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austarus · 3 years

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Timeless!Harrison Wells x Reader - White King, Black Queen

*A/N: The picture/edit/gif does not belong to me. It belongs to its rightful owner.

**Please don’t forget to comment, like, and reblog. It means a lot to content creators of all kinds!

***I’d also like to thank @grimtamlain-writes for being my beta reader.

MASTERLIST

Word Count: 2267

You narrowed your eyes as the city continued to bustle, noise from people and cars emitted in the air. Clouds hung sparsely over Central City as the waning moon took the place of the sun high in the sky. The wind blew a light breeze through your hair. You kicked a leg back and forth gently as you sat on the edge of the STAR Labs tower wings. Your other leg was bent close to your body, an arm resting over your knee. The height didn’t scare you so much as it used to. In fact, you didn’t mind being so close to the edge anymore. If you fell, then you fell. Truth be told, your powers would save you whether you willed it to or not. Some would say it’s a curse, others not so much. Your umbrakinesis acted like a defense mechanism at those times. A sigh left your lips as you straightened up your back, cracking it. Relief echoed through your body, but your heart felt heavy. Time is ticking... You knew what was happening downstairs, Gideon had alerted you when someone entered the Time Vault. It wouldn’t be completely wrong to say that you didn’t want to face him – couldn’t get attached since he’d been here. Not again. Staying up here was your way of avoiding that problem until… Until what, though?

The hair at the back of your neck stood up, a chill ran down your spine as your shadows alerted you of a presence a distance behind you. Turning your head slightly, you sent an icy look to the one person you dreaded to see. The face of the man you had seen pass one too many times. Their looks from their final moments imprinted in your mind for this one to come back. He was the last thing you had of them.

Harrison Wells.

A small smile was on his face, his hair tousled with his clear-framed glasses perched on his nose. He knew you’d be up here. The others told him you’d been up here since his reincarnation into the world. Since he’d made contact with Team Flash to help them and explain his predicament of currently living. But really, Harrison would have known if no one had told him. He had sensed it. Seen it – the images flickered past in his brain. The other versions of himself with you up here – the foreign familiarness that he personally did not experience.

But nothing more than a dreadful reminder of what’s past.

“I’ve come to say good-bye,” the genius started in a soft voice, wanting to approach you carefully. Your glare bothered him, yet he knows it shouldn’t, for once Harrison leaves, he will be united with Tess, the love of his life. Over and over and over again.

You snorted, turning your gaze to the stars that twinkled away from the clouds. You could see the constellations of Cassiopeia, winking brightly light-years away. “Such a shame, you could have helped them with Godspeed.” A bitter laugh left your lips as you recalled Nash showing you how to recognize the constellations and where to navigate from there. Sherloque would drink his tea up here with you and converse about his cases. HR would read to you his latest ideas and novels while you gave your input. You would drag Harry out of his lab to get some fresh air. And Eobard… he was the one who showed you this view, before Barry had woken up, before the Particle Accelerator had gone online.

“Team Flash is more than capable of handling threats on their own.”

“I take it you think that having a Wells must be a handicap, hm?”

“I never said that.”

“Hmph.”

“I couldn’t leave without telling you good-bye.” You pressed your lips thinly and Harrison continued, pocketing his hands in his dark coat. “It didn’t feel right to go without saying that.” The night was getting colder, yet you remained out here in a thin jacket. Dare he say, he worried a bit? You turned to fully look at him from your seated position. “I… won’t deny the sentiment I feel towards you. The memories of the past Wells. Their thoughts – well, previous thoughts – and feelings are still here.” Harrison had gestured to his head then placed a hand on his heart. Bile rose at the back of your throat as the smiling images of the boys hit your mind. You bit your lip hard as he spoke, “Each one of them felt strongly for you, but I’m not them. They’d want you to move on. To live-”

“No!” Your patience snapped, standing up rapidly with expert footing. Shadows went rampant in the night, wind howling in his ears. “You don’t get to say that!” Darkness immediately consumed the atmosphere and air around you both. Unbridled anger licked up in your heart and soul as you took heavy steps towards him. Harrison couldn’t see, but he could feel the moving darkness as he stood his ground. “You have no right to act all high and mighty towards me.” A hiss left his lips as a dark particle lashed at his arm, burning through his coat and marring his skin just as he heard your anger burn in your next words. “You don’t understand the strings that fate has chained me with! Nor will you ever understand my burden.”

***Flashback***

“What is it that you want?” You glared at the entity. The Monitor had appeared in your kitchen as you were pouring yourself some alcohol to enjoy your quiet night. You had taken some time away from all the heroes and villains running around.

“I came because I require your assistance for the Crisis.”

“Pass, I’m not in the mood to play the hero.”

“The point is not to be a hero or the villain, but to honor fate’s will.”

“Well fate can go hump a stump for all I care,” you sipped on your choice of alcohol, you turned away from the eternal entity only to find him in front of you right as you had exited your kitchen. A deep frown crossed your features. This is such a drag.

“Fate has bound your life to Harrison Wells the moment you first met him years ago.”

“False, that was Eobard masquerading as Wells. So, technically no.”

“That technicality may be so, but fate saw the speedster as your gateway to the rest of them. Without Thawne you would not have been so tied to Harrison Wells’ existence.” Rolling your eyes, you took another sip, already knowing you’d need a couple of glasses to forget about this interaction. “Your life is bound to his. To them.” The Monitor had you right where he wanted you, pushing images into your mind to allow you to see reason. “You were a lover.” You flinched as the image of Eobard appeared in your mind. “A partner.” Harry. “A friend.” HR. “And a confidante.” Sherloque. “Now this one needs you as well, he is in danger of himself with the Anti-monitor. My opposite entity.” You knew he was referring to Nash, the multiverse explorer with the haughty attitude and snarky comments.

“…”

“You are the anomaly that exists in the multiverse, there is no other in your position.” The entity saw the hesitation flicker in your being. “The time has come for you to be his protector.”

***Time Skip***

Nash panted, on the ground of this desolate land on his hands and knees. His mouth felt dry, tasting iron in his mouth from the blood on his split lip. How much longer can he endure this? The Anti-monitor continued to laugh at him, to mock him, for his weakness. Pariah gripped hard at the dirty snow, blood and mud defiled the pure whiteness. He couldn’t get back up. His body ached. No matter how hard Nash tried to push back, the Anti-monitor was too strong for him even with these temporary powers.

“Humans are such fickle beings,” the anti-entity spoke in a grand manner, “Soon the multiverse will be mine and there shall be no flaws. No humans to corrupt my domain.” The eternal being gathered his divine power into the palm of his hand and fired anti-matter at his appointed Pariah. The one to bear witness of the end of the multiverse. His curse.

Nash shut his eyes; this was the end. This was his end. A breath left him, what he expected to be his final breath. But the final blow never came. Ringing greeted Nash’s ears as he opened his eyes. Standing in front of him, shielding his body was you and your dark powers. For whatever reason it withstood the anti-matter as particles clashed against one another. You stood defiantly and gracefully in your fighting positions, conjuring your dark spectacles from every shaded corner.

“Don’t you dare touch him, you fucking monster.” You growled, your hands working magnificently to bind the Anti-monitor down. Once bound your umbra became spears and swords that pierced through the entity. While it could not kill the Anti-monitor, it slowed him down – meaning it would slow down his assault on Nash. You needed to get him to safety, needed him to have enough strength to teleport you two away from this dimension. And that’s exactly what you convinced him to do when you grabbed him, hugging his injured body to yourself as he fought to stay conscious.

***End Flashback***

“You don’t understand what loss truly is! You don’t get how hard it is to move on from this.” Just as you had moved, so had Harrison. A dagger of darkness at his throat, clenching the front of his cloak as he held a dagger of light to your own throat. Harrison gritted his teeth as he used his powers to light up the area in his green light. “This pain, the misery of losing over and over and over again. To bear the burden of fate’s strings only to watch them all fall.” He flinched at how the veins around your eyes had darkened to a charcoal color. His throat dried as fear hit him. Harry’s memory flashed into his mind – the memory of you in this state, accidentally killing a meta in self-defense. “You’re just a selfish man, running away from what’s in front of him.” Harrison’s light battled against your darkness to keep the physical manifestations of umbra away from harming his body. “I despise people like that.”

“I’m only doing what’s best for me.”

“By what, Harrison? Running to the past? What’s in the past is best left in the past, those who hold on to the past don’t appreciate the present.”

“Such hypocritical words coming from someone who sulks around up here for what once was.”

“You don’t fucking know anything about me. All you have are some second-hand memories, but you don’t truly know me and what I’ve been through. You’re just like Barry.”

“And you’re any different?”

“At least I know the difference between reality and a desperate dream.”

“…” He knew Tess is doomed to die for time to flow, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t cherish every second with her until it was time. Maybe he was a desperate man chasing after a desperate dream, but he would until the bitter end. For Tess.

“A Time Loop is just a miserable notion for you to see Tess when her destiny is already a fixed time point. Just like Barry’s mother. Their deaths are absolute. Even with your Timeless powers you can’t interfere with what’s set in place.”

“That may be so, but I’ve fulfilled my part here – at least I have someone to return home to, even if they are doomed to die. I could be by her side over and over again.”

Harrison’s words pierced your heart, you pushed the tears back. The ache in your heart throbbed at a greater rate. At least… he had the power to return to his someone… The genius saw the haunting dejection in your eyes, the way your shoulders quivered as you tried to keep yourself together. He regretted the words that left his mouth…

“Do as you please,” you whispered, loosening your grip on his jacket to let him go. The darkness dissipated as you walked back to your perch with pocketed hands. “I’m done begging…” You mumbled to yourself so quietly that he didn’t catch your last statement. A tear left your eyes as you stood tall where you once sat.

“Good-bye,” Harrison murmured to the wind drifting in your direction before turning and leaving. A part of him felt torn by the things he had spat at you. What’s done is done. I doubt I’ll be back here any time soon. Clenching and unclenching his hand, Harrison shut his eyes and summoned his powers to pass through time. Tess, I’m coming home.

“Good-bye, Harrison.” Another tear fell, this time you wiped it as the night continued. He was gone. They were gone. You were alone, once again spectacularly alone and cold.

The pieces are all in place. The time has come…

Time still ticked as seconds went bye. A voice whispered at the back of your mind; the presence residing there since his exorcism. The one that kept you company through all this.

“It’s time, my queen.”

Checkmate

#harrison wells x reader #og harrison wells #timeless wells #harrison wells fanfiction #harrison wells #The Flash #the flash cw #the cw #team flash #the flash fanfiction #nash wells #the monitor #Sherloque Wells #harry wells #hr wells

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moonstarinfinity · 3 years

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✨TXT Group Astrological Chart Analysis✨

What is TXT like as a group? How does their group astrology affect their music, their relationships within the group as a whole, and how they harness success and popularity?

Lets explore their group chart, and find out!

💫 Chart Patterns

First their chart patterns: TXT has a bundle chart concentrated in the Western Hemisphere of their chart and basically this means that they have a very focused and intense energy around them. This energy is likely felt when they perform on stage and helps them attract opportunities for their group. They tend to be exceptionally resourceful and talented, and reap a lot of awards. This can be seen in things like being the highest charting debut group at their time of debut, and their exceptional amount of award nominations and wins as a rookie group. Most recently their comeback is scheduled for May 31st, 2021 and it was reported that they sold more than 520,000 pre-orders for their new album within just 6 days of it being announced. No doubt they will continue to reap rewards and be successful based on their chart patterns alone.

💫 Personal Planets

Sun in Pisces - 6th House

Let me preface this with: Holy heck this placement makes a ton of sense. TXT has a tendency to create other worlds and they are fantastic story tellers. They use metaphors and imagery to connect to their fans, and Pisces Suns are all about being in the world, but not necessarily of this world.

They literally have a song about imagination called "Blue Hour" and Pisces is all about imagination. This placement is the heart of TXT and you can see it's influence heavily in their music and concepts.

Pisces Suns tend to connect to alternate dimensions and explore them to bring back information and understanding. This allows them to connect and help humanity heal, and I know this is more on the metaphysical side of astrology, but I agree that TXT uses their bring colors, stories, and imagination to help people feel understood and to help others see things in a different way.

Now Sun in the 6th is all about routine and health, and this placement displays in their desire to improve the world around them. Pisces is a very nurturing energy in this space, and the Sun is about illumination. It's a very selfless placement and can indicate a massive desire to help others and is also seen as a spiritual placement. One could say they connect to people on a spiritual or soul level through their music.

Within the group this placement helps them to work together well and they all are very caring and helpful with each other. It helps to form a stronger bond between members, and they often times help each other heal while performing and creating. It's a very team oriented placement, and very selfless, which is great for a group. They tend to put work first, which makes sense...because this is a chart for their group.

Moon in Aquarius - 5th House

UNIQUE. That is the definition of an Aquarius. In the 5th house this is especially noticeable because this is the placement that expresses their uniqueness. There's just something about TXT that makes them seem so different...and this placement is part of that.

Aquarius in the 5th can be a rebel, and often times is not afraid to do what feels right for them, even if it feels out of the norm, or is somewhat of a risk. We can see this in TXT's unique sound and dualistic approach to their music.

The 5th house is also about creativity, and there is ZERO lack of creativity for TXT. The Moon being here allows for them to use creativity to express their emotions, as well as help others feel their emotions that are placed into these creative outlets.

The moon in Aquarius loves to be around friends. There is nurturing in feeling a part of the team for each member of TXT, and this is a tight knit friend group that is much more than just coworkers. They feel free and comfortable amongst each other, and this vibe also makes their fans feel cared for like they are their best friends.

This placement can be seen as a trailblazing and independent placement that allows for freedom of expression and emotions in unique and vibrant ways. It creates that friendly, bring, and sometimes even hilarious nature to TXT as a whole.

Ascendant in Virgo - 1st House

Organized. Reliable. Grounded. This is how the group operates. They tend to be very good about making sure that they are doing what is needed, when it is needed. They also are a support system. Not only for their fans, but amongst themselves as well. This creates a really strong foundation. Virgo generally rules the 6th house of routine, health, and coworkers. This really helps ground and bring a down to earth vibe to the team. With their high energy and placements that can tend to be in the clouds a lot, this helps to bring their ideas back down to the ground.

Sometimes the group can have a hard time with trying to maintain their expectations of perfection with this placement. Virgo tends to be perfectionistic and almost too structured when it's in the first house. Thankfully their sun and moon placements DEFINITELY balance this out. They often times have to lean more into those placements to offset the stress that this ascendant can bring.

They are likely VERY hard on themselves when schedules don't go as planned, mistakes are made, or they are in a rut. Time is really important to this placement, but thankfully it also helps them create plans and stick to their schedule.

They are honest and extremely stable because of this placement, which sets them up to be around for a long time. Which is exactly what we like to hear and see when we look at group placements. They also LOVE to work with this placement, and because they are living their passions it's a very harmonious placement as a group.

Observant, intelligent, and love to share knowledge and wisdom. This displays in their music. They are clever with their lyrics, concepts, and sound. This placement really supports their Moon's need to create new things, and creates a stable feeling when experimenting.

Mercury in Pisces - 7th House

This is the placement that shows what their content is about and how they like to communicate, and what they like to communicate about. First of all let me just say this is the 7th house. Mercury in the 7th is all about communicating love, commitment, partnership, and beauty.

Mercury in Pisces as a group expresses through lyrics and sounds that are soulful, deep, intuitive, and compassionate. In this case extremely compassionate.

Pisces is DEEP and it's usually about your inner world, so as a group they have a deep understanding of the inner workings when it comes to relationships, love, and beauty.

This is a naturally artistic placement and is SUPER conductive for art and music. It's like a supercharge for their sound. This creates melodies, lyrics, and visuals (music videos, concepts, art, etc.) that are extremely attractive. Think about how "Runaway" was so catchy right out the gate and how the music video was super aesthetically pleasing.

This is why their music videos and concepts are so visually stunning. This is why their songs are so catchy. This is why you can listen to the same song over and over.

As a group they also may be less likely to be direct with their lyrics (hence why they use storytelling and metaphor) because Mercury is technically muted in Pisces. I don't really see this as a negative for a musical group though, because honestly it just makes them that much more magnetic.

Venus in Aquarius - 5th House

ENERGY. This is a placement that exudes energy, and we can see this reflected in their upbeat and catchy music style. They love to make songs that are high energy, and that you can dance to.

This is a very good placement for love and in Aquarius this is the love of a team, of the group, and a love for their fans. It's all about love and living life to the fullest.

They have a HUGE desire to create ultimate happiness. They use their music as a way to spread positive vibes, and to help people feel pumped up, or cared for.

This also brings a very playful nature to the group. This placement can be seen in songs such as "Cat & Dog." Bright colors, childlike wonder, humor. It's all a part of this placement.

They love to work as a team, and they find that in their team they are more inspired and create more freely than when they are on their own. It brings them energy and drive and passion to work together.

This placement also makes sense with how young they all were at debut, and even as they get older, their music will continue to draw in people that are younger than them. They are fresh and playful. Think the flirting with a crush vibe, and that's what this placement is for them.

Mars in Taurus - 8th House

Mars in Taurus is all about strength and stability. But in the 8th house this can almost come off as overly aggressive. Sometimes their passion can be very strong and this can cause there to be a lot of fire under them.

This is actually good for the most part because it can help them be expressive, and they actually have a great outlet for all of their passion. It simply means that as a while they have a lot of passion and as long as they channel it into their music and art, then it's a powerhouse placement.

They do need to make sure they are keeping any materialism and greed in check, but thankfully it's not really just their choice as a group when it comes to what they do. Ultimately since this is a group placement they are less likely to give in to the shadow sides of this placement.

It can actually benefit them to communicate about struggles with materialism, drama, and their outspoken nature through their music. They generally HAVE to share these things, and they will find that the more that they grow the more that they transform, and this is something that they find is necessary to communicate.

They can be influenced by those around them, so pressure from society or other groups can be a little hard to navigate at times, so there is a challenge to stay true to themselves, and to let go of styles, and people that aren't meant for them.

This is another HIGHLY spiritual placement. They love to explore the occult, mysteries, puzzles, paranormal, and the spiritual world. Just look at their entire collection as a whole and you can see these influences playing a HUGE part in their work.

They are led to follow their instincts, and their instincts are usually right. Their purpose as a group is to live authentically as themselves and to use their power as a way to live their fullest potential. To follow their passions and to let themselves transform as a group over time. This is what will keep them going and will give them the greatest success as a whole.

Jupiter in Sagittarius - 4th House

This is so lucky. Like I'm jealous of this group placement honestly. Jupiter is at home in Sagittarius and it is the planet of luck, abundance, and expansion. Think BIG. They attract luck, opportunities, and abundance.

Confidence, positivity, enthusiasm, optimism. This brings all of those things too. Yet another placement that helps them with that energetic, upbeat sound.

The 4th house is all about family, and this means that they value family and with this being Jupiter and Sagittarius they see the whole world as home. They see their fans as their family, and their music as their creations.

Speaking of creations they are aspected to have a LOT of creations. They probably are constantly creating, even when they are not having a comeback. These creations tend to also continually bring more and more people to them.

This placement makes them appealing among a worldwide scale and for large crowds because they make people feel like they are a part of their family. They love seeking the largest scale of possibilities for outreach, and this is part of why they are recognized around the world.

They have boundless energy, and this is wonderful for them, but they also need to make sure that at times they are taking a step back and looking at the big picture. They need to respond to their intuition, but they also need to make sure they are taking calculated risks.

Saturn in Capricorn - 4th House

This is all about ambition and making your mark. Saturn is not necessarily happy in the 4th house, and it can feel overbearing sometimes for the group to go the traditional route.

This placement directly conflicts with their needs and desires to go against the grain and be unique. It can be very difficult for them at times to ignore what other people expect of them, and they may feel like the weight is on their shoulders as a group sometimes.

This is a challenge in the sense that they often have to break away from making things appealing based on what they already know. They need to challenge this placement and be nurturing towards their creations. At times they may find that they are drawn to play it safe when it comes to emotions and their stability.

A challenge for them is definitely to go with the flow, and to not give in to their perfectionistic ways when it comes to safety. Things in life constantly change, and playing it safe will often times make them feel trapped or uninspired if they let it.

Saturn is helping them to build maturity, a foundation, and a "family" with their fans slowly over time. We will see their music develop and mature as they get older, along with them as people.

They will always have a sense of responsibility, and they need to make sure they don't take that feeling too seriously. It's about learning to be responsible, while still staying nurturing and loving as a group.

All of this development is also seen on a global scale, as far as they will continue to grow in fan base size, and this will increase their feelings of responsibility, and continue to challenge them as a group. (This is due to Jupiter being here.) Thankfully they have so many lighthearted and loving placements to lean into, that this is a beneficial grounding force for them as a whole.

