#so he literally went in yesterday and got the big promotion and THEN has agreed that boris needs to go

[beautifulpersonpeach]

BPP! This might be a tough one for you.

What do you think about BigHits tactics with regards to album releases and promotional tactics for members? Hobi and Namjoon have been the only ones (not without other issues) thus far who’ve gotten proper time to promote their album and allow it to sit with Army and other fans. Today with the announcement of D-Day, it basically means Jimin had only 2 weeks to promote and allow his album to sit with Army (not counting the time that was divided with In the street by JHope).

Now the focus, as you can imagine, will be divided. It is a bit unfair to jimin but this is more a company planning issue rather than an issue with the members themselves. It could be that Yoongis album also get affected because Army just spent tonnes on buying Face 🤷🏻‍♀️

What are your thoughts around this?

**

Hi Anon,

I’ve talked about this a few times before but it seems several people still have the same concerns, going by the flood of asks I just got on the topic, in addition to yours. So let me try a different tack.

...

Fuck BigHit.

Fuck BTS.

Fuck HYBE.

Do we look like fucking ATMs? Are they trying to cause a burnout in the fandom? To see how far they can push us before we break? Do the members in BTS, those ungrateful fucktards, take ARMY so much for granted they think it's okay to push out albums one after the other like fucking pop tarts?

I just spent a shit fuck ton of money on Jimin and my wallet is still recovering. Now here comes Yoongi not even two weeks later shipping his shit out. And this is when his concert tickets are running up US$5,000 a pop on reseller sites. What does BigHit think they're doing? Writing this, I was initially going for a 'sarcastic' pitch but nah, I'm actually kinda ticked off. Fuck BigHit for their tacky, unorganized, chaotic and cluttered as fuck roll-out, and fuck BTS too for agreeing to that bullshit.

You're probably reading this and going "BigHit is the problem, not BTS", but those grown men agreed to this shit. You think Yoongi’s tour and album date was only decided yesterday? No. He and Jimin knew months before how everything would be phased, and they agreed to it. I held them responsible for agreeing to the PET and Dreamers, and I'll hold them responsible for this. You know, I actually can't believe Jimin. The actual gall to sit there and say the FACE album is very precious to him, only for him to agree to dip after two weeks of promotions. It's like he's begging to free fall off the charts. I wonder if he has a masochistic kink since he religiously keeps up with charting and social media lately. Anyway, Yoongi is the even bigger problem here since he's encroaching on Jimin's promo time. There's literally no need for BigHit to rush any of this, not even Yoongi going to the army is...

...

Oh.

The army...

Oh, right.

The military...

*

Enlistment... that thing they've been talking about lately. Yoongi has to enlist this year, and if the members all intend to do their service before returning in 2025, then they all have to enlist sometime in the next 10 months. And as the maknaes (taekook) will likely be having big debuts like Jimin, they'll need some time too. And, though it's possible he does, I doubt Jimin plans to enlist soon after promoting FACE. The guy I heard in Set Me Free Pt 2 sounds like he plans to be around for most of this year, active and trying out different projects. So BigHit will have to plan/stagger Jimin's next solo projects around Taekook's solo activities...

Hmm, now that I think about it, Joon did seem agitated when he said on his WLive, he's running out of time. Jimin and Yoongi both expressed a strong desire to return as a group ASAP on Suchwita. Jung Kook, who watched them, agreed and felt so inspired watching them that soon as it was done, he went to work and the context of his speech suggests he went to work on a solo endeavor. Oh, and if he's still working on music, that really shows how involved he is in the process, doesn't it? I mean, it's not Jung Kook who selects BTS's distributor (it's YG btw), but it's hard to say how there would be a complete album if he's still working on the song, and so he might need more time...

Enlistment is a real pressure all the guys are feeling this year, JK too even if he doesn't go, I promise you. I doubt they want these tight deadlines either. And that's all this roll-out is: tight. I refuse to call the roll-outs messy and insufficient because the guys' promotions have all without fail, even Hobi's, been thoughtfully done. And I'm saying that as someone who still thinks JITB packaging is pathetic and JITB should've come with a CD.

There’s a real possibility the fandom deals with some whiplash between releases.

Personally, I'm having the time of my life with the barrage of new music. Everything I wrote in that angry rant above is hogwash. BTS are keeping us so fucking fed, the music is incredible, they're all expressing themselves in so many ways, I can't stop gorging myself on them. As someone who has watched them for some years, it's nothing but pure fun seeing them be themselves and making great records. ARMY has already dealt with almost 20 releases since June 14th and all of them have done very well, plus it's not like BTS see themselves as competition anyway, so why should we?

That said, I can see why you think it’s unfair Jimin has likely had only two weeks to fully promote his album. I also sympathize if it all feels very overwhelming for you. Please remember it's always okay to step back and detach. In fact I recommend doing it often if you like. The music isn't going away, engage at your own pace.

*

There's also the issue of solo stans and their diet versions kicking up a stink about missed goals/targets after Jimin's Hot100 win. It's a shame and it will be annoying, but also that implosion has to happen somehow right?

If you're saying this cause you worry about ARMYs (or at least the OT7-ish core), don't worry. Those people showed up for JITB, Indigo, OTS, Jimin, and they'll show up for D-Day. Of course listenability, genre accessibility, preferences in general etc, definitely also impact what people like to listen to, and metrics will also vary for that reason. It's not always solo stans who determine these variances.

If the money is an issue for you, very understandable. It's money after all not toilet paper, it's a very valuable resource and there's a real fear fans will significantly spend beyond their means. Thus far I haven't seen this happen, and people seem to always forget the fandom has a lot of people and a lot of funders. It's just that not all of them pitch in unless it's for their biases. I have an ask sitting in my inbox of an Anon noticing that many people who had spent the last year talking about how ARMYs are 'obsessed with charts' and that people should allow music to be 'organic', those people themselves got really into charts when trying to chart Jimin's FACE. For that Anon if you're reading this, I agree with your observation but that sort of mean spirited shitposting ask is just unnecessary so I'm not posting it lol.

Anyway the point is, even the fans who don't consider themselves part of ARMY will show up to support their biases. They might dip right after, but they'll show up. That's just the effect BTS has on people. So Anon, ARMY will do what they do: enjoy the music, support the guys, and bicker.. feel free to do the same.

[gayforcarstairsgirls]

This is literally like watching a political drama unfolding before our eyes oh my god

[falcor-thee-luck-dragon]

Interviews - Henry Cavill x wife/actress reader

Summary: You and Henry have been married for a couple years now, and when you’re both part of the Witcher cast, fun interviews are to be had.

Warning: nothing but a good time, btw I’ve never written anything like this so I hope it’s good enough that I might feel motivated to write more

-Readers Witcher character is loosely based off my Geralt fic from here (just a little self promotion), but in this case you play a full vampire in this Witcher universe

The days have been long and grueling, filming hours upon hours of stunts and regular acting had taken its toll. Not to mention the countless times in hair and make up paired with costume changes and traveling to film on certain locations.

To say being apart of Netflix’s The Witcher was full of tiring days and some accidental bruises would be a huge understatement. But none of that mattered, nor did you bother to complain when through the thick and thin of it all did you have Henry with you along the way. And your favorite big slobbery bear, Kal whenever he was allowed on set.

Fortunately for you in the beginning of all the craziness, the casting and writers had wanted you specifically for the part of Y/C/N in the new series before Henry even auditioned for the role of Geralt, that was soon given to him after you accepted your fresh role of vampiric heroine.

It was ironically strange in a good way, you had watched your dork of a husband play the Witcher: Wild Hunt a few times before, eventually learning of what Geralt of Rivia was, who Y/C/N was in the story, who Yennefer and Ciri were, Tris and even Jaskier.

Who would have thought that you’d finally get to snag a role side by side with Henry in quite literally one of the most fantastic shows you’ve ever heard of. You didn’t even need to see the show yet to know how well it was most likely to be reviewed. Being a key character in the grand storyline was enough to convince you of how amazing it would most certainly turn out in the finished product.

And after all was said and done, you couldn’t believe how well loved and popular the show truly became in the following months after shooting and its eventual release onto Netflix. The after parties and cast celebrations truly made you blessedly grateful for pulling through to the vary end.

Then again you had your mans Henry by your side every step of the way. He was your rock and you were most definitely his. You know life on set would have been far less entertaining and dreadfully long if not for the lovely company of your dear Witcher, Henry. And so far after the fact, you and a good portion of the cast have been placed in random interviews for the majority of the day.

Reason being, The Witcher has at long last finally premiered and as per usual the people and media live for those cast interviews that always reveal some interesting events. So far this morning you’ve done some interviews with Anya that have gone perfectly fine since the two of you seem to click so well.

Also it helps ease the anxiety of your fellow newer cast mates to the world of continuous interviews with an experienced veteran actor like yourself, who’s gone round the ring more times then you can count. Though you can’t help but wonder how Henry’s doing, considering you’ve been separated since the sessions began at 10am, you’ve had lunch and now it’s about 1 in the afternoon with more hours to go.

Luckily for you, you’ve just been informed of another interview with the man of the hour himself. Saying your goodbyes and well wishes to your fellow cast mates, you stand and follow the guide into the advised place. Aka some really nice hotel room that’s been done up real nice for efficient interviewing, complete with the Witcher insignia on a large background poster and three chairs that happen to look rather comfy.

The camera and sound people nod in acknowledgment as you walk in, you nod back no doubt making their day with your friendliness and adorable smile that quite literally lights up a room. Soon you spot the bubbly yet nervous interviewee who instantly welcomes you into her space like you’re an old friend.

You sit, a bit confused as to where your partner happens to be at the moment, the interviewer, Lauren makes small talk before a door opens and her big bright doe eyes go wide in nervous excitement. A telling smile upon her face as she shifts in her chair before looking back to you again with a happy grin.

Henry says a quick hello to the behind the scenes crew before waving to Lauren, you smirk while watching him get comfortable next to you, “Well, well, well. Get lost on your way up, you know they have guides for a reason.” You tease as he chuckles at your humorous jab, relieved to see you again after a couple hours apart.

“Traffic.” He quips with a shrug.

“Uh huh.” You mutter with a shake of your head before drawing your attention back to Laura, “Can’t take him anywhere I swear, he does this all the time.”

She laughs as Henry pretends to gasp at your teasing, you chuckle along with them before she finally collects herself, “Well, welcome back to London. It’s fantastic to have you both in town once again, and your big beautiful faces all over Leicester Square.”

You both laugh, “Right.” Says Henry, “I guess we do look pretty cool.”

“Hell yeah, I mean where else can I see myself with a giant sword on a building? And anyways look at this beautiful mug,” You say gently squeezing Henry’s cheeks in your hand, “he’s literally killing it out there.” They laugh as you give Hen another playful squeeze before letting go and setting your arm against the chairs cushioned armrest. 

“Alight let’s start.” She says enthusiastically before glancing down at her cards then back up to you and Henry. Then into one of the two the cameras, “Hi I’m Lauren from Entertainment Weekly and today we’re here with the two stars of Netflix’s The Witcher.” She says enthusiastically while giving a nod to you two, indicating that the camera is now focused on you both, “Henry Cavill and Y/N Cavill.”

You both smile in acknowledgment as Henry gives a slight nod, “How you doing?”

“I’m great,” She beams, “So, I’ll get right into it, what do you like most about the story? What really drew you into the script that made you say, yes this is going to be awesome?”

Slapping a hand against Henry’s muscular leg, you hum, “I’ll let Hen take this one he’s a real expert on the linguistics of the whole show.”

“Thanks Y/N/N.” Replies Henry, bemused that you’re making him take the first question.

You nod to him knowingly with a smirk, “Of course.” Knowing how much he loves to talk about the show and also because you’d rather have him use his energy to talk about it then do that yourself. Priorities, right, though in your defense it’s been a long day.

“Well I absolutely love the games and the books themselves are phenomenal works of literature.” He explains, his face glowing with that usual glimmer of excitement in his eyes, “The story and the world of the Witcher is just so rich and full of potential that when I signed on for the show, I immediately knew it would be amazing, no doubt.”

You lean into the arm of you chair, “And of course I was there so that’s always a bonus.”

“That too.” He smiles adorably, “That too of course.”

Lauren smiles, “Great. So, what was it like working together, how was it having your characters interact with one another?”

You smile, setting a hand against Henry’s forearm, “This guy right here.” You deadpan before waving him off dramatically, “So annoying, my god he whined all the time and he was such a drama queen dear lord so ugh....” You start cackling before you can even finish the sentence causing Henry to loose it as well and with that the interviewer.

Shaking your head you rest your hand against his shoulder, “I joke, he was a gem to work with as usual...I mean I feel incredibly blessed to be able to act alongside my husband for months and months every single day. It’s a rarity in this line of work and I’m grateful to have shared this experience...and I guess more so this whole adventure with him as well.”

The interviewer aww’s as Henry tilts his head to lean into your hand that’s still resting atop his shoulder before pulling away just as quickly, the intimate sentiment not going unnoticed by you or Lauren who looks to be enjoying your loving yet calm energy with one another. “That’s so sweet, what about you Henry?”

“Oh yes absolutely,” Agrees Henry to your recent statement, “not only did I have her by my side through it all but the dynamic of our characters interacting together was so fun to shoot. I think the audience will really be able to see their relationship grow on screen into something strong and beautiful like in the books.”

Slow clapping you give him a curt nod of approval, “Well said.”

Lauren smirks, “Seems like it. Well, I was able to catch the premier yesterday and I gotta say...it was fantastic! I couldn’t believe how diffident the two of you looked from how you are now.” She gushes enthusiastically.

The corners of Henry’s lips curl into a proud smile for the fellow crew of the Witcher’s, “Oh that’s great then, honestly we gotta give all the props to the costume and makeup team, they’re so talented and know how to make us look like real badasses.” He adds.

You nod in agreement before grinning at a positive memory of your first interaction with Henry as Geralt, “Oh for sure, I remember during the early stages of production when our characters met each other for the first time, before this we came to set together but went separate ways to shoot our own stuff in the meantime so I never got a real look at him.” You recall with a bright smile as Henry watches your every move, beaming just the same.

“It was so funny, I was in the tent with Freya Allen, the wonderful girl who plays Ciri, and then suddenly her eyes got all big and nervous and I was like, that’s not me right? Something weird didn’t just happen with my costume? And then I turned around to find this man, wig on, face a mess, and his eyes looked so fearsome and different...it was a bit startling.” You say with a chuckle, “I clearly wasn’t expecting to see Geralt right then and there. He just looked so unlike Henry.”

“Yeah, I was almost hurt.” Laughs Henry, “She had to like squint and make sure it was me.”

Rolling your eyes, you shrug, “He had some real creepy looking colored contacts, yunno?”

Henry fake scoffs, “You’re one to talk, I mean when I first say her, Y/N’s eyes were red and she had fake blood spattered all over her face and shirt. Oh, and not to mention those fangs they put on your teeth...we probably traumatized poor Freya that day.”

“Oh shit you’re right!” You exclaim with a snort of concealed laughter, “God I completely forgot about how I looked...now since I think about it, I did that a lot too. I would just walk up to people and be completely oblivious as to what kind of nightmare I looked like, honestly I might have scared one of our producers a couple of times.” You add with a half nervous laugh, it’s true, you did scare some of the crew unintentionally. Most of the time.

Lauren lightly chuckles, “That sounds like you were quite the sight to see then.” She says before glancing back down at her notes, “Alright I have’ta ask, is there anything that you two took home with you from set?”

“Besides Henry every night,” He holds back a laugh while covering his mouth as you nonchalantly continue, “Uh, yes actually I got to take home Y/C/N’s wolf ring that I loved so much and just thought was the coolist thing ever and....uh, I might have stolen some socks too.”

“So that’s why after filming the amount of socks of yours I had to fold increased?” Wonders Henry with a surprised snort of realization.

Turning your head to give him a “no shit” kinda look, you look back at Lauren, pointing your thumb at Henry, “Master sleuth right here, but hey, he folds my laundry.”

“Aw that’s great.” Adds Lauren with a smile before turning her attention to Henry, “What about you Henry? Take anything from set?”

“More then Y/N did actually...”

“He just about took the whole makeup trailer most nights, I swear.”

Henry chuckles, “That. Is true.” He agrees with a nod, “Interesting enough, at home I’ve got Geralt’s armor hung up in our living room and a multitude of other nicknacks that I’ve collected during filming.” He adds, glancing over to you, “So uh, yeah, we were fairly lucky to be able to snag what we could.”

Lauren smiles, absentmindedly shuffling her cards, “That’s awesome to have such special memorabilia, you guys really are fortunate.” She adds before reading off from another card, “Alright you two, care to play a game called guess the image? Witcher style.”

Your face perks up at this, you’re a sucker for interview games and Henry knows it, “Are you reading my mind or something, I have been waiting all day for someone to ask about playing a game.” You gush rather enthusiastically. 

He smiles at your adorableness and how excited you’ve just become, Lauren grins, happy that her suggestion has been so well received, “Okay so how it works is, I’ll show you an image on my iPad and then you have to guess who or what I’m showing you.”

“Oh, cool I’ve heard of this,” You reply, turning to Henry with a smirk, “Loser has to clean Kal’s yard poop for a week.”

Rolling his gorgeous blue eyes he chuckles, “You’re on.”

“Alright, the stakes are high, you two ready?” Beams Lauren, holding her iPad to her chest as she awaits an answer.

“Yes, I’m ready to kick his ass.” You quip, leaning an arm against your chair while Henry does about the same, though he does his best to contain his laughter.

“Okay, first image.” She holds up the device to show some sort of weird golden thing, it’s shiny and hard, worst part is that you’re not entirely sure what the hell it could be.

Sensing your confusion Henry nudges your shoulder, though you ignore it before he smartly answers, “Oh, is that...Renfri’s brooch?” Little shit knows exactly what that is, of course he does.

Lauren claps, “Correct.” Zooming out of the image to show the full picture of the golden brooch, “Right on, that’s one point for Mr. Cavill.”

You scoff playfully, “Beginners luck.” While Henry side eyes you with a humorous grin upon his plush lips, he nudges your arm, “I’m going to really enjoy not cleaning up Kal’s grass turds for awhile.” He mutters lightheartedly, though you know deep down he’s being serious, no way is he going to win this, you think. You won’t have it, hopefully the next few pictures aren’t as difficult, Kal duty is not fun by any means.

“Shut up.” You grumble with a dismissive wave of your hand, though just teasing of course.

“Okay next image.” This time the blurred photo looks much more familiar, soon it clicks as to what the obscured blurriness actually is, yes!

“Got it! Anya’s er I guess Yennefer’s dress from the fight at Sodden.” Lauren giggles, zooming the image out to reveal Yennefer in her tasseled blue and purple dress from the battle at Sodden Hill. “I’m amazing I know.” You boast at Henry with a casual little bow in your seat.

“It’s the second question.” He deadpans, eyes crinkling in amusement as you shake your head at him.

“Pffff get outta here.” You mutter back, gently pushing his arm off of your chairs armrest and setting yours in its place while he gives you a fake shocked expression.

In turn you can’t help the smile that tugs at the corner of your lips, so instead of saying some sassy remark that would no doubt get a reaction out of him, you turn your attention back over to Lauren who’s looking over her notes again.

“Fantastic,” She says, glancing back up at you and Henry, “you’re both tied with one point each. Alright, anyone know what this is?” She asks showing something red and fuzzy, a bit of dirty skin showing from one corner but with The Witcher this bloody image could literally be anything.

The both of you squint, puzzled as to what this could be, “Y/N you got any ideas.” Wonders Henry, brows furrowed as his face contorts into deep concentrated thought.

Raising a brow, you hum, “If I knew I wouldn’t tell you.”

“Fair point.” He chuckles.

Lauren smiles, “Any guesses?”

 After a few concentrated moments, Henry shrugs in defeat,  “I’m stumped.” He admits as you study the image harder, mind racing to put the pieces together as to what the hell you’re looking at.

“No, I think I might know this....erm is it...me?” You wonder, voice raising in question, hoping to be correct about this or face the teasing of Henry.

Lauren quickly zooms out of the obscured image, “It is!” She says excitedly, revealing the picture of you from your characters debut in episode 2 where you save a girl from a werewolf, your mouth is covered in blood and so is most of your costumes chest area and left arm from the struggle. Not to mention the make-up teams fun 20 minutes of throwing fake sticky blood all over you to get the right look for the taxing scene.

You grimace a bit, “Oh god that was quite the day on set,” You recall with a half smile, “I was doing stunts all day covered in that red syrupy dye, I think it took a week to get out of my skin.”

Henry suddenly snorts with laughter, “Right! That reminds me, I thought Kal had gotten cut or something, it was just Y/N who had hugged him not realizing she still had some fake blood on her arm.”

