#the town can behave very sus

[dyinggirldied]

Imagine anyone of the Justice League going to Amity Park, a presumed cliché town, for a vacation. Only to get more and more concern with how seemingly isolated the citizens are, how tight lipped they are about the town's history and happenstance, their eyes always on guard.

Or; a slow burn where the superhero in question keeps building up the puzzle pieces of what is going on in Amity Park.

[juvnvalen]

♡Lilya Yandere Profile♡

I love lilya shes up there on my favorite list, writing this as a tribute to her because i just booted her off my team for regulus. ALSO THE ART OF DESTREZA SKIN???? MEOW (please someone notice my lilya likes being callled a good girl head canon) yandere lilya aka wife beater my beloved Also! added a few new r1999 character to my list <3 Pairing: Lilya x GN Darling; FxGN TW: Yandere themes, mentions of nonconsensual touching, Nsfw mentions, and physical violence. Credit for template: @/Cinnamonest

♡What are they generally like? Lucid, aware? Obsessive? How do they behave? Lilya has never experienced feelings like this before, and she doesn’t quite understand how to approach you. At first glance you’d think she hated you, the way she glares, insults you, and it almost seems like she’s trying to make your life a little more miserable all together. She likes to keep you around, and as unbelievable as it is she does like you. Lilya’s doubtful of your ability to take care of yourself, and she's adamant about how pathetic you are. She’s not trying to be cruel, she just knows you need someone strong to protect you, like her. At some point she becomes aware that this isn’t how people typically approach relationships and maybe she’ll even try to court you in a more civil way for a little while, but it won't last very long at all.

♡How likely are they to kidnap their darling? How quickly will they do so? Lilya is very quick to take her darling, for her there are just more benefits from taking her darling than simply courting them. Whether it be from her darling avoiding her, getting into danger, or simply not reciprocating her feelings they can expect her to act quickly in their capture.

♡How difficult is it to escape from them? How do they keep you restrained? How do they deal with attempted escape? Escape from Lilya is almost completely off the table, with the help of her trusty Su-01ве, there is simply no way you could outrun her. There is a chance to escape with the help of Lilya’s drinking, she’s easy to manipulate and a heavy sleeper when she's intoxicated. For the most part you can expect to be restrained to some extent, but of course when she's around to watch you she’s happy to let you roam free a little while. When it comes to drunk Lilya, it's easy to convince her to loosen the ropes for a little while. After an escape attempt her darling can expect any privileges to be revoked. She has no leniency to a newly captured darling either, she expects them to adapt to her rules quickly.

♡How easy are they to trick, deceive, or manipulate? Lilya is decently easy to trick, especially so when she's intoxicated. It's easy to appeal to her ego, and she absolutely melts when receiving any praise. With a few loving words she’s easy to fool the first time, but as soon as she learns your tactics you can’t expect her to be deceived so easily the next time.

♡How lenient are they? What privileges can you have, and what will you be denied? She doesn’t let the rules slide for the most part, but if drunk she’ll let her darling get away with more things than usual. Lilya will allow her darling to have small freedoms such as walks outside with Lilya, highly supervised trips to town, and less restraints while she’s away. She refuses to provide her darling with most non-necessities, not wanting them to draw her darling’s attention away.

♡What kind of rules do they have? What kind of punishment would they use? Lilya is very strict about her rules being followed, and she’ll make sure you remember when you break one. She is adamant about you not mentioning absolutely anything about wanting to leave, or showing intentions of doing so. Any physical violence or verbal beratement from you will be met with immediate punishment. She’s more physical with her punishments, Lilya believes her darling learns better that way. Punishment can range from simply increasing restraints or revoking privileges, to physical beatings.

♡How do they deal with rivals, or perceived rivals? Will they get rid of them? Will they kill them themselves, or find another way? Lilya simply kills them, it's more effective than just threats and she doesn’t want to worry about consequences from letting them live later on.

♡How easy is it to make them mad? What does their anger look like? Lilya is extremely easy to anger, and her darling gets the brunt of her wrath. When she’s angered she tends to get physically violent from destroying furniture to hurting her darling, it's best just not to set her off.

♡Do they see you as above them, beneath them, or equal to them? She sees you as below her without a doubt, it's not just her darling though Lilya sees most lesser capable beings as beneath her.

♡How determined are they for you to love them? How hard will they try to make it happen? Or are they content just having you? Lilya wants a loving relationship, and she expects her darling to provide that for her. She doesn’t expect it right away, but makes sure her darling learns eventually. Just having her darling present can only hold her off for so long. 

♡General perverseness: how sexual of a person are they? What’s their drive like? How touchy do they get? Do they have any reservations about sexuality? Lilya is fine going without sexual contact for long periods, it's not something she needs for a happy relationship. She does let her touches linger lower than they should when she's intoxicated, but it never goes any further than a curious touch. She enjoys softer physical affection more than she does actual sex, Lilya just wants her darling there to hold.

♡How forceful are they? Do they care about your willingness? Lilya has no intentions of forcing anything sexual on her darling, her hands might linger in places they shouldn’t occasionally but it never goes any further. If sex occurs it needs to be initiated by her darling, she won’t engage it, not that she likes to admit it but she’s nervous to go that far with her darling. 

♡What sort of kinks or fetishes do they have, or would they fill? She only has one, and it's not even totally sexual, she adores praise from her darling. Lilya melts at any positive compliments her darling is willing to give. 

♡What kind of (nsfw) punishments would they use? Lilya wouldn’t use any sexual punishments.♡What body parts of their darling do they like the most? Lilya loves her darling’s thighs, she can’t get enough of touching them. Loves laying her head in her darling’s lap if they’re willing to offer.

♡♡

[canirove]

Bluebell | Chapter 10

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Masterlist

“So, how did it go? Did they tell you why they hate each other?” Lindsey asks me while we clean around the dining room.

“They did.”

“And?”

“They both have their reasons to not like the other.”

“Which are?”

“Mason says Rúben injured him on purpose and ruined his career. Rúben says that Mason also ruined his career by spreading rumours about him. But I don’t quite believe that.”

“Why not?”

“He said that scouts had been keeping an eye on him for a while already, that they liked him. I don’t see them suddenly changing their mind about him just because of what other players were saying. Especially if they knew where they played, and who was their teammate.”

“I guess…”

“But then he is right about being mad with Mason for sleeping with his girlfriend when he was away at uni.”

“Oh, Ana. I remember her. But they ended up getting back together, didn’t they?”

“They did. To be honest,” I say, sitting down on a chair “they both behaved like kids. And still are behaving like that.”

“Men” Lindsey shrugs, sitting next to me. “What are you gonna do now?”

“I don’t know” I say, letting out a big sigh. “Focus on the reopening, and then… We’ll see.”

“And close your legs while being focused on it?” she asks, raising an eyebrow.

“Shut up, Lindsey!” I say, throwing my cleaning cloth to her face.

━━━━━━❃━━━━━━        

“Oh, mum, I’m so glad you could make it!” I say, hugging her.

“I would not miss this for anything in the world” she says, hugging me back.

“I left the drinks on the… hi” Mason says behind me.

“Hello there” my mum says. “Aren’t you going to introduce us?”

“Mum, this is Mason. Mason, this is my mum” I quickly say, already wanting this moment to end.

“Nice to meet you, ma’am” Mason says with his most charming smile.

“Nice to meet you too” she says, also smiling.  

“If you left the drinks in the kitchen, you can leave.”

“You don’t need anything else?” Mason asks.

“Nope. See you tomorrow?”

“I wouldn’t miss it for anything in the world.”

“That’s what I said” my mum giggles. My mum. Giggling. What is going on?

“Goodbye, Mase.”

“Ladies” he says, leaving us alone.

“Mase, uh?” my mum says, elbowing me in the ribs. “He is cute. And the one who helped you when you arrived, right?”

“Yes, that’s him. Anyway, do you want me to show you around?”

“Of course I do!”

━━━━━━❃━━━━━━        

“The whole town is here” Lindsey says while we look at all the guests that have come to the reopening of Daisy’s.  

“They had to check what the daughter did with the place. They couldn’t miss it.”

“This town and gossiping. And here comes the queen” she says, nodding towards her mum.

“Everyone is talking about how perfect everything looks. Congratulations, girls” Mrs. Smart says, hugging us both at the same time.

“Thank you very much, Angela” I say when she finally lets us breath.  

“Your mother seems to be getting along with Mason” she says, turning to look at them.

“I think she fancies him.”

“Runs in the family” Lindsey says under her breath. “Ouch!”

“Sorry, I didn’t see your foot there” I say with a smile.

“Yeah, su… Oh, my God.”

“What? What happened? What…” And then I see her. Victoria. My cousin. She was walking in, and she was back to her old self, with her perfect hair, perfect make up, perfect outfit…

“Hello, cousin.”

“Hello, Victoria. I wasn’t expecting you.”

“Yeah, I know. I wasn’t planning to come, but lately I’ve had lots of time to think and… I don’t want us to hate the other. We are family after all, aren’t we?”

“We are, yes.”

“Then do you think we could have some kind of truce? Start from there and maybe, one day… become friends?”

“Why not?” I say, Lindsey behind me almost chocking with her drink.

“Oh, great!” Victoria says, hugging me. “Drinks?”

“Over there.”

“Thank you, cousin.”

“I can’t believe that just happened” Mrs. Smart says. “If you’ll excuse me…”

“She is going to tell everyone, isn’t she?”

“Yep” Lindsey says.

━━━━━━❃━━━━━━        

“Hello there.”

“Jesus Christ, Rúben.”

“Did I startle you again?” he says, hugging me from behind.

“You did, yes. I swear you people like scaring me.”

“Maybe we do.”

“You shouldn’t be here tho, someone could see us” I say, turning around to face him. He’s gone full on Mayor today, wearing his best suit for the occasion, and looking extremely handsome. Though that’s the usual with him. “Guests aren’t allowed to come into the kitchen, only staff members” I say while he pulls me a little bit closer to him, his hands still on my waist. “Which means that you shouldn’t be here.”

“Yeah… But the owner fancies me, and she lets me go wherever I want” he says as he leans forward to kiss me.

“Rúben, don’t” I say, stopping him and moving away from him. “Not here, and not today.”

“Oh, c´mon” he says, grabbing me by the arm and pulling me close to him again. “You’ve been so busy with the reopening that we’ve barely seen each other since our walk with Urso. And I’ve missed you. I’ve missed you so much” he says before kissing me.

And because I’ve missed him too, I let myself go and kiss him back.

“Oh my God!” a very high pitched voice says. Victoria. “You… You bitch!”

“Victoria, wait,”

“No!” she says, leaving the kitchen and walking into the dining room where most people are.  

“Fuck” I say, following her.

“I would like to propose a toast” she says, everyone in the room looking at her. “To my dear cousin! The one who besides stealing all this from me and my father, didn’t have enough and also stole my boyfriend. Isn’t that right, cousin?”  

“Victoria…”

“Are you going to deny it, cousin? Didn’t I just catch you kissing Rúben, my ex-boyfriend and our Mayor, in the kitchen?”

“You were doing what?” Mason says.

“It isn’t what I looks like, I…”

“Oh, so your tongue ended up all the way down Rúben’s throat by mistake?” Victoria chuckles

“I… I can explain.”

“Yes, please. Explain to everyone here how you are a bitch that came here just to ruin my life and steal everything that is mine!”

“Victoria… Don’t” Rúben says behind her.

“You… You don’t talk to me! You are not better than her!”  

“Mason, wait” I say when I see him leave, completely ignoring the argument that has started between Victoria and Rúben. “Mason!” I call after him once we are out in the street. “Mason, please wait!”

“Why? Why should I wait and allow you to explain yourself when you’ve been fucking the person I dislike the most in this town? Because that has been happening, hasn’t it?”

“I… I…”

“You can’t even explain yourself” he chuckles, running a hand through his hair. “You know, I thought there was something special between us. Friends with benefits, yes. But since you set foot in this town, I haven’t seen any other girl. Just you.”

“Really?”

“Yes. Really. I was falling for you, while you… While you were seeing someone else. Him.”

“I’m sorry, I just… I like you both, and I… I couldn’t pick.”

“Well, now you won’t need to pick anyone, because I’m done.”

“What?”

“This, us. Whatever it was, it is over. Congratulate your boyfriend for finally getting his revenge. He won.”

“Mason, please. Don’t go… Mason…”  

“Goodbye” he says, walking away while I stay frozen in the middle of the street, tears starting to run down my cheeks.

[akemitime]

LWA POKEMON AU, I CHOOSE YOU!!/ ¡¡¡¡LWA POKÉMON AU YO TE ELIGO!!!!

You know the rules so do I, the explanation:/ Tú conoces las reglas y yo también, la explicación:

Gengar:I just KNOW she will had a Gengar they are meant for each other, here some lore while I was drawing: What if Sucy long before wanted to be a Pokémon trainer but she didn't receive any pokemon from the professor of the town and neither from her adoptive mother, so one day a women ask Sucy for some mushrooms that she can cook, Sucy goes on the little trip because she was going to get paid for it, when she handed the mushrooms to the woman's hand she was pleased and about to handle Sucy the money, but a loud crash surprised them, the woman immediately pissed started screaming why Gengar was out of his PokeBall and enters the house, leaving Sucy alone for a while and all of sudden the Gengar teleports behind her, trying not to laugh, the woman was about to scold him but Sucy ask if she doesn't want Gengar anymore for all the trouble he causes, the woman affirms he is a headache, Sucy then asked for his PokeBall, the woman relieved that Sucy decided trade some mushrooms for that pokemon she happily gives her Gengar's PokeBall. And then they journey staterd / Yo SÉ que Sucy tendría un Gengar, son tal para cuál, aquí un poco de lore mientras estaba dibujando: Que pasaría si Sucy desde hace tiempo quería ser una entrenadora pokémon pero no recibió ningún pokemon del profesor de la ciudad ni de su madre adoptiva, un día una mujer le pide a Sucy unos hongos que ella pueda cocinar, Sucy se lanza al pequeño viaje por qué le iban a pagar por ello, cuando regreso y le entrego los hongos a la mujer está estaba complacida y le iba a pagar hasta que un gran ruido las sorprendió , la mujer molesta inmediatamente empieza a gritas de por qué dejaron a Gengar fuera de su pokebola y entro a la casa, dejando a Sucy sola un momento hasta que de repente Gengar se teletransporta detrás de ella, conteniendo su risa, la mujer estaba por regañarlo pero Sucy le pregunta si ya no quiere a Gengar por todos los problemas que causa, ella afirma que él es un dolor de cabeza, entonces Sucy le pide su pokebola, la mujer aliviada de que Sucy quiso intercambiar unos hongos por ese Pokémon felizmente le entrego la Pokebola y así empezó su viaje

Foongus: Look at me and tell me why do you think Sucy captured it, besides this pokemon toxins can be used for healing so Sucy could create some healing potions and not go all the time to the pokemon center and spend money/ Mírame y dime por qué crees que Sucy lo capturó, además las toxinas de este Pokémon pueden ser usadas con fines medicinales así que sucy se ahorraría ir al centro pokémon a gastar plata

Seviper: Remember when Sucy wanted to go to the Arcturus forest to get a feather from a huge chicken with Medusa's powers?yeah?, well in here Such goes to the Arcturus forest ( somehow with Lotte and Akko) to look for a Seviper, because this pokemon is really popular among the venomous type trainers/ ¿Recuerdan cuando Sucy quería ir al bosque Arcturus para conseguir la pluma de un pollo gigante con poderes de Medusa? ¿Si?, Bueno aquí Sucy va al bosque Arcturus (de alguna manera con Lotte y Akko)para buscar un Seviper por qué este Pokémon es muy popular entre los entrenadores de tipo veneno

Morgrem: *Me deciding Sucy's team looking at morgrem*:Yeah, fits the vibe/*Decidiéndome a quien poner en el equipo de Sucy y veo a Morgrem*: Dele pa' dentro mi loco

Parraset: Sucy got it because she wanted to see how the leaving mushroom behaves and takes control of the body completely / Sucy lo capturó por qué quería ver cómo el hongo viviente se comportaba y terminaba con el control absoluto del cuerpo

Toxicitry:This pokemon is very popular among some people for it's "idgf" personality, the same thing happens with Sucy/ Este Pokémon es muy popular entre ciertos grupos por su personalidad "A mi no me importa", y lo mismo pasa con Sucy

All Sucy's pokemon likes to prank Akko and her pokemon while she laughs in the distance / Todos los Pokémon de Sucy disfrutan de hacerle bromas a Akko mientras ella se ríe desde lejos

[dimpledlianfang]

Rusong is in town again!

Zixuan and Yao: *hugging each other*

Zixuan: *sniffles* Yaoyao.

Yao: Don't worry Zishie.

Xue yang: oh no, what's wrong with the divas again.

Mo xuanyu: they're not divas.

Ok ok, kind of.

Su she: Huangdi

Yao: he saw a lizard and got scared.

Zixuan: it was on my soap.

Mo xuanyu: ohh noo!

Su she: xuan Huangdi, Yao Huangdi's palace is always tidy.

Zixuan: I know.

Xue yang: ohh you found Xiao ai?! Ahahahaha.

Zixuan: xiao ai?

First cockroaches, then lizards! Xue yang, why?

Xue yang: because I love mischief.

Su she: behave!

Xue yang: I can't!

Yao: Chengmei, you naughty little muffin.

Don't scare Zixuan.

Xue yang: then who should we prank.

Mo xuanyu: Lan lips!

Xue yang: good idea!

Su she: of course we would.

Xue yang: but rest assured, Xuan Huangdi. We like you.

Su she: team dimple approved!

Zixuan: as you must, darlings.

We're very glamorous.

Yao: yes.

Yes indeed.

Mo xuanyu: of course you both are!

Xue yang: Jiggy is hot.

Rusong: *entering* A-Die, uncle Zish! Team D!

Yao: A-Song! *hugs*

Rusong: A-Die, I'm going to the city again.

Yao: aw really?

Have fun ok, Song'er.

Zixuan: are you going with your bodyguards and they?

Rusong: nah, only Rong xiong.

I go undercover.

Zixuan: I see! Our A-Song goes incognito. Do you have a pseudonym?

Rusong: yep! Sung Gongzi.

Xue yang: who once punched a guy!

Mo xuanyu: and ran from fame.

Su she: don't forget the dimples.

Zixuan: speaking of dimples, how did you manage to disguise your beautiful face?

Rusong: thanks to uncle Su's talismans.

Zixuan: oh  amazing then!

Rusong: it's really fun to experience the city from a normal person's point of view.

Zixuan: aww.

Yao: Zish, we should do the same some time. It will be fun!

Zixuan: amazing idea, Yaoyao. I would love to!!

