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sintatae · 3 years

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qn | part two

qn or quaque nocte: an abbreviation that nurses and other healthcare workers use for medications and interventions to occur every night // 3670 words

pairing: taehyung x reader

genre: nurse!reader, business analyst!taehyung, f2l, mild fake dating, neighbours, angst, fluff, breakfast dates and nighttime strolls

summary: …in which you love the night and he loves the day. you’re grumpy, shy, and keep to yourself. while he’s pure joy, fearless and outgoing. you have the makeup to be complete opposites of each other, but it’s in both of your favourite parts of the day, where you realize you’re a lot closer than you thought.

summary | part one | part two

inspo | masterlist

Buzz. Buzz-buzz. Eyes fluttering open as if angry at the world, you reach under your pillow to find 2 missed calls from Taehyung and 1 (probably drunken) missed call from Bianca. Rubbing your eyes, you look at the clock above your bed to see that is it now 0900 in the morning. On your weekend off.

What in the world?

You open your phone to a flurry of text messages.

Bibi (1): okso ur gonna come out with us again right I miss u come hangout w me u_u [0345]

Jimin (1): So......what happened last night? Also any idea why I’m on the couch with Namjoon lol [0812]

You shake your head laughing at the memories of Bibi’s relentless ploys to get you out of the house and hauling one of Jimin’s listless arms around your shoulders while you dragged him through the backdoor.

Shooting straight up in bed, you remember what happened the previous night and touch your fingers to your lips as the feeling of Taehyung’s lips against yours lingered.

There was never a considerable amount of time that you thought about Taehyung. Truthfully, you didn’t spend a whole lot of time thinking about what he meant to you aside from the fact that he was becoming one of your closest friends in a city far from your own. Before you even realized it, he became a part of ‘home’ to you. Because there was a comfort about Taehyung, almost like the feeling of sinking into your most comfortable pillow after a long day or night. Almost like sitting next to a warm fire on the beach during summer, if you got too close, he shined brightly enough to make you forget your worries. He was chicken soup for the soul. Perhaps it had been the reason you suckered him into this position in the first place. Taehyung was comfort.

Perhaps, it was all starting to make sense to you, despite how oblivious you had been. The way that he always met you on your way home or made sure that you had something to eat. Always inviting you to come hang out with him and the boys or even the way he constantly teased you about sleeping all day, when being a hermit was all you wanted to do. You didn’t even realize how easily he could convince you to hang out, which was a feat that no unknowing person could do.

Taehyung felt the same way too. At first you were just the cute girl next door who didn’t know anyone apart from one friend named Grace from nursing school who made the move to the city years ago. Something about you drew him in, whether it was your loud, bright laugh or the fact that you always got frazzled whenever someone paid more than enough attention to you. You always wanted to make sure everyone was taken care of before you were. It made him want to take care of you, not that you needed it. Despite your stubborn, at times type A personality, you were also oblivious to how magnetic you were. There wasn’t an uncaring bone in your body. He’s heard how rough you have it at work sometimes, and wanted to make sure that you were taking care of yourself as well. He had no doubt that you were an excellent nurse.

Rubbing your eyes and shaking your head to rid yourself of the ????? panic in your head, you open your messages from Taehyung.

Taehyung (1): Wake up!! [0824]

Taehyung (2): Breakfast time, sleeping beauty! [0856]

Ignoring the rush of nerves in your stomach, you reply.

Y/N: hi [0901]

Y/N: You do know what time it is right [0901]

Ding!

Taehyung: Sure do, it’s 9am. Come outside I made grilled cheese. And coffee as promised. [0902]

Getting up to brush your teeth, you reply.

Y/N: You made grilled cheese? Or Jimin made grilled cheese? [0902]

Taehyung: I sprinkled the cheese. [0903]

Y/N: A man after my own heart. [0903]

Taehyung: :) [0903]

You open another conversation.

Y/N: Thanks for the grilled cheese. [0905]

Jimin: ;) [0905]

After brushing your teeth and throwing on a large sweater over your sleeping shorts, you slide your feet through your house slippers and begrudgingly make your way downstairs. You smooth down your bedhead and grab a blanket from the couch to wrap around yourself, making your way to your backyard door. You see Taehyung bring out two steaming mugs of coffee as you pull open the door— trying your best to give him cut-eye for waking you up early (but failing miserably when you see the extra-large grey sweater he’s donning).

Hands hidden in sweater paws, he sets down the two mugs and glances up at you, grin stretching from ear to ear.

“Hi,” You say sheepishly, coming closer to where he’s standing near their couch on the patio. “I’m tired.”

Arms outstretched as you go near him, Taehyung engulfs you in a hug that smells very much like Taehyung- fresh linen and something sweet. Why do you even know this?

Suddenly feeling shy, you playfully shove him off and onto the couch. “You woke me up, jerk.”

“If you were actually upset, then why are you out here?” He says smirking, ends of his lips curled upwards. Plopping yourself down onto the couch beside you, you pick up your cup of coffee, eyes looking anywhere but his.

“Where’s everyone?”

“Jimin left early to open up the café since someone called in sick, Namjoon is in the shower and Jungkook is still sleeping.” Taehyung says in between bites of his sandwich. Elephant in the room. Balling up his napkin and pushing your plate towards you, he starts “So...”

“So...?” You speak while taking a bite, still avoiding his eyes. An awkward beat passes between the two of you, as you both eat in silence, occasionally glancing up at the other. The summer sun shining bright behind him and rising by the minute, you squint your eyes at him.

“About last night... I think I might have drank too much.” He says. There’s a slight sinking feeling in your stomach as the words leave his mouth, but either way, you make sure he doesn’t feel too bad for acting out of character.

“Oh, don’t worry about it at all, it happens.” You say, indefinitely avoiding his eyes. “You don’t have to have regrets.”

“Actually I do have regrets,” He says, hand reaching out to place on your forearm.

“No no no, you shouldn’t. Actually it makes more sense this way, and honestly I was the one that made you come out with me—”

Before going off on one of your nervous tangents, your argument is cut short when Taehyung runs his hand down your arm to place your hand in his. Stopping yourself, you furrow your brows at him as he laughs lightly to himself.

“What I meant was,” He stops to push a strand of hair behind your ear. “I only have regrets because I didn’t ask you out first. And because I ruined my own plan by kissing you prematurely.” Hearing him say he had his own plan makes you laugh, but you’re still confused.

“When did you…even start feeling this way about me? I had no clue.” Sitting up to grab your mug, “I always just thought you were looking out for me as a good neighbour. Or because you thought I was a loser, sleeping all day and not doing anything.” He laughs at this.

“Well, that’s partly true.” He says, laughing as he sees you giving him some side-eye. Leaning back to throw an arm around your shoulders, Taehyung says, “It wasn’t until seeing you every morning on your way home from work and before I left for work myself, that I realized it was what I looked forward to everyday.”

You soften at this, but can’t help to throw in some self-deprecating humour since you’re still reeling from the confession. “You looked forward to seeing this sleep deprived grump coming home from what was probably a rough shift?”

Flashing his wide smile at you again, he says, “Precisely.”

You stop yourself when you almost check your wrist for your pulse, your heart rate must be over 100 at this point because you suddenly feel out of breath and nervous. Opting to just stay quiet, you lean your head against his shoulder.

A few beats of silence pass as both sit in each other’s company.

“Taehyung, why do you sit out here so late after work?” You feel him tense beside you. Sighing, he says.

“Work… has just been kicking my ass lately.” Pulling you closer into his shoulder and staring forward at nothing particular. “I just have a lot of pressure and weight on my shoulders. So I just need to decompress sometimes.”

“Is it the promotion?”

“Ehhh. Among other things,” he says, nervously twirling your hair above your shoulder. “Hey! Does that mean you’ve been spying on me?”

“I can neither confirm nor deny.” Holding your hand up for a high five, you speak, “I’m here for you though.” Laughing, he reaches up to high five you back, locking your fingers between his. Just then you hear the sliding door open. Jungkook.

You make a move to pull apart but Taehyung stops you and says, “He knows,” while shoving some grilled cheese in his mouth.

“Of course I know,” Jungkook says, stealing the other half of Tae’s sandwich. “It was obvious to all of us after you moved in and all Tae could talk about was helping you with your moving boxes because he wanted to be a gOod nEighBour.”

“Jeeze bro, do you need more sleep or something?” Taehyung says beside you, glaring at his roommate.

“Oh another thing, back before we knew you were nocturnal, he’d always wonder when you’d be awake or if you were home. He always took out the trash at night in case he could see you, so we just let him make it his chore.” Jungkook says grinning.

“Alright, alright,” Taehyung says getting up, shoving the younger boy to the door. “That’s enough. There’s more food inside so go.”

Taehyung pushes a backwards Jungkook all the way until he’s inside the kitchen and pulls it closed. Before departing into the house, Jungkook flashes you two finger hearts while smiling.

All you can do is shake your head and smile, mind still reeling at all of these new revelations.

“Last night was fun though, thanks again.” You say, still avoiding his eyes. “You were a good fake boyfriend.”

“Don’t mention it,” The boy says, both of you making eye contact while a beat passes. “Any time you need me, I’m here.” And he was.

Two weeks go by and despite his confessions, you both fall back into your usual routine. Nothing needed to change, except maybe some flirting and a few stolen kisses here and there. Your schedules made it hard to see each other, especially when you were working but you could always find time to meet whether it was in the early morning sun or late at night in the moonlight. There didn’t need to be labels, you were having fun after all.

There was even one random Thursday night that you may or may not have kept him out longer than intended, not that he cared really.

It was 2330 at night and you were at work after picking up an extra few hours to help with staffing shortages on the unit. You had gotten a ride to work with Esther and completely forgot as you were leaving that you didn’t drive. You texted Taehyung after your shift and after learning your predicament, he called you.

“But Tae, it’s a work night! You don’t have to pick me up.” You nagged on the phone. “It’s late. I was just going to order an Uber.”

“Exactly, all the more reason to pick you up.” Taehyung said on the phone. “I’ll be there in 2 minutes.”

“Fine,” You relent. “But let me treat you at least.”

2 minutes and not a second later, the lights of Taehyung’s car flash at the entrance of the hospital. Towing your work bag over your shoulder, you meet him, smiles donning both of your faces. As soon as you’re in the car, you smile sheepishly at him and thank him for picking you up.

“Hungry?” You ask.

“It’s 11:30 at night.”

“...And?” You say. Taehyung just shrugs. “Okay, well I still have to thank you in some way for picking me up.”

He smirks at this, eyebrows raising. As you reach over and smack him on his shoulder, Taehyung’s expression softens and he laughs. “Okay, okay just kidding.”

“Let’s get breakfast.”

And so the two of you do exactly that, stopping at the 24-hour breakfast place just down the road from the hospital. A staple on your nightshifts. You weren’t planning on dining in, but the two of you naturally slid into a booth and shared a plate of Nutella pancakes loaded with strawberries. An hour and a half had gone by without you even realizing, both of you debating over if sweet or savoury was superior. (Taehyung insisted it was sweet, but a savoury crepe was top tier.) You started getting sleepy since you weren’t able to get your pre-shift coffee.

After paying for your food, the two of you made your way back to his car. Hands in your sweater, you bumped Taehyung’s hip as he threw an arm over your shoulder.

While in the car, streetlights passing, you try to stifle a yawn into your arm.

“Tired?” Taehyung asks.

“Yeah, aren’t you?” You say, eyes drifting closed. “You have work tomorrow...”

Taehyung can only smile at you as he reaches over and threads his fingers through yours. You take his hand in both of yours as you lean your head against the seat, facing the window so he can’t see the blush that creeps on your face. Yep, no labels.

The next morning, Taehyung was late for work. You wake up to his footsteps in the backyard, trudging down the steps of your deck. Glasses perched at the end of his nose, you can tell from behind that he’s walking with his eyes closed as he waddles to his car. Wearing a maroon t-shirt and black jeans, he throws his shoulder bag into the front seat before driving off.

Well, at least it’s casual Friday.

To be honest, you couldn’t exactly pinpoint how you felt about Taehyung. There were definitely feelings there, but you guessed it was just you being cautious and wary as usual. That, and the fact that you weren’t expecting to fall or feel anything remotely of the sort for anyone while you were here.

This isn’t part of your plan.

The panic alarms go off in your head once in a while, but you’ve started to ignore them.

The clock in the nursing station reads 0645 on a Monday and as you sit down to finish charting on all of your patients, you get a text message.

Taehyung: Quick coffee date after work and before I work? [0645]

Taehyung: Or are you too tired? You’re off tonight right? [0645]

Always the double-texter.

Y/N: Yes, I’m tired and yes I’m off tonight. But yes, coffee. :) [0646]

Taehyung: Can’t wait.

You smile and shove your phone away to finish charting. Bibi sits beside you and scoffs, rolling her eyes. You eventually told her why Taehyung came with you that night, from the plan all the way to your walk with him.

“What is it, Bibi?” You say sighing, not even bothering to look up from your computer.

“Nothing, nothing…” Bibi says, twirling around in her computer chair. “Just that you’re a big liar.”

“About what?!” Still not turning to look at her. “When have I ever been untruthful?”

“Oh nothing, except maybe to yourself.” She says, smirking at you. “You know, even though we work in the cardiac ICU, you seem to listen to every heart except your own.”

“Ha ha. How long were you sitting on that one?”

A call bell goes off and she gets up to answer it, but not before shooting you a wink. Saved by the bell, you get a moment of solitude and don’t dwell too much on what she said.

You practically run to your car after changing out of your scrubs (and brushing your teeth). Night shift breath is… no joke. Briefly you wonder if you need to touch up your makeup when you see the dark circles under your eyes, but decide against it –Taehyung never cared how you looked after work and you start making your way to the café.

Taehyung’s already sitting in your usual spot on the loveseat, two coffees on the table in front of him. He’s checking something on his laptop while you sit beside him, eventually nudging him in the arm with your elbow when he doesn’t notice you sitting there.

“Hi.” He says, “Sorry sorry, just finishing up this work presentation.” You wave him off, taking a sip of your coffee. “Okay, done. How are you?” He says, pressing a kiss to your cheek.

A soft blush creeps onto your face, and Taehyung grins. “I’m good. I had a fair assignment last night, but they made me charge nurse.” You frown at Taehyung. You didn’t mind being in charge, but you felt like it was the blind leading the blind when you were with your inch of experience. Thankfully you had a good team working last night.

“Aw, I’m sure you did a great job.” He says, an arm thrown around your shoulder. “Besides, we love a strong woman in charge.” He picks up one of your arms, poking at your bicep. “Well, maybe not that strong.”

You shove him back onto the couch, laughing while Taehyung’s hand comes up to smooth out the crease in his dress shirt. “Hey, I have a presentation to do today. I’m already nervous as it is, so be careful with the merchandise.”

“A presentation? With who?”

“Oh you know, the executives. The partners. The works.”

“I’m sure you’re gonna do fine, Mr. Promotion. Just be yourself.” You say, patting his head. “And I’ll be home tonight, we can decompress together. And maybe get some food.”

“I’d love that.”

“Speaking of food, do you want anything? Breakfast of champions to hype you up for your presentation?”

“I’m almost worried to find out what your version of breakfast means.”

“I’ll surprise you.” You say giggling, getting up to order at the counter. You stand and wait for your food—chocolate croissants (for you), a mini breakfast club and a double shot of expresso for Taehyung. Just as you’re about to send a message to Jungkook about working out later, your order is called out.

But as you make your way over to Taehyung, you realize he’s standing and talking to an older man dressed in a suit. You see the way Taehyung is hurriedly packing his laptop into his work bag, and you awkwardly interrupt to hand him his coffee and sub.

“Hello.” The older man says to you. “I’m Mr. Kim.”

“Hi, I’m Y/N.” You say, sheepishly reaching out to shake his hand and glancing at Taehyung sideways.

“Y/N, this is Mr. Kim, CEO of SunnyDaes.” Taehyung says nervously, shoving his hands into his pockets and looking at everything but your eyes. “And also, my dad.”

You were nervous at graduation, nervous about your maid of honour speech at your sister’s wedding, and you almost passed out writing your nursing licensure exam. But in this moment, it truly felt like your stomach dropped out of your ass.

“Oh. Oh! Hi sir, it’s nice to meet you.” You said, unconsciously bowing before standing up straighter.

“It’s nice to meet you too,” Mr. Kim says, with a smirk on his face. “Nice to meet the girl who’s been making Taehyung late for work every day. Do you have work to get to, as well?”

“No, she actually worked last night, Dad.” Taehyung says.

“Oh, did you now? What do you do for work?” Mr. Kim says again, asking you directly, eying you up and down.

“I’m a nurse.” You say, fidgeting with the sleeves of your top, feeling suddenly self-conscious in your sweats.

“Oh, very nice.” He says giving you a soft smile. He adds, “Did you always want to be a nurse? How long were you in school for?”

“Dad, please.” Taehyung says, eyes closing in defeat. “Please don’t grill her. Besides, she needs to get home to sleep. Right, Y/N?”

“Oh no, it’s fine.” You say. “Yes, I always wanted to be a nurse. And I was in school for four years.”

“Ah! That’s surprising.” Taken back, you wait for him to finish. “I guess some young people actually know what they want to do.” Flashing Taehyung a wink, he pats him on the back. “Let’s go. The executives are looking forward to your presentation.”

You look at Taehyung and mouth a quick “good luck” to him. Though your smile says otherwise, he can see the panic in your eyes. You hated surprises and definitely needed time to mentally prepare for well, anything.

Smoothing out his shirt once again, Taehyung makes his way to the café door, his father following behind.

“Oh, and Y/N?” Mr. Kim says, looking back. You nod and he continues, “Would it be alright to grill you later this evening for dinner?”

His back to you, you see Taehyung freeze.

“Um, yeah- I mean, yes that would be alright Mr. Kim.”

“Excellent.”

As they both leave, you sit carefully on the loveseat, thinking about what had just transpired. Feeling numb to your fingers, you wipe your palms on the fabric of your jeans. Long forgetting the croissants in the brown paper bag, you place them on the coffee table in front of you, appetite non-existent.

You can’t ignore the panic alarms now.

AN: hi hi sorry this was long overdue like a year overdue oops, i wrote it and rewrote it so many times before i realized i just needed to post it!! i’m literally posting this before i have to work tonight sooo sorry to leave it on a cliff hanger, but maybe this will push me to keep going hehehe okay anyway i hope y’all enjoy!!

chelsea

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dragonheartftherpays · 4 years

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Twi’lek Skin Color Genetics

Hello naughty children, a few weeks ago I spent five hours or so hashing out how Twi’lek skin color works genetically, and now I’m here to make that everyone’s problem. This is going to be a very long post, so I do apologize for that, feel free to hit J on desktop to skip. But it’s interesting, and it’s actually worked for every canon Twi’lek family I’ve tried it for so far (not that there are many to try), so here we go!

And yes, I made APA citations for this. Because I’m a nerd.

How Does Twi’lek Skin Pigmentation Work, Anyway?

Because it’s not as simple as humans. After all, Twi’leks come in a huge range of colors. The first challenge I had to deal with was figuring out how exactly Twi’lek skin coloration works in terms of pigmentation, before I could even start to figure out the genetics behind that.

See, in Earth mammals, most if not all pigmentation comes from melanin. Melanin comes in two forms, eumelanin (black/dark brown) and pheomelanin (reddish), and between the two of them in various concentrations melanin can produce colors ranging between black, brown, gray, red, yellow, and tan (Douma 2008).

Problem: Twi’leks, obviously, come in a lot more colors than that. See, mammals don’t generally produce blue or green pigments. However, you know what does produce green and blue colors? Reptiles and amphibians.

(No, I’m not suggesting Twi’leks are reptiles or amphibians, put that pitchfork down. They can hybridize with Humans, I think it’s pretty solidly canon that they’re mammals.)

So how do reptiles and amphibians produce blue and green colors? Well, instead of their coloration being based solely on melanin like us, many reptiles and amphibians have cells called chromatophores, cells containing certain types of pigments. Chromatophores generally come in three layers, from top to bottom: xanthophores, which contain yellow pigments called pteridines, iridophores, which don’t contain a true pigment but instead contain platelets which reflect mostly bluish light through physical structure and thus act as a blue “pigment,” and melanophores, which produce melanin. The topmost layer can also contain erythrophores, which contain reddish-orange/orange pigments called carotenoids (aka the reason you’re always told that if you eat enough carrots you can turn orange). Between differing amounts of each of these cells and their respective pigments, the three layers of chromatophores can produce a wide array of colors (Douma 2008).

