#like it's a bop and it gives them vibes fight me

[moonmoonthecrabking]

nischa, perhaps, as play by jüri pootsmann???

[its-a-me-mango]

Hi I've had several people ask me for my opinions on the movie so instead of answering them all individually, I'll give my honest opinion here. (There's a few focused one I'll answer but this is just my general feel for it)

Ok so, I'll be honest, not my favourite SMG4 movie, don't get me wrong I still enjoyed it, I enjoyed it a lot, but as a few people said, it felt more like a long SMG4 episode than a movie. I think if you see it like that then a lot of the flaws with it kinda melt away, at least to me lol.

We know the team can do absolute bangers (Western Spaghetti is still my favourite SMG4 movie you can fight me on it), I think they just missed the mark a bit this one, especially for someone as important as Mr Puzzles. You'd think if this was a finale to him they'd maybe, I dunno, show him more? It's hard for me to say personally what I would do differently, but I think what they did wasn't the best for him. I'm hoping he shows up again maybe, that'd be nice and would make the movie feel less anticlimactic for me and probably a few others.

Then again we've seen him non stop for like a month so I don't feel like complaining too much lol.

The gags though were super fucking funny and that's what I love most about SMG4, I ultimately don't care if the story is lacking, as long as I'm having a good time then the story can do whatever the hell it wants. I'm not a South Park fan AT ALL and even I was crackling at the South Park skit. The references and jokes, the live action bit, MEAT MALLET?! It's stupid shit like that that makes me love watching SMG4.

I do genuinely think a lot of you would be happier if you took SMG4 less seriously, no offence to any of course it's fun to take silly shitpost shows seriously, but at the end of the day they are shitpost shows, they're meant to be stupid and make dumb jokes, again this felt way more like an SMG4 episode than a movie and I'm fine with that.

Anyone saying SMG4 fell off or were horrifically let down or something like that is being silly, you can say you didn't vibe with the movie it's ok, subdue your expectations and watch Bob make a pickle rick joke with me, you'll understand my vision then.

I get the impression they wanted the movie to be more silly and stuff instead of serious like previous movies, Mr Puzzle is a villain yes but he's a horrifically cartoonish one. His main goal was to control the world though the TV or something like that, like compare that to Wren's goal, there's a clear difference in tone between the both of them.

Regards, I still enjoyed the movie, yes it was a bit over hyped but it wasn't a total letdown for me, it gave us Mr Puzzle characterisation which is nice, again it was REALLY funny, and I always love to the see the team try new and silly ideas! I hope they do more weird and wacky stuff like this in the future because you can tell the team was having fun with this! That's more important to me than anything else.

Also that song was an absolute BANGER, certified bop!!!!! 💥💥💥💥💥💥💥

[ritz-writes]

@asleepyy so sorry for tagging u twice in one day and i hope im not bothering u with my brain rot 😅

but yes, i did actually dissect the lyrics. yes, i am actually insane. and yes, i love this au quite a lot.

here are my notes and what i think each song represents, tho its mainly just the vibes i get. i made notes as i listened to them (note: i see songs almost always in animatic form. idk if that will effect how i imagine what each song means, but i thought it might be worth mentioning)

join me as i lose my mind over the course of an hour and a half

say what you think: def making me think of them both in heaven and jophiel wanting to ask questions.

running up that hill: AHH this one hurt. very obvious as well. jophiel seeing that azazel shouldnt be a demon. "And if I only could I'd make a deal with God, and I'd get Him to swap our places." i am sobbingggg

what difference does it make?: at first i was going to say its jophiel wanting to figure out what went wrong but azazel makes them promise not to, but i think its better suited for azazel understanding hes a demon, but he cant help but still have faith in the almighty

please please please let me get what i want: fuckkk is this about azazel being a demon but still wanting to do good 😭 short but still painful

ever fallen in love (with someone you shouldn't've): my first reaction to the title alone was like the second image of the kambucha girl meme. anyway i think this one is about them becoming friends (or more?? 👀) but knowing its seen as wrong. "And if I start a commotion, I run the risk of losing you and that's worse" makes me also think of jophiel talking to the metatron and realizing he shouldnt ask about azazel lest he risk the poor thing being smited.

nothing critical: ohhhh this one gives hella vibes of jophiel not trusting heaven and knowing "something isnt right here" in regards to the fall-- HOLD UP "I know, someone had to go, If not him it'd be me instead" HELLO??? aziraphale asking for jophiel??? is this like after he finds out what azazels name used to be??

flowers never bend with the rainfall: hmm... i feel like this is a plot point song. not sure why. but "And I hide behind the shield of my illusion" makes me think it pertains to azazel

bird in space: oh this ones a bit tricky. i think ive reached the songs that no longer fit the lore we've been given thus far. so the only thing i can think rn is jophiel enjoying earthly pleasures? not rlly sure

angel, won't you call me?: oh fuckkk is this about a fight they have? "I fled at the face of my rival. When I felt his breath at the back of my neck. Angel, won't you call?" theres no way that isnt about azazel saying smth and then leaving, only to be scared he severed his tie to the only person thats been nice to him.

the stranger: first of this is a bop and im loving it. very groovy. the first thing that comes to mind is the "choose your faces wisely" prophecy. ooo is this about jophiel trying to convince azazel hes still meant to be an angel? that he wasnt meant to fall? also, the last verse is sticking out to me... not sure why

all i think about now: fuckkkkk this is giving me the vibes of jophiel finding out azazel Fell cuz of him and feeling guilty about it. "If I'm late, can I thank you now?" FUCKING OW?? oh yeah for sure this is about jophiel finding out and being sucker punched with guilt

ill be your mirror: oh goddd this song. i know crowley listens to this song but i cant remember what its about so lets see. AH SHIT YEAH THATS RIGHT. okay so jophiel reminds azazel that he is inherently good, regardless of if hes a demon. thats what im getting from this (also just tihnking of that ask i sent about the reflective sunglasses bthwjegkrw)

me and my husband: okay all im getting from this is "they r down bad". they r very very very much in love. getting vibes of this being after they stop the apocolypse. or maybe their feelings developing thru the centuries

time in a bottle: oh man this song always gets me. okay so, this and the last song r giving the oh-shit-i-might-be-in-love vibes. but this one is with jophiel's pov, while me and my husband is azazel's

ritz note: the last couple songs have been cute and lovey and i am now terrified of what the next ones r gonna be. cuz i know this fandom. and i am not ready for the pain. i am afraidddd

lonesome town: i fucking called it i knew the happy wouldnt last 😭😭 they had a fight didnt they. yeahhh they had a fight. FUCK why is this so sad but so pretty

across the universe: is this one sad too??? hang on theres a bit thats not in english, what does that mean... "Hail to the Heavenly Teacher." okay so i assume this is an azazel song. this is just making me think of the bookshop fire, but its azazel thinking jophiel died 😭 ....i am staring at the lyircs. i am glaring at the lyrics. this song MEANS something. i just dont know what. but its important. im squinting at it very hard (note: i came back to this song and am STILL glaring at it. its like. its like im seeing it covered in sand but i know theres gold underneath. i cant SEE the gold, but i know its there. this is driving me nuts /pos)

no wonder i: hm.. im not rlly sure with this one. OH?? is this azazel finding out heaven isnt that good?? "Suddenly I'm not so sure. That intentions can be pure." hmmmmmmm

what do they know?: holy shit okay this is a completely different kind of song than the others. im.... glaring at these lyrics too. feels like a plot point but cant tell what it is. i think its about jophiel? maybe heaven too?? idk im grasping at straws with this one

sea of love: oh yay a happy song again 😌 okay this is just short and sweet. gives me forgiveness and/or confession vibes.

who are you, really?: this one sounds important and i am glaring!! makes me think of "we dont need heaven we dont need hell" and also "a demon/angel that goes along with hell/heaven as far as he can". also just makes me think of jophiel speaking.

the moon will sing: i fucking love this song but i dont think ive ever looked at the lyrics so lets goooo. right away i see "I could have been anyone, anyone else. Before you made the choice for me" and think of aziraphale asking and falling for jophiel, and in a way making the choice of jophiel staying an angel. "Instead, I made a bed with apathy" jophiel trying not to care about a random demon. "I shine only with the light you gave me" jophiel giving azazel ideas on how to do "good" while being "bad". also with that line, thinking of azazel saying that to god and being sad about having fallen AUGHH i have a whole animatic in my head with this song and im losing my mind

matephor: hnnnn another important sounding song. jophiel vibes. fight song perhaps?? "Don't look too hard 'cause you won't like the scars he left in me" azazel vibes??? this one is elusive to me but i love it. okay im slowly getting more azazel vibes. like azazel trying to convince jophiel that he is a demon and fell for a reason

providence: right away getting "heaven and hell r bad" vibes. OHH okay okay this is giving me hella jophiel vibes, but specificly snarky and sassy jophiel vibes. of being like "oh yes heaven is oh so great, we kill children! but its for the greater good, of course. gotta beat hell and all that, even at the cost of innocents. all for the almighty and her ineffable plan." (this song is a bop omg)

earth angel: oh i know this one but only with crowley and aziraphale, so im excited to listen to it with an oopsie omens mind set. omg wait why does it hit HARDER. love sick azazel is such a cute image 🥺🥰

what more can i do: hmm.. them being in love but knowing its "forbidden"? cant tell who i imagine with it more

starman: this is just them. classic good omens song, regardless of the au. love to see it 💖

a pearl: AH FUCK ANOTHER SAD ONE. mitski whyy. hm.. azazel song? jophiel?? i think jophiel... tho my mind might be turning to mush at this point so im not sure. one of them is sad

duvet: oh def azazel vibes. oh maybe some jophiel vibes too?? i can see it swaping povs. i think it fits azazel more tho.

ritz note: OKAY the next song is in a different language and for a split second i legit thought i was having a stroke when i pulled up the lyrics ngl bgkewrrkjq

différent de toi: no idea what this song is about but its pretty 😊

oh thats all of them! i think the first half is more coherent observations, while the second half is just... rambling a bit lmao. idk if any of this makes sense. i might also be looking for things that arent there with these songs, but oh well. this was fun!

and now, after looking back at them all, i really does just slowly derail near the end lmao

[bubblespalace]

The Sakamaki Brothers As Taylor Swift Albums

Note: This is simply what album best fits their personalities, it may not be 100% accurate, as this is my opinion.

Shuu:

NOW PLAYING- "FOLKLORE"

I really do think the vibes of this entire album fits Shuu. The calmer melodies with a loathing to some of them really matches his personality. The song "Cardigan" especially makes me think of him, it sounds like something he would listen to also.

Reiji:

NOW PLAYING- "REPUTATION"

Don't even try to fight me on this. We know Reiji prides himself on his family reputation, and his brothers always try to tarnish it. The entire album gives such powerful vibes too, just like our Rei-Bae. I think the song that best fits him is "Did Something Bad".

Ayato:

NOW PLAYING- "RED, TAYLOR'S VERSION"

Okay, I admit, I may be giving Ayato too deep of an album. But I think this describes him very well, and not only because the album is called Red. The mood the lyrics have just remind me of him, especially songs like "22" and "State of Grace".

Kanato:

NOW PLAYING- "SPEAK NOW, TAYLOR'S VERSION"

I swear I didn't pick this for him because of the color. I picked it because of songs like "Better than Revenge" and "Haunted", however, there are also songs like "Enchanted" and "Mine" on here. This really shows how Kanato's mood changes, and I think this is the best album for him.

Laito:

NOW PLAYING- "1989, TAYLOR'S VERSION"

This album just gives me his feel. "Style" for some reason really makes me think of him. Along with "Wonderland" and "Wildest Dreams". Honestly, he would rock out to this in the car. Also, even the lyrics fit him.

Subaru:

NOW PLAYING- "MIDNIGHTS"

"Anti-Hero" would be his bop. Along with "Vigilante Shit" and "Snow On The Beach" with Lana Del Ray. All these songs make me think of Toyota.

[manygeese]

mega projecting rn, this is

PERCY JACKSON CHARACTERS AS SONGS FROM MY PLAYLIST

aka what I think they would do for karaoke, what’s they like, and what song is them coded

PERCY

What he’d do karaoke to: Beyond the Sea by Bobby Darin. Son of Poseidon thinks water songs are funny.

What song he’d like the most: either Angry Young Man or Allentown, both by Billy Joel. Hard hitting lyrics and instrumentals to match.

What song he has the vibes of: Kodachrome by Paul Simon. Silly, jaunty, but kind of soothing at the same time. Reminds you of your childhood, almost.

ANNABETH

What she’d do karaoke to: Stand by Me by Ben E. King. She’s a romantic lady, what can I say? She’d totally be winking at Percy when she sings the chorus.

What song she’d like the most: Arthur’s Theme (Best That You Can Do) by Christopher Cross. She has classical vibes and this is the closest thing to classical as I have on my playlist. Also, I feel like she’d love jazz and this is jazz-adjacent.

What song she has the vibes of: She’s Always A Woman by Billy Joel. Sentimental, cool, but still oozing with emotion.

JASON

What he’d do karaoke to: Total Eclipse of the Heart by Bonnie Tyler. Boy puts on a performance.

What song he’d like the most: My Way by Frank Sinatra. He feels good about himself and all the stuff he’s been through while listening to it.

What song he has the vibes of: Out of Touch by Daryl Hall & John Oates. Edgy, cool, and a bop.

PIPER

What she’d do karaoke to: Lovefool by The Cardigans. Daughter of Aphrodite thinks love songs are funny. She’s a really good singer though, so she can choose any song and still knock everybody’s socks off.

What song she’d like the most: Yesterday by the Beatles. I think she’d like sad songs (not breakup songs, more like “wallowing in self pity, wondering what happened to us” songs).

What song she has the vibes of: Thank You For the Music by ABBA. Self worth problems, putting all your value in one ability? Piper coded.

LEO

What he’d do karaoke to: Let’s Hear It for the Boy by Deniece Williams or Thank God I’m A Country Boy by John Denver. The first because he’s some sort of LGBT+ and thinks it’s funny, the second because he’s Texan and thinks it’s funny. Also Fernando by ABBA.

What song he’d like the most: Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go by Wham! He identifies with it. Also he loves the dorky Just Dance for it.

What song he has the vibes of: Telephone Line by Electric Light Orchestra. Hopeless romantic vibes right there.

HAZEL

What she’d do karaoke to: Fly Me to the Moon by Frank Sinatra. She’d eat any jazz song up, really, but this one’s got her name written all over it.

What song she’d like the most: Bad, Bad Leroy Brown by Jim Croce. It’s got that school house rock vibe that you know she’d love. And also, bar fights! Yay!

What song she has the vibes of: Put Your Records On by Corinne Bailey Rae. Happy, sends a message, gives off sunny day and Hazel vibes.

FRANK

What he’d do karaoke to: Delilah by Tom Jones. He’s belting this shit in the shower at 3 AM.

What song he’d like the most: Oh, What A Beautiful Morning by Gordon Macrae from the musical Oklahoma. He’s embarrassed to admit it, but this boy loves old Roger’s and Hammerstein musicals (The Music Man, Carousel, etc.) that go on for too long and have unnecessary songs. He thinks they’re pretty.

What song he has the vibes of: Everybody Loves Somebody by Dean Martin. Gentle giant vibes.

NICO

What he’d do karaoke to: So Long, Mom (A Song for World War III) by Tom Lehrer. He’s a sucker for old satirical songs and loves watching his friends react as he sings them.

