#i have like 1 type of monster design

[ganondoodle]

forgot to post this yesterday, another sketch of a bowser redesign, this time just kinda did what i want instead of trying to stick to the real one, went for a bit more of turtle look

[milkbreadtoast]

DUNMESHI EP 3 WAS SOOOO BEAUTIFUL OMG THE ANIMATION WAS SO GOOD😭😭😭 LAIOS IS SO CUTE I LOVE HIM... hes so smart... one of the most likeable male anime protags ive seen in a while... 1 of the most likeable protags period tbh anyway hes good🥺

[9-punk]

Hear me out

9 au but they are different types of monsters (but like still stitchpunk)

[sundial-girl]

vFlwoer...you know teh ourple one...

ourple...

My favorite song of theirs

ok i'm actually gonna be real i don't listen to that much flower 😭😭😭 SORRY. but the songs i have listened to are good she slays

i think given my blog theme though it's pretty obvious which is my fave flower song

Who I ship them with

OK SEE ITS COMPLICATED FOR HER im so torn 😭😭

ig(??) i do still for the most part think she's sapphic/has a preference for girls, and b/c of a friend my main thing was flowerin. i do like them v much and think abt them, they're cute. BUT a different friend of mine ships fukaflower and that's also really grown on me. BUT b/c of the internet and other mutuals too i've seen pikase and that's cute as hell too. so my mind somehow condensed that into the THREE OF EM (flower, fukase, piko) but i dont even know what tf i'd call that; its not entirely romantic but also not entirely platonic, something is going on and its made infinitely more complicated w/ how they all interact differently depending on what fucking timeline story thing we're in. and again flower & rin is also cute and flower has other cute ships too and AJKSDKJKJKJ 😭

i'll just say tho that the good thing about having several different story things where different things happen is i can do whatever i want and everyone can b happy. the bad thing is i end up overthinking it and also i have a tendency to not give the characters in my stories happy endings

My favorite part about their design

well for one i like how she has so many designs i think its funny lmaoo

v3 and v4 are my faves sooo... i do like the dress & longer hair of v3 actually, i feel its more like, actual flower-like so it fits (and maybe im a bit based b/c that's the design she had when i first vaguely knew abt her). but v4 is iconic, undoubtedly. its the first design that pops into my head when people say flower. i really like how its more ourple since her v3 is more like... black? hksjghkj. i like her striped armwarmer thing its quite funky. solid designs but theyre hard asf to draw imma be real 😭 i can never get them quite right

ALSO i know people dont like ci b/c she doesn't look like flower, but funnily enough i do kinda like that. the sorta uncanny valleyness, b/c u know its supposed to be flower and it vaguely does have some resemblance but its also not and something feels wrong. again though that might just be me b/c of how i twist that for narrative purposes and i have a lot of fun w/ angst shit regarding ciflower but sjkjdhjkshkjhakjhg

A random headcanon I have of them

you know those memes about people cutting/dying their hair after a mental breakdown? yeah that's her 😂😭

i don't think she actually dyes it, it's naturally that peppered white/black color sorta, but she does impulsively do shit to her hair sometimes, not necessarily when she is distressed but she has def done it as "distraction" from negative emotions going on. luckily there's some sorta thing going on that lets her grow her hair back really fast in case she fucks up, so she can test out as many hairstyles as she wants whenever basically. she does think fucked up hairstyles are really funny tho. probably once shaved her entire head just b/c she could

name a vocaloid in my askbox and i'll tell you stuff

[eff-plays]

Ok so I watched the interview with Stephen Rooney, Astarion's writer, and here are some highlights. (I'm an aspiring writer and current game design student who wants to write for games so I'm sorry if some of these insights aren't as interesting to you as they are to me <3)

He calls Astarion his "horrible little vampire boy"

He loves seeing the fandom around Astarion<3

He did write other characters in the game, but mostly NPCs surrounding Astarion or his storyline, so it mostly revolved around Astarion

Astarion is not as connected to other companions/Origins as, for example, Lae'zel and Shadowheart, or Wyll and Karlach are to each other, but he is still reactive to their stories, even if it's just to stand off to the side and laugh when something terrible happens

He had a clear sense of where Astarion's story would start and end, but it got "muddy in the middle", but those are also moments where the best ideas come from

They write from the general idea that every character has one "good" and one "evil" ending, in order to give the player choice. RIP Ascendant apologists :(

According to Stephen, two of the most important aspects of Astarion's character (to keep consistent when bringing him to Idle Champions, at least) is that he enjoys violence, but is also fun about it

"He has a certain appreciation for violence, I guess? A bit of a murdery streak. [...] He's a vampire, he's all about blood, and he's all about, kind of, those darker sides of humanity. [..] But at the same time, he is ... He is really fun, he's really fun to write, he's really fun to have in your party, and it's very important for me that that is also represented."

"He's gonna stab you, but will have a smile on his face as he does it? I mean, I dunno. That's kind of him in a nutshell."

Larian would not have allowed for Astarion to be a typical brooding Dracula type, and there were scenes that were shot down for not being original enough

The main thing about Astarion was trying to get a "sense of fun." It would be easy to write a character that was very unlikable, and they absolutely did not want to do that

Rooney says Astarion is consistently terrible throughout the game and awful in a whole lot of ways, but he also needed to be charming enough that you could tolerate his presence and wanted him around

Rooney also had a lot of input on Astarion's stats (meaning the 10 Charisma is probalby 100% intentional)

He also had input on how certain lines should be delivered, even though the writers didn't directly work with voice actors

The way Astarion moves and poses is "all Neil"

Apparently, Neil Newbon worked on the character for years and Rooney did not speak to him once, though his voice work did influence how Astarion's lines were written and it became a "feedback loop" (Possible context for "ONLY SLIGHTLY, NEIL")

There were no points where a line delivery drastically changed Astarion's writing; rather it was a constant, slow evolution

However, there was one very spoilery moment where Neil gave such emotion to some "basic" lines that it fundamentally changed the scene (WHAT IS IT OMG)

It's difficult to balance approval, as you don't want to straight up write a monster. Every character needs to have some humanity in them. So if it comes to leaving the party, it needed to be the result of something central to said character. They wanted to be mindful of situations that would cause actual rifts between characters. (I assume this is why most generic disapprovals/approvals are +/- 1 or 2, while character-related ones give +/-5 or more)

However, as they don't write straight up horrible people/monsters, it doesn't come up as often as one might think.

The interviewer makes a point about how characters like Astarion and Lae'zel are good examples of how to play "evil" characters, as they are maybe not the best people but are still eager and willing to stick around the other party members

They worked to make sure the characters would work as a group, no matter the configuration of the group. The characters needed to be on the same path, even if they don't always agree or walk that path the same way.

Stephen Rooney is very proud of the "climactic" scene of Astarion's story. (AS HE SHOULD BE.) He even had to step away from the computer and have an emotional moment. Me too, man.

He's also "extremely pleased" that there's a point where you can punch Astarion in the face. "Actually, that one might be my favorite part" A MAN OF THE PEOPLE!!

Stephen Rooney's tip on what specific thing you should try out with Astarion: When he's trying to get a "sneaky nibble" at night, you should "probably" let him bite you. Way ahead of you there, sir.

No discussion about Astarion's romance unfortunately, but that's that!

[uglyducklingofthe2000s]

Helmets - LN

Summary: Lando's girlfriend loves his helmet designs and always collects a mini version despite him always assuring her he'd have his hands on the helmet as decoration for their house but she likes having mini ones regardless

No part 2 requests please

When Lando met y/n, she had two mini helmets. Neither of which were his. In fact they were Sebastian Vettel's a man who has gone as far as to catalog his helmet collection on his website for fans to see.

But when they started dating she started collecting his mini helmets. Actually going so far as to do it without his knowledge at first but then when things got serious enough for her to move in and bring her stuff. He discovered the growing collection and may have felt his heart grow that day.

"You have some gaps." He'd commented at the time making her face grow hot.

"Some of them harder to get than you'd think."

So Lando did something he knew would end up being a huge ask but he knew that he wanted to do it for her. He got his team to get every single one of his helmets remade as 1:2 scale. Even the helmets that hadn't been made to model size, which was quite a few of them.

It had taken a while, the better part of a year and she cried when she was handed the huge box filled with mini helmets.

And since then he has made sure any helmet with a special design or even just his season helmet has always came with a scaled version for her to have. It'd really became such a tradition for them.

She actually straps whatever mini version of the helmet he's using onto her bag strap so it's always on display which helmet he's using. Some fans even rely on her to know if he has a special helmet for the weekend or not.

"I have a surprise for you." Lando grins holding the mini 2024 season helmet which he's been keeping oddly hidden.

Like most people y/n just assumed it was going to be the same as always with a mild variation and the new addition of Monster's sponsorship on it.

"A surprise?" Y/n smiles as she tilts her head a little at him then leans trying to catch a glimpse at whatever is held behind his back. "What is it?"

"First, I want you to know there's no many people who know about the this. You're one of the first...aside from Flo. Because she watched to match me for this one." Lando explains making y/n frown and begin to question if her boyfriend is about to admit to incest-oh god. Just the thought makes her stomach turn. "Why do you look like you're going to be sick?"

"Nothing. It's nothing." Lando isn't that type of rich guy. "What's the surprise?"

Lando presents a black box, always blank so as to not give away the helmet design before she sees the actual helmet.

"Oh my gosh, is it your new helmet?" Y/n gasps biting her lip in pure excitement as she goes to take the box but stops herself from saying anything.

"Yeah."

"And it matches Flo's? That's so cute...not what I expected but definitely so cute." Y/n smiles while Lando frowns.

"What did you-"

"Don't ask." Y/n dismisses then opening the box and scrambling to see it but upon seeing the new helmet, her whole body seems to still itself. "This is...new."

"Good new?" Lando questions making her grin and smile brightly at him. Then he begins showing her the details of the helmet, how some of the blobs spell out his name. "Flo's isn't as bright but she does match me."

"I love it, baby. It's so cool." Y/n grins then leaning over and kissing him. "I liked the old design but this one is...new and it defines a new era. A new chapter...you'll win in this helmet. I can sense it."

"Yeah?"

"Yes."

Y/n sighs moving to her bag and finally removing his 2023 helmet which had gone unmoved since the end of the season. It's a huge thing to have attached to her bag but anyone who has suggested removing it has found themselves on the receiving end of her middle finger.

"Finally retiring him." Lando jokes while taking it as she attaches the new one in it's place. "I'll put it with the others."

"Thank you." Y/n smiles as he nods and kisses her softly before standing up then moving to the hallway where they've managed to install shelves that are thankfully only half filled meaning there's plenty of room for more of his inevitably ever-growing helmet collection.

He takes a moment to admire the mini helmets all lined up. He has most of the full-sized helmets in the apartment but he is without a doubt obsessed with y/n's obsession with the mini helmets and her love of them.

-

With Lando also having a helmet tribute to Gil as part of his testing, he's given y/n one to have and she's not only kept it with her at all times but she's been holding it in her hand the whole time. Only letting go of it when she has it on her lap.

"Hey, baby." Lando smiles as he appears. "Where you watching from?"

"Zak said I could watch from the pit wall If I wanted."

"Really? Going to give me a wave as a pass by?"

"No. I'll get in trouble or something and I can't watch from there the whole time. But just for a bit." Y/n shrugs earning a grin from the young man. "I'm going for WAG of the year."

"You won last year...and 2022. Going for a third year running is really just making something of an easy job." Lando smiles then kissing her softly. "You've already won."

"That's nice for you to say." Y/n hums before sighing softly. "But not everyone is so nice."

Lando would say as far as WAGs go, y/n is the least problematic. People can't actually fault her for anything other than saying she's "too clingy" or "seems to annoy Lando a lot" which is two comments that he sees as absolute bollocks. It's pretty obvious they just can't think of anything else to criticise her for so they pick on things that just aren't even true.

"Do you want to sign my helmet?" Lando asks when the last day of testing comes around and he is getting ready to put it on.

"I'm not part of the team." Y/n smiles lightly making him look at her with such a dark look that she actually thinks she might've pissed him off. "What?"

"You are here every race weekend, you support me and you always help where you can." Lando states shaking her his. "In what world are you not part of the team?"

"Well I-"

"Baby, sign the helmet. Please." Lando smiles cutting her off and she can tell he's still upset she doesn't think of herself as part of the team. "I'm not mad, I just can't believe you don't think you're part of all of this."

"I mean I feel like I'm part of McLaren in a way but not like everyone else is." Y/n shrugs while he hands her the pen and she signs it with a little message for Gil. He picks up the little one looking at it for a moment.

"Can I borrow this?" He asks making her look up for a moment and frown, definitely not enjoying the thought of her mini helmet going anywhere. "I'll make sure it's returned to you as soon as possible."

"Ok." She nods still not looking eager about it but nodding.

Lando smiles kissing her softly before gently tapping her ass for her to get moving to the unit since she's not staying in the garage for the testing session this morning.

"Don't miss me too much."

"I won't." Y/n smiles innocently then squeaking when he smacks her ass a bit harder in warning.

But she just rushes off and he sighs shaking his head before moving over to will.

"Hey, I need your help with getting this all signed by the team for y/n." Lando states making Will look at him in confusion. "You think she's part of the team right?"

"She does more cleaning up at the end of the day than most of the mechanics. So yes, even if she is unpaid." Will jokes while Lando almost feels relieved. "I'll make sure it gets around the team and they all sign it. Might be hard to fit as many messages on it as we got on yours but I'm sure we'll managed."

Lando thanks him before they begin discussing the plan for the session. They already talked about it earlier but it's never too late to go over it again.

The last morning session isn't exactly smooth sailing for McLaren, they're not having the finest testing. Lando only got 20 laps in and he was not in the brightest of moods getting out of the car.

"Hey, I got asked to bring this back to you." Zak states looking confused as he hands the small helmet to the driver.

The writing is full every possibly space on the helmet and he softens slightly knowing that y/n is going to probably end up sob reading some of the messages that people have written. Just at first glance over them.

"Thanks. It's uhh...it's not for me it's for-"

"The best person on the team. I can tell." Zak states since while he's not actually spoke about y/n much, he can see when there is a perfect match with someone and y/n and Lando are perfect for each other.

He's not in a good mood but one reminder of his girlfriend and he perked up.

"Have you seen her around?" Lando asks though he knows with the quick change over she'll be trying to keep herself completely removed from the garage chaos. "Uh, I'll go find her, give her this and then we can look at data?"

Will nods and Zak gives a thumbs up to the plan before he watches Lando take off with Will smiling lightly at him.

"I'd say young love but I think he's got life-long love with her." Zak comments shaking his head.

Lando rushes around the unit looking for y/n but she's not actually there. And instead when he steps out the unit he finds her with none other than the former McLaren driver who actually introduced Lando to y/n. Carlos is possibly the one driver in the paddock who Lando would trust not to try and seduce his girlfriend.

Carlos and y/n are laughing loudly as music plays from a speaker and she is led around in a dance that she very obviously doesn't know. But to Carlos' credit, he's doing well to stop her from completely messing up the dance.

Lando is spotted by the his former teammate before he spins y/n and perfectly sends her crashing into Lando. Thankfully the younger man does manage to catch his girlfriend.

"Oh my gosh, Lando! I didn't realise you were done." Y/n laughs before looking back at Carlos who winks at her in his own way of saying you're welcome. "How was it?"

"I'll tell you later, but for now you wanted this back." Lando states presenting her with the helmet which he is thinking he might want to get recoated so the inked messages don't smudge. "Everyone in the team wrote a message to you."

As predicted y/n is tearful and speechless while Carlos moves over wanting to see the small helmet.

"This is so cool. Priceless too." Carlos comments as he looks at the messages and smiles lightly.

"Thank you. You didn't have to do that, but...thank you." Y/n grins not bothering to wipe her tears as he picks her up and more than happily kisses her uncaring of Carlos verbalising his over dramatically childish distress over such a sight.

"Ah, I am blind! You two has blinded me!" Carlos jokes covering his eyes with one hand as he keeps hold of the mini helmet with the other.

Charles end sup appearing with Pierre and they both get a look at the helmet, both concluding in agreement with Carlos that it has to be one of the most priceless pieces of merchandise in the sport. Even if she's not a driver. Having a one of a kind mini helmet that's been signed by the whole McLaren team expressing their love for her presence with them. It's safe to say that nothing will beat it.

"It's a good thing I won't be carrying it around after today, I don't want to risk it getting stolen like the mini Abu Dhabi 21 helmet." Y/n mumbles earning a hum from her boyfriend. "I can't wait to carry the new helmet around though."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah, it's going to look so good." Y/n grins before she looks down at the little helmet then signs. "Come on then, you might not want to talk about the testing. But I want to hear about it, good or bad. Plus I can read some of the messages properly once we're inside."

"You know, I think it's about time I finally let you design me a helmet." Lando comments still wanting to dodge the subject that's weighing heavy on his shoulders. He likes being happier with y/n and talking about testing is going to ruined that.

"You'd let me design a helmet?" Y/n gasps looking like she's about to cry again. "Can I really?"

"Of course you can baby." Lando smiles feeling his mood lighten even more just from her sheer excitement.

-

Y/n didn't end up just designing a helmet but she designed a helmet specifically for a certain race.

The COTA GP and she was beyond excited about it. Using his season helmets patten but replacing the black lined blobs with bright pink paisley on a white helmet base. They had tried it with the neon yellow but she wasn't sure about it and preferred the white on this occasion.

Lando added the glitter gloss over the top of it which she was completely in love with and when he own smaller version arrived with it. Lando was sure he'd have trouble every getting her to leave it at home.

"There's Lando Norris, in his helmet designed by his stunning girlfriend. I don't actually know which one of them loves the design more but Lando has been very proudly showing it off to everyone." Crofty states as they watch Lando go around in FP2. "I was talking to him with Ted earlier and he was showing us all of it."

"Yeah, I think Carlos joked that Lando would use a race helmet to propose to y/n which might actually be perfect for them. She has a collection of mini helmets with every single helmet design he has every used." Martin chuckles since usually they wouldn't mention WAGs but since Lando had been so proudly telling the world about this helmet and it'd been a conversation topic throughout the race weekend already. It seemed ok on this occasion. "I actually saw y/n with her mini version, I haven't spoken to her much because I've never had much reason but she was polite and let me have a look at it. It's a beautiful design really."

They actually manage to cut to a shot of y/n in the garage with the mini helmet placed in front of her as she watches the screen, looking a little flustered when she sees herself appear.

Taglist: @namgification @hiireadstuff @jsjcue @geniusalpaca @itsjustkhaos

[dailyadventureprompts]

DM Tip: Lining up the Pieces

A few years ago I saw a video that changed the way I design combat encounters, using chess pieces and 4th edition monster roles as a handy way of conceptualizing the enemy roster and making better combat.

I’ve wanted to refer back to it for ages now, but I can’t seem to find it.  As such, I’m going to reproduce it’s wisdom here for everyone’s benefit and hope I can find the source one day.  ( I feel like it was a Matt Coville video, but my searches have turned up nothing. Seriously, if you can find it I will be extra grateful).

TLDR:  You can break down enemy combatants into six (ish) roles represented by different kinds of chess pieces, and you can mix and match them when designing encounter to create fun tactical scenarios. You can also use this as an alternative to CR picking a “budget” of these enemy roles based on how many players are in the fight.  Check out the types below the cut: 

Infantry (pawn):   Generally weaker and mechanically simpler than any other type of combatant, the infantry uses teamwork or sheer numbers to overwhelm the party. This can be anything from rank and file soldiers to a necromancer’s skeletal minions to a pack of wolves, anything that takes up space on the battlefield and prevents the party from targeting who they want or generally getting their way in a fight. 5e combat is a numbers game, and the infantry is there to swing the numbers in the enemy’s favour (until the party cut through them to even the odds).  Infantry likes battlemaps with chokepoints they can hold and crossroads they can use to outflank opponents. When budgeting they’ll have a balance of 2 infantry per 1 player they’re matched against , but the weaker they are, the thinner you can spread them.

Brute (rook): High defence, high offence, the brute is an outright threat that the party should not want to take in a head to head fight. Giants, beasts, constructs, and heavy armoured warriors are your traditional brutes, but you could also go with a buffed to hell battlemage getting all up in the party’s face. Conversely, every brute has some kind of weakness that the party can exploit. They might be slow, or be unable to maneuver as easily, or like a werewolf, fiend, or troll, have particular weapons or damage types that overcome their natural resilience. Their job is to force confrontation, blunder into the middle of combat and force the party to act defensively rather than proactively. They soak up the party’s frontline’s attention while forcing the mid/backlines to scatter under the threat of too much raw damage.  The brute Likes open spaces where they can have a direct path to the party and dead ends they can corner their targets against. Budget: Around 1 per 3 players

Skirmisher (knight):  A very broad type of opponent, the skirmisher’s job is to bully  the party’s weapsots whenever they’re exposed. They can do this by being ranged fighters ( traditional archers, magic users) or by being highly mobile (stealthy, mounted, flying, teleporting). They’re the bane of the party’s backline, generally targeting whoever has the lowest armour/or least health, then using their evasiveness to deny any kind of retaliation when the group rallies to protect their squishy friends. Skirmishers have great offence but are generally pretty weak, made helpless when you can deny them their movement/terrain advantages.  Skirmishers like unfair fights, terrain that gives them a movement advantage, cover, or allows them the highground over their foes.  Budgeting: 1 per 1-2 players. 

Controller (bishop):  The controller’s job is to fuck with the party, Either by locking down some of their stronger options (counterspelling, mind control, status effects, grapples),  by manipulating the battlefield in some way that disrupts planning (aoe spells to prevent grouping together, summoning to reinforce numbers,  barriers and banishment to single targets out), Or by advancing the baddies’ goal while the party is otherwise occupied (the cult priest finishing the disastrous ritual, the master thief making off with the mcguffin) forcing them to split their attention. The controller likes to distinctly be away from combat, and will usually be on the otherside of some kind of hazardous/hard to bypass barrier, sometimes of their own making. Budgeting:  1 per 2-3  players: 

Support (king): Usually a healer, bodyguard, or some kind of buff-bot, the support wants to piggyback on other sorts of units or make them better at doing their jobs. Generally this means they’ll ignore whatever the party is doing to focus on staying with effective range of those who most benefit from their abilities. Supports will stay back in safety while throwing out buffs, bodyguards will put themselves between the party and their designated defendee. They tend to prefer whatever type of terrain most benefits their partners. 1- 2-3 players

Elite (queen): Something to be reckoned with, an Elite mixies the strength and abilities of two other kinds of combatants and uses both to devastating effect. Combine a brute and a support for an unstoppable frontline commander, or infantry and a skirmisher for an elite striketeam that attacks in perfect coordination before fading back into the shadows.  Mix and match for whatever combination you think would be most interesting for a situation, then supplement it with a different unit or two for contrast.  Elites make up your traditional “big bad and minions” bossfight, without escalating to the full party challenge of “solo” monsters. Budgeting: 1 per 3-4 players. 

Picking the right Pieces:

Generally what you're going to want to do when planning a combat is to first think of what the baddies are trying to acomplish with the fight then pick 2-3 different types of baddie that you think would work well in concert to achieve that goal. "Kill the party" is an all too common goal, but you could easily imagine others that provide for dynamic stakes:

A group of forest bandits intend to rob a caravan, so they unleash a captive warbeast as a distraction while their archers rain chaos from above (Infantry, brute, skirmisher)

A villain abducts an important npc into a carriage while their dutiful muscle run interference (controller, brutes)

A necromancer hurls curses from behind a barricade of gravestones while their undead minions pour from surrounding tombs ( Controller/infantry)

While the party is ambushed by an archer in a tower, a cloaked figure waits in the underbrush, waiting for them to thin out and begin picking them off one by one (paired skirmishers of different types)

After the fighter is tricked into single combat against the mounted arena champion, the rest of the party will have to search the crowd for the caster secretly channeling healing magic to their opponent. ( combined brute/skirmisher elite, support)

Once you've got your pieces picked out, you can start designing the battle arena taking the desires of each combatant into account while also throwing in any environmental flourishes you'd like to enjoy.