Wide enough to cover all known wild type (naturally occurring, without mutation or intentional genetic manipulation via breeding) Twi’lek skin colors? Let’s find out.

Thanks to Wookieepedia, we do have a list of canon colors Twi’leks can come in, although I take issue with some of them (Twi’lek 2020).

Known wild-type colors: blue, green, tan/pale, orange, pink, purple, teal, yellow Known mutations: Albinism, leucism, red (erythrism?), vitiligo

Cosdra seems to have vitiligo, but it might be paint - it’s hard to tell (Cosdra 2019). Technically, since pink/red eyes do exist as a wild type in Twi’leks, it’s possible Bib Fortuna isn’t actually albino and just happens to have white skin and red eyes, but given how rare white skin seems to be and how he’s portrayed, I’m assuming him to be albino (Bib Fortuna 2020). Leucism, partial loss of pigmentation that most often results in white skin/hair/fur and dark eyes, is also a guess, technically speaking. We see what appears to be leucism in Lyn Me, with “true white” skin and dark eyes, but it’s not confirmed officially; however, due to how rare white skin seems to be, I am comfortable assuming Lyn Me to be an example of a leucistic Twi’lek (if she isn’t, she may instead be an EnEnii genotype with very little melanin production, as discussed later) (Lyn Me 2020).

Wookieepedia claims Twi’leks can have black skin, but it doesn’t have a citation, and I took the time to click through the entire list of canon Twi’lek characters and didn’t find a single black-skinned Twi’lek (”true black,” not dark-skinned). If a Legends character exists with “true black” skin, I feel comfortable assuming that to be an example of a melanism mutation or something similar, rather than a wild type color morph, due to its rarity.

Red being labeled a mutation is interesting, and I believe it’s technically Legends instead of strictly canon material, but I also didn’t find any counterexamples in canon, which leads me to believe it may as well be considered canon (Lethan 2020). I’ll talk more about the “true red” color mutation later in this post.

For now, we have a list of wild type skin colors. Can chromatophores, with variation between the various pigment cells, account for all the different colors Twi’lek skin can take on?

The answer is yes.

I didn’t take the time to chart out a hypothetical melanophore variation chart, since in most phenotypes how much of each type of melanin is present merely affects the saturation and brightness of the dominant color. Anyway, I imagine melanophore genetics would be more similar to human skin color genetics to begin with.

But Dragon, I hear you ask, I don’t see teal on this chart! Patience. We’re getting there. Because in order to talk about teal skin color, we have to talk about the actual genetics - teal comes from two incompletely dominant alleles being expressed together, rather than being a trait with its own allele.

So let’s get into the genetics, then!

The Genetics Behind It All

I’m going to put the Punnett square hell I went through beneath a cut at the bottom of this post for anyone who’s interested in seeing my evidence for this conclusion, and for everyone else I’m just going to put my conclusions.

I’ve assigned each allele an abbreviation, although they don’t display properly on Tumblr because I don’t know how to do subscript and superscript or if Tumblr supports that in the first place:

Ex: Xanthophores (yellow pigment) present. Ee: Erythrophores (reddish-orange/orange pigment) present. En: Neither xanthophores nor erythrophores present/both nonfunctional.

I: Iridophores (blue “pigment”) present. i: Iridophores not present/nonfunctional.

For the purposes of figuring out this system, I actually used a hybrid family, the Lawquanes.

Wait, hold on, why a hybrid family? Well, first off because they’re the ones who started all this, because someone pointed out how the hell did a pink mom and Human dad end up with a teal-and-tan child and an orangey-tan child? So I wanted to answer that question in a way that also fit any other canon Twi’lek families.

However, using this family had another advantage, as I quickly realized: because Cut Lawquane, the father of the children, is Human, we know his genotype for the purposes of the relevant first two layers of chromatophores: he doesn’t have them. He’s homozygous for both non-expression traits: EnEnii. That simplified figuring out the genotypes of the children and his wife a ton - in fact, I’m not sure it would have been possible to extrapolate those answers, if not for the fact that we know his genotype for these traits 100% for certain.

So without putting you through the whole process, this is what I came to:

Suu Lawquane (mother): EeExIi (pink phenotype) Cut Lawquane (father): EnEnii (tan/melanin-only phenotype) Shaeeah Lawquane (daughter): ExEnIi (teal phenotype*) Jek Lawquane (son): EeEnii (orange/tan phenotype**)

* I’m not dealing with the patching Shaeeah has going on because I’m assuming that’s an effect of hybridization on her phenotype, since we haven’t seen markings like that on any canon full-blood Twi’leks. I’m assuming teal to be her “base” phenotype as far as Twi’lek genes go, since teal obviously isn’t a color we see in Humans. ** I’m genuinely not sure whether to call that skin color orange or tan, nor do I know whether Ee or En is dominant or if they even have a simple dominance relationship - more on that in a moment - so I’m leaving that be. The point stands.

So these are the rules of dominance we end up with:

1. I (iridophores present) is dominant over i (no iridophores present/functional). Evidence: Suu Lawquane must be heterozygous Ii in order to have produced both a teal (I phenotype) and tan/orange (i phenotype) child with her homozygous ii husband. Furthermore, Shaeeah would be yellowish-tan if i were dominant over I, since she must be heterozygous due to having a homozygous ii father and yet displaying the I trait as her phenotype.

2. Ex and En are incompletely dominant with each other. Evidence: this is how you get teal children, a mix between blue (EnEn) and green (ExEx). An EeEx x EnEn pairing is capable of producing an ExEn child (Shaeeah), which tracks with this logic.

3. Ee (erythrophores present) is dominant over Ex (xanthophores present). Evidence: Suu Lawquane must be heterozygous EeEx in order to have produced both a teal (ExEn phenotype) and an orange/tan (Ee and/or En phenotype) child with an EnEn husband while still displaying the Ee phenotype (pink) herself. Since she displays a strong Ee phenotype and must also have an Ex allele, the Ee allele must therefore be dominant over the Ex allele.

These rules can be applied to other Twi’lek families, as well - for instance, the Syndullas (not counting Jacen Syndulla, both because he wouldn’t be an interesting addition due to his Twi’lek influence being Also A Green Phenotype and because I will never forgive Rebels for that horrible boring hybrid design) work out to:

Cham Syndulla: EeExii (orange phenotype) Tislera Syndulla: ExExIi or ExExII (green phenotype, not enough data to prove conclusively whether she’s heterozygous Ii or homozygous II) Hera Syndulla: ExExIi (green phenotype)

Because En and Ex are incompletely dominant, neither Tislera nor Hera can be ExEn, and they must be homozygous ExEx because Ee is dominant over Ex. Because Ee is dominant over Ex and his daughter must be homozygous Ex, Cham must therefore be EeEx, showing the Ee phenotype but carrying the recessive Ex allele which he passed on to his daughter.

There is one small problem: We still don’t know for sure the relationship between Ee and En. I just don’t have enough data to figure it out. I went through the entire list of canon Twi’lek characters on Wookieepedia and didn’t find a single family with the right color combinations and enough data to figure it out. I even went through some Clone Wars crowd shots in hopes of finding some, only to discover that apparently the Clone Wars series doesn’t really use child models in their crowd shots, only adults. Maybe someday I’ll go through the entire list of Legends Twi’lek characters in hopes of finding a family with the right genetics to solidify my guesses, but for now, all I have to go on is how common various phenotypes are. Which isn’t perfect, because how common a trait is doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with whether it’s dominant or recessive if it’s an advantageous trait, but it’s all we have. My current hypothesis is that En is dominant over Ee, because blue and tan are both more common phenotypes than purple and orange, but that wouldn’t hold up to the standards of biology by any stretch of the imagination. I simply don’t have enough data to give you a better answer, unfortunately. Maybe some of the new media coming out, like the High Republic series, will give me that - I don’t know. They might not even have a simple dominance relationship; they might be incompletely dominant with each other like Ex and En are, producing bluish-purple, though I find this unlikely given the phenotypes we’ve seen in Star Wars media thus far.

So Why is Red Skin a Mutation?

It’s an oddly specific thing to be labeled a mutation, because you’d think it would just be a variation of the Ee-i phenotype, which normally produces orange or reddish-orange. In order for this to make sense, we have to assume one of two scenarios:

a) Erythrophores in Twi’leks are typically more orange than red, or b) The melanin produced in orange Twi’leks (the Ee-i phenotype) prevents a “true red” from showing as the final skin tone.

In the first option:

1) True red is produced by an erythrophore mutation that causes the carotenoids produced to be more red than normal.

In the second option:

2) True red is produced by a lack of melanin, leaving the final visual color completely dependent on the red/reddish-orange carotenoids rather than mellowing it to orange, or 3) True red is produced by a mutation in the melanophores that cause them to produce only a very red pheomelanin with no eumelanin to balance it out.

Alternatively to both of these:

4) True red is produced by a mutation in the xanthophores in a Twi’lek lacking iridophores (the Ex-i phenotype), causing them to produce a true red pigmentation rather than the yellow pteridines they would normally produce.

Even in Legends, as far as I could find, we don’t have any families of Lethan Twi’leks (Twi’leks with the true red mutation), so I have no evidence to support any of these possibilities (Lethan 2020). However, in any of these cases, the mutation would be rare, not only because the genetic mutation itself is rare, but also because it must occur simultaneously with a specific set of other conditions to produce the true red coloration: 1) and 2) must occur in conjunction with the Ee-i phenotype (and in the case of 1, presumably with melanin that’s light enough to not obscure the true red coloration), 3) must occur either with the Ee-i or En-i phenotype, and 4) must occur in conjunction with the Ex-i phenotype. Since I is dominant over i and seems to be the more common trait, that helps explain why the true red mutation(s) is/are so rare.

Bonus: Why Do Twi’leks Come In So Many Colors, Anyway?

(This section is entirely conjecture and headcanon on my part.)

Because, really, most species tend to consolidate until they’re almost identical color-wise, because the environment tends to select for a given color scheme. However, there are instances in which this is not the case. Personally, my headcanon explanation for this is that Twi’leks as a species tend to have a preference for the unique - if you’re the only person in a group with your skin color (or some other notable physical characteristic), you’re more likely to be found attractive than if you’re in a group of people with the same skin color (or other physical characteristic). This is a form of negative frequency-dependent selection, in which the fitness of a given trait or genotype decreases as it becomes more common (Frequency-Dependent Selection 2020). Negative frequency-dependent selection is itself a form of balancing selection, which serves to actively maintain multiple alleles in a population rather than selecting preferentially for one trait (Balancing Selection 2020).

(What’s the evolutionary advantage behind finding the unique attractive? Who knows. But the point is, it is feasible, and negative frequency-dependent selection is something we see out in the real world.)

In Conclusion

In conclusion, it turns out there actually is a system that works consistently to predict the genotypes and phenotypes of Twi’lek families, with the small exception of not having enough data to determine the dominance relationship in one out of the four allele pair relationships yet. If you know of a canon or Legends Twi’lek family, feel free to try to apply this! If it doesn’t seem to work, feel free to poke me about it, and I’ll see if I can make it work - if I can’t, I’ll have to take another look at the system. (Heck, apply it to your own OCs and see if it works, if you want - or use it to predict offspring traits of various pairings, if you like.) I learned a good bit about chromatophores and pigmentation in animal biology while doing this, and I hope you enjoyed the ride and maybe learned something too. Reblogs are always appreciated if you enjoyed yourself, found this interesting, or learned something! Thank you for reading! (And don’t forget, if you’re interested in reading about the process of how I figured all this out, the screenshots of that are below the cut!)

References

Bib Fortuna. (2020, April 4). In Wookieepedia: the Star Wars Wiki. Retrieved April 20, 2020, from https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Bib_Fortuna.

Balancing Selection. (2020, April 18). In Wikipedia. Retrieved April 20, 2020, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balancing_selection.

Cosdra. (2019, September 9). In Wookieepedia: the Star Wars Wiki. Retrieved April 20, 2020, from https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Cosdra.

Douma, M., curator. (2008). Biological Pigments. In Cause of Color. Retrieved 30 March 2020 from http://www.webexhibits.org/causesofcolor/7I.html.

Frequency-Dependent Selection. (2020, April 15). In Wikipedia. Retrieved April 20, 2020, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frequency-dependent_selection.

Lethan. (2020, April 13). In Wookieepedia: the Star Wars Wiki. Retrieved April 20, 2020, from https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Lethan

Lyn Me. (2020, April 4). In Wookieepedia: the Star Wars Wiki. Retrieved April 20, 2020, from https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Lyn_Me.

Twi'lek. (2020, April 20). In Wookieepedia: the Star Wars Wiki. Retrieved April 20, 2020, from https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Twi%27lek.

Bonus: The Process

Because y’all deserve to see my screaming in full. This was a five-hour process, do remember. Everything from hereonout has been just copy-pasted from the Discord server where I liveblogged the process of figuring this system out. Some things I said at various points were wrong, because that’s how the process works. Please note that I was also using different notation for the top-layer alleles at this point: E instead of Ee, X instead of Ex, and e instead of En. This did get confusing at one point because I forgot that it was X (Ex) and e (En) that had the more complicated dominance relationship and not E (Ee) and e (En), which was my fault.

#star wars #swtor #clone wars #star wars the clone wars #twi'lek #track this #this has been such a passion project for me y'all #this is not how i expected to use my biology degree but here we are #and i have actually really enjoyed myself i'm very proud of this #i kind of don't expect it to get more than a handful of notes but i wanted to put it out there anyway

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gesternchen · 4 years

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Just randomly reviewing scenes from the movies no one remembers now. This week: Avatar (2009).

It’s not like everyone forgot James Cameron’s Avatar. Since we’re still getting some footage from behind the scenes of the sequel and news about the cast, at least someone takes pains to remind themselves of this cinematic experience from the year of 2009. It’s already been 84 (just kidding, 11) years and I’m still looking forward to at least watching the teaser (fun fact: I was 11 when Avatar came out, I’m 22 now). I even bought the Darkhorse comic book on Tsu’Tey’s backstory to, you know, investigate one of my favorite characters a little bit better (spoiler: the backstory wasn’t very much eventful but I noticed a nice detail there which I may talk about briefly a bit later).

Throughout the years Avatar has received a lot of backlash and more or less justified criticism, mainly for the plot and its problematic packaging. I believe, it depends on the perspective one watches a movie from. Of course, I wouldn’t call it an absolute gem of exciting storytelling, even though I truly enjoy it, as in majority its twists are undeniably predictable. However, I always disagreed with people saying relations in Avatar aren’t deep at all. Well, romance between Jake and Neytiri, which, let’s be honest, except for the scene of telling the truth, went too smoothly, and this is why I strongly believe clash of interests is inevitable in sequels. Their interaction remained the key one for the whole movie, and nothing is bad about that, people enjoy a nice lovestory, so do I. But 11 years after I’d like to focus on the disturbing conflict everyone prefers to ignore for some reason when recalling Avatar. For me it’s always been Jake versus Colonel Quaritch.

You guys may have already guessed which scenes I wanna talk about. Those really important ones that I consider climactic to the pace of narration. And what is more about them, they give us crucial details in character development and actors’ play to think through. The main message: Quaritch knew it was coming.

Let me firstly touch upon the scene of short conversation between Jake and Quaritch prior to Sully presumably leaving Pandora. While Jake is awating Quaritch in a large empty hall, he hardly seems to be calm about the talk, every nerve in his body is trembling, but why?

The way Jake’s drumming his fingers on the table makes me wonder if he’s okay.

Then Colonel enters the hall, grabs a chair and reminds that it had been more than two weeks since he got the latest report on how the misson was going. He knows, Sully is questioning reality, and no, he’s not ‘doubting his resolve’. He knows, the right moment to ‘terminate the mission’ is missed. He knows, he lost Jake. He knows, he’s talking to the deserter. Yet Quaritch speaks indifferent. He praises Jake’s effort and rewards him for that. With real legs he promised to him when they first talked. Quaritch hoped they’d trigger the realization in Jake. Which doesn’t happen. How sad he looks when Jake openly refuses to accept the reward.

In just one sequence Stephen’s face demonstrates the shift of all four feelings Quaritch goes through: dissatisfaction, melancholy, shame, disgust.

Quaritch sensed the moment when Jake expressed superiority to the mankind. Jake grasped that Quaritch knew everything, he played with fire, and that’s why he felt anxiety. And it lasted all the way until Quaritch stepped back for leaving the hall. But did Colonel really surrender? I doubt that.

The tension between them both feels electric, so it’s explainable why Jake’s transient smile is so awkward. Sam then heavily staring straight at Colonel's back suggests that up until now Jake regarded Quaritch as his enemy. The enemy he knew he would not be able to defeat.

I remember when watching this scene, I couldn’t get myself the answer to one question. The question was: which report did Quaritch refer to? ‘That report from two weeks ago’, but such information wasn’t satisfactory for me. To be honest, this small discovery became the actual reason why I decided to type this study. Let’s assume that this particular report which Quaritch mentioned was the videolog where Jake confessed that Omaticaya wouldn’t leave the Hometree. Here’s why.

The general audience is used to perceiving Quaritch as a cruel short-tempered military man who just waits for the starting pistol’s shot to destroy everything in sight. Again, nothing is wrong about this, the fact that his character was simply meant to be a generic personification of such type doesn’t leave us with any alternative impression of him. Let’s say, if he was given the order to ignite the operation of the Hometree’s destruction to screw the tribe out of the site, he would absolutely go for it (and so he does). He’s a man of his word after all. Let’s also say, if he was pissed off by Jake’s betrayal, he would transport himself to the mountain site in a blink of an eye, turn off the link and put Jake in jail right after the talk in the hall. Instead, Quaritch decided to wait and give Jake the last chance. Jake preffered unearthly wings to those more tangible, so Quaritch chose not to cut them so abruptly.

We’re moving to the next scene, taking place right before a toned down fight between Tsu’Tey and Jake (I’m saying so, because it’s actually one of the deleted scenes that got edited out of the final cut, and believe me, the pressure between two rivals there is way too intense). Quaritch is watching the record of Jake destroying bulldozer’s lenses with a stone. After that Jake’s face is zoomed and we watch Selfridge get frustrated, Quaritch looks pretty annoyed as well but doesn’t seem to be much surprised. What he’s feeling, is bitter disappointment in himself and knowing that he totally failed to persuade Jake to change his mind.

Just observe Stephen Lang’s performance here. He absolutely nails cold-eyed look, the fire burning slow inside of him is so palpable, and guess what, in a flash he flies off the handle.

Now, shall we check the ultimate scene, preceding the destruction of the Hometree. Though Grace versus Parker juxtaposition is central to this scene, the last time Quaritch confronting Jake face to face in his human body is essential to consider for making things clear.

When it comes to revealing to Selfridge the vainness of further negotiations with Omaticaya, isn’t it just interesting how fast Quaritch manages to find the correct videolog? It literally takes him not more than a couple of swipes to produce the proof. Here is why: he’s already watched the record and is completely aware of the Jake’s values having deteriorated.

You can tell, Jake knew he was under control, but he would rather like to ingnore this fact. His pathetic glance at Quaritch, who’s almost impending above his head, causes to think Jake would guess that Colonel could have watched this videolog. Rather, it was a mutual secret between the two of them until a turning point. But the moment of truth came, and Jake didn’t change his mind. Quaritch made sure of that and finally it was his time to triumph.

So how was it even possible to assume Quaritch may have watched the videolog I’ve been talking about for so long? Well, my explanation may be too easy to believe, but still: we can tell by Jake’s appearance and the date of the record that it is the vlog we need.

This telltale videolog was recorded 16 minutes after the another one, when Jake says that he’s uncertain, who he is anymore (LST abbreviation stands for Local Standard Time). Jake might have suddenly felt depressed and hopeless and got back to the camera while being too emotionally instable, and so must have forgotten to delete the final record.

I have one more note for you. If you check the videolog library Quaritch is swiping through, you’ll see that the latest important record, which he actually needs, is made in the interior of the mountain site block and dates back to August, 13. Other recent vlogs’ covers look nothing like Site 26 sequence. Jake may not have done any of these records at the mountain site. I still wonder though where those three or four ensuing videologs were recorded, the location seems to be red lighted, which means it isn’t blue lighting at Site 26. I may even assume he recorded some pieces at Hell’s Gate. Why would I think so? Probably because in those two scenes (dialog with Quaritch and confession at Parker’s office) Jake looks ten times better than before, he gained some weight at least and doesn’t resemble a living sceleton.

