#knives theme just gives you CHILLS

[namenvafan]

Man, after watching two episodes of Tristamp I don't really get what everyone means when they say it has a different tone. It's still pretty silly and light-hearted. I sure hope episode 3 won't be shockingly dark and viole-

[tinietaehyun]

Fallen Temptation

[FallenAngel!Yeonjun x Researcher!reader] [One-shot series] [Mystic Trail Series]

Pairing: FallenAngel!Yeonjun x Researcher!reader

Genre(s): Dark fantasy, fantasy, romance, thriller, angst.

Contains: Dark themes, profanity, mentions of blood, injury, manipulation, captivity, slight obsessive/possessive behaviour, lots of angst, religious themes. (a lot of flashback and forth!)

Links: MYSTIC TRAIL MASTERLIST || MAIN MASTERLIST

Summary: When you wanted someone to fall for you, this was not exactly what you meant. Your lips tremble as you see his hands press against the glass panel of his containment. He was merely just a specimen to your team right? He was the first ever fallen Angel caught alive.

You’d been used as the bait, immediately once they knew you’d found one. Heartbreakingly, you toyed with his heart and trapped him for research. His dark eyes stare into your emptily as he gives you a smile, “I lost my wings for you, y/n. I won’t let you go that easily. Not after what you did to me.”

————————•••••••••••••••————————

You pitifully stand with a lifeless gaze aimed at the metal door. Your heart weighs heavy as though someone had tied a large boulder to it and left it to sink in the sea. Nervousness, anxiety permeate through your very being.

You were frankly tired of being showered with praise by everyone in the research facility. Every single compliment, every single praising comment stung incredibly, as though several knives were being plunged into your chest with every word they threw at you. You couldn’t accept any of it. Not with the sheer guilt that you felt inside.

Though it started off a trying to befriend an Angel, you had accidentally come back with something even rarer. Something that had shot you up in ranks amongst the various scholars and researchers here.

A Fallen Angel.

The clunk of the metal door sliding open makes you shiver as you’re hit with the blinding white of research chamber #32. The ever so slightly chill air brushes against your skin and your eyes take note of the few researchers spread across the room in various positions of observation, working and typing away. It wasn’t too large of a room but, most of the rooms weren’t that large in this research facility anyway. There was an inhumane, emotionless and sterilised feeling to the room- one that you had grown used to but now have begun to despise.

All these researchers in front of you; their eyes holding not a single drop of humanity, compassion or empathy. To think you once admired them, to become like them.

“Good morning superstar, we got some diagnostics running yesterday on the specimen, and let me say there’s a lot of potential here to work with-“ You coldly interrupt, “Yeonjun.” Your pathetic colleague stiffens in confusion, “Huh?” “His name is Yeonjun,” you murmur icily. He pauses for a moment before chuckling, “Oh my! The specimen’s name? That’s not really important at this stage you know? But I suppose you’re used to calling it that.”

“Don’t say ‘it’.” You find yourself snapping harsher than intended. The researcher peers at you in slightly shock before recoiling into a scowl, “Why? Did you sleep on the wrong side of the bed today? If I were in your position after bringing such a successfully intact specimen as fine as this back to facility, you wouldn’t be able to keep me from shutting up!” He leans in closer, “Surely you and Sohee are going to get a hefty bonus pay, no?”

You step back with an empty gaze, “What’s it to you? Don’t you have work to be doing?” The colleague grunts at your dismal tone and turns away to continue with his paperwork. It hurts, everything hurts. The other researchers look at you as you walk further into the room; some expressions are painted with awe, others neutral, some even jealous.

When you said you wanted to make an impact in regards to the knowledge of supernatural beings, you didn’t want your biggest achievement to be this. Said biggest achievement was now trapped inside a pitiful double-paned thick glass chamber. You turn to face the chamber in the left corner of the room. A bang reverberates in the room from the thud of a hand on the glass panelling. That noise was meant for you. For you only.

You brokenly peer at the glass and see him. Yeonjun. Despite his tragic position, he looked as darkly ethereal as ever. His venomous gaze points daggers at you and the prominent scowl lining his lips was enough to send shivers down your body. He looked like he wanted to rip you apart limb from limb.

Though you think, it was understandable. If you too experienced what he had experienced, you also would think that way.

You find yourself frozen to the spot just meeting his dark gaze. Oh, it pains you so, how that gaze was once so light, playful and full of life. Your eyes trail across his lightly scratched up face; his lips bitten raw- most likely from the stress. His disheveled hair with the strands ever so slightly turning darker and darker at the tips to match his new form.

You grimace. He still had splatters of blood and specks of his previous feathers here and there. He was pale, sickly even. So much more different than when you first met him. You still remember that day with such clarity that it feels like just yesterday that he didn’t hate you.

———

You grunt and manage your way through the steep hill. This was an infamous trail located in amongst the mountains which was home to numerous mythical creatures but most prominently, The Angels. Beautiful specimens that were very, very hard to capture. There were only a few known species that made it back to research facilities alive.

Most of what is known of Angels has been done from post-mortem studies which had you most disgusted and had you questioning various ethics of this entire quest of knowledge. You had hoped that your research facility was different. This particular expedition you are on is in search of Angels and other creatures such as Phoenixes and Griffins, however there was no intent to bring an Angel back to the facility. It was something not easy to do and wasn’t worth the sheer time and resources. You’d be most likely staying here for the next month cataloguing both the mythical flora and fauna for more updated information instead.

“Fuck, this is hard. I wasn’t prepared for it to be this steep.” Your fellow colleague and close friend: Sohee grumbles and you chuckle at her, “Yeah; I don’t think we’re very good at trekking, or hiking-“ She scoffs at your remark, “Might just quit after this. Can’t even make it fucking big with my own damn papers.” You tease, “What if we find something big? Your name won’t be on the expedition notes or the research paper when published, hm?” Her eyes widen, “Shit, can’t have that can we? Damn, you make a good point.” You snicker at her u-turn in attitude.

Both of you alongside the rest of your expedition team continue to grumble up the trail in the mountains. It was truly a stunning place with the peaks of the mountains caressing the clouds and an ethereal fog lingering atop the forests covering the mountains. It looked magical, almost as if it were heaven on Earth. You had only read about this place in your textbooks and now you were finally here!

Your expedition head calls out, “We’re reaching a narrow part here folks, so be careful. Keep it slow and steady and keep your backs to the mountain face. There was a sudden downpour this morning, which we hadn’t anticipated so be careful. Take your time when traversing this narrow ledge. It maybe be slippery.” You all nod with serious expressions as your heart rate shoots up. You weren’t too afraid of heights, you were more afraid of the prospect of falling. Or in this case, you peer down from your current position- falling to your death with no chance of your body being recovered. That’s what scared the ever loving shit out of you.

“We’ll traverse one at a time to ensure the ledge has as minimal weight on it as possible. Ladies and gents, remember quick, broad steps across. Less time on the ledge and more time on the stable terrain. It’s a long perilous drop, I’m sure we’d all like to make it back home.” You feel a wave of nausea hit you. You sigh as you see Sohee’s knees start trembling, “Hey, hey we got this. Just follow the instructions and we’ll make it past.”

She murmurs gripping your forearm tightly, “Can you go before me? Please.” You hesitate for a moment, it’s not too far. Perhaps a metre and half of a narrow precipice. You find yourself murmuring, “Alright. Okay. Don’t worry, we’ll be fine.”

You all line up as one by one you begin to inch along the narrow ledge with the guidance of your expedition head and two other experts. You noticed that this particular portion of the trail had been eroded (most likely from the sheer amount of scholars and researchers that come here!)

Around five people have now successfully inched across the ledge soothing your fear a little bit. “Alright, y/n, you’re up.” You nod trying to keep yourself calm. You slowly begin to scuttle across the ledge not wanting to look down. All of a sudden, you hear a scratching sound, followed by some cracking and snapping.

Before you can register what the source of the sound was; the rock below your left foot crumbles and you slide. The wind slams into your face as you slide off the precipice into a free-fall. A scream rips out of your throat accompanied with the screams of your fellow colleagues who peer on in sheer horror.

You close your eyes as you continue to fall through a layer of mist; your voice becoming hoarse. It feels as though everything slows down and your heart is about to come out of your mouth.

Death. This feeling before dying, before experiencing an excruciating death. This was it. Everyone you knew, everyone you loved, your memories, your future. It was going to end here.

You suddenly release another petrified scream as you suddenly feel something cold. Something…more like someone? Their arms suddenly wrap around your under your knees and around your back. A burst of wind hits you in the face. You tightly shut your eyes; were you hallucinating? Was it the air pressure getting to you?

The strong grip on you is reassuring and you simply lay limp in fear in this being’s arms. You refuse to open your eyes- too afraid. Too afraid if you opened them, that you’d keep falling.

“Sweet human, your kind really are careless,” the voice murmurs soothingly. The breeze around you slows and you feel the weight of gravity begin to caress you once more. You were being carried down. Your eyes timidly open as you peer down and see the forest below getting closer. Relief floods your senses. You peer back up at the source of the voice, your heavenly saviour.

Oh, heavens indeed! To your surprise, you’d never thought you’d be face to face with a real life Angel. He was indescribably stunning in all aspects. Most impressively his large feathery, pearlescent wings that flapped with great strength. They were beautiful; something you’d never seen up close. The temptation to touch them was strong; would it be such sin to run your fingers along those pure, soft feathers of his?

Your eyes gaze into the eyes of your saviour. His dark irises contrast his blonde locks of hair that sprawl across his forehead and his honey skin. Sharp eyes with such a soft, caring gaze enough to make your heart flutter like his wings! His sharp rosy lips tantalising to the eyes which give you the most serene yet playful smile you’ve seen in your life. “Is the human too shocked to speak? Not even a thank you, hm?”

He traverses through the canopy of the forest and you both finally reach the forest floor with a gentle landing. “I…I…” He playfully hums, “I…I… what?” You hide your face in his silken shirted chest. Goodness, he was unfairly handsome. Forget that fact that you were about to die mere moments ago.

You steadily murmur, “i…I mean thank you. You…s-saved my life.” He was still holding you; just how strong was he? The angel pleasantly hums, “Oh absolutely no problem human. What Angel would I be if I didn’t help a human in need?” You mumble, “A pretty bad one, I guess.”

He peers at you for a moment before laughing, “Here I thought the thrill of falling had made you dazed, but it appears that you’re clear headed enough to be humorous! How resilient you humans are!” You end up pouting at him and he cooes with wide eyes, “Oh how endearing! I am sorry, I didn’t mean to sound condescending. You humans are just awfully cute, like baby angels learning to clumsily fly for the first time.” You mutter, “Great, thanks. You can put me down now.”

“What’s your name human?” He asks you making you slightly flustered. You clear your throat, “Uh…it’s y/n.” He raises a brow, “Huh, interesting, a pretty name for a pretty human.” You begin to flush under his intense gaze. “You know, you’re the first human I’ve ever held.”

“Has no one else almost fallen to their death before?” You mumble. The angel bursts out laughing, “Not quite. There are a lot of near misses and close calls but not many manage to accomplish the feat you have.” You glare unimpressed, “Good to know.”

He places a hand atop your head gently, “So…so interesting to look at. Most researchers that come here are so grumpy and serious. I’m not that big a fan of the way they look either.” You raise a brow at his hushed tone. He hums leaning down slightly with a playful smirk, “You, on the other hand, I cannot say the same.”

“Oh my, how rude of me to not introduce myself! Hello human, it’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance, my name is Yeonjun.” He outstretches his hand to shake and you timidly take it. You notice how his skin almost glitters subtly under the sunlight filtering through the canopy. You give him a smile, “Nice to meet you, my saviour.” He flashes you a bright grin, “I like the sound of that, pretty human.”

————-

“I do like the sound of that, the paper title has to be changed though, we have numerous more tests to run.” Your mind focused in back on the present. You hear your fellow researchers talking uselessly in the background.

The fallen angel in front of you bangs on the panel at you. You timidly step forward until you’re in front of him. His eyes darken further and a bitter anger laces his expression. Yeonjun sneers, “That’s more like it. In your white coat and all, your true identity. An emotionless human with no regard for life.”

You stiffen at his words not willing respond. “The audacity you have to come here and look at me with such pity. It disgusts me. To think I saved you that day; I couldn’t help it. It was in my nature to do so.”

You flinch at the harshness of his words. Tears line your eyes and you try to keep steady. His voice cracks, “You lulled me into a false sense of security, to think I was beginning to-I- whatever.” You feel yourself shatter inside ever further. Angels always had the tendency to see the good in everyone.

A sinister expression crosses his face as his hands slam against the glass panels pressing against them almost with the intent to push past it somehow. You flinch backwards with wide, fearful eyes. “I suffered such agony because of your selfishness. I lost everything. All b-because of you!” His gaze is malevolent, “You all will pay.” A bitter chuckle escapes his lips, “Though I may have lost everything, I am no longer constrained by the numerous rules from before. There’s nothing left for me to lose.”

The ominous threat in his voice astounds you. You never knew he could talk like this. You peer down at the floor where numerous black rotting feathers are scattered. Once an Angel disrupts its natural order, they are physiologically affected. From the colour of their hair, and most prominently, their wings.

Every single feather turn black as they die and soon drop off painfully one by one, leaving a bloody mass on the fallen angel’s back where the wings once were. A haunting reminder.

He coldly murmurs, “Y/n…y/n..” you shiver at his tone. An icy smile plays on his lips, “Do you think you’re safe behind this pane of glass?” You remain quiet. He hums at you, “You were so talkative before? Don’t tell me? Do you actually feel guilty? Feel remorse?”

You peer into those eyes you had grown to love. The dark irises now filled with twisted hatred and a flicker of…something you couldn’t quite decipher. He murmurs, “Maybe you were tainted by the other humans here. Is that it? Did they change your mind?” He presses himself against the glass trying to be even closer to you, “Was it my mistake to help you get back to your research camp? Should I have just kept you in my arms and never let you go?”

Tears run down your face and you begin to feel the weight of everyone stares at your back. His eyes flicker; a hint of his old self peeking through with sympathy. You pathetically whimper out, “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry, i can’t…” His eyes peer at you as if you’ve lost your mind.

“I am so, so sorry, Yeonjun.” You begin to bawl as all your emotions come back and hit you at once. A hand touches your shoulder bringing you away from the containment chamber. “Come now, let’s keep communication with the specimen limited. I think it’s best if you take a break for awhile, yeah? It’s best for the specimen to not get too riled up too.” The apathetic voice of Sohee drones into your ear as you’re escorted out of the room. You snap at her, “Don’t fucking touch me.” Not after what she did.

You find yourself daily coming to visit the room; feeling upset. You two would end up staring in silence at each other. You wanted to get him out of there. You wanted to rewind time. Your mind flashes back to numerous memories.

———-

You had a fun time talking with Yeonjun as he guided you through the mountainous forest explaining pieces of new information here and there whilst flirtatiously teasing you. You definitely felt attracted to him.

“Right, your little camp is perched up on that mountain over there, yes? I remember flying over it.” You nod with a faint smile, “Yeah.” He pouts, “It seems like our time is going to end quicker than I would like it to. When are you going back to your home?”

You smile teasingly, “Oh you’re going to miss me already? You get attached quick.” He flushes for a moment a red hue crossing his features, “Ah, you caught on, hm? You didn’t answer my question.” You giggle murmuring, “We’re stationed here for a month to research the various things here. So…”

His eyes brighten up, “Really!?” You laugh at his excitement. “If I leave you back at your camp, will you be able to come talk to me? Am I able to…see you more? You’re so fascinating.” You hum deep in thought; a frown laces your lips. If your team got sight of him, it would be immediate bad news. No…you didn’t want him to get caught even though it would be miraculous to bring back a live angel to the facility.

Your name would be everywhere, you’d get insane recognition for your efforts. You were already well known for your high quality papers. It’s tempting.

However your conscience gets the better of you and you murmur, “I…I don’t think that’s a good idea.” Yeonjun frowns, “Why? Do…do you not like me?” You shake your head frantically, “I…the other researchers would probably view you more as an experiment or subject instead of a living being. I don’t want to treat you that way.”

His eyes soften and a look of revelation appears on his features. A genuine smile graces his pretty face, “You’re different. You…care. You care about us Angels?” A glimmer sparkles in his eyes, “You…you’re not like the rest who come here. That makes me so, so happy.” You chuckle; he was like a puppy that had just been shown a treat. “You don’t understand how touching that it is. You don’t just view me as…a separate being. Thank you.”

You frown, in your profession, this was one issue you knew deep down. Something that you’d have to confront one day. Yeonjun hums deep in thought, “Let’s get you to your camp. I’ll let you get down and walk there safely. Hm…we’ll discuss another way to meet then.” You playfully smile, “Rather desperate aren’t we?” He cooes, “How could I not be, pretty little human?”

With that Yeonjun gathers you back into his arms and begins flapping his mighty wings into flight. He soars across the sky and you watch in amazement at the forest and mountains below and around you. Ethereal, truly indeed. After a few minutes, Yeonjun lands a few metres away from your camp. He guides you, “Keep walking straight, I can’t go closer due to the risk of being spotted of course. You’ll manage right?” You nod giving him a warm smile. A jolt of attraction is felt between you both.

“Smile like that again at me, human and I might just fall for you, hm?” He cooes ruffling his wings and tucking them behind his back. You murmur, “Oh is that so? Should I smile for you more often then?” He grins, “My, what a way with words you have, as sweet as the lyres we play.”

Yeonjun hums deep in thought, “Since you’ll be here quite awhile. It would be nice to meet you frequently human. May we discuss a safe meeting place for us to convene?” You feel your heart flutter, were all angels so curious about humans or this attached on the get go? Then again, these angels do not have much leeway in regards their community rules; strict ways of living and isolation from humanity and other mythical creatures. You had to remind yourself how rare of an opportunity this truly was.

Yeonjun hums after peering around, “There’s a small clearing several metres East of your camp, it leads to a cliff where it overlooks the rest of the forest below. It contains some old, abandoned Fae huts.” Your eyes widen in recognition, “Oh yes! Yes! My supervisor mentioned those earlier, we went to take a look at them yesterday. I know the place, there’s trail markers on the way.”

Yeonjun hums with a bright smile, “Great! Then is that alright? Can we meet there? None of your teammates will come there right?” You nod, “Nah, the site has been explored for decades and there’s barely anything left. Plus, we’ve already got it shown it once. Everyone will be too busy to go there.” He nods pleased with the answer. “Mm…in that case, you better head back to your camp now and report back on your safety. I’m sure your teammates are worried about you.” He hums concerned. You smile at him, “Yeah. When are we meeting then?”

“Huh…let’s see. Do you think night time is safer? Will your team be out?” You shake your head, “We have a policy of not trekking at night, past 6pm. So we should be safe.”

Some little part of you knew this was risky but see him made you so incredibly thrilled. The feeling of talking to him was addictive. You wanted to see him more, get to know Yeonjun more. You wanted to satiate your burning curiosity. All in secret of course.

“How about we meet at six this evening? Or in your case, when the sun sets.” You hum. He nods, “Brilliant, I can’t wait to see you again, precious human.” You hums playfully, “I could say the same.”

With that, you return to your camp and alert the researchers who were stationed there, the events that had occurred. All you had told them was that you had fallen, you went unconscious, and you woke up nearby the camp. You had told them them you didn’t know what brought you here. Thankfully, they bought your far-fetched tale.

Your friend arrives back greeting you with a rambunctious hug! “I’m so fucking glad you’re okay. I…” her eyes widen, “I thought you were gone for good or something.” You chuckle, “You won’t be getting rid of me that easy. I still have a jaw dropping thesis paper to submit and many other dreams too!” She hums with a glint in her eye, “Ah of course, can’t have that. Can we? Your papers are always…the best.”

Thus, later that evening, just as planned, you wait at you meeting spot having made sure no one followed tou. You had taken your camera under the pretence that you were going to photograph the scenery, plant and animal species for an upcoming paper. Just as agreed upon, Yeonjun majestically appears touching down in front of you in all his angelic glory with a stunning smile brimming with excitement, “Have I mentioned how exquisitely the the sunlight glows against your skin, dear human?”

You playfully laugh, “Here we go again.”

—————

You peer at your watch: 01:30pm. You had gotten past security with some elaborate excuse that you had to finish a report for the expedition and you were nowhere near finished. Instead of going to the computer labs, you were in fact heading to see Yeonjun. You couldn’t sleep- no, you hadn’t slept in days.

You mind was plagued with memories of you both meeting up every evening, spending a few hours together chattering and learning more about each other’s cultures, customs and lifestyles. The way he would take you into his arms to allow you to see the most fantastic views. How his curious eyes gazed into yours mischievously as he asked questions upon questions. How you adoringly gazed into his as you did the same.

It fucking hurt, you couldn’t bring yourself to push past the sadness. You didn’t even have the motivation to get any work done anymore. Yeonjun was all you could think about.

You scan your ID opening up the metal door and step inside cautiously. This was risky, you could even get suspended for this but at this rate you didn’t care anymore. You walk in timidly and you’re heartbroken at the sight of Yeonjun kneeling on the floor with his arms wrapped around himself. You feel broken seeing his bloodied mid-back where his wings once were.

The floor below you creaks as you take a step forward. Yeonjun immediately twists himself around. You frown seeing his watering eyes and tear-stained cheeks. You had already seen him daily in the facility. He snaps, “What…what are you doing? At this time?”

You walk forward until you’re at the glass panel, your knees sink until you’re sat on the floor opposite him through the glass.

“Tch…if you’re here to see me again like you do everyday, you are sorely mistaken if…if I’ll ever forgive you humans.” He stammers. “It was never my i-intention, Yeonjun. You have to believe me,” You brokenly quiver. You stammer, “She…my friend-colleague. Ex-friend. She followed me.”

Yeonjun stiffens, “So?” You whimper, “I really did mean to keep our meetings secret. She happened to follow me. I didn’t realise how cruel and selfish she was inside. How much hatred and j-jealousy she harboured for me.”

Yeonjun remains silent. You murmur shattered, “I never wanted to betray you. Everything seems that way, I know. I…I never wanted to play with your trust or feelings!” His gaze is menacing, “How do I not know you’re not just shifting the blame onto someone else?” Your shoulders slump, “I…if you don’t believe me that’s fine. I just wanted to say this to you. I feel restless. All I think about is you.”

Yeonjun’s eyes glimmer in shock. He murmurs, “Your friend. Is she the brown haired woman always in this room? The one running the tests on me?” You nod solemnly. That two-faced conniving bitch! Everyone in this damn facility is only out for themselves, only out to make a name with the next big discovery so they can win numerous useless plaques and trophies.

Yeonjun approaches the glass pressing his hands against it, with a curious look, “You’re telling me you purposely didn’t call your team to tranquillise me and take me back to the facility?” You snuck back in here to tell me all this? Do you still expect me to trust humans after all this? To trust you?” He was being defensive.

His words slice into you like blades and you shakily murmur, “No. I don’t expect anything but you deserve to know the truth. To hear me out. I…loved what we had.”

“What we had…” he bitterly laughs. “What was not allowed…the forbidden. I should have listened to my ancestors teachings. Should have not let my heart get swept away so quickly.” Your heart pangs, “You regret it?” Yeonjun murmurs, “I…” His eyes meet yours intensely. You can tell he doesn’t despite not wanting to admit it. It’s all facade he’s putting on.

“Sohee. She followed me-“ Yeonjun cackles, “Did she now?” Snapping, you press your hand against the glass, “You damn well know, you also saw her there. She…I.. I should have known.”

Yeonjun hums, “What, so she followed you out to one of our regular meetings? You two aren’t working together?” You frantically shake your head, “No! No! I loved the time we spent chatting deeply away, watching the sky after sunset, the way you’d carry me and fly with me around. It felt so magical, I felt ethereal, at peace for once.” Tears drip down your face pathetically; perhaps he wouldn’t believe you.

Yeonjun remains silent peering at your face. You still remember that day clearly.

—-

“Where you going? I swear you go off every evening, what’s so special about the sunset?” Sohee scoffs. You shake your head with a soft smile, “Believe me…it’s magical. It takes my mind off all the hard work. Kinda like a form of meditation I guess.” Sohee’s eyes narrow slightly, “Mm, I suppose so. Why don’t I come with you this evening? You know these forests are dangerous?”

You stiffen slightly, “That’s sweet of you Sohee, but it’s okay. It’s not too far off the camp and didn’t you say you were wanting to work on your thesis?”

Sohee hums with a teasing smile, “You’re right, not everyone has such lovely intellect as yours. But I have a feeling this paper is going to be a hit.” You chuckle, “Oh hush, honestly I don’t know what I’m doing half the time I write my papers.” She hums, “Right, of course. It must come naturally to you. So many awards, already at this age. How…lucky for you. To think I have such a talented colleague.” She smiles at you. You mirror her smile, “Thank you. Having your support by my side these years has really helped.”

“You sure you don’t want to accompany you? I’d love to see what sunset has got you so wrapped up.” She teases. You shake your head, “How about we go to see the sun rise, it’s even more impressive. The hues in the sky are insane with the mist.” Sohee hums, “Hm, sure. Sounds good.”

Sohee peers at her watch, “Damn, I just realised I’ve got to go meet our supervisor, he said something about reports. I think I’m due for paperwork again.” You chuckle, “Oh god, paperwork is such a drain.” She hums, “Yet you’re always the first to submit all of it.” You shrug, “I’d rather not procrastinate, you know?” She nods getting up, “See you later then. Be careful.”

Just like that you find yourself trekking once more to you new favourite spot where you could escape the clutches of the human world. As always your one and only favourite angel flutters down delicately walking up to you with a gaze of adoration; ready with a new set of buzzing questions about human civilisation and customs and questions about you, yourself. These laced with heart-stopping smiles and gazes, tingling touches and a tension that could not be broken even with the sharpest knife.

This routine had become addictive. This forbidden meeting between human and angel, a special little secret. The way the two of you got closer day by day over the month. You dread the day the expedition would end. You’d have to have a painful parting. You almost wish you could take him with you.

One particular evening; you both sit on a log that Yeonjun had pushed around. Your arms and legs brush against each other. You find yourself slightly leaning against his shoulder as his left wing encapsulates you. It’s intimate, peaceful. He murmurs, “I love this. I never thought…humans could be so enjoyable to be around. They always taught me to observe and not interact unless humans needed help.” You nod, “I mean…it’s best to be wary, not all humans are good.” He nods peering into your eyes, “You’re good. You’re pretty, you listen to me, you’re genuinely interested in me.” You both hold an intense gaze.

“Holy shit-“ A voice startles you both. You abruptly stand up as Yeonjun flutters his wings in surprise. Your eyes widen as the figure steps out from behind one of the trees, “Sohee?�� Her eyes widen stepping forward with a dazed expression, “An Angel…a real life angel.” You stiffen, this was bad. This was very, very bad. Yeonjun peers at her stiffly in silence.

Sohee murmurs misleading in tone, “Oh so, this is where you’d go off? What a specimen! I knew you were up to something!” Yeonjun folds his wings tentatively stepping back. More crunching of footsteps can be heard. Sohee steps forward with an almost mocking expression, “I came here numerous times before to see…but it seems I was right to be curious.”

“I-I think I should leave,” Yeonjun murmurs. You tremble, “Sohee, I can explain. I didn’t mean to hide him away. He-“ Sohee smiles at you, “Oh, I’m sure. I know you wouldn’t want anyone stumbling upon such a beautiful specimen. Your paper would be a hit worldwide, the numerous awards you’d get and what, with a live specimen to prove your findings!”

You should have checked if anyone was following you this time. Fuck! Sohee’s eyes glimmer, “Y/n! You’re brilliant.” You realise the way she’s talking and you begin shaking terribly. Yeonjun snaps his head to face you with a blank expression, “Live…specimen? Paper?”

You stammer, “Yeonjun, wait…no, listen.”

“Yeonjun?” Sohee questions.

“I-I should really leave,” he stammers beginning to open his wings ready to soar. More rustling is heard and your eyes widen, “Yeonjun-! Wait, let me explain!” Before his feet can leave the ground; you hear a single tiny shot. Yeonjun splutters as he peers down at the base of his neck; a tiny needle-no; a tranquilliser. “What the fuck?” You scream.

Yeonjun looks utterly shattered as he rips out the tranquilliser and he crumples in pain and drowsiness. Sohee rushes over holding you back from touching him, “Relax, it won’t hurt the specimen! Your evidence is safe! It’s to transport him!” Yeonjun’s eyes peer at you darkly as he tries to force his eyes open fighting against the chemicals in his system. They put him down like some rabid animal.

He collapses to the floor unconscious. You shove Sohee off you, “Don’t fucking touch me.” Sohee hums, “I know this is overwhelming, but I’m just trying to help you! You could be nominated for one of the greatest prizes, perhaps even a Nobel prize for your contribution! No one has ever captured a live-!”

“Fuck off!” Tears run down you face as you see some of your team members rush out surrounding Yeonjun in awe.

Sohee hums, “Don’t tell me you actually got attached to the specimen?” You glare darkly, “Don’t…call him that.” She scoffs, “Don’t you understand how insane this is? I’m doing you a favour, y/n?” She hums smiling, “Unless…you don’t want him for your paper? I can happily use him for my research?”

You feel your knees give way. Sohee peers down at you for a moment, “I’ve only dreamt of a moment where I’d be looking down at you for once. Not in your shadow. Thank you for giving me such an opportunity.”