“Jeez that’s right, I felt so bad, but I couldn’t stop laughing once we realized it was just me.”

Lauren grins, excited to hear some hidden information about little things that happens behind the scenes, “Oh wow that must have been a sight, alright Henry, Y/N’s taken the lead with a two to one score.” She says as you playfully nudge his strong shoulder. “Second to last image, what is this?”

Without missing a single beat Henry replies, “Jaskier.”

Squinting at the image you lean closer to the iPad, “How the hell do you see Jaskier?”

Smiling the interviewer zooms out to reveal the bards full outfit from the banquet scene, though he’s in the background of a fight between Geralt and some Cintran knights. “Right on!” She exclaims as you lean back into your seat dumbfounded, shoulder flush against Henry’s as he clutches your arm and squeezes it affectionately.

Ignoring his silent show of victory you shrug, “And they say he’s just another pretty face,” Earning a laugh from Lauren and some of the crew as you smirk at the camera, face them shifting to apologetic, “also I’m so sorry Joey you beautiful bastard apparently I’m blind. Uh, we don’t have to dwell on it, Lauren whatcha got?”

“You guys are both tied with two points each, last chance to win.” She replies before glancing down at her iPad, “Alright, what is this?” She asks, her iPad showing that of fuzzy bright colors, with a small corner smear of dull white that clearly wouldn’t make much sense to the untrained eye.

Smirking you glance at a puzzled Henry before sitting up in your seat, feeling rather good about yourself, “Would that happen to be, Hen in Stregobor’s illusion?” You answer with, though sounding a bit as a question considering you aren’t entirely confident as to what image this is.

Lauren’s brows raise in surprise, “Henry, looks like we have a winner. Y/N you are correct.” She beams, enlarging the image to reveal Geralt’s side profile as he talks to the old wizard while the background stays colorful and shrouded in various arrays of sunlight..

Shaking your fist victoriously in the air you give a couple enthusiastic whoop whoops while Henry simply takes it like a champ, “Have fun cleaning up Karl’s monster turds, cause this lucky lady doesn’t have to.” You boast as Henry and the crew laugh.

“Well that was something,” Beams Lauren, “I’m so glad to have chatted for a bit about your guys’ amazing new series, and maybe ended a relationship in the process.” She says jokingly as both you and Henry chuckle.

Patting his thigh affectionately, you smirk, “He’s a tough old bear, but yeah, it was awesome having you talk to us.”

“Yes, take care now.” Adds Henry while the interviewer Lauren stands, saying her goodbyes as she goes to exit the room.

The camera crew take a small break to adjust things and whatnot as you and Henry wait patiently for the next interviewer. He turns, an adorable smile pulling at his lips while you pretend to ignore his fiery gaze. “Well that went pretty well, minus the fact that I’m on Kal poop duty for a week...but uh...” He leans in close to you now, “I missed you all morning.”

Breaking out into a smile you raise a brow, “Boring without me huh?”

“Always.”

You casually shrug, “I figured as much. Don’t worry, we have a hotel all to ourselves tonight.” Your brows wiggle suggestively causing your blue eyed lover to shake his head with amusement.

“Say it louder next time.” He jokes.

Side eyeing the oblivious crew you begin to speak a couple octaves louder, “Henry I can’t wait to fu..” Suddenly his hand presses against your mouth before you’re able to call any attention to yourself. He gives you a warning look before slowly pulling his hand from your mouth.

You grin mischievously, “I wasn’t gonna say that...”

“Sure Y/N,” He mutters in your ear as a new interviewer walks into the room and finds their chair, “and I’m wasn’t going to make you scream tonight.”

Your brows raise in surprise and admittedly slight arousal at his choice of wording in this room of all places. Eyeing him up, face still showing surprise, you finally break out into a satisfied smirk. “You know what? I think you should consider changing your offer.”

He thinks deeply for a moment, though you know he’s only pretending to get you riled up, “Hrmm...maybe, possibly, should I? Should we? You are my co-star after all, that wouldn’t be very professional now would it Y/N?” He states with a shit eating grin, all done while the crew and interviewer get ready, minding their business and completely unaware to yourself and Henry’s teasing.

Scoffing playfully you lightly swat his arm, “We are way past being professional.”

He chuckles, looking from you to the rest of the room, “Oh, they have no idea.”

[messiisgodibeliveinhim]

Just Another Rant

Okay, so why do NCTzens have a hate boner for Taeyong??? It's so f*cking weird, it doesn't make sense.

Taeyong has been under NCTzens' microscope since his debut. Everything he does is dissected and twisted into something its not. No other member of NCT or any group (except maybe Jennie from Blackpink) is treated this way by the group's fans. NCTzens want Taeyong to be the villain so bad, that they're willing to stoop as low as dehumanizing, body shaming and wishing d3ath on him. NCTzens dislike him, some even hate him and they're not very subtle about it.

Now, I'm not saying all NCTzens are TY antis. I have moots on Twitter who dont stan him, but are incredibly respectful towards him and acknowledge his talents and hardwork. If you're one of them, then this rant is not about you. But i will say this, if it isnt all NCTzens who anti Taeyong, it's most of them.

It started with Lines and Screentime distribution for NCT songs and mvs. Now, i agree that Taeyong used to get a little more lines and screentime than the others at first. But instead of calling out SM, most of you targeted Taeyong saying he deliberately stole the said lines and screentime from his members so that he'd get to shine more..... Really???

Next, when he was announced as a member of SuperM, NCTzens were clearly upset it wasn't Johhny or Jaehyun. Do you wanna know why??? No, they didnt talk about talent. Instead, they wanted Jaehyun/Johhny instead of Taeyong because SuperM is a group targeted at the western audience and Jn & Jh knew to speak English better than TY..... Okay.

And it keeps getting worse.

-NCTzens saying that TY goes into the recording studio to record his solo songs, by LOCKING OUT the rest of NCT, so that they wont get to record their solo stuff.

-That TY is SM's Golden Boy cuz he 'gETs a LoT of SoLO pRoMos anD cENter TiMe', completely refusing to understand what 'SOLO PROMO' means or see how overworked and mistreated he is by his own company.

-When TyongFs praise TY about anything, NCTzens always, ALWAYS insert their faves in the post. Like, go make your own post maybe???

/Trigger Content

-NCTzens saying that TY dances like he has a sq*irrel in his pants, raps like d*g, looks like a skeleton etc etc. And these are just mild stuff i mentioned here. NCTzens are so much worse when it comes to body shaming and dehumanizing him. And when we call them out for it, thay have the audacity to say that its a JOKE and we're STUPID for not having 'A Sense of Humor'....

/End of Trigger Content

-NCTzens saying that TY's main dancer/main rapper/main visual/leader/center positions should go to their faves cuz their fave 'iS So mUcH beTTeR aT TheSe pOsiTIOns'. Yeah.... sure..... NCTzens rarely talk about the positions other members have , but are really obsessed with Taeyong's.

-NCTzens still denying that Taeyong is NCT's leader and that he's really good at it. Just yesterday, a Wayzennie (also a TY anti) started spewing sh*t about Taeyong's leadership. And their arguement??? That they have 'lEAdeRsHiP eXpEriEncE iN UnI, WoRk aND ouTsIDe wOrK' and that makes them an expert about leading a 23 member global kpop group, who had a rough start what with their controversial 'unlimited' concept and experimental songs. Sure, Jan.

(Also, the thing where some Wayzennies are still not accepting that TY is the leader of whole of NCT, cuz Kun is WayV's leader..... Seriously, though its not that hard to understand. Kun IS and WILL remain the leader of WayV, a 7 member group. That's a fact. But when the subunits (127, Dream and WayV) come together for projects (ex: NCT 2018 and NCT 2020), Taeyong becomes the overall leader. But since these Wayzennies are still on their WayV not being part of NCT agenda, they're simply ignore this. Go figure.)

- Oh, but when some other member in NCT messes up, it suddenly becomes Taeyong's responsibility cuz 'HE'S THE LEADER'. Funny, how NCTzens change narratives quickly. Also, weird how, according to NCTzens, NCT members suddenly can't think for themselves even though they're grown adults and need Taeyong to take the blame for them. Haha.....

-Also, NCTzens guilt tripping TyongFs from canceling NCT Beyond Live tickets when they got to know that he was injured and wont be participating in the concert a little too late, cuz "Taeyong, as a leader, would be sooo upseeet that his group wont be getting TyongFs' money and he'd feel sooo guiltyyy that y'all are getting refunds of your OWN money that YOU CHOSE to spent and its not my business at all. But damn, y'all are sooo selfish!!!!"

-NCTzens posting about how overjoyed they are that TY is injured cuz that means their faves get to shine..... "Look how MY FAVE killed TY's part" "MY FAVE ate Taeyong up" "Should've put MY FAVE in the OG line up instead of Taeyong" "MY FAVE made TY's part as his own" "Thank god, MY FAVE got to show off his talents, now that Taeyong isnt here". God, if i were one of the Neos whose fans say sh*t like this, it would've felt like a slap to my face. Honestly, tell me, do y'all really think so low of your faves? Do you really think they cant shine even with TY being on stage? They absolutely can, but you're focus is not on them, is it? Way to embarrass yourself.

-NCTzens blaming Taeyong for NCT's slow rise to fame because of the false rumors/allegations pinned on him by nasty people. They say Taeyong was the sole reason for NCT not being liked by many, not because of their confusing/complicated concept or the music. Yeah, you heard me. NCTzens are not above victim blaming and pointing fingers, cuz they are not ready to accept the fact that Taeyong was the one who carried the group on his back all the way.

-And how they can't stand the fact that TY gets praised by proffesionals or non-fans or locals. A dance analyzer analyzed 127's Kick It and at the end stated that Taeyong was the best dancer in 127. And what did NCTzens do. They bullied the analyzer to the point that they deleted the video, just cuz their fave was not named the best. A reactor reacts to Taeyong's Long Flight and the comments on the videos are along the lines of 'Hey, MY FAVE'S also has a solo song too. You should definitely react to that' or when they're tryna be subtle (but not really), they go 'Taeyong is soo good but you should also check out MY FAVE'S blah blah blah'

Hell, even when TyongFs say 'Taeyong is very so creative, by coming up with BDLI Jungle Gym concept and the MAW chandelier thing. He's literally an Idea Bank', and NCTzens go 'All the Neos are idea banks' in the same post.

When TyongFs say 'Taeyong is the really so handsome. NCT's main visual', they go 'All the Neos are main visuals'

Lmao, just 3 days ago, someone commented 'Taeyong is cute' under a tiktok video and an NCTzen just couldn't help but fume about it and went 'All Neos are cute'🙄

Like seriously, this is sooo annoying. Make your own goddamn post about the rest of NCT, ffs! Why do you to insert anyone else in a Taeyong tweet? Literally, can't let Taeyong have a moment for himself.

-Recently, Taeyong released 2 solo demo tracks on SoundCloud- Dark Clouds and Dark Clouds Remix (check it out here: https://soundcloud.com/eh_ovo_taeyong). And NCTzens being NCTzens started those who never even promoted Kun's SoundCloud before started promoting it under every TY tweet on the same day. Now, i don't have a problem with them promoting Kun's SC. But they could've done it any other day or made their own tweet about it. But doing it under every TY promo tweet and on the very same day? Really??? And some of them had the audacity to say that TY was getting free clout from Kun cuz Kun followed him on SC.....😑😑😑

-NCTzens have this weird belief that TY is getting solo promos and is being pushed by SM. What on earth are they talking about? Taeyong being center, main rapper and main dancer of the group is not solo promo. Him being in SuperM is not solo promo. Him opening Instagram and SoundCloud is not solo promo, but self promo- which means HE'S promoting himself, not SM. Solo promo is usually provided to the artist by the company in the form of photoshoots, accepting brand deals, releasing the artist's solo music etc and SM isnt doing sh*t for Taeyong. All they're doing is overworking him and milking him for money. That's it. And i want NCTzens to understand that.

And the list goes on and on and on. This weird hate boner NCTzens have for Taeyong is so bizarre to me. All Taeyong does is sing, rap, dance, talk cutely, take care of his fishes and play games with Baekhyun. And this somehow gets NCTzens mad. They constantly discredit him, try to make him seem less than what he actually is, insert everyone else when someone is talking just about him, make him seem like a villain by twisting his words or actions and making it into a big deal.... *sigh* Its so unbelievable how low NCTzens can stoop. And it gets tiring real quick.

N E Ways, this is everything i wanted to rant about and damn, this turned out to be too lengthy. Now, if you havent followed Taeyong on his Instagram, please do @eh_evo_nct. Stream Long Flight, his one and only solo station. And please look forward to BaekhyunxTaeyong collab on Taeyong's SoundCloud.

Ciao!

[wolfpawn]

I Hate You, I Love You, Chspter 147

Chapter Summary - Tom talks to Ben and Danielle before a call from Danielle that concerns him

Previous Chapter

Rating - Mature (some chapters contain smut)

Triggers - references to Tom Hiddleston’s work with the #MeToo Movement. That chapter will be tagged accordingly.

authors Note - I have been working on this for the last 3 years, it is currently 180+ chapters long.  This will be updated daily, so long as I can get time to do so, obviously.

Copyright for the photo is the owners, not mine. All image rights belong to their owners

tags: @sweetkingdomstarlight-blog​ @jessibelle-nerdy-mum​ @nonsensicalobsessions​ @damalseer​ @hiddlesbitch1​ @winterisakiller​ @fairlightswiftly​ @salempoe​ @wolfsmom1​ @black-ninja-blade

'So, how did she take it?’ Ben asked Tom as they went on the last part of their press tour for the movie. 'She seemed to be okay meeting everyone and the photographers were obsessed with her.’

'I am in the proverbial doghouse.’

'For which part?’

'Not warning her.’

'You didn't warn her beforehand?’ Ben asked, slightly shocked.

'I told her that there was literally deaths to come. She gathered that meant Loki too, but she was angered that one, I died so early into it after all the promotion work I have been in and two, how particularly graphic it was. Apparently, that deserved a warning. I argued it was Loki, not me, she argued that since Loki had my face, her brain did not see it that way.’

'Completely understandable.’ Tim looked at his friend. ‘No, really. Sophie saw me disintegrate but I was not the first one to do so, so she was prepared.’

'I think Holland was more heartbreaking for Elle than anyone else.’

'I think that was the point of keeping it in, to break everyone's heart. He was actually half excited to meet her.’

'I think she half adopted him as a younger brother.’ Tom chuckled. 'As soon as he said he was half Irish and showed her pictures of Tessa, they were talking for ages.’

'She seemed to get on with Olsen too.’ Ben watched Tom's reaction to his words, bit Tom merely nodded. 'Is that not a little weird, since you two...what was the story there?’

'Nothing serious is was happened.’ Tom state firmly. 'Elle could get on with anyone and yes, she and Elizabeth were very amiable to one another. Elle has this thing where before her is none of her concern and all she is bothered by is us as we are. As long as it is in the past, whatever happened is fine.’ He explained.

'You realise, if you ever do anything to mess this up, you'll be the biggest fool to ever exist, you know that?’

'No, I am never risking Elle, if it were up to me…I think it will be my biggest regret.’

'What?’

'Not allowing myself to love her sooner.’

'You have her now. Appreciate that.’ Ben commented, handing Tom his coffee. Tom nodded. 'So, no post-premiere fun for you last night then?’

'Stop bragging.’ Tom growled, remembering Danielle's less than impressed face as she walked into the house after more than once glaring at him at reference to Loki's demise.

Ben chuckled. 'How did the media take it?’

'According to Luke, fine. A few people attacking.’

‘Nothing new there.’

'And more seeing how beautiful she is and happy we are.’

'Did she choose green on purpose?’

'Yes, apparently she thought it apt.’ Tom smirked. 'She seemed to enjoy it for the most part. I mean, she was slightly terrified, I could feel her anxiety but she took it well.’

‘I think she looked well beside you.’ Ben smiled. 'She would look even better with a ring on her finger though.’ He licked his teeth as he teased Tom, who glared at him. 'You know, the more you show that bothers you, the more everyone, myself included, will tease you about it.’

*

'Hey.’ Danielle was out of breath on the other end of the phone. 'Sorry, long session.’

Tom frowned. Of late, Danielle had decreased her training. He rang her over an hour and a half ago and the way she was panting told him she was literally just finished. 'Hey, how are you?’

'Fucking bolloxed. How are things there? Did the interview go well?’

'Yes. It did.’ He smiled at Ben who sat beside him to text Sophie. 'What was the session?’

‘Swimming, so much fucking swimming. Then a ten k after, why the ever loving fuck did I agree to it?’

'Who convinced you to do that?’

'Mark, from work. I was just talking yesterday and he mentioned his wife was a swimmer and how he was trying to get her to do Tri's with him and we got talking and I was talking about how I need to improve my swimming, I told you how I wasn't happy with it.’

'The technique, wasn't it?’ Tom recalled.

'Exactly, well she does lessons too, she was really big in long-distance swimming for ages and I said we should work together on a few things if she is keen on doing some Tri, so here I am with them and putting myself through hell.’ She explained. 'I am dying. I am after getting so unfit.’

‘You have not.’

'Oh, I have. My muscles are not trying to save my feelings, they are telling me in no uncertain terms that I am.’ She laughed.

Tom chuckled. 'I am back in two days, we can see if you are recovered by then.’

'I have another swim and run session then, so I doubt it. I also have to go to Suffolk soon, do you want me to hold off or go tomorrow?’

'Leave it until I get back. What are you going for?’

'My bike, the one you got. I need to bring it to London.’

'Elle, are you training again?’ Tom asked curiously, having asked before about Danielle's triathlon training only to be told she ceased it due to work.

'I am.’

'That's good. Right?’

'Yes.’ There was uncertainty in her voice.

'Elle?’

'I did something stupid.’

'What did you do?’ Tom was unsure what the response would be. 'Elle?’

'Mark and Hannah were talking about it and in a rush of blood to the head I did it too.’

'Did what?’

'I signed up to a race.’

'Surely that's a good thing, right?’

'After a year plus off, I don't know.’

'When is it?’

'September.’

'Well, there is plenty of time to train yourself up again after the time off, that's months. What's the issue?’

'It's the Tenby Ironman.’

'Iron...you mean...?’

'Yes.’

'A full one?’

‘A 2.4-mile swim, then a 112-mile cycle and a marathon-length run to boot.’ She recited.

'Is she fucking insane?’ Ben, who had, by being so close to Tom, been half listening to the conversation, could not stop his reaction. 'Why would anyone do that?’

Tom was still processing the sheer distances. 'Elle, are you...why?’

'I always wanted to do one, now I feel I can.’ She explained.

Tim could hear something in her voice, he was uncertain if Danielle even knew it was there, but there was a slight hint of something that made him think something was not entirely right. 'Well, we better get your bike sorted.’ He made sure his tone was light and jovial. 'How will you juggle it with work?’

‘I wanted to talk to you about that. I am going to be taking less work for the next few months. I mean, I'll still be in charge of the office, I will still be the boss, but I...I have been asked to take time to do something else too.’

Tom frowned at the phone. 'Elle? What's going on?’

'I got made an offer. I want to take it.’

'What is it?’

'Remember when I assisted Waters with the whole thing after my course work?’

'Yes, I was the one to tell you your results last year.’

'I am being asked to be the foreperson for the new way it is done, they want me to take the time to do it, I have six months to write it. I want to take it.’

Tom didn't know what to say. 'Will you have to travel?’

'Only for the meetings in Safeguard. I will have to go to the office twice a week also, but I can work from wherever in the world I want. We can do the summer by the coast we were talking about.’

Tom's brows rose at that. He wanted them to get to Southampton for part of the summer because he had work there and he had wanted Danielle to come with him but she was concerned about work. 'That's incredible.’ He chuckled. 'Really, that's….that's incredible.’

'You approve?’

'Fuck yes, I approve. That's great.’

'I was worried you wouldn't.’ There was relief in her voice.

'No Elle, that's brilliant.’

‘The situation with the new guidelines?’

'Yes?’

'Tom, it's worth a small fortune, I... I cannot believe this. I'll be published for this. I will be cited material.’

Tom felt a surge of pride in his chest. ‘I can think of no one better, Elle. Between this and the Ironman, you'll be incredibly busy.’

'That's sort of the plan.’ That caused Tom's brows to furrow. 'I better let you get back to work, Love. Say hello to Ben for me. I better go home and get fed and changed here. I have to get some shopping in too, so I will talk to you before bed tonight okay?’

'Okay, Darling. I'll talk to you then.’ Tom stated.

'Love you.’ With that, and without waiting for a response, she hung up.

Tom took his phone from his ear and looked at it in time to see the words “call ended” on the screen.

'What's up?’

'I am not sure. There's something going on with Danielle.’

