#how abut we make her wonder girl instead

[strunmah-mah]

Trial of the Amazons #2 // Lazarus Planet: Revenge of the Gods #2 // Amazons Attack #3

Free her DC!

[ngmn2002]

Ch 102: Random thoughts (part 1)

My mind is still not working too well, but I'll try my best... here we go... Ok, starting with...

How sweet!

Ugh... discovering you lack the knowledge abut some parts of your life is indeed frustrating. I surly feel sorry for him. Hang in there, young man. Though... I swear at times I feel thins manga doesn't only have a 'moon' trend... It also has a 'window' trend. Too many important shots with windows around? Taking 'some' examples of 'this boy' alone (cause there are ones with other characters):

I would like to remember there are other places he likes to be in while he is in such a mood...

Hmm... though things seem to be more serious now for him to go 'bumming around' Tsuchigomori's place, but the rooftop and moon thingy... feels like an option... hmm... connected to a specific person in some way, and the person is present in this issue, that is... if he remembers Tsukasa was around while he was fixing the clock... and -if he does- I wonder... if there he considers the option of going to ask Tsukasa about this thing, since Tsukasa was with him while fixing the clock and was there in general during that time, so maybe he remember all Amane doesn't and can remind him? Going back to the main point, maybe he wanted to be around if Nene wanted to see him for any reason instead of her looking for him around. How thoughtful of him, even while in such a condition!

Um... speaking of Tsukasa... isn't it a bit funny... right now I believe the twins are like this:

.........

Everything you say... please try to remember everything... then do tell her, alrightttt? In hope we won't get to see you leaving her in a painting or leaving her in the severance without intending to see her again or anything of that sort.

Ok, moving on! wow... didn't expect talking about that only thing will be this long...

Can't stop looking at the 2 things side by side. Ok indeed, Hanako... ghosts do have their worries. To ease your worries… should a thing like this work…?

Hmmm..... no... it's not the time or the place for such a thing to cheer you up, unfortunately...

You took the right decision! You're a truly cute, sweet, thoughtful, too understanding, soft and a gentle girl my dear! Keep it up! Amane is so lucky to have you! (maybe someday, when he is worried over a normal thing in life, you, his girlfriend now /or soon to be -officially-/, would cheer him up in that way)

Ugh... IDK whether to find this funny or to be angry at it... stop making fun of the girl and give her a break! you're asking for her help and that's how you call her... at least it's a good thing it doesn't sound like she feels down because of it... *sigh*

Ok, good to see he is doing well now, and nice to see him getting along well with Nene like they did in the hell of mirrors, shopping together while he surely makes it more fun... they share a nice 'firendship'. I wonder if during their whole time together, he was trying to hold back the need to *eat* something or even... her.

Ok, he is nice in here.

Mischief........ oh... no! no no!! no no no!!! I won't think about him! NO! moving on quickly! if we were talking about him (wizard Tsu)... he did it out of curiosity... and because it's fun. Looking more in depth into things, she reached her answer. I have to say, after  being involved with various of things for some time, she got to have a nice psychology knowledge... nice. Will count on you to get to that boy I have in mind and understand his psyche (yes, I'm talking about a boy whose name starts with 'T', but this could also include 'A' as well). That will be a great help for all of us I believe. Understanding the twins is a true challenge, I hope one day you'll overcome it! <3 Speaking of 'T', you got he must have been lonely in the red house and he is not out for revenge in the p.p arc. Good job! Keep it up!

She is so nice! Thoguh... the little girl's comment was a bit embarrassing (and funny)...

That was funny. I didn't laugh or say Nene looked… both cute and funny… like… girl? you didn't think about it before? you, the romantic girl who thinks too much about such things? you imagine them all the time and when they come true… oh… The diffrence between:

Imagination, and...

Reality. You're too cute Nene-chan. Don't change, dear.

And, oh! It looks like what she said in there is kinda true? since after the summer event she sort of became a couple with Hanako and they did in fact share a kiss. That's a true win. Hmm... speaking about that again... did she end up with a protection charm or not? The nature of that thing... what is it? Could it be given by other ways? Should it be 'intentional' to be given to someone? Like... if he kissed her and didn't intend for it to be a protection charm then it won't? can it be given by the other mysteries or only the 7th? The true question is... can it be given by Tsukasa? ........ if Amane can do it...I'm sure he can. oh... now I need to see how he would do that... ops... another little thought... can a protection charm be given by No.7 to his yorishiro? (maybe via a kiss to Tsukasa's forehead? or cheek! I think the cheek one works better? on his seal specifically?) 'it's the job of a mystery to give his yorishiro protection?' or can it be given by the yorishiro to No.7? oh...

On a fun note... would Hanako's reaction look like this once reminded of what happened between him and Nene?

Hmm... yeah... they are made for each other. <3

Mitsuba 2.0 pulling out a Hanako. Since when did he become this mature?

Nene brings out the psychologist in her once again.

It's impressive the times he almost broke that promise didn't come to her mind.

Ah... Nene-chan... ahhh.. some twins' hell you got yourself into. Don't worry too much, things will be alright someday. let's ask my beloved cardcaptor Sakura for advice on this regard, since a well-known saying of her says... I couldn't resist the need to include her

Don't lose hope Nene-chan and keep fighting! One day you'll reach what you want! Also, the ending of this chapter kind of answered back to her words in there... but I will talk about it later. I will keep the talk about him and the ending of the chapter for later.

See? That's what I was talking about. A true romantic girl. <3 But, yes! If it feels unwholesome to you, then nothing stops you from doing it properly! Go get him!

Though, it's a bit funny, I've always had the feeling Nene would be the one to confess, since Amane's nature surely doesn't afford that. She kind of did before... and now she is going to do it yet again. still, it's really wholesome to see how much Nene-chan has grown up. From the girl who doesn't really know about the true nature of love, who only wants a boy to like her, who tried to change herself to get a boy, who did too many complicated things for that to happen--- to the girl who knows the true nature of love now, who is going to confess to the true love of her life, the boy she truly wants to understand, help, see happy and be with forever even if it meant she will give up on anything and everything. Isn't that wholesome? Truly romantic? It's too beautiful! This feeling must be too precious and beautiful to her! I do want to see her confess to him! It will be really something! I want to see Amane's reaction…! It would be priceless! But, I don't know if now is a good timing for that to happen…

Aww... cutie girl!! All I can say... is that I hope things will go alright. ........ I wonder how she plans on doing her confession properly...? Would she ... um... think about a proper place? a proper setting? a proper speech? a proper kind of gift? when I think about these things... this little moment comes to my mind... with everything it has. The place, setting, speech she told (I really wonder what will change in it now and what it will hold, too exciting!)

As for the gift! What would Amane like more than...

Hmm... I think it would be cute to recreate the moment? With some changes now, since...

Let's make one point clear. He is soooooo your type. And the other change is for things to go smoothly. I love you, Tsukasa... but maybe... we don't need a dramatic entry like that one you made back then again... you're... invited... but... um... maybe it's better to give the 2 some alone time? (or maybe as always you'll prove me wrong... if you ended up making a much needed entry) And lastly, I hope the whole situation that would be going on would allow things to go smoothly between the 2 of you! Good luck, Nene-chan! Do your best! I hope things will go as you hope and even better!

You're so thoughtful Nene-chan. I don't think it will be that easy... but it's still worth a try, better than nothing at least. Hmm, this thing really reminds me of this... . . .

(due to pic limits... part 2)

[ecrivant]

the station | annie leonhart

(annie leonhart x fem!reader)

that night, one marked by abject sin and rapture: annie’s single, inescapable memory.  she, forever haunted by this painfully raw thought of you.

c.w. – homophobic slurs

word count: 2.2k

a.n. – this is technically a reader insert but it’s honestly just an exploration of annie’s repression and sadness.  also, in general, i’m very wary of assigning gender to the reader, but the lgbt+ themes are important to this story, so annie’s love interest is a fem!reader.  i’m sorry if this excludes anyone, next piece will return to the usual gn!reader.  

very much an au + me experimenting with style.  

At the world’s marge lies a service station—carburant siphoned long ago, insides, bare.  Its skeletal façade abuts a backroad, a display of collapsing substructure succored by gusts of vagrants and drifters, cataracted from history’s view.  At one time, when you entered, the clerk would greet you from the left with a gaze that conveyed a hesitant familiarity—the type of trivial recognition that was unimportant in the moment but retrospectively haunting.  The lights within, garish halogen, were ceaseless, always alight, and only dared to die out once the ceiling caved, and the walls peeled, and the vinyl floor cratered like some artificial topography.  The edifice now no more than a nebulous memory only existing in the minds of those who ever once visited it.  

A memory nonetheless in the mind of the woman who fucks for the first time in a sedan parked behind the station, where the smell of sex and summer air and gasoline is seared into her brain as she breathes hard, lightheaded and high on ecstasy and fear. She feels her own death, a quiet specter which guides the touch of her lover.  Her burning skin; the eroticism of demise, destruction.  The nocturnal breeze gasps with her.

She offers to drive you home.  You—flushed and debauched, breasts exposed.  Eying her intensely.  You refuse.

“I can walk.”

She laughs.  Your name on her lips, a carnal, depraved prayer, “We don’t even know where we are.”

She is corrected. Curt.

“You don’t.”

She is gored, laid open and vulnerable and bare for this stranger who parts without another word. She watches you go, ambling towards the unlit dirt road, swallowed by a beastly darkness.  The vehicle, suffused by an amorous smog, windows opaque.  Her organs all but spill onto the floor, mixing with dust and dog hair and garbage and an old takeaway cup that was always there no matter how many times she threw it away.  

She slinks into the station and asks for a pack of cigarettes.  She pays in coins, a button among them, but the cashier never notices.

At home.

“Mama’s been askin’ ‘bout you.”

“Okay.”

“You’re gonna get an earful tomorrow.”

She’s already halfway up the stairs.  They moan beneath her.  

“She thinks you’ve been spending too much time with that Eren boy.  Is that where you was tonight?”

The stairs sound like you. Everything sounds like you—the gasp of a closing door, the sordid exhale of a creaking bedframe.  The sweat on her face: a lover’s curious tongue.

—

“Pull off here, ya’re low on gas.”

Prick prick pricks of fear smart on her skin.  Mama knows. The station, the unholy consecration. Mama knows.  This car, this place.  Mama knows.  Her brother in the back, resting on the shadow of his sister’s bare figure.  The pop of the fuel door says dyke.  The crack of the gas nozzle trigger says fag. The unseen eyes that bore through her say queer.  She enters the station to pay.  The clerk, a gaze of recognition—the only one who knows of her transgressions.  

—

She is married. Cheers to the happy couple.  She cries on her wedding night, tears staining bedsheets—her own virginal blood.  He touches her, stagnant, pale skin collied by bereft contact.  She only comes when she thinks of the station.

—

She could tell.  She could tell him and free herself, and then the kid’ll wonder why Mommy’s never around and Daddy’s a druggie and a drunk and never leaves the house anymore and the kid’ll make his way through the social services system until he’s beaten and cracked and broken like Mama’s old doll collection smashed against the wall and he puts a bullet in his head before he turns eighteen.  No, she could never tell.

—

Thanksgiving.  She stares at her sister-in-law—a city girl, with heavy lids and blush-dusted cheeks and a pronounced cupid’s bow.  The eyes of a hunter, the lascivious gaze of a she-wolf.  Her husband comments on how well they seem to get along.  

—

A loneliness begotten from her own bones, born from emptiness and the inimitable way she and death caressed all those years ago.  She only has a name to utter, breathless, when thoughts of you tenant her mind.  The first and the only fuck was truly a stranger, all but nameless in memory.  

—

Her mother’s funeral. An apathetic and unfamiliar affair. People she doesn’t know.  Her brother, his wife, their child.  Her husband, her child, her.  She could not be more distant.

Her childhood home smells sweetly of tobacco and cardamom.  

Indifference during the wake mistaken by the others for numbness.  She feels no need to mourn—her mother lived and died uneventfully, and that was it.  

“Mommy, are Grandma’s dolls going away?”

“I don’t know, we’ll see.”

“Do you think I can keep one?”

The boy has his eyes fixed on one in particular, his implicit selection.  The one that has your eyes.  The one whose gaze makes her squirm.  Mama knows.

“I don’t know, we’ll see.”

—

She sneaks away from the house with a pack of her mother’s cigarettes, the box crumpled and stained at the edges and the tubes inside wrinkled and mildewed, emitting a stench that filled her with inexplicable nostalgia.  It brings to mind her unshakable compulsion to eat cigarettes, to feel the flakes of tobacco coat the inside of her mouth like the ground dregs in a cup of cheap coffee.  She lights one instead, pushing the thought aside—if she was to ever eat one, she fears she would not be able to stop.  The low hiss of her inhalations on the ember briefly joins the sonic ambience.  She sits in her car and smokes and occasionally flicks ash outside of her window with shaking hands.  Rancid and familiar aftertaste.  Thick dust clouds kicked up by her car tires coalesce with her hazy exhalations as she drives nowhere.  Not nowhere. She needs gas.

—

The station still stands as it had before, insusceptible to time.  Always seemingly aged.  Covered in an ever-present grime.  She gets out and leans against her car and drags on her cigarette, the virulent inhalations scratching her lungs.  The road on which you disappeared all those years ago looked profoundly unremarkable during the day—just a long, dirt road in a town wholly comprised of long, dirt roads. The heat shimmers above the ground, and the afternoon sun drapes itself across her skin, and the hot breeze drags its fingertips through her hair like a lover you’d meet behind a bar—the same who would abandon that perpetually lit cigarette between her lips in exchange for her mouth on yours.

Her last drag—she drops the butt and crushes it underfoot.  

She sits in her car and smokes the rest of the pack—in her eyes, the final remnants of her mother.

She waits in the parking lot.  As if her presence alone would invoke some bygone wraith.  

Her hand reaches under her dress, between her legs, and she is touching herself to the pervasive miasma of summer breeze and carburant, and the darkness of closed eyes almost feels like the night, and her frantic digital movements are arrant pleasure until they’re not; she stops and is suddenly crying, and her thoughts are occluded by her mother’s pale, dead face, and she realizes that Mama’s death, mundane as it was, represents the furthest she’s been from that singular night years ago which was so verily marked by sin and rapture; the one that has haunted her and will continue to haunt her until she herself dies an uneventful death after an uneventful life, and her child thinks of her passing as she does her own mother’s: a nonevent among nonevents.  

She is met with understanding eyes as she returns to the wake crying.  

—

She moves to the city with husband and child.  Suburbia forgone.  The apartment is small and cramped and reminiscent of her sister-in-law’s.  The adjacent view from the living-room window is an identical high-rise—ten stories of the same brick and dirty-white AC units. She is filled with an ineffable sadness as she stares at the spare greenery in streets below, confined to plots of dry soil surrounded by cracked and potholed pavement.

Her sleeplessness often leads her to the living room long after the apartment falls to silence.  One night, she watches, captivated, as a couple in the adjacent apartment fucks on a couch, curtains wide open and shame forgotten.  The man, hovering above a body obstructed, is suddenly flipped on his back and mounted by his lover, and she swears this woman, breasts bobbing, and face marked by a concentrated intensity and unusually devoid of pleasure, looks like you.  

—

Two years in the city bypass her as if she were already dead.  The tenant who resembled you moved out the year prior.  

—

She sits in a booth sequestered in the corner of a dark and begrimed barroom.  Alone for the night.  Her husband no longer questions her bouts of silence and absences from the house and disdain for intimacy; her child, accustomed to fissure.  

She ignites a cigarette, her lukewarm liquor no longer of interest, and no one stops her.  She is indifferent to the other patrons, who were, at this point in the night, nothing more than hazy and incorporeal forms populating the shadows.

The chime of the door—jarring and tangible—cuts through the muted atmosphere and demands the attention of those there to give it.  Another specter drifts to the bar.  A woman shouldering something—a fact elucidated by a hunched posture and a quiet request for three fingers of scotch.  

And then the woman turns, and Annie sees her face.  

And suddenly she is collapsed on the scum-covered tile of the bar’s bathroom floor, hurling upchuck into the toilet.  That woman had your face—she is not you, at least not anymore, as Annie is no longer the girl who fucked and died in that gas station parking lot years ago.  But that woman had your face.  And she looked at Annie with your eyes, melancholic eyes which held no recognition for her, and turned away in the same movement.  Less than a look—a glance.  But that woman had your face.  And Annie had not seen it again before she hied to the bathroom to regurgitate four drinks and years of accrued and bilious agony.  

The bathroom door swings open.  Groaning hinges.  She knows it’s that woman who has callously co-opted your likeness.

She enters the stall next to her and pisses and flushes the toilet whose water drains slowly and weakly, and the sounds of the sink are harsh and cacophonous against the tile walls. Steps towards the exit suddenly pause. A knock on the stall door.  Your voice asks if she is alright—a voice unheard for decades, last encountered in a low, debauched whisper against her skin.

She heaves, again, but nothing is left to expel; she coughs and spits and does not answer.

“Can I at least help you get home?”

The question looms above her, looped and tied like a noose.  

“I can walk.”

A laugh.  Dry, unfamiliar, never heard.  It’s harsh and barking; a warning.  

She is corrected, curt: “You can barely stand.”

She had long been unacquainted with fear, now more often than not consumed by a vacant numbness, and she admittedly did not miss it.  It was ugly and pervasive and bore deep within her with debilitating potency.  She could do nothing but sit on the disgusting tile floor with body supported on yellowed porcelain and wait.  

She imagines she allows herself to believe this woman is you—you, as you were, unchanged—and opens the door. And you, being unchanged, ask if she would like to come home with you.  And she, apparently the same as well, says yes.  And back at your apartment, cluttered and cramped yet simultaneously vacant, you spare no time backing her into the bedroom, lips tethered to hers in lurid predation.  Touches that are lustful and intimate and familiar only to her.  She cannot bring herself to care that you do not remember her—your breath on her neck and your incursive touch efface all thoughts, good or bad.  She wants you on top of her, around her, within her, and you oblige like some prurient altruist.  Her coming is purgative and cathartic, and the pleasure of that night at the station feels archaic and antiquated in the face of this wholly new gratification, heighted by an immense and prolonged yearning.  And this time, after you are both finished, you do not part and neither does she, and she embraces you in a way that feels intrinsic, and you ask her to stay the night. And she does not think of her husband and child as she says yes.  And she does not think of her husband and child as she agrees to spend the next day with you, as she dances with you in your living room, finally and only feeling held and loved.  Finally, finally, finally.  

—

But Annie says nothing. And the woman—not you, but an apparition—softly and finally knocks on the door with the side of her fist, unfazed, and walks out of the bathroom.  And even now, as she slumps further and shuts her eyes and clutches her head, Annie can only think of that fucking gas station.  

—

hi there!  thank you so much for reading; i hope you enjoyed this piece.  it’s a little different than my other stuff, not drastically so, but still different.  i think i like it, though.

thank you to the anon who suggested I write something for annie, i really appreciate the request.  i have another request in the pipeline for reiner, so expect a piece for him soon. 

as always, feedback and criticism are very much appreciated!  feel free to drop in and request something if you want.

taglist: @flam3bird

[halothenthehorns]

TLTNL- The Tale of the Three Brothers

James flipped to the last story with nostalgia, this had been his absolute favorite when he was younger, and he couldn't wait to tell Harry about it and watch him understand why.

As he read the title though, Harry felt that flash through his mind, a squirm through his innards. An understanding he still had no knowledge of, why this story must be what had caught his eye to begin with, what on earth it all could mean...

There were once three brothers who were travelling along a lonely, winding road at twilight. In time, the brothers reached a river too deep to wade through and too dangerous to swim across.

Even as James began the feeling only intensified, though oddly Harry's vision swam double for a moment and he was sure it should be Hermione reading this to him, in a much different place...but it was all gone the moment he tried to latch onto it, and instead he settled back in his seat and tried to listen with the same attentiveness he had all the other silly tales.

However, these brothers were learned in the magical arts, and so they simply waved their wands and made a bridge appear across the treacherous water. They were halfway across it when they found their path blocked by a hooded figure.

And Death spoke to them.

Lily did a double take in surprise, and Harry's eyes popped, causing the other three to laugh, but the shock passed quickly. This really wasn't any more weird than any other things going on with these novels.

  He was angry that he had been cheated out of three new victims, for travelers usually drowned in the river. But Death was cunning. He pretended to congratulate the three brothers upon their magic, and said that each had earned a prize for having been clever enough to evade him.

"Why aren't we ever awarded for doing shit?" Sirius sighed.

"Eventually the teachers would run out of rewards and circle back to punishment anyways, I suppose they just skipped ahead," Remus shrugged.

So the oldest brother, who was a combative man, asked for a wand more powerful than any in existence: a wand that must always win duels for its owner, a wand worthy of a wizard who had conquered Death! So Death crossed to an elder tree on the banks of the river, fashioned a wand from a branch that hung there, and gave it to the oldest brother.

Harry couldn't help it, shifting his weight around more and more, a burn he'd been peacefully lacking while not having to relearn his old memories sadly paining him now again over something clearly so stupid. He clenched his shaking hand tight and resisted the impulse with all his might not to clutch at his aching head again, just concentrated on his dads voice.

Then the second brother, who was an arrogant man, decided that he wanted to humiliate Death still further, and asked for the power to recall others from Death. So Death picked up a stone from the riverbank and gave it to the second brother, and told him that the stone would have the power to bring back the dead.

His feeling only growing worse by the second, somehow James trying to read in a goofy lighthearted tone contrasting heavily with a deep echo of words he knew his father also once saying to him...

The others noticed of course, but Harry looking so pained over something like this they had no clue of was sadly nothing new. So Lily placed her arm gently around his shoulders and waited as long as he needed to take a moment to breath again before nodding at James, who was monstrously disappointed something they'd thought Harry would just simply enjoy for once was still actually causing him pain.

And then Death asked the third and youngest brother what he would like. The youngest brother was the humblest and also the wisest of the brothers, and he did not trust Death.

'The third brother...' this more than the others resonated with Harry, even as he kept rubbing at his forehead with pain he latched onto anything his mind could make sense of. He had not a clue why remembering this was hurting him so, as painful as if he were trying to remember something before it happened to him again, but thankfully like before so long as he didn't force the feeling it began to ebb.

James glanced hopefully at Harry and kept going with that same excitement, glad to see whatever Harry was struggling with he was fighting off, this was his favorite part!

So he asked for something that would enable him to go forth from that place without being followed by Death. And Death, most unwillingly, handed over his own Cloak of Invisibility.

"You have got to be kidding me," Lily said in exasperation, actually eyeing James like she worried he was making this up as he went along. Knowing her husband, it wasn't even that crazy.

"Nope," James insisted, popping the P for emphasis even as he kept his eyes on Harry while still addressing Lily. "My dad read this story to me all the time when I was little, loved to go on about how this was where my Cloak came from."

Lily had honestly never thought why James cloak worked the way it had, he'd only shown it to her in the last year and by that time he had no real use for it. She'd had other things on her mind

when he'd showed it to her, like realizing one of her friends was a werewolf, so she'd never questioned too deeply his declaration it had been in his family for generations.

Now though, she raised a skeptical brow at him and demanded, "and you really think your Cloak came from the manifestation of Death?"

"Nah," he brushed off, a bit disappointed it wasn't Harry going along, but at least it was clear he was listening with his head tilted towards them even as he kept flattening his hair and clearly trying to repress rubbing his scar more. "I don't think my dad really did either, most of us have just come to the conclusion someone along the line made it but lost the record of how they did. Now it's just more of a family secret. Still fun how it somehow made it's way into a kids novel, maybe even where the original idea of creating it came from, so technically..." he trailed off with a still superior little smile no one acknowledged. His friends had heard all this too many times and just yawned when he looked over, and he pouted before continuing.

Then Death stood aside and allowed the three brothers to continue on their way and they did so, talking with wonder of the adventure they had had, and admiring Death's gifts.

In due course the brothers separated, each for his own destination.

The first brother traveled on for a week or more, and reaching a distant village, he sought out a fellow wizard with whom he had a quarrel.

Naturally, with the Elder Wand as his weapon, he could not fail to win the duel that followed.

Harry's mind wanted to seize painfully on this, talk of the Elder Wand had cropped up once in here already, but he was instantly distracted by the others once more.

"I always wonder how much of that is just confidence," Remus couldn't help but scoff. "It really does wonders, and then his boasting just caused this tail to begin with."

"Bragging only takes you so far until you have to prove it," Sirius disagreed, his eyes gleaming with want.

When it was clear they had no more to say on it than before though, he tried desperately to ignore his disappointment and continued headache.

Leaving his enemy dead upon the floor, the oldest brother proceeded to an inn, where he boasted loudly of the powerful wand he had snatched from Death himself, and of how it made him invincible.

That very night, another wizard crept upon the oldest brother as he lay, wine-sodden, upon his bed. The thief took the wand and, for good measure, slit the oldest brother's throat.

"Charming," Lily crinkled her nose in disgust.

And so Death took the first brother for his own.

Meanwhile, the second brother journeyed to his own home, where he lived alone. Here he took out the stone that had the power to recall the dead, and turned it thrice in his hand. To his amazement and his delight, the figure of the girl he had once hoped to marry before her untimely death appeared at once before him.

Harry could not seem to settle during this story, shifting anxiously more every second, now twirling his ring around in unease as if some part of him knew to be worried abut this. At least he did know why his eyes lingered on his parents now, what he would have given for that stone some point before all this- then his mind went blank with another snap of pain and he just shook his head miserably for his brain never working properly.

Yet she was silent and cold, separated from him as though by a veil.

All of them flinched heavily at that description, none appreciating the reminder.

Though she had returned to the mortal world, she did not truly belong there and suffered. Finally, the second brother, driven mad with hopeless longing, killed himself so as truly to join her.

