#but yeah i have no clue why she decided to challenge me here lol. and she is COMPRESSED | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

jinkicake · 4 years

Text

Freaky On Camera

Osamu, Oikawa, Sakusa reacting to their s/o sending them the lyrics to Doja Cat’s ‘Cyber Sex’ (like the tiktok challenge).

Miya Osamu x Reader

Oikawa Tooru x Reader

Sakusa Kiyoomi x Reader

I hope this is fine Anon~ This is my first time writing Sakusa so I hope it isn’t too ooc,,,, I really like him LOL. Also, I don’t support Miss Doja or condone any of her actions because that bitch never really apologized for the shit she pulled. However, her music does slap.

WC- 1,485

~~~

Miya Osamu

I wanna get freaky on camera

‘Samu would know what tiktok is but I don’t know if he would be on it,,,,,

He would be familiar with it because of Atsumu, you can’t tell me that mf does not make thirst trap tiktoks that gain hundreds of thousands of likes

So Osamu would know the gist of the app but he probably has zero clue of what happens on it

He’d take your snaps so seriously like this mf would actually think you’re going to sext him LMFAOO

Please, he would be so pissed when he finds out they are lyrics and not your actual thoughts

His reaction would be so funny, it would be dirty talk like ‘how badly do you want it?’

And then you’d post it on tiktok and it would go viral because of how intense his reaction is

Osamu only finds out because Atsumu shows him your video, his brother would be like “’Samu you were on my fyp!”

And Osamu is like “tf is a fyp”

Osamu would be sooo mad, he’d start ignoring you, you’d have to stroke his ego a little bit to get him to forgive you

“Osamu.” Silence. “O-sa-mu.” Silence. You puff your cheeks out in frustration and stare the side of your boyfriend’s face, he refuses to even look at you. “I’m sorry.” You apologize and Osamu turns to look at you, narrowing his eyes to pierce you in the process.

“Look at this comment. ‘chill out dude, it’s just some song lyrics’ It got twelve thousand likes.” Your boyfriend complains and you move to sit next to him on his bed though, with the way Osamu is moving away from you, he would rahter cuddle with the wall before he touches you.

“Yeah but the top comment says that I’m so lucky because you’re such a cute boyfriend! It has forty thousand likes!” You try and compromise and Osamu pouts a little bit. “Everyone is just jealous that they don’t have an Osamu, and I do!” You lean down and presses kisses all over his face, Osamu scrunches his nose.

“You want to know why I was so mad?” He wraps his arms around your waist and brings you into his chest, laying you down on top of him.

“Why?” You ask cautiously and continue to stare him in the eye.

“Because I got a boner from those pictures,” Osamu confesses and you don’t know whether you want to coo in awe or laugh out loud.

“Seriously?” You refuse to believe it.

“Seriously.” He confirms and you laugh so hard his entire house shakes, you don’t stop laughing even when tears are streaming down your cheeks and when Osamu pushes you off of him to sulk against his wall.

“I’m flattered, my sweet precious love~” You coo but can’t help the chuckles that leave your lips. “Awe, baby, are you mad at me again?” You poke Osamu’s arm and he growls in annoyance. “Let me make it up to you, I’ll take care of all your boner problems.”

Not before you laugh for the next twenty minutes, after that, then you will start to do stroke his cock ego.

Oikawa Tooru

Wish you were here right now, all of the things I’d do

You don’t think the Tiktok legend Oikawa Tooru wouldn’t recognize what you’re doing the second you send it?? Because he would,,

Let’s say you do try it, you’re not going to get that far

After you send the first lyric, Oikawa will literally send you the rest of the lyrics with his own pictures to match

You don’t even have time to process that he overtook your challenge

I feel like, Oikawa would then post his photos later and tell his followers that he did the challenge better than you

You best believe his comments are full of people kissing his ass and telling him how cute he is

The tiktok went viral, by the way, Oikawa is a tiktok star

“Why can’t you let me have my moment Tooru?”

“Because I do it better, (Y/N)!”

Oikawa would then redo another challenge with you and make sure you’re the star in it so you can have your five minutes of fame. It would also go viral, but not as viral as his videos of him and Matsukawa

I wanna touch on you. You send Oikawa a picture of yourself as you lay back on your bed, your mind ruled with boredom. The curiosity of how Oikawa would react keeps clouding your mind. Before you even get a second to take the next picture Oikawa has already snapped you back.

You click on the little red square and screenshot the mirror picture Oikawa sent you. His back is arched like he is trying to break it and his head is tilted at an odd angle. You see me in my room.

You barely get enough time to screenshot the picture before Oikawa sends another. This time when you open it, it is him and Matsukawa. It’s another mirror pic and their hands are curved into little hearts. Wish you were here right now.

You decided to let Oikawa take over the challenge and just wait patiently for his next snap, each picture he sends gathers more people. In this snap, it is him, Matsukawa and Hanamaki. It’s just a simple selfie with all of them cheesing like the dorks that they are. All of the things I’d do.

In the back of your mind, you start to wonder where Iwaizumi is. The next picture comes just as quickly as the first three and this time, it is just Oikawa and Iwaizumi. Mainly Oikawa with Iwaizumi in the back trying to practice his serve. I wanna get freaky on camera.

The next photo doesn’t come for another ten minutes, this time it is a Hanamaki centered photo. It’s a selfie with his bright smile and in the background, Oikawa is getting smack upside the head by Iwaizumi. I love when we get freaky on camera. ;-)

Sakusa Kiyoomi

I wanna touch on you

Sakusa is the type to always be on his phone and never answer your texts

He’d purposely swipe away your notification until he wants to open it, you’ve seen him do it with your own eyes

When he finally does open your snaps, he leaves them on open

LMFAO then he will text you three hours later asking if you had dinner yet, caring boyfriend thingz~

If he does choose to respond to your snaps it’ll be something like ‘I’ve seen that before, try something else’

Or he will tease you and say ‘aren’t you supposed to send that to your boyfriend?’

Like Sakusa,,, a-aren’t you my boyfriend? TTT

I think he would screenshot your photos just to have them so he can always look at them and be soft

Or he would zoom in really close on your face and make it his lock screen so it’d look like you’re trapped in his screen

Someone would ask ‘who’s that on your phone’ and he’d just be like ‘my ugly s/o’ LOL

“Please, Kiyoomi.” You whine and stare at your boyfriend with puppy dog eyes. Sakusa dips his dark-haired head and stares at you back, his face emotionless. He sighs and goes back to scrolling through his phone. “Please do the tiktok trend with me or at least pretend to react.” You beg and Sakusa refrains from rolling his eyes, he glances at you once more and nods his head.

“Fine.” At his words you reach up and kiss his temple, your heart flutters when Sakusa leans into your touch. “What do I do?”

“Okay, so I am going to send you some snaps and you just have to send your reaction to me back in a snap.” You explain and Sakusa purse his lips into a little pout.

“Why do I have to do this?” He asks and you lay back to take your first snap.

“Because you love me~”

Much to your dismay, your answer is met with silence.

After you send the pictures you watch your boyfriend with hawk eyes at how he reacts. His face doesn’t change at all. He tilts his head in curiosity at one of the pictures and you note how he screenshots every single one of them. Sakusa glances at you and when you eagerly nod back at him he sends you a reply, a simple picture of his face and his familiar mask covering more than half of it.

The photo has a simple caption, busu.

“Can I post your picture?” You ask and Sakusa sighs, it’s not like it’s going to blow up right?

“Yes.”

Wrong choice Sakusa. The tiktok does blow up, and it’s only because all the comments are filled with how hot Sakusa is despite only being able to see his eyes and up.

Taglist.

@yams046 @why-am-i-sad-and-sleepy @xhanjisungiex @xxashshs @chaosamu @angelkogane

#miya osamu x reader #oikawa toru x reader #sakusa kiyoomi x reader #osamu x reader #oikawa x reader #sakusa x reader #haikyuu fic #haikyuu x y/n #haikyuu x reader #haikyuu x you

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ultraintrovertedgryffindor · 4 years

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Hi do you think u can do a Roman Godfrey imagine where they are dating and y/n is a good innocent girl but freaky with Roman and her parents want to Roman over for dinner Roman wants to piss off her dad and does subtle things to annoy him like touching y/n at the end of the night when they are saying goodbye at his car they have a heated make out sesh and Roman knows her dad is looking through the window so spices it up a bit

Of course! I will always remember you, Anon, as the first person to make a request ❤ I really hope you enjoy! Being the first request I’ve had, it might flop lol. But I hope this is at least close to what you had in mind!

Warning: Slightly NSFW

~~~~~~~~~~

Having such a sweet personality made everyone think you were innocent and you were, for the most part. Roman was one of many people who thought this, comparing you to Shelley or Letha levels of innocence.

But when Roman decided he wanted to play games with you, he was shocked to find out you could play games just as well as he could.

After getting to know you some, he quickly realized that the sweet innocent side to you actually wasn’t a front like some people faked. You were genuinely caring, and probably the sweetest person he’d ever met besides Shelley.

But something about Roman could make even the most angelic human on earth act like a demon behind closed doors once in a while.

Roman definitely brought out your wild side, not in a bad way either. He surely got you to come out of your shell.

For as long as you can remember, you’ve always been sweet and you knew that’s how you wanted to live. But you’d admit, it was fun letting loose with one of your favorite people. Not having to worry so much about consequences and such.

Yours parents were bewildered and astonished that their sweet little girl could date someone so...not like you. They didn’t know how to react when you told them, especially your mother.

Your father however, organized his feelings pretty quickly. The first thing he wanted to do was find Roman, kill him, and feed him to the family dog.

But instead, he asked you to invite Roman over for dinner.

Now if it was literally anyone else, even the Rumancek boy, you wouldn’t feel as panicked to invite them over. But knowing Roman, you knew it had no chance of ending well.

But you couldn’t exactly say no to your loving parents. You knew they just wanted to protect you, even if it was unbearably annoying.

You internally groaned when you saw Roman smirked evilly when you asked him to have dinner with the ‘rents.

You told him and made it very clear that your father already did not like him, but he only responded with, “I’m not gonna let an old man scare me away from being with you.” Then giving you a quick kiss on the forehead before walking off to find his sister.

Off to a fabulous start...

Roman already knew how he was going to act at your place as soon as you told him to behave. He wasn’t one to take orders, even from you. He wasn’t going to be disrespectful per say, but definitely wasn’t going to be intimidated by some old guy. Even if he was your father.

Getting ready for the dinner was nerve wracking already. Your palms were already starting to sweat slightly, heartbeat irregular, some of your nervous ticks sticking out like a sore thumb.

Your mother noticed this of course, you smoothing down your blouse to the point of your hands turning a soft pink was a clue indeed.

“Don’t worry, sweetie. I’ve already convinced your dad to kill him quick and painlessly if he chooses to go that route.” She joked, showing a sickeningly sweet smile.

“Ha ha, not funny.” You huffed.

You almost screamed in terror when the doorbell rang twice. Roman had already texted you that he was on his way, but you were so nervous that anything could’ve spooked you at this point.

“I’ll get it!” You quickly voiced, running to the front door.

You opened the door, revealing the man you’re so fond of. His hair was slicked back and his mouth upturned in his usual smirk that made your knees go weak.

“Hello, my dearest.” He smirked, leaning over to give you a kiss but you quickly dodged it, making him place his lips on your cheek instead. “It’s gonna be that type of dinner then.” He hummed disappointedly.

You chuckled softly. “Not when my parents are just five feet away from us.”

Roman rolled his green eyes. “Fine.”

You brought Roman into the kitchen where your mother was currently doing some finishing touches on the main course. “Mom, this is Roman.” You introduced.

You could tell your mother was wary at first, eyeing him up and down subtly. “It’s so good to finally meet you, Mrs. Y/L/N.” He smiled warmly, reaching out his hand.

Roman’s charm quickly put your mother’s worries at ease, her giving a similar warm smile and taking his hand for a tender handshake.

“The Godfrey kid here?” You heard your father’s unnecessarily booming voice call out, promptly entering the door frame of the kitchen.

You turned around to see your father’s stoic face and almost laughed. Your father was a pretty joyful man, so seeing him play up the role of protective papa bear was a sight to see.

“Dad, this is Roman.” You said, a more obvious nervousness to your voice than before.

Roman did the same thing before. “Nice to meet you, Mr. Y/L/N.” Reaching his hand out with a smile.

“You can call me Sir, little Godfrey.”

“Dad...” You whined.

Roman only smiled, laughing it off. “Yes, sir.” He said, a slight annoyance in his voice. He wrapped his arm around your waist, and you could feel the anger by how hard he was gripping you.

You could see your father fixate his glare on his hand that was around you, and you immediately got the hint, gently removing Roman’s arm. “Dinner’s ready! Right, mom?” You voiced suddenly, trying desperately to break some of the tension.

“Uh, yeah! Pretty much!” Your mother grinned.

“Yay! Let’s go!” You exclaimed, pretty much dragging your parents and Roman to the dining room table.

Despite your nerves being through the roof, the smell of delicious food eased it just a tad.

Until Roman started to act up. Wearing a skirt was definitely a bad idea. The whole night was a bad idea, but oh well, couldn’t change it now.

While a friendly conversation between Roman and your mother started, he placed a hand on your exposed knee.

It was innocent as first. He always had been a touchy feely type and usually it didn’t advance any further than that unless he wanted sex, so you didn’t really think anything of it.

Then you felt his hand slowly trail up your thigh, moving the delicate fabric out of the way.

You looked at Roman with a subtle glare. You balled up your fist in anger when he only gave you a playful wink.

You stopped his hand from moving any further, but he really only saw it as a challenge.

While you were struggling not to make a noise or squirm in your seat, Roman was carrying on the conversation effortlessly.

Roman finally won, reaching the spot that was aching for his touch against your better judgement.

You gasped softly, quickly covering it up with a cough. “Chicken’s a bit dry, ma.” You chuckled nervously, trying to squeeze your legs together.

Roman gave you a questioning look, feigning innocence. “I think it’s perfect, Mrs. Y/L/N. Probably the best home cooked meal I’ve had in, well, ever.” He chuckled.

Roman suddenly hit that perfect spot, causing you to spasm and slam your fist on the table. “Suck up.” You coughed out.

“Y/N, are you okay?” Your mother asked with concern.

“Yeah, you good babe?” Roman asked, putting the emphasis on babe and faking concern.

Your father was less than pleased, glaring at Roman with such intensity that could scare most people away, but Roman just smirked,

“I’m alright!” You almost shouted. “Just suddenly not feeling well is all! Think I just had some bad cafeteria food.” You forced a laugh.

“That’s why I’ve said to always take your own lunch!” Your mother said, unknowingly saving you from being center attention.

The rest of the dinner went, well...it went.

Being teased by Roman most of the time, you were almost overjoyed when the night was finally coming to an end.

“Again, the food was fantastic.” Roman told your mother, kissing her hand, her smiling in reply.

Roman turned and kissed you on the cheek, just close enough to graze your lips. Then he turned back to your father, who’s glare never left Roman. “It was nice to meet you...sir.”

You bit your lip, waiting to see if this was the moment your father was going to finally snap. “Was nice to meet you too...Mr. Godfrey.” He said, basically gritting his teeth and holding his glare.

“Okay...well...time to go!” You said, almost pushing Roman out the door.

As soon as the door closed, Roman let out a hearty laugh. “Your old man is really something!” He put his hand over his chest while continuing to laugh, leaning against his red convertible to keep himself from doubling over.

You only glared at him. “Roman.”

“What?” Roman asked, wearing a cheeky grin. “Oh! Are you jealous that I kissed your mom’s hand? Milfs aren’t my type, darling.” He chuckled, but stopped once he realized you didn’t find what he was saying funny. “You have your father’s glare.”

You sighed, rolling your eyes and shaking your head. “I can’t believe you. I specifically told you to behave!” You fussed.

“Oh, really? Your soaked panties told me otherwise.”

You blushed, biting your lip in frustration, then letting out a tiny laugh. “I hate you...” You smiled lovingly.

Roman straightened himself out and beckoned you over with his pointer finger. And like a magnet, you gravitated towards him and into his arms.

You loved Roman’s hugs.

While still enveloped in his arms, from the corner of his eye, Roman saw someone watching the two of you at the window. He smirked when he saw that it was your father.

Being the little shit that he is, Roman pulled away from the wholesome hug and brought his lips down to yours, devouring you in a not so wholesome kiss.

You were shocked at first, but soon relaxed into it, now not having to worry about your parents seeing.

But your father was, and Roman knew that, causing him to deepen the kiss just to spite him.

Feeling Roman’s tongue massage against yours felt heavenly, making you let out an involuntary moan.

Roman opened his eyes to peek to see if your father was still at the window, and to his amusement, he was.

Roman knew he was testing his luck, but that was part of the fun. He brought his hand up to your throat and squeezed gently, while the other hand was brought down harshly on your ass with a loud smack.

You squealed happily, loving the feeling of his hands on you. But you knew it was time for him to leave, so you pulled away.

You smiled when you saw how swollen his lips were. “Alright, Casanova. Time for you to go.” You voiced, bringing your mouth just below his ear. “I’ll come by your place later.” You whispered seductively and pulled away.

“As much as I’d love that, I have a feeling sneaking out won’t be so easy for you tonight.” He said, trying to hide a smile.

You furrowed your brows and smiled confusingly. “What makes you say that?”

“Tell your dad that it’s rude to stare.” Roman said, quickly getting into his car and driving away.

It’s rude to stare? What the hell does that mean?

Turning around to head back inside your house is when you finally realized what Roman meant. You saw your father glaring at you from the window, arms crossed and his face noticeably a shade of red.