One piece of advice for TXT: You are already loved and appreciated and successful. Allow yourselves to be children at heart. Keep expressing your inner children in your music, and know that your fans are here to support you. You are not responsible for the world, or for everyone else. Find happiness and fulfillment by continuing to express your hopes, fears, dreams, and emotions through your creations.

💫 Transpersonal Planets:

Uranus in Aries - 8th House

This is a boss placement! This is the placement that drives them to go where nobody has gone before. They are visionaries as a group. They are instigators of change, and they love to blaze their own path as a group. They may partake in using new technologies, diving into projects that have never been seen before, and creating new ways of doing things.

They NEED their freedom. They are courages, brave, daring as a group. They don't fear much when it comes to change and being different.

They have strong view points as a group and sometimes can be a little stubborn when challenged, but ultimately it's because they are meant to go their own way and be different. They are meant to defy tradition and go against the grain.

They may at times break taboos or traditions, and this can be a challenge for them if they either let their Saturn placement stifle them, or on the other end, if they don't observe before acting. Their impatience could potentially cause them to jump too soon, or to do things in a rush, so they need to make sure to slow down sometimes, but to continue to chase the new.

Neptune in Pisces - 6th House

"'Cause imagination, in that moment. Can you feel the rush? Freeze this moment." - Blue Hour. This is exactly what this placement is about.

Neptune in Pisces blurs the lines between imagination and reality. They have a way of bringing dreams and imagination to life. Really this is their entire chart basically. Like it's just part of who they are.

This is what brings the magic to their music. It allows them to really infuse their music and work with imagination and dreams. It's an ideal placement for working in art, music, emotions, and the subconscious. It's another spiritual placement, so again they may speak on metaphysical things or show imagery related to the spiritual side of life and the inner world.

They will not likely create music that has to do with normal life things. They don't generally do the "normal" stuff and their topics will always be very deep and transformational.

As a group when relating to their careers as a whole, they need to make sure that they take care of the practical stuff sometimes. Thankfully they have managers and staff that help them with this, so they have a lot of freedom and less challenges when it comes to the more difficult parts of this placement.

Pluto in Capricorn - 4th House

This is a beautiful placement honestly. It gives them the drive to be efficient and bring their ideas to life. This is the placement of determination and achievement. This is resourceful and will give them an organized approach to success.

The downside is that they may tend to clash with authority and control. They may need to find ways to slow down, and build over time instead of trying to do everything at once. They need to be careful not to cut corners, and they need to make sure they are doing things one step at a time, instead of trying to rush to the finish line on projects.

They can find that they have exceptional focus and are able to harness their ideas and energies and emotions and use them to propel their group. They have always, and will continue to, skyrocket in success, especially if they can continue to ground their ideas while allowing themselves to be creatively and emotionally free.

Their music will help people break free from societal norms when it comes to control and power. It encourages people to be free, childlike, and to express their own viewpoints and feelings.

💫 Aspects:

Cancer North Node - 11th House

For group astrology this tells us the group's impact on the world and what the purpose of the group is.

This placement tells us that TXT has a destiny to nurture themselves and their fans and to help people to trust their intuition. To express their emotions and dreams, and to find a place within themselves that feels like home.

Let go of control and know that the earth is still beneath your feet, even when you allow yourself to fly. Believe in wonder and imagination, encourage your inner children and don't always try to be the responsible one.

They encourage people to soften and be playful and loving. That's their ultimate purpose. To create a safe space and help people heal and connect to themselves emotionally, and to be their own home regardless of what is going on in the world.

Finally they teach the world about loving, and authentic friendships, about what real community is, and how to find your tribe of people.

Aries Chiron - 7th House

Basically with this chiron placement the group gives people a place to feel a sense of inclusion. They help people feel as thought they have a purpose. To make those who feel like outcasts, feel like they belong. As a whole the group is inclusive and has a childlike energy. This energy attracts the inner children. This can attract other people with Chiron in Aries in order to help them heal. This is how they use this placement to their advantage.

Now as a group they may also seek approval at all costs, and they rely a lot on MOA to support them. They are very sensitive to bad feedback and criticism and would have a hard time if their group took a hit in any way via media. They may get discouraged sometimes as a group if they don't feel like they performed well, and this can cause tension within the group, but if they channel this into their music it will give them the boost they need to move forward.

Aries is very upbeat, so their music is naturally upbeat to offset the Aries and 7th house Chiron wounds that they attract. This can help people by getting them to dance and expend energy that is no longer needed, and their lyrics are usually about growing up and fitting in, while learning how to be yourself, which is exactly what the Aries Chiron needs.

They also have Chiron in the 7th house which means that they attract the energy of people who feel like something is missing. Which means that TXT as a group treats their fans like their best friends or relationship. MOA literally is TXT's significant other. that's what completes them and allows them to continue making music and helping others heal these wounds.

They have a strong focus on friendship (see North Node in the 11th, and their Aquarius placements in the 5th) and this can also help those with the 7th house Chiron to feel included and to fill the void they feel just a little because it shows that someone else understands them, and their need to feel included in a personal relationship.

Midheaven (MC) - Gemini

It should come as ZERO shock that this placement indicates a career in public influence.

They are meant to drive others and inspire passion when it comes to their world views and interests. They are meant to communicate their thoughts and feelings and emotions on a large, public scale.

Global change through their music. Their lyrics, sound, and aesthetics reach on a global scale in order to inspire and change the world.

💫 SUMMARY:

Hopefully this gives you an idea of who TXT is as a whole. They are a transformative, upbeat, passionate, and impactful group. They connect to childlike, playful, and energetic personalities. It's their purpose to help people become inspired, imaginative, and to connect to their inner worlds on an emotional and transformational level. They are extremely talented and lucky as a whole, and as long as they keep following their passions and hearts they will continue to grow and be a game changing group. We've attached their group natal chart below for anyone who is curious as to what it looks like.

Now go Stan TXT, listen to all of their albums, and enjoy their new comeback: "0X1=LOVESONG (I Know I Love You.)"

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#TXT #TXT Astrology #Kpop #Kpop astrology #Astrology #Tomorrow by together #Group astrology #event astrology #Group chart #MOA #TXT MOA #Tomorrow by together astrology #yeonjun #soobin #heuningkai #beomgyu #Taehyun

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pasteljeon · 5 years

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handcrafted | heartbeat 1

When you put out a roommates ad for your newly purchased house, the only requirement you set out had been cleanliness.

The last thing you’d expected was for the 7 most eligible bachelors of your university to come calling.

Throw in school, crazy fan girls and the most sought for men suddenly chasing after you with heart eyes, comes a college experience of a lifetime.

Would it be so wrong to want them all?

1: handcrafted

summary | they needed a place to stay. You needed money. You are so fucking screwed. They want you to screw them instead.

series index.

“I’m sorry,” comes a high-pitched, exasperated whine for the umpteenth time.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” you say, suitcase dropping unceremoniously onto the gravel floor with a sad thud. You stare up at the building with dread, a knot forming in your stomach. Now that you think of it, it does seem to loom overhead rather ominously. And you liked the design so much, too.

“You’re telling me that I just dropped half a million into a house and now I have no one to room with and no way to pay off my mortgage?”

“It was last minute,” Ahri tries to explain feebly, but you close your eyes.

“So let me get this straight,” you say slowly, sucking in a long breath, “All seven of you magically got offered the very same jobs you have right now … in the same city?”

“…Yes?” She coughs. “Same company, just a different branch. And, uh, just not this city.”

Silence.

You tap your foot impatiently.

“___?” You can already imagine the way your best friend is cringing, voice meek as she asks mildly, “Are you okay?”

“Just peachy,” you say through gritted teeth as you drag your luggage to the front.

With the autumn leaves stirring in your wake, every step is heavy and dredged with defeat as you make your way to the coffee shop on campus.

“I’m sure there are still plenty of people looking for rent,” Ahri says sympathetically, rubbing your shoulder as you slump over the table.

“How am I going to find seven people to fill the spaces before the semester starts?” You wail, banging your head against the glass. “Classes start in a week and I need people now so I can pay the obnoxiously inflated mortgage.”

“Are you sure—” Jisoo starts, but you throw up a hand instantly. “Never gonna go down that alley. If I have to, I’ll sell the house and live on the streets. Since you’re all basically abandoning me anyway.”

“Not all of us,” Ryujin reminds you as she takes a seat, sliding your signature drink across.

“Yeah, just 90% of us,” Ahri supplies helpfully. You glare at her playfully as you sit up, taking a tentative sip from the cup. Letting out a sigh, you lean back into your seat.

“No, but in all seriousness. How am I going to find replacement roommates in time?” You trace the lid absently, propping your chin up with the other hand.

“We still have a week before we leave for our co-op terms. We can help you out until then. We’ll find people,” Jisoo promises. She’s already pulled out her phone, tapping away at the multitude of chats she’s in to put out word for you.

“I’ll ask a friend to make a mock up of an ad,” Ryujin offers. Ahri nods vigorously.

“Okay. Thanks guys, you’re the realest,” you say gratefully. Perhaps all hope is not yet lost, you conclude rather miserably.

Despite the collective efforts of all your braincells, skills and networking circles pooled together, the week is drawing to a close. Every decline is for the same reason: it’s just too late.

Between your unpacking, shopping, arranging furniture and rearranging décor (with the help of Dara, the interior design major, of course), suddenly it’s Thursday and you’re looking pretty fucking doomed.

“How is it everything fell through so fast?”

“Mhmm. You tell me,” you say absentmindedly as you straighten a painting.

You can feel Dara’s amusement as she readjusts the frame you were fiddling with. “Stop touching. It’s fine.”

“It’s crooked,” you protest.

“You know, that reminds me,” she says thoughtfully as she steps back. “Jiyong’s been working on his new album, and there’s these new singers he’s scouted out. It might be a long shot since classes are about to start, but he’s talked about how much they complain about their residence. I can ask if they’re still up to moving.”

“Yes, please,” you nod. “It honestly doesn’t matter anymore. I just need money. I don’t even know why this was a good idea in the first place.”

“It was a good idea. When we were all going to be here,” Dara amends.

You exhale. “Fuck me in the ass.”

“Uh … who are you?” You blink, cocking your head to the side curiously.

There’s a … person standing at your door, awkwardly gripping a suspiciously familiar flyer. He’s … someone you’ve never spoken to before. He’s grown his hair out this summer, brushing away the curls as they frame his big, doe eyes. The scar on his cheek is hidden by the makeshift ebony curtain. He’s clearly been busy, veins and muscles rippling under golden skin virtually straining to explode from that tight pair of black jeans he’s wearing.

You are not charmed. You are not charmed. You are not fucking charmed.

“Um … are you ___?”

You nod, waiting for an explanation. The bags in your hands are getting heavier with every passing second and you silently beg him to hurry it along before your arms snap clean off.

“M-my hyungs asked me to check you out,” he stutters.

A beat, and then –

“Ah! I-I mean check the place out, not you, that would be weird, why would I ever check you out,” he corrects quickly. You raise an eyebrow warily. The sheet crumples in his whitening fist.

“I-I mean I check you out all the time so that’s not really new, i-it’s just y-you have vacancy right,” he’s word-vomiting, cheeks ripening furiously and he looks like he’s about ready for the ground to swallow him up.

“We want to move in,” he practically screams. You recoil, the bags hitting your thigh painfully.

Huh.

This is … unexpected. Every time you’ve ever encountered him on campus, he’s never been so … clumsy. Is clumsy the right word to describe this?

“Oooookay,” you say. “Yeah, I can give you a tour and answer any questions you have, just let me unload first.”

“O-oh, I can take those for you,” he stumbles over to relieve you of your physical burden. He ducks his head, scores of pink still marring his expression as you unlock the door.

“Come in.”

“Sorry for the intrusion,” he says shyly, slipping off his sneakers and trailing behind you to set the groceries on the counter as you indicated.

You shrug off your jacket before rummaging in one of the bags to pull out a bottle of banana milk. His eyes light up instantly when you slide it over the counter to him.

“Thank you, noona!” He tears open the lid and gulps down the concoction eagerly.

Noona? You squint. Are you really older than him? You’ll have to check later.

“So will your … hyungs be joining us today, or would you guys like to book another time to come altogether?”

Just as he’s wiping his mouth with the back of his hand to reply, the doorbell rings.

“Dara,” you hiss into the phone, cupping the microphone close to you as you huddle in one of the upper floor bathrooms. “You didn’t tell me there were seven of them.”

“Huh? But wasn’t seven the exact number you needed?” She answers innocently.

“You said some and singers! None of them are singers or new! They’re the fucking guys from the Calvin Klein underwear ads and that one Gucci perfume commercial!”

“Technically, they are singers. A couple of them are composers and they all have really good voices. According to Jiyong anyway, no one else has had the privilege of hearing them,” she states.

“I’m going to die,” you say flatly. You’re pacing, practically wearing the new carpet you just bought. “I am going to die a horrible, horrible death. Fangirls will hunt me down, I’m going to get death threats and I’ll have to live in the shadows for the rest of my life. There are a lot of rich people here, and they’re going to hire hitmen and I’ll –”

“– Die a horrible death, yes, I heard the first time,” Dara cuts you off dryly.

Your eyes widen. “You knew!” You accuse. “How could you do this to me?!”

“___,” she sighs suddenly, sounding disappointed. “This was the best I could do, okay? It was the perfect opportunity. Look, just go downstairs, gauge their characters and all that jazz, and if you still think it’s not a good fit, just tell them that and keep looking. You’re not locked in on this.”

You rest your head on the wall. “… Yeah. Okay. True. Thanks a lot, Dara.”

“Of course. I always got your back. Let me know how things go and what you decide,” she reassures you.

“I will.”

You stare at yourself in the mirror for a moment, phone gripped tightly in your hand, before groaning aloud. Splashing water on your face and smoothing out your disgruntled locks, you make your way back to the living room.

It’s awkward. Oh fuck, it’s so awkward you think you’ll die of sheer awkwardness instead.

There are seven men smiling up at you, all crammed in the three sets of sofas you’d recently purchased. They have such long legs. One of them has really broad shoulders.

“I know you,” you say stupidly, pointing at the man with dimples. He waves.

“___,” he says pleasantly. “How has your summer been?”

“You were my TA,” you continue, finger quivering. You’re downright flabbergasted. “Isn’t there like a … like a rule or something against TAs moving in with previous students?”

“We never officially met,” he replies smoothly. Why the fuck is he still smiling?! This is so freaky. You can’t do this. Holy shit.

“In fact, the TAs for that course were never formally introduced. We only marked your exams in random groups, nothing more. I can’t say I’ve had the privilege of marking your work.”

Liar. You know he’s marked one of your essays. You can easily tell his thick strokes and thoughtful feedback scrawled in the margins apart from all the other cursive nonsense the others liked to write.

You move on. “You,” you say, examining the peculiar orange locks and disappearing eye smile. “You’re one of the dancers. You and … you,” the one next to him nods, his grin heart-shaped.

“You make music,” the one with mint hair and catlike eyes. What is with them and their rainbow styled colours? He shrugs noncommittally.

“Photos,” the one with a boxy beam. The camera looped around his neck was pretty self-explanatory, but you’ve seen him around.

“You … are old,” his plush lips instantly downturn.

“Excuse me?” He harrumphs. “Is that how you speak to your elders?” There’s no real bite to his tone, just a tinge of annoyance. The rest of the boys are hiding laughs.

“Didn’t you graduate a while ago?” You ask instead.

He uncrosses his arms, slumping. “… Yes,” he says guiltily. “I’m getting my Masters.”

“Hyung doesn’t like being called old,” the one still clutching the milk explains, mirth dancing in his eyes. “He’s old, but not obsolete. Not yet, anyway.”

“Shut it,” he snaps, pouting. He certainly doesn’t act old, you remark silently, stifling a giggle.

“We should do formal introductions,” the dimpled boy offers.

“My name is Kim Namjoon. I’m a Philosophy and History double major. I do TA for a couple courses.”

“Kim Taehyung! I like taking photos, so photography. Obviously. I’m thinking about picking up media arts or something on the side, though.”

“Jeon Jungkook. Graphic design and Photography.”

“Contemporary dance, Park Jimin.”

“Performing dance, Jung Hoseok! My stage name is J-Hope.”

“Music composition. Min Yoongi.”

“I’m Kim Seokjin, though you’ve probably already heard of me,” he smirks, puffing his chest out proudly. “Film and Acting.”

“Oh!” You say, nodding very seriously. “You were in that one fried chicken commercial, right?”

Seokjin stares, unimpressed even as the boys are falling into pieces beside him. “It was for the new Palisade.”

“Oh. They’re cool, too,” you agree. You don’t know much about cars.

“I’m ___. Do you guys want a tour?”

“So? Spill the beans!”

“On what?” You quirk an eyebrow as you flick through the menu. Ahri looks like she’s almost bouncing from her seat in excitement.

“Were they as handsome as they say?”

“What do people say about them, now?” The menu hasn’t changed, this restaurant is just as overpriced and basic as it’s been the past two years. You don’t even know why you bothered opening the damn thing. With a sigh, you toss it to the side.

“I heard Jimin looks like an angel when he sleeps. Rumour has it, once you’ve kissed Jin once, you can never go back. Have you seen his lips? God, they’re to die for,” Ahri moans.

You give her a look. “You’re kidding. And you believe that crap? They look like regular people. Albeit yes, handsome, really good looking people.”

“Hi, are you ready to order?” A soft, timid voice interrupts your gossip session.

“Jungkook,” you say, surprised. “I didn’t know you worked here.”

Okay, fuck, you have to admit he looks so very delicious with that rumpled look of his, ruffled chestnut hair, the return of those killer black jeans, paired with a fitted black turtleneck. A red apron is tied around his unfairly thin waist.

“Ah,” he says, scratching his neck. Already reddening as he fiddles with the pad in his hand. “Um. I just started today, actually. I needed money … you know, for-for rent and stuff.”

“Oh no,” you say immediately, concern colouring your tone. “Was the rate too high? If it’s unaffordable for you, we can always figure something else out—”

“No, no!” Jungkook says hastily. “It’s not that. I was planning on getting another job anyway, regardless of where I ended up. I’d have to pay rent no matter where I lived.”

“Oh,” you nod. “In that case …”

Jungkook excuses himself as soon as your orders are scrawled down, still seemingly unable to meet your gaze for long.

“He’s just so cute,” Ahri swoons. You choke down the bile that threatens to hurl itself up from the mere sight of her exaggerated love struck expression. “Uh huh.”

“Okay, so what did you do? The tea, the tea,” she demands.

“There is no tea,” you throw your hands up. “I gave them the standard tour, copies of the lease to take home, but they said they wanted it so they signed them on the spot, paid the deposit and everything. It was super quick and they all just left right after. That’s it.”

“Wow, they must’ve been desperate,” she comments. “Though the house is really nice. It’s huge, totally worth the price you paid. I’m glad they came through, though. It would’ve been a death sentence to pay it all off yourself.”

“Yeah, especially since I don’t start my own co-op term till next year,” you grouch.

“Mhm. All that aside, it’s time you started living above that rock of yours,” Ahri says seriously. She pulls out her phone as the food arrives.

You push aside the trickle of disappointment that filters in when the waiter that delivers your respective meals isn’t Jungkook.

“Crash course on your hot new roommates,” she starts, passing the device to you. An unfamiliar YouTube page is opened to a video.

“Jung Hoseok and Park Jimin. Hoseok’s stage name is J-Hope, named after his sunny disposition. He has a YouTube series called Hope on the Street. Jimin runs it with him, and the two do all kinds of dance challenges and covers. They’re also the Co-Presidents of the school’s dance committee. They join the national competitions every year since they took over and have been winning ever since.”

You would think it would be a bit disconcerting seeing the two very diverse dance styles on two very different people on stage, but they don’t fight. They complement each other so brilliantly, it’s hard to tear your eyes away. You can’t decide who to watch, just sitting back to observe the entire frame.

“Jeon Jungkook and Kim Taehyung. They have a vlog series called House of Bangtan. Mostly just random shit with the other guys, but it’s super entertaining and hilarious. Like the kind of content you know is genuine and makes you willing to die just for a chance to be a part of it. That’s how you know the seven of them are really good friends despite the age gaps. They also do challenges and giveaways.”

You’re watching Jin lose a game of charades, and he looks like he’s about to blow a fuse. The camera shakes uncontrollably as Jungkook runs way from his hyung, who’s screaming bloody murder behind him, chasing with the rubber duck he used to cheat with. Sore loser, the youngest mouths to the camera with a grin.

“Jungkook also owns a personal channel called Golden Closet Films. Pretty self-explanatory, but he makes movie clips of stuff like Hoseok and Jimin practising for the showcase and the like. He used to be part of the varsity volleyball team, but had to give it up when he tore his Achilles’ heel. It was pretty devastating for the school, too, since he was one of the best players. Taehyung has an Instagram page full of pictures for his photography collection. They’re super aesthetic. He goes under Vante.”

