#made these while watching someone 100% celeste

[itsmebeff]

queen alphys ending sans - royal scientist outfit

[littlebvtterfly]

🦫 + my beloved Celeste??

Their worst enemy: I mean, it's Glee, so there's a lot of them. But in real enemy terms, it's 100% Puck for a big, long while...

Their saddest moment: There's a couple to choose from, but probably the main one is saying goodbye to her grandmother for the last time in the hospital. She quotes her favorite lines from her favorite play and wipes her tears away. Aside from her mother, Mike, and Artie, Margaret was the most important person in Celeste's life. She's the one who introduced her to theatre and always made sure she enjoys the finer things in life. Her death really throws Celeste and Miriam into a tailspin.

Their first love: Sam Evans, only he's more interested in Quinn at the time.

Their happy place: She likes to sit on her roof at night with her telescope and watch the stars. This is always where she will calm down.

Do they believe in ghosts or not?: She does! She's convinced a ghost lives in her attic, though her mom assures her it's just a raccoon.

Their favorite snack: Celeste is obsessed with ring pops for some reason and can often be seen sucking on them (I can't be charged for any innuendos in your head right now) when she's focused on some kind of extracurricular work (whether that'd be for Glee club, the astronomers club, or rehearsals for the community theatre plays)

Their go-to method for letting off steam: She ends up always doing a really dramatic monologue where she can let her frustrations out

Their type of lover/partner (if they have those desires): Someone who can offer them comfort, and emotional stability, and someone she can try out new things with

If they have a lucky object: She has a lighter which her grams swiped from Angela Lansbury while waiting tables in New York in the '60s. She has it in her costume pocket for every performance and the thought of it bringing her luck has never let her down.

Their star sign: Libra, just like me!

[star-arcana]

You did Play Rayman 3? You really should finish it, because it's good, and I really want some of it to come to the Rayman DLC, since the main villains of that game are just beyond amazing and would fit perfectly within Sparks of Hope, especially with Lums and Sparks as well as Darkmess and Black Lums. Heck, the main villain of Rayman 3, André was initially supposed to appear in Rayman 4 (the game would become Raving Rabbids, I know, weird) and would have teamed up with Rayman against the Rabbids to save his girlfriend, Rayman's girlfriend, Globox's girlfiend and your fiancé, and my (hopefully) potential girlfriend I have set eyes on for a while. Ok maybe the last two parts were off, but yeah, André would have fought with Rayman against the Rabbids like Bowser did with Mario against the Smitty gang and Cursa...but that never happened, and we got instead a great minigame that was a treasure of my childhood, I LOVED THE RABBIDS AND WATCHED THESE FUNNY BUNY FACTS OF THE DAY!!! I give you one in my last sentence.

Rabbids alway brought good stuff, they were the reason for my pet bunny I unfortunately lost, because my mom couldn't handle him. Also, I loved their party games and Rabbids go home as well as liking Rabbids Invasion...have yet to watch the movie, but I had always a soft spot for bunnies and Rabbids made that bigger and created it even. Also, we would not have been friends and that would be sad, and I want to be happy, there thank you rabbids and thank you, Edge in particular for brining me on tumblr like that.

Cranky is one of these weird gamers, I mean he has a whole Man-Cave...So it makes sense that he really is out-of-touch with reality since he has become too rigid and boring in his way of thinking to really develop interest in things outside the box with how nostalgic a lot of veterans get after their "golden age" ended. He would whine probably about how easy Sparks of Hope is, but complain about how hard Celeste is without assist mode. He would also hate the idea of an assist mode...It was perhaps a good thing for Retro to allow him to grow out of it, since he had no problem with her taking on the snowmads. However, I like him being this out-of-touch, albeit misogynistic grandpa. It's funny, and the movie made it shine more, and yes, King.K.Rool needs to come to the movie, it would be the perfect revival for that fossil we love and Rare should make another DK, but for now, Rayman needs some time to shine.

Finally, back to ancient, Rayman 1 IS hard, like the hardest platformer after Celeste I ever played. I got 9 game overs on the same level in the FIRST world and that is frustrating, worse you cannot immidiately complete the game until you finished learning new skills, so you should always revisit old levels in the old version if you can, in order to even finish that game, since you need 100% completion to finish it...Michel Ancel (creator of Rayman and the Rabbids) might have been a beginner, but he really needed more beta-testing, still fun game, you should play it, as well as Origins and Legends, the former was even dubbed by Nintendo life as the Pinncale of 2D plattforming....and as someone who actually played it, it sort of is, it was better than DKCR, Kirby's return to Dreamland(though I had more fun with it, it was not looking back as well-made as Rayman Origins or Legends, which I loved more than either of the two and Rayman on the Wii was overall better than Kirby looking now objectively) and New Super Mario Bros.

Also Rabbid fact of the day:

Bunnies can't shot with guns....BUT!THEY!CAN!THROW SWORDS AT YOU!!!! WOOOOSH

I have a question for you Brambi and this time it's DK and the Mario movie:

I watched Transparencies's video on how they found the Mario video and Kiki mentioned that critics would score things that are predictable would not get them higher scores. So I thought what subversion could raise such a score, since they aren't all fans of Mario or DK. My thought was that DK, being angry with having lost to Mario and now looking like a lover teams up with Bowser in secret to get even with Mario and also to usurp his Dad to become ruler of the Kong Kingdom while helping him capture Peach, which they do. Of course Mario and Luigi win the day, but how would you find such a twist? Both as a fan of both series and as someone who would look at this without the lense of a fan. I would find that not good as a fan, but without it, it would be a strong and cool twist, but would sit not well with fans. So what are you thoughts? Was what I said blasphemy or did I observed something great?

That would be interesting certainly, but I don't think they would ever make (modern) DK a straight up villain, or anything more than misguided at most. There are a few reasons for this: one is their general branding that ties into the game franchises; DK is a hero of his own series and I don't think Nintendo would want to portray him as evil. And also, there are rumors that they're interested in at least one spinoff movie about the Kongs in general, so DK would need to be heroic there as well. I think they got it just right by making DK a cocky anti-hero and rival to Mario without actually being villainous. There are plenty of ways they could have spiced up the plot, but I don't think making DK a straight-up antagonist would have ever been on the table.

If they had done so, however, it would certainly upset a lot of DK fans! I really liked his portrayal in the movie, but as it is already, some people think he should have been more chill and laid-back as the games often portray him, instead of so hot-headed. I see it as him still being relatively young and coming into his own as the future leader. If they had made him team up with Bowser, a lot of people would have been unhappy, but.... believe it or not, I don't think I personally would have minded too much. Because DK himself is kind of malleable in my eyes and I would just appreciate that this is a different take on him, likely inspired by the original DK arcade before it was written to be that it was supposed to be Cranky in that game.

But I could see why it would upset people, because while many of us consider the movie to be kind of a different canon from the games, the movie is certainly going to influence how more "casual" fans, and also younger children, view the characters- especially when there hasn't been an actual new DK game in so long. So, as I said before, I think making DK evil would have been a bad move and Nintendo knows this.

Now here's what would be crazy, but much more fitting: if it was revealed CRANKY was working in the background with Bowser, to test his son and see if he was a worthy heir to the throne, or something. This would actually be completely in character! The plot of Donkey Kong Land 1 is literally that Cranky called up K. Rool and told him to basically recreate the plot of DKC, to see if DK and Diddy could do it all over again with worse graphics and if people would still appreciate it. I'm not kidding, it's very meta lol

[sknolls]

I think I have to hard disagree on the idea that difficulty implies linearity. And I'm specifically talking about Celeste mods. In my experience, having ten solutions to one problem doesn't make a map less difficult if all ten solutions are equally bullshit. The actual problem with balancing difficulty and linearity is that when you design a level with so many potential solutions, you have to make every solution roughly even in execution. Or at the very least, you want to account for the various potential approaches in balancing them. Which just makes designing rooms so much harder.

Generally when designing difficulty, I like to either make something that someone could probably pick up immediately after Chapter 9 or something that I personally can barely beat. So, in more common terms, it has to either be Intermediate, low Advanced, or Cracked GM.

But I've been experimenting recently with making cracked GM stuff where the player is offered multiple approaches and it's absolutely possible. Maybe that's because I really like working with Spike Jumps and Corner Tech, which inherently expand options and make you rethink how you interact with common obstacles, while I hate working with Ultras because they're the exact opposite of that.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=xkotKbNJd_g&list=PLAlu1k6xjlvT74eGDfT6-f2QWRKRE2Q6x&index=5&pp=gAQBiAQB

I made this as a proof of concept for a bullet hell corner spam hybrid and currently all of these solutions except for the last one are usable and similar difficulty. It all comes down to personal preference.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=VrxkOK-lAU0&list=PLAlu1k6xjlvT74eGDfT6-f2QWRKRE2Q6x&index=6

And this is what the completed screen looks like. Some of the difficulty comes from the corner tech, some comes from the player needing to manage the infinitely spawning homing missiles, some comes from the player having to make decisions and execute shit while under pressure, and some comes from the lack of a single clear solution to any given segment. At some point the player gets such a huge catalogue of options that asking them to perform clearly signaled tech quits being challenging compared to asking them to filter through their options to find the correct one.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=I7y1M-GEhOY&list=PLAlu1k6xjlvT74eGDfT6-f2QWRKRE2Q6x&index=3&pp=gAQBiAQB

Or here's another map I'm working on. The badeline fight is a massive spike in difficulty specifically because the solutions are open ended and combined with having to manage resources, being trapped in a closed in environment without a lot of options to manuever around Badeline chasers, and the heightened pacing, these two rooms are easily a difficulty spike despite the previous rooms using more complex tech. In fact, more than half of my time getting the recording for this was me trying to beat the final screen.

Think of it like this, if the player can afford to put 100% of their attention on executing a tech, then it's easier than if they have to divide their attention. And that division can come from psychological pressure like "is this really the best solution?" or "I need to keep track of the shit chasing me while also doing this thing." Plus, I think open ended shit is more exciting to see run by speedrunners, TAS, and Goldens because part of it is just going "how will they go about it?"

[dumpygrimbos]

The Ultimate Gambler’s Strip Poker Party A Danganronpa drinking, stripping, sexual innuendo-laden fic. Initially just something dumb I started writing while I was sick with covid, I ended up really enjoying and and decided to expand it Having won some alcohol from an upperclassman in a bet, Celeste decides to invite her friends over for a party. Of course, what kind of alcohol-fueled party would be complete without a little strip poker? Sample: Celeste dropped the box by her door with a huff, shutting her dorm before anyone could see that she had carried such a heavy item back by herself; such a thing would hardly befit the nobility she presented herself as. She’d won the box from an irresponsible and easily distracted upperclassman, one who either didn’t know or didn’t respect her talent. The fool. He was lucky she had only taken the boozy libations of the Ultimate Brewer instead of completely cleaning out his bank accounts. Still, the pudgy little rat didn’t seem like he had that much money anyways, despite the airs he put on. Celeste nodded to herself with a small smile. She had most certainly come out on top once again, even in her choice of ante.

Retrieving an ornate letter opener, she quickly cut open the crate of goodies to inspect what was inside. About 32 bottles of beer, four bottles of different types of wine (including Moscato, Celeste made a mental note to give that away if there was any left after the party), a bottle of mead, and two bottles each of 100 proof vodka and 80 proof dark rum. And though it wasn’t part of the ante, there was even a pair of shaker tins and a cocktail spoon. Celeste thought over all the drinks she could make with just these two spirits and the drinks available in the dining hall.

But then again, this was a lot of alcohol for one girl. And while she’d be happy to drink it, its would be terribly unrefined to drink it all at once. In fact, it would possibly even be deadly. And while the Hope’s Peak staff was mostly content to leave the students to their own devices, keeping a stockpile of alcohol this large would certainly raise some eyebrows, especially since its not as though Celeste had a relevant ultimate that might give her a pass. Quite the predicament.

Then suddenly, Celeste had an idea.

Against her better judgement, she had grown quite attached to her classmates. Indeed, they were the most cherished friends she had ever had. Even that pig-who-calls-himself-an-artist, Hifumi, had earned himself a C-rank, not that she would ever admit it. And while it might be crass, there were several among them who Celeste certainly admired the look of. What if there was a way to examine her friends more closely, get rid of the alcohol, and seem like the ever-gracious Queen of Liars she so clearly was, while maintaining total control over the situation the whole time?

---

“Oooh a party! Count me in, Taeko!”

Celeste grimaced. She regretted telling her friends about her past while Junko was still in earshot. It had become one of her favorite ways to mock and tease the Ultimate Gambler, and she wasn’t sure if she preferred this or Junko’s previous nickname for her, Wannabe-chan. The whole class had learned to be on-guard with Junko upon realizing her true nature as a despair-obsessed woman-child, but for some reason she always seemed to be kept in check. Whether that be by her sister, by Makoto, or by the shock-administering ankle-tracker that would render her unconscious if she was ever more than 50 feet from the school grounds without an armed guard to watch her. And failing that, a lock was installed on the outside of her room so she could be locked inside if there was no one available to deal with her, leaving her unable to exit and terrorize other students until someone let her out. Something about an attempted riot that Mukuro was very apologetic about or something. Since then, Junko’s antics had settled down considerably. As long as you didn’t genuinely trust her, she could be downright enjoyable.

Celeste set those thoughts aside however, instead crossing her hands under her chin daintily and giving her winningest smile, “But of course! And worry not, I’ve taken the appropriate measures to ensure we will all have a wonderful time!”

Junko raised an eyebrow, “I assume you mean drink-related measures?”

“But of course,” Celeste took a moment to lean in conspiratorially, “And if you must know, I have made other preparations as well. What good would a party among young adults be without some risqué games?”

Gears turned in Junko’s head at breakneck speed, and at similarly breakneck speed lifted her pigtails into a long and elegant ponytail, shifting her weight confidently back and retrieving a pair of thin glasses from… Wait where did she get those from? “You are referring to such games as spin the bottle, never have I ever, and dare-I-say-it, strip poker are you not? Based on the talent you possess, your sexual preferences, and the flush and temperature of your skin, I’m going to assume the latter suggestion to be most accurate”

“I will neither confirm nor deny… Can I leave the invites to you then?”

All at once Junko’s responsible, librarian-esque guise exploded, her hair becoming frazzled and her eyes crazed, “FUCK YEAH! This party is gonna rock! I’ll make sure everyone is there, or my name isn’t Junko fuckin’ Enoshima, baby!” After a moment that mood disappeared and was replaced by a distant and depraved look, drool running down her chin, “Oh seeing everyone stripped to their unmentionables, forced to show off their most private of places! Oh, the despair from that embarassment will be the best I’ve had in weeks! I knew you were alright, Taeko! God, your tortured death would be delightful to watch.”

Celeste maintained her composure, even as Junko ended that’s sentence with a pleasured shudder, “Mhmm, that’s great. Well, I look forward to seeing you and our classmates at the party tonight!”

Celeste turned on a heel and made her way off to the kitchen, to make herself a cup of tea and gather snacks for the party. Full fic can be found here: https://archiveofourown.org/works/40992747

[goshdangronpa]

Honestly I don't really know.

It's probably the fact that all the other vampires you listed were either sophisticated (and in byakuya and Celeste's case [although the latter is faking] seem to see it as the natural evolution of humanity) or they were super violent (and in Mondo's case, this was the reason for becoming a vampire)

There's just something appealing about, among these geniuses and psychopaths, there just being an average Joe who got turned, and he just continues going about his daily life.

He doesn't gain any grand ambitions, no new sense of self superiority, no new violent tendencies. Just this generic, albeit rather persuasive, guy who just acts like nothing has changed.

At most he spends a week somewhat giddily checking out his new found abilities while he learns to adjust to his new found strength. But then the brief excitement quickly wares off and suddenly everything is back to business as usual.

After all, as he regularly says himself, one of makoto's best traits is him being rather gung-ho and easy going as well as his ability to be optimistic in any situation.

But yeah, just this small coven of 2 overly confident badasses and a psychotic killer, and then there's just makoto. The ultimate generic protagonist who is also apparently the glue keeping the coven together (much to the confusion of outsiders)

Makoto doesn't even realise he's in a coven. He's just there to hang out with his friends to escape the stress of being future foundations poster boy

I think part of the appeal to me is also the mental image of everyone helping him through the sudden change (even if he was rather quick to accept it.) Because I like wholesome scenes like that. Even a year or so later, he occasionally uses too much strength when doing a simple task (such as getting someone a glass of water). He was banned from touching anything made of porcelain or glass for at least a month

Also I imagine it took longer than normal for him to awaken after being turned (leading to panic amongst the other survivors who worry they were too late and it didn't work) and he was very groggy and out of it for about a day after he did wake up (almost like he was sleepwalking or when someone's just woken up but not fully and could fall back asleep at any second)

then kirigiri, byakuya and Hina took turns keeping an eye on him until he properly regained consciousness. As for why Toko and Hiro didn't, Toko was too paranoid to help and Hiro couldn't be trusted to not do something stupid while watching over him (also given his free time events in the game, he also couldn't be trusted to not try and make a profit off of him)

Also after makoto is turned, Hiro 100% thinks he's somehow become some kind of double vampire (no he doesn't know how that works either, and the others have all given up on trying to figure out what he means) however Hina, as the smarter of the 2, realises that makoto wasn't actually a vampire and feels embarrassed and apologetic for falsely accusing him all these years

Unfortunately, despite his idea being completely stupid, they can't actually prove Hiro wrong because makoto actually can digest human food (just very inefficiently) and every time they try to explain to hiro, he just mentions what kirigiri said. Leading them all back to square one in the argument. They stop trying to explain after the 4th attempt

Also yes, I agree, makoto would definitely just walk around with his hoodie up to protect him from the sun. Usually he keeps his hands in his pockets to protect them, but he also keeps a pair of gloves to protect his hands in case he needs to use his hands while in the sun. At Hina's suggestion, he also keeps a face mask and a hat on him for similar reasons but he uses them way less often.

Hina: 'hey makoto, why do you never wear that hat and mask I gave you? Wouldn't it do a better job of protecting you than just your hood?'

Makoto: 'it just makes me feel too much like a celebrity hiding from the paparazzi. It's uncomfortable'

Hina: 'i hate to break it to you, but you're famous as the ultimate hope, doesn't that make you a celeb...'

Makoto, putting a finger over her mouth: 'I've been denying that fact since we joined future foundation and I'd like to keep it that way'

That's a really thoughtful answer! I truly appreciate your interest in this AU of mine and your attention to its details. Your insights are inspiring.

An average joe among geniuses and psychopaths. That's just how Makoto already is in Danganronpa, huh? One could argue, though, that him being warm would only enhance that theme. He lacks all the abilities that make vampires feel superior to humans, including the keen intellect and super perception prized by the likes of Byakuya and Kyoko. But he's still the one who solved every murder mystery, identified the mastermind, and saved all their skins. Of course, he could always choose to turn on his own volition long after the events of the games ...

Although I'm pretty content with my interpretations for this. AU so far, you make a solid point in noting that my choices for vampirized characters don't exactly lean positive. I literally made Toko half-vampire and put the vampire half on her evil side. Even the sweet Sayaka ends up luring a warm boy with the goal of overpowering and killing him. Not a good look, especially when AD takes pains to note that vampires run the moral gamut just as much as the warm.

Among the survivors, Toko has firmly Jekyll-and-Hyde'd herself. Byakuya abandoned his humanity long ago. Maybe Kyoko is a genuine teen sleuth from Nancy Drew/Hardy Boys times and shed her touchy-feely side decades ago to better deal with the cold hard facts of murder cases. Makoto turning would remedy my problem not simply be default, but because he can show his friends that being a vampire doesn't require losing touch with one's emotions or empathy, just by being his normal silly self.

Hey, isn't there already a point in THH where Makoto lies bedridden on the cusp of life and death, with a mysterious dark figure and Kyoko looming over him at different points of a long and feverish night? Oh snap, what if Junko gets fed up with this warm kid's interference and tries to drain him, only for Kyoko to save him by turning him?! The idea would need more brainstorming, but it's a start ...

Anyway, I'll definitely keep your observation in mind as I work on the SDR2 installment (which is already in progress!).

[hongism]

mists of celeste ➻ 37

➻ pairing: ??? x fem reader ➻ genre: space au, pirate au, space pirate!ateez, angst, smut ➻ word count: 16.9k(? i think?) ➻ rating: M ➻ warnings: language, violence, guns and weaponry, blood, future warnings tba chapter specific warnings: talks of torture, talks of past self-harm, nothing directly graphic all mentioned through conversation, graphic depiction of a panic attack ➻ summary: Sneaking aboard the ship of a renowned space pirate may not have been the best idea, but you’ll have to make do with what fate has handed to you

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✧✧✧ act five ➻ part four

​​​

“I’m going to kill the king, Hyunwoo.”

“Y/N, you can’t… that’s going too far.”

“I don’t think we have a choice any longer.”

“We always have a choice, Y/N. It’s just about what you decide to do with that choice that matters. Think about why you’re doing what you’re doing, and what your intentions truly are. It’s not about revenge or payment for a crime — the crimes of his people cannot be put onto his shoulders.”

A sigh passes through your lips, one that sounds more exasperated than anything else, and Hyunwoo lifts a brow upon hearing the noise.