Lily tightened her hold on her son, feeling the urge to be sick at still seeing that lingering look of longing in place. She disliked this one most of all for that line alone, why was that in a story for kids?!

And so Death took the second brother for his own.

But though Death searched for the third brother for many years, he was never able to find him. It was only when he had attained a great age that the youngest brother finally took off the Cloak of Invisibility and gave it to his son.

James declared this with contentment, his eyes lingering on his child more than the words now as he finished. His infant sat in his godfathers lap, gurgling happily, and it still gave the father comfort that no matter his child's future, his heirloom would still hold.

And then he greeted Death as an old friend, and went with him gladly, and, equals, they departed this life.

"Wow, I think that was the shortest one yet," Lily crinkled her brow in fascination. She wasn't even sure where the moral in that one was. After mulling it over for a moment while the boys all declared which object they'd pick, James and Remus the cloak and Sirius the wand, she interrupted Harry, "what exactly is the point of including that one?"

"Oh come on Lily, not everything needs to have a point," James sighed. "It's a fun novelty, gives kids a chance to dream of some cool objects one day."

"I actually have a fond memory of me and Regulus on a 'quest,' looking for these," Sirius smiled reminiscently. "Of course it ended with us nabbing our fathers wand and being grounded for a week, but it was fun for an hour or two."

"So you guys don't believe they're real?" Harry interrupted, causing them all to look at him in surprise.

"Well," James began slowly, weary of the intensity with which Harry had asked. "Like I said, my cloak, I think anyways, was built from this myth as far back as my family tree will trace, yet it doesn't mean Death gave it to someone so long ago. So there's really no proof the others don't exist-"

"But there's no more proof they do either," Remus shook his head with such exasperated skepticism Harry could already feel they'd had this argument long before. "This Stone sounds like another idea of the Philosophers Stone, and though that was once made, the recipe for that is as lost as James' cloak, or at least, Flamel and Dumbledore certainly aren't sharing; so it's existence is still nothing but questionable."

"The wand is all about how you read your history," Sirius quickly tacked in before Moony could go off again on more theory's. "People have been claiming since the existence of wands to have an unbeatable one-"

"And it's caused nothing but more bloodshed and murder," Lily said with finality. As if they needed more of that in their life to be sitting around discussing it.

Sirius shrugged but made no argument so James gave Harry a curious look before going on into what Dumbledore had to say about this, honestly very curious.

Albus Dumbledore on "The Tale of the Three Brothers"

This story made a profound impression on me as a boy. I heard it first from my mother, and it soon became the tale I requested more often than any other at bedtime.

James couldn't help but chuckle slightly he had something so in common with Dumbledore. As angry as he still was at him, he really was trying his hardest not to let that linger for now at least.

This frequently led to arguments with my younger brother, Aberforth, whose favorite story was "Grumble the Grubby Goat".

Sirius snorted randomly, honestly just thankful to have any more information about this brother they'd kept hearing about but had no knowledge of before this.

The moral of "The Tale of the Three Brothers" could not be any clearer: human efforts to evade or overcome death are always doomed to disappointment.

James looked pleased and turned gloatingly to his wife, who still had a sour face, thinking there were better ways to have this in a story that didn't involve murder and suicide.

The third brother in the story ("the humblest and also the wisest") is the only one who understands that, having narrowly escaped Death once, the best he can hope for is to postpone their next meeting for as long as possible.

"Really makes you wonder how he copulated under a cloak, I mean the broad-"

Remus reached over and plugged his nose while James kept going loudly around him.

This youngest brother knows that taunting Death by engaging in violence, like the first brother, or by meddling in the shadowy art of necromancy,1 like the second brother - means pitting oneself against a wily enemy who cannot lose.

The irony is that a curious legend has grown up around this story, which precisely contradicts the message of the original. This legend holds that the gifts Death gives the brothers "an unbeatable wand, a stone that can bring back the dead, and an Invisibility Cloak that endures forever" are genuine objects that exist in the real world. The legend goes further: if any person becomes the rightful owner of all three, then he or she will become "master of Death", which has usually been understood to mean that they will be invulnerable, even immortal.

Harry couldn't help but make a keening noise of frustration, shaking his head frantically and wishing more than anything right now his brain would quit setting itself on fire. He wasn't relearning any memories more than he should, so why on earth did all of this feel so monumental, and also decide to torment him for learning it all too soon before other things to come? All of this felt like little puzzles that would not weld together, so thankfully he wasn't suffering as bad as he could, but more than any before, he simply wished this would just end.

James fully realized this and wanted to close this in disappointment and be done as well. Clearly this was doing nothing but hurting his son no matter how much they couldn't understand why, but then Harry surprised them by telling without even looking up, "go ahead and finish, it's a better distraction than wondering why this is all supposed to mean something I suppose."

James disagreed, clearly Harry had a conversation about this with Dumbledore at some point and it was paining him to have to remember even vague details about it now, but to deny Harry would only make what he said all the more true, so he fingered the next page and just tried to keep going with more urgency than some silly story should provide.

We may smile, a little sadly, at what this tells us about human nature. The kindest interpretation would be: "Hope springs eternal".

Lily couldn't help but smile for that line, aware that none but her would recognize a quote from a muggle poet Alexander Pope, but it was one she'd carried through most of her life, where her optimism so often sprang from as well, hope.

In spite of the fact that, according to Beedle, two of the three objects are highly dangerous, in spite of the clear message that Death comes for us all in the end, a tiny minority of the wizarding community persists in believing that Beedle was sending them a coded message, which is the exact reverse of the one set down in ink, and that they alone are clever enough to understand it.

Sirius couldn't help but snort with mirth at that line. Who on earth was mad enough to go looking for coded messages in a kids tale?*

Their theory (or perhaps "desperate hope" might be a more accurate term) is supported by little actual evidence. True Invisibility Cloaks, though rare, exist in this world of ours; however, the story makes it clear that Death's Cloak is of a durable nature.2

Through all the centuries that have intervened between Beedle's day and our own, nobody has ever claimed to have found Death's Cloak.

"I do wonder how no one in your family was mad enough to try," Lily couldn't help but ask him. "I understand why you didn't," she unconscionably inclined her head towards Remus, their cloak had been invaluable in their attempts to help him in much of their youth, "but no one before you?"

"I've only met my granddad once, but he told me an epic tale about his great-granddad trying," James told with a nostalgic smile, and finally Harry was looking on with that interest he so deserved in learning more about his history. "Tried to find a way to replicate the cloak, mass produce it for more money, our inheritance from the line was running thin by then. Anyways, something went awfully wrong right away, before the man could put one spell on it, and so I was told there's a curse upon it, wrought to anyone who attempts to divulge it's secrets." He finished in a goofy mystical voice.

"So only use it for good and not to steal, got it," Harry couldn't help but laugh lightly, which helped him to ignore a funny tickle in his memory he may have learned that the hard way as well.

This is explained away by true believers thus: either the third brother's descendants do not know where their Cloak came from, or they know and are determined to show their ancestor's wisdom by not trumpeting the fact.

"Well that ones out the bush," Sirius said at once. "Prongs can't show an ounce of wisdom unless he's threatened with wrought!"

James gave him a calculating look before reminding, "who exactly was it who got caught underneath it by Flitwick and had to give the lamest excuse ever for it's existence?"

Sirius let out a lengthy breath, realized his mate wasn't going to go on until Harry stopped looking at him with an already twitching smile for whatever this could be, and finally muttered, "I was, when I told him I was just trying to smuggle in a demiguise from Kettleburn."

"So who had to steal it back?" James wouldn't let go.

"You did, by spending the whole weekend and fifty Galleons to buy a demiguise and give it to Kettleburn while Remus snuck into his office to get the cloak."

"Exactly," he finished pleasantly before going on while Sirius still muttered profanities about that mess.

Naturally enough, the stone has never been found, either. As I have already noted in the commentary for "Babbitty Rabbitty and her Cackling Stump", we remain incapable of raising the dead, and there is every reason to suppose that this will never happen. Vile substitutions have, of course, been attempted by Dark wizards, who have created Inferi,3

They all made faces at the mention of those, though Harry gave the nastiest little shiver he was sure he didn't want to understand so didn't question what they were.

but these are ghastly puppets, not truly reawoken humans. What is more, Beedle's story is quite explicit about the fact that the second brother's lost love has not really returned from the dead. She has been sent by Death to lure the second brother into Death's clutches, and is therefore cold, remote, tantalizingly both present and absent.4

James breath caught enough all on its own he didn't notice Harry's and he had to resist the urge with all his might not to squeeze his eyes shut in pain lest he have a horrifying vision of Sirius looking anything like that.

This leaves us with the wand, and here the obstinate believers in Beedle's hidden message have at least some historical evidence to back up their wild claims. For it is the case whether because they liked to glorify themselves, or to intimidate possible attackers, or because they truly believed what they were saying, that wizards down the ages have claimed to possess a wand more powerful than the ordinary, even an "unbeatable" wand. Some of these wizards have gone so far as to claim that their wand is made of elder, like the wand supposedly made by Death. Such wands have been given many names, among them "the Wand of Destiny" and "the Deathstick".

It is hardly surprising that old superstitions have grown up around our wands, which are, after all, our most important magical tools and weapons. Certain wands (and therefore their owners) are supposed to be incompatible:

When his wand's oak and hers is holly, then to marry would be folly.

"Wonder what it says about mahogany and willow," James asked pleasantly while batting his eyes at his wife.

"The first is an idiot and the second is the fool who fell for that idiot," Lily returned pleasantly.

"You can do better than that Evans, it didn't even rhym," Sirius scoffed.

"Potter," they both corrected him, causing the two to smile at each other and Sirius to smirk.

or to denote flaws in the owner's character:

Rowan gossips,

"I never gossiped," Sirius muttered, "wandlore is stupid anyways."

"You're right, you should have had chestnut," Remus rolled his eyes while Sirius huffed at him.

chestnut drones, Ash is stubborn, hazel moans.

And sure enough, within this category of unproven sayings we find:

Wand of elder, never prosper.

Whether because of the fact that Death makes the fictional wand out of elder in Beedle's story, or because power-hungry or violent wizards have persistently claimed that their own wands are made of elder, it is not a wood that is much favored among wandmakers.

The first well-documented mention of a wand made of elder

"Ugh, isn't he done yet!" Sirius groaned. "I didn't care this much, I'm starting to feel like I'm being force fed a history lesson!"

"Still the most interesting one we've ever had," James shrugged, continuing with honest curiosity, as it had yet to say what Dumbledore felt about any of this, just stating the facts of others.

that had particularly strong and dangerous powers was owned by Emeric, commonly called "the Evil", a short-lived but exceptionally aggressive wizard who terrorized the South of England in the early Middle Ages. He died as he had lived, in a ferocious duel with a wizard known as Egbert. What became of Egbert is unknown, although the life expectancy of medieval duellers was generally short. In the days before there was a Ministry of Magic to regulate the use of Dark Magic, dueling was usually fatal.

"I am fairly confident dueling is still fatal," Lily muttered.

A full century later, another unpleasant character, this time named Godelot, advanced the study of Dark Magic by writing a collection of dangerous spells with the help of a wand he described in his notebook as "my most wicked and subtle friend, with bodie of Ellhorn,6 who knowes ways of magick moste evile". (Magick Moste Evile became the title of Godelot's masterwork.)

As can be seen, Godelot considers his wand to be a helpmeet, almost an instructor. Those who are knowledgeable about wandlore5 will agree that wands do indeed absorb the expertise of those who use them, though this is an unpredictable and imperfect business;

one must consider all kinds of additional factors, such as the relationship between the wand and the user, to understand how well it is likely to perform with any particular individual.

Nevertheless, a hypothetical wand that had passed through the hands of many Dark wizards would be likely to have, at the very least, a marked affinity for the most dangerous kinds of magic.

Harry had been rubbing his palm against his knee through most of that passage, wishing that tingling sensation would vanish already almost as much as this loaded feeling there was much more to be remembered about all of this, not much of it pleasant.

Most witches and wizards prefer a wand that has "chosen" them to any kind of second-hand wand, precisely because the latter is likely to have learned habits from its previous owner that might not be compatible with the new user's style of magic. The general practice of burying (or burning) the wand with its owner, once he or she has died, also tends to prevent any individual wand learning from too many masters. Believers in the Elder Wand, however, hold that because of the way in which it has always passed allegiance between owners "the next master overcoming the first, usually by killing him."

"How can it be an unbeatable wand if it's passed along through death?" Remus couldn't resist poking at Sirius who was still trying to pretend he was bored with this by twirling his wand about even as he kept his head tilted towards James to hear these details giving him away. "That feels redundant."

"Use your imagination Moony, wands pass along without consent. It doesn't happen often-"

"But every single time?" Remus persisted.

Lily cleared her throat obnoxiously so that they'd stop carrying on while Harry gave her a grateful look and flattened his hair again, though it did no more good than banishing his headache.

the Elder Wand has never been destroyed or buried, but has survived to accumulate wisdom, strength and power far beyond the ordinary.

"You think that's why Mrs. Longbottom gave Neville his dads wand?" Harry pointed out something that had lingered in his mind, aside from the rest of that torture going on inside the Department of Mysteries.

"Neville didn't get his parents killed," Sirius said so sharply Harry jumped and looked at him in surprise.

"Not that, the accumulating wisdom bit, strength and power over time. I'll bet she's looking for Frank in Neville or something," he finished with still distant eyes, and they were all wondering what he was really thinking of, yet sure they were all missing it.

"Well, he'll be getting his own now, so whatever her intent was it's gone," Lily said gently.

"I'll bet Neville's magic will be loads better this year because of that," James agreed happily. "Even better than he was showing in the DA."

"Least that's one good thing to be looking forward to," Remus muttered.

Godelot is known to have perished in his own cellar, where he was locked by his mad son, Hereward. We must assume that Hereward took his father's wand, or the latter would have been able to escape, but what Hereward did with the wand after that we cannot be sure. All that is certain is that a wand called "the Eldrun6 Wand" by its owner, Barnabas Deverill, appeared in the early eighteenth century, and that Deverill used it to carve himself out a reputation as a fearsome warlock, until his reign of terror was ended by the equally notorious Loxias, who took the wand, rechristened it "the Deathstick", and used it to lay waste to anyone who displeased him. It is difficult to trace the subsequent history of Loxias's wand, as many claimed to have finished him off, including his own mother.

"Dumbledore's sure done a lot of research on this," James flipped to the next page and was actually relieved to see it was the last. "I'm starting to agree with Sirius, what's the point of all this?"

"The man does his homework?" Remus shrugged indifferently while Lily didn't care past wanting it to be done with as well.

Harry just looked around at all of them and ground his teeth together rather than blurt out something he'd regret.

What must strike any intelligent witch or wizard on studying the so-called history of the Elder Wand is that every man who claims to have owned it7 has insisted that it is "unbeatable", when the known facts of its passage through many owners' hands demonstrate that not only has it been beaten hundreds of times, but that it also attracts trouble as Grumble the Grubby Goat attracted flies.

Remus still couldn't help a little smirk of victory he and Dumbledore seemed to agree on that front, than he caught sight of Harry and fully remembered all that Dumbledore would do in this future, and the smile slipped away just as fast.

Ultimately, the quest for the Elder Wand merely supports an observation I have had occasion to make many times over the course of my long life: that humans have a knack of choosing precisely those things that are worst for them.

"Wonder if he's speaking from experience," Lily said waspishly, having several accounts of the man doing just that.

But which of us would have shown the wisdom of the third brother, if offered the pick of Death's gifts?

James couldn't help but hum thoughtfully at that. Even now, with all his years he'd had with his cloak, given the choice of the three this moment, would he still pick the same? To see his parents again, to have even just one more protection for his family? He honestly wasn't at all sure no matter what he said aloud.

Wizards and Muggles alike are imbued with a lust for power; how many would resist "the Wand of Destiny"? Which human being, having lost someone they loved, could withstand the temptation of the Resurrection Stone? Even I, Albus Dumbledore, would find it easiest to refuse the Invisibility Cloak; which only goes to show that, clever as I am, I remain just as big a fool as anyone else.

"Ah, he does admit it, even to himself," Sirius growled.

"Wonder what changes then in times for him to take so long to do so," Harry snapped at no one in here while his dad finished.

1 Necromancy is the Dark Art of raising the dead. It is a branch of magic that has never worked, as this story makes clear.

2 Invisibility Cloaks are not, generally, infallible. They may rip or grow opaque with age, of the charms placed upon them may wear off, or be countered by charms of revealment. This is why witches and wizards usually turn, in the first instance, to Disillusionment Charms for self-camouflage or concealment. I have been known to be able to perform a Disillusionment Charm so powerful as to render myself invisible without the need for a Cloak.

3 Inferi are corpses reanimated by Dark Magic.

Harry crinkled up his nose in disgust. He was right, he hadn't wanted to know.

4 Many critics believe that Beedle was inspired by the Philosopher's Stone, which makes the immortality-inducing Elixir of Life, when creating this stone that can raise the dead.

5 Such as myself.

6 Also an old name for "elder".

7 No witch has ever claimed to own the Elder Wand. Make of that what you will.

James finished with a roaring laugh while Lily snatched the book away and gave him a light swat for whatever that laugh meant. James got it back before flipping through pages randomly instead of fully addressing Harry as he uneasily told him, "well, that was the last of them."

"I'm still taking the rest of the day," Sirius said at once, he knew he couldn't handle just yet hearing of Harry's next year, it helped nothing this couldn't even end on a truly pleasant note as Harry kept eyeing that story with some deep look none of them could know until it was too late.

The others agreed with him at once, and left Harry's next year for another day, still trying to enjoy whatever distance they could without having to spend the next indeterminable amount of time for the rest of this nightmare of a future.

HPHPHPHP

Hope you enjoyed these! They really are so much fun to read and they still make me smile, plus I absolutely inhale anything to do with this world, the extra knowledge in these pages and even something as silly as what kids would have been told as their bedtimes stories in conjunction with ours endlessly fascinates me.

*I am, unashamedly. I've spent many a countless hours on Harry Potter fan sites full of inner messages of these novels, leading to the existence of this fic, so you're welcome Sirius.

[soft-sunflower]

Flower of Evil- Episode 7 Thoughts

Okay... so what's up with the whole poor Hyunsoo/Heeseong waking up injured, in pain, disoriented and scared? It's okay. JG pulls it off so well, so I'm totally down with it tbh. Poor man... had no idea where he was, saw a bunch of valuable jewelry, was probably gonna steal it, escape, pawn it so he could get some cash and try to find somewhere to try and live. After all, his f'n roommate just tried to KILL HIM for money! But, for real though... the unfather is freaking me out more and more. WHY is he carrying a tray with bloody towels on it and coming to where HS is...? I'm a little weirded out by that. These unparents give me the willies... Especially the unfather.

Okay, so ummm that lovemaking scene? IT WAS FIRE OK. I mean by kdrama standards, that was WOW and ummm... I'm thinking kdramas might be getting a little bit braver, but omg... here's the thing. It wasn't just sex though... Jiwon STILL loves him. Enough that she wanted all of him. She clung to him. Laced her fingers together to hold onto him and the focus on their wedding rings. This happens a lot. I'm seeing the focus on their wedding rings in many of their scenes often. I feel like this carries some sort of heavy significance. You can tell this is so hard for her, because she's not sure if her husband is a killer or not, but she loves him so openly and genuinely that she even cries while making love to him. She wants him, and she wants a reason to forgive him.

Which brings me to the next part I want to talk about. Where HS is waking up after their night of passion. JW is so tender with him, brushing back his hair. I really truly believe her inner dialogue abut him not having a choice was true. HE HAD NO CHOICE! What could he have done with everyone blaming him and dragging him down and trying to place him in a villainous role he doesn't want?? And there are PLENTY of reasons here that we have yet to talk about to forgive him. This man LOVES you. You are his safe place, for starters. I wonder though, when he wakes up and grabs her hand and looks afraid, if he was having a bad dream. He didn't want to talk about his dream when she asked. It was just a dream. Poor HS. :(

My heart ached when he said "it feels like nothing happened... because nothing changed." He looks so heartbreakingly childlike and desperate, because he wants this to be true. He doesn't want anything to change. He LOVES Jiwon and his daughter. He wants their happy home to continue remaining happy and warm and safe and comfortable, but it's slowly crumbling right before his eyes, and I think deep down, he knows it. The truth will always come out in some way, and as heartbreaking as it is for him, it's happening. His wife is onto him, and at this point, he just might be in denial about this.

The accomplice tape unnerves me. I want to know WHO was on that tape, and it's clear that it's unnerving Hyunsoo also. He could hear the clanging sounds in the background... Sounds from his father's shop? Something else? We saw the cymbol from during his exorcism. Is there a chance that the accomplice could be the village head? I don't know. Village Head, teams up with Do Min Seok, helps aid in his serial killings and then after Min Seok's "suicide" (maybe the village head killed him?) takes in the kids and tries to make himself look like a good man when in reality he is not, and then goes and gets himself killed by Haesu? Or maybe there is a third party involved? Ugh I don't know! I do know this. There's more to the village head than meets the eye and I NEED to know what he's done to these people. Also, the way Haesu reacted to the TV station playing it's bit about the village head's murder? The flashback of the murder weapon, skirt and legs? Hmmmm... REALLY fishy, and I've felt off about that girl for a bit now. I THINK she did it...

Okay, the next part I want to go over is Hyunsoo as a child being questioned by the counselor... that child looks absolutely miserable and depressed. If he were my son, I would've had him in appropriate treatment and not instantly believing he's capable of murder. If you notice him, he looks reluctant to answer... almost as if he were FORCED to say he did these things. Forced, brainwashed, threatened... I don't know. Did he throw the dog in a well? Maybe, maybe not, but to me he does not seem the type to do it. The way he answered "yes" did not come across to me like someone admitting to something they did. I feel like he was forced to say he did these things or wanted to do these things OR something BAD happened enough to cause him severe trauma to the point that he DID want to do these things. SOMETHING terrible happened to him as a child.

HOLY FREAKING UNFATHER!!! You're ANGRY that HS didn't kill the taxi driver!? Just like HS said, I thought you'd be pleased... why are you NOT pleased? WHY are you trying to force this poor man into the role of a murderer when he is NOT a murderer!? WHY are you trying to villainize him?? What breaks my heart during this whole entire scene here is that he's furious that HS didn't murder, so furious to the point that he is now threatening HS's family!? WHY!? Telling him he needs to go? Far away?? What exactly DOES he mean by that? And what does he mean by "I'll take care of your wife and daughter forever." What is "the worst possible outcome" exactly?? This man is more horrifying than anyone I've come across in this show yet. You're a doctor and hospital director, so what the literal HELL!? And HS is afraid of him. You can see it all over his face. All he can do is just agree and say he hears him. The unfather has him underneath his pinky finger and he knows it.

Oh CRAP the unstable ungrandma has Eunha!? That's kinda unsettling... and then when the little one starts work on her studies (it's clear she's a highly intelligent little girl since she's a few grades ahead!) the lady goes batshit and rips up her books? WHY? Does this have something to do with her real son, the real Heeseong? What does she mean by "it'll kill you and your mother?" Poor babygirl Eunha... but at least ungrandma take her out for an egg tart to help her feel better, and she is such a good girl. Ungrandma even tries to gently wipe Eunha's face clean of egg tart. That was... rather unexpected and the first time I've ever seen any form of tenderness from ungrandma/unmother. Hmmm... interesting.

OKAY CAN I JUST SCREAM FOR A MINUTE THAT I KNEW IT!!! I KNEW DO HYUNSOO WAS NOT THE KILLER. I KNEW HE WAS PROTECTING HIS SISTER BECAUSE OF IT. I KNEW SHE KILLED HIM. Of course Moojin still wants to place that blame on Hyunsoo and claims she’s just protecting Hyunsoo. I just had this feeling deep in my gut because something felt off about her. However, do I believe she killed in a psychopathic way? No. I don't. I think that village head was doing something terrible to those kids. I KNEW Hyunsoo was protecting his sister, and I knew that his sister disappearing the way she did was protecting him too. They both know what happened and why she killed him. I have my suspicions why too. I could be wrong, but the sister is far too emotional and sad to be a crazed killer, I feel. I think it was self defense or something along those lines. Could be wrong though! Might shock us all!

Jiwon, I get why you're showing him Hyunsoo's bag. I know you're trying to garner a reaction out of him so you can catch him, but you still don't know the truth of it all. You don't know everything or what all has happened to him. I know you're a detective, but stop trying to catch him and try to understand and learn all of his truths and his past before condemning him for something he hasn't done. Yes, he lied to you about his true name for 14 years, and a past that he wanted to keep buried, but you keep getting more and more proof that he was not a murderer and it's him that's showing you this. 

Instead of trying to shake a reaction out of him, continue to do your digging and investigating in secret. And poor HS... his heart is aching and racing and he's going into a bad anxiety attack over all of this. It's clear this poor man has some serious mental health issues going on. Not just a personality disorder, but anxiety and panic, possibly even depression since it was stated he suffered from it as a child... he's losing his safe place. It's slowly burning and about to crash right before his very eyes... Please, Jiwon. Please keep looking. He's innocent. You've got to learn that he's innocent. If anything, Hyunsoo is the victim overall.

The scene with the younger him and his sister... he was able to tell she's feeling anger. I don't think he completely lacks the ability to tell/feel emotions but that they've been so heavily repressed for so long that he's likely forgotten/been brainwashed into becoming unfeeling or not understanding certain emotions. But you can tell in their scene alone how close he is with his sister, and how much he loved his mother and misses her. Do you think he witnessed their mother being murdered? I wonder... The cage in that basement... did he see his mother in there? Was HE put in there? Did his father "punish" him in the basement? Not making him copy stuff, but go inside that cage and be tortured in there by his father? Haesu was eager to tell him "Just respond okay to whatever dad says" so he didn't have to copy the Myeongsim Bogam. I don't think he copied anything. I think he was taken into the basement and bad stuff happened in there and possibly happened in that cage.

