#that feels like a more fairytale ish way of putting it if that makes sense

[fuckmeyer]

Ok so I follow you because of your amazing analyzing and theories of twilight, but it's gotten to a point I have to consider reading your stories, and besides a Paul lahote story here or there over the years, I haven't really read twilight stories, especially ones that aren't about the Wolfpack.

I'm scared. So I wanted to ask about yours, what is it like?

Is it crazy like full of plot twists and insanity and madness covered into brilliance (the good kind) or crazy in a way that I start liking bella and edward (the terrifying part)?

(If you answer this, please consider the fact it might actually make me reread twilight (the original) and start ranting worse. For both our sanities, is it smart?)

Is it crazy like full of plot twists and insanity and madness covered into brilliance (the good kind) or crazy in a way that I start liking bella and edward (the terrifying part)?

both! liking Bella & Edward is THE biggest plot twist of this saga LOL. i'm not really one to hype my work so bear with me. here's the difference between Twilight & In The Afterlight:

the familiar:

setting. rainy rural PNW vibes

rough plot. girl meets vampire. vampire wants to kill her. love ensues. it starts you off in familiar territory, then slowly peels away as the story progresses. you'll find enough of the "iconic" scenes to keep you oriented in nostalgia, but not so much that you feel chained to the original book.

characters. no OCs. Bella & Edward are somewhat OOC, but their core traits are still intact.

the unfamiliar(ish):

Bella's personality. i think it was @blurry-walker who made this excellent point: we're supposed to like Bella because of how she's described, not by how she acts. Bella is not really selfless, mature, observant, compassionate, intellectual, or self-aware. which would be fine... if that were the author's intention. i've tried making Bella a mix between how she's described & how she acts: selfless, contemplative, & stubborn, with a sense of humor. & i threw in a backstory & hobbies - i.e, drawing, music, reading - so she has a life besides Edward. (she can still act like she's 18 tho. as a treat.)

Edward's personality. no stalking, no anger issues or mood swings, no misogyny, no invalidation of Bella's choices, no militant chastity. just a vampire who's lost his way & startled to discover he is every bit a part of this world as Bella. more humorous, more overwrought/ romantic, more contemplative.

the result is a relationship that's rooted in mutual respect, common interests & values, & genuine companionship. they talk about philosophy, they exchange mixtapes, they tease each other, & have slightly less self-control when it comes to sexual intimacy

James/Victoria plotline

twilight is less fairytale, more gothic horror

deeper thematic discussions (bc i think they're neat! :D). what does it mean to be you? how do you find yourself again when you're lost? what's the secret to keeping your humanity in death?

vampire/Cullen lore. what's the difference between a golden-eyed vampire and a red-eyed one? what are "la tua cantantes" and "mates"? why are the Cullens going to high school? what's the Cullen-Volturi relationship like? who are the Cullens, really? i'm trying to paint them as grayer characters & have their personalities/backstories make sense for who they are.

werewolf lore. i *hate* canon imprinting - how an imprinter loses him/herself to the imprint, how the imprintee can't say no, the fact that they imprint on CHILDREN when the theory behind imprinting is to "find the strongest genes"... NO. i hate it all. i hate that smeyer appropriates the legends of the Quileute tribe & how stereotypes/ tropes of Native people are perpetuated in this series. i especially hate the double-standards Bella puts on the pack vs the coven. justice for the wolfpack or bust

since you mentioned liking the wolfpack (same), the sequel, Come Nightfall (aka New Moon), has way more wolfpack content than the original, & we see a lot more interactions between Jake & Bella. (and Bella & Sam!)

i don't feel it's my place to tell you whether you should read this or even whether it's good. if it helps, this is what other people say:

"This… Was incredible. It was the kind of fanfiction that should be praised along the classics of the fandom, the kind you would want to print and put in the shelf in between Twilight and Life And Death."

"This is, to me, the epitome of great fanfiction--you took the story idea and characters and tweaked them to how you imagine it would be better as well as adding in your own flare, AND you have the story telling ability to back it up."

"You've managed to write something that not only surpasses the source material, but flies so far beyond it in nuance, craftsmanship, raw emotion and SMUT that it travelled through space and time continuum and shows no signs of stopping. Every time I think it can't get better, it does."

"I read both of your books in like 2 days; I couldn’t put them down. This is some of the best writing I’ve ever read on here."

"What a gem of a story. I read it in one sitting, the best canon rewrite I've ever read. Very very clever writing, engaging plot, and the most real Bella and Edward relationship I've ever seen. Everything about it, Bella and Jacob, Sam, Alice and Bella's dynamic, Billy and Bella, everything added so much colour to this story. I can't believe this came from Meyer's twilight and New Moon. Absolutely genius."

[lizardthelizard]

(@cptainjones) omg hi hello okay ! SO! written down my thoughts 🫡 will they be cohesive? NO❗️but I'm sharing them anyway ! firstly, I got attached to lampwick LITERALLY at the first mention & its a little embarrassing. I started reading your fic just before work & then spent the entire day thinking of him like hellllooooo this was pinocchio's best friend BEFORE he became a real boy & he literally went by the nickname LAMPWICK when he has a real name 🗣 like do you think he named himself as an inanimate object to be like twinsies with pinocchio when he was a puppet? (in the way that kids match their hair etc). anyway I'm thinking very hard and I've got your fic mess is mine & naivesilver's series huge problem solved au open in my tabs READY to be read on my day off tomorrow 🫡 (also the story of pinocchio is queer coded af to have that much shape shifting in it like what do you meaannnnn they both became donkeys when animalistic transformation was often an allegory for identity & escape/freedom in fairytales???! like no WAY was lampwick's home life good when he named himself an intimate object & tried to run away to the Isle of toys WITH an ex puppet & THEN became a donkey!!! & then he died but we don't talk about that because I'm already too invested). anyway this isn't making much sense but literally. lampwick.....MY poor little meow meow ! I wanna put him in a microwave wrapped up in tinfoil & shake him in a can. I'm being so normal about this 🫡

And will my REPLY be cohesive?? No, I'm sure it won't be.

(long (ish) reply under the cut :) )

USBDFUGSDFSDFSDF oh I'm??? I'm so mind blown by just how quickly (and how much!) you've gotten attached to his character!!

And YEAH he was Pinocchio's friend BEFORE he became real! Which is so huge because, in the book, the other kids are kind of nasty towards him when he first goes to school. But Lampwick (who we don't meet until a little bit after this) literally just treats him like a normal kid?? And yeah SURE, Lampwick's character role was written in order to have Pinocchio led astray by a peer. He was the 'bad kid' that Pinocchio wasn't supposed to listen to and his fate (as both a donkey and his subsequent death) was simply the fate that Pinocchio managed to narrowly avoid (the death part, at least, in spite of how much Collodi wanted to kill him off)

ANYWAY, what I'm saying is that, despite everything, Lampwick was genuinely Pinocchio's friend and I HAD to write him into the OUAT universe. Especially because the prospect of having a character from August/Pinocchio's past with some of the same shared trauma as him was too good.

(Side note: the funniest thing about Lampwick in fake/real specifically was that he was only supposed to appear for about two or three chapters and then disappear again. But I liked him too much and now he's one of the main cast :} )

Lampwick (or Candlewick) is called that because he's a skinny, lanky little bastard (like the wick of a candle). NOW...Was that a nickname he gave to himself...? or was that a nickname that some of the other kids gave him and he just kind of took it and ran? not sure but OMG I do love this idea that they're both stuck with these unusual names and therefore are able to bond over it in some way.

also: 'animalistic transformation was often an allegory for identity & escape' holy SHIT hnghnghgnhgnhgngh yes to this and yes to the queer coded comment.

Also YEAH, I guess it's not stated in the book but idk if feels VERY likely to me that Lampwick had a not great home life. The promise of a land where there's no school and where kids play all day ect is obviously very appealing. But....to actually sneak away in the dead of night and go through with leaving? There HAS to be something else pushing his agenda, you know? (Pinocchio leaves more because Peer PressureTM and because of his own curiosity and desire to Do things that make him happy. Hence why I'm always so !!!!!! <3 when it comes to August and the way OUAT handled his character. Because they translated his character SO perfectly into an adult version of his fairytale/disney counterpart and it makes my brain go brrrrrrr)

Anyway thank you SO much for this ask!!!!!!!!

Also!!! omg 😭💗 let me know if you do read mess is mine and enjoy it. And! Please DO check out naivesilver's work. She's a REALLY genuinely talented author with an incredible grasp on Pinocchio and surrounding characters. I cannot recommend her work enough.

[diluc33rpm]

Do you believe in true love? (2/2)

yeah for example the love between me and this fucking AC rn (it’s raining but it’s 32 degrees i want to fight an eagle with my bare hands)

[quietmyfearswith]

suitkovia ; baron zemo x fem!reader

status — completed oneshot

warnings — SMUT SO MINORS GO AWAY, unprotected penetrative sex, oral sex (both m and f receiving), cursing, cheek and clit slapping, groping(ish)

word count — 3,457 words

pairing — fashion designer!helmut zemo x model!reader

a/n —zemo is such a fucking hot daddy and daniel bruhl is just as hot — and what was i gonna do?? not write about it??? psh no way! also blame the suitkovia video because he was so fucking hot andgoofy there.. enjoy this self-indulgent fic! also idk if you can be a baron and a fashion designer but let’s pretend that that’s possible okay? feedback is appreciated and hope u guys have a lovely day !! :> 

also the ones in italics are in sokovian, i just didnt want to translate it into something lmao

tagging @art-estrange

masterlist 

“Sir, your newest model has arrived,” Oeznik informed with a smile; and just as he announced it, the mentioned woman walked in and into the line of sight of the famous Sokovian designer.

Putting down the now empty glass of whiskey he earlier downed, he stood up and approached her, “Hello Y/N,” He huskily greeted her as his hands gently landed on her arms which allowed him to lean over and plant tender kisses on both her cheeks, “I am eternally grateful for your endorsement and modelling of our line of clothes.”

The kiss caught her off guard — but in a pleasant way — and she could only smile coyly, “If anything it is my pleasure to be able to wear your masterpiece of garments, Baron; I’m honoured that you thought of me.”

Releasing his grip from her he then held out a hand for her to take, once she did she was being led in front of the racks of clothes that were lined up — waiting for her to be worn. “Did you want a drink? Perhaps a Turkish delight?”

Eyeing the coffee table where a small platter of sweets and food lay along with some refreshments, she shook her head no and politely declined. “You can leave us now, Oeznik. And we are not to be disturbed, yes?”

“Of course, Sir.”

When the two men spoke in Sokovian, it made her quite uneasy but when she watched the designer run his hands along the fabric of the gowns that were hung, she thought that he was talking about one of the dresses. The wooden doors noisily shut behind her as the assistant left the two of the alone in the room.

“Thank you, again, for coming in here a day earlier than the arranged photoshoot,” He grabbed a gown off the rack and carefully carried it in front of her. “Of course, I understand that it was necessary to ensure that the clothes would fit me well.”

Nodding, he then handed her the silk tulle gown with a smile, “May you try this on first?” Taking the soft gown from him she silently complied and headed to the dressing room he pointed at.

While waiting for her to get changed, he sat down and poured himself another glass of whiskey. Perhaps it was due to her training or attributable to her various ramp model gigs, she quickly changed into the gown; there was one setback however, there was a zipper on the back that was too far for her to reach.

Walking out of the dressing room, she cleared her throat — effectively catching the attention of the Sokovian designer, “Baron? I need some help with the zipper.” She turned around and his breath was hitched in his throat as he saw how beautiful she looked.

“Of course I can help, darling,” He snapped out of his adoring gaze and stood up quickly to zip up the dress. Feeling the pad of his fingers along her skin resulted in both of them feeling a rush of electricity run through. “All done, love.”

It was comical how the fabric whirled around in slow motion as she twirled around to face him; he took a few steps back to admire her fully, “You look exactly like the goddess Persephone, darling.”

Walking in front of the the full length mirror that was placed in the far back part of the room, she observed herself in the eloquently-designed gown and smiled, “The gown looks like something straight out of a fairytale; and it fits me well,” She faced him as she remembered the last part of his statement, “Persephone? Is that your inspiration for this new line?”

Finishing off the remaining liquor he had poured out before nodding and explaining, “The recent books that I’ve been reading are about the Greek gods and goddesses.” He then stood behind her and gently touched her waist, his breath tickling her ear as he spoke, “And Persephone stood out to me the most.”

“Not Aphrodite? Is she not the most beautiful goddess in Mount Olympus?”

“Touche,” He smirked and removed his hands from her sides and went back to the racks and fetched the blue, floral gown that was the first design he made for his most current collection, “But the Olympian beauty wasn’t my focus on all, for I was far too intrigued with Persephone.”

A pout formed her lips as she was confused with his reasoning, “Change into this one first then I can answer the questions you have,” He assured her as if he could read her mind.

Thankfully the second gown that was handed for her to try on was easier for her to zip up; but at the same time she was dismayed at the realization that she wouldn’t be able to feel his hot touch on her skin. Upon stepping out of the velvet dressing room, she announced, “I think this is my favorite gown by far. This really makes me feel like a goddess.”

“To be fair, princess, with or without the clothes you would be crowned a goddess.”

The blunt comment had her biting her lip as she felt undeserving of his praise; standing next to him in front of the mirror, she shook her head and replied, “Well I’m not Greek so your argument is invalid, Baron.”

Once again, his hands roamed around her body — but this time his hands settled on her bare shoulders, “Not all goddesses are Greek; there are Nordic, Celtic, Indian — to name a few.” Looking to her right, where he had rested his chin while his hooded eyes took in every inch of her, she gulped down, “Cultured and intelligent all on top of having a great eye and sense of fashion — is there something you’re lacking?”

“Just my Persephone,” He muttered after placing a gentle kiss on her shoulder. That piqued her interest, she created some distance between the two of them but she laced her hands with his as she smirked, “You think of yourself as Hades?”

“In a way, I do,” He disconnected himself from her and was skimming through the different dresses he had planned for here to wear, “Are you the king of the underworld?” From her tone it was obvious that she was slightly teasing him, but he decided to give her a serious answer either way.

“Despite how magnificent that would be, I am not,” His eyebrows lifted up in excitement as he picked one of the next gowns that Y/N would try on, “But I do admire his passion; he and I share that same thing, you know?”

Handing it over to her, she got the signal that it was her next frock she was to try on; silently, she nodded and took the dress and headed to the dressing room. As she slid on the crepe gown, she then nodded to herself and smiled.

A low whistle was heard when she stepped out in front of the mirror, with a smile Zemo’s fingers danced around her neck as he fastened the cape in its place, “Now you look like something carved out of marble.”

Trailing down from her neck, his hands settled themselves on top of her breasts, “Is the neckline too much?” Her chest heaved up in anticipation as she shook her head no, “I don’t think it is, Baron.”

Smiling, he nodded and placed a kiss on the intersection of her neck and shoulders, “I’m delighted you feel so, darling. I feel like you have questions regarding my earlier statement.” Her small nod encouraged the designer to explain further, “Hades is often dismissed for he is the king of the dead. But, if anything, I think it is his passion for Persephone that he should be known for.”

“Oh?” Was the only word that escaped her with a shaky breath; a simple kiss in her skin had reduced her brain into a puddle, but the simple word spurred him to continue, “After finding the woman of his dreams, he did everything in his power to keep her in his arms.” His hands then slid down from her breasts and to her waist, pushing her body closer to his. Taking in her heavenly scent, he smiled upon feeling goosebumps against the skin of her shoulder where his lips were.

“Have you found your Persephone then?”

“I have now,” He gruffly spun her around and latched his lips on hers; she quickly welcomed his soft lips as she opened her mouth and moaned out as  his hands nestled themselves on her ass, occasionally squeezing her cheeks. Her hands ran along his bearded cheeks and pushed him closer to her.