Yao: good then!

~~~~

(Rusong goes in the city again. But A-Yao goes to visit his people)

.....

In JingJing📍

Rusong: ah, the city is once again lively!

Rong: yes. Thanks to Huangdi.

Rusong: mhm, *grabs hand* let's get some mantous.

Rong: only that, Dianxia?

Rusong: yup! *giggle*

Rong: *glaring* Sung Gongzi.

Rsuong: ok fine! I want to cause a little mischief too!!  

Are you in?!

Rong: obviously I am.

Rusong: let's go pester the storyteller.

I wonder what new trash they're talking pertaining to team D..

Then we'll have some food.

Rong: but Dianxia, why do they keep talking about team dimple?

Rusong: because they dare not make fun of Huangdi, heehee.

Anyways A-Die is really elegant and respectable.

Rong: right.

Some hours later.......

Rusong and Rong: *looking at some pendants.

Meanwhile on the other side: *immediate uproar*

Make way for Huangdi!

Huangdi is here!!

Greetings Huangdi!

Su she: *helping Yao out of the caravan*

Huangdi! Here are some flowers.

Yao: lovely!

Rusong: *hiding* Oh no, A-Die, what are you doing here? Right when I'm disguising myself.

Rong: maybe Huangdi wished to meet his people today.

Rusong: should I go mess with him?

Rong: no no, you'll be imprisoned by your fox spirits. And your identity will be blown.

Rusong: then A-Die will save me!

Let's go see what he'll say when he sees me.

Rong: sure Dianxia.

I mean A-Song.

~~

Huangdi you look stunning today.

Yao: thank you so much.

X: we have opened up another shop, Huangdi.

Yao: how great.

X: will you come back to buy stuff?

Yao: definitely. You have some beautiful handicrafts here.

X: thank you huangdi.

Yao: why don't your commission for Dongying

X: what a good idea.

X: Huangdi, would you love to have some tea at my inn?

Yao: of course! Maybe later.

X: yes Huangdi.

Yao: you know I should try some refreshments from the outside once in a while. Team dimple and my attendants have me locked in a room

Su she: *laughing to himself*

X: ahahahaha, Huangdi you're so funny!

So tea with Huangdi and official Su?

Yao: absolutely.

Su she: is it 5 star? He deserves the best.

Yao: Minshan. Don't worry.

X: rest assured! Our food and drinks are the best.

Yao: excellent.

X: Huangdi, do you feel bored?

Yao: how can I ever feel bored when I have team dimple and my magnificent empire.

X: aw Huangdi!

X: what about your shelters for the homeless project?

Yao: coming along great. 

X: this new Jingjing gremlin keeps coming and asking for steamed buns.

Yao: ohh. Then how is he a gremlin?

X: he would use his powers to prank me.

Yao: *trying to contain his laughter* oh really?! 

X: what an troublesome guy. Hmpf!!

Yao: he's young. It's his nature to be mischievous. 

X: look there he is over there!! I think he has too much free time! He needs to get married.

Yao: *glances* ( Oh my, it's A-Song in disguise. My darling.

I'll act like I don't know him, so that his cover won't be blown)

Let him live his life.

X: *sighs* yes yes, Huangdi.

Rusong: *bows* greetings Huangdi.

Greetings official Su.

*looks to his right* hey you're that ugly bun vendor! Your steamed buns were stale.

Yao and Su she: *trying to contain their laughter*

X: child, have some decorum. We're in Huangdi's presence.

Yao: it's fine.

So you're the little troublemaker.

Rusong: yes Huangdi. I heard that team Dimple are troublemakers too. May I replace them?

Yao: *laughing* unfortunately you can't. And sometimes they get jealous.

Rusong: but I'm not Lan lips.

X: *grinding teeth* honorable Zewu Jun to you.

Rusong:  no. Lan lips sound better!

Huangdi, I would love to be trained under team dimple.

Yao: I see. Now what are your qualifications?

Rusong: I can fight, I like Huangdi, and I'm jealous of Lan lips.

Yao: *laughing*

X: Huangdi, this boy is mischievous.

Su she: is that the only qualifications of team dimple, lol.

X: child, team dimple is Huangdi's imperial guard and personal council.

Rusong: yea, that's why I said I can fight.

X: *rolls eyes*

Yao: I like him! Come let's have tea together.

Rusong: my pleasure, Huangdi.

Huangdi, is being jealous of Lan lips a qualification?

Yao: *jokingly* of course it is.

Su she: *acting* Huangdi, do you really want to have tea with this rogue?

Yao: mhm. And I love young vibrant people.

Rusong: do you think if he wanted the opposite, he would have gone to hang out with Lan Qiren.

Su she: oh my. *laughing*

Yao: let's go have some tea.

*walking away*

Yao: *whispers* mischievous Song'er.

Rusong: at least it was fun, Huangdi. *wink*

@verycatbluebird

[hulijingemperor2]

Rusong and A-Qing were strolling through Jing Manor's grand halls.

Rusong: you look nice as always, A-qing.

A-Qing: thanks rich gege! I decided to wear makeup to look beautiful for you.

Rusong: for me?? *smile* you don't need makeup to be beautiful.

A-Qing: awwwww. Rich gege.

But do you like it or not?!

Rusong: of course! It's really pretty.

A-Qing: thank you rich gege!

Um rich gege, I still have your coat. Do you want it back?!

Rusong: you can keep it for the while, and return it when you like.

A-Qing: ohh, is it because you have more robes and cloaks?

Rusong: no. You can use it whenever you're cold.

A-Qing: aww.

A-Qing: *looking at a painting* who's this pretty woman? And she looks like a hulijing. Or is that just Jiggy wearing a dress?

Rusong: ohh. That's my Nainai.

A-Qing; how cute. Have you met her before??

Rusong: sadly no. But there are two Guanyin temples in her honour. One in Yunping and one in Dongying.

There's also a small one on this compound.

Rusong: she's goddess of Hulijings now.

A-Qing: ah. That's so amazing. Your family is so fabulous, Rusong.

*points* ohh that's Jiggy in the portrait right!! Also Jiggy and team D.

Rusong: yep, glamorous right.

And here's the glamorous uncle Zish.

A-Qing: strict peacock! He looks scary. But white gege told me never to judge a book by its cover.

Rusong: right, heehee. There's a portrait of me.

A-Qing: waww!!! You look even hotter in the pic.

Rusong: *blush* I'm flattered. Thank you.

A-Qing: *pokes his dimple*

Little dimples.

Rusong: do you like them?

A-Qing: mhm.

But I don't want to turn into a simp like xue yang and friends.

Rusong: haha. A simp.

A-Qing: simp life is very hard. And you and Jiggy don't have to do anything because everyone simps for you two.

You just got to sit and everyone falls to their knees.

Rusong: *laughing* oh A-Qing. You think so?!

A-Qing: I know so!

Rusong: A-Qing. Tell me something else. I love you hear you speak.

A-Qing: heehee!! Rusong, do you want to go into the town and steal people's food and money?? It will be fun, and I'm good at pretending to be blind.

Rusong: sorry.

I could never steal from my people.

A-Qing: ahhh. You're disciplined.

Rusong: it's just that the people worked really hard for what they have.

A-Qing: *blush* I think I'm going to turn over a new leaf.

You're my role model! *hugs arm* but xue yang said that you're mischievous though.

Rusong: yes! Towards team D and enemies.

A-Qing: aww.

*sitting near a window*

Rusong: I still have the sachet, A-qing. See.

A-Qing: did you put anything in it yet?

Rusong: no.

A-Qing: wait a sec. *takes out one of her hair ribbon and put it in his sachet* now you do!!

Rusong: *smile* Xiao Qing. How can I possibly take your ribbon.

A-Qing: ohh don't worry about that! And I own plenty more!

Rusong: thank you. I'll commission some items for you?

A-Qing: commission? What kind of diva thing is that.

Rusong: I can ask them to customize something for you!

A-Qing: *blush* you don't need yo do that!!

Rusong: consider it a gift.

A-Qing: you spoil me too much.

~~~

On the other side,

Being partners in trade and other functions that benefit each other and the Jianghu, Jingjing and the peacock empire are going to host their second sect trade fair and indoctrination.

Jing Manor: 📍

Zixuan: Yaoyao. Why is Huaisang so horny?

Yao: I think it's my fault for buying him NSFW comic books. Sorry.

Zixuan: aww sweetheart, you're not at fault. And I know that you're allergic to taking Nie Mingjue seriously.

Yao: it used to drain me, Zish.

Zixuan: poor baby.

Xue yang: that naughty Nie is born horny!

Mo xuanyu: I was also born horny. But I'm nothing like that nie disaster.

Su she: he will never behave himself huh.

If he's not trying to take someone's empire, he's trying to take someone's virginity.

Yao: *laughing* Shanshan!

Zixuan: heehee. You're right!

Mo xuanyu: Xuan gege, is he flirting with you??? Or is he at it experimenting with himself again.

Zixuan: he could ever try to seduce me. *opens fan*

I'm just like my A-Yao. I'm attracted to powerful people.

Yao: we don't waste time, team D.

Zixuan: exactly.

Xue yang: would you two date wei wuxian?

Zixuan: ew.

Yao: for political purposes, yes.

Mo xuanyu: aren't I not too hot for you, Yao gege! *cries*

Yao: darling, you are hotter than Wei gongzi. *hugs*

Mo xuanyu: yay! Now tell me who's he simping for.

Zixuan: Huaisang is flirting with Jiang Cheng again. And Jiang cheng is literally straining his blush.

Like why do I have to witness PDA in my imperial court.

Yao: ohh! Why don't the two get married already!

Zixuan: I think I have a plan.

What if we share Jiang cheng as a concubine and a harem member.

Yao: aw good idea! And we'll have him marry Jiang cheng.

Zixuan: right!

Yao: this will help with the bond of our empires.

Zixuan: we're so genius!

Yao: definitely. *opens fan*

Later that day......

Yi: Huangdi, and Huangdi, Sect leader Jiang is here.

Yao: *sips tea* send him in.

Zixuan: *closes fan*

Jiang cheng: *enters*

Yao: *smile* sect leaderrrrr. Have a seat.

Jiang cheng: mhm.

Attendant: *pours some tea for him*

Yao: Wanyin.

Zixuan: Sect leader Jiang.

Jiang cheng: emperors.

What do you want.

Yao: nothing darling. Can I not invite you over for tea? How's your sect? How's A-ling? That purple looks good on you.

Jiang cheng: I always wear purple.

Yao: brings out your eyes.

Jiang cheng: what are you up to, sweet talker lianfang zun?

Yao: oh me, a sweet talker? Haha!

Zixuan: I want you to be a part of my harem.

Jiang cheng: what??

Zixuan: do I have to repeat?!

Jiang cheng: but I'm a part of Yao Huangdi's harem. And you're MARRIED TO MY SISTER!!!

Zixuan: so. What if I like the Jiang siblings.

Yao: we'll share you, Jiang cheng.

Jiang cheng: is that even possible!

Zixuan: certainly is.

Yao: put A-ling into consideration. I'm his Xiao shushu. We do co parenting together. And he's closer to us than Zish.

Zixuan: and I'm his A-Die. Would you leave him like that.

Yao: we already have custody of him, Jc.

Jiang cheng: I can't lose to you, can I.

Both: do it for Jinling!!!

Jiang cheng: fine. I'll be part of both your harems.

Zixuan: one thing too. You got to marry Huaisang.

Jiang cheng: WHAT?!!! *face turns red*

I...I don't like him!!!

Yao: then why are you blushing?

Jiang cheng: I'm not! Why don't you take another harem member to marry him! Let Zewu Jun marry him!

Yao: no one touches Xichen. He's off limits.

Jiang: team dimple?!

Yao: they're off limits too.

Zixuan: A-Yao, we should buy a house for the two.

Yao: aww yes. And next to a lake so that Jiang cheng can do some fishing and huaisang can be a housewife.

Jiang cheng: Yao, I'm a sect leader! Not a fisherman.

Zixuan: oh.

Yao: recreation. Duh.

Jiang cheng: whatever! I'll marry Huaisang. Are you two insane Huangdis happy?

Yao: thank you for doing business with us.

Zixuan: pretty much, darling.

Yao: darling you're so lucky that you're close to two extremely powerful~~

Zixuan: extremely rich and fabulous Huangdis.

Yao: what a social climber, heehee.

Jiang cheng: does huaisang know about your little plot.

Yao: I sent team dimple to tell him.

Jiang cheng: out of all the people in the world, you choose team dimple to tell Huaisang.

They're dramatic af.

Zixuan: and blunt. I love their bluntness.

Yao: I know right!

Zixuan: let's go Jiang cheng, let's go to my palace. I have to show you your room.

Jiang cheng: *sighs*

~~

Jiang cheng arrives at the peacock empire with Zixuan, where he saw wei ying leaving.

Wuxian: and take good care of your health ok.

Yanli: alright alright. Heehee.

Wuxian: if you don't. I'll throw a tantrum like a 3year old kid.

Yanli: hmm, well we don't want a 3year old xianxian to throw a tantrum, don't we.

Wuxian: *pouts* no.

Wuxian: hey!! Jc!!!

Jiang cheng: oh boy.

Zixuan: yes. He's officially Jiang gui fei, underneath A-li.

Yanli: *smiling* whaat.

Wei wuxian: *laughing* ahahahhahaha! Jiang gui fei!!! Ahahahah. He's not the harem member of one emperor! But two! Oh my goodness. Jiang cheng, your future is brighter than Lan zhan's bichen which I shoved up my~~

Zixuan: wei Gongzi! We're in a palace.

Jiang cheng to wuxian: shut up. *rolls eyes*

Yanli: awww. Jiang gui fei, hehehe.

That's so cute. But Xuan, why did you make him a harem member. Isn't he a part of Yao's harem instead?

Zixuan: it's a political thing, A-li. And Yaoyao and I want him to marry huaisang.

Jiang cheng: *face turns red*

Yanli: ohh lovely!! Congrats A-cheng. I know you had a crush on Huaisang as well. I'm so happy for you.

Wuxian: ohhh my goodness. Jiang cheng, you're a cutsleeve!

Jiang cheng: but not as shameless as you.

Yanli: *giggles* don't fight.

Jiang cheng: jiejie.

Yanli: don't be nervous.

Zixuan: if the two get married, they'll live happily. Plus our empires will have a stronger bond.

I'll pay for dowries and everything, I know you're broke.

Jiang cheng: rude!

Zixuan: and Yaoyao will take care of Huaisang's dowry because Hauisang is also broke.

Jiang cheng: can someone save me.

Yanli: Jiang gui fei! You can't be saved.

*giggling* our cute Jiang gui fei

Jiang cheng: *cries*

Zixuan: save the tears for your wedding, jc.

Wuxian: you don't want to shrivel into a raisin when you get married to Huaisang.

~~

Meanwhile, with team D.

Huaisang went to Qinghe to visit Mingjue.

📍.

Xue yang: where's the nie twink!

Mo xuanyu: HUAISANG! get in here!

Su she: is he putting on makeup?

Mingjue: *glaring* and glad to meet you too, team dimple.

Su she: why are you so rude. Huangdi owns your property.

Mingjue: excuse me!!

Xue yang: he owns your clothes too! That's why we like to strip you and send you to Huangdi.

Mingjue: you three are disgusting.

Mo xuanyu: *whispers* really Shanshan? Yao gege owns Dage's property?

Su she: *whispers back* not technically. But Huangdi owns the Jianghu, and that's his harem member, so. He owns it.

Huaisang: what's all the commotion about? I was feeding my birds.

Su she: huangdi orders you to get married to Jiangcheng.

Mingjue: *instant chest pain*

Xue yang: you better get ready to break the bed with your lover, Nie!

Break the bed, the bathtub, the roof, the table, Dage's desk, Dage's sect chair. Break anything you like during papapa.

Mo xuanyu: and do something about that face. It's not cute.

Su she: try looking like Huangdi. You'll look very attractive if you do.

Huaisang: hold on hold hold on! Who am I getting married to?

Mingjue: who do I have to butcher?!

Who's the bastard he's getting married to!!

Xue yang: calm your mustache, pork chop. Gosh. Do you always have to be this edgy.

Su she: no wonder Huangdi couldn't stand him.

Mo xuanyu: he and his Baxia *rolls eyes*

Su she: you're getting married to Jiang cheng of Yunmeng Jiang.

Huaisang: *smiling* Jiang Cheng?!!!

Mingjue: Jiang Cheng???

Mo xuanyu: aka Wanyin. The sect leader of Yunmeng Jiang.

Xue yang: his whip goes zap zap.

Su she: angry grape. Purple aesthetic.

Mingjue: I KNOW WHO JIANG CHENG IS!!!

team dimple: dage, you're scaring us.

Huaisang: omg! I'm getting married to the love of my life! Finally team dimple said something useful and less chaotic!!

Mo xuanyu: you're very insulting.

Huaisang: dage! I'm so happy!

Are you happy for me?

Mingjue: yes. But if Jiang cheng breaks your heart, I'll break his legs before he breaks Jinling's legs.

Xue yang: very cultural. We should start the wedding with a leg breaking ceremony.

Su she: please no.

Xue yang: but it will he fun! And I can call Songlan over.

Mo xuanyu: I place all my money on dage breaking Jiang cheng's legs first.

Su she: yea, look how buff dage is.

Xue yang: Zidian can snap whatever angry demon Mingjue has in him.

Mingjue: I'm right here, team dimple.

Xue yang: was I talking to you?

[thecreaturecodex]

Dodecadile

Image © @delta-hexagon​, accessed at their tumblr here

[Another newspaper hoax monster, this one is sort of local to me, having appeared in the Gridley Herald, a small-town paper near Chico, CA. Because I knew I couldn’t find art of a crocodile with twelve legs and fan-like wings, I did a Ko-fi request from @delta-hexagon​, who’s great. Go give them money for art. I love the differentiation of the limbs that they designed.]

Dodecadile CR 12 N Magical Beast This creature resembles a great fan-winged crocodile, except that it has twelve limbs arrayed along its body. Four of them are long and end in savage hooks, six end in webbed feet of typical crocodilian design, and two are vestigial, clawed nubs set near the base of the tail.

Dodecadiles are magically engineered creatures, an attempt at creating a better, more deadly crocodile. This work succeeded, and dodecadiles escaped into the wild (or were perhaps released). They behave much as ordinary crocodilians do, making a living as aquatic ambush predators. Dodecadiles are found in a wide variety of habitats; wherever there are lakes and rivers, and it doesn’t snow, can have a dodecadile or two lurking in its waterways. A dodecadile spends most of its time in the water, using its wings to travel to new locations if seasonal waters dry up or if prey is scarce.

The very sight of a dodecadile strikes fear into the hearts of its prey. Creatures that flee are typically ignored, but those that freeze or attempt to fight are eaten. A dodecadile is a dedicated melee combatant, latching onto prey with its jaws and tearing at it with its upper talons. The scales of a dodecadile are magically reinforced, deflecting bullets, rays and bombs. Although a dodecadile can fly, they are not terribly agile in the air, and prefer to land in order to fight.

A dodecadile is about eighteen feet long, six feet of which are tail. They have long lifespans, and can survive for nearly a century if not slain through violence or illness.

Dodecadile          CR 12 XP 19,200 N Huge magical beast Init +5; Senses darkvision 60 ft., low-light vision, Perception +9, scent Aura frightful presence (60 ft., DC 17) Defense AC 27, touch 9, flat-footed 26 (-2 size, +1 Dex, +18 natural) hp 150 (12d10+84) Fort +14, Ref +11, Will +8 Defensive Abilities bulletproof, warding talons Offense Speed 20 ft., swim 30 ft., fly 40 ft. (average); sprint Melee bite +22 (2d6+12 plus grab), 4 talons +22 (1d8+12), tail slap +17 (2d8+6) Space 15 ft.; Reach 10 ft. Special Attacks death roll (2d6+18 plus trip) Statistics Str 35, Dex 12, Con 23, Int 1, Wis 14, Cha 12 Base Atk +12; CMB +26 (+30 grapple); CMD 37 (45 vs. trip) Feats Combat Reflexes, Improved Initiative, Iron Will, Lightning Reflexes, Lunge, Toughness Skills Fly +4, Perception +9, Stealth +0 (+8 in water), Swim +20; Racial Modifiers +8 Stealth in water SQ hold breath Ecology Environment warm and temperate aquatic Organization solitary or flotilla (2-10) Treasure none Special Abilities Bulletproof (Su) A dodecadile treats its AC as its touch AC for the purposes for ranged touch attacks, such as firearm attacks, alchemical weapons or ray spells. Death Roll (Ex) When grappling a foe of its size or smaller, a dodecadile can perform a death roll upon making a successful grapple check. As it clings to its foe, it tucks in its legs and rolls rapidly, twisting and wrenching its victim. The crocodile inflicts damage and knocks the creature prone. If successful, the crocodile maintains its grapple. Warding Talons (Ex) A dodecadile can choose not to make some or all of its talon attacks when making a full attack action. When it does so, it gains a +1 shield bonus to AC for a round, plus an additional +1 bonus per additional talon that does not attack.

[ouijaban]

Ephemeral summary

For all the Miraculous fans who don’t speak French and are struggling to understand, here’s a basic summary of the episode– Ephemeral version:

Gabriel is in the basement crypt speaking to Emilie. He says that everything he's done has been for her, and that he would start over a hundred times if it were necessary. Then Nathalie calls him and tells him, "It's time."

Bob Ross drops a coin into a gutter and is distraught by this, saying no one else can have it because it belongs to him. Gabriel, in the car with Adrien, senses this and tells him that he doesn't feel well and that he has to represent him in the press conference instead. Adrien resists pretty strongly, saying that it's the launch of his hundredth collection and that people want to hear from him, not his son.

Gabriel very visibly twists his ring, and says, "Adrien, I am your father. I entrust to you the responsibility of the success of this press conference. Under to circumstances will you leave the room before it's finish. I demand that you bring honour to my work, and to the memory of your mother. Am I understood?" to which Adrien immediately replies, downcast, "Yes, I understand, father."

(Translation note here: the instructions he gives are very precise and use heavily formal language. There are also a lot of words that have a potential dual meaning of trust and responsibility, where the moral burden is on Adrien but it's definitely not a request.)

Adrien does the press conference. The first question is about how the collection is dedicated to his mother, who is still missing. The reporter asks how they conceived that idea. Adrien says, "As far as I can remember, everything my father has done has been for her."