Fuck...

~~~~~~~~~~

#hemlock grove #roman godfrey #roman godfrey x reader

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onewomancitadel · 3 years

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I was reading the JNPR Anthology manga. and the end of one of the stories caught my attention. the story takes place after the fall of Beacon jaune is mourning pyrrahs death, kind of saying his goodbyes to her. The last line is the one I find interesting because the thing Jaune says is "without you, I am nothing" it's interesting because cinder is the only character associated with that line. I feel it connects them even more, but what are your thoughts on this?

I haven't read the manga, so I don't have the reading context for this, so you'll have to take my opinion very measuredly. I do appreciate you asking for my opinion though! That's very flattering lol

And um... he says, 'Without you, I am nothing'? A line that was very much emphasised and repeated in Volume 8? Obviously the JNPR anthology came out May this year (thereabouts?) and V8 finished airing in March-ish, so I'm trying to think of how their production schedules might've lined up... from what I've heard, the manga had free direction and wasn't necessarily cross-referenced with canon? I'm not sure how much conferring there was between creators, that type of thing. It seems like a really specific line to include, especially because both Jaune and Cinder are very wrong on this front (Fall Maiden's lesson: look at all that's already in front of you).

But yeah, I don't know if it's intentional, I couldn't say. I do think it's really weird they put that Knightfall dream scene in, I know I had people saying it's supposed to sort of be parodying shoujo tropes because Jaune is a bishounen (the most absolute correct characterisation of him) but I have no fucking clue why they'd decide to do that with Cinder. The line, 'Without you I am nothing,' is very suspicious too. Idk, I just don't see the point of doing it. I know they're seeding more sympathy to Cinder (in my opinion) but what are they trying to do here lol?

I always lean towards scepticism, that is, the author thought this would be a good way to portray Jaune's loss and also his sense of self-sacrifice explored in V4-5 (the implication I get is he feels he should've died instead of her). 'Without you, I am nothing,' is a fairly common sentiment, it's also a very distressing one. The thing I am curious about though is that in Cinder's context, it's not meant romantically and it's obviously very bad; it's equally bad in Jaune's circumstances. In Cinder's case, it's her slavish mantra.

But not to me...

You are more than your loss, and you are your own person, and I mean, ultimately that's what Jaune learns (we've already been through that), and he's able to help Ruby with his remaining team. I'm that horrible person who loves team RJNR and wanted more lol.

Idk, I can't speak to how much conferring was done. They're both wrong, though, and it's already been proven so in Jaune's case, and I would like to equally see it proven wrong in Cinder's case. 'Because of you, I am everything,' is Cinder's finishing line to that sentiment, and that's because she leans so hard on her sorrow giving life meaning. She's right, suffering IS necessary, but she knows no real joy. Not true, unconditional joy. She's very numb. That's my reading anyway, I'm sure there are people who would challenge me on this.

It is interesting that there's a mentality like that to link the two of them though, and I think it does provide more reasoning for why Jaune is the ironic set-up for her redemption arc.

And his wound can only be healed by the person who dealt it.

#seraphina's asks #user: a2jay #I do remember you were itachi-the-hated-hero don't worry #knightfall #cinder fall sadsack tag #compassion which I would define as unconditional love is essential to a J- I mean Huntsman's life

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starlithan · 4 years

Text

I Promise

Part 4

Siren Han/ Reader (Ft. Choi San ATEEZ)

Word Count:3350 words

Warnings: None so far

Summary: I'm not good at it so lets just begin

prev...….next

________________________________

Part 4:

Minho’s POV:

I can't believe this, why, why of all the people I have to be the one who sees these messed up things?, “you sure that was a mermaid?” I asked the person for like the fifth time, the guy was terrified, “yes I swear it had a blue tail and black hair, and red eyes, I don't know the exact way she looked, do you think I'm crazy too?” I sighed again and rubbed my temple, “no sir, for the last time I don't think you're crazy, trust me they very much do exist.. And I'll take your case and investigate don't worry” with that I got up and left the buzzing coffee shop.

A few days ago if someone told me that mermaids existed id likely slap there face, but now *sigh* id believe them, totally not giving another minute of thought, I walk on the pavement the sun setting on me, mind thinking of my next destination, but my mind was now clouded with weird thoughts

What if Y/n is in danger?

What if I made a mistake in judging Han ?

What if he's the one who's behind all the killing and disappearance?

And why in the world was this all hidden?, why did the police not investigate this, my head was spinning and I realized that I had walked all the way to the beach, obviously I cant investigate this, the murder was like a month ago there might be no evidence, I got to head home, the file was in my hand, the cold breeze was blowing through my hair, unlike Y/n she gets relaxed when the cold breeze hits her but not me i get more anxious of what's gonna happen next.

I got home and just stood before the door for a minute. I needed to collect my thoughts before I saw him.

______________________

Han ’s Pov;

She ran away, SHE LITERALLY RAN AWAY…….. I mean I was kind of expecting it but still, I sigh as my hands go on my neck, did i…. Did I perhaps mess..up?, did she not like it?, or was it too soon?.... Come on Han Jisung, how could you not have read the mood? As I was about to swear at myself again, the door opened, I turned to see who it was and saw Minho Hyung standing outside, glaring at me. I swear if human eyes were replaced with laser beams, I would have been dead long ago.

Taking that as a clue to leave, I turn around and slowly walk to the bathroom. “We need to talk,” He said, “gosh I'm dead” I whispered under my breath “not yet” he said and went outside

ears of a bat .

I followed him outside and we walked for a while, after several minutes of walking Minho Hyung stopped dead in his track, and i did the same, mind filled with endless thoughts of what's gonna happen, he turns around and looks at me, no he stares at me, he gives me a full scan and then opens the file in his hand, and then shoves it in my direction, I take the file and blink a bit.

Why would he give me this?

Putting my thoughts aside, I scan my eyes over it “was it you” he asks, i look up “what?” I ask giving him a full confused look, “wait you cant read” he says and brings his hand forward, but I retreat a bit “I can, we sirens learn how to read and write, for crisis like this” I say “and this file is talking about a mysterious murder at sea by a mermaid, so what do I have to do with it” I ask, He looks at me again, this time with a look of confusion “well your the only mermaid I meat so…. Be honest is it you”

To be honest at that exact moment I wanted to pick up a rock and hit it hard on the nearest jellyfish, but this is not the proper moment to lose it Han so I sighed instead “I really don’t know why humans compare us with mermaids, “look Hyung mermaids and Sirens are different mermaids are scarier and are more close to a fish and we Sirens look more like humans, and I can tell you this was done by a mermaid because mermaids eat human hearts in hopes to become like them they are highly stupid….if you need my help to crack this case I’ll help” I said moving my hands in many ways possible, he looked at the floor and then went in a deep trail of thought, which trust me was a long wait.

“Okay fine I trust you for now, and yes I need your help tomorrow at 5 pm k” I nodded and we headed back. I hope whoever was the victim did not die in the sea or near it

______________________________

Y/n’s POV:

I was startled, confused, happy many emotions in one and who wouldn’t be after that kiss especially, I look at Darong who was sleeping peacefully while I sat at the chair at the corner of my room mind drifting in my thoughts, in moments like these I wanna take a walk by the sea but I can’t cuz he might be sleeping on the couch which is near the door to be honest I don’t have the guts to even pass by there. God. No

If Minho found out about this he is gonna kill him. I shook my head, sweet thoughts Y/n sweet thoughts, I mean by now everyone should know that I’m an over thinker. An over thinker of extreme level. I slowly opened the door and peeked outside to see the lights off, which meant it was pretty dark, so I can slowly sneak out and make my way to the beach.

I do exactly that, in the execution of my plan I slowly tiptoe my way to the door and lucky me I make it, now the challenge was opening the door cuz the damn door makes too much noise for mere simple movement, let’s just hope he’s a deep sleeper, I slowly open the door a little and squeeze my way outside, I close the door and sigh in relief and make my way to the beach and sit down in the cold soft sand.

It’s so peaceful, that I never realized it, suddenly I feel a small sting in my right hand I look at it but can’t see anything, must be a muscle pain I sigh and divert my attention back to the sea, the reason why I’m afraid of the sea is sharks lol I think everyone has the same reason. “It’s nice isn't it?” a voice behind me says I turn around to see my brother standing and smiling with a blanket in his hands, he sits down and places the blanket on both of our shoulders.

“Hey” I say softly as he replies back with a smile “nice to see you enjoying the moment” he says and I smile we both sit there silently staring at the endless sea “what really brings you here if it’s me I should tell you I’m perfectly capable of handling myself” I say he laughs and ruffles my hair “I know, I know and no I didn't come here because of you I was posted here” he says and I give my eyes a little squint to indicate that I don’t believe you “what?” He says laughing, I sigh and look at the sea “I don’t know why they would send Korea's greatest detective to a place where crime hardly happens” I say as I hear him sigh “same I don’t even know too but hey isn't it good I’m here we’ll get to spend some quality family time” he says “yeah” I answer silently.

Then we go back to being silent, after few moments of dead but peaceful silence “if there’s anything that’s bothering you, know that I’m waiting throughout the season” he says and I stop remembering the story of the flower that waited for the Prince through all the seasons, I smile

He remembers

“And I will always be there for you, waiting through all the seasons” I smile and put my head on his shoulder.

“I’m Glad your here”

____________________________

The next day comes by pretty quickly, as we all get dressed up and sit on the table, barely meeting eyes with Han , but I could make out the blush on his face and I chuckle a little, so I’m not the only one.

“I’m hungry what should we eat” after a whole day of being locked in my room reading, skimping breakfast we all sat down to decide what to eat, after moments of brainstorming I come up with an idea “I know a good chicken place here” I say as both Han and Minho’s eyes light up, I laugh a little they look like small puppy’s wagging their tails at the sound of treat.

We all got up and headed to get ready and wear our shoes. The sky was clear today, our walk was as silent as the grave itself but none of us complained.

“We’re here” I announced as I hoped in front of the door, nothing makes me more happy than chicken itself, I pushed the door open and made my way in the shop, the shop was quiet not a soul in sight

Is he not here?

Suddenly a loud thud came from the kitchen and I ran, my first guess was that halmonie fell, my second guess was it was a ghost. As I got to the kitchen San sat on the ground looking at the dishes which were now half broken and half not, “Are you okay?” I said as he looked up at me surprised, I went to his side, “yeah I’m fine, how come your here you should have called me up is everything okay?” He asked as I helped him up, he brushed his knees with his hands, I smiled at the kindness and nodded my head “we came here to have some chicken” I said San placed the last dish in the bin and gave me a questioning look “we?” He asked and glanced behind me to see Han leaning on the door and my brother looking at the now cleaned floor with awe, “uhhh hello Han and…..officer Minho?” He said, I turned to my brother as he smiled and waved at San, “you guys know each other?” Me and San said at the same time to each other, I smiled “yeah he’s my brother” I said, “ohhh well we met at the grocery store he helped me drop some heavy boxes to the shop” he said, which pretty much cleared up everything.

The table was filled with chicken and we all sat down including San, “thanks for the food” we all said and San smiled, the chicken was so good, I reached out for another one but my hand touched something I looked up to see Han ’s hand was upon my hand and his eyes were now on me, I silently withdraw my hands, and stare at my plate, Han picks up the chicken and silently places it in my plate and gets up “Minho Hyung let’s go it’s 5pm”. I stop and for the first after a while I stare at him and then my brother, “where are you guys going?” I asked, Minho got up and placed his chair back “I have something I need his help with, bye San '' he smiled and they left.

“So they look close” San said and to be honest I wanted to laugh at that thought, “you think?” I said as I went back to eating my chicken, San looked up, “what they aren't?” he said but I'll leave him to figure that out

________________________________________

Han ’s POV:

It was now 6, the sun was almost about to set and yet we found nothing, to be honest how could we, the mermaid would have escaped a long time ago, but still we looked around the beach again and again, “I guess that sums up our search, we found nothing” Hyung said and kept on walking at a steady pace, “we still haven't checked out that cave yet” I said and pointed at the cave in front of us, he looked at the cave then back at me, “you sure?” he said and I nodded.

The cave was dimly lit, we looked not to sharply, but found nothing, “let's go home” Hyung said as he sighed, I nodded as we started to head back, when we heard a voice, the voice sounded like someone was struggling, the both of us turned our heads towards the sound, Hyung started to walk towards it when I stopped him “let me” I said as I told him to close his ears as tight as he could, and he gave me a questioning look but did what I said. I opened my mouth and started to sing, a siren's voice can also enchant mermaids/merman's, my words coming out as a sweet command, this was the same song I used to enchant Y/n but it somehow didn't work on her, my voice echoed in the caves, I played with the words and started to slowly walk towards the now quiet struggling sound, and as I thought we found our culprit, a mermaid stuck in a fishnet, her eyes were now yellow gold, hypnotized by my song, with my hand I motioned for Hyung to come, when he came near and saw the mermaid his eyes widened, not at her beauty (cuz they aren't pretty), with that we carried her home still hypnotized.

________________________________

Y/N’S POV:

I came back home tired, but me and San had lots of fun, I walked in and Darong came running but then she stopped and looked at me and then went back “HEY WHO DID YOU EXPECT” I yelled, she must have been expecting Han for sure the two of them are close now I guess, I rubbed the back of my neck, boy was I tired, I went to my room and placed my bag on the bed and went to the bathroom.

I washed my face and stared at my reflection, black hair coming out of my headband a little, I should take a bath. I thought and went to the bath to fill it up, but what I saw there was unbelievable.

“AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH”

_________________________________

Y/n’s POV:

THERE WAS A FREAKING MERMAID IN MY BATHTUB, I tumbled back about to slip I close my eyes, but that contact with the floor never came I slowly open my eyes to see myself in Han ’s arms, I look up to see wide eyes as if he was in shock, Minho came running “WHAT WHAT!?” he said, as Han lets go of me and I stand up, clearing my throat I look at the creature now glaring and hissing at us, “why is there a mermaid in my bathtub?” I ask pointing at the creature, and looking at Han , he glances at my brother then at the mermaid “well…..ask your brother” he says turning away, Ask my brother, why I mean why would he…

I turn to my brother, and he gives Han a panicked look, then scratches his head “well it's complicated but, there was this unsolved case I got and it involved a certain mermaid killing people, so I asked Han to help me crack it and we found her and so here we are now” he said, his voice getting faint after every word, after that he looks at the ground like I've scolded him for stealing candy or something.

I sigh averting my gaze to the mermaid, “okay fine but .. both of you .. stop looking like kicked dogs” I say as my brother, Han and I head outside the bathroom i carefully close the door, “*yawn* I'm gonna go sleep then, night” my brother says and runs away after ruffling my hair, I blink sometimes i wonder What exactly is happening in his head?.

I turn to look at Han , he was staring at the door, trying to make sense at what just happened, I smile, he looks more paler today, pale and tired, like the stupid idiot I am without thinking I reach up and touch his forehead, he turns to me, when my eyes meat his, I saw those eyes loosing there color and he was definitely cold, way cold for a normal person, or siren.

“Are you … feeling okay..?” i ask he nods and stares at me, his hand comes up, and cups my face, my freaking breath stops, we just stay like that for a minute, suddenly the color of his eyes change to yellow and then back to his normal eye color, he hisses and places his hand on his head, “Hey! Han , Han ” I panic, he recovers quickly and then gets up and heads out of my room, “Han !” I say, he turns around and smiles, “I'm fine” he says and leaves.

I hope he really is alright.

__-__-__-__-__-__-__-__-__-__-__-__-__-__-__-__-__

Han ’s POV:

shit , shit, shit, I tumble my way to the sofa, this is bad this is super bad, my head hurts so freaking much, I breath in through the nose trying to calm myself down, but I cant my ears are buzzing and I'm hearing voices.

Born of sea turns to sea form

Born of land bleeds and turns to sand

But cursed to be a part of the sea, doesn't break easily

Does Not remember anything

Love can break the biggest spell

Can tame the curliest of beasts

My eyes widen, these are the same voices I heard when I was a siren, back in the sea, I hiss as the pain sharpens, I rush out of the house and to the sea, breathing I try to concentrate on the cool breeze, the pain stops but I can still make out those voices, like a faint whisper, what does that even mean?.

After a minute or two the voices die down too, and I take a sigh of relief, I take out my necklace, the vile, half or less the half of it was filled, but I had made my decision, I can't and I wont hurt her and at that point it hit me, “Gosh love sucks!!” I sigh and ruffle my hair .

_____________________________

Y/n’s POV:

I hear hissing and mumbling, my eyes snap open and I glance at the time 3:00AM, I sigh, whoever it is better shut up, I get up and focus on the voice and it surprisingly lead me to my bathroom, I carefully open the bathroom door to find the mermaid, her eyes were glowing yellow, just like how Han ’s were, she was saying something, I came near her to see what she was mumbling on about,

Finish the job, kill her, Finish the job…..

She kept repeating that on and on, and then suddenly she goes still, eyes back to their original shape, she looked at me and I could make out tears in her eyes she whispered to which I made out “help me” and she repeated that again and again, I came near her and she suddenly pulled me closer, when I looked in her eyes they were yellow again “seeeeee” she hissed

Flash's came in front of me, moments, all those horrible memories, I tried to escape from her grip or escape from those moments but I couldn't, the more i tried to pull away the more horrible those memories became.

When she finally let go of my arm I tumbled back, my back hit the wall of the bathroom, cold, that's when I realized I was shaking, tears coming out of my eyes.

“You see?” she said

“W-what… a-are you t-t-trying to s-show me?” I ask trembling

__________________________________________

#stray kids #stray kids fanfic #stray kids reactions #bang chan #lee minho #seo changbin #hwang hyunjin #han jisung #han jisung imagines #lee felix #kim seungmin #yang jeongin #stray kids imagines #kpop #kpop imagines #kpop fanfics #ateez #ateez fanfic #choi san

22 notes · View notes

accioromione · 4 years

Note

I feel like jk Rowling could not decide how to make Ron his characterization is so different in each book

Ahhh shittttt ok I did notice this too. But too be fair not EVERY book.

Book one he’s a pretty bad arse loyal friend- he’s pretty intelligent and like quick on stuff. I think she used him for like explaining a lot of magical things and then she was like shit I’m making him too smart.

Book two he’s very heroic and daring and like drives the flying car to save Harry and has a broken wand still doing shit and that’s why he was basically everyone’s favourite character when the first two books were released. Hermione wasn’t popular at all- I think JK Rowling wanted her to be more appreciated so that’s why ....

In book three we see Hermione doing the stuff with the time turner so she can have her moment. Because she really hasn’t had too many isolating moments. Like we know she’s smart but in book 2 she’s petrified and in book 1 she helps just like Ron does. In book 2 Ron has freed Harry, faced the forbidden Forrest, and has gone to the chamber of secrets with Harry. Yes Hermione gives the clues but we don’t see her personality in all of this, just validating that she’s sort of there to be like the brains. So she finally gets to have her heroic moment- this means that Ron can’t really have his own heroic moment because well- people need to start liking Hermione.

Book four now out and the movies are now out- Steve kloves is whispering in her ear. Harry needs to be the hero at some point in his own series- so this book becomes Harry central. Hermione and Ron have had their moments, Harry needs his moment without them- because it’s starting to look like the protagonist is useless without his friends. So we get GOF. I see the difference in Ron’s character here- as well as hermiones. I think this was a way for JKR to revalue Harry as the protagonist because let’s be real when you ask someone who their favourite character is in HP how many times do you hear Harry.

Come OOTP and we see Ron kind of becoming like talked down about more. Which makes me sad. Starts of with kind of making fun of Ron like omg how could he be prefect. But if we go to book one Ron I feel like that would be weird to question why he’d be prefect. And then come quidditch, giving him a reason to made fun of more. But then he shows out with the gang and helps Harry. This way everyone is shown to be vital and Harry still gets his moment.

HBP Ron was the most different from all the books in my opinion. We see him acting so like... jockey? He’s always been brave but idk the stuff with fleur and then how he’s annoyed with lavender. He becomes very like stereotypical teen boy in this book idk if this was JKRs way of explaining the age group but I feel a different vibe from him in this book. All the way from the beginning. He still has some great moments because honestly you cannot take the greatness Ron Weasley it’s just too challenging. She made him too great of a character lol.

DH Ron was like this weird JUMP. It’s like hbp ron was never a thing and she just made PS Ron mature. He’s like mature and serious and caring and that’s the Ron I know he’s capable of being so idk what happened in HBP but I know that he gave off a different vibe. But yeah we see a very likeable Ron to the point where it’s like yeah I should make Ron leave or something... because now he’s a romantic too? Like the other characters need a chance. So yeah, I kind of see what you mean.

I still love all Ron’s ;)

45 notes · View notes

joon-ipersgirl · 4 years

Text

O6 - “the jaded jessica rabbit”

genre: mafia!au, angst, fluff, slow burn, mystery-thriller

pairing: namjoon x reader (f)

word count: 3.8k

warnings: cursing, mentions of alcohol, some vulgar-is dirty talk at the end (not the way you think lol)

summary: charismatic. beautiful. fearless without question. the ambitious team of seven young men in charge of spiral, downtown district’s hottest new club, go above and beyond to provide 100% satisfaction to their clients.

after an eventful night out, you have no choice but to join the team for property damages greater than your intern salary. challenging a series of events that can no longer be left to coincidence, secrets threaten to burst at the seams as your professional and private life collide, and another - more sinister - debt is added to your total.