'In what way?’

‘I’m not entirely sure but there is something in her voice. For someone who is moving up at work and supposedly wants to do an Ironman, she does not seem overly enthused.’ He declared.

'You are probably reading way too much into it.’ Ben commented. 'If someone said I had to do a marathon after all that other stuff, I wouldn't be overly enthusiastic either.’

Tom did not respond, instead he looked at his phone.

Back in London, the smile that Danielle had forced on her face to talk to Tom fell off and she felt herself become consumed by her feelings once more. Starting the engine on her car, she considered what she could do to wear her out even more for the evening so she would collapse into bed and fall asleep rather than be awake with her thoughts. As "Human" by Christina Perri came on the radio, she swallowed as she focused on the words, barely able to stop her eyes welling up

[loudsuitlover]

Ohana 3

Jamie

It’s been two days since I’ve last seen Harry. I’m ignoring him like a coward and I know at some point it’s gonna have to end but he hasn’t texted me back since the last text I ignored yesterday afternoon. 

I just don’t know how to tell him. I freaked out. I panicked. And I don’t even know what was that. Why would I kiss him? Moreover, why would he kissed me? He could have literally any girl on the planet, counting on famous people, not famous people- not even any girl but anywho- and he chose me? There must be something wrong with him. 

Charlie turns around holding a box of weetbix on her hand, asking me whether those are the ones I have for breakfast or at least that’s what I think she’s saying. She tilts her head at me and I know she’s caught up with the fact that my mind is anywhere but here. I shake my head, trying to dismiss it, as I lean towards Mateo and caress his hair out of his face. He smiles at me and for a split of a second I forget I’m worried when Charlie’s phone makes a beep sound.

“Harry asks how our day went.” She doesn’t look at me as she types an answer.

“Does he know I’m with you?” 

“Yeah.” She nods. “He asked me about you when you stopped answering his texts and I told him that we were having a girls’ day out today.” 

“What wouldn’t you tell me?” 

“Would it have changed anything?” She shrugs. “Besides, I thought you knew he was interested already and I didn’t want to bother you.” 

This was all Jack’s idea. I was sure of that. Charlie would have given me the hardest time about this had she had it her way, but I’m sure Jack tried to calm her down. I busy myself reading the ingredient charts on cereal boxes as I wait for her to finally allow herself to bother me. 

“Are you still coming tonight?” She asks instead. 

I know Harry is going to be there but it’s not like I can not go to Jack’s promotion party and anyway I’m gonna have to talk to him in person sooner or later. I bite my bottom lip and then I turn to her. 

“Yeah.” I smile. “Mum’s looking after Mateo.” 

Charlie’s hazel eyes burn into mine as she just keeps quite. I don’t quite know whether she has really matured in a matter of months or whether she just doesn’t even know what to say to me. The haircut she just got looks so good on her too, her hair barely skimming her shoulders now. 

“Anyway” she smiles “do you know who keeps asking about you too?” 

I bite my bottom lip again- I keep doing that lately- as I pretend it’s no big deal that she used the word too because Harry also keeps asking about me. I turn to her so that she gets she has my attention. 

“Noah.” She smiles. “You know, it’s funny how you try so hard to stay away from guys’ attention and you still get it.” She laughs. “I mean, I get it, with that angel face of yours.” 

My head spins to her in a matter of seconds and I’m afraid I’ve given myself a whiplash. Did she just use the words angel face? I feel my heart beating ten times faster. 

“But the things is- they both are super nice.” 

Now, here she goes- she’s about to let Charlie take over Jack’s advises now. I hate to admit I like it and I try not to smile as we both walk to the cashier. 

“Like, before I met these guys, I would never think it was possible for someone to kind of outweigh Harry but I gotta say Noah is pretty close. I mean he’s so nice and funny and smart and cute, you know? He’s got a niece, you should see him with her.” She raises her eyebrows. 

I just shake my head at her as I place the groceries on the cash and she excitedly chats with the cashier because that’s just the way she is. It’s pouring rain when we make our way outside the supermarket and I try my best to cover Mateo with my jacket as we wait for the rain to give us a break under the roof of the supermarket entrance when Noah, out of all people, rushes to the supermarket. 

“Oh, hi, girls!” 

He grins like he had just come out of a romcom and I can’t help but hear Charlie’s words in my head as I look at him. I mean, like seriously, it is fucking raining and then here he appears, fully dry which can only means he has a car like a knight in shining armour. I internally roll my eyes as Mateo babbles against my chest. 

“Hi, Noah.” I smile. I’m about to scare him away. “This is Mateo, my son.” 

But Noah just grins wider and that’s the first time someone has reacted like that to me saying my son. He could really be somebody. 

“Of course he’s your son!” He cheers. “Mate he looks exactly like you!” 

My heart skips a beat when Mateo smiles back at him. He’s such a happy baby and I’m such a proud mama and Noah just chuckles at my baby’s cute antics. 

“You girls need a ride?” He offers. “I was going to get something quick for lunch but I can drive you home. It doesn’t look like it’s going to stop raining anytime soon.” 

“We actually could use a ride, yeah.” Charlie answers for us both. “We’ll treat you to lunch actually since you’re going to drive us. It’s the least we can do.” 

Noah smiles and offers to carry some of our bags as we make our way to his car. A black Volvo. Okay, he seems to have money too but then again I don’t know why I’m surprised considering he’s friends with Chloe and Harry and the rest of them. 

The three of us have pasta with zucchini and cream at Charlie’s house while Mateo takes his afternoon nap and we share such a nice conversation, it’s been a long time since I haven’t felt this relaxed, like I have nothing to hide and I can just be Jamie; for Noah has already met Mateo and he’s still being nice to me. I can tell he likes my outfit too, even though it’s just yoga pants and a crop top but I’ve caught him roaming my body up and down with his eyes once or twice and I’d lie if I said I’m not happy about it. It’s nice to know I still have it after giving birth to a child and breastfeeding him every day. 

Noah kept making Mateo laugh until he asked if he could hold him and I happily obliged. He’s been lifting him up in the air and showing him fruits since I handed my baby over to him as Charlie and I make some tea in the kitchen. 

“I told you he’s so cute with babies.” She whispers. 

I just laugh. 

“He loves the feel of mandarins as well” Noah notices as I stare as Mateo’s tiny hands playing with the tangerine “just like my niece.” He shrugs. “I don’t know what is with babies and mandarins.” 

“Maybe it’s the smell too? They smell really good.” I notice. 

“Yeah” he agrees “maybe.” 

After tea and pumpkin biscuits, Noah drives Mateo and me home with the promise of seeing each other again at Jack’s party. He offers to pick me up for it but I politely decline. He’s very sweet and cool and I really like him, but I don’t want him to get the wrong idea. 

I put on a burgundy satin v-back midi dress I bought online while I was pregnant because I had a mental breakdown and started buying a lot of clothes that didn’t fit for some reason but I enjoy the way it looks on me now. I decide on just using some mascara and painting my lips with dark burgundy lipstick instead of going with a full make up-smokey eye kind of look and readjust my bangs as I wait for Charlie to honk at the door. 

I walk with Charlie and Jack along the longest line I’ve ever seen in a club before I even realize we are at the Obleon. I stop them, holding Jack by his elbow as he turns to face me. 

“Eh, guys, how are we even going to get in here?” I ask them. “I thought you said we were going to the Morray’s.” 

“We were” Jack explains “but Gemma suggested that we could go to the Obleon as well, since it was such a special night” he grins every time he remembers he got the promotion after a year of internship with Mr Banks “and I mean there’s no way we would get in without her so of course we said yes.” 

I nod my head before I just follow them. I decide I won’t ask any more questions. This is probably all Harry’s doing anyway. I bet he got us all super VIP access to everywhere in the club and that he just has to say the word for the entire thing to just shut down for him. I don’t know how I feel when we walk past all those people waiting and just casually wait for Gemma to appear right next to the doormen. She finally appears, in a silver sequin short dress and purple lipstick, with such a cheerful smile on her face. She grins excitedly at me, apparently so happy to see me again for some reason and I start hoping everyone feels the same way. 

We follow her through a corridor with purple neon lights and plants on both sides of the wall until we finally make it inside the club and I start getting excited as I have a look around myself to see the Obleon from the inside. I thought I was never going to, to be honest, and to make things better, this is the first time I go to a club- without being absolutely forced to by Charlie- since I got pregnant. I have a look at the stairs, big, majestous, white and marble as they curled their way up to a second floor and since they all look down towards the dance floor, I can see there are three floors. I wonder how people look dancing from the third of them. 

Everyone in the club looks so fancy, but as opposed to the last time I hang out with these guys, I don’t feel too out of it now with my satin dress. I adjust the thin strap on my shoulder as we finally spot the group. I’m glad to find out Chloe’s also excited to see me and I greet the rest of the girls as she happily introduces them all to me. These people are so nice. Charlie comes back with a drink for me on her hand and she raises her eyebrows high when I gladly take it and bring the straw to my lips. As I scan the crowd and get starstruck a time or two, my eyes finally bumped into Harry’s green ones as he’s standing with his friends not that far away from me. He doesn’t look very happy to see me so I turn around and try to get a little farther away from him but Gemma cuts me off and walks me towards him. His friends are nice and they both introduce themselves to me, Jeff and Mitch, but Harry just looks me up and down. No hello, no smile, nothing. So I’m the one to greet him. 

“Hi.” I say. 

He just raises his eyebrows as if he was surprised I have a voice at all. I guess I deserve his behaviour, but he’s still making me feel so uncomfortable and I just want to drop dead in front of him. I almost feel like I should apologize for my existence to him but instead I just look down at both our feet and turn around, keen to just walk away from him and pretend and I never knew him, but he just grabs my elbow and then his hand moves down my arm until our hands intertwine and like that he pulls me along to the stairs. He doesn’t let go of my hand as we make our way along the white marble stairs to the second floor but I guess he’s not worried about anyone snatching a photo of the two of us because this is very private I take it. He only stops when we are standing next to a white column on the second floor and he places himself next to him so I am left facing him, having a nice view of the dance floor from the inner balcony. 

I entertain myself looking for Charlie so that I don’t have to face the apology I owe him. 

“Are you going to tell me what the hell happened?” He starts. He seems mad. “You text me the kiss I gave you was the best kiss you’ve ever been given and then you ignore me?” 

“You only text me once.” I complain, scratching my elbow as I avoid looking at him.

“And I called you and left a voice mail.” 

I look up at his eyes. 

“That you never heard.” He guesses correctly. 

“I never hear my voice mails. No one leaves voice mails anymore.” 

He doesn’t reply to that and I know he’s just waiting for me to explain myself but now I just don’t know what to say. He looks so good on that black suit even though he’s not even smiling but his face is just perfect I swear to God. And somehow the fact that he seems to be hurt by my silence makes me feel special, like he actually has been waiting for me to talk to him, even though I would imagine he would have random sex with girls he never saw again all the time. 

“Are you seeing someone?” 

He blurts out loud and I frown immediately. Under any other circumstances, I would have called him out for calling me a cheater like that- if there’s something I hate that’s lying- but the fact that he sounds jealous almost makes me smile. 

“No! That’s not what this is about.” 

“Then what is it?” 

“I mean... What happened the other night was a mistake.” I lie even though I don’t know I’m lying. 

“You regret it?” 

I can’t lie to him. I don’t know why but I just don’t want to so I can’t say I do because I don’t. God for some reason I am dying for him to kiss me again right now. But... I know it’s silly, it would never work and I would just get hurt yet I don’t want him to know I had thought about a future because he had only kissed me once. I look away from him. 

“I just don’t think it should happen again.” 

He surprises me with silence. I won’t lie, I would like for him to fight me a little on that- to try to convince me, even though I’m sure if he does try he will win me over and I will just get my heart broken at the end of this little game. 

“Okay.” He says instead. “I don’t want to, but I’m going to respect it.” 

I hate that he’s so good. 

“But we can at least be friends, right?” 

I nod. I’m going to suck being his friend but he probably has a thousand and he probably means that just like- let’s say hi when we see each other at Charlie’s- so I take it and offer him my hand. He stares at him with an amused expression before he takes it and we shake hands before we make our way downstairs and join the rest of the group. Charlie gives me a questioning look, as if she wants to know if something happened between us, but I just roll my eyes. Oh, God, what did I just do? 

Out of the corner of my eye, I see him walking back to his friends from before, and I make it a point to stay far away from him. I dance with Gemma and her girlfriends and they all try so hard to make me feel like part of their group that at they end I do. Noah offers me another drink and we both make our way to the bar. I hold on to his shoulder when someone accidentally bumps their elbow into me as they dance and he turns his head to look at me before he offers me his hand. I take it for balance but immediately feel guilty. I don’t want to use him but I also want to take Harry out of my head. When I look at him though, he’s staring at us and he doesn’t look happy. 

I grab the drink that Noah’s offering me and we sip on both our drinks a little so as not to walk back to our friends with the drinks fill to the brim because they would just spill all over the dance floor and that would just be a waste. I’m laughing with him but I am awared the alcohol is helping me a lot because on the back of my mind I keep hearing this voice that’s calling me an idiot for pushing Harry Styles away like that. Secretly, I can’t wait for us to go back to our group so I can eye Harry again but my night gets ruined in a matter of seconds when I do for I see him sitting down with some girls and they’re all gorgeous and laughing at his jokes. I hate to think he could be talking them up like he did me just a week ago. I want to leave. 

I say my goodbye to Noah and he offers to share an Uber so that I don’t have to go home alone but I politely decline because I’m not sure what his intentions really are and I don’t want to have to tell him that no, he can’t come in my home. If he were Harry, I would obviously say yes and invite him inside and I would have him in my bed as I kiss him all over but he’s not so insted I look for Charlie and give her a kiss on the cheek before I hug Jack and congratulate him again for his promotion telling them both I’m leaving. They both offer to wait with me at least until the Uber gets there but I crave for those few minutes alone so I can get my thoughts in a fine line. 

As I wait for my Uber, I try to organize the following day because that’s what I do when I get nervous, to regain some sense of control; but I can’t stop thinking about Harry and his calmed green eyes, and his dimples, and his nose, and his unruly hair and the way he smells and that suit... Why did I have to meet him? I was so put-together before I did. How can I miss someone I barely know and never have had? 

I look down at my phone to check how much longer the uber driver is going to take and I watch it die in my hand. Great. I hate when I run out of battery and even though I know my way home and there’s no need to worry, I start feeling a mild anxiety on the back of my neck when I hear him mumbling. 

“Come on, pick up, pick up.” 

I turn around to face him and he looks at me with bright green eyes, his phone still on his ear even though his mouth is agape and he’s not saying a word. He hangs up and stands in front of me. 

“I was calling you.” He admits. 

“My phone died.” I show him. 

“You’re alone?” He frowns. 

I nod. 

“I thought you had left with Noah.” 

Who would have thought he was the jealous type? 

“And that’s why you called?” He doesn’t answer. “Well now you see I didn’t, you can go back to your girlfriends. You almost have the blond, the brunette is playing hard to get.” I look ahead. I am jealous too. 

“I’m not interested in any of them.” He breathes. “That’s why I came after the girl I like even though she said she wants nothing to happen between us.” 

I feel him talking on my ear as he stands right behind me. He’s very close and I’m a little alarmed by his behaviour because we’re outside the club now and I bet this is full of papparazzis and whatnot. I swallow the lump in my throat. If I feel his breath against my neck again my knees might fail me. I’m desperate for him to touch me. 

“Let me take you home.” He whispers on my ear. 

That’s it, I’m a goner. I don’t even think about it because there’s nothing to think.

“You are trouble.” I whisper back. 

I hear the air coming out through his smile before he presses a chaste kiss on my temple and his arms are wrapping around my waist as he pulls me to him. 

“Nah.” He reassures me but I know he’s lying. 

He ends up paying my Uber just for the driver to walk away before he’s calling his driver. He tells me he doesn’t enjoy much fancy things, but that he can’t just have anyone driving to his house, so that he can keep as much of the little privacy he has left safe, and it almost seems funny to me that he is justying himself. 

I lean my head on the window of the car and enjoy the feel of his hand agains my thigh as he draws circles against the satin of my dress. I have two options now: I can either crawl back to my comfort zone and push him away and avoid him for the rest of the time he stays in London, which I don’t think it’s going to be much anyway; or I can stop fighting him and enjoy him as long as he decides to stay around and then he’ll leave and things will go back to normal. I’ll deal with the heart break when I have to. 

When we make it to his apartment, this time he doesn’t waste any time and pushes me against the door as soon as he closes it kissing my lips passionately as if he had been waiting forever to do that. I can’t help but moan against his lips as I feel a fierceness in his kisses I haven’t felt before. His hands circle my waist and raise my satin dress against my flanks and it feels funny between my legs. 

“I have been thinking about this since you left last time.” He confesses between kisses. 

I just softly gasp as my form of agreement. I hope he understands. How can I be this attracted to a man I barely know? But I understand all his fans now, I understand why he gets all that much attention, he really is magnetic and God he smells so good and his skin is so soft. I’m going crazy for him. I press my hips against his and feel him smile against my mouth. 

“You know, for someone who didn’t want this to happen again, you seem to be enjoying it.” He smirks. 

I’m about to attack him with a come back when he starts kissing my neck. His tongue lick a single stripe on the skin right below my ear and the air in my lungs... gone. 

“Oh, shut up” I tangle my fingers on his hair and he presses his hips against mine this time, letting my feel how hard he is already “and take me to your bed.” 

He growls against my neck, pressing his body against mine and pushing me further against the door. I’m so turned out I think I might burts into flames. I haven’t had sex in forever but somehow I’m not even nervous, the only thing I can think about is him coming in and out of me. 

“Are you sure?” He whispers. 

“Please.” 

He keeps kissing me as he makes me walk backwards towards the stairs and then he laughs when I trip on the first step. 

“Yeah” he laughs “maybe it’s better” he keeps interrupting himself by kissing my lips- not that I’m complaining- “if we just climb the stairs like normal people.” 

“What?” I tease him, tangling my fingers on his hair again so I can have control of the kiss “You don’t think you can make it like they do in the movies?” 

He smiles against my lips and I take advantage of that to kiss his neck. He throws his head back to grant me more access and I smile at the way he seems to be melting down on my hands. He chuckles but he sounds so turned on it only edges me on. I feel his hands grabbing my bum and I moan against his skin, pushing my hips against his desperately. 

“Rise your dress up your legs.” He half orders and my knees shake. 

I help him rise my dress up my legs like he said so now it’s a mess around my waist and then I feel his big hands against the bare skin of the back of my thighs pulling me up so that my legs wrap around his waist. He smiles at me before his lips are on mine and then he makes his way up the stairs not stopping until he’s pushing me on his bed, lying on top of me and kissing me passionately. 

“I love to feel you smile when I kiss you.” He whispers. “It means you want me too.” 

I don’t fail to get the meaning of his words so I pull away from his mouth and cup his face with my hands making him look at me. 

“Of course I want you too.” I confess. “The only reason I didn’t want this to happen again was because I don’t want to get hurt.” Now I don’t know why I just said that. 

I see his green eyes looking into both of mine and I know a hundred thoughts are running through his mind. I probably did scare him away with the thought of a future thing. I want to flinch but instead I hold his gaze and caress his cheek. 

“I’m not going to hurt you.” He whispers. 

I nod, pretending I believe him, even though somehow, I actually kind of do. 

“I wasn’t planning on telling you anything tonight after you ignored me” he smiles timidly “but I got mad the second I saw you tonight because fuck me you look so fucking sexy... And I thought I wasn’t going to have you.” 

I smile and caress the skin on the back of his neck as I enjoy the intensity of his stare on me. He caress my bottom lip with his index finger. 

“It also made me mad to think that you hadn’t thought about me like I had thought about you.” He confesses. “And... then when I saw you with Noah... I want to murder the guy.” 

I laugh, kissing the tip of his nose before I press a peck to his lips. I don’t know what this is. All these confessions on his bed, even before we’ve had sex, but I feel like I should tell him some secret too. 

“I haven’t gotten you out of my head since the other night either.” I whisper. 

He smiles, like that was all he needs before he leans over me and captures my lips with his again. He kisses me slower this time, more calmly, as if he was taking his time and I let myself enjoy the way his hands move againts my skin. He presses slow kisses down my neck and I let him explore my chest as he kisses my sternum, slowly pulling the strap down my shoulder with his fingers so my chest is more exposed to him. I know he can feel my erratic heartbeat but I don’t even mind he knows. 