“This is revenge, Hyunwoo. He allowed my past to be taken, he created the law that allows the military to do that. Not to mention the other crimes he has committed — even if they are a result of him sitting idly by and watching them happen. I’m not saying Jisung is always right or that he is a saint for wanting to do this. But if Jisung won’t commit to doing it, then I’ll do it for him.”

“And we swore to find a way to get those memories back, Y/N. Don’t let this cloud your judgment. Don’t let your devotion to making Jisung happy decide your future. If this is something he wants, then he should do it himself and face the consequences on his own! It’s not a burden that you should bear as well. I know this is something you will come to regret!”

“Then you’ll have to stop me with force because I’ve already made my mind up about this. I don’t see Jisung getting in my way right now. But after all, isn’t this what he wants? He’s just too much of a coward to do the dirty work himself!”

“We both know where he stands on this, which is precisely why he’s not here. Just — please let us try one more time. I’ve spoken with a few of my off-planet contacts about this, and we have one last idea that might reverse the effects of the serum. You know how difficult this is; the military keeps such a tight wrap on everything about the serum. It’s near impossible to just get a spare vial, and even harder to examine how it works with test subjects while still being ethical. We are trying our best, I promise, just please hold out a little while longer. Jisung is getting things set up now… so please… just come with me and try before you do anything drastic.”

The man extends a hand, palm facing towards the ceiling and fingers outstretched for you to take. There’s hope in his eyes, a hope you haven’t seen from him in a long time, and that look is what brings your feet forward. You place your palm over his and curl your fingers tight around the side of his hand. He squeezes back as a small grin overtakes his lips.

“If this doesn’t work, then you know what I have to do, Hyunwoo.”

“I know,” he whispers. The hope in his eyes flickers a little, like a flame hit by a gust of wind. “In that case, I’ll do whatever I have to so that you don’t come to regret that decision.”

“Hey, get up. It’s go time.”

You wake with a start, not fully come out of the memory that paints the insides of your eyelids until you look around at your surroundings. Yeosang seems to be the one who woke you seeing as his hand is still outstretched to your arm. The sight of him brings you back to reality and reminds you of where you are and what exactly is going on. Jongho sits on your other side, dressed in nicer clothes than you’ve ever seen him wear before — a pleated and pristine navy suit complete with a bright yellow tie and hair gelled back on his head. Yeosang too wears a somewhat expensive garb although he appears more natural in the silk tunic covering his torso. His naturally dark roots are starting to peek through the blond near his scalp, accentuating the harsh part down the middle of his head.

Despite the fact that both look relatively harmless in this state, you know they each have weapons hidden somewhere on their person underneath that formal wear, just as you do with the knives strapped over your thighs under the skirt attached to your waist. Such an outfit like yours is something you hardly agreed to — it was moreso an insistence on Seonghwa’s part to at least dress the part (although he had to listen to some of your incessant nagging about how you could never fight in a dress so he had to settle on finding a substitute in the form of a jumpsuit with a skirt wrapped around the back. Yet the more you pick at the seams and touch the fabric, the more you recall the none too pleasant conversation you and Seonghwa shared as you were preparing to leave for the mission.

“Perhaps I do have an eye for beauty after all, or is it that you simply look breathtaking in anything?” Seonghwa stands in the doorway to your bedroom, not a mind for privacy as he watches you struggle to tug the zipper of your suit up.

“Can’t even breathe on my own, huh?” You huff out as you drop the zipper in defeat.

“I’ve already seen every inch of you, have I not? There’s nothing to hide that I haven’t seen before,” Seonghwa says through a laugh. He watches your cheeks flush with color before dropping his arms to his side and coming closer to you. He remains wordless as he pulls your zipper up for you, smoothing the fabric under his fingers down once it’s pulled up to your neck. “It suits you. Things like this, I mean. The silk makes you look… softer, yet the color combination of black and white makes you look lethal. Perfect definition of beauty, no? That something so delicate could also kill you? A wonderful dichotomy in my eyes.”

“Someone is in a poetic mood today.” You don’t hide the way your eyes roll to the back of your head, but Seonghwa doesn’t seem all too bothered by your show of faux-annoyance. Instead, his hands find your hips and turn you to face him directly, staring so intently into your eyes with his own dark ones that you lose the rest of your retort.

“I’m sorry. I wanted to go on this mission so desperately but that didn’t quite work out.” You’re quick to shake your head, already in the midst of denying his words before he even finishes his sentence.

“It’s alright. I’ll have Yeosang and Jongho there with me.”

“I would go if only Hongjoong would let me bu—” The thought cuts short as you place a hand over his forearm.

“Seonghwa, it’s okay. Hongjoong is right to have you stay here while you’re not 100% better. And you can both keep an eye on Jisung this way. We’ll bring Wooyoung back as quickly as possible, I swear.” Instead of consoling the man, your words seem to have an opposite effect as he drops his gaze to the floor.

“If I were stronger, this wouldn’t even be an issue. You should not have had to waste so much time having to look after my fragile and weak mental state when you could have caught up to the ship sooner and had all three of them back in one go.”

“This is what we’re working with, Hwa. It has nothing to do with your welfare. We still would have been too late regardless of whether that night had happened or not. So please — it will all work out and be okay. It has to.”

Seonghwa’s smile is quaint, a small twitch of his lips, then he’s leaning in to close the distance between your lips. You lift your hand to push hard against his chest, furthering that distance before he gets the chance to meet your lips with his.

“I just put on this black lipstick and you already want to mess it up? How rude,” you scoff. That isn’t a real reason, and you both know it, and you only solidify that further when you speak next before biting your tongue. “You shouldn’t push it right now. I still haven’t forgiven you for not fighting my decision to go with Jisung. Besides wasn’t the decision to… stop whatever this is mutual?”

“It was, of course,” he murmurs back, not quite meeting your eyes. “I am merely a creature of habit, so it will take some time for me to adjust to this change. But… Y/N, might I be so bold as to ask you something?”

“Hm, isn’t that a question right there?”

“I’ll take that as a yes then?” You regard him with a small nod but pull away so that his hands drop to his sides again. “Were any of the feelings you had for me something real and tangible? Not just because of what we are and that comfort of both being Sirens, I mean.”

You should have known he would bring this up eventually, especially with how the two of you are constantly dancing around each other and the topic. Still, you aren’t ready for it.

“I… don’t think I know the answer to that question, but even if I did, I-I might not be able to answer with complete honesty.” The smile that comes to paint Seonghwa’s lips is nothing short of sad and painful, not quite reaching his bright eyes with its usual mirth.

“It’s a conversation I wish for us to have one day, but I too fear that I might not be able to be completely honest either. Perhaps — perhaps we got a little too caught up in the heat of things without truly thinking about why we were doing the things we were doing.”

“Why did you do it then? I was the one who gave the initial push, I started things, I claim responsibility for that, but you pulled right back. So why?”

“I have found time to think about such things quite a bit lately since I was left in the medbay alone for so long; however, now is not the time to talk about that as it would take too long. Has Wooyoung brought you back yet?”

“No, not since the night in the medbay. But San very clearly said three days until they would land on Dorado, and it’s been six since then. They should be there by now, and the deals should have gone through. Wooyoung’s was to be immediate after all.” Seonghwa’s smile drops into a half-hearted scowl.

“Without Wooyoung on the inside, we will have no way of knowing where San and Mingi are.”

“Unless Jisung decides to be kind with his information.” You run a hand through your hair, mussing the already down tresses enough to be somewhat noticeable. “We’ll have to make do.” Seonghwa stretches across the empty space between you

“I won’t keep you any longer then. Tell the others good luck from me, and please… be careful? No unnecessary risks if you can avoid them. I’d like to see you all back in one piece.”

Reality swoops in on you as Jongho places a firm hand over your thigh.

“You alright? I can practically feel you thinking so hard.”

“Yes, yes, of course. Just… wondering about the mission.”

“It’ll be okay,” Jongho murmurs, squeezing at your leg a little tighter. “It’s a straightforward mission — easy in and out.”

“Hopefully.” Yeosang is the one to hum the word but he doesn’t look at either of you as he speaks. “Once we’re in, I’ll talk to the main desk and ask for someone with Wooyoung’s general appearance. It’ll be a bit difficult because they will have given a new name — something a prostitute would have. I’m not sure how many people in there will have similar appearances to Wooyoung but we’ll have to do our best. You two remember what you’re supposed to do?”

“Yes,” you nod. “Follow suit, wait fifteen minutes for you to pass through the reception area, then ask the same thing. A male short in stature with black hair and tanned skin. All prostitutes have collar so it won’t be Wooyoung’s defining feature any longer.” The recitation rolls off your tongue with ease after having heard Yeosang repeat it so many times by now. He nods in approval nonetheless.

“Remember there are cameras in each of the rooms. Don’t know how they use them but it’s something to be aware of. Hopefully, one of us will be able to come across Wooyoung, and in the case that you do?”

“We are to stay in the room with him for the allotted time, ping back to the ship and let Hongjoong know we have him, then wait for his signal,” Jongho responds. “His contact here on Dorado will be hacking their surveillance systems once we are certain that we have Wooyoung in a safe position.”

“Hongjoong sure seems to have a lot of contacts for someone who doesn’t trust people,” you murmur more to yourself than to anyone else, but Yeosang picks up on it nonetheless.

“His contacts are few and far between. This is one he has known since before he became a captain, so he holds a bit more trust with him. Back to the plan though, after his contact confirms our safety, you’ll crack a window and hop out hopefully unscathed. Remember that the Upper Echelon of Dorado is tight on security. Whoever gets Wooyoung out will have to be mindful of guards and try not to look suspicious. If any guards stop you, do not engage with violence. Simply do as they ask you to and tell them that Wooyoung is your slave. And one last thing: don’t forget we’ll be going in silent so keep a close eye on your wristbands. Understood?”

“Clear as day,” Jongho says while you offer only a hasty nod.

“Good, stay sharp then. We’ll be landing soon, and it’ll be go time immediately after that.” With that, Yeosang sits back and shuts his eyes, leaving you and Jongho to stew over the plan again in silence. At least until you decide you can’t take it anymore and turn to talk to the Berserker again.

“Are you nervous at all about the mission?”

A shrug.

“No more than usual. Recovering Wooyoung won’t be easy by any means, of course. It’s a step in the right direction, right? How are you feeling?” As though sensing your nerves, he pats your thigh a few times, and you simply stare down at the dirty floor beneath your feet.

“I feel a bit guilty in a way because I’m not too worried about the mission,” you admit, albeit quietly because you aren’t sure how please Yeosang would be to hear the words. “The only thing that is on my mind right now is how San is doing and if he’s okay.” Although you told Seonghwa otherwise, the sudden radio silence that Wooyoung has given you has made you anxious to an unspeakable degree. And not having the security of being able to see San through Wooyoung’s eyes is plaguing you more than you’d like to admit.

“I understand that,” Jongho says through a deep exhale. “I feel the same way about Mingi right now honestly. No matter how much faith and trust I have in Mingi, that fear always lingers and resides in me.”

“That’s how I feel about San. I shouldn’t be worried about him but part of me is just fearful that we won’t make it in time. That he’ll accept the serum before we can get him out.”

Jongho brings his hand up to take hold of one of yours, squeezing around your palm as tight as he can without hurting you.

“I know San better than I know anyone on the crew, besides Mingi perhaps. I’ve spent years at San’s side. He was the only person who trusted me at first and trusted me enough to let me in. That trauma he bears, the scars on his past, the red in his ledger, those lingering pains that resurfaced when the mutiny happened — I have felt them all. I spent months at the foot of his bed, taking what pain I could away for as long as I could, just existing to comfort him and help him get through even one more night. And in that myriad of emotions I felt from San, not once did I ever feel him desire to take it all away. Those scars he bears are part of him, and he treats them as such. Something like… small accessories on a bigger picture that he won’t let go of. So no matter what happens, I have confidence that San won’t let them win. He’s far too stubborn for that, his heart is too big, he has too much love in his body for such a thing. He would rather die before he forgets the crew, and that fact alone makes me confident that San will hold out.”

You are left in the wake of Jongho’s words for too long, letting them crawl under your skin and find a home there. You count the seconds that pass before your voice finds you again.

“I understand that.” Forty-one seconds. “It’s just the fear of him being hurt when I’m not around to stop it that is hard to get past.” Jongho’s smile is nothing if not soft and gentle, the epitome of understanding.

“In our line of work, that fear is always present. It’s always a possibility too, but at some point, you reach a point where you accept that sometimes, you won’t always be able to save someone from all pain. Just because you can’t prevent every ounce of pain doesn’t mean that you are doing something wrong or that you’re not doing enough.” Jongho pauses. Some emotion fills his red eyes and leaves them swimming with something unspoken. “There are some pains that we must allow to happen, no matter how much we wish to do the opposite. Even something as horrid as pain can be necessary and needed to move forward in life. Try not to dwell on it too much and focus on Wooyoung for now, yeah?”

“I’m trying my best,” you sigh and drop your head back against the seat. The second your thoughts begin to drift, you are brought back to another memory, this time one of Hongjoong’s dark office with Seonghwa at your side.

“You punched Jisung in the face?”

“Please, I let him off easy,” you huff back, ignoring the lieutenant’s slight shock in favor of finding interest in the wall.

“That’s not the important part,” Hongjoong cuts in from where he sits behind his desk. You shift to glance over the captain. “Does Jisung know anything about you being a Siren?”

“No, not that I recall,” you mutter after little thought. “I never slept with him or anything like that, and I can’t remember him ever seeing my back so it’s safe to assume he doesn’t know. Besides who would just see tattoos and immediately assume ‘Siren’?”

“Then his interest in you has nothing to do with you being a Siren?”

“Exactly, but why is that important? I can tell you why he wants me if that’s what you’re curious about.”

“We’re just eliminating suspicions right now.” Hongjoong shifts his focus to where Seonghwa stands. He wears a bit of a cocky grin as they stare at each other, both feet slung up on the edge of his desk and one brow raised. “See? Jin has nothing to do with this.”

“That doesn’t eliminate the possibility altogether!” Seonghwa retorts. A frown mars his otherwise pretty features, twisting his lips into a scowl so deep that you feel your own muscles ache at the sight of it.

“You live your life in fear of Seokjin. For what? Do you not trust me to keep you safe?”

“That isn’t it and you know it, Joong. I will not sabotage your plans simply because of what I am. That is why we keep my identity to be a closely-guarded secret yet our number one enemy knows of that identity. That is a weakness, and it’s one that you need to take seriously.”

“Why is that? Sheltering you would be more suspicious to the crew than anything else. Unless you would like to inform them of your identity? Allow me to call them all right this instant.”

“No! No, Hongjoong, I — fine. Have it your way. Keep believing that you’ll be able to fix where Jin went wrong by ignoring the issue altogether because th—”

“That’s enough.” You bristle at the tone of the captain’s voice even though he is not speaking directly to you. “I’m still on edge as well, Hwa, and I know you are as well. I know why you are too, but please have at least a little faith in me. Now, Y/N—” Hongjoong turns back to you now “—I’d like to ask about the nightmares you had that night.”

Your initial response is to inhale sharply and glance over at Seonghwa with panic boiling in your gut.

“Why do you want to know?”

All Hongjoong does is roll his eyes and drop his feet off the side of his desk. You purse your lips at the action, watching him with wary eyes as he shifts his position to prop his elbows up on the same wood.

“Seonghwa, you’re dismissed.”

“I — Captain?”

“Dismissed, Lieutenant. I need to speak with her in private.”

“Why is it something I cannot be present for?”

“That was an order, not a suggestion. Now go.” If possible, the temperature of the room would drop ten degrees. Seonghwa seems to want to retort further but he bites his lip instead. Then, he gives a quick bow at the waist and mutters a goodbye before slipping out of the office without any further issue. “What did your nightmares consist of?” Hongjoong repeats, arching a brow as he speaks this time as though it will get you to talk faster.

“You didn’t have to get me alone to ask me that, did you? What is this really about?” The questions flow without hesitation, and your second refusal to talk about the dreams draws a sigh from Hongjoong’s lips.

“Do you know anything of Seonghwa’s relationship with his mother, Y/N?” A beat of silence. You shift your weight from foot to foot, glancing away from the captain to find interest in something on the floor.

“I… did witness a few of his memories when the two of us were still with each other in the dreams, but — if you mean to ask me about his nightmares, I have nothing to offer. I didn’t see those at all.”

“No, he already told me all about those nightmares. I don’t need to know more of them,” Hongjoong exhales with a shake of his head. He draws his arms up over his chest as he talks, falling back to slump in his chair and letting his exhaustion shine through. “Initially, I was going to have Seonghwa go with Yeosang and Jongho on this mission. But now, that plan has changed and I will be sending you instead.”

“Why?”

“I can’t send Seonghwa down to Lynder unless I myself can be at his side the entire time. There is far too much of a risk if I am unable to do that.”

“Risk? Of what? He would be with Yeosang and Jongho, would he not?”

“Yet if even the barest whim overcomes him, they would have to listen to whatever he says because of his position as lieutenant. I am the only one with more power than him, and as such, he has to listen to me. If he goes to Lynder, the risk is of him abandoning the mission to seek out his mother.”

“That doesn’t sound like something he would do at all,” you counter. Both you and Hongjoong drop your chins at the same time, although yours is more of an accusatory and pointed action compared to the slumping defeat that comes over Hongjoong’s body when he lowers his head.

“I don’t know how much or what exactly you saw in Seonghwa’s memories. I do not need to know either. But something you need to know is that we have been back to Lynder exactly once since I met Seonghwa there. And that one single time, two years ago, we had to lock Seonghwa in the brig for six days straight to keep him from breaking out to kill his mother. Seonghwa tore cuts into his arms and shoulders so deep that Yunho had to come stitch him every night until we finally chained him to a wall to get him to stop. When he finally gave up on trying to break out, I went in and took the cuffs off, only for Seonghwa to choke me hard enough to fracture my neck and leave bruises that lasted for several weeks.”

“A-Ah…” The sound of your dry swallow echoes in your ears. It’s hard to imagine Seonghwa — cool, rigid, stoic, gentle and calm Seonghwa — ever being so depraved and rabid as to harm himself as well as Hongjoong. Seonghwa, whose greatest fear is losing his captain. Yet the grave expression coating Hongjoong’s delicate features remains serious and deadpan, and you know every word is one that holds a memory that is painful to recall. He’s telling the truth.

“Have you ever had that voice in your head telling you to be cruel, Y/N?”

“Of course I have,” you admit through a whisper, like the words are going to break the threads of tension hanging in the air.

“Seonghwa has lost his will and his mind to that voice time and time again, and it gave him his reputation as the Lieutenant of Death. Mingi may be a slave to a childhood which bred him to be a monster, but Seonghwa? He’s a slave to his own consciousness, the part of him that spent years trying to be perceived as an Elitist so that he could hide what he really is, someone cold and calculated without an ounce of remorse or emotion. He put his own monsters under the bed, but now he can’t get them out.”

Hongjoong sits up a bit straighter all of a sudden. His gaze is still unfocused and hazy though, refusing to look you straight in the eye. Either subconsciously or through the fog of that revisited memory, Hongjoong lifts a hand to his neck and rubs idly at the skin there.

“My Seon—Lieutenant is strong, but strength isn’t worth a damn thing when the person you’re fighting is yourself. He admitted to me once that the thought of letting that voice win is more terrifying than the act of killing his own mother. So for that reason, I can never allow such a thing to happen. Seonghwa’s demons are nothing if not rabid dogs begging for a pound of flesh, and if he can’t fight them on his own, I’ll do it for him.”

“Y/N, are you sure you’re alright?” Jongho yet again brings you back to reality, most likely a bit disturbed by the way you are squeezing his hand tight enough to hurt, but he takes it without complaint. “You keep drifting out of focus.”

“Yes,” you say, filling your chest with air when you remember to breathe properly again. “Everything is fine.” Rather than responding with words, Jongho just places his other hand over your joined ones and brings them to rest on his thigh. If you listen closely enough, you’re able to hear him humming a soft melody under his breath but the rumble of the transport car covers most of the sound up. Still, it’s a relaxing sound that brings you some much-needed peace of mind for the remainder of the ride.

And as it turns out, Yeosang wasn’t bluffing when he said the three of you would be there soon because you had barely started listening to Jongho’s soft song when the car comes to a screeching halt that leaves you lurching forward.

“Alright then.” Yeosang stands first, hands smoothing down the fabric of his tunic even though it’s still perfectly in place. It’s not against his nature to get nervous or anxious, but it is still odd to witness like this. He is usually stoic in an unsettling way yet the grim expression he now wears is only accentuated by the crude shadows cast over his face. “It’s go time. Let’s get Wooyoung back in one piece, yeah?”

With that, the three of you climb out of the vehicle to be greeted by a dark and pristine city with thick clouds of smoke billowing through the air below you. Looking over the lip of the road is like looking down a cliff with the dramatic fall to the lower portion of the city. You weren’t exactly prepared to see such a drastic difference between the upper and lower echelons, yet looking over that cliff is like looking into a different city altogether with wooden buildings and decrepit warehouses that can barely hold themselves together. Where you stand with Yeosang and Jongho feels like a different world altogether with roads lined with lights and technology, tall buildings made from wood with exquisite carvings detailing the sides. From what you saw of the city in Seonghwa’s memories, Lynder has not changed one bit since he was here last.