She whimpered when he tore off the cloak hastily and sucked on her neck, “You’re so fucking beautiful, darling.” As soon as he unzipped her dress she automatically shrugged it off her shoulders, exposing how she didn’t wear any kind of underwear underneath it. Amused, Zemo smirked as he ran his hand along her stomach, “Do you always go about without any kind of underwear?”

“No, not really,” She denied, “It’s easier to slip in between dresses without underwear holding me back.” Holding onto her waist he then carried her to lay on her back on the velvet couch, “Well that just makes it easier for me to please my goddess.”

He dipped down and licked her clit with his thick, wide tongue; and with just one lick of his tongue she was placing her legs on his shoulders, pulling him closer to her. “Fuck, more please,” Hearing her moan out for her, egged him to shove his tongue in her tight canal as he swirled around and tasted her sweet juices.

“What got you this wet, my little goddess?” It was a rhetorical question — which was a good thing for she was so deep in pleasure that she couldn’t process anything in her pleasure-riddled brain. His thumb rubbed her clit vigorously while his other hand inched upward and grabbed onto her nipple, twisting and pulling on it.

“Were you this eager to be fucked, darling?” The vibrations of the filthy words had her locking her legs behind his neck,  further nudging his tongue deeper into her pussy. A loud whine erupted from her mouth when he pulled his face away, “Does that disappoint you, love?”

“Please, Baron. I need you,” She moaned out, her eyes blinking as tears of pleasure threatened to spill out. Wordlessly, he slid two of his fingers in her pussy and lowered his mouth so he could lick her clit. He didn’t break eye contact with her as she watched him lap her juices while his fingers were being squeezed by her damp walls.

“Is this what you needed, darling? Wanted my fingers?” She nodded as tangled her hand into his har, “Fuck! How am I going to fit my cock when you are already struggling to take my fingers.”

Her chest was heaving up and down in pleasure as she thrashed around, “Want you, want you so bad.” Her declaration had his chest rumbling with pride as he pulled his fingers away and kissed her hardened nub one last time.

“Is that so? Can you take all of me inside you then?” He lifted his face right in front of hers, she moved to slant their lips together. Dribbling down from his mouth to hers, she got a faint taste of her juices; and in the model’s opinion, it tasted better when it was mixed with his saliva.

“Want to please you first baron,” She clawed at the ends of his sweater, hands loving the feel of his warm back, “Can I taste you first?” The way she pleaded for him had him smirking at the realization that she was just as desperate for him as he was for her. Giving his consent silently, he helped lift off the cashmere sweater he was wearing and toss it on the foot. Switching both their sides so he lay under her posed as a challenge for her kisses went south — from peppering kisses on his beard, she lowered them until her cold mouth met the wide expanse of his chest.

“You really have a way,” He paused his train of thought as her lips gave his nipple a gentle tug; his eyes darkened with desire as he watched her give the opposite nipple the same treatment before kissing her way down his stomach, “With that precious tongue of yours, darling.”

The way her eyes peered up at him innocently contradicted the way her hands expertly unbuckled his pants; and once his pants, along with his underwear, was being moved off of him she licked her lips in anticipation. One hand stroked the entirety of his length while the other rested on his thigh, anchoring herself.

As if to test the waters, she placed kitten licks on the tip of his cock, “Fucking hell, darling,” The designer moaned out once she lowered herself and allowed her mouth to enclose around half of his cock. The way his cock poked around the inside of her mouth was a delightful intrusion for her; soon enough the tip of his cock was poking the back of her throat.

His short nails were digging themselves against her hair as his chest rumbled in pleasure, “You got me so close, love. Want to have a taste of Sokovia?” The chuckle he let out quickly died down when she fondled his balls with one hand as she shook her head a bit as she deepthroated him long enough until she gagged a bit.

It wasn’t long before he spilled all over her mouth,  “Fuck, darling,” He moaned out as she milked him. Easing his grip on her head, he smiled upon seeing her lick her lips and open her mouth — showing him how he swallowed every single drop of his cum.

“You taste delicious, Baron,” She said with a smile as she rose up from where she was kneeling and moved to sit on his lap, “Can I please ride you?” Her meek petition had him even harder. Wordlessly, he snaked an arm in his cock, tapping it against her pussy before sliding it in her; in one motion he was already halfway inside her.

“Already so wet for me, darling,” Helmut moaned out when he lifted her by the asscheeks, leaving only his tip inside her; her nails were leaving marks on his shoulders as she mewled out, “Please fuck me, Baron.” Just as she spoke the final syllable, he then rammed his cock all the  way in her, causing her to lurch forward, pressing her chest against his. It gave him leverage to fuck her fiercely yet slowly, as if savoring every moment inside her.

With her mouth pressed against his ear, she was moaning out loud for him which sounded like music to the designer’s ears; whereas his mouth was focused on leaving marks of his desire on her shoulder. “Been wanting you for a while, love,” The Baron rasped out as his thrusts sped up when he felt her walls squeezing onto his thickness even more, “Saw you walk down the ramp at Milan and I just knew,” He groaned mid sentence when she moved away from him and leaned down to kiss him tenderly — a juxtaposition from where his cock was now mercilessly and swiftly entering her tight canal, “Just knew I had to have you.”

The declaration of his admiration had her feeling oddly more confident in herself, “Am I like everything you ever wanted, Baron?” He rapidly nodded before moving his head away to get a good look of her — she was biting her lip, yet it couldn’t contain her delicious whimpers from reaching his ears, whereas with every bounce she made resulted in her breasts hypnotizingly moving along. Enclosing a nipple in his mouth, he pulled on it hard enough for her to rake her hands in his hair and shove him harder against her hardened nub.

“I’m so close, Baron,” She moaned out at the absence of his mouth, but was quickly satisfied when he took on the other nipple. Even without her verbal forewarning, he would have known that with the way it was getting more difficult for his cock to slide in and out of her clenched, wet walls. “Are you gonna claim my cock as yours, darling?”

Feeling the presence of his cock surpass her sweet spot and hit her cervix was too much for her as she weakly nodded, “Want you so bad,” She moaned out as she was starting to feel overwhelmed. The designer could feel his own cock pulse upon seeing her current state; he unwillingly removed his mouth from her now swollen nipples — much to both of their dismay — yet he tried to make up for it by lowering a hand to the front of her pussy, alternating between rubbing and pinching her clit. “I want you to cum for me, love,” He rasped out as his other hand was on her cheek, urging him to focus on him. “Your juices should be running down on my cock, okay?”

Slightly turning her head, she sucked on his thumb as she continued to rock herself harder on his cock — the thought of an impending orgasm sounding wonderful. A gasp escaped her lips when the Baron slapped both her cheek and clit when he did not receive affirmation from her, “I need your answer, darling, will you cum for me like the good girl I know you can be?”

Whether it was her desire to be his or the fact that she just didn’t want that added stimulation, she nodded her head vigorously as she indistinctly muttered, “Gonna cum for you, Baron. Want your cock all for myself.”

Pleased with her response, he then drove his cock in her deeper and harder while she wrapped her arms around his shoulders as her lips were quivering right under his thumb was tucked in safely. With one particular harsh thrust, she came and bit on his thumb too hard; despite feeling a sharp pain, Zemo smirked and continued to ram his cock in and out of her as he too was on the brink of another orgasm.

As she was placing kitten lick on his thumb as an attempt to calm herself down, she allowed him to take control; it was incredible how much strength he had because with one hand latched on her hips, he was matching the way her body rose and fall matched the pace in which he was fucking her. “I’m never gonna let you go now, darling. You’re all mine now.”

Delighted with that, she removed his thumb in her mouth and looked at him — fondness and lust portrayed through her eyes — and said, “Cum in me, Baron.” As if her words set off a trigger, he came load after load of his cum, painting her walls as his. Panting heavily as he pressed his forehead against hers, taking in the glow that encompassed her entire body.

Lovingly stroking both her cheeks they both smiled at each other; she spoke up first, “I hope you don’t always sleep with your models.” Despite the overwhelming pleasure she had just experienced, she couldn't prevent her from feeling insecure about the repercussions of their little rendezvous. The hairs at the nape of his neck was something she distracted herself with since she was too nervous for his response; tilting her head to get her to meet him eye to eye so he could reassure her, “No, my love, I don’t make it a habit to go and sleep around. Truth be told, from now on I only plan on sleeping with you.”

His line had her chuckling and lightly shoving his shoulder, still in disbelief with the words that left his mouth. “You’re my Persephone, the one I have been searching for; and I have no plans of letting you go,” He spoke and looked at her wholeheartedly and genuinely, hoping that he would solidify his claim and hopefully get her to believe him.

As her lip quivered and eyes watered, she hugged him close and showered every inch of skin of his that she could reach with kisses, “You don’t know how much that means to me, Baron. I, too, would not do the foolish thing of letting you go, ever.”

It was only then that the designer knew what true happiness was as he rubbed her back gently, pushing her body even more closer to him, “You’re with me now, darling, for life. I’ll treat you like the goddess that you are.”

[bitchassbucky]

.eps (explicit)

Word Count: 2k

Warning/s: dark!bucky x dark!reader, MAJOR CHARACTER DEATH, blood mention, gore and dismemberment/beheading, murder, toxic/abusive relationship dynamics, sedation/drugging/use of sedative, stockholm syndrome-ish, one very special character reveal

A/N: i told y'all there's more <3 the special character treat is for @sarge-barnes-sir mwah!

this is queued shdhhsh gonna fix the links in the mornin’

PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE HEED THE WARNINGS ABOVE, IF YOU DON'T WANT TO READ THIS VERSION, GO AND CHECK OUT THE NON-EXPLICIT VERSION.

follow the CTRL series:

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ii - .avi

iii - .raw

iv - .png

v - .zip

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Safeness, comfortability, warmth are all but a false sense of reality.

When a prey takes down its walls, the predator moves in. Camouflaged in familiar colors, in words that you’re used to hearing, in praises, in lies. Most predators use the mask of the night to move in darkness—unyielding and calculated. Come morning, there will be only one left alive, tainted with victory and bloodshed.

You and Bucky have been engaging in a dance for two—a battle of who’s willing to take the leap of faith and unleash hell upon the other.

Stifled smiles and pursed lips.

The air is filled with unsaid irritants, little things that ticked away like bombs.

There was no time for pleading, no time for mercy, no rest for the wicked.

Did you still love each other?

How far are you willing to go to keep up with his… complacency?

Bucky’s mundane life already taking a toll on you. The endless nightmares of him feeling you. The swirling vision of Bucky being with you every waking—and sleeping—moment: it grates your soul to shreds.

“We’ll be together forever, right?”

“Yes, darling.”

“What about the day after forever?”

“That too, honey.”

Where was the man you loved so deeply? The man that broke his morals just to be with you?

Was he under this hull of a Yes Man? A poor little thing that says ‘yes’ to everything like a puppy.

The man you held so dearly now slipping away, chipping his humanity, shedding the once-human.

“Would you marry me tomorrow if I asked you?”

“Of course, baby, why wouldn’t I?”

“Would you kill for me?”

“I’m meant to do the same for you.”

It’s irritating how Bucky gave up too quickly. Too fast, moving too fast. The gazelle let the lion tear its neck as it lay there, unmoving, letting the blood seep into its hide.

When you first met Bucky, it was your own fairytale unfolding before your eyes. Kismet, reality, forgiveness from above. He was soft and shy, passionate, lively.

Far from what you expected from a man his age—you blame Steve for forcing you into his narrative before. That all men are out to get you. They will hurt you. They will use you and leave you for good. But Bucky? Bucky came in like a knight. He saved you from the carcass of your past. He saved you from the sins that you prayed and knelt for.

Bucky taught you how to love.

Bucky taught you how to live for yourself.

Bucky taught you that being alone doesn’t mean you have to be lonely.

“It was an unspoken little thing, wasn’t it?”

“What thing, baby?”

“Our love.”

“Yes, honey, it was.”

He worships you.

He worships you like a fucking God and you hate it.

Suffocating, too suffocating. You dove straight for the water and now you’re drowning.

Do you still love each other? The question hangs in the air, heavy with its weight, light as a feather.

It’s all your fault. It’s all your fault. It’s all your fault. It’s all your fault.

So you stand there with a syringe half-filled with a horse sedative. It’s a concern how easy it is to waltz into a pet store and pick up a general anesthetic. You make a mental note to look at it later.

Bucky’s body slumps forward, his forehead meeting the edge of the table with a dull thud. If the overdose doesn’t kill him, the weeping crack in his head will.

Holy fuck, humans bleed a lot. And fast. Good thing you already have that clear tarp taped down. Even with the hush money stuffed down your throat, it would take a good nick to regrout the kitchen.

“What is that for, honey?”

“I’m painting the cabinets.”

“Okay, darling.”

So you let him bleed, surprised that the liquid is redder than what you thought it would be. A soft gurgling noise came from Bucky, the last of air escaping his dead body. You stood there, syringe in hand, as you thought how to dispose of a six-foot-tall man without arousing suspicion.

Not that he’ll be missed anyway: the local news and the internet already branded him as a psycho and you as a victim. You were both victims in this fairytale. They reported his case as “skipped the town like the sicko he is.” So, no—no one’s going to look for him.

The sun was high up in the sky and there was a dead body in your kitchen.

A butcher and a surgeon walks into a bar for a drink. “What do you do for a living?” Said the butcher, “I save lives! What about you?” The doctor answers. “I save animals from dying slowly. We’re basically the same. You’re just very clean.” You see, the butcher comes into the bar covered in blood, reeking of death. The surgeon, on the other hand, wears his white coat with pride even though he’s surrounded by death every passing second.

Today was the day you learned that you have the tools of a butcher and the precision of a surgeon. Unlike before.

You carefully take Bucky’s fingers off of his left hand, leaving a skin flap on the edge of the last knuckle for you to stitch close later. Four promises. Four goddamn promises and he broke all of them.

It was his fault that he’s dead. He made you do this.

Starting with his left shoulder, you jab the knife between the bone and the soft flesh of his armpit, bringing the blade downwards. The sickening smell of blood swirled along with the image of muscle and fat being sliced made you gag.

Does the brain know that it’s seeing something it shouldn’t?

A rational part of you wanted to look away but the time is ticking, it’ll be much harder once rigor mortis sets in an hour.

You swing the knife down, cracking the bone once, and then again, and again, and again until the shoulder bone splinters and dislocates itself from the rest of Bucky’s torso. You had to switch knives and blades and a fucking bone saw to get through the rest of his limbs, leaving only his chest, head, and stomach untouched. After taping up and packing the arms and the legs, you work on putting the rest of Bucky into a nondescript suitcase.

The only problem being his head getting into the way of things.

Wanting to preserve even a shred of his dignity, you left his face untouched. Well, save from the crack in his skull.

You begrudgingly take a hefty chef’s knife and start cutting through the jugular vein, only stopping when the blade hits the spinal cord by his nape. The serrated blade of the bone saw sits on your blood-soaked gloves, scrape-scrape-scraping until it snaps into two.

The human head weighs around 10 pounds, kinda like a bowling ball.

An opaque black garbage bag containing Bucky’s head looks nothing suspicious as you put it inside a backpack—into a firepit you go.

His limbs—arms and legs alike—are going deep into the ocean, forgotten and to be used as fish food.

The limbless torso will be finding its home in a deep hole in the middle of a densely wooded area, far from the city.

But you’re not quite sure what to do with the mason jar of teeth though; the clinking noises of it remind you of the seashells you used to collect when you were a kid. Maybe you’ll stash it away with the torso.

Placing the bags into the trunk of a rental, you begin your journey to the end of your fairytale.

The drive to and from the places was tiring, to say the least. The internet connection of the diners was spotty at best. Locals were overly friendly with the city folks who came passing through their towns. The roads reek of roadkill and manure from the farm animals that were left to roam for fresh grass.

