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roosterr · 9 months

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white flag ✹ interlude

note: this chapter is a lil shorter than usual, I just wanted to include a lil bonding moment for reader and ghost before the events of next chapter :)

pairing: ghost x gn!reader

wc: 1.7k

no use of y/n reader's callsign is 'stingray'

summary: you and ghost go people watching in the local park, plus a little heart to heart

warnings: just some much needed fluff :)

ao3

【prev】 || 【next】

one warm shower and a couple of ibuprofen later, you're feeling mostly human again with a manageable headache and a reasonable amount of regret for how pathetic you’d acted. with time you’d get over that, especially now that ghost had finally seen the light and started treating you with some decency. admittedly though, his change in attitude threw you off earlier; you were bracing for a stern lecture and he essentially brushed it off as though it didn't matter, but you’ve decided not to dwell on that fact.

small victories, as they say.

for the very first time, the pair of you were both sitting across from each other at the tiny kitchen table, in your own worlds; the radio was faintly playing some classic rock station in the background as ghost had his nose in his book and you played some mindless game on your phone. you’d honestly prefer to be reading a good book too, but your collection was currently ash in the wind, so this would have to do.

you're tempted to try starting a conversation, the quiet was giving you far too much room to think, but on the other hand the atmosphere is so peaceful it would be a shame to ruin it.

so you set your phone down on the table and turn your eyes to ghost, watching him scan the pages, his head tilted slightly in concentration. he's washed most of the paint from around his eyes – that was probably done yesterday, not that you noticed – so only a few smudges mark his skin. with the black paint gone, you notice the raised bumps of old scars around his eyes, something you'd never paid much attention to before. you know better than to ask, but you do wonder, in the back of your mind, the stories behind all of them. examining them gives you inexplicable urge to run your fingers over them, to soothe the ache having so many of them must cause.

his dark eyes are like black holes, drawing in your attention and refusing to let you escape their grasp. you're vaguely aware of how long you've been staring at his face, but you don't care to snap yourself out of it until he speaks up.

"what?" he grumbles, not bothering to look up from the page. you quickly look away, down to where your hands idly fiddle with your phone on the table.

"question."

"hm?" he hums in acknowledgement, but still doesn't look at you. normally you'd give up at this point, assuming he was completely uninterested in what you had to say, but this time you decide to push your luck.

"you fancy a walk to the park?"

finally, he meets your eyes, looking up through his light eyelashes and blinking once as he contemplates his answer. you resist the urge to break eye contact as he stares right through you.

"...alright." he says, wedging his bookmark between the pages and sets the book down on the table.

you weren't expecting him to say yes, but you're pleasantly surprised that he did; it felt slightly surreal that after all this time, you were finally becoming friends with ghost. your eyes follow him as he stands, leaving the room to, presumably, change his mask while you sit there with a bewildered look on your face.

a minute or so passes before you hear his voice again. "you comin'?" he calls from the entryway, bringing you back to the present.

"oh– yeah, one second!" you jump up from your chair and rush to get ready as well. the grin you wore as you rushed past him to fetch your jacket was unconscious, the feeling lighting up your features and overshadowing and lingering thoughts from the night before.

a few moments later you're tugging your boots on and you're both walking out the door together, side by side. for once it's actually a nice day, so the short walk to the park is a pleasant one under the blue sky and warm sunlight.

"sorry again, for last night. i think that's gonna haunt me for the rest of my life." you look over to ghost with an apologetic expression, and you can't help but feel that the expression he gives back is one of amusement despite not being able to see half his face.

"that's twice you've screamed at me now." he says, keeping pace with you for a change rather than marching ahead as he usually does.

"i didn't scream at you!" you attempt to defend yourself, but thinking back on it you change your mind. "alright, the second time maybe i did,"

"maybe."

"but the first time, i was very collected." you continue. "it was quite satisfying, to be honest."

"i suppose i deserved it." his gaze falls to the ground and, even though he's right – he did deserve it – you do feel a little bad.

"seriously, though," you continue, "thank you, for looking after me last night. you didn't have to, and i know you didn't want to, but i really appreciate it."

"anyone would'a done the same…" he mutters, bringing a hand up to scratch awkwardly at the back of his head. you get the feeling he's not used to people showing their appreciation for him, which only encourages you to carry on.

"and thanks for taking me in, i know having some random idiot in your house is the last thing you want." you give him a warm smile as he looks at you from the corner of his eye.

"well, you're not just any idiot, are you?" he says, earning a questioning tilt of your head. "you're sting. the idiot."

a genuine laugh escapes you, the first one in a long time, and you gently nudge ghost's arm with your elbow.

"oh, lovely, thanks mate." you chuckle, shaking your head in amusement. you see his eyes lift in a barely noticeable smile, the sight causing a warm feeling to bloom in your chest.

you arrive at the park fairly quickly, finding yourselves an out of the way bench to occupy under the partial shade of a nearby oak tree. you're enveloped by a comfortable silence as you both simply observe the beauty of nature and bask in the feeling of the sun on your face.

you're not sure how long the two of you sit there in each other's company, but you find yourself subconsciously drifting closer to him, close enough that your knees just about touch. you're sure he notices – there isn't much that gets by him – but he doesn't show it.

"did you hear they figured out how the fire started?" you keep your voice low to preserve the peaceful quiet, turning your head to look at him as you ask.

"oh yeah? how?"

"ugh…" you groan with the annoyance the memory bring up. "my stupid neighbour left a fucking candle burning all night, the twat."

"what a fuckin' idiot…" he glances briefly in your direction, a sympathetic frown on his face.

"i can never look at candles the same way again, they're tainted now." you drag a hand over your face and shake your head to rid yourself of the thought.

there's another pause in the conversation as you stare ahead, watching the trees sway in the breeze and all the people going about their lives, everything cast in a golden glow from sun.

you don't want it to end, the way the two of you are now. this is the most you've ever spoken to echother, outside of arguments, and you really want to make the most of it.

"nice weather today, right?" you try to keep him talking to you, and you're considering the fact that he hasn't told you to shut up yet as a good sign.

"hm." ghost hums and leans his head back, his eyes fluttering shut. "you gonna ask me what my favourite colour is again?"

"c'mon, throw me a bone here." you turn your body to face him more. "actually what is it, though?"

"...green."

"i knew it!" you exclaim, a triumphant grin pulling at your lips. "it makes sense, you just have 'dark green' vibes."

"i'll take your word for it."

it's difficult to know what to talk about with him, seeing as you've never actually been friendly before and you've already used the only small talk question you could think of.

"hmm…" your eyes roam over the park, looking for something to give you an idea. eventually you land on a scrappy little white dog, with possibly the worst haircut you've ever seen. "look at that woman's dog," you point it out to ghost, snickering at the way it was resisting its owner as she pulled it along. "i feel bad for the little guy."

"is that a dog? thought it was an oversized rat."

"oh my god!" you snort a laugh, covering your mouth with a hand and throwing your head back. you hear ghost chuckle lightly beside you, and when you turn your head to look back at him you find him already looking at you.

all other thoughts leave your mind when you see how his eyes glow a golden colour in the light of the sun. you feel the tips of your ears heating up and quickly face forward again before he has a chance to notice.

luckily another distraction presents itself almost immediately, in the form of a well-dressed office worker sprinting past you at full speed.

"wow," you mutter, your eyes following him as he disappears around a bend in the path, "he's not hangin' about."

"maybe he left a candle burnin'." ghost looks back to you, a playful glint in his eyes you're not sure you've ever seen on him.

you can't help the grin that pulls at your lips at his terrible joke. "aw, ghost," you groan, gently shoving him as he chuckles at your reaction, "you're wrong for that one."

ghost slouches into the bench as you both look back out across the park, shifting so his thigh presses against yours ever so slightly. you're careful not to react, afraid that he'd pull away if you draw attention to the gesture, and resolve to just enjoy the rare closeness of his presence.

eventually you'd have to head back, but for now you were more than content to sit here and watch the world go by with him.

taglist: @sofasoap , @siilvan , @mockerycrow , @i-love-ghost , @projectdreamwalker , @achelois-is-here , @adamsloverboy , @thatchickwiththecamera , @chickensandwich69 , @batmanunicorns523 , @tiny-kasper , @dezibou , @pampeop , @cumbermovels , @goth-boi-atlas , @berryjuicyy , @guiltgoreglory , @postmodernrevolutionist , @untoldshortsofthefandoms , @delilah-grimes , @sunflowerqueen1416 , @luvssemma , @ghostslittlegf , @imonmykneessir , @kenz-ee , @eistro-phobia , @rzmarona , @alanalanalanalanalanna , @cathnoneofyourbusiness , @geisterfvhrer , @lazyninjaphilosopher , @aliilium , @koi-feish , @chaoticgoblindev , @clear-your-mind-and-dream , @thrivig-n-jiving , @lesterous , @glitterypirateduck , @slu77ym4nw415ts , @livelaugh-light , @trulylavendedarling

if your name is crossed out, it means i can't tag you for whatever reason, sorry! ༼ つ ◕_◕ ༽つ

#ghost x reader #simon riley x reader #simon ghost riley x reader #mw2 x reader #cod x reader #141 x reader #call of duty x reader #mw2 #cod mw2 #call of duty #simon ghost riley #mw2 ghost #roosterr writes

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bobbiedebruyn · 3 months

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So you just joined Tumblr?

Tumblr basics + Fandoms/Gifmaking

Congratulations, you just landed at Tumblr! This hellsite (affectionate) can seem intimidating and complicated at first, but once you grasp the basics of it it’ll quickly turn into your own personal little hut in the forest. Tumblr is a website where you and only you curate your dashboard, you’ll see the content that you seek on your own. In this post, I’ll explain the basics of Tumblr and the basics of how fandoms function here with the help of Bob. Okay, let’s get started.

1. Blog customization

The first thing you should do as soon as you land on Tumblr is add a profile picture and header before you interact with people. You want to be distinguishable from bots and therefore avoid getting blocked. You can also add anything to your bio, there's no character limit. Some folks add their name and pronouns, but there are no rules about that. There are also no rules about profile pictures. It can be a picture of you, a picture of your dog, a picture of a rock, or a picture of your favorite character. If you plan on staying on the fandom side, you might notice that a lot of fandom blogs have colorful-looking icons (a cutout of a character on a colorful background), for these icons and also headers I suggest checking out source blogs that make those icons. For starters, @iconheadersource is a goldmine where you definitely going to find something that’d suit you and your blog.

Tumblr on mobile and Tumblr on desktop are two different creatures when it comes to customization. On the desktop, you can customize your blog with coding (HTML + JS). Now Bob will demonstrate to us some examples of blogs on desktop.

If you want to customize your desktop blog, I suggest checking out @phantomcodes and @glenthemes for the codes.

Tutorial on how to install themes

Using javascript on Tumblr pages

2. Search Engine

Nice! You've made your blog look pretty! Now, let's shift our focus to the search engine and ways to discover content. As mentioned earlier, you curate your dashboard by looking for things you enjoy and like. Search using hashtags or the names of your interests (TV shows, movies, birds, music, etc.) to find your piece of cake. For instance, folks who create posts about TV shows you like use tags to ensure their posts reach others interested in the same thing. So, let's go ahead and search for something right now.

Once you search for that specific tag, you are redirected to the corresponding tag page. Here, you can see that posts are sorted by "Latest" or "Top" (indicating posts with the most notes). On the right side, you will find related tags and blogs which are frequently using the searched tag. By following the tag, both the tag itself and the posts tagged with it will automatically appear on your dashboard in the "Your tags" section. You have the option to filter tags according to your preferences. In the settings, you can choose to block specific tags if you prefer not to see content related to some particular topics.

The only method for sharing posts and content on this website is through reblogging. On Tumblr, reposting others' content, including art, gifs, and fics, is not accepted. Reposting means downloading art, gifs, etc., creating your own post, and then sharing it. And that's a big no-no, strongly discouraged. Your likes essentially function as bookmarks, and you have the option to set them to be private. When you save something, it doesn't appear on your friends' dashboards.

We don't censor things here, and I advise you not to do so too. If you need to mention a word that might be potentially triggering or could be flagged on another social media, feel free to say it. Many users have specific topics and tags filtered out, so if you use variations like "K!tKat" instead of "KitKat" in the tags, it can bypass the tag filter, potentially causing more harm as people will see content that triggers them. And remember to always tag posts that have flickering or flashing!!!

If you want to organize your reblogs or make comments on a reblog, use the tags section and not the comments section itself. This is called "#add tags." Feel free to type whatever you want, but keep in mind that the original poster receives notifications when someone reblogs their post and adds tags. Yes, all tags are visible to us.

Okay, so let's quickly recap this information with the help of our dear friend, Bob.

3. Social interactions

So let's move on to one of the crucial topics - how to make friends on Tumblr? Personally, I don't think there's one particular formula for that. Sometimes you just see a funny bloke posting about something as random as desert rain frogs, grab them, and go "You're my friend now" and that's how you become mutuals.

However, there are other, more common ways to become friends with someone. You can start by reblogging someone's post, adding tags to the reblog, and then following the person. Create your own posts, tag them to ensure they reach the folks who are interested in the same things as you, and participate in fandom events and challenges if you're into that. Interact with people you want to befriend, message them, send them asks. You will eventually find your crowd. You'll also find swifties, and fans of supernatural who never moved on from that destiel love confession four years ago, they also can be your friends, at some point, you will become friends and chill with each other. Be open to new interests to make sure your dashboard is not dull and boring.

Tumblr doesn't have the supposed hierarchy, and you don't have to listen to anyone who tells you otherwise, you curate your own experience and blocking is pretty normalized here. Notes and followers (which are private for everyone) don't really matter, stick to your beliefs and your vibe and you'll be fine. We're all equal losers here.

4. Fandom / Gifmaking

Fandoms play a significant role on Tumblr, they're closely tied with gifmaking. As a fellow creature of fandom, I'm adding this part because we don't gatekeep - more gifmakers and fandom enthusiasts mean a better fandom experience. As I mentioned earlier, everything has its tag, making it easy to find your favorite TV show fandom by searching for the tag. This is also how you can connect with people who share an interest in that specific TV show. Upon entering the tag, you'll stumble upon numerous moving pictures – these are GIFs. People create GIFs of everything, from their "blorbo" (the term for favorite character) to beloved ships and favorite moments. There are also plenty of creative GIFs with different coloring and complicated effects. And the best part? You can do it too!

There are a lot of ways to make GIFs. Some people use Photoshop, and some use Photopea which is an excellent accessible option. I'll be linking posts for Photoshop under this text. For Photopea tutorials and guides, please check out @photopeablr.

I've been making GIFs for three years at this point, and those are the tutorials I used when I was just starting out:

how to make a gif:

comprehensive guide 101

basic gif making tutorial + mvp player installation

gifmaking for beginners

how to install MVP player on a PC

film downloading & screen-capping tips

correct photoset dimensions

coloring

how to fix orange-washed characters

how to: coloring east & southeast asian celebs

channel mixer

colored background

color manipulation

vibrant coloring

how to brighten dark scenes

color isolation

effects

glitch effect

blending

crossfade transition

gradient effect in the text

gradient text

red colour accent on the b&w gifs

how to add a gif in a template

blurring gif backgrounds

using templates

text

text tutorial 1

font resources

understanding fonts and typefaces

split text

subtitles

other

icon tutorial

gif headers

For more tutorials, inspirations, and resources - please check out @usergif. It's a good source blog for all gifmakers.

Wait but what's a source blog? These are blogs that center around a specific theme, creating content for a particular topic. They are managed by multiple editors, these blogs track their own tags to reblog content related to the theme. They can be source blogs dedicated to gifmaking (just like @usergif), a TV show, a movie, a character, a celebrity, a sports team, or literally anything else. Typically, these blogs incorporate terms like "network," "source," "central," "creators," "hub," or "daily" in their usernames, making them easily distinguishable from regular personal blogs. Examples of source blogs that come to my mind right now are @dailyanakin, @heartstoppercentral, and @nancywheelercentral.