You can’t clearly see many of the buildings below your feet, but it doesn’t stop you from wondering which one could possibly be that bar where Seonghwa met Hongjoong, if it even still exists. Jongho pulls you away from the road by the arm, tugging you along behind him as you approach a new building. The swaying wooden panel outside the door is a dead giveaway, but it’s the absurd amount of lilies trailing over the railings that tells you what this place is.

“They weren’t bluffing with the House of Lilies name,” you mutter, wrinkling your nose a bit at the overwhelming stench. Yeosang has grown alarmingly still; he lingers outside the tall double doors with a hand hovering over the brass handles without budging even an inch for far too long. You could pretend to not know why he’s hesitating, you could act like he is merely holding you back and push past him in annoyance, yet instead, you find yourself laying a hand atop his shoulder and squeezing the fabric there lightly. “No matter what happens in there or what we find in there, we will bring Wooyoung out alive.”

Yeosang releases a shaky exhale that makes his shoulder quake under your fingers.

“I know we will.” He looks past your face to make eye contact with Jongho then gives a curt nod. “Here goes the first fifteen minutes of hell.” The Elitist pushes hard against the brass handles, and the door gives way to his effort.

If you thought the smell outside the House was horrid, you don’t even know how to describe the reeking stench of flowers that hits you with the force of a tsunami. It’s thick enough for you to feel as though you are wading through a sea of flowers when in reality it’s just a strange yellow haze hanging about the interior. Yeosang doesn’t let the smell affect him in the slightest; he walks inside without missing a beat, shoulders pushed back so far it nearly hurts to see. Despite that, he walks like a prince, like someone who knows how to act in high society with ease, and for the first time, you don’t see Kang Yeosang before you. Instead, it’s Kang Minhee, the forgotten prince of Aera, who walks before you and heads for the front desk where a middle-aged woman with dramatic hair and hefty makeup stands.

“We should mingle a bit and look natural,” Jongho whispers when the two of you stop just inside the doors. “May I?” He motions to your arm with a small smile, not saying anything else and leaving you confused.

“May you���?”

“Quit being dense and give me your arm,” he huffs back and extends his elbow for you to loop your arm through, and this time, you get the hint, hooking your hand around the inside of his arm. Yeosang shifts to look back at both of you as you pass, and you offer each other discreet nods before he returns to speaking to the receptionist.

You let Jongho lead the way for the most part since you aren’t sure what you’re supposed to be doing outside of “looking normal”, although even doing that is somewhat difficult. Jongho doesn’t stray far from the entrance area until Yeosang dips into a hallway and out of sight without looking back at the two of you. Moments later your wristbands buzz, signaling that it’s time for the first fifteen-minute countdown to begin. Jongho shifts to fiddle with his wristband while you keep your hand folded over his elbow still. It gives you a chance to glance around the whorehouse without the distraction of having to act normal, but frankly, there isn’t much to see beyond the bodies filling the foyer and mingling about the lounge before you. There are flowers everywhere — probably an overabundance of them, and they aren’t just lilies as they were outside. You can’t pinpoint whether those flowers are the source of the clawingly sweet scent stuck to the insides of your nostrils or not, but that yellow fog seems partially responsible to some degree.

“You seem to know how to look like you belong in high society,” you mutter once Jongho pulls his attention back to your surroundings. A huff of laughter leaves his lips.

“It’s not because I grew up that way. I was merely an observant child who wanted to grow up and have more than what I had.” A smile cracks his stony expression. “Isn’t that what all children want?”

“I—”

Well, you wouldn’t really know, would you?

Jongho’s expression softens as he realizes what he’s said and who he has said it to, and his gaze turns apologetic seconds later. He turns to flag down one of the workers milling about with drinks, taking two glasses of what looks like wine in one hand. Jongho angles one of the half-full flutes in your direction. You take the hint with relative ease despite the clawing scent of flowers still muddling your thoughts.

“I didn’t mean to hit a nerve,” Jongho says through what seems to be a sympathetic smile. “What do you think your childhood was like? If you don’t mind talking about such things. We have time to kill after all.”

You draw your lips into a tight purse, curling them around the edge of the wine glass and pressing an imprint of your dark lipstick there. Subconsciously, your hand tightens around the inside of Jongho’s arm as well, although the Berserker doesn’t comment on the added pressure as he simply continues to regard you with the same steely and careful gaze.

“I think it must have been rather sad,” you admit after some thought. It must not be the answer Jongho was expecting at all because his brows draw together in confusion. “What kind of childhood must one have for them to willingly sell away their memories by fourteen? The more I think… about that time — when they gave me the serum — I recall fighting the doctors but I don’t think it was because I didn’t know what they were doing. I’m certain that I knew my memories would be taken from me. It was the act of them strapping me to a chair like a prisoner that frightened me.”

This time when Jongho smiles, all you can see is pain in his deep red eyes.

“I would have given anything in the universe to have my memories taken away at that age too, if it’s of any comfort to you.” He pauses to swirl the liquid in his glass, watching the red liquor dance before his eyes under the yellow haze around your bodies. “Don’t think you’re weak for wanting to forget that past. No child should ever deal with pains that strong, even if you can’t remember what they are.”

“People like you… San, Mingi… the whole crew honestly — how can I not view myself as weak in comparison? People who were given the choice but denied it and rejected it unlike me, who apparently didn’t want to be left with some shred of dignity. What did I become with that fresh slate they gave me? All I could do then was be weak, but it seems like that hasn’t changed one bit.”

Jongho won’t let up with that devastating smile, and you are about to turn away so that you don’t have to see it any longer when he finally lets it fall.

“For what it’s worth, you are rather strong in my eyes. During your fight with Jisung, I’ll admit that I tried to ease some of your pain then. It’s not something you know about — the others know of it by now so I should have told you sooner and I’m sorry for that but I have a special mutation in my genes that gives me the ability to take away and absorb emotional auras. I inherited it from one of my grandparents so it’s something I grew up learning how to use and I carried that over when I joined the crew. I attempted to do that with you because you were in so much distress and I was worried but — b-but your pain was too much for even me to bear. So before you go around calling yourself weak, you ought to give yourself more credit. Just because the pains you bear are different doesn’t mean that they are any less than the pains the rest of us bear.”

Jongho doesn’t say anything more than that; he slings his wine back in one shot like it’s nothing then places the now empty glass on a waiter’s tray as he’s passing by. You don’t touch your own, mulling over the glass as you fall deep in thought. If Jongho could feel that much from you, then it begs the question of what else he might be able to feel from you.

Can he sense that I’m a Siren too? Would he be able to tell that Seonghwa and Wooyoung are Sirens as well?

Your mind shifts to latch onto something else he said. Your pain was too much for even me to bear.

“It’s okay, Y/N. Stand down,” he murmurs. “You need to pick your battles, and this is not one for you to fight right now.” Again you feel that pull of warmth coming from him, like someone is trying to pull something from your chest, but it retracts almost instantaneously. Jongho falters. His eyes squeeze shut harshly, face contorting with something that almost looks like pain in your eyes, but that lasts less than a second before he’s recovered again. It’s not enough to stop the onslaught of emotions coursing through your veins.

You had been too preoccupied at the time to think about that moment until now.

“That time — did I hurt you? When you tried to take it away, did I hurt you even a little bit?”

“Nothing you did hurt me, Y/N. It wasn’t your fault, I promise you didn’t do anything. It’s something I have done time and time again for others on the crew and something I would do again as well. It’s what I’m good at, and something I was born with for a reason. If it helps even a little bit, then why would I not take the temporary pain?”

Every fiber of your being is telling you to fight those words, to tell him that it’s not worth it, your pain should not be a burden he has to bear as well, yet no words fall from your lips. Your mouth stutters uselessly without saying anything, and Jongho just keeps smiling like nothing is wrong. The clenching in your chest is not fine, however, and you force yourself to turn away from him in the hopes it will alleviate that pain. Instead, your eyes travel to a head of bright red hair that is so starkly different than anything else in the room that you have to stare right at it. It would be nothing odd or out of the ordinary to you since the crew you are now part of has such a wide array of hair colors. It would be something you look right past without much thought.

And yet you find yourself staring right at it. Right at the girl who turns to look around the lounge with red hair sweeping through the air.

You jolt.

Something hits your shoulder hard enough to tip your drink over and spill some of the red wine onto the floor. Your hand retracts from Jongho’s arm to touch the knife hidden behind the fabric of your skirt. You’re forced to pull your gaze away from the girl, finding the man who bumped into you to just be a stumbling drunk man with little sense for spatial awareness and direction. Jongho wraps an arm around your waist and pulls you a bit closer to his body. The man continues on without any regard for you or the wine he just spilled. Jongho takes your glass with his free hand, discarding it at the nearest flat surface before redirecting his focus back to you.

“It’s okay, Y/N, everything is okay.”

“I’m fine,” you murmur back, but your gaze goes straight back to where that redhead just stood.

“You look like you just saw a ghost.”

Instinct tells you to stay put and continue on with the mission, putting that familiar face to the back of your mind. But again your heart is clenching painfully in your chest, racing so fast that you feel the pounds echoing in your ears, and you know you can’t let go of her that easily. Not when she’s this close to you.

“I think I did.” You pull away from Jongho to go chasing through the crowd after that red hair, but the Berserker moves with you in a rush.

“Y/N, we can’t get off track. There’s only six minutes until it’s your turn to go to the counter.”

You wave him off with a dismissive hand rather than responding with words. Moments later, you find your target again, just as she is turning to head for the hallway that Yeosang went down not too long ago.

“Soojin?” You throw the name out as a last resort, mostly a desperate attempt to see if you are right and your eyes aren’t playing tricks on you in this heady yellow haze.

She freezes in place. It gives you just enough time to shove past the crowd and get closer to where she stands. You close your fingers around her shoulder, tugging with as little force as possible so that she turns to face you. There’s not a doubt in your mind when you see her face. She seems to recognize you as well based on the way her eyes are blown wide as saucers. The girl — well, you suppose she would be a woman by now — glances past your shoulder to look at Jongho. Her throat rolls as she swallows around nothing.

“You must have me mistaken for someone else,” Soojin whispers, bringing her gaze back down to you. She dips her head a bit then pulls away from you to head down the hall. You think back to Jisung — the threats and odd comments he made combined with the newly resurfaced memories of Hyunwoo lingering at the forefront of your mind, and you know without a shadow of a doubt that you can’t let her go this easily.

“P-Please, Soojin — I need to talk with you. It’s important, please, I have so many questions and no one else to ask.”

“I’m sure you do, little scapegoat,” she huffs back. “I actually have work to do though and a client waiting for me, so I’m not all too inclined to speak with you. I’m not sure why you came here, but I don’t think I have the answers you’re looking for either.” You don’t have a chance to keep her from leaving after that because she turns and leaves so quickly that it leaves you reeling. Jongho tugs you back by the arm, pulling you from the hallway and out into the lounge again before you can chase after her.

“What the hell was that?” He hisses under his breath.

“She — I-I knew her. She w-was my teammate, one of the p-people assigned to my unit in the military. I… I had no idea she ended up here of all places. Jongho, I have to talk to her, please, I have to. This c-could be what I need! If Jisung won’t tell me the truth, then maybe she knows something. She has to know something o-or else I—”

Your voice dies in your throat, but your unspoken desperation seems to reach Jongho nonetheless. The key to whatever memories you lost could lie in Soojin. Things happened so quickly at the end, perhaps she learned of something before leaving Eros with the others.

“She called you a scapegoat,” Jongho says. He swallows hard, Adam’s Apple bobbing with the motion. “What was that about?”

Truthfully, you hadn’t gotten that far. You didn’t even think to question that part but it is odd and not something you recall her calling you in the past.

“I’m not sure why she would say that. All the more reason to speak to her and ask. Jongho, please!” You attempt to pull away from his grip as you speak. The Berserker doesn’t budge, too strong for you to fight like this, and he doesn’t let up even when you try to slap his hand away.

“I’m sorry, Y/N.” He yanks you back to him and brings his free hand up to rest on your forehead. This time, you can physically feel the panic in your bones ebbing away and being pulled to your forehead where Jongho touches you. It’s a frightening sensation but the influence he has over you takes that fear away as well, leaving you in a daze of confusion because you know you should feel bothered right now but you cannot bring yourself to feel that way even as Jongho pulls away from you. His jaw twitches just a hair, not moving much beyond that, then he grits his teeth to hiss out his next words. “Wooyoung is our mission. You have to focus. You have two minutes to get up to that counter and do your job. We can try to track down your teammate later, but not on a mission like this.”

You have it in you to at least be angry enough to tug your arm out of his grasp.

“Don’t touch my emotions like that again. I understand you trying to take my pain, and as much as I hate that and despite the thought of you taking my pains for me, this is different. Emotionally sedating me for the sake of completing a mission better is different.”

You don’t give him a chance to reply before you’re heading off for the counter where Yeosang stood not too long ago. The woman who previously occupied the space behind it has disappeared, now replaced by a young man who must be younger than you from the looks of it.

“How can I help you, ma’am?” He asks as you sidle up to the desk.

“I’d like a room, an hour’s worth.” You fumble a bit with your pockets as you try to fish a credit chip out without exposing the knife strapped to your thigh, but the boy doesn’t look up until you slide the chip across the counter.

“Of course, of course,” he hums. “Do you have any preferences for pleasure tonight?”

“A male short in stature with black hair and tanned skin,” you recite back, forcing a smile onto your lips when the boy glances up at you. He tilts his head to the side. You swallow the saliva gathering in your mouth as the stare grows unsettling then he shakes his head and speaks again.

“Would you like someone more submissive or dominant?”

“Hm? Oh, um…” That wasn’t part of the plan. Surely Yeosang would have mentioned it if he had known they would ask. But what would he have said if they asked him the same? “Um, submissive is fine, I suppose?” The boy hums again then motions towards the hallway where Yeosang and Soojin both headed down.

“Your room will be on the second floor, Room 213. Please take the stairs at the end of the hall.” He passes a keycard your way along with your credit chip, leaving you with a grin and a soft-spoken, “Your courtesan will join you shortly. Enjoy.” You bristle at his words but manage to smile a little bit as you take both the card and your chip back. You leave the counter to head for the hallway, not pausing to look back at where Jongho might be, but you ping your wristband as you go. Nothing has come in from Yeosang’s side again so it’s safe to assume he doesn’t have Wooyoung with him by now. It leaves you and Jongho with more pressure and either more or less of a chance to recover him, so you can only hope for the best as you climb the stairs to the second floor.

Room 213 is empty as expected when you slip inside, and it’s free from that odd yellow fog outside as well, so you bask in the freedom and breathe fresh air deeply while you can. It’s a basic and standard room — much more like a small hotel room than anything else from the cabinet near the door and the double bed pushed up against the wall. There’s a metal sink as well close to the window but nothing else adorns the room leaving it rather dismal and simple. Not that you expected these people to treat the courtesans with even an ounce of respect; it’s still disheartening to think of Wooyoung being stuck in such a small and cramped space without a choice.

Whatever peace you thought you could have is cruelly interrupted less than five minutes later as a series of shy knocks reach your door. You blink up from where you sit perched on the edge of the neatly made bed. Is this how Yeosang felt waiting for his door to open? You inhale sharply, heart pounding mercilessly in your throat and choking you with the strength of an actual hand. And shamefully, you can’t even bring yourself to look at the door when it slides open, too afraid of not seeing Wooyoung standing behind it.

“Y-Y/N?”

You snap your head towards the door so quickly that your neck pops with the effort, eyes blinking open faster than ever, and even when your gaze settles on him, you still can’t quite believe he’s really before you. In that moment, the two of you merely regard each other with stunned stares like neither of you can believe this is possible, and in that time, the door slides shut again to leave you together in the all too small room.

“Wooyoung.” You bring yourself to your feet, standing on shaky legs as you face him. “W-Woo—”

He cuts you short by barreling into you with such force that it knocks the air out of your lungs. The metal around his neck scrapes against your skin hard enough to cut but you pay it no mind as he squeezes his arms around your waist and releases a heart-wrenching sob into your shoulder. Reason returns to you then, bringing you to ping your wristband again; although this time you tap it three times to alert the others that you have Wooyoung with you now. There is nothing more to do after that other than to hug him back as his tears soak your neck and shoulder.

“I-I didn’t — I di-didn’t want to lose hope b-but… fuck it was s-so hard not to and I was st-starting to think I wouldn’t ever s-see you again,” Wooyoung sobs. You almost want to cry with him if not for the small blinking light in the upper corner of the room that catches your eye and sends a surge of panic through you.

“The cameras, Wooyoung. They’re still on, we need to—”

“Y-Yeah, they’re — they only c-check if you hit the button by the bed.” Wooyoung pulls back from your shoulder, at last, rubbing at his tear-stricken cheeks so hard it makes his skin blossom with red. He pauses to catch his breath, or at least steady himself enough to speak without choking on his words. “That si-signals that you’re unsatisfied so they’ll c-check and see what’s — what’s wrong before sending a new courtesan.” Wooyoung puts his hand in yours and laces your fingers without hesitation. The touch seems to offer him some more comfort that helps calm his small hiccups and cries. “Is Y-Yeosang okay?”

“He’s alright, yeah,” you whisper back through a smile. “Misses you something awful, but he’s here too. He tried to get to you first, but they must have sent someone else to him. Jongho came as well. To get you. We came to get you, Wooyoung.”

Those words make Wooyoung’s eyes well up with sickening haste. He sinks to the bed before another sob forces its way out, and you sit down beside him like the mattress might collapse if you move too quickly.

“I’m so glad. So fucking g-glad. Being in a pl-place like this without Yeosang — it’s fucking hell.” Wooyoung sinks his teeth into his lower lip just to keep it from trembling.

“Have you…” Surely it’s not a question you have any right to ask, and part of you feels like Wooyoung did need your help but merely did not want to bring you to this place, even if just to watch through his eyes. Still, you swallow the nerves and force the question out. “Have they made you work yet?”

“It’s not important whether they did or not,” Wooyoung says through a weak smile, but that tells you all you need to know. It sounds too rehearsed and monotonous, like he’s been told to say this even if only by himself. “B-But what’s the plan? How are we getting out? Is someone coming to get us?”

“Um, we’re to wait the allotted time here until we get news from one of Hongjoong’s contacts here. He’s a hacker, and he’ll take care of the surveillance system so that we can open the window and get out that way. We’ll meet Yeosang and Jongho in an alleyway not too far from here after that. Then head back to the ship on a transport car.”

“Thought of everything, huh?”

“I sure hope so.”

“It should work just fine. We’re on the second floor though, so it’ll be quite the fall. Just remember to not go face-first.” Wooyoung’s smile is infectious, and you laugh along with his jest, hand squeezing around his. “How is Seonghwa doing?”

“A-Ah, I nearly forgot you knew about that. Um, he’s alright but Hongjoong didn’t think he was well enough to come on the mission with us.”

“Captain is up then? Yeosang mentioned he’d been out for quite some time because of his injuries. That’s great news that he’s up! I — he’ll be happy to hear that I have some info about where Mingi and San are being held too. I can tell him when we’re back on the ship. B-But Seonghwa is okay otherwise?”

“Yunho said there’s no lingering signs of health issues so he’ll be okay physically. I… I have so many questions that I don’t even know where to begin.” Wooyoung’s smile stretches a bit wider.

“I assumed you would. That’s okay though; we have a full hour to use anyways, so you can ask me anything while we have the time to be alone together. I would say we could do it later when we’re back on the ship but Yeosang probably won’t let me out of his sight for even two seconds from now on. It’d be best for us to get it all out now so we don’t have to hear him scribbling in that damn notebook of his.” Wooyoung can’t hide his elation despite the teasing words, and you know that getting to see Yeosang again soon means more to him than you could ever understand. Yeosang must be feeling the same way himself, waiting out this hour with painstaking patience.

“What happened in the days you didn’t let me in? You went quiet for so long I was getting worried.”

“Ah, we shouldn’t start there,” Wooyoung murmurs, glancing down at the floor. He pauses. The breath of hesitation leaves your stomach in knots. “Nothing you want to hear, I promise. That’s why I didn’t try to bring you in. It wasn’t anything pretty, but I assure you there was nothing they could do to hurt me physically. I’m too far gone for that sort of torture. It’s… over and done with now. More scars to add to my collection, and more for Yeosang to cry over probably. We’ll both be fine. You’re probably wondering about the whole connection thing and us both being Sirens and such, right?”

“I — admittedly yes, but looking back now it seems almost obvious? I can’t believe I didn’t see it sooner, I guess. But yeah, specifically that connection or whatever it is. Yeosang said he didn’t know much at all about it.”

“Right, yeah, I don’t know much myself either, to be honest.” Wooyoung presses his lips into a pout. “It’s hard to say what exactly it is. Seonghwa’s books don’t really have anything about this sort of occurrence, but what I’ve gathered from it so far is probably all that Yeosang told you. ‘There’s no place in the universe that you can hide from each other’. Daichi told me that once.”

“He told me the same actually.”

“Mhm, I think he knows a bit more about it than he claims to. For me, I can almost hear you in my head when you’re in distress, even when you’re far away. Except it doesn’t sound like you’re scared or anything like that. It almost sounds as though you’re softly singing to me? Like… I’m on a boat with gentle waves and you’re singing to me through the water. When I’m asleep and dreaming and you reach out to me for help, I can close my eyes and find myself on a boat like that. A white boat on a black lake. And I hear you singing to me in the water, look down, and see a tiny flickering light through the darkness. For years I’ve had that dream.”