Okay... now to the last scenes of the episode... the scenes where Jiwon wants Hyunsoo to come with her to the crime scene. Revisiting his past. The place where horrible things happened to him that has caued him very obvious and severe trauma, the place where his father performed various serial killings, the place where his mother died, all of it... I love Jiwon. I understand what she's doing. I understand her, but I don't like it. She pushed him FAR too hard here. I know she's desperate to get to the truth, but trying to force "Hyunsoo" out of him was far too painful to watch.

Joongi needs to be HIGHLY praised for his acting here. When they go into the basement, it's clear that he's experienced something truly traumatic in there. You see him really start to lose at as soon as she starts playing that tape recorder. A woman humming, a woman who sounds sad and near tears as Jiwon stated. Was this woman his mother?? Going back a few scenes, we see Hyunsoo reacting when the Chinese restaurant owner removes the earbud from his ear. Threatens to break the man's arm. But when you watch him listening, he seems so at peace, calm, quiet and gently smiling. It's clear this is soothing for him. I really believe that this is the voice of his mother singing to him.

When he asks her why she's playing it, he starts to tremble, his voice is shaking and she just keep pushing and pushing... pushing all of his past traumas, heartbreak, fear, everything onto him and this scene alone confirms 100% that he is suffering from SEVERE PTSD. And yet here he is, trying so hard to keep calm and be polite toward her, telling her he'd like to leave. I understand why she's doing what she's doing, but it was too much. I screamed at the screen "STOP HURTING HIM! HE'S HAD ENOUGH PAIN!" The man is a wreck, he's distraught, he's traumatized, he's in pain, and he needs to leave. He needs to get away because this is too much for him. AND JIWON HAS A GUN AND WAS PLANNING TO SHOOT HIM!? OKAY COPPER WTF!?

And here she is continuously pushing him over the edge, pushing him to the brink. Her inner monologue is even "Do Hyunsoo. Show yourself. Make a choice. What you choose today will determine our future." And yes, his hand was at her throat, but he literally just THREW this man into a pit of reliving his past trauma, terrors, horrors, nightmares and was on the verge of completely BREAKING him! I don't know if he even realized what he was doing!? Was reliving being choked so his hand went for her throat? He's WHIMPERING, he looks about to break down into tears, and you see his hand slip to her shoulder and he is now in a full blown panic attack, cannot breathe (can he also not breathe because he was once choked down there? Abused down there? Tortured down there by his father?)

Jiwon. I love you but goodness... He wasn't trying to kill you, woman so put your damn gun away. You literally just threw him into EVERYTHING that could trigger him in the worst possible way without even realizing the damage you just inflicted all over him... This man is in pain. He's in freaking pain. Can't feel emotions my ass. Yes he most certainly can. And he's PLEADING with her. Saying PLEASE let's go. Please get me out of here, please just save me. Jiwon... yes. You were way too hard on him. There are still so many truths you don't know. If your husband was this violent killer like the world has painted him to be, do you REALLY think he would've reacted in the manner that he did?? I mean REALLY? He looked so pale and sickened on the drive home... My heart aches for him. Absolutely and utterly aches.

ALSO MOOJIN KNOWS WHO THE REAL KILLER IS. What's going to happen next!? Haesu is his first love and she just admitted to killing the village head! And now HS needs MJ's help... will he help? He does seem genuinely sorry, to the point that he's given MJ back the tape as well... Will they team up and find the REAL accomplice and get down to the real truth of it all? Also, Jiwon is tracking Hyunsoo... she knows he's at Moojin's apartment now... Ugh. And what is Jiwon burning!? I'm honestly dying to know.

HS knows his wife is closing in on his truths... and he's getting scared now. Because the loving and happy life that he's known now for the past 10+ years is slowly unraveling and he's about to lose it all. I'm praying he doesn't. I'm praying they stay together. I'm praying she helps him and gets him buttloads of therapy and that he gets to stay in his safe place. Cannot WAIT til tomorrow's episode! I can't believe we're almost over halfway through the show already. It's going too fast, but not finding out enough! Haha. Ready for tomorrow’s ep, but that ending caption of them saying their goodbyes as Baek Heeseong and Cha Jiwon stabbed me in the heart. No. Please don’t break up my couple. It hurts. T_T

[inkedstarlight]

If you’re taking prompts then “we’re not supposed to be doing this kiss” and “against the wall kiss” for feysand please! Also please could you tag me in your writing, i love it!

Feyre was caught off guard when a hand grabbed her arm and tugged her into the nearest empty classroom. “What the fuck?” she exclaimed, shocked yet unsurprised to see Rhysand closing the door behind them. He turned to face her, his lips curved into a frown. “Mr. Nichols, what are you doing? I have a class to teach in fifteen minutes.” Feyre had been teaching at Velaris Elementary School for about two years. She met Rhysand Nichols just seven months ago when he was hired as a second grade teacher. During his “Welcome to Velaris” party (the principal prided himself on his parties), Rhysand introduced himself to the whole staff. The female teachers swooned over the attractive and young teacher. He paid them no mind that day, instead approaching Feyre with a slight smirk. They made small talk until the party ended and everyone parted ways to go home.  Rhysand was quiet around most of the staff, though respectful at all times. But with Feyre, he was different. Goofy, outgoing... flirtatious. Whenever they crossed paths during the school day, he would be sure to stop and talk with her. He managed to fit a cheesy pick-up line in every conversation they had.  When they had staff meetings, the two of them would share glances throughout the whole hour.  During their lunch break in the staff room, Rhysand began sitting next to Feyre. He had a tin Superman lunch box and it was fucking adorable.  And from what Feyre had heard, he was a wonderful teacher. All the kids gushed abut him, even those who didn’t even have him. Even her kids! Those traitors. After a few months of Rhysand working at Velaris, they exchanged phone numbers. They quickly got in the routine of texting every day after school ended and calling on the weekends. The more Feyre got to know him, the more attracted she became. But even though they became close on the phone, they remained professional at work. Well, sort of. They weren’t quite professional when Rhysand brushed his fingers against hers. Or when he stood so close to her that she smelled his intoxicating scent of pinewood and snow. Or when she was making coffee in the staff room and he reached over her to get packets of sugar. Unfortunately, their boss was strict on work relationships. And the last thing Feyre needed - or wanted - was to get fired. She couldn’t risk that. So when Rhysand kissed Feyre for the first time last week, she immediately shut him off. She stopped talking to him. She avoided him to the best of her abilities on school days. She didn’t answer his calls, didn’t listen to his voice messages. They hadn’t spoken in a week. And now here they were. In an empty classroom with nowhere to go. “Mr. Nichols, I really need to go,” Feyre insisted. She couldn’t stand looking at the hurt on his face. “Why do you keep calling me that?” Rhysand asked incredulously.  “It’s professional.” “There’s nothing here,” he gestured between them, “that is remotely professional!” “We can’t do this, Rhysand.” He shook his head. “Bullshit. Tell me you don’t want this. Look me in the eye and say it." Feyre said nothing. She couldn’t lie. She wanted Rhys, there was no denying that. “I can’t.” Rhysand’s eyes flared as he stormed towards her. He backed her up against the wall, his hands cupping her cheeks as she looked up at him. When their eyes met, Rhysand crushed his lips against hers with reckless abandon. Feyre moaned in response. She grabbed at his waist to pull him closer. Deepening the kiss, she invited his tongue into her mouth with pleasure. Rhys growled as they kissed each other like they were never going to stop. “We’re not going to be fired, you know,” Rhys told her between kisses. “We just have to fill out one of those ‘we’re in a relationship’ forms for HR.” Feyre pushed him away slightly. She raised a brow. “Really? How do you know?” Rhys smirked. “I already got the forms from Principal Higgins.” Feyre’s jaw fell to the ground, but it quickly formed into a grin. “You’re amazing.” She kissed him softly, Rhysand’s strong hands running through her hair as they celebrated together.  The bell sounded, signaling the end of fourth period. Rhys backed away, and Feyre slipped out of his reach.  They were breathing heavily, staring at each other with intense eyes.  “I -” Feyre started, but she was quickly interrupted when the door opened. A group of kids stood in the doorway. All of them wore shit-eating grins when they saw both their teachers alone in the room. “Mr. Nichols liiiiikes Miss Archeron!” a little girl squealed. She clapped her hands with excitement. Feyre looked at Rhys with wide eyes. But instead of looking as shocked as her, Rhys was smiling back at the students. “I think you guys have it the wrong way,” Rhys said coyly. He leaned in to whisper-shout, “Miss Archeron has a crush on me.” This time, all of the kids laughed and clapped their hands. When Rhys looked back at me, Feyre was glaring daggers at him.  He gave her a wink.

(Sorry for the delayed response! I also apologize if this isn’t great. I kind of just flowed with the idea but idk if I executed it great)

[valkyrieelysia18]

RWBY Rewrite: Penny Polendina

Salutations Tumblr users! Today, we tackle beloved fan favorite robot girl Penny Polendina.

Now as I stated before, I dropped RWBY after Volume 6 and didn’t really watch Volume 7. I have however heard about certain developments and one plot point made me grateful I got out earlier or I would have rage quit this Volume anyway.

They brought back Penny, with all her memories completely intact.

This destroys one of the best pieces of writing in the show. Penny’s death was meant to symbolize the death of innocence in the show and it led in to the Fall of Beacon as well as Pyrrha’s death. Up until now, the show had been treating it as if a real girl had died. Vexed Viewer on YouTube has done a video on the topic that explains this better than I could. Even if they were going to bring Penny back in some way, she shouldn’t have been exactly the same as if nothing happened. Such as her memory of Vale (and everyone she met) being completely gone or her personality being significantly changed she isn’t even the same person anymore.

So, in this post I am going to be going over her history, role in the plot, and ‘successor’ for the Atlas Arc. 

Creation and History

Okay, slight can of worms, but if Doctor Polendina is black, why is his daughter one of the most obviously white characters of the cast?

Alright, there actually is a legitimate reason for that in this rewrite. Penny’s physical features are actually based on Pietro’s late wife Clara Polendina (reference to the Nutcracker ballet) who worked with her husband. The two were very much happy and in love, but Clara died in a Grimm attack before they could have children. Thus, Penny is basically the daughter Pietro never got to have with her. Clara won’t come up that much in the Rewrite, but she was close to both of her husband’s prized students Arthur Watts and Willow Schnee. Arthur would note the resemblance and bring it up during his final confrontation with the doctor (This is what you ruined my life for as well as countless others?! Clara would be ashamed.) Willow would also bring it up and notice the similarities in both Penny and her successor.

However, the Atlas military and Ironwood’s desires to build something like Penny is less heartwarming. There was the original desire of making stronger robots for mass production to protect humans that evolved into infiltration and espionage purposes. But James Ironwood would see Polendina’s plans and see an immense opportunity. A young woman who would never age or die. An individual that they would never have to worry about running away or disobeying orders. Such a person becoming a Maiden would mean that they would never have to worry about the transfer process ever again. That would explain why Penny said that it would be her job to save the world one day, but they don’t think she’s ready for it yet. She is Ironwood’s hope for the future of the Maidens. And just in case she isn’t perfected in time for the next transfer, Winter is being trained and kept in reserve. Ironwood would provide all of the materials Pietro could need, including a crystalized substance that no one knows much about other than it being a classified by the military. It’s source  will be noted in a spoiler’s section in this post, but it’s the very thing finally got things to work.

But while Pietro is aware something is up and suspicious of Ironwood’s intentions, he loves his little robot daughter regardless. There will be some flashbacks involving her first days awake (showing her curiosity and determination) as well as her bidding her father good bye when she leaves for the Vytal Festival. 

Vale

The only thing I’d really change about Penny in the Vale Arc is giving her more time to interact with the cast, especially Ruby. What we got was okay, but I think it would be much more impactful if Ruby got to spend more time with Penny before her death. I’d definitely like it if Penny would bring up her father during their conversations, saying she was sure that two of them would get along given how much Ruby likes weapons.

It might be also nice for Pyrrha to feel a little off by her sensing all the metal when they first meet, but not realize why or how important that is. Just bit of foreshadowing.

Pelia

So, as you might have guessed by now, Penny will stay dead in this Rewrite. With the kind of story and tone I’m working with, it’s important that there is legitimate consequences to events and actions of the characters. As such, characters who died will stay dead. They may be referenced, appear in flashbacks, haunt our characters’ dreams, perhaps having a spirit linger with unfinished business to help the main characters on their path, but there is no chance of resurrection.

Not that Pietro wasn’t thinking along the same lines as others had considering Penny is a robot. They did manage to retrieve her body and core, but when he managed to build a new body, reboot, and restart, it wasn’t Penny greeting him. Rather, it was a completely personality. And they did not recognize anything or anyone. Pietro was devastated.

Thus I introduce Pelia Polendina, or Pelly. This is reference to the Coppelia ballet that actually includes a toy inventor trying bring a doll to life that he calls a daughter, much like Pinocchio. Only instead of magic bringing a puppet to life, the inventor tries to bring Coppelia to life by stealing a human soul and putting it in the doll. Quite the dark contrast and is actually going to be a bit of foreshadowing. I will say her appearance is actually pretty similar to Penny’s redesign with longer hair, though I would picture her more similar to dishwasher 1910′s design in https://www.deviantart.com/dishwasher1910/art/penny3-0-SD-758463321 . Check them out on DeviantArt, their work is amazing.

Pelia is considerably different than Penny. Whereas Penny was bright, enthusiastic, and rather trusting; Pelly is subdued, talks very mechanically, and is significantly less naïve. While Penny longed to be a part of something greater and be with humans despite her lack of social skills, Pelly avoids most people and is afraid of what Atlas(and by extension Ironwood) wants with a robot like her. This is partly due to her finding about Penny and how the world reacted with the Fall of Beacon.

In regards to Penny, she feels rather guilty about being alive in her place though she doesn’t quite realize that’s what she is feeling. This would lead to her trying to find out everything she could on Penny to understand her emotions, learning about Ruby and the others in the process. Pietro is devastated by the loss and incredibly frustrated with her, not really considering her alive in the same way Penny was which given her personality isn’t that unreasonable to think. Pelia does care about her creator and tries to assist him in what ways she can, but his attitude towards her is not positive and as such she mostly stays out of his way.

Atlas

Pelia’s first proper appearance would be in the Atlas Arc when the group visits Doctor Polendina for weapons repairs after their meeting with Ironwood doesn’t go well and the good doctor isn’t the on the best terms with the General at present. The man is not pleased or in the mood to humor them, though he does defrost a little when Ruby shows her geeky know how on weapons. (He may have also said some rather terrible things about Pyrrha which made the group somewhat grateful JNR wasn’t there.) As the group leaves the building and goes on their way, Ruby looks up to the upstairs window as she feels she’s being watched. She doesn’t see anything, but as she turns and walks away Pelia comes into view from the window. Having recognized who the people who just visited were, Pelly sneaks out and follows the group in the secret for a while.

She finally gets revealed while the group is watching Weiss dance ballet at a Mantle Community Theater. The Atlas Arc is primarily Weiss centric and part of her Arc in proving herself as worthy of the Schnee name will have her prove herself to people of Mantle. One such instance will have her helping out at the community theatre in learning and teaching dance. It’s in which she is showing off her skills Pelia accidentally reveals herself to the group having been incredibly entranced in ballet (little show to her inspiration). Ruby at first mistakes her for Penny so she gets very emotional, only to temper down when she realizes Pelia’s not her. The situation is cleared up and the group gets more insight into the situation of Atlas as well as the strain between the General and Pietro.

Pelia has three distinct dynamics of interactions with the group: Ruby on Penny, Weiss and Winter on siblings, and Oscar on succession. With Ruby, Pelia gets to know more about Penny as a person and Ruby gets a chance to fully process her loss. Pelia’s not Penny, but she comes to appreciate her all the same. Ruby also comes up with Yang in regards to sibling interactions, but Pelia’s focus in this case is more on the Schnee siblings. She’s basically wondering what sisters act like and whether Penny would have seen her as a sister. This lets her get some ballet lessons from Weiss as well as close to Winter. Then there’s her relationship with Oscar with the two of them having to deal with their predecessors and the problems they’ve let them to deal with. The both of them come to realize through talking with each other is that they shouldn’t compare themselves to those who came before. They have their own views and ways of doing things different from their predecessors and that’s not necessarily a bad thing. The only thing they can do is do things the best THEY can.

The big turning point in the Atlas Arc for Pelia is when Pietro finds out abut the Winter Maiden and what Ironwood’s original plans were.  While I am majorly rewriting the Atlas Arc, I do actually like the idea of an old Winter Maiden who is on her last legs. Pietro doesn’t get all the details of course, but it gives him the idea that the magic could bring Penny back to life. Aside from the whole ‘Dead means dead’ world I’m working with, it’s also a way to show that magic that cannot bring back the dead. I know that’s very much true in the show though not directly stated, but here I want to lay the ground rules down on what magic is and is not capable of.

After being called back by Pietro and assisting him in breaking into the facility where the transfer is soon to take place, the two enter the room that was originally prepped for Winter (who is distracted with everyone else on things going wrong due to Pietro’s interference) with the old woman in the pod. Pietro has explained things and orders Pelia to get in the other pod. Pelia doesn’t move, having been conflicted during this entre plan which shows all over her face. The doctor orders again, much firmer this time.  A few moments pass as she thinks it over; fear, doubt, determination all playout in her expressions. Finally, she speaks. “No.”

While Pelia may have been built to be a weapon, she still has free will. Unlike Penny who accepted her role without many doubts, Pelia rejects that her only purpose is to be someone’s tool of war. She wants to help others, but she doesn’t want to fight. I think that if you bring choice into a story as a main theme, you also have to give the characters the choice not to fight, to walk away even if they don’t actually do it. Above all, Pelia doesn’t think that sacrificing others for herself is what Penny would have wanted after having met Ruby and gotten to know what she was like. 

She would tell this to Pietro, who would get furious and argue with her. this would continue until they were interrupted by Watts. Watts, with revenge on the brain, would focus on Doctor Polendina and tell Pelia to run along. I know this seems a little hypocritical for Watts to do this considering his advice to Cinder in Volume 5, but this a different situation. Spoilers for the future Atlas Arc Rewrite and future James Ironwood post, go to the next paragraph if you don’t want spoilers. You see, the villains don’t need the Winter Maiden to open the Vault for them because Ironwood already took the Relic of Creation out of the Vault years ago (and is NOT holding up Atlas). In fact, a bit of the power from the staff was used to create Penny  which was the the crystalized substance. Watts knows this due to his hacking Ironwood’s system and has already retrieved the Relic and sent it on the way to Salem. This will make the results in Atlas a lot more bittersweet: our heroes will win on the people’s side of things, but lose the Relic. Back to Watts, the man is all about efficiency. While the Winter Maiden’s powers would be nice, they don’t have a vessel for it at the moment and it’s not necessary for their primary goal. Once the business side of things is taken care of, then he’ll indulge in revenge.

Pelia, while conflicted, would run and get to the group to tell them everything. She would then spend the rest of the conflicting helping to escort and treat the wounded, giving her a presence to the people of Atlas. Pietro will be arrested and will be convicted for his crimes, Watts dead but having gotten the last laugh in the end with his technological abilities exposing his teacher and those who left him out to dry.

Once everything is settled, Pelly will stay behind in Atlas as the new right hand of new Headmistress Winter Schnee. Basically, she becomes the Glynda to Winter’s Ozpin (though Winter is a much more hands on no nonsense person). She bids the group goodbye, hoping to Ruby that they will meet again.

After Atlas

I don’t have much in mind for Pelia after the Atlas Arc except for two things. Firstly, that she and Pietro do eventually reconcile and develop something of a relationship when she visits him in prison on her off days. (Jacques is not so lucky in regards to his children.)

The second is when she and Winter will meet everyone at the lowest point of the story. Ruby will have learned some pretty dark truths, including some choices her mother made that’s really made her think. Pelia will actually have a similar conversation with Ruby that she had with Oscar. In how she’s no more Penny than Ruby is Summer. She’ll remark that perhaps Ruby put her mother on a bit too much of a pedestal thanks to the way her family viewed her. When in reality Summer was just a person and people make mistakes. Right now, what choices Summer made in the past aren’t what matters. What matters is what Ruby wants to do now.

Okay, I think I started before the coronavirus stuff went crazy. I am so sorry. Not sure when I’ll get beck to this.

However, I know the next subject is going to quite the doozy...

[dalamjisung]

hallelujah ❀ im jaebeom

genre: fluff of all fluffs

word count: 6497

pairing: idol!reader x bff!im jaebeom

description: you come back home after you left it five years ago to follow your dreams. Are things still the same?

(inspired on the song HALLELUJAH by OH WONDER: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y00Pkm-PnXs)

It’s been a long time ever since you went back. Mainly because hen you left, things weren’t good. And now that you are half-way back, you wonder how much worse could they have gotten?

If you leave now, you’ll regret this day for the rest of your life.

You’re not ready; you won’t make it out there.

Do you know how many people have the same dream as you? Do you know how many are more talented and better than you? Just forget it.

Those were the kind of things you heard on your way to the bus station, 5 years ago, when you left your small town in search of a small window of opportunity, harvesting big dreams in the big city. And for those 5 years, you worked hard; audition after audition, part-time job after part-time job, you somehow made it to the top. You were the triple threat: vocal, dance, and rap, all in one bundle of joy. Among your members, you were known to keep the positive energy going, always smiling and helping however you could. Being the maknae wasn’t easy, but you always tried your best to make your leader’s job easier and bearable. You were good like that, they would say, when in reality, you didn’t think you were all that good. Deep down, somewhere behind the sleepless night of training, and the invite hours of rehearsals, you still feared that your parents were right. You weren’t ready– you’d never been ready. 

Things don’t get better when the bus finally stops, parking carefully before announcing the last stop. You feel the weight of anxiety on your shoulders and on your chest, constricting you, making you smaller, and you can’t help but take a few minutes to yourself before exiting the bus; and there they were. You didn’t think they’d come, seeing that you haven’t properly talked in so long, but you should’ve expected it. They’d never forget, not your best friend.

“Yah,” You shout, holding the straps of your backpack tightly. You didn’t bring much, because even though your ticket back was scheduled for next month, you were sure you’d end up leaving before that. “Im Jaebeom, in the flesh. What do I owe the honor?!”

You couldn’t really see him in the dark; his hair was covered by a black hoodie and his glasses shone with the barely functioning post lamp– even then you knew he looked as beautiful and ethereal as he did before. You two met when you were barely 12, suffering through middle school and everything in between; your friends, yourself, your family. At the age of 12, everything seems wrong, and distorted, and unfair, and lonely; but not with Jaebeom. The boy made himself present one rainy afternoon, when you walked all the way back from school alone, mainly because the mean upperclassmen had stolen your bike and pushed you down to the ground. With bleeding knees, you make your way past Jaebeom’s house, just five blocks away from yours, crying silently, shoulders shaking gently. You didn’t want to make a scene, but you were sad and hurt, and you hoped that the rain masked your tears in case anyone saw you; and it kind of did, so no one that passed you really worried, they just assumed you were cold and on your way home. Some waved. Others just looked. Im Jaebeom screamed.

“Yah!”

Your head shot up as if you had just been caught doing something bad. Your shoulders freeze, partially because you were indeed cold, and partially because, at this point, you were just scared. You had been walking on your own for some time now and you were terrified that the upperclassmen followed you. 

“Why are you crying?”

And it’s not the fact that he noticed that caught your attention, it’s the fact that this boy was on a tree– as in fully climbed to the top of the tree– in the middle of the rain. Your eyes go wide and you start crying even harder, screaming for him to come down because he could die! His eyes roll– a nasty habit he has since he was a kid,– and he slowly climbs down, walking to you with small and careful strides, doing his best not to scare you. His efforts fail, though, because right then a thunder claps in the sky and your knees give out. The story ends with both of you inside his house; his mother giving you cookies while Jaebeom made you some warm milk with honey. Your dad picked you up, immensely thankful for kind Ms. Im, and telling your savior that he is a very brave young man, for someone that was just 14. Now, though, in his prime 25, you can guarantee that Jaebeom grew to be the man you always saw him as– and that he still rolls his eyes. 

“Come on,” He laughs, casually walking to you and opening his arms wide. “I deserve a better reception for coming to pick you up, don’t you think?”

You squeal and jump into his arms. The thing about you two was that you were always close. You met when you were 12, and by 13 you were already married. Fake married, but married still. Your parents always said that you two would end up together in the future, a failed attempt at teasing you two, since Jaebeom took it seriously and gifted you the metal ring he got from his favorite keychain. Your mom gave you a silver chain to keep that ring, and not that it mattered or that he could see anything, but you were wearing that chain as his arms raised you up and spun you around. 

You never took the chain out, if you were being honest. And you were– being honest, that it. You were always honest when it came to Im Jaebeom, so when it came down to accepting your feelings for him, you did with a smile on your face. Even though you had to leave, and even though he chose to stay; you never fought it. It was just what happened. 

“I missed you,” Jaebeom whispers, putting you down. “You have no idea how crazy things are right now.”

“Well, why don’t we hit the late diner and you can tell me all abut it?” You smile, wiggling your brows, but you knew that he wouldn’t be easily fooled.

“Y/N,” He sighs with a fond smile. “You’ll be fine.”

“Sure I will,” You shrug, nervously looking down. Your hand grabs his and intertwine your fingers. “If you’re there, I’m sure I will.”