At least you get to come home in a spotless apartment, alone once again.

But not lonely.

Your space is yours again. No trace of anyone anywhere. Immaculately yours.

—

Humans are social creatures.

No one can truly be alone, especially in today’s world where we’re connected to everyone—whether we liked it or not.

Leaving your wretched job behind was an easy feat to do. No one can say no to the victim of such a vile crime. That’s all they saw you: a helpless little thing. So off you went; saying half-assed goodbyes and sending emails of courage and hope and fucking resilience.

Your resignation meant that the company’s free of any dirt from you, Bucky’s disappearance quickly becoming a joke and a rumor blending in one.

They let you leave: in your bank account a fat check ensuring that you’d shut up about the scandal for months until you can’t feed yourself no more. So you packed your bags and jet off without looking back. You never liked that apartment anyway.

Nevertheless, you found yourself looking into another dead-end job in one of the towns you stopped over before. It’s a charming place like time froze in their plaza while the rest of the world went on. You found a small studio apartment in a street tuckered away from the main avenue, you settled there as days became nights and nights turned into days.

You woke up one morning craving a healthy serving of coffee and pancakes, luckily the town’s local diner wasn’t far from your new home.

The coffee was too hot, the pancakes were amazing, fluffy, and just right. You’re sitting in a sunny booth, the warmth doing its wonders.

“Hi, can I get today’s paper, please?” Your voice is sweet as you call your server, giving her a quick smile.

A pair of Raybans adorn your face, unconsciously hiding behind its darkened glasses. The waitress gives you a thick stack of newspapers, refilling your cup with black coffee.

Upon opening the paper, you ignore the town’s headlines and went straight for the job postings. The door jingled open as patrons come in and go, waving to familiar faces.

Job Vacancy Announcements

Secretary to the Town Sheriff

You skimmed over the rest of the details, only noting the address of the office. The job looks quite lucrative for someone who would only take messages and organize files for the sheriff.

Looking over the job posting again, you read over the words walk-ins only. That shouldn’t be hard enough.

The diner looked deserted save from the man sitting behind your booth. Leaning over and tapping his shoulder, you put on a polite smile, “Hi, sorry, do you know how to get to the sheriff’s office from here?”

“Hello, darling.” The man croons in an accent, he looks over to you, “join me in my booth, will ‘ya?”

You’re in no position to reject his proposal, you’re the one who needed an answer.

Taking your coffee cup, you slide into his booth, “hi.”

“Just the face I wanted to see.” Clean-shaven, a hint of mint and smoke, and something woody; a worn leather jacket and white button-up shirt hugging his soft frame. “Some folks over on the apartment complex were talkin’ about a city girl wanting to rent a studio all by herself. That happen to be you?”

You look over to him, trying to understand how that small of news spread like a wildfire, “yeah. I moved in a week ago.”

He leans over, smiling sweetly as he unabashedly lets his eyes roam your features, “What’s a city girl like you doin’ in a place like this? I hope we ain’t too boring for you, gal.”

Chatty—he’s way too chatty.

“Just wanted a change of pace, really. Away from the bustle of the city.” You rustle the paper, clearing your throat to get back on the matter on hand, “so the sheriff’s office? Is it too far from here?”

“What business are ‘ya bringing into the office?”

“A job, actually. Says here that they’re looking for a secretary.” You might as well tell him everything, he seems too chatty to be dismissed over and over again.

“Well, darlin’, today’s your lucky day. No need to drive down the old road.” He reaches down to his seat, pulling up a brown hat, “Hi, I’m Sheriff Bodecker. Now, to whom do I owe the pleasure?”

You bite back a giggle, you’ve always wanted to be involved with the law.

[greatqueenanna]

Similarities between Frozen and its original inspiration.

*Note* If anyone can tell me who created that artwork of the Snow Queen that I used in the title, please tell me haha. I've looked everywhere for a source or artist and I can't find it. The Full artwork is here.

It is common knowledge that the Frozen franchise was inspired by Hans Christian Anderson's The Snow Queen (1844).

For those who don't know the story, it is a fairytale written by the Danish author mentioned that centers on true love versus evil. A young child named Kai is taken by a Snow Queen after his heart is frozen by an evil mirror. Gerda, his close friend, goes to look for him while going on a fantastical adventure. She eventually finds him in the Snow Queen's palace and thaws his frozen heart with a kiss and her tears.

Frozen doesn't have a lot in common with the fairytale - in fact, there are only three confirmed aspects that were taken into consideration when writing the film - those being the Snow Queen as a character, thawing of a frozen heart with love, and the mirror. Everything else is dramatically different or has similarities that are more speculative on the fandom's part.

In this analysis, I wanted to go over what is similar between the two stories, along with similarities that may be present in Frozen 2 as well.

-Characters-

The Snow Queen has quite a few characters, with only some really appearing to some degree in Frozen. Now, as said, not everything here is confirmed, so keep in mind that some elements here are speculative.

Anna

Major Influence - Gerda

Both Anna and Gerda are determined individuals who put love above everything else. Through their love for the person they are trying to reconnect with, they can save the day. As stated by both narratives, the strongest element that both girls possess is their unconditional love.

Minor Influence - The Princess

Now the second character with some of Anna's traits is the Princess character - she is intelligent and has a caring and helpful personality. She also falls for someone who is of a lower class than she is.

Elsa

Major Influence - The Snow Queen

We know for a fact that Elsa was indeed inspired by the original Snow Queen - she has ice magic, she builds a palace far away from civilization, and she is a Queen. Also, in Frozen 2, Elsa's main place that she now goes to frequently is Ahtohallan. Ahtohallan is located very far north of the mainland and is permanently frozen. In the fairytale, The Snow Queen's palace and gardens are located in a land of permafrost, which was inspired by Spitsbergen. Spitsbergen is also very far north(ish) of Norway and has many glaciers.

Minor Influence - Kai

Elsa also seems to have common attributes with Kai - they are both disillusioned from the world due to a terrible event - Elsa being traumatized from the accident and what came after, and Kai becoming corrupt from the mirror. Both needed someone who loved them to save them from this way of thinking.

Kristoff

Major Influence - The Little Robber Girl

Kristoff acts as the person who helps Anna during her travels. He shares this in common with the Little Robber Girl from the original tale, as she also is one of the major characters that helps Gerda. She even appears at the end, waiting for Gerda and Kai to return from the Snow Queen's Palace. Another similarity is that both own their own pet reindeer, Sven for Kristoff and Bae for The Robber Girl.

Minor Influence - The Prince

Kristoff also shares some similarities to the Prince character. Both are kind and became royalty from being poor.

Iduna

Major Influence - The Grandmother

The Grandmother acts as the character that guides the protagonists and tells them the Snow Queen story - not unlike how Iduna guided Elsa and Anna throughout the years and told them the lullaby of Ahtohallan.

Hans

Major Influence - The Mirror

While the Mirror is not a character, it was confirmed that Prince Hans was inspired by this object from the original tale. The Mirror reflects the bad sides of humanity - just as Hans reflects the negative qualities of those he is trying to manipulate. He reflects Anna's naive and childish nature, reflects the Duke's jerk-ness, and then reflects Elsa's vulnerability. Hans is also a product of a bad childhood, as is the mirror a product of an ill-intentioned demon.

Minor Influence - The Snow Queen

While Elsa is similar to the Snow Queen on a surface level, Hans is more similar to her personality and purpose. The Snow Queen manipulates Kai into coming with her, using her beautiful snowflakes to get him to come. Hans manipulates Anna and others with his desirable attributes, tricking them into trusting him. The Snow Queen is also selfish and cruel, taking Kai for her own pleasure and then making him try and spell the word eternity with a Chinese puzzle, telling him that she will set him free if he does. Hans tricks Anna until he no longer needs her and then leaves her to die.

Runeard

Major Influence - The Devil

Runeard is a major antagonist of the franchise - the main cause of the mist, influenced the irrational fear of magic, and always viewed others as dangerous and insidious. The Devil feels much the same way in the original tale, creating a mirror to reflect this ideal. In creating the mirror, the Devil is the catalyst to all the issues present in the story that the characters have to overcome - just as Runeard was the catalyst for the issues in the Frozen world.

-The Love of Siblings-

One of the biggest elements of the Frozen Franchise is the sisterly love of Anna and Elsa. The love of two siblings is actually present within the original tale as well - while Gerda and Kai are not related like Anna and Elsa, it is described early on that they are like siblings, and that Gerda's love for Kai is very innocent - thus implying that their relationship is actually not really romantic.

Both stories start out with both pairs being very close and playing together. Then, a tragic event causes one of the siblings to become more cold and distant, creating a rift in the relationship. For Anna and Elsa, while for Gerda and Kai, it's the mirror shard falling into Kai's eyes and heart.

Elsa is forced to become cold and distant for Anna's safety while trying to understand her powers, while Kai becomes cold when the mirror shard freezes his heart and makes him see nothing but ugliness in the world.

The relationships are only restored when the opposite sibling performs an act of true love. For Anna, she sacrifices her life for Elsa regardless of Elsa (accidentally) freezing her heart. For Gerda, it was the act of bravely traveling across dangerous lands to find her friend.

-Thawing the Frozen Heart-

Both stories tell us that love is the strongest force that defeats evil or fear in Frozen's case. Both stories speak of someone's heart thawing, both in a physical and emotional sense. Kai's heart becomes Frozen when the mirror enters his eyes and heart, along with freezing from the Snow Queen's kiss. Anna becomes frozen when Elsa accidentally strikes her in her heart, causing her body to slowly freeze. Elsa's heart is frozen in a more emotional sense since her fear doesn't allow her to express herself fully.

In both stories, an act of true love is what thaws the frozen heart. Gerda's love (represented in a kiss and her tears) helps unfreeze him, while Anna unfreezes herself when she sacrifices her life for Elsa. Elsa's heart thaws metaphorically when she witnesses Anna performing this act, realizing that love is the key to controlling her powers.

*BONUS *

I think everyone would be angry if I didn't mention this well-known trivia haha.

Hans Christian Anderson

Hans - Kristoff - Anna - Sven

[meili-sheep]

music anon again! u dont have to answear these though i'm just too shy to write in the server :') i agree the oh hellos and celtic woman suit him very well! also dear fellow traveler, although i think of that as more of a 'universal' genshin song, but yeah it's mostly diluc. and celtic music in general has the whole mondstadt spirit which is great! i never thought about cosmo sheldrake or woodkid being associated with him but it makes sense, run boy run does particularly. (1)

First, there is never any pressure to post on the server. So don't worry about it.

Second I feel Cosmo Sheldrake fits Diluc cause it's kind of weird (neurodivergent Diluc vibes), almost fairytale-like and I feel the way he sings really just fits Diluc, like his Solar and Solar Waltz are good Diluc songs.

From WOODKID I also recommend Iron. Which is defiantly more of Diluc fighting music.

And I forgot to put this in the first post but Peter Hollens's version of I See Fire. I mean Ed Sheeran's version is good and still very Diluc. But there is a post around where I call that version my sexuality and Mr. Hollens liked it, so I kinda have to stick with that version. The other song I forgot to mention was half alive's creature.

Third Under a Violet Moon really has some Darknight hero vibes to it. And I do like Blackmore's Night but to me, that feels a little more Mondstasdt-ish over specifically Diluc.

Loreena Mckennitt defiantly thought my head kinda went to her song The Old Ways but All Souls Night is very good for Diluc

Yeah, know I've never made myself a playlist before, And with all this music I might just make a Diluc one. I kinda just... live by youtube autoplay. And songs I accidentally downloaded on LimeWire like 15 years ago which is how I found that version of Where Two Bodies Lie, and it took me forever to find the correct version again. Seriously that lack of view on that song upsets me.

[itsclydebitches]

I think the worst thing about Cinder’s backstory is how much it rips off Cinderella. RWBY used to be SUBTLE with its fairytale references. They were still characters, and if you’re familiar with these stories you wouldn’t mind, and maybe even appreciate, the references. Now it’s literally just “Cinderella if she was adopted and killed her family and the guy who tried to help her so she became evil”. That’s it. That’s the difference. CINDER NEVER HAD A FUCKING SCAR, NONE OF THIS WAS PLANNED!

I have trouble distilling RWBY’s previous fairytale references down to a single description - like “subtle,” “deconstruction,” “homage,” etc. - because really, it was all over the place. But “all over the place” worked for the kind of whacky, silly, not-taking-itself-too-seriously show that RWBY used to be. You might have a girl who subverts the passive vulnerability of her original story (Ruby), a girl whose references were always meant to be read straight (Pyrrha), a girl who only pulls from a few key aesthetics (Nora with lightning and a hammer), a girl whose only connection is the color of her hair (Yang)... as said, all sorts of things. There are even aspects that are pretty 1:1 like Cinder’s is. We could potentially make a case that a backstory like Emerald’s - street rat who steals things and later comes into power - is pretty rip off-ish too. In the sense of using “rip off” to describe plot commonalities like “poor young adult forced to steal on the street” or “poor young adult forced to work for step-sisters.” 

I definitely still think that the similarities between the average Cinderella story and Cinder’s story is a part of the problem, but not because those similarities exist. Rather, because we were given those similarities at a point when we needed, well, literally anything else. There’s nothing wrong with RWBY writing a minimally altered version of Cinderella in an “all over the place” story, but I think there is something wrong with RWBY writing a minimally altered version of Cinderella for Cinder and doing it now. Waiting eight years to provide a backstory raises expectations for the quality of that backstory. Giving us eight years of other characters - many of which do subvert/challenge their inspirations in more interesting ways - creates different expectations. Perhaps most importantly, eight years of RWBY storytelling creates expectations that any new fairytale inspirations will fit into this specific, RWBY world. Things like the faunus racism or the power individual huntsmen have are now significant, ingrained parts of RWBY... but Cinder’s backstory didn’t really grapple with that. RWBY took a Cinderella story, barely changed it, and shoehorned it into a different story to create, simply put, a mashup that doesn’t work (and that’s not even taking into account details like the scar that imply this was a reveal the story built to when it... wasn’t.) 

If RWBY had given us Cinder and soon after given us her backstory, I think it would have been fine. There’s nothing inherently wrong with following a fairytale closely. The problem is that the show failed to provide a great backstory reveal after putting it off for so long. It failed to consider the seven and a half seasons worth of material that came before it. It failed to take into account how much more seriously we’re supposed to treat RWBY post-Volume 3. If I’d watched this backstory in Volume 1 or even 2 I would have gone, “Cool! So Cinder is Cinderella. I guess that scar is why she wears the black choker in the one outfit I’ve seen her in, huh. Idk much about the faunus racism or huntsmen post-graduation yet, so all this holds up. It’s new, interesting information! Even if it isn’t perfect, I’m not going to comb through it all too closely. This is the show about “normal knees” and mailing dogs! It has its serious moments, but it’s mostly just a fun action show, so why not toss in the Cinderella backstory. Though I might feel differently if I had to wait seven years to see this, the show had become a much bigger action-drama, and in that context the backstory contradicts, or simply confuses the audience about many significant world building points...” 

[youwerenevermeanttofeelalone]

Wasting Time | Diego Hargreeves

✦ pairing — Diego Hargreeves x Plus Size Reader

✦ word count — 4.1k

✦ summary— you’re an anti-love loner who somehow managed to get matched to someone by an enthusiastic and friendly pro-love super person.

✦ warnings — some angst, I think this has some comedy, probably language, Asha (OC) is a sweetheart and I would die for her, fluff.

✦ a/n — this is a repost due to tagging issues from a week-ish ago

❖︎・・・・・❖︎・・・・・❖︎・・・・・❖︎

Your mom left the restaurant in a hurry. She had a friend to meet up with, she reminded you a few times throughout the meal as she complained about your lack of romantic partner and friends.