“Yeosang… he talked about you having such a dream. Swimming in a black lake and trying to reach someone but not being able to?”

“Yeah! Um, I’ve woken him up so much because of that very dream. I would have that dream time and time again before you joined the crew, desperately swimming to reach you but it was like something was blocking me from getting to you. Like I could never reach you no matter how fast I was. I would never be able to get in. Then suddenly — one night I did, and I woke up in a box of fabrics in the cargo bay.” Wooyoung shifts to look you in the eye, a weak laugh slipping through his lips. “That feels so long ago now.”

“I’ve been wondering how to thank you for that,” you murmur. “If not for that moment, I would have died.” The skin around your nails suddenly seems a lot more interesting, and you busy yourself with picking at it mindlessly rather than looking back in Wooyoung’s direction. He doesn’t let your hand drift far from his though before he’s tugging it right back into his grasp. His other hand finds its way atop yours as well, holding your joined ones together tightly.

“I didn’t do it to get a thank you. It was just… the right thing to do. It’s sad that we live in such a bad and awful society where you feel the need to thank me for doing something as simple as that.”

“Did you not thank Yeosang for saving his life once upon a time?” You dare to ask. Wooyoung is a bit startled at first, caught off-guard by both your sudden question and the content behind it, but he laughs loud and clear without restraint.

“For someone who claims to hate talking about his life, he sure does talk a lot, doesn’t he?” Wooyoung brushes his bang out of his eyes, pushing the strands that have quickly grown unruly and long to the side. “Yeosang never lets me thank him. Any time I’ve tried, he shut me down before I could finish. Honestly, he saved my life twice. Once when he chose me from that lineup of slaves and spared me a crueler fate, and once when he broke those chains and set me free.”

Chose… me…? Then it wasn’t Yeosang’s mother who picked Wooyoung out for him?

You don’t get to dwell on that thought for long because Wooyoung simply continues to ramble, more and more peace coming to his shoulders as he calms down further.

“Yeosang only ever thanks me. As odd as that is.”

“Did you — have you ever saved his life then?” You already know the answer to that question, but it’s already hanging in the air between you by the time you catch yourself.

“Yes.” Wooyoung is beaming by now, lips stretched wide as he grins. “I got him out of prison when they charged him with treason.”

“And that’s what he thanks you for?”

Wooyoung’s smile doesn’t falter even as he shakes his head in denial.

“He never claims to have saved me, not even once. Instead, Yeosang says that I saved him.”

“B-But why? Objectively he did save you, so why does he not acknowledge that?”

“Because, Y/N, there’s a difference between loving someone and being in love with someone. Yeosang and I loved each other for many years before. But just loving each other wasn’t enough for Crown Prince Kang Minhee to break my chains and commit treason. When ”I love you“ turns into ”I am in love with you“ and ”I am in love with the mere idea of you“, then Yeosang set me free. Even though I would never have asked him to do it, he chose to on his own accord. So he thanks me and says that I saved him because of that. Because I trusted him enough to put my life in his hands time and time again and let him fall in love with me. He claims it to be a difficult thing — allowing an Elitist to fall in love with you. But with Yeosang… he has only ever made it easy. There are times where it is difficult and frustrating, where I wish that he could be anything other than an Elitist, for fuck’s sake, times when I would rather break his neck in an absolutely non-sexy kind of way, but that’s part of love and loving someone. That’s why he’s grateful to me. It sounds selfish and egotistical to say, but after having him repeat himself for so many years, I’ve grown to accept that even if I don’t believe I deserve it.” Wooyoung speaks with a raw conviction that you’ve heard before. It’s the same tone Hongjoong used when speaking to Seonghwa in the medbay, the same tone Yeosang used when talking about Wooyoung and their past together.

Even if you wanted to formulate a response, you don’t think you would be able to because of how overwhelming the emotion in Wooyoung’s voice is. He’s had every opportunity to blame Yeosang for the misfortune in his life, claim that if only Yeosang hadn’t picked him from the start he would be better off, claim that Yeosang got him out of being a slave only to put him in a more dangerous position. Wooyoung could even blame Yeosang for not protecting him well enough to keep him from being kidnapped and tortured.

Yet not once has Wooyoung blamed him.

Perhaps you were being unfair in pushing the blame onto Seonghwa’s shoulders when he didn’t fight your decision to go with Jisung. Is it so wrong to want someone to fight for you? Yet Yeosang has fought every day for Wooyoung and continues to do so. Wooyoung, who has been through hell and tortures he does not wish to speak about, asked about Yeosang’s well-being before anything else. Yet if they were in your position — if Wooyoung were the one agreeing to go with Jisung to save the others, would Yeosang not drop everything to fight for him?

Your mind screams back at you, telling you that it’s different, the situations aren’t the same, the relationships aren’t the same, and you cannot compare yourself to people like Wooyoung and Yeosang who have had years to figure this out. And so, you don’t compare yourself to them.

Rather you compare Seonghwa and Hongjoong to them. How Seonghwa’s worst nightmare is not being able to save Hongjoong from himself. The sheer will and determination in Hongjoong’s eyes when he said he would never let Seonghwa’s demons overtake him. You can’t help but wonder if perhaps that is similar to what Wooyoung and Yeosang have. Neither are anything remotely close to what you have — had, your mind suggests ever so helpfully — with Seonghwa yourself.

“It may be selfish, but I don’t want you to push me away. I would rather be hurt and still have you in my life rather than to be perfectly fine without you.”

That memory slips through unannounced and unasked for, and the mere prospect of why it’s coming back to you while you’re having such thoughts scares you so much that you slam the door in that memory’s face and throw away the key before it breaks loose.

“But anyway that’s — I rambled a bit too much, that’s not the point, um, have you ever had similar dreams like those? The ones I had, I mean? Before waking up in my body or before you came to the crew, any time you can remember. I know you haven’t had much opportunity yet, but you’ve had a few experiences by now.”

“I can’t recall ever having those sorts of dreams. That dream you mentioned about the lake — I had a dream that I was drowning in a black lake the night you came to save Seonghwa, but when I wake up in your body, it’s simply that. All I know is falling asleep and waking up like a passenger in your consciousness. I don’t have any control like you’ve had over my body.” Wooyoung’s eyes are oh so expectant and pleading, and it twists something painful in your gut. You want so badly to have information for him, to be able to give him answers or even a hint as to what could be going on, but frankly, you have nothing to offer. “I’m sorry, Wooyoung. I-I feel utterly useless in this whole situation. I d-don’t know what’s wrong with me or my head, I just can’t remember at all and I don’t… You and Seonghwa seem to have this whole Siren thing figured out, how it works, what sort of abilities you have, how to use them. I, on the other hand, have so many gaps and missing pieces in my memories. I’ve had one or two moments where I consciously used some sort of ability, then Seonghwa tried to help me learn, but other than that I don’t know what I’m doing.”

“It’s okay!” Wooyoung rushes to reassure you, squeezing his hand tight around yours as he smiles again. “Y/N, please don’t worry about that. I don’t expect you to have an answer right now, it’s really okay. We’re gonna figure this out together now that you finally know what I am and we’ll be back on the ship soon. And I can help you understand more about being a Siren in general too! If we can get to the Dreamscape together, maybe Daichi will be willing to talk.”

“Last time I was there, he tried to kill me and told me that if I kept asking questions he would end my life,” you snort. Wooyoung’s smile drops into a grave expression that doesn’t fit his features.

“In the beginning — when I first started seeing Daichi, that is — he wasn’t like that. He wanted me to find other Sirens. That’s what ultimately made Yeosang choose Captain’s crew because Daichi had told me there was a Siren there. Then as more time went on, Daichi seemed to get more and more frightened by the idea of Sirens finding each other. He started telling me that someone dangerous would find me, someone I should guard myself from.”

“He warned me of the same when I first came aboard. But Seonghwa mentioned how Daichi’s job is to guide Sirens to each other?”

“That’s true, yes, but Daichi seems to have changed his mind along the way. I can’t understand why, but I’m sure it will make it a lot more difficult to find two more for Captain.” Your conversation dies a bit there, leaving both you and Wooyoung to stew over the predicament. According to Daichi, you spent years denying your identity and refusing to listen to him, so you never made an effort to find any Sirens like both Wooyoung and Seonghwa have been apparently. Still, it leaves you more curious than before, especially given what all happened in your latest escapade in the Dreamscape.

“Tsukio can find you anywhere, even while far away! This mental connection you share, this link — the two of you are a dyad, a yin and a yang, a pair that cannot be severed. No matter how far apart you are, the two of you will always be able to come back to each other.”

“Did he ever tell you that we will always be able to come back to each other?”

“Come… back to each other? No, I’ve never heard him say such a thing before.”

“I remember seeing you in a dream before, not the Dreamscape but an actual dream. But that dream felt more like a memory, and I asked you about it once in the medbay. I know you told me no then, but does it have anything to do with what Daichi said possibly?”

“Hm, I suppose it could?” Wooyoung leans back and looks up at the ceiling. You can’t figure out what’s on his mind just through his expression, and what he says next doesn’t help much either. “But I don’t have any sort of memory like that.”

“You — you were wiped with a serum too, weren’t you?”

“Did Yeosang tell you that as well?” Wooyoung asks through a frown. “Did he mention how guilty he feels about that too? Probably, that would be very much like him to do so. Guilty for things that aren’t even his fault… but yes. Yes, my memories were wiped too.”

“I have another question. I’m sorry for asking so much all at once. Yeosang never gave me a clear answer though, so I’m still curious, but why haven’t you told Hongjoong about this?” Wooyoung doesn’t answer right away. Instead, he sinks his teeth into his lower lip and refuses to look your way for a bit. The silence drags but it’s nothing uncomfortable or unsettling. It isn’t like you’re on a time crunch right now either, so you’re more than willing to wait until he is ready to speak.

“It’s something stupid and selfish honestly,” he whispers after a bit. His other hand finds purchase on the bed, picking at a loose thread hanging off the sheets. “I didn’t expect Yeosang to take it so seriously, but now he’s adamant even when I try to tell him otherwise. Really it’s just that when I was still a slave, I didn’t always have to wear the collar. It dampened and muted my abilities so I couldn’t use them freely. Shocked me a lot too whenever I foolishly tried to use them without permission, leaving some really ugly and awful scars. Yeosang always treated the wounds when that would happen.”

His hand travels up to touch the band of metal hanging about his neck. You follow the movement with your eyes. You can’t miss the spreading scars underneath the metal as he shifts it, like little lightning bolts of pale skin hiding beneath it, and you wonder if that’s what you felt the first time you woke up in his body.

“I have a lot of scars from lots of different things. It shouldn’t be any different, and it shouldn’t even matter because it’s stupid and childish and I need to get over it. Even though the collar is dead and doesn’t work, like it doesn’t mute my abilities anymore or anything like that, just the idea of having it on keeps me sane. Being a Siren is both a blessing and a curse. Some abilities you’re born with are crueler than imaginable and can be used to do horrific things. The things I was forced to do with mine are not something I ever want to revisit again. So… I keep the collar on because the trauma I suffered while wearing it for so many years keeps me sane. Merely the idea of wearing it prevents me from using my abilities because I was conditioned into a state where if I tried doing anything while the collar was on, I would be hurt. When it comes to visiting you, it’s different because I’m asleep when that happens. And whenever people other than Yeosang or myself try to touch it, I get thrown back into the memories of his father taking it off me to use me as a weapon and I-I can’t — it’s too much to bear.

“I trust Hongjoong. I really trust him and admire him and respect him so much. As much as I do Yeosang even if it’s in a different way. But I have an innate fear of authority that tells me no matter who it is, the people who have power over me will abuse it. That if anyone above me knows I’m a Siren, I’ll be used again, and I’m afraid of that. So it’s not that I don’t want to tell Hongjoong. Just that as long as I have this collar on and as long as these demons linger at the edge of my mind, I don’t think I can ever tell him what I am.”

You want to express an apology for bringing those memories back or at least offer an ounce of consolation because you can almost feel the pain radiating off his body in waves. But the moment you reach out to pull him into a hug, the door to your room slides open out of nowhere. You jerk, and Wooyoung lifts an arm to protect the both of you, but you take the initiative in pushing him down to the bed. In one swift movement, you climb in front of him, one knee down on the mattress and the other stretched out in front of Wooyoung’s body. The blade against your thigh is cool on your fingertips, but you don’t pull it out quite yet. The flash of red hair before you stops you at the last second.

Soojin?

The girl is already halfway in the room, door sliding shut behind her, and the second it’s fully closed, she turns to twist the lock into place.

“W-Wait, we’re n-not supposed to lock the doors!” Wooyoung protests, leaning up over your shoulder to see better. Soojin levels him with a sharp glare. You reach behind you to push Wooyoung back enough so that he’s hidden behind your shoulder, matching Soojin’s stare with equal intensity. The girl steps closer to you, draws a single finger up, and stabs you hard in the chest with her dull nail.

“You and me need to have a chat after all it seems.”

“What do you mean?” You clench your fingers around the handle of your knife, still not completely at ease with the woman standing in front of you.

“What do I mean? I mean that my fucking client downstairs just tried to fucking murder me and gave me a message from Han Jisung of all people! Seeing you and hearing from that bastard on the same day after being free from that past for several years? That’s no fucking coincidence, Y/N.”

“Murder!? How did you — how did you get away?”

A laugh of disbelief escapes Soojin’s lips as she pulls back a few feet.

“I killed him, of course! What else was I supposed to do? I dumped the fucker’s body out the window for staff to clean up later. This sort of thing happens frequently enough for them not to question it, and besides, I told them it was a jealous worker so they won’t really care all too much about him. But what the fuck is going on? Why are you here and why did Han Jisung just tell me my time is up and try to have me killed?”

“I… I-I don’t — I’m not with Jisung, I know nothing about that at all. He—” You cut yourself short with a sharp inhale, eyes darting across the floor like it has all the answers in it. “Wait, he knew I would be coming here though. Did he know that you worked here?”

“Unfortunately, not by choice though. We ran across each other around a year ago in the city, and I mentioned working at the House in passing.”

You shift to motion back at Wooyoung and pull your hand off the knife on your leg at last.

“He was brought here against his will by Jisung. Well, whoever Jisung is working with at least. I only came to get him out. We’re — he’s part of the crew I’m working with now. Jisung knew where he would be and that I would come to get him.”

“And he’s still a psychopath when it comes to you then?” Soojin scoffs, brows knitting together to accentuate her disbelief. “He tried to have me killed just so that I would stay out of your business?”

“I don’t know, Soojin,” you exhale. “It doesn’t make any sense why he would do that. I already made a deal with him and he’ll get to take me regardless of what happens here.”

“T-Take you?” Wooyoung interjects. “Take you where?” His hand latches around your elbow and squeezes hard. You ignore the man in favor of maintaining your focus on Soojin, however, much to his dismay.

“Unless you know something Jisung wouldn’t want me to know and he couldn’t even risk the thought of us running into each other and speaking.” At that, Soojin tilts her head to the side in confusion.

“What could I possibly know that you don’t?”

“What happened before you left the crew?” Her confusion intensifies to a dramatic degree.

“Have you gone mad? Do you not remember or something? You were always a bit bad with memory, yeah, but has it gotten this bad?”

“Please, Soojin, I’m begging you please just tell me what happened before the crew fell apart. I know you called me a scapegoat for a reason, please.” You reach out across the empty space between your bodies, having to stand to reach her, but when you do, you close a hand around her wrist. Soojin blinks between where you hold her and your face without speaking for so long that you think she’s going to refuse you again.

“I called you a scapegoat because I thought you were in on Jisung’s plan at the time,” she says finally, pulling her other hand up to run through her hair. “You would’ve done anything for him so I thought that was just another part of it.”

“What did I do?”

“I should be asking what you remember happening instead.”

“What I remember is stealing documents and plotting to dismantle the military from the inside out with you guys but I fucked up. I know I fucked up and got caught and Hyunwoo took the blame for me and it got him fucking executed.” Soojin leans back, hand tugging out of your light grip.

“I know nothing of what happened after Ash, Juyeon, and I left Eros. But before we left…” It’s her turn to hold you by the wrist. She turns your arm over and exposes the inside of your left arm, right where that damned brand sits against your raised skin. “You didn’t deserve this. It wasn’t your burden to bear. You were the scapegoat, and that’s why the team fell apart, that’s why we all broke up and ran away. You didn’t plan to steal anything, nor did you plot a thing. Neither did Hyunwoo. It was all Jisung; Jisung wanted to dismantle the military and kill the king. When Juyeon, Ash, and I found out what he was planning to do, we brought it to Hyunwoo. All Hyunwoo said was that stopping Jisung wasn’t something he could do. So he told us to leave while we still had the chance and that he would take care of things. He would take the blame so that no one else would have to get hurt. But you didn’t want him to do that, so you ran off and carried out Jisung’s plan for him.”

“Which part? Did I k-kill the king… before Hyunwoo died?”

Soojin heaves a deep sigh.

“The last night we were all together as a team, you snuck out of the barracks and infiltrated the palace. You stole the documents Jisung wanted — whatever the fuck they were because I don’t even know why he wanted them in the first place if he was going to kill the king anyways — and you killed the king that night too. Everything went to shit. It all happened too fast for the rest of us to know what was really going on. You just came back to the barracks and turned the lights on and…”

You don’t realize how hard your head is pounding until the woman trails off, voice dying in her throat, and then it hits you will so much force that you feel your body beginning to lurch. You would fall over, most likely smack your head on the sink as well, if not for Wooyoung jumping up and catching you by the waist before you can fully go down. And thanks to him, all you do is hunch over and hold your head in your hands as a stab of pain sears through your skull.

“Breathe, Y/N, breathe for me,” he urges as you slump your weight back against him. “You need to breathe, okay? You’re hyperventilating. One breath every five seconds, slow it down, you’re okay.”

“Th-There was blood. There was blood, wasn’t there?” Looking at Soojin fills your vision with pure crimson, but it’s not because of her hair this time.

“Yes,” she whispers back, not daring to speak any louder than that. “You were… drenched in blood that wasn’t yours. And we were so scared you had been hurt somehow. I carried you to the bath and cleaned you but you didn’t have a single scratch on you.”

“O-Oh god,” you choke out. The red in your vision turns coppery as a different image takes over and a new memory swarms your head.

“What the fuck did you do!?”

Hands squeezing hard around your throat, shoving you under bloody waters.

“Let her go!”

“You ruined everything! How could you do this? Why are you so fucking useless? I told you to sit still and not do anything!”

The water spread to your nostrils and forced its way in as you struggled to find air.

“Jisung, release her right this instant!”

The hands around your throat just grew tighter.

Wooyoung eases you down to the floor when the rest of your strength leaves you. He keeps a hand at your waist, using the other to hold your head to his chest in a desperate attempt to control the wild tremors shooting through your body. You keep a hand pressed to your throbbing temple but it does nothing to alleviate the pain you’re in, one that feels as though something is trying to rip your head in half with their bare hands.

“C-Can’t remember more. I can’t, I do-don’t want to remember anymore, I — it hurts. It hurts too much, it hurts so much.”

“Shh, it’s okay, it’s okay. You don’t have to remember anymore, okay? You’re good, you’re done, no more. No more.” Even through the pain, you can’t miss the desperation in Wooyoung’s tone. His hand moves for your arm where your wristband sits, buzzing uselessly against your skin. “Y/N, what does this mean? Is something happening?”

You want to answer, You even open your mouth to do so. Yet the moment you do, the taste of that metallic soapy water fills your mouth and you choke on air.

“Y/N, please, what does it mean? Are we in trouble?” You think you shake your head but the panic in Wooyoung’s eyes isn’t reassuring and you aren’t sure you have any hold over the muscles in your body right now. “Please, do you know where our friend is?” He asks, directing his focus to where Soojin kneels in front of you.

“The brunette?”

“Brunette? No, no, I’m talking a blond?”

“J-Jongho,” you force out, gritting your teeth until your jaw hurts from the force. “Jongho… here too.”

“I saw that name on the register,” Soojin cuts in. “I checked it to find what room you were in and saw his name further down on the list.”

“Please get him and bring him. Please, I know you — we just need your help right now, please,” Wooyoung begs. His grip on your waist tightens a little as Soojin hesitates, and it doesn’t let up until the girl nods and leaves the room in haste. Wooyoung brings you back to his chest once she’s gone, matching your shaky breaths as he gently rocks you back and forth. “I can’t… know your memories or the pain you’re feeling right now, but I know what it’s like to suddenly be hit with memories you forgot you had. Ones that were suppressed behind an iron wall. I know what it’s like to have it slip out and hit you.”

“It fucking hurts.” You clench your jaw again, feeling a burn of pain up the side of your face with the movement. “Like someone is stabbing my b-brain with a da-damn icepick.”

“Are the memories painful?”

“I d-don’t know. I can hardly think straight. My head hurts. That’s all I can think about.”

“The serum… I’m assuming it’s the same one I was given back then. It can’t take away memories. Yeah, they tell you that it’s a wipe, but that’s only because they don’t want you trying to find those old memories. It can’t remove parts of the brain like that. They just use it to lock away memories but there’s no guarantee of it being permanent, so when you do remember something they tried to lock away, it hurts.”

“D-Does it hurt you like this too?”