Selfridge gave Jake an hour to relocate the tribe, while gunships led by Colonel’s Dragon were already on full alert. Quaritch had no doubt that Jake’s peacekeeping mission would fail. He knew it from the beginning. Hence he sounds so sarcastic seeing Sully’s avatar tied.

Now Quaritch sipping his villain’s morning coffee tasting like fresh genocide doesn’t feel so cringy: he’s celebrating his victory over Jake (still I should agree with critisism on this point, it really is a stupid cliche and wasn’t intended to carry a deep meaning).

Now I should admit, it’s been a long journey to run this investigation and bring it to light by finally posting it. It took me around a day to collect my thoughts and express them by means of more or less readable English. Just would like to make a little side note: English is not my native, so I promise I did my best! Thanks to James Cameron for making a movie, which woke me up in the middle of the night to start reflecting, and to all the fans out there who still exist and remember this movie and so can read this essay. @avatarmovies I found your blog not so long ago and you guys say you enjoy headcanons (and movie reviews probably?..), so it would be nice if you reblogged this but I’m not insisting!!

#avatar #james cameron #james cameron avatar #movie reviews #avatar movies #colonel quaritch #jake sully #characters in conflict #gesternchen reviews

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prettyguardiankore-blog · 3 years

Text

Love in Literacy ch5 (Levi x Reader)

(sorry i haven't been updating this much, with how forgetful i am, and the fact that i took a short writing break, it just happened like that :) as always, the fully updated chapters are on my ao3!)

CHAPTER 5

THREE WEEKS AGO

Upon first meeting her, Levi didn’t care for her. The artificial smile she plastered on her face left a sour taste in his mouth. It reminded him of the smiles that the corrupt government officials held themselves to, waltzing into the Underground from their mansions on the surface, preaching of equity for the lower class, all while simultaneously draining their pockets with the outrageously high prices they charged for essential items. It was irksome. For this reason, while she talked, he zoned out, only refocusing when she addressed him directly. Otherwise, he feared he might get snappy, which would only earn him a lecture from Furlan later. Thankfully, the interview went by rather quickly, until eventually the librarian snapped her notebook shut, and shot them another polite smile.

“That's it for the questioning, only one thing before I let you guys go, I’m going to need a print of your signatures.” she said, as she scurried back over to the front of her long….and incredibly messy desk. How disgusting. He could see the thin layer of dust that covered its surface from where he stood. He scrunched his nose slightly in distaste as he fought the urge to shove her out of the way and begin to clean it from the inside out himself. Another reason he was wary of her.

Soon, the librarian had pulled out three blank sheets of paper and pens, and handed them out amongst them. As she did, Levi silently thanked himself for learning, at the very least, how to print his signature… but he knew the same couldn’t be said for others. His eyes flicked over to Isabel, who was staring intently at the paper, with a dumb expression on her face. He grimaced. She really did wear her heart on her sleeve. Is she going to say something?

He watched as Isabel took a shaky breath and took a large step forward toward the librarian, who looked like she was just preparing to occupy herself with another task. She stretched her fingers out to give the librarian a small tap on the shoulder to capture her attention. She turned back with a puzzled look on her face.

“Is something the matter?”

“I’m sorry, I don't really know how to write a signature.” Isabel grumbled.

Levi expected her to give Isabel a pitying smile, and patronizingly apologize to her, for even thinking that Underground thugs would be literate. Since they'd gotten here, the biases that people held for those who resided in the Underground had become evident in the way that they were spoken down to, but she didn’t. She looked at her, processing her words for a moment, before offering her a small smile.

“That's perfectly fine, you can always just do some sort of figure, or if you’d like I can teach you a simple one for your name. ”

Levi could see the tension releasing from Isabel's posture. She was probably expecting the same as he had been.

“...Really?”

“Of course! I’ll show you right now.”

Levi shot Furlan with a questioning look.

Do you think this is going to take a while?

Furlan responded with a small shrug.

I dunno.

Levi sighed, and turned his head back to Isabel's situation.

The librarian's eyes brightened as she grabbed Isabel's hand and tugged her over to the tables, pulling up two chairs for them to sit, with Levi and Furlan still waiting at the desk.

“Some people when signing documents, will only use their first name, their last, or both, some will even abbreviate. A lot of them honestly look like random scribbles...hmm...how about we write yours as ‘Isa Magnol?”

“O-okay!”

“Okay! I’ll write it down right now, and you can practice it every now and then, until you get it.” She said, as she grabbed her pen, and began slowly moving it across the paper. After she was done, she turned back to Isabel.

“Well? What do you think of it?”

”It’s really pretty...but it looks kinda complicated, will I really be able to do this?”

“Of course you can! You seem very capable! Here, give me a moment.”

She moved behind Isabel's seat, leaning over her to grab her hand. Levi noticed Isabel tense at the touch, but relaxed when she remembered she meant her no harm.

“I’m going to show you the motions of it, and then with that, you’ll be able to try it on your own.” she said, quietly.

He felt himself soften at the sight. He knew Isabel wasn't used to this type of gentle treatment, it wasn't something that he or Furlan were capable of providing for her, and it certainly wasn't something she had received before she had tumbled onto their doorstep, all battered up. He sometimes felt guilt for not being able to provide her the life that a young girl should be living, although she didn’t seem to mind. They had a good dynamic among the three of them, but as a result of their harsh environment, it lacked a certain tenderness. The librarian's expression was different now. During the interview, it seemed like she was putting up an artificial persona for them, which had been annoying him more than it probably should’ve, but the way she spoke to Isabel now seemed genuine. He internally reprimanded himself for judging her so harshly initially. She looked down at the paper with intense focus as she wrote the name down. When she was done, she straightened back up, gazing down at the paper with pride.

“How nice!”

Isabel beamed at her compliment.

“Okay Isabel, you keep the first piece of paper so that you have something to reference when you practice, and I’ll take this one as your official signature." she said, pulling up the paper from the table.

Suddenly, as if she had just remembered they existed, her head snapped back to their direction. Levi flinched slightly, and snapped his head to the side. He hadn't realized he'd been staring. He looked up to Furlan. He looked absolutely smitten, gazing at her as she made her way back to them. Good grief. She let out a pensive chuckle.

“I’m sorry, I got a little distracted, didn't I? ...If you guys have completed your signatures I can take them right now.” she said, reaching her hands out towards their papers.

Levi quickly handed his paper over, but as she moved over to Furlan, he quickly shoved his own behind his back. Levi raised an eyebrow at him. What is he doing?

“Excuse me!”

“Yes?”

“Well, as it turns out, I was actually having some trouble with my signature as well. ” He said sheepishly. Levi could see his face going a light shade of red. He gave him a hard stare. He knew Furlan was perfectly literate, so why was he lying to her?

“...Oh? With what part specifically?” she asked, with a bemused look. Furlan's face was beet red now.

“W-well... I was thinking it would be useful to me if you ‘Showed me the motions of it’ like you did with Isabel th-” In an instant the situation became clear. What an idiot. Was this his way of flirting with her? How annoying. He wasn't going to let him waste their time. He raised his arm up, and quickly jabbed him in the gut with his elbow. Furlan doubled over. Levi's eyes widened slightly, it seemed he'd unintentionally put too much force into his hit. Well, whatever. Furlan was a big boy.

“We don’t have any more time to dilly dally around here, we should’ve left ten minutes ago” he said flatly. “Just give her what you have.”

Furlan sighed, and shot him a stink eye. Levi knew he'd be receiving an earful from him later, but he didn't care. He watched as Furlan defeatedly handed the sheet over to her. She gave him a small, awkward smile before walking back to her desk, and filing her papers away. She turned back to them.

“And with that, you guys are all done here.”

“Thank ya! I’ll try to come here when I can to say hi!” Isabel piped, practically vibrating with excitement. She'd really taken a liking to her. The librarian gave her a soft smile.

“I look forward to that very much." she beamed. She paused for a moment, before turning back to where he and Furlan stood.

"The nurses office should be two doors down, on the right side of this hallway, you can’t miss it.” she directed.

He gave her a curt nod, and began heading back through the large wooden doors, and the others followed suit behind him. As soon as he entered the hall, he could feel an angry pair of eyes boring through the back of his head. He turned around to face Furlan.

"If you're going to say something, then just say it."

"She was really cute! Why'd you have to go and do that!? I looked like a fool." He complained, running his hand through his hair. Isabel snickered under her breath, and Furlan shot his head to her direction.

"Don't laugh!"

"It's kinda funny isn't it? You don't have a chance with her anyways." she jeered. Levi sighed.

"You were wasting time. We came here for Erwin and those documents, not to get girlfriends. I was just trying to stay on track." Levi, said unbothered.

"I can multitask." Furlan responded, plainly. Levi rolled his eyes.

"Well whatever, you can always come back. We have shit to do now."

Isabel let out a sharp cackle. Furlan sighed defeatedly, but didn't object. With that, the three of them continued down the hall, to the nurses office.

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THE PRESENT

“Are you going to go now?” Furlan whispered, leaning down slightly. The two of them hovered in front of their barrack door. It was pitch dark...It had to be at least two am. A cool breeze of air ruffled their hair, the only thing to be heard was the soft howling of the wind. Levi gave him a hard stare.

“We only have two more days before our first expedition, and our client's deadline falls shortly after. We can’t afford to waste time, we have to make the most of every second we have from here on out.” Levi responded dully, running his fingers through the bottom of his leather satchel, feeling around for something.

He sighed. Ideally, they would find the documents they needed before the expedition, and be back on their way to meet their client by Tuesday morning. Although Levi was confident in the abilities of Isabel and Furlan, the small knot in his stomach only became more prominent as the day of the expedition drew near. No matter the circumstances, he didn’t like the idea of throwing their lives in needless jeopardy. He felt his hand wrap around a small wooden box, and immediately drew his hand from the bag. His lockpicking kit. He opened it, carefully examining its contents. It looked like everything was in place. He looked back to Furlan.

“Erwin left for a meeting in Mitras a couple of hours ago and most likely won't return until morning. I’m going to go and look in his office. You and Isabel will go look in Shadis’s office.” He said. Levi noticed Furlan shift pensively where he stood in the dark, hand rubbing the back of his neck.

“Are you sure you don’t want me and Isabel to stand lookout for you? This all goes down the drain if we end up getting caught, and you know that.” he pushed. It certainly was a valid point, but Levi wasn't going to change his mind. Tonight was an indispensable opportunity that he wasn't going to pass up.

“No, we need to do this tonight, and since Shadis is actually in headquarters, it makes more sense that you take Isabel so that she can stand lookout for you while you go in.”

“I suppose that’s true enough...” he said quietly, chewing his bottom lip. He let out a small exhale, “...Okay, fine, I’ll go fetch Isabel now.” His confidence seemed to be slowly but surely returning to him, which was a relief. Furlan worked most effectively when he was self assured.

Levi reached his hand up and placed it firmly on Furlan’s shoulder.

“I’ll meet you back here in an hour.” Levi instructed.

Despite the sheet of darkness covering them, Levi could still spot the smug smile Furlan was shooting him. There he is. The corners of his lips upturned ever so slightly in response. Furlan pulled back, stretching his arms behind him.

“Of course, just don’t take too long.” He teased, as he began to walk away, waving a hand back at Levi.

“Yeah yeah, whatever.” Levi muttered, as he made his way in the opposite direction, and to his Captain’s office.

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Levi faced no issue getting into the castle, the guards were criminally incompetent at their jobs, prattling away with each other, paying little to no attention to the task at hand. He'd managed to slip past their post, and into the castle, far too easily. After that, the long halls were completely empty. They've put far too much faith in their Royal Guard, he mused. Still, he stuck close to the walls. As he made his way through, he soon found himself passing the library doors. His eyes trailed down to the bottom of the door, he could see a faint yellow glow emitting from the thin crack. He slowed his steady pace.

Is she in there?

He blinked.

...Why do you care.

Levi let out a small huff as he continued to the end of the corridor, and slowly pushed the large wooden doors open. They let out a long shaky creak, despite his efforts. This should be it. His eyes darted left and right between the various doors, until they landed on the second to last door, on the left wall. There it is. As he walked over, he reached into his pocket and pulled out his lockpicking kit. He kneeled down and began his work, all while keeping a small focus on his peripherals. Shortly, he heard a small click from the knob, so he lifted himself up, and slid in.

The Captain's office was just about what you’d expect it to look like. It appeared to be a bit smaller than the other rooms...or perhaps that was due to the copious amount of books lining the walls. And it didn't stop there. His long desk was covered in them, too. Although, despite the clutter, it was still tidy, which Levi could appreciate, it made the task at hand a lot easier. Aside from the books, the desk was seemingly bare, except for a small stack of papers, and a black pen placed next to it. Levi took a couple steps forward, and reached up, picking a random book off the shelf. He flipped lazily through the pages. He wasn’t going to bother to try reading them closely right now, but he was curious of its contents. As he scanned the pages, he saw that there were a lot of dates written in, which lead him to believe that it was a history book. He gingerly closed it, and put it back in its place, before picking another one from the opposite shelf. Same deal. So our great Captain is a history nut, huh?

📷

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Fuck.

Levi ran his hand through his hair. His hour was almost up, and he hadn’t found shit. He had practically turned the room upside down. He’d checked under the carpets, all of the cabinets, the backs of furniture. He’d even checked the drawers for false bottoms, but to no avail. It simply wasn’t in there, which meant unless Furlan for some reason found them in Shadis’s office, that Erwin most likely kept it on his person. If that was the case, that meant the situation was more complicated than anticipated. The theft and the assassination would have to occur at the same time. Levi sighed, and slumped into the Captain’s large velvet chair, closing his eyes for a couple seconds. He opened them back up, staring at the ceiling. A wave of disappointment washed over him. It wasn’t in there. I should just leave then. He heaved himself up from the chair, and placed himself in the center of the room. He began scrutinizing every inch of the office, searching for any remaining signs that someone had broken in. Once he was satisfied, he headed back to the door. He opened it slightly, putting his ear up to the small crack he had created, listening for anyone. When he heard nothing, he began to silently slink back to exit the castle. Once again, he passed through the halls with no issue, and once again, he found himself wanting to check inside the library, an urge that he quickly shoved back down to wherever it came from.

He picked up his pace, towards the last hallway. When he arrived, he placed his ear against the door. He could hear the two guards still chattering away. The guards didn’t stand directly in front of the door, rather, they stood at the bottom of the short staircase that led up to it. There was a thin floor space along the stone walls that Levi could walk through, so as long as Levi didn’t make a single sound as he crept through the door, he could make his escape scot-free. He took a deep breath, before opening the door, creating just enough space to peer through. There were two of them, the one on the right was a bit stockier, with spiky blonde hair, hardly being contained by his cap. He was doing most of the talking, he had a loud, abrasive voice, like a foghorn. The one on the left was lankier, with a shaved head, his contribution the conversation was goofy, nasally laughs. They were still in position, gabbing away. His eyes moved down to their hands. The one on the right held a bottle, which appeared to be nearly empty. Even better. With a bit more confidence, Levi pushed the door further, and began moving through. He kept his eyes locked on the two buffoons, who still made no note of his presence. Soon he was completely outside. He ducked down, and began creeping along the walls back to his room.

“Have you seen that librarian around lately?”

Levi halted. The tall one let out an exasperated groan.

“No, I haven’t, it’s a real shame, she’s a cutie, huh? I was planning on askin’ her out.”

“Do you think she’ll say yes?”

“I think I have a good chance, the last time I saw her, she was practically throwing herself at me.” He bragged. The smaller one let out a harsh cackle.

“Yeah right!”

“No, no, I’m serious! She kept shooting me this flirty smile while we talked.”

”Whatever.”

“I'm serious! The next time I see her, I’m gonna ask her out! And she will say yes.”

“Well...wanna bet some cash on it?”

"You're on!"

Levi suddenly remembered a past conversation he’d had with her.

Oh? And what is?

I don't know... stocky men?

Levi glanced back at the man. He definitely wasn’t pretty to look at. Was she actually interested in him? She really did have poor taste then… but something about what he said didn’t sound right, a flirty smile? That woman glued a polite smile onto her face whenever she spoke to anyone. That’s probably what it was, and he misinterpreted her motives. That sounded right. He continued along the wall, and then stopped. Why was he trying so hard to rationalize the situation? So what if she was flirting with some guard, he wasn't her dad. He shook his head, and did his best to ignore the feeling of relief he’d felt when he’d come to his conclusion, as he snuck back to his room.

Soon, he was out of the castle grounds. He now walked back through the barren training fields. It was still dark, and wispy grey clouds covered the sky, blocking any light the moon would have provided him. The only sound was the soft rhythmic thumping of his own boots hitting the ground. It would be a ten minute walk until he was back in the barracks. He grimaced at the thought of the harsh training he'd be subjected to later in the morning, running on, if he was lucky, an hour of sleep. Suddenly, his head jolted up as he heard a crash in the sky. He furrowed his brow. Thunder? Soon after, it began sprinkling, but unfortunately it didn’t last long, the light shower had quickly turned into a full on downpour. Levi groaned. Just my luck. He thought, glaring up at the gloomy sky, as if he could intimidate the rain into submission with his stare. He quickened his pace, and the barracks were soon in sight, when he heard something. It was difficult to see through the heavy rain, but he squinted his eyes, and made out the figure of… a woman. He stopped in his tracks. Who was it? Well, whoever it was, they were looking straight at him, and it seemed like they’d recognized him. Levi sighed, and began walking towards them. They’d already seen him, so instead of trying to hide, he began to fabricate a story to feed them as to why he was out in the dead of night. He settled on telling them that he was trying to fit some extra 3DMG training into his schedule. It might be unbelievable, but they couldn't prove otherwise. As he moved closer, her identity became more apparent. The delicate features of her face, the way her hair was put in place, the shape of her body… his eyes unwittingly lingered on the way her corset framed her figure.

“Levi? What are you doing out so late?” she asked, wide eyed.

His eyes shot back up to her face.

“I could ask you the same.”

She let out a high pitched giggle, quickly bringing her hands up to cover her face. He cocked an eyebrow. This was unlike her. Something's off. She was disoriented. She wore an empty-headed grin on her face, that lacked the usual stiffness her smiles usually held. She put her hands down, lazily giving him a dismissive wave.

“I suppose you could,” she mused, “I-I was just headed-” She lost her balance, and staggered forward slightly. His hands instinctively shot out to catch her, but she caught herself before he needed to. As she did, a light but apparent scent filled Levi’s nose, and the situation became clear to him. She was wasted. He couldn’t hide the disdain on his face, but she didn’t seem to notice. He hated alcohol, and everything that came with it. Or maybe he just hated drunkards. Nonetheless, the situation was less than ideal. She let out another giggle.

“I was just headed back to my room, I decided to go out tonight.” She said, matter of factly. He clicked his tongue. It would be a hefty task, considering her condition.

“You can’t even walk in a straight line”

“I-I don’t need to walk in a straight line to get to my room! There’s lots of t-twists and turns to get there.” She lifted her pointer fingers up and began revolving them around sporadically, motioning these ‘twists and turns.’ She looked up at the sky. Her smile weakened. Levi watched her intently as he saw her eyes shift into something more sorrowful.

“It’s raining,” she noted, softly. Levi groaned. She was really out of it.

“It has been, for the last ten minutes.” She gave him a serious look.

“I really hate the rain, yknow.” Levi shook his head, she was sputtering nonsense.

“Where’s your room?”

Her eyes slowly moved over to the castle as she lifted her hand, and waved it in its vague direction.

“There.”

“I’ll walk you. It’d be irritating to wake up and find you passed out on the ground.”

“How fun! I was just thinking that I could use s-some company!” He shot her a look of annoyance.

“I'm just taking you to your room.”

“Well whatever, it’s better than that fake Marla.” she grumbled.

Levi rolled his eyes. Fake Marla? He had no idea what she was talking about, but he decided not to ask about it. He wasn't eager to subject himself to her drunken rambling. If he recalled correctly, Marla was that soldier girl that had died that day… How close were they? So she was drinking to forget, then? He sighed and stepped over to her.

"Put your arm over me."