What song he’d like the most: The Vatican Rag by Tom Lehrer. Again, because he likes satirical songs. He cried laughing the first time he heard it, having grown up in the Catholic Church (of Italy, no less).

What song he has the vibes of: Carry on Wayward Son by Kansas. Stark contrast from the earlier songs but it’s just… so Nico coded. The type of stuff you can head bang but also perform ballet to.

REYNA

What she’d do karaoke to: We Didn’t Start the Fire by Billy Joel. She memorized the whole thing and likes flexing on everybody else about it because they don’t have the guts nor the dedication.

What song she’d like the most: Fame by Irene Cara. She unwinds to this in her room after a long day. She also totally does embarrassing dances to it.

What song she has the vibes of: Leningrad by Billy Joel. A song about war, seemingly endless cycles of violence, but small victories and reconciliation.

[a-local-idiots-shitpost]

The Overblot gang with a Floridian!Yuu.

They catch them feeding a gator and being like “sup, wanna see a cool trick?” And just makes the alligator do the “bop” thing with his mouth with a piece of chicken, and jump reeeeeeeeeally close to them. Always chill with the gator and keeping a good eye on him.

When asked where they got a fucking gator, they just said “oh, he was here already, he is pretty chill” You’re free to imagine where the fuck the gator came from.

And that actually explains why Yuu always has a large stick with them, is so they control both students and the alligator.

https://youtu.be/9HkKWIG8GNs

They have this guy vibes. I bet this Yuu gets weirdly along with Rook and gives him the teeth the gator looses from time to time.

I know, this is pretty long request, but now I love and believe Floridian!Yuu would actually be chill and survive anything that crazy world throws them.

Nah don´t worry Anon it isn´t that long, anyway hope you´ll enjoy

also included Idia because the first part of Chapter 6 dropped while I was still writing

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

Riddle:

will desperately hope for a rule which will forbid the Alligator from entering Heartslabyul

if the Alligator is anything like Grim it will cause chaos and he will not allow this in his Dorm

will be very disappointed that there is none, even worse there is one which requires one every 432th Unbirthday Party to be in attendance

but he will be very relieved that it has better manners than Grim

but when he saw the little trick you showed him…

you seriously thought he was about to Overblot again

definitely screamed at you to never do something reckless as that ever again

“and yes it doesn´t matter how much you trust the Alligator Yuu! never do this again!”

Leona:

definitely tried to fight alligator because it stole his favorite napping spot

and his lunch, which to be fair was his fault for leaving it lying around without supervision

but now you have a video of Leona getting his ass kicked by an Alligator and you definitely sent Ruggie the Video so he has something against Leona

honestly he didn’t really react when you showed him what the Alligator can do

and with that I mean not biting your head off while your feeding it

but he also feel asleep and only woke up to tell you to stop wasting food so makes sense why he had no reaction

everyone else in Savanaclaw though looked at you like you were crazy

Azul:

he actively hides from the Alligator, why you ask? you had it while he was trying to take Ramshackle from you

and believe me the Alligator would have happily mauled Azul and the Tweels to death

it doesn´t help that it always finds a way into Octavinelle and also a way into his office

but he knows that it´s Floyd who always brings the Alligator into his office when he sees it wandering in Octavinelle´s halls

or even dragging it into Octavinelle

and the Alligator is still trying to kill the three of them

he believed you officially lost it when you showed him a cool trick the Alligator can do

and he definitely knew you lost it when you also offered him to do it, Floyd happily insisted on doing it instead of Azul

Jamil:

he seriously wonders if he got a second Kalim, because Kalim also has the habit of bringing all kinds of animals home and keeping them

considering all the other Overblots reactions he is probably one of the chillest with it

and it doesn´t help that Kalim loves the Alligator and wants to constantly invite it to Scarabia

he desperately hopes this won´t make him want one as a pet

the only time he hated the Alligator was when you decided to show your trick, which he would usually couldn´t care less about

but then Kalim wanted to do it too

and now he´s in panic mode because if anything were to happen to Kalim he would be dead

he will definitely pay you back for this

Vil:

the first time Vil meet the Gator was when Rook asked him to collect teeth from Ramshackle

he was under the assumption he was supposed to collect Human, Beastmen or Fae teeth

and not those from a distant relative of Sebek

but no it turns out Ramshackle has their own beast and he isn´t talking about the Prefect or Grim for once

he doesn´t even want to know how you found it

if it wasn´t for that stupid trick of yours he would have just left after getting those teeth

but no you had to give him half a heart attack just because you thought it was funny

and he decided to scold you and maybe curse some of your things

(because Chapter 6 dropped while I still had it, I´ll include Idia)

Idia:

he was very glad you didn´t try and bring the Alligator with you while he Overbloted

he is pretty sure you would have let it eat him

the very first time he meet the Alligator though was when you let it lose in Ignihyde after his Overblot

he was terrified but also impressed that it was only chasing him down

and that Ortho couldn´t stop it, it was surprisingly good at dodging all of the beams

he looked ready to faint when you showed him what the Alligator could do

you actually thought he did faint because Ortho also tried it

even worse for Idia after the Alligator stopped trying to eat him Ortho befriended it and now regularly takes it to Ignihyde

[bite-the-bloody-hand]

6 SONG SOUNDTRACK (Part 1 - DISCO FUNK)

@chaosteddybear tagged me in the following game and the autism won. I decided to make an extra challenge for myself: a themed playlist with 1 'outsider' or anachronistic track that still fits the overall vibe. We begin... with Disco Funk.

PREPARE YOUR BUTTS

Rules: If you're tagged, make a new post with links to music and/or lyrics describing the following: 1. An event that defines your character's past 2. How your character sees themselves 3. How others view them 4. Their closest relationship (platonic or romantic) 5. A major fight scene 6. End Credits song

Spotify Youtube Music

1. AFRO CUBAN BAND* - Something's Gotta Give -

Dreams have done their share of dying love cries out but no one hears - oh, Something Something's got to give We can't, We can't go on like this

Is it a little on the nose? Sure. But a midnight revelation that he simply couldn't continue his life as it was going put Zell on the road to discovering his own path. He aches for the hurting, broken world he was brought into; he may not have the answer for fixing things, but he has to try something. Even if he's unsure of himself, even if he's convinced of his own fragility, he can fake strength if he can get out. He can't do anything while locked away in a Hellknight compound in Lepistadt, so he goes. And so it goes...

2. ARTIE SHAW - Nightmare - (Instrumental)

The problem with having an unclear sense of purpose and underdeveloped, poor self-esteem is that it can lead one down a path of introspection that keeps one in a spiral. Zell is an outsider when he isn't a rebel, never fitting with any authority and rarely synchronizing with any group; uncomfortable in his own body even when he's done everything he can to feel like himself. He desperately wants to solve the conundrum of connection - even when he's successful he has doubts that haunt him, especially in the lonely hours in the night.

(It's called Depression but they haven't invented therapy in Golarion yet)

Why this is the Anachronistic Outsider - Zell himself is a man out of time... even he doesn't know how old he is or how long he spent in Areelu Vorlesh's "care."

3. DEODATO - Also Sprach Zarathustra (instrumental)

I'm being a little bit of a shit with this; historically the misinterpretation of Nietzsche's Zarathustra have been that the title character is a teacher of doctrine/great leader/himself the 'Übermensch' he urges humanity to become. The actions of someone who wishes not to speak to the masses but instead live his own life of contemplation - and if he ever leads, to do it by example - often get twisted into fanatic parasocialization... if that isn't the life of the Knight Commander I don't know what is. Plus, this is just a bop.

4. EVELYN "CHAMPAGNE" KING - Shame

Ooh-ooh, it's a, oh-oh, it's a shame (Shame) oh-oh, it's a (Shame) mama** just don't understand Oh, how I love my man (shame) It's a, oh, it's a (shame)

Falling for someone when you already don't like yourself a whole lot can be hard, but it's much harder when nobody else likes the someone you love. Sometimes you just have to whip around and be assertive: the real shame would be abandoning what you have. Especially when it's this good.

5. C.J. & CO - Devil's Gun***

Get a new direction Well, well, well another resurrection Well now don't wait hesitate Or it's gonna be too late Flames are getting higher Got to jump out of the fire

I felt this fit as a big combat piece for Azata path especially; deeply anti-authoritarian theme about bringing together the community and avoiding the Devil (literal, figurative, and so on) and rebuilding? Yes please.

6. FRANCO MICALIZZI - Stridulum Theme (Instrumental)****

I wanted to close us out with something that felt a little magical and strange; this is a longtime favorite that really fit the bill.

TAGGING~ @Rlainarin @thedosianexplorer @arendaes I'm pretty sure two of you have already been tagged so feel no obligation, naturally.

*Had to transcribe the lyrics here myself so I'm not 100% sure I got them on the mark. Frustratingly I think this group only did one other track, which was the b-side for Something's Gotta Give. Real bummer, I love what I've found.

**Mama in this context is 100% Irabeth. She does NOT approve of this obviously farcical union. She's watching Arendae like a HAWK .

***YES, OF COURSE I played this during the Mephistopheles fight, who do you think I am?! TBH it was a real close call between this and Stayin' Alive but Devil's Gun won out for thematic reasons.

****I've had this track on Zell's playlist for a long time simply because I love the sound. It's the theme to a truly bizarre 70s Italian horror flick called The Visitor / Stridulum that's worth catching if you're curious. Free on youtube via the link.

[kingprinceleo]

Hi there! Playlist anon again. I listened to the whole thing and here are my thoughts. I hope this isn't over reaching cause I really enjoyed it overall and would love to see the rest 🙏🏽. Buckle in this is longgg

Rivers is a Vampire- Sonic would dance fight Shadow to this song (like in the original puss in boots, look up the scene I swear it's great).

Loose Cannon- it's both so Shadow and Sonic coded but it's funnier if it's Shadow realizing he likes Sonic. More likely it's supposed to be Sonic @ Shadow and it really fits. 10/10 putting it on my personal playlists.

Genius - this is Sonic having a jam sesh in his bedroom. 7.5/10 very in character, you're going to make me start liking rock music.

Assassin- 9/10 Shadow in his emo boy bag. The verses feel like Shadow in his head thinking he's hot shit (he's right), but the chorus feels like Rouge trying to talk him down. Overall big fan.

Lost- Honestly really love the vibes of this one. It sounds like Sonic and Hoax fighting/ talking or just Sonic debating with himself. Love the jaunty music with the sinister undertones.Fading World- 7/10(<- could be higher depending on personal taste) A nice interplay between Sonic's cheery friendliness and Shadow's.... everything. A nice world building song if that makes sense. If vamp au! were a level in a game this would play.

Moon Trance- A vampire nobility song if that makes sense. Kinda gives off Blaze if Sonic were dropping in with EDM beats. World building song.

Phantom of the Opera Overture- Shadow once again in his emo bag. Listening to this I imagine him dramatically posed as Ophelia in the river as Rouge looks on utterly unimpressed. Another world building song.

Dear Wormwood- 10/10 Devastating. This feels like when Shadow discovers Rogue is a vampire (if that's still canon?) and could work for the Sonic/Hoax reveal but to a much lesser extent.

Galacta Knight Theme- 5/10. Not bad but I'm not entirely sure how it fits. Feels like a world building song but lacks the rock and goth roots of its predecessors. I wanna say it feels like an Eggman song?

Trouble- Rouge song very fun (Shadow if you get a microscope). Good for a chase scene or playful fight.

Look What You Made Me Do Remix- Shadow after Sonic sneaks an extra sip of blood. 8/10 Shadow wouldn't be a Swiftie but he would bop to a song or two.

Bodies- GODDDDD 10/10. Shadow tracking a vampire to a party in his vulture outfit and having to maneuver his way to stealthily kill them (can't remember clearly if Shadow's actively a vampire hunter in the au rn but you get the vibe /pos).

Vampire Culture- like I said before Shadow being a hater /pos. Somebody get this boy a weighted blanket he needs to chill 8/10. I imagine he plays this as he puts on each vampire repellent stud and piercing.

The Magic 8- A very Sonic song in message but also Amy with the talk of magic. Funky duet? They'd probably sing this at Shadow 9/10.

Who's in Control- 10/10 Another Sonic/ Hoax talking song (I interpret their dynamic to be that Hoax has less inhibitions than Sonic and is overall allowed to be looser. hopefully that's close).

Why Do I- Sonic after Shadow realizes he's Hoax and they have a falling out. It feels do very Teen Beach Movie /pos. He'd get a whole musical number with backup dancers and rad sad choreography.

Blood Red Moon- World building song. Funnily enough I think you'd introduce Shadow with it. Dark foggy night, random vamp running away/ person being attacked by one, cut to Shadow standing ominously with a lightning strike for good measure. Lowkey has cowboy vibes.

Born of a Star- Feels like a happy future. The type of track that would play towards the end of a boss fight.

Drumming Song- 8/10. Very much an Amy song I like it a lot plenty of witchy vibes. Feels like it would play when she performs a powerful spell/ ritual (not sure exactly how her magic works). The chorus especially also sounds like Shadow describing the effect Hoax has on him :).

You've Created a Monster- Shadow. That's the review. This plays during a hunt or just during his morning routine. Just goofy enough to hide the emotional turmoil but serious enough to show his issues 8/10.

This is Why- Shadow whenever he sees Hoax. He's his biggest hater. Also Shadow at his job with Knuckles (he's about to punch someone's teeth in).

Figure 8- Sad Shadow hours. Probably around the time he just met Hoax and made the deal. Sounds like he's questioning his whole identity :(.

Shoot to Kill- 6/10 World building song. It's giving gathering of elders in the vampire kingdom.

Punching Bag- I've been associating the Set it Off songs with Sonic so far so at first I was thrown for a loop, but honestly? I can see him singing this after someone (Shadow) tries to kill him. It can also be a Shadow song but I find the Sonic angle very interesting.

Vampire- 9/10. ROUGE SONG. She's about to rob a man, GOOD FOR WOMEN.

Sirens- Not sure exactly this would apply to but very fun. Sounds like Shadow falling in love in a very overdramatic way but could also be Sonic. 8/10

Again sorry for the length and I hope I didn't interpret anything egregiously wrong 😭

I think the band In This Moment and their albums GODMODE, Mother and Ritual could maybe fit.

Thanks again for sharing :)🙏🏽

~🩸🎵

anon i am literally kissing you on ur nonexistent smooth gray mouth HHJDFHHSDH this is the nicest thing anyones ever given me im so giddy about this DHFSHFHSDJDSF that being said this is gonna get so long so i am adding the under cut LOL

Rivers is a Vampire- youre so fucking right for this and i wanna draw it so bad ... JKDFJKSJKF

Loose Cannon-set it offs elsewhere album is a whole banger and highly recc the whole thing >:]]] and this song is a shadow centric one ! about how hes always on the edge around everyone bc of his paranoia, and esp around hoax lol, he gets mad about being called out </333

Genius - sonic jamming to this is also so correct fdjghjdfg contrary to shadow, sonic in vampire au is just here to have a good time LMAO (u should get into rock :} BDSFBH its fun here)

Assassin- this one is rlly interesting to me bc the ENTIRE thing is intended to be a shadow callout post from sonic/hoax pov. i would not have considered this being shadow reflecting on himself at all ! but damn the rouge pov also works out really well too, i never considered that either! (originally i figured the only rouge mention would have been 'you hear whispers when were just talking' which would have been sonic and rouge talking to each other and shadow thinks they are conspiring </3)

Lost- this one is a lil complicated in my rat brain shdfhj !! this one is shadow pov! its like. about his perspective shifts across the plot in vampire au- first trying to hide from the scary vampires </3 and the screams are getting louder line ....is about maria...... i eated that part up.... "please dont find me im not ok" is a very shadowcore line and the final lost chorus meant to rep shadow eventually becoming 'lost' in what scared him but like. embracing it. this one. is hard to convey JJSDFJSD prob would need art to get across what i mean i suppose Fading World- this one is a Maria and GUN song ! :]c (dont worry about the fact its bass boosted. i am just guy who likes bass......)