Meanwhile, Bob Ross has been akumatised into a giant golden safe and is flying about the town. Ladybug wants to contact Chat Noir, whose Cataclysm could easily dissolve the safe, but he's not answering her calls and because she doesn't know his identity, she can't go find him.

Adrien sees what's happening and clearly wants to join the fray, but Nathalie tells him over the headset that his father is counting on him, which prompts him to return his focus to the conference.

Ladybug uses Lucky Charm and summons a massive firetruck. The team comes up with a convoluted plan involving Vesperia, Polymouse, Pigella, Carapace, and Viperion and open the safe by testing every possible combination using Second Chance.

Papillombre does his usual villain monologue and repeats that he would start over hundreds of times, and that one day or another he would end up winning.

Luka detransforms and hands his bracelet over to Ladybug, but they're interrupted by Su-Han from Fu Furieux, who yells at her for giving out nine Miraculous when Chat Noir alone would have been sufficient. She protests that she had no choice, because he was unreachable, to which he gets even more angry. He claims that a Miraculous so powerful without a holder should never be out of sight, and that if the person using it behaved like Papillombre it would be a serious problem. Ladybug objects that he's exaggerating and Chat Noir wouldn't do that, but Su-Han asserts that she must know his identity to neutralise him if it came down to that. Su–Han says that he would then need to find out and take his Miraculous in order to give it to a new Chat Noir. She says ok and he leaves.

Luka asks if she's going to find out Chat's identity– she's hesitant, but says she has to, because the alternative of fighting the celestial guardians and losing their Chat Noir isn't worth it.

Adrien, back at home, retransforms and checks his messages. He calls Ladybug back as Chat, attempting to explain but she cuts him off before he can do so. Instead, she asks him to meet her at the Eiffel Tower so they can talk. Chat thinks he's in trouble and is anxious, but sets out to meet her regardless.

Ladybug and Luka conceive a plan: on the rooftop, Ladybug will get Chat Noir to confess his identity, and then Viperion will use Second Chance so that he will remember even though Ladybug will not. There's some foreshadowing where Marinette says that all it would take is for one of them to be akumatised to betray the other if they knew each other's secret identities.

Chat arrives at the Eiffel Tower, with Ladybug and Viperion timing the meeting exactly. He apologises for not showing up, and Ladybug says it's the advantage of having a team and that they couldn't just be the two of them. Chat is confused, having thought this was what she wanted to discuss, and asks why she asked him to meet her then. Ladybug confesses that her reason is related to what happened, and that after becoming Guardian she ultimately thought he was right in the end about revealing identities. She gives a speech about how this reveal will help them work together better and beat Papillombre faster.

Chat is unexpectedly hesitant and asks her to go first, or for them to do it together, which she refuses to do because it would ruin her plan. He's very stressed but ultimately says that he's Adrien. She laughs at him and says it's impossible because there's no one more different than the two of them. So he detransforms (lmao).

She is SHAKEN by this, and when Viperion asks if he should rewind time now since he heard the name she says no, not right away. Adrien is somewhat dismayed, but gives a speech about how he also worries about what people think of him, but that he's anticipated this moment for so long. He ends by saying that he's happy to not have to lie anymore, and that he hopes she's not too disappointed– and also that regardless of who she is beneath the mask, she's the most exceptional person in the world.

The time for winding back runs out, and there's no possibility of a Second Chance now. Luka says he hopes she knows what she's doing, while Ladybug is still speechless.

Finally, she says– "I am…Ma– Ma– ill at ease, sorry." (This is a reference to the first episode where she almost says her name and says maladroite instead. This time, she says 'mal à l'aise.')

Adrien tells her to take her time until she's ready, and that she knows his name and where she lives, so no biggie. She runs away and confers with Luka, who asks her why she changed her mind, to which she says it's because she was curious about what would happen now that she knows and that it doesn't matter so long as he doesn't know her.

Tikki and Marinette discuss her dilemma in the bedroom. Marinette is confused because she loves Adrien but not Chat, and says that they seem like two different people, wondering which is the "real" Adrien inside him. Tikki advises her to talk to Alya, but she says she can't because then Alya would know both of their identities.

Meanwhile Adrien is bouncing off the walls, excited, saying that she'll get to know him as himself finally before she tells him who she is. He's making jokes and chilling and having the time of his life. Plagg is done with his shit and eats cheese sadly.

Montage time! Marinette interacts with Adrien and finds that she now can't stop seeing Chat in everything he does. Luka and Marinette have a chat, where she asks if he's ever known someone and then discovered they have a secret side he could have never imagined. He says yes, and then explains when she asks if it was confusing and made it hard to envision them the same, he says no, that it just allows him to understand the person better.

The montage becomes more positive, with Marinette noticing traits of Adrien in Chat, like his fencing skills. Their teamwork has never been better. This culminates in the umbrella scene from the trailer, where she at last understands that Chat and Adrien are the same.

Ok. Reveal time. BIG SPOILERS AHEAD.

Ladybug grabs Adrien's hand after he's detransformed and tells him to wait. Blushing, she says, "I'm…I'm ready this time." Adrien blushes profusely as well and stares at her, speechless and wide-eyed. Without hesitation, she detransforms into Marinette. Adrien is 👁👁.

Softly, she says, "Say something." When he doesn't, she averts her eyes and says, "Now that you know who I am (nervous laugh), I assume that you don't love me anymore."

Adrien immediately says "No!" and grasps her hands in his. Then, he says: "it's just that I've just found out that one of my best friends is also the person who I admire more than anything in the world." Then he hugs her.

Cut to later in class. Adrien and Marinette are that couple (again) and he passes her a love note. Later, he's in bed and they're on the phone. We only hear the end of their conversation– they make plans to meet at the cinema the next day because they miss each other, then play the you hang up, no you hang up game (of course) and then finally Adrien says "good night, my lady." Gabriel, creepily listening at the door, realises that his son is Chat Noir.

(This next scene will probably be controversial and I don't want to include my own bias, so I'll translate it as literally and objectively as is possible. If you have any questions or issues with my translation, let me know and I'll try to address them.)

Gabriel tells Adrien to get up, which he does immediately, telling him that he's on his way. He then tells him to come with him, to which Adrien says, "Yes, father." Adrien follows him to the portrait of Emilie, surprised, and then down to the secret basement. Plagg asks, "Did you know you had this at your house?" and Adrien replies, "I don't know if this is still my house. Stay hidden, Plagg."

Adrien walks in stunned silence towards the coffin. It opens, and Emilie is revealed. He is distraught, and says– "Maman?" Behind him, Gabriel says that he has searched for how to tell Adrien this for a long time, and transforms into Papillombre. Adrien is shocked.

Immediately, he backs away towards the coffin, Papillombre following. Papillombre tells him that never in his search for the Miraculous of Ladybug and Chat Noir for so long to bring her back to them had he ever imagined that the solution would be under his own roof. Before Adrien can reply, he releases an akuma.

Papillombre says: "Éphémère, I am your father, the Papillombre. I give you the power to breach time and help me to bring back your mother. All that I ask of you in exchange is the Miraculous of Ladybug…and your own."

Adrien replies, resisting very heavily: "You couldn't ask that of me!"

Papillombre twists his ring beneath the glove, and Adrien screams– "No, no!" Then, Papillombre says: "Do I make myself properly understood, son?" Very suddenly, Adrien goes slack and stops resisting. Softly, he says, "Perfectly, father" and hands the ring to Papillombre.

Plagg emerges and tells him to wait, but Papillombre interrupts and says, "I am your new master, now." Adrien, shoulders slumped and staring at the ground, is akumatised into Éphémère.

Meanwhile, Marinette arrives at the empty cinema, wondering where Adrien is. She hears the door open and thinks it's him, only to see Papillombre in Chat's costume, three Miraculous activated simultaneously. She transforms and uses her Lucky Charm instantly, but Éphémère touches her, stealing her energy. He says, "I'm sorry, but I promise this will be quick."

Papillombrechat (I have no idea what his new triple hybrid villain name is) says, "Oh, how time passes quickly when you're having fun" and stalks towards her. She runs away, but he says, "It's useless to run away– In a few seconds you'll be a simple girl without powers!"

In her last moments, she sends a text to Luka with the location of Sass, instantly alerting him to the fact that there's an emergency. He bikes to her house. Gabriel takes her Miraculous, meanwhile, and is extremely triumphant that his wish will finally be made.

Luka finds Sass and realises that he has to rewind time further than Second Chance is capable of doing. The kwami object, saying that it's dangerous to use powers without a holder, but around them the world is falling apart, being destroyed so that a new one can be built. They explain that in order for the wish to be made, everything that currently exists has to be overwritten and reconstructed, erasing what's been built up til now.

Sass uses his powers, taking us back to the moment of Chat's initial arrival at the Eiffel Tower, before the issue of confessing their identities was even raised. But this time, due to Sass' powers, everything around them is a mess. Timelines are intersecting– cars stuck in traffic, a former Ladybug holder appearing out of thin air, and many other issues occur. Ladybug attempts to contact Viperion over her earpiece, but there's too much interference and leaves with Chat to find him in person. He detransforms in front of the two of them– Chat seems slightly surprised about this– and Marinette speaks with Sass, who tells them that he doesn't really know what's happening but that he saw a photo of a Lucky Charm and a watch with the time of their meeting at the Eiffel Tower (1 a.m.).

Ladybug and Chat realise that to fix the timelines, they need to set the city's clock right. Together, they fly using their space transformations to the satellite above Paris, which contains the city's master clock, and reset it. Ladybug uses the cure and everything returns to normal.

On the way back down, Chat hums Also Sprach Zarathustra (better known as the iconic theme from 2001 Space Odyssey) and Marinette asks him what it is. He replies, but then asks her what she wanted to talk about on the Eiffel Tower. She says it's nothing important, and not to worry. Chat seems dismayed by this, and they part.

On her balcony, Ladybug meets Su-Han again. She chews him out, saying he only shows up when something bad is happening and that she's proven countless times that she's a responsible Guardian, and that she and Chat Noir are exceptional superheroes. He basically says yeah ok you're right and they fist-bump.

And that's it!

Hope this summary helps clarify some things, and again, if you have any questions I would be happy to help.

[ilshailey]

BIO. PROFILE. THREAD TRACKER.

hi friendsss i’m super late but it’s ya girl rina revamping an old muse of mine for ilsang! find out a bit more about park hyemi aka hailey under the cut and hit that ♡ button down below if you’d like to plot hehe

BACKGROUND

rich girl from seoul, basically

has an older brother but was basically raised as the conglomerate heir of her dad’s ent. company since she’d always been known to be a fast learner (read: one of those “good at everything” kids)

doesnt really have a personality outside of being her parents’ perfect golden girl 

kinda grew distant from her brother........then one day he just left home without a word and it made her distraught 

his absence forced her to admit that she’d been turning a blind eye to their parents poor treatment and blamed herself for it all

long story short, she found a brochure in his room to ilsang and jumped on the chance that she just might find him there even if there was no actual evidence that he even went there

not long into her arrival (i mightve put an actual length of time in my bio but who knows kjsfsd) hailey was wandering about town and slipped on one of the oil spills and fell. she got a headache so she returned to her room at the inn early

the next morning she woke up but didnt feel like she had any control over her own body

((( THIS ASSUMPTION WAS CORRECT BECAUSE SHE’D BEEN TAKEN OVER BY AN ALIEN HOST!!! good job hyemi ur so smart )))

now she’s behaving the complete opposite from how she normally is. always smiling and happy, curious about the world around her

v touchy. will fb poke war u irl just because. also a hugger. 

hyemi continues to attempt to win back her body (read: is constantly yelling at her alien) and still very much wants to find her brother 

OTHER FUN STUFF

hailey loves and adores all things pretty!! will very much get distracted by anything sparkly

will flirt with you, but in a clumsy way (think early 2000′s rom-coms)

did i mention that hyemi hates “hailey” lol

hailey picked up a job at cha ko latte bc she discovered the wonders of all sweet things and caffeine. catch her on her shift jumping around behind the bar off of 5 cups 

mayhaps a bit of a klepto?? just bc she’s curious about things, she’ll pick them up and take them back to her room to look at. sometimes she actually does put them back (but only if hyemi is yelling about how much of a mess their room is and that she does not need a random jacket from off the street sitting on their floor)

is what some may consider a ✨ditz✨

loves to look at herself and started an ig account against hyemi’s protests so that the whole universe can bask in how pretty she is

PLOTS???

honestly if u know me u know i suck at plots but here are some ideas that can maybe spark some better ideas LOL

def her older brother (will probably put in a wc form to the main too!)

alien buddy - hailey is super excited to be hailey and she absolutely needs someone to share her experience with

i need someone who is sus of her and constantly trying to make attempts at exposing her but she somehow avoids them coincidentally bc of how silly she is

a cha ko latte regular who either just really likes her coffee or enjoys watching her act a fool on the clock 

another haedodi house resident. this is just for some housing plots maybe. perhaps they just eat breakfast together in almost silence (hailey constantly providing a commentary for her food) or they just walk home together sometimes

a first love - she’s only ever seen it in movies and dramas (that she’s been binging with ease thanks to hyemi’s netflix account) but she finds it so peculiar that humans would do anything for this situational feeling. she wants to give it a try! it’s not that hard, right? 

[theres-an-impulstor-among-us]

Writting request!

Hels!Impulse taking regular impulses place n stuffing him in like a closet or somethin-

N someone who's sus of him (maybe iskall?) Finds the real impulse.

Now to unmask the fake.

okay so a few quick things:

1) this ended up a LOT longer than i expected lol so i apologise for that, it’s over 2k words

2) i also didn’t entirely stick to every detail in the prompt because i had an idea i rly liked and i wanted to roll with it, so i’m rly sorry if it’s not as good as you were expecting

3) anyway i hope it’s good! it was a lot of fun to work on

...

  Impulse is working on the redstone of his pumpkin and melon farm in his base when he spots a shadow moving around right at the corner of his vision. Frowning, he leaves his task and heads out into the main part of the base, looking around. “Hello?” he calls cautiously. “Grian, if this is you again…”

  He gets no response. 

  Just as he starts to turn back, thinking he just imagined it, something slams into him and knocks him into the wall, stunning him. He looks sharply up to find…

  ...himself. 

  Impulse’s eyes widen. “Wh-Who are you?!”

  The new Impulse has his arms crossed and a malicious grin on his face. “My name is Impulstor. I’m your Hels counterpart. And I’m going to take over your life as my own.”

  “W-Wait, what?!” 

  Before Impulse can move, Impulstor seizes his lapels and drags him across the base. Impulse struggles as hard as he can but he’s still winded from being hit against the wall. 

  Impulstor takes him to one of the support pillars at the very edge of the base, which has a two by one block hole in it, left over from Grian’s secret base shenanigans a few weeks ago. Weakened, he’s unable to stop Impulstor from shoving him roughly through the gap. 

  Since the floor is a block lower than the bottom of the hole, Impulse’s foot slips and he falls heavily against the wall, hitting his head and stunning him even more. The space inside the pillar is only one block by one block, with two or three more blocks of space above his head, so as Impulse collapses, he’s forced into an uncomfortable sitting position. 

  Blinking back tears of pain and fear, Impulse tries sluggishly to escape but Impulstor bashes him on the head with his own pickaxe. 

  The last thing Impulse sees before he passes out is Impulstor blocking the gap with white concrete, trapping him in this prison.

…

  Zedaph flies over the shopping district and lands a little way off from Impulse and Tango, who are sitting on one of the benches outside town hall, chatting. As he approaches, the two look up and spot him. “Hey, Zed!” Tango calls, beaming. “Wanna join me and Impy hanging out?”

  “Yeah, sure! What do you have in mind?”

  “Well, I thought we might go give Decked Out a group run,” Tango says. “I’d have to fix things up a little bit but that shouldn’t take more than ten minutes. I think it’d be epic to go in as a team.”

  “Ooh, yeah!” Impulse grins. “I always loved that game. It terrifies me, but I loved it. Those ravagers, man. I’m always on the lookout for them and it’s terrifying with the heartbeat and everything.” 

  “That was the idea,” snickers Tango.

  “I know, I know. Doesn’t make it any less terrifying, though.” Impulse grins. “Going in as a group would be great! I’d really like to do that.”

  Zedaph involuntarily takes a step back. He doesn’t know what, but there’s something off about Impulse today. There’s something different, something he can’t quite put his finger on. He’s known Impulse a long time, but not as long as Tango, who doesn’t seem to share his doubts. Is he misreading the situation?

  “Yeah, me too!” Tango enthuses. “You up for it, Zed?”

  “Um, actually…” Zedaph forces a convincing cough and rubs his stomach. “I feel kinda sick all of a sudden. I think the flight over here churned my insides.”

  “Oh.” Tango frowns sympathetically. “You’d better rest, then.”

  “Yeah, sorry. I need to go home.”

  “No problem, man. Hope you feel better.”

  Zedaph slowly walks away, keeping up his charade in case the others are watching. Over his shoulder, he hears Impulse say something about his ice farm, then a few seconds later, the sound of rockets are heard as the two take off with their elytras. 

  He keeps going for about a minute longer, just in case, before deeming it safe and taking off with his rockets. His heart pounding, he shoots over to Impulse’s base and after crashing through the water curtain, lands neatly on the ground inside. “Impulse?” Zedaph calls, starting to rush through the pyramid base. “Impulse, are you here?”

  Zedaph’s voice awakens Impulse. Blinking against the throbbing in his head, he bashes his fist against the wall of the pillar as hard as he can. “Ze-Zedaph! ZED!”

  Following the sound of Impulse’s voice, Zedaph locates the pillar and slices a hole in it with his pickaxe. 

  To his horror, he finds Impulse squeezed inside the narrow gap, blood still dripping from the wound in his head. 

  “Oh my god…!”

  Zedaph drags Impulse out of the pillar and lets him lie flat on the ground for a moment while he tends to his wound. Impulse doesn’t even have the strength to wince at the stinging of antiseptic. 

  “Are you okay?” asks Zedaph quietly. “How long have you been stuck in there?”

  “A-A few hours at most, I don’t really know. What’s going on?”

  “Well, fake you is cosying up to Tango. I don’t think Tango suspects anything.”

  Impulse swallows back a pang of hurt. “Oh… I-I thought he knew me better than that…”

  “To be fair, whoever’s masquerading as you is really, really good,” says Zedaph slowly. “I hate to say this, but even I barely noticed.”

  “Really? What made you catch on?”

  Zedaph hesitates. “It was more of a gut feeling than solid evidence. I dunno, there was just something about the way he talked that seemed off. It didn’t seem like you. I thought either there was something wrong with you or it wasn’t you at all.”

  “And you came to the conclusion that an imposter posing as me was more likely than me having an off day?” chuckles Impulse weakly. 

  Zedaph matches his chuckle as he starts to wind a bandage around Impulse’s head. “Again, it was just a gut feeling.”

  “Well, your gut feeling was right. Now what do we do about Impulstor?”

  Zedaph immediately bursts out a laugh. “Impulstor!” 

  Impulse gives him a look.

  Zedaph clears his throat awkwardly. “S-Sorry. Anyway, we should go and save Tango from, uh… Impulstor.”

  “Shouldn’t that be easy?” remarks Impulse. “I mean, I’M me. He’s not.”

  “Man, you didn’t see the way he was with Tango. He has to be some kind of clone of you or something; there’s no way he’s just a guy who’s studied the way you behave. It’s not about us not knowing you well enough; it’s him knowing every mannerism, every quirk, every facial tick. If it wasn’t for my random gut feeling, I doubt we’d have noticed for a really long time.”

  Impulse’s worry increases. If Tango, someone he’s known for over a decade, couldn’t even tell the difference between him and the imposter, his clone could have the whole server fooled within hours. 

  “We have to get to him away from the other hermits,” Impulse says. “The longer this goes on, the harder it’ll be to convince them I’m the real Impulse. What were him and Tango doing when you left?”

  “I think they were taking a look at your ice farm,” responds Zedaph. 

  Impulse shoots bolt upright. “Oh no! I spent ages getting that farm the exact way I wanted; he better not ruin anything!”

  Zedaph grips him by the shoulders. “Hey, easy, man. You might have a concussion.”

  “I don’t care! Tango is in real danger and so is everything I’ve ever built! I’m going over to my ice farm right now and you can’t stop me.”

  Zedaph hesitates. He knows his friend well enough to know that he really can’t stop him. “Okay, then. I’ll come with you.”

…

  “-really like this pattern,” Tango is saying, looking down at the floor underneath the ice farm. “How’d you think of it?”