how far are you willing to go to pay back your pound of flesh? remember, nothing is ever as it seems...

a/n: hello everyone! wow, i received some really nice comments about this fic so thank you. like seriously. i’ll keep you guys posted on discontinuing or not. i only have a few more parts pre-written so i may just post those and decide after. either way, i hope you enjoy. this was fun to write :) leave me an ask and let me know what you think and any theories as to what you think the boys are up to!

full masterlist // series masterlist // previous // next

Staring at yourself in the full length mirror in your room, you conclude you look crazy. How Suga had approved this uniform is beyond you, especially as winter hasn’t let you out of her cold, damp grip. You adjusted the waist of your skirt again as you try your best to make sure your ass isn’t hanging out the bottom. At least the neckline of the t-shirt is high enough that all of your assets aren’t on display. You guess you could appreciate how nice your legs look in the sheer black stockings you’d paired with the look.

You try your best to fit the vibe Spiral is going for and keep your makeup fairly neutral except for the bright red matte lipstick across your lips. Your hair was swept into a slick low bun, a few tendrils left out to frame your face. Though it probably isn’t part of the vibe, you throw on your chunky gold hoops to add some personality. Honcho could kiss your pretty little ass if he didn’t like it.

A soft meow! broke you out of your inner monologue. “Rosalia!” you coo at your shared Russian Blue cat. She saunters into the room and makes herself comfortable on your Queen-sized bed. “Don’t wait up,” you tell her as you grab your small backpack and trusty black, wool overcoat. It was time to head to Spiral.

“This must be the new spot for the young folk, huh?” your Uber driver, George, asks as he pulls onto the interstate. He’s an older man that could have probably been your grandfather. You pay him no mind. Maybe he would get the hint that you weren’t interested in having a conversation if you barely respond.

“Hmm?”

“You’re the third young woman I’ve picked up to head there tonight,” he explains. You look up at him quickly through the rearview mirror.

“Oh really?” you ask absentmindedly. George nods, his cap looking to flop off of his head.

“Oh yeah. They were so excited about it being back open since it got closed down for that robbery they had 2 months ago, though I don’t know if those young boys can handle running an establishment like that,” he mutters.

“Why do you think that?”

“They aren’t paying their respects to the elders in the business. Respect will go a long way you know?” he adds as he exits off the highway and heads towards the “party” area of downtown. You sit up, intrigued by what he’s saying.

“Respect to the elders? In the business? What do you mean?” you inquire again.

“You can’t just pop up on someone else’s territory without explaining what you’re doing there, even if it was an order for expansion,” he explains. You glance out of the window; you were close to the club. Time is running out.

“I’m not sure I understand what you mean, sir.”

“Of course you do, young lady.” George smiles at you through the mirror as you stare at him confused. “Robberies of that sort don’t just happen outta nowhere,” he elaborates, his words seeming to take on another meaning. You open your mouth to respond, but he cuts you off with a whistle.

“Wow, it didn’t look like that when I was just here.”

You turn to look out the window and your eyes widen as you take in the line, the neon red sign brightly illuminating the street. It wraps around the corner of the club and extends down the street past where your eyes could see. Numerous patrons are huddled together to stay warm as they brave the chilly wind. It’s only 9pm and the club doesn’t officially open until 10pm. Had news of the re-opening spread so quickly?

George pulls up to the curb. “You be safe now, miss,” he says pointedly, turning in his seat to deliver his seemingly innocent warning.

“You too. Have a good night,” you tell him as you step out of the car and he tips his hat in response. The conversation leaves you uneasy as he pulls away and you’re left on the corner of the street looking very much so like the woman of the night you feel in your uniform. You don’t stand for too long as the icy wind slashes across your legs, forcing you to head inside.

You approach the front of the line, much to the groans and protests of the people at the front. You ignore them. No one had told them to arrive at least an hour early and subject themself to this kind of torture for a few measly drinks and to rub up and down on another equally sad individual.

“Y/N!” Jack calls out to you from the front door of the club. He looks good in his own large bomber jacket, black skull beanie pulled low over his dark brown hair and the tips of his ears. Though he’s the size of any pro NFL quarterback, you could only see him as a rugged teddy bear when he grins at you like that.

“Jack,” you greet him with a soft smirk of your own. “How are you?”

“Good. Cold, but good. Ready for tonight?” he asks cheerily.

“As ready as I’ll ever be,” you said, chuckling. He smiles at you again and holds the door open.

You duck under his arm and slip off your coat as you head down the stairs. Spiral looks incredible after the renovation and you’re surprised at how well everything flowed together; Min might actually know a thing or two about interior design. The new, red neon lights along the floors and the ceiling add to the ambience and the sleek black marble furniture fits in well with the leather booths.

Standing around the bar where the rest of your coworkers in their uniforms. Jin, Luca, and Moon are setting up behind the bar, the three of them looking like the city versions of Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades. Not necessarily in that order though; Luca would definitely be Hades. Honcho and Suga chat quietly to one another while Savannah prattles on with Tae, her arms moving wildly as she explains whatever story she’s so into. Jeon and Micah are tucked on the other side of the bar, a comfortable silence settling between them. Giselle sits alone on a bar stool as she scrolls on her phone completely oblivious to her surroundings.

“Good evening Y/N. So nice of you to grace us with your presence,” Moon remarks. You ignore the way his eyes flit across your body as you approach the bar.

“Finally Kid. We’ve been waiting,” Suga calls from where he stands, his mint hair falling into his eyes.

“You guys act like I was 45 minutes late or something. What’s going on?” you asks.

“Did you go clock in?” Honcho asks, ignoring your question. You shake your head. “Do that, put your stuff away, and then come back here. We’re having a staff meeting.”

You nod and set off towards the employee lounge. It’s a fairly small room with some lockers available to store your things as well as a miniscule refrigerator to store some snacks as you wouldn’t be leaving until at least 3am. You carefully fold your coat as best as you can before shoving it into one of the lockers and shutting it closed.

The cold metal of the lockers presses into your back as you lean against it for support. It’s finally hitting you that you’re back at Spiral. Where you shot a gun. Where you shot a man. Where you got shot at. You look at the slight burn that’s on your upper forearm. You let out a shaky breath. Fear couldn’t get the best of you now. You had work to do, clues to discover, and a man to find before he found you first.

“Took you long enough!” Honcho calls out as you perch on the edge of the bar stool. A roll of your eyes is your only response. “Great. Everyone’s here. It’s opening night and the line is wrapped around the building. People still want to experience us, and experience us they shall. You all have your positions. Do your job well, and we shouldn’t have any issues. Anything else to add?” Honcho turns to Moon.

“Be engaging and if there are any issues, find myself or Honcho. Only.” Moon directed his last comment to you. “Suga?”

“Don’t fuck up,” Suga says with a shrug and the room erupts in laughter. “Let’s have a good night.”

The meeting is dismissed as Suga heads up to his office and you use the last 20 minutes to do the last of the prep of our stations. Tae has started spinning tunes from his booth as you vibe out. Jin and Luca are tending to the downstairs bar while Moon heads up to the VIP lounge. You and Giselle are tasked with serving tables on the main level, Savannah and Micah on the second. Jeon had left to man the main door with Jack. Everything is set.

You peek at Jin as you secure the little black fanny pack with the notepad and pen to take orders around your waist. Your conversation from earlier in the week flits across your mind and you narrow your eyes in determination; it was time to get to work.

“Here!” Giselle calls over the increasingly loud music. “It’s tequila!” She pushes the shot into your hand. You can hear the chatter of people starting to enter the establishment faintly. You toss the shot back and she grins. It was definitely time to get to work.

“I need a strawberry daiquiri, a lemon drop, a mango margarita, and a blue hawaiian!” you yell to Luca as you lean over the bar, waving the ticket in your hand to try and grab his attention. He serves his customer at the bar before grabbing the ticket from you.

“It’s fucking crazy in here!” he yells back. You nod and look out into the crowd.

Spiral hadn’t been open a full hour and a half, but it was like there was no room to walk. Talk about packed. The air is thick with heat and hormones as people dance in the middle of the floor, bodies swaying sloppily from the amount of alcohol they’d already consumed. You’re grateful you’d decided to tie your hair back because Gods knew how it would look after your shift was over. The demand for drinks hadn’t slowed down once, putting your personal mission on hold.

“Order up!” Luca calls and shoves the drinks over to you on a tray. You huff as you balance it in both hands and head back through the crowd.

As you approach your table, your mood sours. Instead of there being four girls sitting in the booth, a fifth has arrived. Your favorite crime scene investigator. Her hair hangs down around her shoulders in loose waves instead of the tight ponytail it was in when you first saw her. Her white off the shoulder dress clings tight to her body as she rests on the edge of the booth, her legs crossed. You set the tray down a little harder than needed as the rest of her friends jump.

“Oh. It’s you,” she says in disdain. You ignore her as you set their drinks down in front of them.

“Hi, my name is Y/N and I’ll be your server tonight. Can I start you off with anything or would you care to see the menu?” you ask, giving her the usual speech. She looks bored as you stand there waiting.

“Hmm, nothing that you can give me. Have you seen Moon? I need to speak with him,” she says.

“He’s working in VIP. I’m not sure if you have the clearance to be up there,” you say with a smile. She glares at you.

“You barely have the clearance to work here,” she spits. Just as you’re going to respond, you feel a heavy hand on your shoulder.

“Y/N, why don’t you go on break? Jennifer, so nice to see you again. Shall we?” It’s Honcho. If you weren’t so angry, you would have been frightened at his ability to move so swiftly in a crowded room.

Jennifer, in all her raggedy glory, brushes past you with a smirk. You barely resist the urge to drag her back by her half-assed waves and pummel her smug face into the pretty black, marble table. Watching her saunter up the spiral staircase makes your blood boil. Who did she think she was? You excuse yourself from your patrons once you make sure they no longer need you and head for the restroom. If the boss says it was time for a break, who were you to oppose? It was time to figure some things out.

“Y/N!” Jin’s voice is barely audible over the blaring bass Tae is blasting. You roll your eyes.

“I’m on break!” you yell to him as he beckons you over.

“I need you to do me a favor!” he shouts as you approach his side of the bar, Luca hurriedly making drinks on the other.

“I need you to stop lying to me, but I guess we all can’t get what we want,” you say with a shrug and turn away.

“Y/N, please. Honcho hasn’t come back down for this order. Can you run it upstairs for me? I’d do it myself, but -” He gestures to the people surrounding the bar waiting for his attention.

“I told you, I’m on break,” you emphasize.

“Please,” he asks once again, resting his hand on top of the bar. You glare at him.

“Fine, but you owe me,” you say pointedly. He flashes you a beautiful smile before setting the tray filled with a glass of white wine, a pint of beer, and a whiskey sour.

“You’re the best!” he calls as you heft the tray onto your shoulder and make your way to the stairs.

The second level is less crowded than downstairs, but all the booths are occupied with men in luxurious suits and their companions dressed in their finest dresses. It reeks of expensive perfumes and stuffy cigars. Some of the velvet curtains are drawn and you didn’t want to know what could possibly be happening behind them. Honcho is nowhere to be seen and you grow impatient as the tray’s weight settles into your arms. This was becoming tiring.

“Hey Y/N! How’s it going? Do you need some help?” Savannah chirps as she ducks through one of the closed curtain booths, her blonde hair a little disheveled. Interesting. Definitely didn’t want to know what kind of sunshine service she was providing.

“Uh, yeah. Have you seen Honcho? These are his drinks,” you say gesturing to the tray in your hands.

“Hmm, not for the past few minutes. Maybe he’s in the back?” She points to the hallway leading to the third level. You sigh. You’d been sent on a wild goose chase.

“Alright. Thanks.”

You dodge a drunk woman who seemed dangerously close to breaking a heel, the pint of beer sloshing over the side and soaking the front of your shirt. You clench your jaw in anger. Slamming the tray down angrily on one of the high tables, a few of the customers jump at the noise. You know your smile is not friendly by the way they lower their heads and avoid your gaze as you march past. At this point, you were taking an additional half an hour break; they owed you.

The bathroom on the second level is empty as you try to wipe the stench of beer from your shirt. Your first night and you’re already fed up with Miss Fake Jessica Rabbit, Jin and his favors, and the spilled drinks. In fact, you’re highly irritated. You’re ready to go home. Giving up trying to salvage your shirt and resigning to smelling like beer for the next 2 and a half hours, you head to exit the restroom, but stop when you glimpse the back of Jessica Rabbit herself.

“I don’t know, Moon. It’s not looking too good on our end.” You tuck back behind the door, leaving it slightly ajar to hear what they’re saying. Thank Gods for the acoustics of this hallway.

“Didn’t this case just get planned?” he asks. “Vance was supposed to secure this contract for us after we were down for those couple of weeks. What happened?”

“I don’t know. Things have been a little busy with Julian going haywire. I haven’t seen Vance in two weeks. Someone mentioned something about reputations and what not -”

“We just started this operation. We barely have a reputation, Jen,” he emphasizes. “But we’ve been damn good at what we do, so I’m not understanding what the issue is.”

“What are we not understanding?” You almost stumble back as Min passes the restroom but catch the door with your fingers before it can slam shut. You exhale slowly as you recover, peering through the small slit of the door again.

“We just lost the Fader contract,” Moon tells him.

“Wait, wasn’t that supposed to come out tomorrow? I thought we had it secured before it was set to be released.”

“So did I, but Jen said Vance couldn’t pull through. Something about reputations -”

“Reputations? If anything, we should be getting great reviews; I’ve been quick and effective with every job you’ve sent me on. So much so, we couldn’t take on all the clients because of demand.” You can hear the confusion in Min’s voice even with the music still thumping. “What changed? How is that affecting our operations?”

“That’s what we’re trying to figure out,” Jen replies. “This is bad for business which is in turn bad for me.”

“There has to be something we’re missing. Min, do you think you could contact Santi-”

“Have y’all seen Y/N? She’s not on the floor and Savannah said she was looking for me,” Honcho’s voice rings out and you squeak, letting the door slam shut, effectively cutting off the sound of their conversation. Shit. You duck behind the partitioning wall and try to calm your breathing as someone knocks on the door.

“Is everything okay in here?” It’s Honcho.

“Everything’s great! Just slipped on some water and fell, but I’m good!” you call to him, cringing at your lie.

“Y/N? What the fuck are you doing up here?”

“I work here. What do you mean by what am I doing up here? I was trying to find you so I could give you your fucking tray with your drinks, but you were nowhere to be found,” you reply with just as much attitude, finally appearing around the corner and facing him. He looks at you confused as you stare him down.

“I was busy with a -- customer. Come on, you have work to do,” he says while grabbing your wrist.

“And you don’t?” you retort as he pulls you into the hallway where Min, Jennifer, and Moon are still standing. They look surprised to see you.

“Kitten!” Min exclaims as you approach them. “How’s your shift going?”

You shrug. “It’s going.”

“Shouldn’t you be getting back to work?” Jennifer asks rudely. You can just make out the frown on her face under the low lighting of the side hallway.

“Shouldn’t you have chosen a better outfit to solicit on a corner?” Honcho snorts and she glares at both of you.

“Kitten is feeling a little fiesty today,” Min hums, leaning against the wall.

“Y/N, you can’t say that to customers,” Moon chides you though you can tell from the faint showing of his dimples he’s amused at your words. You raise your eyebrows at him.

“Hmm, I guess it wasn’t dirty enough for good ol’ Jen, huh? How about on your knees in the back of the alley behind Spiral?” you offer. “Maybe you’ll get off if he reprimands you the way he’s trying to do me,” you ponder.

Jennifer’s face is red with anger as she continuously opens and closes her mouth to respond. You smirk as your own anger and irritation settles in your belly, happy that you’d gotten under her skin. Apparently too well as she rears her hand back and slaps me across your face. Tears spring to your eyes from the force of the blow and you blink at Honcho as you slowly comprehend what’s happened. She had well and truly slapped you. You whip your head around to face her and she gasps as she had now just realized what she’d done.

“Holy shit,” Honcho whispers. You grin as you step forward to stand in front of her, holding your ground. You were tired of her shit.

“Is that the way you like it, Jen? Hard slaps to the face?” you goad. “What about your pretty little ass, hmm?”

“Y/N, stop. That’s not necessary.” Moon steps in front of you, blocking your view of an almost teary eyed Jennifer. Ah, an angry crier. Your favorite.

“Oh come on, Moon. It’s just a little teasing, isn’t it? Just like how you all do to me. No harm, no foul,” you say nonchalantly, but your words have a sharper tone. The irritation of the night was getting to you.

“Y/N, let’s go downstairs,” Honcho says as he tugs on your wrist, trying to diffuse the situation. “Give everyone some time to cool off.”

“I am cool. I’m not going to hit her and ruin my chances of filing an assault claim,” you say with a chuckle. “You guys wouldn’t even have to testify against your little friend. The cameras will witness for me. And I can walk by myself, thanks. Continue whatever business you guys had going on,” you reply with a wave of your hand.

“An assault case! Are you crazy?! Bitch, fuck you!” Jennifer calls from around Moon’s large frame. You roll your eyes as you spin around to face them again.

“I’m as crazy as they come, babe. Pencil me in once you're done with your lover boy and I’ll let you know if I can squeeze you in with the rest of my appointments! Business is booming as they say!” you yell back and blow her a kiss. She scowls.

The four of them watch you go and you only rub your stinging cheek once you know you’re out of their eyesight. For a small woman, she had a heavy hand and you’re grateful it hadn’t been a punch; you couldn’t afford a trip to the dentist. It was time for you to cash in on that favor Jin promised you as you head down the spiral stairs. An old fashioned on the rocks is calling your name. You could use the ice.

full masterlist // series masterlist // previous // next

#bts fanfction #namjoon x reader #namjoon fanfic #bts mafia au #bts rm #fic: double entendre #i'm late but we did it #leave an ask with some thoughts :)

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duhragonball · 4 years

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Cult Classic

I had a really exhausting week, so I’m going to try to chill out by writing this thing about cults that’s been bouncing around in my head since... oh, like January 6th? For some reason? But it’s also about my insanely long OC fanfic slash vanity project slash concept album. Join me, won’t you?

Okay, so back in... geez 2018? Has it been that long? Around October 2018 I started working out the details for the big climax of the “1000 years ago” section of my fanfic. From the start I had this idea that the Legendary Super Saiyan would be locked into a death struggle with pretty much the entire Saiyan population, led by a Saiyan King who just can’t handle being upstaged. But I had to figure out a lot of details to make that actually work. What I finally ended up with was the Jindan Cult.

Why a cult? Because I wanted my King character to be the main villain, but also be physically weaker, but also he needed to be powerful enough to challenge the heroine. I came up with all these different ways to beef up his power level without making him a Super Saiyan himself, but ultimately I wanted him to have an army of Siayans at his back. That led me to consider some sort of magic elixir that would make them all stronger, but especially the king, since he’s ultimately in this for himself. At first, I considered having him mind-control all of his goons, but I spent the mind control nickel in earlier arcs, and I’ll have to use it again later, because Towa and Demigra use it. Then I thought of drug addiction, which is sort of like mind control but not literal brainwashing or anything like that. And that led me to the cult concept.

One major inspiration for me was the real-life cult called “NXIVM”, which made the news back in 2018 when their leaders started getting arrested, including “Smallville” star Allison Mack. Every time I read about it, it felt like something from a movie, but it was real. I guess the celebrity angle made it more bizarre to me, because it’s sort of like “Hey, this isn’t just some group of randos; someone you’ve heard of is in this thing.” Not that I ever paid much attention to “Smallville”, but you get the idea. She didn’t just join NXIVM, she eventually became one of the top recruiters. Some of the character arcs in my fic were my own attempt to understand how a person goes from Point A to Point B.

The big plot hole, though, in my mind, was that I came up with this whole master plan for the bad guys, but it involved sending wave after wave of Saiyan cultists to die in pointless, unwinnable battles against Luffa. I couldn’t have them win much, because if they beat her, they’d just kill her, and the story would be over. It struck me as fishy that these Saiyans would sign up for a war where the casualty rate is 100%, but I tried to lampshade it as best I could. “Yeah, all those other chumps couldn’t beat Luffa, but I’ll pull it off because I’m special!” It still seemed a bit unlikely.

But then 2020 happened, and I guess the main thing I learned from that year was that people will accept almost anything in order to believe a comfortable lie. The joke I’ve seen on the internet is that we need to retire the expression “avoid it like the plague”, because it turns out a lot of people don’t actually avoid plagues very well at all. The horrifying thing about COVID-19 is how easily people will accept the climbing death tolls. “Oh, well this person was already in bad health, so they would have died eventually anyway.” I don’t want to get too political here, but I’m pretty sure a lot of the anti-mask, coronavirus-is-a-hoax crowd are the same people who made up tall tales about “death panels” in Obamacare. “They’re gonna euthanize your grandma!” they would say, but now they say your grandma is acceptable losses if it means reopening bars and restaurants.