Moon Trance- close !!! silver and mephiles :3333 jbhdfjdj(meph is blazes royal advisor so it does tie back to her kingdom ehe). boys who prowl and will bash your head in to this in the woods somewhere

Phantom of the Opera Overture- "Shadow once again in his emo bag. Listening to this I imagine him dramatically posed as Ophelia in the river as Rouge looks on utterly unimpressed. Another world building song." I NEED TO DRAW THIS SO FUCKING BAD AHAHH u are SO FUCKING RIGHT FOR THIS. side note, a general rule of thumb (not always but a lot) anything that sounds this fucking dramatic is shadow pov and how he imagines vampires, the real guys are just chilling dfbhgfhsd with their nerd music. shadow is vampires #1 hype man without even realizing

Dear Wormwood- this one is Primarily a shadow and GUN song !! tho there are little tidbits of others who he has discovered lied to him like rouge eggman and sonic !!! (and yes shadow finding out rouge is a vampire is still canon >:])

Galacta Knight Theme-close with the eggman bit !! a theme for geebo <333(Lance)

Trouble- very correct vibes !! primarily rouge but i would add sonic in there too !! they both have that fun playful air to them tbh that i think a lot of people overlook in their canon dynamic hfgdhj

Look What You Made Me Do Remix- Shadow @ everyone tbh !! buttt primarily this is during his GUN arc when hes just so fed up with being lied to (he doesnt even know) i think if u remixed enough taylor swift into rock or metal he could get down to it fdgbjgdhjf

Bodies- YOURE SO RIGHT FOR THISSSS. esp the vulture part :]c... and the vampire hunter part is .. a little complicated ! he kinda is sometimes? theres a specific circumstance that makes him more willing to actively hunt and kill

Vampire Culture- he is absolutely blaring this in his mind while he gets ready lmaooo . big fan of weight blanket shadow tho dhgfdjg....something to draw.... fun lil fact tho... i imagine that smooth voice to be the head of GUN....

The Magic 8- i think sonic is the one singing it! but its all about amy! about her arc with her desperation to prove herself, getting consumed by her ambitions, and working with dark magic :)

Who's in Control- the sonic and hoax angle is SOOO interesting to me! i would have never thought of it bc frankly they are chill af, he does not have much turmoil about it! this has always been a HUGE shadow song esp 'living in fear, living afraid, hysterical everyday"

Why Do I- this is actually shadow @ sonic !!! reverse hehehe. this is one of the more accurate songs lmaooo, like 'wake up in cold sweats screaming your name" this song is the canon point in time where shadow first realizing he has a crush on sonic !! sonic is the reason the bastard drinks </3333

Blood Red Moon- absolutely obsessed with your version of it oughhhh, but its always been an eggman song to me (esp with that laugh lol)! and one of his silly little schemes. defo gonna draw that shadow idea tho thats so sick (and it is SO cowboy. do not be surprised if it winds up in the desert vampire playlist)

Born of a Star- this one is a death song ! self reflection and "how did we get here"

Drumming Song- close with the chorus part ! but the entire thing is Sonic pov about how yummy yummy shadows blood is 😋 shadows heartbeat drumming in his mind !

You've Created a Monster- i was SO fucking confused when i saw this bc!!!! youtube is hiding that video from me "its not available" !! and apparently you can see it but i cant!!! im so mad but i also owe you my life bc i found the song again and it BANGS SO HARD and it is 100% shadow wanting to kill maim <3333 its also a 3 way song for shadow @ everyone/ Hoax @ shadow about how shadow seems to be forcing hoax to be the monster he fears to justify his hatred/ uh oh amy fucked up !!!!

This is Why- THE JOB ANGLE IS SO CORRECT AND FUNNY, obsessed with that. but also yeah shadow doesnt like outside </3 rouge is the one saying the coast is clear </333

Figure 8- the deal interpretation is so good...... thats all im ever gonna think about now. honestly "all for your sake, became the very thing that i hate, i lost my way, spinning in an endless figure 8" was meant to be a shadow talking about maria line! but thats all i really got from the song, the deal idea is so good.......

Shoot to Kill- i personally saw this as a shadow GUN song !! bro is more intense and focused than usual

Punching Bag- THIS CHANGED ME WTFFF, i was struggling to see it as shadow and GUN, but oh my fucking GOD, the sonic pov is so raw and i am OBSESSED with it. pissed him off one too many times !!!!!!!

Vampire- WE SUPPORT WOMENS WRONGS !!! YAY ROUGE!!!!

Sirens- this is a shadow and GUN song !! solace in their song is propaganda !! shadows ready to shoot !!! shake off some blues kill vampires !!! HES BACK IN THE NOOSE!!!! SONIC GIVE HIM ALL YOU GOT BECAUSE IF NOT THEYRE GONNA DROWN HIM OUT !!!!!!! ehe :]

i listened to Mother and couldnt immediately feel anyone out with it but ill look thru their other stuff and rack my brain !!! ty for the suggestion !!!! but omg ty SO MUCH this was so fun if u ever wanna hmu for the other playlists...... i am looking so hard.. (but no pressure !! this was already so much and im so grateful !!!)

[marianas-trench-is-not-that-deep]

My (Pretty Quick) Review on Haven - Marianas Trench (2024)

PSA: So my plan is to write a total of probably 3 reviews of Haven. this one being the short one with just rating each song from 1-10 with small commentary. the second being an extension of this one with better commentary for each song, and the third being a review as an album in general instead of focusing on each song. I just have way too many thoughts and I don't want to overwhelm anyone with everything in one post. It also helps me keep my thoughts organized. I just want to join in the fun (despite me being a few weeks late to the party)

okie thanks! :D

Normal Life: ngl it took me a few listens to really like it. But when it hit, it HIT. Not the best opener in their discography tho. 8/10

Lightning and Thunder: i like it as a single, but kind of flops compared to the other songs in the album. Still a bop tho 6/10

I’m Not Getting Better: it took me a two relistens to like it. Again, good as a single but something about it just gives “FOR RADIO”. Can tell they drew some inspo from the 80s and seems a little Astoria-esque (still don’t know if I like it tho). 5/10

Down to You: first single that I automatically fell in love with. However, it sounds way too similar to Kid Laroi’s Stay in some parts and I don’t like that 💀 7/10

Now or Never: 😬 guys, I’ve seen your reviews and I was surprised to see this was a fan favorite. It was not mine (pls don’t kill me 💀). Lyrics,, a little cheesy. Production,, a little boring to me tbh. However not a bad song. Vocals are killer - as always - 4/10

Into the Storm: lyrics are nice (still a little cheesy tho). Production and composition, awesome ! Josh really worked his ass fr. Love the crescendos here. Sounds like it will be killer live. 7/10

Ancient History: another fan favorite for some reason that I was surprised with. Melodically: fan of the verses, not a fan of the chorus (more on that later). Saxophone goes HARD tho 🎷🎷 serviceable bop 5/10

Stand and Fight: pretty good song in the context of the album. Not so good standalone (a little debatable). Josh’s vocals made me tear up hear tho. Gets pretty inspiring 🥹 7/10

Turn and Run: same review as stand and fight except it’s inspiring in a different way. To me: (masterpiece theater II —> Masterpiece Theater 2009) = (turn and run —> Haven 2024) idk if that makes sense but it’s an analogy. Sounds like it’ll be killer in live 6/10

Worlds Collide: BANGER BANGER BANGER. I liked it when I first heard it but it took me til the third to be like “ 🥹I get it.” This song was made for ME. The masterpiece theater references made me tear up. The drama, the composition. Spectacular. However, in the context of the album, it gets held back. More on this song later. 9.75/10

Nights Like These: giving “story of tonight”. Sweet message. Sweet song. (Congrats to josh btw!)6/10

Remember Me By: SLAPS!! Straight up. Loved it as soon as I heard it. Catchy and love the 80s vibe here a lot more. Also reminds me of Try Me from his solo project. Certified BOP 9/10

Haven: KILLER OUTRO! Once more, marianas Trench knocks it out of the park with their outros. I think this is their most ambitious and musically complex song yet and it tears me up how far they’ve come 🥲🥲. 10/10⭐️

Final Notes: Solid album, not my favorite album. I have a bajillion more thoughts on this album because I’m batshit crazy about Marianas Trench. I’m so HAPPY we got new music and hopefully I get to see them soon!!! (my date got postponed 🥲)

Overall Rating: 8/10 💕

Stay tuned for my in depth analysis 👍

[the-strange-world]

Rating July Kpop Releases (01-16)

Masterpiece 10 | amazing 9 | good 7-8 - ok 6 | meh 5 | not my style 0-4

ALIENS - ID:Earth : 10/10

White Night - Forestella : 6/10

Twenty - Swan : 8/10 • I liked both English versions better which doesn’t make sense because it’s the same song 😂 | FAV BSIDE - Be my everything

BET ON ME - ITZY [Prerelease] : 10/10

Roller Coaster - NMIXX [Prerelease] : 6/10

PSYCHO - JUN : ♾/10

HWEEK - Teen Top : 10/10 | FAV BSIDE - NEXT YOU

Metronome - pH-1 & KEITA : 9/10

Someday - BOL4 feat. Ha Hyun Sang : 5/10

Groovy - CRAVITY [JP] : ♾/10 • the same song released before just in Japanese | FAV BSIDE - I Can’t Fight This Feeling

Sweet - OCTPATH : 10/10 • it’s fun and good for summer song and album | FAV BSIDE - Diary & WAKE UP

Sugarcoat - KISS OF LIFE (NATTY Solo) [Prerelease] : 6/10

Countdown - KISS OF LIFE (BELLE Solo) [Prerelease] : 10/10

Kitty Cat - KISS OF LIFE (JULIE Solo) [Prerelease] : 4/10

Play Love Games - KISS OF LIFE (HANEUL Solo) [Prerelease] : 10/10

Shhh - KISS OF LIFE : 9/10 • Ariana Grande vibes | FAV BSIDE - Bye My Neverland

COCONUT - NiziU : ♾/10 • fun and summery. The whole album was fun and summery | FAV BSIDES - LOOK AT ME, Short Trip, ASOBO, & Love & Like. I loved Raindrops & Paradise too

INVITATION - JUNNY feat. Gaeko : 7/10

UN-NORMAL - Queenz Eye : 5/10 | FAV BSIDE - Domino

Barbie Dreams - FIFTY FIFTY feat. Kaliii [From Barbie The Album] : ♾/10 • the Barbie soundtrack is so good

Do It Like That - TXT & Jonas Brothers : 10/10 • I LOVE BOTH THESE GROUPS AND THIS SONG IS SO CATCHY. You can tell Ryan Tedder did this song

(The Cherry Trees) - youra : 6/10 | FAV BSIDES - (Trapped in The Zoo!) & (Faded)

Cream Soda - EXO : 7/10 | FAV BSIDES - Another Day & Cinderella. I liked Private Party & Regret It too

In Bloom - ZEROBASEONE : 10/10 • my new fav group. Please NEVER give them media training. I was hoping for some waacking or tutting or something in the choreography tho and sadly there wasn’t any | FAV BSIDES - Back to ZEROBASE, And I, New Kidz on the Block (where’s the collab? Someone call Jonathan rn). I loved Always & Our Season too. The whole album was amazing imo

OVERDRIVE (English Ver.) - WEi : ♾/10 • I loved this song even at first but after hearing it a few times it’s a full bop. I’m obsessed!

Party O’Clock - NMIXX : 6/10

Drop It - BLASÉ feat. Lee Youngji : 4/10 • it had the same background music the whole time. There was no levels. Plus I’m not a huge rap fan. They did great with the rap tho and I liked the music (just not for the whole song)

Air Force One - ODD EYE CIRCLE : 10/10 | FAV BSIDES - Je Ne Sais Quoi & My Secret Playlist

FESTIVAL - Sandara Park : 9/10 • a happy and fun song | FAV BSIDES - HAPPY ENDING

This Love - Hyolyn feat. Paul Blanco : 10/10

STRANGER - ichan : 10/10 • I liked the other song on the album too - Not Afraid

WISH - KOYOTE : 6/10 • I loved the da La La part. A very older sounding song. Wont listen to much

SUMMER ISLAND - Yoon Jisung : 10/10

Do not touch - MISAMO : 7/10

Write & Draw - Kim Boa : 7/10

Fallen Angel - AVOKID : 10/10

SEVEN - Jungkook : 2/10 • the lyrics are so so terrible. Nice beat tho. Friday by Rebecca Black vibes but worse. This is why I like not being able to understand the lyrics 😂 EDIT: the clean version is very catchy!!! 8/10 for that one. Wish I would’ve heard that one first

I DO - (G)I-DLE [Prerelease] : 9/10 • this song grew on me

Perfect blues - Hannah Bahng : 9/10 • not kpop but still | FAV BSIDE - OLeander

[thaliagrayce]

i've been talking abt my voltron playlists and @iveofficiallygonemad asked to hear them and i want to share with anybody who wants!! i know they're not perfect, i'm working on them & trying to make them better. if you have any recommendations for any of them, let me know!! there's like A Lot and i want to give a lil explanation for most of them, so i'm putting them under the cut ^-^

SO first i have my favorite one <3 it's just. all of them. it's the whole team. it's a mess and it's a bunch of different genres because it's them fighting over the aux cord on a road trip. it's them trying to make each other laugh or annoy each other or play something catchy enough it will infect everyone in the vicinity with brain worms.

Hunk: i'm pretty happy with my Hunk playlist! chill vibes. he strikes me as the kind of guy who listens to calm music to try to find his own calm, and that's what i got here :)

Pidge: this is messier and less cohesive than my usual playlist because frankly i think pidge would have a shit taste in music. all over the board. this is a mix of meme songs and 8-bit covers and vocaloid and stuff that i think pidge would genuinely connect with, and i think pidge listens to all their music on shuffle without any regards for genre or mood because they're a gremlin. nobody gives pidge sole control of the aux.

Coran hears 80's music for the first time and loses his mind. He thinks ABBA is humanity's single greatest achievement.

Lance: i have ideas about where I'm going with this but haven't really settled yet. Lance seems like the kind of boy that loves to dance (is that canon? i forgot) so most of these are Bops That Make You Move in some way or another. he likes to present an upbeat face to the world, so there's no angsting in this playlist! we are clinging to the things that make us happy with both hands until our knuckles turn white!

Keith: i'm gonna be honest. i made him a playlist but i honestly don't think he cares about music very much. it's very important to some people! he's just not one of them! i haven't cracked this playlist open in a while but i'm pretty sure it's full of songs that i think he would conceivably train/work out to.