Jaebeom snorts, tightening his grip on your hand. “As if I’d leave…”

You laugh– head back, hand on stomach, gasping for air kind of laugh,– and not because it was funny, but simple because it was right. 

You manage avoid talking to your parents, and you somehow convince JB that it’s okay, I can just talk to them tomorrow. You two make your way to your old room, and it surprises you that it still looks like it did when you left. Tiredly marching to the bathroom with your pjs in hand, you change, and go back to your room only to find Jaebeom wearing sweatpants that are a bit too small for him and a t-shirt that is bit too large. 

“Hot,” You say, holding your laughter in when he sends you a death glare. “Let’s brush our teeth and go to bed, I’m exhausted.”

Even brushing your teeth with him makes you smile– and not because you are in love with him,– but because you really missed your best friend. 

“Hey,” He whispers once you two are already laying down; him in between you and the door, and you tucked under his chin. “What would your manager say if he knew we slept like this?”

You just frown. You really didn’t want to think about it, because it wouldn’t be good. 

“He’d probably kill me, if I’m being honest,” You mumble, nuzzling into his neck.

Jaebeom just laughs. “Yeah,” He giggles like he did year ago, when you to were kidding from the grown ups. “My girlfriend would kill me too.”

You freeze, and then it’s gone. You are used to this; this feeling go immense panic for a second, and then defeat. You felt it for the first time when Jaebeom first introduced you to some of his friends from high school, and told you that they were the cool kids. You felt it because you felt him adding away. It was a hard time for you, when JB was in high school and you were still in middle school, and even though you two didn’t hang out as much, it all went back to normal once you got to high school, too. By then, you had gotten used to seeing him with different girls– girlfriends, lovers, friends; and so you trained yourself to just swallow the panic, and be happy for him.

“If she knew,” You mumble, before falling asleep. “She really would.”

Your mother is the one that woke you up. Just you.

“Honey,” She says with a smile, and you can’t help but smile with her. Her sweet voice always warmed you up. “Wake up, I made breakfast.”

“You did?” You gasp, and even though you were trying your damn hardest, she could see right past you.

“Yeah,” She smiled, pulling your covers. “Too bad Jaebeom couldn’t stay, I made his favorite.”

“Oh,” You say feigning ignorance. “Yeah, I guess so.”

“He told me to tell you he’ll be back in the afternoon, though,” She says softly, by the door. “His girlfriend called, and as soon as he has that sorted, he’ll be back.”

You just shrug at that. 

“He’ll always be back, Y/N,” You mother winks. “Don’t worry.”

True to her words, he comes back. Face in a scowl and frowning constantly, but back nonetheless. You can imagine what happened, but don’t really feel the need to ask. Jaebeom marches through the door when you finishing your breakfast, laughing with your dad, and he just walks up to your room. 

“He still does that,” You dad says with a fond smile on his face. “Even when you’re gone. It got to the point we gave him a key to the house.”

“Seriously?!” You gasp.

“He woke us up late at night a couple of times,” Your dad laughs. “It was just easier for him to have the key.”

You look at your dad weird and follow your friend, finding him laying down on your bed, face smothered by your pillows.

“I’m taking that your girl wasn’t really happy with you staying over,” You mumble, sitting next to him. You don’t dare to touch him, though, choosing to hug your own legs instead. 

“Girlfriend,” He corrects you and you don’t really know the difference, but sure. “And yeah, she got pretty pissed.”

“What’s the verdict then?” You ask with a sigh, laying down, now. Still not touching. 

Until his hand finds yours. It always does. 

“Either I break up with you,” He states, slowly, as if trying to fully understand. “Or she breaks up with me.”

Oh. 

“I see,” You say, smiling a sad smile. You pull your hand away from his. “You should go apologize to her.”

“What?!” 

His screech echoes in the house and you can’t help but flinch away from him. 

“What the actual fuck, Y/N?” He shouts again and you get up, rolling your eyes at him just like he does to you. 

“If you apologize,” You say flicking him in the forehead. “Maybe she won’t make you choose, you dumbass.”

“Oh,” Jaebeom sounds so relieved upon hearing your explanation that you can’t help but feel a little selfish pride blooming within you. You were still his #1. “You’re right; I should call her now, maybe we can all go for lunch, or something.”

“That’s a great idea,” No, it wasn’t. “I’d love to meet her.”

“Okay,” He shuffles to the hallway. “Be right back.”

In the end, she does forgive him and you smile, happy that he is with someone understanding. She is your best friend, after all, she says, and you can’t help but detect something off about the way she says it. Nothing trumps that.

You three meet at a local restaurant; a place where you and Jaebeom have been going since middle school, and you feel like crying when you see Ms. Choi again.

“Ms. Choi!” You exclaim and run to her, hugging her close. “I’ve missed you so much!”

“Ah, young Y/N,” Ms. Choi pats your back with the kind of love that only a mother can give. You still remember her there, holding your mom’s hand fiver years ago, at the bus station. She sent you off with some warm soup and her famous gimbap. “I missed you too, my angel. But I have that now!”

You look at where she is pointing and you see a small television. 

“Whenever you have promotions or award shows,” She whispers with a shy smile. “We all get together to watch you.”

And you shouldn’t be surprised, not about this. While the whole town told you you were making a mistake, that you shouldn’t go, that you weren’t talented enough, a handful of people stood by you, and Ms. Choi was one of them. The Im’s and your family were the rest. You realize you’re crying once her small hands wipe your tears away. 

“What is wrong, child?” She asks, still holding you. “It doesn’t feel right.”

“No,” You whisper, trying to control your tears. “It really doesn’t, Ms. Choi.”

“You know,” She mumbles, and you couldn’t be more thankful for her at that moment, for the quietness off it all was comforting in a while that made you feel safe. “The boy is the one that started our tradition. Said you needed the support of a family.”

“I really do,” And that’s when you notice your mistake. Not did; do. 

“It’ll be alright, Y/N,” She says, and wipes your face once more. “Now go to the boy and his friend, they are waiting for you.”

“Thank you, Ms. Choi,” You say, and give her a kiss in the forehead. She was old now, shorter than you, and your heart feels a little heavier upon realization. 

You join Jaebeom and Chae, his girlfriend, a few minutes later, when you calmed down enough to pretend nothing happened. Although he notices your puffy eyes instantly, JB is smarter than to just bring it up. He’d wait until you two were alone. 

All in all, Chae is a sweetheart. She treats your friend incredibly well and is really understanding of you guys’ friendship, although you could see the sadness behind her eyes– a sadness you’ve felt before, once you signed your contract with the label. It’s the kind of sadness that dawns on you once you realize that the thing you love the most suddenly has an expiration date. Is she planing on breaking up with him?

“Let’s go, girls,” Jaebeom says, interrupting Chae as she was telling you a funny story. “It’s getting late.”

You smile at the fondly, watching Jaebeom tuck Chae under his arms and kiss her head. 

“You guys go ahead,” You say, waving your hand nonchalantly. “I’ll stay a little longer and maybe help Ms. Choi close up.”

“No way,” Chae protests looking up at Jaebeom with a frown, much similar to his. “It’s late, Y/N; it’s dangerous to walk home by yourself.”

“I’ll be fine,” You laugh, genuinely smiling at her. You liked her. “I’ve dealt with worse.”

“When?”

You two look at a serious Jaebeom.

“Yah,” You sigh jokingly. “I’m the triple threat. Do you even know how crazy fans can get?”

It takes only a wink for Chae to burst out laughing with you. But not Jaebeom; no, he knew you weren’t kidding.

“Call me,” He says, knowing that you won’t change your mind. “Chae’s house is just a 15 minute walk from here, so call me and I’ll take you home.”

“Ay ay, captain!”

With that, they were finally gone. And you could cry in peace. 

It doesn’t take long for Ms. Choi to notice your sobbing figure and close the place early. She sits down next to you and takes your head to her shoulder, her small arms around you. 

“Talk.”

You do. You tell her about the sleepless nights of rehearsals by yourself; your unnies already asleep. You tell her about the pressure from management and the fans and everyone else that once told you you couldn’t do it– and you think you can’t; you think you can’t do it, because your body is about to give out, and your head is about to burst, and your throat hurts so damn much. You just want to be in peace, with your family, for a while.

“That’s what you’re here for,” Ms. Choi laughs. “To rest. So rest.”

“I can’t,” You admit, slightly embarrassed. “I don’t know how to not overthink. I don’t know how to not do what I’ve been conditioned to, Ms. Choi. I’m scared I’m not enough-“

“But you are,” She says, looking at you with sad eyes. “You are more than enough, angel.”

“I don’t know…”

“If you only knew how proud we all are,” Ms. Choi smiles. “Your parents talk about you all the time. I throw a party every time your group wins a new prize, did you know that?”

“No-“

“And Jaebeom,” She chuckles. “Jaebeom is the proudest. Tells everyone that’s my girl! Chae is an incredible girlfriend to him, don’t think we don’t know… but she’s not his girl, Y/N.”

That only makes you cry harder, and you are not sure how long it’s been, but you two are suddenly interrupted. 

“Eomma!” You hear someone call from the door. “Mom, where are you?”

“Back here!”

You could recognize his voice anywhere. 

Choi Youngjae. He had been not only one of Jaebeom’s best friends in high school, but also your first boyfriend. 

“Well, well, well,” You laugh, completely ignoring the tears in your cheeks, happy to see your old friend. “Hello there, darling.”

His eyes go wide when he sees your state; messy hair, puffy eyes, and s wide smile.

“You look as crazy as I remembered you to be,” He says and runs to hug you. 

Contrary to people’s belief, you two broke up on very good terms, agreeing that everything felt more like a very strong friendship than a romantic relationship.

“Good to see you, baby,” He says, still laughing. You two still called each other those stupid pet names, more because of how funny it sounded. 

“You too,” You sit down and he sits across from you. “Ms. Choi, do you want us to take you home?”

“No, you two kids enjoy your time,” She gives Youngjae a kiss on the forehead and the keys. “Just don’t forget to lock up, yeah?”

“You got it, old lady,” She slaps him and leaves; but not before putting two bottles of soju in front of your two. 

“Shall we call some people?” He asks with a mischievous smile. 

“It’s almost midnight, Youngjae,” You snicker. “Who on earth would come now?”

Turned out that Jackson and Jinyoung would; and that with them they would bring new friends, ones that came after you– Yugyeom and BamBam. They were both younger than you, and suddenly you were a noona. It was your first time being called noona and your cheeks blush with giddiness. 

“…and then my mom told me to break up with her,” Youngjae say, stumbling a bit over his words thanks to the three soju bottles he had, and the fourth one he held. “Because we weren’t meant to be. She was Jae-“

You cover his mouth before anything stupid comes out of it, and laugh with everyone else.

“Ah, we missed you, kid,” Jackson said with a smile that wasn’t funny anymore. It was nostalgic, borderline anguished. “It’s been different since you left.”

“It’s been different for me, too,” You say, torn in between trying to understand him, and trying to defend yourself. 

“Good different?” Jinyoung asks, eyes boring into your head. They had been your closest friends all throughout your high school life, and you knew you could count on them. But telling them before telling Jaebeom seemed wrong, and it felt weird; but you couldn’t stop your drunk brain. 

“Sometimes,” You shrug and lower your head, afraid of the looks they were giving you. “Sometimes is good, you know? I did it. I managed to follow my dreams and all that shit. I get to sing as much as I want, and dance as much as I want, and I even started producing for some groups in the label… but other times, well, other times are really bad.”

“Y/N,” Jinyoung reaches for your hand just as Youngjae wraps his arms around you. 

“I’m just tired all the time,” You say with a humorless laugh, and you finish your bottle in one go, ignoring the whining from the younger boys. “And I feel really lonely, and I miss home… yeah, that is the one that hurts the most. I miss home.”

“You’re home now, though,” BamBam offers, smiling a bit. “Do you think that one month will be enough?”

You let out a loud ‘ha!’ and finishes Youngjae’s bottle too. 

“I’m not at home, though,” You shake your head, allowing your shoulders to fall in defeat. “I’m home, but I’m not at home.”

And while the youngest ones looked at you confused, probably dismissing everything you were saying because of your drunken state, the others knew exactly what you meant. 

“I think that’s enough for you,” Jinyoung says with a chuckle, breaking the sad mood. “And for us, too. It’s almost 3 in the morning and even though you are on a break, some of us aren’t.”

You whine, sounding freakishly alike Yugyeom, and you two laugh at that, whining together. And this is good, you think, looking at the boys. This is as good as it’ll get, and I’m more than happy with it. 

For the next few days, you spent most of your time at Ms. Choi’s restaurant. The boys would always meet you there; either all of them at once, or just a few of them. Time would be spent either writing song after song after song, or by actually working at the restaurant. Youngjae, now a reporter, would always make sure to treat you to something delicious by the end of the day as a way to repay your kindness towards his family. He explained that his mother’s health hasn’t been very good for a while and both of you cried together. 

Coming home is not as easy as I thought, you say to yourself, while you cleaned a table. You think of all the emotions you were feeling since you got there, a week ago, and you only snap out of it when someone coughs next to you. 

“Haven’t seen you in a while.”

Im Jaebeom.

“Actually, haven’t heard from you in a while, either.”

“Don’t be dramatic,” You say with a smile, while turning to him. “I’ve just been busying myself while helping Ms. Choi with the restaurant.”

“You’ve always loved this place,” He laughs, and your neck hurts when you turn your head to look at him too suddenly. 

Just as you managed to get a good look at his face, you knew something was wrong. He has dark bags under his eyes, and his cheeks seem hollow, almost as if all the happiness of a smile had been sucked out of it. 

“Give me a sec,” You say and run back to the kitchen, where you silently warm up some milk and drizzle some honey on it. His favorite, always. 

When you come back, you notice him reading something. And your heart stops. 

“No!” You shout. “No no nonono-“

He is much faster than you are, though, and he grabs the notebook and raises above his head, and out of your reach.

“Im Jaebeom,” You sneer. “Give it back!”

No matter how loud you shouted or how firm you sounded, his eyes just wouldn’t stray away from the pages. 

“Some days I don't think my daddy thinks I'm good enough to be a superstar,” Jaebeom reads out loud and it physically hurts you to hear the pain in his voice. You know exactly what will happen, and you hate yourself for allowing it. “But one day I will show him I'm a diamond in the rough, I'll be a superstar.”

His eyes keep going, skimming over the lines.

Yeah, there's a crown 

Covered in glitter and gold 

I'm gonna wear it, whether you like it or not

“What the fu-“ He lowers his guard enough for your to jump and snatch your notebook back. Before he can cast his judgmental eyes– because that is what he is doing, judging you,– you take off your apron, quickly saying goodbye to Ms. Choi and walking out of there. “Y/N, stop!”

You ignore him.

“I said,” He shouts, and the way his voice gets you to stop walking is something you’ll always hate about him. “Stop.”

“Who the fuck do you think you are,” Your voice comes out shaky, but you don’t care. You just don’t care anymore. “To just… do that?”

“Me?” He sneers. “I’m you best fucking friend, that’s who I am, in case you have forgotten.”

“Oh, come on, Jaebeom!” You scream, turning to look at him. His eyes were squinted and you knew he meant business. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“You disappear for a whole week, and you think I’m not going to notice? You think I’m not going to see?” He laughs, hand covering his mouth in disbelief. “Yugyeom says hi, by the way.”

“Leave Yugyeom out of this,” You mumble, hands clutching your notebook. “I was busy, and honestly, so were you.”

“Oh, please enlighten me,” He whispers, stepping closer to you in a way that made you want to turn around and run. “How was I busy?”

“With-“ You bite your tongue before you say it.

“With what?” He basically bites at you. “Chae? Is that what you were going to say?”

“Maybe,” You mumble, looking down in shame. “Maybe it was.”

“Well, that’s bullshit,” He spits and takes a step back, and you know it is because he noticed your trembling frame. “You know I’d drop anything to hang out with you, so that-“

“That’s just it,” You scream, suddenly feeling as crazy as you looked; tired, fed up, angry. “You shouldn’t drop your girlfriend, Jaebeom, for me. It’s not how it works!”

“But it is!” You want to run to him, and wipe the frown off of his face as you always did. You want to pet his hair until he fell asleep, and you wanted to kiss his worries away. But you can’t. “It’s how we always worked!”

“Just,” You turn around and keep walking. “Just drop it. I’ll call you tomorrow.”

“No, I’m not dropping it,” He says, grabbing your wrist. You wonder what did you two looked like, and lovers is the only thing that comes to mind. “You don’t wanna talk about this, then fine! We’ll talk about something else; like, how about we talk about that song?”

“I don’t want to,” You murmur, pulling on your wrist only to have him tighten his grip. “Let me go, Jaebeom.”

“Do you know how much your parents sacrificed so that you could get where you are?” He mumbles, and every word he says is like venom to your skin. You gasp, trying to free yourself. “How much I sacrificed? Do you even care, Y/N?! Or is your perfect idol life all you can think about, huh, Triple Threat?”

And this was it. This was your turning point; no return, you think as you kneed him in the balls. You and Jaebeom have never gotten physical with each other, never.

“I swear to god, Im Jaebeom,” You say, shaking everywhere. “If I see you tomorrow, I’ll pretend you don’t exist. If you try to talk to me, or if your try to touch me, I’ll fucking kill you.”

It surprised you that you haven’t cried yet. 

Last time you and Jaebeom fought,– about four years ago, when you were still a trainee– you cried so much that even your manager thought it would be better to not have you participate on the schedule for the entire week. And all Jaebeom did was say that he was a little upset with you. A little upset. Now here you were, after kneeing your best friend in the balls and leaving him in the middle of the sidewalk, pretending nothing happened.

You sent some of the songs you wrote to your leader, and she said they were good and that she would pass them on to your manager, so that he could talk to the higher ups. But you didn’t send her the one that nattered; the one that Jaebeom read. 

You only had those lines he read, and you get why he got mad. But you weren’t lying; there were days that you thought you weren’t good enough, so how could your parents? But you did it, you kept trying and training, because of them. Because of all of them– your parents, Jaebeom, Ms. Choi, the boys,– all of them, that once believed in you. 

A memory comes back; one of you during trainee days, getting scolded by your label. Your moves weren’t sharp enough, your vocals weren’t high enough, and honestly, were you even enough? You remember crying for hours in your room until one of the unnies found you. Hyejin, is her name, and even though she wasn’t the leader, she was the oldest one in the group– she took care of all of you. 

Get it together, she said, passing you a protein bar and a bottle of water. And prove them wrong. There is something bigger and better waiting for us, Y/N, and we’re gonna get it, wether they like it or not. 

You still remembered your first award, the weight of the award on your fingers, and the words Hyejin shouted to the world: this is ours, wether you like it or not. Hallelujah, my friends, we made it.

Your hands move without intent, and minutes later, you have a completed song in front of you. Smiling, you look at the notebook, admiring your work. And then you are brought back to reality when a familiar voice calls your name. 

“Y/N,” It’s a careful tone, the one he uses now, and you like it more than the one he used last night. “What did I tell you yesterday?” You say, packing your things, while purposefully leaving your notebook on the table.

“You can’t even kill a fly,” Jaebeom says and rolls his eyes. Yugyeom is behind him and he waves excitedly at you. 

“Hi Yugy!” You say, laughing gleefully. “Bye Yugy!”

You make a point of ignoring him, even when he comes running after you with your notebook in hand. 

As you walk peacefully to your house, excited to show your parents the song you were hoping to have included on your new album once you got back to work, another voice calls you. Same careful tone, different pitch. 

“Oh, hey Chae!” You say, smiling.

“Hey,” She says and you can feel the awkwardness in the air. “Can we talk?”

“Of course,” You say frowning. “Did Jae-“

“Yeah,” She smiles sheepishly. “But that’s not what I want to talk to you about.”

She guides you to a nearby park, and you two sit on a bench, overlooking the kids in the playground. You recognize some people from high school and shyly wave at them, looking away instantly so they don’t mistake your niceties with an invitation to come over and talk. 

“I wanted to tell you that Jaebeom came home sobbing yesterday.” 

You flinch at the words, and you hide your face with your hands, embarrassed.

“And that if I were you, I would’ve done the same.”

“What?” Your voice is muffled by your hands, but you can see Chae giggling through the gap in between in your fingers.

“He told me everything,” She sighed. “And I mean, everything. From childhood, to teenage, to now. And he told me what he did. And what you did. I can’t blame you, even though I wish I could; it’s on him, really.”

“What are you talking about?” You ask softly, sensing the tension in the air.

“Jaebeom broke up with me last night,” She says, and you can hear the hurt in her voice. “And I think we both know why.”

“Chae, I’m so so-“

“Don’t,” Even angry, you think. Chae is such a sweetheart. “I’m fine. I’ll be fine. But please, take care of him. Yesterday was a freaky thing in you guys’ weird timeline, and he felt really bad about it. Yugyeom and Jackson came over to help me, because I didn’t know what to do, and they told him everything. Who knew, huh? Who knew that even people like you suffered?”

“People like me?” You ask, confused as to why you were being put in a different category.

“Yeah, you know,” Chae shrugs. “Stubborn, strong headed, incredible people like you.”

“I- I am not sure what I’m supposed to say,” You chuckle uncomfortably. “Of course we suffer, Chae. It’s hard, being away from it all– home, family, friends,– even if that was a choice I made on my own. I’m not different just because I got lucky and made it to the top.”

“No,” She says with a sigh. “You’re different because you didn’t get lucky, Y/N. You worked yourself until you passed out, until you ended up in the hospital, until you got stronger. That’s what makes you different.”

“How did you know all of that?!” You gasp.

“I’ve been a fan for a while,” She says, playfully winking. “That’s how I met Jaebeom, actually, talking about you. So you can see why this was never meant to be, right?”

You just nod, closing your eyes with a pained expression.

“Talk to him,” Chae elbows you lightly, smiling. “He needs you.”

“I need him too,” You say somewhat defensively.

“Never said you didn’t,” She shrugs and gets up. “I have to go, now… good luck.” “You said yourself,” You said giving her a hug, and getting ready to run. “I’m different, and not because I’m lucky, but because I am a stubborn bitch.”

“Those weren’t exactly my words,” She mumbles, laughing. “But yeah, you are.”

You find him exactly where you knew you would– laying in your bed, mumbling to himself.

“Stupid, stupid, stupid Jaebeom,” His muttered under his breath, face covered with your notebook. “Why’d you have to be so stupid?”

“At this point I just think it is a character trait of yours,” You say, getting his attention. Your notebook falls loudly on the floor and you frown at that. “Hey, that’s important!”

“Sorry,” Jaebeom quickly collects the book from the ground, putting on top of your work table. “I’m so sorry, Y/N. I don’t know what came over me and I just-“

“You’re sorry?!” You laugh, incredulously. “Can you imagine how I feel? I kneed you in the balls, Jaebeom!”

He chuckles, and grabs you by the wrist, once again; this time, though, when he pulls you to him, he’s met with no resistance at all. Your body tumbles onto his and it’s like yesterday never happened. 

“I miss you,” He mumbles, heart beating wildly in his chest, under your hands. “I miss you all the goddamned time, Y/N. I should’ve listened to you, I’m sorry I didn’t… and I’m sorry about the whole triple threat thing, that was petty of me.”

“I miss you too, Jaebeom,” You say, nuzzling his neck. It was a habit you picked up when you were about 14, having once seen how much he enjoyed it when his cats did it. “And it’s okay. I didn’t tell you anything, so there was no way you could know. I promise to tell you next time, though.”

“No, you don’t get it,” He says, moving so that he can look into your eyes. You can feel his breath fan your face, and you smile at that. “I miss you. So much. All the time.”

“Me too, you idiot,” You say, laughing quietly. “I love you, too.”

When he kisses you, it is so Jaebeom, so much of him and so much like him, that it doesn’t even feel foreign; it feels as if you two have been doing this all along. His lips are demanding, and they give and take, pushing and pulling back. He summons noises you’ve never made before, and you do the same with him, loving the timber of his voice as you swallow it. His hands found solace in your hips and in your hair, playing with the baby hairs in your neck, pulling them slightly. 

“Fucking finally, Im Jaebeom,” You whisper into his mouth as you two pull apart.

“Hallelujah,” He mumbles back and you can’t help but push him away, laughing at his stupid pun. 

You two lay in silence for a while, until you felt him move again, arms around you, mouth on your forehead. 

“Y/N,” He calls.

“Yeah?”

“Can you sing to me?”

You look at him weird. “Is this one of your freaky kinks?”

“I regret telling you anything about my past relationships,” He says, groaning in shame. You can’t help but blush at the sound. “But no. I just want to hear you sing it.”

“Sing what?”

“You know.”

You smile. 

I heard it on the radio

On my way back home

That I'm gonna be someone

I guess it was a song they wrote

Saying don't go slow

'Cause you're gonna be someone

His hands find yours, squeezing it to a rhythm you two create together.

Some days I don't think my daddy thinks I'm good enough to be a superstar

But one day I will show him I'm a diamond in the rough, I'll be a superstar

'Cause there's a crown

Covered in glitter and gold

I'm gonna wear it, whether you like it or not

His mouth move with yours, on yours, over yours. He is all over you, like you always wanted, and the final verse is left unsaid. But that’s okay, because you both know it and that is all that matters.

And I'll be singing

Hallelujah

Whether you like it or not

Yeah, I'll be singing

Hallelujah

----------

THIS IS THE LONGEST FIC I’VE EVER WRITTEN! what do you guys think?? I am have been obsessed with GOT7 recently and I felt like Jaebeom was the best member for this story line :P should I maybe make a part 2? let me know!