  “Oh, it just came to me,” says Impulstor. “Took me a while to turn all the powder to concrete.”

  “I bet. Nice farm, dude!”

  “Thanks!” 

  Impulstor watches Tango move over to the side of the farm and look down. Tango clearly suspects nothing; if he has any doubts, he’s doing an amazing job hiding them. But Impulstor isn’t worried. From his (no, not his. Impulse’s) memories of Tango, he should be fairly easy to take down if the need arises. 

  But what he doesn’t anticipate is his ruse falling apart so soon.

  “TANGO!”

  Tango jerks and snaps his head upwards to find two figures flying towards him. He blinks in shock; one of them is clearly Zedaph but the other… It can’t be…

  Impulstor lets out a very quiet growl, before rearranging his face into an expression of shock. “Wait a sec…”

  Impulse nearly falls over in his haste as he lands, him and Zedaph getting between Tango and Impulstor. 

  “What the hell is going on?!” Tango demands. “Why are there two Impulses?!”

  “He’s an imposter,” declares Impulse, jabbing a finger at Impulstor. “He’s a fake Impulse.”

  “No, HE’s the fake!” Impulstor snaps back. “I don’t know what’s going on here but I’m the real Impulse!”

  “Oh god, this is my worst nightmare,” Tango groans. “How are we supposed to know who the real one is?”

  “Look, ask me anything,” says Impulse. “I’ll answer any question you ask.”

  “What was your first build when you joined Hermitcraft?” Zedaph asks.

  “The witch huts in season three,” say both Impulse and Impulstor at the same time, causing the former to stare at the latter in shock. 

  “Who did you team up with to do the pirate ship prank in season six?” Tango asks slowly.

  “Ren and Doc,” both Impulses say, again at the same time. 

  “What did you call your season five base?” Zedaph says.

  Again, the answer comes simultaneously from both Impulse and Impulstor: “Atlantis.” 

  “Okay, stop, stop.” Tango waves his hands. “This is going nowhere. I don’t know HOW you two have the exact same memory but clearly, we’re not gonna make any progress this way.” 

  “Hey, Impulse.” Zedaph turns pointedly to the real Impulse. “How did you get that scar on your thigh?”

  “From an arrow wound during the season six civil war,” Impulse and Impulstor reply.

  A split second later, Impulse realises what his friend is doing. He lifts his shorts leg just enough for the small scar to become visible. “This one.”

  The other three turn to Impulstor, who realises he’s in trouble here. He may have Impulse’s memories but they don’t share a body. Impulstor remembers the exact moment Impulse got that injury but he wasn’t actually there. He didn’t live it; Impulse did. 

  “Impulse, if you’re the real one, show us the scar,” Tango says sternly. 

  Impulstor hesitates, his slightly narrowed eyes flickering from Tango to Impulse. 

  Suddenly, Impulstor takes off running, deliberately slamming into Tango as he does. Tango tumbles to the ground and slides right over the edge of the farm with a terrified yell. 

  Luckily, Zedaph reacts quickly and grabs his friend’s wrist. This stops Tango from falling long enough for Impulse to take hold of his friend’s other hand, and the two pull Tango back to safety. 

  “Oh my gosh, are you okay?!” gasps Impulse. “You almost went over!” 

  Breathing heavily, Tango starts to speak but cuts himself off as he finally registers the bandage around Impulse’s head. “I-Impulse, did he hurt you?”

  “What?” Impulse frowns, before remembering his head injury, which is already mostly healed. “Oh, yeah. He ambushed me in my base and knocked me out and stuffed me in the hollow space in one of my pillars for like five hours or so.”

  “Oh my god...” Tango squeezes his eyes shut. “I-I’m so sorry…”

  “Wh-What?” Impulse stares at him. What for?”

  “For not realising he wasn’t you. I should have seen it; I can’t believe I was so blind.”

  Impulse blinks. “Oh, Tango, no. Please, please don’t feel guilty. It’s not your fault at all.”

  “But…” Tango’s eyes glisten with tears. “I… I’ve known you for at least ten years. Surely I…”

  “No,” says Impulse firmly. “Don’t blame yourself, Tango. Impulstor is… He’s me. Essentially.”

  “What do you mean, Impusle?” asks Zedaph quietly. 

  Impulse hesitates. “Impulstor is my Hels counterpart. He looks like me, talks like me, he has all my memories. Tango, nobody can really blame you for not noticing. Dude, I know I’m the real Impulse and even I did a double take. You know I’m not observant at all but that was taking it to a whole new level.”

  Tango gives a quiet laugh. “Yeah, you’re really not super observant. But still…”

  “And hey, at least we now have a fairly easy way to tell us apart,” Impulse adds. “He won’t be able to fool you two again. But the rest of the server needs to be warned and briefed on how to tell us apart. Will you help me do that, both of you?”

  “Of course I will,” says Zedaph immediately, putting his arm over Impulse’s shoulders. “We’re a team.”

  Tango meets Impulse’s gaze.

  Finally, he says, “I always knew you’d have an evil twin but I didn’t expect him to be LESS annoying than you.” 

  “Hey,” complains Impulse mildly. “Give me some credit for not trying to murder you.”

  Tango laughs and grabs his friend in a hug. “Don’t worry, you’re still my favourite Impulse.”

  Impulse hugs him back. “Good. Now, let’s find Xisuma and warn him about Impulstor.”

  Tango pulls sharply away from Impulse and stares at him. “Wait… Is that his NAME? Impulse plus imposter?”

  “Uh huh. Trust me, I didn’t choose it.”

  His friend bursts out laughing. “That’s GREAT! Oh my god. That sounds like something Zed would come up with.”

  “I know, right!” Zedaph laughs. 

  Impulse can’t help a laugh too. The tension and fear that’s been controlling him for the last few hours has mostly melted away now that his best friends are safe. Impulstor might still be out there but with a little luck, he won’t be able to fool the rest of the server the way he fooled Tango. He’s sure he’ll see Impulstor again, though. 

  But the real question is: how soon?

[ibijau]

Futures Past pt9 / On AO3

after being punished for their behaviour in Yunping City, Nie Huaisang and Lan Xichen have a chat about friendship and forgiveness

warning for mentions of corporal punishment

Nie Huaisang failed to contain a whine as another blow from the discipline rulers hit him. When no more followed, and Lan Qiren finally announced that he and Lan Xichen could stand again, Nie Huaisang instead collapsed to the ground, exhausted by the beating. 

"I said stand up," Lan Qiren ordered. "I went easy on you this time. Don't expect such leniency again." 

Nie Huaisang almost laughed, only for it to come out as a choked sob. He was no stranger to being punished, but at home it was done differently. To think he used to call his brother's methods cruel… but he would gladly have taken Nie Mingjue's extra training over that awful, pointless beating he'd just received. 

He was half convinced he would just expire there, in the dust of that courtyard of the Lan discipline hall, when strong, slender hands grabbed him by the armpits and helped him up. Lan Xichen, who barely had a hair out of place in spite of enduring the same punishment, weakly smiled at Nie Huaisang and silently encouraged him to lean on him until he felt better. 

Nie Huaisang wondered if he hated Lan Xichen for having a cultivation so great that this beating hadn't impacted him, or pitied him for apparently being used to such treatment and thus enduring it so well. 

"Let this be a reminder to follow rules and respect your elders," Lan Qiren said, glaring at both boys. "Now go, I've seen enough of you."

Lan Xichen, ever respectful, bowed before his uncle and thanked him for taking time to educate them. Nie Huaisang had no choice but to bow as well, though he refused to be thanking anyone for what he had just endured and firmly pinched his lips in pointless rebellion. 

Especially pointless when he knew that this was but one half of the punishment : Lan Qiren had also assigned both of them to write an essay, and to copy a few times certain rules relevant to their behaviour in Yunping City. And to make it worse, Nie Huaisang wouldn't even be able to ask Su She to help him: his friend had gotten in trouble during his absence, and was punished as well. 

At least, Yunping City had been a success of sorts. Meng Yao was probably never going to join Lanling Jin now, which was good, and Nie Huaisang hadn't needed to kill anyone the way his future self had half implied he should do, which was great. It might be worth a little pain, Nie Huaisang thought as Lan Xichen slowly led him out of the discipline halls. 

After having walked in silence a little bit, Lan Xichen stopped. Nie Huaisang, expecting to be sent away to his cabin, or scolded further for dragging Lan Xichen in his mischief, braced himself for yet more unpleasantness. 

"Would you like to come home with me?" Lan Xichen offered instead. "I can make you a certain tea I have which will help with the pain, and we can work on our punishments together." 

"You're not going to poison me, are you?" Nie Huaisang asked. Lan Xichen gave him a puzzled look so he shrugged. A mistake, with the state of his back. "It's just that you wouldn't have been punished if I didn't go out." 

"And you wouldn't have been punished if I hadn't helped you go out," Lan Xichen replied. "So I would say we're even. Besides, Wangji will be home and I'd rather not deal with him right now. He gets very judgmental about people breaking rules, but he won't say anything if we have a guest."

The idea of spending yet more time with Lan Xichen was an unappealing one when Nie Huaisang still remembered that bad taste joke about Su She. Normally, he wouldn't have considered it at all, his future self be damned. Now though, with the promise of something to deal with the pain… 

Principles were well and nice, but Nie Huaisang decided he didn't have the sort of personality needed to suffer heroically for his beliefs. 

He accepted the invitation.

Just as Lan Xichen had said, Lan Wangji was in the house when they arrived. He threw his brother a most betrayed look, as if Lan Xichen had personally murdered someone rather than just been a little rude to an awful man, but when he noticed Nie Huaisang he kept to himself whatever remarks he might have had and just left them alone. What a stuffy boy, really. If it had been Nie Huaisang whose older brother had misbehaved, he would have found the whole thing hilarious and teased Nie Mingjue to hell and back. Su She was clearly right whenever he complained about Lan Wangji being the most bland and boring person in the world.

Once Lan Xichen and Nie Huaisang were alone, Lan Xichen set out to prepare the tea he had promised, while inviting Nie Huaisang to sit down. Sitting wasn't particularly comfortable right then, but Nie Huaisang still obeyed. He quickly noticed that Lan Xichen was preparing a different blend of tea for himself, and asked about that when Lan Xichen handed him a warm glass.

“The pain isn’t so bad for me,” Lan Xichen explained. “It would go against the spirit of the punishment if I took something, especially when shufu didn’t tell me I could. But you are our guest, and I know you’re unused to such methods, so it would be cruel to let you suffer.”

Nie Huaisang wrinkled his nose, both because he could tell he had just been called weak in a very polite manner, and because his tea had a rather strong smell. The taste wasn’t so bad, though, and after a few sips he felt his body start to relax, the pain still present but more dull and no longer the only thing on his mind.

“I’ll give you some of that tea,” Lan Xichen said before Nie Huaisang could even comment on the effect. “So you can have some more before sleep, and tomorrow morning as well, or else classes promise to be difficult to put up with for you.”

“It’s not like they’re easy even at a normal time,” Nie Huaisang retorted.

“Then there’s no reason to make it even worse, is there?”

Nie Huaisang said nothing, watching Lan Xichen with a slight pout. It seemed to him that Lan Xichen was in awfully good spirits for someone who had just taken such a beating. In fact, Lan Xichen had seemed in a very good mood since Yunping City, or at least since after that encounter with Meng Yao, hadn’t he?

From talking with his future self, Nie Huaisang knew that both Meng Yao and Lan Xichen would have been involved in Nie Mingjue’s death. He hadn’t really given it much thought yet, but what if that hadn’t been their only link? Meng Yao had a pleasant personality and was as good looking as all of Jin Guangshan’s trail of bastards, so with the way Lan Xichen had so vehemently taken his defence that day… Nie Huaisang thought he might ask his future self about that. Then, remembering he didn’t much like the man, and that his future self was a little too fond of mysteries, he realised he’d have to figure this out on his own if he ever wanted to know.

He wasn’t sure he did want to know, but between trying to find out if Lan Xichen had developed an instant crush or doing the essay Lan Qiren had demanded…

“So, Lan gongzi, how come you’re so nice today? I mean, you’re always nice of course, but you’re in a very good mood considering…”

Nie Huaisang made a vague gesture. When the movement made him wince, he took a few more sips of tea.

“A few things that were worrying me have cleared up,” Lan Xichen explained. “Although if you really want to know why I offered you this tea, and to help with your essay…”

“I am quite curious about that, yes.”

“I suppose I feel I owe it to you,” Lan Xichen said, lowering his eyes. “I was… I realise I was unpleasant to you when we were in Yunping City. First I made things difficult for you when we met while visiting the town, and then my tasteless attempt at joking about your friendship with Su She… I should have behaved better than this.”

Without thinking, Nie Huaisang nodded. He’d been upset about the way Lan Xichen behaved toward Su She even before, but that joke had just been too much. And then the accusation of him having a crush… well, that had just been mean. Mostly because it made Nie Huaisang feel awkward about hanging out with his friend again, when already his future self’s cryptic mention had made things weird. 

He didn’t want to be thinking of Su She like that, because he knew from their chats that Su She only liked girls, whereas Nie Huaisang…

But it didn’t matter what Nie Huaisang liked anyway. Not unless his brother hurried up and got married… but since his future self appeared to be a sect leader, Nie Mingjue probably hadn’t gotten around to do that, meaning Nie Huaisang would be left with the duty of continuing the family line.

So it didn’t matter if he liked Su She in any way except as a friend, because that was all they would ever be, which was fine. Su She was a good friend to have.

But speaking of Su She...

“Lan gongzi, I have a question for you,” Nie Huaisang said.

Lan Xichen emptied his glass of tea and smiled politely.

“I’m listening.”

“See, I thought I had you figured out,” Nie Huaisang explained, tapping his fingers against the side of his own glass. “I thought in the end, you were just another Lan prick full of himself and convinced that only people born in a great sect, or at least in a sect at all, are actually people. With the way you are about Su She, I really thought you were that sort of person.”

Lan Xichen winced at being called a prick, but didn’t actually protest, which Nie Huaisang took as an admission of guilt.

“But you weren’t like that with that Meng Yao and his mother,” Nie Huaisang continued, putting down his glass with an impatient gesture. “You were nice to them. More than Huang zongzhu for sure! And you said that stuff about treating people by their actions not their origins, and you sounded like you meant it, and about the son of a courtesan too! So now, I feel I don’t understand you at all, and I’ve got to ask. Why do you dislike Su She that much?”

Hearing Nie Huaisang’s question, Lan Xichen was silent for a long while, observing the other boy as if somehow, the answer to his dislike of Su She lay within Nie Huaisang.

“Why do you like him so much?” he said at last.

“I asked first!”

Lan Xichen sighed. “And I’m not sure what to answer. I had formed a certain opinion of Su She, but perhaps… I could be wrong. So please help me understand how you see Su She, so that I might revise my judgment.”

“He’s fun, that’s really the main thing,” Nie Huaisang said. “And he tries hard. He’s always trying so hard. Half the time we hang out, he’ll end up practising in some way, because he wants so badly to catch up to the other disciples. And he’s quite skilled, too. I think his teachers don’t like him because he can have a bad temper, but he’s real clever, and real good at music too. It’s really annoying that people treat him badly. Like that thing with Jin Zixun while we were in Yunping City? I’m so sure it wasn’t Su She’s fault, but because it’s him, everyone thinks he’s done something wrong and they punished him! It’s unfair!”

Impassioned by this defence of his friend, Nie Huaisang half stood up from his seat, only for the pain in his back to flare up again at the sudden movement, forcing him to sit down again. Lan Xichen watched him through all of it, his face turned into an expressionless mask.

“Nie gongzi has a very strong sense of justice, I see.”

Nie Huaisang shrugged, and only half regretted it.

“Not really. If we weren’t friends, maybe I wouldn’t care,” he admitted. “But he is my friend, so it bothers me, and I don’t know how to help… but you could, and yet you don’t. He’s a disciple of your own sect, but you treat him with less regard than you do a complete stranger you met at a market. If you took his defence, then everyone else would have to stop bothering him!”

“I suppose,” Lan Xichen said with obvious reluctance. “It is wrong he’s not given a fair chance.”

“It is! Lan gongzi, please, please help Su-xiong,” Nie Huaisang begged. “I’ll really owe you, and… and I’m sure you’d get along with him if you just gave him a chance! And he’s really a good element to have in your sect, and… ah, he even has a beautiful handwriting, you know!” Nie Huaisang exclaimed, hit by a sudden realisation. “So maybe he could help with that thing you’re doing of copying books!”

Lan Xichen, already a little upset at their topic of conversation, went very pale at that new suggestion.

“I don’t know what you mean.”

“Of course you do,” Nie Huaisang insisted. “Every time I see you, you’re copying something. And not just you, I’ve seen other Lan disciples do it in the library too, and some of the juniors when they’re being punished. But mostly only the ones that are teachers’ pets. Well, that’s what Su She said when I asked about it. But he could help! He’s really good at writing, and he knows the rules well, and…”

“We’ll see,” Lan Xichen dryly cut him. “Although I’d appreciate if in the future, you did not mention anything about those books being copied. It is private sect business, and Gusu Lan does not wish for it to be known.”

“But you always do it, even in front of me.”

“I didn’t expect Nie gongzi to pay attention to what I was doing. My mistake, of course.”

Meaning he thought Nie Huaisang was too stupid to notice. Of course Nie Huaisang had already guessed it was something of the sort, that Lan Xichen really had such a low opinion of him, but it still annoyed him.

“If I keep that to myself, will you be nicer to Su-xiong from now on?”

“Blackmail is forbidden,” Lan Xichen replied. “By my sect, and by yours as well, I believe. As for Su She… I’ll see what I can do. But first, Nie gongzi, I have another question for you.”

Lan Xichen’s tone sounded odd, too polite somehow, but Nie Huaisang still nodded.

“Thank you. It is a question of… philosophical nature, I suppose, and perhaps only distantly linked to our conversation, but here it is. Do you think that everyone deserves a second chance?”

It was a very weird question, but also a very earnest one, Nie Huaisang felt. Certainly Lan Xichen had a very intense expression on his face. Why he would have asked this as they were talking about Su She, who hadn’t done anything wrong except for having an occasionally difficult personality, Nie Huaisang couldn’t say. Unless there had been some incident in the past that Su She hadn’t mentioned, or worse where he hadn’t realised he’d offended Lan Xichen? It seemed unlikely but not impossible, so Nie Huaisang gave the question due consideration before answering.

“Yes, I think people deserve second chances. Sometimes, they just don’t know that they’re doing something wrong. But I also think they have to know they’re getting a second chance.”

“So they know they won’t get another one?” Lan Xichen asked, his eyes almost shining now, as if he were the one who’d done wrong in the past. But then why would he be angry at Su She? And why wouldn’t Su She have mentioned it, when he never hesitated to complain about others’ faults?

Again, Nie Huaisang took a moment to think about it before shaking his head.

“A bit, but mostly not. It’s just that like I said, people don’t always know they’ve done something wrong,” he explained. “So what da-ge says you must do if someone acts in a bad manner is, you’ve got to let them know, and then they can actually understand what they’re doing wrong, and do better later. Oh! I guess that’s what I’m doing!” Nie Huaisang exclaimed, clapping his hands. Lan Xichen threw him a puzzled look, to which he answered with a smile. “Lan gongzi, that’s what I’m doing right now. I’m giving you a second chance!”

Lan Xichen paled so much so that it almost made his robes look colourful in contrast. Nie Huaisang’s enthusiasm fell quickly. He wondered if Lan Xichen was going to have another moment of complete panic, the way he’d done in Yunping City. Nie Huaisang braced himself to take the other boy’s hand again and hold it until he got over whatever was happening to him, since that had seemed to help the other time.

Before he could move, Lan Xichen took one big gasping breath, and forced a smile.

“I’m… I’m thankful for Nie gongzi’s… for your generosity,” he said in a trembling voice, as if he couldn’t breathe quite right. “I… I will try to be worthy of it.”

“So you’re going to help Su-xiong?”

Lan Xichen flushed and nodded shortly.

“Yes, if it matters so much to you. But in exchange, might I… would you let me make a request?”

“You can always ask,” Nie Huaisang replied, which even he knew was a less than polite answer, but Lan Xichen appeared so shaken still that he didn’t remark on it.

“Would you let me give you music lessons?”