Shiro: this playlist involves the dumbest headcanon i have for shiro that has just not left me alone since i first thought of it. most of the playlist reflects the fact that he had an emo phase in middle school (that one isn't a headcanon, you just have to look at him to know) but BUT there are a few songs on here that are on here because. little known fact. he also went through a Twilight phase that he told nobody about. (keith knows. keith was there.) he has the entire twilight soundtrack memorized. he moved past the story but the music stays forever. he used to daydream about slow dancing to Flightless Bird, American Mouth. the first time Coran mentions that they have to avoid a place because there's a supermassive black hole there, he has to bite his tongue in order to keep a straight face. do NOT ask me why i believe this so wholeheartedly.

Allura's playlist sucks right now. I think it's because in my heart of hearts i know that, were she on earth today, she would go fucking nuts for taylor swift. i have ambivalent feelings for taylor swift. i cannot do allura justice like this. if you see my vision and have recs as to what might actually fit her, PLEASE.

Klance: i haven't done it yet but i'm gonna go through this and sort it to be a sort of progression of their relationship, starting with the more combative Rivalry songs, then slipping into "oh shit oh shit" songs, then maybe ending on the more lighthearted purely romantic songs <3

(i have two songs in a shallura playlist which does not at all encapsulate how much i'm obsessed with them. the tiny cop inside my head is just constantly screaming at me that i'm going to get yelled at for liking shallura. i am going to kill the cop inside my head.)

[ebitchwriting]

Music Taste The RE Characters Give Me Vibes Of Part One:

Chris Redfield: When he was a teen, I feel like he was very much into Bowie, Journey, and other popular 80's pop stars. After Raccoon City, especially as he became more and more obsessive with fighting bioterrorism and giving up hope of living his life in peace, he rarely turned on the stereo unless one of his teammates wanted to listen to something. But every once in a while, he'll pop in one of his CDs and let himself drift back to a time when things were simpler.

Claire Redfield: She gives me the vibes of Blue October, P!NK, and Regina Spector mostly. Maybe some Alanis Morissette if she's in the mood. She fills in the void of silence every opportunity she has. She loves bopping along and singing to the songs, letting herself feel young and goofy.

Jill Valentine: She absolutely loves Joan Jett and The Blackhearts. I feel like she would also listen to KISS, Led Zeppelin, The Pretty Reckless, and Jem if she's in the mood. If she really loves the song she'll sing along and air guitar the solos that come up, otherwise she just bops along.

Leon S. Kennedy: He gives me the vibes that he doesn't listen to a specific artist but listens to love songs like the sap he is. Peggy Lee and The Fray are the two artists that pop up the most, but his two favorite songs are "I Can't Help Falling In Love" and "I Can't Smile Without You".

Sherry Birkin: Name a 90's pop artist or boy band. Seriously. Backstreet Boys, Britney Spears, Spice Girls, Mariah Carey, Madonna, NSYNC, if it's from her childhood she will listen to it on repeat. It brings her back to a time when her parents would indulge her and get her the newest cassette tapes and CDs. The few times they went out to the movies together as a family. When things were good. She had so little control over her life, you can pry her music from her lifeless corpse.

Albert Wesker: Now he does give me the vibes that he will tell everyone that he only listens to classical music and orchestra, the real music, and tout the superiority of it. It's what he grew up listening to under the watchful eyes of the Umbrella scientists, raised in Project W, never knowing he was a human lab rat. But in reality, he found it to be very boring. He wasn't exactly a fan of the music his niece Sherry so dearly loved, but he did love the music his comrade William Birkin introduced him to. The Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, Eagles, The Who, and the Bee Gees were all bands that his guardians detested, but Wesker felt something flicker in his chest when he listened to them. Can't be nostalgia as he never listened to them. Was it longing? A sense of wonder? Regardless, those were feelings he long suppressed when he rose from the dead, and truly became the monster Spencer wanted him to be.

William Birkin: Well, a lot of it is listed above in Wesker's category. William loved all kinds of music from the 70s. Rock & Roll, Disco, it didn't matter to him. It was all so lively and invigorating. Something that he greatly missed out on as he doubled down on his studies and his goal of becoming the youngest, most successful biologist and virologist of his time. Something that he was narrowly bested by Wesker.

[momobani]

GHOSTS NEVER SAID NO TO A POT ROAST

If Your Winter Is Hard - Chapter 9 - 13.5k

medium!minghao x exorcist!reader

SERIES MASTERLIST 

Warnings: exorcism(duh!); discussion of ghosts + death, reference to death of family members, light violence/ fighting, mention of guns, light police work, food + alcohol mention, depiction of [magical] rituals, minor blood tw 

Sum: after everything that you’ve been through, you can finally finish what your sister started. 

Song rec: Fearless - Seventeen, also Super - Seventeen (it slaps and it also fits the vibe, thank you svt for releasing this bop while I’m still writing) 

TAGLIST: @sleeplessdawn  @aceofvernons  @kyeomsworld  @lilactangerine  @candidupped

A/N: it’s been a long work in progress, but goddamn I will finish this series no matter how long it takes haha, thank you for being patient guys. Spring is coming (or is already here?) anyway, stay tuned for the last chapter!!!! Enjoy <3

“Remind me again why we have to do this?” Minghao asks as he makes to pick up another crystal.

“Hands!” You snap quickly before he touches it.

“Oh shit, right.” He says then gingerly picks up another crystal using the barbecue tongs you’d made him dig out of your kitchen drawer. You hold the tiny, colourful pouch open as he deposits it inside amongst the dried herbs and other few crystals.  

These weren’t just any crystals - they were freshly charged with pure aura from your friend’s nieces and nephews. You’d gone to the trouble of babysitting in order to get the kids to play with the crystals for a little while so they could fill them up with energy. You would have mentioned it to your friend but somehow you weren’t sure they’d be too happy to let the kids spend any time with the crazy crystal hoarding freak.

So you didn’t.

“Because,” You sigh because that is the nth time you’ve had to answer the same question. “If we don’t, then we will definitely be making our own lives much harder. And I don’t know about you, but after this whole thing, we’re going to take a hiatus.”

“Alright, first - a holiday, Boss.” Minghao replies while you hold the bag and wriggle it to make everything fit without touching it. “Second, can’t we just let those bastards get haunted for a while? Isn’t it deserved after everything they’ve done?”

You don’t let yourself consider the possibility. It was tempting, you had to admit. The people from Platis like the President and the new CEO, as well as the organised crime bosses, had all caused so much grief to countless people, some of whose spirits were lingering and wandering aimlessly because of their wrongdoing, that yes, you wanted to hurt them. To give some kind of retribution for their evil.

“It is, but it’s unfair to the spirits, Hao.” You say, pulling the strings on either side of the pouch’s opening and tightening them closed. “Or at least, that’s what I’ve been taught growing up. If it were up to me, I’d let the spirits wreck havoc because it’ll probably mean they can rest after, but apparently the Council has like ethics rules or whatever and we can’t.” You shrug.

Minghao nods. “Must be some kind of Hippocratic oath for exorcists.”

“I guess. But I’m legally and ugh, morally obligated to protect those fuckers regardless of whether they deserve it or not.” You conclude while tying knots on each of the five pouches on the table in front of you.

“Oh, you poor thing.” He says sincerely as he gets up. You expect him to just walk away but he takes a step and leans over to you and plants a soft kiss to your temple before doing so. You had got to get used to that.

To what exactly?

To someone being affectionate to you? To Minghao specifically being really touchy and clingy - much more so than you’d expected? To actually being with someone after all this time you spent alone? It was definitely weird at first; the two of you would be doing something as normal, maybe work or stuff around the house, then suddenly he’d just hug you or hold your hand out of nowhere, or even kiss you.

It was rattling to say the least.        

You followed Minghao upstairs to your conference room. You were about to have a meeting about the final steps of your exorcism and you’d invited everyone involved to be present. Hoshi, Seungkwan, Vernon and Chan were already seated, chitchatting about this and that, mostly the others trying to gaslight Chan into thinking this job is the best in the world (it was not).

You waited while the rest of your guests arrived - Seokmin and Mingyu stumbled in (quite literally because Mingyu tripped over the door of your office), Seungcheol and Wonwoo strode in in aviators and leather jackets (like cooler versions of Jake Peralta), then Jeonghan rolled up lastly, fashionably late, although he had an excuse since you’d sent him to pick up a special delivery from one of Jun’s contacts.

Once everyone was seated you took the helm at the head of the table.

“Alright, team. We have several days left until the winter solstice and we still have a couple of important things to take care of.” You said. “We’re going to need to split up in order to complete these tasks by the day before the exorcism so that we have enough time to organise the site.”

“We’re going to need a few volunteers to help set up shop at the apartment block, who’s coming with?” Jeonghan asks from your left. “Our cop friends included, of course.” He says with a sly smile toward Seungcheol and Wonwoo.

“The police is always on the citizens side.” Seungcheol replies in just the same tone. You roll your eyes because well, it was a reflex but Minghao nudges your right arm. Right, you still needed the police help so you pretend you had something in your eye.

“Before we get volunteers, you should know that whoever takes one of the tasks will not be able to come with to the site. You’ll still be dealing with your task by the time we set up.” You say. Part of you wanted to see who would volunteer since only a few of you knew what the tasks actually were.

That and you may or may not have had a loose bet going with Jeonghan, who was now diligently waiting to take note of who’s signing up to what.  

“Phah! A tiger never runs from danger, I volunteer to help set up.” Hoshi announces boisterously.

“You know I’ll be there, so that’s two. Then you, Seungkwan and Jeonghan, so five.” Minghao says, mostly addressing you.

You met his eyes for a moment and nodded. You felt unexpectedly exposed in front of everyone, like your - who was he now? Boyfriend? (jeez) - was looking at you, even though technically speaking he was a medium that was under employment in your office so obviously he would come help but still, you averted your eyes to the papers in front of you since they looked incredibly interesting all of a sudden.  

“Well, I’m incredibly scared of ghosts, which probably explains why I have a desk job, so I’ll take whatever the other thing is.” Mingyu pipes up.

“I’ll second that.” Seokmin grins.

“Dude, you’re a medium; working with ghosts is your whole job.” Chan points out.

“Your point?” Seokmin replies. Chan frowns for a second but accepts the reasoning.

“I’ll go too, why not.” Vernon raises his hand.

“Okay, I think we misunderstood what the question was, but guys - congratulations. You just made kitchen duty with Joshua.” You smile at Mingyu, Seokmin and Vernon.

“What do we need kitchen duty for?” Chan raises his eyebrows. You’d picked him for his potential but you were realising he was still too green so there was a lot you’ll have to teach him.

“Sacrificial purposes. Besides all the protective rituals we have to do, we must also offer sacrifices to appease the spirits. And you’re new around here, but you must know that ghosts never said no to a pot roast.” You explain to Chan.

“At least kitchen duty is safe.” You hear Mingyu mutter.

“Not if Joshua is in charge. The guy is a madman.” Jeonghan warns him but offers no explanation. Classic Jeonghan; unaware that he and Joshua are cut from the same maniacal cloth.

“Right, so that leaves everyone else for the other mission.” You look around the table; that left eight people including yourself, which was more than enough.

“So what are we doing?” Hoshi asks excitedly. You attempt to open your mouth but clearly you take too long because Jeonghan beats you to it.

“Breaking into Platis.” He declares.

You sigh at the shameless thunder-stealing. If you had a buck, or better yet a gold bar, for every time Jeonghan managed to do that, you’d be rich enough to buy Platis and save yourself the whole plot.

“Oh my god, for the last time you are not ‘breaking in’ to Platis.” Seungcheol shakes his head in disbelief. “I am not letting you participate in a sting for you to fumble the name.”

“Fine, we’re infiltrating Platis.” Jeonghan corrects himself. “Happy, Chief?”

“Very.” Seungcheol pouts.

“Anyways,” You try to steer the conversation back. “Yes, we are going in partially to complete our project, but also to wreck general havoc internally. It’ll be fun.”

“That leaves us with one question before we hear the plan.” Jeonghan says, standing up. “Anyone else want kitchen duty? This is not for the faint hearted.”

“Oh, will you cut it out? We’re headed into a company building, not a haunted temple.” You smack Jeonghan’s arm lightly to make him sit back down. Judging by the silence and tentative glancing around the table, you see that everyone seems to be happy in their current teams. “Good, in that case, you can start brainstorming a menu of easily flammable food. Enjoy, guys.”

For the sake of efficiency, you let the cooking team split off and mind their task while you swapped places with Seungcheol and Wonwoo so they could share the plan they’d come up with after you asked for their help last week.

Wonwoo plugs in his laptop to your projector like many times before and settles as Seungcheol stands in front of the white wall, ready to lecture you through it. What appears to be a mix between a blueprint and floor plan appears on the screen swiftly.  

“Okay, listen up. The plan is very simple; create a distraction so that YN and Minghao can move unnoticed.” Seungcheol begins. “Wonwoo has managed to hack the system and add in another sales pitch team that will see the company’s investment department, which includes the CEO and the President. That’s going to be the distraction.”

“I’ll be able to monitor and coordinate each group in order to keep you in the camera’s blindspots and cut the footage at the correct timestamps.” Wonwoo continues. “We’ll keep communication lines at all times so I can also open the correct doors since you won’t have access to certain areas.”

“YN and Minghao, you guys are going to pose as cleaners. Then we just need someone to do the sales pitch and keep the investors occupied.” Seungcheol says.

“Alright. Not bad.” Hoshi nods. “But who do we know is shameless enough to bamboozle executives of a big corporation?” He asks. The question hangs in the air for a split second as every head in the room swivels towards Jeonghan, who’s doodling on a piece of paper in front of him. He notices the silence and looks up.

“Huh?”

“Perfect. Jeonghan, Hoshi and Seungkwan will go in as the sales team.” You suggest.    

“What about me?” Chan asks, all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed.  

“Ah,” Seungcheol pauses for a second, as if he’s almost startled that Chan is even there. “You’ll be backup with me. You can be our runner in case we need one.”

“Sounds doable.” Seungkwan nods. “What exactly are we pitching?”

“Exactly what they want to hear: how to finish the apartment complex. That will definitely get their attention.” Seungcheol replies. “And it’s also an opportunity for us to hear anything they might let slip. Your job is very important. All you must do is sow the seeds of discord amongst friends.”

“That we can do, gentlemen. That we can do.” Jeonghan says determinately. You glance at him and find the  almost-disturbing smirk on his face. Of course, this is what he excels at - causing chaos. You’ll never forget his and your sister’s graduation party - and neither did their classmates or lecturers. Or other faculty. (You were pretty sure it might be the reason why your family discouraged you from going to college).

“Okay, so here’s how we’ll begin…” Seungcheol continues.

After what seems like an eternity, the whole team is clued into their roles and what they’ll have to do in order to keep this operation running smoothly. You just hope it would be enough to get the job done.

*

The next day, you send off the kitchen duty goers to Mingyu’s tiny box apartment where they’ll be joined by Joshua. As it turns out, Mingyu has the most kitchen utensils and whatnot, though that’s hardly a surprise. (You’d heard that Mingyu was attending culinary school before his ass got haunted by the ghost of failed chef and he had an epiphany that he too should throw his life away and work in paranormal activity because of course, why wouldn’t one come to such a conclusion.)  

In the meantime, your squad gets geared up courtesy of Seungcheol and Wonwoo and it becomes apparent to you that your mission just got a whole lot bigger and very much realer.

You see Minghao materialise next to you in the corner of your eye and you glance towards him. He and you were wearing identical grey overalls that were the so-called uniform of your cleaning company. He smiles at you almost apologetically.

“Oh no, one of us is going to have to change, babe.” He jokes. “We’re a fashion disaster.”