Actually, I do mean to get political, because holy fuck, Qanon stormed the Capitol Building. Look, if you don’t believe Joe Biden won the election, I don’t know what to tell you, except please get far away from me, right now. If you’re not familiar with Qanon, a few years ago some guy on an image board posted a bunch of cryptic messages and claimed to be an important government figure who would know about important things. People started “deciphering” his “clues” and when he stopped posting new ones they started inventing their own “clues” and interpreting them any way that suited them. This led to an overarching narrative that Donald Trump was actually part of this massive sting operation to arrest hundreds, maybe thousands of left-wing politicians, celebrities, and whoever else. Any day now, he was supposed to have Hilary Clinton arrested, and also JFK Junior would somehow show up and help him, even though he’s been dead for 22 years. Every day, these Qanon guys would add on more bizarre lore to their “theories”, and every day none of their predictions would come true. Then Trump lost the election, which put them in a bind, because their whole mythology is based on the idea of him saving the world as POTUS, and now he wasn’t even going to be POTUS for much longer.

I’m pretty sure this had a lot to do with the lies about election fraud. Trump himself refused to accept defeat, and his supporters didn’t want to accept it either, so they all told each other that it wasn’t real, and they believed each other so much that they dug in their heels. But then they’d take this stuff to court and the judge would be like “Uh, what evidence do you have of mass voter fraud?” and they would just be like “lol nvm!” I mean, if there was proof for any of this, why would they not want a judge to see it? But for Qanon, it was more than just being sore losers. They needed all their whackamaroo predictions to come true, and Trump losing re-election would upset the applecart.

So then they started telling themselves that they could win this thing through the boring certification process. I think it was like, December 14 when all the states had to certify their results. So they held out hope that nothing was over until then. Then they pinned their hopes on the Electoral College, and that there would be enough faithless electors to hand Trump the victory, in spite of the voters. I found this one amusing, since I used to see tumblr suggesting the same thing back in 2016, when they were still trying to come up with ways for Bernie Sanders to win.

Then they decided Mike Pence could fix everything, because on Jan 6, Congress would officially count the Electoral Votes and formally declare the winner, and Mike Pence would step in and overrule the whole thing, because the Vice-President oversees that process. Except he just oversees it, he can’t legally change the outcome, especially on a whim. And then the riot at the Capitol happened, and I’m pretty sure all these Qanon types thought it would mark the beginning of a nationwide uprising, with all seventy-odd million Trump voters going apeshit, but it... didn’t work out that way.

Then they convinced themselves that everything was building to January 20, because the innauguration was actually a clever trap, and once Joe Biden took the oath of office, he could then be arrested for treason, so you see, they had to make it look like Trump lost the election, because it was the only way to fool Joe Biden into incriminating himself... or... something. But Jan 20 came and went, so the latest fallback position I heard was that there’s a double-secret REAL inauguration day, and it’s in March, and the January 20 one isn’t legitimate, even though Trump was inaugurated on January 20, 2016, but whatever. That, or the guy we see in the White House now is actually Trump disguised as Joe Biden, or a Joe Biden android or something.

I think I sort of understood that Qanon is a cult, but I didn’t really put the pieces together until the events of January unfolded. Pre-November, it just seemed like a conspiracy theory, without any real timetables or prophecies, like Flat Earth. But once the end of the Trump Administration was in sight, it really started to look like all the doomsday cults I’ve heard about over the years. The predicted events wind up failing to come true, and they invent new predictions to explain away the old ones. It’s not about the veracity of the claims as much as the claims themselves. People want to believe there’s this whole elaborate explanation for everything. They wanted to believe that Trump was this hypercompetent superheroic messiah, because the alternative is to face the uncertain reality: that he had no idea what he was doing, and real people were going to suffer for it.

I think I sort of worked that idea into my fictional cult, but I backed into it. NXIVM was a sex cult, not a doomsday cult, or an elaborate conspiracy theory, so I was mostly fixated on all the depraved things the cult could do to its members. But they all share the same lure: a belief system that promises to make everything fit. I’m not sure what the hook was for NXIVM, but Allison Mack didn’t go in thinking about how much fun sex trafficking would be. That came later, after she was convinced that NXIVM had all the answers, and one of those answers involved sex crimes, apparently. In the same vein, Qanon attempted to explain mass arrests and executions by claiming that Hilary Clinton eats babies or something. “Well, I don’t want babies to get eaten, so I guess breaking into the Capitol building seems like a reasonable course of action.”

Weighed against real life, a bunch of Saiyans accepting a 100% casualty rate doesn’t seem so outrageous. It also helps that sometimes the leaders of these groups can buy into their own hype, and think they’re infallible when they’re really not. This week, I started reading the Darth Plagueis novel again, and I’ve seen the Sith from Star Wars referred to as a cult, but I never gave it a lot of thought until I noticed that Plagueis buys into the whole Dark Side of the Force thing a little too hard. At times, he’ll wax philosophical about how the Jedi are the real bad guys when you think about it, and he’s not just saying that to be manipulative. He honestly believes that the Sith can save the galaxy from decline, which is stupid and hypocritical, because they’re the ones causing all the decline. I always got the impression that Darth Sidious understood that it was all about accumulating power as an end unto itself, and any high-minded talk of necessary evil was just to keep the rubes in line. Rise of Skywalker plays into that idea nicely. He somehow survived Episode VI, but he let the Empire collapse, because if he can’t rule it, he doesn’t want it to exist at all. But he’s still playing himself, because he thinks he can win by following the same failed ideology that got all the previous Sith Lords killed.

That’s pretty much all I have to say about it right now. I need to move on to other topics, because Towa’s not doing a cult thing, so my fic is moving in a different direction. But I feel better for getting this out of my head.

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artificialqueens · 3 years

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Down with the Recipe, Bake from the Heart, 10/10 (Taywhora) - Juno

Chapter Summary: The three finalists are just three challenges away from the end of the Bake Off, and the reunion with their fellow competitors, families, and friends at the finale garden party. The Signature and Technicals will be the hardest yet, and the Showstopper will ensure the three finalists bare a slice of their hearts to the country. But who will take the winning cake stand?

A/N: I have been utterly blown away by the support and comments I’ve had for this fic on tumblr and AO3! Huge big thank you to everyone who has cheered me on with this. For ease, the finale and epilogue are in one here (but are split on AO3). I hope to be back soon with some short stuff for rare pair challenge! xo Juno

WEEK 10: GRAND FINALE

Aurora felt like she didn’t sleep all week back in Worksop, and now, the night before she had to take the train down south to film the grand finale, the very idea seemed virtually impossible. Her body and her mind tossed and turned, every time she closed her eyes she saw cakes and breads and pastries and all sorts of things she was sure she’d never have any desire to eat again.

She had no time to think about Tayce, but Tayce had found her way in through the cracks in her mind while she had practised. Gone from the tent, but not gone from her life. And her last act in the tent had been to give Aurora five words that had rung like a melody in her head ever since.

You can win this, bitch.

She reached for her phone in the darkness, and it said it was half past one in the morning. She’d have to get up in three hours to get ready, before she headed out for the train. Lawrence would already be on the sleeper train, and Veronica was probably getting up at around the same time. But as she opened their own three-way chat, she found both Lawrence and Veronica were also messaging at silly time in the morning.

They weren’t sleeping either. Aurora understood why now.

Sure, she’d see Tayce again this weekend at the grand finale garden party. But her departure still replayed in her head.

Why did I end up this reliant on her anyway? I can bake without her. I’ve done it for years!

But this wasn’t just baking. It wasBake Off. It was surreal, intangible. It defied gravity. How many times had Aurora had to anchor herself to Tayce to keep herself from floating away?

Her phone came up with a notification from Lawrence.

Lawrence:why tf ru awake

The irony of Lawrence’s message was not lost on Aurora.

Aurora:your meant to be on the sleeper train Aurora: sleeper Aurora: clue is in the name Lawrence: yh but its stopped Lawrence: we’re in carlisle Aurora: what’s it like in Carlisle x Lawrence: dark

Maybe it was the lack of sleep, but it tickled her far more than it should, and she found herself laughing far too hard at the message.

Aurora: how much ru lookin forward to this bein over now x Lawrence: oh loads babes Lawrence: cant wait to bring that cake stand to Glasgow x Veronica:keep dreaming Lawrence Aurora: unlikely lol x

On second thoughts, the teasing and the laughter were a balm for her worried mind right now, and Aurora found she was laughing more than she had all week at their conversation.

Sleep is overrated anyway.

——

The tent looked huge and imposing, but Aurora was still not at the front to her relief. If Lawrence had gone home last week - not that Aurora had ever expected her to - Aurora thought she would have squirmed at the front under the gaze of the judges. Especially now, with just the three of them left, their voices echoing like a vast cave, all of their heartbeats just sounding amplified as they hammered against their ribs.

It’s the finale. I made it.

Aurora glanced at the two badges she’d won. The same amount as Lawrence, with Veronica having one to her name. But as they’d seen from previous series, the amount of times someone had won Star Baker was not an indicator as to who would win the whole thing. But it certainly gave both her and Lawrence a minor edge, and both of them a swell in their chests.

Everything felt new and fresh. Lawrence had re-dyed her hair, blue this time, the vibrant colour almost a distraction in itself. Veronica had new black nails which she tapped on the workbench, and her roots had been redone. Aurora hadn’t thought to do any of that, so she was pleased to still be at the back.

Her turquoise KitchenAid still glistened like new, the workbench sparkled with the glassy varnish, and the cupboards and shelves around in their pastel colours made the summer air feel all the more fresh and clean. She glanced over at Veronica, her own green KitchenAid in the same state, and Lawrence’s Cadbury purple one too.

I wonder if I can pinch the KitchenAid after filming without the crew noticing.

——

Signature: 12 iced doughnuts - 6 ring, 6 filled

If there was one thing Aurora hated doing, it was piping filling into something as fiddly as a doughnut. They’d have to cool down, be hollowed, and then filled, a really fiddly process.

It was the hardest day in the tent by far. The morning was rainy, light rain that almost felt like it wasn’t there, and the air was sticky and humid, pushing the temperature in the tent up, especially with the deep fat fryers they’d been provided for the doughnuts.

Aurora chewed her lip so hard that it bled, piping mixture, watching them all closely in the deep fat fryer, filling up her jam piping bag and spinning it so tightly that it threatened to burst and cover her in sticky apricot jam.

In front of her, Lawrence groaned a few times as she battled against the heat and the doughnuts as they spat in the fryer, while Veronica was wringing her hands at the dough as it came out of her own fryer.

“Too soft,” she muttered, followed by “God, too hard,” at the next batch.

By the time judging came, with Prue back from her illness this week, Aurora had almost forgotten what she’d flavoured them with, but she wasn’t alone. Across from her, Veronica stuttered as she spoke about her doughnuts, while Lawrence just pushed her hair back at the question.

“Don’t know,” she’d mused to the judges, some of the old humour returning to her voice. “Started making them, had a breakdown, and here they are. Enjoy!”

The judges all laughed, but Aurora caught a glint in Lawrence’s eye, and the same thought passed between them both.

It’s not a lie!

All of them had similar critiques. Unanimously told they had good flavours, good bakes, and good designs, it was becoming virtually impossible to differentiate between them. How were they going to decide a winner?

“How are they going to do this?” Veronica said aloud to the room, as they sat in Norton Hall (not Carr Hall, Aurora said to herself) waiting for the Technical challenge to begin.

“Not a fucking clue.” Lawrence sighed.

“Are any of you thinking about today though?” Aurora asked. “Are you just thinking about the Showstopper tomorrow too?”

Lawrence and Veronica both nodded slowly, none of them looking at each other.

“Are you all … doing the same thing as I am?”

Lawrence and Veronica just continued nodding.

None of them even needed to say a word. They all knew.

——

Technical: Victoria Sponge (no recipe)

Technical sounded daunting at first glance, but Aurora tried to reason with her worried mind. Baking a Vicky sponge from scratch with no instructions? Please. Aurora baked a Vicky sponge twice a month for the local shelter. She could probably have done it in her sleep.

But the pressure cooker of the tent just made everything go up in smoke in her brain.

Her nan’s voice rang in her head for the proportions that she used to use. Two, two, two, and two eggs. But two what? Two cake tins? Two bowls? Two competitors? No, two pounds. When would her nan come into the new millennium and learn that no one talked about measurements in pounds and ounces any more?

“Lawrence?” She leaned forward.

“Alright, babes?”

“How much is two pounds in grams again?”

Lawrence was frowning. “What?”

“Please - just tell me. I know it’s a competition and all -“

“I’m not trying to stitch you up hen, I genuinely don’t know, I don’t use pounds and ounces because I entered the twenty-first century a while back.” Lawrence shook her head, holding her hands up in surrender. “What do you need it for anyway?”

“Recipe,” Aurora said, her already-hammering heart feeling like it could break her ribs.

“What’s up, love?” That was Veronica’s voice. Aurora closed her eyes, wracking her brain, but Lawrence’s voice pierced the gloom.

“How much is a pound in grams, d’you know?”

“Yeah,” came Veronica’s in response, “a pound is about four hundred and fifty grams. Y’know, you can also go the other way. A kilo is two point two pounds. What do you need that for, yours is already whisking?”

“No, Rory’s having a meltdown, and not with the butter.”

Jesus Dawn French Christ, Lawrence.

A hand met her shoulder, and Aurora was astonished to see Veronica at her side.

“You alright, love?”

She held her gaze for a long time, unflinching, but her eyes were softer than ever, and her hand was surprisingly warm and calming as she rubbed Aurora’s shoulder.

“Yeah. Just - this,” Aurora waved her hands, encompassing the whole tent. Maybe that was absurd to an outside observer, but Veronica knew. Veronica understood.

“I looked at your instagram,” Veronica said quietly, “and I know you bake cakes loads, so I know you can knock this one right out of the park, alright? And you know that too. I mean, I can’t remember a thing about making jam now! And I’m probably going overboard with my sugar. But hey, it’s the finale! I can’t be sent home now!”

Veronica shrugged, her face split in a grin that bordered on maniacal, and Aurora had to admit that she had a point. She took a shaky inhale, then let it out.

“Look, I know you miss Tayce,” Veronica dropped her voice even lower, her hand squeezing her shoulder now, “because I’ve missed Tia since alt week. And we know Lawrence is missing Ellie, even though she’d probably rather move to London and take up Morris dancing than admit that.”

“You say that, but I can do that accent, I’ve watched Eastenders,” Lawrence called over her shoulder. “And I won’t be any worse than Dick Van Dyke.”

“We’re all missing everyone,” Veronica said, and Aurora knew she didn’t mean everyone, “but you don’t need Tayce to be able to bake. You can do it on your own. You’ve done it loads before this show, and you’ll do it again!”

“I can’t,” Aurora heard her fear contradict her in a whisper.

“You can,” Veronica said firmly, her gaze now stern. “You can do this.”

Aurora took a deep breath, held for four, and let it out for five.

“I can.”

“That’s it, love,” Veronica said, nodding and starting to walk away.

——

“Here’s to the last time we’re here as a three,” Aurora said, raising her glass along with Lawrence and Veronica. One of the producers had brought in a bottle of champagne, and even though Aurora didn’t really like the bubbles very much - they tickled her nose - she accepted the glass that was poured for her.

“How much does everyone remember about today?” Veronica asked, her arms and legs crossed on the sofa. “Because I can’t remember a bloody thing. I can’t even remember what the judges said about that piece of crap that my Vicky sponge turned out to be. Did I come last?”

“Yeah,” Aurora nodded. “Was nothing in it, though. We were all shit.”

“Speak for yourselves,” Lawrence muttered, a hint of her old mischievous glint back in her eye.

“And tomorrow we’re recording the finale,” Aurora sighed, swirling the champagne. “Five hours in a tent, followed by half an hour break, followed by presenting the Showstoppers, followed by the garden party, followed by our speeches. And then filming three endings. Where one of us wins each time.”

“It’s gonna be worth it by the end, though,” Veronica said brightly.

“Who’s gonna come from your family, Lawrence?” Aurora asked.

“My parents, my cousin Chloe, and my best pal Stinky Pete.” Lawrence grinned. “Can’t wait to see them. And who have you two got?”

“Uhm,” Aurora frowned. “I know Blake’s coming, and my nan, but I thought you could only invite two people?”

“Mine said four,” Lawrence replied. “God, you really can’t count, can you?”

“What about you?” Aurora asked, motioning to Veronica with her glass.

“My mum’s coming and my brother.” She twitched her shoulders. “None of my friends could get time off. Shame, really.”

Aurora nodded, sipping her champagne, trying to hold off on sneezing through the bubbles. “And the others.”

“Can’t wait,” Veronica smiled her usual pinched, nervous smile, her leg jogging. “I’ve missed them all. Tia especially, but I’ve missed them all. I wonder who they all think will win?”

“And Ellie still owes me a tenner for that Puff the Magic Dragon shit that she thought Tayce’s biccies were,” Lawrence mused.

Aurora pursed her lips at Tayce’s name, but pushed it to the back of her mind. What mattered now was not Tayce, but the fact that her eyes were drooping after not having slept the previous night, and the champagne making her head throb.

“Early one?” Veronica’s sigh must have read been a telepathic projection, because they all stood in unison and trailed each other up the stairs to their respective rooms, ready to pass out and begin everything again in the morning.

——

Showstopper: A picnic for a fellow contestant - to include one celebration cake, 12 savoury pastries, and 12 patisserie.

When the three of them had seen the Showstopper for the weekend, right after Tayce’s elimination, they’d all nodded knowingly to each other.

This one has been just …made for us all.

It was obvious. It was blatantly obvious that everything that had happened had been noticed by the producers, and the staff, and everyone with eyes and without them too, that all three of the finalists were missing someone.

Veronica was setting her alarms up, all five of them as usual, before dragging her ingredients from the bag she kept. On her workbench, she’d gently placed a photo Tia had taken of some landscape or other. Lawrence had laid all her ingredients out on a baby pink tablecloth that complimented the purple of her own KitchenAid.

Aurora only had one thing to remind her of Tayce. She’d gone into a charity shop in the week with Blake, looking for something he’d seen in the window, and had found something that Blake had gasped at.

“It’s a Welsh love spoon!” He’d thrust the small wooden spoon into Aurora’s hand, and she’d turned it over and over silently in her fingers, marvelling at the twisting pattern on the handle, curling into a heart shape at the top.

“That’s fate, that is,” Blake had nodded. “You’ve got to get that.”

Aurora set the spoon now on the counter top, resting against her own KitchenAid for now, as she ran back through the timings again in her head, and what she was planning.

The twelve savoury pastries were easy. Puff pastry sausage rolls with added baked beans and cheese. Even if Prue didn’t like baked beans, that was all Tayce seemed to be eating every breakfast time.

Screw what Prue likes. This isn’t for her.

The cake? It had taken some thought. Black Forest gateau with a mirror glaze to top it off, not something she knew if Tayce liked, but something that felt sophisticated and stylish. And the deep purple of the blackberries was a colour that Tayce loved.

The patisserie was the hardest one, but she’d settled on millefeuille, similar to some that she made before for her nan’s seventy-fifth birthday, delicate and decorative, fragile-looking but built to stand tall. Not to mention they tasted so good that the world ceased to exist when someone bit into one.

“It’s like they’re all back here, isn’t it?”

Veronica’s voice was quiet, but happy. Lawrence’s intake of breath was shaky, but she didn’t turn to face her, focusing on her bake.

“You’ve got a tin of baked beans on your workbench, Aurora, it’s so surreal! And Lawrence, you’ve got so much pink on your workbench today.” Veronica motioned to the pink fondant she’d made, pink icing, pink glaze, pink cake filling. Pink and white marshmallows, pink jam … every shade of pink imaginable. Lawrence just gave a snort and shook her head.

It was meant to be the hardest challenge yet, but it definitely didn’t feel that way. The tent heated up with the warm sunshine outside and the combination of ovens and bakers and inside, but as soon as nerves started manifesting, the three of them were all there to diffuse them all for each other.

When Lawrence started dropping her utensils, both Aurora and Veronica were at her side in an instant to grab her hands and calm her down before she started panicking. When Veronica clung to the edge of her workbench, motionless, Lawrence and Aurora were both there beside her to talk her down.

But when the last ten minutes were called …

Shit.

Aurora felt cold fear creep back up her chest. She still had the millefeuille to assemble. She’d done three, but nine remained. And the puff pastry had to come out of the oven. And the glaze needed to be poured over the cake for it to set into a mirror in time -

“Aurora?” That was Lawrence, with Veronica on her heels. “You’re making a squeaky whiny noise like a balloon letting out air. What d’you need?”

“But - ten minutes - your own bakes -“

As Aurora flapped, the other two simply ran round her side and started doing it without needing her to tell them. Soon all her pastries were on the tray, and the cake was out the fridge, the glaze ready to go.

“You pipe, I’ll load,” Veronica muttered, and she did just that, while Lawrence put the cake onto the metal tray, jogging back from her own workbench where she’d had to finish off one of her own patisseries, and as Aurora finished piping the last millefeuille …

“Bakers! You have five minutes on your final Showstopper!”

They were all pulling out the stops, dashing between all three of their benches. Veronica was throwing gold leaf around like it was confetti. Lawrence was covered in icing sugar, the sweet scent filling the air. Aurora poured the deep purple onto the cake, praying to the Monster gods that it would set into a mirror glaze in time …

“Time is up! The final Showstopper has finished! Congratulations, bakers!”

The whole world seemed to crumble at Noel’s words.

Aurora looked at the mountain of food she’d produced, everything that reminded her of Tayce, and she knew then that serving this would mean serving a slice of her heart to the nation. And that was the plan all along.

Everything in her body ached, her bones were hollow, her breathing felt too loud alongside the deafening roar of blood in her ears. But as she leaned on the workbench, surveying the amount of work she’d done, she felt a tickle at the back of her throat, and suddenly she was laughing, so hard that she felt like she’d never stop. And then so was Veronica. Then Lawrence began too.

They were all cackling, all three of them, delirious with delight. Noel and Matt came to congratulate them, clapping as they did so, and then Veronica came out from her bench to hug Lawrence, and Aurora ran to join in, and the three of them were suddenly hugging, laughing, sobbing, cheering into each others’ ears.