Let's also talk about tracking tags, which are often included in blogs's bios, whether they're from source blogs or solo gifmakers. You can add these tags to your posts when creating a gifset related to a specific source blog or something you know a particular gifmaker would appreciate. Basically, the gifmaker can search their tracking tag, much like a regular Tumblr tag, and view the most recent sets in which someone used their tag.

The last thing I want to talk about are usernames, and main and side blogs. On Tumblr, we have two types of blogs: the main blog and the side blog. The main blog is the initial blog created when you sign up for your account. This blog has full functionality and all features, allowing you to follow other blogs, like posts, and send asks to other blogs. In addition to the main blog, you can create side blogs on your account. Side blogs lack some of the features of main blogs; you can't like posts, follow other blogs, or send asks from a side blog. They have slightly different functionality – a side blog can be password-protected, have multiple users, and allow you to send direct messages to people. Other users can follow your side blog, and you can receive asks from them.

Many people use side blogs as URL holders. For instance, when a new TV show is announced, someone might be the quickest to save all canonical character names. You can then message that empty side blog to inquire if they're willing to trade that specific URL or if it's available for a giveaway. Canonical URLs are often challenging to obtain, so many people add letters in between or at the end or use symbols like "-", and they also mix names and surnames of different characters.

5. The End

Okay, so we've just covered how Tumblr works, how fandoms operate, and how to get into gifmaking. I hope this guide by me and Bob has been helpful to you. If you have any questions, feel free to send them to my ask box or simply ask Bob. I hope you enjoy your stay here, and that your experience with this website will be a positive one.

#tumblr #welcome to tumblr #tumblr etiquette #how to tumblr #fandom community #fandom culture #photoshop tutorial #gif tutorial #gif resources #kas.txt #mine

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yanderecookierunkingdom · 3 months

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HIII ITS ME AGAIN, i’ve got another idea for you, that you make a little drabble about.

so the time line is like before the yan!beasts got corrupted, or like post-corruption or something, reader is a very overpowered cookie but timid and shy in a way, including considerate and kind, they wants to help people they genuinely loves and cares about (including the beasts), therefore this also makes them a people pleaser/push over, so they keep theyre power secretive

after a while, reader started to see a shift in theyre personality and how they started to resent cookies that didn’t have the same power as themselves, and how they are being kinda possessive/obsessive towards reader, and more really unhealthy behaviors, but of course, like the fool they are, reader decided to ignore those red flags, cause it’s better then having literal no one (said by reader)

anyways when days pass, more things start to change, they start becoming more malicious towards other common cookies, how they cause more chaos and other stuff, of course reader is a bit too delusional to care… till the witches/creators came, saying they need to trap them for good, of course you retaliated (verbally), saying how you care for them and other stuff, and you won’t go through with this, and they tell reader something that will really open theyre eyes to the world, pointing out the actions the beasts do and how shitty and bad they are (including some things they say, how they treat reader etc) how bad their intentions truly are, after this reader was really upset about them, they might be delusional but not THAT delusional, so i think you can vison what happened next now, they advise a plan to get them in a place where the witches can trap them, using reader as a bait, then once it’s done, reader left, no matter how many pleads or yells the beasts through at them, reader didn’t turn back, not even to glance at the prison that they brought themselves upon, as reader walked off, they made a vow to themself, a promise to never be fooled and manipulated like that again, to never pretend to be something they aren’t, after that, they became a whole entire different cookie (woahhh character development, anyway imagine them having a more bayonetta like personality/mindset and strength and speed?) maybe a little crossing of paths once the beasts get out of prison

(also i recently just learnt I HAVE MY OWN TAG? idk why it just made me feel special)

You have?? Such?? Good ideas?? Never stop sending in requests, I love all the ideas you always come up with!!

You were a cold Cookie, with no one really knowing why. You hardly trusted and tended to be very suspicious of Cookies of power. To say it took you ages to even think of trusting the Ancients wa an understatement.

You were heavily against the idea of going to Beast-Yeast, yet you eventually relented. Not for yourself, but to make sure that none of them got manipulated like you did.

You were completely ready to throw hands when the Beasts showed up. To stay you were pissed was an understatement. Somehow, they were convinced they were the victims! Because their fun was cut short!

Shadow Milk Cookie is the biggest instigator. He still thinks you're a pushover and portrays you as such, only to be completely confused when he sees you decimate that animatronic. That was.. a change in the script he didn't expect.

Burning Spice Cookie and Silent Salt Cookie are both taken aback by how ready you were to fight them. Guess that shy part of you was gone!

Eternal Sugar Cookie used to lovebomb you a lot whenever you were still shy. She's surprised to see it no longer works, but doesn't mean she still won't try!

Mystic Flour Cookie is the only one who realizes that you're no longer the same pushover. However, it doesn't mean she won't try and use you for her own benefit again.

#cosmos stars #star: elwiqs #crk x reader #cookie run kingdom x reader #burning spice cookie x reader #eternal sugar cookie x reader #silent salt cookie x reader #shadow milk cookie x reader #mystic flour cookie x reader #cosmos constellations

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bet-on-me-13 · 1 year

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Silent Chaos prompt

I don’t know if that is the actual ship name, but Dani Phantom usually has Chaos in her ship name and Cass is really sneaky so Silent? idk, anyways-

I have an idea for an angst story involving this ship

Dani and Cass have been friends for a while now, and recently started dating, but the rest of her family doesn’t really trust Dani. She doesn’t have any sort of backstory, she seems to be (badly) hiding Meta Abilities for unknown reasons, she constantly references a Brother somewhere in Illinois who doesn’t seem to exist, and she is nowhere to be seen some nights. So overall she seems very suspicious.

Cass feels slightly betrayed that her Family doesn’t trust her Girlfriend, even when she vouches for her. There’s too many red flags for them to ignore, so she can’t really argue with them, but she still feels like they should trust her judgement.

Dani meanwhile has a passive aggressive relationship with them at best. She kind of dislikes them because they have made their opinions on their relationship apparent, but she tries to be passive for Cass.

This all comes to a head one night when Dani is at her night job. She is a low level henchmen working for Penguin, cause she needs to pay the bills some way and she can’t exactly set up citizenship while being hunted by the GIW. Dani also hates the idea of mooching off of her girlfriend. She gets involved in a fight with the Bat Family, and she is managing to barely hold her own, even while still hiding her powers.

She is wearing a classic Goon mask, so they can’t recognize her as she fights them.

Orphan joins the fight, and during their scuffle they rip each others masks off. They are both shocked, and Cass freezes long enough to get shot in the back by a stray bullet.

Dani just falls to her knees as the battle ends, the other Goons retreating as she stays with Cass on the ground. The rest of the Bat Family rush up to her and push her away, trying to tend to Cass. Maybe Damian even says something along the lines of “I knew we couldn’t trust you!”

But Dani knows she needs to hurry. Cass was shot in the Spine, which is going to kill her soon, not even mentioning the blood loss. So she rushes in, phasing past the Bat Family members that try to stop her, and jumps into Cass’s Body to Overshadow her. While being overshadowed, Cass has all of her powers including her Regeneration, but it’s going to take a while to heal damage this intense.

She manages to at least stabilize her, and then uses her floating to get cass upright.

The Bat Family immediately try to restrain her, try to do anything to force her out of Cass’s body, anything to save their sister. But Dani refuses, and can’t get a word in to explain. They are being very aggressive, verbally not physically obviously, accusing her of a bunch of stuff while yelling at her to get out of their sister.

Eventually, Dani can’t take it anymore and has to run away. Flying away at top speed, she manages to get away and hide in an abandoned apartment while she focuses on healing Cass’s body. She also leaves a letter in her pocket, explaining what happened and that she needed to leave after this, because the GIW would hear about this and try to capture her.

Meanwhile, the Bat Family is assuming the worst as per usual. They think Dani only became friends with Cass in the first place to get the chance to steal her body, or to blackmail them by using Cass as a hostage, or something equally horrible.

They eventually find a lead. Dani had the same powers as an Ectoplasmic Entity, meaning she is an imprint of a Human Consciousness which has absolutely no empathetic or emotional feelings whatsoever. This further solidifies their theory that Dani was just using Cass this entire time.

(If they had been in a more right state of mind, they would have found that the Dr’s who published that study later retracted it for misinformation)

They also find out that there is a Government Agency called the GIW who works to hunt these sort of creatures. Out of options (JLD is off world), they contact the GIW under their Civilian identities, claiming that a Ghost kidnapped Cass in the night and escaped.

The GIW appears, manages to trap Dani as she is getting for supplies to patch Cass’s body up, and delivers her to the Waynes so they can perform an “exorcism” (basically they just boot Dani out of Cass’s body using Blood Blossoms)

Cass is released from the Overshadowing, still very much injured but stable and healing thanks to Dani. The GIW capture Dani as she tries to escape, and take her away.

Cass is put in the Medical Wing, and when she wakes up, she asks where Dani is. Bruce tells her that Dani was arrested for kidnapping her, and she wouldn’t hurt her anymore. Cass is angry, she had some memory of being overshadowed, and she could hear Dani’s panicked thoughts the entire time.

She was desperate to save her, even risking using up all of her energy to heal her. She used up all of her emergency funds to buy medical supplies, even knowing she would need them soon because her Power Usage would attract “them”

She tells them to leave her alone. And when they try to stay, she nearly screams at them, before her muteness kicks in and she just signs ‘Leave’, throwing a piece of paper at them. They pick it up and leave as she starts crying to herself

It is the letter from Dani, apologizing for having to Overshadow her and apologizing for not telling her about the Night Job. She explains that once she is healed, Dani is going to have to leave and never come back, because the GIW will find her if she stays. And she can’t risk being captured, because the might do what they did her brother to her.

They are confused, finally second guessing themselves, and leave her in peace as they go to do a more thorough investigation. Now that they are in their right minds, and have seen Dani’s Ghost Form, Tim feels like it’s kind of Familiar.

He looks it up, and lo and behold, he finds an Article about “Phantom and Phantasm”, the Ghost Fighting Heroes of Amity Park who mysteriously disappeared about 7 months ago.

Right after the “Anti-Ecto Acts” were passed in Congress.

Which, now that he’s looking them up and reading more thoroughly, seem extremely unethical. They gave the GIW permission to do anything they want with Ghosts, declaring them non-sentient and completely malicious.

The Anti-Ecto Acts, combined with the letter mentioning her brother, makes Tim realize what’s going on.

The GIW killed the Hero Phantom, and they just gave them the Hero Phantasm.

And that is the perfect explanation for all of their suspicions about Dani. She has no backstory because she died years ago (presumably), she was hiding her powers because the GIW would find her is she used them, her brother doesn’t seem to exist because he’s dead, and she disappeared some nights because she can’t get a Legal job and unfortunately Goon Work is one of the better paying jobs in the city.

And she ran away because they were screaming at her in a rage, not because she wanted to kidnap their sister. She was terrified of them.

Looking back to the studies on Ectoplasmic Entities, They had been retracted years ago after the Dr’s who published it discovered that Ghosts were sentient after all, and not all of them were malicious. Since then they had been speaking out against the Anti-Ecto Acts, saying that the GIW had killed their son, which, looking at their collateral damage records, was not hard to believe.

They had fucked up. And both Cass and Dani were suffering for it.

365 notes · View notes

jigujellee · 9 months

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COOL WITH YU

(gif creds here)

pairing : karina x fem!reader

summary : karina yu hates your guts, but she's starting to realize she doesn't. | read part 1 here!

word count : 5k 💀

warnings : mentions of death, mentions of gambling addictions, swearing, red flag step mom green flag dad, karina is just not good w her words, shitty non proof-read writing (im v rusty im so sorry)

your tears cascaded down your cheeks as you watched your father kneel beside your bedridden mother, gripping onto her hand as he sobbed uncontrollably. you both knew this day would eventually come; the doctors constantly reminded you of her poor prognosis but neither of you were ready to accept it.

your eyes shift from your father to your mother. you could tell she left peacefully seeing that her she had a faint smile on her face, one that you always loved to see growing up. as you admired her features, your chest begins to ache as her last words to you repeatedly echo in your head;

“you are the best thing that’s ever happened to me, y/n. thank you for being my sunshine even on my darkest days. never forget that i’m always with you in here,” she says as she holds her hand to your chest and feels your heartbeat, causing a smile grows on her face.

“and i love you so much, my y/n. i always will even if we’re galaxies and dimensions apart”

it was too much to take in at the young age of 12. your mind was blank, not a single thought occupying your brain. you couldn’t process the fact that you’ve lost one of the most important people in your life on a random tuesday evening. it’s clear your father couldn’t handle it either, seeing how he hasn’t been able to stop his own tears since the time of death was announced. you move towards him and hug him from behind and you too start to sob with him.

naturally, it would take some time to truly accept the fact that your mother was gone. the pain still lingered for both you and your father but things were slowly shaping up. you found joy in the things you loved once again and you were able to surround yourself with people who cared about you. it wasn’t until your dad had announced that he would be getting married to a literal reincarnation of the devil that all the progress you were making had gone down the drain. how could he remarry so quickly, and to someone who wasn’t anything like your mother?

her name was lorraine. she used to work with your dad and kept seeing him after your mother’s passing. she seemed really sweet and caring at first but she was quick to show her true colours once she got with your dad. unbeknownst to the both of you, lorraine had a terrible gambling addiction. the anger on your dad’s face when he found out she used all the money your mom put away for your college tuition wasn’t even close to the anger you felt bubbling in your chest. to make matters worse, lorraine didn’t seem bothered by it at all nor did she give any indication that she would try and help earn it back, and you swore that you wouldn’t bother trying to include her in your life.

you didn’t have a large circle of friends so avoiding people was easy for you. if anything, you enjoyed roaming around campus on your own, trying to find undiscovered places to study and get work done. the only person you haven’t avoided was ryujin, a friend you met who lives a few dorms down from you, but that was only because she forces her way into your life and you just always seem to give in to her.

the two of you found a nice shaded area in the quad to try and study for your upcoming midterms. it was silent for the most part with the breeze and some birds chirping being the only thing you could hear, but that silence was broken when ryujin suddenly asks you a question.

“how come you don’t hang around karina anymore?”

the mention of her name is enough to make you stop writing notes. you take a brief look at her before smacking her on the arm, causing her to yelp.

“damn girl, i was just asking! no need to get violent,” ryujin rubs the now slightly reddened area in attempts to soothe the pain.

“but i brought her up because i think she’s worried about you. like, i swear i’ve seen her steal glances at you whenever you and i study at the library or whenever we pass by her”

“aw how sweet,” you say sarcastically, not even batting an eye towards your friend as you continue to focus on your notes.

“i swear i caught you looking back at her too at one point”

“okay, now you’re just being delusional”

“am i though?” the question is left unanswered and you force her to focus on studying. ryujin smirks at her small victory.

if you were in fact looking at the girl in question, it probably wasn’t even on purpose. besides, why would you even bother staring at someone who doesn’t care about you?

to say you were tired was an understatement; you were absolutely drained. studying for midterms and completing a handful of assignments meant that you were losing more and more sleep each night, and it was definitely catching up to you.

“you look like you died and were forced to come back to life,” ryujin jokes as she hands you a large black coffee and a red bull. was it healthy? definitely not, but you needed to stay awake during your classes.

“good morning to you too, jinnie. thanks for the energy”

“i know, i’m everyone’s ball of sunshine!” she yells, a bit too close to your eardrums for your liking.