You ignore the way your heartbeat spikes at the nickname and sass back.  

“Keep that up, babe, and you’re sleeping on the couch tonight.” You warn, equally unseriously.  

“Wow, you guys! This is your first couple item!” You hear Hoshi yell from across the table. Clearly he hadn’t heard the exchange between you two about your outfits or he’d have had something to say about it. You cringe internally at the prospect; god forbid you and Minghao became one of those cringey, cavity-inducing sappy couples who consciously and purposefully sought out couple items.    

“Okay, everyone, are we ready to go?” Seungcheol calls from the door way. He and Wonwoo are the only ones not in some kind of disguise, although to be fair to them, they are supposed to pretend to be civilians for the day.

“All set.” You confirm and grab your exorcist bag. Today you’d chosen a smaller one that could be hidden easily because it was full of smaller items.

“Let’s roll.” Seungcheol said. “Don’t forget, we need to establish coms as soon as you’re on site.” He reminds everyone.  

And with that, your squad left the office.

Going first by car were Seungkwan, Jeonghan and Hoshi, all clad in suits - light grey pinstripes, solid navy, and charcoal respectably. It was hard to believe they looked the part, since you’d personally never be able to disregard the clownery that lurked underneath the veil of professionalism.

Chan was posing as an office worker should the opportunity call for him to act and went with Seungcheol and Wonwoo in their car, which left you and Minghao to the monstrosity waiting for you adjacent to the door.

“I hope you didn’t want to date me because I drove a motorcycle, ‘cause this is…uh, well, I can’t explain.” Minghao says as you gaze upon the fiery steed that will carry you on your mission.

Parked in all its glory, was a semi-busted up Ford Econoline white van that was screaming for a good bath. On its side was a freshly placed sticker of your fake company’s name. You looked at the smiling tiger character underneath it and gritted your teeth. That’s the last time you let Hoshi do anything.  

“Oh god, we’re gonna look like drug dealers.” You deadpanned.

“Or worse.” Minghao adds.

“Nope, nothing is worse than Horangi Cleaning Power.”

You reluctantly got into the van and set off. You had a schedule to adhere to after all.

You let Minghao drive since you were beyond grossed out at the prospect and sat in the back part with the cleaning supplies instead. You didn’t want to be seen in that thing in broad daylight.

Minghao found the parking spot Wonwoo had secured for your van beforehand easily enough, mostly because it was near one of the staff back doors, to which he’d also given you fake real passes to open. Once parked, Minghao made his way to join in the back.

“Okay, let’s contact the others.” You said, bringing out the ear pieces Wonwoo had provided. You each took one and positioned it the way he’d taught you. You texted in the group chat to let them know your ear pieces were on so Wonwoo could bring them into the network. Or that’s what you thought - you truly had no idea how this crap worked.

“Now what?” Minghao asked. The two of you sat amidst your fake real cleaning supplies, waiting dumbly.

You don’t know where the thought comes from, but you look at the tiny proximity between you and Minghao and get an idea. You hum, thinking for a moment, then look up at Minghao only to find him already looking at you, a mere few inches between your faces. You start smiling since you figured he was on the same page as you, as the two of you close the distance and lean in to kiss.

His lips are addictive, you couldn’t help it, you wanted to be close to him, to be around him like he was your sun and you were a little planet gravitating to him regardless of how far away you were. Minghao pulls you closer and into his lap, your arms wrapping around him on instinct. You had time to kill so you didn’t care for a few minutes. You’d been to busy to do anything like this in the past week, mostly just conking out as soon as you got to bed because of how drained you were from making final preparations.

Out of nowhere, there was a crackling noise right inside your ear and you jumped apart, startled. You were panting, mostly because it had caught you off guard and scared you but also because you were getting so heated while you sat in Minghao’s lap.

“YN? Minghao? Check in. Over.” You heard Wonwoo’s voice in your ear. You were suddenly hit with a horrible flashback of your near death experience on the train tracks when you’d also worn an earpiece. You shook your head slightly and snapped back to reality.

“Yes.” You said.

“Here.” Minghao adds, clearing his throat, totally not awkwardly. Or at least you hope.

“Copy. That’s everyone then.” Wonwoo confirms.

“Okay, YN, Minghao, standby. Sellers, remember to be careful of exactly what you say. Stick to the stuff we discussed in the script. Platis is tied with one of the biggest organised crime syndicates in the city and we cannot make their side suspicious. Especially not enough to trigger them into starting a turf war with the other organisation. Over.” Seungcheol says.

“You got it, Chief.” Jeonghan replies. “Controlled chaos only.”

“Exactly. We cannot have any casualties. Also, stop calling me ‘Chief’. Over.” Seungcheol says.

“Ha, this is so cool, we’re like actual cops!” Hoshi giggles over the line. There’s a loud thwacking sound and you can only imagine it was Seungkwan making him behave.

“You most certainly are not.” Seungcheol weighs in. “You’re civilians helping out the police. Over.”

“Enough. Any further questions?” Wonwoo asks. There’s a silence on the line. “Good. Okay, it’s almost go time. I’m going to separate the teams; you cannot hear each other. If there’s a problem, report straight to me. Over.”  

“Copy.” You say automatically. Minghao gives you a look for a second then looks away. ‘What?’ You mouth, but he only shakes his heads, but you see him suppressing a small smile.

‘Cute.’ He mouths back. Your eyes widen in shock. It’s only temporary as you get up and smack his shoulder gently with the pair of latex gloves you were about to put on. You couldn’t leave any finger prints, of course. That, and you were supposed to be cleaners and it was part of your schtick.  

“Seungkwan, Hoshi, have you got the camera glasses on?” Wonwoo speaks in your ears. You cannot hear the response but you remember that you also have to film what you see.

You turn to your cleaning cart and make sure the little GoPro is positioned nicely. You had a cover for yours if anyone asked - your cleaning company’s insurance against being accused of messing up anything in the offices as you cleaned.

After a minute you get the signal to get going from Wonwoo.

“The others are almost in the meeting room, which means that the CEO and President are also gone from their offices. Leave now.” He says.

“Copy, leaving. Over.” You reply as you and Minghao open the van doors and lower your cart down. You move quickly and discreetly to and through the doors, using the passes smoothly and entering the building. You appear to be in some kind of garbage storage facility and you’re reminded of the way you entered that museum a few months ago. “Why is it always garbage?” You mutter mostly to yourself but keep moving.

You’d been briefed on the layout of the building and memorised the route that you needed to take as well as a possible emergency escape route in case Wonwoo wasn’t able to guide you out if anything happened.

“Okay, the meeting is starting. Get to the CEO’s office first.” You hear Wonwoo say.

“Copy.” Minghao says. You were already in the elevator going up to the thirteenth floor. There was nothing but offices up here and the CEO’s was the one at the end of a long corridor.

You knocked for appearances though you knew there was no one in there, then entered swiftly.

“We’re in.” You said instinctively, although you knew that Wonwoo could see that from his computer screen. He and Seungcheol were stationed with Chan in the neighbouring building, monitoring the sting closely.

“Alright, YN do your thing. Minghao, get the cameras. Find the angles - like we talked about. Doors, seats, desk.” Wonwoo instructed through the ear pieces.

You were already opening your exorcist bag to find the bags of herbs and crystals. Minghao dug into his overall pocket and fished out five minuscule cameras from one of those clear plastic seal baggies. You were both looking around the room, trying to decide on the perfect spots for where to put the items.

You walked around to behind the desk.

Perfect.

Only one of the drawers had a lock on it so you decided to go with what you’d thought of the other day. You crouch quickly and pulled on the bottom drawer, gently easing it out of its frame. There were a bunch of files in the drawer, little folders that just looked like regular paper work to your incompetent eye so it was a little heavier than you thought.

When you put it down, you gasped audibly. Someone had beat you to the hiding spot.

“YN? What is it? What’s going on?” Wonwoo asks immediately.

Underneath the drawer in the hollow space between the floor and the drawer was another, slightly slimmer stack of files.

“I found a hidden stack of paper work. Do you want to see?” You ask.

“Yes, get me eyes on it as you look through.” Wonwoo says.

“Okay.” You say and straighten up. “Psst, Hao. Throw me the spare GoPro, it’s under the box of gloves.” You whisper across the room. Minghao is crouched on the ground by a big plant, trying to secure a camera to the pot. He’s closer to the cart and springs up smoothly to grab it and chuck it gently in your direction.

You catch it easily and switch it on.

“Right, got it. Keep going.” You hear Wonwoo. You hum in approval and proceed to take out the stack of files with one hand  and prop them up on your knee, all while keeping the camera on it. You leaf through the first file while Wonwoo watches and accesses what he’s seeing. “Right, these are meeting minutes. The real important stuff must be hidden in a safe somewhere. This is useful though, leave it where it is. We’ll pick it up in a search and seize later.”

“Alright.” You say and put everything back. You shove the bag of herbs and crystals to the very back of the space where it’s too dark to be noticed, especially if someone is only reaching under to get the files without being eye level with the space. You replace the drawer carefully and move on to find another spot for the paper talismans.

Minghao seems to still be working on his camera task because he’s reaching up against a bookshelf, trying to position it to it shows a good shot of the seating area of couch and arm chairs.

“Minghao, report.” Wonwoo asks.

“This is the fourth, I’m almost done.” He huffs as he tries to secure the camera.

“Copy.”

You were just about to stick a talisman on the back of one of the tacky wall paintings when you raised the frame away from the wall and sighed.

“Here we go again.” You said. There was a piece of paper already stuck to the back of the frame. Clearly you and the CEO of this office were very much in sync. You’d just pocket the GoPro but thankfully it was still turned on in your pocket so you reached into it and brought it out to film. “Wonwoo, another one for your collection.” You said as you brought the camera to the front of the painting so he could get a good look at where the paper was located.

“That looks like a password for something and I’m willing to bet it has to do with the gold.” You hear. “Good work, YN!” He replies, uncharacteristically upbeat. “Chicken on me next week.”

“Great, I’m so glad I can do your job for you, bestie.” You chuckle and put the painting back against the wall before trying the next one over. It’s equally as tacky, a single duck in a pond watercolour composition and although you know next to nothing about art, even you can tell it’s kind of bad. Thankfully though you can stick your talisman on the back of it.

“Okay, I’m done.” You hear Minghao say as you reach for the final part of haunt-proofing the office.

Salt.

But not just any salt. Since you couldn’t do any protective rituals here and burn any repellant incense, you had had to work on the salt and bring it. It was salt that was ground into incredibly fine dust so you could just throw some around the room without needing to worry about it being seen.

“Okay, get moving, you guys. How long do you think they’ve got, Cheol?” Wonwoo asks. You imagine Seungcheol was paying close attention to the others’ meeting. You hear a faint murmur but not the actual reply as you make sure everything in the office looks immaculately untouched. “Not good, hurry. I think our jesters aren’t entertaining the kings too well.”

You scoff at the suggestion.

“Please, have you met Yoon ‘Big Mouth’ Jeonghan?” You whisper as you exit the office, Minghao leading with the cart.

“Good point.”

You take the elevator up to the seventeenth and final floor, trying to draw as little attention to yourselves as possible as you make your way to the office. When you get there, there’s no one manning the secretary desks and you knock and enter the office with no problem.

Minghao reaches into his pocket again and begins his camera mounting silently while you scan the room for good places to hide your items. There’s no art here so that rules out the back of frames. The desk is more of a fancy piece of modern architecture crap table that has no big storage space so that’s out of the picture too. There is however a massive wall of cabinets and storage units to make up for it, it was like a showroom in here.

“Must be the blood money.” You mutter under your breath. You reach for the sliding door of the waist height cabinet and open it to reveal a two shelf set up and a grey safe on the bottom rack. “I found the safe.” You say to Wonwoo as you bring out the camera and show him its location.

“That’s probably where all the dirt is, although they’d be stupid to leave it lying around like that. It’s probably a decoy safe and there’s another one somewhere.” He says to you as you slide the talisman in the crack between the cabinet wall and safe and stick it on the back of the safe.

“Probably, but that’s your problem.” You straighten up from your crouch and carry on. You manage to stick the pouch of crystals behind a stack of books on a high bookshelf, which judging by the fine layer dust, have never been moved since they were put on display as props. You’re about to sprinkle salt when you hear voices outside the office.

“Hao!” You hiss. He’s already heard it and frozen. He smacks a camera against a lamp frame quickly and bolts towards the cart. You step towards the window and snatch up a rag from your overall’s pocket. The procedure was to act like you belonged there, it was what you’d been instructed to do in case of emergencies.

The office door opens unexpectedly and you force yourself to be leisurely as you turn around while still keeping a steady hand sliding the rag across the window sill. There’s an office worker, who you assume might be the missing secretary from outside.  

“Who are you?” She asks, clearly confused with your appearance.

“YN, get out of there ASAP. The meeting is over. The President is on the move. Over.” You hear Wonwoo in your ears.

“Oh hi, miss. Were you not expecting us?” Minghao says. He puts on his best chipper neighbour voice and you feel bile rising to the back of your throat. He doesn’t wait for an answer. “We’ve been called in by Mr Na himself, we usually clean his house.”

The secretary looks blankly at the two of you.

“Hmm, well. I guess maybe he wasn’t satisfied with his office but didn’t want to embarrass the company cleaners.” Minghao continues, voice coating in faux sympathy.

“I’ll say.” You agree, bringing up your rag. “It’s a disgrace, miss. Look at all this dust.” You bring your hand up to the window sill and blow. A small cloud of dust flies up and you fake a stifled cough. Except it wasn’t dust - it was the salt that you were meant to sprinkle all around the office. You just hoped it was enough.

“Right.” The woman looked absolutely mortified. “Well, carry on.” She cleared her throat and turned around. She left the doors open but didn’t stick around outside the office while you and Minghao breathed a sigh of relief.

“Let’s go.” You said and reached for another couple of pinches of salt dust to sprinkle as you left for good measure.

You walked calmly to the elevators and managed to make your way down quietly without any more hiccups.  Once you were outside and trudging toward your van, you dared speak.

“Did you get all the cameras?” You ask Minghao as you load up.

“Yeah, that was my last one, I just hope no one looks at that ugly ass lamp too close.” He says with clear distaste.

“Good job coming up with all that crap.” You compliment as you shut the doors. “Have you been hanging out with Jeonghan lately?” You joke.  

“Ah YN, jealous much? You know you’re my favourite exorcist.” He replies. “More like desperate times call for desperate measures.” Minghao smiles, shrugging it off.

“More like cowardice breeds ingenuity.” You smile back.

“Guys? Report?” Wonwoo asks through the ear pieces.

“In the van, ready to leave.” You say. You sat up front this time around, you weren’t sure you wanted to leave Minghao alone in the front again.

“Did you position the cameras?”

“All done. Barely.” Minghao confirms as he puts on his seatbelt.

“Good work. The others are out too. We can go back to base now. Over.”

“Copy.” You sigh and lean back on the headrest. “Well, that was easy.” You laugh sarcastically. Minghao cracks a smile as he starts the engine up.

“Yeah, and I never want to do it again.” He adds before pulling out and into the street.

*

With the Platis business out of the way, you could focus solely on preparing the site for the exorcism. You’d called Joshua to check in on the sacrificial side of things and they were making more progress than expected.

“We did have to fill up Seokmin’s fridge too yesterday and there’s no space left in Mingyu’s.” He tells you over the phone.

