#dunk haven't let this go

[joongdunking]

Hello I'm Dunk GMMTV will go down in history 🤣😂

[secriden]

This line. God, this line! It has been eating me up inside for 2 days now, because let's not forget, this line isn't about love, it's about trust. And that has implications that make me want to scream.

It's a direct reference to this moment earlier in the episode:

At the start of this discussion, Style and Fadel still have a kind of playful air about their conversation:

Style: Oh? Not even me? Fadel: You're at 80% at best. I feel like you're hiding something from me in the 20%.

In this exchange, though, there's a sense that Fadel is issuing a challenge, like there's something specific which Style can do to gain Fadel's full trust. And while Style knows there are things he cannot (yet) reveal to Fadel, I think a part of him is determined to be as honest as he can be, which is why he issues a challenge of his own by asking for more specificity:

Style: What do I have to do to gain your complete trust?

Part of this question is a simultaneously inquisitive and deflective - What (and why) do you think I'm hiding (something) from you? - but there's also a moment after Style finishes speaking where he stills and goes quiet that feels... genuine, weighty. Or, as @airenyah has pointed out in her meta on Style in episode 4, the "grounded[ness]" in Style's demeanour is a signal that Style means what he's saying in the moment. Maybe about his own desire to be worthy of Fadel's trust, maybe about how he genuinely does want this relationship to be real in whatever way that matters to Fadel.

I think Fadel sensed that too, because the moment looses all the lightheartedness it had before. Fadel pauses, and then gets a look on his face that just... breaks my heart. There's a sombreness there, like he knows he's going to have to say something that makes him sad. Fadel looks away, and then down, before he seems to steel himself and says:

Fadel: It'll never happen. No matter how much you love someone, I just don't believe that you can completely lay yourself bare in front of them.

Fadel says this like it's fact. Like what he's expressing is something foundational and true and irrefutable. It's not even about his doubt in Style's honesty, because this statement has no qualifiers or conditions put on it to connect it to Style. Rather this is what Fadel fundamentally believes about relationships and trust: he finds the very concept of being fully known and still accepted an impossibility.

Sure, maybe this is because of the falling out (or betrayal or disappearance) associated with the former lover; but I also think it might be because Fadel is acutely aware not only that he's hiding a rather big and dark secret (not to mince words, but: actual literal premeditated murder), but also about what it implies about Fadel. Because being able to kill another human, coldly and clinically and without remorse, takes a certain type of person. Because, yes, Fadel has lived through an absolutely harrowing and traumatising event (his parents' murder), but it's also undeniable that it changed him. Because there's something about Fadel that twisted dark and which he never quite got back. There's an anger, a hurt that colours every moment of his life; that enables him to look a man in the eyes, smile politely, and pull a trigger.

And at this point in their relationship, Fadel's understanding of Style is that he's... well, kind of innocent. Especially in comparison to Fadel and Bison, and even Kant.

Style, who easily reveals facts about his life which Fadel already knows (winning a car tuning competition), making Fadel doubt his own instincts about Style hiding secrets. Style, who also reveals the things Fadel doesn't know, like the tender and secret pain of a mother lost to cancer (which, now that I think about it, Fadel may also know) and his worries about a father who "lost his bearings for a bit" (which he probably doesn't). Style, who tries to comfort Fadel in his own loss by offering a safe space and a sympathetic ear.

Style, who doesn't just see Fadel for his tragedy, but is asking to be given the chance to accept all of Fadel as a person. Style, who not only wants but has the capacity, to be the only person Fadel needs to rely on. Style who, despite the sea of differences between them, understands Fadel on a level that is so very foundational.

I'm going to slightly segue and mention something that may not resonate with everyone, but really hit me in the gut this episode: because I lost my father when I was 16 after he battled cancer for 2 painful years. And this revelation about Style has totally shifted and coloured everything Style has done in a new light for me. Because not only does this totally explain Style's sometimes almost stubbornly childish demeanour (it's common in adults who've had to 'grow up' too early), but also why Style shows seemingly random flashes of insight and maturity when they are most crucial. Notably, Style has this almost instinctive sense of when he needs to back off a sore point with Fadel that I couldn't quite put my finger on until this episode.

I've seen a few jokes about Style's awkward subject change, but I've actually got a friend who I hold very dear to my heart who was one of the only people to give me a sense of normalcy and comfort when my dad was on his last few days and then at his funeral. And part of that was the instinctive way she would know when I needed to just. Not be a grieving daughter for a few minutes. To get a small respite from the overwhelming hopelessness and sense of impending loss. To get a moment to breathe and gather my strength, because knowing I was never going to see my dad again, or hear his voice, or hold his hand was tearing me apart back then. Sometimes she'd talk to me about college drama, sometimes she'd introduce a new kpop video to me, sometimes she'd just ask me what I wanted to eat and take me to go have a meal with her. And sometimes there really just isn't anything else to say other than "I'm sorry." Nothing you say - nothing you can say - is going to ever, ever make this grief go away, and in most cases, it was better when people (especially those who couldn't really understand) didn't try.

And I think if you look at Fadel very closely, there's a moment of genuine surprise (Fadel wasn't expecting the subject change at all) and then... something that looks like fondness mixed with exhausted relief. Because I don't think Fadel was ready to talk about his parents yet. This was honesty he wasn't ready to give Style, mostly prompted because Style himself had willingly been so vulnerable that a part of Fadel wanted to reciprocate. But further down that path lies not only his darkest memories, but also the connection to the part of his life he is not willing to share with Style yet. So this subject change is a relief, it's a blessing, but it's also Style knowing when he shouldn't push any further with Fadel's fragile heart.

Which brings me back to how well the episode's theme of trust (both deserved and undeserved) was woven in this episode. This is true on multiple levels and characters but I'm not even going to attempt to touch Kant in this post because... Lord, that is beyond me at the moment. Someone else needs to do that, pretty please, so I can reblog it and scream.

It starts, somewhat unexpectedly, with Fadel asking for entrance into the intimate spaces of Style's life.

So, this episode was not about Fadel's fear of his own feelings, desires, or even affection for Style - that appears to be fully addressed in episode 4. I think that's why we see Fadel be so physically affectionate and indulgent of Style in this episode. He's come to terms with his lust for Style's body (hence his comfort in initiating sex), he's accepted Style as his boyfriend and so can enjoy Style's playful teasing (still reluctantly, but Fadel is still an introvert even if he's mostly enjoying Style's rambunctious nature), and give into Style's (and Bison's and Kant's) cajoling with relatively little fuss.

He's even comfortable toying with the edges of revealing his darker and more sinister side by reminding Style implicitly about how violent Fadel has the potential to be. Recall that Fadel knows Style knows some of his capacity for violence; he just doesn't know how very thoroughly Style is aware of the full scale of this truth. It does help that Style evidences no actual fear and, in fact, looks positively euphoric. Like, buddy, pal, dearest one... please control yourself.

And yet something very, very telling is the way the show makes it a point to depict Fadel very deliberately getting drunk during the double date. Even before the date has started, Fadel looks to be about half a beer in and we see him constantly drinking, drinking, drinking during the whole date. From the conversation about trust he has with Style while Kant and Bison are being off key and adorable about it, to after Kant leaves and Bison gets worried. And we've seen Fadel cope with emotional and mental distress with alcohol before, so we know that Fadel is internally fighting some kind of very intense battle even as he is also very clearly enjoying moments with Style on this date (most notably when they're dancing by the bowling lanes and when Style asks him to go home with him).

So here's my take: rather than being about love, this is about Fadel fighting to hold onto his own philosophy on relationships and trust. Because as much as I do believe Fadel believes he's telling the truth when he tells Style that 100% trust is "impossible", I think it's clear that's not what he wants.

What he wants is to finish this last job so that the only thing he can't be honest about with Style will finally stop being a factor in his life. What he wants is to fully and completely reciprocate the openness Style seems to be giving Fadel. What he wants is to switch off his brain and let his heart lead for once, to stop fighting a battle he has no desire to win anymore, only he can't. Trust (not love) is Fadel's final frontier, and one which he can't quite give up in spite of himself.

Which is why I think Fadel intentionally gets himself drunk here. Because he wants to let his guard down around Style. He wants to open himself fully, he wants to "lay himself bare" for Style, he wants Style to know the full truth and accept him anyway - and he gets so close, but can't quite get there - because he doesn't know that Style already has.

When Style says this, Fadel thinks it's empty words, not knowing that Style has long passed the bar Fadel thinks is insurmountable. And just like Style was able to offer safety and reassurance to the vulnerability Fadel was showing in episode 4, Style instinctively gets to the core of Fadel's darkest fears again:

Style: One day, I'll be your 100%.

This isn't (just) a promise that Style will wear Fadel's stubbornness down, or that Style will be worthy of Fadel's 100% (which, already, has me in tears, ngl). Beyond that, this is Style promising Fadel isn't ruined for this; that it isn't too late, that whatever hurts and wounds Fadel has can be made whole again. That the kind of honest and all-encompassing and unconditional trust which Fadel says is impossible can, in fact, be his. That Fadel still has the capacity to trust and be trusted the way he so desperately, painfully longs for.

I know a lot of people have said Style in this episode is writing cheques he has no ability to honour, but I think it's more layered than that. Because in a very significant and profound way, Style is wholly deserving of Fadel's trust. Because in all the ways that Fadel has ever known he should want, Style actually IS worthy of his trust. Style knows the truth Fadel is hiding, knows what this man is capable of, knows the danger of being in his arms, knows the likely nonexistent future Fadel has to offer him -- and wants him anyway. Style is a man who would stare into Fadel’s darkness and reach out first. Strip away the complication of Kant being blackmailed and dragging Style into his mission, and Style is literally perfect for Fadel. He is exactly what Fadel wants (and possibly has wanted for a very long time). He is, in fact, exactly what Fadel needs to ever experience anything beyond the shadow of a life he's had so far.

But oh, the cruel narrative means that Style is also, simultaneously, painfully undeserving of Fadel's trust; and this is something Style is very much aware of. I think that's why he's trying so very hard to be worthy in all the other ways he can be. Style's awareness of what Fadel is hiding enables Style to (counterintuitively) be completely honest about his feelings for and about Fadel even as he cannot reveal his motivations. So he gives Fadel as much honesty as he can: offers the vulnerability of his own pain and hurts; the comfort of his true understanding and acceptance.

And just as Fadel's vulnerability in the abandoned factory was met with Style choosing a form of physical connection that prioritised Fadel's pleasure (it's made very clear that Style is jerking Fadel off and that all his focus in that moment was on Fadel, not his own pleasure), so too is this moment met with Style very intentionally choosing to worship Fadel's body with all the tenderness and genuine emotional weight that Style wanted Fadel to have in their first time in the storeroom.

Because, crucially, this was Style giving Fadel the chance to lay himself at least physically bare. This is the closest either of them can get to full honesty with the secrets they both are keeping. It's why Style tries so very hard to show the care and adoration and genuine feelings he has for Fadel. Why he makes sure that the vulnerability of Fadel getting himself as drunk and as relaxed and as trusting as Fadel can allow himself to be is tied only to gentleness and tenderness and pleasure.

Because Style actually knows that Fadel can't (and shouldn't) trust him in the way Fadel truly wishes to.

And as much as I believe that Style genuinely means this from the bottom of his heart, the horrifying full truth is that it is Style that has the metaphorical knife hovering over Fadel's chest. He is the one with the capacity to actually give Fadel a new scar that would truly matter. He is, in fact, the only one Fadel wants to fully trust -- and this, along with Style's compromised heart, makes it so that the circumstances will doom them both.

[rubys-domain]

i'm going through a phase of "i just want x character out all the time and i just wanna run around with them and bask in their glory" with kokomi. so much so that i'm almost scared that she'll surpass chong as my fave of all time. but i went through a similar phase with cyno so logically i know that that won't actually happen.

still kind of annoying that i can never have this much interest in a meta dps tho. like why are all the characters i have any interest in maining either 4 stars, supports, or just not meta units (cyno, yoimiya)???

[woso-dreamzzz]

Bubbles

Hardersson x Toddler!Reader

Part of The Big Adventures Universe

Summary: Magda brings you bubbles

When Magda comes to visit, she always brings something with her.

Most of the time, it's new toys or clothes or strange little sweets that are kept out of your reach because they might rot your teeth.

You don't get that bit because you've only just gotten all your teeth and you're pretty sure they're strong because Pernille keeps feeding you lots of yummy milk and milk is meant to make teeth strong.

Either way, Magda always brings something with her and this time it's a little plastic bottle thing with a weird long thing inside of it.

There's some kind of liquid in it and Magda grins as she shakes it around.

"Don't let her open it herself," Pernille warns, poking her head into the living room," Because she'll spill it and I'm not going to be the one cleaning it up."

"It's fine," Magda says dismissively," I've got my eyes on her."

Pernille doesn't look convinced but she nods and goes back to the laundry she was meant to be folding. For such a little kid, you sure go through a lot of clothes.

"These are bubbles," Magda explains.

You frown, sounding out the word. "Bubb-les."

"Well," Magda corrects herself," It's bubble mixture right now. Can you say that? Mixture?"

You're in the parroting stage of development right now so you're more than happy to repeat.

"Mix-ture."

"Very good! Here, let me help."

Magda tries to take the little plastic thing from you but you keep a tight grip on her, a disgruntled look appearing on your face when she pulls a bit harder.

"Mine!" You snap," Mine! Mine! Mine!"

"Let's share," Magda says," Momma's been teaching you how to share, right?"

That's true.

Momma has been teaching you how to share.

But only with her and some of the Wolfsburg girls.

She hasn't taught you how to share with Morsa yet.

You think about denying Morsa but, while you're thinking, she snatches the bottle from you and unwinds the top.

She dunks the big long thing a few times before pulling it out and blowing.

A weird thing appears from the bubble wand and you gasp.

It's like a strange circle and floats around before popping right on your nose.

"Oh!" Morsa says, in that high-pitched voice that she sometimes uses for you," It popped!"

You're still in shock, eyes wide and eyebrows shooting up to your hairline.

You go cross-eyed looking at your nose and then back at the bubble wand. You point at it, wiggling your legs happily.

"Again!"

"Again? You want more?"

"Again!"

Magda blows another bubble and you gasp in awe. She points at it. "That's a bubble."

"Bubb-le," You say, looking back at Magda.

"That's right! Bubble!"

"Bubble!"

You reach your finger out to touch it but just like with your nose, it pops as soon as contact is made.

"Bubbles go pop!" Magda tells you and your little head bobs up and down.

"Go pop!"

"Pop! Pop!" Magda continues, blowing more for you.

You haul yourself to your feet, reaching up to touch all the new bubbles. You giggle every time they pop and you wait dutifully for Magda to blow new ones.

"You know," Pernille says, leaning against the doorway," When I told you to make sure she didn't spill it, I didn't mean for you to spill it instead."

"I haven't spilled any!"

"You've let her pop at least half of the mixture," Pernille says," My floors are covered. Someone could slip and fall."

"No one's going to-"

Pernille catches you just as your little foot slips on a patch of popped bubbles, hauling you up into her arms easily.

"You were saying?"

Magda laughs sheepishly. "I'll...I'll clean it up."

"Yes, you will," Pernille says," And in the meantime, Princesse and I will have some bubble play outside." She bounces you. "Isn't that right? You want to play with bubbles still?"

You giggle. "Bubbles go pop!"

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

i legit think people assume this blog is "comfort this person and tell them they're not an asshole" due to the reactions you get when you post an asshole. "why are you posting this asshole" so you can tell them they are one!! yahoooo!!

Yeah, like I've said before: this is a not a platform, it's a dunk tank. I thought a large part of this blog's appeal would be getting to tell thoroughly awful people that they're assholes without having to seek them out yourself! Certainly I get enough complaints when we haven't had a real juicy YTA post in a while. Yet often I get "wow why are you letting this through the queue, don't you know they're a bad person?" Yeah that's the point!! Go get 'em!

[lsunstreakerl]

hello hi if you haven't seen pacific rim this will... not make sense. anyways! no worldbuilding, no help from me, I am dunking you all into this ficlet head first and in the deep end.

for those of you who were also spitballing with me about this. your fault. you know who you are. 1.6k words, Daniel POV

Checo is at his door. Daniel doesn't care.

It's never mattered to him before. Didn't matter when it was Alex or Pierre either, desperate for some scrap of advice that Daniel didn't have to give them.

There's no magic formula, no secret hack to make it bearable.

There is the drift, and there is Max.

If you can't handle the pressure, you break.

Alex and Pierre broke. Daniel's not sure how, and he doesn't care. It's not his business or his problem, and he's made a solid attempt at cutting jaeger's and their pilots out of his life entirely since he left, but somehow each of Max's kills find themselves on his doorstep anyways.

He stopped letting them in a long time ago.

It doesn't matter to him that Checo's eyes are bloodshot, that he's clearly been chewing at his lip, the way he's still in an enviro-gel suit.

He's been crying. Daniel doesn't care.