Until they were all too weak to speak.

——

Aurora, first alphabetically, was going to be the first out of the tent with her final Showstopper, to make her way to the garden party that was always put on for friends and family for the grand finale.

All her bakes were on an enormous tray and she carried it, with Noel on her left and Matt on her right, all three of them bearing the load. Aurora was flabbergasted that nothing was moving, nothing was falling, but everything was still and settled.

As soon as she stepped outside the tent for the first time, she was met by a blast of noise like heat from a furnace.

Clapping, cheers, whoops, laughter. The crowd at the garden party was friends, family, co-workers, film crew, all the staff of Norton Hall, and of course Blu and Cheryl. She caught sight and sound of her nan - her nan! - her accent and her distinctive nasal voice above the rest of the crowd, bless. And Blake, waving his hands in the air and cupping them to his mouth to howl at the sky.

And the rest of the contestants, waiting with the biggest smiles, with applause, with cheers and shouts that drowned out everything else that was happening.

Tayce was in the centre. And Aurora had never seen her look so happy.

She rested the tray at the table outside the tent behind her name, and stopped, stunned, blinking so many times at the noise and her senses overloading. How green the grass was, how vibrant the gingham pattern on the table, how blue the sky was above her head, how bright and hot the sun felt on her bare arms.

“Go on, Aurora,” Matt muttered, pointing to the crowd. “You can go and see them!”

Aurora walked slowly, the dream she was in making her legs shake. Her feet were resting on air, two inches above the ground, just above the blades of grass. But she somehow made the walk, the whole twenty-foot walk, away from the tent towards them all, dazed by their overflowing love, their cheers and their applause.

Tayce was beaten in the first hug by Hurricane Ellie, swamping Aurora in her arms; and by the time she’d disentangled herself, Bimini was there, leaping forward and rubbing her arms and beaming at her; followed by a grinning Pip, followed by Joe, still cackling. In fact, everyone seemed to get a turn before Aurora was left with just Tayce, waiting patiently, the grin she wore showing all her teeth, her eyes crinkling in happiness.

“Told you you could do it, bitch!”

——

“I made this spread for Tayce,” Aurora began, still cursing that her name was first alphabetically and she was first up on the podium.

Part of the Showstopper this year was a little speech to the crowd at the garden party. It was meant to be a tear-jerker, obviously, for the viewers to have an emotional finale, but it had just served to make all the bakers pull their hair out while writing a speech about which contestant they were baking for, and why.

“I made it for her because Tayce has been my rock throughout the competition. We were on the back row together, we got through all the first challenges together … she corrected me on the name of the hall for God’s sake, I was calling it Carr Hall for ages!”

The polite laughter tinkled around the grounds.

“Tayce has been an inspiration in so many ways. She’s taught me that … that I can channel my worries into the energy that I use to make a cake or a bread or whatever - and that can be fuel for me, to push me forwards. Tayce showed me that they were just a source of power like anything else. She always told me to relax. Well, chillax. And when I did, I rediscovered that I loved baking.”

Aurora couldn’t look at Tayce, even from this distance. Couldn’t see her eyes. If she did she might burst.

Lawrence and Veronica sat on the chairs next to the tent, next to the judges, waiting their turns, while everyone else sat or stood on the grass; but Aurora’s position on the podium, towering over them all, kept eyes trained on her as she gave her speech about her Showstopper, before everyone would come and eat.

“Me and Tayce,” Aurora’s voice cracked. “Well, we didn’t always get along. It’s a competition, and we all have our eyes on the prize, and that pressure of wanting to be the best got on top of us both at times.”

The silence was only broken by birdsong.

“But Tayce taught me that I do my best when I’m relaxed. When I’m loving what I’m doing. She taught me that my thoughts can be my own worst enemy, especially when I’m thinking about other people.” She paused, glancing back at her cue card, the words jumbling before her eyes. “And most of all she taught me that - that I ama great baker. That …”

The lump in her throat was back, the fear creeping up her windpipe to strangle her words. She shook her head defiantly.

“That I am more than capable, that I’m skilled, and that I’m … loveable. She held up a mirror for me. So I made one for her too. Thanks, Tayce.”

More polite laughter, followed by applause, as she indicated the mirror glaze cake.

Finally, she met Tayce’s eyes, and as soon as she did, her own burned with unshed tears, emotion swelling in her like a tidal wave.

But Tayce too, her lip quivered, not even noticing the others around her or their applause. She opened her mouth, and her lips moved, but only for Aurora.

“Love you, bitch.”

Aurora managed to mouth back to her while applause rang in the air.

“Love you, too.”

——

“Ellie’s gonna hate me for this,” Lawrence muttered into the microphone, and Aurora looked over at the crowd, Ellie already shaking with silent laughter with her hands over her mouth. “I made a spread for her. She probably wasn’t expecting it, it rains too much to ever have a picnic outside in Dundee, poor bitch has probably never seen the sun -“

“Lawrence,” Matt Lucas piped up, “just a reminder that this will air before the 9pm watershed.”

“So I can’t say bitch? Fuck’s sake!” Lawrence put her hands on her hips.

Aurora put a hand to her mouth to stop herself from making too much noise, but laughing this much was making tears stream down her face; and Veronica, sat next to her, leaned into her arm, also shaking, stuffing her fist into her mouth to silence herself.

“Anyway, I made all this pink stuff for Ellie. And not just because Team Scotland has to stick together,” she added, as Ellie whooped in the crowd, “but because she really has been the best friend I could have made here.”

Veronica let out a cough that sounded a great deal like ‘sexual tension’ and she and Aurora spluttered with laughter.

“And ignore the peanut gallery over there,” Lawrence motioned to Veronica without even looking. “Because first and foremost, Ellie has been a great friend to me. She sat with me when I was upset when I did something wrong, and she was the first to celebrate anything I got right - even if it was at her expense.”

“Aww,” Veronica murmured next to Aurora.

“I take everything really seriously. I take baking to heart. If I’m not good at something, it freaks me out, because I’m usedto being good at everything I try. Gifted kid syndrome, if you know you know.” Lawrence thumped her chest. “But Ellie just has fun with it all. She taught me that you can have fun with something without necessarily needing to be perfect at it. There isn’t a yardstick of quality to having fun. And even if I’m not good at something, it doesn’t mean it wasn’t worth the time.”

Ellie was now quiet, as the others turned to watch her, but she was only looking at Lawrence, oblivious to everyone around her as the grin on her face quivered with emotion.

“Ellie is fun. And I wanted to make something that would be fun, and also her. That’s why there’s a lot more pink than I’m used to,” Lawrence continued, motioning to the huge pink cake and the pink icing on the choux buns she’d made.

“When I was unsure of myself, Ellie reminded me of what I could do. But she also reminded me that I should be having fun. That’s the reason I made this for her. Because baking should be fun, and should be something you don’t take too seriously. And once I got that, I loved it.”

As everyone applauded again, Lawrence gave the crowd a thumbs up, pushing her hair out of her eyes, looking as if she wanted to get off the podium as fast as possible.

——

“Come on Veronica,” Aurora muttered under her breath.

Veronica looked very short, smaller than usual, even on the podium, the microphone somewhere at her forehead before she adjusted it to her mouth. She licked her lips; her eyes darted to the crowd, to Aurora and Lawrence sat separate to them all, to the judges, and then down to her note paper again.

“Well,” Veronica said for what felt like the fortieth time, another giggle escaping her lips. “Hello, everyone.”

“She’s bombing,” Lawrence muttered.

“She’s just too nervous,” Aurora nodded.

“Right. So. I made this spread for Tia, you know this now, because there’s a sign saying Tea or Coffee on it, I thought that was a nice - erm, a nice touch.”

“God.” Lawrence put a hand to her chest.

Aurora watched as Veronica took a deep breath, held it for a second, and let it out slowly, the silence only interrupted by birdsong.

“I - I’m a perfectionist. If it’s not perfect, I don’t want it. If something is out, even by ten grams, even by a centimetre, I just want to throw it out and never look at it again.”

Veronica repeated the deep breath, clenching the podium, her knuckles white.

“Me and Tia just clicked. We’re quite similar, me and her. We have the same humour, we like the same police dramas and murder mystery documentaries, we both like art and drawing and stuff -”

“Since when does Veronica like drawing?”

“You need to check her instagram page,” Lawrence muttered back, “it’s all artwork.”

“- but the one thing me and Tia didn’t have in common was baking. Tia’s an amazing baker. But something about that tent - as soon as she was in it, she kept making a mess of everything, she won’t mind my saying that; and I know she got really frustrated, but she never wanted to quit. She just always wanted to get better.”

Veronica was tearing up, it was evident even from this distance, her white knuckles shaking. Tia, in the crowd, squirmed for her, clutching Pip’s hand as Veronica fought to get some more words out.

“Tia taught me that it’s fine to make mistakes.”

Another long pause.

“Not that - I don’t mean that Tia is always making mistakes! She does a lot of stuff really great! But she taught me that being perfect is basically impossible. And that I can trust myself if something goes wrong, that I can trust myself to be able to fix it, and not just give up.”

Tia dabbed her eyes with her free hand, shuffling nearer to Pip, who had a hand on her own chest in sympathy.

“Because she doesn’t give up. She just wants to do better. And I love that about her. I wish I’d put less pressure on myself when I first got in there, trying to be perfect at everything, instead of trying to be my best, and getting better by making mistakes.”

Veronica finally seemed to be settling, the rare smile appearing.

“She showed me that making mistakes is fine, and it doesn’t mean I’m a failure, it means I’m a person. And she - her bakes were amazing, and lovely, and she’s such a genuine person that everyone in the tent fell in love with her. Well,” she paused, looking up, “I did.”

Tia’s jaw dropped as she clutched at her chest, leaning into Pip at her side, tears falling freely down her face now as the rest of them clapped, while Veronica’s smile widened, her own tears falling too.

“That’s so …” Aurora murmured, not realising she was holding Lawrence’s hand.

“… cheesy,” Lawrence muttered, but her voice had a crack in it.

——

Aurora’s nan got the first hug when she went over to her family. Her best friend Blake had the second, patting her heavily on the back.

“So which one is the one you made all the cake for then?” Her nan motioned to the crowd of contestants, who had been mostly all mingling together, now breaking off to sit with the crew and each other.

“Tayce is - oh, she’s here.”

Tayce, appearing from somewhere, plonked herself on the grass by the picnic blanket and helped herself to a sausage roll. “Oi oi, saveloy! Oh, these look nice! You put baked beans in them?” Tayce grinned. “You know me like the back of your hand, Rory!”

“Beans on toast was your go-to breakfast, wasn’t it?”

“Oh god, yeah,” Tayce nodded. “Breakfast of kings! The only breakfast! If I could have beans on toast for the rest of my life, I’d die happy. A bit flatulent, but happy.”

She looped her arm through Aurora’s waist, planting a kiss on her lips, before picking up a pastry, leaving Aurora floating just a little from the contact.

“So are you two dating now?” Blake asked, his eyes wide as saucers, hoping for gossip as usual.

Aurora met Tayce’s gaze; they hadn’t really discussed anything official yet. Tayce’s smile was strangely shy, and her eyes earnest, a thousand questions behind them; but as they both nodded simultaneously, it felt like they could work out the details a little bit later.

“Yep!” They both exclaimed at the same time.

Tayce reached down and grasped Aurora’s hand. “And you’re the first to hear about it - not the tabloids, not Hello magazine!”

“You’re not just putting it on for the cameras, are you?” Aurora’s nan teased, wagging her finger at the pair of them.

Tayce turned to glance at Aurora, the same thought passing between them both.

“No way,” they both said at the same time, to a snort of laughter from Blake.

There had been a time, not too long ago, that Aurora might have taken the question as a cue to overthink, overanalyse - but that thought didn’t even exist any more. Instead of being like ducks, kicking to stay on the surface, they now just floated effortlessly.

Aurora just squeezed Tayce’s hand.

Everything was falling into place.

——

“Taking into account your final bakes, and your performances throughout the series, we’ve made our final decision.”

Aurora’s left hand was numb; Lawrence was cutting off the circulation to it.

They all stood before the judges, filming the first of the three endings to keep the actual winner a secret from everyone. This would be Aurora’s win; they’d then film Lawrence’s and finally Veronica’s. For now, they all stood in line; Aurora at Lawrence’s right and Veronica at her left.

Prue held the cake stand, the Bake Off emblem engraved in the glass, all of them in a line waiting for the decision, while the crowd stood impatient, ready to put on a show to congratulate them all.

“You’re all incredible bakers, the best in the UK,” Prue continued from Paul’s speech, “and this was the most difficult season by a long way to judge. You’re all so skilled, imaginative, and clever, and I know you’ll all go on to amazing things after this is over.”

Lawrence’s hand was shaking in Aurora’s; and she could hear Veronica’s breathing on her other side.

This is it.

“The winner of the Great British Bake Off is …”

Complete silence.

Even the birdsong had waned in the background.

A silence that seemed to last an eternity.

Aurora watched Prue’s mouth, wondering when she would open it again, put them all out of their misery, Veronica’s breath audible through the silence and Lawrence’s hand sweating in hers and Aurora’s heart must be the loudest thing in the whole country right now at the rate it hammered her ribs -

——

EPILOGUE

October 2021

Tayce had had to let Aurora go for Blu to wield the camera at the three finalists on the smallest of the neverending number of sofas in Pip’s sister’s house. Lawrence in the middle of the three, all squashed together on what was really a two-person sofa, but they’d all linked arms and interlocked their fingers, staring at the screen, watching themselves.

“I’m never gonna get used to being on screen,” Tia mused, shaking her head. “I swear I don’t sound like that.”

“You do, you definitely do.”

But Tia was only half paying attention to Tayce’s words, her attention on Veronica, who was ignoring her, staring enraptured at the screen. Lawrence, on the other hand, kept glancing over to see Ellie, both of them doing that strange thing they did in filming yet again, just able to know when the other was looking over at them to make sure they were alright.

Tayce tried to relax, hands in her lap, but her chest fluttered every time she met Aurora’s gaze.

The finale had been Tayce’s favourite episode to watch, simply because she hadn’t been in it. The element of surprise was there as she watched it, although it was there for all of them, because there the finalists were, on the screen, still waiting for the winner to be announced.

It must be between Aurora and Lawrence. Veronica only has one badge; it probably won’t be her.

“The winner of the Great British Bake Off is …”

The painful zoom of the camera on everyone’s faces. Aurora’s nervous smile, pure yet heartbreaking. Lawrence looking at the sky to stop herself from crying, both her hands occupied by another finalist. Veronica, her stare intent with anticipation, chewing her bottom lip.

“Aurora!”

The room erupted.

Cheryl was jumping up and down, the first at the sofa to hug Aurora as she sat still as a statue, hands at her mouth and eyes agape in shock, as Lawrence pulled her tightly to herself, planting a delighted kiss in her hair.

“It’s you!” Veronica shrieked, shaking her knee, “it’s you! You won! You won the whole thing!”

And then everyone else streamed in to hug her. Pip was first - Pip was always the first to lay a comforting hand - Tia was close on her heels - Ginny’s hands looped round her neck from behind and their eyes crinkled in joy - but Aurora still sat frozen, only her rapid blinking suggesting anyone was home at all.

Tayce felt time stop again, but this time in a moment of perfection and not defeat.

The contest environment evaporated, she couldn’t fathom feeling anything but pure elation for Aurora’s win, couldn’t fathom having felt any other way for this wonderful woman who she was lucky enough to now call her girlfriend, sat with her hands at her mouth and silent tears coursing down her face as Blu pointed a camera at it.

“Aurora! It’s you! It’s you!” Blu was patting her knee while the rest of them excitedly hugged and squeezed at her. “Do you have any words for us right now, or is it a bit overwhelming?”

“It’s - what - I can’t believe it!”

Aurora’s phone was buzzing on the dining room table, undoubtedly hundreds of friends and family calling and texting and tagging her in Instagram posts and tweets, congratulations spilling over from every direction, an outpouring of love and support and adoration.

The programme was still running, footage of Prue and Paul giving their final summaries of Aurora, and the other two finalists - other contestants giving sound bites - Aurora’s finalist speech as her face was red with tears - the where are they now segment starting to play for all the contestants.

Pip back at her day job, giving the camera a thumbs up, followed by a snap of her with Ginny at Blackpool Tower and a video of them both on the Big One. Joe reliving that Instagram video again, and clips of Cherry, Ellie and Asttina all trying to recreate it too. Cherry back at the dog-grooming business she worked for, and walking her own dog. Asttina back at the gym, followed by a photo of her and Bimini on a boat on the Thames. Bimini at their laptop, followed by pictures of them holding the childrens’ book they’d written since the show. Ellie’s move to Glasgow, a clip of her dyeing Lawrence’s hair back to the bright purple it was now. Tia and Veronica somewhere in the Lake District, windswept but with smiles a mile wide.

But Tayce didn’t see or hear any of it. Aurora was the only thing she could see.

And as she stumbled towards Tayce, draping herself into her arms and laughing in delight, Tayce held her as tightly as she could, crushing her eyes shut but not stopping her own tears, her heart bursting for Aurora as she was privileged to share this moment of exhilarated happiness with her …

She’s already a Star Baker. She doesn’t need a badge or a title.

But she’s got both now! And hopefully she can know that she’s a Star Baker as much as we all do!

——

THE END

#rpdr fanfiction #down with the recipe #rpdr uk #juno #uk2 #baking au #gbbo au #taywhora #tayce #a'whora #bimini bon boulash #veronica green #lawrence chaney #ellie diamond #ginny lemon #asttina mandella #tia kofi #fluff #lesbian au

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wasdname · 4 years

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kakegurui anime vs manga pt. 2

ah, rei batsubami. she doesn’t exist in the manga, so every scene with her in the anime obviously isn’t in the manga. i think i will ignore the scenes with rei, since it’s anime-exclusive and everything else that happens isn’t really affected by rei being there or not. this post will mainly be comparing things that happened in the manga that didn’t happen in the anime for kakegurui xx (season 2). here’s a link to pt. 1 for season 1:

https://wasdname.tumblr.com/post/615241570260811776/kakegurui-anime-vs-manga-pt-1

LONG post with spoilers under the cut. season 2 had a lot more differences than season 1.

i’m going chronologically according to the anime. this might get confusing later, but bear with me. there’s a LOT to cover.

let’s jump into the very first two episodes of xx, when kirari announces there will be an election with the student council and the -bamis are introduced (ch. 34):

the one person who would know about kirari’s family would be, obviously, sayaka, kirari’s secretary. in the anime, sayaka has no clue who they are and kirari makes rei introduce them (more on that later).

after the introductions, we get reactions from each student council member. yuriko asks sayaka what she thinks about the situation:

and here we have the first major difference. in the manga, because tower of doors happened already, sayaka is much more confident and content both about herself and her relationship with kirari. she doesn’t need to understand everything that happens in kirari’s head, and sayaka knows that kirari doesn’t love or value sayaka any less because she doesn’t understand or for the things she chooses not to tell her. in the same way, kirari doesn’t understand sayaka all the time either, the difference being that kirari was never bothered by that as much as sayaka was bothered about it. SO, in the manga, we have a mutual understanding between the two characters now, thanks to tower of doors.

however, in the anime, sayaka reacts much differently and agrees with yuriko:

the fact that she doesn’t know who the -bami’s are also adds to pre-tower-of-doors sayaka’s growing list of “things kirari didn’t trust me enough to tell me”. they really want sayaka to suffer, huh?

i already wrote a bit about the meeting between kirari and terano (Ch. 36) in pt.1, so i’m going to skip over that to the next thing (but i’ll come back to this in a bit, it’s related, trust me), mary and ririka’s meeting (ch. 40). there’s a little bit of extra dialogue before mary takes off ririka’s mask:

it’s not that significant, but mary’s a little more animated in the manga, where in the anime she just kinda listens to what ririka’s saying without interrupting:

and then the mask comes off, and mary mentions ririka’s appearance:

“Kirari’s already exposed this face to the public. She doesn’t see it as any big secret.”

this line is interesting. i don’t know what to make of it yet. ririka is hiding her face, despite the fact that she claims kirari doesn’t care. so is ririka wearing the mask of her own volition? it’s easy to assume that kirari’s forcing ririka wear the mask, but that’s apparently not the case. i want to refer back to chapter 36 again, since it’s related here, the meeting between kirari, ririka, and terano:

notice how terano calls out ririka, not kirari, for doing this. why is that? was terano calling out ririka for being the one responsible for deciding when kirari and ririka switch identities, or was ririka just doing what kirari told her to and terano was calling ririka out for being kirari’s door-mat? or maybe i’m completely overthinking it (lol) and terano was just calling out ririka simply because she was the one in front of her? god i wish we could have seen how this scene played out.

we haven’t yet seen kirari and ririka interact at all, even in the manga. the mystery that is kirari and ririka’s relationship is one that i can’t wait to see unfold.

onward. there’s extra insight into miri’s feelings in the manga during the gamble vs. mary and suzui, when one of the sisters has to lose (season 2 ep. 4, ch. 43):

poor miri :( in the anime, she kinda just does what miyo tells her and faints, skipping over her thoughts about her sister threatening her.

this one isn’t significant at all but i thought it was funny, the first rankings (Season 2 episode 5, Ch. 44):

#9, horo joumaru.... exists (lol). in the anime, he wasn’t even ranked, instead being replaced by sumika.

this is where things might get a little hectic, because there’s multiple things in this one episode that is spread out over multiple chapters in the manga, but bear with me. in the same episode, rin and sumika challenge kirari to a gamble. the anime cuts to the second half of the gamble, but in the manga, there’s a little bit more build up (ch. 50):

and then kirari immediately proceeds to tear apart rin’s lie. god, i love kirari so much

and it’s at this point where the manga and anime match up and kirari goes “all in” a million times.

next is the yumemite vs sumika gamble (still season 2 ep. 5, but ch.51). the reason the manga is ahead here is because the anime moves the greater good game to after this gamble, but it happens earlier in the manga (ch. 45-49).