He looks up at me and smiles mischievously and I know he’s asking for my permission to take his expedition along my body lower so I smile, granting him access. With one hand around my waist, the other grabs the hem of my dress and pulls it up until my belly is exposed. The hand that held my waist moves and caresses the strip of skin in contact with my hazel colour lace underwear and my skin burns from his touch. Once again he grabs the hem of my dress with one hand, the other lifting my back by my waist and he takes it off, delicately dropping it next to his bed as he stares into my eyes, after gaining control over his again after they dropped to bra covered chest. 

“You are so beautiful.” He whispers. 

“Leave the bra on.” 

I am panicking too hard to even take his compliment. The last thing I need is for him to breastfeed himself accidentally. I almost want to cry from embarrassment and he doesn’t even know milk can come out of my breasts yet. I don’t think I want to tell him. He frowns and I can tell I’m panicking because of the concer on his face. He presses his lips against mine and kisses me very slowly until I feel the tension leaving my body. 

“Okay.” 

He doesn’t question it and I just want to scream how grateful I am for that but then 

“Oh.” I moan. 

He just presses his hardness between my thighs and only then I realize my legs are spread wide opened granting perfect access for him to do that and shut me up just like that. He’s so hard and hot and I know I’m so wet and ready for him. He’s stopped kissing me and instead he just stares at me as he pushes his hardness against my clothed centre again and I just bite my bottom lip, my eyes almost rolling to the back of my head, but I don’t want to miss the way he’s enjoying the realization of his effect on me. He keeps doing that, gently but firmly rocking his hips against me while he intently stares at me and I keep whimpering and sinking my head against his pillow until he takes that as an invitation to kiss my neck. 

“Fuck” he whispers in my ear “I’m so hard for you.” 

“I want you.”

It’s like my sex has taken control over me for those words leave my mouth without my consent but I know I’ve said them because of the way he’s looking at me. His eyes are still fixated on mine as his hand glide up my thigh until it’s on my knee and gently pushes it to my armpit so that I’m impossibly more opened for him and then that same hand starts caressing the inner side of my tight before he cups my crotch with his hand and his fingers move against my entrance. His lips are brushing mine as he speaks. 

“Can I take these off?” 

I know he’s asking because of the bra thing but still his question makes my walls clench and I think he can tell considering where his hand is. I nod and kiss him again as my hands pull him closer to him. Goosebumps form in every part of skin he touches and I didn’t know it was going to feel so good to get rid of my underwear until he did. He careses his way back along my thighs and then squeezes my bum and has me like a moaning mess on his mouth. 

I am trying to decide whether I want to fight my heavy lids and keep my eyes opened to see his every move or whether I should just go with what comes natural and let them shut and just feel him all over me. I feel his weight on top of me before he presses his hard on against my naked sex and only then I realize he’s still wearing his suit pants. Before I can even organize my thoughts, my hands go straight to work and I find myself expertly unbuttoning his trousers as if I had done it many times before. I’m glad he isn’t wearing a belt for it would have been another barrier to have him like I want. He pushes his trousers down his legs as he hungrily kisses me and I can feel his breath erratic inside my mouth. 

I cup his face and kiss him with an affection I didn’t know I had for him and it scares the hell out of me to think he might leave tomorrow or worse, that he could stay for long enough for me to fall in love and then eventually go- not to mention how fast he’d run if he knew I have a son. But I don’t have to think about that now. I have him, naked, on top of me. 

“Harry” I exhale. 

“Can I have you now?” 

I only have to look at him for my body to scream at him that he can have me however he wants. I can’t barely see any green left in his eyes as his pupils have dilated and he stares at me like a hunter and I can’t help but wish he would devour me. But the moment I feel his hardness pressed against my entrance, I tense like a block of ice and I know he can tell because he abruptly stops his movements on top of me. 

“We don’t have to if you don’t want to.” He whispers. 

I am blushing hard and I feel the heat coming up my neck towards my cheeks. I want to look away from him. I’ve never been more embarrased in my life. But he cups my cheek and presses a sweet kiss against my lips. 

“I don’t mind, Jamie.” 

But he’s naked and so am I and I’m dying for him. It’s just...

“I haven’t had sex in fifteen months.” 

My chest is going up and down as he tries to manage his surprise but his eyes betray him as they open wide. His lips are parted before he licks them and pulls my hair away from my forehead. 

“That’s okay.” He reassures me. “There’s no rush” he smiles “and we don’t have to do anything you don’t want to.” 

“But I... I do want to. I want you.” I reassure him and he nods, smiling. “I’m just afraid it’s going to hurt.” I confess. 

He smiles at me before he presses our mouths together again and my tongue is moving against him as if trying to let him know all those things I haven’t told him. That I have a child, that I’m afraid I’m not going to be what he expect, that I’m afraid giving birth has changed me forever. But also that despite having a child, I don’t have much experience anyway, that I only had one boyfriend before, that we didn’t experiment much but then his kisses start travelling down my body and I feel him leaving soft but sensual kisses against my sternum and between the valley of my breasts and right at the pit of my stomach. I feel hot pufs of air against my soaked, swollen sex and when I look down at him, our eyes meet and I know what his mouth is hovering and I feel my heart beating on my throat. 

“Wait, what are you doing?” 

He holds my thighs and pulls them over his shoulders and I feel incredibly exposed to him which makes me so nervous I involuntarily try to close my legs. Harry looks up at me. 

“What are you doing?” He smiles and then I see realization hits him. “Wait, you’ve never been eaten before?” 

I know the skin of my face has gotten redder than a poppy and I must look horrified because he chuckles at my reaction.

“Eaten?” I shudder at his filthy moath. “I... No, no one’s ever done that.” 

“Why?” He asks. 

I rub my forehead and swallow my own saliva. I don’t know why I’m so nervous. It might be the refusal of how much I actually want this. I hope he can tell by the way I’m looking at him because if I actually have to say it I might start crying. I didn’t know this was so embarrassing, but he’s still face to face with my love door. 

“Sorry, I just assumed” he apologies “because you’re so sexy and... Confident and... I don’t know, but I kind of like no one has been lucky enough before.” He smiles like the devil. “Can I be the first?” 

I know he understands by the way he grins at me but I nod anyway, wanting to make the consent explicit, and then I shut my eyes and throw my head back, too embarrassed to look at how he’s going to steal my innocence with his mouth. My mouth agapes and I let out a suffocated moan when his tongue grazes my lips.  

I don’t know what’s going on, but the more he moves his tongue against my skin the more I feel like I’m not even touching the bed. I feel like a intruder in my own body, like I have lost all control over all my emotions. Like I didn’t even know myself. For the next minutes I feel as I don’t own myself but rather Harry does and I feel my mind getting further and further away as his tongue dances around persuasively, every now and then sucking at my clit or delicately licking it to bring some calm back to my fluttering chest. 

I can feel Harry smiling against me every now and then and I reward his amazing performance with loud moans. He’s moaning too even though I would never imagine this would be pleasurable for him as well but every time he moans I feel the vibration against my clit and I just can’t take it anymore. I pull from his hair as I cum and surprise myself with that because I hadn’t even noticed I had tangled my fingers on his hair. 

When I come back from my high, his face is inches apart from mine and his body is once again over mine. He’s grinning at me, getting the shinning away from the corner of his mouth with his fingers. I’m still struggling to breath when I talk. 

“That didn’t hurt, did it?” He grins like a naughty child and despite how embarrassing that still was, I find myself laughing out loud. “I love making you laugh.” 

I smile at him. What I’m about to tell him makes me shy.

“That felt incredible.” 

He grins proudly before he nods, taking the compliment. He presses his lips against mine in a sweet peck but I’m curious so I let my tongue out, licking his bottom lip, and he smiles at the realization of my petition, opening his mouth for me. I lick his tongue, tasting myself on it, and the salty taste and the thought that it was me who gave that to him makes me moan. 

“I can’t believe no one has ever tasted you.” 

I smile. It’s funny to me how he says no one, as if there had been many before him. 

“I haven’t been with that many guys.” I confess. 

“Haven’t you?” 

I shake my head. I hope he helps him understad why I ran away from him and ignored him and pushed him away and all the other stupid things I did before this. 

“I am not... Very experienced. I hope you don’t think I’m weird.” I caress his cheek. 

He presses a sweet kiss against my lips. 

“I don’t. I actually love the idea of being the first one to eat your pussy.”

“Harry!” 

My face reddens completely as I swat his chest playfully and he laughs out loud. He loves to embarrass me. He kisses my lips as soon as he manages to stop laughing and I enjoy the fact that he likes kisses this much. I’m a big fan of kisses myself.

“You’re such a good kisser.” He whispers against my lips. 

He’s the one saying that? I love kissing him and I have to recognize it’s not only for the way he responds to it, but also because... Well, because it’s him. 

[svtmatokis]

Mingyu Office AU! P4

Hi guys~! Here is the next part of the Mingyu Office AU! Literally the longest chapter yet but also the intro to the juiciest part of the story so I hope you enjoy! 

Plot: You’ve transferred to the Korean division of your company as a high ranking associate but no one but those you have previously worked with know how high you ranked since you’re a firm believer of working your way to the top. Focusing on your career, dating never crossed your mind. That is..until you meet Kim Mingyu, the tall dark and handsome associate who too has never dated but is fairly popular with the girls. Will the two of you end up together? Or will work get in the way again?

Part: 1 - 2 - 3

Words: 4745

Pairing: Reader x Mingyu

♥

Mingyu parked the car in his designated spot and stopped you before you could get out of the car by grabbing your hand which made you look at him with a slight blush.

“Will you go on a date with me Friday night?” he asked quickly catching you off guard but after a moment you answered.

“So last night wasn’t a date?” you asked and he shook his head.

“Let me take you out on a proper date.” he stated and brought your hand to his lips. “Say Friday at 8?” his voice full of hope.

In your mind you were already telling yourself you’d be an idiot to say no and you gave him a hesitant smile without realizing that Friday was actually tomorrow. “Okay.”

The grin that spread on Mingyus face was contagious and he gave you a kiss on the cheek before releasing your hand and opening his door as you did to yours.

Once he was out on his side, he let out a big breath as you did the same on the other side before the two of you made your way into the office.

Halfway to the elevator, Mingyu realized that he had forgotten something in his car that he had for Jihoon and went back to get it. He told you to wait for him but you told him that it was fine and that you’d see him on the Seventeenth floor. Plus, you didn’t feel like answering any questions when the two of you entered together so it was the best idea.

You walked by the boardroom and saw the marketing team having their weekly check-in meeting. Something Kyulkyung initiated when she noticed that a few of her team members were underperforming. She was supposed to promote an associate by the end of the quarter but any chances of that looked slim. You couldn’t help but notice the stare you were getting from one of the associates who you recognized as Dahyun who was sitting near the back and wondered why. Her eyes met yours before she quickly looked away and focussed on what Kyulkyung was saying. Thinking nothing of it, you made your way towards your desk area.

When you got to your desk, you were not surprised to see Minghao and Jun leaning against it in conversation but was surprised to see Josh part of the conversation too.

“May I ask why my desk has become the latest muster station?” you asked casually as you took the file out of your bag and placed in Josh’s waiting hands.

“We want to hear about your little date with Mingyu last night.” Minghao answered and Josh’s eyes widened.

“I was just waiting for you to show up cause I need to submit the contract to Jeonghan before his ten o’clock meeting with Seungcheol.” Joshua answered for himself but put the folder down and gave you a cheeky smirk, “But a date with Mingyu? I have time.” He said looking at his watch and got comfortable.

“Can we not do this now?” you asked looking around at the other associates and suddenly Seokmin and Soonyoung joined the group.

“Sure.” Josh answered with a smirk, “Mandatory team meeting at lunch. You’re welcome to join us Hao.” He stated before giving you a wink and left to find Jeonghan.

The rest of your team dispersed satisfied with the Seniors call leaving you, Minghao and Jun to look at one another.

“He’s not here if you’re wondering.” Jun said already reading your mind knowing that the first thing you’d want to know was about Yanan’s whereabouts. “They’re out sightseeing and they’ll be having an office visit on Monday.”

You nodded your head slowly letting out a breath. That was a good thing, at least you had time to prepare for the long awaited confrontation.

“Thank goodness.” you muttered as you unpacked your things.

“What’s the deal? I thought you and Yanan were close” Minghao asked in a quiet voice, not wanting to attract any attention from anyone else.

“It’s a long story ” you answered with a roll of your eyes. “I’ll explain over dinner tonight?”

“Tonight? Why not tomorrow? It’s Friday.” Jun suggested.

“I have plans.” you answered simply not wanting to tell them about the date in front of everyone, especially since you noticed the Marketing team coming out of the boardroom and you noticed three particular girls who were staring/glaring at you from afar.

“So are you or are you guys not free tonight?”

“We’re free” the two men responded as a cup of coffee was suddenly placed in your hands and you looked up to see Mingyu smiling down at you and the two shared a look and watched your interaction.

“You didn’t stop by the breakroom?” he asked knowing that you always had a second cup of coffee after your first.

You gave Jun and Minghao a side glance, “I was ambushed before I could go. Thank you though.” You took a sip and was amazed at the taste and you looked up at him as he grinned and suddenly, everyone in the office disappeared.

“Two creams and one sugar, just the way you like it.”

You smiled and blushed looking down not knowing what to say which made Minghao and Jun more curious as to what happened the night before and suddenly, they couldn’t wait till lunch.

“Okay, I hate to say this but I can’t wait till lunch.” Jun said looking at the electricity flowing between you and Mingyu and Minghao nodded in response.

“Why can’t you wait till lunch?” Mingyu asked and you let out a sigh making him look at you with a curious look and you leaned in closer to mutter to him.

“Apparently we were seen yesterday after dinner and now my team is in interrogation mode. Josh called a mandatory team lunch just so we could all “chat” about things.”

Mingyu looked at you confused and looked at Jun and Minghao, “All I did was take her to the meeting and we had a quick dinner before I dropped her off.” he explained, “Plus, the real dates tomorrow night.”

Jun and Minghao looked at each other wide eyed and looked between you and Mingyu as your jaw dropped at his comment and you looked up at him. Was he serious?

“Ming-” you started but was cut off by Jihoon’s voice.

“What are the two of you still standing at Y/N’s desk for? I’m pretty sure you both have projects to work on. Mingyu, my office please.” he said as Mingyu quickly followed the Senior Associate after giving you a quick meaningful smile and a, “I’ll see you later” while Minghao made his way to his desk leaving you and Jun who was clearly snickering.

He didn’t even have to ask. It was now obvious as to why you had plans the next evening and he was content with the recent developments between you two. Heck, your whole team was and they were waiting for the day that the two of you would stop dancing around one another. It was only a matter of time.

“A date eh?” Jun asked as he sat next to you and opened his laptop. “Then what was last night? The pre-date?”

“Shush you. I need to finish this report before lunch or Josh will have my head.” you said getting to work after finishing your coffee and Jun tsked at you. Figures you’d keep your mouth shut at the office since you were all about the professionalism and not gossip. “I’ll get it out of you tonight. Don’t you worry my friend,” he said feigning a sneer as he started to work on his own files.

Soon, you and your team were headed out for lunch which Minghao opted to sit out on after getting the details from Mingyu and like Jun, he was happy with the progress.

On the way out, you saw Mingyu walk back into the office from a lunch meeting he had with Jihoon and at the same time, Nayeon, Dahyun and Mina looked like they were also on their way out for lunch. .”

Your team acknowledged Jihoon and Mingyu and before you could get too far, Mingyu grabbed your wrist which made you stop in your tracks. From the corner of your eye, you could also see the three girls and your team who was slightly ahead of you stop as well.

You looked up at Mingyu curiously as your team and Jihoon watched on.

“I have to stay late tonight to work on something with the boss so I can’t take you home. Will you be okay?” he asked and you could see in his eyes that he was sorry so you gave him a smile.

“Its okay. Jun, Hao and I are going out for dinner after work so I’ll catch a ride with one of them.” you answered with a reassuring nod, “Good luck and don’t overwork yourself.”

Mingyu seemed to accept your answer and grinned as he let go of your wrist so he couldn’t give into temptation and kiss it in front of all your teammates and team leaders.

“Then I’ll pick you up again tomorrow morning at the same time” he responded and you nodded knowing he wouldn’t take no for an answer. “I’ll let you get to your...interrogation lunch.” he shot you a wink before following Jihoon towards the elevator.

You quickly caught up with your team and they all seemed to give you the same look until Jun and Soonyoung started snickering and soon Joshua and Seokmin joined in.

“Good luck and don’t overwork yourself?” Jun asked, putting his hand on your shoulder, “Really Y/N?”

“Now I really want to know what happened last night.” Josh stated nudging you while the other two agreed snickering.

“It’s not about what happened last night that we should be asking about” Jun later while at the restaurant and you turned to glare at him, “It’s about what’s going to happen tomorrow night.”

Three heads turned to look at you, “Tomorrow night?” they asked in unison and you let your head thud against the table with a sigh as they started to bombard you with questions. Meanwhile, Nayeon, Mina and Dahyun were at the same restaurant watching your team grill you about the previous days activities and Nayeon scoffed.

“What are they even talking about. Mingyu felt obligated to take her to the client meeting yesterday because she was running late. If she wasn’t I doubt he would’ve offered.” she stated snobbishly as Mina nodded her head in agreement.

“She probably made herself late so it would happen.” Mina added.

Dayhyun continued to scroll through her phone regarding an assignment that Kyulkyung had given her and was determined to finish and she was still unsure of what she saw earlier that morning as she left her apartment but didn’t want to say anything until she knew for sure.

“She’s been all over Mingyu since she got here and did you see how she played innocent in the lobby when Mingyu took her hand? Who does she think she is? It’s like she doesn’t even know her place in this corporate hierarchy” Nayeon continued her rant as Mina nodded her.

Dahyun only sighed as she continued to listen on. She turned to glance at your table and automatically she could see the friendships that existed. Even with Joshua who was the Senior Associate in charge, he and the other Senior Associates of the Seventeenth floor made it a point to treat everyone with the same respect. Something that her team lacked and it wasn’t because of the team leader.

You were sitting next to Joshua who had leaned over to whisper something in your ear which made you look at him wide eyed and shove him as the rest of the table laughed hearing exactly what he said making you glare at them all. Though you were the only girl on the team, it was obvious that these men had a lot of respect for you.

She had heard from Chan who was under Jeonghan that there were a few Senior Associates who had their eyes on you and wanted you on their team but from what she heard, Joshua was intent on keeping you on his team.

Dahyun jumped at the sound of a cell phone ringing and saw you quickly answer the call. So it was your phone.

“Hey” you said into the receiver as your table went silent. Dahyun noticed Jun nudging Seokmin and Soonyoung and the three wore smirks on their faces and she attempted to listen in on your one sided conversation.

“At the place that we went to last week.” you answered whoever was on the line.

“Did you not already have lunch?” you asked with an incredulous look and almost facepalmed.

“Okay, don’t worry about it. Anything else?” you asked the person on the other line.

“We’re just about done so maybe fifteen minutes.” you continued and Dahyun could almost see the blush on your cheeks

“Okay, see you soon. Bye.” you hung up the phone as your table started teasing you and Dahyun already had an idea on who it was. Biting her lip,she started to think of a plan. A plan that wouldn’t get her into trouble.

“What happens if Mingyu starts to date someone?” Dahyun asked suddenly looking at her two teammates and Nayeon rolled her eyes.

“Mingyu’s going to ask Nayeon out Dahyun, its obvious.” Mina replied. “And if he decides to date someone else, then we’ll just have to scare her off.”

“And we’re going to start with Y/N…” Nayeon muttered clenching her fists. She didn’t like that everyones attention was on you and was sure that it was only temporary but it was obvious she was being proved wrong.

Dahyun bit her lip as she noticed your group starting to pack up and noticed a text from Kyulkyung asking her to return to the office so she quickly gathered her things.

“I just got a message from the team leader. I’m going back to the office first.”

The two girls looked at her weirdly before nodding their heads and Dahyun was out the door not too far behind your team.

When she got back to the office, she was told to report to the Seventeenth floor which confused her and upon entering,she was told to meet in the boardroom and wait.

While she sat in one of the chairs, Chan also walked in and sat down greeting her with his trademark smile.

“Do you know what this is about?” she asked and Chan shrugged his shoulders.

“Jeonghan told me to report here.” he answered and Dahyun was more confused

She was about to ask another question when she looked out the window and saw Mingyu sitting at your desk as if waiting and not too long later, you walked into the office with a bag in hand and Dahyun saw the smile that graced Mingyu’s features that had so many girls falling at his feet. It looked like Chan was also paying attention but for a different reason and she almost had to double check her hearing when she heard him utter.

“Finally.”

“I need you to report to the boardroom once you make your lovers delivery” Joshua said in a serious tone and you scoffed.

“I would’ve taken you seriously there had you not used the term lover” you answered as you walked towards your desk already noticing Mingyu waiting for you.