“Yes, but I’m — pain isn’t something that bothers me all too much, and I’m lucky enough to have Yeosang nearby when it happens. I’ve got a prescription for the pain from Yunho too. We can… we can get you something long-term back on the ship.”

Another stab of pain hits as the door slides open, metal grating hard on your ears, but this time Jongho stands with Soojin. He rushes over to join you and Wooyoung on the floor in a panic, obviously torn between being excited to see Wooyoung again and your current crumpled state.

“Yeosang’s hour is up and he’s waiting at the meeting point. Captain hasn’t buzzed in on the contact yet.” Jongho reaches down to lay a hand against your forehead. You’re quick enough to turn your face further into Wooyoung’s shirt, inhaling the sickening floral scent that clings to his skin.

“Don’t even think about trying to take it away,” you hiss.

“I can’t take physical pain, don’t worry. I just want to make sure you’re okay.”

“Here, something for the pain.” Soojin interrupts the moment to lean over you with a cup of unknown contents. “Fast-acting pain reliever. Every room has some in it just in case patrons get too out of hand. We keep it in the cabinets, I promise it’s nothing bad. It’ll numb you and make you a bit sluggish for a while, but it’ll also take the pain away.”

“Thank you,” Wooyoung murmurs as he takes the cup from her hands. He helps bring the cup to your lips, pushing some of the murky grey liquid inside into your mouth, and you struggle not to gag around the taste of it. He doesn’t stop until the entirety of its contents are drained into your mouth then tilts your head back to keep it down when some threatens to drip out the corners of your lips. An unknown hand comes down on your knee.

“Y/N, I’m so sorry.” Soojin. “I didn’t mean to hurt you with this information.” You swallow hard only to choke a second later on the putrid aftertaste clinging to your tongue. Wooyoung lets you cough into his shoulder without complaint, passing the now empty cup back to Soojin.

“You couldn’t have known,” you murmur after escaping the coughing fit. “It’s not your fault.”

“I didn’t know what they would do to you after we left the planet,” she sighs through the quiet of the room. “I should have expected it honestly, knowing Jisung, but maybe I hoped he would be better than that. He always manipulated you so it only makes sense that he would try to manipulate your memories too. Do you at least know what happened a little bit better now?”

“Y-Yeah, yeah.” You try to pull away from Wooyoung and get up but his grip on you doesn’t let up. “My memories were taken away for a second time and replaced with something else. So instead of only losing fourteen years of my life, I lost eighteen and spent the last three years believing those manipulated memories to be real. I’m peachy.”

Another buzz from your wristband pulls your attention away, and Jongho glances down at his own too.

“Cameras are down.”

“Let’s go then,” you mutter.

“Are you okay to move? Don’t push it if you’re not strong enough.”

“We need to go now while we still can,” you protect, letting Wooyoung help you to your feet even if it’s on shaky legs. Jongho gives a curt nod then heads for the window, no doubt to pry it open. Soojin catches you by the arm before you can fully turn away.

“I’m sorry, Y/N. Even if you can’t remember all of it, there are still things I regret saying and doing to you. I should have known back then how much Jisung was manipulating you and not pushed so much blame onto your shoulders.”

“You can get out now with us, Soojin. While you have the chance.”

“And do what with that freedom?” She huffs out a dry and lifeless laugh. “Wander aimlessly? Ash and Juyeon are both missing in action. I have no clues or leads on where they might be or if they’re even alive. I don’t have anything left out there beyond the House.”

“I… if I hear anything out there about them, I promise I’ll send you a message. I’ll find a way to get news to you, maybe through my captain’s contact or something. I swear if I can help you get out of this hellhole I will.”

Soojin reaches up to ruffle her hand through your hair, mussing the loose locks more.

“You always were a good kid, Y/N. Too good for the life you were forced to live.” It hurts to watch her smile. It hurts even more to let Wooyoung guide you to where Jongho waits by the now open window. “Go while you can, you three. The medicine will wear off in a few hours, but hopefully, you’ll have access to something better by then. I’ll make sure you get out safely.”

Jongho dips through the open space first, hopping down to the pristine streets below with little issue.

“Send Y/N down next!”

You can’t tear your gaze off Soojin. You don’t know when you might see her again or if you even will, and it hurts to leave her behind like this but she just keeps smiling at you with bright eyes and blinding hair.

“T-Thank you, Soojin. Please stay safe, if you can.”

“Always.”

With that, Wooyoung hoists you over the ledge of the window and dangles you far enough down so that your fall is softened a bit. Jongho catches you by the legs, taking the brunt of your weight before you hit the ground. Wooyoung drops down beside you without warning a second later. As Jongho eases you down, you dare to glance up at the window you just left from, and it shuts slowly without a sign from Soojin inside.

Wooyoung rushes back to your side and loops an arm back around your waist when you start to slump forward again.

“That’s — that’ll look too suspicious,” you mutter, pulling his arm back to his own side.

“We just dropped out a fucking window. I’m sure that would look more suspicious.”

“I’ll be okay.”

Yet two steps later, you’re stumbling over your heels and Jongho comes to your rescue this time. He tugs your arm through his own as he walks forward without saying a word. You can only lean your weight on him and slump your chin against his shoulder.

“Thank you…”

Silence drapes over the three of you as you make your way to the meeting point with Yeosang. You aren’t in as much pain as you were earlier (Soojin wasn’t bluffing when she said fast-acting) but the medicine is already making you a bit groggy. It feels a bit like you’re wading through sludge just trying to walk a few steps, and frankly, Jongho is the only thing keeping you going at this point. Wooyoung lingers at your other side. Every once in a while, you feel his worried gaze find its way to your form. He might even be speaking to you at some point because you hear something that sounds vaguely like his voice through the radio static in your ears, but there is far too much on your mind and too much to think about right now for you to pay any attention to that.

If… if I killed the king before Hyunwoo’s execution, then who did I kill that night? Did I kill anyone at all? Was that memory fabricated? What have I been working towards all these years if that’s a lie?

Funny how your search for answers only left you with more questions instead. There are too many questions to keep track of and not remotely enough answers to them. You know you won’t be able to have those answers yet either, not while San and Mingi are still missing and Jisung is bothering you. Where would you even look for answers now? Jisung would never tell you a thing, Hyunwoo is dead and gone, and now you’re leaving Soojin behind.

The one thing that reaches your brain through the static in your ears is a dry and choked sob. You pull yourself out of your thoughts as Wooyoung disappears from your side. It doesn’t take much to guess why. You’ve reached the meeting point, the all too small alleyway where Yeosang waits for you three, and Wooyoung is running straight to him with reckless abandon.

“Y-Yeosang, angel, Yeosang, my god I’m—” Wooyoung’s voice dies in a cracked sob when he reaches the Elitist. His hands barely brush the man’s shoulders because Yeosang drops to his knees in front of Wooyoung, face hidden but no doubt bearing tears, and he balls his fists around the flimsy material of Wooyoung’s pants. He presses his forehead to Wooyoung’s hip, hands traveling further up to press against the small of his back. Wooyoung can only card a hand through Yeosang’s hair in response, but it’s enough for now. It’s enough for both of them like this, with Yeosang’s knuckles white from the pressure of clinging to Wooyoung, and you and Jongho maintain your distance as best you can to give them this moment.

“Are they happy?” You whisper to Jongho even though the answer is blindingly obvious before you. The Berserker’s lips twist into a small grin.

“I don’t think there’s a word strong enough to describe how they’re feeling right now.”

Yeosang pulls his head off Wooyoung’s hip and stares up at the man with tears on his cheeks and stars in his eyes. Wooyoung dips down to the Elitist’s height, pulling his face up to his own and slotting their lips together like nothing else in the universe exists around them. Again, it’s raw, as all emotions between these two seem to be, but it belongs to them and it’s something you can’t take away from them. When they part lips to gulp in desperate breaths of fresh air, Wooyoung places his forehead over Yeosang’s and takes the breath from his lungs like that. They don’t exchange words but there doesn’t seem to be a need for words either, not until Yeosang seems to catch hold of himself and come back to his senses.

“The car is waiting for us at the other end of the alley. Driver’s already pulled up.” Jongho nods when the Elitist drags his gaze over to where the two of you stand. Yeosang lets Wooyoung pull him back into space after that, unable to contain a smile as the Siren continues to press more kisses to his cheeks. You and Jongho trail behind them to the other end of the alleyway. Seeing them together like this makes it worth it. You knew it would and you were striving to bring them this moment, but seeing it unfold before you like this increases that feeling tenfold.

Once in the car, Yeosang sits Wooyoung down in one of the cushioned seats then drops to the floor between his legs even when Wooyoung protests and tells him to get up.

“Stop, that’s weird! It looks weird, Yeo, please! It looks like you’re trying to su—”

“Shut up,” Yeosang mumbles back as he drops his head to rest against Wooyoung’s thigh. “You’re the one who makes everything dirty. Get your head out of the gutter.”

Wooyoung obviously doesn’t mind all too much because he returns to toying with the Elitist’s blond locks moments later as you and Jongho settle into the seats beside the pair. And from where you’re sitting, they really do look like young boys again, more than just a former slave and ex-prince but also less than that. Just… boys who fell in love despite the odds set against them.

“I’m sorry, Woo, I’m so sorry.”

“Shh, angel, I know. It’s okay. We’re okay.”

You tune out of the conversation there. It’s far too intimate and personal for you to encroach on, and the medicine has you falling asleep in your seat anyways. Jongho seems to pick up on that, reaching over to pat your leg.

“Rest while you can.”

A hum comes as your reply as you slump to the side, head hitting the side of the car with a loud thud. Jongho exhales a quiet laugh and pulls you over to rest against his shoulder instead.

“’m sorry for snapping at you,” you murmur. You’re forcing your eyes to stay open long enough to get the apology out but it’s growing more difficult by the second. “I didn’t mean to, I was afraid… of her slipping out of my grasp but… that’s no excuse.”

Your fluttering eyes snap wide open when something presses down hard on your nose. You blink uselessly at Jongho and the finger he hovers over your face.

“Stop talking nonsense, yeah? Rest. I’m not going anywhere.”

“You’re not?”

“Hm, no, I’m not.”

“Promise.”

“I promise I’m staying right here.”

“And we’ll get San back?” You mumble just before the drowsiness wins.

“We’ll get your San back too, I promise.”

✧✧✧ a/n: yall imma be honest this chapter feels like a whole fever dream and a half but i love it nonetheless she’s my Baby i hope you guys love her just as much and enjoy her <3 lots happened but also not a lot happened? i feel like the wc is so dramatic for Not A Lot but yaknow that’s life ! next chapter we’re getting juicy and bringing a part 16 move back bc teehee that’s what i do best u know me anywho let me know what u think as always i love u all im so happy to bring u guys this chapter and so excited for the coming ones!

taglist: @faeriewoobin​​ @sugarrimajins​​ @atinyinwonderland​​ ​@sparklychangbin​ @jeong-uwu​​ @jeonartemis​​ @anothershorthuman​​ @xxbluestrifexx​​​ @haotheheckk​​ @noonawriter​​ @lostscenarios​​ @nlost21​​ @mirror-juliet​​ @okokokok123-45​ @purple-aeon​ @theoinkypiglet​ @toothlessshiber​ @atinyarmyx1​ @simpforhyunjin​ @hwangwoosan​ @vampire-jimin​ @softyubi​ @drumboydowoon​ @chatsgotmytongue​ @just-a-starfruit​ @babydolljo​ @scintillating-souls​ @khjssss​​ @rawrrainn​ @hewwo-from-the-other-side​ @icekdy​ @eggteez​​ @bangtanxberm​​ @uglychildd​ @lucymultistan​​​​

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

[assim-eu-sou]

Bia 2:35-36

2:35

- Aw, some smiles… it’s been a while

- Give the boy a hug, dammit

- PLEASE not him trying to make her jealous and then making that silly face HAHA

- PAULA!!!! She’s driving the HECK out of that Carmilex ship

- Chiaraaaaaaaa

- I appreciate the honesty here at least

- HAHA I’m dead at the way Ana is just sleeping on the piano smiling

- Lmaoooo I love when the subs say Helena and someone has just said Ana

- Ana like I AM LOOKING AWAY

- Saudade….

- Aw them singing in Portuguese because they miss Brasil :’)

- Come onnnnn Pietro… Ana??? Thiago??? It’s obviously Zeta

- Uh oh…. How could Antonio forget about the grandmother

- Smh…. Marcos needs to chill

- Every once in a while I remember these people had to learn a whole other language for this show and ahhh… so talented….

- Portuguese Jazz! I love that style.

- Ayyyy esas miradas….

- Ana I am in LOVe with you bye no reason

- Ugh sometimes the subs just do not express the sentiment as deeply as they are meant to

- Like ik the phrase would sound a little odd in English but still

- Victor! Playing!

- Aw Alex is excited to see the guitar :’)

- I almost feel a nice feeling in his direction

- Is this… a nice moment?

- Wow… a nice moment with no BUT.

- YESSSS Bia the truth. At least.

- Awwwww Bia’s drawing of Chiara and Guillermo

- He is once again whipped

- Waiter!Manuel

- Oh Bia…. I see that look…

- And so does everyone else

- My babies stay in love

- Nah music styles from Brazil are so good

- The degrees in that room just shot up by like 100

- Knowing the context behind Ana and seeing this scene. boy….

- HELLO??????

- Nah I don’t wanna watch this. I’m just gonna sleep now actually. Because I don’t want to. Peace out.

- The way Ana’s face dropped. I need to take a walk.

- Flustered!Jandino

- Sigh….. leave Guillermo ALONE

- Omg Victor! Playing again!

- The guitar sounds kinda out of tune tho

- I love how he named the guitar Janice

- I love when Victor and Manuel gang up on Antonio

- Bilena my beloved

- I’m sure Ana is going through some shock rn hearing what Bia has to say about the tapes

- GUILLERMO COBRA? Well that complicates things

2:36

- Awwww I love Bia’s reaction to Ana telling her about Thiago <3

- Manuel is gonna feel like trash because Antonio has been fighting so hard to make sure no one knows they’re father and son. Poor baby.

- I wanna see some fraternal twin representation in TV.

- TwinMelody like…. these people are a little much

- HAHA Victor’s got him

- Odio ver la residencia y Thiago así :’(

- Thiago just looks on the verge of tears…

- Obligatory Alana is evil moment. How could she think to take moments like that away.

- Awwwww the way Manuel just spun Pixie

- La Residencia ——> el Fundom

- The way Thiago and Ana can still act married even after fighting… idk, couldn’t be me

- Chiara is very impressed with Bia’s mystery board

- The blame goes to Victor. Close, Bia, just keep going.

- Don’t tell me Aillén is onto Guillermo

- The trio and Grita :)

- Ah right, I didn’t think about Ana and being at the fundom

- Big cringe moment

- Hey Thiago, maybe let Ana speak? Perhaps? PLEASE? You’re being unreasonable.

- Mi Binuel <3

- Ayyyyyy Manuel…… ever the romantic

- Bia. What was your idea??!!

- Is Aillén calling Celeste??? What is she gonna say???

- Organizer Pixie

- Ok but tbh I would give anything to have a sleepover at the Fundom with the BeU kids.

- OH BOY not Bia saying she’s gonna invite ANA to stay at her house

- Guillermo….. come on…. You don’t need the cobra anymore.

- Kick him out kick him out, Antonio is useless to you, Paula.

- Dang this set of circumstances has really made me a Paula sympathizer… yikes

- Oooooooh so that’s what all the voice memos were for

- I wonder what Aillén has to gain from telling her this

- René….. music is NOT a waste of time :’(

- OMGGGGGG SHE REALLY JUST SAID THAT OMG I can’t wait to see what happens next

- Guillermo stays being whipped

- Chiara sounded great though

- Is he really gonna tell her???? Better now than later I guess. Well. We’ll see.

- No, this is too saddddd the empty residence, without all its charm…

- Someone please hug this man

- There we go, I knew I could count on Ana

- Something in my eye….. SOMETHING IN MY EYE

- OOP. Danger!

[1-1snailxd-art]

Sanders Sides oneshot fic - Magic Beans

Type: Magic au (kinda...like my own magic universe)

Characters: Logan Sanders, Remy/Sleep, Virgil (Patton and Roman are mentioned)

Relationships: I’m tagging losleep put it’s mostly platonic cause they’re roommates (oh my god they were roommates) and analogical because that’s the bit, implied royality.

Warnings: Remy swears...he said b**ch.

Words: 2032

Summary: Remy steps in when his sleep deprived roommate wants to quit magic school before even attempting to learn magic. A visit to his favourite coffee shop seems like the best way to snap Logan out of the funk he’s in.

Authors note: Look, I was sad, I watched @blinksinbewilderment stream on instagram and they mentioned a losleep/analogical magic coffee shop au (no angst) and I tried something. 

General Taglist (let me know if you want on or off): @thequeensphinx @ollyollyoxinfree @celeste-tyrrell @pumpkinminette

Bonus: @aowrot did some art of Remy (click to see). I approve of his style and floating hat. Honoured to have fanart done for this little tale. 

———————————————

“Girl, you know there is a bed right there for a reason.”

Logan sat up stiffly when the sound of Remy’s voice filled his tired ears, along with the crinkling of paper as he moved.

“I am…aware.” He said, squinting up at the man highlighted by his desk lamp. “I did not intend to sleep here.”

“Well, you did, and if that schedule is correct, you have class in an hour.”

Normally that comment would have caused Logan to bolt upright, but instead he slammed his head against the desk and groaned in frustration. If Remy’s statement on time was correct, he’d probably managed a maximum of 2 hours of uncomfortable sleep and was nowhere near ready to give his presentation on wand construction.

“You learning through osmosis now?”

“If it were possible, I would.” Logan mumbled into the paper before sitting up to rub his forehead. “I shouldn’t even bother. This whole thing is pointless. I’m not going to get into the magic course anyway, so I might as well give up and go to sleep.”

“Right, bitch, we’re out!”

Logan gasped and fumbled over his words as Remy suddenly pulled his chair back and pulled him up by his arm.

“Wha-where are we going?”

“We need a magic elixir to find my annoying, magic obsessed, roommate because that ain’t you right now.”

“That is ridiculous.” Logan huffed, unable to pull out of their friends firm grip. “Even if some personality changing elixir did exist, you wouldn’t be able to afford it.”

“True, but you don’t gotta bring it up.”

Remy was kind enough to at least grab Logan’s satchel as they left their tiny dwelling and headed into the town centre; leading the conversation so Logan could walk in reasonable silence. When the pair had first moved in together, they had hardly interacted beyond cleaning and rent day. Remy was either working or out at someone’s party until the early hours, while Logan filled his daily schedule with work, class and study. At one point, Remy questioned if the man ever slept or understood the meaning of free time. However, over the past month, Remy noticed a shift in Logan’s behaviour that he couldn’t ignore. Dishes were left piled into the sink more often, curse words penetrated the thin walls at all hours and he found an empty jam jar left on the count with a spoon in it. The jam was the final straw for Remy because it was too weird to be considered normal for his formally perfect roommate.

 “May I ask where exactly we are going?”

The further they walked into the busy centre, the more Logan wanted to return to his room and forget the real world existed.

“I told you. To get an elixir.”

“That was a joke, so what is the truth.”

A sideways glance with a raised eyebrow was the only response Logan received as Remy took his hand and quicken their pace down the street. Rounding the corner Logan groaned as he saw the painted sign for ‘The Magic Beans’ and understood what his black jacket clad mate had meant by elixir.

“Coffee? Seriously?”

“Serious as a heart attack, babes.” Remy said, holding the door open for Logan to walk inside. “Trust me, this will perk you right up.”

“You’ve been partying with Patton again haven’t you?”

“I will not apologise for appreciating Roman’s poppin’ parties with that puffball dancing around. That kid has more energy than 100 shots of espresso.”

Shuffling awkwardly around the couch in the stores centre, Logan watched as empty cups levitated their way into the kitchen and laughter echoed from full tables and booths. Jealousy gripped his gut as he watched how effortless some of the workers made magic seem. Clearly, they had been blessed with strong magic in their families, unlike him. Remy may have been perfectly content with a magic-less existence, but Logan wasn’t. He wanted nothing more than to point his finger at a book to guide it to him, or even just be able to use a wand. Anything that would make him more than what he was.

“This way bookworm,” Remy guided Logan to a secluded booth in the far corner of the store and ushered him into the seat. “Let me introduce you to my magic elixir of life.”

“I don’t understand the allure of a beverage brewed from bitter tasting beans.”

“You’ll understand soon enough,” Remy beamed, hiding his face behind a menu.

“Doubtful. I’ve tasted coffee before and it was far from an enjoyable experience.”

“Haven’t tried magic beans then, have you?”

Suddenly Logan understood why Remy was hiding his face, because he was sure he was trying to compose himself right now. The voice belonged to a man that made Logan’s brain come to a sudden halt; eyes lined black, purple highlights peeked through black hair, and glossed lips were pulled into a half smile that Logan couldn’t take his eyes off.

“He hasn’t.” Remy cooed, lowering the menu and leaning back now he could maintain a cool expression. “Logan is a hard one to coax away from study hall and your parents don’t allow take away.”

The worker chuckled and rubbed the back of his neck, giving Logan a peek of his hip as the black uniform lifted behind his apron.

“Yeah, they are very protective of our recipes. Better safe than sorry though. You just want the usual, Rem?”