before the meeting, there was a scene that wasn’t included in the anime where mary and ririka are trying to find someone to gamble, which is why they weren’t in the pre-gamble meeting for the yumeko/yumemite vs sumika gamble. this is confusing because, chapter 46 (season 2 episode 5), the scene where mary decides she will work with ririka if she can win a gamble, didn’t happen yet. the anime kinda shoots itself in the foot here, and i’m still not sure why they decided to move things around they way they did, which resulted in the loss of this scene (maybe to build suspense for the greater good game? idk). i’m going to include it here, since it’s relevant, and we’ll go over the chapter 46 scene with mary/ririka in a bit when it happens in the anime. here’s the scene, at the very beginning of the yumeko/yumemite vs sumika meeting (ch.51):

“It’s a pity, but oh well...” the yumary ship is sailing

there was also a little bit more dialogue during the meeting where they’re discussing how to beat sumika that was kinda cute that didn’t make it into the anime:

“Let’s whip Kawaru Natari’s (i refer to her as sumika) butt!” “YEAH!” you dorks. i love them.

next is the scene with mary and ririka (back to ch. 46). mary’s a bit more aggressive in the manga:

but the main difference in the manga is that ririka wants mary to make good on her promise earlier about punching her if she wins:

which is kinda intense. then mary yells at ririka which makes her cry (which doesn’t happen in the anime):

the end result is the same, though. mary wants ririka to gamble to prove herself, and if she wins....

we get this killer line from mary in the manga which didn’t make it in the anime, because the whole punching thing wasn’t even in the conversation:

mary implies that she’s going to punch kirari, since it’s heavily implied that ririka is under kirari’s orders to work with mary (but who knows? i don’t think ririka ever explicitly says who she’s working for, but correct me if i’m wrong, i could have missed it). man, i wish they kept this scene intact in the anime.

next, season 2, episode 6 (ch. 53), yumeko and yumemite vs sumika:

in the manga, when it’s revealed that yumemite broke her finger in an attempt to trick sumika with a reflex, the crowd disapproves. the anime doesn’t show this. this leads to a little extra dialouge:

sumika is actually impressed by yumemite’s resolve, and even encourages yumemite to continue to pursue her dreams. imo, this adds more to why yumemite doesn’t want to win against sumika in the last round, even though this small scene wasn’t exactly necessary for the point to get across (the anime cut it), it’s just nice that it’s there, because it makes the reader acknowledge sumika’s charm/manipulative-ness as well, and shows that yumemite is completely moved by sumika in every way.

after round two, there’s another extra bit of dialogue that didn’t make it into the anime, which gives us a little more insight into what someone like sumika is doing here:

again, not that significant, but it’s there. she just wants to observe people, and what’s more “alluring” than her own crazy family? also, it doesn’t matter, but why are they naked?? i’m not complaining ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

it’s not that significant, but there’s another extra exchange between yumemite and sumika before the final round, when yumemite convinces herself she will lose in terms of talent no matter what:

everything else that happens is essentially the same.

mary is also shown checking up on this gamble in episode 5, at the beginning of all this:

in the same scene in the manga, she’s just walking with ririka behind her, without her phone:

good job, anime. they also show her checking her phone later in both the anime (at the very end of season 2 episode 6) and manga as well (ch. 55). it’s just nice because it shows that mary cares about her friends even if she can’t be there with them.

season 2 ep. 7 (Ch. 45-49), aka, the greater good gamble. there’s a little bit of dialogue the anime doesn’t show, about terano having to revise her plans (also, holy sh*t, when was terano expecting to defeat kirari?):

this isn’t too significant, but there’s a bit of extra dialogue about how many votes sumeragi earned and how she earned them when she’s conversing with manyuda that they didn’t show in the anime (ch.45):

there’s also a little bit of insight into sumeragi’s thoughts about terano and yumeko when they all get together for the greater good gamble, before they start playing (ch.45):

and again, some more extra pre-game stuff from ch.46, where we get to see a little more of ibara’s personality and sumeragi’s thoughts:

this isn’t that significant, but there’s a little extra dialogue from ibara and manyuda during the first turn when manyuda asks yumeko if she feels guilty about ruining people’s lives when she wins:

“You nervous? Want me to hold your hand? Hmmm?” ibara’s such a big goofball (lol)

there’s some more pages that include sumeragi’s thoughts during the game about the gameplay, but it’s not that significant. it’s mostly her saying things that we the readers already know, or her explaining the gameplay that’s happening. so i’m not going to include it since it doesn’t really give any insight into her character (it’s not that deep, really) and this post is getting long AF.

after the first perfect round where everyone paid 5 coins in taxes, we get a very cute moment with ibara and manyuda in the manga that unfortunately didn’t make it into the anime (season 2 ep. 8, ch. 48):

i’m really liking ibara (lol).

that’s it, for everything that happened in the manga that didn’t happen in the anime. again, i excluded everything with rei, since she didn’t exist in the manga. i also excluded the scenes with sayaka that kinda build up to tower of doors (for example, season 2 ep. 8, at the very end where sayaka wants kirari to order her to get rid of terano) and the tower of doors arc itself (season 2 ep. 9-10), since it overlapped with season 1 stuff and i already covered that in my previous post. they didn’t change much in the tower of doors arc anyway (literally only the puzzles on the doors were a little different), it was very faithful to what happened in the manga (thank the lesbian godesses)

i encourage y’all to watch the anime if you’re curious about rei and how they integrated her into the story, as well as some extra scenes with kirari and sayaka (i mentioned one already, season 2 ep. 8 at the very end, there’s also two small scenes in episode 12 about rei) .

let me know if i missed anything, season 2 was difficult to do because it involved going back and forth through multiple chapters. if you’ve read all this, thanks for sticking with me til the end :)

#kakegurui #kakegurui xx #yumeko jabami #mary saotome #ririka momobami #kirari momobami #sayaka igarashi #kaede manyuda #sumeragi itsuki #anime vs manga

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punkscowardschampions · 3 years

Text

Zelda & Zach

ihatemyguts: Good thing you told me how bubble boy posi Robyn’s ‘rents are

ihatemyguts: ‘cos that felt like such a brush-off

ihatemyguts: I feel kinda bad, it’s low-key just upset her with no shopping trip pay-off 😬

inandout: your first date was today

inandout: the insane jealousy must have forced me to forget

ihatemyguts: Obviously

ihatemyguts: moping and staring out of open windows would be bad for your health

ihatemyguts: probably

ihatemyguts: can’t have that

inandout: mope hard enough and fling myself all over the house, they’ll call it exercise

ihatemyguts: I’d let Rob know but her parents would probably sue me

ihatemyguts: I did some research

ihatemyguts: and yeah, flare-ups fucking suck, but if she was struggling that bad rn she’d be in hospital getting her 💉 on

ihatemyguts: makes me ⁉️ if the meetup will happen

inandout: makes me wonder if her brothers are allowed out

inandout: if they are maybe they can help us smuggle her to the meetup

ihatemyguts: not just a pretty face

ihatemyguts: that’s a damn good idea

ihatemyguts: I can slide in their DMs

inandout: Cranking up the jealousy metre to give me a full work out, I see, are you gonna be a PE teacher when you grow up?

ihatemyguts: *prays they aren’t like 12*

ihatemyguts: imagine if that was my life’s ambition

ihatemyguts: wear unflattering sportswear and give kids complexes

ihatemyguts: even without the potential life-shortening illness, I’d reconsider that

inandout: it tracks that you’d wanna make them 💩 and bringing back the bleep test could work

ihatemyguts: okay I’m not 🦹‍♀️ or 🐯 levels of sweet but is that what you really think of me? 😏

inandout: I think there’s only one rebel teacher coming to mind and I haven’t watched that film so all I know is they stand on desks

inandout: probably not a perfect fit for you

ihatemyguts: I could force you to watch it for our first date

ihatemyguts: and ask you, what your dream job would be

inandout: Netflix and chill or cinema screening of the ‘classics’?

inandout: we could do a drive-thru

ihatemyguts: hmm 🤔

ihatemyguts: there are pluses to ‘em all

ihatemyguts: cinema, we could laugh at all the snobs and 🤓s

inandout: Cool, reach out to me with the time + date when it’s showing

inandout: Are you allowed 🍿?

ihatemyguts: oh hell no

ihatemyguts: have to find another way to hold my hand

inandout: 🦸‍♀️ said she was gonna look up ice breakers and stuff, hopefully it was a fruitful search and she won’t mind sharing the info

ihatemyguts: do you think she legit didn’t realize how thirsty that boy was for her

ihatemyguts: or is it all uwu coy-ness

inandout: It’s hard to tell

inandout: but if I remember my glasses I’ll do my best to decode her body language from 6 ft away

ihatemyguts: aside from hospital, have you ever met someone else with cf?

inandout: Nope

inandout: jokes aside, it really is discouraged

ihatemyguts: that’s a hard one to get your head around

ihatemyguts: far as adjustments go

inandout: getting Robbie at this meetup won’t be easy

inandout: separate ones mean we might not have her there

ihatemyguts: I reckon we can trust you and Kara to keep the teen love story fictional

ihatemyguts: for all our sake’s

inandout: She’ll get her man

inandout: it’s not like bad advice and dating pitfalls are just a click away

ihatemyguts: cosmos never steered ANYONE wrong

inandout: Yahoo answers neither

ihatemyguts: might be confused as to why they’re not related

inandout: [I like to think he’s just sending his fave yahoo answer answers now for the lols]

ihatemyguts: [meme back and forth lads]

ihatemyguts: if she gets her date we could go into the matchmaker business

ihatemyguts: start at home

ihatemyguts: 🤖 don’t last forever

inandout: Rob’ll need to be next or she won’t forgive us

inandout: and we’ll soon get tired/guilty of seeing the amount of 😿💔 spam the chat

ihatemyguts: we’ll have to liberate her first

ihatemyguts: in a literal way

ihatemyguts: not the pretentious, free your 🧠 type of vibe

inandout: Kidnap’s playing into her parents’ fears but we don’t have a better option

ihatemyguts: now it’s my turn for a potential 💡

ihatemyguts: what if that is exactly what she should do

inandout: jump scare them?

ihatemyguts: if she did some actual wild shit to show them they’re being suffocating, ‘scuse the mention, then they’ll have to compromise and let her do normal kid things and everyone will win

ihatemyguts: I realize getting her to wild out might be a problem

ihatemyguts: catfish it though?

inandout: 💡⭐️

inandout: getting her to agree to do it for real would take longer than we have but you’re right, faking it wouldn’t take any time at all

ihatemyguts: get Lauren to picture whatever the hell she’s up to

ihatemyguts: sorted

inandout: + there’s your next photo challenge ready to be accepted, dressing as if you were going on a date with 👵🌈✨ instead

ihatemyguts: hold my neon

ihatemyguts: and think, do we clue Rob in on this plan now or do it on her behalf first, ‘cos we could hit up her house phone with some madness to get ‘em sus now and when she’s like wuuuuut it’ll sound even more

ihatemyguts: or is that a bit evil genius instead of 🦹‍♀️

inandout: Does she even have a house phone? We don’t

inandout: you’ll have to find another way to trick my parents into believing I’m a badass

ihatemyguts: I bet they do

ihatemyguts: can’t trust a mobile

ihatemyguts: and I bet they don’t have a microwave, they’re that sort

ihatemyguts: obvs I’ll just direct them to Lauren on your friends list with a 🤔

inandout: We should probably warn her, in case she takes it the wrong way

inandout: or decides to stand up to them for her YA movie moment

ihatemyguts: yeah, you’re right

ihatemyguts: if she doesn’t go for it, her brothers might be of use still

ihatemyguts: have to focus my evil energy elsewhere

ihatemyguts: such as…

ihatemyguts: 🥁

ihatemyguts: [one of the crazier lewks from babyteeth for the photo challenge]

inandout: 🤞🏻 one of them is old enough to drive the people carrier

inandout: Uhh… that was a suspiciously fast transformation

ihatemyguts: didn’t know you was challenging a pro?

ihatemyguts: and someone with a lot of time on her hands

inandout: I do now

inandout: and I’m guessing it’s not every day you get stood up based on what else I know about you

ihatemyguts: it’s a first

ihatemyguts: not that I constantly ask people out

ihatemyguts: but that is what I’ve put across so fair enough

ihatemyguts: what am I interrupting for you?

inandout: I’m waiting on friends

inandout: this could end in both of us being stood up

ihatemyguts: am I a drag you down with me type?

ihatemyguts: hmm

ihatemyguts: nah, I’ll cross my fingers that your friends aren’t flaky

inandout: Late, but I’d be too if it wasn’t my house

inandout: What are you gonna do now shopping’s off?

ihatemyguts: life is one big photo challenge, right

ihatemyguts: yours is ‘whatever will make your friends double-take when they open the door’

ihatemyguts: it’s a good question

ihatemyguts: we’re going to virtual shop tomorrow but she wasn’t up for it today

inandout: Wait for it and their faces

inandout: + you’re virtually invited to watch movies and play games, you won’t be the only one who isn’t here in person

ihatemyguts: 👍

ihatemyguts: cool

ihatemyguts: meeting new people is my new thing, as long as your mates are down/not the level of nerd that they might get a nosebleed if a girl is about

inandout: Some of them are girls if that helps

inandout: and my brother won’t be there to bring down the cool

ihatemyguts: low-key a shame

ihatemyguts: have to meet him before the first date though

inandout: I’ve got a father you can ask for permission if you’re feeling old-fashioned

ihatemyguts: full set

ihatemyguts: fun

ihatemyguts: mines in scotland so we’ll let you off that trek

inandout: But a road trip is a coming of age movie staple! 😫 Has Netflix aired any YA without one + are you willing to take that risk?

inandout: mine’s a workaholic but we’ve got years to catch him

ihatemyguts: forget the meds, see who gets fucked up first

ihatemyguts: it’d be a journey, for sure

ihatemyguts: do you know what he does? ‘cos so’s mine and I couldn’t tell you, tbh

inandout: Or mix them up and see what happens when you take the ones for my 💩

inandout: He’s a sales manager, he says, but why so vague?

ihatemyguts: sounds like something they’d do at cool parties

ihatemyguts: and that sounds suspish

ihatemyguts: they should have this 🤓 but with a moustache instead of the buckteeth

ihatemyguts: dads are elusive creatures… conspiracy time, what are they all up to

inandout: Not sure that’s the topic Rich has been watching vids on but I’ll ask

ihatemyguts: he can always tactfully ignore you if he’s 😳

ihatemyguts: like he does with 👵🌈✨ when she’s extra

ihatemyguts: more than usual

inandout: Be harder to do that in person

ihatemyguts: I think everyone will still get on

ihatemyguts: unless fibrofog shows, then that’ll be teen show worthy drama, of course

inandout: I think he’s genuinely blocked, he’d need a 2nd account to find out about it

ihatemyguts: hope he’s seen catfish too

inandout: He’d be a fan of the one where the man refused to believe it wasn’t Katy Perry

ihatemyguts: it does seem like the sort of thing she’d do

ihatemyguts: poor bastard

inandout: 😂

ihatemyguts: ultimate photo challenge, catfishing everyone and then going for the ruveal

ihatemyguts: might need more than just a wig 🤔😏

inandout: Dressing like her would make my friends do a double-take

inandout: [pics of some of her outrageous lewks with his head put on]

ihatemyguts: 😂😂😂

ihatemyguts: you suit the 🍦🧁🍭🍩✨

inandout: We’ve probably got a can of squirty cream lying around for hot chocolate

ihatemyguts: inhaler but make it ~sExxxIii~

inandout: [a lil video of his failed attempt to re-create that in her insta DMs or wherever because idk if they can send stuff like that here]

ihatemyguts: Katy dat you 😍😍

inandout: I’ve agreed to only string you along for 4 years not 6 and I don’t have any savings to spend 25% of on a 💍

inandout: looks like the comparison starts and stops with our black curls

ihatemyguts: not much of an orlando bloom clone myself so it’s alright

ihatemyguts: pirate is always an excellent disabled-friendly costume though so add that to the ideas board we should start

inandout: If we decide the next meetup is fancy dress, Lauren will never go back home

ihatemyguts: that’s the mood

inandout: [sends her whatever he did for the photo challenge and his friends reaction to it because why not say they’ve arrived and there’s a similar feral mood here]

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bugaboobss · 5 years

Text

Moshing

so i read this post by @lllluka and it totally gave me flashbacks to the one time I was at a concert and threw myself into a mosh pit, so I felt like I had to write something for it in like an hour lol, hope you guys enjoy!

This had to be the most painful looking experience Marinette had ever witnessed.

She was sitting on a picnic blanket a bit away from the main crowd near the front of the stage, watching with horror-filled eyes as the crowd slammed into each other over and over again in time with the blasting music. People were jumping up and down, running into each other at full speed, and Marinette was pretty sure she could see some blood on the grass beneath the crowds feet.

Beside her, Adrien was watching the crowd with an identical expression. Neither of them had ever been to a real metal concert before, and it was… an experience to say the least.

The music was great, that was a fact. Marinette loved this kind of music, and hearing it loud enough to burst her eardrums just made the experience all that much more enjoyable. The only part she was iffy on was the mosh pit writhing in front of the stage.

“Doesn’t that hurt?” Marinette asked after a moment, turning to where Luka was sitting on her other side with a worried frown.

Luka shrugged. “It can, but it kind of just depends on how willing you are to shove people away from you. Plus, it’s a huge adrenaline rush, so you really don’t feel any pain because you’re so filled with energy.”

“Huh,” Marinette turned to look back at the crowd, noticing how every person in the pit seemed to be having the time of their life.

“It’s a lot of fun, Marinette!” A small voice quipped from in front of her. Glancing up, Marinette looked to Rose, who was giving her a sweet smile.

“Rose? You’ve moshed before?” She asked, raising an eyebrow at the tiny girl.

Someone snorted behind her. “Rose is literally the only person in Kitty Section who likes throwing herself in the pit,” Ivan explained, wrapping an arm around Mylene as he spoke.

Beside her, Adrien gasped. “Rose? You go in that thing?” He asked, staring at the girl with a mixture of admiration and terror. “Have you ever gotten hurt?”

Rose giggled. “Yeah! It’s a lot of fun, honestly. I know it seems scary, but trust me once you’re in there you’re not thinking about anything else except how much you want to move. And yeah, I’ve gotten a few bruises here and there, but nothing terrible! It’s totally worth it in my opinion.” Rose then turned back to look at the crowd, and Marinette noticed it was slowing down as the song came to an end. “Speaking of, I think I’m gonna hop in there right now! Does anyone wanna join me?”

Marinette and Adrien shared wide-eyed looks before they both shook their heads. Luka laughed, and Marinette turned to give him a fake glare.

“Why don’t you go in there, Luka?” Marinette asked, the challenge obvious in her voice.

“Nah, not my thing,” Luka said with a shrug.

“Juleka?” Marinette then questioned, turning back to glance at the dark-haired girl.

“No way,” Juleka answered, her bangs swaying as she shook her head no.

“So Rose is just going in there by herself?” Rose didn’t seem concerned about this, but Marinette was worried the small girl might get crushed by the crowd and no one would be able to find her.

Suddenly, a booming voice shouted from behind.

“OF COURSE NOT!” Whipping around, Marinette was met with the manic grin of Anarka Couffaine, who was making her way to the group with her hands on her hips. When she walked up to Rose, she threw an arm around the blonde’s shoulders. “I’ll be goin’ in there with Rose! She’s the only one of you kids who can keep up with me!”

Okay, that wasn’t a surprise.

“Marinette! Adrien! Do either of ya want to join us?” Anarka then asked, her eyes glittering behind her glasses.

Both shook their heads no, and Anarka shrugged. “Your choice. If ya change yer mind, feel free to hop in!” With that, she and Rose headed to the crowd just as the next song began to pick up.

“I hope they’re okay,” Adrien said quietly. “Father always said heavy metal concerts were dangerous.”

“Wait then how are you here right now?” Mylene asked.

Adrien smirked, and Marinette felt her cheeks heat up at the sight. “My father doesn’t know I’m at a heavy metal concert. He thinks I’m working on a school project with Alya.” It was true. Marinette knew Alya and Adrien had taken several pictures together at Alya’s house before the concert so that if Adrien’s father asked for evidence that he was there, Adrien would be alright.

From their blanket on the grass, Marinette couldn’t make out a ton of detail in the mosh pit, but she could spot Rose’s short gold hair near the center of the pit. Every few seconds, she’d get a glimpse of Anarka as well, who was even further in the center than Rose was. Both seemed to be having the time of their lives, and as the minutes passed, Marinette’s fear waned.

The music was back and louder than ever, and the beat was infectious. Marinette’s foot tapped in time with the beat, Luka patted out a rhythm on his thighs, and Adrien hummed along. It was a cold fall afternoon, and Marinette tilted her head back to take a deep breath of the crisp air.

After a few minutes of just listening and enjoying, Marinette pulled out her phone to add this to her instagram story. She loaded up the app, and was about to click on the ‘add to story’ button, when she noticed the first post in her feed and frowned.

It was Lila. The picture she posted was a selfie with Jagged Stone, who looked like he’d rather be anywhere but taking a picture with the brunette. Lila was smiling brightly and holding up Jagged’s latest album, and Marinette was going to just click away before she noticed the caption.

Had a great time seeing the private Jagged Stone concert last night! It was great to catch up with him, and he even said I could design his next album cover! Love you, Jagged!

Marinette blinked. That was in no way true. Lila had zero graphic design experience, and even if she did, Jagged would never have offered to let her design his album cover. He’d already talked about letting Marinette design it again, considering how well-received her first design was.

Even though she knew it was a bad idea, Marinette grit her teeth as she clicked to the comments. There were choruses of you’re so cool, Lila! And omg I can’t believe I know someone who’s friends with Jagged Stone and You’re gonna do great, Lila!

Marinette hated this. She hated how Lila could lie about anything and get away with it. She noticed how Lila didn’t tag Jagged Stone in her picture, probably to minimize any chance of him seeing her lie and calling her out on it. This was so unfair.

It was a familiar anger that came over Marinette the longer she stared at the picture. She wanted to comment something to call her out, but she had no evidence to back up that she was lying. Her hands curled into fists, and she knew she needed to calm down soon.

The song changed again, and Marinette looked up to see the pit still going crazy. Everyone was bouncing and shoving each other, and in that moment, nothing sounded more enjoyable to Marinette than getting to shove a few people around while listening to her favorite kind of music.

“I’m gonna go in,” she said without thinking.

“What?!” Adrien gasped beside her. She turned to meet his worried gaze, and while normally she would melt at a look like that from him, right now her sole focus was on getting in that pit.

“I’ll be fine, don’t worry,” she reassured him. Next to her, she felt Luka rest a hand on her arm.

“If you need anything, text me and I’ll run in there,” Luka said quietly.

“Thanks Luka, but it’s just a mosh pit. I’ll be fine!” She said, even though she had no clue how this was going to go.

Getting up before she could psych herself out of it, Marinette pocketed her phone and made her way over to the edge of the pit. The music was much louder closer to the stage, and Marinette could feel the bass reverberating in her bones. She saw a mix of teenagers and adults, most of them much taller than her, all shoving each other and bouncing around like it was the end of the world. Marinette craned her neck and was able to to spot Rose and Anarka still jumping up and down near the center.