"W-why? I can walk."

"I have places to be, I don't have time to be waiting around for you, stumbling about."

"Rude." She pouted, but she obliged, throwing her arm over his shoulder. Levi leaned down and reached his arm over to her waist, pulling her closer. He adjusted slightly, preparing to walk, when he halted. He had initiated all of this, offering to walk her to her room, giving her his shoulder to lean on, pulling her close...wasn't he being far too friendly? Did he have ulterior motives that he was unaware of? He glanced back at her. Her face was close, her eyelids drooped slightly. No, he was just doing this because she was moments away from blacking out. The heat of her body against his became very obvious. He shifted, and for the first time in a very long time he could feel his face flush ever so slightly from embarrassment. He cleared his throat, and began walking forward.

"This way right?" He asked, nodding to the front of the castle. She shook her head.

"No, go right."

"The entrance to the castle is that way." he said, frowning.

"I-I know, but sometimes there's a guard there that I really don't like…” she leaned in even closer, bringing her voice down, “So lets go my secret way." she whispered, with a grave expression on her face.

God, she was talking like a seven year old. He marveled in the fact that she was only a couple years younger than him.

"What does he look like?"

"Huh?"

"The guard."

"O-oh, ehhhh well he's blonde, kind of tall…." So it was him.

"Sounds like he's your type." he said, dully. She shot him a look of disgust.

"I still have standards." She sneered back.

Levi scoffed, but her response had made him smile a bit. He returned his focus to the task at hand.

"So where is this 'secret way' you're blubbering about?"

"Just keep goin' this way."

Levi continued walking to the right, which seemed to lead to the back of the castle. As far as Levi knew, there were no entrances that way, just some shrubbery. I hope she's not making this shit up. Once they'd arrived, it was just as Levi had remembered, no entrance. He groaned.

"Are you seriously so shitfaced that you're actually making things up?" He demanded. She pushed herself away from him, taking a short moment to regain her balance, and glared back at him.

"Stop being so impatient! God, you really are like a baby! So temperamental!" She began to walk over to the garden. She glowered back at him.

"Give me a moment!" She shouted over her shoulder.

Levi scowled back at her. He wasn't used to people speaking to him like that, but seeing as she was barely conscious, he decided to let it slide tonight. Levi watched as she kneeled down, clasping her fingers tightly around the round bottom of the ceramic pot that held a tall, bushy shrub, and with a small grunt, lifted it up, away from the wall. Levi's eyes shot back up to the wall, and he could now see some wood peeking through the leaves. A door? She continued with the two following pots, until a small, wooden door was completely revealed. She shot him a knowing smirk, and he rolled his eyes. She reached into her pocket, pulling out an old, janky key, and shoved it in, and with a small click, the door popped open.

"Told you so."

"Whatever."

They entered the narrow doorway, and she closed the door softly behind her. Levi walked over and placed himself under her arm again, and hoisted himself up, and they began walking down the silent hallway. She had been extremely chatty the way there, but she was now eerily quiet, only telling him which turns to take every now and then. Levi thought he would've been grateful for some peace, but now that she wasn't jabbering away, things that he'd been able to ignore earlier became impossible in the stillness of the old castle. The way she smelled like roses, the way her waist felt under his hand…

“Levi?”

“What.”

“Why are you doing all this?”

Thankfully, he’d asked himself this question earlier, so he was able to answer without missing a beat.

“It just seemed like the decent thing to do.”

“But you didn’t have to go through all this trouble… you could’ve just had the guards escort me.”

“It’s not that much work. Think of it as payment for my reading lessons.”

She hummed in response. He glanced back at her. She looked like she wanted to press him further, but was stopping herself. Maybe she's sobering up??

“You smell really good.” she said softly.

Nevermind.

There was that bothersome heat in his face again. He swallowed.

“Didn't take you for a pervert.” he retorted, as if he hadn’t been thinking the exact same thing earlier. She snickered.

“Whatever- Oh! Here it is! My room.” she piped, jumping up a bit, causing Levi to sway to the left. Thank God. Another second with her and his brain would've went into overdrive. He released her, and she lurched forward, shooting her hands up to catch herself on the door, which miraculously she was able to pull off without eating shit. Levi clicked his tongue. It seemed like he was going to have to babysit her. He grabbed her arm, pulled her back, and pushed the door open. He was absolutely disgusted with the sight before him. Loose papers, dirty clothes, and books strewn all over the floor. His eyes moved up to the bed. Same deal. Covered in papers, some empty teacups, and other random items. He shot her a dirty look.

“What the hell is this pigsty? How the fuck do you live like this.”

“As long as no one else sees it, what’s the big deal? It’s my room anyways.” she grumbled. He clicked his tongue. It seemed that she was really going to make this whole thing complicated, every step of the way.

“Gross. Stay here.”

He walked over to the bed, and began cleaning it off. He placed all the papers in a neat pile on her desk, carefully stacked the ceramic cups, and settled on putting all the other various items on a pile on the floor. He began shaking out the bed sheets, which, to his grave disappointment, had crumbs. Repulsive. He walked back over, navigating his way through the maze that was her floor.

“Come on.” he instructed, reaching out his arm for balance. She clasped onto it tightly, slowly making her way to the bed, and throwing herself on it. Letting out a blissful sigh, she rolled over to her stomach, closing her eyes. Levi awkwardly stood at the foot of the bed, gazing down at her. He quickly averted his gaze. He felt like he was doing something wrong.

“I’m going to leave now.” he said.

“Mhm” She was already half asleep.

Levi nodded, and began exiting the room.

Fuck.

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"What the hell are you talking about?" Furlan shouted.

Levi squeezed his eyes shut in frustration. They'd failed retrieving the documents before the expedition, and the nerves that were chewing Levi up from the inside were now spilling out. He didn't want Isabel and Furlan to go on the expedition. He was capable of doing it all himself, going on the expedition, killing Erwin, and retrieving the documents.

After he'd returned to his barrack from the librarian's room, he'd stayed up. That woman still mourned the death of her partner that had died a year ago. Her sorrowful face as she gazed up to the rainy clouds flashed through his mind. He didn't want Isabel and Furlan to become memories for him to grieve over, while he got drunk at some dirty bar. They meant too much to him. Like she'd said, it was a very real possibility that they would all die out there, at the very least, he wanted to lower the chances to only one of them dying. He looked back to Isabel and Furlan's pained, confused faces with cold eyes.

"We haven't even seen a real titan yet, and it'll be our first time outside the walls. It may take all we've got just to make it back alive. But if I'm by myself, I'll manage somehow."

"Why would you say that bro-" Isabel began, desperately, before she was cut off by Furlan, who shot his hand up. Her mouth clamped shut. Furlan's demeanor shifted into a more stoic one. Levi could tell he was trying to understand why he was dropping this on them so suddenly.

"So what you're saying is," he started, in a low voice." That we can't handle the expedition, right?"

"That's right, in my opinion."

Isabel jumped down from the crate she was sitting on, and began stomping over to him, until she was just inches away from his face. Her fierce green eyes bore into him.

"How can you say that?! We won't know until we try! What's the matter... this isn't like you at all!" she cried out. Levi scowled, snapping his head away from them. He rubbed his temples. Why were they making this so difficult? He was just looking out for them.

"If you wont stay behind, then this conversation is over!" he shouted, angrily, "We'll wait for another opportunity." he said, with finality. He stormed off, with no destination in mind. He couldn't meet their eyes. He could hear Isabel calling out for him as he walked away, but he ignored her, continuing on.

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After Levi had stormed off, he considered going back to his barrack to sleep, but he didn't want to deal with other people. After wandering around the castle for about fifteen minutes, he'd come across a tall set of stairs, and decided to go up. He'd soon found himself at the top of a tower, the vast night stretched out before him. He gazed back up, thoughtfully. Wispy clouds covered any light the stars are moon would've given him. Just like the Underground. He slowly stepped forward, and sat himself at the wall's edge, staring up at the grey sky. It's all the same. He shut his eyes, trying to escape the situation he faced, just for a short moment. Why were they pushing so strongly against his attempts to keep them safe? Were they that opposed to his care? He sighed. He'd come up here to clear his head, yet here he was, getting himself even more mixed up than before. He closed his eyes again, when he heard the door click open. His head jolted in its direction, and he saw Isabel's head pop through, and Furlan's followed. They walked over to him. They still looked angry, rightfully so. He tore his eyes away from theirs. He couldn't bear to look at them right now.

PLAY THIS.

"Bro!" Isabel called.

"Levi, we need to talk. We can't agree with you going off on your own." said Furlan. Isabel nodded her head furiously in agreement.

"You said that we'd all take the first step outside the walls together, are you really going to go back on your word?" She asked woundedly. Levi turned from them, and back to face the sky.

"It's all the same...Above, Underground, when the clouds cover the moon and stars, it looks exactly like the Underground, even up here," he said, softly. Isabel looked at him with utter confusion. He couldn't blame her. He didn't know what he was rambling on about either. A short silence filled the air.

"...If you're only referring to the color of the sky, I suppose you're right...B-but this is completely different!" Isabel exclaimed, eyes bright, "Unlike the Underground, we know there's no roof! It just goes on!" She turned to Furlan.

"Right?" Furlan nodded at her and smiled back at Levi.

"That right, this sky is endless. You can't even compare the two!" He said, with a small laugh. "That would just be silly!" Levi looked back at them in wonder. Suddenly Isabel's eyes widened, and she started jumping up and down excitedly.

"Hey, hey look" Isabel yelled, frantically pointing up to the sky, "The clouds moved! The moon is so bright!" She ran over and plopped down next to Levi. Furlan carefully seated himself on the opposite side, warily eyeing the edge.

Levi's eye followed her finger. He could see it, gleaming brightly through the clouds. Its soft glow washed over him. His eyes widened.

"You can't ignore the difference anymore now, huh?" She said, cheekily.

He turned to Isabel, and then to Furlan. How could they be so hopeful? How could they march aimlessly into the future, without knowing what it held? Were they just that different from him?

...

What did that make of him, then?

"Levi." Furlan said, turning to face him "You need to believe in us."

"Yeah!" Isabel chirped.

Levi looked up to the illuminating sky, and the two equally illuminating people seated next to him. For once, he decided to give in.

"Okay."

https://archiveofourown.org/works/30083745

#levi x y/n #levi x reader #levi aot #snk levi #levi attack on titan #levi #attack on titan #aot hange #hange zoë #hange zoe #aot #ao3 fanfic #fanfic #fanfiction #fluff #angst #slow burn

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factual-fantasy · 4 years

Note

I WANNA SEE ALL UR UNDERTALE ART AND IDEAS🥺🥺🥺I WOULD LOV TO READ AN EXPLANATION OF UR LAST TWO POSTS

...Aight, bet.

I’m going to have to be slightly vague for a few reasons. For one, because people seemed to like this idea, I have been expanding it more and working through it, this means everything is subject to change. Second is if I go too far into detail it’ll take too long.

So, the story.

This takes place in a Refinedtale like universe. i.e. Chara, Asriel and Gaster are alive and on the surface after a pacifist run. Now, In this story Frisk, Chara and Asriel are friends with Monster kid, abbreviated to MK. Now they somehow end up in this huge cave system, with tunnels and huge rooms. A HUGE plot hole that made me shy away from posting about this story is I have no explanation for how they got there. They just wake up there separated for no reason. They weren’t doing anything strange or magic related, no they were just sleeping in their beds I guess and woke up in this weird place. No Its not supposed to be back in the underground.

So, the kiddos wake up confused, find each other and decide to look around. They come into a big room and find Toriel standing in the middle. Her outlines are white and the rest of her body is black. Her face is also blotched out, just like Papyrus in the first post. They try to approach her, but she attacks them with everything she’s got. Like really, she is trying hard to kill these kids. The kids fight back and keep trying to talk to her. Asriel manages to slip through the battle and pounce on his mom. He’s sobbing and begging her to stop and that she’s scaring him. She instantly stops. Her lines turn black and her body turns green. She becomes really connected to Asriel and becomes his servant all of a sudden.

The idea is that if one of the kids touch one of the blotched monsters, the monsters lines will turn black and they’ll change to what ever color the kids is. Asriel = Green, Chara = Red, Frisk = Blue, and MK = orange.

Toriel loves Azzy now and carries him around. hence this picture,

The kids are a bit nervous because she literally just tried to kill them. Now after that battle they start to look for more people.. and fine Undyne. Undyne was really intense, but MK managed to slip behind everyone and ram his head into Undyne’s leg, knocking her over and changing her silhouette to orange.

They now assume that a lot of other monsters are around here, and all you have to do to get them out of that state is to touch them. And depending on who touches them, their color will change and they will follow that specific kid around.

So they continue searching and find their next opponent, Undyne lends them each a small spear to protect themselves.. and.. its turns out Sans is next.. this one was really upsetting. I have touched a little on Chara’s inner demons in Refinedtale with this post. In this fight with Sans, the battle is really tense and hard, its a sense of bitter sweet nostalgia for Chara. Sans was always the most interesting battle in the timelines wasn’t he? Sans is seemingly the most harmless monster there is! So small, so frail.. But so powerful too. When Chara remembers the battles with him she feels shame, but also excitement! Sans’s battles were the best ones. Its because it was truly personal. Sans knew she did something. This powerful hatred came deep from within his soul. It was terrifying, and wildly exciting!! Being in this place again, where she could try and kill the comedian once more.. was just.. so thrilling! She couldn’t stop herself, she couldn’t hold back! She lost herself in the madness..

..and went way, too far.

Chara stood there for a moment, panting and smiling from ear to ear.. and then it hit her. The excitement was gone.. and in its place was just dread. Shortly after realizing what she just did, she burst into tears seeing Sans’s head scattered all over the floor. Everyone is shocked, a RESET isn’t an option here, Sans has gotta be dead. Chara crumples to the floor and cries. But next thing you know, Sans’s face shards gravitate towards his body on the floor. His face reconstructs itself, he changes to a light red color and Stands up. In the picture, her knee bumps Sans hand, thus counting as being touched. He walks over to Chara and helps her stand up. He’s now protecting her and loving her like Tori is to Azzy. After a long while of recovering and apologizing, they move on to look for more people. This is when they find Papyrus.

The fight with Papyrus was beyond anything they ever expected. It was like they were fighting Sans again.. but Papyrus was so much stronger than Sans, he was so much FASTER than Sans, it was insane! He could focus on every single one of them all at once! There was a post (that I can’t find) explaining how its very likely that Papyrus is stupid strong- he just holds back on you, anyway.. So this fight goes horribly, everyone is getting hurt. Chara tells Sans to do something, try to get Papyrus to stop, make it so one of them can touch him. So Sans teleports above and behind Papyrus’s head. In the picture above, that’s Sans in the middle of teleporting. He wraps his arms around Papyrus’s neck in an attempt to stop him. Making him lose his grip on Asriel.

Papyrus reaches his arm back, snatches Sans out from behind him, holds him up by his shirt and is about to kill him.. when..

Asriel begs “Papyrus stop!! Stop fighting us!!” Papyrus turns green.. the blasters and bones disappear.. then he gently sets Sans down. Not a word is spoken between the two brothers. But you could cut the fear and tension between them with a knife.

They all do their best to recover from this fight and move on. They keep searching and then find Alphys.

This one was hard because no one could get near her. She would sit completely still and the electricity would just come to them. The idea is everyone distracts her while Frisk sneaks behind her and manages to touch her. She turns blue and they move onto the next monster, luckily not much heart ache here.

Then they get to Mettaton, there’s a slightly angsty yet cool part where Mettaton is attacking Frisk and Alphys jumps in to protect her. Its like the Scientist vs its beloved creation you know? Anyway this is where things start to get fuzzy. I haven’t decided who gets Mettaton or how they get him. But lets just say its MK?

Now, I haven’t been able decide if Grillby will be one of the Blotched monsters. You might say that Grillby isn’t a significant character to the Undertale timeline at all, and you would be right. However in Refinedtale he is. Grillby plays a huge part in Sans’s life and to the overall movement in the timeline. And since this is Refinedtale based I figured it would make sense if he was in this.. but for some reason it just feels a bit off.. anyways, if Grillby was to be in this, he would be right after the Mettaton battle. I feel like Asriel would be the one to get him because he has a bit of a special advantage when it comes to fire type magic.

Next would be Gaster. Just like Papyrus, he was stronger than expected. The kids all kind’a saw him as a weak, broken old man that was way past his prime. Well they were completely wrong and apparently they forgot where Sans and Papyrus’s powers came from to begin with. So the battle is rough, the kids are tired and just manage to snag him. I can see Chara being fed up and charging through his attacks in a fit of rage and throwing him to the floor. He turns red and things are okay for a while.. They rest and try to collect themselves.

..they all know who’s next..

The four kids get carried through the cave system to conserve energy while they look for Asgore. They find him and decide that the kids trying to fight him is a bad idea. They don’t know if they can die here and they’re exhausted. Sans has demonstrated that the blotched monsters cant seem to die so.. they form a plan.

Sans, Papyrus, Gaster, Undyne, and Mettaton will all attack and just try to get him pinned on the floor, then one of the kids will run over and boop him on the nose. Simple! In the meantime Toriel (maybe Grillby) and Alphys will stand back to protect the kids. Cool right?..

(warning, Gore reading up ahead)

..Well, there’s a reason why Asgore is the king of monsters you know. It goes horribly. Gaster is pinned to the floor by Asgore’s foot and has his rib cage smashed in. Papyrus is impaled in the chest by his trident and is pinned to the floor, destroying his rib cage as well. Sans is pulling hard on Asgores soul with blue magic, trying desperately to get him on the floor and off his family. He’s blasting him in the shoulder with Blasters and impaling him with large bone spears. Undyne has a spear dug into his other shoulder and is bashing him in the head and yanking on his horns. Mettaton is using guns and shooting him from every exposed angle, he’s using his arms to pull on his knees in an attempt to get them to buckle beneath him..

...but he just wont go down.. no matter how hard they try, its not working..

Asgore throws Undyne off of him and smashes her head against the floor, causing it to crumple and shatter. Sans is mercilessly yanked by the arm and thrown hard against the cave walls, causing him to break in every area and the kids to shriek and cry. He kicks Gaster aside and shakes Papyrus off of his trident. He then uses the trident to slash at Mettatons head so hard his head comes flying off.

(Gore reading over)

The terror sets in as Asgore makes his way over to the crying kids. Toriel is literally on fire, Alphys is sparking, (maybe Grillby’s flames are roaring) they’re both(/all) ready to fight. The 5 blotched monsters on the ground slowly regenerate, but they’re not doing it fast enough.

As he steps closer and the crying gets louder, Asriel looks desperately for a way out. He then notices Chara is gone. And Sans has vanished from his place on the floor. Before Asgore can make his move, Chara and Sans drop down from above him and land on his shoulders, Sans’s face hadn’t even reconstructed yet, he didn’t grab on to Asgore and simply slid down on his cloak and collapsed on the floor. Chara gripped tightly to Asgore’s neck and shrieked, “STOP!!”

..He turned red, put down his trident and stopped.

As to what comes after and why this all happened? I don’t know. I imagined the four kids wake up in their beds the next morning and remember all of this, but the blotched monsters don’t. I also thought this could’ve taken place during a picnic. The kids disappear for about 10-20 minutes and show back up running from the forest crying and wounded. I also thought that everyone wakes up on the forest floor and only the kids remember, and everyone else is just confused on how they got there.