“Cheers, babes. You know how I like it.”

“Sure thing. And what can I get - ah, Logan, was it?”

Worry danced across the server’s eyes when he was met with only a stare in response. Upon releasing he had been asked a question, Logan cleared his throat and forced his mind to function enough to grab a menu without showing just how shaky his hands were.

“Ah-um-yes. Logan is, well, me.” Cheeks burning, Logan cursed his sleep deprived brain for being unable to form coherent sentences and tried to read the jumble of letters in front of him. “I’ll have a…um…”

With a sigh of defeat, Logan dropped the menu on the table and hopped he didn’t look too ridiculous smiling up at the other man.

“I don’t know what to have. I’m sorry. This isn’t really my…”

“Cup of tea?” He offered, seeming to immediately regret the comment as Logan blinked back.

“…ironically, I’m not a tea fan either, um…my apologies, I didn’t catch your name.”

“Oh, sorry. Virgil.” Quickly scrapping his hand down his pants to dry it, Logan shook the hand Virgil had extended. “So, you’re a real newbie to this scene then. How have you survived studying?”

“He isn’t surviving, which is why I’ve brought him here.” Remy offered before he had to watch another awkward pause.

“Right.” Virgil let out an awkward chuckle and ran a hand through his fringe as he thought out loud. “So, coffee noob, not a tea fan, study-aholic. Do you prefer sweet or savoury flavours?”

“Oh, Logan is very salty.” Logan’s head snapped round and glared at his friend opposite him. “Girl, that look only cements my point. What do you recommend, Virge?”

“I think I’ve got an idea. I’ll be back.”

“Take your time,” Logan called after him as he watched Virgil walk back towards the counter.

 “You’re so gay-ow!”

Logan kicked Remy under the table and spoke in a hushed tone.

“What the heck was that?”

“You’re smitten, kitten, that’s what.” Remy said, rubbing his shin under the table. “Thank Mama Remy when you get his number.”

“Falsehood. I’m going to kill Mama Remy while he sleeps.”

“Good luck with that, you’ll be too preoccupied to even think about me. So, what’s the most powerful wand core?”

“Phoenix feather strands with northern tree sap.” Logan replied without thought; resting his elbow on the table so he could comfortably massage his left temple. “What exactly is your plan here?”

“To find the nerd that wants to put magic into the Sanders name despite what his parents say. Should I buy a wand or make my own?”

“I seriously doubt I will ever be able to learn magic at this rate… and if you’re born with magic, and the wand is just for show, buy it; but you’ll need to make it if you’re not.”

“I think you’re gonna blow them away when you pass this course and get to make a wand. I can see you now;” pushing his glasses up onto his head, Remy gestured an invisible wand out to the side. “Wielding a wand crafted from a fallen elm.”

“Based on previous encounters, I’d say that is more likely Roman’s style. Given my birth is in the later part of the year, and my reduced sight, oak would be a much better fit.” Yawning, Logan fiddled with the corner of the menu until he froze at Remy’s laugh. “What?”

“Girl, you are going to ace that test.”

“Falsehood.” He said with more force than earlier. “With an infinitesimal amount of sleep and limited knowledge, it will be impossible for me to achieve a passing grade.”

Leaning onto folded arms, Remy locked eyes with his friend and smiled. “You just answered 3 key wand questions without batting an eye. I think you’ll be fine.”

Logan raised a pointed finger to rebut the statement, before realising what Remy had done.

“You are one bad elixir away from an evil genius.”

“I was born without magic because I would have been too much for this world to handle.”

“I will concede to you this time, but even if I do go to school, I will still need to stay awake for the test and practical examination. I don’t think I can function for another 3hours.”

“I’ve got you covered,” Virgil beamed, placing a tall dark mug in front of Remy and holding another out for Logan. “Chilled to help you wake up. Mild bean blend with a salted caramel mix; extra salt to balance out the sweet. All the buzz of Remy’s coffee, without the bitter bite and some cream on top just for show.”

“That hasn’t been on the menu,” Remy grumbled as he reviewed it one more time just in case he’d missed a new addition.

“I know.” Logan noticed Virgil shift nervously on his feet after placing the beverage down before him. “Thought I would make something special for the beginner.”

“You never did that for me!”

“Don’t act so offended. You were already a veteran drinker when you first came here.”

Tuning out the other voices, Logan glanced sadly between the clock on the wall and the personalised drink in front of him. He considered what Remy had just demonstrated and made a decision before speaking again.

“Thank you, Virgil, but unfortunately I can’t stay.” Two sets of eyes snapped to Logan as he carefully shuffled out of the booth. “Remy believes I can pass this test, but if I don’t leave now, I might not be able to even take it in the first place. I’m sorry.”

A smile crept back onto Remy’s face as Virgil grabbed Logan’s hand when he turned to leave.

“Wait…you said you needed something to help get you through the exam, though.”

“I-I-I’ll just have to…push through it I guess.”

“No. Here.” Grabbing the cup from the table, Virgil held it out for the other. “Take it with you.”

“But… you don’t do take away, here. What about your family recipes?”

“Yeah, well…this is my recipe a-a-and I want you to take it.” Cautiously, Logan took the cup and Virgil released his other hand. “Besides, when you return the cup…I’ll get to see you again.”

Logan almost let the beverage slip through his fingers in shock but nodded and hurried out of the store. Remy chuckled before carefully taking a sip of his own drink.

“The only thing that would have made that gayer, would have been if Pat and Roman were here sharing a rainbow unicorn.”

“You planned that whole thing, didn’t you?” Virgil breathed, not taking his eyes away from when he last saw Logan.

“Not entirely,” he sighed and dug into his back pocket. “I thought for sure the bitch would have paid.”

———————————————

What else have I done?

Writing masterlist / master post thingy

Check out my main blog @snail-giggles for random fandom reblogs and stuff

[badlydrawndrawnings]

in my desire on hopefully saving enough money for animal crossing new horizons and getting myself a switch (or switch lite), and with pocket camp new fishing tournament, i decided to make headcanons of sorts for most of the sugar bowl generation characters (and others) playing pocket camp. screw the timeline, and sorry if nothing about animal crossing makes sense

monty

made a nintendo account in case he needs to change phones (which happens after dropping phone in a tank and it breaks; he feels so glad about making said account)

has all the alligator/crocodiles villagers [campers? this isn’t a mainline animal crossing game] and most of the frog/toad villagers (he has to rotate the frogs/toads). will temporary kick one of his villagers out to fulfill a special furniture request from other villagers

makes the campsite look like a maze in one half, and lake/water area in the other half. the only amenity he has is the exotic fountain. 

cabin has variety of villagers who are rotated out on a monthly basis and it’s set up as a movie theater; apollo [an american eagle] has a permanent stay there it’s mostly his fortune cookie that makes up the theater

camper has lots of plants and trees with seating

because he has the money and work is overwhelming, monty elects to get the happy helper plan when it gets introduce. his helper/assistant is jacques [a bird]; jacques isn’t sure if he feels flatter

josephine (and ike)

she fears smartphones on the chance the battery will explode in her face after reading an article of it happening to someone (older cellphones and phones don’t have this concern to her), but the game made her very tempted to get over her fear 

after monty drops his phone she backs out because she now fears she may drop her phone and crack the screen (or get it wet and lose all her  data. monty couldn’t convince her about making an nintendo account). ends of watching her fellow volunteers play the game for a while

ike bites the bullet and buys a smartphone so he and jo can play together. ike names his character avatar jo after josephine. ike also took monty’s word about making an nintendo account

camp terrain eventually becomes beach resort (josephine help ike not buy impulse buys of items needing leaf tickets), which works since their campsite is a transform into boardwalk with rides (they keep the merry-go-round and bouncy cake amenities) and food and games (a bit like lake lachrymose when in-season)

cabin is their grammar library; josephine and ike only allow the more realistic (as they can be) villagers in there. they like taking photos of jo and their villagers posing in their library

their camper is weird. it looks like someone has a lab for making drugs on the second floor, with the first floor mini museum being a front. it’s possible gregor got a hold of the game and they elected to keep it

charles (idk if he’s 100% working with vfd or just well connected to vfd)

gets overwhelm at the fact he has total 100 % control of something and he can do whatever he wants

likes cross pollinating flowers and almost has all the clothing and furniture and all the potted flowers (charles made himself a cross pollinating guide)

buys the birch tree terrain because it’s the only terrain he finds easy on the eyes. the birch tree terrain is only used for the summer and fall; spring he uses the spring garden foreground and middle because he got it during leif’s [a gardener sloth] gardening event and winter he goes uses the default terrain the games gives to player

makes campsite look like an actual camp site he is following the name of the game he usually changes furniture to change campsite layout

cabin looks similar to the lucky smell lumber mill library (he tried to recreate it)

camper is very home-y; living room and kitchen on first floor and bedroom and bathroom on second floor

esme

because she breathes the air of what is in and what is out, her camper, campsite, and cabin changes almost every week (she’s loaded she buys leaf tickets to help fuel her need to stay in)

there is no consistent pattern to be made one minute it’s a ball the next it’s a restaurant and the next it’s the woods with a bonfire

this goes to her character avatar appearance too if it wasn’t her name some would be asking ‘when did i agree to be this player’s friend’

villagers are mostly the hip, elegant, and cool theme ones that’s the only thing anyone can figure out (esme does have a random villager of a different theme depending what’s in and out)

buys the leaf ticket clothing regardless if they’re in or out they’re limited time and she’s not taking any chances if an out item they’re selling will become in in the future (again, she’s loaded)

when the game is consider out, esme doesn’t delete the game in case it becomes in again, which is a frequent thing (she even made an nintendo account to make sure if she did delete the app or has to get a new phone, everything is restore upon re-installation) 

hector

hoards his leaf tickets because he wants to buy a good terrain for his town campsite; he buys the feather weather sky terrain and the old timey town background and middle (he got the 1st anniversary white iron fence it was cheaper)

the town eventually has strong fall/autumn vibes. there’s food stalls (the chocolate banana stall and sno-cone stall from redd’s [a fox] gardening event), trees from maple [a bear cub] fortune cookies, a flower wagon (from kick’s [a skunk] gardening event), a fountain with benches, lamp posts (same event from kick), and lots of leaf piles to run through

has many potted marigolds (he went overboard and made lots of them from kick’s gardening event)

the amenities hector has are the hot air balloon and bronze twins fountain

camper is pretty much similar to charles: living room and kitchen on first floor and bedroom and bathroom on second floor

cabin is a bakery-cafe; hector’s upset he can’t make a mexican restaurant so he goes all out with food/cafe/restaurant items from fortune cookies he got for 5000 bells and the cute confectioner items from pelly’s [she a pelican] gardening event. he even wears the outfit  and never takes it off.

olivia

she buys katrina’s special furniture item the second it shows up for some reason [katrina is a panther fortune teller], but becomes glad when olivia decides what she wants to do with her camp site

loses a lot of her leaf tickets via the fortunate cookies she wants. as such, when it came to buying blathers or celeste [both are owls], olivia decides to save up to get both of them when they both are offer again.

camp is a mixture of a steampunk circus due to bob [a purple cat] and wolfgang [a wolf] fortune cookies. has most of spooky terrain sans the sky and fence (they’re the second reasons she lost a lot of her leaf tickets)

cabin is more steampunk library with astrological furniture due to julian’s [a unicorn] fortune cookies (this is why she’s saving up to buy blathers and celeste they fit the cabin theme more)

likes to wear dresses and skirts on her character avatar you will never see her wear pants unless it’s good

buys the wigs and switches them constantly (olivia wishes you can wear hat accessories over the wigs)

widdershins

widdershins blew all of his leaf tickets on the seafloor terrain and ocean sky (which he saved up for) to make an underwater campsite (there’s a lot of whale pool floaties). the villagers stays until they reach level 20 before getting kick out; the only who has a permanent resident is eventually gaston [a rabbit]

enjoys the fishing tournaments when they offer fishes in tanks and underwater related items; the other tournaments -and in general the events- aren’t his liking but he has a compulsion to complete them anyway (so for instance, he would do the fishing tournament mention in the opening but he isn’t happy about getting knitted items)

also has a compulsion to complete the catalog

cabin is an aquarium with villagers being the ones who are max out there. right side is freshwater fish and left side is ocean fish

camper is rather home-y; the first floor is a bedroom/living/kitchen combo while the second floor is a library with chairs and a sofa to sit on

got lucky with filbert’s [a squirrel] fortune cookies and has all the astronaut clothing; if his character avatar can’t be wearing a diver suit an underwater astronaut will do

r, duchess of winnipeg

r got in on the first day release she heard the hype and wants to see why people are making a fuss about it (she already has an existing nintendo account but doesn’t use it much she’s not an avid video game player)

r didn’t spend leaf tickets when first starting to play. as such she was -and still is- the richest of her friends when it comes to leaf tickets (she brought leaf tickets from time to time; esme is the second richest when it comes to leaf tickets) and eventually in bells (a bellionaire)

r’s cabin, campsite, and camper changes for the seasons. spring is usually a garden or sort or casual party, summer is a japanese festival or an actual campsite, fall/autumn she usually makes a fancy ball (usually due to it corresponding with the game anniversary) or goes out for halloween, and winter it’s...a winter garden. as the game gets fortune cookies and more creative events, r makes a japanese zen garden/japanese restaurant for the winter.

r hates the winter stuff in general (sans new years eve and exceptions) in part because it’s almost all christmas related. jack’s [like jack o lantern] garden event tested r’s limits; she came to the conclusion she can use the food, candelabras, chairs, tables, pumpkins, and potted flowers but that’s it (she almost used the hearth but change her mind)

only buys fortune cookies she likes and avoids the winter ones (again, almost all christmas related). r did however cave in and bought rhonda’s [a rhino] fortune cookie (r actually doesn’t mind the nutcracker). r got what she wanted: the clothing, castle pop-up book, and starry field pop-up book

r laughs at her avatar wearing a ballroom gown with their spoon hands cover in long sleeve gloves

snicket siblings

jacques was the first one to play after r; he got in right a week after it was open to the public (he makes a nintendo account for the same reason as monty). kit and lemony (same reason as monty and jacques) follow suit a week later, and everyone else join from there

out of the three (all of the volunteers really who are playing), lemony took gulliver’s bad as hell revamp the worst (jacques and kit and basically everyone else agree to change their rating) and made a strongly worded review that is one of top negative review of the game (even after lemony edited it an retraction after the pocket camp team revamp gulliver again).

jacques like wearing the fancy full set suits (the anniversary clothing are a second). lemony made attempts to cover his face but after fail attempts and coming to the conclusion he doesn’t like the king tuk mask he gives up. he wears the pumpkin head in october though

kit’s character avatar wears one of the special leaf ticket clothing items (it’s a jacket that cost over 100 leaf tickets) and glasses. she would have gotten a wig but after olivia show her character avatar with the wigs kit didn’t think it was worth it spending leaf tickets

jacques makes his campsite a campsite, kit’s campsite resembles a farm for some reason, and lemony’s campsite sort of looks like an unfinished town

jacques’ cabin looks like a regular cabin (he made a hidden space with a coffin and skeleton). kit’s cabin looks like a car garage that’s up and running with customers. lemony’s cabin looks like a nice writing study/library; he has the vineyard phonograph from brewster’s [a pigeon] gardening event playing in the corner

jacques and kit’s camper are dumping grounds for random furniture. lemony has villager pictures in his camper

they know christmas is popular in japan [no really, it’s not treated as a religious holiday it’s more for fun and romance], so they send requests to the team for more general winter theme furniture or like, other holiday stuff that’s not christmas. they makeshift Hanukkah [Chanukah? i seen this other spelling] menorahs knowing their requests will probably never be fulfill (given they learn that mainline games does the same thing)

olaf

doesn’t play pocket camp. he does however plays animal crossing new leaf. he has more control of what he wants to do in mainline and likes being mayor and the only player/human resident.

is actually pretty good at it. he completed all the four sections of the museum, got all of main street, and he does animal requests and is like, never mean to them. unless he hates the animal then olaf goes all out and does bad things as possible in this game: giving them rotten fruit, hitting them with a net, and making them fall in pitfalls (olaf collect many of them for this purpose), in hopes they tell him they want to move out of town

in fact, the bird jacques is one such animal because the real jacques did something to make olaf angry and olaf had to take it on ac!jacques. kitt [a kanagroo] and olivia [a cat] are on thin ice

has a soft spot for vladmir [a pink bear club] and hazel [a squirrel with a unibrow] for some reason

had to put the keep town beautiful ordinance after getting the golden roses he can’t play every single day at best he plays once or twice a week (olaf’s town has high standards he doesn’t want it a mess)

will only play pocket camp when all the villagers in his town are in

the denouement triplets

they deliberately made their character avatars look identical to one another so if one changes clothing or facial feature, the other two follow suit (they do this to mess with their friends/other players). this becomes a problem if one of them wears a fortune cookie outfit/clothing

even their campsite looks identical; usually it’s the lobby of the hotel denouement done to the best of their abilities. the cabin are also identical, being a hotel room. if someone changes it, the other two follow suit (again, to mess with their friends/other players). this becomes a problem if one of them has furniture from a fortune cookie

the villagers are dress differently they’re not dress the same. they don’t even keep the same villagers in their cabin or campsite. this is the only way to tell the three apart

frank’s camper looks like something from a 1920′s speakeasy, ernest’s camper looks like their home when they were five (there’s balloons set up for a birthday party), and dewey’s camper looks like his secret library (or his attempt at it)

frank crafts a lot of clothing for his villagers and likes dressing them up. he just wishes that all of the clothing is wearable for them (like pants)

ernest dump unwanted bugs to other people’s gardens during the second half of gardening events (claims he’s helping plays finish bonus tasks for first half)

dewey likes to take a lot of photo of him hiding behind furniture or a bigger villager to troll his friends and other players

bertrand

he starts playing as it was intended: being a camp manager running a campsite. however, as the game got updates and add more features, bertrand decides to get creative

his camper first floor looks like a fashion boutique selling clothes for men and women; second floor is what appears to be a miniature town, with a giant crystal hiding behind some tall grass

campsite ends up being a train station. he got the locomotive station and clockwork tower as amenities. the station itself has sellers selling things like magazines, clothes (it’s the concert merch stand from dj kk’s [a dog] gardening event), and flowers (it’s the flower wagon), with lief selling his flowers as the ‘boss’. has a grand elephant statue from a fishing tournament that sort of blocks the clockwork tower.

cabin is bob’s fortunate cookies mix with some marching band items from broccolo’s (a mouse) fortunate cookies (he thought they fit well together)

bertrand is the only one who character avatar has the greatest resemblance to him in real life; clearly it’s the glasses

will switch up his avatar clothing and wear dresses and skirts if bertrand can find a clothing combination his character avatar can pull off

beatrice

everyone is convince she is playing pocket camp but no one knows for sure because she gives hint she is playing but at the same give hints she doesn’t play

to get something out of the way: beatrice is playing pocket camp but her in-game name doesn’t starts with ‘b’  it’s something else entirely

wears the fairy wings (regular and autumn) and alternate between the two with an outfit that fits the wings aesthetic. beatrice knows they’re not dragonfly wings but fairy wings are close enough (she wears the bat friends from time to time, again with an outfit that fits the aesthetic)

has an makeshift play stage for her villagers to sing and play music and a small fountain area with benches at her campsite. she rarely changes it  (see last bullet point), only switching up the musical instruments and fountain and benches

beatrice doesn’t know what to do with her cabin, so she decides to make it a game of musical chairs and every time she visits she takes out a folding chair and leaves until there is only one sitting. she did this with so many villagers beatrice is considering on holding a championship round

like the snicket siblings, beatrice makes a makeshift Hanukkah menorah and place it outside (in which she will destroy her campsite to celebrate). she couldn’t figure out how to put it in her camper, which is a nice cozy apartment with an attic

bonus: ishamel (original schism generation)

has a campsite cult. it becomes a beach cult when the beach resort terrain gets release; he claims it’s a regular beach resort

cabin is a prison housing villagers ishamel finds ugly and he rotates them every month or so. they only appear in his campsite when they get to the level where he can get their furniture request (after that he force feds them snacks to max them out)

the only time he changes campsite and cabin is when august and september rolls around he likes making classrooms and everyone getting an education

when november hits ishmael  goes back to the cult and prison

camper looks very well furnish with many bookcases and chairs it’s a library

i advise those who made it this far to look up animal crossing pocket camp cults and pocket camp jail/prison this was actually a thing

[oswaldsirius]

anon asked:  100 ways to say “I love you” #37 “can I kiss you” for Sirius and Celeste? :3

Thank you for being patient! The last while has been rough creative wise! And with the recent news about IkeVam, I thought why not toss this one in my vampire au that will eventually see the light of day. ....bad choice of words XD Enjoy~

-

           Walking with Sirius, Celeste glanced at him out of the corner of her eye. He didn’t look any different. Shouldn’t he look different? Had he actually done it? He hadn’t said that he had. But he’d been gone for so long, surely he had done it.

           Her thoughts kept circling and before she knew it, they were at her door.

           “I know it’s still strange for you to sleep during the day, little lady,” he said when she didn’t go into her room immediately. “But you need to try.”

           It was but it wasn’t her current dilemma.

           “Celeste?’

           She heard the concern in his voice, knew it was going to edge into dangerous territory soon. Looking up at him, she frowned. “Did you feed?” she asked before she lost her nerve.