As an added benefit for DMs like me who don't have the inclination or budget to collect huge batches of minis, it's SUPER easy to pick up a second hand chess set or two and use them as stand ins. Your players will have an instinctive understanding of what each piece does which will help them understand the roles outlined above.

Artsource

[pterribledinosaurdrawings]

could you tell me more about spoonflower? i'm interested in uploading my own designs, but i'm not entirely sure how it works or how much it pays. thank you!

Sure! When you first upload your design, it'll look like this.

The standard DPI for printing on all the fabric sites I've seen is 150, and since I made this pattern at 200 DPI that means Spoonflower will print it bigger than I want it unless I change it here. So I click on the "change DPI" thing, type in "200" and click "change". Sometimes I find it doesn't save, so I always go back later to check and make sure it did save the right DPI.

(You can avoid this by just changing your image to the right DPI before uploading, but sometimes I want the option to make it a bit bigger, just in case.)

If you want to make multiple sizes of the same pattern available you'll have to upload a different version for each one and change the size individually. For example, I drew my Bathroom Dinosaurs pattern pretty large and at 150 DPI, and left that as is for the big version.

But I wanted a small version too, so for that one I changed it to 670 pixels per inch so it'd print much smaller.

You write in the title, tags, and description, and you can put any links to other pages or references in the "Additional Details" section.

(Leaving links isn't usually necessary, but sometimes it is, like how I wanted to leave a link to the original 1760's teapot for my crinoid fossil pattern.)

At this point, you can order things printed with your design, but nobody else can yet. You have the option to show the design publicly, but I like to keep it private until I've ordered my proofs and can sell it.

Now, to order proofs! DO NOT GET THE CUT SWATCHES!!! They are SO much more expensive than getting a fill-a-yard, because cutting and packaging all the little pieces is a lot of extra labour. Wether you have a few designs, or a lot, just get a fill-a-yard.

To make a fill-a-yard you first need to make a collection. Collections can be either public or private, so I keep a private collection called "new designs to proof", and I put all my new designs in there until I've ordered them. You can also add other people's patterns to a collection, so if you have extra space to fill up or you want little bits of a bunch of other people's patterns for a quilt or something, add whatever you want to your collection.

On the collections page when you hover your mouse over one you'll see a little patchwork symbol show up in the middle along the bottom edge, and you click on that.

That'll take you here, and you choose a layout and a fabric.

For some reason the fabric options here are a bit limited and vary depending on the layout. I like to get either the 1 yard/42 designs in cotton poplin, or the 2 yards/48 designs in cotton sateen, but there are plenty more you could try.

I'll click the latter for this example. (The squares in this one are the perfect size for pleated face masks, and I have a few made from mine and my friend's fabrics.)

Then you just click on a design and click on however many squares/rectangles you want it to fill. It usually takes a few seconds for them to show up.

You can have just one little sample of each, or you could make half the fabric be one design and fill up the rest with little samples. (That's what I did for my brown monster waistcoat - I printed juuuust enough of a fill-a-yard to cut out a waistcoat from, and the rest was other samples.)

You can change it around if you want. Once you're happy with it, put it in the cart and buy it!

I'm not going to order this one since it's an example with designs I've already proofed, but here's what my monster patterns looked like when they arrived.

Also, I want to point out that you could VERY easily make some really fun pride flags using the fill-a-yard! You might have to have it be only part of the fabric, depending on the number of stripes, but you could make it be any texture or pattern you want. Here's a quick example I did with other people's patterns by searching "(colour) marble texture".

With only 4 stripes I'd have to fill the rest of the space in with something else and cut it off, but it would still be pretty big! (The edge of that purple stripe looks jagged in the preview, but they print perfectly straight.)

I have not done this, but someone should! Just wash it, trim the blank edges off, hem it, and you've got a flag!

(Don't do this with the 2 yards/4 designs option though, it looks like nice stripes in the thumbnail but it's made for infinity scarves and there's a gap and dotted line down the middle for cutting. Bleh.)

Anyways, once your samples arrive you can make the designs available for sale! If you have any changes you'd like to make, to the size it prints at or the pattern itself, you can make them now.

I found the small version of the Bathroom Dinosaurs print was too small when I first got my proofs, so I just reduced the DPI a bit.

And you can replace the image with a new, edited version by clicking "upload revision".

So when my brown coffin pattern printed really washed out and grey, I replaced it with a more saturated version and was good to go, no need to order another proof.

Down at the bottom of the design editing page you can now click on the options to list it publicly, and to sell it on fabric and/or wallpaper. I make all of them available on fabric, and some on wallpaper if I deem them to be appropriately large.

They'll pay you 10% of the sales price of the fabric, or slightly more if you sell over a certain amount in a month. There's a whole page of questions and answers about it.

You also get a 10% discount if you order fabrics with your own designs. (Although, personally, if I'm ordering my own designs on fabrics for me then I'd prefer to get them from somewhere like ArtFabrics, since they use reactive dyes instead of inks, so their blacks actually print black and don't make the fabric stiffer like Spoonflower's do. And also because they're here in Canada so there's less shipping cost. Sadly they don't have an option to sell your designs though.)

Spoonflower also has weekly design contests which are announced a few weeks in advance and have pretty big store credit prizes (the first place one is 200 USD), and I've entered a few times, but I don't vote often because Spoonflower is such a huge site that there are frequently over a thousand entries and it's really time consuming to scroll through them all.

Ok, that's everything I can think of! I also put all my patterns on sone things on Redbubble, since they have options for repeating patterns on some things.

[junghelioseok]

miss taken.

↳ you pride yourself on being a professional, but sometimes your students' parents really test your patience.

◇ jungkook x reader ◇ fluff | smut | teacher!au | single parent!au | e2l ◇ 20.3k [1/1]

❛❛ our kids are bitter rivals and the only time we ever meet is when we’re both called to the principal’s office and whatever maybe i think you’re kind of cute but your kid’s a monster and ALSO someone keeps buying the last everything bagel at my favorite coffee shop 2 minutes before i get there in the morning and has heard about my plight and has started leaving me bragging notes about it ❜❜

notes: fic number two in the serendipity series is here at last!!! this took me like a million and a half years to finish because Real Life happened but here we finally are! also, i changed the type of bagel that the story is centered around, because i honestly didn’t come to like everything bagels until relatively recently and i will still only eat it if it’s part of a bagel sandwich because? just having cream cheese or whatever on an everything bagel feels kind of unhinged to me! but that’s neither here nor there and no one is here for my bagel opinions so! hope you enjoy the story!!! 💕

⇢ series masterlist. | inspired by this post.

warnings: dilf!jk, some kissing and hand stuff, ✨sexual tension✨ but nothing too terribly explicit tbh

Silence has never sounded louder. 

You drum your fingers against the armrest of your chair, nails clacking against the cheap plastic. On the wall, the second hand of the clock completes yet another revolution, and you glance over when your companion sighs, plucks off her reading glasses, and sets them down on the desk beside the placard that houses her title: Principal Pamela Baker, Hybe Academy. 

A woman nearing her fifties, Pam has sandy blonde hair cut into a neat bob and an enviable ability to pull off any lipstick color, no matter how bold. You’re lucky enough to call her both a friend and a mentor, and when she mutters a curse under her breath, you chuckle. “Late again,” she huffs, offering you a wry smile before leaning back in her seat and casting her gaze skyward. “Typical.”

“You know what these corporate types are like, Pam,” you reply, rolling your eyes. “They have zero regard for anyone else’s time. He was twenty minutes late to our parent-teacher conference last semester, so don’t take it personally.”

“Believe me, I know plenty of men like Jungkook Jeon,” Pam says with another sigh, this one heavier and longer than the last. “I even married one, you know. But that was before I came to my senses and divorced his ass. Best decision of my life, right after getting my tubes tied.”

“Three kids was enough for you?” you tease, and Pam snorts out a laugh. 

“More than enough,” she replies. “What about you, though? Thinking of having another kid anytime soon?”

“I don’t think so… well, not anytime soon, at least. Ask me again in—” 

The sound of a doorknob turning stops you in your tracks, and a moment later, the door to the office swings open with a dull click. 

“Principal Baker. Miss {L/N}.” Jungkook Jeon is standing at the threshold in a wool coat the color of charcoal, the buttons of which are undone to reveal the undoubtedly designer suit underneath. His dark hair is parted neatly across his forehead, still sprinkled with lingering snowflakes from his journey here, and you bite back the urge to remark on his tardiness. Instead, you stand when your boss stands up, mustering up every ounce of professionalism you possibly can.

“Mr. Jeon,” Pam says, giving his hand a firm shake before gesturing to the empty chair beside you. “It’s nice to see you again. Please, take a seat.”

You incline your head in Jungkook’s direction as he lowers himself into the plastic chair, the legs scraping against the tiled floor in protest as he adjusts his position. “Hello, Mr. Jeon. Thank you for finally joining us.”

If Jungkook notices the snarky inflection of your tone, he doesn’t let it show. He merely levels you with a cool gaze, blinking lazily before turning to your boss. “Excuse my tardiness,” he says, smoothing down the lapels of his black jacket and straightening his slate blue tie. “I got here as fast as I could. Where is my daughter?”

Pam gestures toward the door. “Daeun is down the hall in the library, under Mr. Kim’s supervision. I thought it best if we spoke without the children first.”

The dark-haired man hums. “What happened, Principal? You were rather vague on the phone.”

Pam nods, and you exchange looks before she turns her attention back to Jungkook. “Yes, well, as I explained on the phone, there was an incident. Daeun forcefully took her classmate’s book during the free reading period, and refused to return it when asked.”

At that, Jungkook casts you another glance. “I see. And I presume the classmate was Miss {L/N}’s daughter?”

“It was,” you confirm, taking care to keep your tone even despite the irritation simmering in your belly. “This is the second time Trixie’s been targeted by your daughter, Mr. Jeon. Do you think that’s a coincidence?”

Jungkook’s eyes narrow, his lips twisting into a displeased frown. “I'm not sure I like what you’re implying, Miss {L/N}.”

The iciness in his voice is unmistakable, but you have fifteen minutes’ worth of annoyance festering in your belly—annoyance that has amplified with every second that he made you wait. That, combined with his behavior last semester is enough to stir that annoyance into full-blown anger. He’s been short with you every time you’ve called to talk about his daughter’s progress in class, and you very nearly canceled his eight o’clock appointment to meet with you during December’s parent-teacher conferences. You remember pulling up his contact information nineteen minutes after eight, thumb hovering over the call button on your phone when he finally burst into your classroom. No preamble, and no apology. He just sat down, as if nothing was amiss, and began asking about Daeun’s grades in math.

It’s no wonder you’ve never heard so much as a word about a Mrs. Jeon. The nosy part of your brain wonders about Jungkook’s home life on occasion, and the more vindictive part relishes in the fact that he’s no doubt a single parent. Any woman would have to be a saint to put up with Jungkook Jeon, you reason, because as far as you’re concerned, he’s the devil. 

The devil dressed in head-to-toe Armani, who is currently fixing you with a look that could temper steel. 

“Mr. Jeon.” Pam, as always, is quick to diffuse the sudden tension that’s settled over her office. “No one is implying anything here. We just want to have a frank, civil discussion about Daeun’s behavior, and see if you can think of anything that may be causing her to act out. A recent change in her life, perhaps? Something new that she hasn’t quite adjusted to yet?”

You take a deep breath, releasing it through your nose before putting your professional mask back on. “Her shift in behavior was extremely sudden,” you chime in, watching out of the corner of your eye as Pam inclines her head in agreement. “Laughing when Trixie and another classmate slipped and fell on the ice, and now this? I don’t believe for a minute that this change came out of nowhere—something must have caused it. Daeun is a smart girl, Mr. Jeon. She’s outgoing and a little rambunctious, but she’s always been kind to her classmates in the past. Today’s behavior was incredibly out of character for her.”

A beat of silence passes, as your words fade into silence. Then Jungkook shifts in his seat, crossing one leg over the other as he turns his full attention to you. “We keep talking about Daeun as if she was the only child involved in this incident, Miss {L/N}. Why don’t we talk about your daughter instead? Trixie, is it?”

And just like that, your mask begins to splinter at the edges. “Trixie was reading quietly at the table when Daeun approached her,” you reply coolly. “She didn’t instigate anything, Mr. Jeon.”

“Oh, and I’m supposed to take your word for it?” Jungkook huffs out a humorless chuckle, leaning back in his seat. “I think you, of all people, might be a little bit biased.”

Fury flares in your belly, hot and bright. “I am a professional, Mr. Jeon,” you manage between clenched teeth. “I care about all of my students equally, and treat them as such. But I don’t expect you to understand that.”

Jungkook opens his mouth to retort, but your boss stops him before he can utter a single syllable. “I think that’s enough for today,” Pam says, rising to her feet and stepping around her desk to shake Jungkook’s hand. Even in heels, she only comes up to his chest, and you would have laughed at the height disparity if it weren’t for the rage still bubbling through your veins. “Like I said before, the girls are just down the hall with Mr. Kim. If you’ll follow me…”

Pam ushers Jungkook out of the office, chattering mindlessly about the cafeteria renovations that are underway—funded in large part by Jungkook himself, you’re certain. As much as you’ve grown to dislike the man, you know that he cares deeply about education and donates a rather large sum to your school every year. Trailing after them by a few paces, you listen as Pam points out a row of plaques hanging on the wall, honoring distinguished students and teachers alike.

The library, when you reach it, is empty save for three figures seated at one of several rectangular tables that occupy the middle of the room. Taehyung Kim, the copper-haired librarian, springs out of his seat upon your arrival, and you wave tiredly as he approaches with a warm, affable grin. 

“Welcome!” Taehyung says, adjusting his gold-rimmed glasses before extending a hand for Jungkook to shake. “You must be Daeun’s dad. I’m Taehyung Kim, the librarian here at Hybe.” 

“Jungkook Jeon.” Then Jungkook’s gaze flits past him to where the two children are seated opposite one another. Daeun is a slender, petite girl with dark hair braided neatly down her back and round, brown eyes that are narrowed in concentration as she colors in a picture of a lion. Quietly, Jungkook strides over to his daughter, kneeling down beside her chair until he’s eye-level. “Hey, Daeun,” you hear him murmur. “What happened today, hmm?”

You, meanwhile, join your own daughter at the table, sitting down in the chair Taehyung abandoned and taking in the paper and coloring utensils scattered across the surface “Hey, jitterbug,” you murmur. “Were you nice to Mr. Kim while I was gone?”

“Tae read us a book about butterflies,” Trixie replies, shrugging her little shoulders. “He taught us about migration.”

You chuckle. “Migration, huh? That sounds interesting. You want to tell me all about it on the drive home?”

Trixie nods, her pigtails bobbing in time with the movement. Then she glances over to where Jungkook is instructing Daeun to pack up her backpack, tucking books and notebooks neatly inside while Daeun collects her crayons and puts them into a sparkly little pink case. “Are we going home now?”

“Soon, bug,” you promise. “I just have to finish up with Mr. Jeon and Principal Baker, okay?”

“Okay,” Trixie says agreeably, returning to her drawing. Pam gestures for you to join her and Jungkook near the library doors, and you meet Taehyung’s gaze as you brush past where he’s pulling a few books down for a display. Good luck, he mouths, and you suppress the urge to make a face. Instead, you mouth a quick thanks back, offering Daeun a quick smile as well before joining her father and your boss at the door. 

“Mr. Jeon,” Pam says, casting a surreptitious glance toward Daeun and Trixie before lowering her voice. “I don’t think you should ignore this behavior from your daughter. If there’s something in her home life that is making her act out, I can recommend a few counselors who would be more than happy to speak with the two of y—”

Jungkook shakes his head, a lock of dark hair coming loose from whatever gel he’s used to style it. “With all due respect, Principal Baker, I don’t appreciate my parenting abilities being called into question. I think it’s probably best if Daeun and I take our leave.”

Pam sighs. “Mr. Jeon, I don’t mean to offend. But Daeun did take a book out of Trixie’s hands.”

“And I’ll be sure to discipline her for that,” Jungkook replies. “But if this is all over a book, Principal, I think the solution is simple. I can easily buy her whatever book she needs.”

“I’m not so sure it’s about the book itself,” you point out. “Tae—I mean, Mr. Kim—has multiple copies of Charlotte’s Web available for the students.”

Jungkook hums and turns up the collar of his wool coat, pulling it snug around his throat. “Nonetheless, I think we’re done here. Daeun, we’re leaving.”

The six-year-old looks up from the book Taehyung has checked out for her and immediately runs over to grab her father’s extended hand. “Are we going home?” she asks quietly, and he nods. 

“Yeah, we are, sweetheart. Come on. Say bye to your teachers.”

Obediently, Daeun waves to you and Taehyung before bidding Pam goodbye as well. Jungkook offers you a stiff nod, and Pam resignedly offers to walk the duo out. They depart together, and you watch as they disappear around the corner of the hall before turning to Taehyung with a heavy sigh. Trixie is still engrossed in her coloring, and you lower your voice as you join Taehyung where he’s begun re-shelving books from a cart of returns. 

“Thank god that’s finally over,” you murmur.

Taehyung glances both ways, ensuring the coast is clear. “Yeah. That Jungkook guy is a total wang.”

///

By the time you pull out of Hybe Academy’s parking lot, rush hour has well and truly begun. Silently, you curse Jungkook’s tardiness as you merge onto the main road and almost immediately come to a complete standstill amongst the traffic. Glancing back in the rearview mirror, you take in the sight of your daughter, buckled neatly into the backseat with her face pressed against the window.

“What color are we looking for today, bug?”

“Red,” she replies, her nose scrunching against the glass. Every day, your daughter picks a color and counts the number of cars she sees in that particular shade. She’s taken to keeping a running tally on the refrigerator—working toward the answer to a research question that only she understands. Her work is accompanied by a variety of figures and diagrams as well, which she’s plastered across the remainder of the refrigerator door and are slowly encroaching on the freezer door as well. You’re pretty sure she’ll need a larger surface soon enough—the wall of the hallway leading to the bedrooms would probably suffice—but until then, you have no plans to interfere with her creativity. If anything, you sometimes wish you could see the world through a child’s eyes again—to view every new experience as an adventure, and delight in the simple things. It’s one of the many reasons you love working at Hybe, even if you do have to deal with the occasional entitled parent.

Unwillingly, your mind wanders back to Jungkook Jeon. You’d be lying if you said you didn’t find him attractive, even if you’re reluctant to admit it and refuse outright to say it aloud. He’s blessed with the kind of face that angels could rhapsodize about—his dark, expressive eyes set above a strong nose and an enticing mouth. His jawline is sharp as a knife, and you’re fairly certain the devil himself sculpted his thighs. Even beneath the drape of his expensive suits, you can see the definition of his musculature as clearly as if he wasn’t wearing anything at all. You wonder—more often than you’d like to admit—how his workplace hasn’t deemed his suits obscene. Maybe he needs a dress code, you think to yourself, easing off the brake as the cars in front of you begin to inch forward. Baggy clothes only from this point forward. The more skin covered, the better. 

“Oooh! Found one!” Trixie exclaims, tapping the glass vigorously. “And look, there’s another. It’s a darker red, though.”

You hum and nod toward the traffic up ahead, where you can glimpse the corner of a cherry red bumper. “What about that one up there? That makes three, right?”

In the mirror, you see your daughter nod. A few minutes pass, the two of you calling out when another red car is spotted, and traffic eventually eases up enough that you can continue your way home. 

“So, what did Mr. Kim teach you about butterflies?” you query as you make a right turn. “Something about migration?” 

Trixie nods absently, still fixated on the cars driving by in the opposite lane. “Yeah. They go south for the winter to stay warm.”

You glance at her reflection in the mirror again. “Must be nice.”

“Yeah.”

Up ahead, the light turns green. You hit the gas, debating whether to bring up Daeun or not, but your daughter speaks again before you can dwell on it any further. 

“It’s weird,” Trixie says, her face still pressed against the window and her breath misting the glass. “Daeun was never mean to me before. We weren’t friends, not really. But now it feels like she’s picking on me on purpose and I don’t know why.” 

Something in your chest splinters at the tone of her voice—subdued and small. She’s dragging a finger through the fogged up glass now, tracing the crooked outline of a butterfly, and you take a moment to collect your thoughts before speaking again.

“We’ll figure it out together, then, jitterbug. Now, why don’t you start thinking about what you want for dinner?”

///

Mornings are always a little chaotic in your home. Trixie is sprinting around the entirety of the two-bedroom apartment looking for her favorite scrunchie, a half-eaten piece of toast clutched in one hand and her backpack swinging from the other. In the kitchen, you’re going through a mental checklist of all the places your daughter could have possibly left the accessory while sipping on your morning coffee. The mug nearly slips from your hand when your pet cat, Taco, slinks past your legs on her way to her food bowl, and you hiss out a sharp curse.

“Fuck!” Hot liquid dribbles down your knuckles. The calico cat gives you an unimpressed look, and you glance both ways to make sure Trixie is out of earshot before wagging a reprimanding finger. “Manners, Taco. You’re better than this.”

Taco merely flicks her tail and turns back to her own breakfast, rebelliously batting her water bowl with a paw before settling down to eat. Sighing, you finish the remainder of your coffee and rinse out the mug, listening as Trixie darts in and begins rummaging through the silverware drawer. 

“Bug, I don’t think your scrunchie’s in there,” you remark, earning yourself a shrug in response.

“Can’t be too careful,” she says in a startlingly accurate impression of you, and you can’t decide whether to laugh out loud or roll your eyes. Coming up empty, your daughter runs off again, and you return your attention to your bag, rifling through the folders and assignments within. “Aha!” you hear in the distance, and smile. Trixie comes bounding down the hall a few seconds later with a sparkly holographic scrunchie in hand, and you obligingly help her wind it around her ponytail as she wriggles in place with excitement.

“Ready to go?” you ask once finished, and she nods eagerly. “Have all your homework?” Another nod. “What about those books you have to return to Mr. Kim at the library?”

Trixie heaves a dramatic sigh and fixes you with a look. “Yes, Mom. Can we go now?”

You chuckle and extend your hand for her to take, heaving your bag onto your opposite shoulder. “All right, all right. Let’s go.”

Locking the front door, you and Trixie take the elevator down to the ground floor of the building and exit out into the wintry air. Your car is parked on a nearby side street, and immediately, you see that the windshield is coated in a light layer of frost. Sighing inwardly, you head toward the trunk where you store the ice scraper. Trixie releases your hand when you pop open the lid, and you turn to watch as she skips her way down the sidewalk. “Sure you don’t want a ride to school?” you call.

She stops, her nose wrinkling. “It’s lame to go to school with your teacher, Mom.”

You feign offense, slapping a hand to your heart. “Oh? I’m lame now, am I?”

“Don’t take it personal,” Trixie replies, shrugging. “All adults are kinda lame.”

With that, she waves and darts the rest of the way down the sidewalk, making her way to the bus stop at the end of the block. You watch her go, waiting until she safely joins the other half-dozen kids clustered on the corner beside the stop sign, before turning back to your car and climbing into the driver’s seat. 

There’s something calming about your morning commute—something about the low hum of the engine and the whir of wheels against asphalt that soothes your soul. The route downtown is a familiar one, and you navigate it with ease. A glance at the clock on the dashboard tells you that you have just enough time to grab some breakfast, and at the next intersection, you opt to turn left instead of right. Three minutes later, you’re pulling up to your favorite coffee shop in the city, snagging one of the few remaining parking spaces on the street and braving the chill one more time as you head for the brightly painted front door beneath the cheery sign that reads, Bean There, Done That!. 

The smell of warm cinnamon and vanilla washes over you as soon as you step inside the coffee shop. There’s a relatively short line, and you pull out your phone as you join it, scrolling through news articles and notifications until you reach the counter. “Good morning, Bonnie,” you greet the middle-aged woman working the cash register, before waving at the man who’s already brewing a fresh espresso in the corner. “Morning, Jin.”