You feel your head spinning and the voices of your colleagues rushing over with various congratulations and praise. Sohee puts a hand on your shoulder explaining to them, “Oh calm down, she’s a bit overwhelmed at the moment. She’s worked so hard to gain the trust of the specimen, give her some space. She’s just a little hurt by our methods, you know?”

————

Hurriedly, you begin digging through the file shelf in the room as Yeonjun watches you lifelessly behind the glass after hearing your explanation. You flip frantically through the files and pull out a paper. Rushing over, you press the thick paper to the glass.

He murmurs reading, “…Physiological Mutations in the Supernatural: Adaptations of a Fallen Angel- Case Study.” His eyes glance down to the credits, “…Hwang Sohee, Park Yeojin et al.?”

“Where is my name on this paper about you? Your species? I refused to have my credits on this paper, Yeonjun!” He stares at you silently.

You notice the way tears drip down his face; glittering against his pearlescent skin. He presses his hands against the glass peering at you, “I…I believe you. I just… I was heartbroken. Humanity is so cruel.” You tentatively move your hand; his hand and yours merely separated by a pane of glass. You knew he didn’t want to believe you but he couldn’t help it. He was fond of you.

“There’s no way out of here is there?” He murmurs. You notice the way his eyes flicker darkly. He murmurs, “Humans…pathetic humans…” A rasp in his voice catches you off guard. His hand is pressing against the glass as if he’s trying to break it. You murmur, “Your hair… your feathers, they’re black.”

Bitterly laughing, he hums, “an Angel without wings, a fallen Angel. One who can no longer fly to the heavens but is too pure to go to the depths of hell. Stuck.” You murmur, “Purgatory.” He hums, “Punishment.” Silence ensues.

“I…can’t help you. If I could, I’d break down this glass pane for you. My ID isn’t at a high enough authority level to open the door, either. I’m…sorry.” You sound hoarse at this point.

His dark eyes stare into your emptily before he gives you a smile, “I lost my wings for you, y/n. I won’t let you go that easily. Not after what you did to me.” You stiffen; it sounded like a threat. Nowadays, he seemed to be more aggressive, not the once so soft angel you knew. That was understandable of course.

“Y-Yeonjun? But I explained-“ He hums, “I know. But…I can’t just let you go. You’re the first human who has touched my heart, taken it. Surely you felt what we had? The very reason why I lost my wings. You are the reason for that. The feelings I had go against natural order.”

You find your hands trembling. “Yeonjun surely, you don’t mean…”

“My heart is yours no matter how much I don’t want it to be. I was so conflicted. You make it so hard to hate you. I want to hate you.” The darkness of his irises that once glowed brightly make you shiver.

He murmurs, “If you leave me, then my entire purpose is gone.”

Stammering, “Y-Yeonjun I…” His eyes glimmer, “Do you not feel the same way? I saw the way you looked at me. The way you felt when I ran my fingers across your soft skin, down your face, across your lips.” His face nears the glass towards yours, “Or if you don’t feel that way, why don’t you tell me beautiful lies to soothe my shattered heart instead?”

You wish you could have the power to change things as though you were the protagonist of some sort of story. However, this was real life. Things didn’t work like that. You were no hero to try and break down the door or steal your lab supervisor’s ID to open the door. Your life’s work would be on the line.

And with the way Yeonjun’s behaviour was drastically changing each day. You didn’t have a good feeling. Should you have left him the way he was? Simply despising you? Yet something drew you back to him.

“Don’t you love me? You wouldn’t work so hard to seek my forgiveness otherwise? That’s why you came to see me everyday? That’s why you came here tonight? Is this not what humans call love?”

Overwhelmed, you turn away. You felt something for Yeonjun. Was it love? Or was it a mere infatuation or admiration for him? If he were a regular human, would you feel the same way? Or was his appeal alluding you?

“I…I’m not sure.” He hums, “You’re not sure?” He chuckles, “I’m sure you do. You humans have a way of not admitting things so easily.” You remain quiet. Yeonjun peers around at his chamber- his prison.

A dark smile graces his face, “These walls and glass keep me locked in. They’re thick. Are they scared I’ll escape?” You shiver at his tone. “They have these for every creature. Some like to be more aggressive. So a dual purpose really.”

“Hm,” he ponders to himself. “It sadly is keeping me away from my freedom. From you.” His eyes gaze at you twinkling. “You’re the only one that cares. I can’t even go back home. No wings, and they wouldn’t accept me, someone tainted.”

Yeonjun trails his fingers down the pane of glass separating you both, “The things I’d do if I were out of here.” He continues talking, “You wouldn’t leave me, right? If I were to escape?” You stammer, “There’s very low chances o-of you esca-“

“If I did,” he sharply interrupts. A tinge of fear envelopes your senses. What did you stir inside him? What have you created? Has he become fixated on you? “I’d sweep you off your feet like before. Take you away from these disgusting humans around you. You’re much too pure for all this. You always ranted to me right? How much you dislike this place?”

You abruptly stand up, “I…I think I should go, Yeonjun. I just wanted to clear the air. Make sure…you were somewhat okay. We’ll get through this together.” He simply peers up at you without a word. His words create a mixture of emotions within you. A flame kindles within you; a twisted one that wished to leave everything behind; to satiate his pleading gaze.

“Sohee, was it?” He utters in thought making your blood freeze. “These other humans want an experiment yes? Then I’ll give them one they’ll never forget.” His threat is ominous making your stomach churn. No, surely he couldn’t come out of that chamber. It was impossible. Right?

You hurriedly leave and rush back to your room. Perhaps it wasn’t good to visit him too often. This was a turn you weren’t expecting. Did angels always get attached this quickly? You… really liked him, you did. But this version; it scared you. You felt conflicted. Your heart yearns for him, still.

He had truly fallen from grace. Fallen for you. Fallen into the temptation of love and lust; began to crave a violent touch.

So when you heard two weeks later, an excruciatingly loud siren and flashing lights with staff and technicians running around in panic, you weren’t surprised to learn that multiple scientists had been brutally injured when inspecting the specimen, leading him to somehow rip the ID pass out of a hand and scanning himself out.

To say he had snapped, would be an understatement. All you were now concerned with as you stand on the roof of your facility, watching the sun melt into the horizon was, the fact that you knew someone was coming to get you and that someone would never let you go ever again.

A bloodied hand touches your shoulder, “Were you waiting for me?”

Why else were you up here? To admire the same sunset you’d seen for the last few years? Of course not.

“If I were?” You murmur. Yeonjun gives you a dangerous smile, a tempting one for sure. “Good,” his tone is sinful.

Perhaps, you were just as tainted as he was. It was your turn to pick the forbidden fruit.

You couldn’t deny his touch, gaze or smile, no matter how wrong it felt inside.

Thus, you succumb. Succumb to the temptation. Noted; fallen angels were indeed dangerous creatures.

He presses his lips to the back of your hand with a glint in his eyes, “My precious human, how beautiful you look, when you submit to me…”

[hwxnghyynjin]

Kannibalen

Pairing: stray kids x reader Genre: horror, apocalypse!au, angst, some fluff, crack? but not really Warnings: alcohol consumption, mentions of food, swearing (like, a lot), horror themes (blood, gore, slight injury detail, cannibalism, Seungmin gets a dislocated shoulder rip), use of weapons (knives, guns), lots of crying, character death, main character deaths, attempted murder, abusive relationships, a couple of kiss scenes, not a warning but Jisung is slightly dramatic Word count: 22,738 (blooming heck, my longest fic ever) Taglist: @alphadisaster @catlove83 a/n: this was supposed to be released on halloween but, life happened lol, better late than ever though amirite

It started out as a normal day in Seoul. Everyone enjoying the sunshine, feeling the warmth from the sun on their skin. Children were playing in the park, laughing with not a care in the world. Young people seeing their loved ones, enjoying spending their time together as they basked in the afternoon sun. However, that all changed in just a couple of hours, a virus outbreak turning people into cannibalistic psychopaths. 

5 hours before the outbreak

You were chilling at the dorms with the guys, sitting between Hyunjin and Jeongin. You were playing with Hyunjin’s hands, twirling the rings around his fingers. Hyunjin didn’t seem to mind though, too engrossed in the conversation he was having with Seungmin. Jisung and Minho were bickering, as usual, probably about what they wanted to eat. Felix was in the kitchen, baking brownies for everyone, the smell of the brownies baking hitting your senses. You swear that Felix puts a hint of magic in the brownies as they are the best brownies you’ve ever eaten. You’re not sure when Chan and Changbin are, probably working out, which they usually do.

“I want to eat jajangmyeon”

“I want tteokbokki!”

“We had that last time!”

“I don’t care, I’m craving tteokbokki again”

“If the both of you don’t shut up, you’ll both be eating a sock”, Seungmin said, glaring at the pair for their bickering. You giggled, finding the scene in front of you funny: Jisung and Minho both staring at Seungmin, not knowing what to say. They just sat back in their seats, sighing. “Why don’t we try out that new steak restaurant? I heard that the steak there is amazing”, Jeongin suggested, to which everyone agreed on the idea. You texted Chan and Changbin to meet you at the steak restaurant, to which they were ok with that.

4 hours before the outbreak

You all arrived at the restaurant, the aura of the restaurant felt warm and cosy. You were greeted by a front of house staff, guiding you to a table before giving you a menu each. “I hope you two aren’t going to bicker about what to eat”, Seungmin said, referring to Jisung and Minho. The table was filled with laughter from Seungmin’s comment, both Minho and Jisung feeling embarrassed. 

Thankfully the meal was filled with laughter and jokes, and the occasional dad joke from Chan which made you all groan. Hyunjin fed you some pieces of steak and some veggies, and you did the same to him. Jeongin felt a bit left out so you fed him some steak and veggies too, the smile on his face making your heart warm. Soju filled your system, as well as the others. You were all tipsy, some more than others, but you were still aware of your senses and surroundings. 

3 hours before the outbreak

You all walked back home, the streetlights illuminating the city. You were laughing at nothing in particular, probably at something Hyunjin said as you leaned into his side. The others were walking ahead of you, Jisung twirling around like a ballerina, whilst Changbin tried to push Minho over for some odd reason. Chan stops him, scolding him like a dad telling his child off. All of a sudden, you felt yourself being stopped, looking up to see Hyunjin looking down at you.

“Can I try something? Just, don’t hit me please, I’m fragile”, Hyunjin said, making you laugh. You just nodded your head and a second later, you felt his lips against yours. They were softer than you imagined, like pillows. You thought it was going to be a soft and short kiss, you didn’t expect to make out in the middle of the street. 

“Hey, love birds! How about instead of making out in the middle of the street, we get home. I’m tired and Changbin won’t stop trying to push Minho over. Oh, and Jisung almost walked into a lamp post pretending to be a ballerina. I’m too old to look after you all”, Chan said, really sounding like a tired dad. You and Hyunjin ran towards him, holding hands so as to not lose each other, even though the street is practically empty. 

2 hours before the outbreak

You were in Hyunjin’s room, straddling him as you made out. His hands were on your waist whilst yours were around his neck. Your lips moulded together perfectly, like they were made for each other. Neither of you made any moves to deepen the kiss, just wanting to keep the moment sweet and soft. After a moment, Hyunjin was the first to pull away, looking at you with soft eyes. He planted a small kiss on the tip of your nose, watching as you scrunch your face up from the feeling. He planted kisses all over your face from how cute you were. You continued to sit like that for a while, basking in the warmth from Hyunjin’s body.

After a while, though, you both left the room and joined the others. Some kind of action film was playing on the TV but you’re not familiar with it. Hyunjin sat down on the sofa, pulling you down on the couch, snuggling up into him. No one was talking at this point, probably still tipsy or just really tired, which you don’t blame them. You could fall asleep right then and there but you didn’t want to, not just yet.

“Do you think bees have belly buttons?”

“Jisung, what the fuck?!”

1 hour before the outbreak

The TV was still on, some film you didn’t recognise playing as everyone else was asleep apart from you. The sound of Hyunjin’s light snores hit your ears, his lips pouty as his head rested on the back of the sofa. Jisung and Minho’s legs were intertwined as they cuddled against each other, which you decided to take a picture of because you found it adorable. You didn’t realise you left the flash on, though, as the flash went off as soon as you pressed the button. Thankfully no one woke up as you let out a sigh of relief.

You felt yourself getting sleepy as you let out a massive yawn, putting your phone in your pocket. You sat back down next to Hyunjin, resting your head on his shoulder. You closed your eyes, hoping to fall into dreamland, which you did a few minutes later. However, your sleep was soon interrupted as about an hour later, you were all woken up by a massive explosion.

“What the fuck was that?!” Chan asked, hurrying out of his seat and running to the window. He looked outside and saw that a building in the distance was on fire. In the distance, he could see people running around, screaming their heads off. They all looked terrified, which is understandable since a building literally just exploded not even five minutes ago. What he couldn’t see, though, was that the people weren’t running because the building exploded, no, they were running because someone was trying to kill them. And they were also trying to eat them?

The building that exploded was a laboratory, which stored chemicals to create vaccinations for different types of diseases. However, one of the workers in the facility who was working on some of the chemicals accidentally made a mistake, mixing two different chemicals which aren’t supposed to be mixed together. When they realised what they had done, it was too late. It had caused a reaction, a reaction they had not seen before. The glass beaker smashed, glass shattering everywhere. Some of the glass had cut the workers face, a piece of glass stuck in their cheek. There was some sort of a ball of mist caused by the reaction, which had a slight green tinge to it. Before the worker could run out of the room to escape it, it was too late. They had ingested the green mist, suffocating them before they fell to the floor.

Other people in the facility were unaware of what had happened,not realising their lives were now in danger. The laboratory assistant manager was walking through a door, a clipboard in her hand, reading through the notes on the piece of paper. When she rounded the corner, she bumped into the worker who ingested the mist, which she had no acknowledgement of. 

“Ah, Donghae, you scared me”, she said, holding a hand to her chest. She took a good look at him, realising something wasn’t right about him. “Hey, are you ok? You don’t look so good”, she was about to put a hand to his forehead to check his temperature when all of a sudden, Donghae lunged forward, knocking her to the ground. She screamed, trying to push him off but it was no use, he was too strong. He grabbed her shoulders, gaining more access to her neck and bit the flesh between her neck and shoulders, biting a massive chunk out of it.

Donghae got off of her, walking away, the assistant manager bleeding out onto the floor. He soon heard screams coming from behind him, workers running towards their assistant manager, calling for help. Donghae chewed on the flesh in his mouth, swallowing it. Before the workers who were surrounding the assistant managers knew it, the assistant manager's eyes opened, which were now bloodshot. She lunged at one of the workers, attacking her as she hit her over and over again, the worker begging her to stop. 

About an hour later, the laboratory was an entire mess. All the workers were screaming, running out of the building, trying to get away from the cannibalistic psychopaths that were trying to eat and kill them. A fire had started in one of the rooms, which contained different flammable chemicals and gas canisters. That’s when it exploded, spreading all over the building, resulting in the loud bang, startling you and the others in the dorm room.

That’s when Chan could see the reason why people were running away. He saw someone getting jumped, being knocked to the ground by someone, biting into their flesh. Chan jumped backwards, scared for his life. “What, what’s wrong?” you asked, jumping out of your seat and walking towards him. That’s when you saw what he was looking at, seeing people getting eaten alive, turning into those things. 

“Ok, we need to leave. Now”, Chan said, you agreeing with him. “Where are we supposed to go? What if those things are everywhere? Who knows how many people are infected”, you said, looking at him. “Wait, infection? What are you on about?” Jeongin asked, fear evident in his voice. You looked at Chan, and then at the others. “I’m not entirely sure what the infection is but, it looks like the infection causes people to become cannibalistic psychopaths and if you’re bitten, or in this case being eaten alive by someone who’s infected, you also get infected and get turned into one of those things”, Chan said. 

“I’m sorry, did you just say ‘cannibals’? I’m too precious to be eaten, plus I ain’t dying a virgin”, Jisung said, causing everyone to give him a weird look. “I can change that”, Lee Know said out of nowhere, looking at Jisung.

“What?”

“What?”

“Ok weirdos, let’s just go”, Seungmin said, rolling his eyes.

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

All of you left the dorm room building, seeing loads of people running around in different directions, seeing some people lying on the floor, covered in blood, screaming for help, and others being attacked, becoming infected with whatever the infection is. You grabbed hold of Hyunjin’s hand, squeezing it. You always do that whenever you feel scared and in this case, you were terrified. 

“Where do we go? They’re surrounding the entire area”, Changbin said, trying to find a clear path, but not being able to. Felix pointed ahead of him, finding a clear path. “There! I found one. But unfortunately, we have to run through the infected area”, Felix said, not liking the idea but it was the only one he had.

“Ok, on the count of three, we run, ok?” Chan said, looking at everyone to ensure they were listening. You were still holding Hyunjin’s hand, Jisung clinging onto Lee Know. You all nodded, not liking the idea but you had to. 

“One”

You squeezed Hyunjin’s hand harder, your breathing becoming heavier.

“Two”

You felt a tear run down your cheek, wiping it with your free hand, not wanting the others to see you crying.

“Three!”

You ran forward, running towards the infected. You didn’t stop running, even if your legs felt like they were going to buckle underneath you. You were getting close to the other side, running as fast as you could, as if your life depended on it and in this case, it did. You didn’t even realise that you let go of Hyunjin’s hand, until you were on the other side, not seeing Hyunjin standing beside you. 

Before you could scream his name, he ran up to you, along with the rest of the guys. “Now that we're on the other side of them, what do we do now?” Jeongin asked, looking around to see who would answer his question.

“I guess all we need to do now is survive”, you said, walking away from the infected, wanting to be as far away from them as possible. 

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

It’s been 2 weeks since the outbreak started and you all seem to be doing alright so far, despite the fact that cannibalistic psychopaths are roaming around. So, to rephrase that, you’re doing alright physically but mentally and emotionally? That went out the window the moment the outbreak started. And when you became friends with Lee Know and Jisung but you’ll never tell them that, not wanting your ass kicked. I mean, the two of them are literal chaos, you can never keep up with them.

You all have backpacks full of food, weapons in case you need to use them, as well as another pair of clothes. Who knows what will happen, having a change of clothes is a good idea in your opinion, no matter what the circumstances are.

You’re currently cooped up in an abandoned house, a house which belonged to a family with a son and a daughter, but fled the city once the outbreak started, wanting to get to safety. You don’t even know if they managed to get out of the city, or if they got unlucky. You hope it was the first option.

You were walking around the house, looking at all the pictures of the family who lived there before they fled, and they looked like such a happy family. The son looked about 16 and the daughter about 12 years old. You saw one picture of the 4 of them, and they were smiling brightly, a glimmer in their eyes. The picture was taken on a nice summer day, the 4 of them at the beach. The picture was probably taken by a family member or a friend but it was a nice picture. You suddenly felt yourself starting to cry whilst looking at the picture.

You felt a hand on your shoulder, pulling you out of your trance. You turned your head and saw it was Chan, looking at you with a look in his eyes which means ‘are you ok?’. You gave him a small smile and looked back at the picture. “Do you think they left the city safely? I hope they did. They seem like such a nice family”, you said, putting the picture back. “I hope they did”, Chan said, rubbing your back gently. 

You walked up the stairs, wanting to ensure the house is completely empty and safe before coming to a conclusion whether to stay there for the night or not. You looked through the different rooms, all of them seemed to be empty, apart from one room where Jeongin was taking a nap. He looked so cute, a blanket barely covering his body, which had dinosaurs on it. You smiled at the scene in front of you, wanting to take a picture but you didn't have a camera. That’s when you noticed a polaroid on the desk in the room. You took the polaroid, taking a picture of Jeongin. You took the picture out of the polaroid, shaking the image, waiting for it to develop. Once it developed, you put it in your pocket.

After you put the picture in your pocket, a noise caught your attention. It sounded like something heavy fell to the ground. You left the bedroom, walking towards the source of the sound. Another thud, only this time, it was closer and louder. It sounded like it was coming from above. You noticed a hatch in the ceiling, which could be the attic. 

You grabbed a broom and hit it against the attic door, causing the door to come down, along with what seemed to be the father of the family in the picture. You screamed, hitting him in the face with the bottom of the broom before taking off and going into the bedroom which Jeongin was in, closing the door and putting a chair up against the door handle. 

“What’s going on?” Jeongin asked as he woke up, rubbing his eyes. You made a gesture for him to be quiet, which he questioned but as soon as he heard the noise outside the door, he understood. It sounded like there was more than one person on the other side of the door now and now you were trapped in the room.

“Y/N?! What’s going on?” Hyunjin asked frantically as he ran up the stairs. You freaked out as you heard Hyunjin coming up the stairs, warning him about the infected. Hyunjin screamed once he saw them, freaking out and fell to the floor out of fear. That was when you heard someone else run up the stairs, and then a couple of gunshots. Wait, gunshots? You don’t recall any of you having a gun.

You removed the chair from the door and opened the door slowly, wanting to ensure that you were most definitely safe before leaving the room. You checked outside the door, and saw 4 now lifeless bodies on the floor. That’s when you realised that the family didn’t flee the city, it was too late for them as they got infected and turned. You turned to look at who shot the gun and that’s when you saw Chan holding a pistol.

“Didn’t realise you knew how to fire a gun”, you asked him, not seeming too fazed by the dead bodies on the floor. I mean, you’ve seen your fair share of dead bodies over the past couple of days so at this point, dead bodies don’t faze you anymore. You and Jeongin walked down the stairs, following Chan, Hyunjin following behind you.  

“Are you guys ok?” Jisung asked, putting on a jacket which looked two times too big for him. You just nodded because if you spoke, you felt like you were going to break down in tears. “That jacket makes you look like a child because of how big it is”, Changbin said to Jisung, giggling at how cute he looks. Jisung just glared at him but that made Changbin giggle even more. “I’m sorry, you just look so cute with it on”, Changbin said, explaining himself. Everyone started to laugh at the two of them, forgetting about what just happened not even 5 minutes ago.

“Why don’t we sleep down here together? That way, I’ll know we’re safe together”, Chan said, you agreeing with him. You all settled down in the living room, some of you sitting on the couch, some of you lying on the floor, using your bags as pillows. 

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

You had been asleep for a couple of hours, until you were woken up by the sound of glass smashing. You became aware of your surroundings almost immediately, grabbing the first weapon you found in your bag, which was a crowbar. You alerted the rest of the guys, waking them up, which Lee Know wasn’t very keen on, he hates being woken up. 

You headed towards where the sound came from, tiptoeing as to not make a sound. You rounded the corner, seeing broken glass on the floor, which came from the back door. That’s when you heard a grumble coming from the kitchen. You headed towards the kitchen, seeing the back of the intruder. 

“Hello?” you spoke up, causing the intruder to slowly turn around. That’s when you saw that the intruder was, in fact, infected. They charged at you screaming, causing you to scream back, hitting them over the head with the crowbar. They fell to the ground, the commotion causing the others to look what’s going on.

You turned around and began running towards the guys but you felt a hand grab your ankle, knocking you to the ground with a yell. The infected climbed on top of you, trying to take a chunk out of you. Still holding the crowbar, you put it in between you and the infected, trying to stop it from infecting you.

All of a sudden, more infected came running into the house, surrounding you. The others fought the other infected while you still tried fighting off the one on top of you. Blood dribbled out of its mouth and onto your cheek, causing you to gag. “Bro, your breath stinks”, you said, before kicking your foot out, kicking the infected back. You got up off the floor, hitting the infected repeatedly with the crowbar, not caring if blood was splatting you in the face. You pushed them back, causing the infected to become impaled on a hook, which was embedded in the wall. It went right through their throat, causing them to make gurgling noises, even more blood spurting out of their mouth.

“Now stay dead, you crazy motherfucker”, you said, not bothering to wipe the blood off your face. You left the kitchen, seeing the other infected dead on the floor. The others also had blood on their faces, and you noticed that Seungmin was clutching his shoulder. “Seungmin, are you ok?” you asked, concern evident in your voice. “Yeah, I’m ok. Though I think I might have dislocated my shoulder in the process of fighting off one of the infected”, he said, hissing at the pain of his shoulder.

“Ok let's get out of here before any more infected show up”, Chan said, grabbing his bag. The rest of you followed suit, grabbing all your things before rushing out of the house, Seungmin hobbling behind you, Jeongin staying with him.

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

You have been walking for about 20 minutes before Seungmin started complaining about the pain he was in. He sat down on a bench, still clutching his shoulder only now, he was breathing heavily. You walked towards him, putting a hand on his forehead. Luckily his forehead felt normal, so you didn’t panic. 

“Jeongin, hold Seungmin down so he doesn’t budge. Seungmin, put this in your mouth”, you gave a bandana to bite on. “I’m going to push your shoulder back in place on the count of three, ok?” Seungmin nodded, unable to talk due to the bandana in his mouth.

“One”

As soon as you said ‘one’, you pushed his shoulder back in place, Seungmin screaming out in pain. He ripped the bandana out of his mouth, glaring at you. “I thought you said on the count of three!”

“I’m shocked you believed me”, you said, to which Seungmin huffed. Thankfully Seungmin wasn’t clutching his shoulder anymore, the pain finally disappeared. “Thanks”, Seungmin mumbled under his breath, but you managed to hear him, to which you shoved his arm in response.

You carried on walking for a good few hours, fighting off some more infected in the process. You walked through an abandoned village, until you saw what looked like an arsenal. “Hey guys, look”, you said, not giving the others a chance to reply before you ran off.

The others caught up to you and Hyunjin grabbed your arm, but not too hard. He turned you around to look at him and that’s when you saw the look on his face: anger. “Don’t fucking run away like that. What if you were attacked by infected or something?! What if you got yourself killed?” he raised his voice, but not because he’s angry at you, he was just worried. 

“I’m sorry. But look, there are still guns left”, you said, changing the subject. Hyunjin just rolled his eyes, used to you changing the subject, but he didn’t want to cause an argument so he just left it. Besides, he loved you too much. You all picked up a few guns, along with bullets for the specific guns you chose.

You picked up a shotgun, a rifle and a couple of handguns because it’s good to have a backup gun in case one of them gets jammed. “I don’t know about you guys but, I’m going to test these bad boys out”, you said, going outside to test out the guns you’ve got. 

You put some old bottles you found on a wall, all lined up in a row. You started off with the handguns, putting the bullets in, taking the safety off and aiming them. You pulled the trigger, hitting a bottle. You were pleased with the handguns, putting them in your back (after putting the safety back on, obviously, you don't want to accidentally be shot in the ass). You tested out the rifle next, which had a scope on it so you can focus on any target in the distance. You put the bullets in the rifle, putting the butt of the rifle between your shoulder and cheek. You looked through the scope, focusing on a bottle before firing the trigger, hitting the bottle, blasting it into smithereens. You put the safety back on the rifle, putting the sling over your shoulder. You tested out the shotgun, putting the shotgun shells in. You turned the safety off before aiming it at the bottles. You pulled the trigger, the force almost making you fall backwards. You were pleased with the guns you chose, putting the safety back on and slinging the shotgun over your other shoulder.

Suddenly, Hyunjin came jogging over to you, with worry on his face. “Hey, what’s wrong?” you asked him, turning your body to properly face him. “Um, I don’t know how to use a gun and since you know what you’re doing, I was hoping you could teach me?” he asked, biting his lip in anticipation. You gave him a small smile, walking behind him. You told him how to hold the gun, to which he did perfectly. You put your hands over his, aiming the gun at the remaining bottles on the wall. You talked him through it, until he pulled the trigger, hitting one of the bottles, knocking it to the ground. He smiled, happy that he now knows how to use a gun. 

“Thank you, babe”, he said, the pet name leaving his mouth. He turned around, facing you. You looked up at him, a soft smile on your face. Before you knew it, his lips were on yours, capturing them in a deep yet sweet kiss. The kiss only lasted a few seconds but you could feel the emotion being poured into it.

You were the first one to pull away, opening your eyes to see Hyunjin looking at you with a fond expression. Your attention was pulled away from Hyunjin and the sound of shouting coming from inside the arsenal, and the sound of gunshots. “Shit”, Hyunjin said, the both of you running towards the arsenal. That’s when you saw the others running out of the arsenal, shouting for the two of you to run the other way. As soon as the others were out, a massive explosion came from it, the shop bursting into flames, the explosion blasting you backwards.

You groaned as your whole body ached. You touched your forehead, feeling blood trickling down your temples. You sat up, seeing the others on the ground. That’s when you saw an army truck speeding past, people holding scary looking guns. You laid back down, not wanting to be seen by them. They drove past you, and you waited until they were out of sight before getting back up.

“Guys?” you said, hoping that the others were okay. Thankfully, they were all okay as they started moving, getting up slowly. “What the fuck happened in there?” you asked, wondering what the heck happened. “One moment, we were just looking around and then the next thing I knew, I saw that truck outside, firing their guns. We started running out when they threw grenades”, Changbin said.

“Is everyone alright?” Chan asked, checking everyone out to see if they had any injuries. Everyone seemed alright, apart from the odd bruise and scrape. Jeongin, however, had a massive gash on his face, blood covering his cheek. “Fuck, Jeongin, you’re bleeding”, Chan said, holding his face. 

“Really? I didn’t realise”, he said sarcastically, wincing at the pain. Luckily you had a mini first aid kit in your bag, taking it out. Chan treated Jeongin’s wound, carefully putting a bandage on it, despite Jeongin’s protests.