You scroll through the page, and you can definitely see why he’s so sought for by students and so famous in the department. He has a wicked eye and thinks so vividly outside the box. You also vaguely remember Jungkook’s impromptu early retirement being a huge deal when it happened. You were never really caught up with the school’s news, more academic driven, but you had your share of intramural sports. You imagine ‘devastating’ is a rather underwhelming way of describing that kind of pain.

“Kim Seokjin, or Jin he likes to be called, is a Films major and he’s done a bunch of commercials and modelling gigs. He loves food though, and he has a cooking channel plus an Instagram page. He’s the campus Heartthrob. He’s had that title for over five years. I mean, who can blame him? Do you see the man? He’s fucking cut from the image of perfection!”

Yeah, okay. He does look fucking good. And his cooking looks amazing. You rub your mouth discreetly, making sure you’re not actually physically drooling. You have food right in front of you, for fuck’s sake!

“Min Yoongi, he’s actually the same age as Jin but started late. He used to be an underground rapper by the name of Gloss. Now he works at the studio here with Jiyong and Slow Rabbit. Rumour has it he has a composing deal lined up with BigHit when he graduates. He goes by Suga now. He has a Soundcloud for distributing his self-composed music. I heard he also raps, but no one knows his stage name for that.”

This man is talented. His lyricism is fucking beautiful. Your heart constricts a bit, even though it’s not his voice, it doesn’t soften the hurt. It’s real.

“Kim Namjoon, he was one of our TAs for Business History last semester. He’s really smart. I’m talking grade A book smart. Heard his IQ is somewhere between 140 to 160. He’s crazy intelligent. Okay, but get this – he also composes on the side. He works with Yoongi and they’ve produced some stuff together. Here, listen to this.”

Put two galaxies together, and what do you get? A fucking supercluster and that shit is no joke. Together, they are something else. Someone who sees the world beyond its manmade barriers, someone who criticises, someone who is unflinchingly honest in what lies in the heart. Someone that feels, empathizes. Dreamers.

“So basically, the next year is just going to be me feeling all useless and untalented in a house full of very attractive and single men,” you surmise flatly.

“Yep,” Ahri says cheerfully, stabbing at a lettuce leaf.

“Fucking awesome.”

It’s the incessant knocking that wakes you. The doorbell follows soon after, buzzing loudly as you groan, rolling over.

“Who the f – oh.” You squint, the sunlight merrily blinding you as you open the door.

“___-noona, is now not a good time?” It’s Jimin that speaks, expression worried.

“What time is it?” You murmur, rubbing your temples. Fuck, you definitely drank too much last night. Dara dragged you to some frat party to celebrate your new roommates, who are, ironically enough, now all looking at you with palpable concern.

“It’s twelve,” Namjoon says, eyebrows furrowing. “But we can always come back later if it’s inconvenient for you.”

Oh, shit. Your gaze trails down to the multiple bags and suitcases they’re holding.

“No, no, of course not,” you croak. “Come in. Sorry. I had a long night.” Clearly.

You step to the side, allowing them to file in one by one, before locking the door behind them.

“Cute PJs,” Jin winks as he passes. You look down, horrified. Your pug print pajama pants and flimsy tee are on full display.

You slap your forehead, thoroughly embarrassed. You probably have awful bed head, too.

Running your fingers through the tangled locks, you follow them as they crowd around the living room. Grabbing a box you had the insight to leave on the counter much earlier this week, they tell you what room they’ve picked and you hand them their respective keys.

“Feel free to settle in and do whatever,” you call as you head back to your own room to get ready. “My only rule is that you clean after yourselves. This house is big enough as it is, so cleaning is a hassle. I don’t want to add personal trash into that.”

They make noises of agreement and you shut the door quickly, making your way to the bathroom to take a shower and to scream into a towel for five minutes.

The semester returns with a full swing. You’re nearly knocked over on the first punch, when the syllabus for each class is dropped and you realize you have six assignments due on the same day two weeks from now.

You’ve managed to avoid any further embarrassing interactions with your new roommates, having been bouncing around the city with your soon-to-be-AWOL friends before the term began.

From what you can tell, though, they’re fairly polite and greet you whenever there’s an opportunity. Some try for small talk, like Namjoon, Jimin and Hoseok. Jungkook is still skittish and practically flies out the room if you’re in it for too long. Yoongi tends to disappear to his room for long periods of time, but Hoseok had told you it was because he was stacking up on sleep. You guessed his work would soon require much out of him, though how the hibernation storage thing worked was beyond you.

Jin was often out; Namjoon had informed you it was because he had a few other contracts to lock down for modelling and whatnot. Taehyung’s schedule was a bit flaky, since he liked taking impromptu trips around campus and the city whenever inspiration struck.

You said farewells to some of your friends, all boxed and hugged, they promised to call often and FaceTime, to which you knew they would hold their end of the bargain to. You weren’t worried, and wished them well.

Your real point of anxiety was how you were going to survive this year. Word had apparently spread like wildfire that the most eligible bachelors of your university had moved in … together … with you.

You’ve already gotten several rather disturbing messages from unknown numbers. You’re unsurprised but still annoyed. The content gets more disconcerting every time, and at this rate, you’re going to end up having to switch numbers. You’re broke, damn it! Broke. Why can’t people just focus on their own lives for once and chill the fuck out? Your wallet wails.

“Good morning, noona.” His smile is so warm for someone who’s just woken up. How does he look so good doing it, too? He’s got a pair of loose sweats and an oversized shirt on, hair mussed and eyes silted adorably as he yawns. It’s 8:30 in the fucking morning and you already want to run yourself over with a school bus.

“Jimin, hello,” you say distractedly, stuffing your laptop into your bag and snatching your keys from the bowl. “Can’t talk, got class.”

“Wait!” He says, rushing up to meet you. He’s holding a piece of buttered toast in his hand. “Eat something while you go. It’s bad to sit in lecture without a breakfast. You won’t be able to focus.”

“Oh,” you blink. “Thank you.” Your smile softens. Jimin scuffs his bare feet shyly in response. “You’re welcome, noona. Stay safe.”

You never eat breakfast. You either never wake up in time to make anything, or you’re too lazy. This is kind of nice, you admit. Have someone take care of you, or think of you. It’s sweet.

You could get used to this, you decide. But you don’t want to get too comfortable. You’ll only end up missing it when they’re gone.

The toast is oddly delicious.

“There’s a showcase coming up.”

“Yes, and?” You say, phone squished to your cheek as you check the course code of the wrapped textbook you’re holding.

“So you’re going, right?” Ahri demands. You can hear her heels clicking against the concrete as she makes her way to her car.

You stand, huffing as you survey the neat stacks of books you’ve spent the last hour organizing. “You’re joking, right? What reason do I have to be at that showcase? I’ve never gone before and there’s no way I’m going this year,” you answer matter-of-factly as you dust yourself off.

“___, we need you at the front,” your manager calls, poking her head in to flash you an apologetic smile.

You give her a thumbs up before returning to the call. “Look, just because Hoseok and Jimin now share a living accommodation with me and we talk casually does not mean I’m suddenly their best friend. Have fun at work!”

You cut off her protests as you pocket your device decisively.

Of course.

“___!” He beams. “Hi! I didn’t know you worked here.”

“That’s because I usually work the tech section. What can I do for you today, Hoseok-sunbae?” Speak of the devil, you crack a polite smile.

“Just Hoseok, please. I was wondering if you guys sell the code for a digital copy of behavioural economics?” Why are his eyes practically sparkling? How can he be so cheerful?

“Hoseok, I hope you don’t mind me asking, but why are you taking a senior economics course as a dance major?” You ask bluntly.

Hoseok splutters, rubbing his neck. “Um. Namjoon said it would be good for me?” He tries.

You look at him strangely, but shrug. It’s not your business anyway. His loss. Though you’re certain he doesn’t care much about his GPA, considering he’s pretty much got a bunch of prestigious studios vying for him already.

“Anything else I can help you with today?” You say as you scan the code.

“Actually … I was wondering if you were coming to the showcase,” Hoseok says, sounding almost shy.

You eye him suspiciously. “Do you want me there to support you or something? I thought this was only the preliminaries or something.”

“I … We’d really like it if you could make it. Jimin and I … we haven’t had much inspiration lately, to be honest,” he admits. His head hangs, like he’s on the verge of defeat. It doesn’t suit him, and you find yourself frowning.

“The last thing we want is to repeat stuff we’ve done before, but I’ve been stumped all summer. Usually I’d be done choreographing everything, but this year … I dunno,” he trails off.

“I understand that, but why would me being there help?” You tap your fingers against the counter. The campus bookstore is fairly empty today, given that you’re closing in half an hour.

“I just … I thought maybe you could be an unbiased third party, that’s all,” Hoseok says awkwardly. “If you don’t, I totally understand! It was just a suggestion, I guess.”

You sigh, pushing the terminal to him as he fumbles for his wallet. “What time is your practice?”

Hoseok’s grin is blinding and you can’t decide if you’re going to greatly regret or thank yourself for this later on.

“Thank you! Friday, at four in AR Studios. You know where the music department is, right? The practise rooms are on the hallway to the left.”

You manage a weak smile. “I’ll be there.”

It’s a Tuesday, and Taehyung’s fallen asleep on the couch.

You’re exhausted, running yourself a bit thin with the amount of work you’ve been putting in already. You perch on the edge, the soft material sinking slightly under your weight, but the angel doesn’t stir.

And you concede he might as well be one, given how ethereal he appears. He hugs a pillow to his chest, expression serene and limbs lax as he slumbers on. His dark-coloured curls obscure his forehead, pink lips parted lightly as he exhales slowly.

Before you can quench the urge, you reach over and brush his fringe from his eyes.

You’re tired. That’s the only explanation you can offer for what happens next.

Taehyung’s hand shoots up to grab your wrist tightly.

And you find yourself falling as he tugs you on top of him. A quiet oomph escapes you as you bracket his body, arms trembling faintly at the sheer proximity.

His expression, half-lidded and hazy, tells you he’s still flitting in and out of consciousness. Suspended, like he’s replaying his dream in real life.

His smile is lopsided as he cups your cheek, thumbing your cheekbones tenderly. His touch is feverish, so warm it startles you when he guides your palm to his chest, two buttons undone already.

“Heart,” he whispers, and you inhale sharply. His voice breaks, tone anguished and defeated. It both shocks and scares you.

“Taehyung,” you say shakily, ignoring the fluttering beat of his heart and the blood rushing in your ears to press your forehead against his. “Taehyung, you’re burning up.”

“I finally found you,” he sighs, and it alarms you to see he’s fading fast, eyes flickering as he sinks into the couch. “Where did you go, heart? You promised …”

“Promised? Promised what? Tae, what are you talking about?” You say frantically, shaking him lightly. His head rolls and he manages a weak chuckle. “You finally called me Tae again …”

Your eyebrows knit. “What …?” Before you manage anything more, Taehyung collapses.

“He’ll be alright. He’s got a pretty high fever, but it should break by tonight.” Seokjin sounds so self-assured and calm that you find yourself relaxing.

You’ve been fretting, pacing restlessly as you waited for the eldest to return. You contacted him the moment Taehyung knocked out, anxious and unsure of what to do next. The room filled with his laboured breathing, and you tried to alleviate some of the heat by resting a cool towel on his forehead.

The house was typically empty for the day, everyone off to their respective classes and work. The boys usually congregated at night, for dinner and the movies or games that followed. They’ve invited you several times, but you declined each time. You’ve been … busy.

You hesitated on doing more, considering how little you truly knew of Taehyung. You weren’t sure he’d appreciate you accidentally poisoning him with the wrong dose of medication. That, and invading his personal space.

Seokjin opted to buy some medication on his way back instead, and the photography major seems to sleep a bit easier now.

The eldest gives the patient one last once-over before rising to his feet.

“I might as well make dinner, then. Want to come along?” He asks lightly. You follow him to kitchen, shaking your head guiltily. “I’m sorry for making you come back so early. I just didn’t know what else to do. Everyone else was so busy, and—”

“—And I’m the only real adult, I know,” Seokjin says, chuckling. “I’m glad you called. I was about done with my shoot anyway.”

You linger at the island counter awkwardly as you watch him tie an apron to his waist and comb through the fridge for ingredients.

“Sunbae …,” you falter, but he beckons you forward with an encouraging smile. You’re relieved to see he doesn’t seem upset the slightest, though you honestly can’t say you know him enough to determine whether it was sincere or merely a practised mask.

“Jin, please. I’m not that much older, truth be told,” he tells you as you wash the rice.

“Then, Jin … Is Taehyung … with someone right now?” You keep your gaze trained to your task, draining the murky water so carefully you miss the way Seokjin tenses.

“Why? Do you have your sights set on our baby?” Seokjin says lightly, but his voice hints of strain, and he glances at you from the corner of his eye.

You snort unintentionally, coughing quickly to cover it up. “Hardly. I was just wondering.”

“Did he do something weird? Taehyung can act pretty strange when he’s out of it like that. He’ll say or do pretty weird things when he’s drunk or has a really high fever,” Seokjin explains as he pours the vegetables he’s cut into the pot on the stove.

“Oh,” you say as you plug the machine in. “I see.” The rice maker beeps, and you excuse yourself politely.

Thursday is a disaster. You’d hoped he’d keep his distance, given you’d been quite clear the last time you spoke. But of course -

“You’re avoiding me.”

“I’ve been busy.”

“Don’t lie to me. I know you’ve been dodging me since we moved in. Why?”

“Don’t you dare turn this on me. You’re the only person that’s been lying since we met. You made your point very clear that day, and you moving in? It doesn’t change a damn thing. Now tell me what you want or get out. I’m done with your shit.”

“You can’t mean that. You know I didn’t have a choice!”

“You did have a choice. Me, or that damn reputation of yours. You told me to go to hell. What more do you want?”

“You know that’s not what I meant. I didn’t know—”

“Didn’t know what? That it would mean I would lose everything? I didn’t mean shit to you. I don’t know why I ever thought I could trust you.”

“If I had known, I would’ve—”

“Would have what? Tried harder? Bull. Shit. You don’t care about anything but yourself and your career. You can tell yourself different, but you and I both know if I hadn’t trusted you, I wouldn’t be in this position. You did this to me.”

“I’m sorry.”

“I don’t want your weakass excuse for an apology. I said I was done with you and I am. This is the last time I’m going to sit here and listen to you pretend you’re the victim. For the sake of peace, I will play niceties with you in front of your friends, but make no mistake: You can’t turn back time. You cannot change what happened, you cannot fix it, you cannot make it better. So go away. Don’t talk to me. Don’t seek me out. We’re not friends. We’ll never be anything ever again. I hope, in time, I can forget you ever existed at all.”

“I’m going to make this right, I swear. I love you more than anything, and I’ll spend the rest of my life if I have to proving it to you.”

“Please just go.”

You stare out the window, the city lights blinding in the night skyline. The glass reflects the emptiness in your eyes, and there’s only deafening silence that’s shattered in the next beat by the slamming of your door.

Hugging your arms to your chest, you refuse to acknowledge the sharp sting in your eye.

You wish you’d never met him.

“Just … be careful,” Yoongi says quietly. It’s the first time you’ve spoken to him outside of their initial tour. “Housing wasn’t the only reason some of us are here.”

You stifle a sigh. All you wanted was some water, not another 2 am detox on everything wrong in your life.

“Why are you telling me this?” You ask carefully. His hand pauses on the doorknob.

“I don’t want you to get hurt,” is all he says.

You’re left to ponder his warning as he disappears into his room. Your phone lights up in your hand.

[01:25] Unknown: I need to see you. Can we talk?

#jungkook x reader #jimin x reader #taehyung x reader #yoongi x reader #hoseok x reader #namjoon x reader #jin x reader #ot7 x reader #ggukienet #hyunglinenetwork #networkbangtan #btsguild #jungkook fanfic #jimin fanfic #taehyung fanfic #heartbeat

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maxwell-grant · 3 years

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The weirdest Shadow villain of all time

From Shadow Comics #40

For the most part, Street & Smith’s 1940s Shadow Comics were forgettable and dull, largely comprising of adaptations of radio episodes but devoid of atmosphere or humor, it’s hard to even believe Gibson wrote them. It’s a 100% sanitized family friendly American Hero Shadow with little bite or personality, really just another mediocre Golden Age superhero comic for the most part.

But every now and then, those comics would get real, real weird with what they could get away with. They’d just go full-in on fantasy storylines that were unfeasible for the pulps and radio, and pit The Shadow against the weirdest villains he’s ever encountered. The Shadow vs Solaris was a three-issue story arc where The Shadow battles a mad scientist named Solaris who uses a shrink ray to transport convicts under his employ (as well as a captured Margo and Valda Rune) into the planet Venus so he can flee the authorities on Earth.

Solaris is not the abominable clown monster menacingly hovering above The Shadow in that image. No, that’s Suven, a character who only appears for one issue, and never again. Perhaps for the best, as we'll see below:

After Solaris and his crew arrive on Venus, they are approached by transparent bell-like living beings. Some of the convicts attack the bell things, so they capture all of the crew and transport them to a palace surrounded by thunderstorm. There, they meet Suven, the Ruler of Venus

(Who is the "we" Suven is referring to? Why is an alien familiar with Roman terminology? Is the S&S comics Shadow’s Earth called Mars on other planets? Did the rest of the galaxy name Earth “Mars” before we did? Is Suven a bigger authority than the rest of humanity since he rules an entire planet single-handedly and therefore it’s simply us that have been calling the planet wrong the whole time? Does this mean The Shadow technically lives in Mars? One page in and we already got so many questions unrelated to the existence of a THREE-EYED CLOWN KING OF VENUS IN A SHADOW STORY)

Contrary to what the appearence of a gigantic three-eyed monster clown would indicate, Suven is actually incredibly nice, all things considered. He is completely welcoming to these weird, tiny strangers who attacked living beings in his world, whom he knows come from a wartorn world, and eagerly welcomes them as refugees. Suven may very well the most genuinely benevolent ruler of state ever depicted in a Shadow story.

(Why is his friend/servant/partner’s name just Suven’s own name but scrambled? Is everyone on Venus named after anagrams of the planet’s name? That would actually be the most Shadow-appropriate thing of it all, since Gibson did love anagrams and wordplay).

Problem is, Suven is also an alien king who does not know how to interact with humans. In fact, he thinks all creatures on “Mars” are reptiles. And so, his idea of helping them break up conflict is to lock away those rowdy fighters, and help the peaceful ones shed their skin.

(The other reptilian specimens? If Suven is referring to the monsters in the bowl, does it mean those monsters come from "Mars"? Has he done this to other humans? Has Suven been to Earth before to determine that all creatures are reptiles? He knows enough about it to determine it as a wartorn world, saying the Mars people "will never learn". What kind of contact did he have with the "Mars people" prior to this, then? Why can't he tell clothes apart from skin?)

As expected, The Shadow manages to break free and rescue them in the nick of time. The story ends with them stealing a rocket and flying away from the planet, the first and only time The Shadow was ever forced to flee from someone who put Margo in danger. No climactic confrontations, no, they just nope the fuck out of Venus before Suven comes back. And the Venusians are happy to see those violent intruders gone.

The cover for this particular comic depicts a scene of Margo and Valda held in the grip of a giant while The Shadow prepares to shoot a giant gun to rescue them, although it depicts a green ogre-esque giant instead of Suven. Then again, if we know one thing about supernatural monster clowns, is that they rarely stay in one shape for long. Maybe that’s just what Suven looks like sometimes.

Despite not being truly evil, Suven is possibly the only “villain” in the Shadow’s history posing a danger that The Shadow has never defeated, or even tried fighting. Suven and Venus never appeared again, and the next story of the Solaris arc only mentions that the Venusians kicked Solaris and his crooks out of the planet, which even acts as a catalyst for Solaris’s goons to want to reform.

As far as I’m aware, there was only one other story from the S&S Shadow Comics set in outer space, and no other Shadow story since then has ever gone that far outside of Earth. There were aliens in one episode of the radio show who were nothing like those from Venus (and certainly not benevolent), and The Shadow’s had encounters with supernatural beings who live outside of Earth’s bounds, but never in space. Never like this, never again.

For all we know, across all Shadow continuities, Venus is home to a strange ecosystem ruled by a three-eyed clown king (possibly a hivemind of clown kings with anagrams of the same name) who is a really swell, pacifist guy and kind, accepting ruler, with the small caveat that he may try to freeze your skin off thinking he’s doing you a favor.

#the shadow #the shadow essays #shadow comics #all of the diet Cthulhus of Shadow comics don't have shit on this guy #what can possibly prepare you for a giant alien clown king who wants to shed your skin because he genuinely thinks he's helping you #i wish the rest of those comics were this weird

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black-streak · 5 years

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Saturday night's alright for fighting (but Sundays are meant for rest) - It's Cute

Part 9

The awaited family reactions to the cuddle fest. Dear lord, this took so long to write! Probably should have tried writing these characters once before attempting to write all of them now, but oh well. They're all a bunch of cheeky shits. Bruce may be a world class detective, but he's clueless with his family. You cannot change my mind.