“Hiya, {Name},” Jin replies. As the owner of the shop and a dear friend of yours, he knows your usual order like the back of his hand. “Got your coffee going right now.”

Bonnie smiles at you, nodding as Jin plops your finished drink down and joins her at the counter. “Morning, hun. You’re too late again, I’m afraid. Can I get you something else?”

You glance over at the glass display case where all the baked goods are housed, disappointment sinking into your stomach when you see the empty row in the bagel section. “No cinnamon streusel? Again?”

“Some guy beat you to the last one,” Jin answers as Bonnie rings up your coffee and slides it across the counter into your waiting hands. ���Same one as last week, actually. He comes here pretty regularly.”

Your eyes narrow. “You mean the same jerk has taken my bagel three times now? How is it that I haven’t run into him yet?”

“I dunno—dude’s an early riser, I guess. You missed him by about ten minutes this time, but sometimes he’s in here even earlier than that.” Jin shrugs and jabs a thumb toward the back where you can just barely see the kitchen through a small window. “We’ve got more bagels going right now though, if you can wait five minutes.”

The time on your phone’s screen tells you that you cannot. “Sorry,” you tell him. “If I don’t leave now, I’ll be late for school.” Turning, you nod at Bonnie and drop a few bills into the tip jar. “See you both tomorrow.”

“Wait!” Jin pats down his apron pockets and fishes out a crumpled napkin from within. “I almost forgot. The guy—he left a note.”

“He left… what?” You frown. “Why?”

Awkwardly, Jin clears his throat. “I, uh, may have let it slip that he kept beating you to the last cinnamon streusel bagel on Friday. And then he asked if he could leave you a note, so….” Uncrumpling the napkin, he extends it toward you. “Here.”

You can’t help it—curiosity roots in your belly and winds its way to your fingers as you carefully accept the note and smooth it out on the countertop.

Better luck next time ;)

“That prick.”

Jin winces. “Yeah, I know. I mean, he does always leave a twenty in the tip jar, but yeah, totally. I’m with you. Guy’s a wang.”

You’re barely listening. Scowling, you fumble for the pen in your purse, taking the napkin that Bonnie wordlessly hands you and scribbling out your own note so fiercely you nearly rip through the papery material.

Game on, mister.

///

The rest of the week seems to drag by, until Friday arrives at long last and shepherds with it stormy gray clouds on the horizon. You’re already feeling rather grumpy—no doubt thanks in part to the collection of snarky napkin notes you’ve accumulated over the past few days—and the sun’s absence only serves to exacerbate your foul mood. Even worse, you had an unfortunate run-in with one Mr. Jungkook Jeon yesterday, meeting with him in the principal’s office following an incident where Daeun took and hid Trixie’s favorite holographic scrunchie. Thankfully, it was recovered quickly, but even now the mere thought of Jungkook Jeon’s stupid, condescending face is enough to tank your mood. Scowling, you lock your car and head in the direction of Bean There, Done That!, carefully eyeing every person who exits in an effort to discern whether they might have purchased a cinnamon streusel bagel and hoping that none of them have snagged the last.

You’re running a full forty-five minutes early today—all in an attempt to beat the damned bagel thief. Half an hour hadn’t been enough—you found that out the hard way yesterday, when Bonnie had greeted you with an apologetic smile and Jin had wordlessly doubled the usual shot of espresso in your coffee without charge. Looking back, your initial attempts to be a mere fifteen minutes earlier were feeble at worst and laughable at best. But today, you think, today will be different. 

The bell over the door jingles pleasantly when you step inside the coffee shop, and you immediately deflate when Jin catches your eye and shakes his head. He’s there to greet you when you finally reach the front of the line, and you sigh as you accept the folded napkin he hands over. “He beat me? Again? Does this guy not sleep?”

“He was super early today,” Jin replies with a shrug. Groaning, you unfold the note and smooth it out on the counter, sucking in a breath when you read the words scrawled there. 

What’s that saying again? Something about the early bird always getting the worm? ;)

“That fucking asshole,” you grit out. “I’m gonna kill him.”

“Testy,” Jin says, clicking his tongue. “What’s got your panties in a bunch today?”

You sigh. “School stuff, mostly. I had to meet with the father of one of my students yesterday, and he’s a real piece of work. And then I was up late grading homework.”

“You could always assign less,” Jin offers up unhelpfully, which earns him a snort and an eye-roll from you. Relenting, he instead begins pouring your coffee, chattering on as the hot liquid splashes into your cup. “So, about this guy’s impending doom. How exactly do you plan on murdering a man when you don’t even know what he looks like?”

“Stop being logical,” you groan, rubbing the bridge of your nose. “I don’t want to hear it.”

Just then, the coffee shop door flies open, letting in a gust of chilly wind. You turn to see Bonnie bustling inside, wearing a bright pink woolen hat and ushering along her eleven-year old son, Caleb. “Hi, hun,” she greets you, her nose scrunching when she sees your frown. “I take it you still haven’t found your mystery bagel man?”

You heave a sigh, shaking your head. “I don’t think I can get DNA off of his notes, so no. I have no idea who this guy is, which means I have no way of tracking him down and giving him a piece of my mind.”

Bonnie tuts sympathetically and pats your arm. “Sorry, hun.” Giving your elbow an affectionate squeeze, she slips past the counter and into the back room to grab her paycheck. Jin finishes up with your drink, and you thank him as you take a long sip. Then you turn to Bonnie’s son, who’s taken a seat in a nearby booth and is doodling on a piece of scrap paper. 

“Hey, Caleb. How’s it going?”

The boy, normally quite talkative, just shrugs. Taken aback, you decide not to press the issue and instead turn back to Jin, who’s wiping down the espresso machine and whistling something that sounds vaguely like “Never Gonna Give You Up” under his breath. Bonnie returns then, and you give her a quizzical glance as she pours herself a to-go cup of coffee and adds two generous pumps of caramel syrup. Is something up with Caleb? you mouth, and watch as confusion flits across her face before realization dawns.

“Don’t worry about him,” she whispers, approaching you so you can hear. “He’s just a little bummed from yesterday. Misspelled ‘serendipity’ in the school spelling bee, and it cost him the win in the end.”

You wince. “Ouch. That hurts.”

“Yeah, that sucks real hard,” Jin chimes in from his spot at the espresso machine. “Little guy didn’t even try to steal a cookie from the display like he normally does.”

Bonnie chuckles. “I’ll grab a couple to-go, then—a double chocolate and a snickerdoodle, if you please. But then we’ve really got to head out. School starts in twenty.”

At the reminder, you pull out your phone and glance at the time. “Yeah, I need to leave soon too. Give my best to Caleb, okay? There’s always next year’s spelling bee.” Turning to Jin, you hand over your credit card to pay for the coffee before grabbing a pen and a napkin. It takes you a few seconds to figure out what you want to write, and then another few to scrawl out the note:

Don’t forget, the tortoise always beats the hare in the end.

Straightening up, you hand the napkin over to Jin, who accepts it wordlessly and tucks it into his pocket. And once he’s handed your card back to you, you wave goodbye to both Jin and Bonnie before heading out.

It’s typically a five-minute drive to Hybe Academy from the coffee shop, but this morning, it takes you almost ten. Every red light in the city has seemingly teamed up in order to make you late, and you make it through the door of your classroom with mere minutes to spare. Thankfully, the first bell hasn’t rung yet, and to your surprise, Taehyung is still lounging in your desk chair when you enter the room. The two of you have a longstanding tradition of having breakfast together in the mornings—even if breakfast just turns out to be two extra-large cups of coffee with anywhere between zero and four shots of espresso added in. Taehyung occasionally brings in some of his kitchen experiments as well, and you’ve had to politely decline his offer to share on more than one occasion. 

“Hey, there you are!” Taehyung grins and props his feet up onto your desk, crossing one leg over the other. “I was just about to leave.”

“Really? It looks like you’ve made yourself pretty comfortable,” you reply, dropping your bag onto the floor and collapsing into the chair he’s pulled up beside him. “Must be nice, not having to worry about being on time for first period.”

Taehyung nestles deeper into the back of your chair and lets his eyes drift shut. “Sure is.”

You snort and take a sip of your coffee. “Jerk.”

“I’m rubber, you’re glue,” he replies without missing a beat, his eyes remaining staunchly shut.

Shaking your head, you instead direct your attention to the tupperware container that’s sitting on the desk in front of your friend. You can see what looks like some kind of pastry inside, and prod curiously at it before poking Taehyung in the shoulder. “So, what’s this? Don’t tell me you tried to make croque monsieurs again.”

“Excuse you, those weren’t even that bad,” he defends, his eyes flying open. “And no, I didn’t. I made quiche this time.”

“Right,” you say suspiciously. “And what’s in it?”

“Bacon, cheese, onions,” Taehyung lists with a shrug. “Oh, and a few baby carrots I had on hand. I didn’t really know what else to do with them.”

It’s far from the strangest combination your friend has come up with—a sentiment you voice aloud as you pry open the edge of the container and accept the fork he hands over. “This feels shockingly normal.” Cautiously, you dig into an edge and bring it to eye level so you can examine the filling. “Are you sure you’re feeling all right?”

“I’m going to start force feeding you if you don’t stop teasing,” Taehyung threatens, grabbing a fork for himself and helping himself to a generous bite. “Seriously, give it a try—I promise it’s good. I didn’t even drop any eggshells in it this time.”

Laughing, you bring the quiche to your mouth. The pastry is flaky and the filling is smooth, and you’re pleasantly surprised by the harmonious balance of seasonings that you taste. Taehyung watches in satisfaction as you go in for a bigger piece, and pushes the tupperware closer when you nearly drop it. 

“Told you it was good,” he says smugly, and you can only nod your agreement and raise your coffee in silent commendation. 

The two of you eat in silence for a few moments—until you remember the napkin shoved in your pocket and pull it out with a grimace. You’ve ranted to Taehyung about your new nemesis on more than one occasion by this point, and he doesn’t even blink as he flattens out the material and scans the words scrawled there. “I’ve gotta say, the guy’s got good handwriting,” he remarks, and you immediately fix him with a scowl. 

“Really? You’ve got to say that?”

Taehyung holds up his hands innocently. “Just an observation,” he says. “How many of these notes do you even have now? Three?”

“Five,” you grumble. “And I’m still no closer to figuring out who he is. I don’t suppose you have access to a police database or anything, right? Some way to match this guy’s handwriting?”

“I’m pretty sure it doesn’t work like that,” is Taehyung’s blasé reply. “Besides, it’s not like you’re going to do anything, even if you do figure out who he is. You’ll just keep stewing until something else comes along, so why even bother with the manhunt in the first place?”

You sniff. “I’m raising Trixie to be a strong, determined woman who can accomplish anything she sets her mind to. What kind of example would I be setting if I can’t do this one thing?”

Taehyung doesn’t even bother trying to disguise his snort of laughter. “You’re so full of shit. Jesus Christ.”

The bell rings, then—signaling that students have five minutes to make their way to their classrooms. You sigh, and Taehyung wordlessly stands up and begins gathering his tupperware back into his bag, tucking the cutlery in last and grabbing his remaining coffee as he turns toward the door. 

“Catch you later,” he says at the threshold, and you wave him off before brushing a few stray crumbs off your desk. Finishing off the last of your coffee, you pull your planner from your bag and absentmindedly shove the napkin note in its place—putting away any and all thoughts of your bagel nemesis as students slowly begin filtering into your classroom. Trixie briefly catches your eye as she files in with a couple of her friends, and you smile as you rise from your seat and begin outlining the day’s lesson plan on the chalkboard. 

There’s no doubt that Fridays are your favorite. Friday afternoons at Hybe Academy are dedicated to the arts, and listening to the soft strains of music coming from the orchestra room and the various solo instruments taking lessons brings you boundless joy. You love seeing the new paintings on the walls the following Monday too, and often stay a while after school lets out on Friday to hang up the pieces produced by your own class. 

But this particular Friday—it isn’t going as planned at all.

You’re beginning to think that this morning’s strike from your bagel thief was an omen. Up until two hours ago, it’s just been the usual inconveniences and minor drawbacks—a misplaced pencil here, or a spilled bit of juice there. But now, halfway through the schoolday, you feel like you’re drowning. Your stomach is growling and your hair is in disarray, and it’s all thanks to the fact that you currently have twice the amount of students you normally do occupying your classroom—all of whom are seemingly intent on covering every available surface with splatters of paint. 

You can’t blame Miss Kumar, of course. Family emergencies are just that—emergencies. They can’t be predicted or controlled, and when she was called at lunchtime with unexpected news, you understood that she had to leave immediately. In an unfortunate turn of events, none of the Academy’s usual substitute teachers were available, and you soon found yourself haplessly watching on as her first-graders filed into your room with chairs in tow, taking up residence two to a desk alongside your own students. 

And even though you’re doing your absolute best to maintain some semblance of order, you know you’ve lost when one of Miss Kumar’s students—Nicholas, you think his name is—upends a little plastic canister of paint onto his desk and splats both hands into it. Blue paint goes flying in every direction, and as he giggles, the other children quickly begin to follow his lead. 

“Guys, no, wait—” you try to say, but it’s too late. A fully fledged paint fight has broken out, and you watch in horror as Daeun flings a dollop of yellow paint straight onto Trixie’s Hercules shirt. 

If there’s a bright spot in all of this, it’s that Principal Pam Baker works fast. You’d called her mere minutes into the fight breaking out, and she’d done her part by calling the parents of the students you’d named as instigators of the fight. Those who could came in right away, and once you managed to settle everyone down, you brought their kids down to Pam’s office so that she could have a group meeting with both the parents and students alike. The remaining children you took to the library to be watched by Taehyung while you cleaned up your classroom. It’s an absolute disaster zone, and you’ve only just begun spraying down the first desk when the door flies open.

“Most of the children are at the library,” you say without turning around, scrubbing at a particularly stubborn bit of red paint on the corner of the desk with a wet wipe. “If you’re looking for your child, you’d best head over there.”

“Actually, I’m here to speak to you,” a familiar voice says, and dread pools in your stomach as you turn and find yourself face-to-face with none other than Jungkook Jeon, his dark eyes unreadable. On his wrist, just barely concealed beneath the sleeve of his charcoal overcoat, you can see his expensive silver watch glinting in the fluorescent light.

“Mr. Jeon,” you manage once you’ve found your voice again. “How can I help you?”

For a few long seconds, Jungkook remains silent. He steps over the threshold and into your classroom, taking in the paint-splattered walls and the chairs scattered haphazardly about. Then his gaze settles on you, his nose wrinkling slightly as he speaks again. 

“It smells in here.”

“It’s the paint,” you answer shortly, stepping over an upended cup of brushes and making your way to the window. Fumbling with the lock, you struggle for a few seconds before finally managing to heave it open, letting in a welcome gust of cool wintry air. 

Jungkook watches all of this in silence. Then he hums, faint amusement lacing his voice. “I see that.”

Irritation blooms in your belly at his blasé tone. “What did you want to talk about, Mr. Jeon? If you’re looking for Daeun, I’m afraid she’s down the hall in Principal Baker’s office.”

“I’m well aware of that.” Jungkook takes a step forward, the heels of his sleek black oxfords clicking against the tiled floor. “This is the second time you’ve lost control of your classroom, I believe. And tell me, Miss {L/N}, why has my daughter been sent to the principal’s office two days in a row, now?”

You glance up from where you’ve begun wiping at a spot of hot pink paint on the windowsill. “With all due respect, Mr. Jeon, I think that’s a question that only Daeun can answer.”

“Daeun.” There’s outright laughter in Jungkook’s voice now—but it’s the humorless sort that makes the hairs on your neck stand on end. “Right, of course. The blame is always on my daughter, isn’t it? Never any of the others. Never your own.”

For a moment, you can only stare at him. Then, without even fully realizing what you’re doing, you begin walking forward. First one step, and then another—until the tips of your sensible block heels are mere inches from the tips of his oxfords. Emotion is building steadily in your chest—a cocktail of exhaustion and anger topped off with the day’s frustrations—and all of it comes flooding out as you raise your chin and look Jungkook Jeon square in the eye. 

“Unlike you, I saw what happened today, Mr. Jeon. Several students were responsible for instigating and perpetuating this fight, and unfortunately, Daeun was one of them. I don’t appreciate you implying that I favor any of my students over others, and I certainly don’t appreciate you questioning my ability as a teacher.” Your chest heaves as you pause to take a breath. “I am a professional, Mr. Jeon. Maybe you don’t think so, but I am. I’ve been teaching for nearly a decade, and I’ve spent almost every day with these children for the past year. You don’t get to come in here and disrespect me in my own classroom. I don’t care how much money you give to this school. I’m not beholden to you or your money, and I’ll thank you to not come in here with unnecessary attitude and finger-pointing.”

Your blood is rushing in your ears by the time your speech comes to an end. Jungkook is silent, staring down his nose at you for three long seconds before he deliberately raises a dark eyebrow. “Are you finished?” he asks. 

You shiver as his hot breath fans against your cheeks. “No.” And then, in a surge of stupid, adrenaline-fueled bravery, you add, “I kind of want to cuss you out, to be honest.”

The other eyebrow rises to join the first, as a huff of wry laughter escapes his lips. “Oh?”

You deflate slightly, your bottom lip finding its way between your teeth. It shouldn’t be so easy for a parent to get a rise out of you, but Jungkook seems to do it so easily—and so often. “I’m not going to,” you murmur. 

“No?” Jungkook’s gaze darts down to your lips, then up to your eyes, and then down to your lips again. “That’s rather disappointing.”

Unwittingly, you’ve drifted even closer to him since you first started talking. You can see each fleck of amber in his irises, and could probably count each of his individual eyelashes if you so cared. This close to him, you can see that one of his eyebrows is pierced—his dark hair brushed back just enough to reveal the silvery metal embedded in his skin. You don’t pull away though, and neither does he. If anything, he seems to be willing you closer—his lips parting and his tongue darting out to moisten them.

And then he blinks, and you pull back as if burned. “If… if that’s all, I should really get back to cleaning up,” you stammer, hating the wobble in your voice as you return to your desk and grab a fresh wet wipe. “Principal Baker’s office is down the hall on the left.”

“I remember. I was there yesterday, after all.” The faint amusement has returned to his tone. Straightening his tie, he begins making his way to the exit, only to pause in the doorframe and glance at you once more over his shoulder. “Oh, and Miss {L/N}?”

You look up. “Yes?”

“You should really look in a mirror. It looks like a Smurf exploded on your face.” 

///

Saturday brings with it clear blue skies and a sweet, sweet reprieve from the chaos of the week. You’d promised Trixie that you would make ratatouille together over the weekend—just like in the movie—and now you’re making good on that promise as you push a shopping cart around the grocery store with your daughter skipping happily by your side. “Ooh! We need these, right?” she exclaims, pointing at a display of zucchini, and you nod, watching as she carefully selects two and plunks them into the cart. 

Together, the two of you finish up in the produce section and head for the aisles that house all the baking goods. Trixie peruses the shelves as you stock up on the essentials—flour, sugar, and a couple boxes of baking soda. Then you grab a package of chocolate chips, laughing when Trixie immediately perks up at the sound of the bag crinkling and whirls around to look at you with wide, eager eyes. 

 “Can we do chocolate chip and peanut butter cookies?” she asks, clasping her hands in front of her chest. 

“I think you’re pushing your luck, young lady,” you tell her, but relent when she selflessly offers to bring the extras to class on Monday to share. 

Ten minutes later, you’re heading toward the checkout line when you suddenly realize that you’ve forgotten something. “Tomatoes,” you say aloud, glancing down at Trixie apologetically. “Totally slipped my mind. Let’s go grab some, bug.”

Trixie sighs dramatically, but turns toward the produce section nonetheless. Faster than you can blink, she trots off, leaving you to trail after her with the shopping cart. Maneuvering around a particularly tall display of onions, you pull out your phone to check the grocery list one more time—only to be interrupted by the metallic clang of your shopping cart hitting another. Immediately, you open your mouth to apologize, but stop short when your eyes meet the owner of the other cart.

“O-oh,” you stammer, your head spinning as you try to recover your full vocabulary. “Mr. Jeon. I… I didn’t see you there.”

Jungkook chuckles. “That much I gathered.” Then he nods toward Trixie, who you can just barely see two aisles and a crate of watermelons away. “Doing some shopping, Miss {L/N}?”

You don’t respond. Your brain is in overdrive, struggling to reconcile the Jungkook standing in front of you with the one you’d seen just yesterday in your paint-splattered classroom. His dark hair isn’t parted neatly across his forehead for once—instead, it falls in soft waves around his face. Rather reluctantly, your brain acknowledges that he looks good—irritatingly so. You’ve never seen him in casual clothes before—only neatly pressed suits that cost more than your entire paycheck—and the change is jarring to say the least. His purple sweatshirt is baggy and his black joggers are just tight enough to show off the definition of his thighs, and—

—hang on, is he wearing Birkenstocks?

Trixie, thankfully, comes to the rescue as you gape at Jungkook’s feet for several seconds too long. “Is this enough?” she asks, lugging a plastic bag bulging with at least a dozen heirloom tomatoes. Still a little shellshocked, you look down at her, blinking dumbly before bursting into laughter.

“That’s plenty, bug. In fact, we probably need to put some back, unless you want tomatoes in your cookies too.”

“That doesn’t sound too bad,” Trixie says thoughtfully, pursing her lips. “Or we can make marinara and have spaghetti and meatballs tomorrow!”

Jungkook chooses that moment to huff out a laugh of his own. “Spaghetti and meatballs, huh? Great minds must think alike—Daeun suggested the exact same thing for our dinner tonight. Only thing is, we’re apparently making everything by hand, even the spaghetti. And we’ve never made pasta before, so…” He chuckles. “You can imagine how well that’ll probably go.”

You glance around the nearest visible aisles. “Daeun’s a proper little chef, I see. Is she here with you?”

The dark-haired man gestures toward the back of the grocery store. “I tasked her with grabbing some milk and eggs while I get the onions. She won’t go near them until they’re cooked, so I figured this would be most efficient.”

You grin. “Divide and conquer, huh?”

“Exactly,” Jungkook answers with a surprisingly boyish smile. You note with amusement that his front teeth are more prominent than the rest, just enough to give him the resemblance of a rabbit. Rather unfairly, it somehow manages to work in his favor when put together with the rest of him. Your cheeks warm when you register again just how handsome he truly is, and you quickly suck in a deep breath as you search around for a distraction.

You’re in luck. Daeun rounds the corner of a nearby display of cantaloupes with a wide grin, a gallon jug of milk and a carton of eggs in either hand. Her grin widens when she spots you, and you chuckle as she tries and fails to raise her jug-bearing hand to wave.

“Hi, Miss {L/N}!” she exclaims as she comes to a stop alongside Jungkook’s cart and deposits her goods inside. “What’re you doing here?”

“Dae,” Jungkook chides gently, but you laugh and wave him off.

“Hi, Daeun. I’m doing some shopping with Trixie, just like you are with your dad. Speaking of which—you probably have a lot of cooking to get to.” You return your attention to Jungkook. “I mean, I know we do. Somehow, I was talked into making two types of cookies this weekend, so we should really head out and get started.”

“Wait—hang on a second.” Jungkook speaks again, and maybe it’s your imagination but you think you hear a tinge of desperation in his tone. “I’m actually glad we ran into you today. We were going to do this on Monday but since you’re both here, Daeun has something she’d like to say to Trixie. Isn’t that right, Dae?”

Daeun’s gaze drops to where she’s scuffing her sneakered feet against the tiled linoleum floor. Jungkook reaches down, giving her an encouraging nudge, and she hesitates for a second before looking back up and glancing between you and Trixie. “I’m sorry,” she begins shyly. “I shouldn’t’ve thrown paint at you. Or taken your book.” And when Jungkook nudges her again and lifts an eyebrow, she continues again. “And… I’m sorry for laughing when you fell down on the playground. It wasn’t funny, and I wasn’t being nice. I’m really sorry, Trixie.”