Romance wasn’t for you. It didn’t even make sense. There wasn’t much to it, you had never seen it end well.

As for friendships, you had never been good at bonding with people. Back in college, you had hollow acquaintanceships at best, transactional relationships like most tended to be.

You were supposed to meet up with your mom to catch up after a couple of busy weeks, but you had sadly forgotten how intense she got with the topic of love.

She acted like you would never be happy on your own. Perhaps there was some truth in there, but if there was, she would have to take responsibility because she was complicit.

A random person tapped your shoulder. Craning your neck to the side to acknowledge them, you waited for them to say whatever it was they needed from you.

“Hi! I’m Asha!”

“I’m not interested,” you breathed out, looking past her to ask for the check.

Asha sat down in front of you. “I know you think love is a waste of time, you’re not the first and you won’t be the last, but all of you are wrong.”

You were sure Asha’s intentions were pure, but you didn’t need to hear fairytale-like arguments for love. And you definitely didn’t feel comfortable around eavesdroppers.

She followed you to the parking lot, spewing things about how beautiful romance was. Nothing you hadn’t heard before in songs and films. Which meant everything she was saying was bullshit.

Pulling the door of your car open, you snapped at her, “Could you please leave me alone?!”

You wished it had worked. She started following you throughout the day, smiling at you and asking you if you had changed your mind.

Surrounded by sweet smell and beautiful colors, you walked through the farmers market. You didn’t even understand how had she been able to follow you by foot when you were driving, but you wouldn’t let her ruin this.

“Strawberries are aphrodisiacs.”

“They taste good in smoothies,” you countered, paying for the berries and nodding as a thank you to the vendor.

Someone grabbed Asha by the arm. “What do you think you are doing?”

Asha gasped, smiling brightly. “Diego! This is perfect.”

A sharp sting went through your arm. You had always attracted mosquitoes, but their bites had never made you feel weird.

And boy, did you feel weird. The urge to hug the man in front of you overcame you, and as if he knew exactly what you were thinking, he opened his arms for you.

“He’s cuddly, right?” Asha’s sweet tone filled your ears.

Well, yes. His shirt was soft and he smelled good, extremely good — holy shit, why couldn’t other men smell like him?

“Your hair smells so good,” he blurted.

What a nice voice! His words and tone gave you goosebumps. Your stomach flipped as his arms tightened around your waist, prompting you to take a better whiff of his cologne.

You hoped he would never let go of you. It was hot outside yet you needed his warmth like you needed air.

Wait, what?

You pulled away from him, trying to find an excuse as to why you had hugged a stranger.

And why had you liked it?

Asha grabbed your hand and placed it on top of his. “This is Diego,” she introduced him to you, “he’s meant to be your romantic partner for life.”

Diego sighed, withdrawing his hand. “What have I told you about doing this?!”

“She wasn’t joking?” You asked, eyes going back and forth between the two.

He shook his head. “Have you heard of The Umbrella Academy?”

Oh, for fuck’s sake. “Yeah. All of you are superheroes.”

“Her powers are like Cupid’s.”

“Cupid’s behavior was childish at first,” Asha defended herself. “Mine isn’t.”

You waited for the punchline of the joke. It never came. He was 100% serious and you were bound to him now.

“I’ll leave you two lovebirds to get to know each other!”

Her words hit you instantly. “We don’t know each other,” you exclaimed, “I’m sure we won’t miss the other or anything...”

“We can just avoid each other!” Diego completed your thought, nodding along. “Perfect. I’m sorry for my sister.”

You swatted a hand. “No biggie.”

Oh, how wrong you had been. You spent your entire afternoon eating strawberries and watching tv, wondering what Diego was doing.

The subsequent days weren’t too different. Not from the strawberry part, you ran out of those too quickly.

You had many questions, less about the bond or whatever it was called and more about him. What he liked and disliked, why he did so...

It was stupid and pointless.

❖︎・・・・・❖︎・・・・・❖︎・・・・・❖︎

You stretched, whining. You couldn’t sleep, no matter which position you tried or what remedy from the Internet you put to the test.

A knock was bestowed upon the door. You whined again, throwing your sleep mask onto the bed and reaching for your pajama pants.

You turned the lights on as you crossed the apartment on your way towards the door. Noisily, you unlocked it.

Diego waved at you, trying to smile. He had a busted lip that was bleeding just like his eyebrow.

“What the hell are you doing in here?”

“I— I d—don’t...”

You frowned, grabbing him by the front of his vest to pull him into the apartment. Closing the door, you softly asked, “Do you need water?”

Diego shook his head, lifting his hands for you to give him a moment. You extended an arm, inviting him to take a seat in the living room.

Observing how swollen his face was, you walked toward the kitchen and looked for something to put on the area.

Fuck, you should’ve saved that ice just in case. Oh, well, a pack of frozen cauliflower and broccoli would do.

You pressed the cold bag on his cheek, waiting for him to hold it to let go of it. He grunted a thank you.

“Did your vigilante thing go wrong?”

Diego moved the bag for a moment to speak properly. “I felt like shit and needed to see you. I feel better now.”

“Yeah, that’s called codependency.”

“Well, what do you want me to do?”

You sighed, throwing your head back to rest it against the wall. “I am not blaming you.”

”You’re taking this too calmly. How?”

“I’m used to being by myself all the time, it looks like you are not.”

“You don’t feel like you can’t breathe without me?”

“No.” His disappointed look was the worst thing you had ever been forced to see in your life. The pang in your chest stopped when you told him, “I feel better when I see you, though. Less anxious.”

“Why do you think it is?”

You shrugged. “Maybe love doesn’t feel the same for everyone. Or whatever Asha did to us.”

His heart skipped a beat. “That sounds nice. Us.”

“Are you going soft on me?”

Diego pursed his lips together, glaring at you. He immediately hissed.

You took the bag off his hand and put it back into the freezer. Exchanging the pack for a ziplock bag with pineapple, you carefully rested it on his jaw, making sure it touched his lip too.

“Baby...”

“Don’t,” you warned him, ignoring the thrill down your spine upon hearing the pet name.

❖︎・・・・・❖︎・・・・・❖︎・・・・・❖︎

Every night you waited for him to knock upon your door, and although he didn’t do it every day of the week, you always opened.

He had hugged you once or twice in greeting. Much to your dismay, it had felt nice.

This specific time he hugged you tighter, holding you for as long as you allowed him to. It saddened you, knowing this was the highlight of his day. And yours.

Before meeting him, you went to bed early and woke up at dawn. Now you happily skipped sleep to hang out with him.

Diego was nice when he wasn’t being overbearing, funny even. But you would never tell him that.

“Can’t you make your sister undo it?” You asked, opening a bottle of beer for him. His favorite brand, which you had started buying after he brought a pack a few weeks ago.

He took a swig of beer. “It can’t be undone, that’s the point.”

“I won’t feel cheated on if you find someone else,” you assured him.

“But I want you!”

“Diego, I’m not made for this, okay? It doesn’t matter if I want it or not.”

“I have the worst fucking luck in the world,” he lamented, gulping down half of his beverage. “My girlfriends either die, try to kill me and my family, or hate me.”

“If it makes you feel any better, the only boyfriend I’ve had got married to the cousin I hate the most.”

“He’s a dick. I’m hotter than him.”

Well, you weren’t going to deny that. Pouring yourself some wine, you lifted the glass to clink it with his bottle of beer.

“Is he the reason why you hate love?”

Putting the glass down after taking a gulp, you shook your head. “Not really. He was more like... the confirmation? I always thought it was a waste of time, and too absurd, and corny — but everyone I knew had a partner and I didn’t want to be left out. When he dumped me for my cousin and married her, I was proven right.”

“Well, duh.” Diego rolled his eyes playfully. “You didn’t date someone you liked.”

“I’ve never liked someone.”

“I’m offended.”

“Willingly, smartass.”

He pointed with his bottle. “What about your mom?”

“I tolerate her.”

“Dad?”

“Would kill him if I could get away with it.”

“Siblings?”

“I hate my stepbrother.”

“Asha?” He teased.

You confessed. “Oh, well, she’s nice. She means well, at least.”

“What about me?” He insisted.

Shrugging, you refilled your glass. “You’re not bad when you’re talking casually.”

“Is this about my stutter?”

“Of course not, I’m not an asshole. I just hate it when you talk about me like you need me to survive when you clearly don’t.”

“I’ll take it as a compliment.”

“Closest thing you’ll get me to give you one.”

Giving you a cocky smile, he moved to sit down beside you on the floor. ”You didn’t deny it, you know?“

“Didn’t deny what?”

“That you’re my girlfriend.”

You shoved him playfully, shaking your head as you tried not to laugh. “Will you ever give up?”

“Realistically?”

Both of you chorused, “No.”

“Exactly.”

It was fabricated infatuation. He wanted an idealized version of you, like everyone did when they had crushes only to find out everything they like about their significant other or love interest is a lie made up by their own brains.

Leaving the glass to the side, you drank straight from the bottle. “Would you like me even if Asha hadn’t...”

“Yes.”

You chuckled incredulously, “Why?”

“You’re smart, responsible, really pretty — and believe or not, you’re nice.”

You cupped his cheek, blinking rapidly. His skin was soft to the touch, a little warm too. Diego leaned forward, holding your chin between his index and thumb. His lips were so close, you could practically feel his bottom lip on your upper lip.

Fully realizing what was going on as your eyes threatened to lie closed, you turned your head to the side. Your hand fell to his shoulder, middle finger grazing his neck.

“Stop leading me on!”

“I can’t help it!”

“Just give in,” he whispered on your cheek. “I won’t break your heart.”

“I will break yours.”

“I don’t believe it.”

“You just complained because I lead you on.”

“And you said it wasn’t on purpose. People make mistakes in stressful situations.”

You shook your head, completely moving away from his touch as you stood up. “Feel free to crash on the couch for the night.”

Diego didn’t say anything, but you heard him leave minutes later from your bedroom.

❖︎・・・・・❖︎・・・・・❖︎・・・・・❖︎

Asha had insisted on befriending you. She wasn’t bad company — although too bubbly and jumpy from what you were used to, she was willing to tone it down for you.

As bad as it sounded, she also served as a distraction. And who were you kidding? It was nice to have a friend.

You waited for her to finish her ice cream cone to speak, mostly because you were scared she would stamp it on your face.

“Would you find a way to undo it if I admit to having understood the importance of love?”

Asha smiled, playing with her hands on her lap, on top of the yellow skirt you had suggested would fit her perfectly. “Why would I undo it if you understand that now?”

Focusing your eyes on the dogs playing on the grass, you admitted, “I don’t like it, I feel weak. And having someone only care about me because of your influence doesn’t help.”

“I can’t match people who are incompatible.”

“What’s that supposed to mean? That Diego and I are meant to be together because of some sort of fate?”

She giggled. “No, you just fit well together. But maybe you want it to be different...”

“I just want to have control over this, Asha! I feel like I’m going crazy.”

“Why?” She tilted her head as she asked. It was like the idea was foreign to her.

“Because I miss him!” Your voice lowered then, “And I know he misses me too. He has to whether he likes it or not.”

“But you want him to do it on his own.”

You nodded, ashamed, as you felt her bright eyes on the side of your face.

“I don’t influence or manipulate what people think or feel, (Name),” she explained, resting a warm hand on your thigh in attempts to comfort you. “I only match people who will feel things similarly. That’s the gift I’ve given you and Diego, I’m sorry you haven’t been able to see it like that.”

That wasn’t comforting at all. Not now. If she had said it earlier... meh, it wouldn’t have worked. She knew you well, it seemed.

Turns out you weren’t as closed off as you liked to think.

Asha grabbed your hand, standing up as she looked at you with those big eyes of hers. They shone with determination, and for the first time since you befriended her, you felt a little scared of what she would do.

But you trusted her. Standing up, you made sure your cellphone was in your pocket and allowed her to drag you wherever she wanted to take you.

Asha made a few stops. You saw her use her powers on two gals who were clearly on a friend-date at a restaurant. According to Asha, they both were scared of telling the other how they felt. Childhood friends, she explained.

The other stop was at a coffee shop where she ordered one of those extremely sweet frappes. She made you taste it, and although you weren’t a fan and would never order something like that, you had to admit you were starting to see the appeal.

But the third stop... oh, boy, that one was unexpected. You stared up at the gymnasium’s sign, confused and a little bit offended.

“Are you implying I should start working out?”

Asha snickered. “I’m strongly suggesting you should talk to Diego.”

Right, he worked at a gym — how could you have forgotten? Scratch the unexpected part, this was the most Asha thing ever.

The place was busy with people from all genders, some of them were taking laps and others were training on the rings.

“Okay, (Name),” you whispered to yourself, “you can do this. How hard can it be?”

Too hard. The closer you got to where he was standing, the hardest you found it. Embarrassing yourself had never been something you had been through, ignoring people for decades had given you a lot of advantages and that had been your personal favorite.

You turned on your heels, determined to leave and never come back. This was such a bad idea! You were in his territory, vulnerable, and only accompanied by his sister who would probably be on his side.

“Can I help you?”

You jumped, immediately turning around. Fuck. Your throat locked up. Diego nodded upward, encouraging you to speak. He looked good, wearing a pair of sweatpants and a tank top — all black as he usually did.

You couldn’t look at him in the eyes as you examined the place, looking for Asha. It didn’t look like a place where she would enjoy herself, but no one ever knew with her; she was full of surprises.

“She left already,” Diego deadpanned.

Your mouth hung open. You weren’t really surprised, but words weren’t willing to come out. This was the first time you had tried to articulate a meaningful apology.

The fake ones were so easy! You were even able to get poetic with those, making promises you didn’t intend to keep to people you weren’t going to see ever again because there had never been a reason to stay.

“You didn’t go to the market yesterday.” He tried to say it casually.

“I went to visit my mom.”

“Oh, I see tolerance is going well.”

You huffed a laugh. “Something like that. Not much luck with my stepbrother yet, though.”

“At least you’re trying.”

“I should be more open, I suppose.”

“Yeah.”

You allowed silence to settle. You needed it to, it had been your best friend for so long that you didn’t know how to cope without its looming presence.

You were nervous, this was your only chance to apologize. What if he didn’t accept the apology?

“I’m sorry, Diego,” you mumbled, “I didn’t want things to go this way.”

“You didn’t want things to go at all.”

“Why would I?” You didn’t want to fight him, but you were desperate for him to see things from your perspective.

“There are a lot of reasons. I don’t think people can be happy completely alone.”

“Okay, you’re right, but you wanted me to jump into something more. Such a big leap when I’ve been living and doing most things on my own since I was 19 is scary.”

“Want,” he corrected you.

You both stood with your backs against the wall, watching the people training as they threw punches. He crossed his arms, focused on the youngest of the trainees.

You turned to look at him. “I know Asha can’t undo the bond, but you don’t need this type of connection to date someone.”

“Maybe that’s why it never worked.” Diego shrugged, sticking his bottom lip out. “I like how this feels. He added, “When you’re not turning me down.”

“So never?” you joked.

Diego chuckled, eyes still on the young trainee. He looked like a teen, no older than 15. “When we talk like this. Or when you empty your freezer to treat my swollen face...”

“Oh, so you only like me for my frozen veggies.”

“God, I wish.” Diego placed his hand on your shoulder, “Give me a moment. Don’t go!”

Nodding, you watched him approach the teen. They exchanged a few words — well, Diego seemed to be questioning the poor boy who only gave short verbal answers or moved his head to reply.

Diego threw his arm around the teen, pulling him close into a half-hug. Both got closer to you as Diego guided the teen towards the exit, still chatting.

“Thank you, Diego,” the teen said with a nod as Diego withdrew his arm from his shoulders. “Good night, Ms,” he acknowledged you.

“Good night,” you answered politely.

Diego smiled, huffing through his nose.

“Has he been training here for a while?” you asked once the young trainee had left.