------

Pierre shows up, and Daniel pretends he isn't home.

He repeats the process with Alex.

------

A representative for the jaeger program stands outside his door for three hours straight. Daniel spends them drinking.

------

It's been three days since Checo was at his door— Daniel hates counting it, hates the way the number seeps into his life, ingrained and everywhere he looks. Three days since Checo. Three years since Daniel's last attempt at a drift, three failed rehab programs before he'd given up entirely, three pilots Max has shattered in the meantime.

Checo is at his door again, gaunt. He looks like shit.

Daniel doesn't open the door.

------

Nico and Kevin show up. Daniel only lets them in because they bring food, catching up quietly at the table over a pot roast. It's only superficial conversation— Daniel doesn't do anything deeper than that with anyone, not anymore.

Nico says Max's name, and Daniel doesn't let him get any further than that before he kicks them both out.

------

He doesn't let Lando in. The brat is standing in his living room anyways, because he was an alley child before he was a jaeger pilot, and Daniel knows his early years as well as he knows himself. Knows that Lando has a favorite bakery that gives out leftover bread at the end of the day, knows that he hates tsunamis because he's been flooded before, that he's had hypothermia multiple times. Knows that there's a recruiter at the local prep school that Lando resents, knows there's not a lock the kid can't pick.

Lando is glaring at him.

Something about the enviro-suits. Something about nobody being able to get close enough.

Something Daniel doesn't care about.

Something Daniel can't care about.

------

Charles calls him a cunt for getting the memory removal service.

Daniel tells him he doesn't even remember the color of Max's eyes.

------

A week since Checo first showed up at his door. He's back again, worse than before.

His third trip.

There must be some kind of emergency, for everyone to be coming to Daniel like this.

There's only one person it could be about.

He doesn't care.

------

Charles and Pierre almost get ripped in half in a kaiju ambush. They should've had a second jaeger with them, but the defense wall is short staffed.

Daniel doesn't—

------

Charles and Pierre are fine. Daniel feels better when he sees them with his own eyes, awake and alert in the medical bay.

There's an enviro-tank along the wall in the back, full of orange gel. There's a pilot inside of it, fully suited and unresponsive. The tank shows weak vitals.

Mick is suiting up to go into the tank, dark circles under his eyes.

Daniel wonders if the pilot is alive. If there's any life worth living, when the mind is broken.

------

HB-333 has been retired. Daniel stands along the metal rails by the memorial hallway, looking at the faded honey badger decal on the chest of it. It's an older jaeger, by today's standards, nothing like the gleaming shine on some of the others.

There's a smaller jaeger in the repair bay, a design Daniel doesn't recognize. It's white and orange, sharp angles and harsh lines. It's labeled 01 on the leg. No other personalization.

Daniel asks a dock worker what it is.

The department has created a single pilot jaeger, while he's been gone.

Daniel looks at it, and thinks of the unresponsive pilot in the enviro-tank.

It doesn't feel like a success.

------

Charles grabs him before he leaves, bodily drags him back to the med wing.

He's angrier than Daniel has ever seen him since—

It's been a while.

He calls Daniel selfish, tells him he's a miserable alcoholic and a sorry excuse for a pilot, that he retired because he was scared and a coward.

He tells him Max deserves better.

He tells him he deserves better.

------

Daniel is in one of the new enviro-suits, compressed tight around his body. There's a mask that delivers air through the gel.

He's never been in the gel before.

Mick is asleep on one of the med wing cots, exhausted. The pilot is still unresponsive.

The vitals are worse.

Daniel gets in.

------

"Wait, Danny, do you think we can throw that?"

"The rock? Hell yeah, let me— we need a better division on the limbs, Maxy."

"I already told you I will be the dick if you would like to be everything else."

"But I want the dick."

"Two dicks? No limbs? I think we could make that work. The dick jaeger."

"Now there's something that would scare the kaiju. This giant dick jaeger rolling towards them."

"We could shoot the cannons out of the—"

------

The pilot's name is Max, and Daniel used to know him better than he knew his own heartbeat.

He's twenty four.

Daniel encounters little pieces of him in the gel. A scrap of his name, a memory of a rambunctious card game, of George flipping a table.

A sister.

Countless kaiju fights.

There's fragments of solo piloting, a heavy, inescapable weight. It makes Daniel's head hurt just thinking of it.

It takes several fragments for Daniel to realize that they're not shattered— that's how Max remembers them.

He didn't think it would be allowed for a pilot to operate in a fragmented fugue state. The only moment of clarity is when there's a kaiju.

Finding the edges of a drift is laughably easy. Daniel finds the frazzled ends without thinking, unweaving them, intertwining his own thoughts.

It's a well worn shoe, a glove that fits just right. It's a weight off of his chest.

This is right.

Daniel doesn't remember where it went wrong.

------

He's deep in the drift, unnerved by how alone it feels. There's another mind hiding. He can't find it.

------

Daniel hacks up orange gel when they pull him out of the tank. It looks more like a funeral when he tells them he couldn't find the pilot.

Nico's eyes are wet. Charles won't look at him at all, knuckles white where he's clenching his fists.

Lando asks him quietly if he would try again.

There's a denial balanced on the tip of his tongue, perfectly practiced and honed to perfection over the last three years.

Alex, Lando, Mick.

Three people crying.

Daniel has two more shots.

He tries again.

------

"I mean, you have of course seen my memories of my dad."

"You know how I feel about him."

"Yeah."

"What'd he say this time?"

"He said they're doing research on single pilot jaegers, what it might take to handle one. How efficient they would be."

"Oh that's— fuck me, that's stupid. The whole point of drifting is so that the jaeger don't just— boom, to your brain."

"You wouldn't do that if it was an option, would you?"

"Leave this to hunk of glory to fly solo? Nah, you're stuck with me Maxy. We're the dream team, baby."

------

Daniel finds memories of Alex, Pierre, and Checo. He finds half baked thoughts of other pilots, prospects who couldn't even handle the edges of a drift with Max.

He hasn't found anything with him.

He wonders if maybe Max got memory removal too, but— it's illegal for pilots.

There's an itch in Daniel's brain.

The old Daniel would know where to look to find Max. Would know how to draw him out of his own shattered mind, back into the world of the living. Would be able to tell him all the people who are missing him.

He'd killed that Daniel. Sent him under with medications and liquor and a memory displacement specialist, carved out every mention of Max in his life.

Daniel doesn't choke on the gel again, when they bring him up.

------

He's on a mandatory break. It's the cot they'd had Mick sleeping in, but it's his now.

Lando brings up food from the lower levels, sitting at the end of his bed and picking at his rice.

He says Max had been getting worse.

Distant, hard to catch the attention of. That every drift had been harder and harder to pull him out of.

He doesn't accuse Daniel of anything.

He doesn't need to. Daniel knows Lando like the inside of his lungs, knows that they're both aware of what he's really saying.

Daniel tells him about the memory displacement. Tells him he doesn't even remember what caused a rift between him and Max in the first place, that it's been completely removed.

Lando cusses him out.

Slams the door when he leaves.

The echo still rings in Daniel's ears as he shakes out rice from the sheet, picking up Lando's overturned bowl.

------

The vital signs on the tank are weaker.

Three years since he left, three failed pilots, three failed rounds of rehab, three confirmation appointments before they'd removed all of Daniel's memories, three numbers on HB-333, three chances to save him.

He's on his last shot.

Daniel connects the mask to the oxygen supply, feet dangling over the edge of the tank.

He gets in.

[zluckychap]

"dunk tank" behind the scenes

part 2: the writing & art

can't start drawing the comic without thumbnails!

anyway

i started writing this thing in february at the same time as For Science Part 2. this comic was originally going to be called For Science Part 3, since it has the same 4th-wall-breaking elements as that series. but navi’s not in it, and it’s not really a continuation of 1 and 2, so i wanted to think of something else (cont)

i was gonna call it “the big update” or something based on whatever the update name turned out to be (at the time i didn’t know it was called “worth the wait”) but both of those still seemed too on-the-nose.

but then, the thoughts of the fandom being so entertained by painter’s demise got me envisioning the poor guy stuck in a carnival dunk tank, forever suffering by our hands in our unending quest for video game completion. how morbid is that

the way we so casually talk about his upcoming demise is in a way that would freak anyone out if it was about THEIR death. we talk about it so innocently and it's arguably creepier than going “MUAHAHA!! HE’S GONNA DIE SOON!!”

it's interesting that until now, painter had protection. not in the form of a sealed safe room, or any kind of shields whatsoever, but rather the mere fact that killing him wasn’t yet an option for us. now that protection’s disappearing and there’s nothing he can do about it

when the first draft of the script was done, i realized that if sebastian knew about painter’s fate, and if he truly cared, he might let painter chill in a safe room and protect him there. they’d lose the turrets and whatnot but painter would be fine

so i decided that in the story, there’s something keeping painter in place. an anti-tampering system of sorts built just for him, that either kills him, the tamperer, or both, serving as another obstacle for sebastian to figure out if he really wants to save his buddy

it makes sense in-universe for this to exist too, since there were urbanshade employees psycho enough to track down and kill a guy in cold blood just to get their hands on painter. urbanshade likely wouldn’t want a repeat of that with any other employees

as many of you figured out, YES the colors have meaning!

i didn’t used to like writing, i’ve always largely been a math person. before i really learned to enjoy it, i used to think that details like these in stories were unnecessary, and i’d make fun of them. what a chump i was

colors can have multiple meanings depending on the context. the way they are framed in the “colors” series is definitely not the only way they can be interpreted. i’ll let people draw their own conclusions about it :)

my google doc's script format isn't very formal at all. when i outline a scene i basically put just enough information in for myself to understand what the scene will look like, even if i haven't figured out what the dialogue will be yet

whenever i can’t make up my mind on how a character says something, i write down all the possibilities i come up with and then pick one later. some of the most simple lines go through so many iterations before i find something i’m happy with

before i knew that they were confirmed to have a brotherly relationship, in march i wrote an analysis on sebastian and painter’s roles in the story. i was then informed on tumblr that they see canonically each other as brothers

i later posted on twitter about it, because i could not find where zeal had confirmed this anywhere. so of course Wil randomly pops out of the bushes at that moment to confirm it themselves. thanks wil

these scenes were originally going to play out the exact same way, except they’d take place in the present with seb & painter. after learning this new information about their relationship, i decided to turn them into flashbacks. a decision that paid off IMMENSELY

i always figured sebastian had some amount of fourth-wall awareness as an explanation to how he knows about our multiple runs, can be in several places at once, and is even aware of when we go back into the blacksite after having won the game entirely.

i still have no damn clue what role mr lopee will have in the canon story, but i headcanon that he has something to do with sebastian’s omniscience.

i deliberately kept the update day in the comic ambiguous since we didn’t know when it would be, and still don’t. it’s definitely for the best that it comes out later, we gotta give the devs time to cook but also time to rest.

i changed the script of this page at the last second. i thought it would be interesting to have NSIF praise sebastian for being a good friend, which would have him feeling more guilty. but seb was already showered with praise from painter on the last page, so i switched it up.

then there’s the player’s face on page 12. they were originally going to look very eager to destroy painter. i figured that wouldn’t really work for someone who technically… doesn’t want to be doing what they’re doing. (also congrats to those who noticed which jumpsuit that is)

the future for sebastian and painter’s roles in the story is very uncertain. there are things that are set in stone, and other things that we’re not yet spoiled on, and all of us pretty much have more questions than answers

and even if the plot of this comic didn’t really GO anywhere, that’s okay. sometimes what the characters need is a quiet, calm moment to be in each other’s company… before the storm starts. well, have fun getting the badges, everyone! :P

thanks for following this story for the past month and a half! it's been a journey. it'll probably be a while before the next big story since i have irl stuff to attend to, but i have 5 more stories in the works and i'm excited to show more of what i have planned eventually!

OK THANKS FOR READING BYE

[ateezinmymind]

secret

seonghwa x reader

fluff, smut

warning: fem! reader, unprotected sex, cum play, fingering, alcohol + marijuana mentioned

word count: 2.5k

tag list: (let me know if you want to be on it)

the way he stared at you from across the fire made you flush - and not from the burning flames. his gaze hard and seductive, his bottom lip tucked loosely between his teeth. his wet jet black hair splayed across parts of his forehead from the deep ocean he had been night swimming in.

you and park seonghwa had a little secret to keep from the others

something only the two of you knew about, and something your seven other friends couldn’t know about.

“you all good y/n?” yunho pipes up beside you, making your concentration pull away from the man across the makeshift driftwood bench you seated yourself down at. yunho’s features displayed with worry and confusion, “you haven't even touched any of the food - this is a bonfire girl, get livin’!” his little shoulder groove made you let out a small laugh and shake your head just slightly.

“oh no yuyu, i’m all good, i’m sorry. my mind is all over the place” you say while you raise your hand that has a hold of your bottle of alcohol and joint between your two fingers. “just me and my high ass”

this makes him laugh and shove your shoulder in a friendly manner, and you peek a quick glance at seonghwa once again - finding him staring back with a smirk, his own hand coming up to bring his drink to his parting lips. “well, just had to make sure” yunho adds after he finishes snickering. “you should go out for a dip, it might clear your head”.

this piqued your interest as you began to nod your head with a growing smile, “yeah yunho, that actually sounds really nice.”

“of course babe, just make sure to not go out alone - we can’t have you drifting too far off in the night” and with letting out one last chuckle, he dips his head and jogs off to where mingi and hongjoong were debating - probably about the right way to roast a marshmallow or something of the sort. (you didn’t even bother to look)

perking the arch of your brow up slightly, your eyes catch seonghwas one final time and you decide to take control of the situation. having grown tired of sending flirtatious notions towards each other for most of the night. so, standing up from the driftwood below you, a single nod of your head has seonghwa lifting from his seated position swiftly with an all knowing smile.

“shit!!!” you hiss out, elbows flying out to keep your arms lifted - your face pulling with a clenched jaw. “its freeeeezing”

submerged to your lower ribs, t-shirt halfway soaked, you watch seonghwa dunk below the moon reflected and rippling surface. subconsciously taking a breath in and holding it until he emerges once more.

only then, you let out a small shriek as you feel his nimble fingers just barely dip under your shirt. right above your navel, causing a flutter of excitement in your stomach

“how’s it goin?” he asks you dumbly with a big grin, the glimmering water droplets running down his face. you try and refrain from watching one trail all the way down his chin as your gaze just barely drops down to peek-

“y/n?” he asks again, finally succeeding at getting ahold of your attention, you lift your eyes up and let a small giggle pass. your body submerged in the moving water, yet going nowhere under his soft hold - merely swaying in intoxication. “i'm having fun,” you blankly say with a know it all look, taking in another deep breath - only for an involuntary shiver to chatter in your jaw. his eyes soften at this, and his fingers slide up and around to caress your back and lower shoulders. the feeling makes itself very apparent on your goosebump covered skin. “oh yeah?” he asks, biting back a laugh just watching your eyes squint with yet another infectious snort. “why are you so giggly” he joins.

it was a dumb question really, but that was all part of the fun

lifting your chin a bit higher, your lips just inches away from his - you take your arms over his bare shoulders and lift up off your feet, bringing them around his waist. “i dont know, maybe because im high?” your obvious response made him roll his eyes and finally lower his hold, and support your new position. one hand on your lower back and the other unapologetically on your ass, the contact in turn making you naturally sink more into him.

“o-oh” a small moan escapes your throat as your panty covered heat brushes against his now hardening bulge, having seonghwa let out a responsive grunt.

then silence.

“whatcha doin now” he pipes lowly, slowly closing the distance between the both of your lips and stopping just before you connect. under his close proximity, you adjust strategically and almost deviously - by fully grinding down on his erection. “trying to get you hard” you simply reply, earning a full on moan from seonghwa just before you close the space entirely. swallowing his sounds, the taste of the salty water and alcohol mix with your fighting tongues.

arousal floods your system as your hips continue their grinding motions, seonghwa’s hold on your ass helping guide by tugging and pushing away. and it wasn’t until his hard on painfully strained against the thin suctioned fabric of his boxers he pulled off your mouth, unable to take any more torment. lifting your hips off of him, you whine out from both the loss of pleasurable sensation to your cunt, and the temperature difference of being pulled off his own body heat. though seonghwas hold still on you, your legs drop back down and your feet land down into the sandy ocean bottom.

“okay, y/n, you got me hard” he laughs, exasperatingly. trying to calm his own lust and desire despite the very apparent aroused state. this only makes you roll your eyes and pout.