There’s a beat of silence, as Daeun falls silent and looks at your daughter hopefully. You glance between the two girls, then up at Jungkook, who still has a hand on Daeun’s shoulder and seems to be holding his breath. Trixie, for her part, looks to be deep in thought, her face scrunched in contemplation as she taps a finger against her lips. Vaguely, you wonder if you should say something, but decide against it.

And then Trixie beams, toothy and bright. Daeun’s answering smile is still tentative, but it transforms into full-blown giggles when your daughter rushes forward and clasps one of her hands in both of her own. “I forgive you,” she says shortly, giving her hand a shake like a little businesswoman. You and Jungkook watch on as the two girls proceed to skip off, hand-in-hand and singing “Baby Shark”. 

“Wow,” you remark, turning back to Jungkook. “I have to admit, I’m a little surprised. What brought that on?”

Jungkook begins to look rather sheepish, scratching at the back of his neck. “I actually have a bit of a confession to make. Not to mention, I owe you a huge apology. I talked to Dae last night, and… well, you were right. She wasn’t acting out for no reason. She… she was actually jealous of Trixie."

You frown. "What?"

He nods. "Yeah. See, I got promoted at my job a while ago. Right after the holidays, I had to start working longer hours, which of course meant less time at home with her. And I guess all of that took its toll, especially since I had to stop taking her to school every morning.” He sighs. “She didn’t adjust very well to that. I tried my best to make things work, but there’s only so much I can do, you know? Eventually I had to set up a morning carpool with some of the neighbors. And I tried to ease the transition as much as I could, but…” He trails off with another sigh. “Guess I did kind of a shit job there.” 

Your mind is reeling at all of this new information, but you manage to find your voice again after a few moments. “You did your best,” you tell him, resisting the sudden urge to reach out and touch his arm. “And you’re still trying. That’s all that matters, you know. You’re trying to make things better. Daeun can sense that, and believe me, it’s paying off.”

Jungkook chuckles. “I think you’re giving me too much credit, but thank you. I’m just glad that Dae has a good school and good teachers. Actually, you’ve always been her favorite, did you know that?”

You didn’t. “Really?”

“Really.” 

You aren’t sure what to say after that, so you opt to look around instead. At some point—you aren’t sure when—the two of you must’ve started walking around the grocery store again because all around you are shelves full of bread and baked goods. Mindlessly, you grab a bag of everything bagels and smile when Jungkook follows your lead and drops a bag into his own cart.

A few minutes of meandering later, you find Trixie and Daeun together in the snack aisle, deep in discussion about their favorite candies. The conversation winds down as you and Jungkook approach, and you decide not to comment when Trixie not-so-surreptitiously slips a package of chocolate caramels into your shopping cart.

“We should probably get going,” you say instead, pulling out your phone and glancing at the time. “Gosh, there really aren’t enough hours in the day. You ready, bug?”

“Yep!” Trixie replies cheerily, turning to wave goodbye to Daeun and Jungkook. “Bye, Daeun! Bye, Mr. Jeon!”

“See you Monday, Trixie! You too, Miss {L/N}!” Daeun exclaims. And as you and Jungkook exchange smiles and farewells of your own, you feel lighter than you’ve felt in days, as if an invisible weight has lifted.

///

Like clockwork, Monday morning finds you at the counter of Bean There, Done That! with an apologetic Jin offering you your usual coffee in a size larger than the one you’d paid for. “Again?” you exclaim as you accept the cup and take a generous sip. “I can’t believe this. You opened like, twenty minutes ago.”

The corner of Jin’s mouth twitches. Then, with a dramatic flourish, he produces a full tray of cinnamon streusel bagels from somewhere beneath the counter, picking out the best-looking one before sliding the tray into its spot in the display. “I just wanted to see the look on your face,” he admits as he slips the bagel into a paper bag and hands it over. “These are fresh—still pretty warm, in fact. Surprised you didn’t smell them when you came in.”

“I did smell them,” you tell him, wagging a finger. “But the blueberry bagels are always kind of overpowering and this whole place tends to smell like vanilla anyway, so excuse me for taking you for your word when you said you were out.”

“You know, a simple ‘thank you’ would’ve sufficed,” Jin sniffs. Then he gestures to the stack of napkins next to the cash register and waggles his eyebrows. “Care to leave a snarky note of your own?”

A slow grin spreads across your face as you start fishing in your purse for a pen. “Abso-fucking-lutely.”

///

The rest of the day goes smoothly, and you’re pretty sure it’s all thanks to the cinnamon streusel bagel you’d had the time to truly savor this morning. You’d even bought an extra for Taehyung, who for his part contributed a tupperware full of bacon strips and a pitcher of mixed berry smoothie to your breakfast. For lunch you’d made sure to eat a healthy dose of vegetables, and as you head into the final period of the day, you feel more than ready to give a room full of children their next big assignment.

“All right, class,” you say as your students filter into the classroom and start taking their seats. “We’ve been learning about the animal kingdom for the last few weeks, and it’s finally time to put everything we’ve learned so far together. I’m going to go around and hand each of you a card. Take a look at it—you’ll either see a picture of an animal, or the name of an animal.” Grabbing the stack of cards off your desk, you begin distributing them, slowly making your way up and down the rows of desks. “Then, I want you to get up out of your seats and find the card that matches yours. If there’s a picture of a zebra on your card, you want to find the person with ‘zebra’ written on their card. And that person will be your partner for this project. Does that make sense to everyone?”

Nods and exclamations of affirmation all around. Satisfied, you hand out the last of your cards and return to your desk, gesturing for your students to stand up and find their partners. You watch as the children mill around, exclaiming happily when they find their match. Much to your satisfaction, you see that Daisy—a little girl who always has her blond hair corralled into a neat braid—and Josiah—a well-mannered boy with a different-colored polo for each day of the week—just so happen to be partners. You hadn’t planned it that way, but you’ve always gotten the feeling that there was a hint of a little crush there.

Another pleasant surprise comes in the form of Daeun, who’s plopped herself in the seat beside Trixie and is animatedly gesturing at her card. Even from your spot in the front of the classroom, you can read the big block letters that spell out “penguin” and see the corresponding line drawing on Trixie’s card. And as the girls begin to chat, it’s as if the issues of the last few months hadn’t happened at all.

Your class spends the last few hours of the school day in the library, working on their newly assigned project. You’ve set up shop at the table nearest Taehyung’s desk, which you’ve always kind of envied. Perfectly round and situated in the center of the room, it allows for a 360-degree view of the entire library if he so much as spins in his chair. “Honestly, I could get so much done if I had one of these,” you lament to him as you watch Josiah sharpen Daisy’s pencil for her out of the corner of your eye. “I’d set up the best frickin’ assembly line you ever saw.”

“You sound like a workaholic,” Taehyung replies, doing yet another lazy revolution in his seat. “Or a lunatic. Same thing, really.” 

Resisting the urge to stick your tongue out at him, you settle for rolling your eyes instead. The final bell of the day rings, and you shepherd your students out of the library with your friend on your heels. As the children disperse to their lockers, you trail after Trixie and Daeun, waiting for the two to say their goodbyes so you and your daughter can walk to the car together. It’s still odd seeing the two getting along so well, but you aren’t about to question it as you and Taehyung follow the girls to their lockers—which happen to be in the same section of the hallway—and then out and into the bright afternoon sun. Smiling, you listen to them chattering excitedly about the project even as Taehyung launches into a tirade about his latest rent increase.

“Seriously, I should just move at this point—it’s fucking ridiculous. I don’t even use the conference center, and the indoor pool is just a waste of space when there’s a public one that’s twice the size three blocks away. And that one even has a hot tub! Not to mention—”

You sigh, cutting him off mid-sentence. “Jeez, Tae, just move. You’ve been threatening to for over a year now, and it’s not like anyone’s forcing you to stay. You don’t even like the neighborhood, for god’s sake. I don’t know why you stuck around for that long.”

Taehyung sniffs. “Moving’s just such a hassle, you know? I really wanted to avoid it, but I guess I can’t this time around. A 22% rent increase… fucking hell. You’ll help me pack, won’t you?”

“I’d rather not.”

“But you’re so good at packing! And you have all that bubble wrap and the box of styrofoam peanuts hoarded in your closet—”

“Stored in my closet.”

“Whatever,” he says dismissively, waving you off. “I’m not here to debate semantics with you.”

“No, you’re here to guilt me into helping you move,” you reply. “What’s up with that, anyway? I thought you swore off of renting U-Hauls for good after last time. You were googling moving companies and getting quotes for weeks.”

“Yeah, I definitely lost that spreadsheet,” Taehyung admits. “Besides, money’s a little tight right now. Every last bit of spare change we have is going toward Jimin’s new pilates studio. We’re saving wherever and whenever  we can.”

You nod in understanding at the mention of his fiancé and his new business venture. “How’s all that going, anyhow? I know Jimin’s been super busy—we haven’t been to bar trivia in weeks.”

“Yeah, it’s a whole thing,” Taehyung says, pinching the bridge of his nose. “Starting a business is hard—who knew?”

“Who knew, indeed,” you echo. You’re about to say something else, too, but any semblance of coherence flies out of your head when you glance at the girls again and see that they’ve come to a stop. There’s a sleek black Mercedes-Benz idling at the curb, and leaning against it is none other than Jungkook Jeon—dressed in a sharp navy blue ensemble with his hair slicked back and dark sunglasses perched on his nose. It’s impossible to tell whether he’s seen you yet, and it’s all you can do to tear your gaze away before you get caught staring. Turning back instead to Taehyung, you raise a hand in farewell. “Well, it looks like this is my stop.”

“Seems that way,” your friend hums, casting a curious glance at Trixie, who’s enthusiastically greeted Jungkook with a Hi again, Mr. Jeon! and is now giggling with Daeun about how they can see their reflections in his car. “See you tomorrow. Don’t get into too much trouble!”

You roll your eyes at the flagrant wink Taehyung sends your way, surreptitiously flipping him off from behind your tote bag. Then you make your way over to your daughter, who’s still engrossed in conversation. Coming to a stop behind her, you lay a hand on her shoulder, smiling as she looks up and flashes you a big grin. “All righty. You ready to go home, jitterbug?” you ask.

Trixie juts her bottom lip out into a pout. “Can I go to Daeun’s?”

You raise an eyebrow, glancing up at Jungkook, who’s now scrolling through his phone. Then you return your gaze to your daughter, taking in her eager, bright eyes. “I don’t know, bug. Have you asked Mr. Jeon if you can come over?”

Daeun pipes up then, her pigtails bobbing with every word. “He says it’s okay, Miss {L/N}! Since we have a project to work on and all. He even said we can order takeout for dinner!”

Again, you look at Jungkook. His expression is unreadable behind his sunglasses, but when he feels your gaze he glances up, tucking his phone back into his pocket and pushing his sunglasses up onto his head. “Dae’s right—I did promise the girls takeout. Sorry to catch you off guard with last-minute plans like this, Miss {L/N}. If you’d like, you’re welcome to join us as well.”

You blink. To say that the invitation has caught you off guard would be a massive understatement, and as your brain races to catch up, you suddenly realize that he’s willing to let you come to his home. You would be in his space—where he lives, eats, sleeps. The thought is simultaneously terrifying and exhilarating.

“I—I don’t want to impose,” you finally manage after what feels like an eternity. “I’m sure you’re busy, and I have a lot of homework to grade, and…” You trail off, hesitant, and Jungkook waits a beat before chiming in.

“No imposition at all,” he says, offering you a small smile. “Honest. I’ve spent two of the last three weekends hosting sleepovers for Daeun’s friends, and I’m not convinced I remember what adult company is like anymore.” Then his smile widens—just enough to offer a glimpse of his endearingly prominent front teeth and crinkle the corners of his eyes. “Remind me?”

You aren’t sure if you’re imagining the flirtatious edge in his tone, but you push the thought to the very back of your head and straighten the hem of your blouse before grasping for the phone tucked in your bag. “I… I suppose that would be all right,” you begin hesitantly as you pretend to check for new notifications. “You’re sure it won’t be any trouble?”

“None at all,” Jungkook reassures. “Here, I’ll give you my address for your GPS, but it might be easier if you just follow me. Where are you parked?”

You gesture toward the staff parking lot, which is usually separated from the main lot by a row of neatly manicured hydrangea bushes that bloom in bursts of pink and blue and purple during the spring and summer months. Right now, there are only a few sparse yellow daffodils, pushing up through the dirt and signaling that spring is not far off despite the lingering chill in the air. “I’m about three rows in. I can drive over and meet you here, if that works?”

Trixie chooses that moment to pipe up, instinctively raising her hand like she’s still in class. “Can I ride with Daeun and Mr. Jeon?”

You hesitate, glancing over at Jungkook, who shrugs as if to say fine by me. Turning your attention back to your daughter, you nod and reach down to adjust the glittery pink scrunchie in her hair. “Be good,” you order. “Don’t distract Mr. Jeon while he’s driving, okay?”

“Mmhmm,” Trixie hums, already turning toward the sleek black Benz and tugging on the door handle. “See you there, Mom!”

You wave, watching as the girls climb into the backseat before turning and making your way to your own car. Unlocking the door, you slide into the driver’s seat and take a deep breath. Then, you take another. And a few moments later, you take a third.

Even as you mentally play back the events of the afternoon, you still can’t wrap your head around how it came to this. Here you are, about to drive to Jungkook Jeon’s house. You’ve seen his address in your files, and you know from the street name that he lives downtown, in the part of the city that’s dominated by high-rise buildings and five-star hotels. It’s an area that you don’t visit often, having no reason to unless there’s a particular restaurant that you’re looking to try out—and have the money for. It feels odd inputting his address into your phone’s navigation app, but you do so nonetheless, watching as it calculates the optimal route. 

Steeling yourself, you start up the ignition and ease up on the brake. As you pull out of your parking space, you crane your head to see if Jungkook’s car is still where you’d last seen it, which it thankfully is. Slowly, you make your way over to where the Benz is idling, pulling up alongside him and giving him a little wave. Jungkook has donned his sunglasses again, but he lowers them when he sees you and nods in acknowledgment. Ready to go? he mouths, and you nod even though it’s a lie. You aren’t ready. You aren’t sure you ever will be. But Jungkook is already pulling ahead and out of the parking lot, and you’re forced to push aside your intrusive thoughts and follow. 

The first stretch of the drive is easy. Jungkook is a measured driver, and you can tell that he’s taking care to turn only when there’s enough room for both of your vehicles. The second stretch, however, proves far more difficult. Now that you’re downtown, there’s an abundance of one-way streets and pedestrians. Traffic lights sit on seemingly every corner, alternating between red, yellow, and green at random, as far as you can tell. You nearly lose Jungkook twice on particularly short green lights, and only narrowly avoid hitting an overeager dog dragging its hapless owner into the crosswalk before the walk sign has changed. 

The third time, it finally happens. Dismayed, you watch as Jungkook’s sleek black Benz cruises past a green light, just before it turns yellow for a split second and then flips to red. You’re forced to brake far faster than you’d prefer—way too fast to be safe, for sure—and watch as Jungkook disappears around the Starbucks on the next corner. Muttering out a quiet curse, you drum your fingers impatiently on the steering wheel as you wait for the light to change again. Thankfully, you’re only about two minutes from your destination. 

After what feels like an eternity, the light finally turns green. Releasing your foot on the brake, you take the turn that Jungkook had taken, glancing between your phone and the surrounding buildings to identify your destination. There’s a string of restaurants, a pharmacy, and a post office. You cruise past a dentist’s office and a few dry cleaners, and then your phone is directing you to turn right onto a street that boasts a long row of glass-fronted office buildings. 

Two blocks later, you’re pulling up to a tall, sleek chrome building. The first floor is occupied by a seafood restaurant and the second and third seem to be a gym, but as you crane your head upward you can see that the floors above that seem to be condominiums. Letting your head fall back against the headrest, you glance down at your phone one more time, confirming that this is indeed your destination. Then you take a long, deep breath before you begin following the little blue signs that claim to lead to a parking garage beneath the building.

To your relief, the garage itself isn’t difficult to find. You take a ticket from the machine as you descend down the concrete ramp, keeping an eye out for any open spots that are designated as guest parking. Seconds pass, and then minutes. Your heart flutters nervously in your chest as you descend deeper into the parking garage, seeking a break in the rows of cars that never comes. You’re seconds away from giving up and turning around, when finally, you see an open spot. It’s a little cramped and it’s right next to a concrete pillar that’s just a little too close for comfort, but you manage to squeeze into the space. Heaving a deep sigh of relief, you turn off the ignition and tuck your keys into your purse, taking a moment to gather yourself before exiting your car and locking it behind you.

That’s when you encounter your next obstacle: figuring out how, exactly, to get out of the parking garage. You can’t find a single sign to guide your way—only a locked dark green door that you assume is some kind of mechanical room. Groaning, you spin in a full circle, taking in your concrete surroundings. Maybe if you just start walking, you’ll find a sign that will point you to the elevators. You’d even consider taking the stairs at this point, no matter how many floors down you are (you’re pretty sure it’s seven or eight). 

Just then, your phone begins to buzz in your pocket. Pulling it out, you see Jungkook Jeon (Daeun’s Dad) emblazoned across the screen and immediately swipe to answer. “Hello?”

“Hey,” Jungkook says, obvious relief coloring his tone. “I’m sorry I lost you back there. Where are you now?”

“I’m in the parking garage below your building,” you reply, idly scuffing your foot along the concrete floor. “I’m parked pretty far down, and now I can’t seem to figure out how to get upstairs.”

Jungkook hums thoughtfully. “Yeah, I’ll admit the signage isn’t great down there. Let me see… can you see any doors?”

“Just this green one, but it’s locked.” Reaching out, you try the handle again to double-check. “Other than that, nothing.”

Another hum from the man on the other end of the line. “Okay, walk away from that door. Try and head toward the middle of the garage—that’s where the elevators are. There’s four of them, and they’re in this big concrete circle. Can you see them yet?”

“Maybe?” You can see a break in the rows of cars up ahead, and a rounded concrete wall in the distance. Speeding up, you make your way around the edge and blink as a bank of elevators comes into view. “Oh, wait—yeah! Huh. Weird. I didn’t expect the doors to be orange.”

Jungkook chuckles. “Each floor’s color-coordinated, yeah. Orange means you’re near the bottom, though. Didn’t you see the guest parking on the first floor?”

You blink. “No, I don’t think so. Did I miss something?”

That draws another chuckle from him. “Probably. There’s a row of spaces off to the right as soon as you enter the garage, but it can be pretty easy to miss if you don’t know to look for it. I should’ve given you a heads-up.”

“It’s okay,” you tell him as you enter the elevator and hit the button for the thirty-fourth floor. “I could’ve asked.”

Bidding him farewell and assuring that you’ll see him soon, you hang up and tuck your phone back into your pocket. The elevator ride is relatively short despite how high you’re going, and before you know it you find yourself standing in front of a navy blue door with a polished brass knocker. Raising your hand, you’re about to knock when the door flies open, revealing Daeun and Trixie standing there with identical grins.

“You’re finally here!” your daughter exclaims, bounding forward to take you by the hand and lead you inside. “Mr. Jeon said we had to wait for you to get here. He says he’s gonna give us a grand tour!”

“It’s really not as exciting as they’re making it sound.” Jungkook’s voice comes from around the corner, and the man himself steps into view a moment later. He’s taken off his jacket and removed his tie, leaving him in navy slacks and a crisp white shirt with the first few buttons undone. Your gaze lingers a little too long on this newly exposed sliver of chest, but you forcibly tear your gaze away when Trixie gives your hand a squeeze. 

“Come on, Mom! You can see everything from the window. It’s like you’re on top of a mountain!”

Laughing, you follow your daughter deeper into the apartment. She points to the closet off the foyer, where you obligingly hang up your coat next to her periwinkle one. Then she leads you to the far end of the foyer, where it opens into a wide hallway. On the other side of the hall is an archway that leads to a spacious kitchen with white cabinets and polished granite countertops. You take note of the bright yellow bar stools at the kitchen island, chuckling when Daeun loudly declares that she picked them out—and that Jungkook had caved to her despite wanting boring gray ones instead.

As you continue your tour, it becomes abundantly clear that Jungkook has caved to his daughter on multiple occasions. The furniture in the living area is neutral—shades of beige and dark wood that pair well with the polished floorboards and modern floor-to-ceiling windows. But scattered throughout the space are pops of color and quirkiness that you can confidently attribute to Daeun—having graded several of the art pieces that you now see hanging on the wall and adorning the sleek glass coffee table. There’s the lopsided clay vase painted with streaks of hot pink and specks of bright yellow, and there’s the papier-mâché snowman with his jaunty orange hat. You see more and more of Daeun’s influence everywhere you look—the watercolor butterfly paintings on the wall, and the red floral accent chair that you’re sure Jungkook didn’t pick out himself. 

“That’s Daddy’s room,” Daeun says, pointing to a nondescript white door beside the bookshelves that flank the flatscreen TV hanging on the wall. Then she points down the hall, past the kitchen where you can see a few more doors. “And that’s my room down there, next to Daddy’s office. Do you want to see?”

You nod. “I can’t wait. Lead the way.”

Cheerfully, Daeun gestures for you to follow after her as she skips toward the door at the very end of the hall. She opens it with a flourish, allowing all of you inside, and as soon as you step past the threshold you’re transported to a fantastical world. Daeun’s bedroom walls are painted to resemble an enchanted forest, complete with delicate fairy lights wrapped around the wooden four-poster bed. A white desk and an accompanying green chair sit in front of the floor-to-ceiling window, the pale pink curtains opened to let sunlight stream in. Along the sill is a collection of stuffed animals, ranging from a tiny butterfly to an elephant that you’re pretty sure is taller than Daeun herself. Opposite the bed is a gallery wall, composed of colorful floral prints and Daeun’s own art—a charming, eclectic mix of animal paintings and landscapes. It’s the kind of bedroom that you would’ve loved as a child, and your daughter is equally taken with it if her awed expression is anything to go by. 

“This is so cool!” Trixie runs to the window to peer out at the city below, before twirling in a circle to take in the art on the walls. “I can’t believe you live here. It’s like a magic forest!”

“It’s a beautiful room,” you remark, nodding your agreement. “And all of these drawings are amazing, Daeun. You’re a talented artist.”

Daeun flushes at the compliment, thanking you with a shy smile. Then she and Trixie are off again, speeding down the hallway to look at something else in the apartment. You and Jungkook trail after them slowly, until he opens another door off the hall to reveal his office. It’s smaller than Daeun’s bedroom and far more simplistic in its decor, but it’s a cozy and inviting space nonetheless. One wall is lined with mahogany bookshelves, and a polished wooden desk is pushed against the opposite. A plush burgundy armchair with a matching ottoman sits in the corner beside a tall potted plant, creating the perfect space for reading, and you can tell from the indentation in the seat cushion that it’s been well-loved over the years.

“I’ve definitely been bringing my work home too much lately,” Jungkook admits. “I’ve been cutting back though. Ever since Daeun’s behavioral problems…” He trails off. “Well, you know all about that already. And I do want to apologize for giving you a hard time. It’s just… I guess it’s not all that fun being told that you’re failing as a parent.”

“You’re not failing as a parent,” you reply, laying a hand on his arm before you can think to stop yourself. “You’re doing your best. It’s all we can do, isn’t it? Do everything we possibly can for our children?”

He nods, but he isn’t looking at you. He’s looking down at your hand on his arm, and you blanch inwardly as you quickly pull back and pretend to brush invisible dirt off your skirt. “We should go find the girls,” you murmur. And just like that, the tour is over. 

The two of you rejoin the girls in the kitchen, where they’ve begun assembling themselves a snack of peanut butter and crackers. Jungkook slices up an apple and a banana for them to share, and they barely take the time to thank him before disappearing into Daeun’s bedroom to work on their project. You and Jungkook find yourselves alone in the kitchen, and when the silence between you has stretched on for just long enough to be awkward, you decide to speak. “So. I guess I should probably grade some homework while I’m here.”