You started walking again after that, the sun starting to set. You could feel the air becoming colder the more the sun set, putting your jacket on. 

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

You’ve been walking for god knows how long, the sun now replaced with the moon in the sky. You haven’t seen any infected for a while, which you were glad about. But you were also cautious because who knows what could jump out at you. You walked up a hill, reaching the top. That’s when you saw it: a safe camp in the distance. 

“Hey guys, look”, you said as you pointed at it. The others saw it too, feeling a slight chance of hope that they’ve found a place they’ll feel safe. “Do you think they’ll let us in?” Felix asked, hoping that they’ll be allowed in. “There’s only one way to find out”, Chan said, walking down the hill, the rest of you following him.

You made it to the front of the safe camp, a security light turning on, blinding you. Someone walked up to the gate, looking at you. “Are any of you infected?”, they asked, wanting to know if any of you have been bitten or not.

“We’re all clean”, you answered, the others agreeing with you. The person spoke into a walkie talkie, probably to the leader of the camp. After they received an order from the boss, the person nodded to someone, and that’s when the gates opened, letting you in. You followed the person, being shown around the camp. Others looked at you, probably wary since you’re newcomers to the camp, but you didn’t blame them, especially regarding the circumstances.

You were shown where you’ll be staying, and you were glad that you’ll finally have your own bed to sleep in after such a long time. You made yourself at home, putting your bag on the floor as you laid down on the bed. “This is nice”, you said to yourself, a small smile on your face.

“Dinner will be in an hour so, once you’ve settled in, come to the cafeteria. It’s down the hall, through the big doors. You won’t miss it. Oh, my name is Hoseok, by the way”, Hoseok introduced himself, giving you a small smile, to which you returned. You introduced yourself too, before he left. 

You soon went to the cafeteria once you settled in, walking through the big doors. You saw the others sitting down, already eating. You grabbed something to eat before joining them, sitting by Hyunjin. “How’s your room?” Hyunjin asked, before swallowing a piece of chicken. “It’s nice. I’m so glad I have my own bed. It’s really comfy”, you said, eating some rice. 

You were engaged in a conversation, laughing at something Jisung said. Though your conversation was interrupted by a long bang. The doors swung open, revealing a woman with short black hair, covered in tattoos and piercings. She looked intimidating, her eyes had a look in her eyes which you couldn’t make out. If looks could kill, many people in the room would be dead already. “Haneul, stop”, Hoseok said, trying to stop the girl, but she didn’t listen. She kept walking until she stopped at a table. She said something to one of the guys at the table, you couldn’t make out what she was saying as she was too far away but you knew it wasn’t good. The next thing you know, she hit the guy, knocking him off his seat.

Great, you’re not even at the safe camp for a whole day and there’s already a fight. Hoseok and who you assumed to be the leader of the camp broke the fight, Hoseok holding Haneul. “Stop it, the both of you. If you can’t behave then you’ll have to leave”, the leader said, before leaving. You must have looked at Haneul for a bit too long as she glared at you. “What are you looking at, bitch?” she spat, causing Hyunjin to almost jump out of his seat before you stopped him. 

“Oh, nothing. Just admiring your tattoos”, you said, giving a smile. Haneul just rolled her eyes, leaving the cafeteria. Well, that’s someone you don’t want to mess with.

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You woke up the next morning, having a good night's sleep after a long time. You slipped a black tank top on, along with your black pants and combat boots. You put your jacket on over the top, about to leave your bedroom. Before you left, though, you ensured that you put your pocket knife in your boot, as well as hiding your gun in your pants, just in case something happened. 

You were ready to leave your bedroom, opening the door. You slipped out of your bedroom and as you were about to head outside, you heard a voice. “Hey, bitch”, it was Haneul. What did she want? “What do you want?” you asked nicely, not wanting to get on her bad side. Then again, is she ever nice? “I just wanted to let you know that I run this camp so you better not disobey”, she said, causing you to laugh. “I’m sorry but that's hilarious. You don’t run this camp, Jongwoo does”, Jongwoo being the leader of the camp. “Also, I’m not scared of you. I bet you’re just an insecure little girl who tries to look tough”, you said, walking off. Haneul didn’t like that, however, as she turned you around and punched you square in the jaw. “Don’t insult me, you little fucker”, she said, gripping your jacket. 

“Hey, what’s going on here?” Hoseok said, walking down the hallway. The both of you looked at him, Hoseok seeing blood trickle down your mouth. “Haneul, get off them, now”, Hoseok ordered, his voice firm. Haneul let go of you, huffing and walking off. Hoseok walked up to you, looking at you. “You ok?” he asked, wiping the blood off your mouth. All you did was smile, before walking off.

You went outside, seeing Hyunjin and Chan. You ran up to them, giving them a smile. They went to smile back before they noticed the bruise forming on your face. “What the fuck happened?!” Hyunjin said, holding your face gently. “Remind me to never insult Haneul again”, was all you said before laughing slightly.

The three of you did your errands, which include going to the armory and cleaning the guns. You spent about 30 minutes cleaning the weapons, trying to make the time as enthusiastic as possible by cracking jokes. 

All of a sudden, there was a commotion coming from outside, the sound of shouting causing you to go out and see what was happening. You saw Haneul pointing a gun at the same guy she fought yesterday, his face bleeding. “Fucking give it to me!” she shouted, waving the gun around, making everyone hide behind something.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, for fucks sake!” the guy shouted, but Haneul didn’t like that. She pulled the trigger, shooting the guy in the head. Everyone screamed, the guy falling to the ground. “Does anyone else want to fucking argue with me?” she shouted, but no one answered. You saw Jisung and Lee Know holding hands, scared out of their minds. Jeongin, Seungmin and Felix were hiding behind Changbin, who didn’t even look scared but you knew he was. Whenever Changbin was scared of something, he played with his fingers, and that’s exactly what he was doing. 

You didn’t want anything happening to them so you walked towards Haneul, Hyunjin and Chan trying to stop you. You took your gun out from the back of your pants, aimed it in the air and pulled the trigger, getting Haneul’s attention. “Ah, look who decided to show up”, Haneul said, now putting her gun at you. “Haneul, stop this. This is supposed to be a safe camp but with you acting the way you are, you’re not making it safe”, you said, slowly walking towards her.

“Nowhere is safe anymore! Wherever I go, I always fear for my life that I’m going to become infected, which is what happened to my family”, Haneul said, as tears started streaming down her cheeks. “Look, I understand your fear but, is really acting this way going to help?” you said, being careful with your words, as well as your movements.

As soon as you were close enough, and Haneul had her guard down, you lunged forward and tried taking the gun out of her hand but in the process, Haneul kicked your leg, knocking you to the ground. “That was a stupid move”, Haneul said, aiming the gun at you as you laid on the ground. Without thinking, you kicked her in the shin, making her cry out in pain. She dropped the gun, the gun going off, luckily missing you and the others in the back. You tackled her to the ground, hitting her in the face.

“You think you’re the only one who’s scared? What about everyone here? We’re all fucking terrified so instead of thinking about yourself, think about the safety of everyone else, for fucks sake. Stop being a selfish, fucking bitch”, you screamed, repeatedly hitting her. Haneul flipped you over, now getting on top of you. She wrapped her hands around your throat, choking you. 

The others ran to help, trying to get Haneul off you. Changbin tried pulling Haneul but she wouldn’t budge. All of a sudden, there was another gun going off. It was Jongwoo, storming over to where you were. “What the fuck is going on here?!” he shouted, and that’s when he saw Haneul trying to kill you. He had no other option: he pointed his gun at Haneul and pulled the trigger, shooting her in the head. She fell on top of you, her hands loosening around your throat. You threw her off you, gasping for air. You coughed a couple of times before you managed to breathe properly.

“Jongwoo, I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t have provoked her”, you said, now crying because Haneul is dead, and you felt guilty because if you didn’t provoke her, she would probably still be alive. “Hey, kid, it’s not your fault, ok? I should have seen this coming a mile away. Ever since she arrived a couple of days ago, she’s been a danger to herself and everyone around her. I shouldn’t have let her in. I know that sounds harsh but it’s true”, Jongwoo said, patting you on the shoulder.

You looked down at Haneul’s lifeless body, her body in a pool of her own blood. You walked off, ignoring the calls of your name from the others. You just wanted to be alone, still processing what just happened. You walked to your room, slamming the door and locking it. You jumped onto your bed, lying face down as you cried into the pillow, your throat still hurting from when Haneul tried choking you to death. You soon fell asleep not too long after that, soon to be haunted by the image of Haneul’s lifeless body.

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

You’ve been locked in your room for a few days now, one of the guys (mainly Hyunjin, though) bringing you some food and something to drink throughout the days you’ve been cooped up in your room.

You were currently lying on your bed, looking up at the ceiling with blank eyes. You were lost in your thoughts until there was a bang at your door, which scared you. You thought it was nothing until it happened again. You got off your bed and walked towards the door. “Who is it?” you asked whoever was on the other side.

“It’s me”, it was Hyunjin. You unlocked the door and opened it, revealing a dishevelled Hyunjin. “What’s going on?” you asked, your voice monotonous. “We need to leave. Now”, he said, causing you to raise your eyebrows. “The others are waiting for us, let’s go”, Hyunjin said, going into your room and grabbing your bag for you, along with your guns before giving them to you. You tried getting his attention but he was too occupied with leaving for some reason, so you had to shout at him.

“Hyunjin!” you shouted, finally getting his attention, him now looking at you. “What’s going on?!?” you asked again, wanting to know why you had to leave. “While you have been locked in your room, the rest of us have been secretly exploring the place, trying to figure out if this safe camp is really a safe place”, Hyunjin explained, the both of you sitting on your bed at this point.

You nodded for him to continue, looking at him with fear in your eyes. “y/n, these people are dangerous. Hoseok and Jongwoo aren’t nice people. They have their own torture room. There are god knows how many dead bodies in there, tied up and mutilated. We need to leave and get as far away from here as possible”, he said, grabbing your hand. You put your bag on, slinging the shotgun and rifle over your shoulders and left with him, going to find the others, being as quiet as possible.

You caught up with the others, trying to find a way out through the back of the camp but unfortunately, there’s only one way out of the camp: through the front gates, which are guarded 24/7 by guards. “What do we do?” Jisung asked, his voice louder than a whisper, but quieter than his usual speaking voice. “I mean, we can’t just go all out guns-a-blazing, that’s one way of getting ourselves killed”, to which you all agreed. You had to think strategically about this.

“Hey, what are you guys doing back here?! You’re not allowed to be here”, one of the guards said, pointing his guns at you. You didn’t know what else to do so you just pointed your gun at him and pulled the trigger, shooting him in the chest, making him fall backwards. “Shit”, Jisung said as he started freaking out, which is understandable if you just saw someone shoot another person.

All of a sudden, an alarm started going off, along with red lights going off throughout the camp. “Ok, now we definitely need to leave”, you said, holding your rifle. All of you started running, shooting anyone who tries to attack you in the process.

You managed to make it to the front, getting closer to the gates. You reached the gates but you didn’t know how to open them. Changbin climbed up a ladder to hopefully find a button that opens the gates. “Shit, someone has destroyed the control pad. They don’t want us to leave”, Changbin said, screaming out of frustration.

“Well, well, well. What do we have here?” a voice said, and you turned around to see Jongwoo and Hoseok standing behind him. Hoseok had a smirk on his face, and you just wanted to slap the expression off his face. “We know what you have been up to, there’s nowhere to hide”, Hyunjin said, pointing his gun at them.

Whilst you were face to face with Hoseok and Jongwoo, Jisung remembered that he had some grenades in his bag, trying to get your attention but being subtle about it. You turned around slightly, seeing what Jisung had in his bag, signalling to you that he was going to put them by the gate. 

“I thought we were really safe here. But turns out, that was a ploy, wasn’t it? Wanting us to feel like we were all safe before you end up torturing us and killing us. You sick bastards”, you spat, moving forwards to get closer to them, so Jisung could do what he needed to do.

“What are you guys up to?” Jongwoo asked, suspicious of your movements. “What do you mean?” you replied, acting innocent. “Oh cut the crap, I know exactly what you’re doing”, Hoseok spat, uncrossing his arms. “Oh, really?” was all you said before aiming your gun and shooting Hoseok in the head, the bullet going straight through his forehead, his body dropping to the ground with a thud.

“You fucking bitch”, Jongwoo shouted, lunging forward to try and grab you but you were quicker, hitting the butt of your rifle over his head, causing his to yell out in pain. Jisung managed to sort the grenades out, pulling the pin out of them, throwing them against the gates. “Take cover”, he shouted, running for cover, taking Lee Know with him as he threw himself behind a metal container. The grenades blew the gates open, metal flying everywhere. 

While Jisung was preparing the grenades, with the help of Lee Know, you continued fighting Jongwoo. He tried hitting you but kept missing, you being too quick for him. That’s when you heard Jisung shout to take cover, but luckily, the rest of you were far away enough from the gate. As soon as you were sure you were able to leave, you didn’t think twice before running towards the gate. 

“Don’t leave me here, you fucking idiots”, Jongwoo screamed but you didn’t pay any attention to him. You didn’t look back as you continued running, getting as far away from there as possible. Once you were sure you were far enough away, you stopped running. You hugged Hyunjin, clinging onto him. He hugged you back tightly, kissing the top of your head. You hugged the rest of the guys too, which Lee Know tried to avoid but you know deep down, he loved the hug you gave him.

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

The sun had risen into the sky once you arrived at an abandoned school, which you were sure had infected inside. “I ain’t going in there”, Lee Know said, fear taking over him. “Listen, I don’t want to go in there either but I’m pretty sure there is the only way to go because as you can see, everywhere else is blocked”, you said, which was true. The only way forward was through the school.

As soon as you were about to walk towards the school, you heard infected coming towards you. There were a couple of them running towards you, so you ran as fast as you could towards the school. The only way into the school was through an open window, which you had to climb to get to. 

“There’s our way in but how are we going to get up there?” you said, not seeing anything that you could use to climb up there. Thankfully there was a broken ladder lying on the floor. It may be broken but you could still use it, as long as you’re careful.

You used the ladder one by one, going in through the open window. The last person to use the ladder was Jisung, climbing up towards the window. He looked down at the infected, who looked up at Jisung, looking lost. “At least they can’t climb, right?” Jisung said as he laughed, but his laugh was soon cut off as one of the infected started to climb the ladder. Jisung screamed like a girl, kicking the infected in the face, making them fall to the ground. Jisung climbed as fast as he could, going through the open window and pushing the ladder to the floor.

Jisung fell to the floor, his legs like jelly. “I’m never doing this ever again”, he said as he tried catching his breath. “Come on, let’s keep going”, Chan said, helping Jisung up. You progressed through the abandoned school, surprisingly not seeing any infected inside. Though you were proved wrong when you rounded the corner and came face to face with one of them, being tackled to the ground.

“y/n!” Hyunjin yelled, shooting the infected in the head before kicking it off you. He helped you up, checking to see if you’re ok. “I guess I should be careful where I walk”, you said as you nervously chuckled. You walked through the school more carefully, always being on guard, having your gun on you at all times.

“Hey, guys?” Jeongin said, breaking the silence. “If I ever get bitten, I want one of you to shoot me”, Jeongin said, causing you to stop. “That’s never going to happen, ok?” you said, not wanting to think about any of you getting infected. Jeongin was about to say something else before he heard a noise. 

“Did you hear that?” he asked, looking all around him. “Yeah, it sounded like it came from behind us”, you said, turning around, aiming your gun. An infected started running towards you, firing your gun, shooting them in the head. Before you knew it, about a dozen infected came running towards you. 

“Shit, run!”, Chan shouted, all of you running through the school. You didn’t bother looking back, not wanting to slow down. You were too busy running away from the infected behind you, you didn’t think about any infected being in front of you, before it was too late. You were completely surrounded by them, nowhere to run.

“What do we do? We’re surrounded by them”, Felix said, shooting them in the head. “Get down!” you heard a voice shout but you don’t know where it came from. You still listened to the voice, all of you getting down. An RPG came shooting past you, blasting all the infected into smithereens. Once you knew it was safe, you all stood up, turning around to see who shot the gun.

“You could have killed us”, Chan said, talking to them. “I still could, you know”, they said, a hint of annoyance in their voice. “Come on out before I change my mind”, they said, all of you running out of the school. “Who is this guy?” you asked Hyunjin, him shaking his head as he has no idea either.

“The name is Jackson, by the way”, he said, introducing himself. You all followed him, wondering where he was taking you. Hopefully he wasn’t taking you to your death because if he was, you were going to haunt him.

“And before you ask, no I’m not going to kill you”, Jackson said, causing you to stop in your tracks, did he just read your fucking mind? You continued to follow him until you reached an abandoned house, which you assumed was where Jackson was living. You looked around the house, finding a picture on a wall. You went to touch it before Jackson raised his voice, “don’t fucking touch anything”.

“Hey, don’t talk to her like that”, Hyunjin said, coming up to Jackson, coming face to face with him. “Hey, Hyunjin, it’s ok”, you said, breaking them up. “I’m sorry, I should have asked before touching anything. I was just looking at the picture on the wall”, you said, pointing to the picture you were on about. It was a picture of 2 guys, one of them being Jackson. “The other guy is my boyfriend. Well, was my boyfriend, before he got infected and I had to shoot him”, Jackson said, no emotion in his voice. You felt bad for asking about it, walking off. 

“Do any of you know how to drive?” Jackson asked as he walked into his garage, a truck parked in the middle of it. “I do”, Lee Know said, walking up to the car. “Unfortunately, the car won’t start as the battery is dead but I’m sure there is another battery around here somewhere”.

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

Lee Know started the car, and it finally worked, all of you getting into the truck, including Jackson. Luckily the truck was big enough to fit all 10 of you, the remainder of you sitting in the back of the truck. “Do you know where you’re going, kid?” Jackson asked Lee Know, to which he responded that he didn’t, just wanted to drive as far away as possible.

Music was playing on the radio, a music cassette which Lee Know found. It wasn’t his music taste but it would do. You, Hyunjin and Jeongin were sitting in the back of the truck, having your guns out just in case you get raided by infected. Lee Know drove for about half an hour, until you were on the other side of the city, getting out of the truck. 

“Thanks for this, Jackson”, Chan said, bowing to him. Jackson didn’t say anything but you could tell by his body language and facial expression that he thanked you back, before getting back in his truck, driving away. The part of the city you were in looked worse: buildings had collapsed, remnants of cars that had caught fire, as well as part of the road had caved in. 

“Where to know?” you asked, trying to find the way forward. “I have no idea”, Chan said, looking lost. “We could try looking in one of the buildings”, Seungmin suggested, which seemed like the best choice. “We should split up since there are a couple of buildings to look in”, Chan said, which you didn’t like the idea but you had no choice. “If you manage to find a way out, shoot your gun once”, Chan said, to which you questioned, “how will we know which gun shot is the right one?” you asked to which Chan replied, “You’ll know, don’t worry”. You didn’t question him after that, not wanting to confuse yourself even more.

You split up into three groups: you, Hyunjin and Jeongin in one group, Chan, Changbin and Seungmin in the other group and Lee Know, Jisung and Felix in the last group. You went into different buildings, looking around.

You, Hyunjin and Jeongin

“What are we actually looking for, again?” Jeongin asked, looking around the building. “A way out, I guess”, you answered, walking up some stairs. As soon as you walked around the corner, you saw a couple of infected walking round. You slowly walked up behind one of them, stabbing it in the neck, dropping it to the ground. Hyunjin and Jeongin dealt with the others, silently killing them so as to not make a noise just in case there were others walking around.

You started to smell something really bad, like rotting meat. “Fuck, what’s that awful smell?” you said, holding your nose. You walked into a room, and that’s where you saw where the smell was coming from. In the middle of the room, there was a pile of dead bodies, which looked like it was set on fire by someone. 

“That’s disgusting”, Hyunjin said, gagging at the awful smell. Jeongin looked like he was going to throw up, holding his chest. “Let’s get out of this room before I actually throw up”, Jeongin said, gagging. You all left the room, closing the door behind you to try and get rid of the smell. You progressed further through the building, hopefully trying to find a way out but so far, you’re not having any luck.

“I wonder how the others are doing”, Jeongin said, hoping the others were okay. He was too focused on trying to find a way out that he didn’t see the infected running towards him, before it was too late. “Jeongin!” you shouted, watching Jeongin being tackled towards the window, his body going out of it.

Chan, Changbin and Seungmin 

“I hate this so much”, Changbin huffed, wanting nothing more than for this to be over. “Hey, you’re not the only one, shorty”, Seungmin said, rolling his eyes. “Hey! I’m not short. I’m just pocket sized”, Changbin argued, huffing again. Chan managed to stop them both bickering, progressing further into the building. 

They haven’t seen any infected yet, since they could hardly see anything. “It’s so dark, I can hardly see anything”, Changbin said, squinting his eyes. There was hardly any light being shone into the building, apart from the odd light coming from some windows. “I wish I had a flashlight”, Changbin said, to which Seungmin whacked him over the head. 

“Hey! What was that for?” Changbin said, crossing his arms. “I thought you had a flashlight in your bag? If you stopped constantly whining, you would realise that”, Seungmin said, tired of his whining. That’s when the realisation came to Changbin that he did, in fact, have a flashlight in his bag.

All three of them held their flashlights, which made it better for them to see. That’s when they saw some infected roaming around the halls in the building, causing them to be startled, resulting in Changbin falling over. The sound alerted the infected, causing them to charge after them. Chan and Seungmin fired their guns, shooting the infected, them falling to the ground. Changbin was too freaked out to do anything, still sitting on the floor.

After all the infected were shot, Chan and Seungmin put their guns away, checking on Changbin. “Bro, you good?” Chan asked him, holding his hand out for him to grab, helping him up. “Am I good? Nope, absolutely not, I’m 100% fucking far from good”, Changbin said, terrified out of his mind.

Changbin walked forward, freaked out. He started pacing around, his breathing getting heavier as the minutes passed. “Changbin, calm down”, Chan said, walking towards him. “Calm down?! How can I calm down when we’re in the middle of a fucking apocalypse!”, Changbin cried, tears now streaming down his face. Before he knew it, an infected charged through a door, knocking him to the ground. The sound of screaming was cut off by a gunshot. 

Lee Know, Jisung and Felix

“Jisung, please for the love of god, stop whistling”, Lee Know said, Jisung’s whistling starting to annoy him. Jisung wanted to annoy him a bit more by whistling again but his whistling was cut off by the sound of a groan. “What was that?” Jisung whisper-shouted, wondering where it came from. “It came from that way”, Felix said, pointing in the direction of where the sound came from. 

Jisung walked in front, walking towards where the sound was coming from, trying to be brave but in reality, he was scared shitless and he had no idea why he decided to go first. He had his gun out, holding it in front of him just in case something jumped out in front of him. “Jisung, wait!” Lee Know whisper-shouted, wanting Jisung to wait for them. They managed to catch up to him, watching Jisung as he walked down a long corridor.

The sound of the groaning was getting louder, the three of them standing outside where the sound was coming from. Lee Know counted to three, before kicking the door open, firing his gun at any infected he sees. Felix and Jisung did the same, shooting infected in the head, seeing their bodies fall to the ground.

“That went better than I expected”, Jisung said, smiling slightly. His smile faded, however, as he saw an infected coming up behind Lee Know, pushing him out of the way to shoot it in the face, watching as its body fell to the ground. Lee Know felt his heart beating out of his chest, holding it. “Shit, thanks Jisungie”, Lee Know said, the nickname falling off his tongue. The three of them left the room, not expecting an infected to be out there. Jsiung didn’t think as he ran off, his fight or flight kicked in (in this case, flight kicked in first). He didn’t bother looking back, screaming his head off. He went to open a door, but what he didn’t realise was that the room behind the door had completely caved in, the door now leading to the outside. Which was a problem since the three of them were nowhere near the ground.

You, Hyunjin and Jeongin

“Jeongin!” you shouted, seeing his body going out the window. Luckily, he grabbed onto the window sill just in time, the infected falling to the ground. You ran up to the window, and saw Jeongin hanging onto the window sill. “You okay?!” you asked, reaching your hand out for him to grab. He nodded as you helped him up, immediately hugging you as soon as he was on his feet. He was like a little brother to you, wanting nothing more than to protect him. 

Hyunjin ran up to the two of you, hugging Jeongin as soon as he let go of you. Jeongin hugged him back, clinging onto the elder. He started crying into his chest, Hyunjin patting his head, which always calms him down. “Shall we continue trying to find a way out?” you asked, going up a flight of stairs, which the other two followed you. You went up a couple flights of stairs, hoping to reach the top but unfortunately, the way out was blocked. “I hope the others have better luck at finding a way out”, you said, going back down the stairs. That’s when you heard the singular gun shot, signalling that one of the other groups had found the way out.

Chan, Changbin and Seungmin

The sound of screaming was cut off by a gunshot, the infected becoming limp. Chan pushed the infected off of Changbin’s body, getting scared due to Changbin not moving. “Changbin?” Chan said, shaking the younger’s body, hoping he would wake up. Changbin groaned, touching his neck. His eyes widened as he felt a chunk of his neck was bitten off. 

“Guys? Please get away from me”, Changbin said as he stood up, holding his neck. Both Chan and Seungmin were confused until it clicked: Changbin is infected. “No, this can’t be happening. We were all supposed to survive this”, Seungmin said, tears starting to stream down his face. Changbin started to feel his whole body twitch, his vision becoming blurry. “Chan, I want you to shoot me”, Changbin said, not wanting to become a cannibalistic psychopath. Chan held his gun by his side, not wanting to shoot one of his best friends.

“I can’t do it”, Chan cried. He didn’t want to shoot him but he also didn’t want Changbin to turn into one of those things. If that’s what Changbin wanted then, that’s what he’s going to get. 

“Turn around, Changbin”, Chan said, tears starting to blur his vision. They were all a sobbing mess at this point. Changbin turned around, looking out the window, seeing birds fly in the distance. Changbin smiled slightly, his eyes closed as he waited for the sound of the gunshot. Chan pointed the gun at the back of Changbin’s head, his hand shaking. He closed his eyes, putting his finger on the trigger. He pulled the trigger, the bullet going through the back of Changbin’s head, his now lifeless body dropping to the floor. 

It took Chan and Seungmin a moment to process what happened and once they did, they just broke. They sat on the floor for a good few minutes, not wanting to leave their now dead friend. But unfortunately, they had to. They needed to find a way out. “We will survive for you, Changbin”, Seungmin said, holding Changbin’s cold hand. They both progressed further into the building, going up some stairs to hopefully go to the top. They managed to reach the top, and thankfully, it wasn’t blocked. They opened the door, going out into the fresh air. They managed to find the way out. Chan held his gun in the air, firing the gun, signalling that they found the way out.

Lee Know, Jisung and Felix

Jisung opened the door, almost falling to his death. If it wasn’t for Lee Know, he would have. Lee Know shot the infected before coming to save him, putting his arm around his waist to stop him from falling. 

“Next time, don’t run off. It’s like trying to babysit a child”, Lee Know said, pulling Jisung away from the edge. All of a sudden, Felix came running towards them, out of breath. “What’s wrong?” Lee Know said, watching Felix trying to catch his breath. “We have a problem”, Felix said, pointing towards the end of the corridor. The three of them slowly walked towards the end and that’s when they heard it: a voice. No, more than one voice. Lee Know peaked into the room, trying to be as quiet as possible. He saw a couple of men in the room, wearing some sort of uniform. 

“Let’s get out of here”, Lee Know said, closing the door quietly and tiptoeing away from the door. Unfortunately, due to Jisung’s clumsiness, he accidentally knocked something over, causing it to make a loud bang. “What was that?” a voice said, walking towards the door. The three of them just stood there, holding their guns in front of them. A man walked out of the room, holding a gun. He looked scary: a couple of scars on his face, big muscles and short black hair. He didn’t look very friendly, and judging by the profanities he starts shouting, he definitely isn’t a nice person.

“Where the fuck are you, you shit heads?” he growled, cocking his gun. That’s when Lee Know decided to make the brave move by coming out of hiding, shooting the guy in the chest, causing him to fall backwards with a thud. “What the fuck?!” another voice said, and that’s when everyone came running out of the room, all holding guns. Lee Know, Jisung and Felix had no choice but to start shooting, it was a kill or be killed situation and they didn't want to die.

Once they were sure they all weren’t moving, the three of them progressed further into the building, trying to find a way out. Though they didn’t get very far as they heard the sound of a single gunshot, which is the signal that one of the other groups had found a way out.

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

You met Lee Know, Jisung and Felix outside, wanting to go into the other building together. “I really hope the others are okay”, you said, running into the building, the others following. You ran up the stairs, not bothering to look where you were going, just wanting to get to the top as quickly as possible. As you rounded the corner, you saw someone lying on the ground. You walked closer to them but you soon regretted it. As you were close enough to see the person, you saw that it was Changbin. Blood pooled around his lifeless body, making you fall backwards and screamed. You saw that he had a chunk of his neck bitten off, realising that he got infected.

The others saw his lifeless body, everyone now crying. You all sat by his lifeless body for a few minutes, mourning him. You kissed your hand and pressed your hand to his cheek, before getting up and going towards the door, which was the way out.

