paralyzed in confusion as he tried to understand the situation. ‘Halloween? Is this what this is?’

“Let’s go trick or treating.” V showed him an orange plastic container that resembles a pumpkin and has a face drawn on it. It had nothing inside.

Jumin stared at V for a full five seconds, his lips slightly parted in surprise. He closed his eyes and took a short exhale. “V, you do realize I have work today right?” he crossed his arms, exhaling again. “And these are for children.”

“But we are children, Jumin,” V smiled brightly. “And we should make the most out of the opportunity to have fun together.”

Jumin’s brows knit together. 'Children? What ever does he—’ He looked around to check and saw that he was back in his old mansion. It was as he remembered it. Elegant wooden furniture and glass chandeliers hanging in the high ceiling. Lavish carpets, heavy drapery—his house had made their wealth apparent. He returned to V with wide eyes, who was now standing in their front door, a carefree smile in his face. They were both young again.

“Let’s go, Jumin,” V turned and went down the steps of their porch. “We might run out of the good candy.”

Jumin huffed, his lips pulled to one side. He followed the mint-haired boy and left the front door. “Why do we have to do this? We could easily buy the candies we wanted.”

“I figured we should experience this at least once.” He was leading Jumin down the streets of their neighborhood. The moonlight shone down on them, and the fluorescent glow from the lamps lit their path. They came across other groups of children in costumes, their loot bags equally empty. They left their homes just in time.

They stopped in front of a simple house. It had modest decorations, obviously bought from dollar stores--or at least, the Korean equivalent of it. Looking at it, one could wonder how a family could possibly fit in such a cramped space. Perhaps the tenant lived alone.

“This is pointless.” Jumin said, mildly annoyed. They could've simply ask their fathers for the candies they're interested in and ultimately save themselves the trouble. To Jumin, it was a waste of energy and time.

V either did not hear him or ignored him, as he didn't respond to Jumin’s complaint. He reached out and pressed at he doorbell, a soft ding song breaking the silence of the night.

Jumin sighed, and waited with V for the door to open. He stepped to stand beside V and took a short glance to look at his expression. His face was bubbling with excitement; his lips were upturned and his eyes sparkled in anticipation. ‘He really is into it.’

He sighed. The door swung open to reveal a figure. Jumin estimated that they were in the mid to late 30s. Like her home, she looked pretty ordinary.

“Happy Halloween!” V greeted. He held out his bag to the lady.

The lady smiled. “Happy Halloween.” She took a bowl full of candies and picked up a handful to give to V. Jumin stared, but held out his bag as well. She gave him a handful of candies before closing the door.

V chuckled, making Jumin stare at him blankly. “What?”

“You looked like you were demanding her to give you some.”

“It is only normal to demand equal treatment. If she is going to give you candies, then she should give me as well, or it will be a preference bias, and is therefore a questionable method of handing out candies.”

V walked away from the house chuckling softly. “Jumin, you’re taking it a little too seriously.”

Jumin snorted lightly. He saw no reason not to look at it in such perspective.

They went to other houses--some giving them candy, others shooing them off. There were also those that recognized them and refused to give them any, which didn't come as a surprise to both of them. As sons of wealthy families, it's even questionable that they bothered to go trick or treating. They did heir best to avoid the other groups of children--they didn't want to get caught up with them or for them to recognize who they were.

They got home an hour or two before midnight--they ended it pretty early as Jumin has been complaining at how long they've been walking. V turned to his best friend and smiled. “We did it.”

Jumin sighed. He still doesn't see the point to it--it honestly felt like they were begging for things they can easily acquire. To top it off, his feet and legs are sore.

He was about to complain again, but V started speaking again before he could. “It was nice to spend the evening with you.”

“We could've just stayed at home and played games,” Jumin said, mildly peeved at V’s apparent enthusiasm. “Instead we wasted hours and effort for useless and unhealthy things.”

“I’m sorry you think that way, Jumin,” V looked away from him. “But I personally think it was fun that we had a new experience together.”

‘A new experience…’ Jumin’s eyes widened slightly at the sudden realization. He wasn't the most sentimental person but he understood what V meant. Sure, it was pointless and they wasted so much effort, but it's not always that they got to spend time like this together. Thinking that, Jumin realized that maybe it wasn't so bad. Maybe he shouldn't be mad at V for dragging him around like this.

“Alright,” Jumin looked down at the stash of candy he got. V certainly had more, as he was the one doing the greeting. He was more of an afterthought. “Do you want to… try some of them out?”

V chuckled. “You don't have to force yourself. I'm sure your nutritionist told you not to eat too much sweets.”

“I'll… make an exception. For new experiences.”

Jumin woke up and found himself asleep in his office chair. ‘What… time is it?’ He took a glance at his watch and found that it was only three in the afternoon. ‘Right.’ He let out a small exhale, and stood from his seat to get a glass of water. A knock from his door made him turn to it. He half expected for Assistant Kang to come in and deliver files to him, but he only heard more knocks when he didn't answer it. Raising his brow, he decided to answer the door and open it himself. His eyes went wide when he realized it was V, and he was wearing a costume.

“Happy Halloween, Jumin.”

[cultofbats]

Take Care of You

So this fic is based loosely off of Mystic Messenger in that it loosely follows the plot line, and all the characters are original characters based off of the characters from Mystic Messenger. It’s obvious once you read them and get a feel for their personalities! I’ve been working on this for a while and I’m really excited for you guys to read it. I’ll put the rest under the cut! Let me know what you think, and if you like it! 

Chapter One

I had an interview for a receptionist position and I was fucking late! I hurried into the large building and quickly walked up to the front desk. The receptionist let me know where to wait, and that someone would be out for me in just a moment. I turned and was hurrying to my seat when I collided with a tall, dark force. My ass hit the ground and my carefully put together folder skittered across the cool marble tile.   What the fuck? I glared up to see slender fingers extended towards me.   “You must excuse me. I’m in quite a hurry and was not watching where I was going. Nonetheless, I should have been more careful. Are you alright Ms...?” I looked up into dark grey eyes and was astounded at how handsome this man was. Everything about him was measured and cool. I felt heat rise to my cheeks as I took his cool hand and rose to my feet. He kneeled to grab my folder and then put it gently back in my hands.   “Oh! No harm no foul, sir. I should have been more careful. I’m late for an interview and I was definitely rushing out of nervousness. My name is Alice Carter, but my friends call me Allie. I’m sorry again, Mr...?” He shook my hand, nodded once and then turned to leave. He glanced over his shoulder and regarded me judgmentally.   “Cameron. Cameron Blackstone, Executive Director of Blackstone Industries. Have a nice day, Ms. Carter. We don’t hire those who cannot keep track of time. It would be prudent to keep that in mind going forward.” Before I could give him a snarky reply, he was gone. A small, tired looking woman scurried after him, glancing back at me and whispering something to the corporate heir.   I knew everything there was to know about Cameron Blackstone and his father’s company. Once his father died or retired, he would inherit the entirety of Blackstone Industries. He was an absolute prick. I rolled my eyes before taking a seat ad awaiting my fate. I hoped this day was over with sooner rather than later. ***   I slammed my front door shut and slumped down onto the floor. After the interview, which had admittedly, gone extremely well, I had ran around town finishing errands. I went grocery shopping, ordered some new bookshelves for the apartment and bought a new pack of guitar picks. Mine always seemed to disappear two weeks after I bought them.   My phone vibrated and I groaned before hitting the “answer call” button.   “Hi, is this Alice Carter?”   “Yes, this is she. How may I help you today?”   “I’m calling to inform you that we’ve accepted you for the position of receptionist. An email with more detailed instructions, as well as a explanation of job duties has been sent to you. Congratulations, Ms. Carter. We look forward to working with you.”   “Oh my god, thank you so much! Do you have an expected start date for me, or will that be in the email as well?”   “Your employee login for our online scheduling is in the email, but you’ll have a paper schedule for the first week until we get you integrated with our system. You start next week on the 2nd at 8:00AM sharp. Congratulations again, Ms. Carter. Have a wonderful rest of your day.”   “Yes, thank you so much. I’ll see you Monday the 2nd at 8:00AM!” I hung up, kicking my feet and squealing in excitement. I got the job! Mr. Snooty would have to see my face every morning when he came into work!   Now, if only I had friends or family to celebrate with. My parents had died when I was nine and I had always had trouble making friends growing up. Growing into adulthood hadn’t made it any easier. Well, either way I could still go out for drinks tonight! Well, one or two drinks. I wasn’t the type to go out and get shit-faced, but this was a special occasion!   Of course, I could just grab a bottle of wine and practice guitar at home. Mrs. Lynne would be happier if I went out, though. Not that I cared too much about whether Mrs. Lynne was happy. Fuck it, I was going out tonight. I could piss off my neighbor another night. I rifled through my closet, as if anyone would even notice what I put on.   Yeah, Allie of course. You’re meeting the love of your life tonight, can’t you tell? Well, whether or not that's true, I still deserved to look cute and feel good about myself. I grabbed some clothes and headed to shower and get ready. I decided to let my hair dry on it’s own, but I didn’t want wet hair bogging me down all night, so I threw it up into a bun and let a few tendrils frame my face. After that, it was time to move on to my makeup.   With a flourish, I applied the finishing touches and stood to pull on socks and shoes. Heading out the door still tying the laces of my boots, I grabbed my purse and car keys and was on my way.   I was happy that it was a Tuesday because my favorite bar was dead. I pulled up to a parking spot in the front, turning my music down and sitting there for a few minutes. I was comfortable in my loneliness and with the fact that I didn’t have people to share good things with. However, it was jarring to realize that I was here, at a bar on a Tuesday evening all by myself. I wouldn’t be going home to anyone and no one would be there to notice if I didn’t return.   My good mood was dampened slightly by that fact, but I did my best to brush it off before I headed inside.   “I’ll have your best white wine and some chicken wings, if you still have them” i sighed, sliding into a barstool. The bartender smiled kindly at me before turning to pour me a glass of wine. He popped his head into the window in the back and called for chicken wings. I was one of the only two people in here.   There was a young looking blonde boy sitting in the corner seat, glancing around every so often like he was waiting for someone. He was kind of cute, but definitely in a “i just brought this puppy home from the pound and he’s going to ruin my life in the cutest way possible” way. He kept checking his phone, and I giggled quietly at how nervous and adorable he was. He glanced around once more and our eyes met. Which of course, caused me to blush and look away...like a nosey idiot.   The bartender set my glass in front of me, as well as a full tray of his famous spicy wings. I dug right in, keeping up comfortable conversation with the bartender. The blonde kid finally stood from his seat, apparently he had been stood up. I glanced sympathetically at the bartender and he shrugged. I should say something nice, shouldn’t I?

  I turned towards the boy, who looked conflicted about leaving and decided to say something. “If she hasn’t shown up by now, she most likely won’t show up at all. There are girls out there who will treat you better, I promise.”

  “Oh! Are you talking to me? I...um...I was waiting for my friend actually. He was supposed to be here an hour ago...I was...stepping outside to...call. Well anyways, thanks! You’re super nice” he beamed at me.

  I shook my head and turned back around.  “You should find new friends, then. Friends who stand you up are just as bad as girlfriends.”

  “Well, he’s busy at work. Isn’t that allowed?” He sat next to me and I looked over at him before rolling my eyes.

  “Did he tell you he was busy at work, or did you assume that because the last time you talked, he was at work? People lie, dude.” I felt as if I was explaining this simple concept to a child, but on the other hand, it was nice to talk to someone other than the bartender. I heard the click of his phone unlock and then he shoved the screen into my line of view.

  It showed some sort of messaging app...I think. On screen were messages between this boy and another person who’s avatar showed a very handsome man with bright vermillion hair.

God Alec: Clarke!!! Little baby Clarke!!! I would love to be there on time but mister trust fund won’t release me from the evil room I’ve been stuck in to work! I’ll be there soon, I pinky promise.

Clarke: Al, you promised you’d be here on time! I’m not waiting much longer for you. Come on, this isn’t fair. I’m here all by myself :(

God Alec: Defender of Earth, God Alec is on his way right now! Uh, I got stuck in downtown traffic tho so it might be awhile heh...oops. Even my baby car can’t get us there faster with this kind of traffic

  I pushed the phone back to him after I glanced at the time. It was nearing 5:30PM which, admittedly, was around the time when downtown traffic was at its worst. What was it like to have friends that actually followed through on their word?

  “See? I told you he was coming! You saw, right?” Eager blondie was practically bouncing up and down in his seat. Whoa, there. Down, boy.

  “Alright, that’s fair. Traffic downtown right now is absolutely horrible. Your name is Clarke, huh? I’m Alice. Well, the friends I don’t have call me Allie. What brings you here tonight?” I took a long sip from my glass as I turned and met his brilliantly violet eyes. Who had eyes like that?

  “Oh! Yeah I’m Clarke! I’m a sophomore down at Rainier University. It’s nice to meet you, Alice! I uh...I took a pop quiz and passed today and wanted to celebrate with my friend, but he’s late” he pouted as the last few words left his lips and I smiled at how cute he was. His eyes went wide, as if remembering something important and he blurted out “Oh! I didn’t ask what you’re here for. What brings you here? The bartender seems to know you well!”

  “Well congrats on the pop quiz! I got a job I interviewed for today and decided I needed to celebrate, despite not having anyone to celebrate with...which sounds pretty lame now that I said it out loud” i smiled sheepishly at him.

  “You can celebrate with Alec and I! I just turned 21 last year so I don’t drink a lot...and I’m a lightweight but you’re still welcome to celebrate with us if you want to! We love making new friends!” He was practically vibrating in his seat and it was adorable, but holy shit this guy was only twenty one?

  I was twenty four, with my twenty fifth birthday coming up in about six months. How old was his friend? How did they even meet? I had so many questions. I smiled and nodded as eagerly as I could. “I’d love to! I had a long day running errands after my interview so it would be nice to have people to talk to while I unwind. I’m still suspicious that your friend is lying about being late, though.” I grabbed his phone from the bar top and clicked on the redhead’s profile in the app he was in...what app was this? I saw a phone icon and hit it, taking another sip from my drink and giggling.

  “Clarke!! I told you I was on my way, ya nerd!” A deep voice rumbled over the other end of the line and I was pleased at how nice it was.

  “I told Clarke he should get new friends because I thought you stood him up” I stated simply into the phone. Clarke laughed softly beside me and called to the bartender for a basket of fries.

  “Whaaa...who is this? How did you get Clarke’s phone? Is he okay? Wait, you sound like a pretty lady! Does Clarke have a pretty lady in his life?” The voice was giggling at me from the other end of the phone and I was shocked at how weird it was to hear a man giggle.