“Well am I wrong?” Josh asked quietly with a twinkle in his eye as he nudged you. “Boardroom five minutes.”

“Yes boss.” you gave him a salute and walked over to Mingyu who was playing with the sticky notes on your desk. “I’d appreciate it if you left my things alone Mr. Kim.”

Mingyu looked up at you and grinned, “Sorry, I was just leaving you this” he showed you a sticky note with what you needed to know about your date tomorrow. He then eyed the bag in your hand, “Is that the dessert?”

You held up the bag, “As requested.”

Suddenly, Jihoon walked by and grabbed the bag out of your hands, “Thanks Y/N.” he then walked into his office and shut his door and you turned to Mingyu.

“It was for him?”

Mingyu nodded his head sheepishly, “Jihoon left his cell at home and couldn’t contact Josh so he had me call you. I’m actually just sitting here because he told me that there was a meeting in the boardroom after your team got back from lunch so I was waiting for you.”

“Waiting for me?” you asked, “You got pulled into that meeting too?”

Mingyu nodded his head as he looked in the boardroom to see Chan and Dahyun already in there. “We should get going though, I’m not sure which higher up called the meeting but we better get in there before they do.”

Nodding your head, you followed him into the boardroom right as Joshua, Seungcheol, Kyulkyung and Jeonghan walked in and stood at the front.

Mingyu pulled out your seat and then took a seat next to you which was across from Dahyun so she had a perfect view of your interactions.

“Great everyones here.” Seungcheol said with a clap.

“You’re all probably wondering why you’re here right now. Especially you Dahyun.” Jeonghan stated and the girl nodded.

“A project opportunity came up and a manager in the China office thought that the Seoul office was more suited for this job. We were asked to gather three associates along with one person from the marketing team to execute and after much discussion, we decided to try this team out.” Jeonghan explained.

“If this is a request from a manager at the China office, wouldn’t it make more sense for Jun and Hao to be here instead of Mingyu and I?” You asked once he was done.

“It was a request from the China office but we were asked to gather the team. Plus…” Seungcheol started and leaned on the table for emphasis as you noticed a twinkle in his eye, “You. Have. No. Choice.” he winked at you and you suddenly had an idea on who this “manager” was.

“I think it’s a great idea.” Chan stated, “Mingyu and Y/N have a lot of experience and it’ll be great to learn from them.”

Dahyun nodded in agreement, she was still confused as to why she was here until Kyulkyung spoke.

“This is a collaborative project and Dahyun has many strengths that would benefit the team so I hope that the three of you will treat her kindly.” she stated though she already knew the answer to that. “Dahyun, as of Monday and until this project is finished you will be reporting to the Seventeenth floor and will be meeting with Josh who will be your team leader.”

Dahyun nodded her head as Joshua smiled.

“It’ll be great having you work with us.”

“Then it’s all settled. We’ll meet again on Monday when the China office comes for their site visit. As of now, we’ll leave you to get to know one another, though I know a few of you already know each other quite well.” Jeonghan added eyeing you and Mingyu who looked away with a cough before standing up.

“I’m actually going to have to go first. I have a project that’s due by the end of tomorrow for Jihoon so I’ll see you guys later.” he said quickly leaving the room and making his way back to his desk.

Your eyes followed his figure as he left. Something was up with him, you were sure of it. He had been acting like not Mingyu ever since Jihoon pulled him into his office earlier this morning outside of that moment in the lobby before lunch. But would it be rude to ask him out of the blue? No...you should wait, you weren’t one who liked to pry.

You turned back to the group in front of you and looked at Joshua.

“So who’s going to be looking after the other three?” you asked referring to your other teammates. If Joshua was your team leader, that means that another Senior was going to be taking over his team for the duration of this project.

“Let’s just say I traded them with Jeonghan.” Joshua answered and you giggled. They were going to have a rough few weeks.

“You guys can have the afternoon off by the way.” Jeonghan said, “Y/N, great job on closing the deal yesterday, the client was extremely happy and will be sending a few referrals our way.”

“It’s no big deal” you replied with a nod, “Just doing my job. If we’re done here, I’ll get going too.” you then grabbed your bag and left the boardroom letting Minghao and Jun know that you were done for the day.

Kyulkyung followed after you and the two of you stood at your desk packing up. Mingyu stepped out of Jihoons office to see you with your bag in hand and made his way over to you once more.

“Are you leaving Y/N?” he asked as you nodded.

Kyulkyung watched the interaction between the two of you. Of course she knew exactly what transpired the night before and was curious to see how this would affect the work space. She was especially curious since the two of you would now be working as a team.

“Jeonghan gave us the afternoon off and I have a few things to take care of before we meet with the guys tonight so we’re going to take off.” You explained as Mingyu nodded.

“Then I won’t keep you then. I’ll see you tomorrow.” he said with a heartwarming smile and then he was off to his desk to finish his project.

At the same time, Chan and Dahyun were still in the boardroom talking.

Dahyun listened as all Chan could say were good things about you and how excited he was to actually be working with you this time.

As the conversation continued, she was starting to believe that all of Nayeons assumptions of you were wrong.

“Honestly though, all you need to do is just talk to her. She’s really easy going and you’ll see that in the coming weeks.” Chan finished with a smile and the two soon went their separate ways leaving a lot for Dahyun to think about.

Later that evening, you, Kyulkyung, Jun and Minghao sat in a private room in a restaurant that Minghao recommended. Since you had spent the afternoon with each other, it only made sense for her to join you guys. You had received a text from Mingyu earlier letting you know that he was off work and to enjoy your dinner. He had also told you to remember what the sticky note said about the dress code for tomorrow night and that he was really looking forward to it.

After grilling you about Mingyu, it was now time to get to business and the point of the dinner.

“So explain why Luhans covering your ass?” Jun asked.

“And what happened with the S.A position and why did you turn it down?” Minghao added.

“And what the heck is going on with you and Yanan?” They both asked in unison making Kyulkyung giggle.

You looked at your friends blankly as you started to explain.

“There would only one reason why Luhan would be covering my ass and you know it. The reason I turned down the S.A position is related to why I disappeared on Yanan. Do you remember when we all first started and Mei Wei, who was the China heads daughter would come around from time to time?”

Both men nodded.

“Didn’t she have a strong interest in….” Minghao started and you nodded your head.

“The S.A promotion announcement came about a year ago and it was literally between me and Yanan. Up until that announcement, Yanan and I were still close but if you guys recall, there was a point where I refused to speak to him in the past.” you continued and Jun interrupted you.

“Yea, when Mei Wei kept harassing you to stay away from him. Don’t tell me that bullshit’s happening again.” Jun complained. He had heard all about that from Hongseok who was one of the few people he kept in touch with from the China office.

“Worse.” you stated. “When the announcement came out, Mei Wei started coming to the office again and started shadowing her father.”

“More like stalking Yanan but I guess in the end he didn’t mind.” Kyulkyung interjected and Jun and Minghaos brows furrowed. “What does she mean?” Jun asked, “From what I remember, you and Yanan were close.Closer than you and I at one point”

“During the S.A promo period, Yanan and I would often discuss our projects, how to make them better, how to reach certain clients,so on and so forth. It was a normal thing that changed slowly when” you looked at Jun, “Mei Wei came back to the office. Yanan started disappearing at lunch and at random times throughout the day so I started getting curious and I followed him one day and you will not believe where I found him.”

What you said next made Jun and Minghaos jaw drop almost to the floor.

“Does he know that you know?” Jun asked and you shook your head.

“The only other person who is evidently aware is Luhan” you answered “but that’s because he was with me at the time. A few weeks later, right before the promotions were handed out, Luhan pulled me into his office and wanted to let me know that the board was wanting to offer me the S.A position. He wanted me to have the time to consider and think about. But there was also someone else who knew about the boards decision.”

“Mei Wei” Minghao stated and you nodded. “What did she do?”

“My apartment was ransacked, she had people follow and threaten me to reject the position or else…” you listed off your fingers.

“Don’t forget the stairwell incident.” Kyulkyung added. “That crazy bitch tried to shove Y/N down the stairs so she would get the point that she did not want her to have the S.A position.”

“Are you shitting me?” Jun asked, “Did you tell Yanan? Heck did you tell Luhan?”

“I tried to tell Yanan.” you stated, “He didn’t believe me because he didn’t know that I knew what he was up to with Mei Wei and after that I just gave up and cut him out completely not that he noticed. He was “working” too hard for the S.A position. I went to Luhans office the next day to reject the position and quit.”

“Pfffft, like Luhan would let you quit. He liked you better than Yanan.” Jun said and Minghao nodded in agreement.

“And it was that meeting that the internal transfer request came through. The China head doesn’t know I wanted to quit. He only knows that I turned down the S.A position for the sake of this transfer. He has no knowledge about that transpired between. I was cut from my original contract and a new one was made with Seungcheol and Jeonghan” you finished your story and everything now made sense to them.

“So what are you going to do when you run into them?” Minghao asked, “Yanan already knows that you’re here and is completely intent on seeing you.”

You looked around the table at your three friends and took a sip of your drink, “Honestly, I’m more worried about my date with Mingyu more than anything. We’ll cross the Yanan bridge when we get there.”

“Don’t worry, Mingyu has it all planned out. He ran it by me today to make sure it was perfect.”Minghao said giving an okay symbol. “You just need to be yourself. He really likes you and is more or less just as nervous as you are.”

“Just be yourself and everything will be just fine.” Jun concluded with a wink.

Looking down at your phone, you saw that Mingyu had once again texted you.

MG - Sweet dreams ♥ Can’t wait for our date tomorrow night ;)

[27emailsicantsend]

3x14 and 3x15 Andi Mack scene by scene recap + my unnecessary opinions lol

Forewarning: as from the title these ARE spoilers to the episodes if you haven’t seen it. I’m tagging spoilers out but there’s still a chance they could be seen. Also, I’m giving a scene by scene recap with my opinions of the show. I’ve been requested to do the recap but I also want to talk about what I thought from these episodes in more detail than my post yesterday. So for the most part it’ll be factual but I’m really invested in these two episodes so I’ll definitely be adding my own twang. It’s virtually impossible for me not to recap my own hype for the episodes lol. Hope you’re a Muffy and Tyrus stan bc I’ve got some cOnTeNt for you ❤️

Ok here. we. go.

3x14

Scene starts in the spoon. It’s Andi, Muffy, and Cyrus. Muffy and Cyrus talk about Andi’s parents not getting married while Amber overhears. She gets upset and asks why. Andi clarifies her parents aren’t married, but still together and Amber makes the comment, “unlike my house. My parents are still married but barely together”. Which gets some awks looks from the table. Andi tells them she’s not sad, but angry. Then she says that B&B (Bex and Bowie) said she’s entitled to her feelings to which Cyrus claims as being manipulative?? (Still don’t see how, but he explains that they are playing dodgeball and b&b are on one side and Andi on the other. She has a ball of anger she wants to throw, but they’re ready for it. So if she throws it, they’ll catch it and then she basically can’t show her anger- he’s obviously been listening to his counseling parents hahaha). Andi asks where she can throw her anger ball (lol) so Amber takes her to a sledge hammer place (Rage Cage) where everyone is in individual cages that have old items that you just beat up with a sledge hammer.

*opening song*

Andi is laying on her bed and gets a really excited phone call from CeCe about the wedding to which Andi feels guilty. She tries to tell Bex to tell CeCe it’s cancelled but Bex refuses bc the next day is CeCe’s bday. This scene had some really good acting BTW (I’ll probably tell you when this happens too bc honestly props to the actors. And the cinematography and music in these two episodes is beautiful. Literally made me feel like I was watching a movie).

Buffy runs up to Marty at a bench and he gets a big dimple smile bc why wouldn’t he be excited to see her?? Lol Buffy starts mocking Marty’s shoes because they have toe inserts and that’s when he tells her they are for a marathon. Buffy gets confused (and lowkey upset) she didn’t know about the marathon and Marty is all, “we have a lot of catching up to do” and I’m all (you have a lot of dating to do because my soul has been empty this past season without you. #RIPME 😭 ⚰️). So Buffy gets all flirty competitive and says she wants to race as well. Marty tries to talk her out of it bc he’s worried about an injury, dehydration, etc. but this is Buffy we’re talking about and she insists she can do it and then runs away lol, but Marty can’t help the love he feels for her and smiles sheepishly as he goes to run away with her (very metaphoric. I love)

Jonah and Cyrus are walking and Cyrus invites Jonah to see a meteor shower in his backyard for a campout (good Jyrus moment if you ship that) Jonah makes a lame joke about not having a s’more in awhile and so he has “s’less”- Cyrus tells him not to hurt himself making that joke 😂😂

B&B and Andi are at a restaurant waiting for CeCe & Ham. CeCe shows up and tells everyone Ham went back to India.

Cyrus and Jonah go into a beautifully set up tent where Cyrus obviously had to out-do himself and make everything in the tent extra. I love a gay interior design queen.

Back at the restaurant, CeCe says Ham went to India for rest. CeCe makes some really weird remark about seeing him again (yikes) and the rest make comments about him doing what he needs to do and that they have to accept it and not take each other for granted. Very subtextual of the real situation, but also a great way to write off his character and play into Bex worrying about cancelling the wedding. She showed fear like she wouldn’t want to say anything to CeCe bc he’s gone, but since CeCe was ok with him leaving, Bex calmed down too. Just really well done. CeCe tried to show Bex venue photo’s and Bex tried to stop her but then Bex just says she had a problem mailing the wedding invites *cliff hanger*

Cyrus and Jonah back at the tent. Jonah is panicking about dying in Cyrus’ backyard and Cyrus brings meat into the tent but makes it all flirty and weird- I don’t ship Jyrus but the whole thing lowkey felt like they were trying to impress Jyrus shippers with date vibes haha (also the meat is BAD if you’re camping bc animals can get to you). Then an animal hits their tent at (obviously) the right time

CeCe now knows the wedding is off and is PiSsEd™️. The waiters are all completely unaware and don’t know how to read the room so they bring a sparkler cake. CeCe flips the sparkler upside down, shoves it in the cake, and exits as dramatically as possible. Leaving the mustached waiter with an awkward face like:

Then there was this weird commercial on my app promoting season 2 like bish you already know I watched that season at least twice don’t play me like that

Back to the pointless tent scene (for real- this scene was just filler. You rip off Tyrus FOR THIS? Actual homophobia). Jonah mispronounces some weird thing (and Cyrus says don’t hurt yourself again) and then breaks the tent. Cyrus makes a failed attempt at opening the tent with a cheese knife but Shazam! saves the day by telling Cyrus not to hurt himself and opening the tent with the same cheese knife (honestly, weird flex but ok). They escape and are saved and watch a poorly CGI’d meteor shower like two old men on their front porch. and yippee five minutes of wasted screen time are over. I don’t care if you ship Jyrus. It was a waste of time when we could have been focusing on the TeA of the show. *rant over- no worries. Many more to come*

Back to important matters, Muffy is now running their race. Marty doesn’t want to race. He just wants to finish in under 4 hours and Buffy wants to finish under his time. Buffy agrees with Mr. Party at first, but then hears the word “race” and bolts away like Lightning McQueen.

Bex and Andi back at the house. Bex says it went bad with CeCe bc she won’t even act like Bex exists. Andi realizes her anger and knows where to take her (you guessed it. RAGe CAGe- Andi said it wasn’t for Bex lol so she wouldn’t tell Bex where she was going with CeCe 😂 the shade)

Marty is jogging along like a middle aged white woman and sees Buffy wheezing. He gets all husband like and concerned as he catches her in his arms. (Which reminds me of a pic I saw on Tumblr where they drew her in his arms but laced it with the “Miss Keisha” vine and I was here for it). Then Marty and Buffy put their arms around each other and he escorts her to a bench. (Just saying, everyone knows Tyrus is going to involve a bench scene but as us loyal fans know, Muffy shadows Tyrus and they have also encountered two (2) benches thus far. Coincidence? Maybe. Will I believe it was a coincidence? Absolutely not). Then he puts her on the bench and acts all cute and paramedic and concerned. He’s been taking doc notes at General Hospital obviously. (He even mentions taking her to a doctor). Buffy is all like, “Run your race Marty. 4 1/2 hours. [I’m the supportive girlfriend you hoe].” And he doesn’t want to leave her and she accuses him of being a martyr? Then she snaps at him (like tf) to go away and he gets all angsty™️ and runs off and my heart broke bc I was not ready for a Muffy battle.

Andi and CeCe at the Rage Cage... rage. In a cage.

Marty comes running back to Buffy with a dimple smile again bc he knows she was trying to “White Fang” him from a movie they saw together (❤️). To “White Fang” is for the boy in the movie to send the wolf away, wolf doesn’t want to leave, so the boy throws rocks at him to make him go. Buffy is caught (but she ain’t mad) and I need to quote this part word for word bc it’s TOO CUTE 🥰🥰🥰

B: You’re the one who said we should run our own race

M: That’s what I’m doing

B: Wanna sit here with me?

M: No. I wanna cross the finish line with you 😭😭😭

And that, my friends, was the day my heart ripped in half from joy

Then he picks her up and they put their arms around each other (I seriously can’t. They made me cry last night and lowkey I thought it was bc I was tired but I’m fully energized and watery eyed... sooo....) then Marty makes a joke about them running and Buffy goes, “you’re hilarious” and his voice gets all soft and he looks at her all gentle and goes, “you finally figured that out” AND PLEASE TERRI STOP IT HURTS. But no, the scene CONTINUES BECAUSE MY HEART APPARENTLY COULD TAKE THAT (lies). And the scene changes and now Marty is PIGBACKING HER ACROSS THE FINISH LINE THREE HOURS LATER. LIKE STOP. STOP. I CAN’T HANDLE THESE TENDER MOMENTS. (Seriously they were together an extra three hours with him helping her. I’m WeAk). And they both get medals and Buffy compliments him so he gets all happy and tells her to keep going, but she runs out of compliments so he goes, “ok, I just wanted to see how deep that well went” with his eyes darting all over her face and then the music shifts to almost like progressive-romantic music as BUFFY PUTS HER ARM BACK AROUND HIM AND THEY WALK AWAY (the music was placed so we knew they were having a moment) and that was the exact moment I died. MY PARENTS. (Watched this scene 3 times and will 100% watch it at least 1000 more).

Then Andi sees Amber raging. In a cage. She’s like “excuse me? What are you doing here” and Amber is all mad at Jonah and Andi’s all break up with your boyfriend yeah yeah cuz I’m bored. And Amber wasn’t here for it because apparently she thinks she’s in love with Jonah now? (with tears in her eyes... I mean, love to me isn’t that angry and hating everything he does [he only sent her six emoji’s apparently and just isn’t there for her] that it drives you to physical violence but ok)-(but good acting along with the last Muffy scene but I’m sure ya’ll picked up on that from my synopsis lol)

3x15

FYI this synopsis won’t be AS long, but that’s because Muffy is absent and I have an unexpresible love for them and this episode also sent me over the EDGE with Tyrus 🙄😤🙃 but I’ll do what I can with Tyrus bc it’s still gay and angsty and I was here for that part of it (also I love the Terri devoted two separate episodes to Tyrus and Muffy. Like she really knows this Friendom and what will keep us watching lol)

Unnecessary opening scene with B&B and Andi going to the movie instead of spending time on their phones (it was cute but unnecessary. I liked in the last episode that the rage cage in the beginning scene actually tied into the episode)

*opening credits*

Buffy and Cyrus watching Kira and TJ like hawks from the bench far away and Buffy is confused af about it. She asks Cyrus and he gets all angsty (I WILL over use this word bc it’s too accurate for this episode, wait til you actually see it) and goes “I don’t know” *shoulder shrug* “I haven’t been hanging out with TJ lately”

Buffy: because of that?

Cyrus: they’ve been pretty much attached at the hip (then Kira has the AUDACITY to jump on TJ’s back) and the back. They look happy.

B: it won’t last. Kira’s not a nice person. Only took me a day to figure that out. Since he’s a GUY, it’ll take longer.

Cloud 10 with Bex and Andi discussing Bex and CeCe making up, but in front of CeCe. CeCe is still PiSsEd™️. Bex tries to talk to her and BEGS to make up with her mom but her mom is cold and I felt Bex’s pain. (Great acting in this scene too. I just wanted to hug Bex. Like did you really have to do her a dirty like that? With Tyrus and Bex, this episode is starting to feel like 3x13 again and I thought we all agreed to never speak of that episode ever again)

Cyrus is sitting all angsty and alone with some frozen yogurt in front of a greenhouse? Literally no idea where he is at but it’s such a mood lol and even funnier that TJ found him there. Like where are they?? Hahahaha but ANYWAY, TJ sits down and confronts Cyrus about avoiding him. Cyrus says he isn’t but TJ is like “kinda feels like it”. Cyrus tries to say that TJ has been occupied with Kira taking up his time and TJ denies that hard. And here’s the TEA sis:

Cyrus: you two are clearly hitting it off. Which is great. I’m happy for you guys.