“i meant the drinks, idiot”

“it’s okay, i know what you really mean” ryujin playfully nudges your side and you can’t help but playfully roll your eyes at her. you slide the red bull into your bag and take a sip of the coffee before dropping ryujin off to her class and making your way to yours. thankfully, your classes are in the same building so you don’t need to travel too far.

you quietly enter the lecture hall, your mind too occupied with what you were going to study next once you finished classes today. you plop yourself down in your usual seat, not paying much attention to the few students already there. it wasn’t until a granola bar was placed on top of the notes you were trying to read that you finally paid attention to something other than microbiology notes.

when you look up, your eyes are met with a girl sporting a jean jacket with a black tank top underneath matched with grey sweats and topped with a plain black yankees baseball cap. she looked like those girls on pinterest who had such simple but eye-catching outfits. when she looks up, you realize it’s the person you’ve been trying to avoid for days now. she doesn’t utter a word and makes her way down to her usual spot three rows in front of you. you stare at the granola bar for a moment as you mentally debate whether you should eat it or not. the professor’s voice catches you off guard and you quickly shove the granola bar into the front pocket of your bag, deciding to eat it sometime later when she wasn’t around.

this class is one of your favourites as you personally love learning about anything ancient greece, but today you find it difficult to pay attention in class. your eyelids are significantly heavier than usual and you feel your head start to bob up and down. you figure it shouldn’t hurt to close your eyes for a moment so you lay your head down behind your laptop to try and get some shut eye, but it doesn’t last long because you feel the neighbouring student nudge your elbow to which you jerk your head up and find the professor giving you a stern look.

“i asked you a question, y/n”

“i’m sorry, could you please repeat it?”

the professor sighs but continues on anyway, “which two generals were fighting in the second punic war?”

you knew the answer, you felt it on the tip of your tongue. but all you could do was let out a few “uhs” and “uhms” before a familiar voice speaks in your place.

“it was between scipio africanus and hannibal”

“well done, karina. i’d also like to remind everyone that sleeping in my class is not allowed. either show up to my class or don’t come at all, but i don’t want you to come in here and treat it like your bedroom,” the professor doesn’t break eye contact with you as he spoke to the class. you shrink back in your seat and keep your eyes glued to your laptop, failing to catch karina looking back at you with worry plastered all over her face.

luckily you were able to keep yourself awake for the remainder of the lecture after chugging down the coffee ryujin got you. once 3 hours have gone by and everyone is packing up to leave, the professor asks to have a word with you so you sit and wait for everyone to leave the lecture hall before making your way down towards the front of the class. your professor has already packed up and sits on the desk, swinging his legs back and forth like a child in a high chair.

“is everything alright, y/n?” he asks gently.

“yeah, i’m- i’m just exhausted. it’s midterm season and all the profs are dropping assignments left and right, and i thought i planned everything out properly but i’m a bit behind so i’ve been staying up late to finish things,” you ramble, pausing to catch your breath. “but this doesn’t excuse me falling asleep in your class, i’m sorry. it won’t happen again”

“it’s alright, i was just worried. i’m sorry for announcing it to the class, i didn’t realize what i said until afterwards which is why i wanted to speak with you briefly to apologize,” you give a small smile and tell him not to worry about it. he dismisses you and reminds you take breaks when you can. it felt nice to have a professor care for their students, which was another reason why you enjoyed this class so much.

you feel a bit better after speaking with your professor; your steps felt lighter and you suddenly felt energized to get some studying done so you plan to head for the library. but unfortunately, the campus goddess had also wanted to have a word with you after class seeing that she waited for you outside. you attempt to walk in the opposite direction but karina is quick to follow you with a skip in her step.

“hey, i practically saved your ass in there,” she boasts, now trying to walk backwards since you wouldn’t stop walking. “now we’re even after what you did last time” you felt your eyes roll at her comment and you pick up your pace to move past her and get to the library. you’re stopped yet again when you feel her slender fingers tightly wrap around your wrist, pulling you back to face her.

“can you stop ignoring me for once? i just want to talk to you”

“let go, you’re hurting me” karina looks down and her eyes widen at how strong her grip was on you, and she’s quick to drop your wrist.

“sorry. where are you off to in such a hurry anyway?”

“cut the bullshit karina, what do you want to say?” the purple haired girl purses her lips and inhales deeply through her nose before continuing.

“why do you have so much hatred towards me?” you look at her completely baffled, then laugh in disbelief.

“are you serious? you’re asking me why i hate you, when you’re the one who did it first? don’t you remember what you said to me when i was asked to help you with your catch up assignments? you said you were going to get your grade up, with or without my help, and then you’d be through with me. and let’s not forget all the times you shut me down when all i wanted was to be your friend and be close to you, yet you want to stand here in front of me want and ask why i hate you? damn i didn’t take you for an idiot, karina,” the last sentence struck a chord in the girl.

“excuse me?” it was karina’s turn to act baffled. “i was just stressed and having a really difficult time, but clearly you wouldn’t understand that because of how cold and ignorant you are,” she responds, voice slightly raised. if you think people weren’t staring at you before, they definitely were now.

“oh yes, because you, of all people, definitely understand how i’m feeling just because you overheard that one phone call, right? like be fucking for real” karina’s words begin to sink in and only then does she realize the weight of her words; this isn’t how she wanted this conversation to go at all. you walk closely towards her and you watch karina uncross her arms and keeps them at her sides once your faces are merely inches apart from each other.

“don’t make comments about my personal life because i don’t make comments about yours. (shoutout ate bobbie, iykyk) i never wanted to hate you karina, i’m just here returning the fucking favour,” you push past the girl and leave her in a now crowded corridor with people whispering around you trying to understand what just happened. the campus goddess clenches her fists and tries to fight back the tears that were forming in her eyes. she was reminded of when you yelled at her the last time, saying the same thing: that you wanted absolutely nothing to do with karina.

after your little spat with karina, your week has been anything but good. you lost all your motivation to study, you started to skip a few of your classes and opted to stay at your dorm because you couldn’t deal with any human interaction right now. you replay the fight over and over in your head, and you honestly find it hard to believe that one person can have such a drastic effect on your mood.

you stay in bed after hearing your alarm go off, staring at the ceiling. it’s been your dream to come to this school but you clearly weren’t enjoying the experience to the fullest. you’re miles away from your dad, you have a demon of a step mother, and the prettiest most popular girl on campus hated you and you still don’t even have any clue as to why. your first year at smu wasn’t anything like college life in the movies and a part of you was starting to regret coming here.

letting out a deep sigh, you turn to your side and find the framed picture of your mom sitting on your nightstand. you reach to grab it and gloss over her features, her smile standing out to you the most as many would say that you have her smile. tears start to trickle in and you pull the frame close to your chest, hoping that you could somehow feel the warmth of her hugs once more.

“i miss you so much, mom. i wish you were here to tell me things will be okay.”

you stay like that for a few minutes, your tears now drying on your face. you feel the weight of your eyelids become heavier and you could feel yourself drifting into sleep yet again, but your phone begins to violently vibrate. thinking you must’ve set another alarm by mistake, you reach to grab the device and find it’s not an alarm but a phone call. as you usually do with lorraine, you answer the phone but say nothing until she speaks first.

“i’ve been trying to call you for ages now! why aren’t you picking up your phone? i swear to god y/n, you will be the reason for your father’s death with all the stress you’ve been causing him!”

“how do you know you’re not the one causing him to stress?”

“please sweetie, you wouldn’t know how much i do for him since you rarely ever check in with us”

“oh i check in with him all the time, it’s just you i don’t check in with. you’re no one to me”

“you’re such an ungrateful little prick, you know that? you’re just like your mother, you’re both just so unreliable and you leave your poor father all alone here and-”

“god, just shut the fuck up!” you spring up in bed, clutching the picture frame tightly out of anger.

“my parents wanted me to come here! they knew it was always my dream to come to smu, but after your dumbass self spent all the money we had on your stupid gambling addiction, he had to work a shit ton of jobs just so he could pay for me to go to school! and what did you do? what did you do besides stay at home, unemployed, gossiping with your friends over the phone on the couch every fucking day?” your vision becomes more blurry by the second due to the new rush of tears threatening to spill from your eyes.

your relationship with your dad became a teeny bit rocky after announcing his marriage with lorraine, but it wasn’t completely terrible. you didn’t have the heart to hate your dad for meeting someone new. if anything, you understood that you had to rely on each other more than ever because he’s all you have left and you didn’t want some random lady to get in the way of that.

one day, your dad walks into your room and sits beside you on your bed where he hands you a plane ticket and what looked like an admission’s folder with smu’s crest on the front.

“i’ve saved up enough for your first two years, and i’ll continue working hard so you can finish altogether. i know it’s always been your dream to study at smu and i don’t want you to lose this opportunity because of financial setbacks”

“but i don’t want leave you here dad, i’m fine attending somewhere nearby. i just don’t want you to be alone with her,” you protest as you wrap your arms tightly around him. he leaves a soft kiss on your temple reassuring you that he’ll be fine, and made you promise to call him everyday.

“you’re going to make mom and i proud like you always do, y/n. don’t worry about me, just live your dreams for the both of us”

you aggressively wipe your eyes before continuing to yell into the phone mic.

“if you think you’re my dad’s knight in shining armour who saved him, then you’re so delusional. don't speak about me or my mother again, and for fuck's sake, stop calling me! i don’t need you to check in on me and i don’t need you in my life!” you hang up without letting her utter a word in, making sure to block her number right after. you fall back onto your bed with tears falling one after the other, these ones being out of anger and not sadness.

your phone begins to ring again and you nearly throw it across the room, but seeing that it was your dad calling, you immediately pick it up.

“hi my lo- wait, are you crying? why are you crying, what happened?”

“nothing dad, lorraine just called. again.” you hear your father sigh and watch as he pinches the bridge of his nose.

“i’m so sorry sweetie, i tried making it clear to her that you didn’t want her contacting you, but she’s still stubborn as per usual”

“why are you still with her?”

“to be honest, i don’t know. if i knew she was going to act like this, especially with you, i wouldn’t have gotten married in the first place. i’m seriously considering filing a divorce,” his response slightly shocks you.

“well, don’t divorce her because of me. if you like her, then you like her and i don’t want to get in the way of that”

“honey, you know you come first before anything and anyone. both you and your mom,” you begin to feel a warm, fuzzy feeling in your chest at the mention of her. it’s silent for a moment before you ask a question you’ve been wanting to ask for sometime now.

“do you miss mom?”

“oh y/n, i miss her every single day. i still can’t find it in my heart to believe she’s really gone”

“you were so in love with her, weren’t you?”

“were? i am still very much in love with her. there is no one else in this world that could possibly make me feel the way your mother did. although there’s a possibility of meeting new people, no one else will come close to her” you smile at the words being spilled by your dad. it was so endearing to hear him speak about his love for your mom and it eases your mind knowing that he hadn’t easily replaced her with someone like lorraine.

“there’s the pretty smile i love so much,” you giggle at your dad's sudden comment, your eyes meeting his own along with his signature big and toothy grin.

“i love you dad”

“i love you too, sweetie. it’s you and mom in my heart forever, okay?” you nod your head and flash him another smile.

“i’m coming home once the semester ends so text me what you want me to bring home”

“that’s my girl! and don’t stress too much. i’m okay, you’re okay, and everything is going to be okay. i got you always,” he blows you a kiss and waves goodbye before hanging up, the anger from earlier dissipating almost immediately.

you don’t realize you’re still holding onto the picture of your mom even after both phone calls. you look at it one more time and replicate the smile that your mother had before giving the picture a soft kiss and placing it back in its spot on the nightstand. with a sudden surge of energy and motivation thanks to your dad, you decide to be productive today and start by cleaning yourself and your room, which was a complete disaster due to midterm season.

once you’ve finished your little reset moment, you hear a knock on the door. you weren’t expecting anyone so you’re taken aback slightly at the sudden visitor. twisting the doorknob with much hesitation, you open the door and find no one there to your surprise. you peek your head out and look in both directions to see who it was, but you only caught glimpse of what looked like a jean jacket turning the corner. at first, you think you were just being pranked but once you look towards the ground, you find a shin ramen cup and some spam with a sticky note reading “don’t skip your meals. you can’t live on coffee and red bull forever - rn” you bring the items in and begin to prepare the food while thinking of who rn could possibly be.

the following days were spent entirely in the library trying to catch up on school work. thankfully, you were able to get your assignments out of the way and you had time to focus on just studying now. you make your way to your usual spot in the library, large coffee in hand and headphones on your head, but you notice someone is already sitting there. you recognize the purple hair that was tied in a messy bun under a familiar black baseball cap. it had been awhile since you fought with the girl, so you were hesitant to approach her and tried to look for other seats in the library. to your demise, other tables and areas were fully occupied except for the seat across from her, so you walked towards the empty spot anyway.

karina has her headphones on as well so she doesn’t hear you approach her. she’s startled once she noticed someone take the seat in front of her, but she’s even more surprised at who takes the seat.

you don’t say anything and even avoid any eye contact with her, but you can feel her piercing gaze as she watches you like a hawk while you unpack your things. as soon as you get settled, karina takes her headphones off and taps you lightly on the hand, motioning for you to take your headphones off too indicating that she wanted to talk. you pause your song and take them off like she requested and karina takes a deep breath before speaking, as she usually does with you.

“i understand if you still do not wish to speak to me after this, but please hear me out this one time” she’s barely whispering and you need to lean in a bit closer to fully hear her. but you stay silent and she takes it as her cue to continue.

“growing up, my mom always pushed me to study and work hard. i rarely left my house, and if i did, it was just with family. when i came here to smu, i finally had the freedom to do whatever i want whenever i want, but unfortunately, that mindset of constantly needing to do well and staying independent still stays with me. i’ve lost a lot of friends because of it; i lost you because of it,” she shyly admits. “but that should not be an excuse for how i’ve been treating you since you got here, and i’m really sorry. you just wanted to be close with me and you wanted to help me but i pushed you away without any warning, which isn’t fair to you at all”

you nod your head when she spoke to show that you were really listening and trying to understand what she was saying. it takes some time to figure out what to say to karina, but she patiently waits for you to formulate your response which surprises her at first.

“you remind me of my mother. she was hardworking, independent, and very beautiful too,” karina’s cheeks feel warm at the sudden compliment and you try to hide your smirk when you see the tips of her ears go red.

“but just like you, she also pushed away those who cared about her the most. even when she was confined to a hospital bed, suffering and hurting, she always told my dad and i that she was fine with the biggest smile on her face. i knew she wasn’t, but she didn’t want us to worry. she didn’t want us to think about when her time finally comes” the girl stays silent just like you did, letting the words fully sink in as she waits for you to continue.

“but if there’s anything thing my mom taught me, it’s to not give up on people so easily which is why i kept trying to be friends with you. looking at it now, maybe i came off way too strong at first with all the gifts, and it’s my fault for not realizing that. but like you said, it doesn’t excuse your behaviour towards me” karina purses her lips and brings her head down, ashamed to face you because of her past actions. but she quickly shoots her head up and asks if there's anything she could do to make it up to you.

“let me take you on a date” karina’s eyes widen and her cheeks are fully flushed, you can’t help but smirk at the girl.

“a date? like, a romantic date? or-”

“it doesn’t need to be romantic. just two people, getting to know each other and seeing where it takes them” karina regains composure and tries to act like she didn’t just freak out a second ago.

“do you have a crush on me, y/n?” she says with fake confidence.