  “No, I just met him, actually. I gave him some friendly advice and I guess we’re all hanging out now. Are you really stuck in traffic or were you standing him up?” I was being jokingly snarky and I hope that came across through the phone, because I wasn’t being rude or even wanting it to seem that way. Clarke gasped behind me, but I ignored it, waiting for my answer.

  A hand tapped my shoulder and I spun around to look directly into the face of a tall, handsome man with vermillion hair and brown eyes so light, they may as well have been molten honey. This wasn’t...the friend...was it? He was laughing at me as I stared at him dumbly.

  “I’m Alec. Who are you, lovely lady?” He asked, bowing in front of me. I cracked a smile before laughing along with him.

  “I’m Alice. It’s nice to meet another A in the world. I was worried you were going to stand up your friend, but clearly I have nothing to worry about. Again, it’s a pleasure to meet you.” I held out my hand and he shook it firmly.

  “So are you Clarke’s girlfriend?”

  “No, I literally just met him tonight, he just seemed stressed so I was trying to give him good advice. Of course, I shouldn’t be giving anyone advice about friendship, considering I’ve never kept a friend for longer than a couple months. Well, anyways you should both have a good rest of your night and not let a stranger bother you.” I turned around in my chair, setting the phone down and smiling to Clarke just hoping they would forget about the weird girl who tried to insert herself into their relationship.

  “Hey! Don’t leave us alone. We’re celebrating together, right? Alec, she had an interview today and she got the job! So we’re all celebrating tonight, us for my pop quiz, and her for her job.” Clarke was sweet explaining, but I really didn’t want to infringe myself upon these two strangers.

  “Oh! Where did you get the job? I...I’m almost, but not quite ashamed to admit that I can do nefarious things with a computer and I can look into the company for you! Of course, you can’t tell them that I looked into them because my skills are...well they border on highly illegal so..anyways congratulations on the job!” Alec was beaming at me and motioning for me to join him at the table across the way, where Clarke had already made himself comfortable.

  “You’re going to hack into my new job to find out what kind of company they are?” I asked.

  “Hey! I don’t like the term hack...I don't know what term I do like, actually so just use that one. Besides, maybe I’ll find information about the man that died onsite who’s ghost still roams the halls to this day! How horrible would that be for you? Ghosts can be a nuisance.” He was joking, and I really liked how at ease I was with these two strangers.

  “I got a receptionist position at Blackwell Industries, actually. Nothing special, but it will pay the bills. I don’t think there are any ghosts haunting that particular building, at least. The CEO in line would be enough to send even the toughest ghosts floating to the hills.” I rolled my eyes at my last remark, but both Alec and Clarke looked like I had punched them in the face. Oh no, what did I say?

  “Alec works at Blackwell...so does-” Alec slapped his hand over Clarke’s mouth before he could finish his sentence and waved it away.

  “Nah! Don’t worry about it. I just do IT work and all that. Nothing special. We won’t even see each other. Although, I definitely can’t hack into Blackwell. Mainly because I think breaking through my own firewall is some sort of hacker sin...also it would be very easy. Don’t worry, it’s a great company to work at. Cameron Blackwell is a good boss, you’ll see.” He explained, motioning for the bartender. I shrugged and dismissed the weird turn that had gone.

  “Well, either way I’m just happy to have a job again. My neighbor was getting a bit peeved with me...just sitting at home playing the guitar all day. The walls at my apartment complex are about as thin as paper. Which, of course, means that I can hear every single sound that old bat makes when she invites one of her many boyfriends over for the night.” I giggled and Clarke laughed along with me. Alec was assessing me, as if measuring me up and I wanted him to stop

  Mainly because his gaze made me uncomfortable in a way that I couldn’t understand. He was unreadable, and I didn’t like that one bit.

  The bartender brought them their drinks and brought me another glass of wine, smiling gratefully when I slipped him a twenty. He was a sweet man, and I knew this bar wasn’t as popular as some of the other ones in town. Well, I knew that because that’s exactly what I was looking for when I found it.

  I didn’t like being around a lot of people. People let you down and then they kept on letting you down until you felt as small as a speck of dust. I’d prefer to stay far away from large groups of them. It’s best for me to be alone.

  “Well, if you want to, you can hang out with us! Right, Alec? I’m sure Damion would be okay with it if we just asked him. Of course, he never fucking answers my messages or calls, but if you call and ask, that would be okay!” He was talking half to me and half to Alec, but Alec looked like he had just asked if it was okay to let me kill his grandmother. Jesus Christ, what was wrong with me? Why was this guy so repulsed by me? Also who was Damion and why did they have to ask him permission to be my friend? Was he an overprotective parent? I mean, they were a little old for that, but who was I to judge? My parents died when I was sixteen.

  “Clarke, not now. Let’s just enjoy the night and leave it at that. I’m sure this girl doesn’t want to get wrapped up in all of that, especially since she just got a new job. Also, don’t be bitter about Damion. He’s doing his best.” He was whispering to Clarke, but I could still hear everything he was saying.

  Alright, well that was enough weirdness for me. I should have left a while ago. I couldn’t safely drive home if I had anymore to drink anyways.

  I stood, pushing back my chair a bit forcefully. “I should probably head out. If I drink anymore I won’t be able to drive home. It was nice to meet you both. Congrats on acing the pop quiz, Clarke. I’ll see you guys around, yeah?” Before they could reply, I was walking out the front door and up to my car. Before I could get in, a hand was on my shoulder, stopping me.

  “Hey, I hope I didn’t make things weird for you back there. I’m sorry. Um...can I give you my number? That sounds...like I’m hitting on you. God, Alec can you not be an idiot for once? Just...in case you need me, you can call me. If you have computer problems or...anything. I’d be happy to help. I’m sorry again for making you uncomfortable back there.” He was smiling apologetically at me and I couldn’t help but to smile back.

  “Here, put your number in my phone. Thank you. I appreciate it but you didn’t make me uncomfortable. I’ll text you if I have any computer problems. Thanks. Uh...especially since fixing computers is really expensive and my laptop has a lot of problems...which sounded a lot less pathetic in my head. Anyways, thank you again for the offer.” I said, handing him my phone.

  “Um, me, Clarke and our friends have a group messaging app that we use to contact each other and it’s a lot easier to use than my personal number...do you mind if I just...add you to that? It’s just...it’s just for us.” He was holding my phone, but looked hesitant. A group messaging app? What, like FaceTube? Whatever, he seemed sincere enough. Although I didn’t know any of their other friends. Couldn’t hurt, right?

  “What? Yeah of course. Go for it. I don’t have a lot of storage on my phone, though. Um...you may not be able to download anymore apps. Can’t you guys just...send group texts? That’s a thing now, you know.” He rolled his eyes at the comment about group texts, but otherwise stayed silent as he typed on my phone.

  “Trust me, this app won’t take up any extra storage in your phone. Let’s just say that your phone won’t even register its existence, nor will you be able to access it without your phone’s fingerprint sensor. I made it special just for us. It’s the most secure app you’ll find, so don’t be worried.” He finished his sentence, sticking his tongue between his teeth as he pressed a few more times on my screen. Wait, what did he mean that my phone wouldn’t register its existence? Was he hacking into my phone? I took a step closer and saw nothing out of the ordinary on the screen, just a new app downloading. Hm, that was kind of weird. I mean, I guess he knew a lot about computers, so this was probably safe for my phone. Of course, he could have also put a virus on it. I was due for a new phone in a couple months anyways, so who cares? He handed me back my phone, a new app sitting on the front screen. ZFO were the letters under the icon. What did “ZFO” stand for? I would definitely check this app out once I got home.

  “Thanks, Alec. I appreciate it.” I smiled at him and he smiled back.

  “I already registered you in the app so whenever you wanna talk to us, you just gotta open up the app and it will already have you logged in. Um it will notify you every time a chatroom is opened...I think that’s all there is to know. You can also individually text all the other people if you want and there’s voice and video call so...yeah. Nice meeting you, Alice. I’ll see you at work, I guess?” He shrugged and turned around to walk back into the bar. Well, seemed nice enough.

  I blasted music the entirety of the drive home, letting myself finally be excited about getting a new job. I was definitely going to practice guitar when I got inside. Mrs. Lynne could go to hell or buy me a house.

  My phone dinged a few times once I pulled up, but I ignored it, assuming it was just emails coming in that I could get to later. I climbed the stairs, tapping eagerly on the handrail. I was itching to practice the new song I was learning and I really think I could get it down before I started at Blackwell. My phone dinged a few more times once I went inside, and i glanced quizzically down at it. That was way too many times for it to be my email. I unlocked it, and saw several notifications from ZFO. What the fuck? I clicked it open and was pulled immediately into an open group message.

Alice has entered the chatroom

Olivia Allen: I don’t think I’ve ever been this tired in my life *sigh*

Damion: Did he give you a lot of work today, Liv?

Olivia Allen: Yes...another cat project...the third one...this week…

Adrian: You guys...stop for a second. There’s someone here.

Damion: I mean, yes, we’re all here, right? What do you mean there’s someone here?

Adrian: Scroll up before Olivia’s first message

Cameron Blackwell has entered the chatroom

Olivia Allen: Oh my…

Damion: What…?

Cameron Blackwell: What’s going on now?

Olivia Allen: Mr. Blackwell, there’s someone here.

Cameron Blackwell: Of course there’s someone here, Ms. Allen. I just arrived *smirk*

Damion: No, Cam...someone new…

Adrian: Whoever it is, can you identify yourself? If not I can just hack into your phone camera and see for myself. You probably don’t want that

Cameron Blackwell: Adrian, don’t threaten them. We don’t know how they gained access to a confidential application. I’m sure there’s a good excuse...I’m sure.

Alice: Whoa, everybody calm down. Alec downloaded the app onto my phone. He said it was a group messaging app that he preferred to giving out his personal number. I can just delete it if I’m intruding on something. My name is Alice...I’m not here to like...steal information or anything like that.

Adrian: I don’t believe you. My brother is an idiot, but he would never give a complete stranger access to this app. I’m deleting it off of your phone.

God Alec has entered the chatroom

God Alec: WAIT! Geez, Adrian don’t jump the gun so fast. I gave her access to this app because I thought we all needed a new face around here..You can even ask Clarke whenever he shows up. We’ve been looking for a new member anyways…

God Alec: Damion...I tried to call you…

Damion: I’m sorry, I just got in from my flight and I didn’t have service on the plane. Want me to come over?

God Alec: No, it’s okay. I just wanted to tell you that I brought Alice here so that...well, so that this wouldn’t happen.

Olivia Allen: Damion, what do you think?

Cameron Blackwell: Yes, what do you think? Do we really need a new member?

Adrian: *eye roll* I wish you would have told us before dropping her into the chatroom, Alec.

Damion: Of course she can stay. Granted, she needs to know that Zoey’s Fundraising Organization  is a nonprofit confidential charity organization and any information shared here is not to be shared with the outside world. We do kind of need a new party coordinator…

Alice: Hold on. Just...jesus fucking christ hold on a minute.

Cameron Blackwell: Well, she certainly has world-class manners…

Olivia Allen: Mr. Blackwell, don’t be rude.

Alice: Cameron Blackwell...certainly not...Executive Director of Blackwell Industries?

Cameron Blackwell: Do you know many other Cameron Blackwells? Is there a club, perhaps? Did I miss the invite, perchance?

Olivia Allen: Mr. Blackwell…

Alice: Holy shit...I just got a job at your company...so that makes you...my boss’s boss? My boss’s boss’s boss?

Cameron Blackwell: Wait just a minute. Alice...Ah! Yes! I remember now. You were late for your interview, but Miranda let me know she hired you anyways due to your impressive qualifications. I meant what I said, Ms. Carter. We don’t tolerate tardiness at Blackwell Industries. We also don’t tolerate bulldozing your boss’s boss’s boss *wink*

Alice: Wait! You ran into me! I did not bulldoze you. I missed my alarm this morning...it’s not a regular occurrence...Why am I explaining myself to you? This is on my own personal time, is it not? I don’t have to be nice to you right now.

God Alec: Well anyways...what do you think, Alice? Wanna be our party planner?

Adrian: I didn’t mean what I said about hacking into your phone. I was mostly kidding. We’d love for you to join our organization. My brother is an idiot, but generally, you won’t find a more loyal friend. I have to go meditate but we should all introduce ourselves to Alice. I’m sure Alec told her about as much as he told us.

Adrian: I don’t know where Ezra and Clarke are, but I’m Adrian Bradshaw. Alec is my dumbass twin brother. Uh I’m twenty three, I work at Blackwell Industries, but we won’t get into the specifics. Just know that we likely won’t cross paths at work, except on breaks but I meant what I said about hacking into your phone. I have...a lot of free time *laugh* we should go get ice cream sometime and formally meet.

Damion: I’m Damion Matthews. I’m a photographer, most people have seen my work, but I’ve been on a hiatus due to the loss of my late fiance Zoey Graham. She was the founder of this organization, but I’m leading it in her place. If you have any questions at all about ZFO, I will answer them to the best of my abilities, if Alec or Adrian are otherwise occupied.

Cameron Blackwell: I’m not introducing myself for a second time. Damion, if you trust this girl, I will trust her as well. That’s all I have to say. Wait, I changed my mind. Do you like cats, Ms. Carter?

Olivia Allen: I’m Olivia Allen. I’m Mr. Blackwell’s Chief Assistant, so I won’t see you very often, if at all at work, but I’m happy to have another woman here once more. It was quite tiresome with all these boys. I think we should go out for coffee, if you would like that.

Clarke★ has entered the chatroom

Ares has entered the chatroom

Clarke★: Allie! Hi! When Alec told me he was giving you access to the app, I got so excited! We can talk all the time now!

Ares: Wait, what’s going on? Who’s the new girl? She’s cute *wink*

Cameron Blackwell: Ares, if you flirt with our new member, you may scare her off

Ares: Hey! Jerk…

Clarke★: Guys! Stop fighting *crying* it looked like we were all introducing ourselves? We met earlier tonight, but I’m Clarke Weiss. I’m a sophomore over at Rainier college, and I’m the youngest here. Everyone treats me like a kid *crying*

Ares: Oh! Introductions! I love those! My lady, I’m Ares, and I’m a rising star in the world of musicals. I hope to see you front row one of these days, babe *wink* Don’t listen to mister trust fund kid whenever he talks. He was born with a silver spoon and just doesn’t understand any of us. I’ll talk to you whenever, babe. Call me anytime you need someone.