TJ: you make it sound like we’re a couple. We’re not. We mostly just talk about basketball.

C: and then you give her a piggy back ride?

T: she bet me I couldn’t carry her. That was all

Then TJ tried to tell Cyrus to hangout with them more and Cyrus rejects that bc Kira knows Cyrus is Buffy’s best friend. Then Kira comes in to hoe around the scene and sits at the table. Says “heyyyy” all flirty to TJ 😒 and “hi Cyrus” direct and cold to Cyrus. Then becomes the most fake hoeeeee when pretending to agree with TJ that they should hang out more with Cyrus. Cyrus YEETS outta there and Mr. heart eyes looks like he created depression (it was that prevalent). Kira gets all needy and is like, “hellooo? I’m over here” and TJ just looks at her with the fakest angsty smile. Like why.

At the spoon, the GHC AND Jonah are sitting and Andi tells of this store called Mint Chip where they burn clothes rather than donate them bc it would make the brand look bad and lose sales if it’s with charity. Like??? Ok you actually look better with charity sooooo take two steps back B. Buffy gets the taste of wanting to be a bad guy (cue bad guy by Billie Eilish) and they all go dumpster diving and get the clothes from Mint Chip’s dumpster. Not much happens other than them stealing clothes and Buffy says her ankle hurts so she can’t get in the dumpster. IDK if that’s from the dehydration last episode (bc when she’s walking with Marty 😍 she’s limping) or if she fell wrong at the dumpster. It’s foreshadowing bc I know she has a hurt foot in a later episode so not sure where it will come in or why.

The kids have an outdoor “sidewalk sale” where they give away the free clothes from mint chip and some lady comes and gets a coat. She shows up later in the episode to tell Bex and CeCe about the sale but they do nothing. It was really weirdly staged like this character had more importance in the episode and got cut or she has importance later on. IDK? She just got a ton of screen time for it to go nowhere so we’ll see. And Cyrus is a Queen and styled some guy for an interview and Buffy is a Queen and styled a lady for a first online date. Then Jonah is just himself and doesn’t know what a pencil skirt is. *cue clothing sale montage with Jonah being a player and talking to lots of girls and the GHC+Jonah looking all sweet looking at pics from the day*

B&B get a wedding gift from Celia. It’s a snow globe from the night Bowie proposed, but since it’s mailed, was sent before CeCe knew about the cancellation. Bex tries to write her a thank you card but can’t and cries through it (great acting here too- Bex just takes the cake on acting TBH)

At the sale, Cyrus shows Buffy a shirt he wants to give to TJ (which isn’t a hoodie, surprisingly). He takes a pic & sends it to him to ask if he likes it and Buffy says “it’ll look good with his eyes” and Cyrus is all “it WILL 😍”

Buffy: he’s gonna like it. Why don’t you just give it to him?

C: I thought about that. I’m not sure how much he’s want that.

B: a free shirt??

C: ME. Giving him a free shirt.

B: there’s a great way to find out

C: what is it?

B: *forcing the shirt back to Cyrus* give him the shirt. Maybe it’ll mean something to him. Maybe it won’t. Either way, it’s a nice thing to do [seriously though I stan a Tyrus Ally]

C: it’s TJ. Thumbs up on the shirt *replying to Teej lol* you should come by the sale. It’s amazing. *back to the Vampire Slayer* was that too braggy?

B: not braggy enough

C: TJ *reading the message* I’m at the park *back to Buffy* what do you think that means?

B: he wants you to meet him?

C: you think

B: why else would he tell you where he is?

C: should I bring the shirt? I’m gonna being the shirt. *walks away and comes back* the shirt feels weird

B: then don’t take it

C: *walks away and comes back*

B: *whilst saying nothing hands Cyrus the shirt with a loving, yet so over Cyrus’ gay angst expression*

C: he’s gonna be expecting it... so I’m just gonna- yeah *yeets out of there in gay*

Kira and TJ at the park. Kira asks who TJ is texting and he says no one 😤 so TJ suggests feeding the ducks and Kira decides to hoe around yet again and suggests swinging first. She’s all flirty and TJ is ~not straight and not here for it~. He’s all like “I’m not five” like he doesn’t go swinging and Kira gets all competitive over who can swing higher and makes comments reflecting his and Cyrus’ convo which gets him to get on the swing (reluctantly) and also she is on Cyrus’ swing?? So umm? Get tf off???? And that’s when Cyrus pops around a tree, shirt in hand, to see THAT DISGUSTING MOCKERY OF A FRIENDSHIP I HATE IT SO MUCH??? EWWWW. And he’s all sad and angsty and jealous so he walks away **AND AS HE’S WALKING AWAY DOES A LOOK BACK SOOOOOOOOOO HE IS FOR SURE IN LOVE FREAKING HECK I CAN’T** and I just want to hug my boi and I can’t hug him and ugh 😭😭😭 my sad tears are here.

So Cyrus sees Buffy and tells her TJ was with Kira so that makes Buffy all annoyed (she’s a real one). Cyrus becomes a liar and says they’re “good together” again. Buffy tries to reassure him it won’t last, but Cyrus isn’t sure and now has this shirt he doesn’t know what to do with. He gives it to Jonah and says he has nice eyes too??? Like umm? Rebound much, Cyrus?? Like Boo. Don’t do that. I’m here for YOU. Jonah then tells some woman about how they pulled off the clothing shop and a police officer shows up. They don’t have a license to sell and never bought the clothing so they can’t give it for free. Next thing you know Bex is getting a call (after trying to make things right with CeCe AGAIN and more A+ acting.. seriously though freaking FORGIVE HER ALREADY SHE IS DOING EVERYTHING SHE CAN) and runs with CeCe to go help bail the GHC+Jonah out of jail (this was also after the woman in the coat makes a 2 second appearance at cloud 10 to talk about the sale and NOTHING HAPPENS WITH HER SO WHY). The scene ends with the cell door closing so I hope next episode maybe this scare freaks CeCe enough into making up with Bex. But IDK.

I’ve got many mixed feelings about these episodes. Hope you enjoyed my highly detailed and opinionated synopsis of the show 😂😂 can’t wait for next week!! ❤️

[daily5sosupdate]

Fall Out Boy are back on the scene looking better than ever, and the brotherly pairing at the heart of Good Charlotte, Joel and Benji Madden, are still going strong 22 years after the band first broke out, so could there be a better time for the genre’s hottest young talents to return?

Armed with a brand new record and a sharper, more mature sound, 5 Seconds of Summer were the young Australian four-piece that introduced Gen Z to modern pop-punk; their lyrics bursting with ace hooks lifted straight from their angsty teenage diaries. For the past seven years, millions of fans have shown up to sell-out arena tours around the world. But the group, comprised of lead singer Luke, guitarist Michael, bass player Calum and drummer Ashton, have grown up now. Have a listen to their comeback single Want You Back -- these guys sound more sophisticated and emotionally grounded than ever before.

While most artists are left spouting the same soundbites to inquisitive writers all day long when asked to promote their new material, we figured we’d get to the heart of some more important issues: like whether or not the world’s most fawned-over band think the FBI are keeping tabs on them through their laptop webcams. In the basement of a suave London hotel, i-D sat down with the Aussie quartet and learned a lot about the little things in their lives, like what they owe their parents, the fashion trends they’re on board with, and one member’s strange spaghetti date with Dizzee Rascal.

1. Before they got their big break touring with One Direction, the guys covered Adele, Wheatus and Busted songs together on YouTube.

2. The name 5 Seconds of Summer came to the band when they were scribbling suggestions down in science class one day. For a sec, they considered calling themselves Bromance.

3. They have a combined Instagram following of 28.4 million. There’s literally more people who follow them on Instagram than live in Australia.

4. None of the band have slept in their childhood bedrooms since they were 18.

5. The guys can still walk down the street without being hassled by strangers. Much to the upset of the fans currently camped outside their hotel, they last did it “earlier today, yesterday, and the day before that”.

6. Michael has “an abnormally large phobia of death”.

7. Ashton and Calum think the best song they have written is on their next album: “either Lie to Me or Young Blood,” apparently, and Ashton wishes he wrote Between the Bars by Elliott Smith, while Calum wishes he had penned Machines by Biffy Clyro.

8. Michael says he caused his parents hell as a kid. “Well, a lot of stress,” he claims. “They were certain that I’d live at home forever.”

9. Anxiety is the hardest thing the band have had to overcome. “Being on stage when you’re anxious -- it’s the worst thing ever,” Ashton claims. Thankfully, Luke has learned how to put other people in a good mood, even when he’s feeling low.

10. The scariest thing Calum has seen with his own two eyes is “Luke’s bare naked body”.

11. The band feel proud to be Australian every day of the year, but felt especially proud “when the bill for gay marriage went through”.

12. The band struggle to take criticism from “somebody who doesn’t have enough knowledge to dish it out” -- but they deal with it by being gracious and understanding. Good lads.

13. Ashton is fascinated by the Matrix Theory that we all live in a simulation rather than a real world, even if it’s “definitely not true”.

14. While Luke admires that the people who think the earth is flat are “still sticking to their guns”.

15. And Michael thinks the idea of aliens building the pyramids in Egypt is “fucking horrifying”.

16. Unsurprisingly, the guys have all listened to Tom Delonge of Blink 182’s podcast on weird alien theories.

17. The band are keen to collaborate with Tricky from Massive Attack because he’s “cool, but the darkest motherfucker ever”, and would love to link-up with Biffy Clyro while they’re at it, too.

18. Calum once went shopping with Dizzee Rascal. Then they ate spaghetti together. Somehow, no other member of Five Seconds of Summer was aware of this encounter until just now.

19. In 2011, the band played a gig on a school tennis court because the venue they were meant to play in -- a church, by the way -- fell into a sinkhole. For real. “People were literally lining up for our gig inside their school hall,” Michael reminisces.

20. Ashton has a low-key obsession with the Judi Dench-starring, geriatric dramedy, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel.

21. Despite being, in his own words, “not the most fashionable person”, Ashton claims that he predicted the return of the belt-chain. “Everyone’s got a fuckin’ chain wallet now,” he says, “but people have ditched the wallet – it’s just the chain”.

22. Luke’s a fan of the choker trend, while Michael would like to let everybody know that “bondage is in”.

23. In 2011, 5 Seconds of Summer would have described themselves “ambitious” and “still learning”.

24. The band unanimously agree that the body part none of them could live without is “the weiner”.

25. But would perhaps reconsider if they could all remove one thing and create some “epic, weird quadi-legged” creature from their dismembered body parts. M’okay.

26. The worst thing in Ashton’s wardrobe is “half a bag of cheetos from a year ago”.

27. Michael owns a pair of purple SUPRA sneakers that he’s hoping come back into fashion soon.

28. The band felt furthest from home “the first time they left Australia to move to the UK” back in 2012. Ashton hadn’t even been on a plane until a few months before that.

29. The band last felt starstruck when they bumped into Dave Grohl at an Aerosmith concert four years ago. It was “a huge deal for us because we idolise him as an artist,” Calum says. “I didn’t say a word, I just looked at him and smiled. Ashton spoke the whole time.”

30. The band like to throw words together to create new swear words, and consider “shitlord” their current favourite.

31. At the request of his fans -- particularly Cherri, Cydny and Hanna -- yes, Ashton would grow his freshly coiffed locks long again.

32. The band have been asked pretty much every question, but would like to be asked about the ups and downs of the last year of making the record without it getting “too emo”.

33. Michael is desperately waiting for a journalist to be really inappropriate and ask a ‘no-fucks-given’ question: “like, ‘how big is it?’”

34. The last time Luke lied was “in the interview before this one”. So we don’t hold out much hope for these ‘facts’.

35. 5 Seconds of Summer’s single Want You Back is a) a stone-cold banger.

36. And b) available to stream now.

Pre-order 5SOS's new album Youngblood (due 22 June) right here, right now

[taetaesource]

Out of the Ordinary

Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 | Chapter 5 

You won a lucky draw chance to meet BTS backstage and got to know Min Yoongi. 

As BTS was growing bigger and bigger, Yoongi's burdens seemed to get heavier and heavier. BTS moved dorms, took on more endorsement contracts, upgraded their studios and Yoongi got a much bigger studio with the freedom to decorate or put whatever he wanted in there. He was getting more responsibilities at work. He would usually only be in charge of writing songs after songs and producing a few of them. Most of the work was done by the older and more experienced song producers and writers of the company. The rappers of BTS were only contributors to a small part, mainly coming up with beats or the hooks of the song, the bulk of the production came from the backend team. But after hyyh proved to be a huge success, the company allowed Namjoon and Yoongi to take charge of more production. WINGS was the album that Namjoon and Yoongi poured their hearts into. You knew the efforts that were taken to produce this album and the scepticism Yoongi had towards it. Yoongi was not as involved as Namjoon as he was working on his mixtape at that time, but he was definitely stressed out over the two projects.

The number of sleepless nights, long discussions and quarrels with Namjoon, wrestling back and forth between the different drafts, this album deserved to be a hit. When Yoongi was working hard to prove his worth through his mixtape and album, you were working hard on your final year thesis. You had countless of sleepless nights as well, flipping through pages after pages, academic journals after academic journals, researching and fitting everything into coherent chapters of essays. While Yoongi went back and forth between Namjoon and the senior producers, you were constantly going back and forth your professors' offices.

Dates with Yoongi was no longer a thing as both of you were just too busy and stressed out. Occasionally, you would text Yoongi in between breathing time such as when you were waiting for your food to be done at the takeaway, and he would sometimes call you in between his breathing time such as when he was waiting for his computer to finish saving and uploading the file that he was working on.

When WINGS was out, you were in the final week before your submission. The album was such a hit that everyone was talking about it. BTS was on the TV and radio everywhere, the streets were playing their songs and their advertisements were all over the bus stops, underground tunnels, subway and LED screens. Yoongi was busy with his promotions and he knew that you were busy too so he could not call or text you during the period. You were too busy and stressed out with perfecting your thesis that you hadn’t noticed his silence. The last time he texted you was to tell you that the album was out on itunes and spotify and you were on your way to your professor’s office so you left him on read receipt. The meeting with your professor turned out to be a stressful one as he pointed out the points that you would need to change in order for your paper to be more coherent. “You have 5 more days to go young lady, and I am not sure how you are going to get all these changes done. I can only say that you should have gotten more research done a month ago and not at this last minute. With a paper like this, you should be happy with a C grade.” 

So even if WINGS topped the charts and BTS has been winning at all the music shows, you could not bring yourself to congratulate Yoongi. Heck, you could not even find the time and mood to watch and follow BTS news and updates. You literally had 5 days and a disappointed professor to deal with. You barely even had time to eat and sleep properly. 

The day before your submission deadline, you were holed up in the library finishing up the final chapter of your paper. You still had to prove read the entire 12 chapters and polish up your acknowledgment and citations pages. You worked through the night and finally submitted your paper at 8am. It was not your best as you felt that you could have done better if you had even just one more day. So you turned your paper in with a less than satisfied heart and not as relieved as you thought you would be. Nonetheless, you were so tired and exhausted, all you wanted to do was to get in bed and sleep till the next day. 

That evening, after you woke up from your long nap, Hee Ji suggested to go out for dinner in celebration of your thesis submission. Although you were still feeling the fatigue, you thought it was a nice idea to finally get out to see the world after weeks of hell. The both of you headed to the chicken store near your dorm. 

The shop had a good business but it was not very crowded so you didn’t have to wait for long to get a table. After settling down and placing your order, you noticed Hee Ji singing along to the song that was playing in the shop. The song was very catchy and had a chorus that sounded like, “money money money money.” You started to nod to the rhythm of the music and when the chorus kept repeating, you said to Hee Ji, “this song is so funny, are they really singing about money??” 

“Oh my god girl, it’s BTS telling you “i want you many many”???”

Your first reaction was to look around as if to check if you could see what you were hearing and indeed, the music was coming out from a TV screen at the side of the store. The TV was playing the music video and you could recognise that it was BTS. But the truth was cemented when you saw Yoongi in the music video. A weird feeling came up to you. You suddenly realised that you had no idea when exactly the album was released. You had no idea how does the song sound like, how does the album look like and how does your boyfriend look like in this comeback. You remembered reading the texts that Yoongi sent you but you have not listened to the album that he had put in so much effort into making. You felt guilty and you suddenly missed Yoongi alot. You picked your phone up, attempting to reply to his last text but figured that you should at least listen to the album first before talking to him about it. 

That night, you ran the album on spotify and read up on the latest news of the comeback. You texted Yoongi and surprisingly got a quick reply from him. 

Send: I just managed to listen to the full album and saw the MV while i was eating at the shop just now. I am so proud of you my love. 

Message from Yoongi: you submitted your paper? Ya the album was well received thankfully. I’m going for a radio show in awhile. I’m so goddamn tired. 

Send: All the best! Please eat well 

Message from Yoongi: we are on 009FM if you want to hear my voice. 

Send: why would i want to? I’m going to sleep. I literally just submitted my paper this morning with no sleep yesterday. 

Message from Yoongi: Fine. Don’t listen to it. 

Send: Promise you would say something funny on the show and I will listen to it. 

Message from Yoongi: Forget it. Sleep. 

Send: I am tuning in now. Remember to be funny, I’m listening. 

Send: And I miss you. 

Message from Yoongi: Idiot 

You had your radio on as you prepared for bed. You had washed up, applied your night cream, turned off the main light and lying on your back on your bed with the warm bedside lamp on and the soft music playing from the radio station. 

“It’s 11pm and you are listening to 009FM. How have your Monday been? Were you feeling the blues as you were getting to work or school this morning? As the day is coming to an end, I hope you would be encouraged that you made it through today and tomorrow is a brand new day again.” 

“For our dear listeners tonight, are you waiting for our special guests to be on air tonight? Are you exciting to listen to them on this show?” 

“Our guests are here with us tonight and they are BTS. Say hello to our listeners please.” 

“Hello, we are BTS!” 

“Wow so much energy from this bunch, it suddenly feels like our late night show has brightened up so much. Please introduce yourself and tell us how you are feeling now.” 

“Hi I’m Rap Mon, nice to meet you tonight” 

“Hi I’m Jin, I’m glad to be here on this show tonight” 

“Hello I’m Jimin. Please enjoy the show tonight.” 

“Hi I’m Jhope! Wah I see so many of our armys outside. Hello!” 

“Hello I’m V. Please send us lots of love.” 

“Hi I’m Jungkook. Nice to see all of you here.” 

“Hi I’m Suga. Nice to meet all of you on this show tonight.” 

“Wow I’m sure your fans are happy to meet all of you on this show as well. Congratulations on your new album! Please tell us more about your new comeback.” 

Rap Mon: “Yes, this album is our third full length album with 7 solo songs from the members. We have put in alot of effort in this album, with our own compositions and performances. The concept is new as well, it’s about meeting and overcoming the temptations that youths face.” 

“Ahhh are there any temptations that you face as well? Could each member tell us about your temptations? Let’s start with Jin?” 

Jin: “oh yes... that would be food for me.” 

“Oh yes, that is a temptation that is hard to resist. There’s just too much good food around isn’t it?” 

Jimin: “computer games” 

V and Jungkook: “me too, computer games.” 

Rap Mon: “sleep” 

Suga: “Yes, I am tempted to sleep now.” 

*everyone burst out laughing*

Jhope: “armyyyyyyys” 

“Hahaha and why would armys be your temptation?” 

Jhope: “they seduce my heart.” 

*everyone burst out laughing* 

“Hahahaha pretty sure love is one big temptation that every youth encounters. Is love a big concept in your new album?” 

Suga: “yes i would agree with you that love is a big temptation in youth and we have incorporated that into the album as well. If you listen to our title track “Blood Sweat Tears”, you would see lyrics that are along the lines of “getting drunk on love” and “wanting you many many”....

“And are these inspired by your experience of love?” 

Suga: “oh is this a trick question? hahaha i would say love is a big temptation because all of us know that love is a nice feeling- from movies, from books, from songs etc. Many times, we draw inspirations from these sources and we imagine and translate them into our songs and music. Love comes in many forms as well, it can be love between friends, family, and we hope to put in and show different aspects instead of just love between lovers.” 

“And what kind of love is the greatest temptation for you?” 

Suga: “haha another trick question?” 

Jhope: “love from armys” 

Jimin: “yes, our army’s love is irresistible.” 

Suga: “I guess it’s the love from someone who loves you unconditionally. When you love a person and the person loves you back even greater, even more than you expected, that’s when it becomes a temptation. A temptation to get closer, to give more and to love more.” 

Jhope: “that’s why we are always giving back to our armys greater music, greater songs, greater performances.” 