Haven’t decided on a beginning or an ending. But that’s pretty much the story in as much detail as I’ve built so far. :} I hope you enjoyed reading this, it came out longer than I intended, but that’s alright I think. ,,^ ^,,

#undertale #refinedtale #talks about gore

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kickasskody · 3 years

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DAKOTA ‘ kody ’ PIERCE, a character study. “just because i cannot see it, doesn’t mean i cannot believe it.” -- jack skellington

Character’s full name: dakota pierce Reason for name and/or meaning of name: kody’s parents met and fell in love in north dakota, and decided to name their son after the great state 💖 Character’s nickname: kody Reason for nickname: in middle school, kody didn’t think the name dakota was cool. but the name kody, the most generic white boy name ever , was definitely cool Birth date: december 13th, 2002. baby sagittarius

Physical appearance Faceclaim: austin abrams Gender: cis male Height: 5″8 #shortking Build: scrawny boy body. looks like he couldn’t lift more than 30 pounds... PSYCH!!! he’s a vampire so he can actually lift several hundred pounds 🤪🤪🤪 Eye color: blue with little dark green specks Glasses or contacts?: not with that snazzy 4k vampire sight !! Distinguishing marks/scars: funny little frecklescape on his back that looks like this emoji 😦 Hair color: dirty blonde Type of hair: type 1, aka straight hair Hairstyle: gets up out of bed, looks in mirror. maybe tussles it a little bit. thats it Physical disabilities: none Mental disabilities: adhd Clothing style: sweaters sweaters sweaters. striped sweaters ( because the best time to wear one is all the time ), disney sweaters, sweaters with dogs on them. white collared shirts to go underneath most of them. denim jackets, a couple of them tattering with holes in the elbows. black skinny jeans -- like he owns four pairs of the same black skinny jeans. someone tell him that skinny jeans aren’t in style anymore. uses the same jansport backpack he’s had since the eighth grade with a sewn in epcot center patch on the front pocket. dirty checkered vans. falling apart high-top converse. it’s not that he’s poor and can’t afford new things, he just prefers all his old stuff. Make up: has never worn any but wouldn’t be opposed to trying some !!

Personality Good personality traits: good at secret keeping, friendly and uplifting, loyal, thoughtful, great memory, cautious, playful. chaotic good energy 🥰 Bad personality traits: gullible, slightly obnoxious, constantly confused, easily distracted Mood character is most often in: cheery, happy as f, practically bouncing off the walls Sense of humor: goddamn hilarious!!! at least he thinks so lol Articulation: loud and occasionally stuttery. repeating himself pretty often. the type to get lost in the middle of conversation and have to take a second to mentally loop back and remember what exactly they were talking about. uses the word ‘ like ‘ way too much. talks with his hands a whole lot. constantly talking like he’s a kooky disney character on a mission. Character’s greatest joy in life: riding a mf’in roller coaster Character’s greatest fear: disneyworld getting blown up / physically hurting someone Character is most at ease when: he’s curled up with his friends watching a disney movie Most ill at ease when: he’s laying in bed at night, pretending he’s sleeping since he can’t Enraged when: thinking about how there are vampires in bridgemead -- that they could turn other people, kill other people, or worse... harm his friends. Depressed or sad when: drinking from a blood bag. watching disney pixar’s coco. thinkin’ about a disneyworld churro and how he’ll never be able to enjoy the taste of one again. Priorities: at the moment? trying not to hurt anybody. Life philosophy: “Keep Moving Forward!” -- walt disney said that Greatest strength: his optimism / ability to take something sad or bad and turn it around! Greatest vulnerability or weakness: giving just about anyone the benefit of the doubt.

Goals Drives and motivations: getting enough money to be able to travel the world and visit every disney park on the planet. Immediate goals: graduating high school / helping the scooby gang solve mysteries Long term goals: roller coaster designer / engineer. create a haunted house / rollercoaster hybrid ride

Childhood Hometown: orlando, florida Type of childhood: the kind where he’s an only child, where his middle class parents live to please and spoil him, take him to whatever amusement park he wanted to go to and buy him all the best merch. the smile on his face was worth more than anything they ever could’ve purchased for themselves. kody probably would’ve had siblings, but his parents had complications getting pregnant again, and thus they lived to make sure he had the best life possible. Pets: a cat named toulouse ( shoutout aristocats ), but he passed when kody was fifteen Most important childhood memory: waiting in line for five hours to ride harry potter and the forbidden journey at universal studios orlando. blew his little kid mind. Dream job: imagineer!! Religion: non-practicing christians. church on easter and christmas ONLY!

Present Current location: bridgemead, massachusetts Currently living with: his parents 💖 Pets: none Religion: agnostic Sexuality: currently questioning his sexuality. growing up he always felt attracted to both boys and girls, but has never been able to articulate it. he’s only ever expressed interest in women, but he has a fat crush on chris evans as captin america Politics: would be socialist if he cared enough to think about politics Occupation/education: bridgemead high school super senior Mode of transportation: his parents dark blue prius!! but only thursday - sunday

Family Parent one: marcus pierce -- drug store manager Relationship with them: kody and his dad are best buds! if it weren’t for his fathers love for rollercoasters, kody doesn’t know what his life would be like today. they used to play rollercoaster tycoon growing up and kody still cherishes those memories today. Parent two: tina pierce -- bridgemead city manager Relationship with them: kody and his mother have a very loving relationship. however, kody’s adoration for his mother dwindled when it was her job that forced them to move to bridgemead. he thinks of it as her fault that he doesn’t get to go to disneyworld anymore, and there’s a bitter part of him that thinks that if she hadn’t made them leave, he never would’ve become a vampire. he knows its wrong to attribute her to his curse, but sometimes when he’s really sad he cant help it. Siblings: none Other important family members: his widowed aunt shirley who lives twenty minutes from disneyworld and occasionally would join them on their weekend visits to the parks. he misses her greatly 😩😩

Favorites Color: that bright electric blue color on the cinderella castle at disneyworld Music: electronic Food: a disneyworld churro. Film: the incredibles / scooby doo 2002 Drink: pink lemonadde mixed with sprite Form of entertainment: disney+ subscription. if that’s all he had, he’d be content. Most prized possession: a magic kingdom two day passport ticket from the 1980′s

Habits Hobbies: playing rollercoaster tycoon / designing rollercoasters on his computer. obsessively watching ghost club paranormal on youtube. bothering aj with the latest thing on his mind that she definitely doesn’t need to know about Plays a musical instrument?: nope. wishes he could though! Plays a sport?: nope, but would be great at track now that he’s a vampire! How he would spend a rainy day: playing kingdom hearts II in his pajamas. Spending habits: great at hoarding all of his allowance! since he’s not spending it on food, he’s an excellent saver. pre-vampirism kody was not as cautious with his spending. Smoking/drinking/drugs?: no way 🙅🏼 has yet to even try alcohol Extremely skilled at: cheering up his friends! finding the good in others and convincing them to see it too 🤗 Extremely unskilled at: stopping himself from crying when he’s sad / when he’s in the middle of crying. putting together pieces of their investigations. sure, he can find things -- but what the hell is he supposed to do with them once he’s got it?!?! Nervous tics: anxious picking at his cuticles. messing with his hair. aggressive foot tapping. scrolling through his phone without actually looking at anything. Usual body posture: that boy has been working on rollercoaster code on his computer for YEARS. his body posture is absolutely RUINED! Mannerisms: constantly talking with his hands. bouncin’ around like tigger when something exciting happens. abbreviating things that don’t need to be abbreviated. the loudest in the room at all times.

Traits Optimist or pessimist? Introvert or extrovert? Daredevil or cautious? Logical or emotional? Leader or follower? Disorderly and messy or methodical and neat? Prefers working or relaxing? Confident or unsure of himself/herself? Animal lover? HELL YEAH.

Self-perception How do they feels about themselves?: before the year 2020, kody actually quite liked himself! he realized that he was goofy and sometimes not everyones cup of tea, but for the most part, he knew he was a good guy who was a little obnoxious! now, he has mixed feelings about himself. vampirism has elevated a lot of his emotions and more often than not now, he dislikes himself for what he’s become, or what he could become if things turn bloody. One word the character would use to describe themselves: spunky What does the character consider their best trait?: his compassion What does the character consider their worst trait?: his gullibility What does the character consider their best physical characteristic?: his fluffy hair !! What does the character consider their worst physical characteristic?: that he’s a short king. stream short kings anthem by tiny meat gang How does the character think others perceive them?: he’s pretty sure most people think that he’s wildly annoying, but that doesn’t stop him from being fully himself most of the time! What would the character most like to change about himself/herself: his vampirism!! get this shit out of him just make him a normal aging boy again!!

Relationships with others Opinion of other people in general: kody is a big ole’ ball of love, and thus so, he tries to share that with everyone. strangers are treated with compassion, acquaintances are treated as old friends, and friends are treated like family. unless kody already knows someone to be a bad person, or is wary of them, he’s genuinely one of the nicest people one could ever meet. Opinion of the Scooby Gang: talented, brilliant, incredible, amazing, show stopping, spectacular, never the same, totally unique, completely not ever been done before, unafraid to reference or not reference, put it in a blender, shit on it, vomit on it, eat it, give birth to it. Does the character hide their true opinions and emotions from others?: it depends on the topic, but for the most part, yes. when it comes to most scooby gang related endeavors, kody will share his thoughts -- if it’s something related to movies or tv, he’ll be talking your ear off for hours. if it’s something that could result in it hurting someone else, he’ll be quiet, and if his vampirism was ever to come into question, he’d be absolutely be suppressing it. Most important person in character’s life: oh god, not to pick scooby gang favorites, but probably aj. she’s the closest thing he has to a sister, and he doesn’t know what he would do without their banter, and her support. Best friend/s: aj darke, dylan frye, & arabella byrne Dating experience: absolutely none. kissed 2 girls in the span of 2 years over 3 years ago. Romancing: kody wouldn’t know the first thing about trying to get someone to date him. all he knows is the stuff he’s seen on tv, watched in movies, or experienced around him ( such as his parents successful marriage, or his friends dating people ), but if it were to come down to him, he’d be extremely awkward. picture tom holland’s spiderman trying to talk to zendaya’s mj in far from home -- because that’s extremely accurate. kody isn’t trying to date anyone right now for a couple of reasons: one being that he’s too nervous, and not exactly looking for love, but if it were to happen... he wouldn’t run from it necessarily. but two being that his vampirism creates a bit of a problem for him, and he’s not sure if he should subject anyone to the curse he’s stuck with.

Extra Physicality: if necessary, could probably lift a car and throw it down the street. as of right now, doesn’t know how strong he really is / is more concerned about hurting his friends with this supposed strength than he is finding out how many hundreds of pounds he could lift. kody in a fight? probably losing within the first five seconds, unless bloods drawn and the instinct to pounce takes over. Species: vampire How do they feel about it?: hates it. would do anything to reverse it. wishes he had just stayed a little longer at karma cafe that night. or had never gone at all. How do they look in their supernatural form?: pretty much the same, however when he’s hungry and near blood, his eyes go all dark and bloodshot, and the veins around his eyes start to pulse ( basically just like vampire diaries ), but kody is unaware of this since he’s never seen it happen to himself or another vampire

#bridgemeadtask01 #shoutout aaustinabrams for this gif #idk how to credit gif makers listen thats my credit right there

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baekterflyeffect · 4 years

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half moon ― one

You remembered the messy clothing sketches sprawled on the desk, and also remembered how proud you were when you modeled for his final assignment. The promise of you being the first one to wear his first official product was made. Years passed by and the promise was forgotten as it wasn’t meant to be kept; until you received an invitation that has B.B.H signed on it. Ironically, you found yourself confronting your past at your ex-boyfriend new collection launch event with your memories with him flashing through your mind.

☽ pairing: byun baekhyun x fem reader ☽ characters: exo members, red velver members, others. ☽ genre: angst, slice of life, adult-hood, hurt-comfort. ☽ aus: ex to something!AU, beauty youtuber Reader, fashion designer Baekhyun ☽ warnings: none ☽ word count: 1.7k

☽ half moon masterlist | general masterlist

― note: first of all, i’m sorry if this chapter is rather confusing, this chapter was written for aff and i wrote it with an oc name. this story will also be in a 3rd point of view and reader will be addressed with “she/her”.

― taglist: @fullsuninbloom / @in3vitably3v3 / @byunbeautifulb / @itsbaekhyunsbutt. let me know if you want to be tagged or untagged!

It’s never ending. She thought to herself as she went through the piles of delivery packaging that she received earlier the day. She was not one to go through her packages right away, but for some reason, something in her package piles calls for her. Although now, she’s starting to regret her decision as two hours have passed and she still didn’t find something that will intrigued her enough for her to talk about.

She knew she had multiple videos that she needed to film before the deadline, yet she ignored her obligations and acted like she didn't have any.

She likes her job, likes filming herself reviewing products and trying out something new, uploading it for the whole world to see. Editing her own videos is also a pleasure, but of course, she’s only human. And being human means there are times where she’s too lazy to do anything.

At the end, she ended up by sorting through half of the new cosmetics she needed to review, doing brief reviews on her Instagram story for some products that she’s excited about.

After a few more hours of organizing her packages, a box caught her eyes. It is not the first time she received a package from said company, she reviews, loves, and even wears said product from time to time regardless who owned it. Yet, something about the new package box feels unsettling.

Privé. The box reads. There is no difference from the previous boxes she received in the past, except for the card that was glued on the corner of said box. With shaky hands, she reaches out to take the box, mindlessly taking the card to read what’s written. The messy penmanship in the card is too familiar in her eyes.

Dear, ... Thank you for always loving our product and giving us a spectacular review. We are proud to inform you that you are invited to our new collection event. We expect to see you at the address written down below.

With gratitude, B.B.H

Her mouth parted after she finished reading the content of the card, feeling as if her breath had been taken away from her. She couldn’t believe her own eyes, it is not because this is her first time to be invited to a launch event, it is because she knows very well who wrote the card, she had dreams of the man himself. She could feel a little clench in her heart at the realization that he personally wrote the invitation card, personally wrote her full name, and not her Youtube user.

She knows the abbreviation of the invitor. Byun Baekhyun. The man of her past, the man who never stops coming to her dreams even after decades. But why now? Why, when she has gathered herself together and slowly forgetting about him? Of course, it is something that she should expect when she signed up to be someone who reviews any product. Yet, she never once expected to be directly invited by him.

By her ex-boyfriend that she last saw ten years ago.

With her thoughts running in different directions after reading the invitation card, she knew that she couldn’t organize the packages more. Leading her to call her best friend.

It was a miracle that Sehun answered right after the first beep.

“Did you get the invitation?” She asked right away, not wanting to be specified in what invitation, biting her own lower lip in nervousness.

“Yeah, I did. You want to come?” Sehun answered—knowing right away which invitation she refers to—, his tone skeptic, as if he was afraid to say something wrong and it is so out of character for him.

“Of course, I will. After all, it’s my job to be there.” She sighs, her eyes focusing on the invitation card.

Her mind vividly remembering how she used to receive love letters with the same exact lazy penmanship, she knows she still keeps the love letters inside a box that she placed on her closet.

“You know me and Seulgi will be there, and the rest of our friends. Don’t worry too much about it, alright?”

She mumbled out a yeah, briefly telling Sehun she has to go and edit her newest video. With a take care, and see you soon from Sehun, the phone call ended. Leaving her in her own thoughts.

Out of all her influencer friends, only Sehun and Seulgi knew about her past with Baekhyun. Who always reminds her that Baekhyun was just a fragment of her past and it would always be that way and she believed it.

But god fucking damn it, she has to receive an invitation that was written personally by him; making her long, buried feelings surfaced. And god fucking damn it, how much she misses him.

Even after years of not seeing him.

“Girl, you are dressed to kill.” Joohyun said when she saw her in the parking lot of the event building. She just grinned shyly at her, playing with the hem of her curled hair.

She did dress to kill, spending her entire day in her penthouse with her stylist and makeup artist to help her get ready for the night’s event. Joohyun isn’t the first person to say so, even her stylist said the same thing with an addition of her dressing to impress someone.

She hated to admit it, but they’re not wrong. She chose to wear something that is not her style; an oversized satin blue shirt that she customized as an outer to hide her black strapless body con dress feels like a second skin to her. Her thigh high boots feel the same too.

“Well, it’s not everyday you get invited to a launch event that was personally written by the owner of the brand.” She playfully said, bumping her shoulder to Joohyun. Though, the confusion on Joohyun’s face makes her grow rigid.

“Huh. I got a typed out invitation, so did Seulgi and the others?” Joohyun said, taking out the invitation from her purse to prove her her words.

And true to her words, Joohyun’s invitation is typed out. Printed, signed by Privé instead of B.B.H. She right away took her own invitation card, showing it to Joohyun that her invitation was different.

Joohyun shrugged once she inspected it. “Maybe because you have been wearing their clothes even before they’re an it brand, and B.B.H himself acknowledged you?” Joohyun wonders. The word acknowledge leaves a sour taste in her tongue.

By now she is conflicted, nodding her head, and trying her best to act nonchalant by shrugging her own shoulder. “Maybe,” she purses her lips, wanting to let go of the topic. “Where’s Seul and Hun?”

“They’re probably close. Do you want to wait for them or let’s just mingle inside?”

She pursed her lips, contemplating either she should go or to prolong her upcoming doom more. Joohyun didn’t look phased, as she has always been the one who is unbothered. So, she braves herself, inhaling deeply before she links her arms to Joohyun’s. “Let’s go.”

When the dimmed lights of the venue met her eyes, she couldn’t hide her own nervousness. She doesn’t even realize that the launch party is located at some high-society club downtown. It’s not a big deal, yet something inside her churns uncomfortably and her heart beats the same way as the booming music.

She couldn’t focus, only giving people a small―rather awkward―smile as a greeting without pursuing a conversation. If she was to be honest, she’s wondering why Baekhyun sent her a personal handwritten invitation? Or maybe Joohyun was right, that she got one because she’s a long time customer of Privé, thus why.

“Bubs!” A familiar voice screamed out her name, making her turn her head to where the voice came from, but before she came up with a reply, her body was brought into a rather tight hug. She giggled, returning the hug as tight.

Her eyes shone under the dimmed light when she pulled away to reveal Seulgi. They may be close friends, but because of Seulgi’s busy modelling schedule they barely have the time to talk to each other let alone to talk.

“Girl, you look so fucking stunning.” Seulgi murmurs under her breath after she inspected her appearance, Seulgi’s hands squeezing around her waist. “Wanting to impress someone, huh?” She teases.

She shook her head, a smile that was genuinely stretched in her lips. “Maybe yeah. But I doubt the one I’m trying to impress will..”

Her words cut off as Joohyun who was silently inspecting the area blurted out something while looking at a certain spot of the club, “Is it just me or B.B.H is looking at our direction?”, and she reacted automatically, turning her head to the direction Joohyun was looking at only to have her breath taken away.

In the balcony of the club, there stand Byun Baekhyun with a glass of champagne in his hand; his eyes focused on her direction that lets them have eye contact. She gasped like a fish in need of water, her hand fell to her sides. And the memory she long buried flashes through her mind.

Byun Baekhyun is still as beautiful as she remembered him to be. Still absolutely stunning even under the dimmed lights of the club. Just like all those years ago when she first encountered him at a nearby club back in her university days. She was stunned, to say the least, as if the world stopped and it turned black and white with only Baekhyun’s blue shirt that stood out in her eyes.

Everything is grainy, everything is fuzzy, the loud booming sound of music turns into a white noise as she sees Baekhyun walking down to her direction. Her feet automatically led her to Baekhyun. She doesn’t even realize how Seulgi called her name, how Joohyun gaped at her, and how Sehun tried to reach his hand out to stop him.

Her head was empty, and only Byun Baekhyun filled her thoughts.

“Princess,” comes the breathless voice, the nickname he always used for her left his lips and she would never admit to miss it, only to notice that Baekhyun’s voice is deeper, huskier, sexier. “You’re here.” He stated, his eyes never leave her and oh, how much she wanted to kiss his eyes just like the old times.

And just like old times, Baekhyun’s eyes shone ever so brightly. His rounded irises filled with the whole stars in the universe, twinkling inside of it.

Her observation makes her realize; that even after being separated after ten years, he still captivated her. And maybe, maybe, she never really moved on.

― additional note: i know, i know. ten years? is a lot. but in this universe they are rather old and they’re adults. think of it this way: it took years for someone to build their career as a fashion designer or youtuber. and also i like my characters old and independent :”) i hope you guys enjoy this chapter and let me know what you think of this one.

#baekhyun scenarios #baekhyun scenario #exosnet #bbh-net #livia writes #baekhyun fluff #baekhyun angst #im sorry if the preview are too long #i dont know how to cut this thing ugh

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pickone1 · 3 years

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TOP weight loss in 2021 with guaranteed

On the off chance that you need to get in shape, choosing the correct weight loss program is significant to your prosperity. There is an apparently limitless number of weight loss programs accessible today, so how might you choose which one is ideal for you? This is an inquiry I see a great deal from the two people searching for the correct program to follow. It’s a befuddling circumstance to be in I can envision; needing to get in shape yet not realizing which program best serves your necessities. So what do you do?