God Alec: Ah! My turn! Ooooo, that’s exciting! I’ve never introduced myself before! Defender of the earth, God Alec is at your service! I already told ya where I work, and I definitely hope to see you there *heart eyes* Ares and Cameron fight a lot...but I know they secretly love each other *laugh*

Ares: Hey! I do not love that jerk!

Alice: This is a lot of stuff to take in all at once. Can I...please have time to think about it?

Cameron Blackwell: Unfortunately Ms. Carter, you don’t have the luxury of time right now. Everything we say here is confidential and we cannot allow anyone who is not a member to have access to our information. You’re either in...or you’re not

Alice: This...this is too much

Damion: Cam, don’t be so threatening. Alice, you live in the city, I’m assuming? Why don’t you and I meet up and I will explain everything to you, and you can make your decision then?

Ares: Hey! Why do you get to meet her before the rest of us?

Adrian: Well he is the head of our group...not to mention Clarke and Alec already met her so the rest of us are kind of the odd man out

Olivia Allen: Yes, Adrian is right. Damion makes the decisions and we all trust his judgement, so if he decides that Alice is worth it, we should accept it

Cameron Blackwell: Damion, I thought...well I thought you were coming to the penthouse to visit tonight. Alas, if you have other plans…

Damion: Ah, yes. I did agree to that, didn’t I? You know that I never cancel on friends, especially one as dear as you are. I’ll be there on time. Pour a glass of our favorite, yes?

Cameron Blackwell: Yes. Well then, I will see you in an hour. I must go. Jewel is hungry and I must feed her on time

Alice: Fine! God, I accept. I’ll stay. I want to stay here and be your party coordinator. Don’t go out of your way for me when you already have plans…

God Alec: Ooooo this is amazing news! We have a new party coordinator and she’s a cutie *heart eyes*

Adrian: Idiot…

Olivia Allen: Alec...please…

Cameron Blackwell has left the chatroom

Ares: Welcome to ZFO, Alice. If you ever wanna go get a beer *wink* let me know

Clarke★: Yay! I’m so happy you joined and we get to be better friends now

Damion: I have to go now, Cameron is sending his driver to pick me up at the airport. I’ll see everyone later. Thank you for joining, Alice. I look forward to getting to know you

Damion has left the chatroom

Olivia Allen: I must go as well. I’m going to take a bath and watch Ares’ latest musical on DVD. It’s nice that you’re here, Alice. I hope you find happiness and comfort with us

Olivia Allen has left the chatroom

Adrian: Nice to see a new face. Sorry for threatening to hack your phone. Let’s meditate together or get ice cream sometime.

Adrian: I’m headed out to meditate now. Have a good night everybody

Adrian has left the chatroom

Ares: I hate to leave a lovely lady like yourself alone with Clarke and Alec, but I have to go practice my lines. Goodnight, babe *wink*

Ares has left the chatroom

Clarke★: I’m gonna go game for a bit before I start on my homework! If you’re ever online on WoW, we should play together!

Clarke★ has left the chatroom

God Alec: The life of a god is never ending *sigh* I gotta go work on some things. Thanks for taking a chance. You’ll never find a better group of friends or anyone more loyal than us. I’m happy you’re here. Defender of Earth over and out!

God Alec has left the chatroom

Alice has left the chatroom

  I sighed heavily and tossed my phone across the room. What had I just gotten myself into? I needed to sit back and practice guitar to get my mind off of whatever the hell that was. This day had been too long. I had started it with no friends and ended it with seven of them. I always seemed to get into the weirdest situations. How was this going to turn out?

[umazes]

In the interest of having a civil discussion, I wanted to clear up the concerns I have about The Arcana. I think many of the people who have been raising concerns probably feel the same way and I don't want to be misunderstood as trying to attack the devs or kill the game, because this is emphatically not about that.

My concerns with how this is proceeding can be broken into 3 points

1. The pricing of the game.

I've said it before, but I don't mind paying for things. I've spent hundreds on merch and games. I've paid at least $50 to play mystic messenger, for optional content, and I haven't regretted it.

What bothers me about the pricing of this game is how absurdly different it is compared to other games, and how I have no idea why it's this expensive.

Most mobile dating sims (voltage and solmare, notably) tend to ask no more than $5 for a route. And that's not what I'm asking for, but it's a comparison worth noting, because I think of it every time I'm asked to pay the equivalent of $3 for a single choice in this game. Beyond that, it's costing $10 to buy a book, which ends up working out (as others have calculated) to somewhere in the vicinity of $500 if you want to play the full game.

I've never been asked for that much money for any game, ever, unless they also offer me an art book and something like a 3 foot tall statue. Even other dating sims priced in the hundreds offer posters or voicing or badges. Asking $500 per customer for just the game itself is ridiculous.

Here's where the "It's optional" argument comes in. It's optional, in the same sense that I can eat raw potatoes and cooking them with seasoning is optional. I can play the free game, but it's just not as good or coherent without the coin choices, and lacks all of the scenes that make the game what I want it to be.

The problem associated with just not buying premium content if you don't like the pricing is that from a statistical point of view, unless we explain WHY we don't want to pay so much for it, it can be misinterpreted. What if the executives think we don't want the content because it's bad? They can interpret it as mobile visual novels just not being profitable. "Don't like, don't buy" with no additional complaints can ensure the content just stops being available rather than altered to be affordable.

I want to pay for this game! God, I want to. If I could even buy a route for $50. If there was a discount the more coins you buy.

(There isn't. You save something like 81 cents if you buy the highest bulk tier as opposed to the same amount in small increments.)

I just can't afford to pay half a months rent to play one game that I have no guarantee of receiving the full content for, and I imagine that's true for many of us. And if it has to be this price, I'd just like to know why. It's been extremely unclear to me why it's priced so high.

2. The treatment of kickstarter backers.

I'll be brief here, because I'm not a backer myself.

It's very upsetting to me first and foremost that all backers were promised a free version of the game that is no longer available and can receive, at most, a $10 compensation or just suck it up.

"But they're refunding most of the kickstarter money and killing their game!" is an argument I have heard. And, well, yes. But the backers who bought tiers specifically for the promise of a full pc version have all lost out, unless the pledged $10 or less and did not buy anything in the mobile game.

I understand that a free mobile version was never a reward, and that makes sense. But for the people who pledged maybe $50 for the pc game, they've lost $40 and in addition will have to pay the $10 per book in order to still receive the content they were promised. It's absurd. At the very least, higher tier backers should be offered coin compensation. And the gall of allowing people to select neither refund nor waiting for the PC version indefinitely, of offering for people to just give their money away after this, is shocking.

The draw of kickstarters that I fund is that I pay for a product that isn't complete in order to receive it for a reduced price when it is complete, because that compensates what was essentially an uncertain loss to me at the time of pledging. This is a loss with no equivalent gain in sight and no overt plans for them to do anything much about it.

3. The response and treatment of feedback.

This one really gets me. Let me start off by saying that I am very, very much aware that they have no dedicated PR staff.

I had a recent interaction with the arcana Twitter after they found another user's untagged complaint. As has been standard to this point, they kindly advised us that paid content is optional, to which I have the response I gave above. Upon being asked again why they think the price is justified, this response was offered.

Ha ha! Funny joke! Apparently whoever was manning this Twitter account thought so. Except it wasn't a funny joke at all. Making a very callous and inappropriate joke of a real concern that has already negatively impacted users, after barging into an untagged complaint on a personal account, is about one of the worst responses I can think of. And nobody even asked for one at all, at the time.

But upon receiving that response, boy did I want a response. I've been seeing that response from them everywhere. "Send us an email". So I passed this along to some friends who do similar work and who have feedback concerns as well.

Firstly, I was told by pretty much everyone who had sent them an email that no response had been received. I brought this up in the Twitter thread, to which I received the answer that the team is small and can't respond to every email.

Well, okay, that's reasonable. Except that you DO have time to respond to every tweet, apparently.

Then send them! Throwing my feedback into some kind of void with no indication of how, if, and when they are being received is not an encouraging way to deal with customers.

Apparently, tweets are harder to pass along. Except that when I pointed out tweets can be linked and indexed in a variety of ways (it is a thought sharing platform, after all), I received the response that tweets are screenshotted and passed along as well.

Then why are we supposed to email??????

I was complaining about this confused response privately when another friend who works in customer service pointed out to me that companies tend to prefer social media over email communication anyway, because email can be treated as a legal document. This entire inability to respond to my questions promptly and honestly is making me really irritated in trying to resolve what amounts to a singular complaint that I would like to freely offer money to this game, and want to know why it's so hard.

And to be clear, I don't expect it to be resolved in a day. I don't expect the devs to work day and night to change their game. But if you are using official accounts to interact with your audience, I expect a prompt and professional reponse. I handle CSR duties daily in my job too. A simple "We will get back to you in a few days" or "This problem can't currently be resolved but we'll provide an update on how the discussion is going in a week" would suffice. Do a public update instead of responding to every email if it's too much. Walk away and respond to my tweet in twenty minutes after coming up with a better response.

If you're interacting with customers in a professional capacity, then be professional. I expect to be treated with respect and I expect to know where my feedback is going and what's being done with it, because as 85 stands the interactions I've had have been extremely underwhelming.

I'm not contacting these devs on their personal accounts and I don't want to be accused of bullying. I just don't think it's unreasonable that if I'm having a bad time trying to support this good game that I enjoy playing, I should know why.

[stunudo]

Natural Minds Pay Back

A Crossover Fan-fiction

Featuring: Criminal Minds and Supernatural

Setting: Season 9 (both shows)

Before Slumber Party for SPN and In the Blood for Criminal Minds

Welcome to Stu’s 400 follower celebration fic! I can’t believe so many of you are willing to have my writings on your dashboards! Thank you ever so much. This is the fourth installment of the Winchesters working with Dr. Spencer Reid. (1. NM Meet       2. NM Chat     3. NM Bunkered) This turned out to be longish, I just felt it needed more scenes. Enjoy! xoxo Stu

“I have striven not to laugh at human actions, not to weep at them, nor to hate them, but to understand them.” - Baruch Spinoza

Immediately after Bunkered

Spencer Reid hated being late to a case, especially since he missed the pre-flight briefing and speculating on the jet with his team. He took a cab to the local precinct and found Rossi setting up the evidence boards, because Hotch was still recovering.

“Here he is folks,” Dave teased. “Good, now you get to play with your maps.”

“Rossi, what’s going on? Garcia didn’t share much on the phone.” Spencer set down his messenger bag and tucked his go-bag beneath the conference table. As Rossi began to point and describe the victims, Spencer listened growing more and more concerned with their timing.

“If this is the fourth victim, why did they wait until now to call us in?” Spencer was sorting through the crime scene photos.

“That’s just it kid, they said they already talked to the FBI. That they were waiting for a partner to aid in the investigation. But as far as I or Garcia can tell, no one at the Memphis field office or anywhere else has been notified.”

The pit in Spencer’s stomach grew, threatening to consume with him with guilt. This sounded exactly like the case he had left to confront Dean about, but this time there were no liquefied organs, no burned eyes. This case may be on a hunter’s radar, but there was nothing monstrous or mystical about it. Along with Rossi, Spencer started building the profile while Morgan and JJ handled the questioning of families and Blake took the M.E.

After Rossi left to grab coffee and a quick meal, Spencer called Dean, avoiding the bustling precinct’s officers. The phone went to voicemail after three rings, Spencer swore underneath his breath.

“Dean, I don’t know how many hunters there are, but it sounds like one of your people got here before my team did. If you have any way of contacting them, please, tell them to back off. I don’t know everything in way of the Occult, but I know unsubs and this is definitely human. Call me back.”

The Winchesters had stopped at a Gas N Sip to change into their matching black suits. After meeting Spencer and some of his coworkers, Dean wasn’t sure why they bothered with the idea that Feds were to look like cookie cutters. Especially since Sam refused to ever cut his hair. Pulling up to the latest crime scene, the Impala’s engine idled as they scoped the increased presence of officers and techs.

“Looks like it’s gotten more attention than the neighborhood watch, Dean.” Sam muttered annoyed.

“Four bodies in a week will do that. Well, let’s find out what we can and head over to the corner after lunch.”

“We have definitely been doing this too long if we see no issue with that idea.” Sam smirked, unfurling his long limbs from the classic car.

“Smile, Sammy, looks like we have company.” Dean nodded towards to two agents in much less formal clothing asking questions of the neighbors to the south. “Dibs on the blonde. You get baldy.”

Sam tisked and rolled his eyes, but let his brother have this one. He had already spotted the ring on the attractive woman’s hand. Who was he to refuse his brother the embarrassment?

“Agents, about time you got here, we’re from the local field office.” Dean boisterously called.

“I’m Agent Petty and this is Agent Nicks.” Sam explained, flashing his false credentials. Dean took a double take as he realized Sam had given him a girl’s last name for the case, it was his turn to roll his eyes.

“Morgan and Jareau, we’re with the BAU out of Quantico. Where’ve you guys been?”

“Just wrapping up with the last family, sorry we couldn’t meet you before you headed out.” Dean improvised, his gruff voice deepening notably. Sam almost laughed, this buff Agent was challenging Dean’s masculinity and both he and the blonde knew it.

“It’s okay, Freckles, our team can catch you up back at the precinct with Detective Cutts.” Jareau teased.

“Excuse me, did you say the BAU?” Sam followed Morgan and Jareau to their waiting SUV.

“Yeah, we’re here to profile this unsub so you all can finally do your jobs and arrest him.” The African American guy was short with them.

“That’s not the same Behavioral Analysis Unit as Dr. Spencer Reid is it?”

“Wait, you guys know Spence?” Jareau looked honestly confused.

Sam and Dean shared a knowing look, “You might say that.”

“The bodies had been staged to appear ritualized, but nothing adds up to any known religions or pagan practices.” Blake explained to the rest of the team.

“Were they completely drained?” Spencer looked up from the copies of the reports she had handed out.

“Yes, but not until after they were killed, all of the neck wounds were postmortem.”

“This guy isn’t slowing down, once he gets a victim he only holds on to them for a day, two tops.” Rossi pointed out the urgency.

“Did you guys get anything from the local field office? We ran into a pair of agents at the last crime scene, said they had spoken with the second victim’s families this morning.” JJ asked.

“JJ, didn’t we tell them to follow us here?” Derek pointed out. “I don’t know how, but they knew who you were, Pretty Boy.”

Spencer had been checking his phone throughout the round table session. He nodded in distraction at the conversation happening around him. He grew more annoyed with being ignored by the moody Winchesters, especially after he helped Kevin with the tablet translations.