“Ahh that makes sense. To our armys listening to this show, are you feeling the love from BTS?” 

“To let our fans know how much you love them, please say something to those who are listening to our show.” 

Jimin: “thank you for loving us and supporting us, we will show you a better side of us with this new album and the performances to come.” 

Suga: “To the you, listening to this show, and the you who loves me, thank you for your love. I love you too.” 

“Our dear listeners, can you hear the love from BTS? May the love from this 7 lovely young men warm up your hearts tonight and give you the strength to live beautifully for the week. Goodnight.” 

[rbbox]

If you feel Ananath Narayan Mahadevan is currently enjoying the success of his performance in the highly acclaimed web series, Scam 1992, you’re highly mistaken. The actor, who has also been dabbling into direction since a long time, is hurt and in despair. That’s because he still hasn’t been fully paid for Aksar 2. This erotic thriller released on November 17, 2017 and starred Zareen Khan, Gautam Rode and Abhinav Shukla. Fed up with asking producer Shyam Bajaj for the balance remuneration, the veteran artist yesterday put up a Facebook post. He uploaded the poster of Aksar 2 and the caption was ‘CELEBRATING THREE YEARS....OF HUMILIATION by the producers’. Not just that, he played with the tagline of the film, ‘How often do you see the trap?’ by mentioning on the poster, ‘How often do you not get paid??’

When contacted by Bollywood Hungama, Ananath Narayan Mahadevan minced no words while narrating his ordeal. He said, “I was supposed to be paid Rs. 35 lakhs. I have been paid Rs. 20 lakhs till date. They kept promising for 3 years that they’ll pay up the balance amount. Every time I contacted Mr Shyam Bajaj, he kept saying that he’ll pay. And then he tried to avoid it. I ended up as a nervous wreck. It was very humiliating. If somebody would have told me to direct a film for free, I would have graciously done it. But they kept fooling me. They claimed that ‘let’s finish the Mauritius schedule. Otherwise the film will get stuck’ and ‘let me release the film first and then I’ll pay’. Also, the film is your baby too. You don’t want it to get affected in any way. And of course, I did trust. In fact, he didn’t even sign a contract with me. He managed to bypass all that very cleverly. Now I realize that it was all very well planned so that they don’t have to pay me my remuneration. Very sad state of affairs!”

This is not the first time that Ananath Narayan Mahadevan has worked with the Bajajs. Earlier, he had directed for them films like, Aksar (2006) and Aggar (2007). Ananth says he was paid well without delay during the making of those films which is why he didn’t imagine in his wildest dreams that they wouldn't pay him during Aksar 2. He stated, “I have worked with them earlier, with Aksar and even in Aggar. That’s the reason I trusted them. I was paid properly then and on time. So I thought they’ll not cheat me. And I had agreed to work for such a paltry sum that it’s even shameful to tell the public.” He added, “Every time, they used to give me a small amount through a cheque.”

So what does he plan to do now so that justice is served? Ananth Narayan Mahadevan says, “I have nothing to do. I approached a lawyer but he said that since I don’t have a contract, we can’t do anything about it. The lawyer went and spoke to them. They then continued with their excuses like ‘we’ll let you know, ‘we’ll talk after Diwali’, ‘we are sick’ etc. They have got a hundred excuses to give me. So finally, I decided to go public. I realized that if they humiliate me like this, I’ll humiliate them too. I know I am not going to get the money. So I’ll at least hit back and wound them before I die.”

Aksar 2 was panned badly by critics and viewers alike, unlike the first part which boasted of a great suspense, hit music and fair performances by Emraan Hashmi, Dino Morea and Udita Goswami. On this, Anant revealed, “For the producers, sex was the only important factor. If Aksar 2 did not have the sex element at all, it would have been a very slick and intelligent

thriller. But all the focus was on the wrong things. Even while making the film, I had to accept this aspect and direct. If they had released the film properly and it had become a big hit, then somewhere it would have lessened the pain. I could have consoled myself by saying, ‘chalo, koi baat nahi. The film is a hit. I’ll manage to get some mileage out of it’. But shockingly, they didn’t even distribute it properly. They ensured that the film folded up in one week. It was a totally disgusting experience”.

He continued, “Aksar 2 had a better story. It had good actors like Gautam Rode. I wonder what their intention was. They didn’t want to run the film well, they didn’t sell it to any platform. I wonder what they were upto. Is this some way of showing losses so that they can claim some money? They were upto some game which I am not able to decipher.”

When asked whether the rest of the cast and crew members have been duly paid, Ananth Narayan Mahadevan informed, “All the actors were paid. The makers had to; otherwise they won’t dub or promote the film. But the director is always left high and dry,” and then added, “Everybody has been paid except me, the DOP and the assistants.”

So has the cinematographer Maneesh Bhatt decided to take any action? Ananth said, “The DOP also tried to get his money but after a point, even he gave up. They told me and him that they’ll pay us once they start their next project. But this was not the condition that was laid before us when we started Aksar 2.”

What adds to the humiliation for Ananth Narayan Mahadevan is that he went to great lengths for the makers while directing Aksar 2. He confessed, “Aksar 2 was made below their budget. They had a budget of Rs. 4 crore but I made it at Rs. 3 crore. You have no idea how much I have gone through during this film. They even admit it that I am the only one who can make a film within a budget, within a stipulated time and ensure profit for the makers. And yet, they are playing this game. I don’t understand what's driving them to act in such a manner.”

He further said, “These Rs. 20 lakhs which I have received were given to me over a period of two years. I had asked for Rs. 50 lakhs since I have done films for Rs. 60 lakhs in the past. But they convinced me by saying, ‘Aap paintees lakh (35 lakh) mein kar do hamare liye’. They assured me that the film will be done within a period of 4 to 6 months and that I’ll be paid by then. So, I agreed. They stretched the film to 2 years. Imagine, Rs. 20 lakhs in 2 years! A per-day-artiste would have got more than what I got paid in the film!”

For Ananth Narayan Mahadevan, the non-payment of due has given him a huge blow. He stated, “The only reason I do these mainstream films so that it’ll help make the kind of films I strongly desire. There I know I won’t get money and there’s hardly any budget. Aksar 2 came at a time when I badly needed the money. Despite them knowing about my condition, they did not have the heart to pay me my rightful due.”

Making independent cinema, however, was not the only reason. Ananth faced many difficulties and even then, the producers didn’t budge. He said, “I told them to just give me Rs. 1 lakh. I needed it desperately to give it to the contractor so that my brother’s house, destroyed in the floods in Kerala, can be rebuilt. My brother was literally roofless and I was begging them to give me the money. They have put me through such mental torture! If this was America, they could have been sued for millions of dollars.”

Further explaining his condition, Ananth Narayan Mahadevan said, “My mother is ailing and is bedridden. I have to pay 2 nurses a minimum Rs. 60,000 a month. I have told the producers everything – about my mother’s condition and my brother’s condition. But these people kept fooling me. Mr Shyam Bajaj, in fact, kept visiting me at studios where I was shooting. He would

make assurances and leave. I can literally feel them laughing behind my back. I want to just ask him - why are you not paying an honest director his rightful due? The man who saved you a crore, why are you doing this to him? That’s all I need to know. I am very distressed.”

Ananth signed off by stating, “Let me see how they can reply now that I have named and shamed them in public. I feel they won’t have a reply.”

Also Read: Ananth Mahadevan’s Bittersweet nominated for the prestigious Jiseok Awards at Busan International Film Festival

December 15, 2020 at 10:53AMEXPLOSIVE: Ananth Narayan Mahadevan RIPS APART Aksar 2 producers for not paying him his fees; says "It was a totally DISGUSTING experience" https://ift.tt/3qW5rSn

[ahnsael]

Had another manager quit yesterday. Unlike the last one, who gave two weeks notice and worked those two weeks, this one went from “Hi I’m here for my shift” to “take this job and shove it” in the span of three hours. I woke up to a text from the boss asking me to call him when I got up.

So it looks like instead of covering one swing shift per week as the boss and I discussed before the other manager’s scheduled last day I’ll be covering three swing shifts, and then working graveyard on the other graveyard manager’s nights off.

Sleep schedule? What sleep schedule?

But oh well. We have a person who could potentially be promoted to management, and has interviewed for it, but he hasn’t been with us for 90 days yet and nothing can happen as far as switching his position until he hits 90 days and gets his first performance review.

And we’ll be at a job fair early in May, so maybe we’ll find someone there.

After all, they found me when I applied literally right after another manager stepped down and they were desperate to fill the position, and I was fast-tracked into the position, and the company seems pleased with me, so there’s precedent for lucking into a good manager right when you need one.

Oh, and we got to call the cops last night. Good times. There’s a younger (but over-21) couple who come in fairly frequently, but we suspect that they’re drug dealers. They aren’t doing it in the casino, as far as we know, but we’d rather them not do it in the parking lot across the street, either, which is what we think (but haven’t been able to prove) that they’re doing, because they show up, and then every once in a while one of the two will leave, get something out of their car, and then go across the street to meet someone (or drive down about a block and park by another car and then talk to the person in that car) and then come back.

This morning two BIG dudes came in and went directly to the guy portion of the couple, and then one of the big dudes and the suspected dealer went outside. It looked like a deal was going down, so I grabbed the other manager and explained what was going on.

We watched. And we weren’t shy about being SEEN watching (before working with this other graveyard manager [who used to be a prison officer in Texas] I would have tried to be sneaky; but now I figure I can just be blatant because either (a) I’ll have a better view of what happens, or (b) it won’t happen at all because they know I’m watching).

The two argued for a while in front of the casino, and the big dude was getting very visibly animated and upset and loud. I honestly thought he was going to deck the (much smaller) suspected dealer. And the other manager said he knew the guy, and that he had quite a temper.

So we called the sheriff’s department and explained the situation, and requested just a friendly walk-through of the casino to show their presence (we also dropped the name of the suspected dealer, because every deputy in the county knows the name; they’re just biding their time to try to catch the higher-ups in the operation at the same time they get this guy).

And it seems there’s a new shipment from California in town. We had those REALLY shady characters Sunday night/Monday morning (who reeked of marijuana -- which is legal in Nevada now, but not for use in public). The manager who walked off the job yesterday? She had called the cops that night and gotten a death-glare from one of the ruffians, so I walked her to her car while walking as if I had any game at all when it comes to fighting (I’m a lover, not a fighter, and I don’t even love well, apparently, as I’ve been single for almost 8½ years -- but I’m an even worse fighter).

But back to this morning.

We hadn’t seen anything illegal happen and were honest about that with the dispatcher, but deputies have told us many times that they’re happy to drop by any time we want to show a little extra security/law enforcement presence to keep things in check that have the potential to become not-in-check. And likewise, we’ve told them that they’re welcome to drop in any time, whether we’ve called them or not, and walk through the building and have some complimentary coffee or soda or whatever they want that isn’t alcohol.

I’m still amazed that for the first time in my life I’m getting along with my local police; I have no criminal record (if I had, the casino would have found out when the FBI ran a background check on me to see if I qualified for a gaming card in Nevada); I’ve just never gotten along with cops before. But we’re generally on the same side, at least when I’m at work.

Deputies arrived and spoke to both people who were outside. A smaller young guy who had been in the casino for hours, but who had said hello and sat down next to suspected-dealer-boy when he saw him in the casino, suddenly got REALLY nervous when he saw cops. Big dude that had gone outside was angry that the cops were there (we couldn’t hear him through two sets of doors, but his gestures told the story). He gave ME a hell of a death glare at one point, and I just smiled back, because (a) I had a good reason to have the cops there, as they were causing a disturbance right outside our doors, and (b) I knew that the cops wouldn’t stand for him doing anything (and of the deputy talking to him, my fellow manager said “I’ve known him for YEARS. He may look slow and a little fat, but I promise, he could take every one of these people out by himself without touching his gun or even his taser”).

Meanwhile, other big dude is playing a machine inside, completely oblivious to everything that’s happening just outside (he couldn’t see the doors from where he was sitting). And small young guy is just pacing back and forth, and going up to his friend (who was ready to leave) and telling him that he wanted to stay inside the casino a bit longer (he didn’t want to go out there with cops out there).

So the deputy who had been talking to big dude comes in, we shake his hand, and he offers to tell them to call it a night -- that we’re not 86ing them from the casino, but that they need to go home and come back when they have clearer heads and aren’t angry. We agreed to that. No paperwork for us...and while we suspect this guy of being a dealer, we have no proof, and he’s generally nice to us when he’s in the building, so yeah...you’re welcome back tomorrow, but for now why don’t you call it a night.

Big dude went ballistic. I honestly thought he was going to cross the line and get arrested, but he never did more than wild gestures as he argued (and gave me that death glare again). He never did anything to deserved being arrested, so I was glad to see the deputies show restraint (in L.A. cops probably woulda shot him -- maybe that restraint, which I’ve seen several times from this department, is why I actually get along with these cops).

Suspected dealer-guy came back in to tell big dude’s other big dude friend that they had to go (again, while we think this guy’s up to no good, and watch him closely, we’re gonna continue to be nice to him until he gives us a reason not to be), and I approached him and apologized for asking him to leave (through the deputy), but that it just looked bad to have this altercation in front of the casino, and told him that the reason we called the cops is because it looked like bug dude was getting ready to deck him and I didn’t want that to happen (that was honestly part of it, but we were kind of hoping the cops would show up in the middle of a drug deal).

Suspected dealer-boy’s girlfriend, when she left with them, dug through her trunk for a while, and I watched. She’s not as nice to us as he is, and I was half expecting her to pull out a shotgun or something, but I didn’t see what it was that she grabbed (maybe she needed a fix before driving off?). Then she got in the driver’s seat and they drove away.

But after big-dude’s death glares, we told our lone security guard to be on the lookout for any of them returning this morning. And if they did, not to approach them (especially big dude) or say anything, but to just let us know that they were back. They didn’t come back, though.

But yeah...between losing two managers, a keno runner, the drop team issues where I had to change every security guard’s schedules to facilitate the one (who used to be a manager, the one I replaced, who went back to security but is VERY good at what he does in security) who had to come in and watch for violations of policy/regulations, the two police calls on two consecutive nights (the one before last night was made by the “take this job and shove it” manager the night before)...it’s been a week.

And I may have more of these weeks to come, now that we’re short on keno staff, short on managers, have a couple of bartenders AND a couple of casino attendants who are on very thin ice...yeah. I’m living in interesting times.

But I’m still probably about 2000% better off than I was a year ago. I know “may you live in interesting times” is a curse, but...as bored as I was and as useless as I felt a year ago (and for several years before that when I couldn’t find a job), I think these “interesting times” are a better place to be, even if more stressful.

Let’s do this. Let’s see what I’m made of. Let’s see how much of this I can take before I fold, so I’ll at least know my limits (or maybe I won’t fold, and will know that my limits are beyond what I would have guessed -- after all, I feel VERY needed right now at work, and that’s a hell of a motivation over the usual “they could get anyone to do this job so I’m not that important” feelings).

My mom told me last night, when I told her about the phone call with the boss before work, that I just became “indispensable.” Granted, there are realistic limits to indispensability. If I were to do something dumb enough (like pocket money that doesn’t belong to me, or 

[nyxtales]

What Lurks in the Dark (caffeine challenge + WIP)

This takes place during Awakening of Shadows.  To summarize, Damian and Aurelia have been trapped after being captured for the past few months.  However, time flows differently, so to them, it feels as though years have past.  Unlike Aurelia, Damian is not human and as such has had to deal with the troubles that fact has brought.  In this point of the story, Aurelia is being released from her captivity while having to leave Damian behind.  This is the brief bit of time they have to talk before shit hits the fan.   After all, what is kept in the dark must come to light.

Note: bold is Damian’s telepathy.  Italics are Aurelia.

They were sitting at dinner.  It was a restaurant full of people who spoke in loud yet hushed conversations of their hopes, dreams, and happenings.  Damian allowed himself a cursory glance, feeling the energy of the area as he focused on Aurelia.   She was looking around as well, sensing who and what was around them.  

Their gazes met.

“You too, huh?” Aurelia asked him, smiling slightly as she saw the black creeping into his eyes.  Damian gave her a smile after a moment, shoulders tensing as he reached for the menu.  “Well, what would you like to eat, love?”

“Preferably, something hearty,” Damian replied quietly, keeping his focus on the menu.  You’re really playing this up, came the afterthought, directed at her as she smiled and continued to peruse the drink menu.  He paused and glanced up at her, feeling the corners of his mouth turn downward.  The smile she was wearing didn’t reach her eyes.

“Of course.  You always did eat a lot,” Aurelia replied, flipping through the drink menu casually.  “I don’t get to see you often.”

You won’t see me for a while if this succeeds.  Damian found the dish he wanted to try.  If they were going to actually bring out the food, he had every intention of savoring it.  Everything smells so good… “What can I say?  Hard work makes for a big appetite.”

“So does starvation,” Aurelia murmured.  The waiter came, asking for their orders.  Aurelia ordered a light meal with a small drink; Damian ordered something heavier with desserts and an appetizer.  After the waiter left, she eyed him.  “No alcohol?”

“Not feeling it tonight, love,” Damian explained, giving her an apologetic smile.  Alcohol doesn’t last in my system.  I don’t need to be drunk on Aether mixes right now.  Maybe later.  “Besides, why do I need alcohol when I can gaze at you?”

Aurelia looked away, fighting the rising blush that threatened to overtake her cheeks. Even being black didn’t save her from the tell-tale hue of color in her face as she reluctantly laughed.  Damian actually smiled then.  She looked at him, tears bright in her eyes.  Damian reached over and kissed her forehead gently, pulling away to hold her gaze.

Be strong, angel.  You can’t let them see you break.

The steely tone that crept into her royal green eyes brought him a degree of hope.  He couldn’t afford to let her fall now, not when she was so close to being free.  Not when she was the reason he threw himself into a proverbial and literal hell.  Not when she was why he could be where he was, trying to save her now.

“You are such a flirt,” Aurelia eventually teased.  Her voice shook slightly, but it was far more warm than it had been earlier.  “So, tell me about your day.  How was work?”

“It was long,” Damian sighed, taking a sip of water.  His free hand twitched, the glamour breaking for a moment.  It revealed a black hand tipped with long, slender claws laced with scars from wounds both self-inflicted and inflicted upon him.  But only for a moment.  Then it was merely his hand, tapping against the table at an increasingly agitated pace.  Aurelia placed her hand on his, marvelling at the size difference--his hand could engulf hers, if he placed it over hers.

He froze.

“Want to talk about it?” Aurelia asked him, gently resting her hand on his glamoured claws.  She tried to meet his gaze.  Damian refused to meet hers.  He sighed heavily.

“I got promoted,” Damian said simply.  I’m corrupted, he “said” at the same time.  Aurelia was grateful she had a poker face as she felt her stomach sink and bile rise.  He looked at the glass of water on the table,  not moving.  She couldn’t even feel him breathing.  “They told me a couple of weeks ago.” They did it a couple of weeks ago.  Dear old Mom’s suggestion.  I’m too strong, even feral.  So this is their way of making me controllable.  “I should be told of the relocation sometime this week.”  I’ve heard them talk about it, when they think I’m gone.  It’s how they’re going to force me to disappear.  And then they’re going to put me in a sensory deprivation chamber.  “I’m sorry, Aura.”

Aurelia really wished she didn’t have telepathy at the moment, that she couldn’t hear the pain as he spoke to her.  He was keeping distant from her so it wouldn’t affect her.  It made sense.   It was logical.  

It still hurt.

What else are you keeping from me, Dami?

“I haven’t been able to get in contact with my aunts or uncles recently,” Damian went on, slowly, quietly, as he pulled his claws away from her touch.  I can feel them, but...they’ve withdrawn.  I know they had to.  “But they told me they went on a trip.  I’m looking forward to when they return.  I actually miss them.”  When it happened, they told me they’d be there, that they’d never leave me.  

“It’s okay to miss them, Damian,” Aurelia found herself saying, dimly aware that she was speaking aloud.  “They’re your family after all.”  She wanted to say half, but she didn’t know how to say it just yet.  There was a lot she didn’t know how to tell him just yet.  

She also knew she was running out of time.

“You’re right,” he agreed, staring at some thought as he looked away.

But it still hurts like hell.

“Well, what about your brother?  I know you’re pretty busy.  Have you spoken with him any?’ Aurelia continued querying.  How much longer do we have, Damian?

“I hate being so busy,” Damian grated out.  He didn’t look at her, but she could feel him darken.  It was an uncomfortable sensation, one that she would have balked at had this happened before their being captured.  Now, she accepted, even reveled, in it.  It meant he trusted her.  He used to hide.  Blake is...there.  I can’t speak with him as well.  He blocked himself off so he wouldn’t be corrupted, too.  “We still talk.  Just not as much.  Talked a bit yesterday.” He’s there when it gets too much.  