“What? Why… You’ve suggested it before, and I’ve told you, my grades in your uncle’s classes are…”

“I wouldn’t make those lessons depend on the results of those lectures you attend,” Lan Xichen said a little too quickly. “I have told you before, I would like us to get along, since we both care about Mingjue, and who knows, it might be useful in the future if you know how to…” He paused, and took another deep, shaky breath. “I think it would be nice to spend time together like this. I know you haven’t particularly enjoyed my company so far, but…”

“I like when you do my homework,” Nie Huaisang generously protested. It really was the only pleasant part of their time together thus far, and he'd been pretty rude already so he had to say something nice. “And I know you’re busy, with the copying that I won’t talk about anymore, and you’re helping with teaching the little kids, and… and I know you don’t like me much, and you’re going to like me even less if I fail to learn anything from you.”

“If you don’t like it, we will stop,” Lan Xichen promised. “But I’d still like to try.”

Nie Huaisang huffed, unsure what to say.

Of course he had to spend more time with Lan Xichen. His future self had been so angry to hear he wasn’t making progress in getting Lan Xichen’s trust, and Nie Huaisang would like not to be shouted at again. At the same time, he was still quite angry at Lan Xichen about his treatment of Su She, and wouldn’t believe in the older boy’s promises until he saw them actually be put into action.

With that said, though, the perspective of learning music was… well, it certainly had appeal. Anything that wasn’t cultivation or martial arts had appeal. If he could learn the guqin, even just a little… it was what proper gentlemen did, right? They painted, and played music, and did calligraphy, and… 

And maybe now that Nie Mingjue was probably not going to die after all, perhaps Nie Huaisang could start dreaming again about a perfect future where he’d do nothing all day but be accomplished in ways that mattered to him as the elegant and useless second master of Qinghe Nie.

“Fine. If Lan gongzi really wants, I’m willing to try,” Nie Huaisang said, making it sound as if he were doing Lan Xichen a huge favour.

Maybe he was, because Lan Xichen gave him a real smile upon hearing that answer.

“Thank you, Nie gongzi. I appreciate you giving me this second chance.”

Nie Huaisang laughed awkwardly. He’d mostly said that as a joke, but apparently Lan Xichen had taken this second chance thing quite seriously. He really was such a weird person at times. Weird but… but perhaps not entirely awful. If he really taught Nie Huaisang music, if he really kept his word and started taking Su She’s side more… 

Nie Huaisang was too lazy to hold a grudge, especially if the other person made real efforts to change.

“Now,” Lan Xichen said, “let’s get started on those essays for my uncle, since we’re here. I think this might be quite fun, if we apply ourselves well.”

Nie Huaisang groaned, and dramatically let himself fall over the table.

He took it back. All Lans were awful, and they were out to get him and torture him to death, and he hated every single one of them.

[jaeminscoffee]

The midnight man | l.ty

Pairing- Lee Taeyong x reader

Mentions- Lee Donghyuck, Na Jaemin, Liu YangYang, Nakamoto Yuta, Seo Johnny, Kim Doyoung, Ten Lee, Lee Dong Wook.

Genre- Horror!au, angst, crack, part fluff.

Warning(s)- Evil entity!Taeyong, Manipulation, Major character death (lmao you'll actually punch yourself towards the end), sexual themes suggested, impulsive decision making, talks with religion.

Word count- 11.83k

Synopsis- 'Lust though pleasurable, innocent and vice, thee shall stay loyal to thy partner regardless of wants. To betray thy partner is to deceive thy people and hence the kingdom. Thou shall pay for thy soul shall remain wandering, driven by the desires but, shall not be able to feel the human love thou took for a grain of salt. And all who shall follow thy steps shall face the same wrath.'

@kpopscape

This story is pure work of fiction and therefore doesn't speak about the mentioned members' personality in real life. I, in no manner, am trying to encourage hate speech towards the members so please don't come at me. This story was written using a mix of a bunch of urban legends and few made up by myself and therefore it isn't going to be spoken about the same way as it is in google. I also worked really hard on this piece and it's by far, the longest story I've written so feedbacks would mean a lot!, also it could get a little boring since i took time to focus on the side characters too. Make sure not to repost my works and sign it off as your own because that's a little disheartening and mockful towards the writer. So all credits reversed to @jaeminscoffee 2020©®

If anyone here doesn't know the story behind the midnight game, then read on! Because I've described it throughout the story! Happy reading!

29/10, Thursday, 10:57PM

"We need to do something this halloween man, Y/n come on!" 

Your friends all collectively whined as you constantly kept rejecting their proposal. 

Halloween is bullshit. It's overhyped and in all honesty, childish. You'd rather prefer staying home than go house to house and make a fool out of your existence. Not to mention you were all past the age of trick or treating. And to add on top of that came all the sugar rush you'd all go through at the end of the day. "For the last time, Hyuck we're not dressing up like crewmates and going trick or treating. I've got other things to do for the love of god" you grunt, rubbing the scrunched up skin to soothe the pain at the temples. University has been acting up again and so has life. "If your 'other things to do' is binge watch high school musical then no, you have no other better things to do" Yangyang bites back. 

"It's just, I don't feel like it anymore, alright? It feels too weird going out asking for candies when we're all literally 19 and above. It's time to up the notch." you say, plopping down.

When Haechan called for an emergency meeting in pure 'among us' style back at the guys' dorm, you'd expected it to be about something along the lines of having to console Jaemin or someone for having been stood up on a date. What you didn't expect was to have the boys prepare an entire presentation on who'd dress up as what character from among us and who'd be the impostor, do a little play and then say 'red is sus' and then ask for candies. What made it worse was that you thought they were just pulling a prank on you when in all reality, they were dead serious which made you go, 'oh, oh they aren't pretending to be stupid, they're just in their original form.'

"It won't be that bad, doll. It's a genius plan if you ask me" Jaemim chirped in on the conversation finally after looking back and forth between you, Donghyuck and Yangyang caught up in a meaningless fight. "I don't see how any of this is genius, Jaem. If this plan's anything, it's stupid." You pull out your phone after making your way all the way to the headboard of Jaemin's bed. "How about we try out one of these creepy pasta games?" Yuta finally spoke up. Jaemin's brother, an early graduate, senior and of course a dear friend of yours. Yuta, despite the age difference between your classmates and you, had little to no trouble blending in with the tiny group of yours. Probably the only one who didn't behave like a toddler and the most sane one according to you. Yuta's been an amazing planner since junior year where you first met Jaemin, Yangyang and Donghyuck who then proceeded to introduce you to their senior friend group that consists of Yuta, Johnny, Doyoung; Donghyuck's cousin and Ten. You guys had a friendship the entire campus was envious of. But two year after you getting into the university, the seniors had to graduate. But that didn't stop all your bonds from staying as strong as ever. Not even after Ten got his posting in a town a little far away from the one you guys lived in. The distance didn't change anything between you guys and you were as close as you could ever get. 

"Creepypasta?" Donghyuck inquired, looking straight at the guy who aimlessly scrolled down the screen of his device as Yuta didn't even bother looking up while passing the confused boy a nod. Sitting up cross legged from his previous side sitting posture, Yuta showed his phone screen to Donghyuck, who immediately got surrounded by the other two while you stare at the oldest in the room, slightly intrigued by the idea. "Creepypasta's like these horror-related legends that have been copied and pasted around the Internet by people who're too bored for their own sake." you explain as Haechan took the phone out of Yuta's hand who agreed to your explanation. "I read some sick games that I kinda wanna try out and see for myself," he said, looking at you with expectations and then the rest who seemed too immersed in surfing the website. 

"Yuta, you of all people should know better than to think all these made up crap's real" you say nonchalantly. 

Yuta's a huge skeptic, and so were you. Which is why you got along really well despite the mentioned age gap. The night gatherings back at the boy's dormitory or the girls (in this case, girl, yours) would always end up in narration of on spot made up stories of all genre, mostly horror because apparently according to Jaemin 'Rom-com's overhyped, sci-fi won't be fun when you narrate it out loud, mystery can easily turn boring, comedy, meh i guess, but a good horror story narrated properly, -yes, like you, Haechan- while adding jumpscares here and there could actually result in y'all being too scared to use the bathroom on your own'. And yeah, you'd startle here and there but the stories weren't believable enough for you to actually be scared. On the other hand, Haechan and Jaemin were scaredy cats. Literal toddler's who're so gullible, you could literally tell them there was an alien invasion news flash two minutes ago and they'd be hiding under their bed. And then there's Yangyang, he just doesn't care. He goes along with the plans solely for the fun of it and for the other's' (Haechan and Jaemin) reaction. "That's the point. I don't" he shuffled around to shift closer to you,

 "Which is exactly why i want to try them out" 

Maybe it's the feline that crossed over his body, maybe it was the fact that his spirit just wasn't ready to leave the human realm yet. Maybe it's the mourning of his family or maybe it's him himself knowing full too well his potential was truly wasted due to the fast departure. Whatever it was, his spirit was definitely made restless. 

The world is a cruel place where harsh actions are always sugar coated by honey like words. It's how he knew the doings of his people were wrong that made him disappointed. The practices of the people, his people, were stupid, meaningless and only harmful to the human kind. They fend off the satisfaction of their almighty even if that means that there needs to be sacrification of their loved ones, their nemesis, or them themselves. And it was his ancestors fault for starting all these practices. 

Passed down generations from generations was the curse put on the first of their bloodline by the princess he'd defied to go out and be ruthless by disregarding his duties as a husband, a father, a member of the royal courts and as a human being.

Lee Dong Wook. The root of all evil, the main reason the males of the family line faced the same wrath as him, all cursing at him but one namely enjoying his role. The pagans, dating back to the roman times era had a very, let's say, interesting method of punishing. The said lords they'd worship, the people following the religions had a strong belief that nature is sacred and that the natural cycles of birth, growth and death observed in the world around us carry profoundly spiritual meanings. Gods and goddesses of life, or say, death or anything else that exists beyond life and death, they believed in all. 

The doings of his ancestors started off innocent. Sacrifices to the lords of goodness and tranquility, a peaceful life by the towns and outskirts, forgiveness for wrong doings and of course, happiness. It's how any religious rituals would go about and all were happy until the said betrayer of the group came in with that curse of his. 'The doings of his shall be repented for all the men following shall be the one paying it,' 

At first glance when the man returned back to his royals, there were little to no suspicions of a curse being casted on him. He seemed normal to his family, his people except for the occasional forcing people to do something they despised. And it wasn't just the men of the family instead, it was all. But mostly the men, unless the same sin were to be committed by the females. Obscure behaviors have been asked to follow starting exactly at midnight to the witch's hour be it hurting your loved one, your enemy, doing sinful things, allowing self to get manipulated and mostly, shortening their own life time in the human realm. It was all unexplainable. Why was he asking people to do things like this but most of all, why are they even listening to him? 

It wasn't until they discovered that Dong Wook, for one, was never the one who returned home. On a second note, he, 'Dong Wook' mainly only targeted the men whose doings were similar to his that was fueled by the same sin that had him going. Which only remained undiscovered. The curse was unbeknownst to all still, Dong Wook himself remained undiscovered. Or proposed by the elders of the community, his body remained undiscovered while his spirit roamed restless among the people. 

The pagan romanticists are, in most cases, ignorant of the “paganism” they praise—the redeemed paganism of Christianity depicted in the transfigured water of the True Well of Life. Wrestling with the Greek gods, however, leads us to see the hyper-anthropomorphization of the gods with one intention in mind—justification of sexual lusts and displays of power over the weak.

The oldest written account of the Greek deities is from Hesiod. His Theogony, literally “birth of the gods,” charts out the genealogies of the major and minor deities in two branches. The first set of gods come into existence without sex. The second set of gods come into existence with sex; often very graphic and violent sex and they continue to have violent sex after their birth. 

As Hesiod continues to describe the birth and death of the gods and great monsters of antiquity, the chaining of Prometheus to his eternal torment is described. So too is Hades’ rape of Persephone. Battle is depicted left and right, and “a terrible din arose from their dreadful wrath, and the work of power was revealed”. Lust, sex, and war reign supreme in Hesiod’s telling of the birth of the gods. Moreover, it is from this brutality and carnality that Hesiod gives them praise—only those with enough cunning and ambition are worthy of having the praise of the muses.

That the gods birthed through sexual lust are themselves lustful was not missed by Christians of the pagan community. Though St. Augustine received the Romanized version of the Greek myths, he goes to great lengths and laborious pains—using the pagans’ own prophecies —to highlight the moral depravity of the gods in Confessions and City of God.

His sin, after all the years, was lust and the want to dominate. 

'Lust though pleasurable, innocent and vice, thee shall stay loyal to thy partner regardless of wants. To betray thy partner is to deceive thy people and hence the kingdom. Thou shall pay for thy soul shall remain wandering, driven by the desires but, shall not be able to feel the human love thou took for a grain of salt. And all who shall follow thy steps shall face the same wrath.'

Oh, how lust was a dangerous feeling. 

29/10 continued. 11:28PM

It's how you all circled around in the living room like any other day that was comical to you. Instead of reading out your own made up story, it so happened to be the Creepypastas Yuta screenshotted for what he wanted to try out and see for himself. It wasn't even his idea to read them out. Haechan and Jaemin's 'too curious for their own sake' selves were the ones who wanted to read it out loud. "How about we sit in the order of who's gonna read out what and when?" Yangyang suggested, standing up from his seat. "Yuta read out the topics and we'll pick randomly." 

"No fun! Hold up," Haechan did some pretty exaggerated hand actions before getting up and heading to his room, well, Jaemin's room to do who knows what. "Okay? I'll get the candles!" Yangyang said, him getting out of his seat too, "And I'll go get the bible, jesus christ" and Jaemin was out of his seat too. You look at Jaemin in a funny manner, as though questioning him with your eyes if he's actually going to get a bible or not, "What? I don't want to die young, I'm too hot for that" he said, before following Haechan's steps to his bedroom, "Yikes, you aren't going to die dude" 

"Okayy, I'm back, make way bitches" Haechan dictated to which he earned a few groans and a smack on the ankle from Yuta, "Jaemin! I can't find the candles!" "It's beside the Reese's cups! Second rack inside of the refrigerator!" Jaemin says while walking back up to your tiny circle with an empyre comic in his hand and a cross pendant dangling off of his neck, "That's a bible?" you question. "Shush, do not question the power of avengers and fantastic four." Jaemin replies, holding the comic up close to his chest. You all collectively dismiss it with a concerned look directed towards the male, "Are we not going to question the fact that Jaemin keeps his candles inside the fridge?" 

"So here's what we're going to do, I've got these tiny papers which have numbers from 1 to 5,because we're five people and I've folded the paper into chits, once i toss it, we pick random sheets and the number you get is when your turn to read is, any objections?" Haechan explained, "Even if you have any, keep it to yourself because I don't care" he bites in again while juggling the folded sheets in a closed palm while the other supports his body by it being planted behind him. "Okay I'm back with the candles" Yangyang finally joins in on the circle, completing it, "You took that long to find one candle?" Yuta asks, "No i was eating the reese's cups" he replied, wiping his hand on your jean clad thighs earning him a loud whine of 'Eww that's disgusting man' and a little too far from soft smacks on his shoulder, "You piece of sh-" Jaemin starts, "Okay all, Focus!" Haechan cuts him off, ready to throw the bits onto the space between the five of you in front of the now lit candle (Thank you, Yuta), and so he tossed it a little high up from the ground, letting the paper fall of his palms and onto the floor while being cautious of not throwing it anywhere near the flame. 

"Now let's arrange ourselves according to the numbers, who's number one?" Haechan asks, Yuta raises his hands while pointing at where he's sitting, "I'm not getting up, y'all arrange yourself so that the person going second is to my right and the last person would be to my left", you all look at him nonchalantly, "What?" with a shake of your head, you proceed calling out numbers, "Number two?" Haechan shoves Yangyang back to take his place beside Yuta, "bitch." Yangyang seats himself beside Haechan, followed by Jaemin and lastly, you. 

"First, Yuta!" Jaemin slurs the elders name, receiving a death glare from his cousin. Nevertheless, Yuta cleared up his throat and switched his attention to his phone screen, "The first urban legend is from Japan, ironically." He states as a matter of fact, "It's called Aka Manto."

"Aka manto is an urban legend related to toilets—particularly those in elementary schools.-"

"Is that why you take a relatively long time inside of the bathroom? Are you, you know? Tickling pickles with Aka Mant-ow! Sorry!" Yangyang was wasted as he was tackled onto the floor by Yuta, while the rest of you cracked up, "Now let's get a little serious, come onnn!" Haechan whines. 

"This phenomenon is known all over Japan, with countless variations on the same theme. It usually takes place in a specific stall in a specific bathroom in the school. Usually it is an older or seldom used bathroom, often in a stall with an older style squat toilet.  Often the fourth stall is the cursed one, as the number four is associated with death." "I'm so glad our university has only two stalls," Jaemin chimes in, suddenly grasping the cross pendant. 

"Most stories follow this general pattern: while at school late in the evening, a student suddenly finds him or herself in desperate need of a toilet. The closest restroom available is one that is normally avoided by the students; it is older and less well-kept, separated from the rest of the school, and is rumored to be haunted. But with no time to search for a different restroom, the student enters. He or she does their business, and when they have finished, they reach for the toilet paper only to find that there is none. Then they hear a strange voice" Yuta looks up from the phone screen, "“Do you want red paper? Or blue paper?”" 

"None bitch, give me the classic white,"

With a roll of his eyes, Yuta continues, "If the student answers, Red paper, moments later, they're stabbed and sliced up violently that blood seeps out of them, painting the walls of the stall red and it soaks up into their body, making them appear red", "And if the student responds blue paper, then their blood is going to be sucked up dry, leaving them dead and blue-faced on the floor."

"But! If you try to outsmart Aka Manto, by replying to question with, i don't know, "Yellow paper" then too, dead is inevitable, you will be shoved onto the floor where the spirit is said hold your head down in the dirty toilet water until you drown and well, die" Yuta ends with a shrug of his shoulder, "Seems pretty bullshit to me" and you agree alongside, though, it could be a little creepy if the existing legend did turn out to be true. "Okay next!"

Yuta leans back a little more, pressing onto your side which you took as an invitation to lean on his shoulder. When you did so, all Yuta did was beam at you and wrap his arms around you to keep you close after handing the phone over to Haechan, "If you want me to start reading you have to give it up for me. Give me the grand welcome that i deserve" the lad said in a childish voice which again only earned him a few smacks and half hearted applauds. "So this one is apparently called, the one man hide and seek" though all narrations were being taken on a lighter note, the mood set in the room gave you enough space to picture the stories, added to that came the factor that Donghyuck knows exactly how to narrate what. 

"The "One-Man Hide and Seek", also known as the "One-Man Tag," is a ritual for contacting the dead. The spirits, which are wandering restless on the Earth, are always looking for bodies to possess. In this ritual, you will summon such a spirit, by offering it a doll instead of a human body." He lowers his voice while focusing solely on the screen.

"The warnings say that if you have any psychic abilities, you may feel unwell or be prone to accidents during the ritual." He raises his eyebrows, looking at all four of you in a curious manner. The things you need for this game seems lowkey sketch"

"One stuffed doll. It must have limbs, Rice, enough to stuff the doll full. One needle, and one crimson thread. One pair of nail clippers. One sharp-edged tool, such as a knife, glass shard, or scissors. One cup of salt water. Natural salt would be best. A bathroom, with a bathtub and some form of counter. A hiding place, preferably a room purified by incense and ofuda. There must be a TV in there." Haechan's face contorts with each requirement for the game. Letting out a defeated sigh, he hands the phone over to Yangyang, "Of all the stories i could've narrated, i got chosen for this and for what? Just to contact stupid poltergeists. Just play a ouija board and go" 

Giving Haechan a sympathetic pat on the back, he takes the device. Looking through the screen he cracks up a smile, "Alright, listen up closely. This is an Urban legend classic"

"The Slender Man-" a bunch of 'aahhs' of realization resonate through the room

"-is a supernatural creature that is described as appearing as a normal human being but he is described as being 8 feet tall and he has vectors or extra appendages that are described to be as sharp as swords. The creature is known to stalk humans and cause many disappearances. He is described as a shadow creature that has a missing face. The creature fits into many mythologies in legends from nations such as germany and celts which brings up the possibility that he could be real." Yangyang pauses to add in a little more life to his reading while all of your paid full concentration to him

"A man named victor Surge found this legend and made his own version of it which he called slender man. The slender man is not exactly evil according to mythology but victor Surge’s version shows him as an evil creature that stalks humans to kill. In mythology he was actually trying to save you from a painful death by taking you to the underworld early." he ends, placing the phone down in front of him, screen down. "Kills you to save you from a death and collectively shortens your lifespan? Seems legit to me" Jaemin chimes in while the rest of you chuckle whereas Haechan pouted at the device in front of his friend, "I should've gotten that story" 

"My turn!" 