“you intrigue me," you admit bluntly. "i want to know more about the campus goddess and i’d be lying if i said i didn’t think of you from time to time”

“well, i could say the same thing. i wouldn’t have gone out of my way to feed you if i didn’t have any interest in you,” you raise your eyebrow in confusion, unsure of what she meant. you don’t recall talking to karina prior to this conversation so it was practically impossible for her to have fed you. it’s karina’s turn to smirk as she finds your confusion slightly amusing, but it immediately clears up once she messily attempts to write rn upside down in your notebook. you simply smile at the memory of finding food in front of your door.

the rest of your time in the library is spent studying because you learned you both had been slacking off due to the emotional distress of being angry at each other. you agreed to study for a few hours before grabbing a bite to eat together, and as you watch a focused purple-haired campus goddess scrunch her nose while trying to write her study notes, you realize that college was going to be one hell of an experience after all.

a/n: i am so sorry this took so long to put out.... but i hope u enjoyed it nonetheless :') i love u all sm

#kpop scenarios #girl group scenarios #kpop imagines #girl group imagines #gg scenarios #gg imagines #aespa #aespa karina #karina yu #yu jimin #karina scenarios #karina imagines #karina x reader #fem reader #jigujellee

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somekindofcontraption · 5 months

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"Acceptable Violence" in OFMD Season 2: deconstructing violence within the context of the show's parameters

I've been doing a lot of thinking about violence and the second season of Our Flag Means Death. I've come to some conclusions that I would like to share, but I would like to preface my thoughts with a disclaimer or two:

I did not like the second season, for myriad reasons, some of which I will outline here. But I am not here to attack you if you liked the season. I am not here to make commentary on who you are as a person or your personal taste if you liked the season. My not liking the season does not mean you can't like the season. In short: my dislike of the season is not about you at all! Also, this is not an academic paper. Which doesn't mean I might not do that in the future, but for now this is just an assembly of analysis and thoughts. If you do not care to read analytical criticism of something you deeply enjoyed? I invited you to scroll onward. If you liked the second season but would like to hear some of the reasons why many, including myself, didn't - carry on! The rest is under the cut.

The first season of Our Flag Means Death dips its toes into the world of piracy by following the unfolding story of Stede Bonnet, the newly minted former aristocrat-turned-pirate who dreams of a new sort of piracy; a gentler, more polite means of pirating. Things, as they said, did not go according to plan. The first season does an excellent job of laying the complex groundwork for an in-world set of principles which tell us what sort of violence is "normal" or "acceptable" in the context of the show and what isn't. (Please assume from here on out that when I say acceptable and normal the "quotes" are implied, as I am not talking about what is acceptable and normal in real life.) It does this through narrative framing, by softening more intense instances of violence through comedy and by pushing it off-screen, and by establishing who is a good guy and who is Not. Unacceptable: Stede Bonnet getting beat on, tied up, and bullied by the Badmintons and their ilk as a child. He's soft and likes flowers! He's got a mean dad! No one likes bullies! It's framed as a negative, it's not super funny (the camera cuts to Stede's face both in the past and present looking distressed, and Stede is the hero, so this can be generally accepted as bad.) This leads us to: Acceptable: Badminton getting whacked over the head and falling on his own sword. This I would categorize as what people have been referring to as "looney tune violence." He was a bully! He's part of a colonial navy! He was being absolutely horrible to Stede! It's funny that Stede is so inept!

Stede feels guilty about it, it causes him trauma, but that trauma is treated, quite often, comedically (see Badminton's "ghost" taunting him, characters treatment of his breakdown, etc). The context clues for whether or not this is acceptable violence are baked right into the writing, too. Oluwande says - claiming that Stede killed Badminton on purpose would gain him the respect of his crew. This is violence that in-world is both acceptable, expected, and also respected for the captain of a pirate ship. (See also: Murdering and/or tying up the remaining British navy crew and putting them through the same thing Stede went through. It's framed as triumphant, Stede having been vindicated, the crew celebrating it as a victory.) Unacceptable: Stede's concept of "soft piracy" of course comes crashing down when his whimsical attempt to woo the Spanish navy is cut short by his getting gut-stabbed.

Stede and the crew are being framed as the heroes of the story and the Spaniards are framed as the bad guys; this setup is why this violence, while totally within the realms of something our crew would do, is categorized as unacceptable. It's also important to note, however, that while it could have been quite a bit more graphic and disturbing if shot differently, the swelling symphony, the comedic cuts of the Spaniards triumphantly getting their ass kicked, softens the blow. Other acceptable instances of violence: The snail fork - horrifying if you think about it, but the narrative softens the blow. The guy was just really racist, giving us a sense of vindictive pleasure, and the violence is all off-screen (we don't actually have to see someone getting skinned with a snail fork). The French ship - again, horrifying if you think too much about people trapped on a burning ship in the middle of the ocean. But, they had all just been huge racist shit-heads who had harmed our heroes. In the context of the narrative, it is framed as being justified. We also don't actually see anyone burning to death, and we get a very funny shot of Ed looking at Stede in awe, and Stede looking very please with himself, confirming in-narrative that this was okay. Other unacceptable instances of violence:

Karl the bird - Jack is framed as an antagonist; he comes between Ed and Stede, obstructing the narrative subplot. Buttons, and by extension Karl, are part of the crew, the heroes. When Karl dies Buttons is devastated, everyone looks uncomfortable, and it's the last straw for Stede to kick Jack off the ship. Plus, there's the an "innocent character" thing similar to Stede as a child getting bullied; Karl was an animal, with no defenses, who did nothing wrong.

Finally, of course, we arrive at the moment that Lucius is pushed from the ship. Unacceptable: By all accounts, pushing people from ships is probably not outside the realm of things that pirates Definitely Do. But here we have another great instance of framing heroes and bad guys. In this case, we have a hero (Ed), seemingly killing another hero (Lucius), who was not only just trying to help him, but was absolutely not expecting violence. We also have a "death" that happened off-screen. We don't see Lucius "drowning." Had Lucius actually died, I think this would have been horrifying. Narratively and thematically, it would not have fit into the spirit of the show, because you could no longer frame Ed as a hero. There would be no real way that I can see to meaningfully redeem him in the context of a comedy, even a "black comedy" (which I do not believe OFMD is). And genuinely, I don't know anyone who thought Lucius was actually dead, so while what Ed did was horrible and awful and needed to be atoned for, it wasn't Final. It wasn't Irredeemable. He didn't become a capital v Villain. The rules of the first season made sense to me. Everything that happened fit narratively, was thematically appropriate, and established a certain set of rules and conventions to follow. It gets dark, and it does push the envelope of what I could bear in a "romantic comedy." Ed cutting off Izzy's toe is tempered (cutting off his littlest toe with a comedically large pair of scissors) but feeding them to him is disturbing. Izzy was an antagonist, not a villain, so giving him treatment reserved for, say, the British navy characters, and doing so graphically and on-screen, was A Lot. This coming from me, who really, REALLY hated Izzy at this point in time. But I think there was an underlying sense of hope that things would improve, resolve, and move forward through character growth and narrative. Stede was coming back to make amends; maybe Ed would find his way back to normalcy, and they'd meet in the middle. It was expected that apologies would be made and Ed could come back from the unacceptable things he did to Lucius, to the Crew, and to Izzy especially. That there would be character and interpersonal growth for them.

Unfortunately, the second season is where the show's parameters around acceptable and unacceptable violence absolutely falls apart. It's never quite clear why something is acceptable vs not, and we never see the character and interpersonal growth "promised" by the narrative which would redeem the dark tonal shift and veer the story back towards comedy. In order for Ed to be redeemed, the violence being framed as unacceptable during his Kraken era could not be so unacceptable that it crosses the line into irredeemable. Ed could not cross the line in the minds of the audience from "hero" to "villain." But the first three episodes of the season... were dark. They crossed the line. It felt like a character assassination to me. Ed's abuse of the crew, the continued maiming of Izzy (who at this point is hurdling into a sympathetic character arc of growth and redemption,) the self-harm, the attempted murder-suicide of his crew... most of it was on-screen, not at all tempered by comedy, and brutal. It wasn't heroes vs villains, it was supposed hero causing extensive harm and trauma to other heroes. The writing in these episodes were narratively cohesive and well-paced. They were not, however, thematically appropriate to a romantic comedy. At this point in the season I still felt like it was building towards a breaking point where Ed would come back to himself, where character growth would be achieved, and amends would be made. I was willing to hold tight.

But it didn't work in terms of the story that was setup in season one. It would have taken an incredible amount of character growth to even begin to come back from that; but I trusted the narrative to deliver. However, the real problem is that this season tried to rewrite the in-show parameters of what constitutes acceptable violence in ways that are uncomfortable and contrary to reality in ways that I find harmful. (I will be clear, in reference to recent discourse, I do feel the head-butt was comedic. It was looney tunes violence, it was well within the context of a romantic comedy, and it worked for me tonally, even though it's obviously not appropriate in real life.) Ed's chair throwing in the context of a man who had spent three episodes inflicting increasingly terrible domestic violence on people who loved and cared for him, who stuck by him -- in the larger context of him doing all this just because he felt rejected by a romantic partner -- is presented as in-show acceptable violence. It's presented as falling within the parameters. Proof? We are expected to still like Ed, and root for Ed, and want Ed to get better, and cheer for the romantic pairing "getting back together," and everything else. He is still presented as a hero. Sure, the show is telling us that what Ed did in his Kraken era is bad; but not so Bad that we shouldn't forgive him for it when he has made no real move to make amends for what he did. Like the crew, and Izzy specifically, we are meant to simply... move forward. That line about "getting away with it" without consequences I thought was a commentary on how Ed would not get to do that, actually was just... what happened. The season also wants me to believe that in the in-show parameters that Ed would hurt absolutely anybody but DEFINITELY NOT Stede, because Stede is his ultra super special soul mate and he would never do him any harm. This is not how things work in real life, and it is not a disbelief I am willing to suspend uncritically. Do I believe Ed, in the context of the show, would hurt Stede? Nope. I think it's more likely Stede would hurt Ed than the other way around. But I don't like the message that this in-show parameter sends, about how violence, particularly DV, is inflicted. I don't like being told that there is a super special person that this person who has abused others won't hurt. It's a bad message, and bad writing, and bad in-show precedence to set.

I'm not going to say all this without mentioning the stereotypes surrounding men of color, particular Indigenous men, which paints them as abusers. These stereotypes have been mentioned in regards to people talking about Ed's abuse this season. It's important to examine and be critical of oneself as a white person, and look long and hard at these biases. I don't want to fall into the trap of racist biases, and I don't want it to go unmentioned. I have thought long and hard about this. I've done a lot of self-examination on the subject of Ed and abuse. It has brought me back to my point of character assassination; I think the show fell into those stereotypes itself. I think Ed's characterization this season was problematic, and a disservice to the character as laid out in season one, and that's a big part of my disappointment with this season. (I also have a lot of thoughts on how Stede's character, who has been handed an immense amount of power over Ed and his agency as a character, is also extremely problematic. I will get into that in another post; it needs its own. So I'm not here to say Stede himself is not a Problem because he absolutely is and I will shout it from the rooftops.) "But somekindofcontraption," you say! "Ed has trauma!" Yes. That is very true. And it certainly explains some things, but as in real life, it absolutely does not excuse them. Ed's narrative was all about the perpetuation of trauma, particularly generational trauma, with absolutely no criticism or breakage of this cycle in any meaningful or productive way. It set up the story and did no work to resolve it. Ed was simply fixed because he and Stede said I love you and kissed a few times. The romance's "resolution" was unearned and unsatisfying. Neither Stede nor Ed were held accountable for what they did.

Then there was Izzy, who spent the whole of his arc being redeemed, moving forward as a character. He was the only character, I would say, with any meaningful growth. He's also the only one whose story was explicitly about being queer and queer discovery, rather than queerness merely being and incidental part of it. He's the only one who shows any accountability. Right up until the point that he died, his story was the best-written out of all of them. Then he dies. Izzy's death, and the ways that tonally it does not fit into the narrative, is another post onto itself. For now, I'll leave you with all of these rambling thoughts, condensed down as best I could into this tumblr post. If you have any further thoughts, I would love to hear them in good faith. For now, I say, that it's okay to be disappointed. This story was so meaningful to so many, and to be so thoroughly let down is hard. Grief is grief. Take care out there, and be kind to yourself, and be kind to those that are grieving.

#ofmd #ofmd spoilers #ofmd season 2 #ofmd critical #ofmd meta #ofmd analysis

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leviathans-watching · 1 year

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i have a solomon x reader request! you're supposed to meet up somewhere for a date with him but he ends up forgetting, focused on his experiments so you are sorta disappointed but he tries to make it up to u!

solomon forgetting your date

includes: solomon x gn!reader (no pronouns mentioned)

wc: .6k | rated t | m.list

a/n: thank you for the request and i hope you enjoy!! my inbox is open to chat, req, or leave feedback, so come say hi!!

plz reblog <333

sighing, you check your ddd for the nth time. your texts are still unread, calls not returned, and you know solomon’s officially stood you up

you’d been really looking forward to this date too. both of you had been so wrapped up in your own stuff that you’d been unable to see one another for any significant amount of time in the last few weeks. this dinner date was supposed to fix that, was supposed to give you that much-needed time together.

but solomon was a no-show.

you know it likely isn’t on purpose. for all of his faults, solomon’s never been cruel. it’s more likely he got sidetracked, or lost his phone, or something else came up. you were still hurt though.

flagging down the sympathetic waiter, you get the bill, paying for the two drinks you’ve had since you sat down and leaving a sizeable apology tip. you get some pitying looks as you walk out, but you keep your head up, heading back to the house of lamentation.

thankfully, no one is in the living room when you walk in, meaning you get to avoid being interrogated about your early return and muted demeanor. you’re not really up to dealing with the circus that is the brothers.

deciding to just go to bed, not even in the mood to eat dinner, you change out of your nice, carefully planned outfit then slip quietly into bed, still half-hoping for your ddd to light up. it doesn’t.

you’re on the very edge of sleep when you hear something at your window. despite you ignoring it, it persists, and you climb out of bed, going to see what’s causing the noise. on the other side, stands solomon, a remorseful expression on his face.

he motions for you to open up, and after a brief moment of hesitation, you do. he clambers into your room, dragging a paper bag and bouquet of flowers in behind him.

“i am so sorry,” he says hurriedly. “i know i’m awful and terrible and there’s no excuse. i was just so wrapped up in what i was doing and–” he takes a deep breath. “anyway, like i said, there are no excuses and i’d understand if you’re really pissed at me. but i brought flowers! and food, because i’m assuming you didn’t eat at the restaurant.”

he hands you the paper bag, and you see it’s takeout from the all-you-can-eat yakiniku restaurant, one of your favorites.

“i am kind of mad,” you say honestly, “but you didn't have to come all of the way here.”

“of course i did!” solomon says, affronted. “i fucked up, and i needed to fix it. mc, i am so, so sorry.” setting the flowers down on your bed, he pulls you into a hug, barely avoiding crushing the takeout. you feel yourself melt, even as you try to stay mad.

“fine,” you relent. “i’ll forgive you, but only this once. and only because you brought me food.”

he sighs in relief, and you realize he’d truly been upset, truly been sorry, and your heart warms. you turn your head up to him and he gets your memo, kissing you gently.

“i love you, mc,” he murmurs. “so much. i’m sorry.”

“i love you too,” you reply. “and it’s okay. well, not okay, but you’re here now and that’s what’s most important.”

leviathans-watching's work - please do not copy, repost, or claim as your own

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deathmetalunicorn1 · 1 year

Note

Good day, can I request Human and God Fighters with a Female Mikey Reader from Tokyo Revengers (But the child elementary version, which I find too damn cute) who are fighting with each other over custody over who gets to adopt this child who REALLY likes to fight for fun and is surprisingly strong for a child (She gave both Human and God Fighters a run for their money with her ‘play fighting’, which they found quite endearing, and are the ones who want to adopt Reader the most)

And Buddha just snatches Reader and takes custody over her, winning Reader over with snacks and putting flags in all her food kid’s meal (And everyone is ready to go to war with Buddha)

Buddha: *Puts flag on top of their meal*

F!Mikey!Reader (Eyes sparkle): Wow! Alright Bu-Bu you got me one! Yay!

God and Human Fighters: *Ready to brawl with Buddha to get Mikey!Reader because of how ridiculously cute she is*

-Ares smiled warmly at you as you kicked his hand, actually blowing his hand back, “You’re so strong Y/N! Even stronger than last week!”

-You landed easily, an almost bored look on your face, knowing that he was tricking you, keeping you busy until the gods and humans finished their arguing with each other.

-You were very mature for an elementary school student, not really running around like other children your own age, you were calm and collected, observing the world around you.