Aaaaaand Tags: @poshplumcot @emjrabbitwolf @mystery-5-5 @worlds-tiniest-spook-pastry @fandomkitty8 @dast218 @silvergold-swirl @shizukiryuu . @my-name-is-michell @kurogaya913 @elspethshadow @thecatnipmademedoit @shamefullove @ladylucina28 @crazylittlemunchkin

Let me know if you'd like to be added!

~---~

The first one to happen upon their new normal had been Dick, not that they were aware.

Around 9 in the morning, he'd found himself passing by the living room off the side kitchen the boys were allowed to use (the main kitchens off limits to all but Alfred himself, with occasional exceptions for Marinette or Jason) only to stop and backtrack, lips twitching into a wide grin.

There on the far couch, Tim lay passed out with his laptop closed on the coffee table. This in itself would be enough to endear Richard, seeing as he rarely saw Tim crash without it being face first into his work, but what really sold it was the tiny body curled up on the couch with him.

Marinette became a new normal around the manor, having been attached at the hip to their youngest around 3 months ago. Richard could still recall her first visit, half hidden behind Damian where he stood in front of her as though shielding his new friend from their sight. She'd had curious eyes trained onto them as he led her past and up towards his room. They'd all let Damian think he'd gotten her past them for the moment, bursting into speculation the second the two's footsteps fell out of hearing range.

The curiosity only grew as her presence became a near constant, Damian always a step behind or in front of her. Dick vividly remembered the suspicious look Tim had shot his coffee upon hearing the youngest call her Angel. At that point, they stopped feigning polite and sought her out.

She took to their proding with grace, if a little overwhelmed and flustered from the fast switch in temperament. They'd all granted the two space for over a week only to all start approaching her on the near constant. And constant it was.

Richard knew he'd overwhelmed her a little in those first few weeks, but it couldn't be helped. He had never seen his babybat so protective and borderline sweet before.

Marinette turned out to be one of the most humble, affectionate, and downright considerate people Dick had the pleasure of meeting. She'd charmed them all.

From the recipes she shared with Alfred over an afternoon tea, to the little trips she took with Jason to bookstores. From random breakfast dates with Stephanie to quiet sleepovers with Cass whenever she made a reappearance. Babs and Duke had yet to meet her, but he was sure they'd find a liking to her just as easily.

Richard himself had been endeared to her the moment he saw how Damian softened around his 'Angel'. It only grew when she started coming to him, a bundle of energy, asking him if he really was versed in trapeze like Damian said. The attachment solidified upon her admitting a solid knowledge in aerial silks, afternoons between the two lost in the gym, talking through stretches and showing off to each other on their preferred apparatus.

And here it seemed Tim had finally found his endearment to her.

It's not that the two hadn't interacted before. They were often found dying over their own caffeinated beverage of choice, lamenting to one another the struggles of running their respective business. While Tim may run WE as its CEO, he obviously respected and commended her ability to run her own technically small business, holding extremely high clientele, both local and world wide while keeping her workload contained to manageable levels. Meanwhile, she saw and admired Tim's insane ability to manage a massive sprawling company without falling over dead.

Otherwise, you could occasionally catch them sharing playlists or texting random nonsense to one another.

That, however, seemed to be the extent of their interactions. Tim seemingly holding her at a distance for reasons undetermined.

The distance seemed pretty shattered now, Mari curled up to him, both dead to the world. Dick simply watched, smiling softly from the doorway. Finally, someone who seemed to be capable of persuading Tim into sleep. He really shouldn't be surprised that Marinette was the one to make it happen.

Lifting his phone, he snapped a picture and sent it to the family group chat with the caption, "Laying bodily on top of Tim seems an effective way to force him to sleep. Think it'd work for me?" Tucking his phone back into his pocket, satisfied with the near constant vibration from the chaos he reigned, he finally entered the kitchen, poured a bowl of cereal for himself and left before either of the occupants a room over could wake to find him.

Alfred had taken the sight of them cuddling in stride. It'd taken place around two weeks after seeing the evidence of such in the family chat, courtesy of Richard.

Carrying books back into the library, the elderly butler couldn't claim surprise at finding Timothy curled around Marinette in a protective huddle as the two napped.

Ever since discovering the young woman's identity, he'd seen how Timothy watched her, intrigued and almost instinctively possessive. Of course Miss Marinette had befriended Damian first and the two were as thick as thieves, but in costume, she was Tim's shadow. She normally followed him everywhere and when she happened to stray, the young man would get restless and paranoid, no longer sensing her silent company. Eventually, he'd either group up with one of the others until he sensed her again or happen upon her handiwork and suddenly calm down. Alfred couldn't say whether Red Robin was even aware of his own actions or simply following his gut, but either way, the two were magnetized. It was only a matter of time before the same happened in civilian form.

Watching as Miss Marinette nuzzled his neck and settled closer in a deeper sleep, Alfred expected the two would be together by the end of the week.

…

Damian knew his Angel had found a body pillow in the form of his older brother. Of course he knew, she told him within hours of the development. He felt no need to confirm any further.

This didn't mean he never saw them cuddle. No, it just meant it never took him off guard. Maybe a touch put off at times, but not surprised. One minute he'd be hunting the manor for his tiny friend and the next he'd find himself huffing to himself and begrudgingly leaving the two alone after inevitably finding her with Tim. Sure, he spent most evenings monopolizing her time to himself, but he already found himself having to share her with the rest of the flock enough during daylight hours when everyone wasn't otherwise occupied with work. The last thing he needed was for the one brother who left her mostly alone to start taking up all of her spare time.

While Damian knew that Tim had redeeming qualities such as his diligence and intellect (his younger self was rolling in its grave at this admittance) he still couldn't grasp what it was his Angel saw there. His older brother was a certifiable disaster. A sleep deprived, caffeine addicted, sarcastic mess of a man.

Then again, so was she. And somehow, that didn't end in a clash of personalities, but instead, led to breaking each other's more impractical habits. As much as he loathe to admit it, they worked well together and he knew it to be true everytime he stumbled upon their sleeping forms.

Leaving to find Richard after another failed attempt to collect Mari to hang out, he felt a small smile tug at the edges of his lips. Despite the confusion over the match, he took his small joys in knowing Tim kept her warm and happy.

….

Stephanie and Jason thought the picture from Dick was a once in a lifetime opportunity to view the workaholics at rest. That somehow all that coffee addled energy cancelled each other out and the two just passed out in the delirium next to each other only for Mari to become a koala in her sleep.

Imagine their utmost shock and delight when upon entering the library, bickering over something neither can remember, they find the same happy scene before them.

A wicked grin crosses Steph's face and she sneaks closer to the couch, leaning into the space by Tim's face.

Jason, seeing her intentions, immediately rushes forward to prevent the inevitable.

"Do you have a death wish?!" He whispered, unknowingly too late in his warning.

Marinette's eyes peek open right as Steph reaches to poke Tim awake, a low growl sounding in their ears in clear anger and annoyance, glaring Stephanie down until the blonde withdrew her finger from where it hovered an inch above his cheek.

Eyes flying wide, Steph cautiously backed away from the pissed noirette, hands raised in surrender.

"Sorry, Mar, backing off now," Steph promised in reassurance and slight fear.

Suddenly Tim shifted, pulling Mari closer to himself as though sensing her discontent.

Snuggling into him, she kept her eyes on the pair until she deemed them a safe distance before burrowing into his chest, falling back to sleep.

Stephanie could only stare before whipping around to whisper yell at Jason, "What the flying fuck was that?!"

"Pixie pop does not take kindly to being woken up. Learned that the hard way a while back. Imagine it's the same for waking up her personal heater there," he shrugged, carefully dragging her back out of the library.

Glancing back at the pair, he couldn't help but shake his head. The little pixie sure had them all wrapped around her finger, didn't she?

…..

Cass…. Well she honestly didn't see how it mattered as long as the two finally got some sleep. If that meant forcing each other to nap, whether it be in the guest room of the manor or in the deserted Batcave, him slouched in the office chair and her draped across his lap, so be it.

If she played ignorant and never acknowledged to herself that Marinette definitely should not know about the cave, nevertheless be sleeping in it, no one was the wiser.

……

Bruce rarely regretted muting the family group chat. Only two hours into its creation, the notifications had reached into the hundreds. He muted it without a second thought and never looked back.

At times like these, he almost wished he checked it every once in a while. It might have prepared him better for what had transpired in front of him.

Sitting in his favorite high backed armchair by the fireplace, he'd briefly taken note of his youngest sitting in the corner of the couch, one hand holding a book in arabic up to read, the other arm wrapped around Marinette where she slept pressed against him.

He knew Damian hated being touched in his sleep, but perhaps his sweet little friend was an exception after all? It wouldn't surprise him seeing as she seemed to be the exception to all of Damian's rules.

Bruce couldn't help the softening in his expression at seeing his son finally open up and accept the affection of another human. Sure, the kid had always been loving towards his many pets, but it was wonderfully new to see that extend to the young woman under his arm.

The first time he heard Damian call her his angel, Bruce had settled himself with the knowledge that this woman was to eventually become his daughter in law.

So absorbed in his reflecting, he almost missed Tim's entrance.

Shaking out of it, he nodded to his second youngest and turned back to his book.

He almost became reabsorbed in his own reading when he noticed Tim approaching the opposite end of the couch.

What happened next, Bruce could only watch in dumbfounded disbelief.

Tim settled into the couch, shifting so he reclined comfortably and pulled the blanket off the back and across his body. Once he seemingly deemed the position suitably comfortable, he moved the blanket to the side of him and sat up, leaning towards the two on the opposite end.

Damian lifted his head and made eye contact with his older brother, a silent conversation passing between the two, before moving his arm off Marinette and carefully moving her away from him and towards the other. The pass off went smoothly, her weight shifting easily from Damian's side and into Tim's waiting arms.

From there, Tim gently moved her over to his side of the couch, laying back into his original position only now with her pressed between his side and the couch back. Lastly, Tim pulled the blanket back over the two and finally settled down.

Marinette herself stirred awake once the blanket fell around her. She seemed to take stock of the situation, looking over to Damian and then turning to blink blearily up at Tim. A small, contented smile graced her face before it disappeared into his collar, where she buried her face, promptly falling back to sleep.

The same sleepy smile crossed Tim's face as he ducked down to nuzzle the top of her head where he followed her lead.

Completely thrown off guard, Bruce looked back to Damian only to see his youngest completely unfazed as he returned to his reading.

Clearing his throat softly, Bruce successfully gained the other's attention without waking the other two occupants.

"When did this become a thing?" He gestured towards the cuddling pair.

Damian simply raised an eyebrow and rolled his eyes in exasperation.

"You really ought to read our messages. They've been like this for a month now." And with that, Damian went back to his reading, a smirk hidden behind the pages as his father gaped at him in disbelief. It was going to take a small miracle for his father to figure out the other two were dating at this rate.

Snapping his mouth closed and clearing his throat once more, Bruce turned back to his own book, filing the information away for later, thinking to himself, 'Perhaps Damian isn't as possessive as I thought?'

#maribat #timinette #timari #ml x dc #this one actually starts in part one and ends after part eight timeline wise

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redroseinsanity · 4 years

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Don’t Be A Hero - IwaOi Day 2020

Part 1 of the IwaOi hero/villain series, Meet me in the grey area

This is my spin on this wonderful hero/villain prompt from @one-lonely-whumperfly (I hope you don’t mind what I did with it) for IwaOi Day!

For once I am not late can you believe it? Pulled myself from the clutches of MDZS to get this out because my heart will always belong to Haikyuu~

---

Hajime doesn't know how he got here. And no, by here, he doesn't mean his living room. Here, meaning sponging his enemy's forehead and trying his best to ignore the teeny voice inside that wonders why his nemesis would hide such a lovely face behind a mask.

To say that he's having a slight crisis would not be a stretch.

Let's start from the beginning.

Contrary to popular belief, The Ace of Seijoh city is a very normal person. Anyone would say he's the picture of a regular guy; works a nine to five in a small cubicle, doesn't talk much, is overall a decent person and can be relied on to help fix the photocopying machine when it's down, that sort of thing.

Iwaizumi Hajime is a man of routine; he wakes up at an ungodly hour every morning for his workout before breakfast and then work, after which, it's home to his one-eyed cat and a quiet dinner before sleeping. Rinse and repeat.

The only thing that breaks his routine is any, and every, form of emergency the city of Seijoh can contrive to suffer from. For Seijoh, Hajime has taken bullets, single-handedly unseated corrupt politicians, taken on murderers and saved the mayor at least three times. But most of the time, he's busy thwarting the nefarious Grand King whose schemes keep him on his toes but tend to be more annoying than colossally damaging unlike some other villains he's gone up against.

It's not easy being The Ace of Seijoh, but Hajime knows his powers give him the chance to protect people and so, protect people he does.

Iwaizumi Hajime is having a Very Normal evening. He's had an extremely ordinary dinner of homemade pasta and is watching a popular show on Netflix in his very normal pyjamas.

Yup, totally normal. In fact, the last time he jumped out of a burning building while holding a child was oh, about a week ago.

His Very Normal evening is abruptly cut short when three uneven knocks sound on his door. Slowly, warily, Hajime approaches the door, placing a weapon within reach from where he stands. Hajime doesn't have friends, relatives or anyone who is likely to visit and certainly not at this hour.

Squinting at the visitor screen, Hajime frowns when he recognises the glitzy get up, the aqua trimmings on white, and frowns even more when he sees rips on the suit, blood and scuff marks marring the usually pristine appearance.

It can't be, he's got to be mistaken but as The Grand King raises his head, Hajime comes face to face with his nemesis and his Very Normal night shatters.

Without taking his eyes off the screen, he presses his thumb to the scanning pad, a security measure that allows only him to open the door and it swings open to reveal a slumped figure.

The villain is barely upright, even raising his head seems to be an effort and he sways, toffee eyes drifting shut before opening again. Instinctively, Hajime raises a hand to his elbow to steady him and through the material, he's surprised by how bony the other man is.

At the touch, Grand King's eyes clear slightly and they fix on Hajime, blinking a couple of times to focus. Underneath the fog of disorientation, there's a measure of fear and uncertainty that has never been there before. He's shaking in Hajime's grip, whether from the cold or something else, Hajime isn't sure, but he's on Hajime's doorstep, bleeding and afraid.

It’s a trap. How does he know where I live? What happened to him?

Even in this state, he's able to read Hajime the way he always seems to do in a fight and the edges of his lips quirk up in an attempt at a smirk that slides off like oil on water, the fatigue overpowering him.

"...didn't know where else to go…" Is all he gets out before he's slumping, his tall frame folding straight into Hajime's stunned arms.

Read on AO3 or...

There are a billion questions clamouring in Hajime's mind but he shoves them aside along with all common sense, when he hauls the person who's technically his enemy into his house.

Hefting the man,who the city has christened 'The Grand King', into his arms, Hajime lays him carefully on the couch - a move that warrants an offended look from Captain, his ginger cat.

"I know, this is insane, that this could be a trap, and no, I don't know how he knows where we live," Hajime tries to explain himself to his cat, because that's what all heroes do, reason out questionable life choices with their pet. He casts a doubtful look at the crumpled figure on his sofa and sighs.

"But I don't think so," He murmurs, more to himself than to Captain, "I think he really needs our help."

Having had his fair share of scrapes, Hajime makes quick work of cleaning and bandaging Grand King's wounds and then sits back, taking a good look at the man he's been fighting with for years.

Normally, he's too busy fending off multiple attacks or rushing to prevent a building from crashing on tourists to really look at his opponent. But in the low light of his living room, in the stillness of the late evening, Hajime finds that underneath the gaudy mask of this pesky villain is a gorgeous man not much older than him.

Without the mask and the banter that Grand King usually keeps between them, he's all creamy skin, long lashes and his mouth is soft, vulnerable in sleep. There are shadows under his eyes and sweeping a gaze over the various bruises and lacerations, it's easy to see someone hasn't been kind to him.

Hajime wonders who. And then he tells himself it’s none of his business.

Without warning, Hajime is struck with the horrifying feeling that The Grand King is someone who needs to be protected more than he needs protecting from and it leaves him utterly discombobulated. To avoid the struggle of trying to reconcile this man with the one who had most recently tried to flood a press conference with piranhas in the water, Hajime decides to hook him up to an IV bag to try to flush out whatever it was in Grand King's system that made him so sluggish.

He wakes as Hajime is cleaning grime off his face and Hajime doesn’t know who is more startled. His hand freezes mid-motion, too caught off guard to snatch itself back and the Grand King’s eyes dart around the room, the sharp gaze whittling down to something like padded caution as he finally stops on the very hand that had been dabbing off smudges of dirt.

A slow blink that has the dark edges of lashes grazing a rapidly swelling cheek. Hajime tells himself he's looking at the bruise, not the other man's eyelashes.

Just like that, Hajime has no idea what to do with his hands, if he should wipe that last smear of dirt off or get into a battle-ready stance. He watches as The Grand King's lips tilt up.

"So you didn't kill me," There's a wheezy rasp in the voice that usually rings clearly across buildings and town squares and Hajime doesn't like it. He hands a glass of water over, scowling.

"Did you come here expecting me to kill you?" He demands.

After carefully peering into the glass, Grand King takes a tentative sip before shrugging and immediately, wincing as he jostles the wound that runs across his ribs.

"It was a gamble," he says lightly, as though delivering yourself to your enemy's door carries the same risk as trying a new brand of peanut butter.

Hajime says as much and Grand King raises an eyebrow, managing to look regal even though his hair is a mess and Hajime desperately wants to comb his fingers through it so it would stop being so distracting.

"Are we really enemies though, Iwa chan?"

Hajime cycles through ten different variations of rage before reminding himself that Grand King probably can't sustain a duel right now.

"What did you just call me?" He says slowly, deliberately, prying his fingers from the indents he's made in his coffee table.

"You think I would find out where you live but not your real name?" Grand King asks, chuckling. Hajime feels the indignation subside slightly at the familiar sound, the way the air seems to have properly returned to the other man's lungs.

"If I wake up one day to find piranhas in my house, I really will kill you," Hajime threatens even though they both know this is not the implication that he should be most concerned about.

"Of course n- Oh," The Grand King breaks off when Hajime's absolute traitor of a cat crawls straight into the villain's lap and starts purring.

The betrayal continues when The Grand King begins cooing to Captain and Hajime's absolute traitor of a heart does a helpless flop.

"Who knew a stern old man like you would have such an affectionate kitty, Iwa chan?" Those caramel eyes are soft now and Hajime suddenly feels disconcertingly out of his depth.

"I told you to stop calling me that," He grumbles, shooting a glare at Captain who responds with a smug look.

"Aww, don't be such a sourpuss, Iwa chan! Look, you can call me Oikawa and we'll be even," Oikawa grins cheekily, scratching Captain under the chin in the way that has the feline's eyes closing in contentment.

"Is that even your real name?" Hajime raises a skeptical brow and is met with a knowing grin.

"Don't sound so suspicious, Iwa chan," Oikawa teases as he sits up and begins taking the IV out.

"Wait," Hajime hears himself say before realising he has one hand out, his body moving faster than his mind can filter, "You shouldn’t- You’re not in any condition to move around."

The look that Oikawa gives him is undecipherable and Hajime sees him hesitate before he gently moves Captain out of his lap. But he stands and Hajime watches carefully, relieved when he doesn't sway even though he moves with an unnatural heaviness.

"Do you-" Hajime struggles with himself before he decides he will regret not asking more than he will asking, "Are you in trouble?"

This time, Hajime catches the flash of surprise ripple across Oikawa's elegant features before his confident smirk is back in place.

"Why? Is Iwa chan worried?" He leans in close, Hajime can see gold flakes swimming in brown, illuminated by the warm light of the lamp, can feel Oikawa’s breath skim his cheek.

"Are you going to protect me if I am?"

Yes, the response rises in Hajime like a wave swelling in the sea, yes. That's what I do. And I want to do it for you.

"Just wondering if I'm going to get more surprise visits or if this is a one-off thing," Is what he mumbles gruffly.

"So forward, Iwa chan!" Oikawa gasps and slaps him playfully on the arm, "If you want me to come over more often, you should've just said!"

"Really? I've tried to get you arrested five times this year and we aren't even in April yet," Hajime fixes Oikawa with an unimpressed stare, "You, a self declared villain of Seijoh, want to visit me, the most commonly called for hero in the city?"

They've reached the door and Hajime isn't even surprised when Oikawa reaches for his hand and guides his thumb up to the scanning pad so that he can leave.