Standing closer to you now, he told you more about the teen, “Brandon started last month. He’s a good kid. Stubborn, but his heart is in the right place.”

“Like you?”

Diego lifted his eyebrows, unable to hide his smile. “Did you just compliment me?”

“What would you do if I said yes?”

“You won’t like my answer.”

You bit your bottom lip. “Try me.”

He freed your lip from your teeth with his thumb, caressing it. “Don’t tempt me, baby.”

Your face heated up. God, the things Diego was doing to you...

Grinning, he bopped your nose. “You are adorable.”

“I am not trying to be adorable,” you said, scrunching your nose.

“That’s part of the charm.” He looked up, checking the time on the clock above you. “I’m technically free in less than an hour.”

“Don’t you have other things to do?”

Diego wiggled his eyebrows suggestively.

Rolling your eyes, you hit him on the shoulder with your fist. “The other things!”

“Oh, yeah.” He rubbed his shoulder even though you hadn’t hit him hard. “I can do them even later.”

“We can talk even later,” you tried to reason with him.

He tutted. “I know you, and you’ll find an excuse.”

You didn’t understand what Diego had done to you, or how Asha’s powers really worked, but you were willing to compromise, to show him you wanted to talk to him and fix things.

So accompanied by a sigh, you made a gesture with your hands, indicating that you would wait for him to be done.

You had never been so eager to spend time with someone, not even as a child when your neighbor would come over for a play date.

Diego casually offered his hand to you, patiently waiting for you to either take it or reject him.

Unsure, you inched your hand closer to his. He gazed down, taking the trajectory of your hand in. Sighing contently when your palm finally rested against his, he wiggled your fingers open.

His fingers fit between yours perfectly, his palm was warm and calloused, slightly scarred. Suddenly Asha’s judgment didn’t sound too bad.

Swinging your clasped hands, Diego asked more about what you had done the past week. You kept to yourself the part about missing him, but shared everything else — including that horrible fight with your dad, and the movie Asha made you see at a midnight screening.

He told you about his apartment-hunting journey and how tedious it was. You recalled his offhand comment about wanting to move out of the boiler room, so you kept to yourself the fact that he would need another job to be able to afford it.

Ruining the night was the last thing you wanted to do.

Dropping the keys onto the coffee table, you walked directly into the kitchen. He followed you, turning the lights on.

Diego opened your fridge to take a drink out and chuckled happily. “Aww, you bought my favorite beer even though we were mad at each other.”

You stood behind him, reaching for the jug of water as you corrected him, “I wasn’t mad.”

“Well, I was.”

“Not anymore?”

“Nope.”

You smiled to yourself, pouring water into a glass. He grabbed the jug from your grasp, storing it in the fridge for you.

Mirroring your smile —outshining it in your opinion— he said, “You’re so beautiful.”

“You’re flirty today.”

“I wasn’t flirting.” Diego feigned offense.

Frowning, you picked your glass and took a gulp of water. Asha tired you out earlier by dragging you all over town, but compared with how disappointing hearing him say that was, the tiredness was fine.

Placing the bottle on the counter, he clarified, “I meant that I was only stating the obvious.”

You put the glass down. “I am not used to this, sorry.”

He rested his hands on your arms. “It’s okay. I just want to know something...”

You hummed. “Anything.”

“What made you change your mind?”

You fiddled with the unbuttoned shirt he had thrown on top of his tank top. “I can’t sleep when you don’t visit.”

“That can’t be it.”

You conceded, “It’s not everything, but it sums it all up.”

“How slow do you want to go?”

You shrugged. “Do I look like I have a clue?”

“No,” he laughed. Diego inched a hand up to your neck, thumb rubbing your cheek. “Can I kiss you? I promise you can push me off you whenever you want, I won’t get mad.”

“Okay.”

Softly, he pressed his lips against yours. The slow kiss was a nice change from what you had experienced in the past, Diego wasn’t kissing you to get something more out of you or to forget about somebody else — Diego was kissing you because he wanted to do it, because he wanted you.

You pulled him closer, gripping the collar of his shirt. He smiled into the kiss, dropping his other hand to your waist.

Having Diego this close was everything but a waste of time, you decided, kissing him harder as you wrapped your arms around his neck.

[lady-of-disdain]

Disdain Does a Book Review

So I’m mostly doing this book review because I feel that my 100% Inuyasha/anime fan followers will enjoy this book too. 

I’ll put it under a cut so it won’t clog up ya’lls dash, but in short if you enjoy cold, heartless (seeming) inhuman (fae-like) Lords, who start off as very clear villains, and slowly (I mean SLOWLY) become redeemed throughout the narrative (Sesshomaru). And self-centered, foppish, vain human mages (this one’s also a prince, bonus) who made questionable deals with fire demons and need to be rescued from their own bad choices (Howl), then you’ll love this book.

Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik

So this book features three female protagonists that are all absolutely amazing, and I love all three. They each have their own story arcs and character growth they go through as the story progresses.

In short this is a retelling of the Rumpelstiltskin fairytale. Miryem is a young woman with such good business sense that she makes the claim she could turn silver into gold. Unfortunately this figurative statement is overheard by the Staryk, a fae-like race who are the main antagonists of the story, and who raid human villages to steal gold. The king of the Staryk shows up, and having taken Miryem’s statement literally, wants her to turn the silver he brings her into gold. If she fails, she dies, but if she succeeds she will become the queen of the Staryk.

The “reward” here being an outcome that neither of them actually wants, but because the Staryk is bound by his word, when Miryem (of course) succeeds at her task (she doesn’t want to marry the Staryk king, but she DEFINITELY doesn’t want to die lol) she is whisked away to the Staryk kingdom and becomes their queen.

The relationship between these two characters is VERY combative, and full of sass and fighting from both sides. This is very much my cup of tea, because I love Belligerent Sexual Tension. However if you’re looking for something fast and smutty this isn’t going to satisfy you. (This is my SFW blog, what did you expect?) Their relationship is very much mutual hatred throughout most of the book, with the Staryk king slowly gaining respect and admiration for Miryem as the story unfolds, and any romance between the two is reserved for the very end. A VERY slow burn.

Irina is the second female protag who is the daughter of a duke. She is described as being very plain looking, and that the duke will have difficulty marrying her off to improve his station. However, he cooks up a plan to try tricking the Tsar, Mirnatius, into marrying her using enchanted jewelry (made of the Staryk silver Miryem has been “turning into gold”) that makes the wearer beautiful, and irresistible to others.

Mirnatius is a very cruel, self-ish, and vain man, and Irina absolutely doesn’t want to marry him, but the good news is that the jewelry doesn’t work on Mirnatius because he is being possessed by a very powerful fire demon who takes control of the Tsar at night. The bad news however is that the fire demon wants to eat Irina, so he makes Mirnatius marry her anyways.

Thus Irina is taken away by the Tsar and has to find ways to avoid the fire demon at night, and keep up appearances that her and the Tsar are happily married by day. Another unwanted marriage for both parties, as Irina only knows the tsar as sadistic and cruel because of the demon, and Mirnatius is actually vain all on his own, and only appreciates beautiful things and people, and CANNOT for the life of him understand why everyone thinks Irina is so beautiful. (One of my favorite scenes in this book is when Mirnatius makes several very accurate life-like sketches of Irina, which even she admits are very good, and goes around showing them to people, asking, “Is THIS the Tsarinna that you keep calling beautiful???” and everyone is just politely confused lol.)

The relationship between these two is once again one of mutual hate and antagonism that grows into something more, and their interactions remind me strongly of Sophie and Howl, if only it turned out that Calcifer was not as loveable as he was in the movie, but actually a truly horrible being bent on the destruction of all life. ;P

The third main protagonist doesn’t have a romance story arc like the other two, but that’s ok, because her story is also one of my favorites. Wanda is a poor girl who lives with her two brothers and abusive, alcoholic father. Wanda is described at first in the story as simple-minded, unattractive, and burly, the only value she holds for herself being that of a beast-of-burden. 

However as the story progresses she shows not just compassion, but intelligence, and bravery as well. Her arc is one of found family as she goes from working for Miryem’s family, to escaping from her father with her two brothers and finding a new loving family with Miryem’s, and helping to protect them.

Anyways that’s all I’ll divulge of the story so far. All in all it’s my kind of story. I tend to be someone who likes a rich plot and well-rounded characters before any romance elements. I’m actually just as happy if the romance aspect of a story is smaller in comparison to the plot. I certainly like romance, but it can’t be the whole focus of a story for me all the time. If you are the same you’ll probably like this book. If you prefer the romance to be first and foremost however, then you may not like it as much.

I’m also a slut for hate-to-love, and all the tropes that comes with, and BOTH of the couples in this story were this to the extreme, so I was cackling like a maniac through all their interactions. xD

[muthaz-rapapa]

Let’s talk TroPreCure! (^∀^ 🌺)

i’m so stupidly proud of this dumb pun “tropurikyua~”, hahahahaha

Last post of the year and wow is there are lot to be excited for!

I even had to make a list for the stuff I want to talk about and I’m sure I already forgot one or two things but we’ll get to them as we continue to float~ along the wave to February 28th, mmkay? :)

Now for what has peaked my interest so far. And yes, we have to talk about the following first:

1) HealPre the shortest Precure season??

Unless they plan for double features in February (which I doubt but you never know), HealPre is likely going to reach only 45 episodes long instead of the usual 48~50 before TroPre I’m using this shortening of the title for now so if there’s a better alternative, tell me and I’ll switch out begins its broadcast.

Understandable because the producers probably want to get back to their normal scheduling as soon as possible (toy sales, y’know) and I suspect pushing the start of the new season back by a month is the most they’re willing to compromise.

As for me, I’m quite happy about this since HealPre’s lost its hold on my attention a while ago so the sooner TroPre gets here, the better. Though the downside might be a scrambled climax and a rushed, underwhelming ending for HealPre (I dunno if it’s January’s titles that feel a bit messy or if the hiatus is still throwing me off) but whatever. We’ll refresh ourselves with the new blood Cures so it’s all good.

2) Tropical movie announced for Autumn 2021, no All Stars??

(source)

First saw this mentioned on Youtube somewhere but it’s all over the fandom forums by now. I mean, HealPre’s movie is set for March, the usual time slot for All Stars release. If Toei intended for there to be an All Stars in 2021, there’s no way they would announce the seasonal movie before it so speculations of them skipping it this year are probably true.

To squeeze it somewhere between March and October-ish would force them to readjust their budgets as well and I don’t think even Toei wants to go through that extra hassle after all the trouble the pandemic’s caused for everyone already. It’s just easier to resume All Stars in 2022.

That, and I think Laura being a major character in TroPre despite not having a Cure title (yet) would make for an awkward situation when the three latest teams gather so perhaps that’s also one of the reasons. But I’ll get back to Laura in a bit.

3) Cure Summer is a RAINBOW Cure

So god help me if I see anyone calling her a Pink Cure.

Yes, she’s the lead Cure for this season. NO, she is not a Pink Cure.

Look, even the official website has a rainbow overlay for her profile pic and text font while everyone else’s respective theme colors are a solid hue:

Therefore, RAINBOW.

In promotional material and merchandising, they’re probably going to advertise her primarily with pink bah and at worst, she might occasionally be labeled as a White Cure with multiple subcolors (her outfit is not pink-dominant) but definitely NOT. PINK.

...also, this goes without saying but f***yea, we finally got a lead Cure practically and unabashedly wearing the LGBTQ flag and you cannot tell me otherwise, Toei!

Own up to it! Declare Manatsu/Cure Summer as the Precure queer icon!

I’m not gonna stop yellin’ until you do! 😠

4) Laura = obvious midseason Cure is obvious

First of all, Laura is a babe. I already love her the best and she’s not even Precure yet. <3

Anyways, the set-up is pretty much in the description. Important main character who’s not a mascot, stated to have a self-confident personality and just speaks her mind (oooh, I like~ :D), magical/foreign being from another world looking for Precure to save her home, possesses her own special item(s), has aspirations to become the next Queen (so she’s a princess-candidate or something to that effect, I suppose).

We’ve seen various combinations of these traits in past midseason (and a few starter) Cures so nobody should be surprised when we all guessed that one of the Cures would be a real live mermaid.

The only question is why not just make Laura a Cure from the get-go if she’s introduced to us at the beginning (like Hime or Lala) and having a team of five with no unnecessary extra add-ons later on (like Smile).

Well, there’s a simple answer for that: formula.

Toei is afraid that if they don’t spit out some new animation sequence at the halfway and third quarter points of the show, the kids will lose interest and abandon the series altogether. Which means failed toy sales. Oh nooo... [/sarcasm]

...Yea. 

And this way they can also have Laura available in the Cure lineup for the next All Stars in 2022 instead of making her sit the fight out if we were going to have one in 2021. I’m convinced that’s gotta be one of the reasons. *shrug*

But ok, whatever. Her debut is gonna be later, that’s all. She’s a delayed Cure.  Midseason Cure, same difference.

Moving along to the more important stuff now like what’s her Cure name gonna be, y/y?

Well, knowing Toei, a translation of the term “mermaid” into another language is the most predictable route even though we already have a Cure Mermaid. Not like that ever stopped them from repeating words before (ex. Cure Happy vs Cure Felice). Though if they do go down that road, I hope they opt for the Spanish/Italian “sirena” and not the French “sirène” because the latter sounds too close to how Cure Selene is pronounced in Japanese. And, putting it nicely, we all know Japanese pronunciation of foreign words is as off kilter as can be.

Hell, even the the Portuguese “sereia” sounds aesthetic as hell so it’d be nice if they can just remember there are other languages that exist out there besides Japanese, English and French when making the final decision at the writing table! *stomps foot* >:/

Alternatively, “nereid” or “naiad” are good choices too but they remind me too much of Greek myths and Laura’s from the Grand Ocean which covers more than just a couple of seas (Greece is surrounded by three, btw) so...

I dunno. But whatever it’s gonna be, she’s definitely got a strong association with water and her powers will probably be based on that.

As for theme color, since there’s noticeably no blue or green Cure in the starter lineup, it’s likely she will take up that spot when she debuts around ep 20.

Pink is also open since Cure Summer, again, is technically not a Pink Cure and Laura’s hair and tail fin are hot and light pink respectively but looking at Laura’s design and concept, does anyone seriously believe that?

Her upper torso consists of aquamarine while the body of her tail is definitely some shade of cyan, implying they’re aiming for somewhere around the middle of green and blue on the lighter spectrum.

And yea, I’m aware that green and blue are considered exchangeable in some perspectives with how close some of their shades are to each other but officially, I think Laura’s gonna be grouped with the Green Cures.

Cuz of the hair. If Laura’s gonna keep it the same or a similar shade after transforming, that is. The Blues have always had cool-colored hair so putting Laura in with them might disrupt that harmony whereas if you put her with the few Greens there are (including Parfait), she’d fit right in.

I mean, we’ll see but that makes the most sense, doesn’t it?

On another note, I just want to say that I love how they added frills to her arms instead of letting her elbows go bare naked. It definitely makes her look more like a genuine mermaid than if she didn’t have them (remember, half fish doesn’t mean half the body :P).

5) Magical Items

Frankly, I’m tired of seeing the transformation device being a compact again even though one of the main motifs is make-up this season. But at least, as far as Precure compacts goes, the Tropical one is my favorite cuz of how cute and delightfully colorful its toy version looks! So I guess I’m okay with it.

The Heart Rouge Rod, though? ...I dunno. I think it would’ve been fine without that...straw (?) jutting out at the top. It looks weird, doesn’t it look weird? :S

As for the collectible clip-ons, I can live without those for the rest of my life. Yeesh.

Laura’s items, the Aqua Pot and the Ocean Prism Mirror.