"So, ahem-" Once the focus is all on him,Jaemin  looks down onto the device containing his part of narration. "- This is an urban legend about a girl named Daruma who was a young Japanese woman that died in the bathroom, which upon entering to take a bath, it stumbled and her forehead ended up against the edge of the tube, destroying it the brain, at the same time that her eye embedded in the tube , leaving it in consequence, one-eyed key and later , dead by bleed out."  "Oh god ouch" You hiss as though your forehead was the one that hit the edge, " Her appearance as described is apparently; black hair that is entangled, her clothes rotting and made shreds. She only has one eye. Her left eye is completely open and injected with blood." "That's gruesome," Yangyang adds, earning a nod from Jaemin who's eyes were still fixated on the screen. "And apparently there's a ritual that you can follow to summon her into your house for twenty four hours straight" At the silence, he continues. "I'll shorten it, so you have to begin it right before your bedtime, shed all your clothing and enter your bathroom, turn off all the lights and fill in your bathtub, climb into it while being seated facing faucet, close your eyes and start washing your hair while chanting "Daruma-san fell down" and keep chanting that until you're done washing your hair, and yeah don't open your eyes."

"If you did it right then you'll get this image of a japanese who'll slip and fall in front of you. Even if you hear a noise behind you, do not open your eyes, no matter what it takes, Ask out loud, 'why did you fall in the bathtub' and let that hang in the air. With your eyes still closed, get up and out of the tub and be careful not to slip and do not drain the tub. Go to your room, don't turn the lights on, shut the bathroom door closed and sleep. Wake up the next day and carry on with your day and you'll apparently feel her presence alongside you all day. She'll constantly try getting close to you, when she does, scream 'Tomare!',"

"That means stop," Yuta adds to which you all hum in understanding.

"To end the game, capture her gaze from over your shoulder and say 'Kitta' which means 'I cut you loose' while swinging your arm in a chopping motion. If you followed the procedures then you'll be rewarded but if not then, run. That's all it says here" He stops, looking a little shaken at how he created an image of it all in his mind. "They didn't say how to get rid of her if you fail following the procedure?" you ask

"No." Jaemin shrugs it off

"Alright boys, my turn"

30th October, Friday, 10:53PM

It's probably how you read out your part of story telling, or it was how he felt the game was a little too unrealistic that had Yuta hooked onto the urban legend. 

Yuta found himself at his dorm doing a little more research on the midnight ritual. A backpack already consisting of all the elements required for the game, 'could it really be played just by one person?'. Whatever it was, he really wanted to do the game. He wanted someone to accompany him, of course. But knowing his friend group, not many would be ready to play it alongside. Doyoung was probably busy preparing his resumes for his job interviews. Johnny's all the way back in Chicago for a little family time. Ten was a little too far from your town so he'd feel bad calling him all the way over just to perform a probably demonic ritual. Donghyuck and Jaemin are out of the question, they'd obviously say no. Yangyang has a company party to attend as the heir. And you had to study for your test on Monday so he didn't really feel like disturbing you though, he did inform you that he was going out to have some fun and that you could join him anytime. Closing his laptop with a sigh, he gets up and walks over to where his bag was sprawled across the floor, picks it up and makes his way out of the studio apartment like dormitory after grabbing his car keys. 

Not like he believed it was real, it's incase if the legend turns out to be even the slightest of reality, he wasn't going to get his dormitory haunted, instead opting to perform it at the house he grew up in, his childhood house. That was left abandoned ever since they moved out months before his younger brother was born after his father had an episode still unknown to him inside the place. It was convenient enough to perform the ritual in and no one lives there anymore, and it was just a few minutes from where his house was anyways. 

Reaching the place and swinging the backpack over his shoulder, he makes his way into the surprisingly still intact house. Not much time to waste, looking around, Yuta slowly made his way up the wooden stairs, the wood creaking with each step he took to prove the existence of this house dated long back. The guest room shut lock from lack of human souls even when they used to live there. The paintings still hung off of a single screw, nostalgia hitting him straight as he recalled the one time he was playing catch with a neighbor's kid and ended up breaking the glass frame. The wallpaper's adhesive seemingly had gotten weaker from how they had started coming out from nooks and crannies of the walls. The place, without doubt, looked a little creepy but nonetheless felt homely. 

Switching on all switches from the main controller that was in the control room right by the end of the hallway, the entire darkness was replaced with light as the bulbs shockingly still seemed to function. The warm white colour of the lights took Yuta all the way back to his growing up years, missing all the fun he'd had there and all the memories he'd created. He, though grew up mostly by himself from how busy his parents were on the weekdays and sometimes the weekends, missed them more now that they live far off in Japan with his mother's family. Especially now that he was in the place they spent the most time together in. Shaking his head, he had no trouble navigating his way to his childhood room. Where he set the bag down.

He reached out to his back pocket to get out his phone, switching it on as the screen illuminated, 11:28PM, the screen read. To kill the time, Yuta set up all the items required in place to proceed the ritual smoothly. He pulled his laptop out of the backpack once he was all set to maybe watch something on the internet. It being other peoples attempt at the ritual he was about to perform.

11:55PM.

Yuta inhaled, having only a few more minutes until he had to proceed. He recalled your words,

"Alright boys, my turn" You snatch the phone out of Jaemin's hand who seemed really immersed in finding out more about the legend he just read out about, earning a pout from him. "I was reading" he let out in a whiny tone immediately going stoic after receiving a 'do i care' look from your end. "Okay, so the story I'm going to read out is called the midnight man, or the midnight game" You scroll back and forth through the pages the oldest of the group screenshotted. "From what he's gathered, there's not much backstory, but apparently it's a ritual or mostly a punishment that the pagan's use to punish the betrayer of the group who failed to stay loyal to their lords or the group. One of the people of the religion will summon the midnight man to an abandoned house where they lock up the said betrayer who'll then be put through god knows what by the midnight stranger," You stop to look up from the screen to look at each of your friends before letting out a sigh. 

"My take on this though is that it's highly impossible since the rules here state that once you start the ritual you aren't allowed the leave the place until the game is completely done unless you want the midnight man to follow you around for as long as you live, so unless the midnight man actually favored the pagans, there's no way they could punish the betrayer without one of the loyal ones passing away along with the one being punished" you state, "But what if, it's the midnight man that they preach? You know, like, they could be praying the midnight man" Haechan adds in a point which seemed to make sense, "That's possible too" 

"Why would someone preach an evil entity? That's so sketch" Jaemin asks perplexed. "They did a lot of sketchy things back in the days, Jaem. I wouldn't question it," Yuta chirps. "Is there any other backstory given about the midnight man?" Yangyang finally speaks up, "Well not really, but when i was taking screenshots of this it apparently started with a curse on someone whose identity is unknown to most. There was no such thing as the midnight game or ritual until the said bewitched man came back into town. I only know up to there, but there are high chances that he's probably the origin of the ritual." Yuta explains. "Why does Y/n get the best always, that's so unfair"  Haechan's dramatic self whines while leaning onto Yangyang who rolled his eyes but nonetheless threw his hands around the latter's shoulder, "Anyways, the procedure for the ritual is given here."

"You need one candle, a lighter or a match box or anything that ignites fire, a piece of paper, something to write with, a sharp object, it could be a pin, it just needs to be something sharp enough to draw blood, a wooden door, and salt for protection-" You read out, "Now why the fuck would they need blood," Jaemin asks, shaken up. "That's for them to know and us to find out" 

"Here's how the invitation for the midnight man goes. Begin prior to midnight," 

Yuta stood up from his bed, and walked up to the backpack on the floor, picking out the papers he'd brought along and took out a blunt pencil. 

"Write your full name- first, middle, and last- on the piece of paper with your writing implement." He wrote syllable by syllable, Nakamoto Yuta. "Prick your finger with the pin and squeeze until a drop of blood appears. Dot the blood on the paper and allow it to soak in. Turn off every light in your home." He took out the small safety pin he brought along from his jean pocket, pressing his fingers hard and pricked into the skin as hard as he could, keeping in mind to not draw too much blood. Yuta let the droplet fall right in the space between his last name and first. 

"Place the paper with your name and blood on it in front of the closed wooden door. Light the candle using the matches or lighter and place it on top of the paper. If you are using a taper, make sure it is placed in a candle holder." He walks up to the door and places down the paper with his name and blood on it, with the half melted scented candle he brought along. Yuta took out his phone once again, 11:59. "Knock on the door 22 times. The final knock must occur precisely when the clock chimes 12am. Open the door; then blow out the candle and close the door. Relight your candle immediately." He starts to knock on the door, drumming on the dusty wood, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22.

He checks the time once again, 12:00AM.

He leans down to pick the glass jar containing the candle, relighting it, 

"I welcome you."

Taeyong loved the tiny creatures in the human realm. They were so naive and so, stupid but weirdly smart at the same time that made playing with them ten times more interesting. The callings from them, or the way they say it in the human realm, summoning the spirit was the only way he could gain access to enter the place. Summoning wasn't even necessary. Saying his name out was more than enough for him to go up to you. Midnight man, midnight stranger, midnight visitor, pagan's god, What not had the human's named him. 

The only one besides his ancestor of said curse that enjoyed the power of punishing people was Taeyong himself. The youngest of the bloodline and the freshest of pagan's spirit, he loved the power he had. Sure he had no access to love, instead besides lust and range he felt nothing, maybe amusement too, but none other than that and he seemed perfectly fine with that. Human's always seeked lust more than love either way so he found no problem in being void of feeling a vulnerable emotion. Instead, he found love pathetic. Watching human's from where he lived, he'd seen all from men and women seeking love by going to heights of trouble only to waste away your remaining life with one partner. Leeching off of pleasure at times when you had a significant other. He always got a hearty laugh from all of that. According to him, if you want someone, get them. Instead of tailing them and trying to be a goody two shoes, just make them yours in a way that's inevitable for them to fall for you. Control how they feel. Easier said than done since he was the only one with the ability to do so, 'how fucking pitiful'.

So when he saw you and your small group of friends discussing about him, laughing at all the assumptions you made along the way, he wanted each of you to himself. "My take on this though is that it's highly impossible since the rules here state that once you start the ritual you aren't allowed to the leave the place until the game is completely done unless you want the midnight man to follow you around for as long as you live, so unless the midnight man actually favored the pagans, there's no way they could punish the betrayer without one of the loyal ones passing away along with the one being punished" you're smart and that was intriguing to him. He liked the way you thought of things and the male beside you too, you both seemed to take tales of him as a grain of salt and that, besides angering him, made him feel the want to prove himself to you. Taeyong found the other three cute, seemingly scared of him just the way he liked it. 

His ancestor's who held the same power as him, the curse actually, came to be known as said lord because of their power of manipulation and to inject in their worst nightmare into their minds that had the people divide themselves into groups. One that believed the power they had was for the good and considered them to be their god, their savior. And the other being the one's scared of their power and the fear that the same faith would bestow upon them that had them pray for forgiveness for sins they never committed. So your friend had the point a little, but it was inaccurate. They believed him. Believed Taeyong and feared his power. He loved people bowing down in front of him, eyes trembling and body shivering. It gave him a sense of dictatorship. And he had set his mind to have both of you non-believers fear him. 

Having been brought up with little to no love, Taeyong followed down the same path as his great grandfather. Not having enough time to feel the vulnerable emotion, he chose to go down the path of pleasure and power play. His powers though, seemingly stronger than the past generations, probably due to the fact that he was young, ruthless and free of care. He could make himself appear physically in the human realm in any shape and form, though he always preferred to go in his original, but less scarier form. His visuals were out of the world. He didn't have to scare people to make them obey, instead all he had to do was pretend to be there and just be himself and that only made humans seem even pathetic to him. 

"Relight your candle immediately"

12:01PM, The main event. 

"Keeping your candle in hand and your salt and matches or lighter close by, begin to move about your home. Should your candle go out, you must relight it within the next ten seconds.  If you are successful, continue moving about your home. Do not stop moving until 3:33 am. If you are unsuccessful in relighting the candle, immediately surround yourself with a circle of salt.  Remain inside the circle until 3:33 am. At 3:33 am, it is safe to stop moving or to step outside your circle of salt. You may also turn on the lights. The game Is Over."* You conclude. Hissing slightly at the sudden pain by your shoulder that was exposed from the minimalistic clothing you'd adorned, the stranger looking over it all smirked to himself. 'Got it'

Yuta opened the door again, mindful to keep his phone back in his jean pocket along with the lighter and of course, the salt be brought along. Starting from the end of the hallway, nothing seemed to change except now, the eerie silence was starting to bother him, 'Just 3 hours to go,'. He didn't miss a single corner, walking room to room, corner to corner, mindful to stay inside all the way. The temperature of certain rooms seemingly lesser than others. A cold pocket. 

"There are few warnings too," you swipe the image to go to the next one, "At 3:33 am, the Midnight Man will leave your home. After he has left, you may safely end the game. Do NOT turn on any lights during the game.  Do NOT use a flashlight during the game. Do NOT go to sleep during the game. Do NOT use a lighter instead of a candle during the game." Check. He had a lighter on him just to relight the candle anyways. 

Taeyong, following the guy seemed to be quite impressed by his bravery. Not even the slightest of shaken up as he proceeded to walk about the villa. That's good, no slip ups and he seemed too good to mess anything up either ways, and that bored the entity. Where's the fun if he just succeeded? 

To avoid the candle from going off at the sudden flickering, Yuta covered it up the best he could with his hands and checked around whether any windows were left open. Darkness engulfed the surrounding all of a sudden, the lad being taken aback, 10 seconds. He rushed to take out his lighter, 9,  pressing the button repeatedly to ignite the flame only to get a small blue flame instead, huh? 8, running back full speed happy that he was in the premises of where his backpack is, he pulled the spare lighter, a brand new one out of the side pocket, 7, repeating the same process of flicking the button over and over, 6 until a bright orange flame engulfed the dark room, 5, he immediately grabbed his candle from besides the bag, 4 reaching in close by the wick, burning himself slightly in 3-, the process. Yuta heaves out a sigh of relief, while the spirit laughs at the frantic boy. 'He's cute.'

For a breaker, he took out his phone, looking at the time that seemed to pass by quickly throughout the ritual, 2:47 AM. A little more while to go until he'd finally get it over with. "Do not attempt to provoke the Midnight Man during the game." You ended for the nth time that night, "Which idiot would-" Yangyang asks "Haechan-" Jaemin pretends to cough while blurting out his best friends name, the mentioned feigning offence while tilting his head to the side, tongue poking at the insides of his cheek. "Seems like that's pretty much it." you shrug while the older guy beside you leaning back on both of his hands, "I kinda wanna try that out" Yuta raised his eyebrows at you. "Halloween night? We all go together" you chirp in, both of you whipping your heads to look at the three perplexed boys. "Uh, I have to water my fish on halloween? She'd get pretty thirsty". Jaemin's eyes wandered about, coming up with an excuse, "And I gotta walk my rock yo, physical fitness." Haechan adds, "Can I bring my fish along? She could use some exercising". 

"Come on guys, it won't be that bad, we'll stick in a group?" You pleaded, trying your best to muster up the cutest puppy eyes. "I'm down" Yangyang shrugs. You do a tiny seal clap, looking expectedly at the other two, Yangyang and Yuta doing the same. "We stick together?" Haechan asks, to which the three of you nod your head, 

"Alright then we're down too"

[3:04AM 30th, October. ]

A few more minutes left until he'd succeed, Yuta was starting to grow tired of constantly roaming. He'd usually not the one to wear out that quickly, but for a reason unknown to him, he felt utterly sleepy, tired, hungry and just wanted to lie down. He decided to take a small break, the candle still light, dangerously flickering but yet still intact. Yuta sat by the foot of the stairs as Taeyong looked at him with the same cocky smirk on his face, contemplating whether to pop out or not. 'Maybe let's make it subtle? '

Taking up the form of a black humanoid figure, Taeyong makes his way towards Yuta whose eyes seem to be dropping low with each passing second. Upon hearing the sounds of footsteps Yuta looks up, a hand on his forehead from the sudden throbbing headache. Letting out a loud yell at the figure in front of him that disappeared almost immediately, he rushed to grab his lighter again. The sudden temperature drop made him shudder. Taking out the new lighter, he pressed the button again and again as the time limit started to exhaust, 6, at a successful fire, he reached for his candle, only for the flame to go off when it neared the candle wick. "what the fuck.." 5, "come on.." he stated in a rushed voice, sure that he just saw whatever he saw once again. Finally flicking the button one last time, he succeeded in lighting the candle. 

Contrary to popular belief, the midnight man didn't always radiate death. Sometimes he just messes around with the humans because the underworld could get a little boring. And as the curse states death and wrath is only to be faced by those who sinned and the boy playing right now seemed to be of no threat. All Taeyong wanted to do was get the guy to believe in his existence. Skeptics were like an insult to him. So if he had to prove himself and his existence on his own, then so be it. He gets some pretty good experience out of it anyways. 

Yuta stood up immediately, remembering the warning's you'd stated, "Do not stop moving until 3:33am", walking back up the stairs, he took out his phone to check the time, 3:29am. Almost. 

The same sounds of footsteps resonated from behind him, Yuta took an immediate U-turn. Going back down the stairs and roaming the empty, dark hallways, making sure to enter each and every room, keeping a mental note to thank his parents for having a slightly confusing infrastructure. The wax was almost completely out in the glass jar, but he had to hang in there for a little longer than 2 more minutes when he felt something brush his shoulder, much similar to how a friend would drape their hands over his/her friends' shoulder. He could've brushed it off as anything if it weren't for the sharp pain he felt right after the feeling of someone touching him. He's getting the proof he wants. Almost as if someone pulled his hoodie, Yuta stumbled back, letting out a shaky scream, tripping on his own foot, landing butt down onto the floor, catching a glimpse of the same humanoid figure he'd been seeing. He needs to get out of there. 

Stumbling back onto his feet, Yuta bolted it upstairs, grabbing his phone once again to check the time, 3:32am. Reaching his room, he set the candle down right beside him, vary of the windows and doors, starting to back his backpack, the sounds of rushed footsteps running start to where he is ringing through his ears, hands shakingly packing his bag. Keeping the candle closeby, contemplating whether to draw a salt circle or not since there was only less than half a minute left when the same humanoid figure neared him with fast footsteps, reaching by the door frame with a loud agonizing scream only to disappear immediately. 

Not realising the stress of tears flowing and the tresses sticking to his forehead, Yuta looked at the door frame in a perplexed yet confused manner. What the fuck was that. 

Taking out his phone once again while grabbing his backpack, laptop and the car keys in the other hand, 3:34 am. He'd made it through. After reaching the front door, not even bothering to close it, he rushed to his car, starting it before pulling up your contacts, seeing the messages he'd never sent you. 

Yuta san 1:39am: The boys said they won't make it tomorrow, it's gonna be just you and i

Y/nleE 1:43am: Why not? 

Yuta san 1:45am: Dk, they said they aren't interested. So come near xxxx tomorrow at 11:30. I'll meet you there. 

Y/nleE 1:48am: Coolsies. 

Yuta san 3:38am: Y/n don't come here, gather the boys and meet me by Haechan's dorm tomorrow. The game's no fucking joke. 

And with that he started driving away quickly to his dormitory, not once looking back at the house to see a human. Or a human like figure standing there, A bright red hair standing out due to his blood drained looking pale skin. A smirk on his face

Message not delivered. 

31st October, 22:37PM, 2020.

Today was a weird day, 

Having all plan's set two days before, you'd make sure to keep yourself ready for whatever you and your friend group were supposed to do today. You finished up all your assignments earlier that day to keep yourself free from afternoon and on. 

The weird part was that, no matter how much you kept your phone for charge, each time you tried calling one of the guys to ask for the sudden bailing out on plan, which is a shocker because they've never done that, your phone kept switching off. You could've gone all the way to their apartment, well, dorm, but you decided to wait until later to do so. Maybe a few minutes before leaving to the place Yuta texted you so that they'd have no choice but to come along. Since your last time texting with Yuta, you hadn't heard from him. Granted, he did text you quite late at night saying he's going to do god knows what and to tell you of the sudden plan change, but you hadn't heard from him after, that being weird since he literally lives a floor below yours, he could've come any moment but nope. You kept a mental note to tell him off later. 