“Their old wheels probably broke down on the way here.” Derek joked. “Garcia, my sweet?” He asked into speaker phone.

“Can you patch us through to an Agent Petty or Agent Nicks out of Memphis?”

“Oh, sugar, you know your girl has all the connections... huh.” Garcia paused, “I’m not finding them, any chance there are in a different office?”

Spencer’s head finally shot up. “It’s alright, Garcia, I have their numbers.”

“You do?” All team member’s eyes were locked onto the distracted genius.

“So call them!” Rossi’s Italian temper was starting to show.

Sam and Dean sat at the sticky booth in the greasy diner waiting for T-bone, a friend or distant relative or someone Garth knew, to show up. He apparently had been in the area on a random haunting when he picked up the chatter on the murders. Lucky for this sophomore hunter, Garth sent in the Winchesters, because clearly he had been talking out of his ass to every cop on the case.

“Can you believe this guy?” Dean muttered, staring at the specials on the small plexi stand on the table.

“What? Somebody Garth knows runs his mouth too much?” Sam pointed out the obvious. “Yeah, Dean, pretty believable.”

The waitress came and took their orders and still no T-bone. Dean had checked his messages, a couple from Garth, one from Kevin and then the last and most recent from Dr. Spencer Reid himself.

“Well, that’s great. Spencer says there is nothing to worry about here.” Dean complained, before he wrapped his mouth securely around his double bacon cheeseburger. Sam sprinkled the dressing onto his salad and scrunched up his nose, nodding.

“I know this guy is smart, man. But, uh, do you think he is ready to make that call?” Sam began cutting his lettuce with the side of his fork.

Dean had taken another obscenely large bite and had to chew for a solid minute before he could answer his doubting younger brother. He took a long pull from the straw of his Coke and nodded. “Dude, this guy just helped Kevin translate Aramaic. He has worked cases with black magic rituals and survived ghost possession. He may not look like it, but Reid knows what he’s talking about.”

It was Sam’s turn to chew, he nodded. “Alright, if you say so.” They continued on enjoying the meal in silence and privacy. “Should we check at the hotel where T-bone was staying?”

“What other choice is there? Keep working the case with the feds?” Dean quipped.

The BAU had delivered the profile to the local police, the missing agents obvious to everyone in attendance. Rossi concluded, “Most likely the unsub has already tried to insert himself into the investigation. He is either posing as media or law enforcement, be diligent out there. And only share new details with your superiors or my team. Thank you.”

The team from Quantico regrouped once the officers were given their patrols. Detective Cutts was speaking with a thirty year old version of himself in a hurried whisper before returning to his office. JJ had approached Spencer before they were given new assignments.

“Any word yet on those friends of yours?” her inflection was not hard to profile. JJ didn’t trust the Winchesters and she shouldn’t, they were in fact committing fraud on a weekly basis, Spencer reminded himself. It was a truth he had added to a list of few areas too gray to judge, because he knew they were doing their best to protect people.

“Not yet, but Garcia got me their location. They are working out of a motel just off of I-40.”

“So they’re not local?” JJ stared Spencer down intently. “What’s their story, Spence?”

“JJ, I really should go before they get too far into this alone.” Spencer tried to rush from JJ’s interrogation and cold blue glare.

“If Hotch were here there is no way you would be running to protect some imposters, what is going on with you?!” JJ had grabbed his messenger bag before he could, holding it away from him like a little sister and his favorite toy.

“Very funny, JJ.” Spencer pursed his lips. “I am doing my job, keeping people safe and profiling unsubs.” She watched him, whatever she saw in his stubborn stance or calculating eyes was enough. JJ relented and handed her tall friend his bag back.

“Just, be careful.” JJ added in a low voice.

“See you later, JJ.”

Morgan had watched the exchange, JJ exhaled and gave him a look that spoke volumes. Something was off about their resident genius.

Spencer had been having the confrontation under his breath the entire time driving to the seedy motel where Dean’s latest fake credit card had been used to reserve a room. Penelope Garcia was a nervous mess that the case she had sent Reid on last weekend had snowballed into a real case three states away. Spencer didn’t have the patience to console her, but he thanked her for her help and ended it with a sly, “Alright, Garcia.”

The paint was peeling from the warped wooden door frames along the brick exterior as he walked towards room 9 at the far corner of the L shaped building. That is when he spotted her, well, it really. Dean always referred to his treasured automobile as “Baby’, so the confusing pronoun had lodged itself inside of Spencer’s mind. The trunk was propped open and a sturdy pair of denim clad legs were be visible from the sidewalk.

“You looking for me, Doc?” Dean’s grouchy baritone called out from the weapons’ chest that was his trunk.

“What are you doing working the case, Dean?”

The scruffy hunter didn’t answer immediately, he just closed up the duffel bag with assorted supplies for your garden variety hunt. Salt, salt rounds, holy water, spray paint for trapping demons and other sigils besides knives, handguns and silver bullets to be safe. “It seems to me, we got here the same way.” Dean tossed the bag in the back seat and slammed the door shut. His voice was low, he tugged at his bottom lip with his callused thumb and forefinger. “You got a call from your sparkly tech girl, whom you trust. We got a call from Garth, somebody we-- sort of trust. Saying that something I had already been eyeing, had gone south and we were needed here.”

“I left you a message to back off. This unsub is on a psychotic break, he doesn’t even know he is the one committing these murders, please. Let me and my team do our jobs.” Spencer’s voice cracked, Dean had never seen his eyes so certain, so confident before. Dean smiled gently, nodding in agreement.

“You may be right, Doc. But now I have a missing hunter to account for and that means we’re not done. Not done with your unsub or your case, because until we find T-bone, the Winchesters are consulting.” Spencer gave Dean the side-eye for a few beats until they both broke into mild amusement.

“Is this guy really named T-bone?” Spencer puckered his lips, the inaudible laughter shaking his thin frame.

“I don’t know, man, I guess.” Dean leaned against the small patch of bricks between the door and the window. “Right now, we’re heading to his hotel and then we’ll see where his recon led him.”

“We can help, Dean.” Spencer offered sincerely. “Let me send some locals to check it out, get some evidence if he was taken by our unsub.”

“We don’t like questions, Spence. Isn’t that what the cute blonde called you?” Dean chuckled as Spencer nodded, unflinching at the term of endearment from his best friend. “Hunters might play cops and robbers now and then, but we try to stay off y’alls’ radar as much as possible. But, uh, thanks, man.”

“If you’re sure?” Spencer asked, looking out through his lashes at the confident and emotionally stunted alpha male that was Dean Winchester. “Be careful, Dean, I don’t want to have to arrest you.”

“Yeah, man, we’re good.” The men parted ways peacefully, Spencer returned to the precinct as Sam and Dean headed down to the next interstate exchange to find another cheap motel. Spencer didn’t know what he was going to feed his team, but somehow breaking protocol had become something he did.

This T-bone fella had especially bad taste for a hunter, the motel practically came with its own call girls. Dean scoped the bare legs lining the parking lot as Sam shook his head at his older brother. “That one in the red, Sammy.” He hummed in appreciation and grinned at himself. “Maybe if we wrap this up we can have a little fun?”

Sam was tight lipped, “Dean, I don’t pay for sex or S.T.I.s for that matter.” He slammed his car door and moseyed over to his brother’s side of the car with the supply bag. “The one in the red? I’m pretty sure she’s in transition.”

Dean balked and did a double take, “I’m not even sorry about looking, that is well done.”

“Right.” Sam headed up to the presumably vacant hotel room. He knocked, but the old door swung wide, revealing a maid with earbuds, singing at the top of her lungs while vacuuming. Once she saw the two hulking figures in the doorway, she let out a scream. Sam and Dean grimaced but waved before slowly approaching the young woman. “Excuse me? Did the man that was staying here check out recently?”

“No, he didn’t pay for another week, so the boss says no freeloading. He has been gone for two, no, three days?” The Winchester shared a look.

“Thanks, ma’am. Sorry to startle you.” Dean gave his best smolder in gratitude.

“He was a pig, I have been cleaning all morning. Scribbling all over the walls and the tacks!” She grumbled, but rubbed her fingers together insisting on a tip. Dean rolled his eyes and reached for his wallet.

“Is everything in the trash on your cart, yet? Maybe there is something we can use to track him down.” Sam finished the last part lowly to his brother.

“No, too much for my cart, sir.” The woman pointed across the parking lot. “Its all out there, good luck.” She smirked as Dean slid a note into her palm. He rose his eyebrows in mock gratitude.

After Rochambeau-ing for the joy of dumpster diving, Dean and Sam had worked out the area that T-bone had been canvassing, he seemed pretty convinced that it was a lone Ghoul on account of the blood drained after death. “You know this guy isn’t too bad, if I didn’t trust the scrawny kid I would have agreed with him.”

“Right, well, let’s get over there.” Sam muttered.

“I am going to need like ten showers tonight.” Dean griped as he brushed his hands on his jeans. Sam just laughed, ducking inside the Impala.

Spencer walked back into the precinct; the tension upon his solo return was palpable. He glanced between each of his teammates and Detective Cutts as they eyed him back, warily.

“Rossi, what happened?” Spencer asked apprehensively.

“It seems like your friends have been busy, Agent Reid. They were at the M.E.’s too. I’m sorry but they are now at the top of the suspect list.” The older detective cut in before Rossi could answer.

“You’re wrong, Detective. Sam and Dean are looking for a friend that was investigating the deaths before you and your team even put it together.”

“Reid,” Rossi began gently, “If they’re innocent, why haven’t you been able to get them in here? This could all be cleared up if they just came down for some questions. Isn’t that right, Cutts?”

Detective Cutts grunted, adjusting his utility belt.

“Sir?” Garcia’s voice called from the speaker setting on Morgan’s phone. He didn’t say anything to Reid, but his impatient facade hid nothing from the younger agent.

“Go ahead Garcia.”

“I found them, I sent Reid their hotel information not too long ago, why don’t you just follow up with him?”

“I’m already back, Garcia.” Reid held his opposite elbow across his chest.

“So, no use delaying anymore?” Garcia huffed. “Listen, I know Dean, sort of. He’s a sweetie. I may not be a profiler, but he did not hurt all those people, sir.”

“Thanks, Garcia, for what its worth.”

The team assembled with the locals to bring in the Winchesters. Spencer’s stomach pitched at the idea of arresting Sam and Dean while the real unsub was still roaming free. Free to kill again, maybe even the luckless hunter T-bone. He worked in silence, securing his vest and weapon. Refusing eye contact and even ignoring direct questions from Morgan and JJ. Blake had tried to approach him, but he just shook his head at her before she could work her calming magic over him.

“Rossi, a word?” Spencer interrupted the senior agent and the head of SWAT and Detective Cutts. Once they were alone in the hallway he began his vehement monologue. “We have the profile wrong. We never profiled two unsubs. Sam and Dean may know more than we do, but they are not the killers. We are wasting time while people are dying.”

“I agree with you, but we can’t have people impersonating agents and interfering with the investigation, Reid.” Rossi whispered conspiratorially. “I am going to hang back and continue to work the profile with Morgan and Garcia. I need Detective Cutts gone to do that, do you understand?”

“You want me to lead the Detective straight to Sam and Dean?” Spencer countered.

“I want you to take him and his men to their hotel to get them to cooperate.” Rossi said simply.

“Alright, I’ll get Blake and JJ and head out.”

“There’s our genius.” Rossi smirked. “Be safe.”

Spencer nodded and set his jaw in determination.

As Dean drove, the angel Ezekial surfaced from within his brother’s mind. He was not amused with their current circumstances.

“Why are we dirtying our hands with the filth of your people, Dean?” His monotone voice was unimpressed as always.

“You know, I was beginning to think you had forgotten to wake up. How’s it going Zeke? Comfy? Safe?” Dean glanced over at the beady eyes watching him severely. “That’s what I thought. I am not chasing angels this time, we’re just helping out friends. It’s what people do. I’m pretty sure even angels understand that basic concept.”

“The angels are organizing to seize control and you are chasing after someone you haven’t even met. Prioritize, Dean, I’m only here because you asked me.”

“One more day, and we’re back to the bunker. Zeke, I swear, no harm no foul.” Dean’s voice was clipped, he looked forward and grasped the steering wheel between two tight fists. And just as soon as he appeared, the angel sunk back to the recesses of Sam’s consciousness. Dean was really starting to hate the guy.

Spencer sat in the backseat of the dark Suburban as JJ drove them to the hotel he had departed not an hour before. Blake was making small talk, though Spencer knew it was never small. Every word was carefully placed, every inflection intentional. He was being petulant and not participating, until she purposely attributed a quote to John Donne instead of the philosopher Baruch Spinoza.

“Wicked is not much worse than indiscreet.” Spencer’s voice cracked forward, calling the linguist out.

“Who are these men to you, Spencer?” Alex Blake asked, challenging his overly secretive behavior.

Spencer watched out the window, not falling victim to the attractive pairs of eyes following him in the rear view mirror. “They’re friends. They are brothers that save people, just not in the same capacity we do.”

“Where did you meet them?” JJ asked.

“In my apartment, actually.” Spencer miffed matter-of-factually. “It was after you left for the Pentagon, Jayge.”

The blonde nodded, realizing there was so much yet to learn about her long time friend. “Why do you trust them?”

“Because Dean saved my life.”

“That works for me.” Blake said after the heavy truth settled within the vehicle.

Spencer led the locals into the empty hotel room, following Detective Cutts’ every instruction. The laptop left open to an obvious diversion, but he pointed it out to the officers’ curious eyes. Their weapons traveled with them, so nothing incriminating was recovered. Spencer shrugged at Blake and JJ as they called the raid a wash, agreeing to return to the precinct while the locals “secured” the scene.

Dean and Sam walked into the old maintenance garage on the back acres of the cemetery. The metal rattling of the slamming service door put the hunters on high alert. They had their guns raised and scanned the dark space around the old tractor and golf carts used for collecting discarded flowers and trash. After a few minutes checking the ins and outs of the vast space, Dean realized that he couldn’t hear Sam’s moose hooves. He called out and spun, to meet a large stone to his temple.

The three agents in their vests met back with Morgan and Rossi at the nearly vacated precinct. By the looks on their faces, they had unveiled the unsub. “What did you guys find? Was there another body?” JJ was worried.

“No, but we located our unsub.” Morgan explained.

“Well, who is it?”

“Markus Cutts.” Rossi deadpanned.

“That’s why you needed the detective chasing the wrong lead.” Spencer caught on.