-That’s not to say that you didn’t have fun, because you did, just something a bit different then a girl your age, you loved to seek out teenagers or even adults, bullies and delinquents, and kick their asses.

-You were very fast- light on your feet, but your punches and kicks were anything but light, able to cave someone’s nose in easily with one well-placed kick.

-However, you now realize that all the fighting you’ve been doing might be the reason why the two sides of your massive family were fighting so much.

-You had two families, both very large, one made of the Gods of Valhalla, and the other made of human warriors of Valhalla, who all adored you but didn’t really get along with each other, save a few of them, like Raiden and Shiva who had a friendly rivalry, and Hercules and Jack who were pretty good friends.

-They were arguing that each other’s side was the cause of your violent hobby, many of them worried about you getting hurt, despite knowing that you were strong.

-You trained with members on both sides, mostly unarmed, as you didn’t really see the appeal of weapons, finding it like a cheat, you would rather use the weapon you had been given at birth, your body, to fight.

-Many knew you were going to be really strong, once you were older, as they treat your fighting at the moment as if you were playing, despite being able to injure a few of them, nothing seriously, as you didn’t like hurting your family.

-You sighed softly as your massive family ran outside, demanding that they were going to get sole custody of you, arguing with themselves rather than just asking you.

-Ares tried to keep the peace, not wanting them to fight in front of you before they heard your delighted squeal, “You’re the best Bu-Bu!!”

-All heads turned to see Buddha, who had brought you some food for you, not taking part of the stupid argument, bringing out a rice omelet and he even included a little flag on the top and a pudding for dessert with another flag, both of his rabbit on his tank top.

-Buddha sent a grin over to the gawking gods and humans while you chowed down, showing your bright smile, which only appeared while you were eating, chowing down on the omelet with glee, dancing lightly in your seat.

-You shoved another spoonful of rice into your mouth as Adam and Zeus approached, both all smiles, trying to get you to agree who you were going to live with, Zeus speaking with a bright smile, handing you a lollipop, “Y/N~ are you going stay with us gods, or do you want to stay with the humans?”

-Adam went to punch him for trying to bribe you as you thanked him for the candy before you turned back to your rice, “I’m gonna stay with Bu-Bu, he’s the only one who asked me, instead of arguing like you guys. Besides- Bu-Bu always makes my favorite foods and doesn’t coddle me.”

-Your blunt but true words hit them all hard, as Buddha grinned widely, showing off his fangs as Zeus and Adam turned on him, fury on their faces as Buddha was dragged into the argument while you continued to eat your food, eating around the flags carefully, happy flower surrounding you.

#record of ragnarok #ror x reader #ror buddha #ror zeus #ror adam #ror ares

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themessengervevo · 5 months

Text

Hello my followers. Today I'm posting something that's not a piece of art I made or a responce to an ask, because I need your help. Several days ago, with the help of my very supportful art teacher, I made a Google account and a Youtube channel as well. She wanted me to post my music on there because she liked it alot and wanted other people to discover it as well. I shared those thoughts too. I also wanted to have a Google account as well because I had one up until 2019 where a phone number being removed caused it to instantly remove my access to the Google account, and thus the Youtube channels I had, which included an earlier instance of a channel dedicated to my music. My most succesful channel only had a slight big over a hundred subscribers.

So I got the Google account, and the Channel set up to where I wanted it and started work on the first upload. It was supposed to a full upload of my album "Suffering Embedded in Logic" with a remastering done by me. I completed the full upload, and even gone through the effort of verifying my account for the purpose of being able to upload a one hour video without hassle. I uploaded it, the copyright checks went through fine, and I uploaded it to the channel. I, obviously considering the big steps I took to getting here, advertised it everywhere, and I wanted to advertise it on this account as well. But then, after a total of three days since creating the account, and not even a day after uploading the video, I was greated to a screen.

It said my video was removed because my account has been terminated. I was obviously very much distressed by this. What could've caused this termination? Why? Was it the full album I posted? Was it something completely different? Did I spent all this time wishing to have a channel again to then be euthanized like that? So I sent an appeal to Youtube regarding my channel.

I got an email confirming that they were looking into the appeal, and that I would get it in around 2 business days.

All well and good, right? Well, I woke up today to this lovely message in my Inbox:

This was obviously shocking to me. In the email regarding my termination, Youtube said my channel had "severe or repeated violations of [their] Community Guidelines". I believe that I wasn't doing anything that could break their Guidelines. What part of the Guidelines I was apparently breaking was not detailed in any way, so in my appeal I said for them to atleast guide me to where in the Guidelines I was breaking these rules, but in their reply not only did they not tell what I was apparently breaking, but doubled down on their decision and are keeping me terminated. Fun little fact, you can only make ONE appeal to them, and no more.

This was infuriating to say the least. Not only did they banned someone who didn't do anything, they didn't even include a reason or anything so at to why they did this. So in their Feedback form thing, I wrote them this:

Please, PLEASE read this fully if you want to see my thoughts on this, but if you really can't, here is a "tl;dr" on my thoughts.

I have 2 working theories that might explain why I was inexplicably banned from this platform. And both arent the brightest in their image.

The first theory I have is that this is all a work of a Bot that just so decided to screw over a person for some false reasoning that it sticked to. This theory is confirmed by several support threads on Google's own support forums regarding this exact issue (which are still being made to this day), the one linked as an example. From there, I saw many a person talk about their channels being unfairly banned for unexplained reasons, including a small martial arts group that were only uploading clips of them. that martial arts group got the reasoning of "spam, deceptive practices, and misleading material" for their ban. I believe their network of bots sometimes falsely flag people and terminate them, and that human support doesn't come to correct these bots for many of the smaller people, resulting in an unfair permanent banning. As such, I proposed for them to give reasons as to why they ban people, as well as up the amount of appeals you can do, as well as for them to make their bots better.

The second theory though has more serious allegations. I don't usually talk about where I live, mostly for privacy concerns and also that I believe you shouldn't give out all your information for strangers online, but I have to talk about it for this part. I live in Russia. I have been living in Russia for my whole life. It isn't the best place to live in my opinion, but I've been stuck on this patch of land since I was born. Ever since the Russo-Ukranian War started, the already somewhat negative outlook of people outside of Russia has dropped significantly, many people from there who catered to people outside of Russia received many threats. One of my best friends, who I like to call Reggie, that is working in a store dedicated to people with Autism, had to stop working in Global markets because there was so much hate for Russians at the time that the Dollar-to-Ruble ratio dropped massively, and it was just too much. Many sites put sanctions on Russian sectors, including PayPal, which led to many Russians who used it to basically be poor. Which leads me to believe this: The reason why Youtube terminated my account with no explanation is because either it's human support is xenophobic, or that Youtube itself is xenophobic. I do not like this though, but I'm more and more convinced that this is the case.

Which leads me to a wider discussion of how Youtube is fundamentally broken. From letting big youtubers to stay on the platform despite them breaking their own rules, to many spam comments and scam accounts that exist solely to harvest subscribers and unsuspecting victims, to the whole ElsaGate debocle an how it returned in BIG amounts with Youtube doing nothing, to innocent channels getting silenced and punished for just existing, I believe that what Youtube meant in "making sure that Youtube is a safe place to all" is that they would make sure that Youtube is a safe place to all the big channels that are making money for them, which include scammers, botted accounts, hacks, and big television networks. I say NO to that. I say

FUCK

YOUTUBE

Youtube has shown to be late to things that should've been resolved way earlier, that they do not care about serious violations of their rules unless it is explicitly called out on Twitter, that they are inherently racist, homophobic, and xenophobic as was shown in many cases prior to this one (CoryXKenshin immediately brings to my mind), and that they will let their biggest cashcows to continue thriving on their platform and giving them money, even if they are the most scummiest creatures of this earth. This should NOT be how Youtube is. It should be a safe community for many people to go about their lives posting things they want to do, knowing they are safe from the threats of people who would gladfully steal their work knowing they are bigger than you and can get away with it or the system not banning them for arbitrary things they dont know. It should be safe for all, but its only safe for the biggest. So I again say

FUCK

YOUTUBE

Please spread my story everywhere you can. Reblog this, crosspost this, blaze it, share it anywhere (but especially on Twitter) you can to let my story be known. Please let everyone know how broken Youtube is, and keep fighting. Even when my Youtube account gets restored, keep. fighting. Keep fighting for the hope that Youtube will FINALLY listen to their cries, and that they will start fixing their shit, because any win we have is one step towards a truly safe place for all. If you have/had any experiences like this, or you live in Russia as well, tell me your thoughts and your story! Hopefully, this will lead to more stories of Youtube being in the wrong, and this will lead to a better future.

Hope you read and understood all of this.

So now that you have read of my channel's unfortunate sudden end, you might be wondering this:

"Well that was sad to hear, but how can I help YOU specifically?"

Glad you're asking that! I would love to have your support in any way. So here are places where you can help!

Tumblr

Obviously, considering you where you're currently are, you can support me here on Tumblr by reblogging and following this blog, as well my side blog @mailyftw! Here I post the art I make, as well as any serious announcements, while on the side blog I like reposting various things and showing whatever doodles I made today. It would be very helpful for me. You can also support me on Newgrounds, it's basically my side art archive, and also a music archive! Speaking of music,

Bandcamp

This is where I primarily upload my music on. I've been making Caretaker-like music since 2020, and I would love for you lot to hear it, espcially since I improved from that time. I may upload the remastered version of the album I mentioned earlier with some new tracks added, since I was planning to do this for a while now. I also host on there my supergroup The Haggstrom's albums. We've had some stuff out for a while to enjoy, infact we're making an album ABOUT the problems Youtube has! We have a dedicated server where you can talk about them and even make a submission for our projects, so if you want to support not only my work but the collective works of many people, you can do so by clicking this sentence! It would be very much appreciated, since work has exponentially slowed down there.

WeVidi and BitView

These two Youtube alternatives is where I currently upload my work to. On WeVidi, I upload content related to my music, particularly my albums. And on BitView I upload everything else basically, including memes and animation (hopefully soon). If you want to support me on there, please make an account on these platform and subscribe and share my videos, it will not only help me to be seen, but also help these revivals to thrive as more people see them. Hopefully, they won't lead to a Vidlii situation! Hopefully.

Socials, also known as "Other"

If you want to support me somewhere else, here are some other places I frequent: - SpaceHey! It's a revival of MySpace, and it's really great. I'm always on there, and I sometimes make bulletins or blogs. Friend me if you want! I'll accept most people that are sane and like the things I like. - Discord! Message me at the___messenger and maybe friend me too! Again, I'll accept most people that are sane and like the things I like. If you're one of the "big people", and you want to interview me, go ahead! Though please, link this blog post and the big places I'm in, and be mindful that I don't have the best camera in the world so I'll most likely be doing this in text or on phone. - Reddit! I'm active on there under Spot_Mark, you can message me if you want. Again, I'll accept most people that that are sane and like the things I like, or people wanting to interview me. - Escargot! If you are particularly privy, you can message at [email protected]. Once again, I'll accept most people that that are sane and like the things I like, or people wanting to interview me. Note that you'll need an escargot account and a copy of Windows Live Messenger, preferably 8.5, to even begin messaging. - Anywhere else! I'm on many platforms and places, usually on the smaller side. You can find me under "TheMessengerVEVO" or a similar name on a place. Any support will be thankful. - I'm considering getting a Boosty account for people to help me monetarily, since we here are basically scraping by, plus the wole PayPal nonsense. Hopefully yall could help when it comes out, if at all.

If you supported me because of this, I have nothing but the biggest thanks for you! I'll try updating you on this situation as it goes on, and hopefully it will result in things actually being done. I'm very scared of whatever might come, and also relieved now that I revealed the whole Russia thing. I wanted to reveal that anyway for the past couple of months. Anyway, I hope this gets big and gets the attention of Youtube!

- May our strength guide us forwards, The Messenger.

#text post #the caretaker #everywhere at the end of time #russia #peace #peace and love #youtube #fuck youtube #please reblog #pls reblog #please share #it would be very much appreciated #drama #2023

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arcadekitten · 3 months

Note

A few questions regarding noisreverse and queerness, sorry if any of this comes off rude/weird, for context I'm autistic and tend to be rather blunt (additionally i am queer myself both gender and orientation wise)

-if discrimination doesn't exist at all then how come they seem to have 'pride' not as in the vocabulary words for orientations and genders but like, why have flags for it etc? Are cishet people just included in noisrev's celebration of diversity? Or does it not and stuff like the pride clothing pieces in hfsh isn't entirely diagetic. Or does discrimination do exist but it's just less prevalent then it is in our world

-is it to be assumed that the noisrevian reproduction process is done for me than just reproduction? I'm asking this cause I feel like asexuality in a universe where a reproduction method is just for having kids and not for enjoyment wouldn't hold the same weight/meaning. Like imagining a cis woman noisrev thats asexual is she just not interested in getting pregnant? Or does an allosexual noisrevian experience an attraction that asexual noisrevs don't??

-with the picture painted of noisrev and incredibly diverse and accepting I'm curious about gender roles in the noisreverse?

-i'm also curious to know if different species have different views on lgbtq+

Discrimination based on orientation/gender doesn't exist in Noisrev, but it does still exist in our real world. Flags for the most part are meant to convey meaning to the audience. While characters in-universe will acknowledge these flags and what they stand for, it's just a way to show off another part of your identity. And while discrimination might not exist, sometimes the journeys one takes to discover their identities and who they are still hold importance to them. ==

It is a bit hard for me to describe. I don't want to make it seem like it's something like "sex, just with a different name" because that defeats the point of why I made the world like this to begin with. It is purposely meant to be mysterious and mystifying. I wanted to impart the feeling of when you are a child and the adults around you are talking about something you aren't able to understand. It's not always sex they're talking about, it's just things you wouldn't be able to understand. I want their processes to feel like that too. Something you as the audience would just not be able to understand. But to them, it makes sense, and that's all they need. ==

Gender roles are a tricky topic. I would say that gender roles aren't as severe as they are in the real world, but I wouldn't say they're rid of entirely and even if I tried to do that, it would still come with the influences of the gender roles we have in the real world. For example, anyone can wear a skirt or a dress. But skirts and dresses are still associated with being a "girls clothing item." A boy character who continuously wears skirts and dresses would probably be considered a crossdresser. If a character like Reginald or Crowven were asked to wear a skirt, they wouldn't have a problem with it. Some other boys might but they wouldn't get into hysterics over it. And even though these two are fine with wearing skirts when asked, it's not typically something they would wear on their own or include in their wardrobe. A character like Twyla can run a mob and no one would be shocked that a girl is in charge. I imagine gangs are typically made up of a more-or-less equal number of genders. Sports and jobs aren't separated by gender. But sometimes people find it easier to relate to people of their own gender, too. I hope that makes sense! ==

I don't think different species have different views about it. However, I do think there are Noisrevians who consider themselves to be "purebreeders" and believe that you should only date within your own species. Many of these people usually tend to fall into heterosexual circles/relationships as they hold reproduction to a higher standard

#noisrev might not have homophobia but we do unfortunately have borderline eugenics #we cant rid of all the evils of the world...#noisrevverse #lore #ask

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pinkandpurple360 · 4 months

Note

I get that afterglow is a thing, and that would explain why Blitz initially took the photo of him and Stolas cuddling, but it doesn't explain why he would keep it.

It also doesn't explain why he would be so upset over Stolas' shame at Ozzie's and rejecting him. If Blitz didn't care about Stolas, he absolutely would not be shedding tears over the matter. The Blitz you've conjured in your head would be jumping for joy to get the "owl pervert" off his ass, not depressed over the matter that he doesn't mean more to him.

And you hand-waving his complex feelings away with just "Oh, he's playing pretend to cope" does not explain it at all.

The Blitz you've conjured in your head

Why you little—

Pictured: Is the image Blitz was really shedding tears over..stolas? Cause he really likes stolas..?