Again with the portable, travel-size housing. *sigh* 😩

Alright, I can let this year slide cuz Laura (I’m so soft for her, omg) probably won’t be getting legs for 20 weeks so she’s got to move about on land somehow. But unless they’re really thinking about turning this idea of carrying your apartment around in your bag/pocket/purse into a reality (cuz that would be effin’ awesome), please be more creative with your toys.

On the other hand, I’m much more interested in the Ocean Prism Mirror but from what Kusyami (the Precure merchandise reviews I follow on Youtube) said in his latest vid, this is the ED dance item so don’t know if it’ll actually have an relevance to the story or not. But I did hear him mention it having something to do with the Queen as well and since Laura wishes to become Queen, maybe it’ll be important after all? Maybe it’s her transformation device?

That’d be super cool. Let’s continue the trend of the midseason Cure having a different transformation item than the starters. Honestly, we should alternate every other year or two but we’ve gone three seasons with all of them using the same henshin gimmicks up till HealPre and I just want a break from that.

6) Fin sleeves??

These look so impractical for combat so maybe it’s exclusive to group attacks.

And/or a sort of precursor to the super forms?

*GASP* Does that mean they all eventually turn into mermaids? 🤩

7) Yui finally became Precure!! 😭

lol, it’s all crack from this point on so don’t take it too seriously but man, after Yuni’s deceptive braids, I thought I wasn’t gonna see anything that reminded me of Yui for a while and lo behold, Sango.

kehehehehehe xD;

Though Yui might be closer to Minori in terms of personal interests (fairytales and storybooks).

8) Akira, the actual Onee-chan version

I didn’t think this when I first saw her but once I read “Onee-san” in her profile, there’s no saving you now. Sorry, Asuka. 😅

Also, damn, do her sandals make her feet look big! Compare them to the heels she wears as Flamingo. Are they even the same?! lololol

9) ...this sounds awfully familiar...

Translation:

Tokimeku Tokonatsu! [Exciting/Thrilling Everlasting Summer!] Cure Summer! Kirameku Hoseki! [Sparkling Jewel!] Cure Coral!  Hirameku Fuurutsu! [Flashing Fruit!] Cure Papaya!

Japanese reiteration:

Mallow/Mao: Pink no tokimeki! Lillie: Blue no kirameki! Lana/Suiren: Yellow no kagayaki!

….........

@Toei 

Care to explain yourselves, punks?! 

୧(ʘ ∀ ʘ ╬)

[intrepidmare]

JAIME x BRIENNE FIC EXCHANGE RECOMMENDATIONS

Well, I have read about half of the fics in the @jaime-brienne-fic-exchange and these are my favorites so far. Seriously, guys, if you haven't read any of these stories already, you must! It's incredible how much talent is in this fandom. 

PS: I don't know/couldn't find everyone's Tumblr, either because they have a different username than on ao3 or don't have a blog here. If you recognize someone else's or your own work that I didn't @, please let me know and I'll edit it 😊

Let me begin with the fics with a love that transcends time and death.

(The first is the story that was written for me!! Please, guys, go, read it, and give some love to the extremely talented writer that came up with it! Words fail me to explain how amazing this fic is. Go read it and then you'll thank me for the rec.)

This is where we start again by @forbiddenfantasies1    

Explicit | chapters 8/8 | 40.7k words | past life au, modern setting, canon compliant

Brienne and Jaime had never met, but when they come together to work on a new project, they realize their connection may have been generations in the making.

Or in which Jaime and Brienne meet, begin having flashbacks to their ancestors lives, and are forced to figure out where they went wrong before they can determine how to make it right.

This life and the next by atomsandfairies    

Teen and up | chapters 6/6 | 8.2k words | historical setting, modern au

“Do you ever wonder how old our souls are? How many times we have missed and met? How many times we have come together?”

The questions have turned themselves over in her again and again, as long as they’ve been together, before he’s asked, before they’d even found each other.

There is a familiarity between them that seems too old for their time together.

Angstfest addicts, these are for you. Get ready to get beaten with feels. Don't worry, despite heartbreak along the way, all ends well.

My honor in your hands by @aviss    

General | one-shot | 2.8k words | hurt/comfort, missing scene, book canon

Jaime lasts the better part of a day before the silence gets to him.

By hearts and hands made fast by anonymous  

Mature | chapters 4/? | 10.1k words | 8x04 canon divergence, secret marriage 

»But he’d held her wrist even then, thumb stroking, Marry me, he’d said, marry me and never acknowledge it if you do not wish, but marry me as I should have married you that night and every other. If I’m to die, he’d said (with her, he had not), let me die as your husband.«

A grand romantic gesture has repercussions neither Jaime nor Brienne had foreseen.

Lies in the darkness by aleighcarlisle    

Mature | one-shot | 4.4k words | angst, hurt/comfort

"Hurt me with the truth, but never comfort me with a lie."

Man With a heartbeat by @sigilbroken        

Explicit | chapters 5/5 | 25.5k words | modern au

Angst is not your cup of tea? No problem. You should try the following. Only laughter, happy feelings ahead.

This one last thing by @aliveanddrunkonsunlight

Mature | One-shot | 13.3k words | Canon compliant, Post-ADWD, bed-sharing

Most tasks needed of a knight, he has been able to adapt to with only one hand, but he struggles with striking flint in order to start a fire. It would be easier if she was here.

Jaime and Brienne journey to the Vale.

What loves you back by @bookishpower    

Teen and up | one-shot | 11k words | fairytale-ish, post-canon

A retelling, and a continuation. Jaime learns the great lesson of his life.

That Would Be Enough by forpeaches (bluecarrots)

Mature | One-shot | 2.2k words | Canon compliant, Post-ADWD

Jaime, pining.

The unwitting third wheel by @nightreaderenigma (I should've known this was you!)  

Mature | chapters 4/4 | 17.8 k words | post-ADWD, canon compliant

Whilst recovering on the Quiet Isle, Podrick develops a crush on his mentor and heroine, Lady Brienne. The only hiccup in his bubble of infatuation is their new travelling companion – Ser Jaime Lannister. Because even though M’Lady Ser and the Golden Knight argue, there seems to be a bond between them he can’t quite place…

Warm by @angel-deux-writes      

Teen and up | one-shot | 13.5k words | canon divergence

Before the battle against the dead, Jaime volunteers for a routine patrol with Brienne to try and get some time to talk with her about why she has been avoiding him since he arrived at Winterfell. When a storm catches them unexpectedly when they're still far from the castle, they find a cave to hole up in for the night.

Way enough by laihiriel

Mature | chapters 3/5 | 10.8k words | modern setting, sports au

Brienne had forgotten how much she loved being out on the water. Joining the local boathouse and sitting in a scull again after her accident was the best thing she could have done for herself.

Because of you (i took my time to come around) by Weboury 

Teen and up | chapters 4/4 | 14.7k words | Modern setting, road trip, bed-sharing

Jaime, curator at the Tully Museum, wants to spend more time with Brienne, and maybe finally work around telling her how he feels about her. When Brienne, a historian, is tasked with retrieving the legendary sword Widow’s Wail from King’s Landing, Jaime thinks it’s the perfect time to put a plan in motion, only to find himself with Brienne and his cousin Cleos on an awkward road trip across the Riverlands. And then a goat shows up.

Kaleidoscope sky by allison_wonderland      

General | one-shot | 1k | modern au, carnivals

A terrible day, an unexpected stop, and drifting closer together.

Backpfeifengesicht by @samirant        

Explicit | one-shot  | 18.8 k words | modern au, enemies to friends to lovers

Backpfeifengesicht

(German) n. a face badly in need of a fist

See pictured: Jaime Lannister.

Brienne, Jaime and the Accidental marriage by @angel-deux-writes  

Teen and up | One-shot | 10k words | modern setting, reporter au 

Best friends, co-workers, and roommates Brienne and Jaime were supposed to head to Greywater Watch to cover a local festival for the newspaper at which they both work. They were NOT supposed to get married while they were there.  

Those who seek to find by @ice-connoisseur  

Teen and up | one-shot | 22.3k words | Jumanji au

But anyway, that was how it started: Arya found the game, and Sansa rolled the dice.

When you play the game of Jumanji, you win or you die.

In better light by winterkill   

Mature | one-shot | 17.7k words | canon divergence, post-ASOS

Perhaps Cersei was right, and every ounce of sense and bravery Jaime possessed was lost with his hand. Sansa Stark is my last chance for honor. He really said that to her? Brienne latched onto the sentiment like a hunting hound to the scent of its quarry. 

Before dawn, Jaime rises from his bed, wide awake and with a sense of renewed purpose.

I’m going to go with her.

If you're looking for adventures a little outside of the law, check these out  

Codename: kingslayer by libkat 

Mature | one-shot | 2.4k words | modern au, thief au

The world's greatest jewel thief is after his biggest score when he encounters his toughest opponent, who might also be the love of his life.

The Knight and the thief By @ddagent (this is the only one I guessed the author right. I knew it was you, Kelly) 

Teen and up | one-shot | 3.6k words | Modern au, burglar au, hurt/comfort

Jaime Lannister is rich, handsome – and a jewel thief. His next target is the home of Brienne Tarth, where he might finally find something worth stealing.

Last but not least, for those who like to hang out with creatures of the night, this one is for you

Into the spider's web by @jailynnW   

Teen and up | one-shot | 4.5k words | vampire au

Jaime has been a Vampire for centuries, dancing in and out of the grasp of his hunter. Brienne is tasked with taking down the Kingslayer. A mission that brings her more than she bargained for...

Hmm, it doesn't look bad that I'm going to do shameless self-promotion now that I've recommended the work of others, right? You know what? I don't care if it does. So here it is the one I wrote 😊

Made for you by me (Mare9548 on Ao3)

Teen and up | chapters 4/4 | 9.6k words | modern setting, arranged marriage

Despite his reluctance to get married, Jaime Lannister is having dinner with his future wife tonight. Quite a surprise he gets when he meets the woman that his father has chosen for him.

I'll come back later with more recs once I've gone through the rest of the amazing stories in the collection.

+

More recs

[bitchassbucky]

.eps (cut)

Word Count: 1.7k

Warning/s: dark!bucky x dark!reader, MAJOR CHARACTER DEATH, blood mention, gore and dismemberment, murder, toxic/abusive relationship dynamics, sedation/drugging/use of sedative, stockholm syndrome-ish, one very special character reveal

A/N: this version of the epilogue is the 'clean cut' - there's a good chunk of it missing but it's not particularly important to the story. if you want to read the EXPLICIT version, there should be another one uploaded at the same time. (sorry, this is scheduled so i don't have the link yet lol)

follow the CTRL series:

i - .exe

ii - .avi

iii - .raw

iv - .png

v - .zip

CTRL playlist CTRL moodboard

Safeness, comfortability, warmth are all but a false sense of reality.

When a prey takes down its walls, the predator moves in. Camouflaged in familiar colors, in words that you’re used to hearing, in praises, in lies. Most predators use the mask of the night to move in darkness—unyielding and calculated. Come morning, there will be only one left alive, tainted with victory and bloodshed.

You and Bucky have been engaging in a dance for two—a battle of who’s willing to take the leap of faith and unleash hell upon the other.

Stifled smiles and pursed lips.

The air is filled with unsaid irritants, little things that ticked away like bombs.

There was no time for pleading, no time for mercy, no rest for the wicked.

Did you still love each other?

How far are you willing to go to keep up with his… complacency?

Bucky’s mundane life already taking a toll on you. The endless nightmares of him feeling you. The swirling vision of Bucky being with you every waking—and sleeping—moment: it grates your soul to shreds.

“We’ll be together forever, right?”

“Yes, darling.”

“What about the day after forever?”

“That too, honey.”

Where was the man you loved so deeply? The man that broke his morals just to be with you?

Was he under this hull of a Yes Man? A poor little thing that says ‘yes’ to everything like a puppy.

The man you held so dearly now slipping away, chipping his humanity, shedding the once-human.

“Would you marry me tomorrow if I asked you?”

“Of course, baby, why wouldn’t I?”

“Would you kill for me?”

“I’m meant to do the same for you.”

It’s irritating how Bucky gave up too quickly. Too fast, moving too fast. The gazelle let the lion tear its neck as it lay there, unmoving, letting the blood seep into its hide.

When you first met Bucky, it was your own fairytale unfolding before your eyes. Kismet, reality, forgiveness from above. He was soft and shy, passionate, lively.

Far from what you expected from a man his age—you blame Steve for forcing you into his narrative before. That all men are out to get you. They will hurt you. They will use you and leave you for good. But Bucky? Bucky came in like a knight. He saved you from the carcass of your past. He saved you from the sins that you prayed and knelt for.

Bucky taught you how to love.

Bucky taught you how to live for yourself.

Bucky taught you that being alone doesn’t mean you have to be lonely.

“It was an unspoken little thing, wasn’t it?”

“What thing, baby?”

“Our love.”

“Yes, honey, it was.”

He worships you.

He worships you like a fucking God and you hate it.

Suffocating, too suffocating. You dove straight for the water and now you’re drowning.

Do you still love each other? The question hangs in the air, heavy with its weight, light as a feather.

It’s all your fault. It’s all your fault. It’s all your fault. It’s all your fault.

You stand there with a syringe half-filled with a horse sedative. It’s a concern how easy it is to waltz into a pet store and pick up a general anesthetic. You make a mental note to look at it later.

Bucky’s body slumps forward, his forehead meeting the edge of the table with a dull thud. If the overdose doesn’t kill him, the weeping crack in his head will.

Holy fuck, humans bleed a lot. And fast. Good thing you already have that clear tarp taped down. Even with the hush money stuffed down your throat, it would take a good nick to regrout the kitchen.

“What is that for, honey?”

“I’m painting the cabinets.”

“Okay, darling.”

So you let him bleed, surprised that the liquid is redder than what you thought it would be. A soft gurgling noise came from Bucky, the last of air escaping his dead body. You stood there, syringe in hand, as you thought how to dispose of a six-foot-tall man without arousing suspicion.

Not that he’ll be missed anyway: the local news and the internet already branded him as a psycho and you as a victim. You were both victims in this fairytale. They reported his case as “skipped the town like the sicko he is.” So, no—no one’s going to look for him.

The sun was high up in the sky and there was a dead body in your kitchen.

A butcher and a surgeon walk into a bar for a drink. “What do you do for a living?” Said the butcher, “I save lives! What about you?” The doctor answers. “I save animals from dying slowly. We’re basically the same. You’re just very clean.” You see, the butcher comes into the bar covered in blood, reeking of death. The surgeon, on the other hand, wears his white coat with pride even though he’s surrounded by death every passing second.

Today was the day you learned that you have the tools of a butcher and the precision of a surgeon. Unlike before.

You carefully take Bucky’s fingers off of his left hand, leaving a skin flap on the edge of the last knuckle for you to stitch close later. Four promises. Four goddamn promises and he broke all of them.

It was his fault that he’s dead. He made you do this.

Placing the body into the trunk of a rental, you begin your journey to the end of your fairytale. Off to the woods, where you buried your first love. In a town where not everyone who dies leaves.

The drive to and from the place was tiring, to say the least. The internet connection of the diners was spotty at best. Locals were overly friendly with the city folks who came passing through their towns. The roads reek of roadkill and manure from the farm animals that were left to roam for fresh grass.

At least you get to come home in a spotless apartment, alone once again.

But not lonely.

Your space is yours again. No trace of anyone anywhere. Immaculately yours.

—

Humans are social creatures.

No one can truly be alone, especially in today’s world where we’re connected to everyone—whether we liked it or not.

Leaving your wretched job behind was an easy feat to do. No one can say no to the victim of such a vile crime. That’s all they saw you: a helpless little thing. So off you went; saying half-assed goodbyes and sending emails of courage and hope and fucking resilience.

Your resignation meant that the company’s free of any dirt from you, Bucky’s disappearance quickly becoming a joke and a rumor blending in one.