“you dont wanna fuck?”

seonghwa shakes his head quickly and for the first time looks back at the small group of boys back on the beach yelling back and forth. then back to you - and you're shivering, leading him immediately into decision.

releasing his hold on you completely he leans in for a moment before trudging his way back to shore - “let's get you out of the water and continue, yeah?”

making your way past the scattered friend group was easier than you had initially thought, it just took one look from hongjoong, yunho and yeosang for them to assume the both of you were headed to the parked cars in order for a change of clothes. (the other boys were very immersed in their game of longest handstand, which jongho and san currently battled for the first place it seemed).

the night sky still bright with the lunar glow, you're drawn out of your thoughts when seonghwa gently caresses the back right side of your waist, speaking with a soft tone while closing in towards the vehicles by the beachgrass, “are you wanting to continue?”. looking up, you smile excitedly and nod in response. turning your body to press up against him again once you two disappear behind the car's cover. only this time are you grounded, your intoxicated state backing you up - tongue wetting your lower lip seductively, seonghwa’s grip tightens on you after he chokes out yet another moan. your hand placed over the top of his trousers, palming the (very prominent) hard on he had from moments before.

“please”

how could he refuse such a plea, especially from you - nimble hand between his thighs, your eyes merely staring up into his- almost doe like. taking a look down to watch your hand, seonghwa gives some time to deliberately roll his hips into your opposing touch. “fuck y/n,” he curses, his free hand going down to grab your wrist, “you drive me crazy”

you politely giggle, a blush spreading across your cheeks. “enough talk,” taking the lead once more, you lift up onto your toes and lock lips with him. the both of you in yet another fight for control, moans get swallowed and your positions naturally change. lifted up from the ground, seonghwa slows down the kiss and with one hand (not holding your straddling thighs up) opens the backseat door of his car.

the distant conversations and game shouts from over by the bonfire fade out as he sits you down carefully on the seat. “can i take your panties off?” he questions while casually dropping his trunks, or rather peeling off the wet almost plastered fabric - your eyes dart up before you can catch sight of his cock. your blood runs hot and you feel your pussy clench in anticipation, arousal already leaking from your core, “of course” you confirm, readily lifting your hips to help him grab the waistline. silently smiling, your heart swells from hearing his usual ask for consent.

“i love when you smile,” seonghwa cheers, confidently sliding off your underwear and tossing them into the front passenger seat. the remark makes you roll your eyes, “you always say that, come on i’m getting impatient” you groan out, wiggling your hips and slightly opening your legs with a knowing intention. “we can confess all we want after you fuck me, ‘kay?”

seonghwa laughs at this, and you don’t even have time to realize ‘confess’ was your word choice before lips latch to the nape of your neck and an awaited sigh falls from you. his tongue gently swiping across the smooth skin, seonghwa leans over more into you and when his prominent erection brushes against your inner thigh you snake your hand down to fist him.

he immediately shutters under your touch, pausing his peppering to your pulse points. his heavy and shaking breathing only pushes you further, so beginning to fully jerk him off you watch him attentively from below.

“so handsy” he teases with an airy voice, his adams apple bobbing as he swallows hard, “why don't you help yourself baby, yeah?”

wetting your lips another flutter of excitement confines in your lower stomach, and with an agreeing nod you guide him into position. seonghwa swiftly moves in motion with you and does the go ahead and carefully inches himself completely in your cunt.

feeling his dick glide deeper with ease from all your slick, your walls dilate around him and you both moan in unison- followed with a shared giggle.

“much better” you snide, your voices pitch slightly higher as your body adjusts to his size, making his cock twitch. he smiles and once again dips down to kiss you passionately.

sliding himself out slowly he then- with deliberate ease, thrusts back in. your legs wrap around his waist in response and the sounds of pleasure spill out of both your mouths when he breaks from your lips. “so perfect” he huffs out in an awe-like manner, speeding up. the quicker and harder force makes your tits bounce and high pitched cries flood out your open mouth, his dick reaching deep inside your cunt, kissing your cervix with pleasurable ease.

“oh fuck seonghwa” you mewl, looking up with knit brows at the man above, “yes, right there!!” you watch as he smirks and lowers his eyes down, clenching around him tightly in response. feeling your high near closer and closer with every quick thrust. a hiss of buckling euphoria comes out of seonghwa’s clenched teeth, his dick twitching at the sight of him disappearing inside your tight spasming wetness. his thrusts faltering slightly.

“god- y/n baby, where do you want me to come?” he chokes out as he grabs your hips, slowing down his movements. the grip on you shoots to the pit of your stomach and more arousal floods just hearing him all whiny for you, “anywhere please just don’t stop now.”

with your green light, it had seonghwa pounding into you yet again, his hold getting tighter as he burrowed deep with every rut of his hips.

neither of you had time or care to realize the whole car shifting with your bodies.

grunting, seonghwa gives two more rapid thrusts and pulls out just as he reaches orgasm. his cum spurting out on your cunt. he moans heavily while watching it drip all over, “fuckkkk” he curses, and you whine with your bottom lip between your teeth - hips bucking up for more, “im so close hwa, please don’t stop” you tell him again.

his dick used and twitching, seonghwa is quick to carefully slip two fingers inside your pussy. his release mixes in with your slick as he fucks his cum deep with every thrust of his digits. curling his fingers and stimulating your g-spot repeatedly, your jaw goes slack and your body begins to shake with your climax. “yesyesyessss” you cry out, bundle of pleasure snapping. your thighs clamp around his wrist and hips grind down desperately against his wet knuckles as you ride out your high.

heavy breathing is the only sound once the two of your highs come down and he slides his fingers out between your thighs. carefully spreading them for him again, only now he reaches over and grabs a beach towel from the seat behind you- bringing it down to clean up the sticky mess you both created.

smiling, you thank him and sit yourself up, “of course pretty,” he says as he reaches his arm over the passenger seat and grabs his spare change of boxers under your damp panties, bringing them through your ankles. “thank you” he says in return, sliding them up and over your bottom.

he stops and takes a long look at your face.

“you're so beautiful, y/n do you know that?”

this makes you smile shyly and flush, yet you nod- “yes.. you tell me often-”

“i love you” he blurts out, his own face turning a light pink- “and i know this is a weird time to confess but i-” kissing him before he rambles on, you bring your hands up to his face and slowly part with a giggle. “i love you too hwa”

you see his eyes light up with that and his lips fighting a big smile, so you tilt your head back and tease him

“it's okay seonghwa, you can smile at your girlfriend.”

hearing that he complies happily and laughs “i like that sound of that”

“so do i” you reply, “pull up your trunks so we can go back to the boys?” you ask and seonghwa follows, helping you out of his car after his bottoms are back around his hips.

“do you think they suspect anything about us yet?” he says with a joking snort, “oh please, i doubt it” you reply with a wave of your hand.

as the both of you walk your way back to the group, wooyoung is the first to notice your appearance in the dark distance (still in your wet shirt) and says something- or rather screams to the whole group right in yeosang’s ear,

“I THINK Y/N AND SEONGHWA JUST FUCKED!!!”

[angelpregdreams]

maggie the midwife (1)

I made a midwife oc forever ago, and wanted to finally write some things for her, expect her to return in future birth scenes c;

content: fpreg, birth

Behind her, Maggie heard her charge groan in pain. Currently, the midwife was dunking her hands in a bowl of warm water, knowing it was almost time to check the progress the babe was making, if the mother was so inclined. Maggie doubted that would change much since the last time she asked, but if the babe lingered too long, they both might be in danger soon.

“Well, Ida, what do you want to do? The contractions haven't changed much in the last hour.” Maggie asked Ida, the other woman laboring loudly, standing beside the edge of her bed. Ida grunted, her head thrown back as she came down from the height of her pain. 

“I do-don’t want…” Ida mumbled, before groaning and giving Maggie a lingering, dirty look, “b-but the child is impatient.”

Maggie knew that was the stubborn woman’s relenting and permission, Ida was nothing if not constant, and her blaming the babe for what the midwife must do was especially common as of late. Nodding in solidarity, Maggie came over to the woman, leaning behind her and placing her hands on her hips, rubbing a bit to ease the pressure that grew between Ida’s hips as she got closer to pushing. 

“Children often are, especially babies,” Maggie remarked quietly, the other woman groaning as the next contraction took control over her. She waited for Ida to relax just a bit before slipping one hand over the laboring woman’s swollen opening. Her vagina was puffy and warm in her hand and Maggie coaxed her to relax so she could prod her fingers inside of her to check dilation. Her fingers wiggled slightly, before bumping something fleshy and slick. 

Eyes wide, and thankful Ida couldn’t see her, Maggie quickly regained control and pulled her fingers out. “Babe is about to crown, Ida. With your next pain I want you to push.” 

Ida groaned loudly but nodded, her hips rocking under Maggie’s grip as she breathed and waited for the next contraction to overtake her. Behind her, the midwife adjusted herself to be able to fully look up at Ida’s swollen cunt from behind, seeing the flesh bulge and fluid leak between her hairy lips.

“Ohhh…” Ida moaned, bucking her hips awkwardly and throwing her head back, “it’s coming!” 

“Good girl,” Maggie cooed, rubbing her hips and giving the woman a smile she couldn’t see, “push!”

Moans and groans turned into long cries as Ida pushed down, straining with the pain. Her fold bulged outward, a squirt of fluid landing on the rug underneath her as Maggie urged her on, “yes! Just like that, breathe when the pain eases.”

The rhythm of Ida’s labor settled comfortably as she continued to push with her contractions. The child in her was large, bigger than Maggie had thought the woman capable of carrying. Suddenly she was very aware that she did not know who the father was and she had never bothered to ask the birthing woman, and Ida had never bothered to say anything either. Gnawing on her cheek, Maggie watched as a sliver of the head appeared but quickly retreated as the pain eased. 

“F-Fuck! It’s so big,” Ida cried, her chest heaving as she struggled to remain still. She rocked her hips in Maggie’s grip, “I need to move.”

Sensing her primal urge, Maggie sat back and let Ida adjust as needed. The other woman groaned and dropped into a deep squat next to the bed and began to push, barely leaving enough time for the midwife to drop deep enough behind her to see the head rush into a wide crown in between Ida’s swollen folds. The woman screamed, and she paused for a split second to catch her breath where the head sat at her entrance and did not recede again. 

Maggie smiled again, awkward behind Ida as she tried to keep an eye on the progress while able to support the mother. “Keep going, just like that.” 

“A-ahhhh!” She continued to scream as the pain came over her again and pushed. A small gush of fluid dribbled around the head, joining the rest of the fluid on the now stained rug, the head lurching into an even wider crown as Maggie watched in awe. She had never seen a head quite so big. Her training kicked in and as Ida stretched wider than both of them thought possible, Maggie reached out and cupped the woman’s straining sex. “Too big!”

Unable to say anything to that, the midwife simply let her scream and cry, her pushing was the most important thing and she was doing wonderfully. 

The head strained at the widest point, holding Ida open until finally her pussy lips gave and the head lurched out into Maggie’s hand. A huge gush of fluid covered the head and her hand, flooding the rug as Ida cried out in relief. 

There was no way the child’s father was not a giant, even by human standards. The massive head hung between Ida’s thighs, her pussy leaking massive amounts of birth fluid as she sobbed and waited for her next contraction. 

Maggie supported the head, still awkwardly behind Ida and leaning slightly under her leaking, swollen cunt to keep her support right. Small price to pay for mother and baby to be comfortable.

Surprisingly, with the next pain, Ida pushed and the child practically dropped out of her and into Maggie’s waiting hands. 

“Yes! Good girl,” Maggie joined in Ida’s crying, bringing the babe up between the woman’s legs and up to her bare chest. The babe wiggled uncomfortably and Ida instinctively rubbed the child’s back and heard a cough, then a cry. The midwife smiled, excited to see her birth turn out well, “there we go! You did so amazing, Ida.” 

[ilovebuckers5]

.·:·.✧ Say No ✧.·:·.

NIka Muhl x Fem!Reader

"your probably having good times with a bad boy"

word count - 2.1k

themes:

-angst if u squint

-slight sexual content

-light fluff

A/N - this is gonna be a short series but I wrote this in honor of the weather getting warmer and so that I'm not so depressed about Nika leaving. sorry its so short..

Me and Nika Muhl started dating July 7th of 2022. It was a regular summer day in California. The entire team decided to go on a vacation together. It was hard leaving Connecticut to go hang out with the team I had just joined but oh whatever. The only downside to his trip was my shitty boyfriend.

Ex. Ex boyfriend sorry.

I had a mango smoothie in hand and watched as Paige and Azzi splashed each other with the bluest of waters. Every couple seconds I'd feel a breeze rush against my exposed collarbones. Even as the sun was beating down on me I felt so fresh and clean and free. My fingers felt around the sand I was sitting in. My eyes drifted from the ocean to the sky which was painted with oranges and yellows with pinky tones in-between. I took a sip from my smoothie before looking to my ride to find a creation brunette sitting down next to me. A soft smile was placed on her face as she made herself comfortable next to me.

Throughout the time that I was on this team, me and Nika barely talked outside of game days and team dinners. If I'm being honest, This summer was going to be my designated time to get closer with her. So her openly sitting next to me was a major step.

"Hey" her eyes flashed from the sand to me.

I quickly shaped my lips into a smile and looked into Nika's eyes.

"Hi theree"

I noticed her hands were wrapped around the handle of a beige tote bag. She let go of the bag to rest her hands against her chest as she laid herself down. Her sunglasses were black with a slightly lighter lens. She had on a bright blue bikini that the ends of her hair grazed ever so slightly. I felt her eyes linger towards mine as I admired her features.

"Sorry we haven't gotten to talk a lot in the past couple months" she said softly, accent thick.

"Your good. We have the whole summer to make up for it so don't worry" I kept my eyes locked on the ocean.

Up until now I thought Nika was the mean point guard who everyone was petrified by. And I was very convinced that they had a reason. But now talking to her face to face I felt myself grow confused on how this could've gotten around.

"Why aren't you out in the water huh?" The brunette said pointing to the ocean.

I shrugged my shoulders and turned my head to face Nika.

"I forgot my suit" an excuse quickly slipped out.

"Oh sure.." Nika said under her breath, clearly not believing me

Our conversation eventually died out so I decided to pull out a book from my beach bag. I flipped through the pages to find my last place and began reading. as I got lost in the words I didn't even realize that Nika had gotten up to go swim with the other girls. I peered through the top of my book to see Nika gently slipping her feet into the water. Ines quickly jumped onto Nika's back like a toddler on her mom. I couldn't help but giggle at the sight of Nika getting absolutely dunked into the water. Everyone but me and Qadence were in the water. I almost forgot I was even reading by the time Nika looked at me. I was caught staring at her. in a bikini. shit. I quickly darted my eyes down into my book and pretended that nothing happened.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Once the team got back to the hotel we were staying at the only thing I could focus on was trying to avoid Nika. Of course it was my luck that I happened to room with her. What a coincidence. I walked through the door of our room and set my flower printed bag on my bed and showered before doing anything else. I played my favorite summer playlist and left my clothes on the floor before stepping into the shower. My mind kept going back to the beach and seeing Nika in her bathing suit. Fuck. Doesn't she have a boyfriend or something? I cant be thinking this shit. But the way her hair was all wet and her laugh was so addicting to remember. The hot water running down my back along with the thought of Nika sent chills along my arms effortlessly.

I kept trying to focus on whatever SZA song was playing on my speaker but failed miserably. Soon enough I got out of the shower and slipped on a silk pajama set on. I braided my hair tightly and cleaned up the bathroom before turning the light off and leaving. When I got out of the bathroom the bedroom was still empty. Thank god. I flipped open my computer and turned on Outer Banks before pulling out my sketch book.

I came up with a rule before I came to UConn. The rule was that after everyday I have to draw anything that comes to mind until my mind is clear. Whether its cleared of happiness or anger. And I stuck to it.

Of course I had to draw the ocean and sand and all those beach like things. Before I knew it, I was drawing Nika. With her hair up with her hair down. In her bikini, in the outfit she wore yesterday and the day before. The was the first day that I had to shut my sketch book before my mind was clear because what the fuck was I doing. I couldn't be drawing Nika like a fucking psychopath. I stuffed my book into my suitcase and laid down on my bed. Time flew by as I watched more episodes of Outer Banks. So much time went by that when I was about to click 'next episode' to watch the last episode of season 3, Paige knocked on the door. Her head peeked through slowly. she had a devious smile on her lips and just like that her, Azzi, KK, Ice, and Nika busted through my door giggling and jumping around. Great they got high without me. I quickly protected my computer by closing it and putting it on my nightstand. Azzi crawled on top of my bed and sat next to me, placing her head on my shoulder.

While everyone laughed around hitting each other with pillows, I saw Nika standing in the corner on her phone. Her eyes seemed to get less and less dilated the more she tapped her thumbs aggressively on her screen. I stood up and walked up to her.

"You good?" I tried to not be nosey but gave up and looked down at her phone. She slowly handed it to me to show a text that her "boyfriend" sent. They broke up.

I quickly wrapped my arms around Nika and squeezed her tightly.

"He's going to be missing out on a lot love dont' worry"

Nika couldn't help but let a couple tears roll down her face. Just as I thought she was going to collapse and sob into my arms she pulled away and stared into my eyes menacingly. Her fingers quickly wrapped around my hand and began dragging me to the side. I looked up to see Nika leading me outside into the hallway. she led me all the way to Paige and Azzi's room. Without any hesitation she shut the door and locked it behind her.