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3-Be careful with programs that guarantee to be for everyone

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At the point when I started building up my Body Fat Meltdown weight loss program for ladies many individuals disclosed to me I’d make more deals if I would just market it to everybody; men, ladies, more established, more youthful, everyone. While this is without a doubt evident I couldn’t morally do that since I realize that every one of these gatherings of individuals has their own one-of-a-kind arrangement of necessities and wants with regards to actual wellness and weight loss. In this way, I built up the Body Fat Meltdown program explicitly for recently roused ladies needing to get more fit without requiring a rec center enrollment so they could work out every day for thirty minutes or less any place and at whatever point they needed. I needed it to be ideal for the at-home exerciser or for ladies who need to exercise with insignificant hardware while voyaging. It is expected to remove all reasons for a recently propelled weight loss member, which is what it does. By giving accurate eating regimens and exercise directions the Body Fat Meltdown program guarantees a good outcome if a lady will just follow it for ninety days. This is an illustration of a program that has a focus on the crowd, a particular reason, and a significant technique for a movement that will lead this particular gathering of members toward their weight loss objectives.

4-Ensure the program is testing, however bearable

Speak the truth about the sort of program your way of life will permit you to participate in. Wellness is an advancement so where you are in life presently may not be the place where you are down the line, however, you should have the option to deal with your weight loss program inside the current limits that your life gives. For example, if you are a single parent with two little kids at home, you presumably won’t adhere to a multi-day program where you need to eat Brussel fledgling and cabbage soup at every dinner while practicing an hour multiple times every day. It’s simply not economical. Each program has its sustenance and exercise necessities so it’s dependent upon you to ensure that those prerequisites will move you to improve however that additionally fit into your present living plan.

5-The best weight loss program is one you’ll wrap up

The best program on the planet is futile if you don’t do it. I know this direct. I’ve has ladies pursue my Body Fat Meltdown weight loss program and continue to shed 24 pounds in the initial thirty days. Then again I’ve had ladies join and never at any point endeavor the principal preparing program yielding an aftereffect of precisely nothing. The best weight loss program you can put resources into is one you will take an interest in, be tested by, and finish. I can name in any event 100 weight loss programs all things being equal that have delivered stunning outcomes for their members. Alternately, I can guarantee you that all of those projects additionally have individuals who bought, at that point scarcely took part, quit, and went through well-deserved cash for no outcomes at all. Eventually, the outcomes get a start and end with you. They are subject to the components we examined above and are totally controlled by your investment and fruition of the program.

Take these five factors and use them to filter out the huge wild of weight loss programs accessible to you. Discover a program where you are focused on members, one that you can reasonably take an interest in and support beginning to end. If you do these things I solidly trust you will be fruitful in your push to get in shape and look and feel incredible.

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purplesurveys · 4 years

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1034

survey by tater-tots What is a fruit that you might eat in the morning? Hahahaha. That’s a pass for me; I can’t imagine regularly eating fruit at any set time of the day.

Do you enjoy any food combinations that others might consider to be weird? I like to eat fish with mayonnaise, which was always normal in our household but I realized was weird when I first saw the horrified expressions on my friends’ faces when they saw me use the combination. I like mayonnaise with a lot of other foods as well, which a lot of people generally find weird.

What is a green vegetable that you enjoy eating? Broccoli and asparagus.

Name something you might find in a salad. In my salad, you’ll always find tuna sashimi in it heh.

What is your favorite type of sandwich? Anything that’s like an Eggs Benedict or Monte Cristo.

Which condiment do you use the most often? Mayo, for sure. Banana ketchup too. I also like sriracha sauce but my dad hasn’t been buying a new bottle of it for a while.

Name a chocolate bar that you enjoy eating. It’s called Whittaker’s - just not sure what country it hails from; maybe Australia? - and I like their peanut butter variant. Google also told me it’s a New Zealander brand.

What is a meat that you do not eat - ever. Dog or cat.

Are you lactose intolerant, or have any other sort of food allergies? I’m mildly lactose intolerant but I ignore it because a lot of my favorite foods use dairy. Other than that, no food allergies.

What was the last food that you burnt your mouth on? Just plain rice, haha. I had been extremely hungry and I just wanted to dig in; but I ended up spitting it back out.

Which brand of soup do you eat? I don’t regularly have soup, much less buy canned brands of it.

What are some flavors of ice cream that your enjoy? Cookies and cream, mint chocolate, coffee, chocolate chip cookie dough, queso real.

What is the best type of cookie, in your opinion? I like keeping things classic when it comes to cookies, and I’ve always been perfectly happy with chocolate chip cookies :)

Would you rather have popcorn, pretzels, or chips as your salty snack? Chips. I dislike the other two as I only like the softer, doughy version of pretzels.

Have you thought about going on a diet & actually went through with it? No.

survey by pinkchocolate

When you woke up today, was there anything on your mind? Kinda. I felt sad and I was aware of it instantly, compared to most days where the sadness will take a while to build.

Who was the last person you interacted with for the first time? Literally speaking, maybe the barista at Starbucks who took my temperature at the entrance before I was let in the store. I interacted with her yesterday.

What colour was the wrapper of the last snack you ate? White. It’s more of a tiny bag than a wrapper, though.

Do you have a favourite mug to drink from? What does it look like? Yeah, I’ve since claimed my mom’s mug for myself. It’s a copper mug with the Starbucks label on it. It looks super minimalist which I appreciate.

What was the last thing you used, that came in a spray can? It was a Lysol spray.

What colour is your favourite bra? Don’t really have one.

Who was the last person you went to for advice about something? I think it was Andi. I’ve been going to them a lot for help, advice, extra sanity, etc. lately. If it hasn’t been for them I probably would’ve left a few months back.

Have you had a deep conversation with anyone lately? Yes. I finally met up with Gab yesterday to discuss a lot things, iron some stuff out, figure out where to go from here.

What was the last compliment you recall receiving from someone? I’m not sure, I haven’t been receiving any.

And the last compliment you gave to someone else? It was most likely a compliment for Andi on how helpful they’ve been to me.

What kind of bread did you eat most recently? Flatbread.

What was the last sound you heard, that you found pleasant? We were watching a mass livestream earlier and I was delighted when they played the closing song.

How many books do you think there are in your house? Take a rough guess. I would guess around 60, the overwhelming bulk of them mine.

Of all the books you own, which do you think has the most pages in it? It would definitely either be Gone with the Wind or Les Miserables, but I’m not sure which one is thicker.

^ And how many pages is that? I checked both of my copies and they’re soooo close – GWTW has 1,440 pages while Les Mis has 1,463.

What was the last film you saw at the cinema? What did you think of it? Knives Out. I went to the mall yesterday and the cinemas were still closed, so it’s not like I’d be able to watch new movies at theatres anyway. Anyway, I’ve been vocal about the movie enough times on my surveys but I didn’t enjoy it. Whodunnits were never my cup of tea, but Gab had wanted to see it and I didn’t want to make her watch the film alone.

In the last book you read, what was the main character's name? Haven’t been reading.

What was the last song you heard, that meant something to you? Lose by Niki.

How many people do you know whose name begins with Z? I can only recall one such person at the moment; it’s one of my mom’s aunts who also doubled as a principal sponsor for my mom and dad’s wedding.

What do you expect to be doing at this time tomorrow? Maybe doing my embroidery (my package finally arrived!!) or surveys or watching Start-Up, because tomorrow will be a holiday :)

survey by luckforlemmy

Did you start listening to more Michael Jackson after his death? I can remember that there was definitely a brief period after his death that I caught up with his discography and listened to MJ nearly everyday; I read up on him and his life as well. 11 year old me figured he must’ve been an interesting figure because of the big reception around his death, so I wanted to know the reasons behind it.

When was the last time that you played hide and seek? I can vividly remember the day when Nina and I played hide and seek when the house was newly-built and still devoid of furniture, back in maybe ‘07 or ‘08. I’m fairly certain that was the last time I played hide and seek.

Who was your first celebrity crush, if you can remember? It was a tie between Ashley Tisdale and Zac Efron, though the older I get the more I’ve been convinced that I ‘crushed’ on Zac only because I was surrounded by girls who went crazy over him in school. I’m pretty sure my first real celebrity crush was Ashley, hahaha.

Do you worry about money? Yeah, especially now. I can’t even enjoy my first paycheck because most of it’s gonna go to Christmas presents, but oh well; at least I can finally buy gifts for my loved ones who’ve always gotten me presents.

Have you ever had to beg for a second chance? Kind of, when I was trying to convince Gab to let our relationship have another shot four years ago. Beg is a strong word for what I actually did, though. It was more of me pitching the idea, not begging.

When was the last time that you sent an actual letter through the mail? I don’t think I even ever did that, not even when I was younger and snail mail was still kind of a thing.

Are you excited to return to school? There’s nothing to return to anymore. Unless I decided to take up a post-grad course in the future, I’m done with school.

Do you hate Internet abbreviations? It can just feel a bit jarring when they’re used excessively in a single sentence, but I honestly don’t mind it for the most part. It’s understandable especially now that most, if not all, of my interactions whether personal or for work happen online.

What was the last insult you gave out? I was never really the roasting type of person, not even towards my friends.

What'd you last look up on YouTube? Hahaha I looked up ‘skynwallz.’ I was looking for the episode of Rhett and Link’s vlogs where they painted the rooms of their offices in the color of their entire person – hair, eyes, and skin. They were joking about starting a new business for it called Skynwallz, so that’s what I looked up.

Are you texting someone really awesome right now? No, I prefer to be alone today.

Do you know when to be serious and when you shouldn't be? Er sure, it’s not that hard.

Do you think that you're funny? I like my sense of humor, yeah, but I know it’s not always going to translate to everybody’s tastes. For example, I’m still figuring out the dynamic in the team I was put in at work, so I can’t make the same jokes that I would normally say with my co-interns with whom I have a more comfortable relationship.

Have you ever sent a secret to Post Secret? I don’t know what this is, so no.

What movie do you really want to see in theatres right now? They aren’t showing anything at the moment. A movie I want to see badly, though, is Ammonite.

Have either of your parents shown affection for you today? My mom made breakfast for us, if it counts. She also gives each of her kids a kiss during the peace-giving portion at mass, so there’s that as well.

What's the last thing that you sang out loud? I watched Start Up before this survey and was humming to the song that was being played at the end of the episode. I couldn’t sing along to it because it was in Korean, but I knew the melody so I hummed.

Is there a word that you always misspell? Rhythm is one of my worst enemies for sure. I also have a love-hate relationship with accommodate.

What was the last thing that you bought that someone else benefited from? I met up with Gabie yesterday and bought her her favorite meal from Yabu to break the ice – menchi katsu with brown rice. I originally got mozzarella sticks for myself but when we got to talking, she mentioned her sisters at one point; I remembered how much I miss them, so I gave up my food and told her to just give my food to her sisters since I hadn’t touched it yet anyway.

Has someone ever made you a really great mix CD? Andi gave me one before she made the flight to New Zealand 10 years ago to permanently live there. I believe I still have it, but I’m just not sure where it currently is.

Have you ever been on Omegle.com? Yes, when I was a teenager and it was new.

Did you talk to someone cool there? Not really; most seem to exit our chat after we did the whole asl thing. I also avoided the webcam option because my anxiety for video calls has always been present.

What song reminds you of your best friend? Any song by The Maine.

Who was the last person to hit on you? Some creep on Facebook.

What's on the paper nearest you? It’s the guide for my embroidery kit. It tells me what stitches to do and the colors of thread to use for the different parts of the template I was provided with.

Do you have a set of lyrics that you really love? From Paramore’s Pool: “As if the first cut wasn’t deep enough, I dove in again ‘cause I’m not into giving up Could’ve gotten the same rush from any lover’s touch, But why get used to something new When no one breaks my heart like you” I scream those lyrics every time they come on. I know I often showed the good, shiny side of my relationship on these surveys; but it was very much toxic at a lot of points and those lyrics - and that song - served as a nest for me, something that told me someone understands how I sometimes felt about my own relationship.

Did you get an A in your last English class? I got a 1.25 instead of a perfect 1.00, but I think that’s still equivalent to an A so yes.

What did you last use scissors for? Cutting thread.

Did you ever secretly hate a friend of yours that thought you liked them? That makes me sound shitty lol, but yeah I’ve acted nicely to people I don’t particularly like.

What do you think of when I say "boat"? That episode of Friends where Joey bought himself a boat at an auction; and Canadian accents.

Would you ever get a tattoo sleeve? Nope. I planned on getting one as a teenager, but I grew out of that phase.

Do you know any really fake people? Yep. I think everyone’s got to be at some point.

What does the last blanket you used look like? It’s pink and has multi-colored polka dots on it.

Do you have appreciation for graffiti? Sure, especially if it’s for political purposes (that I agree with).

Why don't you drive? I do. I just have done it a lot less because I have had little need for driving and traveling to places throughout the pandemic.

Does it annoy you when your printer runs out of ink? I think we have the kind of printer that never runs out of ink, but I’m not exactly sure about the terminologies or how the technology works. I let my sister do the printing hahaha.

Have you ever drank anything from a thermos? Yes, mostly water and coffee.

When was the last time you played in the snow? Never.

Do you know any ignorant people? Sure, mostly Gen X-ers and Boomers.

What is the coolest name you've ever heard? Thylane.

What did you last argue with someone about? Relationship stuff. It wasn’t a full-blown argument, but when Gab and I talked yesterday it was natural for us to disagree on a few points.

Is there anyone that you dislike for no real reason? Hmm, I don’t think so. If I feel that strongly about someone, I usually have a reason otherwise it wouldn’t be fair to them.

Have you had a good day? It was okay; it was nice. I got to do my embroidery hoop art thing, got to watch a couple episodes of Start Up, played with Cooper, and now I’m doing these surveys and am planning to continue my embroidery later. It’s nice to feel productive about non-work things :)

Are you going to have a good night? I hope.

#survey #surveys #multiple surveys – chop em up if you wish

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miss-musings · 5 years

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A hellstrop look at 4.04

Since this went so well last time, I figured I do it for this episode as well. Because, believe me, we got plenty of material to work with here:

Right off the bat, with the magical Pictionary scene, Eleanor and Michael are once again on the same side. They are separated from the humans, but very much together. This makes me wonder whether the humans (namely John, as someone theorized last time) ever think they’re like ~together~ bc they don’t know how Architects’ lives work.

Also, I noted this in another post, but it looks like Michael’s tie matches Eleanor’s sweater again. It’s really hard to tell, but it at least looks like it’s of a similar color, even if it isn’t exactly the right shade.

I find it interesting, that when Chidi goes up to draw the picture, Eleanor moves to his other side, so that she and Michael are separated by Chidi. But, when the magical pony starts to go a little crazy, she moves back over to Michael’s side.

OK, when Michael suggests that, instead of doing an all night brainstorming session, they should relax... it flew by me the first time. But the second go around, I realize exactly what he’s doing. He sees that Eleanor is becoming a lot like he was in the first version of the neighborhood — acting crazy, neurotic, and stressed about the situation. So he recommends that they do what she what recommended he do in 1.06, which is to relax so they don’t burn out. If he had suggested karaoke, it would’ve been more obvious to us. So I think they wanted to throw us off by having him suggest something very out of character, like a slumber party.

Also, Michael, why would you want to have a slumber party? Also, isn’t that basically what an all-night brainstorming session is?

When Glenn accuses Michael of being an imposter, instead of looking at the others, Eleanor looks at Michael. Makes sense, but then, rather than staring at Glenn in disbelief or anger, Michael looks at Eleanor bc she’s looking at him.

I have to admit, that when they were having their little confrontation in Mindy‘s house, when they first bring Glenn in, the fact that Michael called Eleanor “Shellstrop” during their one-on-one was very weird. Made me wonder whether it really was him.

When Eleanor says she’s locking them in separate rooms, Michael actually winks at her. Ted Danson can’t wink! Every time he’s supposed to wink, he just says the word “wink,” like in 2.08. That was another thing that threw me for a loop, making me wonder whether it was actually him the first time around.

Ted Danson also has such a great way of delivering the same line with two completely different emotions. He did it in 2.05. And he does it again here. Michael is only really upset once it looks like Eleanor doesn’t believe him at all anymore. Seeing her look at him with distrust is the worst punishment for him.

Also, a correction to my earlier statement: Michael’s bowtie doesn’t really match Eleanor’s sweater. His bowtie is a straight-up blue, while her sweater is more of a dark teal. Still, there were a few scenes where the lighting was off enough that it looked very similar in color.

I love seeing Michael trying to convince Eleanor to trust him, and Eleanor becoming upset that Michael lied to her. The only reason that they’re both so upset over the situation, is because they both care about each other so much. And Eleanor has clearly put a lot of trust in Michael over the months.

As a sidenote, I should’ve picked up on the fact that Janet was a fake earlier in the episode. When the humans are all stressed out and worried about whether Michael is real or not, Janet doesn’t seem to care. and we know Michael and Janet are very close, especially after all their time on earth. If Michael were an imposter, or even suspected of being an imposter, she would definitely care.

OK, so the scene where Michael talks about being a fire demon: Michael seems to look primarily at Eleanor throughout the entire scene. He looks at Tahani and Jason occasionally, especially right after either of them talks or asks a question, but 80% of his eye contact is with Eleanor. He addresses her at least twice by name during the scene. Yes, I’m sure he would care if Tahani and Jason saw his real form, but he cares the most about whether Eleanor sees it and no longer looks at him the same way. Once again, it’s her feelings that matter the most to him. Also the way that Eleanor talks to him about taking off the suit, her comments sound like the type of thing she would say as a sexual innuendo. She told Chidi to “show me what you’re working with” in reference to his chalkboard in 1.05. And she says the exact same phrase again here.

Also, I love how authoritatively Michael says that he’s not going to take off his skin suit. I wonder whether he did that on purpose, so that Eleanor would find him reassuring. LOL

When he says, “There’s so much juice” the captions both when it aired on TV last night and on the rewatch via the NBC app show it as “There’s so much juice, El.” It’s hard to hear whether he says her full name or shortens it, but him abbreviating it is another weird thing I don’t think he’s ever done before. First he calls her “Shellstrop” and now he calls her “El.”

Alright, so to properly investigate this, I turned my volume really high, and really paid attention to his lip movements. He definitely says her full name. The “El” syllable is louder than the others, but he definitely says her full name. So I find it very bizarre that the captions abbreviate it when he doesn’t. 🤷‍♀️

Anyway, back to the show:

When Eleanor says that it’s convenient that Michael doesn’t want to take off his demon skin suit because he’s shy, she gives him a look up and down! And of course, Michael explains the real reason he doesn’t want his friends to see his true form, is because he doesn’t want them to look at him any differently than they do right now. Even though he’s a demon, and they know he’s a demon, he has always appeared as a human to them. So he doesn’t want them to see him any differently than as a human-like demon — than as their friend. If he appears human, it’s easier for them to believe he’s on their side, but if they were to see his true form, they would probably feel differently. Or at least that’s what he believes.

Also, I just want to point out, that when he does his little speech about how he doesn’t want his friends to look at him any differently, he looks directly at Eleanor. About 95% of that speech, he is making eye contact with her.

So, after Glenn blows up, Michael is happy, because he gets to be with his friends uninterrupted again. Eleanor points out that she still doesn’t have reason to trust him, either because he lied to her or because he’s an imposter. That is another scene in which he mostly focuses his attention on Eleanor. And he is definitely very upset based on his facial expression whenever she says that she can’t trust him.

So the scene where Eleanor goes to talk to Chidi reminds me of two important hellstrop convos from earlier seasons, when Michael was the Architect and she was the subject. The first, when she tells Chidi she recognizes his mood, reminds me of when she told Michael in 2.05 that she recognized what he was doing bc he was “pulling an Eleanor.” And then when she talks about encountering human stuff, she sounds a lot like Michael talking to her about the human stuff he likes (frozen yogurt and “Friends” the TV show) in 1.06. Granted, she doesn’t remember either of those memories, so they’re really more for the audience. The latter example, especially, shows us once again that there’s a separation between Eleanor and Chidi, as she’s the “architect” and he’s a human. To Eleanor, Chidi is a subject in her experiment (along with being an ex); and to Chidi, Eleanor is some kind of angelic / divine authority figure. So, yeah, separation.

OK, so the scene where Michael offers to blow himself up:

When Eleanor says that they’ll restart the experiment, but a part of her is always going to wonder whether that’s actually Michael any time something goes wrong...