Taking a breath, Marinette reminded herself she’d jumped off the Eiffel Tower plenty of times before, and pushed her way into the fray.

The minute she stepped inside the pit, Marinette was swept away. She was being shoved at all angles, and her vision was spinning as she tried to keep up. She jumped up and down, trying to look for where Rose and Anarka were, but she couldn’t stay in a single place for more than a second to look. The music was pounding in her ears, and she was being pushed from side to side so fast she could barely breathe. Her heart was pounding and she felt terrified, but… it wasn’t bad?

Deciding to try and focus on the music, Marinette felt a hand shove her forward, and she stumbled before catching herself. Straightening back up, she barely had time to take a breath before she was being pushed to the left. Then the right. Then forward. Then backward. Every second she was being shoved by someone. It was dizzying.

Marinette then remembered why she came into the pit, and when Lila’s smiling face came into her head, she felt her anger return. She got shoved again, and this time she shoved back. She wasn’t looking at who she was pushing, and it didn’t matter. The music was blasting and Marinette was dancing and holy shit Rose was right this was fun.

The writhing mass of bodies was like one being as the crowd swelled and ebbed in time with the music. Marinette didn’t think, she just moved. Her heart was racing, she was covered in sweat, and she couldn’t stop smiling.

The song slowly came to an end, and the crowd calmed down. Marinette was breathing heavily, and her entire body was already sore, but she felt better than she had in days. She waited for the music to pick up again so she could go back to her dancing, but there was only quiet.

“Okay guys!” The singer suddenly announced from the front. The crowd perked to attention, and Marinette looked to the long-haired man with the microphone in his hands. “I want the pit to split down the middle. We’re doing a wall of death!” Suddenly a deafening roar of cheers erupted from all around, and Marinette glanced to the other people in confusion. What was a wall of death?

Suddenly, the crowd split and Marinette felt herself being pushed backwards. Her half of the pit all lined up along one edge of the circle, and her eyes darted around as she tried to find where Rose and Anarka had went.

Then, there was a hand on her arm, and Marinette turned to meet Rose’s sweet smile.

“Marinette! You decided to join us!” Rose exclaimed excitedly.

“Uh, yeah, I thought it looked fun,” Marinette said, laughing awkwardly. “But, um, what’s this ‘wall of death’?”

From behind Rose, Anarka chuckled. “Oh dearie, yer gonna see in a minute. Just follow our lead, when we run, you run!”

Marinette’s eyes widened as she turned to see the other half of the pit, and the music picked up once more. The energy in each side of the crowd seemed to grow with each passing second, the other concert-goers tapping their feet or bouncing a bit as the chorus drew closer. A part of Marinette wondered what the hell she was doing, but she’d been having fun so far, so hopefully this wall of death didn’t turn out too bad.

Back at the picnic blanket, Tikki was sitting in Marinette’s purse, watching the wall of death form with wide eyes. Human music traditions certainly had gotten… stranger in the past few centuries. She just hoped that Marinette didn’t come back with a black eye.

The beat drop got closer, and Marinette felt her heart rate pick up. She glanced to Rose, who gave her a thumbs up, and her breathing quickened. At the front of the crowd, the singer held a hand up as he sang the last note of the verse.

And then, the hand dropped, and Rose grabbed Marinette’s arm before sprinting forward.

Everything in the crowd was such a jumbled mess of pushing and shoving and dancing, and Marinette couldn’t tell which way was right and which way was left as the crowds slammed together. At one point she felt an elbow hit her face, but she was too hopped up on adrenaline to even mind it.

By the time Marinette made her way out of the pit, all thoughts of Lila were erased from her head. All she could think of was how much fun she just had, and also how ready she was for a nap. Somehow, Rose and Anarka were still going.

The girl approached the picnic blanket again, and Marinette gave a shy wave to her friends as they all stared at her in shock. As she got closer though, Adrien gasped and rushed forward.

“Marinette you’re bleeding!” He exclaimed. Marinette’s eyes widened as she tried to figure out where she’d gotten hurt, but she didn’t even get a chance to ask where before Luka was right by her side.

“I’m bleeding?” She asked as both boys gaped at her.

“Yeah, your nose,” Adrien said quietly, reaching forward a bit with his hand before pulling back. Reaching up with her hand, Marinette wiped at her nose, and was surprised when a bit of dried blood showed up on the back of her palm.

Luka rested his hands on her shoulders and peered close to her face. “Did you get hit in the face?”

“Yeah, someone did elbow me in the nose, but it didn’t hurt so I just figured it was fine,” Marinette said with a shrug.

“Here, I have tissues,” Adrien said, rushing back to his messenger bag. He pulled out a small pack of kleenex and handed it to her, and Marinette blushed as she took it from him.

“Thank you,” she muttered, bringing the tissues up to wipe at the dried blood on her upper lip. Beside her, Luka shifted and threaded an arm around her waist, and led her back to sit on the picnic blanket.

She sat in between the two boys, ignoring their identical worried expressions as she finished cleaning the blood off. She was probably going to be covered in bruises tomorrow, but for now she felt fantastic.

“How was it?” Adrien asked after Marinette had cleaned herself up. “I watched you in there and it seemed terrifying.”

Marinette laughed. “No, Rose was right, it’s super fun.”

“You enjoyed that?” Luka asked, the surprise obvious on his face.

Marinette nodded. “Yup! And after I take a breather I’m gonna go back in there!”

Both boys immediately shook their heads. “No way,” they said in unison.

This made Marinette frown. “But-”

“Please don’t go in there again, at least not today. You got hurt,” Adrien said softly, resting a hand on her shoulder.

Marinette’s breath caught in her throat, and she felt a warm hand take hers.

“It’s your first pit, Marinette. Don’t push yourself,” Luka said, squeezing her hand.

With both boys looking so worried about her, Marinette’s face was practically on fire.

“Well… alright then.”

Marinette spent the rest of the concert squeezed in between Adrien and Luka, and she had to admit, she wasn’t that disappointed about not going in the pit again. Though the next time she went to a metal concert, she knew exactly where she was going to be.

#hi welcome to i cant write anything short with reese #miraculous ladybug #my writing #my fic #adrienette #lukanette #drabble #kitty section

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nny11writes · 4 years

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13, 16, 18, 43 and 50 for tha ask game please and thank you :P Just, many many numbers lol

13. What is your planning process?

My first reaction was to squint and go “Do I have a process?” which is probably an answer on its own lol!

It depends is the actual answer.

Like most writers I start a fic because of one scene or dialogue or description that I really, really, really wanted to write and then I have to figure out where it belongs.

I almost always start by just...writing. I used to be 100% stream of consciousness writer. I’d sit down at least once a day with a blank document and without ANY forethought or direction I’d start writing a fic. It was always as much fun for me as my readers to see where a story would go because I literally had no clue.

These days, as I’m putting THE THING down on the page my brain is shrieking ideas at me so I start slapping them down too, but I’ve got a better filter so not everything goes down. There’s a lot of [WHAT IS THIS THING PLS PLS FIGURE IT OUT] and [PAST OR PRESENT TENSE MF MAKE UP YO MIND] at this stage.

This is where I actually start planning. I’ve got a bunch of stuff down, a vague direction, and a lot of ideas so this is usually where I sit down to do some planning. Am I aiming to write a short fic or long fic, one shot or multi-chapter, where are we, how many characters, etc. I leave things pretty wide open, while sometimes it’s fun to challenge myself to meet very specific goals it’s usually frustrating to me so nothing is set in stone. Literally. Even when I’ve posted if someone leaves a comment that’s amazing or enough people liked it I’ll usually try to write more in that fic or another fic with those ideas.

How To Quit You is a great example of how my loosey goosey planning works. I don’t know if people realize but that fic was originally supposed to be ONLY that first chapter. I wrote it in an hour tops for 2019 glitra week and all I knew at that point was I wanted to do a western with some romance tropes to it (hence the exes who still love each other thing).

Once I realized how many people seemed to love it and wanted to see more I sat down and planned it out. I first decided how I wanted to write the story (hence going back in time ~15 years) and then I created chapter titles and had vague descriptions for them. Once it was all down I went through it again and made adjustments, then created a timeline (Micah died in 1868, they meet in 1870, Catra works BMR rails 1870-1880 min, etc etc). And that’s it. I made an outline and used it as my idea bouncing ground and map and huge parts of it have changed as we’ve gone along. Catra was going to become a drunkard out in [REDACTED] after the timeline met up with chapter one. I scrapped that because it didn’t fit with other details and changes I’d made. I re-wrote the chapter and now I gotta scrap that and re-write it again do to reasons that would spoilers.

Let’s Try This Again is another hilarious example, because chapters 1-6 were meticulously planned and I charted out a whole story around them that I was going to stick to damn it all! And then Palpatine hip checked me and changed the course of the story. I still included a lot from my original VERY detailed outline, but some chapters were nixed completely and others added in too sooooo...

I’m not a true pantser because I do some planning, but I’m not a planner because I leave huge chucks practically up to the whims of fate. I’m a plantser.

16. Do you use sentence starters, writing prompts and/or fandom headcanons for your fanfics?

Sometimes!

I think some of my best works are from prompts (WHICH ARE ALWAYS OPEN, HINT HINT, NUDGE NUDGE, KNOW WHAT I MEAN KNOW WHAT I MEAN) specifically.

I rarely use sentence starters but I think I’ve done okay when I did.

But fandom headcanons? Oh hell yeah baby now we’re talking!

Can Anakin cook but Padme can’t? Hell yeah!

Togruta have some cat like features so Ahsoka is obligate carnivore and color blind? WOOOOOOOO BOYYYYYYYYYYYY!

"This is not because I like you.” is 100% something that everyone in the Horde says when trying to cover their asses, Catra’s just a useless lesbian and has to use it A Lot More Than Most. Awwwwww yeah, that’s the good stuff!

Glimmer and Catra talk to one another but only have serious conversations sitting back to back post canon. I DON’T MAKE THE RULES!

Like, god, fandom headcanon is practically what my fics live on lol! I’m not great at writing things in canon or sticking to canon, and people are amazing and smart so of course I’m going to steal their cool ideas and then mess with them until they’re my own.

18. What is your favorite writing prompt?

...I gotta be honest I have no clue lol. I’ve liked basically every prompt I’ve ever gotten (there’s literally only been 2 that I got and went “...oh.” and of those two I was able to bend the prompt into things I liked a lot! One of them is actually posted and people like it, and then other is currently sitting in the naughty prompt corner for crimes of FIGHTING ME TO A STANDSTILL every time I write a few sentences for it, but I do actually like it now lol).

I think my favorite style of prompt are ones that are open for some interpretation. You know that joke about you know a writer based on how they respond to a one word prompt like “fall” or “cold” or even “love”? I love that kind of stuff! Heck, even things with a more narrow focus are fun to play with. For one of my prompt fics I was able to flip the script and have the character everyone expects the unrequited pining from to instead be the unattainable beloved instead.

*Marge potato meme* I just think they’re neat!

43. Guilty pleasure tropes and scenarios?

None, because I am very loud about what I enjoy and refuse to have things I enjoy ripped away by strangers on the interwebs.

Okay, more seriously, as far as things that others might think are guilty pleasure tropes and scenarios?

I love a good “morons to repressed idiots to lovers” slow burn. Yes, yesssss, let them be absolute fools and make MASSIVE mistakes that they have no reason to make. There was a miscommunication? Delightful! Oh look, they’re both flirting with one another but think the other one is just joking around with them. I WILL TAKE ANOTHER 200K OF THEM SUFFERING THANK YOU!

I love AUs man, every time I see someone who really hates coffee shop AUs or highschool AUs or modern AUs I end up getting grumpy and I go find some of those AUs to read because I love them. The AUs I love the most change fandom to fandom. Not a huge fan of modern AU for star wars, but an absolute slut for them in She Ra. Palpatine chokes on a bagel and I live, but if that happened to Horde Prime I’d be pissed. *shrug* I just know that some people really don’t like or even outright hate AUs, and I do not understand them at all. Like, good for them and I hope they find the fics they do enjoy! But also, why???????

I think my “cringiest” one is that I actually really like A/B/O as long as they flip the script somehow or delve into how something like that would actually effect the world it exists in. Is sex in public a common and acceptable thing b/c they can’t control themselves? Do jobs and schools give people time off for heats and ruts? Is it considered antiquated and anyone who struggles with their biology is considered lazy or stupid? Do celebrities sometimes get in trouble with fans or even lose their jobs/prestige after showing off their new mating mark? GIVE ME THE WORLD BUILDING I WANT TO KNOW! But if it’s a really boring traditional A/B/O...like, what’s the point there?

Please don’t misunderstand me here. These three examples are all things that are WILDLY stupid in their own rights, and I love them dearly both because of and regardless of that!

50. Can we get a teaser for an upcoming chapter?

It’s All Fun and Games Until...Stop! Stop! We’re Already Gay!

AKA the one where they all go to Mystacor to relax in the steam grotto and have to deal with seeing one another in tight fitting and wet underwear. The thirst is high.

“So…” Bow started conversationally as Sea Hawk put the finishing touches on Bow’s freshly painted nails. “How doomed are they? Are we making bets?”

Mermista and Sea Hawk made significant eye contact before looking at him pitifully.

“What?” Bow asked, starting to sweat nervously. “What!?”

“Nothing, just-” Sea Hawk didn’t even get to finish.

“You need to get your girlfriend to get her girlfriends under control, and like, I knooooow that’s a tall order or whatever. But uuuuuuuuugggggghhh, we are going to die.”

“Girlfriend!?” Bow’s voice cracked painfully. “Ha! A-ha! Ha! W-who? I don’t, I don’t have a girlfriend, what are you even talking about?”

“Uuuuuggggggghh!”

“There, there my dear. We have survived worse.”

#ask game #writer game #fanfiction game #fanfic ask game #wip #tropes #planning process #how do write?#guilty pleasures #thanks for playing! :D #venn364

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thebridgedifferentuniverse · 4 years

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When I was young, I opposed being in a long-distance relationship. Do not get me wrong, I am very supportive if other people are in it. Both my brother and sister are in their respective long-distance relationships, and successfully so. My sister is now married to her person, and my brother is engaged to his. I, personally, just did not feel that I can manage one.

However, last year, August, I visited the country I grew up in. I met up with him. We have known each other for eleven years by that time. He always felt like home. All through High school, we were close friends. The attraction always there. He confessed that I was his first love. He never told me in High school. Our friends knew.

I decided to take a risk. He decided to take one as well. Both of us never having tried long-distance before. But we felt like taking a chance on each other is worth it. He is in love. I am in love. Deeply.

And while our long-distance relationship is only eight months long, here are some things I learned in the experience:

Learn what time works best for you both and video chat. He and I have agreed that we would have video chats weekly. At minimum, only once. While other people may want to video chat daily and if that is what works best for them, then great for them. But I have learned that this is what works best for us. It is, of course, different for everyone. I have learned that doing only once a week meant that I would get really excited for this day. This is our weekly date. We would talk for five to six hours on that day. We talk about the specific stuff that happened in each day and share maybe even the most mundane things to some. Once a week works best because we are both very busy with our jobs. During the week, we work on our personal aspirations and education while also seeing our respective friends, and then on our day, we talk about all of these things.

Update each other. I think one of the best ways to assure each other is to update each other with your social activities. We have both agreed that we do not need to update each other if it is just work but if it is meeting up with a friend or friend(s), we would like to be informed. If it is going to a fair or a conference, we are very supportive and would love to know. Of course, every case is different with other relationships. Since we did start as close friends, and he served as my human diary before, this came naturally to me. We are as transparent as we can be. With all honesty, I like updating him. I assume he also feels the same. I like that he knows what is happening to me. Even just a quick update like “I’m going to see this movie. I hope you are having a good day.” And then on our weekly video chat, I tell him the whole story. I do this for him, and he does the same.

If Wi-if is good, video chat while one of you guys are going to an event you really like. Of course, some countries can have crappy wi-fi. Philippines is one of them. While he would love to let me see sometimes what is happening in an event, sometimes the internet does not allow so. One great night, however, he did manage to have a decent internet connection. He went to an Art Fair and he video chatted me while going through the art. It was one of the best dates ever in the history of virtual dating. It helps a lot that he has quite an eye for art. He would close up to an art sculpture, drawing et cetera so I can see the details he liked. We constantly talked about how we felt about the art seen. We teased each other profusely, statements such as “OMG, you so look like that” could be heard. We gushed about couples in painting, stating that we look like those. It felt as if I was really there with him. Plus, I did not need to pay for entrance. Lol. As I said, if wi-fi is good, video chat your person and show them the new restaurant or coffee place you discovered so it feels like you are sharing this moment together. Video chat if you can when there is an event that you can share with them. Do those virtual dates, it is amazing.

Have a google doc of your plans together. Write a list of things you would like to do together. My bf and I have in our list even the simplest and weirdest things we would like the two of us to do together such as eat this kind of street food, watch this certain movie and so on. We have places we would like to visit in that Google doc. The great thing about a Google doc is that both can update the file. This Google doc makes you excited for the next time you see each other. My bf and I change the font colour of the text to red when we have accomplished the activity already. On our list, it states, “Have a fort.” And last Chrsitmas, when I visited, while i was in the shower, he surprised and built me one. The list lets you know as well what activities your partner is interested in. You want to experience this with your hubby, just keep adding to the doc.

Do something together even as you are apart. Watch the same tv series or movie, listen to the same song or even learn to play that same song. Read the same book. All of these things will keep you feel connected. You guys are going to form bonds on these things. Analyze and communicate of which parts you like, which parts you hate and which parts remind you of them. Learn the same thing if you would like. There are a lot of free courses online, nowadays. Study writing together, if you like. My bf works as a writer and I work as a library assistant. I like to say that we are so meant to be. He loves to write while I love to read. I am interested in writing as well, so I constantly ask him to give me advice when I have a concept in mind. And so does he. When we have seen the same movie, we talk about what concepts attracted us to the story. Again, doing stuff together even apart will keep you sane.

Build a plan together. Build a plan on when to see each other next. Build a plan on when to finally live together in the same place, same country. Long-distance is challenging. It is best to know when you will see that beautiful face again. Try to at least see each other once a year. It is of course, hard work, financially. But it is worth it. Why else would you date someone long-distance if this person is not worth it? With the pandemic happening, or any unfortunate event that will happen, plans may change. But it is good to have some plan in place. I try to go see him at least once a year. Plans are in place on how we will help each other reach our dreams once we are together. And I am already working on my dreams so it would be easier for me once I am with him. And he is doing the same. Do something. There will be no progress if you do not do anything. You have to sacrifice things but it will be worth it if he or she is the one.

Listen and be honest. I realized that in order for this to work, I have to be completely honest. If it is on chat, non-verbal cues are not evident for him to see. No clues for him to notice that I maybe feeling a certain way. So sometimes when I miss him, and I need assurance I specifically tell him, “Can you give me assurance? Assure me.” And he will. I also listen to him. Completely listen. He lets me know if something feels not right to him. And I try my best to do something to assure him. Listen so you can compromise. Oh, yeah that is another, compromise.

Inside jokes are essential. I repeat, essential. We have an advantage because we have known each other for 11 years. But any relationship needs an inside joke. This will keep you sane. The relationship can not be boring. And it is not supposed to be.

Keep reminding each other that you love each other. And that you miss each other. Sometimes one message of “I miss you” means so much. Because that is another thing about having a long-distance relationship, you effing miss each other.

I am no expert in relationships. This are just things that I have learned. And I am in the hopes of learning more. Every day is new and exciting.

#love #long distance #worthsharing #couple #advice #listen #relationship #relationship advice

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jimintomystery · 5 years

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So You Decided to Get Into Avengers after Endgame Came Out: A Guide

First of all, I feel your pain. You had better things to do besides watching a gazillion Marvel movies, but now Avengers: Endgame is in the only thing in theaters and everybody’s going nuts about it. But this movie is super-duper not accessible. More than any other Marvel movie, this one assumes you know what’s going on and it can point to the box office history to back up that assumption. (I’m not a fan of that choice tbqh.) So now you can’t watch this 3-hour movie without everyone telling you to watch 20 other 3-hour movies.

Well, you’d be justified to say “screw it,” but if you still want to take the plunge, I’m here for you. I was here when the first Avengers came out, and all the kids who saw the movie were like “I want to read the comics now but it’s hard.” Yeah, it’s hard. So comics fans like me helped them out, and now those baby fans know more about the Avengers than I do. That’s how it goes around here--we work together, to follow the continuity no single superfan could withstand.

This is not a comprehensive guide to the “Marvel Cinematic Universe.” This isn’t even a guide to the best movies. This is the quickest way to get you up to speed so you can enjoy Avengers: Endgame. Don’t let this stuff scare you. You can do it.