You sure about that? God the twins are so precious here🥺

“He’s playing pretend to cope” literally is the story. That’s like…the entire theme of stolas speaks as well. Both of them are. Pretending pirates, bodyguard, best friends, knight in shining armour. Etc. Until stolas goes back to Via and Blitz goes back to his own family. Trying to mix the two, also clearly, fails. Those are the complex feelings at play. Blitz hoards memories. Good and bad. And it’s all stolitz stans claiming stolas reminds him of Fizz, based on strong evidence, not me. I never saw that until they pointed it out. But it’s definitely there.

All of this has been fake, a play date he entered once as a trafficked child so he could help his mom, and now as an adult with begrudging sex with stolas so he and his family can have access to the living world. I know Viv is apparently forcing it into a romance, somehow, but up until now this has made perfect sense. I probably won’t even recognise the blitz we see in the next episode, and if you need to break all the characters and the plot continuity, ditch the pilot and do constant damage control on Twitter to silence people all for a ship, there’s probably a reason ^^;

The fondness can easily be explained as seeing him as someone to protect and someone who will prop up his ego when everyone else is calling him out and he runs away from them towards someone who applauds everything he does. That’s not even the subtext it’s just the literal text.

“You don’t want to do things alone blitzø”

“You’re gonna die alone”

“Im gonna die alone aren’t I”

??? Hello??? Im not basing this on nothing? Attaching himself to an abusive man to cope because everything til now has been bad.

But how can he stick to that when the Goetia family situation he eventually starts to blame himself for, can’t just be discarded. His daughter needs him and how could Blitzø allow himself to come between a father and daughter?

I know this is kinky bdsm and everything but, damn. And if that’s your thing, fine. Enjoy it I guess?

But wow. Is it disgusting to the rest of us. Not to mention mean spirited too. Like the more I think about it the worse it gets. Poor Octavia. Lots of things gross me out. Especially the circus flags in his car.

Stolas has been sexualising blitz since blitz was only about what? seven, eight? years old? On a stage?

This scene. Braces himself for stolas propositioning him yet again. Then cries when stolas dared to ask him to come inside privately after everything he just did to him publicly, including trying to run away, and then hiding his face away from him.

It’s like when he does something nice for him like drive him home “it’s because he secretly loves him” but I’d bet if he didn’t drive him home I’d have to listen to “it’s because he loves him and can’t stand being too close unless he loses himself and kisses him”

I don’t know man, maybe public humiliation and public rejection in front of almost everyone important in your life is bad, no matter who does it to you? Seeing, ‘someone’ to you that you are scared to see, seeing your ex humiliate you, seeing your employees have what you wish you could have, but be stuck with a boring stiff like stolas who you have less than zero chemistry with?

“So uh. How did you kill them?”

“Uh. Bullets?”

“Right. Right.”

😐

Um. And the other one is

“What can’t you memorise your fuckin spells?” Seriously there’s no way he didn’t just want blitz to stay in his imp form

“Oh and your memory is so great, what’s his phone number?”

“Fuck you”

“Exactly”

😐

But especially a guy you didnt want to ask out, but did begrudgingly, to use his class privilege, but then that same class privilege hits back at you? No wonder that stung.

Where’s the love here? seriously….stolas even dresses up like a character he saw on TV. Does it get more on the nose than that?

Even the words to not pretend what they have is anything but stolas wanting sex is directed at himself as well. And it really can’t be anything else. He’s never pursued him consensually, the only time he’s shown attraction was in seeing stars which hardly makes any sense since he was in human form and blitz has always found humans ugly. And even if he starts consenting this late, it’s already far too late. Stolas wanted an escape from his family duties, while blitz has never had the opportunity to forget his. Even if he follows him on Instagram and laughs when he jokes about amputation or about wives splitting their heads open. The rest of the room is silent.

Lastly uh…he’s doing fine? All season he’s been his normal self, sometimes upbeat, sometimes angry, sometimes flirty, meeting new people, trying to find Barbie, helping moxxie with his family, (kinda lol) reconnecting with Fizz. He’s even on good terms with Asmodeus now. Stolas who?

#helluva boss critical #please don’t take the meme seriously btw #I’m the equivalent of a lemme at em s

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wooyoungmybelovedhusband · 11 months

Text

‹‹ 22:02 ››

‹‹ σρєяαтιση συтℓαω : вєƒσяє тнє вσσм ››

›› Pairing : Sniper! Song Mingi x Spotter! F! Reader

›› Summary : After you keep denying your own feelings towards the man, in whose arms you always end up in every night, some circumstances take place making both of you give in

›› Genre : Smut, slight angst, fluff, thriller.

›› Trope : FWB to Lovers AU

›› Content includes : Confession, passionate but rough sex, cursing (lots and lots of it), Switch! Mingi, Switch! Reader, FWB with feelings involved.

›› Network : @cultofdionysusnet

›› Word Count : 2.59 k

›› A/N : This was so funnnnnn, I absolutely loved and adored this collab!!

›› Disclaimer : If you do not like/hate smuts, just block me, do not report or flag the post. And the reblog if you like, it helps a lot🫶🫶

Mingi finally sets his sniper down and takes a seat next to the table. His hands trace the hard metal while his mind wanders off to other places as he thinks about the plan. You sigh to yourself before walking to the corner a little to get something to eat for yourselves and the fact that man climbs up to the roof goes unnoticed by you. Yeosang makes his way towards the man seated, Mingi's eyes travel to him before wandering down to his hands which held out the take out box. He grabs the box instantly and opens it to reveal the extra ammo which was for the gun he had to put to use. A few words get exchanged between the men before they nod to each other as Yeosang walks away.

Your breathing gets heavier and your eyebrows knit together. You gasp in your sleep, not having any consciousness about your surroundings. Your skin heats up as a bead of sweat rolls down your forehead. Soon little whimpers escape from you and your breathing gets noticeably heavier. Mingi, who had come back from dropping off his bike at the nightowl's shop now shifts through his positions in front of the huge shelf of rifles and huge machinery guns. His hands clutched onto a big one, and the way he slid the weapon from the slot on the shelf made loud noise erupt through the room. Your restless movements definitely go unnoticed by the innocent man while your eyebrows furrow and you let out a low groan.

Your drenched panties are pushed to the side, your pussy out visible for him. Your juices flow down his thick cock making a mess on both of your thighs. "Min, want you to show me how much you love me, p-please, tell me you love me, Song Mingi, d-do you love me?" The man under you growls and grunts loudly, you were too drawn to his restless trails to notice the way his pair of eyes looked at you with so much warmth. His dick throbs in between your warm inner walls and his hands come up to grasp your chin and make you look at him.

There, you finally noticed the shining stars in his small eyes, holding so much more love than you can imagine. Your heart swells up in happiness when his plumpy lips envelope yours ever so softly. His thrusts are slow paced and deep, while his kisses tell you thousands of unspoken confessions of his love for you. You could feel the way your heart pounded against your chest when he pulls away seconds later although his thrusts do not halt. "I love you so much, Y/n, so much you don't even know. But I'm gonna show it to you, now, tonight."

Your hands move down your body, your shirt sticks to your skin cause of the sweat. You whimper loudly, you could feel your throat going dry from the little moans and whimpers which escaped from you. Mingi doesn't quite catch any of your needy movements yet, as he innocently moves around to find the best rifle for his practice for the day. Your fingers inch towards the wet patch on your shorts, brushing over it slightly. You finally press down on your clit, still not yet having gained your consciousness.

Mingi's large hands grasp your hips, moving you on his cock slowly. His hot breath falls on your lips, his upper lip brushing over yours. "Do you?" Your shivering eyes meet his, you swiftly look away. While your hands grip onto his shirt softly as you wait for him to continue. But you are answered with a soft kiss that's placed on your lips, and your eyes wander back to his again. "So much, so much that I'll let you do anything you wish to me. I love you so so much, Y/n"

Your thighs rub against each other in need of pleasure while you grip onto the sheets tightly. You could feel the sweat dripping down your forehead, and before you knew it, you muttered out loudly "I-I love you Mingi, so s-so much." Your voice was shaky yet so clear to Mingi, who stands in the corner wondering what just happened. He isn't able to believe his ears as he moves towards your bed slowly. He is just inches away from your bed when your eyes shoot open followed by your long loud breaths.

You raise yourself instantly, not noticing the shocked Mingi by your side who had his eyes widened. You slowly face him, and a soft gasp escapes your lips when your eyes meet his widened ones. "I'm- I- did you-" "You love me?" Mingi asks as he takes closer steps towards you. And just as you lift your head up, his face is inches away from you. "W-What?" His large hands come up to caress your chin, his eyes travel down to your lips before wandering back to your eyes.

"Do you love me?" His eyes darken slightly, staring into your quivering ones. You stay silent, your eyes travel down as you lower your head yet again. But a gasp swiftly escapes from you when Mingi hovers over you, his body covered in leader coats and pants hovers over yours. "Tell me, now." Your breath hitches slightly and you gulp down, after taking a deep breath you finally respond with, "Y-Yes, I kno-" Before you can continue your sentence, Mingi interrupts you by smashing his lips onto yours. He pulls away from you seconds later, making you look up at him in confusion.

"That's all I needed to know." Saying that, his lips are back onto yours, moving against yours with roughness. Your hands slightly push on his chest as you pull away from the kiss, your eyebrows furrowed. "What do you mean?" Mingi shoots you his usual soft smile yet again, "I mean, that I have fallen deeply in love with you, that I wanted nothing but us to happen."

"W-What?" You feel your breath hitch at the end, but Mingi just leans down to peck your lips softly. "All those nights where we ended up in each other's beds, in each other's arms, fucking relentlessly without any thoughts but hope that we don't catch feelings, did you really think I will not end catching hard feelings for you? Did you expect me to not completely fall in love with who you are, Y/n?" You're left speechless at the end of his sentence, you just stare at him, a tiny tear pricks at the corner of your eye. "I-I love you so much, Song Mingi" Saying that, you pull him down for a kiss, connecting your lips yet again, but this time both of you having no willing intention of ending this kiss.

Your hands travel to his shoulders, hastily trying to push his overcoat off. Mingi helps you in the action by pulling off his overcoat completely and unbuttoning his leather inner shirt. And Soon in minutes, he was shirtless, hovering over you completely, hips connected to yours in a never ending kiss. Pulling away, Mingi places his hands around your waist, caressing your sides slowly while his plumpy lips trail down. His hands creep upwards, sliding beneath your top. You squeak lowly when his hands hastily pull off the thin material off your body.

"Why didn't you tell me sooner? Why did you hide your feelings from me?" Mingi speaks next to your ear, his hands not halting their movements as they make their way to your back to unclip your bra. "B-Because, I was the one who forbade us to get our feelings involved." And within minutes, you push him onto his back, and your legs straddle his thighs slowly. Your hands caress his bare chest softly, your eyes slowly dart towards his eyes, "Let me make it up to you. Let me make it up for everything, Min." His large hands move to grip your hips, making you slowly grind down on his bulge while your lips attach themselves to his nipples.

You move back and forth on his lap, your clothed cunt grinds over his boner at a slow pace. "I've wanted to do so many things to you, Min. So many things which involve us to not give a fuck about getting too close. I wanna show you how much I love you." You whisper against his soft skin, your emotions and pure passionate love bleeds through your words.

Both of your attention is snapped towards the timer which goes off making Mingi groan out loud, as he reaches out for his cell. "Lemme get this, I need to check in with Hongjoong Hyung." He mutters out in annoyance before connecting to the captain. "Hyung, check-ins, Me and Koa are all set and ready" You could hear Hongjoong's husky voice from the other side, "How's Koa? Sparrow was asking about all the women." Your hands trail down on their own, caressing Mingi's cock over the clothes slowly while he slightly chokes on his words. "Y-yes, yeah she's all f-fine"

He speaks nervously while his excited eyes watch your actions curiously. "Why are you stuttering?" Hearing that, Mingi quickly clears his throat and answers quickly in order to hang up soon. "Yeah nothing hyung, we're all fine." Saying that he hangs up on the cell and places it back to its place before letting the moan finally escape his throat. You groan slightly before unzipping his pants faster than ever, pulling his cock out. His dick sprung out, almost slapping his abdomen as he stands tall in front of your eyes. Your tongue darts out to wet your lips while your eyes stare in admiration.

Heat creeps up Mingi's neck slowly, "S-Stop staring like that" Your hands move up his thighs to wrap around his cock softly, "How can I not when you got such a pretty cock?" You whisper against the skin of his thighs. Your lips kiss up his wet cock slowly, and your tongue darts out to lick the red tip of his cock softly. Mingi whimpers under his breath, and his hand comes down to entangle with your hair strands. "D-Don't tease Y/n." Mingi demands as a series of groans leave his throat when you lower down on his cock. Your cheeks instantly hollow around his length, giving his base a hard suck.

Mingi instantly tugs at your hair harshly almost making you gag around his cock. Your mouth constricts around him and your eyes roll back when you feel his cock hit the back of your throat. "F-Fuck, always so tight and warm for me" His hips lift up high, as he thrusts into your mouth. Tears prick at your eyes slightly while you try and not gag around him. Mingi throws his head back in pleasure, his cock twitching in pleasure against your throat walls. "Fuck fuck fuck, so tight, I could fuck your throat all day." His hips continue thrusting into your mouth, you couldn't help but moan loudly around his length, sending vibrations up his spine.

His cock twitches hard before hot ropes of cum is shot down your throat while Mingi moans loudly. Your eyes widen slightly at the feeling of your mouth being full, drops of cum slip out of the corner of your mouth as you try not to spill. Mingi swiftly pulls himself out of you, a trail of saliva connects your lips with the tip of his cock making him groan loudly at the sight. "Fuck so hot, get on my lap, now" He orders making you scramble before seating yourself on top of his thighs, straddling him. His hands control your hips, as he makes your wet pussy slide over his cock slowly. Your eyes trail downwards and you place your hands on top of his chest gently as you let him move your body like he wishes.

"Look at me, Y/n. I want you to look at me while I fuck you tonight, I want to see those eyes sparkle for me, I hope you know how much I love you." Your eyes wander back to his slowly, and you soon find yourself getting lost in his. You could feel yourself falling for him all over again. Your whimpers turn into low whines, and your movements get needier and more desperate. Mingi chuckles to himself a little, as he leans down to kiss your nose. "You're so beautiful and pretty, and you're so perfect for me Y/n, I love you so so much."

Your breath hitches a little, you slowly take the initiative to slide yourself down onto his cock making him grop your ass while series of curses escape his mouth. "I.... I wanted us to be like this, I wanted to be able to look at your eyes while you fucked me, not to have you facing my back. I wanted to have you kiss, and love me.... Take care of me. I wanted all of this" Your almost cut off by the end of your sentence when Mingi flips both of your sweaty bodies around so he can hover over you. "I'm gonna do all of it, tonight baby, look into my eyes forever, and we'll get lost in the rhythm of our love and lose ourselves."

You could feel the way your heart melts at his words, you can't help but pull him down for a kiss. You moan into the kiss when his hips thrust into you softly, moving into you at a slow pace. You could feel the way your heart burned for each other and the red hot desire between got both your minds hazy. Soon in a few seconds, Mingi is rutting into you as your kiss gets rougher and rougher. Your hands tug at his hair slightly while you moan into the kiss together. The grip of his hands on your hips gets stronger as he's rutting into you relentlessly. You could almost feel yourself clenching around him as you get closer and closer to your high. The wet dream you had minutes ago wasn't really helping in your sensitivity.

Your hands grasp onto his shoulders, while Mingi pistons his cock into you. You clench hard around him, marking him groan out loud, "Baby, if you keep clenching around me like that, I'm gonna cum soon." You are barely able to respond when you tug at his harshly one last time before releasing yourself all around him. Mingi lets out a series of curses, while he soon follows you behind as he bottoms out into you. His hips don't halt their movements till all of his cum is painted against your inner walls. Both of you pant loudly in exhaustion as Mingi falls onto his back slowly.