(And as an aside, why can’t Eleanor just ask him something only Real!Michael would know... like something from their time on Earth with the Soul Squad. Does she really expect Vicky or Shawn would know everything that Michael would? She can’t ask him about the reboots, bc she doesn’t remember most of them, but why not ask him about that time they went to find her mom, or when they were in the diner and he poured ice tea on her, etc.? OR why not ask about the reboot where he asked her questions in his office? None of the other demons were there, so only she and Michael would know about it. Anyway... it doesn’t really matter bc it lead to like the best callback ever.)

So, Michael, after pondering thoughtfully on Eleanor’s remarks about not being able to trust him, offers to blow himself up. 😭

Again, 95% of his dialogue and eye contact is directed at her.

And I like how he can admit that Chidi being a subject is objectively what’s best for the experiment and, thus, humanity. He’s willing to blow himself up so that they don’t have to restart everything. (And a small part of the hellstrop fan in me wonders whether he’d rather blow himself up than see Eleanor and Chidi together again. But I don’t think Michael is quite that petty or jealous.)

And of course, WE get the call back to 1.07 with “Take it sleazy,” but they don’t. 😭

So when they’re talking to Bad Janet and Michael throws down the explode-y thing, there’s a jump cut to Eleanor holding Michaels arm. Makes me wonder whether there was a line or something there that they cut for time, where she reassured him or something.

And then, when Eleanor — not remembering the portal scene or Team Cockroach — says that offering to sacrifice himself up to help a bunch of cockroaches (AKA, his friends) is the about most Michael thing he could do.

😭😭😭

I’m dead, you guys.

And he does give her a look like “Oh, maybe she remembers” when she says the cockroach thing. Maybe it is a latent memory thing, like another M/E fan pointed out.

And just when I thought we’d be done with this hellstrop read...

They’re on the platform and Michael and Eleanor are talking, and he says all they can do is try (their best), which echos Eleanor’s words to the Soul Squad in 3.04. He’s always been paying attention to her. He’s so in awe of her and her raw humanity. 😍

P.S. I really hope that Michael and Jason brought that explode-y thing with them, because it’d probably come in handy with all the demons in TBP.

#hellstrop #eleanor shellstrop #eleanor x michael #michael x eleanor #michael the architect #michael the good place #the good place spoilers #the good place #nbc the good place

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takamakisu · 5 years

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『♥🖤Akira X Ann: Why I Support It.🖤♥』

In honor of the upcoming ShuAnn week, I have decided to contribute by writing a long post about why I love these dorks so much. I haven't seen a meta for them yet, so I figured I'd try my hand at it. (Which will be updated and expanded as I find more content) Without further ado, let us begin! Tagging the wonderful @shuann-week for this one.

1. The first encounter.

In media, the first interaction that two characters have with one another, regardless of relationship; lays the groundwork for said relationship and therefore is absolutely vital. When Akira first meets Ann, he's casually texting away on his phone and not really paying attention to much, but when she walks by he looks up. Already his curiosity is piqued, as is the player's; and then when she removes her hood, even then we don't get to see her face. But we DO see Akira's reaction, and he seems absolutely dumbstruck.

This is when things get interesting. Ann takes a few moments and sort of surveys her surroundings, and then she senses Akira's eyes and turns to him. And he doesn't look away, or get flustered; Akira keeps looking at her with that flabbergasted expression. He doesn't even blink. He is so taken aback by her he can't even greet her, and Ann just smiles at him and looks away- but even then, he doesn't break his gaze, and he never does until she actually leaves: Ann leaves him absolutely spellbound. And the music that plays during this encounter is exclusive to this encounter and this encounter alone. It never plays before this scene, nor does it ever play again after. There are heavy romantic undertones in this encounter, from the body language to the background music, and only Ann receives this treatment. It screams "attraction at first sight", and now with the groundwork laid, the relationship can begin to blossom.

This is very important. Even before we get to see Ann's face, we already know from Akira's viewpoint that she must be pretty, at least in his eyes. And when we finally do get to see her face, she is indeed beautiful.

2. Her closeness to him.

First off, she's with you from essentially the beginning of the game, so you get a lot of time to get to know her and become closer to her. Ann is the third member to join your party and the first female member and therefore the first available romance option as well! (That's pretty big.) She's also your classmate, so you get to see her literally every day and there's a sense of familiarity that is built on from the beginning.

Ann was the first to see Akira for who he truly was, and she looked past the rumors of him and got to know him for herself. Because she understands being an outsider and being mistreated, there's a level of understanding Ann has with you that the other girls simply do not. That's not to say they're bad, but Ann just connects better with the protagonist on that level. Let it also be remembered that before she met Akira, and by association the rest of the Phantom Thieves; Ann didn't have any friends, besides Shiho. Due to being a foreigner (and a very pretty one, at that) and the rumors surrounding her with Kamoshida, no one talks to her. While having a two-parent household, they are rarely home; and so Ann's lonely as well as bullied. Akira saving her from Kamoshida and then giving his genuine friendship then allows her to open up and be vulnerable to other people and that's very healthy.

Another interesting interaction is during the Kamoshida arc, Makoto will ask you in essence what's the relationship between you and Ann, if there's something between you. If you say "there's nothing", her reply is "Didn't seem that way yesterday" and if you tell her you're classmates she'll say "But do friends get that close?"

3. How she falls for him.

For these reasons, I support these two. Lemme know in the comments what won you over to this pairing and any other moments that get your heart warm and fuzzy!

In addition, Ann gets an on-screen kiss with the protagonist; a luxury only two other Persona girls have received (from 3-5, Maki kisses Naoya in P1): Margaret and Marie from Persona 4. The fact that Ann gets an explicit kiss (and possibly an implicit one as well because in Rank 9 her reaction to Joker hugging her hints he MIGHT have kissed her too) screams that while she's not 'canon' (nobody is) it sure does seem Atlus is sneakily pushing her towards Joker. They even match costumes in the dancing games! Oh yes, and Ann doesn't go home on Valentine's Day + Sojiro literally just "ayyyy" when she walks in- XD

Her Confidant has the protagonist and Ann getting closer as friends and also helping Shiho recover and you get to be a part of a few of Ann's interpersonal relationships. Shiho, as stated before, was Ann's closest and only friend before she met the player; and so earning her trust and helping her heal is significant. Suzui also hints to the player Ann seems to be attracted to them, talking about how her best friend talks highly of you and then the blonde gets flustered.

Her confession shot me through the heart. With Ann you don't have to increase your Knowledge or your Guts; just Kindness. To her, it doesn't matter if you get the best grades in the class or how brave you are, she just wants a friend who'll be there for her when she needs them, and that's what Ann falls for in the protagonist: his genuineness and his willingness to stick by her side. She falls in love with you for who you are and it feels the most natural and realistic. Something that's also very interesting about Ann's rank 9 event in Japanese is instead of saying “I guess we’re more than friends now...” she actually says, “I just realized it,” referring to her feelings for him (when she said “I love you”) in the original dialogue. And this is so so important. This hints at a love that developed slowly over a friendship and Ann wasn't even really aware it was there at first, until the only friend she'd had moved away and she felt alone and abandoned again. Akira being her pillar in that moment was the paradigm shift from platonic feelings to romantic ones and that is absolutely beautiful. But she ALREADY loved him, did you catch it? She just realized and became aware of it in that situation. Ann's been in love with the protagonist for who knows how long before she even confesses. And at the end of her confidant she calls you her light.. that just speaks volumes to me. The protagonist basically saved her, and because of that she wants to become stronger and encourage other people as well. It's beautiful.

5. Other characters reactions to them.

There's a specific scene where the protagonist is in the bathhouse with Ryuji and Yusuke, and Ryuji will ask you what you think of Ann. If you admit you think she's pretty, he gets extremely excited ("Ooh, you straight up said it!")

Another very interesting thing that's different in the original language is when Akira gets home from interrogation. In English, Ann just chirps "Hey there!" No big deal, right? But in Japanese, she says, “okaeri”, which means “welcome home”. This greeting is said amongst family or couples in Japan, hinting a deeper level of closeness than the translation.

(It's also something of note that when Ann got locked out of her room in Hawaii she went to Akira's room first. )

Additionally, after the school festival; Ann will talk to you about how she thinks about your future together! And if you tell her in another instance that you'd like to get married, she gets extremely excited whereas some of the other romance options become all flustered and blushy; a cute and interesting contrast.

A Mementos conversation also has Ann absentmindedly talking about how coffee goes well with sweets, to which Ryuji immediately replies 'Joker always smells like coffee, doesn't he?'

Now, I may be looking too deeply into this, but this could possibly be Ryuji "hint hint-ing" he thinks Akira and Ann are a good pair for each other. Ryuji also flat out refuses to date Ann during a scene in the gym when she offers to let him take her out. I don't know about you, but if I had a crush on somebody and they offered to let me go out with them, I don't think I'd turn it down as quickly and explicitly as Ryuji did (He tells her 'hell no, quit acting like you're some sexy anime character'). Personally I think Ryuji supports Ann with Akira and so he tries to gently nudge her over like "Okay, this guy? He's a good fit for you." Sakamoto's a great friend for Ann but I personally believe he's better as just that: a friend.

4. Their personalities blend well.

Ann's bubbly personality contrasts wonderfully with the protagonist's more introverted, reserved side. They're sort of like Robin and Starfire, just to less extremes. Ann is very pleasant and tender and she's got a big heart and it shows; consistently. She's a great friend to Ryuji and Shiho and big sister to Futaba, while at the same time tolerating nonsense from absolutely no one, regardless of status. I now want to cast attention to Meyer-Brigg's personality types. These are headcanons, but after analyzing Akira and Ann's characters Joker seems to be an ISTJ, while Panther is an ENFP. These are abbreviations for Introversion, Sensing, Thinking, Judging (ISTJ) and Extroversion, Intuition, Feeling, Percieving (ENFP) respectfully. Ann, at her core; is the heart of the Phantom Thieves honestly. She is very sensitive to others' emotions and feelings, and very emotionally intelligent. Being an extrovert, Ann also needs interaction and validation from other people: it energizes her and fufills her. And, in return she's a caregiver; Ann wants to support others and help them become stronger. She's a wonderful sister figure and just a comforter in general, and very amiable and chirpy. Contrast that with Akira, who makes decisions based on facts and logic rather than feelings and intuition (although in the Metaverse he seems to throw caution to the wind, quite frankly) and analyzes situations from a logical rather than emotional angle; (and there are exceptions to this like helping the woman Shido was assaulting and chasing Ann down to talk to her) and they seem on completely opposite ends of the spectrum. However, their differing personalities balance one another. While Akira keeps Ann grounded logically, she keeps him grounded emotionally and the bounce off is extremely healthy.

In Yusuke's Confidant, saying Ann is the definition of beauty nets the most points.

Atlus seems to like putting these two together as well, from giving them matching songs and outfits in the dancing games to putting them together in advertisements. It's pretty cute and though it's subtle, it's a nice little nod.

#✨; otp; you are my light (akirann)#shuann week

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storywriting · 4 years

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Anemone, An Enemy, Anemone, An Enemy Anemone, Anne, Nemo, and Another Me

[ So.......Anemone huh? Here’s some loose thoughts after a first viewing, including my takes of H1-Evo #1 and how my opinion has evolved now that this film is in the mix. I’ve seen it through with the JP audio exactly one time and I do wonder if my opinion on this film will change at all on a second viewing or when I get around to the dub. It’s less about plot details and more about review and general discussion type stuff, doesn’t delve heavy into theorizing just yet. That’s a trip for a different post. Cut because long as fuck even though literally nobody asked. ]

Hi Evolution #1, starring our main man Renton “Only a Miniscule Few Braincells Above Himbo” Thurston, hit me in weird ways which I think is true for most everybody I’ve seen talking about it. Part of my problem with it honestly was that I came into things with the misconception that Hi-Evolution would be a reboot of sorts. A somewhat faithful retelling of the original story with new insight into things we didn’t get to see much of. I don’t know why this is the impression I had other than screencaps and stuff, but if you only watch the first Hi Evo movie you definitely could continue to think that once it’s over. When I thought it would be an encapsulation of the original series, I had intended to use the film to introduce @himbologythestudyofhimbo to the story. She has long known it to be one one of my most favorite anime franchises and I thought a film would be a good way to gauge whether she might find it interesting enough to hit 50 episodes with me.

Ha. Haha. That didn’t work.

I hadn’t seen Hi-Evo when I was like “hey wanna watch this?” so that’s my own fault. I had seen screenshots and thought it looked gorgeous, but that was about it. I was imagining something akin to the Berserk trilogy of movies, mostly faithful to the original story with some new tidbits of information thrown in for old fans.

And again, you could be forgiven for seeing the first Hi-Evo movie and still thinking that’s what you’re in for. It is mostly compliant to the original canon and the parts that aren’t compliant are pretty wishy washy about saying so. Unfortunately what I found out really quickly is that that it’s not at all a good entry point for new fans, and that really disappointed me. I’ve been hoping for years for something to get more young blood in this fandom, BUT ANYWAY--

The whole play forward/play back thing really hinders the flow of the film, as much as I understand the point of it, especially with the Anemone film for more context. Skipping around the timeline harms new viewers in particular. It’s challenging to understand the timeline and flow of events because everything is presented out of order and without context. Sure, the first Hi-Evolution covers a ton of major story beats surrounding Renton’s personal development, but the non-chronological presentation coupled with the utter lack of lead up to key moments from the original series robs this movie of carrying any emotional weight. Who is Renton? What’s the deal with him and wheelchair girl? Are these people his parents or not? Why do we care about this Eureka girl who has been on screen in Renton’s presence for a cumulative 30 seconds. Wait a minute what’s this ship? Where did he leave from again? I thought he had a home and parents? Who are these people and why do I care?

Put bluntly this movie sucks if you can’t answer these questions going in, and even if you can you may feel a bit cheated by it. As much as I feel the need to talk about how the film is inaccessible for new fans, these films clearly are not for new fans. They function to remind you of events of the original story and then play off of those events with the new content. Even as an established fan, Hi-Evo #1 feels very watered down on its own, but it’s not on its own anymore is it? So let’s finally talk about Anemone.

What becomes clear about these movies is that they are not divided by chronology, but by character. The first movie was about Renton which is why we saw so so little of everybody else even when that robbed the story of needed context and worked to the story’s detriment. I’m telling myself the reason titular character Eureka was not on screen demonstrating her relationship to the world and to Renton despite it most likely being a central element is because they shoved her scenes into Hi-Evolution 3: Eureka, which will not be released for another year or so.

I do feel a bit more forgiving toward these movies now that I understand the format they’re going for, but I think most of my previous criticisms still stand despite that. The character focused presentation may be a deliberate creative decision, but that doesn’t make it an ideal storytelling mechanism. THAT SAID, while a character centric format really harms well developed characters like Renton, it does loads and loads of good for a character like Anemone whose screen time was always hindered by her role as accessory to Renton and Eureka’s story. We don’t get that constant stream of unfiltered perspective from her or really any secondary character, so it’s very interesting to see the world filtered purely through her eyes. I honestly found myself significantly more interested in all the new Anemone content than I ever could have been over watered-down, abbreviated rehashing of Renton’s character arc. I’m much more excited for the last film than I was with just the context of the first Hi-Evolution movie.

Speaking of which, very early on in the Anemone film, the viewer is clued into the fact that this is most certainly AU content, something that was less clear about the first movie. Eureka Seven as a franchise has really been in the 24/7 AU zone for like 10 years, which I think is cool but I also find a little disappointing. I like AU content well enough, but I also think they had a rich world already in the original series and I feel like there are a few more rich veins to explore further in the original world without necessarily needing to wrap it up in a convoluted alternate universe. Not to say I’m against like the AU stuff or anything, I’m okay with it existing, I just want a little more variety in the stuff that’s coming out. Keep up with the AU stuff if you guys wanna but I wouldn’t say no to more backstory and lore, you know? If they’re gonna pander to old fans instead of attracting new ones, they may as well hit me where it hurts. But I digress. Hi Evolution#2: Anemone’s AUness is pretty central to the story it wants to tell, so it has my full attention there.

Alternate universe characterization is something I’ve had both complaints and praise for in the past, and I’m happy to say that in the case of Anemone I have mostly praise. It’s nice to get a glimpse of an Anemone who isn’t like....as unhinged as her original incarnation. She’s well adjusted comparably, which makes her a decently reliable narrator. While she loses some of the edge that people are drawn to about her, she maintains most of the underlying personality traits you would expect of even the earliest incarnation of Anemone. This is an Anemone who had the opportunity to be socialized. You can relate to her and appreciate her feelings more easily than the Anemone viewers are most familiar with. This is an Anemone with hardships, but she hasn’t been pushed to the same extremes as her PoP counterpart. Likely due to the pretty direct narration and background, there’s also a lot more substance to her than PFoR Anemone in my opinion. It’s not really a chore to like her and take interest in her. She feels very natural in most instances. She’s a real breath of fresh air for fans who love Anemone and wanted to see her living with a healthier mindset and some better outcomes. Good on you, Anemone. Four for you, Anemone.

Most of the other characters--Dominic, the scientists, background people, Anemone’s father, new crew members, etc--are all about what you’d expect from either their previous incarnations or the archetypes they’re filling. None of the new characters or secondary characters are particularly developed, but I don’t really consider that a huge fault of it. I wouldn’t expect a 2 hour movie to meander the way a 50 episode anime can, but in times like this when I am with very few developed characters, I am forcefully reminded of what an asset and a strength the original’s depth and breadth of character writing is.

And then there’s Eureka. I expect her to be polarizing in the reviews, assuming at least some people didn’t straight up hate her in it. Everybody may have just hated it, idk.

As I said earlier alternate universe characterization is something I’ve had both complaints and praise for in the past, often both at the same time. What often comes about is characterization that I don’t necessarily like, but because the character has lived a different life I can’t really say that characterization is wrong. I feel that pull in this film quite a bit. Wrathful Eureka is boring to me. Conceptually, it just is. But does that make it bad?

Man, idk, I guess not. I didn’t like it, but I’ll defend it to a degree. In the original story Eureka was born into violence and conditioned to perpetuate violence early in life. The original Eureka Seven has a dense messaging about propaganda and information and the ways in which society conditions people of all kinds. Eureka is a docile character in the original but more and more as we learn about her, we realize that this tendency toward gentleness isn’t just a cutesy character trait of hers. It’s a choice that she’s making on a daily basis, even when more forceful options would be easier or make more sense to her. It’s a choice that has come about from a collection of experiences. Eureka becomes pacifistic because she develops her own ideals about the world. She comes to conclusions about what things make her a good or bad person and she makes the decision to be the person she wants to be. There’s weight to it. That’s something that always really drawn me to her as a character. It’s very easy to blow up in the face of something horrible. It’s much harder to keep a cool head and exercise mercy. I just don’t find the Eureka of this world all that compelling.

That said, I don’t necessarily think this read of her is wrong or even impossible. In fact, I think if this read had 50 episodes of development and justification behind it, I might even come to appreciate it. Certainly if anything could drive her to this, it would be losing Renton, so it’s not exactly out of left field for the character given the circumstances she’s in. I feel somewhat similarly about PFoR Eureka. Only somewhat. Eureka in general is a character who would probably be much more in touch with her anger if she had been raised any other way than she was. Even in the original series Eureka has a passive aggressive streak. She’s probably very fortunate that more productive methods of expressing her feelings were accessible to her before any natural tendency toward aggression was. Angrier more volatile reads of Eureka aren’t wrong or even uninteresting necessarily, but to me a lot of her charm is wrapped up in the reasons she works so hard not to be that type of character.

I also think that subversion and role reversal can be an interesting in AU stuff, so I don’t really fault them for using it here. In contrast to our typical unhinged Anemone, Eureka gets to be the one teetering on the edge so that Anemone can shine and show a little more humanity than she typically gets to. I think that’s honestly okay. I want to see Anemone have her day to be the hero. That’s something I’m okay with sacrificing a little of my preferred characterization for. I see a lot of value in a portrayal that allowed Eureka and Anemone to bond and more directly learn together. I think a lot of fans, myself included, wonder about a reality where Eureka and Anemone could have been sources of support for one another rather than pitted against one another.