"Nika what are you doi-" I began to say

"Shut up please."

Before even realizing what was happening I felt Nika press her lips against mine. A small gasp left my mouth but it wasn't a gasp that said I don't want to do this it was a gasp that said don't stop. My tongue quickly found its place against hers. Her hand lifted my thigh up against her hips and I quickly followed what she was doing by lifting my other leg up around her waist. She lifted my entire body up against hers and carried me to the other wall. She pressed my back against the wall and moved her lips down my neck, pausing in-between kisses to leave marks around each vein. My hands were wrapped around the back of her neck, my nails slightly dug into her skin the lower she got.

"Off." She said sternly once her lips reached the edge of my pajama top.

I didn't pause to think about anything and took off my top revealing my sports bra. Her fingers teased at the hem of my pants clearly wanting to take them off. Unfortunately for her it wasn't that easy.

"uh uh. you first"

I looked her dead in the eye and ran my hands across her tank top. Her hand released my waist, not changing the grip my legs had onto her waist. She slipped off her black tank top without breaking our eye contact. Her lips immediately gravitated back to my chest. I couldn't help but let out a soft whine as her lips made their way closer to my stomach.

"I can tell this is what you meant by getting to know each other" she spat before placing a kiss on my lips as she slipped off my pajama bottoms.

"Mind reader much?" I said in response

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The morning after everything that happened that night was unbearable. My eyes slowly blinked open to see Nika laying on my chest. Calm breaths left her mouth followed by a couple snores. I gently slipped out from under her and got dressed. As I walked into the bathroom I realized that I was definitely not in my room. We were both still in Paige and Azzi's room. Fuck fuck fuck.

Before even thinking, I rushed out of the room leaving Nika and ran to my room. The first thing I saw was Paige, Azzi, KK, and Ice laying on me and Nika's beds. Limbs sprawled out and everything. I chose to ignore the girls and ran to he bathroom to brush my teeth and clean myself up before Nika woke up. Once my hair was brushed out I slicked it back into a ponytail and got changed into a light orange sweater and grey Nike shorts. My feet were thankfully covered with a pair of socks. After I got changed and fixed myself up, I rushed back to Paige and Azzi's room to find a still asleep Nika laying on Paige's bed. She was now cuddled up onto the pillow I previously was sleeping on. Her hair was clearly tangled and her mascara was smudged.

I decided to do the most cringey and kidney of weird thing ever but who cares. I grabbed makeup remover and a brush from my bag and started by taking off her mascara. This woke Nika up quickly but she didn't do anything about it but groan. Once her mascara was off, I completely woke her up and helped her sit up so that I could brush her hair. Gently teasing through the tangles, I brushed through her hair. Her eyes were still mainly closed but she still tried her best to loop up at me as I gave her a mini makeover. Not that she needed it.

Once we were both fixed up a word still wasn't exchanged. Just giggling every few minutes. The both of us chose to ignore whatever happened last night even though we were both VERY aware that what happened well. Happened.

The rest of the day went by smoothly. Not many people asked what we were doing in Paige and Azzi's room surprisingly. a few glances were shared throughout the day whether it was when we went out to go shopping or when we went to shoot free throws for fun.

The same thing happened almost every night for the next week. Nika would be in whatever mood she was in so she'd crawl into my arms and lay there until we got each other's clothes off. We stayed like that for what felt like forever until July hit. Things began to get more innocent if you could use that word. The girls began to notice how close we were and how it took us a while to get up out of bed every couple of days. We decided to clear up everything and you know. Date.

Of course not everyone agreed with this. When we made things official, two specific men had very strong opinions about this. Of course when things were officiated my mind was completely blank when it came to the fact that I still had a boyfriend. A shitty one but still.

Now I'm not saying that cheating was the right thing but I mean…it's Nika Muhl who could say no.

[hitheeprithee]

like a bolt from the blue

Hi hi hi hi!! This is a Ranchers DBHC AU fic for the lovely @shepscapades, featuring a little hurt comfort, a lot of guys who haven't quite figured out their feelings, and a lot of Jimmy trying his absolute darndest. Read on AO3 !!

The problem was, no matter how much Jimmy scrubbed, he could still smell the soot on his clothes.

Sweat beaded on his forehead as he took a brief break from pummeling his shirt on the flat river rock in front of him, sighing gustily. The gorge was deep enough that the sunlight had already moved past him, and he could just see it tinging the tops of the distant grass with gold. He frowned. He’d wanted to spend maybe an hour cleaning their things, not the, gosh, probably three or so he’d been down there already. He looked forlornly again down at the shirt which, even water-dark, still looked kind of gray. 

Their bed linens weren’t any better either, the formerly-white sheets were hung up to dry somewhat haphazardly from the branches of the single tree clinging to the rocks at the bottom of the gorge. Tango had scrunched his nose in a barely suppressed laugh when he’d seen Jimmy bundling the fabric into his arms. 

“Really? Are we actually trying to save all that?” Tango had asked disbelievingly. Jimmy liked that even when Tango was looking at him like he’d gone a bit mad, he said ‘we’. 

“I mean, yeah. Do you have a sheep stashed somewhere around here? Or things we can actually trade for wool?” Jimmy asked, almost wishing Tango would say yes. He hadn’t really been looking forward to balancing his way down the precarious path without being able to see his feet. 

Tango, sadly, had only a reluctant nod and a shrug for him as he conceded the point. There had been an awkward pause then as Jimmy hadn’t moved to leave, wondering if there was a way he could ask the question on his mind without sounding weird or stupid or somehow insensitive. But when Tango had looked at him with those glinting red eyes he just couldn’t seem to get the words out, so he left it alone. 

After all, if Tango wanted his clothes washed he would surely say something, right? It felt weird to ask because he didn’t want to assume Tango would want to strip down and let Jimmy go dunk his clothes in the river, but it also felt wrong not to ask. Jimmy would want someone to ask if his shirt looked that crispy on the back. Tango had reassured him that he wasn’t injured there, and Jimmy supposed he had to believe him. Still, there was a kind of pressure in the back of his head that wouldn’t leave him alone. 

It meant that Jimmy kept absent-mindedly scratching at the back of his neck, or feeling a twinge at his shoulder blades that made him sort of wriggle in place trying to dispel it. His eyes kept flicking to Tango afterwards, the little surges of discomfort left a weird almost-taste in the back of his throat that reminded him of something. Maybe it was the way his tongue felt coated in copper when they took damage, or the smell of hot iron and gunpowder that had left his head pounding after they respawned. Jimmy tried to clear his throat of it. 

Jimmy shook himself and stretched, deciding the shirt he was washing wasn’t going to get any less terrible with scrubbing. He wrung it out over the river and sighed as, after everything, the run-off still ran cloudy. He just wanted a clean shirt. 

“Jimmy!” came a shout, echoing down the cliff path. Jimmy managed to not overbalance into the river only by sheer luck, and he grabbed a nearby rock a little roughly as he righted himself. 

A familiar horn call came down the cliff face, and Jimmy couldn’t help the sappy smile that crossed his face. He unhooked his own horn from his belt, raising it to his lips in reply. He heard a distant Tango noise and then a gentle clattering down the precarious cliff path. 

“Be careful!” he shouted up at Tango, shading his eyes as he looked up at his rancher clambering down towards him. 

“I was starting to get worried you’d fallen in!” Tango yelled down to him, and Jimmy laughed. 

“I think you would have heard me shout all the way up there if I had,” Jimmy shot back, grinning at Tango as he finally made it to the little outcropping of rock he’d colonized with their laundry. 

Tango looked around curiously, a faint smile on his face - which Jimmy took as an absolute score. He hadn’t been doing that as much since the ranch burned. Jimmy was momentarily distracted watching the little light on Tango’s temple spin as he processed a thought. He liked it, it was like he was able to watch Tango’s brain tick from the outside. Jimmy didn’t let himself consider any other reasons he might like looking at Tango’s face. 

“Do you need a hand getting all this stuff up the mountain?” Tango asked, and Jimmy was about to shoo him away before he realized that the fabric stretched out along the branches around him was still wet. He hadn’t even considered that before loading himself up with everything he could carry, but now there was no way he’d be getting back up by himself. 

“Oh… yeah, that’d be good,” he said a little sheepishly. 

Tango shook his head at him as he huffed a laugh, and Jimmy once again saw the charred fabric at his back. 

“Do you-” he began, before he could stop himself. 

Tango turned to look at him. 

“What?” he asked. Not annoyed or upset, just looking at Jimmy like he wanted to hear whatever he was going to ask. 

“Do you want a hand with the- all of the… y’know, on your back?” Jimmy asked haltingly, and he watched Tango’s expression shutter for a moment. He swallowed the lump in his throat. There was a long pause where Jimmy regretted ever opening his big mouth in life up until that moment, but then Tango looked down and gave a slightly defeated shrug. 

“I mean… probably. I didn’t wanna bug you with it or anything,” Tango said, tone muted and quieter than Jimmy was used to hearing him. 

Jimmy couldn’t help but cross his arms at that, looking at Tango a little reproachfully. 

“We take care of each other, remember Tango? Why wouldn’t I want to help?” 

Tango looked at him, and Jimmy saw… something there. A kind of guarded thing that worried him. Without saying anything else, Tango began to shrug stiffly out of his vest. Jimmy wished he was still holding a piece of laundry, that he had something to do with his hands other than stand there and fidget as Tango’s face scrunched in discomfort. The light at the side of his head spun yellow. 

“Do you want-” Jimmy started to ask, and Tango waved him off.

Jimmy watched as Tango set his vest down next to Jimmy’s basket, and then paused awkwardly. 

“Actually,” Tango began, and Jimmy was moving practically before he’d finished speaking, crossing the few steps to Tango’s side in an instant. That was probably a little too eager, a little too awkward, but Jimmy was trying not to worry about it. 

“Yeah?” Jimmy asked, and he saw Tango’s eyes flicker to the side, avoiding his gaze. Jimmy felt a strange restlessness in his chest, but he didn’t know what it needed in order to settle. It was some kind of weird nebulous want to help that refused to sit still long enough to become any one action or word. So instead he tried to just project his willingness to do anything at all, and tried to wait for Tango to speak. 

Tango seemed to struggle with the words he needed for a moment, before grumbling under his breath and slowly turning around, posture so stiff his shoulders were practically up to his ears. Jimmy could see how the back of Tango’s vest had taken the brunt of the damage from the fire, but great singed holes still dotted the back of Tango’s shirt, revealing hints of Tango’s synthetic skin underneath. It looked like Tango hadn’t taken any of his layers off since the fire, and if Jimmy was reading Tango’s deep discomfort right, that was exactly what had happened. 

“Look, there’s some stuff back there I just need to get cleaned off probably, and then I’ll be fine,” his tone defensive before Jimmy had even uttered a word. 

“Yeah, ‘course,” Jimmy said automatically, a little furrow forming between his brows as he tried to figure out exactly what had Tango so twitchy. There was a beat of silence where neither of them moved, and Jimmy coughed politely. 

“Do you wanna, y’know, take your shirt off Tango?” he asked, and he saw the tips of Tango’s ears flush blue. 

“Yeah, yeah,” Tango said, and he sounded almost like his normal self again, in that playfully exasperated way that somehow never got Jimmy defensive or confused. He reached up, and Jimmy saw him tug the zipper of his shirt down roughly. Something in Jimmy’s heart did a funny little thump as it drew attention to the bandages still on Tango’s hands. They were getting old after a few days of their rebuilding efforts, and by now they were more than a little stained with soot. But Tango had carefully tucked in any loose or trailing ends, and seemed to be in no hurry at all to take them off despite that. It was nice. It made Jimmy feel helpful. 

Tango paused with his shirt dangling half off his shoulders, and Jimmy held up his hands suddenly, a thought occurring to him. 

“Hang on a mo,” he said, and reached for the empty basket, turning it upside down next to a flat-topped rock and gesturing to it. “There, sit, sit,” he urged as he plopped himself on the rock, squeezing his hands between his knees because he didn’t know what else to do with them. 

Tango looked at him skeptically for a moment, and then stepped over and carefully lowered himself onto the basket. It rocked a little precariously on the uneven ground for a moment, but settled under Tango’s weight. Tango fidgeted with his shirt, head jerking to the side like he was resisting looking back at Jimmy, then shrugged his shirt off his shoulders. 

Jimmy wished he could have stifled the gasp that left him. 

Before him was…a lightning strike, etched into the back of Tango’s body. It looked like someone had taken a nail and hammer and shattered the shell of his spine like a pane of glass. A map of white, uncolored android scars interspersed with thirium-blue ran in a jagged line down his back, and Jimmy felt his hands instinctively reach for them. He stopped himself only millimeters from actually touching, and then jerked his hand back like he’d been shocked. 

“Tango…” he breathed, and Tango’s shoulders slumped a little. 

“It’s fine, Jimmy. Don’t worry about it,” Tango said, and Jimmy frowned fiercely at the back of Tango’s head. 

“Since when am I not gonna worry about you when you’re hurt?” he asked almost incredulously, crossing his arms in emphasis, even if Tango couldn’t see him. Tango huffed so sharply it almost sounded like a hiss. 

“I’m fine, Jimmy, it’s an old - I’m fine. I just need a hand cleaning up, that’s all.”

Jimmy’s eyes migrated from the hole he was glaring in the back of Tango’s skull, trailing down once again to the scar snaking down Tango’s skin. He could see smears of charred fabric and ash where his clothes hadn’t quite protected him, and around the edges of the scar he could see those tiny particles of soot settling into almost invisible fine-line cracks in Tango’s shell.

He wanted to ask, he wanted to ask so bad. It took everything in him to hold back the questions that bubbled up in his throat. Who did this to you? Why hasn’t it healed - or no, been fixed? 

Why hasn’t someone already helped you, Tango?

Jimmy swallowed.

“I can do that,” Jimmy said after a pause, and stood to grab one of the shirts of his he’d deemed ‘too ruined’ and had set aside to become rags. He tried to stop his heart from thumping quite so loudly. He wondered for a moment, if it was just his heart doing that, or if Tango’s inner pump was working just as hard as his own. 

Jimmy stood and dipped the cloth in the cool, clear water of the river, grimacing a little as he wrung it out. 

“This’ll be cold though, sorry,” he apologized. 

He could see Tango hesitate for a moment, almost turning to look at Jimmy with a confused tilt to his head. 

“S’fine, don’t worry about it,” Tango said finally, and Jimmy was already getting a little tired of hearing that. Somewhere in the muddle of his emotions, he realized he was maybe a mite protective of his right to worry about Tango. Looking at his rancher now, it looked as though Tango was trying to still enough to fade into the background, like maybe he could just disappear if he tried hard enough. Things were slowly falling together in Jimmy’s mind, not quite clear enough that he could see them yet, but enough that his eyebrows stayed scrunched together in thought. 

Jimmy sat back down on his rock, and surveyed the surface of Tango’s back in the slowly blueing light. Everything about Tango’s posture screamed ‘DONT TOUCH ME’, and Jimmy hesitated before slowly reaching his palm out to rest on Tango’s shoulder, well away from the scar. 

“You sure this is okay?” he asked, a little terrified of messing everything up. This was some kind of trust that Jimmy wanted to handle so, so carefully, because it felt fragile in his hands. 

Tango nearly flinched away from the touch, but after a tense moment Jimmy felt him settle under it. Jimmy might have been imagining things, but he almost thought he felt Tango lean into him a little. 

Tango paused, then nodded, not making a sound. Jimmy wasn’t so sure, but he could only take Tango at his word. 

Squeezing the cloth in his hand to wring out just a little more of the water, he reached up and brushed it oh-so-delicately across the top of Tango’s scar. He saw Tango’s whole frame twitch, and for a moment a red light glowed on the edge of his periphery. Jimmy slowed his movements, but didn’t stop. Something told him stopping every time he got nervous wouldn’t get anything done at all, and he wanted to trust Tango’s word. He wasn’t going to give Tango that same kind of pitying treatment that made his skin crawl, when people looked at him like he couldn’t be trusted to make decisions for himself. 

So Jimmy kept going. He kept the pressure light as he felt the slight texture changes under his fingers. He tried to keep his touch light but not ticklish, cleaning first the surrounding skin, and then the ridges and cracks that criss-crossed his spine. The sound of the rushing river covered the slight shakiness in his breath, and he tried not to focus on the way his body kept drifting closer to Tango’s as he maneuvered the cloth in slow, soft circles.

Jimmy kept feeling almost imperceptible little twitches under his hands, things that he might write off as his imagination if they didn’t happen every time his cloth brushed the edges of a crack. He was afraid for a moment that he was hurting Tango, but it didn’t seem like he was hurting Tango. Maybe it was just sensitive. Jimmy didn’t really know the first thing about how androids like Tango functioned, but if Jimmy had an open wound like that on his back, even if he was a kind of amazing invincible powerhouse of a machine, he was pretty sure he’d feel a little tender. 