They let you leave: in your bank account a fat check ensuring that you’d shut up about the scandal for months until you can’t feed yourself no more. So you packed your bags and jet off without looking back. You never liked that apartment anyway.

Nevertheless, you found yourself looking into another dead-end job in one of the towns you stopped over before. It’s a charming place like time froze in their plaza while the rest of the world went on. You found a small studio apartment in a street tuckered away from the main avenue, you settled there as days became nights and nights turned into days.

You woke up one morning craving a healthy serving of coffee and pancakes, luckily the town’s local diner wasn’t far from your new home.

The coffee was too hot, the pancakes were amazing, fluffy, and just right. You’re sitting in a sunny booth, the warmth doing its wonders.

“Hi, can I get today’s paper, please?” Your voice is sweet as you call your server, giving her a quick smile.

A pair of Raybans adorn your face, unconsciously hiding behind its darkened glasses. The waitress gives you a thick stack of newspapers, refilling your cup with black coffee.

Upon opening the paper, you ignore the town’s headlines and go straight for the job postings. The door jingled open as patrons come in and go, waving to familiar faces.

Job Vacancy Announcements

Secretary to the Town Sheriff

You skimmed over the rest of the details, only noting the address of the office. The job looks quite lucrative for someone who would only take messages and organize files for the sheriff.

Looking over the job posting again, you read over the words walk-ins only. That shouldn’t be hard enough.

The diner looked deserted save from the man sitting behind your booth. Leaning over and tapping his shoulder, you put on a polite smile, “Hi, sorry, do you know how to get to the sheriff’s office from here?”

“Hello, darling.” The man croons in an accent, he looks over to you, “join me in my booth, will ‘ya?”

You’re in no position to reject his proposal, you’re the one who needed an answer.

Taking your coffee cup, you slide into his booth, “hi.”

“Just the face I wanted to see.” Clean-shaven, a hint of mint and smoke, and something woody; a worn leather jacket and white button-up shirt hugging his soft frame. “Some folks over on the apartment complex were talkin’ about a city girl wanting to rent a studio all by herself. That happen to be you?”

You look over to him, trying to understand how that small of news spread like a wildfire, “yeah. I moved in a week ago.”

He leans over, smiling sweetly as he unabashedly lets his eyes roam your features, “What’s a city girl like you doin’ in a place like this? I hope we ain’t too boring for you, gal.”

Chatty—he’s way too chatty.

“Just wanted a change of pace, really. Away from the bustle of the city.” You rustle the paper, clearing your throat to get back on the matter on hand, “so the sheriff’s office? Is it too far from here?”

“What business are ‘ya bringing into the office?”

“A job, actually. Says here that they’re looking for a secretary.” You might as well tell him everything, he seems too chatty to be dismissed over and over again.

“Well, darlin’, today’s your lucky day. No need to drive down the old road.” He reaches down to his seat, pulling up a brown hat, “Hi, I’m Sheriff Bodecker. Now, to whom do I owe the pleasure?”

You bite back a giggle, you’ve always wanted to be involved with the law.

[scenariosbutmakeitgay]

Shibisu x Female Reader? Feel free to come up with the plot :)

it’s basically the little mermaid au, but even darker than the original fairytale

also that’s literally the longest fic on this blog lol

tw: death, violence, gore-ish theme

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There once was a kingdom placed deep under the sea, where no human could reach. The kingdom was full of different creatures – starting with fish, and ending with mermaids. You happened to be the representative of the latter, one of king Jahad's many children to be more precise. Of course, the royal family wasn't the only one out there. Except from Jahad's offsprings, there were ten more names you could hear about quite frequently. The Ten Great Families, as some called them. You rarely bothered to spend time with other mermaids. Living under the sea, as beautifully poetic as it could be sometimes, became dull quite quickly. King Jahad prohibited his children from going near the surface – as if he was scared they might not want to come back. By the time you reached your eighteenth birthday, Jahad's overprotectiveness began to feel even more suffocating.

“I'm not sure what I expected to happen,” you murmured to yourself one night, when everyone was already asleep. “That he's going to change? It's ridiculous.”

Your father, as loving as he could be, was a man deeply stuck in his ways. If he said that you're not allowed to see the world above the surface, then that's it, and you shouldn't even try to argue. But the fact that despite your adulthood, he still treated you like a child, made you reach your boiling point. Tonight was the time of grunt changes, so you slipped out of your room, and checked if the hallway outside was empty. Not a single soul.

With each feet closer to the surface, the water became warmer, and the sounds of terrified screams intensified. You've finally reached your destination, and as lightning bolts pierced the sky, and cold air hit your face, everything became more alive. Suddenly, you heard a loud splash as an unconscious body of a man fell into the sea. An unknown urge overcame your senses, and before you could even notice, you caught the man into your arms. He wasn't that heavy, so carrying him to the shore didn't make much of a challenge. You placed his body on the sand, and moved long strands of dark hair out of his face.

You put your hand on his chest, and sighed in relief upon feeling a heartbeat. “That would be a dreadful night to die, wouldn't it?”

Predictably, no answer came. You looked at the man for the last time, and dived into the sea with no sense of where to go. Coming back to the castle was not an option, you would die out of boredom if you had to spend one more day at this place. That being said, there was only one option left. As a kid, your father always warned you to never wander alone outside his kingdom.

“I love spoiling you, my child, yet there are places under the sea you shall never visit,” he stated in a cold, demanding manner. “The castle and gardens surrounding it grant you safety. There are vicious creatures out there, and I cannot let them lay a finger on you.”

The kingdom was like a golden cage. It provided you with everything but freedom, which you craved the most. So you chose the path your father despised the most – the one leading to the caves where the Red Witch lived. Water there was muddy, almost impossible to see through. You swam with difficulty, determined to see the witch.

“I see you've finally found your path, daughter of Jahad.”

At first, you couldn't find the source of the voice. The woman was dressed in black and red, making her almost indistinguishable from the colored alike corals. One of her eyes, equally crimson to her hair, was hidden under an eye patch. Throughout your whole life you have heard different stories about the Red Witch and her appearance. Most of them described her as an old, ugly woman, which didn't hold much truth to it. There was one consistency in each and every story – the Red Witch was supposed to grant wishes.

“I've heard you can fulfill the deepest desires one dreams of. Is it true, witch?” you asked, trying to sound as confident as possible, while remaining to stay aware of your surroundings. As your father said, the kingdom meant safety. And you were outside it.

“Ah, yes, of course,” she replied with a barely noticeable smirk on her face. “But that craving of yours, little mermaid, comes with a price to pay.”

“I'll pay every price!” you exclaimed without much thinking, which only made the Red Witch snicker.

“Quite an eager one, aren't you?” she mocked. “With each royal generation that comes there's always someone like you. Incredibly foolish, and a little too curious for their own good. It makes everything even more entertaining, though.” The smile on her face widened, as she came up with an exciting idea. “We shall make a deal, princess. Your kind prides itself for their angelic voices, isn't that so? With each tongue you rip out of a mermaid's mouth, you will receive a human body for a day. When the slaughter ends, you shall fall asleep on the shore. I will grant you a pair of legs, princess. There is one more condition to our deal, I must say. When the pendulum of your human time stops swinging, and no man, woman, or any other human being loves you madly, your whole existence shall perish, and become a mere foam. Are you still interested in making your desires come true, Jahad's child?”

Your eyes widened in shock at the Red Witch's offer. It was violent, it was deadly, it was simply wrong! But you craved a pair of legs so madly, deeply, beyond any rational sense.

“I accept your conditions, Red Witch. Expect a silent morning, for I will rip out the tongue of each and every mermaid daring to sing in my presence.”

And your promise was kept. The witch gave you a silver dagger, with blade so sharp it could cut through flesh with almost no resistance. When the morning came, the whole kingdom remained deadly silent. You brought your gift to the Red Witch, and a bloody trail marked the path of your choice.

“I've done what I was compelled to do, witch. What now?” you asked, observing as the woman in front of you carefully counted the tongues. When she made sure what was the number of them, a wide grin appeared on her face.

“Your viciousness granted you a month as a human,” the Red Witch replied. She reached to grab a bottle of scarlet liquid, previously hidden behind one of the corals. “Swim to the shore, and drink it up. Beware, daughter of Jahad. The potion might give you legs, but they will come with great pain.”

Not caring about the warning, you grabbed the bottle from her hand, and swam away as quickly as possible. The shore wasn't that far away – with your current speed it took you barely a quarter of an hour to get there. You sat on the shore, feeling the warmth of the sand on your skin. It was way more pleasant than even the clearest waters in the sea. You opened up the bottle, and drank up the liquid without much hesitance. With the last drop of scarlet, the whole world went dark. A throbbing pain filled your whole body as you desperately grasped for air. You saw them... You saw their faces... They were twisted, convulsions filling their last moves as you ripped their tongues out. The disdainful glances they sent you... You weren't really surprised. Mutilating plenty innocent beings of your own kind was one of the worst crimes to commit – it made you understand the true price of your wish. The curse of the little mermaid shall make you feel the pain of your victims, with each tongue that you ripped out feeling as your own.

Suddenly, the darkness began to fade. The ground underneath your body didn't feel familiar – it was too silky for the sand you previously passed out on. The fabric felt quite similar like bedsheets in your room in the castle. How appalling. The chamber you were in was decorated with wooden furniture, full of ornaments, and quite pleasant to the eye. As you admired the interior design, the mahogany door moved with a creak. A tall man with short hair walked in.

“Oh, I see you're already awake. How are you feeling?” he asked, and placed a beverage on the cupboard next to the bed. It looked like some kind of tea, though you couldn't be sure.

“I-” you tried to reply, but a wave of intense pain hit your throat as you spoke. It felt as if someone was ripping your tongue out. “I'm f-fine,” you finally managed to blurt out. It was excruciating, numbing, and absolutely well-deserved.

The man smiled. “I'm glad. I will explain everything once you rest properly,” he said, and passed the beverage to your hands. It was hot, but not burning. Perfect.

“Oh, also, the prince wanted to talk to you. It has something to do with the place we found you at.”

The prince?

You assumed one of the members of the royal entourage must have found you on the shore. Apparently a princess can never escape from the palace.

Suddenly, a look of realization showed on the man's face, as if he remembered something important. “Please excuse me now, I must attend the rest of my duties. If you ever need any help or simply someone to talk to, ask the guards for Shibisu. They'll certainly find me.”

You nodded, and gave him a thankful smile. When Shibisu, or whatever his name was, left the room, you decided to try out your legs for the very first time. It was a weird feeling for someone who spent their whole life with a fishtail, but not weird enough to be uncomfortable. After all, humans were bizarre creatures – their anatomy had to be on an equal level of eeriness.

A deep breath, and there we go. Your right leg carefully slid off the bed to touch the floor. It was cold. The left one followed right after. Okay, it shouldn't be hard. One leg, two legs, and up!

Your posture was everything but graceful, but at least you didn't stumble. Sole standing won't do, though. You had to learn how to walk. Using the same method – one foot, two feet, and go – your legs made a few small steps. Swimming was way easier, and you felt as if your body was heavier now. As you walked from one corner of the room to another, you noticed a small piece of paper left on the table near the door. It was a note, and whoever put it there, had an incredibly neat handwriting.

“Hello,

I'd like to apologize for contacting you in such an indirect manner, but it was quite hard to guess when you would wake up. There are some spare cloths left by the maids in the closet, so feel free to change into whatever's to your liking. I'd appreciate if we could have a little chat.

Sincerely, Jue Viole Grace.”

That must be the prince the man from before talked about. Maybe he'll clear everything up, and tell you who exactly brought you to the palace. It was a little naive to judge him based on a few sentences, but the prince seemed like a generally kind person, which you considered a rarity among the nobles.

You opened the closet, and picked out a simple dress. It was pretty, but nothing extraordinary. The next step was fixing your appearance to look presentable, because let's be real – passing out, and being unconscious for who knows how long didn't do your face any justice.

One step, two steps, open the door, and walk out. It was simple. You saw the guards as soon as you left the room.

“Prince Viole is waiting for you, miss. Follow me.”

You didn't ask any questions – it was awfully painful to speak, after all. The guard walked through some hallways, corridors, and different rooms to finally get outside the palace. You were in the royal gardens. They didn't look like those king Jahad owned. The gardens above the surface were more colorful, and you could almost feel their liveliness filling your soul with happiness. The prince was sitting on a chair, sipping a cup of tea. He placed his drink on the glass table in front of him as he saw you. Suddenly, you widened your eyes in bewilderment. Prince Viole was the exact same man you saved from drowning just a while ago. You tried to regain your composure, and walked over to him, greeting the nobleman with the kindest smile you could muster.

“It's nice to see you're finally awake. Please take a seat,” the prince said, and patted on the chair next to him. “Are you feeling any better now? You've slept for quite some time.”

You sat down, and cleared your throat. “Yes, I think I'm certainly better now. Thank you for helping me, Your Highness.” It was smarter to play it polite – despite seemingly friendly behavior of the prince, you didn't know what kind of person he was.

“Just Viole is fine, believe me,” he reassured you. “I'm not the right person to thank, though. It was Shibisu who found you on the shore. Surely you two must have already met.”

You nodded, and made a mental note to bring up the topic when you see the man again. The prin... no, not prince. Just  Viole took another sip of tea, and looked you straight in the eyes.

“Do you have any family? I don't want to keep you here against your will if someone's waiting for you to come back.”

The memories of your father and siblings sent shivers down your spine. You wanted them to scream at you for your selfishness, or even yell how disgusting you were. But they couldn't. No matter how many times you tried, they wouldn't answer your prayers. The sea remained deadly silent.

“N-no, I don't have anyone,” you stuttered, trying to sound as convincing as you could.

Viole gave you an understanding smile. “Feel free to stay at the palace as long as you like, then.”

A nod. That's exactly what you did. When your little chat with Viole came to an end, you decided to come back to your room. The palace was surprisingly quiet, even though you could swear you saw plenty of people there earlier. As you walked into another hallway, you felt someone bumping into you. Not hard enough to make you fall, but equally unpleasant.

“Sorry, didn't notice you!” a quick apology left the lips of a man you were already familiar with. Shibisu.

“No, it's my fault. I should have been more careful.” Getting used to the pain took less time than expected, yet the urge to cry in agony with every word spoken didn't disappear.

“Were you heading anywhere in particular? It's quite easy to lose a sense of direction in such a big place.”

“Actually, I planned to go back to my room. Could you show me the right way? I admit I'm a little lost,” you replied.

“Sure thing, miss. You're the lucky one today, because I know the castle better than anyone else,” he said with a cheeky grin. How charming.

With each passing day the clock's clicking became louder, and louder. Your days were numbered, and you were painfully aware of it.

When the pendulum of your human time stops swinging, and no man, woman, or any other human being loves you madly, your whole existence shall perish, and become a mere foam. Are you still interested in making your desires come true, Jahad's child?

The Red Witch was right about one thing – you were incredibly foolish. It was supposed to be a fairytale! A mermaid princess falls in love with a human prince, so she exchanges her tail for legs to be with him, and they live happily ever after. But you? You had no interest in the prince. The person you grew attached to was the man who found you on the shore, and has been taking care of you ever since. An excuse of a princess fell in love with a dorky servant, who doesn't even know the crime that stains her past. What a pitiful fairytale that would be. Not only you were sure that your feelings were one-sided, but your human body wasn't meant to last much longer.

Since your life was close to its end you took one more selfish choice – to spend more time with Shibisu. You shared meals, breaks, and sometimes went on walks together. He was quite a storyteller. You knew that he served the Grace family for over ten years now, and Viole himself considered him a close friend. Shibisu, despite his usual jokerish behavior, was actually a really intelligent person. He also had a sweet tooth, cared deeply for his friends, and liked saying that his favorite color was the one of your eyes.

Tick. Tack.

Tick. Tack.

Tick. Tack.