The night air is cool and crisp, and the moon is extraordinarily bright, shedding milky light in layers over the empty street. Oikawa turns, still holding Hajime's hand and Hajime fights the urge to curl his fingers and hold on to the other man.

Stay, let me take care of you.

"Then don't be a hero," Oikawa says quietly and Hajime's brain scrambles to orientate himself in the conversation, "Don't be a hero and I won't be a villain. I'll come over and you'll just be you, and I'll just be me."

Hajime is still processing that statement when Oikawa lets go and steps back.

"See you later, Iwa chan." A glint of teeth as Oikawa smiles, a gentle smile, a soft smile.

And then he's gone, melting into the darkness despite the fact that he was in his hideous white outfit, and Hajime doesn't strain to find him. He just stands in his doorway and listens to his carefully constructed world crumble in the silence of the night. It sounds like Oikawa’s laughter.

Nothing is going to be the same after this, he thinks, I’ve lost my goddamn mind, and then he smiles, gently and softly.

"See you soon, Oikawa."

#iwaoi #Iwaizumi Hajime #oikawa torū #haikyuu fanfiction #villain x hero #redwrites #iwaoi day

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lady-divine-writes · 5 years

Text

Proposal (Rated T)

Summary: When Crowley discovers Aziraphale up late one night, fixing something about himself to make the two of them more of a pair, Crowley offers to lend a hand. (1798 words)

Notes: For the tumblr inbox ask prompt 'proposal'

(AO3)

“Aziraphale?” Crowley grumbles over the front end of a yawn, trundling barefoot from his bedroom to the living room without opening his eyes. “Are you awake already?”

‘Of course, he is,’ he replies to himself when Aziraphale doesn’t – surprising but not too alarming. ‘He barely sleeps so there’s nothing to wake up from.’

Crowley, on the other hand, was deep in the throes of one of the best dreams he’s ever had.

Technically, since demons don’t dream, he implants a thought in his mind before he shuts his eyes. From there, it plays out like a movie inside his brain with him as the director, leading it to the outcome he wants. He hopes this most recent one will someday become a reality. But even with all the powers of his imagination, he can’t lead this dream to fruition on his own.

He needs a little help.

“Aziraphale? Where the Devil are you?”

Crowley briefly considers going back to bed and waiting for Aziraphale there, returning to his beautiful dream, but who knows how long that will be? He’s gotten used to lying beside his angel at night. They’ve slept together every night since they thwarted the Apocalypse. Aziraphale’s presence – his warmth, the sound of his breathing, even that blasted holy light of his – keeps Crowley’s nightmares away.

At this point, Crowley doesn’t think he could sleep peacefully without him.

“Aziraphale?” He reaches the living room, scanning for any speck of light – namely Aziraphale’s aura, which he reads by. But there is no light, no book on the coffee table, no empty mug of cocoa, no sign at all that Aziraphale has been there. Crowley shuffles off and searches the rest of his flat, blinking awake with each step, rubbing the heel of his hand against his eyelids to speed the process along.

“A-zira-phale …” He circles back toward the bedroom when a fluttering, like the beating of a pigeon’s wings as it rises off the pavement, pulls him down the hallway towards the bathroom. “Where art thou, Aziraphale?” he mutters, curious why his angel would be checking his wings at this hour of the night.

Or possibly morning.

He’s too afraid to check the time.

He rounds the corner and gets blinded even though he’s nowhere near the door, the light from the bathroom so incredibly bright, he almost miracles a pair of shades to shield his eyes. But the painful white glow dissolves quickly, leaving behind spots in his vision.

“Azira---?” He stops at the door, shaking the last of the sleep from his brain, and immediately realizes two things. The first - the bright light wasn’t coming from the bulb overhead, but from Aziraphale performing magic. The second is that Aziraphale has changed, his new look seizing Crowley’s heart, sobering him up the second he sets eyes on him.

Aziraphale spots Crowley in the mirror, but not in enough time to hide what he’s done.

“Crowley! Oh!” Aziraphale spins around, reaching behind him, fruitlessly attempting to shove his wings out of sight.

Magicked black wings.

“Aziraphale …” Crowley walks over to him, squinting in confusion “… what are you doing?”

“I was … I was just …” Aziraphale peeks back at the mirror, at himself and his wings, and sighs. “I was trying something new.”

“I’ll say.” Crowley runs a hand down Aziraphale’s right wing, examining the stunning feathers. They look so much like his own, he’s tempted to unfurl his wings to compare. But seeing those black feathers, knowing they’re Aziraphale’s, makes him uneasy. “But why? You love your wings.”

“I thought it might be nice if the two of us … matched. So we seemed more a pair.” Aziraphale cringes, eyes shifting from Crowley’s reflection in the mirror to the bathroom sink, his cheeks cherry red. “It’s asinine, I know.”

“No, it’s not.” Crowley puts his hands on Aziraphale’s shoulders and kneads gently. “I’m touched that you’d want to change something you cherish so the two of us could match. But black? It isn’t you.”

“It isn’t, huh?”

“No. But if you’d let me, I have an idea …”

Aziraphale watches Crowley raise a hand over his wing. He shakes his head nervously.

“Oh, no! You d-don’t have to ...”

“Angel, I used to design nebulas. You don't trust me to design your wings? “

“Of course, I do. It’s not that.”

“What is it then?”

“I don’t …” Aziraphale chews his lower lip, slightly embarrassed “… I don’t want you to humor me. I know I’m being silly.”

Crowley ducks under Aziraphale’s wing so he can look his angel in the eyes. “I’m not humoring you. And I don’t think you’re being silly. So let me help you, all right?”

Aziraphale nods, but that doesn’t mean he necessarily agrees. Crowley can say he approves all he likes, but Aziraphale still feels silly. “All right.”

“Good! Now, let me see, let me see …” Crowley taps his chin in thought. “Let’s go with … something old …” He snaps his fingers, turning Aziraphale’s wings back to white. “Something new …” He runs a hand over his feathers from the shoulder joint outward and silver sparkles appear, dusting Aziraphale’s wings, reminiscent of the stars in the sky.

“H-how are you doing that?” Aziraphale asks, in awe of Crowley’s talent. Demon magic, as far as Aziraphale understands, mostly works by breaking things down. Destroying them. But Crowley’s magic is different. It’s fueled by his imagination. He’s discovered a loophole.

A way to use destruction to create.

“I'm removing some of the color from your feathers. It’s not particularly demonic. You'll be able to fix it if you want.”

“And if I don’t want to fix it?”

Crowley grins. “It’ll stay as long as you let it. Something borrowed ...” Another wave of his hand and the silver stars get ethereal black shadows added to them, giving them depth, making Aziraphale’s wings appear multidimensional. “And something blue, to match your eyes.” With a flourish of his fingers, blue springs up along the bottom edge of Aziraphale’s wings - a soft powder blue lightly brushed along the tips, adding more of a suggestion than a declaration of color. Crowley examines his handiwork front and back, making sure it’s clean and even.

That it’s perfection for his angel.

“I think that does it. What do you think?”

Aziraphale stretches his wings up and out as far as they’ll go for full effect, then flaps to see how they would look in flight. “They’re … they’re gorgeous!” he gasps. “They truly are, but …”

“But?”

Aziraphale chuckles. He gives his wings one last flap, then folds them carefully behind him. “Everything you said … well, you made it sound like we were getting mar---” Aziraphale cuts himself short when a box appears on the sink in front of him, as if by magic. The counter had been clear before. Aziraphale is sure of it “---ried?” He watches Crowley pick the box up and open it, revealing an elegant but simple (surprisingly considering Crowley’s extravagant tastes) platinum band set with a single, pale blue stone in the center. It catches the light overhead, winking at Aziraphale the same way Crowley does. “Is that an … uh …?”

“I think the words you’re looking for are engagement ring.”

“Yes. Yes, that’s it.” Aziraphale turns his head to look at Crowley, staring back at the angel with a smug grin. “I-is it?”

“I would like it to be.”

Aziraphale stares Crowley down, waiting for the catch. The punchline. When there’s isn’t one, he sputters, “A-are you serious?”

“Yes! Aziraphale, we’ve known one another forever. And that’s not me being facetious. We’ve actually known one another forever. Since the beginning of time on Earth. And throughout all of the years we’ve spent here, do you know the one thing I have always looked forward to?”

“What?”

“Seeing you.” Crowley steps behind him, wraps his arms around his waist but keeps the ring ever in Aziraphale’s view. “And now that we live together and I see you every day, I never want to risk losing you. I don’t want you to ever doubt for one minute that the only place I want to be is by your side.”

Aziraphale stares at the ring, too afraid to take it out of its box and examine it. Because that will change everything. And whereas Aziraphale welcomes that change, he wants this moment to last - this stage in between yes and no. “We probably won’t be able to have a proper wedding ceremony, all things considered.”

“So what? We’re an angel and a demon, as you keep reminding me. And we happen to be in love, which is entirely unheard of. We are treading in unexplored country. I think we get to define what marriage means to us. Would that bother you?”

Aziraphale turns in Crowley’s arms, 6000 years’ worth of longing laid to bare in his eyes. “No. Not in the slightest.”

“In fact, we don’t need any kind of ceremony. You’re an angel. I was an angel. I think that gives us both a certain measure of authority in this arena. Here.” Crowley gently pulls out the ring and sets the box aside. He takes Aziraphale’s left hand in his, sliding the ring slowly down his ring finger. “Principality Aziraphale, Angel of the Eastern Gate of Eden, you mean everything to me. You are my anchor. My strength. My inspiration. You’re my reason for waking up every morning. After 6000 years on this planet, I have narrowed down everything I adore to one single entity, and that’s you. And I’ve recently come to terms with the fact that it always has been. Will you do me the incredible honor of standing by my side until the sun explodes and this planet drowns in fire?”

Aziraphale frowns. “That’s incredibly vivid.”

“Love me till beyond the end of time?” Crowley continues. “And when all is said and done, accompany me to the end of the cosmos? Because there’s nowhere for me unless you’re there. There is no me without you, Aziraphale. Not anymore.”

“Do you mean all that?”

Crowley’s eyes roll. “I said it, didn’t I? Of course, I mean it. I love you. I think I always have. And I know I always will. So … will you marry me?”

Aziraphale looks at the ring on his finger. It’s precious, so much more to him than the one he’s worn on his pinkie since time began. He has no intention of ever taking it off. But it doesn’t compare to the demon holding him, waiting patiently for an answer.

Waiting for this moment, apparently, for close to 6000 years.

Same as he.

Aziraphale leans back in Crowley’s embrace and smiles.

“I will.”

#good omens #Good Omens Fanfic #ineffable husbands #crowley x aziraphale #aziraphale x crowley #frankie writes

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tehmoonofficial · 4 years

Note

Hoppin on the bandwagon :D What 7 deadly sins would they be? What about the 7 holy virtues? The 7 wonders of the world? The planets? (including Grace or Dave cause there’s 8 planets lmao) The 7 elements? (nature/earth, water, fire, air, light, dark, spirit) 7 colors of the rainbow? The 7 days of the week? These were fun lmao

Oh wow! Thanks for the ask anon!! I’m using the seven wonders of the ancient world, because that’s the list I found sdjghdg. 8th planet: Eudora is Venus because She Deserves It, and Dave and Grace are both the sun because they Deserve It

Luther: Pride, he thinks himself to be the most selfless and brave member of the Umbrella Academy as the leader. Courage, because he puts himself in dangerous situations for what is the most important cause. He would be the Colossus of Rhodes because a) Giant and b) Helios, which is relevant to space, and Luther goes to space. I HC that Luther had a childhood interest in outer space. Luther is Mars because of how distant he feels from his siblings, when he really shares similar experiences with them. Luther is light because he really likes light (the sunrise on the Moon thing). Luther is Monday because of his dedication to working. Luther is yellow.

Diego: Wrath, he lets his anger get the best of him and ruin good opportunities. Justice, because he fights as a vigilante to make sure good always exists. He would be the hanging towers of Babylon because I HC that Grace really enjoys plants, so he would have picked the interest up from her. Diego is Uranus because Uranus is made of ice, and ice is.... Pointey. Diego is dark because he does his best work in the shadows. Diego is Friday. Diego is red.

Allison: Greed, she wanted to become as rich and famous as possible. Temperance, because she limits herself on how often she uses her powers. She would be the Lighthouse of Alexandria, because it is a beacon for everything, and she helps all her siblings to get their bearings. Allison is Saturn because I associate Saturn with grace and elegance and pride! You go girl! Allison is fire because of her deep passion for everything. Allison is Thursday. Allison is green.

Klaus: Gluttony, he used drugs to get away from real life, so he has an overconsumption of them. Charity, because he helps his siblings no matter what. He would be the Tomb of Mausolus because of his connection with death. Klaus is Mercury because Mercury is the messenger of the gods! Klaus connects the dead with the living, so he is their messenger. Klaus is spirit because he is able to meet people anywhere. Klaus is Wednesday, and it’s a happy coincidence because of the reference to the character.

Five: Lust, according to the technical definition, lust is the desire for more of anything already possessed, so Five wants validation. He gets validation from being a regular member of the Umbrella Academy, but throws it away for even more as a time traveler. Faith, because he spends 45 years trying to fix the Apocalypse, which he blames himself for. He would be the Great Pyramid of Giza because he worked so hard to build something. He’s Jupiter because of two reasons! One, Jupiter is a gas giant, which reminds me of the bursts of light that Five’s power has. Two, Jupiter’s moons have so much potential, which connects to all the hidden aspects of his power. Five would be air because of his ability to travel through it. Five is Tuesday. Five is orange.

Ben: Sloth? I don’t think we know enough about him, but he seems really tired when he’s a kid and says he doesn’t want to use his powers. Prudence, because he knew his powers were dangerous, and helps Klaus with his own self-preservation. He would be the Statue of Zeus, because they both have powers that can be seen as scary. (Lightning is dangerous, the Horror is dangerous.) Ben is Earth because of his connection to progressing through knowledge (he read at the table, he learns about being corporeal). Ben is water because of the Horror (lol) and also because water is associated with blue, and being calm. I think that in Not Crisis situations, he’d be pretty chill. Ben is Saturday. Ben is blue.

Vanya: Envy, she is envious of her siblings. Hope, because she hopes to one day have a good relationship with her siblings and she hopes to eventually be worth more, which is why she is so easily convinced by Leonard that she is special. I mean, she did name her book Extra-Ordinary, dfjgdfhgd. She would be the Temple of Artemis because of her love of knowledge (studying the violin) and books. She’s Neptune, because of her distance from her family. Vanya is nature because she thinks she’s a normal, natural human for most of her life. She also ends nature. Vanya is Sunday. Vanya is violet.

Tysm again for the ask!!

#ask #Anonymous #not a meme #drug mention tw #seven ancient wonders #seven deadly sins #seven holy virtues #solar system #colors #tua hc

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forever-more-never-again · 6 years

Text

Blood Ties (Part One)

Word Count:1883

Warnings: Swearing

Pairing: Shoto Todoroki X Fem!Reader, Platonic!Izuku Midoriya X Reader, Platonic!Katsuki Bakugou X Reader, Father!Shota Aizawa X Adopted!Reader

a/n: Would you look at that! Another series that popped into my head to add to my growing collection of WIP’s...this is my first BNHA fic so please let me know if you like it or not!

Masterlist

Part Two

Mariko - first name, The truth

Adohira - Surname, peace within chaos

Adohira Mariko - the truth of peace within chaos

Quirk- Can shapeshift into another person after touching them. Can also use the persons who they shape shifted into Quirk, but it comes at the cost of Nausea and fatigue and sometimes causes them to collapse. They can choose to keep the ability to shapeshift into someone any chance they need to, by taking a bit of their dna and ingesting it. The ones they keep permanently are known by the strange marks on their back that show up after ingesting the DNA.

Students slowly filed in, shooting questioning glances towards you, but no one approached.

You struggled not to smile. No. Mr. Aizawa does not smile.

Perched on the edge of his desk, swinging your legs, you watched the class of 1-A sit down in their respective desks and wait.

Silence.

And then the door slammed open as the real Mr. Aizawa strolled in. He did a double take when he saw you, but did not change his facial expression.

“Hello Class.”

“Mr. Aizawa!”

“How!”

“What!?” “Who is this!?”

“This is highly irregular! As the student Representative, I say declare yourself now Impersonator!” This was loudly spoken by a teenager wearing glasses, karate chopping his hands in the air to emphasis his point.

You laughed, still keeping Mr. Aizawa’s shape. His laugh coming out of your mouth, his voice when you spoke, “Mr. Aizawa knows who I am. I’m joining your class.”

A very familiar short green haired boy spoke up shyly from the back, “But School has already been going on for a month now.”

You nodded, “I got in on recommendation but I couldn’t get here till now. Coming from over in America is a real struggle.”

The room erupted into mutters as people took in what you were saying. You knew what they were wondering. Why would someone from America come to Japan? There were plenty good hero academies in America. You had your own reasons for coming to UA, but you wouldn’t share them.

“[Y/n]...could you please stop using your quirk...or did you bring eye drops for me?” One of the real Mr. Aizawa’s eyebrows rose.

You smiled, “I know you aren’t going to use your erasure on me. But okay.” You turned back to the students who were still staring at you in various degrees of confusion, admiration, and fear, “Please...take in mind that since I came from America...Where women can dress very differently...that I mean no offense by my outfit.”

Mr. Aizawa let out a long suffering sigh, “Where is your uniform [Y/n]?”

You turned, sheepish, “I uh,” You rubbed the back of your head, still as Mr. Aizawa, “Might have lost it at customs earlier this week.”

Another long suffering sigh and a wave of his hands, “Return to normal and I’ll have another student take you to the office to get a new one.”

Taking a deep, calming breath, you let your quirk fade out. And stood before class 1-A in high rise denim shorts, a plaid shirt, and cowboy boots.

“Holy!”

“Jesus!”

“Sorry!”

“Indecent!” “Look away Midoriya!”

Looking over the sea of faces, you settled on one that wasn’t participating in the shock fest, who actually looked...bored. A kid with peppermint hair.

“I volunteer to take you to the office!”

“No! I volunteer!”

“You perves, let a fellow girl take her!”

Mr. Aizawa sighed and you couldn’t stop the laugh, knowing what he would say.

“I don’t care, figure it out so that class can begin.” He unrolled a yellow sleeping bag and you smirked.

“Lost the red one?” You asked.

The class stilled once more.

“Get a uniform.”

And he faced the wall so that you could no longer see his face.

Spinning on the heel of your boots, you began walking to the door, “Alright, well I’m off to find the office.”

“Wait!”

The voice startled you. Without looking back, you ran out of the room.

Turning a corner, you listened as footsteps followed.

Your memories forced you back to a time before everything...a time of innocence. Two young boys and a girl playing in a river together. Proclaiming that they each would become a hero one day.

You hadn’t realized it, but you were now on the floor, hyperventilating as the memories overpowered you.

“Hey...are you okay?” That soft voice again. Still the same as it was all those years ago.

You looked up at Izuku Midoriya...the same child who used to play with you and Kacchan...Katsuki Bakugou all those years ago.

You saw the moment his eyes widened in recognition, “Mariko Ad-”

You jumped up, hand flying out to cover his mouth. He jumped and struggled, but your grip was strong.

Sparing a glance to the hallways, making sure no one else was around, you tugged Izuku further into the shadows before releasing his mouth.

He frowned at you, “Mariko, what’s wrong?” You hissed, “I’m not Mar-” You couldn’t say the name, biting the inside of your cheek, you flinched and sighed, running a hand through your hair.

“I’m [Y/n]. That, “You spat out, “other person is dead.”

You knew you were confusing the boy.

“Look, Izuku...let’s find somewhere else to talk. I’ll...I’ll explain everything.” Shoulders sagging in defeat, you followed your old childhood friend to an empty classroom.

Jumping, you sat on the desk across from the chair that Izuku sat in. He looked up at you, those big eyes waiting.

You closed your eyes for a minute. Trying to calm the storm inside. The fibers of your being that were yelling at you to run away. That this was a mistake.

“I see you finally developed a quirk. I’m sorry I wasn’t here when it showed. Did it happen right after..?”

Looking at Izuku, you saw him fidget, and his eyes dart around. Narrowing your eyes, you knew something was up.

But he didn’t cave, “Yeah. It’s strength, agility and mobility...and Well...you left before your quirk showed too.”

You groaned, pushing the palms of your hands into your eyes, “I didn’t leave!”

That came out harsher than you planned.

Taking a deep breathe, you lowered your hands and opened them pleadingly to the tense boy, “I didn’t leave.” You repeated, softer this time.

Izuku leaned forward, confusion all over his face, “What do you mean? One minute, you were next door and the next minute, you were gone. No one knew where you or your parents were. But none of the police were concerned, saying that it was all official business and that there was nothing to worry about.”

You let out a short sarcastic bark of laughter, “Of course they did. They couldn’t have it be known that two of the cities finest citizen quirk users were brutally slaughtered in their own home.”