[moononmyfloor]

Review: The Tyrant's Tomb by Rick Riordan

Thoughts on The Cover

Well, if you've seen my previous posts by now you'd know that I'm not a big fan of loud and action-packed covers. I prefer classy, if not always subtle. But you might like it! See, Reyna is owning the bigger portion of it, which is a nice change. :-)

Ok to Low Points

Halfway through the book, I was STILL unable to "get" into the story

Literally, not much was going on for 2/3 of the whole book, which is very surprising considering:

The time between the release dates of The Tyrant's Tomb and The Burning Maze is the longest as of yet. Whereas other books within a series have come out within twelve months of each other, these two books will be released within eighteen months of each other.

.....and that even the most boring books by Uncle Rick had some silver linings here and there to keep you engaged. Even The Dark Prophecy had the gang arrive and settle in Indianapolis, visit the zoo and free Griffins and REVISIT the emperor. Here? Apollo and Co. escorted Jason's hearse into Camp Jupiter in a frankly insulting manner(more about that later), Apollo got sick, we see that the noble prophecies are being tattooed on Tyson's back, Apollo and Co. went on a lil' trial quest and returned, Apollo got more sick.🤷‍♀️ I was so confused I opened the previous books to see how far those stories had progressed by midpoint.

It got slightly better later on, but it doesn't change the fact throughout the 1st half of the book I just kept on turning pages SIMPLY because I wanted it to get it on with and finish the story. Sad.

2. The so-called Tyrant

I didn't see much tyranny, like...only 3 pages were spent in the Tyrant's Tomb and his company, bad old Commodus and Caligula had more appearances than Tarquin who re-appeared in the very last chapters only to get immediately vanquished courtesy of Diana.....yeah. That's that.

3. How Jason's final voyage was depicted

Uncle Rick doesn't write emotional crying scenes well.

People talk about peeing and pop chewing gum bubbles while delivering the hearses of valued, honored characters.

And I seriously wonder in what position and condition poor Jason's body was after all the drama his coffin underwent.

And based on the spoilery lines(which sadly turned out to be not spoilers at all) we saw in the Magnus Chase series I thought we'd at least get a Percy-Annabeth cameo in this, that Jason will have more of his closest comrades mourning and sending him off. Nah. Nada. Not even a mention of Annabeth. Then why did Uncle Rick mention things like Annabeth and Percy being at California and even Magnus joining them at their time of crisis? Utter puzzlement. And we were also robbed of Nico's reaction to Jason's demise, considering how much Nico valued Jason as a brother-in-arms and a friend. Let's not even talk about Thalia. Why, Uncle Rick? :-(

Which brings us to...

4. Plot Inconsistencies

Why do I have to talk about this in each and every book? :-( Seriously, why would you write about Percy and Annabeth going to New Rome to attend college and being broken hearted over Jason DURING the period of Demigod communication malfunction, only to have us know they have YET to travel across the country and when we meet them again it would still be at New York? And now the communication is working, proving that Uncle Rick conveniently forgot about the clues he conveniently dropped.

AT LEAST I'm glad one thing is consistent in the Trials of Apollo series, that when Zeus decided they'll stop meddling too much in demigod affairs at the end of Heroes of Olympus, he meant it and now it's super duper hard to seek a god even for dire needs, no matter how wonderfully (ill)timed that decision was, costing lives of valued heroes.

5. The Haiku-titles weren't amusing at all this time.

I found one fun haiku .

O, blood moon rising

Take a rain check on doomsday

I’m stuck in traffic

6. The whole Apollo-Reyna debacle.

I would say Uncle Rick pulled a clever twist by turning fan theories on their heads here, but it too way more plot space than needed and when he got to the "Gotcha!" part, I was not feeling it. For YEARS now, we heard abut this no-mortal-no-demigod thing over and over, and fans predicted it might mean Apollo's the one for Reyna. And when it initially seemed like it was the route that Uncle Rick was indeed taking, the only thought that circulated inside my head was; "Reyna doesn't need this completely random and unwanted baggage! Give the girl a dam break!!" But then he was like; "Lol nooo. You kids are wrong", but STILL I was not happy...well, for obvious reasons.

What's the point of this whole plotline? So unnecessary. I mean, the fans always wondered WHY exactly would Reyna think she needs a partner in her life, but now I see Reyna might not have had time to contemplate her personal life logically like WE had what's with her dramatic life. Of course the shallow gods would think her heart was something to be "cured" and Reyna never stopped to think that it's quite the opposite till Apollo provided her with a breather and reason. And to answer why din't she choose to join Amazons instead of Hunters is probably that she wanted to be her own person and not be under her sis the Queen once again. She'd indeed have the freedom, calm and few friends so she wouldn't feel lonely and bored with the Hunt. She might even choose to leave Hunters after she found herself in her own time. I get it. But the way it was dragged and executed was meh.

If Uncle Rick intended this plotline of Reyna to be empowering for female readers, in my opinion it was not. Yes, even a badass girl could have weaknesses, not enough self-confidence and wobbly life choices, but Reyna took too much time with her "Eureka!" moment.

It was funny while it lasted, at least.

“Lester.” Reyna sighed. “What in Tartarus are you saying? I’m not in the mood for riddles.”

“That maybe I’m the answer,” I blurted. “To healing your heart. I could…you know, be your boyfriend. As Lester. If you wanted. You and me. You know, like…yeah.”

HAHAHAHA. That Totally came from the left field Lester, even for you.

“Your girlfriend was pregnant when you had her killed?” Reyna launched another kick at my face. I managed to dodge it, since I’d had a lot of practice cowering, but it hurt to know that this time she hadn’t been aiming at an incoming raven. Oh, no. She wanted to knock my teeth in.

“You suck,” Meg agreed.

I mean, if THIS is not the ultimate deal breaker then what is? Apollo might have changed for better by now, but it doesn't mean we can overlook what he did. I for one certainly don't need a loveline for him in this series. I'm glad Uncle Rick drew(or at least seemed to have) a clear line here.

High Points

It took half the page count even for Uncle Rick's special brand of snark to return. Nonetheless I managed to find some good ones. Which is what matters, right?

1.

“So,” I said, making a second attempt at nonchalance, “are you and Thalia, er…?”

Reyna raised an eyebrow. “Involved romantically?”

“Well, I just…I mean…Um…”

Oh, very smooth, Apollo. Have I mentioned I was once the god of poetry?

Reyna rolled her eyes. “If I had a denarius for every time I got that question…Aside from the fact that Thalia is in the Hunters, and thus sworn to celibacy…Why does a strong friendship always have to progress to romance?"

Preach, sister. But then again I would have to ask did YOU have to swear to celibacy to prove your independence....which is sort of the point🙄..

2.

Even when I was a god and could speak any language I wanted, I’d never sung well in Italian. I kept mixing it up with Latin, so I came off sounding like Julius Caesar with a head cold.

LOL

3.

It was time to be helpful. I needed to be repulsive for my friends!

Which you're most of the time...the latter sentence I mean.

4. Don't we all relate? 😂

“O protector of Rome!” I read aloud. “O insert name here!”

5. And one more.

I bet Gregorix was wishing he’d pursued that business degree his mom always wanted him to get. Being a barbarian bodyguard was mentally exhausting.

.

Heartrending quotes.

1.

This was the source of all our communications troubles—one sad, angry, forgotten little god.

2. This was the wisest quote I saw in the book. The simple indescribable deepness of letting go.

“Good-bye, Apollo,” said the Sibyl’s voice, clearer now. “I forgive you. Not because you deserve it. Not for your sake at all. But because I will not go into oblivion carrying hate when I can carry love.”

Even if I could’ve spoken, I wouldn’t have known what to say. I was in shock. Her tone asked for no reply, no apology. She didn’t need or want anything from me. It was almost as if I were the one being erased.

3. I was saddened to learn about Julia's untimely loss, but I'm sure everybody had a meltdown moment at the following scene.

The old god’s face hardened a bit more, which shouldn’t have been possible for stone. “I see. Well. I’ve concentrated the last bits of my power here, around Julia. They may destroy New Rome, but they will not harm this girl!”

“Or this statue!” said Julia.

4. Honestly? I too forgot until Apollo pointed it out and then I had *shivers*! They're one immediate family, grieving over one loss that affects all of them in various ways, and having mixed reactions about each others the members who survived!

I shivered. How easy it was to forget that this young woman was also my sister. And Jason was my brother. At one time, I would have discounted that connection. They’re just demigods, I would have said. Not really family.

Overall Conclusion

This is the most bored-outta-my-mind I felt after reading a PJO universe book. Am I finally growing out of the Percy Jackson and the Heroes of Olympus fandom? Oh dear, I hope not. I can't imagine living without it and I'm SO not happy with this new development. Just as I feared, Uncle Rick couldn't keep it up after the excellent Burning Maze and now.....please, for your fans' sake who had been loyal for years, I hope at least the final book delivers. Just so we could at least part ways/go dormant with pleasant sentiments and a content heart.🙆‍♀️

[spaceorphan18]

Make Mine Music

So, Disney put all of it’s Animated Feature Films on Disney+ except this one.  Why? I’m not entirely sure? The Google isn’t being much help.  Maybe it’s because the first short is questionable in taste? It was edited out of the rare DVD releases.  I expected something explicitly racist but nothing stands out as such.  My biggest guess is that they couldn’t secure the rights to some of the songs, which is usually the case.  Who knows.  I expect at some point it’ll make its way back into the Disney canon. 

Meanwhile, though, all is not lost - I could find all the shorts on YouTube and other such video platforms.  Yay?  

So here we go, a run down of shorts you’ve probably not ever heard of.  

The Martins and the Coys - 

So, we kick it off with the most controversial little short.  It’s inspired by the whole Hatfields and McCoys thing -- which makes me wonder who thought that was a good idea to adapt into a children’s cartoon.  The story revolves around a bunch of dumbass rednecks who proceed to shoot each other dead until there are only two left.  And.  I had to stop and think about it as I was watching it.  It’s a cartoon, so it’s not graphic, and the ghosts all end up on clouds.  But --- this cartoon, seriously, had all of these idiots shoot each other dead in the first minute of this cartoon.  It’s incredibly morbid, and not really funny as Disney’s trying to make it off to be.  

The real ‘story’ is about a girl and boy left over from each family (lord help me, idk who is who), and they decide to fall in love instead -- except it’s stupid and dumb.  There’s nothing sweet about it.  Then there’s a five minute sequence of square dancing at the wedding, and afterwards, the girl and boy go back home, and still fight out the feud, because domestic violence is fun in kids’ cartoons.  

The whole cartoon is in bad taste, and I can see why they’d want to leave it behind.  Also, as a side note, the newlywed couple drive off in a car.  Which drives me crazy because this is the mid-19th century and no.  

Blue Bayou -

This was, like, a deleted scene from Fantasia, which was originally supposed to be set to Clair de Lune.  It’s literally just two birds flying around a literal blue bayou.  It would have worked, I think with the original music.  Instead, it’s the Ken Darby Singers singing a horrible song called Blue Bayou.  The audio quality doesn’t help it any - it truly horrid thing to listen to for five minutes.  But at least the animation is pretty.  

All the Cats Join In - 

So, the teens of Everytown USA dance to Benny Goodman.  That’s pretty much it.  I side-eye the fact that there’s an extended sequence where the teenage girl is drawn getting into and out of the shower merely because it seems the animators wanted to draw a nude girl.  You can also see the panties of the girls dancing, and there’s extended sequence where one of the girls gets upset that the animator made her butt look big.  Whatever.  Kind of opposite of the previous piece, I preferred the music over what was going on on screen. 

I’m also disappointed there weren’t more cats in something that self-identified as a cari’cat’ture.  

Without You - 

Unfortunately, it’s still decades before U2, and we’re subjected to this not great, depressing jazzy/Latino song about some dude waxing poetic, literally, abut missing the girl he loves.   The art is half way interesting as it tries to mimic the nonsensical lyrics of the song.  But the music was just irritating.  Again, recordings from the 40s, in general, don’t hold up well, but I’m also not a fan of this style of music nor this musical interpretation.  Sorry, Andy Russell. I’m sure you were a fine musician in your day. 

Casey at the Bat - 

I thought I had seen this one before somewhere, but the more I watched it, the more I realized that maybe I was just familiar with the poem.  It’s by far the most cartoonish and aimed at five-year-olds than anything that’s come before it, and I’m a bit meh on it.  By far the most interesting thing is the 40s comedic interpretation of the 1890s. 

Two Silhouettes - 

It’s two ballerina dancers (one male, one female) dancing to the title song.  You can tell that they’re live action people rotoscoped (apparently that’s what this is called) into the animation.  I mean.  You can tell that they were super excited about the idea of it -- especially, probably, after what they were doing with The Three Caballeros.  But silhouettes don’t really fit in (especially to the eyes of someone who is used to seamless CGI), and there’s a lot going on in the background, and most of it is not aesthetically pleasing.  Especially the color palette, which is kind of a barrage of colors that don’t look great together.  But mostly, this segment is just boring. 

Peter and the Wolf - 

This one I know I’ve seen before - most likely because it’s set to Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf, and I’m sure I watched in college to see how someone animated a short based on the narration of the music.  It’s the most straightforward cartoon so far, and turned way down compared to Casey at the Bat, which is a good thing.  It’s fine, it works.  Can’t say it was the most compelling thing, but it’s better than most everything else so far. 

After You've Gone - 

Another Benny Goodman piece.  I like Benny Goodman, so the music is at least enjoyable, and I’ll take the energetic pieces over the dreadfully boring ballads we keep getting.  The animation is the jazz instruments doing abstract things.  It’s fine.  The instruments on screen are reflecting what the music is doing in that moment, and while that should sound like an interesting idea, it’s really not that interesting on screen.  

Johnny Fedora and Alice Blue Bonnet - 

A fedora and a bonnet fall in love, and when they’re separated, the fedora has pines for his lost love until they reunite as hats for horses.  Thrilling, right? 

It does include the line: make your heart gay again.  And now I’m sad this isn’t about the fedora finding another fedora he can be life mates with. 

The Whale Who Wanted to Sing at the Met -

Well, I mean, ending on opera feels poetic if nothing else.  There’s a whale who sings, and a dude who thinks he’s swallowed opera singers instead of just being a whale who sings, because that is clearly more logical.  We get a montage of what looks like a meteoric rise to fame, only to find out that tragically the whale is harpooned instead of made famous.  I feel like there’s a metaphor in there somewhere.  While perhaps the most complex and compelling of all the shorts, I’m meh about opera, so I suppose I can just appreciate this for at least being innovated at the least. 

Final Thoughts: I don’t really understand who the intended audience for these shorts are.  Some are too silly for adults, while others are too drab and boring for kids (and lets face it - audiences who aren’t adults in the 40s).  

It felt more like the animators, who were scrapped for time because war, just threw things together that they were thought were interesting ideas, and nothing got really developed.  I’m also beginning to fully be fascinated by Disney’s obsession with the idea of parring music with visuals -- a theme in all of his films so far.  

I’m not sure any of this is outstanding work outside of mere curiosity from never having seen it before.   At least this calmer and, in a way, more enjoyable to sit through than the pummeling of whatever was on the screen during The Three Caballeros.  

[lightsandlostbells]

Skam Austin season 2, episode 1 reaction

Finally, Skam Austin returns, this time without Julie Andem behind the wheel. Honestly, no matter your opinion on this version of Skam, I’m actually quite curious as to where they’re going with this. Noorhelm, American-style? In the #MeToo era??? Will this season be a pleasant surprise and a sensitive rewrite of the original season, or will it just raise my blood pressure? 

Episode 1

Clip 1 - Less dance, more cupcakes please

Big establishing shots of Austin and Bouldin High, a “national outstanding high school” according to a banner. Abby talking a selfie with her girls. Tyler and his boyfriend sloppily kissing??? Congrats on being the first gay couple to get the S2 opening clip makeouts! Also, just gotta say, nice that a gay couple can engage in the same PDA as a straight pairing at a high school in a red state, although Austin’s less conservative than a lot of Texas.

Megan and Grace observe the makeout, as well as Shay sitting by herself on the stairs. Megan feels bad for Shay. When Grace asks why, Megan says she’d feel bad if Grace had a boyfriend. HMMM FORESHADOWING. Also, gay. Megan, the solution is to go be Shay’s girlfriend so she’s not alone. (For real, I have kinda mixed feelings on Megan and Shay actually getting together, because while I love their longing looks and hand holding, Shay betrayed Megan’s confidence in a huge way that would require tons of effort to repair the relationship, and I can only really buy it during a Shay season where there’s lots of focus on them. And I think it’s more likely they’ll give Shay an Even who’s brand new. But I wouldn’t object if there was a good story arc for Megan and Shay!)

Grace thinks Tyler’s boyfriend has a long tongue, Megan thinks Marlon’s is longer … well, that statement feels loaded. Like, we-won’t-need-Jonas’-Blue-Monday-power-walk kinda loaded.

Megan and Shay exchange an awkward wave. Almost a year later and things still aren’t normal, I guess. Shay fucked it up. 

Josefina has tried to do her own hijab, I guess? Zoya helps her do it properly. It’s really cute. Jo is my MVP of this show. I adore her. They need to make sure to do Shay and Zoya seasons on time so we can squeeze in a Jo season before they graduate.

Kelsey runs up. She made it onto the Kittens! I guess that’s one way to not have a dance team anymore. Some of the Kittens got busted for cheating on tests and got kicked off the team and L M A O obviously this wasn’t planned but I love this development happening now with the college admissions cheating scandal featuring Felicity Huffman and Aunt Becky.

Jo wants to tattoo Kelsey’s eyebrows, continuing the thread of her using Kelsey’s face as her cosmetic guinea pig from the first season.

Kelsey is excited because she can be on both the Kittens and the girl squad dance team. LMAO, so that WAS a thing. Did they actually dance??? It sounds like it. Apparently the team unofficially disbanded when Grace stopped going to the games and parties to focus on the school newspaper.

But I do love Grace being on the school paper; I worked for my campus newspaper so I am unreasonably excited to see where that goes. I’m assuming Noora’s Constitution Day article will become a column that Grace/(Daniel) writes for the newspaper?

Grace says she loves working at the newspaper and Kelsey tries to guilt her because it’s junior year and it’s the year colleges look at, you need to have extracurriculars. You can’t just be good, you have to be amazing. Well, that’s true, junior year is a big deal and the pressure to have a million extracurriculars is real. But lmao, newspaper is an extracurricular, as Grace points out. Kelsey thinks Grace needs more than “repetitive feminist essays” and OK, rude, and I also feel personally attacked. But if you’re going to get on Grace’s ass, Kelsey then what are your other “amazing” extracurriculars? By the same logic, wouldn’t you need more than dance teams? (I should not expect logic from Kelsey when it comes to dance teams, I know. Or Daniel.)

Jo gives this conversation the attention it deserves, which is minimal, because she has a cupcake. Her priorities are accurate. She says it’s the best cupcake in Austin so her search is over. Lmao, that Instagram content paid off. Now she should take on her quest for other top desserts. Megan can assist her in finding the best smoothie in Austin.

They’re talking about spring break. Kelsey needs to get her body ready, a hint toward her body image issues and concerns over her weight. Then Daniel’s voice comes out of nowhere to tell Grace that juniors can’t park in the senior lot. Grace says it’s not a big deal, Daniel says it is. Zoya, BLESS HER, is like, “So what are you going to do? Kick our ass?” YESSSSSSS someone besides Grace is not taking Daniel’s shit. 

It is downright uncomfortable how much Kelsey is trying to cozy up to Daniel playing hall monitor and how Daniel just ignores her when she’s right there to flirt with Grace. He says he hasn’t seen Grace in a while. At first I thought they did have their infamous date during the long hiatus - can you imagine not including that scene in a Noorhelm remake - but as it turns out, it still hasn’t happened. He asks about Grace’s boyfriend, and Kelsey blows Grace’s cover by saying Grace doesn’t have a boyfriend. Grace tries to save it by saying it’s her ex. So that’s how she got Daniel off her back. You know, if you lie about a fake boyfriend, that should be a giant clue to back off, dude. But instead Daniel knows she’s single so you know he’s gonna go after Grace again.

Kelsey tells Daniel she’s a Kitten and wants to take a pic with him. God, this is cringe-worthy. Someone stop Kelsey from doing anything. Ever. And it is so deeply awkward how the girls just stop and watch as Kelsey snaps some selfies of her with Daniel. In front of Grace.

Something super interesting in the comments: a few people commented how it didn’t feel like a Julie Andem clip. I assume people who recognize Julie Andem by name are fairly involved in the fandom, but I’m not sure how widespread the knowledge of Julie’s departure was. I wonder if they guessed it on their own.

Clip 2 - First rule of being an Eskild: never lock your door

Grace is cutting up vegetables for dinner. And dancing. I like they had her do this, it’s goofy and humanizing, and in line with her characterization from season 1. Noora would sing to Justin Bieber, Grace loves dancing like a fool. The irony of course being that Grace doesn’t give a fuck about the dance team, lol. She dances for herself and HERSELF ONLY (and sometimes Megan, when Megan needs a pick-me-up).

She talks to Megan, who is with Marlon. Megan told Marlon about what happened with Grace and Daniel, so errrr, thanks Megan? But Grace says she’s going to tell Kelsey everything, presumably about her and Daniel’s deal, so Daniel won’t have anything over her head. Daniel holding something over Grace’s head? Grace thinking Daniel might tell Kelsey something incriminating? Trust is an essential foundation of a relationship, just saying. 

Megan asks Marlon for his opinion and this dude clearly could not give a single shit about Grace and Daniel and Kelsey, he just says that if a girl isn’t into you, you just leave her alone. Not looking at the phone (and Grace) at all, just giving Megan some Looks, in my opinion. Based on later clips where he’s got a new girl, I think he’s trying to communicate that he no longer has feelings for Megan, but that Megan keeps hanging around and clinging to him. That would go along with Megan not getting it and saying maybe the guy doesn’t want to be left alone, showing she doesn’t get it (right after Marlon says “I don’t see why he doesn’t get that”). Also Marlon seems to be checking his phone during this chat so he’s not fully invested - my mind went to Jonas looking up other girls with Eva during the original version of this clip.

I will say, good on Marlon for knowing to leave girls alone if they don’t want you. Which is more than I can say for some characters in the Skam universe. Marlon’s probably my least favorite Jonas so this is a point in his favor, even if it is a low bar, lol. 

But also IDK if he’s being Woke or if he’s just swapping out Daniel and Grace for him and Megan and hoping Meg gets the picture.

Megan thinks Grace doesn’t want to be left alone and Grace goes into a rant about how Daniel isn’t her type, he’s not smart, doesn’t read, needs to check his white male privilege etc. Tbh it’s kinda cringy and on the nose in execution, like all of that is true and they’re solid reasons for Grace to not want Daniel, but I feel like they’re just stacking up ideas to be debunked about him. We’ll probably learn that Daniel is actually some sensitive dude who reads books and has political opinions and is a secret genius or whatever.

Grace notices her pasta is gone and waltzes into her cousin Eve’s room while Eve is engaged in some foreplay with her lady guest. Gee, Grace, that’s awfully bold considering you didn’t know what state of undress they’d be in. At least their underwear is still on … and Eve’s shoes … why does she have shoes on?? 

Anyway, LESBIAN ESKILD. Eve immediately establishes that she is some sort of hipster artist and kicks out Grace so she can go back to hooking up with her girl.

Daniel texts Grace that she’s cute when she gets caught, and thanks her for sending him her class notes when he was in the hospital. What was he in the hospital for? I don’t think that was stated on SM, or did I just miss it? (It’s on the Bouldin Beat Instagram: he had a football injury.) Grace said there’s no need to thank her because the teacher asked her to. He makes a joke abut football players not being able to read, which makes Grace smile, so you know ... she’s not so opposed to him as she lets on. But then he suggests they hang out tomorrow and her amusement fades, because that’s pushing things too far. We end before Grace answers.

Clip 3 - Why are we still talking about Daniel? Zoya’s words, not mine

They’re at SXSW for Marlon’s show. The banner says SX Sessions. I was confused as to why Marlon’s garage band would be playing here but looking at the banner for the event, I see something about all Austin bands, so if it’s an event featuring local talent, it makes more sense as to why Clout is playing.

A girl is talking to Marlon. Grace notices and seems to check in with Megan. Who does look great, by the way, in her leather jacket, her peer-reviewed ensemble. Megan’s still hung up on Marlon after almost a year, it seems. But also … lol, barely anyone wants them back together. They’re one of the least popular Eva/Jonas pairings. Possibly the least.

Kelsey is still talking about Daniel because he texted her and invited them to Penetrator Jo’s beach house for spring break. Grace is like mmmm … that sounds far away. I mean, would you want to be in her shoes, stuck at a beach house with the guy who won’t take no for an answer, where people will be drinking, where you probably couldn’t relax and even go swimming because that dude is definitely going to be looking at you in your swimsuit? Megan tries to help Grace by saying Marlon invited them all to a party. Josefina wants to go to be around mostly naked guys while they are also mostly naked. Kelsey and Zoya do not seem to be happy with the mostly naked part. Grace is like, we can just stay at my place and bake cookies instead! That would be my preferred option.

Kelsey wants some quality time with Daniel (is any time with Daniel quality time)and guilts Grace into going. I love that she’s like “We can talk about the dance team in the car” as if that would make Grace want to go. Grace reluctantly agrees and Kelsey tells Daniel the good news. He responds right away. He also texts Grace right away that they’ll be hanging out. No one notices the suspicious timing of the texts.

Kelsey wants to know if Daniel might like her, Zoya wants to know why we’re still talking about Daniel. THANK YOU. Megan goes off to talk to Marlon and block that girl from getting too close to him, like she literally squeezes between them. Zoya lays out what a rude ass Daniel was to Kelsey and Kelsey is like, but he genuinely apologized!!! And she’s a Kitten now!!! Kelsey loves how direct Daniel is and how he knows what he wants. Yeahhhh, about that. He does go after what/who he wants. It’s just not you.