You took out your phone once again to check if they'd sent any messages or missed calls only to have an empty chat box, other than that of your other friends that is. Added on top of that came the constant pricking feeling on your shoulder blades from the last day you hung out with the boys. The pain would appear randomly and it would be hurtful enough to draw blood, which is weird considering the fact that you kept yourself away from all sharp objects and had a full sleeve covering the area. 

One stone, two birds. Taeyong's motto. 

After having interfered with your phone, your friends, trying to keep you away from them until you'd go through the same as your other skeptic partner, Taeyong made sure that Yuta would be sick enough after returning home to keep him from even getting up from his bed. Temporary paralysis. Your other friends, of course they tried reaching out to you, only for him to cut the service to keep you away from them for a while. They got easily distracted from you ignoring their texts as they were focused on reaching out to Yuta. 

Unknown: Hey Y/n, I'm Yuta's friend. He told me you aren't replying to his texts so asked me to do so. 

Y/n: Who's this? 

Unknown: Oh! I'm Taeyong! A close friend of well, your friend XD. 

Y/n: Nice to meet you, Taeyong. I'm Y/n but it seems like you already know that. 

Unknown: Yeah :). Yuta's on his way here and told me that you'd be joining us? Are you nearby?

Y/n: He left? No, actually, I'm just leaving my place. I guess I'll meet you there? 

Taeyong: Meet ya :)

[23:22PM, 31st October, 2020 continued. ]

Hailing a cab to the address Yuta had sent you with his friends, Taeyong's number saved on your phone in case the later won't pick up, you left your place. Still feeling a little eerie from how Yuta just decided to leave you behind when he could've just offered to go together, which is pure Yuta style. He probably wasn't in the best of moods but he could've at least texted you letting you know of his departure from the apartment building. 

The journey to the given address didn't take that long surprisingly. A little towards the outskirts of the town in a much aloof part but nonetheless, doable. It's not like you'd be alone there any ways. Paying for your fare, you took your purse, brushed your fingers through your hair to tame it a little from the ride, and turned towards the building, jumping slightly at the bright haired guy sitting by the front porch. Adorning the simplest of fit, a black knee slit jeans, with a graphic tee and a black leather jacket with a chain or two. He, in no doubts, was ethereal. His pale skin stood out the most in the street light if you could call it that and his lips seemed a little drained of blood, eyes hollow yet captivating when he looked up from the dirt below him to you who still stood yards away. Smiling, he got up, making his way towards after brushing off the invisible lint from his jeans, "Hey" he offered you his hands for you to shake upon reaching you. "Hey..? Taeyong, right?" 

Wanting so badly to smirk, he only looked down with a silent snicker, looking up immediately to not look suspicious, "Yeah, Y/n..?" you nod in response, shuddering from the coldness of his skin, "Have you been out for too long? You're freezing," you exclaim, looking at him with a guilty expression and taking a mental note to hit Yuta for not arriving earlier. "Oh no, i just reached a minute or two prior to your arrival." you nod in understanding, withdrawing your hands from his hold, "By the way, Yuta called me a few minutes ago, telling me that he wouldn't make it and to just carry on" Taeyong said, looking at you with his eyebrows raised at your confused, innocent expression, his humane form threatening to change into his original form. "What? Why? It's like,-" you look down at your wrist watch, "11:50! And he's bailing out now?", smiling at you in fake sympathy, he replied, "he said he had other things to take care of," "But you said he'd left the place and was on his way here?" you ask, hands on either sides of your hip, "Last minute plan changes" Taeyong shrugs, "Anyways, let's get inside?" 

He pointed towards the front door with both his hands, gesturing you to go forward first. And so you do. You offer him a smile before turning your back towards him and making your way towards the old house, the door seemingly open. Climbing up the stairs with caution, humming at the sound of dried leaves crunching up below your feet with each footstep. Taeyong stood behind where you two had introduced yourselves for a few minutes, a few more minutes. "Taeyong? Are you not coming?" you turn around slightly, looking over your shoulder at lad standing still, "Yeah, I'm coming" he replied soullessly, still standing his group until he saw you open the door ajar and then took his first step forward. Not bothering to go too quick. 

The insides were simple, very very simple yet magnificent. The flooring seemed to be that of wooden finishing that creaked with each step you took, implying that of how old the infrastructure must be. You look around in awe, clutching at the sling bag that you carried along. You go corner to corner, not bothering to look behind to see if the friendly stranger was hot on your trail, instead seemingly being captivated by the olden time-ish wallpapers and paintings and antique pieces that the wall adorned. Taeyong on the other hand was just growing restless, 4 more minutes until he could play his next victim, he was growing frantic. He did follow you inside, instead opting to walk the opposite direction as you, towards where he'd hidden the paper with your crimson blood and name written on it, contemplating whether to just tear it and carry on proving his existence to the female in the room. 3 more minutes, he bit into his lips, "Taeyong? Look, i found something!" He heard you scream.

Puffing out a breath of frustration, Taeyong replied "Coming!" and he walked out of the room, hands in his pocket towards where you stood by the bottom of the stairs, looking at the lighter in your hand that seemed relatively unused. "I found lighter down here" you look at him with a tiny pout evident on your lips, looking back and forth between the candle and the guy, puzzled. "It must be some thugs who came here to smoke or something" He shrugged it off, taking the lighter out of your hand. It must be you over analyzing things but without a single light turned on in the villa with only your flashlight acting as a source of light, but Taeyong looked even more lifeless than before. Eyes dark ebony and dangerous, somehow intimidating, lips adorning a bright shade of red in contrast to how you saw it the first time, and his aura had seemingly darkened. 2 more minutes. You shake your head and walk up the stairs and towards a room which has it's door wide open. Choosing to lay out your things there, you stretch out a few stiff limbs, "So, me and the boys were planning on doing the midnight game, you know. One of those stupid creepy pastas? I can't believe all of them bailed out on me last minute," you speak particularly to no one in the room, assuming that Taeyong was listening to you, whose ears only perked up at the words midnight and stupid. Midnight. 00:00Am. The devil smirked to himself. Midnight, at last. 

"I mean, Yangyang, Jaemin and Haechan came off as no shock to me- they're the other friend's by the way, but Yuta, it's weird for him to at least not let me know." You keep going, scrolling through your phone screen, only for it to load suddenly, No internet access. Sighing, you pull out offline downloads, "Did he tell you anything else? Like if he's feeling unwell or something?" you ask, letting the question float in the air, waiting for a reply. Getting known even after the passing of a few seconds, a minute too maybe, "Taeyong?" you stand up from the bed, well, the bed frame and make your way outside, "Tae?" you look left and right, searching for any moving soul when you feel your phone vibrate in your hands, and the sound of notification resonates through the eerie silence. You look down at the device in your hand, one new message from Yuta san and an immediate black out of the screen. Impossible. 

You remembered full well charging your phone to a hundred percent before leaving your dorm. Hell, you even kept it on airplane mode your whole cab ride. Shrugging it off, you keep your phone beside your bag and then proceed to go out to look for your new friend? acquaintance? You didn't even know how to classify him as yet. "Tae, if you're trying to scare me, I'll give you heads up, it doesn't work on me." you chuckle, walking to the room beside the one you were previously lounging in. "It's past midnight and we both seem too uninterested to try out whatever we were supposed to anyways, how about we just head out?" you start, looking down at your wrist watch which displayed 00:09 on the screen in neon green. "I mean, it was stupid enough that my friends and i even decided to try it out knowing it's some made up shit to scare some seven olds, probably" you continue, feeling as though you're talking to the walls at the lack of response. "Taeyong, come on. I'm growing bored." 

"Tae-" "You know, the way you logicised made it seem like you're smart enough. It was impressive," you hear his voice, a little too hoarse and plain for your liking, he continued before you could muster up a reply, "But seems like you aren't all that smart after all, seeing how you believed a total stranger and are even ready to spend time with him." you look around the place, only hearing his voice but his figure to be nowhere near you, "Taeyong, what are you talking about?" you head out of the room you currently stood in, jogging to catch his voice.

"It was a little angering you know? The way you spoke about me and my followers, it was disrespectful. And I could've taken you then and there, but what to do. You seemed too cute to take your soul without a small game? Is that what you humans call it?" You feel breathing fanning the nape of your neck and a cold air following it right after, making you turn back, "Your friend got his share of play" you whip your head forward, finally seeing the male in front of you, standing by the door frame of a connective hallway, you swore you felt his presence behind you though. His infamous smirk still adorning his features. Figure a little more towering and intimidating. If you thought he couldn't have seemed more lifeless a few minutes ago, then his appearance now only seemed to prove you wrong. "So it's only fair if you got your part of the play too, right?" 

"Taeyong, you're only making your existence weird for me, let's go if you're done." He only tilted his head in amusement, "Oh it's only about to get weirder, darling" You turn back to face a blood red shot eyed male, well, Taeyong, eliciting a gasp from you, you look over your shoulder to see the place where Taeyong stood a blink of eye ago. "How..did-" His chest visibly vibrated from the hearty laugh he let out, "How did I do that?," you step back as his voice dropped even lower, only for you to bump your back into something rigid, something cold, making you let out a yelp as Taeyong seemed to stand still in front of you, "I can do a whole lot of things," you feared turning back, the insides of your stomach hurdling around as whatever was behind you reached their arms up and held you still in a vice grip. "Y/n!" you hear a voice scream from downstairs, "Y/n! Come out! We need to get out of here!" you recognize the voice as that of your friends, Yuta's. 

You squirm hard to loosen the person's grip on your shoulder. Once succeeding, you bolt down the stairs, skipping a few steps, tripping now and then but nevertheless making it down without landing face first as you hear Taeyong's laugh thunder throughout the place. You take a turn to reach the front door, where Yuta stood in all his glory. You immediately run into his embrace, ignoring how his body seemed just as cold as the one you felt from whatever Taeyong was, "Y-yuta, he's sick, let's go, we need to go!" you try pulling Yuta's body a little closer to the exit, only for him to stand his ground, wrapping his hands around you even tighter as he caressed your hair, "Oh, Y/n.." your body goes stiff as your eyebrows furrowed in confusion, that sounded nothing like your best friend, "Yuta..?" 

You try pulling your head away from the nape of his neck to look at him, "No darling, it's 'stupid made up shit''," his body vibrated once again from the laughing against yours, as you feel yourself growing scared each passing second. You try mustering up all your strength to bring it to his sides and push him away when you feel a plush yet cold muscle press against your neck, only for it to go futile. "Still made up for you?" you feel a sharp pang of pain flow through your nerves, result of him biting the skin in a manner far too away from soft, "Taeyon-g- lord--midnight man, whatever you are.. I'm --sorry" you say in a hushed voice, scared that if you voiced out a little louder, he'd pounce at you. You feel him nibble at the soft skin, making you whimper, "Oh no, darling, do not apologize. Your doings really intoxicated me. Kept me entertained for a while." 

"But now, it's angering me to know a feeble creature as you kept poking fun at my people. At me. And I want no more than to turn you into something belonging to me. Who'd worship me the way 'my people' do." He whispered against the area, lifting his head up and leaning down, making sure not to let go of his grip on you, "oh no, pretty girls aren't supposed to cry. Tsk tsk, what is this, Y/n" His eyes bore holes onto the crown of your head. "Look at me." he acted on making you look at him faster than you could, "Could you beg for forgiveness? Give me a piece of yourself?" he inched closer to your face, a small snarl escaping his throat at your scared and trembling figure, "Or you could just be my queen and come below with me, and you'd not have to cut down your lifespan" 

"Are you turned on by all of this, Y/n? Or is it out of fear?" you let out a shaky breath as the tip of his nose touched yours, "Because i can smell you from here and oh," he let out what sounded like an animalistic growl, "Is it delicious.". "Taeyong, please let me go.. I'm sorry. I really am, just please don't hurt me,-" you let out a whine of pain when you feel his other hand knot his fingers in your locks and pull it back with much aggression, immediately planting his lips onto your trembling once, bearing his fang like teeth into plush flesh to draw out blood, earning a loud high pitched scream from your end as you try your best to push him away, futile once again. His hands tighten their grip at the waist while his other hand pulled your head further back, latching onto the firm skin of your neck, treating it with the same aggression, puncturing through the skin with his teeth as your hands go limp beside your body, nevertheless, letting out a whimper from the harsh treatment, which, in all your defense couldn't be help since you still are a human with all emotion any human would feel, that including lust. You feel his cold lips curve into a smirk against where blood flowed out, lapping it up with his tongue as you feel your vision blacken the more as time went by. 

"Oh darling you're no different than me.."

4th November, 19:48Pm, 2020.

"She's awake!!" you blink multiple times to get accustomed to the blaring lights in the room, a comfortable white filling your eyesight. You move your head towards the side to find all your friends sprawled out on each side. A drip connected to your hands making you squint in confusion, "Can you hear us, Y/n?" you feel your shoulders being shaken as jolt, "Hey? Yeah i can hear you, why won't i be able to?" you ask, confusion still laced in your voice, "Because you hadn't responded to us the last time we called you. And because you've been laying dead the past few days" Jaemin spoke up first, earning a smack from his elder brother 

"Why didn't you stop when we screamed your name the other day, Y/n? You literally weren't breathing the day we found you" Yangyang inquired and stated, "And why did you leave us all on seen??" Haechan added, "Most of all, where were you even??" Yuta spoke. You hiss at all the questions being thrown at you as you try sitting up by the inclined hospital bed, "Screamed? Didn't respond? I left you on seen? That's highly impossible and where was i??" you stare blankly at the plain wall in front of you, trying to remember any such episode. The more you strained your head, the more clueless you grew. Your throat starts to grow dry so you turn your neck to check if there are any water bottles nearby, only for a sharp pain to flow through your nerves at a particular spot in your throat. You yelp at the sudden pain, "I'll get the doctor," Haechan rushed outside, when you reached out to touch your neck, feeling it with the tips of your finger, feeling in the swollen skin, the dried up blood when it all hit you. Your eyes grow wide as you start shaking, for it to be first noticed by Yuta, "Yuta, that house! The game, it's all real! I saw hi-him, his name! I swear he's real!" growing concerned at your sudden frenzy behavior, Yuta kneeled down beside your bed, holding your non-injected hand giving it a comforting behavior. 

"Calm down, angel. Tell me point by point," he encouraged you to take in a long breath, as Haechan rushed in along with the doctor whose face was half covered with a doctor's mask, "Doctor, he-he's probably out for me, you need to get me far away from here! Please" you beg with your eyes stinging with all the tears, "No one's going to get you from here, Ms. Y/n, you're safe here" You pause your frantic actions for a while. That voice sounded a little too familiar for your liking, making you think you're over analyzing everything again. The doctor gestured to your friends to leave you up to him to have a doctor to patient talk. All of your friends nodded in understanding, giving you one last reassuring smile before collectively leaving the room. 

The doctor, once after making sure that everyone left, removed his mask to reveal the oh so familiar smirk and the hair protector, rustling the same, familiar bright red hair with the same familiar pale fingers of his. Your eyes widen, mouth falls wide ajar

"Oh wait, there's one last warning, Do not assume that the Midnight Man has left your home for good at the conclusion of the game. I'm for real done now" You laugh at your friend who snatched the phone away from you,

"Pleasure to meet you again, darling"

[humanlighthouse]

The Adventures of Bastard Zhang

A conversation between @s1utspeare and i that we have decided to gift you all :) prompted by my liveblogging of Mystic Nine and the Zhang naming traditions

humanlighthouse

I have had this thought since the very first moment i read their names on tumblr, but i think it's the first time i actually write it out: qishan rishan makes me wonder if we have a rilin somewhere.

Can you imagine

Tiny XG with big bright eyes

OR

Tiny XG with like. The WORST personality

Full on emo brat

A complete teenager

Does Li Cu have someone? I want him to meet my new OC, Tiny Gremlin Rilin

And then to fight the fuck out of him

Enemies at first sight

XG grabs him by the scruff of his neck

Tired.

s1utspeare

they're like "xiaoge control ur sON" "wu xie control UR SON"

humanlighthouse

They threaten to get divorced over this and it's the first time the boys agree to behave

He looks like a smaller XG with longer, even more emo hair, dresses like an eboy, has nunchucks or however the fuck you write that

He often tells XG stuff like You’re not my dad

s1utspeare

xiaoge's like "yeah i fucking hope not"

humanlighthouse

"How would i even know"

WX is sitting beside them like 😱😱😱

"Does that make me a dad??"

LC kicks him

He is The Worst and they all hope he grows out of it but No.

Liu Sang meets him once and swears never to come back if he is in Wushanju at the same time

s1utspeare

Rilin eats Liu Sang's whistle

humanlighthouse

Just swallows it whole

He hates it and is in pain for a whole week but he had a point to make!!

Even Kanjian tries to be nice about it but is like "He sure looks...troubled? 😬"

s1utspeare

the only one he likes is huo daofu for some disturbing reason, and huo daofu Does Not Like Him Back

humanlighthouse

HE FOLLOWS HIM

Not with stars in his eyes but with a very disturbing fixed stare

He breaks and enters regularly into his place

He doesn't do nice caring shit or anything, he just gets in and sits on the couch drinking stuff he stole from his fridge

Pangzi thinks he is hilarious until the moment he messes with his cooking, and he has to run him out of Wushanju with a wooden spatula and/or his shoe in hand

s1utspeare

The first time HXZ meets him it’s an exact recreation of this gif

humanlighthouse

He and XH come in with bucketfuls of popcorn every time he's in town

They just sit in a corner and observe the mess

s1utspeare

at one point the go to the Wu house and Zhang Rilin meets the dogs and Wu Xie is like "haha this'll teach him" but Rilin just growls at them and they immediately make him their leader

humanlighthouse

Sanshu hates him for some reason (very hard to manipulate) but Ershu thinks he is refreshingly honest and generally delightfully entertaining

s1utspeare

he bites sanshu

no one is sympathetic

humanlighthouse

LC high fives him

XG gives him 50 bucks

s1utspeare

pangzi: wait where the shit did you get fifty bucks??

xg: wu xie

wx: i didn't give you fifty dollars

xg: not on purpose

humanlighthouse

pz: oh so that's where he got it from

s1utspeare

like father like son 😊

humanlighthouse

XG still refuses to consider that he could be his dad instead of a close cousin or long lost big brother, so ZRL plays "you’re my dad boogie woogie woogie" under their bedroom window for an entire week

The sexual frustration forces him to sign adoption papers

They're fake, thankfully, HXZ procured them

s1utspeare

Li Cu taught him “you are my dad”

He teaches Rilin all the memes (after he bites Sanshu they have a tentative alliance)

humanlighthouse

They're a FANTASTIC TEAM is the problem

XG, getting hot and heavy with his husband, hearing the first word through the wall: I'm gonna kill him.

WX, a whole bastard, 10% less sexually frustrated than his husband: Oh honey you can’t kill your own son :)

XG: he can’t be my son! I'm gay!

WX: 😱 really? Why didn’t you tell me? 😱

_

LC, referring to eventual friend ZRL: Wu Xie, i want a brother

WX: go to your room and turn on the music loud, we'll get to it :)

LC: EW!!

s1utspeare

wu xie takes rilin to the xinyue hotel

WX: zhang rishan! Look! Your grandson!! 😊

ZDRS: oh hello rilin

ZRL: hi zhang fuguan

ZDRS: how is your exchange student program going

ZRL: pretty good, Im learning a lot

ZDRS: excellent. study hard

ZRL: yes sir

WX: what the fuck

later

WX: wait wAIT WHO DID HE EXCHANGE HIM WITH

meanwhile, at the zhang clan

Su Wan: i am very afraid :)

[anon-e-miss]

Intransigence 8... Maybe?

They drove to Jazz’s habsuite in silence. Though he could have lived on base, and in nice quarters due to his rank, Jazz preferred living in a space that was entirely his where he could come and go without question or surveillance.  He lived alone, and had since he and Blaster had concluded they were better suited as friends than lovers. There were no hard feelings there; they were still friends. Since then, however Jazz had taken lovers as it had suited him but it had never been anything serious, they had never been mechanisms he had trusted enough to take them into his private space. Since become Head of Spec Ops, Jazz had stepped back from serial monogamy in favour of focusing on building a slick and strong department. The Autobots had catching up to do.

When they arrived at his building, Smokescreen silently followed him up the stairs into the lobby and over to the lift. It had been a long fragging mega-cycle for Smokescreen. He had gotten glyph that his origin had been injured late in the dark-cycle and then had waited for news in the medbay’s waiting room for joors. Somehow they had missed the fact that Prowl’s next of kin was waiting. They had missed that he had next of kin at all. Who knows how long Smokescreen would have been waiting news, slowly losing his processor as the worst case scenarios took hold in his processor, if Jazz had not turned up, the check up on Prowl as he had promised. He had not expected to find Smokescreen sitting, waiting with anxiety so strong Jazz had tasted it. Since his rookie had been beside himself, Jazz had taken on the task of finding out what the frag was happening. It had taken some badgering to get First Aid to “interrupt” Ratchet.