All of you saw Chan and Seungmin standing on the rooftop. “What the hell happened?” you yelled, but not in an angry way. “We got bombarded by infected, causing Changbin to have a mental breakdown afterwards. He got jumped by one infected which we didn’t know was there, resulting in him getting bitten. Changbin didn’t want to turn into one of those things so… he wanted me to shoot him”, Chan explained, a few stray tears rolling down his cheek.

“It wasn’t supposed to be like this. We were supposed to survive this outbreak together! Now Changbin is fucking dead. I just want this to fucking end already”, Jeongin screamed to no one in particular, just venting his thoughts. Chan managed to calm the younger one down, his breathing becoming normal again.

“All we can do now is keep going forward. That’s what Changbin would want us to do, isn’t it? Despite him being scared of certain situations, he never backed down, no matter what”, you said, everyone agreeing with you. Changbin was tougher than he thought himself out to be, never backing down from a fight, no matter how scared he seemed. Whether that be someone insulting his friends or being in a dangerous situation such as the one you’re in now, Changbin never turned his back on things, no matter how tough things got.

You climbed down the ladder, leading down to the other side of the building, your feet landing on the ground. You walked into the middle of the street, but you didn’t get far as the same truck you saw back at the arsenal came driving past, all of you hiding behind concrete barriers. “Where the fuck did they come from?” Chan whispered, keeping his head down whilst trying to subtly look at what they are doing. “I have no idea but it looks like they’re looking for something. Or someone”, Lee Know said, sitting with his back against the barrier. “Come out, come out wherever you are”, a voice spoke up, coming from the truck. His voice sounded gruff, his tone threatening. 

“What the fuck, I thought he went to prison”, you said, fear in your voice. “Wait, you know the guy?” Hyunjin asked, looking at you. You hesitated to answer him, but they needed to know. “That’s my ex. Yes, the abusive one. That’s the guy who tried to kill me, but luckily I managed to get away from him and called the police, who arrested him. I haven’t seen him since that day 2 years ago”, you explained, the memories of him beating you coming back. 

When you first started dating your ex, who goes by the name of Minhyung, he was the sweetest person. He took you out on dates, bought you gifts and treated you like royalty. He always gave you affection, whether it was holding hands or cuddling, or giving you the most breathtaking kisses. But that soon changed when he started showing his true colours. His whole sweet act with you was just a facade, wanting you to think he was this sweet angel, just so he couldn’t make you leave the relationship. 

It all started when he came home drunk one day, seeing you on the couch, watching your favourite tv show. When he saw you watching it without him, he got aggressive. Which is stupid because, it’s just a tv show, it’s not like you kicked him or anything. That’s when he first hit you. He didn’t even show remorse, his eyes full of hate. That went on for a few months, until you had enough. You sat him down one day, twiddling your fingers. You feared his reaction but you feared for your safety more than anything.

That’s when you said those 5 words: “I want to break up”. Minhyung didn’t like that at all. He screamed, saying that he owes you and you can’t go anywhere. You stood your ground, despite how terrified you were, telling him that you’re sick of his behaviour and the abuse you received from him, wanting nothing more than for it to stop. That’s when he hit you over and over again, first with his fists. You managed to get away from him, locking yourself in the bathroom.

You heard him shout after you, standing outside the bathroom door. He banged on the door, demanding that you unlocked the door for him. You didn’t listen, covering your ears to block out his shouting. After a while, his shouting stopped, removing your hands from your ears. You thought you were safe, but that feeling went away as quick as it came, Minhyung now destroying the door with an axe. You had no idea where he got the axe from but at the same time, you didn’t want to know.

You screamed as Minhyung made a hole in the door, putting his hand through to unlock the door. You backed away from him, your back hitting the wall. You were trapped. “I told you, you can’t get away from me, you stupid bitch”, he snarled, grabbing your ankles. You continued screaming as he pulled you out the bathroom, getting on top of you. He wrapped his hands around your neck, applying pressure on it. 

“If you really want to leave me then, I guess I’ll make you leave for good”, he said, a sickening smile on his face. You struggled against him, trying to pry his hands off you. He started slamming your body on the floor, shouting profanities at you. You had to do something before he killed you. Without thinking, you reached your hand out, putting your hand on his face. You dug your nails into his left eye, causing him to cry out in pain. He took his hands off around your neck, and you kicked him in the shin, making him roll off your body. 

You got up quickly, running away from him. You ran downstairs, grabbed your phone and immediately called the police. Thankfully they got there within 10 minutes of you putting the phone down, hiding from Minhyung. Your neighbour looked after you while Minhyung got arrested, which you thanked them for.

You were brought out of your thoughts by Hyunjin poking you gently, asking if you were okay. “I’m not scared of him anymore. I mean, I still kind of am but after a lot of therapy, I managed to deal with it”, you said, looking if they were still there, which they were. “Come on out, you stupid bitch”, Minhyung said, now coming out of the truck. Shit, you were all in trouble. Your heart was racing, you were surprised none of the guys could hear it. He was getting closer to where you were, his footsteps getting louder, until…

“Boss, I don’t think y/n is here”, one of his guys said, causing Minhyung to groan and walk back to the truck. The truck soon drove off, speeding off. You let out a breath you didn’t realise you were holding, standing up once you were sure they were gone. “That was close”, Chan said, checking his surroundings, making sure no one else sneaks up on you. “Alright, it’s clear. Let’s go”, and at that, you continued on walking.

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

The sun had started to set, the colder air causing shivers down your spine so you put your jacket on to keep yourself warm. “We haven’t seen any infected for a while, which I’m glad about”, Jisung said, feeling slightly safer. “Please don’t jinx us, Jisung”, Lee Know said, causing them to bicker. You just rolled your eyes at the pair, they seriously acted like an old married couple.

“Oi, love birds, if you would stop bickering, you’ll notice that we’re about to go into the underground subway, which means going into the dark so get your flashlights out”, Seungmin said, getting his flashlight out ready. The two stopped bickering and listened to him, getting their flashlights out. You all went into the underground subway, which was slightly flooded, the water coming up to just below your knees. You managed to walk through it though, even though it was a slight struggle. 

Seungmin was right though, it was dark. Not too dark that you couldn’t see anything but dark enough that you had to use your torches. “I hate this, ew, this water feels so murky. It’s probably sewage water, filled with shit and piss. I think I’m going to throw up just thinking about it”, Jisung said, being dramatic, as per usual. “Jisung, if you don’t stop, I will turn you into a human flashlight because I will shove this flashlight so far up your ass, your entire body will start glowing”, Seungmin threatened, getting ready to shove the flashlight up his ass. 

“Hey guys, stop it”, Chan said, suddenly going quiet. Everyone else went quiet too, wondering what Chan heard. That’s when they heard splashing coming from a distance. “I swear to god, if that’s an infected piece of shit, I will wreak havoc”, Jisung said, not wanting to move. “Stop being dramatic”, Lee Know said, who also wasn’t moving. 

The splashing got closer, putting all of you on edge. “What the fuck is that?!” Felix said, shining his flashlight. That’s when an infected submerged out of the water, charging at you. You fired your gun, shooting it, causing it to fall back into the water with a massive splash. “That was close”, Jeongin said. “You still going to wreak havoc, Jisung?” Seungmin said jokingly, knowing full well that Jisung won’t do that. “Shut up, Seungmin”, Jisung said, rolling his eyes.

You progressed further through the subway, thankfully being able to walk normally, now that you reached part of it that wasn’t flooded. You reached the end of the subway, but it was blocked due to rubble blocking the exit. “Well, shit. How are we supposed to get out?” Hyunjin said, feeling stumped. “Hey, guys? Does that look like a way out?” Jeongin asked, pointing to a hole in the roof. 

“That does look like the way out but, how are we supposed to get up there?” Chan asked, since there is no way up onto the subway train to get to the top. “We could boost others up there, I guess? It’s a risk, but it’s the only thing I can think of”, Lee Know said, everyone agreeing with him. It is a risk but it’s the only thing that should work.

You started boosting others onto the subway train, one after the other. It was going smoothly, like nothing bad was going to happen. But oh, you were so wrong. Jisung, Jeongin, Hyunjin and you were the last ones to be boosted up onto the train, and that’s when you started to hear the infected coming closer to you. 

“Shit, hurry up”, Jisung said, being the next one to be boosted up. Hyunjin helped him, Jisung grabbing Chan’s hand, pulling him up. Next was Jeongin, grabbing Chan’s hand, almost falling as he stood up on top of the train. You could see infected in the distance, coming closer, their groans haunting you. “You’re next, y/n”, Hyunjin said, not giving you a chance to protest as he lifted you up. You grabbed Chan’s hand, pulling you up. 

“Hyunjin, grab my hand”, Chan said, holding his hand for Hyunjin to grab. Hyunjin grabbed his hand, and as soon as Chan started to pull him up, the infected held onto Hyunjin’s ankle, digging its nails into his flesh. He screamed in agony, feeling blood trickle down his ankle. You got your gun out, shooting the infected, it’s hand letting go of Hyunjin’s ankle. You managed to pull him up onto the train, Hyunjin almost collapsing into your arms. Hyunjin leaned on you, all of you leaving the subway. 

You waited until you were safe before checking Hyunjin’s ankle. He sat down, rolling his pant leg up, revealing his ankle. “It doesn’t look too bad, thankfully”, you said, wrapping a bandage around the wound. “Hopefully I don’t turn. You don’t want to date a cannibalistic psychopath”, Hyunjin joked, which you didn’t find funny. “Hey, it didn’t bite me. You only get infected if they bite you, or eat you”, he said, which he did have a point. You only turn if an infected person eats you, or just even a bite. You gave him some medicine for it so it doesn’t end up getting infected.

“Are you able to walk?” you asked him, helping him up. He didn’t stumble or fall over so that answers your question. “We should stay here for the night, get some sleep. Luckily this place has lots of food so we’ll be able to eat”, Chan said, putting his bag down. You all made a place to sleep, getting as comfortable as you could. Everyone seemed to fall asleep straight away after eating but you couldn’t seem to fall asleep. Your mind just wouldn’t shut off. You kept thinking about Changbin, Minhyung trying to find you, Hyunjin. 

After a while though, you somehow managed to fall asleep. Unfortunately, though, you didn’t end up in dreamland. You ended up having a nightmare, which you haven’t had since you were younger.

“y/n? I’m going to find you”, Minhyung said, his voice full of venom. You were hiding in a bathroom, the door locked. You were holding your breath so as to not make a noise. You had tears streaming down your face, your mascara staining your cheeks. You accidentally sobbed loudly, which Minhyung heard. He stood outside the bathroom door, his breathing erratic. 

“I know you’re in there, y/n. Open the door for me, please”, his voice sounded oddly calm, despite his intentions. He knows you’re in there so there’s no point in trying to hide anymore. “Just leave me alone”, you cried, wanting all this to be over. You found a baseball bat in the corner of the bathroom, grabbing it. “If you don’t open this door in 10 seconds, I will break it down”, he said, and you knew he wasn’t just saying it because he will actually break it down.

“10”

You continued to sit there, holding the baseball bat.

“9”

Your breathing got heavier.

“8”

You thought about the times when Minhyung was actually nice, but it was all a facade and you wish you never met him.

“7”

Your hold on the baseball got tighter, gripping the handle.

“6”

You contemplated whether to unlock the door or not.

“5”

You took a deep breath.

“4”

You stood up.

“3” 

You walked towards the door slowly, tears still streaming down your face, your vision slightly blurry.

“2”

You made it to the door, holding the lock.

“1”

You unlocked the door, but not opened the door yet.

“Attagirl”.

That’s all he said as he slammed the door open, but he wasn’t expecting you to whack him over the head with the baseball bat. He fell to the ground with a thud, giving you a chance to run out of the house. You ran down the stairs, not bothering to put on any shoes as you opened the front door. You were expecting to see the street in front of your house but you were surrounded by darkness. You walked through the darkness, trying to find the light.

All of a sudden, Changbin’s lifeless body appeared in front of you. But instead of him lying there, he had turned into a cannibalistic psychopath, running towards you. You tried to scream but you couldn’t, no sound coming out of your mouth. You ran in the opposite direction, trying to find something to break you from this nightmare. You kept running for what seemed like ages but when you turned around, Changbin was still there but so were the others. They were all infected, blood coming out of their mouths, their eyes sunken into their sockets. You tried to scream again but still, no sound came out. You moved backwards, and you felt yourself falling. You continued falling for god knows how long, until you felt light. That’s when you realised you were surrounded by water. You tried swimming to the surface but the more you swam, the further away from the surface you were. 

“y/n?” you heard a voice calling your name but you couldn’t make out who it was. You felt like you were drowning, your lungs becoming filled with water, and your body started to sink into the dark abyss.

“y/n!” a voice woke you up from your nightmare, sweat covering your entire body. You sat up and saw who woke you up: Hyunjin. So that’s who was calling you. You fell into him, crying into his chest. “Did you have a nightmare? Do you want to talk about it?” Hyunjin asked, to which you shook your head, not wanting to replay the dark torments of your mind. You stayed like that for a few minutes, until you calmed down. When you lifted your head off his chest, you didn’t realise how close you were until Hyunjin’s face was inches away from yours. Hyunjin leaned in, planting a sweet and gentle kiss on your lips, his hand stroking your hip. It was only a short kiss, but you enjoyed it. He planted a kiss on the tip of your nose, making you giggle at the sensation. 

The moment was ruined by the sound of Lee Know waking up, his cat senses alerting something. “You good, bro?” Hyunjin asked him. “I think something bad is about to happen”, he said, and right at that moment, the door was kicked down, waking the others up. “What the fuck?” Chan said, immediately waking up. Jisung stood up, wondering what happened. When he came face to face to whoever broke the door down, he put his hands up, as if he was surrendering. 

“Don’t move”, the guy said, aiming his gun at Jisung. “Please don’t shoot”, Jisung said, trying his best to be brave when deep down, he was scared shitless. “Where is y/n?” the guy asked, and at the sound of your name, you hid behind a wall. “I have no idea who that is”, Jisung said, trying to be oblivious. “Kid, don’t try and fool me. You know exactly who I’m on about”, the guy said, putting his finger on the trigger. 

“Dude, what do you want? Why do you want y/n so badly?” Jisung said, subtly looking behind him to look at the others, hoping you were nowhere in sight. “Minhyung wants them. How should I put this? He wants to… make things up with them”, the guy said, walking closer to Jisung. Jisung walked backwards, which the guy didn’t like. “I said don’t fucking move!” causing Jisung to freeze in his spot.

Lee Know slowly appeared behind the wall, making himself known to the mysterious guy. “Do you know how he treated y/n? You know he tried to kill them, right?” Jisung said, being careful with his words. “Oh really? That’s not what he said. He said it was the other way around”, the guy said, still pointing his gun at Jisung. “That’s bullshit”, you accidentally shouted, realising that you just made yourself known. 

“Move out of my way, kid. I only want y/n”, the guy said, but Jisung didn’t move. “I said move!” he shouted, making Jisung flinch. “But you told me not to move”, Jisung said, which is true, he did tell me not to move. The guy was getting agitated, and he was about to pull the trigger, which Lee Know saw. Lee Know lunged for the guy, and he tackled him to the ground. The gun went off, but no one knows where the bullet hit. 

The guy grabbed his gun and left, not bothering to get you due to what just happened. That’s when Jisung saw Lee Know on the floor. “Fuck, Lee Know!” he said, running over to him. “I-i’m okay. I think”, Lee Know said, holding his abdomen. “Guys, help”, Jisung called to the others, you running to his side. You pulled Lee Know’s t-shirt up, and you saw that he was shot in the abdomen. Blood was trickling out of the wound, freaking Jisung out.

“Hey, Chan, grab the first aid kit out of my bag please”, you asked, Chan immediately ran over to your bag and grabbed the first aid kit. He handed it to you, opening the kit. “This might hurt so I apologise in advance”, you said, making Lee Know nervous. You tried to stop the bleeding by using a sterile cloth, applying pressure to it. Lee Know winced in pain, squinting his eyes. You managed to stop the bleeding, and you went to use some tools to try and remove the bullet but Lee Know stopped you. 

“Don’t try to remove it. That might make it worse. Just leave it in”, he said, making you nervous. “Are you sure? Who knows if it hit any organs”, you said, still applying pressure. “Hey, if anything happens to me, at least I died a hero”, he said, trying to lighten the mood, which was sort of working but at the same time, wasn’t. You left the bullet in, putting a bandage around his abdomen. You helped him up, his abdomen feeling like it was on fire. Despite it hurting like a bitch, he managed to stand up.

“We better keep moving. It looks like the sun is coming up”, Chan said, grabbing his things. You all left, the sun hitting your face as soon as you got outside. 

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

It’s been a couple of hours since Lee Know was shot, and everything seemed to be going okay. All of you were walking along a river, which was filled with moss and leaves, no ducks or fish to be found. You were too focused on the surroundings in front of you, you didn’t notice Lee Know struggling, until it was too late. 

“I don’t feel too good”, Lee Know said, and his body collapsed to the floor. He started coughing up blood, blood was also coming out of his nose, trickling down to his chin. You all rushed to him, trying to wake him up. “Guys, he won’t wake up, what do we do?” Jisung freaked out, his mind going into overdrive. You lifted up his t-shirt, checking his wound. You lifted up the bandage, and saw that his wound had become infected. Pus was oozing out of the wound and even though you’re not a professional, you know that that is not a good sign.

“Shit”, you said, your hands shaking. You’re not a professional so you’re not sure what to do. “We need to do something”, Jisung said, tears welling up in his eyes. He didn’t want to lose his best friend, his soulmate. Chan checked his pulse and his pulse was very weak. “Shit, his pulse is weak”, he said. “Lee Know, wake up. We need you. I-i need you, please”, Jisung was a sobbing mess at this point. “Wake up!” Jisung screamed, the rest of you just sitting there, not knowing what to do. 

“He’s gone”, Chan said after checking his pulse again, tears streaming down his face. “No, he can’t be! We need to fucking do something!” Jisung screamed at the top of his lungs, his sobs becoming full on wailing. His whole body was shaking at this point, and he was starting to hyperventilate. “I’m sorry”, you said, guilt filling your whole body. You felt like you didn’t do enough to treat his wound, and you felt like shit because of it. “No, don’t apologise. It’s not your fault y/n, you did everything you could. Besides, you’re not a professional”, Hyunjin said, squeezing your shoulder. 

“No, you’re right. You should be sorry”, Jisung said, not thinking about what he’s saying. You looked confused, standing up. “You’re acting like I’m the one who shot him”, you said, trying not to take offence since Jisung isn’t thinking, his mind all over the place. “No, but you’re the one who treated his wound. You shouldn’t have listened to him and took the bullet ou, then maybe he would still be fucking alive”, Jisung shouted, his face looked angry. 

“Jisung, stop. You’re not thinking straight”, Hyunjin said, walking towards him. Jisung ended up punching him in the face, knocking him to the ground. That’s when Jisung realised what he just did. “I-i’m so sorry”, he said, the anger turned back into sadness. Hyunjin knew he didn’t mean any of that so he let it go, standing up and going over to hug him, which Jisung accepted. 

“W-we should bury him”, Jisung said whilst wiping his eyes. Luckily there was a random shovel close to them (someone else probably buried a loved one or something), digging a hole in the grass, placing Lee Know’s lifeless body in the ground before filling the hole. You created a makeshift grave, with Lee Know’s name on it. You sat by his grave for a while, not saying a word.

“We should go”, Jisung said, standing up and walking off without saying another word. You all followed him, walking in silence, apart from the odd bird sounds. 

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

It’s been 2 months since the deaths of Changbin and Lee Know, and just over 3 months since the outbreak started. It’s now winter, snow covering the ground and trees, making it look like a winter wonderland. Which it would be, if there weren’t flesh eating monsters walking around.

Ever since that day, something in Jisung changed. He wasn’t chatty like he used to, not even cracking a single joke. His bubbly personality disappeared, turning him into a different person. He became more serious, which sort of scared you in a way. But at the same time, it made it easier for all of you to survive.

You were currently in Busan, walking through an abandoned shopping mall. There was broken glass everywhere, all the shops either shut down or completely ransacked. “Hey, look what I found”, Jeongin said, picking up an old robot, which was covered in dust. “It looks as old as you, Chan”, Seungmin said, trying to lighten the mood. Everyone laughed, even Jisung. You missed his laugh, even if it was only a short one. You looked around the shopping mall, not looking for anything in particular but wanting to see if you could find anything interesting. 

Apart from the occasional spoken words between the group, it was deathly quiet. Like, too quiet. It scared you. Despite it being empty, apart from you and the others, you felt like you were being watched. You turned around and as soon as you did, you saw Minhyung. Well, you thought you did. He charged at you screaming, holding a baseball bat. You screamed and crouched into a ball, cowering. When you didn’t feel the sensation of being hit with a baseball bat, you looked up, and saw no one there. 

“Hey, y/n, are you okay?!” Hyunjin asked, rushing over to you, seeing you sitting on the floor. “I-i’m good. I think. Fuck, now I think I’m having nightmares while I’m awake”, you said, suddenly feeling exhausted after what just happened. All of a sudden, you felt a panic attack coming on, which is probably the reason why you started to feel exhausted. Your breathing became heavier, your eyes stinging. 

“Guys, help”, Hyunjin shouted to the others, needing a hand to help you overcome your panic attack. “We’re a bit occupied at the moment”, Chan shouted, and that’s when Hyunjin saw the others fighting off the infected. Where the fuck did they come from? He didn’t even hear them. You felt like you were drowning, everything around you becoming muffled. The last time you had a panic attack was when you were a teenager, when you were doing your exams. Thinking back at it, doing your exams was nothing compared to the situation you’re currently in.

You couldn’t breathe, gasping for breath. Your heart felt heavy, whilst your entire body felt light, like you were surrounded by water. You couldn’t even concentrate on what Hyunjin was saying, not comprehending what he was saying, it just sounded like gibberish. Whilst Hyunjin was trying, but currently struggling, to calm you down, the others were continuing to fight off the infected. One of the infected has Seungmin trapped against the glass balustrade railing, struggling to push it away from him. He could feel the glass starting to break from the amount of force he is being pushed by the infected, scared for his life. He didn’t want to die like this. He wants to grow old, surrounded by loads of dogs he’s rescued, with the love of his life. 

The glass finally hit its breaking point, the glass smashing as Seungmin and the infected started to fall through it, starting to fall from the top floor of the shopping mall. Jeongin saw, his eyes widening. “Seungmin!” he shouted, running towards them. Everything happened in slow motion, Jeongin watching as Seungmin’s body started to fall off the top floor, Jeongin going as quick as he could. Seungmin closed his eyes, not wanting to accept his fate, but he soon felt someone grab his wrist. He opened his eyes and saw Jeongin, who gripped onto his wrist for dear life. The infected grabbed onto Seungmin’s ankle, trying to pull him down but Jeongin was stronger. The infected’s grip loosened on Seungmin’s ankle, plummeting to its death. Jeongin pulled Seungmin up onto the floor, Seungmin clinging onto the younger.

Seungmin isn’t the one to cry in front of others, not wanting to show weakness. But right now, he was too exhausted to care, immediately crying as soon as Jeongin pulled him into his body, hugging him. “I’m so fucking tired”, Seungmin cried, still clinging onto Jeongin. 

After god knows how long, Hyunjin managed to calm you down from your panic attack, holding your face in his hands. Your breathing went back to normal, your vision becoming clearer and your hearing no longer muffled. “Is everyone okay?” Chan asked, looking around to check on everyone. He saw Seungmin clinging onto Jeongin, Hyunjin hugging you and Jisung standing over some dead infected. However, he couldn’t see Felix.

“Felix?!” Chan shouted, trying to find him but couldn’t. That’s when he heard a distant voice. “Guys? You might want to come look at this”, it was Felix. Where the fuck did he go? You and the others followed Felix’s voice, finding him next to a shop full of dead bodies. Not infected, just normal people, all dead. It looks like they were all tortured, some of them still tied up. Most of the dead were adults, but there were also some children. Who the fuck would do something like this?!

“We should get out of here”, Chan said, all of you agreeing with him. You all ran out of the shopping mall as quickly as you could, not wanting to be in there a minute longer. You all made it out of there, feeling the snow under your feet again. You could hear the snow crunching under your feet whenever you walked forward, the sound of it satisfying you for some reason. You’ve loved the snow ever since you were a kid, always making snowmen or throwing snowballs at your friends, or just even running around in it, seeing your small footprints in the snow.

You were walking over a hill, about to walk down it when you saw some people in the distance, who you assumed were some of Minhyung’s men. You all crouched down, hiding behind some bushes to hide yourself. “How are we going to get past them?” Felix whispered. “I have an idea but, it’s very risky and stupid”, you said and when you said ‘risky and stupid’, everyone protested, not wanting you to get yourself killed. “They’ll just think I’m surrendering myself, they won’t even suspect anything because they all seem too dumb to notice”, you said, and despite the others hating the idea, it was the best one you could think of.

You stood up and started walking down the hill, holding your hands in the air. Once one of the men saw you, he aimed his gun at you. “Hey, you’ve been trying to find me, right? Well, here I am”, you said, trying not to show fear. “Wow, I can’t believe you actually showed up. Why take you to Minhyung when we can have you all to ourselves?” another guy said, his words making you feel sick.

There were about 5 of them, and they were all starting to walk towards you. You pretended to be innocent, so they didn't suggest anything. You smiled at them, putting your hands on your hips. One of them went to grab you but before they did, you grabbed his arm and twisted it, making him yell out in pain. You kicked his shin, causing him to fall to the ground. One of the other men lunged at you, getting ready to tackle you but you were quicker, punching him square in the face, knocking him straight to the ground. Another man grabbed you from behind, trapping your arms. You headbutted him with the back of your head, causing him to let go of you, giving you the opportunity to turn around and grab your gun, shooting him in the gut. He fell backwards, clutching his abdomen. There were now 2 men left, and you turned around to face them. This was your opportunity to use your martial arts skills. They both launched themselves at you, getting ready to hit you. You dodged both of their attacks, twisting one of the guy's arms and flipped him over, his back landing on the ground. You kicked the other guy in the shin as he was about to grab you from behind, and you did a backflip over him. You grabbed his head and got your knife out of your pocket, slicing his throat, him now bleeding to death. You didn’t want the other three waking up and coming after you so you grabbed your gun and shot them all.

You put your knife and gun back in your pockets, seeing the others running down the hill towards you. “Well, that went better than I expected”, you said, smiling at them, as if you just didn’t kill 5 guys on your own. 

“y/n, that was… awesome. Where the fuck did you learn those moves?” Jisung said, never seen you move like that before. “Oh, I did martial arts as a teenager”, you said casually, continuing on walking, stepping over the dead bodies. 

The guys didn’t say anything else as they followed you, also stepping over the dead bodies. You ended up walking through the woods, which looked very creepy, especially with snow covering the ground so you couldn’t see if there were traps hidden underneath. You treaded carefully, not wanting to risk anything because who knows what psychopath has hidden underneath it.

“y/n, why do you think someone has hidden traps under the snow? I mean, it’s kinda stupid”, Seungmin said, which is true but at the same time, in the current circumstances, anything can happen. “I don’t know, there’s just something off about this. I can feel it”, you said and as soon as you said that, a rabbit came running past you and got caught in a bear trap, revealing the trap from underneath the snow, its tiny body getting impaled by it.

“Well, shit”, is all Seungmin said. Seungmin treaded more carefully, not wanting to become like that rabbit. He took better care of where he placed his feet, his whole body rushing with anxiety. You managed to get to the other side safely with no hiccups, letting out a breath you didn’t realise you were holding. Hyunjin, Chan and Felix were the next ones to get to the other side, standing by you. Jisung, Jeongin and Seungmin were still struggling, you started to get anxious for them. Jisung was the next one to reach the safe point, accidentally running into Hyunjin, knocking him over. 

“Really, bro?” Hyunjin said, pushing Jisung off him. “Hey, I could have died, you know”, Jisung said, glaring at him. As they both stood up, Jeongin was standing there, waiting for Seungmin. “Come one Seungmin, you can do it”, Jeongin said, trying to help him, but it wasn’t working. Seungmin was almost to the end when the unfortunate thing happened. Seungmin put his left foot down, and his ankle was impaled by a bear trap, causing him to scream out in pain.

“Fuck, Seungmin!” you shouted, running to him. “Get it off me!” Seungmin yelled, holding his leg. You tried to pry it open but it wouldn’t work. “It won’t open”, you said, panicking. “What do we do?!”

You walked backwards, your anxiety through the room. You felt helpless at this point, watching as Seungmin continued to scream in pain, blood staining the snow. After god knows how long, Seungmin seemed to have given up. “You guys go, save yourselves”, he said, tears staining his cheeks. “There’s no point in trying to open it. Just go, please”, he said but none of you moved. “I said go!” Seungmin screamed and as soon as he closed his mouth, a bullet went through his forehead, his body falling to the ground. 

You screamed, feeling someone grab you from behind. The others were also being grabbed, cloths being put over their mouths, causing them to pass out. You thrashed around against the person but it was no use. You had a cloth put over your mouth too, making you pass out.

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

You

When you came to, you looked at your surroundings. You saw you were in a cage, concrete walls either side of you. You sat up, the cold floor giving you chills. You tried to get a look outside the cage but you couldn’t see much, just a big table and… sharp knives on the walls? You were in big trouble.