“Hey, no one said the food has to be fresh.” You say. “Or edible for that matter.” You add. You knew it was all being taken care of, so you’d just been getting things in order at the office, loading up the cars with Minghao and Seungkwan’s help.

You’d insisted that all mediums take it easy for the twelve hours before the exorcism, because they needed to rest their bodies well before an intense job like this, but Minghao wouldn’t comply. He insisted that he was a perfectly fine specimen and the picture of health so his body could endure the spirits even if he exerted himself lightly.

You’d then conveniently reminded him about how he’d yelled at you for overworking before and that couched him for good. You even attempted to force him to take a nap but you knew he was just lying there, not actually asleep, but you didn’t say anything.

Instead you talked to Jeonghan up in the office as the day drew into darkness and you could start preparations. You’d decided to wait for a few hours before midnight in case there were any people at the site during the day.  

“So, how was Jun’s delivery?” You asked, biting into a banana. You as an exorcist also needed your energy but that was going to come from nourishment instead of rest.

“It was more than I expected. Filled my car up to the brim so I suppose it should cover everything.” He nods thoughtfully.

“I just hope we made the right choice,” You hum. “It really does feel like the safest.”

“Yeah, I think it is. Besides, the narc said he’ll hook us up with some more equipment, so we’ll be just fine.” Jeonghan reassures you.

“‘The narc’? You mean Sergeant Choi?” You correct. “Jeonghan, he’s been a big help, as has Wonwoo, we couldn’t have done this without them.” You remind him. He breathes a deep sigh and slouches in his position behind Minghao’s desk.

“I know. It’s just working with the police…” He trails off. You know what he means.

When he and your sister had worked together as the head exorcists of your firm, they’d had some run ins with cops and that’s also the way that Wonwoo had met them for the first time after you’d already shown him the existence of ghosts. He’d been the reason why they hadn’t gotten into trouble for breaking and entering and trespassing. They’d been so close to being charged so it was only natural that Jeonghan was still weary of the police.

“I get it, but you have to trust me on this. Wonwoo would never turn on us, neither would Seungcheol.” Now it’s your turn to reassure him. “They promised they would help, and it’s also in their interest if nothing else. Look how we set up Platis. Those bastards are gonna pay and it can only happen if we all work together.”

“Woah, YN.” Jeonghan’s eyebrows shoot up his forehead. “Look at you being a grown up, kiddo.” He chuckles, then sighs. “When did that happen, huh?” He wonders.

“I don’t know either, but I am a grown up now, and that means you need to trust me.” You say, getting up. “Now, let’s go appease the dead.”

“Right behind you.”    

*

You and Minghao end up taking your car, while Hoshi, Seokmin, Seungkwan and Vernon squeeze into Seungkwan’s car, which leaves Chan with Jeonghan. You call Joshua and Mingyu to make sure that they’ll arrive on time so that the food doesn’t take up space at the site while you’re busy setting up. That just leaves you waiting for Jun’s arrival and he said that he’ll help move the food cargo with the others.

All in all, you feel relieved that so far, everything is going according to plan so you relax as you start the car and drive off to the apartment block. You’d asked Wonwoo to do some editorial work on all the nearby CCTV just in case anything bizarre ended up happening in the area, especially because you knew there’d be a lot of spirits on the move. That, and in order to be able to drive in and around without having to park far away from the site.

You had a ton of stuff to bring after all.

Once you entered the building site, you found Jeonghan’s car already parked near the entrance. Him and Chan were already unloading the cargo from his car’s trunk.

“That’s a lot bigger than I thought.” You call out to get Jeonghan’s attention as you and Minghao get out of your car.

“Well, you wanted the biggest ones. If you have a complaint, kiddo, you can always call-” Jeonghan pauses to read the label on the box. “‘NeoLitCity’ and give them a piece of your mind.”

“Of course not, the supplier is Jun’s friend, they gave us a big discount and did us a big favour. I was just saying.” You counter.

“What on earth are we going to do with those?” Minghao looks at the number of large boxes in abject horror. You’d left the details of the delivery out, mostly because you wanted it to be a surprise. “You bought a ton of super jumbo glow sticks?” He cries. “For what reason?”

“Because we cannot work in the dark, babe.” You shrug, opening a box and taking one neon purple tube out.

“And we need to keep it lit.” Jeonghan laughs. You and Minghao turn to stare at him in unison. He shrinks back a little. “Just trying to relieve the tension.”

“So, this is the big surprise?” Minghao asks, clearly judging your massive boxes of super jumbo glow sticks.

“Yup. And you get to help us hang them up!” You grin at him as you walk past, breaking in the glow stick so it starts glowing. “Now, let’s move them to the third floor.”

“But why glow sticks?” He still asks in disbelief even when he picks up the box you just opened. You sigh but keep walking, lighting the way since it was already dark. You stop to place the glow stick in your hand on a step so everyone will be able to see where they’re going and pull out another one from the box Minghao is carrying, cracking it.

“Because fire is too dangerous around spirits and there’s no electricity here, let alone the fact that with this much supernatural activity, nothing will be working properly. Hence, glow sticks.”

“Fine, I have to respect the hustle, it’s a good idea.” Minghao gives in as you round the third floor stairwell.

You’d chosen the third floor because it had a slightly higher ceiling and less walls since it was mostly large, open office space so you could work easily.

“Hmm, thought so.” You hum to yourself. Downstairs, you hear more voices and car doors slamming, signalling the arrival of the rest of your crew. Perfect, you could get all hands on deck and speed up the process. You leave a few more glow sticks to mark the path that you need everyone to follow upstairs.

Within a few minutes, the group of you has transported the glow sticks up the stairs and have started unloading the actual exorcist equipment from the cars. Seungkwan’s car had all the swords, daggers and blades that you’ll need and yours had all the guns, salt, incense, talismans and other bits and bobs that were necessary for your exorcism.

You ask all the mediums to start securing the glow sticks all around the third floor. Unfortunately, you didn’t have any choice but to stick the glow sticks up with duct tape; the walls weren’t complete, only cemented over what you assumed was brick and smoothed into a uniform grey all around the building so you couldn’t even use normal duct tape, you needed the real industrial stuff - its tougher cousin, gorilla tape.

In the meantime, you, Seungkwan and Jeonghan started on the sword formation. This was crucial to the sacrificial part of things rather than the actual work of exorcising the spirits from the mediums. Indeed, you didn’t need the swords anywhere near the mediums and your glow stuck apartment floor. You needed them stuck into the ground outside, ready for when the food arrived.

You worked in semi darkness, using your car’s headlights as the sole light sources and tried your best to follow the arrangement that Jeonghan had sourced from his research. You knew that he had gone the miles to get it perfect so you didn’t worry about there being something unexpected. It shocked you that you thought that way, as you stuck a particularly old blade into the ground.

Behind you, you heard approaching footsteps and turned around to find a silhouette walking towards you. You recognised Minghao’s figure immediately and greeted him.

“How is it going up there?” You asked. You were done with the few bigger swords, now you had the daggers left.

“We’re pretty much done. I came to check up on you.” He says. You smile, appreciating the gesture.

“Thanks. We’re in the home stretch too. Do you want to help me with the blades?” You nod toward the box to your right. Minghao goes to open the lid without hesitation. He picks up the first dagger and weighs it up in his hands. You expect him to just put it back but instead he twirls it around in his hand. You stand there stunned for a second, then you remember he’s a trained martial artist - knives were no big deal for him.  

“Where does it go?” He looks around the swords. You step to the left and look up at the formation, making sure to point out the correct spot.

“Here.” You point, checking the angle with your hand. “Yup, here.” You point to approximately where you’re standing. Minghao follows and crouches to the ground next to where you stand, and looks up at you for reassurance. You nod and he sticks the blade into the ground, mimicking the angle of the others in the formation.

“Oh my god!” You hear a screech behind you. The joyous shrill of Hoshi’s voice is unmistakeable and you mentally prepare yourself for whatever the hell he’s about to say. You swivel you head in the direction of the noise and notice that you had company. “Hao, bro, this is not the time to be proposing. There’s like demons here!” He says earnestly. “It’s scary and totally not romantic.” He adds, eyes wide with conviction.  

You purse your lips and wait for the ground to open up and swallow you up. Of course, it doesn’t; that’s not the type of ritual you were running over here.

“Hoshi, I’m going to need you to never open your mouth again.” Minghao grumbles as he gets up. “If I was going to ask YN to marry me, you wouldn’t be within a five mile radius.” He clarifies. You think your ears deceive you, and you swallow thickly. Even a minor utterance of the possibility of marriage coming from Minghao shook you to the core. But you didn’t hate it.

You snap back to reality.

“If you’re running your mouth, then you better have every single glow stick stuck, bestie.” You warn, walking away and not meeting Minghao’s eyes.

“As a matter of fact, we do.” Hoshi grins. “And we found an extra box. Here, look at it.” He says, Vernon and Chan are standing over the final box of glow sticks and Vernon pulls back the flaps to reveal its contents.

“Aw, hell no.” Minghao shakes his head defiantly. “Not gonna happen.”

“But they’re so pretty, and we need the extra light.” Chan argues. You hated to agree but he was right, any extra light would be useful, no matter how gaudy it was.

“I am not putting that on.” Minghao throws his hands up.

And that’s how you ended up getting decked out in tiny glow sticks; there were bracelets on your wrists and ankles, positioned exactly so they wouldn’t restrict your movement. The mediums were far more decorated than you were, most of them sporting several on each arm and some on around their ankles. While you were putting on your gear, Seungcheol and Wonwoo had arrived on the scene.

“You’re just in time. Here, put these on.” You offer each of them a pair of neon yellow and green glow stick glasses.

“You’re kidding.” Wonwoo deadpans, not taking it. You say nothing for a second. Then smile.

“Yeah, I totally am.” You reply, shrugging. You pocket the glasses instead.  

“We bought torches, the kind you can strap on to your arms or shoulders. You know, like a normal human being.” Seungcheol says. “Also there’s an emergency medical team back on the main street. They think they’re waiting on some event, but they’re there in case you need them.”

“Thanks, we can try using the torches, but I doubt they’ll withstand the spirits’ energies.” You say.

“Okay, we’ll be on standby, just call us if you need anything.” Wonwoo gives you a firm nod, which you return. You’d asked them to be in the area just in case you needed back up if anyone from Platis showed up and so they could secure the perimeter around the complex so no outsiders came in.

You heard your name being called. It was time to lay out all the talismans, incense and protective ornamentation up on the third floor.

“Take a break, you guys, and wait for Joshua, Mingyu and Jun with the food.” You instruct the group of mediums that’s gathered in and around the cars. It was incredibly cold tonight, yet was still warmer for this time of the year. Those spells of snow had gone just as quickly as they had arrived, thankfully. You left them in the warmth of the cars and ran back upstairs to join the others.

The task of putting up the talismans and arranging the protective charms all around the floor was tedious but possibly the most important part of your whole operation since that was the stuff that would help you summon the spirits and do the actual exorcism.

You laid it all out, carefully, putting the paper talismans up around on the walls, then drawing a large salt cage where you were going to separate the mediums, as well as a small protective station for Mingyu and Joshua to stay on each end of the space you were using. They were going to help you man the incense and get you supplies if you needed, as well as keep an eye on isolating mediums and spirits, kind of like snipers.

Seungkwan and Jeonghan were busy setting up the incense and organising the supply stations for Joshua and Mingyu, while you gathered the crystals and talismans necessary for the pre-exorcism ritual. According to Jeonghan, when dealing with any type of vaguely demonic entity, even spirits, you needed to state your intentions. You knew what that meant and you were somewhat dreading it.

“YN!” You hear Seungkwan shout from the other side of the room. You look up expectantly. “Food’s here.”

“Alright.” You say, ignoring the way your anxiety spikes.

You’d been preparing for weeks, months even and it was all coming down to how you did tonight. The pressure was just hitting you now. You had to get this right, or something bad might happen. The thought of your sister was still passively haunting you; she had lost her life trying to do something like this; granted something more extreme, nonetheless, the whole ordeal still filled you with fear.

You finish the last part of your set up - a small metal bowl filled with dried herbs and incense. You’d spent a fair amount of time scrutinising over the collection of items, but you call Jeonghan to check over it too since he would know if something was out of place.

“It’s perfect, kiddo. Don’t worry so much, we’ll be finished soon.” He says, planting a cold hand on your shoulder. You nod, believing him. “Now let’s go see what feast.”

And a feast it is.

Joshua, Mingyu and Jun have already unloaded most of the food with the help of Seokmin and Hoshi. You stop and drink it all in; calling it a smorgasbord on meth would be an understatement. This was a super king seized, mammoth amount of food. It was truly a thing of beauty but you didn’t want to look too hard at everything since it made you sad it was all going be purely sacrificial.

“You guys did a great job. Well done.” You shake your head in disbelief. Mingyu beams with pride as he crosses his arms and looks at the food.

“We did alright, didn’t we?” He giggles. You sigh because you know how devastated he will be once he sees it all burn up to a crisp.

“Prepare the fire pit.” Joshua instructs. Mingyu and Jeonghan get on it right away. “YN, can I talk to you for a sec?” Joshua catches your attention. You follow him back to his car, inside which you find Jun sitting in the passenger seat, shivering as the heater turns on. You give him a small, apologetic wave.

“What’s up?” You ask Joshua. He’s opening the trunk of the car, reaching in and pulling out an old bottle. It looks familiar as you look at it and you try to place it. It’s a black glass bottle with a wide oval base. It’s obviously home brew, not commercial as there’s nothing on the bottle and- “Oh my god! I haven’t seen this since my grandparents were working in the office.” You exclaim.

“I thought you’d recognise it.” Joshua smiles.

“Of course, I would. Where did you get it?” You ask, a little giddy at the sight of the family heirloom. It was special spirit brewed by your ancestors to help withstand the energy expulsion that exorcists faced during exorcism. It was a unique recipe and very few people still made their own stuff. It was a handy little tool but very old school as far as you knew. It would certainly keep out the cold tonight.  

“Your aunt had given it to my mother for safe keeping. I’m not sure she really wanted your sister and Jeonghan in charge of it.” Joshua explains. “You should take it, so the three of you can have some before we start.”

“Yeah,” You nod, a little overwhelmed. “I’ll take it. Thanks for bringing it, Shua.”  

“No problem, kiddo.” He hands you the bottle. The cool glass freezes your hands immediately but you ignore the urge to put it down. Joshua hesitates, looking down at the trunk. “There is one other thing…” he trails off.

You perk up, listening. It’s dark so you hadn’t noticed it before, but Joshua reaches down and pulls a wooden box across the soft fabric of his trunk. You know exactly what that is and you step back slightly.

“YN, you’re going to need it. What was started with this, must also be finished with this.” He says solemnly. You know he’s right but you can’t bring yourself to reach towards the box, clutching the bottle to your chest instead.

“I know, but can’t you do it?” You ask, finding yourself sounding childish for a split second.

“Do what?” You hear a voice materialise next to you. Minghao stands beside you in his coat, hands in his pockets.

“It’s the final piece of the sword formation.” Joshua says. “I’m asking if YN will take it and put it down.”

“Of course, you will. Won’t you?” Minghao looks at you expectantly. It’s as if Joshua planned it, but you find yourself nodding. “Good, I’ll take it since your hands are busy.” He offers and Joshua hands him the box.