Also, lol, they conveniently didn’t have to film an actual concert for this scene. 

Clip 4 - Newspaper time!!!

Grace is doing newspaper stuff at school with a guy (Nic) and Poonam. Poonam!!!!  That girl spoke her first line and I remembered how much I enjoyed her overachieving ridiculousness.

Kelsey texts the girls that she had a dream where Daniel asked her to prom. She was wearing her Kittens uniform in the cafeteria and Daniel came up, knelt, and offered a dozen roses. Lol, I don’t think Daniel would do that shit even if he did like Kelsey. But also … Kelsey. Dear. You’re so embarrassing. Being a Kitten is not going to make you a Daniel magnet.

They talk about the launch, so I guess the newspaper is a new thing? Or they’re adding a new feature? Poonam is nervous about the launch and what people will think of her. Grace says she doesn’t care what people think of her. (Or so she thinks ... I think Grace certainly wants people to think she doesn’t care and that she’s strong and independent, for example.) Poonam says if it fails she’ll pretend not to know Grace. Lmao, classic Poonam.

Grace slides over to Nic, the dude who’s there. According to the Bouldin Beat Instagram, he’s the cartoonist for the paper, but their conversation makes me think he does some graphics design, too. He’s listening to a Hamilton mixtape. Grace didn’t know he likes Hamilton, so she obviously didn’t see that Bouldin Beat IG post where it says Nic has the Hamilton soundtrack on heavy rotation. She brings up that her friend Kelsey likes the Hamilton mixtape. (I’m sorry but LMAO, because on the one hand I do find that totally believable, but on the other hand, my God, imagine someone with Kelsey’s level of racial sensitivity being a Hamilton fan.) Nick knows Kelsey and thinks she’s funny. So I think either he’s going to be the Magnus, maybe, as far as being Kelsey’s eventual love interest (although ... lol, see above comment about Kelsey’s level of racial sensitivity), or Grace will see him as a potential love interest for Kelsey and try to hook them up to get Kelsey’s mind off Daniel.

Shay comes in. It is instantly awkward. Grace: “I like your hair.” Shay: “It’s not real.” Lmao. I missed you, too.

However! In the most depressing development ever, Shay is here to see Nic. He gets up and kisses her on the mouth. It is bleak. Shay looks so not enthusiastic. She was staring at Grace in a pretty hard way, too, what’s that about? Did she know Grace saw her texts and showed them to Megan?

Shay’s “BYE” is passive-aggressive as hell. Grace sits there in shock as Poonam is like, they seem like a cute couple. LMAO GOD.

Just throwing this out there: best acted scene of the season so far, however brief. The power of La’keisha Slade.

Anyway. NOOOOOOO. Shayyyyyyy. It’s not unexpected, considering the trajectory of the Isak character in S2, but I thought, since Shay seemed to have an awareness of her sexuality at the end of S1 - she knows she likes girls and she was OK with telling Tyler about it - that maybe we could skip this stage. There’s something really dark about this, too, because Tyler is out there making out with dudes, it’s not like she thinks her friend group is completely homophobic (and yes, people can view gay guys and lesbians differently and have varying levels of acceptance, but I doubt that’s the case with Shay’s friends) so it’s not just about putting up a show for her friends.

What does Tyler think about Shay dating a guy? He’s not the nicest guy overall but he does care about Shay, and he knows she likes girls, possibly that she likes only girls depending on what she told him in the past. Now I’m wondering if Shay started dating Nic in part because Tyler has his boyfriend now, and Shay presumably feels like she’s left out, as Megan said. Damn. Shay needs a hug in any case.

Clip 5 - Cookie baking

Grace’s J. Didion (as in writer Joan Didion) sweatshirt is a nice touch and exactly the kind of thing I think her character would wear.

I enjoy Eve on principle because lesbian Eskild fuck yeah, but I also feel like her delivery is very ... TV-ish. Like someone who has watched a lot of teen dramas and is channeling the same flow/energy of how those shows present dialogue. I don’t think she’s bad, it’s not that, it’s just more when watching this show I feel like I am watching a typical scripted TV show rather than the very natural Skam style - not just with Eve, a lot of the show, even compared to the first season. I just thought of it with Even because when she entered here, it felt more like a wacky TV neighbor kinda entrance, like she was Kramer or something. Is that because Julie isn’t working on the show anymore?

Anyway, Eve tells Grace about some girl who is lighting dildos on fire and that’s the real story here, I want the clip about the dildo pyre.

Eve sees a text from Daniel on Grace’s phone and says he sounds like a blast. I refuse to believe this lesbian would be impressed by Daniel in the fucking slightest.

He did send a cute dog picture to Grace so that’s one thing he has going for him. Grace has a cute dog, too. If their romance was just them walking their dogs, I could warm up to that. Gradually.

Grace says Daniel is some stuck-up asshole and Eve looks him up on her phone, saying she knows him. His brother was in her grade, a wild athlete who broke records, and his sister had some tragedy attached to her. The mention of tragedy gives Grace pause.

Actually, a point in Skam Austin’s favor: if they talk about toxic masculinity and rape culture in high school/college athletics and how jocks are favored and get let off the hook for heinous actions, that would be extremely culturally relevant. I mean, a football player in Texas? Treated like a god. And there have been some high profile rape cases involving athletes. Daniel’s brother has likely graduated and gone on to college, maybe playing college football if he was that good, but it would be a way to make the S2 sexual assault storyline even more suited to American culture.

Clip 6 - Daniel’s going to be on Investigation Discovery one day, mark my words

The girls are at Grace’s house. They must have had a sleepover. There’s a nice nod to OG when the girls mention using a Ouija board the night before. So I guess we’re not getting that cabin episode (understandable because American school timelines would not allow for it, probably). Jo was afraid the ghosts tried to pluck her unibrow. NOOOOO GHOSTS, LEAVE IT ALONE. IT’S MAGNIFICENT.

Grace comes out with nachos and offers them to the girls. Kelsey looks at that plate and is like, shoot, I can’t do cheese, or chips, or beans. And I know this is Kelsey and she has an eating disorder, but like … people have legit problems with cheese and beans, lol. To her credit, Grace doesn’t make Kelsey eat the nachos or call her out. She offers to make Kelsey a kale salad or a turkey wrap, but Kelsey shuts that down, too. (She was also doing jumping jacks while the other girls were reminiscing about ghosts, just saying.)

Megan is upset because Marlon left her on read, probably because he has that new girl, not that Megan knows yet, and Daniel is texting Grace about when she’s leaving. Daniel then texts Kelsey the same thing. Grace texts Daniel to stop using Kelsey to get to her. Daniel is like, wouldn’t have to if you’d answer me! Grace says he’s messed up. I mean, yeah. He is messed up. Grace doesn’t owe him a response, sorry. 

While the other girls are talking, Kelsey mentions that she didn’t pack a swimsuit because she doesn’t like swimming, while Jo says Kelsey loves swimming, so another hint about Kelsey’s body image problems.

Daniel tries to call Grace and she declines the call, so then of course he immediately calls Kelsey. Oh my God, it IS messed up for him to do this. It’s so damn manipulative! (I know this all happened in Skam but we get to live this mess all over again, yayyyy.) And of course Kelsey is excited, but then he wants to talk to Grace. Ughhhh.

Daniel says Grace is messed up, and he knows what he’s doing is also messed up, but they had a deal. Oh my God. YOU NEVER OWE SOMEONE A FUCKING DATE. This is such a dangerous idea! You should always be able to back out of a romantic commitment! If Grace had been like “I will buy you something off the Taco Bell value menu if you apologize to Kelsey” and Daniel was calling Grace to be like “I want my fucking cheesy rice and bean burrito already” then I would find that more sympathetic than this. But dating is something you should NEVER have to set in stone, sorry, and I think this is where some of the split comes between Daniel/William defenders and his haters, because some people think a deal is a deal and some people (like me) think a date should not be ironclad under any circumstances. That mentality contributes to rape culture. (The disconnect between S2′s sexual assault storyline and William’s behavior is wild, tbh. But this is discourse that has been hashed out a million times already.)

Daniel whines that he apologized to Kelsey almost a year ago and that Grace made up an imaginary boyfriend so she didn’t have to hold up her end. No, actually Grace making up a fake boyfriend is what women do to get men off their backs because said men will not leave them alone and it’s a sad fact of life. Because men respect other men’s “claim” on their property (aka women) more than women’s ability to say no.

Daniel sounds like a goddamn serial killer when he’s all “just keep your word and go on a date with me.” Grace sounds downright defeated when she agrees. And of course when Grace hands the phone back to Kelsey, Daniel cancels on them for the beach house. Jesus, so we didn’t even get cute girl squad beach antics? Boooooo.

And actually, how shitty is it that he uninvited them to the beach house? I get that William uninvited them to the party, too, but that was just a party. These girls got packed and ready to drive several hours to a beach house, like imagine if they were on the road when Daniel called, or if they’d already spent money on gas and other stuff for a beach trip, or canceled other Spring Break plans with their families or friends to go hang out with these dudes. Beach house was a bigger time/money commitment for them than just a party, and he uninvited them (via a completely obvious lie that he took no effort to hide on social media) just because he got his date out of Grace. Selfish as hell, dude.

Jo complains that there’s too much girl juice happening and not enough sausage, and Megan is like, “You had sausage this morning.” Lmao. Literally all of these girls should embrace the “girl juice” because there is not a single viable male option so far. Nic from the newspaper seems nice but he’s bearding for Shay at the moment.

Good closing song, though (“Nail in My Coffin” by The Kills).

One of the best things about Skam Austin are the comments, and this clip did not disappoint. Some of the highest-rated comments were things like (paraphrased):

“Daniel is being manipulative” 

“Grace doesn’t owe Daniel anything” 

“you can see the fear in Grace’s eyes when she’s talking to Daniel on the phone, red flag” 

“Daniel sounds like he’s threatening her life”

And my utter favorite comment from this clip, verbatim: “daniel reminds me of those guys in criminal minds who call people on the phone and tell them what to do otherwise someone they love will die - aka a creep lmao”

Social Media/General Comments:

I don’t know what the big holdup was with S2 - probably having to do with Julie’s departure - but it was a big mistake to wait so long, imo. I don’t think it was great for building fan momentum, although I notice that the first full episode of S2 has more views already than some of the episodes from last season that have been out for almost a year (not sure if Facebook was hyping this season or not like they did with the series premiere). They’ve also minimized time for future seasons. We can get Shay and Zoya seasons if they get one in for this fall and next spring, provided the show is renewed for those, obviously.

Anyway, Julie’s no longer the director. The director is Phillip J. Bartell, who has a pretty interesting track record: he was the editor on To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before, Dear White People (both film and TV series), and G.B.F. Feels like a decent background for someone to take on Skam; he has experience with teen films and with more diverse fare than just straight white people. He also edited a shit ton of low-budget gay films, most notably the Eating Out series, including directing and writing Eating Out 2: Sloppy Seconds, and I have to include this excerpt from the Wikipedia plot synopsis: The five then start scheming to out Jacob, the closeted leader of the ex-gay ministry, to his mother by tricking him to have sex with Octavio, another member of the ministry, in a portable toilet on wheels. Jacob finally comes out to his mother (after he inadvertently ejaculates on her coat as his sexuality is revealed), and flees with Octavio. 

I did get more of a traditional teen drama vibe from this episode, and I do already miss Julie’s style of filmmaking: it was one of the best things Skam Austin had going for it. However, I’m going to give the sloppy seconds guy a shot. Although admittedly, this season of all seasons is one where I’m most apprehensive about handing the material over to a male director, no matter his track record. (Then again, a woman created Noorhelm in the first place, soooooo.)

I feel like Skam Austin more than other remakes has a large percentage of the viewers who watch the whole episodes rather than the clips, or who don’t understand the real time structure (correct me if other remakes have drastically more viewers for the full episodes than the clips). Each clip is flooded with comments telling the show to make the episodes longer or asking where the rest of the episode is. Tbh I find that really interesting because no doubt Facebook wants Skam Austin to be the hip new way to consume media in real time (I mean, assuming you have not seen the original show) but a large portion of the audience does not want to consume the show this way, lmao. And a lot of them cannot figure out how to watch the show! I blame some of that on the confusing Facebook video format, like the original Skam website felt so clean and easy to follow compared to Facebook’s ... everything.

Prior to the season’s start, there was a lot of SM stuff that set up stuff for this season, such as Jo’s epic quest for the best cupcake, Daniel’s car, the Kitten scandal, Abby is dating some football dude who’s one of Daniel’s friends, etc.

They made a point of it being Daniel’s birthday and him turning 18, I wonder if that will be relevant to the plot at all? Because now he’s legally an adult. Maybe if he beats the crap out of someone, like with the Yakuza guys, it’ll matter because he’ll be charged as an adult vs as a juvenile.

Abby’s new football player boyfriend is named Hunter. He has his own Instagram. I’m not sure why so much focus on this guy? I have nothing against him, just not sure why he of all people has an Instagram, compared to like Poonam or another supporting character. Would he be the Niko character since we already know Daniel has a brother? I guess maybe Daniel could hypothetically get in a fight with him over some Yakuza dude? Will Hunter end up dating one of the girl squad instead of Abby? Or does he not have much of a role except to be another of Daniel and Pen Jo’s social circle, lol?

Some information from the Bouldin Beat Instagram: 

Grace is a staff writer, Poonam is a researcher (???? do they mean copy editor? if she’s researching stuff wouldn’t she just be a staff writer since ... they all do research ...) and Nic is a cartoonist. And Poonam’s full name is Poonam Para, love me that alliteration. (There’s also a Sullivan Smith and a John Jackson.)

Poonam does write the advice column. She manages to include a reference to Frozen in at least one piece of advice, to no one’s surprise, lmao. 

In between reminding students about the 2018 midterms and an active shooter drill, the newspaper took the time to do the most important piece of all, Who Knows Daniel Williamson The Best.

His favorite movie is Dumb and Dumber which is not so subtly a connection to Grace’s IG name (Mary Swanson is a character from that film). So either it’s a thing they genuinely have in common, or he’s been trying to get on Grace’s good side. Or I guess he stalked her, watched the movie, and legit enjoyed it as Isak did with Romeo + Juliet for Even.

Penetrator Jo knows Daniel the best out of those questioned. Hunter does not know Daniel that well. Foreshadowing? Hunter’s a fake friend?

There are lots of horoscopes but I don’t know how to connect them to the characters since I don’t think we know their birthdays.Oh, except Daniel’s a Pisces, but I don’t know if him being so sensitive and “feeling all the feels” fits his personality that well.

The girls took part in the climate strike on March 15 and I do like the show acknowledging youth activism. I’m not sure it’ll play a huge role in the show itself, although frankly it would be a huge missed opportunity to ignore #MeToo considering the content of this season (based on the original).

Meg posted a pic of her with Grace captioned “me and wifey” and I don’t even ship them compared to other Eva/Noora pairings, but that’s just cruel.

There’s a text message and it confused me at first because Daniel says he apologized to Kelsey, and my eyes had glazed over that it was from last June, at the end of season 1. We get a rare glimpse into older texts that happened during a prior season - usually don’t see that with Skams, letting us see what was happening when the previous POV character couldn’t see it.

Anyway, back in the day, Daniel invited Grace for a picnic, she called him a cliche, they bantered, but it seems like she was a little torn about not being into him. He told her he apologized to Kelsey. Eleven days later he asks about their date and Grace says she’s in Dallas all summer and he says that wasn’t part of the deal. She asks if he seriously needs a date as incentive for baseline human decency, GOD, THANK YOU. A Noora finally said it. (Or at this point, it might not be the only Noora who said this. I’m still elated that Grace did.)

In September he texts her “shame about that boyfriend” so either she had a real BF and broke up with him at some point, or she just lied about it. I think it’s possible she said she had someone in Dallas which would be an easy way to keep up the lie. The “my girlfriend who lives in Canada” of Texas. And so that brings us up to now, where he notes she got caught and asks her out again. Daniel, fucking LISTEN to what she said about baseline human decency.

The girls’ group chat is Los Losers, an obvious reference to OG Skam’s girl squad. I got nostalgic as hell reading that, it was a sweet gesture.

I mentioned above that they didn’t stage the actual concert from Clout, which on a practical level I completely understand. But in-universe, it’s pretty far-fetched that there were no concert pics or videos from any of the characters on social media. I guess one of the hazards of Skam’s realism and social media format is that sometimes realism is too expensive to film, lol.

Daniel, Pen Jo, and their crew were all about the beach/spring break selfies this week so LMAO at how people were expecting the girl squad to chill at the beach later and just … that didn’t pan out.

Instead of going to the boys’ beach house, the girls did sheet masks, which is way more fun and also yields terrifying pictures.

If you got this far, thank you for reading!

[youcantkillamutant]

A Map Made in Heaven (Chapter 3)

Prologue...Chapter 1...Chapter 2

Author: youcantkillamutant

Fandom: Marvel (Black Panther)

Pairing: Erik Stevens/Killmonger x Black!OC

Summary: Erik ‘Killmonger’ Stevens is the biggest bootlegger in South Carolina, but he wants to be more than the middle man. After he receives a letter from an ‘old friend’ of his father, he embarks on a quest to find his homeland. Enter Audrey Cade, the finest mapmaker in the County.

Warnings: Mentions of slavery, cursing, violence, blood

Words: 5K+

A/N: Back with that 1920’s bootleggers AU that absolutely no one asked for! Thank you to @k-michaelis as always for the review and love! And thank you everyone else for reading liking and reblogging I love hearing what y’all think of the story :)

I only own my original characters of course. As usual Marvel don’t sue me I’m broke.

Listening to: The Long Way Around by the Dixie Chicks, Pay Dearly by Johnnyswim, and The Good War by Kimbra

CHAPTER III

June 12, 1920: Charleston, SC

“Are you done yet?” Erik sang this question, as he had for the past few days. The pair were in Cade’s Atlas, Erik watching Audrey paint broad border lines and etch forests into existence.

“Didn’t your momma tell you a watched pot never boils Mr. Stevens?”

“My momma’s been in penitentiary since I was six.”

“I—I’m so sorry.” Shock staggered Audrey’s words. Over the past few days, Mr. Stevens watched Audrey work. He was a fairly quiet audience, questioning her technique and methods not to challenge her, but for his own edification. He rarely shared anything personal, unless it had to do with Wakanda.

“Pigs take anyone they can.” Erik shrugged, but Audrey had a feeling it wasn’t as casual as he played it off to be.

“Do you ever go see her?”

“She told me not to.”

Erik could remember the day they took her away. It was the last time he cried. His whole world sat out on the porch, mom pouring lemonade and dad rocking in a chair. Erik was playing with something, though he couldn’t remember what. Sirens whined louder and louder as they approached the house. Erik’s mother turned to him, eyes soft.

“Don’t come looking for me.” Tires screeched on the pavement.

“But Ma!” Car doors slammed.

“You don’t need to see me like that baby. Promise me you won’t come.” Men shouted, boots pounded on the steps, N’Jobu placed his hand on Erik’s shoulders.

“I—I promise momma.” The pigs pulled her away before he could utter another word.

“Just give me another hour. I’ll be done then, I promise.” Audrey’s voice, low and cautious, pulled Erik back to the present. Audrey decided she was done questioning Killmonger for the day, and focused on the map.

When Audrey opened the note from Mrs. Kae, she was disappointed. It was only a few words, more of a riddle than a clue: Wakandan blood runs strong and rings true, but the key we are given glows bold and blue. Gibberish. Audrey didn’t bother showing it to Erik, but she didn’t want to throw it away either. She taped it in the last page of her sketchbook, returning to the page to puzzle over the words after Erik left the shop every day for lunch.

Audrey kept a list of notes on Wakanda’s possible whereabouts next to her as she drew. Mrs. Kae had mentioned the sea and a forest, so Audrey knew she was looking for something on the coast. North or South? Erik had mentioned that before everything “went to shit” he remembered his father taking business trips to Wakanda. He informed Audrey that his father would return with gifts from “home” for him and his mother the next day. That meant that it couldn’t have been more than a few hours drive from Charleston. North or South? Klaue had only mentioned a ferryman and the silent water. Audrey decided to interpret that as a fact that the bridge to Wakanda wasn’t on a rocky bluff. The closest thing to that description was the Francis Marion National Forest to the North.

The fact that Wakanda was unmapped is what made Audrey’s brain hurt the most. Even with all of the information she was able to pull and rationalize, Audrey could still be wrong. She could be miles off. Or the whole place could just not exist. That was the most frustrating part for Audrey. She hated to think that all of this work she was putting in would be worthless if Wakanda isn’t real.

The map had taken longer than usual because she was constantly fighting herself for trusting Erik’s word, a criminal’s word, that Wakanda exists. Audrey did her best to remind herself of Killmonger’s seedy background otherwise she might find herself beginning to like him. She began to make up outrageous stories about him to keep her feelings in check. Erik brought her dinner? He probably picked it up from Roland’s after punching a man and leaving him to drown in his own blood in a city gutter somewhere. Erik brought her a new set of ink pens? He probably found them on the black market or stole them from an art store three towns over. Or he could just be nice… Audrey shook herself from her spiraling mind. Mr. Stevens is a client, nothing more.

“Okay, I’m done.” Erik leaned over Audrey’s shoulder, admiring the map and inhaling her scent. Fresh parchment and brown sugar.

“Well then baby doll, It was nice doing business with you.” Erik reached to grab the map, a sort of listless sadness falling to his gut, but Audrey snatched it out of his reach.

“I’m coming with you.”

“Excuse me?”

“I’m coming with you to find Wakanda.”

“Says who?”

“I do. I made the damn map Stevens!”

“Yeah and?” Audrey was too busy flitting around the shop to see Erik’s unimpressed expression. “What about your momma? You just gon leave her with the shop?”

“Yes I am. She can handle the shop, she’s done it before. I’m going.” Audrey was out of the door and hopping up the stairs to her apartment when she finished. She dragged Erik along to make sure he didn’t drive off without her. “Just have to grab a few things…”

Audrey ignored Erik’s grumblings as she pushed her way through the apartment door, bee-lining to her bedroom and dragging out a backpack she had only used a few times. It was bulkier than she was used to, but she had no idea how long this search would take. Erik on the other hand was frozen in the kitchen. Sure, he’d been into women’s bedrooms before, but he wasn’t here for that. Erik was beginning to believe that Audrey would never see him as anything other than a client, but he wasn’t sure he wanted to test her limits either. He’d gotten what he wanted, the map was within his reach, but he didn’t want to shake Audrey either.

Erik surprised himself when he admitted that he wanted a partner on this trip. Someone to share the frustration in the search, the joy in the discovery and the disappointment should things go wrong. Don’t think like that Erik. Don’t think that shit into existence. Instead of staying in his own mind, Erik observed Audrey’s tiny apartment. The kitchen was covered in paintings of the world. France opening to a window over the silver sink and Greece crawling across the cupboard doors. The wood floor creaked as Audrey flitted back and forth, shoving one last shirt into her bag and grabbing her pencil case.

“All done!” Audrey bounded down the stairs, Erik following slowly behind.

“You’re really going to leave your mom?”

“I’ll write her a note.”

“Are you sure that will be en—” Erik stopped short when they arrived back in the shop. Audrey breezed past him, kissing her mother on the cheek and grabbing a few maps on the table behind her.

“Ma! I was just abut to write you a note.” In a moment of brattiness, Audrey turned to Erik to stick her tongue out.

“I’m going on a research trip with Mr. Stevens.” Audrey’s mother nodded to her. She had done this plenty of times, running to the nearest train station and hopping on the express to explore another state. It was all a part of the job.

“Alright honey. You be careful.” She gave Audrey what looked to be a bone crushing hug, releasing her after a few moments and turning to Erik.

“I’d like to speak with you before you go Mr. Stevens.” This time Audrey stopped short, wondering what her mother was up to. “Go on Audrey, he’ll meet you at the car in just a minute.” Audrey pushed down the embarrassment she had from being shooed away by her mother and walked out of Cade’s Atlas, refusing to linger at the door.

“Audrey is my only child, I try to let her do what she wants, but I’m still her momma. Now, I don’t know what the two of you are up to, but if you hurt my girl, there will be a price to pay.” Killmonger admired the strength in Mrs. Cade’s delivery. He even laughed a little at her last statement.

“Mrs. Cade, is that a threat?” Erik didn’t have to wonder where Audrey got her fire from.

“Of course not. You of all people should know it’s a promise.” Mrs. Cade’s voice dripped with serpentine sweetness and Erik’s vicious smile mirrored her own.

“I’ll return her in one piece Mrs. Cade. You don’t need to worry about a thing.”

—o—

With the map in hand and a tank full of gas, the pair of explorers could have set off that second, but Erik had a few things to take care of in town. He parked in front of Oakies as usual, opening Audrey’s door in a heartbeat. Instead of following him in though, she made her way to Junie’s Sweet Shop. If she was really on her way to discover Wakanda, she needed to see her best friend one last time.

When she entered, Audrey tried to remember every little detail. She didn’t know when she’d be back. She waved to the kids out front, giving their new puppy a scratch before making her way to the back. Junie was slamming a wad of dough down on the counter. It hit the linoleum with a slap and the scent of cinnamon and sugar flew through the air to Audrey.

“I’m gonna miss your cinnamon scrolls?” Junie looked up to see Audrey’s exaggerated pout as she whined.

“Why are you gonna miss them young lady? Going somewhere?”

“Kind of. I mean yeah I’m leaving for a bit. I came to say goodbye.” In all the time she’d known her, Audrey had never made a point to say goodbye to Junie. If she ever left, it was never for more than a few days and Junie would see Audrey at the shop the second she returned. Junie could tell that something was different this time.

“Goodbye?”

“For a little while I guess. I’m going on a research trip…with Mr. Stevens.”