“Right, but now we need to get over to the All Saints Cemetery.” Rossi had been strapping on his Kevlar as he spoke. “Because Mr. Cutts definitely has some new victims.”

Morgan spun the photograph he held in his large hands. It was a security camera shot from the front gate of the graveyard, a black Chevy was parked besides a rusted truck. The license plate on the junker an unmissable T-B1 from Iowa. The returning SWAT were quickly briefed, allowing the BAU lead over Detective Cutts who had been barred from continuing the case.

Rolling over the gravel service entrance, a parade of dark vehicles surrounded the old metal barn. The seasoned team moved in sync through the dimming light of dusk. Spencer and Blake entered at the back while JJ and Morgan went through the hefty door toward the front of the building. While they found no one, the unmistakable sound of groans were growing closer.

Then Morgan batted something off his bare head, “Shit!” he exclaimed understanding freezing him in place. His gun and flashlight flashed upwards to the rafters. Spencer spotted the bodies hanging, secured by one or both ankles from the metal framework above them. Dean was unconscious, his jacket a mocking flag taunting Spencer. He scanned the room, finding the old built in ladder just inside the service door.

“Markus?! Markus Cutts, come out with your hands up.” Morgan called out as JJ sprinted to follow Spencer up to the cat walk. SWAT were working their way through the building, two officers were working on setting up ladders to safely remove the victims from their perch twenty feet in the air. On the higher level, Spencer slowed his pace, checking every access point to ensure he could get to the Winchesters without being blindsided.

Worry held his throat as he saw that it was Sam’s blood that had fallen on to his friend’s scalp. He happened upon who must be the illusive T-Bone first, a mixed young man in jeans and a hoodie hung completely lifeless from the first row of scaffolding. By the color of his ankles and the temperature of his skin, Spencer calculated that he had been dead for over a day. He shook his head at JJ and followed her back to the next row, towards Dean.

Suddenly there was a loud crash and a crouching figure had fallen before JJ on the swaying metal ramp. “Freeze!” Her tone was clear and efficient.

Markus Cutts, didn’t freeze, he snarled at JJ, pouncing forward and she put him down with two quick shots.

Over an hour later T-Bone, Dean, Sam and a fourth unidentified victim had been cut down from their hanging prison. Dean had come to before he made it to one of the waiting ambulances. Naturally he refused to go to the hospital. Instead, answered some of JJ’s questions while Sam’s over-sized body was secured into the back of the nearest truck.

“Alright, lady, are we done?” Dean grunted, “I need to be with my brother, if you don’t mind.” His voice softened, when he caught her startled expression.

Spencer had given his statement for the locals on the shooting of Markus Cutts, who was, as profiled a very ill human (not a ghoul). His father had made his way to the scene despite his orders. Spencer watched the father’s breakdown with a deep sympathy in his chocolate eyes. Rossi approached Spencer and patted him on the back.

“Looks like your friends did lead us to the unsub after all.”

“Rossi, I just want to apologize for my unprofessionalism on this case.” Spencer cleared his throat. “If it had been Hotch, I wouldn’t have even been allowed to speak with them alone.”

“Yeah, well, Hotch is the rules guy. Me? I trust my gut.” Rossi smirked. “Now, somebody is going to have to drive that beautiful Chevy over to the hospital for your ‘gambling’ buddy, right?”

Spencer grinned in the red glow of taillights, a gentle wave sending Rossi off as he brought Baby to a purr. Unhindered and unassisted the Winchester brothers disappeared from Baptist Memorial Hospital before midnight rounds.

“History and experience tell us that moral progress comes not in comfortable and complacent times, but out of trial and confusion.”- Gerald R. Ford

@imagicana @cherry-loves-fanfic @hanny-writes-spn @ilovehuntersinflannel @mxolhfanfics @gubl-oser @there-must-be-a-lock @dontshootmespence @simmvez

[thirstyfortom]

High School Band AU: Ch. 17

One, two, three, four!

You sway your hips according to the beat of the drums.

“I know what boys like. I know what guys want. I know what boys like, I’ve got what boys want.”

You walk towards Zen, playing with his hair as he bows a little in your direction playing his guitar.

“I know what boys like, I know what guys want, I see them looking.” You march towards Yoosung, grabbing his chin to make him look at you.

“I make them want me, I like to tease them. And they want to touch me, I never let them.” You beckon at Jaehee, winking as you get off the stage and pass next to her… only to go back up there.

“I know what boys like, I know what guys want, I know what boys like. Boys like, boys like me.” Now you go to Saeyoung, bumping your hips against his as you lean on his shoulder.

“I think you’re special. I might let you… You’re so much different! I might let you… There’s no one like you! I might let you… Or would you like that? I might let you…” you were motioning to give Jumin’s butt a quick smack, but seeing Saeran looking straight at you made you serpentine towards him.

“Sucker!” only to push his head away when he comes close.

From the audience, V and Rika watch the show. V is clapping to the beat of the song and smiling, while Rika is crossing her arms and shooting daggers with her eyes.

“So, Rika… what did you think?” you ask, feeling like you would wag your tail if you had one.

“It suits you perfectly, MC. It’s tacky, bitchy and annoying… blah blah blah manipulative sneaky bitch blah blah blah.” Her voice echoes as you feel yourself dizzy, your legs get weak and your sight gets blurred as you feel your body getting heavier and falling, quickly meeting Saeran’s eyes before hitting the floor.

“I hate you!” you read his lips before passing out.

***

“The song is annoying on purpose, new age is supposed to be ironic!” you yell, raising your head suddenly. Blinking quickly, you find yourself at the records’ store.

You wipe the drool of your mouth and rub your eyes. Oh… if your uncle catches you dozing off at work, he’ll kill you! Well, would it make him feel better if he knew you were having a nightmare? The same one you’ve been having over and over, ever since you announced you would quit the band?

You did the right thing. How could you stay after creating such a tense environment to work? A lot of bands are build on pressure and stay together for years, but… look it up, how many bands had all the members in love with the same member? If there ever had one, wouldn’t they had already parted ways by now?

Love…  what is love? Singing about it is so easy! But feeling it is so different, is so… less cool than when you write some lyrics, put on a nice melody and give lots of material for high school bands to do covers like this. Love… hurts. It hurt at least six people in Mystic Messenger.

No, love didn’t hurt them, you did. You sneaky little bitch! Love is a good feeling, you are bad!

But… why are you feeling hurt too? Why… quitting the band felt like the hardest thing you ever did? Why… do you miss them if all you wanted was to play with them?

Did you? You don’t remember having any thought similar to the idea of seducing everyone. You’re not even seductive! You’re… weird and… kinda of a smug… and bitchy for no apparent reason… why would anyone like someone like this?

You’re terrible! And they are all so nice, sweet, considerate, everyone in their own ways with their own struggles… could it be that these struggles really messed up all of them so much to the point of them falling for someone so… awful? And you, being the loner, the newbie, the outcast by nature, got so fascinated with the possibility of finally having some friends and forgetting the mess with your family, jumped the gun and unintentionally played with them?

Because you’re pretty sure you never tried to seduce everyone on purpose, all you wanted was friends, not people crushing on you all at the same time! You don’t have romantic feelings for any of them, you never wanted any of them to have for you! You don’t love any of them!

Except for… one of them. The one who hates you… that stupid, gross, weird, kinda of a smug and a dick for no apparent reason, but he has his reasons, and now you’re just one more reason for him to be like that.

“Saeran?” you ask out loud, looking at the door as you see a very familiar red hair walking in to the store. It’s… Saeran? What’s with the boombox? “Saeran, what are you doin…?”

“Shh! Just listen!” he says, putting the boombox above his head and hitting the “play”. Oh god… what is he doing?

“You’re just too good to be true…” Oh no… “Can’t take my eyes off of you…” OH HELL NO!

You get up from the chair next to the register and walk towards him, pressing the stop button.

“What the hell? Let me just play till the chorus!”

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

“What do you think? I’m serenading you and… confessing my feelings.” You stare at him, frowning. There’s something really wrong here…

“Okay… go on…”

“After you left, I… couldn’t let things like this. Don’t mind what Rika said, I know I don’t! I… I love you… please, come back to the band, we need you, I… need you…”

“Okay.”

“Really?”

“Yep, I’ll come back.”

“Wow, easy like that? Whoa, that’s… great! That’s really great! Yeah!”

“Only if… you answer me a question.”

“Sure, anything, MC!”

“What did I call the math teacher to be suspended?”

“W-what?”

“I got suspended last week for cussing the teacher out, what did I call him? You must remember, Saeran, since we were at the detention together…”

“Uhm… why would I…? It was something so silly, pffff.” He scoffs.

“Really? Because you thought it was hilarious, you laughed and kept calling me that even when you took me to that special place and… well, you remember what happened, right? Or do I have to remind you?” you narrow your eyes at him, as he widens his.

“WHAAAT? So the closet wasn’t the first time???” he coughs in surprise, almost dropping the boombox.

“Hi, Saeyoung.” You cross your arms and glare at him. Saeyoung chuckles, lowering his gaze before taking his glasses on the pocket of his jacket.

“Was it the boombox that gave away or…?”

“It was the fact that you twins don’t look that much alike, at least not to me.”  

“Yeah, forget that we’re identical twins, we don’t look alike. You will fight science to prove your point, right?” okay, now he almost sounded like Saeran. “Oh well, though that I could might as well give a shot.”

“A shot on what, Saeyoung? What is this?”

“Well, the winter festival is in the end of the week, we don’t have a vocalist, I mean, we do have, she’s just sad because her crush got mad at her and took another dramatic decision. So I, a genius, a visionary, a romance expert, an identical twin, took a very dramatic decision as well, dressed up as my brother, and came to confess his feelings for the girl he likes in his place.”

“And can I ask what the visionary genius would do if I believed that? I would say yes to coming back, and then what?” he opens his mouth to speak, but backs away.

“A visionary doesn’t necessarily has to have everything figured out! I was improvising!”

“You were trying to make a big mess.” You sigh. “Not bigger than the one I did, but still…”

“Ah, come on, MC! You’re still thinking about what happened? Forget that, it’s all in Rika’s mind, I know for a fact you didn’t get in the band to play a femme fatale bullshit like that. I know you… I have known you… before everybody…”

“Saeyoung…”

“Come back! We need you! Not in a romantic way, I swear! We need you to sing, slay, bring the gold home and… make us laugh and have fun like you were doing before…”

“Are you sure I wasn’t just playing with everybody’s feelings?”

“I can say you never played with mine, I knew I never had a chance with you.” He puts the boombox on his shoulder, smiling.

“Saeyoung… what if you had?”

“I hadn’t. The kiss? We were listening to a sexy song in a very… lewd place, and… you didn’t kiss me.”

“But I wanted.”

“But you didn’t. You could have stayed and pushed a little further, I would probably give in if you tried again. But you went away without hesitating, MC. If I still had any hope, it died right then.“

“So...?”

“So… if you ask me, I say it’s because we were talking about Saeran a few moments before, so… maybe there was something inside you already telling you not to do that, you were coming to the wrong brother right then.”

“I don’t think it was that, Saeyoung. I think… you’re overestimating me.”

“And I think you’re underestimating yourself. But we can agree to disagree for now. So I’m just going to ask you one more time: please, come back, MC.”

“Saeyoung, I…”

“The ideal would be if you did this for yourself, but if you can’t, do it for Saeran.”

“Saeran?”

“He’s hurt, he’s been locking himself in the bedroom all day writing and playing drums. I’m getting hurt by seeing him like this. Please, MC… I know you love him, so do it for him. And for me, if I’m not asking much…”

Son of a… when did he become so mature? Was he always like this? Well, probably, the whole weirdo façade was just to cope with all his family matters, but the truth is… Saeyoung is probably the most mature and sensitive brother, always putting his brother’s priorities first, always taking care of Saeran, protecting Saeran, giving up the girl he likes because of Saeran…

Saeran…

“Getting away from Saeran is the best thing I can do for him. And for you, Saeyoung. I… I’m sorry. I’m sorry for everything.”

You feel your voice breaking and lower you gaze, avoiding the tears. Then you just feel a warm body revolving yours and a pair of lips on your forehead, along with a chuckle.

“See you soon, MC!”

“Saeyoung, I’m not coming bac…” you growl in frustration as he turns his back on you and just walks away. He’s so stubborn! You’re not coming back! If at first you didn’t want to come back to process what’ happening to yourself, now you don’t want to come back because you need to get away from them so they will forget you and stop getting hurt. You don’t want to hurt anyone!

Stomping, you turn around to get back to the register. You barely manage to sit as you get up again, hearing the door being open. Did Saeyoung come back?

“I’m not coming back! I… oh…” you flinch, seeing it’s not Saeyoung, it’s… “Jumin…?”

“Aren’t you cold? It’s starting to snow heavily outside.”

“I’m fine. How… how about you, Jumin? What are you doing here?”

“I’m here to clarify some things, since you walked away from my chalet in such a hurry. You see, MC, a lot has been said by everyone that night.”

“I know, I…”

“Everyone, except for me.”

“What?”

“I didn’t have a chance to speak, MC. Everybody got to share their feelings for you, but I didn’t.”

“Ju-Jumin?”

“I’m here to tell my feelings for you, MC.”

Shit! Now you’re almost missing that boombox…

← Chapter 16 | Chapter 18 →

[sage-nebula]

Hello! I hope that I'm not bothering you! I was wondering if you would please be willing to share your thought process/reasons for putting Yoosung in Slytherin? Because honestly this is literally the best placement for him that I have seen!?! And I would love to know a bit more of your headcannons about it if you were willing to share? Once again sorry for the bother! Please feel free to ignore this message! Have a nice day!

You’re not bothering me at all! I’m always happy to receive nice messages like this. Anyway, sure, I don’t mind sharing my thoughts on Slytherin!Yoosung in the least bit.

First, to get it out of the way, let’s remember the traits of Slytherin House:

Ambition

Ruthlessness

Resourcefulness / Cunning

A desire to look out for / loyalty to one’s own, prioritizing them above all others

The first three traits are well known and talked about at length (though, I argue, often misunderstood), while the last one isn’t as much. Nonetheless, that last one is referenced in Slytherin House’s old welcome letter on Pottermore, and it’s also exhibited time and again with pretty much every Slytherin throughout the series. Even the rare Slytherin who is wholly selfish (Voldemort and Umbridge) still cares for their own, it’s just that “their own” refers to themselves and no one else. They’ve cut everyone else out of their lives.