Jungkook blinks and shakes his head a little, as if coming out of a trance. “Right, of course. I’ve got a few things I need to wrap up myself. Please, make yourself comfortable. You’re free to work in the office, if you’d like.”

Immediately, you shake your head. “Oh, no. I don’t want to intrude.”

He nods, then gestures out toward the dining table, which sits in a little nook between the main living area and kitchen. “Well then, feel free to make use of the table. Or the kitchen island. Or even the couch, if you’d prefer.” He pauses. “Wait, where are my manners? I haven’t even offered you anything to drink! Did you want anything?” 

“Oh.” You hesitate. “I’m okay.”

Jungkook begins making his way to the refrigerator, regardless. “Seriously, it’s no trouble. I have coffee, tea, banana milk, and I think there’s probably a carton of apple juice in here too. What do you usually drink when you’re grading?”

“Tea,” you admit. “Any kind. I’m not picky.”

“Tea it is.” Jungkook sets about grabbing two mugs. “Go on, make yourself comfortable. I’ll bring it to you.”

For a moment, you wonder if you should ask if he needs help. But he’s already preoccupied with the kettle, his back to you, and you have to force yourself to look away from the way his broad shoulders taper into his slim waist. In an attempt to distract yourself from gawking, you walk back out to the dining table. Pulling out a chair, you settle your bag on the floor beside you and take a seat. And by the time Jungkook comes out of the kitchen with two steaming mugs of tea, you’re already halfway through grading the first math worksheet in your pile.

“Here you go.” Jungkook places a mug by your elbow, and you glance up at him with a grateful smile.

“Thanks.” “No problem.”

To your surprise, he takes his mug to the opposite side of the table and sets it down. Then he disappears into the kitchen, returning a few seconds later with his laptop in hand. You try not to stare as he sets up shop across from you, a loose lock of dark hair flopping across his forehead as he logs in and begins reading something, his dark eyes flitting across the screen. His piercing in his eyebrow glints in the sunlight streaming in through the nearby window.

Ripping your gaze away, you force yourself to focus on the homework you need to grade. And after a few minutes, you’re fully immersed, thumbing through sheet after sheet and writing down your notes.

Before you even realize it, two hours have passed. You only become aware of how late it’s getting when Jungkook shuts his laptop with a click, stretching his arms overhead and working a few kinks out of his neck. “It’s almost dinnertime,” he remarks, glancing out the window where the sun is steadily dropping closer to the horizon. “Did you have any thoughts about dinner? I can order some pizza or something.”

“Oh, I don’t think—” you begin to protest, but Daeun and Trixie choose that moment to dash in like mini tornadoes, whirling around the dining table. 

“We can still order takeout for dinner, right Daddy?” Daeun gazes up at Jungkook with pleading eyes, clasping her hands in front of her chest. “And Trixie and Miss {L/N} can stay if we do, right?”

Trixie looks at you, lower lip already beginning to jut out in a pout. “Please, Mom?”

Jungkook gives you a meaningful glance across the table, and you can only shrug and relent. “Yeah, all right. Since takeout was already promised, we can stay for dinner. But we’re going home after that, okay? It’s a school night.”

The girls burst into cheers. After a brief discussion on what kind of food to order, you all settle on Jungkook’s initial suggestion of pizza. As he puts in the order, you begin tidying up the dining table, clearing it of your graded homework. Daeun points out where the plates are kept, and together, you and the girls set the table for dinner. 

“Estimated delivery time is half an hour,” Jungkook says as he tucks his phone back into his pocket and joins you at the dining table. “What should we do while we wait?”

“Let’s play Candyland!” Daeun exclaims. 

Trixie gasps. “I love Candyland!”

And just like that, it’s settled. The four of you settle around the coffee table for the game—you and Jungkook making yourselves comfortable on the cream-colored sectional while the girls sprawl out on the shaggy rug on the floor. The pizza arrives just as Trixie reaches Candy Castle, and Jungkook goes to answer the door while she celebrates her victory. Then, the four of you sit down for dinner.

It’s strange, sitting in Jungkook’s undoubtedly expensive apartment and eating pizza. But even more strange is how okay it all feels—natural, even. You aren’t sure when you became so comfortable in his presence, but you aren’t about to question it. You’re grateful for the lack of awkwardness.

An hour later, the last slice of pizza is finished. You volunteer to do the dishes, and Jungkook clears the table while you take up residence at the sink. You’ve tasked Trixie with gathering up her things so you can depart after you’ve finished in the kitchen, and can hear her giggling off in the distance with Daeun. “Thanks for hosting us today,” you murmur to Jungkook.

He chuckles, waving off your gratitude. “It’s no problem, seriously. I had a good time.”

You smile at him before returning to the dishes. Just as you’re putting away the last plate, the girls run back into the kitchen—Trixie with her backpack in tow. 

“Can Daeun come to our house next time?” she asks, and you laugh.

“Sure, jitterbug. You’re welcome to come over whenever you’d like, Daeun.”

And with that, you and Trixie say your final goodbyes. You slip back into your shoes and grab your coats from the closet. Jungkook gives you directions for the easiest route out of the parking garage, and you thank him for what feels like the umpteenth time.

You’re barely listening to your daughter’s ramblings as you climb into the driver’s seat and turn on the ignition. All you can think about is Jungkook and this strange, newfound warmth that stirs in your belly whenever he seeps into your thoughts.

///

“You wiped that part of the counter already.”

Trixie’s voice barely registers in your mind, but the washcloth in your hand slows nonetheless. It’s a beautiful Saturday morning with hardly a cloud in the sky, and Jungkook and Daeun are due to arrive any minute. You’ve been cleaning for the past hour, and even though you know you’ve already gone through the kitchen, you can’t help yourself. This is the first time Jungkook will be seeing your humble abode, and you—ostensibly—want to impress.

“Bug, can you set the table?”

Trixie sighs dramatically, but complies nonetheless. Grabbing four plates, she places them down carefully before returning for four glasses. You join her at the table with a pitcher of freshly squeezed orange juice, straightening out one of the striped blue placemats as you set it down beside the vase of flowers that serves as a centerpiece. 

You’ve just started frying bacon when the doorbell rings. “Got it!” Trixie calls, darting to the door, and you listen as she enthusiastically greets your guests. A few seconds later, Jungkook rounds the corner with both girls, decked out in jeans and a gray cable-knit sweather and carrying a plain white cardboard box in his hands. 

Curiously, you tilt your head. “Mysterious box you’ve got there.”

He laughs. “Hello to you too.” Then he puts the box down and pops open the lid. “I brought my favorite bagels—I hope that’s okay. Didn’t want to show up empty-handed.”

You smile at him. “Of course it’s okay. I was just planning on making some toast, but bagels are way be…” You trail off as the bagels in question come into your view. 

Perfectly golden, with a dusting of cinnamon sugar and streusel crumbles on top. You’d recognize them anywhere. 

“{Name}?” Jungkook sounds concerned. “Are you all right?”

You blink and shake your head, mind still whirring. “Are these from that coffee shop downtown? Bean There, Done That?” 

Jungkook nods. “Yeah, have you been?”

You nod. “This… this might sound crazy and I might be way off base. But do you stop there every morning for a bagel?”

Jungkook blinks. Then he blinks again, his lips parting wordlessly. A beat passes, and then another. “Wait,” he finally manages, his voice a croak. “Hang on. Is it… I mean, it can’t be… can it?”

You reach into the drawer next to the stovetop and pull out a wad of pen-stained napkins. “Did you leave me these?”

For a few seconds, it seems like Jungkook can only gape at you. “Holy shit,” he finally breathes, before slapping a hand to his mouth with wide eyes and glancing around to make sure the girls aren’t within earshot. “I was leaving you notes this whole time?”

You can only laugh in disbelief. “You were the one taking my cinnamon streusel bagels?”

“Hey, I wouldn’t have taken them if you’d gotten there earlier,” he teases. Chuckling, he picks up a napkin note and uncrumples it, scanning across the text. “Damn. Small world, huh?”

“The smallest,” you agree, mind reeling from this new development. Still chuckling, Jungkook steps past you to get to the stove, and you belatedly remember that the bacon is still sizzling in the pan as he picks up your tongs and carefully flips each strip. 

“I kept your notes too,” he says after a moment. “I shoved both of them in my glovebox.”

You huff. “Both. Yeah, okay, you beat me to the last bagel way more than I beat you. You don’t have to rub it in, Jungkook.”

“Oh, come on.” He grins, toothy and bright, and you’re momentarily distracted by the endearing prominence of his teeth. “I think I have to rub it in a little.”

“Hmph. As long as it’s only a little,” you concede as you join him at the stove with another pan and begin scrambling eggs. Together, the two of you finish making breakfast, piling eggs onto one plate and bacon on another. You grab the bowl of fruit salad you’d prepared last night out of the fridge, and Jungkook grabs the box of bagels and calls for Daeun and Trixie to come eat. Then, he surprises you by sitting beside you, leaving the girls to sit next to each other on the opposite side of the table.

Breakfast is a relaxed affair—even if Taco keeps trying to jump up on the table to steal some bacon. You’ve eaten several meals with Jungkook and Daeun since that first dinner—usually at Jungkook’s apartment, but also once at the food court in your local natural history museum, where you took the girls to see the ocean exhibit’s penguin display. Since this is the final weekend before their group project is due on Monday, you’ve promised to take them to the zoo to see real, live penguins and complete the last of their research. Both girls already have their backpacks packed and ready to go, and you task Jungkook with checking to make sure they have all their notes while you clean up in the kitchen. 

Twenty minutes later, you’re on your way to the zoo. Jungkook has volunteered to drive, and you can’t help but gape a little as he unlocks his sleek black Mercedes-Benz and opens up the passenger door to reveal cream-colored leather seats and shiny silver hardware. “Wow,” you remark, catching his eye as he walks around to the driver’s side. “This is like the Batmobile or something.”

“Hardly,” he says with a laugh. “I wish I had rocket boosters and ejection seats. That’d be cool as hell.”

“Daddy!” Daeun gasps, scandalized. “That’s a bad word!”

Jungkook has the decency to look properly abashed. “I’ll put a dollar in the swear jar when we get home,” he promises before pretending to zip his mouth shut and throw away the key. Satisfied, Daeun clambers into the backseat with Trixie on her heels, and Jungkook shoots you a conspiratorial little wink as he takes his own seat and starts up the engine.

The drive to the zoo takes only about fifteen minutes. It’s already beginning to get crowded by the time you get there, but Jungkook still manages to find parking with little difficulty. Together, the two of you usher your daughters out of the car, reminding them not to run too far ahead when they immediately make a beeline for the entrance. 

After a short wait in line to buy tickets, you finally make your way past the lion statues flanking the front gate. The wide concrete pathway leads to an open plaza where people are milling about—some looking at the directory located at the far end while others rely on the colorful signpost in the center, reading through the various directional arrows before heading off to their destination. Along the edges of the plaza are a multitude of stalls—selling everything from footlong hot dogs to stuffed animals to cotton candy. There’s a couple of artists painting faces, too, and Daeun only has to give Jungkook one wide-eyed, pleading look before he caves and pulls out his wallet. Aghast, you try to protest, but he waves you off and sends them both off with some cash in hand. 

“Consider it payment for all the bagels I’ve deprived you of,” he says, and you relent with a laugh.

Slowly, the two of you make your way around the plaza, making sure to keep a watchful eye on the girls at all times. Half an hour later, Trixie and Daeun come skipping back your way, their faces bright with colorful paint. Daeun has an intricate pink and blue butterfly, while Trixie has opted for the distinctive orange and black stripes of a tiger. 

“Do you like it?” she asks, and you nod, bopping her fondly on her painted black nose. 

“I don’t just like it, jitterbug. I love it.”

Pleased, she rejoins Daeun, who has successfully diverted Jungkook to the cotton candy stand. Following after her, you hand the vendor your credit card to pay for both snacks before Jungkook can get a word in edgewise. Reluctantly, he tucks his wallet away, laughing when you stick your tongue out at him.

Once the girls have had their fill of the main plaza, the four of you head off in the direction of the penguin exhibit, stopping to look at the zebras and giraffes along the way. Photographs are snapped, and Trixie even flags down a nearby couple and asks them to take a photo of all four of you together. The girls jostle into place in front of the giraffe enclosure, and you suddenly find yourself standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Jungkook, the warmth of his body radiating off of him like the sun in the sky. Your resulting smile feels forced—especially when the girl starts taking multiple photos from different angles—but gradually relaxes. And now, even as you enter the penguin exhibit, you can’t stop sneaking glances at the last photo. 

Because in it, you and Jungkook look like couple. You’re standing close enough that anyone who saw it would construe it as a family photo, the two of you beaming with your giggling daughters in front of you, their arms draped over each other’s shoulders.

Swallowing, you let your phone screen go dark and tuck it back into your pocket. You’re coming up on the penguin exhibit now, and the girls can barely contain their excitement as they run ahead to the outermost edge of the enclosure where a massive glass wall allows for a clear view of the penguins swimming about underwater.

“They’re so fast!” Trixie exclaims. She stops at one of the numerous placards lining the glass wall, her little face scrunching as she slowly reads it out loud to Daeun. “It says here some can swim over twenty miles an hour!”

As the girls pull out their notebooks and begin taking notes, you and Jungkook find an unoccupied bench near a rocky outcrop occupied by several bronze penguin statues. “Look,” Jungkook says, patting one of the upright penguins. “You can see how many people have rubbed this little guy’s head. It’s turned gold.”

“Must be good luck,” you remark, running a finger along the golden beak of another penguin. “Or maybe I should make a wish? I don’t really know what this situation calls for.”

“I’m pretty sure you make wishes when you throw a coin into a fountain,” your companion replies, brushing a dark strand of hair off his forehead. “Actually, I think I saw a fountain back there. Should we check it out later?”

“I don’t think I have any change on me,” you reply, peeking into your purse to make sure. “Seriously, who even carries coins anymore?”

“Not me,” Jungkook agrees. “I do usually have at least a little cash on me, though. It’s nice to have sometimes.”

“Mm, yeah. You never know when you’ll need it.”

Just then, Trixie and Daeun run up, gesturing toward the brown building at the very back of the enclosure. “There’s a penguin movie playing over there!” Daeun says. “Can we go see it?”

“Sure,” Jungkook says. “How long is it?”

“I think it runs every twenty minutes,” you reply when Daeun frowns and scratches her head. “Come on. If I’m remembering correctly, we should be able to see more penguins inside too.”

Daeun and Trixie beam. “Cool!” they exclaim in unison, before galloping off and leaving you and Jungkook to follow after them as quickly as you can manage without breaking into a run yourselves.

Your memory proves correct, as you enter the brown building and immediately see that the walls inside are glass as well. A penguin dives off of a rocky island and into the clear blue water, and you watch as it goes all the way to the bottom of the pool before coming back up for air. 

After doing a lap of the building, Daeun and Trixie decide to go into the theater to see the fifteen-minute short film. Meanwhile, you and Jungkook find a quiet little alcove near the entrance, chatting softly while watching the penguins behind the glass on the opposite wall. 

“I haven’t been to the zoo in ages,” Jungkook admits. “Dae’s mom used to always take her, though. They always came back with a stuffed animal from the gift shop—you might’ve seen them in Daeun’s room, actually. She loves them.”

You nod. “I remember, yeah. It’s quite an impressive collection.” Then you hesitate, gnawing on your bottom lip as you consider your next words and debate whether you’re being too nosy. “Daeun’s mom… can I ask what happened between you?” You pause, then quickly speak again. “And feel free to say no, obviously! You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to. I’m probably just poking my nose where it doesn’t belong.”

Jungkook smiles at you, but there’s a faraway quality to his gaze that wasn’t there before. “Nah, it’s okay. There’s really not much to tell, if I’m honest. Evelyn and I, we started dating when we were nineteen. We got married at twenty-three, had Daeun a couple years later, and then one day we realized that we’d become entirely different people and that we weren’t really in love anymore.”

“Oh.” You aren’t sure what else to say. “I-I’m sorry to hear that.”

He shrugs and sighs, tilting his head back to look up at the ceiling. “No need to be sorry; it was a mutual thing. Totally amicable. We’re still friends, and we’re a pretty kickass co-parenting team too.”

The conversation continues, and you find out that Evelyn’s job took her overseas last year. According to Jungkook, she currently lives with her new boyfriend, who’s a little pretentious but completely harmless. And despite the six-hour time difference, Evelyn still finds the time to FaceTime Jungkook and Daeun every Sunday afternoon. Because of those calls, she’s apparently heard all about you, too—you’re her favorite teacher, remember? he’d said with a laugh.

“What about you, then?” Jungkook glances over at you inquiringly, his eyebrows raised. “Is it my turn to pry?”

You can tell from the melodious lilt in his tone that he’s teasing. “My story’s far less interesting than yours,” you answer, fiddling with a stray thread on your jacket sleeve. “I don’t have an ex-partner or anything like that. I’ve just always wanted to be a mother, so one day I decided that I was going to do it. I used a donor, got pregnant, and here we are.”

Jungkook takes this in slowly, nodding. “Do you… I mean, do you know who your donor is? Have you met him?”

You shake your head. “No, it was an anonymous thing. I got a profile and some information about his appearance and hobbies and stuff, but not much beyond that.”

“I—” Jungkook begins, before trailing off. “I’m sorry. I’m asking too many questions. I don’t know a whole lot about the sperm donor thing, but I’m glad it worked out for you. Trixie’s an amazing kid.”

“She is,” you murmur. “I love her more than anything.”

“And you’re an amazing mom.” Jungkook’s voice grows softer, and when you turn to look at him, he seems closer than he was before. “I don’t know how you manage it all, teaching and parenting. But you do, and it’s incredible. You’re incredible.”

You aren’t sure who leans in first. All you know is that one moment, you’re staring into Jungkook’s earnest brown eyes, and then in the next, you’re kissing him.

It starts soft. Cautious, even. His lips press against yours gently, once, before he pulls back for a breath. You can feel him exhale, the warmth fanning your cheeks. And then you pull him back in by his collar, fisting one hand in the knit material and finding the soft hair at his nape with the other. 

Time slows to a standstill. Jungkook groans against your lips, and you feel the way it rumbles through his chest, the sensation sinking into your skin and settling straight in your core. His hands find your hips, and you wind both arms around his neck to pull him closer. 

And then, just as suddenly as it had stopped, time starts ticking again. Reality crashes down around you in the form of familiar, boisterous voices rapidly heading your way. You and Jungkook only barely manage to untangle yourselves before Trixie and Daeun round the corner of the alcove, chattering excitedly about all the new penguin facts they’ve learned. 

“Can we go to the petting zoo next?” Trixie asks, seemingly oblivious to your lingering embarrassment at nearly being caught.

Awkwardly, you clear your throat. At your side, Jungkook is faring no better, shuffling his feet and refusing to make eye contact. “Yeah, sure, bug,” you finally manage when you find your voice again. “Lead the way.”

///

Monday dawns cloudy and gray. The weather app on your phone promises thunderstorms later in the afternoon, but that isn’t enough to dampen your mood one bit. Instead, you thumb back over to your messages, your heart skipping a beat when you see the text still sitting at the very top.

[6:54am] Jungkook Jeon: Make sure to stop by bean there, done that before school. Left you a surprise ;) 

Taking a deep breath, you type out a response:

[6:56am] You: I’m a little scared. Should I be scared?

His answer comes in immediately. Nah. It’s a good surprise, I promise.

[6:58am] You: Sure it is… 🤨

Biting back a grin, you tuck your phone into your bag and head toward the front door of your apartment, nearly tripping over Taco along the way, who has chosen that moment to start slinking between your legs. 

“Really, Taco?” you ask the unperturbed calico cat at your feet. “What if I fell and cracked my head open? Who would feed you then, huh?”

As usual, Taco merely gives you an unimpressed look before flicking her tail and wandering off. Sighing, you call for Trixie to hurry up before turning to check your appearance in the mirror leaning against the wall of the entryway. It’s a large, vintage piece—a gold-framed, flea market find that you treasure dearly and swear makes you look good no matter how awful you might feel.

Satisfied, you hike your bag higher on your shoulder and smooth down the lapels of your coat. Trixie rounds the corner and gives herself a quick once-over too, and you give her a thumbs-up. “Ready, bug?”

“Yup!” she replies, tightening her grip on her and Daeun’s project—a carefully constructed shoebox diorama that shows a group of penguins in their natural icy habitat. 

“Let’s go, then.” Opening the front door, you let her through before locking it up behind you. Together, you head out to the car, and Trixie ensures that her diorama is completely secured in the seat beside her while you check your mirrors and turn on the ignition.

The drive to Bean There, Done That! takes only about ten minutes. Jin waves cheerily when he spots you walking up to the counter, but his face positively lights up when he sees Trixie is with you. He absolutely adores your daughter—Trixie loves him too—and on the occasional instance you’ve had to call on him to babysit, the two of them always end up stuffed with food on the couch and giggling over bad puns.

“What can I get you, ma’am?” Jin asks, directing the question at Trixie, who beams at him before turning to look at you with pleading eyes.

“Can I have a double chocolate cookie?”

“That… actually sounds really good,” you admit. “Make that two. And Jin, did someone leave something here for me earlier?”

Jin grins. “Thought you’d never ask. This here is from one Mr. Jungkook Jeon.” Reaching beneath the counter, he pulls out a box and watches as you open the lid to reveal half a dozen cinnamon streusel bagels with a neatly folded napkin on top. Unfolding it, you can only laugh at the words written on it:

Hope you have a mug-nificient day!

“Just so you know, he stole that line from me,” Jin says with a sniff. “I’m not letting him take the credit.”

“Duly noted,” you tell him, trying and failing to hide your smile as you look down at the note again. After a couple beats, Jin clears his throat, and you glance up to see that he’s grinning like the Cheshire Cat. 

“Sooo,” he begins slowly, dragging out the single syllable, “I imagine you want a fresh napkin and a pen, unless… are you going to see Mr. Jungkook Jeon at some point?”

You shrug, feigning nonchalance as best you can. “Trixie was paired with his daughter for a school project, so we’ve been meeting up for the past few weeks so they can work on it. Now that that’s over with… I don’t really know. We’re both pretty busy.”

Jin scoffs. “That’s a lame excuse, especially since he’s clearly flirting with you. And—”

Unfortunately, Trixie interrupts before he can finish his sentence, skipping back over from where she had been examining the pastry display cases along the wall. “Can I have a lemon bar?”

You fix her with a stern look. “You already asked for the double chocolate cookie, remember? The lemon bars can wait until next time.” Then you turn back to Jin, reaching into your bag for your wallet. “We should probably get to school, anyhow. What do I owe you?”

“Not a thing,” he replies, handing over a paper bag with your cookies and a bottle of apple juice. “It’s already been taken care of.”

From the wink he sends your way, you know that it must have been Jungkook who doled out the extra cash for your breakfast. “Thanks, Jin,” you reply, handing Trixie the cookies and juice before accepting the cup of coffee he hands over. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Pleasure doing business with ya,” is his response. Trixie waves goodbye, and together, the two of you head back out to the car. It’s started drizzling since you arrived, and you thank your lucky stars that you’d managed to snag a parking spot right up front.

Your daughter seems to be deep in thought as you help her buckle her seatbelt, her lips pursed in concentration. Then, out of nowhere, she asks:

“Do you like Mr. Jeon?”

You nearly choke. “W-what?”

“Mr. Jeon,” she repeats patiently, and you’re thankful that she’s not looking at you—instead, she’s focused on the raindrops splashing against the window and racing each other down the glass. “You spent a bunch of time with him when Daeun and I were doing school stuff. What’d you do?”

“Adult stuff,” you reply, before cursing inwardly at the potential implication behind your words. “Mostly, I spent my time grading homework. And he had some things to do for work, too.”

Trixie hums, apparently satisfied with this answer. “He’s nice,” she declares. “He buys us food and he has a cool house.”

“Sure,” you agree. “He’s a very nice man.”