You throw Joshua a pout but follow Minghao back to where almost everyone is gathering. The fire pit has been set up in the middle of the swords sticking out of the ground and the food laid on top of it. You spy several bottles of what appears to be vodka in the hands of some of your companions and you know they’re waiting to douse the food. Mingyu is unwittingly still smiling as he arranges the food in the fire pit, dishing it all out on paper plates.

You go to stand next to Seungkwan and Jeonghan and show them the bottle in your hands. Jeonghan gasps and reaches for it, but you hand it to Seungkwan instead. “You’re in charge, Boo.” You tell him. He nods and gives Jeonghan a smug look.

You glance at the time on your pohne and see it’s getting closer to midnight. You’d better get moving because who knows how long it might be before the spirits take the bait and show up?

You take stock of everything and run it against a checklist on your phone. Lighting, swords, food, fire pit. Check. Police, mediums, runners, exorcists. Check. Now you just needed to finish the rituals and wait to begin.

You could do that.

You could totally do this.

You clear your throat and try to get everyone’s attention.

“Hey guys, is it okay if we get started around 11:50?” You ask. You see the show of nods and mutterings of ‘yes’ and ‘let’s go’s, so you take it as a signal to go to your car.

Jeonghan and Seungkwan follow you as you pop the trunk, opening the boxes that lay there. In the first two, there is a number of guns and several cartridges of salt bullets, waiting to be loaded into the hardware. In the next, there is a large pile of exorcist blades, the enforced ones that Joshua had told you were strong enough to deal with demonic entities.

“There’s twenty all together, everyone grab at least five. Hopefully we don’t have to use all of them.” Jeonghan says. You reach in first, distributing the holsters and securing one around your thigh. You count five blades and put four around your thigh and one around your opposite calf, in case you were mid-acrobatics and couldn’t reach.

Seungkwan copies you, but instead he puts his around his upper arm. Jeonghan twirls his fifth around then decides to use it as a hair pin, twisting his hair into a bun using the instrument. He’d dyed his hair a darker shade of red recently and in the darkness it looked almost black.

You take the box of guns out and leave it on the ground so you’d take it upstairs with you. You shove the remaining five blades in there too and you make a mental note to tell Joshua and Mingyu they’re all there.

“A toast, gentlemen?” You ask, as you pluck up the plastic cups that Mingyu had swished by and deposited in your car’s trunk while you were preparing.

“Don’t mind if we do.” Seungkwan smiles, grabbing the bottle of special exorcist spirit. You assist him in pouring out a smidgeon of booze in three cups, just enough to call it a shot. You hold the cup up to your face and sniff it experimentally. You hadn’t ever properly smelled it, let alone tasted it, so you were astounded by the strength of the smell. It almost makes you double over.  

The three of you raise your glasses slightly.

“Here’s to our hard work.” You say, looking at the two, letting your eyes linger on Jeonghan. “I’m really thankful we can finish this.” You feel the tears well up in your eyes, not sure it it was just from how strong the alcohol was.  

“Here’s to a successful exorcism. Let’s do it without mistakes.” Seungkwan adds.

“Here’s to family.” Jeonghan finishes. You look at him, glassy eyed in the semi-darkness. He looks back at you with much the same expression and blinks at you with a nod. “Cheers.”

You bring the cups to your lips and throw back the shot. You’re certain it’s going to burn so you did it quickly, not wanting to savour the stinging of the alcohol as it went down your throat. You’re too busy trying not to cough up a lung to notice as Seokmin creeps past you and attempts to sneak the bottle from the trunk. Luckily, Seungkwan is closer and hand slices at Seokmin’s arm before he can get his hands on it.

“Listen, that shit might kill you.” He warns a sheepish Seokmin. “It’s not meant for mediums, dude.”

“Whatever, man. I’m just freaking out here.” Seokmin replies, jiggling his legs, probably without meaning to. He looks like he’s about to bolt the hell out of here. You couldn’t let that happen.

“Seokmin, can you do me a favour?” You ask him gently. Best to pre-occupy him, in case he gets any ideas. He looks at you, paled but seemingly conscious. “Can you get everyone moving?”

“No prob, YN.” He says, looking a little dazed but he complies. He turns away, heading back toward the crowd around the fire pit. “Alright, places people,” He yells. “Curtain in ten.” He continues, clapping his hands and making a ruckus.

You’d chosen the right person; after all, Seokmin was a theatre man, he knew what to do. Without thinking, you walk toward the fire pit and find Minghao waiting diligently for you with the box in his arms.

“It’s time.” He says simply. You place your hand over the lid, and lift it open to reveal the inside.

Lying in a soft casing, is the familiar purple leather and almost charcoal shine of the most cursed, wretched blade you had ever known. Just looking at it made you feel sick. But you had to carry on, despite your feelings.

Your hand hovered above the handle, and you could already feel its intense energy. You looked around you; Joshua and Mingyu had doused the food in the vodka, a sheen of wetness coating everything in the fire pit. All that was left was for you to deposit the final piece.

Without another moment of hesitation, you grabbed the leather, your fingers curling over its smoothness, and picked it up. It weighed a ton in your hand as you walked to the edge of the pit and threw the blade into the middle, where you hoped the fire would become the most powerful.

“When we give the signal, you can light it up then come upstairs.” Jeonghan tells Joshua, who nods in agreement. The three of you had made sure to steer Mingyu upstairs before he had to witness his beautiful works of art disintegrate into char; it’d just be too cruel to make him watch it burn.  

It’s a few minutes before midnight and you call Wonwoo, letting him know you’re starting.

“Good luck.” He says, over the line.

Seokmin has already ushered the mediums upstairs and you can hear their voices as you and Jeonghan get up the glow-lit stairs. You find Mingyu and Seungkwan fussing over the box of guns near the staircase and Jeonghan goes to see what’s going on.

You’re about to follow but Minghao walks up to you, walking carefully so he doesn’t disturb the salt. You stand in a semi-lit part of the room, the closest light source being a purple glow stick stuck outside the door of the room.

“How are you doing?” He asks quietly. You take one of his hands in yours and attempt to smile at him, trying to be reassuring despite your nerves.

“I’m okay.” You whisper. He can see right through you and steps closer, bringing his free hand up to your cheek and stroking it gently. You close your eyes for a moment, finding comfort in the gesture. You find yourself leaning in to kiss him, unbothered by the number of people standing around the corner. “For good luck.” You say as you do. He hums in agreement and kisses you. You’ve been cold so far but you find Minghao’s lips so warm, his body radiating heat next to yours. You pull away after a moment.

“Ew, get a room.” You hear from the side. You narrow your eyes at the source of the comment and glare at him.

“Oh, be quiet. It’s about time you got a taste of your own medicine.” You snap at Jeonghan. It had been years that you’d felt like a third wheel, so you didn’t mind sharing the experience with him, after all, sharing is caring.

You join the others in the main office space you’ll be using for the exorcism and everyone is in position. The mediums are standing in the salt cage you’d drawn earlier, playing rock, paper, scissors for who has to go first. You leave Minghao with them and he reluctantly joins the game while you go over to Mingyu and the box of guns to get your weapon.

“I left half the ammo on Joshua’s side and put several lighters there too.” Mingyu tells you as you grab a gun and load it.

“Great. Thanks, Mingyu.” You say. “Make sure you keep some for yourself too. You’ve got your protective talisman on?”

“Yeah, don’t worry, I’m all set.”

And with that you walk to the centre of the room where Seungkwan and Jeonghan wait for you. They greet you with hand sanitiser and you comply.

“Alright, hands in, palms up.” Jeonghan instructs. You’d been dreading this part of the ritual. Indeed, you’d been sceptical when you’d first heard about it, but you trusted Jeonghan to know what he was doing after all this time so you’d accepted that you’d have to do it.

In order to declare your intentions to the spirits and show your sincerity, beside the food sacrifice, each of the exorcists had to offer a blood sacrifice too. It was just a prick of the finger, just to add to the small bowl of dried herbs and incense where you’ve added the individual names of each of the spirits in rolled up piece of paper, which usually went into your exorcist blades.

You hold out your hand and Jeonghan pricks one of your fingers, then one of Seungkwan’s and finally his own. The three of you let drops of blood fall into the bowl and then withdraw your hands. You suck on it, semi-grossed out and accept the band-aid that Seungkwan hands you.

“Okay, it’s midnight. I’m lighting it.” Jeonghan declares. He turns around and raises his hand, signalling Mingyu, who reaches for something dangling around his neck and picks it up to bring to his mouth. You realise it’s a whistle and he blows it, presumably to let Joshua know to light the fire.

The three of you say an incantation and Jeonghan produces the daisy lighter from his pocket, clicking it open. The flame starts off small, the dry herbs catching fire, then the incense. You and Seungkwan each run toward an incense pot stationed around the room and light them in turn.

Soon there are several different sources of smoke in the room and you put away your lighters. Joshua jogs in and makes his way to his station, standing in the protective circle you’d created earlier.

You all stand still in the neon-lit room, the glow sticks and burning bowl the only things illuminating the room. The few torches that Seungcheol and Wonwoo had lent you are being held by some of the mediums, their light reaching only a few feet in front of them so not enough for the rest of you to benefit, although your eyes have adjusted to the darkness a long time ago.

It’s no time until you’re feeling the air thickening. There’s change in the atmosphere - there was a sudden, intense anticipation in your surroundings, the tension deepening. You clutched your gun, ready to start isolating spirits or the mediums.

It was then that the torches started flickering. You heard someone (probably Seokmin) yelp in surprise but you didn’t see anyone really freak out over it.

Next, you felt the temperature dropping as was expected. You were grateful you were wearing layers under your coat because you could see your breath now frosting in front of you. The small fire in the bowl was flickering too now, the wisps of the flame licking at the bowl unnaturally.

Some of the torches had already gone out, so you were relying on the glow sticks to see properly. Luckily, there really was a million of them so the room was fairly well lit although there were many shadows cast upon the walls too. You felt like you were in a basement of a club or something, especially with how everyone had glow bracelets and anklets.

A particularly strong gust of wind blew through the building and managed to knock over the bowl to the ground, spilling its half-burnt contents on the cement.

“Leave it, it’s still burning.” Jeonghan warned. “As long as it’s still alight, then it’s okay.”

You nodded, looking down at how the embers lay strewn across the ground. Then, in the corner of you eye you see it; a lightning flash. It’s followed by the loudest crack of thunder you’ve ever heard in your life, or perhaps the second loudest, if you count that night three years ago. You all whip around to the sound, searching for any movement.

“It must have hit the fire pit.” You say out loud, walking around to the edge of the building to look out through the whole in the wall meant for a window. And you see that you’re right; there is now a large fire in the pit and no traces of lightning around it. It must have struck right in the centre.

You have half the mind to wonder why no spirits are showing up yet, even though you’re using every ounce of equipment to summon them. Then, it hits you - the gnawing feeling of dread settles in your stomach - and you grimace.

They were here.

You put your guard up, zeroing in on any movement in your surroundings.

“There!” You here Seungkwan exclaim. You turn around and locate what he was talking about and you find yourself several meters away from the first spirits. There are four of them, three coming very close and a fourth one lagging near the door way.

“I count four.” Jeonghan says.

“Me too.” You confirm. “We need four mediums.”

You hear some shuffling and whispering and hissing behind you and then Jun, Minghao, Vernon and Hoshi step out of the salt cage, waiting for further instructions. You’re all facing the oncoming spirits as the glide forward fairly quickly, somehow urgent but languid at the same time. Maybe the urgency was in your own head.

They’re getting closer so you all step back while the mediums step forward.

“I’ll take Jun and Minghao. Seungkwan take Vernon. Jeonghan stay with Hoshi.” You call out.

“Okay!” Seungkwan calls from the side. He rushes to Vernon to make sure he won’t run off when possessed.

“I think we’ve waited long enough.” Jeonghan says. “Now!” He yells.

The mediums all take off their protective talismans, keeping their hands in their pockets as they did it so the talismans could hopefully remain on their person. Each exorcist had two spare talismans in their pockets in case anyone lost theirs, just as a precaution since it was dark and you couldn’t see where it might fall. And if that failed, then you’d have to resort to throwing salt at them.

Within a blink of an eye, the spirits zip into the mediums’ bodies and you grab a blade off your thigh holster, approaching Jun and Minghao. You can tell Jun gets possessed first and you think to tackle him first too. He dodges your attempt to grab his arm and spin him around so he faces you, instead grabbing your arm and twisting. You’re anticipate it and follow the motion so you flip around and it doesn’t hurt you when he does. You then aim a light kick to his shin and watch him crumble quickly, and you aim the blade at his chest but something grabs you into the air and throw you down.

You’d been paying attention to where Minghao had been but he’d moved too fast while you were busy flipping around with Jun. You roll on the floor, using the momentum to land back on your feet. Jun and Minghao are ready to run away but you shoot your gun and isolate the three of you in a large box. As you do, you notice the movement outside of the crystals walls - there are three more spirits lingering.

While you attempt to chase down Jun, you keep an eye out to see if Seungkwan and Jeonghan have managed to exorcise their first ghosts. You notice Vernon struggling with Seungkwan and what looks like Hoshi kicking Jeonghan.

Jun doesn’t want to run away and instead charges you, aiming to tackle you, so you prepare to grapple with him. You end up on the ground, the cement coming up to greet your back but you push him off and throw yourself over him, stabbing his chest with lighting speed.

“Go peacefully.” You say. You can’t watch the blade burn up because you immediately snatch another one of your holster in anticipation for Minghao dragging you off Jun. You flop around a little as he does and then you kick out at him, tripping him so he lands on the ground. You practically fly on top of him and stab down. “Go peacefully.” You repeat.

“YN?” You hear Jun croak. You turn and isolate him with four salt bullets while he gets his bearings. You’d planned that after each possession, the mediums would have a resting period. You isolate Minghao too and look around to monitor the situation. Seokmin and Chan have used the gun left to the mediums to keep themselves in a crystal cube.

In the meantime there are about five spirits just flying around the empty part of the room. You see Hoshi lying in a cube and Vernon too.

“Seokmin, Chan, it’s your turn.” You call out. You watch as they come out of the salt, taking off their talismans. The closest two spirits fly into them and you barely jump out of the way so they don’t pass through you.

What you don’t notice is the other two spirits flying behind you into Jun and Minghao’s bodies, so when you run to confront Chan, you have two tails. Chan wants to grab you by the shoulders while Seokmin is still stumbling around, but you don’t let him, pushing his arms outwards and grabbing him instead. You’re about to stab the blade down but get thrown again, this time by Jun. You slide down on the floor and look up, trying to get your bearings.

You realise there’s suddenly too many of them. Jeonghan is dealing with Hoshi again while Seungkwan is fighting off a very aggressive Vernon. It was possibly the most you had ever seen him move ever in your life. You raise your gun instinctively to isolate them but after you fire off several bullets, your gun clicks on empty.

“Shit.” You spit and jump back to your feet. You’re just in time to miss a very focused Seokmin running at you. “Mingyu! Reload!” You yell, hoping he hears you. He notices immediately and throws a cartridge in your direction then fires off several bullets from his own gun to isolate Jun. You try to catch it but miss because Minghao tackles you to the ground and you’re stuck under him. You stretch your arm to reach the cartridge which landed just out of your hand.

Suddenly, his weight is lifted off you and you roll over and get up, finding Seungkwan trying to deal with a kicking and screaming Minghao. You grab the cartridge, reload and fire a wall to stop Chan and Seokmin from wandering to far away. They seem to be quite enraged now.