Regardless, these are the traits of Slytherin House. As a reminder, for someone to be placed in a House they have to both exhibit and value these qualities. I’ve seen some people Sorting purely based on what qualities a character exhibits, and others who claim that it’s purely about values. No, both of those assertions are wrong. You have to embody and value qualities for them to count. It’s not either-or, it’s both. With that said, I firmly believe that Yoosung embodies and values all of the qualities listed above and then some.

Ambition ---

This one might seem a bit odd, given that when we meet Yoosung in the narrative (in both the Original and Another Story) he seems to be wasting his life away playing LOLOL. Yoosung is a university student, but he doesn’t seem to care very much about his studies; he has been offered an internship with Jumin’s company, C&R, but he doesn’t feel like pursuing it, and when he does consider it, it’s only so that he can make money to buy more skins in LOLOL, something which understandably doesn’t impress Jumin very much. However, while this might make it seem as though Yoosung isn’t very ambitious, I would argue that not only does he still show some ambition during this time in his life, but also point out that this is actually an anomaly for him, caused by his grief over Rika’s death and his inability to move on from it.

Prior to the canon narrative, Yoosung worked his ass off in high school so that he could get into a prestigious university to eventually pursue veterinary medicine. I can’t say how easy or difficult it is to pursue veterinary medicine in South Korea, but I can say that here in the States it’s one of the most difficult fields to get into. Veterinary school is extremely selective and picky about those who are admitted, I believe even more so than human medicine schools are. If you want to go into veterinary medicine, you have to really put in the effort in every aspect of your academic career, most often beginning with high school. The selection process might be different in South Korea, but we nonetheless know that Yoosung did work extremely hard to get into university when he was in high school. He used to be a model student who, on top of his studies, also volunteered in community service on top of everything he did for RFA. True, a great deal of this was a result of how inspired he felt by Rika, but nonetheless, he had enough ambition to want to reach heights that would not only make her proud, but could also potentially make her life better (since he decided to pursue vet med after her dog, Sally, died). 

When Rika died, however, grief hit Yoosung hard, and he lost focus and direction in his life. Nonetheless, I would argue that his ambition hasn’t entirely left him, but has instead shifted. Yoosung turned to LOLOL in order to deal with his grief, and in that, he has channeled all of his ambition into LOLOL. Remember, ambition doesn’t necessarily have to pertain to something that other people see as glamorous or worthwhile; the type of ambition that Slytherins value, rather, is personal ambition. Whereas a Hufflepuff might aspire to do something for their community, or a Gryffindor might aspire to do something for the greater good, Slytherins aspire to do things that will please themselves. Yes, some Slytherins want glory, and want people to shower them in accolades and praise; but even if they want that, it’s less because they want to impress others, and more because they want that sense of self-satisfaction. A Slytherin’s ambition is very personal. Thus, Yoosung’s ambition to be the number one LOLOL player to ever exist is a very Slytherin ambition, as is his single-minded focus on trying to do everything he can in order to achieve that goal (e.g. pursuing a C&R internship to buy new skins, rather than because he actually wants to work there). 

Additionally, Yoosung values ambition. Part of why Rika was such an inspiration to him is because she had such big dreams of helping others, and actively worked in order to see her dreams come to fruition. Although Yoosung is envious of Jumin’s wealth, he still looks upon Jumin favorably for his successes with C&R. He says that he understands Saeyoung’s desire to live vicariously through Zen, because he, too, wants to be able to stand at the top, but feels that’s beyond him. And while he seems to have lost his drive for his studies, this is something that he hints bothers him, that he’s upset by even as he tries to hide it. Yoosung holds ambitious people in high esteem; he admires those who have personal ambition because that is a quality that he himself finds admirable. Having such a favorable view of personal ambition like this is definitely a Slytherin trait.

Ruthlessness ---

Whatever Yoosung wants, Yoosung gets. And if he doesn’t get it, then he does not go quietly into the good night about it.

People look upon ruthless individuals as being brutal, vicious, icy, and heartless. However, I disagree. Being ruthless means being determined to the point where you will not let anyone or anything stand in your way, regardless of the consequences. It means being willing to mow down whoever and whatever in order to get what you want, everything else and sacrifices be damned. And while that might seem heartless, remember that:

A willingness to do this does not always mean there is malicious intent, i.e., even if a Slytherin hurts others in their ruthless desire to get what they want, they may not realize that they’re hurting others

Even if they do realize it, it doesn’t mean they’re happy about it

Keep in mind, people of any House can be Determinators. What sets a Slytherin apart is their willingness to take a “the ends justify the means” approach. It doesn’t mean that they’re heartless, cruel, or intentionally malicious; it just means that they’re so dead set on getting what they want that they’re willing to go through whoever or whatever to get it, even if they know that what they’re doing isn’t necessarily right (or even if they accidentally hurt others in the process).

Yoosung demonstrates ruthlessness of this nature, particularly in his Bad Endings, and especially when it comes to Rika.

Yoosung, in his desire to satisfy himself with answers regarding Rika’s apparent suicide (and, in Another Story, her continued life) shows time and again that he’s willing to go to whatever lengths he has to in order to get what he wants. He berates V at every opportunity, and goes so far as to blame him for Rika’s suicide in Another Story. In the “yandere Yoosung” Bad Ending, he all but barrels down the door to Saeyoung’s house, and threatens to destroy all of his equipment unless he tells Yoosung the address of Rika’s old apartment so that he can get to MC. To flip back over to Another Story again, Zen has to repeatedly wrench his phone away from him and lock him out of rooms in order to stop him from verbally assaulting MC, Saeyoung, V, and whoever else. The boy does not quit. And he makes it clear, in these endings, that even though people like Zen and Saeyoung are his friends---that even though he has cared about them for some time, on some level---if he needs to go through them to get what he wants, he will. He won’t “stay still,” as the characters in Mystic Messenger so often put it. He won’t hold back. He will scream, kick, destroy things, and physically fight them if it means getting what he wants. Of course he would never hurt them ordinarily . . . but particularly in his darkest hours, his ruthless nature comes out in full force. He’s not willing to hold back.

(Thankfully, he’s also small, so Zen and Saeyoung are able to defend themselves, but still.)

Of course, he has to admire ruthlessness as well---and I believe he does. When Saeyoung realizes that he can no longer trust V in good conscience in his own route, Yoosung throws his support behind Saeyoung with great gusto, only rescinding it when he realizes that Saeyoung is going to cut him off as well. He’s perfectly fine with however ruthless Saeyoung decides to be so long as Saeyoung doesn’t cut him out. And while this leads more into the very last quality, Yoosung also shows a reluctance to condemn pretty much anything Rika does, believing that she must have a reason---and if she has a reason, well, the ends justify the means, don’t they? To a Slytherin’s mind, they do.

Resourcefulness / Cunning ---

Yoosung, as part of being the more “normal, boy next door” guy in the cast, isn’t the most crafty or resourceful person in the RFA. In fact, when V talks about those who are most capable of getting things done, he names Saeyoung and Jumin, since Saeyoung “has the skills, and Jumin has the resources to make things happen.” However, although Yoosung isn’t the most brilliant character in the cast, it’s still undeniable that he shows resourcefulness, cunning, and the type of mindset that lets him find the fastest way from Point A to Point B (with Point A being where he is, and Point B being what he wants). 

To reference the examples above, Yoosung shows that not only is he willing to go through characters like Saeyoung or Zen to get what he wants, but he’s also willing to circumnavigate them completely. In his Bad End, he only starts threatening the safety of Saeyoung’s equipment because he doesn’t feel that he can get the address to the apartment any other way. In Another Story, there are multiple instances of him stealing Zen’s phone in order to interrogate MC and other characters over the chat and text message. In Saeyoung’s route, when his mother is staying with him, he goes behind her back repeatedly not only to check on things in the RFA, but also so that he can play LOLOL and goof off right under her nose, and so on and so forth. These might seem like silly things, but they show that Yoosung has something of a crafty mindset and that he isn’t afraid to deceive others in order to find a way around whatever is impeding his progress (which again, feeds right back into his ruthlessness). As one last example on that, remember that he does fool Rika in the last scenes of Another Story by playing innocent to get close to her, only to arrest her and ruin her plans at the last second. Again, that’s a bit of cunning coming through, that he was able to deceive her and knew just how to do it.

And once again, this is something that he values in others. Yoosung expresses envy at the abilities of others to get things done quite often throughout the narrative. The fact that Saeyoung is able to accomplish so much is something that Yoosung finds enviable, and the same goes for the resources that Jumin and Jaehee have at their disposal. While those things might not be quite the same as cunning, I think that their resourcefulness, and the abilities they showcase in order to achieve their goals, counts as admiration for this quality from Yoosung’s side. Additionally, I would argue that Yoosung does like seeing clever tricks and pranks . . . just not when they’re being played on him. But that is, perhaps, a separate issue.

A desire to look out for / loyalty to one’s own, prioritizing them above all others ---

Arguably the most important Slytherin quality, and one that Yoosung definitely embodies and values.

One of Yoosung’s most talked about character traits is his utter devotion to Rika. At best, this makes him prone to praising her even when she wasn’t originally part of the conversation. At worst, this makes him unstable to the point where he can’t differentiate MC from Rika, or shows irritation or even hostility when he is forced to notice their differences (in the moments before they both die thanks to the apartment bomb). The thing is, while Yoosung definitely does take his devotion to Rika to unhealthy extremes in certain Bad Endings, the devotion that he does have to her fits right along with a Slytherin’s loyalty to their own. In Yoosung’s mind, Rika was one of his own, thus his insistence that he should get to know everything about her, since he’s her surviving family. To him, that bond they share as family supercedes all else, including the feelings and potential well-being of others. And that? That is very Slytherin.

See, here’s the thing: Most people think of Hufflepuff as the loyal House. While loyalty is one of Hufflepuff’s qualities, the loyalty that Hufflepuffs have is different from the loyalty that Slytherins have. Hufflepuff loyalty is loyalty to a community or group; Hufflepuffs see the world as a sort of “here are all the people worth saving / being loyalty to, and then there’s everyone else that we don’t give a damn about.” For Hufflepuffs, they don’t necessarily have to like you, but they’re still going to be loyal to you. Hufflepuff loyalty is best examined as loyalty to one’s community, or one’s church group, or one’s baseball team, whatever. Hufflepuff loyalty is loyalty to the collective.

Slytherin loyalty isn’t like that. Slytherin loyalty, like everything else Slytherins do, is rather personal and selective. If a Slytherin has decided that you’re one of their own, then that’s because they feel that you, personally, deserve that. And they’re going to be completely devoted to you, they’re going to stand by you practically no matter what. Slytherins are here to support and promote their people, in addition to themselves (and in the case of rare Slytherins, only themselves, but that’s not relevant to Yoosung). A Slytherin isn’t really going to give a damn about everyone else in the community; they’re going to care about their own people most of all. So for example, while the Hufflepuffs in the seventh Harry Potter book volunteered to stay behind and fight at the Battle of Hogwarts because they wanted to protect those in their community (i.e. those who weren’t Death Eaters), the Slytherins (such as the Malfoys) were mostly concerned with protecting those they most cared about. A Hufflepuff will see the world ending and will want to protect their towns / cities/ country / whatever; a Slytherin will see the world ending and will want to grab the hands of those they love the most and pull them to safety.

And that’s Yoosung, particularly with Rika. 

Yoosung makes it clear, especially in Another Story, that Rika is his top priority. There are at least two separate instances in Another Story where you, as the MC, can express a desire to support Saeyoung and V, and Yoosung dismisses you with, “You can support whoever you want, but I’m standing by Rika.” In saying this, Yoosung is making it very plain that he does not give a damn about Saeyoung and V, that he will drop them both in a hot second if that’s what it takes to support Rika. With V, this is not surprising; Yoosung pretty much despises V, and makes no effort to conceal that. But Saeyoung is supposed to be his friend, someone he cares an awful lot about. And I think he does care, to an extent . . . but if his choice is Saeyoung or Rika, it’s no quesiton. He will stay loyal to Rika. He will drop Saeyoung in a heartbeat if Saeyoung decides to support V instead, and he stays in this mindset for pretty much the entirety of Another Story. He bends over backwards to make excuses and justifications for Rika, he refuses to believe what anyone says, he insists that everyone---from V, to Saeyoung, to MC---must be lying to him about what Rika has done. His loyalty to Rika is so strong that even when she herself confirms what she has done, he still has a hard time believing it, because he wants to stand by her that badly. And even setting aside those drastic times, one of the easiest ways to get broken hearts for Yoosung is to insult or disparage Rika in some way. You can get one early in the Christmas DLC by insinuating you don’t like her. Yoosung’s loyalty to Rika is so strong that he can’t bear to hear a single word spoken against her. He won’t stand for it. Rika is at the center of Yoosung’s inner circle. He won’t abandon her for anything.

And again, this sort of mentality is something that Yoosung values in others. When Saeyoung says that he’s going to cut off contact with the RFA in his own route, Yoosung flips out, because the idea that someone could turn their back on those they had previously cared about is unheard of for him. (Of course, considering Yoosung is willing to drop Saeyoung for Rika’s sake makes him seem like something of a hypocrite, but still.) Fidelity is of course important in monogamous relationships, but Yoosung goes on and on about it to a level that’s a bit much at times, because he wants to make sure that the person he decides to spend his life with is just as devoted to their own people as he is. Devotion and personal loyalty are concepts that are immensely important to him. It’s one of his most dearly held values. And that, my friend, is very Slytherin.

So in conclusion, I just think Slytherin House works very well for Yoosung. He might seem a bit unconventional due to how bright and energetic he is, but I reject the stereotype that Slytherins are all moody, broody antiheroes. I think Yoosung fits the colors green and silver quite well, and I bet the Sorting Hat would agree with me. 

[xxreadersxx]

hi can I have a scenario of pocket AU: S/O was minding her own business but then suddenly noticed a smol Zen, Jumin & Yoosung??

{Whew, slowly but surely, I’m trying to answer all the requests! I actually have free time from my first class today due to the professor taking off. I guess he figured people wanted the extra time to escape the on coming hurricane lol. Anyways, on to the scenarios! (If you want another part to this, I’d be happy to do it, just let me know!)} 

Walking up to my front door after a long, hard day, all I want to do is get a shower and sleep. The day was even worse without my phone, which I had forgotten on my table. As I unlock to door, I am immediately put into defense mode as the unmistakable sound of male voices enter my ears. Is someone in my room? I look around the area around me and grab anything in range. I start to listen in on what he men were talking about, and was hit with confusion.

“Whose place is this? It seems like someone of the middle class. Maybe a student?”