“Ah, I see you’re awake”, a voice said, making you freeze. It was Minhyung, and he had a scar on his left eye, from when you dug your nails into it. “What the fuck do you want from me?!” you shouted, standing up. “I want to make amends”, is all he said and you scoffed. “Make amends? What the fuck is that supposed to mean?” you said, rolling your eyes.

“Oh, babe, you’ll see soon, don’t worry”, hearing him call you ‘babe’ made you almost throw up in your mouth. That’s when another person walked into the room, holding a piece of meat. “You didn’t leave any evidence, right?” Minhyung asked him, and the guy shook his head, wiping his bloody hand on his pants. Shit, that can’t be good. 

“Now, be a good little doll and listen to me. I want you to join me. We can survive this, together. We can be together like old times”, Minhyung said, coming closer to the cage. Like old times?! Who the fuck does he think he is?

“Old times? Like when you tried to kill me?” you shouted, holding the cage door. That’s when you saw the cage door keys hanging on his belt, and that’s when you had an idea. “You know what, that doesn’t seem too bad, you know? It’ll be nice”, you said, putting a fake smile on your face. You put your hand out through a gap in the door, and as soon as Minhyung was about to hold your hand, you grabbed his fingers and broke them, making him yell in pain. You attempted to grab his keys but you couldn’t. Minhyung grabbed your hand, pulling you, causing you to smack into the door hard, and fell to the floor.

“You little shit. You have until sundown to make your decision and if you choose the wrong one, well, then you won’t like what happens after that”, Minhyung said, leaving the room and slamming the door shut.

The guys

When the guys came to, they noticed you were nowhere to be found. They saw Seungmin lying on the ground, blood surrounding his head. Chan screamed out of anger, frustration and sadness. 3 of their friends are now dead and who knows what could happen to you. “We need to find y/n, and quickly”, Hyunjin said, rushing out of the woods, the others following behind him. 

It started snowing, and it started snowing really hard. They could hardly see anything through the blizzard, making their search for you even harder. “Can you hear that?” Felix asked, and they stood still. They could hear church bells, and they sounded close. They continued walking through the blizzard, covering their eyes. Hyunjin could see a silhouette of someone, and he turned around, pointing his gun at him. Hyunjin was quicker, firing his gun at him, knocking the guy to the ground. 

They ended up fighting a lot of Minhyung’s guys, taking them all out. The blizzard didn’t stop them from progressing further, needing to find you as soon as possible.

The only light source they had was from fire pits, which also warmed them up at the same time. “I really hope we’re getting closer, I’m freezing”, Felix said, shivering. All of a sudden, someone tackled Felix to the ground, hitting him over and over. Chan grabbed the person from behind, throwing him off Felix, and threw him on the ground. Chan hit the guy over and over in the face, before grabbing his knife and stabbed him in the neck, blood spurting out of his throat.

“You ok, Lix?” Chan asked him as he helped him up, Felix was sure his nose was broken and he had a busted lip but he didn’t care about that, he cared about saving you. All he did was nod and continue on walking. They ended up behind a building, seeing a way inside. They walked through the gap, inside from the blizzard. That’s when Hyunjin noticed your bag on a shelf.

“y/n is definitely in here”, is all he said, going through a door.

You

Minhyung came back a few hours later, standing in front of the cage. “Have you made up your mind yet?” he asked, his hands on his hips. “I’ll go with you… to take you to your fucking grave”, you shouted, spitting at him. He didn’t say anything, opening up the cage and grabbed you. Another guy grabbed your other arm, pulling you onto the table. “Don’t fucking touch me”, you screamed, trying to get out of their grip but it was no use. 

Minhyung held you down on the table as the other guy grabbed a meat cleaver, getting ready to cut your arm off. “I’m infected!” you panicked, screaming out those 2 words. “You’re lying”, is all Minhyung said, not believing you. “Pull up my sleeve, see if I’m lying”, you didn’t even think about what you’re saying, fear taking over your body. 

Minhyung pulled up your sleeve, trying to find a bite on your arm but he didn’t. Without thinking, you grabbed the meat cleaver off the table beside you and hit the guy in the arm, causing his arm to spray blood, him screaming out in pain. You kicked Minhyung, making him fly back. You got off the table and ran out of the room, running into a room which looked like a dining area. You hid behind a table, seeing broken plates all over the floor. 

“Where are you, y/n?” you heard his voice, trying to calm your breathing. You talk a step forward, accidentally standing on a broken plate, revealing your hiding place. Minhyung walked further into the room, trying to find you. You carefully walked around the room, hiding behind another table. “I will find out, and I will end you”, Minhyung threatened, hearing him coming closer. You peaked your head above the table, and you saw him standing there. Smoke was filling up the room and the place caught fire, the heat of the fire making you sweat. 

You saw the front door, mentally planning your escape without getting caught. When you thought you were safe, you made a beeline for it but unfortunately, Minhyung grabbed you, pulling you to the ground. He went on top of you, hitting you. “When will you learn to never disobey me?!” he shouted, hitting you again. You turned your head, seeing his machete behind you. 

He got off you, giving you an opportunity to crawl away. You got on your stomach, crawling towards the machete. You almost got it when Minhyung grabbed you again, turning you over so you were on your back again.

“What, you thought I’d actually let you go? You stupid, stupid whore”, he said, wrapping his hands around your throat. You reached your hand behind you, trying to grab the machete. He tightened his grip around your throat, cutting off your airways. You struggled to breath, gasping for air. You felt faint, on the verge of passing out. You tried reaching for the machete again and this time, you managed to grab it. You picked it up, slashing Minhyung with it. He yelled and you flipped the both of you over, you now on top of him. You stabbed him over and over again, blood splashing you in the face. Even when you knew he was dead, you still continued to stab him, screaming bloody murder. 

You felt someone grab you from behind, making you scream out in fear. You were turned around, and that’s when you saw who grabbed you: Hyunjin. “Hey, it’s me”, he said, holding your face in your hands. “H-he tried..”, you tried to say but Hyunjin stopped you. “It’s ok, you’re safe now, baby. I’ve got you”, he said, hugging you as you cried into his chest. 

Hyunjin helped you up, leaving the building with the others, giving you your bag. Chan looked at Minhyung, seeing his lifeless body on the floor, the machete still impaling his chest. He decided to grab it, taking it with him. Minhyung didn’t need it anymore anyway.

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

A couple months have passed since that day and you’re still traumatised. It’s now spring, the warmer air hitting your skin. You haven’t spoken about that day since it happened and the guys won’t ask you, letting you talk about it until you’re ready. You were walking slower than the guys, walking a bit further behind, lost in your own thoughts. You didn’t realise Hyunjin was talking to you until you walked into him, your face hitting his back. 

“Huh, what? Oh yeah, sure”, you said, not even knowing what he said. “Are you okay? I mean, that’s a stupid question but, you know what I mean”, Hyunjin said, realising that the question he asked was, indeed, stupid because neither one of you are okay, especially with what has happened the past 6 months.

“What did you say?” you asked, dodging his question. “I’m going to be honest, I completely forgot what I said”, causing you to roll your eyes, laughing slightly. “Hey guys, the road is blocked so we can’t go this way”, Chan said, and he was right. The road was blocked with abandoned cars, as well the road being destroyed, cars fallen into a makeshift pot hole. “Is there any other way we can go?” Felix asked.

“I mean, we can just go left and go around”, Jeongin said, pointing left and seeing a path which cuts straight through underneath the road, into a tunnel underground. You went inside the tunnel, turning on your flashlights, since the tunnel was dark. “Fuck, it stinks in here”, Jisung said, holding his nose. “Well, we are underground so, you should expect it to smell like shit”, Jeongin said, thinking Jisung was on about the sewage smell. “No, not that. I mean, it smells like rotting meat”, Jisung said, gagging.

As they progressed further into the tunnel, they found the source of where the smell was coming from. “Fucking hell, that’s disgusting”, Hyunjin said, feeling like he was going to throw up. Jeongin, however, did end up throwing up, hunched over in a corner as he puked his guts up. “You good, bro?” Jisung asked Jeongin, going over to him and rubbing his back. 

“What the fuck is that?” Jeongin asked as soon as he felt better, wiping his mouth with his sleeve. “I think that’s what happens to someone when they progress further into the infection. They just… turn into that”, Chan said, not knowing how to describe it. The infected became one with the wall, fungi growing out of it, their features now unrecognisable. You all walked past it, wandering further into the tunnel.

“I really hope more of those things aren’t down here”, you said, not wanting to come into contact with them. They look more terrifying and disgusting than the regular infected you’ve seen. As soon as you said that, you heard a deep roar, coming from further deep in the tunnel. “Ok, what the fuck was that? That did not sound friendly”, Jisung said, and his question was soon answered as a huge monster looking thing came charging through the tunnel. 

“What the fuck?!” you shouted, firing your gun at it. The gun did nothing to it, however, as it ricocheted off of it. “How the fuck are we supposed to kill this thing?!”

“I’ve seen in movies that fire works”, Jisung said, but unfortunately you didn’t have fire. “Jisung, this isn’t a fucking movie, this is real life. Besides, where the heck are we supposed to find fire is this godforsaken tunnel?” Hyunjin said, still firing his gun at the monster. The monster continued to charge towards you, and you jumped out of the way. Unfortunately, Jisung wasn’t as lucky as you and the others, the monster throwing Jisung against the wall, his head smashing against the wall. 

“Jisung!” Chan shouted, running towards Jisung but the monster blocked him. The monster was completely covered head to toe in fungi, and it was twice the size of you. It was huge, and it smelled disgusting, like raw meat that’s gone bad. That’s when you remembered that you had a molotov in your bag, which you learned how to make a month back. You took it out of your bag, lighting the rag on fire. 

“Hey, you smelly little fucker”, you shouted, causing the monster to turn around. It roared at you and that’s when you threw the molotov at it, the monster catching fire. You then fired your gun, and it worked. The monster screeched as if it was in pain, and after a few more shots of your gun, the monster was dead, its body falling to the ground with a thud.

You ran over to Jisung, seeing him unconscious on the floor. “Will he be okay?” you asked, looking at Chan. Chan checked Jisung’s head, seeing blood gushing out of his head. You grabbed your first aid kit from your bag, handing it to Chan. Chan managed to patch Jisung’s head, the blood stopping. “Thankfully his injury isn’t life threatening. He’ll be okay, though I think he’ll have a concussion”, Chan said, giving you your first aid kit back, putting it in your bag. 

“How are we going to wake him up?” Felix asked, poking Jisung on the cheek. “Well, I don’t think poking him will wake him”, Felix said, pouting. You thought of an idea but you don’t think the others will like the idea. You gave Hyunjin a look and Hyunjin just shook his head. “No, nu uh. I’m not kissing him”, Hyunjin said, standing back. “Wow, you’re acting as if you’re in love with him. Plus, I wasn’t thinking of kissing him. Unless…”, you said, pretending to think. 

Hyunjin just shoved your shoulder, but not too hard. “I was thinking of hitting him, it’s the only thing I can think of”, you said. You don’t want to hit your friend but at the same time, it’s the only way you can wake him up. “I volunteer”, Felix said, raising his hand but the look you gave him made him put his hand down. “Who’s the strongest out of the 4 of us?” you asked, excluding Felix because you know him well enough that if he ends up hitting Jisung, he’ll accidentally hurt himself, and you don’t want that to happen. 

Whilst the guys were discussing why they think they were the strongest, you decided to hit Jisung instead, not letting the guys have the chance to do it. As soon as you hit Jisung, he woke up almost immediately. “What did I miss?” is the first thing he said when he woke up, seeing himself lying on the floor. “And why does my head hurt? And why does Chan have 2 heads?”, Jisung said. “Yep, definitely a concussion”, Chan said, ignoring Jisung’s comment of him having 2 heads, and helped him up. 

“Let’s get out of here”, you said, Jisung leaning on Chan for support, so he doesn’t fall over. You progressed further through the tunnel, and you managed to get to a part of it that was light and higher up, part of the ceiling caved in. Due to part of the ceiling being caved in, there was a bus lying on its side, having fallen through the ground, ending up underground. There was also water flooding the tunnel. You had to climb onto the side wall to get to the bus, side shuffling along the wall so as to not fall. The others managed to jump onto the top of the bus, Jisung having the help from Chan, guiding him. They all went inside the bus through an open window, and they felt safe inside it.

It was your turn to jump onto the bus, grabbing the door and climbing on top of the bus, climbing in through the same window the others climbed through. You started walking carefully through the bus but after every single move you did, the bus started creaking, freaking you out. 

“We better get out of here quickly”, you said, not wanting to get trapped inside it. You managed to get to the other side of the bus, about to get out of there but unfortunately, something must have collapsed because the bus suddenly became submerged in water, all of you now being surrounded by it. You tried to swim to the other side of the bus, wanting to find an exit but there was none. Chan signalled to you that he was going to break a window, doing it with no problem, swimming through the now broken window. 

You all escaped through the broken window, swimming to the surface. You all swam to the top, gasping for air. “Where the hell are we?” Jisung asked, not knowing where you ended up. Unfortunately, you ended up in part of a river where there was a high current, being sucked down the stream. All of you were panicking again, not knowing what to do.

Hyunjin saw you heading towards a rock, and he managed to grab you, swapping your positions so that he was heading for the rock. He ended up smashing into the rock, knocking him out. The others were lucky as they were pulled straight towards dry land, crawling out of the water and onto the grass. Chan had to help you pull Hyunjin out of the water, lying his unconscious body on the ground.

“Hyunjin? Hyunjin, please, wake up”, you cried, trying to wake him up but nothing was working. As soon as you stood up and turned around, you felt yourself being tasered, your body seizing up, falling to the ground. Since you were tasered, you didn’t see the others fighting the people who caught you, causing them to also be tasered. 

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

When you woke up, it looked like you were in a hospital room. White painted the walls, some of the paint being chipped off the walls, medical tools lying on a table on the other side of the room. “Ah, I see you’re awake”, an unfamiliar voice said, a tall woman walking into the room. “Who the hell are you?” you asked, now sitting up on the bed. “Oh, I forgot to introduce myself. I’m Lea, and I’m part of a group called ‘Mayflower’. We’re trying to find a cure to this disease”, she said, leaning against the wall. 

“Where are my friends?” you asked, wanting to know what she has done to them. “Don’t worry, your friends are fine. And your friend with the concussion is resting at the moment after giving him some medicine”, Lea said, and you weren’t convinced. “Take me to them”, you said, getting up off the bed. As soon as you stood up, you were pushed back down again by a man in uniform.

“I’m sorry but, I can’t do that”, Lea said, holding a syringe. The guy held you down on the bed, you shouting profanities at him. “This will be over a lot sooner if you just stop struggling”, Lea said, moving the syringe closer to your neck. Before Lea could stick the syringe in your neck, you headbutted her, making her fall backwards. You grabbed the syringe off her, stabbing the guy in the leg, causing him to scream in pain. The guy ended up passing out a couple seconds later, his body hitting the floor.

“You fucker. Since you won’t cooperate, I don’t need you anymore. Guards, take them out of the building”, Lea said, and 2 guards barged into the room, grabbing you. You didn’t even protest, too tired to care. The guards dragged you down a corridor and once you were out of sight of anyone, you attacked them, hitting them over the head with their gun. You took their machine gun, holding on to it for dear life. 

You sneaked around the hospital, trying to find the others. You walked into a room, and saw Jeongin lying on the bed, still unconscious. You walked over to him, shaking him. Luckily he woke up straight away, but as soon as he opened his eyes, he freaked out. “Hey, it’s okay, it’s me”, you whispered, leading him out of the room, closing the door quietly behind you. 

“We need to find the others but in order to do that, we need to be quiet”, you whispered, explaining the plan to Jeongin. He nodded, going in the opposite direction as you. The plan was, you were going to check on Jisung whilst Jeongin went to go get Chan, Felix and Hyunjin. You were able to find Jisung with no problem, seeing him resting on the hospital bed. He woke up on his own accord as he heard the door open, and when he saw you, he sighed in relief. “I’m so glad to see you, y/n. I thought they were going to kill us”, Jisung said, getting up off the bed. He definitely seemed more with it now a couple of hours ago, his concussion gone. 

“Come on, lets go”, and you both left the room, going to find the others. You turned the corner and you saw 2 guards down the corridor, and you and Jisung hid behind the wall, breathing heavily. “How are we going to get past them?” Jisung asked, but luckily, you didn’t need to get past them because you suddenly heard the 2 guards bodies drop to the ground. You peaked round the corner, and you saw Jisung, Chan and Felix. 

“Jeongin, where’s Hyunjin?” you asked, not seeing him with them. You started to panic, awful situations going round your head. You couldn’t think straight, worry and fear overtaking your body as you took off, running down the corridor. “y/n, wait!” Chan whisper-screamed, but you didn’t listen. Your body was filled with fear, worry, but also anger at the same time. A couple of guards came around the corner, walking towards you. 

“Hey, stop there!” they shouted at you but you didn’t listen, firing the machine gut at them without hesitation, killing them at point blank. Any guards you saw that charged at you, you killed them all without hesitation, seeing nothing but red. You need Hyunjin back, and you will do that, no matter what it takes.

You ended up on the other side of the operation room, and that’s where you saw Hyunjin: he was lying on the operating table, wires coming out of his arms. You slammed the door open, barging in. All three surgeons who were in the room all stopped what they were doing, looking at you.

“Unhook him, now”, you said, your voice sounding threatening. You pointed the gun at the main surgeon, who had his arms up. “Don’t shoot, please”, he begged, walking backwards. “If you do what I say, then I won’t shoot you”, you said, hoping they would listen to you. Neither one of them moved, not wanting to unhook Hyunjin. 

“I said fucking unhook him!” you shouted, walking closer to them. The main surgeon grabbed a scalpel, going to use it as a weapon. He didn’t think as he charged at you, but you fired the machine gun at him, firing multiple bullets into him. He slammed back into the wall, his body sliding down it, blood staining the blue walls. You didn’t even think as you shot the other 2 surgeons, not wanting them to report back to Lea. you put the machine gun down, going straight towards Hyunjin. You unhooked the wires from his arms, holding him in your arms. 

Hyunjin looked peaceful, his features soft on his face. When you saw his chest rising up and down, you felt some sort of relief since you know that he’s still alive. The guys walked into the room, seeing Hyunjin lying on the operating table, and they thought their worst fears had come. 

“Is he…”, Jeongin was about to ask, but before he finished his sentence, you interrupted him. “He’s still alive, just sedated”, you said, trying to find something to wake him up with. You saw some smelling salts on the table, grabbing them. You put the smelling salts near his face, and he woke up a few seconds later. “Where am I?” he asked, looking around the room. “Lets not worry about that now, let’s just get out of here”, Chan said, leaving the room. 

Hyunjin leaned on you as you all tried to find the way out of the hospital, walking down some stairs. You managed to make it to the lower ground floor, walking through a door and ended up in the hospital car park. You picked the first car you found, getting in the car. Luckily the keys were already in the ignition, making your escape easier. 

Unfortunately, you weren’t going to be able to leave that easily as the car park doors still need to be opened. “I’ll go and try to open them”, Chan offered, getting out of the car, walking towards the door. As soon as Chan got to the door, Lea came barging out of the door to the car park, holding a gun.

“Chan, get down”, Jisung shouted to him, but it was too late. Lea fired her gun, the bullet flying through the air, and it hit Chan straight in the back of the head, his body falling to the ground almost immediately. You all screamed, seeing Chan now dead on the floor. You went to Lea and stood face to face with her, whilst the others ran towards the car park door.

“You fucking bitch. You seriously don’t know when to stop, do you?” you said, holding your right hand behind your back, hiding your gun. “If only one of you would actually cooperate with me. But no, you didn’t. All we were trying to do was find a cure but you all destroyed that chance. Now there is going to be no cure because of your fucking selfishness”, Lea shouted, pointing her gun at you.

“Oh, but there is a cure for this disease”, you said, confusing Lea. The next few seconds went by like a flash, you pulled your gun from behind your back and fired your gun, the bullet hitting Lea in the middle of her forehead. She dropped to the floor like a sack of potatoes, her gun dropping from her hand.

You ran towards the others, seeing Chan’s lifeless body lying on the ground. “How many more friends do we have to fucking lose before we’re out of this fucking mess?” Jisung yelled, hitting the car park door. That’s when Jisung noticed the buttons to open the door, pressing the big green button, the door now opening. 

“Hyunjin, can you drive?” Jisung asked him, Hyunjin nodding his head, sniffling as tears rolled down his cheeks. You all got into the car, Hyunjin turning the key in the ignition. He slammed his foot on the pedal, driving through the open door, driving as fast as he could, driving away from the hospital.

It had started raining lightly about an hour ago, and now the rain is really heavy, making it difficult for Hyunjin to see where he was going. “I can’t fucking see”, Hyunjin said, gripping the steering wheel, his fingers going white. He suddenly slammed on the brakes, the car coming to an abrupt stop. He got out of the car, slamming the door shut. You, Jeongin, Jisung and Felix stayed in the car while Hyunjin walked in front of the car, and started screaming, watching as he got soaked by the rain.

That’s when you all decided to get out of the car, not caring that you were getting soaked by the ferocious downpour. After a while, Hyunjin calmed down, breathing in and out, something he always does to calm himself down. Neither of you said anything, just listened to the sound of the rain, seeing it bounce off the ground.

The silence was soon interrupted by the sound of a plane, causing you to look up. You saw what looked like a military cargo plane flying through the sky, and that’s when you thought of something. “Wait, that plane in the sky means that we’ll be able to leave. If we get to the airport, we have a chance of getting on the next plane”, you said, feeling a slight chance of hope. “Yeah but who knows what could happen once we get on that plane”, Jisung said, trying to think realistically but at the same time, he really needed to leave the outbreak and start a fresh start in a new country.

You all got back in the car and Hyunjin turned the car around, racing towards the airport, going as fast as he could through the rain. 

You got to the airport in the nick of time, seeing another military cargo plane filling up with other people. You got out of the car, all of you rushing towards it. You tried to get on the plane but you were stopped. “Sorry but, you all can’t get on this plane. Only 3 of you can, the other 2 will have to stay here”, the soldier said, pushing you back. “Hey, you can’t do that. We need to get out of here”, Jisung said, getting in the soldiers personal space. 

“If you don’t step back, kid, I will shoot you”, the soldier said, pointing the gun against Jisung’s stomach. “What, in front of all these people? That won’t be good, will it?” Jisung said, not budging.

“Hey, let them all on, and that’s an order”, a familiar voice said, the soldier removing his gun and stepping to the side. That’s when you saw Jackson standing inside the plane, wearing a uniform. All of you walked inside the plane, sitting down. If it hadn’t been for Jackson, who knows what could have happened.

The door of the plane closed and for once in 6 months, you finally felt safe. You were finally leaving, but you wish the others were still here. The moment felt bittersweet, a few stray tears still rolling down your cheek. You rested your head on Hyunjin’s shoulder, closing your eyes, falling into a deep sleep, one that wasn’t full of nightmares.

[ultraviolet-cello]

Aw man. Today's the last day of @tristampparty and I am surprisingly sad about it. I'll be catching up the days I missed at some point, but I've chucked all that I've written, including today, into a google document and I apparently wrote 7.5k words over the course of episode 6 to today.

That's! A Lot!

I really wanna thank everyone who reblogged and gave me their additional thoughts/commentary, and special thanks to Revenantghost for organizing this whole thing! you do good work for this fandom i am giving u a gold star

With that, here we go into Episode 0 - High Noon at July. CWs for pregnancy discussion and a less detailed than last time but still present analysis of sexual assault and transphobia, marked with a [CW] Ofc, spoilers for Trimax and Tristamp

Cowboy kid Knives is something u can pry from my cold dead hands but it's also,,, I don't watch a lot of westerns, but the way Knives describes it seems like he likes the high action and justice. Which yea. yeah.

A lot of ppl interpret Vash then saying that he doesn't like that sorta stuff as him having always had pacifistic tendencies but I don't really read it that way? I just see him being rather similar to Trimax Vash - chill kid with his own interests and hobbies and Knives being the very oversensitive kid so outshines him initially.

Regardless of version of Trigun (except 98. 98 didn't know shit about knives lmao), Vash and Knives have always started off wanting to coexist and be peaceful; it's just how they reacted to it later that differs. In this case, Knives wants to stand up for his friends and make a peaceful world through that, and Vash is more passive in that he just wants to have faith in humanity.

Not to mention they are kids. Young, idealistic kids. This is pre-Tesla, they don't know the extent of how horrible the world is. The loss of innocence and subsequent breakdowns relating to The Horrors is yet to come.

[CW] Mmmmm they really don't make the pregnancy imagery subtle now do they dfgkjdfjk

I also think there's like - merit in also interpreting Knives as trans. Not Just because i think he's also very trans coded (A lot of his breakdowns and story arcs have reflections in how some trans men overcompensate masculinity in a Bad Way. That's a very small subsection of trans guys btw but I am speaking from experience. I got better tho). Anyway it makes the fact that Knives is disregarding Vash's bodily autonomy very much Worse if you take the male plants are trans analogy into it.

He's so far gone that he's willing to do to Vash what would be the worst thing to be done to him; Violating his body to rebuild and make him a perfect independent ("remind him of biological reality"), physically overpowering him ("taking the aggressor, commonly masculine role in sexual assault") to do what he wants. Disregarding the wants and needs of the Plants ("women +fem-presenting ppl that he originally set out to protect because he knew their experience and wanted to help and still has that trauma from witnessing that trauma")

Ofc that's just a reading of the scene, but I quite like it as a trans guy because that makes a really good villain with trans themes/motifs! I hate him so much (affectionate)

No, no she doesn't. Meryl is making a choice and she's gonna damn well stick to it! She's been given agency and she's gonna spend it in the most eldritch horrific scene that someone on that planet could spend it lmao. Well, no Knives takes most eldritch and horrific. Meryl's second tho

Okay this fucking scene drives me INSANE. This is a memory, clearly, but it's one that's being tampered with. Vash asks Knives if they can get along with humans, and then Knives immediately messes with the memory to make sure that he says that he'll protect Vash no matter what. But that is very clearly not what was originally said, so... What did he say? What was present day Knives so desperate to cut off?

I've talked about the narrative being biased against Knives a lot, but something I haven't talked about is that Knives kinda tries to contribute to that narrative a lot. He wants to seem like he never cared about humans, he wants to seem like he always planned this and was going for justice ever since he was a kid. He tells Vash the Tesla incident was just a small grain of sand, he uses Luida to tell everyone he wants to kill Rem, he's unbearably cruel to Vash to make his point. The only difference is that he wants to be right.

So he doesn't let us see what the kid version of him says, because that would contradict the narrative he's built for himself.

I really wanna give props to Studio Orange here for both the design and way they modelled the wing here, that's a really difficult task when the guy you're putting a wing on has a tight as hell bodysuit. But the anatomy holds up surprisingly well!

Also many people have pointed out that the plant mech looks a lot like Rem, and Knives staring into the face of a Plantish representation of his mother that is created and controlled subconsciously by his brother and saying he was rejected is. It sure is a scene!

ONCE AGAIN. INCREDIBLE EFFECTS. I also would like to once again point out the angelic motifs of Knives' design here.

Also Vash saying this is SO important because Meryl!!! is so important!!! I see a lot of people brush Meryl's space in the story off and it Enrages me because Meryl is one of the most important people to Vash. Aside from our frontline yaoi soldier Nicholas D. Wolfwood, Meryl has one of the most tangible impacts on Vash's character.

When Vash is in his breakdown in Trimax, Meryl is the one to kneel at his side and believe in him; When Vash is having his god awful horrible mindscape time in Tristamp, Meryl does the same. When Meryl is kidnapped in Trimax, Vash instantly jumps out of a window in the chance of getting her back. Vash trusted her enough to fire the ion cannon in the sand steamer episode. He immediately went to July the moment she and Roberto were kidnapped.

Meryl has so much faith in Vash and she's insane for that, but Vash recognizes her and that faith pays off in giving him the strength to carry on. He heard her voice, too :]

Also oh to be floating slowly down to the floor while you're a meter away from a cube with the power of an atom bomb while someone named Millions Knives is summoning millions of knives in front of u. Meryl has guts, man.

And now that Vash has gotten his gun back, he's back to using it as a tonfa! (check I think my analysis of episode 7 for more on that). Watching for the swing blocks, the forearm guard, and thwacking the knife tendrils out of the way

This fight scene has soooo much love and care and detail in it I love it so much actually. From seeing Vash's bullets to all the expressions and beautifully detailed firing, there's so much detail in a quick space that you really have to slow it down to see everything.

Seriously how strong is Knives to be able to have a feasible chance again Vash's prosthetic - and Vash matches him! Also the chomp

Now something that I have the shakiest of theories on is that after summoning The Cube, Vash starts moving in a far more controlled manner, he stands still when reloading, he has his movement flurries and then stands still to aim. Which uh. Studio Orange works in 3d, but those are 2d animation techniques. He's moving like 98 Vash.

There's a lot I admire about Studio Orange's use of 3d (I am a mid-tier 2d artist lmao) but I love love love that they're able to get all these really nice, creative camera shots that would be impractical in 2d (all those overhead shots, for example, have a chance of turning about bad/looking weird in 2d, and puts more strain on animators, but 3d you have the models from every angle already. 3d isn't easier by any means, but it does have its strengths)

Also. how Did Wolfwood get over here, dare I ask. mans climbed a tower in just a few minutes what is Wrong with him

Also a nice detail, Vash usually has perfect trigger discipline, but he falters here against Knives, probably because he's been already shooting, but hey, he's stressed. I'll give him a break.