There was something about this position that made Jimmy think about the night the ranch burned- aside from all the obvious things, that was. His hands twinged a little bit thinking about it, his own bandages had come off before he had washed their things, and the new, pink skin was still tender. He could see little patches of his skin that had burned, places where he’d gripped Tango and his soulmate’s skin had seared him. It wasn’t just the ash of their home that made him think about it though, even as it ran down Tango’s back in dark little rivulets as he squeezed the cloth. 

It was the way he’d barred Tango across the chest, holding him close even though it felt like opening a blast furnace full in his face, or like pressing a hot iron to his heart. Jimmy hadn’t just been trying to hold him back from running after Scar, but sort of… hold him together. He could feel something through their bond that felt like Tango’s brilliant mind fraying at the edges, like he was spinning away from him, unspooling their red thread further and further away. He hated the memory of Tango’s eyes glowing iron-hot in his head, his face twisted in an anger that made him look alien, something elemental in his rage. 

This felt like that, too. He could feel Tango pulling away with some kind of shame or fear or buried anger that Jimmy couldn’t really read. Each pass over his skin was Jimmy trying to hold him together in his hands, to cup the pieces of him before they could spill away. 

Jimmy was probably being overbearing with it, he was sure. He didn’t want to mess this up. This moment, or this game, or them. He liked Tango, and this game had been so far removed from every single one of his expectations. It felt perilously important not to screw things up, to lose Tango’s partnership or his friendship, he didn’t like the snapping, bitter tension in the air between the other feuding soulmates. He didn’t want to be like that with Tango. 

Cracks under his fingertips slowly came clean, as the sunset slowly turned the sky above them orange. Tango’s torso rose and fell under his hands with slowly lengthening simulated breaths. Jimmy could never really tell if he was actually pulling in air or not, but whatever weird little body process it served made it seem like he was slowly relaxing. Jimmy smiled. 

Tango cleared his throat. 

“There’s a little bit still - kinda down and to the left,” he said, and his voice was more gravelly than usual. Jimmy’s gaze snapped to where Tango said. Without the cloth, he pressed a gentle touch where he thought Tango meant.

“Here?” he asked, and that time Jimmy was pretty sure he didn’t imagine the shiver that ran through Tango. 

“Um, yeah, a little up,” Tango squeaked, and Jimmy dragged his fingertips a little bit up, skating so carefully over a hairline fracture there. 

“Oh yeah I see it,” Jimmy said, and he leaned in a little to see what he was doing, squinting in the fading light. He felt his breath ghost over his hands as he gently worked the area clean with the rag, and he hoped it wasn’t making Tango too uncomfortable to have him so close. His spine had gone a little weird and stiff again, and when he straightened back up he could see a haze of blue dusting across his cheeks, even from behind. 

“You feelin’ better?” he asked, and Tango nodded. 

Jimmy almost didn’t need to ask, because that terrible kind of itch in his spine had eased. He could feel their level of tension slowly drain as the ravine got darker and darker. Jimmy hadn’t realized that his hand was still resting on Tango’s back, but he didn’t really want to move it just then. It was nice to feel the heat coming off of him, to feel that slow rise and fall of his not-breathing. The light on Tango’s temple light flickered blue. 

“S’gettin’ late, we should get home before a mob ruins all my hard work,” Jimmy said jokingly, and he saw Tango huff a laugh. 

“Yeah no more creeper sneak attacks please,” he said, and Jimmy grinned at the way his voice sounded. He sounded lighter. It was nice. 

Jimmy pulled his hand away slowly, smoothing his fingertips over the outer edge of the crack in Tango’s shell. He blushed suddenly. Hadn’t meant to do that, probably a weird thing to do. 

Something shot over the soulmate bond, and Tango’s light spun abruptly red before settling back in yellow. Jimmy held his breath.

“S’alright,” Tango said, and Jimmy looked at the back of his head, confused. He had no idea what Tango was saying, and for a long moment neither of them moved. The movement in Tango’s chest was still, like he was waiting. 

Jimmy wiped a suddenly sweaty palm on his pants, and then, with as much care as he could possibly muster, reached out to brush the edge of the scar again. Tango didn’t jump, or whip around and demand to know what Jimmy was doing. He got brave enough to slowly lay his palm on the unblemished skin and brush his thumb along the slight raised edge.

“Does it hurt?” he asked, nearly whispering. It felt wrong to speak any louder than that, with the twilight rolling up the river towards them and a few stray fireflies blinking steadily across the water. It was a space apart, something soft and still and quiet. 

“I don’t feel pain like that, Jimmy,” bit Tango, and Jimmy felt like his answer was about more than the scar on his back. “I’m not human.” 

Jimmy went to take his hand away, almost like it had been burned again, but Tango softened under his hand, and Jimmy hesitated. 

“No, not how you’re thinking. It’s just… annoying, more than anything,” Tango finished. 

Jimmy carefully thumbed over that spot again, and tried to press the emotions he felt through the skin where they were touching. It was fanciful and silly of him, but he didn’t have the words to say I wish it didn’t bother you at all.

What he said was, “Yeah… good.” 

Dumb. That was a dumb response. 

“‘M sorry,” he said. He hoped it didn’t sound like he was saying I’m sorry you’re broken, or I see you differently now, but he needed to say it anyway. “Dunno what happened but… I’m sorry.”

Tango shook his head a little jerkily, but didn’t respond right away, and Jimmy watched the light on his temple spin and spin and spin. It went orange-red-yellow and back again, and Jimmy didn’t know what was happening in there, but he knew he was watching Tango process a whole lot at once. He pulled his hand away gently, and tucked it in his lap so he wasn’t tempted to reach out again.

“It was a long time ago,” Tango said, and it felt like the end of the conversation. 

Jimmy should have stopped talking, but he didn’t. 

“Well, y’know if it’s any consolation it looks pretty neat. Not that like, that’s something you’re worried about or anything! Not saying you should be, or - it just looks like lightning,” he finished lamely. 

Tango finally turned around to look at him. Tango’s eyes met his, and Jimmy felt like he was see-through for a moment, like Tango was searching for something. Jimmy gulped but held his gaze, just a little worried about what Tango would see there. 

Tango shook his head a little bit as he turned back around and slowly levered himself to standing, but Jimmy saw a wry grin crack his face. 

“Yeah?” he asked, “Like lightning?” 

Jimmy nodded. 

“Pretty metal,” he said, and then winced. “No- no pun intended.”

Tango laughed, and Jimmy eased. 

“Do you wanna go home?” Jimmy asked, desperate to change the subject, and Tango offered Jimmy a hand up. 

“Yeah,” Tango said. “Let’s go home.”

When Tango reached for his soot-stained shirt, Jimmy shooed his hand away and handed him his cleanest, driest overshirt. 

“Let me wash that first at least, jeez,” he said, wrinkling his nose. He felt more than saw Tango staring at the side of his head as he dumped it at the bottom of the pile of clean laundry. “I’ll come down and clean it in the morning. Now c’mon put that on and we can go,” he urged Tango. 

Tango paused before slowly sliding his arms into Jimmy’s shirt. It was big enough across the torso for Tango to cross the two fronts over, and the unrolled sleeves went a little past his wrists. Tango shoved them a further up his forearms as he leaned over to grab the heavier basket before Jimmy could so much as touch it. 

“Alright then, c’mon, it’s dark already,” Tango said, and he sounded like… himself. The look he shot Jimmy had a warmth in it that made Jimmy’s lungs hurt, but in a sort of good way. 

Jimmy hauled the stack of folded sheets into his arms and felt the slight-dampness in them still. Tango started up the cliff path, and Jimmy could just make out the glow of the ranch’s torches over the crest of the hill. Maybe they weren’t so perfect, but it was a good effort. 

Jimmy smiled to himself. Yeah. A good effort. Tango was halfway up the path, and stopped to look back and jerk his head in a beckoning motion. 

“C’mon slowpoke, you coming?” he yelled down. 

“Gimme a minute! Bossy…” he shouted back up, and watched Tango laugh.

A very good effort. 

He began the climb towards home. 

[zeebee3]

Mother!! Your last fic slapped so hard? Omg. You're genius.

I wanted to ask you for some recommendations.👀 I love everything you've ever written, so I'm sure I'll love what you've enjoyed reading too.

If/when you have time, of course.💙

Ahhhhh okay this is going to be a long list, I can already tell 😂 I've tried to limit myself but there are SO MANY fics out there that I eat up again and again, and there will never be a comprehensive list of stuff I've enjoyed because so far, it's truly endless.

That said, here are the first handful that jumped to mind which I've read at least twice (that's got to be a metric of something, right?). I'm going to do the absolute barest summary for them because really, the author's summary and tags do more good than I ever will.

It also goes without saying that every fic by any of these writers is a 10/10 slam dunk, so make a cup of tea and scroll their work lists for more gems. I hope you enjoy!

Note: all of them are rated E

In no particular order...

Dramione

While They Were Sleeping by Dizzle00. The sexual tension in this one!!!!!! pls. I die, even on rereads. Mind the tags as it's an infidelity fic (dating not married).

Full Tilt by Khakis. BDD and a Hermione who is determined to take it. You're welcome in advance.

I Won't Kiss a Death Eater by Orolin. Wartime, forbidden love, clandestine meetings, THE SPICE, the moody vibes!! The podfic of this (linked at the bottom) is also insanely good.

A Healer's Guide to Mating with a Werewolf by sad_millennial. The build up and storytelling is so wonderful, it's truly mind boggling that this clocks in under 8k words for how rich and full of life it is!

The Horny Virgin Chronicles by SilverDragonGemini. 8th year, Hermione asks Draco to help her learn what she likes in bed. Every chapter is amazing, I read it in a single sitting and will be rereading for sure!

Serpents & Skulls by Wanderingfair. Muggle uni AU, secret society, mystery and romance! The moody, dark academia vibes are exceptional.

horny devil by SultryNuns. Draco grows horns, and they are sensitive. I know, I know--say less.

Mount by molivier. Brazilian Ju Jitsu as foreplay. AGAIN, say less.

I was just thinking about it, I'm not gonna do it by malfoyesque. Draco pulls out every time...until now. This is the Draco POV of our dreams.

The Wandmaker by Charingfae. Draco makes magical sex toys; Hermione buys one 🙃

A Marriage of Inconvenience by Beforetherealbook. The title says it all--add in virgin!Draco, pining!Draco, and baby we're cookin'

The Summer After by youhavemyswordandbow. Set in the summer before 8th year, Draco is sent to live with the Grangers. I have a crush on this whole story.

Triads

The Cock Tongue Incident by neilistic. (Hermione/Draco/Astoria). Hermione is summoned to Draco and Astoria's home to help with something. I'm full-on on my knees for this Astoria, and the premise is so unique and so so well done!

Tarnished by westxnorthwest. (Draco/Theo/Hermione). 8th year, the start of a triad, no prior Dreo (which is very very fun to see bloom).

Drarry

Only for October by DodgerKedavra. Every chapter is written based on the 2023 HP Cocktober prompt. Every chapter is also FANTASTIC 🫠

Former Things Come to Mind by DodgerKedavra. Okay I'm cheating on my self-imposed "one fic per author" rule but I simply can't not suggest everyone read this one. The prose. THE CHARACTERIZATIONS. I tear up every reread.

That Old Black Magic by bixgirl1. God-tier marriage law fic. This is the one that got me into that trope to begin with. PHEW.

Lumos by birdsofshore. Another classic Drarry but hey, if you haven't read it, let this be your cue!

OKAY that's it for now, but I am curating a list of my favorite other/rare pair fics as well so once I get that together, I'll do a follow up post.

Annddddd now I want to go reread half of these AGAIN 😅

[scimagic]

SMG4: WOTFI 2024 Thoughts and Analysis Masterpost

WOTFI 2024 is finally here and I had so much fun watching it! I've even watched it a few times already!! I'm so glad this was my first ever live WOTFI, it makes me wish I knew of SMG4 earlier but alas! I'm still so happy I found SMG4 and it's wonderful community the way I did!

This is one large compilation of all my reactions, opinions and deeper analysis... -es on WOTFI 2024! I will go over the entirety of the video almost scene-to-scene with my OWN OPINIONS! (And yes, it gets hella long) I divided it into sections of the video and even included pictures for viewing convenience!

Hope you enjoy reading essays <33

Warning: Spoilers (duh).

✧ Before The Show

As said before this was my first live WOTFI, since the episodes release at 9AM for me I had to put on my alarm one hour before but I shut it off fhjkdsa

So you can imagine my panic when I had to make my breakfast 10 minutes before it started

Not my greatest planning but I managed to (somewhat) make it on time!

✧ Let's Jump Right In!!

WHUH HAPPEN

Loved the spin off of Mr Puzzles' jingle, I knew I was going to get it stuck in my head the moment the lyrics switched

I was amused when Puzzles re-enacted his life, thought he'd give a little more meat to work with but I'm glad he just explained what we already knew. Some of his charm lies in the mystery that is his life

"So I did what any ambitious, misunderstood young soul would do... I locked myself in my room and watched TV all day!" So real tho-

I'm surprised I didn't see many people react to Puzzles cursing so loud hfdskja maybe we're all busy with the rest of WOTFI but I SCREAMED when he went "-WERE VIOLENTLY FUCKING CRUSHED BY YOU LOT!!"

LET THAT MAN CUSS FREELY!!!!

"... yyyou!" <3

LOVE EVERYONE'S COSTUMES TOO!! They all look great!!

Maybe it's because of the teasers they gave but I thought the crew was going to go against Puzzles himself with the challenges, but pitting them against Mario and SMG4 made me pleasantly surprised (I will be a lot throughout all this!)

I ADORE THIS INTRO SO MUCH!! It's so fun and vibrant and the way it was animated was so cool!! I WANT THE POSTER SO BAD!!!

Haeheh big Puzzles from the website!!

Love how Saiko is just screaming at Puzzles too fhdskja

✧ Fun Carnival Torture Metho- Games!!

I didn't say what my challenge was but it was called Chuck N' Dunk: Who can dunk the other first in shark-infested waters?

It didn't make it but I do see shark-infested waters, so either I gave a bit of inspo or I'm just delusional hfdsjka

"I have to deal with internet comments all day! This is nothing!" HAH!!! THAT'S MY FUCKING YOUTUBER RIGHT THERE!!! (He still lost)

Love to see SMG3 and Puzzles appreciate the beauty of destruction together, gotta love two villains vibin over causing chaos, it'd make for a fun dynamic if SMG4 ever considers it

On that note, when SMG3 tries to shake Four's tight rope I knew that was Three straight up

Even under Puzzles' control, the cast still retains a bit of their personality, as shown here and in the Puzzlevision episodes

Bob has like- the coolest costume ever holy shit- I really wanna draw it some time

I KNOW IT'S JUST A MASK AND SOME RECOLORING ALRIGHT IT JUST FITS HIM AND HE LOOKS COOL

I LOVE HIM SO. FUCKING. MUCH. HE'S SO SMUG THE BASTARD

This is a really funny joke actually

PIE GUN GO BRRRRRRRRRRRR

I liked seeing Karen included in this WOTFI, she was a main character in a few episodes and her dynamic works well with the others! Just a tired mom wanting to work but pulled along silly adventures, grounding in a badass caring way

CHANGE THE WORLD. MY FINAL MESSAGE. GOODBYE!! God I haven't heard that meme in so long

Plus [Italian vc] YOU SONSOFFA BITCHES

"Hope you two have your running shoes on!" said in the gayest villain voice ever, I love him your honor

Bob going for the clown girl instead of the exit is the Bob-iest thing ever and it just drives my point of the crew retaining their personalities even under control, so people shouldn't be surprised when it happens fhdjksa (cus I've seen it!)

FOUR ONLY WINNING BECAUSE HE'S A CLOWN IS SO FUNNY YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND

So... Ben (SMG4's Thumbnail Artist) posted a lot of Gokus when someone mentioned Metallica's For Whom The Bell Tolls

That's why I thought there'd be some kind of reference to it in WOTFI which... now that I say it out loud sounds kinda dumb hfsjdka

But the moment Mario appeared as Goku I immediately thought of Ben and it had me gigglin fhdsjka

You'd think Tari would be in the ducky mini-game but you'd be wrong! <3

Final thoughts of the games, this year's WOTFI challenges were delightful!! They were all very clever from the audience and well chosen from the crew! Congratulations to the folks that got their prompt in!

✧ WHACK-A-LEGGY (aka forgive me father for this next part)

You........ CANNOT tell me he wouldn't treat you right- God- DAMN.

LISTEN. HEAR ME OUT. YES I'M GONNA BE SIMPY IN THIS REACTION POST FUCK YOU.

Puzzles is the type of guy to give you the best of the best simply because you say so and deserve it, doesn't matter if it's as tame as a big bouquet of flowers OR as extreme as absolutely destroying your enemies through the most painful torture you have ever witnessed

He would treat you RIGHT!!!!

THAT IS THE MOST PERFECT MAN RIGHT THERE

Oh yes and I love his interactions with Leggy, they're adorable, yes FHDSKJA

THEY MAKE A CUTE DUO

Speaking of Puzzles treating you right: I am on the FUCKING FLOOR. THAT MAN IS PROTECTIVE TOO.