“Ahhh what if they come home?! We look like intruders!”

“Calm down, calm down. How can someone be scarred of us…we’re freaking tiny! And—hey! Don’t touch things!” *crash*

“Oops…”

“Ahhh now they’ll definitely be mad!”

I step closer to the opening at the end of my hall, and peek around the corner. At first my head is spinning. Where are they? I know they’re here! Then I noticed movement on my table, near my forgotten phone. Fluffballs? What is that? I squint and try to get a better look, until one of them, the yellow colored one, turns and jumps about half a foot off the table, and yelps.I then see the other two turn towards where the yellow one was pointing, and the silvery one starts to stumble through words.

“I-we-s-sorry! Wekindacamethroughyourphonenddontknowhowtogetback..” He really jumbled the words towards the end of his sentence, and I scrunch my eyebrows in concentration. Then I hear a throat clear, and It’s the black-haired one, it stops the silver-haired one in his tracks. He looks to be taller than the other two, the yellow one is still jittering behind the other two. Seeing that there were no other people in my room, I decided to walk a few paces in, and saw that the three on my table, were in fact, tiny people. My face drops in surprise.

“Pardon the intrusion. We came out of your phone and cannot seem to get back.” The black one told me. He sounds much more mature compared to the others. Something about these three remind me of something, but I seriously can’t place it. Well, until the silver one spoke again.

“Whoa! You’re pretty!” He said, walking over towards the end of the table that I was walking up to. He continues, lunging on one knee, one hand outstretched in my direction, the other on his chest dramatically. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, milady, I am Ryu Hyun, but you may call me…”

“Zen?!” I shout, a little too loudly from surprise, his face blanks, and I quickly apologize. He just stands up and asks how I know his name, and something about whether I’m a fan girl or not. I just brush the last comment off and explain.

“No, no! I actually know you guys. You’re Zen, Jumin and Yoosung, correct?” I ask, to which the response was a nod from all three. I laugh, this is ridiculous, I’m delusional. I sit down next to the table.

“Ha.Ha, ok so this is a thing that’s happening now, huh? Hahaha I’m insane. Maybe lack of sleep?” I lay my head on the table, facing the three men. Yoosung cautiously walks towards me, fiddling with his hands in front of his tiny chest.

“No! You’re not crazy, really! W-we came through your phone, and are just as confused as you!” He says, his voice gentle, but shaking. Keeping my head on the table, looking at him, I reach a hand up and gently poke his stomach. He giggles a little. Can you please not be any cuter, geez.

Apparently, either he can read minds, or I whispered that aloud, because his face turns bright red. Upon seeing his face, and realizing my blunder, I sputter out an apology, and my face burns hot as I roll my face to look away. I pull my hand back to rest it beside my head, and feel a light pat on my pinky. I turn back to face them, and see Jumin patting my hand. I raise an eyebrow.

“We apologize for causing you problems, but you wouldn’t happen to know how to get us back? I didn’t get a chance to tell anyone about Elizabeth 3rd.” He says, his face concerned for his cat. I sigh and sit up straight, shaking my head ‘no’. He sighs, rubbing the bridge of his nose. Just then, I hear a stomach growl, and I look down at the three of them. Zen, chuckles lightly, a slight blush appearing on his face.

“Sorry. I haven’t had dinner yet.” He says rubbing the back of his head. I giggle, and ask if they would like some food. The all looked at me and Yoosung spoke up.

“Are you going to cook for us?” He said, his eyes almost sparkling. I giggle again and nod. I ask if they’d like to come with, placing my hands on the table in front of the three. They all nodded and cautiously stepped on, sitting down.  I lift them up, and walk towards the kitchen while Zen decides to ask the important questions.

“So…how did you know our names?” He asks, and I freeze. How the heck am I supposed to explain that they are part of a dating simulator? That’s really embarrassing! So, I start off slow.

“W-well, you guys are actually in an app on my cellphone.” I say. That should be enough, right? Wrong.

“Ooohhh, like a game?!” Yoosung asks, gripping my thumb for support. I look down, a blush forms without me wanting it to. I nod.

“S-sort of.” I respond, he laughs and Jumin asks on.

“So..this app, or game, what does it have to do with us?” He asks, his face blank.

“Ummm well, it has to do with the RFA messenger. The game is called Mystic Messenger.”

“H-how much do you know about RFA?!” This time it’s Zen who speaks up, his face full of surprise. I giggle.

“Don’t worry! The RFA isn’t real in this world, and actually your app is really popular! All of my friends have it downloaded.” I say, laughing lightly. Zen seems to calm down, but he looks like he’s thinking.

Walking to the counter, I place the tiny RFA members down, and open my fridge. I ended up making an omelet for everyone to share, myself included. We all ate and talked about random things: how I found the app, what I do for a living, where we are, and why I live by myself. After a little, I yawn, and say I’m going to go to bed, and that I have off tomorrow. The boys all nod, and I pick them up and carry them to the couch. Placing them down on the soft seat. I walk over and grab a sheet from my closet. I unfold it and lay it down for them to use as a blanket during the night. I say good night to the three as I watch Yoosung snuggle under the cover, and Zen begin taking his shirt off.

“Good night!” “Sleep tight!~”“Good night.”

I turn off the lights after giving a short warning about the dark, and close my bedroom door behind me. Laying down on my bed, my mind is spinning again. Tomorrow is going to be a looooooooong day.

[serensama]

Royal Mystic Messenger #2

Prince Zen... got a lot wordier than I had originally planned... it practically completely deviated from my original storyline... ehhhh I went with it. 

Zen:

-       Prince Zen was amazing, everyone knew this. He was a great lover of all things beautiful, beautiful art, clothes, furnishings, women, music… himself.

-       He certainly wasn’t the most notorious Casanova around but he had many rumours circulating about him. That he only ever bedded the most beautiful of maidens and while never more than one at a time, far too many courtiers and Princesses had complained of being had by the handsome Prince.

-       For every woman he rejected, they would say he was a cad, that he wanted nothing but their maidenhead for the notches on his bedpost.

-       They would say he was shallow, that he rejected them based on their looks alone that no one could compare to his own beauty.

-       Therein lay the problem.

-       No one wanted to marry the “Play Boy” Prince and his parents were getting beyond tired of his antics. His older brother had gone and fallen in love with a respectable Princess in some distant desert land and as she was an only child she had to rule… leaving Zen the heir apparent.

-       Unfortunately for them, years of indulging in his sexual freedoms- left him rather scant for choice now that he was in need of a bride. He would have to marry below his class or find some unattractive princess that none of his peers wanted… all because of the stories.

-       But… the tales about him weren’t really true. Not that Zen cared either way.

-       He had fallen in love once, with a courtier, kind and beautiful… but he had made the mistake of bedding her.

-       She told the King and Queen that their youngest son had seduced her, that he had bedded her and now they had to be married otherwise her father would be honour bound to duel the Prince, her father being the most decorated Knight in the land… unless she was paid to keep quiet and disappear forever.

-       He later found out that she was in love with a poor man and had used the money to elope and start a life with him… if only the girl had been honest… he would have helped.

-       He was not the man they said he was. He wanted to find someone who would try to see past his looks, past those rumours, to who he was.

-       But he was losing hope.

-       He really was … lonely. Even music, his best friend had gone silent; just a faint buzzing in the back of his mind.

-       He truly didn’t think he’d ever find anyone to fit what he needed. He didn’t even want to get married anymore- with his reputation alone surely someone would claim their baby to be his and he could just pretend it was and let them become his heir.

-       After five years of no luck, finding only greedy or superficial or ambitious women who didn’t care about him, Prince Zen was now sure- he didn’t want to marry anyone. He could rule alone, he didn’t need any more intrigue to follow him around. Let him just play the role he was born to play, the Prince.  

-       Then one day, a letter came, asking if Prince Zen was still searching for a bride- a small and distant country was willing to send one of their youngest daughters to see if they were a compatible match. Not an hour later an envoy was sent and the Princess was to come and stay with them for as long as it was deemed necessary to make it work.

-       He was sent a photo along with the proposal- she was… well she was stunning. Young and sweet and he was sure… that he wanted nothing to do with her.

-       But perhaps if this time, he played the cad, the Casanova the bad and wild prince… perhaps this would be the last time. Perhaps his parents would finally just let him be. His loneliness be damned.

-       When they finally arrive, the Princess was everything he feared she would be. Shallow. Vapid. Conceited. The Princess MC was beautiful yes, just like her picture promised, but not where it counted.

-       Citing a headache and a need to get some fresh air, Zen retreated to the gardens for some much-needed solitude.

-       Upon returning to his quarters he noticed a figure on his bed, pushing his sleeves up he warned them to stay where they were if they didn’t want to get knocked out.

-       Turning on the lights he saw MC at the foot of the bed, in her night clothes… her very revealing, tantalizing night clothes. The Prince swallowed and licked his suddenly too dry lips, it had been years since his last… but no… no… he couldn’t…

-       This time he would play the cad the Casanova the bad boy prince indeed…

-       So for every move she made, he followed suit. For every naughty thing she breathed in his ear, he said two more… until she pushed him off of her, her eyes squinting at him as if he was suddenly the most repulsive thing on the planet.

-       It was a sudden turn of events but he couldn’t say he was entirely displeased with the result.

-       As the guilt began to well up inside him, he decided to go to her and apologise. He wasn’t this guy, this guy everyone thought of him and… even if it meant looking like an idiot he was going to explain it to this damned Princess and part ways amicably.

-       He was about to knock on the door when he realised it was slightly ajar- he didn’t mean to eavesdrop…

-       “Your Highness, my lady… he is everything the reports say he is!” …. wasn’t that MC’s voice?  A deep sigh resonated throughout the room before the tutting of a tongue. 

“Are… are you sure? During dinner, he seemed so friendly and intelligent and kind…”

“My lady- he didn’t even try to dissuade me from seducing him! He encouraged it, whispered filth into my ears- what he thought were your ears! You cannot marry this man!”

-       Pushing the door open slightly he could see the woman who he thought to be the Princess on one knee, bent and bowing to one of her attendants. He had noticed her before, the one with the facemask who was supremely attentive to the Princess, someone who seemed to have her ear and was trusted.  

-       She had tricked him! To observe him and see how he acted, sent in a decoy to seduce him to see if he would live up to expectation- and of course- the one time he actually did…

-       He watched as the Princess, the real one, stand up and remove her mask in agitation. He took in her face and felt his heart stop, his breath freezing in his lungs.

-       She was… perfect.

-       Her eyes, bright and alert and soaking up everything around her. Her expressions, unguarded and true- the need for the facemask now apparently obvious, he could read her like a storybook. Apprehension, confusion, disappointment and sadness.

-       The sadness surprised him. Was she sad that he was everything they said he was? Was she hoping for more… just like him?

-       Pushing the door open, he leaned against it casually, completely comfortable under the surprised stares of the women in the room.

-       “You would think I’d be more offended at being duped like this but to be honest- I’m impressed,” he chuckled as he rubbed his chin. Straightening up to his full, imposing height he stared down the women, a grin pulling at his lips. “To think finally one of the chits would finally have the brains… and the gall… to do something like this. Colour me intrigued, Princess. Colour me intrigued.”

-       “Leave us Mi Sun.”

“But Your High-”

“Stay just outside the door, it will be fine.”

-       When the imposter was finally outside (not before shooting a glare at the Prince which made him laugh) the real Princess offered him some tea and a seat. As she calmly prepared the tea with a grace only those trained from birth do such mundane things beautifully had, he could see the cogs of her brain working.

-       “I feel that I must apologise for what has transpired today Your Majesty, I had hoped… well… it does not matter what I had hoped. I beg your pardon for deceiving you and your family- in truth it was never meant in any harm, merely self-preservation,” she attempted to explain and apologise all at once.  

-       “Did you think that I was some sort of wolf? Ready to eat you up when your back was turned?” he joked as he sipped at the tea. When he looked back up over the rim of the cup however, it was evident by the look on her face that she did. He choked on the tea and spilt some over himself.

-       “I… I’m sorry! My advisors had heard some… worrying rumours about you and were quite insistent in going ahead with that plan. And although you were nothing but a complete gentleman during dinner and you were pleasant and funny and charming… your proved them right when you turned into a wild beast the moment that woman offered herself to you! How am I supposed to defend your actions Prince Zen, how?” she asked, her chin in the air, defying him to correct her. Zen could feel his heart begin to pump that little bit faster, his blood warming up at the thought of a woman who could be his equal… who could see past the act.

-       “Stay.”

“What?!”

“Stay. Talk to me. Learn about me. Maybe learn why I do the things I do.”

-       She stared at him like he had grown another head.

-       “Fine.”

-       He hadn’t expected that. He hadn’t expected she’d stay and rise to his challenge and want to learn more about him. He had half convinced himself that no one would ever want to know him beyond the lies.

-       The next day they met in one of the private sitting rooms with respective entourage in tow and did nothing but read.

-       The day after that they took a turn about the gardens and she taught him about the medicinal properties of many of the plants in his gardens… and he listened to every word.

-       Listening to her speak… the music in the back of his mind… he could hear the chords, see the notes. The music was speaking to him again.

-       The next night he had invited her into his favourite and most prized room, his Music Room, the only thing he held more sacred than his country- music was his passion.

-       He asked her to choose any instrument in the room and he would play it for her and again she surprised him.

-       “Your voice. You have such a nice voice, surely you can sing… please…”

-       And so, he sang. He had never performed for anyone save that courtier all those years ago… but there he was, singing song after song as MC watched him with rapt fascination and wonderment.

-       He had very nearly kissed her that night.

-       For weeks, they continued to learn about each other; he learned that she was the fifth daughter out of seven children, that she loved to eat and was often made fun of because of how she could out eat or drink most men in the palace and he learnt that she was adamant about being able to choose her own husband. He was surprised to find out that she was the one to reach out and choose him against her parents’ wishes, that she just had this feeling that something didn’t add up.

-       “… I would hear all the stories about you, how you were this Prince with no morals. How you were this man with no conscience. Yet… there was one man who made a home in our lands with his wife not too long ago. He told me that because of you, he got to marry the woman he loved. He said that they had erred against you but you didn’t strike back, that they would have to make it up to you one day… that did not sound like the man in the stories. I wanted to meet this man.”

-       In turn she had learnt about his less than warm relationships with his family, how he sought refuge with music as a child because no matter what instrument he “talked” to, it would always respond with beauty and kindness. She also learnt of the true nature of the rumours.

-       That night they watched the stars together and Prince Zen could feel some of his loneliness begin to chip away.