And with that settled, you finish buckling her in her seat. Shutting the back door, you suck in a deep, calming breath before circling around to the driver’s side and setting off on the familiar route to Hybe Academy.

///

“... Miss {L/N}, are you listening?”

You blink and sit up a little straighter in your chair. “Yes, of course. Please go on.” Hastily, you scribble down a few random words, hoping that will placate the parent sitting across from you. It’s parent-teacher conference week—and you’re beyond grateful that it’s Friday night as Mrs. Greene rambles on and on about how the school isn’t doing enough for her precious baby boy. She’s talking about how the school day should be extended now—or at least how teachers should watch after the children whose parents can’t pick them up right at three-thirty. I don’t understand why it’s so difficult to understand. I mean, my husband is a very busy man, and I have my own business to run. I can’t be expected to drop everything in the middle of a client meeting to come pick Derrick up…

It takes everything in you not to snap at her. You know for a fact that her “business” is selling bejeweled keychains on Etsy—and that they’re incredibly poorly made, if the reviews are anything to go by. Instead, you bite your tongue—hard enough to taste metal—and remind her that the school’s operating hours are not for you to decide. 

After what feels like an eternity, the clock strikes seven, marking the end of her reserved time block. Standing up, you shake her hand and wish her a pleasant evening before opening your planner and checking to see if you have any more meetings. Your parents have Trixie for the night and there’s a bottle of wine on your kitchen counter calling your name, and you cannot wait to get home and relax in the bath with a glass. Maybe, you think, I’ll even do a face mask.

The final name written in your planner stops you in your tracks. You haven’t seen him in over a week—not since that Monday when he left you half a dozen bagels at the coffee shop. The girls had insisted on meeting up that evening to celebrate turning their project in, so you’d all gone to a popular taco joint. 

And then there’s a knock on your door, the three raps pulling you right out of your musings.

Silhouetted there in the doorframe is Jungkook Jeon, decked out in a polished charcoal suit and wearing a smile that makes your insides lurch dangerously in your chest. His dark hair is parted on the side, and you catch the slightest glimpse of his brow piercing glinting behind the hair that’s loose across his forehead. “Hi,” he says, his voice low, and you have to remind yourself that it’s impolite to stare as you find your voice.

“Hi yourself.”

He grins, baring the adorably prominent front teeth that you hate to admit you’ve grown rather fond of. “You look like you weren’t expecting me.”

“Oh, no. I just wasn’t expecting you on time,” you retort, gesturing to the plastic chair sitting across from your desk. “Your track record is questionable, at best.”

Jungkook grimaces. “Yeah, sorry about that. I made sure to leave plenty early this time, just in case I ran into traffic. Or if Bobby decided to corner me in the elevator again—that guy really doesn’t know when to shut up.” He pauses. “Wait, I told you about him, right? Works on the development team, owns one singular tie? Balding but tries to hide it with a bad combover?”

“That rings a bell,” you reply. “The tie is red and Christmas-themed, right?”

“Sure is.” Jungkook chuckles. “I thought they might’ve been polka dots the first time I met him, but nope. Christmas ornaments, even in the middle of July.”

You laugh. “Odd fashion choice.”

“Seriously. Don’t even get me started on the rest of his clothes,” Jungkook says, shaking his head. “Here, let’s change the subject. Have you eaten yet?”

You gesture around your classroom, artificially lit with fluorescent light even as the sun begins to dip closer to the horizon. “Nope. I mean, I had about twenty minutes between the end of the school day and the start of my first meeting, so I scarfed down an apple in the break room. But that was hours ago.”

“Perfect.” At your look of disbelief, he chortles and quickly amends his phrasing. “Sorry, I just mean that I’ve got you covered. Here, look.” And he begins pulling things out of a paper bag that you hadn’t noticed him carrying before. Crackers, sliced baguette, an assortment of cured meats and cheeses, grapes. He produces a bottle of wine next, and you very nearly start clapping. 

The last thing he pulls out is a single red rose, his smile soft and warm and dizzyingly affectionate as he presents it to you. “I—wow.” You aren’t sure what to say. “Thank you. I… I feel like I should’ve prepared something. Stolen an apple for you from the teacher’s lounge, at least.”

Jungkook snorts. “Well, here’s something you can help me out with. I don’t actually have glasses for the wine. Totally spaced and forgot that we’d need them. Any ideas?”

You’re on your feet before he can even finish asking. “I teach elementary schoolers, Mr. Jeon. I always have cups.” 

Making your way to the cabinet by the window, you grab a box of little paper cups and pull out two. Jungkook accepts them when you hand them over, and you watch as he unscrews the cap on the wine bottle before pouring out two generous helpings. Together, you lay out the food he’s brought, spreading it across whatever empty space there is on your desk. “Cheers,” Jungkook says once you’ve both taken your seats again, raising his paper cup to tap against yours.

“Cheers.”

For a moment, there is silence as you both take a drink. Then Jungkook speaks, glancing up at you as he carefully begins crafting himself a mini salami and cheese sandwich. “So, where does Trixie stay while you’re doing all these meetings? Do your parents have her?”

You nod, taking another much-needed sip of wine. “Yeah, my mom picked her up after school. They actually have her until Sunday—my dad’s going to teach her how to fish tomorrow, and then I think they’re going to build a pillow fort.”

Jungkook chuckles around a mouthful of gouda. “I love a good pillow fort. Dae insists on building one at least once a week, and at this point, I’m honestly surprised there isn’t one permanently in her bedroom.”

Grinning, you reach for a cracker and some cheese. “Taco manages to destroy every pillow fort Trixie and I try to make. She either decides it’s a trampoline, or that it’s a good time to start scratching everything she can reach. We can’t win.”

“Sounds like you need better defenses,” Jungkook replies, waggling his eyebrows. “That, or you can come over whenever you need a pillow fort fix. I’m sure Dae and Trixie would create something truly epic together. I mean, that penguin diorama was pretty fucking cool, wasn’t it?”

“Very fucking cool,” you agree, and both of you burst into laughter.

Deep blue twilight settles outside as the two of you continue chatting over your makeshift meal. The cheese begins to dwindle, only a few lonely grapes remain on their stems, and when you go to top of your wine, you realize there’s less than a quarter of the bottle left. 

“Wow, we really put a dent in this thing,” you remark, holding it out for Jungkook to see. “And it’s already dark out. The time kind of got away from us, huh?”

“You won’t catch me complaining,” Jungkook replies, tipping the last of his drink into his mouth. “I’m enjoying spending time with you.”

You can’t help but smile at his earnest honesty. “Me too.”

There’s a beat of silence, and then you rise from your seat. At the same time, Jungkook stands up from his chair on the other side of the desk, making his way around to meet you halfway. And then his mouth is on yours, warm and firm in a way that makes your heart do a backflip before plunking straight into your churning stomach.

Jungkook’s hands find your hips, palming along the flowy material of your dress before finding a resting place just above the soft curve of your rear. Your fingers delve into the soft hair at his nape to tug him closer, and he groans against your lips when your nails rake across his scalp. Slowly, he begins trailing kisses from the line of your jaw down to the column of your neck, pausing to lavish attention on any spots that make you gasp or squirm in his grasp.

The growing hardness against your lower belly is growing more and more evident with each passing second. Deliberately, you slide one hand down his chest, admiring the toned ridges of his abdomen that you can feel through his white shirt, before making your way down past his silver belt buckle. Jungkook inhales sharply when you cup his hardening cock through the charcoal material of his slacks, and, emboldened, you thumb across the head and relish in his resulting groan.

Any caution you may have had is thrown to the wind. Adjusting your grip, you shiver when you realize that he’s now fully hard beneath your fingertips, his erection thick and hot through the fabric. You try and visualize what it looks like underneath it all—the color of the flared head, the veins that run along it, the curve of the shaft, if there is one. And then you realize that you don’t have to imagine—you can look. You can rip his clothes off and explore every inch of his body in the way you’ve been itching to since you first kissed at the zoo last week. Your hands scrabble for his belt buckle, fumbling with the silver prong embedded in its notch.

“W-wait.” Jungkook’s hand lands over yours, and you note the breathlessness in his voice with satisfaction. “I… this is probably cheesy, but this isn’t how I pictured this happening. Not that I don’t like what’s happening, but I just… I’d like to take you out first. On a proper date, I mean. Without our girls in the next room, or down the hall, or in the museum playplace wreaking havoc.”

“That does sound nice,” you admit. “Actually, I’d really enjoy that. I haven’t been on a proper date in years.”

“Let’s do it, then,” Jungkook says. “My babysitter’s already been paid to watch Daeun until midnight, and your parents have Trixie. This is kinda perfect.”

You can’t help it—you drag your thumb across the head of his still-hard cock again and revel in the way his breath hitches just a little bit in his throat. “Midnight?” you query with an innocent tilt of your head. “Were you expecting something to happen tonight?”

“Hoping,” he replies with a cheeky grin. “And wait, let me ask you out properly. It just wouldn’t feel right otherwise.”

Confused, you let him stand from his seat and slip around you to retrieve the paper bag on the ground. Understanding dawns when he reaches inside and grabs a napkin, and you watch on in amusement as he takes a pen from the cup on your desk and begins writing. And after a few seconds, he wordlessly presents this to you:

Drinks? Dinner? Maybe dessert? ;)

And you can only laugh. “Game on, mister.”

[sprintingowl]

5e And Me

I want to preface this by saying that folks who write 5e hacks are incredibly strong designers, and are working uphill against an engine that wants them to spend a ton of extra effort in order to do anything.

If you don't believe me, here's a quick Mork Borg monster that I wrote while typing up this sentence: Typography Goblin (3 HP, Morale 4, Tiny Knife d2, if it hits you with an attack it also changes one letter on your character sheet to another letter of its choice)

Anyway, 5e fanhackers, I respect your work. And exactly one week ago, I tried to write a fanhack of my own.

It didn't go so well.

1 week and 129 pages later, it is finished. Also, it has these features:

-No passing resemblance to 5e

-Design that reads like a panicky subway rant

-WEIRDLY thirsty for lumberjacks

-Classes have abilities like "when you damage someone, you may pick up all of the dice in arm's reach, roll them, and add them to the damage roll"

My goal at the outset was to tighten up a few bits of 5e that felt cumbersome (whole turn misses in combat, passive relationship with the dice, clunky per-class spell lists, players only using DnD beyond buttons for things because the rules feel hard,) and I don't think I accomplished any of that.

Instead I:

-Completely rewired the action economy

-Wrote fourteen new classes

-Wrote fifteen new species

-Wrote new rules for cross-classing and hybridization

-Overhauled magic into a new and different nightmare

-Rewrote the bestiary

-Rewrote the setting

And along the way I think I started to go a little squirrely, because balance-wise the least impressive classes are the ones that can pop off into gamebreaking combos, meanwhile the warlock becomes immune to damage while being pinned.

Anyway, I'm going back through and editing it and trying to take the horny for lumberjacks thing down a notch. AMA if you want to know anything about this cursed project.

[digi-lov]

Digimon & Magical Witches

Bandai V-Pet Crossovers Part 2 (see Part 1 here)

With Tamagotchi's original launch in 1996, then Digital Monsters in 1997, Bandai and Wiz released Magical Witches in 1998!

While Tamagotchi were based on eggs, and Digital Monsters on cages, the Magical Witches v-pet is shaped like a book, cover and all!

Just like the original lines of Tamagotchi and Digimon, Kenji Watanabe was also the designer for the Magical Witches. Besides going through different stages, the Witches were also divided into four different clans each representing a different magical element. Which tribe of Witches you would raise depends on the version of the v-pet you have.

The clans and their respective magic are as follows:

Eneruge, who specialize in fire magic, Earthlin, who specialize in Earth magic, Baluluna, who specialize in wind magic, and Aquary, who specialize in water magic.

As your Witch grows, it can study other elements of magic! They cannot learn their opposite element until Gen 4 (and master it by Gen 5). So a Eneruge Witch has to learn Earthlin and/or Baluluna magic before they can learn Aquary magic.

[images from gotchi-garden]

Unfortunately this franchise never took off, and no further lines were created past the original line up. The toys are now quite the rare find and any online listings are super expensive.

But part of the franchise lives on within the Digimon franchise!

The Land of Witchelny is now portrayed as another dimension, so to speak, another layer to the Digital World we know. According to offcial DigimonWeb profiles, the land is ruled by elders of each clan and three sages that lead a council governing the clans.

Witchelny is split into four blocks for each cardinal direction, each occupied by a clan, and in the center lies Mount Brocken. On the top of Mount Brocken, the clans have established a joint magic school. Those who master magic (advanced programming language) at said magic school, move on to travel to the Digital World we know.

Here is a list of Digimon, who have been confirmed to have come from Witchelny: Wizardmon /X (master of fire and earth magic), FlareWizardmon (master of fire magic), Sorcerymon (master of light and ice magic), Witchmon (master of wind and water magic), Mistymon (master of various magics, of which fire is its forte), MedievalGallantmon (a legendary hero, who protected Witchelny in ancient times) and Wisemon (born in a magic-less region of Witchelny).

Furthermore, Hexeblaumon is a Digimon that came to Witchelny from the Digital World, and mastered ice magic there.

On the Option Card, Absolute Blast, which features HexeBlaumon, you can also see the symbol of Aquary!

Absolute Blast BT5-097 by Shin Sasaki from BT-05 Booster Battle of Omni

Comparing the original Magical Witches evolutionary charts to the what magic we know these Digimon to be proficient in, we can make some possible connections.

Wizardmon being a master of fire and earth magic, and Witchmon being a master of water and wind magic, these original Witches line up with their abilities.

[Wizardmon: Eneruge native master top, Earthlin native master bottom] [Witchmon: Aquary native master top, Baluluna native master bottom]

However with official artwork, such as the one below, portaying fire and water magic as their respective specialties, I believe the top sprites would be more likely.

With Mistymon being proficient in all magic, only the "Soul" type of Witch applies, which is the same in all clans.

I find this stuff super interesting! But wait... doesn't that one face look familiar...?

SATAN?!

If you are interested in Magical Witches, I recommend you check out gotchi-garden! They have a very detailed coverage on these. Also shoutout to @/MagicLad_Ty on twitter who first brought these to my attention!

[purplepixel]

What if the turtles were in the pokemon world? And what if they were never turtles, but in fact, mutated pokemon? What if they lived in the Castelia sewers of Unova instead of New York?

Meet my Rise/Pokemon AU!! Waaaah this has been on my mind for MONTHS now. Pokemon is that one fixation that'll never leave me. I'm THAT pokemon fan that knows WAAAAY too much about the games and lore. For those that don't know,

Raph is Drednaw

Leo is Wartortle

Mikey is Torkoal

Donnie is Lapras

Yes. They are all shiny. I started with raph, since him as drednaw is pretty much a no brainer. The shiny form fit too well with him and his color scheme. Than I realized if I made him shiny, I had to make the other bros shiny as well so THEY ALL SHINY. (draxum shiny hunter confirmed?) Also dual rock typing fits well with raph's character.

Wartortle for leo was also a pretty obvious choice. I MEAN LOOK AT HIM. Long flowy tail? Yes please. I had to keep his markings somehow. Wartortle has little dark cheek spots, so I just changed them to be leo's markings. Water typing leo. Go with the flow, think on the spot, it worked out too well.

Torkoal for Mikey was another easy one. Fire turtle? Passionate, warm, also DANGEROUS (he can be a menace ok) Say no more. His powers in rise are already pyro related. Also having him shiny helped a lot with the color scheme. Torkoal is normally orange so having mikey be the yellow shiny form meant I didn't have to mess with his mask colors

Donnie on the other hand....OHHH BOI I STRUGGLED WITH YOU. I went through 4 DIFFERENT POKEMON, before deciding on the least turtle like of them all. I am aware that we do have a softshell pokemon with enamorous, but it's a legendary so thats not happening. But it was really important for me to keep donnie's soft shell and battle shell. I wanted this to be a RISE au and donnie's battle shell is pretty tied into his character. (there's also tirtouga which I almost went with, but I didn't like that both he and raph shared the exact same dual typing) Soooo, Lapras. Its more of a loch ness monster but it also draws inspiration from a placochelys (prehistoric seaturtle esque species) so IM COUNTING IT. Very unconventional but I have my reasons. Ice typing is a good offensive type, but is pretty bad defensively. Which ties into rise donnie's fighting style. If I wasn't a coward, I wouldve made donnie the biggest of the bros. Since lapras is like 8 feet tall compared to the others being like 1-3 feet. But uhhh, I swear I have an in universe explanation for why he's so small ok.

And than there's April. She is not a pokemon trainer in this au. At least not in the traditional sense. I've been with pokemon for all of my 26 years of life, and I always wanted to know what the normal people of the pokemon world are up to. Not everyone is out here collecting gym badges, travelling, or catching them all. How do non-trainers interact with the pokemon world? So that's where I'm at with April. She will get a pokemon partner, but other than that, she's just an average high schooler who befriended the turtles from a young age and takes part in all their shenanigans. I took some design elements from rosa and hilbert with her outfit, but otherwise its pretty much the same.

We'll see how far I'll take this. I've been using this as a break from my many other projects, but like everything I do, it grew too many legs and is slowly becoming its own thing.

[cy-cyborg]

Hi, I was wondering what sort of leg prosthetic would work well in a fight? I'm designing a magical girl OC with a prosthetic leg and want to incorporate a rather more pink and sparkly one into her magical girl form. I know you can get blades for running, but would those be better than a normal prosthetic for running and leaping around while bonking monsters with a magic stick?

Hey there, I think I remember seeing your question on my old account right? I'm so sorry it's taken me so long to get back to you!

So a blade probably wouldn't be ideal, but a hybrid might.

Blade prosthetics are very good for running, but are absolutely terrible for literally everything else, including standing or walking. Essentially, blade prosthetics are modeled off of digitigrade legs. For the non-furries on my page, digitigrade legs are what cats and dogs have on their back legs where it bends at the knee, then bends back the other way at a second joint before their feet.

[ID 1: A pair of black running blade prosthetics with yellow edges. Their wearer is out of frame but we can see they are running along a track. /end ID] [ID 2: A photo of a cheetah from the side. In the photo we can clearly see the structure of its legs, as described above. /End ID]

This is actually their ankle, and their "foot" is their toes. This arrangement makes these animals really fast and nimble, but it comes at the cost of lower balance. That's not an issue when you have another two legs to help keep you steady, but when you put that onto a human we start having issues. This is why if you watch any races where the competitors are using these prosthetics, they almost always fall over, especially the double leg amputees. Essentially, the shape and springiness of a blade gives you a massive speed advantage (so much so that amputee runner Oscar Pistorius had to be given disadvantages in order to compete in the Olympics with able-bodied runners) but it essentially moves the ankle joint and heel - the one our brains automatically know to weight bare through - up off the ground. The closest an able bodied person could get to the feeling of running on a blade would be to wear a pair of stilleto heels with the heal removed, and a spring on the bottom.

Hybrid feet though are a combination of blade feet and the regular feet amputees usually get. They are like tiny blades, but they usually have a foot-shell on the outside so you don't see it. These hybrid feet give you some of the extra padding and suspension you'd get from a running blade (which makes running/jumping etc more comfortable) as well as a bit of a speed boost, though not as much as the big ones, and they don't come at the cost of your balance, which you'r character will need when fighting.

Ossur's Flex foot range are a good one to look at for refeance, I used them when I was doing martial arts, as do a few friends of mine who are still doing it. This is a link to their website, it's got pictures of what they look like both internally and when people are using them, and I beleive theirs a booklet you can download on the page as well if you want to read into them a bit more. This isn't the only one of course, but it's the one I've used before:

I'm planning to do a breakdown in a little bit more detail about the different types of prosthetic feet and what they're good for eventually, but for what you described, I think this is what would work best.

[lvrtwn]

venus if she was awesome

speedpaint and more thoughts under the cut

venus has always been one of my favorite characters, though i feel her design is pretty underwhelming with a lot of wasted potential. this is kind of a redesign, kind of my own personal headcannon, and kind of how i imagined venus in my head as a kid.

this is supposed to be my version of g1 venus, more similar in facial features and keeping the straight hair. i absolutely love her new hair and face in g3 but im hesitant to call the new outfit an improvement. both g1s outfit and g3s outfit are bad in their own ways. i dont want it to seem like im shitting on the new design. again i think the face sculpts, hair, and body types of g3 are so awesome. its great to see more diversity being included in the designs. i just decided to go with g1 venuses look because thats the venus i grew up with

i definitely took some inspiration from g3s outfit for this design. i like the idea of it but the execution is just not great, not to say her original outfit is any better. i feel like out of all of tge original monsters she was the one with the most waisted potential. i love her personality and the abilities she has but the way she was styled has always bothered me.

in the movies shes described as “eco-punk” which is SUCH a cool style to go with a plant monster character. i just feel like the “punk” in “eco-punk” was never really represented in her outfits. i personally love punk music and clothing; ive been an active member in my local diy scene for many years and i love seeing all the outfits people put together.

i thought i would give her an outfit that shows off a couple of my personal favorite staples of punk style. big chunky leather boots with lots of straps and buckles. kept the shoe mouths from the original because they cool as hell. lots of leather, studs, spikes. i gave her denim cutoff shorts inspired by her gen 3 outfit, same with the torn black top. punk style has a big focus on comfort, practicality, and making things yourself. i imagine she cut a pair of old pants into shorts, roughly cut her “undead kennedys”band shirt tank into a crop top, and probably repurposed the remaining fabric. i also totally didnt draw this whole thing as an excuse to use that pun. i included asymmetrical leg accessories, with one fishnet stocking and one torn up sock. i also feel like she repurposed these, continuing to wear her old torn up socks instead of just throwing them out. i gave her a big chunky studded belt matching one of her cuffs with a recycling symbol belt buckle. i feel like it communicates an important aspect of her personality just at a glance, plus i just love big belt buckles. lastly i added piercings because 1. theyre cool and 2. i for some reason remembered her having an eyebrow piercing but i guess she never had one.

i mostly kept her body and hair the same. changed her ears and hair color slightly but thats just personal preference. i decided to make the vines on her body look more like tattoos instead of being 3d. i imagine she can make them grow into real vines, but when shes not using her powers theyre just flat against her skin. gave her a facial expression that made her look a little more unhinged. she might only do things for the good of the earth but she can still mind control people at will.

i wish i leaned a little bit more into the plant theming but im overall still super happy with how this came out. maybe ill made more monster high redesigns in the future

[i-hear-a-sound]

Drakengard/NieR: Twin Theory, Part 1

The post ahead is… long. Insanely fucking long, and I’m certain half of it is incoherent. Oh well. It’s a Tuesday.

So, to preface:

This is all just theory.

Spoilers for NieR and Drakengard.

Homework:

(post regarding copied & cathedral city)

(post comparing adam, eve, and a secret third thing)

Good luck down here.

NieR Automata: Ending D. 

It’s the ending you get if you choose to play as 9S in the final boss. 9S kills A2 and incidentally gets himself killed when he falls on her sword. Dumb hoe.

However, when his memory data starts performing an emergency evacuation, he, and we, find ourselves fading into…

an “Ark.”

He first sees the red girl, N2, who explains to him the vague purpose of this ark. 

To take the memories of the “foolish machine life forms” and send them to another world, after they’d seen the androids and contemplated their own existence as machines. 

9S also sees Adam and Eve there, the ladder asleep and the former holding him. Adam asks 9S a simple question,

“Will you come with us?”

And If you choose to go onto the Ark, it’s assumed 9S’s memory & consciousness data become “part” of the Ark, traveling off to whatever… “world” they may be heading to. 

And if you stay. 

9S does not get on the Ark. the Ark flies off, without him.

And we actually get a follow-up to this ending. “Farewell” is a script that takes place sometime after Ending D, in which 2B wakes up but 9S does not. 

Though she tries everything she can to find a way to revive him, she eventually just… shuts down on her own, due to grief. 

(Except for in the final reading of this script, where the ending was changed and 9S wakes up— but you know what? Fuck you. I’m not making this any more complicated than it’s immediately about to get in like, 5 sentences.)