Your last day was about to end.

“Please, it can't be like this,” you whispered a quiet prayer that no god could ever hear. It was an ironically similar scenario to the one that began your journey.

“I'm not sure what I expected to happen,” you murmured to yourself one night, when everyone was already asleep. “That he's going to change? It's ridiculous.”

A bitter smile formed on your lips as tears began to fall. The palace was deadly silent – just like the morning after the slaughter. You slipped out of your room once more, and tip toed to the kitchen to find a knife. It was sharp, and made of silver – just like the dagger the Red Witch gave you a month ago. All you needed was just a few hours more, maybe even minutes!

Tick. Tack.

Tick. Tack.

Tick. Tack.

Cold breeze hit your face as you came to the shore. The shore that let you fulfill your curse, and the shore that Shibisu found you at.

With each tongue you rip out of a mermaid's mouth, you will receive a human body for a day.

Even with human body, you still possessed the blood of a mermaid, right? Right?! The knife was cold against your skin, slowly coming near your face. The shore was empty. None but you could see the viciousness of the act that was about to happen.

One cut, two cuts, blood filling everything. It was an atrocious sight. You ripped out the piece of flesh like the tongues before, and threw it into the sea. The shore was silent. Just one more day, please.

Suddenly, you heard a scream. It was Shibisu.

“What are you even doing?!”

The shore was neither empty, nor silent now. You wanted to speak, you wanted to yell, you wanted to confess your love for the man in front of you. But the only sound that left your mouth was a cough as blood started to stream down your throat to choke you.

“Y-you...” he stuttered. “You're bleeding.”

You fell down to your knees convulsing. With the last amount of strength left in your body, you started writing on the sand with your finger. The message was simple.

I love you.

His eyes widened both in shock and horror. Your state was getting worse with each second. Shibisu leant over your body, clearly panicking.

“I love you, too! You can't leave me, you heard me?! You can't!”

The night was a stormy one, but no lightning could be louder than your heartbeat. The Red Witch was right once again. Your body didn't perish, because only a madman could break the curse. As your lips touched his, the world around you fell silent. Blood staining both bodies, as if it was an agreement to never mention the crime that caused it all. The night was a stormy one. And not a single soul noticed as the wild waves of the sea consumed both of the lovers, staining the water with crimson foam. Maybe not every fairytale had to end happily.

[kelleesioverhere]

For the fanfic ask meme: A1, A8, A9, B5, B10, C3-C6, D8 and D10 😁💚 I have a lot I wanna know from! 😜🤷🏻‍♀️

A1. When did you start reading fanfiction?

Oh my gosh I can’t remember that far back! I honestly can’t remember how I even found out about it and got started? I’m going to guess 2005 ish but this could really be off. I remember I was fairly young though and setting my ratings on FF.net to ‘T’ only to avoid all the ‘lemons’ which are now my fave thing, HAHA

A8. What was your first fandom? Are you still in that fandom now?

Harry Potter! The only fandom I participate in these days is GoT and the only thing I care about is Gendrya, I have a one-track mind

A9. Who was your first ship?

Oh gosh again with my terrible memory... I remember reading James/Lily fics in the early days! I was also a huge fan of The O.C. and a diehard Seth/Summer supporter

B5. Which story have you read more than any other? How many times?

It has to go to love, war and a few things in between by @scrubclubwrites

I think I have read it 4 times since it’s been complete? But this doesn’t count when it was a WIP and I kept re-reading the posted chapters as I desperately awaited updates :)

It just makes me so so so happy

B10. What is the best plot twist you’ve ever seen?

For a couple reasons I would say this goes to The Beauty in the Deadly Things by @jenevajensen!

Hopefully this doesn’t count as spoiling the story, LOL but having Gendry’s ‘3′ result in illegitimate children is something that I didn’t ever consider and haven’t seen anyone else explore. It took me by surprise but also ended up being so much better than I ever would have expected and I’m so happy I read it!

C3. Is there anything that makes you nope out of a story? What is it?

I think I am a bit of a picky bitch when it comes to fics, oops! I could go on and on but I will try to refrain LOL

My number one problem is that I am all about the slow burn. I have the hardest time staying invested once the relationship becomes established. (Established relationship fics therefore are all pretty much a no for me, hahaha)

I struggle with poor grammar/spelling as well. I know all fic writers are doing it in their own time and for fun, but having lots of errors really distracts me and I can’t properly enjoy the story.

I also can’t deal when it’s all too soft? Does that make sense? If it reads like it would make a nice Hallmark movie I just can’t do it (I think I’m not very ‘romantic’ so these stories seem unrealistic even though it could very well be how other people are. It just doesn’t resonate with me) 

(Also if I feel the characterization is really off -

I’ll stop now because this list is getting way too long, I’m so sorry)

C4. What thing that fandom loves do you actually kind of hate? Why?

This is officially the hardest question, I’ve answered all of the others and I’ve been stuck on this one for so long hahaha! I don’t hate much, I am pretty easy going honestly

Okay I can only think of one thing, I have to go with having characters be sexually inexperienced but immediately perfect and amazing and completely confident? I think the idea of them not having many (or any) previous sexual encounters is very sweet and it CAN work but it has to be done a certain way (in my opinion of course ;) )

C5. What character that fandom loves are you just kinda “meh” about? Why?

Okay this is hard. I feel like I love all the characters other than the clearly deplorable ones. 

Maybe Robb? Lol

(I do love Robb. But sometimes I completely forget about him, so I’ll have to pick him for this. Poor guy.)

C6. Is there anything in canon that made you want to quit the show? What was it? Why did you hate it?

Well the whole ending of GoT but unfortunately it was the END so there wasn’t really an opportunity for me to quit the show, hahahahahahahahahaha.

I am all about the romance, so I was very disappointed in the lack of LOVE at the end of the show. I just felt like they spent seasons building up relationships (or bringing them back for the final season like they did with Gendrya) only to dash them all apart and I felt like it was a giant waste of my time and all of my emotional investment LOL 

I hate any ending that made me feel like I wasted my time or makes me go ‘what was the POINT of all of this then’? And that pretty much sums up 8.03-8.06

D8. Which fandoms do you read fic for?

GENDRYA I care about nothing else

D10. What is one story idea you really want to read but no one has written yet?

Oh gosh hmm. I love all ‘fairytale’ AUs, and I feel like we could use some more. 

Suggestion:

Sleeping Beauty AU where Gendry is our Sleeping Beauty. He grows up in the woods in secret as his family attempts to keep him safe, and by chance one day he meets fierce Princess Arya who is out adventuring. They fall in love (not in one day, let’s have them meet in secret who knows how many times), but unfortunately she is betrothed (to him - but she doesn’t know that). She tells her family she won’t marry any stupid prince, she loves the boy from the woods. Unfortunately Gendry is captured and put under a deep spell and Arya finds out his true identity and she has to go save him 

This whole premise just makes me laugh and puts a smile on my face

Someone indulge me and my need for ridiculous shenanigans

Thank you for the asks @always-aaack-for-everlark, I know this is stupidly long but I had lots of fun answering these!

[just-some-random-blogger]

The Stroke Of Midnight

Seventeen + BigBang Mafia!Kwon Soonyoung (Hoshi) x Reader  Characters: Kwon Soonyoung (Hoshi), Kwon Jiyong (G-Dragon), Wen Junhui (Jun) Summary: Can you believe the only person Hoshi has the remote interest in talking to wants to leave before midnight?  Word Count: 1k+  Warnings: Cinderella AU-ish, mafia au, fluff, angst, etc.

A/N: i watched cinderella and got feels. Also i made hoshi's hyung gdragon just because they have the same last name bye hahahahah

Also for he record, soonyoung can stab me with a fork and i'd thank him

Soonyoung had much better plans than this-- in a constrained tuxedo, forcing smiles and caviar down his throat. Old people with unneccessarily wrinkly faces from the stress of not being able to sleep at night were congratulating him for his older brother's accomplishment. Sure, he helped kill the leader of their rival group, but damn this bow-tie was so tight.

To the world unknowing, this was just another rich family throwing a lavishly over-expensive party. But to those who were head of the households and old enough to understand, this was the underlings paying homage to the wealthiest and most dangerous family in the country.

Attendance was a must, unless you wanted a shell of lead through your skull.

Soonyoung sighs and adjusts his bow tie for the hundredth time. His older brother watches him from where they stood, waiting for the last of the guests to greet them. Yes, Soonyoung had much, much, much better plans.

"Just take it off if it annoys you that much," the infamous G-Dragon spoke, nose flaring im annoyance.

Soonyoung wastes no time and pulls the bow tie off him, breathing in, stuffing the silk in his pocket. His older brother clicks his tongue, "mother will be furious."

"Not unless I avoid her all night, Jiyong-ah," Soonyoung smiles.

"Ya! How dare you talk down on me!"

It was then, as Soonyoung got hit at the back of the head, he saw the glittery, baby blue dress flowing, and wandering eyes on a captivating wearer. Immediately, he appeared not so irritated, and in fact wholly captivated, even though he recieved a literally major blow.

Jiyong watches as his dongsaeng gawks, then snorts at his expression. "Typical," he mutters, fully wanting his brother to get annoyed at his remark and to recieve the relentless teasing he had in store.

But Soonyoung was too caught up, especially when you hid your laugh behind your hand over something.

Jiyoung turns from you to him and rolls his eyes chuckles, "Ya, you bastard, go talk to her." Instantly, Soonyoung gets shoved, and yet he doesn't even glare at his hyung for doing so.

Jiyong can't help but feel amusement, and jealousy at the same time, "Aish, I wish I could do that too."

"Kwon Soonyoung," he introduces the moment you two are in proximity. You turn to him from over your exposed shoulder and fully move your body to face him. You look at his hand and then connect yours with his. He leans down and kisses the skin on the back. You let out a soft, airy chuckle, expected a handshake and not a kiss. Still you play off the blush.

"I haven't seen you around here before."

"I've never been here before." After saying such, you immediately shift your focus elsewhere and note, "I like the music they're playing. It's fast enough to be lively, but slow enough to waltz to."

"Then," Soonyoung gives out his hand, "would you like to dance?"

You turn to his hand then over to the large clock on the wall. 10:16 pm. You turn to the man beside you. He was handsome and direct. Besides, it wasn't that late. You take him in and find yourself returning the soft, mischevious smirk he has on his lips.

You chuckle and take his hands, "I guess dancing won't do any harm."

And for the first time tonight, Soonyoung has a conversation. And not one out of pleasantries or force, but a lively one with purpose. He revels when he gets you to laugh and turn a shade pink. He thinks of every way to make your heart flutter and pulls on every string that works harshly.

"Jiyong-ie," his mother emerges beside him. G-Dragon turns to her with soft, respectful eyes. "Who's that lady with my Hoshi?"

Jiyong chuckles lowly as her mother raises her brows in curiousity, and apporval he guesses. For a moment, mother and son watch the dancing bodies and take in the busy hall in front of him. Jiyong smirks and shrugs, "Who knows?"

"He seems to be head over heels," the woman notes. She suddenly gasps, "he pulled off his bow tie!"

Jiyong breaks into a laugh, "Good luck, jerk."

The music changes, and the live orchestra plays something much slower than before. To the two of you, this somehow translates to needing to pull the other closer, as if you still could. Soonyoung refuses to let go of his hands placed in yours and on your waist. You smile when he finishes a story about his childhood playground injury. You don't mind his clutch, in fact welcome it.

"What about you?"

"Me?" you ask, seemingly questioning yourself, "I'm boring."

Soonyoung purses his lips and hums, "I don't care."

Your pulse rises at his deep tone, and you lick your lips unabashedly, "well, I wash the dishes."

"Mmm," Soonyoung says, leaning in, eye capturing your lips, "sexy."

Your face burns and you break into a nervous, giddy laugh. Soonyoung laughs as well, pleased with your reaction. 

And then, the large Victorian looking wall clock rings loudly. Your heart drops upon hearing it. You whip your head to see the time, only to have it confirmed it was really indeed 12 midnight. You sigh. Time, what a traitor.

Soonyoung looks at you, eyes concerned, lips pouted into a soft frown.

You want to kiss him right now. He's been nothing short of a prince charming. But you had to go.

And so you say this out loud.

"What?" Soonyoung mutters in shock so softly in disbelief.

You manage to pull awya from him because he is just so dumbfounded. "I had a wonderful time, but I really have to go."

You turn around and dart yourself through the sea of people. You try not to rub yourself against anyone if possible, but the amount of people present made it nearly impossible to avoid.

Soonyoung buffers a second more, before coming to his senses on how moronic he is for wasting so much time in doing so. "Wait," he says weakly.

You're quick on your feet, and near the exit when your heel buckle snags in your haste. You gasp and spare a moment to look at your feet and curse. You all but decide to tread on nevertheless. You come off walking as if you had a limp because of your wardrobe malfunction, and by the time you bump into someone, you decide enough is enough.

You wind up grabbing the man's bicep for the sake of your balance and turning to him with contniuous apologies. Normally, Jiyong would brush you off coldly, but due to the fesitivities, he was in a good mood, also you were really pretty, also you were the girl his younger brother was dancing with.

He chuckles and shakes his head, "It's okay."

You frown and kick your one broken shoe to the side in annoyance. Jiyong watches, brow raising in amusement and curiosity. You then push past him, rising and falling rapidly with uneven height. You get a few steps away when Jiyong has the brain to stop you and question, "You leaving like that?"

You don't really stop, even though there was a hand on your arm, "I don't really have a--" but the sound of your other flimsy buckle comong undone stops you, and you fall out of unbalance, yet again coming crashing on Jiyong.

You sigh and turn to your feet, slipping the cheap thing off you. Never again.

You lock eyes with Jiyong for a second, giving the quickest explanation, "I don't have time to explain."

With that you run off down the stairs of leading to the entrance, on in this case exit, of the place. You squeal when your bare feet come in contanct with the cool floor, small rocks, and what was hoepfully a puddle of water.

Your eyes catch Jun's agitated look. He bursts into a groan and sigh when he sees you. Annoyed, he waves his hands, urging, "Faster, faster!"

You clench your teeth and give a sour expression as you run to him and his car as fast as you can, for dear life. "I'm sorry!"

Jiyong watches as you go off with another man in a tuxedo, only this one kept his bow tie on. He furrows his brows and tilts his head, something he only does when he is intrigued.

Soonyoung errupts from behind him, hands flying onto Jiyong's shoulders, out of breath, "Did you see her?!"

Jiyong rolls his eyes and nods, "she just ran off with some other guy, dream boat."

"What?" Soonyoung snaps and the bolts to the door. Only by the time he got down the stairs, Jun's car, with him and you in it, has driven away with high speed.

Soonyoung groans and kicks the air in annoyance. His hands run and ruffle through his perfectly styled hair, loosening it where it was once neatly waxed and combed, making it look like he had just woken up; that, or he had lost a fight. And the latter had never happened in his entire life.

... perhaps until tonight.

Jiyong trots down to his brother to gloat, only to see that Soonyong looked genuinely devastated. Wih his hands in his pockets, Jiyong was supposed to comfort him, at least even a little before rubbing salt, except Soonyong beat him to the punch, "she's perfect hyung! Straight out of a damn fairytale."

Soonyoung sucks in a breath, "She has such a beautiful smile, and I don't even know her name!"

Soonyoung snorts and places his hands on his hips in frustation. Jiyong watches as he paces around in silence.

The younger of the two snaps, "she knows how to make Japanese food, hyung."

Jiyong breaks into a chuckle upon hearing that. Soonyoung only grinds his teeth. 

"Alright, alright," Jiyong nods and pulls out a key from his pocket. It's for his motor bike. Soonyoung turns to his brother, to his hand, and immediately lights up. Jiyong however pulls his grip away before his brother can take it, and says flatly, "put on a helmet."

With that, Soonyoung grabs the key and runs off.

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