That isn’t to say that I’m automatically okay with chopping up the writing in arbitrary ways, though. The thing about the reversals and subversions in Hi-Evo #2 is that they’re consistent. Compare to something like Pocketful of Rainbows and you’ll see what I mean. In that movie Renton, for some unclear reason, is the one who can understand Nirvash even though that writing decision doesn’t really serve the story in any meaningful way because Eureka is still the one who isn’t human and still is wanted by the military for....being whatever unclear thing she is in that film. Renton is no longer childish and is in fact the patient one in the story while Eureka is the one with a stubborn attitude and defined temper. Renton is made out to be more of a coward so that he has something to grow from, except for all the many many times he isn’t cowardly pretty much immediately, and the only flimsy defense of this concept that is that he was afraid of adults with guns when he was a literal child. Meanwhile, Eureka in this film is a much more brash character than we’re used to. Unlike Original Eureka, this one doesn’t want to be led or take orders anymore. She’s a loose canon who takes matters into her own hands except for all the times she cries for Renton to save her both before and after she’s teetering on her own Independence Event Horizon. There are a lot of creative decisions in that film that just plain don’t make sense to me because the writing doesn’t commit to them at all and tends to flounder around between them. I could barely make it through that film because I felt like it was contradicting itself every 5 minutes. It feels less like a new exploration of old characters and more like a bunch of ideas the writing team couldn’t agree on and slapped together anyway. If it wasn’t unclear, I don’t like Pocketful of Rainbows very much.

By contrast, any subversions or reversals in Hi-Evolution 2 fell earned enough. The writing choices are for the most part played straight and well justified. The choices are interesting. Unlike literally anything about the lore of Pocketful of Rainbows, I want to know more about Hi-Evolution. I want to understand what Anemone’s mission is and about Silver Box. I want to know why Dewey is so different from the Dewey I know. As much as I complained about Eureka’s characterization, the portrayal is decently justified by the writing. Eureka believes she killed Renton and seems to be privy to other realities where she turned out much happier. She has good enough reasons to be bitter in this iteration.

This film has honestly made me way more forgiving of Hi-Evo #1 and given me a lot of reason to take interest in what the last film might be. I’m going to reserve any big overarching judgement until that comes out in 6000 years, but I’m getting the sense that it might be New Order adjacent, in that Renton and Eureka will have to find one another and possibly revisit places that will be nostalgic for fans.I wouldn’t complain if this becomes the flagship verse wherein Eureka and Anemone form a meaningful friendship because they’ve been denied that opportunity in basically every other telling that exists so far.

Also big thank god the last film will be hand drawn because, I hate to be that guy but the GC looked like shitgarbage. I’ve become very forgiving of CG and Mocap recently but I just really disliked it in this film. Animation is a medium I know a lot about, I know compositing is a tricky job, I respect the work put into it, but...oof. I do wonder if that was a stylistic choice or more of an “oh shit the budget is disappearing” choice.

My final word on Eureka Seven Hi Evolution #2 is that....I didn’t hate it. I didn’t love it either but I had a nice enough time watching it. I’m realizing I’m having trouble landing in one particular spot on Hi Evolution #2 because I expect the next film will effect how I judge this one in the same way that this film has affected how I judged the first one. If you’re an Eureka Seven fan who is on the fence about the Hi-Evolution trilogy, I’d say give it a watch. You’ll still love your favorite characters even if they’re a little different than you’d hoped. If you’re still feeling iffy maybe wait a year until the last one comes out and binge them all at once. I suspect the experience might be improved that way. Definitely don’t go in expecting the story you already know, though. Doing that set me up for failure here.

Honorable mention for the fansubber who kept translating 勘 as very rude words describing the penis for some reason? That really enhanced my experience.

#;Eureka Seven Commentary #long post #please tumblr mobile load the cut don't hurt these people #∘⡊ ☾ ˚⊹To Be Continued⊹ — 「 OOC 」#;Hi Evolution Commentary #Hi Evolution Spoilers

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artboitrash · 4 years

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His Bloody Rose (Stefano Valentini fanfiction) Chapter 17 - Fading Memories

-Rose's P.O.V.-

The clinking of my favorite mug filled the silent, small kitchen. The sound of the spoon stirring the tea I had stood watching for the past five minutes being what filled my mind. I tried to simply drown out my thoughts. It wasn't simple, since nothing was helping to stop me thinking.

I picked up the mug, softly sipping at the hot tea. It burned my tongue, and I was grateful to just feel something.

It had been weeks since Stefano's work had been brought down.

NO, no. I don't want to think about it. I have to stop thinking about it.

Did I chase him off??

Stop it.

My phone started to buzz. I jumped, reaching for it instantly. I hoped it was a phonecall, I begged it to be Stefano calling me.

It was my timer. I guess I had accidentally restarted it after turning it off before. I choked back tears, like I always did each time I get my hopes up. I always knew it wasn't him, but... I still held out hope.

I slipped my hand over my stomach, and across my slightly larger hips. Did he leave because I started gaining weight? I didn't think it was showing that much.

I shook my head, mentally counting the days again since he had gone. Replaying the last time I saw him. The Sunday after Ryan had tried to kill me, he dropped me off in the afternoon. He walked me up to my apartment, leaving me with a kiss, a smile, and a wave.

"Next time my gallery is shown, would you mind being my plus one again?" he asked with a chuckle.

"Of course not."

He laughed, kissed me on my forehead, and pulled my front door closed for me while waving a little bit at me.

And then he was gone. I watched his car drive out of the apartment complex, saw it disappear around the corner with a smile across my face. I was happy how attached he seemed to grow to me. It felt like we were really a couple, and even if he was only playing the part, it made me feel happy that he was willing to go as far as saving my life.

"Agh!" I slammed my mug down on the counter. I didn't realized I had frozen, reliving the last time I had seen him.

I rubbed my hand, feeling the heat pulse through my hand painfully.

Stefano's gallery stayed up for a month and a half, but the opening night was never rescheduled, and my painting teacher asked me several times if I knew where he had gone. Apparently, she couldn't get a hold of him either, and he wasn't coming to pick up his work from the arts department.

Now a new artist is in his place, and Stefano's work sat in the back room, waiting until it was claimed. The gallery head always insisted on keeping unclaimed work of the gallery artists if they forgot some of their work.

Two months and a week. That's how long it's been. Sixty-seven days. Daily life has kept me from realizing how long it really has been.

Ryan has since plead guilty and been sentenced for his attempted murder and assault. I didn't have to testify against him, and didn't have to relive that night.

My phone pinged, and I opened it since it was still in my hand.

Message from my contact titled Therapist; "Good afternoon! How are you feeling?"

I typed back "Not feeling the best. I can't stop thinking about my boyfrie" and I backspaced several letters. "I can't stop thinking about my friend that went missing."

"Have you called and asked about how his case is going again?"

I frowned. I had called police chief Phi the other day, and since I knew him from when he talked to my class a few months ago.

"Yea, they said there isn't a case again. They said he isn't missing and aren't continuing to look into it."

"I see. Are you not doing too well since they left?"

"Yeah... Maybe... I don't know. I loved him." I hesitated after I hit the send button. "I still do love him. I keep talking like he's in the past tense, but even if we were only together for a few weeks, I still love him though."

"Maybe that's a sign that you have unresolved thought processes. Do you want to talk about it tomorrow? Our appointment is Sunday, right? You've been having a hard time opening up about your friend."

I bit my lip, remembering the appointment I had scheduled. "I don't know. I mean it was because he disappeared that I started going to you. And yeah, tomorrow is our appointment, which is Sunday."

"We'll see how you feel about it tomorrow, okay? For now, try to enjoy your spring break."

"Thank you. You too."

I hit the back button, and looked over my texts again. The only ones that I had available were from my therapist, from Stefano, from Carolinn, and some various students from other classes.

I clicked on my text message exchange with Stefano for the hundredth time since I had last seen him. The last text message he sent me, replied days after I sent him one, appeared in front of me.

Me; "How are you doing? Have you talked to Carolinn?"

Stefano's reply read "No, srry. I gtg, blla. Please dnt wrry nymore."

It didn't look like his way of typing. He had always used full words and sentences. He had better punctuation than me, and I've had people ask me why I bother typing in full sentences compared to some people. And he never, ever abbreviated.

But my efforts to find him, to file a missing person report, speaking to police, and asking around weren't helping at all. He was gone, just nowhere. As though he never existed.

My mind went to some of the stories I had read. I wondered, as astronomical as it was, if he had been taken or killed by someone. After what I had seen him do to Ryan, and some stories about how he had learned to efficiently use knives and fencing, I couldn't help but think he wouldn't be someone who was easy to kill.

Sometimes I wondered if he was even real. I would wake up from dreams that felt too real of him holding me, loving me. I would sit up once I woke, wondering if he had ever been in my life.

I sipped at my tea some more. It was a more bearable temperature now, and I set my phone down on the counter. I picked up my mug again, ignoring the glazed feeling of my tongue and the small amount of pain still coursing through my hand. I began to drink from my tea, and tried drowning my thoughts out again.

"Thank you..." I said quietly. I stood up from my seat, wiping away my tears.

"Of course. I think we made some progress today." said my therapist. She shook her head, small strands of black hair dancing around her face.

I sighed. "I didn't expect that to get to me too much. I've been bottling it up so much, I... I don't know."

"That's alright. I'm a therapist, so I see it plenty, hun."

I nodded. I cleared my throat, hearing her next client open the door as they did at the end of each of our sessions. I almost turned around, but I felt I didn't need to.

The rain pounded against the window, and I didn't want to think about trying to get home in this weather. While I love the cold spring rains, it isn't fun to make my way through when I have to walk a long ways.

"Have you been drawing more?" she asked, for some reason changing the subject.

"Well, no, not lately."

"Well, you should, since you're an artist." She crossed her arms as she thought, almost in a playful manner. "You're very creative. You're an intelligent girl, and we really need more people in our world like that."

I laughed quietly, turning to leave. "Well, I guess you're lucky I'm here, then, so I can let my creativity into this world."

I looked up, staring at the man standing in the doorway. I gasped, it wasn't the man that usually came in. This man had slicked back hair, a black suit and tie, sunglasses, and an earpiece.

I stumbled backwards as he stood in the doorway, like a secret service agent or a guard blocking my only means of escape.

"I'm afraid that's not what I meant." said the therapist behind me. "Your creativity isn't being noticed in this world and you aren't making anything presently. We do need people like you, and I am sorry that you're going to need to become used to a new life."

I felt a sharp pain in my neck. I yelped, jumping back away from my therapist. She was holding something that looked like a gun, or a syringe, I couldn't quite tell. I grasped at my neck, breathing heavily and beginning to stumble backwards, losing feeling in my limbs and watching the world shift oddly around me.

"I've looked up your friend and found he was selected, too, to be an artist in the new world. If you remember who you are, then you will be able to reunite with him, eventually."

My voice is garbled as I fall to the floor, unable to support my weight. My head lulls to the side on the rug, my eyes closing and the world disappearing out from underneath me.

I don't hear the world, or feel it, as it slips away from me. I barely manage to lift my head, gasping aloud as I regained consciousness. I sat up, looking around.

My head hurts so bad. I grasp it tightly, feeling nauseous and overwhelmingly sick. I gasped out some more, reaching for my neck where it hurt slightly.

The nightmare slipped away from me, and I looked around the room. It was a white living room, a white plush rug under my feet, and a quiet breeze coming through the open window. I blinked, staring at the window, hearing some wind chimes swaying in the soft, late summer breezes.

I shook my head. It had all just been a bad dream. Everything is okay now.

I looked down at my ensemble, a short white summer dress fitting my form. I smiled quietly, smoothing out the wrinkles in it. I wondered when I had managed to fall asleep. I looked around some more, seeing my painting supplies where I had left them.

I smiled to myself, remembering again. I remembered gathering my supplies and setting them on glass coffee table. I had even started mixing colors, then lay down on the couch as I thought about the world.

I sighed quietly, picking up some brushes, listening to the tranquil summer breezes running through my house. I was happy, and the surroundings were perfect. I decided to stand, and felt a violent sense of vertigo. I gasped quietly, grabbing the edge of my couch to stabilize myself. I trembled quietly, remembering how I had fallen over in my nightmare.

I breathed, feeling the world under my feet, looking out the window again. I walked around my living room, feeling its familiarity coming back to me.

I found a piece of mail on my counter. I must have grabbed it and brought it in before I fell asleep. I picked it up and opened it, the black intricate design standing out against the white tile of the counter. I opened the letter, reading my initials as a greeting.

"Welcome, R.O.! We are so glad to have you here in Union! Please enjoy yourself as you adjust to your new life in town. The locals are known for being sweet and caring, so don't be too shy to mingle with them and get involved with the community. Make your way to the visitor center or the town hall if you have any questions or need help adjusting to your new life. Union; we're glad to have you here!"

It wasn't signed, and it wasn't dated.

I laughed quietly. I moved in only a week ago. I remember, I decided I needed a new life. I didn't have anything keeping me in Krimson, so I might as well go somewhere new. The dreary, tiring life was too fast-paced for me, so moving to a quiet, small town sounded wonderful.

So far, it was. I could remember moving in, setting my moving boxes on the floor and waving the taxi away. I could remember unpacking and putting everything away carefully, enjoying my new home that came already furnished.

I sighed to myself again, content again. I finally had my own house, and I could do as I wished. I had achieved my dream of becoming a stay-at-home artist.

Things were going well, for once in my life. I entered my kitchen, and clicked on my new stove top kettle. I pulled out a mug and some English breakfast tea. This was time for celebration. Hopefully, this new life in Union would be the best possible opportunity, a new and clean slate away from who I used to be.

#Stefano Valentini #The Evil Within 2 #stefano #the evil within stefano #tew #tew2 #tew2 Stefano #stefano valentini fanfiction #His Bloody Rose #Chapter 17 #Fading Memories

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sevenfactorial · 5 years

Text

How I Write Class Notes

First of all, I totally forgot that I said I’d do this and I’m really sorry about that.

So my note taking is specifically designed for upper-level math classes since that’s what I do the most but my notes for CS and many other classes still take a similar form, just with less things labeled theorems (also with more bulleted lists. I love bulleted lists but I use them way less in math notes than any other class). This also works for reading textbooks or papers independently. If you want info specifically for lower level math classes (high school up through calc 3), I can see what I can do too.

Here’s a very basic summary of what I think is most important for note taking

Feasible (ie simple and fast enough for you). You want to be able to keep up your system even at points where your class is going absurdly fast or when you’re exhausted/having trouble focusing/etc

Easy to skim. Just writing things down at all is good for retention but if you’re taking notes, you probably want to be able to read them later easily. So it needs to be easy to pick out key definitions/theorems/etc.

In that vein, include necessary assumptions even if it does feel repetitive.

Don’t cram things together. Allow for white space (again, so skimming is possible)

Label things. Major topics, definitions, theorems, key ideas especially. Also make it obvious that a proof or example is a proof/example.

All of it is together one way or another, whether that’s a digital file, paper in a folder/binder/etc, or a notebook. Keeping it together is extremely important to me.

A detailed description and more thoughts are under the cut.

I’m very basic about my notes and am not always fully consistent (I have an indentation problem which occasionally irritates me but I’ve decided it’s not worth it to obsess over), but I try to be and generally have a structure for my notes. If you were to flip through even my recent notebooks you’ll find deviations but that’s just how it goes.

I don’t actually have any of my old class notes with me right now so I wrote the following to give a sense of what my notes tend to actually look like. I wrote it on loose leaf but normally I take notes in a composite notebook. I find I consistently take 30-45 pages (1 page = front and back) per class per semester (I’ve also taken less) so I find the halfway point and do two classes per notebook to decrease number of notebooks I’m carrying around. If you have two semester long classes, account for that so that you don’t end up having alg I and II in different notebooks like I do.

(I typed more or less what I wrote afterwards but there’s really no way I’m recreating the formatting on a tumblr post)

First of all, this is a fair bit neater than my actual notes are. One of my best friends can barely read my normal handwriting at all and this is a bit neater than that. But if you can’t read it still, I don’t blame you at all so,

Date goes in the top right column at the beginning of every single class. It helps when you’re flipping through to find something later and also forces me to be somewhat aware of the date from day to day (further discussion on dates later)

I underline chapter/section titles/topics and include the the relevant textbook section numbers if given. This varies according to how my professors introduce topics generally.

Also I will generally just skip two or three lines between sections but will start at the top of a new page for chapters.

Some of my professors start off topics by giving an overview of what we’re looking at and motivations and the like so I just write “Idea:” and follow it up with whatever the professor is giving me.

Definitions: Typical in most subjects, I shorten it to “def” on the left of the margin line and start writing on the same line

I used to like starting out with the word itself but I often find it awkward in math notes so I just underline it in the statement (and highlight later)

Even though it’s a pain, I make a point of restating assumptions pretty constantly because it’s really useful if you’re studying from notes later.

Some typical things to follow up definitions include notation, warnings, and sometimes an intuitive way of thinking about it that may not completely capture all the details of the statement. I just do “thing:” for everything except the later, which I just write in quotes

Don’t forget, definitions are always if and only if statements. This is something you’re generally vaguely aware of from early on but perhaps don’t actually fully realize until some random point (I did that and heard of several others doing it too)

Theorems: The other mainstay of math. Honestly, I’m pretty sure everything’s ultimately a theorem, definition, axiom, or example

I give theorems a label of “THM” on the left. I can’t really explain why I write it in capital letters here but if I write theorem within a statement or example or something, I’ll use a lowercase “thm”

Like for definitions, make a point of rewriting assumptions.

Just overall, I try to keep my “paragraphs” short, one to three lines, before leaving the rest of the line blank and indenting the next one in order to increase whitespace

Lemmas/Corollaries/Other words which exist: I tend to put their label on the right side of the red margin line and indent their content more. I’m not super consistent with them, though make sure to indicate end of lemmas if your theorem goes “theorem - start proof - lemma - proof of lemma - finish proof of theorem”

If a diagram is useful, I tend to stick them to the right and write around it best I can. I’ll generally wait until after class to add color if it’s useful but occasionally, if class is going relatively slow or the colors REALLY matter then I’ll grab colored pens as quickly as possible

Also, my professors tend to not shy away from longer proofs and are not always the best of keeping track of time so that means we end class in the middle of proofs more often than ideal

I will just continue right along with the proof but shove the date at the right of the first line on the next day.

When we end at more reasonable places, I tend to skip a line, date on the right, resume on the next line

Unless I end within the last 8ish lines, then I’ll often start on the next page

Some things to consider that I didn’t write in the example:

I converted to writing in pen at the beginning of the summer (I’ve had a few lectures at the beginning of my REU but it’s not quite the same as class). Don’t be worried about scribbling out if you’re using pen. If you want prettier notes, rewrite them later. It’s a good way of studying anyways.

Also consider typing them up (tex for math) to have a searchable reference for later (studying/future classes).

I write up definitions and theorems before exams in colorful pen to study. Usually just on copy paper. The color is mostly just for fun since i’m probably stressed at the time.

I feel like a lot of math students do use pen exclusviely? idk. Use whatever you feel most comfortable with. When I used pencil, I did a combo of erasing and scribbling out, depending on the pace of the class.

If you are in the market for pens, G2 pens seem to have a bit of a following and honestly, I get it. They’re really good and within typical prices for disposable pens (you can order refills online and it makes them even cheaper). I also love papermate’s felt tips (they’re what I use for colored pens) but you can see them from the other side of the paper far more so I don’t find them appropriate for note taking.

Don’t be afraid to write notes in the margins (I usually use the left margin at an angle but like, wherever it fits works too). Often these are comments to myself.

Having a way to indicate things you want to look up later or exercises your professor suggested is good. I usually put a star on the red margin line at those points.

I try to keep a def/thm/proof on the same page but it’s really hard to always anticipate the length of things so I try but don’t worry about it too much.

Use shortenings when you can but make sure you remember them and that you’re not actually spending more time recalling the abbreviation than you would just writing it out

I find the most common abbreviations in math are first three letter of the word, first four letters, or first three and last letter

I don’t think flat out trying to use someone else’s note taking system is really the best. You’ll have to take more time than you probably have to remember the formatting. However, getting ideas from others is often useful. I don’t know why I started doing most things I do but I know that some of my habits came from seeing my friends or professors do it.

I think I mostly just use typical organization methods and nothing particularly interesting/novel but I hope it was still useful to some people.

#university tips #school tips #study tips #seven's study tips #university life #math class tips #also sorry that the cut didn't work idk technology is hard #long post

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