I also appreciate exactly how superhuman Wolfwood is now. Tristamp Wolfwood is on a different level. Like 98 Wolfwood is just some (attractive) guy, Trimax Wolfwood has a lot of gory body horror going on and a subtle kind of endurance/strength, but Tristamp Wolfwood just jumped off a very tall building holding a grown woman and the Punisher and was fine.

Oh hey, same symbol on the tower as was on the sandsteamer and on Vash's wanted poster - symbol of July, probably

Very horribly, Knives probably did just save Vash's life here. But also the rest of July's life (though ofc he just extended the timer)....

I'm not quite sure When Vash started using plant bullets, but he's definitely using them now. Also the nails on his prosthetic are a nice touch!

THE FLYING SAUCER STRIKES AGAIN. I wonder if that's gonna be the basis of the Ark, if that's the route season 2 goes.

I also. Was that allI the Plants collected that escaped in this, or were there a bunch still running in July that get obliterated too? Did Knives inadvertently cause the death of more plants? I mean, when Knives gets revived in Trimax he definitely causes the death of at least 2 plants (there are a couple of bulbs in the background of the blast radius, plus the one that was used to revive him... she uh. Didn't look like she was doing so hot)

Vash's little speech is always so,,, intense. He has such a strong sense of character and it's admirable how well he sticks to his morals despite it all.

On a more body horror note, Knives can survive a long fucking time trying to grab The Cube. In Trimax he gets hit with the angel arm and practically disemboweled instantly, but Tristamp Knives can take over a minute of just like. being right in the direct path of fire. They're really gonna have to work to reconstruct him. Good luck, Legato!

UFO SPOTTED !!! LEAVING JULY AS IT IS DESTROYED !! NOT CLICKBAIT !!!

^ I made that long ago and needed to use it somewhere dfgkjdfg

[RAUCOUS CHEERING]

And ofc I have to bring up Eriks :] I don't actually have too much to say abt him. Studio Orange strip this man and make him bark like a dog next season or we will riot

CHRONICA MENTION!!!!! YAYYYYYY

And that's kinda. It.

Man I have had such fun over the last 12 days, I've really discovered a love for analyzing and theories and putting that out there and chatting with people about Trigun :] I should do this more often lmao but I do want to get back to drawing. I'll find a balance, then!

Thank you all for coming, and Wow if you made it this far I must be doing something right lmao.

[timeofjuly]

And Four Papyri in a Pear Tree

Chapter 1 - Smooth Operator

Summary: Rus takes you ice skating for the first time and despite some initial wobbliness, only one of you ends up on your ass.

Notes: The first chapter of And Four Papyri in a Pear Tree, my four-part holiday series focusing on festive-themed dates with Rus, Edge, Stretch, and Papyrus.

Tags: Reader/swapfell Papyrus, ice skating, fluff, established relationship.

Read it on AO3 or read it below the cut!

“lookin’ a little wobbly there, baby doll,” Rus teases, looking unfairly steady on his skates. Behind him, a vast expanse of glistening ice stretches out under the open sky, reflecting the soft glow of twinkling lights that adorn the perimeter of the skating rink. The air is crisp, carrying the faint scent of freshly fallen snow and the rhythmic sound of blades gliding over the smooth surface.

Your own skates slide perilously against the ice, your legs clenched tight to stop your knees from slipping out from underneath you.

“Nuh-uh,” you say, willing your fingers to loosen their grip on the barrier. “I’ve just got knives attached to my feet, what’s scary about that?  It’s not like ice is slippery or anything.”

Rus chuckles. “c’mon, don’t’cha trust me? if you’re that scared, it’s not too late for me to get you a penguin.”

As if summoned by the cruel forces of comedic timing, a small child breezes past the two of you pushing said skating aid. They seem entirely at ease and as you watch, they remove their hands from the penguin with an elated whoop.

“Look, no hands!” they call out, presumably to a parent.

Your resolve, which has previously been a gelatinous mass quivering at the pit of your belly, hardens. Like hell you’re being shown up by a kid. “Nope,” you say to Rus, “I’m good.”

You aren’t, though. You’re nervous. You probably shouldn’t have watched that video about the top ten career-ending ice hockey accidents last night. Ah, hindsight. At least you’re wearing a thick scarf; hopefully that’ll protect your neck from any errant skating blades.

“if you’re sure,” he says. In contrast to the pitiful display you’re putting on, Rus looks completely at home on the ice. More graceful than he is on solid ground, even, though that’s not necessarily that high of a bar. There’s a natural ease to him like this, a confidence that you’ve only caught snatches of before.

“i’m ready whenever you are,” he says. His thick woollen sweater reads FESTIVE GUY and is a particularly fetching shade of eggplant.  His cheeks are faintly lilac from the cold that nips through the air, his long, delicate hands encased in cosy mittens.

Those mittened hands are held out to you now. Anxiety flickers in your chest but then you look at him again, at how steady he is, how the long lines of his body are looser and more relaxed than you’ve ever seen them outside of the safety of privacy, and that gives you all the bravery you need.

You take his hands, the chill of the rink being chased away through your gloves. Your fingers curl between his phalanges in a grip that would surely be bruising if he had flesh. As you step further onto the ice, you wobble perilously, struggling to find your balance. Your ankles feel heavy and clumsy, your feet dead weight. How do people make this look so easy? You’ve never felt so unwieldy in your life.

“you’re okay,” he says, holding you steady. “that’s perfect.”

The standards for perfect must be low.

You’re too busy concentrating on not falling on your ass – no, hands and knees, the video you watched in preparation for this said that letting your arms absorb the impact is the safest way to fall – so you can’t articulate that thought into an appropriately clever remark, so you just settle on responding with a dubious look.

His grip tightens reassuringly – you feel like he’s holding all of your weight at this point - and he begins guiding you across the smooth surface. He’s making it look so easy, skating backwards with practiced, smooth motions. You feel like a newborn giraffe in comparison, if someone was to sneak into the zoo, strap knife-blades to its hooves, and set it out onto the ice.

"first lesson: find your centre of gravity," he says, his voice low and encouraging. "keep your knees slightly bent, and let the skates do the work."

“What does that even mean?” you say, a little panicked, but you quickly mimic his stance. It’s awkward at first – you’re ready to tip face-first into him at any moment, but with enough gradual, tiny adjustments, you start to feel a little steadier. The tempo of the music playing over the rink's speakers helps you keep your movements rhythmic, and you find yourself feeling more and more confident.

“there you go,” he says. Despite yourself, warmth floods your chest at the praise.

“I feel like you’re doing all the work, not me or the skates,” you say. “How the hell are you so good at this? I’ve seen you trip over your own bone constructs.”

He lets go of one of your hands to press a wounded hand to his chest and you flail in its absence, letting out a startled eep.

“hey, i am beauty and i am grace. ’specially compared to you right now.”

He snatches your hand back before you can really panic, but as you recover, you realise that you probably weren’t in any danger of falling anyway. One, you trust that Rus would catch you and two, you’re feeling a little steadier on your skates now. Maybe you’re getting the hang of this! The Zamboni isn’t going to run you over after all.

“Aw, you don’t think I’m pretty?” You affect an exaggerated pout.

He laughs, but his cheeks tinge purple. “’course i think you’re pretty. you’re my cute little baby squirrel, slippin’ around on the ice. like in ice age.”

“… thank you?”

“you’re welcome, scrat.”

Eh. You can live with that. Dude has tenacity you can appreciate.

Besides, all this teasing is distracting you from looking down at your own feet and throwing yourself off-balance. Rus continues to glide you around the rink and the sounds of the other skaters seem to fall away, leaving just the two of you and the sounds of your skates sliding against the ice. You gently lap around, each pass making you feel more and more comfortable.

“Still, there’s got to be a reason you’re so good at this,” you press. “There’s not some secret winter Olympics Underground I don’t know about, right?”

He snorts. “hah. nah, nothing like that. not much time for organised sports when everyone’s tryin’ to avoid being dusted. i just did a lot of skating on my own, back when i was in stripes,” he says, and though the tone is off handed, you get the sense that this is far more significant than his voice is letting on. “spent a lot of hours out on the ice. with enough practice, angel eyes, anyone’d pick it up. even you.”

He lets go of your hand again, this time to boop your nose. When he takes it again, his grip is far looser, and you find that you’re staying upright of your own volition. Part of you is tempted to let go completely and see what you can do on your own now that you’ve got the basics down, but fuck, the enjoyment you’re getting from holding his hand is overriding your competitive spirit.

He’s also still towing you around and you have no idea how to actually make yourself go, but little details.

“There’s not much ice or snow from where I’m from, so I never learnt,” you say. “We’d get this gross, dirty sleet sometimes in the winter, but not much else. I used to be so jealous of kids who got to have white Christmases. Did Black teach you to do this?”

Fondness colours his features. “yeah, he did. he was good like that. not many of the other kids liked to go out onto the ice, so i think he thought that if i stayed out there, they wouldn’t pick on me. when i got older, it was a good way to get away from everything for a while.”

You imagine a younger Black taking an even younger Rus by the hands and leading him out onto the ice, guiding him in the way he’s guiding you now. You wonder what being picked on as a kid looked like in their universe, that cruel, brutal place. You doubt that it amounted to simple teasing.

Your chest aches at the thought, but you quash it down. Today is a day for good things; you’re not going to dwell on a past you have no way of changing.

“You must’ve learnt some pretty cool tricks, then,” you say, pushing levity into your tone.

The words chase away the hint of melancholy that had been lurking on his skull. He grins at you, lazy and languid and confident, and says, “oh, sugar plum, you have no idea.”

The two of you both glide to a stop on the side of the rink. You let go of his hands and grasp back onto the barrier. You feel safe now to stay standing without his assistance.

“Go on, then,” you say, angling your chin towards the ice. “Impress me.”

He takes the ice, his movements fluid and confident. The chilly air echoes with the scrape of blades against the smooth surface, and he shoots you a mischievous grin. With each stride, he gains momentum, twirling effortlessly with a grace that makes you dizzy. Your breath catches as he executes a flawless spin, his body a whirl of controlled motion. The ice seems to respond to his every command, and he carves intricate patterns with finesse.

With a final, daring leap, he lands with a flourish, a triumphant smile lighting up his face. The ice seems to shimmer in approval of his performance.

As he skates back to your side, there's a glint of anticipation in his eyes, silently asking if he managed to impress.

And in that moment, under the twinkling lights of the ice rink, you can't help but feel the warmth of his efforts.

Fuck, you’re getting mushy. You can’t find it in you to be upset about that, though.

“well?” he says.

Your applause is muffled by your gloves, but the intent is the same. “That was amazing! Do you reckon I could learn to go that fast today? Oh, or even backwards? Both at the same time seems a little ambitious.”

“maybe just a little,” he says, cheeks flushed from your praise. “we can work on it, though. just getting you to go under your own power today is a good goal. that you’re standin’ with no support now is impressive on its own.”

You look down at yourself and then at your arms and huh, would you look at that. Granted, you’re not moving yet, but you’re getting there!

You cast your eyes back out onto the ring to see the small child from earlier gliding around the ice, skating aid now discarded. You point a gloved finger towards them.

“Do you think I could at least go faster than that kid today?” you say.

Rus looks amused but doesn’t question your choice of a benchmark. “maybe, but don’t stress if you can’t. you’re doing really good for your first time on the ice,” he says. “i don’t want you fallin’ and cracking your head open because you bite off more than you can chew. don’t worry, we can come back for more practice. if you want. it’s okay if you, don’t, though, i -.”

“We are definitely coming back,” you say. You’re determined to at least learn one trick before the holidays are over. “You’re stuck with me now, coach.”

“does that mean you’ll get one of those leotards?”

“If you wear one too, sure,” you agree. “Maybe we can get matching ones.”

He takes your hands again and starts pulling you around the ice, slow and deliberate. You do your best to match his movements. The two of you make another slow lap and though you’re too focussed to be chatty, the silence doesn’t feel awkward. He gives you the occasional helpful, if teasing, pointer and your confidence continues to grow.

“well, how’s your first time on the ice shapin’ up so far?” he asks you after another lap. “everything you were hoping for?” The words are joking, but you can see his sincerity.

Your chest feels all warm and soft and suddenly, you don’t feel the chill of the ice at all. You steel yourself and use your handhold to pull yourself closer to him, slowing your pace, and then let go of his hands altogether, bringing one now free hand to cup the side of his skull. Your gloved fingers splay across his zygomatic arch.

He nuzzles into your palm, sockets drooping.

“Good,” you say. Your voice is soft. “Really, really good.”

“i – heh.” He ducks his head, but he can’t hide the colour that flushes his skull.

In an attempt to recover gracefully, he takes a misstep, his skates catching an edge. Before you both know it, he's tripping over his own feet, arms flailing in an attempt to regain balance.

To no avail. He crashes down into the ice, bony ass first. You narrowly avoid getting taken down with him.

“Oh my god,” you say, unable to stifle the laughter that bubbles up your throat. “Are you okay?”

Rus attempts to clamber to his feet, trying – and failing – to get his legs back underneath him. With each slip back onto the ice, the vivid mauve dusting his cheeks deepens further.

Eventually, he rights himself, skull blazing purple. “’m fine. that was exactly what i was going for. grand finale. ta-da.” The words are said with accompanying jazz-hands.

Still laughing, you pluck one of his hands from the air and pull yourself towards him.

“Real smooth,” you say. “Come on, you charmer. I want to have another go.”

[psychic-refugee]

For @wenvierismycomfort

Theme: Natural Born Killers

The Loomis brothers looked like the average Normie family.

The eldest, Billy, loved movies and hoped to attend NYU and study film.

The middle, Ajax, had a bit of a wild streak. He preferred to chill with his friends and smoke pot.

The youngest, Ethan, had a cherub face and curls to match. Anyone looking at him would have thought butter couldn’t melt in his mouth.

What no one knew, was that they were proficient serial killers.

Their father didn’t know what to do. Every time a town’s body count got too high, he would move them in hopes of starting fresh. He thought the first few times, they had been lucky, and he had cleaned up well enough after his sons that no one was the wiser. After the third town and his own exhaustion, he found that regardless of what he did, no one seemed to connect the murders to his sons.

Even when they had killed right in front of people. Even the police went on as if they had seen nothing as the brothers stood over a body, bloody knives right in their hands and their faces covered with a ghostly mask.

“Why? Why are you doing this?” he finally asked, there was nowhere else to run, and he had tried therapists and everything else he could think of to curb their bloodthirst.

“To feed the Wall,” Billy spoke for his brothers.

To Mr. Looms’ horror, they showed him the basement…which their newest house didn’t have when they first moved in, and the stairs when down for what seemed forever. They finally came to a stark white room with nothing in it but a surgical table and a freshly dead body.

Their latest victim bled out and had filled several buckets.

Ajax took a brush and painted the Wall crimson. The white Wall pulsated at the offering and soon the fresh ruby blood had been absorbed and returned to a pristine white.

Mr. Loomis rushed upstairs and emptied his stomach on the front lawn. His sons stood around him, their eyes dark but begging him to understand and still love them.

He would always protect his sons.

He made a call to Nevermore Academy; it was the only place he could think of that could possibly give them answers.

The very next day, a tall, beautiful, statuesque woman who introduced herself as Principal Larissa Weems had come to their home with a mismatched married couple, introduced as Mr. and Mrs. Addams. The wife was almost as tall as the blonde, in a tight black dress that made Mr. Loomis wonder how she could breathe. The husband was a short stocky fellow with slicked back hair in a gaudy blue silk pinstriped suit.

All three were totally unperturbed by the Wall or that each of his sons had a body count in the double digits.

Mrs. Addams spoke softly to the Wall, as if it were a child needing to be soothed.

“Oh, you’re just a baby,” she smiled as she touched the Wall, which seemed to react to her presence.

His sons were fascinated at the gentle hand, and the Wall seemed to purr.

“Spontaneous First Generation Outcast,” Larissa told them over tea. “It’s rare these days, but each Outcast line had to start somewhere. Someone had to be the first Werewolf, Vampire, etc…”

“In 1525, Vigo the Carpathian was the first Addams, and from him borne necromancers and mediums,” Mr. Addams explained.

“So, what are my sons?”

“The Entity Beyond the Wall,” Morticia explained, “called them Waste Locks. They are a foci for the negative energy by product produced by Normies. Given the state of the Normie world, I’m not surprised they begot a newborn Eldritch Horror from the Void. Your sons are balancers of Existence. If they stop feeding the Wall…well, we’d see that adorable little Horror on this side of reality.”

Mr. and Mrs. Addams giggled as if the monster ending Existence as they knew it was some cute action of a toddler.

“You’ll love Nevermore,” Mr. Addams told the Loomis brothers, as obviously there was nowhere else for them to go. “It’s like no other boarding school. It’s a dark, magical place. It’s where I met Morticia,” and he turned to his wife with an adoring gaze, “and we fell in love.”

Ajax was excited about the prospect; he had worried his unique urges would doom him to a lonely life where all he would have were his brothers.

The Wall followed them to Nevermore as it had to each new house when they moved, they each had followed their instincts to a door that Weems said had not been there before, and just like with every house, the stairs went down for miles and there was the same stark white room.

Their student guide was a cheerful blonde who had red eyes and wolf ears protruding from the top of her head. She had a wide wicked smile and her canines just a tad too long.

“Welcome to Nevermore,” her red eyes roamed up and down Ajax, as if she wanted to devour him.

He would welcome her to do so as he smiled back.

She showed them around and explained all the Outcasts who had the same desire for blood and flesh, as they had.

The Werewolves feasted on human hearts and livers.

The Sirens sang a song that led men to their doom to feast on their bodies.

Vampires craved blood.

“And that there is our resident torture artist,” she pointed to a tall blond who was painting a raven mural across the quad.

“Don’t you mean, ‘tortured artist?’” Ethan asked as he was certain that was the usual saying.

“No,” she gave a humored smile. “That’s Xavier Thorpe, he and Wednesday Addams are the only ones here to kill for sport and play with their victims. They help feed the Wolves and Vamps who aren’t as adept at killing so they don’t waste the blood or bodies, but otherwise they don’t have to kill, they just like doing it. Do watch out,” she warned, “both are particularly territorial and jealous of each other. They’ve killed other students who got too handsy.”

Wednesday Addams, who inherited her mother’s beauty and her father’s ardor, had walked up to Xavier and pulled him down for a passionate kiss. As their hands roamed each other’s bodies, it seemed to be a normal occurrence as students and teachers alike simply walked past them.

In any other school, they would have been given detention for the public display, but it seemed in a school filled with killers, no one would bother to chide them.

The Loomis brothers had found their place in Nevermore, and each killed to their hearts’ content.

Billy found a fellow cinephile in a Normie who attended Jericho High, Stu Macher. He expressly forbade anyone from killing him.

Ethan had joined the theatre club and was the least bloodthirsty Loomis brother. He was more content to help his brothers find and clean up after their victims rather than kill.

Ajax found himself enamored with Enid and had asked her out on a date. They picnicked under a crescent moon, and he had carved out a heart and liver for her himself.

He also found a kindred spirit in Xavier, who found a thrill in the kill and wasn’t afraid to get absolutely covered in blood.

The Wall was just as enamored with Wednesday as it was with her mother. The Loomis brothers had caught Xavier and Wednesday several times making love in the blood of their victims and painting their own unique “art” on the Wall.

The four friends and Billy kept the Wall generously fed and quickly became known as Nevermore’s most prodigious killers.   

[sneakyscarab]

i think at this point i have crossed the event horizon and am a Certified Touhou Gamer™, cause the last few games have offered very low resistance to me schmooving on through. i literally downloaded this game earlier today and i've already 1cc'd it lol

nina's thoughts on Touhou 14 - Double-Dealing Character

another one down already! at this rate i might be able to play the newest touhou game before an english patch comes out lmao. DDC was one i was looking forward to, since i had been endeared to the grassroots youkai network through a lot of cute fan content. DDC was a fairly straightforward entry, which at this rate just seems to be the touhou cycle where it gets super weird and then chills out every 4 games lol.

life pieces and bomb pieces are back again, and once again their acquisition method has changed. now both types of piece are given out by the same method, boss fight phases drop a piece, and whenever you go to the top of the screen to collect items the game gives you a piece if you collected a good amount in one go. usually it gives you bomb pieces, but every 5th one procs a life piece instead, and you only need 3 life pieces for a 1up. besides that, no gameplay gimmicks in this one!

for the playable characters we got 3 options: Reimu and Marisa of course, and the surprising return of Sakuya as player 3! each has 2 moveset options, based on either using or not using a tool of theirs that is going haywire. interestingly, the unfocused shot doesn't change between the 2 sets, only the focus shot and bomb. Reimu has homing as a base, needles when focusing without the tool, and with her tool her focus shot is a giant spinning gohei that slowly homes in and does continuous aoe damage. Marisa has illusion lasers, magic missiles without the tool, and her corrupted tool is her mini-hakkero acting as a flamethrower . Sakuya has wide-angle knife throwing, a more vertical beam without the tool, and her corrupted tool is a series of posessed knives that stick into enemies and explode after a few seconds.

i tried out each moveset once, and they were all pretty fun, except Sakuya without her tool. after i tried each one once, i gave Sakuya's corrupted tool a second try, and got my 1cc right there. the homing from the possessed knives, the wide spread on the basic shot, and especially her bomb all made for a great moveset. Sakuya's bomb works similar to Nitori's from SA where you gain a shield for a few seconds and get a partial refund if you're not hit, but even better because the initial activation also gives you i-frames allowing it to perform double-duty in bullet-dense spellcards.

for the new characters, i mean i already said it earlier, but the grassroots youkai network is pretty cool, and really just all the characters in this game are neat.

Sekibanki is my favourite, something about her design just really works for me i dunno. the colour scheme, the cape, her tall collar hiding the fact that her head isn't connected, she's just cool. plus she's besties with Kogasa in other media, who im surprised didn't show up in this game considering how well she fits the theme.

Wakasagihime is also pretty cool, im surprised it took this long for any sort of aquatic youkai to show up, and mermaids are a great fit for the games theme of youkai trying to regain their scare factor. i like how for once a new stage1 boss character actually has connections to the main plot of the game, and isnt just someone Reimu and crew bumped into along the way, even being the reason Sakuya showed up in this story at all.

its tough to pick a third cause theres plenty of good options, but i think i have to go with Seija. her power suite of flipping things is simple but it has a lot of cool applications, i love how her 'lair' is a big inverted castle floating in the sky (sick symphony of the night reference?). her boss fight is probably one of the craziest in the series, her actual bullet patterns arent particularly rough, but she uses her flipping powers to break the 4th wall and flip the game screen horizontally, vertically, and a full 180 spin, which is super cool even if it fries my brain with the inverted controls. speaking of fight gimmicks, Shinmyoumaru also does a similar wild gameplay thing in her fight where she briefly turns your sprite HUGE and disables your weapon, making you dodge danmaku with an absolutely massive hitbox until it wears off, which is also really fun and bizarre.

Double-Dealing Character was pretty fun! the lack of a new big mechanic was surprising, but the base gameplay was still great without it, with the incentive to stack up uncollected items for a big collection run being enough of a mixup to keep it interesting. the boss fights were all pretty fun, and most of them had neat unique mechanics like Sekibanki's head satellites, and the aforementioned tricks with Seija and Shinmyoumaru. the characters are also really neat, and imo much more memorable than the ones from TD. if theres one complaint i have to give DDC, its WHERE DID SANAE GO? WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO HER? IS SAKUYA RESPONSIBLE??? IF SHE IS IM GONNA- [it was at this point that the author was suddenly struck down by a silver knife that appeared in her room seemingly out of nowhere]

[wayfaringpaws]

Lore FAQ

Unfortunately, I seem to have broken the actual FAQ page/the theme won’t accept too long of text, so the FAQ will be a post now :) Find the OOC FAQ here!

Are cats in this world anthro or feral

The cats are feral, but they have thumbs! So they can hold things (Although they have to be sitting down usually)

What’s the level of technology? The “tech” is VERY rudimentary but definitely more advanced than Canon Warriors. For example, here’s some things the cats can do/make!   -  They can make and use knives (For carving meat, wood, leather, etc…)  -  They can build dens and tents with wood and animal skins (also plant fibres)  -  They can boil water/make tea, build ovens and smokers, generally they’re just good at cooking.

How do hybrids work? Kittens aren’t actually born! Instead they are literal gifts from the gods. When prospective parents are looking to have kittens, they’ll go to their god’s shrine to leave sacrifices of prey for a week. At the end of the week, they’ll find newborn kittens that are “hybrids” of the parents! (So yes, a serval and a lion could have kittens)

(Kittens also don’t drink milk, instead they absorb the magic of their parents until they’re 2 months old- afterwards they start eating meat!)

Can characters wear clothes or armor or accessories?

Basic clothing and accessories are allowed, yes! Most cats with gathering jobs (For example, the Rangers who both hunt and forage for plants) wear leather bags on them in their day to day life, and it’s pretty common to wear stuff like animal pelts and plants

Technically, armor isn’t really a thing? However some cats could theoretically wear tough animal leather or wood bark as some level of protection. In universe, intentionally fighting with these would be seen as dishonorable though

Is there a list of the sorts of elements that players are allowed to use as sparks?

While I can't give you definitive rulings on the types of Sparks (Elemental magic that the cats of the Haven can harness) I can definitely give some examples, such as: Creation of/Control over fire, water, electricity, wind, plants, dirt/stone, etc. 

Now obviously, these are pretty broad/generic! But we are DEFINITELY encouraging for people to get more specific and unique with their powers. For example, one of the characters, Pyre, can summon and control crystals! Maybe there could be cats who can summon fog, produce smoke, or make ice.

What foods can the colonies make?

The cats have rudimentary ovens and stoves constructed from stone slabs, so they are able to bake and cook simple things such as bread and soup.

Anything that requires farming wouldn’t work out though! Animal products like milk and large scale production of stuff like corn or tomatoes isn’t feasible. Anything that the cats cook has to be gathered.

Are the clans on good or bad terms with each other? Are cross-clan relationships banned?

The colonies are all good with each other! They’re only separated based on which god they follow, and besides some mild hostility over godly opinions, they’re all very chill.

- Cross colony relationships are completely allowed and cats can easily move colonies  -  Cats are allowed to enter each other’s territories without any hostility. -  Crosscolony kittens can pick either colony to live in- or go back and forth! 

Basically, there’s no offical rules! The colonies have only been founded VERY recently and while some things could change during the story depending on a colony’s leader, there just aren’t any rules or laws about it, and there probably never will.

Are the cats able to do anything in the afterlife after they die?

The afterlife of Felinan is far less complex than that of Starclan. It is believed that when a cat dies, their spirit is guided out of their body by Psyro (The kitten god of death). They are completely unable to interact with living beings and largely just wander the lands. Eventually after many, many years, their spirit will dissipate, and they will join the rest of the ambient magic of Felinan.

This page will be updated as more questions are answered :3

[runby2]

How does everyone in the R&R cast fight?

Hi! I'm assuming you mean techniques and/or weapons from Rhyme and Team Reason in @rar-archive , so I'll give a quick list! In order from most likely and least likely to fight someone. Rhyme's fighting technique is on his Carrd description, as well as Birthdays, so I will leave that linked there.

Birthday - Fists, knives, or her bat! She prefers to use her bat, but if the opponent is actually a threat she will brandish those candy themed blades. If you're lucky, or if she's just playing around with you, you may get a headbutt or a play bite from his sharp teeth. If Birthday is cornered or has no other option, she will stab herself in the chest. Not only will it shock the opponent, but inside of her lies an entity that can fight defensively and carry her to safety. The long, ghostly, candy pink arms look more dangerous than they actually are. Keep an eye on Birthday's eyes, if they're lighting up pink her entity is telling her it wants to come out. Whether it be the mouth, or fully through the chest. The entity can not leave her body fully, so the arms and hands will pull her onto her chest and start crawling or climbing away, up walls or gates similar to a spider.

Lotty - Lotty is very quick on his feet, and if he decides he wants you to chase him, you should be very aware of your surroundings. Lotty uses manipulative plant magic, so if he is in an area where there are vines or plant branches, he can use them as whips or even spears depending on their sharpness and durability. He can not lift plants off of the ground, but if he manages to get one around you he very well can lift you. Lotty prefers to fight during the day, but at night he will not hesitate to use all of his stored up energy to protect himself or his loved ones.

Static - Even if Static has an issue with you, Static will not fight with you physically until he's thoroughly degraded you in a stern manner, or has made you look stupid with your own words. With his straight expression it may be hard to tell what he has up his sleeve. Be very careful if you choose to fight this alpaca, his electric magic is nothing to laugh at. The magic is administered through his palms and fingers mainly, so do not let him grab you. His wool might give you an uncomfortable shock too.

Wes - Wes now has access to ice magic, and not only the kind with holy water. If you were to fight this ice cube object head in the rain, near a river, or even near a stand of bottled water, Wes could freeze it and use it against you. Think of water bending, but with the ability to telekinetically move ice or chilled water within 30 feet of you. He can only freeze the water by touching it though, so don't let him get his claws near it. If Wes is in rain, prepare for an uncomfortable pelting of sleet. If you are very unlucky, or harming Wes to a dangerous degree, something other than Wes may decide to temporarily use his body.