A horrified gasp.

Your eyes were staring at Izuku, but were unfocused..seeing the past. Your folks both had powerful quirks, but they never went pro. Choosing instead to follow business jobs and staying at home to raise you.

Until that day you came home from a day of playing with Izuku and Katsuki, excited to show your parents the quirk that had showed itself on your way home and found..

You shuddered, bringing yourself back to the present, you hung your head, staring at the ground, “I still have nightmares. I’ll spare you the details of what I stumbled upon at five years old.”

A cold hand grabbed yours, “Mari...I mean [Y/n]...I had no idea. I’m so sorry.”

You laughed again, a bitter sound, “Yeah. Everyone was so damn sorry. The police officers, the case workers, the mayor. Everyone was so damn sorry but they did nothing. Those villains got away with killing innocent people and no one gave a damn.”

You were getting heated. Standing up, you began pacing at the front of the empty classroom.

“But what happened? Why did you disappear?” Izuku muttered, more to himself than you.

You answered, your voice growing thick and emotional, “A few days after, I was stuck at the police precinct...they didn’t want anyone to get wind of the murders...they knew it would only cause panic and chaos. That was how Shota Aizawa found me.”

You paused your pacing for a moment, before starting up again.

Izuku leaned back, stunned, “You met Mr. Aizawa when he was still doing Hero work?” Obvious Awe in his voice.

You smiled softly, he was still the same five year old nerd you remembered.

“He was bringing in some low level thugs when he saw me crying in an interrogation room that was being used as a temporary room for me. He came in and talked to me, calmed me down. He showed up everyday for a week before he finally decided to talk to an official about my situation. When he learned that I had no relatives and nobody knew what to do with me, he decided to take custody of me.”

Izuku gasped, “So you’re technically..”

You walked back to the desk he sat in, perching on the edge, you smiled again, “Yeah I’m technically his kid. At least, according to the courts. He adopted me. I thought he would keep me with him. But..” You trailed off again.

Now that Izuku had gotten you talking, it actually felt good to get this all off your chest.

“He said his line of work was too dangerous. So he sent me to New York where a friend lived.”

Izuku snorted, before realizing what he had done and promptly covering his mouth with his hands, his face turning red.

You snorted after, “It’s okay. I know it doesn’t seem like Shota has friends. But he does...did..anyways. Back when he was still Eraserhead. I grew up in New York….until I was old enough to apply for UA. Shota told me not to. He kept in contact all these years, but I am determined. I’m going to become a hero and I’m going to find the villains that killed them.”

Izuku’s coloring gradually returned to normal and he looked at you concerned, “[Y/n]...revenge isn’t something you should go after. A hero can’t use their quirks outside government regulations and certainly not for personal justice. You know this.” He tilted his head, “Why didn’t you keep in contact with me or kacchan?” He sounded hurt.

You gently ruffled his hair, “I’m sorry. I was just five. Scared. Hurt. In a new country. By the time I thought about contacting you...it had been a few years and I figured you both had moved on with your lives and I would just mess them up. That’s why I was hoping neither of you recognized me.”

Izuku laughed, “I don’t think Kacchan recognized you. I barely did with how you’re dressed.” He waved a hand at you, averting his eyes from your body, though his face still turned slightly red.

You laughed, “Yeah. I got used to the customs in America. I need to remember how to behave in Japan.”

Izuku sighed, “[Y/n]...you can’t let this revenge cloud your vision or decide your future...Why can’t you just be Mariko?”

Your eyes burned, you stood up again, towering over Izuku who for once looked terrified at you, “Mariko Adohira is dead! They died with their parents. I am Aizawa [Y/n] now and forever. I won’t let those villains who killed my parents find me.”

Izuku’s terrified expression turned to one of intense thinking, “You think they will target you after ten years?”

You stood tall, staring out at nothing, but seeing the shadowy figures that haunted your nightmares, “I don’t know. But for now, I have the element of surprise and I’m not losing it.”

FOREVER Taglist:

@sxph-t @mialeelavellan @rainydaysrnevergrey @platonic-plots @sociallyawkwardcircus-freak-hi @ayyidkeither @queenbbarnes @mythixmagic @chas-z @thefridgeismybestie @strangersstranger

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woo-san-shine · 5 years

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Our Way

ateez college au

Premise: You and your best friend from high school move away to a university 3 hours away from your small hometown. You find yourself meeting a strange cast of characters along the way that will help you find your way throughout your freshman year.

Word Count: 3k

Warnings: Slight language

Author’s Note: A work in progress!!! Mostly just for fun

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Chapter 4

"Does he really think that sprinting up three flights of stairs is going to be faster than the elevator?" Sooyoung asks, turning to Mingi who was pressing the number 11 button on the keypad.

"Jongho like to display his athletic abilities at every chance he gets," Mingi answers while sweeping his hair over to the side. "Pretty soon he'll be asking you to arm wrestle."

The elevator dings and opens on the 11th floor. It looked almost identical to the 7th, except for a smiling Jongho who was leaning against the doorframe of a room about halfway down the hall.

"I found their room!" He shouts to us, gesturing his thumb towards the door he was leaning against.

"Dude! How the hell did you beat us?!" Mingi yells back. He then proceeds to sprint out of the elevator toward Jongho. He's not a very graceful runner, arms slightly flailing at his sides. This makes Jongho immediately burst out laughing.

Sooyoung and I exchange a skeptical glance as we follow Mingi down the hallway at a normal pace. They're certainly acting a little goofier than they were before. We arrive at the still laughing pair. I clear my throat to get their attention. Mingi quickly snaps out of his laughing fit and straightens up, trying his best to look composed.

"Uh, yeah sorry about that," Jongho says while trying his best to stifle in his laughter towards Mingi. "This is their room," he says, pointing to the door again. There is another whiteboard on this door too with the names 'Kim Hongjoong' and 'Park Seonghwa' written on it. He reaches down to turn the doorknob, but it appears to be locked.

"Should you knock?" I ask.

Mingi knocks twice, waits a few seconds, and knocks again. No answer. He proceeds to press his ear up to the door, eyebrows furrowed. Sooyoung follows this action putting her ear up to the door as well. Mingi is so tall that Sooyoung practically stands directly under him without so much at the top of her head reaching the middle of his chest.

"It sounds like someone is... vacuuming?" she says, slightly confused.

"Typical," Mingi says while rolling his eyes.

Jongho steps forward and proceeds to bang on the door with enough force that surely the door should have split in half. A few seconds pass before the door finally swings open to reveal a boy holding a vacuum in one hand and a bottle of all-purpose cleaner in the other.

"Hey there, Mars. Doing some deep cleaning are you?" Mingi asks smirking at the boy with the vacuum.

The boy, 'Mars', cracks half a smile at the sight of his friends.

"We've been here for how long and you're already cleaning?" Jongho asks.

"They said that these rooms would be cleaned before we moved in, but there was at least an inch of dust inside the closet and the carpets..."

Before the boy can finish, Jongho brings him in for a hug that lifts him off his feet, vacuum and all. This makes Mingi bust out laughing again. From over Jonhgo's shoulder, vacuum boy finally sees Sooyoung and I both just awkwardly standing there.

"Well hello there," the boy says, slightly strained. This is probably due to Jonhgo's death grip around his waist.

At this, Jongho sets him down. "Oh sorry, this is Kim Jaemin and Choi Sooyoung," Jongho says, pointing to each of us. "I met Jaemin earlier today while we were moving in, and Sooyoung is her roommate. We all live on the same floor."

The boy politely bows to Sooyoung and I and we each return the bow. "Park Seonghwa," he says. He shakes both of our hands.

Seonghwa is also fairly tall, but not as tall as Mingi. He has jet-black hair that was short in the back, but his bangs are long and sweep across on side of his forehead. His eyes are a greenish color and slightly hooded, making his expression seem almost... sultry? It was the first word that came to my mind. He had very striking features. He wasn't built like Jungho either, being slightly more in the thinner side. His legs were long and his shoulders were very broad.

"They're both from three hours north of here, and they don't have any friends yet," Mingi states.

"Hey!" Sooyoung says while shooting Mingi a glare. Mingi clearly had no idea he said anything wrong and looked slightly confused at Sooyoung's retort.

"I mean, he's not wrong," I say shrugging.

"Anyway," Jongho says while rolling his eyes. "Can we come in?"

"Oh, yeah of course," Seonghwa says, gesturing his hand holding the vacuum into the room.

Sooyoung and I follow Mingi and Jongho into the room as Seonghwa places the vacuum and all-purpose cleaner next to what I assume is his desk. The room is set up the exact same as mine and Sooyoung's. However, each side of the room is drastically different. Seonghwa's side of the room is neatly organized with a muted color pallet. Everything on his desk has a specific place and his bed is perfectly made. The other side of the room is almost overflowing with decorations, books, and posters strewn about the wall. Various clothes, hats, scarves, and other accessories hang from the bed frame due to the fact that there was no room in the overflowing closet. Atop the desk sits a keyboard and a giant computer monitor. In front of the monitor sit a boy wearing a giant pair of headphones. He doesn't seem to have noticed that he has guests.

Mingi begins to tiptoe over to the occupied desk. He turns back to the rest of us, puts a finger to his lips and goes "shhhhh." He then grabs the boy’s headphones and snaps them once against his head. This causes the boy to whip around in his chair so fast that he almost falls off. Jongho and Mingi start laughing and Seonghwa lets out a little chuckle while rolling his eyes.

"What the hell?!" the boy shouts while simultaneously grabbing ahold of one side of his lofted bed to steady himself. He looks angry at first, but at the sight of a still laughing Jongho and a smirking Mingi, his face breaks out into a wide smile.

"Joonie, always so easy to scare," Mingi says, sticking his arm out to help the boy out of his chair.

"That's a lot, coming from someone who's afraid of his own shadow!" the boy replies, finally taking off his headphones. "I figured we'd see you two eventually, but you could've texted us," he says to Mingi and Jongho. His eyes finally rest upon Sooyoung and I.

"We wanted it to be a surprise! And we brought some new friends," Jongho says gesturing towards the pair of us. "This is Kim Jaemin," he points to me. "I met her this morning during move-in. And this is her roommate, Choi Sooyoung. They live on the 7th floor with us."

The boy immediately steps forward to shake both of our hands. "Kim Hongjoong," he says, clasping my hand with both of his. He does the same to Sooyoung.

Hongjoong had a very unique look about him. He was shorter and smaller than the rest of the guys in the room, but there was something about made him stand out. His hair was a light-brown that was long in the back, reaching the base of his neck. His eyes were large, his nose was small, and his smile was big. His ears were full of different piercings, and the shirt he was wearing looked like it had been drawn and written all over.

"It's nice to meet you both," he says.

"You too," I say shyly. Today had been a little overwhelming in itself, even outside meeting all of these new people. I could tell even Sooyoung was feeling a little out of place due to the fact that she was being fairly quiet.

"Please, everyone have a seat," Seonghwa said. He pulled out the two desk chairs for Sooyoung and I. Jongho and Hongjoong sat down on the floor leaning their backs against the closet, Seonghwa sat himself in a cushioned chair that was next to his desk, and Mingi hurridly climbed up the ladder onto Seonghwa's freshly-made bed. I could see Seonghwa wince slightly as he watched Mingi untuck his comforter.

The four boys were now just staring at the pair of us. I felt a little insecure.

"Urm, how exactly did you meet again?" Hongjoong asked

Sooyoung and I exchanged a quick uncomfortable glance. Maybe we shouldn't have come. I did feel like we were slightly intruding on something.

"Oh, I'm not trying to be rude!" Hongjoong quickly interjected, sensing our discomfort. He looked a little worried.

"Like I said, I met Jaemin this morning during move-in," Jongho said, easing the awkwardness that had fallen over the room.

He flashed me a smile. I instantly felt a little more confident. "Yeah," I added. "I was looking for one of those carts to carry your stuff on, you know? But there were none left. Until Jongho offered to give my family his cart. And then my mom somehow roped him into carrying boxes for us."

"Ooooh how polite our Maknae is," Seonghwa said, giving a side-eye in Jungho's direction.

"Wait, Maknae? Youngest?" Sooyoung questioned.

"Well, out of our group of friends, Jungho is the youngest," Hongjoong explained.

"Little baby isn't even eighteen yet," Mingi cooed. He took one of Seonghwa's many throw pillows that were on his bed and threw it at him. Jongho easily caught it and whipped it back at Mingi, hitting him square in the face. This caused the whole room to start laughing, except for Seonghwa.

"It hasn't even been one day," I heard him say under his breath.

"Wait wait wait," Sooyoung said interrupting the laughs. "How are you only 17 and at University?"

"Ah, well, I was so far ahead on the growth chart during elementary school placement that everyone thought I was older than I was. So I think I technically skipped a grade," Jongho said. He rubbed his hand on the back of his neck, looking a little embarrassed.

"Yeah, so much for your height though," Mingi teased again. Even Seonghwa laughed at this one. Hongjoong was basically rolling on the floor doubled over in laughter.

"At least I don't walk around like a fucking baby giraffe," Jungho calmy said, staring up at Mingi from the floor. This caused both Seonghwa and Hongjoong to start tearing up from laughs and Mingi to bury his face into one of the pillows.

Sooyoung and I laughed too. I enjoyed watching them joke together and I could tell this was something that happened often.

"Anyway," Hongjoong finally said after he composed himself. "You two are roommates right?" He pointed back and forth between Sooyoung and I.

We both nodded.

"How do you know each other?"

"We went to high school together," Sooyoung answered. "We're from three hours north of here, so we thought it would just be convenient to live together when we both decided to come here for school."

"Yeah, seeing as we don't really know anyone from around here," I added.

"Must have been pretty hard to leave your homes, right?" Hongjoong asked?

"Oh yeah, I loved it back at home," Sooyoung replies. “I almost had a breakdown this morning while leaving.”

I shrug. "Eh, I was ready to leave," I say. "Of course I'll miss my parents, but I'm excited for a change." I catch Sooyoung furrowing her brows at me out of the corner of my eye, but the rest of the boys are smiling at the pair of us.

"What are you guys studying?" Seonghwa asks.

"I'm going into Engineering," Sooyoung answers boastfully. She absolutely loved talking about her future academic plans, how difficult it was to even get into Engineering at this University, and especially about her scholarship.

"Oh whoa, now way," Mingi said, immediately straightening up in bed to look at Sooyoung. "That's what I'm studying too."

Sooyoung looked thrilled to hear this. "Really? What's your classed schedule like?" The two start eagerly comparing class schedules.

"And you, Jaemin?" Hongjoong asks me.

"College of Art, specifically Graphic Design."

"Oh cool!" He sounded genuinely excited. "I'm minoring in Fine Arts with a double major in Music Production and Composing."

That was really impressive. Two majors and a minor? The keyboard on his desk suddenly made sense. "Wow, that'll be really interesting to study," I say.

"Yeah, I'm so excited to start classes on Monday," He gives me a big smile.

"Me too," I say to him. I pause slightly. “I.. like music and thought about doing something with it but... I don’t know.”

“Do you sing?” he asks.

“Oh god no,” I hurriedly say. “I play guitar.”

“Ahh, I wish I could play guitar, that’s awesome.”

“He can do pretty much anything else, though,” Seonghwa chimes in.

Hongjoong blushes a little and waves his hand in the air, dismissing Seonghwa’s compliment.

“What about you?" I ask Seonghwa.

"I'm in the College of Business, but haven't picked a specialty yet," he answers.

"Fancy boy just likes the idea of getting to wear suits to class," Jongho jokes.

We spend the rest of the evening talking about our intended majors and what we'd like to do once we actually graduate. Sooyoung and I share more about what life was like in our small town, and the boys continue to joke with one another making everyone in the room almost tear up from laughter multiple times. I was really enjoying myself and felt much more comfortable around them than I had when I first entered the room.

Seonghwa gets out of his chair, stretches, and checks his phone. "We should probably be kicking you guys out soon. It's almost midnight."

I hadn't even realized it had gotten so late, the conversation had just been constantly flowing that I wasn't keeping track of the time.

"Yeah," Hongjoong adds, getting up from the floor. "Didn't we all promise to help the others move in tomorrow?"

Mingi groaned. "Do we have to?"

"It'll be the nice thing to do," Hongjoong said to Mingi giving him a stern look.

This made Mingi groan even more as he slowly climbed down from Seonghwa's bed.

"Well, it was very nice to meet you two," Seonghwa said to Sooyoung and I. He shook both of our hand again.

"Likewise," I said.

"Of course we'll see you both around again, right" Hongjoong said.

Would we? I hadn't really thought that far ahead. I smile to him and give a slight nod.

"Oooh maybe once everyone is all settled we could all meet up and celebrate finally being all together again," he says to the others.

"Joon, it's only been like a week since we've all hung out," Mingi said.

"You know what I mean!" Hongjoong says back. "Finally all being at College together. We've all worked hard to get here."

"Yeah, that actually could be fun," Seonghwa said thoughtfully while fixing the pillows in his bed that Mingi has left strewn about.

"You two could come too, of course," Hongjoong said, looking to Sooyoung and I.

"Really?" Sooyoung questioned.

"Of course, ya get to meet the rest of the group," Mingi said, winking in Sooyoung's direction. This immediately made her blush.

"Let's let these two get to bed, Mars is yawning over there," Jongho said, gesturing towards Seonghwa who was indeed letting lose a rather large yawn. He looked embarrassed when he noticed us all staring at him.

We all said goodbye to Hongjoong and Seonghwa, left the room, and got in the elevator to head back down to the 7th floor.

"They were really nice," I say to no one in particular.

"Yeah, Hongjoong is great with people and Seonghwa can just stand there and people usually fawn over him," Jongho said to me.

Both boys walked us to our room, which I thought was incredibly nice.

"Goodnight ladies," Mingi said with a smile.

"Maybe we'll see you tomorrow?" Jongho asked.

"Yeah maybe, we'll see," I say, not really knowing how to respond.

"Yeah, feel free to stop by anytime," Sooyoung said, but mostly to Mingi.

We head back into our room and start getting ready for bed. I finally climb into my bed and the tiredness that I had been starting to feel all day hits me.

"I had fun talking with them," I say to Sooyoung who was already in bed.

"Yeah I guess. It was lucky that you meet Jongho this morning."

"Mhhhm," I sigh, feeling my eyes starting to get heavy.

"What was with that comment back there, though?."

"What do you mean?" I ask, sitting up in bed to look at Sooyoung in the darkness.

"The whole ‘ready for a change’ thing,"

"When?" I was racking my brain to try and remember what she could possibly be talking about.

"You said you were ready for a change, made it sound like you don’t appreciate our hometown and all our friends back home."

I pause. “I mean... you know things were a little weird right before we left.”

“Do you mean the whole Jihoon thing?”

Jihoon was my ex of three years. We had basically been together most of high school. He had been friends with Sooyoung for a while, and she was the one who had introduced us. He was an overall nice guy, plain and simple. Our friend groups all hung out together and it was really nice for awhile

But things started to get stagnant. I felt like the relationship wasn’t going anywhere. I eventually ended things about a month before leaving for university. He was staying at home to work for his parent’s business and spent most of the last year of our relationship trying to convince me to stay too. He was utterly shocked when I told him I was planning on moving away for university, let alone three hours away. He accused me of being selfish and not thinking about what was best for us. It was hard, but I was doing this for me. I rarely ever thought of myself first, and I still feel guilty about it.

“Yeah, I guess..” I say, trailing off.

“Hmph,” I hear her say in the darkness. Sooyoung had been very against me ending the relationship, mostly because it made things very awkward in our friend group.

“But did you see the way Mingi was looking at you all night?” I ask her, hoping to distract her from talking about Jihoon any further.

“Really?” I hear her giggle slightly.

“Oh for sure, he couldn’t keep his eyes off you.”

"Hmmm you think so?"

"Definitely."

She hums happily. Easily distracted, Sooyoung promptly drifted off to sleep with me following shortly after.

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owlish-peacock36 · 6 years

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Exsanguinate: Chapter 5--Tapestries

A/N: Sorry this is so late! I hope you enjoy!

Previously: Prologue Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4

Jamie found Claire waiting outside the door, patient and still as only vampires can be. Without the fierceness and distrust in her eyes, he could truly see her face as it was. Fair and soft, she was quite beautiful, with full lips and a pointed, freckled nose. But what was most captivating were her eyes. They were large and round, fringed with dark lashes. The color of them was strange, and somehow familiar. A whisky color that reminded him of home.

“I know you don’t trust me, but will you come with me?” She held out a hand, her thick pearl bracelet clicking with the movement.

No words were spoken, but Jamie gently placed his hand in hers, her thin bones belying the steel strength beneath.

“Lead the way.”

***

Myths about vampires had become increasingly more ridiculous ever since Vlad the Impaler’s cruelty:

Sensitivity to sunlight (false).