His soft eyes look at you, as a giggle is erupted through the room, "That was....-" "Fucking amazing" You chuckle as you complete his sentence.

Mingi fixes his leather gloves, before fixing his overcoat quickly. He lets out a loud sigh, as he mentally prepares himself for the day. "You got this, my sniper" Your voice from behind makes him turn back instantly, the smile on your face makes him mirror you instantly. He wraps his arms around your waist softly, and leans down to kiss your lips. "And you got my back, Koa." His words make your smiles widen, oh how much did you love this man.

#Spotify

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yerion · 11 months

Text

jeon jungkook drives you to think strict criticism isn’t too bad, purely because you didn’t expect things to turn a bit steamier than intended.

as the one and only female esports player, misery was at your fingertip when your skills suddenly deteriorated. however, the stoic leader of your team—jungkook, simply couldn’t sit back. he puts you back on track, yet no one told you sparks would fly; and the crazy fact that it’s inevitable.

pairing : jungkook x you (as aeum). au(s) : tsundere!jungkook, leader!jungkook, gamer!jungkook, roommates!au. genres : fluff, (intense) mutual pining, slowburn, innuendos of suggestive themes, (a sick) love triangle.

content : you thought your skill was the one problem here, but you eventually realise you’re quite surrounded by guys that you’d like to go on your honeymoon with. clearly, consequences follow since you’re not the only person who thinks so (the rest of the world does too).

peek jungkook’s mind in this playlist.

previous chapter. next chapter. chapter directory. masterlist.

chapter six.

word count : 6,2k.

namjoon furrows his brows in flourishing concern. “you shouldn’t be reading every hate comment of yours.”

“not every.” you cheekily wave a finger of disapproval at namjoon. “they just happen to tag along with the positive comments.”

“still,” taehyung exhales loudly as if it’s his loss.

what you said is true, and the others have the wrong idea. to you, those comments rub onto you like dirt—annoying, a bit upsetting at first, but later, you just roll your eyes and brush it off.

because what girl wouldn’t be envious of you?

come on, you’d be burning in jealousy and sighing loudly if the news broke out one day and said your favourite celebrity—j-hope, is getting married—or already has four children of his own.

social media was harsh to you at the start of your career, but the moment you proved them wrong with your scores in-game, the majority of the commenters dropped a bit of their rage towards you.

but today, the world is crueller than you ever imagined it to be.

and like how thanos snapped his fingers and caused destruction in another universe, you’ve also become a menace to society like him, causing utmost destruction.

“so,” jungkook disrupts the silence with one word. “our best bet is for me to go live and clarify the news?” it’s just jungkook, but everyone’s guises turn serious as their shoulders visibly tense, including yourself.

you’re slightly worried about this, since you’re very sure there would be people who’d lower their gazes and scoff at jungkook’s fearless yet brazen approach towards the scandalous news. because knowing him, he wouldn’t seem apologetic at all. the man is empathetic to an extent, but it only applies if it’s reasonable.

“realistically, jungkook’s stance is what everyone is looking forward to.” namjoon says. “his words would matter the most, and it’d extinguish the fire faster than anything else.”

“wouldn’t that put aeum in an uncomfortable position?” taehyung steps forward, breaking the intimate circle of your members to confront both namjoon and jungkook’s idea. “it’ll look like she’s relying on jungkook’s opinion.” he crosses his arms in obvious disdain. “that won’t settle any rage directed at her.”

jungkook exhales a loud breath. “silence will fuel the media more.” he cuts himself short; you can tell his head has plotted a full, convincing argument to disagree, but he keeps it locked down for taehyung.

“i wasn’t suggesting silence,” taehyung puts a hand on top of jungkook’s shoulder before peering up into his eyes with a tense smile. “like you said, it’d fuel them more, and even then, aeum would still be taking the biggest fall.” he clicks his tongue, “you wouldn’t want that.”

“speaking for yourself.” unlike taehyung, jungkook deadpans instead of dealing with the flagged skinship. flinging the hand on his shoulder looks like his last priority.

“maybe.” taehyung replies.

yoongi’s sigh is only audible to you, since he happens to be right next to you. “didn’t think i’d see them like this again.”

“fire and ice,” jimin says curtly.

“scary stuff.” seokjin murmurs.

“you’re older than both of them.” jimin snorts.

“cockroaches could be a day old and i’d still be scared shitless.” seokjin says rather seriously.

jimin flashes him a look of slight disgust before slowly bobbing his head in understanding. “honestly,” he taps his chin in wonder. “i kind of get that.”

namjoon roughly shakes his head at their bickering, and seokjin and jimin mutually come to a wordless agreement of shutting up, only because the flame circling jungkook and taehyung is intensifying even through great silence. their eyes are sharp like knives and their lips remain thin and curved.

you cautiously eye taehyung’s hand on jungkook’s shoulder, gulping at it. “my friends,” you whisper lousily. “i have a mouth and some intelligence, let me partake in my own matters.”

jungkook and taehyung stare at you in unison like you’re a toddler unable to make decisions.

screw these guys!

you throw your arms in disbelief. “i’m definitely coming out of my mother’s womb earlier than both of you in my next life.”

“what happens if aeum and jungkook confirm the dating news?” jimin randomly asks.

you flash your narrowed eyes at jimin, hoping he figures out the fact that you are now offended. jeon jungkook was the one to instantly shut you down with denial the moment he heard that his glittery reputation is about to go downhill.

“it’s a misunderstanding.” he said.

“it’s a misunderstanding.” he actually said.

“it’s a misunderstanding.” he said genuinely.

beautiful reminder to tell you to never fall for your leader and to never fantasise about you and his future again.

“that was out of genuine curiosity.” jimin shoots both his hands up in the air; surrendering, to dodge any judgement.

“take a better look at the situation, my friend.” seokjin says. “let’s say aeum and taehyung confirmed to be dating, the majority would probably applaud and celebrate that their long ship has finally sailed.” he explains dramatically. “but if aeum and jungkook are something?”

“everyone would be upset since jungkook has the biggest fanbase, and the most questionable and intense female fans.” jimin finishes. “even worse because aeum and jungkook were never seen together until today.”

“there we go.” seokjin nods in approval.

“we’re going off track.” taehyung warns. “let’s listen to coach.”

“if we were to confirm, the rage towards aeum would multiply and jungkook would lose a quarter of his fanbase. fans will also start to become more personal, so it’ll be a matter of time until they send out private threats and malicious comments. not to mention, other teams would look down on us since we’d consume the media for dating news.” namjoon answers truthfully. “we should avoid that at all costs. not just for the team, but for aeum and jungkook.”

“and if we go along with jungkook going live and explaining the truth?” yoongi asks, sounding more invested in the conversation than before.

“it’d make things quieter in general.” namjoon clarifies. “the news about aeum and jungkook will be reduced, but we can’t expect people to stop talking about it. the public attention will still be ours, but it’ll eventually settle down after a week or two.”

“should we be worried about the malicious comments directed at aeum?” yoongi asks again. “we can clearly see that she’s the most affected.”

“realistically speaking, we won’t be able to block off every negative comment directed at her.” namjoon exhales a deep sigh, “we’ll definitely try our best though.”

you shake your head profusely, hoping to decline the protection of your members. “stop it,” you huff lightly. “i only want you to keep practicing with me until the tournament.”

“jungkook?” namjoon calls out.

turning your head to where namjoon’s concerned gaze is headed, you spot jungkook turning on his computer over at his usual desk. he almost tosses himself into the seat, getting quite comfortable before setting up his live broadcast settings in front of you and the rest of the team’s confused faces.

“jungkook.” taehyung calls out as well, except sounding more stern.

“at least try to smile, captain.” you trudge over to his side, ready to witness his deadpanning announcement towards the audience. the comment section won’t be much of an entertaining sight, but jungkook definitely will be.

“just talk for a long while, jung—” namjoon tries to fit in his advice, but jungkook doesn’t even hesitate to click the ‘live’ button. “oh, jesus.” he drops his forehead, feeling the urge to conceal his identity from the audience out of embarrassment.

just like that, the earlier conversation naturally dissipated. there’s no way anyone can speak up when every given second is getting broadcasted for the public audience with venomous tongues.

the members begin acting like they were busy with at least something—seokjin quickly jumps onto the couch and whips out his phone, continuing with his webtoon. yoongi and jimin, on the other hand, are hopeless. they literally act like they’ve been forced and paid to act—looking up at the ceiling and scratching their necks awkwardly. all of them look stupid and oblivious behind jungkook’s still expression.

“i’d sincerely like to apologise for any inconvenience our actions have caused.” jungkook finally says, but he meets silence after his one sentence. his eyes are glued to the comments rolling up crazily. “the admins will blacklist anyone that fits. i won’t tolerate any harassment towards any of our members.”

your eyes widen in panic, a flush overtaking you upon hearing jungkook’s blatant boldness. you’re desperate to jump into the rescue of your team’s supporters, but you know very well they won’t be welcoming you, especially beside your annoyingly famous leader who keeps shutting you down like his computer.

visibly, namjoon is as frustrated as you are. he’s already thinking of closing statements to the media once they try to make a topic out of jungkook’s nonchalance in front of such scandalous news. the way he’s sighing with all his might surprisingly kindles a quiet chuckle amongst the members, only because he looks overly dramatic whenever he does start to project his soft anger.

“i was worried about aeum catching a cold.” jungkook confesses the truth fearlessly. “the tournament is right around the corner. i was simply trying to minimise all risks regarding our team’s health.”

you knew that jungkook isn’t the type to beat around the bush, but you definitely didn’t predict his demeanour to be like this at all. he’s more confrontational than you ever thought. what can you expect though? it’s jungkook—the leader, at the end of the day.

his gaze casted downwards, jungkook breaks into a scoff and shakes his head. “if a team leader can’t look after his teammates, i consider them incapable.”

jungkook is too good at this.

he’s proving the viewers wrong by exaggerating his role in the team, and everything he’s pointing out is utterly understandable. he knows repeating facts is the best method to kill fire.

jungkook sighs irritatedly at the viewer’s reactions. it’s no doubt they’re going crazy over his exaggerated care towards you—the only female player in the team. “there are terms and conditions we agreed to.” he explains calmly, “dating is prohibited.”

oh…

it’s clear that the corner of your lips sink at the rule. it hasn’t been long since you started feeling this way for jungkook, and you never really thought about it being prohibited. you totally forgot about that, and for some reason, you dreamed that there was nothing wrong with this blooming feeling until now.

few seconds in, you blink out of thought to hurriedly bury your emotion by pursing your lips together. in your peripheral vision, there’s taehyung leaning against a wall. your lips zip up even tighter when you realise that he’s staring at you in concern.

with your eyes travelling back to the ongoing broadcast, you catch jungkook free of stress. his eyes have softened and so have the comments. “we’ll see you at the tournament,” he says. “stay safe and take care of yourselves in the meantime.”

like that, everyone breathes out loud as soon as jungkook turns off his own broadcast. the livestream was short and impactful, maybe like how namjoon pictured.

“you scared the living shit out of all of us!” seokjin yells from the couch. “please give us a warning next time.”

“you did well.” namjoon praises the outcome. “it was smart of you to keep it short and not react to any of the opinions.”

“i agree,” jimin says. “let’s just wait it out now.”

you shake your head, letting out an extensive breath. “i’m really, really, really sorry this happened.”

“we’re all close like family, aeum.” taehyung reassures from where he is. “this would’ve happened sooner or later.” he hints cryptically.

“that’s true.” you nod. “since we’re all close like family.” you repeat, acknowledging taehyung’s thoughts towards you.

“it’d be wise of us to all stay inside as much as possible.” namjoon suggests. “it’ll still take time for the public to settle down.”

“never went out anyway.” yoongi’s eyes pan around the living room.

“seokjin, we’ll be counting on you for our meals.” jimin cracks into a smile. “we’ll all camp inside and practice.”

“i am a filler member of the team, not the chef.” seokjin stands up with a stomp, pumping his chest out to defend himself. “but i’ll do it anyway.” he then says.

“jungkook, could you lead today’s training?�� namjoon walks over to jungkook and places a hand on his shoulder. “i have to head over to the company today because of the news.”

“yeah,” jungkook says. “don’t worry.”

“alright, i’ll check back in later.” namjoon heaves out a sigh, knowing there’s heaps of work piled up for him. he straightens out the wrinkles of his blazer before waving goodbye wordlessly.

“we’re starting.” jungkook announces. “sign in and i’ll send everyone a party invitation.” he spins in his seat to face the entire team standing in front of him. jungkook eyes everyone individually, including you. again, he treats you like everyone else. “we don’t have much time.”

“sounds good.” taehyung is the first person to obediently march over to his computer at jungkook’s word. it’s like their argument never happened, but you assume this is professionalism.

eventually, everyone gathers and sits in front of their computers. the semi-circle is complete once again today, and you feel strangely protected—like you can overcome anything with these people surrounding you.

like taehyung said, they’re family.

your family.

you take your seat beside jungkook, and that’s when he finally turns his head to look at you wholly. you didn’t expect that, especially after being disappointed countless times on your own today.

“how do you feel?” jungkook asks you directly.

“safe.” smiling gently, you answer honestly.

jungkook nods once and fixes his gaze back onto his computer screen. his hand is tightly latched onto his mouse as he invites everyone into his team.

with the invitation pending on your screen, you just quietly observe the side of his face, again taking interest in the scar on his cheek. he never fails to capture your interest, but it doesn’t seem that way for him.

how can you change that?

sighing out loud, you decide to focus on your game instead. you press on the tick to your right, accepting jungkook’s request as usual. each banner in the lobby gets filled right away with the usernames of your members, but that’s when you see a private message sent to your chat box.

[34742748382] : ahhhh i didn’t expect jungkook to respond that fast with a livestream lol

[34742748382] : i guess i should try harder ^^

[34742748382] : good luck with today’s practice!!!!!!! it’s not long till the tournament

again?

it’s them again.

you hold in your breath as you feel your chest tighten in fright again when you see the same username from before—that time jungkook tried to hide the messages from you. whoever they are—they’re back, but you can’t afford to freak out.

not when the team is practicing.

scouring all your members’ faces, they all look equally concentrated to practice. no one here is on a different page. there’s determination in their eyes, which is beyond normal because the tournament is really near.

you quickly move your cursor above the username, blocking them to ensure no other messages come through. maybe your clicks were a little too aggressive, jungkook is fast to notice that something is out of place for you.

“aeum.” jungkook mutters under his breath.

“privacy, please!” you hiss quietly, feigning composure at the situation eating you alive. the anonymous’ words are preying on you bit by bit. “my little brother was spamming stupid messages in-game, spilling my old secrets and everything—”

“what’s his name?” jungkook asks, and the rest of the members hear.

um.

“my little brother’s name?” you question obliviously.

jungkook crosses his arms. “do you prefer me to ask what secrets?”

bursting into a tense laughter, your gaze bounces from jungkook to taehyung, jimin and yoongi before coming back to meet your leader’s stare. “jeno.” you toss an answer. “that’s his name.”

“is he teasing you again?” taehyung suddenly inserts, supporting your atrocious lie. he’s making you even more anxious because now you’ve got two people to explain to and beg for forgiveness if you ever get caught.

but now, you can slip out of this thanks to taehyung.

“he doesn’t learn.” you shake your head while smiling innocently at taehyung who’s in the corner. he’d never understand the meaning behind your smile though.

“aeum and jeno?” jimin repeats from metres away. “your parents are too good with names.”