           Sirius pulled away from her, his expression tightening before it smoothed into his calm smile. “You don’t have to worry about your safety. I’m sated and pose no threat to you.”

           He never had. She’d never been afraid of him, not even the night they’d met. Before he could step back, she reached up to catch his cheeks. He froze as she touched him and she marvelled at how he was still cold under her palms. If he’d fed, shouldn’t he be warmer somehow?

           She watched him, watched his eyes darken. “Celeste.”

           “Did you feed?” she asked again.

           “Yes,” he rasped.

           Her stomach twisted as images filled her mind, of him feeding on someone else.

           “It’s upsetting to you. Please. Go to bed and-”

           “Can I kiss you?” she interrupted.

           He stiffened again before he leaned into her, desire chasing away the tension from earlier. “Yes, Celeste. Yes.”

           She closed the distance between them, pressing her lips to his. She arched into him as his arms wound around her to haul her against his chest. Sighing as his tongue slid against her lips, she responded, following his lead. His shudder surprised her when she slipped into his mouth as much as it surprised her to not even taste the faintest bit of blood on him. Curious, she flicked the tip of her tongue over one of his fangs.

           A gasp pulled from her when he suddenly tugged them apart. “What was that for?” he demanded.

           Celeste bit her lip, suddenly feeling silly. “I’m sorry.”

           “I wanted an explanation, not an apology, Celeste.”

           “I was jealous,” she muttered.

           “What?”

           She looked away but his firm grip drew her back. “Your mouth was on someone else,” she blurted.

           Sirius blinked at her, but when he didn’t say anything, the words kept coming.

           “I’m your Chosen, but you’re feeding on others. It’s supposed to be my blood sustaining you. I know why you want to wait, I agreed to it. But I get jealous thinking about it. About you-” Celeste pressed her lips together, trying to stem both the words and her jealousy.

           He was still staring at her and it only made her feel sillier.

           “You’re right. I should go to bed,” she said and tried to get away from him.

           But he held fast. He studied her before a small smile found his face. “I know why we agreed to wait,” he echoed, “but I wished it was you.”

           “You did?” Had she ever sounded so surprised, so hopeful before?

           His grip shifted, stroking her cheek. “Of course, I did. You’re my fated Chosen,” he breathed. “I’ll always want it to be you.”

           Celeste melted against him. “Maybe tonight-” She stopped when he covered her mouth with a finger.

           “Not with jealousy, Celeste,” Sirius murmured. “Offer me your blood when it’s truly right.”

           She knew he was right, but she still wanted it tonight.

           He smiled again and rubbed her lip. “How about you spend the day with me?”

           Her heart leapt and she nodded quickly. Sleeping with him through the day sounded like a wonderful answer to the jealousy that had crept in through the night.

[fluorescentpipedream]

I’m reading the Witcher series for the first time and I keep getting plot bunnies for our tavern play...bear with me cause I’m not sure if this will actually work into anything or not but...

If we were to pick up where I left off with Geralt and Myah:

Plot bunny 1:

He takes the girl out riding far from the Keep and has her out for a few days rather than a few hours. He does agree to have someone go with them, and does actually tell Brom that he’ll be training her in the wilds rather than within the walls. Myah selects one of the battle maidens, Maeve, to go with them. She’s strong and a fighter in her own right, Geralt is reluctant at first but agrees. Someone of the Queen’s guard is supposed to be there, and since Norelia is home...he gives in to her wishes.

They return to Myah’s previous home and she shows him how she used to get around when her father wasn’t home, including fishing in a small creek less than a mile away and setting traps for rabbits. Because it’d already a shelter they stick close to the house but do spend a few nights in the wooded area close by.

He sets about training her in those woods, keeping an eye on her so she can’t get severely hurt but wants to see what she can do already. Balancing in wet rocks, she’s surprisingly agile. Though he’s also watching Maeve at this time, impressed by her speed and agility as well. Something about her gets his attention....

One evening after spear fishing leads to soaked clothes and a little bit of fun, the three of them are around a fire when Myah starts singing a song about him which prompts him to chuckle then grow sad. When Maeve asks why, he surprises himself by telling them where the song came from:

“Many years ago, I became indebted to a man from Arindel...long before it came to ruin, when the King was still but a distant thought...I saved him from the Grilacks...do you know what those are?”

“umm...adorably cute monsters that actually lure their prey in with their harmless appearance and pitiful cries. When the person falls for their trap, they swarm.”

Geralt nods, his brow furrowing. “I came across the man in the midst of a swarm and saved him from it. Grilacks fear fire more than anything else.”

“ good to know.”

“The man tried to repay me, I told him I had no interest in anything he could offer but still he tried. He had no money, bandits had seen to that. So I told him I would take that which he had, but did not yet know. Invoking a very old, seldom used law. And I wound up with Baradin from it...I called him Bard and in time he actually chose that as his profession. Most songs about me came from him.”

“Wow...”

M: Those songs are over 100 years old...

Geralt nods “Bard is celebrating his 95th birthday in a few moons...being around me and the elves have him an abnormally long life span...”

—

After a particularly rough training session where Maeve is having to soothe some injuries, though noticing she’s trying to hide tears, Geralt asks her why him to train her, she had people from the Keep already giving her that.

“My sister has a dragon...”

Geralt raises an eyebrow before she continues.

“Celeste will always have someone with her, but I’m not that blessed.” She holds her hand up and an ethereal butterfly rises from it, dancing for a moment before fading.

“Beautiful”

“But not useful...I could kill a man with what I know of herbs and elixirs but if one were to attack me, I couldn’t do much else than scream and beg him to stop.” Myah sighs, looking up at him.

“Brom and the Boar agreed to train me but they treat me more like a child that should be protected, not taught to protect herself...so I wanted someone else to teach me. You still seek to protect me, and I see that, but i slipped on the rocks earlier and all you did was laugh at my misfortune and tell me to do it again. Whenever I fall out of the trees you don’t make me stop, you make me do it again...”

“That’s why I wanted you out here...it’s easier to train for the unexpected if you’re in the element.”

“I can see how that would be true. You don’t coddle me”

“I never did with Norelia either. One of the reasons she and I have the relationship we do. I’ll never lie to her, but I don’t particularly spare her feelings either. Girls, especially ones your age, are far more powerful than people tend to give them credit for. You’ll fight tooth and claw to be seen as something other than a vessel or means to an end.” Myah scrunched up her face and he laughed.

“It’s weird hearing you laugh”

“Hmm”

——

Plot bunny 2: About a day’s ride from the Keep (after being gone for about a week) Geralt somehow gets knocked from his horse and bound to a post by a rather unsettled group of villagers, those who don’t agree with the rule of the Queen but aren’t really with the Resistance either. All they see is a “mutated beast” in the company of a child and another woman. Recognizing him as the White Wolf from one too many bard’s tales, they know Myah couldn’t possibly be his child and string him up, much to her and Maeve’s protests.

He takes the abuse from the people in stride, it’s not the first time and won’t be the last and he tries to tell the girls he will be fine, and to remain calm, the rabble can’t kill him. It’s not easy to kill a Witcher. In the middle of his whipping, Myah breaks from One man’s grip and lunges in front of him, catching the whip across her face which angers Geralt to no end but as her blood falls to the ground she suddenly conjures a shimmering arcane shield and demands the villagers allow them to leave. She’s really only able to conjure such strong magic briefly but it gives Maeve enough time to free his wrists before the shield fails and Myah collapses in his arms. She possesses magic stronger than even her mother had and they return to the castle, with her in front of Maeve and Geralt leading her mare behind him. He hands her to Brom and Dio who are waiting. Maeve tells them about the villagers, Brom takes the drained Myah into the Keep and before Geralt can react, the Boar punches him.

Geralt tries to assure them that he genuinely meant no harm to her and that she has powerful magic, beyond what has been seen of her in the training aspects, and she should be evaluated by the Queen’s warlock, Syrasta.

Plot bunny 3: 

Renshaw is with them because he is ALWAYS with Myah and has telepathically been telling Ulric where they are and exactly what they’re doing, to the point the dragon watches them sparing in the field near her previous home through the raven’s eyes. With Maeve there as well, Brom and the others are a little less anxious. While they train, he’s usually nearby, resting in a tree.

Once Myah gets the steps and coordination down to a rhythm and can better anticipate attacks, Geralt suggests she try to take both him and Maeve, though that doesn’t go as well as he had hoped. She can defend but misses chances that would kill her in a real fight.  

Plot bunny 4:

Maeve is a battle maiden for the Queen and one of the only ones that Geralt has not had his way with, either currently or in the few times he’s seen Norelia since she first became a conqueror. She is also, unbeknownst to even Geralt, a child of surprise after an incident some 20 years before involving a pregnant bar wench and some ruffians that tried to kill her and ended up knocking into Geralt prompting him to “deal’ with them. He was already in a tense spot at the time, job gone wrong, among other things. When he lashes back at the men he ends up killing the ones that were bothering the lady as well. With nothing else to offer, she gives him her word that the child will be his. He leaves without even acknowledging the debt, though ends up feeling odd for some time, eventually forgetting about it altogether.

Before returning to the Keep with the weakened child, Maeve insists that they stop so she can clean up his wounds. They’re starting to heal already but there’s still possibility for infection. As she’s mixing a salve, she trails her fingers over his bare skin, remarking on the scars that tell quite a story on his skin. In his amusement he tells her about a few of them.

“Everyone asks...they hear tales from bards about this and that.”

“And bards tales are flowery”

“Exactly, they leave out the politics of a situation for the flair and fanciful depictions of monster slaying”

She tells him she’s been with thr Queen’s company for some time, and that she remembers when he returned Norelia to the camp the first time.

“Everything I heard about you, I never expected to see that White Wolf so careful and...”

“Talkative”

“Well...they say you’re a man of very little words, who lets his swords speak for him. Give him your coin and he’ll slay your beast, whatever it is.”

“It’s never “whatever it is.” I do have things I won’t kill”

“For instance?”

“I’m not in the business of killing children, even possessed ones, and some maurading beasts are starving. I make other arrangements”

“What does that mean?”

Geralt stops for a moment and stares at the fire before looking back up at her suddenly. “Why am I so inclined to tell you anything? I get around you and I say more about my life than I do even to her” He motions to Myah asleep under her cloak. “Who are you?”

She tells him of how the she came into the Queen’s service and where she was from originally and the memory of the bar wench comes back. Though he made no formal request, the draw to be close to Maeve is strong and it bothers him a bit.

[ddrkirbyisq]

Okay...let's catch up on everything. Visiting Houston Last weekend I visited a good friend in Houston!  It was a really nice trip in many ways for me and I'm really glad that I decided to go.  Just being able to see someone again that I care about really meant a lot to me and I was so happy being able to spend that time with them.  I got really sad at the end and didn't want to leave...I feel like I would definitely go again someday. It was also really nice getting a a 4-day weekend (I took Friday and Monday off), especially since I had been working a bit hard leading up to this time.  Sometimes I get a bit more stressed than I realize and it actually felt nice to not have to worry about so many things anymore.  During the first night of my trip my back actually ended up being pretty sore but I couldn't figure out whether it was because I sat wrong on the plane or something or whether it was just stress manifesting as psychosomatic pain...but either way it was gone after that and I felt really refreshed as a whole. In terms of the trip itself, I feel like no matter what we did it would have been a lot of fun, but I got to see the NASA space center, see the huge rest stop (more like a department store) called Buc-ee's, and of course eat some yummy food while I was there!  I had BBQ, TexMex, this bun thing called a Kolache, good ice cream, and a Cajun crawfish boil, mmm~  And my friend introduced me to an anime that just finished airing called A Place Farther than the Universe (Sora yori mo tooi basho) which I quite liked so far!  I'll probably watch more of that on the train at some point.  But yeah, all the food was really yummy... On a side note, I spent a good amount of time during my plane rides...actually working on music!  But not in the usual sense -- I was working with FamiTracker (a music tracker used for writing NES-style chiptunes) to make a Mega Man-styled track.  It actually works quite well since, well, you don't really need a lot to do chiptune tracking, so it's super portable.  I mean, I already don't use much of anything for my normal music production, but with FamiTracker I don't even need a mouse!  I ended up being able to mostly finish the track with the time I spent during that trip, which was pretty nice. Being out of it This past week I've generally not been on top of my game...I don't really know why, maybe I'm just off, but in multiple aspects of my life I've just been forgetting loads of things or not concentrating or just not making good decisions.  Not really anything to be super concerned about, but more just....it's unfortunate.  Hopefully I will have better luck this next week, but I guess it's also important to remember that in the grand scheme of things these mistakes (mostly) don't matter too much so although it can be good to express my dismay, it's not something I really need to beat myself up over. Finishing Celeste Well, just yesterday I finished the final C-Side level of Celeste.  It's been quite an amazing journey through this game and it really is true what they say about the design leaving no stone unturned.  It really makes me get the feeling like nobody can ever make a game with this same mechanic anymore.  Well, not really, because I know it's already been done, but more like it's really hard to believe that any more could be brought to the table.  I know that's not 100% true, and I'm sure if they really wanted to the developers could come up with another twist or mechanic that they could build another level out of.  But it just =feels= that way, because of how complete everything is.  I guess if there was one thing that felt a bit missing, it was that the C-Sides were fairly short -- mostly it was two or three "warm-up" rooms and then one specific long challenge room that was the brunt of the level.  I think that works too, but I wonder if it would have been more satisfying to have a longer setup, like in the B-Side levels. Anyhow, I'm not going to bother 100%ing Celeste (leave that to all of the super dedicated people), as the things I have left are the golden strawberries (finish each stage without dying...A, B, and C-side...), and the secret 200th strawberry, which I started trying but gave up once I learned that the jump tricks you need to do to get it are really painstaking to nail.  I think that's super cool...but for me, I'm onto other things!  The absence of Celeste will surely leave a gaping hole in my life ("what do I dooo noowwww??!?") but I think next up is supposed to be Finding Paradise!  So we'll finally get to see how that is... System Shock 2 Actually I lied!  Next up wasn't Finding Paradise, but surprise surprise!  I've been building up this itch to play System Shock 2 again and I finally installed it along with all the community mods and patches.  I hope to play co-op with a friend soon, but for now I actually just ended up starting a game on Hard difficulty (OSA character), and I've actually made it quite far -- to the end of hydroponics, actually!  I'm certainly much better at navigating the corridors and objectives in SS2 than I was X years ago when I last played it; that's for sure (to be fair, it was probably well over 10 years ago). I started getting a little bit of the 3D game motion sickness that I tend to get for some games, but it seemed to help when I turned the FOV up slightly and disabled any view or weapon bobbing, so that's quite cool. Stardew Valley We just reached Winter!  As I mentioned earlier, I've been having brain farts left and right so I made some really silly mistakes this last session -_-;  But anyhow, we've reached winter!  We have 2 sheep and a pig now (we just installed heaters in the coop and barn), and we've got a bunch of crops happily growing in the greenhouse.  I think my goal for the start of winter is to ensure that we can still have a steady cashflow coming in...expanding the amount of crops in the greenhouse (I finally got enough iridium ore to make one or two iridium sprinklers), and then maybe starting to plant wild seeds for winter. Other Stuff Spring has definitely made its presence known this past week -- it felt like the seasons changed during my trip to Houston.  My respiratory system is....not pleased, so far. *achoo!* Decadance rehearsals continue...I've finished rehearsals for my first piece and I'll be starting the second one up next week... I skipped dance last weekend since I was in Houston, and skipped this week as well...should be good to go back again next week.

[nofomoartworld]

Art F City: L.A. Art Diary Week Four (Everyone Loves Eames, Erotic Art, and More)

Screenprint by Polkela, seen at Co-Lab Gallery.

In his fourth week in Los Angeles, Michael Anthony Farley discovers that there’s not enough to do on weekdays and way too much to do on weekends. Here’s how he spent the weekend. Everyone loves Ray and Charles Eames, and erotic art.

Catch up on Week One, Week Two (and Week Two, Part Two), and Week Three.

Friday 7/14

I am working from a Starbucks in a nondescript strip mall near a Gold Line station in Pasadena. I stand in line for my second coffee, and give my name to the barista, when the man behind me asks “Michael? Michael what?” I turn around and realize I’ve just run into an old buddy from art school in Baltimore who I haven’t seen since we graduated. We chat about how we both ended up in the same suburban California Starbucks, thousands of miles from our hometown.

He moved out here to work in visual effects on films. Now, he’s attending a graduate program at the Art Center College of Design a few blocks away, learning virtual reality skills for the coming boom in demand. He tells me that he, like all the contract artists who work on big blockbusters, is under constant surveillance by the studios to make sure footage doesn’t leak as it did in the X-Men Origins: Wolverine debacle. I immediately start mentally formulating the plot of a William Gibson-esque thriller.

Hopping on the Gold Line back into the city, I transfer to the subway, on my way to the Expo Line—the newest and arguably most-praised piece of L.A.’s odd rail network. It’s irritating that you have to pay for each transfer (bringing the cost of a three-line rail trip to about the same as a Lyft line ride) but otherwise I’m pretty impressed by how much smoother and cleaner L.A.’s trains are than aging East Coast systems. I feel slightly vindicated for my uncommon decision to take public transit when I look down out the window of the elevated train and see untold millions of cars sitting in seemingly endless gridlock. The opening I’m heading to (oddly, the sole art event I could find on a Friday evening) is at The Landing, a gallery about 16 miles Southwest from my starting point. Google Maps tells me the trip will take around an hour and a half by public transit. Not wanting to repeat my usual mistake of showing up too late for L.A.’s early-to-bed art scene, I plan to get there around 6 p.m.

(L-R) Ryan Fenchel, “Sidereal Procession, the Adept in Public”; Don Edler, “Chaise Lounge for Celeste and Unmonumental Table,” 2017 (with John Zane Zappas Ashtray); Gary Knox Bennett, “Pair of Eames Chairs Assemblage,” 1959.

By some strange magic of perfectly-timed transfers, I actually arrive to the opening early. For about half an hour I’m the only one in the gallery, and the staff are shocked that I beat rush hour traffic and found parking. I explain that I took the train, which has an elevated station nearly directly above the gallery.

“Wow. What’s that like? I didn’t know anyone used it!”’

I wouldn’t say the train was packed, but it was far from empty. The opening on the other hand, remains pretty dead for the majority of time I hang around, which is confusing because the show is great and they’ve laid out the most impressive buffet of snacks I have ever seen (another strike of good luck, since my opening/dinner buddy cancelled on me last minute).

Gabrielle Garland

The group show, The Useful and the Decorative, pays tribute to The Landing’s former identity as a design gallery. It’s a collection of art objects that allude to functional designwares from plates to furniture. It’s right up my alley, as I love both painterly surfaces and midcentury modernism—two things that are rarely conflated outside of nonrepresentational painting. Here, though, design classics such as Le Corbusier’s chaise lounge and the much-treasured Eames recliner populate endearingly wonky paintings of interiors by Gabrielle Garland. She’s cleverly balanced expressive brushwork with subjects iconic enough to be legible despite warped perspective. There are no figures in the paintings. Staring into each domestic space, I imagine this is what it must be like to take an ayahuasca trip in one of those immaculate California homes from the pages of Dwell. It occurs to me that’s probably not an uncommon occurrence.

Don Edler, “Anthropocentric Tablet and Chablet Tair,” 2017.

The other highlight of the show is Don Edler’s work, which “fossilizes” contemporary design objects on the verge of obsolescence in hydrocal—iPhones, calculators, credit cards, and so forth. One piece in particular, “Anthropocentric Tablet” reminds me of Michael Jones McKean’s recent dystopic anthropology museum at The Contemporary. In both installations, there’s a sense that the world as we know it will disappear, and our material culture will be a cryptic piece of archeology for another to interpret.

I take the train back Downtown and an old friend from Baltimore, Neale, picks me up at the end of the line to catch up. We’re sitting on his balcony in a particularly picturesque corner of Echo Park when I notice a friend from Berlin has checked in on Instagram a few blocks away. I message my friend, filmmaker Yony Leyser, and find out he’s in town touring his documentary Queercore: How to Punk a Revolution. He invites us to an event at the Tom of Finland Foundation nearby and we decide to walk over.

In the garden of the Tom of Finland house.

As I should’ve come to expect by now, the walk takes far longer than we anticipated and everyone’s already hopping in Ubers by the time we arrive. Tom of Finland’s former home strikes me as surprisingly cutesy (a sentence I never thought I would type). Neale explains, “Navigating L.A. by Google Maps always fucks me up because you zoom in and there are grids within grids and the blocks are huge. It’s like watching Powers of 10.” Despite its Bermuda-Triangle-like navigational challenges, Los Angeles constantly redeems itself with Eames references.

We’re given an address to a secret-ish warehouse venue downtown, where a mini-festival of queer erotic performance art and video screenings is taking place. As soon as we arrive, someone wins a door prize comprised of various dildos. A performer described as “a proudly non-binary artist who prefers to be identified by their LinkedIn profile” begins lip-synching to Alice DeeJay’s 1999 club hit “Better Off Alone” while presenting their anus.

Having spent my day criss-crossing vast distances, I am deliriously tired. We’re being steered to some chill-out installation apparently intended to re-center our sexual qis or realign our erotic chakras or cleanse our auras (or something with crystals?). I’m told there’s no alcohol and I realize I probably can’t get through whatever this is without it. Yony disappears on foot to find an open liquor store. We warn him that after midnight in L.A. is the equivalent of 4 A.M. in any other city, but he persists.