(Edit: we then got a follow up to that script that follows this scenario.         talk to your parents about it)

So… the Ark. About everything I just told you is about all we have on the Ark itself. 

The most we know is this: The Ark was created by Machines. It carries memory data that it will take to a different world. It

Memory data. 

…Memory data. 

Sorry. It’s just that… typing this all out right now, it’s starting to ring a bell. But I don’t know where that bell is, why it’s ringing. 

Holding memories. 

Storing memories. 

Machines storing memories This sounds familiar. 

But where else could I have heard this from?

I remember now. 

The Seeds.

In YoRHa: Dark Apocalypse, the NieR:Automata Final Fantasy 14 raid, something returned after over a decade and a half that totally took me off guard: the Seeds of Destruction. 

Introduced in the first Drakengard, they were “tools of the gods” that would appear when all seals were broken. While they were believed by humans to be holy items that would bring all living creatures, man or monster, to them in times of great peril, to guide them down a path of salvation— in reality, they just kinda did this

Creating extremely powerful monsters capable of carrying out the god’s one motive: the destruction of humanity. 

But back to the raid. In this collaboration the Seeds returned, and not only that, but they… well. 

In the 3rd raid, N2, the red girl I was talking about earlier and the “ego of the machine network”, goes up into a seed that’s inside of a portal, and becomes this… False Idol. 

Clearly meant to be derivative of the designs of The Queen Beast/Mother Angel & the Intoners. Always these gray bitches. 

Anyways. After you fight her, she makes this weird… light thing? which goes up into the sky, into the portal I mentioned earlier, and then… 

HM

We are dropped into a copied Tokyo, straight out of Drakengard 1.  

But…

Question. How?

How did we get here. Is it really just a copied Tokyo? How did it get copied? 

And if not, did we like… Time Travel? Did we…

Oh, I got sidetracked. My bad. We were talking about the seeds.

So at first, we see the seeds transform someone, this time a non-human. Nothing new, although I do find it strange how differently it changed N2 in comparison to how Furiae became… that. 

Perhaps it works differently for machines? …Put a pin in that for now. 

Anyways. I didn’t swerve this car just to talk to you about how stuff we already fucking knew was just used AGAIN. 

No, the very reason I brought up this whole raid at all, and got so sidetracked I nearly transitioned into a different topic, was because of this singular excerpt.  

Maybe I’m reading this wrong. Maybe I’m not. And if I’m not, then

these seeds are storing people’s memories. Hundreds of them. 

(Edit: I wasn’t reading this wrong :) )

Isn’t that just like what I described with the Ark? The Ark stores memory data, the seeds hold memories…

I mean, the description of what the Seeds were believed to be by humanity, along with Drakengard’s usage of various themes regarding religion, has always reminded me of one specific thing: Noah’s Ark. 

Noah’s. Ark. 

Ark. Seed. Seed. Ark. 

Perhaps, they are one and the same.

Perhaps… The Ark is a Seed. 

Surely not though, right? I mean… yeah, this is solid evidence, but it’s really the only evidence I can give you guys. There’s not much we know about the Seeds in all honesty, and there’s even less regarding the Ark, so it’s nearly impossible to find any other lead in 

?

Wait. 

Let’s go back for a second.

“Let the light in?” What light? 

What the hell is this referring to? The whole raid finished like, two years ago, and for that same amount of time I’ve genuinely had no idea what this “light” is. 

I mean, she does conjure up this sort of light that goes into the portal, and… then we go to Tokyo. Maybe that’s what it’s referring to? 

Let the light in… 

Light… 

Light.

Do not bring back the light. Do not bring back the vessel. Do not bring back the future. Do not bring it back.

Every beam of light is an invitation to death.

I’ve heard this before.

These two excerpts are from the World of Recycled Vessel DLC, in the diary of Nier/The Protagonist’s deceased mother. 

These are the last two lines in the diary. Both referencing this “light” with a… negative connotation?

Why. 

 And… wait, why am I going off on this? When I was talking about the Ark and The Seeds and whatnot I never once mentioned their connection to any sort of light. 

Because I never thought there was. Because I looked over it. 

I lie collapsed in a space of blinding white. The pain is... gone. The light envelops me. It's so warm.

My damage worsens. I start to lose my memories. The space fills up with pure white light. It's like being buried in snow.

These two excerpts are from 9S’ dialogue during Ending D— you know, the one where the Ark makes its “appearance.”

.

“A space of blinding white”, “the light envelops me”, “the space fills up with pure white light”.

…

Hm. 

I’m beginning to wonder if this “light” is, in some way… connected to memories? And a “space of pure white light”… that feels familiar. Really familiar. 

Real fucking familiar.

After being encroached upon, the light overflowed. Poured into, we overflowed, the connection has AWAKENED.

This is from decoded text in Automata, taking place after Ending A/B. I think it’s meant to describe Eve briefly connecting to 9S’ consciousness in some way? (Given there is a mention of a brother who “learned a lot from books.” Fact-check me though.)

The Pods decide to abandon the body after the personality data has been completely restored, and to destroy any machine life forms in the surrounding area. And at the very bottom of this story… 

<Vessel>

Do not bring back the vessel. 

The infection spreads through 2B's consciousness. She prays. Before death's footsteps reach her, she screams. Even if nobody hears me. 9S saved me. Within a crumbling memory, she bids farewell to 9S's consciousness data. I did feel a little bit lonely but now my h eart is filled with such wa rm li ght

Then there’s this. It’s the final line of “Voices from the Verge”, a short story from a Nier Fan-Festival in 2022. 

I think it’s meant to take place in the copied city— no, not the one we see in game, at least I don’t think— a different one. A different memory. 

A place to celebrate life and send off the deceased. A place of prayer. The city's records can be gleaned from within the tranquil light. A record of humanity's end. A history of machines copying a city. And also... the hesitance they felt. This city is a replica. A city built by machine lifeforms based on the siblings' memories of where they lived. And even the very siblings themselves were nothing but imitations born from memories.

“The city’s records can be gleaned from within the tranquil light”… “a city built by machine life forms based on the siblings’ memories of where they lived.”

“A history of machines copying a city. And also… the hesitance they felt.”

…um. How? 

If you’re thinking the “siblings” being referred to in this script are Adam and Eve… no. This city is meant to be a replica of Nier and Yonah’s memories. Hell, they themselves in this script are replicas made out of their own memories. 

God this shit’s fucking stupid to type

But… thing is. Again! How? How did the machines know what this city looked like? Sure, maybe it’s in one of their “records”, but even then. 

…Well. If we go back to the screenshot I showed you all earlier from the Dark Apocalypse raid, it mentions how the data in these Seeds are stored by “machines bearing the names of gods.”

These machines are possibly using the seeds to store people’s memories. 

And— hey. I mentioned earlier how the seeds can transform whatever enters it, but do you know what I neglected to add? 

They also

Copy.

Maybe this “light” can be connected to the seeds and the Ark as well. But what that means I… don’t really know right now.

So we have one connection. And now, possibly two. Are there any more connections I should know about?! 

In NieR: Replicant ver 1.22, Ending E, the— if I’m correct— “canon” ending, was finally added after only being contained in the guidebook “Grimoire Nier.”

And this is the achievement you receive at the very start of it.

It’s in hexadecimal. And thankfully, it’s already been translated. 

“Memory server”

“I can see the light”

Memory… server. 

I can see the light.

Memory. Server. I can see the light. 

The light. Memory server.

Light. Memories. Memories. Light. 

Light…

Light…

Light…

Light

A SPACE OF BLINDING WHITE. 

Fucking… finally. I get to talk about Drakengard 1. Most of the talk regarding this game is being saved for the part 2 of this post I’ll get to… eventually, but what I want to focus on here is this game’s ending D, and “The Great Time.” 

In this ending, Seere breaks his pact, unleashing the Queen Beast’s time(?) and enveloping the world with this… light. The great time. From it, a black tower also emerges. A tower. A… I’m gonna stop. Nope. Back on topic. 

But it wasn’t until the novella, “Magnitude Negative”, was fully translated that we finally got a better understanding of what this “time” is. 

It is everything. 

Every living creature. Every structure. Everything, everywhere, past, present, future.

And every 

single 

ending.

“He could see the shadows of crowds, coming and going. It was loud, all indifferent to all around them, and full of different interests. There were tall buildings whose likes he had never seen before, and vehicular machines that ran faster than horses. … Caim is crying, clinging to the dragon. ‘I have never seen you weep before.’ … The dragon states its name. ‘Angelus. My name is Angelus.’… Caim and the dragon are going to kill each other. ‘Caim. Our pact ends here.’ … ‘Miracles cannot be asked for.’ The Goddess, revived with the Seed of Resurrection, is destroying humanity. … Seere rests within a giant womb. In a strange place, but rather familiar all the same, the dragon fights against a song.”

“A strange place, but rather familiar all the same”…? That’s for part 2. 

But case is, everything is the Great Time. 

And it is

light. 

EDIT: FUCKING HELL I TOOK SO LONG TO FINISH THIS THAT REINCARNATION GOT ANOTHER UPDATE. AND I CAN ADD THIS SHIT. 

10H states that “The Cage”, which IIRC is where “all” of NieR: Reincarnation takes place, is inside of that… egg. It’s supposed to hold the “data” (memories asshole!!!!) of humanity until the time comes for them to… you know. Reincarnate. But it’s not meant to be there, it’s supposed to be on the Moon, why is it now on Earth. And

I FUCKING KNEW IT. I called it. I never verbalized it but I CALLED THIS BULLSHIT DAY… um….  While ago. Source: trust. 😁

Time is light. Light is memories. Memory server. Memories are recorded in the seeds. Memories are recorded in the ark. The ark is light. The seeds are light. The ark is a seed.

Hang on.

Who records the memories in the ark again? Machines… “Machines with the names of gods.” 

I don’t recall us ever meeting a machine of that kind of name? The closest would be Adam and Eve, of course, but one 1. They died and 2. Neither’s name derivations were gods. Adam and Eve were not gods.

And, hell, how the fuck did machines get their hands on the Seeds anyways? Even looking past the theory part, them being what is messing with the seeds is canon.

And— hang on! New question coming through, how the fuck did the Seeds get here?! 

This is thousands of years after Drakengard 1. Not only that, but these are TWO SEPARATE FUCKING UNIVERSES. Two timelines! 

The seeds are intrinsically tied to the watchers. Hell, watchers gradually transform into them over time in one of the novellas. 

How are the machines putting memories into the seeds? How did the seeds get here in the first place? With all this time talk, where does Ac

The aliens. 

I need to talk about the aliens.

The aliens of Automata are… fucking weird. 

Sit down, and listen. Look here look listen. Basically, in a franchise where giant scary gray babies exist, one’s that devour scary bitches and wreck havoc and shit, it’s not them that fully take out humanity— well, they likely do in their universe, but in NIER’S? It’s…

It’s fucking FETUS SHAPED ALIENS 

Aliens who time, and time, and TIME AGAIN we are told FUCKING SUCK!! They are traaaashh!!!

Their heads look like an asscrack. They look like if you fucked up a perfectly good turtle. And in all seriousness, they created machines so much smarter than them that they essentially doomed themselves by creating their own exterminators. Sure, they got control over the Kingdom of Night/North and South America, said control which only grew larger and larger as they began rapidly producing machines, but… that was honestly their only W. These fuckers suck. Clutch or kick. 

And Adam, the machine who, along with his brother, killed off the rest of the aliens, describes them as being… “infantile.”

And I paused. 

Infantile? 

Out of everything… that’s such a specific word. Infantile.

Infantile. Infant…ile. 

Infant. 

Like a baby. 

A 

baby. 

A

Wait. What did I say they looked like? 

Fetuses. The aliens… they look like fetuses. 

But not natural fetuses, no… no. Like if you took an infant and forced it to revert back into what it looked like in the womb. Gross, I know, but… just look at them.

Just. 

Look.

At. 

Them.  

Look at their skin. It’s… bumpy. Scaly. 

Scaly. 

I’m not trying to imply that they’re dragons. At least… not exactly.

No, what I am trying to imply, is that the answer as to what these things are has been staring me in the face the whole fucking time.

When the flower descended at the beginning of this story, dragons were not the only things that came down with it. 

Infantile, you say? 

This idea is, out of everything in “Twin Theory”, the one I’ve held onto the longest. It’s stupid, yeah— but just like with the Ark and the Seeds, and a certain third theory that still waits after this section— I started scripting, and evidence manifested*. 

*I looked shit up and fact-checked myself🦅🦅🚬

Anyways. Do I think the aliens are the watchers? NO. No, no, no. One fucker is a  tentacle ass bitch and the other belongs in a crib at the tenth circle of hell. But i do absolutely believe that a connection can be made. 

First of all, I want to look at the aliens’ ship. Look at it good and hard. Does it remind you of anything?

Maybe… A FUCKING FLOWER? 

Because that’s exactly what this looks like. Hell, the big ball in the middle would obviously remind one of a Seed itself… but that’s a little too silly for me. (Edit: You will soon see that I should’ve never doubted my gut.) Then again, the first time we see the seeds in the final fantasy collab is in the aliens’ ship and I… am going to stop myself from having a hernia :3. (Edit: You will soon see that I should’ve never doubted my gut)

Second. I want to look at Drakengard 1.3, specifically its ending. The whole novella is kinda… well, weird, and not in a good way weird most of the time, but its ending has always struck me as being particularly interesting. 

The dragons, who I will again mention are connected to the watchers— like— genetically, devour humanity. Their size increases in number and over time they begin to change shape. First slowly taking on the forms of “lumps of meat”, then the forms of babies, then a whole bunch of them fuse together to become… a seed. 

(This moment isn’t the only time we’ve seen entities fuse together to create a seed-like object, but… I’ll hold that thought off for now.) 

Anyways. What does any of this have to do with the Aliens?

Well. 

Take into consideration that the dragons only transformed because they were devouring humans. They had shit to eat. And given the fact that these dragons transformed into Watchers, I doubt it would be too much of a stretch to ponder whether or not Watchers themselves have this similar capability. 

But what about in Automata? A part in the timeline where… there are no humans left. There’s nothing to feed off of. Most of all, there’s no Queen. 

The Watchers’ entire “goal” in the first game was to break the seals and free the Queen Beast. There’s no humans left. What would they do now? 

…Start a pointless war between the next best thing? Build machines they can control with ease. Forge a logic virus that will perpetuate this war for as long as it can, with a notable trait of it being: red eyes. And create a manifestation of the machine’s own egos in the form of a little girl, so akin to the girl they made their high priestess so long ago. 

Edit: I continued to take too long to finish this theory and the nier concert happened. While the full script isn’t out yet, I was able to read an (I think) fairly decent summary that one part of caught my eye. 

2B and 9S discover a place known as “Eden”………. hehehehehheheheheeeeee… and it’s basically just a huge alien ship, iirc. Inside they find a transporter that opens into a white city, and after walking through it a lil bit they find a copied YoRHa bunker. 

Continuing their disastrous walkalong they find a bunch of dead machines in a… church…

ok….

(l was real!)

And also there, is a circle of Android corpses, surrounding a black orb.

It’s said that they formed this place as a “place of worship in their final moments”, and that the black orb likely comes from the aliens ship. 

And we know this.

Black orb! Never doubt your gut ever!

But given what I’ve already said about the aliens… hm. The thing powering their ship being in a place of worship in one’s final moments… 

speak not the watchers, write not the watchers…

Just a little idea. 

I may have explained all this “evidence” poorly, so sorry for that. But anyways.

If the aliens were connected to the watchers (and the dragons?), so many weird connections in Automata could possibly be explained.

The cult of the watchers’ emblem appearing on either of the twins’ tattoos? Connection. 

N2 resembling Manah? Connection. 

Logic virus being derivative of the Red Eye Disease? Connection. 

The Seeds of Destruction being in the NieR universe, specifically at the time of Automata, at all? C word. Connection. 

It could even explain why no other aliens ever… you know, showed up. These aliens were the only ones, because no more could be formed with the Queen dead, the dragons gone, and a lack of food. 

“The aliens look like if you took an infant and forced it to revert back into what it looked like in the womb.” And gave it… tentacles and scales.                   😁

But even with all that, this is still a theory that I’m going to continue working out the kinks in. Could the Aliens have ties to the Watchers? Maybe, but I still need a lot more evidence to fully make that conclusion. 

But for right now, it’s moreso food for thought. 

I wish I could say the same for the final theory I’m going to be discussing today. 

So we’ve talked about the Ark. Its existence is shrouded in mystery, but the conclusion I came to is that it is, in some form, a Seed of Destruction, used by machines to record memories and travel worlds. Both seem to be connected with this… “Light”, which I concluded is connected to “the Great Time”. 

Hell… just typing this out, I forgot another physical example of this light in action— 

This whole large group of machines merge to form a “seed”, and as light begins to build up inside of it, Adam is created. 

Does this light… create, as well? Put a pin in that… maybe. I don’t know. 

(Edit: I think it do..)

Anyways. Then, we discussed the Aliens. I theorized that they could have some connection to the Watchers of Drakengard, looking at all the strange ties the two species have with each other— from how the aliens’ ship suspiciously resembles a flower, to how the watchers’ most likely have the ability to change forms over time when strong enough. The conclusion I came to is that the possibility of the Aliens being the weakened remains of the Watchers after the extinction of both their Queen and humanity as a whole, is… well. It’s there. 

But there’s one thing we haven’t talked about yet, and I’m sure you all have an idea of what exactly that is. 

We’ve discussed two very perplexing entities in the Drakenier universe today, but there’s one last character I chose to leave as my final topic. One that, funnily enough, also has an A name. And is more mysterious than the two topics I’ve already gone over combined.

Accord. 

Accord is by far the most “mysterious” character in the entire Drakenier franchise, despite being one of the only characters to be mentioned by name in multiple games. 

It’s why it’s so hard to theorize about her. But there’s enough we do know about her that tells us she might as well be the most important character in the series. 

Accord is a recorder android, one who… well… records. Riveting script writing ☝️

She records singularities, entities with the capability of creating branches by altering timelines. Normally she doesn’t intervene and just records the singularity once the branch has been made. Her goal in this endeavor is to prevent a “Fall-Down”, the collapse of all timelines.

She can time travel, as while we first see her in the beginning of the timeline, Drakengard 3, she was actually created during the time of NieR: Automata, around 6230 or so, in the Kingdom of Night. She also has multiple clones of herself, all of which hold the same goal as the one we follow in D3. 

She also works a weapons shop and presumably even writes the weapons’ stories. She collects minerals from the old world(?) which she came from, and wields a large suitcase and phone. 

In Automata, it’s mentioned she supplied weapons to the resistance; in Replicant, it was added that Yonah actually met Accord; in the Automata anime, hidden(?) text is likely from Accord, aaaaaand…

That’s it. That’s all we know about this girl.

Yes, it sounds like a lot but it’s really… not. 

Specifically, two key things are unknown to us. Them being: 

•How does Accord time travel? 

•Who created Accord? 

And for so long, these two questions just kinda sat there in my mind. I had ideas but… nothing that big. 

I just assumed that, maybe, we haven’t seen how Accord time travels yet. And that Accord could just be a product of the Army of Humanity, connecting her back to YoRHa. 

But then… in a NieR: Reincarnation update… 

10 years after we last, physically saw her…

We got this: 

These three images are what prompted me to finally, finally, put this theory in its entirety into words. 

Because it got me thinking. 

Puppet? Why puppet? 

Yeah, stuff like “puppets” and “dolls” have been used in reference to androids, machines whatevs in this series before, but for some reason… reading it made me recall a very small detail. Something I’d always overlooked. 

The final fantasy collab… puppet… puppets’… What was the title of the 2nd raid again?

Ah. The Puppets’ Bunker. 

Now, why am I making such a big deal over Accord simply being referred to as “puppet” in this small section of a game? Why am I focused more on that than the fact that this is most likely teasing her return at all? 

Well… it’s the same reason I bring up the collab again. 

2P. 

She & the other P units are the primary antagonists of this specific raid. She’s a machine copy of 2B, with an inverted palette. 

And I’ve always been curious as to what the P in her name meant. Of course, it initially just meant “Second Player”— but Yoko Taro himself has since stated that there’s a double meaning to it. 

And after a while of thinking and thinking, someone suggested the P to mean… 

Puppet.

And shit blew my mind. It totally works! So I went with it, and then… 

It made me remember another thing. Back to Accord. 

Do you remember the post I made on Adam and Eve? Yes, the post where I dropped the maybe-possible-bombshell that Eve (and his brother, likely) could possibly have some sort of connection to Mikhail of Drakengard 3, at least visually— but do you know what I mentioned in kind of a side comment? 

Adam distinctly looks like Accord. And that was that. For a while, the only question I had regarding that was: “Why does Adam look like Accord?”

But what I realized after lots and lots of thinking… is that I should’ve been asking a different question. 

“How does Adam look like Accord?”!

Adam’s a machine. He was created by machines, created by aliens. If Accord was with the Army of Humanity, why does this machine share so much resemblance to her? 

I mean, fuck— if the Copied City he creates really does have ties to the Cathedral City in Drakengard 3,

why is Accord at the fucking Mercurius Gate?

You know, the place where all the world’s “knowledge” is stored, as well as… oh I don’t know, the fucking Flower. 

“Receptionist?” Strangely, that isn’t even the weirdest thing Accord’s been referred to. 

Just think back to that Reincarnation update. Accord is called a “puppet.” 

Why? 

I already just talked about “puppet” being possibly the double meaning of the P in “2P”, connecting the term to the mock androids/machines, but I didn’t even mention the usage of the word in Drakengard 3.

In one of the novellas, the dragons, specifically Michael, fought entities described as “Puppets”. This novella is one I’ve seen occasionally brought up in discussions regarding the Kingdom of Night, due to the existence of “dragon-like machines.” 

Hell JUST LOOK AT THEM SIDE BY SIDE. 

The first is the mechanical interior(?) of a YoRHa android, 2nd is… of course, what we see of Accord’s. Look at the rib area. For a while I assumed it looked like that because her arm had been blown off but… no. Shit’s clean and smooth. It was built that way.  It also seems as though Accord’s body is connected via… ball joints? 

Why is an Android from the future so… I don’t know. Old-fashioned? Mechanic?

Especially when compared to YoRHa androids. They bleed, she doesn’t. 

But. But but but. 

She’s… confirmed to be made DURING the period between Replicant and Automata, during the machine war. It’s one of the only things confirmed about her backstory, and yet every little thing about her would make you think otherwise. 

She’s built like a legitimate doll, not an Android. As such, she gets called a puppet. There are multiple identical copies of her and from what I’ve read it isn’t because she’s a line of… idk, Accords. Take a shot every time I say her name btw

She can time travel seemingly with as much ease as the universe allows her, and yet has to self engage special abilities like… run fast mode. 

Stuff that other Androids of her time period are shown to do naturally. 

But… that’s the only case for her. The only answer we have of who exactly created the first Accord is in YoRHa, the Army of Humanity. 

But. 

I. 

Don’t. 

Know. 

None of this makes sense, right? None of it. Nothing that I’ve just discussed should logically make sense if she was made by the Army of Humanity. 

But that’s the only option for her, right? That we know of? Right? 

Why is she closer to a machine than she is to any of the androids? 

Who? Is? Accord?

Then it hit me. A realization. 

Didn’t I… wait. What was the estimated year of Accord’s creation? 

…6230? 

Okay. And we know she was created in the Kingdom of Night… 

But. 

What? 

Hang on. Kingdom of Night… do we know anything about the kingdom of night? 

I mean… we know what it is. It’s North and South America, cast in an eternal state of Night. It’s the reason why in every NieR game, the sun never sets— it’s always set in the Kingdom of Day. 

We’ve never seen the Kingdom of Night. All we know is that Accord was made there… dragon machines fought against the machines inside there, and… oh… oh. 

Oh.

The Kingdom of Night.

North and South America?

…where the first machines were being mass produced. The first machines were made in the Kingdom of Night, in 5100.