Mac - A lot of playful/backwards taunting and fawning from Macintosh. Deescalation and avoidance. They are a lover, not a fighter. If Mac had no choice but to fight, they would use their arms to throw punches, or spin their body around like a tornado to hit you multiple times like a rubberhose cartoon, keeping their head completely still. However, Lotty has only seen Mac use this odd technique once, and it was to hit a tree multiple times to make fruit fall down during a trip to the park train tracks.

If you are interested in everyone in Rhyme and Reason's ability to fight / harm, here is our youtube video on the topic!

[shadowworks]

Look Inside

Pairing: Overhaul X Reader

Warnings: Dubcon-noncon, medical kink, drugged sex, mention of needles, mentions of blood, bondage, fingering, this is dark! 

Word Count: 3.8k 

A/N: I decided to try some creepy themes and give second person a try. So we’ll see how it goes. This piece is dark so please mind the warnings!

Huge shoutout to @present-mel for making the beautiful banner and reading over my fic you precious gem! Also thank you @thisisthehardestthing and @hisoknen for your feedback it’s so greatly appreciated! 💜

Someone had shut off the lights in the morgue. 

You happen to notice this when your eyes toil lazily between security cameras at the right time. You freeze on the spot, and quirk a brow toward the shadow. You expect it’ll brighten any second like it usually does, but after those few seconds tick by without change, a weight of dread sinks in your stomach.

Kai Chisaki put orders in place that if experiments are up and running the basement levels are to remain lit. Chisaki and his men are already down below, and the winding pale halls near the morgue are empty.

 You haven’t been called to notify cleaners about another bloody corpse still peeling off the wall, and you can’t find motion on the surveillance camera when you rewind the recordings. It’s in the lower right corner of the camera, and you note the light flicks off without warning. No one enters, no one leaves. 

You study the harsh glow of the screen for another moment, still in denial, still waiting for the lights to flicker on, and stand up from the chair in the office. When not a soul appears by the threshold, all you can do is lean forward with your hands pressed on the desk, dropping your head in defeat. “Seriously? Fuck you.” 

You don’t know who “you” was exactly, but it felt right to say. 

It takes a bit of time after departing the small office, but you find the proper hall in Chisaki’s deeply looping maze...It’s just you don’t want to step out from the elevator. You were ready before, but when the doors split open and the cool air ghosts against your cheeks, you pause. There’s a stillness lingering in the hallway; it’s far too quiet- except for the creaks in the elevator floor from your shifting weight...But, something seems off. 

  Your steps are tentative when you do slip out, peering down the drab hallway. You clearly see which of the rooms is buried in shadow, and frankly you want to whirl back around before the doors close. But you can’t, well, not yet at least. The tap of your shoes hits off the walls, while you tread along on stiff legs. Eventually you come to a stop having reached the doorway. It’s partly open, a slice of darkness hiding what’s deep inside. 

Hold on, this can't be right. The camera— A shudder trails up your spine. It tingles coldly.

You inhale a deep breath. Okay, just do it; just switch the lights back on, it’s fine. It’s fine. Besides, if it were you (which it is) you wouldn’t want to deal with Chisaki’s ill temper over something so minor as a light. 

He’s punished his men for incompetence before, and those who didn’t listen have smeared the walls with their blood, drenching vein red across white. Black-looking goops of muscle plopped on the floor...the consequences ranged based on severity of failure or how stressed he is, really. In fact, one man had the skin of his face torn off for talking back—wait, relax. Focus

It won’t happen. Kai Chisaki is somewhere else in the maze. He’s not aware of what happened.

There’s a member with a quirk which lets him melt through walls; the tiny one with a bone white mask. He probably slipped between the rooms and grabbed something then turned the lights off. But that didn’t explain the door...

It doesn’t matter.

You stretch an arm out, gently pushing the door further open, and light spills onto the tile floor. 

It’s a cold, vacant room. There’s a pungent scent of bleach still lingering from a cleanup, but it hits your nose almost like it happened recently. You can’t see much nor do you want to. And your hand reaches around the door frame, trailing gentle fingers along the smooth surface for a switch—

Only, there’s nothing on the wall. 

“Are you serious? Really?” you huff to yourself, stepping round to search for the light. Sure enough, your fears are realized with one look. 

You let out an annoyed groan, and a, ‘stupid switch’ under your breath. Who the hell designs a room and doesn’t put a switch by the door? 

Your eyes haven’t adjusted to the dark, so you can’t see the precise details on the walls. So this leaves you no choice but to step further in, allowing the brightness from the hall to guide you along.

It’s a moderate room with a vaulted wall filled with metal drawers, all large enough to fit an icy corpse in ‘til the yakuza dispose of them. Then there’s the silver surgical table in the middle of the room. It's empty, but the thing’s embellished. There’s protruding belts attached, and a tray on wheels is parked on the side. On top of the tray is a clean towel and a neat row of surgical tools lay flat across. 

Your brows scrunch together, studying the sharp gleam of knives and the sizes of needles. Why are these out? Kai’s an obsessive clean freak, every little thing needs to be put back and organized. All his masked cronies know this rule, so who the hell did this? That is, unless someone’s using them?

Your back is turned to the glow seeping in from the hall, so you don’t see a gloved hand press on the metal door. There’s a push, and the door slams shut. 

You let out a startled yelp, cupping your hands to your mouth. What the hell…! Your heart’s pounding wildly in your chest; for some reason the room feels colder, you feel colder. 

“I must say this is disappointing.”

Light floods the room from the panels above, flickering with a buzzing noise before they settle. You take a moment. A deep breath, a slow exhale. When the initial shock stops tingling in your muscles, you slowly drop your palms. The voice is male, his tone’s calm, ominous and it carries like chill over your shoulder. You know this voice; you know you have to turn around. But fuck, you can’t stop trembling. When you do, you see a tall figure looming near the wall, a gloved hand still on the switch.

Kai Chisaki. 

“I told Setsuno I needed him in the security room. Do you think it’s hard for him to follow directions?”

You stare at him, anxiously. He isn’t wearing his green coat with the violet plumage trimming on the collar. He’s in his iron pressed, black suit and grey tie; the trademark plague mask covering half his face. 

“Setsuno asked me to fill in. He said he wasn’t feeling well...I guess,” you manage to say it as steady as you can. 

The lanky blond hadn’t given you a clear reason when he staggered towards you near dawn. But if you’re being honest, you didn’t really care.You barely looked his way at breakfast, choosing to stare into your dark coffee cup than at the katana resting on his shoulder. The sword was still wet with blood, and you knew he’d been out all night. Though right now, you sorta wish you pressed him more for details.

Kai mutters something slightly bitter, words that are muffled against the material of his mask. But you hear him sigh, then his tone turns crisper. “No matter. It’s inconvenient, but I can work around these...changes.”

His arm drops to his side, walking from the wall. And unexpectedly- those peculiar eyes you see leering at his enemies, have now fallen on you. 

You seize up in mild panic, the pupils in your eyes shrinking; not knowing what to do. You take a scuffling step or two back on reflex—and knock your hip against the table corner. 

Oww—ow, fuck. Hold on, what’s he doing? Why—Your voice bubbles in your throat as you watch him draw near. Though it’s strange, for Kai doesn’t pull at the rim of his latex glove like expected, rather, the Shie Hassaikai boss happens to steer past you instead. 

...Huh?

Your neck cranes, loose hair spilling over your shoulder. He stops a couple feet away and tilts his head downward in front of the tray, no longer regarding your presence and focusing on his work. 

You stand there awkwardly, just listening to the clinks of metal fitting together in Kai’s grip. You’re not fully understanding though, should you leave? It looks like your job’s finished now that your boss is here. Besides, you’re pretty confident Kai doesn't want you here if he’s occupying the room. 

In the long pause between you two, your mind’s made up which prompts you to retreat back and aim towards the door. They’re slow, careful moving steps. 

“Well, you seem busy...I should probably hurry back and watch the cameras,'' you say dismissing yourself. You’re partial toward the comfort of the smaller office, and any chance you have of leaving the macabre storage space you will eagerly take it. 

You don’t make it to the gleaming doorknob—because Kai’s voice holds you still. It isn’t loud, but it grips the room. “No stay. There’s no need for you to leave so soon.”

A mix of fear and confusion read across your features. Kai has never spent a moment alone with you. In fact, you aren’t actually part of the yakuza. The only reason you’re associated with the fallen crime syndicate, is because the former boss offered you odd jobs as a favor. You needed some work to keep from struggling and he had taken a liking to you, sort of how he did with Kai. But then, the leader collapsed. 

Now you aren't sure where you stand. Chisaki is in charge.

“I believe there’s something you can do for me. Will you have a seat on the table?” 

You aren’t sure if you heard him right, or fully grasp what he means. He says it so casually-  but you know better; it’s a demand. You’re just not sure why.

“I’m fine. Really. I should be going-“

“Are you defying my order?” Again, he says it so nonchalantly. This time Kai turns his head over his shoulder; the look he gives is almost impassive, yet there’s a menacing gleam in the yellow of his eyes.

“What? No, I was…! Right.”

You don’t exactly drag your feet, but you do stand hesitant before the edge of the table where countless bodies have been dissected. So much blood, so many organs harvested on this very table.

“I won’t ask you again.” 

You turn around robotically, eyes pointed downward as you hoist your hips onto the metal. The table’s surface is icy, it numbs your fingers the longer you lean on it, which only makes you fold them against your thighs. 

“Roll up your sleeve.” Kai says by your right, holding up a purple band. Your gaze flicks up immediately, nervously, a silent plea for mercy. As if somehow your glossy and delicate eyes will make a difference. But it does nothing toward Kai’s stoic stance. He simply waits, and his own steely eyes narrow back.

You drop your head with a wince; just do as he says. 

You comply, pushing up your long sleeve. Though you make a point not to help much more than that, leaving your arm limp at your side. 

Kai doesn’t seem to notice or care and proceeds to wrap the rubber around your arm. You grimace, unpleased as his fingers skim your arm, and again when he brushes you with a wet cotton swab. 

“You need my blood?” You ask evenly. 

His eyes don’t leave your skin, “Not necessarily.”

“A lot of effort for, ‘not necessarily.’” You say, not too dryly. 

“You’ve seen my work before, you should know by now I take great care in everything I do.”

Kai rotates between you and the now rolled over stand, dismissing your light jab. He sets up the port for blood to flow; all in a well practiced motion. It certainly makes you wonder how many times he’s done this before. 

“I’m curious, when was your last doctor's appointment?” He asks suddenly, hands already prepping the next instrument. The other needle probably, but you don’t want to play as his patient. He isn’t your doctor, for fucks sake.

“A while.” You answer. 

“A while,” he repeats with a subtle chuckle under his covered breath,“Has anyone told you before you’re a feisty one?”

You bite your tongue and refuse to meet his side glance. When you don’t reply back, he carries on with a sigh. 

“I’ve had quite a long day you see, so I’m afraid I’ve exhausted my tolerance for stubborn little girls.”

Suddenly, his hand is squeezing your shoulder, and all too quickly you find yourself thumping against the cold metal, your horrified eyes staring up at the bright ceiling. The next thing you feel is buckles fastening, pinning you against the table by your waist and elbows. 

You're flooded with tingling panic, voice cracking from strain, “Hol—Hold on one second. Please, just one more—”

“—You know they say you should never let the lamb see the knife? Their fear tampers the meat, and ruins the flavor,” Kai gives a sharp tug on the last belt. “But I find yours all the more intoxicating, my dear.”

You stammer, words of protest mingle together as you attempt to be heard, “I don’t understand, why are you…Just stop. You need to let me go!”

Your teeth clench together in a rage that fills your chest. You’re not thinking rationally, your nerves are unhinged. And in your adrenaline high your leg curls up, thrashing a viciously blunt strike toward the point of his beak.

 Before it can connect and batter the bridge of his nose and mark his cheekbones, Kai’s arm flexes quickly. Your foot stops mid air as he catches your ankle with constricting force. 

“Do I?” He asks with a title of his head, there're subtle creases in the corner of eyes, you can imagine his mouth settles in a cold smile beneath. 

In that moment you freeze up. Your lash lines burn, stinging with fresh tears glossing your doe eyes. You don’t breathe, you don’t dare to expand your lungs. Your only thought is begging him not to burst open your calf. 

“You shouldn’t be giving commands. You work under me now,” his nails dig in your flesh, and you know those indents will marr your flesh.“Meaning you’ll have to bear with me while I continue.”

Kai doesn’t loosen his hold, briefly watching your pained expression. But he favors dropping his gaze below to study the stretch of your thigh, your exposed and parted groin. It’s then his nimble fingers reach to unclasp the button of your jeans and he gently pulls down the zipper. You cry out, jerking against the belts, but he isn’t fazed. 

“One of our new drugs is supposed to relax its victims...recently it’s been ineffective if the heartbeat’s racing too quickly, though we’ve made modifications to counter this. My plan was to stage a fight with Setsuno, until...you graciously took his place.”

Kai lowers your leg, both hands roaming across to the edge of your jeans. He still studies you, and decides to push up your ribbed sweater, letting the cold bite of the morgue chill your hips. His latex fingers trace lightly across your pebbled skin, skimming down the dips to your thighs. 

“Yes, this will do just fine. You’re pretty enough,” he muses, softly.

He then tucks his hands into your waistband, yanking them down your legs, before they fall to the floor with a plop. The seamless panties slip off easily, as well. This sends a small prickle through you, and, no, this can’t keep going! The fight in you surges, pushing your knees together to shield your groin. Only Kai doesn’t like that. 

There’s something cold and dangerous in his glare, a threat that twists at your stomach. He’s warning you; don’t make this worse for yourself or you’ll make him snap. And you didn’t want that...You watch both his hands clutch your knees, he doesn’t waste time and he yanks your legs apart, taking in your pretty cunt.

Angry tears trickle down your cheeks in response. Your throat burns from holding back a sob, “Chisaki, please. If you would—“

 Without a moment of hesitation, Kai knowingly finds where to touch you first. A little too skillfully for a false doctor, the pad of his thumb presses against your soft, sensitive nub, stroking tight circles with focus. Your breath catches, falling heavier while he sinks his pad deeper in the forming slick, building steady pressure.

“Still so stubborn, what good will that bring you?”

A broken moan spills on your shaky breath, all against your better decisions. His other hand settles between your legs, and a finger plunges inside your heat, curling upward and massaging the rougher layer of flesh. A sharp gasp inhales into your lungs. He isn’t stopping, no, Kai’s gloved finger moves with vigor the more your pleasurably laced cries pour out from your lips, how desperate they become.

He pushes in a second finger, and then a third thrusting in, stretching you and soaking your walls with your arousal. This causes you to push your hips further against his latex hand. 

“Kai, you fucking bastard!” you sob out, formalities be damned as your back arches. You can feel the building pulses in your cunt tense up, losing yourself to your superior on an icy slab in a fucking morgue. 

“You curse my name as though you’re not enjoying this,” Kai mocks.

 His fingers pump deeper, tightening your abs and your lips fall open. His matching rhythm on the bundle of nerves surges in a crash, sending a hard orgasm that shivers through your body. For a moment, just a little moment, your cares fade away. 

You're left breathing deeply, staring up at the ceiling as your chest rises and falls. The euphoria lasts a moment longer, but only for so long. Reality sets in as you lay there, and much too soon, the warmths gone. 

Kai takes advantage of this.

With your chin tipped up toward cabinets lining the ceiling, Kai unfastens his thinner belt. It’s only when you feel him hook under your knees and pull at your thighs that you snap your head up in startlement.

Kai’s venomous eyes stare you down, “I suggest laying back down little girl, we’re not finished yet.”

“Like hell!”

A second flare of rage strickens across your features, a hard glare that doesn’t unyield, especially as he unzips and withdraws himself from formal slacks. You know he’s relishing in your disdain for him, and this makes you thrash on the belts, hoping to force them apart. Of course, Kai did a good job of fastening these fuckers and simply chuckles at your attempt. 

“You’re still not understanding the position that you’re in,” He slips a hand in his pocket, and pulls out the wrapping of a condom. Taking his time, tearing it open, rolling the rubber down his thick length with precision.

 When Kai’s satisfied, his arms reach for you and grab at your hips, giving them a sharp yank forward. He leans in with a darkly low voice, “You can’t escape me. You’re mine to do with as I please.”

“...You lean any closer and I’ll spit in your face.” There isn’t any bite to it. It’s a calm, empty threat and loses all its appeal as a single tear spills down your cheekbone.

A huffing noise emits from his mask, with his lids narrowing in mild disgust. You catch the words “filthy woman,” rasped low and nasally before he does lean back, wrenching at the skin around your hips. 

When he’s all settled Kai lines himself to your heat, in a slow motion he draws himself inside. You almost don't hear it, but from the mask you note a soft hitch in his breath. He gives shallow pushes and pulls on your hips, an experimental dip that splits you in a painful stretch before he pumps fully into you. They’re slow, long strokes, filling you to the brim.

Another strained gasp rips from your wet lips, and your hands impulsively spring out, clenching the black cloth of Kai’s sleeves. His hips snap quicker, and your breath picks up with him. Heart pounding to his thrust; you can feel the beats in your neck. 

And all of a sudden you hear the sound of plastic clasping together, the squeeze of an injection clip the shell of your ear. Your eyes snap open in horror. What—?

Kai locks on your facial features, his deep pumps lessen though the slapping of skin doesn’t stop. “You’ve been too tense. Why don’t you relax for awhile?”

When did he..? 

He prepped it. The syringe must’ve been tucked away. He did have this all planned. You were just the unlucky one who walked to the table and sealed your fate. 

The serum he injected into your bloodstream has fast results it seems. The tension in your muscles slack against his thrusts, allowing him to carry your body closer and take more of his length. You feel the tension in your wide eyes soften, slowly falling half lidded and weak. 

“That’s a good girl, you're taking to the drug faster than I thought,” he muses a little breathless. Right after he sets the syringe back down, a gloved hand reaches for the strap fastened around his head and pulls. The mask slips off.

It’s at this point he hikes his knees up onto the table and pounds in deeper, letting your walls suck him in. Your body’s folded, and Kai treats your body in any way he desires.

You manage to pull your head from his sharp eyes, your cheek bouncing slightly against the icy metal to Kai’s rhythm. The drawers for the deceased are taken in.

You stare intently. 

“You’re going to kill me, aren’t you?”

“No.” He manages between breathes, his voice is heavy and laced with lusting growls, “This is merely a precaution. In the event...ah, in the event you overdose...well. You’re in the right place.”

Your head lolls back to Kai meeting his delicate face which is now flushed. You realize this is the first time you’ve seen him behind the mask. He’s beautiful. Soft featues that compliment him so well. If only he wasn’t so cruel...

“In fact, hah, if you survive...I think this will be the start of something new in my work.” He manages the last bit with a shaky chuckle. 

You see him smirk wickedly, and all you can do is watch, because it doesn’t stop. The only sound in the room is the liquid squish of sex, your mixed heavy breaths. And you hope, god do you hope in your hazy state, feeling a numbness taking hold of your body, that you leave this room alive.

[battery-forgot]

Now, I come mid-week to give you all of my DSMP/MCYT headcanons because I have many

Don’t mind if these are repeated, misspelt, or has no logic, it is block game things and I am not checking over them-- and some will be organized, and some will be random, some might not have a Enter space because these are all ctrl c + ctrl v’ed from a Discord server I am in :]

Skeppy headcanons: Skeppy is 4 billion years old as scientists have thought that is how long ores and diamonds existed for

Skeppy's species is pretty rare

Every diamond that is broken or damaged causes Skeppy to feel a physical pain in his body

His species has lamp tail as they don't have night vision, some of them also have tiny wings that aren't usable, though they can kinda glide short distances with them

Because of his small height, he has taught himself magic to be able to change size, it can hurt him if he goes taller than 5'3, but he is able to get to Foolish's height if he tried

Sometimes random crystals grow on Skeppy's face, though they look different from normal crystals and can be used for things like explosives, though he doesn't know about it

Techno has seen Kristen but doesn't remember it well, though Kristen gave him his crown as a gift

Techno has a collection of skull masks that he has worn, he wears the skulls because of nostalgia now but he used to wear them because he thought they were cool and made him look threatening

Technoblade, Skeppy, Sam, Ranboo, Michael(the son- not Michaelmcchill), Phil, Bad, and some others really like shiny and golden objects

DreamSMP theme/"timeline" is kind of like a steampunk like thing

Drista is DreamXD's sister and DristaXD is Dream's "sister", though they aren't really siblings as they are robots

Drista and DreamXD are clones of DristaXD and Dream, though they actually look nothing alike

Callahan is a mute mini-god that everyone knows exists but doesn't really understand they are a mini-god. They kind of just chill and do what people ask them to do

Phil: Phil is more into traveling than anything else

Though he doesn't mind being a father figure, he doesn't think he is a good one especially after he killed Wilbur

He is able to turn into the size of a crow, though since his wings are now unusable, he doesn't do it as often as it is basically useless

Phil sometimes takes bird baths, though I guess they are always called that-

He has bird legs/talons,but they aren’t fully noticeable

joke headcanon I thought of is that Phil's handwriting is chicken-scratch because he is half-crow

Phil has really good memory, as a crow would

-DreamXD is actually pretty weak in powers, but he acts like he is the strongest person in the server

-Tommy's eye is just completely gone from when Dream killed him, but he covers it with an eyepatch

-Tubbo talks about things to Ranboo thinking he'll forget them, but some stories Ranboo remembers but doesn't speak about it because he doesn't want to make Tubbo worry too much

-Philza wasn't willing to kill Wilbur so Wilbur forced Phil by grabbing his arm and impaling himself

-Dream and Techno sometimes share stories about having ADHD

-Phil didn't really know about Fundy, he knew he existed but had no idea to how he acted, looked, or his actual name

-Wilbur had a letter written to Fundy about how he was sorry for what he was gonna do during November 16th, but the withers blew it up before Fundy knew about it

-Fundy doesn't let anyone hold his hand because it makes him remember the past where he would hold Wilbur's hand a lot

-Change of headcanons: Schlatt and Puffy are cousins, Tubbo was just a random kid that would follow Schlatt for hours a day, waiting for him to acknowledge him

-Dream jumps into the lava in the prison as it reminds him of Sapnap

-Bad was uncomfortable when Sapnap married Big Q and Karl because he went on a date with Quackity before but he still supported them (Yes I know Big Q basically had a divorce with Sap and Karl--)

-Skeppy knows a lot about other's pasts because of how old he is, even traumatizing facts

-Skeppy has a fear of fire (Pyrophobia) and he is kind of scared of Sapnap

-Dream used the revivebook on the cat Tommy killed, but Sam killed it thinking Dream would use the cat against Sam to escape quicker in the future

-Dream doesn't *fully* know why he is in prison, ever since Tommy and Tubbo killed him, a wire/chip broke in his body which made him forget a lot of things. Dream does get told what he had done a lot, but it makes him almost have a panic attack because he thought he was a pretty good person

-Ghostbur is Callahan, they were commanded by DreamXD to become Ghostbur so that everyone could feel like he was still there (Callahan can change who they are completely, but they don't actually know how they acted when as Ghostbur, though that doesn't mean he didn't know what happened, when Dream killed/revived Ghostbur, Callahan got to see what it felt like to die for the first time)

-Fundy has the habit of picking up things and using them at some sort of fidget (examples: knives, leaves, grass, wood, pencils, berry stems, etc.

-Ranboo will be writing/saying something about someone and use pronouns instead of their name or just with the person's name (example: "Puffy she/her was--" or "he/him writing down things") [Basically canon-]

-Tubbo used to headbutt people but stopped after around 2 years because he kept hurting people

-Phil used to squawk randomly when he was a kid, but he mainly just squawks when hiccuping now

-Even though Bad used to get really nervous picking people up because he was afraid he was gonna drop and kill them, he now just picks up everyone randomly... except Foolish and Ranboo

-Foolish is able to shrink to around 7ft, and unless he is building a big build, he will shrink so he can get around easier

-Because Ranboo is only half enderman, he isn't the full height of an enderman (He is only 8'5)

-If someone asks Charlie about his pronouns, out of confusion, he just responds with "Bones!" which sometimes leads Las Nevadas members (or just anyone really) calling him by He/it/Bones

-When Bad was being controlled by the egg, it made him get even more flashbacks about how his species was supposed to act which would end up with him panicking because that isn't who he wants to be (bonus: The more a member infected by the egg would panic, the more the egg would be able to take over the person because they can't focus)

-Kristin has taught Phil how to do makeup in their free-time of hanging out

-Kristin is insanely tall, if she shrinks then she turns more transparent, so she ends up looking more like a ghost when at average height

-Skeppy can't cry, though he still can feel sad

-Bad and Eret talk to eachother quite a lot

-When Tubbo was around 11-14, he would make redstone contraptions, though he doesn't remember how to make most of them now

Ranboo doesn't like photoshoots because he feels like everyone is staring at him, though this does mean he just doesn't have a passport photo, his alternative was to draw what he looked like on the passport but they didn't allow it, as well as Ranboo doesn't really remember what he looks like anyway because they don't like looking in mirrors--

I think this is half-canon but another headcanon is where every SMP is just an island far away from others. In this case, Hermitcraft, 30 day SMP, and other SMPs are all linked up, as for people who are in multiple SMPs, they travel around by boat for awhile, now, the thing I've just not figured out is how tf their look magically changes-like- outfit is decently obvious-- but do they magically transform like an anime girl? Idk- 

Skeppy's voice randomly glitches out, is there an actual reason for this? No.

Quackity’s outfit is similar to Sub Urban’s (In Freak)

Skeppy acts as if he is royalty, he doesn't act rude or demanding unless joking- but he does act as if he is the superior person-

-Skeppy and Slime are the only "people" that don't have steampunk styled clothing because of how old they are

-Skeppy's hair grows insanely quickly and no one knows why, he honestly hates it

-Most of Skeppy's outfits have been made by Bad or Puffy

-Skeppy knows DreamXD as if he is a brother, but he despises him because of something that has happened around 3,000 years ago

-Skeppy has a lot of different shades in their hair on the "inside"(like- the side where his neck is is what I mean, I don't remember if it has a name or not-)

-Like I've said before, Skeppy's eyes are crystallized, but they are somewhat transparent, not enough to where you'd be able to see the inside of his head, but they are still transparent

-In the past, Skeppy didn't like their name which is why they called himself "Skeppy"

-He has an attachment to caves

-When Skeppy was a kid, they had the dream of him filling cave walls with houses of their own

-Skeppy goes by it/they/he

-Skeppy joke flirts with Bad all the time to confuse everyone, Bad doesn't like it because then everyone thinks they are dating which makes him feel a little uncomfortable

-Out of boredom, in the past, Skeppy would climb on the roofs of caves, hang upside down, and try and sleep like a bat

-They have no blood in his body, it is literally just a diamond covered with a thin layer of skin and hair

-Skeppy gets stressed out easily when it comes to learning because it just reminds him of everything he had to get used to as the billion of years he lived went by

-Skeppy used to not be allowed out into the open world, the first time it experienced going outside was when it was 2 billion years old

-Skeppy has accidentally caught things on fire during the day because of the reflecting of the sun, but even then, they are nocturnal so they don't really have to worry about it

-Wilbur adapted to hanging out with Sally in the water, he has some gills, but he can only breathe underwater for a bit longer with them

-Skeppy always has the equivalent of Diamond (armor) except when he was infected by the egg, he was equivalent to the strength of a Ruby

-Infected Skeppy has a redstone glow when touched, so when hugged(or hive fived- or- yeah you get the point), he would give a subtle glow around him until let go

-The Eggpire still can be controlled, but they are able to control it unless angered/upset

-Skeppy was 6ft when infected, now he is 3′9 un-infected

-At this point, Dream likes the prison because he sometimes feels safe there, like no one can hurt him

-DristaXD is more of a ghost robot than an actual robot

-DristaXD's hobby is murdering people and has basically been in some sort of jail before, she has broken chains around their ankles and hands, it seems to have been made of a really strong material as wel

-Sapnap used to have fire wings, but when he had to get extinguished, they disappeared, they are still there, they just aren't visible until dunked in lava and Sapnap can't use them anymore

-Infected Bad still took care of Sapnap, but Sapnap never cared

-Sapnap takes the name "lava cake" too seriously... though he thinks the literal lava cakes he makes taste good

-Puffy's hair has been dyed blue by Ghostbur before because he wanted people to remember Friend if they ever disappeared

-Going with my Ghostbur as Callahan hc, when Ghostbur was killed, Callahan kind of glitched between realities and so Ghostburs body glitched from Callahan's body and Ghostbur's then just disappeared. Callahan is still alive but they randomly glitch into different realities, he has glitched into places Karl has gone, including The Inbetween.

-When Ghostbur was glitching back into Callahan after killed, it shocked and concerned Dream

There you go :]

[gwynrielsupremacist]

A COURT OF LIGHT AND SHADOWS

Chapter 2: Reason

Read it at AO3

Masterlist

If it were up to Azriel, right now he would rather be juggling burning knives.

Blindfolded.

And in a dark room.

They were in the huge alcove of the High Lord of the Night Court, as Rhysand removed shirts and jackets from his dressing room that he claimed were appropriate for Cassian's attire at his ceremony.