-       Before they headed back to the rooms, the Princess pulled him back and offered him one sweet kiss upon his cheek. “This, this is the man you are. I see you so clearly. It is a pleasure to meet you, Prince Zen.”

-       “It is a pleasure to be met Jagiya…”

-       MC’s eyes widened at the forward endearment but felt her heart flutter at it nonetheless. 

“What was that?” she asked, barely breathing, her hands resting against his chest.

-       “N-nothing!” he answered, his fair skin blazing under her scrutiny. “Say it again…”

-       “…Jagiya… ”

-       He did not sleep that night.

-       He could not sleep.

-       His fingers, they needed to do something.

-       His heartbeat… it fit the tune that played so loudly over and over in his head.

-       During the day, he would spend every second he could with MC, during the night he would slave away.

-       Another two weeks of laughing and learning and finally, in a quiet alcove away from prying eyes, their lips met.

-       They were not disturbed for more than two hours.

-       That night, he asked MC to join him in his Music Room again and handed her some sheet music … “My Princess’s Sonata?”

-       Zen smiled at her baffled expression as he began to play the piece of music he had composed, just for her. He didn’t need to sing, he didn’t even need to look at her to know the music expressed just how he felt for her.

-       How much he had grown to love and need her. How much he wanted her to stay. To prove everyone wrong and show them that he was more than looks, or money or status or the lies that he had even started to believe about himself…  

-       When he had finished- he turned to MC, tears in her eyes, both hands clasped against her mouth.

-       “MC…”

“Marry Me.”

“What?!” he asked startled but overjoyed, he had a whole speech planned, how he would promise to love her and be faithful and loyal and supportive and a good King to their people… but she just up and asked him.

-       AND HE LOVED IT.

-       “What did you ask me?”

“N-Nothing!” she lied, her cheeks aflame, her eyes aghast, her mouth… that beautiful, perfect mouth.

-       “Ask me again…” he coaxed as he moved to kneel in front of her, his hands resting on her bent knees. 

“Ask me once!” she replied horrified that she had muttered exactly what she had felt listening to his amazing tribute. “Please… just ask me once and I can ask you every day for the rest of our lives if it will make you happy.”

-       “Marry me, Jagiya.”

-       “This. This is the Prince Zen I wanted to marry. Yes.”

-       Kissing her as he slid a ring on her finger, Zen could already hear the songs that he needed to compose in the near future. Their wedding dance. Their wedding night. Their baby’s first lullaby. He could hear them all so clearly now, now that she had said yes.

[mymagicalstudy]

OK! time to pick the winners from my giveaway thing!!!

I’ve chosen the stories I enjoyed reading the most, and will message those people privately. If you don't have messenger enabled, make sure you open it up.

I wish i could send you all things, but postage is expensive :’(

Got some awesome stories from everyone who entered, so i thought i’d post all the entries below the line.

@the-tarot-boii​ : “One night, after reading my book, La Santa Muerte by Tomas Prower, La Flaca herself spoke to me. I was doing an automatic writing (as instructed in the book), and she said something to the air of, “My child seeks wisdom”. I have a feeling she was speaking to me because, at the time, i was reading up on the Western Mystery Tradition and the Qabalah”

@sparklesbrightly : “It was Samhain about 5 years ago, and it was the autumn of my maiden years. Both myself and my current partner had just recently eloped. So much in our lives was uncertain, as if a volume had completed itself that summer, so many loose ends were waiting to be tied that evening. We were staying in a simply radiant Victorian bed and breakfast,and our plans were rather loose. We set about putting together costumes that suited our moods, and painting our faces for the occasion. We brought with us many tokens that represented those thing we meant to let go, among them were seven garnets in the shape of pomegranate seeds. We walked down the street without plan or direction, the fog growing thick, as we went along folks became scarce and avoided us when they were about. The silence was so deep and nearly as thick as the fog, strange to hear in a large city. We made our way to the center of a wooded park that we found, and made our ritual there. I have never felt so far beyond this realm as I did that night. We buried our tokens, and left that place. There were some swings where we sat for a while watching some lanterns float into the air from a nearby yard, more messages for the dead, from other people. When we returned to our room we slept hard, the morning broke with bright light broken into rainbows through the cut crystal windows, and I never felt so rejuvenated and free as I did that morning. It was a very lovely goodbye.”

@transboystrength : “One night this past winter some friends & I went out to a popular smoking spot at our college to participate in the cursing trump thing. The spot is called bamboo fortress, because its in the middle of a huge swath of bamboo & people built up a treehouse & fence there. I was leading the ceremony & had picked bamboo fortress bc bamboo is protective. four of us went, but we were half expecting more to join us. We got about halfway through the ceremony when we heard someone approaching. We didnt think anything of it, until we noticed that the footsteps had begun circling the fortress. It made a full, slow circumference until it left the way it came. We worked through the curse till the end, but we were all clearly pretty spooked. We walked back to the dorm in silence. I was only a freshman so I didnt know much of the local lore, but apparently wendigos are known to sometimes appear in the local woods, and two in our group had heard them calling while camping in the winter. Thank god we were as thoroughly protected & armed as we were else we may never have left bamboo except in body bags.”

@recolligio : “I lean hermetic, but have been striving to center my practice on the familiar base of my Christian upbringing, although my own perspective is of course a bit unorthodox.I had been seeking to do some elemental balancing work, but wasn’t sure where to start; so I turned to St. Raphael as associated with Air and healing.It turns out he’s also associated with “happy meetings,” and the first prayer to him I came across was in this light.  It seemed warm and positive, so I made​ my introduction this way.And for weeks I couldn’t step out the door without having some kind of noteworthy and pleasant interaction. I ran into all kinds of neighbors, the dog made friends with people on almost every walk, and I had a handful of genuinely strange run-ins too - meetings with very useful or heartwarming outcomes that depended on schedules intersecting in unlikely ways. (e.g. running into a visitor from out of state during the 30s we happened to be in the same parking lot).It went from astonishing to charming to genuinely eerie before it started to taper off.I am very grateful though, for those opportunities. It reminded me how many there really are, on any ordinary day.”

@fluoritechild : “Withcraft has followed me all my life, even before I knew it. In my childhood my friend would bring me pendulums to play with, we would look up mantras to say to feel better, and make up spells for all sorts of things like getting boys to like us and getting good grades. It’s safe to say that I have always had a fascination with it, but there are two big milestones that I remember which set me off on the path I am currently on.The first was in middle school when my friends and I thought the locker rooms and the hallway outside it were haunted. We spent a week researching ouija boards and how to safely use them, and we made our own and put protective symbols on the back. We brought candles from home and borrowed a lighter from one of the cool kids who were already smoking, and during lunch we went down there and talked to the spirits who live there. We were right. It was haunted. The whole time there were banging on the door from the girl’s room. It was a great experience.The other milestone is when I got my first tarot deck. Two of my friends had already started to dive into the occult, and they brought me to an alternative convention where we spent the whole day attending lectures and buying readings from professionals. At the end of the day I passed by a stand that sold tarot and oracle cards. My friend explained the difference to me, and I decided to get a tarot deck. The choice was difficult, the seller had many to choose from, but eventually they showed me The Mystic Faerie Tarot. It was the last copy they had, and the moment I touched it I was filled with this overwhelming, warm energy. It was meant to be. To this day I always look for this feeling when choosing a new tarot deck. All my life my occult experiences have been the result of following someone else, until about a year ago when I decided to truly dive into it and research it on my own. It is a whole other world which has opened up to me, and the more I learn the more questions I have. I love this lifestyle that I am trying to make for myself, and I am never turning back.”

@notjustanyannie : “One time, I was at an overnight party at my friends house out in the country.  They let me sleep in a guest bedroom.  I awoke suddenly in the middle of the night, sure that someone was watching me.  I rolled over and saw a boy, about 10 yo, standing beside the bed.  He had brown hair and was wearing jeans with a flannel shirt.  He was looking right at me, like he wanted to ask me something.  I reached over and turned on the lamp, but he was no longer there.  I eventually went back to sleep.   When I woke up the next day, I told the host what I’d seen.  His eyes got really big, and he told me to go tell his wife, G.  As I started telling her, she got excited and started to describe the boy along with me, even down to the outfit.  Then she told me that she had been seeing him in her dreams for the past two weeks.  In her dreams, there were these 2 or 3 people or entities that were trying to take the boy somewhere.  She got a really bad vibe from them.  He did not want to go with them, and had asked her for help.  She was having these intense physical and spiritual battles with these dream entities, and waking up with actual injuries.  She and her husband both told stories of terrible battles that she finally awoke from, battered and exhausted.  She was really concerned for the boy, and afraid of what might happen if she couldn’t help him get away.  After we talked, I went home to rest.  I napped for a couple of hours, to recover from the overnight party.   Later that same day, my two housemates told me that strange things had started happening in our house that day.  Little ‘poltergeist’ things, like items being moved around or doors opening and closing.  Then, over the next few days,  I also started seeing lots of little things, including cabinet doors opening and closing behind your back in the kitchen, things like that.  Nothing scary to us, it never felt threatening in any way.  A few days later, I was talking with my female housemate and I told her about seeing the ghost boy, and about G’s dreams.  She asked if I thought that the boy might be related to our new 'ghost visitor?’  I decided to call G and see what she thought. When I contacted G, she said she had not seen the boy, nor had any dreams since I had been there. We decided the boy had somehow hitched a ride home with me.   We all thought this was where the story ended, but many months later, I found out it had another chapter! We had to move not long after this, for completely unrelated reasons. While our landlord was showing the place, D & C, a couple I sorta knew (through other friends), came and looked at the place.  They ended up moving in after we left.  We never got a chance to talk to them before they moved in, and didn’t tell them about our ghost friend.   Almost a year later, I was at another friends house and ran into D.  I asked him how it was going, living at the house.  His eyes got big, and he told me about their experiences in the house after we left.   He told me that he and C had the same type of little things happen that we did, things getting moved around, doors opening & closing, nothing big. But they had another housemate, and he had terrible battles with a spirit presence or something.  It apparently was really focusing on him, and making his life miserable.  He was really struggling to keep it together, until finally he asked them to call in an exorcist!  He felt like his life was in danger. They had an exorcist come out, and she did a house reading.  She said that the room he was sleeping in (one we hadn’t used), had an open passageway to the really old pioneer cemetery just over the next hill, and spirits could easily pass through.  She called it “a spirit superhighway”! She did a banishing and then a closing ceremony, and sealed off the portal.  They (D & C) didn’t have any more problems there afterwards, but their housemate moved out anyway.   So that’s how it ended, as far as I know… “

@newenglandyankee : “Reached enlightenment by age 19 from constant meditation through a journey into myself, there was a flushing sensation where the third eye is and white light. From there I unlocked new conscious levels, lucid dreaming and astral body, amongst other things.”

@dr-gene-ray: “I could talk about the manifestation of The Tower between hod and netzach & my enriching Enochian experiences but I feel those are too idiosyncratic and emotional to interest anyone but me. So other than the amazing personal growth, one of my coolest occult happenings is: I once (accidentally) caused a mans death. I don’t necessarily feel guilty but I do now see the importance of clearly defined boundaries while working the lemegeton hahah”

[daebak-bts]

masterlist: separate texts for everyone

when you ask the boys to help you during your test

when your boyfriend sees you in a dress for the first time

when you dress up as a sexy vampire on halloween

when you leave your boyfriend on read on purpose

when you are flying for the first time

when the boys need to pick up their child after school/extracurricular activities

when the boys find out you’re a wwe diva

when you’re not korean - belgian edition

when the boys find out you sleep with a teddy bear

when your parents think your boyfriend and his job are dangerous

when you, their little sister, unexpectedly go to their concert

when you play mystic messenger

when you are their idol gf and you get hurt while performing but you don’t stop the show

when you invite your boyfriend on your family trip

when you update your hubby on your toddler

daily texts with the boys

the boys’ reaction to you singing/rapping only their part in bts songs

when cute texts/sexting/… goes wrong

when the boys make lord of the rings references

when you and the boys make harry potter references

when your boyfriend gets jealous that you sleep with another member’s plushie

when you (casually) hint your boyfriend that you are pregnant

when you are pregnant and you snap at your husband because of your hormones

when the boys tease you with your disney obsession

when the boys overhear you talking about your first meeting with them

after you watched the boys’ birthday party

when the boys use lyrics of love is not over/butterfly to win you back

the boys’ reaction when you become/are a model

when the boys find out you’re BIGBANG’s background dancer

when you prank the boys that you have a boyfriend

when your latest choreography is a bit provocative

when your daughter has her first period

when the boys confess to you through butterfly

when you prank the boys

when your boyfriend sends some suggestive texts but your brother replies

when you get an undercut

when it’s that time of the month and they annoy you so you snap and they yell at you

when you send pics of the tuxedo/dress your child is gonna wear on your wedding

when you and your best friend had a car accident

when you sleep with your boyfriend’s plushie

when the boys find you in the kitchen dancing and singing/rapping in your native language while cooking

when the boys remind you of the kitchen dancing and singing/rapping

when you buy a big ass television but it’s too big to get inside your house

when you are dating taehyung but jimin is a flirt

when you are obsessed with mermaids

when you wanna give up working out but the boys encourage you

when you send updates on your child to your hubby

when you cry

when you are pregnant but you fall down the stairs and you lose the baby + after you lost the baby

when you ask the boys what boobs they prefer

when saying i love you is not that easy

when you insult the boys in dutch

when your boyfriend wants to text you but accidentally texts another member

when you and the boys are texting while in the same room

when you cuss the boys out in a language other than english or korean

when you are pregnant but it wasn’t planned (like at all)

when you tell your s/o you are pregnant

when you keep your s/o up to date on your teenage kid

when your bf makes you hurry up because you will miss his concert

when you have your first period and your older brother tries to comfort you

when you keep your s/o up to date on your newborn baby

when you are being needy and you want your bf to come home

when the boys confess to you while you are sleeping

when you find a bra under your bed that most definitely isn’t yours

when you have to make a decision that will affect your entire future

when the boys have a late practise and you had a bad dream

when the boys text you the night before your wedding

when you accidentally talk to them in a language other than english or korean

when he confesses that he likes you, but you have a crush on another member

when you are pregnant but you fall down the stairs and you lose the baby

when you have a fight and you leave the house crying

when you get lost and the boys get worried

when you get a christmas present you cannot use

when you think you might be pregnant

when the sherlock special happens

when you hurt yourself while cooking and you go to the hospital

when your water breaks

when you apparently are being too obvious about your feelings towards a certain oppa