Allergic to garlic (false).

Unreflected in mirrors (false).

Alarmingly large cuspids (false).

But as Jamie was led through the bowels of the Parisian home, he began to wonder if maybe some myths were true. Were they hiding coffins? Did they drain bodies upside down in the cellar? Jamie wasn’t sure he wanted to know.

As they approached the bottom of the staircase, a single door stood, only visible by the two sconces that guarded it.

“How much do you know of our history? Vampire history?” The walk down had been silent, so Claire’s voice was startling.

“Oh, umm, verra little. If any.”

“I thought so. Fergus, well, he saw that you woke alone when you were changed. I suppose you’ve never had anyone teach you.”

“Nay.”

“Well.” A small smile graced her face, shadowed by the lacking candlelight. “It’s never too late to learn. In here.”

She pushed the door open, and it creaked with disuse, an assault on the ears.

“Come.” Claire pulled a candle from it’s sconce, and entered the room. Jamie followed close behind.

The room was dimly lit, and lavishly decorated, like the apartment above it. What set it apart, though, were the multitude of tapestries that covered the walls. Brilliant colors flashed against the neutral stone. Hand painted and intricately detailed, each tapestry told a story. A scene that conversed with images instead of words.

“A dhia…”

“This is our past, present, and future. All of us. We should start at the beginning.”

She began walking toward the tapestry suspended on the far corner. Again, Jamie followed.

“This is where we all come from.” Claire carefully thrust the candle closer the image, shedding light on the scene.

Five humans were centered on the fabric—three males, two females. They were surrounded by hundreds of other figures, cloaked in black. Red paint was splattered upon the scene before him, marring its beauty. Blood. It was haunting. An image not soon forgotten.

“What is this?”

“The first five vampires. Every vampire is descended from one of them. This image here… this is their creation.”

“How?”

“Conjurers. They began… experimenting on corpses, trying to defy death. I suppose they were technically successful; their creations were immortal. What they didn’t expect, though, were the side effects.”

“Bloodlust?”

She made an affirmative noise in her throat. “Mmhmm. The five woke confused and hungry. They destroyed the entire coven within minutes of their rebirth.”

She motioned to the tapestry to the right. Similar to the first, the black-cloaked figures were now covered in crimson, lying prostrate beneath the five vampires.

“What does this have to do with yer war?”

“It was rumored that draining one of the originals would bring the drinker unspeakable power. No one has ever done it, though. And four of them are dead now, their blood feeding the earth. Only one remains.”

A pale finger pointed to the smallest vampire, an older man with white hair and deep, intelligent eyes.

“My father. Our father.” She motioned toward the ceiling, where Jamie could still hear the footsteps of the other vampire inhabitants. “This war… it will be about him.”

She crooked a finger, and made her way toward the opposite wall.

“And if we lose…” The next image she illuminated depicted the same small vampire, dead and blue. A shadowed form hovered above the corpse. There was no face, only blood where the face should be. Lightening surrounded the scene, emanating from the shadow’s fingertips.

“And if ye win?”

“Then life will be normal. Well, as normal as vampire lives can be.”

“And how do ye ken all this? I mean, who painted these?”

Claire looked a bit taken at his question. “Well… I did.”

“Ye… ye painted all these? They’re incredible.”

A sheepish smile crossed her face, cheeks pinkening. “Thank you.”

“How, though? How do ye ken these things?”

“Well, you know how Fergus can see memories in blood? I see things sometimes, too. Some things in the past, some in the future. I paint them as I see them. Otherwise, I won’t remember.”

Jamie wasn’t sure how to feel about that revelation. There was definitely something strange about these Paris vampires.

“We’re a bit… different, I know.”

He wondered briefly if she read minds as well.

“Father… He was a conjurer before his transformation; the only conjurer in the original five. There’s magic in his blood. So when he changed us… We inherited some of that magic.”

“And what about your other brother? John?”

“He’s highly empathetic. He can feel the emotions of others.”

“Oh.” It was all he could think of to say to that. “So, yer sure this war will happen?”

“Oh, yes. I’ve seen the war many times. The outcomes may change, but the war…” She moved again toward the tapestry above the fireplace. This was the largest one in the room, and the most chaotic. Bodies flew, blood poured, and Jamie could feel the battle within the image. So vivid and clear, he felt himself transported back to a field of war, until Claire interrupted his thoughts. “The war doesn’t change.”

“Christ…”

“Quite.”

“So, what is yer plan?”

“Fight. Fight the enemy when they come.”

“That’s no much of a plan…”

“It’s all we’ve got right now.”

Jamie turned toward her, hearing the worry in her voice. He saw it then. Beneath the confidence and assertion, true fear shone in her eyes. He wished to erase it.

“I’ll help ye.”

Ears perking, brows knitting, she asked, “Really?”

“Aye. Just tell me what I need to do.”

“I… I will.”

What did I just agree to?

“Do… do you have other questions? I suppose it is a lot to take in…”

“Nay, I dinna think so… Ye’ve overwhelmed be a bit,” he teased.

She laughed then, a deep bell-like sound that caused something to stir in Jamie’s stomach.

How lovely…

“I am curious, though...”

“Aye?”

“Where is your mark?”

Instinctively, Jamie’s hand flew up to his chest, rubbing the thick scar tissue above his heart.

“Ah... I want... That is... I hope I am not being too forward in asking... to possibly see it? It’s... Well, some sires have a distinctive mark. I’m wondering if I may recognize it...”

“Oh, umm...” Unbuttoning his top buttons, Jamie pulled the collar of his shirt to unveil the mark beneath.

“Oh, my...” A soft fingertip traced the mark, sending sparks of fire through his body. “Your sire was not very gentle with you.”

“I wouldna ken.”

At that, she reached for her wrist, pulling the thick bangle from it. Beneath it, her mark shimmered silver in the candlelight. It was similar in shape to his, but less mangled. A bite with care, if such a thing existed. Unconsciously, Jamie grasped her arm gently, covering the scar with his hand.

“Do ye... Do ye recognize it, then?”

“No, I don’t. I’ve never seen a mark so... malicious. Created with so much hate...” She pressed her fingers to her lips, and then caressed his scar gently. The sparks became uncontrollable flames. Jamie reciprocated, bringing his lips to her wrist.

The slamming of a door brought him back to the present, and he jumped away from the beautiful vampire before him.

“Bonjour, mes petits!”

A small grin pulled Claire’s lips. “That’ll be Father. Come. You should meet him.”

#outlander fanfic #outlander fanfiction #exsanguinate #chapter 5 #tapestries #jamie x claire #vampire au

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radioactivepeasant · 6 years

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Fic Prompts: Folklore Friday

So, I realized that my version of The Boy Who Went To Learn About Shudders doesn’t really match the original story all that much, so now I’m doing a “Radio Explains Fairytales Badly” for this one.

Right, this is a weird one.

So this isn’t one you’re likely to see a Disney adaptation of, unless Disney really really runs out of ideas. And they might. Who knows.

So to start with, we’ve got this man, and he’s got two sons. Fairytale patterns dictate that the younger one is going to go out on some kind of adventure. The dad goes to his boys like, “Okay, it’s time for you to learn a trade!” (In other words, get a job! ) And he asks them what they’re going to do with their lives. The older one’s answer isn’t really recorded that I remember, presumably because he’s the oldest and is probably going to take over whatever the dad’s business is, being the firstborn and all.

The dad asks the younger one, “What kind of trade do you want to learn?”

And he says, “I want to learn to shudder.”

Hm. Ah. Okay, so, in this day and age, that could mean “I’m going to make Let’s Plays of horror games on the internet and earn money that way!” or “I’m going to be a professional tester of carnival haunted-houses and get paid to be scared out of my wits!” or “I’m going to sew clothes made out of that awful material they make picnic tableclothes out of, the kind that gives you goosebumps whenever it touches your skin.” But in presumably-medieval fairytale-land, that’s just not a viable career choice.

And everyone seems to realize, “Wait, I don’t think this kid actually knows what fear is!”

Now, the local sexton, for some reason, hears about this. And he tells the dad, “Hey, tell the kid -- okay, he needs a name, let’s say Charlie -- to go to the belltower in the church at midnight and ring the bell. I can help him learn to shudder, then he can go job hunting like the rest of us.”

This apparently does not strike the dad as odd. The sexton clearly has some kind of prank in mind, the lack of reaction does make you wonder how many other people he has done this to.

So the boy is sent out to the church at night, and he rings the bell at midnight. And in comes the sexton, wearing a sheet, and pretending to be a ghost. That’s not all that concerning to the boy. Maybe he could see the guy’s feet, I don’t know.

“What are you doing here?” the boy asks, and since he’s in-character at the moment, the sexton doesn’t answer. The boy decides he doesn’t like this in the slightest, and chucks the guy down the stairs, which seems like a fairly drastic reaction to a guy in a bedsheet wandering a belltower at night.

The sexton breaks his leg.

There’s a little bit of a hue and cry over that in the village. This is understandable, but to be fair, he was up in a dark belltower at night trying to scare a guy with no concept of fear. He probably should’ve planned for something weird happening.

So the dad says, “Son, you should probably skip town, lay low for a while. You broke that guy’s leg!”

And he’s like, “Okay Dad, maybe I’ll find someone else to teach me how to shudder!”

He goes off, probably hitchiking, and wanders into this other town where he apparently tells anyone who will listen that he’s trying to learn to shudder. He meets this guy who says “Hey, you should spend a night sitting under the gallows. That will guaranteed creep you out.”

This is fair, that is a perfectly logical thing to creep a person out. Unless you’re this kid, apparently.

He goes and he sits under the gallows that night and --

Okay. So, I do have some questions about this protagonist. I’m kind of wondering how old he’s supposed to be, or else whether he’s just been living some kind of idyllic, sheltered village life. Because at this point, it’s midnight, and he’s sitting under the gallows and there are actual dead men up there. Actual, very dead men, and he doesn’t look at them and think “Hey, those are some dead guys!”

No, he looks at them and thinks, “Hey, they look cold!”

That...wouldn’t be my first thought when I’m looking at a corpse, I’m just gonna be honest with you. But that’s apparently his first thought, so he goes up and he cuts them down! Off the gallows! He cuts these guys down off the gallows and sits them down in front of his fire!

These are, as we have established, dead men, so they don’t really sit up well at the fire. They kinda...lean, or sort of flop, I guess. And one of them’s clothes catch fire. Because the kid sat a dead guy right up against the fire. And the kid gets mad.

“Well if you’re not sensible enough to move away from the fire,” he says, apparently thinking this corpse can hear him, “I’m going to put you back where I found you!”

And he does. He puts all seven of these dead guys, who were probably up there for a reason, back on the gallows. Ah...okay, kiddo. Whatever floats your boat, I guess.

And the next day he goes on, unsatisfied, because he didn’t learn to shiver. He goes travelling for a while with this waggoner. And presumably this waggoner has had to hear some really weird stuff during this trip. They end up staying in this town and someone is like, “Hey guys, did you know there’s a haunted castle here? Would anybody like to stay there?”

Of course, our boy is like, “Boy would I! Maybe I’ll learn to shudder!”

(And everybody else is thinking, “Yeah, if this doesn’t work, we don’t know what to do with you.”)

Come to find out, there was this king who really wanted to stay there. But he really couldn’t, because that castle was super haunted. And, y’know, you can’t really do your day-to-day king stuff when you’ve got shrieking and moaning and chains-dragging-down-the-hall going on. It’s kind of distracting, keeps interrupting the budget meetings. And once you’ve figured out that the shrieking and moaning isn’t the people trapped in the budget meetings, then you gotta call the fairytale equivalent of the Ghostbusters.

In this particular case, because it’s an old fairytale with...less than stellar social situations for some people...calling the Ghostbusters looks like the king saying “Anybody who clears out this castle can marry my daughter. She’s super pretty, by the way. And you’d get to rule my kingdom.”

Dude. You really want to screen people a little better than that. At least have some minimum qualifications, come on. You could get some kind of Ghostbuster Prince, or you could get a weirdo out for power, or you could get Luigi in yet another haunted mansion. I mean, if that’s what you’re looking for in a son-in-law okay, you do you, but the point is: you don’t know what you’re going to get when you basically put the princess’s hand up for auction like that. I’m just saying.

So, the boy doesn’t seem like he’s really got an interest in marrying the princess. All he wants to do is learn to shudder and go on his adventures. And he’s like, “Alright, I’ll stay the three nights in your haunted castle.”

And the king says, “You can take three non-living items with you.”

I don’t know why he made this rule. Maybe this was his attempt at screening some of the would-be son-in-laws coming through? It’s entirely arbitrary, most of these things are. So the kid asks for a tinder set to make a fire, a lathe, and a cutting board that comes with a knife. Okay, technically that’s probably four or five items, but the king allows it.

The boy sets up camp, and to be fair, he’s by himself in a large, drafty castle at night. Nobody’s keeping the place warm, and there’s no central heating. So fire and flint was a good choice. He gets set up and the first night he’s there he hears these voices wailing and crying about how cold they are.

His reaction is to yell something along the lines of, “I have a fire right here you nitwits! Just come warm yourselves!”

No concept of fear, and apparently not much for patience, either.

Out of the shadows jump these giant black cats. Now, I don’t know if they’re ghost cats, or some kind of cat sidhe, but either way they were probably up to no good in that particular castle. The cats come up to the fire and propose a card game.

If talking animals come up to you and say, “Hey, do you wanna play cards with us?”, there is probably an ulterior motive and you should probably be suspicious.

So, they start playing, and a couple turns in the kid realizes that the cats are cheating. This bothers him more than the fact that talking animals who don’t have opposable thumbs are holding cards and playing with a human. Animals behaving wildly out of character is apparently a-okay, but by golly they’d best not cheat at cards! Go figure.

He uses the knife and cutting board to somehow trap the cats’ paws. I think he may have said something about filing their claws, but unless there was some kind of clamp or something on the board to hold food down, I don’t know how one goes about trapping something with a cutting board.

In one version I’ve seen, he proceeds to throw the cats out the window, which is cruel even if they might’ve been planning to eat him or whatever ghostly card-cheat cats do in their spare time. In another version, he just chucked them out the chamber door and into the night to sulk, which I prefer because let’s not have our fairytale protagonist engaging in animal cruelty. Absolute no-thank-you.

Things get a little hairy after that, pretty much every shadow in the room comes to life and takes the shape of a giant black dog or cat that’s trying to scratch out his fire and tear him to pieces. This time, I’d say his actions are a little more justified, because he’s just defending himself. He picks up the knife and cutting board and fights off all the animals doing their darndest to kill him, and the results are rather gruesome and gory despite the fact that these things seem to be shadows that came to life rather than actual animals.

Despite how horrible all this was, the boy just kind of thinks, “Well, that sure was a thing,” and decides to go to sleep. He gets in bed, and the thing takes a page from Beauty and the Beast and goes marching off with him still atop it, which actually sounds kind of fun. Then it tips over and attempts to crush him, which is less fun. And that’s the end of Night One.

Well, the second night comes around, and as he’s setting up his fire, an actual human torso falls down the chimney. Most people, if confronted with a torso falling down a chimney, would probably either react like someone in a horror movie and peer up the chimney (thereby pretty much guaranteeing that they’ll be the next to go), or else run screaming from the room. Running away from Unexpected Trespassing Torsos is a perfectly valid response.

This guy looks up the chimney and yells, “Hey! You’re missing a piece! Where’s the other half?!”

Obligingly, whatever ghost is up there throws the other half down. Which then puts itself together and steals the kid’s seat by the fire. He is rather annoyed about this. And then all these other bones and body parts start falling down, all these various pieces, and they form into several other kind of dead guys who set up a game of ninepins with human bones and skulls.

This does not faze the kid. He’s all, “I want in on this!” and he takes his lathe to smooth the skulls out, because a skull as a bowling ball isn’t really going to roll all that well. And the probably-dead guys are somewhat appreciative of their new and improved bowling-skulls, so they let the kid join the game. He loses some money to the dead guys who can dismember themselves and throw themselves up and down chimneys. The former part of that sentence probably bothered him more than the latter part. And that’s the end of Night Two.

Now we get to the third night. On the third night, the door opens up, and these six guys come in. Now mind you, there have been no people in the castle thus far. Just the kid, some ghost animal things, and the dismembering ninepin party. But now six guys come in, holding a coffin. And inexplicably, this kid comes to the conclusion that this is his cousin who has died, and he’s very distressed and pulls off the lid of the coffin to wail and hug this corpse.

Okay, I’d like to point out two things:

First, that coffin lid was closed, so I don’t know why he’d assume it was his cousin. Maybe the guy was doing poorly before he left home, I don’t know, but why would they bring the body to the castle?

Secondly, let’s consider how the kid has reacted to dead people thus far. Does he...does he even understand the concept of death? Or is he just thinking “I’ll warm up my cold cousin with a hug!”

Actually, that might be the point of the story, what with him having no fear. It might be a story about someone who lacks fear because he has absolutely no concept of his own mortality. Maybe because a lot of fears are rooted in the idea of death?

Anyway, the dead guy does wake up, because this is a very haunted castle. And he’s understandably confused about this strange man hugging him and crying, and threatens to strangle him if he doesn’t let go. This seems a little drastic, but to be honest, if I woke up to a random guy hugging me, I wouldn’t be thrilled either.

So then the boy is kind of upset by this, he doesn’t really want to be strangled, thanks, and he kind of closes up the coffin and steps back like “okay, you can take this away now.”

The only other thing that really happens that night is that this random old man comes in. Why is he there? We don’t know. How did he get in? We don’t know that either, unless he’s a ghost. And for some reason, because the kid reacts violently towards a lot of things, he traps this guy’s beard in an anvil, and beats him up! WHY?! I can remember no reason for this! Why would you do that?!

But he does, and he’s passed the three nights in the haunted castle at this point. The king says, “Oh, okay, did you happen to get rid of the ghosts?”

“I don’t know about ghosts,” says the kid, “You’ve got some weird people in there, though. The old guy I beat up with an anvil showed me where all this treasure was in there though, so that was cool.”

The king is probably thinking, “Uh...okay, that was, that was my treasure, actually….since I, y’know, lived there...but okay I guess?”

So the boy marries the princess. That’s the way it goes in a lot of stories: the princess isn’t so much a character as a prize at the end of the journey. “And they all live happily ever after.” Blech.

In this case, however, it’s a little different.

First of all, nobody ever seems to stop and think about the fact that this is a guy with zero qualifications for this job who has just been told, “here, have a kingdom and a wife. Mind you don’t go wandering anymore! Now you are required to learn some administrative skills, because you’re in charge of an entire kingdom! Have fun, kiddo!”

I mean, I wouldn’t want to be that guy.

So not only is he married to a complete stranger now, but he can’t go wandering and looking for the shudders anymore, because now he has to learn things like politics and budgeting. Compare this with a similar tale from England with a female protagonist: her story ended with her getting paid a heck ton of money for beating up a zombie with a stick, and she gets to go back home and do whatever the heck she wants with her life, because now she’s filthy rich.

I think the girl protagonist got the better deal, guys.

And that’s not even mentioning the princess, here. She gets a little tired of hearing her new husband moan and groan about never having learned to shudder. And she decides to Take Steps about it. This is the kind of princess who, if she’s annoyed enough with her husband, goes and gets a bucket of ice cold water and fills it with gudgeon. Which are apparently a kind of small, bottom-dwelling fish. Live gudgeon. In a bucket of ice cold water.

She takes this bucket into his room at night and goes, “You wanted to learn what it’s like when your skin crawls?” and throws living fish on him.

And he, presumably, was like “GAH!” and then thanks his wife for teaching him what shuddering feels like. And that’s how his story ends: stuck in a castle, learning politics, and married to a woman who will, in fact, put live fish in his bed if he angers her. H-happily ever after?

And he never does actually learn what fear is, in the end.

#folklore friday #radio ruins another fairytale #explaining fairytales badly #the boy who went to discover the shudders #fairytales #folktales #this is one of several stories i've seen where marrying a princess doesn't mean happily ever after #because she didn't get to choose her husband and by thunder does she ever let him know it in those stories #hence another story where the male protagonist learns to never anger a princess #maybe the king was so eager to use the castle as an excuse to marry off his daughter because of that #like maybe the other suitors had all figured out 'princess is the boss. don't cross her'#but the kid doesn't know fear and thus probably missed some red flags. Now he's stuck in what doesn't seem like a healthy marriage tbh #oh well. that's the way the story goes #fic prompts #writing prompts

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upontheshelfreviews · 6 years

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As a lifelong Disney fan I can’t understate how much of an impact Mickey Mouse has had on me. In childhood, he was an icon and friend – instantly recognizable, a source of joy and entertainment, a hero and a role model. I know this is making me sound like one of those cheesy sponsors reading off a cue card, but when you’re talking about a mouse, expect plenty of cheese to be involved.