Hashtag whatever it takes.

(The following contains very very light extra mild spoilers for stuff BEFORE Endgame, for people who managed to not care about those spoilers for 11 years.)

The short-short version

There are four main Avengers movies

Avengers 1 (2012)

Avengers 2: Age of Ultron (2015)

Avengers 3: Infinity War (2018)

Avengers 4: Endgame (2019)

Obviously the fourth movie kind of assumes you saw the first three. More importantly, 3 and 4 are a two-part story (like Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part I & II), so those two are really really inseparable.

Avengers 1 is the most succinct introduction of the main characters: Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, the Hulk, the Black Widow, and Hawkeye. You could watch the movies that came before Avengers 1 for more detailed introductions, but you don’t need to unless you’re super confused. (If you just cannot handle the idea of literal Norse gods running around, I guess watching Thor 1 might help, but superhero stories work better if you’re more like “that’s weird but okay.”)

Avengers 2...didn’t go over real well with fans, and it struggled with telling its own story while trying to set up stuff for future movies. However, since the future movies in question were Avengers 3 and Avengers 4, that’s the stuff you’re interested in. Also Avengers 2 debuts key secondary characters (the Vision and the Scarlet Witch) and is a convenient way to be introduced to others (War Machine and the Falcon).

Captain America 3: Civil War (2016) came out between Avengers 2 and Avengers 3, and it basically ends up being Avengers 2½. This is arguably the hardest one to skip, since it fundamentally changes the relationship between Captain America and Iron Man, and sets up where the characters are at leading into Avengers 3. You also get to meet Black Panther, the Winter Soldier, Ant-Man, and Spider-Man without devoting a ton of time to more movies. To be fair, Avengers 3 does attempt to explain what has happened since Avengers 2, but it’s kinda hard since so much is going on in Avengers 3. I happen to like this movie a lot, so I think it’s worth the slight detour.

Avengers 3 is where Thanos comes looking for the Infinity Stones, to put on his Infinity Gauntlet. It may seem like all the movies are about Thanos and Infinity Stones, but don’t believe the hype. Prior to this, some of the movies had plot devices that turned out to be Infinity Stones, and some of the movies featured Thanos cameos. But the actual story starts here--all the teases and hints were just to establish that our heroes have a clue about what’s going on. Many characters from other movies meet the Avengers for the first time, but if you haven’t watches those movies you’ll be no more or less confused than the Avengers are.

Avengers 4 picks up right where Avengers 3 left off. I won’t say much about it, except that is trying to pay homage to all the movies before it while also trying to serve as an ending, which is challenging. To accomplish that I think they sacrificed accessibility, so there are many scenes that depend on you recognizing references to earlier movies. BUT, I think you can get by just from seeing Avengers 1-3 and Cap 3: Civil War.

Extra credit homework

Captain America 2: The Winter Soldier (2014) shows how Cap, a World War II hero, is adjusting to life after waking up in the 2010s and joining the Avengers. If you’re confused about SHIELD, Hydra, or the Winter Soldier, this will help. This is one of my favorites.

Guardians of the Galaxy 1 (2014) introduces a rag-tag band of misfits in deep space, led by a half-human/half-alien mercenary. Aside from being fun, it delves into Marvel’s approach to aliens and cosmic powers. If you’re wondering why all the aliens speak English and don’t wear real spacesuits and use glowy rocks to do everything...well, this doesn’t explain it, but it teaches you to chill out about it.

Thor 3: Ragnarok (2017) has very little do to with the first two Thor movies, except that it dramatically tears down the status quo. The aftereffects of this are felt in Thor’s appearances in Avengers 3 and Avengers 4. If you would be confused by questions like “why would Norse gods be refugees on a spaceship?” or “why would Norse gods have weird alien friends?” or “is Thor...like, okay?” then this movie will help.

Captain Marvel (2019) introduces Captain Marvel. A teaser in Avengers 3 made it seem like she’d be a big deal, but her role in Avengers 4 kinda fails to properly introduce her. I guess they figured everyone would watch this movie. You certainly can watch this movie, but I don’t know that it’s essential, beyond understanding that “Captain Marvel is hella tough and she’s so cool.” And I could just tell you that. So I will. Captain Marvel is hella tough and she’s so cool.

Wait, what are you leaving out?

If you are concerned that skipping over all the other movies will cause you to miss a key plot point related to the main Avengers series, allow me to briefly summarize what you need to know from them. That way you can decide whether to sink time into actually watching these movies, or just reading my quick notes.

Iron Man 1 (2008) - Tony Stark becomes Iron Man and meets SHIELD; he’s like “I want cheeseburgers” and his chauffeur is like “sure, whatever”

The Incredible Hulk (2008) - The Hulk exists, pretty much

Iron Man 2 (2010) - Iron Man’s friend James Rhodes becomes War Machine

Thor 1 (2011) - The world finds out Thor and Loki are real

Captain America 1: The First Avenger (2011) - Steve Rogers becomes a super-soldier in 1943, fights the Red Skull with his friend Bucky, and he never got to dance with Peggy Carter, his best girl :(

Iron Man 3 (2013) - Iron Man has anxiety attacks about the events of Avengers 1. Then he makes friends with a little boy.

Thor 2: The Dark World (2013) - Thor brings his human girlfriend to Asgard to meet his parents!

Ant-Man (2015) - Hank Pym invented shrinky-juice called Pym particles and gave it to Scott Lang. I skipped this one, tbh

Doctor Strange (2016) - Doc takes over the Ancient One’s job protecting Earth from weird magical dimensions

Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 2 (2017) - Mantis joins the team and Nebula stops trying to kill them so they can be friends.

Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017) - Peter kisses a girl, maybe? I skipped this one too lol

Black Panther (2018) - Black Panther has a genius little sister named Shuri and a cool general named Okoye and omg everybody loves this movie because it’s great

Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018) - Hank Pym’s daughter becomes the Wasp and they rescue her mom. I skipped this too (uh-oh I’m a bad Marvel fan)

Now, if you want to marathon all these movies, you go right ahead. They’re generally very good! But don’t let nobody tell you that you’ve got to watch them all. It’s not that complicated.

In conclusion all you really really need is Avengers 1, Avengers 2, Captain America: Civil War, Avengers 3, Avengers 4. And if you need a hand, you’ve got a zillion people waiting to help.

#avengers #avengers: endgame #mcu #marvel cinematic universe

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daily-tolgirl-smolbean · 5 years

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January 14, 2020 (Tuesday)

Happy 1st Monthsary! <3

We’re finally a month in on our relationship officially!

Early morning greetings from last night:

It’s been a month huh? We started by meeting on a place where one mishap could have cost us the chance to finally find each other. Got to finally have the chance to start our story from that very first coffee “date”. Got to know each other and realized that yeah, we could be something. Admitted liking each other. Feeling emotions that pushed us to break the barriers and distance between us. Til we fell in love, slowly and all at once. Don’t get me wrong, we’ve also been through a couple of bumps and issues which could have ended what would have been our epic love story. But we persist. And now, it’s been a month since we finally took the risk and bet our hearts on each other. And I couldn’t be any happier. ☺️

The day started with her greeting me a good morning and telling me she’s lucky she has me. But you wanna know the truth? I really am the lucky one. I never knew I’d find someone in this lifetime who would love me, care for me and cherish me the way only she can. What did I ever do to deserve someone like her. Whatever that is, I won’t let this chance go and make sure this would be for keeps. ‘Coz really, this is it huh?

I remember telling her that I think she’s my soulmate. I know i know. It’s pretty cheesy in a sense. But that’s what I believe in. We’ve only been dating for four months and officially together for a month but it feels like I’ve known her my whole life. I even told her about my theory that we’re probably soulmates and lovers through our different lifetimes. I even told her this one story where in one of our past lives, she’s this beautiful haciendera and I’m a peasant working on their fields. She was riding her horse looking through the vast fields when I suddenly stood up, removed my banig hat, swooshed my hair and looked up. And there it was, our eyes meeting. The world stopping. Like a cosmic event waiting to unfold.... hahaha i am so dramatic. I have this full scenario in my head and I’m pretty sure she also liked that idea. Us. Being soulmates in every timelines. In every universe. And in this lifetime, our story is only beginning. ✨

So our day goes by. We started getting busy with our work. We talked about our dinner date. I actually already reserved a table in Wildflour Restaurant near her office a few weeks ago. But she told me she needs to buy something in Greenbelt after work (which I honestly thought were some art supplies she was checking out last week). She’d have to walk back to her office area again if we’re having dinner there as I planned. So I told her we’d just have dinner in GB so she won’t have to walk back. So there’s me panicking looking for restaurants I could reserve. I mean, it’s the weekdays so a reservation probably won’t be necessary but I wanna make sure we have a table and that she won’t have to be hassled by waiting if it’s fully booked. Then I remembered that Wildflour has a branch in BGC (the original one) so I asked her if she wanna have dinner there. She asked me why BGC, and I told her We haven’t been there in a while. And we were also talking about that time I told her I like her which was in BGC. So she said okay. So I scourged over the internet where I could book a reservations and thank god I manage to arrange that fast. Our dinner date’s all set. 👌🏻

Our day went by. We’re chatting while working. I reminded her of the theatre production we’ll be watching in March (Band’s Visit). I have to make sure it’s in her calendar. My baby’s such a busy woman hehe. She also have some great chocolates there which she got from her officemate which she wanna share with me. We’re like this. We always make sure to share everything to each other. Food, events, shows. We really are partners na 😌. Lol we have some kulitans on our chat. I even shared to her about the top 1 trending topic in twitter #FlexKoLangJowaKo hahahaha. I wanted to be makulit and do flex her in twitter if only things aren’t complicated still in my life (re: family). Someday tho, nothing can stop me anymore ✊.

Then.. my surprise to her came in. I sent her a rose. This day won’t be complete without making sure she knows she deserve all the cheesy(sweet) gestures I can do. Hehehe. I ordered it a few weeks ago and can’t decide what flower to give. In the end, I decided to give her 1 red rose. Which means our 1st month. It’s simple but also something which I know could at least make her smile. 😊 also, we have this banter where I’d have to check in every month if she’s still my girlfriend hahaha like a monthly assessment. And I’m fully embracing this challenge. So i sent in a note with the flower:

Look at her answer above! Hahaha told her “ay, asyumera pala ko haha. Okay lang kahit ano sagot basta yes”. She told me I should be nervous. Hahaha (kinabahan ako ng very light lol). So she thanks me for the flowers. I really am happy she liked it even if it’s just a simple one. I promised her back then that I’ll court her forever if it means we’ll get to spend our lifetime together. And yes honey, I won’t ever get tired of making sure you feel loved and cherished. 💕

Her work ended by 4 pm. So she went to GB to buy her stuff. I’ll be out by 6 pm anyways. Finished my work while she’s booked her grab going to BGC. I don’t wanna be late and make her wait so I booked a motocab. Definitely the fastest way through manila traffic. We have 7 om reservations. I arrived there around 650, got seated at the back and waited for my date.

The place looks amazing with the dim lights, candlelit dinner table and a semi casual feel. I was sitting by the window with my back facing outside. I ordered us some appetizer bread and butter and a salad so she’d have something to eat first when she arrive. I dunno why but I still get nervous when we’re about to meet for our date. Maybe because it’s a special day and I’m feeling a lot of things. I’m a bit on edge while waiting for her.

Suddenly, there was this knocking at the window on my back. And there she is, my love. Standing outside waiving at me while smiling her timid smile. My nervous energy turned into an excited energy. I’m like a kid who just got her present again. So I smiled happily at her and told her to get inside. She went around, arrived in front of me, I stood up and hugged her. She sat in front of me. Now I’m calm and content, she’s finally here. 😌

The waiter came back and gave us the menu. I told her to order anything she wants. Told her I love the apple pie here, she smiled and told me we could order it later. So I smiled like a kid. :) the bread and butter’s served. So she ordered the salmon while I ordered a pasta (she hates pasta while I love pasta lol). She also got a tomato soup which we shared. So we got to catching up on how our day went by while munching on some good baguette and some nice olive and basil butter. The salad came in and we continued eating.

We talked about how’s things at the office. Most people are still wfh due to the taal thing. She told me how busy the whole week would be so I told her she can do it and don’t stress herself too much. My baby’s really dedicated to doing her job so I just wanna make sure she’s taken care of. We also talked about our friends. We talked about us. We continued eating while food are now being served. She got me a bowl of her tomato soup. She got her salmon, I got my pasta. I told her the times I’ve been there and why I liked it there. It’s one of my fav restaurants and I’ve always wanted to bring her there.

One thing she really likes is taking care of me. So she got me a spoon of her salmon and spoon fed it to me. She has this shy smile on her face. I asked her if she likes feeding me. She said yes. So I smiled. I liked it too. ☺️ it’s really sweet of her (also I’m lazy so being spoon fed is a plus hahaha). We continued eating and kulitan. I kept telling her i love her which always makes her smile. We talked about yehessss we’re now 1 month na. And it still feels surreal how it’s only been a month. We really are on the same page when we talk of our feelings. We were teasing each other about “ibahay mo na ako”, “pakasalan mo na ako”, “magtanan na tayo”. Hahhha i’m serious tho, I would do all of that someday.

We also talked about our dream destinations. I wanna know the places she’d want to go to so I can plan it someday. I told her where I wanna go to. Her number one’s Japan, next is Thailand. London too maybe ‘coz her brother’s there. I told her my number one’s NYC and the second one’s Paris. Even if I’ve been there, I wanna go there next time as a romantic trip. I told her I want her to go to NYC with me and watch broadway shows with me. I’d want her to be the one I go back to Paris with. I wanna bring her to Japan (for sure) and that we’ll go to Thailand and London too. But then I thought, if she were to ask me where I’d wanna be in the world, I would have told her I’ll always wanna be wherever she is.

The whole dinner has been amazing. The place is nice, the food is good and my date’s amazing. So we finished our food and I ordered the apple pie and a cup of coffee. I think she also liked the pie which makes me happy. This time though, she took my teaspoon to make sure she’ll spoon fed me the desert the whole time. Well then, no objections from here ma’am. Hahaha We really are that couple people wanted to stir aways from ‘coz of the overflowing sweetness huh. :p

It’s gift time now! I took out a fat envelope and gave it to her. She asked me what it is. I told her it’s money for the drug deal. Hahaha just kidding. It’s a card with a gift inside that’s why it’s bulky. Before she opened it, she got something from her bag. Apparently she has a gift for me!!!! That I didn’t expect actually. I didn’t realized what she’s buying in the mall was her gift for me. I only had a bit of a clue when she was at the mall ‘coz she won’t tell me what she’s buying. I was so excited my hands are already about to claw the wrapper the moment I got it. So she laughed at me and told me I’m way too excited. I got a bit shy so I put the gift on my lap (but my nails are continuously scraping over the tape mehehe) She guessed what I was doing haha. She asked me if we should open the gifts now. I said yes of course! The child in me is always excited for gifts, especially the wrapped ones. She knew this. That’s why she insisted on wrapping her gift while she was at the car. God! This girl knows me so well she does things she’s not used to just to make me happy 🥺 I stared at her and all I was thinking was, I love you. 🥺

We opened the gifts. I got her a card with a sweet message. I wrote a few things too. I also drew her face with cat ears & 1 candle on the head. plus it’s a balloon head which a stick figure me was holding mehehe. I also got her a cat luggage tag. It’s why I asked her where she wanna travel to someday. It means I can’t wait for the future where we’ll always be together going on adventures. May it be around the world or just around the corner. As long as we’re together. I think she like that cat design so I’m glad I got it for her.

As to her gift for me, it was the Captain America tumblr we saw in Typo last week. I really wanted it but it’s too pricey! So I was shocked. She shouldn’t have spent that much on me but god, it’s so beautiful 😲 She spoils me. I was so happy with the tumbler huhu. I really needed a new one too. This girl is amazing 😩 I thought it was my birthday hahhaha. I told her she doesn’t need to buy me present every month, she told me okay and it’s just that, this first month is special. My heart ❤️

We finished up our pie and coffee (her spoon feeding me the whole time hehe), and asked for the bill. And as usual, my smol bean kept on insisting we pay half each. I told her we talked about this and that it’s on me. I know paying for the date is like outdated or something but I also like being able to treat her and take care of her once in a while. Plus it’s our first month and I want this date to be special for her. So she gave in. I just promised her I’ll let her pay on like, out 3rd monthsary lol.

We got the bill, I paid and we got out. I carried her bag while she carried mine. For such a smol bean, she always has her big back pack. We walked through BGC hand in hand with no destination in mind. We just kept walking til we reach the One Bonifacio High Street Park. I remembered that one chubby catto who’s like my soul animal. So we walked though there to check on him. Lo and behold, there’s lots of cattos there! Hahaha my smol bean’s such a fan of cats. So we decided to sit on the bench and watch them. She took pictures and kept getting their attention. I like watching her like this, so excited with the things she loves. Like me and cats 😉 There were 3 gray cats who looks like a gang, on of them is chill dude cat my spirit animal, and another ginger cat. They’re pretty entertaining to watch. I made up scenarios on what’s happening. It entertained us for a while.

There was a bit of a thing that dampen the night. So we got to talking about serious stuff. I reassured her of my feeling, my loyalty and my commitment with her. So we were silent and solemn for a while. She really shouldn’t be afraid and bothered of other people. ‘Coz in my world, she’s the only one I see. My priority aside from my family. Everyone else comes second. I promise this to her, we fixed the mishap and just snuggled there in the middle of the park.

We got to talking. She didn’t have the time to write message with her gift. So she wanted to tell me what she wanna wrote. She told me she loves me and that there was only one thing on her mind that she wanted to do. And that is to take care of me. She wants to always take care of me. With everything. From cleaning me up because of my messy eating habits, to taking care of me when i get hurt from being clumsy, to making sure i’m also emotionally okay. My heart beat so heard when she told me that. I felt the intensity of her feeling and how much she loves me. She doesn’t see my faults as something she’d hate but see it as an opportunity for her to make me feel loved. I was kind of speechless. And really touched. And made me fee how really really lucky I am to have found her. 🥺💖

So I was talking seriously with her about what she told me when suddenly, chill dude cat suddenly walked in front of us. Our eyes connected for a while and I told him what’s up. Does he have a problem? I was just kidding of course. Smol bean told me chill dude probably felt threatened with me. So I didn’t think much of it and got back to talking with smol bean. But suddenly, he was besides us. Hmmmm a bit suspicious. Is he gonna attack me? I didn’t mean what I said to him. So I just ignored him again. Another minute passed and suddenly he’s on my side, trying to slink his way into my lap! Apparently, that eye to eye contact between us was a connection built. He probably realized that we really are connected somehow. Last time i saw him was like 3 months ago and I felt connected to him even when he was ignoring me. Wat

So yeah, there he is on my lap, trying to find the perfect position to burrow on my warmth. I was exasperated for a while ‘coz I was having a serious talk with smol bean and that’s when he decided to get my attention when I’ve been trying to get his all night. What a bitch move. But man..... I also melted when his head booped my arms and hid his face on my body. 🥺🥺🥺 huhuhu i felt mushy. And smol bean’s cooing so much. She’s so happy and kinikilig with what she’s witnessing. Two stubborn headed lazy creatures connecting. Smol bean joked that chill dude just highjacked her thunder. She was telling me her monthsary messaged di ba. Ahhahahaa i feel so elated at that moment. There’s the three of us, snuggling in the middle of the park, like a little family. I feel happy, content and warm. 💗

Too bad we had to go home. It’s getting late and smol bean has to rest na for early morning work tomorrow. I didn’t wanna remove him but we really had to start now before our grab arrive. So I slowly stood up and he slid down to the bench. He tried to hold on but yeah, he sat back down in the end. And my chill dude being chill as ever just sat there like the lazy creature he is hahahaha. We’re watching him while waiting for our grab and it’s taking a while so we sat beside him. I touched his head and pet him. He looked at me..... and went back to burrowing on my lap again. Hahahahahaha damn it, we’re back to square one. But i let him for a while. I like it too anyways. So we stayed like that til our ride arrive and i had no choice but to leave him. We left him on that bench, chill as ever. To my chill dude cat, rock on man 🤘

We got on to our ride where there’s a big doggo besides the car door. He’s a security dobberman. Looks like he’s bigger than smol bean so smol bean’s kinda scared and was trying to pull me away from him. I think he was nice though. So the driver and I chuckled over smol bean’s antics hehe. We rode our way to Makati so I can drop off smol bean. We’re holding hands and cuddling and stealing kisses from each other. The whole night was amazing and i think we’re both thinking how we wish we don’t have to be apart again. But for now, we have to go on separate homes.

We got to her dorm and we sat at our usual spot. I booked my grab but she told me she doesn’t wanna let go of me just yet. And honestly, i feel the same. So i cancelled my ride and stayed with her for a while. Flirting and kulitan 😜

But it’s getting really late and she has to rest soon. She sigh and said okay. She insisted on booking me a ride so i let her. My ride arrived, she walked me to the car, i hugged her, kissed her and told her goodbye.

She message me to take care on my way home, she’s watching over me while prepping for bed. She was composing her monthsary letter for me too. What a sweetie 🥰 I got home, got ready for bed and she sent her letter to me...

And it’s everything I wanted from her. She promised to love me, take care of me, and that she won’t hurt me. She’ll love me the way I deserve. She thanks me for the love and happiness I give her. And that she’ll always want to be by my side. 🥺🥰

—-

PS: I love this woman. I love my smol bean. I love you very very much. ❤️

#JeLee #smol bean #tol girl #1st Monthsary #hi baby someday i’ll marry you okay

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