Although Azriel, sitting in one of the chairs that were nearby, watching the scene with his chin on his hands, he was rethinking why he thought this would be a good idea.

After the 'incident' with Elain and Rhys, he had made up his mind that he would never think of Elain that way again.

Of course, that was rather difficult when she was always where the Spymaster passed.

Was he going to the kitchen? Elain would be there with Nuala and Cerridwen.

Was he going to the living room? Elain would be there with Feyre and Nyx.

Possibly one day he would find her in his bed, wearing lingerie, as a gift just for hia enjoyment, tearing off the tiny pieces of undergarments and-

"Azriel?" The sound of his name brought him out of his trance. "Have you been paying attention to something I've said in the last 20 minutes?" 

He knew that his shadows, moving slowly over his neck, covered any variation of his arousal but, just in case, he watched Rhysand's reaction, knowing if he knew the reason for his daydreaming, he would be enraged.

However, Rhys's face revealed absolutely nothing, only joy for his brother and bewilderment on the part of the Shadowsinger.

Usually Azriel was the one who had to warn his brothers to pay attention to him, not the other way around.

He shook his head to Cassian's question, to which he sighed, visibly tired and irritated: "I was wondering if navy would look better than black, but I have no idea what Nesta would like." He muttered. Apparently having a mating ceremony wasn't all the color of roses. "I'll stick with the black one, I  don't think the suit will last long after we go to that cabin." He announced as he and Rhys gave each other knowing glances, grinning mischievously.

That was another arrow to his badly wounded heart.

He was happy for his brothers, of course he was.  There was no other male who deserved a mate as much as Rhys and Cassian, but ...

What about him?

Azriel stopped intervening in the conversation at that moment. He usually did not want to participate in those conversations, but it seemed that that day he was the worst of all.

"The worst day will be the mating ceremony, Shadowsinger. You must prepare for that day if you do not want to fall from grace" Recommended their shadows.

It was true. There would be no worse day than the ceremony.

With Rhys's ceremony it had been the same. As soon as the ceremony was over, he had to go to a Sex club to get rid of the arousal and despair that he felt throughout his body.

It was not fair. Was the Cauldron so macabre?

Had he done so much harm to the world that they deprived him of the experience of having a mate?

He swallowed silently, keeping his face mask neutral, no emotion leaving his face.

He thanked whoever had given him that ability, it was fucking useful at times like these.

Three hours later, Cassian ended up deciding what costume to wear, the black one, and the conversation between the commander and the High Lord died as well.

Cassian left, muttering that he had forgotten something in the House of Wind, although it was possibly an excuse.

The atmosphere in the room had quickly become charged, before the challenging stares of those two.

Although Azriel supposed that he should stay away from the House as well, since he did not need his shadows to tell him that it had served him with a double purpose, he was probably going to fuck Nesta until they both could not hold on foot.

Azriel started to get up, but was prevented by a force in his chest from Rhysand.

"Maybe he had found out about my scent change, after all." He guessed, preparing his best poker face for the onslaught the High Lord was going to bring him.

They stared at each other, studying possible reactions, waiting for who was the first to speak.  Things had gotten tense on their part since Solstice.

Azriel knew, as did Rhysand, that no matter how much he wanted to possess Elain's body, he would never betray Rhysand. Punch him, maybe.  But he will never betray his High Lord.

"I notice you are somewhat distracted, Azriel."  The High Lord commented, sitting down on a chair and intertwining his fingers, dropping them into his lap. "I hope there were no overnight escapades on either side." Rhysand knew perfectly well what he was talking about.

Like Azriel.

"None. I did what you asked." He secured, leaning back, with the advantage that the High Lord didn't know that in reality, his thoughts were a hell of 'wills and cannot'.

Rhysand nodded slightly, rising from his chair, to which Azriel copied the movement.

Azriel knew he shouldn't be fooling around when Rhysand was in that mode, but he couldn't help but feel like a hypocrite.

"You took Feyre away from Tamlin when she still thought she loved him. Elain doesn't love Lucien, yet you separate her from me." Azriel thought. He knew those thoughts didn't make any sense, but right now he was the only thing he could think about.

His shadows were scattered around the room, ready to attack if something happened to his master, while some were on his shoulders, caressing the area in tension.

"I want to keep it that way." Rhysand emphasized, walking ahead of him, silently asking him to follow. He did it. "Things are going bad, Azriel, I don't need any more trouble than is inevitable."

"What problems?" This one answered. "According to my spies, Koschei hasn't shown any signs of life, so I don't see what a problem there could be."

"That Koschei is not showing signs of life does not mean that he is not operating in secret." He suggested, walking into the nursery, with Nyx in the crib, sleeping peacefully.

The High Lord's face changed dramatically.

It was no longer the face of the most powerful High Lord in history. It was the face of a father watching a son, with awe and love in it.

"I can't bear that my son has to spend his early years with that bastard of Koschei in the middle."

"We will protect it." Azriel confirmed, also looking at the small bundle wrapped in sheets. "I will protect him with my own life, if necessary."

Rhysand looked into his eyes, and in a pleading voice, he said:

"Do you understand then? Why I ask you to separate from Elain?" As much as he hated doing that, he nodded. "I cannot allow jealousy and desires to be put through the protection of the court. Things are bad enough to make them worse."

As much as it was hard to keep his gaze neutral, he continued to nod, but anger crept through his mind, clouding his reason.

"And how much trouble would Elain and I have?"

Rhysand was silent for a moment. Azriel guessed

he was steadying himself so as not to punch him in front of his son's bed. Instead of doing so, he asked:

"I don't want you to avoid the question. You are not going to avoid the question." The High Lord manifested. "What the hell happened with Mor, Az?

That theme again.

"Why whenever we talk about Elain, do you end up talking about Mor?" The Spymaster snarled, the shadows preparing to attack, noting the tension in the environment.

"I do it because you have completely forgotten Mor, Azriel. You have been in love with her for over 500 years." He remembered. "I can't believe you traded Mor for Elain in so little time."

"And why do you fucking care?" He growled again, backing away from the room for fear of waking the boy.

"Mor is my cousin, Azriel, and I think I deserve an explanation. Have you given up? And now I suppose Elain will be the consolation prize, right?

It took Azriel more of the self-control he possessed not to slam his fist into the High Lord's nose. If he hadn't been his superior, Rhysand would be bleeding badly right now.

"Elain will never be a consolation prize." He barked, leaving the house and spreading his wings to fly up, but was interrupted by Rhys's hand on his arm, an anchor holding him to the ground.

"Give me a reason."  He started to say. "Tell me one fucking reason why Elain deserves to be your mate, and not Lucien's."

"Are you comparing me to… to that one?" He murmured in a voice icy and deadly, the voice that sent chills to the poor people who had to listen to it. Rhysand didn't even flinch.

"You are both different and equal at the same time." He evaded, then returning to the initial question. "Give me a logical reason, and I will allow Elain to stay with you."

Baring his teeth at him, Azriel leapt, taking flight and away from those feelings, roaring with rage when he realized that he had not a single reason to be worthy of Elain.

TAG LIST: @bookish-isha @imsointobooks @shisingh @feyretale @niaacotar @flora-shadowshine @tealnymph24 @trashforazriel @hlizr50 @meher-sumedha @heyovivi @positivewitch @greywarens-magician @sageofthegalaxy @valkygwyn @verifiefangirl @verifiefangirl-mainblog @snickerdoodlechittybangbang @genya-berdara @katekatpattywack @ddsworldofbooks @secretlovelybeauty @starbornsinger @sv0430

[leoprincess777]

⚡ astrobservations p.2 ⚡♌

🌟 houses

*this is a new theory i came up with but we might experience the energy of the opposite of our houses. for example, as a 1h venus person you may act more like a 7h venus where you avoid confrontation and value keeping the peace. as a 7h venus, you may act more like a 1h venus where you give more appericiation to your appearance and be more aggressive and argumentative.

as a 6h sun, you may find it more difficult to accomplish tasks at hand and be productive and it may feel like a burden to you, but you may easily get in contact with the astral realm and embrace your higher self.as a 12h sun, you may easily be productive and finish tasks and chores but struggle with surrendering to the divine, diving deep into spirituality or struggle to accept your gifts.

*mercury in 7h love to debate other people and share their ideas with other people

*jupiter in 5th gives excellent stage presence and abundance of creativity, its the ultimate performer and creator placement. people with chart ruler in 5h jupiter are often destined to become a creator/performer which can even mean being a tourist guide or a youtuber

*mercury in 5th people are never boring and they are extremely pleasant people who will make everything 5x more fun than it is. school work, chores, everything is funner with them!

🌟 synastry

*be VERY careful when getting into a relationship with 8th house synastry, especially if you are the planet person because you will most likely form an extreme attachment and obsession to the house person that will last for a very long time and can go into unhealthy lenghts. because you are the planet person and this is 8th house synastry we are talking about, the house person has immense power over you and they know it. they can see right through you. as the planet person, you want to be their one and only and feel they empower you, which makes you crave to be with them more because they give you power and their presence helps you get through anything. you will never forget about them and they become embeded in your subconscious. the house person will feel disturbed and triggered by you psychologically. but they become fascinated with the planet person. this makes an extremely transformative relationship. they bring out your true personality (especially if your sun is in their 8th house) to the surface and you trigger the heck out of them.   the planet person usually finds the house person when the house person is at their rock bottom and sometimes vice versa. 

 *venus conjunct sun synastry has an effect where the venus person is widely known as the sun person’s sweetheart. the venus person becomes a magnefied and known person in the sun persons life, almost like a celebrity couple/duo while the sun person is known by the venus persons’ favorite people and inner circle mostly.

*12th house synastry is a BITCH i fucking hate it because it makes everything so blurry and unknown you have no idea wtf is going on but you also cant make your way out and you idealise the person a lot

6th house synastry is EXCELLENT because you’re involved in each others lives so much. more often than not, you spend majority of your time in a day together whether by hanging out or texting and the planet person usually reports the house person what are they doing during the day (like a random text of “im repairing a bike rn” or “im going to x, i’ll be back in awhile” etc) and you care about each other A LOT. the planet person can take a director role in the house persons life and they help each other a lot

mars conjunctions are wonderful synastries for sticking through thick and thin, it makes a very dynamic and sexy couple

with mercury in 7th house synastry, it’s IMPOSSIBLE for the love to remain as a secret if it’s a romance relationship. it will come out. one of you will admit it sooner or later

🌟 other

*wherever your mars is placed in, is where you’re not scared to take action or assert yourself. example: my pisces mars friends are not afraid of getting in dangerous waters likecliff diving, swimming in wild waves, going too deep in water etc. i, as a leo mars am not afraid of putting myself out there and performing

*sagittarius suns love to eat, while sagittarius moons have less appetite and desire to eat

*aries moons love themes of war, they have a warrior-like approach to most things

*aries-pisces people turn war and warriorhood into fantasy and make it dreamlike. (example: grimes’ (a pisces sun aries moon) WarNymph persona)

*i didnt observe this myself but read that mars opposite uranus people have deranges pasts with knives and it’s SO true.

*fire moons enjoy energetic and upbeat music, earth moons love chill music (like indie, lofi, can be r&b too maybe), air moons can enjoy techno music&rap, and i’m not sure about water moons cause i don’t have many water moons in my life but i’m thinking they would enjoy songs with lyrics or beats that make them feel something and songs with stories. i’ve seen that they tend to listen to music of all kinds. earth moons openly discriminate amongst genres and dgaf

*pisces placements have divine intelligence and are revolutionaries. this is rarely mentioned and pisces are often described as “airheads” which they are because of their giant imaginations and unique thought process but it’s a sign of intelligence. pisces people pick up on ANYTHING so quickly, absorb information like a sponge and analyze it themselves to form an opinion and understand it. their thoughts and opinions often dont make to other people or shock them. they will bring revolution and newness into whatever area they are working with. (example: einstein, rihanna, grimes (she’s literally trying to make the “ethereal techno” an official genre and creating avatars. revolution), billie eilish, kurt cobain (helllooo  grunge king), paul mccartney, copernicus, aamir khan, steve jobs are all either pisces suns or risings

*sagittarians are similar in the sense that they like to discover new paths. they have the star quality (walt disney, britney spears, brad pitt, nicki minaj)

*it makes sense that the world’s most famous celebrity right now is a leo (kylie jenner)

*sagittarius and gemini risings have thick and pretty hair. it’s well styled and you want to run your hand through it. they’re physically advantaged

*aries suns and moons will just create trouble if they cant find it cause they love to throw themselves in tricky and dangerous situation as they feed off of it

*cancer moons get fucking poetic and dramatic at the slightest conflict, argument or emotional moment like they fucking channel the spirit of shakespeare. shhtoppp

*air sun, moon, mercury & venus dont like sadness, depression or traumatic memories so they will often program themselves to forget about heartbreaks or traumatic events and move on like they never happened or change the story and tell people different stories about what happened to convince themselves and twist reality.

*moon-saturn often naturally restricts food intake

most socialists/communists have taurus and sagittarius placements it’s INCREDIBLE

leo ic people are inherently and naturally charming af, thats because they are usually SHOWERED with love and affection as a child, they are often the only child and the golden child which obviously feeds someone with confidence for their life later on

libra moons will judge you on the inside if you are ugly sjdljsdf they dont like to be in aesthetically unpleasent spaces

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

Do you normally have “casualties” when you announce a blog event? Anyway, for the Valentine’s event, can you write some familial headcanons for the Diasomnia boys making chocolates with their daughter please?

[Referring to this post!]

I believe the only other big blog event I held (barring Birthday Blog Takeovers) was Make your Vows back in July 2020... So I have not run enough themed blog events to know for sure if having causalities is normal audnaoudaudoaaafadasdagarwrh

Curiouser and Curiouser...

Malleus vows to set aside his practical magic for the day. It would be a lot faster to make chocolates if he just snapped his fingers, but he knows just how much it would mean to his child if they made them together by hand.

He does everything the old fashioned way! That means pulling up a recipe from a book instead of from the internet, and using a whisk instead of a hand mixer. It might take a longer time to get the chocolates done, but it doesn’t matter much to Malleus--he cherishes this special time he gets to spend with his child.

Malleus would rather melt the chocolate discs with his dragonic fire than rely on a microwave (sometimes there are so many possible settings that he gets confused). He’ll prompt his child to attempt and summon their own fire, too--it’s good practice, and he can use this chance to demonstrate the proper fire breathing and temperature controlling techniques to them!

Malleus isn’t aware of any fancy chocolate-making techniques, so he opts to lay them out on parchment paper and create custom chocolate bars. They make simple but cute designs, ranging from writing out each others’ names to Gao-Gao Dragon-kun and the various flowers kept in the family garden.

When the chocolate bards have hardened, Malleus breaks off small pieces and pops them into his child’s mouth. He tenderly wipes up after them if he sees smears left behind around their lips--and when his child offers to do the same for him, he’s more than happy to accept.

It’s a blessing that Lilia’s child shares his... unique tastes. They’re the only one that can seem to stomach whatever strange concoctions he mixes up! Since they’re both used to odd combinations, they decide to make a batch of chocolates in unusual textures and flavors.

Lilia’s all for letting his kid have their independence in the kitchen. They want to try adding some sliced celery into the mix? Sure, why not? They want to add a few dashes of prune juice? Go ahead! He doesn’t believe that he should limit his child’s creativity.

The kitchen is pretty energetic with Lilia and his kid in it! They’re always rustling through cupboards to try and find something, or whipping chocolate in unison while doing cute little dances and singing together which sometimes sounds like death metal screeching. While they wait for their chocolate to chill, Lilia just sits on the kitchen counter and tells his child stories of their infanthood.

To test if the chocolate they’ve prepared is stiff enough to be molded, Lilia and his kid do “the bat test”--they hang upside down from the ceiling like bats and see if the chocolate drips. If it doesn’t, that means it’s ready to be shaped!

They spend all day stuffing their chocolates with all kinds of weird things: kimchi, dried squid, durian, bits of black licorice, preserved anchovies and pineapple... then they exchange them with one another and compete to see who made the most delicious chocolates!

Silver encourages his child to do as much as they can, as experience is the best teacher, but stresses the importance of staying vigilant in the kitchen! He tells his child that they never know when an accident might happen, so they should always know an escape route in case of a fire, and where the nearest first-aid kit is located in case of a personal injury.

He’s skilled with knives thanks to his expertise in swordplay, but he has also been injured many times during his training. Silver hovers over his kid, his hands over theirs, and carefully guides them into slicing a chocolate bar while avoiding cuts. Every so often, he’ll remind them to keep their fingers curled like some of their animal friends do!

Another virtue Silver stresses during the chocolate-making process is patience! Chocolate is very temperature sensitive, so he amuses his kid with cutting basic shapes into fruits while the chocolate slowly heats up and cools back down. Kiwi slices, pineapple stars, melon balls, watermelon hearts, strawberry bunnies and flowers...

They take turns dipping the fruits into chocolate, twirling and tapping the excess off before dipping them in sprinkles, sugar, or other toppings. Silver’s not very good at making cute designs, so it’s up to his kid to help him brush up!

While the chocolate-covered strawberries cool, Silver takes the excess fruit, and his child by the hand, and leads them out into the wilderness. Like father, like son--the animals flock to them, and they allow the little critters to feast on fruit straight out of their hands.

Sebek is overprotective!! Before he even lets his child get near a butter knife, he gives a long speech about important safety hazards and what to avoid doing (no running, no leaving an active appliance unattended to!). Sebek doesn’t want to see them hurt!

He’s always by their side with a recipe in hand! Sebek is a very “cook by the book” type of person, so he often reminds his child of the next step, or tells them what ingredient and amount is needed so they can grab it.

Sebek takes additional safety precautions while he makes chocolate with his kid. Sharp corners in the kitchen are padded out, and he does what he can to minimize flyaway pieces of food and spillage. You need to crush graham crackers? Put them inside a sealed baggies first, then use a rolling pin. Afraid of the chocolate boiling over or splattering? Time for safety goggles and heat protectant gloves!

Beating air into chocolate and cream can be hard at times! If his child gets worn out, Sebek has no problems taking over and finishing the job for them. It’s easy when you have massive arms like he does. His child marvels at their father’s strength, and it makes him puff up with pride.

Sebek is a big advocate for food needing to look as good as it tastes! He shows his child how to temper the chocolate to make it all nice and shiny, and they spend hours dusting truffles with cocoa and sticking little nuts and crushed candies into them. Once they’re complete, Sebek praises his kid for all their hard work and, together, they share a plate of truffles.

[theliterateape]

Six Cult Horror Films You Forgot About That Will Blow Your Mind

by Don Hall

Tired of the rehash of old franchises to chill your bones this October? Try a couple of these and be creeped out for good.

Revisiting (or rebooting) old horror classics for modern audiences is always a bit of fun but they aren't scary. The dread of seeing Michael Myers standing in his Captain Kirk mask became the candy corn of horror sometime around Halloween 5. The existential fear of zombies overrunning your neighborhood is getting tired because we already know everything one has to do to survive them.

Here are six cult classics you forgot about that will remind you how terrifying a solidly weird movie can be.

Phantasm (1979)

The Tall Man. Dwarf zombies wearing cloaks. A flying chrome ball with spinning knives. An amputated finger that transforms into a flying insect. Don Coscarelli's fever dream of horrific surrealism and themed around coming to grips with the death of loved ones is a genuinely bizarre cocktail of horror, bargain basement gore, and psychological enigmas. Funerals are macabre in the first place so why not set the fear in a funeral home with a malevolent embalmer chasing a kid in his dreams to make you afraid to sleep?

Videodrome (1983)

David Cronenberg is the reigning king of body horror. The Village Voice called him "the most audacious and challenging narrative director in the English-speaking world." Crash, Dead Ringers, and The Fly are among the nightmares he has given the world to be completely freaked out watching. Before them came the uncanny story of James Woods discovering a snuff and torture broadcast signal. Layers of mind-control conspiracy evolve as he exposes the signal's source, and loses himself in a series of incrementally bizarre hallucinations.

Eraserhead (1977)

Henry lives alone in a crap apartment surrounded by industrial gloom. When he discovers that a bootie call left his hook-up pregnant, he marries the expectant mother and has her move in with him. The couple's baby turns out to be a bizarre lizard-like creature that won't stop wailing. Other characters, including a disfigured lady who lives inside a radiator, inhabit the building and add to Henry's troubles.

David Lynch's first experimental film. Black and white. F-U-U-U-C-K-E-D UP. Watch this while doing psychedelics and you will be scarred for life.

Re-Animator (1985)

Stuart Gordon's quasi-Lovecraftian gore-fest is funny in a dry-as-a-bone way, disgusting in almost every scene, and a classic for anyone who dreams of a disembodied head giving a woman cunnilingus. Worth it just for Jeffrey Combs delirious take on the protaganist.

Deep Red (1975)

Dario Argento is a legend but you've only ever seen Susperia so what the fuck do you know?

David Hemmings plays a jazz pianist who unwittingly becomes entangled in a string of brutal murders. Befriended by a reporter (Daria Nicolodi, Argento's longtime companion and occasional screenwriter), Hemmings seeks to solve the mystery, only to find himself a suspect, then a target.

Under any other director this sounds like a CSI:Rome plot but Argento is a mad genius so this ain't that. Any film that features a nervous psychic, a necklace-induced beheading, and a score by the Italian rock band Goblin (another Argento trademark) is well worth your time and certainly better than another reboot of I Know What You Did Last Summer.

Jacob's Ladder (1990)

I remember catching this in the theater and after sitting in my car, stunned. I went out, grabbed a few shots of bourbon and chased it with some beer, smoked a joint, and went to another showing that night.

The synopsis, like so many of these, is dangerously simple: ‌Mourning his dead child, a haunted Vietnam War veteran attempts to uncover his past while suffering from a severe case of dissociation. To do so, he must decipher reality and life from his own dreams, delusions, and perceptions of death.

Focus on the "dreams, delusions, and perceptions of death." This one will mess you up some.

Halloween is a conundrum for me. I hate the dress up costume stuff but I love the movies. I like the candy but I don't care much for children. I can watch scary movies any time of year but viewing the squeamish celluloid in October is like watching Christmas movies in December.

I'm a busy guy so when I do settle down to creep myself out, I want it to count.

[dreamsmp-au-ideas]

Ok, basics of Soul Eater. This is a world where people can be born with the ability to transform into magical weapons, known as Demon weapons. They can come to this school called the DWMA (Death Weapon Meister Academy) and find a partner who’s able to wield them, called a meister. If their soul wavelengths are compatible, they’ll become a pair. These weapon-meister pairs are then tasked with going out into the world and fighting off kishin eggs, which are people who have strayed onto the path of evil by eating human souls. If they aren’t hunted down and eliminated, they will eventually form into a kishin – a creature of pure madness that would destroy the world.

There are also Witches, beings of magic who are kind of like a third party – some want the kishin to be revived because it causes chaos, but others are chill and actually on the side of the DWMA. Witches are important because their souls are the key to a Demon weapon awakening their true form, and gaining extra powers. Defeating a witch and consuming their soul makes the weapon into a Death Scythe, a weapon powerful enough to be wielded by Death himself, the god of the world.

For my AU, I’m just taking the premise of the world and replacing the characters with DSMP/MCYT characters, so I won’t explain much there. Great show, would recommend highly, it’s on Netflix, read the manga as well if you’re disappointed by the ending of the anime.

Anyways, I’d like to use more MCYT characters than just DSMP peeps, like some Hermitcraft folks, but I know nothing about them really, so I just have DSMP stuff for now.

Phil is Death, because I can’t help but make him immortal in every AU I make. He’s the one who determines who has started to go down the path of the kishin and makes the order for them to be taken out. (Sounds kinda intense, but in this universe souls of people like this actually look different to healthy human souls).

Dream and George are a meister-weapon pair. George is a Demon Axe, and they are classified as a Three-Star pair (the highest ranking a meister can achieve, and second only to being a Death Scythe for a weapon.)

Techno is also a three-star meister, although his situation is a little different. He doesn’t wield a Demon weapon, but instead he wields a legendary sword called Harpe, which is a shapeshifting weapon that can take different forms. (So, in the series, they have Excalibur, who is this really powerful sword that anyone is compatible with, wavelength wise, but he himself is really freaking annoying so nobody can stand using him as a partner. I wanted to give Techno something different, but I wanted to tie in his connection with Greek mythology, so I created my own legendary weapon. Harpe is Perseus’s sword in the mythology, what he used to decapitate Medusa. Harpe is the same as Excalibur in that it can match anyone’s wavelength, but instead of just being annoying like Excalibur, Harpe allows Techno to hear the voices of the dead. Wherever he goes, there are people who speak to him, and usually it’s just idle chatter and he pretends he can’t hear them, but they seem to know that he can because he always seems to attract them wherever he goes.) Harpe usually takes the form of a sword, but it can also become a trident, a spear, and a pickaxe.

Then there are the two-star pairs, who are a level above the regular students and able to take on more dangerous missions. There’s Sapnap and his two weapons Karl and Quackity, who wield fire and water/ice (not sure yet) respectively. Sapnap and Karl were partners first, before Quackity came to the school, and he was a menace. Sapnap is a very powerful meister, but also very destructive due to his partner being fire and him not knowing how to hold back sometimes. When Quackity became a student and the teachers learned that he was a water weapon, he was begged to partner with them to try and reduce the amount of damage Sap does on lessons, and generally chill them out. Of course, the teachers didn’t account for Quackity being just as chaotic, if not more, than his partners, and thus begun the most chaotic trio at the school.

Bad and Skeppy are partners, and originally I was gonna have Skeppy as the meister with a reluctant Bad who gets pulled into Skeppy’s pranks, but then I remembered that IRL!Bad is a badass who throws knives and shoots guns and stuff, so I changed it so Bad’s the meister and Skeppy’s his knife weapon. Bad still gets dragged around with Skeppy’s shenanigans though.

Punz and Ant are partners, mostly because I needed them to be in the AU somehow and they both needed a partner. Honestly don’t know much about either of them, and I don’t know what kind of weapon Ant is, but they’re strong enough to be two-star.

Then there are the one-star meisters, which is the ranking all students start as. You have Tubbo and Tommy, Wilbur and Fundy, Niki and Jack, Puffy and HBomb, and Purpled and Hannah(hannahxxrose).

To the surprise of most people who meet them, Tubbo is actually the meister in their pair. Which makes it very funny when Tommy’s being his usual bombastic, irritating self and picks a fight with another pair who they may not know, and when they get ready to fight Tommy calls over this innocent looking kid and starts glowing in his transformation, becoming a crossbow that can shoot explosive shots (like a firework crossbow).

Fundy is an interesting case, because he is actually a Witch (using the fact that Fundy’s character on the SMP is ftm trans, and because witches in this world are animal-themed and it just made too much sense with his fox connection. He has ears that he hides with a hat and a tail that he hides.) He’s partnered with Wilbur, who is a set of oversized gauntlets that have claws at the end. Yes, he gets furry jokes, no, he’s not amused, but he deals.

Niki and Jack are the weapon I’m probably most excited about. Jack can transform into a big shield, Steven Universe style, but it also has another ability. Niki can strike it with a mallet in different ways, and the sound that emanates from it has a different affect on her enemies/their attacks. She can ring it so that it resonates at a frequency that can break glass, can stun her enemies, etc. A lot of people think she’s weak or not as good as others because her weapon is defensive, but she just smiles and knows that if they ever see her fight, they’ll think differently.

Puffy and HBomb is half a joke, but also serious. HBomb is some sort of spiked whip/lasso, but many people joke that he’s a glorified fishing rod because Puffy once used him for that and he never lived it down. (Because Puffy’s a captain, but also because HBomb has his podcast and it just seemed to fit). Puffy is also a sheep witch, and bonds with Fundy over it since nobody else at school knows about their heritage (given that Witches are usually an enemy of the DWMA)

Purpled and Hannah, I will admit, are only a pair because they’re both bedwars players and it seemed appropriate? No idea what kind of weapon Hannah would be though.

Real quick, here are some other character roles. Ponk is the school nurse, Sam is a technician who is supposedly working to make sure the school is functioning, maintaining the old pipes and stuff, but he has a lot of secret work that Death has him do on the side of that. Alyssa and Callahan are a Death Scythe pair (Alyssa as a meister) who work on another continent and aren’t ever around, cause I thought it would be funny.

Ranboo is a special case of being his own meister? If anyone reading knows the series, he’s basically like Crona. But instead of madness from the black blood, it’s his enderwalk state that he eventually gets snapped out of in an epic battle with Tommy/Tubbo. He has two non-demon weapon pickaxes that he fights with, as well as the enderman powers from the SMP, and some mild telepathy.

In terms of other MCYT, I don’t know much about the hermits but most seem like they would be good teachers? The only one I was told had to be a meister was Falsesymmetry, because she’s a pvp god. And her weapon is Rendog, because I was told he’s supportive of her and also goes feral if needed? So there’s that. Ren is a transforming weapon, it’s a bow that can disconnect at the middle and become two swords connected by a magic chain that can extend as far as needed.

I have no idea what to do with Eret or Schlatt, they feel like they should have important roles but the “corrupt politician” or “the traitor who became king” bits don’t work super well in this universe. Well, traitor does, but I also love Eret and want to give them a good ending. And I could easily use Schlatt’s normal video persona rather than his SMP character, because that would be kinda funny and not something I see as often. - 🐉

Oooooooh. This is super interesting. This is super interesting. I really love this concept already!