“With Killmonger?” Junie narrowed her eyes, though her hands never stopped kneading the dough she was working on. Audrey flinched at the laser focus Junie had on her.

“Are you sure you aren’t eloping?”

“Junie, what? No! Why would you say that?” Audrey sputtered question after question while Junie shrugged.

“People talk Audrey. They’ve seen his ride at your shop all hours of the day…” Junie trailed off suggestively, and Audrey slapped her on the arm.

“We are not eloping. We’re going to find Wakanda. It’s a research trip.” Audrey did her best to emphasize the professional nature of this trip but Junie ignored that in favor of her own assumptions.

“I’m sure you can elope in Wakanda.”

“Junie! We’re not getting married. Now can you pack us something sweet for the road?” Audrey did her best to reign in her frustration. Junie loved to tease Audrey about any and all gentlemen callers she had. She wasn’t technically wrong, Mr. Stevens had spent a lot of time at Cade’s Atlas while Audrey was making the map, but that didn’t mean anything was going on with them.

Junie filled a small box with cookies and muffins and Audrey requested more, sliding a $20 bill into Junie’s pocket.

“Audrey! You take that back! I don’t want your money.”

“Too bad!” In reality Audrey just wanted $20 worth of sweets, because if all she got was that little box, it would be gone before she could blink. In the time they’d spent together, Audrey found that Mr. Stevens tended to eat most of her sweets. She was beginning to think those gold fangs were fillers for cavities instead of intimidation tactics.

Junie loaded up two more cake boxes full of treats and the two women hugged their goodbye. Arms full, Audrey crossed the street to Oakies. Someone opened the door for her and she entered the juice joint for what could very well be her last time. On stage a woman murmured about ‘hell, calling me home’ with a cellist by her side and some kind of electric piano in front of her. She waved to the bartender, taking a seat at the golden booth Mr, Stevens claimed as his throne.

“Killmonger sir, Ms. Cade has returned.” Erik nodded to his best bartender, Emerson as he gathered his bags. Killmonger had already put his club in the right hands, contacted his distributor’s and warned them of his hiatus, and ensured that Mrs. Floyd could air out his apartment every few days. He wasn’t quite sure how long this whole search could take. He gathered the envelope from his father last, and made his way to Audrey.

“Finished with your goodbyes baby doll?” Audrey stood and narrowed her eyes at his tone.

“What? The biggest bootlegger in the County doesn’t have anyone to say goodbye to?” Audrey’s tone was teasing, but for the first time Erik truly thought about it. Most of his colleagues were just that, colleagues. Erik didn’t do friends. Too messy and too much work. But, Audrey may be on to something. There was someone who had been on his mind since this morning. Years longer than that if he was being honest with himself.  

“There might be one person. If you don’t mind a little road trip?”

—o—

June 12, 1920: Ridgeland Correctional Institution; Ridgeland, SC

Audrey should really stop agreeing to road trips with criminals. The pair, well Erik, had packed everything into the car with ease. Erik barely allowed Audrey to carry the pastries to the car, and she wanted to kick her fluttering heart for reacting at his gentile act. Mr. Stevens could be kind when he wanted, but Audrey hasn’t forgotten that threat. She doubted she ever would which is why she was pinching herself for agreeing to yet another road trip with Erik ‘Killmonger’ Stevens.

Erik felt…unsure of how he felt. He tried to rationalize his choice as he sped South. Audrey was silent, reading some book about tides and sketching periodically. For once he wished she would open her big mouth and talk, if only for a distraction. Erik needed a distraction so he could stop thinking about what he was about to do. He missed his mother. Of course he missed her, but he made her a promise and he was about to break it. He was about to break a promise he kept for over a decade. All to say goodbye.

“Don’t come looking for me.”

Erik took the long way around. He’d mapped out a route to the Ridgeland Correctional Institution when his mother had first been taken. He knew every road that ran through it, every conceivable way to get to his mother. Still, he never once took it. He’d planned elaborate escape plans in his head, even thought of assembling a team at one point, but never acted on it. He soaked up every detail of the place, from the rotting wooden sign to the cracked pavement.

As he approached the door, he felt excitement bubbling up. The kind he remembered from childhood, when his father would return from Wakanda with stories and gifts. He was going to see his momma. He felt his heart rise at the prospect of telling his mother he was finally going home. He huffed a quiet disbelieving laugh at the realization. After all of these years, he was returning home. He felt closer to N’Jobu just thinking about it.

Audrey walked cautiously behind Erik. She’d never been to a jail before and certainly not the main penitentiary for the county. Audrey wondered if he was meeting with some criminal before she remembered the conversation they’d had this morning.

“My momma’s been in penitentiary since I was six.”

Erik pulled open the door with the kind of confidence Audrey could never muster when walking into the holding cell of the worst criminals in the state. She saw Erik’s small smile reflected in the window of the door as it swung wide. He held the door and ushered her in, and she watched Erik sign in at the front desk. They waited for a moment in silence, and then Erik was called to the front again.

He disappeared through a slate grey door with an old mean-faced white man following behind. Audrey found herself holding her breath as she waited. She watched the seconds tick by on her watch, doing her best not to catch anyone’s eye. She tried, but she couldn’t help looking at the families that sat waiting. Babies and mothers and brothers and sons all waiting to see someone they loved beyond belief, behind the iron bars of a shitty cell.

She caught the eye of a little boy unintentionally. He was staring at her, and she only turned to look at him when she felt his look. He was young, way too young to be in the waiting room of a prison. He had big brown eyes chubby cheeks and ears he might grow into. She gave him a wave and he waved back happy with the attention. Before she could do anything else, Erik burst through the doors. He strode through the waiting area, right past Audrey, and into the bright, hot day.

“Excuse me.” Audrey waved to get the receptionists attention. The white woman drew her blue eyes up to her face, confused and bewildered.

“My partner went back to see someone, but he just stormed out. Did something happen?”

“Name?”

“Erik Stevens.”

“Oh! Yes m’am something did happen.” Audrey raised a brow, encouraging her to elaborate and quickly. Audrey had no way of knowing if Erik would leave her stranded here.

“He came to see his mother, but she…well she passed away.”

“What?”

“He came to see his mother but she died here a few years ago.” Years? Shouldn’t he have been notified? even if he wasn’t next of kin, he was her son. The courts could have sent him a letter or something. There was no point unloading those questions on this broad though. She didn’t seem to be the type of girl with the answers, but Erik deserved something from this place.

“Did she have any personal affects?”

“We throw everything away after a year if no one comes to pick them up.” The woman got a look at Audrey’s face and apologized. “I’m sorry for your loss.”

“Sure you are.”

—o—

June 13, 1920: Rantowles, SC

Audrey was happy to see that Erik hadn’t left her stranded, but she wasn’t sure how to breach this conversation. In the end he opened the door for her, and they didn’t talk about anything at all. The sun was falling fast in the sky and Erik pulled over at a motel, got the pair separate rooms and bade Audrey a goodnight.

Erik wanted to shoot himself in the foot for the hope he let find its way into his heart. He should have known his mother would die in that place. Everybody dies there. Everybody dies. The fact that he let himself believe he might still have one parent alive was the dumbest thing he’s done in a long time. He couldn’t believe he was stupid enough to believe he could see her again, after all of these years. He let his self-loathing put him to sleep, praying to Bast or whoever the hell else could hear him that he’d wake up tomorrow feeling better than he did today.

Morning came and Audrey was up with the sun. She spread the map out on her bed again, feeling the forests they would go through to find Wakanda. A knock sounded on her door, followed by a command to be ready in ten minutes. Audrey was glad to see that Mr. Stevens could still talk, even if it was doling out demands. She couldn’t even begin to imagine what he must be feeling. She didn’t want to. That didn’t stop her from trying to empathize with the man when they were back in the car and on the road.

“If you want to talk, I’ll listen.” Erik gazed at Audrey for as long as he could before pulling his eyes back to the road. They drove for another hour, Audrey noting the sign for the city of Rantowles again.

“What are we doing here?” Erik only slid the clutch into park and let the automobile idle.

N’Jobu always told Erik if he wanted to come home, he should bring a gift. That’s why he made this pit stop in Rantowles. To pick up a little gift. Ulysses Klaue was waiting outside of his gunmetal grey building with a khaki backpack and a maniacal grin. Audrey couldn’t figure out why the hell Klaue was coming along and she “accidentally” stomped on Erik’s foot when he ushered her out of the front seat and pointed to the back seat.

“I’ve got to be honest, I don’t like the idea of being the third wheel on your honeymoon. Why am I needed along this little adventure again?” Killmonger had an easy answer for Klaue, that Audrey had never even heard before now.

“Audrey’s got most of the location figured out, but having you along will help us to be sure we’re on the right path.” Audrey wanted to slap him for keeping her in the dark, but refrained. Besides, you can only hit so hard from the back seat.

“Alright, I’ll come, I’m due for a vacation anyways.” Audrey tried to ignore the shivers that rippled down her spine as Klaue laughed and they sped north on highway 17.

—o—

June 13, 1920: Francis Marion National Forest; Awendaw, SC

Killmonger pulled into a dirt patch and threw the automobile in park. The trio of explorers hopped out the machine, Audrey begrudgingly accepting the assistance of Erik’s hand. She was still getting the hang of these clunky hiking boots, not to mention the pants. The three of them made quite the group, matching in khaki and burdened with backpacks.

“Does this look familiar to you?”

“It’s dirt and trees boy, I need to get closer if I’m going to remember.” Audrey noted the way Erik’s fist clenched at the word ‘boy’ and prayed he wouldn’t do anything reckless. She warily watch Klaue make his way to the treeline making an aborted movement to follow when Erik pulled her back, into his chest.

“Audrey.” Her head whipped around at the sound of his voice in her ear. She stared at him in disbelief. Sure they spent a lot of time together in the past week, but he’d never dared to touch Audrey.

“Hmm?” Audrey reply was distracted by his scent, and that was not what Erik wanted to hear.

“Audrey! This is serious. You need to stay close to me. No matter what.”

“What?” Audrey heard the urgency in his voice but couldn’t understand it. No, she didn’t trust Klaue, but they weren’t going on some crazy dangerous mission. For all intents and purposes, this was just a hike in the woods.  

“I made a promise to your momma that I would bring you ba—” Erik rolled his eyes as he was interrupted by Klaue.

“What are you two whispering about back there? Come on love birds! It’s time to find the hidden city.” Klaue nearly giggled with glee. Audrey gave Erik a look that shamed him for inviting this crazy man on their hunt for Wakanda but he only nudged her forward with a palm on her back.

Walking across the treelike was like stepping into another world. Suddenly everything was deeper, greener. The trees enveloped the group and Audrey was grateful for the hand on her back. She could get lost in these woods in a heartbeat seeing as they’d barely been mapped. When Audrey had requested the maps to the area, she found the only ones available had been from the parks’ inception. The ragged edges and faded borders had left a lot to be desired and Audrey noted that she should probably convince the state to let her redo the maps when she returned.  

They walked until the sun was high in the sky Klaue leading them north, then south, then west. Audrey protested each time he led them in another direction, but for some reason, Erik listened to Klaue instead of Audrey. In fact, he barely said a word to Audrey the whole time they were out there, instead using the time to banter with Klaue. It’s not that Audrey was jealous, she just couldn’t understand what she had done to make Erik act so cold with her.

Either way, she was sick of their shit. After lunch, she resolved to go her own way, with or without the boys. The trio sat in a clearing where the trees filtered the sunlight. Erik admired the way the light bounced off of Audrey’s brown skin and prayed she remembered their conversation. He had a plan, and she’d already ruined it by coming along. He didn’t need to alter it any further, not even for a pretty little bird.  

“Now Klaue, I think you owe me an explanation.” He pulled a pistol from his back, and Audrey stumbled back, behind Erik. They hadn’t even finished eating. Klaue glanced up, bits of ham hanging from his mouth and falling into his beard.

“Woah boy. What’s all that about?”

“Oh this? Just a little incentive. Why are you leading us on a wild goose chase?” Erik sauntered up to Klaue, and Audrey followed behind, under the guise of getting something from her backpack. She had a feeling this is what Erik meant earlier today when he told her to stay close.

“Boy, you better put that gun away”

“Answer my question.” Erik pressed the pistol into Klaue’s temple.

“You don’t want to go there boy. Those people are savages—”

“Wrong answer.”

Bang! Birds erupted from the trees, wings beating loud like the blades of boat fans. Audrey stumbled, falling on her butt as she gaped at Erik’s back. Erik, meanwhile took his time wiping the blood off of his pistol with Klaue’s own handkerchief. He turned and offered her his hand, but Audrey scrambled back before she scrambled up.

“What the hell was that? He was helping us!”

“Was he? He wasn’t leading us anywhere close to where you think Wakanda might be. He was wasting my time. Our time.” Killmonger was annoyed he even had to explain himself.

“So you shot him?” Audrey fired back and began to pace. “Oh lord, I’ve just witnessed a murder.” She whirled on Erik “You made me witness a murder!”

“You said you wanted to come baby doll.” He sneered the endearment. “Besides, we don’t need him to find Wakanda. You made the damn map.” He tucked his pistol back into his pants, and bent down towards the corpse of Klaue.

“So why would you—” Audrey’s voice gave out and so did she. She had no idea what this man was planning, and at this point she was too shocked to try deciphering him.

“You gon’ help or nah?” Erik was busy moving the food off of the picnic blanket while he spoke and the words came out muffled.

“Absolutely not!” Audrey was offended at the mere suggestion that she might help Killmonger move a dead body.

“Well you either need to help out up or dry up. I’m not trying to hear all that noise.” It had been a while since Killmonger had quickly killed a man, and he forgot how much he reveled in the lingering silence of a dead body.

“Whatever.” Audrey scoffed and rolled her eyes. “Once you’re done with that Stevens, maybe you can do something useful like help me look for the country you’re so keen to find when you aren’t murdering people.”

“Watch your tone baby doll. Don’t forget how easily I can snap your pretty little neck.” Killmonger didn’t need to be close to Audrey to scare her. His threat rang in the air between them while he wrapped Klaue’s corpse in their picnic blanket.

“Besides, any white man who’s been to Wakanda ain’t never had good intentions.”

—o—

With Audrey’s directions, the pair and some ‘luggage’ found themselves on the shore of a sandy beach. No rocks or bluffs, just perfect sand and calm waters. That was enough to bring a smile to Audrey’s face, but she couldn’t see a bridge of any kind. She decided to return to the tree line and look for anything out of the ordinary. This time, Erik trailed behind her, dragging the dead man’s body along quietly.

He didn’t touch her again, even when she tripped and landed on her hands and knees in front of him. He watched her fall, and she looked back to see him staring as she rose. Audrey glared back, ignoring the feeling stirring in her stomach in favor of finding anything that could prove her map right. She finally saw something where the trees kissed the sand and sea.

“What kind of tree is that?” Erik was surprised to hear Audrey speaking to him at all, but drew his gaze to the tree she was talking about.

“I don’t know, it looks like all the others.” It wasn’t, and Audrey could see that. Most of the trees in this region were lushly leafy and slender trunked. This tree was the complete opposite. It had a thick gnarled trunk and was bare branched. It almost looked like it was pasted there not planted in the ground.

“No it doesn’t. It looks like a baobab tree. Baobab trees don’t grow in the South, or in this country at all.”

“So?” Ignoring Erik, Audrey started towards the tree, palms out. It felt like a normal tree, though the bark was smoother than she expected. She stopped down to inspect the trunk, roots, and soil, looking for any sign that this was a sign. Erik was a bit more hesitant, dropping Klaue’s body to the ground with a thud. Before he could touch a fingertip to the tree Audrey spoke.

“You said your dad was from Wakanda right? And that they had their own language? What did it look like?”

“I can’t describe that shit baby doll.”

“Did it look like this?” Erik stooped down beside Audrey brushing her small shoulder with his broad one. He was shocked to see the Wakandan alphabet spelling out: Welcome Home. His breath hitched.

“Yeah. It—” Erik ran his fingers over the tree and for a moment the pair could have sworn it glowed blue. He caressed the letters again and there was another ebb of sapphire light. Audrey grabbed Erik’s wrist and pushed his hand on the tree trunk, holding it there with her own.

“Stevens, put both of your hands on the tree.” Indigo light pulsed through the tree trunk like blood through veins. Erik tried to focus on Audrey’s words and ignore her brown hand on his.

“What?”

“Just do it. I think the tree knows you’re Wakandan.”

“That’s the stupidest shit I’ve ever…” Erik couldn’t finish his sentence because the world fell open before him. More specifically, the bridge to Wakanda rose from the sea.

A/N: So this chapter ate my whollllle weekend lol. I wasn’t sure I’d get it out today but it wouldn’t leave me alone either. I thought about breaking it up into two chapters but...that...never...happened? This is basically the end of Part 1 of this story and the rest will be Erik and Audrey in Wakanda, which I’m excited to write! Hope you guys like it!

As always I love reviews and reblogs :)

Taglist: @ontheroadtoenlightenment @thatrandomfangirl98 @muse-of-mbaku @k-michaelis @dreadedphilosphy @panthergoddessbast @princessstevens @killmoncoochie @queenamaniii

[julia-highstorms]

If Jane Was Here (Noah’s POV) - Ch. 04

Summary: ILITW by Noah’s point of view. Read Chapter 3 here

Note: F!MC! It took me a lifetime to write ch. 3, but chapter 4 came so fast, instead! 🤗 Hope you guys enjoy it!

Pairing: Noah x MC my babies

Word count: 1785

Chapter 4 - What’s Coming to You

After Dan passed out again, they brought him to MC’s house, putting the unconscious boy on her sofa. Andy and Ava left soon after, because of their curfew.

They called the police and waited for them to arrive at the door. MC was still shaking.

“Hey… You okay?” – he asked her, who was sitting next to him on the steps of the door.

“I’m just a little cold…” – she answered, hugging herself.

“Do you want me to go get a blanket or…”

“It’s not necessary…” – and then, she rested her head on his shoulder. Noah felt his heart jump a little, but stayed still. – “…This is nice.”

“Hm…” – he couldn’t answer a thing. All he could feel was his cheeks getting hotter and hotter as he felt MC’s warmth against his.

“But can you stay here? You mom won’t be worried?“

He was about to answer her that it was okay, that his mom never cared about him anyway, when someone called him.

It was his mom.

“Crap…” – he muttered, before answering the call. – “Hey, m—“

“Where are you?!” – she yelled from the other end. – “Do you know what time is it, Noah Marshall?!”

“I know, mom, but…”

“I don’t know what you’re doing, and I don’t care. You had just one job, that is making the dinner, but then I came home to find nothing! You better be home in five or…” – she started threatening him.

“Okay, okay, I’m coming!” – she hung up. – “Jeez! She never comes home this early from work, but tonight she just had to!”

“You better go, Noah.” – MC told him, softly. He looked at her.

“Are you sure? But the cops are coming…”

“I can handle them alone.” – she smiled to him.

“I know that you can, but…”

“It’s okay, really.” – her warm hand squeezed his, reassuringly. – “Thanks for staying a little bit, Beanie Boy. Now, you better go.”

“Okay…” – he reluctantly stood up and started walking toward the road. – “Uh, if you need me, just text me!” – he yelled at her.

She nodded, waving at him.

He and Mom argued the whole night.

She said something about “he was too old to go play in the woods” and blamed him for Jane’s death, again. Because he took her to the woods that day and she never came back. And it was his fault that Dad left, because their precious angel was dead.

Because of him.

It was his fault. It was always his fault.

And then, he yelled at her that no one asked to be born. And she slapped him in the face and ordered him to go to bed.

If Jane was here…

Noah didn’t sleep at all that night. He just couldn’t.

Every time he closed his eyes, he would see those creepy vine creatures.

And Redfield. And Dan lying unconcious on the floor.

And Jane’s face, her lifeless eyes wide open, watching him in the dark.

If Jane was here…

If Jane was here…

If Jane was here…

He went to school earlier the next day, succesfully avoiding his mom.

He didn’t see MC, Ava or Andy the whole morning.

Noah hoped that they were okay.

That afternoon, all the students were obliged to attend an emergency assembly to discuss the rumours about Dan. He sat near the back of the auditorium, as Mayor Green spoke from behind a lectern.

“Hey.” – he looked up as Ava joined him, with Lily and Stacy. They greeted him too.

“Is it true what Ava said?” – Lily asked him, nervously sitting on the chair next to him.

“That you fought some, I don’t know, vine skeleton doggy things?” – Stacy was pretty curious too.

“Yeah… They were made of moss and bones…”

“Told ya.” – Ava interrupted.

“…And they were terryfing as fuck.”

“Uh, I think you meant that they were awesome as fuck.”

“They’re not ‘awesome’, Ava! They’re scary!” – Lily squeaked, her hands trembling.

“Scary things are awesome.”

While Lily and Ava argued, he saw MC alone a few rows ahead.

“Pssst. MC. Over here.” – he called her.

MC joined them, as Mayor Green called Lucas and he took the stage.

“Hey, are you okay?” – he whispered to her.

“Yeah. Thanks for asking.” – she answered with a tired and small smile on her lips, as Lily said:

“I don’t know, guys, this sounds important. Maybe we should listen.”

“Lily, c’mon. We’ve heard this speech every year since first grade.” – Stacy answered and Noah agreed with her:

“Besides, we have more important stuff to talk about. Like what went down last night.”

“Ugh. Last night is a blur. I barely even remember getting home.”

“What did you tell the cops?”

“Just enough. They wouldn’t have believed the full story anyway.”

“I barely believe it, and I was there.” – he sighed, putting his face into his hands. – “I barely slept after I got home. And I had nightmares all night. What happened out there was… frickin’scary, man.”

MC put a hand on his shoulder: “We handled it like pros.”

“Yeah, maybe you did. I was scared out of my mind.”

“Could have fooled me.” – she smiled, winking at him. – “You were totally a badass hitting those things with that flashlight.”

He scoffed, but couldn’t hide a smile.

“You’re a bad liar.” – he said, feeling cheered up already. – “Well, anyway… We filled these guys in on what happened.”

“I still can’t believe those plant skeleton things.” – Ava calmly said, looking at her nails.

“I still think they sound horrible.” – Lily shivered, just imagining about them.

“What? No, they were awesome! I mean, aside from trying to rip our faces off.”

“What about Lucas?” – MC asked, looking at the boy in the stage.

“Andy texted him.”

“I still can’t believe you guys were actually right.”

“Hang on, we need to get that on tape.” – Ava said to Stacy’s confession.

“So, what happens now?” – Lily asked, looking worried to them.

“What do you mean? They found Dan, so… everything’s over now. Right?” – Stacy had the same expression in her face.

“I doubt it.”

“Those monster things… I think they worked for Mr. Red. Like puppets.”

“What, he couldn’t kill Dan on his own? He had to send pets to do it?”

“I don’t think they were trying to kill Dan. At least not mainly.”

“How do you figure that?” – Noah asked MC.

“Think about it. Dan was helpless out there. They could have killed him easily. But it was more like they wanted to… take him somewhere.”

“But you stopped them.” – Stacy concluded.

“Which means they’ll be back. Whatever Mr. Red wants… I think he’s just getting warmed up.” – MC stopped speaking for a couple of seconds. – “Hey… can I ask you guys something? When was the last time each of you talked to Dan?”

“Oh jeez…” – Ava muttered, trying to remember.

“I don’t know.” – Lily said in a low voice.

“A couple of years, maybe?” – Noah answered, but wasn’t so sure.

Dan (along with Lily) was one of the few of his friends who wouldn’t pretend to not know him after Jane’s death. Actually, he would wave at him when they met in the hallway, between classes, but they haven’t really talked since… that day.

“The last day of school. Just before summer vacation.”

“Did he seem… distracted? Did he bring up what happened when we were kids? Did he asked you abut Mr. Red?” – MC asked the cheerleader.

“I don’t remember. I think we mostly talked about our plans for the summer… But now that you mention it, he did seem kind of… evasive?”

“MC, why are you bringin this up?” – Noah asked her, surprised.

“I’ve just been thinking about a conversation he and I had… I’m wondering if maybe he was stuck on what happened when we were kids. Trying to make sense of it. And maybe…”

“…Maybe he went back to the woods by choice.” – and then he understood what MC was thinking.

“Well, there’s only one way we’ll find out for sure.”

“What?” – Stacy looked confused at Ava.

“We go to the hospital and ask him.” – MC said, firmly.

And then, the three o’clock bell rang as Lucas finished his speech.

After the assembly, they all lingered by the lockers as students grabbed their things and headed home. As Ava, Lily and MC decided to go home together, Andy showed up to check if they were okay, before his basketball practice.

Mayor Green approached them soon after.

“Hey mom.”

“Hello Stacy. Everyone. How are you kids holding up?”

“We’re fine, mom.”

“Um, actually, can I ask you a question?” – MC said, after clearing her throat.

“Certainly.”

“You mentioned Dan is in the hospital… I was wondering, can we see him yet? We need to talk to him about… um… school stuff.”

“Oh, the hospital is not allowing visitors yet, I’m afraid. I think they’d prefer to wait until Dan wakes up first.”

“Wait, back up. Dan still isn’t awake? Are you saying he’s in, like, a coma?” – Noah asked, feeling his body getting cold.

“I’m sorry. It’s just too soon to tell. But as soon as there’s news, I’ll make sure you’re all aware. You know, despite the circumstances, I’m glad to see you all hanging out again. You’re good kids.”

“I reject that combination of words.” – Ava answered.

“Well, I’d certainly prefer you to some of Stacy’s other friends…”

“Mom, come on.”

“Speak of the devil…” – Noah muttered, watching Britney approach, walking down the hall. – “Aaand that would be my cue.”

“Likewise. Mom, let’s go.”

He, Stacy and Mayor Green walked out of the school building, after saying goodbye to MC, Ava and Lily.