In the spirit of Mickey celebrating his 90th birthday, I’d like to share with you my 20 favorite shorts he starred in. Why 20? Because I couldn’t narrow it down to ten and I like to go nine steps beyond as opposed to one.

There were only two rules I set while making this list:

Mickey is the main focus, or at the very least he must be given as much to do as the other characters he shares the cartoon with. There’s a lot of great shorts out there that has Mickey’s name in the title – Mickey’s Parrot, Mickey’s Circus, Mickey’s Birthday, Mickey and the Seal, Mickey’s Christmas Carol, etc. – or has his face in the intro that advertises it as his adventure, but upon watching you find they’re really about Donald, Goofy or Pluto or literally anyone else but him.

Shorts only, no segments from full-length films or direct-to-video works. This means no Mickey and the Beanstalk from Fun and Fancy Free or various bits from Mickey’s Once/Twice Upon A Christmas, but sadly no Sorcerer’s Apprentice from Fantasia. I thought of excluding any short that ran over the usual length of five to seven minutes to about twenty, but that made my job even harder.

Now before we get to the countdown, here are a few Honorable Mentions:

Mickey, Donald and Goofy in The Three Musketeers – If I were including full-length films on the list, this would be in the top five, bar none.

The Sorcerer’s Apprentice from Fantasia – It would easily take the number one spot if it didn’t overlap with the #2 rule.

Plane Crazy – The mouse’s first appearance on the silver screen, though he wouldn’t make as quite a splash until his sound debut in Steamboat Willie a few years later

Orphan’s Benefit – One of my favorites as a kid. It made me laugh something fierce and still does, though a large part of it has to do with Donald and Goofy’s segments, hence why it’s only an honorable mention. Also, did you know that the color one we’re mostly familiar with is actually a remake of an earlier black and white version?

Mickey’s Delayed Date – Pluto and Mickey tussle for attention in this outing.

Haunted House – Spooky and atmospheric. Classic Disney nightmare fuel.

The Gorilla Mystery – Mickey plays Minnie’s white knight yet again as he goes to-to-toe with a dangerous gorilla.

Two-Gun Mickey – An American Tail: Mickey Goes West.

Mickey’s Surprise Party – After Minnie’s dog spoils the cookies she was making for Mickey, he saves the day with some shockingly transparent corporate sponsorship. At least I take comfort in the fact that Mickey’s favorite cookies are the same as mine.

Hansel and Gretel – Mickey and Minnie stumble upon a treacherous witch to the ominous strains of Danse Macabre.

Mickey’s Cabin – Mickey outwits Pete and his dimwitted cousin with a little reverse psychology when they hold him hostage in his winter cabin. Hilarity ensues.

Croissant – Mickey’s first short in the modern style proved you can’t keep a mouse on a mission down.

Yodelberg – Continuing with the previous short, it’s modern Mickey at its most fast-paced and stylish fun.

Shanghaied – It’s up to Mickey to save the day and Minnie again, this time from Pete and his dastardly crew of pirates.

Mickey’s Christmas Carol – Mickey’s first cartoon in 30 years has him slightly out of the spotlight, but still got him back in the public eye for good.

20. Mickey’s Trailer

This gets the lowest spot because the first half mainly focuses on jokes surrounding Donald and Goofy in their cool little mechanical trailer. But when it reaches the second half? That’s when things really kick into high gear. Goofy obliviously unhitches the trailer as they’re traveling through a perilous mountain pass and it’s up to Mickey to keep his vacation from reaching an untimely end. It’s amazingly suspenseful, with plenty of close calls from oncoming vehicles, trains and cliff sides. They still manage to sneak in a few decent moments of slapstick, but not at the cost of any of the tension. My only wish is that we could have seen Mickey and Donald’s response to Goofy’s cheerful “Well, I brought ya down safe and sound, a-hyuck!” at the very end. No doubt it would have been hilariously karmic.

19. Mickey’s Mechanical House

Coming from the Mickey’s Mouse Works/House of Mouse era of cartoons, we get a whimsical story in Seuss-esque rhyme, narrated by John Cleese no less. Sick of the inconveniences of his old abode, Mickey moves into a sleek totally automated house. He quickly learns, however, that easy modern conveniences aren’t what make a good home. Unlike the other cartoons made in this time, the art style goes for a 50’s retro look that pays homage to the likes of UPA. I especially appreciate the cameo from the iconic Mars robot from the famous Disneyland episode Mars and Beyond. That’s how you know this short was made by real old-school Disney fans. The story is charming, the gags are clever, and it earns this spot on the countdown.

18. Giantland/Gulliver Mickey

Yes, I know I’m cheating here due to this being a tie, but I found these two shorts to be similar enough that I felt they were both worthy of the same place on the list. Each one begins with Mickey telling a story to his…younger counterparts? Nieces and nephews? Godchildren? They all refer to him as “Uncle Mickey” and they all look like him so maybe they’re really…no, best not to think of the implications.

Anyway, Mickey makes himself the hero of each tale, firstly in the role of Jack in Jack and the Beanstalk (no doubt somewhat inspiring his future gigantic adventures in The Brave Little Tailor and Fun and Fancy Free), then of him being the giant washed up on the shores of Lilliput. There’s some good action all around, and plenty of creativity in showing the giant’s world, Mickey’s storytelling and how the Lilliputians attempt to subdue their captive.

17. Magician Mickey

Mickey’s putting on a magic show, but he’s constantly heckled by a disbelieving Donald. Little does the duck realize he’s messing with the Sorcerer’s Apprentice himself, and Mickey uses all his mystic powers to troll back at him. Even though it’s arguably Donald’s short as much as it is Mickey’s, he does provide the main source of the conflict, and Mickey does not hold back when providing some good old magical vengeance. He remains the perfect showman throughout, and the tricks he plays to get back at Donald are inventive and hilarious. I admit, I still crack up at the running gag where Donald attempts to go in one of his unintelligible tirades and spits out an entire deck of cards. Just goes to show you don’t mess with the mouse, especially when he’s in magician mode.

16. Steamboat Willie

Ah, the one that started it all. Well, technically it was Plane Crazy and The Galloping Gaucho, but Steamboat Willie was what really thrust Mickey into the limelight. It may be simplistic by today’s standards, but this short is nothing…short of iconic. It establishes everything you need to know about the character of Mickey Mouse – inventive, friendly, helpful, but not without a strong mischievous streak. Being one of the first cartoons to have fully synchronized sound certainly helps. It not only pushed the popularity of “talkies” but introduced the world to what would become one of the most recognizable characters of all time. How could I not include it on the list? I already wrote an entire article on its significance, so if you want to know more, feel free to go read it.

15. The Mad Doctor

When people talk about the darkest moments in Disney animation, there’s a reason why this short is often brought up. The Mad Doctor goes for straight-up horror, and pulls no punches. Mickey must work his way through a creepy castle to save his beloved dog Pluto before he becomes the next victim of the titular doctor’s dangerous experiments. There’s lots of shadows, spooky living skeletons, and booby traps galore that threaten Mickey along the way. It’s perfect fare for Halloween.

Without giving away the ending, it’s the kind I’d normally call a bit of a cop out, but I don’t see how they could have worked their way around it. This short was deemed so scary upon release that it was banned not only in the UK, but in Nazi Germany, which really says something. It didn’t frighten me that much when I was a kid, but there’s a pervading sense of dread that makes it unlike any other Mickey Mouse cartoon ever made. Its impact on the canon was strong enough that the Mad Doctor was made one of the main antagonists of the Epic Mickey video game. And getting to take him out after all these years is one of the most satisfying game moments you’ll ever experience.

14. Around the World in 80 Days

Now for something a bit lighter. Some of the best shorts made for Mickey’s Mouse Works and House of Mouse were the “Mouse Tales”, two-part adaptations of classic novels with Mickey and the gang filling in the roles. This is a simplified but still fun take on Jules Verne’s famous globetrotting adventure. Instead of a wager between high society gentlemen and a robbery caper mixup however, Mickey must circumnavigate the globe in order to claim an inheritance and save his orphanage. Goofy and a rescued native princess-turned-love interest Minnie (there’s no way around some of the more dated aspects of this story, is there?) help him along the way, but they also have to deal with a meddling Scrooge McDuck, who’d do anything to get his feathers on the fortune. They manage to squeeze in some great jokes, usually involving Mickey’s deadpan reactions to Goofy’s cluelessness. It’s a decent retelling that hits all the beats and will probably get kids interested in checking out the original story.

13. Ye Olden Days

Nothing like a good old-fashioned medieval romance to warm your heart. Humble minstrel Mickey attempts to rescue fair damsel Minnie when she refuses to marry foppish Prince Dippy Dawg – that’s Goofy’s early moniker to those not fluent in early Disney – and winds up engaging in a joust for her hand. Mickey and Minnie may not be the most fascinating couple in film history, but their earnest devotion to each other shows why their relationship has stood the test of time.

When I was rewatching this to see if it deserved a spot on this list, I was particularly impressed by how spirited Minnie was – she does not take her arranged marriage lying down, slapping the self-absorbed prince in the face while declaring “Never!” and fighting her captors every step of the way as she’s dragged to the tower as punishment. Plus, it’s her intervening on Mickey’s behalf that saves him from the guillotine and allows him to engage in trial by combat. Mickey, ever the underdog, uses his size and cleverness to his advantage, outdoing the prince in all his regalia with nothing but a spear, a suit of armor fashioned from a potbelly stove, and an intrepid donkey. I really don’t have anything to say other than this short’s simplicity and sweetness never fails to win me over.

12. The Pointer

An expertly animated adventure for Mickey and his loyal canine, even if the idea of the Mouse going hunting wouldn’t fly today. I just love Mickey and Pluto’s interactions; they remind me so much of me and my dog and the time we spent together (though let it go on record that I never have or most likely will engage in hunting for sport). This isn’t a case of the pet being smarter than the master like in future shorts, either. Those always aggravated me because of how they really dumbed down Mickey. Both are on equal footing here, and both get into equal amounts of trouble.

The moment where Mickey tries to talk his way out of an encounter with an angry bear is equal parts tense and humorous. It’s also one of the rare times I can recall Mickey attempting to use his own popularity to escape from a jam (“Well I’m, uh, Mickey Mouse! You know, Mickey Mouse? I hope you’ve heard of me…I hope.”) According to Andreas Deja, animator Frank Thomas incorporated a bit of Walt’s own actions while recording the lines for this scene, giving it a superb bit of what Thomas would call “the illusion of life”.

11. Lonesome Ghosts

Here we have another Mickey-Donald-Goofy venture with shenanigans surrounding the last two, but there’s enough of Mickey in there to make it count. Now tell me if this sounds familiar: a trio of oddballs, one smart if in way over his head, one irascible and sarcastic, and one delightfully naive, go into business capturing ghosts. And yes, at one point one of them says “I ain’t afraid of no ghosts”. It’s a shame Disney wasn’t able to capitalize on this fifty years later apart from syncing this short to the Ghostbusters theme in the DTV Halloween special. Lonesome Ghosts is a spooky jaunt where half the fun comes from the various ways the titular quartet of specters tease our hapless heroes. How the protagonists manage to send them packing kind of confuses me, but it still makes for a good chuckle. Steeped in atmosphere and loaded with laughs, Lonesome Ghosts is a ghoulish good time.

10. Mickey’s Good Deed

It’s Christmas Eve, and Mickey and Pluto are out in the cold with nothing but a bass fiddle that earns them barely enough to eat. A bratty rich half-pint sets his sights on Pluto and goes Veruca Salt on his father, leading to him offering Mickey a fair bit of dough in exchange for the dog. Mickey refuses, until he spies a poor widow and her many children even worse off than he is. This leads to him making a heartwrenching sacrifice to ensure they have a merry Christmas. It’s a short that runs the gamut of emotions. You feel for Mickey every second as he either loses everything he owns or willingly gives it up for a greater good, and there’s plenty of joy to be had when he gets his reward in the end (as well as when that terrible child is given his due punishment). I love watching this every Christmastime, and it exemplifies the giving spirit of the season.

9. Runaway Brain

You wanna know where that infamous image of a demonic Mickey came from? Well here ya go. Fast-paced, frightening and hilarious, Runaway Brain is a wild ride from start to finish. In some ways it feels more akin to a Looney Tunes short than a Disney one. The comic and story beats come right after another, yet leave room for sight gags and references a plenty. There’s even a brief shot that visibly homages The Exorcist. IN A DISNEY SHORT.

Borrowing from The Mad Doctor’s playbook, this time it’s Mickey who’s in a mad scientist’s sights after taking an offer for “a mindless day’s work” at face value, just so he could earn some vacation cash for Minnie. Said mad scientist, Dr. Frankenollie (love the nod there), voiced by Sideshow Bob himself Kelsey Grammar, switches Mickey’s brain with that of his King Kong/Frankenstein-esque creation Julius, who bears more than a passing resemblance to Pete. When the doctor is zapped into ashes by his own experiment – onscreen, mind you – Mickey, now trapped in Julius’ body, must find a way to get back to normal and stop Julius, stuck in Mickey’s form but no less monstrous, from pursuing Minnie. As I said before, the jokes come at you fast and hard. The climax in particular is especially rollicking, with some amazing lighting and coloring choices that pump up the action. As always, Mickey saves the day in the most entertaining – and in this case, bizarre – way possible.

8. The Band Concert

Mickey makes his technicolor debut in one of the first shorts that pits him against a troublesome Donald. All our stalwart conductor wants to do is perform a bit of William Tell for some music lovers in the park, but he’s consistently interrupted by Donald wanting to get in on the action with Turkey In The Straw and an improbable supply of easily breakable flutes. Still, you’ve got to admire both of them for their determination. I’d say nothing short of a cyclone could stop them, but that’s exactly what happens; the climax has them playing through the gale even as they’re hurled through the air! Considering the music they’re performing is appropriately stormy sounding, one has to wonder if they picked up their instruments from Hyrule. The Band Concert is a testament to Mickey’s unflappable perseverance and affinity for music.

7. The Little Whirlwind

Lured to Minnie’s by the promise of cake, Mickey agrees to give her yard a good cleanup in exchange for some dessert. Unfortunately, a playful sentient cyclone has other plans. I’ve never been bothered by Mickey’s voice, but this short shows how he works just as well silently. Much of the action is largely in mime with no dialogue. The slapstick is fun all around. I always did feel a bit bad that Mickey got the short end of the stick in this cartoon; after being tormented by the hellion hurricane, he’s pursued by a giant momma tornado who assumes her offspring was bullied for no reason, and when Minnie checks on his progress he’s blamed for the disaster area that was formerly her garden. I don’t know what the hell she was doing in the kitchen to not hear the two cyclones roaring through her yard but I hope it was worth it. At least Mickey ends up getting the cake – though not in a way he was certainly expecting.

6. Mr. Mouse Takes a Trip

Once more we witness Mickey’s loyalty to his equally devoted canine companion. A simple train trip to Pomona goes off the rails when Mickey must shield Pluto from dog-hating conductor Pete and both find themselves on the run from him. There’s disguises and mishaps galore, and it’s a constant back and forth to see who’s one step ahead of the other. Interesting fact: this short is also the source of the only known footage of Walt Disney recording his lines as Mickey.

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5. Symphony Hour

A spiritual sequel to The Band Concert, Mickey once again plays conductor for a classical orchestra made up of his friends. Unfortunately someone thought it was a good idea to leave all the instruments in Goofy’s hands before their big debut, and they’re quickly destroyed. Now poor Mickey has to keep everything together as the concert falls to pieces and their sponsor Pete fumes from his viewing box.

This short… it’s hysterical. There’s no other word for it. Everything from the animation to the music – which sounds like a precursor to Spike Jones – cracks me up. Mickey is pushed to the limits of his endurance as his show crumbles around him. Not helping matters is the attitude of the performers. Sure, Goofy, Horace Horsecollar and the like soldier on admirably, but Donald threatens to up and leave several times. Yet Mickey isn’t afraid to stoop to any level to ensure the show, no matter how terrible, will indeed go on. And the worse it gets for them, the better it gets for us.

4. Thru the Mirror

After falling asleep while reading Alice Through the Looking Glass, Mickey dreams of entering his bedroom mirror and exploring the bizzarro version of his world on the other side. Living furniture, card battles and jazzy dance sequences ensue. Out of all the Mickey shorts on this list, this is probably the best animated. The scenes stick out in your mind long after the cartoon has ended. The size-changing walnuts, the catchy tap dance starting with a game of jump rope with a telephone cord that evolves into a Busby Berkeley homage with playing cards, and the escape from said cards while traversing the dangers of a literal living room? It’s golden age Disney at its finest. There’s not much in the way of story, but that’s not the point of this short. It’s just great animation fueled by years of practice and boundless imagination.

3. Get a Horse!

I remember hearing way back when this short was announced that it was supposedly one from Walt’s heyday which was lost to the ages and recently unearthed. Little could we have realized that it was merely a smokescreen – instead of an old cartoon, we were getting the first new theatrical Mickey Mouse short since Runaway Brain, one that paid tribute to the classic Mickey cartoons of old.

Since I watched Frozen more than once during its theatrical run, I had the privilege of experiencing Get A Horse as it should be: in a big dark movie theater with eye-popping 3D. It gives the perfect illusion that this crazy cartoon with characters jumping in and out and running around the theater really is happening right in front of you. Mickey and friends play around with the screen and the dimensions contained within and with-out in a way not seen since Chuck Jones’ masterpiece Duck Amuck. And having seen many, MANY classic Disney shorts before (if this list hadn’t already indicated), I could even tell where many of the sound bites used for the characters’ dialogue were lifted from. I simply don’t get it when people dismiss this short for “mocking” old school Disney when in reality it does anything but. I think this short is the epitome of what Disney is doing now with their animation, blending the best of the old with the technology and promise of the new. Also, Oswald cameo for the win!

2. The Prince and the Pauper

Talk about nostalgia. I watched this short with the same frequency as my favorite Disney movies on VHS. In fact, due to having no sense of time when I was younger, I thought this twenty minute short was about the same length as those films; it certainly flies by at the same speed. Mark Twain’s tale of royal identity switching has seen its fair share of adaptations, but this one will always be my favorite. We’ve got riveting action and phenomenal voice acting (Wayne Allwine, you were the best Mickey outside of Walt and Brett Iwan can’t hold a candle to you).

It’s also one of the most dramatic shorts in the Disney canon. Pete is at his most menacing outside of Mickey’s Christmas Carol. Scenes like where Mickey attends to the king in his final moments and the prince learns of his father’s passing carry so much weight to them. They’re framed cinematically and let you take in the gravitas. Still, that’s not to say there isn’t any comedy to be found. The Prince and the Pauper has plenty of moments that still make me laugh twenty-eight years later. It’s a short that has everything. Easily one of Mickey’s finest moments.

1. The Brave Little Tailor

If I were to point to one short that summed up everything I love about Mickey Mouse, all you need to know about him, and why he’s so great, The Brave Little Tailor would be it.

Due to a simple misunderstanding, Mickey is thrust into the role of reluctant hero, one who must face down a killer giant no less. But if most of what the previously mentioned shorts have shown, Mickey’s nothing more or less than the perfect underdog. And when he gets into action, he’s like a cartoon blend of Chaplin, Keaton and Fairbanks – not a coincidence as the former two were big influences on early Mickey. Scared though he is, he rarely panics. Instead he relies on his greatest strengths to save the day – his quick thinking, nimbleness from his diminutive stature, and his loyal, caring heart. There’s a reason why I chose this particular thumbnail for this entry. No matter how many times I see this enamored incarnation of Minnie shower her champion with kisses, making him stumble around dizzily and cheerfully cry “Whoopee! I’ll cut ‘im down to my size!” I always, always go “aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaawwwwwww”. It’s just too adorable for words. When you’ve got someone who loves you like Minnie does, you feel like you can take on the world.

I could go on about how the scene where he’s telling the story of how he killed seven with one blow (that’s flies, by the way, not giants) has been studied by animation students and enthusiasts to the point where Junction Point Studios aspired to recreate that level of expression and fluidity when creating Epic Mickey, or how Mickey defeats the giant has been homaged in other shorts as well as the airport fight from Captain America:Civil War, or just that wonderful storybook golden age Disney feel it has from start to finish, but I won’t. By all means, seek out the short and see it all for yourself.

No matter how many times the corporate side of Disney has airbrushed Mickey’s foibles to present him as the bland, perfect company mascot, Mickey’s bravery, kindness, and penchant for attracting trouble has never been fully scrubbed away. Different voice actors, animators, story writers and financial visionaries have come and gone throughout the years, and each has presented their own unique take on the character, but there’s no mistaking the world’s most famous mouse, the one who started it all.

Happy Birthday, Mickey. Here’s to 90 more.

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My Top 20 Favorite Mickey Mouse Shorts As a lifelong Disney fan I can't understate how much of an impact Mickey Mouse has had on me.

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