It's just so endearing to me how protective he is of Leggy (yes yes I know I know he's done evil shit to Meggy I know) BUT LISTEN.

In an actual redemption arc, I can see Puzzles as the most loyal motherfucker that you've ever befriended, that man is going to go to the edge of the earth and fight for you if needed BECAUSE you're his friend and that is so lovely to me

It's cute how he's trying to tell Leggy where to go, where to hide and just how worried he is of her

Mind you, the contrast between Puzzles being worried and SMG4 and Mario wanting to curve-stomp that goomba to death is hilarious fhdsjka

So forgive me if I giggle like a schoolgirl over that man

✧ I'm Gonna Get Real With You For A Moment

MR STINKY

Oh this scene now- lots to unpack

First: Adore how this scene plays out, I love the portrayal of Puzzles' meltdown, induced by grief, sadness, anger and frustration over how things are playing out. It's a big "I'm supposed to win! Why don't you let me win!" moment, I simply adore when those happen.

The pitiful cries when you don't get your way when you've meticulously planned everything and done Everything to get it, and do everything did Puzzles indeed try

Second: The colors, the dramatic red light, the destruction of the park out of anger and overcharging it seems

It's basically a tantrum

Third: The voice acting is phenomenal, and that's been said all throughout the Puzzlevision arc, Brendan (Mr Puzzles' voice actor) is so good at his job- he's perfect in those high pitch inflictions of emotion and the lower threatening tones, that scream is chilling and painful

Fourth: I can try and decipher that blue screen

FATAL ERROR A problem has been detected and Mr. Puzzles has been shut down to prevent damage to himself. PUZZLEVISION.EXE Check to make sure any new show or movie is properly installed. If this is a new installation :It's not: ask your hardware or software manufacturer for any PUZZLEVISION updates you might need. :I don't need any: If problems continue, disable or remove any newly installed hardware or software. Disable CPU(?) memory options such as Unused Shows or Movies. If you need to use safe mode :I don't: to remove or disable components, restart yourself, press :nuhuh: to select Advanced Startup Options, and then select Safe Mode. :NO: Technical Information: *** STOP: 2xREADING (... xACTUALLY)

That last line is ineligible to me but I tried my best for y'all <3

Lots to unpack just in this tiny little message

In his system, Puzzles is programmed to shut down if damaged. Which is CRAZY TO THINK ABOUT. His OWN SYSTEM shuts down to prevent damage to himself.

Also he's SPEAKING THROUGH THE BLUESCREEN, he's actively saying No to "Safe Mode" and REFUSING any repairs his system suggests

THIS MAN DOES NOT CARE FOR HIS BODY (if you couldn't tell by the TV head part)

AND HE'S SO UNSERIOUS HE STRAIGHT UP TELLS HIS SYSTEM NUH UH!!!!

A little easter egg that someone else on Twitter found :)

Puzzles has become a rage horror monster and I'm here for it, the horror elements do go hard when they're played

URGH. AND THIS MOMENT. Many have pointed it out by now BUT THE TRAUMA OF THE CASTLE!! I AM SO WEAK

Puzzles REALLY plays into those psychological torture methods, it is so RUTHLESS of him, intentionally or not!!

✧ STEP RIGHT UP, MY FRIENDS, TO PUZZLEPARK!

He looks horrible in armor despite being everyone's pathetic knight in shining armor FHJDSKA

"You're MINE" I SURE AM SIR!!!

THAT GROWL THO- BRENDAN STRIKING AGAIN WITH THEM VOCALS!!!

AND THIS!! IS THE MOMENT WE'VE ALL BEEN WAITING FOR OH BOY!!

The transition into the actual song is SO GOOD, instead of going higher like the actual Disney intro it goes LOWER and it's PERFECT for the intro!! It makes Puzzles sound INSANE (RIGHTFULLY SO!) It also tricks you because you know the melody so well until UH OH!! WE'RE IN DEEP SHIT!! LET'S GET THE FUCK IN!

3!

2!

1!

IMMEDIATELY threateningly playful I LOVE IT!!

It sounds so much like the songs in Nightmare Before Christmas, Kidnap Sandy Claws, Oogie Boogie's song, it has their same vibes! The same devilishly playful with their victims kind of vibes and it's RIGHT UP MY ALLEY BABY

It has SUCH an energizing beat too!! It makes you wanna jump in your seat to the beat!

The set up is so fun too, purple is an interesting choice to go with.

I cannot stress enough how GOOD THE VOCALS ARE TOO I WAS ON THE EDGE OF MY SEAT

AND THIS PART. GOES EXTREMELY HARD. THEY ALL LOOK GREAT

They cooked with the choir of minions fr!! They sound great together!!

The chorus of the song is just as catchy as Creative Control, I had worries that I wasn't going to like this one as much as CC but I was SO wrong!! It's right up it's alley! They both have their strengths and their unique way of presenting Mr Puzzles, I wouldn't be able to decide which one is "better" since they both have different points to send across

Creative Control is jazzier, it taunts the crew and introduces Puzzles as the master villain with a bit of backstory, it's used to show the control on the crew both visually and lyrically with Puzzles putting them in different scenarios while singing how they can't leave

Meanwhile Puzzlepark, while similar in the controlling part, has more going on. It's not just Puzzles trying to control/stop Meggy, SMG4 and Mario, it's also them fighting back when they couldn't in CC. It also has the rest of the group trying to detain them, mind-controlled by Puzzles. It's crazier than just putting them in shows and popular culture references, it's throwing things at them, attacking them and messing with the world, trying to enact revenge yknow!

I particularly like when Meggy and Puzzles sing together, their voices contrast well

"But it's time for you to die now." Haehah! Hello!! This is the part where I kill you!!

AND A LAWSUIT ARC REFERENCE TOO!? OH I'M IN HEAVEN!!!

The lyrics scratch at a very nice part of my brain, I think SMG4 has always had a knack for rhyming, they've perfected it over the years and it's paid off well

And combined with the change in beat it goes for extra points, mwah!! Chef's kiss!!

"That child is gone... Six feet under right WHERE YOU AND YOUR STUPID FRIENDS BELONG!!"

MY ABSOLUTE FAVORITE PART FUCKING EVER!!!! THEY ABSOLUTELY COOKED

IT'S ABOUT HOW THREATENING PUZZLES IS IT'S ABOUT MEGGY STILL TRYING TO HELP HIM DESPITE IT ALL IT'S ABOUT HIM ABSOLUTELY REFUSING THE HELP BECAUSE THAT'S. JUST. HIM. PUZZLES. REFUSES. HELP. THINGS go his way or they don't go at all!!!

AND THAT ENDING NOTE MYYYY GODDDD GIVE THIS MAN AN EMMY RIGHT ABOUT FUCKING NOW!!!!

That was such a clean note, Brendan has an amazing singing voice and I'll be listening to this on repeat for A WEEK

SMG4 RELEASE PUZZLEPARK ON SPOTIFY NOW AND MY LIFE!!! IS YOURS!!!!

✧ In The End... It's For The Better...

They like using the trope of going inside a character's brain/heart/whatever to talk to them huh...

I'm not saying it as a bad thing! It's just a pattern I'm sure we've all noticed! I think it's cute!

SMG4 wouldn't be SMG4 if they at least didn't Try to save their villains, sure there's distasteful ones like that lizard that absolutely deserved it, but all the other villains had redemption arcs, heart to hearts, sympathy before dying... SMG4 is about chances, finding your people and having a heart even towards those who wronged you, even if in the end the worst happens to them

And I think that's beautiful

Regardless of having a heart, however, Meggy has the absolute right to be angry at Puzzles, maybe it wasn't right but I don't blame her for snapping at a kid, that kid Is Puzzles after all

I see two possible interpretations of Meggy becoming Leggy one more time: either- Truly to get close to Puzzles and become a true friend, or simple manipulation to get him to stop. Either are possible in my book, maybe with a little more thought I'd be able to know which one but for now I remain satisfied with being skeptical on this one, I don't care to find what the real intentions were since I know the ending.

Plus nothing is in black and white, there's a lot of layers to Puzzles' and Meggy's relationship........

And speaking of that ending-

HAH!!!!

I THOUGHT THAT SHIT WAS HILARIOUS!!

IN TRUE SMG4 FASHION YOU (SORTA) REDEEM A VILLAIN AND CELEBRATE SAVING THE DAY WITH A STUPID MEME

WHAT ARE YOU GONNA DO FOLKS IT'S SMG4 IT'S THE FUNNY HAHA MEME SHOW!!

STOP TAKING IT SO FUCKING SERIOUSLY THE WHOLE TIME!!

IT CAN BE SERIOUS AND STUPID!!!!

Mr Puzzles SHOULD go to the psych ward, HE'S FUCKING INSANE

YOU DON'T GET REDEEMED IMMEDIATELY AFTER ALL THAT!!

I'm glad they didn't redeem him completely! I didn't believe him at all when he said he learned a valuable lesson! I was like No The Fuck You Didn't!

You can have a redemption later! That's okay! I trust the writers with handling the arcs and making them good! And you heard Luke, they might bring him back later! (Which is a definite yes!)

I would love for them to take it slow with Puzzles, not immediately of course, let him breathe and write another arc right now, settle things with everything and everyone and THEN you can break him out, the universe is full of possibilities, and I'm SURE I will enjoy whatever the SMG4 crew writes

Haeheh she looks like a nerd with those goggles

Someone's Artist Puzzles AU just came true btw-

"And Didney shut down..!" :D

The Showgrounds is gonna start looking more like an actual carnival too!! Wahoo!!

I WANT THAT FUCKING HOODIE-

That Puzzle plushie looks so ugly I LOVE HIMMMM

I WANT THAT FUCKING POSTER AND KEYCHAIN

SOMEONE PLEASE FUCKING COMMISSION ME SO I CAN BUY THEMMMMMM AEUGHHHHHH

Thank YOU LUKE AND SMG4 CREW FOR GIVING US THIS WOTFI!!! I LOVED IT WITH ALL MY HEART <33

I would love to hang out and go get some pizza with Mr Puzzles :(

And finally... that lil jingle to end with the rolling credits

✧ Final Thoughts

Believe me when I say I think this is the best possible ending for Puzzles, he doesn't die, he doesn't get completely redeemed, but he does face consequences and he gets a chance for the future, best of both worlds me thinks

I loved this rollercoaster that was Puzzlevision, I might've hopped on the train sorta late but I stayed for all the duration of the ride and I had a blast <3

Mr Puzzles was great and maliciously loveable, learning about all these characters and growing to care about them was amazing, I'm really happy I have a new series I can watch and analyze and enjoy!! I'll be remaining in my seat with my one ticket until I get off the SMG4 train, not sure when!! But until then you can expect me to still love this show, draw for it and analyze it much more than any reasonably normal person should.

If you've read this far, I love you soso much and hope you enjoyed this hell of a scroll, because I spent so many hours on this shit YOU WOULDN'T UNDERSTAND-

K BYEEEE <333

[joongtreasure]

Cupcakes and Kisses

Mingi x Fem Reader (ft. ATEEZ members) Word count: 6.6k Genre: high school au, jock Mingi, kissing booth au Note/s: Based on the film Kissing Booth (2018). This was in my drafts since 2021? + Mention of Changbin of Stray Kids <3 hehe Photo credits: 1, 2, 3

High school—it's the period for the most embarrassing moments of your life. Not only was it the time for raging hormones and puberty, but also a time for wrong decisions.

And today was no exception.

Today was the last day of the pitch for the spring carnival at KQ Prep. The student council required every club in the school to set up a booth for the event. Or else, no extra funding for club activities.

You were the vice president of the culinary and baking club, or as others would like to call it, the foodies. It's not that bad or insulting, to be honest (depending on you if you take it to heart). It is certainly not for your best friend, Jung Wooyoung, who was also the president of the club.

You and Wooyoung were like a tandem, a buy-one-get-one-free deal. In many ways, you and Wooyoung fill each other up: you were the shy and patient one, while Wooyoung was the confident and loud one. There was never a boring moment with him, but that doesn't mean all moments with him were good. Like right now...

Wooyoung, with a firm grip on your school blazer sleeve, dragged you across the hallway, whining, "It's a good idea!"

You, on the other hand, tried to pull away, saying, "No, it's not!"

Wooyoung grumbled. "The water sports are doing a toss and dunk booth! We have to beat their sorry asses!"

"You just want to beat Changbin!" You tried to pull away again but Wooyoung's grip was so firm that your school shoes were starting to skid against the school floor. "How is a kissing booth by us any better?!"

"It will be a hit!"

"It spreads germs!"

"We'll provide sanitation and mints!"

"We could be sued for public indecency!"

Wooyoung sighed and let go of your hand. "Oh, come on, live a little, Y/N."

You shrugged. "Can't we just make a bunch of food for the carnival? I know everyone will be hungry."

Wooyoung gave you a pointed look. "Everyone is going to sell food and trinkets at the carnival."

"Well," you jutted your chin out in confidence, "we could do, uh, well, an apple bobbing competition?"

Wooyoung scowled at you. "That's boring." He sighed. "Look, the majority of the officers already agreed to the kissing booth, Y/N. Except you."

"That's because you implied that San will be in the lineup of kissers," you stated. "Even though you haven't even asked him yet."

"That's because he and I think alike. Trust me, he would agree."

You pouted. "And trust me, the food will sell."

Wooyoung smiled and patted your head. "Oh, sure, you do that," he said before turning around and scurrying towards the student council's office.

You sighed.

-----

You slumped on the empty front steps of the school, sporting a frown on your face. Wooyoung was taking so long in the meeting. You hoped the kissing booth was rejected by the student council.

The doors of the school opened, the sound of the creaking metal startling you out of your thoughts. You looked back to see Song Mingi, the star of KQ Prep's basketball team, exiting the building and looking fresh out of a shower. He probably just finished practice.

You looked away before he could catch you staring. Mingi was one of those guys who looked straight out of a movie—tall, handsome, athletic, always wears a varsity jacket, drives a Jeep, and center of the school's attention. But it would be foolish to think that he's arrogant and proud like the trope. He's one of the sweetest and nicest people you ever met. 

You had a few classes with him. You could say that the interaction between the two of you is funny. He could be playful yet gentle and respectful at the same time. And in time, you also found yourself liking him like the entire student body.

Unbeknownst to you, as soon as Mingi saw you alone on the steps, he smiled and slightly hurried down. "Hey, Y/N," Mingi greeted, plopping beside you on the warm pavement.

You internally freaked when you saw Mingi next to you. The loose shirt, the sweet scent of his shampoo, and the dopey grin were too much for your poor heart. 

"You had a club meeting today?" Mingi asked.

"Not really," you responded. "I'm waiting for Wooyoung to finish his pitch for the spring carnival."

Mingi nodded. "And what will your club be doing?"

You groaned. "Don't remind me. It's embarrassing."

Mingi chuckled. "Why? It can't be that bad."

You sighed before muttering, "it's a kissing booth."

Mingi's eyes widened in surprise. "That's... interesting."

"It's all Wooyoung's idea," you shrugged. "Nothing better than to capitalize on teen hormones, right?"

"Right," Mingi said monotonously.

Seeing his somewhat dry response, you slumped. "I told you it was an embarrassing idea."

"No, I mean, yes—I mean," Mingi stuttered a response. "It was just unexpected, that's all." Mingi somewhat looked conflicted, but he still smiled softly at you. "Is it alright for me to ask if," he paused.

"If what?"

"If you—I mean, would you be joining?" Mingi asked.

You blinked in thought. "What do you mean?"

Mingi studied your confused expression before shaking his head. "Nevermind," he said, standing up.

You groaned. "Great, now you got me curious."

"It's nothing." Mingi laughed. "But, hey, if teen hormones bring you the money, then, why not?" He said, making you laugh as well. "Got a ride home?"

"Yeah," you smiled, "I'm riding with Wooyoung."

Mingi nodded. "Alright, I'll see you around then, Y/N."

You blushed. "Yeah, see you," you said as Mingi continued his way down the steps.

"Hey," he turned to you one last time, flashing you his oh-so-perfect smile. "You look cute as always, Y/N," he said before heading towards the parking lot. You swore you could've melted right on the front steps that day.

-----

It was no surprise the council approved the kissing booth idea. You totally blame Wooyoung. The boy could probably smooth talk himself out of jail if the situation calls for it.

Your club already started building the podium and mini stage for the booth in the school courtyard because there wasn't room in the Home Economics classroom. The weather was too perfect to ignore by anyone who had free period at the time.

"I'm going to get more paint," Wooyoung said to you before jogging towards the doors and into the building.

You were left alone with a few of your members, who were engaged in a hushed conversation while you minded your own business. 

You took a peak at the guys playing at the basketball court. It's no surprise that Mingi and his friends were playing. They always do during free period. They must really love the sport. 