“Do you want a ride home, Noah?” – the woman asked him, taking the car keys in her purse.

“That would be great, actually!” – he answered, surprised by the offer.

“Good. Follow me, you two.”

They crossed the parking lot and entered the vehicle.

“So, how have you been, Noah?” – she asked, starting the engine. Stacy sighed by the passenger seat.

“Good…” – he answered from the backseat.

“I haven’t seen you playing with Stacy in years, since…” – Stacy intervened before Mayor Green talked about that unpleasant topic:

“Because we’re not kids anymore, mom.” – he could see the girl rolling her eyes through the rear-view mirror. They shared a small smile, before she changed the subject: – “Anyway, is Connor coming for dinner today?”

Noah thanked the cheerleader mentally.

“I hope so. I’m planning to bake a pie for him.”

“Cool.” – the girl yawned.

“What kind of pie? I’ve got this apple pie recipe and…” – he stopped talking suddenly, realizing that he was way too excited about the topic.

“Apple pie? That’s a great suggestion! Can you share it with me? You can text it to Stacy.”

“S-sure! Uh, if you’re planning to have a special dinner, I have this great recipe…”

Stacy fell asleep in the middle of the conversation, but it was the most pleasant ride Noah had in years.

If Jane was here…

[8-beatstory]

8Beat Story Chapter 1 (game) summary

Some things to note: Since we assume the role of Teacher in my summaries I refer to Teacher as you. Excluding the chapters that have translations (which i have linked on here as well) these are just summaries based off of things I mainly remembered or interpreted so I’ll likely revise the summaries when I post the proper translation. If anything and you know what’s going on in the stories feel free to correct me!

Without further ado:

Episode 1 ver. 1  , Episode 1 ver. 2 (current version): Introduction chapter 

Episode 2: You somehow managed to do it even though you had no idea what was going on or anything about this and thanks to your help the girls procure their first victory! The second years are very happy about this and then explain to you what just happened. Hinata proposes that you become their beat manager while Ayame makes it very clear she’s distrustful of you.

----

Episode 3: You wake up to see Anri greeting you (How did she get in there we’ll never know~) You don’t remember her and she basically reminds you of yesterday and rushes you to come out. Everyone’s having breakfast at the cafeteria and is waiting for you including the Director. Hotaru snaps a pic of I presume her food and says it looks good today and Mei’s quiet. Then the Director pulls you aside and apologies and stuff and basically asks you to be their beat manager and you’re all like “I wanna support them ye!” so basically congrats you’re the beat manager now and Director says she has a small present to give you.

Episode 4: Director announces to the girls you’ll be their beat manager. The second years are happy and Ayame is still wary so Anri, who’s supportive of Ayame, decides reluctantly to be opposed to it because Ayame is. Yukina takes Ayame’s side too (I think) while Hotaru doesn’t care and just wants to go on Piko Piko Douga. Mei’s silent on the matter (I think Ayame and the first years leave?? but I could be wrong) then Anri laughs and offers you support. Hinata says it’ll all be okay and “let’s work hard together.”

Episode 5: (a personal favorite of mine because this one one of the chapters they go into more details about the functions of live battles so yay information!)

The second years offer their support and then go on to answer your questions on how everything works. Suzune gives (the most amazing) example of how a beat manager is basically like the conductor of an orchestra. Then they go on to explain concepts such as: live battles are online music battles that compete over performances. Half of the votes in these battles are determined by the audience and the other half by Mother. People all over the world can watch the battles online or on TV. There’s a regular battle stage and then an upper battle stage which is where Mother is and people can go to the upper battle stage if they win five consecutive victories. When you get there you can challenge Mother in a live battle. After that Hinata states something along the lines of since half the votes are humans it’s tough to win which is where Mei comes in (yay she speaks!) about how the possibility of them winning isn’t zero and she believes (in their team winning I presume) to which Hinata and Ayame agree though Ayame snide comments about how she’s not so sure about believing in you.

Episode 6: Apparently you’ve just finished your first official live battle with the girls as their beat manager and while you’re relieved you did it Ayame ain’t having it. It seems you messed up big time on something and the performance was cutting it close to being bad. Even Anri reluctantly agrees and says something about how she had to leave it up to Hinata for it to work out. Suzune and Akari shyly tell Ayame that they think she might be going a bit too far but she retaliates that with points such as you’re the beat manager that’s supposed to conduct them so you can’t get sloppy and declares how she just wants to win (which explains why she’s being so strict and worried about you messing up stuff for them). Hinata thinks that regardless Ayame’s being a bit too harsh to you and continues to defend you with Akari and Suzune’s help while Mei’s still quiet. Then Ayame counters with you should notice some of the girls are tired (Hotaru and Yukina are shown being tired) and you decide “we need to practice” which she kinda but kinda doesn’t agree with.

Time skip to the cafeteria where Ayame greets you but you notice she looks sad and don’t know what to do. Then you talk to the Director and she basically is all “aww that stinks” and you’re all “we need to practice” again.

Episode 7: It’s practice day and you come in to see Hinata and Suzune already there. Suzune’s helping Hinata with her singing practice and you’re just admiring from a distance. It’s at that point Akari surprises you from behind and yells at Suzune and Hinata that you’re peeping at them (I laughed so hard at this. Akari you jokester <3). They’re happy you’re there to practice with them. Then Hinata goes on to say how nostalgic this is and how you’ve already heard her song(sing?) before to which Akari and Suzune are surprised to learn that you both knew each other already, you’re also surprised since it seems you don’t remember or recognize her till then which makes her a little sad. Then... Mei speaks again! (Is she like watching them from a corner or through the window? Who knows~) Mei basically is all ominous and speaks abut how you and the second years are finally synching up but it’s not enough (cause duh you gotta be with all the girlies)

Episode 8: Anri asks if you’re free and you reply with a unsure “uhh...after I’m done writing a report after school yeah...?” so she tells you to meet her in her room later (in her charming way of pauses between words of course). Time skip and you meet her in the dormitory then lo and behold you end up not going to her room but to Ayame’s instead. Ayame of course is surprised by this because she had no idea and basically you both talk and start to get along because this is when she starts to trust you. You tell her something about her being perfect and she’s flattered by this (and in my opinion you basically see her for what she is; a some-what strict girl who means well and just wants to do/be her best for herself and those around her. She doesn’t mean to be so harsh it’s just she cares that much while at the same time being shy and bashful. Kinda like a best of both worlds sense) and I guess she seems to start understanding you and how you mean well too? So she’s all “let me make tea” and when she goes to do that Anri talks about her and then is all "sorry for being awkward and for the cramped room but Ayame is my best friend so be a firm teacher okay!" And Mei’s returns and seems to be ominously hanging out in the halls and I’m guessing eavesdropping because she goes on noting the progress you’re making.

Episode 9: Cafeteria time! Or, better yet, Noodles vs Ice Cream!? Choose your side! Hotaru’s on the noodle side and how yummy they are while Yukina opposes saying ice cream is tastier. Then you show up and they’re all “what are you doing here?”. You redirect the question and Yukina says she recently got back from work (but like come on Chronus if you haven’t while I was gone give us some of Yukina’s work I wanna see posters of her at work please) (also why is the BGM SO GOOD like man that rock) Then Hotaru’s all “oh snap can’t say I’m here for Piko Piko Douga” in her head while out loud she says “I’m studying...”. You don’t believe her (which I find hilarious) and she says your thoughts are written on your face (laughter increases x2). Then you end up talking to them and you’re on both side; go noodles and ice cream! (As much as I love Yukina I’m sorry but I’m on Hotaru’s side on that one. Still love you Yukina <3) And something about how you think it’s cool to give it your all on stuff you like and something about watching your meals. Then you wonder if you’ll be able to talk causally like that with everyone someday and realize you don’t know anything about Mei (finally acknowledgement about her lack of presence). Then again the ominous Mei returns to her secret observations and states how everyone’s forming bonds and now her with everyone will too or something like that.

Episode 10: (Woooo the Mei chapter) Director calls you in to tell you that it’s a bit sudden but she has to talk to you about Mei and reveals she’s an android and Mei’s all “yeah I’m just like the androids from all the live battles”. Then you ask and Director tells you that nobody knows except her, you, and of course Mei. Then you talk more and ask why is an android in a human team that’s trying to beat androids (a good question indeed Teacher) to which she says she wants to live battle with them and that isn’t a lie and then says the future of the music of this world is in your hands (geez no pressure Mei)

Episode 11: Seems like it’s practice time again but only you, Hinata, and Suzune are in the room. They tell you Akari’s running a bit late because of her dance practice (I think it’s so epic to learn that even though she’s a part of their team she does dancing on the side. It just goes to show how into dancing she is and like Yukina it shows that the girls do things outside of their group and that’s a-okay). You seem disheartened about almost everyone not being there but Hinata reassures you and says it’ll be fine. Then Suzune talks about music and androids and how she thinks that the music humans make is even better than androids and how you and Hinata are kind and how she wants to continue this with everyone. Hinata agrees and says how it’s all fun and she enjoys everything and wants to share that with everyone as well as you and ends her point with “lets practice. if we give it our all everyone will come” or something along those lines. Akari comes running in and apologizes for being late and explains herself then asks if you’re crying (lol) and you seem to be getting happier about the current situation.

Episode 12: Hinata at it again with the “it’s okay!” Then Ayame comes in and lectures you about being honest with mistakes and stuff followed by Anri who says that she needs to be honest with them too (you go Anri <3) to which Ayame gets all bashful and Anri goes on to explain they were late because of student counsel work. Hotaru follows and mutters how she apparently swung by to check on y’all but doesn’t approve of you and made it clear from the beginning (but in a totally tsundere way in my opinion). Yukina’s next and comes in exhausted and chastising you (I think because you said they’d be having practice last minute or something. I’m not sure). Now is Mei’s time where she’s all “everyone is here” and how she was waiting and that everyone’s power can make anything possible including reaching Mother. Then Akari interjects with a teasing “I knew it sensei you’re crying~” (cutie). Then it’s at this point that Ayame says that she doesn’t fully trust you but she understands where you’re coming from and how she’ll come to accept you little by little (so basically the whole harsh-ish sounding to bashful and wooo she verbally has accepted you!! Achievement unlocked!!!). Akari says something and Ayame stutters a “h-how rude!” (shikkeina!) which Mei mishears as “death penalty” (shikeina) to which Hotaru states she’s not right but not wrong (lol) and Hinata laughs (like I did) then wooo practice is officially on!

Episode 13: Seems like it was a huge success! Everyone seems content with practice and say it in their own ways and Mei’s all “I knew it...with these members...” (gurl what are your motives. I’m so close to calling Mei ominous-chan with these vibes). Director laughs (was she always there or did she just come in at some point? Again, who knows~) Then time skip and Ayame seems like she’s being picky with things (which is completely understandable when analyzing a practice *cough* I feel ya girl *cough*) and Hinata comes in with her reassurances and “let’s work together”. Then the girls end up explaining to you about BAN, which like the definition of the word basically means that if you lose a lot you can get banned from live battles and the girls seem to talk solemnly about this but then positive Hinata turns the tables around and the second years talk about how pumped they are to practice again while Hotaru doesn’t want to do it now and Ayame’s all “Teacher, you best be doing your best” or something like that and Anri and Yukina fall back on that while (Ominous-chan) Mei states she knew she wasn’t wrong.

END OF CHAPTER 1 WOO

[81scorp]

Constructive criticism: Wonder Woman 1984

Ah yes, Wonder woman, the first time Wonder woman got her own (live action) movie, and also the first DCEU movie that was made competently.

After the positive response it looked like the course was clear for a sequel. A sequel was made and... it looks like the (by the time I`m writing this) latest DC movie embraced the tradition, that started with the first DCEU movies, of being divisive.

The tone was very different from the first WW movie, but taking that aside... there were still more problems.

And I`m not just talking about the controversy of Steve Trevor possesing the body of another man and taking it out for a spin without the man`s consent.

From what I`ve heard Patty Jenkins wanted to capture the spirit of Richard Donner`s Superman but it seems she instead recreated the spirit of the Richard Lester movies.

With a tiny pinch of rapiness.

I have a confession to make: I haven`t actually seen this movie, because I don`t have HBO Max, but I`ve heard about the plot from several movie reviewers on youtube. And from what I´ve heard, it sounds like this one is worthy of getting the old CC treatment from ol`Scorpy.

Before I rewrite WW 1984 I want to say something about the first WW.

In my editorial "DCEU in general" I wrote that there was a only a tiny thing that I wanted to change. I`d like to add one more thing: Sir Patrick should not have been Ares.

Here`s how I would have changed it.

When Sir Patrick shows up in the tower and Diana uses her lasso on him he reveals that he is in fact Hermes, the messenger of the gods. The real Ares is still alive, imprisoned in a dungeon somewhere. The gods of olympus are still alive, they have just distanced themselves from the mortals. Diana is meant to be an agent that takes care of all the mess that the gods themselves have caused. Since Ludendorff is a disciple of Ares it technically means that it`s a job for Wonder Woman, it was Hermes job to get her out on the field and into the war. Since Ludendorff is dead now it means that Diana has finished her mission. What she does now is up to her. Diana is of course disillusioned. Steve gets on the plane, flies away in it and blows it up. Diana is distrought, sees Dr Maru and wants to kill her. She goes after her, is attacked by soldiers but easily throws them to the side. Diana is about to kill a helpless Dr Maru but... she can`t. She angrily tells Maru to get lost and leaves the base.

A few days later Diana (still disillusioned) sits at a cafè. She sees a boy being reunited with his father, it opens her eyes a little to the goodness of humans and what she helped to protect. A little girl gives her a flower. Diana smiles a little. She leaves the cafè and starts walking. She has a long journey ahead of her.

And that`s how I would do it.

It would work better with Steve`s little speech about how everone`s to blame, but it would also work better with what I have planned for the WW sequels.

So, with the first Wonder Woman out of the way... if I had a wish granting dreamstone that would let me travel back in time and make some adjustments to this movie, what would I have done?

1: instead of having it take place in the past I`d have it take place in the present. Chronologically after the first Justice League movie (OR the Batgirl and Supergirl movie.)

2: Wonder Woman would be able to fly and she can`t make things invisible.

3: Like I said in my CC of Justice League: Wonder Woman wouldn`t have a secret identity in my version. That`s right, Diana could be open about her superheroing and still keep her day job. (Hey, it works for Jennifer Walters.)

What would I call my version?

Either Wonder Woman 2 or Wonder Woman: Something something far from homecoming.

Plot

WW stops a bunch of terrorist from terrorizing. She leaves them for the police to take care of and is unaware of that she is being watched from afar by a red haired woman.

She has dinner with Barbara, an old work buddy from the museum. Barbara looks up to and is a little jealous of Diana, she would also like to be part of something big, make a real change in the world. During the conversation she mentions that her parents were not very encouraging. Besides that she asks Diana if she`s gonna show up at the museum`s new exhibition that is tomorrow. Diana thinks she`ll just steal to much attention from the historical, greek artefacts (her being a superhero with no secret identity and all) but decides that she`ll show up because the publicity will be good for the museum.

End of the day: Diana walks home, signs some autographs and meets the red haired woman that we saw earlier and recognizes her from her childhood! It`s Circe! Circe hasn`t aged a day since Diana last saw her.

She and Diana used to have fun together, Diana once showed her the different sights of the island, like the Temple of Athena, the Temple of the seven siblings and all the cool beaches. Circe used to say something about poetic about the setting of the sun. After a while Circe was banned from Themiscyra  by Diana`s mother, Queen Hippolyta. She was afraid that Circe was having a bad influence on Diana. Circe admits that she had an irresponsible side back then, but she has changed now. Now she`s trying to do something good and productive with her immortal life. They say goodbye and hope to meet again and talk some more.

Meanwhile: Barbara is using the subway. There`s a guy who is obnoxious, unpleasant and bothers the other passengers. Barbara gets so annoyed with him that she fantazises about beating him up, she is the kind of person that always bottles up all her anger.

Somwhere else: Diana is having a date with... Steve Trevor? They`re at an amusement park having a good time until Steve tells her that he has to catch a plane. Diana tries to warn him that the if he gets on that plane he`ll die but can`t, her voice is gone and her feet are stuck in the ground. Steve gets on the plane, it flies away and explodes. Diana wakes up. It was a just a nightmare.

Next day: Diana stops a robbery of an armed van. The van almost runs over... Steve Trevor? Diana stops the van and the robbers and checks if Steve is OK. He is fine, but he is also not steve Trevor. Diana had an hallucination.

Later that night: The inauguration of new exhibition at the museum. There are many people there, including Diana and Barbara. They talk and mingle. (This could be a good place for a Lynda Carter cameo.) Barbara has a pleasant conversation with a woman who turns out to be Circe, Diana doesn`t ntoice because she`s busy talking to other people. Some of the people are actually there to see the ancient, greek artefacts. Diana sees Steve Trevor again. She follows him, taps him on the shoulder, he turns around aand... it`s just Jimmy Olsen.

Diana is starting to doubt her sanity. What if her hallucinations get worse? She could risk the lives of innocent people. She goes to a psychiatrist who suggests that she take a vacation. When Diana leaves the psychiatrist turns out to be Circe in disguise. Diana puts on her WW outfit, packs her bags and flies to Themiscyra where she is welcomed by her  Amazon sisters and is reunited with her mother.

Next day: Subway. Once again Barbara is annoyed by an obnoxious man on the train and once again she bottles up her anger. Circe sits behind her, talks to her, says that she understands how she feels. They hear from a guy next to them who watches the news on his smartphones that Diana was seenflying over the atlantic with packed bags. A source has confirmed that Diana has been going through a lot of stress and is taking a vacation. Circe says that she doesn`t blame her, must be a tough job. She also adds that it would be nice if there could be someone to do her job while she`s gone. Barbara is interested in such a job. Circe takes Barbara to her  fancy apartment, gives her a potion to drink that turns her into Cheetah.

Themiscyra: Diana (wearing a typical Themiscyrian outfit) spends most of her day farming. At the end of the day she still has a hallucination involving Steve Trevor.

She worries if she will ever get well.

U.S.A: Cheetah stops a mugger. She enjoys beating him up a little too much, she doesn`t kill him though, he lives but is badly injured. Circe who saw her in action shows up and offers a few comments and a little constructive criticism but is otherwise pleased with how well it went.

Cheetah, still high from the adrenaline, leaps off into the night to find more robbers to beat up.

Themiscyra: Diana spends most of her day making pottery. After a long day she sits down and relaxes. A plane crashes nearby, it is on fire, she rescues the pilot who turns out to be a badly burnt and dying Steve Trevor. He dies in her arms. She wakes up. It was a nightmare.

A little later she talks to her mother about her problem. Hippolyta suggest that she goes to the temple of the seven siblings.

We get a flashback where Hippolyta explains to Diana as a child abut the temple. In the temple there`s a carving on the wall depicting what appears to be a jewel. The Stone of Morpheus. Morpheus is one of the seven siblings. It is said that if you touch that carving you will, the next time you fall asleep, have a dream that guides you and helps you with any problem you might have.

Back to the present: Diana is sceptical to that whole "touch the image of the stone and it will help you in your dream" thing because she believes it to be just superstition. Buuut this time she`s willing to try anything, so she gives it a try.

U.S.A: Cheetah beats up some small crooks. Circe gives her a couple of bracelets that will increase her strength because she believes that things are about to get serious. (Cheetah is strong but not take-on-Wonder-Woman strong).

Themiscyra: Night: Diana wakes up and sees a  little girl standing in the door. The girl looks like a child version of herself. The girl tells her to follow, Diana (in her WW outfit) follows her outside the city to a cave. Diana goes into the cave. She goes deeper and deeper, further and further. She meets Steve Trevor who tells her to go back, it isn`t safe. She ignores his advice and continues. She comes to a giant underground hall. There are statues in the hall, statues of her. In the center of it all is a green jewel stuck in a giant web of stone. Diana believes that the stone is the cause of her troubles and goes up to it to destroy it. Steve Trevor once again shows up to stop her. Diana tries to ignore him like last timebut this it`s not that easy, because now he fights back. Diana is forced to reluctantly fight Steve Trevor who is just as strong as she, and he can also teleport. Steve says something about the setting of the sun. That sounds familiar to Diana, where has she heard that before? Wait a minute! Of course! How could she miss it? This is is all Circe`s work. When she realizes that Circe is behind this Steve Trevor changes and becomes Circe. Diana have no qualms about fighting Circe. She defeats her, goes to destroy the stone, Circe tries to stop her with her magic and succeeds, but only temporarily. Diana gets near the stone and smashes it. Circe is gone. Diana leaves the cave and wakes up in her bed.

Sunrise: Diana changes to her WW outfit, says good bye to her fellow amazons and her mother and leaves Themiscyra.

U.S.A: Diana lands outside the museum and is soon joined by Cheetah. Cheetah, glad that Diana is back, suggests they team up and become a crime fighting duo. Diana wonders what happened to her, Cheetah  explains that some one named Circe is responsible for her transformation. Diana needs to find Circe and tells Cheetah that Circe is evil. Cheetah doesn`t like hearing that, things escalate and they fight.

Diana manages to break Cheetah`s bracelets and defeat her. She uses the lasso of truth to find out Circe`s whereabouts. Cheetah doesn`t know where she is now but remembers where her apartment is.

Diana goes to Circe`s apartment, this time it`s empty and it doesn`t look fancy at all, it looks like no one has lived there for years. A candle lights up by itself. Above the candle we can see and hear a pre-recorded message from Circe. She tells Diana that she can`t be there right now, she has more important things to take care of. She also tells Diana not to worry, the house that she`s currently in is empty, no innocents will be harmed.

The building explodes.

Diana survives with only a few bruises (she`s Wonder Woman after all).

Somewhere in a Las Vegas hotel: Circe is sipping on some champagne when she sees that a ring on one of her fingers is glowing. She knows that this means that Diana has gotten her message and the building has exploded. She picks up and looks at some ancient-looking artefact (one of the ancient greek artefacts that we saw earlier at the museum to be exact).

Her cellphone rings, she picks it up and tells the person/persons on the other end that she has the artefact. We get a flashback that shows that she stole it from the museum as soon as Diana left for Themiscyra. (And for a skilled sorceress like her it was super easy, barely an inconvenience.)

Circe: Don`t worry boys. I`m gonna get your daddy out of prison.

Back on Themiscyra: Diana talks about how it went and laments that two of her old friends turned into enemies. Hippolyta comforts her and says some encouraging words.

Later that night: Diana is wearing a fancy dress at a very fancy restaurant with... Steve Trevor?

She`s having a dream again. The reason she sees him this time is because deep down she wanted to say good bye to him in a more positive way, she doesn`t want her fight with him in the cave to be her last memory of him.

Steve: Let`s end this on a high note.

The two of them dance to classy, romantic music. (Maybe a cover of "The way you look tonight".)

She`s having a great time. End on a freeze frame. Fade to black.

End credits roll.

Not great but hopefully not bad. A little short in the second act.

And yes: the temple of the seven siblings thing and the stone of Morpheus is my sneaky way of sneaking the Sandman characters into my DCEU.

Cheetah would later come come back in Justice League 2. She`s one of the villains that Lex Luthor has recruited for his Atlas shrugged-inspired plan to take over the world. (The other villains are: Metallo, Doc Hammond, Poison Ivy, Deathstroke and King Shark.)

Cheetah`s next appearance should be in Justice League 3. In this movie she switches to the good guys`s side and after the giant climax she and Diana become a romantic couple, that way we get some important LGBTQIA+ representation.

And in Wonder Woman 3 Diana, Cheetah and Supergirl teams up to fight Ares (the real one this time), who has been freed from his prison by Circe, Phobos and Deimos.

And that`s how I would do it.

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

Deviation nr: 143 Written Stuff nr: 36 Hope you like my written stuff, because it`s pretty much the only thing I`m gonna be able to upload for the forseeable future. Technically I CAN upload more than just written stuff, as long as it is something that can put together digitally and doesn`t need to be scanned or anything like that.I may upload visual art as long as it is an edited photo. (Kinda like Clown queen of crime or If I were pop art). Related editorials Constructive criticism: DCEU in general: www.deviantart.com/81scorp/art… As usual: english is not my first language, so if you find my writing a little wonky, now you know why. Also: My sister has a patreon if you`re interested. www.patreon.com/mariabohm 

Originally uploaded on Deviantart January 25, 2021

[wallpaperpainting]

Ten Advantages Of Art For 13 Year Olds And How You Can Make Full Use Of It | art for 13 year olds

Chelsea Phaire, a 10-year-old from Danbury, Connecticut, has beatific added than 1,500 accouchement in abandoned shelters and advance affliction homes art kits to accord them article adorning to do back they’re activity down.

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“Since she was seven, she was allurement me and her dad to alpha a charity,” Candace Phaire, Chelsea’s mom, told CNN.

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The ascent 6th grader launched Chelsea’s Alms on her altogether in August 2019, back she asked affair guests to accord art food instead of accepting her altogether gifts.

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In aloof the aboriginal bristles months, Chelsea and her mom beatific out about 1,000 kits to accouchement in abandoned shelters, advance affliction homes, women’s shelters, and schools impacted by gun violence.

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Since March, back schools began to close, the ancestors has beatific over 1,500 kits to schools, shelters, and advance homes in 12 states beyond the US.

“I feel acceptable central alive how blessed they are back they get their art kits,” Chelsea told CNN. “I accept absolutely developed as a actuality because of this. Now my dream is to accommodated every kid in the absolute apple and accord them art. Who knows, maybe if we do that and again our kids do that, we’ll accept apple peace!”

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When Chelsea was 8, she absent accession actual abutting to her heart. Her bathe instructor, who she said she advised family, was dead from gun abandon in the average of their bathe season.

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Knowing that

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