He rounds a dark corner and it’s the last we see of him.

Saturday 7/15

Bodega Vendetta

I wake up on Neale’s couch and walk another deceptively far, scorching hot “10 blocks” to a friend-of-a-friend’s apartment who is a curator. He shows me this drawing by Bodega Vendetta and never have I wished more that a work on paper was an animated GIF.

Over the course of hours, I receive multiple conflicting texts from friends encouraging me to attend different events that all begin around the same time many miles apart. An art magazine release party! An opening in Culver City! An opening an hour away in the opposite direction! A party at a collector’s house! A party at a gallerist’s house! Yony’s screening! A party that’s “the L.A. pop-up of Club Glam”! (I am told that saying something is “The L.A. pop-up of _____” lends it credence, even if it’s a thing that hasn’t actually existed anywhere else.) I think about all the weeknights I’ve spent looking for something (anything) to do here and realize L.A. has the most extreme case of problematic weekend-loading I have ever encountered.

Megan St. Clair “FIRST PLANT,” oil on wood. Houseplant art is alive and well at Co-Lab Gallery.

I settle on attending The Co-Lab Gallery’s closing party with Liz Eldridge because I have heard good things from several friends about the Highland Park institution. Many of my peers in Los Angeles have small but impressive art collections, and a big chunk of those works came from Co-Lab. The gallery functions more like a retail space than a traditional white cube model—it’s jam-packed with art hung salon-style, with tables full of ceramics and racks of prints and other artist-made knick-knacks. This is a display strategy that normally would drive me crazy, but here it works because so much of the art is actually good and the volume allows the gallery to keep prices accessible. There are a handful of paintings priced under $100 that I’m seriously tempted to buy, but remember that figure represents about one week’s worth of necessary Uber rides here. I’m slightly ashamed that I’ve allowed L.A. to add another step in Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.

Anti-gentrification wheat pastes in front of The Co-Lab Gallery.

I’m introduced to gallerist Kristin Hector, who first opened the space in Koreatown seven years ago, but has been in Highland Park for the past three. I ask her why the gallery is closing, and she blurts out “It’s not gentrification backlash! Everyone always assumes that!” (As in many pockets of East L.A., art galleries such as Co-Lab and “hipster” businesses like coffee shops and yoga studios along York Boulevard are frequently targeted by anti-gentrification graffiti.)

She explains that she wants to move into a larger space and shift the focus of the practice. I ask her if the jam-packed hang is indicative of every show or just a “going-out-of-business” sale vibe.

“Oh this is what all of our group shows are like!” she explains, between shouting out unthinkably reasonable prices across the room, “I love so many different aesthetics. It’s fun to see different styles come together—this is a good example,” she gestures to a wall of paintings that alternate between provisional painting, expressionist figuration, and realism, “Always colorful! Always a little ridiculous, and sometimes dark but vibrant!”

Liz and our friend Brittney are enthusiastically flipping through a rack of prints and other works on paper, asking each other for advice. Since wall space is already at a premium in Liz’s sunny Craftsman bungalow, I suggest investing in one painting for the same price as several cheaper pieces. We move around the room, deliberating. We’re both drawn to Julian Tan’s small acrylic paintings on panel. Each is obsessively jam-packed with detail, describing chaotic domestic spaces. (Naturally, as in the Gabrielle Garland paintings from the night before, Eames chairs make cameos. I start to think that if all artists in L.A. have such comfortable and tasteful furniture, it makes sense people become homebodies when they move here from cramped East Coast apartments).

Julian Tan’s cryptically detailed acrylic on wood paintings.

Liz—ever the dramaturg—begins excitedly fabricating narratives for each mise-en-scène: “This is clearly a room of privilege; it’s a kid who doesn’t understand what he has! I feel like this is the teenage fantasy of someone who grows up to be in the alt-right,” gesturing to an interior full of swords, video games, and other boy toys. Then, “Wait, is he making meth in this one? Meth AND an Eames chair?”

The paintings are all hypnotically captivating, but one detail (other than the titular cinematic reference) draws me to “2001 IS ON, LET’S CHILL”. On the coffee table a copy of Haruki Murakami’s “1Q84” is described with a remarkable economy of tiny brush strokes. It’s one of my personal favorite books of the past few years, so I could spot its signature cover anywhere, but Tan’s ability to squeeze so much charmingly shaky detail into a few square millimeters is still impressive. Its inclusion also complicates the “bro-iness” of the other objects in the homes—one of the book’s main plot lines is in essence a feminist revenge tale.

Liz ends up purchasing the piece (and plenty of works on paper too) and we leave ecstatically talking about how good owning art feels. On the way out, we overhear that the gallery’s new reincarnation will actually be as an art rental facility for film sets in North Hollywood, close to Studio City and its endless sound stages. At first we’re disheartened to hear that—Co-Lab seems to have filled a niche position in the city wherein young creative types could actually afford to support their peers. I then remember Mel Chin’s collective GALA Committee, which infiltrated the set dressing of Melrose Place with conceptual artworks. Kristin Hector seems to have a penchant for curating works with sneaky details, and I’m optimistic Co-Lab’s next incarnation might carry that torch.

L.A., after all, owes its cultural gravitas to the intersections of art and spectacle, counterculture and schlock. Who knows what books might show up on the coffee tables of shitty sitcoms and soap operas in the years to come? As we dive ever deeper into this latest battle of the culture wars, tactics like that will only become more vital than the first time around.

Detail from Julian Tan’s “2001 IS ON, LET’S CHILL,” Acrylic on wood.

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[etnanotvshows]

❤ Veronica Mars ❤ Big Binge(Re)watching on one of my favourite series. ❤ It's summer, in this moment of the year usually the empty tv schedules lets me some holes in my (limited) free time and so i decided to do something that was rolling in my mind for quite a while now: rewatching veronica mars conpletely. This serie is one of my favest ever and i rewatched it a lot of times through the years but since the movie came out i never rewatched the whole thing all together. When i went to watch the movie at its release date it had been quite a while since i last saw veronica mars and so i'm sure i missed a couple of references here and there. Now i wanted to catch 'em all. XD With that said, after a few weeks spent on rewatching this pearl of a serie i have a couple of thoughts and question marks i have to note down. As a refresh of memory season three left us with many questions: - Veronica was with Piz at the end of the serie but when Logan beat up the ass of the scumbag that released her "sex tape" out in the open she smiled at him like a thanks (or something that could be seen as more for the LoVe fans) so we do not get to clearly see who she ends up with. - The Sheriff election: with Don Lamb now dead Keith was temporarily filling the place but only an election could make him permanent. However at the last minute his investigator and rival Vinny Van Lowe joined the "race" and emerged as his counter part in the fight for the job of the sheriff of Neptune. Since Vinny has been cooperating with the criminal family Fitzpatrick during all season 3, and was also plenty supported by them during elections, it was going to be a hard fight for Keith to win; however we do not get to see who the winner is, we are only left at the final scene of the last episode with Veronica voting for her dad. - Veronica's "stage" for the FBI is plenty mentioned during the serie, although when she misunderstands her Criminology Professor's intentions she makes a stepback in the will to join this stage but after that, when all is cleared, she still shows greatly interest for this opportunity. We are left with her happy about the acception from the FBI for her internship in virginia and Piz's face not exactly excited. - Wallace was joining the summer program of the group helping the child-soldiers in Uganda in the 18th episode of s3. - Mac left animalist Bronson (whyyyyyy?????) for helper-cheating-in-exams Max but in her last scenes wasn't too happy of Max's total lack of interest in college since his extra curricular activity was more than good for his wallet. And that's about it.. Probably some other minor stuff but that's what strikes out my attention the most. So here we go, beware for anyone that didnt see the movie yet from here on there are SPOILERS. Now we go to the 2014 movie of Veronica Mars. Set around 10 years after s3: - Veronica's lovestories have a hole from "9 years ago" to "1 year ago". The movie starts off having her together with Piz but it's been mentioned by Piz that they have not been together for these past 10 years. Veronica and Piz are back together only since 1 year and he mentions they had a relationship in college (that we know in fact) 9 years ago, but that's it. Logan also is surprised to find out that she is currently with Piz, but anyways they didn't stay in contact with eachother for these past years. - The current sheriff of Neptune turns out to be another Lamb, Don's brother, however more corrupted and less "capable" than the Lamb we know of. (wtf a brand new brother pulled out of a magic hat) A question mark remains: who won, years before, the election? Keith or Vincent? Nothing has been clearly stated about this in the movie; however when Veronica refreshes the viewers' memory with a brief description of the characters, at the moment to introduce Vinny she just says "private eye" and nothing else. She could have added "former sheriff" or any of her classic subtle comments to let us know his incapability to do the Sheriff but she did not. This leads me to think that Vinny didn't win the election. Just speculatively speaking, Keith could have won and stayed in her Sheriff job for the 5 (? Correct me here, im just guessing) years as the rules/laws say, so i can suppose that Neptune got worser after Keith's sheriff career finished. Right now he's returned to his private eye job with newer and technologic spy stuff. He is still mentioned as "former Sherif" by random characters but it's not specified the period of time they refer to (if when the Lilly Kane's murder occurred or if it was years later post elections). - The famous FBI internship.. Was blandly forgotten in the movie. Back then, after s3 finished, the staff produced a teaser trailer known as 4×00 where Veronica was FBI (letting us assume that the internship went well and that, possibly, after college she became an FBI agent, giving a pretty decent idea of what season 4 would have been about. Sadly as we all know, that never happened due to low ratings), but as of now, in the current storyline of the movie that important opportunity, that was also overly stressed in s3, was like never happened. What's more is that when we get to see our sweet former cop-agent Leo D'Amato he asks Veronica about the famous FBI thing but she says something like "you have heard wrong" or something. It's officially never happened. Moreover, according to Veronica's inner monologues she has left her investigative career (which we could guess it includes the possibility of the FBI internship) because -and here a brand new line of stortytelling starts- it was too addictive to her like drougs are with toxic-addicteds or like alchool is for alcholists. I have to say: this complete "take over" of the serie's main soul transformed into "something bad" it disappointed me. Now we get to see an apparently changed Veronica who has totallt left the private eye career and is now facing the chance of a Lawyer career. Wow. That is some change. Isnt it? Im not disappointed in the idea of change of interests for our protagonist, im disappointed instead in the "change of personality" the movie gave her and in the "exorcising" process of her private eye experience which was like her whole world. Her being. On a side note we get to see someone else changed: Logan is in the military now, aviation if i must guess. - Wallace's experience in Uganda: never spoken of. Well not that we can demand that 10 years later they are still talking of what they did so much time before, but even a super small slight mention wouldn't have hurt anyone. Well, let's talk abou Wallace a bit more: he was an extremely talented athlete and his dream was to become an engeneer. He wasn't super smart at was having some difficulties in his engeneer class but he was trying hard and it seemed he was achieving enough results to pass the class but who knows what happened. In this department as well nothing has been said anymore. For what regards his athlete talents it looks instead that he didnt pursue a professional athlete career but remained in the "same field" acting as a coach now, completely different from what fans might have expected. - Mac. She is always been a nice character, now we see her adult version working for Kane industries, a short cut of hair and woth no mentionable-worthing love stories currently. She is alone, i was sorry to see her with no one (well Wallace also is still single), of course no comments about her previous boyfriend/s be it Bronson or Max here either. Now to a new point to discuss that arised: - Weevil. Personally i always loved his character, probably almost as much as i love Logan. Thankfully they didnt make his character going out of the stage with the arrival of Herst college in s3, and since his arrest at the end of s2, made a sensed storyline that he strived to find a job that hired former inmates therefor he was hired as the janitor in Herst college to wisely keep him in the cast. Back in s3 he was interviewed in criminology class and confessed that it was hard for him not to go back to his old bad habits but that he was also trying hard to pursue the right path. Now in the movie he is surprisingly changed a lot: he is married with a beautiful wife which he visibly loves, in addition he has a lovely daughter whom he adores. He has a proper job now, he has his own car workshop. He dresses with normal clothes and is 100% legit. Doesn't touch a bike since 5 or so years (which is when his daughter was born). I loved how he changed. However he can still be a badass if needed (see when he joins Logan in the fight to protect Veronica's honor at the high school reunion) and also brave and selfless (see when he helps that car assaulted by the new generation of PCH bikers band). However that is exactly where i want to go: the scene where he helps the "poor person" in the car (which we later find out was the damn Celeste Kane). In her panic the stupid rich woman shoots at Weevil who was just going to help her and not only she hurts him but she also doesn't say anything when the Sheriff fabricates evidence and place a gun in Weevil's hand. The thing goes on and he's at the hospital and has to face assault accusation and the Kane bitch still doesnt say anything. Now. I don't know if it was just the damn Sheriff's fault (but i don't think she would get easily intimidated by him, since she is way more powerful than him) or if it was her idea to blame Weevil just to avoid any news of her shooting at her helper, but still what the hell man. What the hell. Concerning Weevil's case, later we see Keith in car with agent Sax that was willing to testify about the illegal behaviour of the sheriff and his men but he get murdered with a planned car incident. So we have no evidence to help Weevil's case. Keeping on with this his storyline we jump ahead to the end of the movie: we see him at Keith's office and they say he is still not out of the woods. Damn! The video esposing Sheriff's illegal behaviour of willing to pursue Logan as murderer just because he didn't care, didn't proof his illegal corrupted behaviour as well regarding the arrest of innocent people falsily accused like Weevil. So that video didn't proof Weevil's innocence and his charges are still on. I was hoping for the movie to solve that part of the story too but they just did not. They left it there. C'mon! This thing pissed me off. Poor Weevil, he deserves more love! He has a family now, he cant face false charges.

[reader-dreamer-hopeful]

1-116. I hope you're bored!!! :D

1: Let’s start with a tricky one; what is the real reason you are confused right now?Whether I should go back to studying nursing or not..2: Do you ever get “good morning” texts from anyone?Yes I do :) 3: If your significant other smoked pot, would you care?I've only seen people who have let their life's go down the drain because they started using it so maybe I would mind a little 4: Do you find it easy to trust others?No I don't really trust easily. I've been hurt so much, to last me three lifetimes 5: What were you doing at 11PM last night?I was probably asleep if not I was watching a Korean show 6: You’re drunk and lost walking down the road; who is with you?That's a tough one because I don't really drink unless I do it at home so I guess I would be alone 7: What would you do if you found out you had been cheated on?Break up with them and wish them well. 8: Are you close with your dad?No. my 'dad' and I don't talk. 9: I bet you kissed someone last night, right?I wish :/ I haven't been kissed in a while 10: What are you listening to?I'm listening to the washing machine and my mom talking to my little brother11: You can only drink ONE liquid for the rest of your life - what is it?That's a tough one but I guess it would be water because I can always add the flavored powders to it 12: Do you like hickeys?I don't mind them, it actually feels good when they are being made 13: What time do you go to bed?I don't really have a time 14: Is there someone who continuously lets you down?Mmm not continuously but yes 15: Can you text as quickly with one hand as you do both?I think so haha 16: Do you always answer your texts?Yes I do, it might not be right away but I still answer them. 17: Do you hate the person you fell the hardest for?No I don't 18: When was the last time you talked to one of your best friends?Today :) 19: Is there someone that makes you happy every time you see them?Several people 20: What was your last thought before you went to bed last night?That I wanted to sleep in21: Is anyone else in the room with you?Nope, just me, myself, and I22: Do you believe what goes around comes around?At some point it does 23: Were you happier four months ago than you are now?Yes 24: Is there someone you wish you could fix things with?Yes25: In the past week, have you cried?Sadly I have :/26: What colour is the shirt you are wearing?Black 27: Do people ever call you by your last name?Nope there isn't 28: Is anyone ignoring you right now?I don't know 29: Do you have a best friend?Yes I do :) 30: Would it be hard seeing someone else kiss the last person you kissed?It would be but I just want them to be happy 31: Who was your last call/text message from?My buddy krislynn 32: Are you mad at anyone?Nope, I've let go of all my anger, it gives them too much power 33: Have you ever kissed someone older than you?Yes haha34: How old will the last person you kissed be on his/her next birthday?1935: How many more days until your birthday?Many, it's in 9 months 36: Do you have any summer plans yet?I don't plan anything in advanced 37: Do you have any good friends of the opposite sex?Mm I think I do 38: Are you keeping anything from your best friend(s) now?I don't think so 39: Do you have a secret that you’ve never told anyone?I think everyone has secrets 40: Have you ever regretted kissing someone?Yes I have41: Do you think age matters in relationships?Mmm not really but maturity is important 42: Are you available?Nein 43: How many people have you had real, strong feelings for since high school ended?2 people 44: If you had to get a piercing (not ears), what would you get?Mmm well I've always wanted my belly button pierced 45: Do you believe exes can be friends?It depends on why the relationship ended 46: Do you regret anything?Yes several things 47: Honestly, what’s on your mind right now?That I missed having anons 48: Did you ever lose a best friend?No I haven't 49: Was your last kiss a mistake?No it wasn't 50: Why aren’t you pursuing the person you like?There's no need to pursue them 51: Has the last person you kissed ever seen you cry?Yes they have 52: Do you still talk with the person you LAST kissed?Yes I do 53: What was the last thing you ate?A Mexican dish 54: Did you get any compliments today?I didn't get any55: Where are you going on your next vacation?Vacations? What are those? 56: Do you own anything from other countries?Yes I do 57: Are most of your friend guys or girls?They are girls 58: Where have you lived most of your life?In Texas 59: When was the last time you took a long drive?To Austria 60: Have you ever played Spin the Bottle?Yes I have 61: Have you ever TPd someone’s house?Nope I was always a good girl 62: Who do you text the most?Krislynn and Mein Schatz 63: What was the last movie you saw?The secret garden 64: What’s preventing your current boyfriend/girlfriend from going back to their ex?They don't have an ex 65: How many boyfriends/girlfriends did you have in 2011?Just one I think I don't remember. 66: Is the last person you kissed younger than you?Yes they are 67: Do you curse around your parents?Nope I don't 68: Are you happy with where you live?No I'm not. I wish I could move 70: Are you a monogamous person or do you believe in open-ended relationships?Monogamous person 71: Have you ever been dumped?Yes I have and several times 72: What do you most like about making out?The feeling of the other persons lips on yours,73: Have you ever casually made out with someone who you weren’t seriously involved with?Yes I have74: When you kiss someone for the first time, is it usually you who initiates it or the other?It depended on who it was but usually me 75: What part of a person’s body do you find most attractive?If I'm being honest their smile 76: Who was the last person you talked to last night before you went to bed?I don't remember haha77: Had sex with someone you knew less than an hour?Nope78: Had sex with someone you didn’t know their name?Nope 79: What makes your heart flutter and brings a big cheesy smile to your face?Cheese hahaha joking, reading or Mein Schatz 80: Would you get involved with someone if they had a child already?Why not 81: Has someone who had a crush on you ever confessed to you?Yes they have 82: Do you tell a lot of people when you have a crush?No I don't 83: Do you miss your last sweetie?Mmm nope 84: Last time you slow danced with someone?It's been too long 85: Have you ever ‘dated’ someone you’ve never met?Yes i have86: How can I win your heart?Be polite, honest, be okay with my love for reading books. Respect me. And also you have to like to go on road trips and look at the stars, watch movies 87: What is your astrological sign?Sagittarius 88: What were you doing last night at 12 AM?I was asleep 89: Do you cook?Yes I do :) I should be wifed up haha 90: Have you ever gotten back in touch with an old flame after a time of more than 3 months of no communication?Yes I have but because the old flame messaged me 91: If you’re single right now, do you wish you were in a relationship?Not a single Pringle 92: Do you prefer to date various people or do you pretty much fall into monogamous relationships quickly?I've never dated various people at once Do people do that? 93: What physical traits do you look for in a potential interest?A nice smile, a nice butt haha 94: Name four things that you wish you had!-a new car-a place of my own even if it was an apartment -more books-money95: Are you a player?Nope I'm not a player 96: Have you ever kissed 2 people in one day?Never 97: Are you a tease?I sure am haha98: Ever meet anyone you met on Tumblr?Yes I have :) 99: Have you ever been deeply in love with someone?Yes I am 100: Anybody on Tumblr that you’d go on a date with?I would 😉101: Hugs or Kisses?Depends on the person102: Are you too shy to ask someone out?No I'm not :) 103: The first thing you notice about the opposite sex?Nothing haha well eyes I guess 104: Is it cute when a boy/girl calls you babe?A girl yeah if we are "talking" or dating 105: If a sexy person was pursuing you, but you knew he/she was in relationship, would you go for it?No, I don't want to be the reason they cheat on their partner 106: Do you flirt a lot?Mmm I don't think so 107: Your last kiss?Celeste :) 108: Have you kissed more than 5 people since the start of 2012?Since 2012 I've missed 6 people 109: Have you kissed anyone in the past month?No I haven't 110: If you could kiss anyone who would it be?Celeste 111: Do you know who you’ll kiss next?Yes 112: Does someone like you currently?I sure hope so haha 113: Do you currently have feelings for anyone?Yes I do 114: Do you like to be in serious relationships or just flings?Serious relationships 115: Ever made out with just a friend?Yes I have116: Are you happier single or in a relationshipI've been happy single and I've been happy in a relationship. .