It is also no surprise that they have a few spectators as well. It's the only time you would ever find Mingi and his friends setting their blazers aside, donning only their school shirts that accentuated their build so heavenly. Not that you were staring…

Speaking of, Yunho and Mingi laughed among themselves as Yunho tried to shoot the ball. Mingi effectively blocked him with his hand, however the ball bounced out of the court. It bounced until it was rolling over the pavement and stopped right where you were painting. You were able to grab the ball before it could barrel into the newly painted podium.

Seeing where the ball ended, Mingi ran towards you. "Hey," he greeted as he picked up the ball and crouched down next to you, "it's looking great. What's it for?" He asked, referring to the podium.

"It's for this week's carnival," you answered with a sigh.

"Right," Mingi chuckled awkwardly. "Umm," he paused, "so what will you be doing while," he drifted off, evidently conflicted as he pondered over his words carefully.

You looked at him funny. "While...?"

"While, you know," Mingi shrugged, "while people are kissing."

"I'll just man the booth," you said nonchalantly. "I'll leave it to Wooyoung and the others to facilitate the germ spreading."

Mingi laughed, looking somewhat happy and relieved at the same time. "Still haven't warmed up to the idea, I see."

"Never."

Mingi grinned. His face morphed into embarrassment as Yunho called for him from a few meters away. "Are we going to play, or are you too busy mingling, Mingi?"

Mingi rolled his eyes before smiling at you. "I gotta go. I'll see you around, Y/N."

You waved at him as he stood up and went back to his friends. You chuckled at the sight of Yunho giving Mingi a headlock and basically hauling him back to court. The boys laughed between themselves before returning to their game with their other friends.

You were feeling blissful, like how you always felt whenever you and Mingi talked to each other. You truly liked the guy. However, the blissful feeling was short-lived as a wild Wooyoung plopped down next to you. "What was that?!" He asked.

You blinked curiously at him. "What was what?" You looked at the spot you were previously painting. "I'm almost done. I didn't miss a spot as far as I could tell."

Wooyoung rolled his eyes. "I wasn't referring to the podium. I was referring to you and Mingi!" He exclaimed.

You looked at him funny. "It was just a friendly conversation."

"Friendly?" Wooyoung sighed exasperatedly. "Oh no no no, honey, you didn't see what I see. The guy is into you!"

"Don't be ridiculous, Wooyoung," you shook your head. "We have always talked like that. He's just super nice—"

"Na-ah! Again, you didn't see what I see," Wooyoung replied. All of a sudden, Wooyoung's face broke into excitement. He started slapping your arm, making you groan not in pain but in annoyance. "I just thought of the most brilliant idea EVER."

You frowned, not liking where this was going. "What?"

-----

"This is worse than you pitching the kissing booth idea to the council."

"Oh, come on," Wooyoung said as he kept pushing you towards the gym where the basketball team was training. "I will be of service to you forever if you manage to get him."

It was already past class hours when Wooyoung dragged you into putting his idea into action. He said you guys should have a meeting about the spring carnival after class. But alas, he deceived you again. That sly fox, you thought.

Wooyoung faced you towards him. "Alright, your uniform is clean, no evidence of your lunch anywhere," you rolled your eyes as Wooyoung checked you up and down. Wooyoung scrutinized your face before smiling triumphantly. "No booger or drool in sight too," he said.

"You—!" You exclaimed, but Wooyoung turned you around again and shoved you closer toward the gym doors. Sighing, you walked toward it, and right when you were directly in front of the entrance, you looked back at him. "How is this the most brilliant idea you ever had, again?"

Wooyoung shrugged. "The plan here is simple: talk to Mingi and his friends into joining our lineup of kissers so we can get more people to come to our booth."

"I don't want to use him, Woo."

"The man's too soft for you," Wooyoung smiled. "He will do whatever you want, I guarantee."

You gave him the most innocent look you could ever muster in an attempt to change his mind. But Wooyoung just shooed you with his hand and raised his eyebrows pointedly. With a defeated sigh, you opened the doors and entered.

The basketball team was in the midst of a practice game. You immediately spotted Mingi, running while dribbling the ball across the court. When he managed to outrun his opponent, he immediately made his shot, the ball flying through the air and into the hoop. You stared at him, awed as he was in his element. 

A bunch of squeals echoed in the gym. There was an audience watching with excited grins and squeals near the team's benches. It was an open practice after all. Sighing, you sat awkwardly at the side.

The coach blew his whistle, signaling that training was over. The players rejoiced and immediately jogged to their bags scattered on the benches. There were a few girls who called for Mingi, but he only smiled sheepishly and went to his gym bag. 

"Hey, Mingi," Yeosang, his friend and teammate, spoke between his breaths. "Isn't that your friend?" 

Mingi looked at wherever Yeosang was pointing. And true enough, you were there at the edge of the bleachers, awkwardly twiddling with your fingers.

"Yeah," Mingi said, dumbfounded at the thought of you watching their training.

"I think she's looking for you," Yunho, Mingi's best friend, said. He shook his head in amusement, eyeing Yeosang knowingly as Mingi started wiping his sweat and combing his hair deliberately to the back. Mingi hastily gathered his things before approaching you.

"Hey," he greeted with a smile.

You stood up awkwardly. There was something about a wet-haired Mingi in a basketball jersey that had you tongue-tied for a moment. "Uhh, hi, umm, Mingi."

"Were you waiting for me?"

"Umm, yeah, can I talk to you about something?"

"Sure, have a seat," Mingi said as he sat a bleacher apart from you, not wanting you to smell his sweaty state. "What's up?"

"Well, our club is hosting a kissing booth for the spring carnival," you slightly frowned at your awkward self. "Umm, but I think you already knew that."

Mingi chuckled and nodded amusingly. "Yeah, you might have mentioned it once or twice," he joked.

You let out a small laugh. "Yeah, I did, didn't I? But, well, you see, Wooyoung asked me to ask you about something."

Mingi nodded again, urging you to go on.

You sighed nervously. "Can you," you cleared your throat, "can you be—wait, I must emphasize that it was Wooyoung's idea."

"It was Wooyoung's idea," Mingi repeated. "Got it. Crystal clear. Now, what's up with Wooyoung's idea?"

You sighed defeatedly. Well, here goes nothing, you thought. "Can you be one of the kissers for our kissing booth?"

Mingi's eyes turned wide. "What?"

Your lips formed a thin line. "Umm, can you be one of the kissers for our kissing booth?" You repeated, less confident this time.

Mingi blinked unbelievably. "Why me?"

You sighed. "Well, Wooyoung was hoping your friends too. He said that having the players of the basketball team would bring revenue to the booth."

"Oh."

You frowned. "I'm sorry, I told Wooyoung you might be uncomfortable with it, but he insisted that I should still ask you."

"Why would I be uncomfortable with it?"

"I don't know," you shrugged. You were busy playing with the ends of your school blazer as the conversation pursued. "I guess, I didn't pin you to be the type to openly kiss strangers, or show public displays of affection."

"Maybe," Mingi side-smiled, "maybe not. Or, maybe it depends on the person."

"Oh," you muttered, "sorry. I didn't know."

Mingi then leaned on his knees, getting a better view of your slightly flustered face. "Do you want me to be a kisser?"

"What?" You stared at him blankly.  "Well, Wooyoung said—"

"I mean, do YOU want me to be a kisser?" Mingi emphasized, "You as in Y/N L/N, and not Jung Wooyoung?"

You didn't reply immediately, pondering over what his question meant. "Why are you asking me?"

"I don't know," Mingi said. "I feel like I should listen to you."

Why, though? This conversation was going nowhere and it was making you more nervous than before. Not to mention Mingi's inquisitive gaze that had you looking anywhere but him. 

Do you actually want him to, though? I mean, the kissing booth opens so many opportunities, but you were uncomfortable with the thought of him... the thought of him kissing...

"No," you said.

Mingi smiled, nodding at your answer, which confused you. "Then I won't," he sat properly again against the bleacher, letting his intense gaze turn into a soft one. "I won't join then."

"What? Why?" You were dumbfounded. 

"Just tell Wooyoung I'm busy or something," he said. "But I will try to talk to my friends, though. Emphasis on the word 'try.'"

"W-Would you have joined if I said yes?" You probed, but Mingi already stood up as if the conversation was already over, smirking at your confused look.

"Do you have a ride home?" He asked.

"Umm, yeah, Wooyoung's right outside," you answered.

"Well, then, I'll see you around." Mingi smiled at you for the last time before exiting the gym.

You sat back on the bleachers. Though your stance was already relaxed due to the conversation being over, your mind still couldn't wrap around what just happened in the conversation. Would he have agreed if I said yes?

The doors of the gym creaked as someone entered. It was Mingi again. He approached you with a different glint in his eye this time. What now?

"Hey," Mingi greeted. "Could you hold this for a moment?" Before you could ask, he put the object he was referring to in your hand. It was a set of keys—car keys, in particular. "Don't lose it, okay? I'll be quick, I swear." And just like that, he left again.

You stared at the keys in your palm. You really like Mingi, but he was seriously giving you a whiplash at the moment.

Your phone buzzed in your blazer pocket, indicating that you received a text message. You pulled it out to see a text from Wooyoung.

There's an emergency at home. Had to pick up Kyungmin from our grandma's house. Go get your man!

-----

You walked back and forth in the hallway, in front of the boy's locker room. You didn't know why Mingi left these keys with you, but you figured you had to return them to him before you leave for the bus stop. You couldn't just leave it somewhere and message him about it. Someone could steal it. Or worse, someone could steal his car.

Just in time, Mingi exited the locker room, fresh out of the shower and now sporting a big hoodie and sweats. "Hey," Mingi smiled.

"Hey, you gave these to me for some reason," you jiggled the car keys before placing them on his palm.

"Right," Mingi chuckled. "Shall we?"

You stared at him. "Shall we what?"

"Wooyoung already left, didn't he?"

"How did you know?"

Mingi chuckled. "The hallway was empty when I left," he shrugged, putting his hands in the pockets of his hoodie, "I figured he went somewhere."

"Ah, yeah, he said he had an emergency at home," you responded, following Mingi outside the school. 

Truth be told, Mingi met Wooyoung in the hallway.

---

Mingi smiled as he saw Wooyoung in the hallway. "Hey," he greeted. "Sorry, I don't think I can join. I think I have to visit my grandma that day."

Wooyoung slumped. "Oh, okay. Where's Y/N?"

"She'll be right out, I guess," Mingi replied. "See ya—"

"You like her, don't you?" Wooyoung asked.

"Uhh," Mingi blushed. "I-well, I, umm—"

"Yup, you like her," Wooyoung smirked. "Why won't you ask her out then?"

Mingi sighed. "I don't think she's interested in me in that way."

Wooyoung scoffed. "Believe me, she does." He started walking away. "I'll be taking my leave. Hope you get the guts to ask her out."

Mingi sighed again when suddenly he remembered, "Hey, aren't you her ride home?"

Wooyoung turned around and started walking backward with a smirk. "Am I?" He waggled his eyebrows before disappearing in the hallway.

Mingi grinned and shook his head in amusement before rushing back inside the gym to leave you his car keys.

-----

Mingi glanced momentarily at you with a smile. He would have to apologize in the future for using your kindness like that. But he hoped that doing this would drive him to ask you confidently out on a date.

Mingi opened the school doors wide enough for the both of you and waited until you were completely outside before closing it. 

"Come on, I'll give you a ride," Mingi offered.

"Oh, no thank you," you hastily refused, "I'll take the bus."

Mingi shook his head. "I'm not taking no for an answer. We live a few blocks away, anyway, so it's really convenient."

"But I don't want to impose," you sighed.

"You're not, Y/N," Mingi said. "And you won't. Like ever."

You sighed again. "But—"

Mingi shook his head then snatched your school bag. "If you ever want to see this bag again, you're going to have to catch me," and with that, Mingi ran towards the parking lot.

"Hey, no fair!" You followed him, pouting as the distance between the two of you widened. Damn his athletic build.

You chased after him, groaning in annoyance when Mingi reached his car and wiggled your bag as if to spite you. But you both found yourselves laughing as soon as you almost barreled into him and he caught you before you both could barrel into his jeep.

"Come on, Y/N, it's really not a bother," Mingi said, opening the passenger door.

You sighed. "Fine," you huffed as you grabbed your bag and settled in his passenger seat. "Just this once," you told him.

"Oh, don't count on it," Mingi said, winking at you before closing your door. You swore he would be the death of you.

As Mingi drove his jeep out of the school lot, you both fell into a casual conversation. "So why don't you want me to be a kisser?" Mingu asked.

You narrowed your eyes at his teasing expression. "Oh, stop smiling. I don't want anyone to be part of that"

"I guess, you didn't have much say on the idea?"

You slumped against the car seat with a soft 'yeah.'

Mingi looked at you momentarily before focusing on the road. "What was your idea?"

"Nothing special." You smiled. "I was thinking of just baking cupcakes or pastries."

"I think that's a great idea."

"Yeah, right," you muttered sarcastically.

"No, I swear. I think your baking's great," Mingi stressed.

"How would you know?"

"Because I bought and ate a lot from last year's fundraiser." Mingi smiled and chuckled, almost as if he could smell and taste your fresh batch just by thinking about it. "Especially those cupcakes. I swear, they're good."

"Huh, no wonder the cupcakes sold out easily," you chuckled. "We had an influencer."

"Or," Mingi drawled, "your baking is just that good." He smiled, switching his gaze back and forth between the road and you.

"Said no one ever," you shot back teasingly.

"I just said like seconds ago that they're good." Mingi shook his head in disbelief. "You don't take compliments very well."

"Maybe because I don't usually get them," you retorted.

"Ahh, all the reason for me to compliment you more then."

You looked at him before turning away upon seeing his smirk. "Oh, stop it," you said jokingly, but your heart felt like it was ramming against the seatbelt of his car.

The car slowed down to a stop just right in front of your house. You were about to thank him when Mingi suddenly exited the car. He rushed to your side before opening the car door.

"Thanks for the ride," you said. "You didn't have to do that." 

"I don't mind," he replied, following you to the front door.

"And you didn't have to walk me to the door." You chuckled. "It's literally like a few steps away from the fence."

"But I want to, though." Mingi shrugged and put his hands inside the pockets of his hoodie.

You both arrived at the front door. You were too busy finding your keys to notice that he was lingering to stay with you longer. As you opened your front door, you finally noticed his awkward stature. "D-Do you want to have dinner with us?"

"Oh," Mingi snapped out of it. "Uhh, maybe next time. My mom's waiting for me at home."

You nodded in understanding. 

"Y/N," Mingi sighed. "Do you want to...?"

"What?"

"I mean, umm," Mingi scratched his head awkwardly. "Do you—do you have any of those cupcakes lying around?"

"Oh, could you wait here for a minute?" You smiled before disappearing into your home.

Mingi palmed his face in frustration, muttering 'stupid' and 'dumbass' to himself. He pulled himself together when he heard your footsteps nearing.

You came out again with a small box in hand. "I baked them last night but they're still good," you said, handing out the box of cupcakes to Mingi.

"Thanks," Mingi grinned sheepishly nonetheless. "I'll give some to my mom."

"You better," you smiled.

"Thanks again, Y/N. I'll see you at school," Mingi started walking backward with a soft smile.

"See you," you waved at him. "Thanks for the ride."

Mingi winked at you before hopping into his jeep. As soon as Mingi's jeep disappeared into the night, you slumped against your front door and tried to calm your blushing self.

-----

It was the day of the dreaded carnival. The field where your school held the said carnival was almost in full swing, the lights and excitement gradually increasing as time passed by.

Your club has been there since early morning to finalize everything for the booth. Despite your judgment against the club's concept, you still had to do it for the sake of the team. 

Although, you had convinced Wooyoung to sell baked goods nonetheless. Your point was to remind the audience that you were still the culinary and baking club of the school. Thankfully, he agreed.

So, here you were, setting up a separate table for different baked goods beside the registration.

Wooyoung surprised you with an arm around your shoulder and a big grin. "I can already feel wads of money in our laps." He dramatically inhaled for effect. "I mean, look at our lineup so far."

You begrudgingly looked at the people readying themselves on the mini-stage. 

Leave it to Wooyoung to invite people from the top of the high school food chain. Everybody likes Wooyoung anyway. At least there were a few friendly faces—school mascot San, street dancer Seonghwa, up-and-coming celebrity Jongho, and... student council president Hongjoong?

"How did you get him?" You almost giggled at Hongjoong's icy demeanor just standing in the middle of the lineup.

"Oh, he owes me," Wooyoung said nonchalantly. When you gave him a look, he just replied, "Don't ask."

You shook your head as if to shake the idea of Hongjoong in Wooyoung's debt. It's an amusing sight, though.

"So where's your pretty boy's friends?"

You shrugged. "I don't know. I haven't seen them ever since."

You knew it was too good to be true. Your moment with Mingi lasted only a day as you haven't seen him for the rest of the week. Not even on free period. And when you had a class together, he looked like he was about to doze off and fall from his desk. You didn't want to be a bother.

"Oh, wait, nevermind. Here they come."