He had been horrified to learn the extent of Prowl’s damage. Shorts were not automatically serious, a mechanism’s self repair systems could handle most. But Prowl’s had been beyond extensive, they had spread throughout his circuitry, effecting his motor control, effecting his sensory grid. Those shorts had started forming the very moment Barricade had jammed that shock stick into his side. Despite the disabling shorts that had been spreading through his systems, and the blaster wound to his leg, Prowl had evaded capture. Pinned by a considerably bigger mech, Prowl had used his processor and his training and had gotten free and taken that fragger out. His survival protocols were excellent. That was probably where Smokescreen had gotten his from, them had his talent for evasion.

“Have a seat, Smokey,” Jazz said as he led Smokescreen into his habsuite located on the top floor of the building. Another operative might have been concerned about the difficulty escaping if cornered in his home, on the fortieth floor. But most mechanisms, including ops, did not have his magnets. “I’ll pour us some engex.”

“Thanks. Do you really think Garboil’ll come to our habsuite?”

“There’s a good chance,” Jazz replied as he pour two digits of Old Corroder in a pair of low cubes. “Drink it slowly, it’s got some kick.”

“Thanks. I know you don’t usually have mechanisms over.”

“Smokey, even if I wasn’t worried ‘bout Garboil turnin’ up at yer place I wouldn’t’ve let ya just go home alone. Yer shook up.”

“Yeah,” Smokescreen rested the drink on his knee as he wiped tears from his optics. “Since he got transferred to the dark-cycle shift I’ve been having memory purges. I don’t know why, but I couldn’t stop thinking that something was going to happen to him.”

“‘M sorry he got hurt,” Jazz replied. “I wasn’t expectin’ this.”

“I’m so glad you gave him that dataslug. If you hadn’t gotten the alert. If you hadn’t been there...”

“Yer origin already had that fragger down without me. There mighta been some scrap wit internal affairs but he handled himself. I plugged in to the surveillance grid, ‘n had a look. Yer origin’s got some moves.”

“Yeah. The streets taught him, and circuit su refined him.”

“When ya set gutters I thought ya meant the rough side o’ town.”

“There was some o’ that too. He ran away from the group home he was assigned to and lived on the streets.”

“How’d he get into the Academy?”

“Even when he was living under the bridge, Origin went to school. He got a scholarship. It came with a housing allowance. He only got a roof over his helm again when he started his classes the next semester.”

“Yer origin’s a pretty impressive mech to ‘o earned a full ride ‘chargin’ rough.”

“He’s my hero.”

“Mine too,”Jazz replied and Smokescreen snickered. “Ain’t kiddin’ Smokey. Yer origin’s an impressive mech.”

“He is. I’m proud to be his creation.”

“I bet he’s proud o’ ya too.”

“I thought he’d be mad when I decided to enlist,” Smokescreen revealed after drinking a little more of his engex. “He tried, you know. But that glitch, they decided it made him ineligible. He was so mad. I didn’t tell him I was even thinking of it until I got accepted. I was fragging scarred to tell him because I didn’t want him to be mad, or disappointed.”

“Was he?”

“No, he pulled me into his lap like he did when I was a youngling and he told me he never wanted me to put my dreams aside because of him. That he was proud of me. I cried like a bitlet.”

“I think the recruitment officers were wrong to reject ‘m,” Jazz said. “We shouldn’t turn away talent ‘cause their systems are a bit unconventional.”

“I don’t know if he’d accept an invitation now, even if one was offered,” Smokescreen chuckled. “Origin never forgets, remember. So he holds some long aft grudges.”

“Why do ya think he didn’t report that mnemosurgeon?” Jazz ask. “That seems like something worthy o’ a grudge.”

“It’s complicated. They were seeing each other. They had worked together in the enforcers for a while. I don’t know if they were seeing each other when they were partners or if that came after. Origin never brought him home. I’ve never actually met the fragger.”

“That weird to you?”

“No. Origin told me once that he was never going to bond again. I really doubt mourning my progenitor has anything to do with it. But he would go out sometimes, after work. He dated, you know he never told me the details. I didn’t want to know the details. No creation wants to think about their origin’s interface life.”

“But ya knew ‘bout the surgery.”

“The attack,” Smokescreen corrected him. “Origin came home. I’d just gotten back from hanging with some friends at Maccadam’s. I startled him. I don’t think he expected to see me. He was stumbling. He told me he was just a little overcharged. For a nanoklik I believed him then he turned for his berthroom and I saw the energon covering his neck.” “Frag.”

“I wanted to call the enforcers but he forbade it. I wanted to take him to the medicentre but he refused. It was enough of a fight just to convince him to let me patch him up. I crawled into berth with him when he laid down. I stayed up all dark-cycle watching him. I was afraid something might happen to him in the dark-cycle.”

“When’d it happen?”

“Three vorns ago.”

“If the fragger did any lingering damage, Ratchet’ll have taken care of it. He ever tell ya what happened?”

“I don’t think Origin remembers.”

“Scary thought, given his memory banks.”

“He told me they both behaved badly,” Smokescreen explained. “That’s all he ever says but I can see him thinking, like he’s searching for a memory.”

“But it got cut out,” Jazz said.

“I wish he’d let me take him to a medicentre. I... I wonder if maybe he doesn’t want to remember, or he’s afraid to. I’m afraid what else that fragger did to him.”

“That’s heavy, Smokey.”

“Maybe you’ll be able to talk some sense into him.”

“I don’t know ‘bout that, Smokey ‘but I’ll see what I can do. A rogue mnemosurgeon isn’t someone I want scamperin’ ‘round Iacon. I don’t suppose ya know the fragger’s designation?”

“No. Origin never told me.”

“I’ll talk wit ‘m. Right now? Ya outta get some recharge. Come on. I’ll show ya the guest room.”

“You... have a guest room. But you don’t like guests.”

“Usually, it’s for Raj or Hound when I get myself scrapped. I heal better in my own space.”

“I think Origin feels the same way.”

“Ratchet’s in for a real treat, ain’t he?”

“Oh yeah. If Ratchet’s got a match for snark, it’s Origin.”

Jazz woke early enough that he was up and stalking the datanet when Smokescreen came out of the guestroom. Neither of the

m had had a ton of recharge, but Jazz was used to taking catnaps. He rarely got more that a few joors of recharge in a row, the nature of the job, he supposed. Smokescreen was eager to see his origin. The fact that Ratchet had not commed him in the dark-cycle was not enough to soothe his anxiety. Out of curiosity, Jazz kept Smokescreen company as he brewed the energon he had called Rocket Fuel. As it dripped from the press it came out a deep blue. It looked to Jazz like it would be a good sub for Syk. But Smokescreen was not done. He set it to simmer. It thickened, and it thickened. By the time Smokescreen poured it into a resealable cube, the fuel was a thick like an oil shake and an even inkier black.

“That looks toxic,” Jazz observed.

“It probably is to most mechanisms,” Smokescreen replied. “I only ever tasted it once and I’m pretty sure I didn’t stop bouncing off the balls for a quartex.”

“But it don’t do that to ‘m?”

“Nope.” Smokescreen tested the seal. “The last thing that goes offline when Origin goes into stasis is the ATS. The first thing that powers up is the ATS. It’s the same thing with recharge but the ATS doesn’t shut down during recharge it keeps on humming along. Origin wakes up with a bunch of static and junk clogging his thought processes. The moment he wakes up it wants to GO but getting going to takes some serious energy. This Rocket Fuel gives him the kick to burn off that static and slag and go. If he has to go without he’s stuck with a helmache that just gets worse throughout the cycle.”

“Just don’t show it to Ratchet. I don’t think he’ll approve.”

[ikilledamoth]

'How I thought my boyfriend was dead for three years straight.'

Hi.

So this post might be incoherent, a mess and also also might not be of interest to anyone but I want to write it down and let it out.

I am not a good writer so the timeline might be a mess especially since its been years after some events and my memory tends to fail me.

I'll try to document as much information as I can here but there might be gaps. The post might also be quite long.

Before I start, trigger warnings for:

depression, suicide mention, drug and alcohol abuse mention, abusive family mention.

1: Introduction to Past.

I used to be here on a different account however, I've lost access to it. (old email, no longer remember it, it's been years after all and I never thought I'll use this app again.)

My boyfriend's name on here was @slightly-depressed-niko-boy. Do excuse the content there as it's rather depressive, having been written in a quite bad period of time for him.

Niko is neurodivergent and at the time of using this app (2017) pretty mentally ill, and been in a rather abusive household for his whole life. His parents are physically and mentally abusive. They have always been extremely manipulative and controlled his life to the point where... Well... He had basically no autonomy. They were in control of his social media at many points, controlled his devices, forced him to stay at home at most times and cherrypicked who he was and was not allowed to speak to and hang out with. Whilst doing all that, they still managed to trick most people into thinking that they were a rather picture perfect family. Pretty nasty people.

As you may notice, I'm writing in a present tense.

2: Last Events.

In 2017, I was lead to believe that Niko died.

It was all almost too masterfully planned, really. I had no reason to believe that it was fake. I was at the scene when things happened, as well and had no reason to deny the claims made by Niko's family, combined with what I saw.

To anyone that I lead astray and made believe that Niko was gone: I am truly, truly and genuinely sorry.

I would never try to lie to anyone about something like this. I knew how much he meant to his friends and I would never try to hurt them by confirming he was gone. I believed that it was true and I was devastated at the time myself. I felt my whole world falling apart, I did. I had no reason to think that it might not be true.

I have never had any malicious intentions.

Niko had to go inpatient due to what I was informed was an OD. And what I was told was a su¡c¡d€ attempt. Later, I was informed by his parents it was a successful one.

At the time, I felt devastated. I was not thinking clearly, being too hurt to be rational. I did not notice all the red flags and the sketchy manner in which Niko's parents behaved. I did not realise that they might have had ulterior motives. I was dealing with grief, having lost a friend of many years and someone that I truly loved.

Given that it all happened about four years ago, I do not remember much details. I tried recalling things but due to the traumatic nature of those events, I was left grasping at the little bits that I can still remember. I can't remember many details, or who I spoke to at the time. In fact, couple of years ago I managed to forget about all of that, somewhat. To a degree.

I could never forget my boyfriend and years I've spent with him, of course, but with all happening in life, I managed to move on enough that details of those traumatic days turned into a blur.

However, that changed in September 2020. Three years after the events.

3: Introduction to Present.

At that point, I have moved out of my old house and no longer associated myself with the area where Niko and I used to live.

As I would like to keep some privacy, I'm not going to mention details of locations and institutions where I went, etc, however I will mention that I went to a university in a completely new town.

I did not know many people here, besides those that I met online during freshers events and whatnot. It was a fresh start, in a way.

In many ways, I am no longer the same person I was in 2017, and I'd like to ask people that knew me back then to try not to fully associate me with whoever I was back then. I'd like to also apologise if I've ever done anything that could have been of harm to anyone for I was just a kid, thinking that the world's a bit of a playground. I'd like to ask people to give me a chance to introduce myself properly as me, and not that person from the past, who functioned as nothing else but a romantic partner of someone online.

But I digress.

4: First Encounter.

Weeks past, and I began to meet new people, explore new areas, visit new places. One of friends from my course added me to a groupchat where we could get to know each other all a bit better. The group consisted of way too many people, so I wasn't the most active there, however it was a bit of a mix of different people. Not limited to my course, or even, as I'd soon find out uni.

And that's when I saw a familiar name that caught my attention.

You know, there are plenty of people sharing names and surnames. The world is so big after all. I didn't think much of it at first, because well... After all, Niko I knew was long gone.

Not.

Curiosity spiked, I started talking, wanting to double check if that person I saw in the groupchat was really a stranger.

I did a bit of digging and given it's almost five in the morning as I'm writing it, I'm not going to go into much detail, just yet. (might edit this post later, I just want to post it as soon as I can)

It's not that difficult in the digital age, really. Everything is kind of... Out here for you to take in.

That's when I found out, my boyfriend never died.

5: The Lies.

I know all of this sounds crazy, but I need you to listen. In a span of few weeks, I realised that past years of my life were a lie. That my grief was unnecessary. That my pain was created because someone tried to intimidate and scare me and anyone that Niko was ever close to.

At first, I felt cheated. I felt like my best friend faked his own death, but he did not. He did not, and I need people to know that he did nothing wrong, and in fact, after all these years needs more help than ever.

I want to reach out to people that were friends with him, ever spoke to him briefly. And also reach out to those who knew nothing about him and tell you : Niko is alive, but he is not safe and sound. And I am all alone in this mess, and I need some help. I need support from people that knew him. I need support from people that might care. Because I can't do it alone.

That's what the current situation looks like:

Niko's parents forcibly put him inpatient for longer than necessary to make his friends believe he was dead. They took his electronics and made him lose access to his old accounts by getting rid of his old phone number. They cut him off from the outside world. They threatened to hurt him and used intimidation tactics to make him cooperate and turn him into a doll in all of this.

I was told they put down his cat as a punishment for unknown reasons and after months of his hospitalisation, moved towns for again, unknown reasons. Niko was then homeschooled due to his, apparently, unwell mental state. He had no access to the outside world. No more social media, school friends, nothing. He was cut off in the world that made everyone else think he was dead. And they succeeded. Even I firmly believed that Niko was gone. And I feel deeply ashamed to admit it. I feel like I failed him and many of his friends by not investigating further, however I was still a kid at the time and there wasn't much I could do. I didn't think the situation was as messed up as it was.

After years of being under almost a complete supervision and a suicide watch even, Niko continues to be controlled by his parents, despite being an adult that deserves autonomy. I can explain the situation further in messages.

Even though I managed to speak to him again, after all these years of thinking he was gone, every time he seemed like there was someone listening, watching over his shoulder.

6: The Present.

I am currently formulating a plan to free Niko from the abuse that he is experiencing with his family. I need to get money to do so, therefore it's nothing I can do instantly, however I've been reaching out to various foundations to see what can be done. My current plan is to find a way to transport Niko out of his house into a temporary accommodation where he can stay away from his parents, ideally with someone who can help him stay safe. I need money for that, though, as accommodations, even emergency ones can be quite pricy if you're not on benefits.

As its very late right now, I'm ending this post right here. However I will edit and update it when I can and I just want to let it out into the world. Sorry for keeping it so long. If you read so far-thank you.

[radramblog]

Pokemon Super Mystery Dungeon is basically OK

Recently, I’ve partaken in some kind of cultural exchange with a friend of mine- namely, I’ve lent her my copies of the Scott Pilgrim novels (god do they kick ass), and she’s lent me her copy of Pokemon Super Mystery Dungeon, seeing as I never played it at the time.

Well I’ve now beaten this game, and I have some thoughts about it, so chop chop Keara the story isn’t getting any younger I expect a full book report on my desk next Sunday.

Jokes aside, this was my first experience with a PMD game since Sky (discounting the demo for Gates to Infinity), and having missed the series’s third entry (fourth if you count those Japan-only WiiWare games), it’d be remiss of me not to at least mention that maybe some of the things I’m going to complain about were originally that game’s fault. But apparently that one actively sucks ass so who cares, just shift the blame over, eh?

(ah, primary-school-tier bullying, exactly what I want in my Pokemon game, cool)

I think one of the foremost issues people have about PSMD is the story, and I can’t help but agree. The game spends what feels like forever fucking about in Serene Village, doing what could charitably described as tutorial followed by slice-of-life-ish plots, and while I love me a good slice-of-life anime, those tend to be a lot less slow than this. Also the characters tend to be a lot less one-note, but it’s a kids game, so whatever. Speaking of kids, this to my knowledge is the only PMD game where you and your partner character are canonically children, and spend a lot of time around others. The game seems to establish unevolved Pokemon as kids, which while it doesn’t really add up with the rest of the series (e.g. in the first ones, Caterpie is clearly a child, but Metapod is as well and Gulpin is at least adult enough to run their own store), it would ultimately be excusable if it didn’t make that huge section of the game so boring.

They aren’t consistent with that kids thing, by the way. When you finally reach the Expedition society, you’re met with a bunch of unevolved Pokemon (Archen, Buizel, Bunnelby, Swirlix) that are running around behaving very youthfully, who then turn around and go hey we don’t allow kids in our gang please leave. Like, the plot had been leading me to believe that the whole place was shut down, Ampharos as its final member, and those kids were just running around an abandoned building, but nope, here are your teammates for the rest of the game.

(brown sus)

The remainder of the plot is basically fine, its not like the plots in this series are the greatest on the planet (save maybe Explorers), though the focus on the villains turning people into stone felt pretty awkward. It’s like they wanted to pull off a more dramatic, more personal-stakesy plot but couldn’t actually kill anyone. This gets kind of egregious when you end up in actual hell for a bit, in what I guess is the series tradition of potentially traumatic experiences and blasted hellscapes being exposed to the protagonists. The endgame plot all seems to come at you at once, not helped by it being lots of chained dungeons without returning to towns beforehand- it wouldn’t be as bad if the whole game was like this, but with such a slow start, it just feels so inconsistent. The endgame twist was pretty spicy, I’ll admit, but it didn’t have enough buildup to feel earned in my honest opinion.

(pictured: the best character in the game)

But the plot doesn’t matter so much as the gameplay does it? And as someone who has also concurrently been playing through the first Pokemon Mystery Dungeon game on my GBA, there’s a lot of interesting comparisons to make. The dungeons on the whole are shorter in PSMD, with few of the main-game ones reaching beyond 10 floors (and not going much past it) compared to the prequels’ capping off with a 25+5 floor behemoth in Sky Tower. This is made up for by every floor of the dungeons in PSMD feeling much larger and more labyrinthine than anything in other PMD games, meaning each one takes much longer than you’d think. I dread to imagine what the 99-floor dungeons are like in this game, especially considering you now need an item to quicksave the game if you want to do anything else now. The dungeons themselves additionally really do not feel like they’ve taken advantage of the 9 years of potential design improvements and two console generations of technology improvements between games- it is frustratingly same-old same-old in the dungeon design.

These problems are capped off with the increased difficulty- that is, that every individual Pokemon is significantly more of a threat to you than in previous games, and you don’t really get the opportunity to level grind much. And I’m not opposed to difficulty in games, obviously, but what it does in PSMD is ruin the flow of the gameplay for me. What works in Mystery Dungeons previous was that blend of exploration and combat, and in Super, that gets completely broken up by protracted encounters with even the chump-tier mons you encounter along the way. Also, they made the basic attack complete shit, and I don’t like that.

That’s not to say that the gameplay is all bad. I won’t comment too heavily on the Looplet/Emera system, because I’m kinda mid on it, but it didn’t help that despite all the game’s tutorialising I still didn’t get part of it until most of the way through the story. The game does have some moments of genuine brilliance in design, though. The way you recruit more Pokemon is so much better than the luck-based mission of the previous games, wihle managing to actually make you want to go on the random missions you get thrown throughout the game- for one thing they aren’t random, but it means you have a guaranteed good reward instead of the semi-RNG system where you just end up with a bunch of Gravelerocks and berries you’ll never use. In addition, the system where on non-plot days (and in the postgame) you just get 3 random Pokemon recommended to you, that get bonus EXP if you use them that day, is a great way of encouraging the player to diversify their Pokemon usage substantially, which is nice.

There’s a few other nice gameplay things I’d like to highlight. Considering the increased difficulty, the ability to rescue yourself (read: come back with the overpowered mons the game dropped in your lap) is really nice, especially since it’s not like anyone else is playing these games who can help. The way moves get better the more you use them is nice, especially considering how much more you use one move over and over in this game compared to main series Pokemon games. The random bonus missions and travelling mons you encounter in dungeons are nice, as well as the increased variety in missions available- as well as actually being able to revive fallen escortees, it makes the mission system overall much stronger than in previous entries.

Beyond that, though, I’m not sure what else I have to say about Super Mystery Dungeon. The game is a decent entry in what can barely be called a franchise these days, considering it’s 6 years old and yet still the newest entry, excluding the remake of the first ones that came out last year. It’d be a shame if this was the note we went out on for Pokemon Mystery Dungeon, but to be fair, I don’t think they’re ever going to be able to recapture the magic of the first two games. They struck gold with a lot of people, but I guess at this point, the gleam wore off.