“right?” you take your chance to side with jimin too. “we better get to it before i start missing them.” you say aloud, but it’s basically addressed to jungkook. “i might just run away.”

jungkook collects a deep breath as if he’s decided. “is everyone ready?”

practice ended in time with the sunset; an aurora of pink, orange and red is presented to you and the rest of your team who isn’t too bothered by the snuggly colours in the sky. it’s almost time to eat dinner, but you’d much prefer to return when you’re not caged by the thought of someone’s animosity from before. they’ve been in your mind ever since.

my god… you feel like you’ve aged ten years.

you are a corpse.

you are disintegrating.

and you hate that you’re still wondering about what tonight’s dinner might be.

in general, you feel baffled. you don’t feel too depressed, only because you genuinely do feel infinitely supported. that’s why you’ve still got the perseverance to ponder about dinner and smile when you want to. however, you can’t help but to feel disturbed about what could potentially come. you’re still far from becoming numb when you stumble across comments on the internet. how will you condone direct attacks? are you perfectly valid to be thinking about that—or are you merely overreacting because you’re flustered from the consistency of a single person behind anonymity?

distracted, you lift yourself off your chair, slide off the headset tightened around your ears, stretch your arms as you head towards the stairs. you’re the first person to sign out today. it’s only expected of you, especially after that disaster.

at times like this, you sincerely wish you could run back home.

when you reach the second floor, you slowly drag your feet to your room. there’s a fair distance for you since yoongi’s room comes first, then jimin, seokjin, jungkook and then it’s yours before taehyung. the rooms are all aligned horizontally.

as you pass the first two doors, a door swings open in front without any warning. a draft of wind shoots out, and your body jerks in surprise. you pause for a few seconds to avoid any means of planting your nose into the door, then take the initiative to walk around, still hoping to make it to your sweet destination.

wait.

isn’t that—

before you can even think, a firm force grasps your wrist to tug you into the room. you gasp in the midst, but your following breath is stolen when you lay your eyes on the owner of the room.

it was brief, but you’re not mistaken.

when did he get here?

the scent of soap is pungent—it hypnotises all your senses when your body thuds against jungkook’s chest. with your face buried into the softness of his new black t-shirt he changed into, you’re swept in a complete daze. your hands instinctively crawl to his hips, and you grab ahold of his shirt in your fists, unafraid of creasing his freshly cleaned shirt.

for a moment, the world is quiet.

it’s just you and the warmth of him.

you begin to wonder when silence inevitably abducts you. over and over again, you’re met with the same old uncertainty storming inside of your mind. perhaps your mind is playing games, or jungkook is the one playing games with you. on days jungkook makes you feel like he might just be your prince charming, you’re kicking your blanket like an idiot every night. however, it’s when you think the gap between you and jungkook no longer exists after one thing and another, he finds a way to pry it back open again by reverting to his old self—to the person you never knew.

when you’re looking at him expectedly, he’s never looking back.

when he acts friendly again out of the blue, you’re always searching for answers.

why did he worry when you were sick?

why did he feel accountable for you?

why did he take you to his room and leave you to sleep under his watch?

why did he kiss you that night when you were drunk?

why does he expect you to answer when he was the one behind everything misleading?

why does he try to keep you safe at a red light?

why is he allowed to wrap his arms around you during the times you feel most upset?

why doesn’t he tell you who hayoung is?

why does he look for an answer in you when you asked for his first?

why does he care about you?

why is he making you overthink?

because you adored him so much—as a player and even as a person, you were always blinded to everything jungkook did.

“are you alright?” jungkook speaks softly into your ear. he’s keeping the noise to the minimum, but he’s also intentional with his tone—just to make you feel like he’s the one to turn to when you’re in need. “you’re never convincing, so is it up to me to get better at reading you?”

why doesn’t he have his arms wrapped around you now?

why are you the only person holding him desperately?

“why?” you finally unleash your thoughts, your head still against jungkook. once upon a time, they were all securely locked for his sake, but now you don’t care if that all shatters. “tell me why you care.” you ask without trying to sound hostile, merely because you want him to discern your earnestness.

jungkook doesn’t say anything.

you tear yourself away from jungkook’s chest and peer up at him in despondency. “or am i misunderstanding?” you echo his words emptily, yet his face keeps still.

“it’s not a misunderstanding.” jungkook then replies solemnly. “i care so much to the point it’s uncomfortable.”

at this second, there’s nothing in this world that can beat jungkook. he’s standing right here, probably not even thinking about how your body is reacting; your heart squeezes up in desperation for sweeter words. you want to gouge your heart out and show him how many pricks there are—maybe then, he’ll think less and talk more.

“i easily forget about the tournament when you're around.” jungkook, not giving a hell about what you think anymore, harshly pulls your wrist and places your palm onto the left region of his chest. under his skin, you feel each of his thumping heartbeats—it’s rapid every time it contracts; it feels like it’s going to beat out of his chest anytime soon.

yours feels the same, except worse.

he probably doesn’t know that as well.

“when you’re here, i don’t think about the consequences.” jungkook drops his hand, letting you do the work from here onward. he now looks at you with eyes devoid of emotion; which goes against what he just said. perhaps that’s why he’s given you an opportunity to feel rather than see.

you slide your hand off his chest as you turn away. instead, you’re staring at his bed, which only torments you further at the recollection of memories piercing your mind like a bullet. “you really don’t listen to a word i say.” you murmur cryptically. “i thought i told you to stop being vague.”

“i’d rather kiss you than focus on a game.” jungkook confesses instead. “i’d rather sleep with you than compete.”

“jungkook, that’s—” you interrupt, dreading every one of his confessions. anxiety gushes in when you realise that he was slowly breaking apart too. it’s not your fault—you know it isn’t, but to see jungkook displeased with himself is hurting more than any injury out there. everyone knows that he cherishes his career more than anything.

“i’m sure you can imagine how detrimental it is to the team if a leader can’t set priorities.”

you get it now.

you’ve become jungkook’s mistake.

although you’re not fully certain if jungkook can reciprocate your feelings, there’s one thing you’re sure about: his affection. it grew beyond his control. he didn’t think it would; he didn’t think anything could blur his vision because he always believed in himself. the jungkook you know is collected and confident—in the beginning, you didn’t think he was capable of conveying such romantic emotions.

yet he’s come so far.

from the jungkook who didn’t budge at any of your rants, to the jungkook who constantly finds you to prove that you’re deserving of admiration.

maybe that’s enough for you.

“i have to value you as my teammate more than anything.” jungkook hooks a finger below your chin to raise your head up from your own shadows. you erase the bitter smile that crept up to your lips, but there’s no doubt he saw. “and with the terms and conditions we agreed to, there’s not much ahead for us.”

again, jungkook is too good at this.

“jungkook,” you breathe out thickly. “jeon jungkook.” you call out his name for the first time. his eyes dilate in surprise, and you simply smile at his eyes you seem to be obsessed with.

you can’t help it.

it’s jungkook after all.

“let’s stay apart.” you determine on your own. “we’ll go back a few steps.”

wordlessly, jungkook retracts his hand. “is that easy for you?” he asks after some thought.

no.

not at all.

as if.

“tell me,” jungkook demands an answer. “is it really?”

“someone will have to think about the consequences.”

“if that’s what you want.”

suddenly feeling your eyes dry, you habitually swipe at your eyes with an arm. the moment you pull a part of yourself off of your face, a single drop wells up in the inner corner of your eyes.

huh?

no way.

just before a tear can creep out of your eyes, you clear your throat and quickly peer up at the sky. you use gravity to your advantage to suppress the escape of a single tear. “you better come down for dinner.” you prod casually once you flick your head back down. “i’ll steal yours if you don’t.”

“all yours.”

and just like that, you back away, little by little, until you feel the back of your shoulders hit the door. you don’t think twice when you twist the handle of jungkook’s door before stepping out of his room. with your back turned against him, you let the door shut loudly behind you.

now you wipe your tears away.

the next afternoon, you dedicate yourself to another day of training with your team. it’s been a while since you stopped struggling in-game; you’re not diving in unnecessarily out of greed anymore, and that alone carried meaningful outcomes. you’ve been top fragging for the last few matches, and namjoon has been screaming in your ear in awe at your improvement.

on the other hand, everything else felt ordinary. the sky was a pale blue, the sun was shining vigorously, and jungkook acted exactly like himself. thanks to him, it was easier for you to stay far behind. because for all you know, you’ve been accustomed to this situation long ago anyway, since he never actually gave you special treatment unless the two of you were privately secluded.

not a thing in the world is going to notice your dimming relationship with jungkook. you’re the only person that can claim everything that happened between you and him as a fragment made of reality.

“aeum!” seokjin shouts from the kitchen. he’s cutting up some of the vegetables you and jungkook bought that day. “a parcel arrived under your name today with the rest of the fan mails!”

“really?” you ask again; half out of scepticism, the other half out of excitement. ever since the release of you and jungkook’s photos, fanmade letters and gifts have stopped substantially. “where is it?”

“on the doormat!”

you run to where the doormat is, and you swiftly retrieve a pink cardboard box the second you see it. your name is handwritten on the top of the box with hearts drawn underneath. the sender’s name isn’t attached, but most of the time, their names are revealed in the letters for confidentiality.

the tape sealing the box appears resistant, so you rush over to the kitchen to loot a pair of scissors. you pinch seokjin’s scissors to cut precisely along the lines of the box before gaping blankly at the content inside.

all you see is shredded pink tissue paper filling the box. your logic tells you to reach in since something could be hiding somewhere beneath the bed of shreds. the other option is flipping it the other way around, but there’s a probability that the item could be extremely fragile, hence the overwhelming amount of tissue paper.

or… there could be nothing in it.

that all aside, you put a hand inside the bed of shredded tissue paper in an attempt to grab anything tangible. swivelling your lost hand for a few seconds in the unknown, you’re thinking you might’ve been baited.

“i thought so.” you snicker. “such effort too.”

your hand feels for anything on each side of the box, and just when you thought you’ve seriously been toyed with, you feel something slit the base of your hand. the burning sensation is enough to force a whimper out of you, but you tighten your lips, adamant to keep the pain hidden.

you promptly pull your hand out, only to confront blood—it’s flowing constantly out of your hand, but not strongly. the heat consumes your fingers before engulfing your palm. from the top of your hand to your forearm, your blood drips down, staining your arm and shirt in no other colour but red.

you try to find the bleeding source; it’s obvious a blade slashed your palm diagonally. the blade cut you when you tried to hold whatever was inside; you gripped onto it instinctively without any suspicion at all, thinking it might’ve been something more pleasant.

biting down onto your lower lip, you apply pressure with your remaining hand when the blood drops onto the tile. it almost sounding like persistent spits of rain. clearly, your one hand isn’t enough to stop the stream; you’re helplessly leaving a trail of your own blood with every step you take away from seokjin.

who sent this?

an anti-fan?

it’s someone who’s enraged about the news of you and jungkook.

you’ve heard about this before—if “fans” can pour superglue into orange juice and are also fully capable of gifting dead animals; it’s no surprise someone was brave enough to hide a blade to stop you from competing.

“aeum?”

the terror of watching taehyung’s face lose all colour and turn immobile from shock sucks every breath from your mouth. upon realising that it’s your blood in your own hands, taehyung breaks free to jolt to where you are. his hands stretch out to apply extra pressure onto your wound, and you involuntarily wince at the sharp pain nipping at your separated skin.

“who—” taehyung is seething. he’s losing every whit of sanity; you can tell just by hearing him breathe—it’s becoming more and more shallow with more time passing. his hand is shaking tremendously as you watch your blood stain him too. “what’s going on? you need to explain—” his head snaps in every direction to find a clue on what exactly happened. eventually, his breath hitches when he detects the box sitting at the table. “who sent that?”

“i don’t know,” you answer truthfully. you thought you’d find at least a note in there somewhere. “maybe someone who’s upset?” you try to jest in this situation.

speechless with rage, taehyung tugs on one end of his scarf around his neck, removing it in one swift motion. “i’m taking you to the hospital.” he suggests pensively before tying the scarf around your hand to compress the bleeding. his remaining grip builds up the pressure against your now clothed gash, but at the same time, taehyung’s hands are getting dirtier by the second.

with taehyung’s quivering hand still cupping yours, you put your hand on top of his to calm him down. “taehyung.” you whisper while you squeeze his hand. “we shouldn’t.”

if you get caught with taehyung this time, you really wouldn’t know when you’ll be back on stage.

taehyung finally looks up to meet your eyes. “if this gets infected, you seriously won’t be able to compete.”

“i’m not saying i’m going to ignore professional treatment, dummy. i don’t want it to be infected either.” you reply honestly. “let’s get namjoon to call someone over.” you tilt your head cheekily, “he restricted me from going out, so i’m going to use it to my advantage when i can.”

“what the—” seokjin’s jaw drops at the sight of you and taehyung fiddling with blood. “what happened? what did i miss?” he fires a bunch of questions. “oh god, who’s blood is that?”

“i was right behind you too.” you glare playfully at seokjin.

“i’m—” seokjin stutters. “i’m going to call namjoon, and we’re going to get you to the hospital—holy shit, what if you need stitches?”

“shut up.” you deadpan unseriously. “can we be optimistic?”

“how do you expect optimism when you’re losing blood?” seokjin argues in growing concern. “i’ll come back with the emergency kit, so you stay right there!” he then spurts up the stairs, making a ruckus in the house. if anyone else is home, it’s only a matter of time until they lose their guts too.

“sorry,” taehyung’s voice comes out soft and glum. perhaps he’s found some composure after covering your wound. “i went a little too overboard, didn’t i?” taehyung sighs, “getting mad and all.”

“you’re kidding me.” you gasp inwardly before crumbling into a faint chuckle. there’s absolutely no reason for him to feel apologetic when he saved you from paranoia. “i was thinking about calling you my saviour from now on, and what? you’re saying you went overboard?”

now taehyung flashes you a smile. “i would’ve preferred myself to be calm for you.”

“well,” you smack your lips together to make an amused sound. “i’ll gladly accept both sides of you.” taehyung narrows his eyes like he has something in mind, but because you’re you, taehyung is too predictable. “and also your other sides too. maybe i should pick a favourite—”

out of nowhere, you hear a click reverberate from the front door. the sound should be unnoticeable to a person’s ear, but it’s merely because you and taehyung are situated quite close, the two of you catch the noise at the same second. your attention diverts instantaneously—from your injury to the next person who’s bound to witness your messy casualty.

the door opens, and your heart convulses when you watch jungkook enter indoors with a lowered gaze. there’s a piece of paper scrunched in between his balled fingers, and the expression he dons is off. his face is contorted with pure, undiluted anger; his jaw is clenched and his eyes are dull, deprived of life and light.

did something happen to him?

your curiosity chained you—before you can even think of potential answers to respond to another person about this cursed accident, your eyes are at level with jungkook’s when he turns his head around decisively. the inevitable happens, and you’re caught up in another knot the moment you observe his face darkening more. unlike taehyung, there isn’t a sense of urgency in him, solely disturbance. he glowers at your hand like he knew what he was walking into.

does the piece of paper have to do anything with his reaction?

it must be.

despite jungkook’s appearance, no one in the room comments about his arrival. you’d think taehyung would, but he doesn’t move his mouth.

“i brought the emergency kit—” seokjin reports back to the scene that’s now completely quelled. there isn’t space for seokjin to fit in, and same goes to you—who would even dare to if they’re driven in the middle of fire and ice?

“give it to me, seokjin.” you say quietly, enough to not break the flurrying tension.

“pass it to me.” taehyung intercepts in an antagonistic tone. he grabs ahold of the kit from seokjin before bringing your aching hands closer to him; physically encouraging you to follow his lead.

you can’t help but to hesitate; the idea of simply dismissing jungkook out of spite is unacceptable on your end, but you can’t leave taehyung alone either—not after everything he did for you.

so you just stare back at jungkook, nodding at him to induce him to understand you’re fine (though he never literally asked), but you think this is the best you can do, otherwise you’ll just be walking away from him, seeming like you never want to turn back around.

“taehyung,” jungkook calls out when you and taehyung’s backs ultimately turn against him.

to your surprise, taehyung faces jungkook immediately whilst deadpanning. “what is it?” he answers coldly, holding your hand tight.

“am i not worthy of an explanation?” jungkook walks up to taehyung, automatically drawing him near to you as well. “a teammate of ours is injured—is she not?”

“aeum is injured.” taehyung corrects nonchalantly.

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