You immediately glanced up to see Mingi, Yunho, and Yeosang walking toward your booth. You could feel the crowd starting to buzz upon seeing the star players approach the kissing booth. Your gaze landed on Mingi who sported a plain oversized shirt and ripped jeans. So simple yet so handsome.

"Hey," Mingi greeted with a smile, never looking away from your gaze.

"H-Hey, how have you been?" You tried to keep your blush at bay.

"Well—"

"We're so glad to be here, Y/N. Mingi really convinced us to be here," Yeosang smiled in a—teasing?—manner, which you responded to with an awkward chuckle. 

"Yeah," Yunho chimed in. "Mingi really, really wanted us to join your kissing booth." Yunho smiled widely at Mingi, who only rolled his eyes.

"That's great, great news!" Wooyoung rejoiced. He quickly winked at you before ushering Mingi's friends to the lineup.

When you and Mingi were the only ones left, you smiled sheepishly. "I hope it wasn't much of a trouble convincing your friends."

"Don't worry, Y/N, it wasn't." Lie(-ish). Yunho and Yeosang complained a lot and made Mingi do whatever they liked for the past few days. From doing their homework to washing their cars, they were relentless. He hadn't gotten any proper sleep because of it. But, it wasn't really much of a trouble since he was doing it for you. Well, your club. But mostly for you.

Mingi stared at the table of baked goods in front of you. "I see you convinced Wooyoung to continue with your idea." He smiled.

"He still listens anyway." You chuckled. "Do you want one?"

"Definitely. I'll take a—" 

Before Mingi could finish, Wooyoung appeared and dragged you away from Mingi. "Sorry, Mingi! We're about to start now!" He yelled, but not before freezing on the spot as an idea popped into his head.

Wooyoung went back to Mingi with you in tow. "Actually, can you do us a favor and man the table? I need Y/N for the register."

You clicked your tongue and were about to protest when Mingi immediately said, "Sure."

You looked at him curiously. "Really?"

"I don't see why not," Mingi smiled.

Deep inside, Wooyoung was popping confetti. Wooyoung thanked Mingi before going to the center of the mini-stage. You placed yourself at the registration table as Wooyoung shouted, "And the kissing booth is officially open!"

----

You thought you could handle the smooch-fest behind you. But... you thought wrong. The amount of kissing and hooting was too much for your poor heart. Thank the heavens the registration continued to pile up and you had to put your sole focus there. Well, not entirely.

You would sometimes peek at Mingi who had his own long line to attend to. Mingi manning the food table seemed to generate a longer line than the kissing booth, which made you chuckle softly before turning your attention back to the registration.

It wasn't long before Mingi managed to sell everything on the table and he approached you with the funds he generated. You dumbfoundedly accepted and stared at the small lunchbox where he put the money. 

"I hope I did well, Ms. Y/N." Mingi smiled.

"You did, Mingi," you replied. "Thank you so much for helping us."

Mingi shrugged. "It was no problem." He looked at his watch. "Well, I have to do something for the time being. Will you still be here later?"

You nodded. "I'm here 'til it closes."

"I'll see you then." Mingi winked before disappearing into the carnival crowd.

-----

If you were being honest, the rest of the afternoon felt slow despite the buzz around your booth. With Mingi gone, it suddenly felt boring. You didn't show it though. You still wanted to be presentable to the carnival-goers. 

As night rolled in, the excitement started to die down. The crowd dissipated until only a few people were passing by the booths. The kissing booth was more successful than you thought, thanks to Wooyoung and his lineup of volunteers. 

As Wooyoung set aside the podiums, you counted all the money you had raised from the kissing booth and food table. You were halfway done when Wooyoung finished packing up and stood beside you. "So, how much did we earn?" He asked.

"I'm not done counting," you said. "But, we already have enough to win the student council's favor and have some extra funds for our own," you happily gleamed.

"Yes! Let's get drunk and party!" Wooyoung cheered.

You glared at him. "You're joking, right?"

Wooyoung forced a smile and patted your head. "Of course, I'm joking," he said, though his tone didn't sound as sincere as you had hoped.

You tutted before turning back to the money in your hands. For a moment, Wooyoung was quietly watching you count the bills. Then, all of a sudden, he spoke, "Oh, would you look at the time, it's getting late. Gottagohomenowbye," before scurrying away.

You looked up confused, your eyes following his seemingly excited figure before landing on a tall one that was walking towards the booth. You tried to hide your fluster as Song Mingi stopped in front of the registration counter with a smile. "Hey," he said.

"Hey," you smiled sheepishly. You can't help but notice the oversized windbreaker that he is now sporting. "Umm, we've closed already."

"I know," Mingi said, "I just came here again to talk to you."

"Oh, what about?"

Mingi scratched the side of his head. "Uhh," he mustered, "nothing in particular. What are you doing?"

"I'm just counting all our earnings," you referred to the bills in your hand. "Thanks again to you and your friends. I think you were the ones who attracted the crowd, Yunho and Yeosang especially."

Mingi scoffed. "If the crowd knew how weird they are, they wouldn't be lining up at all."

"And you're not?" You teased.

Mingi raised an eyebrow. "Who wanted me to join your lineup again?"

You rolled your eyes. "That was Wooyoung, not me."

"Sure, okay," Mingi shrugged with a smirk. 

You shook your head, wanting to wipe that smirk off his pretty face. You turned back to your money and jotted down the numbers under the last person to register. "Weren't you interested in our lineup of kissers? I can't thank you enough for helping us and being here and all."

Mingi leaned over the counter and crossed his arms. "No, not at all," he answered as he watched you work.

You looked at him and chuckled. "So you just came to watch your friends make out with a bunch of people, then?" 

"Well, I did to maybe get some material for blackmail," Mingi chuckled then cleared his throat, "but I was also waiting for someone."

"Oh," you said. You sounded so dry that you wanted to beat yourself up for seeming affected. "Who?"

"For you, actually," Mingi answered without a hitch, making you blush madly. "I—uh—also got you something." He placed a small chick plushie on the counter. 

You smiled uncontrollably as you grabbed and squeezed its fluffy material. "Where did you get this?" You happily asked.

"The claw machines rented by the robotics club," Mingi sighed. "My talent is limited to basketball I guess, since I only got one."

"It's cute," you chuckled. "What is this for anyway?"

"I figured a gift is better than $5 for a..." Mingi trailed off, unsure of how you would react.

Your face morphed from happy to surprise upon realizing what he meant. You looked him in the eyes to see whether he was joking or not, but eventually, you avoided his intense gaze. And you suddenly realized how close he was as he continued to lean over the counter, waiting for your response. "Stop that," you mumbled, "please."

"Stop what?"

"That," you said, not looking at him as you pushed him gently away from the counter. "Stop messing with me." 

Mingi sighed as he stood properly, shoving his hands in his jeans pockets. "I'm not messing with you, Y/N. I," he paused, plucking up the courage, "I want to kiss you—no, I want to ask you out first because I like you a lot."

You bit your lip anxiously. He wouldn't mess with you, right? You continued to stare at your feet. You can't bear to see if he was joking or not.

Mingi leaned over the counter again in an attempt to see your face. "I can see that you're holding yourself back. What's stopping you?"

You sighed, meeting his eyes for a moment before looking back down. "You're Song Mingi—"

"Nope, don't start. I don't wanna hear that bullshit. Give me a logical one like, I don't know, you don't like me back?" Mingi said sternly. His deep voice made the hairs on your nape stand. "I can date whomever I want. And that's you, Y/N. I like you for who you are. You're sweet and kind to everyone. You're one of the smartest people I know. You even stand up to your best friend for what you think is right."

You bit your lip again in a fluster, still too shy to make your move.

Mingi sighed. "If you don't like me back, it's alright, Y/N. I'm not going to be mad." He smiled softly. "I'm sorry for bombarding you with these things. You don't have to answer when you're uncomfortable." He moved to walk away, but you instantly grabbed the lining of his jacket to stop him.

"No, I—" you gripped the material nervously. "I like you too, Mingi. I—" You paused again, not knowing how to say your problem.

Mingi's eyes widened in surprise but waited for you to finish.

"I like you, Mingi. I—" you gulped. "And I also want to kiss you."

"But?" Mingi asked. "I feel like there's going to be a 'but' there."

You looked down at the counter. "But, I don't know how."

"I'm sorry." He smiled apologetically. "We don't have to kiss right now. We can just have dinner for now—"

"But I want to," you blurted out, which you immediately apologized for nonstop.

For a moment, you thought Mingi was going to laugh at you. You guessed that most of the people your age had already gotten their first kiss. Heck, your club's booth was a testament to that. So you were utterly embarrassed by your confession. 

However, Mingi did no such thing. "Move over," he said. You didn't know what he meant until he climbed over the counter. You almost tripped backward when he jumped down right in front of you. He caught you just when you were about to stumble.

"What are you doing?" You mused.

"Can't you tell?" Mingi teased as he held your face tenderly. "I'm trying to kiss you properly."

You shook your head in disbelief and amusement. This guy is really sleek. 

"C-Can I kiss you, Y/N?" Mingi asked. He rubbed his thumb against your cheek, comforting you.

You were extremely flustered by the warmth, not to mention the anticipation of what he was about to do, so all you could do at the moment was nod silently at his question.

Mingi smiled. You thought your heart was going to explode as Mingi came closer. You thought he was going to kiss you on the lips right away, but he planted a soft kiss on your forehead first. Then on your nose. You had to refrain from giggling, given the soft moment. Then he slowly came closer to your lips. You closed your eyes when you felt it against yours.

You couldn't explain it, but you felt warm and fuzzy inside despite your heartbeat ramming against your chest. The air felt soft yet exciting at the same time. It was definitely more than what you had imagined it to be. 

You slid your hand against his chest and rested it behind his neck. His hands softly slid against your waist and pulled you closer. You could faintly hear Mingi humming in delight. And a few moments later, you both stopped to gaze at each other.

Although, you still had trouble maintaining eye contact with his intense ones. And Mingi just chuckled lightly at the sight. "You still don't want me to be a kisser?"

"No, I—" you pouted and Mingi just laughed.

"Don't worry, you're the only one I want to kiss," he murmured before kissing your forehead. "Dinner?"

[momentomori24]

Surprisingly, hearing Vox and Val technically (I love how technically needed to be added) aren't dating didn't upset me as much as I thought it would. It did... for like a minute until I thought about how painfully much it fits them.

Val throws tantrums and is ready go out and kill people to let off steam, but decides to stay put in his room and sulk instead while he waits for his flat-faced prince to come and comfort him before he does anything drastic. He's killed and abused people for the slightest hint of non-compliance, which he sees as giving him an attitude or questioning his authority, but he doesn't so much as flinch when Vox raises his voice and starts shaking him in frustration more than once. He doesn't lash out or get angry when Vox tries to talk him out of marching towards the hotel, but instead listens to his points and takes his words to heart even when they weren't what he wanted to hear. He's not interested in Alastor, but is willing to sit through watching the extermination broadcast because Vox is a passionate football dad about his one-sided rival getting dunked on. He doesn't even act jealous towards Vox's obsession, just weirdly amused and supportive even tho he hates not being the center of attention any other times. And then there's Vox, who acts like he's annoyed to have to put up with Valentino but still does it anyway. He acts disinterested about Val's ranting over Angel until he hears that Angel might've quit because he's an jealous, insecure loser that wants that mf's attention to himself. He lights his cigarette and decides to call up their lowest earners for him to terrorize without being asked just to lighten his mood a little (unrelated but i feel for their employees). He keeps his eyes on him both in his room and when he's at the pub through the cameras he's got everywhere. He takes his hand like one would with a princess and smiles fondly at him before disappearing when noticing they're being watched. He's the only person that Val trusts enough to calm him down when his temper gets the better of him. And Val-- despite his volatile temper and obnoxious quirks-- is someone he respects and cares about, both as his business associate and romantic partner.

And they aren't dating. Val and Vox clearly have a connection and understanding and attraction yet are unable to confront those feelings in fear of being vulnerable. So they aren't dating. Val obsesses over Angel and Vox obsesses over Alastor to distract themselves of the other only to fall back into each other's arms at the end of the day. Even tho they aren't dating. They celebrate, dance, sing, support and shamelessly make out with each other. They're the only ones that would put up with each other's bullshit no matter what-- but for some reason, they're still not dating. They are two of the worst Overlords in Hell, capable of committing so many despicable acts and jumping to immoral tactics for their own gain without any regrets, but opening that door into genuine emotional vulnerability? Acknowledging their softness for each other? That's where they draw the line. They're clearly made for each other, but neither of them dare to step over that line to commit to something more.

Which means that we could get to actually see these changes take place. We could get to see more sides to these two we still haven't seen before. We could get to see them actually start dating and the complicated journey it took to get there. We could get to scream and kick and seeth as these two morons continue to dance around admitting their very much requited romantic feelings for every stupid reason under the sun episode after episode. We could get to see these two fix each other and make each other worse simultaneously. Mostly make each other worse. We could get to see them have a romantic duet. We could get to see them be happy together-- officially together-- while they make life worse for everyone around them.

All this mumbo-jumbo, sleep-deprived ranting will likely not happen, but the potential character growth, the dynamic development, the resolved romantic tension, the SONGS we could get??? I'm clinging onto this hope for dear life until it's ripped from my cold, dead hands.

[utilitycaster]

Do you think the god debate and narrative around it in C3 would be more compelling if Ludinus only focused on killing the Betrayer Gods a la Cassida? As many pointed out, the impact that Primes have on mortals is largely positive. Aside from cool abilities, they give healing, meaning and comfort to their followers. Up until very recently (Braius) we haven't seen Betrayers do much of that and their followers are, more often than not, people who would cause great harm to others.

I actually do not. There's multiple questions in here, and honestly I could probably write 5000 words on any of them, which I'm not going to do, but I will split this up into components.

First: I don't think Ludinus is the problem at all. He is unambiguously the villain, but he is always narratively compelling. It is fun to make fun of him because he is genuinely a fantastically crafted villain. When I dunk on villains who are boring, it's nowhere near as fun because all you can say is "wow what do you even do. boring-ass" whereas Ludinus is full of interesting possibilities and hooks to be like how can you be so smart and have lived for so long and seen so much and come to the fucking worst conclusions. There's a reason why people have been side-eyeing him consistently since at least his first speaking appearance in Campaign 2, if not his first appearance ever, in Felderwin, and it's because he's a great character who I hope dies horribly. So his motivations are fine. I'm not saying the possibility you suggest wouldn't be a very interesting different story, but my complaints about narrative and the gods debate do not require anything different from Ludinus, who has been a consistent bright spot within the muddied narrative by being a consistent blot on Exandria and also sometimes the moon.

The narrative and the god debate are intertwined - the issue is a dull indecision that plagues both of them - so I'm splitting this one up a little differently.

What do I as a viewer think is the most reasonable stance regarding the gods based on my understanding of the worldbuilding of Exandria?

What is interesting to watch?

And therein lies the problem. I, as a viewer, think that killing the gods is a bad idea, and I've articulated this in various spaces and am not going to write another 5000 words about it right now, but between the events of past campaigns; the events of this campaign including Downfall; who within the narrative supports the choice to not kill the gods; and the complete uncertainty regarding the fate of existence let alone mortaldom should they be killed or chased away I have come to this position. Any counter-argument tends to rely either on entirely false statements, or a nebulous "a better world is possible" without any assurances that the allegedly better world is, in fact, probable. Ironically enough, I am not willing to take a leap of faith.

But as for what's interesting to watch? That's an entirely different story. My issue with the the gods debates is that they are endless, circular, indecisive, and between the least informed group of PCs we've had by a large margin. They say the same 5 sentences in different words over and over. It's like watching a bunch of high people while you're sober. It only hits hard if you're stupid. For more on this see here and here. If Bells Hells had decided 30 or 40 episodes ago to side with Ludinus, or to try to only kill the Betrayers, or to oppose Ludinus but kill the gods? Great. Fantastic. I'm not saying I wouldn't have had my critiques of it given the worldbuilding setup as described above, but I think it would have held up infinitely better as a standalone story, at least, than it does now. My problem is that instead they had endless circular indecisive conversations during a bunch of (comparatively much more interesting) fetch quests, finally came to some kind of conclusion that gave the end game some structure and direction like 4 episodes ago, and then had yet another wrench thrown at them. And convention panels and Cooldown have consistently confirmed my suspicions about the lack of planning in the places where this campaign really needed it. In my conversations after the latest episode, multiple people independently used the term "sludge" to describe their feelings about the plot.

In actual play, I want characters who have clear conviction and make bold and decisive moves because handwringing forever in such a slow-moving medium is excruciatingly boring. Like, do I think Percy in the Briarwoods arc is making good, informed decisions that make him a moral person? Absolutely the fuck not. Do I think the story where he's shooting first and asking questions later is infinitely superior to one where Vox Machina can't decide what to do for 50 episodes? Yeah.

The god debates are ultimately a symptom of this narrative aimlessness. The lack of an answer is the problem, not what the answer is.