“I’m glad you two are still close,” Aurelia murmured, watching him.  Damian’s jaw clenched.  She watched in quiet fascination as his marbled chocolate skin tensed and rippled.  The binding was starting to show, and the runes engraved on his being were starting to show through the heavy layers of glamours.  To others, they would only see a black man staring into space angrily and wonder why such a beautiful and handsome man would be so angry sitting across from an equally lovely black woman.  What Aurelia saw was both a man and a creature chained and tortured, resigning himself to even more as he suffered quietly for the sake of another.  “I wish you’d fight for yourself…”

“Who,” here he paused, finally turning to look at her as he placed his claws back on the table, “said I don’t, Aura?”  

She could see the red lines of energy coursing through his plated hide.  Damian met her gaze, smiling wide.

“I am Damian Ezekiel Steinhardt,” he told her, keeping his voice low as the waiter approached.  He thanked the waiter for bringing their food as he checked the timer on his phone.  As the waiter left, Damian placed the phone down, his face grim as he continued to smile and look at Aurelia.  “I am a hunter, Aura, in every aspect,” he continued--she couldn’t tell if he was reassuring her or reaffirming it to himself--”but most of all, I am a Steinhardt.  ‘What is mine, is mine to cherish and guard.  What lies in the shadows is mine alone.  Those whom the shadows claim are forever cherished.’”

I fight for all of us, to be...to be someone that you guys can be proud of.

Nothing else was said as they ate.  Aurelia picked at her food--she was given food in her captivity, unlike Damian.  They didn’t dare break the convenant with a Watcher.  However, her oversight in laying out the terms was now the reason behind why Damian had been tortured as he had.

She knew every detail.  

They made sure she did.

Damian got up suddenly, hastily muttering an excuse as he rushed to the bathroom.  Aurelia tried to ask, but was only brushed off as he ran.  She turned to the table, staring blankly at the phone.  In the corner of her eye, she could see the incorporeal form of Damian’s brother, Blake.  Due to a tragic and twisted result of misused magic, Blake existed as a spirit bound to Damian.  A spell had been cast prior so that Blake could assume a corporeal shape, but Aurelia could only hope that it remained intact after being subjected to all sorts of torture.

“Magic really can broaden one’s horizons,” Aurelia muttered to no one in particular, reaching for the phone.  She tried to not focus on the memories of Damian’s screams echoing in her head or that he felt like the very shadows that had plagued the town for the past few months.

In the corner, Blake pointed towards the bathroom.  

Aurelia raised an eyebrow, but continued to look at the phone.  She scrolled through the apps and found the timer.  She needed to know.

The phone alarm went off.

Blake pulled at her this time, pointing towards the bathroom.  She couldn’t hear him--an effect of the spells keeping them from acting out--but she could read his lips and the terror displayed on his face.  But before she could get up, Damian emerged from the shadows that led to the bathrooms.  Aurelia reached out to him as he approached the table, wanting to grab his arm and fuss about scaring her so badly, but Blake immediately yanked her away from him.  Damian’s eyes glanced towards Blake as he mouthed two words, taking his seat silently.

Aurelia sat back down, eyes wide as she realized what had happened.  

Damian mouthed “thank you.”

She looked towards Blake, praying that she was wrong and feeling her heart break when she saw the tears in Blake’s cat-like eyes.  Blake kept his place partially in front of her.  Damian ate a bit, drinking some water before he looked at them.

“Sorry, something didn’t sit in my stomach right,” Damian explained with a faint chuckle.  He was ashen in color and the black in his eyes had overtaken his sclera completely.  It made a stark contrast with his bright gold irises.  She could see the crimson lines of malicious energy coursing through his body, the violent rivers standing out against his charcoal hide.  The runes around his neck were visible now.  Thankfully, he was dressed in a shirt with a high collar and he had long hair--it’d hide it for now.

Aura, in the next ten minutes, they are going to activate the spell that will enrage the corruption.  I am holding it back now, but I have no idea what will happen when they activate it.  

“Did you eat the truffles? You know you’re allergic!” Aurelia made a point to fuss, unable to keep her voice from cracking.  They had to keep up the farce until she left.  Neither of them wanted to know what would come of not doing that.  She hated how calm he was.  She was in tears.

“Sorry, I was so hungry I just started eating,” Damian laughed, the sound grating to her ears.  He was in agony.  She could feel it, hear it.  “So, want to go home soon?”

“In a little bit,” Aurelia admitted slowly, her eyes meeting his slowly as she realized what he was doing.  

He was going to willingly accept being corrupted.  No one was sure what would happen since they weren’t sure what manner of creature he was, but most were driven insane and hell-bent on destruction.  The person they were before being corrupted was always destroyed, lost to the twisted mockery that was warped into their place and the power that came with it.  

Damian was going to try to use that to break them out.

Blake told me that Lyam and the rest found us.  They’re waiting.  Blake marked Raphael so that they’ll find him, and they’re already releasing you.  This is extra insurance.  You know, since dear old Mom is going to throw a fit.

“Damian, you can’t,” Aurelia hissed.  The waiter came again, asking about dessert.  “No thanks.”

“I’ll take some to go,” Damian told him, weaving a minor illusion.  He smiled at the man, turning back to Aurelia as the smile faded.  “It’s already set in, Aura.  The least I can do is put up a fight before…”

Aurelia felt her breath catch when she saw the red seep into his eyes.

Damian held his smile, though she could see and hear his soul scream in agony.

Blake stood immediately in front of her.

For a moment, everything was still.

“I don’t know how long I can fight this, Aurelia,” Damian finally said, his voice low and echoing.  “But I know that we’re going to be free.”

And then there was nothing but darkness.

Blake vanished in the enveloping shadows.  Her wings opened, and she couldn’t help the moan of relief at finally having them free.  In her immediate vicinity was light, but she couldn’t see past that.  However, she could feel.  Aurelia walked forward slowly, reaching out until she felt scaly hide.  She followed it until she could feel the wet smoothness of fangs larger than her hands and rough horns that curled around a face that remained cloaked in shadow.  

“Damian,” she croaked as her voice caught.  Aurelia could feel his awareness flickering, feel it being eaten away by the corruption that was everywhere around her.  It took her a moment to realize that she was protected by Blake’s magic.  She dimly wondered how long it would last.  

Aura…run….

“I can’t, not without telling you,” Aurelia replied.  She felt his snout press against her heart.  He was seeking light even now, even as shrouded in shadow as he was.  “Faust is your father, Damian.  Lyam is Blake’s father.  Isabella lied.  She lied to all of you.”

What do you--

“Faust has been trying to protect you as best he can, but he’s cursed...just like you were.  She’ll kill you if he breaks away.  I know he’s been trying to find a way to break it.  I don’t know if he did,” Aurelia continued, holding onto him as she felt his tell-tale temper rising.  He never was good at hiding when he was angry.

Not that she blamed him right now.

Aura, please, you can’t--

“Faust is a friend, and ally,” Aurelia told him, pressing on.  “He’s kept them from harming me, taught me how to understand you.”

Aurelia, run!

Damian reared up, shoving her away.  He vanished from her vision, but she could still feel his presence.  She could also feel the presence of Isabella, Faust, and a number of other creatures.  Soon, the sound of rending flesh and battle reached her ears.  Blake picked up her, his claws solid against her body as he did.

“We need to go,” Blake told her.

Aurelia ran.

@caffeinewitchcraft Sorry I’m so late with this.  I had finals last week and that did a number on my writing this.  I’m glad I finished this, though.  I like how it turned out.  I’m excited write the rest of this story!

[fluffi]

i think it was because god's menu was released around the same bp and svt made their comebacks. same thoughts tho on gm > bd and i was also glad that bd got the wins gm didn't. and same with the streaming mvs while studying : ] ahh, the easily distracted people we are. (reading cut and litol font bc poor ppl who see this on the dash TT)

i've heard chinese ballads (usually osts of films and from a chinese friend) and their songs really tend to tug on my heartstrings. i hope sm gives shotaro more stuff to do soon :[ with some of the units being active and sungchan being an mc on a weekly show, it makes me wonder what he's doing. do you think nct will form a new subunit?

no, i'm not lactose intolerant so it really took me by surprise. it was a one-time thing. hopefully it doesn't happen again. i can't really say i'm a big fan of ice cream but it's good occasionally yk as a treat to yourself. and ahhh, i miss drinking smoothies. my favorite stall has been closed for nearly two years now, idk if they ever re-opened since our city mall burned down :[

i think it's an nct thing? it's why i never get tired of them bc they're always active in a way. you should've seen how things went down last year! march 127 album, april dream mini-album, may 127 repackage, june wayv album and the whole nct 2020 thing. it was a wild year. about the track, i listened to it once and forgot about it. might give it a few more listens but it might not grow on me at all. yes! wasn't a big fan of hot sauce at first too bc i thought the intro was weird (not jaemin's part, like the first thing that plays). and yes, that hook loops in my head 24/7. i even made it my instagram bio.

stray kids world domination indeed! and i agree that their performances were really impressive (specially the deadpool one, best one yet) but sometimes i would fancy ateez' more. i didn't watch kingdom too bc it stressed me out as a multi. always caught between being happy for one group and being sad for the others. and atz and tbz! you're still getting into nct and you're thinking of adding 19 more boys! judging from what i know your taste in music is, i think you'll like tbz's music better since there are a lot more soft songs there than in atz. but do give both discographies a listen in the future!

oh izone! i've only heard of them at music shows and dance choreo compilations bc of them being in sync. they're really satisfying to watch! i thought their title tracks were catchy as well! quite unfortunate that i never got into them really. but again, i dont think i can handle stanning temporary groups.

i'm starting to see a pattern in your biases :D i wouldn't be too surprised if you'll be drawn to jeno at some point in your dream venture. dream is soooo easy to love so if you really end up ulting them, i would understand why. and also, YES PLEASE WRITE FOR DREAM AND TAG ME IF YOU WILL. THANK YOU ><

thank you! :c don't get your hopes up tho, the masterlist must've been interesting to browse but are the fics truly worth it? XD i think not. since you already know koe, i'm reccing users @/rouiyan, @/nsheetee and @/loonacitys. i don't have that much fluff in my ficrecs blog. i think, i've heard of lvdsc before (maybe even read a fic or two) but i can't find their blog now. be careful in privating your works, you might end up losing them forever if you don't keep track of their links...(?) that's what happened to the works that i privated :/ take me with you if you move blogs ;n;

seungmin frequently left updates abt what he was doing, left good nights and good mornings, the occasional i miss you. he called fans 'baby' once. not sure if it was a mistranslation, or really just a one-time endearment. other than that, nothing beyond the usual. seung vlives always make me cry ;n; he always look so adorable and precious. also the gif, the fic was more on fake head-butting really but yes you could say it was also a fake nose boop bc it sounds cuter. i'll make sure to tag you on future seung content on the dash. (time to officially claim him as your ult, yes. dont make him secret anymore :3)

sorry it took me a while. tumblr went batshit. the ' werkl;' stopped working midway and i got busy with school yesterday. also haechan birth today and i'm so emo abt it. it's literally just a boy turning 21.

little font and cut saga lets go!!

(just kidding, i cant do little font typing for long periods of time, makes my eyes go beserk haha.)

true true, im afraid for txt on music shows now because theyre going against some big names (literally bts like whatj jsdf what was hybe thinking). yeah, streaming mvs while studying aka watching mvs on loop lmao. i still want to stream skzs final kingdom performance on instinct but i remember that theyve already won!! hehe

ah chinese ballads always make me emo, i like to scream out lyrics to the songs at the top of my lungs and sit there on the verge of tears. its a cultural thing maybe *sobs*. ooh, what show is sungchan mc-ing in? ill check it out. i thought sm would make nct japan for sungtaro (i heard sungchan speaks japanese) so it was a shocker when they made...nct hollywood lmao. given the current circumstances we're probably not going to get a new subunit anytime soon :( hopefully taro will have stuff to showcase during that period of time.

burned down?? oh my, what happened to your mall? that sounds terrifying. i remember when the front of my school caught on fire and we were all ushered out but we thought it was a drill and didnt find out till years later lmao.

oh true, since theyre such a big pack too. constant comebacks and promotions haha, nctzens never catch a break with 23 members. i listened to the new track again (ive forgotten the name already) but i cant- i cant do it. its just not my style hhh. i rewatched the mv for the godly visuals though. i dont know if youre talking about that 'bibididibibidiododo' part by that female morphed voice at the beginning of the song, because i wasnt a fan of that too. it grew on me though.

same, actually! im not an atiny and dont stan any other group in the show besides skz but i watched each groups performance and ranked them haha. at times ateez would rank over skz, it was wild. also yeah, my other multi friend was freaking out about kingdom and ended up abandoning the show because she was so scared of the fanwars and having to deal with her 'conflicting feelings'. about the stanning thing, in my defense, i have a list of groups i want to stan and ive recently added tbz and atz. the list is long, i have a long way to go! also yeah, i dont prefer ateez's songs and i have a bunch of tbz title tracks in my playlist but if i approach their discography like i did with nct then i think i would like at least five songs.

izone are my queens. theres a reason why theyre the only girl group who made it to my ult list haha! super talented and filled with variety and visuals, a perfectly concocted group (literally, sobs in pd48 scandal). ah, temporary groups. yeah i cried about their disbandment for like 3 days straight, it was bad.

a pATTERN?? INTERESTING. DO ELABORATE. jeno, oh my gosh hes like bang chan. an intimidating-looking bear whos actually filled with love and softness on the inside. im currently having a jaemin run though, his make a wish fancam is doing some wacky things. also yeah, dream is really easy to love. i fell for them so hard, theyre all talented and cute and adorable and the team ambiance is so nice. really rising up my stan list now. i mightt write for dream! ill have to see, hehe.

personally i think the fics are going to be worth it. i can feel it in my boOOnes. ooh, recommendations! fun :D ill check them (and yours) out after i finish this 30k jisung fic. ive been trying to finish it since yesterday but i keep getting sidetracked. also, i made a mistake. its luvdsc with a 'u', maybe thats why you couldnt find it? ahh. thank you for the privating tip though! will keep in mind. and of course ill take you with me if/when i move blogs. we're friends now! <3

SEUNGMIN CALLED STAYS 'BABY'???!!@)(@#*()! I SHOULDVE BEEN THERE ASKDFJDF. im exciting for the fake nose boop drabble!! i love soft couple moments hehe. also yeah maybe its time to make him my ult...hes going to have to compete against jake my beloved ope.

dont worry about being 'late' or anything! we all have our own stuff to do. also yeah tumblr is weird asf sometimes. if you havent realized i typically answer longer asks around the same time everyday, when i get to sit in front of my computer and pull out my clickity-clackity keyboard. super relaxing.

AND YES HYUCKIE DAY!!! HES SO ADORABLE HONESTLY. im in love with all seven members of dream, my fic rec blog is currently filled with fics for them haha.

[ippyg]

Race, Love, and Hate

2017

Reality has set in for many people all over the world.  President Trump is the President of the United States.  A lot has happened since he has taken office.  However, to understand where I’m going to go in today’s post, we’ve got to go back — way back.

It starts in 1787, when Benjamin Franklin became the President of the Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery. Two years later, Benjamin Franklin publishes essays and petitions congress to abolish slavery.  I start here only because of some lyrics that were penned by Lin-Manuel Miranda (writer of Hamilton: An American Musical) on the Hamilton Mixtape where he says 

"Plantation states are packed with promise makers, Do you realize the precious time these legislators wasted? Institutionalizing slavery only multiplied our troubles, Wait till the 1800's, and their population doubles. You all know, This is the stain on our soul and democracy, A land of the free? No, it's not, it's hypocrisy. To subjugate, dehumanize a race, call 'em property, And say that we are powerless to stop it, can you not foresee? Sir, even you, have hundreds of slaves whose descendants will curse our names when we're safe in our graves...”

  What really stands out is that the more they waited, the worse it would get, and it did.  Before hearing all this, I thought the first real attempts at trying to abolish slavery came just before and during the Abraham Lincoln era.  It’s clear though that these attempts came way before that.

Fast forward to present day and what were still feeling is a residual effect of all these things.  As we know, things didn’t just end after slavery, it took decades before segregation came to an end and everyone was treated equal.  I know that it is up for debate, and perhaps for another blog post, but for now, I can’t help but to draw parallels to the past.  It makes me feel that we’ve been conditioned to continue thinking this way.  As if things are as bad as they were then.  Almost as if none of it ever happened. 

As I grew up in Union City, New Jersey, as a Latino male, I remember feeling out of place when I’d go to places like Rutherford, Belleville, Montclair, in New Jersey, that were predominately white towns.  Why would I feel this way?  I’ve must have learned somewhere that being Latino would make me stand out.  In the Marine Corps, a place that was also predominately white, we’d joke about race all the time — Latinos bonded well with other Latinos because it was a cultural thing.  I only mention this to illustrate that point but I have to say that although we joke about race, we’re all brothers in the Marine Corps and the only color we all are in the end, to each other, is Marine Corps green…not white, black, brown, or yellow.

In any case, race is a thing that’s embedded in our minds unconsciously.  We don’t need laws or policies or anything that’ll continue to give power to race, what we need is to abolish our way of thinking by teaching fairness and for us parents, to raise our kids up right and with open arms to all humans.  It’s easier said than done but it has to be done and it’ll take time.

In 2010, at Miami Dade College, I was blessed to be part of a life changing experience.  We got to do an small exchange program with students in Alabama.  At first, the students came to Miami.  I was nervous.  What would they think about our culture?  Would they look down on us?  How do we respond when they show a lack on interest?  This is a note I wrote after our encounter: 

"Words can't not begin to describe the success of this event.  When I shared my thoughts yesterday with the entire group, I started off by quoting Socrates, when he said "I know only that I know nothing".  I thought this weekend I would be teaching rural kids from Alabama a new culture, other ways of living, and showing how different we all are.  I did.  However, what I did not anticipate was that I would be enlightened and inspired by the very people I had a preconceived notion of as being closed minded and ignorant.  I learned that not only was I the close minded individual, but that we have so much to learn from one another no matter our background.  We all have so much to offer despite our differences and at the end of the day, we are all incredible human beings.  Together, we can make a difference when we do set our differences aside and together we can make the world a better place.”  

Yes, I was nervous for no reason at all.  Despite this amazing experience, when we got the chance to go to Alabama, for part two, since our first round was such a success, I was still hesitant.  I remember thinking, “Well the students are great, but how about their family and friends?”  I won’t keep asking questions because as you can imagine, I wrote a note about that experience too.  This is it (by the way, the college we visited was Snead State Community College):

"Its been said numerous times [on this trip] that words are not enough to describe the joy, our gratitude, and the hopefulness that we feel.  I couldn't agree more.  I'm embarrassed in part because of my expectations before arriving here.  The best way to describe what I'm talking about is from the movie, "Remember the Titans".  In the movie, two schools merge during a time where segregation was a big deal.  The whites and blacks now had to play football together on the same team.  At first, the segregation was evident on the team as they practiced but as time went on, they came together.  I felt this was us.  

Although segregation isn't an issue, we did not know what to expect and if it would work the first time in Miami.  Not only did it work, but the engagement during the few days were flawless!  

In the second half of the movie, after the team has come together, they have a new challenge to face and that's their community at home.  On this trip to Alabama, I felt it would be the same.  I knew that our relationship with the Sneaders that had come to Miami would only grow but my concern was with the community?  Would the community accept us? How would the react to us? How would the people of Snead react to us since they had not been part of the trip?  So many questions and uncertainties ran through my head.  The outcome was amazing.  The outcome was exceptional.  I was worried for no reason.  The community and the Sneaders embraced us with such hospitality beyond my believe.  I was and still am truly in awe.  We were literally taken into your homes, not just Alabama and Snead State but Dr Exleys, Amy's, and Jared's parents home.  The unconditional trust shown to us is a sign, among many, of love and family [no matter who you are].

My assumptions were wrong twice.  It’s a lesson though that there is good in people and we need to start peeling of the layers that separate us and come together.  I can’t help but think that it’s due to the conditioning I’ve been unintentionally exposed to.  We can change that.  We can’t let things like politics and a difference of opinions divide us.  Differences are a good thing, we just need to be inclusive of each other.  Love overcomes hate and we’ve got to believe that.  The ball is in our court, the question is what are we going to do with it?  Score a point for love… and even if that’s your intend, you’ve got to be mindful and careful because you may unintentionally score for the other team.

Here are some pictures for those times in 2010 (None of the pictures were taken by me and for name privacy reason, I’m not including photo credit here)

Additional thoughts on Love: http://www.ippyg.com/post/144891966001/complicating-love