You spy Jun isolated and running into a crystal wall curtesy of Joshua over and over again. For the moment you breathe out then realise you’ve only exorcised four spirits so far and there’s several more floating around the room. You hear gunshots and know that Joshua and Mingyu are isolating them as much as their position allows.

You go for Chan first because you’d promised him that you wouldn’t allow him to stay possessed too long since he was still new and didn’t know what he was doing. The wall stopping him from moving evaporates and you yank him by the collar to make him face you, stabbing down your third blade and letting it dissipate.

“Go peacefully.”

Chan becomes dead weight in your grip and you struggle to catch him and bring him to the ground gently. You isolate him and move onto Seokmin, who’s also broken free by now.

He throws a punch in your direction but you grab his punching arm and twist it behind his back to make him buckle down on his knees. You stab the tool down once again. “Go peacefully.” You only had one left. Which means you’d done four alone. Add the first two Jeonghan and Seungkwan did, six, then Jun and Minghao were still possessed, that’s another two, eight, but Jun wasn’t exorcised yet, was he? Minghao was sitting in a cube catching his breath, so he was done with another one.

“Seven.” You say out loud. You find Vernon was just tackled to the ground by Jeonghan. In the mean time you find Seungkwan now running after a screaming Hoshi. “Eight.” You turn around and look for Jun, who’s now way out of Joshua’s gun’s reach and find him banging on Minghao’s cube. You only had one blade left so you decided to take the route that takes you past Joshua. “Blade!” You called as you ran.

Joshua held it out so you could grab it as you whizzed past. You pulled Jun away and turned him around, moving your arm as quickly as you could to stab down into his chest. “Go peacefully.” You said. You let Jun fall limp against you and you helped him sit down on the ground.

“Guys! That’s ten!” You hear Mingyu shout. He and Joshua were supposed to keep count because you weren’t able to be totally sure about what the other exorcists were doing at any time. You’d missed the one that had made nine, clearly.

“Okay, three more.” You call. “Three mediums.”

“I’ll go, I can take ano-” You hear Minghao say near you but he’s cut off when the cube evaporates and a spirit smashed into his body. You call for a reload from Joshua while you have two seconds. As you do, you try to pay attention to the conversation in the room.

“I’ve got Seokmin!” Jeonghan yells. That’s two.

“Hoshi’s the last one.” Seungkwan confirms.

“Okay!” You yell, keeping an eye on Minghao getting possessed. He’s been stumbling away from you as you were reloading your gun so you run after him. He seems to get that you’re coming and bolts away unexpectedly. You fire your gun to create a wall in front of him but trip over something and end up flat on the ground, your bullet misfired. You realise it was that stupid bowl from earlier that made you land on the ground.

You look behind you and notice Seungkwan and Jeonghan struggling with Hoshi and Seokmin respectively, while Minghao was getting away. He was running toward the stair case. You cursed and dragged yourself to your feet, stumbling after him. You have a horrible sense of deja vu, originating at those train tracks a couple months ago.

This time was different.

You were suddenly thankful for all the running sessions Minghao had forced you to go on; you knew his speed and how to follow him. That, and you were thankful for the stupid glow sticks you’d made everyone wear because it was incredibly dark on the staircase leading upstairs but you could still see the faint neon pink glow ahead of you.

You remember those silly glasses you’d pocketed earlier and bring them out as you run, snapping them to glow so you had some extra light. It was hard to believe this piece of crap was useful for something.  

He made you follow him to the fifth floor. You were catching up however, so once you were in the main long corridor of the fifth floor, you shot your gun to block off the directions in which he could run. He ran into the wall and screamed at the impact. He didn’t hesitate for long to turn left and run in that direction. You ran as fast as you felt like you could.

It wasn’t as dark as you expected here and you wondered why.

It was several seconds that you got your answer.

The fifth floor had a balcony so Minghao had run out to where the moonlight was shinning in the night sky, illuminating the scene in front of you. He realised he’d reached some kind of limit when he bumped into the ledge.

Your heart stopped.

What if the ghost made him jump?

“Hey!” You screamed, throwing the neon yellow glasses at his back and trying to get the ghost’s attention on you. You needed to think of a way to get Minghao away from the balcony.

Luckily, it does work and he whips around to stare at you as you close in on him. You fire a shot to your left and to your right, sealing you into a smaller area so he couldn’t keep running. Minghao’s eyes stay on you, their ghostly silvery glow glimmering in the moonlight, as if the spirit’s sizing you up.

You figure this one responds to sound, so you keep talking.

“Why don’t you come here and I’ll set you free? Just leave him alone.” You say. You don’t know if the ghost understands anything but he steps towards you and you think it’s working -

And then he launches himself at you. You dodge as much as you can, letting him fall on the ground away from the ledge of the balcony. You place yourself between him and the edge, pulling your last blade off its holster. The ghost doesn’t look happy and he’s already up on his feet, charging at you again.

You take a good aim at Minghao’s chest but he knocks both your arms away, sending your gun skittering down on the ground while you clutch the blade. Then you’re in his grasp, struggling to get free. You’re moving without realising, trying anything to free your arms from his grip but you instead you feel the solid balcony ledge at your waist and find yourself backed up against it with a very angry ghost.

With Minghao’s strength, the spirit lifts you easily enough so that your upper body is dangling off the edge. You’re immobilised completely and that’s when the fear shoots through your veins.

You were on the fifth floor; if you fell from here, you’d probably die. You glance to the ground in your peripheral vision and see all the cars underneath you and the fire pit some distance away. They looked incredibly far away all of a sudden.

You stop struggling in Minghao’s grip and exchange it for clinging onto him as much as possible.

“Don’t do this, please!” You beg, still trying to get your arm free enough to get the blade to his chest but he has an iron grip on your forearms, sticking them close to your body as you half dangle off the ledge.

You can’t help but think that you falling was inevitable as you look up at the moon.

You really were balancing on the edge, and completely at the ghost’s mercy.

And whilst you were freaking out that you were going to die, there was a plaguing worry about what would happen to Minghao after you fell. Would the ghost make him jump? You couldn’t stomach that the idea.

He could push you down, but he wasn’t going to take Minghao with you. You wouldn’t allow it.

So with one last effort, you put all your energy into releasing the arm that had the blade with a grunt and you stabbed forward.

“Go peacefully.” You exclaimed, as you wondered if this was how you were going to die.

*

A/N: thanks for reading!! feedback is always appreciated <3  Gosh, it’s been a long ass time since the last update, I’m really sorry about that, it’s just life hit me a little too hard lately so it was hard to get on to this, but I’ve missed it so much and it made me realise how much I love to write my silly little tales :’) I had to include the sting op thing cuz I’ve been hooked on B99 lately oops and while I don’t believe in any of our institutions truly, it’s fun to write about. And I loved thinking up of all the little details and how they were going to do it all, really let me use my imagination :’) The last chapter will hopefully be done within the next week or two, I can’t guarantee it because I might not be physically able to write it yet haha but I’ll try my best to make up for all the waiting before. Thank you again, and see you next time <333

*copyright 2021- © momobani  

[queenbeeibee]

Songs to write my muse!

whether it be melodies that give you inspiration for your muse or songs that get you into the writing mood — pick 1 - 10 songs you find to give you the urge, the drive, or the creativity to write for your muse!

Cotton Candy, by Rochelle Diamante (Let's be honest, I couldn't NOT put this here!)

Hey! I don't know why I'm whatchu want, but it's the truth~ I'm not your lie, let them eat cake, let them eat pie! Or betta yet, let them eat COTTON CANDY! I'm whatchu want, not whatchu need!

2. Puppeteer / Done For, from Epic: The Musical (Very bouncy song, I use this when I write Bee interacting with people she feels protective over.)

No one will find their way between, my nymphs and I, their loving queen / I don't know who you are, nor why you're here, but let me make this one thing clear: I've got people to protect, nymphs I can't neglect, so I'm not taking chances, dear!

3. When the Party's Over, by Billie Eilish (Mostly for emotional scenes concerning Gabriel.)

Don't you know I'm no good for you? I've learned to lose; you can't afford to. Tore my shirt to stop you bleeding, but nothing ever stops (the) leaving...

4. Black Beatles (Cover), by Anevo and Kiso (Just a bop that gets me in a writing mood.)

That girl is a real crowd-pleaser, small world but all her friends know me! Young bull, livin' like an' old geezer, release the cash, let it fall slowly...

5. Candy Coated Lies, by Hot Milk

You're killin' my vibe for the last time! Vultures up high started preying on me, preying on me, take a step back to the broadside ('cause I'm not as brave as I'm letting on to be). Losing my breath but I'm alive, should have spent more time fighting for me, fighting for me! Making my way to the bright side, is there paradise?

6. Legit, anything by Kesha will at one point or another be listened to while I write Bee. Top favorites are Die Young, Your Love is My Drug, and We R Who We R!

7. What Could Have Been (Instrumental Version Only), by Sting (More emotional Angel Talks, yay! The actual lyrics version could work for this, too, but that violin solo just HITS something.)

8. Shadows, by The Midnight

Shadows in the city, I'm a stranger to myself and on these streets I'm someone else. Shadows in the city, like a demon in the dark, come to tear us apart... (beyond our city!)

tagged by: @mothvalentino - I could only think of eight that really helped me write, I'm so sorry!

tagging: anyone who'd love to do it! i'd love to see what music helps you guys write!

[articskele]

SPEAKING of playlist analysis! Here is my Meta Knight playlist, my favoritest playlist, my pride and joy-

Plus all of the explanations and meanings and stuff under the cut, in case you wanna go in blind first ouo!!

This Will Be The Day: This is Meta Knight joining the GSA and meeting Jecra and Garlude and stuff! He's young and reckless and doesn't yet realize just how serious and dire the war is- So this song is a pure representation of Meta’s current outlook! This is an adventure, a challenge, a revolution, an epic anime fight scene just waiting to happen! And the mention of fairytales and legends refers to Arthur and the knights (Falspar, Dragato, and Nonsurat) and how Meta idolizes them!

Eleanor Rigby (feat. Dream Jumpscare): OHOHOHOHO THIS ONE- And here the bright outlook is shattered as the reality of war sets in!! This one has the most animatic ideas bouncing around- Basically Jecra’s been missing for weeks but he comes back possessed, ambushing a GSA camp in the middle of the night and Meta’s forced to kill him-

AAAAAUGHH THESE LINES THIS IS JECRA AND META KNIGHT IT’S LITERALLY THEM- THE GSA NEVER HELD A FUNERAL FOR JECRA BC HE WAS POSSESSED AND THERE WAS THIS UNSPOKEN WARINESS ABOUT IT- SO META HAD TO DIG HIS GRAVE AND OUGHHHHH AGONIES

And that part at the end where the music slowly builds up is Meta alone on a rocky ledge (the whole thing takes place in like a mesa desert) looking through a journal with photos of him and Jecra- Tears fall onto the pages and it just cuts to him with his mask off just crying as the sun rises over the horizon-

Experience: The fall of the GSA. It becomes more and more obvious that this is a fight they just can’t win. Meta’s forced to watch as ships crash and troops are obliterated around him. Just utter destruction as the few survivors left are scattered across the galaxy. It’s over… What do we do now?

Hush: The start of Meta’s crew, and maybe also his plans to take over Dreamland? Super intimidating, almost secret society vibes as the group grows and they begin construction of the Halberd. This one reminds me of Smash Bros Meta Knight’s almost regal aesthetic with the frilled cape and the detailed armor- I imagine the ending is the crew taking in a young Sailor Dee, like they’re trying to be comforting but it just comes off as menacing lol-

Settle It With a Swordfight: Tonal whiplash time! The other side of Meta's crew and a representation of Revenge of Meta Knight!! Note the more energetic electronic vibe and the guitar, as a callback to the first song and representing Meta’s readiness for a challenge!

Take Off: Meta learning to Chill Out after Revenge of MK, just being with his crew bc the Knightmares are a FAMILY and they LIVE ON THE HALBERD together and they do KARAOKE ON FRIDAYS

Awoken: META KNIGHT IN PLANET ROBOBOT- Both the effects of getting cyborg-ified and all of the guilt and angst involved, and breaking out of it through sheer willpower and Kirby's help! It's very electronic but there's no guitar, like trying to emulate Meta Knight's power but it's noticeably forced and artificial

Pain: OK I KNOW THIS IS LIKE. THE EDGY SONG EVER. But the way I saw it, it represents Meta Knight's will to fight and struggle and improve and keep going and live! There's the full on heavy guitar this time, just the very essence of those burning feelings!! I imagine the "take my hand" parts are him in the New World saving a Waddle Dee from an abandoned building full of beasts

Sword of the Surviving Guardian: Ok this theme was just too much of a bop not to include- But it also shows just how far Meta Knight’s come! As a warrior, as a friend, as a legend. This is a testament to his growth and a toast to his future!

Legends Never Die: OK I ALWAYS IMAGINE THIS SONG IN 3 PARTS FOR EACH CHORUS AND EACH GENERATION; Arthur and his knights (plus Galacta Knight), Meta Knight, and Kirby with the Ultra Sword- OUGHHH it’s so cool and gives me chills every time- Legacies written in the stars and the immortal call of heroism, to protect and persevere and stand up for what’s right

AND THAT'S IT :D The autism was STRONG when I made this as you can probably tell lmao- But for real, I'm extremely proud of this! It tells Meta Knight's story through the music, every song plays a role, I even took the instruments into account, it's great ouo!!

[unicornteacup24]

Soooo, guess who started another Thai drama? Here's how it's going for me. 😄

I started Not Me two days ago... I'm on Episode 3 Part 2/4 and I can't OMG 🤣 I am HERE for this plot!

If White gets caught, it's all over!🫣

I like Todd; he's chill. Whenever he's on screen, I'm just like: “hi Tod. (Hot Tod) I kinda suspect you but hello still. ”

Yok's mom being disabled and wanting to work hit me in the FEELINGS 😭 cause ‘sh*t, I've felt that!’

The music pausing and playing during the fight with Sean is hilarious. White was literally just socked in the face, falls back, gets caught by Sean and lowered down... and the music kicks back in! 😂 Wtf, it's so great 🤣

The dad gets on my nerves 😤😮‍💨 10 (Actually 15) YEARS of ignoring one of your kids WTF!

Here's an Update:

Sean and White's heart-to-heart is a sweet scene. Then Sean ties him up...okay then 🤔

Tod teasing White after the tie up is funny. Also, “hi Tod.”

Yok is BOLD omg. The art/drawing with Dan is very pretty though. It was giving Titanic vibes.

The music is amazing 😍 That intro goes hard. And the song choices for certain scenes are bops that I will be looking up later

OOooH some of my theories were right! Oh sh#t 🧐😲 I can't WHOO! 🫢🫣

Black and White's conscious reunion is so heartwarmingly sad. That smack caught me off guard lol😲Ain't seen each other in years and it's right after a fight 😞

Update Update: I finished it and it's great. The drama was thrilling and sad and fun. So good imo💜😭😍

The fight scenes are great. Love this series 😍

Black is savage 😲😭🫣 I'm here for this!

Namo and Eugene are great and I love them. Great sensible characters💜

I really called Tod “you Harry Osborn b*tch” lol 😂

The ending slowed down for me but it's still really good 😊

Gram spitting in Dan's face was ✨ immaculate ✨ As soon as I thought ‘what if he spits at him?’ and then it happened! I had to replay that! 😂

Sean confronting Tawi in the bathroom was so good. Very chilling 😶