The Army of Humanity never managed to gain control over that kingdom. In fact, in 7645 the aliens’ control over the kingdom of night had increased to 80%.

And Accord was created in 6230. 

In the kingdom of night.

In the kingdom of night

WHICH THE ALIENS HAD TOTAL OCCUPATION OVER, AND WERE USING TO BEGIN PRODUCING THEIR FIRST MACHINE LIFEFORMS. 

Accord isn’t a product of the Army of Humanity. Isn’t a product of humanity at all.

Accord didn’t come from YoRHa. 

Accord is a product of the aliens. 

She’s a machine!

I want to go back to the tower. Don’t worry, no more talk about time and seeds and light and arks and useless crap like that

At least, not for the next… I don’t fucking know. 1,000 words. Lol.     Lol😬

Do you remember what was inside the tower, aside from the ark itself? Aside from the countless copiesof B/E models? 

The library. 

An exact replica of Popola’s library, all the way back from Replicant. 

And I always saw this moment at its face value. Oh, it’s THE library. The library that holds all the records for the machines is a copy of the one from the other game. Cool.

Same thing with when Popola’s office appeared in both the game and the anime, though they both served mildly different purposes. 

But when I looked at these moments as I was writing this theory I thought… hm. Why here? 

So I did what every normal fan does and 

I read the Drakengard 3 complete guide. 

4/5ths of it. 

Long day. Thank you Accord’s Library.

But among the things I took note of, this page caught my eye: 

A page that’s Basically an outline of the timelines in Drakengard 1, 2 (told you it’s technically canon, bitch), and the first NieR. Done by accord. 

Let’s zoom in on NieR’s, actually. 

Atta boy. First of all, fucking banger of an image. Second of all, so… did…

Did an Accord meet Devola & Popola? Because if so… 

… it makes a lot more sense as to why the machines’ archives are stored in an identical copy of their library. 

What I’m getting at is that I think Accord had some involvement with the data recorded in the tower, or at least… the tower itself. 

Second of all. Let’s go back to the complete guide, and narrow our focus on its documentation of the games’ events— specifically, the branching phenomena. 

Something interesting that I noticed is that everything regarding either 

Accord 

Or

Branch activity at all

Is labeled as “Top Secret.”

And yeah, this is probably just for some cool flare or whatnot, but I really want to narrow down the Accord stuff in this. 

From what I was able to get translated off this page, I actually found some very interesting things.

To start, it’s described that the fact Accord is an android/machine/whatever the fuck at all is… prohibited information. That she was a “machine made from an advanced civilization in the Old World. Specifically… prohibited to be published.” It’s also described as being “an embarrassing secret.”

The “embarrassing secret” thing could honestly just be in Accord’s own words, but I don’t think the “prohibited” part is.

After all, it was also prohibited for Accord to intervene like she did in Ending D. 

So she’s prohibited from interfering with events in a timeline, as well as ever disclosing her identity as an Android/machine…which she also considers an “embarrassing secret.”

And we should also talk about the… the fucking… NieR Desktop PCs that have lore on them. I fucking hate this franchise. 

4198 AD Humanity's extinction is confirmed. All records relating to humans are moved to maximum-pirority folders, and backups are sent to regional quantum servers for safekeeping.

5012 AD An Attack by aliens from outer space is recorded. Numerous buildings and androids are destroyed, and some quantum servers are catastrophically damaged.

5155 AD Machine lifeforms created by these unidentified alien visitors launch an ark into space, resulting in a new divergence. An attempt is then made to sync up with servers from the past.

2021 AD Synchronization with past server is successful. As the original network was small and designed for personal use, expansion will be required. - Accord

First of all, quantum servers. Server. COUGH COUGH. Memory server. 

(Also, it’s mentioned that there is a quantum server in the Forest of Myth in another one of these… most likely being, Sleeping Beauty itself. Obvious.)

Anyways. 

Second of all… the ark launching causes a “divergence.” 

Not a branch, a divergence. There’s a difference between the two. 

It’s kind of hard to explain in words, but thankfully— the Complete Guide has a trusty visual aid. 

So the ark did breach off into separate timelines… and Accord doesn’t at all sound concerned.

In fact, she sounds like she fucking contributed to it. 

I might be totally tripping as I’m sure I’ve been this entire post but this all makes it sound like she herself was the one, or one of the ones, who recorded & stored all the records we see in Automata into the Ark. 

especially when you read what the other PC had to say.

2021 AD A certain manufacturer releases a high-spec personal computer. This model of PC, designed to receive perpetual updates via the network, is soon adopted across the globe.

2025 AD These PCs, now spread the world over, begin to link up and share data as part of a neural-networking experiment conducted by the manufacturer without the knowledge of its users.

2032 AD Large-scale data breaches and acts of cyberterrorism are carried out over the network, during which time information regarding Replicant technology is leaked. The experiment is soon halted, and the computers stop receiving updates.

3021 AD A thousand years after the experiment, consciousness data from these computers is detected on the network. The Collection and merging of this data is performed by the quantum server located in the Forest of Myth.

Hey, look. The times match up. 2021 AD, 2021 AD. 

But if we carry over the fact that this is all coming from Accord…

“These PCs, now spread the world over, begin to link up and share data as part of a neural-networking experiment conducted by the manufacturer without the knowledge of its users.”

Hm. 

Go back to Reincarnation. What did it say Accord’s purpose was?

This puppet’s goal

is to observe how humans live their lives. 

Maybe it’s just me. That’s a new one. 

One of the few things we’ve known about Accord, for sure, is her goal of recording singularities, branches, etc., all in order to prevent the collapse of all timelines. 

I don’t think we ever got “study human lives” in the equation. 

And so I thought. Maybe we did. Maybe I just looked over that answer, too. Maybe…

.

It was her original purpose? 

Okay. 

I’m sure one thing has been lingering in your head as you’ve read all this.

I’m gonna lead up to a big reveal that Accord is secretly a big bad evil, who is recording the world and beyond for the machines,and that we should watch out for her or some shit. 

I think the complete opposite.

Because while I said that she’s prohibited from ever interfering with events in a branch… which she is. 

Here’s the kicker.

She does it anyway. 

In ending D, Accord breaks that “rule” and runs in at the last second, ensuring that the flower would be sealed off in that branch. 

Why did she do this? Is she stupid? 

And the best answer we’re given is… firstly, Zero. 

Whatever feelings Zero made Accord feel while recording the events of Drakengard 3 were so strong that she went against that prohibition just to help her, even if it meant getting herself killed. 

And do you remember the “embarrassing secret” comment I brought up when discussing the information in the Complete Guide? How I concluded that that phrasing was likely coming from Accord’s own perspective? 

Perhaps she considers her identity as a “puppet from the old world” an “embarrassing secret”… because Accord isn’t affiliated with the machines anymore.

She’s been working against them. 

The most recent Reincarnation update as of this script revealed a shit ton of really, really important lore. 

The Cage is inside of a Seed. Humanity is planning on Reincarnating. 

But out of everything there’s one thing that I… genuinely did not see coming. It was probably the most obvious reveal out of everything, but still. 

After the Ark leaves, the machines who left on it begin assimilating everything. 

They start collecting data to an almost catastrophic degree, eradicating androids. Building a kingdom, taking over earth.

Not just earth— If I read it right, their goal is to completely dominate all timelines, all earths. That is, until a civil war between machines breaks out. 

And what occurs sometime after this is, presumably, NieR:Reincarnation. Inside of The Cage, a repurposed Seed of Destruction perhaps taken from the machines & used now to store the data of humanity so that they may one day resurrect. 

But here’s the real kicker. A seed taken from the machines? 

Yes. If I’m correct, the machines have access to the seeds. It could just be what is giving them the power to assimilate on such a catastrophic scale. 

And they’re bringing them across timelines… ah! You know what that sounds like? 

Exactly what I fucking said about the Ark. Shit’s clicking. I think. I could totally be wrong about this and if I am my bad. 

But let’s go back, back to Accord. Samurai Jaccord. Or something idk

When I brought up the two biggest questions regarding her mere existence, I skipped over one. 

“How does she time travel?” 

And the question always kind of nagged at me. It felt like an obvious answer but it just… wasn’t. 

Until I asked a different question. How does she copy herself? 

It’s brought up time and time again that there is no given answer as to how Accord just has so many… identical copies of herself. 

And while it would lead me to just believe she’s a line of machines, I… no. Because that’s not what it sounds like at all. 

It always just reads as though the original Accord found a way to copy herself on her own.

Copying herself… copy, copy… wait. We’ve seen something that copies. We’ve seen something capable of storing data. We’ve seen something capable of traveling across worlds. 

And just like that, I found my answer. She uses the Seeds to time travel and copy herself.

And how might she have initially gotten her hands on one of these seeds?

Well… perhaps, the machines. Whom she was very likely affiliated with, before this war.

She collected the data from humanity and stored it in the ark. Surely it wouldn’t be so hard for Accord to snatch it all back and put it into the Cage, right? 

After all… she’s said to come from the old world. Perhaps whatever was the first iteration of the Ark breaching… is the “Old World.” It’s said the machines built a kingdom. 

And at the end of this update, we see Pod fly towards a city in white. 

And do you know what this city fucking looks like? Guess. Just. Fucking. Guess. 

IT’S FUCKING CATHEDRAL CITY. 

It’s a time loop. It’s a time loop, and it’s not a new time loop— it’s been a time loop. And who the hell knows how long this shit has been going on. 

The Complete Guide mentioned that one specific entity was causing altercations to the “flow of time”— Accord! And no, that’s not a theory— the book legitimately states that Accord is causing changes in time itself.

Hell, if we’re going with the possibility that Accord uses the Seeds in some way to traverse time and space, perhaps she copies herself for every time she does it. For every jump in time, she’s replicated. 

And given the ending of Drakengard 3… Girl’s been going at it for a while.

A couple more things I’d like to bring up before we reach the “conclusive statement” of this post. 

I say Accord is a machine… what do I mean by that? Earlier I compared her appearance to Adam, does this mean I think Accord is moreso akin to him & Eve? 

No. Because like I also pointed out earlier, Accord isn’t organic like we see they are. She doesn’t bleed. Not even when Zero drives that sword straight through her abdomen in order to kill One. One bleeds, a fucking lot, nothing from Accord. I’m gonna quit talking about fictional characters bleeding. Anyways. 

No, I think it’s more likely that she’s closer to something like 2P and the P(uppet) units I mentioned earlier, or just… any regular machine. 

Secondly, let’s go back to Utahime Five. She’s only in it for like, what, a panel? But I feel as though this singular panel says a lot.

First of all, the Mercurius Gate is what “holds the knowledge of the world” in Drakengard 3. Accord is its “receptionist”, as we see, and she noticeably looks “younger” here. As young as, you know, a machine CAN be.

And if we take into consideration the Copied City’s connection to the Cathedral City, and perhaps now the Ark’s connection to the Mercurius Gate, it would make sense as to why Accord here is its receptionist. 

Perhaps this was her original function. A puppet who observes how humans live their lives, storing that data & then serving as its receptionist. Which would give her such an easy out to snatch some of that data back when the time came. 

But there’s another thing. How come she looks so much younger here? She’s a machine, I don’t think machines age like… people do? Unless there’s like… Robots 2005 logic you can apply here… 

which I doubt. I don’t know the answer to this one. And I don’t wanna just spew more bullshit I’ll probably be pulling out of my asshole. Continuing. 

Thirdly. What about in Automata? If Accord’s… you know… giving out weapons to the Resistance, as told to us in this line:

“Oh, the lady who owns the place sends ‘em over every once in a while. Her name’s Accord, and she’s the proprietor of this here business. I just tend to customers and keep all the repair devices humming. I only see her every few years, to be honest. She mostly just uses delivery drones to drop things off. I don’t know where she gets this stuff, but most if it’s in pretty good condition! Say, if you ever happen to run into her, say hello for me, all right?”

how could she be affiliated with the machines? 

Well. Like I said, the most likely answer to the time loop is that we aren’t seeing its first go-through. It’s been happening, and there are already a possible infinite amount of Accords in the… whatever zone. 

I wanna focus on two lines here. 

“I only see her every few years, to be honest. She mostly just uses delivery drones to drop things off.”

Her using delivery drones is… interesting. It makes sense. I imagine that in timelines that are, at least in certain ways, “going strong” she wants to minimize her interactions with the world to as limited as possible. 

Meanwhile in Drakengard 3, as shit was going to shit, Accord was just outright toying with Zero until eventually intervening during the fight with One. 

(Why she then was then showing things in her bag to Yonah I… don’t really know.)

Fourthly. 

Group B. 

From Sinoalice:

August 2 The origins of Group B is still largely unknown. It is believed they come from an undiscovered branch. I suspect the reason why they remained unnoticed for so long is because they have set up Recorders near Singularities to keep us away from them.

March 12 The last time there was a Cataclysm, it gave rise to a large number of Group B. They even have weaponry capable of countering our aerial weapons… things are getting out of hand. We’ve managed to keep them at bay so far, but if this situation continues, we will be completely overpowered.

June 5 It seems that we Recorder models, will need to adapt. The development of replaceable armament parts is progressing, but more investment is needed. Weapons distribution needs to be increased to facilitate memory recollection. There is lot of work to do.

August 8 The previous Recorder was destroyed by Group B. Since there is a possibility that it was captured, I’ll have to request assistance from the Association.

This Group B is something I didn’t really touch on ever due to having literally no fucking clue what it could be, but recently it was brought up again in the anime, so I’m bringing it up now. Because I think I might have an idea. 

The first bolded line. “I suspect the reason why they remained unnoticed for so long is because they have set up Recorders near Singularities to keep us away from them.” 

I think that Group B, in some way or another… is Accord. At least, variants of her that are more malicious.

Variants of her that are… still affiliated with the machines? Time is most likely all happening at once, in separate universes/timelines, and therefore while one group of accords are on our side, the other still is with the machines, from the “past.” I sound like a fucking flatlining heart rate monitor I’m so sorry. 

Anyways… shit. You know what just clicked? Everything in this makes sense. 

Do you remember Michael’s novella, when he and the other dragons were battling “puppets”/“insects”? 

That was Group B. It had to have been, given that we know there is some weird kind of connection between the dragons of Drakengard and the Dragons from the “Kingdom of Night”, and that these dragons in the kingdom were deployed to fight against machines and aliens inside the kingdom. 

And wanna know something? It’s parroted information, but the first of the Dragon machines and Accord were created around the same time, same area. But no matter how hard I try and convince myself otherwise, everything points to these two entities having not been originally created by the same entity.

And guess the fuck what? I’m not even theorizing about Accord being both group A and B, I’m just rewording actual canon. 

In Sinoalice, there are two characters, these two:

That Accord is said to be the “ancestor” of. Fucking.   They’re puppets. They are puppets with red eyes. And they’re fucked up little assholes.

And not only, but these two characters are also “mutated variants” of, what? Group B. Two characters are descendants of Accord & simultaneously variants of Group B, what conclusion does that leave? Accord and Group B are connected. Accord is Group A, the Accords still with the machines are Group B, Group A and Group B are both Accords. Circle A on your SpongeBob SquarePants punnet square worksheet and meet me after class

Going off of this, it’s said that Group B also has the capability to change forms based off parts they assimilate from other entities. And… hm. Hm!

If we apply that this same power hasn’t changed for Group A, then we just answered two questions regarding Accord. 

First thing. How I mentioned that she looks younger in Utahime Five compared to her appearances in everything else. If she has the ability to change forms due to whatever she “assimilates”, then that explains why she looks slightly older now.

(Could also possibly explain the existence of male accords too, like in the stage play? I don’t know bro…….. I’m deep but not that deep)

Secondly. Ancestors… ancestor… hm…

Could she be. Um. 

Could Accord have been the first “android-like” machine? And it’s because of this that she’s not as “advanced” as the ones we see, like Adam and Eve who are all but virtually organic beings? 

Perhaps that’s why Adam resembles her so fiercely. And fuck, I just realized— it’s not just Adam. It’s N2. 

And this time I promise I’m not just talking about black hair and pronouns. 

I’m talking about narrative framing. 

They’re basically inverses of each other. One’s trying to resurrect humanity while the other is actively pushing for its decimation on a dimensional scale. 

Actively pushing back against one another. Constantly observing. Constantly… watching. And both possibly created by entities who once did the same.

Fifthly. And at last, finally. 

What does Accord have to do with the Cage? 

Well. It’s something very, very interesting. 

The Cage, formerly situated on the moon before… for some reason… being found on Earth, is what’s keeping humanity alive. 

At least, their data. Their data from all timelines, if I recall. And from cameos we are given little breadcrumbs that tell us Accord is very likely its creator.

And this Cage, inside of a seed, is revealed to be what is intended to bring humanity back— to resurrect them. 

If this seed, this Cage, is destroyed— everything is destroyed. Humanity dies.

I fully believe that this event, the destruction of the cage— if it happens, this will be the Fall-Down. The destruction of all timelines. The destruction of humanity. 

And think about all the characters we see from the games in Reincarnation. 2B, A2, 9S. Nier, Kaine, Emil. Even fucking Zero herself.

It’s all their data. It’s not them, per se— just their data. Why’s Joker Persona 5 there? Ummmmmm shhhhhhhhhh 🤫 🤫🤫🤫🤫🤫🤫🤫🤫🤫🤫🤫🤫🤫

And you know what? I think I just solved another question I’ve had for ages. 

We know who took Angelus’ body. 

During the legion war, Angelus’ body is stolen from where it’s being kept and we just… genuinely do not know where the fuck it went. At all. Not a fucking clue. 

But do you know what I’m wondering now? Maybe Accord took it, and she’s in the cage. Because look at THIS. FUCKING. SCENE. 

While Yuzuki and Hina are going through this weird “gallery” of paintings (WHY IS IT ALWAYS FUCKING PAINTINGS BY THE WAY. maybe accord & adam were in the same art class), a FUCKING DRAGON FLIES OUT OF NOWHERE, GOES INTO THE PAINTING, AND DIES. Obviously it’s just a reference to the only thing in Drakengard 1 that ever gets referenced— but we’re already so fucking deep I can’t see shit. I’m going with it. 

And finally… finally, finally… I think I have everything. And if I’ve just confused the fuck out of you all for the last 7000+ words, allow me to attempt to amend that with my concluding…. bullet points

•The Ark the machines use to traverse time & space is a Seed of Destruction, in some shape or form, which we’ve seen them possess before. Seeds can also be used to store memories & “data”.

•The “light” frequently referenced throughout the series is most likely in reference to The Great Time. 

•The Aliens of Automata are most likely connected to the Watchers of Drakengard in some genetic way. 

•Accord is a machine, who stole data from humanity without their knowledge for the machines’ server.

•She later rebelled when their assimilation began and created the Cage.

•Accord uses the Seed(s) to copy herself & possibly time travel as well. 

•The humans of Midgard were always right; there is an Egg of Resurrection. 

And. That’s. EVERYTHING. 

Shit. Sorry if this all kind of fell apart near the end, this took waaaay too long to finish up and every time I got close new shit got revealed that I could add. YAY.

But anyways. Hope you guys liked my nonsense, and until next time,

Hold on.

I just realized something. 

…I think I was wrong. 

Like, completely wrong, about something. One thing. Completely wrong about one, small thing. 

Accord… isn’t the only character we see in these games that can travel across time and space.

…So does Caim.

At the end of Drakengard 1, ending E, he and Angelus send themselves and the Mother Angel (Queen Beast) across time into modern day Tokyo. This event is what would cause the NieR timeline to kickstart at all, bringing the origin of MASO as well as…

.

This event is what… caused NieR to occur. 

This… event… caused… NieR. 

This event caused NieR Replicant, which caused NieR Automata, in which the Ark was formed, in which the first Accord was created, in which assimilation began and kickstarted the time loop. 

And the real kicker? Remember when I brought up “Singularities”? Entities with the capabilities to cause branches and alter timelines. The ones that we know of include Zero, Two, and recently, Kaine— 

but with information given by Drakengard 3’s Complete Guide, we were given three more. These being, 

Nier, 

Nowe,

And CAIM. 

It’s confirmed. Thank fuck, by the way— one of the biggest portions of the original twin theory was me trying to prove that he was a Singularity at all, but little did I know the truth was right under my nose. Waiting. For ten years. I’m the smartest bitch on planet earth 

But there’s something… off, I feel. 

In every instance of a singularity taking effect that we’ve gotten to see they always stay on the same… I guess, “Earth.” The branch changes, I guess, but the earth really doesn’t.

I’m saying this, because

Caim branches into an entirely different world, and he brings the two beings that shall end yet another humanity with it.

I’d bet the Gods were sure happy about that. More humans to…

?

I’d bet the Gods were sure happy about that. 

What? Hang on. 

Look at that. 

These birds show up right before the Queen Beast falls into Tokyo. Birds have always been common imagery in these games, usually for symbolic purposes. 

But every time Drakengard 1 uses this kind of imagery it’s… weird. The birds are weird.

Especially inverse of this, the very beginning of the game:

It’s in the opening cutscene of Drakengard 1. Furiae says, “It begins.” 

(What begins? What does she already know…?)

And after a fade to white, we cut to a bird circling in the sky over the battlefield Caim is currently in. The very same one where he will be fatally wounded, forcing him to forge a pact with Angelus, the beginning of the end. 

It always struck me as odd as to why this shot was included. Why include such seemingly meaningless imagery as… you know, a bird flying. Like a bird can do. 

Well, that’s the thing with Drakengard 1. It’s by far the entry in this series with the heaviest religious imagery and theming.

And thus, with that in mind…

I looked it up. 

What is the significance of a bird circling in the sky?

Oh. 

So… It’s an Omen. 

It’s an Omen. 

A bird circling in the sky is considered an omen in certain religions.

A bird circling in the sky is considered an omen that God is either sending a message from beyond, or is watching over you. 

God is watching over you.

God is watching you. 

(watching me, watching you)

Hm. Hm! In the context of this series, that’s kind of…

interesting.

[milkbreadtoast]

tried drawing the mc from a dream i had recently... design and colors tbd(+placeholder clothes) but i decided to give him pink hair lol (more info under the cut)

ok im going to ramble a bit abt the lore now.... all this is tentative/im not sure bc it's based on a dream... he works for this organization that's basically like a super powered "peace keeping" police force/FBI type deal that paints itself as like super heroic & good & all abt justice... but it's secretly an evil organization that oppresses/experiments on monsters and hides this from the officers(except the higher ups) and the public... i think maybe 1 of the officers' jobs is to defend the public from monsters? (the monsters include animal-like ones but also magical creatures w human-like intelligence) but they secretly capture + do cruel experiments on monsters... and oppress them in other ways(?)

+ in the dream there was a resistance group of fox/werewolf-like shapeshifting monsters... ok im just gonna copy what i wrote here:

just gonna add that the mc prob joined the police force bc of the childhood friend incident (wants to protect ppl so this doesnt happen again?) + he was prob also chosen as a target by the resistance group bc of this incident too... like it's all connected... the childhood friend incident is related to the monsters... only they (and the evil org) know what rly happened... mc is chosen bc of his ties to that friend/the incident... maybe the childhood friend was a monster..? I'm not sure lol but def connected. MC also has superpowers but I haven't decided for sure what they are (i rmbr his ability in the dream but idk if im going w that kdfjdj like it has to make sense...)

also in the dream the mc guy had like unassuming brown haired just some guy energy but after waking up i was considering other colors and pink popped into my head lmfao... also if he looks kinda like yeseo LOOK AWAY... I RLY TRIED OK... this is why i made him pink and not brown🤧

the mc also had like 2-3 fellow officer friends in the organization... i vaguely have an afterimage of what they looked like... 1 of them was a more srs type... mc himself is p laid back... kinda dense and disarmingly nice type lol. Also he's a young adult... maybe 24ish? (or older cuz i can do whatever i want)

Bonus: i also drew this yesterday, it's another mc from a dream i had the other day (but im not satisfied w this lol + dont rmbr enough of the dream to flesh it out)